Thoughts and postings from an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
 

         

                     ,  ,    ,       ,   .
SAN FRANCISCO  Yahoo has a dual personality these days.

One is Yahoo the battered Internet giant that is up for sale, with dozens of potential bidders looking to pick up all or parts of the company on the cheap.

The other is Yahoo the independent company that is carrying out yet another strategic turnaround plan as if the auction process does not exist.

Both Yahoos made an appearance on Thursday and showed just how hard it is for the two to coexist.

The company appointed two new directors to its board: Catherine J. Friedman, a former investment banker at Morgan Stanley, and Eric K. Brandt, the former chief financial officer of the chip maker Broadcom.

They will fill seats that were most recently held by Max Levchin, the tech entrepreneur, and Charles R. Schwab, the founder of the brokerage firm that bears his name. Both men had stepped down from the board in recent months.
Patagonia has made a name for itself as an environmentally conscious brand, linking the outdoors clothing and gear that it sells with a commitment to taking care of the planet.

Now, it is taking that a step further by investing in placing solar panels on more than 1,500 residential rooftops over eight states. Patagonia announced on Thursday that it was working with four other companies to create a $35 million fund to finance the installations.

I hope that other companies that are interested in having a positive impact will look at this as a model, said Rose Marcario, Patagonias chief executive. She added that the faster clean energy takes off, the better off we all are going to be.
About Scout is another entry in the charming road movie genre, one that banks a little too heavily on charm and not enough on story. The two young leads pair engagingly, though, and the screenwriter and director, Laurie Weltz, surrounds them with name actors in small roles, a sweet reversal of the usual casting structure.

India Ennenga (Sofia from the HBO series Treme and Ms. Weltzs daughter) is Scout, a teenager who, along with her younger sister, Lulu (Onata Aprile), is being raised by her great-grandmother (Ellen Burstyn). It is Scout, though, who is doing most of the raising, and when their absentee father, Ray (Tim Guinee), takes custody of Lulu, Scout goes off in search of her.

She recruits for a traveling companion a man from a nearby psychiatric care center named Sam (James Frecheville). His wrists are still bandaged, which tells us as much about him as any of the dialogue does. They steal a car and head off in search of the carnival where Ray works.

Scout is old enough that her traveling dynamic with Sam isnt the kid-adult one of Paper Moon; its more like a tweener with a crush on a college man. The film, though, doesnt really do enough with the possibilities inherent in that, or give us enough back story on either of them to make their improbable partnership credible.
Christopher Plummer puts on a master class in acting, and his director, Atom Egoyan, delivers one in audience manipulation in Remember, a psychological thriller featuring that most blood-boiling of plot devices: a Nazi who escaped justice.

Mr. Plummer is Zev and Martin Landau plays Max, fellow residents of some sort of assisted-living complex. Max realizes they were both at Auschwitz. He is the brains and Zev is the brawn, so to speak, of a plan Max has hatched to seek vengeance on a concentration camp official who escaped to the United States under a false identity.

Max is in a wheelchair, but he arms Zev and sends him on a cross-country journey to interview four people who could be the missing Nazi, the hope being that hell kill the man once he finds him. But Zev is floating in and out of dementia, complicating the task and giving Mr. Plummer a chance to turn in a very fine performance. Yes, this type of role has become a sort of must-have accessory in an older actors kit bag, but Mr. Plummer is never less than convincing.

Mr. Egoyan, working with a script by Benjamin August, pushes every button he can as Zev gets himself into various kinds of jeopardy, makes incorrect assumptions and so on. The twist ending feels like a cop-out, but it certainly leaves an impression. NEIL GENZLINGER
Afghanistan has been a combat zone for so long that its become a film genre unto itself, with documentaries like Restrepo, features like Lone Survivor, even comedies like Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Now a Canadian movie, Hyena Road, adds another perspective.

Written and directed by Paul Gross, the film, which takes place before Canadian forces ended their military role in 2011, opens with a sniper team led by Ryan Sanders (Rossif Sutherland) killing a Taliban rebel who is planting an I.E.D. along a highway being built in Kandahar Province by coalition forces  the Hyena Road. Soon, with Taliban fighters in pursuit, the team ducks into a village, where an elder hides them before disappearing himself. Back at base, Pete Mitchell (Mr. Gross), a military intelligence officer, tells Sanders he believes the teams protector is the Ghost, a revered mujahedeen leader in the war against the Soviets (and who seems based on the lion of Panjshir, Ahmed Shah Massoud). Mitchell thinks the Ghost could be a vital ally, and Sanders helps locate him. Before long, all three find themselves in harms way.

In tutoring Sanders, Mitchell maintains a running commentary on the shifting alliances, and layers of insurgents, warlords, tribal loyalties and age-old clan feuds that make the nation all but impossible for outsiders to subdue.

Refreshingly free of jingoism, that detachment unfortunately winds up working against the movie, which doesnt engage emotionally. (That might explain a misguided subplot about Sanderss romance with a female officer.) Even so, Hyena Road is a skillfully filmed reminder, if one is needed, about why Afghanistan earned its status as the graveyard of empires. DANIEL M. GOLD
The first time that the heroine in the disarming comedy Hello, My Name Is Doris sees the kid, theyre in a crowded office elevator. Hes not a child at all, but somewhere in his mid-30s, which can seem light-years away for a woman who has been of a certain age for decades. So when he jostles Doris (Sally Field), she braces for the usual morning-elevator scrum. Instead, he straightens her lopsided eyeglasses. With this one small, human kindness he does something that astonishes Doris, something that doesnt often happen to the worlds invisible women: He sees her.

Not that Doris, whos in her 60s, tries to be invisible, exactly. From her cat-eye glasses to the headscarves that make her look hastily regifted, she seems like someone yearning to be seen. But wrinkles have a way of making women disappear one crease at a time, and Doris, whos in mourning when the movie opens, has done her part to vanish. When this kid  he turns out to be a new co-worker, John (Max Greenfield, an effortless charmer)  notices Doris, it changes everything. Doris is more than just surprised by his attention, she is also transformed. He makes her visible, most importantly to herself, a revelation that turns Doris into a woman who desires and is desired in turn. Its a ferocious awakening.

Its also a fairly slow, gaudy bloom. Like his heroine, the director Michael Showalter eagerly oversells the goods. Right off, he throws in a lot thats hard on the eyes and ears. Theres Doriss dowager-dumpster wardrobe and topsy-turvy Staten Island house, along with her mutterings and facial contortions, which seem one tic away from a medical diagnosis. As he puts these messy parts into play, I kept thinking no, no, no, no. Its all much too much (those shoes, that hair!) and together they announce that youre in for an ingratiatingly cutesy slog about a lovable kook  except that the movie and Doris arent easy to love, which is partly why they work.

The movie starts big and broad at the funeral for Doriss mother, where everyone is shedding stage tears. Seated pointedly alone, Doris looks ashen enough that she wouldnt be out of place next to Mom in the open coffin. The whole thing is as dire as the priests eulogy, but a few beats later, when Doriss brother, Todd (the great character actor Stephen Root), speaks to her with unforced feeling, the movie shifts into something more complex. Mr. Showalter continues to play with comic tone and mood  he folds in some slapstick, enables the mugging and stages several cringing fantasy sequences that encourage you to laugh at Doris. It feels cruel, specifically because she isnt an ordinary American movie protagonist: Shes an older, frumpy, lower-middle-class woman who works in a cubicle.
He has been surviving on Social Security payments and, more so, on the largess of people who have sympathized with his plight. A support group that formed while he was in prison raised tens of thousands of dollars to help with his legal fees and, after his release, to help pay for his rent and living expenses. But that fund has nearly dried up, and Mr. Lee recently contacted Ron Kim, a Democratic state assemblyman, seeking assistance in finding subsidized housing.

He wants to live with dignity for the rest of his life, Assemblyman Kim said.

Though in his ninth decade, Mr. Lee, a Korean immigrant who became a naturalized American citizen, is not confronting the challenges of his current circumstances with anything resembling meekness.

He is angry at the justice system for locking him up and taking so many years of his life. He is resentful toward his ex-wife, who divorced him while he was in prison. He is estranged from his surviving daughter and her family, he said. He has accused the leadership of his former church of not sufficiently coming to his defense when he was being investigated, even as the church raised about $80,000 over the years to help pay for his legal representation. And he has alienated some of his most ardent supporters.

Chris Chang, the spokesman for the support group, said the prison experience had left Mr. Lee suspicious of everyone and their motives, leaving him prone to sudden changes of heart. This unpredictability has led some of his supporters to keep their distance, friends said.
She tried to do too much, too fast.

That is Merryl H. Tischs appraisal of her tenure as chancellor of the Board of Regents, the top education post in New York State, as she prepares to step down at the end of the month.

Her critics say the same thing.

A champion of the Common Core learning standards, Dr. Tisch, 60, pushed for the creation of new, harder tests based on those standards and for teacher evaluations tied to students performance on the exams.

That set off a backlash in which a fifth of the eligible students sat out the states third- through eighth-grade reading and math tests last spring. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, once her ally on using test scores in teacher evaluations, did an about-face.

Now the Regents are expected to elect a chancellor endorsed by leaders of the opt-out revolt. Already, the board has put in place a four-year moratorium on the use of test scores in teacher evaluations. Following a critical report from a task force convened by the governor, the State Education Department is gathering comment from teachers and parents on how the standards should be changed.
Boko Harams continuing raids of terror have turned a swath of territory in the Sahel region in northern Africa into a virtual wasteland, barren of crops and livestock, pocked by ghost villages lying in ruin. Add to this desolation an early lean season  the precarious time between harvests when temperatures soar, rainfall is scant, and hunger, even in good years, is a threat to the areas subsistence farmers and herdsmen  and the stage is set for starvation on a mass scale.

The United Nations says more than 50,000 people in northern Nigeria are in imminent danger of starvation, cut off from help in areas where it is too dangerous for aid workers to travel, and that some 1.4 million people in the region lack sufficient food supplies.

Boko Haram, an extremist group whose name roughly means Western education is a sin, has killed more than 20,000 people, and caused more than 2.5 million people to flee their homes. President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria was elected a year ago largely on a promise to defeat Boko Haram.

The Nigerian Army and coalition forces from Niger, Chad and Cameroon  with the help of foreign advisers, including Americans  have successfully wrested some territory from Boko Haram in Nigeria and cut off its supply routes. The result is that Boko Haram fighters are hungry too, said Brig. Gen. Rabe Abubakar, a Nigerian military spokesman.
To the Editor:

Re Migrant Children, Voiceless in Court (editorial, March 8):

The specter of a young child being ushered into immigration court alone is one that violates the principles of fairness and due process that are the foundation of meaningful justice.

The American Bar Association has long urged that government-appointed counsel be provided to unaccompanied children when necessary. To expect a child, no matter her age, to understand immigration law and represent herself in court is not realistic.

Legal aid organizations and the pro bono community have worked to increase access to counsel, but the need far outweighs the capacity. Statistics show that 57 percent of unaccompanied children are not represented in immigration court.

This not only harms the children, but it also adversely affects the court system. The presence of counsel enhances the efficiency of court proceedings and ensures that children appear at their hearings.
To the Editor:

Re A Fiery Debate on K.K.K. in 16. Who Figured?, by James Poniewozik (Critics Notebook, front page, March 3):

The conservative commentator Jeffrey Lord could not have been more wrong during his CNN debate about the Ku Klux Klan and the role of race in politics by invoking Robert F. Kennedys dream of a colorblind society to support Mr. Lords untenable argument for silence over racism in America in 2016.

My father never retreated from shining a light on racial injustice. He forced hard conversations to play out in public, and pursued policies like the Voting Rights Act to specifically address the systemic racism plaguing our society.

He realized that racism itself divided our country. And talking about racism was, and still is, necessary to bridge that divide. Thats why I am grateful for heroes like the commentator Van Jones, who took Mr. Lord to task for his remarks, and todays Black Lives Matter movement for pushing the public conversation about racism in America. And I think that my father would be proud, too.

KERRY KENNEDY

President

Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights

New York
WASHINGTON  The Obama administration argued on Thursday that no single corporation  even one as successful as Apple  should be allowed to flout the rule of law by refusing to help the F.B.I. unlock the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino, Calif., attackers.

The administrations sharp tone in a new court filing drew an angry and emotional rebuke from lawyers for Apple, who accused the government of a cheap shot and were particularly upset about what they said was an unfair and inaccurate suggestion that the company has a special relationship with China to protect its corporate interests there.

The tone of the brief reads like an indictment, Bruce Sewell, Apples general counsel, told reporters. In 30 years of practice, I dont think Ive ever seen a legal brief that was more intended to smear the other side with false accusations and innuendo.

The unusually intense sparring between the two sides signaled an escalation in tension over a case that had already drawn attention worldwide because of the high legal and corporate stakes. The fight has been brewing since mid-February, when Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym of the Federal District Court for the Central District of California ordered Apple to create and deploy an alternative operating system that would help law enforcement agents break into the iPhone in the San Bernardino case.
When the overseers of the nations largest and most powerful agricultural water district approved a bookkeeping change at their July 2010 board meeting, the districts general manager called it a little Enron accounting.

It turns out that the Securities and Exchange Commission agrees with him.

The Westlands Water District in Central California agreed on Wednesday to pay a $125,000 fine to settle charges by the S.E.C. that it hid its 2010 financial problems from investors who later bought $77 million of its municipal bonds.

The districts general manager, Thomas Birmingham, was fined $50,000 and its assistant general manager at the time, Louie David Ciapponi, was fined $20,000 as part of the settlement.

Only once before has an issuer in the enormous municipal bonds market paid a penalty to settle securities charges, the S.E.C. said.
He and Sarah, who stays home with their two toddlers, mail a flat $405 payment to a fellow member every month, the standard rate for families of three or more. Had they stuck with the insurance he was offered through work, the Doyles said, their share of the premium would have been about $600 a month, and they would have had to pay the first $5,000 in individual medical costs, $10,000 for the family, other than preventive care.

Under the ministry, they also have to pay the first $300 of any medical expense they incur. They have not yet had a doctors bill exceed that amount, though they are waiting somewhat nervously for that day to come. Samaritan limits spending on each injury or illness to $250,000, with exceptions for people who agree to pay extra each year toward others bills above that amount.

Theres a little bit of fear going into it, said Mrs. Doyle, 33, adding that she suspected she had a hernia that would need to be repaired soon. What if people dont pay their share and what if the money doesnt come in? But thats where the faith-based part comes in  Im really going to rely on God.

Mr. Lansberry said Samaritan members eligible medical bills averaged, cumulatively, over $16 million a month. Its membership has grown by about 50,000 over the last year, to nearly 200,000 people in 58,000 paying households.

Acknowledging that many families can qualify for subsidized insurance policies with free preventive care through the Affordable Care Act, Mr. Lansberry said that most new members were not joining primarily on price; they are joining primarily on principle.

Before members can be reimbursed, they sometimes must pay upfront for their medical care  potentially a sizable outlay, because hospitals increasingly require at least partial prepayment. It then takes at least two months for Samaritan to process their requests for help and for checks from other members to arrive in the mail.
SIMI VALLEY, Calif.  In death, Nancy Reagan is drawing the kind of public warmth and adulation that her husband received for much of his life.

We love how much they loved each other, Doris Baltgalvis, 69, said. She and her husband of 50 years, Marty, 70, traveled from Corona, Calif., on Wednesday to view Mrs. Reagans coffin at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library here. The couple keep a framed photograph of the Reagans in their study. Mr. Baltgalvis added, The way they loved and respected and were loyal and faithful to each other projected into the way he ran the country.

Several thousand well-wishers who waited in a hot parking lot to board buses and pay their respects were not there just to celebrate the romance of Ron & Nancy. Republicans, especially older ones, also say they are in mourning for the dignity and class the Reagans brought to the White House, at least as it appears in memory and in comparison with a Republican primary campaign roiled by vulgarity, crudity and division.

Politicians, former heads of state, celebrities and a dwindling circle of old friends will gather on Friday for Mrs. Reagans funeral at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, a majestic send-off that Mrs. Reagan planned with her customary vigilance and concern for detail.
The stakes are high here and nationwide. The four lawsuits over the Republicans 2011 redistricting plans make their case on racial grounds. But some scholars are wondering whether the challenge to the congressional districts, and cases like it, might prompt the Supreme Court to take a new look at blatantly partisan gerrymandering.

Advocacy groups and the Justice Department brought the federal lawsuit challenging Republican-backed legislation that established a voter identification provision and cut or curtailed provisions that had made it easier to register and vote. Those provisions were adopted over the last 15 years and championed by Democrats. The Justice Department argues that black and younger voters were especially likely to take advantage of them.

The law included a reduction in early-voting days and ended same-day registration and preregistration that added teenagers to voting rolls on their 18th birthday. If the case is decided before November, it could have an effect on turnout in a tight presidential contest here  President Obama won North Carolina by a hair in 2008, and lost it by a hair in 2012  as well as what is likely to be a difficult re-election fight for Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican.

The local gerrymandering suits say that Republicans in the Legislature overstepped their bounds by restructuring the Greensboro City Council and the board of commissioners and school board in Wake County, whose seat is Raleigh. A panel of state judges recently struck down a new law changing the way state Supreme Court justices are elected; Democrats had said it was an attempt to keep conservative justices in power.

Many on the left acknowledge that Democrats were also guilty of drawing political districts and otherwise tweaking the rules to preserve their advantage while they controlled the Legislature. But they argue that the Republicans have taken the practice to the extreme: In 2012, the year after the Republicans redistricting, about 51 percent of North Carolina voters chose a Democratic congressional candidate, and yet Republicans won nine of the 13 congressional seats. (The previous delegation had been split, 7 to 6, in favor of Democrats.)

Democrats and their allies also view the changes as part of a long, ugly tradition here of disenfranchising African-Americans. But Republicans see a Democratic effort to regain partisan advantage. If you dig into it, its really pretty simple, said State Representative John A. Torbett, a Republican. The Democrats, after being in charge for 140 years, are just really, really unhappy theyre still not in charge.
WASHINGTON  Donald J. Trumps blistering critique of American trade policy boils down to a simple equation: Foreigners are killing us on trade because Americans spend much more on imports than the rest of the world spends on American exports. Chinas unbalanced trade with the United States, he said Tuesday night, is the greatest theft in the history of the world.

Add a few whereins and whences and that sentiment would conform nicely to the worldview of the first Queen Elizabeth of 16th-century England, to the 17th-century court of Louis XIV, or to Prussias Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, in the 19th century. The great powers of bygone centuries subscribed to the economic theory of mercantilism, Wherein we must ever observe this rule: to sell more to strangers yearly than we consume of theirs in value, as its apostle, the East India Company director Thomas Mun, wrote in the 1600s.

Now Mr. Trump is bringing mercantilism back. The New York billionaire is challenging the last 200 years of economic orthodoxy that trade among nations is good, and that more is better.

He is well on his way to becoming the first Republican nominee in nearly a century who has called for higher tariffs, or import taxes, as a broad defense against low-cost imports. And there is a good chance he would face a Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, who has expressed fewer reservations about trade, inverting a longstanding political dynamic.
The Midwest matters

Though the debate took place in Miami, both candidates devoted much of their time to the Midwest and the working-class voters who make up large sections of two of the states that will vote on Tuesday: Illinois and Ohio. Free trade is not popular with many voters in that industrial region, and Mr. Sanderss populist message is resonating there, demonstrated most forcefully by his upset win over Mrs. Clinton in Michigan on Tuesday. If his claim that the immigration legislation would drive wages down hurts him with Hispanic voters in Florida, it could help him with workers in the Midwest.

Mrs. Clinton repeatedly attacked Mr. Sanders  as she did in Sundays debate in Flint, Mich.  by claiming he had voted against the auto bailout that was seen as saving the industry after the financial crisis of 2008. That attack has been described as partly true at best: Mrs. Clinton picked out a specific vote that Mr. Sanders cast because much of the money in question would go to help Wall Street. But the issue has resonance in places like Michigan and Ohio, and Mrs. Clinton, unbowed, indicated she would continue to use it against him going forward.

The Democratic race is getting testy

Both candidates came prepared for a slash-and-burn debate, fully briefed on their rivals records with attack lines at the ready. Mrs. Clinton came at Mr. Sanders with kitchen-sink-style charges from the left but only occasionally mentioned one of her core criticisms: that he makes pie-in-the-sky promises without any way to get them done.

How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause. Learn more about our process.

Mr. Sanders, looking to capitalize on his win in Michigan, was ready to fight, denouncing her criticisms of his votes related to the auto bailout, insisting she was misrepresenting his record. He attacked her repeatedly over her speeches to Wall Street firms for large sums of money, even suggesting that she might be hiding something by not releasing the transcripts. Mr. Sanders is effective at wielding the political blade, which he reinforced by tartly saying, Madame Secretary, I will match my record against yours any day of the week.

Clinton is still trying to connect

For most of her life in the public eye, Mrs. Clinton has been criticized as too stiff or too closed off, too dull or too reserved, too inauthentic or too canned as a politician. She began road-testing a line a few weeks ago about her deficiencies as a politician. When she delivered it in the debate, saying that people know she is not a natural at this like her husband or like President Obama, it came across as authentic and rang true.
Join us for live updates of the Republican debate.

_______

The Democratic presidential candidates may agree broadly on immigration, but in their debate Wednesday night, Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont showed their divisions on an array of policy points, while agreeing that they would bring a halt to most deportations. Here is a look at their positions.

Deportations

The moderator, Jorge Ramos of Univision, demanded that Mrs. Clinton promise she would not deport children or other undocumented immigrants who were not criminals.

Mrs. Clinton did not go quite as far as Mr. Ramos wanted, making a distinction between families who have been fleeing from Central America and undocumented immigrants already living in the country. For Central American asylum-seekers, she said, we have laws. She said she would try to change the law to guarantee that children would have lawyers in immigration court. (Currently, even a toddler can face an immigration judge without a lawyer.) And she said, A lot of children will, of course, have very legitimate stories under our law to be able to stay.

But she stopped short of saying she would not deport migrant children who do not gain asylum.

For undocumented immigrants already here, she gave Mr. Ramos her promise. I would not deport children, Mrs. Clinton said. I do not want to deport family members either. Mrs. Clinton said she would deport only violent criminals, terrorists and others who are safety risks.
Join us for live updates of the Republican debate.

_______

The Republican presidential candidates will gather in Miami on Thursday for their last debate before voters in Florida, Ohio and three other states go to the polls next week for primary elections that could reshuffle the race.

Chances are dwindling for Donald J. Trumps rivals to slow his campaigns momentum. With Gov. John Kasich of Ohio and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida under pressure to hold their home states on Tuesday, this face-off on the debate stage could prove to be decisive.

How to follow the action:

On television

The debate will begin at 9 p.m. Eastern time and will air on CNN. CNN International and CNN en Espanol will simulcast the event.

Online

CNN will stream the debate live on its website and mobile platforms. Cable provider login information is not necessary.
WASHINGTON  President Obama on Thursday said the United States and Canada were more closely aligned than ever, using a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to announce joint efforts to curb emissions of planet-warming gases and to promote his personal rapport with the leader of a pivotal neighbor.

Mr. Obama played the older, more experienced host to Mr. Trudeaus fresh-faced newcomer during the visit, the first official one by a Canadian leader in 19 years, as the two announced that they were teaming up to reduce the release of methane, a chemical contained in natural gas.

He campaigned on a message of hope and of change; his positive and optimistic vision is inspiring young people, Mr. Obama said at a news conference in the White House Rose Garden, drawing unmistakable parallels between Mr. Trudeaus rise to power and his own. On the world stage, his country is leading on climate change and cares deeply about development, so from my perspective, whats not to like?
WASHINGTON  Responding to a drug crisis that has contributed to more American deaths than car crashes, the Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a broad drug treatment and prevention bill, the largest of its kind since a law in 2008 that mandated insurance coverage for addiction treatment.

This is big and significant, said Marvin Ventrell, the executive director of the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers. It had legs and interest because of the opioid crisis that has hit Middle America.

The bill, which passed 94 to 1, is a boon for Republican senators in swing states, which have been hit particularly hard by the drug crisis. Senators Rob Portman of Ohio and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, both Republicans, spent weeks promoting the measure on the floor after seeing opioid-related crime and addiction soar in their states.

The measure authorizes money for various treatment and prevention programs for a broad spectrum of addicts, including those in jail. It also strengthens prescription drug monitoring programs to help states and expands the availability of the drug naloxone, which helps reverse overdoses, to law enforcement agencies.
WASHINGTON  As Senate Republicans on Thursday defended their refusal to consider any Supreme Court nomination put forward by President Obama, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina warned that both parties would pay the price, leading to the selection of judges with increasingly partisan views.

Mr. Graham, during a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Republicans were justified in blocking Mr. Obamas choice to fill a vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia last month, but warned they were setting a precedent and should expect it to apply to a Republican president in the future.

Mr. Graham, who briefly sought the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, is one of just three senators remaining in office who served on the Gang of 14, which brokered a compromise on judicial appointments in 2005 after Democrats filibustered nominations for district and appellate courts put forward by President George W. Bush.

His admonition came as Republicans and Democrats on the Judiciary Committee clashed over filling the court opening, with Republicans insisting that they were doing the right thing by refusing to consider any nominee put forward by Mr. Obama and Democrats accusing them of shirking their constitutional duty.
BEIJING  A Tibetan entrepreneur who is a vocal but moderate advocate for bilingual education in schools across Chinese-ruled Tibetan regions has been illegally detained by the police for one and a half months, his family said.

The man, Tashi Wangchuk, 30, who lives with his parents in the western town of Yushu, has written about language policy on his microblog. He has highlighted the dearth of meaningful Tibetan language education and expressed concern that many Tibetan children are unable to become fluent in their native language, a widespread worry in the ethnic group.

Mr. Tashi was detained on Jan. 27 and has been held for 44 days. According to Chinese law, the police can generally detain a person for 30 days before officers must ask prosecutors to bring formal arrest charges or release the person. Prosecutors then have seven days to announce a charge.

Mr. Tashis family has tried contacting the Yushu police and the towns main detention center, where relatives say they believe he is, but officers have not given them a reason for the detention and have not let them see Mr. Tashi.
NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar  The party of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Myanmars pro-democracy movement, named a longtime party loyalist on Thursday as the countrys likely next president, and a party official reiterated that he would answer to Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi while in office.

U Htin Kyaw, 69, was nominated by the National League for Democracy, which controls both houses of Myanmars new Parliament after its sweeping victory in November elections. The party nominated two candidates, one of whom is expected to become vice president; U Tun Tun Hein, a member of the partys central executive committee, said Mr. Htin Kyaw was the partys choice for the presidency, and he confirmed Ms. Aung San Suu Kyis earlier assertion that the president would essentially be her subordinate.

She will hold the post handling three institutions: the government, the Parliament and the party, Mr. Tun Tun Hein said. Alluding to the military dictatorships of Myanmars recent past, he added, If there was once the senior general in the country, she will be the senior president.
GENEVA  The United States and 11 other countries scolded China on Thursday over its crackdown on lawyers and human rights activists, saying that China had violated its own laws and international commitments.

Keith M. Harper, the American ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council, delivered a joint statement criticizing the sweeping arrests of activists and lawyers who in many cases, their families and supporters have said, did not have access to legal counsel nor were allowed family visits in breach of Chinas laws.

The statement, representing the views of the United States, Japan, Australia, Britain and eight other European countries, also expressed alarm at the treatment of several Hong Kong residents who vanished and were evidently coerced into going to mainland China.

They included five Hong Kong publishers and booksellers who had distributed works critical of Chinas leadership and then went missing. One of them, Gui Minhai, who holds Swedish citizenship, disappeared in Thailand in October; another, Lee Bo, who has British citizenship, vanished in December. Both later reappeared on the Chinese mainland, making recorded confessions that may have been coerced.
Their instrument of necessity is Mr. Erdogan, who, like Colonel Qaddafi before him, has a price, and knows how to bargain. As Marta Dassu, the former Italian deputy foreign minister and senior director for Europe for the Aspen Institute, put it: Erdogan keeps locking and unlocking the door as it pleases him.

Already, the European Union has promised Mr. Erdogan 3 billion. This week, in a sweeping deal still to be confirmed by European leaders, the bloc promised him at least twice as much, along with the prospect of visa-free travel for Turks and an acceleration of Turkeys application to join the union  a process begun nearly 30 years ago, in 1987.

In return, Turkey has agreed to take back every illegal migrant reaching the shores of Europe. That would have an immediate impact on the 2,000 a day now reaching Greece, but it is also meant to discourage others contemplating the trip. Turkey will keep the migrants while they are screened, adding to the more than 2.5 million already in Turkish camps, and return those who dont qualify to their country of origin. For every Syrian migrant returned to Turkey, Europe must accept a Syrian migrant now in Turkey who qualifies as a refugee.

But there is another kind of price to be paid by the European Union, reminiscent of the deal done with Colonel Qaddafi. The main cost is to European values.
German officials declined to give details about the contents of the documents in their possession. But Suddeutsche Zeitung reported that the data included responses to a list of 23 questions, as well as first and last names, noms de guerre and past addresses of thousands of fighters who were registered by the Islamic State when they crossed into Syria from Turkey.

The three German news organizations and Sky News all said they had obtained copies of the list from an informant. German officials declined to say how they had come in possession of the information.

Peter Neumann, director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization at Kings College London, said such documents have become widely available in Kurdish areas in northern Syria and along Turkeys border with Syria as discipline within the Islamic State has eroded in recent months.

Some experts have questioned the authenticity of the documents, citing inconsistencies in the name used to refer to the Islamic State and a flag different from the one usually associated with it. Charlie Winter, a senior research associate at the Transcultural Conflict and Violence Initiative at Georgia State University, said that in the past, documents with such anomalies have proven to be forgeries.
When the residents of Villamartin heard that the landmark castle near their small town in southern Spain was to be restored, they probably envisaged a thoughtful restoration of the medieval stronghold to something approximating its former glory.

Instead, they have been left with something that many feel more closely resembles a multilevel parking garage.

The repair of Matrera Castle, perched on a ridge in the Andalusia region, has infuriated locals and provoked the ire of some conservators. Images of the castle before and after the restoration have recently fueled outrage and ridicule on social media.

Its a barbarity, one town resident was quoted as saying by the Spanish news channel La Sexta. I dont like what theyve done at all, said another. It looks like theyve used builders instead of restorers, a third said, using a mild expletive to assess the quality of the work.
Mr. Feygin now regards the letter as a forgery. It was all subterfuge, he said, in comments reported by the newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, and it didnt take place without the participation of special services of the Russian Federation.

Ms. Savchenkos refusal to drink water had gone on for five days, through the closing arguments in her trial and her defiant final statement to the court, and she had vowed to carry on. Ms. Savchenko, a 34-year-old veteran of a Ukrainian deployment to Iraq before her more recent duties in Ukraine, was detained under unclear circumstances and is on trial in Russia for the murder of two journalists.

The Russian authorities accuse her of acting as an artillery spotter and directing mortar fire at a rebel checkpoint where the television reporters were filming. Ms. Savchenko denies this. Her backers say she was captured before the mortar strike and illegally bundled across the border to Russia to stand trial. Since then, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, among others, have called for her release.

In Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, she has become a cause celebre, and about 2,000 people rallied in her support on Sunday. For her final statement on Wednesday, she stood on the defendants bench, made the lewd gesture, sang the national anthem and called the process the farce of Kremlin puppets.

In her comments, Ms. Savchenko dared the judge to impose the 23-year sentence prosecutors have requested. If you want to show your strength, go ahead, she said. But remember, we are playing with my life. The stakes are high, and I have nothing to lose.
Iran has infuriated American critics over the past few weeks with missile tests that skeptics say violate a United Nations Security Council resolution and call into question Irans commitment to the landmark nuclear agreement that took effect in January.

The critics, including members of Congress from both parties and the Republican presidential candidates, say the Obama administration was naive in asserting that the nuclear deal would lead to a more amicable atmosphere with Iran after more than three decades of enmity.

Q. Is Iran honoring the agreement?

A. Yes, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear-monitoring arm of the United Nations. The agency reported on Feb. 26, in its first assessment since the deal took effect, that Iran is complying with the terms that are meant to block pathways to a nuclear weapon.

Q. How do we know Iran is not cheating?

A. The agency has a detailed accounting of Irans sharply reduced supply of nuclear fuel, working centrifuges and other equipment, and is empowered to monitor them. The agencys job is to make sure there is no backsliding, said Daryl G. Kimball, the executive director of the Arms Control Association, a nonproliferation advocacy group based in Washington.
AMMAN, Jordan  Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. held talks in Jordan on Wednesday with King Abdullah II on a variety of regional topics, including the fight against the Islamic State.

Jordan was the last stop on the vice presidents Middle East tour, which also included visits to the United Arab Emirates, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Mr. Biden and King Abdullah also discussed efforts to achieve peace between Palestinians and Israelis based on the two-state solution, according to a news release issued by the royal court.

Jordan is an important ally for the United States in the region, and since the 1950s, the United States has provided it with more than $15 billion in economic and military aid. Last year, the Obama administration and Jordans government signed a three-year agreement in which the United States pledged to provide Jordan with $1 billion annually in total foreign assistance, subject to the approval of Congress, according to a report published by the Congressional Research Service.
The artist Hernan Bas seized on the subject of the Bright Young Things generation after discovering a book about Stephen Tennant, a dandy figure of that Jazz Age period. The artist  who has long dealt with queer male themes  was particularly interested in accounts of those young, bohemian aristocrats suggesting that queerness was boyish charm rather than criminal aberrance.

His new show, Bright Young Things, now on view at the Lehmann Maupin gallery, draws on sources from classical still lifes, art deco motifs and early 20th-century artists like Cecil Beaton, Marie Laurencin and Nils von Dardel. Mr. Bas  who has experimented with materials from oil paint to Slim-Fast  here uses airbrush, wood block, acrylic, gold leaf and house paint. (Through April 23; 212-255-2923, lehmannmaupin.com.)
What kind of reader were you as a child? What childhood books and authors stick with you most?

From my earliest life, my mother and other grown-ups in my family read to me and encouraged me to love books. After I learned to read, I read intensely but intermittently. Often I would be too much outdoors, playing or working, to read. As a reader, I was inclined to find a book I liked and read it over and over again. When I was about 12, I could fairly recite The Yearling. The Swiss Family Robinson I read many times, also the novels of Mary OHara: My Friend Flicka and Thunderhead. I read, and believed, Tarzan of the Apes, other books by Edgar Rice Burroughs and several novels by Zane Grey. I read also (illegally) many comic books.

What book read for school had the greatest impact on you?

I never liked school until I went to the University of Kentucky, where I liked some of my classes very much. About all of the books that affected me until after high school, I read on my own. What affected me most as a university student was not so much a book or books as the delight, never-ending, of learning to read, for example, Chaucer and Milton. And I had a history professor who taught me that history could be read as local history in old documents and letters.

If you had to name one book that made you who you are today, what would it be?

As the product of at least two parents, I hesitate to see myself as derived from one book. I am sure that I descend from many books of several kinds, some that I have prized because of their high merit, some that I have prized because of my need for them.

If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be?

This reminds me that I am never going to be in a position to require a president to do anything. If we should have a president who needs to read one book, I would advise him or her to read none, but instead to find some smart people who disagree with her or him and listen to them carefully.

What author living or dead would you most like to meet, and what would you like to know?

I am grateful to have known several authors living and dead, and am not greedy.

Of the books youve written, which is your favorite or the most personally meaningful?

Because I am still a living author, still at work, I think of what I am writing, very little of what I have written.
We visit my family in California every year. I have a difficult relationship with them, but I want them to be part of my childs life. My mother has ample room for us, but her house is cluttered and not very clean. My husband has severe allergies, but we all end up sneezing. Last year, we rented a house; my mother was insulted. This year, my daughter wants to spend more time with her, and I would like to avoid the expense of renting. My husband thinks I should offer to pay for a cleaning service before our visit. But there would need to be decluttering, too. Thoughts?

ANONYMOUS, NEW YORK

Honestly? I think you and your husband may be suffering from an empathy deficiency. You are only thinking of your side of the equation, which often leads to nightmares on Elm Street. How would you feel if someone, with whom you had a strained relationship, said, Your house is too filthy for us to visit unless we engage professionals to give it a Silkwood shower and prune back your ugly tchotchkes?

Depending on how difficult your relationship is, you could make hay of your husbands allergies: Wed love to stay with you, Mom, but Jimmys allergies are out of control this year. Would you mind if I did some extra cleaning after we arrived? Dust is his mortal enemy. Nix the professionals; its gentler to offer your own services. And note that clutter is an aesthetic hazard, not a health risk.

If this approach sounds insufficient, rent again. Tell Mom: Please dont take it personally. Its good for Jimmy and me to have some time on our own at the end of the day. No need to besmirch her housekeeping. Its so easy for parents and (adult) children to press one anothers buttons. But if we try to be extra-conscious of the others feelings and slower to voice complaints, we can prevent many downward spirals. (Taking a walk works wonders, too.)
RE: THE WORK ISSUE

Our special issue focused on how the office is being rethought for an always-on economy, anchored by Charles Duhiggs article about Googles quest to build the perfect team and what the rest of us can learn from it.

With more people working in collaborations solving increasingly complex challenges, Googles internal research on what makes teams most effective is a welcome addition to 30 years of teamwork literature. The conclusion that group norms, specifically conversational turn-taking and social sensitivity, correlate to team effectiveness overturns the long-held assumptions that smarts, skills and style trump interpersonal capability.

Parents can now be assured: Regular dinner-table conversation is worthwhile family time that also prepares our children for career success. Forging meaningful connections and developing empathy at a young age turn out to be necessary ingredients for achieving future business results, too. Meanwhile, companies must rethink the meaning of high-performance cultures. Its time to value and promote workers who cultivate quality collaborations, not only those who produce individual results. Collaborative leaders build teams that withstand the confusion and conflict that often surface during rapid change. Erin OToole Murphy, Boulder, Colo.
We felt like a family is a sentiment often voiced by actors about smooth productions. But when the filmmaker Trey Edward Shults says the same about Krisha, his debut feature film, hes just stating facts. His mother, aunts and even grandmother all star in the film  as does he.

I look like Krisha and my mom, so I just figured I had to step up and do it because it wouldnt make sense otherwise, Mr. Shults said recently in a Skype interview from Florida.

What might sound like a recipe for frustration (or madness) produced an acclaimed psychodrama, which last month won the John Cassavetes prize (for a feature made for under $500,000) at the Independent Spirit Awards. The plot outline of the film, which opens Friday, March 18, resembles a typical Thanksgiving homecoming disaster movie. The title character, an aging recovering alcoholic, attends the family feast after long estrangement from her son (played by Mr. Shults), only to find that her demons have come with her.

Expressionist camerawork, foreboding music and sound design, and suspenseful pacing all distinguish the film. But Mr. Shultss casting of family members  and chronicling of trauma  gives Krisha a special energy.
For six years, the Jerusalem-born chef Mimi Kitani resisted putting falafel on the menu at Mimis Hummus, her namesake restaurant on Cortelyou Road in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. She wanted people to try other dishes, drawn from her familys roots in Morocco and Iraq, and to stop thinking of falafel as the epitome of Middle Eastern cuisine.

But last fall, when she and her boyfriend, Avi Shuker, opened two outposts of Mimis in Manhattan  a stand at the Midtown food hall UrbanSpace Vanderbilt and a restaurant in the East Village  she relented. Both locations offer falafel, although Brooklyn remains bereft. (Her kitchen there is smaller and not fully equipped.)

Here they are, in the new, slightly more expansive dining room on East 14th Street: impeccable orbs with dark, thin shells that are crisp for an instant and then disintegrate. The insides are moist without density, nearly half air and herbs. You can ask for them tucked into a pita or, better, arranged in a neat X over the hummus that made the chefs name.

I first tasted Ms. Kitanis hummus in 2009, when writing about the proliferation of hummus parlors in New York City. At the time, I thought it was the best in town. I still do.
This years speakers include Claire M. Fagin, Terry Fulmer, and Mathy Mezey

New York University College of Nursing (NYUCN) and its Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing (HIGN) are pleased to present the 2016 Norman and Alicia Volk Lecture in Geriatric Nursing, Thursday, April 6, 2016, from 4:00PM5:30PM at the Eisner & Lubin Auditorium, 4th floor, NYU Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Square South. This years lecture focuses on Addressing the Workforce in Geriatrics.

This annual event is especially important this year as we celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing, said Tara A. Cortes, PhD, RN, FAAN, executive director of HIGN and professor at NYUCN. The three speakers have had a profound impact on the nursing profession and its role in improving the health and quality of life of older people and will share some of their experiences in developing a workforce to meet the needs of the fast growing aging population. 

This years speakers include: Claire M. Fagin, PhD, RN, FAAN, Professor and Dean Emerita of University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing; Terry Fulmer, PhD, RN, FAAN, President of the John A. Hartford Foundation; and Mathy Mezey, EdD, RN, FAAN, Professor Emerita, Founding Director of The Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at New York University.

To RSVP, please email nursing.rsvp@nyu.edu and indicate the names of guests who will be attending. For more information, the public may call 212-998-5045.

About this years speakers:

Dr. Fagins career has blended an interest in consumer health with professional health and nursing issues, and she is known for her efforts to create a new paradigm for access and quality. Currently she is Director of the John A. Hartford Foundation National Program, Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity. This program supports Centers of Geriatric Nursing Excellence, schools and institutions looking to enhance their geriatric expertise, and pre-doctoral and post-doctoral scholars.

Dr. Fulmer, is the current President of the John A. Hartford Foundation. Prior to this, she was the distinguished professor & dean of the Bouve College of Health Sciences at Northeastern University. She is known for her extensive research in geriatrics and elder abuse. She has received funding from the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute of Nursing Research for her research regarding elder abuse. In addition to being the active dean of the Bouve College of Health Sciences, Fulmer has also served as a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and adjunct professor at the New York University School of Medicine.

Dr. Mezey was the founding director of the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at NYUCN in 1996. Her work has served as a foundation to the expansion of geriatric education for nurses across the nation and around the world. She served on the faculty of Lehman College, and the University of Pennsylvania before joining the NYU College of Nursing in 1991 where she was the Independence Foundation Professor until 2008. Dr. Mezey has authored 11 books and over 70 publications.

The Annual Volk Lecture is made possible through the generous support of Norman and Alicia Volk. Norman Volk serves as a vital member of the College's Board of Advisors, the Chairman of the Board of the John A. Hartford Foundation, and the President of Chamberlain and Steward Associates, Ltd. He is also a member of the External Advisory Council of the Stanford Center on Longevity. Alicia Volk, formerly the Head of Client Services at Christies Auction House, is an independent art advisor and was also the President of the Hermitage Museum Foundation USA, Inc. She is one of the key founding members of the committee organizing the Harvard University symposium on Art and Science "Parallels in Creativity" along with Dr. Dimitar Sasselov, Director of the Origins of Life Initiatives at Harvard University. Mr. and Mrs. Volk are truly committed to the mission of excellence in the care of older adults.

The Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing:

The mission of the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing (HIGN) is to ensure older adults achieve optimal health and quality of life. The commitment to this mission exhibited by the dedicated Hartford Institute leadership, staff and affiliate organizations has made the HIGN today a globally recognized geriatric presence. The Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing is the geriatric arm of the NYU College of Nursing, and has become, over the years, a beacon for all those who wish to advance geriatrics in nursing.

About New York University College of Nursing

NYU College of Nursing is a global leader in nursing education, research, and practice. It offers a Bachelor of Science with major in Nursing, a Master of Science and Post-Masters Certificate Programs, a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree and a Doctor of Philosophy in Research Theory and Development. For more information, visit https://nursing.nyu.edu/
Honorary Degree Recipients also Include Scientist Emmanuelle Charpentier, Actor/Director and NYU Alum Billy Crystal, Congressman and Civil Rights Leader John Lewis, and Judge Margaret Marshall

Alan Gilbert, NY Philharmonics Music Director, to Receive the Rudin Award, and Businesswoman and NYU Trustee Chandrika Tandon to Receive the Gallatin Medal

NYU President Andrew Hamilton and Board of Trustees Chairman William Berkley today announced the names of those to be honored at the Universitys 184th Commencement Exercises, which will be held Wednesday, May 18, 2016 in Yankee Stadium.

Darren Walker  President of the Ford Foundation, a leading innovator of community development in New York City and around world  will address the graduates and guests on behalf of all the degree recipients. Mr. Walker will receive a Doctor of Laws degree, honoris causa, at the ceremony.

This years other recipients of honorary doctorates are:

 Emmanuelle Charpentier  a scientist whose research led to some of the most important tools for genome editing, and Scientific Member and Director of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, and Visiting Professor at Umea University  will receive a Doctor of Science degree, honoris causa.

 Billy Crystal  comedian, actor, producer, writer, director, and 1970 alumnus of the Tisch School of the Arts  will receive a Doctor of Fine Arts degree, honoris causa.

 John Lewis  a courageous leader of the U.S. civil rights movement and a Member of Congress since 1986  will receive a Doctor of Humane Letters degree, honoris causa.

 Margaret Marshall  who, as a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts and the first woman to hold that position, wrote the first high court opinion in the U.S. permitting same-sex marriage  will receive a Doctor of Laws degree, honoris causa.

The Albert Gallatin Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Society will be presented to businesswoman, Grammy-nominated musician, and NYU Board of Trustees Vice Chair Chandrika Tandon for her achievements in business; her accomplishments in the performing arts; her involvement and contributions of time and energy in NYU's global efforts and across many of NYU's schools; and her generous support of engineering, technology, and innovation.

The Lewis Rudin Award for Exemplary Service to New York City will be presented to Alan Gilbert, the Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, in recognition of his leadership in making New York one of the worlds great centers for music and the arts.

Ticket reservations for commencement begin on March 14.



Founded in 1831, NYU is one of the worlds foremost research universities and is a member of the selective Association of American Universities. NYU has degree-granting university campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai; has eleven other global academic sites, including London, Paris, Florence, Tel Aviv, Buenos Aires, and Accra; and both sends more students to study abroad and educates more international students than any other U.S. college or university. Through its numerous schools and colleges, NYU is a leader in conducting research and providing education in the arts and sciences, law, medicine, business, dentistry, education, nursing, the cinematic and performing arts, music and studio arts, public administration, social work, and professional studies, among other areas.


The promise of springs arrival brings new beginnings and an opportunity to relish the beauty of growth in this warmer weather. This past week, the Auburn Chamber of Commerce celebrated the progression of two Auburn businesses.

On the evening of March 3, Three Sixty Real Estate celebrated their sixth anniversary by hosting a chamber After Hours Event. The party was held in their newly renovated building on Opelika Road. Despite the rainy weather, many business leaders from around the community joined the celebration as champagne flowed and hors d'oeuvres by Bill Lee were passed around. Owners, Tricia Peterson and Nonet Reese, welcomed guests to a simple yet elegant evening as they wanted the focus to be on their new space and their great team of realtors.

Auburn Dental Spa, a business near and dear to my heart, held a groundbreaking ceremony with the Auburn Chamber on the morning of Friday, March 4. The groundbreaking sets the stage for an expansion of dental rooms and services, as well as the construction of a new, luxury resort-style spa. Construction completion date is set for late July 2016. In the meantime, realize the loud drilling noise is not just coming from the dentist!

Each spring our local mayors, Mayor Bill Ham and Mayor Gary Fuller, host a ball benefitting the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Lee County. This years theme is Jeans & Jackets. It will be held in charming, historic downtown Opelika in The Bottling Plant Event Center on Thursday, March 31. Both individual and business sponsorship opportunities are available. More further information, you may contact Jake Gulledge at 334-502-1311.

Springing ahead to April 30, you can have the chance to not only appreciate the great outdoors with some exercise, but can join Womens Hope Medical Clinic in their annual fundraising walk. Walk the Walk, formally Walk-4-Life, is a one-mile walk and the second largest fundraiser for Womens Hope. In 2015, their clinic experienced many exciting changes with extended hours and additional clinics. While they are grateful for the growth, they still need our help to continue providing compassionate care to their growing number of clients. To help, simply visit www.WalktheWalk2016.com to register as a walker or to sponsor a walker.

As we leap further into spring, the month of May never seems to disappoint with fresh enthusiasm. Between end-of-year school parties, graduations and Mothers Day, May seems to be one on-going celebration. Of course, May also brings that one event all southerners love to get dressed up for, the Kentucky Derby. Fortunately, you dont have to live in Kentucky to experience the horses, exhilaration and glam. On Friday, May 6, Lee-Scott Academy will sponsor the Miss Kentucky Derby pageant benefitting Storybook Farm. The pageant will be held on the picturesque Storybook Farm grounds and is open to all females ages 5-17 in the Lee County area. To top it off, our very own Miss Alabama 2015-2016, Meg McGuffin, will be the emcee. For more information, visit the Lee-Scott Academy Facebook page.

Then the very next day, the Eighth Annual Kentucky Derby Auction and Dinner will take place at Storybook Farm. Again it will feature local chefs competing to win the coveted best chefs award. This years distinguished guest speaker is Coach Rhett Lashlee. He is Auburn Universitys football offensive coordinator and a 2012/2013 finalist for the Broyles Award. The 2016 presenting sponsor is The Mint Julep Boutique. This fundraiser is vital to the work being done at Storybook Farm. To find out more information or to purchase tickets, please visit www.HopeOnHorseback.org .

I know many people make a bucket list of things they want to accomplish it their lifetime. Personally, I like making a spring time bucket list of things to experience outside before the weather gets too hot! Some of my favorites include flying a kite, going on a picnic, planting flowers, taking a nature walk or simply playing outside with my kids. Luckily, I dont always have to come up with an itinerary, as our local community hosts an array of different events to appreciate.

Susie Litkenhous and Mary Ann Stiles write a column for the Opelika-Auburn News.
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments March 2 in its first abortion case in almost a decade, and Justice Antonin Scalias empty chair loomed large. Without Scalia, it is impossible to see five votes to uphold Texas restrictive abortion law. But from the oral arguments, it is impossible to tell whether there will be five votes to strike it down.

In 2013, the Texas Legislature passed H.B. 2, which imposed two significant new restrictions on abortion providers. First, the law requires that a physician performing an abortion must have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of where the abortion is performed. Second, all facilities where abortions are performed must comply with the stringent standards for ambulatory surgical centers, even if no surgical abortions are performed there.

The federal district court found that these provisions would not benefit the health of women, they would close about three-fourths of the facilities in Texas where abortions are performed, and they would prevent the opening of additional facilities. The court enjoined the regulations, concluding that they create a brutally effective system of abortion regulation that reduces access to abortion clinics[,] thereby creating a statewide burden for substantial numbers of Texas women.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, and upheld the regulations. It said that the courts should defer to the legislative judgment that the regulations will protect womens health and make no independent evaluation of the evidence.

In 1992, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the Supreme Court held that state laws regulating previability abortions are unconstitutional if they place an undue burden on the right to abortion. The court said that a law imposes an undue burden if its purpose or effect is to place substantial obstacles in the path of a woman seeking an abortion before the fetus attains viability.

The issue in this case, Whole Womens Health Center v. Hellerstedt, is whether the Texas regulations amount to an impermissible undue burden. The court also is being asked to clarify whether the state must prove that the regulations actually protect womens health or whether courts should defer to the judgment of the state Legislature.

The court last decided an abortion case in 2007, in Gonzalez v. Carhart, when it upheld, 5-4, the federal Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act. The conservative majority gave great deference to Congress in prohibiting a practice that is rarely done, but sometimes is the safest way of performing an abortion.

The courts ruling in Whole Womens Health Center could affect how challenges are handled to dozens of recently enacted state laws restricting abortion rights. In fact, on Friday, March 4, without opinion, the court kept from going into effect a Louisiana law that is virtually identical to the Texas statute. This is likely a choice to keep things as they are until the court resolves the Texas case.

With Justice Scalia on the court, everyone predicted a 5-4 decision, with the outcome turning on Justice Kennedy. In every abortion case in his nearly 30 years on the Supreme Court, Scalia urged the overruling of Roe v. Wade, often in angry opinions. Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas and Alito also seem sure votes to allow the Texas law and indeed to overrule Roe if there is a fifth vote. Equally clear is that Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan will vote to strike down the Texas law.

In 1989, Kennedy joined with Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justice Byron White, the two dissenters in Roe, in urging its overruling. But three years later, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Kennedy was the fifth vote to reaffirm Roe v. Wade. Since then, however, he has voted to uphold every abortion restriction to come before the court.

If Kennedy votes with Roberts, Thomas and Alito, there will be a 4-4 tie, and the 5th Circuit decision upholding the Texas law will stand. If Kennedy votes with Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan, it will be 5-3 to strike the law down. Or perhaps Kennedy will seek a different path. At the oral argument, Kennedy suggested remanding the case to the lower federal courts to assess whether remaining facilities in Texas will have the capacity to provide abortions for women in that state. This would allow the court to put off the constitutional issues until Scalia is replaced.

In the first few years of this decade, state governments adopted over 200 laws restricting access to abortion. They were enacted for one reason: to limit the availability of abortion. There is no evidence that they will help protect womens health. They are a clear and obvious undue burden on a womans right to abortion. But like almost everything else this term, it all comes down to one person: Anthony Kennedy.

Erwin Chemerinsky is dean of the UC Irvine School of Law.
The leader of the state Senate plans to introduce legislation this week to expand the number of seats on the board that regulates Southern California air quality and counter Republican-led efforts to make pollution rules more business-friendly.

Senior staff in the office of Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, said Wednesday that he is finalizing a bill to add three seats to the Air Quality Management District board, to give a voice to communities most affected by air pollution.

The announcement follows Fridays ouster of the districts longtime executive director, Barry Wallerstein. He was known for pushing regulations needed to meet federal health standards and was often criticized by industry.

All seven Republican members of the board voted to fire Wallerstein; the five Democrats and one independent voted against it.

Bill Magavern, policy director for the Coalition for Clean Air in Los Angeles, praised de Leons plan.

Were glad that Senator de Leon is taking action and hope his proposal will be enacted quickly because the people of the region have already been breathing polluted air for too long, Magavern said.

De Leons bill would add two members from the environmental justice community and one public health expert. They would be appointed by the Senate Rules Committee, the speaker of the Assembly and the governor.

The board currently has 13 members, including three appointees and 10 elected officials from the counties and cities in the South Coast Air Basin, which includes all of Orange County and the urban sections of Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties.

De Leon also wants to eliminate the four-year terms served by appointees and have any modifications to smokestack industry requirements reviewed by the state Air Resources Board within 60 days, rather than the two to three years it takes now, staffers said.

Air district board member Janice Rutherford, a San Bernardino County supervisor, said adding people to the board would make it more unwieldy.

I think the elected officials on the board already represent the communities most impacted by smog, she said.

The boards decisions have been based on scientific evidence, not political alliances, Rutherford said.

The South Coast Air Basin, home to 16.8 million people, has the worst smog in the nation. The region failed to meet the ozone standard during 83 days last year, and missed a 2015 federal deadline to clean up diesel soot and other kinds of fine-particle pollution associated with early death, heart disease, stroke and stunted lung development in children.

If the AQMD board crafts a clean air plan that the Environmental Protection Agency deems inadequate, the federal government could impose its own requirements and halt non-essential federal transportation dollars for the region, said Angela Johnson-Meszaros, a staff attorney at Earthjustice.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9586 or jzimmerman@pressenterprise.com
The Orange County Sheriffs Department is investigating a courthouse fight that broke out Wednesday between a District Attorneys investigator and a defense attorney who triumphed over prosecutors in a recent case involving jailhouse informants.

The investigator and attorney got into an argument that turned physical around 10 a.m. in a hallway outside a 10th floor courtroom, Lt. Mark Stichter said. He didnt know what prompted the argument.

But defense attorney James Crawford said he was attacked by a DA investigator he didnt recognize.

My back was to him and the next thing I know I find my head getting slammed into a bench. Crawford said. He then proceeded to punch me and pin me into the bench.

Crawford represents Henry Rodriguez, who is twice convicted of murder and won a retrial last month in the wake of allegations prosecutors improperly used a jailhouse informant and withheld evidence. The Rodriguez trial is one of six cases that has unravelled in the fallout over Orange Countys snitch controversy.

As a result of that ruling, some in the DAs office had an animus toward Mr. Crawford, said Jerry Steering, Crawfords attorney.

It wasnt personal, Steering said of Crawfords allegations against prosecutors. But apparently they dont like him too much.

Crawford said, Theyre still angry over us getting a new trial.

The Sheriffs Department did not identify the DA investigator.

The District Attorneys office is cooperating with the Sheriff Departments investigation into the incident, said Roxi Fyad, a spokeswoman for the office.

When the investigation is complete, the matter will be referred to the California Attorney Generals Office for a legal review, she said.

Orange County Superior Court Presiding Judge Charles Margines declined to discuss the altercation.

The incident occurred Wednesday after a judge asked Crawford to assist a woman who received a subpoena tied to a trial in Department C40, Steering said. The woman apparently was being offered a limited immunity deal in return for assisting with a case, he said.

Steering said Crawford, the woman and an interpreter were talking in the courthouse hallway when an unidentified investigator interferred and stated that defense lawyers are sleazy.

Crawford replied that they are no worse than those in the District Attorneys office caught up in the jailhouse informant scandal, Steering said.

Crawford began walking away, Steering said, when the investigator threw a paper clip at him.

This sounds like a 7th grade squabble, Steering said. My guy turns around and says (an expletive) and (the investigator) just grabbed him and started slamming his head into a bench.

Steering said Crawford didnt throw any punches. Several nearby officers broke up the altercation.

Tom Dominguez, president of the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs, said in a statement there were many witnesses to the altercation and that Crawfords one-sided version is simply not true.

Among the personnel represented by the association are District Attorneys investigators.

A careful investigation will reveal the true facts. We are cooperating fully in that investigation and we look forward to the actual facts being released publicly, Dominguez said.

Crawford, who suffered a head wound, plans to file a lawsuit against the county, Steering said.

Ive seen inmates beat up in a courthouse, but Ive never seen a DAs investigator beat up a lawyer, he said.

Neither the investigator nor the attorney were taken into custody or transported to a hospital for injuries, Stichter said.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7767 sschwebke@ocregister.com Twitter: @thechalkoutline
WESTMINSTER  Imagine what that finger might do.

Point? Duh. Scratch? If something itches, this finger could scratch it. Prod? Poke? Tickle? Yes, yes, yes.

Its small as fingers go, about right for a kid in third grade. And its fire engine red, not the preferred finger color for a grown-up but potentially awesome for a third-grader.

Its also plastic. Feeling is one of the few things the finger cant do.

Just dont confuse the lack of feeling with any lack of emotion.

The red plastic finger is part of a plastic hand built by seventh- and eighth-graders in Cameron Coatneys 3D design class at Johnson Middle School in Westminster. As part of a class project, the hands made by the class are sent to a nonprofit, Enabling The Future, that gives out plastic hands to people with no hands.

Cool, huh.

Thats Coatney. Hes showing off the finger, bending it gently at the middle knuckle.

Its simple, he said. But its also pretty brilliant, design-wise. Just like the rest of the hand.

Now, imagine what its like to make that finger  and the hand that goes with it.

I bet I know what its like for a kid who gets one of these, seventh-grader Arturo Flores said as he used a metal file to smooth down a few sharp chunks from the plastic hand churned out by the 3D printers in Coatneys class.

It probably feels great.

Coatneys 3D design class is so new it didnt get started until mid-fall, after beginning the school year as a class in journalism.

The technology that drives the class also is new. Printers that can create actual things, 3D printers have been sold to consumers since about 2010.

Even the idea thats energizing Coatneys class  making plastic hands for people who need them  is new. Coatney learned of the idea over Christmas break.

Were all just figuring this out together, Coatney said.

Coatney is a high-energy guy, almost manic. He likes riding dirt bikes. He used to write for a magazine devoted to motocross. His blackboard includes a huge poster of a motorcycle.

Hes also got a masters degree in education and a love of books.

Coatneys primary subject as a teacher isnt design or shop; its reading, writing and literature. Its a tricky job. He teaches English at a school where 40 percent of the students speak something other than English at home.

He sometimes teaches in shorts and a T-shirt, but the skills he teaches are life-changing. He seems to always remember that.

Coatney is also, above all, curious.

Last summer, as he looked for something to do with his daughter  a middle school student, though not at Johnson  they hit upon the idea of 3D printing. Coatney plunged into it, buying a 3D printer for his home even before he learned how to use it. He rationalized the expense by figuring they could use it to make motorcycle parts.

He liked his 3D printer and the things he could do with it so much that hes started a side business selling 3-D printing services on Craigslist.

When summer ended, and he returned to school for the start of the academic year, Coatney learned that Johnson Middle School had purchased two 3D printing machines (at about $1,200 each), but the machines werent yet being used in any class.

And as he launched into the term, teaching a journalism class that hes taught as an elective for about 15 years, he kept thinking about those 3D printers.

These things have so much potential, Coatney says of the two devices, which now occupy a counter in a classroom otherwise devoted to language arts.

That was totally in my head.

A few weeks into the school year, Coatney approached his class about making a switch. The students were willing. He also pitched the idea to his boss, Principal Daniel Owens, who was wary.

We dont usually do a big change like that, Owens said.

But it was an exciting idea.

Coatney quickly set about teaching his class of 15 journalism students the basics of 3D printing. Soon, they were making everyday items: keychains, nesting dolls, a hammer.

Then, over Christmas, Coatney learned of Enabling The Future. The group uses the Internet to encourage people with 3D printers to make hands for people without them.

Coatney saw a match.

I figured, why make trinkets?

ENERGIZED STUDENTS

The students say Coatneys class is not an easy A.

They work in small groups to build several models of hands, which go by names like Osprey and Raptor. But before theyre allowed to join a group, each student has to master several skills related to 3D manufacturing.

They learn about the open-source (free) software that provides their designs, and the raw materials (one of the plastics they use is 40 percent sugar) that create the finished product.

The even learn a little about the economics of prosthetics, a lesson that can be sobering.

A modern, prosthetic hand can be programmed via software to respond to an individuals needs or functions. It can include an outer glove that looks like skin. It can change the users life.

It can also cost more than $30,000.

As a result, many children who are missing a hand or fingers dont get prosthetics. The cost of replacing a hand several times as a child grows into adulthood is simply prohibitive for most families.

The 3D hands built by Coatneys class and others dont do what a prosthetic does. The word prosthetic, in fact, isnt really used.

We like to look at them as simple tools  much like a hammer or screwdriver, said Jen Owen, who co-founded Enabling The Future with her husband, Ivan Owen, five years ago.

These are not meant to wear all day, but are more for task-specific purposes.

But the hands from Coatneys class are a lot cheaper  about $40 counting materials and the cost of the energy needed for a print job that can run 12 hours.

For that, you get specific functions  including several great ones.

I saw a kid in a video use his hand to ride a bike, Flores said. I bet that was cool.

Coatney urges his students to try to understand life for the people who might use their product. As part of the class, the students have to wear a sock over a hand for several hours.

That sock thing was easy for me because Im ambidextrous, said Jessica Tomsen, an eighth-grader who is making an Osprey hand.

I just used my other hand the whole time, she added. But I got the idea.

The website for Enabling The Future features a video of a kid using a 3D hand to catch a softball.

Julio Molina, a well-spoken eighth-grader in Coatneys class, wants to make a hand with the power to crush a softball.

Why not make one thats better than an actual hand, stronger? Molina said.

Coatney said the first hand his class submitted to Enabling The Future has been accepted. Now, he said, theyre waiting to find out of its been matched with a child. (Owen said her organization cant say if any individual has been linked with a specific hand donation.)

Molina, who is weighing a future career as a civil engineer or a lawyer, says he likes 3D design, particularly since the hand project became part of it.

Everything were doing hasnt been done before. Its all new, Molina said.

That makes it pretty interesting.

Contact the writer: amouchard@ocregister.com
Volkswagens top U.S. executive is stepping down amid the companys ongoing emissions cheating scandal, the company announced Wednesday.

U.S. President and CEO Michael Horn is leaving to pursue other opportunities effective immediately, the automaker said. He had been with the German auto maker for 25 years, assuming his most recent post in 2014.

Horns sudden departure comes as the company continues to grapple with the fallout from its admission last year that nearly 600,000 cars were sold in the U.S. with software that regulators say was designed to cheat on required emissions tests.

The company potentially faces more than $20 billion in fines from state and federal regulators, as well as hundreds of class-action lawsuits filed on behalf of angry vehicle owners. The Justice Department is also conducting a criminal investigation.

It was Horn who was sent to apologize to consumers at a congressional hearing in October. But at the same time, he told lawmakers that top corporate officials had no knowledge of the cheating software installed in 11 million diesel cars worldwide.

To my understanding this was not a corporate decision, this was something individuals did, Horn said, adding that he felt personally deceived.

A federal judge has given the company until March 24 to reach an agreement with the government on recalling the affected vehicles. U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Breyer wants to know about available technical solutions to fix the cars and the status of negotiations on a potential settlement with affected owners. Volkswagen has not indicated whether it will be able to meet the deadline.

Volkswagen in September admitted to U.S. regulators that it had used illegal software installed in its so-called Clean Diesel engines. The cheating allowed cars to pass laboratory emissions tests while spewing levels of harmful nitrogen oxide at up to 40 times the level allowed when operating on real roads.

The company is negotiating with lawyers for the owners of the defective cars, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board. Both state and federal regulators will have to sign off on any planned recall.
SACRAMENTO  A longshot proposal introduced Wednesday would make California the first state to allow Uber drivers and all other independent contractors to unionize.

The legislation comes one week after the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sued Seattle over the nations first city ordinance allowing for-hire drivers to organize labor coalitions.

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, authored the California proposal to allow gig workers not formally recognized as employees to jointly negotiate their pay and working conditions. The proposal would open the door to unionized truck drivers, real estate agents, barbers, fundraisers and other independently contracted workers operating on a single platform.

Federal law does not extend collective bargaining rights to independent contractors. Attorneys for the U.S. Chamber have invoked those federal antitrust and labor laws to fight the Seattle ordinance.

Gonzalez and her legal adviser, labor attorney Rich McCracken, believe the states have the right to supervise a process by which independent contractors would be able to organize.

The Internet Association, whose members include most major cloud and mobile application-based businesses, opposed the proposal Wednesday.

Michael Beckerman, president and CEO of the association, said in a statement that individuals are already offered flexible earning opportunities within the sharing economy.

Independent contractors are prevalent in every industry, but this proposal unfairly targets the Internet sector in a way that could hurt the very people it purports to help, Beckerman said in the statement. The associations members include Google, Facebook, PayPal, Amazon, Uber, Lyft and other companies that rely on the Internet and new technology to do business.

I dont know in our history a time when weve had businesses say: Thats great, lets have workers unionize,  Gonzalez said.

Uber and Lyft, organizations that allow riders to hail a driver using a mobile application, opposed Seattles ordinance.

We share Assemblywoman Gonzalezs dedication to workers and agree with the starting point that people engaging with platforms are independent contractors, Lyft spokeswoman Chelsea Wilson wrote in a statement.

Gonzalezs bill has one co-author, Democratic state Senator Benjamin Allen of Santa Monica.
SAN FRANCISCO  The California Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Gov. Jerry Brown can continue pursuing a plan to reduce the states prison inmate population by releasing certain non-violent felons early while it considers a legal challenge.

The high courts brief order means Browns supporters can gather signatures to qualify a measure for the November ballot while the court decides whether the governor made improper, late additions to a proposed juvenile justice proposed proposition.

A Sacramento County judge halted the qualifying process last month after the California District Attorneys Association filed a lawsuit challenging the late additions. The judge ruled that Browns additions substantially changed the proposed ballot language after it had gone through a public comment period.

But the Supreme Court ruled last week that the qualifying process can continue while the lawsuit is being decided. It re-affirmed that position Wednesday while putting the onus on the prosecutors to show the governors changes were improper, rather than having Brown defend the additions.

The high court didnt rule on the lawsuits merits Wednesday, giving both sides until the end of the month to submit written legal arguments.

The proposed measure was filed with the Attorney Generals office in December as an attempt to transfer the power of deciding whether to prosecute juveniles as adults from prosecutors to judges. After the 30-day public comment period on the proposed ballot measure expired, Brown added language that would allow certain non-violent adult felons to earn parole earlier while qualifying others for earlier releases from prison.

The prosecutors say the additions are an end-run around the public comment provision and that they intend to continue their legal fight.

We believe when this court looks at all the information they will agree with the lower court and rule decidedly in our favor, district attorneys association chief executive Mark Zahner said in a statement.

A governors spokesman didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

California is under court order to ease overcrowding in its prisons.
A new UCLA study estimates nearly half of all Orange County adults have undiagnosed diabetes or are in the prediabetes stage  a reliable indicator that they will develop type 2 diabetes.

The universitys Center for Health Policy Research study suggests 46 percent of county residents fall into this category. That figure is the same across California, though certain counties, mainly in Northern California, and ethnicities, especially Pacific Islanders, fare worse.

Researchers also found that statewide, one in three young adults ages 18 to 39 have prediabetes. Thats particularly concerning, they said, because diabetes is more commonly seen among older adults.

Type 2 diabetes can lead to serious complications, including heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney failure and lower limb amputations.

This is the clearest indication to date that the diabetes epidemic is out of control and getting worse, said Harold Goldstein, executive director of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, which commissioned the study.

Goldstein blamed soda and junk food marketing, scarcity of healthy food in low-income communities and shortage of safe places to play in urban neighborhoods.

The numbers look very stark, said Dr. Rahil Bandukwala, medical adviser for Saddleback Memorial Diabetes Clinic. But weve been seeing this on the front lines.

In Orange County, we do have more access to be more active with the beaches and mountains close by, he said. At the same time, we are victims of the same things everyone else in the world is: we sit at our desks more, we eat more carbohydrate-rich foods, we sit in our cars to get to work.

Diabetes rates have skyrocketed in the U.S. In 1958, just under 1 percent of the population had the diagnosis. By 2013, that percentage had swelled to 7 percent, or 22.3 million people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC says 15 percent to 30 percent of people with prediabetes will develop type 2 diabetes within five years. The American Diabetes Association calls it an early warning system and says before people develop type 2 diabetes, they almost always have prediabetes.

But even with a prediabetes diagnosis, it is possible to avoid type 2 diabetes: Lose 7 percent of your body weight and exercise moderately (brisk walking, for example) 30 minutes a day, five days a week, according to the diabetes association.

Contact the writer: jchandler@ocregister.com and @jennakchandler on Twitter
VIENNA  The United States on Wednesday urged the U.N. atomic agency to continue providing details on Irans compliance with a deal crimping its nuclear work amid Western concerns that the agencys newest report is too light on specifics.

With the U.S. and partner nations that negotiated the deal with Iran keen not to jeopardize it, such concerns have mostly been voiced privately.

But chief U.S. IAEA delegate Henry S. Ensher told the U.N.s International Atomic Energy Agency board Wednesday that continued robust and detailed reporting on Irans implementation of its commitments remains vital even with the agreement now in effect. U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby echoed those sentiments, saying we want these reports to be as thorough as they need to be, and as detailed as they need to be.

All six nations that struck the deal with Iran are confident that the agency has a better-than-ever overview of Tehrans nuclear program due to transparency commitments on the part of the Islamic Republic as part of the deal.

But the four Western countries that negotiated with Iran  the U.S., Britain, France and Germany  prefer more details than were evident in last months first post-deal report.

In contrast, the other two countries  Russia and China  consider the new report balanced, while Iran complains the report is too in-depth. IAEA chief Yukiya Amano feels he has struck the right balance, considering Iran is no longer in violation of U.N. and agency demands to curb its nuclear program.

His report was much less detailed than pre-nuclear deal summaries, essentially ticking off the major obligations that Iran agreed to when the deal took hold Jan. 16 and stating that most were met or minor deviations quickly remedied.

Amano has suggested he wont be pressured, telling The Associated Press that his Iran reporting will remain factual, impartial and include the information which the agency considers necessary.
In 1968, the Beatles advised, Honey, disconnect the phone, in their song, Back in the U.S.S.R. Fast forward to 2016, and more people might follow that advice if the FBI gets its way and forces Apple to create software to hack the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists.

Local law enforcement also seeks similar powers. Sacramento-area law enforcement agencies are sitting on scores of powerfully encrypted iPhones they cant mine for information on a variety of crimes, reported the Sacrameno Bee. Theyre closely watching the fight between Apple and the FBI.

And, according to the Associated Press, San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos offered an unusual justification for forcing Apple to help hack the shooters iPhone  that it might have been used as a weapon to introduce malicious software to county computer systems. The shooters iPhone was issued by San Bernardino County, where he worked as a health inspector.

Computer security experts scoff at that possiblity. But Ramos contention illustrates how breaches of basic rights can quickly expand.

There are other examples. The 1970 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act was intended to fight organized crime. But, according to Daniel Fischel, former dean of the University of Chicago School of Law, RICO also got rid of the traditional right to be innocent and face punishment only after conviction and allowed the government to seize entire businesses connected even indirectly with a defendant at the time of indictment, before any proof of guilt.

The 2001 USA Patriot Act was intended to fight terrorism. But, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, The Justice Departments inspector general found that the FBI has issued hundreds of thousands of national security letters, a majority against U.S. persons, and many without any connection to terrorism at all.

The government has demonstrated why Americans should be cautious about granting it expanded powers, and law enforcement has plenty of other resources to investigate crimes. The Obama administration and the FBI should stop harassing Apple.
In honor of International Womens Day (March 8), I thought it would be appropriate to dedicate this weeks column to issues of gender identity and roles and respect for feminine wants and needs  in other words, Legos.

During its early decades, Lego, the Danish building-blocks company, adopted a gender-neutral marketing strategy. By the 1980s, however, it discovered that its most popular lines were battle scenes, pirates, castles and so forth: in short, more masculine offerings that tended to be more tailored to boys. Wanting to build on a good thing, Lego started marketing more to boys.

There were some attempts to attract more girls, such as the Scala line of build-your-own jewelry introduced in 1979 and the Paradise and Belleville sets, with pastel colors and larger pieces, during the 1990s, but they were not terribly successful.

During the 2000s, however, Lego realized that it was missing out on a major opportunity. [I]t was consumer expectations which stopped us creating a range which was too masculine, Stephane Knapp, marketing director of Lego France, told Womenology.com in a 2013 interview. The girls wanted to have their own Lego and not their brothers.

So after several years of market research and testing childrens experiences with prototypes, the company finally learned the kinds of things that girls wanted to build, and that, yes, girls and their parents favored sets that came in pink and purple packaging.

Lego introduced the Lego Friends line in 2012 to appeal primarily to girls. The bricks and packaging feature more pink and purple colors and five female figures that are more feminine, less square than our standard minifigurines, Mr. Knapp notes, because the companys research determined that girls wanted to be able to identify with the figures and we therefore had to develop figures closer to their expectations.

Lego Friends was an immediate success. In the first six months, the portion of Lego sets purchased for girls in the U.S. tripled, from 9 percent to 27 percent. But feminist groups such as SPARK Movement and Feminist Frequency complained that sets such as a beauty parlor and a suburban house perpetuated gender stereotypes, although other sets include a veterinary clinic and an inventors workshop.

If Lego was being sexist, it was punished by the market for it, economist Ryan McMaken writes for the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Lego simply failed to cater to the wants and needs of girls. And it endured foregone profits because of it.

With Lego Friends, Lego finally found a line that girls actually like, and the market is rewarding them accordingly, McMaken continues. Meanwhile, feminists attack Lego for making toys that children want to buy, but which feminists think girls should not want to buy.

Lego has since introduced its very popular Research Institute line, spawned by an idea from fans, which includes science-themed sets with three new figurines, all female: an astronomer, a chemist and a paleontologist. The company has also added female characters such as an aerospace engineer, a deep-sea explorer, a mechanic, a pit crew member and a veterinarian.

Rival toymaker Mattel has also sought to capitalize on the trend, with the release of its line of DC Super Hero Girls action figures  including Supergirl, Batgirl, Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn and Bumble Bee from DC Comics  this month in Target stores and new Barbie dolls with a variety of body types, skin tones and hair colors.

The lesson is that there is plenty of room for a variety of Lego offerings for girls, from what activist groups might deem traditional to politically correct, and everything in between. The beauty of the capitalist system is that the market provides for all tastes, not just what one interest group or another thinks is best for us. Which is why Ill take the free market  and Legos  over government central planning any day.
Anger boiled over again at the California Coastal Commissions Wednesday meeting as audience members shouted at commissioners, demanded resignations and requested an ethics review of last months dismissal of the commissions conservation-minded executive director.

Since the removal of the agencys top-ranked manager and analyst, public criticism of the politically appointed commission has remained intense  and flared anew as the 12-member panel tried to move forward with its search for a new chief executive.

Environmentalists fear the leadership change is part of a larger effort to ease clearances for large, pending coastal development proposals, including efforts to build 895 homes on open land and oil fields in Newport Beach and construct a desalination plant in Huntington Beach.

There may be some pressure on staff to buckle under, said Steve Ray, the executive director of the Banning Ranch Conservancy, which opposes the Newport Beach development at Banning Ranch.

At last months meeting, commissioners fired the former executive director, Charles Lester, despite receiving tens of thousands of letters praising him and hearing those messages echoed by hundreds of speakers before the action. Commissioners have said they were frustrated with Lesters management of the agency and complained about how long it took some projects to get permitted. They also said Lester wasnt responsive enough to their questions.

Scrutiny of the commission, which regulates land use and access along 1,100 miles of the California coast, arguably has never been more withering. Last month, irate state lawmakers proposed new transparency rules to require lobbyists to disclose contacts with commissioners.

At Wednesdays meeting in Santa Monica, commissioners sought to move beyond the dismissal controversy. They appointed Jack Ainsworth, the current deputy director, as interim executive director and began discussions of the recruiting process for Lesters permanent replacement.

We are not going to find our way by looking back, commission Chairman Steve Kinsey told the audience.

But the public frustration and distrust of the commissioners nearly derailed the meeting. For several tense minutes, the meeting threatened to devolve into chaos as audience members harangued commissioners.

Kinsey set off the outbursts when he closed a 30-minute public comment period, before more than 40 people who had requested to speak could do so. Commissioner Wendy Mitchell, who has acknowledged being a prime mover behind Lesters dismissal, tried to explain why she voted as she did last month.

The commission began having problems with the agency staff four years ago, when Lester first was hired, she told the audience. Lester was seen as the hand-picked successor to the late Peter Douglas, the agencys executive director for 21/2 decades and a hero to many coastal preservationists.

Mitchell suggested Lesters hiring  not his firing  was unduly influenced by outside forces, a position counter to what environmentalists have been arguingin the weeks since Lesters dismissal.

That process was hijacked by outside individuals, not this one, Mitchell said.

Chairman Kinsey interrupted Mitchell multiple times, unsuccessfully urging her to conclude her remarks. I dont think this is the time to do this, he told her at one point.

She continued to explain that commissioners notified Lester in December and January that a majority of members wanted him to resign. She added he was offered a smooth transition, as audience members shouted that she should resign.

At at another point, Todd Cardiff, an attorney for the Grassroots Coalition, a Los Angeles County environmental group, told commissioners his organization was suing them to obtain more information on the reasons behind Lesters firing.

From the outside, we saw him as a protector of the environment, Cardiff said.

Others called on commissioners to make the selection process for the new executive director transparent and to involve environmental and social justice groups.

Some said it would be counterproductive to appoint an interim executive director because that person would inherit the current distrust directed at the commission.

Many others took the opposite position, saying the agencys staff needed top leadership quickly, especially with several major projects pending. Among the largest is the Banning Ranch residential development in Newport Beach and the Poseidon desalination plant in Huntington Beach.

We would be very uneasy not having someone at the rudder for the Banning Ranch case, said Ray, the director of the Banning Ranch Conservancy.

Contact the writer: aorlowski@ocregister.com Twitter: @aaronorlowski
CANCUN, Mexico  A judge in Mexico has ordered a U.S. man to stand trial in the death of his American girlfriend in the Caribbean resort city of Playa del Carmen.

A prosecutors office employee said Thursday that the judge ordered John Loveless to stand trial for allegedly killing Tamra Turpin. The employee was not authorized to be quoted by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Turpin, 36, of the St. Louis, Mo., suburb of Union, was found dead last week in a condo the couple had rented. A forensic examination concluded she died of asphyxia by strangulation.

The official could not provide details on the judges ruling.

But Turpins oldest sister, Jodi Mills, said Thursday by telephone in Missouri that her family has learned through an attorney they hired in Mexico that a judge there refused to allow as evidence a second autopsy Loveless had requested on Turpin, using an American pathologist.

Mills, of Mexico, Mo., said she was unaware of what that secondary autopsy found.

Loveless told Mills that Turpin overdosed on prescription medications during a suicide attempt after an argument.

Mills said she has continued to keep an open mind about Loveless.

Im still in shock, she said. I dont know what evidence they have, but I just want to get to the bottom of this and get all the facts. I still have lots of questions, and I dont think its fair (for me) to accuse John if I dont have all the facts.

I know the facts that Ive received makes me puzzled and question (Loveless), she added. But I dont want to wrongfully accuse someone. Hes got family in this, too. Can you imagine being on the other side? I try to be a fair person, and its not my right to judge.

Mills said her family still is trying to arrange her late sisters return to Missouri, hopefully ahead of a funeral they scheduled tentatively for next week.

According to the prosecutors office in Quintana Roo state, which includes both Playa del Carmen and Cancun, Loveless faces charges of criminal homicide.

Loveless was detained at the Cancun airport before he was to board a flight to Atlanta. A woman who answered the telephone Monday at his law office in St. Clair near St. Louis said there was no comment.

Mills has told The Associated Press that 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, Mills said. 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.
Its not just Americans going to the polls to convey their dissatisfaction with an out-of-touch political elite. German voters will have the opportunity Sunday to pass judgment on Chancellor Angela Merkels handling of the migrant crisis, which has transformed both the face of her country and the future prospects of the European Union.

Nicknamed Super Sunday, three German states are holding regional elections that could see Merkels Christian Democratic Union lose significant votes to the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland, especially if voters feel that the election is effectively a referendum on Merkel.

If her party performs poorly enough, the humiliation could embolden fellow party leaders to attempt to remove her in the hopes of strengthening their chances in the next national election.

AfD was first formed only three years ago, but its anti-refugee message has resonated across much of Germany, as many voters grow frustrated with the constant flow of new arrivals. So far, at least, Merkel has resisted any attempt to limit or curtail her open-door policy, insisting that, instead of a hard or soft cap, there should be a centrally monitored allocation system for distributing refugees across the European Union and each of its member states.

Although many human-rights activists around the world have voiced their support for Merkel, her bold and unprecedented actions have proven unpopular to many of her fellow Germans.

Adding complexities to the domestic political drama is the awkward fact that Merkel leads the center-right party and a time when many of the attacks on her emanate either from members of her own party or from people further right on the political spectrum who, in other circumstances, would be expected to support her CDU. Meanwhile, politicians on the left have been voicing their approval of Merkels controversial policy, and media commentators are remarking on her statesmanlike qualities.

Some pundits are even prognosticating that a poor showing on Super Sunday might actually allow Merkel to tighten her grip of the partys reins, especially if anti-refugee CDU candidates perform especially poorly. Despite her partys potential misfortunes this weekend and her personal unpopularity in many quarters, a recent poll put her approval ratings at a remarkable 50 percent.

What is evident to many Merkel-watchers is her ability to shift deftly to address immediate challenges while retaining control of her party. At the same time as she is trying to hold her position domestically on refugees, she has been managing negotiations with a potentially EU breakaway Britain and its prime minister, David Cameron, who has sought concessions and inducements from other EU members in order entice the British people to remain in Europe.

Meanwhile, Merkel this week spearheaded a deal with Turkey to take back many of the Syrian refugees y stranded in Greece It is estimated that as many as 2,000 refugees are arriving in Greece every day.

After prolonged negotiations, a proposal that would compel Turkey to accept one refugee from Greece for every one refugee accepted by Europe appeared to have gained traction. Activists championing the rights of refugees contend that any attempt to return Syrians to Turkey from Greece would be a breach of international law. In addition, Turkey  a nation of just 75 million  is already home to approximately 3 million refugees, far exceeding the number currently being accommodated in all 28 EU member states, which boasts a total population of over half a billion people.

Unfortunately, this proposed solution, even if fully implemented, does little to undermine the black economy of human trafficking that has developed to profit from the Syrian migration, nor does it meaningfully reduce the motivation of hundreds of thousands of Syrians to get in a boat and take their chances that they will be able to make it to safety and prosperity in Europe.

Turkey, of course, is demanding a lucrative price for its assistance  namely, a restart of its stalled negotiations for EU membership.

As pundits sift through Sundays election results, the complex challenges posed by the migration crisis will remain a priority for Berlin for some time. At stake is the very constitutional fabric of the European Union, as well as a broad-based consensus on the values that underpin the treaties, directives and regulations that have emanated out of EU headquarters in Brussels for the past several decades.

Merkel took a very bold position last year when she threw her arms open to millions of migrants seeking a better future. The political consequences will not be swiftly dispatched with a single speech or even a single election.

The German people will continue to question the impact of her policies on the future of their country, and these questions must be directly and honestly answered.

Orange County writer and attorney Timothy Spangler hosts The Bigger Picture with Timothy Spangler, Sundays, 10 p.m.-midnight on KRLA 870 AM. Twitter: @timothyspangler
On Thursday morning, a semi-truck hauling a tractor trailer rolled down Main Street in Santa Ana, having just traveled for three days from Salt Lake City. A handful of black SUVs and a couple of California Highway Patrol vehicles escorted it to the Bowers Museum.

Inside the trailer were mummies, and not just ones from Egypt. The new exhibit coming to the Bowers Museum, Mummies of the World the Exhibition, will display the mummified remains of humans and animals from Europe, the United States and South America, too.

Salt Lake City was the last stop for the show. Now comes a week of setup before the mummies exhibit opens to the public at the Bowers Museum, its 14th stop, March 19.

These mummies come from Ecuador, Scotland, the Netherlands, Germany and Egypt, Scott Dunagan, vice president of external affairs at Bowers, told media members gathered for the arrival. Each mummy has a story to tell  shedding light on cultures long gone.

Mummies of the World began its tour at the California Science Center in 2010, but its been so popular that the initial plan to show it for three years was extended, said Marcus Corwin, president of Boca Raton, Fla.,-based American Exhibitions Inc., the producer of the show. Mummies of the World Touring Co. owns the exhibition.

Since its Los Angeles debut, the show has changed, with some artifacts being returned to lending museums and new loans adding to the exhibit.

These are real people; they had real lives, some of them from the 18th century, some of them as old as 4,000 years ago, Corwin said.

We remind people, when we produced this exhibition, we were very careful to be very respectful and deferential to the cultures in which these mummies (and) artifacts originate, he said.

Katherine Kitty Keck is a member of the Bowers board. For the last 70 years, we have been having exhibits, and we really feel that this is one of the most fascinating that we have had, she said. The presentation of this exhibit is extraordinary, with three-dimensional animation and interactive stations as part of the show.

After the press conference, Corwin signed over the exhibit to Dunagan, and a worker opened the doors of the trailer. Giant red cases were carefully unloaded from the truck with a fork lift. Five more semi-trucks and trailers with artifacts were due to arrive later, Corwin said.

This is the big event for the Bowers Museum this year, and the show will stay up for almost six months, until early September. On April 5, one of the mummies from the exhibit, an 18th-century woman from Hungary, will be scanned at a local hospital using CT imaging. The results will become part of the Bowers exhibit, said Dr. Linda Sutherland, a Bowers board member and diagnostic radiologist.

The show will include mummies thousands of years old as well as some from much more recent times, such as the Burns Collection mummies. There are bodies of people and animals intentionally mummified, like a cat from ancient Egypt and Mumab, a human mummy created by researchers at the University of Maryland who replicated the techniques of ancient Egyptians. And there are Europeans from centuries ago preserved by the environmental conditions of the crypts in which they were buried.

This is really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see real mummies, Corwin told The Orange County Register after the first boxes were unloaded from the trailer. Theyre sort of trapped, for eternity, somewhere between death and life, to tell a story.

Correction: A previous version of this story mischaracterized whether any of the specimens on display would be new to the travelling exhibit.

Contact the writer: aboessenkool@ocregister.com
SEOUL, South Korea  North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea today, South Koreas military said, a likely show of anger at continuing springtime war games by rivals Washington and Seoul and another ratcheting up of hostility on the already anxious Korean Peninsula.

The South Korean Defense Ministry says the missiles were fired from North Hwanghae province, flew about 310 miles and fell into the water off the countrys east coast.

Such missile firings by the North are not uncommon when animosity rises here. North Korea hates the massive annual military drills staged by Seoul and Washington, calling them invasion preparations. The allies call the drills, which this year are described as the biggest ever, defensive and routine. Pyongyang is also angry over tough U.N. sanctions following its recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.

The firings come a day after North Korea caused a new stir by publicizing a purported mock-up of a key part of a nuclear warhead, with leader Kim Jong Un repeating a claim that his country has developed miniaturized atomic bombs that can be placed on missiles.

The Norths Rodong Sinmun newspaper carried photos on its front page showing Kim and nuclear scientists standing beside what outside analysts say appears to be a model warhead part  a small, silverish globe with a ballistic missile or a model ballistic missile in the background.

The newspaper said Kim met his nuclear scientists for a briefing on the status of their work and declared he was greatly pleased that warheads had been standardized and miniaturized for use on ballistic missiles.

Information from secretive, authoritarian North Korea is often impossible to confirm, and the countrys state media have a history of photo manipulations. But it was the first time the North has publicly displayed its purported nuclear designs, though it remains unclear whether the country has functioning warheads of that size or is simply trying to develop one.

South Koreas Defense Ministry quickly disputed the Norths claim that it possesses miniaturized warheads. It called the photos and miniaturization claim an intolerable direct challenge to the international community.

U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby declined to comment on North Koreas nuclear capabilities, saying it was an intelligence matter, but he told reporters the U.S. takes Pyongyangs rhetoric seriously. He said the North Korean leader, who is thought to be in his early 30s, needs to pay more attention to the needs of his people rather than pursue reckless capabilities.
IDOMENI, Greece  Desperate migrants and refugees piled up Thursday in fetid fields of mud at a closed border crossing as officials warned that a well-trodden route to Europe used by hundreds of thousands in the past year was no longer available.

With the closure of the migrant trail through the Balkans from Greece to more prosperous countries, concern also mounted that people desperate for sanctuary or jobs in Europe are already turning to smugglers to find other pathways.

Government ministers and experts say that Albania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania could become alternate tracks, and officials Spain are in contact with Algeria and Morocco to try to stop new routes from opening there.

At the same time, the flow continued to the Greek islands by boat from Turkey, either by those who have not heard the Greece-Macedonia crossings are no longer open, or by others who hope the closure is temporary.

Some didnt make it. Turkeys state-run Anadolu news agency said five people, including a 3-month-old, drowned when their speedboat sank Thursday off Turkeys western coast en route to the Greek island of Lesbos. Nine people were rescued from the boat, which was carrying Afghans and Iranians, the agency said.

NATO stepped up its operations to try to stop the smugglers, deploying five ships in the Aegean Sea, with plans to send more in the coming days to monitor the area near the Greek island of Lesbos and areas farther south, said Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of the alliance.

Meanwhile, Greek police said 81 economic migrants from Pakistan and north Africa who had entered the country illegally were deported back to Turkey.

Nearly 42,000 people are stranded in Greece, including 14,000 camped in the mud near the Idomeni crossing with Macedonia. Nearly three days of rain finally ended, but that did little to lift the misery for those staying in donated pup tents in nearby fields and along railway tracks.

Long lines formed for sandwiches, tea and soup at the Idomeni camp, which long ago surpassed its capacity. Others warmed themselves at fires using what dry wood they could find, or they poured oil on sodden logs to get them to burn.

The fields have grown increasingly fetid, with pools of water and deep mud that sucks the shoes off children. People dragged their muddy tents to new locations, looking for a dry patch of ground.

Many people who have spent days at the camp in chilly temperatures were coughing heavily.

A crowd formed at a truck of donated goods, with men tossing bags of diapers, toilet paper, bottled water, yogurt and prepared meals to the cheering crowd. Dozens of packaged meals ended up falling to the ground, with cooked pasta and yogurt splattering in the mud.

Some people gave up and boarded buses for refugee camps in and around Athens.

May God take his revenge on them  everyone who did this to us  from whatever country they come from, said Raife al-Baltajy, a Syrian from near Aleppo, as she waited for a bus with her family. May god take his vengeance out on them. Isnt it sinful? Are we animals? Or are we human beings?

She said she had been living in Syria for four years under the shelling, but traveled to Turkey, then to the Greek island of Lesbos, where she took a ferry to the mainland and on to Idomeni.

Under this rain, in the cold. Who wants to protect us? she said.

Government health experts say there is no sign yet of infectious disease at the camp, but they have been urging people to move to nearby army-built shelters. Authorities say about 70 children at the camp have received treatment in the past three days for fever and diarrhea.

Almaz Moho, a Syrian Kurd who traveled from Aleppo with her three daughters, one of them an infant born in Istanbul, said they came to Idomeni because they said the borders are open, but found out otherwise.

And theyre unsettling the children, between the filth, the dust, under the pouring rain, with little food and soaked clothes, she said. Where do you want us to go? Where do they want us to go? We have no homes.

As European Union interior ministers met in Brussels on the crisis, Austria urged migrants to give up hope of moving on.

The Balkan route is closed, Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner told reporters. The biggest problem is that these refugees still have hopes and expectations, and these hopes are being constantly fed.

Germany was critical, despite the benefits of having to cope with a big drop in migrant flows due to the border closures that were prompted by Austrias decision to impose a cap on refugee numbers.

That brings us fewer refugees, but on the other hand puts Greece in a very difficult situation. And this situation is not durable and sustainable, Mikl-Leitner said.

More than 1 million people have come to Europe in the past year, most of them by boat from Turkey to Greece, fleeing war, persecution or abysmal poverty. Once taken to the Greek mainland from their island arrival points, most headed to the Macedonian border, then onward to Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia, before moving on to Austria and other prosperous EU nations.

Passage through those nations began being restricted last month, and on Monday, countries along the Balkan route decided to allow entry only to people with valid EU visas. But even as those countries shut their borders, others braced for an influx of people taking alternate routes  and risking new dangers  in their search for a new life.

EU and Turkish leaders agreed Monday to the broad outlines of a deal that would see people arriving in Greece having fled war or poverty be sent back to Turkey unless they apply for asylum. For every person sent back, the EU would take in one Syrian refugee, thus trying to discourage them from the dangerous sea journeys, often arranged by unscrupulous smugglers.

But that complex and unclear agreement remained a concern for many, including human rights officials who questioned its legality.

This agreement will dramatically reduce the legal entry points into the Union, forcing desperate refugees to look for other routes, warned Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the liberal ALDE bloc in the European Parliament. He said people will again try crossing the Mediterranean, or go through Bulgaria and Albania.

Officials in Serbia said about 150 people are arriving each day via a dangerous trek through Bulgaria, with frequent reports of robberies and beatings by locals.

This will be a major win for smuggling groups, said Tuesday Reitano of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, referring to the EU-Turkey deal. The effects are already visible.

Groups of 50 or more already are reported to have been smuggled through Albania, Reitano said. Clandestine routes are opening again in Hungary, where authorities report more people are breaching the razor-wire fence on its southern border.

Italy fears many may head west to Albania and use boats to cross the Adriatic Sea.

Frontex, the EUs border agency, said contingency plans are underway for any big shifts in migrant movements, with the organizations deputy executive director, Berndt Korne, naming Albania, the western Greek coast and Montenegro as possibilities.

Once spring arrives and the weather improves, people also could turn back to the dangerous route across the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy. Thousands have died off the Italian island of Lampedusa in recent years on that crossing.
SIMI VALLEY  More than 3,100 people visited the casket of Nancy Reagan at the first day of a public viewing, and many more are expected on the second day.

The groups in the room with Mrs. Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library were kept deliberately small, and people said they had no sense of being rushed or hustled through as they stood before the casket, which was covered in white roses and peonies  Mrs. Reagans favorite flower.

Earlier in the day, about 20 members of the former first ladys family and close friends attended a brief, private service at a Santa Monica funeral home conducted by the Rev. Stuart Kenworthy, vicar of Washington National Cathedral, who will also officiate at Fridays funeral.

May angels surround her and saints release her to Jesus, said Kenworthy in a short eulogy.

The invitation-only ceremony Friday will be attended by Katie Couric, Chris Matthews, Newt Gingrich, Wayne Newton and Mr. T, among others.

Wednesday, people watched from freeway overpasses as a motorcade carried the casket from the funeral home to the library. Some held up flags or stood with hands over their hearts.

Mrs. Reagan, who died Sunday at 94, will be laid to rest just inches from the president on a hillside tomb in the hills above Simi Valley, facing west toward the Pacific Ocean.

At the library, House Speaker Paul Ryan has paid his respects to Mrs. Reagan. Ryan approached the casket, bowed his head in prayer and made the sign of the cross before leaving.

Among the public visitors was one man, Daniel Blatt, 52, who was crying as he walked away. He said it was the thought of the Reagans love story that moved him.

He wouldnt have been anything without her by his side, Blatt said.

Roy Dillard brought several generations of his family from Bakersfield, California, on Wednesday. The 80-year-old Dillard says he considers Ronald Reagan to be the greatest president of his lifetime. Dillard was accompanied by his daughters Bobbie Eldridge and Tina Choate and his 3-year-old great-granddaughter, Tatum.

Retired teacher Mary Ellen Gruendyke drove nearly as far from her Riverside home, and appeared with a colorful Ronald Reagan souvenir scarf around her neck.

Ronald Reagan was one of the best presidents weve ever had, Gruendyke said, and I admired them both as a couple for their love story and the support they showed to each other.

Each person who passes by the former first ladys casket departs with a card with Nancy Reagans monogram in her signature red that says, With gratitude for your expression of sympathy in honoring the life of Nancy Davis Reagan.

Another woman, Mariann Tatum, visited twice, once at the beginning of the viewing and again with her daughter about three hours later. Tatum lives in Simi Valley and said the Reagans are part of life in the community.

Many left behind messages of their own on sheets of paper on long tables in a courtyard near the entrance.

One person from Pasadena wrote, God bless Mrs. Reagan and the Reagan family. You and president Reagan will forever be in our hearts. Thank you for your love of our great country.

Another message was signed by a family in Norwalk who said they came from Central America arriving in early 1980s. We now live the true American dream. Gracias.

Library officials said they had to increase the number of buses taking visitors to the hilltop library from 10 to 15 to handle all the people wanting to pay respects.

The public viewing continues Thursday before Fridays funeral.
Tension at City Hall  heightened by a recall effort targeting three of Lake Forests five council members  has spilled out of the council chamber in recent months as fights over campaign contributions, whether to establish a local animal shelter and appointments to regional boards have turned personal.

Shouting matches have broken out in parking lots of local stores and at community events over the efforts to recall council members Scott Voigts, Andrew Hamilton and Dwight Robinson, which could cost the city as much as $200,000.

Now, outside interests have entered the debate. Mailers from a committee set up by an out-of-town political consultant opposing the recall effort accuse Councilman Adam Nick, who with Councilman Jim Gardner is in the council minority, of secretly orchestrating the recall effort.

Longtime Lake Forest resident Terry Anderson, a former planning commissioner, has signed the petitions.

As a council candidate in 2012, Anderson was the target of independent expenditures from a political action committee that backed candidates Nick and Robinson, who both won seats.

I have always felt the tactics of the three recall-subject councilmen should be called into question, both in the ways they got themselves elected as well as their party-politics associations while in office, he said.

Even so, rumors of Nicks financial involvement have Anderson reconsidering his support.

I dont believe its in the best interest of Lake Forest to have the City Council trying to tear itself apart from within, he said. It would be entirely divisive and contrary to the good of Lake Forest.

RECALL PROMPTED BY ROAD PROJECT

In October, residents upset by the response Hamilton, Voigts and Robinson gave to a road project gone awry launched a campaign to remove them from office.

Medians were being widened on Saddleback Ranch Road in an effort to slow speeders. But as a result, pedestrians walked closer to cars and traffic jammed as vehicles were unable to maneuver around bicyclists struggling up the sloped roadway.

Residents including Leah Basile, president of an area homeowners association, came to the council with their complaints, but left feeling ignored.

I couldnt live with that, she said. They werent listening to us. Watching them and seeing how they were voting on things, the three in particular who we are recalling, it didnt seem like they had the communitys best interests at heart.

She said she learned the men had received campaign contributions from developers before approving their housing projects, and from other businesses that contract with the city. The council minority, Gardner and Nick, want fewer residential projects; they have not received such contributions (although Nick did benefit in 2012 from independent expenditures made on behalf of developers).

To Basile and her supporters, the contributions were further evidence that the three council members were beholden to other interests, rather than residents.

The men targeted, however, say the effort is an overreaction, based on misleading information and is being pushed along by Gardner and Nick.

They say Nick, whose relationship with the men soured after he was stopped by Orange County deputies with Voigts campaign signs in his car, is supporting the recall in a bid for power. (Sign-stealing charges were dropped after Nick did community service and paid a fine.)

Recalls are supposed to be used for extreme circumstances, Voigts said. I would call this frivolous, because there are no real issues.

RECALL TARGETS RESPOND

Lake Forest has no campaign contribution limits and does not bar officials from taking donations from city contractors.

Robinson, who was elected in 2012, thinks the city needs more housing, especially for young families. He said that developers gave to his campaign because hes been consistent in that belief since his first bid for council, an unsuccessful run in 2002.

My belief is that the city doesnt need more retail at this point, he said. The Internet continues to have a huge impact on brick and mortar, so our existing retail needs more customers.

I believe residential is the way to go. Its frustrating when people say the only reason someone supports development is because someone received a donation.

Last year, he, Voigts and Hamilton approved zone changes for developers who plan to build 52 single-family homes on 5.6 acres intended for light industrial use and 250 single-family and multifamily units on 30 acres of commercially zoned land.

To Robinson, the petitioners are the ones putting themselves before the best interests of the community. Their effort could cost the city as much as $200,000 and in his case, if it were successful, would remove him from office shortly before his term expires.

What it would do is take me out of three or four meetings, he said, were he to run again in November and win.

Recall petitioners have also accused the three of callousness for not agreeing to establish an animal shelter in Lake Forest after reports of poor conditions at the county shelter, with which the city contracts.

Gardner, who has for years argued the city should build its own shelter, pushed his colleagues to look for a location in town.

Voigts said he and his allies voted to stick with the county because plans for a new animal shelter in Tustin have been expedited and because proposed locations in Lake Forest drew an outcry from neighbors.

He called the accusations from the recall supporters half-truths and lies.

The earliest a special election could be called is late August, city clerk Stephanie Smith said.

Unlike regularly scheduled elections, the city would be on the hook for the entire cost, which between paying the Orange County registrar to count signatures and set up a special election could potentially top $200,000.

COUNCIL MINORITY BACKS RECALL

Records show that through Dec. 31, the Committee to Recall City Council Members Voigts, Hamilton & Robinson reported expenditures of nearly $5,400 for signs, literature, petitions, Web services and publishing recall notices.

During that same time, the committee reported no monetary contributions except one $650 in-kind donation from Basile.

Nick has publicly encouraged more residents to get involved in the effort to unseat his opponents.

At a January council meeting, he addressed the audience: For the sake of easy math, lets just say there are 10 of you  if each of you in the days to come reaches out to 10 people to tell them whats been going on here  thats 100 people. If each of those people reaches to 10 more, thats 1,000. Pretty soon youre going to have 10,000. Thats the number we need.

Although the number of signatures needed to force a recall election is shy of 8,000, a portion of signatures tend to be invalid, so the Orange County Registrar of Voters Office advises petitioners to get extra.

Once aligned with Robinson and Voigts, Nick  the top vote-getter in the 2012 council race  now says their votes are corrupted by the money they receive from developers and other business interests.

Two developers made independent expenditures on Nicks behalf during the campaign and he later voted for their projects as an elected official. But he said thats different than the approvals issued by Robinson, Hamilton and Voigts because he didnt know that the developers planned to bring projects in front of the council after the election.

Ahead of the 2014 election, developer Meritage Homes gave money to a political action committee that spent more than $16,000 on behalf of three council candidates, including Hamilton and Voigts, who were successful in their first and second bids for office, respectively. Meritage Homes did not respond to a request for comment.

At the time, the developer was in negotiation with the city over a proposal to build the 52 single-family homes on land zoned for light industrial use. A change in zoning required council approval. In May, Meritage got the OK, backed by Hamilton, Voigts and Robinson.

Gardner and Nick opposed the project, saying the city should put off additional residential growth until knowing the impact of thousands of housing units approved in 2008 by the council.

Gardner said that he initially intended to keep his sympathies for the residents behind the recall effort private, but that he felt obligated to respond to personal attacks from those being recalled.

Unintentionally I got drawn into it, by just trying to set the record straight, he said.

A community activist turned politician, Gardner has said for years that although taking money from companies that do business with the city is legal, he feels it violates the citys code of ethics.

As for Nick, he said being on the losing end of a 3-2 vote feels like decisions have been made before the items reach the council dais.

On every decision that was not unanimous, the public policy, Im on the losing side, he said. This cannot happen by accident.

Voigts, Robinson and Hamilton, however, say their similar ideological leanings explain why their votes often align.

GOP GROUP OPPOSES RECALL

An anti-recall committee was formed in late January by Newport Coast political consultant David Ellis, president of the government affairs company Delta Partners LLC, who has a reputation for playing political hardball in Orange County politics.

Financial backers, according to the committees mailers, include the county GOP, which formally voted to oppose the recall effort earlier this month, and the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs.

The committee formed is not required to file financial disclosures until the end of April, so its unclear who else might be backing the opposition group.

Mailers sent by the group assert that Nick is behind the recall effort and highlight his gaffes, including the time he filed a defamation suit against a deputy district attorney and told a reporter he did so because the lawyer had raped him by making false statements to the media about him. (Nick last month dropped the suit after he and the prosecutor resolved their disagreement.)

Those accusations are untrue, said Basile, who heads the recall effort.

Im not a puppet, she said. Im capable of independent thought.

On Feb. 18, Nick said he has given no money to the committee, but that he wouldnt hesitate to do so if asked.

Gardner said the attacks on Nick are intended to distract from the issues the recall supporters are raising.

How many residents are behind the effort to remove Voigts, Robinson and Hamilton from office remains unclear.

Basile said that since the end of 2015, dozens of residents have donated.

Robinson, however, said he believes the group is a small one.

I havent had a single resident reach out to me and say Ive signed this petition and I want you to explain yourself, or anything like that, he said. Were not seeing new faces show up to council meetings in droves and that tells me there isnt a whole lot of passion there.

The next financial form the committee must file isnt due until April 30, 10 days after the deadline to submit at least 7,882 signatures per official being recalled.

Basile wouldnt say how many have been collected, but in January said the effort was right on track.

Contact the writer: sdecrescenzo@ocregister.com
Its close to 10 a.m., checkout time at the Motel 6 in Santa Ana where Jeffrey Riley and his family just spent two nights in a room shared with three other people.

All are homeless and on their way back to the streets.

The Rileys are headed to catch a bus that will drop them a few blocks from the Veterans Affairs Community Resource and Referral Center in downtown Santa Ana, a mainstay in their chaotic lives for the past month.

Riley, a disabled former Navy medic, frets about his inability to better provide for his wife, Alyssa, 19, and their 5-month-old baby. He is unemployed and theyve been homeless since an eviction in November.

Its my baby and my wife thats really pushing me forward, Riley says.

On the eve of his 30th birthday, Riley finds the challenge of being homeless is nearly overwhelming. He is not alone: Orange County is home to roughly 450 homeless veterans, a number that is gradually increasing and alarms local advocates.

After three months without a place to live and raise his child, Riley is weary, but not ashamed.

He is eager to share his story, warts and all.

I didnt want to be out here with a 5-month-old baby and be homeless. I wanted to be going to school.

READY FOR CHANGE

Riley, wearing the same black T-shirt and red shorts he had on the day before, lugs three backpacks stuffed with his familys belongings to the bus stop  one strapped to his back, another across his front and the third hanging from one shoulder.

He clutches a plastic Goodwill bag bulging with dirty laundry in one of his free hands and smiles down at his daughter.

Time for a family adventure, he tells the wide-eyed baby, who smiles back before they board the crowded No. 64 bus. The 12-year-old son of one of their homeless friends tags along.

Along the way, two men nearly get into a fight, something that amuses Riley more than it agitates him. Short but stocky and muscular, he is ever ready to protect his family, with a container of pepper spray the size of a small flashlight tucked in the strap of one of his backpacks, in case anybody messes with us.

He teases Alyssa about the two men dancing on the bus.

Riley is fairly upbeat for a guy who has been so downtrodden.

Today, he says, is going to be a good day.

He is ready for one.

Riley says his early life was insecure. Raised in south Orange County by a single mom, he remembers renting rooms in other peoples houses and living in motels. He is estranged from his father and two siblings.

A Marine Corps display at a community center caught his attention when he was about 7. He thought the weaponry looked cool. In 2006, at age 19, he signed up for five years in the U.S. Navy. He spent the last four attached to the Marine Corps.

He was discharged in 2012, shortly after returning home from a six-month stint at a desolate outpost in the hotly contested Helmand province of Afghanistan.

During Rileys deployment, service members were killed nearby and badly burned by improvised explosive devices. One friend, later diagnosed with traumatic brain injury, took his life last year, Riley says.

Back home, Riley had trouble adjusting to civilian life. He eventually was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He says its the reason why attempts to attend school on the GI Bill failed, why finding and keeping a job eluded him.

For a while, he drank too much.

Riley also says he signed up for classes at Everest College, a for-profit career school that was part of Corinthian Colleges. The chain ran afoul of regulators in 2013 and closed last year, accused of preying on students  including veterans and their GI benefits  without providing the education and job placements promised.

That place basically shut down on me, Riley says of Everest. When that happened, I went into another tailspin.

MORE HOMELESS VETS

Riley is just one of a growing number of homeless veterans in Orange County. While the population of homeless veterans in recent years has dropped dramatically nationwide, locally it has increased slightly, part of an overall uptick in homelessness here since 2013.

Finding homes for veterans has been made a priority, and an increasing number of government vouchers and housing programs have been earmarked for veterans, but the market dictates the availability of affordable shelter.

Landlords can pick the cream of the crop, says Karen Roper, director of Community Services for the county. So if you have tenants with any barrier whatsoever  credit, disability, employment  its harder to find housing because they are competing against other people.

Military veterans on the street often are dealing with credit, disability and employment issues, along with the added burden of stereotypes about the crazed veteran, advocates say.

And their pride about taking what to them seems like a handout also causes some to delay seeking help.

Still, finding something available in a crowded housing market seems to be the biggest barrier right now in Orange County.

The market is really tight, so its kind of difficult, says Eduardo Gonzalez of the Los Angeles-based 1736 Family Crisis Center, a nonprofit that began serving veterans in Orange County under a federal grant awarded in 2013.

You dont want to be right upfront and say, Im a veteran and Im homeless, Gonzalez says. Because whats going to happen? Theyre going to shut the door on you immediately.

STANDING DOWN

Riley met Alyssa in 2014. They married at the Old County Courthouse in Santa Ana, six weeks after Addisons birth in September.

Alyssa has steadied him, Riley says, and keeps him on track with about a dozen medications he takes daily  to calm his anxiety, ease pain in his neck and back, fall asleep, fend off depression, stay focused.

Riley carries his meds in the small camouflage-colored bag that he once used to store tourniquets and analgesics as a medic. During a break from filling out a 38-page form at the VA center, he unzips the bag and hunts among the medicine bottles that spill out on the floor for the pill he needs to take.

Alyssa Riley says that the right balance of medication helps her husband: Its more like hes there. Before it was like he was gone.

The family is alone in a quiet place at the center called the Stand Down Room, where visiting veterans can relax and safely store belongings in a locker. Their friends son, who is sick with a cold or the flu, rests on a cot. The baby is on the floor in a foldable changing pad with raised sides, her makeshift bed at the shelter.

The vets center is one of three places where the Rileys keep their possessions. Most of their things are in public storage units, to which they owe $475 in overdue fees; an emergency shelter stores a few other belongings, including the babys formula.

The Rileys monthly income  most of it from disability payments  is slightly above $2,000, just $250 more than the average rent for an apartment in Orange County. They say they lost their apartment because they fell short of money, and resorted to camping out two weeks at a time at ONeill Regional Park, while his mother slept in her car.

Then, around the holidays, the Rileys spent a failed month at a transitional living program. They camped out again. Since mid-February, theyve found nighttime respite through an emergency shelter program for families run by Mercy House.

Rules require the homeless families to leave the shelter during the day, so the Rileys visit parks and the library, sometimes hang out at shopping centers. Both carry several paperback novels to pass the time.

To get around, they walk and ride the bus. Between the two of them, all-day bus passes cost $6.50. Without a baby stroller, they carry Addison in a strap-on pack.

Their $73-a-night motel stay was a way of giving themselves a break from sleeping around strangers on mats in a church hall. Not that Riley is complaining.

Im a proponent for the shelter, even if its uncomfortable.

HOUSING ALTERNATIVES

Last month at a symposium on Orange County veterans and housing, advocates talked about the inadequacy of government vouchers as a resource for homeless veterans here because of the reluctance of landlords to accept them.

Since 2009, the Orange County Housing Authority has issued 624 Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing vouchers that come with supportive services, according to Roper. So far, 552 are in use, she says, with an additional 60 that have been issued to veterans who are looking for a place to rent.

Voucher recipients have a 120-day limit to find housing, but advocates say the search to find a willing landlord often takes longer than that.

Its a well-known issue in the veteran community, says attorney Antoinette Balta, co-founder of Veterans Legal Institute in Santa Ana. Theres a big push to educate landlords.

Rapid rehousing programs like the one the Rileys pin their hopes on is another option. Sometimes, families can be housed within a couple of weeks, depending on how avidly they search  and how lucky they are.

The Rileys will be expected to locate a rental, then 1736 will approach the landlord about accepting them under the subsidized veterans housing program. At the end of a two-hour session filling out forms, intake counselor Nicole Pryor advises them not to reveal they are homeless or that Riley is a veteran.

Right now you guys are just a family looking for housing, Pryor tells them.

Before their application can be processed, they must get a copy of Alyssa Rileys Social Security card. But they let that errand  and the dirty laundry  wait so they can meet their friends and catch a bus to The Outlets at Orange. They have a gift card for Buffalo Wild Wings. Alyssa also buys some new outfits for Addison.

With his birthday coming and hope of housing, Riley is feeling celebratory.

Im so happy about this.

SWALLOWED PRIDE

Riley couldnt figure his way out of his situation on his own, so he finally turned to the Veterans Affairs center in February.

Jean Willis, coordinator of services at the center, says its typical of young veterans who are single and without stable housing to avoid calling themselves homeless when they can sleep in their car or crash on someones couch.

But having a family changes their thinking, especially if they have exhausted resources from family or friends and end up on the streets, Willis says.

It almost forces them to accept help that they otherwise would not  because they are concerned about their spouse or their children.

Riley says he wants to learn a trade. Going back to school would also mean another $2,000 a month in GI benefits.

But Riley has outstanding debts exceeding $6,000. He talks of filing bankruptcy.

Riley says that he had too much pride back when he was on his own to seek help from any veterans programs.

He admits that he didnt respect the veterans who took advantage of services available to them: I was like, those guys are wusses.

Riley was better off financially back then because he got money from the GI Bill while in school. And yet, he says, I was in a cold, lonely place for a long time.

A PLACE TO SLEEP

The words on the marquee outside First Presbyterian Church on Main Street in Santa Ana seem appropriate for the site of the Mercy House emergency shelter program that houses the Rileys at the end of the day.

Jesus Was a Homeless Man.

A homeless woman with a suitcase sits to one side beneath it. Riley, eating ice cream he and his wife purchased from a drugstore down the street, laughs when he reads the sign.

He was!

Its 6:30 p.m. and families  many of them single moms with children  trickle in to the church auditorium, where 90 foam mats are set out on the linoleum floor.

Family members are grouped together, with about a foot of floor space separating them from others. They supply their own blankets and pillows, if they have them.

Families can avail themselves of free snacks, beverages and, later, a hot meal. A group of children watches an animated film on a TV, couples talk and read, some rest. Lights dont go out until 9 p.m.

After finishing the rest of his leftover chicken wings and changing Addison into a pair of snap-up footed pajamas, Riley stretches out on a mat beside his daughter.

Im pretty much in the mood for just calling it a night, he says, closing his eyes. Im pretty tired.

Contact the writer: twalker@ocregister.com
WILKINSBURG, Pa.  Four women and one man were killed and three people were injured late Wednesday night when gunmen attacked a backyard party in Wilkinsburg, Allegheny County homicide Lt. Andrew Schurman said early Thursday.

The shooting occurred on Hazel Way between two homes on Franklin Avenue.

Schurman said at least two shooters were being sought, based on gun casings found at the scene. He said the gunmen opened fire just before 11 p.m. and then fled on foot.

Four people died at the scene, Schurman said, and another victim died later at UPMC Mercy. Two men are in critical condition and another woman was reported in stable condition

Distraught family members gathered and caused scuffles trying to gain access to the scene. One woman sat on the ground crying. They just want to kill everybody, she said.

Neighbors said they were awakened by gunshots and screaming around 11 p.m.

James Boyd, 70, who has lived on Midland Street, three houses from the shooting, for 24 years, said he heard the gunshots.

It went on for almost a minute, he said. I thought it was maybe the pipes bursting. But then we realized it was gunshots. Weve had trouble in this neighborhood before but never this close to home. Ive never seen anything like this before.

A woman who lives on the street said she was walking home from the East Busway when she heard about 25 gunshots. This street is always quiet, theres nothing but kids on this street, said Kayla, 20. To see that, its new, and its probably shocking to everyone else up here. Im shaking.

George C. Spencer Sr., president of the Greater Pittsburgh-area Mad Dads, and Donald Giddens, a street patrol director for the group, came to the scene to comfort grieving friends and family members. They said this was the worst shooting incident they had seen since the local chapter was founded in 2006.

We do take proactive steps to try and curtail some of this madness, Giddens said. We have to do something.
Loreena McKennitt brings her unique blend of Celtic and world music back to Southern California this weekend for the first time in eight years, a return that has her excited to play here again but uncertain of the response shell find.

When we were touring last time, we had finished the special, the (Nights from the) Alhambra, McKennitt says by phone from her home in Canada recently. But by 2009 my mother became really ill, and I sort of plucked her out of British Columbia and brought here to Ontario and nursed her for the last two years of her life.

In the meantime, Im also the administrator of my career and my small international business in an industry thats failing all around us, she says.

So her return to North American shows last fall, and the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa on Sunday, came about quite practically. Instead of the larger bands with which shes toured before these shows are performed as an intimate trio: McKennitt on piano, harp and vocals accompanied by guitarist Brian Hughes and cellist Caroline Lavelle.

I wanted to go out in a very conservative way so that I could find out who was still with me and whether they truly believed in what I am doing, McKennitt says. Its a relationship, for sure, and Im grateful. Im just hoping that what was stitched us together hasnt been just pure loyalty.

That alone I deeply appreciate but I hope theres something that Im giving them or doing that they find meaningful in their life.

From the strong sale of tickets so far  for Segerstrom on Sunday, as well as the Theatre at Ace Hotel in Los Angeles on Friday and the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills on Saturday  it seems she neednt worry that her fans have forgotten her or her ethereal music in her absence.

Much that surely is due to the special blend shes created over the past three decades or so. She describes it as a journey and its taken her from a more traditional style of Celtic music into an exploration of sounds found around the world in places where the Celts left their aural legacies.

I became introduced to Celtic music when I was still living in Winnipeg in the late 70s, McKennitt says. When I moved to Ontario in the 1980s I started to play it.

But a decade later she says she felt shed exhausted those well-played sounds and songs.

I was kind of at a threshold, McKennitt says. I was thinking I had mined the traditional music enough and there were enough other people who were trading in the traditional music. I wasnt sure that I could bring anything new to it.

Then an extensive exhibition in 1990 in Venice on the history of the Celts and their migration around the world opened her eyes and her ears to new directions.

I was fascinated in this history that Id been exposed to, McKennitt says. It took me to Spain and Morocco and all over the Mediterranean. What Im doing there, Im sort of suggesting that the Celtic history is much more than Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany.

Im not pretending that what Im doing, or even the instruments themselves, are historically accurate, she says. Im just suggesting that theres more.

This current tour sets aside some of those broader influences, though, in favor of the more traditional feel that fans have written to request, McKennitt says. Her current set also incorporates elements of theater and poetry from a long-dormant project, a one-woman show set in the time of the Irish famine and subsequent migration to Canada.

I never finished it, but Id assembled a collection of words and music, McKennitt says. Poetry from the period, eyewitness accounts, woven together with music.

Its quite informative when I (returned to it) because this whole refugee crisis that weve been staring at for the past few years in relationship to Syria, there seemed to be a lot of relevance, she says.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7787 or plarsen@ocregister.com
MOGADISHU, Somalia  Only days after American aircraft struck an al-Shabab training camp in Somalia, U.S. Special Operations forces and Somali troops carried out a raid against al-Shabab fighters, officials said Wednesday, in a sign of heightened pressure against the militant group.

Somali government officials said that commandos in helicopters raided a militant base in the village of Awdhegle in the lower Shabelle region, nearly 40 miles west of Mogadishu. The commandos landed a few miles outside the village before advancing on the base, killing 19 militants in the operation, officials said.

Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said that U.S. attack helicopters were used in the operation, and that U.S. military personnel had accompanied Somali troops but that they did not go all the way to the objective.

He would not say whether the Americans stayed on the helicopters throughout the operation.

I can tell you that U.S. military personnel served in an advisory role to enable the Somali operation, he said, but insisted that it was their mission.

It seems that the United States is changing its strategy and upping the tempo of strikes against al-Shabab. The reasons may be that al-Shabab has taken over several towns in recent months; Somalia is looking shakier than it has in years; and al-Shabab has shown a greater interest in somewhat sophisticated terrorism, like using a laptop bomb, which nearly brought down a jetliner flown by Daallo Airlines, an airline based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in February.

In the past, there was a list of targeted people that gets approved by the White House, said a former U.S. official who worked in Somalia and insisted on anonymity to discuss sensitive U.S. policy. Now theres still approval from Washington, but the rules have loosened, and we can strike faster.

He said the U.S. military planners had upped their game because these guys are out there in greater numbers than we thought.

Military officials say there are about 50 members of U.S. Special Operations forces in Somalia working with Somali and African Union forces. But private contractors in Somalia said they had seen at least 150 American personnel recently on one Somali base.

One U.S. defense official denied that there had been a policy change on attacking al-Shabab.

We routinely maintain U.S. forces in the region to monitor terrorist activities, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss American strategy.

But a second official, also speaking anonymously for the same reason, said that there was increased worry about a resurgent al-Shabab, adding that We will act swiftly to address any threat to our own national security and that of our regional allies.

The raid in Awdhegle came after a major strike by U.S. aircraft on an al-Shabab training camp on Saturday. That attack, which U.S. officials said was carried out by American drones and warplanes, killed about 150 al-Shabab fighters assembled for what officials believe to have been a graduation ceremony.

The former U.S. official said that American military planners probably arrived at that death toll by looking at aerial photos taken of the graduation right before the strike.

It was the deadliest assault on al-Shabab in the more than decadelong U.S. campaign against the group, and a sharp departure from previous U.S. strikes, which have focused more on the groups leaders, not on its foot soldiers.

Al-Shabab has denied that 150 of its fighters were killed at the camp over the weekend, saying that the death toll cited by Americans was exaggerated. But the group confirmed that the attack took place.

In the raid overnight on Tuesday, al-Shabab confirmed that one of its fighters was killed, but asserted that the assault against it had been unsuccessful. Residents in Awdhegle village reported hearing intense gun battles around midnight on Tuesday, causing confusion, shock and fear.

Abdulaziz Abu Muscab, an al-Shabab spokesman, said that two helicopters had dropped foreign soldiers outside the village. But he said al-Shabab fighters had repelled the attack, which he said lasted for about 30 minutes.

Al-Shabab has recently intensified its attacks against the government and in public places. On Wednesday morning, a car bomb exploded at a restaurant in Mogadishu, killing three police officers and the restaurants owner, according to Gen. Ali Hersi Barre, a police commander.

Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that it had targeted government officials at the restaurant.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  Four years after Matrix filmmaker Lana Wachowski revealed she was transgender, her sibling and filmmaking partner, formerly known as Andy Wachowski, has also come out as transgender, and her name is Lilly, according to a statement posted Tuesday on the websites of the Windy City Times and advocacy group GLAAD.

In her statement, the Chicago-born director  known for the richly constructed worlds of the Matrix series, V for Vendetta and Cloud Atlas  said she had already come out to family, friends and colleagues.

Lilly Wachowski, 48, has been married to Alicia Blasingame since 1991 and thanked her for her love and support.

Everyone is cool with it, Wachowski wrote. Yes, thanks to my fabulous sister theyve done it before, but also because theyre fantastic people.

Lana Wachowski, 50, came out in 2012 and received the Human Rights Campaigns Visibility Award that year.

GLAAD is thrilled that Lilly Wachowski is able to be her true and authentic self today, wrote Nick Adams, GLAADs Director of Programs for Transgender Media.

Representatives for the Wachowskis did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.

The Wachowskis Netflix series Sense8 is currently in production for its second season.
Do you want the government following your car every day? Most of us dont like that Orwellian vision, but thats what a tax scheme brewing in the Legislature just might do.

Californians dont want a new tax on driving. As of December, the state pilot program to create a new mileage tax had convinced only 570 Californian drivers to sign up  a tiny portion of the 5,000-driver goal. Why Californians arent participating is clear: We dont trust Sacramento with more of our money.

Proponents contend this new tax will replace the existing taxes on gasoline, but when is the last time you heard of a government eliminating a revenue source? The California sales tax was created as a temporary emergency measure in 1933, and it never went away. As Ronald Reagan said, Government programs, once launched, never disappear.

A similar pilot program underway in Oregon requires drivers to pay new mileage taxes on top of existing gas taxes. Drivers must wait to get a refund after the fact. This monthly billing process will only create greater issues with the creation of a bureaucratic collections agency.

Proponents also claim gas tax revenue is drying up, but, according to the most recent annual report from the California Board of Equalization, gas-tax collections were up a half-billion dollars in fiscal year 2013-14 over the year before, and gas consumption was also up by more than 100 million gallons during the same period. Despite the growing popularity of fuel-efficient vehicles, gasoline usage is not in terminal decline.

Theres an irony here as well: State government is hard at work to get Californians to drive less, but at the same time they want to tax us based on how much we drive. For example, many cap-and-trade tax grant programs require projects to show they will reduce vehicle miles traveled. But the vehicle mileage tax only works if Californians keep their vehicle miles traveled up. By pushing two contradictory systems, the state is setting taxpayers up for yet another failed tax scheme.

Todays mess of a gas-tax system is not the result of an outdated tax policy, or because of Californians using less gas. It is due, in part, to a decision by Sacramento politicians to divert gas taxes from roads and use them for other programs. Why would we trust that adding a new tax on drivers would fix the problem? Might it not be more likely this new tax, just like the old taxes, is another attempt to take more money from struggling California drivers?

The problem with transportation taxes is not with collections; its with spending. Money meant for roads and highways is consistently being raided to balance the budget or put towards newer programs deemed more important than safe and reliable roads. Adding a new tax system will not fix that problem.

The first step to creating a more transparent tax system is ensuring that the tax dollars are going where they should go. This means that politicians should turn their attention away from new tax schemes and toward ensuring that all transportation-related revenue be spent on funding roads and highways.

Californians cant trust what Sacramento will do with our tax dollars. Until we can, I urge Sacramento to park the new tax on driving and to lose the keys.

Michelle Steel is 2nd District Orange County supervisor.
Commerce-based grocery chain Smart & Final had net sales of nearly $4 billion in 2015, up 12.4 percent from the previous year. Comparable store sales grew 4.5 percent, the company said during its 4th quarter and year end earnings call Wednesday.

Chief Executive David Hirz, a Santa Ana resident, contributed the success to the expansion of the Smart & Final Extra! format, which grew by 30 percent, and new merchandising initiates. Extra stores focus on selling more organic goods and more household items.

In 2015, the company opened 20 new Extra stores and converted nine traditional stores to the Extra format.

Smart & Final has been steadily expanding since its initial public offering in September 2014. Last year the company announced plans to add 100 stores in the next four years.

The chain took opportunity in the downfall of Bellingham, Wash.-based grocer Haggen to further its reach in Southern Californias $44 billion grocery market.

Smart & Final bought a handful of Haggen stores that it will turn into the companys Extra! format later this year.

We look forward to building on our positive momentum in 2016. We have a strong team in place and the resources to execute our multi-year growth plan. As a result, were anticipating that 2016 will mark our 27th year of positive comparable store sales in the last 28 years, Hirz said in a statement.

Contact the writer: hmadans@ocregister.com or Twitter: @HannahMadans
Coyne PR has picked up Pacira Pharmaceuticals to tout its non-opioid pain control drug, Exparel.

The drug comes amid an epidemic of opiod painkiller abuse and deaths. Parsippany, N.J.-Pacira, which previously worked with Pure Communications, developed the drug, approved in 2011, to administer into a surgical site. It brought in Coyne to target healthcare professionals, patients and caregivers and position Exparel as an alternative or limit to opioid drugs.

Amber Sears, senior director of corporate comms. for Pacira, said the company has an opportunity to address the opiod issue and tapped Coyne to take the "story to the right audiences nationally."

Kelly Dencker heads Coyne's healthcare practice.



Pacira was the target of a warning letter from the FDA's Office of Prescription Drug Promotion in 2014 over Exparel, but the company sued the FDA, which rescinded the letter in a settlement.
Journalist Bobbie Battista, former CNN anchor and moderator of that channel's long-running talk show Talkback Live, has entered into an exclusive contract with broadcast and digital media services company KEF Media, where she will now host co-op media tours.

Bobbie Battista

Titled Bobbie Battistas Consumer Corner, each of the new KEF-produced segments will feature two brands and will reach a minimum audience of 12 million. Atlanta-based KEF will produce the co-op spots at locations that reflect the agency partners as well as the features' intended theme.

KEF president and CEO Kevin Foley told ODwyers that his company, which has not produced any co-op tours in two years, returned to the format due to renewed client demand, after studying competitors current offerings, in which they noticed flaws.

We produced co-ops for a few years, but I felt the way they were being done did not always serve our agency clients' best interests. We developed alternative service offerings, which we still feature, Foley said. But many clients continued to ask for co-ops so we created Bobbie Battista's Consumer Corner to answer that need. We think it's a lot smarter, credible and more professional.



Foley said the company will produce one or two co-op media tours a month, depending on agency demand.

KEF Media Media Solutions Director Alex Hinojosa, who will serve as Bobbie Battistas Consumer Corner executive producer, called Battista an experienced news pro who can deliver client messages professionally and with enormous credibility.
This year marked the 54th Tierra Del Sol (TDS) Desert Safari. What started as a small group of friends exploring the Colorado Desert back in the 60s has grown into the largest 4x4 meet in the West Coast. Its also the longest running four-wheel drive event in the United States. Youll find everything from stock to highly modified Jeeps, 4x4s and UTVs running around Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreational Areas (SVRA) during the three-day event.

This year brought some new surprises. The TDS Base Camp and vendor show changed location due to a pending land management lawsuit and study being performed on the Flat-tailed Horned Lizard. At this time, the State of California is not issuing event permits for Ocotillo Wells SVRA. Tierra Del Sol had no choice but to look elsewhere.

Its not the first time TDS Desert Safari has been moved because it couldnt get a permit. With hard work and a lot of dedication from club members, the Tierra Del Sol Four Wheel Drive Club was able to secure an event venue on private land just 6 miles east of the original base camp, at the West Shores Marina and RV Park.





Leading up to the 54th Annual TDS Desert Safari, the club had been in talks with another Salton Sea area landowner about running the Safari trail on their private property. A potential site was surveyed, but additional cultural and land impact studies are needed. The tribe council will also need to approve before moving forward on new trail development. Unfortunately there wasnt enough time or money to put this into action for the 2016 TDS Desert Safari, so the organized trail run was cancelled. This saddens us greatly but the future of the trails will be worth the wait, stated Tierra Del Sol Four Wheel Drive Club via social media days before the event took place.

To their credit, the Tierra Del Sol Four Wheel Drive Club did the best they could and were still able to secure a location on private land close enough to Truckhaven without shelving TDS Desert Safari all together. There was no official Safari run this year, but participants could still go out and enjoy THEIR PUBLIC LAND. TDS even provided maps with points of interests, including GPS coordinates at registration that make traversing to and from Truckhaven much easier.

Well-marked off-road access to the new TDS Base Camp was laid out from Ocotillo Wells SVRA using Palm Wash and the Anza Ditch as the main arteries. On road traffic could easily drive to the new TDS Base Camp from Truckhaven via S22 taking South or North Marina Dr. In our opinion, TDS went well out of their way to make the transition as smooth as possible for participants.

The new TDS Base Camp included ample room for vendors and campers, and also had great support from leading off-road manufacturers, retailers and automotive businesses. There were several off-road obstacles built on site, as well as an R/C track. The big crowd pleaser was the Mud Pit. It brought out big tires and horsepower to the event, with many of the drivers putting on a big show for the crowds.

This year, the famous TDS Desert Safari raffle surpassed $165K. Polaris even donated a RZR for the bucket raffle! Many walked away with tires, wheels, shocks, winches, bumpers and suspension parts for their Jeeps and trucks. After a long day of playing in the dirt, the Saturday festivities concluded with a firework show on the beach.

Tierra Del Sol Four Wheel Drive Club of San Diego is a not-for-profit, family-oriented 4x4 club that continues to use proceeds from TDS Desert Safari to fight land closures, keep trails open, and donate to worthy groups close to the off-road community.

Show your support by coming out to the 55th Annual Tierra Del Sol Desert Safari in 2017. Its sure to be a good time!

You can learn more about TDS at http://www.tds4x4.com/.

STAY INFORMED, GET INVOLVED!

Open riding in Ocotillo Wells SVRA is being attacked by environmentalists. The unique experience of exploring the desert terrain is being threatened by the notion that fencing in more areas inside the park and keeping vehicles on designated trails will solve everything.

If off-road access matters to you, its time to put your time, money and sport to good use. Spread the word, stay informed and get involved!



Some groups actively monitoring the situation and fighting to keep public land open for off-road use include:



Tierra Del Sol Four Wheel Drive Club

http://www.tds4x4.com/



CORVA

http://www.corva.org/



Blue Ribbon Coalition (BRC)

https://www.sharetrails.org/



California Four Wheel Drive Association

http://www.cal4wheel.com/



ORBA

http://orba.biz/
Loading... OilVoice will be with you shortly...
Emsud Deumic and Shapur Rahmanzai started their journeys 2,700 miles apart but ended up as fellow Nebraskans.

At a time when immigration is a hot political issue, the two former refugees represent immigrants who start businesses in the United States.

Immigrants are twice as likely to start businesses as U.S.-born residents, according to a 2012 study cited by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, Missouri, which promotes entrepreneurship.

In 2014, another study found, 28.5 percent of new entrepreneurs were immigrants, up from 13.3 percent in 1997.

When you go to through tough times and survive and you are alive, Rahmanzai said, some of these business risks look like a piece of cake. You see things from a different angle.

Weve seen the worst that can happen, Deumic said in a separate interview. If this is the worst that can happen here, I can try anything.

Deumic, from Bosnia, runs a clothing store and tailor shop with his wife, Samka, and daughter, Alma Sehic, in a new commercial development of south Lincoln.

Rahmanzai, from Afghanistan, has a budding real estate business in Omaha, so far owning four rental houses alongside his regular job.

For both men and their families, the American free enterprise system is working, in contrast to conditions in their native countries. There are other parallels, too.

Both walked with family members over mountains at night to escape wars  Rahmanzai to Pakistan, Deumic to Croatia. Both credit hard work and determination, plus help from individual Americans and, initially, the government, for seeing them through challenges that included poverty, a language barrier and cultural changes.

Both honed their English language skills to qualify for jobs. Both saw opportunities in an economic system that lets people open businesses within a clear set of rules and succeed based on their own efforts.

Deumic and his young family came to the United States in 1993 through the sponsorship of First-Plymouth Church in Lincoln, Rahmanzai in 1995 by winning the U.S. immigration lottery.

For the Deumics, a transit camp in Croatia, although difficult, was better than what was happening in their home in Prijedor, a city of about 100,000 people in northeastern Bosnia. In 1992, an estimated 14,000 people were killed in the region, a case of ethnic cleansing that became known as the Prijedor Massacre.

Even before the war, the Communist government of what was then Yugoslavia made it difficult to do business.

You were in stress every day, said Deumic, who ran a tailor shop, like his father and grandfather. You had to get permission to do anything. They always had some paper you needed. This is just to take money from you.

But the war made staying in Bosnia impossible.

At the time, several Western countries were accepting refugees from the camp in Croatia. They expected to join Deumics twin sister in Sweden.

One evening a woman in the camp read the pattern in the coffee grounds at the bottom of Samkas cup  a type of fortune-telling  and predicted that the family would go somewhere unexpected.

Sure enough, Sweden had reached its limit of refugees. Their son, Salko, said, Lets go to the best country in the world, and a refugee aid group matched them with First-Plymouth in Lincoln.

Church members met them at the Lincoln airport in 1993 with an American flag, a Bosnian flag and a banner that said, Welcome to Nebraska in English and Bosnian. They lived for nine days with a church family and got a loan from the church because they were penniless.

Church members found them an empty apartment and filled it with household goods and furniture.

That time I cried, Deumic said. Can you believe it? People here have the heart. People help out other people. At that time, I said I would try, I would have my own business.

One day Deumic spotted a sewing machine in a store window. He talked the owner into monthly payments, adding to what he owed the church. With a business card advertising expert alterations, he began working in the basement, first for church members and then other customers gained by word of mouth.

We paid everything on time, he said.

The Deumics sewed awnings for a Lincoln company, and then Deumic got a job tailoring clothes for Ben Simons, the Lincoln clothing stores, for 3 years. They became U.S. citizens in 1999.

Their credit history  from the sewing machine and the church loan  won a bankers approval for a home loan and, eventually, business financing.

They opened a small shop, moved twice to larger spaces and then last October opened Emsuds Clothiers in their own new building near 56th Street and Pine Lake Road.

Today their grandchildren help out at the store, an expansive collection of mens and womens attire in a structure with huge Emsuds signs on the outside walls overlooking the intersection.

Alma, their daughter, said her parents saw a need for the business they love. As refugees, they realize theres a niche there thats not being filled.

Shapur Rahmanzai followed a different path to Nebraska.

His father was a lower-level official with Afghanistans rural development ministry, as well as a farmer who raised crops and livestock.

The Afghans free-market economy worsened when the Russians invaded in the late 1970s, not only because of the fighting but also because the Communist-style economy required landowners to give up most of their property.

The war destroyed their local school, so children attended classes at a mosque. By the end of the war as many as 1.5 million civilians had been killed and millions more fled to Pakistan and Iran as refugees.

In 1984 the teenage Rahmanzai and his family, traveling in three groups to improve their chances of survival, walked to Pakistan, hiding in the woods from Soviet helicopters during the day.

During his decade in a refugee camp, he married and had two children, practiced his English and worked as a veterinarian assistant for the United Nations. It was hot like crazy in the camp, he said, with the threat of malaria.

After winning the U.S. immigration lottery, the young family moved to Omaha in 1995 with life savings amounting to $800. Rahmanzais dream was to live peacefully and to become a citizen.

The family lived with a relative temporarily, moving to an apartment where a neighbor showed Rahmanzai how to use the bus to get to work and school. He polished computer discs for Surface Technology and was a mail clerk for ConAgras frozen foods division.

He studied English and computers at Metropolitan Community College and took classes at the Omaha College of Health Careers to be certified for work at veterinary clinics.

In 2004 he was recruited by a federal contractor to work with U.S. troops in Afghanistan as a translator and adviser, helping American forces get along with local leaders there and, later, in Germany. Back in Omaha, he earned a bachelors degree in security management from Bellevue University. After a second tour as a cultural adviser to the military in Afghanistan, he works as an instructor at Offutt Air Force Base.

He and his wife, Shapyrai, have a daughter, Arzoo, 24, and sons Mansoor, 22, and Masood, 16.

As a refugee in Pakistan, Rahmanzai couldnt own property, but the logic of buying houses in the United States was obvious to him. When he bought his second house, he kept the first to rent out at a profit.

When I walk around, I see things, he said, and soon he was scouting for houses with problems that he could buy at a discount, fix up and rent out.

I get a little income from it, Rahmanzai said. Its not a bad investment. You never know. Its good to have a backup plan.

He became a citizen in 2000 (he couldnt have become a citizen of Pakistan) and has a name for the business in mind but wont reveal it until its registered. The business is there. All I need to do is make it official.

Some immigrants and refugees have gotten business funding through the Nebraska Enterprise Fund, which invests private money and state and local tax dollars in startups and small businesses.

Jim Reiff, the funds executive director, said immigrants tend to start tiny ventures and bring extended family members on board, often aiming at their fellow countrymen as initial customers.

Theyre working long hours, not making a whole lot of money, but theyll work together as a family unit, Reiff said, and rely on a strong ethic and thriftiness. In Latin America, when youve been making a few bucks a day working hard, you bring that with you.

For immigrants, Reiff said, theres a drive, theres some hope that they can make things better.

Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska settled 524 immigrants last year, said Lacey Studnicka, program development officer. They arrived with excitement and resilience, she said, with 80 percent getting jobs within 90 days.

Its just the American dream every day, she said.

This week she and Rahmanzai were guest speakers at a session of the Omaha Business Ethics Alliance, a program supported by Creighton University, the Better Business Bureau and the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce.

We all share the same values, Rahmanzai told the audience of about 120 assembled at the Holland Center.

In an earlier interview, he said, Here, you can achieve your goals. When you take the risk, theres going to be a return. Working hard pays off.

Said Deumic, the clothier from Lincoln: America gives you the best chance in the world. Just work and it pays back.
The Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium and its partner zoos sent an airplane to Swaziland, sedated 18 elephants and prepared them for loading Tuesday, forcing a judge to make an emergency decision to allow the transport.

The elephants could arrive in the United States as early as Thursday, depending on travel itinerary. An Eppley Airfield official said it was expecting the flight but did not know when. A spokesman with Big Game Parks, which housed the elephants, said the plane remained in Swaziland on Wednesday as of 8 a.m. Omaha time.

Zoo spokeswoman Dawn Ream said Wednesday morning: "We won't be disclosing any flight information for the safety of the animals."

After temporarily freezing the import while he deliberated, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates decided to allow the import for fear that sedating the elephants an additional time would cause more harm.

The defendant-intervenor zoos have represented that the elephants have already been sedated and placed in transit to the airport in Swaziland, Bates said in his decision.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued permits in February, prompting Friends of Animals, an animal-rights group, to sue in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The zoos entered the lawsuit as defendants.

The action by the zoos a week and a half before a scheduled hearing in the lawsuit came as a surprise.

They had every opportunity to tell us and the court that they were intending to do this, said Michael Harris, the lawyer for Friends of Animals. Obviously there is nothing technically legally binding them not to do this, but I think its sort of beyond the spirit of something one would expect of an adversary.

The three zoos  Omahas Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium, Dallas Zoo and Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas  released a joint statement shortly before 7 p.m. Tuesday.

It is in (the elephants) best interest to relocate them as soon as possible, the statement says. Swaziland is in a state of national disaster due to severe, historic drought that has killed tens of thousands of animals. Food throughout the region is scarce.

Harris asked Bates, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, for an immediate freeze on the import Tuesday morning. Friends of Animals says Fish and Wildlife should have done an analysis examining the emotional and physical well-being of the animals before granting a permit, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act.

Harris said he learned about the zoos action from an anonymous Swazi official, who sent a photograph of a plane on the runway about 7:30 a.m. Swaziland time on Tuesday. Harris then traced the planes tail number back to Kansas City and eventually to the zoos.

Bates, who is in Namibia for business, then ordered the zoos to wait to move the elephants until he could make an emergency decision, Harris said.

Bates held a teleconference Tuesday afternoon, about midnight in Africa, with attorneys for both sides. He then took about an hour to deliberate.

Ultimately, Bates chose to deny Friends of Animals request shortly before 5 p.m. Omaha time.

Bates ordered the zoos to file statements of support from one or more veterinarians saying a second round of sedation would be too dangerous.

In his decision, Bates said the court was not able to definitively resolve the issue because of the short timeline and limited information from the teleconference. But it appears there is at least some risk to the elephants if the import had been blocked.

Harris, who received the news of the judges decision while on the phone with The World-Herald, said hes unsure where the lawsuit now stands.

Were not going to be able to keep the animals from coming to these zoos, thats for sure, he said.

Dr. Jim Sikarskie, an associate professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Michigan State University, said via e-mail that the elephants would likely be heavily sedated at first, but then brought down to a lower level of sedation for the duration of the shipment. The elephants are likely sedated just enough, he said, to relieve anxiety and keep them calm during the travel.

They are likely still able to eat and drink within their crates, he said.

"Dose and drugs used vary and depend on the attitude and behavior of the individual animal," Sikarskie said, "so I am sure each is being monitored closely by a veterinarian from the destination zoo."

The zoos declined to comment further on the import but have said in the past that veterinarians would travel with the elephants to monitor them throughout the transport.

The Omaha zoos CEO and executive director, Dennis Pate, has said that once the elephants arrive, they would take a few weeks to acclimate before going on display. The African Grasslands, which includes the elephant exhibit, is scheduled to open in time for Memorial Day weekend.

A NEW HOME FOR ELEPHANTS

Part of the new $73 million, 28-acre African Grasslands exhibit.

Building: Elephant Family Quarters, more than 29,000 square feet with a 4-foot-deep sand floor, the largest herd room in North America.

Outdoors: Four acres of exhibit space, a mixed-species habitat with zebras and impalas, a 150,000-gallon wading pool, mud bath, sand pit, elephant amphitheater training area and hay shelves with timed drops that encourage animals to move about the area.

Opening: Memorial Day 2016

World-Herald staff writer David Hendee contributed to this report.
We cannot wait longer now: SC to hear Vijay Mallyas contempt case in January for final disposal

How Vijay Mallya fooled Banks

Feature

oi-Lisa

By Lisa

While the Government and Opposition figure it out as to how Vijay Mallya famously called 'The King of Good Times' flew away from India while he still owns thousands of crores to 17 public sector banks, here is how Vijay Mallya turned into 'The King of Bad Times'.

Who is Vijay Mallya:

He is a businessman and Member of Rajya Sabha. Being a son of Vittal Mallya a businessman from Bantwal, Karnataka, he became Chairman of United Breweries Group in 1983 when his father passed away.

From 1983 on Vijay Mallya expanded his father's business and made it into a conglomerate of over 60 companies. The UB Group as he called it increased annual turnover by 64% in little over 15 years.

Mallya focused on core business of beverage alcohol but also diversified by acquiring Beger Paints, Best and Crompton, Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers, The Asian Age and Cine Blitz.

His company's beer brand Kingfisher has 50% market share in India and it is sold in 50 plus foreign nations. In 2005 he started Kingfisher Airline which brought about his downfall.

In eight years of operation Kingfisher Airline never once registered profit. He became an independent MP in Rajya Sabha in 2002 representing the state of Karnataka. Since then he has been member of numerous committees of MPs.

Downfall of Vijay Mallya:

Kingfisher Airline which was at one point in time the second largest airline in India had very little chance or revival as it has an accumulated loss of more than Rs. 16,000 crore by March 2013.

The banks that lent money to Mallya for Kingfisher Airline allege that Mallya diverted around 4 thousand crore to places like Mauritius and Cayman Islands which are called tax havens.

Banks have labelled him as a 'wilful defaulter' as he has not been repaying the money his company owns but has been living a lavish life and spending money on personal luxuries.

Banks lent money to Mallya against movable property, current assets:

To borrow money for Kingfisher Airline, Mallya had given his brand name Kingfisher as collateral to the nationalised banks.

In 2010 while borrowing more to revive Kingfisher Airline Mallya had signed a deed that allows SBI ownership of all trademarks and goodwill if the airline fail to repay the debts. Today the trademark and goodwill will get SBI 6 crore as against 1,600 crore that it has lent.

If we take the case of IDBI it now has a bad loan of Rs. 700 against the name of Kingfisher Airline. The asset pledged with IDBI is the airline's trademark and goodwill.

Bank of India had allowed Kingfisher Airline loan against the current assets which include items like air conditioners, tractors and even folding chairs. (Wish students who borrow education loan and other small business owners were allowed to pledge in such a manner.)

Indian Overseas Bank had lent a sum of Rs. 108 crore to Mallya for which he had mortgaged two helicopters in 2008. Tragedy for bank is that the helicopters are not in flying condition and bank is not able to sell them off to recover the money.

Bank of India had given a term loan to Mallya the condition of the loan was that all sale proceeds and lease rents will be used to pay the loan back. The airline was grounded ery next year and now bank has no means to recover the money.

Corporation Bank, State Bank of Mysore and Vijaya Banks had given loans to Mallya against movable assets and plant and machinery of the airline.

Good Times for Mallya continues:

After defaulting on loans worth thousands of crore Mallya had recently announced that at the age of 60 he intends to spend more time with his family in the UK. Mallya resigned as United Spirits Chairman after an agreement that he will receive $75 million for the same from Diageo plc and United Spirits Ltd.
Japan Marks Fifth Anniversary of 2011 Tsunami

Feature

oi-Lisa

By Lisa

Tsunami that struck north-eastern coast of Honshu, Japan's main island on the 11th of March 2011 caused widespread damage on land and initiated a series of large tsunami waves that devastated many coastal areas of the country.

This tsunami also instigated a major nuclear accident at Fukushima along the coast of Japan. Fukushima which is about 150 miles to the north east of Tokyo suffered a partial meltdown post the tsunami and around 470,000 people were forced to vacate their homes and find temporary shelter.

Five years down the line Japan has recovered much from the earthquake and the resultant tsunami however, still much needs to be done. Permanent housing has been built for nearly half of the evacuees and many people who were living around Fukushima plant have been allowed to return to their homes.

Five years after Tsunami:



Tomorrow Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko will appear for national service in Tokyo to mark the fifth anniversary of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The nation will observe a minute long silence at 2:46 pm. At 2:46 pm five years back earthquake had struck about 40 miles offshore.

Japan will continue to mark the anniversary of 2011 earthquake till the time recovery efforts continue.

Progress of relief work:



Japan would need $263 billion to reconstruct roads, bridges, houses, etc. destroyed by the tsunami. As yet 174,471 evacuees have not returned to their homes. Still 58,948 people are living in temporary houses. All of them will be able to move to permanent homes only by 2018.

Tsunami had destroyed or damaged 399,923 buildings, caused 15,894 deaths and 2,563 persons were reported missing. This tsunami followed a 9 magnitude earthquake. As per a report about 53 million tons of debris was hauled off to massive landfills and incinerators.

Total loss reported was 16.9 trillion yen.

The plan ahead:



The region plans to repair the embankments and build higher sea walls despite knowing that this may not help the earthquake prone Japan. The residents just hope that this may help them buy more time to reach higher grounds and also that the water will not reach as far as it reached during 2011 tsunami.

Japan also had plans to convert Fukushima nuclear power plant site into a tourist destination and there was a proposal to allow people to visit the site without protective suits by 2046. However, this plan has been scrapped as many opposed to it and called it 'dark tourism'.

Reasons for slow relief work:



The first two years were spent clearing the debris that was hauled off the landfills and to build the basic infrastructure.

Some of the delays are because of a shortage of construction workers. Also there is shortage of materials as most is diverted to the massive repair of the Fukushima nuclear plant and projects.

Fukushima nuclear plants needs to be completely ready for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Otsuchi town took a year to just develop a recovery plan as nearly all of its government administrators were killed in the tsunami and also all the records were destroyed.

One problem that Japanese authorities are facing is that of 160,000 people who were evacuated from towns around the nuclear plant due to radiation contamination, many have settled outside their hometowns now and they have started new lives and they do not intend to return to their original homes.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, March 10, 2016, 13:50 [IST]
Proactive India Cements Ties with Mauritius

Feature

oi-Lisa

By Lisa

India has become a proactive nation and has been building stronger ties with nations who share Indian Ocean with it. This is seen as a befitting reply to China's ever increasing expansionist policy specially in the South China Sea.

During the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Mauritius had talked about India and Mauritius always standing in solidarity and support for each other. He had also termed the agreement on the development of Agalega Island as a major stride in India-Mauritius cooperation in infrastructure sector.

India's friendly ties with island nations in the Indian Ocean as seen as a strategy to keep a watch on China's movements.

With an aim to keep the relations with Mauritius warm Indian Naval Ship (INS) Tabar, a stealth frigate of the Indian Navy entered Port Louis, Mauritius and shall remain there till 13th March 2016. INS Tabar is a state of the art guided missile frigate.

Purpose of Tabar entering Port Louis:

The primary aim of the visit is to participate in the Mauritius National Day celebrations and to strengthen the existing bonds of friendship between the two nations. On the occasion of the National day of Mauritius on the 12th March, the ship would be fielding a marching contingent in addition to fly-past by Chetak helicopter and performance by the Indian Naval Band.

Joint exercises between Indian Navy and Mauritius:

The National Day Celebrations in March 2015 coincided with the Joint Commissioning of MCGS Barracuda by the Prime Ministers of both countries. The Indian Navy also undertakes regular joint exercises with nations in the Indian Ocean and INS Teg had undertaken joint patrolling with Mauritius in July 2015.

These joint missions have fostered seamless interoperability between the two maritime nations and have developed a strong friendship and mutual trust that underpin Indo-Mauritian partnership. These visits reinforce the cultural and ethnic ties of the two countries and are testimony to their joint commitment towards maritime security in the region.

The present deployment of Tabar for participation in the National Day celebrations of Mauritius will further cement the close relations between the two nations and the two navies.

Knowledge exchange between India and Mauritius:

In addition to the National Day celebrations, the experts from ship would also impart harbour training through lectures and demonstrations to the National Coast Guard of Mauritius. The lectures would cover a wide spectrum of maritime activities including anti-piracy drills, Visit Board Search and Seizure of ships at sea, use of special equipments and weapons, engineering and preventive maintenance capsules, training on radar, chart plotting, GPS operations for coastal surveillance radar system, damage control and fire-fighting.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, March 10, 2016, 16:50 [IST]
Vijay Mallya's splurge show in politics: A journalist recounts the horror

Feature

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

It was with much fanfare that Vijay Mallya the former chairman of the UB group had bought the sword of Tipu Sultan. I want to restore the legacy of Tipu, Mallya said at a crowded press conference at Bengaluru in 2004. Following which he announced that he had paid Rs 1.57 crore for the sword which is several centuries old.

Mallya went on to announce that he is interested in setting up a museum with items relating to Tipu Sultan and would continue to purchase them from the various museums which are prepared to auction them. This was the same time that Vijay Mallya had taken over as the National Working President of the Janata Party.

He felt that the raking up the legacy of Tipu Sultan would fetch him the Muslim votes in the elections that were round the corner. While it appeared to be a smart move by him, the fact that his campaign was wrong from the start.

[How did Vijay Mallya leave the country]

A journalist colleague who travelled in his private jet to cover an election campaign by Vijay Mallya at Kozhikode recounts, " the money flowed like water from his brewaries, but he never got it right. Mallya being Mallya was never grounded," he tells OneIndia.

Getting it wrong all the time:

Mallya appeared to be very ambitious when he decided to campaign for the Janata Party. He had said that his party would provide for a true alternative to the Congress in both Kerala and Karnataka. This campaign at Kozhikode is the one that takes the cake.

The journalist who was covered this campaign said it was true Mallya style. His private jet was organised to ferry the journalists from Bengaluru to Kozhikode. Walking into the private jet itself was an experience in itself.

A conference hall, plush seats and of course not to mention the overflow of booze. So much booze that one of his assistants refused to wake up and assist the media once the jet made its landing in Kozhikode.

" I was taken aback by this lacklustre attitude. Mallya had no clear vision and refused to come out of his corporate outfit, the journalist recounts. I could see that several officials from his company were playing the role of a party worker. I feel that this was wrong on his part. he chose to take the corporate route and even when he campaigned there was never any stress on a local issue. Politics does work to a large extent on the caste factor, but Mallya never took any of that seriously."

[Is Vijay Mallya missing? CBI thinks he's in London]

There was more focus around the grandeur when compared to the campaign. There were nearly 30 of us on that campaign trail. On reaching Kozhikode, we were all taken in the Ceilo car, a high end vehicle at that time. All of us were put up in the Taj Malabar- another sign of splurging, the journalist further recalls. All we got to witness during the campaign was splurging of money and no real issue relating to the people.

He never looked like one of us:

Mallya would always begin his campaign an hour late. There were crowds waiting or asked to wait. In the scorching summer heat of April-May the people would wait for Mallya to arrive. His arrival at the venue too reeked of arrogance. A battery of cars, security guards among others. Mallya would emerge out of his vehicle to the sound of bands.

Even when he spoke he never remained grounded. He continued to remain a corporate and this is something that the people never connected with. They were there more to see the splurge show rather than hear him talk. Taking all this into account, it became very evident that he was not going to succeed and that is what happened. Finally he ended up a Rajya Sabha member with the support of all parties.
Army rapes women remark: JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar lands in trouble again

India

oi-Mukul

New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar could be in serious trouble soon over his remark saying that India Army rapes women in kashmir.

Kanhaiya Kumar speech: Quotable quotes from JNU student union president's 'fiery' address

Reportedly, a fresh complaint has been lodged against Kumar in Delhi's Vasant Vihar police station. The complaint was filed by Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), which allege Kanhaiya's statements were "anti-national". BJP's youth wing also alleged that Kanhaiya defied his bail conditions.

"Despite the submission of an undertaking before court, Kanhaiya has yet again addressed a gathering of students and uttered poisonous words against the Indian Army, labelling them as rapists of Kashmiri Women," a BJYM statement said.

While addressing students at a women's day march late on Tuesday night,

Kanhaiya reportedly said, "No matter how much you try to stop us, we will speak up against human rights violations. We will raise our voice against AFSPA. While we have a lot of respect for our soldiers, we will still talk about the fact that in Kashmir women are raped by security personnel".

Stoking fresh spell of controversy, he further said, "During war in Rwanda 1000 women were raped. In Africa during the ethnic conflict, when military attacks other group firstly their women were raped. You take example of Gujarat, women were not just killed but were raped first".

The BJYM also filed a complaint against JNU professor Nivedita Menon who, in a new video, is heard saying Kashmir is not a part of India and that pro-azaadi slogans are justified..

The All India Students Federation (AISF), to which Kanhaiya belongs to, clarified his remarks saying, "He made the remarks in context of atrocities on women worldwide and not just in Kashmir. He in no way meant to demean Army or any other force and he clarified that in his speech too".

Kanhaiya was arrested on February 12 and charged with sedition over an event on campus on February 9 against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised. He was granted an interim bail for six months by Delhi High Court last week.

OneIndia News

(With inputs from PTI)
Cabinet approves infusion of Rs 1,500 crore in IREDA: Here are the Highlights

Cabinet approves MoU between India and IMF

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, March 10: The union cabinet on Thursday gave its approval to an MoU between India and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to set up South Asia Regional Training and Technical Assistance Centre (SARTTAC), a collaborative venture to support the capacity development of the member-nations.

The cabinet also authorised the finance minister to approve related decisions in respect of India's contribution for setting up of the centre, including Letter of Understanding for financial contribution by India, site of the SARTTAC and representative of India on the Steering Committee on SARTTAC.

The members of the collaborative venture are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Additional member countries could join SARTTAC at a later stage.

SARTTAC will also selectively cater to the capacity building needs at the state level, especially in India.

"The MoU will help in capacity building of government officials including at the state level in macro, fiscal, monetary policies by the IMF and greater coordination between the six member countries of South Asia," said an official statement.

"Capacity development at central and state level in fiscal and financial policies will enhance revenue mobilization and development of policies aimed at more effective public and financial management. This will result in economic development and inclusive growth in the country," added the statement.

IANS
After the 'Jihad' comment, Patil now claims \"I never said it\"

Congress walks out from MP Assembly on Board exam paper row

India

oi-PTI

Bhopal, March 10: Opposition Congress on the third consecutive day on Thursday, March 10 created a furore and walked out of the House after Speaker Sitasaran Sharma turned down their plea for a debate on the adjournment motion over a question in Class 12 Board exam Hindi paper which had an essay on 'caste-based reservation posing danger to the country'.

As soon as the Question Hour ended and Zero Hour was to start, Congress member Ramniwas Rawat asked the Chair for a debate on the controversial question in the Hindi exam paper held on March 5.

MP Legislative Affairs Minister Narottam Mishra told the House that action has been taken against paper setter and moderator for goof-up. He said the government has taken proper action on the issue.

Furthermore, the Minister said that Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Dipak Khandekar will carry out an inquiry into the issue. Dissatisfied by the answer, Rawat said that the matter was serious and the Minister's reply was wishy-washy.

He said that lower ranking officials have been made scapegoats on the issue. Rawat said that a system was in place for setting and conducting examinations of Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education and wondered how such a blunder took place.

The treasury and Opposition benches traded allegations over the issue. Speaker Sharma said that the Minister has given a reply on the issue and an ACS was carrying out a probe into it. He said that there was no point for a debate on the issue.

After this, the Opposition members led by acting Leader of Opposition Bala Bachchan walked out of the House in protest.

PTI
Dhanteras 2022: How much gold can you buy from Dubai

Delhi gets electric bus: More may follow

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, March 10: Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai on Thursday flagged off a pollution free electric bus here.

"It is the first such bus in India which is 100 percent pollution free and operates completely on electricity. It is a pilot project. The bus will run on trial basis for six months in Delhi," Rai told the media.

The bus will make 10 round trips connecting Delhi Secretariat to Central Secretariat every day.

"If we get positive results after six month, we will like to add more such buses in our fleet," the minister said after flagging off the bus from Delhi Secretariat.

The initiative to run 100 electric bus, developed by a China-based automobile firm, was taken by the Delhi Dialogue Commission (DDC) after its vice chairperson Ashish Khetan visited China last year.

"The Delhi government has not paid a single penny for the bus. The bus takes four hours to charge completely and runs 280 km in one full charge," Khetan said.

"The Delhi government has provided basic facilities like parking space and charging point at the Millennium Depot. We have also provided a driver and a conductor of DTC for the bus," Rai added.

IANS
"Kick us out if we don't do anything": How Modi's emotional appeal resembles that of Mamata

TMC says Shukla's resignation not to affect party; BJP welcomes him to join saffron camp

Congress would have gained had it fought Bengal polls alone: Abhijit Mukherjee

Mamata Banerjee accuses PM Modi of speaking at Matua temple with an eye on West Bengal polls

EC addressing public grievances on polls through mobile app 'Samadhan'

India

oi-PTI

Kolkata, Mar 10: Ahead of the West Bengal assembly polls, the Election Commission is addressing public grievances related to voter lists and voter ID cards in a tech-savvy manner with the help of a mobile app 'Samadhan', officials said.

"It is now very easy for any voter to lodge a complaint with us with the help of this mobile app which is available freely on Android platform. We are getting all kinds of complaints from voters related to voter id cards, mistakes in voter list, etc," an EC official said.

Photo Credit:

An EC team has been tasked to take note of all the complaints received through the app and process it for redressal.

After lodging a complaint a message is sent to the voter with a complaint ID through SMS service and after the grievance is redressed then also another SMS is sent with all the details.

Officials said in the run-up to the elections they so far have received 1300 complaints so far.

"The app has made grievance redressal faster and easier. Most of the complaints has been from the districts like Burdwan, South and North 24 Parganas," the official said.

Besides electoral rolls, any other complaint related to violations in campaigning rules or model code of conduct can also be made through the app.

Not just voters but candidates can also lodge complaints through the digital citizen interface. Two other apps are also being launched by the commission.

'Suvidha' will act as a single-window system to approve all campaign-related applications while 'Sugam' will take care of arrangement of vehicles for poll duty.

PTI
IAF all set for fire power demonstration at Iron Fist

India

oi-Oneindia

By OneIndia Defence Bureau

Bengaluru, March 10: President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are among the confirmed top attendees during the Indian Air Force's (IAF) fire power exercise, Iron Fist.

As reported by OneIndia earlier, the IAF is all set to demonstrate its combat and fire power capabilities at Pokhran from March 18.

Air Marshal B S Dhanoa, Vice Chief of the Air Staff, gave out the details of the Fire Power Demonstration (FPD) during Iron Fist-2016 today.

According to him, during this mammoth exercise in the Thar Desert region, a total of 181 aircraft would demonstrate their synchronised aerial ballet.

"They would showcase deadly combat capabilities over the entire spectrum of aerial operations. This exercise holds special significance as it represents the lethal face of the IAF in its pre-eminent role as the cutting edge of our nation's military capability," says an official.

OneIndia Special: Tejas ready to spit fire during Iron Fist

Over 200 aircraft had demonstrated their capabilities during Iron Fist-2013, with two variants of Tejas participating for the first time.

According to officials, the exercise will bring to light the multifaceted nature of IAF. "Live demonstration by IAF Garuds and special heliborne operations will be the highlight of Iron Fist 2016," the official added.

Two Tejas variants are confirmed to be participating during Iron Fist. Aeronautical Development Agency and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd officials told OneIndia that a total of three Tejas variants will be made hot-ready' for Iron Fist, with one platform to be kept on a stand-by mode.

Meanwhile in Bengaluru, Air Marshal S R K Nair, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Training Command, will inaugurate the Pilot Project at the Air Force Station, Jalahalli on Friday.

"The present training in the IAF for the ab-initio trainees is predominantly a traditional one. In order to keep pace with the paradigm shift in training, the IAF has decided to part ways with the conventional methods of training and embrace the latest technological innovations," a Ministry of Defence Spokesperson told OneIndia.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, March 10, 2016, 22:16 [IST]
India to supply more power to Bangladesh, lease internet bandwidth

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, March 10: India will start supplying 100 MW of power from the northeastern state of Tripura to eastern Bangladesh as well as lease internet bandwidth from the neighbouring country, it was announced on Thursday.

"We will shortly be inaugurating the power connectivity between Palatana (in Tripura) and Bangladesh as well as leasing by BSNL of the 10 GB bandwidth of BSCCL (Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited) from its Cox's Bazar internet port," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said at a media briefing here.

"The power connectivity will take our already substantial cooperation in this sector with Bangladesh to a new level as it will allow Bangladesh to address severe power shortages in its southeastern parts," he said.

Pointing out that India was already supplying 500 MW across the Behrampur-Behramara transmission link on the border between West Bengal and Bangladesh, he said India hoped to enhance this further.

As for the leasing of the internet bandwidth from Akhaura in Bangladesh to Agartala, he said due to this new telecom initiative the people of Tripura can avail more reliable internet connectivity and added that this would improve internet speed available in the entire northeastern region.

Bangladesh telecom operators would also be enabled to effectively monetise their already existing infrastructure.

"Currently Tripura is connected solely through the Siliguri corridor," Swarup said.

The decisions in this respect were taken during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Dhaka in June, 2015.

IANS
Do RAW, others get a raw deal in the name of 'intelligence failure'?

The NIA, ED dossiers that led to the raid on the PFI

Keep it clean, keep it safe: How the federal agencies raided the PFI

Intelligence Bureau warns of major terror attack at Banihal, J&K

India

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, Mar 10: The Intelligence Bureau has issued a fresh alert which states that terrorists from Pakistan may carry out an attack at Banihal in Jammu and Kashmir.

The IB has warned that the attack would be similar to the one that was carried out in Pampore in February.

The attack at Pampore lasted nearly 48 hours before security forces overpowered the terrorists suspected to be part of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba. The fresh alert that the IB has issued was based on a phone intercept which suggested that terrorists were planning a repeat of Pamopre at Banihal.

How did Vijay Mallya leave the country

The attack according to the Intelligence Bureau would attempt to target the security forces, the alert also states. Following this alert, security has been stepped up in Banihal and Samba.

Further, a vigil is also being maintained along the Line of Control and the national highways.

Intelligence Bureau officials tell OneIndia that terrorist groups are planning long hauls in Jammu and Kashmir.

They are attempting to stage a hostage crisis as well and no longer are they attempting hit and run kind of attacks. The target for the terrorists will continue to be the security forces.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, March 10, 2016, 9:23 [IST]
JNU Teachers Association de-recognises registrar

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, March 10: The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers' Association (JNUTA) on Wednesday announced it was de-recognising Registrar Bhupinder Zutshi for his action against the university students and for maligning the image of the institution.

"Each day in the life of JNU is becoming miserable. When I read the registrar of the university is leaking information of his deposition before the enquiry committee to the press.... This is a shame really," said JNUTA president Ajai Patnaik, while addressing an open house session at the administrative block.

"JNUTA has decided to derecognise the 'officiating registrar' from today (Wednesday) as he has completed 62 years today which is the actual age of retirement for any regular registrar in the university as per the statues," the JNUTA said while passing the motion in presence of the teachers.

Zutshi, who has been under constant criticism from teachers and students, recently revealed his deposition to the ongoing high level enquiry committee) to the press.

The teachers association for long has been demanding for Zutshi's resignation for his alleged involvement for allowing police in the campus.

The JNU students association also has decided to take out a protest march to Parliament on March 15 demanding release of other two students, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya. The two are at present under judicial custody in a sedition case.

IANS
Rahul Gandhi to launch 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' after visit to TN Rajiv memorial in Sept

Was INS Viraat used as a personal taxi by Rajiv Gandhi?

Lost my father to 'hate and division', do not want to lose country: Rahul

'Killing Rajiv Gandhi was LTTE's biggest mistake'

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, March 10 : Assassinating former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was the Tamil Tigers' biggest mistake, a new book quotes the late LTTE ideologue Anton Balasingham as saying.

Balasingham told Norway's former Special Envoy to Sri Lanka Erik Solheim that LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and his feared intelligence chief Pottu Amman initially denied their involvement in the killing.

But they admitted the truth to Balasingham "a few weeks" after the May 21, 1991 assassination, says Mark Salter's book "To End A Civil War" (Hurst & Company, London).

The just released 549-page book is the most exhaustive account of the Norwegian-led peace process that sought to end three decades of conflict in Sri Lanka.

The conflict finally ended when the Sri Lankan military crushed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May 2009, wiping out its entire leadership including Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman.

"Perhaps most controversially, in terms of official LTTE policies, Balasingham conceded that the killing of Rajiv Gandhi was the biggest mistake the LTTE had ever made," says the book.

The LTTE has never officially admitted to killing Gandhi, who was blown up by a Sri Lankan Tamil woman suicide bomber at an election rally near Chennai.

Privately, Balasingham told the Norwegians that Gandhi's killing "was a complete disaster".

According to Solheim, Balasingham put the decision to kill Gandhi to Prabhakaran's desire for revenge for Tamils killed by Indian troops when they were deployed in Sri Lanka in 1987-90, and a belief that Gandhi may again send the troops to Sri Lanka if he returned to power.

Solheim also says that although Balasingham, who in his final year was based in London and died of cancer in December 2006, wanted to reach out to the US and Europe, his real affinity was with India.

"Thus at the end of his life in 2006, Balasingham went so far as to try and 'apologize' to India for this misdeed (assassination)."

After Gandhi's killing, India outlawed the LTTE - which was earlier based in Tamil Nadu and enjoyed New Delhi's blessings - and declared Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman proclaimed offenders.

In contrast, Balasingham had no hesitation in admitting that the LTTE assassinated moderate Tamil leader and academic Neelan Tiruchelvam - who was critical of the Tamil Tigers -- in July 1999 on a Colombo street.

When the Norwegians, Solheim included, confronted Balasingham on the killing, the book quotes the latter as saying point-blank: "Yes, we killed him and if you listen to me I will tell you why."

The book quotes Solheim as saying that Balasingham once referred to Prabhakaran as a "warlord" and said the LTTE needed to transform into a political entity.

Balasingham also told Solheim, who is now based in Paris: "You must never underestimate the capacity for violence of these guys (LTTE)."

According to Solheim, Balasingham "was very frank with us, including admitting to the LTTE's mistakes.

"Over time I came to regard Bala highly and to consider him as a great human being as well as a good friend."

IANS
Bihar: Girls protest after being asked to remove Hijab during exam

Central team roped in as dengue cases in Bihar rise to over 5000

News Flash: Pakistan puts cricket team departure on hold, seeks written assurance from India

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, Mar 10: Get all the latest national, international news updates of March 10 here:

12.00 am: Kanhaiya Kumar was fined by JNU for alleged 'misbehaviour' with girl student.

11.30 pm: AAP blames both Congress, BJP guilty over Vijay Mallya's escape

10.45 pm: IPS officer Satish Verma files application before CBI court seeking copy of supplementary chargesheet

10.00 pm: OROP funds fraud case: Wing Commander CK Sharma arrested in Gurgaon

9.30 pm: Alleged MNS workers attack BJP MLA Yogesh Sagar's office in Mumbai.

9.15 pm: Be it Pakistan or any other team, our priority is to ensure all security arrangements are there-Kiren Rijiju.

8.45 pm: Two year old twin girls drown after falling into a water filled pit in Gurgaon.

8.30 pm: Air India suspends two members of the cabin crew for delaying Delhi-Cochin flight: CMD Ashwini Lohani

8.10 pm: District Magistrate conducts raids at Pratapgarh jail. More than 12 mobile phones, drugs and marijuana seized. 22,000 rupees seized as well

8.05 pm:Finance Minister made it clear that wilful defaulters will be dealt with seriously: Kirit Somaiya

7.50 pm: Tamil Nadu State Elections: DMDK to contest alone says Captain Vijaykanth

7.40 pm: Pakistan refuses to clear cricket team's departure to India for now.

7.30 pm: Man allegedly tries to attack JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar in JNU campus

7.00 pm: PM Modi met 167 probationers of Indian Revenue Service today, exhorted them to keep a sense of trust for the people of India.

6.30 pm: Historic bill,will go a long way in addressing problems of consumers-Venkaiah Naidu on Real Estate bill passed in RS.

6.15 pm: Social activists protest against Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Culture Festival in Bengaluru

6.00 pm: Left Front announces 84 more candidates for West Bengal assembly elections. Ex-CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharya to not contest.

5:36 pm: Govt. appoints Justice Balbir Singh Chauhan SC Judge as Chairman, 21st Law Commission & H'ble Justice Ravi R. Tripathi as Member.

5:23 pm: Rajya Sabha approved Real Estate (Regulation&Development) Bill,2016 that seeks to protect interests of large number of aspiring house buyers.

5.00 pm: Roads near the World Culture Festival are expected to have heavy traffic,advise people to avoid these routes- Sharad Agarwal,Jt.CP Traffic Police

4.45 pm: Yet to receive any request from ED(on Lalit Modi), MEA has not been approached so far(on Vijay Mallya), says MEA.

4.35 pm: Suspended RJD MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav who had surrendered in Bihar Sharif Court in alleged rape case has been sent to 14 day judicial custody.

4.30 pm: NGT says "AOL have till tomorrow to get fire and police permission".

4.20 pm: Hearing begins at NGT on the issue of payment of fine of Rs 5 crore by Art of Living Foundation.

4.10 pm: Dushyanth Dave who put up a spirited argument in favour of the state of Karnataka has concluded his submissions in the Jayalalithaa D A Case.

4.00 pm: The Supreme Court will hear the Jayalalithaa D A Case on March 15th. Senior counsel B V Acharya will continue with arguments for the day.

3.45 pm: The way SIT was formed, there was a clout of people who only had intention of declaring this encounter as fake, says Satyapal Singh on Ishrat Jahan case.

3.35 pm: Suspended RJD MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav surrenders in Bihar Sharif Court in alleged rape case.

3.13 pm: SC asks telecos to file affidavit stating if they were penalised for QoS regulation. Telecos say "never exceeded 2% call drop regulation".

3.12 pm: SC to continue hearing on call drop case on Mach 15th.

3.10 pm: We welcome the increased allocations for Swachh Bharat campaign, says Shashi Tharoor in Lok Sabha on Budget 2016

2.58 pm: Patna Students who've passed Teacher Eligibility Test but didn't receive joining letters, protest against State government.

2.30 pm: Hurriyat's SAS Geelani suffered a minor heart attack today, he is stable now.

2.21 pm: Supreme Court asks petitioner to approach National Green Tribunal (NGT) on World Culture Festival.

2.18 pm: Trivandrum: Former Defence Minister AK Antony & JDU leader Veerendra Kumar file nomination for Rajya Sabha election.

2.16 pm: Supreme court refuses to entertain a plea seeking stay on Word Culture festival of AOL. Petition was filed by a group of farmers.

2.15 pm: BJP MLA Dilip Singh Rawat protests at Uttarakhand Assembly demanding action to protect people from leopard attacks.

2.10 pm: A case has been registered against Kanhaiya Kumar in Kanpur civil court for giving objectionable statement against Army personnel.

2.00 pm: Let the bankers take all the steps to recover their money, says Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Vijay Mallya

1.46 pm: We'll contest on that,we've very high grounds:Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on NGT imposing Rs 5cr fine

1.44 pm: David Headley's statement is only a reaffirmation of what UPA Govt said in its earlier affidavit, says HM Rajnath Singh in Lok Sabha.

1.40 pm: Not only India but the entire World is facing menace of terrorism today. Any issue related to terrorism shouldnt be politicized- Rajnath Singh in Lok Sabha

1.37 pm: WB CM Mamata Banerjee addressing a rally in Murshidabad.

1.33 pm: DA case - Senior Counsel B V Acharya will focus on the various companies relating to the disproportionate assets case against Jayalalithaa during the arguments. After Dushyanth Dave concludes arguments today at 4 PM, Acharya will continue arguing the matter. He informs that it may take at least another three days for Karnataka's submissions.

1.30 pm: Chandigarh: Police use water cannon on Youth Congress workers protesting over Satluj-Yamuna link canal issue.

1.25 pm: Telecos plea challenging HC order: Senior counsel Kapil Sibal stated in court 'TRAI showing zero tolerance by penalising every dropped call'.

1.22 pm: JNU student found dead at his apartment in Delhi's Ber Sarai. Police gathering more details.

1.20 pm: DA case - Karnataka says that Jayalalithaa paid the income tax only to make it seem like a legal case. If Income tax has been paid it does not become a legitimate income. How was the gift and the income tax paid considered by the High Court as legitimate income. We have been saying this since day one.

1.17 pm: JNU student found dead at his apartment in Delhi's Ber Sarai. Police gathering more details.

1.15 pm: Counsel for Karnataka, Dushyanth Dave tells the Supreme Court he will close his arguments relating to the disproportionate assets by 4 PM today.

12.55 pm: Asom Gana Parishad releases list of 25 candidates for Assam assembly polls, Former state CM Prafulla Mahanta to contest from Baharampur.

12.42 pm: Jayalalithaa DA case - The judgment of acquittal is liable to be converted into one of conviction even as per the principle in Krishnanand Agnihotri's case. The 1977 case law which the High Court has relied on holds that an offence was not made out if the value of disproportionate assets was found to be less than 10 per cent of the income. This cannot be relied on here as the disproportionate assets runs into crores of rupees.

12.40 pm: Jayalalithaa DA case - Correct one error and the High Court order goes, Karnataka tells SC. The totalling mistake shows that the value of disproportionate assets of the accused comes to Rs. 16.32 crore, that is 76.7 per cent of the income, against the 8.12 per cent arrived at by the High Court.

12.30 pm: Congress MPs led by Sonia Gandhi stage a walkout in Lok Sabha over Vijay Mallya issue.

12.20 pm: Government does not allow us to speak. PM does not like to discuss these issues, says Rahul Gandhi on Vijay Mallya issue

12.15 pm: 15 Naxalites surrender to the police in Kondagaon district, Chhattisgarh.

12.05 pm: The question is not about who gave loans to Mallya, the question is why was he allowed to leave India-Jairam Ramesh in Rajya Sabha.

12.00 pm: SC declines to entertain PIL asking to make cow a state animal in Haryana. Court says this issue isn't of fundamental rights or its violation.

11:48 am: Why did the Karnataka High Court give us just one day to make submissions. First it refused to make us a party in the case. After the Supreme Court's intervention, we were given just one day to argue. We are the prosecuting state. Moreover we were allowed only written submissions, karnataka tells SC.

The trial court had issued its order after taking into account every detail. The statements of all witnesses were recorded and all evidence was taken on record.

11:40 am: The High court first accepted the value of the disproportionate assets of Rs 66 crore. Then it goes on to decrease the value of the disproportionate assets. I fail to understand how the HC did that, Karnataka counsel tells Supreme Court.

11:39 am: Karnataka tells the Supreme Court that the Karnataka High Court had blindly reversed the verdict of the trial court which had convicted J Jayalalithaa. There is nothing in the High Court order which gives the reasons for the reversal of the verdict. No reasons had been cited while reversing the verdict, karnataka also argued.

11:34 am: We've written letters to PM Modi, President, CM Akhilesh Yadav, UP Governor and District Magistrate, says Son of Yamuna Expressway accident victim.

11:30 am: Why that happened is something CBI is looking into, says Arun Jaitley in RS on Vijay. Mallya

11:29 am: Vijay Mallya was given banking facility for the 1st time in 2004 even when account wasnot in order, says Arun Jaitley in Rajya Sabha on Vijay Mallya.

11:28 am: When Lalit Modi went abroad, Congress was in power and a case was registered under FEMA, says Arun Jaitley in Rajya Sabha.

11:18 am: Govt is issuing 70,000 new rickshaw permits, out of which more than 70% are to be given to people from other states, says Raj Thackeray, MNS (9/3).

11:17 am: Vijay Mallya is not a needle that he couldn't be caught. He can be seen for 1 km away, says GN Azad in RS

11:15 am: Salman Khan reaches Jodhpur CJM court, will record his statement in the Arms Act case.

11:07 am: The supreme court has assured advocate Paramanath Kattariya of a hearing. He had raised a jurisdiction issue relating to the SC hearing in the Jayalalithaa case. He has been told to file an interlocutory application before the court.

11:03 am: Jayalalithaa DA case: The lawyer contended that the matter should be heard by a Division Bench of the High Court as the order was passed by a single judge.

10:56 am: The hearing in the J Jayalalithaa DA case has begun in the Supreme Court. The proceedings began with a senior lawyer, Paramanath Kattariya questioning the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in hearing this appeal.

10:46 am: Hearing in SC on plea seeking SIT probe in Patiala House court violence & contempt proceedings against lawyers involved adjourned till March 29 on JNU row.

10:40 am: Ministers in J&K's erstwhile PDP-BJP government asked to vacate their government Bungalows within seven days by J&K Estates department.

10:35 am: BJP MP Kirit Somaiya to raise Vijay Mallya issue in Zero hour in Lok Sabha today.

10:30 am: Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, CPM's MB Rajesh & Pappu Yadav have given adjournment notice in Lok Sabha on Vijay Mallya issue.

10:20 am: Tibetan Youth Congress activists protest outside Chinese Embassy in New Delhi, detained by police.

10:15 am: YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) gives notice of No Confidence Motion to Andhra Pradesh Assembly Secretary.

10:10 am: Salman Khan arrives in Jodhpur to appear before court, will record his statement in the Arms Act case.

Salman Khan arrives in Jodhpur, will appear before a court to record his statement in the Arms Act case pic.twitter.com/NvkZuizWma  ANI (@ANI_news) March 10, 2016

10:00 am: Issue of veto is important but then we cannot also allow the veto to have a veto over the process of Council reform itself: Syed Akbaruddin

9:55 am: Prime Minister Narendra Modi likely to attend Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Culture Festival on Friday.

9:45 am: Congress gives adjournment motion notice in Lok Sabha over Vijay Mallya issue.

9:40 am: Puerto Ricans are citizens of America. They deserve to be treated as citizens: Hillary Clinton.

9:32 am: Pakistan is still waiting for an explicit assurance from the Govt of India about security of its team & Pakistan spectators: Pak Govt sources.

9:21am: Aung San Suu Kyi party nominates former driver Htin Kyaw for Myanmar president: AFP.

9:10 am: Karnataka govt grants sanction to prosecute former Lokayukta Y Bhaskar Rao.

8:50 am: Didn't get any one-time settlement offer from Vijay Mallya: Banks.

8:34am: Sri Lankan Coast guard detained four Indian fishermen last night, also seized one boat.

8:32 am: Actor Salman Khan leaves from his Mumbai residence to appear before Jodhpur court to record his statement in Arms Act case.

8:27 am: Isro's sixth navigation satellite IRNSS-1F to be launched on PSLV C32 today at 4 pm from Sriharikota.

8:18 am: Art of Living will not pay Rs 5 crore fine, will appeal against NGT order, says Sri Sri.

8:00 am: Supreme Court to hear plea of Telecom companies challenging High Court order over compensation for call drops.

OneIndia news
Dhanteras 2022: How much gold can you buy from Dubai

NGT warns Art of Living to pay Rs 5 cr fine by 4pm today

India

oi-Sandra

New Delhi, Mar 10: A day after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) gave the nod for the World Cultural Festival on the flood plains of the Yamuna river, the Tribunal on Thursday said that if the Art of Living (AOL) does not pay the fine by 4 pm today, it would revoke its decision.

The NGT slapped a Rs 5 crore fine while it gave clearance to the AOL to conduct the cultural extravaganza that has been in the middle of a controversy.

Another blow to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar as Robert Mugabe pulls out of WCF

The Tribunal said that if Art of Living doesn't pay Rs 5 crore fine to DDA by 4 pm today, it could revoke clearance for event.

Meanwhile the Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain a plea seeking stay on Word Culture festival of AOL. The petition was filed by a group of farmers. Supreme Court asked the petitioners to approach the NGT for the same.

Don't mind going to jail if court wants: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar however said that he does not mind going to jail if the court wants him to.

When asked by a TV channelif he would go to jail having refused to pay the fine for the three-day International Culture Festival proposed to be held in the Yamuna floodplains here, Ravi Shankar said: "Yes, I will".

OneIndia News
Induction of Congress MLAs into BJP is death of Parrikar's legacy, says outgoing Goa deputy CM

Swaraj, Parrikar, Ananth Kumar: BJP has lost some of its tallest leaders recently

Parrikar must apologise to the army, says Congress

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Panaji, March 10: The Congress party on Thursday demanded that Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar must apologise to the armed forces for making them build infrastructure for the Art of Living event in the national capital.

The Congress party in Goa claimed that the Indian Army's soldiers were reduced to "corporate slaves".

"Indian Army soldiers are our pride, they are not slaves of a government or a corporation," Goa Congress spokesperson Sunil Kawthankar said in a statement issued here.

NGT warns Art of Living to pay Rs 5 cr fine by 4pm today

Kawthankar said that Parrikar, former Goa chief minister, "must apologise to the nation and the Indian Army" for lowering the latter's stature and dignity.

A mega structure built for spiritual Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living Foundation in the Yamuna floodplains in Delhi has attracted controversy over irregularities committed during the construction of the infrastructure for the event, which around two million people are expected to attend.

IANS
Another blow to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar as Robert Mugabe pulls out of WCF

India

oi-Sandra

New Delhi, Mar 10: Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's cultural extravaganza 'World Culture Festival' has suffered another blow with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe pulling out of the event on Thursday.

According to reports, Mugabe cancelled his visit to India over security concerns. Some reports also suggest that he cancelled his visit since he was the only reported high profile Head of the State who agreed to attend the event.

Don't mind going to jail if court wants: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

However, Mugabe's spokesperson has said: "The cancellation follows communication from organisers of the festival acknowledging substantial inadequacies in protocol and security arrangements around the event."

Mugabe had left for India on Tuesday to attend the event but is now expected to return home soon.

Meanwhile, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on Thursday said he does not mind going to jail if the court wants him to. He also said that he would not pay the fine of Rs 5 crore slapped by the National Green Tribunal.

This comes after there was a huge controversy surrounding the cultural festival where activists claimed that the ongoing preparations for the festival at the Yamuna banks would damage the river's ecosystem.

The issue was even raised in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday where the Opposition criticised the government.

OneIndia News
Rohith Vemulas mother alleges harassment by Smriti Irani

India

oi-Oneindia

By Maitreyee Boruah

Bengaluru, March 10: Radhika Vemula, mother of Rohith, the Dalit research scholar who committed suicide in Hyderabad, alleged harassment by the Human Research Development (HRD) minister Smriti Irani. Radhika says the HRD minister harassed and tortured her because of her caste.

"Mrs Smriti Irani, the honorable HRD minister, has treated me as if I am worth nothing. She has harassed and tortured me in the name of my caste. Because of this I have lost my son, Rohith, and my adoptive mother."

:To this date, this government is trying very hard to prove that I am not a Dalit, that I do not belong to the scheduled caste. This is a shame and causes deep pain," said Radhika.

"In this country, no Dalit woman is treated as per the law. Dalit women are not treated as equals compared to others," she added.

Rohith committed suicide on January 17.

Rohith's tragic death has become a rallying point for all those who have long been saying that there exists a systematic discrimination of Dalit students in the higher educational institutions across the country. The Joint Action Committee for Social Justice, University of Hyderabad (UoH), Hyderabad, is in the forefront protesting against the expulsion and the boycott of five Dalit research scholars at the university.

Rohith was one of the five scholars who were expelled from the university, after a scuffle broke out between Ambedkar Students' Association (ASA) (Rohith was a member of ASA) and AkhilBharatiyaVidyarthiParishad (ABVP) in August last year.

Radhika said that she wanted to celebrate March 10 as Dalit Women's Day.

"Last year, on the 118th death anniversary of Savitribai Phule, my son Rohith came home to Guntur and said, 'Savitribai Phule fought and struggled for Dalit Women.'Rohith also said that the students of the Hyderabad Central University (HCU) celebrated Savitribai's death anniversary as Dalit Women's Day on March 10, on the university campus. Rohith is not with me, not with us anymore. I want to organise a meeting on that day, March 10, 2016 on the HCU Campus," added Radhika.

OneIndia News
Supreme Court junks plea seeking to stop World Culture Festival

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Mar 10: The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain a plea seeking its direction to stop the three-day mega event, World Culture Festival, at the banks of Yamuna river being organised by the Art Of Living Foundation (AOL) of spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

A bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur asked the petitioner Bhartiya Kishan Majdoor Samiti to approach the National Green Tribunal (NGT) with its plea as the three-day event is all set to begin on Friday.

NGT warns Art of Living to pay Rs 5 cr fine by 4pm today

"This preparation is going on for a long time. Why have you come now? Why don't you go to the NGT," the bench said. The bench also raised apprehension on the motive of filing such a petition at the eleventh hour, saying, "So you seek publicity out of it?"

The petition alleged that no requisite permissions have been granted by various authorities concerned to this proposed event. The NGT on Wednesday, Mar 9 expressed its helplessness in banning the event, saying it was "fait accompli".

Nevertheless, it imposed a fine of Rs five crores on AOL as environmental compensation after coming down heavily on the foundation for not disclosing its full plans and also on the DDA and Environment Ministry for their role.

Another blow to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar as Robert Mugabe pulls out of WCF

The green tribunal, which found several environmental violations committed by the organisers, blamed the delay on the part of environmental activists in raising the issue before it which compelled it to grant permission for event.

The NGT clearance came on a day the Delhi High Court described the event, from whose valedictory function the President has already pulled out, as a "disaster" from the ecological point of view.

PTI
Sushma, Jaishankar to attend Saarc meetings in Nepal

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, March 10: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar will attend Saarc meetings scheduled to be held at Pokhara in Nepal later this month.

"Joint secretary (Saarc), Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will be proceeding to Nepal for Saarc-related meetings in Pokhara between March 14 and 17," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said at a media briefing here on Thursday.

While the 52nd session of the programming committee of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc), which is a director general or joint secretary-level forum, will be held on March 14-15, the 42nd session of the standing committee, which is a foreign secretaries-level forum, will be held on March 16.

"These meetings will prepare the ground for the 37th session of the council of ministers on March 17 which will be attended by the foreign ministers of Saarc," Swarup said.

"The last round of meetings was held in Kathmandu in November 2014 prior to the 18th Saarc summit."

The spokesman said that these meetings would offer an opportunity for a comprehensive review of the decisions that have been taken across all Saarc forums over the last one-and-a-half years.

Pak team to complete Pathankot probe this week: official

"Our focus would be not only to take stock of these decisions but also work out a way forward on priority issues where a coordinated approach was necessary," he said.

The status of the agreements that were close to finalisation at the last summit but could not be concluded will also come up for review.

According to Swarup, India is going to seek the views of the other Saarc members on key initiatives mooted by New Delhi in the last summit like the Saarc satellite and the e-knowledge network project.

"As is customary, the working of various Saarc specialised bodies and regional centres will be scrutinised during the meetings and directions given for their work over the coming year," he said.
More trouble: When Kanhaiya Kumar threatened JNU girl student!

India

oi-Reetu

New Delhi, Mar 10: After making yet another controversial statement, it seems now more trouble is coming for Kanhaiya Kumar as reports have come to fore which says that the Jawaharlal Nehru University Student's Union leader was fined by the University for misbehaving with a girl student.

According to a Zeenews report, "The incident dates back to June 10, 2015, when a girl student asked Kanhaiya Kumar not to urinate inside the campus and use toilet instead. To her astonishment, the JNU student leader didn't stop and instead started shouting at her. While calling the girl student a 'psycho mental', Kumar said it was his hostel.

While threatening her by saying, "main tujhe dekh lunga", Kanhaiya asked the girl to do whatever she wants to do against him. The girl registered a complaint with the JNU administration and Kanhaiya Kumar was found guilty."

A fine of Rs 3,000 was imposed on Kanhaiya.

Kanhaiya Kumar found himself in a spot over remarks made by him at a student's gathering on women's day with the BJP's youth wing filing a police complaint over his alleged defiance of bail conditions by making "anti-national" statements.

Army rapes women remark: JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar lands in trouble again

"No matter how much you try to stop us, we will speak up against human rights violations. We will raise our voice against AFSPA. While we have a lot of respect for our soldiers, we will still talk about the fact that in Kashmir women are raped by security personnel," Kanhaiya said while addressing students at a women's day march.

Kanhaiya was arrested on sedition charges for allegedly raising anti-national slogans at a cultural event organised on the campus on February 9.

He was released on conditional six-month interim bail by the Delhi High Court on March 2.

OneIndia News

(With inputs from agencies)
PM dismisses oppositions campaign on job creation, says India will be an example for the world

UPA "conspired" to defame ex-Guj CM Modi in Ishrat case: Rajnath

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, March 10: Accusing erstwhile UPA government of hatching a "deep conspiracy" to frame Narendra Modi when he was the Gujarat Chief Minister, Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday, March 10 alleged that the previous regime had done a 'flip-flop' on the links of Ishrat Jahan with terror outfit LeT.

Without naming P Chidambaram, he charged the then Home Minister with giving "colour" to terrorism by coining the term 'saffron terror'. Responding to a calling attention motion on "alleged alteration of affidavit relating to Ishrat Jahan case" in the Lok Sabha, the Home Minister said "unfortunately, I have to say this that there was a flip-flop by UPA government in the Ishrat Jahan case."

Amid protests and slogan shouting by Congress members who had trooped into the Well of the House, Singh charged Chidambaram of coining the term "saffron terror" and "Hindu terror".

"Colour, creed and religion should not be associated with terrorism.Terror has no colour... The seculars gave colour to terrorism. Selective secularism cannot be accepted by the country," Singh said.

He said the recent statement made by Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley before a Mumbai court only reaffirmed the first affidavit filed by the UPA government on August 6, 2009 before the Gujarat High Court that Ishrat had links with LeT.

"It (Headley's statement) was the second clear indication that she was a terrorist," he said. The minister said the second affidavit filed by the government before the High Court on September 29, 2009 "weakened" the fact that she was an LeT operative. He said the effort seemed to be to "defame the then Gujarat Chief Minister (Narendra Modi), state government, some leaders and those associated with the case.

There was a deep conspiracy to frame them," he said. The Home Minister said a few key documents including two letters written by the then Home Secretary (G K Pillai) to then Attorney General late G E Vahanvati and the copy of the draft affidavit have so far been untracable.

He said the missing documents include the copy of the affidavit vetted by the AG and the draft of the second affidavit vetted by the AG on which changes were made. "We have ordered an internal enquiry in the Home Ministry in this regard and necesary action will be taken accordingly," he said.

PTI
Be on guard: Raj Thackerays advise to Eknath Shinde

Everybody asked Nupur Sharma to apologise, I supported her, says Raj Thackeray

Andheri East by-poll: Raj Thackeray writes to Fadnavis, requests BJP not to contest

Uproar in Bihar assembly over Raj Thackeray's remarks

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Patna, March 10: There was uproar in the Bihar legislative assembly on Thursday, March 10 as legislators slammed Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray and demanded action over his remarks to burn auto-rickshaws of non-Marathis in Mumbai.

Cutting across party lines, legislators of the ruling Grand Alliance - Janata Dal-United (JD-U), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress - and opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies slammed Raj Thackeray and demanded action against him.

Soon after the assembly began, legislators raised the issue in the house.

Some legislators also raised slogans against Raj Thackeray in and outside the state assembly.

Senior JD-U leader Shayam Rajak said the country will not accept Raj Thackeray's remarks.

"Raj Thackeray is also a champion of Hindutva politics of RSS and BJP. He has exposed the mindset of Hindutva politics again," he said.

Congress leader Ajit Sharma said the government should take legal action against him for creating hate against Hindi-speaking people in Mumbai.

BJP leader Vinod Narayan Jha said Raj Thackeray's statement is not in favour of an united country.

Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) spokesperson Danish Rizwan said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should take notice of it.

"Raj Tackeray's statement will only create hate in the country," Rizwan added.
Why are people in Kashmir attending militant funerals

India

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, Mar 10: An alarming precedent has set in at Jammu and Kashmir. Abu Qasim the Lashkar-e-Tayiba militant who carried a reward of Rs 20 lakh on his head was killed in an encounter at Kulgam district. While one may have expected everyone to rejoice the death of this dreaded militant, that was however not the case.

Thousands in all age groups turned up at his funeral and mourned his death. Women were wailing and the impression that one got after witnessing this was that a terrorist had been turned into a martyr.

This is however not for the first time that Kashmir has witnessed such scenes. They have mourned the death of Hizbul Mujahideen militants, pelted stones at the army when the soldiers were trying to neutralise terrorists and even chanted anti Indian army slogans when an operation was on. The case of Qasim goes a step further since he was not a local, but a Pakistani national.

BJP not amused by Bhratiya Modi Army in Jammu and Kashmir

A changing scenario:

First and foremost there is an urgent need to have a government in place in Jammu and Kashmir. The delay in the formation of the government is doing no good since the communication link has been lost.

There are several issues on the ground that only a local government can do and in such a scenario, the Central government cannot do much.

On one hand, people are attending funerals of dreaded militants and on the other hand the hanging of Afzal Guru has now become a major issue with students at the JNU Delhi too joining the bandwagon and celebrating him as though he were a martyr.

The situation today is even more with educated youth joining the militant ranks. Recently one got to witness pictures of a young Hizbul Mujahideen leader, Burhan Wani on the social media where he poses with guns. The pictures went viral and he had become a poster boy for several educated youth who were lured into the world of the Hizbul Mujahideen and other outfits.

Gunfight on in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama

Many in Kashmir still prefer a peaceful resolution to the conflict. It is tiresome for even the people to have the army patrolling all the time and to make matters worse engage in an encounter every now and then.

Many would also feel that the government in Kashmir needs to play a more pro-active role in resolving the issue and so far this has been lacking. However for that a government needs to be in place first.

Going by the recent events, it appears as though Kashmir is being pushed back to what it was in 1999. The Afzal Guru issue is threatening to blow up into another Maqbool Bhat kind of problem. Intelligence Bureau officials have constantly warned that the Afzal Guru issue would be taken to a whole other level.

One got to witness this when the students in JNU decided a solidarity programme in his favour.

The crowds at the funerals of militants suggests a sense of defiance. People feel that Kashmir should be viewed as a political issue.

There is a great deal of insecurity among the youth in particular who complain of being alienated. Such an existing scenario in Kashmir has led to this defiance and attending these funerals is nothing but an attempt to send a message out to the government.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, March 10, 2016, 10:19 [IST]
Blacklisting Mahmood blocked by China: The man who raised funds under garb of religion in India

No way out in sight for China's zero-COVID strategy

Australia places China high on innovation agenda

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Canberra, March 10: Australia is placing China high on its innovation agenda, as part of its plans to boost innovation, the media reported on Thursday.

The Australian government announced plans in February to establish an innovation hub for entrepreneurs in Shanghai, Xinhua news agency reported.

China was always going to be a logical place to create one and it's great to see the government thinking beyond mining, energy, agriculture and education, which have formed the basis of the trade relationship between China and Australia, said Australia Chamber of Commerce chair Tracy Colgan.

"Some have questioned what Australia has to add to this highly innovative and competitive marketplace in China," Colgan said.

"It's a good point, and anyone who has spent time in China will notice how far ahead in adopting technology this market is when compared to Australia," she said.

Australian Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science Christopher Pyne said that entrepreneurs accessing the landing pads will be assisted to commercialise their products and services through access to the expertise, infrastructure and innovation and marketing networks of partners.

At a Committee for Economic Development (CEDA) event in Sydney, Australian Assistant Minister for Innovation Wyatt Roy said China should be looked on both as a source of customers and investment.

IANS
The persecution of Hindus in Pakistan continues with a Hindu girl forcibly converted and married

China helped Pak to block India's Nuclear Suppliers Group membership bid: Sartaj Aziz

International

oi-PTI

Islamabad: Pakistan along with its "all-weather" ally China has successfully blocked India's bid to become a member of the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group, Pakistan Prime Minister's Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has said.

India has been seeking membership to the 48-member nuclear club, whose members can trade in and export nuclear technology. NSG is a powerful multinational body concerned with reducing nuclear proliferation.

Pakistan with the cooperation of China had successfully blocked India's bid to seek membership of the NSG, Aziz told the Senate yesterday.

While countries like the US have backed India's membership in the NSG, China has remained ambiguous on the issue.

China's Foreign Ministry had called for "prudence and caution" over expanding the NSG.

Asked whether China wants to back any other country's entry into NSG, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying had said, "as for the expansion of the group, the members should make the decision on consensus after thorough discussions. India's inclusion into this group is an internal matter of the group. It needs prudence and caution and thorough discussions among all members."

"We support such discussion and we also support India's inclusion into this group if it meets all the requirements," she had said in January last year.

In November, media reports said China had assured Islamabad that if India is granted membership of the NSG, China would ensure that Pakistan also joined the group.

Pakistan has been saying that if it is deprived of NSG membership while India is accommodated, it would be taken as discrimination and lead to an imbalance in the region. Chinese and Pakistani leaders have views their relationship as "all-weather".

PTI

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, March 10, 2016, 8:47 [IST]
Donald Trump leads in Florida, trailing in Ohio: latest polls

International

oi-PTI

Washington, Mar 10: Republican front-runner Donald Trump is maintaining his national lead and is way ahead of his party rivals in the crucial Florida State where presidential primary will be held next week, according to the latest polls.

With wins in as many as 14 States, Trump as of now has the maximum number of delegates (458) followed by Senator Ted Cruz (359) and Marco Rubio (151).

Donald Trump expands lead, Sanders upsets Clinton in Michigan

In its latest poll, Fox News said on Thursday that Trump was leading in Florida with 43 per cent support from likely Republican voters, followed by Rubio with a distant 20 per cent.

Rubio, who had a dismal performance this Tuesday, needs to win his home State of Florida to stay in the Republican race to the White House.

During a town hall, Rubio exuded confidence that he would win the Florida primary, which he said would change the entire complexion of the Republican primary. "It is true, we haven't done as well in some of those states as we wanted to, but it's going to come down to Florida for me, and it always has in the presidential races," Rubio told MSNBC in a town hall.

"In Florida the only one that has any chance of beating Donald Trump is me. If you don't want Donald Trump to be the nominee, even if you are a supporter of Ted Cruz or even if you're a supporter of John Kasich, you vote for Marco Rubio because a vote for anyone other than me is a vote for Donald Trump," Rubio said.

Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders decline to call Donald Trump racist

Political pundits, however, said Rubio's chances are slim. The Republican presidential primary, scheduled to be held on March 15 along with other States like Ohio, Illinois and North Carolina, is considered crucial as it would decide on the party's nominee for the November 8 presidential elections.

According to latest poll, Trump was leading in Florida with 43 per cent support

To win the party's presidential nominee, the candidates need to have the support of 1237 delegates out of a total of 2472 delegates. Florida has 99 delegates and the winner takes all of them, so does Ohio which has 66 delegates at stake.

In Ohio for the first time, Fox News polls said Trump was lagging behind State Governor John Kasich, who has the support of 34 per cent Republican primary goers, whereas Trump has a support of 29 per cent.

If Trump wins all of the delegates in Florida and Ohio, it could knock both Rubio and Kasich out of the race and this would make him almost a presumptive nominee with much closer to 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination.

However, both Rubio and Kasich said they would not let Trump win their home states. Kasich who has so far earned just 54 delegates said his fortunes would turn for the better from a win in Ohio.

"We are going to win Ohio. That's not even a question for me. It's about what we do after that and all the places we have to go. But we're not taking it for granted," Kasich said.

"I mean, I'm working very hard there now, and so are all the team, our team out there. And I'll go down for the debate. Then I'm back and I'll be living in Ohio and all over the state, which is what I always do," Kasich told Fox News.

PTI
Iran MP sued over 'no donkeys, no women in parliament' rant

International

oi-PTI

Tehran, Mar 11: Iranian women deputies are suing a conservative male colleague, Nader Ghazipour, after he declared in a video that parliament was no place for "donkeys and women".

Ghazipour's comments during an election campaign meeting last month have gone viral on social media.

"Parliament is not a place for foxes, donkeys and women," he proclaims before a cheering crowd in the video ahead of the February 26 polls.

If you elect women, "they (men colleagues) might do things to them and disgrace you", he said.

Ghazipour was elected in Orumiyeh, a Turkish-speaking province near the border with Turkey. Women MPs -- along with a number of men -- have filed complaints with Iran's prosecutor general, parliament's supervision committee and house speaker Ali Larijani, a leading woman deputy, Fatemeh Rahbar, told state news agency IRNA.

"There has been an accusation against women, and Mr Ghazipour must be held responsible," she said. Ghazipour had sent an apology through mediators, but the plaintiffs "won't withdraw their lawsuit", Rahbar said. "His words have gone public through the media and gone viral inside and outside Iran.

He should come out" and explain himself. Ghazipour's comments were "an insult not only to women but to the entire parliament", Rahbar, herself a member of the conservative camp in Iranian politics, told the reformist daily Shargh.

Indian fishermen held in Iran released, to arrive on Mar 3

Faced with the threat of lawsuits, Ghazipour has said he was not referring to women in the Islamic republic's parliament or to female candidates in his own constituency. "I didn't mean all women. There were two ladies running from our city in this election.

You can ask them my opinion of women," he told the KhabarOnline website. "If elections were held again right now, I would win twice as many votes," Ghazipour said on a defiant note.

According to media reports, unknown assailants beat up the journalist who posted the video, Hamed Atayi, on the street last week in front of his wife and child.

AFP
Iranian unrest : Will US and Europe really back protestors?

Iranian president to visit Islamabad this month

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Islamabad, March 10: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is scheduled to visit Pakistan at the end of this month in a bid to re-establish bilateral economic ties, the media reported on Thursday.

According to sources, the two-day visit is scheduled from March 25-26, Dawn online reported.

This would be the first visit by an Iranian president to Pakistan after four years. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last visited Islamabad in February 2012 to attend a trilateral summit with Afghan and Pakistani leaders.

Rouhani's visit comes at a time when curbs on Iran have been lifted following a nuclear deal that came into effect in January.

The Iranian president has made a number of overseas trips since the lifting of sanctions to revive his country's trade ties.

Pakistan de-notified the UN sanctions at the end of February paving the way for the re-establishment of trade and business relations.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif last visited Tehran in January looking to mediate between Tehran and Riyadh when tensions between the two countries spiked in the aftermath of the execution of activist and Shia cleric, Sheikh Nimr, by Saudi authorities.

The prime minister had earlier paid a bilateral visit to Tehran in May 2014.

IANS
Sri Lanka vs Pakistan: When and where to watch Asia Cup 2022 Final Match live online?

Lanka appoints panel to probe media harassment under Rajapaksa

International

oi-PTI

Colombo, March 10: Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena on Thursday, March 10 appointed a committee to probe the harassment of media personnel under the regime of his powerful predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa.

A notice from the President's office said that all journalists who suffered harassment and loss of property under Rajapaksa must report to an Additional Secretary under Sirisena by mid June.

Media freedom in Sri Lanka was rated low when the former president was at the helm for a decade. The Reporters Without Borders, 2015 world press freedom index ranked Sri Lanka at 165 out of 180 countries, up 2 positions compared to 2013, which was an improvement post-Rajapaksa. In 2013, Sri Lanka was ranked 162 out of 178 countries.

Sri Lanka was also ranked among the most dangerous countries to practice journalism. Many journalists reported harassment under Rajapaksa, the most prominent was the broad day-light murder of the editor of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickrematunga, while several other media institutions faced attacks by goon squads.

Rajapaksa, credited with ending the country's nearly three-decades-old civil war with LTTE in 2009, was in power from 2005 to 2015. He was defeated by Sirisena in January last year.

PTI
Who is Yasin Malik? The Kashmiri separatist sentenced to life in terror funding case

Should Kashmir be given to Pakistan: Row erupts after this question appears in MP civil service exam

From hijab to Kashmir, Zawahiri was Al-Qaeda's voice for everything anti-India

No change in our stance on Kashmir issue, says Pakistan

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Islamabad, March 10: Pakistan on Thursday affirmed there was no change in its stance on the Kashmir issue and stressed upon the need to address it as it was the oldest issue on the United Nations' agenda.

Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria said Kashmiris were "struggling for their right to self-determination" and Pakistan would continue to extend moral, political and diplomatic support to them till the implementation of the UN resolutions.

The Kashmir issue would be taken up whenever India and Pakistan hold talks, Zakaria told a weekly press briefing here.

Secret tunnel from Pakistan: Why India needs to worry about it

The spokesman said initiatives have been taken for Confidence Building at the top leadership-level in the two countries, and added that levelling of allegations were of no help in lowering tensions between the two neighbours, reports the News International.

The remarks came days after British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the Kashmir issue should not be a pre-condition for resumption of the India-Pakistan dialogue.

IANS
US China will work to solve Korean Peninsula nuclear issue

Improving infrastructure is at the center of govt's priorities: Jaitley

Flags with unified Korea map put up to welcome Kim

Army Chief Gen. M M Naravane on two day visit to Republic of Korea

North Korea nullifies all inter-Korean agreements

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Pyongyang, March 10: North Korea on Thursday nullified all agreements on economic cooperation and exchanges with South Korea.

All assets belonging to South Korean enterprises in North Korea will be liquidated, Xinhua reported citing the KCNA news agency.

The statement by a spokesman for the Committee for Peaceful Reunification of Korea said the plan was made in response to a series of unilateral sanctions by Seoul on North Korea after the UN Security Council voted to adopt a tough resolution against Pyongyang.

According to the statement, North Korea vows to take steps to "launch lethal political, military and economic strikes on the President Park Geun-hye administration" of South Korea.

North Korea will immediately launch attacks "in pre-emptive manners" once the enemies take action, the military is only waiting for an order, the statement stressed.

South Korea on Tuesday unveiled a package of new unilateral sanctions on North Korea over its latest nuclear test and rocket launch.

The stand-alone sanctions include a ban on the third-country ships that had stopped in North Korea within the past 180 days from entering South Korean ports.

Seoul added 30 North Korean entities and 40 North Korean individuals to the blacklist of those suspected in the involvement of Pyongyang's development of weapons of mass destruction.

IANS
Pak launches probe into MQM's alleged ties with RAW

International

oi-PTI

Islamabad, Mar 9: Pakistan has launched formal probe into the reports and allegations that India's RAW gave money to Karachi-based Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party to destabilise the country, officials said today.

Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan tasked the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to probe various allegations of funding by Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to MQM dominated by Urdu-speaking people who migrated from India to Pakistan after partition in 1947.

An official of the Interior Ministry said that the initiative was taken after a prominent businessman and London-based confidante of MQM Sarfaraz Merchant said in a recent TV interview that he had seen proof of Indian funding to MQM.

He said that India also provided money to buy weapons. Merchant said several lists of weapons had been found in the house of MQM chief Altaf Hussain in London during a raid by Scotland Yard in 2014. India has repeatedly dismissed the claim that it was funding the MQM to destabilise Pakistan.

MQM on Monday also rejected as "false" and "baseless" the allegations against it of having ties with RAW. Hussain fled to the UK in 1992 and later got British citizenship. He has been running the party from London where he is being probed by London police for money laundering.

FIA plans to interrogate Merchant and others. Pakistan will also ask the UK at an appropriate time how and why Hussain, a British citizen, was using Indian money to destabilise Pakistan, the officials said. Karachi has seen widespread violence for over decades and MQM is often blamed for it but the party always had denied it.

PTI
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

Pakistan may strike commercial deals with Iran

International

oi-PTI

Islamabad, Mar 10: Energy-starved Pakistan may strike multiple commercial deals with Iran on import of 3,000 MW of electricity and construction of a gas pipeline during Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's first official visit here this month.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif met the Iranian ambassador to Pakistan Mehdi Honardoost to discuss Rouhani's visit.

"Pakistan is looking forward to the scheduled visit from March 25 to 26 of President of Iran and hopes that it would further strengthen relations between the two countries," the ministry quoted Asif as saying.

Officials said that Rouhani will have detailed discussion with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to expand economic and commercial ties. Oil-rich Iran is keen to sell petroleum product, electricity and expediting start of construction of a pipeline bring gas to Pakistan.

"It is hoped that a deal to import 3,000 MW of electricity from Iran will be reached," an official of finance ministry said.

Iran is feeling free to expand commercial ties with other nations after successful implementation of last year's nuclear deal with leading world powers.

Apart for the economic ties, the two sides will also discuss various security issues including tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia and situation in Syria and Iraq.

Sharif last visited Tehran in January to ease tension between Tehran and Riyadh in the aftermath of the execution of activist and Shia cleric, Sheikh Nimr, by Saudi authorities.

It will be first visit by any Iranian president after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to Islamabad in 2012.

PTI
Republicans themselves to be blamed for Trump's rise: Obama

International

oi-PTI

Washington, Mar 10: President Barack Obama today dismissed the notion that the meteoric rise of Donald Trump is a result of his policies and said the Republican presidential front-runner's positions on immigration and other issues are not much different from those of the party's other candidates.

"I am not going to do is to validate some notion that the Republican crack-up that's been taking place is a consequence of actions that I've taken. There are thoughtful conservatives, who are troubled by this, who are troubled by the direction of their party," Obama told a White House news conference along with the visiting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Obama alleged that the Republican political elites and many of its information outlets -- social media, news outlets, talk radio, television stations -- have been feeding its base, for the last seven years, a notion that everything he do is to be opposed that "cooperation or compromise somehow is a betrayal."

"The tone of that politics, which I certainly have not contributed to -- I have not -- you know, I don't think that I was the one to prompt questions about my birth certificate, for example. I don't remember saying, hey, why don't you ask me about that?," he asked.

"Why don't you question whether I'm American or whether I'm loyal or whether I have America's best interests at heart? Those aren't things that were prompted by any actions of mine," he said. "So what you're seeing within the Republican Party is, to some degree, all those efforts, over a course of time, creating an environment where somebody like a Donald Trump can thrive.

You know, he's just doing more of what has been done for the last seven and a half years," he added. Obama said Trump's positions are not different from those of the other Republican presidential candidates.

Meet 'Deep Drumpf' robot that tweets like Donald Trump

"In terms of his positions on a whole range of issues, they're not very different from any of the other candidates. It is not as if there's a massive difference between Trump's position on immigration and Cruz's position on immigration," he noted.

"Trump might just be more provocative in terms of how he says it but the actual positions aren't that different. For that matter, they're not that different from Rubio's positions on immigration, despite the fact that both Cruz and Rubio, their own families, are the products of immigration and the openness of our society," Obama said.

"I am more than happy to own the responsibility as President, as the only officeholder who is elected by all the American people, to continue to make efforts to bridge divides and help us find common ground," he said.

PTI
No disruption to oil imports after Saudi attack, says Centre

'Saudi Arabia supports political solution in Yemen'

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Riyadh, March 10: Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir on Wednesday stressed his country's support for the UN envoy's efforts to reach a peaceful solution to the Yemeni crisis, Al Arabiya News reported.

The announcement was made after a meeting in Riyadh of the Arab foreign ministers to discuss various regional issues, Xinhua reported.

A Saudi-led coalition against the Houthis in Yemen welcomed on Wednesday the state of "calm" on the Saudi-Yemeni border to reach a political solution under the UN.

The coalition, which has been engaged in a war in Yemen for almost a year, hailed the mediation of allowing the entry of medical and humanitarian aid to the nearby Yemeni villages.

Meanwhile, spokesman for the coalition Brigadier Ahmed Asiri told reporters that the state of calmness and the Saudi commitment to a political solution in Yemen does not mean any negotiation with the Houthis.

Also, the Gulf Cooperation Council countries expressed, in a joint statement, their support for a political solution in Syria and the importance of keeping Syria's territories unified.

They also urged the UN Security Council for a process that could impose a more effective cease-fire in Syria.

They reiterated their rejection to Iran's interference in the region and emphasised that Lebanon's Shia organisation Hezbollah is terrorist.

IANS
US must be unpredictable to defeat terror groups like IS:Trump

International

oi-PTI

Washington, Mar 10: The US needs to be "unpredictable" to defeat terror groups like Islamic State and take its enemies head on, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said today.

"We're going to knock out ISIS so fast. And we have to be a little bit unpredictable. I have a specific thing, but we have to be a little bit unpredictable. I'm so tired of saying, we're going to attack from here and we're going to attack from....I don't want to talk about it.

I want to just do it," Trump told Fox News in a Town Hall in North Carolina, which goes to primary polls on March 15. "We have to knock them out," Trump reiterated amidst a large applause from the audience.

To the surprise of political pundits, the real estate tycoon, who joined politics some nine months ago, has been drawing huge crowd across the nation. With primary wins in 14 states, Trump has 458 delegates  the maximum so far from among the GOP candidates.

To win the party's presidential nominee, he needs to have the support of 1,237 delegates out of a total of 2,472 delegates. "I'm a conservative person. I'm very conservative in many respects, but I'm a conservative person, but I like to say a common sense conservative because I'm conservative on independence in energy.

Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders decline to call Donald Trump racist

I'm very, very, very conservative on the border and on all of that," he said. Responding to criticism, Trump said he is in favour of free and fair trade. "I'm a free trader, just so you understand. But free trade has to go along with the word smart trade.

I don't want to be a free trader, it's free on our side, but on their side, they're killing us, OK? Like China!" he said. "And I have great relationships with China. And I made a lot of money in China. I've made a fortune in China dealing with China. And I don't blame China.

I blame our leaders," Trump said, alleging that the US is subsidising China and protecting Japan. "We actually subsidise China. We give them subsidies for certain things. You've seen that, too. It's sort of a little bit of a scandal.

It's not a huge amount of money, but it's still money. We're subsidising things in China," he claimed. "We protect Japan...If we're attacked, they don't have to do anything. If somebody attacks Japan, we end up in World War III. We have to go and fight for Japan, but they don't have to fight for us.

I mean, this is the way it is. We take care of Germany. We protect Germany," Trump said. "Now, the money we spend on our military is massive, and everyone says we spend 10 times more money than everybody else. But we're spending it to protect other nations. And many of those nations are very rich. They've got to pay up. We want their help. They've got to pay up, OK? They got to pay up," he said.

PTI
Vijay Mallya was the topic of discussions in the Rajya Sabha where opposition cornered ruling govt on the big scam. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley assured that the banks will recover every penny from him. He owed over Rs. 9,000 crores to the banks. North Korea has claimed to have fired a pair of short-range missiles and announcing the liquidation of all remaining South Korean assets on its territory. NDTV claims that art of living foundation head Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has said- "We have not done anything wrong, we will go to jail but not pay a penny. Recently national green tribunal has imposed a fine of Rs 5 crore for organizing a mega festival which begins tomorrow on the banks of the River Yamuna in Delhi amid environmental concerns."
Community

Its now easier than ever to connect and chat with others in your local area. You can connect with your community by asking general questions, give area updates and recommendations and even let your community know about local events that are taking place.
OK! Magazine 21 Oct 2022

Prince William and Prince Harry will feel 'quite uncomfortable' watching their mother's death play out in season 5 of 'The Crown.'
A Canadian family lost three generations of its family to the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 that crashed on Sunday.

According to a relative, six of the family were on their way to a Kenya vacation when the plane crashed minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa, killing passengers and crew from more than 30 countries.

Prerit Dixit, 43, and Kosha Vaidya, 37, their daughters and Ashka Dixit, 14, and Anushka Dixit, 13, and Vaidyas parents Pannagesh Vaidya, 73, and Hansini Vaidya, 67, were among the 18 Canadians killed. They lived in Brampton, a Toronto suburb.

This is terrible and tragic, Manant Vaidya, brother of Kosha Vaidya, told Reuters. It feels as if my whole support system has disappeared. I have no idea how we will cope up with this tragedy.

The Dixit-Vaidya family was flying to Kenya so that Kosha Vaidya could show her Canadian-born daughters the country of her birth, Manant Vaidya said, adding his parents were returning there for the first time in more than 50 years.

Manant Vaidya works for the Reuters parent company Thomson Reuters. He plans to fly to Ethiopia on Saturday and from there to Mumbai for the final rituals of the deceased.

Dixit worked at medical-testing company LifeLabs as a lab technician and as a lab professional for Public Health Ontario. In email statements, both remembered his helpful and pleasant demeanor, his sense of humor and his dedication to family.

Kosha Vaidya had been a human resources adviser for the Canadian Hearing Society since 2017, the organization said in a website statement, adding she would be remembered for her intelligence, professionalism and dynamic personality.
Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia:

Latin Americas (LatAms) busiest lawyers are currently working on are private equity funds, niche funds, infrastructure funds and agriculture funds, stated Martin Litwak, founder and partner at international law firm Litwak & Partners during the recent Opalesque 2016 LatAm Roundtable.

Litwak said, "Let me also share how the regional asset management industry has developed over time. Ten years ago, most of our work was in hedge funds. We got calls from a Brazilian manager based here from Brickell and, when we asked what he wanted, we heard: 'a hedge fund. And another one from Peru, 'Id like a hedge fund. Now, we still set up hedge funds, but actually most of the funds we work on now are private equity funds, niche funds, infrastructure funds and agriculture funds."

He added that managers in the alternative investment industry are much more sophisticated and have learned a lot during the last decade.

LatAm countries are in better shape for investment

Litwak also explained that LatAm countries are now in a better shape for investment. Indeed, there are plenty of investments going on in Argentina these days. Over the last six months, the volume of M&A in Argentina has been crazy, mostly from Argentineans buying out companies "because they feel comfortable already with the current red......................

To view our full article Click here
The U.S. used drones and manned aircraft yesterday [Mar 7] to drop bombs and missiles on Somalia, ending the lives of at least 150 people. As it virtually always does, the Obama administration instantly claimed that the people killed were "terrorists" and militants -- members of the Somali group al Shabaab -- but provided no evidence to support that assertion.

Nonetheless, most U.S. media reports contained nothing more than quotes from U.S. officials about what happened, conveyed uncritically and with no skepticism of their accuracy: The dead "fighters " were assembled for what American officials believe was a graduation ceremony and prelude to an imminent attack against American troops," pronounced the New York Times. So, the official story goes, The Terrorists were that very moment "graduating" -- receiving their Terrorist degrees -- and about to attack U.S. troops when the U.S. killed them.

With that boilerplate set of claims in place, huge numbers of people today who have absolutely no idea who was killed are certain that they all deserved it. As my colleague Murtaza Hussain said of the 150 dead people: "We don't know who they are, but luckily they were all bad." For mindless authoritarians, the words "terrorist" and "militant" have no meaning other than: anyone who dies when my government drops bombs, or, at best, a "terrorist" is anyone my government tells me is a terrorist. Watch how many people today are defending this strike by claiming "terrorists" and "militants" were killed using those definitions even though they have literally no idea who was killed.

Other than the higher-than-normal death toll, this mass killing is an incredibly common event under the presidency of the 2009 Nobel Peace laureate, who has so far bombed seven predominantly Muslim countries. As Nick Turse has reported in The Intercept, Obama has aggressively expanded the stealth drone program and secret war in Africa.

This particular mass killing is unlikely to get much attention in the U.S. due to (1) the election-season obsession with horse-race analysis and pressing matters such as the size of Donald Trump's hands; (2) widespread Democratic indifference to the killing of foreigners where there's no partisan advantage to be had against the GOP from pretending to care; (3) the invisibility of places like Somalia and the implicit devaluing of lives there; and (4) the complete normalization of the model whereby the U.S. president kills whomever he wants, wherever he wants, without regard for any semblance of law, process, accountability, or evidence.

Click Here to Read Whole Article
In a debate in Flint, MI, on Sunday, Bernie Sanders, asked to describe his "racial blind spots," said this:

"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."

The Clinton campaign quickly mobilized to condemn him for a raft of implications, saying that not all Black people live in ghettos, that not all people who live in ghettos are Black--many are immigrants who belong to other racial categories, for instance. Some people objected that not all white people lack understanding of racism's impact, others that there are plenty of whites who know poverty firsthand.

This is a rehearsal of politics-as-usual, of course, in which each faux pas is ammunition, and huge edifices of argument are loaded onto the usage of a word or phrase, (in Bob Dylan's immortal words) "just like a mattress balanced on a bottle of wine." It will happen again before November, many times. I doubt many of my progressive friends would take exception to Sanders' underlying point--however poorly expressed--that many white people have not experienced overt discrimination and harassment on account of their race and may therefore lack adequate empathy and understanding.

I have no objection to holding candidates to a high standard of speech, so long as the standard isn't double. But as for me, especially when it comes to elections, Dorothy Day of Catholic Worker fame is my guide: "I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions." (I have earlier written about why I choose Sanders' actions over Clinton's words.)



Bernie Sanders, candidate for President

(Image by Phil Roeder) Details DMCA



Someone who shares the Clinton campaign's condemnation posted Sanders' original statement and subsequent attempt at clarification to a progressive e-list I take part in. One response focused on calling an "old white male" to task for communicating badly on race. Another noted the word "ghetto" originally referred to areas restricted to Jews. (To be precise, the term in Venetian dialect was gheto and came into usage in 1516 to formalize the boundaries on Jews' residence and rights.) And that Sanders' own family history reflected this experience: his father had emigrated from Poland, while many relatives who stayed behind perished in the Holocaust. Sanders attributes his own politicization to awareness of these events.

The "old white male" commenter retorted that "Jewish refugees from Europe were probably white. Just sayin'."

There ensued a spirited discussion about whether Jews are white. The focus was white in the sense of partaking of white skin privilege, and the exchange included references to immigration laws and discriminatory practices that had formerly put Jews in restricted categories (i.e., pointing to times when we were not treated officially as white) and to movements such as the Ku Klux Klan, which excluded Jews from whiteness and enforced that distinction with violence. Henry Ford and Father Coughlin were mentioned, along with examples of legislation that categorized Jews as non-white. Cornel West was quoted:

"Even if some Jews do believe that they're white, I think that they've been duped. I think that antisemitism has proven itself to be a powerful force in nearly every post of Western civilization where Christianity has a presence. And so even as a Christian, I say continually to my Jewish brothers and sisters: don't believe the hype about your full scale assimilation and integration into the mainstream. It only takes an event or two for a certain kind of anti-Jewish, antisemitic sensibility to surface in places that you would be surprised. But I'm just thoroughly convinced that America is not the promised land for Jewish brothers and sisters. A lot of Jewish brothers say, 'No, that's not true.' We finally--yeah--they said that in Alexandria. You said that in Weimar Germany."

Or here's James Baldwin. You can find the context in something I wrote a few years ago: "It's up to you. As long as you think you're white, there's no hope for you. As long as you think you're white, I'm going to be forced to think I'm black."

My forebears are from Russia and Poland, so my complexion definitely puts me in the white-skin-privilege category with all it entails, obviously a meaningful distinction. On appearance, I get the benefit of the doubt: taxis stop for me, cops call me ma'am, my civility and belonging are presumptive.

But the story is far more complicated than that. I'm guessing I'm not the only person who feels the dominant racial and religious categories in our society don't do an adequate job of containing us as human beings. There's "Asian," for instance, which encompasses both Koreans and Japanese, two peoples who have had a less than friendly history. Even within groups, differences can eclipse commonalities. My husband's family is Okinawan on both sides, and Okinawans have many stories about being looked down on by other Japanese. (Here's an interesting piece on that.)

Many of us--perhaps you too--have experienced the complexity of identify in more or less direct ways. When we use big clumpy identity categories like "Black" or "white" to make statements about social status and conditions, we elide a lot of distinctions that have concrete meaning in actual lives: class, gender, orientation, (dis)ability, location, and many other factors affect the way we experience privilege or prejudice, advantage or injury. People often bat around identity categories as if they had fixed meanings, and those very common ways of deploying them then have unintended consequences in the way we treat each other.

As a Jew, I have many opportunities to hear myself included in categorical statements that have consequences. For instance, although my own heritage as a first-generation American is the socialist left (e.g., the Workman's Circle, a provider of settlement, solidarity, and education for 20th-century immigrant Jews, largely from Europe) and my own work and politics are focused on racial, economic, cultural, and environmental justice, I frequently read mass media statements about "the Jewish vote" that don't feel any more accurate than those made about "the Black vote," as Van Jones has so eloquently pointed out.

I would like to complicate our ideas of racial and religious categories so as to make room for the full and rich reality of our human lives and communities. To me, this is one of the core social justice commitments: to do justice to each other in this way. So let me say a bit about my own category.

Jews as a whole are a very small proportion of the U.S. population, just over 2%. Within that, there are quite a few Jews of color. You can check out the Jewish Multiracial Network (the Shalom Center, where I serve as president, acts as fiscal agent for this group) or Be'chol Lashon, for instance. There are a number of Jewish congregations led by African Americans, notably Chicago's Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation, whose rabbi has been named head of an international alliance of Hebrew-Israelites.

Internationally, there are Chinese Jews, many North African Jews, Central and Latin American Jews, the Jews of Cochin in India, Crypto-Jews here in New Mexico, etc., etc. The major categories used to describe this diversity are Ashkenazi (of European descent, primarily Eastern Europe, with a historic vernacular language of Yiddish, rooted in Spanish and Dutch but varying by region), Sephardi (originally from Spain and Portugal, but now more broadly defined, with a historic vernacular language of Ladino, based in Spanish and Hebrew), and Mizrahi (generally referring to Jews from Muslim-majority countries, whose vernacular may be Hebrew-inflected versions of Arabic, Aramaic, Persian, etc.). Perhaps a fair comparison would be the way the U.S. Census allows people of any racial background to check Latino as a category.

Next Page 1 | 2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
Reprinted from WSWS

The victory of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in the March 8 Democratic primary in Michigan is a clear indicator of growing radicalization in the American working class. More than half a million people cast their votes for a candidate claiming to be socialist. This gave Sanders an unanticipated victory over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the consensus presidential nominee of the Democratic Party establishment. Sanders won despite the support for Clinton by the corporate-controlled media, whose polls invariably predicted a Clinton victory by double-digit margins.

The vote did not come in a small rural state or in caucuses attended by a few thousand Democratic Party activists. Michigan was the first major industrial state to vote in the presidential nomination campaign, and the turnout was relatively high.

Historically, Michigan was a center of the American labor movement--the site of sit-down strikes that paved the way for the formation of the industrial unions in the 1930s. It has become ground zero for the crushing impact of plant closures, wage cuts and the growth of poverty and social misery, carried out with the full collaboration of unions, including the United Auto Workers, which have been transformed into industrial policemen for the corporations.

The primary campaigns in both big business parties have been dominated by the growth of popular anger and disgust with the political establishment. Eight years after the Wall Street crash, the mass experience of economic insecurity and falling living standards is beginning to find a political expression, however distorted. Broad sections of working people and youth have gravitated to candidates who portray themselves as anti-establishment "outsiders."

This has taken an overtly right-wing and ominous form in the support, including among highly impoverished and oppressed sections of the working class, for the fascistic real estate billionaire and Republican front-runner Donald Trump. In the Michigan Republican primary, Trump won easily, taking nearly 50 percent of the vote in Macomb County, a center of the auto industry in the suburbs north of Detroit.

Opposition to the political establishment has found a more left-wing expression in the broad support of workers and young people for Sanders, whose claim to be a "democratic socialist" has connected with growing anti-capitalist sentiment. Sanders, to his own surprise, has found a strong response to a campaign that was launched largely to provide the Democratic Party with a "left" cover before the planned nomination of Clinton. Sanders pledged from the outset to support the eventual Democratic nominee, whomever that turned out to be.

The glaring failure of media polling to detect the shift in class sentiment, assuming that the polls in Michigan were not simply rigged to assist in a Clinton victory, is itself a demonstration of the chasm that separates the entire political establishment, including both major parties and the corporate interests they serve, from the vast majority of the population. This was summed up last Friday when President Obama, responding to the February jobs report, made the astounding boast that "America is pretty darn great right now."

For decades, as the political system has moved ever further to the right, pursuing policies of social reaction at home and permanent war abroad, a manufactured "public opinion" has been used to suppress opposition and justify a reactionary agenda. This has been buttressed by the so-called "left" of American politics, concentrated in the Democratic Party, which, with the eager assistance of various middle-class pseudo-left organizations, has worked to conceal the basic class divide in American capitalist society and instead define all social and political issues on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation and life-style questions. The aim of the fixation on such secondary questions is to divide the working class and block its emergence as an independent and united political force.

Sanders' victory in Michigan reflects the intrusion of class issues into the elections. The Clinton campaign, like the media, was taken unawares by Sanders' win. At a campaign rally Tuesday night in Cleveland, Clinton made no reference to the close contest in the neighboring state and instead described the campaign for the Democratic nomination as in its final stages. "The sooner I can become your nominee, the more I can begin to turn my attention to the Republicans," she told her audience.

Sanders was similarly oblivious to the real state of affairs. He held no election night rally for his supporters and campaign workers in Michigan, choosing instead to leave the state for events in Florida. He gave a perfunctory seven-minute news conference in Miami shortly before 11 p.m. without making any claim to victory.

Clinton won a majority among only two demographic groups: the highest income bracket, those making over $100,000 a year; and the poorest sections of African-American workers in Detroit, Pontiac and Flint. Sanders won every region of the state outside the Detroit metropolitan area. Significantly, he won an even higher percentage of the vote in industrial cities like Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo than in college towns like Ann Arbor and East Lansing.

The class character of the vote for Sanders was further demonstrated in exit polls, which found that people under 30 voted for the senator from Vermont by a margin of 81 percent to 18 percent. Sanders won majorities of voters making less than $50,000 a year, whites without a college degree (by 17 points), and even union voters (by two points) despite--or because of--union endorsements for Clinton. Sanders also won white women by a margin of five points, refuting suggestions that the former secretary of state would have a natural advantage with those of her own gender.

The exit polls indicated another significant political fact: most voters did not suddenly change their minds, under the impact of last Sunday's debate or other events. That means that the polls conducted in the weeks leading up to the primary consistently underestimated the support for Sanders.

It remains very difficult to predict what the outcome of the 2016 election campaign will be. The two-party system, which the American ruling class has maintained for nearly two centuries to safeguard its political monopoly, is in increasing crisis. While the support for the Sanders campaign reveals a shift to the left among working people, Sanders' conscious aim is to contain this radicalization within the framework of the Democratic Party, whether as the party's nominee himself, or by delivering his supporters to the camp of Clinton.

Moreover, both Sanders and Trump, in different ways, base themselves on the reactionary program of economic nationalism. Sanders attacks NAFTA and other pro-corporate trade deals not from the standpoint of the unity of the working class internationally against the transnational corporations, but from the standpoint of playing off American workers against their class brothers and sisters in other countries. Trump combines this with openly racist and anti-immigrant demagogy and bellicose denunciations of Mexico, Japan and China. Whether in "left" or openly right-wing garb, protectionism fuels the growth of militarism and war.


Clinton integrity issue starts with the Clinton Foundation

(Image by ThisCantBeHappening!) Details DMCA



Bernie Sanders, whose campaign for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination is on a roll following a stunning if narrow win in last Tuesday's Michigan primary, where he embarrassed pollsters who were predicting a double-digit rout by Hillary Clinton only a day before the voting, has famously said he's "not interested" in the issue of his opponent's exclusive use, during her five years as Obama's Secretary of State, of a private, instead of government email account and server.

He should be. But forget about the right-wing charges of leaked diplomatic cables -- the big issue is what kind of diplomatic favors she was selling. and to whom.

Clinton's achilles' heel is the widespread feeling even among many of those Democrats voting for her, that she is basically "not trustworthy." People have good reason to feel that way, and it's not just the way she changes her tune, her positions, and her accounts of her prior positions faster than an octopus or Chameleon. She is demonstrably a serial liar.

Take Clinton's claim that she opposes the Trans Pacific Partnership, a new NAFTA-like trade pact being pushed by the Obama administration and most members of Congress, which threatens to essentially gut the right of the US and other signatory nations to enforce or even enact worker safety, environmental protection and other laws. The TPP would accomplish this abrogation of national sovereignty by allowing corporations -- even foreign subsidiaries of US corporations -- to sue over such laws and claiming massive damages, on the grounds that they violate the terms of the TPP. The treaty even allows them to bring their cases to non-governmental arbitration panels, which could overrule national courts. Clinton may claim on the campaign trail that she's against this horrific treaty, but as Secretary of State, when her office was helping to negotiate it, she was calling it "the gold standard" of trade treaties. Or take her initial claim, when Sanders began calling her out for giving speeches to Goldman Sachs and other mega-banks for which she was paid as much as $225,000 a pop. Initially she made the absurd excuse that these paid speeches were delivered "before I had decided to run for president."

Actually, she gave three of those speeches, for a total of $675,000, to Goldman Sachs in late 2013, after she had left the Obama State Department precisely in order to prepare for her presidential run. Even the suggestion that she wasn't planning to run earlier than that is an insult to the intelligence of the voter, but it was in any event widely known that her departure from State was so she could start working -- and building up a campaign warchest -- for a 2016 presidential campaign. In fact, that's what she was doing negotiating and gathering in those fat speaking fees (though because she had not formally announced yet as a candidate, neither she nor the banks had to report the money as campaign swill).

The reason Sanders should now start pressing her about the emails, which he earlier chivalrously dismissed as a non-story, is that the Clintons don't do anything by accident. Hillary Clinton has defended her use of a private email system while she was Secretary of State as nothing new. "Everyone did it," she has said dismissively, "Including (G. W. Bush's Secretary of State) Colin Powell." But while it's true her predecessor Powell and her successor, John Kerry, may have at times used private email for their personal correspondence, they didn't, as Clinton did for five years, use a private email system exclusively. Big difference!

And there is good reason to suspect the reason she went to such lengths to keep full control over her email has to do with money and i.

Next Page 1 | 2 | 3

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
Progressive Content Not Found

Sometimes, authors delete their progressive content after publishing.



To see if the progressive content was renamed or re-published, please click here.
Malaysia Furniture Market Outlook to 2020  Growth in Furniture export & rise in trend of online furniture sales to drive future

https://www.kenresearch.com/consumer-products-and-retail/home-and-office-furnishings/malaysia-furniture-market-report/7201-95.html

Malaysia Furniture Market Outlook to 2020  Growth in Furniture export & rise in trend of online furniture sales to drive future provides a comprehensive analysis of Furniture market in Malaysia. The report covers various aspects such as market size of Furniture market, market size of furniture export and import, segmentation by Residential furniture market, non-residential furniture market, organized and unorganized market, Product categories, types of material used, by utility. The report also provides competitive landscape and profile of major players operating in Furniture market of Malaysia. The future analysis of overall furniture market and by segments has also been discussed in each of the sub segment. The report is useful for furniture exporters, retailers, manufacturers and other stakeholders to align their market centric strategies according to ongoing and expected trends in the future.Malaysia Furniture MarketThe furniture industry in Malaysia has undergone a dynamic change from traditional operations to technology driven industry over the last few years 2010-2015. The growth in the furniture industry in past decades was phenomenal and was quite evident through consistent surge in exports. In 2015, the furniture industry of Malaysia was valued at USD ~ million. The market had grown at a CAGR of ~% during 2010-15. Malaysia furniture market has witnessed a growth in recent years on account of increase in furniture export, rising demand for Malaysian Furniture products globally, increase in residential and Non-Residential units, increase in travel & Tourist industry and entry of new players. The surge in growth is majorly originated from growth in export market. Malaysia furniture market has been segmented by residential and non-residential market and by organized and unorganized market. Residential furniture market accounted for a market share of ~% and non-residential furniture market had accounted for ~% in the overall Malaysia furniture market. The furniture market of Malaysia has been predominantly driven by the small scale unorganized sector which has accounted for ~% of the furniture producing outlets in 2015. The unorganized market has accounted for a market share of ~% in 2015.the online furniture market had increase from USD ~ million in 2010 to USD ~ Million in 2015. It has been forecasted that the furniture market of Malaysia will increase at a CAGR of ~% during 2016-20 to be valued at USD ~ million.Residential Furniture MarketIn Furniture industry, the residential furniture market is booming in Malaysia. Residential furniture market has dominated the domestic furniture industry with a share of ~% in 2015. The residential furniture market size had been driven by the increase in residential units in the country, increase in disposable income, the concept of fully furnished apartments, growth of the middle-class income segment and change in customers preference towards branded products. The market size of residential furniture in 2015 was USD ~ million grown at a CAGR of ~% during 2010-2015. In residential furniture market, the major demand is originated through bedroom furniture products in 2015, followed by living room, dining room & kitchen furniture. Bed has contributed largely in terms of sales revenue in product category list of residential furniture segment. The other important categories are Sofa Sets, Dressers, Dining table, cabinets and others. In residential sector, wooden material furniture contributed to ~ % share in 2015 in terms of sales revenue.Metal furniture and plastic furniture commanded ~ % and ~ % share respectively. The other material furniture includes fabric furniture, leather furniture, upholstery and others. Kuala Lumpur and George Town were the major cities, which contributed largely to residential furniture market with the share of ~ % and ~ % respectively in terms of sales revenue in 2015. It is anticipated that the market for residential furniture will increase in at a CAGR of ~% from 2016-20 to be values at USD ~ million in 2020.Non-Residential Furniture MarketThe non-residential segment includes furniture which are used in hotels, bars and restaurants, lodges, offices, manufacturing companies, Shopping Malls and others small and large scale business firms. In 2015, the share of non-residential furniture in overall furniture market was ~%. The market for Non-residential furniture was valued at USD ~ million in 2015, grown at a CAGR of ~% during 2010-2015. The growth in the hospitality sector and travel & tourism industry will enhance the structure of hotel industry in the country, which will lead to the growth Non-residential furniture market in Malaysia. Non-Residential furniture market was primarily guided through office and industrial furniture during 2015, which was followed by hotel and retail furniture. The other furniture market in non-residential segment encompasses hospital furniture, school college furniture and others. Customized based and contract based furniture plays an important role in Non-Residential sector. The star hotels, resorts, bars & Restaurants mostly prefer customized furniture as the furniture can be designed as per their needs and it can be sync with the interiors. The other normal class hotels, bars, restaurant prefer contract based furniture over customized furniture as the customized furniture are expensive and they take more time for installation than contract based furniture. It has been forecasted that the non-residential furniture market will grow at a CAGR of ~% from 2016-2020 to be valued at USD ~ million in 2020.Competition in Furniture SpaceThere is an intense competition between the furniture companies in residential furniture market in the country. The leading organized players in Residential furniture markets such as Lorenzo furniture, Teakia Furniture, Maju Home, Macy Home Furniture, IKEA and others are facing tough competition from the unorganized players in the country. These organized players are focusing on increase in their presence in all the cities of Malaysia. The companies such as Lazada, Rakuten You beli are some of the leading players of online sell of Furniture in Malaysia. The online furniture market had been growing at a CAGR of ~% during 2010-2015. In 2010, the market was valued at USD ~ million and has currently increased to USD ~ million in 2015.Key Topics Covered in the Report: The market size of the Malaysia Furniture market. The market size of residential furniture market. Market segmentation of the Residential market on the basis of product category, utility, demand from major cities, Distribution channel The market size of Non-residential furniture market. Market segmentation of the Non-Residential market on the basis of customized furniture and contract based furniture, By utility The market size of the Malaysia Online Furniture market. Competitive landscape of leading players in Malaysia Furniture Market. Porters Five forces analysis of Malaysia Furniture market Trade scenario of Malaysia Furniture market Trends and Development in the Malaysia Furniture market Issues and challenges for Malaysia Furniture market Government Regulations in Malaysia Furniture market Competitive landscape detailed company profiles and market share of the major exporters, retailers, manufacturers of Malaysia Furniture market Macro Economic factors affecting Malaysia Furniture market Future outlook and projections of Malaysia Furniture market on the basis of  residential & Non-residential Furniture marketSource:Contact:Ken ResearchAnkur Gupta, Head Marketing & CommunicationsAnkur@kenresearch.com+91-9015378249Ken Research is a Global aggregator and publisher of Market intelligence research reports, equity reports, data base directories and economy reports. The company is engaged in data analytics and aids clients in due-diligence, product expansion, plant setup, acquisition intelligence to all the other gamut of objectives through our research focus.27A, Tower B-2, Spaze I Tech Business Park, Sohna Road, sector 49 Gurgaon, Haryana - 122001, India
Simply more fun with CAD

New generation of the MEDUSA4 R6 CAD software

www.cad-schroer.com/products/medusa4/new-in-m4.html?pk_campaign=pr160224_MEDUSA4-R6-1

www.cad-schroer.com/products/medusa4/free-trial.html?pk_campaign=pr160224_MEDUSA4-R6-1

The ergonomic design and an optimised range of functions in the new R6 generation of the MEDUSA4 CAD software provide an incomparable CAD experienceCambridge, UK and Pittsford, NY  1 March 2016: The new R6 generation of MEDUSA4 is now available after extensive development work. The wide range of functions in the CAD software now offers even greater benefits and the new, ergonomic design simply makes more fun for users.MEDUSA4 R6 simply makes CAD more funNew generation of the MEDUSA4 R6 CAD softwareA new GenerationMEDUSA4 has always evolved on the basis of customer requests and their industry-specific requirements. A number of beta testers have been able to follow and influence the developments right from the start. Their feedback has helped to create the best MEDUSA4 version ever. The latest generation of the 2D/3D CAD software has now been launched onto the market with MEDUSA4 R6. A design solution that will simplify work going forwards and make users even more productive.Modern and intuitive"The user interface is one of the key components in a software application because it is the link between technology and the user", believes Mark Simpson, Product Line Manager at CAD Schroer. "When we designed the new user interface, we concentrated on improving everything that matters to a user. The new design ensures that MEDUSA4 meets modern hardware requirements, today and going forwards. The application is now more intuitive than ever, which naturally makes it very easy to learn. It is simply more fun to work with the software because everything is so natural."A free trial version of the MEDUSA4 R6 CAD software is available for downloadErgonomic design for fun and productivityThe new MEDUSA4 R6 not only looks modern, but is also very comfortable to work with. Design times are reduced because existing functions have been refined and a dashboard has been included in the user interface. The clearly organised dashboard, which is always related to the task in hand, is available at all times and enables assignments to be completed much faster. In the arrangement of individual functions, particular emphasis has been placed on shortening mouse paths and on greater automation. The menus in MEDUSA4 can now be modified by each user, which in turn further raises individual productivity.Perfect for specific needsEven the standard configuration of MEDUSA4 R6 provides an optimum CAD solution for all design requirements. That is further enhanced by the industry-specific modules that can be added to the standard packages. However, every company is different and each department has its own remit that does not always fit into a standard template. The latest generation of MEDUSA4 is able to cater precisely for these specific needs; the software architecture provides great flexibility and plenty of room for integration or automation.Trial version: experience MEDUSA4 R6 liveCAD Schroer is releasing a new generation of MEDUSA4 software across the globe with immediate effect. MEDUSA4 R6 can be simply downloaded from the Internet. Everyone can now experience the latest generation of the CAD software at first hand and get an idea of the many new features contained in MEDUSA4 R6. Video tutorials are available for CAD beginners. MEDUSA4 steps into a new generation with the R6. The latest MEDUSA4 R6 is in all respects a completely optimised, highly improved, version of the CAD software which has proved itself throughout the world. CAD Schroer has set clear standards in design, ergonomics and technology with its latest software generation and thus invests in the future of its customers.New generation of the MEDUSA4 R6 CAD software: presentation, market launch and price:Download the CAD software: free test version of MEDUSA4 R6:About CAD SchroerCAD Schroer is a global software development company and engineering solutions provider, helping to raise the productivity and competitiveness of customers working in manufacturing and plant design, including the automotive sector and its supply chain, the energy sector and public utilities. CAD Schroer has offices and subsidiaries throughout Europe and in the United States.CAD Schroers product portfolio includes 2D/3D CAD, plant design, factory layout and data management solutions. Customers in 39 countries rely on MEDUSA4, MPDS4 and STHENO/PRO to provide an efficient, flexible and integrated design environment for all phases of product or plant design  cutting costs while raising quality. CAD Schroer emphasises close customer partnerships and supports its clients objectives through extensive consultancy, training, development, software support and maintenance services.CAD Schroer UK Ltd2nd Floor Godwin HouseCastle ParkCambridgeCB3 0RAKate Pottle
ManageEngine Sets New Standard for Unified IT Monitoring

Dev Anand, Director of Product Management, ManageEngine

http://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/download.html

https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/

ManageEngine, the real-time IT management company, today announced the launch of OpManager Plus, the latest edition of its network management platform. OpManager Plus sets a new standard for unified IT monitoring with the industry's first EXE-level integration of five network management functions. With OpManager Plus, users get one application for NetFlow monitoring, configuration management, firewall log analysis and compliance, IP address management, and switch port management. The single OpManager Plus console provides in-depth visibility and control of all aspects of network management for faster troubleshooting.Most vendors offer disparate tools for various aspects of network management such as bandwidth management, firewall log analysis, configuration management and more. Though these tools can integrate with one another, they do not provide a holistic view and, therefore, make admins juggle between multiple tabs. Maintenance of all these different tools is also hectic because they require separate backups, service packs and licenses."IT administrators hate using multiple products as they are expensive and difficult to maintain," said DevAnand, director of product management at ManageEngine. "The integration provided by OpManager Plus makes network management simpler and smarter and helps IT teams do everything from a single console. Integrated modules with a common database allow further data integration, helping admins find missing data and mitigate network issues in real time. As the new OpManager Plus is just one piece of software, maintenance tasks such as upgrades and backups are easier than ever."The All-in-One AdvantageOpManager Plus is the first network management solution to provide a single application - a single EXE - that integrates five different network management modules and the data those modules generate. In turn, the router performance snapshot page, for instance, now includes flow-based traffic and configuration management data, which helps admins decide whether the issue is because of the bandwidth or the recent configuration change, without switching tabs.The data integration also extends to dashboards and business views. Dashboards now show real-time bandwidth utilization, recent completed configuration changes, compliance violations and much more. Business views now also add flow-based traffic data combined with the health status of the devices and links.The single product, single console design of OpManager Plus increases IT teams' visibility and control over their network and enables real-time troubleshooting. OpManager Plus includes the following network management modules: NetFlow monitoring module - provides visibility into network traffic by analyzing NetFlow, sFlow, jFlow, IP FIX and other flows. It identifies top bandwidth consumers by device, application and user. Firewall management module - collects, archives and analyzes all firewall logs for auditing and compliance. It tracks user activities and bandwidth consumption and triggers alerts to admins if blocked sites are accessed. Configuration management module - backs up, restores, pushes and reverts configurations on network devices, with no device login required. It issues notifications via email and SMS for unauthorized configuration changes. IP address management module - manages IPv4 and IPv6 addresses for free space and availability. It tracks the entire history of an IP address, including the devices to which it was allocated.In addition to its all-in-one design, OpManager Plus features end-user-centric bandwidth analysis. This feature is released as a beta version and lets admins track all personally-owned devices (BYOD) that end users connect to the office network. Admins can also monitor the app-related bandwidth consumed by those devices. This provides increased granular visibility into employee bandwidth consumption.Another feature of OpManager Plus is simplified upgrades and maintenance. With all network modules integrated within a single application, OpManager Plus streamlines maintenance activities. Tasks such as backup, upgrade and licensing need to be performed one time, for one application, rather than several times, for several modules.OpManager Plus introduces the latest generation of the Fluidic user interface. Along with its snapshot pages, dashboards and business views, the new UI further improves usability with common settings, search, inventory, alarms and reports across all OpManager Plus modules.Pricing and AvailabilityOpManager Plus is available for immediate download atPricing starts at $995 for a 25 pack. The pack includes 25 licenses to monitor devices for performance, 25 interfaces for analyzing bandwidth, 25 devices for configuration management, 1 firewall for log analysis and archiving, 250 IPs for IP address management, and 250 switch ports for switch port management.About OpManager PlusManageEngineOpManager Plus is the world's first truly integrated network management platform that helps large enterprises and SMEs manage their networks and IT infrastructure efficiently and cost effectively. It tightly integrates network monitoring, server monitoring, bandwidth monitoring, firewall management, network configuration management, and IP address and switch port management in a single EXE, thereby making network management simpler and smarter. Unified dashboards, snapshot pages, alarm views and business views carry forward the integrated data and offer increased visibility and great control to help admins identify and resolve network issues quickly. For more information on OpManager Plus, please visitManageEngine delivers the real-time IT management tools that empower IT teams to meet organizational needs for real-time services and support. Worldwide, established and emerging enterprises - including more than 60 percent of the Fortune 500 - rely on ManageEngine products to ensure the optimal performance of their critical IT infrastructure, including networks, servers, applications, desktops and more. ManageEngine is a division of Zoho Corporation with offices worldwide, including the United States, India, Singapore, Japan and China.Condrad Office, Spider Business- E9Sheikh Zayed roadShaina D'souza0502531818shaina@oakconsulting.biz
iQsim introduces the M250, the first ever 3G/4G Mobile Gateway

M250 Mobile Gateway

www.iqsim.com

Miami Coral Gables (FL), USA - iQsim announces today the launch of its new 4/8 ports 3G Mobile Gateway, the M250, a Mobile Gateway for Call termination and Bulk SMS applications.iQsims M250 is ideal for in-vehicle or residential houses field deployment and is the first ever Mobile Gateway with internet access over LTE.The M250 Gateway is a compact size, fan-less GSM Gateway with up to 8 UMTS/3G ports and embeds ViBE client for VPN and optimized ASR/ACD. Internet connectivity is provided by two Ethernet ports or a 4G/ LTE connection.The termination market is in constant evolutions, our R&D team is working hard to innovate and keep iQsim as the leader manufacturer on this market segment: Last december, we announced the support of HBS Data in our SIM Server, today we are launching the M250 which is really the gateway the market is asking for says Philippe Bessaguet, CEO.Compact, Fan-less, Internet connection over LTE, Termination with premium-class 3G modems: this is really the first ever true mobile gateway on the market. With the M250, iQsim is still a step-ahead of all competitors Philippe said.The M250 inherits all features from the well-known M400 gateway and is fully compatible with iQsims SIM Server, IRON Suite, for SIM cards management.IRON Suite controls SIM Allocation, SIM usage and SIM protection to ensure the SIM cards longevity and security.We have very good feedback from our customers: The M250 gateway size, the weight (1.25 kg) are very convenient for logistics, importation and deployment says Yvon Le Gall, VP SalesEvery day we discuss with our customers to understand their needs, difficulties, ideas: this is key to drive our evolutions, new products . We are committed to their success which is our success! Yvon says.iQsims new M250 will be presented at the AWC show in Miami this week and at ITW in Chicago later in May.About iQsimiQsim is manufacturer of mobile communication routers and leader in virtual SIM card technologies.iQsim mobile routers combined with IRON Suite software provide innovative solutions for call termination, bulk SMS, mobile testing.The company is headquartered in Sophia-Antipolis (France) and also has offices in Paris (France), London (U.K) and Sao Paulo (Brazil).For further information, visit iQsim websiteIQSIM2000 Route des Lucioles - Les Algorithmes Aristote A06410 BIOTFRANCEContact Information :salescampaign@iqsim.comTel : +33 497041930
Emerging Opportunities in Heat Pumps Market with Current Trends Analysis

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-480

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-480

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Future Market Insights has announced the addition of the Heat Pumps Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2015-2025" report to their offering.Increasing development in the construction industry along with complying strict building requirements by governments is boosting the growth in demand for Heat Pumps market. It is a device used to transfer heat from one place to another. Depending upon the climatic condition, it transfers heat from outdoors into building and vice-versa during hot weather. Various heat pump application includes, sanitary hot water heating, space cooling, dehumidification, heat recovery and space heating. Owing to its high operating efficiency and lower maintenance cost, it acts as an eco-friendly substitute for cooling and heating residential, commercial and industrial buildings. On the other hand, CO2 heat pumps have witnessed a significant rise in commercial and residential sector due to its ozone and climate friendly feature.Heat pumps Market: Drivers & RestraintsGlobal heat pump market is driven by growing demand of technology using renewable energy resources and emitting less CO2. In short, industry shift towards green technology is the latest trend in the global heat pump industry. Increasing investments, government policies, rising prices for oil and natural gas are the major factors driving the growth in heat pump market. However, the growth in the market is impacted by lack of consumer awareness, disruptive and expensive to install in existing property along with social and technical difficulties are restraints in global heat pump market.Request Free Report Sample@Heat Pumps Market: SegmentationHeat pumps can be segmented on the basis of technology such as, CO2 segment, Gas driven segment and Hybrid segment, all can be further sub-segmented into end user sector viz., commercial, industrial and residential. On the basis of type, heat pump can be segmented as Ground source heat pump, Air to air heat pump and Air to water heat pump. Volume sales of air to water heat pumps are expected to grow rapidly and hold the largest market share in the forecasted duration. Air to water heat pump global market is expected to grow with CAGR in a range 10-14 percentage.Heat Pump Market: Region-wise OutlookThe global heat pump market is geographically segmented into seven key regions: North America, South America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan and Middle East & Africa. Europe holds the major share in global heat pump market, followed by North America and Asia Pacific. Asia-Pacific market is the fastest growing market and is expected to maintain its growth in global heat pump market during the forecast period.Visit For TOC@Heat Pump Market: Key PlayersSome of the major players in the global heat pump market include Viessmann Group, Danfoss Group Global, Carrier Corporation, The Glen Dimplex Group, StiebelEltron, Bosch Thermotechnik GmbH, Panasonic Corporation, Mitsubishi Electric, NIBE energy systems, Geothermal International Ltd (GI), DeLonghi-Climaveneta, Airwell Group, and Enertech Group.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 OLED Automotive Lighting Market 2016 Industry Trend, Share, Opportunities and Forecast to 2021

OLED Automotive Lighting Market

http://goo.gl/nz9ge0

http://goo.gl/JWxEsI

http://goo.gl/pFf2wV

http://goo.gl/pFf2wV

http://www.qyresearchgroup.com

http://www.pdf.qyresearchgroup.com

Global OLED Automotive Lighting Industry 2016The new research report, titled Global OLED Automotive Lighting Market 2016 provides an analytical view of the global OLED Automotive Lighting Market, with key focus on the industry performance as exhibited in China. The publication is compiled to present an executive level blueprint of the market, which enumerates the factors impacting the OLED Automotive Lighting market dynamics in detail. The demand and supply forces sketching the growth trajectory of the market is studied extensively. The report also draws refined growth forecasts for the market based on the information sourced from primary and secondary research.The publication evaluates the factors contributing to the growth of the market and presents accurate historical statistics and data charting with respect to each segment of the OLED Automotive Lighting market over the forecast period. It profiles the leading market players, and estimates how their sales policies have contributed to shaping the market dynamics. Competitive landscape analysis and development status analysis is conducted so that the report may include a 360 degree overview of the global OLED Automotive Lighting market.In a coherent chapter-wise format the report evaluates the market growth drivers, key restraints, and potential growth opportunities. The information is logically interspersed graphical representation and inforgraphs to substantiate the facts mentioned. To present a comprehensive overview, the report classifies the global OLED Automotive Lighting market on the basis of individual product types, applications, end-use industries, and key geographic regions. Role played by emerging economies in the expansion of the market is also studied in detail by the report.Other factors such as government plans and policies impacting the development trend of the market are also evaluated by the report. For an in-depth analysis, the report evaluates the strengths, weakness, and opportunities exhibited by the OLED Automotive Lighting market using industry leading analytical tools such as SWOT analysis and Porters Five Force analysis.Download FREE Sample Report @Table of Content1 Industry Overview1.1 Definition and Specifications of OLED Automotive Lighting1.2 Classification of OLED Automotive Lighting1.3 Applications of OLED Automotive Lighting1.4 Industry Chain Structure of OLED Automotive Lighting1.5 Industry Regional Overview of OLED Automotive Lighting1.6 Industry Policy Analysis of OLED Automotive Lighting1.7 Industry News Analysis of OLED Automotive Lighting2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of OLED Automotive Lighting2.1 Raw Material Suppliers and Price Analysis of OLED Automotive Lighting2.2 Equipment Suppliers and Price Analysis of OLED Automotive Lighting2.3 Labor Cost Analysis of OLED Automotive Lighting2.4 Other Costs Analysis of OLED Automotive Lighting2.5 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of OLED Automotive Lighting2.6 Manufacturing Process Analysis of OLED Automotive Lighting3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Key Manufacturers in 20143.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Key OLED Automotive Lighting Manufacturers in 20143.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global OLED Automotive Lighting Key Manufacturers in 20143.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global OLED Automotive Lighting Key Manufacturers in 2014Read Report in PDF Format @4 Production Analysis of OLED Automotive Lighting by Regions, Technology, and Applications4.1 Global Production of OLED Automotive Lighting by Regions (US, EU, China, Japan, etc.) 2010-20154.2 Global Production of OLED Automotive Lighting by Technology 2010-20154.3 Global Production of OLED Automotive Lighting by Applications 2010-20154.4 Price Analysis of Global OLED Automotive Lighting Key Manufacturers in 20154.5 US Capacity, Production, Price, Cost and Revenue of OLED Automotive Lighting 2010-20154.6 EU Capacity, Production, Price, Cost and Revenue of OLED Automotive Lighting 2010-20154.7 Japan Capacity, Production, Price, Cost and Revenue of OLED Automotive Lighting 2010-20154.8 China Capacity, Production, Price, Cost and Revenue of OLED Automotive Lighting 2010-20154.9 US Supply, Import, Export and Consumption of OLED Automotive Lighting 2010-20154.10 EU Supply, Import, Export and Consumption of OLED Automotive Lighting 2010-20154.11 Japan Supply, Import, Export and Consumption of OLED Automotive Lighting 2010-20154.12 China Supply, Import, Export and Consumption of OLED Automotive Lighting 2010-20155 Sales and Revenue Analysis of OLED Automotive Lighting by Regions5.1 Global Sales of OLED Automotive Lighting by Regions (US, EU, China, Japan, etc.) 2010-20155.2 Global Revenue of OLED Automotive Lighting by Regions (US, EU, China, Japan, etc.) 2010-20155.3 Global Price Analysis of OLED Automotive Lighting Sales by Regions (US, EU, China, Japan, etc.) 2010-20155.4 Global Price, Cost and Gross of OLED Automotive Lighting 2010-20156 Analysis of OLED Automotive Lighting Production, Supply, Sales and Market Status 2010-20156.1 Capacity and Production of OLED Automotive Lighting 2010-20156.2 Production Market Share Analysis of OLED Automotive Lighting 2010-20156.3 Sales Overview of OLED Automotive Lighting 2010-20156.4 Supply, Sales and Shortage of OLED Automotive Lighting 2010-20156.5 Import, Export and Consumption of OLED Automotive Lighting 2010-20156.6 Cost, Price, Revenue and Gross Margin of OLED Automotive Lighting 2010-20157 Analysis of OLED Automotive Lighting Industry Key Manufacturers7.1 Osram (Germany)7.1.1 Company Profile7.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications7.1.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue7.1.4 Contact Information7.2 LG Chem (S. Korea)7.2.1 Company Profile7.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications7.2.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue7.2.4 Contact Information7.3 Philips (Netherlands)7.3.1 Company Profile7.3.2 Product Picture and Specifications7.3.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue7.3.4 Contact Information7.4 Konica Minolta (Japan)7.4.1 Company Profile7.4.2 Product Picture and Specifications7.4.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue7.4.4 Contact Information7.5 Astron Fiamm (France)7.5.1 Company Profile7.5.2 Product Picture and Specifications7.5.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue7.5.4 Contact Information7.6 Hella (Germany)7.6.1 Company Profile7.6.2 Product Picture and Specifications7.6.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue7.6.4 Contact Information7.7 Sumitomo (Japan)7.7.1 Company Profile7.7.2 Product Picture and Specifications7.7.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue7.7.4 Contact InformationGet Complete Report with FULL TOC @8 Price and Gross Margin Analysis8.1 Analysis of Price, Supply and Consumption8.1.1 Price Analysis8.1.2 Supply Analysis8.2 Gross Margin Analysis8.3 Price Comparison by Regions8.4 Price Analysis of Different OLED Automotive Lighting Product Types8.5 Market Share Analysis of Different OLED Automotive Lighting Price Levels8.6 Gross Margin Analysis of Different OLED Automotive Lighting Applications9 Marketing Trader or Distributor Analysis of OLED Automotive Lighting9.1 Marketing Channels Status of OLED Automotive Lighting9.2 Traders or Distributors of OLED Automotive Lighting with Contact Information9.3 Ex-work Price, Channel Price and End Buyer Price Analysis of OLED Automotive Lighting9.4 Regional Import, Export and Trade Analysis of OLED Automotive Lighting10 Development Trend of OLED Automotive Lighting Industry 2015-202010.1 Capacity and Production Overview of OLED Automotive Lighting 2015-202010.2 Production Market Share Analysis of OLED Automotive Lighting 2015-202010.3 Sales Overview of OLED Automotive Lighting 2015-202010.4 Supply, Sales, and Shortage of OLED Automotive Lighting 2015-202010.5 Import, Export and Consumption of OLED Automotive Lighting 2015-202010.6 Cost, Price, Revenue and Gross Margin of OLED Automotive Lighting 2015-202011 Industry Chain Suppliers of OLED Automotive Lighting with Contact Information11.1 Major Raw Materials Suppliers of OLED Automotive Lighting with Contact Information11.2 Manufacturing Equipment Suppliers of OLED Automotive Lighting with Contact Information11.3 Major Suppliers of OLED Automotive Lighting with Contact Information11.4 Key Consumers of OLED Automotive Lighting with Contact Information11.5 Supply Chain Relationship Analysis of OLED Automotive Lighting12 New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis of OLED Automotive Lightin12.1 New Project SWOT Analysis of OLED Automotive Lighting12.2 New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis of OLED Automotive Lighting13 Conclusion of the Global OLED Automotive Lighting Industry Report 2015Read More @About QYResearch Group: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:Web:Email: sales@qyresearchgroup.com
Good Growth Opportunities in Global Low Voltage Motor Market Till 2025, Finds New Research Report

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1071

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-1071

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Future Market Insights has announced the addition of the Low Voltage Motor Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2015 - 2025" report to their offering.The low voltage motors are extensively being used in several industries such as mining, food & beverages, oil & gas, automotive, packaging etc., driven by the profuse growth in industrialization and steadily rising demand for energy across the globe. These are the motors that run at voltages less than 1000 V and generate maximum power that aid to improve productivity, quality and save the energy.Various motor efficiency legislations which have been enacted all over the world, are likely to drive the global low voltage motor market during the forecast period. According to these legislations, more expensive and more energy efficient motors are mandated to manufacturers.The global low voltage market is forecasted to grow with a single digit CAGR during the forecast period and is anticipated to hold a strong potential in coming 4-5 years. Most of the manufacturers are now focusing towards advanced technology and quality low voltage motors to enhance their production process which in turn had led to the increase in demand for the advanced low voltage motors.Global Low Voltage Motor Market: Drivers & RestraintsWith rise in technological advancement, increasing demand for machineries across the world and advantages offered by low voltage motors due to its efficient nature, the global low voltage motor market is anticipated to show the robust growth during the forecast period. The growing consumption of low voltage motors by end user industries will continue to drive the growth in low voltage market over the forecast period.Request Free Report Sample@In addition, stringent motor efficiency legislation and retrofits due to aging equipment are expected to impact the global low voltage motor market in a positive way.Global Low Voltage Motor Market: Market SegmentationOn the basis of product type the global low voltage motor market is segmented into four typesIE1IE2IE3IE4On the basis of end use industry the global low voltage motor market is segmented into six typesAutomotiveMiningElectronicsTextileFood & BeveragesOthersVisit For TOC@Global Low Voltage Motor Market: Regional OutlookDepending on geographic regions, global low voltage motor market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan, and Middle East & Africa. As of 2014, Asia pacific dominated the global low voltage motor market owing to the growing consumption of low voltage motors by automotive and electronics industry, in this region. In addition, China is the largest country market for low voltage motor in Asia Pacific and is poised to show strong opportunities for low voltage motors in near future. After Asia Pacific North America is projected to show the vigorous growth in global low voltage motor market, especially due to the increasing demand of low voltage motors in countries like US and Canada, during the forecast period.Global Low Voltage Motor Market: Market PlayersSome of the major players operating in global low voltage motor market are ABB, TECO-Westinghouse Motor Company, Siemens, Hyosung Power and Industrial Systems Performance Group, Anhui Wannan Electric Machine, ATB Group, Leroy Somer, LEZ Ruselprom, Luan JiangHuai, NIDEC, Regal Beloit, Shandong Huali Electric Motor Group, GE Industrial, Toshiba International, WEG, VEM Group, 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:
FMI Releases New Report on the Material Handling Equipment Market 2014-2020

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-296

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-296

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/material-handling-equipment-market

Future Market Insights has announced the addition of the Material Handling Equipment Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2014 - 2020" report to their offering.The importance of material handling equipment is growing exponential among industries such as aerospace, agriculture, automotive, etc., as managing the manufacturing plant or warehouse has become an essential operation to look for. Material handling involves, managing the storage and movement of good & products in the warehouse or manufacturing plant. Material handling increases the productivity by improving the logistics in the manufacturing plant.Material handling equipment are required in warehouse or manufacturing plant for quick movement of goods or products, locating stock, preparing orders and localizing stock. Need of optimum utilization of equipment, demand for flexibility in warehouse operations, customer satisfaction, supply chain transparency, vision guided robotics, to reduce excessive downtime at warehouse, growing automation and technology advancements in material handling equipment are driving the market for global material handling equipment market. The global material handling equipment market growth is inhibited due to growing material handling equipment prices, rising steel prices and lack of skilled labor.Request Free Report Sample@Different types available in material handling equipment market are conveying equipment, bucket conveyor, screw conveyer, vibrating conveyer, roller conveyer, magnetic belt conveyer, chain conveyer, platform truck, walkie stacker, pallet jack, platform truck, etc. The global material handling market can be segmented on the basis of product type such as conveying equipment, industrial trucks & lifts, hoist, cranes & monorails and automated material handling equipment. Many industries use material handling equipment to increase their productivity and accuracy.The global material handling equipment market is segmented on the basis of end use industries such as Aerospace, Agriculture, Air Cargo, Automotive, Building and Construction, Electrical & Electronic Equipment, Industrial Machinery, Shipping Industry, Warehousing, Postal/Express Delivery and others.Currently, these industries are experiencing steady growth in regions like Asia Pacific, Europe and North America.Currently, global material handling equipment market is dominated by Asia Pacific region, whichis estimated to capture 30-40% of the global material handling equipment market value. Asia Pacific is followed by Europe and North America. Global material handling equipment market is expected to grow at a CAGR between 3-6% from 2014-2020, and in future, Asia Pacific is forecast to continue its dominance in global material handling equipment market, due to expected growth in end use industries.Visit For TOC@Global material handling equipment market has key players mainly from North America, Western Europe, Japan and China. Some of the key players in this industry are Liebherr Group, KION Group AG, Jungheinrich AG, Viastore Systems GmbH, WITRON Logistik + Informatik GmbH, Eisenmann AG, Beumer Maschinenfabrik GmbH, Jervis B. Webb Company, Columbus McKinnon Corporation, Crown Equipment Corporation, Hyster-Yale Materials Handling, Inc., Hytrol Conveyor Co., Inc., Manitowoc Company, Inc., Xuzhou Heavy Machinery Co., Ltd. And Toyota Industries Corporation.Currently, global material handling equipment market is experiencing consolidation between industry players. For example, in 2013, Interroll acquired Portec Group International, Kalmar acquired Mareiport, Toyota industries acquired Cascade in 2012. Companies are also entering into strategic partnerships in material handling equipment market, for instance, in 2014, Liebherr and Kamaz entered in strategic partnership.Full Report Analysis@Global material handling equipment market is experiencing increasing automation, safety and productivity. Companies are focusing on innovating equipment based on above three factors and as per customer requirements. In Future, we expect to see emergence of high control methodologies in material handling equipment market. Integration of electronic intelligence with material handling equipment is expected to change the global material handling equipment market during next 5-6 years.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
Somerset Offshore Asset Management Your Financial Planning Advice

Somerset Offshore Asset Management was born out of the passion of its founding partners to provide financial guidance to high net worth individuals, families, non-profit organizations and company retirement plans.Our goal is to take the accumulated wealth of experience of our team, our years of academic research and our decades of hands-on experience to help our clients nurture and protect their wealth.As a firm based within the vibrant and thrilling financial hub of Beijing, we are strategically located to take advantage of opportunities in a timely and effective manner.We also strive to go beyond being just being another Wealth Manager. We at Somerset Offshore Asset Management are your "Personal Financial Advocate", helping you make consistently smart financial choices. We accomplish this by weighing each financial decision within the context of your overall financial roadmap. This strategy is simple yet profound - the greater the number of prudent financial choices you make, the more quickly you will get to where you want to be.Our mission is to present the most sound, unbiased financial planning advice available.The fact that we are not attached to any brokerage-promoted investment products or any of their ultimate providers ensures that each and every unique roadmap we formulate is absolutely devoid of any conflict of interest. This ultimately translates to a 100% custom-tailored solution for you.Our intimate approach to financial design helps you purposefully build and implement a roadmap that lets your wealth work for you. We offer a variety of flexible solutions deliberately and precisely addressing the complex financial and investment requirements of high-net-worth individuals, giving you the confidence necessary to live securely, fully, and purposefully.Marunouchi Park Building, 2-6-1 Marunouchi,Chiyoda-Ku, Tokyo 100-8222, Japan
WebRTC Market - Segments, Dynamics, Size and Forecast (2015 - 2021)

WebRTC Market

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/7987

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/contact-us.asp

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC) is an internet browser interface which enables real-time communication between two internet browsers. WebRTC enables peer to peer audio, video and data communication between the browsers without plugins. This key functionality of WebRTC not only reduces the time required but also makes the process easy for a non-technical user since WebRTC requires no plugins, frameworks or applications. The browsers use Session Description Protocol (SDP) to establish a connection for data transfer. WebRTC is using JavaScript Application Programming Interface (APIs) and HTML5 for embedded communication within the browsers. However, WebRTC is an emerging platform that is anticipated to have significant impact on the communication between browsers in near future.WebRTC is available for free and is accessible worldwide which is the key growth driver of this market. Moreover, WebRTC is platform and device independent which would help to attract global audience. Further, it provides better video and voice quality with advanced security and other operational features. WebRTC can adapt to various network conditions and is interoperable with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Unified Communications (UC) solutions which is expected to help companies to easily integrate it with their existing infrastructure. WebRTC provides a bright solution for customer facing businesses. As this communication is real time, WebRTC provides audio visual solutions without any cost. Retail and healthcare are two industries with high demand for WebRTC as direct communication with end users or customers is of immense importance in these industries.One key restraint associated with the use of WebRTC is that it uses internet platform which is a public domain and thus, the quality of service cannot be guaranteed all the time. Use of Internet could result in privacy issues as it is still not clear how WebRTC manages the security and privacy. Further, integration is another key challenge associated with WebRTC. Organizations could face problems in integrating and adapting the WebRTC to their current system. WebRTC is currently not supported on Microsoft Internet Explorer. Thus, there are a number of complexities linked with WebRTC however, technological advancements are anticipated to eliminate these challenges in near future.Interested in report: Please follow the below links to meet your requirements;Request for the Report Brochure: persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/7987With WebRTC nearing its completion, organizations especially the consumer facing entities are expected to use this technology in near future across all platforms. WebRTC is an emerging industry standard for audio and video communication through a web browser. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) decided that browser makers should implement VP8 and H.264 video codecs. WebRTC is of huge importance for call centers and customer care centers, where direct communication is happening between a company representative and the end user or customer. WebRTC can simplify this communication further and increase the level of customer satisfaction. Companies are integrating WebRTC into their websites to enhance the overall user experience.Request TOC (table of content), Figures and Tables of the Report:Some of the major players in the global WebRTC market are Google Inc., Facebook, Inc., Citrix Systems, Inc., TokBox Inc., Sinch AB, Twilio, Inc., WIRE SWISS GmbH, Talko Inc., Screenhero, Inc., and Comcast Corporation etc.For more info:Key points covered in the report1) Report segments the market on the basis of types, application, products, technology, etc (as applicable)2) The report covers geographic segmentationNorth AmericaEuropeAsiaRoW3) The report provides the market size and forecast for the different segments and geographies for the period of 2010 to 20204) The report provides company profiles of some of the leading companies operating in the market5) The report also provides porters five forces analysis of the market.ContactPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United StatesUSA - Canada Toll Free: +1 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States
Globe(World) Sofa-beds Industry Analysis, Consumer Demands, Huge Sales 2016 Market Forecasts, Emerging Growth & Global Trends

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=640849&type=E

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-sofabeds-industry-2016-market-research-report.htm

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/category/furniture-market-reports-165.html

The global Sofa-beds market, as explained in this research report, can be a provider of various opportunities as well as the place where unique challenges can exist. The report therefore aims to provide its readers a fair chance of understanding the numerous trends in the market and market dynamics at a greater level. The approach of the researchers for this report is based primarily on precision. It has enabled the research team to build a meaningful document about the global Sofa-beds market in the most descriptive manner possible. The report also utilizes SWOT analysis, along with Porters five forces analysis, to highlight the key elements in the market. The report additionally offers analysis of the global Sofa-beds market with respect to its political, environmental, social, technological, legal, and economic aspects.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The report uses various proven market research and measurement tools. They allow the research team to provide a detailed examination of the global Sofa-beds market and aid readers and market players in making informed investment and business choices. The detailed format of the report gives a market perspective on a macroscopic as well as microscopic scale. It collates primary and secondary research in order to do so. The researchers have studied the historical data and compared it with the current market scenario to map a trajectory of the global Sofa-beds market for the near future.The report also provides an analysis of the regulatory framework associated to the global Sofa-beds market and, through it, provides details regarding the impact of key policies on the growth rate of various market segments. The segmentation provided in the research report on the basis of key criteria allows the readers to understand the specific drivers and restraints.Browse Complete Report with TOC @Table of ContentsChapter One Sofa-beds Industry Overview1.1 Sofa-beds Definition1.1.1 Sofa-beds Product Pictures & Product Specifications1.2 Sofa-beds Classification & ApplicationChapter Two Sofa-beds Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis2.1 Sofa-beds Raw Material & Equipments Supplier and Price Analysis2.3 Sofa-beds Labor & Other Cost Analysis2.5 Sofa-beds Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis2.6 Sofa-beds Manufacturing Process AnalysisChapter Three Sofa-beds Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis3.1 2016 Global Key Manufacturers Sofa-beds Capacity and Commercial Production Date3.2 2016 Global Key Manufacturers Sofa-beds Manufacturing Plants Distribution3.3 2016 Global Key Manufacturers Sofa-beds R&D Status and Technology Sources3.4 2016 Global Key Manufacturers Sofa-beds Raw Materials Sources AnalysisFind More Reports on Furniture @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: qyresearchreports.comEmail: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Emission Control Catalyst Market Size Expected To Reach $21.5 billion By 2022: Acute Market Reports

http://www.acutemarketreports.com/category/market-research

http://www.acutemarketreports.com/

http://www.briskinsights.com/report/nitric-acid-market

According to Stratistics MRC, the Global Emission Control Catalyst market accounted for $10.61 billion in 2015 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.6% to reach $21.5 billion by 2022. Increasing automotive fleet and strict environmental policies that have been adopted by various governments and environmental protection agencies are the major driving factors for the market growth. There is increasing usage of palladium in automotive emission control due to less cost, availability and performance advantages.Due to severe emission standards and economic development in the region, the market is expected to witness a highest growth rate in Asia Pacific. The key factors such as cost optimization are anticipated to propel the emission control catalyst market in Asia Pacific. The market growth in North America is due to the huge number of automobiles and industries existing in the region, particularly in the U.S.Browse full report with TOC @ acutemarketreports.com/report/emission-control-catalyst-global-market-outlook-2015-2022Some of the key players in the emission control catalyst market include Clariant International Ltd., BASF Catalysts LLC, KATCON Global, AeriNox, Inc., Johnson Matthey PLC, DCL International Inc., Eastern Manufacturing Inc., Cormetech Inc., Bosal Nederland B.V., Tenneco Inc, AirTek Inc, Bastuck GmbH &Co., and Tenneco Inc.Product Types Covered: Palladium Platinum Rhodium OthersApplications Covered: Automotive Industrial OthersView all reports of this category @What our report offers:- Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments- Market share analysis of the top industry players- Strategic recommendations for the new entrants- Market forecasts for a minimum of 7 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional markets- Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)- Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations- Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends- Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments- Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancementsFor More Information Click Here -About Acute Market ReportsAcute Market Reports is the most sufficient collection of market intelligence services online. It is your only source that can fulfill all your market research requirements. Acute Market Reports provide online reports from over 100 best publishers and upgrade Acute Market Reports collection regularly to offer you direct online access to the worlds most comprehensive and recent database with expert perceptions on worldwide industries, products, establishments and trends. Acute Market Reports database consists of 200,000+ market research reports with detailed & minute market research.Contact:Chris PaulOffice No 01, 1st Floor,Aditi Mall, Baner, Pune,MH, 411045 IndiaPhone (India): +91 7755981103Toll Free (US/Canada): +1-855-455-8662Email: sales@acutemarketreports.comFor Related Market Research Reports VisitAcute Market Reports is the most sufficient collection of market intelligence services online. It is your only source that can fulfill all your market research requirements. Acute Market Reports provide online reports from over 100 best publishers and upgrade Acute Market Reports collection regularly to offer you direct online access to the worlds most comprehensive and recent database with expert perceptions on worldwide industries, products, establishments and trends. Acute Market Reports database consists of 200,000+ market research reports with detailed & minute market research.Office No 01, 1st Floor,Aditi Mall, Baner, Pune,MH, 411045 India
Global Industrial Robot Market 2016 Industry Trends, Sales, Supply, Demand, Analysis & Forecast to 2021

Industrial Robot Market

http://www.qyresearchgroup.com/market-analysis/global-industrial-robot-market-2016-industry-trends-sales.html

http://www.qyresearchgroup.com/market-analysis/global-industrial-robot-market-2016-industry-trends-sales.html

http://www.qyresearchgroup.com

Global Industrial Robot Market 2016The report titled Global Industrial Robot Market 2016 is compiled to provide a comprehensive overview of the global Industrial Robot market. It studies the different factors driving or inhibiting the market growth for the forecast period between 2016 and 2021. The report analyzes the factors which the market can capitalize on to sustain growth and competitiveness in the near future.In a lucid chapter wise format interspersed with statistics and graphical representation the publication explains the present market dynamics and the different factors likely to impact the Industrial Robot market over the forecast period. The research draws attention to accurate historical data and how the market has progressed in the past few years to attain the present demography. Leading players operating in the market is profiled extensively by the report. The shares of key competitors are evaluated respectively to examine the competitive landscape and measure the overall size of the global Industrial Robot market.To present a detailed study on the market, the report gauges the impact of the demand and supply forces prevalent in the market, and examines how the same is likely to affect the future course of action of the leading market players. To begin with, the report defines the market and enumerates the market classification with regards to product types, applications, supply-chain network, end-use industries, and key geographic region to provide a basic overview of the Industrial Robot market.Plans, development policies, and initiatives adopted by the government and regulatory bodies of the key geographic regions are studied in detail to measure its overall impact in the market. Other information which the report states include export & import consumption, cost and pricing structure, revenue generated by the market over the forecast period, and gross margin. For a detailed competitive analysis the report profiles the prominent market players. The development status of the market is also studies in detail by the report.Get FREE SAMPLE copy of Report @ qyresearchgroup.com/report/52450#request-sampleTable of ContentChapter 1 industrial robot Industry Overview1.1 industrial robot Definition and Technical Specifications1.2 industrial robot Classification1.3 industrial robot Applications1.4 industrial robot Industry Chain Structure1.5 industrial robot Industry Overview1.6 industrial robot Industry Policy Analysis1.7 industrial robot Industry News AnalysisChapter 2 Global industrial robot Production, Supply (2013-2021)2.1 Production Analysis2.1.1 industrial robot Production (volume& value) Analysis (2013-2021)2.1.2 industrial robot Average Ex-factory (including tax and excluding freight) Price Analysis (2013-2021)2.1.3 industrial robot Production (volume) Market Share 2014-2015, Major Companies (Manufacturers)2.1.4 industrial robot Production (value) Market Share 2014-2015, Major Company (Manufacturers)2.1.5 industrial robot Production (volume) Market Share 2014-2015, by Different Types2.1.6 industrial robot Production (value) Market Share2014-2015, by Different Types2.1.7 industrial robot Production (volume) Market Share2014-2015, US EU China Japan Rest of the World2.1.8 industrial robot Production (value) Market Share2014-2015, US EU China Japan Rest of the World2.2 Sales (demand) Analysis2.2.1 industrial robot Sales (volume& value) Analysis (2013-2021)2.2.2 industrial robot Average Sales Price (Buyer purchasing price, including tax and freight) Analysis (2013-2021)2.2.3 industrial robot Sales (volume) Market Share 2014-2015, Major Demanding Company (Buyer)2.2.4 industrial robot Sales (value) Market Share 2014-2015, Major Demanding Company (Buyer)2.2.5 industrial robot Sales (volume) Market Share 2014-2015, Different Applications2.2.6 industrial robot Sales (value) Market Share 2014-2015, Different Applications2.2.7 industrial robot Sales (volume) Market Share 2014-2015, US EU China Japan Rest of the World2.2.8 industrial robot Sales (value) Market Share 2014-2015, US EU China Japan Rest of the World2.3 Supply-demand relation analysis (2013-2021)2.3.1 Global industrial robot Production, Supply (including stock from previous year), Sales (volume), Stock of the Same Year, Supply-Demand Relation Analysis2.3.2 US industrial robot Local Production, Supply (including stock from previous year+import), Sales (local consumption volume), Stock of the Same Year+Export, Supply-Demand Relation Analysis2.3.3 EU industrial robot Local Production, Supply (including stock from previous year+import), Sales (local consumption volume), Stock of the Same Year+Export, Supply-Demand Relation Analysis2.3.4 China industrial robot Local Production, Supply (including stock from previous year+import), Sales (local consumption volume), Stock of the Same Year+Export, Supply-Demand Relation Analysis2.3.5 Japan industrial robot Local Production, Supply (including stock from previous year+import), Sales (local consumption volume), Stock of the Same Year+Export, Supply-Demand Relation Analysis2.3.6 Rest of the World industrial robot Local Production, Supply (including stock from previous year+import), Sales (local consumption volume), Stock of the Same Year+Export, Supply-Demand Relation Analysis2.4 Price analysis2.4.1 industrial robot Ex-factory Price Analysis (Global Average Price of EU US Japan China and Rest of the World respectively 2013-2021)2.4.2 industrial robot Sales Price Analysis (Global Average Price of EU US Japan China and Rest of the World respectively 2013-2021)2.5 Production, Cost, Price, Production Value, Gross Margin Analysis2.6 Sales, Cost, Price, Revenue, Profit Margin AnalysisRead Report in PDF Format at - pdf.qyresearchgroup.com/market-analysis/global-industrial-robot-market-2016-industry-trends-sales.pdfChapter 3 US industrial robot Production Supply Sales and Demand Analysis (2013-2021)3.1 Production Analysis3.1.1 industrial robot Production (volume& value) Analysis (2013-2021)3.1.2 industrial robot Average Ex-factory (including tax and excluding freight) Price Analysis (2013-2021)3.1.3 industrial robot Production (volume) Market Share2014-2015, Major Companies (Manufacturers)3.1.4 industrial robot Production (value) Market Share2014-2015, Major Companies (Manufacturers)3.1.5 industrial robot Production (volume) Market Share2014-2015, Different Types and Specifications3.1.6 industrial robot Production (value) Market Share2014-2015, Different Types and Specifications3.2 Sales Analysis3.2.1 industrial robot Sales (volume& value) Analysis (2013-2021)3.2.2 industrial robot Average Sales Price (Buyer purchasing price, including tax and freight) Analysis (2013-2021)3.2.3 industrial robot Sales (volume) Market Share2014-2015, Major Sales Companies (Buyers)3.2.4 industrial robot Sales (value) Market Share2014-2015, Major Sales Companies (Buyers)3.2.5 industrial robot Sales (volume) Market Share2014-2015, Different Applications3.2.6 industrial robot Sales (value) Market Share2014-2015, Different Applications3.3 Supply-Demand Relation Analysis (2013-2021)3.3.1 US industrial robot Local Production, Supply (including stock from previous year+import),Sales(local consumption volume), Stock of the Same Year+Export, Supply-Demand Relation Analysis3.3.2 US industrial robot Supply-Demand Relation Analysis3.4 Price Analysis3.4.1 industrial robot Ex-factory Price Analysis (US Average2013-2021)3.4.2 industrial robot Sales Price Analysis (US Average2013-2021)3.5 Production, Cost, Price, Production Value, Gross Margin Analysis3.6 Sales, Cost, Price, Revenue, Profit Margin AnalysisChapter 4 EU industrial robot Production Supply Sales and Demand Analysis (2013-2021)4.1 Production Analysis4.1.1 industrial robot Production (volume& value) Analysis (2013-2021)4.1.2 industrial robot Average Ex-factory (including tax and excluding freight) Price Analysis (2013-2021)4.1.3 industrial robot Production (volume) Market Share2014-2015, Major Companies (Manufacturers)4.1.4 industrial robot Production (value) Market Share2014-2015, Major Companies (Manufacturers)4.1.5 industrial robot Production (volume) Market Share2014-2015, Different Types and Specifications4.1.6 industrial robot Production (value) Market Share2014-2015, Different Types and Specifications4.1.7 industrial robot Production (volume) Market Share of 2014-2015, Germany France UK Rest of EU4.1.8 industrial robot Production (value) Market Share2014-2015, Germany France UK Rest of EU4.2 Sales Analysis4.2.1 industrial robot Sales (volume& value) Analysis (2013-2021)4.2.2 industrial robot Average Sales Price (Buyer purchasing price, including tax and freight) Analysis (2013-2021)4.2.3 industrial robot Sales (volume) Market Share2014-2015, Major Sales Companies (Buyers)4.2.4 industrial robot Sales (value) Market Share2014-2015, Major Sales Companies (Buyers)4.2.5 industrial robot Sales (volume) Market Share2014-2015, Different Applications4.2.6 industrial robot Sales (value) Market Share2014-2015, Different Applications4.2.7 industrial robot Sales (volume) Market Share2014-2015, Germany France UK Rest of EU4.2.8 industrial robot Sales (value) Market Share2014-2015, Germany France UK Rest of EU4.3 Supply-Demand Relation Analysis (2013-2021)4.3.1 EU industrial robot Local Production, Supply (including stock from previous year+import), Sales (local consumption volume), Stock of the Same Year+Export, Supply-Demand Relation Analysis4.3.2 EU industrial robot Supply-Demand Relation Analysis4.4 Price Analysis4.4.1 industrial robot Ex-factory Price Analysis (EU Average Germany UK France Rest of EU 2013-2021)4.4.2 industrial robot Sales Price Analysis (EU Average Germany UK France Rest of EU 2013-2021)4.5 Production, Cost, Price, Production Value, Gross Margin Analysis4.6 Sales, Cost, Price, Revenue, Profit Margin AnalysisChapter 5 China industrial robot Production Supply Sales and Demand Analysis (2013-2021)5.1 Production Analysis5.1.1 industrial robot Production (volume& value) Analysis (2013-2021)5.1.2 industrial robot Average Ex-factory (including tax and excluding freight) Price Analysis (2013-2021)5.1.3 industrial robot Production (volume) Market Share2014-2015, Major Companies (Manufacturers)5.1.4 industrial robot Production (value) Market Share2014-2015, Major Companies (Manufacturers)5.1.5 industrial robot Production (volume) Market Share2014-2015, Different Types and Specifications5.1.6 industrial robot Production (value) Market Share2014-2015, Different Types and Specifications5.2 Sales Analysis5.2.1 industrial robot Sales (volume& value) Analysis (2013-2021)5.2.2 industrial robot Average Sales Price (Buyer purchasing price, including tax and freight) Analysis (2013-2021)5.2.3 industrial robot Sales (volume) Market Share2014-2015, Major Sales Companies (Buyers)5.2.4 industrial robot Sales (value) Market Share2014-2015, Major Sales Companies (Buyers)5.2.5 industrial robot Sales (volume) Market Share2014-2015, Different Applications5.2.6 industrial robot Sales (value) Market Share2014-2015, Different Applications5.3 Supply-Demand Relation Analysis (2013-2021)5.3.1 China industrial robot Local Production, Supply (including stock from previous year+import), Sales (local consumption volume), Stock of the Same Year+Export, Supply-Demand Relation Analysis5.3.2 China industrial robot Supply-Demand Relation Analysis5.4 Price Analysis5.4.1 industrial robot Ex-factory Price Analysis (China Average 2013-2021)5.4.2 industrial robot Sales Price Analysis (China Average 2013-2021)5.5 Production, Cost, Price, Production Value, Gross Margin Analysis5.6 Sales, Cost, Price, Revenue, Profit Margin AnalysisRead Full Report with Complete TOC @Chapter 6 Japan industrial robot Production Supply Sales and Demand Analysis (2013-2021)6.1 Production Analysis6.1.1 industrial robot Production (volume& value) Analysis (2013-2021)6.1.2 industrial robot Average Ex-factory (including tax and excluding freight) Price Analysis (2013-2021)6.1.3 industrial robot Production (volume) Market Share2014-2015, Major Companies (Manufacturers)6.1.4 industrial robot Production (value) Market Share2014-2015, Major Companies (Manufacturers)6.1.5 industrial robot Production (volume) Market Share2014-2015, Different Types and Specifications6.1.6 industrial robot Production (value) Market Share2014-2015, Different Types and Specifications6.2 Sales Analysis6.2.1 industrial robot Sales (volume& value) Analysis (2013-2021)6.2.2 industrial robot Average Sales Price (Buyer purchasing price, including tax and freight) Analysis (2013-2021)6.2.3 industrial robot Sales (volume) Market Share2014-2015, Major Sales Companies (Buyers)6.2.4 industrial robot Sales (value) Market Share2014-2015, Major Sales Companies (Buyers)6.2.5 industrial robot Sales (volume) Market Share2014-2015, Different Applications6.2.6 industrial robot Sales (value) Market Share2014-2015, Different Applications6.3 Supply-Demand Relation Analysis (2013-2021)6.3.1 Japan industrial robot Local Production, Supply (including stock from previous year+import), Sales (local consumption volume), Stock of the Same Year+Export, Supply-Demand Relation Analysis6.3.2 Japan industrial robot Supply-Demand Relation Analysis6.4 Price Analysis6.4.1 industrial robot Ex-factory Price Analysis (Japan Average 2013-2021)6.4.2 industrial robot Sales Price Analysis (Japan Average 2013-2021)6.5 Production, Cost, Price, Production Value, Gross Margin Analysis6.6 Sales, Cost, Price, Revenue, Profit Margin AnalysisChapter 7 Rest of the World industrial robot Production Supply Sales and Demand Analysis (2013-2021)7.1 Production Analysis7.1.1 industrial robot Production (volume& value) Analysis (2013-2021)7.1.2 industrial robot Average Ex-factory (including tax and excluding freight) Price Analysis (2013-2021)7.1.3 industrial robot Production (volume) Market Share2014-2015, Major Companies (Manufacturers)7.1.4 industrial robot Production (value) Market Share2014-2015, Major Companies (Manufacturers)7.1.5 industrial robot Production (volume) Market Share2014-2015, Different Types and Specifications7.1.6 industrial robot Production (value) Market Share2014-2015, Different Types and Specifications7.1.7 industrial robot Production (volume) Market Share2014-2015, India South Korea Brazil Australia and Other Regions7.1.8 industrial robot Production (value) Market Share2014-2015, India South Korea Brazil Australia and Other Regions7.2 Sales Analysis7.2.1 industrial robot Sales (volume& value) Analysis (2013-2021)7.2.2 industrial robot Average Sales Price (Buyer Purchasing Price, including tax and freight) Analysis (2013-2021)7.2.3 industrial robot Sales (volume) Market Share2014-2015, Major Sales Companies (Buyers)7.2.4 industrial robot Sales (value) Market Share2014-2015, Major Sales Companies (Buyers)7.2.5 industrial robot Sales (volume) Market Share2014-2015, Different Applications7.2.6 industrial robot Sales (value) Market Share2014-2015, Different Applications7.2.7 industrial robot Sales (volume) Market Share2014-2015, India South Korea Brazil Australia and Other Regions7.2.8 industrial robot Sales (value) Market Share2014-2015, India South Korea Brazil Australia and Other Regions7.3 Supply-Demand Relation Analysis (2013-2021)7.3.1 Rest of the World industrial robot Local Production, Supply (including stock from previous year+import), Sales (local consumption volume), Stock of the Same Year+Export, Supply-Demand Relation Analysis7.3.2 Rest of the World industrial robot Supply-Demand Relation Analysis7.4 Price Analysis7.4.1 industrial robot Ex-factory Price Analysis (Rest of the World Average India South Korea Brazil Australia and Others 2013-2021)7.4.2 industrial robot Sales Price Analysis (Rest of the World Average India South Korea Brazil Australia and Others 2013-2021)7.5 Production, Cost, Price, Production Value, Gross Margin Analysis7.6 Sales, Cost, Price, Revenue, Profit Margin AnalysisChapter 8 Different Specifications and Applications Analysis8.1 Different Specifications industrial robot Production (volume& value) Market Share 2014-2015, Major Companies (Manufacturers)8.2 Different Applications industrial robot Sales (volume& value) 2014-2015, Major Companies (Buyers)8.3 Different Specifications industrial robot Production (volume& value) EU US Japan China Rest of the World 2014-20158.4 Different Applications industrial robot Sales (volume value) EU US Japan China Rest of the World 2014-20158.5 Different Specifications industrial robot Price (Ex-factory Price) EU US Japan China Rest of the World 2014-20158.6 Different Applications industrial robot Price (purchasing price) EU US Japan China Rest of the World 2014-2015Chapter 9 Supplier (manufacturer), Distributor, Buyer (customer) Contact Information9.1 industrial robot Supplier (manufacturer) Company List and Contact Information9.2 industrial robot Distributor Company List and Contact Information9.3 industrial robot Buyer (customer) Company List and Contact InformationChapter 10 Manufacturer, Distributor, Downstream Client Companies Data Analysis10.1 industrial robot Production, Price, Cost, Production Value, Gross Margin Analysis of Major Manufacturers10.1.1 Company One10.1.1.1 Different Specifications and Price Analysis10.1.1.2 industrial robot Production, Price, Cost, Production Value, Gross Margin Analysis10.1.1.3 Contact Information10.2.1 Company Two10.2.1.1 Different Specifications and Price Analysis10.2.1.2 industrial robot Production, Price, Cost, Production Value, Gross Margin Analysis10.2.1.3 Contact Information10.3.1 Company Three10.3.1.1 Different Specifications and Price Analysis10.3.1.2 industrial robot Production, Price, Cost, Production Value, Gross Margin Analysis10.3.1.3 Contact Information10.4.1 Company Four10.4.1.1 Different Specifications and Price Analysis10.4.1.2 industrial robot Production, Price, Cost, Production Value, Gross Margin Analysis10.4.1.3 Contact Information10.5.1 Company Five10.5.1.1 Different Specifications and Price Analysis10.5.1.2 industrial robot Production, Price, Cost, Production Value, Gross Margin Analysis10.5.1.3 Contact Information10.6.1 Company Six10.6.1.1 Different Specifications and Price Analysis10.6.1.2 industrial robot Production, Price, Cost, Production Value, Gross Margin Analysis10.6.1.3 Contact Information10.7.1 Company Seven10.7.1.1 Different Specifications and Price Analysis10.7.1.2 industrial robot Production, Price, Cost, Production Value, Gross Margin Analysis10.7.1.3 Contact Information10.8.1 Company Eight10.8.1.1 Different Specifications and Price Analysis10.8.1.2 industrial robot Production, Price, Cost, Production Value, Gross Margin Analysis10.8.1.3 Contact Information10.9.1 Company Nine10.9.1.1 Different Specifications and Price Analysis10.9.1.2 industrial robot Production, Price, Cost, Production Value, Gross Margin Analysis10.9.1.3 Contact Information10.10.1 Company Ten10.10.1.1 Different Specifications and Price Analysis10.10.1.2 industrial robot Production, Price, Cost, Production Value, Gross Margin Analysis10.10.1.3 Contact Information******10.2 industrial robot Major Suppliers Analysis10.2.1 Supplier One10.2.1.1Major Business Products and Price10.2.1.2 Contact Information10.2.2 Supplier Two10.2.2.1Major Business Products and Price10.2.2.2 Contact Information10.2.3 Supplier Three10.2.3.1Major Business Products and Price10.2.3.2 Contact Information10.2.4 Supplier Four10.2.4.1Major Business Products and Price10.2.4.2 Contact Information10.2.5 Supplier Five10.2.5.1Major Business Products and Price10.2.5.2 Contact Information*****10.3 industrial robot Major Buyer Analysis10.3.1 Buyer One10.3.1.1 industrial robot Approximate Purchasing Volume and Purchasing Price10.3.1.2 Contact Information10.3.2 Buyer Two10.3.2.1 industrial robot Approximate Purchasing Volume and Purchasing Price10.3.2.2 Contact Information10.3.3 Buyer Three10.3.3.1 industrial robot Approximate Purchasing Volume and Purchasing Price10.3.3.2 Contact Information10.3.4 Buyer Four10.3.4.1 industrial robot Approximate Purchasing Volume and Purchasing Price10.3.4.2 Contact Information10.3.5 Buyer Five10.3.5.1 industrial robot Approximate Purchasing Volume and Purchasing Price10.3.5.2 Contact Information10.3.6 Buyer Six10.3.6.1 industrial robot Approximate Purchasing Volume and Purchasing Price10.3.6.2 Contact Information10.3.7 Buyer Seven10.3.7.1 industrial robot Approximate Purchasing Volume and Purchasing Price10.3.7.2 Contact Information10.3.8 Buyer Eight10.3.8.1 industrial robot Approximate Purchasing Volume and Purchasing Price10.3.8.2 Contact Information10.3.9 Buyer Nine10.3.9.1 industrial robot Approximate Purchasing Volume and Purchasing Price10.3.9.2 Contact Information10.3.10 Buyer Ten10.3.10.1 industrial robot Approximate Purchasing Volume and Purchasing Price10.3.10.2 Contact Information*****Chapter 11 industrial robot Conclusion on Industry Research11.1 Production Supply Sales and Demand Analysis Summary11.2 Upstream Raw Material Summary11.3 Downstream Sales Summary11.4 Price Analysis Summary11.5 Market Size Summary11.6 Opportunities and Threats SummaryRead More @About QYResearch Group: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:Web: pdf.qyresearchgroup.comEmail: sales@qyresearchgroup.com
Mortality Rate Caused by Fake Drugs

At best, intake of fake drugs cannot cure any illness. At worst, it can take a life.Around the world, drug counterfeiting is a huge problem. Despite the insistence of World Health Organization (WHO) that drug counterfeiting is not a global issue because it only takes 1% of the total pharmaceutical industry in developed countries, deaths traced to substandard drugs bought either through fraudulent dealers or fake online pharmacies are continuously increasing in the United States - suppliers of which comes from Canada and the United Kingdom.In truth, the real scale of counterfeit medicines is still unknown. There is no existing proof that this issue is not a global concern nor are there any warning signs that it has caused mass killings in a certain locality. The statistics have been vague and are altered in every different review. There are cases when it is held accountable for deaths when it shouldnt be and there are also other cases where the bereaved families are unaware that it is the real culprit. There is no way to determine its accountability.One thing is for sure though: While the authorities are finding a way to determine its true nature, drug counterfeiting has become a lucrative business in the past couple of years. True, it is impossible to know the exact numbers behinds its trade and lethal impact. Some guesses are to as high as 700,000 deaths per year but there is no denying the fact that it can endanger human health and wellbeing. It is even labeled as silent terrorism since it can pounce while people are mostly unaware.In a review conducted by The Peterson Group, a non-profit organization and one of the leading sources of information on the proliferation of counterfeit medicines, more than 30% of the total drug market is suspect of being counterfeit. Based on the current statistics, it is not only developing nations being targeted as well.Between 2007 and 2008, 149 Americans were killed after taking heparin, a blood thinning drug. In Jakarta, Indonesia, Tamiflu, an immediate cure for simple fever killed 25 people in the town of Menteng in a span of one and a half years. An epidemic was thought to have caused the deaths but after a man was arrested for smuggling fake copies of the medicine, only then did the authorities examined the remaining Tamiflu medicines from the local pharmacies and proved it to be counterfeit. Besides, if a relative who has heart problem dies because of heart attack, who would blame the medicine?The Peterson Group is a non-profit organization/group information website and watchdog of counterfeit and illegal drugs. To organize awareness and action in the battle against counterfeit drugs, the group shaped the organization to make people informed mostly in cities like Singapore, Taipei Taiwan, Beijing, China, Victoria Hong Kong, Jakarta, Indonesia and on almost most part of Malaysia.502/F AIA Central No.1 Connaught Road Central Hong Kong
Global Disposable Gloves Market is Expected to Reach Around USD 8.0 Billion in 2020

http://www.marketresearchstore.com/report/global-disposable-glovers-market-2014-2023-21447

http://goo.gl/3ALPM1

http://goo.gl/8oEEGr

http://www.marketresearchstore.com

Zion Research has published a new report titled Global Disposable Gloves (Natural Rubber, Vinyl, Nitrile and Others) Industry for Medical and Non-Medical (Food, Clean room, Industrial and Other) Applications: Global Market Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis and Forecast, 2014 - 2020. According to the report, the global disposable gloves market was valued at around USD 5.2 billion in 2014 and is expected to reach approximately USD 8.0 billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of around 5.5% between 2014 and 2020.Demand for disposable gloves in healthcare industry is very high. Healthcare industry is expected to exhibit rapid growth rate due to alertness regarding hygiene among patients and medical professionals. Its useful to avoid infectivity between caregivers and patients medical examinations and procedures. Medical professionals commonly use disposable gloves during surgical operations. Disposable gloves find major applications in others industries such as food and automotive.These gloves are used in the food industry to handle fragile products as well as to protect the food from foreign contaminants. Disposable gloves are made of various products including natural rubber, neoprene, nitride, polyethylene and vinyl gloves. For the safety purpose use of gloves is high in different sectors like medical and food and beverage industry. Two commonly available types of disposable gloves in the market includes un-powdered and powdered. Mostly un-powdered gloves are being used in surgery.Browse the full "Global Disposable Gloves Market (Natural Rubber, Vinyl, Nitrile and Others) for Medical and Non-Medical (Food, Clean room, Industrial and Other) Applications: Global Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis and Forecast, 2014 - 2020" report atPowdered disposable gloves demand is on the rise due to its better disposability and high sterility properties. Moreover, cost efficacy is also one of the factors driving demand for disposable gloves across the world. Natural rubber disposable gloves dominated the market with above 38% share of the total consumption volume in 2014. Natural rubber disposable gloves was followed by vinyl and nitrile disposable gloves respectively. Others accounted for the small volume share of the total market 2014. High demand for natural rubber disposable gloves is mainly driving the growth of this market.With over 80% shares in total volume consumption, medical applications accounted for a very large chunk of the total disposable gloves market in 2014. Non-medical applications for disposable gloves are mainly comprises of food, cleanroom and industrial applications.Get Sample Research Report:North America is a leading regional market for disposable gloves which accounted for around 40% share of the total volume consumption in 2014. Strong demand from healthcare and food industry is driving demand for disposables gloves in North America. North America is followed by Europe and Asia Pacific. Latin America and rest of the world accounted for small share of the global market. However, demand for disposable gloves is expected to increase at rapid pace in Asia Pacific and Latin America as compare to North America and Europe.Some of the key players in the disposable gloves market include Top Glove Corp., Shield Scientific, Rubberex, MRK Healthcare, Supermax Corp., Ansell Healthcare, Adventa, Kossan Rubber Industries, Cardinal Health and Hartalega.This report segments the global market as follows:Disposable Gloves Market: Product Segment AnalysisNitrile glovesVinyl glovesNatural rubber glovesOthers (Neoprene, polyethylene, etc.)Disposable Gloves Market  Application Segment AnalysisMedicalNon-MedicalFoodClean roomIndustrialOthersDisposable Gloves Market  Regional AnalysisNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaEuropeGermanyFranceUKAsia PacificChinaJapanIndiaLatin AmericaBrazilMiddle East and AfricaGCCSouth AfricaDo inquiry Before Purchasing Report:Zion Research is a market intelligence company providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. Zion Research experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants uses proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each Zion Research syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food and beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports strive to serve the overall research requirement of clients.Joel John3422 SW 15 Street,Suit #8138Deerfield Beach,Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Email: sales@marketresearchstore.comWebsite:
News / Local

by Stephen Jakes

HARARE  East Zanu PF Member of Parliament Terence Mukupe has said households in his constituency are contributing $50 each for the construction of bridges.He said he recently addressed over 2000 jobless youths in his constituency."In as much as or country is going through a rough patch economically, I'm not one person who will seat on my backside and wait on the government to deliver jobs. As a constituency each household has been contributing $50 towards infrastructure development. We have started building bridges and roads. The contractors are in turn now employing or youths. We are going to play our part in bringing jobs to the able bodied Youths," he said.The unemployment rate in Zimbabwe is estimated to be at over 80%.
Global Fatty Methyl Ester Sulfonates (FMES) Market is Expected to Reach USD 1.58 Billion in 2020

http://www.marketresearchstore.com/report/global-fatty-methyl-ester-sulfonates-market-for-34645

http://goo.gl/c1WSFy

http://goo.gl/c1WSFy

http://www.marketresearchstore.com

Zion Research has published a new report titled Global Fatty Methyl Ester Sulfonates (FMES) Market for Household Detergents, Personal Care Products and Other Applications, 2014 - 2020. According to the report, the global fatty methyl ester sulfonates (FMES) market was valued at USD 0.57 billion in 2014 and is anticipated to reach USD 1.58 billion by 2020, expanding at a CAGR of 18.6% between 2015 and 2020. In terms of volume, the global fatty methyl ester sulfonates market stood at 0.46 million tons in 2014.The methyl ester sulphonate (MES) market is currently in its growth phase, and participants are engaged in building product awareness to ratchet up market prospects. An outstanding aspect set to drive growth is that MES can be used as biodegradable surfactants in detergents. Usage of MES in this manner is nearly untapped but current vibration in the surfactants market for green and biodegradable raw materials to be used may lead to potential high demand for MES surfactants. End-use industries such as Household Detergents, Personal Care Products are likely to provide immense growth opportunities to manufacturers of methyl ester sulphonate.Browse the full Global Fatty Methyl Ester Sulfonates (FMES) Market for Household Detergents, Personal Care Products and Other Applications, 2014 - 2020 report atIn the area of surfactants, methyl ether sulfonate (MES) is an oleochemical substitute for linear alkyl benzene sulfonate (LABS). Until now, the development of MES has been hindered by the lack of installed production capacity but interest in this space is becoming more intense thanks to the benefits of MES. MES outscores LABS on multiple counts. It has excellent characteristics, such as high purity and actives levels, and is devoid of any volatile organic compounds. It is also gentle on the skin, has low di-salt content, is white or near-white in color and is suitable for both liquid and powder detergents.The biggest challenge for MES is its limitation in liquid detergent application. MES is currently used only for heavy-duty laundry powder (HDLP). MES is not ideal for liquid products, due to the stability at low temperature. Still, it is expected to witness increasing demand for environment-friendly HDLP coming from developing countries.Household detergents market was leading application segment for MES with over 40% share in total volume consumption globally in 2014. Personal care applications were the second largest outlet for MES in 2014. Personal care applications market for MES is expected to be the fastest growing market for MES in the years to come. Other applications include industrial cleaners, oilfield chemicals, agriculture chemicals etc. This segment is expected to be second fastest growing market for MES during the forecast period.Get Sample Research Report:Europe was leading regional market for MES with over 40% share in total volume consumed in 2014. Europe was followed by North America and Asia Pacific in terms of market share respectively. Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing geographical market for MES in the years to come.Stepan Company and Jiangsu Haiqing Biotechnology are leading MES manufacturers. Both the companies have largest installed capacities of MES in the world. Lion Corporation is another leading player in the global market. Huish Detergents, Guangzhou Lonkey Industrial Co Ltd. and KL-Kepong Oleomas also have very significant market share.This report segments the global market as follows:Fatty Methyl Ester Sulfonates (FMES) Market  Application Segment Analysis Household Detergents Personal Care Products OthersFatty Methyl Ester Sulfonates (FMES) Market  Regional Analysis North America Europe Asia Pacific Latin America Rest of the worldDo inquiry Before Purchasing Report:Zion Research is a market intelligence company providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. Zion Research experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants uses proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each Zion Research syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food and beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports strive to serve the overall research requirement of clients.Joel John3422 SW 15 Street,Suit #8138Deerfield Beach,Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Email: sales@marketresearchstore.comWebsite:
Global Capric Acid (Decanoic Acid) Market is Expected to Reach USD 302.8 Million in 2020

http://www.marketresearchstore.com/report/global-capric-acid-market-for-artificial-fruit-flavors-34817

http://goo.gl/gkNeUq

http://goo.gl/cjx8p4

http://www.marketresearchstore.com

Zion Research has published a new report titled Global Capric Acid Market for Artificial Fruit Flavors and Perfumes, Pharmaceuticals and Chemical Syntheses (Lubricants, Greases, Rubber, Dyes, Plastics, etc.), 2014 - 2020. According to the report, global demand for capric acid was valued at USD 192.5 million in 2014 and is expected to generate revenue of USD 302.8 million by end of 2020, growing at a CAGR of 7.8% between 2015 and 2020. In terms of volume, the global capric acid market stood at 70,000.0 tons in 2014.Capric acid is also called decanoic acid. It is the saturated fatty acid with a chain of 10 carbon atoms. It is used in the production of perfumes, lubricants, greases, rubber, dyes, plastics, food additives and medicines. Capric acid is used as an intermediate in chemical syntheses. It is used in organic synthesis and industrially in the manufacture of perfumes, lubricants, greases, rubber, dyes, plastics, food additives and pharmaceuticals. Decanoate ester prodrugs of various pharmaceuticals are available. Since, capric acid is a fatty acid, forming a salt or ester with a drug will increase its lipophilicity and its affinity for fatty tissue. Since, distribution of a drug from fatty tissue is usually slow, one may develop a long-acting injectable form of a drug (called a Depot injection) by using its decanoate form. Some examples of drugs available as a decanoate ester include nandrolone, fluphenazine, bromperidol, and haloperidol.Browse the full Global Capric Acid Market for Artificial Fruit Flavors and Perfumes, Pharmaceuticals and Chemical Syntheses (Lubricants, Greases, Rubber, Dyes, Plastics, etc.) 2014 - 2020 report atCapric acid is used in the manufacture of perfumes, lubricants, greases, rubber, dyes, plastics, artificial flavorings in food, and pharmaceuticals. Capric acid is also used as an intermediate in chemical syntheses. The natural antimicrobial properties of capric acid make it useful as a sanitizer for food contact surfaces and equipment. Flavors and perfumes was second largest application market for capric acid in 2014. Chemical synthesis was the largest market for capric acid in 2014. Capric acid is used as an intermediate in the manufacturing of lubricants, greases, rubber, dyes and plastics. Demand for capric acid for chemical synthesis is expected to grow at second fastest CAGR during the forecast period.Asia Pacific was the most dominant regional market capric acid in 2014 and accounted for around 36% share in the total consumption. Asia Pacific is expected to exhibit the fastest growth rate during the forecast period. It is expected to increase in its market share by 0.96% by the end of 2020. Europe was the second leading regional market for capric acid in 2014, followed by North America.Get Sample Research Report:Some of the leading manufacturers and suppliers of the capric acid includes Chemical Associates Inc., Oleocomm International Ltd., Acidchem International Sdn. Bhd, Bcogreen Oleochemicals (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Henan Eastar Chemicals Co. Ltd, and Chemceed. Companies are mainly focused on capacity expansion owing to increasing demand for capric acid.Global Capric Acid Market: Application Segment Analysis Artificial fruit flavors and perfumes Pharmaceuticals Chemical syntheses (Lubricants, greases, rubber, dyes, plastics, etc.)Global Capric Acid Market: Regional Segment Analysis North America Europe Asia Pacific Latin America Rest of the WorldDo inquiry Before Purchasing Report:Zion Research is a market intelligence company providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. Zion Research experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants uses proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each Zion Research syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food and beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports strive to serve the overall research requirement of clients.Joel John3422 SW 15 Street,Suit #8138Deerfield Beach,Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Email: sales@marketresearchstore.comWebsite:
SPECTACULAR SUCCESS FOR RAYMOND KNOBBE AUSTRALIAN SAILOR

Raymond Knobbe, 48 years of age formerly from Brisbane Australia and presently residing in Sydney has succeeded in sailing solo around the world.Nowadays it is quite normal to read about sailors succeeding in achieving this marvel but Raymond Knobbe stands out for one reason he did it singlehandedly.Thirty five years ago to the day he completed his monumental voyage Raymond was involved in a tragic car accident in which he lost his parents and only brother Mark. He did not escape this accident without it leaving its tragic physical reminder as well. Raymond had his left arm amputated and unfortunately lost sight in his left eye also.Raymond lived with his Uncle Samuel and his aunt in law Betty Taylor. Betty described Raymond as somebody who represents courage itself. He mourned for two years the lost of his family and was very down but with the help of counseling from a local psychologist Raymond begin to take the first vital steps towards self recovery.He also joined a local self help group in Brisbane called ORPHANED . It was here he met his now wife Shirley Coulter who had experienced her own personal trauma when a crazed killer murdered in cold blood her parents and two sisters while she was in her uncles home.Raymond attributed his success in achieving this journey to the support and love of Samuel and Betty combined with the solidarity of his self help group members whom he counts as his extended family. He said that his wife Shirley is his rock and that she has been steadfast in her support of him succeeding in achieving his goal to sail around the world.Shirley commenting said to me, Raymond did this journey not just for himself but for all his brothers and sisters in ORPHANED.He has continued to work with this group as a Counselor and he was adamant that he would prove that where there is life, there is hope. It would be anathema to Raymond to have done this journey just for his own ego. He did it also for me and our four beautiful children. I am so proud of him and our love is so endearing and special.Raymond who is a introvert was not anxious to speak much only adding:Shirley is the past, present and future. I thought of her when the journey got difficult. In life if I am the sailor then Shirley is without doubt my first mate.Our children are the future and I hope that what has happened will prove to them that no matter what blows life deals you, that you must always rise again and overcome the obstacles mental, physical or whatever form they are.The local sailing club president John Malttens said that Raymond Knobbe was one of their most active and involved members. He shows courage and mental strength overcomes all adversity. He has embraced the ethos of CAN DO and he is a fantastic example to us all. We are privileged to have Raymond as a member.Already locals are clamoring to have Raymond conferred with the honor of freedom of the city of Sydney but he quipped when asked about this possibility ;Well I have always moved around this city freely.For now Raymond plans to holiday for one week in the Maldives with his entire family which has been paid for by a local businessmen.Raymond told us he is looking forward to travelling by plane on this occasion!!!Exec Executive PerformanceExec provides human recourses consulting services with a more pragmate and focused approach for business results.ExecRua Praia de Botafogo 501Edificio Mourisco Botafogo1o AndarCEP- 22250-040Rio de JaneiroBRAZIL
AMERICAN BUSINESSMAN MICHAEL THOMAS LYNN CREATES NOVEL FINANCIAL SOLUTION IN HIS LOCAL AREA.

Michael Thomas Lynn 60 years of age from Cleveland has embarked on an ambitious financial journey which has been described by negative observers as harebrained fantasy and by others as visionary and forward thinking.Michael Thomas Lynn said that the origins of his idea stemmed from what he described as the loathsome fraud that the banking fraternity had entered into in the now all to famous meltdown in 2008 with the Lehmann brothers collapse ,the subsequent systemic failure of the various other banks who had to be bailed out by the taxpayers.He described this systemic collapse of the financial system as being the collective responsibility of the political classes who allowed and in fact encouraged the collapse and erosion of some of the fundamental principles of banking which were; knowing your client and real and substantive assessment of risk.Michael Thomas Lynn's idea is that each local community should form its own NOT FOR PROFIT BANK. He knows that the word not for profit and bank are rarely uttered in the same sentence. However he strongly believes that the time has come to create a LOCAL financial structure for communities throughout the world.The proposed structure would be as follows:1) Members allowed to join would be from a defined geographical area.2) The local bank would be called just that with the last name being based on the area name. (Local Bank Wilderwood Ohio)3) All deposits would be accepted. There would be no limits.4) The funds held on deposit would be placed in the institution which would best serve the interest and ethics of the members.5) There would be quarterly reporting which should be examined by a local accountant who would agree to act on a quarterly basis free off charge. It is required that this individual would change on a quarterly basis thus ensuring openness and honesty.6) Loans would be issued to members only.7) There would be no limitation on how low the loan could be.8) The member would not be allowed a loan in excess of three times the deposit held in their favor in the local bank.9) The account holder would have a checkbook and debit card when their deposit reached a certain specified limit. Before reaching this limit because of the local nature of the bank it is envisaged that access would be more easy because the bank would be in your locality and also would remain open seven days a week 12 hours a day.10) The amount of staff employed on a permanent basis would relate directly to deposits held and initially Michael Thomas Lynn envisages that employees would be retained on a voluntary basis.11) The bank also intends to have a strong versatile and vibrant online presence to allow this to develop and reducing the actual physical man hours of work required to be reduced substantially.12) The online banking portal would gain a steady income source from local businesses which would advertise their products and also announce any new business ideas.13) The online bank would also advertise local events and truly embrace the idea of assisting the local community evolve at all levels.Michael Thomas Lynn said that this concept would be revolutionary because it would prove that small is beautiful and that this business concept can be a sustainable entity from a financial and social perspective.Michael Thomas Lynn has a financial background with upwards of 30 years experience. He wants to create a revolution in our thinking as to what a bank should truly be and is adamant that we must as a human race commence to make changes in our local area first, allow the change to be embraced fully and allow it to spread organically.Michael Thomas Lynn has registered this concept. For the mainstream banks watch out soon we all may be shopping localExec Executive PerformanceExec produces human recourses consultancy services with a more pragmatic and focused approach for business resultsEdificio Mourisco BotafogoRua Praia de Botafogo 5011o AndarCEP-22250-040Rio de JaneiroBrazil
Matrix NAVAN CNX200 -OFFICE-IN-A-BOX Solution for Small Offices

www.MatrixComsec.c.com

Matrix, a manufacturer of telecom and security solutions for modern businesses, presents NAVAN CNX200, a single box solution designed for small set-ups and branch offices with up to 24 users. NAVAN facilitates small offices with business class IP-Telephony, wireless mobility, high speed internet, enhanced security and remote site connectivity from an affordable and easy to manage platform. All-in-One, Voice, Data, Messaging and Wireless Solution Integrated Wi-Fi, Router and Ethernet Switch Internet over Broadband, 3G Sim, Data Card/Dongle with Auto Fall back Option Built-in Virtual Private Network (VPN) with up to 80 VPN Channels Built-in Advanced Firewall and Access Security Protocols VoIP, GSM/3G and CO Connectivity Android/iOS Smartphone Integration with Proprietary Softphone Built-in Voice Mail and Auto-Attendant Voice Mail to Email Integration Call Records for Outgoing, Incoming and Internal Conversation Recording up to 576 hours Web Based Remote Management GUIContact: MATRIX COMSEC394 GIDC, Makarpura, Vadodara+91 9998755555More@MatrixComSec.comAbout MatrixEstablished in 1991, Matrix is a leader in Telecom and Security solutions for modern businesses and enterprises. An innovative, technology driven and customer focused organization; Matrix is committed to keep pace with the revolutions in the telecom and security industries. With more than 40% of its human resources dedicated to the development of new products, Matrix has launched cutting-edge products like Video Surveillance solutions, Access Control, Time-Attendance, IP-PBX, Universal Gateways, Terminals, Convergence solution, VoIP Gateways and GSM Gateways. These solutions are feature-rich, reliable and conform to the international standards. Having global foot-prints in Asia, Europe, North America, South America and Africa through an extensive network of more than 500 channel partners, Matrix ensures that the products serve the needs of its customers faster and longer. Matrix has gained trust and admiration of customers representing the entire spectrum of industries. Matrix has won many international awards for its innovative products.Matrix Comsec394 GIDC, Makarpura,Vadodara
Premier Hotel Group Philippines Celebrates Easter 2016

Easter 2016 at Club Paradise Palawan

http://www.discoveryhotels-resorts.com/easter-2016-activities-at-discovery

http://www.discoveryhotels-resorts.com/easter-2016-at-discovery

An eggs-traordinary Easter experience awaits guests at any of the esteemed properties of The Discovery Leisure Company, Inc. (TDLCI), a deluxe hotel group in the Philippines. Delightful Easter stays and gastronomic adventures are on offer for either a city, country or beach escape. Exciting Easter activities with awesome prizes are likewise in store for guests visiting in prime locations such as Ortigas, Makati, Tagaytay, Boracay and the well-renowned Palawan.Celebrating Easter in the city couldnt be so much better! In Makati, choose to stay at Discovery Primea Makati and enjoy one round of Plunge pool bar beverage, 20% savings on Terazi Spa treatments, and Gourmet Breakfast at Restaurant Tapenade. Rates start at PHP 8,000++ in a Business Flat. Valid for stays from 18 to 31 March 2016. Stay 2 nights and enjoy savings of 15% for every succeeding night.In Ortigas, choose to stay at Discovery Suites and enjoy a special film showing with loved ones or join the creative classes by Alessa Lanot on Calligraphy and Rubber Stamping. Rates start at PHP 4,075++ in a Junior Suite inclusive of buffet breakfast for two at Restaurant 5. Valid for stays from 24 to 27 March 2016.Drive up to Tagaytay for a memorable Easter staycation at Discovery Country Suites. Take a fancy in exquisite wine and cheese at sundown, milk and cookies at bedtime and the signature Verbena Country Breakfast for two. Rates start at PHP 12,500++ in a Deluxe Suite. Valid for stays from 24 to 27 March 2016.For guests visiting either Boracay or Palawan, get ready for an enjoyable meal on Easter Day, 27 March 2016, at TDLCIs well-renowned beach resorts!Enjoy a hearty spread of pasta, chicken lollipop, chorizo sliders, chocolate fondue (with bacon, no less!), a Shake Shake Fries station, and an Easter Cupcake Ferris Wheel for an Easter afternoon buffet at Discovery Shores Boracay. Rate is set at PHP 695++ per person.Savor the fresh bounties of the land and sea with entrees such as Prime Beef Pot Roast, Mixed Local Seafood in Marinara Cream Sauce, Fusilli Mushroom Aglio Olio, and a Pritchon Carving Station at Club Paradise Palawan. Rate is set at PHP 1,153++ per person. Book any of the Seascape Deals for stays between 24 to 28 March and enjoy the Easter Dinner Buffet for only PHP 820++ per person.Get a chance to win a stay at any Discoverys hotels and resorts when participating in any of these exciting Easter activities. Guests staying in Discovery Primea Makati on 24 to 27 of March 2016 gets the chance to win an overnight stay at Discovery Country Suites Tagaytay by simply joining the Easter activity, Count the Golden Eggs at lobby. In Boracay and Palawan, sail away at TDLCIs well-acclaimed beach resorts and get some Easter fun under the sun! On Easter Day, 27 March 2016, funs starts at 4pm at the beachfront for a thrilling Golden Egg Easter Hunt. Prizes include a 1-Hour Terras Touch Massage in Discovery Shores Boracay and an Anti-Stress Massage in Club Paradise. In Tagaytay, hop around the lovely backyard of the charming Discovery Country Suites. Search for the Golden Egg and win an overnight stay at Discovery Primea Makati. In Ortigas, take egg painting to a whole new level at Discovery Suites on 26 March 2016 at 4:30PM. The kid or the kid-at-heart with the best Easter egg design will win a golden egg which entitles the winner to an overnight stay for two at Discovery Country Suites Tagaytay!Happy Easter!To join the exciting Easter activities, please check out details atTo know more details about the Easter Stay offers, go toAbout The Discovery Leisure Company, Inc.The Discovery Leisure Company, Inc. (TDLCI) is a Filipino hospitality group that owns and manages a collection of hotels and resorts in exquisite locations around the Philippines. Its distinctive destinations inspire authentic experiences for every traveler, from Discovery Suites Ortigas, Discovery Country Suites Tagaytay, Discovery Shores Boracay, Club Paradise in Coron, Palawan, to the newly-opened Discovery Primea Makati.The Discovery Leisure Company, Inc.s portfolio of award-winning properties is known worldwide for its signature Filipino hospitality, marked by genuine and personalized Service Thats All Heart.25 ADB Avenue, Ortigas CenterPasig City, 1600Philippines(02) 719.8888
tamper proof rfid tags for rfid tracking(gyrfidstore)

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.The Tamper proof sticker will be destroyed when it was peel off from the surface.Features:Model number: LAP-TPMaterial: Aluminum Antenna with Paper or PVC StockSize options: 40x25mm / dia25mm /101x101/ 50x50/ 86x54mmThickness: Antenna position 0.35mm IC position 0.55mmPersonalization 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 advertisements 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
Domain Design Agency Ltd  A Reputed Web Design Glasgow

https://www.domaindesignagency.com/

Domain Design Agency Ltd is a renowned web designing setup online, catering to a widespread clientele in web designing and development. This setup has professional web designers, graphic designers, and SEO specialists, amidst several thoroughbred professionals. This web design Glasgow agency has been instrumental in helping its clients build a proficiently designed website, with utmost perfection. This is a specialty setup that has developed every form of website. Irrespective of whether clients want to design simple brochure sites and content management systems or opt for a full-fledged e-commerce website, Domain Design Agency Ltd has the proficiency to satisfy its clients' needs fully. This web design Glasgow implements the choicest of bespoke applications and flash, to render their clients with just what they need.Clients have favoured web design Glasgow for providing them with incredible websites at affordable costs. The experts at Domain Design Agency Ltd are well versed with every aspect inherent in web designing. Its specialists have also assisted several clients who were unable to give them a brief of what their business entails. Experts from this recognised web designing setup have taken the time to sit down with the clients and give them a breakdown of everything that their business requires in the process of web designing and development. With valuable advice provided by the specialists at Domain Design Agency Ltd, entrepreneurs and webmasters can chalk out itineraries for their business with ease.With this specialty web design Glasgow, clients have received the best graphics and prints incorporated on their business sites. It is the first impression that counts, which is critical, especially when a company is in the phase of marketing its products and service offerings. This web design Glasgow agency has been instrumental in developing a formidable logo for its clients, as well as creating a company websites while incorporating unique content. As an added extra, it has also assisted clients in adding creativity to their stationery.Domain Design Agency Ltd has been widely recognised for corporate branding that it has garnered its clients with. Its professionals have put in their best efforts in churning out the best magazine adverts, to make sure that its viewers get a real good first impression that sticks in their mind. Its corporate branding has been in perfect sync with the latest marketing trends, to render its clients with in-house designed posters. This reputed web designing setup has consistently excelled in providing clients with the best background designs, whether for their brochures or their web content material. Visitfor any further queries.Domain Design Agency Ltd is a reputed web designing and development agency that has successfully catered to several clients, by providing them the best designs, corporate branding, and brochure sites. This setup excels in rendering clients with the most appropriate background designs to satisfy their business requirements.272 Bath Street,Glasgow,Scotland, G2 4JR,UKPhone : 01413539322Emaild : sales@domaindesignagency.co.uk
Lucintels PESTLE Analysis of Nigeria 2013: Growth in Telecom, Construction, and Hotel & Restaurants Industries to Drive Nigeria during Forecast Period

Insights that Matter

www.lucintel.com

http://www.lucintel.com/lucintel-product-catalog.htmlto

http://www.lucintel.com/newsletter.aspx

The Nigerian economy is likely to be driven by growth in the telecommunications, building and construction, and hotel & restaurants industries during the forecast period. Recovery of the global economy, particularly European countries would positively impact the Nigerian economy. Oil and gas is one of the major sectors of the country, contributing significantly to total export. Increase in international oil prices would boost the oil and gas sector as well as the economy. The Nigerian economy is likely to grow to $384 billion at the current price by 2018 ata CAGR of 6.8% during 2013-2018.Lucintel, a leading global management consulting and market research firm, has conducted a detailed analysis on this economy and presents its findings in PESTLE Analysis of Nigeria 2013.The study indicates the social challenges that Nigeria is facing in terms of high unemployment rate, high corruption rate, and high homicide rate (crime rate). The country does not witness much economic risk due to its moderate GDP growth rate, low government debt, and fiscal surplus. The report also highlights the major drivers of the economy.The telecommunication industry is one of the emerging industries that grew at a CAGR of 34% over the period of 2007-2012, and the contribution surged from 0.02% to 0.8% to GDP over the same period. Construction is another emerging industry with high potential in Nigeria. Expandingpopulation and government policy targeted at boosting the infrastructure aredriving the growth of this industry. Expanding urbanization and government plans to fill up the infrastructure gap with public private partnership are providing immense opportunities in this sector for domestic as well as foreign investors.Lucintel highlights the key challenges that stifle the growth of the Nigerian economy. The country faces social challenges including high corruption rate, inequality of income distribution, and high crime rate. Major social concerns for the country include increasing unemployment rate which will affect the income levels and purchasing power.This report includes an in-depth analysis of Nigeria including macro economy, political scenario, economic and business risks, and social and technological analysis. This report provides knowledge on Nigerias leading industries and emerging industries. Lucintel offerings include Business Plan, Business Diagnostic and Implementation, Industry / Market Analysis, Due Diligence and Strategic Growth Consulting. For a detailed table of contents and pricing information on these timely, insightful reports, contact Lucintel at +1-972-636-5056 or via email at helpdesk@lucintel.com. Lucintel provides cutting-edge decision support services that facilitate critical decisions with greater speed, insight, and cost efficiency. To learn more, visit. Visit Lucintel Product listsee a complete list of Lucintel reports. Sign up for our free Email NewsletterLucintel, the premier global management consulting and market research firm creates winning strategy for growthwhether you need to understand market dynamics, identify new opportunities, or increase your profitability. Lucintel team of trusted industry experts for materials and manufacturing industries have executed over hundreds of consulting projects for clients, ranging from small up to multinational companies such as 3M, Audi, BASF, Cytec, DSM, Eastman, GE, Huntsman, Momentive and Sumitomo. To learn how Lucintel can help focus your business development efforts with pragmatic solutions, watch a 3.5-minute short movie at lucintel.com/imovie/.Lucintel222 Las Colinas Blvd West, Suite 1650, Irving, TX 75039, USAPh: +1-972-636-5056 Fax: +1-877-883-5140marketing@lucintel.com
Homes Furnishings launches its Embroidery Collection

Homes Furnishings, one of the leading Brands in India in the home furnishings segment from the house of GM Fabrics, recently launched its new Embroidery collection. With the objective of Premium Quality Fabrics at Competitive prices, the Brand has a loyal customer base across the globe.Homes Furnishings comes with a promise to give you the experience of International Living. The Brand launched its Embroidery collection keeping in mind the upcoming summer season. The collections launched under this category include:1. CaprianoAn ecletic mix of finely woven jacquard and rich embroideries, this range of plush fabrics in exquisite colours offers one stop solution to a modern interior. Motifs taken from various ethnicities  Moroccan tilled patterns, phulkari and kasuti inspired embroideries to basic geometric patterns, richly done in solids or multiple colours; Capriano has a tasteful assortment of designs to choose from.2. CresendoRich viscose  linen blended textiles embroidered in exquisite multi-coloured patterns with a hand painted effect; the Cresendo collection is a pleasant piece of art. Arabesque designs, floral patterns, damask motifs to the simpler abstract stripes and butti patterns in fresh and contemporary colours made exclusively for drapes and made-ups give a luxurious feel to the decor.3. FairgroundA thoughtful composition of interactive motifs and attractive patterns in soft yet bright and playful colours  embroidered hot air balloons, woven animals, digitally printed images, fun applique patterns, all make the Fairground kids collection a treat for the juniors.Talking about the new collection, Mr Gurvinder Singh, Managing Director, Homes Furnishings, said, With the summer season round the corner, customers like to see more of floral and fresh designs. Our new Embroidery collection is based on this research and we are sure our customers will love this new collection.Based in Mumbai, besides having a robust network in India, GM Fabrics exports its material to over 25 countries in Europe and USA. In India, Homes Furnishings is available through multi-branded outlets in over 150 cities in India.Homes Furnishings, one of the leading Brands in India in the home furnishings segment from the house of GM Fabrics.Homes Furnishings,A Division of G M FabricsDhana Singh Compound J.B. Nagar,Andheri - Kurla Road,Andheri (East)Mumbai - 400059
News / National

by Staff Reporter

Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko has castigated war veterans who spend most of their time bragging about their war time achievements at the expense of production.Addressing people at Magure Farm after a tour of a dairy project owned by Mr Lovemore Mugabe in Wedza today, Mphoko slammed some war veterans who do not want to be productive on their land but spend time bragging about their war time exploits."Land does not produce goods without anyone working on it. We want people who are productive on land they were given by government and not those who spend time just talking about their war credentials," he said.Mashonaland East Minister of State for Provincial Affairs, Retired Brigadier General Ambrose Mutinhiri, a war veteran himself, said war veterans have no business directing party business as the gun never commanded the party during the war.Farm owner, Mr Mugabe, who is one of the biggest dairy farmers in Mashonaland East province, said the industry is facing a number of challenges, among them high cost of stock feed and power shortages.Magure Farm has a dairy herd of 600 cattle and has a capacity to produce 4500 litres of milk per day.Mr Mugabe supplies the milk to Nestle Zimbabwe.
Global 3D Scanner Market 2016 Industry Trends, Sales, Supply, Demand, Analysis & Forecast to 2021

3D Scanner Market

http://www.pdf.qyresearchgroup.com/market-analysis/global-3d-scanner-industry-2015-market-research-report.pdf

Global 3D Scanner Market 2016The report titled Global 3D Scanner Market 2016 is compiled to provide a comprehensive overview of the global 3D Scanner market. It studies the different factors driving or inhibiting the market growth for the forecast period between 2016 and 2021. The report analyzes the factors which the market can capitalize on to sustain growth and competitiveness in the near future.In a lucid chapter wise format interspersed with statistics and graphical representation the publication explains the present market dynamics and the different factors likely to impact the 3D Scanner market over the forecast period. The research draws attention to accurate historical data and how the market has progressed in the past few years to attain the present demography. Leading players operating in the market is profiled extensively by the report. The shares of key competitors are evaluated respectively to examine the competitive landscape and measure the overall size of the global 3D Scanner market.To present a detailed study on the market, the report gauges the impact of the demand and supply forces prevalent in the market, and examines how the same is likely to affect the future course of action of the leading market players. To begin with, the report defines the market and enumerates the market classification with regards to product types, applications, supply-chain network, end-use industries, and key geographic region to provide a basic overview of the 3D Scanner market.Plans, development policies, and initiatives adopted by the government and regulatory bodies of the key geographic regions are studied in detail to measure its overall impact in the market. Other information which the report states include export & import consumption, cost and pricing structure, revenue generated by the market over the forecast period, and gross margin. For a detailed competitive analysis the report profiles the prominent market players. The development status of the market is also studies in detail by the report.Get FREE SAMPLE copy of Report @ qyresearchgroup.com/report/7857#request-sampleTable of Content1 Industry Overview1.1 Definition and Specifications of 3D Scanner1.2 Classification of 3D Scanner1.3 Applications of 3D Scanner1.4 Industry Chain Structure of 3D Scanner1.5 Industry Regional Overview of 3D Scanner1.6 Industry Policy Analysis of 3D Scanner1.7 Industry News Analysis of 3D Scanner2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of 3D Scanner2.1 Raw Material Suppliers and Price Analysis of 3D Scanner2.2 Equipment Suppliers and Price Analysis of 3D Scanner2.3 Labor Cost Analysis of 3D Scanner2.4 Other Costs Analysis of 3D Scanner2.5 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of 3D Scanner2.6 Manufacturing Process Analysis of 3D Scanner3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Key Manufacturers in 20143.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Key 3D Scanner Manufacturers in 20143.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global 3D Scanner Key Manufacturers in 20143.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global 3D Scanner Key Manufacturers in 20144 Production Analysis of 3D Scanner by Regions, Technology, and Applications4.1 Global Production of 3D Scanner by Regions (US, EU, China, Japan, etc.) 2010-20154.2 Global Production of 3D Scanner by Technology 2010-20154.3 Global Production of 3D Scanner by Applications 2010-20154.4 Price Analysis of Global 3D Scanner Key Manufacturers in 20154.5 US Capacity, Production, Price, Cost and Revenue of 3D Scanner 2010-20154.6 EU Capacity, Production, Price, Cost and Revenue of 3D Scanner 2010-20154.7 Japan Capacity, Production, Price, Cost and Revenue of 3D Scanner 2010-20154.8 China Capacity, Production, Price, Cost and Revenue of 3D Scanner 2010-20154.9 US Supply, Import, Export and Consumption of 3D Scanner 2010-20154.10 EU Supply, Import, Export and Consumption of 3D Scanner 2010-20154.11 Japan Supply, Import, Export and Consumption of 3D Scanner 2010-20154.12 China Supply, Import, Export and Consumption of 3D Scanner 2010-2015Get Report in PDF Version @5 Sales and Revenue Analysis of 3D Scanner by Regions5.1 Global Sales of 3D Scanner by Regions (US, EU, China, Japan, etc.) 2010-20155.2 Global Revenue of 3D Scanner by Regions (US, EU, China, Japan, etc.) 2010-20155.3 Global Price Analysis of 3D Scanner Sales by Regions (US, EU, China, Japan, etc.) 2010-20155.4 Global Price, Cost and Gross of 3D Scanner 2010-20156 Analysis of 3D Scanner Production, Supply, Sales and Market Status 2010-20156.1 Capacity and Production of 3D Scanner 2010-20156.2 Production Market Share Analysis of 3D Scanner 2010-20156.3 Sales Overview of 3D Scanner 2010-20156.4 Supply, Sales and Shortage of 3D Scanner 2010-20156.5 Import, Export and Consumption of 3D Scanner 2010-20156.6 Cost, Price, Revenue and Gross Margin of 3D Scanner 2010-20157 Analysis of 3D Scanner Industry Key Manufacturers7.1 Surphaser7.1.1 Company Profile7.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications7.1.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue7.1.4 Contact Information7.2 AMETEK7.2.1 Company Profile7.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications7.2.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue7.2.4 Contact Information7.3 FARO7.3.1 Company Profile7.3.2 Product Picture and Specifications7.3.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue7.3.4 Contact Information7.4 3D digital corp7.4.1 Company Profile7.4.2 Product Picture and Specifications7.4.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue7.4.4 Contact Information7.5 Topcon7.5.1 Company Profile7.5.2 Product Picture and Specifications7.5.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue7.5.4 Contact InformationGet Full Report with Complete TOC @ qyresearchgroup.com/market-analysis/global-3d-scanner-industry-2015-market-research-report.html7.6 MAPTEK7.6.1 Company Profile7.6.2 Product Picture and Specifications7.6.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue7.6.4 Contact Information7.7 Barcoding7.7.1 Company Profile7.7.2 Product Picture and Specifications7.7.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue7.7.4 Contact Information8 Price and Gross Margin Analysis8.1 Analysis of Price, Supply and Consumption8.1.1 Price Analysis8.1.2 Supply Analysis8.2 Gross Margin Analysis8.3 Price Comparison by Regions8.4 Price Analysis of Different 3D Scanner Product Types8.5 Market Share Analysis of Different 3D Scanner Price Levels8.6 Gross Margin Analysis of Different 3D Scanner Applications9 Marketing Trader or Distributor Analysis of 3D Scanner9.1 Marketing Channels Status of 3D Scanner9.2 Traders or Distributors of 3D Scanner with Contact Information9.3 Ex-work Price, Channel Price and End Buyer Price Analysis of 3D Scanner9.4 Regional Import, Export and Trade Analysis of 3D Scanner10 Development Trend of 3D Scanner Industry 2015-202010.1 Capacity and Production Overview of 3D Scanner 2015-202010.2 Production Market Share Analysis of 3D Scanner 2015-202010.3 Sales Overview of 3D Scanner 2015-202010.4 Supply, Sales, and Shortage of 3D Scanner 2015-202010.5 Import, Export and Consumption of 3D Scanner 2015-202010.6 Cost, Price, Revenue and Gross Margin of 3D Scanner 2015-202011 Industry Chain Suppliers of 3D Scanner with Contact Information11.1 Major Raw Materials Suppliers of 3D Scanner with Contact Information11.2 Manufacturing Equipment Suppliers of 3D Scanner with Contact Information11.3 Major Suppliers of 3D Scanner with Contact Information11.4 Key Consumers of 3D Scanner with Contact Information11.5 Supply Chain Relationship Analysis of 3D Scanner12 New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis of 3D Scanner12.1 New Project SWOT Analysis of 3D Scanner12.2 New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis of 3D Scanner13 Conclusion of the Global 3D Scanner Industry Report 2015Read More @ qyresearchgroup.com/market-analysis/global-3d-scanner-industry-2015-market-research-report.htmlRelated Report - telcoprofessionals.com/pressreleases/3204/global-3d-scanner-market-2016-industry-trends-sales-supply-deAbout Us: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: qyresearchgroup.comEmail: sales@qyresearchgroup.com
Global Precision bearing Market 2016 Industry Trends, Demand, Analysis and Forecast to 2021

precision bearing market

http://www.qyresearchgroup.com/market-analysis/global-precision-bearing-market-2016-industry-trends-sales.html

http://www.qyresearchgroup.com/report/53318#request-sample

http://www.qyresearchgroup.com

Global Precision Bearing Market 2016The report titled Global precision bearing Market 2016 - Market Size, Development, Top 10 Countries, and Forecasts provides first hand industry information on the present market condition in the most genuine way, and forecast for precision bearings in the world and in the top 10 global countries. Apart from global report on precision bearing market indepth reports for below mentioned countries are also available:Canada, China, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, Indonesia, Malaysia, Poland, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, United StatesThe report gives a detailed overview of the key segments in the market. The fastest and slowest growing market segments are covered in this report. The key emerging opportunities of the fastest growing Global precision bearing market segments are also covered in this report. Each segments and sub-segments market size, share, and forecast are available in this report. Additionally, the region-wise segmentation and the trends driving the leading geographical region and the emerging region has been presented in this report.This research study will include historical information from 2010 to 2016 and forecasts through 2021. This research study is a most valueable resource for key decision makers including industry executives, marketing, sales and product managers, consultants, analysts, and other people looking for key industry data in readily accessible documents with clearly presented tables and graphs.Get Complete Report with TOC :The study on the Global precision bearing market also features a history of the tactical mergers, acquisitions, collaborations, and partnerships activity in the market. Valuable recommendations by senior analysts about investing strategically in research and development can help new entrants or established players penetrate the emerging sectors in the precision bearing market. Investors will gain a clear insight on the dominant players in this industry and their future forecasts. Furthermore, readers will get a clear perspective on the high demand and the unmet needs of consumers that will enhance the growth of this market.In terms of production, the report gives ex-factory price, cost, production value and gross margin etc. of different types of axial exhaust blower produced in different regions and different manufacturers. In terms of sales, the report gives sales volume, sales price, cost, sales income, and profit margin etc. of axial exhaust blower used in different fields, sold in different regions and by different companies.Other factors such as government plans and policies impacting the development trend of the market are also evaluated by the report. For an in-depth analysis, the report evaluates the strengths, weakness, and opportunities exhibited by the precision bearing market using industry leading analytical tools such as SWOT analysis and Porters Five Force analysis.Access Sample Report @About Us: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.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. 1-855-465-4651 FREEWeb:Email: sales@qyresearchgroup.com3422 SW 15 Street, Suit #8138
yStats.com: Online shoppers in Europe value their preferred online payment methods

yStats.com Logo

www.ystats.com

www.twitter.com/ystats

www.linkedin.com/company/ystats

A new report by Hamburg-based secondary market research company yStats.com highlights the developments in online payment methods across Europe in its new report. The publication titled Europe Online Payment Methods: Full Year 2015 outlines the importance of suitable payment methods for encouraging both online purchases and in-store mobile payments.Over half of online shoppers globally are ready to abandon their online purchases in case their preferred payment method is advertised, but not available at checkout, according to surveys from 2015, cited in a new report by yStats.com. Europe is no exception to this trend. In Spain, non-suitability of the online payment methods offered at checkout was the third most common reason for online shoppers not to return to a shopping website in early 2015. At the same time, in the UK, the availability of multiple secure mobile payment schemes emerged as an important motivator for online shoppers to increase in-store visits.Offering the suitable online payment method is especially important in Europe, considering the differing preferences of online shoppers across the continent. While in the UK and France bank cards ranked above all other online payment methods last year, in Germany payment by invoice was more preferred and in the Netherlands it was local banking method iDEAL. Furthermore, as yStats.coms report reveals, in some Eastern European countries, including Russia, Poland and Czech Republic, cash on delivery still plays an important role in online shopping.The growing demand for diversity of online payment methods in 2015 was also recognized by B2C E-Commerce companies, as well as payment providers in Europe, according to the findings of yStats.com. For example, in early 2015 the share of Russian E-Commerce websites offering payment via alternative methods such as YandexMoney and PayPal increased. In Western Europe, the UK was a major arena for innovations in 2015, with Amazon introducing payments with installments, and Apple launching its Apple Pay.About yStats.comFounded in 2005 and headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, yStats.com is one of the world's leading secondary market research companies. We are committed to providing the most up-to-date and objective data on Global B2C E-Commerce and Online Payment markets to sector-leading companies worldwide.Our multilingual staff researches, gathers, filters and translates information from thousands of reputable sources to synthesize accurate and timely reports in our areas of expertise, covering more than 100 countries and all global regions. Our market reports focus predominantly on online retail and payments, but also cover a broad range of related topics including M-Commerce, Cross-Border E-Commerce, E-Commerce Delivery, Online Gaming and many others. In addition to our wide selection of market reports, we also provide custom market research services.We are proud to cooperate with companies like Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters. Given our numerous citations in leading media sources and journals worldwide, including Forbes and the Wall Street Journal, we are considered one of the most highly-reputed international secondary market research companies with an expertise in the areas of B2C E-Commerce and Online Payment.Press Contact:yStats.com GmbH & Co. KGBehringstrasse 28a, D-22765 HamburgPhone: +49 (0)40 - 39 90 68 50Fax: +49 (0)40 - 39 90 68 51E-Mail: press@ystats.comInternet:Twitter:LinkedIn:Facebook: facebook.com/ystats
Mainframe Market 2016 - Global Industry Trends, Sales, Supply, Demand, Analysis & Forecast to 2021

Mainframe Market

http://www.pdf.qyresearchgroup.com/market-analysis/global-mainframe-industry-2015-market-research-report.pdf

http://www.qyresearchgroup.com

http://www.pdf.qyresearchgroup.com

Global Mainframe Market 2016The report titled Global Mainframe Market 2016 is compiled to provide a comprehensive overview of the global Mainframe market. It studies the different factors driving or inhibiting the market growth for the forecast period between 2016 and 2021. The report analyzes the factors which the market can capitalize on to sustain growth and competitiveness in the near future.In a lucid chapter wise format interspersed with statistics and graphical representation the publication explains the present market dynamics and the different factors likely to impact the Mainframe market over the forecast period. The research draws attention to accurate historical data and how the market has progressed in the past few years to attain the present demography. Leading players operating in the market is profiled extensively by the report. The shares of key competitors are evaluated respectively to examine the competitive landscape and measure the overall size of the global Mainframe market.To present a detailed study on the market, the report gauges the impact of the demand and supply forces prevalent in the market, and examines how the same is likely to affect the future course of action of the leading market players. To begin with, the report defines the market and enumerates the market classification with regards to product types, applications, supply-chain network, end-use industries, and key geographic region to provide a basic overview of the Mainframe market.Plans, development policies, and initiatives adopted by the government and regulatory bodies of the key geographic regions are studied in detail to measure its overall impact in the market. Other information which the report states include export & import consumption, cost and pricing structure, revenue generated by the market over the forecast period, and gross margin. For a detailed competitive analysis the report profiles the prominent market players. The development status of the market is also studies in detail by the report.Get FREE SAMPLE copy of Report @ qyresearchgroup.com/report/3899#request-sampleTable of ContentChapter One Mainframe Industry Overview1.1 Mainframe Definition1.2 Mainframe Classification and Application1.3 Mainframe Industry Chain Structure1.4 Mainframe Industry Overview1.5 Mainframe Industry Policy Analysis1.6 Mainframe Industry News AnalysisChapter Two Mainframe International and China Market Analysis2.1 Mainframe Industry International Market Analysis2.1.1 Mainframe International Market Development History2.1.2 Mainframe Product and Technology Developments2.1.3 Mainframe Competitive Landscape Analysis2.1.4 Mainframe International Key Countries Development Status2.1.5 Mainframe International Market Development Trend2.2 Mainframe Industry China Market Analysis2.2.1 Mainframe China Market Development History2.2.2 Mainframe Product and Technology Developments2.2.3 Mainframe Competitive Landscape Analysis2.2.4 Mainframe China Key Regions Development Status2.2.5 Mainframe China Market Development Trend2.3 Mainframe International and China Market Comparison AnalysisChapter Three Mainframe Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis3.1 2014 Global Key Manufacturers Mainframe Capacity and Commercial Production Date3.2 2014 Global Key Manufacturers Mainframe Manufacturing Plants Distribution3.3 2014 Global Key Manufacturers Mainframe R&D Status and Technology Source3.4 2014 Global Key Manufacturers Mainframe Raw Materials Sources AnalysisGet Reprot in PDF Format @Chapter Four Mainframe Production by Regions By Technology By Applications4.1 2009-2014 Mainframe Production by Regions(such as US EU China Japan etc)4.2 2009-2014 Mainframe Production by Technology (key type product)4.3 2009-2014 Mainframe Production by Applications4.4 2009-2014 Mainframe Price by key Manufacturers4.5 2009-2014 US Mainframe Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value Analysis4.6 2009-2014 EU Mainframe Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value Analysis4.7 2009-2014 Japan Mainframe Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value Analysis4.8 2009-2014 China Mainframe Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value Analysis4.9 2009-2014 US Mainframe Supply Import Export Consumption4.10 2009-2014 EU Mainframe Supply Import Export Consumption4.11 2009-2014 Japan Mainframe Supply Import Export Consumption4.12 2009-2014 China Mainframe Supply Import Export ConsumptionChapter Five Mainframe Manufacturing Process and Cost Structure5.1 Mainframe Product Specifications5.2 Mainframe Manufacturing Process Analysis5.3 Mainframe Cost Structure Analysis5.4 Mainframe Price Cost Gross AnalysisChapter Six 2009-2014 Mainframe Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and Forecast6.1 2009-2014 Mainframe Capacity Production Overview6.2 2009-2014 Mainframe Production Market Share Analysis6.3 2009-2014 Mainframe Demand Overview6.4 2009-2014 Mainframe Supply Demand and Shortage6.5 2009-2014 Mainframe Import Export Consumption6.6 2009-2014 Mainframe Cost Price Production Value Gross MarginChapter Seven Mainframe Key Manufacturers Analysis7.1 IBM7.1.1 Company Profile7.1.2 Product Picture and Specification7.1.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.1.4 Contact Information7.2 EMC7.2.1 Company Profile7.2.2 Product Picture and Specification7.2.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.2.4 Contact Information7.3 Oracle7.3.1 Company Profile7.3.2 Product Picture and Specification7.3.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.3.4 Contact Information7.4 Unisys7.4.1 Company Profile7.4.2 Product Picture and Specification7.4.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.4.4 Contact Information7.5 HP7.5.1 Company Profile7.5.2 Product Picture and Specification7.5.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.5.4 Contact InformationGet Full Report with Complete TOC @ qyresearchgroup.com/market-analysis/global-mainframe-industry-2015-market-research-report.html7.6 Lenovo7.6.1 Company Profile7.6.2 Product Picture and Specification7.6.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.6.4 Contact Information7.7 Inspur7.7.1 Company Profile7.7.2 Product Picture and Specification7.7.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value7.7.4 Contact InformationChapter Eight Up and Down Stream Industry Analysis8.1 Upstream Raw Materials Suppliers and Price Analysis8.2 Processing Equipments and Suppliers Analysis8.3 Key Applications and Consumption Analysis8.4 Key Regions and Consumption AnalysisChapter Nine Mainframe Marketing Channels Analysis9.1 Mainframe Marketing Channels Status9.2 Mainframe Marketing Channels Characteristic9.3 Mainframe Marketing Channels Development Trend9.4 Mainframe Global Key Distributors AnalysisChapter Ten 2015-2020 Mainframe Industry Development Trend10.1 2015-2020 Mainframe Capacity Production Overview10.2 2015-2020 Mainframe Production Market Share Analysis10.3 2015-2020 Mainframe Demand Overview10.4 2015-2020 Mainframe Supply Demand and Shortage10.5 2015-2020 Mainframe Import Export Consumption10.6 2015-2020 Mainframe Cost Price Production Value Gross MarginChapter Eleven Mainframe Supply Chain Relationship Analysis11.1 Raw Materials Major Suppliers and Contact Information11.2 Manufacturing Equipments Suppliers and Contact Information11.3 Mainframe Major Suppliers and Contact Information11.4 Key Consumers and Their Contact Information11.5 Mainframe Supply Chain Relationship AnalysisChapter Twelve Mainframe New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis12.1 Mainframe Project SWOT Analysis12.2 Mainframe New Project Investment Feasibility AnalysisChapter Thirteen Global Mainframe Industry Research ConclusionsRead More @ telcoprofessionals.com/pressreleases/3205/global-mainframe-market-2016-industry-trends-sales-supply-demAbout Us: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:Web:Email: sales@qyresearchgroup.com
News / National

by Staff reporter

President Robert Mugabe has called off his engagement in India where he was scheduled to be guest of honour at the World Culture Festival.In a statement, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, Mr George Charamba, confirmed the development , adding that Mugabe is expected home in a couple of days.The event, which is a celebration of peace in multiculturalism and ecumenicity was scheduled to begin tomorrow, 10th March, 2016.Mr Charamba said the cancellation follows communication from organisers of the festival acknowledging substantial inadequacies in protocol and security arrangements around the event.A number of leaders slotted for participation, including those from the host country, have also withdrawn their participation.
Prchard Parks Maya Clinard Orchard Parks Maya Clinard, far right, took runner-up in singles at this past weekends Section VI Girls Tennis Championships at...

Boys soccer peaking into sectionals It was not an ideal start to the 2022 season for the Orchard Park boys soccer team, dropping its first...
IMG_0106.JPG

The Oregonian Media Group is exploring the sale of its printing facility near Providence Park.

(The Oregonian)

Seattle-based Urban Renaissance Group is already redeveloping one newspaper building in Portland. Now, it wants to double down.

Documents filed with the city show that the company is interested in demolishing the Goose Hollow pressroom facilities that used to print and distribute The Oregonian. In place of the facilities, the developer would build a mixed-use project with office, housing and retail components. The plan also calls for 513 parking spaces.

The company is already in the midst of a major overhaul of The Oregonian's old newsroom and business office at 1320 S.W. Broadway. It bought that property for $14.5 million in 2014 and said it would spend even more than the purchase price on renovation.

Advance Central Services Oregon, a company formed in 2013 to print and distribute The Oregonian, announced last year that it would outsource printing operations to Portland-based Signature Graphics. Employees at the pressroom were laid off.

The Advance Central Services Oregon announcement, published in June, also said the company had hired a broker to market the pressroom facilities. Its sister company, Oregonian Media Group, publishes The Oregonian and OregonLive and is based in the Crown Plaza building at 1500 S.W. First Ave.

Krista Bailey, project management director at Urban Renaissance Group, said the development firm is "interested in purchasing" the pressroom facilities, located along Southwest Yamhill Street between Southwest 18th and 16th avenues. The owner is still listed as Oregonian Publishing Co. The properties, consisting of a half block and a full block, are across the street from Providence Park and adjacent to a TriMet station served by the MAX Blue and Red lines.

Urban Renaissance Group has hired Portland-based GBD Architects to consult with Portland design officials about the proposal. The new project would range from 86 feet to 160 feet in height, city documents show. Urban Renaissance Group is also interested in maintaining an existing tunnel between the two buildings, which runs underneath Northwest 17th Avenue.

-- Luke Hammill

lhammill@oregonian.com

503-294-4029

@lucashammill
Question: What's a guaranteed way to make an Oregon State University fan's blood boil?

Answer: Share a video of four musicians playing Mighty Oregon, the University of Oregon's fight song...on kazoos.

Oregon lawmakers found time during the 2015 Legislative session to declare March 10 "Mighty Oregon Day" to celebrate the 100th anniversary of UO's fight song.

According to the university's history, Swedish composer Albert Perfect moved to Lane County in 1915 to take charge of the UO's band.

He apparently created what would become Mighty Oregon, adapting the tune from the popular World War I ditty "It's a Long Way to Tipperary." DeWitt Gilbert, a UO journalism student, then wrote lyrics for the tune. It was originally intended for the Eugene city band, while first played the tune on Jan. 7, 1916.

Oregon, our Alma Mater, we will guard thee on and on.

Fellows gather 'round and cheer her; chant her glory, Oregon.

Roar the praises of her warriors, sing the story, Oregon;

On to victory urge the heroes of our Mighty Oregon.

We will march, march, on down the field, fighting for Oregon.

Plough through the foeman's line their strength we'll defy.

We'll give a long cheer for our men. We're out to win again.

OSU may fight to the end but we will win.

On March 7 of the same year, UO's band played the tune for the first time, according to university accounts.

To celebrate the centennial, the school is selling CDs with 13 different iterations (solo piano, swing, salsa, and acoustic guitar versions to name a few) of the brief tune. It's also starting a contest, where fans/students/alums can send in their own rendition of the fight song for the chance to win various prizes (more here).

According to the proclamation, the day "will enrich and educate students and Oregonians about the history and meaning behind the renowned fight song."

Steve Clark, OSU's spokesman, said the university is "very proud" of its own fight song, which dates back to 1914. "There can never be enough music in Oregon - and never enough public support for higher education to serve and educate all Oregonians," Clark said in an email.

Oregon is known, though, as "The Beaver State."

As would be expected, the proclamation wasn't universally popular in the Legislature.

Oregon Sen. Fred Girod, an OSU alum, was one of two senators who opposed the proclamation.

Two of Oregon's most high-profile House members voted against the measure.

Rep. Tina Kotek, the Speaker of the House and a UO alum, voted against the proclamation.

Rep. Knute Buehler, an OSU alum, also voted against the bill.



-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen
Portland Superintendent Carole Smith said Wednesday that she is considering making more rapid changes to North Portland schools but less dramatic changes at Ainsworth Elementary and some other Westside schools in response to community feedback to her earlier recommendations.

She laid out her new plans, which are just a draft plan and not a formal recommendation, for the districtwide advisory committee helping her decide how to reshape school boundaries and grade configurations to improve academic offerings and solve under-enrollment and overcrowding challenges.

Smith had told Eastside parents that K-8 schools would not be remade into elementary and middle schools until summer 2017, so the change could be thoughtfully implemented.

But she said Wednesday that urgency among North Portland parents now has her thinking that Ockley Green should become a full-fledged middle school this August, and Beach, Woodlawn and Peninsula schools all would switch from K-8s to K-5s over the summer as a result. (Chief Joseph School, now a K-3 campus of the K-8 Ockley Green school, would become a K-4 in summer 2016 and a K-5 in summer 2017.)

Smith had riled up Westside parents with proposals to redraw many elementary school boundaries as a domino effect of redistricting many students from overcrowded Chapman Elementary to south Ainsworth Elementary, thus necessitating redistricting some Ainsworth students to schools further south, and so on. Backers of Ainsworth's Spanish Immersion program also were up in arms over a proposal to move that longstanding program to the old East Sylvan school building.

Smith now says she intends to leave the dual language program at Ainsworth and to relieve Chapman's overcrowding in a combination of ways, not through redrawing its boundary with Ainsworth alone. Her new plan would narrow Chapman's boundaries by sending some students to Ainsworth, some to Bridlemile Elementary and a handful to Forest Park Elementary and move four kindergarten classes to the district rents in The Ramona apartment complex in the Pearl.

Those changes, if she decides to propose them and the school board approves them, would take place in summer 2016. Students who already attend Chapman could stay there even if their homes are rezoned to Bridlemile, Ainsworth or Forest Park; only kindergartners and other students who live in the affected areas but have not attended Chapman would be reassigned to the new school in the fall, Smith said.

Smith also said she is considering other changes to take place in 2016:

>> Vernon K-8 would convert to an elementary school, and its middle-school-aged students would attend Beaumont Middle School. But some Vernon advocates raised questions about that timing because Vernon has a International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program, while Beaumont won't. Smith said one could be started as early as 2017 at a reopened Tubman Middle School.

>> The Odyssey Program would move out of Hayhurst Elementary and into East Sylvan. The building would be made ready, Smith said.

>> To keep Hayhurst from being too small without Odyssey, small parts of the Rieke, Bridlemile and Maplewood attendance zones would be rezoned to Hayhurst.

Smith will hold two public hearings to get feedback: March 15 at Robert Gray Middle School and March 16 at Hosford Middle School.

-- Betsy Hammond
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

MDC-T President Morgan Tsvangirai has expressed skepticism over the authenticity of political parties engaging into a grand coalition which does not involve people on the ground.Tsvangirai said people have to be careful on coalitions saying they have always believed that coalitions are not a pact of the elites.'It's about the people and when we talk about the people how do you qualify an elite pact which is not based on any quantifiable ways? It means that only a few leaders have come together and agreed but what about the people on the ground, what are they saying? So perhaps we believe that coalitions are good for partnerships,' he said."They are an instrument of partnerships, strategic partnerships to achieve a certain objective, because you believe in those values but they are not just an opportunistic method ye (for) a few people sitting around saying yah saka imi muri kubva kupi saka (where are you coming from) let's talk that is position oriented, it's not value oriented so for strategic reasons, people have to be very cautious."The remarks come at a time when the talks of grand coalition of opposition political parties is currently the talk of the moment with some opposition parties seeing it as the only panacea to dislodge President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF from power.
AX035_7064_9.JPG

J.K. Rowling's new story has kicked up some controversy.

(The Associated Press)

J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter author and cultural phenomenon, has launched a series of short stories on her Pottermore website called "History of Magic in North America."

The serial appears to revolve around the 18th-century president of the Magical Congress of the United States instituting "total segregation of the wizarding and No-Maj communities," but early on the narrative reads like an encyclopedia entry of Native American legends.

And real Native Americans aren't happy about it. They accuse Rowling of appropriating their culture and mercilessly twisting it into YA pablum.

"The legend of the Native American 'skin walker' -- an evil witch or wizard that can transform into an animal at will -- has its basis in fact," writes Rowling in the introductory story. "A legend grew up around the Native American Animagi, that they had sacrificed close family members to gain their powers of transformation. In fact, the majority of Animagi assumed animal forms to escape persecution or to hunt for the tribe. Such derogatory rumours often originated with No-Maj medicine men, who were sometimes faking magical powers themselves, and fearful of exposure."

Adrienne Keene, a postdoctoral fellow in Native American studies at Brown University and a member of the Cherokee Nation, wrote on her blog Wednesday that "a number of things [in Rowling's story] stand out and deeply concern me," including Rowling's portrayal of skinwalkers.

"[T]he belief of these things (beings?) has a deep and powerful place in Navajo understandings of the world," she writes. "It is connected to many other concepts and many other ceremonial understandings and lifeways. It is not just a scary story, or something to tell kids to get them to behave, it's much deeper than that."

She adds: "We as Indigenous peoples are constantly situated as fantasy creatures. Think about Peter Pan, where Neverland has mermaids, pirates...and Indians."

Writer Mary Kurisato, whose mother is Ojibwe, agrees and took to Twitter to criticize Rowling.

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump might describe this response as political correctness run amok, but of course it isn't as simple as that. The late mystery writer Tony Hillerman dedicated his career to writing about Native Americans (one of his novels was titled "Skinwalkers.") He crafted realistic portrayals of Native American life and belief systems, and he was widely praised by the Native American community. The Navajo Nation gave him the Navajo Special Friends of the Dineh Award in 1991.

"He respected Navajo culture," said Navajo Nation public safety director Samson Cowboy after Hillerman died in 2008.

Rowling, a prolific user of social media, has not weighed in on criticism of "History of Magic in North America." Her Twitter account promoted the stories on Thursday.

In piece three, uncover events that drove 18th century American wizards deeper underground: https://t.co/EEdMJDtIfA pic.twitter.com/gY5sZeajVR  Pottermore (@pottermore) March 10, 2016

-- Douglas Perry
Helen Mirren knows the art of seduction. And she proved it to Stephen Colbert -- and the world -- on Colbert's "Late Show" this week.

It seems so simple when done by a master: a pause, a tilt of the head, a hand sneakily slips behind the quarry's head and -- boom! -- the unexpected kiss.

When Colbert finally cooled down, he pointed out the obvious. "You know what you're doing," he told the 70-year-old Oscar-winning actress.

To be sure, this wasn't the first time Dame Helen has locked lips on a chat show. In 2013, on Graham Norton's show in Great Britain, she convinced Paul Rudd to kiss her like Jack Nicholson. Really. Her response when the Nicholsonian lip-lock finally came to a close: "Thank you very much."

This has been the Month of Mirren so far. Last week, the fact that Mirren and Jennifer Lawrence are twins resurfaced. "Helen Mirren is the Jennifer Lawrence of the Seventies," a Reddit poster exclaimed, and Internet denizens went crazy.

"She's much prettier than I was," Mirren said in 2014, when the comparison initially became a sensation. "But there is a great similarity, actually. It's very true there's a similarity."

The renewed spurt of Lawrence comparisons no doubt has brought a spike in Netflix searches for early Mirren works. We recommend 1967's "Herostratus" (watch below).

-- Douglas Perry
Nearly a year into a West Coast sardine fishing ban enacted to protect the collapsing population, the fish formerly worth more than $8 million to Oregon's economy have shown no signs of a comeback.

New federal research indicates numbers of the small, silvery, schooling fish have plummeted further than before the fishing moratorium, dashing any hope of lifting it in 2016.

With the current sardine population hovering at 7 percent of its 2007 peak, fishermen now say they expect to wait a decade or more to revive the fishery.

"I don't want to take a pessimistic view, but I would think we'll be shut down until 2030," said Ryan Kapp, a Bellingham fisherman who advises the Pacific Fishery Management Council on sardines and other fish.

Sardines aren't struggling in isolation. Other fish near the bottom of the marine food web, such as anchovies and herring, are also down. The shortage of sustenance is rippling upward to create crises for predator species from seals to seabirds.

Researchers can't tell exactly what's driving the die-off, nor how long it will last. Some say the crash can be attributed to cyclical boom-and-bust population dynamics sardines have always exhibited.

Others argue overfishing played a role, driving sardine populations down too far and too fast to blame it on a natural population flux.



Then there's the unavoidable presence of the "warm blob," a lingering mass of overheated water that for more than two years has wreaked havoc on sea life off the Pacific coast.

"Those ocean life patterns are just not working the way they have in the past," said Michael Milstein, a spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the federal agency that tracks sardine numbers. "There's a feeling that a lot of this is environmentally-driven."

RIPPLES IN THE FOOD CHAIN

The Pacific fishery council's rules call for a fishery shutdown if the total weight of adult sardines falls below 150,000 metric tons. When the population fell below that threshold last spring, council members scrambled to enact a midseason shutdown.

Federal scientists last month estimated sardine biomass has dropped below 65,000 tons this year.

Even with fishing pressures lifted, sardines could struggle to bounce back in an ocean devoid of their main food source. The lipid-rich coldwater plankton that sardines like to eat have become scarcer in West Coast waters, replaced by tropical species with less appeal to the region's predators. Scientists suspect the warm blob is causing the plankton shift.

Without that food source, "the whole system can suffer," said Kerry Griffin, who manages sardines for the Pacific Fishery Management Council.

The end result is ominous for more than just fishermen. Oily sardines are a key food source for larger ocean-going animals. As that option becomes scarce, predators switch to less-nutritious food options and can end up starving.

Scientists believe that chain reaction is already playing out in a big way. A group of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researchers last week released a study linking the sardine collapse to the surge in starving sea lion pups washing ashore along the California coast. The scientists who authored the study say they expect the mass starvation that stranded 3,000 pups last year to continue as long as forage fish numbers remain low.

Similar phenomena have been observed among other species that target small schooling fish for food. Brown pelicans are failing to breed, dead Guadalupe fur seals are washing ashore in California, undersize salmon are returning to Canadian spawning grounds and seabirds are washing ashore weakened or dead on the Oregon coast.

OVERFISHING?

Environmentalists for years warned that a sardine collapse was imminent. Now they have begun lobbying to get more conservative harvest policies in place before the fishery reopens.

Research shows that overfishing intensifies the cyclical downturns of sardines and other small fish, and ocean conservation groups argue current West Coast standards are too permissive to prevent overfishing.

Ben Enticknap, a Portland-based campaign manager for the international conservation group Oceana, said the group is pushing the council to adopt new standards that would trigger a fishing ban once the sardine stock drops below 640,000 metric tons. That trigger point is more than four times higher than the current level.

The group is also lobbying for a rule to prohibit fishermen from hauling in more than 15 percent of the adult population in a given season. In the final years of harvest before last year's shutdown, fishermen caught as much as 28 percent of the adult sardines in the water.

"Fundamental flaws in management have to be fixed, or this crash will be repeated in the future," Enticknap said.

CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM

Although the overall results of this year's sardine count were discouraging, scientists say there's a glimmer of hope.

Several years of poor reproduction helped drive down the sardine population. In their latest trawl, scientists saw evidence that 2015 was a good spawning year.

It's too soon to tell whether the reproductive success signals a turning point.

"There are some potentially positive signs there," Milstein said, but in order to boost population counts, "the young need to survive long enough to make it into the mature population."

--Kelly House

khouse@oregonian.com

503-221-8178

@Kelly_M_House
Medical Marijuana Problems

In this Feb. 17, 2016 photo, marijuana plants grow at the home of Jeremy Nickle in Honolulu, Hawaii.

(Marina Riker/AP)

Six Christian brothers in Colorado have developed a marijuana extract they're calling Charlotte's Web -- and they say it's proof everything in God's creation has a purpose.

The Stanley brothers "saw God's hand at work when some local parents found that giving the dark oil to their epileptic children ended their violent seizures," Religion News Service reports.

Charlotte's Web is low in THC, marijuana's psychoactive ingredient, but high in healing CBD oil, the non-profit news service reports. The brothers repeatedly heard success stories from parents.

"I was angry that I had been told marijuana was evil and of no medical benefit," Joel Stanley, the eldest of the brothers, told the Religion News Service. "At that point, it was very easy for me to reconcile marijuana with my Christian faith."

More than 500 families have relocated to Colorado to access the oil, Religion News Service reports. To help cover the cost of the move, the Stanley brothers created a nonprofit called Realm of Caring with help from two of the first parents to use the oil, Paige Figi and Heather Jackson.

"God made the plant, and said in Genesis 1:31 that everything he made was very good," Stacey Mobley, minister of the church of Christ of Colorado Springs, told the Religion News Service. "I believe Heather is driven by obligation because she is a Christian to do good to all."

Visit the Religion News Service for the full story.

-- Melissa Binder

mbinder@oregonian.com

503-294-7656

@binderpdx
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

A source in the MDC-T has claimed that the party's President Morgan Tsvangirai is under surge from the party's Secretary General Douglas Mwonzora who is said to be one of those plotting a rebellion against the leader.The insider said the daggers of destruction have been directed towards the veteran opposition leader."As usual, the modus operandi of the MDC T's internal woes, emanates from the office of the Secretary General. Tsvangirai is being confronted by a resurgence and an internal rebellion led by Mwonzora," said the insider."Save" as he is affectionately known among his supporters, is under siege from all corners, as an all out rebellion from his trusted lieutenants is looming. The recent expulsion of Matson Hlalo was a total disregard of Tsvangirai's authority and influence as it was done without his consent, said one insider."It has also been revealed that the MDC T leader, issued a directive that the party should expel the divisive online operative, a character operating as Polite Musarurwa or Boaz. To everyone's surprise, Mwonzora neutralized the directive by mentioning Mazodze, SA provincial Spokes, Gore and one by the name Chiroodza."As a result, Boaz is operating at will in the name of the party with Mwonzora's blessings and guidance," said the insider."The Standing Committee has deliberately developed a rebellious attitude towards their leader. It is has also been revealed that the executive resolved to focus on the Presidential campaign, but Thokozani Khupe and Mwonzora, stubbornly dismissed the resolution. Mwonzora, furthermore, keeps on leaking the Standing Committee's discussions to the detriment of the party's operations."The insider said Mwonzora stubbornly shocked his peers in the SC when it was discovered that he was already in talks with Zanu PF Mnangagwa's lacoste faction and Tsvangirai's directive came to the rescue of the party."Recently, Mwonzora went around mobilizing other parties SGs to hijack NERA and use it as a coalition pact. He went on to establish a US$25 million budget and developed a list of close associates to staff NERA. He then instructed NERA to be separated from ZINAP. Intelligence on the ground has it that Dougie wants to use NERA as the launch pad of his party dumping MDCT," said the insider. "The same Mwonzora, accompanied by TG Theresa Makone have been going around the country telling people that "hatiwane mari nokuti Tsvangirai akasviba and akasvibiswa naBiti". A clear vote of no confidence. For 16 months now, Mwonzora has failed to pay salaries."The insider said MDC T Secretary General, has a well calculated plan and at the same time has developed some sentiments of fear around Thokozani Khupe's camp and has set up a team to understand her camp through women."Abednicho Bhebhe who is in Khupe's camp is being monitored by Fungai Masaiti. Chief Ndlovu who is in Khupe's camp again ,is being monitored by Yvonne Musarurwa. Lwazi, Dougie's girlfriend works closely with Khupe and closely monitors her. Mwonzora is on record, especially when drunk, saying "Khupe thinks I am stupid, arikuita vice wangu manje manje apa paNERA ndapedza napo" . When cornered he starts pointing fingers to Chamisa. Meanwhile ,Theresa Makone is always praising Joyce Mujuru to the surprise of many," said the insider."Tsvangirai issued a directive banning all the SC members from whatsapp groups and chatting with lower structures but Mwonzora and Vice President Khupe have defied him as they are seen every minute battling it out with party members on Whatsapp. The said chats yaSG which revealed much of his shenanigans originates from a whatsapp chats."The insider said Mwonzora and Khupe once went against a Congress resolution not participate in any elections, with Mwonzora allocating himself the Glenview South constituency as the most ideal constituency."Khupe giving Pumula constituency to Kalipani Pugeni chi Ben 10 chake. The Nhlalo issue, Dougie and Khupe wants to appoint their blue eyed boy Mapungwana," said the insider."Tsvangirai is really under siege and we wait to see if the party followers will once again come to the defence of the MDC T leader."
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

The United State of America Embassy in Harare has reiterated its concerns over the disappearance of human rights activists and journalist Itai Dzamara after he clocked one years missing since last March 9 2015."Today marks the one-year anniversary of the disappearance of civil society activist Itai Dzamara. Promoting freedom and democracy and protecting human rights around the world are central to U.S. foreign policy, and the United States remains deeply concerned about Dzamara's whereabouts and wellbeing," said the embassy in a statement. " The Zimbabwean constitution guarantees fundamental human rights and freedoms for all citizens, including Dzamara."The embassy said all citizens have the right to life and personal liberty, the right to participate in peaceful political activities, the right to demonstrate and petition peacefully, and the right to express themselves freely."The United States urges the government of Zimbabwe to ensure that the constitutionally-guaranteed fundamental rights and freedoms are honored and enjoyed by all Zimbabweans, regardless of political affiliation. We also encourage the government of Zimbabwe to fully investigate cases of politically motivated violence and abductions to ensure that perpetrators are prosecuted and victims receive justice," reads the statement.
Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

The Embassy of Canada to Zimbabwe has indicated that it has not yet forgotten that the journalists and human rights activist Itai Dzamara is still missing after one year since he was abducted by suspected security agency officers."Today, (March 9) Zimbabwe marks one year since the enforced disappearance of human rights activist, Itai Dzamara. His fate remains unknown and those responsible for his disappearance have not been identified and brought to justice.The Embassy of Canada remains troubled by the lack of progress in the investigation and dearth of information about the case being communicated to the public," reads the statement."The Embassy of Canada calls on the Government of Zimbabwe to pursue its efforts to resolve this prolonged and untenable situation, for the relief of family and friends of Mr. Dzamara."Canada said Zimbabwe's 2013 constitution guarantees the fundamental rights of all citizens including the right to life, personal liberty, freedom from torture, freedom of assembly and association, and freedom to peacefully demonstrate and petition."Canada urges the Government of Zimbabwe to ensure these rights and freedoms are enjoyed by all Zimbabweans, regardless of political or other affiliation. Canada remains concerned about human rights, democracy, freedom and the rule of law in Zimbabwe and will continue to work to foster a more peaceful, democratic and prosperous future for all Zimbabweans, consistent with Zimbabwe's own constitution," reads the statement.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

Buhera South MP Joseph Chinotimba has claimed that both men and women were abusers of each other contrary to the obvious claims that men were the major abusers of women."Iif we look at each other here, it is not everyone who is clean. I cannot point out names. It is not only the abuse of women that is happening but there are women who are also abusing boys. We have a story that happened in Chitungwiza whereby a 65 year old woman took a young man aged 20," he said. "Again, we have a child who was 17 years and was herding cattle. He was taken by a woman aged 55. That issue went before the courts. I think as women debate this issue, as what was said by the Hon. Member that gender is not all about women but about men and women. Men are being violated; some of the women are the ones who spoil these children."He said the mother brings home a boyfriend and a child witnesses this and when this child behaves in the same manner  that is why he said that if a child acts likewise, it is because they would have seen the mother doing it."When that child leaves home going out in the evening, where do the parents think the child is going? Mothers should be clever and protect their children. You might not agree to this but this is what is happening. The women go to the beer halls, they come back with a boyfriend and the children are there and they see this happening. They send their children to go and ask for sugar or bread from a man who is living alone and the wife will be in the rural areas," Chinotimba said."Some of us have rural constituencies so, when we come here we leave our wives behind and you see that mothers send their daughters to borrow sugar from such a man. Imaging borrowing salt from a man leaving alone. I did not say salt I said sauti, the term in Shona differs according to dialect. That is not what is expected from a good mother to send a child to go and borrow salt from someone's husband instead of her going by herself. Instead they send their daughters to go and borrow salt from Chinotimba. What do they want Chinotimba to do when they send their daughters, knowing well that the wife is in the rural areas?"Chinotimba said he was talking about customs and traditions here."I agree with the motion that it is not right. I am not in disagreement with the motion but I am talking about our cultural practices. We are saying that women need to look after their children. We have a problem in Midlands University, the parents send children to university without money and food. There was a video that circulated of how children live. What do they expect their child to do when they send them to school without enough resources? There was an issue on human trafficking which was on the radio and it was also in Kwayedza," he said. "If you look at those issues, those are caused by poverty; our nation as it is, in the past, when a child went to university, the university would give grants and loans that would be paid back when a child starts working. Now the Government is having financial challenges and they cannot assist. There are also no jobs where the children can go and work and pay back that money."He said if one travel in the Avenues area around 5p.m will be deeply saddened because the children who are there are very young 15  17 years; those are from the universities."What I am saying is that it is not only the men who should be arrested but those women who send children to school without enough resources must be arrested as well as the men who send children to universities without money - they should be arrested as well. The family is provided for by the mother and father so, it is their duty to look after the family. The mother and father who would have failed to provide for the children should be arrested because they are the ones who would have caused the immoral decadence," he said."Hon. Oliver Mandipaka talked about the apostolic sector where girls were encouraged to go for virginity testing; now it is termed child abuse. Why is it child abuse if the parents are protecting their child? They will fear that if it is known that they are no longer virgins, the children will not get married. These are the children who get married because if they confess that they were raped, they will be forgiven. We talked about this issue here in Parliament and I said let the church take root but the Members of Parliament refused and today children are engaging in immoral behaviour; if they are deflowered, the parents will know. If the parents say let us go to church and be examined, the child will say the parents are abusing me and they will go and report to the police. We need to consider what we can term child abuse."Chinotimba said what he says is that those people who interrogate the law should interrogate it seriously and where the child abuse is coming from."If we continue to say it is the men always, it is because Adam sinned and now the blame is put on everyone. The women have their issues that they do not want to bring out in the open because they do not want them to be known," he said."The cause of child marriages is on the women and I swear by my Bible that I am holding in my hand today, they push their children into early marriages. The only time when men where blamed in the Bible is when a King fell sick and they sourced for a solution they said that a child should be brought in and when the king moves it will show that he is still alive.""So, I am saying that it is these women who actually cause child marriages. I support the movers of the motion. I was saddened on Saturday, I was at a meeting whereby I was preaching and I was preaching to the nation, I saw women without any respect who were breast feeding their children without covering their breasts. A decent woman should use a towel to cover her breast while breastfeeding or go away from the people but I did not see that happening. Now, if children see this they will adopt what they see their mothers doing," he added."Most people in this august House are widows and widowers but my Bible says that if you are a widow around 60, you are young and may give us challenges because you want to get married to children who are 18 years old. So, there is child abuse and we have child abusers in this august House," he said.
A Central Michigan University aquatic ecologist recently served as guest editor of a special-issue academic journal dedicated to recent changes in Lake Michigans food web. The issue seeks to understand these changes and their impact on the Great Lakes.

CMU biology professor Hunter Carrick joined a team of Great Lakes experts to produce The Journal of Great Lakes Researchs special issue titled Complex Interactions in Lake Michigans Rapidly Changing Ecosystem. The multidisciplinary publication includes 22 papers on the ecosystem of Lake Michigan, including two Carrick authored.

Lake Michigan is changing rapidly in many ways, Carrick said. The research in this issue is important as we work to understand and potentially regulate these changes.

The issue includes topics such as the effects on the food web due to the rise in population status of the invasive species quagga mussels. Because the food web is the interconnection of many food chains a graph of what-eats-what when changes occur in the food web base, effects ripple through the rest of the web to an array of other consumers. Therefore, changes in even the smallest members of the food chain can have ramifications for large fish. The result, says Carrick, is a change in food quantity and quality at nearly every level of the web.

There are a number of causes to consider, but the introduction of quagga mussels to the lake is a key factor in these changes, he said. In 30 years of Great Lakes research, I have never seen anything affect the lakes the way this species has.

The special issue addresses other aspects of the Great Lakes as a result of the declining food web. Carricks research in the special issue points to three key factors in the changing outlook: invasive mussels, reduced nutrients and climate change.

Productivity in Lake Michigan has declined over the last 20-plus years, he said. Now that we have looked more closely, its clear that rising temperatures are having an effect.

Carrick uses microorganisms as early-warning indicators to evaluate changes in the ecosystem before larger, more complex living things are affected. Among the most notable differences in his study of Lake Michigan is a large decline in the phytoplankton seasonal bloom, called diatoms. Phytoplankton are microscopic organisms which make up the base of the aquatic food web and are pivotal to sustaining small animals and fish. With this large shift at the base, researchers expect rapid changes in the Great Lakes to continue.

CMU students Emon Butts, Daniella Daniels and Christopher Frazier aided Carrick in the study in addition to Melanie Fehringer, a former student researcher at the CMU Biological Station on Beaver Island. Researchers contributing to the study were Gary Fahnenstiel, Michigan Technological University and University of Michigan, and Steven Pothoven and Henry Vanderploeg, Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Research in the special issue of the journal focused on Lake Michigan but will benefit other lakes with similar ecosystems. Lakes Superior, Huron and Ontario share similar food web structures and challenges of invasive species. Carrick and his fellow CMU researchers are leading efforts to protect and restore the Great Lakes.

The Great Lakes are tremendously resilient, but the sustainability of their future health remains to be seen, he said. We are facing unprecedented change in these waters, and our research is a pivotal part of understanding future trends in the species present and the productivity of the ecosystem as a whole.

The special issue of the Journal of Great Lakes Research is available at http://bit.ly/1KELQzc. Additional guest editors of the issue include Henry Vanderploeg, Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory; David Bunnell, Unites States Geological Survey Great Lakes Science Center; and Tomas Hook, Purdue University.
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. (AP)  A fundraiser will be held at a restaurant in central Michigan to help preserve the community's historical documents, including newspapers, which otherwise may be lost.

The Shepherd Bar and Restaurant will donate 20 percent of its proceeds Thursday to an effort by the Shepherd Area Historical Society and the Central Michigan University's Clarke Historical Library to put copies of the local newspaper, "The Shepherd Argus," on microfilm so they can be saved online, the Morning Sun of Mount Pleasant (http://bit.ly/1Sz2VMC ) reported.
State Board of Education President John Austin is coming to Midland to discuss the state of education policy, whats happening in Lansing and what needs to happen in Lansing to better support public education and school/student success.

He is hoping to have a lively discussion with citizens, educators, civic leaders and school administrators and board of education members, a spokesperson said. We are hoping that teachers, school board members and business leaders who care about education  irrespective of their politics and party affiliation  will attend so that we can shine a spotlight on public educations needs and issues.
United Way offers free tax assistance along with an easy way to help others through their state return.

Working Americans making $62,000 or less are leaving money on the table every year during tax season. Many are unaware that they qualify for free tax preparation through United Ways MyFreeTaxes program.

Only four in 10 surveyed were aware of the Child Tax Credit, a United Way official said in a press release. Fewer than six in 10 know about the Earned Income Tax Credit and nearly 20 percent were not aware of any tax credits.

MyFreeTaxes is a free, safe and easy way for anyone earning $62,000 or less to file their state and federal taxes.

To complete your tax return, visit www.unitedway.org/myfreetaxes/.

United Way also funds the Tax Aid program at the Midland Community Center. In partnership with AARP, volunteers provide on-site tax preparation for moderate- to low-income seniors and low-income individuals.

To make an appointment, contact Paula Carr and (989) 832-7937, ext. 2271 or email PCarr@MyMCC.org. Residents can also drop in to the Community Center on Thursdays during tax season.

For those looking to help others during this years tax season, United Way asks that you consider donating all or part of your state tax refund to the United Way Fund.

When filing your 2015 state income taxes, ask about Form 4642 (Voluntary Contribution Schedule). Donations will be allocated by zip code to ensure that your contribution impacts your community.

The United Way Fund helps families build for their future by providing for basic needs like food, clothing, housing and utilities.

Nearly 30 percent of the calls to 211 Northeast Michigan last year were for food, Ann Fillmore, executive director of United Way of Midland County, said in a press release. This impactful program will help the many local, hard-working families who struggle with meeting their basic needs.
News / National

by Nyemudzayi Kakore

MDC-T president Mr Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday hijacked the march to mark the first anniversary of the alleged disappearance of journalist-cum-political activist Itai Dzamara.Dzamara was allegedly abducted by unknown people in Glen View in March last year.Mr Tsvangirai and the party's top officials joined the Itai Dzamara family and a few of supporters marching in the city centre.Addressing the gathering at Africa Unity Square where Dzamara used to call for President Mugabe's resignation, Mr Tsvangirai demanded that Government produce Dzamara "dead or alive"."Let this day, be a day we commit ourselves to say that never again shall this happen again to any Zimbabwean while we remain silent," said Mr Tsvangirai."The Constitution is very clear, we have a right to demonstrate and we can express ourselves peacefully without any violence."Mr Tsvangirai questioned why the State authorities reacted angrily when people took to the streets to express themselves in a peaceful manner.This, he said, was a sign that the authorities were afraid of the people and the crisis they created."They are afraid of the crisis they have caused, the degradation, deprivation and poverty that is now rampant," he said.Yard leader Mr Temba Mliswa, civic leaders, representatives of the church participated in the solidarity march with the Dzamara family.
Ten High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles were handed over to the Nepal Army during a ceremony Feb. 5 at AM General's military Humvee factory in Mishawaka, Indiana.

The vehicles are part of a foreign military sales case facilitated by the U.S. Army Security Assistance Command and will be shipped via freight-forwarder to Nepalese United Nations peacekeeping operations in the South Sudan in central Africa.

Matt Starner, the USASAC country program manager for Nepal, attended the handover ceremony along with the Defense and Military Attache from the Nepal Embassy in Washington, D.C. The visit included an overview of AM General and Humvee vehicles as well as a factory tour, to include survey of Nepal's Humvees, before signing the vehicles over to Nepal's attache.

In addition to the vehicles, the country will also receive 10 trailer-mounted generators, individual soldier equipment and two years of Humvee spares.

"Providing the equipment enhances the Nepal Army's capability to conduct PKO activities for their U.N. missions," Starner said. "This equipment will aid in protecting their soldiers from any threats encountered."

Funding for the case was provided through the Global Peace Operations Imitative, a program financed with peacekeeping operation funds specifically allotted by the Department of State to support United Nations operations.

Case requirements for Nepal's mission required that materiel be delivered to their Army while in theater. This was a unique challenge for Starner while coordinating the logistics of equipment delivery. Typically when items are transferred, it is sent directly to that country.

"Logistically, planning to move the equipment was difficult due to resource limitations and transportation options to reach the landlocked African nation (of South Sudan)," Starner said. The delivery location change created additional procedures for the U.S. government to ensure accurate receipt of materiel, which is usually verified in country upon arrival by the receiving country's security cooperation officer. In this instance, the items had to be reviewed and accepted prior to shipment at the handover ceremony.

"In addition, since materials must be shipped together as much as possible due to the logistical constraints of getting them into Africa, I decided we should create a consolidation activity at DLA Distribution in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, to aggregate smaller shipments via the freight forwarder all at one time," Starner said. He relied on support from personnel at USASAC's New Cumberland, Pennsylvania, office to help facilitate the shipment consolidation.

Starner credits the success of overcoming the shipping challenges to proactive communication between USASAC and all of the parties involved in each step, including the TACOM Life Cycle Management Command, Defense Security Cooperation Agency and Defense Contract Management Agency.

"All stakeholders took ownership of their respective parts of the process to make them a success," he said.

Starner believes by the U.S. partnering with Nepal to build military capacity and capability to perform peacekeeping operations will continue to strengthen the countries' relationship.

Nepal previously received 10 Humvees in 2010 for a similar peacekeeping mission. The country also received Acrow roadway bridges in 2014 through Foreign Military Financing for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief within their region, which included advanced assembly training.

"With recent program success and past interactions with the bridges case, it is likely that the U.S. government and Nepal will continue to work together to solve unique challenges," Starner said.
MANILA, Philippines - The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam (CG 54) arrived in Manila for a scheduled port visit on March 8.

During her stay, Antietams crew will participate in community service events and tours, and have time to enjoy the city.

Its my first time in the Philippines, so Im excited to see what Manila has to offer, said Cryptologic Technician 3rd Class Jacob Burwell.

For some members of the crew, however, coming to Manila is not an exotic port visit, but a chance to come home.

Im excited to go to see my family, said Personnel Specialist 1st Class Virgilio Minimo. Im going to visit the Navy base close to where I grew up.

Logistics Specialist 2nd Class Jamie Jacob, from Manila, was another Antietam Sailor who was looking forward to being home.

My friend is having a baby shower, so Im so happy I get to be here for that, said Jacob. Im also happy that Ill get to see my friends and family.

Antietam, forward deployed to Yokosuka, Japan, is on patrol in the 7th Fleet area of operations in support of security and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific.
MANILA, Philippines (NNS) -- Leaders from U.S. 7th Fleet, the Philippine Navy and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force met Mar. 5 aboard the 7th Fleet flagship USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19) during a scheduled port visit. The trilateral talks aim to grow and strengthen relationships between the three nations.

Leaders from each country expressed their concerns about tensions in the South China Sea, the impact of natural and man-made disasters on operations, and discussed ways to collectively promote peace and stability throughout the Indo Asia Pacific.

Discussions also focused on lessons learned from past cooperative training efforts with an eye toward maximizing future opportunities, which included expanding on the scope and complexity of multilateral engagements, exercises, and humanitarian and disaster response efforts that will allow countries to rapidly respond in the event of a crisis.

The 7th Fleet Commander Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin praised all the participants at a reception aboard Blue Ridge immediately following the staff talks. This "really is a tangible example of the unified commitment of our countries to the stability and security of this region."

Aucoin also said, "the peace and stability in this region really depends on the unified efforts of our countries."

The U.S. 7th Fleet conducts forward deployed naval operations in support of U.S. national interests in the Indo-Asia Pacific area of operations. As the U.S. Navy's largest numbered fleet, 7th Fleet interacts with 35 other maritime nations to build maritime partnerships that foster maritime security, promote stability and prevent conflict.
PACIFIC OCEAN - U.S. Sailors and Marines of Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) 7 and 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade (3D MEB), commenced exercise Ssang Yong 16 in the Republic of Korea (ROK) March 9.

Ssang Yong, which means Twin Dragons, is biennial combined exercise conducted by Navy and Marine Corps forces with the ROK to strengthen interoperability and working relationships across the range of military operations from disaster relief to complex, expeditionary operations.

This year, U.S. Marines and Sailors are participating in exercise Ssang Yong 16 with the 7th ROK Marine Corps Regimental Landing Team 7 (ROKMC RLT-7), Australian army and Royal New Zealand army forces.

"Ssang Yong offers the U.S. and ROK the opportunity to test their ability to operate together as an integrated combined naval force," said Rear Adm. John Nowell, commander, ESG 7. "Its significance in assuring interoperability between the U.S. and ROK forces is inestimable."

During Ssang Yong, approximately 9,200 U.S. Marines and 3,100 U.S. Navy personnel will work alongside 4,500 ROK Marine Corps, 3,000 ROK navy, 100 Australian army and 60 Royal New Zealand army forces.

The sheer number of personnel involved is extremely impressive, said Capt. Ed Thompson, commander, Amphibious Squadron 11. There are a lot of moving parts and things that need to align for a successful exercise. When they do, it is truly amazing to see how we operate together.

During Ssang Yong, U.S. and ROK combined forces will conduct beach landings, flight operations, and personnel exchange and cross platform exercises which ensure that various components of ROK and U.S. Naval and Marine forces are able to respond to contingencies on the peninsula and across the Asia-Pacific region.

We look forward to an efficient and successful exercise with one of our closest and oldest allies in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, said Nowell.

The Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group (BHRESG) with embarked Amphibious Squadron (PHIBRON) 11 and 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) consists of amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6), and amphibious dock landing ships USS Ashland (LSD 48) and USS Germantown (LSD 42), and the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Shiloh (CG 67).

Joining the BHRESG is the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group (BOXARG) which consists of the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 4), the amphibious transport dock ship USS New Orleans (LPD 18), the amphibious dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49), PHIBRON 1, and the 13th MEU 4th Marines, Combat Logistics Regiment 35, 1st Tank Battalion and I MEF Crisis Response Force Company. All units fall under 3rd MEB during the exercise.

Commander, Flotilla (COMFLOT) 5 consisting of amphibious assault ship ROKS Dokdo (LPH-6111), amphibious landing ship class ROKS Cheon Wang Bong (LST 686), Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin-class destroyer ROKS Munmu the Great (DDH 976) is amongst the ROK assets participating in the exercise.
News / National

by Staff reporter

OUTSPOKEN former War Veterans minister Christopher Mutsvangwa yesterday said he regretted accepting a Cabinet appointment last year, claiming the 12 months he spent in government were the most unproductive in his life.Mutsvangwa was last year appointed War Veterans minister, a year after he played a key role in the ouster of former Vice-President Joice Mujuru from both Zanu-PF and government on allegations of plotting to topple President Robert Mugabe.But the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association chairman was booted out last Friday for gross misconduct, a day after the Zanu-PF politburo slapped him and his wife, Monica, with three-year suspensions from the party.Both Mutsvangwas have been linked to a faction reportedly supporting Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa.Monica has also reportedly lost her Manicaland senatorial seat and government post, where she was Macro-Economic Planning and Investment Promotion deputy minister.Yesterday, she declined to comment on reports of her expulsion.In an exclusive interview with NewsDay yesterday, Mutsvangwa said his ouster from government was a blessing in disguise as he would now concentrate on his "successful" business life."I have been in Cabinet for a year now. Sadly, this has been the most non-productive 12 months of my life," Mutsvangwa said."I am once again out of appointed public office. I can now revert to being more flexible and innovative in what I do best. I love the thrill of global business. The beauty this time is I have a formidable global network. And the rewards can be targeted, so my family can be in the catbird seat. Let the good times begin."Before his expulsion from government, Mutsvangwa last week said he neither cared about losing his Cabinet post nor the politburo position that he had just lost, claiming he had long loathed the positions he served at Mugabe's discretion."I take consolation in my past. Kicked out of ZBC (Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation) in 1993, I went on to give Zimbabwe its first digital switch with NetOne and Siemens in 1998, its first broadband," Mutsvangwa said."It is business acumen starting with Foreign Affairs deputy minister that unlocked value to multi-billion-dollar loans invested in electricity energy generation at Kariba South and Hwange. I did all the spadework in Beijing [China] well ahead of Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa's breakthrough visit in 2014. All in the same spirit of collaboration as we had done on the China Tobacco investment back in 2004."
News / National

by Staff reporter

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai made sensational claims yesterday that missing human rights activist, Itai Dzamara, was abducted by suspected State agents because he had in his possession damning evidence of ballot fraud from the controversial 2013 polls.The former prime minister in the government of national unity made the claim after joining the Dzamara family and hundreds of other Zimbabweans who marched in Harare to commemorate the first anniversary of the disappearance of the "Occupy Africa Unity Square" movement leader.In the meantime, embattled Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa told lawmakers in the National Assembly that police still had no leads on the journalist-cum-democracy activist's whereabouts.Dzamara was abducted on March 9, 2015, two days after he had addressed an MDC rally at Zimbabwe Grounds, in the Harare high density suburb of Highfield.Addressing the huge crowd that gathered at Africa Unity Square, the popular park where Dzamara used to operate from during his brave demonstrations in which he called upon President Robert Mugabe to step down for misgoverning the country, Tsvangirai disclosed that the missing activist had damning information on the disputed 2013 elections."Ndinoziva (I know) Itai was somebody who was very knowledgeable about how the 2013 election were rigged. He told me, and we cannot accept this, especially me. I witnessed the abductions of people in 2008."We have a right to demonstrate. The police should not tell us what to do. Why do they always try to block peaceful demonstrations?" the MDC leader said, referring to the earlier attempt by police to ban yesterday's demonstrations.High Court judge Clement Phiri eventually had to intervene to allow the Dzamara family to proceed with its planned peaceful march, to mark exactly one year since the activist disappeared."This government has mismanaged the economy and now it is threatening the safety and security of citizens that is guaranteed by the Constitution. We demand that this government returns Dzamara, whether dead or alive, so that there is closure on this emotive issue"Itai Dzamara's disappearance presents the unacceptable face of this regime, the face of a regime that embarks on abducting people because they have different views," Tsvangirai charged.After the speech, Tsvangirai joined the Dzamara family in a solidarity march on the streets of Harare, while the issue caused rancour in Parliament, where legislators demanded answers on the activist's whereabouts."I assure this house that government will leave no stone unturned in the investigation of the disappearance of this citizen of ours. Also this matter went to court  So let me assure this house that this concern is not only the family's concern, but it's the concern of every citizen of this country."I don't know if there is any honourable member who does not care or is not worried about this disappearance. I doubt it because you won't want a citizen of this country to disappear without a trace."We are all concerned. And anybody with any information, confirmed or unconfirmed, let them come forward so that, that information is examined," Mnangagwa told Parliament.Home Affairs deputy minister, Obedingwa Mguni, said his ministry had intensified its search for the activist and had now set a reward for any information on Dzamara's whereabouts."Let me say it's a big concern to all of us  the police have formulated a committee that involves human rights lawyers, Itai Dzamara's family and friends. They sit every month to discuss issues that may lead to the recovery of the great man," Mguni said.But Oliver Mandipaka, the Zanu-PF MP for Buhera West, rose to ask: "What was so great about Dzamara?", to which Mguni, in a sharp retort, said: "Honourable, every citizen in Zimbabwe is a great person".In a statement issued later, the US Embassy in Harare said it remained deeply concerned about Dzamara's whereabouts and wellbeing."The United States urges the Government of Zimbabwe to ensure that the constitutionally-guaranteed fundamental rights and freedoms are honoured and enjoyed by all Zimbabweans, regardless of political affiliation."We also encourage the Government of Zimbabwe to fully investigate cases of politically-motivated violence and abductions to ensure that perpetrators are prosecuted and victims receive justice," the embassy said.On its part, the Canadian Embassy said it also remained troubled by the lack of progress in the investigation of the matter, as well as the dearth of information about the case."The Embassy of Canada calls on the Government of Zimbabwe to pursue its efforts to resolve this prolonged and untenable situation, for the relief of the family and friends of Mr Dzamara."Canada remains concerned about human rights, democracy, freedom and the rule of law in Zimbabwe and will continue to work to foster a more peaceful, democratic and prosperous future for all Zimbabweans, consistent with Zimbabwe's own Constitution," the embassy said.
Reading aloud has multiple benefits. Right from infancy to childhood, reading plays a major role in the vocabulary development of a child.

Reading to children aloud from an early age has been proven to boost their esteem thus making them easier to prepare for schooling. This also helps in the better development of their language and communication skills.

A six-year study conducted by the University of Melbourne on 4,000 children beginning age 4 reveals that those children who have parents reading to them three times a week have better mathematical abilities and have become better readers than those who did not, according to Bundoo.

Teachers also consider reading aloud as an effective tool in breaking the wall between teacher and students. It also aids in better classroom management and improve children's academic performance because it exposes them to more comprehension challenges.

Aside from the intellectual benefits that children get, reading aloud develops their social interaction. They are able to enter the world of the story and explore beyond what they heard and bring it to the next level.

"During read-aloud, we share the excitement, the suspense, the emotion, and the sheer fun of a new book and its intriguing or annoying characters," said Nancy Lacedonia, an East Longmeadow, Massachusetts teacher.

Teachers in secondary and graduate schools also consider reading aloud as it gives their students time to clear their minds of other activities and motivate them to focus on the present lesson. They believe that this tool helps them build a better classroom atmosphere.

"From being read to repeatedly, children learn that reading is enjoyable, that pictures provide clues to the story, that books and print go from left to right, that print represents words and meaning, that stories have a beginning and an end. By listening, watching, and asking questions, they add to their vocabulary and increase their comprehension," said Catherine Paglin of the NW Education Magazine, according to Education World.

Bundoo reports that a US Department of Education finding proves the importance of reading in a person's life. The figure shows that 70 percent of adult inmates are illiterate while 70 percent of juvenile offenders are unable to read well.
Padi Bill, a law that will allow dogs to be put to death for causing injuries to humans was signed by Florida Gov. Rick Scott. The bill was inspired by Padi, a Manatee dog who became the subject of a bite controversy.

According to Bradenton, Padi bit a service dog during training and injured the dog's nose. Paul Gartenberg, his owner received a misdemeanor charge but later declined by the Manatee County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday.

Padi's first case is biting a child's ear off who faced euthanasia in June. However, the dog was saved by thousands of support.

"While the actions of the past for Padi may have given warning to possible future issues, in order for the charge of reckless injury to a service animal to also be applicable, there by law would require a reckless disregard on the doctor's behalf," a deputy wrote in his report. "During my investigation, I did not find that the doctor appeared at any time to be grossly and consciously negligent without concern for danger to others."

The deputy then called it "nothing more than an unfortunate accident." He also stated that the puppy did not have "substantial training" as a service dog, therefore, it was not performing a duty as a service dog during the incident.

Meanwhile in Manchester, England, Aldermen revised the city's law on dangerous animals. It was decided that it is the bite that counts to tell if the dog or an animal is dangerous, STL Today reported.

The legislation was made Monday night by the Board of Aldermen. It classifies the dog or animal as dangerous if the injury was inflicted outside its owner's property. The new law also removes earlier distinction between unprovoked and provoked animals.

Overall, whether or not there is a law regarding animal bites, pet owners must be responsible enough to make sure that their dogs or other pets will not cause harm to humans or even other animals.


It is common knowledge that mothers who have just given birth are at risk of developing postpartum depression. Now, a new study has revealed that new mothers with postpartum depression have the highest suicide risk the first year after they give birth.

Over the last several decades, there have been a number of Danish women who took their lives just a year after they were diagnosed with postpartum psychiatric disorders which included severe cases of depression and psychosis. Even though the number of women committing suicide is not that high, researchers have reason to believe that there is a direct connection between postpartum psychiatric disorders and the risk suicide. The study also emphasized that health providers need to be aware of this, sciencedaily.com reported.

According to news-medical.net, the result of the study the study was done by a team of epidemiologists at Aarhus BSS, Denmark, in cooperation with colleagues in the Netherlands and the United States. The study basically states that mothers with postpartum psychological disorders are four times at risk of death either of natural or unnatural causes during the follow-up period than those mothers who don't suffer from any postpartum disorders. Also, mothers with birth-related disorders have almost the same mortality rate with those who have psychological disorders not related to giving birth. The risk of suicide for mothers experiencing postpartum disorders have been discussed before, however, there was no study to back it up. This time, the study made a comprehensive comparison with women from other categories making the researchers focus on the exact link between childbirth and suicide risk.

The team analyzed the data of 1,545,857 Danish women from the years 1970 until 2011 which was possible through the data sets maintained by different government agencies in Denmark. Their data were detailed enough to provide social scientists with a rich source of information to test their hypotheses.

Trine Munk-Olsen, a senior researcher at the Department of Economics at Aarhus BSS and one of the lead authors of the paper explained that the suicide cases are not very common, but whenever they happen they are the most tragic event, not like what people expect. "The general belief is that a new mother doesn't take her own life and that she ought to be enjoying motherhood, but the reality isn't always like that. We think it's important that women with postpartum psychiatric disorders are properly diagnosed and get the treatment they need, which possibly can prevent that they commit suicide," he added.
Chipotle located in Billerica, Massachusetts voluntarily closed its doors early on Tuesday after an employee was diagnosed with norovirus. Moreover, two other employees of the restaurant were suspected to have the same virus.

"There has been one confirmed case of norovirus," Board of Health Chairwoman Sandra Giroux said to Boston Herald. Further adding that there are at least two employees of Chipotle who are reportedly suffering from similar symptoms.



Giroux said Chipotle voluntarily closed after four employees called out sick and one was tested positive for norovirus. But no customers have ever complained of being sick or tested positive for the same virus after dining at the Chipotle.

"After learning that four of our employees were not feeling well, our restaurant in Billerica was closed for a full sanitization," Chris Arnold, a spokesman for Chipotle said. "We do not know if the employees are ill with norovirus and no customers' illnesses are connected to this restaurant." Arnold also said that any of their staff who feels ill will be not allowed to report for work until they fully recover based on the strict rule of Chipotle.

Cleanup crews have now arrived. #Chipotle will clean top to bottom & throw out all the food. #WBZ pic.twitter.com/62gZvwuOQL  Julie Loncich (@JulieLoncich) Marso 8, 2016

Later that day, cleanup crews were seen arriving at the Chipotle restaurant, reported by CBS Boston. Giroux said health inspectors will be working with Chipotle until they are done with the sanitation. Furthermore, she cleared that all of the food that was inside the restaurant will be thrown away before Chipotle reopens just to make sure that the employees, including the customers, are safe from food poisoning.

The closing comes after 150 people were hospitalized due to norovirus after eating at the Chipotle located in Cleveland Circle. Chipotle bosses and staff later held a meeting and tackled the food safety issue to avoid the same incident from happening to any of their Chipotle branches.

During the meeting, Chipotle Co-chief executive officer Morty Moran also made it clear that sick employees should not report to work and should stay home instead. Since then, Chipotle has been following the stringent guidelines, including shutting down right away when they notice any signs of a potential threat to food safety.
Parents who worry that their children might be using drugs need not be scared anymore. The services of dogs who sniff through homes to find illegal substances can be readily available for parents.

The Washington Post said the Last Chance K9 Service was opened last September by owner Michael Davis. It has since went rummaging through more than 50 houses in Louisville, Kentucky.

In his record, Davis mentioned that his dogs were able to locate drugs in 9 out of 10 homes. Some of the most common drugs found in these searches are heroin, marijuana, cocaine, barbiturates, marijuana and methamphetamines.

His business is a boom in the area since heroin use has become a problem for many teenagers. The Washington Post said that more than 200 overdose deaths were recorded in 2014 in Jefferson County.

On its official website, the company mentioned that they are ready to respond to homes who have kids showing signs of drug abuse or are believed to be selling illegal substances. "Every parent's worst nightmare is just that, and the embarrassment it can cause as well," read one of the statements on the site. "Let us help sniff out your household concerns, privately, & confidentially to help get your loved one back on track!"

It mentioned that Davis' primary mission is to keep the homes, especially the children, protected from drugs and even terror. Aside from sniffing drugs, Davis' dogs can also detect bombs, guns and other ammunitions.

One of the satisfied customers of this service is Kentucky father James. He told Washington Post that that he tapped Davis' company when he noticed that his teenage daughter had a new group of friends. James claimed he was also smelling a foul smell from her daughter's bedroom.

"I'm not a snooping parent. I want my daughter to be able to trust me, but I gotta protect her," he noted. "I know girls can be sneaky and hide things in places I wouldn't even think of."

The drug-sniffing dogs found a glass pipe with marijuana inside the room of James' daughter. He confronted her about it and she admitted making the mistake. "What can occur from letting this stranger in my house with a drug dog? But it's been nothing but positive," the father added.
Namibia has been using a new approach to address the declining population of its big cats. They are employing large dog breeds to act as guardians of livestock to prevent the loss of cheetah lives.



CNN reported that one of the major factors that used to contribute to the decline of cheetah population in the Southwest African country was the ranchers' practice of trapping and killing the animals to prevent causing problems in their farmlands. Cheetahs, the world's fastest land animal, would usually stray outside the boundaries of protected areas and invade nearby farms as they require vast lands to roam by nature.

In the past, Namibian farmers thought that there was no other solution but to kill the animals in order to protect their livestock. This practice has been one of the major reasons why the population of Africa's most endangered big cats declined by 90 percent over the past years.

"We had to, there was no other way," said Andries Pretorius, a Namibian farmer. "We shot them on a fairly big scale... It was the only way, because you have to make a living... we lost a lot of cattle and sheep."

In an attempt to address the declining cheetah populations, Namibia's Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) has tried to change the farmers' thinking by introducing livestock guarding dogs as deterrence against cheetah invasion. According to the Wildlife Conservation Network, the approach uses imported big dogs, particularly Kangal dogs and Anatolian shepherds, to guard farms and reduce conflict between cheetahs and livestock farmers.

"They are a big dog and basically act as a guardian," CCF founder Laurie Marker explained. "They bark loudly and go out with the herds... They say 'We are here, this is my flock' and the predators stay away."

Markie said that the impact has been good since the use of livestock guard dogs was introduced. She cited that livestock losses of Namibian farmers, who employed big dogs to drive away big cats, have been reduced by 80 to 100 percent.
Contrary to the longstanding belief that men can be more competitive and aggressive with each other, a new study claims that "bromance" or the close friendship between men can significantly boost their health. Researchers from Standford University have found that the bond may help buffer males against stress.

The Washington Post reported the new study, published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, has concluded that bromance could be as effective as intimate romance in easing stress. Bromance is a term used to refer the emotionally intense and non-sexual bond between two or more men.

The researchers achieved their conclusion by experimenting on male rats kept in a cage. They discovered that the rodents turned more sociable and affectionate to each other when exposed to mild stress.

"A bromance can be a good thing. Males are getting a bad rap when you look at animal models of interactions, because they are assumed to be instinctively aggressive," Dr. Elizabeth Kirby, lead author of the study, said in an article of The Telegraph. "Even rats can have a good cuddle - essentially a male-male bromance - to help recover from a bad day."

The researchers believed that close male bonds can boost the amount of oxytocin in the brain, which will consequently decrease anxiety. They also added that these findings will support those men whose close relationships were stereotyped as disruptive or "un-masculine."

"Having friends is not un-masculine," Kirby said. "These rats are using their friendships to recover from what would otherwise be a negative experience. [And] if rats can do it, men can do it."

The researchers, however, said that the benefits of bromance have a limit. They also discovered that when the rats were exposed to a more life-threatening stress, they stopped bonding, stayed away from each other, and turned aggressive.

"This really aligns well with what you see with pathological effects of stress on humans," Kirby explained. She said these findings suggest that men can only be comfortable to each other at some point. However, as soon as the stress is too much to handle, their bond will become unhelpful.
A group of renowned dementia experts have warned that Alzheimer's disease could be caused by viruses and bacteria. They proposed for an urgent investigation about the link of infectious agents to the Alzheimer's causation.

The Telegraph reported that a group of 31 senior scientists and clinicians from all over the world have released an editorial in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, suggesting that microbes are the major culprit of dementia. These include herpes virus that causes cold sores, as well as chlamydia bacteria and spirochaete.

"Alzheimer's disease causes great emotional and physical harm to sufferers and their carers as well as having enormously damaging economic consequences," the experts wrote. "We write to express our concern that one particular aspect of the disease has been neglected, even though treatment based on it might slow or arrest Alzheimer's disease progression."

The experts said they derived their conclusions from various studies that implicate the common presence of microbes, specifically herpes simplex virus type 1, chlamydia pneumoniae and several types of spirochaete, in the elderly brain. They suggested that further research should be conducted to pinpoint the role of microbes in the development of Alzheimer's disease.

However, some researchers and dementia charities refuted the suggestions of the team. John Hardy, professor of Neuroscience at University College London, told the Independent that there has been no convincing proof that microbes are the cause of the disease. "We need always to keep an open mind but this editorial does not reflect what most researchers think about Alzheimer's disease," he commented.

Moreover, Dr. Simon Ridley, Director of Research at Alzheimer's Research UK, acknowledged that there are some evidence to suggest that infections could weaken the immune system and could contribute to Alzheimer's progression. However, he said that there is no conclusive evidence implicating that a specific infectious agent or microbe is directly responsible for causing Alzheimer's.

"There are many avenues being explored to understand the initial events that trigger the development of Alzheimer's and this is an important part of the research process for ruling in and out particular hypotheses," Ridley stated.
Giving birth to healthy babies is a wonderful thing because new life has been brought to Earth. However, mothers who give birth are always at risk of losing their lives doing so.

That is exactly what happened to a mother of five from Kansas who lost her life 10 days after delivering triplets due to blood clot, according to ABC News. Fortunately, the Kansas community where the family lives at is rallying to give them help.

The 36-year-old mother and elementary school secretary, Casi Rott, did not have pregnancy complications. However, she was on bed rest for two weeks and then afterwards delivered the babies through cesarean section. These two factors increased her risk for developing a blood clot.

This was the only time Casi was able to hold all 3 together. It was definitely a special moment. She actually... Posted by Casi's Triplets on Friday, February 26, 2016

After delivering the triplets, the mother stayed at her brother-in-law's home where she started to feel extreme chest pains which prompted a return to the hospital. She was diagnosed with pulmonary embolism -- "the sudden blockage of a major blood vessel (artery) in the lung, usually by a blood clot," according to WebMD.

After a few days of stay in the hospital for her pulmonary embolism, Casi was able to return to her home in Wichita, Kansas. "It was first time in three months she was back. She said several times it was like she never left home," Casi's 33-year-old husband Joey Rott told ABC News.

Casi was only able to spend a few minutes with her kids until the severe chest pains came back. She was brought immediately to the hospital but died a few hours later of a second blood clot.

The Kansas community has been a great help to Rott and his five children since losing Casi. "The community has been incredible," Rott told ABC News. "It's one big reason we moved back here."

Hilary Thompson, a family friend, even set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for the family. So far, $84,000 has been raised. "They're a very precious family and it's a very tough deal," Thompson told ABC News.
United States first lady Michelle Obama told young women that just like her, they too can rise above difficult circumstances. She encourages them to move past the doubters and choose to surround themselves with the right crowd.

During a recent forum at the American Magazine Media Conference, Obama reminded girls that success is reachable through education. The first lady's spiel was part of her Let Girls Learn initiative. The campaign seeks to reduce the number of out-of-school girls, which currently stands at 62 million worldwide, as per CNN.

"As I told those girls in Cambodia, our job is to push past those doubters and to find those caring adults that see the positive in us because they are out there," said Obama. "Because for all the people that told me I couldn't do it, I had parents who believed deeply in my ability to do whatever I wanted to do."

She recalled how some of her teachers doubted her. They never thought a black girl from the south side of Chicago would be accepted at Princeton and Harvard.

"When you're the first lady or you're an actress, you're larger in life to many girls living in poor communities, living in urban cities, not just here in the United States, but around the world. You seem untouchable," Obama continued. "And for me, it is so important for kids, in particular, to understand that I am them, they are me."

Let Girls Learn initially got its funding through public contributions from the US, South Korea, Japan and the UK. To mark the initiative's one-year anniversary, the first lady proudly announced that several private sponsors have joined in on the cause.

According to The White House, Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble have donated a total of $150,000 to the Peace Corps Let Girls Learn Fund. Other companies that have pledged their support include RTI International, JetBlue, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, J.Crew and Lyft.

Feminine hygiene brand Always showed their support by proposing a slew of girls' education emojis. There's even a Michelle Obama podium emoji.

Always has donated $100,000 to the Peace Corps Let Girls Learn Fund. The company has also collaborated with the first lady to help girls in developing countries build self-confidence and to encourage them to stay in school.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

MDC-T President Morgan Tsvangirai today celebrates his birth day as he attained 64 years.Party' secretary of Mobilization Job Wiwa Sikhala congratulated Tsvangirai saying he was a source of courage and inspiration for the party as he has not changed his stance of confronting the misrule by the President Robert Mugabe's administration."Happy birthday mudhara wedu. It's a long journey to our freedom. But there is one thing that inspires me from you my Predident. You don't tire in our fight for a free and just Zimbabwe," Sikhala said. "You have the spine of a steel. Zimbabwe tested democracy because of your determination. On this day of your birthday, you can reflect the past with pride. You fought a war professors, Doctors and the so called intellectuals failed to reach. You are a true brave soldier. Zimbabwe will never be same. Long live brave soldier!!!"Tsvangirai is the founding President of the MDC and former Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.
There have been a number of parents who rely on special infant formulated milk to protect their babies from asthma, type-1 diabetes and other known allergies. Well, it looks like they should look for other ways to do that since a study had just revealed that hydrolyzed formula milk don't actually affect autoimmune diseases in children.

In the past, there were suggestions to give children with allergies and eczema should be given hydrolyzed milk and not the normal formula milk to rid themselves of developing these conditions. According to dailyreporter.com, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved a claim stating that hydrolyzed milk may reduce eczema risk in infants, and a Cochrane review in 2006 stated that giving hydrolyzed milk to infants also reduces risk of milk allergy to infants and children.

But when a new study analyzed the research, they found no evidence that using hydrolyzed milk can lower the risk of the conditions mentioned in babies. A team of researchers led by Robert Boyle of Imperial College London in England said that they didn't find enough evidence to support the claim of the protective property of partially or extensively hydrolyzed milk.

For the study, Boyle and his team reviewed data from 37 studies conducted between the years 1946 and 2015 that when summed up can have more than 19,000 participants. They also found that infants' risk of having asthma, allergies (eczema, hay fever, food allergies) or type-1 diabetes did not decrease even if they were having hydrolyzed cow's milk formula. There also weren't any evidence to support the FDA-approved claim that this kind of milk can reduce the risk of developing the abovementioned conditions.

US News reported researchers saying, "Our findings conflict with current international guidelines, in which hydrolyzed formula is widely recommended for young formula-fed infants with a family history of allergic disease." One expert in the United States even said that the findings gave health experts to question the usefulness of these special formula milk products.

"Allergies and autoimmune diseases [such as asthma and type-1 diabetes] are on the rise and it would be nice if we did have a clear route to prevent them," said Dr. Ron Marino, associate chair of pediatrics at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y. "Unfortunately, despite U.S. Food and Drug Administration support [for hydrolyzed formula], the data are not compelling," he said.
Michael Douglas has recently been spotted visiting the Island of Bermuda, one of his favorite places on earth, apparently to reflect on life and to make sure that all his affairs are in order. He has been busy with making the necessary updates to his will.

Reports on Radar Online have it that the 71-year-old actor was informed by his doctors that his cancer has recurred. This came quite a surprise to the veteran actor since he was originally diagnosed as cancer-free. The rep of Michael Douglas, however, debunked the rumors that his cancer recurred, and insisted that he was already free of the degenerative disease.

A source has spoken that the actor had been selling his assets and have been busy in making updates to his will. According to the source, the reason why he visited the Island of Bermuda was that the actor "might never again see the place where he wants his ashes scattered."

He described what Douglas was like during his visit to the beloved island. He said, "Michael's eyes welled up with tears as he revisited the paradise where his ancestors presided." The source added that Douglas has become more spiritual and that, "He realizes with all his success that family is everything and most important."

The recent report of Douglas not being cancer-free is sad news for Douglas and his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones as they had celebrated in 2011 when he was declared by doctors as "tumor-free." The cancer-free news came a year after it was discovered in 2010 that the actor was suffering from stage 4 tongue cancer.

People, on the other hand, reported that Douglas, during the AARP's 15th Annual Movies for Grownups Awards in Beverly Hills, said that, "I'm cancer-free and five years out. And that normally means that everything's over. Health becomes a priority." He and his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, 46, were together at the event and were very sweet. Douglas even joked that the 25-year age gap between him and Catherine kept him younger.
Prince Harry, Prince William and Kate Middleton recently experienced what more regular folks do when they were rejected by five-star hotel Le Hotel Marotte in Amiens, France. Kate Middleton and Prince William along with Prince Harry are scheduled to attend the centenary of the Battle of the Somme in France. The French Foreign Ministry tried to make the arrangements with Le Hotel Marotte for Prince Harry, Prince William and Kate Middleton, but may have done so too late.

According to The Telegraph the manager of Le Hotel Marotte, Olivier Walti, explained that his decision to reject the booking request for Prince William, Kate Middleton and Prince Harry was a matter of principle. Le Hotel Marotte was fully booked for the Battle of the Somme ceremonies by the time the French Foreign Ministry tried to secure accommodations for Prince Harry, Prince William and Kate Middleton. The hotel manager believes that revoking other people's booking to favor Prince William, Prince Harry and Kate Middleton would have been unethical.

"We would 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," Walti explained. "It's just unthinkable ethically."

The commemorative ceremonies for the Battle of the Somme is an important historical occasion and Prince William, Prince Harry and Kate Middleton are expected to represent Queen Elizabeth and Britain. With the only five-star hotel in Amiens booked, Prince William, Prince Harry and Kate Middleton may have to settle for less.

Certainly, Prince Harry is not averse to hobnobbing with regular people. Daily Mail reports that one of the more recent sightings of Prince Harry is in a secret theater event in Soho, London. The "You Me Bum Bum Train" that Prince Harry attended is an interactive theater event, which only VIPs can attend. Regular audience, who are not at the same level as Prince Harry and other celebrities as Benedict Cumberbatch, Jude Law, Dominic West and Stephen Fry, must apply for entry through a ballot.

After the interactive events in "You Me Bum Bum Train," the audience ends up in front of a live band where they can rave and crowd-surf. Prince Harry did not appear to have any date by his side. Instead, Prince Harry had his usual bodyguards for company.

The Queen smiles as she visits the @PrincesTrust Centre in Kennington today #TrustAt40 pic.twitter.com/7dDb6T7Nxh  BritishMonarchy (@BritishMonarchy) March 8, 2016

When Prince Harry is not crowd surfing in ultra-secretive theaters or making the media buzz with his love life, the ginger prince is busy with humanitarian involvements. At the moment, the paralympic Invictus Games in Orlando is keeping Prince Harry engaged.
Trump has a long, well-documented history of discrimination in his business life, not to mention a history speckled with links to the mob. The latest story in what one might call the presidential candidates trail of transgressions involves the Trump Plaza casino and hotel in Atlantic City.

According to documents obtained under the New Jersey Open Public Records Act by Michael Isikoff, an investigative reporter for Yahoo News, the casino received a $200,000 fine after purposely impeding black employees from working around one of the casinos high rollers, the mob-linked Robert LiButti. Investigators involved with the case, which took place in back in 1991, found that in order to avoid losing LiButtis business, the casino kept the employees away from the gamblers betting tables while he was on the premises.

LiButti was known for racist tirades and had on more than one occasion publicly berated blacks and women with the vilest language, according to a state official cited in the court documents. That included racist language and obscene references to women from a man who had, at the time, been banned from several New Jersey casinos as a result of his connections to Mob boss John Gotti.

When the Philadelphia Inquirer asked about Trumps connections to LiButti back in 1991, the Republican front-runner told the publication, I have heard he is a high roller, but if he was standing in front of me, I wouldnt know what he looked like.

He again denied any connection to LiButti in a recent statement given to Yahoo through a spokeswoman.

During the years I very successfully ran the casino business, I knew many high rollers, Trump said. I assume Mr. LiButti was one of them, but I dont recognize the name.

However, LiButtis daughter Edith Creamer has accused Trump of lying about the extent of his relationship with her late father. It was a relationship that, according to Creamer, involved LiButti gambling millions of dollars at one of Trumps privately owned casinos, as well as using his helicopter to fly to Atlantic City and his private yacht to party. The helicopter claims are easily corroborated by a police recording from 1990 during which LiButti describes a conversation with Trump on a helicopter.

In 1994, LiButti was sentenced to five years in prison for collecting $3.4 million in improperly authorized bank loans over a two-year period, as well as $3 million tax evasion offense. Libutti died in 2014.
After an almost two day long, record-breaking filibuster on the Missouri senate floor, the states Democratic senators ended after Republicans forced a vote on SJR 39, a bill that allows organizations in the state to discriminate against same-sex couples on the grounds of religious freedom.

Passed to a 21-11 vote this morning, Republican legislators argued that the amendment protects religious people from government penalties, The Huffington Post reports.

Specifically, the bill proposed an amendment to the states official constitution, prohibiting Missouri from penalizing clergy, religious organizations, and certain individuals for their religious beliefs concerning marriage between two people of the same sex.

The White Houses press secretary Josh Earnest spoke briefly about the issue when asked, though he clarified that he wasnt familiar with the specifics of the bill. According to Earnest, the bill appears to be inconsistent with the values of justice and fairness and equality that this administration has long pursued.

The bill will not go into effect as of yet, as it still must get through a second vote by the Senate and the House, both of which are GOP-led. Missouris voters will then have their say about the issue in either the August primary or Novembers general election.

Members of the states business communities, as well as faith leaders and local organizations have already come out against these bills, signing a letter last week urging their representatives to not to pass SJR 39.

The bill comes at a time when other states are grappling with how to handle the refusal of some businesses and organizations to offer homosexual couples their services. If passed, the bill would allow taxpayer-funded entities and government employees, such as state-contracted counselors, foster care agencies, and homeless shelters, to deny services to individuals in legally recognized same-sex partnerships. Individuals could even have their state benefits declined to them, all in the name of religious freedom.

The states current legislative session runs through mid-May, giving lawmakers time to amend the bill.
Nineteen-year-old Aurora Aksnes, or AURORA, just released the highly anticipated follow up to her 2015 EP, Running With The Wolves. The Norwegian artist garnered critical acclaim following her EP release, gaining the attention of major labels, music critics, and even Katy Perry.

The new 12-track full length album, All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend, depicts a raw, real, and beautiful emotional journey with moments both of extreme power and unhindered vulnerability. The album begins with the delicate number Runaway which channels a soft power, somewhere between Florence Welch and Joni Mitchell. Its a compelling start; a gentle synthpop number about a girl begging to go home  the only place where she belongs, or just the only place left to go.

From there, the track feeds straight into Conqueror, one of the albums real jams. It channels a Lily Allen meets Regina Spektor energy  bubbly and positive but also demanding. The song bursts explosively into a repetitive chorus about feeling a-la-la-live which gives the album a kick of energy which lasts through all twelve tracks. Warrior is another one of the albums few upbeat moments, though it opens with the lyric I fall asleep in my own tears. Its certainly not positive, but its vulnerable and that power feels very real and authentic. The chorus echoes a very self-love inspired message  let love conquer your mind, warrior.

If theres a theme to this album, its life  celebrating it and embracing it. AURORA, on Winter Bird coos the lonely line all I need is to remember how it was to feel alive, which is followed up in I Went To Far by a Sheeran-style give me some love and hold me. One of the highlights of the album is the albums third single Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2 ,1) which glides along Agnes Obel-style in a smooth, synthy minor (plus, could that title be any more aligned with this life and death motif??). The track sees Sia-level moments of sulky mood power, but then bursts straight back into a light pop bounce to bring up the energy.

The albums deluxe edition features Nature Boy (Acoustic) which feels like it was pulled straight off of the Sweeney Todd cutting room floor. Its at a Frank Ocean level of melodic genius, exploring uniquely haunting sonic patterns with the aid of only a cello and guitar. The storytelling is stirring  keeping your attention while also lulling you into a sort of calm hypnosis, Sigur Ros style.

AURORAs release packs a moody, but unexpectedly positive punch, throwing her amidst a sea of artists who do the same. The uniqueness, for AURORA, comes not in the sound, but in the message  a somber look at life veiled with a thin frosting of optimism.
Maybe youve read George Saunders absurdist stories in The New YorkerSaunders regularly contributes there carrying the post-modern torch passed off to him by the likes of Donald Barthelme and Leonard Michaelsor maybe you only vaguely recognize his name from a crumbled Chipotle bag.

Either way, Saunders is one of 25 writers who contributed to The New York Times Magazine feature 25 Songs That Tell Us Where Music Is Going for which he wrote an essay examining Wilcos One Sunday Morning.

Saunders refers to the song as Wilcos 12-minute opus and talks about the healing quality it has on him. Other songs covered in the roundup include 06 by Vince Staples, Blue Boy by Mac DeMarco, I Watched the Film the Song Remains the Same by Sun Kil Moon, The Blacker the Berry by Kendrick Lamar, Consideration by Rihanna and more. Worth mentioning is the fact that only three of the 25 songs are performed by women.
When someone rolls their eyes at us, they are not likely to open their ears to us.

The Growth And Opportunity Project Report, Republican National Committee, 2013

Stodgy old campaign operatives use a lot of terms that grate on the ears of the casual reader; coffers, gadfly, or disincentivize are perfect examples of signifiers that youre reading the work of somebody who is so submerged in the political culture that they have trouble speaking plain English. The apocryphal Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result definition is another.

Incidentally, that quote opens the Republican National Committees one-year assessment of its Growth And Opportunity Project Report.

The Republican National Committee brought together a select five members in 2013 to take a thorough and unsparing look at how and why the GOP, unstoppable in off-year elections like 2010 and 2014, bungled the 2012 presidential election. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus was realistic in his assessment of the race after Republicans lost everything from the presidency down to a Maine state Senate seat most notable for the Democratic candidates World of Warcraft character.

(At least part of this shock must have stemmed from the axiomatic Republican belief that Obama is The Worst President Evera worldview, its worth mentioning, the majority of the country did not necessarily share, if you hover around the late October/early November 2012 portion of Gallups approval rating chart.)

Publicly, the party was honest about its poor performance. Three years ago this month, Priebus told The Hill that hed reached a boiling point and that he was determined to fix the partys standing with minority voters.

This is no different than a patient going to see a doctor, said Sean Spicer, the RNCs spokesman at the time. Your number one thing is to say, Im not feeling well. Tell me what the problem is. Run some tests on me.

Out came the stethoscope. The Growth and Opportunity Project interviewed 52,000 people  more than the entire population of Galveston, TX or Benton Harbor, MI. They conducted conference calls, group listening sessions, interviewed pollsters, campaign staff, regular schmoes and seemingly everybody in-between.

To win in 2016, the reports co-authors identified three areas of concern: Sending a more inclusive message to women and minorities, modernizing the partys technology to improve its ground game, and changing the Republican nominating process to strengthen the eventual nominee. (The whole 100-page thing is available here.)

There was, indeed, a great disturbance in the pundit class. Some crowed about how out-of-touch the party seemed. Uber-conservative Erick Erickson claimed it brought little new to the discussion. For her own part, party co-chair Sharon Day said she stood by it when I spoke to her right after its release.

It is now 2016. The path of the GOP frontrunner for the nominating contest has been paved with an unbroken string of shocking insults, from the campaign announcement that accused Mexicans of being rapists to untrue claims of American Muslims celebrating 9/11 and likely others between when I finish composing this article and when it is posted. The nominating process began with nearly 20 candidates, and in the process of narrowing down to four or five this past week, it has produced a shaky three-front war between two candidates the party leadership openly despises and an establishment pick who has won just a single state.

Late night hosts no longer even need to reach to make dick jokes about the Republican debates.

Establishment stalwarts like the National Review, David Brooks and now Mitt Romney rage against Donald Trumps candidacy, and it has so far done nothing to visibly slow his inexorable advance. Yet if he wins, it seems it will be just barely: As I write this, he has yet to break 50 percent in any of the contests so far. Party leaders believe his nomination will seal the partys doom against either of the prospective Democratic nominees and even now rally desperately against him.

So what the hell happened?

Henry Barbour, an active member of the GOP in Mississippi and nephew of Mississippi governor Haley Barbour, was one of the five co-authors of the original report. Joining him were party heavies like Sally Bradshaw (who youll recognize as Jeb Bushs campaign manager this go-round) and Ari Fleischer, the former White House chief of staff under George W. Bush.

I think the RNC has taken a lot of our recommendations, particularly on the mechanical side of politics: Data, digital, how to deliver the message and turn out voters, Barbour told me in a phone conversation the week of Super Tuesday. The RNCs done an incredibly good job of investing the money and raising the money to improve in all those areas. That part doesnt get a lot of attention.

Ada Fisher, a Republican National Committeewoman in North Carolina, agreed that one weakness in 2012 was certainly an asymmetrical ground game, and she feels its been addressed.

In 2012, we still hadnt kicked up our technology in the Republican Party, she said. In 2008, every state chairman and every county chairman who was a Democrat had an iPhone, and that iPhone registered any voter in that county. Our chairmen had nothing comparable to that, in 2008 and 2012. We were outmanned and out-hustled.

But what about, as Barbour called him, the 600-pound gorilla in the room? What about the Republican frontrunner? What about the message hes espousing?

Theres a lot of things we could learn from Donald Trump, good and bad, Barbour said. He communicates awfully well, hes certainly connected with a lot of voters who are otherwise pretty disinterested and fed up with the Republican Party and Washington in general, so I give him credit for that. But too many times, hes dividing people and making disparaging remarks about all sorts of groups of people. Whoever challenges him he immediately trashes. Thats problematic as far as growing the party and winning the general election.

Barbour seemed to concede that Trumps rhetoric goes against the express recommendations he and his colleagues made, such as when they wrote that It does not matter what we say about education, jobs or the economy; if Hispanics think we do not want them here, they will close their ears to our policies.

But, Barbour believes a different nominee will rise and prevent Trumps candidacy from harming the party.

Sarah Chamberlain is president of the Republican Main Street Partnership, a group that brings together moderate Republicans in Congress. She prefers to call them the governing wing of the party. (I did not ask what that makes Republicans like Ted Cruz.)

On the rise of Trumpthe candidate, just a reminder, who dismissed a Fox news moderator by suggesting she was on her periodSarah Chamberlain was less horrified than others.

I feel hes running the way he has to for the primary, and I think in the general, when hes the standard-bearer, that hes going to run as more of a governing candidate, she said. In my opinion, hes giving us reality TV. Thats what Americans want. This seems to be what the American people want, and Donald Trump is giving it to them.

More than a month out from Republican candidate Carly Fiorina dropping out of the nominating race, its easy to forget Republicans also tried to run damage control on their abysmal poll numbers with women as well.

Since 2012, Chamberlain said the Partnership has been touring the country, reaching out to women specifically to try to shore up support on the economic issues that affect women. Republicans havent run the sort of candidate who could appeal to women and everybody voters in recent memory, Chamberlain said.

Weve never run a governing candidate as President, she said. Mitt Romney probably was the closest to a governing Republican weve run in a while, but the fact he was friends with a NASCAR team owner probably took away from that.

Several times during our interview, Barbour expressed that he believes Marco Rubio to be the candidate best equipped to embody what the Growth And Opportunity Project called for. The young Senator from Florida, married to a Colombian-American wife and himself the son of Cuban immigrants, has won two primary contests as of this writingtaking Minnesota and Puerto Rico.

I think that if somebody like Marco Rubio ends up being our nominee, so much of this can be put behind us, Barbour said. I think well win. I think we will do very well with Asians and Hispanics and outperform expectations with African Americans because all these people are ready to see the country get back to a strong economic track, and I think Rubio so exemplifies the American dream.

If it isnt strictly impossible for Rubio to rally and reach a majority of delegates before Trump does, it certainly would seem to be improbable as he continues to emerge bloodied from televised debates and seems to have lost the support of Fox News propaganda machine.

Rubio, it is worth noting, has had to all but disavow the doomed immigration reform he championed just months after the reportwhich specifically called for immigration reform as a policy the Republican Party had to embrace to show it cared about minority voters. If that was a message the report tried to get across, it seems to have been flatly ignored.

And that last recommendation, strengthening the eventual nominee through a retooling of the primary process: If anything, the winner-take-all primaries in the later states seem to advantage nobody but Trump, who regularly scores pluralities even if he cant ever lock down majorities.

In this cycle, it is difficult to see, with Rubio faltering and Ted Cruz failing to consolidate support in a party that seems to hate him more even than Trump, how Republicans will be voting for a nominee other than Trump come November. Election nerds are bouncing up and down in anticipation of parliamentary shenanigans at the Republican nominating convention, but that has literally never happened in the history of the current system.

And if Trump does secure the 1,237 delegates necessary to reach a majority, itll be moot.

Ultimately, to combat that kind of influence and to put up a Republican candidate who represents a more moderate (Chamberlain didnt ever say sane) platform, the party is going to need to do two things: Not break apart, and encourage moderate Republicans to get to the primary polls.

I hope the party holds together through 2016. We cant afford to fracture apart, she said. I will tell you: 95 percent of the women we talk to have never voted in their life in primaries. Our hope in the governing wing of the party is to educate people on how important it is to vote in primaries.

A day after I interviewed Barbour, presidential also-ran Mitt Romney himself stepped up and denounced Trump publicly, joining a chorus of other leaders like Senator and former presidential candidate John McCain. Will it influence the primaries to come? The Republican base seems hell-bent on bucking whatever bridle the party establishment tries to put on them.

If their fervor and the inaction of the voters Chamberlain hopes to reach do end up carrying Trump to the nomination, the Republican Partys voters will have ignored the core message its elders have for years been tactfully trying to deliver to them:

This is the future of your country, and these are your countrymen, and none of that means that your deepest beliefs need to change. Chill out. Por favor.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

A political analyst Budiriro Peter Moyo has said the President Robert Mugabe's trip to India for a cultural function stinks betrayal by his spokesperson and permanent secretary in the ministry of information George Charamba.Moyo said what happened in India? Who set up who? Who organised the trip?"If the Minister of Culture was not invited to the event or responsible for extending invitations to the event, then exactly what was President Mugabe doing, going all the way to India? We can look at it from a point of either George Charamba as information ministry perm secretary trying to show he can organise better international trips that Prof Jonathan Moyo used to," he said. "But then can Mugabe forgives such actions which now include wrong speeches and now wrong trips by his spokesman? What is the security sector saying about flying a whole president to a fake festival? What if someone mischievous had organised the trip for coup purposes - that what the mouse does when the cat is away? Aren't we living in dangerous times when a whole president is given wrong speeches and sent to wrong trips?"He said if this trip was organised by Team Lacoste proponents then the camel's back has finally been broken."We must ask ourselves why George Charamba has escaped censure to this day, even as Mugabe read the wrong speeches and he is said to be in Team Lacoste and even holding press conferences on behalf od Mugabe in his absence," Moyo said. "But such kind of embarrassment of a President, flying him all the way half a world's journey to a non existent World Festival said to be smaller that Hifa has even me hiding under my blankets. No leader representing my country of birth deserves such. Even we from that country start looking like laughing stock. First Lady Grace Mugabe has look on powerlessly during the wrong speech saga but then India might just get her revved up. Beware the Ides of March."
When it comes to discussing the films of Kelly Reichardt, most people tend to forget about River of Grass, her debut feature from 1994, a whole 12 years before her sophomore effort, Old Joy, would put her on many critics radars. Thanks to the collaborative efforts of Oscilloscope Laboratories, Sundance, UCLA Film and Television Archive, TIFF and a host of Kickstarter backers, though, Reichardts first film is about to reenter the cinematic landscape in a new digital restorationand what a striking opening salvo it is, both on its own terms and in light of her later work.

Certainly, anyone expecting the social consciousness of Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy and Night Moves will be thrown for a loop by the purely genre-based leanings of River of Grass. Its essentially a variation on They Live By Night, Gun Crazy, Bonnie and Clyde and other such lovers-on-the-run pictures, with a noirish mystery thread revolving around cop Jimmy Ryder (Dick Russell), the oblivious father of one of the escaped lovers, Cozy (Lisa Bowman). But the film evinces other stylistic debts that Reichardt wouldnt pursue quite as strongly in her later films: most notably to Badlands in its voiceover narrationCozys, in this caseto both support and contradict the action shown onscreen.

That is not to say that Reichardts debut is totally bereft of signs of the films to come. One unexpected montage in the middle of the filmof a series of album covers, all of them featuring women in romantic and/or sexually suggestive poseshints at the more overtly feminist bent of her later work. And on a broader level, River of Grass vivid evocation of ennuia mood she conjures through her use of sultry jazz music on the soundtrack and a deliberately lackadaisical pacewould find a grander historical echo in her Western Meeks Cutoff, similarly invested in conveying characters who are lost both physically and psychologically.

That 2011 feature also connects to Reichardts debut in the way it toys fascinatingly with genre conventions. If Meeks Cutoff could be seen as an anti-Western, using the genres tropes in defiantly subversive ways, River of Grass pulls similar tricks with crime drama and noir cliches. The two bored and disaffected lovers on the run, Cozy and Lee (Larry Fessenden), may not be really lovers at all; the incident that leads them to try to escape their Florida Everglades homes may not have actually happened the way they think it did; and Lee turns out to be as incompetent at being a criminal as former jazz musician Jimmy Ryder is at being a cop.

The key to Reichardts vision in River of Grass, however, lies in Cozys characterher voiceover narration, especially. A 30-year-old housewife who still lives with her father, she frequently gives herself over to her daydreams, imagining a life outside her dead-end environment. Reichardt doesnt signal this with any fantasy sequences; all one needs to do is hear her dryly delivered faux-poetic musingsMurder is thicker than water, she says at one pointand see the cheerleader-like routines she does out of the blue to grasp her essential immaturity (one scene featuring a dreamy slow dance is especially mesmerizing). But though Reichardt maintains a deadpan distance from her and the rest of the characters, Cozys desperation and her subsequent excitement at getting caught up in all of this intrigue register with enough force that, toward the end, when the much less glamorous reality of her situation dawns on her, the revelation also hits us with a devastating punch.

Director: Kelly Reichardt

Writer: Kelly Reichardt

Starring: Larry Fessenden, Lisa Bowman, Dick Russell, Stan Kaplan, Michael Buscemi

Release Date: March 11, 2016

Kenji Fujishima is a freelance film critic, contributing to Slant Magazine, Brooklyn Magazine, The Playlist, and the Village Voice in addition to Paste. He is also Deputy Editor of Movie Mezzanine and former editor-in-chief of In Review Online. When hes not watching movies and writing and editing film criticism, hes trying to absorb as much music, art and literature as possible. He has not infrequently been called a culture vulture for that reason.
Tonight marks the debut of WGNs new series Underground, the story of a group of slaves making the 600-mile journey from a plantation in Macon, Ga., to freedom in the north. Created by Misha Green and Joe Pokaski, the series incorporates modern music into the historical drama, beginning with Kanye Wests Black Skinhead in the very first scene. Green and Pokaski set out to subvert our preconceptions of slaves by highlighting the bravery and inventiveness it took to make the dangerous escape from oppression. We spoke with the creators as well as cast members Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Alano Miller, Aldis Hodge and Jessica De Gouw earlier this year after its premiere at Sundance. Heres what they had to say about Underground

Miller: We shot in Baton Rouge, La., at a very hot time with tornados, mosquitos, alligators and snakes that were all real. It was very, very tough at times to shoot there, but it was a lot of fun. We grew very close because of it. There are very few sets that are built. This is on a real plantation in real slave quarters at LSU rural life museum. Its very heavy at times. You can definitely feel the weight there.

Smollett-Bell: Being there, on one hand, it helps make it authentic because as an actor we didnt really have to do much to get the beat. When you step on a plantation theres a spirit in the soil, theres a spirit around you, and you just look around the trees and imagine what have these trees seen, these trees that have been here for centuries. In the first episode theres a scene where Im protecting my younger brother. And just doing that scene on the plantation, thinking of all the Rosalees of the world who experienced thatit overwhelms me at times. I was still crying a good 10 minutes after we were done. Anthony [Hemingway, director], Misha, Aldis and Amirah [Vann, who plays Ernistine] just kind of huddled around me and let me cry. Its a privilege.

Hodge: We did so much research and watched so many documentaries as a cast and separately, as an actor you had to catch yourself because at time it felt too real. Like being in the slave quarters, you see scratch marks and you see blood stains and you see real chains and none of that was set design. That was there before we got there. And knowing those trees once hung someone. So we all came in, signed up for an amazing show, not really knowing where we were going, not really knowing the weight of what it really was, and wed visit these places where we were going to be doing these scenes, and all of a sudden something happens and you feel the weight of the world on your shoulders and knowing the responsibility that you have in telling the story, and that its not about you; its bigger than you. Its not about becoming famous; its about paying homage. It was very deep for me to take in all of that.

Miller: Im from the South. Im from Florida. Ive seen the KKK walk up and down the streets. Growing up seeing those scenes, knowing what the South is like, it felt amazing only after the fact knowing the story that we were telling and that we were changing the perspective of how we view slavery. Saying that they were heroesthat they were superheroes! That they were heroic and they had ingenuity and that they were intelligent and that there was strategy involved in all of this. And that was powerful doing that in the South, literally in the elements where all this went down.

Hodge: Were addressing something thats necessary, thats honorable, and its the way that were addressing it that means so much because as an actor you want to be part of something substantial. Its not just about boosting your career to the next level. Its about marking your career with great work and something that we can be proud of. What were doing, I hope that it can influence people the way that its influenced us because coming off this experience Ive become much more grateful for my life, so much more appreciative of the things we take for granted like coming home and taking a shower or even having a fridge. I hope that it opens peoples minds to try to reconstruct their idea of humane civility, how we treat one another because, in all fairness, right now is a tumultuous time for that. I think its getting out of hand in certain areas, and people are losing sight of the fact that were in this together and we need each other to make this work.

Smollett-Bell: Honestly, filming Underground has been one of the most challenging roles of my lifephysically challenging, emotionally challenging. And for that reason, artistically its so much more satisfying because Ive been stretched and pushed outside my comfort zone and forced to do things I wouldnt normally do. And its just really humbling to step inside the character of Rosalee. Im just so in love with her and in awe of her story, of her humanity of her spirit. To be the vessel that brings her to life really, really is an honor. In my research I found so many stories of courage and bravery, but also ingenuity. People talk about men an women who were enslaved and they were denied the right to read and write and yet they were genius. The ways theyd go around the system. The underground railroad itself wasnt some organized class or curriculum or manual that they would hand out. It was really by instinct or by using the stars or a song, a spiritual, or markings on a tree to run 600 miles to freedom. Just doing the research, there were a lot of things that surprised me, like the story of Ellen Craft, a light-skinned young woman who escaped bondage by disguising herself as a white man and disguising her husband as a slave. She put her arm in a cast because she couldnt write and boarded a train. She put her right arm in a cast so they wouldnt ask her sign anything. All these stories that you read about, not only were they genius, but they were bold and audacious. Id like to think Id have that kind of courage, but I dont know.

Hodge: Noah is a blacksmith on the Macon plantation, and hes the one who brings the idea of running back to the plantation because growing up hes heard about black people being free in the north. Hes tried to run a couple of times but he hasnt been successful. He realizes he cant do it by himself so he starts recruiting on the plantation. And he kind of kicks the whole thing off by getting this plan together. And all the colorful characters that get strung up in his web fill in the gaps.

Miller: I play Cato. Im the driver/overseer of the plantation so Im very well-hated on the plantation but respected because I can bend the masters ear and use my manipulation and my power. Cato is a chess player so everything is strategic. Its a lot of fun to sort of play the villain. I say sort of villain because what weve done with the show is that everyone is flawed. Theres a real human look at what people are so theres never just the hero whos perfect or the villain whos irredeemable.

De Gouw: I play Elizabeth Brooks whos from Ohio. Shes kind of an aimless socialite when we meet her. Kind of manic. She has no outlet for her energy or her love. But then she makes a trip with her husband to the Macon plantation and experiences the horrific nature that is plantation life and slavery in person. She feels very strongly against it, and this is her call to action to do something about. She gets heavily involved in being an abolitionist and in creating a safe house.

Green: We knew we wanted it to be bold. And everybody approaches this time people a certain way. Its kind of like were all looking at a portrait on the wall. Its kind of Gone With the Wind. And were like, No! We want to drag it into the present and what better way than music. You hear a song from 1920 and it hits you just as well as anything.

Hodge: Kanye Wests Black Skinhead was the first thing that jumped off the page for us. The first scene when you see this man running with Skinhead in the backgroundthat music infuses through our story and shows the pace and urgency of whats going on. So youre at the edge of your seat trying to figure out whats going to happen next. And every time you think you know what the outcome is going to be, Misha and Joe flip it. We didnt know if we were going to be in the next episode.

Smollett-Bell: We all became a family. I think because the story and the subject matter is so intense that we had to be there for each other. We bonded within days. It felt like we knew each other for a long time. And now, even though weve been wrapped for months, we still keep in touch, we still go to dinner with each other, were still on group text messages, and I really think that shows through in the work. When youre portraying a character, youre only as good as the other actor youre portraying the character against. These actors knew I trusted them. And we would push each other.

Pokaski: We had breakfast one morning and [Green] said, We should write a show about the underground railroad. I thought it had been done before and we were both kind of amazed that it hadnt. And the more we did research, the more we realized it was an amazing story that hadnt been done yet.

Green: Truth is stranger than fiction. We couldnt make just make this up. We thought, oh our work is done for us. Oh, this is great. And just when you thought, That is the coolest thing, cant top that, there was just another story of the ingenuity of how people were escaping, and what kind of the underground was using to get to freedom, and it was just perfect for TV. We sort of broke it open reading this letter from a young slave girl, and in it she was talking about all the reasons to run or not to run. And I think that all of us coming from a modern lens would think Run, of course youll run the first chance you get. But her whole family was on this plantation. For us that really started the way into these characters.

Joe: This was the first integrated civil rights movement, so were so lucky to have four good stories to tell: the people who were brave enough to run, the people were willing to risk their lives and give up their homes, the slave catchers who had to catch slaves and bring them back or they didnt put food on the table, and the people on the plantation who they left behind to pay for their sins. There were four great novelistic stories to be told over the first season.
Yesterday we posted a report titled "France is One Step Closer to a New Law that Would Fine Apple $386,000 each Time they're Denied Access to a Criminal's Phone." Today, a new report reveals that a similar type of bill is making its way through the US Senate. According to Reuters, "technology companies could face civil penalties for refusing to comply with court orders to help investigators access encrypted data under draft legislation nearing completion in the U.S. Senate."

Reuters is reporting that "The long-awaited legislation from Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein, the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, may be introduced as soon as next week.

It would expose companies like Apple which is fighting a magistrate judge's order to unlock an iPhone connected to the mass-shooting in San Bernardino, California, to contempt of court proceedings and related penalties, the source said.

Senators are expected to circulate the draft bill among interested parties next week and hope to introduce it soon after, though a timetable is not final." Unlike the French legislation that's currently working through France's Parliament, "The Senators' proposal would not seek criminal penalties."

In a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll published today, "Registered voters were asked which worries them morethat the U.S. wont go far enough in monitoring terror suspects communications, or that the government would go too far and violate the privacy of its citizens.

Nearly half of those polled, 47%, said they feared the government wont go far enough, while 44% feared the government would go too far.

Among people who think the government isnt doing enough to prevent terrorism, or say preventing terrorism is more important than privacy, 67% said Apple should cooperate and help the government open the phone.

Among those who fear the government would go too far and encroach on privacy, a nearly identical portion, 68%, say Apple shouldnt cooperate.

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.
Thus far everything the government has requested of Apple has been focused on unlocking iPhones owned by a terrorist and criminals. The FBI has to go before a judge with a court order justifying cause. Apple has been fighting the government starting with the San Bernardino iPhone. To win over the public, Eddy Cue went on the offensive yesterday and talked up the fear card with scenarios that are not a part of the current issue. It's the "what if" game. According to yesterday's interview with Spanish Univision, Eddy Cue said that if the FBI wins in its case against Apple to help it unlock the San Bernardino killer's iPhone 5C, it won't be long before the government forces Apple to turn on users' iPhone cameras and microphones to spy on them. Yet what was more disturbing is that Cue, a Cuban American, played up the fear card for immigrants who are already on edge over comments made by Presidential candidate Donald Trump that he intends to rightfully deport illegal immigrants that are mainly coming over the Mexican border. That was crossing a line and yet Cue played that up. The report noted that "In addition, [Eddy Cue] warns that the case would set a worrying precedent for immigration investigations where the authorities could also ask for unlocking phones."

The following is a rough translation of specific segments of the Univision article and interview with Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue in regards to Latinos:

"Cue, born in Miami, said that now only speak Spanish to Cuban parents (and will note the vocabulary mixed with English). He argues that the Government's position will create a precedent that may threaten the freedoms that his parents came to look to the United States.

"Someday want to (Apple) turn you (a user) to the camera phone, microphone - says-." These are things that we can't do now. But, if they can force us to do that, I think that is very bad".

Q: Latinos, many of them immigrants, are one of the populations most vulnerable. Should they be especially worried?

A: Any law that gives so much authority and ability (to the Government) get to the information of a person, it is one thing to worry much and have to look very well. Because, as I told you, would where it goes up in a case of divorce, in a case of immigrants, in a case tax? Someday, someone will turn on the phone, microphone... That must not happen in this country.

Q: A technology so could be used in investigations of immigration?

A: Why not? (...) What happens in this country is that, when you go to a court and a judge gives a decision, then other judges have the opportunity to make the same decision.

So in a case of immigrant, can become a judge and the judge says that the same law that applied in this case applies here. So sure that will happen.

You could read the full translation of the Univision interview here where Eddy Cue talks about Apple Pay security and their current case fighting the court order compelling them to assist the FBI in unlocking the iPhone 5c of the San Bernardino Terrorist Syed Farook.

On Monday Patently Apple posted a report titled "A Cabal of Billionaires, Politicians and Tech CEOs like Tim Cook Attend Secret Meeting about Taking down Trump." So Eddy Cue playing the fear card with Latino's shortly after this secret meeting took place was definitely a conscious move playing right into the anti-Trump rhetoric without ever even mentioning him by name. But one thing is for sure, the Latino community knew exactly what was meant by his commentary and that's the point.

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.
In mid-January we posted a report titled "Apple's CEO Rebukes Washington's need for 'Balance' between National Security and Consumer Privacy." While National Security officials had met with leading tech companies like Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Google and Microsoft, Apple's CEO lashed out at the high-level delegation of Obama administration officials about the lack of support for unbreakable encryption. Attorney General Loretta Lynch responded strongly to Cook by speaking of the necessary need for 'balance' between privacy and national security, that Cook had no interest in. Then earlier this month U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said she was disappointed by a federal judge's ruling that the government can't compel Apple Inc. to help investigators extract data from a locked iPhone. In a Q&A session Lynch stated: "Do we let one company, no matter how great the company, no matter how beautiful their devices, decide this issue for all of us?" The tension between Apple and the Obama administration spilled over today when the President spoke about their new Cybersecurity Initiatives and purposely listed tech leaders they're working with and snubbed to mention Apple. No  that wasn't an oversight by the President.

Today President Obama noted that "more and more, keeping America safe is not just a matter of more tanks, more aircraft carriers; not just a matter of bolstering our security on the ground. It also requires us to bolster our security online. As we've seen in the past few years and just in the past few days, cyber threats pose a danger not only to our national security but also our financial security and the privacy of millions of Americans.

So I've joined with leaders from across my administration to, over the last several months, plan on how we are going to go after this in a more aggressive way. And today, we're rolling out a new Cybersecurity National Action Plan, or CNAP, to address short-term and long-term challenges when it comes to cybersecurity.

On the topic of cybersecurity specifically, Obama noted that "We're also going to reform the way the government manages and responds to cyber threats. We'll invest in cybersecurity education. We're going to build on the work that we've already done to recruit the best talent in America in IT and in cybersecurity. And we're also going to create the first-ever Federal Chief Information Security Officer who can oversee these activities across agencies and across the federal government, as well as make sure that the federal government is interacting more effectively with the private sector, which obviously contains a huge amount of vital and critical infrastructure, and has to be protected.

We're going to work throughout this process to make sure that security also means privacy. So with the help of companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Visa, we're going to empower Americans to be able to help themselves and make sure that they are safe online with an extra layer of security, like a fingerprint or a code sent to your cellphone.

And finally, I'm going to establish a new high-level commission on cybersecurity to help us gather the best ideas from outside of government to focus on long-term solutions. Some of these issues are ones that we can solve relatively quickly. But in area where technology is constantly evolving, we've got to make sure that we're setting up a long-term plan anticipating where IT is going and anticipating where the cybersecurity threats are going to be. So we're going to work with Congress to appoint a broad, bipartisan group of top business, strategic, and technical thinkers. And I look forward to receiving their report by the end of this year to help guide not just my administration, but future administrations in how to think about this problem.

Earlier this month the U.S. Defence appointed Google's Eric Schmidt Head of 'Defense Innovation Advisory Board.'

During Tim Cook's interview with ABC News in February, news anchor Muir asked Cook: "You have talked with the President before on these issues of privacy and security. Are you disappointed there wasn't more dialogue with the administration before this swift action from the Justice Department?

Cook swiftly answered, "Yes and I think there should have been. This filing  we found out about the filing from the press and I don't think that's the way the railway should be run. And I don't think that something so important to this country should be handled in this way."

Whether this rift between the U.S. Government and Apple will be temporary in nature is unknown at this time, but it definitely looks as though both sides are digging in for war.

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.
Almost a year after Brittney Mills was shot dead in the doorway of her Baton Rouge, Louisiana home, the iPhone that might reveal who pulled the trigger languishes on an evidence shelf. Police think the pregnant mother's smartphone could hold texts or diary entries revealing who killed her, reports BloombergBusiness. But the data remains cloaked by encryption, guarded by an unknown pass code and unreachable by investigators.

The prospect of hidden information left on the iPhone tantalizes the victim's family. In an echo of the better-known cases surrounding iPhones used by a terrorist in San Bernardino, California, and a drug dealer in Brooklyn, Brittney Mills' survivors say device maker Apple Inc. hasn't done enough to find the killer. "In so many words, they refused to help us," said Tia Mills, sister of 29-year-old Brittney. "I was really astonished about that."

The slaying offers one example from hundreds nationwide where families and police are grappling with the decision by smartphone manufactures such as Apple to add encryption that law enforcement can't crack, even with a warrant. Unlike the Brooklyn and California cases where the U.S. Justice Department has gone to bat for investigators, local police and crime victims say they are largely left to fend for themselves.

Tia Mills said in an interview that "This is not just a terrorist issue. We're everyday people. We don't have muscle to fight Apple. We don't have money to go through the courts. We just want what's fair. And what's fair is allowing us to have access to the phone."

Tia added that "I'm not angry. I'm just disappointed. I'm disappointed because I'm sure that if it were to happen to one of their family members, someone that they hold near and dear, that they would do whatever it took."

The Mills family is snared by the same privacy barrier confronting the FBI, which won a court order asking Apple to help deactivate security features of an iPhone used by a shooter in the December attack that killed 14 people in San Bernardino.

Apple's policy calls for handing over content in the so-called iCloud, a storage site that lets phone users back up information including e-mails and text messages, when presented with a warrant signed by a judge. In this case, certain information was available to the Mills, but not the data that wasn't backed-up to iCloud.

It would appear that a partial solution would be to have the iPhone, at some point in the future, send information to iCloud in a different way so that it's automatic and in real-time so that the gap of information would never be an issue.

Cases like these are piling in. At some point in time it could become an issue for some individuals who really want an iPhone but don't want encryption turned on. Users may want an options for iTunes and/or Apple Pay for instance. As I see this issue unfold, I'm not sure that I want encryption. But Apple doesn't give me that option. And why is that? They clearly offer that option on my Mac for iTunes and my Health information as noted below in the graphic from Apple's webpage.





For someone like the Mills family, why would they want to buy a new iPhone now that they've experienced firsthand the problems that could happen and the heartache and pain of fighting Apple just to gain access to their dead daughter/sister's iPhone data?

In this fight between the FBI and Apple, there are people caught in the middle who just don't get this issue. Their family member is dead and they just want access to it. When a family member dies who happened to have been renting a bank security deposit box, a court order will allow the bank to break it open for its content for the family. So why is opening an iPhone left to Apple alone?

I don't think that the average iPhone buyer has ever really thought of the potential problems associated with encryption when buying a cool new iPhone 6. That's not something one lusts to have when deciding to buy an iPhone.

Apple just included it and that's the end of that discussion because they don't want customers to have an iPhone with Apple Pay without encryption. This is really the heart of the issue even if Apple is now hiding behind privacy. Privacy was never an issue on previous iPhones. It was never a topic of conversation, period. Was that just a coincidence? No. But if a consumer has no interest in ever using Apple Pay, they still have no 'opt out' option. It's Apple's way or the highway.

Forget the FBI's case. Let's say that 20-30% of Apple customers don't want encryption. What will Apple do? Tell them to buy a competitors phone? For now that's what it boils down to. But people don't get this issue until someone they love actually dies or is murdered and they can't get access to a device their loved one owned. At that point, I wouldn't care less what Apple wants or Snowden in Russia thinks. I'd want access to the iPhone's data that includes photos/memories and notes etc, period.

While Apple can't reverse course now until the government forces their hand, will we see competitors take the gamble and offer consumers options to opt out of encryption on future smartphones beyond e-wallets? I don't know, but I hope so and I don't think I'm alone.

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.


Alfred H. Peet was born on this day in 1920.

He was born in the Netherlands where his father was ran a small coffee roaster. Alfred grew up to master the arts of both coffee and tea. But it is coffee that matters in this telling.

He emigrated to America where he was appalled at the state of coffee in this country. And, of course, he was right. It was awful. Awful. Soon hed started his own roaster in Berkeley, and gradually the business included a coffee bar.

It was a revelation. And it was a revolution.

Among his mentees were Jerry Baldwin, Gordon Bowker and Zev Siegl, who would go on to found Starbucks. As a footnote to that footnote, they began by using his beans. Historians of coffee call Alfred Peet quite simply the Dutchman who taught Americans how to drink coffee. And I proudly claim to be his disciple, at least in so far as being introduced to real coffee at his Berkeley shop in the early 1970s. Something for which I remain ever grateful.

While he died in 2007, Peets legacy lives on in pretty much every decent cup of coffee we drink here in America.

So, Mr Peet, heres a toast to you.

Thanks!
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Iran: Missile Tests Not Violation of Nuclear Deal

03/10/16

Source: VOA



FILE - In this photo obtained from the Iranian Fars News Agency, a Qadr H long-range ballistic surface-to-surface missile is fired by Iran's Revolutionary Guard, during a maneuver, in an undisclosed location in Iran, Wednesday, March 9, 2016. (photo by FILE - In this photo obtained from the Iranian Fars News Agency, a Qadr H long-range ballistic surface-to-surface missile is fired by Iran's Revolutionary Guard, during a maneuver, in an undisclosed location in Iran, Wednesday, March 9, 2016. (photo by Mehr News Agency

Iran said Thursday its ballistic missile program and the tests it conducted this week do not violate its commitments under a nuclear agreement reached last year with a group of six world powers.

State media quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi-Ansari saying Iran will continue the program and that it is legitimate and defensive in nature.

The U.S. State Department raised concerns about the test launches that Iran said it conducted Tuesday and Wednesday.

"We're going to take a look at it and we'll take whatever appropriate response is necessary, either at the U.N. or unilaterally," said State Department spokesman John Kirby.

Kirby said that Secretary of State John Kerry raised the issue later Wednesday with Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif.

But Iran's Student News Agency said Thursday that Kerry had sent emails to Zarif asking for a telephone consultation, but it did not happen because Zarif is on an official visit.

The nuclear pact, negotiated by the United States and five other world powers, does not prohibit the missile tests. It brought a new U.N. Security Council resolution that 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."

Iran said two missiles launched Wednesday were inscribed with a message in Hebrew that "Israel should be wiped from the pages of history."





(photo by Mehr News Agency)



The semi-official Fars news agency showed pictures it said were of Qadr H missiles being fired from Iran's eastern Alborz mountain range, their target 1,400 kilometers away off the country's coast into the Sea of Oman.

"The reason we designed our missiles with a range of 2,000 kilometers is to be able to hit our enemy, the Zionist regime, from a safe distance," said Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Hajizadeh stressed Iran would not start a war with Israel, with Tehran describing the tests as a show of its "deterrent power."





Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps

(photo by Mehr News Agency)





"We condemn all threats to Israel and we'll stand with Israel to help it to defend itself against all kinds of threats," Kirby said.

The tests came as U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was in Jerusalem for a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Biden did not acknowledge the missile tests, but he warned Iran against any violations of the internationally negotiated nuclear deal that curbed Iran's nuclear activity in exchange for lifting sanctions that had hobbled its economy.

"A nuclear-armed Iran is an absolutely unacceptable threat to Israel, to the region and the United States," Biden said as he stood next to Netanyahu, who had unsuccessfully opposed the nuclear pact. "And I want to reiterate which I know people still doubt here. If in fact they break the deal, we will act."

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon told Israel Radio the tests showed Iran's hostility toward the Jewish state had not changed since the January implementation of the nuclear pact, even with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's overtures to the West.

Yaalon said, "To my regret there are some in the West who are misled by the honeyed words from part of the Iranian leadership while the other part continues to procure equipment and weaponry, to arm terrorist groups."

The nearest point in Iran is about 1,000 kilometers from the key Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Opinion / Columnist

Joice Mujuru held her inaugural Press conference as the leader of the Zimbabwe People First party at Meikles Hotel in Harare.Mujuru looked rather smart and intelligent before she started her Press conference, but the moment she opened her mouth, all doubts regarding her foolishness were removed and it became apparent that ZPF is the same as all fickle opposition parties that have come before it. Same script, different puppet.ZPF's ideology, if it can be called that, is suspiciously similar to that of Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn and MDC (in all its variations) before it. Indeed, Zimbabweans once witnessed the same hullaballoo in 2008 when MKD leader Simba Makoni broke away from Zanu-PF to form his own party.Like Makoni, Mujuru is also full of false confidence that many will follow her in her misguided project against Zanu-PF. Like Makoni, Mujuru's ego is inflated by false promises whispered in the dead of night by chameleons in Zanu-PF who will adopt whatever colour is trending and buy them lunch at a particular moment.One of the first things Mujuru saw fit to declare was that her party would actively seek to engage the West. Without batting an eyelid and uncaring about the suffering that the sadistic West has wrought on Zimbabwe through their illegal sanctions, Mujuru proclaimed that, "Zimbabwe People First is committed to ensuring that Zimbabwe regains its rightful place in the global community of nations. We shall rejoin the Commonwealth. We will seek rapprochement with countries that are currently having poor diplomatic and difficult economic relations with us, without sacrificing our national sovereignty."She also promised to set back all the gains of independence by questioning the land reform programme and indigenisation policy. That these two policies, among others, have set Zimbabwe and President Robert Mugabe apart as beacons of black emancipation is neither here nor there for Mujuru.It would appear that all she and her not-so People First party are concerned about is pleasing their Western backers who have found a new and gender-quota sensitive puppet to push their regime change agenda. Mujuru's statement that "a whole review of the Indigenisation Act would be effected. A well-defined land policy should be instituted and properly administered to ensure full and sustainable utilisation of land by recipient."There should be an independent land audit to weed out multiple farm ownership", should send shivers down the spine of any self-respecting Zimbabwean  that such is the mindset of someone who purports to be representing the ordinary person.It would be gullible and naive to believe that Mujuru and her colleagues practise any of the values she preached at the ZPF launch. Is she not the famous "Dr 10 percent"?Mujuru should save her "I am innocent" act for someone who is actually dumb enough to believe her. As one of the most powerful people in Zanu-PF during her tenure as Vice President, Mujuru soiled the name of the party by grabbing whatever she could lay her hands on. Her starting point should have been a sincere apology to the people of Zimbabwe for being a corrupt leader who only pretended to repent following her expulsion from Zanu-PF.Her claims that she had always been a voice of dissent within Zanu-PF are best reserved for a nursery rhyme book, not the ears of sober Zimbabweans. The old adage that a leopard does not change its spots has been proven to be true time and again. Why should Mujuru be any different?The belief betrayed by other opposition parties that Mujuru will bring "valuable inside information" on ZANU-PF, as hilariously declared by the likes of Jacob Mafume, is akin to believing that a woman divorced for being unfaithful will bring valuable information on how to keep a marriage strong. The only "inside information" on Zanu-PF that Mujuru knows is her own corrupt deeds that saw her eventually being booted out.What the likes of MDC-T, ZAPU and People's Democratic Party need to acknowledge is that Zanu-PF has no secret machinery that makes it unbeatable. What maintains Zanu-PF in power is the fact that it is the only party to date whose policies are people-driven and anchored on the emancipation of the black masses. These same policies are what Mujuru and her bunch of Zanu-PF cast-offs are seeking to overturn, at the behest of their puppet masters.It is rather sad that whole political parties, albeit opposition parties, would celebrate Zanu-PF's leftovers. It is only a person of questionable sanity who would celebrate the fact that the garbage his neighbour threw out landed in his yard.It doesn't matter who parted ways with who, whether Mujuru resigned first or was fired, the fact remains that the action was precipitated by her underhand and un-liberation like behaviour. Zimbabwe has previously seen similar hulabaloo and frenzied energy over the emergence of perceived champion opposition leaders capable of dethroning Zanu-PF. Those so-called champions are all faded broken records by now. So too shall the Mujuru craze pass as people discover her true colours and motives.Already, the entrance of ZPF has caused confusion not in Zanu-PF, but in opposition parties, with various party officials in MDC-T and ZAPU issuing conflicting statements on whether they would work with her or not. What it means is that the final decision will not be based on what the grassroots supporters of these parties want, but what nefarious deals can be hatched between equally unscrupulous and greedy opposition leaders and Mujuru, similar to her "10 percent" arrangements.
The HAND Foundation Sponsors Various Norooz Persian New Year Events and Banners

03/10/16

Press Release by the HAND Foundation

Mountain View, CA- Today, the California-based HAND Foundation announced it will be underwriting local Bay Area events, such as Iranian Federated Womens Club Norooz 2016 event with Santa Clara Supervisor Dave Cortese on Tuesday, March 15th and San Francisco City Halls Norooz 1395 celebration hosted by Iranican.com on Friday, March 25th.





Norooz banner designed by Laya Zare



In addition, The HAND Foundation will be solely sponsoring a Happy Norooz Persian New Year banner on Menlo Parks Santa Cruz Avenue from March 7-14 and then on Palo Altos University Avenue (at Alma Street) March 14-28 to promote and celebrate the Persian New Year.

Norooz is a very special time for me and my family. It is a chance to welcome Spring and a new start, said Noosheen Hashemi, co-founder and President of The HAND Foundation. We are happy to sponsor these events and promote the Norooz with the broader community. Ms. Heshemi is also executive producing Spelling Bee- A PSA, starring comedian Maz Jobrani, with Mirmont Pictures. The short-film is about the Iranian-American communitys different spellings of Norooz and how using the phonetically correct NOROOZ spelling is easier to learn. The short-film is set to be released on March 13th.

Events :

Iranian Federated Womens Club Norooz 2016 event: 5:30pm to 9:30pm Tuesday, March 15th at the James P. McEntee, Sr. Civic Center Plaza 70 W Hedding Street in San Jose. It is free to the public.

5:30pm to 9:30pm Tuesday, March 15th at the James P. McEntee, Sr. Civic Center Plaza 70 W Hedding Street in San Jose. It is free to the public. San Francisco City Halls Norooz Celebration: 7:30pm to 9:30pm Friday, March 25th at 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, San Francisco. You can purchase tickets here



About Norooz:

The Persian New Year, or Norooz, coincides with the Vernal Equinox when spring starts in the northern hemisphere. This year, it is expected to happen on Saturday, March 19that 21:32:12 (PST).

On the eve of the last Wednesday of the year, or Chahar Shanbeh Soori, families gather around a fire and jump over the flames hoping for enlightenment and happiness throughout the coming year. At countdown, family members gather around a Haft Seen, a table arrangement of seven items all starting with 'S' and each symbolizing a coveted attainment: seeb (apple) for beauty and health, serkeh (vinegar) for old age and patience, seer (garlic) for medicine, senjed (dried oleaster fruit) symbolizing love, samanu (sweet wheat germ) pudding for affluence, sabzeh (bean or grain sprouts) for rebirth and somaagh (sumac) illustrating the red color of sunrise. On the table, there are also eggs for fertility, gold fish for life, mirror for light, candles for warmth, coins for prosperity, sweets for celebration and, so on. It is customary to clean the house, wear new clothes, give gifts to younger family members, pay respect to elders by visiting them, and eat a celebratory meal. Norooz festivities continue for 13 days and conclude with Sizdeh Bedar, where families spend the day in nature and acknowledge the birth of a new year.





About The HAND Foundation:

Since 2003, The HAND Foundation has been an advisory, advocacy and grant-making organization dedicated to building better communities by enabling the growth and advancement of social entrepreneurs and enterprising non-profits.

Related Article:
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
Move over, Channel Tunnel: Hyperloop Transportation Technologies is ready to build a high-speed transit system in Europe.

HTT this week met with Slovakian government officials to finalize plans for express routes connecting the country with neighbors Austria and Hungary.

"Slovakia is a technological leader in the automotive, material science, and energy industries, many of the areas that are integral to the Hyperloop system," HTT CEO Dirk Ahlborn said in a statement. "Having a European Hyperloop presence will incentivize collaboration and innovation within Slovakia and throughout Europe."

Traveling from capital city Bratislava to Vienna, for instance, could take about eight minutes at full Hyperloop speed (down from one hour by car); a Bratislava-to-Budapest route (two to three hours driving), meanwhile, would last 10 minutes.

"Hyperloop in Europe would cut distances substantially and network cities in unprecedented ways," said Vazil Hudak, Minister of Economy of the Slovak Republic. "A transportation system of this kind would redefine the concept of commuting and boost cross-border cooperation in Europe."

A course between Bratislava and Kosicea distance of 250 milesmay also be considered, connecting the eastern and western sides of Slovakia in just 25 minutes, much shorter than the typical 4.5-hour car ride.

The Hyperloop is the brainchild of Elon Musk, who in August 2013 unveiled plans for a $6 billion system that would allow for high-speed travel between U.S. citiesideally transporting people to and from San Francisco and LA in 30 minutes.

But the Tesla and SpaceX chief is busy with other projects, so he handed the Hyperloop off to anyone who wanted to pick it up, and HTT answered the call. In the years since, the company has built on Musk's vision for a tube-based structure that jets folks from A to B at speeds up to 760 mph.

In January, HTT announced that it filed construction permits with California's Kings County to start building in the Quay Valley later this year. Once a ground survey is complete, the company will use drones to mark the corridor, pylon positions, and station location. Groundbreaking and principle construction of the five-mile track is slated for mid-2016, ahead of an official public opening by 2018.
President Obama wants to connect 20 million more Americans to broadband by 2020 via a new initiative known as ConnectALL.

In a Facebook post(Opens in a new window), the president praised teachers who are using technology in the classroom, "because in a digital world, our students need to keep up."

But not everyone can afford Internet access at home. "And it leaves students like Isabella and Tony Ruiz outside, standing on the sidewalk for hours at a time  because they need to use their school's wireless network to finish their homework," Obama wrote.

"I want to help students like Isabella and Tony," he continued. "All of America's students should be able to get online, no matter where they live or how much their parents make. That's why I'm calling for a new national effort to help low-income Americans afford broadband, with an ambitious goal to connect 20 million more Americans by 2020."

To start, the administration gave its support(Opens in a new window) to the Federal Communication Commission's plan to update a Reagan-era telecom subsidy to include broadband. Introduced in 1985, the Lifeline program(Opens in a new window) provides a discount on phone service for qualifying low-income consumers.

In 2005, Lifeline was expanded to include pre-paid wireless service plans. Under a plan set for a vote at the FCC on March 31, it would expand to provide low-income residents with a $9.25-per-month discount on broadband service, or bundled voice and data plans. The change could help bridge the "homework gap" for students and allow seniors and those with disabilities to manage their healthcare online, among other things.

"The Lifeline reforms the administration is recommending today would give the 12 million households currently using the subsidy for phone service immediate help paying their monthly broadband bill," the White House said. "And it has the potential to benefit tens of millions more."

In addition, the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) and Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) will team up for a Digital Literacy Pilot Project, whereby AmeriCorps VISTA members will support digital literacy efforts at support libraries, museums, and associated community organizations in tribal and rural communities.

The General Services Administration (GSA) will also lead an effort to expand and increase the number of older government devices agencies can donate to schools and nonprofits that can use them.

Read the full plan(Opens in a new window) on the White House website.
The iPhone 5c at the center of the legal battle between Apple and the FBI might be accessible through a delicate hardware technique, but experts warn it would be difficult.

In recent days, the American Civil Liberties Unions technology fellow and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden have suggested a method that would let investigators repeatedly guess the iPhones password.

Federal investigators fear San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook may have configured his work phone to use an Apple security feature that erases a key for decrypting data after 10 incorrect guesses of the phones password.

The forensic technique for getting at the data, known as chip off, involves removing a NAND flash memory chip from a device and copying its data, yielding a decryption key that can be restored if it is erased after incorrect guesses.

Instead of trying that procedure, the U.S. Justice Department has asked a federal court to order Apple to give the FBI custom software for iOS 9 that can be loaded onto the phone. The software would either disable the auto-erase feature or allow law enforcement to rapidly try different password guesses, or both.

Apple is fighting the order, saying the creation of such softwareessentially a backdoorwould put millions of iPhones at risk.

Investigators already have a lot of data from Farooks online accounts, including backups of the phone stored in Apples iCloud servers, which the company has turned over.

But the last iCloud backup investigators have is from Oct. 19, about six weeks before the Dec. 2 shootings that killed 14 people and injured 22 others. The government contends that the six weeks worth of data stored solely on the phone could contain crucial evidence.

Daniel Kahn Gillmor, a technology fellow with the ACLUs Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, described the technical details involved in a chip-off operation in a Monday blog post.

Snowden cited Gillmors Wednesday post on Twitter and contested the FBIs position via a video link from Moscow at Common Causes Blueprint for Democracy conference.

There are hardware attacks that have existed since the 90s, he said.

The key that is used to encrypt the iPhones user data is stored in a section of the phones NAND flash chip that Apple calls effaceable storage, Gillmor wrote.

To perform a chip-off operation, the Flash chip is de-soldered from the circuit board and then connected it to a NAND flash reader in order to copy its contents.

ACOS Electronics The iPhone 5cs NAND Flash chip is outlined in red.

The chip is then reconnected to the board. If the key is erased after 10 wrong guesses, the backup data can be used to restore it for more attempts.

If the FBI doesnt have the equipment or expertise to do this, they can hire any one of dozens of data recovery firms that specialize in information extraction from digital devices, wrote Gillmor, who couldnt immediately be reached for comment.

But computer forensics experts, including one who has performed the procedure, say it is slow and delicate with no guarantee of success.

Most chip-off extractions result in the device being destroyed, said Heather Mahalik, principal forensic scientist and team lead for Oceans Edge, a mobile security and development firm. She teaches an advanced smartphone forensics course at the SANS Institute.

I have done chip off in the past, and getting the phone to work again after is very difficult, so the chances of this working are low, Mahalik said via email.

Cindy Murphy, a computer forensics expert with the Madison, Wisconsin, police department, said its neither easy nor simple to remove and replace flash memory.

To do this once, let alone as many times as would be necessary to brute-force the passcode, would be a feat of patience and perseverance and likely wouldnt be successful, she wrote via email.

If auto-erase is enabled, investigators would have to remove and replace the chip for every 10 wrong guesses. Apple also enforces a delay in between wrong guesses, increasing the amount of time it would take to guess the passcode through brute force.

This would also be an extremely slow and manual process, said Sarah Edwards, a digital forensics analyst who also teaches a SANS course.

And if the procedure goes poorly, then you get zero chances to get the data, she said.
Its not often that Googles charm offensives are successfulcase in point, the Android weather frogbut in the case of Googles Chrome Music Lab, it wildly succeeds.

Googles Chrome Music Lab is a collection of Chrome experiments, all featuring Web technologies like WebGL that run inside the Google Chrome browser. Google said that it created the experiments as part of Music In Our Schools month, but the experience should appeal to adults and kids alike: Its like a Web-based Exploratorium for sound.

In all, the dozen experiments that Google has posted to the Web teach music as both art and science: as a matrix of particles vibrating as sound waves move through them, and how those sounds can be combined to form rhythm and melody alike.

Even basic sound concepts are taught with obvious thought to how they can be made fresh and interesting: Theres a basic spectrogram, but sounds are intriguingly represented as three-dimensional waveforms, with recorded sounds of birds, instruments, a modem, and even your own voice (via your mic) shown on screen. Pitch changing is represented as a voice spinner where you can loop a sample of recorded audio forwards and back, either fast or slooooooowly. And then the exhibits take a turn toward the fantastic, where Wassily Kandinskys sound of colors is explored through the ability to draw sounds.

Google has architected the experiments with enough depth to allow kids and adults alike to spend a few minutes with each one, exploring the variations therein. Its a rare mixture of art and science, and one that does the Web as a medium proud.
Due Thursday in the Apple-FBI encryption case is the governments papers defending a court order that forces Apple to help hack an iPhone used by one of the terrorists in the San Bernardino attack that killed 14.

But much has changed since government law officers won the first skirmish in this legal war that has since taken on international significance. The seemingly routine warrant case has grown into an worldwide argument over security and privacy, stirred by recent operating systems that use secret user pass codes not shared with electronic device makers.

Apple already said in a motion to vacate the order that it is unconstitutional and outruns the limits of the 1789 All Writs Act the U.S. Justice Department used to get the Feb. 16 ruling from U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym in Riverside federal court.

But now the stakes in the case have been framed differently than when Pym first considered the governments request in a ex parte hearing  meaning only the government, and not Apple, was present, said Loyola Law School professor Simona Grossi.

The FBI claims the software can be encoded so it could only be used on the terrorists phone.

But seeking to vacate the order, Apple claimed the case was not about one iPhone but the Department of Justice and the FBI seeking through the courts a dangerous power  the ability to force companies like Apple to undermine the basic security and privacy interests of hundreds of millions of individuals around the globe.

Apple is arguing that this case is much more significant than it may have seen when Judge Pym first looked at it, Grossi said in an email Wednesday, March 9. There is no literal change in the facts or law, but there is a change in the way the question is now presented, requiring deeper reflection on the consequences of what may have appeared to be a rather simple order in a unique case.

The iPhone 5c was issued to health inspector Syed Rizwan Farook by his employer, San Bernardino County, and recovered from Farooks mothers car in a warrant search after the shootings.

Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik, who also participated in the massacre at the Inland Regional Center, died in a shootout with police a few hours after the attack. Agents said the couple was inspired by the Islamic State, but not under the terrorist groups control.

FOCUS ON WRITS ACT

The FBI wants Apple to write software that will let agents evade the phones built-in protections that will destroy its data after 10 successive failures to enter its pass code.

Agents want to see if the iPhone contains any information about the couples locations as they drove around Redlands and San Bernardino after the attacks, along with contacts or other details that might be linked to the shooting.

The writs act overreach claimed by Apple will likely be a major focus of the governments response.

Federal Magistrate Judge James Orenstein in Brooklyn denied on Feb. 29 an FBI request for similar help from Apple in a drug case investigation. He concluded the Justice Department could not use the All Writs Act in that case.

There are differences between the East Coast and West Coast cases, but they do have in common the governments use of the 18th-century law to force Apples help.

The All Writs Act was created by the First Congress to fill gaps so courts could intervene on unresolved matters not yet touched by lawmakers.

But Orenstein said Congresss 2015 decision not to pursue legislation broadening government access to encrypted devices counted as an action. And that took away the governments right to use the All Writs Act in seeking the Apple order in the drug case.

The implications of the governments position are so far-reaching  both in terms of what it would allow today and what it implies about Congressional intent in 1789  as to produce impermissibly absurd results, Orenstein wrote.

The government last week appealed Orensteins ruling and defended the use of the act.

Judge Orenstein formulated what amounts to an unprecedented new limit to the Courts power in concluding that All Writs Act relief is also precluded where Congress has merely considered and decided not to enact a law conferring the requested authority, the Justice Department said in its Brooklyn appeal.

Apple can respond to the governments March 10 filing by March 15; Pym has a hearing set for March 22.

JUDGES DO REVERSE

Apple meantime has filed a notice of objections, a legal move that could send the matter to a U.S. district court judge.

Magistrate judges are hired by the judiciary in the federal district in which they preside; district court judges have been confirmed for lifetime appointments after nomination by the president and approval by the senate.

Pym might reconsider (the order) or she might send the whole package up to a district court judge to decide, said Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and a former federal prosecutor.

A judge reversing their own ruling does happen, said Levenson, who was not commenting on the possible outcome of the Apple-FBI case before Pym.

Judges do reverse. They just want to get it right. If new information comes to their attention, I have known them to reverse their decisions, Levenson said. If they change, its not because of the political and media pressure  its going to have to be because of evidence and law presented to the judge.

And that can include new information such as Orensteins ruling in Brooklyn, she added.

There is a rush from the public and media, but from the courts position, they want to have an orderly process  fully briefed, full arguments, make its decision, and let it go up from there.

MORE REVIEW

Grossi said Apples arguments to Pym has also presented the issue in a way that does not require the judge to confess error. Indeed, a reversal might be seen as a mature step in view of further study and reflection.

If Pym does uphold her earlier ruling, the order will remain effective unless it is overturned by a district judge, Grossi said.

And the district judge will have the power to review the order to see if it clearly erroneous or contrary to law. The district courts review is limited to the existing record and may not receive further evidence, she added

However, the prevailing view is that the district judge might consider arguments that were not presented to the magistrate judge, Grossi added.

Contact the writer: rdeatley@pressenterprise.com or 951-368-9573
Apples fight against a court order to help the FBI hack an iPhone used by one of the terrorists in the Dec. 2 San Bernardino mass shooting is not only false, but also corrosive, the government said in court papers filed Thursday.

Apple called the language of the Department of Justice brief more of an attack on the companys outside-the-court campaign on data privacy than a legal document defending the governments position in the case.

Among the briefs allegations was that Apple has compromised users data in China by moving it to government servers as part of a distribution deal, and that it deliberately used its control over its software to block law-enforcement requests for access to the contents of its devices.

Apple denied both. The Cupertino-based company has until March 15 to reply to Thursdays brief, and a hearing is scheduled for March 22.

The tone of the brief reads like an indictment, >said Bruce Sewell, Apples general counsel and senior vice president of legal and government affairs.

He noted the brief was filed two weeks after FBI Director James Comey had praised Apple for its cooperation during an appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, saying, There are no demons in this dispute.

That spirit seemed to have evaporated on Thursday, said Sewell, who also testified at the Feb. 25 hearing.

We know there are great people in the (Department of Justice) and the FBI; we work shoulder to shoulder to them all the time. Thats why this cheap-shot brief surprises us so much, Sewell said.

In a 35-page document, the government attacked Apples claim that the U.S. Justice Department misused the 1789 All Writs Act.

It also attacked Apples complaints that the order violated the tech companys First Amendment rights by compelling speech through protested development of software, and Fifth Amendment rights against due process for the way the order was obtained.

The government and the community need to know what is on the terrorists phone, and the government needs Apples assistance to find out, the government filing said.

Instead of complying, Apple attacked the All Writs Act as archaic, the Courts Order as leading to a police state, and the FBIs investigation as shoddy, while extolling itself as the primary guardian of Americans privacy.

An allegation that Apple deliberately used its software to block law-enforcement access should be deeply offensive to everyone that reads it, Sewell said, calling it an unsupported, unsubstantiated effort to vilify Apple, rather than confront the issues in the case.

The governments claims about Apples compromise of user data in China are ridiculous and based on unidentified Internet sources to raise the specter that Apple has a different and sinister relation with China, Sewell said.

Of course that is not true, and the speculation is based on no substance at all.  To do this in a brief before a magistrate judge just shows the desperation that the Department of Justice now feels, Sewell said.

An equivalent would be to question the FBIs reliability because of Internet conspiracies that J. Edgar Hoover played a role in the JFK assassination  a comment Sewell said was not serious.

Neither China nor any other foreign government has ever asked Apple to build a back door into Apple products, said an Apple attorney who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Categorically and absolutely not. We have not been asked by the Chinese government or any other government to build a back door. The only place were having this debate is in the United States, the attorney said.

The rest of the world is watching  I dont have the same feeling we wont get such a request if the American government forces us to build a back door for their use, the attorney said.

Apple reported nearly $18.4 billion in revenue from China for the first quarter of 2016.

UNTRUE AND IRRELEVANT

The disputed Feb. 16 order issued by U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym in Riverside federal court says Apple must develop software to help FBI agents get around the built-in security features that will forever shut down the data on the iPhone if there are 10 successive failures to enter the correct pass code.

FBI agents want to use a computer to introduce pass code combinations until they get the right one to open the phone.

Also Thursday, the government dismissed Apples claim that investigators lost an opportunity for a forced iCloud backup from the iPhone 5c issued to health inspector Syed Rizwan Farook by his employer, San Bernardino County, calling it both untrue and irrelevant.

The FBI had county technicians change the iPhones password to the storage system a few hours after the device had been recovered. Apple said that cut off the path to a possible forced iCloud backup.

But on Thursday the government said that forced backup would not have been successful even if the password had remained unchanged, the brief said.

Comey, the FBI director, had recently called the password change a mistake during the hearing before the House Judiciary Committee.

A second Apple attorney who spoke on condition of anonymity on Thursday said its very, very odd for the government to now portray the change of the password as an intentional and appropriate act, in light of Comeys comment, saying it seemed like revisionist history.

The technical claims the government made in the brief were untested by Apple as of Thursday afternoon, an attorney said.

Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik killed 14 people and wounded 22 in the attack at the Inland Regional Center. Both died a few hours later in a shootout with police. The iPhone was recovered in a search of Farooks mothers car later that day.

Apple has said in its motion to vacate Pyms order that the software the FBI wants could potentially threaten the data security of hundreds of millions of Apple device users.

But the government said Thursday the order applies to a single iPhone, and it allows Apple to decide the least burdensome means of complying.

SAN BERNARDINO SHOOTING: Hack will affect just one iPhone says government

RELATED

Its the laws turn Thursday in international legal saga

DA feared cyber attack via iPhone

Victims family supports Apples iPhone position

NY judge rules against FBI in similar case

Police Department to receive award for locating suspects

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
One message rang loud and clear when the Hemet City Council took a look at proposed voting districts Tuesday night, March 8  no one is in favor of them.

The only thing were really strong on this is we really dont like the process, Councilwoman Shellie Milne said.

Hemet will divide the city into voting districts after being threatened with a lawsuit under the California Voting Rights Act, which was put in place to allow for minority representation on elected boards. City officials say they are making the move to avoid costly litigation.

Instead of at-large votes, city council members will represent specific areas and only be voted on by residents of that district.

Councilwoman Linda Krupa said she is absolutely against the entire process.

It takes away peoples right to vote for people they want on council, she said.

Three possible scenarios were shown Tuesday. One keeps the downtown intact, another uses main roads and highways as dividers and a third has more north-south districts, allowing council members to represent a wider swath of the population.

None drew total approval. A major concern was splitting up some senior communities, primarily Sierra Dawn, which straddles Palm Avenue. Another option divides Seven Hills.

Before the discussion began, city attorney Eric Vail reminded the audience that this is the early phase of the process and the maps are just conceptual.

These are by no means what the city will adopt, he said. They are just a place to get started.

Douglas Johnson, president of National Demographics Corporation, said his study showed no specific pockets of minority residents. There is a concentration of Hispanic residents in the downtown area, but the population is spread across the city.

We dont have pockets of diversity in town, Krupa said. We are diverse.

Milne asked attorneys why the process is being rushed. The city received a letter about a potential lawsuit in December and made a decision to switch to districts in January in time for the Novembers election, when three seats will be on the ballot.

She was told if the switch isnt made, the city could face costly litigation and, if the city were to lose in court, it would lose control of the districting process.

We didnt roll over, Vail said. Its really risk management and trying to be good stewards of the communitys money.

City Manager Alex Meyerhoff said whatever districts are adopted could be very different in the future if development picks up in the city. Boundaries likely will be adjusted in five years after the 2020 Census, he said.

There will be at least two more public meetings before districts are finalized. They are set for the council meetings of March 22 and April 12.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9086 or cshultz@pressenterprise.com
CORRECTION: The proposed Alberhill Villages community in Lake Elsinore would provide 183 acres of park and trail space, a representative of the projects developer said. Because of incorrect information from the city, a previous version of this article incorrectly identified the amount of park and trail space.

Also, the Planning Commission in February only approved the Alberhill Villages plan. Because of a reporting error, the actions taken by the Planning Commission were incorrect.

Proponents of the largest proposed master-planned community in Lake Elsinores history want to place the project in the hands of the citys voters.

On behalf of developer Castle & Cooke, a resident recently submitted to the city clerk a notice of intent to circulate a petition seeking sufficient signatures to hold an election on a citizens initiative supporting Alberhill Villages.

The plan calls for 8,244 homes, more than 4 million square feet of commercial, office and institutional space, and 183 acres of parks and trails on 1,374 acres.

The property, in Lake Elsinores far northern reach west of Interstate 15, is mostly vacant land that has been occupied and mined for decades by Castle & Cooke subsidiary Pacific Clay.

The Initiative route provides many benefits to the City, the project and the residents, said Senior Vice President Tom Tomlinson of Castle & Cookes Lake Elsinore division in an emailed response to questions. Most importantly, this Initiative will help the project get built as quickly as possible, so that the City and its residents can realize the benefits.

City Attorney Barbara Leibold has until March 17 to review the filing and decide whether the petition meets the legal requirements for circulation.

If authorized, the proponents would have 180 days to gather the required number of signatures from registered voters to mandate an election. To qualify, the petition needs to be signed by at least 10 percent of the citys registered voters, who numbered 18,620, as of Wednesday, according to the county registrar of voters online records.

Leibold said she is reviewing the 263-page petition.

On its face, it appears to be a legal initiative in terms of its subject matter, she said.

Several development-driven initiatives have surfaced in California over the last year because of changes in state law that allow the initiative-process to be used to override Californias environmental provisions. One such proposal calling for a shopping and dining complex to be built on agricultural land in Carlsbad went down in defeat with 52 percent of the electorate voting against it.

Like the Carlsbad initiative, Castle & Cooke is seeking approval for a specific plan, while locking in a development agreement with the city. Alberhill Villages, however, is much larger in scope than the Carlsbad project, which would have been built on about 15 percent of a 203-acre property.

What is in my experience less common is the scope of this particular initiative, Leibold said. The others Ive seen are more finite smaller projects. Ive never seen one as far-reaching as this.

The filing of the petition comes after the citys Planning Commission already approved the Alberhill Villages plan in February, while the City Council is scheduled to consider it in April. If voters ultimately approved the petition, it would probably supersede the citys approval, Leibold said.

The drawback for the city is that it could take away much of the City Councils decision-making authority on the project over the next 30 years, Leibold said.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9690 or michaelwilliams@pressenterprise.com
Opinion / Columnist

When a government owes international lenders US$7.1 billion - and internal lenders about US$2 billion - does not have US$1.5 billion to feed its own starving people, and yet can not account for US$15 billion from diamond sales, that is a great source of shame to us the people of Africa.This behaviour by the Zimbabwean government always leaves me wondering what the international community would be thinking about us as a people - things they would never say in public - unless it was Donald Trump - for fear of being branded as racists.If there is one thing that the ZANU PF government has managed to perform extraordinarily and exceptionally well throughout the nearly 36 years it has ruled Zimbabwe, is to bring shame and embarrassment on the people of this country.I can give them that!What else are we to say about a government that has no qualms about throwing a lavish US$800,000 birthday party for its President in front of a starving people, who just watch helplessly with cracked dry lips?Similarly, what are we to say about a leadership that does not see anything particularly wrong with flaunting its riches to a people who can not even afford to pay rent for two rooms?We have a country whereby the leadership has to be banned from travelling to Western capitals because all they ever did there was shop, whilst the people back in their own country went around wearing rags because they could not afford any new descent clothes.A country whose leaders send their own children to the most expensive schools in the Far East, whilst the people they lead can not even afford to pay school fess for their own children at the cheapest schools, which government fails to provide with basic textbooks and stationery.A country whose leaders seek medical treatment at the most state-of-the-art hospitals in the world, whilst the majority of the people in their own country are dying in their homes, as they can not afford even the most basic medication, which the government does not provide, but is only available at private pharmacies.A country where orphans, the elderly and widows are treated with indifference, and left alone to suffer and die.A government that has officials who can plunder a company, not only until it can not afford to pay its own workers, but also until it can not afford to operate and eventually closes down - leaving thousands of families without any sustenanceWhat else are we to say about a government that takes away land from those that can utilise it productively - and therefore, feed the nation - and parcel it out to political cronies who do not know the first thing about growing even chomolia - leaving the nation hungry?We have a government that does not respect the rights of the people to complain about these things, and infringes on their rights.In the eyes of the international community how does all that callous, uncaring, and cruel behaviour look, and what image are these leaders portraying about African people?Is the image that they are portraying to the world not painting us all with the same brush?Are they not portraying us as a savage and uncivilised group of people that, as David Livingstone once said, are 'a couple of rungs below the evolutionary ladder'?How else can one describe a father who would be busy munching on a bucket of KFC's finest meal, whilst his starving wife and children look on - as this is exactly how our leaders are behaving?Yet, Africans are known for their Ubuntu.We are supposed to be a caring people, as we would never just look on whilst a neighbour has nothing to eat.As African, we would all gather together and see to it that our neighbour was fed and every need catered for.That is why in our African culture, there were never any orphans, as every child was the responsibility of the entire community - such that, if a child lost his/her parents, the whole community would chip in to make sure that he/she was well taken care of.The chief always had a 'zunde ra mambo', crops that were meant to feed the disadvantaged within his/her community.African have always been known for their communal spirit, and yet the Zimbabwean government is sowing a completely different spirit amongst the people.A spirit of indifference.To make matters worse, they are hardly apologetic about such callousness.When ever did Zimbabweans hear our anyone in our government apologise for the suffering caused upon the people?Has anyone in the ZANU PF government ever shown any sympathy or empathy for the suffering of the people of Zimbabwe?Can anyone stand up and say they have ever heard someone in government utter the words, 'We are so sorry for the suffering that you are going through?'In fact, what Zimbabweans have been subjected to, over the past 36 years, is shameless and endless defensiveness on the part of government - blaming everyone else for our suffering, but never themselves.This lack of compassion, sympathy, and empathy is what truly riles the suffering people of Zimbabwe.Any family can go through lean times, but if the father does not seem to care at all, and would rather use the meagre resources available for partying, that is completely unacceptable.Similarly, Zimbabweans are suffering, and yet the government cannot account for US$15 billion.What are we as a nation - and the international community as a whole - to think about that?The ZANU PF government has truly set a terrible example of what African leadership and Africanism is all about, thereby placing the whole of Africa into shame in the eyes of the entire world - portraying us as an incapable, shameless and cruel people - as that is exactly what the Zimbabwean government is. Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a community activist, communications specialist, writer, and journalist. He writes in his personal capacity, and welcomes any feedback. Please feel free to call/WhatsApp: +263782283975, or email: tendaiandtinta.mbofana@gmail.com
The Eastvale City Council voted March 9 to ask Riverside Countys Economic Development Agency to assist with negotiations to acquire a property for the citys civic center/library building project.

The vote was 5-0.

A contract between the city and the Economic Development Agency will be presented at the March 23 meeting for approval.

The council was poised to build a city hall on a 1.6-acre Hamner Avenue property it inherited from Riverside County but put that plan was put on hold after residents said the city needed a library building to replace the miniscule public library on the campus of Eleanor Roosevelt High School.

City officials are now in the market for a larger property that will accommodate a city hall and library building.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9647 or sstokley@pressenterprise.com
Throughout its fight with the FBI over unlocking iPhones, Apple has said that lawmakers, not courts, should be the ones setting the course on encryption policy. This stance doesnt come without risk, since theres no guarantee that Congress would give Apple what it wants. Meanwhile, foreign lawmakers are threatening to muddy the waters even further. Recent actions in Europe and South America reveal the potential for a patchwork of varying national policies that could pose an impossible situation for global technology companies. How can they comply with differing, sometimes conflicting laws in the many countries in which they operate?

Discord is inevitable, argues Rob Knake, who served as director of cybersecurity for the White House from 2011 to 2015. He thinks the thorniest policy issues will arise with governments from countries that are close to the U.S. culturally and politically.

In Europe, law enforcement has generally counted on cooperation from the private sector in obtaining data for police investigations. Given that the sense of urgency over terrorism in Western Europe is particularly acute these days, it may be a bad time for tech companies to push back. Will they really be able to hold out against pressure from other democracies? asks Knake.

The test could come sooner than later. On Tuesday, French legislators voted overwhelmingly to advance a plan that would punish technology companies that dont provide access to encrypted data. Under the proposed rules, tech executives could face fines and jail sentences. The bill is still several stages away from becoming law, but if passed, companies in Apples position would have a range of unattractive options. They could create devices and services with the technical capability to comply with government data requests, an approach most seem to disdain. They could simply pull out of France altogether. Or they could keep operating and wait for a clash with local law enforcement.

Tensions over encryption are rising in other countries as well. Britain is currently considering sweeping changes to its surveillance legislation. When a new bill was introduced late last year, it drew criticism for not clarifying whether foreign companies would be required to provide access to encrypted communications. A recently-redrafted bill is no better, says Jens-Henrik Jeppesen, director of European Affairs for the Center for Democracy & Technology. It doesnt make it clear what exactly it is the government wants, he said. They certainly given themselves leeway to say to a communications provider, Youve got to suspend this or that service because we cant get what we want.

In Brazil, police recently detained a local Facebook executive because the company didnt provide information related to a drug trafficking investigation. Last year, Brazilian police raided the home of a Microsoft executive who refused to turn over Skype data that was stored in the U.S., citing the same law. According to Microsoft, giving in to Brazilian demands would have violated American wiretapping laws. The company essentially had to choose which countrys policies to violate.

As each country approaches data security, privacy, and encryption in a different way, it could become virtually impossible for global technology companies to adhere to all local laws simultaneously, says Knake. A similar dynamic is taking place over disputes about whether, say, Microsoft has to turn over emails it is storing in an Irish data center to the FBI. The U.S. says that Microsoft has to comply with a lawful request to produce the emails; the company argues that doing so would open it up to demands from foreign governments to share information stored in the U.S.

If the U.S. Congress does take up new legislation on encryption, the technology industry can be expected to put intense pressure on lawmakers to see things their way. In Europe, though, Silicon Valleys lobbying is likely to hold less sway, says Jeppesen. American tech companies have come under fire in Europe for various perceived sins: anti-competitive behavior, tax evasion, business practices that suck the value out of local media.

European governments lack of faith in Silicon Valleys ability to keep private information away from the U.S. government has raised the level of distrust even further. While Apple is focused on the FBI, the international situation it faces is only going to get more difficult, says David Fidler, a senior fellow at the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at Indiana University. You think this is a problem? he says. Just wait until the other shoe drops.

To contact the author of this story: Joshua Brustein in New York at jbrustein@bloomberg.net.
A new study of Riverside Countys jail population finds that many inmates are not locked up for probation violations and reasons other than newly committed crimes and that the mentally ill tend to be booked more often and kept in custody longer.

The county Board of Supervisors discussed California Forwards study during a workshop last week. California Forward, a nonprofit agency that seeks to improve the delivery of public services, spent two years conducting the study at no cost to the county.

The 3,906-bed, five-jail system causes major headaches for county officials. The jails are typically filled to capacity, and thousands of inmates are turned loose early every year to comply with a long-standing federal court order to reduce crowding.

In 2011, state lawmakers shifted responsibility for certain low-level, nonviolent offenders from the state to counties. As a result, some inmates are serving multiyear sentences in jails designed for short-term stays.

A recently settled lawsuit will add at least $40 million a year to the countys expenses for inmate health care. Though the $330 million Indio jail expansion will add more than 1,200 beds, the county plans to open the renamed East County Detention Center in phases to save money.

The county is facing a budget crunch, with public safety costs consuming roughly two-thirds of discretionary income. So supervisors are eager to find ways to cut costs while keeping dangerous inmates locked up.

The study is the first step toward that goal. California Forward analyzed roughly 59,000 jail bookings from 2014 to find patterns.

THE SIDE DOOR

The study found that 59 percent of jail bookings were for new crimes, mainly drug- and alcohol-related offenses, and that eight in 10 new crimes were nonviolent. Side-door reasons, such as probation violations and court commitments, made up the other 41 percent.

Almost two-thirds of inmates who stayed in jail in 2014 were there on a pre-trial basis, the study found. This is some fertile ground here, said Scott MacDonald, a former chief probation officer in Santa Cruz County who spoke to supervisors about the study.

What the law says is if you can release someone safely pending court, pending due process  if that can happen, then it should happen.

Nine in 10 inmates who left jail in 2014 returned to the community, the study found.

The study also focused on inmates housed in a special mental health unit. Those inmates had double the bookings of other inmates and stayed in jail more than twice as long, the study found.

Though the jail has mental health professionals, There is a lack of assertive case management at re-entry and upon community return, MacDonald said.

If you can engage them in the community, theyll stay on their medication and theyll stabilize  youll reduce that jail population and reduce the numbers in.

THERES NO HAMMER

The study stressed the need for non-jail alternatives  substance abuse treatment and expedited court hearings, for example  to boost jail capacity. Supervisors agreed.

I think building more and more jail beds, were just going to run out of money before we run out of people to lock up, said Supervisor Chuck Washington. I think the county needs to move forward in a direction that creates some better outcomes for us.

Supervisor John Tavaglione said he once subscribed to a lock them up and put them away mentality.

And we just cant do that any longer, he said. We cant afford to do that any longer because look at where its taken our budget.

Supervisor John Benoit said that when inmates are booked, the county is responsible for their health care, adding further strain to county finances.

Assistant Sheriff Jerry Gutierrez, who oversees jails, said more jail space is needed no matter what. Inmates wont go for alternatives if they know theyll be released because of crowding, he said.

At the end of the day, there are a lot of great recommendations (in the study), Gutierrez said. But we need to add jail capacity for these things to work because theres no hammer.

California Forwards study comes weeks before another review is due to come out of the countys public safety spending. The review by consulting firm KPMG is expected to find ways the Sheriffs Department can be more efficient.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9547 or jhorseman@pressenterprise.com
A fugitive wanted by Idaho authorities for wounding Pastor Tim Remington, who once offered ministry on the streets of San Bernardino County, apparently wrote a manifesto contending that Martians controlled the Earth, police said Wednesday.

Kyle Odom, 30, was arrested Tuesday afternoon by U.S. Secret Service agents after allegedly throwing items over the fence at the White House in Washington, D.C.

I think everyone can breathe a good sigh of relief that at least this part of the case has come to a conclusion, said Lee White, police chief for Coeur dAlene, Idaho, where the shooting occurred.

White said he was told Odom threw computer flash drives and other items over the White House fence on Tuesday.

Odom appeared in District of Columbia Superior Court on Wednesday, wearing handcuffs and a chain connecting his ankles. He said only his name when asked. Public defender Ieshaah Murphy said Odom declined to waive an extradition hearing and be sent back to Idaho in the next few days. He will be held in jail pending a hearing scheduled for April 6 in Washington, where the only issue is whether the Idaho warrant for attempted first-degree murder in his case is valid.

Meanwhile, Pastor Tim Remington, shot six times Sunday outside his church in Coeur dAlene, about 30 miles east of Spokane, had regained consciousness and is talking with his family, though he last lost feeling in one of his arms. Remington was born in Riverside and spent years offering ministry to substance abusers on the streets of San Bernardino County.

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.

Coeur dAlene Police Detective Jared Reneau said Odom had attended Remingtons church a few times and apparently was the author of a manifesto that contended the pastor was a member of a Martian species that had taken over the Earth. Details were contained in electronic documents that Odom apparently mailed to his family and news media outlets this week.

Given Odoms apparent state of mind, we feel pretty fortunate something worse didnt happen, Reneau said.

Odoms family issued a statement Tuesday evening, saying they were thankful for the safe apprehension of their son.

As Kyle was not living with us, we are learning of his plans as they are being released by police, Odoms family said. We are truly thankful to God he is safe and no one else has been injured.

After the Sunday afternoon shooting, Odom drove west toward Spokane, Washington. He boarded a flight at the Boise Airport sometime Monday, White said. Its unclear how Odom was able to board a plane with a warrant out for his arrest, White said.

A former Marine from Coeur dAlene, Odom is suspected of shooting Remington a day after the pastor led the prayer at a campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz. Authorities say theres no indication Remingtons appearance with Cruz had anything to do with the shooting.

Odom graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in biochemistry. The manifesto contended that his life started to deteriorate during his final semester and was now ruined.

Ruined by an intelligent species of amphibian-humanoid from Mars, the manifesto said.

Odom contended that the Martians were here before humans, lived underground and operated a breeding program for humans, the manifesto said.

Dont believe me? Ask President Obama to take a lie detector test of this one, the manifesto said.

Odom contended the Martians were unable to control his mind but had been following him. He said he had attempted suicide twice, but they stopped him.

As you can see, Im pretty smart, the manifesto said. Im also 100% sane, 0% crazy.

The manifesto included the names of members of Congress, members of the Israeli government, Remington and John Padula, outreach pastor for The Altar Church, where Remington is the senior pastor.

My last resort was to take actions that would bring this to the publics attention, the manifesto said.

Earlier Tuesday, Padula said Remington, 55, regained consciousness Monday night in a Coeur dAlene hospital. Hes whispering and talking to his family a little bit, Padula said.

Remington, who is married and has four children, has no feeling in his right arm, Padula said.

Remington has been with The Altar Church for nearly two decades, specializing in the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction, Padula said.

The Coeur dAlene Police Department issued a warrant for Odom, who has no criminal record but does have a history of mental illness.

Police said Odom drove to the Spokane area on Interstate 90 after the Sunday afternoon shooting, according traffic camera footage. He then turned south before they lost his trail. Odoms car was found in Boise, White said.
A man wanted by Idaho authorities in an attack on Pastor Tim Remington, who formerly offered ministry on the streets of San Bernardino County, was able to board a commercial airliner in Boise, Idaho, and travel to Washington, D.C., this week despite an attempted murder warrant for his arrest.

Kyle Odom, who police say wrote a manifesto declaring that his target was an invader from Mars, drove from Coeur dAlene, Idaho, after the shooting more than six hours to the airport in Boise, and departed Monday morning, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

The agency said it was not informed of law enforcements interest in Odom until Monday evening.

TSA had not received a law enforcement bulletin to be on the lookout for the suspect, the agency said in a press statement.

The TSA screens passengers against the governments Terrorist Watchlist, but there is no similar database for wanted criminals that would have automatically prevented Odom from boarding a plane.

Tim Remington, senior pastor of The Altar Church, wasshot six times Sunday outside the church in Coeur dAlene. He remained in the Inensive Care Unit at Kootenai Health Center on Thursday, where his family told local media that he is gaining strength.

His spirits are hopeful, he knows he still has more work to do, Remingtons son Jeremiah told KXLY in Spokane. He has always known his path, you know, he knows what God wants him to do.

The pastor, who is married and has four children, is expected to recover from his wounds.

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, 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.

Odom, 30, was arrested while allegedly throwing items onto the lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday evening.

Odom also apparently wrote a manifesto contending that Martians controlled the Earth, police said. The document said Martians were here before humans, lived underground and operated a breeding program for humans.

Odom appeared in District of Columbia Superior Court on Wednesday, wearing handcuffs and a chain connecting his ankles. He said only his name when asked. Public defender Ieshaah Murphy said Odom declined to waive an extradition hearing and be sent back to Idaho in the next few days.

He will be held in jail pending a hearing scheduled for April 6 in Washington, where the only issue is whether the Idaho warrant for attempted first-degree murder in his case is valid.

Odom was also charged this week in federal court in Idaho with one count of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, based on his alleged fleeing of the scene of the pastors shooting.

The FBI said in the complaint that Odom was tracked using license plate readers on Interstate 90 heading west toward Washington after the shooting. Investigators were also able to trace his cell phone as far as Hermiston, Oregon, before the phone was turned off.
A gunman opened fire on a San Bernardino police employee, hitting the employees patrol car and prompting a major  but unsuccessful  manhunt for the shooter.

The gunfire was reported at 2:15 p.m. Wednesday, March 9, at Second Street and Meridian Avenue near the citys border with Rialto.

The incident involved a community service officer, who had gone to the complex to recover a stolen vehicle that was left on the property, said police spokeswoman Eileen Hards.

Known as CSOs, community service officers are unarmed and typically take police reports on non-violent incidents, including burglaries and minor traffic accidents.

The CSOwas outside of his car working on some paperwork, Hards said. The suspect approachedand started firing.

A white Crown Victoria police sedan showed obvious signs of the gunfire, including a shattered drivers window, an apparent bullet hole in the top of the windshield frame above the drivers sunvisor, and a second bullet hole in the frame beneath the drivers door.

About four shots were fired, according to preliminary reports. Officers reported finding five empty shell casings nearby.

Police swarmed the area, locked down the apartment complex, and summoned at least one SWAT team to conduct a building-by-building search.

Helping in the effort were sheriffs deputies, county probation officers, and city police from Redlands and Colton.

About 5:30 p.m., the search ended and the police left.

Its unclear why the shooter opened fire or whether he had any connection to the stolen vehicle, Hards said.

Police described the shooter as a black man in his late 20s who is about 6-feet tall and weighs 160 to 190 pounds. He has short black hair and was last seen wearing a white t-shirt and blue jeans.

Anyone with additional information may call Detective Al Tello at 909-384-5747.
A Los Angeles man who went racing down an Ontario street on Wednesday afternoon, March 9, crashed his car into a tree and died, police believe.

The accident was reported in the 3000 block of East Cedar Street about a mile north of the 60 at 2:52 p.m., Ontario Cpl. Fred Alvarez said in a news release.

Denie Juan Sandoval, 20, was found unresponsive inside an overturned BMW 325i. Investigators learned that Sandoval was racing another driver when he lost control of the BMW and hit a tree, causing his car to roll.

The man who was racing Sandoval left the scene, but later returned and was cooperating with investigators as of Thursday morning, Alvarez said.

Alvarez declined to identify the other racer, saying that it was early in the investigation and the man was more of a witness than a suspect at this point in the investigation.

Specifically, it did not appear that the other racer caused Sandoval to crash, Alvarez said.

Street racing is becoming increasingly prevalent in Southern California, he said.

Hopefully people understand that it is illegal and its a loss of precious life, he said.

Anyone with information about the incident can call Officer James Mota 909-395-2001 and dial 4772.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.
Many Inland residents fumed Thursday over the news California officials are moving to raise the minimum smoking age from 18 to 21, and to subject electronic cigarettes to the same restrictions that apply to tobacco products.

But health officials in Riverside and San Bernardino counties applauded the California Senates approval of a sweeping package of anti-smoking measures, saying they would prevent some people from smoking at an early age and suffering later in life.

If Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signs the legislation, which already has passed the Assembly, it would take effect 90 days later.

When told of the states move to bump up the minimum age, 18-year-old UC Riverside student Gobesh Alrashidi appeared stunned.

I am really shocked by it, Alrashidi said, while smoking a cigarette Thursday afternoon on a University Avenue sidewalk. Taking a break from his mechanical engineering classes, he said he lights up to calm his nerves.

Alrashidi said he thought it strange that California would set the smoking threshold at 21 while the rest of the country puts it at 18.

Actually, California would become the second state to bar teenagers from lighting up, dipping or vaping. The first was Hawaii.

New Jersey almost went to 21. Its lawmakers voted to raise that states smoking age from 19 to 21, but Republican Gov. Chris Christie let the measure die without acting on it.

As for cities, San Francisco voted to raise the tobacco buying age to 21 a week ago, making it the second largest municipality to do so. More than 120 U.S. cities, including New York, have raised the smoking age, according to Tobacco 21, a group that advocates the policy shift nationally.

NANNY-STATE IDIOCY

As the smoke cleared on the Senate vote, outrage spread like wildfire on social media.

Bernie Donahue of Riverside mocked the move in a Facebook post, saying, Yeah, lets pass another law that will be widely disobeyed and unenforced. California is good for that. While were at it, whos going to tell the soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen that they cant smoke in California? I am a long-time reformed smoker, but this is pure nanny-state idiocy.

Jeremy P. Norton, 33, of Corona, said it is laughably inconsistent to invite people to serve in the military at 18 but bar them from lighting up until 21.

If they are old enough to go DIE, let them smoke, Norton wrote.

Norton said he doesnt smoke or vape, but hes one of the managers at The Glass Warehouse, a smoke-vape shop in Riverside.

Over at Riversides Vape Castle shop, Assistant Manager Gloria Ohs jaw dropped when told of the Senate vote.

Its just ridiculous, said Oh, who is 20. Honestly. It just doesnt make any sense to me.

Oh said the change wont affect her personally; her 21st birthday is in May. But she said she didnt think changing the age would prove a significant deterrent to people taking up smoking during their teen-age years.

I dont know how this is going to help, she said.

IT STARTS WHEN THEYRE YOUNG

Virgil Castillo, the stores owner, said he wasnt sure about the wisdom of raising the smoking age. But, he said, vaping shouldnt be subjected to the same restrictions.

Its definitely less harmful, Castillo said, adding that about 85 percent of shop clients use electronic cigarettes to help them quit smoking.

Health officials supported raising the minimum age.

Claudia Doyle, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health, said the change will spur many youths to delay taking up the smoking habit. And Doyle said that will lead to fewer people becoming addicted to nicotine.

Michael Osur, deputy director of the Riverside University Health System  Public Health, termed the change a good thing.

Smoking is one of the biggest causes of premature death in our country, Osur said. And it starts when theyre young.

Osur said county officials also support holding vaping to the same standards.

We felt from the beginning that e-cigarettes were just as dangerous as regular cigarettes, he said.

NEW GENERATION OF NICOTINE JUNKIES

Osur said the state estimates that 8.6 percent of Californians use e-cigarettes. He said he was unaware of an available estimate for Riverside County.

A local lawmaker is among those who see vaping as a threat.

All the progress weve made since 1965 to educate people about the hazards of smoking may be for naught as vaping has started a new generation of nicotine junkies that will be helplessly addicted and will ultimately graduate to smoking cancer sticks, said Sen. Jeff Stone, R-Temecula.

The vaping restriction was part of a package of anti-tobacco bills that won approval despite intense lobbying from tobacco interests. And a vaping industry group, the Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association, urged Brown to veto the bill.

The bills also would expand smoke-free areas to include bars, workplace break rooms, small businesses, warehouses and hotel lobbies and meeting rooms. Smoking bans would apply at more schools, including charter schools, and counties would be able to raise their own cigarette taxes beyond the states levy of $0.87 per pack.

The American Cancer Society characterized the legislative package as the most substantial anti-tobacco effort in California in nearly two decades.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

RELATED

CALIFORNIA: State right-to-die law will take effect in 3 months

ENVIRONMENT: Air quality battle moves to state Senate

NATION: Senate approves bipartisan bill bolstering anti-drug efforts
Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, met with President Barack Obama on Thursday for the first state visit by a Canadian leader in 19 years, a diplomatic honor made possible in part by new pledges of cooperation on combating climate change.

Obama and Trudeau announced Thursday new commitments to reduce planet-warming emissions of methane, a chemical contained in natural gas that is about 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide and that can leak from drilling wells and pipelines.

In a joint statement, the leaders promised that their two countries will play a leadership role internationally in the low carbon global economy over the coming decades. As part of the announcement, United States officials said they would immediately begin a new push to regulate methane emissions from existing oil and gas facilities, though finishing that process before the end of Obamas tenure is unlikely.

Methane is upwards of 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide in warming the planet, said Gina McCarthy, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. It has become clear that it is time for the EPA to take additional action to regulate existing sources in the oil and gas sector.

Obama and Trudeau also pledged new cooperation in preserving the Arctic and focusing on biodiversity, science-based decision-making, indigenous people and building a sustainable Arctic economy. The two nations also promised to accelerate the carrying out of agreements made in climate talks in Paris last year.

Both nations know we must care for the one planet we share, said Sally Jewell, the secretary of the interior in the United States. I appreciate Canadas strong leadership.

While Canada and the United States have long been close allies, Obamas efforts to confront global warming had become a major point of contention with Justin Trudeaus predecessor, Stephen Harper, who sought to aggressively expand Canadas oil industry.

As Obama became more determined to leave behind a lasting environmental legacy, he delayed and eventually rejected construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have transported nearly a million barrels a day of heavily polluting oil from Alberta to refineries on the Gulf Coast.

Obamas rejection of the pipeline severely strained relations with Harper.

But Trudeaus election last year marked a shift in policy that was welcomed by the White House. Trudeau did not criticize Obamas rejection of the pipeline, and Trudeau has pledged to pursue an ambitious environmental agenda to coincide with Obamas policies.

In December, Canadian officials helped to push through a historic global climate agreement in Paris.

The climate relationship with Canada really just ramped up dramatically quickly, Todd Stern, Obamas special envoy for climate change, told reporters before Trudeaus arrival.

The two leaders will meet privately on Thursday to discuss military cooperation, efforts to combat terrorism, improvements in trade and environmental concerns.
The military is beginning to check whether chemicals from its firefighting foam may have contaminated groundwater at hundreds of sites nationwide, according to the Defense Department.

The Navy began sampling water at bases in December. Eighty five sites will be checked in California alone.

At a naval landing field in Virginia, the U.S. Navy is now giving its personnel bottled water and testing wells in the nearby rural area after the discovery of perfluorinated chemicals in drinking water. Several congressmen are raising concerns about the safety of drinking water near two former Navy bases in suburban Philadelphia because of firefighting foam.

The foam is used at locations where potentially catastrophic fuel fires can occur because it can rapidly extinguish them. It contains perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOS and PFOA, both considered emerging contaminants by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Studies have shown that perfluorinated chemicals may be associated with prostate, kidney and testicular cancer, and other health issues, according to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. The EPA issued an advisory that contains concentrations for the chemicals, above which action should be taken to reduce exposure.

They are guidelines, and not enforceable regulatory standards. The EPA said in 2009 it was assessing the potential risk from short-term exposure to the chemicals through drinking water.

The Defense Department identified 664 of its fire or crash training sites as of the end of fiscal year 2014, and the services have just begun the process of evaluating those sites to assess the risk to groundwater, Lt. Col. Eric D. Badger, a department spokesman, said this week.

California has the most, with 85, followed by Texas, with 57, Florida, with 38, and Alaska and South Carolina, each with 26, according to a list provided to The Associated Press. Some states have only one or two, such as Minnesota and Rhode Island.

The Defense Department hasnt posted a list of the sites online, and its too early to know how many sites are contaminated.

Because we are in the early stages of the cleanup process, we do not have the full scope of the extent of perfluorinated chemicals contamination and the actions the department needs to take to address the risks to human health and the environment, Badger said in a statement.

The Navy started handing out bottled water in January to about 50 people who work at the Naval Auxiliary Landing Field Fentress in Chesapeake, Virginia, and it worked with the city to set up a water station for concerned property owners after it found perfluorinated chemicals in the drinking water wells above the concentrations in the EPA advisory.

The Navy is testing private wells of nearby property owners. The results are due next week.

Chris Evans, of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, credited the Navy with being proactive, though said hes concerned anytime theres a potential threat to human health and the environment. Some states have established their own drinking water and groundwater guidelines. Virginia uses the EPAs.

Well follow EPAs lead as this develops, said Evans, the director of the office of remediation programs.

The Navy found perfluorinated chemicals in the groundwater monitoring wells at Naval Weapons Station Earle in Colts Neck, New Jersey, but not in the drinking water supply. Twenty-six other naval sites didnt exceed the concentrations.

New Jerseys guideline for the chemicals in drinking water is more conservative than the EPAs, but in this case the groundwater was contaminated. Test results from off-base drinking water wells are expected this month.

Theres a lot of evolving science around perfluorinated chemicals, said Lawrence Hajna, a spokesman for the states Department of Environmental Protection.

The more that we hear, the more that we realize that this is a very important health concern, he said.

The Defense Department says its removing stocks of the foam in some cases and also trying to prevent any uncontrolled releases during training exercises, until formulations of firefighting foam without perfluorinated chemicals can be certified for military use. The Navy is also expecting test results from a site in Cutler, Maine, where a former fire training area was located, this month.
Opinion / Columnist

The People's Democratic Party (PDP) welcomes the proposed establishment of the Land Compensation Fund (LCF) which seeks to attract resources for the compensation of commercial farmers whose properties were repossessed during the disastrous ZANU (PF) fast track land reform project of 2000.According to the LCF memorandum tabled in parliament, the main objective of the fund is compensation and the second objective of the fund is to enhance agricultural productivity on allocated land.In our economic policy document Holistic Program for Economic Transformation (HOPE) we have identified agriculture as one of the key enablers for economic recovery, not only to achieve food security, but to create jobs and sustainable incomes for our rural population so that they can have a better quality life.There is no question that agricultural recovery will also have a knock-on effect on the rest of the economy. It will directly lead to the revival of our food processing industry which historically relied on 60% of its inputs from the agricultural sector and employed millions. Historically in Zimbabwe, one dollar invested in the agriculture sector resulted in four dollars being invested in related industries and that is still the case and then some. The conflict on land ownership therefore needs to be resolved first in order for us to re-establish the value of our land assets and attract more investment in the economy as a whole.There are an estimated 4,500 commercial farming businesses with about 5,300 properties whose ownership is disputed and who require compensation. The total value of estimated compensation for land and fixed assets only, is estimated to be between $7 and $10 billion.In our opinion, the land compensation framework must take into account the compensation for land and improvements including the consideration of such issues as land valuation methodologies and mechanisms, land price information, the basis of levels of compensation to be paid for land and associated property acquired, interest payable and possible institutional responsibilities. Once these are resolved, compensation can then be agreed upon and paid.If we assume that the value of the assets involved are as much as US$10 billion, this will mean that when these funds are released into our economy, they will trigger off significant macro-economic recovery which will include:1. An increase in liquidity in the banking sector;2. Re-establishment of an active market for land in rural areas with an increase in bank lending to agriculture and related industries;3. An increase in local private investment capital in general;4. The strengthening of property rights in the wider economy;5. Create further investment in infrastructure and utilities development;6. Unleash a multiplier effect leading to industrial recovery; and7. Trigger off new employment creation in the whole economy.Above all, will be the positive impact on the economy due to the confidence that can be created. This will lead to an increased inflow of foreign investment capital in the all sectors of the economy once we repeal indigenisation, promote economic freedom and improve the ease of doing business in Zimbabwe. A resolution of the crisis over land in Zimbabwe with the payment of fair compensation will definitely help restore normal relations with the international community.In resolving this process, we demand a transparent and fair process. As PDP, this, of course, remains our greatest fear given the history of ZANU (PF)'s inability to administer large funds.The Land Compensation Fund proposes the establishment of a management committee by the responsible minister and in our view, that committee should be made up of experts, farmer representatives, professionals and other affected parties who are all objective and non-partisan. Its activities must also be transparent and there must be accountability to parliament. Except we do this, we are most likely to end with another ZANU (PF) slush fund that can be abused.In our view, unfortunately the risk of ZANU (PF) appointing party cronies is very high and this will inevitably increase the risk of mismanagement, corruption and fraud as has happened in the past with other large funds such as the aids levy, disability fund and our social security funds. We must avoid that at all costs.In addition to resolving the compensation issue, it will also be necessary to establish a new dispensation in the agriculture sector. This new dispensation must rationalise the issue of land ownership and tenure to ensure equitable and fair distribution of this national asset. However, that rationalisation must be underpinned by productive use of land assets so that we reinstate the value of land on Zimbabwe's balance sheet and attract new investment in that sector.The second objective of the proposed Land Compensation Fund is to enhance productivity on allocated landAs PDP, our view is that this second objective is too broad, too vague, fails to avoid any doubt on what the funds will be used for and is therefore subject to misinterpretation and abuse.The responsibility of investment in the increase of agricultural productivity on reallocated land should not fall under a compensation framework under the Minister of Lands and Rural Settlement but rather under an agricultural development framework. Increasing productivity in agriculture requires a multifaceted multi institutional approach and should be led by the Ministry of Agriculture and not the Ministry Lands.The issue of compensation therefore should be a once off event where the funds should be ring-fenced and once compensation is complete the fund should be disbanded. This will prevent any future abuse of the LCF and limit the likelihood of mismanagement and misappropriation.
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-monay  hook yourself up with one by visiting NABs website HERE.

Melbournes one of those locales that wankier millenials have started referring to as a hub. Yknow, a hub of culture, a hub of art, a hub of music, a hub of getting REKT, etc. But when theres a hub, theres usually a financial fire  one thats hell-bent on decimating the contents of your wallet/purse. This flame is responsible for you exclaiming, why in gods name did I spend $300 at that bitchin club last night? every Sunday morning, and is something that needs to be snuffed out ASAP.

PEDESTRIAN.TVs asked GL, Ecca Vandal, and Pearls  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.

LETS GET THIS PARTY STARTED, YALL.

GL

Photo: Supplied.

Cruising on glowing synths, gritty drum-machines, and stratospheric vocals, GLs music is a cosmic dream-sequence not unlike a lost reel from the mid-80s, says triple j Uneartheds bio on the duo.

While we personally think the term stratospheric vocals has no place as a descriptor in 2016, were going to let it slide just this once. Why? Cause GL are deserving of such ostentatious commentary. Tracks like What Happened To Us?, Runner and Number One have cemented this pairs burgeoning career in Australias dance/electronic realms. You can check em out on Facebook HERE, Instagram HERE and Soundcloud HERE or review their aforementioned banger, Number One, below:

CHEAP FOOD

Shop Ramen

329 Smith St, Fitzroy VIC 3065.

Try all the different kinds of Ramen across visits  good quality produce, simple and delicious.

Munsterhaus

371 St Georges Rd, Fitzroy North VIC 3068.

Great if youre a vego or enjoy veg.

Pizza Meine Liebe

231 High St, Northcote VIC 3070.

Stunning pizza eat-in restaurant or next door at Joes Shoe Store bar.

BOOZE BARGAINS

The Old Bar

74-76 Johnston St, Fitzroy VIC 3065.

Classic old style pub/bar no frills.

Photo: Kate Seabrook / The Old Bar.

Joes Shoe Store

233 High St, Northcote VIC 3070.

My favourite bar in Northcote.

Photo: @melbournebarhopper / Instagram.

FREE FESTIVALS

The National Gallery of Victoria have great Friday night and Sunday arvo music through summer. Its a different setting to a usual gig and you can go and see the exhibition at the same time.

Keep your ear out for good day parties like The Social Studio Block Party or live music at the Fairfield Amphitheatre on Sundays.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

There are lots of great DJs that put on nights in Melbourne  usually wherever they play will be a good time. Venues like: Waxo Paradiso, Lost Weekend.

There is such a variety of venues, from beautiful historic theatres like The Forum, to smaller clubs like Shebeen. Both these venues are intimate regardless of their size. I love the audiences that go to those venues to see their favourite music.

GLS BUDGETING TIPS

If youre really trying to pinch pennies then GLs advice is to stay in or go to a mates: House party or dance in your lounge room!

ECCA VANDAL

Photo: Kidknot / Supplied.

To say Ecca Vandals dabbled in a few genres would be a pretty uge understatement  she experimented with jazz as a youngster, was enticed by the rawness of hip hop as she grew older, considers Bjork a hero and responds to the heroic nature of punk rock. Its kinda hard to categorise her sound, but you know what? Its so brilliant that it doesnt really matter.

Her debut single, White Flag, received the salute of approval from establishments like triple j and Channel [V] and wed like to join them in their collective praise. Ecca Vandal is good. Like, real good.

We highly encourage yall to check her out on Facebook HERE, Instagram HERE and Soundcloud HERE.

CHEAP FOOD

N. Lee Bakery

220 Smith Street, Collingwood VIC 3066.

Smith And Deli

111 Moor St, Fitzroy VIC 3065.

Claypots Evening Star

South Melbourne Market, 101 Cecil St & York Street, South Melbourne VIC 3205.

BOOZE BARGAINS

Sister Bella

22 Drewery Pl, Melbourne VIC 3000.

Tucked away in a little lane way in the CBD, a little slice of NYC $5 beers all night.

Photo: U26Melbourne / WordPress.

Forgotten Worlds

113 Johnston St, Collingwood VIC 3066.

Epic little arcade bar on Johnston St in Collingwood. Its great if you are in the mood for a few games and bevs  Wednesday and Thursday: $10 nachos + beer and cheap tinnies.

Photo: Philip Richardson / Facebook.

Labour In Vain

197A Brunswick St, Fitzroy VIC 3065.

Cute little pub on Brunswick St. Drink specials during the week Monday through Thursday: $8 pints + free Pool.

Photo: Labour In Vain.

FREE FESTIVALS

Melbourne Festival

6.10.16  23.10.16.

Always an amazing showcase of incredible Melbourne talents  great installations and awesome set ups in creative performance spaces too.

Hispanic Latin American Festival / Johnston Street Festival

TBC.

Part of Johnston St closes down and is taken over by Melbournes Hispanic community. Its a rad street party!

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Yah Yahs

99 Smith St, Fitzroy VIC 3065.





The Old Bar

74-76 Johnston St, Fitzroy VIC 3065.





The Bendigo Hotel

125 Johnston St, Collingwood VIC 3066.

ECCA VANDALS BUDGETING TIPS

Street Level Naked For Satan on Brunswick St does $1 Pinxos at lunchtime during the week. Can load up your plate with all kinds of tasty treats and walk out the door having spent $5  how good is that?!

Opt for a cheaper drink choice. Avoid the cocktails  yep, they be pricey!

PEARLS

Photo: Pearls / Facebook.

Just like old mate Gwen Stefani, ~glam-rock~ group, Pearls, have been around the track quite a few times. As theyve performed at several Melbourne institutions, its only natural that they have a few tricks up their sleeves to shave the costs of a big night out. Since signing with Remote Control Records  and dropping their debut album, Pretend Youre Mine  the group has been movin n shakin in all the right places.

If youre feeling their sound, hit em up on their Facebook HERE, Instagram HERE and Soundcloud HERE.

The groups frontman, Ryan Caesar, did us a solid and detailed some pretty top-notch + cheap watering holes/eateries to get around. CHEERS PAL.

CHEAP FOOD

Don Don

Several locations.

Pretty sure theres a few of em around these days. Cheap bento, simple menu.

Pho La Que Basil Leaf

369 Brunswick St, Fitzroy VIC 3065.

Brunswick St institution. Cheap ramen. Delicious.

BOOZE BARGAINS





John Curtin Hotel

29 Lygon St, Carlton VIC 3053.

Good, cheap beers. Strong selection, all the essentials.

Photo: John Curtin Hotel / Facebook.

The Tote Hotel

67-71 Johnston St, Collingwood VIC 3066.

Similar as above. No frills. Drinks in glasses. Beer in pots. Good tunes.

Photo: Nick Carson / Wikipedia.

Howler Bar

7-11 Dawson St, Brunswick VIC 3056.

A bar guy here once gave me a free pint when my card was declined. Thats real cheap.

Photo: Howler Bar / Facebook.

FREE FESTIVALS

Monday Night Mass

Northcote social club every Monday night. Free, brilliant bands weekly. A rite of passage for any self respecting band.

White Night

Just missed it, but its a one of a kind. Always fantastic bands and projections to amaze and baffle even the most jaded punter.

Melbourne Music Week

Not all events are free but there are plenty that are. From early morning shows to late night sweat fests. Expertly curated and loads to do.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

1. Boney is always a great place to meet like-minded inebriants in the wee small hours.

2. XOXO (hugs and kisses) is great. Idiots are filtered out by its discrete entrance.

3. Hells Kitchen has been a favorite of mine for years, you only have to endure the murder of rubber-necked tourists outside taking photos of the urban scenery. Very good bar.

RYANS BUDGETING TIPS

Drink at home first and reach a socially acceptable level of enthusiasm. Steer clear of fancy bars unless youre trying to impress, and drink Geelong Bitter wherever it is served.

[Depending on] how short your laces are, there are tonnes of amazing Asian foods everywhere for 10 bucks a main or thereabouts. Plenty of pubs. Plenty of bands. Cinema Nova has cheap Mondays and always has an amazingly curated selection screening. Get in early though as the blue rinse set are on to it and dead keen.

In terms of mythical drinking loopholes/discounts, Ryans in the same boat as us, saying, I have no idea. If anyone finds any, let me know.

Hopefully youve got a few more venue additions for the good ol, Ill go there when Im broke but wanna party, list/feel somewhat more financially enlightened. NABs all about helping you #SpendBetter, and one great way to do it is to open an everyday banking account with the legends. You can find out more by visiting NABs website HERE.

Photo: John Curtin Hotel / Facebook.
This year's presentation of "The Diary of Anne Frank" with Open Stage of Harrisburg is the 17th consecutive production by the theater company. But for both the cast, and for a local Holocaust survivor, the story has never been more relevant.

Hilda Mantelmacher survived the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, the latter being where the British soldiers found and liberated her and other prisoners in the closing days of World War II.

Today, she shares her harrowing story with students at area schools, and she has spoken to student audiences of "The Diary of Anne Frank" since Open Stage's inaugural production.

The public performance of the play is held at 2 p.m. on March 12. Mantelmacher will also speak to students at Temple University's Harrisburg campus in Strawberry Square at 2 p.m. on March 23. The event is open to the public and will be held in Room 246.

"What I do is talk for the people who aren't here to talk for themselves," Mantelmacher said. "I tell them about what I went through, who I lost and where I come from."

Re-living such painful memories is difficult for Mantelmacher. She arrives after the play is finished to speak with students.

"When I leave the house, I divorce myself - I am not there," she said. "If I would see the play, I could not talk the same day. It's just too painful."

In this year's production of "The Diary of Anne Frank," the title role is played by Erin Shellenberger, a 19 year old student of Messiah College's theater program.

"I feel honored to play this role," Shellenberger said. "And it's a big responsibility to do this story justice. She deserves to be honored in this part."

Unlike many Jews in Europe during World War II, Anne Frank and her family escaped capture for years by hiding in a secret annex above the factory where her father worked in the Netherlands. They, along with a small handful of other Jewish friends, survived in hiding from 1942 until 1944, when they were discovered and shipped to camps by German authorities and Dutch Nazi sympathizers.

Holocaust survivor Hilda Mantelmacher spoke to seventh- and eighth-grade students at St. Joseph School in Mechanicsburg on May 11. Mantelmacher, a native of the former Czechoslovakia, survived Auschwitz Concentration Camp and was transferred to the Bergen-Belsen Camp (the camp where Anne Frank and her sister died), where she was held prisoner until the end of World War II. Mantelmacher showed the Frontline documentary "Memory of the Camps" and answered all questions. Joining St. Joseph students and staff were more than 80 students from St. Patrick School (Carlisle) and St. Theresa School (New Cumberland).

Anne Frank died in Bergen-Belsen, likely of typhoid fever, weeks before the camp was liberated.

"I was there too, but I was lucky," said Mantelmacher, who was also sick with typhoid when prisoners were freed. She was the only survivor of her family.

Frank's diary, which she had written with an intent to publish, was eventually published by her father after the war. It gives insight, not only to the frightening political climate which forced her family into hiding, but also to the mind of a pubescent teenage girl living in a confined space with two families.

"She's a very hard character to play," Shellenberger said of Anne Frank, who ages from 13 to 15 during the course of the show and finds herself in the midst of puberty. "Her story isn't about the war. When you look at this play, it's really about two families that are smushed together. It's funny, and it's heartbreaking."

Anne, according to Shellenberger, could as be as obnoxious, hormonal and ungrateful as any other teenager. Presenting a fully-rounded character instead of a flawless victim and "World War II icon" or a bratty teen, Shellenberger said, is how audiences will relate to Anne's story.

"When you learn about things [like the Holocaust] in history class, often it just feels like a story you're not really connected to," said the actor. "There's no better way for students to personally connect to a story than to see it played before them."

Students who listen to Mantelmacher speak have a similar experience. Even in schools with frequent discipline problems or issues with disruptive students, she said, they are always captivated. Many send letters to her after she speaks with them.

"They tell me they didn't realize how bad the Holocaust was, and what hate can do," she said. "They tell me, 'I could never go through what you went through.' And I tell them, 'The only way you're not going to have to is if you don't hate.' Hatred drove the Holocaust, and hatred brings hatred. They tell me, 'I'm going to leave hatred behind.' They listen, and they learn so much."

Connecting to the Holocaust is vital in today's political climate, Mantelmacher said. She has found the hateful rhetoric from today's politicians, particularly Donald Trump, "very painful."

"The truth is that it breaks my heart, what Trump is doing," she said. "The United States is such a good country. It isn't perfect, but it's the best in the whole world. And now somebody's running [for president] that wants to make hatred. I'm very upset at the way he behaves. It's just not right. In the United States, when somebody says things like that, it's scary. I would have never believed that."

Mantelmacher said that Muslim students in particular are coming to her and relating to her story in ways that they haven't before.

"They are so happy that I teach people not to hate," she said. "They hear the news. I understand what they feel. I'm sorry that any of us has to feel that way: to be put down, that we're less than anybody else. I'm happy that they understand what I'm doing is for everybody, and for them too."

That same rhetoric of fear and persecution was a discussed in "The Diary of Anne Frank" rehearsals.

"Hitler was just a mouthpiece for an entire party," Shellenberger said. "It wasn't just him. These weren't original thoughts that he came up with. This was a group of people, not just one person, and that's the scary thing. They were looking for a scapegoat for the economic downfall of their country. They wanted power and they came up with a really effective, awful way to get it. "

But Mantelmacher never fails to find hope with each group of students she speaks with. Most are middle and high school students, many of whom look to apply Mantelmacher's message of love to problems like bullying. But she also cited an example of an adult college student from China, whose family bears a painful legacy of Japanese crimes and abuses during World War II.

Erin Shellenberger as Anne Frank in "The Diary of Anne Frank."

"The more you love, the more love you get back," she said. "The more you hate, you're going to make a bad world and have another Holocaust. They all change. They say to me, 'Don't worry, I'm going to tell my children and my great grandchildren about you.' I feel wonderful. They learn so much, and they are so loving."

Mantelmacher has requested that schools record her, so that her experience and message to students be preserved for future generations. The only reward she has ever accepted was letters from students.

"I can't write to all of them, but I would like to," she said. "I told them I don't want flowers, just send me letters. I don't want anything. I just want to make a better world."

Shellenberger cited one of Anne Frank's famous quotes from her diary: "Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart."

"These political candidates, and our neighbors who back them, whether we agree with them or not, are still human beings and worthy of love and respect," Shellenberger said. "Whether we agree with their actions or not. That connection makes telling this story even more relevant, and gives me even more responsibility in telling it."

"If there's less hatred," Mantelmacher said, "there's going to be a better world."
The floods of 1936 occurred throughout Pennsylvania March 18-20 and became known as the St. Patrick's Day Floods.

The St. Patrick's Day floods affected all areas of Pennsylvania - Easton, Williamsport, Bloomsburg, Sunbury, Johnstown and Pittsburgh. More than 100 people in Pennsylvania died and the damage estimate was $300 million.

According to the book, Great Floods of Pennsylvania by William H. Shank, "The winter of 1935-36 had been one of the most severe that Pennsylvania had seen for years. Huge quantities of snow fell in January and February throughout the state, and prevailing low temperatures preserved it well."

In late February, the cold spell ended, according to the book, "with remarkably warm weather and light rains. This resulted in the rapid melting of two months accumulation of dormant moisture throughout the state, all of which was turned loose on the streams and rivers within a period of about 10 days."

"An early effect of the warm spell was the thawing of the heavy layers of ice, fifteen to twenty (or more) inches thick, formed on the rivers during the intense cold period. As this ice melted, and as the rivers raised, the ice 'gorged'or jammed at various points, forming temporary dams, with resulting high 'back-up' water. The heavy ice cakes, borne in-shore by the high water, resulted in great damage to properties or communities where the jams occurred."

The author said that on March 7 he and a friend viewed an ice jam north of the bridge at Duncannon. The broken ice on the Juniata River, he said, had formed a dam at the bridge and water was pouring across Route 22 at Amity Hall, joining the Susquehanna River.

"Pennsylvania Department of Highway engineers had dynamited the roadway at Amity Hall to provide a temporary channel and prevent under mining of the entire roadway between Amity Hall and the Clarks Ferry Bridge," he wrote.

That evening, 10 miles of river ice above Harrisburg broke loose and gorged at multiple locations, causing an abrupt rise in the water level, and "carrying huge cakes of ice in shore, which did tremendous damage. The town of Dauphin, 8 miles north of Harrisburg, was particularly hard hit. The ice gorge there occurred so suddenly that the townspeople literally ran for their lives to escape the inshore rush of water and ice cakes. Virtually every cottage and home along the river bank was either completely destroyed or badly damaged by the ice."

In the next week, he wrote, the level of the Susquehanna River at Harrisburg rose and fell. The maximum level on March 13 was 21.7 feet, with flooding in south Harrisburg and some West Shore suburbs.

"The big flood, however, started on March 17 when the water began a steady and inexorable rise which continued until about 28 percent of the city was under water - 4 to 15 feet deep in some places. The peak of 30.33 feet was finally reached at 6 p.m. March 19, the highest reading to that date ever recorded on the Walnut Street gage at Harrisburg. The official crest, recorded on the Nagle Street gage downstream, was 29.23 feet," he wrote.

Because the city's pumping station and island water filtering plant were submerged at 27 feet, he said the city was left with only about a week's worth of uncontaminated water in its reservoirs.

The water began to recede on March 21. "Damage was tremendous," he wrote. "Gas mains, water supplies, power lines, highways and bridges in the area were left in pitiable conditions. For weeks whole caravans of tank trucks rushed in drinking water supplies to fill the dwindling reservoirs. Water was rationed and boiling was recommended for what little water still remained in the reservoirs. It became almost a criminal offense to take a bath. Most West Shore citizens got typhoid shots."
Lawmakers in West Virginia who consumed raw milk after passing a bill legalizing the unpasteurized dairy beverage have fallen ill, but they insist the flu is to blame.

Now, the state Department of Health and Human Resources is looking into the situation.

Pat McGeehan, one of the sick lawmakers, told WSAZ in Charleston that a stomach bug has been making the rounds.

"There's definitely ... some other colleagues that have similar symptoms that I've been experiencing," McGeehan told the TV station.

More from WSAZ:

Several lawmakers say a delegate who sponsored the bill, Scott Cadle (R - Mason, 13), brought in the drinks.

"[Cadle] caught me in the hallway, offered a cup to me, and you want to try to be a gentleman," McGeehan said. "I had a small sip and walked away and tossed the rest of it."

"I highly doubt raw milk had anything to do with it, in my case," McGeehan said.

Still, the lawmakers' plight has been picked up by national media outlets, which have seized on the apparent irony of the situation.

The

because it can contain "dangerous microorganisms."
UPDATE

Two bodies pulled from the Susquehanna River in Lancaster County on Wednesday are just the latest in a long line of tragedies drawn to a close on the river's banks.

Officials are revealing little about the two bodies pulled from the river in Manor Township on Wednesday, but say work is underway to determine their identities and how they came to be in the water. Autopsies are scheduled for later this week.

The first body was found at around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Safe Harbor hydroelectric dam where workers discovered it during a routine maintenance check, a spokesperson said.

Andrew Davis of Brookfield Renewable Energy Group, which owns and operates the dam and the adjoining Safe Harbor Water Power facility, said workers spotted the body during debris checks around the dam and immediately notified the proper authorities.

A second body was found hours later and a few miles north, near Turkey Point, with reports indicating it may have been spotted by a passerby.

So far, details including the age and gender of the two individuals found have not been publicly released, and while officials said they had some sense of how long the bodies had been in the water, they weren't comfortable saying so publicly on Wednesday.

Floating corpses are not unusual during spring when the water temperature rises and makes the bodies more buoyant. Icy waters slow the decomposition process during the winter, which helps conceal submerged bodies.

The Susquehanna River is also no stranger to missing persons, and has been tied to a number as of late.

Last month divers near Williamsport came up empty in their search for missing 33-year-old, Matthew Stoner, who was last seen near the river there on Feb. 7. The location is roughly 122 miles north of the Lancaster County location where the two bodies were found Wednesday.

Another man, 20-year-old Benjamin Jose Nogueras of Lancaster, is believed to have jumped into the river from the Route 30 bridge in Columbia in January, only a few miles north of the where the bodies were located Wednesday. He was also never found.

The river, while central to a number of missing persons cases annually, is also often where those cases come to their tragic conclusions.

In March of last year, the body of a missing New Cumberland teen, reported missing months earlier, was found floating in the river, his death ruled an accidental drowning during a canoe trip.

Last year alone, bodies were found in the river in March, April, June, August and December.

The river is listed as the 16th-largest in the country, spanning more than 460 miles and with an average flow of 19 million gallons of water per minute, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
Opinion / Columnist

THERE is no suggestion that Morgan Tsvangirai is taking the entry of veteran politician and former Zanu-PF and national vice president, Joice Mujuru, into opposition politics as a personal concern. Last week, he retorted to a question from a local newspaper: "For me, (Mujuru and her new party) are definitely not the enemy. They appeal to a certain constituency and are part of the opposition now."But Mujuru is not just part of the opposition. Since her grand entry into opposition politics a few weeks ago, she has stolen the limelight from Tsvangirai, whose opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) party had given President Robert Mugabe's government its biggest challenge ever since taking over power at Independence in 1980.To hear even MDC-T activists say it in whispered tones, she and her Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) party present the biggest threat to the survival of the MDC-T. That, they say, is too material a threat to have courted a parochial response from their leader.Granted, Tsvangirai has been in opposition politics for too long to get easily obliterated. Yet he has a turf to protect, and he could easily get consumed by the conflagration in Zimbabwe's politics.In politics, Mujuru and Mugabe should be Tsvangirai's foes in his battle for leadership. Even, party primary election battles for leadership have shown to be a vicious fight for supporters. Mujuru should not be a friend simply because she has joined opposition politics. That much Mujuru understands, explaining why she did not join the MDC-T when she was humiliated out of the only party she had known since she was a child: She and colleagues who were hounded out of Zanu-PF last year formed ZPF to compete for power against Mugabe and Tsvangirai.That battle for power is probably always nasty. It has to. When Simba Makoni left Zanu-PF to challenge President Mugabe for the country's top job in 2008, he rebranded himself a reformist and an agent of change in Zimbabwe. There was a real buzz at his entry into politics. When Makoni urged people to register as voters soon after publicly breaking ranks with Zanu-PF, voter registration points across the country registered a surge in turnout. They had listened, and were yearning for change!But when he insisted on polite terms to describe his foes, Makoni lost it.For example, he would call President Mugabe "baba", vernacular for father. Crowds at his rallies would insist on the foul terms  they would shout dictator, dictator, dictator! Soon, when they realised Makoni kept his tongue tamed, the majority of his supporters, most of whom had become disillusioned by their party Zanu-PF, trooped to Tsvangirai. That gave Tsvangirai a stunning victory over President Mugabe in the 2008 Presidential election.Yet Tsvangirai, a persuasive agent of change who also almost removed President Mugabe from power in the 2002 Presidential race, had almost whittled down to just an opposition leader battling for supremacy in opposition politics against a breakaway MDC faction then led by robotics professor Arthur Mutambara.In the 2000 Parliamentary election, his year-old party had snatched almost half the parliamentary seats - he personally lost his bid for a seat in his home area of Buhera - but the numbers dwindled at the 2005 Parliamentary election.Apparently aware he could not offer a viable challenge to Mugabe's incumbency, Mutambara had quickly announced that he would back Makoni. That was meant to spite Tsvangirai, whose supporters had even suggested he should stand down and back Makoni.But Tsvangirai was defiant. Apparently, it was soon after he started taking pot shots at Makoni that the pendulum swung back in his favour."He's old wine in a new bottle," Tsvangirai said of Makoni, suggesting he had the same wretched past as Mugabe, and was therefore unelectable due to his past association with Zanu-PF."I have a team, Makoni has no team," Tsvangirai said.Mujuru had used superlatives to describe President Mugabe soon after her ejection from Zanu-PF - "my mentor", "baba" and so forth. Now, she calls the President "just a living spirit", and describes him as "backward" and no longer uses words suggesting reverence. She has entered the battle field, and may have learnt better from Makoni.It may be that Tsvangirai may not be taking Mujuru seriously. But she has shown great astuteness and has been favoured by fate. Where Makoni did not have a team, Mujuru has high-profile, former Zanu-PF bigwigs by her side. Information gathered by this journalist indicates that she already has structures in all districts of the country, and these have experienced cadres already campaigning for her Presidential bid in 2018.Moreover, there are a lot of people disillusioned by Tsvangirai's failure to wrestle power from President Mugabe who have publicly shifted their affection to her new party. She is already gaining, while Tsvangirai is losing. Her party, she says, already has large numbers of people from both Zanu-PF and Tsvangirai's party, including those from political formations that broke away from MDC-T.But that doesn't mean brand Tsvangirai is dead: the opposition politician remains the most well-known brand in opposition politics, with almost the same brand recognition as President Mugabe.President Mugabe has suggested that the opposition leader in fact won by a landslide in 2008, taking 73 percent of the vote.That election result took over a month to announce, and when results were made public, Tsvangirai was said to have garnered 47,8 percent of the vote, ahead of President Mugabe who received 43,2 percent of the vote. Tsvangirai pulled out of a Presidential election run-off after alleged widespread violence against his supporters.President Mugabe went on to win that run-off election, but a crisis of confidence that later ensued forced him into a coalition with Tsvangirai's party and that led by Mutambara.Makoni, who had amassed eight percent of the national vote, was excluded from the coalition.Didymus Mutasa, a State security minister in President Mugabe's government at the time the election was held, has insinuated that indeed Tsvangirai won the election by a huge margin.Asked by a journalist if the 73 percent vote President Mugabe said Tsvangirai had received in 2008 could have been just a "slip of the tongue", Mutasa, now a member of Mujuru's ZPF, said: "No, it wasn't; you cannot allow your tongue to slip three times in the process of saying something. He said it three times that Tsvangirai won by 73 percent."This may help Tsvangirai's stock at the 2018 polls.Just as people are questioning President Mugabe's continued grip on power for 36 years, they had also started interrogating the Tsvangirai brand, especially after four political upsets. Tsvangirai has been on the political market for close to 17 years, and voters would be inclined to want to punish him for failing to deliver.His answer may now have been given by President Mugabe, even though there is not yet an answer for the spectacular drubbing he and his party received at the August 2013 polls that gave President Mugabe and his party a landslide victory.If he were to refer to the 2008 debacle, the suggestion may then be that the rigging in 2013 was massive.However, Zanu-PF is now surely stricken, both by conflict and confidence. It is miserably tottering on the brink of collapse, despite appearances of invincibility. The majority of the party's top members are want-away.Many have already left, sacked together with Mujuru or voluntarily walked out. The party is raven by factional fights, and there is no end in sight to the internal bickering.Yet, surely, Tsvangirai has not seen the opportunity. One disillusioned member said he was getting very disappointed. "I don't see him taking advantage of the situation. People First is getting more visible," said the supporter from Budiriro, a suburb in Harare.That supporter is not alone.
Officials in Lancaster County have confirmed that two bodies pulled from the Susquehanna River in Lancaster County on Wednesday were both males, although further identifications will likely have to wait until autopsies are performed.

The postmortem exams are scheduled for Friday with the Lancaster County Coroner's Office. Calls to the office weren't immediately returned on Thursday.

Both bodies were found Wednesday afternoon in the Susquehanna River, about two miles apart, near the Safe Harbor Power Plant in Manor Township, local police reported.

The first male was found by workers at about 2:30 p.m., along a skimmer wall at the power plant and adjoining hydroelectric dam. It was not immediately clear how long either body had been in the water.

About 5 p.m., a member of the rescue teams responding to the first scene found a second body along a shoreline, about two miles north of the power plant.

That male was also pronounced dead at the scene.

Autopsies are planned for Friday to determine the identities of the males and what caused their deaths.

No identification cards were found with the bodies and their ages couldn't be determined or estimated, authorities report.

Manor Township police are assisting in the investigation to determine if a crime occurred regarding either male's death.
A disciplinary court has denied state Supreme Court Justice J. Michael Eakin's request to present a deal that could resolve ethics charges related to his involvement in an exchange of offensive emails.

The six-member Court of Judicial Discipline ruled that there is "no provision for any resolution beyond the parties entering stipulations of fact" that limit testimony in the case.

Eakin's attorneys had asked to bring a resolution that had been reached between Eakin and the Judicial Conduct Board (JCB), which serves a prosecutorial role in the case, to the full court. The JCB and Eakin's prior attempt to present the deal to a three-judge panel was rebuffed last month.

"In the event that a determination is made that a violation of the Canons or Constitution has occurred, and consistent with recent practice, the Court will entertain argument and recommendations as to any appropriate sanction, whether jointly made by the parties or otherwise," the court's ruling reads.

The suspended justice had also requested to change the venue of the case from Philadelphia to Harrisburg, which was also denied.

Emails exchanged via Eakin's private email account were brought to the JCB by Attorney General Kathleen Kane following a prior review in 2014. In its second review, the JCB alleged that Eakin violated the Constitution as well as rules against judges becoming involved in activities that create the appearance of impropriety or raise questions about their impartiality.

In December, the court suspended Eakin with pay from the Supreme Court pending the case's resolution.

Last month, Court of Judicial Discipline Judge Jack Panella refused to hear the details of the resolution, which was mediated by attorney and former JCB member Richard A. Sprague. At the time, he called for transparency and said the case had important implications for the larger judiciary.

The court order is included in its entirety below:
Facebook

FILE - This July 16, 2013 file photo shows a sign at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)

(File Photo)

An apologetic university student who mugged a Facebook friend he went to high school with will continue serving a 33-month to 10-year state prison sentence for that ill-considered crime.

A state Superior Court panel guaranteed that this week by denying an appeal by Shacqan McClendon, who claimed his punishment for the May 2013 armed robbery is "manifestly excessive."

An Erie County judge slapped McClendon with that penalty after a jury convicted the former Mercyhurst University culinary arts major of robbery, reckless endangerment and theft.

The court record of the crime slants toward comic relief.

According to investigators, the two victims, a man and a woman, were walking home from a store in Erie on the night of May 31, 2013 when McClendon walked past them, turned around and pointed a black handgun at the pair.

McClendon wasn't wearing a mask, although he did have the hood of his sweatshirt pulled up, and the woman immediately recognized him as a former classmate and Facebook friend. Both victims got a clear look at McClendon's face.

When McClendon told them to empty their pockets, the woman gave him her cell phone and McClendon took $20 from the man's pockets. McClendon paused for a moment, returned the woman's phone and apologized.

"It's been hard and tough times," he said before running away.

During his trial, McClendon admitted knowing the woman from school, but denied committing the robbery.

In the state court opinion nixing McClendon's appeal, Judge Victor P. Stabile rejected McClendon's argument that the county judge didn't adequately consider that he was a 19-year-old second-year college student at the time of the mugging. His claim that he should have gotten credit for apologizing to the victims gained no traction with Stabile, either.

The state judge called McClendon's appeal "wholly frivolous."
Opinion / Columnist

It was quite frightening and nerve-raking to learn that Zimbabwe lost a whooping $15 billion dollars to fraudulent subversive activities in the diamond mining sector in the past six years. This prejudiced the state of funds which is more than three times the current national annual budget.The looting of diamonds amounts to gross violation of state interests. This makes it imperative for any citizen to have insatiable desire for due diligence to ensure the meticulous tracing, and the ultimate reimbursement of such cash for the good public, as opposed to serving and/or protecting selfish personal interests by rowdy and greedy citizens.In view of the aforementioned matter at stake, it is mandatory to assert that Zimbabwe cannot afford to lose such a life-time fortune to corruption. However, it is refreshing to note that the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, Professor Francis Gudyanga, made a pronouncement that thorough investigations will be instituted soon to establish the real facts obtaining on the ground in this case in order to facilitate possible arrests and prosecutions.Protecting and defending Zimbabwe's economic interests is every citizen's responsibility. Therefore, every citizen that possesses any grain of information leading to the arrest and prosecution of any of these perpetrators is urged to supply such information to authorities for further actioning.It's really sad to realize people that are endowed with special national duty to safeguard its interests were busy sleeping on duty, while looting took toll on the most critical national resource. The President appoints some people on national strategic points to cater for specific interests, and in turn, in this case, they abused the trust and allowed rot to creep-in unchecked.The multi-billion dollar question is; where were these responsible authorities when the diamonds were being looted? This is a typical real case of duty negligence, incompetency, recklessness and inefficiency. This cannot be allowed to pass unnoticed. Those who contributed in this way should answer for their omissions and commissions now, as well as their agents that took part in swindling the nation of the most needed funds for national development.A special commission of enquiry should be set-up to probe this vexatious case which is threatening the public's trust to authorities. Every Zimbabwean should be driven by the impetus to cleanse and exorcise our society of the gnawing bug of corruption that is spreading its wings to all sectors of our society.Zimbabwe needs to recover the swindled $15 billion diamonds funds now!
Gawker Media reporter A.J. Daulerio attends Hulk Hogan's trial against Gawker Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in St. Petersburg, Fla. Hogan, whose given name is Terry Bollea, and his attorneys are suing Gawker for $100 million, saying his privacy was violated, and he suffered emotional distress after Gawker posted a sex tape of Hogan and his then-best friend's wife. (AP Photo/Steve Nesius, Pool) MANDATORY NY POST OUT
Halifax Shipyard in Halifax as seen in this May 2010 file photo. Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil says he expects Ottawa to honour its commitment to the Irving shipyard under the national shipbuilding strategy THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan
FILE - In this Feb. 28, 2016, file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Madison, Ala. Republican presidential front-runner Trump has staked out uncompromising positions on Asia policy that could potentially strain U.S. relations with the region if he wins the White House. He says China is ripping off America in trade and should be slapped with a fat import tax. And he claims U.S. military allies Japan and South Korea are freeloading and need to pull their weight. The pan-Pacific trade pact negotiated by the Obama administration is a "total disaster." (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)
Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo have gotten back together  in a very big way!

The Voice judge, 34, and Victorias Secret Angel, 24  who parted ways in late spring  are headed to the altar, Levines rep tells PEOPLE exclusively.

Adam Levine and his girlfriend Behati Prinsloo are excited to announce they are engaged to be married, the rep says. The couple recently reunited and Adam proposed this weekend in Los Angeles.

The Namibian model and the Maroon 5 frontman (who also appeared on American Horror Story) began dating last year, shortly after Levine split from another well-known model, Anne Vyalitsyna.
Opinion / Columnist

Whilst being interviewed by the DailyNews, MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai failed to answer a simple question on his succession plan, hence hiding behind the finger.Tsvangirai's response was that every business and organization has a succession plan, so as his opposition party. It might be true that his party has a plan on succession not him, Tsvangirai. If it was true that Morgan had a plan he should not have doctored his party's constitution for him to remain in power.One would really wonder what exactly is it that Tsvangirai calls succession plan? Is it the plan of amending that party's constitution or firing anyone who might want to challenge him? Truth be told, Tsvangirai has no planned succession plan to talk of as was reported by some sections of the media.Most of the MDC off-shoots are a clear indication that their formers boss, Tsvangirai, has no succession plan. If it was true that Tsvangirai had a succession plan, I am quite cognizant that by now, his party should be intact since its formation.The reason why, Tendai Biti, Elton Mangoma, Welshman Ncube and others decided to call it quits with Morgan is because he has no succession plan. After extensive realization that Tsvangirai is a dictator who has failed, his former counterparts thought that the man would pass on the baton stick to the other person, but alas, their former boss had a different thought. Instead, Tsvangirai doctored the party constitution for him to remain clung on power.Tsvangirai sentiments depict that the man is out of touch with reality hence seeking relevance in the political arena. All he wants is to tarnish the good image of Government.As it stands, the embattled leader has lost grip. Most people who used to admire and support him are no longer interested in his leadership. It was then when Tsvangirai used to boast of grassroot support. People are now fed up with Tsvangirai's leadership. It's almost two decades since the MDC-T leader had been struggling to win elections. Some prophets have even prophesied that Tsvangirai will never lead this nation.Truth be told, Tsvangirai is now a political spent force who has run out of ideas. Tsvangirai is hiding behind electoral reforms but the truth is people are no longer interested in him.Asked about the grand coalition of opposition political parties, it is a shame that Tsvangirai failed to express himself. The fact that Tsvangirai wants to remain the leader of MDC-T, tells it all that he will never make himself to be part of the coalition. Tsvangirai is so greedy that he will not permit any opposition leader to be above him. In actual fact, Morgan has a big brother mentality; hence coalescing with other opposition parties is an insignificant event which I believe will not happen.In the interview, Tsvangirai nonsensically attacked that it was not taking any measures to alleviate hunger around the country which has been worsened by low rainfall that was experienced in the country and across the region."As for the state of hunger, it's now common cause that we face a very dim future with regards to the food situation in the country and apparently people still hope that the government will be in a position to respond, but so far I don't think the government has adequate resources or adequate means to respond to the level of hunger" Tsvangirai foolishly said.Contrary to Tsvangiarai's sentiments, Government is doing a lot in trying to rescue the nation from hunger. Recently, Government ordered Grain Marketing Board (GMB) to slash the price of maize from $23 to $15. That move was put in place so that at least people in the rural areas will be able to purchase the staple grain. Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Prisca Mupfumira once assured that Government has enough grain stock to feed the nation in the next coming three months and more grain is expected in the country soon.
Election Q&A: Meet the candidates for Emmet County Commission

The first, third, fourth, fifth and sixth districts are all contested races on Nov. 8.
Reuters/Heinz-Peter Bader



Ecuador's Minister of Hydrocarbons Carlos Pareja Yannuzzelli talks to journalists during a meeting of OPEC oil ministers in Vienna, Austria, December 4, 2015. REUTERS/HEINZ-PETER BADER

QUITO

Petroleumworld.com 03 10 2016

A meeting between Latin American oil producers to unify the region in backing an output freeze or other measures to bolster prices has been postponed from Friday due to scheduling difficulties, Ecuador's oil minister said.

The gathering was expected to come ahead of a possible meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC producers in Russia later this month, but the minister said it would be unlikely until around month-end.

"One of the problems is that the agendas of the ministers are very complicated," oil minister Carlos Pareja told Reuters late on Wednesday.

"I think it could be the end of March or early April."

Friday's meeting in Quito was to involve the region's main exporters Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico.

It was the first significant sign that non-OPEC producers Colombia and Mexico were involved in an effort to bolster prices, which have been hit hard by worries about global oversupply.

"What's the idea this Friday? To have a meeting, come up with a manifesto to say that all Latin American countries - OPEC and non-OPEC - are willing to do something: freeze the production ceiling, cut if necessary, and join any OPEC initiative," Carlos Pareja had told a local radio station earlier in the day.

"If the whole oil world decides to take action, believe me this problem will be solved."

Ecuador and Venezuela have pushed hard for the OPEC, non-OPEC meeting because they have suffered more during the recent price plunge than most producers given their heavy reliance on oil. Global prices have fallen 70 percent since mid-2014.

"There is talk of an OPEC, non-OPEC meeting in Russia from March 20 or 21," he said. "Our proposal is to unite in a decision aimed at better prices and stabilizing the market."






PharmaTimes Media is delighted to announce the finalists for this prestigious global competition

The level of engagement in the 2016 International Clinical Researcher of the Year competition has been fantastic, with the number of candidates at both the Multiple Choice stage and the Essay stage increasing yet again.

Click HERE to find out who made the cut for International Clinical Researcher of the Year 2016.

This prestigious competition offers a crucial opportunity for clinical researchers from all over the world to benchmark their competencies and skills against their peers, in an international learning environment. Finalists will present to a panel of senior industry judges and receive valuable mentoring and feedback on their individual/team performance.

Limited Early Bird tickets available!

The Awards Ceremony, held at the luxurious Lancaster London on 12 May 2016, is a must-attend event for anyone in the pharma industry.

Join PharmaTimes and hundreds of senior industry professionals for a gala dinner celebrating the achievements of the worlds top clinical researchers.

The Early Bird discounted rate for an individual place is 320+VAT. Early bird tickets are available until the 31st March 2016; from 1 April 2016, tickets will be charged at the full rate of 350+VAT.

Click here to book your tickets to the Awards Ceremony

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch with Helen Palmer-Wickens at helen.palmerwickens@pharmatimes.com


It seems that the pharmaceutical industrys increasing attention on patient centricity is starting to rub off on its corporate reputation, which has hit a four year-high according to findings of the latest PatientView survey.

Pharmas standing in this respect has hit its highest level since 2011, when the PatientView survey began, with 44.7 percent of the 1,075 responding patient groups stating that it had an Excellent or Good corporate reputation in 2015, compared with just over a third in 2012, while 28 percent said its reputation had improved during the year.

The vast majority of patient groups responding (72 percent) said that pharma as a whole was Excellent or Good during the year at producing high-quality products. But, on the downside, just 15 percent said the industry was Excellent or Good at having fair pricing policies (and at not making excessive profits), while 45 percent said pharma was poor at this activity.

Overall, out of the 48 companies assessed for their corporate reputation by patient groups in 2015, ViiV Healthcare took the top spot again with AbbVie remaining a close second. Lundbeck moved up two places from 2014 to third place, Johnson & Johnson group Janssen jumped four place to fourth, Novo Nordisk slipped three place into fifth, and Gilead moved up eight places into 6th.

According to the report, a number of factors influence patient groups opinions on the corporate standing of pharma companies, including: product launches that offer a genuine, measurable and positive impact on a medical condition; mergers & acquisitions, which are not viewed favourable particularly if they target tax bills and overheads; and drug pricing and market access, one of the most sensitive topics for patient groups.

See the latest edition of PharmaTimes Magazine for more on patient centricity and pharma's moves to boost reputation.
Next on the To-Do List: Ikigai Many moons ago, I worked as a career counselor, first for a college and then for a nonprofit in a...

Voters need a third option at the polls I ran for a public office a few years ago. After winning a battle with Genesee County Parks the NRA...

Wendy Wolcott best choice for Mott College We have a very special candidate running for Mott Community College Board of Trustees in Wendy Wolcott. Mrs. Wolcott is...

Smith and Goyette are not fine men I am responding to Tamara Carlones editorial regarding Davison School Board members Matthew Smith and Nicholas Goyette. I disagree with...
BOISE, IdahoIdaho is a fairly conservative state, though home to a lot of libertarians, but one of its anti-porn laws was too much even for that right-wing crowd. Used to be that Idaho's indecency and obscenity code prohibited serving alcoholic beverages in any venue which displayed "Acts or simulated acts of sexual intercourse, masturbation, sodomy, bestiality, oral copulation, flagellation or any sexual acts which are prohibited by law"; "Any person being touched, caressed or fondled on the breast, buttocks, anus or genitals"; "Scenes wherein a person displays the vulva or the anus or the genitals"; and "Scenes wherein artificial devices or inanimate objects are employed to portray any of the prohibited activities described in this section."

And then came Fifty Shades of Grey (the movie, not the book), and one of eager beavers from Idaho's State Police attached to the state's Alcohol Beverage Control agency decided that because of the nudity and simulated sex scenes contained therein, he was going to pull the liquor license of the Village Cinema in Meridian because it had served beer and rum to two undercover detectives who bought VIP tickets to the movie.

Almost needless to say, the Village Cinema's owners sued over the threat to their liquor license, arguing that the law which allowed the police to do that was an unconstitutional infringement of the cinema's First Amendment rights. The theater also contacted its state representative, Joe Palmer (R-Meridian), who authored a bill to repeal that section of the Idaho Code. That became House Bill 544, which carries the impressive title "An Act Relating To Prohibited Acts Regarding Alcohol Beverage Laws; Amending Section 23-614, Idaho Code, To Provide That The Showing Of Films, Still Pictures, Electronic Reproductions, Or Other Visual Reproductions Which Are In Violation Of State Indecency And Obscenity Laws Or Are In Violation Of Federal Law Regarding Pornography, Indecency Or Obscenity Is Prohibited In Or Upon Premises Licensed Pursuant To Title 23, Idaho Code, And To Make Technical Corrections; Declaring An Emergency And Providing Retroactive Application."

Basically, the new law simply states that licensed premises cant show films or pictures that violate state or federal obscenity laws, but anything short of that is okay.

The bill fairly flew through the House State Affairs Committee, and with the sponsorship of Rep. Linden Bateman (R-Idaho Falls), the House quickly passed it as well. It now goes to the Senate for approval before it will likely be signed by Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter (also, oddly, R).

The text of House Bill 544 can be read here. Call it another victory for free speech.
'This is a raisin seeder," says Don Wallace, a.k.a. the Tool Man.

"The seeds in raisins used to be bigger than they are now, and this" - a hand-cranked kitchen press made of cast iron - "would squeeze them out for you."

Who knew?

The Tool Man did, and still does. He donated his 3,000-piece collection of antique implements to the Historical Society of Haddonfield. And he's giving me a personal tour.

"Don Wallace took the basement of Greenfield Hall, our headquarters, and turned it into a very magical place," society president Carol Smith says. "It was a labor of love."

With help from other volunteers, Wallace curated and created displays of tools and simple devices with which homemakers, shoemakers, mechanics, medical professionals, tinsmiths, blacksmiths, farmers, and others got their work done in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Some of these implements - such as lasts, rasps, hammers, and other gear belonging to George W. Day, known as "the lefthanded cobbler of Haddonfield" - were used locally.

"The collection encapsulates what Haddonfield used to be: a little town in the middle of an agrarian community," Smith says.

"It tells us what life was like in a society that reused and repaired things, instead of throwing them away."

The objects shed light on "average people's lives and what they did with their time," society librarian and archivist Dana Dorman says. "It's a wonderful collection."

A retired salesman of fine paper and graphic arts supplies, Wallace, 83, became the society's curator of tools after donating his collection to it 20 years ago, more than doubling its existing trove. He stepped down in 2015.

I meet him and Caryl, his wife of 62 years and the mother of their three grown children (they also have seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren), at Greenfield Hall.

The magnificent Kings Highway landmark contains furniture, pottery, textiles, and other objects from the society's collections, including the mini-museum of tools in the basement.

"It's good to see it," says the Tool Man, who had two strokes in 2015 and now uses a cane. "I'm enjoying the memories it brings back."

Among them: The good times he and his wife have spent with others who share his fascination with hand tools.

"It was a big part of our lives," Caryl, 83, says.

The Haddonfield couple regularly attended CRAFTS (Collectors of Rare and Familiar Tools Society) meetings and other events, making friends "with people from all walks of life," she says, adding, "I wasn't too interested in tools at first. But I learned a lot. And I loved it."

Her husband got interested in tools about 25 years ago, after becoming friends with local collector Carl Bopp.

"I was interested in old, obsolete" implements of all sorts, Wallace says. "I didn't specialize. I bought a lot of them at the Berlin Farmers Market."

In the pre-Google era, he read books to educate himself about vintage tools or to figure out what he had just bought. He says he plans to donate his tool research library to the society as well.

Wallace leads me through a neatly labeled, well-lit labyrinth of scythes, pitchforks, hammers, vise grips, and grinders (there's a grindstone, too).

Leather-tanning, barrel-making, and even undertaking tools have been arranged on the walls and in themed displays; he knows the geography of the place by heart.

"Here's something that's fantastic," Wallace says, selecting a slightly curved wand of wood about 12 inches long from a display of blacksmith's tools.

"It's a sweat-swiper, for horses," he explains.

The asphalt layer's hammer, the carriage maker's wrench, the cow-horn cutter, and the remarkable hand-cranked food processor Wallace shows me are, like the sweat-swiper, the technological artifacts of a far more labor-intensive era.

Many of these tools are heavy, awkward, and potentially dangerous to the user. They have no source of power other than the user's mind and muscle.

And not one of them can send a text message or recommend a restaurant.

But they helped build a way of life, which those of us who've had it easy can better appreciate thanks to the hard work of Don Wallace. The Tool Man.

kriordan@phillynews.com

856-779-3845@inqkriordan

www.philly.com/blinq
LOS ANGELES360 Models isn't a month old, and they're already signing some promising models. Barely-legal models Amina Allure and Celena Mercedes, who recently shot their first scenes, have signed with 360. Allure, 19, jumped off to a quick start by shooting with Mofos, Team Skeet, PornStar Camhouse and Exploited College Girls. Mercedes, 19, kicked her New Year off by shooting for Exploited College Girls and will be premiering on Amateur Teen Kingdom soon.

Its a great opportunity, and Im looking forward to being a part of the 360 family, said newcomer Mercedes. I shot my first scene on New Year's Day, and I knew this was something I could do. Im happy to be represented by an agency that is going to take my career to levels I didn't think were possible.

It didnt take much convincing to have Allure shoot for Exploited College Girls after Mercedes blessing. Allure said, Celena and I have been childhood friends, and we are both into the same things. She knows how much I love sex and everything worked out well. My first trip to L.A. has been amazing, and I cannot wait to see what's ahead for me!

Allure and Mercedes hail from Arizona, where they met in grade school. Since then, they've built a sister-like bond. After shooting their first scene, they signed exclusive contracts with 360 Models to expand their careers.

These are two girls we are very excited to represent, said 360 co-owner Corey. Both show promising attitudes that they want do this and we are going to help them grow to their maximum potential.

They are both available for bookings by e-mailing [email protected]. The entire 360 roster can be found at 360modelsagency.com. For interviews and promotional inquiries, contact [email protected]. Fans looking for daily updates on the starlets can follow Amina Allure and Celena Mercedes on Twitter.
MEDIA QUESTIONNAIRE



Name of Publication

Established (Give exact date)

ADDRESS

TELEPHONE

FAX NO

NAME OF EDITOR

Name of Printer

Language

Frequency

Please attach a copy of declaration certificate

Off Days

Please specify whether morning, evening or state the date of issue

Date on which the first issue was brought out

Any special edition

Price per copy

Annual subscription

Editorial Objectives and policy

Appeal to any special community, class or section

News services subscribed to

Special regular features (i.e Womens or Children page etc) & when appearing
Top 10 Places To Visit on Phillip Island

Phillip Island is one of the most popular tourist destinations near Melbourne. The island is named after the 1st Governor of New South Wales, Arthur Phillip. Many holiday goers to Melbourne will usually join a one day tour to Phillip Island to watch the Penguin Parade. However, best way to travel around Phillip Island is by self drive and it is highly recommended you overnight on the island.

Why self drive to Phillip Island?

The island is just 90 minutes away of driving from Melbourne CBD and you save more and see more by renting your own car. Thus, you have the luxury of your time visiting all the places we recommend on Phillip Island.

Is one day enough for Phillip Island?

It is definitely a big NO NO. Thats why we wrote this article to show what Phillip Island can offer. When we visited the island, we stayed two nights and we enjoyed it very much. Thus, what to do in Phillip Island? We have listed our favourite The 10 Places To Visit on Phillip Island is:

1.Up Close and Personal with Little Penguins at Penguin Parade

The Penguin Parade is the most iconic attraction on Phillip Island as the island is the home of the little penguins, the largest little penguin colony in the world. At Penguin Parade, you can see the little penguins up close and personal within the viewing boxes. Basically, most of the tourists will come to see this place only on Phillip Island but you must understand why.

Share Pin The brand new Penguin Plus Platform. Picture is from Tourism Victoria.

The little penguins are similar to the Penguins of Madagascar. They are similarly cute but the actual penguins are less cheeky. Thus, we walk in lines and slowly they walk from the beach to their nests and you get to experience every part of it.

Share Pin The brand new Penguin Plus Platform. Picture is from Tourism Victoria.

The operating hours usually during sunset and we have attached the operating hours of the Penguin Parade for the whole year round. Please be there at an hour early as it is usually very packed and that is how you can get the best seat.

There are strict rules on the Penguin Parade such as no photography allowed as these little penguins have sensitive eyes. Thus, you will notice that there are only dim lights used in this area. Please respect the rules and regulations of the park like the rest as the rules are created to protect the penguins.

It is usually windy and chilly here so please bring a jacket or scarf when you visit the Penguin Parade. If you are a big fan of Penguins, this is a must visit place on Phillip Island. Expect to spend at least an hour or two and watch the little penguins slowing walking from the sea to their nests in rows.

Share Pin The brand new Penguin Plus Platform. Picture is from Tourism Victoria.

This is a place you should bring your family, your children, your loved ones and your friends. Show them the real penguins in the real habitat and not in the aquariums or oceanariums.

Whats New?

The Penguin Plus is new thing in 2016 in Penguin Parade. The cool thing about Penguin Plus is it is a section where you can view the little penguins up close and personal. Of course there will be additional charges for Penguin Plus viewing platforms. For more ticketing info visit http://penguins.org.au/attractions/penguin-parade/tickets-and-bookings/

Share Pin The brand new Penguin Plus Platform. Picture is from Tourism Victoria.

We visited this place twice and we dont mind coming back again. You can book the tickets online but we do advise you to book bundle tickets so you can visit more places and save more.

For more information on Penguin Parade, please visit http://www.penguins.org.au/ and remember to get their package passes to save cost.

Phillip Island Nature Parks

P.O. Box 97

Cowes Victoria 3922

Phone: + 61 3 5951 2800

2.Visit The Pannys Phillip Island Chocolate Factory

The story behind The Pannys Phillip Island Chocolate Factory is rather unique. The owner is a Malaysian who migrated to Australia years ago. We met him and he told us his life journey working in cocoa plantation, turning his passion and dream into reality. Thus, he built this Panny Phillip Island Chocolate Factory.

The Pannys Phillip Island Chocolate Factory is the place for chocolate lovers. It is a mini size of Willy Wonkas Chocolate Factory minus the oompa loompa.

Share Pin Chocolate waterfall.

To enter the chocolate factory is free but you have to pay to enter this chocolate playground where you can see chocolate art works, chocolate waterfall, chocolate games, see how they create chocolates and create your own chocolate bar using their own Chocolate Machine.

Share Pin Chocolate making Machine!

You just need to do this once in your lifetime. Since you are on Phillip Island, there is no harm visiting this place.

Share Pin My own chocolate bar!

You should allow at least 45 minutes really enjoy your visit and they serve really good Indian food in their restaurant. Thus, you can purchase their chocolates in their shop only. For more info visit https://www.phillipislandchocolatefactory.com.au

Pannys Phillip Island Chocolate Factory Address: 930 Phillip Island Rd, Newhaven VIC 3925, Australia

Phone: +61 3 5956 6600 If you love our article remember to share them on Facebook, sharing is caring.



3.Explore The Nobbies and Phillip Island Nature Parks Antarctic Journey

The Nobbies is the hidden gem of Phillip Island. The brand new Phillip Island Nature Parkss Antartic Journey is located at the same location too.

This area is located near the Penguin Parade and thats why self drive is important so you can drive anywhere you like. Mobility is important on Phillip Island and you can really spend some time here at The Nobbies.

Share Pin The wooden platform at The Nobbies.

There are boardwalks and lookout points here and also natural sea bird gardens. What the websites didnt tell you is there are little penguin nests under the platform. Thats why we said this place is a hidden gem.

Share Pin Baby penguins.

If you want to take picture of them, please dont use flash. Respect the nature and the animals as flash will blind them.

Share Pin Spotting the Seal Rocks.

You can also spot the Seal Rocks which is one and half kilometres off shore. There are mini adventures to the Seal Rocks and they are home to Australias largest Australian Fur Seal Colony. The Nobbies is free of charge.

WWF and Phillip Island Nature Parks Antarctic Journey

Phillip Island Nature Parks introduces the worlds first interactive Antarctic experience in partnership with WWF-Australia at The Nobbies. Visitors are invited on a three-level walk through adventure that provides a virtual and educational insight into the wonderful world of the Southern Ocean and Antarctic.

Share Pin Antartica Journey. Picture is from Tourism Victoria.

As the first attraction in Australia to share the WWF brand, the Antarctic Journey features state of the art multimedia technology including an augmented reality screen which will allow visitors to appear as though they are patting a penguin, playing with a seal or within arms reach of a magnificent whale.

Share Pin Antartica Journey. Picture is from Tourism Victoria.

The Antarctic Journey is open daily and costs $18.00 per adult and $9.00 per child and for more info, please visit www.penguins.org.au and remember to get their package passes to save cost.

The Nobbies Address and Contact:

The Nobbies, Summerlands 3922

03 5951 2800

4.Go Surfing at Woolomai Beach

If you are a big fan of surfing, you should bring your surf board here. This beach is dangerous and strictly for surfing only. Swimming is highly not recommended here and life guards are only available here for selected days and times.

However, the rough sea here is a great place for surfing and we are sure many surfers will enjoy the high tides here.

Follow one of the four coastal walking track loops at Cape Woolamai and stop at viewing platforms to take in breathtaking views of the Pinnacles.

This is strictly for surfing only and no swimming, we kid you not.

Cape Woolamai Address:

Cape Woolamai, Victoria, 3925

If you love our article remember to share them on Facebook, sharing is caring.

5. Experience Victorias Heritage Churchill Island

This is another hidden gem of Phillip Island. The Churchill Island is just off coast of Phillip Islands and it is an important place in the history of European settlement in Victoria. If you never heard of this island, then you should visit here during your trip on Phillip Island.

The Churchill Island is the site of the first European agricultural pursuits in Victoria. The history of the farming on this island started since the 1850s and in 1872 it was purchased by Samuel Amess, former Mayor of Melbourne.

This small island of 57 hectares offers a glimpse of historic working farm, farmhouse and cottage. This is old school European settlement that is well maintained and an eye opener for us.

You can pet the horses and milk the cows and also walk around the cottage gardens and lawns as well as the coastline walk that offers magnificent views of Phillip Island and Western Port.

Share Pin The bed room at one of the cottages.

The best way to visit Churchill Island is by self drive of course. Expect to spend a few hours here to enjoy and experience the scenery, the farm, the cottage and the history. For more info, please visit www.penguins.org.au and remember to get their package passes to save cost.

Churchill Island Address and Contact:

246 Samuel Amess Drive, Churchill Island 3925

Tel: 03 5951 2800

6.Be a Speed Racer at The Phillip Island Race Track

There are many legends and histories are set in this venue. The Phillip Island Race Track Visitor will impress you as this is your chance to race in this iconic venue.

Share Pin Go Kart at Phillip Island Race Track. Picture is from Tourism Victoria.

Be a speed racer and speed with the all new Sodi Go Karts on the 750 metre scale of the Grand Prix Circuit. If you never drive a Go Kart before, this is the place you should strap on your helmet and be a speed racer.

You can also join the Guided Circuit Tour and follow the footsteps of motorcycle racing champions. Thus, you can also get exclusive access to off limit areas including MotoGP sound simulation, Race Control, Media Centre, pit lane, pit roof and of course the winners podium.

Remember to book first before you visit them and for more info visit http://www.phillipislandcircuit.com.au/

The Phillip Island Race Track Address and Contact:

RMB 500GP Back Beach Road, Cowes, Victoria, 3922

03 5952 9400

If you love our article remember to share them on Facebook, sharing is caring.

7.Meet the Koalas at Koala Conservation Centre

Your trip to Australia is in complete if you never meet the Koalas up close and personal. For your info, every state in Australia has different rules on wildlife and in Victoria, you are not allowed to touch or pet Koalas.

Why you should be here?

The Koala Conservation Centres is nothing like you have experience before. First of all, it is not a zoo so the koalas here are not caged in metal cages. The koalas here say in their natural habitat like in the wild.

For the Koala Eco-Explorer Tour, an experience ranger will lead you to understand more about Koalas. Here, there are boardwalks for koala viewing as well as the view of the natural eucalypt woodland. You will have chance to go up, close and personal with koalas for sure.

Share Pin Koala sleeping on top of the tree, so cute.

Remember, no touching but you can selfie with them on distance. Thus, since this is a natural habitat, it is high chances you will other Australia cuties such as wallabies, possums and echidnas. It all depends on your luck but most likely you will bump to one of them. If you bump to snakes then its jackpot.

This is a fun place to visit and especially for kids. You need to see Koala once in your lifetime and this is an ideal place to do so. For more info, visit http://penguins.org.au/ and remember to get their package passes to save cost.

Koala Conservation Centres Address and Contact:

1790 Phillip Island Road, Cowes 3922

03 5951 2800

8.Get Amazed at A MazeN Things

After visiting the Koala Conservation Centre, you go opposite and visit the A MazeN Things. This is one of the most unusual attractions in the world.

A MazeN Things is a combination of activities that will trick your eyes and mind, cool activities, 3D artworks as well as a real maze!

We wont go details on the things in A MazeN Things as we highly recommend you to visit this place. The whole experience should be less than an hour except you got stuck in the maze.

This place is a fun place for couples, group of friends and families. Like we mentioned, there is probably a few of this type of attractions in the world and this is not a 3D museum.

Share Pin This is a real maze, are you brave enough to play?

This is one of the must visit places on Phillip Island and would love your feedback for your visit. Thus,

Magic Manor is coming to A MazeN Things in 2016. For more info, visit http://www.amazenthings.com.au/

A MazeN Things Address and Contact:

1805 Phillip Island Road, Cowes, Victoria, 3922

03 5952 2283

9.It is all about the Pelicans at San Remo Beach

There are two things about Pelicans at San Remo Beach. Firstly, it is the fishermen feeding the pelicans on the beach and the Pelican View  The San Remo Fishermans Co-Operative Restaurant.

The Pelican Feeding is a daily affair, every day at noon on the beach next to the Pelican View. This is a daily free event and everyone is welcome here. However, we missed the Pelican Feeding but we spotted one pelican swimming away.

After you finish with the Pelican Feeding, time for lunch and the best place of course is the Pelican View restaurant.

The restaurant is established in 1948 and it is located at the San Remo pier. There is also a free museum next to the restaurant but we didnt make it on our last visit.

You should try the food here. You can taste the freshness of the local seafood here. The price is reasonable and the taste is not too bad too. The menu of the day depends on the catch of the day. Your trip to Phillip Island will be incomplete without a feast of seafood.

For more info, visit www.pelicanw.com.au

Pelican View Address:

170 Marine Parade, San Remo VIC 3925, Australia

Phone:+61 3 5678 5206

Hours: 10:30AM8:30PM

10.Chillax, Eat and Stay at The Cowes

The Cowes is the last place of interest in our list. At the Cowes, there is beach, restaurants and accommodations.

Unlike the surf beach of Woolomai Beach, the beach at the Cowes is more suitable for swimming as the sea is calmer here. Thus, this is great for families and friends to chill, relax or the swim here.

You can also find restaurants at The Cowes. They offer good local food as well as seafood. Remember to try some of the Victorian produce beer here. You can get beautiful view of the Cowes Beach here and also the cool breeze of the winds from the sea.

For accommodations, there is a few for you to choose from in The Cowes. We strongly recommend you to stay on Phillip Island for at least one night so you can discover all the places of interests we recommended. Thus, by self drive it is easier to drive around Phillip Island and Victoria. It is also cheaper to self drive in Victoria.

If you love our article remember to share them on Facebook, sharing is caring.

Wilson Ng A Father and traveler who enjoys to eat, shop, travel and taking pictures with Samsung S22 Ultra and Sony ZV-1. Im a full time blogger, youtuber and father for two. I used to travel around 17 International trips per year but now staying at home. Remember to follow us at www.instagram.com/placesandfoods and www.youtube.com/placesandfoods. For advertisements or features, contact me at [email protected] See author's posts
(Clockwise) Windshield of the officer's car, suspect Kevin Rojas, and pistol reportedly used in attack. (Photos: Jacksonville SO)

An off-duty Jacksonville, FL, sheriff's detective was taking his son to school when he was shot and critically wounded during an impromptu traffic stop, police said Wednesday.

It wasn't immediately clear why the plainclothes narcotics detective chose to stop a white Cadillac, Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Chief Tom Hackney told the Associated Press. The man who shot the officer had just threatened his girlfriend with a gun and was reported as being suicidal.

The detective, who is not being identified because he works undercover, was wearing a "body armor" style vest when he got out of his car to approach the suspect, Hackney said. The word "police" was marked clearly on the vest.

The driver immediately opened fire, Hackney said, hitting the detective in the head, upper body, and hand. The detective was out of surgery Wednesday afternoon and in critical but "more stable condition."

Suspect Kevin Rojas, 19, has been arrested for attempted murder and aggravated battery.

The suspect was shot by police at another location after he reportedly stole a vehicle when he fled the scene of shooting the officer. The suspect is currently in the hospital.
Officer Joseph Olivieri was killed in 2012. (Photo: Nassau County PD)

A Long Island, NY, man was sentenced to up to 12 years in prison Wednesday for the 2012 DWI-related death of a Nassau County police officereven though he wasnt driving the car that killed the officer.

Officer Joseph Olivieri was responding to two crashes caused by James Ryans drunken driving, jurors found in January, when another driver slammed into Ryans car on the Long Island Expressway and then fatally struck Olivieri.

Under sentencing guidelines, Ryan will serve a minimum of five years. The 29-year-old had faced up to 20 years in prison on the 10 counts on which he was convicted, the New York Post reports.

The case was closely watched by legal experts, who said it was rare for someone other than the driver to be charged in a crash. The charges were based on the legal principle of causation/foreseeability, in which suspects are charged in events that are foreseeable results of their actions.

A jury found Ryan guilty of charges including aggravated criminally negligent homicide, vehicular manslaughter, drunken driving, and reckless endangerment.

Ryans attorney said Wednesday he was filing notice to appeal the conviction and would request the sentence be stayed. Called to the scene, Olivieri was outside his patrol car talking with Ryan when an SUV smashed into the Toyota and then fatally struck the officer. Prosecutors said Ryans blood-alcohol level was 0.13, far higher than the states threshold of .08.
A retired California Highway Patrol officer who had a permit to carry a gun onto a Santee, CA, high school campus is suing the San Diego County Sheriffs Department for false arrest, excessive force and unlawful search and seizure, among other claims.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in San Diego federal court, asks for at least $20 million in damages, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

According to state law, firearms are not allowed on school campuses, although there are several exemptions to the law, one of them pertaining to honorably retired peace officers who are authorized under a permit to carry a concealed or loaded gun.

Robert Pitt, 59, who served in the CHP for 33 years, went to Santana High School the morning of Jan. 21, 2015, with his girlfriend to drop off her daughter. The couple then went to the administrative offices to complain to the vice principal about threats the 15-year-old girl had been receiving from another student, according to the lawsuit.
Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Print

Senator Elizabeth Warren told Republicans today to do their jobs and stop bowing to the extremists running their party who refuse to recognize the legitimacy of our democratically-elected President.

In a scathing floor speech, Warren charged Republicans to stop blockading a Supreme Court Justice nominee to replace Justice Scalia.

Watch here:



Saying that they were totally forgetting the Constitution in their refusal to even hear an Obama nominee, Warren pointed out that they are afraid of the two extremists running for President on the Republican ticket yet they are catering to those same extremists by denying Obama the legitimacy of his presidency.

Now, these are not separate issues. They are the same issue. If Republican senators want to stand up to extremists running for President, they can start right now by standing up to extremists in the Senate, Warren said. They can start by doing what they were elected to do right here in the Senate. They can start by doing their jobs.

The refusal of Republican Senators to execute the most basic constitutional duties of their office is shocking  but it is not new, the Democratic Senator from Massachusetts intoned.

Warren mocked Republicans for acting as if the Constitution had a secret clause that says except when that President is a Democrat.'

Then Warren really got to the point. This is nothing new. For seven years, Republicans have catered to those who reject President Obamas legitimacy and this is no different.

But for seven years, that is how Republicans in the Senate have acted. Since the first day of the Obama presidency, Republican Senators have bowed to extremists who reject his legitimacy and abuse the rules of the Senate in an all-out effort to cripple his Administration and to paralyze the federal courts.

The Constitution directs senators to provide advice and consent on the Presidents nominees, and every senator swore an oath to uphold the Constitution, Warren challenged her Republican colleagues.

Then Warren went on a tear of nominations Republicans have deliberately denied this President:

For years, Republicans have executed a strategy to delay votes on confirming government officials across the board. In 2013, only one year into President Obamas second term, Republican leaders flatly rejected his authority to confirm any judges to fill any of three open seats on the second-highest court in the country, and Democrats had to change the filibuster rules in order to move those nominees forward. Once Republicans took over the Senate in 2015, judicial confirmations nearly ground to a halt. And its not just judges. For months after the President won re-election, Republicans held up his nominees to run the Department of Labor and the EPA, largely on the suspicion that those highly qualified individuals might actually help those agencies do their work. For years, Republicans held up nominees to the National Labor Relations Board  even Republican nominees  in order to cripple the ability of that 80 year-old agency to resolve disputes between workers and their bosses. For years, Republicans held up the Presidents choice to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, refusing to confirm anyone unless the President would agree to gut the agency. Republicans regularly hold up the confirmation of dozens of ambassadors, undermining our national security and our relationships with other nations. Last year, Republicans blocked confirmation of the Attorney General, the highest law enforcement official in this country, blocked her for 166 days  thats longer than it took the Senate to consider the prior seven Attorneys General combined. For more than a year, the Republican Chairman of the Banking Committee hasnt held a single vote on any of the sixteen Presidential nominees sitting on his desk, not even nominees who are critical to maintaining the financial stability of this country or the ones who are responsible for choking off the flow of money to ISIS.

Yeah, thats not looking like a one-off.

Warren said no matter how much it hurt the nation, Senate Republicans do pretty much everything they can to avoid acknowledging the legitimacy of our democratically-elected President.

Then Warren went to the dark place reminding Republicans that unlike their last President, Barack Obama actually won election and re-election fair and square, (E)xtremists might not like it, but Barack Obama won the Presidency in 2008 by nine million votes. He won re-election in 2012 by five million votes, she said. There were no recounts and no hanging chads, no stuffing the ballot box or tampering with voting machines, no intervention by the United States Supreme Court.

Ouch.

No. President Obama was elected the legitimate President seven years ago, and he is the legitimate President right now.

Warren ended by demanding that Senate Republicans do their job:

Do your job: Vote on a Supreme Court nominee. Do your job: Vote on District Court judges and Circuit Court judges. Do your job: Vote on ambassadors. Do your job: Vote on agency leaders and counterterrorism officials.

Warren closed reminding Republicans they could show this President a little respect. If you want to stop extremism in your party, you can start by showing the American people that they you respect the President of the United State and the Constitution enough to do your job, right here, in the United States Senate.

Booyah. Elizabeth Warren just burned down the Senate with some truth. Republicans are catering to the birther extremists in denying President Obamas legitimacy. They are Donald Trump. Each and every one of them.
Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Print

Hillary Clinton sent Republicans a strong message by vowing that she will not be indicted for her emails during the Univision Democratic debate.

At the Univision Democratic Debate, Hillary Clinton was asked if she would she would drop out of the race if she was indicted for her emails.

Clinton answered, Oh my goodness. That is not going to happen. Im not even going to answer that question.

Earlier, Jorge Ramos asked Clinton is she asked President Obama for permission to use private email, and she tore that question apart as well, There was no permission to be asked. It had been done by my predecessors. It was permitted. I didnt have to ask anyone.

Former Sec. Clinton got a loud ovation for her certainty that she will not be indicted for her emails. Clinton was correct not to entertain the question. The question was based on the Republican hope that there is something in Hillary Clintons emails that will stop her from winning in November. The truth is that there has been nothing uncovered that would indicate any criminal activity on the part of former Sec. of State Clinton.

The email scandal is the Republican Partys desperate attempt to stop Hillary Clinton. Former Sec. Clinton was correct. The question was nonsense. There is no chance that she will be indicted. Clinton isnt going to buy into the Republican email games, and she destroyed the idea that she will be indicted at the Univision Democratic debate.
Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Print

Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton took the Democratic campaign to Florida with a Spanish-language debate. Here are the winners and losers from the Univision Democratic debate.

Winners and Losers:

Winners:

1). Hillary Clinton  Thanks to a series of questions that were based on Republican talking points, Hillary Clinton was able to knock several myths that Republicans are floating in a desperate attempt to harm her candidacy. Clinton took on the Republican conspiracy theory about her emails, and she vowed that she will not be indicted. She also was given a chance to slam and knock down the Benghazi conspiracy theory. There was never a time in this debate when Clinton was knocked back on her heels.

Because Clinton and Sanders agree on the big objectives, the contentious points between the candidates revolved around points like votes taken in the Senate. Hillary Clinton quickly rebounded from her surprising loss in Michigan and continues to roll towards capturing the Democratic nomination. Clinton said nothing during this debate that would cause her supporters to flip to Sanders.

2).Bernie Sanders  Sen. Sanders had a good night. He refused to play the media game of buying into the Republican conspiracy on Clintons emails. Sanders held his own on the issue of immigration. There is a pattern in these debates that is also evident on Election Day. Sen. Sanders is good enough to run toe to toe with Clinton, but he doesnt do enough to distance himself from her.

Sanders has been good in all of these debates, but he didnt have anything new to throw at Clinton to slow her down. Sanders hit Clinton on Goldman Sachs speeches; the money she has taken from Wall Street, the Wall Street bailout, the Ex-Im bank, but these are all points that have been made in previous debates. There is a line of thought that if it isnt broke, dont fix it. Sen. Sanders did a great job of introducing himself to Spanish-speaking voters, and would not be surprising if he closed the gap on Hillary Clinton in Florida before next Tuesday. Sanders did nothing to hurt himself, and he demonstrated that he is more than a worthy option for voters who may be reluctant to support former Sec. of State Clinton.



3). The Democratic Party  Both of the Democratic candidates are strong choices. The Republican Party has found itself in a position where they are stuck with Donald Trump and a trio of also-rans. The debate between Clinton and Sanders centered around a disagreement over process. Hillary Clinton is an incrementalist. Bernie Sanders is a revolutionary who is shooting for the moon. Who each voter prefers is a matter of preference. The bottom line is that unlike Republicans, Democrats can hold debates that neither of their candidates emerges from damaged for November.

Listen to Sarah Jones and Jason Easley discuss the Univision debate:

Losers:

1).Univision Moderators  The Univision moderators asked some of the worst questions of any debate in 2016. The moderators may have thought that they were pushing for answers on hot-button issues, but their questions were loaded with Republican bias. Whether they were talking about emails or Benghazi, the moderators seemed more interested in making news than informing the voters. After the Sunday CNN Democratic debate that put an emphasis on provoking conflict ahead of issues, the Univision debate took the discussion to a new low. Univision deserves to be criticized for their poor presentation of a debate that should have been centered on vital issues.

2).Donald Trump  Donald Trump got called out for his racism and bigotry by Sen. Sanders while former Sec. of State Clinton declined to offer much of a preview how she would take the billionaire down in a general election. The Democratic candidates came out of this debate in a stronger position for November than Trump. The contrast between Clinton/Sanders and Trump is dramatic. After watching Clinton and Sanders is obvious that Trump is unfit to be president.
Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Print

Colorado Government Watch reports that anti-gay extremist state Rep. Gordon Klingenschmitt was confronted at the state capitol with questions about his controversial, tax-exempt charity.

In what is becoming a familiar scene when Republicans are questioned, rather than actually responding, Klingenschmitt pulled a Michele Bachmann and fled the scene as fast as his feet could carry him.

To add to the insult, he called security to eject the Colorado Government Watch team from the building.

Because questions.

Colorado Government Watch explains what happened:

Flanked by a uniformed Colorado State Patrol officer, the first-term Colorado Springs legislator refused an interview when approached outside the chamber of the state House of Representatives by CoGW Executive Director Dede Laugesen. Klingenschmitt then stormed off as Laugesen called out questions about whether the lawmaker was using his nationwide nonprofit religious ministrywhich has raised more than $1 million since 2010to drum up business for his parallel for-profit operation.



The state trooper blocked Laugesen and an associate from following Klingenschmittinto a common area used by the public on the State Capitols second floorand he ushered them out of the building.

Watch Klingenschmitt flee scrutiny courtesy of Colorado Government Watch:

Klingenschmitts charity is a big deal because, as is explained,

Persuade the World Ministries, also known as Pray in Jesus Namea 501(c)(3) Colorado nonprofit corporation whose only officer is Klingenschmitttook in more than $850,000 in tax-deductible contributions in 2014 and over $1 million since 2010, its latest tax returns show.

Perhaps he should rename it rake in money in Jesus name because as we all know, Jesus was all into raking in the dough, running for office, and then denying people the rights he himself enjoyed. Oh wait, no, thats pretty much any Republican politician you care to name.

But Klingenschmitt is a special case. In 2014, the disgraced former Navy chaplain, who had already said he wants to kill liberals, brought his demonic obsessions to the Colorado State Senate and things havent been the same since.

This is a man who has claimed Allah is Satan, that if youre not welcome in a church you cant use a public rest room, and that a suitable replacement for the Affordable Care Act is  God.

Because the world is full of people who have never died while praying to God for healing. Overpopulation is due to these people whom God stubbornly refuses to let die, not new births. Seriously. Its a problem.

The real problem, of course, is Republican corruption. There are admittedly a great deal more corrupt Republicans than people who refuse to die of disease without health insurance. Look at Red State after Red State if you want evidence.

But here is a man who claims to represent the Almighty while lying for a living and screwing over not only the people he pretends to represent but people unwittingly lining his pockets while he claims (without evidence) to support an orphanage in India.

He wont even release his tax returns, which he is required to do by law. State capitals in America are full of people like Klingenschmitt. Trump should not have been a surprise to anyone.

This is the Religious Right, America. Right here in the person of Gordon Klingenschmitt, who has sanctified his foul deeds by claiming he is serving God. Dont expect him  or the Religious Right  to away any time soon.
Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Print

While some of us thought the Univision debate was a pretty cool idea  have the presidential candidates stand up in front of a Spanish-speaking audience and debate for them rather than, as in every other debate ever held, for English speakers.

My first thought was, how inclusive and forward-thinking the Democratic Party is. This demonstrates, like nothing else, the suitability of the Democratic Party for all Americans, not just the white Christian Republicans the GOP is busy catering to (and most of them male).

Naturally, conservatives were horrified. McCarthyist and Trump fangirl Ann Coulter simultaneously condemned the inclusiveness of the Democratic debate and pushed her new book (coincidentally named Adios America!) with this tweet:

I'm watching a presidential debate in the United States tonight, being conducted in Spanish. Adios, America!  Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) March 10, 2016

For all of American history there have been minorities who spoke their own language. You dont get off a boat and suddenly, via osmosis, become fluent in English.

My Swedish and Norwegian ancestors, arriving on these shores, still spoke the languages of their homelands and their letters of a century-and-a-half ago still exist, written in Swedish or Norwegian. That didnt stop one of my ancestors from serving in a Minnesota regiment of volunteers during the Civil War.

He served his new country. Risked his life for it. But he spoke Swedish. I guess he should have gone home. He certainly didnt deserve to be part of the political process, did he?

Media Matters for America plucked out a couple of gems, one from the Washington Examiners Gabby Morrongiello who not only retweeted Coulters jab, but herself tweeted that This Democratic Debate In Spanish Is Next Level Pandering.

Or, as she called it in another tweet, Hispandering.

Yes, its pandering to want to keep voters informed in a language they can understand. This is the hate  and fear  the GOP has for an informed citizenry. For minorities. For people who arent white Christian Americans.

All the while the GOPs major names are themselves immigrants or the children of immigrants: Ted Cruz, Nikki Haley, Bobby Jindal, and others. We got ours, but you cant have yours.

Todd Starnes showed a complete lack of class as well, with his tweeted,

Nobody forced these clowns to watch the debate. It wasnt for them in the first place. It was for voters who are concerned about what is happening in this country, and that directly threatens their presence here, their hopes for their own American dream.

Starnes & Co. would just as soon keep them ignorant and uninformed so that its a big surprise when Trumps trucks pull up to the curb to haul all 11 million of them to the border and dump them in a ditch.

Speaking of Trump, Fox News Monica Crowley thought a Spanish-speaking debate helped Trump somehow, you know, by proving his point that our country is full of Mexicans:

And Fox News calls her an analyst. Asked when she sleeps, Crowley answered, Sleep? Theres a country to save!

Yes, from analyses like yours.

To illustrate just how narrow-minded and ill-informed is the conservatives rank and file, one response to Starnes tweet will suffice:

@toddstarnes Don't really think a spanish language debate great optics for the dems right now.  Mike Nemesi (@realmikenemesi) March 10, 2016

Well, Mike is certainly owning that Mel Gibson picture!

Not a good idea? In what possible way was it not a good idea to televise a debate in Spanish for the huge numbers of Spanish-speaking Americans, some of whom speak English well enough to get along at work but for whom its still not a first language?

Conservatives do realize that with attitudes like theirs, these Spanish-speaking voters are not going to vote Republican. Dont they?

The wishful thinking of people like white, blonde-haired Young American Emily Jashinsky (yes, millennials can be idiots too) wont save Republicans from the essential calculus of modern American demographics, where more than 80 percent of Latinos have a negative view of Donald Trump:

jorge ramos' tie is slimmer than this debate's viewership  Emily Jashinsky (@emilyjashinsky) March 10, 2016

Democrats realize this is a huge Trump-like problem for conservatives  perhaps the crux of the problem  that there are so many people for whom English is not a first language. Here we go back through the pages of American history again, my own ancestors included, who like everyone else, had to start somewhere, with the languages they were born with.

The inability to speak a language does not make you a lesser person. It does not render you undeserving of a chance. Language skills will come in time. Witness Cruz, Haley and Jindal all-speaking more or less fluent English.

As those very same Republicans show, it isnt the language coming out of mouths that is the problem, but the ideas behind them.

Cruz & Co. might speak very good English, but their ideas are as un-American as you can get. We are a country of people who, like them, came to this country for a new life and carved it out of wildernesses both rural and urban.

If everybody had hated like they hate, they wouldnt be hear now to hate on others and deny them their chance for the American dream.

Its not only discouraging to see, its appalling.
Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Print

The man who repeatedly punched a non-violent Trump protester during a Trump event in Fayetteville, North Carolina has been charged with assault and disorderly conduct. Now you may be asking, which man and which protester, due to the constant stream of violence coming from Trump staff and supporters at his rallies, aimed at Trump protesters and the media.

The protester is Rakeem Jones and the Trump supporter is, according to CNNs Jeremy Diamond (yes, the Jeremy of this Donald Trump quote, No one listens to you, Jeremy!), John McGraw, a 78-year-old man.

The man who punched Trump protester is 78-year-old John McGraw. He is being charged with assault and disorderly conduct, per local PD  Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) March 10, 2016

Shaun King of the New York Daily News tweeted this morning to ask for help identifying the racist Trump supporter who repeatedly punched the protester in the face last night at the Crown Coliseum.

Help me identify the racist Trump supporter who repeatedly punched this protestor in the face last night. CRIMINAL!https://t.co/lNrUME2jCo  Shaun King (@ShaunKing) March 10, 2016

Asked and answered.

The police or security escorting the protesters out didnt move to stop the Trump supporter from repeatedly punching the protester in the face, nor did any other Trump supporters try to stop the man or lay a hand on him in an attempt to calm him down. This seemed to be par for the course for them.

However Rakeem Jones was tackled to the ground and arrested by security at the scene.

The men working security who watched this go down and then arrested the non-violent protester while not even moving to stop the deranged racist who attacked the protester need to explain their choices.

Is this is the vision Republicans have for making America great again? And they blame Obama for the division. Huh.

The media keeps asking Democrats if they think Donald Trump is a racist. This question was asked last night during the Univision Democratic debate. My question to the media is, Do you have eyes and a brain with which to make determinations based on systemic behavior?

If not, heres a big clue: This is what stoking racism looks like.
Rules for commenting

Posts and comments to The Busy Catholic must be marked by Christian charity and respect for the truth. They should be on topic and presume the good will of other contributors. Discussion should take place primarily from a faith perspective. We reserve the right to end discussion on any topic any time we feel the discussion is no longer productive.
Portfolio English Edition's premium content is available only for subscribers

Learn about the hottest news of the day, along with immediate follow-up analyses and 1000's of exclusive articles with full access to the premium content.

Register and apply for a 14 days free trial period.
25  2021 - 200     

        !

     . (     )

  ,  Cookies        .          cookies.




MINNEAPOLIS  Southeast Minnesota lawmakers' reactions to Gov. Mark Dayton's State of the State speech on Wednesday night were split largely along party lines, with Democrats cheering his agenda and Republicans accusing him of excessive partisanship.

Dayton cautioned lawmakers against trying to pass large tax cuts in the upcoming session, citing the recent drop in the state's projected budget surplus from $1.2 billion to $900 million. He said the "give it all back" philosophy backed by some would lead to budget woes in the future.

"My number one priority in this legislative session will be to protect the fiscal integrity of our state government," Dayton told the crowd of lawmakers and guests gathered at the McNamara Alumni Center on the University of Minnesota campus.

While Dayton warned that the drop in surplus money means lawmakers will need to scale back their legislative wish lists, he argued it's critical the state make investments in key areas such as transportation, early-childhood education and broadband infrastructure.

"We, the elected leaders of our state, face important choices. Over the last five years, we have made great progress toward a better Minnesota. We can continue down that road and build a state that works even better for all Minnesotans, or we can reverse course and retreat to where we were just a few years ago  doing less and getting less," Dayton said.

ADVERTISEMENT

Rochester GOP Sen. Carla Nelson said she thought the speech was one of Dayton's more partisan speeches. While she supported the governor's call to invest in early childhood education, she was dismayed by his talk about taxes. She was also concerned that the governor appeared to be backing a gas tax increase to fund transportation upgrades after he said in December the gas tax was "dead."

"It was dead two months ago, and now he's pushing for that again," Nelson said." I do think that's dangerous at the levels he supported," Nelson said.

DFL Rochester Rep. Tina Liebling had a very different take on the governor's speech. She said she liked everything she heard in the speech  something that has not always been the case in the past. She particularly liked Dayton's call for a large construction borrowing bill, also known as a bonding bill.

"He wants to have a robust bonding bill. I certainly agree with him," Liebling said.

The massive construction project at the Capitol required the governor to find a different location to deliver his address. This marks only the ninth time the address has not been given under the Capitol dome.

During his 41-minute speech, the governor acknowledged that "many people" did not like his transportation funding plan, which would have raised gas taxes by at least 16 cents per gallon. But the governor said something needs to be done to fix the state's crumbling roads and bridges, and he is not interested in proposals that rely on redirecting existing revenues.

"I'm willing to be flexible, but I will also insist on a real solution. No smoke and mirrors," Dayton said.

The governor said he plans to unveil a proposal next week to boost funding for early childhood education. In the past, the governor has supported universal preschool for 4-year-olds. He said some of the opposition to his plan has been political.

ADVERTISEMENT

"Sixty thousand Minnesota 4-year-olds need Minnesota's grown-ups to go beyond their self interests and place those little interests first," he said.

Dayton also said he will be focused on improving economic opportunities for people of color in the state. His administration's goals include doubling the percentage of minorities working in state government by January 2019.

Rochester GOP Rep. Nels Pierson said he was dismayed to hear the governor go after Republicans early on in the speech. Specifically, Dayton criticized Republicans for pushing a bill that links an extension of unemployment benefits for laid off Iron Range workers to a tax cut for businesses via the unemployment trust fund. Dayton called the move "cruel."

Pierson said Republicans were the ones who were pushing to move the unemployment package through the House on the first day of session.

"It's a little disheartening to attack and to be partisan on that issue as basically his opening remarks tonight," he said.

Meanwhile, Rochester DFL Rep. Kim Norton saw the speech as having the potential to bring lawmakers together. She said the governor made clear in his address that he was open to other ideas.

"The other thing I heard is, 'I'm going to propose my bills, but I'm willing to listen to yours, to work with you,'" Norton said. "There didn't seem to be the resistance today that I have sensed in past State of the States  not just this governor, but with others."
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.

Vote

View Results
Oil workers in Nigeria have suspended a strike called Tuesday in protest of the restructuring of state oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.

The decision came after a meeting between the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibeh Kachikwu, and the workers unions, PREMIUM TIMES understands.

The head of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, Saleh Abdullahi, told PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday that at the end of a lengthy meeting with the minister, the workers resolved to call off the strike immediately.

The strike has been suspended with immediate effect, Mr. Abdullahi said. At the end of the meeting, the unions were able to reach some important agreements with the minister. With that basic understanding, the unions feel there is no reason to continue with the strike any further.

Mr. Abdullahi said the meeting, which lasted till about 5 a.m. on Thursday, agreed to set up a tripartite committee consisting staff of the corporation, its management and the workers unions to henceforth look exhaustively at all issues capable of generating misunderstanding and conflict, particularly those bordering on Labour concerns and address them.

He said the minister appreciated the concerns of the workers, particularly on the point that consultations and communication were not wide enough, and conceded to their demands that henceforth all decisions on NNPC restructuring and industry operation must involve all interest groups.

Although he said other outstanding issues affecting the concerns of the workers were also addressed during the meeting, the PENGASSAN Group Chairman did not elaborate on the details.

No time line was given for the committee to undertake its assignment. But, Mr. Abdullahi said there was no doubt that the minister understood the sensitivity of the matter and the need to work expeditiously to kick-start the process of discussion and dialogue.

With the decision to call off the strike, Mr. Abdullahi said all members of the two unions, namely PENGASSAN and National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, were directed to return to work immediately and ensure that normalcy in fuel supply returns immediately.

He expressed regrets that fuel supply may not be normalised til the end of the day, or latest Friday, considering that the directive for workers to return to work was issued only at 6 a.m. on Thursday following the meeting, which ended barely an hour earlier.

PENGASSAN President, Francis Johnson, urged Nigerian to bear with the unions over the situation, assuring that everything was being done to ensure that the disruption in fuel supply as a result of the strike did not linger for long.

Mr. Johnson, who emphasized the importance of consultation and dialogue in decision making, said he was grateful to all the parties involved in the negotiations towards the resolution of the crisis, particularly the intervention of the director of State Security Service, SSS.

Mr. Kachikwu had earlier announced the creation of seven units from the existing NNPC, namely, Upstream, Downstream, Gas & Power Marketing, Refineries and Ventures, Corporate Planning & Services and Finance and Accounts.

The workers said the decision was unilateral and arbitrary, and that they were not informed.

In response, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, shut off NNPC offices and facilities in the country.

Mr. Kachikwu later denied Wednesday that the exercise was an unbundling of NNPC, saying the corporation was merely restructured and that nothing had changed.
Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh. blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter.

.

..Column One/JPost..10 March '16..This week we learned that Lebanon is no more. It has been replaced by Hezbollahs Iranian colony in Lebanon.Two weeks ago, Saudi Arabia listed Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and canceled its $3 billion aid package to the Lebanese military. The Gulf Cooperation Council followed suit. Rather than support the move by his sponsors and allies, Saad Hariri, the head of the anti-Hezbollah March 14 movement, flew to Syria to meet with Hezbollah leaders.Saudi Arabias decision to end its support for the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) doesnt mean that Saudi Arabia is making peace with Hezbollah.It means that the Saudis are no longer willing to maintain the fiction that with enough support, the LAF will one day challenge Hezbollahs effective control of Lebanon.Hezbollah and its bosses in Tehran dont seem too upset about the Sunnis decision to acknowledge that Hezbollah is a terrorist group. And they are right not to care. In essence, the Saudi move is simply an admission that they have won. Lebanon is theirs.Hezbollahs isnt the dominant force in Lebanon because it has better weapons than the LAF.Unlike the LAF, Hezbollah has no air force. It has no armored divisions.Hezbollah is able to dominate Lebanon because unlike the LAF and the March 14 movement, Hezbollah is willing to destroy Lebanon if doing so advances its strategic goals.This has all been fairly clear for more than a decade. But it took the war in Syria to force the truth above the surface.And now that it is clear to everyone that Lebanon has ceased to exist and that the country we once knew is now an Iranian colony, the time has come for Israel to reckon with the lessons of its own misadventures in our neighbor to the north.Since the mid-1990s, Israel has implemented three strategies in Lebanon and in Syria. All of them originated on the Left. All of them failed.The first strategy was appeasement.From the mid-1990s until the Syrian war began five years ago, Israels strategic framework for understanding Syria was appeasement. Initially, the notion was that Syria was our enemy because we control the Golan Heights. If we surrendered the Golan to Syria, we would have peace in exchange.In the years leading up to the Syrian war, our leaders embraced the idea that Syria was the weakest link in the Iranian axis. If we gave the Golan Heights to Syria, they said, then the Assad regime would withdraw from the Iranian axis.As it turned out, these positions had no basis in reality. Appeasement failed.Then there was unconditional surrender  or disengagement. Then-prime minister Ehud Barak implemented this strategy when he removed IDF units from the security zone in south Lebanon in May 2000.From the mid-1990s on, Yossi Beilin was the chief advocate of unconditional surrender in Lebanon. The logic of surrender was similar to that of appeasement  of which he was also a principal architect and advocate.The surrender strategy in Lebanon was based on the idea that Hezbollah fought the IDF in south Lebanon because the IDF was in south Lebanon. If the IDF were to leave south Lebanon, Hezbollah was have no reason to fight us anymore.So if we were gone, Beilin argued, Hezbollah would stop fighting, ditch terrorism and Iran, and become a normal Lebanese political party.The war with Hezbollah in 2006 destroyed the credibility of the surrender strategy. But the Left didnt despair. They simply replaced surrender with the strategy of internationalization.The internationalization strategy forms the basis of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 that set the cease-fire terms at the end of the war with Hezbollah. IDF soldiers, who left Lebanon without victory, were replaced by UN forces from UNIFIL. UNIFIL forces were supposed to block Hezbollahs reassertion of control over south Lebanon by facilitating the LAFs takeover of the border with Israel. While UNIFIL was protecting the LAF on the ground, the LAF itself would be empowered by a massive infusion of US and Saudi aid.Saudi Arabias belated recognition that Hezbollah dominates the LAF, and controls Lebanon, makes clear that like appeasement and disengagement, internationalization is an utter failure.To a certain degree, Israels serial strategic blundering did have one ameliorative effect. Through them, Hezbollah has become so powerful that it now poses a threat to the great powers. So Russia in Syria now needs to curb it. So, too, it is so powerful that Iran is loath to waste it on a war with Israel that it will lose when it is fighting to win the war in Syria.For now then, Hezbollah is not an immediate threat. This is the case despite Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallahs recent threat to bomb Haifas chemical depots and cause a fireball with the cataclysmic effect of a nuclear bomb.But that doesnt mean that the lessons of our repeated strategic mistakes in Syria and Lebanon shouldnt be applied today. They should be applied, but toward another, more immediate foe  the Palestinians, toward whom Israel has applied the same failed policies, one after another, with similarly destructive outcomes.After the first intifada ground to a halt in 1991, Israel adopted the Lefts first strategy. The so-called peace process with the PLO, which began in 1993, was an attempt to implement a strategy of appeasement. We would gradually give the PLO Judea, Samaria, Gaza and Jerusalem.In return, the PLO would stop supporting terrorism and live at peace with Israel.The failure of the appeasement strategy led to the second intifada. The second intifada caused Israel to adopt the Lefts second strategy  unconditional surrender.Israels 2005 disengagement from Gaza failed just as spectacularly as its 2000 disengagement from Lebanon. Not only did it lead to the Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007. It led to the further radicalization of the PLO and Palestinian society as a whole. The latter became convinced that terrorism worked. The former became convinced that the only way to garner public support was by being just as anti-Israel as Hamas.Today, the center-left parties  the Zionist Union and Yesh Atid  cling to the failed strategy of disengagement. The far Left, together with the Arab political parties, have already moved on to the internationalization strategy. In the Palestinian context, the goal of the internationalization strategy is the collapse of Israeli sovereignty.This strategy was in evidence this week with Peace Now head Yariv Oppenheimers outrageous claim Wednesday that in killing the terrorists who were in the midst of murdering innocents in Petah Tikva and Tel Aviv, civilians and security forces carried out summary executions.Oppenheimer, whose group is funded by foreign governments, did not make the claim because he wished to build his support base at home. He demonized his fellow citizens to advance his paymasters goal of delegitimizing Israeli sovereignty by among other things, criminalizing Israels right to self-defense.The goal of this delegitimization campaign is to make it impossible for Israel to function as a coherent nation-state and for it instead to become a powerless ward of Europe and the US.In the face of both the rise in Palestinian terrorism and of efforts by Oppenheimer and his comrades to use Palestinian terrorism as a means to cause the collapse of Israeli sovereignty, the government is at a loss. Its paralysis doesnt owe to a lack of will. Rather it is the consequence of the governments difficulty in contending with the coalition of powerful domestic and foreign actors that together make it all but impossible for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his ministers to abandon the Lefts failed strategies and embark on a new strategic course.Perhaps the most poignant and infuriating expression of the governments distress is its constant demand that PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas condemn Palestinian terrorism.On seemingly a daily basis our leaders voice the demand that the man who heads a regime that indoctrinates its youth  including its young children  to murder Jews condemn his own actions.Beyond being irrational, the demand is both defeatist and self-defeating. By demanding action from Abbas, we legitimize him and empower him. But so long as Israel refuses to abandon the appeasement strategy, and continues to accept that there is a peace process that can be resuscitated, the government will be unable to stop treating Abbas as legitimate and moderate.So, too, so long as the Knesset fails to take serious, concerted action against the nonprofit groups funded by hostile foreign governments and foundations, the government will be unable to take effective action against the radical Left and its partners from the Joint (Arab) List that openly support both Palestinian terrorists and Hezbollah.Just as Oppenheimers remarks werent directed toward the domestic audience, but to his European sponsors, so the Arab Knesset members who this week announced their opposition to Saudi Arabias decision to label Hezbollah a terrorist group, were directing their remarks toward their supporters  and Hezbollahs sponsors  in Qatar.While adopting in turn every failed strategy the Left could invent and recycle, for the past generation, Israel has avoided implementing the only strategy that has ever worked. That is the strategy of sovereignty  or, more broadly, of governing territories necessary for our defense.From 1982 through 2000, Israel restrained Hezbollah and prevented it from taking over Lebanon by maintaining security control over the security zone in Lebanon. For 28 years, Israel prevented the Palestinians from becoming a terrorist society dedicated to the destruction of the people of Israel, by exerting security and civil authority over Judea, Samaria and Gaza through its military government and its civil administration.And it worked. By fighting our enemies rather than empowering them, we weakened them.The image of the first intifada that convinced us to legitimize the PLO was the teenager with a slingshot.The image of the second intifada that convinced us to run away from Gaza was a bombedout bus.So far, the image of the third intifada is a girl wielding scissors attempting to stab Jews. And we still havent figured out our response to her, although the Left would like us to run away or collapse.It is time to let this image guide us though.The girl with the scissors is not empowered. She is both dangerous and pathetic. She is both an enemy and a victim. You cannot destroy her. You can only punish her and then raise her up. In other words, you need to govern her.Governing enemies is unpleasant. It brings no instant gratification. Instead it promises only thankless, Sisyphean efforts. In other words, governing your enemies is the price you pay to be free.
Turkish prosecutors should immediately drop all charges against newspaper editor Bars Ince, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.

An Istanbul court had on Tuesday sentenced the editor to 21 months in prison for insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in an acrostic presented first as a court document in an unrelated trial, and subsequently published in the editors newspaper. Ince is free pending appeal.

Mr. Ince, editor of the leftist daily newspaper Birgun, initially went on trial at the Istanbul Court of First Instance on October 20, 2014, to answer charges of defamation and violation of secrecy in connection with his newspapers coverage of corruption allegations against Erdogan when he was prime minister, and his son, Bilal. At that trial, Ince presented the court with a written defense, which featured an acrostic in which the first letter of each paragraph spells a phrasespelling Hrsz Tayyip (Tayyip the Thief). The court on December 10, 2015, sentenced Mr. Ince to a suspended sentence of 11 months in prison on the initial charges, according to press reports.

But after Birgun published that acrostic on its front page, prosecutors brought the editor to trial on additional charges of insulting the president. The Istanbul Court of First Instance on Tuesday foundthat the acrostic violated article 299 of Turkeys Penal Code, which allows for penalties of up to four years and eight months for insulting the president.

We call on Turkish authorities to drop all the charges against Bars Ince and to stop using old, sweeping, and repressive laws to silence critics, CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. The Turkish press is increasingly besieged by transparently political prosecutions.

Since becoming president in August 2014, Erdogan has filed more than 1,800 cases under article 299 of the Penal Code against various critics, according to Turkish Justice Ministry data cited by the Turkish press . The article, which has been in place since 1926, has been used against journalists, students, activists, scholars, artists, and even to prosecute a former beauty queen , CPJ research shows. CPJ is aware of at least 24 ongoing prosecutions for insulting the president in Turkey.

Turkish authorities have in recent months expanded a crackdown on the press. In a dramatic, court-mandated raid, the government on March 4wrested control of the editorial and managerial boards of the Cihan news agency, and the newspapers and Todays Zaman, having already taken over the newspaper Bugun and the Kanalturk television station.

Can Dundar and Erdem Gul, the editor and Ankara bureau chief, respectively, of the newspaperCumhuriyet, still face multiple life sentences in connection with a report alleging that Turkeys intelligence service was sending weapons to Syrian militants, despite the Supreme Courts ruling that the government had violated their rights. Following the Supreme Courts ruling, Mr. Erdogan told reporters, I dont obey or respect the decision.

Turkish police have arrested at least seven Kurdish journalists since December 1, 2015, when CPJs most recent annual snapshot of journalists imprisoned around the world found 14 journalists jailed in Turkey.

SOURCE: Committee to Protect Journalists
The socio-political crisis in Niger has reached its peak after the withdrawal of the opposition from the presidential run-off poll.

Incumbent President Mahamadou Issoufou took 48.8 per cent of the vote, while opposition candidate Hama Amadou won 17.7 per cent in the first round held late February.

Mr. Amadou campaigned from prison where he is being detained on child trafficking charges, which he has denied.

With less than 10 days until the run-off between Mr. Issoufou and Mr. Amadou on March 20, the opposition coalition, COPA 2016, decided to suspend its participation due to alleged irregularities.

The COPA 2016 claimed there were massive rigging during the first round and a lack of a level playing field for the two candidates.

The opposition said the president unilaterally called for a second round on Monday and immediately started his campaigns on Tuesday, whereas his challenger is still being held in police custody.

They further said Mr. Issoufous violations of the electoral law were committed with complicity of the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) and the Constitutional Court, which were neither impartial nor independent.

The coalition has also decided to withdraw its representatives from the CENI and ordered its members of parliament to stop attending the National Assembly.

According to the spokesman for Mr. Amadou, Sani Mahamane, he (Amadou) will continue being a candidate until further notice.

There is still time to create conditions ideal for free and fair elections, Mr. Mahamane said.

Meanwhile, during a meeting over the oppositions move, Foreign Minister Kane Aichatou told foreign envoys that the electoral process would follow its normal course, until Nigers future president is elected.

The UN Development Programmme representative in Niger, Fode NDiaye, also appealed for free and fair run-off elections.

(Xinhua/NAN)
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is to return home from India, suddenly cancelling his participation at a cultural festival there Thursday, his spokesperson said.

Mr. Mugabes spokesperson, George Charamba, told journalists that the sudden cancellation was due to poor security.

The cancellation follows communication from organisers of the festival acknowledging substantial inadequacies in protocol and security arrangements around the event, Charamba said.

Mr. Mugabe, who left Zimbabwe on Monday, was scheduled to be guest of honour at the World Culture Festival held in India by the Art of Living, a private educational and humanitarian organisation that advocates for peace.

Report says the event is a celebration of peace in multiculturalism and ecumenicity.

Charamba said security inadequacies had resulted in several invited heads of state and government, including the Indian president, withdrawing their participation at the event.

He noted that the event was not organised by the Indian government, but by a private organisation and that President Mugabe had intended to use the occasion to further diplomatic ties with India.

This is not a state event, the president was then going to take advantage of that private event to further develop relations with the Indian government, he said.

The opposition in Zimbabwe has often criticised Mr. Mugabe for his numerous foreign trips and urged him to cut on foreign travel to save money for the cash-strapped government. (Xinhua/NAN)
President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday pledged that he and other members of the African Union High-Level Consultative Committee on South Sudan would ensure that the peace agreement signed by the various political factions in the country is successfully implemented.

Receiving South Sudans first vice president, Riek

Machar, in Abuja, Mr. Buhari assured him that Nigeria and the committee would work with all stakeholders to overcome problems hindering the implementation of the seven-month old agreement.

The situation must not deteriorate, the president told the First Vice President who is a signatory to the peace agreement.

Expressing concern that compliance with the agreed ceasefire in South Sudan has not been total, Mr. Buhari said Nigeria would work in collaboration with other members of the African Union to achieve a speedy stabilisation of the situation.

The president advised leaders of South Sudan not to allow ethnicity and corruption to gain a foothold in the new country.

Ethnicity and corruption are a lethal combination. You have to deal with them otherwise instability will continue, Mr. Buhari warned after receiving a briefing from Mr. Machar on the current state of affairs in South Sudan.

Also Thursday in Abuja, the president received a special envoy of the African Union chairman, Idris Deby.

The special envoy, Abubakar Chahaimi delivered Mr. Debys message to President Buhari on the strengthening of bilateral relations between Nigeria and Chad, as well as the work of the African Union Consultative Committee on South Sudan.
The convicted killer of South African anti-apartheid leader, Chris Hani, will be freed on bail in two weeks after more than 20 years in prison, a Pretoria court ruled on Thursday.

Janusz Walus is serving a life sentence for the 1993 murder of Hani, a charismatic activist and politician who was both a senior member of the African National Congress (ANC) and the head of the South African Communist Party (SACP) when he was gunned down.

The decision to free him is likely to be contentious in a country still dealing with the legacy of the brutality meted out by the white-minority regime that prevailed from 1948 to 1994.

Mr. Hanis murder threatened to derail South Africas transition to multi-racial democracy, leading to nationwide riots and triggering fears of a civil war.

Mr. Walus, a Polish immigrant, shot Mr. Hani dead outside his Johannesburg home.

Yes, he got parole, his lawyer, Roelof du Plessis, said after the court session.

Mr. Walus was sentenced alongside Clive Derby-Lewis, a right-wing politician who provided the murder weapon.

Both men were originally sentenced to death, but that was commuted to life in prison after South Africa abolished death penalty in 1995.

Mr. Derby-Lewis was freed on medical liberation last year.

Mr. Hanis wife, Limpho, however criticised the decision to free Mr. Walus.

(Reuters/NAN)
A fresh controversy has broken out in Zaria, Kaduna State, over alleged abduction of a 15- year old school girl, Ifeoma Nicodemus.

Her teacher father, Nicodemus Odugusi, said she was abducted on September 14, 2014, when she was 14 and had since been held against her will for the past 18 months by one Shehu Abdullahi, who runs an Islamic school in the Samaru area of Zaria.

But the police denied Ifeoma was abducted, saying her parents were merely twisting the story.

Mr. Abdullahi too said he did not abduct or marry Ifeoma, saying he was merely keeping custody of her based on the order of a court.

Ifeoma also told PREMIUM TIMES that she was never abducted by anyone, describing Mr. Abdullahi as a father figure to her.

Ifeoma is from Ebonyi State in South-East Nigeria, but her parents are resident in Zaria, and at the time of her alleged abduction, was a student of Total Child Bible Secondary School in Samaru, Zaria.

Speaking to PREMIUM TIMES on telephone from Zaria, human rights lawyer, Ezekiel Dyagas, said Ifeoma has been held against her will for the past 18 months in the home of Mr. Abdullahi.

He said that when the girl was traced to the home of the Islamic teacher by her family, Mr. Abdullahi simply told them he had duly married the 14-year-old after converting her to Islam.

But Mr. Abdullahi denied ever making any such remark, saying he was already married and could not have claimed to have taken Ifeoma as wife.

In a telephone interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Ifeomas father, Mr. Odugusi, said he had been in agony since his daughter was taken away from him.

Mr. Nicodemus, a schoolteacher, lamented that the most painful part of it all was that he knows where his daughter is being kept but is powerless against the forces that are holding her hostage.

Narrating his ordeal, Mr. Odugusi said on September 14, 2014 when his daughter did not return home, he searched everywhere for her.

He said the following day, September 15, 2014, he received a call from a school in Zaria informing him that his missing daughter was with them; that she had converted to Islam and was now married to Mr. Abdullahi.

The embattled father said for the last 18 months, he had been engaged in a lone fight with Mr. Abdullahi who he said mocked every attempt to free Ifeoma from his captive.

Mr. Nicodemus said Ifeoma was in SS2 at the time of her alleged abduction, and that he reported the matter to the Samaru Police Station in Zaria and subsequently got a lawyer to file a case of abduction in court.

I am a schoolteacher, so you can imagine my pains at watching another man truncates your childs education, Mr. Nicodemus said. I have been to the Police; I have been to the Court and all the court said fell on deaf ears as far as Alhaji Shehu Abdullahi is concerned.

The lawyer, Mr. Dyagas, said he suspected conspiracy in Ifeomas case, saying he had since found that the proceedings of the case against Mr. Abdullahi was not recorded.

But in his reaction, Mr. Abdullahi said it was Ifeoma herself who approached a Sharia court asking to be converted to Islam.

He said following her conversion, the court ordered him to keep custody of her after she stubbornly refused to return to her parents.

He said the police was called in to persuade her to return to her parents, but she refused especially after her father threatened that she would not be allowed to practice Islam in his home.

We even engage people close to her family to persuade her to return to her parents, but stood her ground. So I pleaded with her parent to be patient while we continue to try to reconcile her with them.

I was the one who called the attention of her parent, and asked them to come and take her home, but she refused to follow them.

The Divisional Police Officer in charge of Samaru, where the case was first reported, said the problem was not with Mr. Abdullahi, but with Ifeoma.

She converted herself to Islam, and then refused to return home, the DPO, who refused to give his name, said. We intervened here, the commissioner of police intervened, and three times she ran away from her parents. The court then handed her over to Mallam Shehu and co. for custody.

One day, we brought her to the station, and asked her parents to take her away. She refused. She said she preferred to be detained in our station rather than go home with her parents. We couldnt keep her in the station because if she disappears, the commissioner of police will hold us responsible.

Ifeoma corroborated the polices version of the matter, insisting that she was not abducted.

Her parents said she is 15, but Ifeoma claimed she is almost 19.

Im married now, not to Mallam Shehu but to someone else, she said. My parents are aware, and my sister recently came to my house. I just dont want to go home because I cant live with my parent anymore.

She warned a PREMIUM TIMES reporter not to refer to her as Ifeoma anymore.

My name now is Aisha, and thats what you should call me, she said on telephone.
A Federal High Court in Abuja has granted Nigerias former Chief of Defence Staff, Alex Badeh, a N2 billion bail.

Judge Okon Abang ruled that Mr. Badeh presents two Abuja-based sureties with N1 billion each, in addition to surrendering his international passport.

Mr. Badeh is facing corruption charges, accused of receiving N3.9 billion as part of $2.1 billion arms money allegedly diverted by former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki.

He denies the allegation.

On Thursday, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, said it recovered $1 million from Mr. Badehs apartment, a claim the former defence chief strongly denied.

The prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, said the money was found in one of the properties confiscated from Mr. Badeh.

But Mr. Badehs lawyer, Samuel Zibiri, said the claim was to seek media hype.

My lord, he should argue his case on bail application and avoid undue media hype. This is an allegation and the applicant has said no $1 million was found in his house, he stated.

He said the former defence chief, a retired Air Chief Marshal, would not jump bail, and should be granted bail without conditions, following from the example of former Interior Minister, Abba Moro.

Mr. Zibiri argued that the condition of the prison facility, where his client was kept, was unfavourable.

The EFCC lawyer, Mr. Jacobs, argued against bail for Mr. Badeh, saying a strong case had been established against him.

He referred the court to pages 76 and 99 of the proof of evidence before it, saying the pages show how Mr. Badeh instructed the director of finance of the Nigerian Air Force to convert public funds to dollars for use in purchasing a property for Mr. Badeh.

My lord, the first property was bought for at N1.4 billion and the finance director paid for it, Mr. Jacobs said.

$1 million was recovered from the property; we will tender it as evidence, he added.

Mr. Jacobs said it was likely for Mr. Badeh to jump bail in view of the evidences against him. He also said Mr. Badeh had not met conditions for bail on health grounds.

The judge overruled the argument, and granted bail to Mr. Badeh.
Boko Haram is still holding territory in Northern Nigeria, commander of the U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM), David Rodriguez, has said.

General Rodriguezs claim challenges Nigerias official position on the seven-year old insurgency that has so far claimed about 20,000 lives and displaced 2.5 million people.

Mr. Rodriguezs assertion comes almost two months after President Muhammadu Buhari told the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki Moon, that the terrorist group was no longer holding any territory as we speak.

Mr. Buhari, who was speaking on the sidelines of the World Future Energy Summit in the UAE, said Nigerian Armed Forces in collaboration with the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNTJF) had driven the terrorist group from Nigerian territory into fall-back positions.

Mr. Rodriguez spoke Tuesday in response to a question during testimony before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee reviewing fiscal year 2017 defence budget.

His comment about Boko Haram was in response to a question by Senator Angus King of Maine who asked about Al-Shabaab and Boko Haram more than ninety minutes into the testimony.

Mr. Angus direct question to General Rodriguez was: Is Al-Shabaab and Boko Haram growing, are they adding members? I know they dont hold territory, are they adding areas of influence? to which Mr. Rodriguez replied, actually sir, Boko Haram does hold some significant territory in Northern Nigeria as do Al-Shabaab in limited areas of Somalia.

He added that recently there is a tactical upswing in Al-Shabaabs operations in Somali but did not elaborate on Boko Harams operations, adding in his written testimony to the Senate Committee that containing and degrading the ISIL-affiliated Boko Haram remains one of AFRICOMs top priority.

We are watching carefully for signs that the threat posed by Boko Haram to U.S. persons is growing as a result of the groups alignment with ISIL, Mr.Rodriguez said.

He praised MNJTF allies and partners such as the African Union, France, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and the Department of State for engaging in the counter-Boko Haram effort.

Our engagement now can assist our African partners in realizing their potential and gaining the capability to solve African problems, Mr. Rodriguez said. African solutions to African problems are, in the long run, in the best interest of Africans, Americans, and indeed the world.

Mr. Rodriguez, a four-star general, became the third commander of AFRICOM in April 2013. U.S. Africa Command is one of six unified geographic combatant commands within the United States Department of Defense unified command structure.

He appeared before the Senate committee with Generals Lloyd Austin of U.S. Central Command and Joseph Votel of U.S. Special Operations Command.

General Rodriguezs testimony came couple weeks after the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade at the United States Congress also convened hearings where two policy experts urged the US government to ramp up the push against Boko Haram.

Jennifer Cooke of the Centre for International and Strategic Studies (CSIS) and Alice Friend of the Centre for New American Security (CNAS), urged lawmakers to acknowledge and support real advances against Boko Haram that have degraded the group and weakened its leadership over the last 18 months.

The one reason that todays hearing is so importantit is important to remember that Boko Haram has proved resilient to setbacks in the past, the possibility that it will regroup and rebuild should be the source of critical regional and international concern, said Dr. Cooke

In the current global and regional context, where jihadist groups compete for notoriety and ISIL entrenches its presence in Libya, there is an urgent need to prevent Boko Haram from regenerating and possibly coming back more virulent, destructive, and globally connected than before.

Ms. Friend reiterated that Boko Haram had bounced back from defeat before it re-surfaced in 2010 after the ambush that left its founder, Mohammed Yusuf, dead.

The group seemed to be in full retreat, and was inactive for almost a year until Yusufs second-in-command, Abubakar bin Mohammad Shekau, released a video and a manifesto announcing his leadership of Boko Haram and threatening revenge on the Nigerian state as well as its Western backers.

The current offensive against Boko Haram, led by the Nigerian military in partnership with Chad, Cameroon, and Niger under the Multinational National Joint Task Force (MNTJF), has routed the group from territories it controlled and significantly degraded its capabilities and leadership, said Dr. Cooke.

Many thousands of Boko Haram members, along with a number of its senior leaders, have been killed or captured, and the group no longer appears to have access to the kinds of transport and equipmenttanks, armored vehicles, Toyota Hilux trucksthat it has had in the past.

Nigerian Air Force has been engaged in a sustained assault, including recent drone strikes on Boko Haram enclave in Sambisa Forest, taking out fuel pumps, solar panels, and weapons caches as regional military forces have rescued thousands of women and girls who had been kidnapped by Boko Haram members.

Equally significant is the silence from Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau.

The groups media operationwhich reportedly received technical assistance from ISILhas gone largely quiet, and there have been no video appearances by erstwhile leader, Abubakar Shekau (or by any of his alleged impostors) since early 2015, Ms. Cooke said.

Even recent attacks that earned the group the dubious honour of being labelled the worlds deadliest terror group show signs of Boko Harams degraded status, according to experts.

In lieu of territorial control, the group is now reduced to terrorizing public spaces that are notoriously difficult to secure, such as markets and transit depots in attacks that feature coordinated bombings and increasingly rely on kidnapped women and girls, said Ms. Friend.

Their use of kidnapped women to execute suicide attacks, while tactically advantageous (providing greater access even to secured areas), also suggests a shrunken supply of adult male foot soldiers.

While the experts agree that this hit-and-run tactic shows that Boko Harams strength was never as an organized fighting force, but a fractured, ruthless organization, willing to inflict maximum damage on the softest of targets, they also see the urgent need for the United States and international community to step up strategic initiatives to contain the terror group indefinitely.

In addition to the U.S. inter agency advisory team sent to Abuja in 2014 and the recent deployment of 300 Defence Department forces to support intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations in Cameroon, Ms. Friend believes Nigeria could still benefit from U.S. security assistance programmes, including the new Security Governance Initiative, the Global Security Contingency Fund, and the Counter-terrorism Partnership Fund.

Through these programs the U.S. has recently provided communications gear and equipment to Nigeria, including a recent delivery of 24 mine-resistant, ambush protected vehicles (MRAPs).

Dr. Cooke thinks the United States can offer more support in form of diplomatic pressure on the Chad Basin countries to maintain regional cooperation against Boko Haram, use of U.S. Treasury Departments Terrorist Financing Tracking Programme to disrupt Boko Harams financial lifelines, assistance with collection and communication of intelligence on a real time basis, but above all, lawmakers must think beyond Boko Haram.

U.S. policymakers must consider Boko Haram in a broader global and regional context. The Sahel region, including the Lake Chad Basin, risks becoming a proxy battleground for larger ideological and geopolitical rivalries. Competition between ISIL and al Qaeda, Shiites and Sunniseven between Iran and Saudi Arabiacould fuel increasingly deadly competition among Islamist extremist groups of the region if the terror group is allowed to re-gain ground from its present setbacks.
The new Consul-General of Switzerland in Lagos, Yves Nicolet, has expressed dissatisfaction over weak bilateral trade relations between his country and Nigeria.

He expressed his governments readiness to improve on its existing economic relations with Nigeria in the years ahead.

Mr. Nicolet stated this at the official opening of a new Consulate-General of Switzerland in Lagos, saying the new Consulate-General would focus mostly on economic, business and trade relations.

We want to improve the economic relations between our two countries. Nigeria has such a huge potential.

If the presence of Switzerland is already relatively important with 35 Swiss firms currently in Nigeria, I believe that our bilateral trade is still quite weak.

We have to increase our commercial relationship and bring more Swiss products into Nigeria, as well as export more Nigerian goods into Switzerland, he said.

Mr. Nicolet said it was important for Nigeria and Switzerlands volume of bilateral trade to be increased.

The envoy said the opening of the Consulate-General in Lagos was not only a positive sign for Switzerland, but also for Nigeria, adding that his government recently closed many of its consulates.

Within the last five years, Switzerland closed many consulates all over the world, especially in Europe and the Americas, for financial reasons.

And at the same time, the Swiss government had decided to open only two Consulates-General in Ho Chi Min City in Vietnam and Lagos in Nigeria, he said.

Nicolet also enjoined Swiss companies and nationals in Lagos to feel free in approaching the Consulate-General for any request and assistance.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Switzerland, in addition to the new Consulate-General just reopened in Nigerias commercial capital of Lagos, after a 55-year closure, also has an embassy in Nigerias capital city of Abuja.

(NAN)
The University of Calabar is to offer automatic employment to its 12 first class graduates as reward for hard work and motivation for students of the institution to attain academic excellence.

Prof. Zana Akpagu, Vice-Chancellor of the university, said this on Thursday in Calabar at a news conference on the 29th convocation of the institution.

According to him, the first class graduates are among the 7, 222 graduates of the University during the 2014/2015 academic session billed for convocation on Saturday.

All the 1st class graduands are to remain with us; it is the Universitys policy and they cut across all the faculties and departments,  he said.

The vice-chancellor also disclosed that three individuals who had distinguished careers in the service of Cross River and Nigeria would be awarded PhD, honoris causa by the University during the convocation.

He said that former Gov. Donald Duke of Cross River would be honoured for transforming Cross River, and a former senator, Florence Ita-Giwa, for her contributions to the women folk.

Senate President Bukola Saraki would also be recognised for his contribution to the development of Kwara as governor and to Nigeria in general.

According to Mr. Akpagu, the university will graduate 4,868 with first degrees, 952 with Masters Degrees and 1,402 with Diplomas.

The vice-chancellor said that during the academic session under review, 30 students were either suspended or dismissed from the University for Disciplinary Reasons.

These include examination malpractice, cultism and social other vices.

This administration has zero tolerance for indiscipline, he said.

Mr. Akpagu said that the university retired a Professor and a Doctor, following their indictment by a disciplinary committee set up by management to investigate them over allegations of plagiarism. (NAN)
Nigerias former military head of state, Yakubu Gowon, has confirmed his paternity of a 48-year-old man recently deported from the United States.

Mr. Gowon announced Wednesday that a DNA test had proven Musa Jack Ngodadi is his biological son.

Musa Gowon, who had been in jail in the U.S. for 22 years, was pardoned by President Barrack Obama in 2015, cutting short the 40-year prison term he was to serve for alleged drug related crime of which he was found guilty on November 18, 1992.

Musa, a striking lookalike of the former head of state, returned to Nigeria on January 1, 2016, after the U.S. Immigration officials deported him.

He was the product of a romance in the 1960s between General Gowon, then a military head of state, and one Igbo damsel, Edith Ike-Okongu, who was said to have ended her love affairs with the ex-military ruler over the Nigerian Civil War and how it was being prosecuted under Gowons watch.

Edith was said to have protested the manner Nigerian troops had maimed and killed her fellow Igbos, under a government of a man she was in love with.

Conflicting reports say she left Nigeria with a pregnancy or with the child their romance had produced to settle in the U.S., while the then young bachelor, Gowon, got married to his present wife, Victoria.

Edith is said to have later returned to Nigeria after decades in the U.S., leaving behind Musa Gowon who allegedly got involved with some Colombian drug dealers resulting in his arrest and jailing in 1992.

Though he strongly denied being guilty of the crime as he insisted that he was framed up, Musa was sent to a correctional facility to serve a 40-year jail term.

The Igbo Mandate Congress, IMC, which made the return of Gowon Junior a big socio-political event, said Musa suffered the abandonment that later led him imprisonment for 22 years because his mother stood as a patriot of the Igbo nation by severing her relationship with Mr. Gowon in protest of the killing of her kin during the Civil War.

Musa Gowon was borne out of a courtship gone awry between former Head of State Yakubu Gowon, then a Lieutenant Colonel and an Igbo Girl by name Edith Ike-Okongwu while he was still a bachelor, said IMC, Director-General, Rev Obinna Akukwe.

This relationship between Gowon and Edith Ike ended in the heat of the civil war. It is widely believed that the relationship broke off after Federal Troops bombed Aba General Hospital with NAF Napalm Bomb on July 14, 1968 killing more than 500 patients.

Edith was said to have expressed disapproval with Gowon over the deliberate bombing of Biafran civilian soft targets and the romance was brought to an end. Prior to that, Edith Ikes parents, though from Aro-Ndikelionwu in Orumba North Local Govt of Anambra State but lived in the north for over thirty years, relocated back to the East after the first wave of pogrom of 1966.

Edith herself relocated to then West Germany on 30th June, 1967 after Gowon overruled her plans to relocate to either the US of UK.

The relationship was said to have produced a handsome young man with full name Jack Musa Ngonadi Gowon in 1968. Due to Ediths constant unease at the indiscriminate murder of civilians, the relationship got frosty and ended towards the end of 1968. In 1969 Gowon married Miss Victoria Zakari, a nurse by profession. Gowon reportedly denied paternity of Musa.

****************

Mr. Gowons press statement

Musa Gowon

Following years of doubts and speculation, a DNA test was recently conducted to ascertain the paternity of Musa Gowon who recently returned to the country.

The results of the tests were conclusive and they confirm his paternity.

We, the family, are working to assist in his rehabilitation following a very difficult period in his life.

As we look forward to the future with faith in God, we request that our privacy be respected.

Thank you.

General Dr Yakubu Gowon GCFR
The immediate-past governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso, is facing suspension from the ruling All Progressive Congress for organising a violent rally in the state while paying a condolence visit to the governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, over the death of his mother.

Addressing journalists in Kano on Thursday, the state party chairman, Umar Doguwa, said Mr. Kwankwaso, a serving senator, had exhibited acts of indiscipline which should not be allowed to go unpunished.

He said the partys leadership and elders had approved the constitution of a disciplinary committee to penalise Mr. Kwankwaso.

According to him, the condolence visit was deliberately turned to a violent rally to cause mayhem in the state, abuse the governor and President Muhammadu Buhari.

The party and its leadership hierarchy, as enshrined in APC constitution, must be respected at all times by party members in respective of their position.

The party leader today in Kano is nobody but Governor Umar Abdullahi Ganduje, who also must be respected by every person.

The party would leave no stone unturned in ensuring discipline, orderliness and loyalty as prescribed by the constitution of the APC.

Such case of party indiscipline committed by Senator Kwankwaso will be thoroughly investigated and dealt with in accordance with the constitution of the party, Mr. Doguwa said.

The party chairman also alleged that the senator hired a crowd that crossed over the perimeter fence of the Kano airport and damaged some installations.

When the hired crowd was denied access to the airport premises, they climbed over fences, breaking the iron barriers and destroying the Security scanners. All the pictures are available for confirmation.

Also, the hired thugs were busy distributing presidential campaign posters, car stickers reading Kwankwassiya 2019, Engr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso for President, among others, he said.

The APC chairman said when other dignitaries from all walks of life  including those from the opposition party  came to condole with the governor, none of them made their visits violent.

He said despite the fact that the funeral rites of the governors mother were conducted with decorum, humility, civility and decency in keeping with religious and cultural values of the people, Mr. Kwankwaso dishonoured the dead by holding a violent rally.

During the senators visit, there was a violent rally and open show of thuggery as his supporters were seen openly wielding machetes, swords and other dangerous weapons, he said.

Mr. Doguwa also said the party frowned at Mr. Kwankwasos supporters call for replacement of Mr. Buhari with Mr. Kwankwaso by 2019.
Traders, led by Folasade Tinubu-Ojo, on Thursday protested to the leadership of the All Progressives Congress for marginalising them and failing to appoint market women and men in public offices.

Mrs. Tinubu, the first daughter of a national leader of the APC, Bola Tinubu, who led over 100 women on a visit to the national secretariat of the party in Abuja, lamented that the women had been left out in the scheme of things as they were not included in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Mr. Buhari assumed office on May 29, 2015.

She recounted to journalists during the visit that the women campaigned for the party during the election last year but that after the inauguration most of us are not carried along.

She explained that market women all over the country were unhappy with Mr. Buhari and the APC-led federal government.

I am here this afternoon to represent market women and men of Nigeria, Mrs. Tinubu-Ojo said.

There have been agitations, not even agitation of allegation, the people believed that the government of the day is not carrying them along as it should be and that they worked round the clock for the party during the electioneering campaign, but after the inauguration most of us are not carried along.

She specifically regretted that the market women were not involved in the activities and programmes of the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, prompting the women to inundate her office daily with complaints and protest.

The market leader said what was more annoying to her group was that a new market association had sprung up in the federal capital and that members of the association belonged to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party.

She said, We only hear on the news that the first lady is doing a programme, this and that, and we just see it on the news and they wouldnt allow me to be. All the complaints come to my table morning and night and I say okay, enough is enough.

We even heard that another FCT woman leader that is organising another market association and named it Association of Organised Market People in Abuja and most of these people are PDP, they were nowhere to be found when we were working for the party day and night.

So, now our people are not happy because they need to benefit from where they believe they have the right to and all we need, all we are crying for is for the government to give them sense of belonging and carrying them along properly.

Asked if her father, Mr. Tinubu, was aware of the agitation of the market men and women, she said it was immaterial because she had to represent her group well.

Because, I am the daughter of the national leader of APC doesnt mean that I must not represent my people well.

I have to represent my peoples opinion. I am a leader and as a leader my people are crying foul and I wont fold my hands and keep quiet because my father is a national leader, it is wrong.

I am not mobilizing against the party, no. I am solidly behind the party. I have worked for the party before and I will still work for the party tomorrow, but that does not stop me from saying the truth.
The police in Katsina State have arrested 331 suspected cattle rustlers and recovered 4,088 animals in the state between January and February 2016.

The state commissioner of police, Usman Abdullahi, disclosed this in Katsina on Thursday during a news conference.

He said 318 suspects were charged to court, while 100 were convicted during the period under review.

Mr. Abdullahi said 3,009 out of the 4,088 animals had been handed over to their owners.

According to him, this is made possible through the efforts of the joint security patrol team under Operation Sharar Daji.

He said two AK 47 rifles, two pistols, some ammunition and other dangerous weapons were recovered from the suspects.

The commissioner said the police were able to block some of the routes through which the rustlers got food and drugs in the forests.

He said the police had also arrested 15 persons for minting counterfeit foreign currency amounting to 10 million dollars.

Mr. Abdullahi explained that the police were able to arrest three car snatchers and recover nine vehicles during the period under review.

He urged the public to continue to assist the police by exposing the hideout of criminals in order to make the state free of crime.

(NAN)
The leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party in Imo State have agreed to put aside their differences, and work together with the national leadership of the party for the conduct of the forthcoming congresses in the state.

The peace agreement, facilitated by Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, who is the chairman of the PDP Peace and Reconciliation Committee, was reached at a meeting on Wednesday.

The meeting was held at Bayelsa State Governors Lodge, Asokoro, Abuja, according to a press statement from Government House, Bayelsa.

The party leaders, including two former governors of the state, Achike Udenwa and Ikedi Ohakim, resolved to unite and join forces to strengthen the PDP for victory in all elections  beginning with the March 19 rerun in Imo North Senatorial District.

Other PDP leaders who signed the peace pact were the former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha, former aviation minister, Kema Chikwe, and three senators, Chris Anyanwu, Samuel Anyanwu, and Athan Achonu.

Austine Akobundu, a retired colonel, and the pioneer chairman of the party in Imo, Innocent Nwoga, also signed the resolutions.

The leaders promised to remain loyal to the National Working Committee and the National Executive Committee of the party, and also agreed to hold an all-inclusive leadership meeting of the party in Owerri, Imo State, to be chaired by Mr. Dickson.

Mr. Dickson was said to have thanked the party leaders and elders for taking the path of peace in the overall interest of the party and promised to inform the party leadership of the development.

The reconciliation committee, set up by the PDP national chairman, Ali Sheriff, is to reconcile and unite the party members across the country.
Local business owners say they are wary of the effects of a proposed $15 minimum wage on seasonal operations that rely on low-cost employees.

Its a tough thing because I totally acknowledge you cant live off minimum wage, said Wes Kazmarck, president of the Ocean City Boardwalk Merchants Association. But the proposed change, particularly in communities like ours, the change would be very drastic, and it would be very hard for business owners to absorb.

A proposed mandated increase in the states minimum wage pits a South Jersey economy that relies on three months of tourism against the notion that all workers deserve whats described as a living wage.

In February, state Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-Salem, Gloucester, Cumberland, and Sen. Shirley Turner, D-Mercer, Hunterdon, introduced a constitutional amendment that would gradually increase the states minimum wage to $15 an hour over eight years. The bill would put the issue to a public vote.

Kazmarck said the more than 100 Ocean City Boardwalk merchants employ many teenagers who dont have families to support.

Were a lot of part-time employees. Were seasonal; we only have 100 days to make a living, and a lot of our employees are kids, he said. Its hard to justify paying a 15-year-old $15 an hour.

The Ocean City Chamber of Commerce, which represents 550 businesses, sent a letter to Gov. Chris Christie last month noting its opposition.

It really would put a lot of small, family businesses out of business. Those are the businesses they are hurting, said Ocean City Chamber Executive Director Michele Gillian.

Gillian noted that the bill would also affect municipalities that hire summer workers.

Minimum-wage increases have gained steam in the past two years in the U.S.

New York is gradually instituting a minimum wage for fast-food workers. Seattle has begun increasing its minimum wage to $15. Cities in California and Alabama enacted similar increases.

However, Alabamas state legislature passed a bill banning towns from setting their own minimum wages.

Greater Atlantic City Chamber President Joe Kelly suggested that a state-sponsored subsidy program may ease the burden on small businesses

Our view: Latest Democratic wage mandate would hurt South Jersey Two Democratic legislative leaders have started a push to raise the minimum wage in New Jers

Kelly said his chamber, which has 700 members that employ 60,000 people, has traditionally opposed increases to the minimum wage.

In many ways, were concerned that it drives a barrier between the employer and the employee and actually leads to a reduction in employment opportunities, he said.

Costs would then be passed on to consumers, he said.

Sweeney and Turner said the increase in wages would be pumped back into the economy and would lower the burden on state and federal assistance programs.

Ellen Mutari, professor of economics at Stockton University and a labor economist, agrees.

A local economy is very dependent on wage income, because people who are well paid go out and buy things and spend money in the local economy, said Mutari, who co-authored the 2002 book Living Wages, Equal Wages. This is the reason that lots of studies, actual empirical studies of raising the minimum wage, find positive impacts on local economies.

She said that while there may be many teenagers in the local market, there are also many adults who are the working poor.

If you underpay your labor market, the burden of sustaining those workers gets shifted to government programs, she said, citing a 2014 study by the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C., that modeled the impact of a $12 minimum wage.

A report by the center on the study found that in New Jersey, in one year, the state would save $76 million in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

Michael Busler, a professor of finance at Stockton, said that from a business and public-policy standpoint, raising the minimum wage would be a disaster.

Raising the minimum wage to that level, what its going to do is it will cause massive unemployment for just the people that cant afford to be unemployed, said Busler, who is also a public-policy analyst and columnist.

He said the wage increase would be particularly devastating for seasonal employment.

These businesses have to make all of their profit in a three- or four-month period, he said, noting that practically all of them hire teenages at minimum wage. Theyre either going to have to raise their prices on stuff, or their profits are going to be cut substantially, and, as a result, they may not survive.

Contact: 609-272-7251
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.




PEORIA, Illinois, March 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT/Euronext: CATR) informs its stockholders that today, in accordance with Section 16(a) of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, 20 Forms 4 (the report on Form 4 being a statement of beneficial ownership of its officers, directors and 10% owners) were filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). In addition, one Form 4 was filed with the SEC on March 8, 2016. The Forms can be found on the SEC Internet site (http://www.sec.gov).

Caterpillar files electronically with the SEC required reports on Form 8-K, Form 10-Q, Form 10-K and Form 11-K; proxy materials; ownership reports for insiders as required by Section 16(a) of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended; and registration statements on Forms S-3 and S-8, as necessary; and other forms or reports, as required. All of the forms and reports filed electronically with the SEC are available on the SEC Internet site (http://www.sec.gov).

Caterpillar also maintains an Internet site (http://www.Caterpillar.com) and copies of its annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to these reports filed or furnished with the SEC are available free of charge through Caterpillar's Internet site (http://www.Caterpillar.com/secfilings) as soon as reasonably practicable after the relevant document has been filed with the SEC.

CONTACT: Rachel Potts, Corporate Public Affairs, +1-309-675-6892

This is a disclosure announcement from PR Newswire.

SOURCE Caterpillar Inc.
DUBLIN, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/jmgdnp/europe_optical) has announced the addition of the"Europe Optical Sensors Market - Growth, Trends & Forecasts (2015-2020)" report to their offering.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130307/600769 )



This comprehensive report predicts that the Europe Optical Sensors market will reach a value of $3.85 billion by 2018. With quick paced innovative progression in the optics sensors business, market players have presented exceedingly power efficient optic sensors. The requirement for reliable sensors has obviously realized an adjustment in the materials and manufacturing procedures utilized. These patterns have achieved positive development in the business sector for optic sensors. The major Drivers include the demand for power efficient smartphones and tablets, innovation in new generation LED lighting, demand for high end hospital imaging equipment, utilization of sensors in smart control system and factory automation, and an effort to ensure safety, performance in automotive sector.



Other than their utilization in LAN operations and the information transfers industry, the fiber optic sensors are additionally generally being used in the oil and gas industry, wind vitality era, country security operations, and brilliant structures.



This report describes a detailed study of the Porter's five forces analysis of the market. All the five major factors in these markets have been quantified using the internal key parameters governing each of them. It also covers the market landscape of these players which includes the key growth strategies and competition analysis.



The report also considers key trends that will impact the industry and profiles over 10 leading suppliers of Europe Optical Sensors Market. Some of the top companies mentioned in the report are Rockwell Automation, Honeywell, Mouser Electronics, Bosch, Atmel, Sick AG, STMicroelectronics and others.

Companies Mentioned:

Mouser Electronics

Sick Ag

Rockwell Automation

Honeywell

Eaton

Turck

Bosch

Atmel

St Microelectronics

Hitachi

Omnvision

Report Structure:



1. Introduction



2. Key Findings

3. Market Overview & Dynamics

4. Introduction



5. Porter'S Five Forces Analysis



6. Market Segmentation



7. Company Profiles



8. Investment Analysis

9. Future Of Europe Optical Sensors Market

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/jmgdnp/europe_optical

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



SOURCE Research and Markets
DUBLIN, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets ( http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/gqqd9k/level_sensors ) has announced the addition of the "Level Sensors Market - Global Trends & Forecast to 2022" report to their offering.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130307/600769 )



The global level sensors market is expected to exhibit high growth potential till 2022. The overall market is expected to reach USD 4.89 Billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 5.4% between 2016 and 2022. The government regulations for controlling pollution, gradual decrease in sensor sizes, increasing production of vehicles, and the economic growth of Asian countries such as China and India are the major factors driving the growth of this market.



Industrial manufacturing is expected to lead the end-user industries segment of the level sensors market. Level sensors play a key role in the industrial market. This is because for optimum manufacturing processes and for the control of hazardous emissions and waste, it is essential to monitor the flow of fluids such as various industrial lubricants, fuel tanks, water & steam, and bulk solids and slurries.



North America holds the second-largest share of the level sensors market in 2015, while the market in APAC is expected to be the largest as well as to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. This growth of the market in APAC can be attributed to the greater demand for level sensors and economic growth in China and India. The level sensors market in APAC is in the developing stage and the ongoing development in this region makes it a lucrative and high-potential market.



Factors such as increasing competition from MNCs, maturity of certain critical end-user markets, and the advent of thin film technology are the major restraints for the growth of this market.

Target Audience:

Petroleum refineries

Aerospace & defense OEMs

Automation providers

System integrators

Component manufacturers

Companies Mentioned:

ABB Ltd.

Ametek, Inc.

Emerson Electric Co.

Endress+Hauser AG

First Sensor AG

Gems Sensors, Inc.

Honeywell International Inc.

Krohne Messtechnik GmbH

Nohken Inc.

Pepperl+Fuchs GmbH

Siemens AG

Vega Grieshaber Kg

Topics Covered:



1 Introduction

2 Research Methodology

3 Executive Summary

4 Premium Insights

5 Market Overview

6 Industry Trends

7 Level Sensor Market, By Technology

8 Level Sensor Market, By End-User Industry

9 Level Sensors Market, By Monitoring Type

10 Level Sensor Market, By Geography

11 Competitive Landscape

12 Company Profiles

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/gqqd9k/level_sensors

Media Contact:

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



SOURCE Research and Markets
STAMFORD, Connecticut and LUCCA, Italy, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

New Orleans event includes 40 sessions covering all aspects of budgeting, planning, forecasting, and financial reporting required by modern finance

Tagetik, a visionary leader in global performance management software solutions, today announced that KPMG international finance leader Morris Treadway and political analyst James Carville will keynote the company's tenth annual global conference, Tagetik in Touch, from April 24 - 27, at the Royal Sonesta in New Orleans.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140625/694014 )



Treadway's keynote, "Are CFOs Ready for the Challenge?" will present findings from KPMG's View from the Top, a recent survey of 549 global CEOs on the role of CFOs in business today. He will discuss the unique challenges and transformative attributes of the CFO's role, the implications to finance and other functions, and what CFOs need to do to close the gap between expectations and the reality on the ground.

"We have entered the age of the Renaissance CFO," said Treadway, global head of financial management and global enterprise performance management center of excellence lead. "Today's CFO is expected to operate on a global scale, leveraging financial data and analytics to achieve profitable growth, capitalizing on a dynamic regulatory environment and nurturing and acquiring top talent. He or she is managing a vast ecosystem of expanding complexity with the goal of achieving competitive advantage." Treadway's keynote will be held at 9:15 a.m. on Tuesday, April 26.

Carville's keynote, "Politics and the 2016 Race to the White House," will examine the political power shifts over the past years and dissect the extreme forces shaping the 2016 presidential election. A native of New Orleans, Carville will also discuss what trends from the last two decades mean for the future and will share favorite political and personal stories from his three decades in politics. Carville's keynote will be held at 5:45 p.m. on Monday, April 25.

Overall, the conference agenda encompasses 40 sessions, covering topics critical to modern finance such as what-if modeling and scenario planning, forecasting, dashboarding, and narrative reporting, in addition to product roadmap details, the direction of the CPM market and enterprise cloud technology. Tagetik will also host a French Quarter scavenger hunt on Sunday afternoon to benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Southeast Louisiana.

"These conferences are hugely important to our customer partnerships and contribute to the consistently high marks our solution gets for customer satisfaction," said Manuel Vellutini, Tagetik co-CEO. "Our customers gain from the direct guidance and insights offered by our finance and technology experts who are onsite. In turn, the input and suggestions we get from our customers influence our development priorities and help us keep up with the practical and strategic needs of today's forward-thinking financial leaders."

Registration for Tagetik in Touch is open. For more details, visit the Tagetik in Touch conference website.

About Tagetik

Tagetik understands the complex challenges that face the Office of Finance and translates that knowledge into intuitive, enterprise-scale performance management software solutions that drive business results. With Tagetik, companies get the simplicity of the Cloud and the power to unify financial and operational planning; shorten the consolidation and close process; immediately analyze results, model and compare full financial statement impact of business scenarios; adjust strategic plans; seamlessly update rolling forecasts; produce formatted and auditable financial statements and management reports; collaborate on business reviews, and automate disclosure and board reporting. Tagetik has built-in financial intelligence so that CFOs, finance managers, and operations executives can orchestrate multiple or all processes in one software solution. More than 850 customers across 35 countries count on Tagetik to improve efficiency, reduce risk, save money and deliver results. For more information, visit http://www.tagetik.com. We get Finance. You get results.

Follow us on social media:

Twitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

Google+

YouTube

Blog

Media Contacts:

Linda Galloway

insidHR Communications

+1-303-863-8620 office

+1-203-733-7446 mobile

lgalloway@insidhr.com



SOURCE Tagetik
ERIE, Colo., March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- IX-EL, Inc. announced today that they are celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Slim Spurling's invention of the first Light-Life Ring, which is the foundation for the cutting-edge Light-Life Technology and the Light-Life Tools. The core of this technology is incorporated in the Light-Life Rings, Harmonizers, Acu-Vac Coils, Feedback Loops, and more. How the technology was developed and the power of the Light-Life Tools is documented in the flagship book "In the Mind of a Master". The book captures the profound impact of inventor and researcher Slim Spurling, a native Coloradoan. His cutting-edge Light-Life Technology makes it possible for individuals to drastically improve their well-being along with the improving the quality of their environment; and it all started with the invention of the Light-Life Ring.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160310/342940

March 18, 1994: Spurling used his invention of the Environmental Harmonizer to initiate his 'Denver Air Pollution Clearing Project.' He and nine of his friends each equipped with an Environmental Harmonizer (Sacred Cubit) and an Environmental Clearing tape (which is the recording of special frequencies that enhance the Harmonizer's effects) went to specific, strategic locations from Colorado Springs to Denver over to Boulder and up to Fort Collins and each playing for one hour (from 1 pm to 2 pm) the frequencies of the tape through the Harmonizers. The weather broadcast reported that evening that it was the clearest day we have ever seen. According to Spurling this brought an end to the devastating air pollution in Denver.

Spurling's Light-Life Technology is based on sacred geometry and quantum physics, and is designed to help individuals reconnect with the beneficial energies on our planet that assist them in their own growth processes.

The current list of applications for the Light-Life Tools fall into countless categories such as relieving personal discomfort, reducing stress, increasing the body's healing abilities, energizing water, decreasing air pollution, abating severe storms, and improving soil and plant quality.

"These discoveries are really rather remarkable. Almost any human endeavor will benefit. There's just an endless list."

~Slim Spurling

The Light-Life Tools and their applications are now recognized and put into practice by a growing network of renowned scientists, qualified researchers, and grassroots organizations worldwide who are keenly interested in improving the quality of life for all.

About IX-EL, Inc.

IX-EL, Inc. is the only authorized manufacturer of the original Slim Spurling's Light-Life Tools that are designed to improve individual well-being, reduce environmental pollution, and improve agriculture. Spurling's legacy of bringing balance and harmony to the planet has continued through his wife, Katharina Spurling-Kaffl, President and CEO of IX-EL, Inc. and her dedicated team. The Light-Life Tools are distributed worldwide and Spurling-Kaffl's vision is to have the Light-Life Tools become a household name. IX-EL's commitment is to Harmonizing the World  one Community at a Time!

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com

SOURCE IX-EL, Inc.
WASHINGTON, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) Board Meeting, new officers were elected to the board of directors. George A. Scangos, CEO, Biogen, was elected chairman of the PhRMA board. Joaquin Duato, worldwide chairman, pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson was elected chairman-elect and Joseph Jimenez, CEO, Novartis AG assumed the role of board treasurer.

Scangos formerly held the position of chairman-elect and succeeds Kenneth C. Frazier chairman and CEO of Merck & Co., Inc. as PhRMA board chairman.

"I am pleased to welcome Dr. George Scangos as PhRMA board chairman and thank Ken Frazier for his leadership over the past year," said PhRMA president and CEO, Stephen J. Ubl. "Our companies are committed to helping patients live longer, healthier lives and fostering the continued development of new treatments and cures for patients. As science and innovation rapidly evolves, George's experience as a scientist and researcher coupled with his proven leadership will be a great asset to PhRMA and our industry. Together, we look forward to advancing pragmatic, pro-consumer policies that ensure innovation reaches patients."

Dr. Scangos has served as CEO of Biogen since July 2010. He joined the company from Exelixis, Inc., where he served as president and CEO since October 1996. From 1987 to 1996, Scangos held various positions at Bayer, Inc., including senior vice president of research and development, and president of Bayer Biotechnology, where he was responsible for research, business development, process development, manufacturing, engineering and quality assurance of Bayer's recombinant products. Before joining Bayer in 1987, he was professor of biology at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Scangos received a B.A. in biology from Cornell University and a Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts.

"We stand on the cusp of an amazing era of new medicines, better health and more affordable health care that will be enabled by those medicines," said Scangos. "To make this promise a reality, our industry must be a contributor to policy solutions that address the entire system of health care costs and the challenges faced by patients in accessing the care they need.

"I am honored to take on this new role and to work with stakeholders across industry, government and academia to help develop creative policy solutions required to translate scientific discoveries into meaningful treatments for patients."

Joaquin Duato has served as worldwide chairman, pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, since January 2011. During his 27 year career at Johnson & Johnson, Joaquin has had experiences in sales, marketing and general management. Working across both pharmaceuticals and medical devices, he has held regional chairman roles and led local market businesses in multiple countries and regions. He is a member of the board of trustees for the international non-profit organization Save the Children. A native of Valencia, Spain, Duato holds an undergraduate degree in economics and master's degrees in business administration from ESADE Business School in Barcelona and in international management from Thunderbird in Phoenix, Arizona.

"Our medicines offer hope to patients all over the world," said Duato. "As we strive to innovate in our ability to conquer disease, we must continue to evolve and broaden patient access to the best treatments available. I look forward to furthering the work of our industry to bring new solutions and cures to patients."

Jimenez has been CEO of Novartis since 2010. He joined the company in 2007 as division head, Novartis Consumer Health and held the position of division head, Novartis Pharmaceuticals prior to the role of CEO. Previously, he served as president and CEO of the North American and European businesses for the H.J. Heinz Company and on the board of directors of Colgate Palmolive Co. and AstraZeneca PLC. He currently serves on the board of General Motors Co. Jimenez holds a bachelor's degree from Stanford University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley.

"As our health care system continues to evolve, we must continue to focus on investment in research and development for the next generation of treatments for patients," said Jimenez. "We must maintain an environment where innovation can thrive to deliver the best value to patients."

About PhRMA

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) represents the country's leading innovative biopharmaceutical research companies, which are devoted to discovering and developing medicines that enable patients to live longer, healthier, and more productive lives. Since 2000, PhRMA member companies have invested more than $600 billion in the search for new treatments and cures, including an estimated $51.2 billion in 2014 alone.

Connect with PhRMA

For information on how innovative medicines save lives, please visit:

www.PhRMA.org

www.FromHopetoCures.org

www.Facebook.com/PhRMA

www.Twitter.com/PhRMA

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20091027/PHRMALOGO

SOURCE Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America

Related Links

http://www.PhRMA.org


BOSTON, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Cloud Spectator, the industry leading Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) Performance Benchmarking agency, today released the 2016 Top Ten European Cloud Service Providers Report, the most comprehensive study of its kind analyzing the price-performance of IaaS vendors across nine European countries. The report addresses a need for transparency in a growing cloud marketplace as demonstrated by Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure's commitment to launch new data centers in the United Kingdom.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160309/342521

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160309/342522

"Many multi-nationals and regionally-based enterprises require data centers in specific countries or regions. Reasons for this range from security and compliance requirements to performance factors such as latency," noted Kenny Li CEO, Cloud Spectator. "Many of our clients require a global footprint, so this report was designed to help address their needs and provide the public with transparency into the European Cloud market."

In the 2016 Top Ten European Cloud Service Providers Report, Cloud Spectator tested the price-performance of 19 qualified IaaS providers, measuring vCPU, memory, and block storage performance. The report benchmarks the top ten providers and ranks them based on Cloud Spectator's CloudSpecs Score (the price-performance value).

"Price-performance benchmarks offer important insight into the value of IaaS offerings, and this report compares the value of both large and small EU providers," said Philbert Shih, Managing Director of Structure Research. "It's interesting to see the differences in performance even between different sized VMs, and that some small VMs outperform many large VMs. This type of insight can potentially provide large cost savings."

The 19 European CSPs included in the report are: 1&1, AWS, Aruba Cloud, Azure, CenturyLink, City Cloud, CloudSigma, CloudWatt, Datacentred, Dimension Data, Google Compute, Interoute, PhoenixNAP, ProfitBricks, RackSpace UK, IBM Softlayer, UpCloud, vCloud Air, and Verizon.

The report contains detailed results and CloudSpecs Scores for vCPU, memory, and block storage for the top ten providers.

The report can be downloaded for free at: http://connect.cloudspectator.com/european-cloud-service-provider-report-download

About Cloud Spectator

Cloud Spectator is a cloud analyst agency focused on IaaS performance. The company actively monitors the largest IaaS providers in the world, comparing VM performance and pricing to achieve transparency in the cloud market. Cloud Spectator helps cloud providers understand their market position and helps enterprises make intelligent decisions in selecting cloud providers and lowering annual operating costs.

Media inquires:

Ken Balazs, VP Sales and Marketing

1-617-300-0711

Email

SOURCE Cloud Spectator

Related Links

http://www.cloudspectator.com


BOSTON, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- FundCount LLC, (www.FundCount.com) a Boston-based provider of investment management, general ledger and partnership accounting software for single and multi-family offices, fund administrators, hedge funds, private equity and related investment firms; is pleased to announce that Michael Slemmer, CFA is now Chief Operating Officer of the Americas for FundCount.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160309/342406

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160309/342407LOGO



Supporting family offices, fund admins, hedge funds & private equity

With over 30 years of experience in investment technology, Slemmer joins FundCount from SS&C, where he was Director of Business Development for its performance measurement, attribution and risk products. Prior to this he was a principal at The Collaborative, an investment industry consulting firm. Slemmer was General Manager, North America and held other leadership roles at Thomson Financial  PORTIA (now ThomsonReuters) and was a key player in Thomson's investment software growth.

"We're very excited to have an experienced and successful industry pro like Mike on our team," said Alex Ivanov, CEO/founder of FundCount. "We've had solid growth in the Americas, and believe with Mike's leadership we'll achieve faster growth," he said.

"FundCount is the alternative investment industry's best-kept technology secret. It's one platform that integrates investment, G/L and partnership accounting and analysis  and with over 100 clients has a loyal and happy user base," said Slemmer. "What FundCount has lacked is strong sales and marketing. My goal is to get the word out on how great FundCount is, and significantly grow our business."

FundCount has over 100 client firms worldwide, with 80 of these in the Americas. Additional FundCount clients are in South Africa, Switzerland and Singapore. "We have well-known firms using FundCount  such as Cortland Capital Market Services, PKF O'Connor Davies and TFO Phoenix  and believe that Mike can leverage our very high client satisfaction ratings in expanding our business," said Ivanov.

About FundCount

FundCount offers portfolio managers, accountants and fund administrators powerful tools for investment management and partnership accounting. Investment and accounting professionals who serve institutional investors and ultra-high net worth families have relied on FundCount to help manage their operations for over 10 years. FundCount's integrated system streamlines portfolio and partnership accounting  offering higher levels of efficiency to operations and immediate and actionable information for managers and clients.

Media Contact:

Cathy Tainter

The Collaborative for Business Development Inc.

508-359-8216

Email

SOURCE FundCount LLC

Related Links

http://www.FundCount.com


DENVER, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- ProtectWise, provider of the industry's first Cloud Network DVR for complete detection, visibility and response to enterprise threats, today announced that CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, has named ProtectWise to its inaugural 2016 Security 100 list. The project recognizes the coolest security vendors in each of five categories, of which ProtectWise was listed as one of the 25 Coolest Network Security Vendors.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160309/342640LOGO

The companies in CRN's Security 100 have demonstrated creativity and innovation in product development, as well as a strong commitment to delivering those offerings through a vibrant channel of solution providers.

In addition to recognizing security technology vendors for outstanding products and services, the Security 100 list also serves as a valuable guide for solution providers trying to navigate the IT security market. The list aids prospective channel partners in identifying the vendors that can best help them improve or expand their security offerings.

The ProtectWise Cloud Network DVR provides unlimited retention of full-fidelity network traffic by continuously recording everything on a company's network. By leveraging the cloud, the ProtectWise platform provides powerful threat detection capabilities. It correlates threat detection from proprietary research, machine learning, flow-based traffic algorithms as well as multiple commercial intelligence feeds to provide collective security. This is combined with advanced visualization tools that allow for deep-dive forensics and faster incident response.

"Security solutions are more essential than ever to the health and sustainability of every business, large or small," said Robert Faletra, CEO, The Channel Company. "The frequency and complexity of IT security threats have vastly increased in recent years, requiring rapid innovation and an incisive, forward-thinking defense strategy. The importance of having expertly secured networks, software, hardware, applications and databases cannot be overstated. Our Security 100 list honors those tech suppliers at the forefront of this field for their contributions to the advancement of the channel and to the IT market at large."

"CRN's recognition of ProtectWise on its inaugural Security 100 list is a testament to the hard work and innovation of the team here," said Mark Rotolo, VP of Global Sales at ProtectWise. "ProtectWise is changing the way that security professionals interact with network security. Our platform provides a comprehensive network view that is both beautiful and powerful. We think this is an excellent opportunity for the channel."

The Security 100 list will be featured in the April 2016 issue of CRN and online at www.crn.com/security100.

About ProtectWise

ProtectWise is disrupting the network security industry with its Cloud Network DVR, a virtual camera in the cloud that records everything on the network. The service allows security professionals to see threats in real time and continuously goes back in time to discover previously unknown threats automatically. By harnessing the power of the cloud, ProtectWise provides an integrated solution with complete detection and visibility of enterprise threats and accelerated incident response. The Cloud Network DVR delivers unique advantages over current network security solutions, including an unlimited retention window with full-fidelity forensic capacity, the industry's only automated smart retrospection, advanced security visualization, and the ease and cost-savings of an on-demand deployment model.

Founded in April 2013, the company is based in Denver and led by a team of security and SaaS industry veterans from McAfee, IBM, Mandiant and Proofpoint. ProtectWise has raised more than $37 million in funding and was named to Network World's list of "10 Security Start-Ups to Watch." For more information, visit www.protectwise.com.

About the Channel Company

The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelco.com

CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. The Channel Company logo is a trademark of The Channel Company, LLC (registration pending). All rights reserved.

Channel Company Contact:

Melanie Turpin

The Channel Company

(508) 416-1195

[email protected]

SOURCE ProtectWise

Related Links

https://www.protectwise.com


SAVANNAH, Ga., March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Paula Wallace, president and founder of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), today announces the release of The Bee and the Acorn, her memoir produced with Assouline Publishing. In The Bee and the Acorn, Wallace shares the remarkable story behind the creation of the most revered and comprehensive art and design university in the world. The book ($35, hardcover, illustrated, ISBN: 9781614285083) is slated for release in April 2016, and will be available at Assouline boutiques, shopSCAD, and online at assouline.com, shopSCAD.com, thebeeandtheacorn.com, and Amazon.com. E-book and audio formats are forthcoming.

Paula Wallace, President and Founder of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), announced today the release of The Bee and the Acorn, her memoir. Paula Wallace is the President and Founder of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), a private, nonprofit, accredited university for creative careers.

In The Bee and the Acorn, readers journey with Wallace from her Atlanta Public Schools elementary classroom to storied Savannah, where, just as General Oglethorpe built a new kind of city, Wallace built a new kind of college  marrying the best of higher education tradition with pedagogical and curricular innovation. For four decades, Wallace's path has paralleled that of the university she founded. Through surprising tales that span the purchase of the university's first building to its global expansion and more, Wallace reveals herself as an educator, entrepreneur, designer, preservationist, mother, and wife.

"Paula Wallace built one of the world's premier institutions of design, art, and education," said Arianna Huffington, cofounder, president, and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post. "In her candid and compelling memoir, she weaves the story of its founding together with her deeply personal meditations on creativity, family, and faith."

Eschewing convention, Wallace's pioneering spirit and commitment to innovative excellence transformed a tiny art college with an incoming class of seventy-one students into an international university. With a mission to prepare talented students for professional creative careers, SCAD has grown to define Wallace's singular vision. Evidenced the world over by the university's four locations on three continents, the university now encompasses forty-five thousand students and alumni.

"I imagined a student-centered university where the hands readily made what the mind dreamt and what the heart desired. SCAD is that magical triad of a place. The Bee and the Acorn is my way of sharing with others what they can do, if only they dare to try," said Wallace.

Sincere, witty, and candid, Wallace shares the trials and triumphs of building a university and the visionary SCAD story that appeals to students, educators, entrepreneurs, and anyone who dares to dream big and do the impossible. Titled after the university's mascot, the bee, and the university's crest emblem, the acorn  two beings that defy the odds of nature in their ability to rise to great heights  Wallace's memoir is about joy, determination, and a life filled with gratitude. Whimsical illustrations and artful vignettes by SCAD alumna Emily Isabella (B.F.A., fibers, 2008) punctuate the story.

For more information, visit thebeeandtheacorn.com. Proceeds from The Bee and the Acorn will benefit the SCAD scholarship fund.

Paula Wallace

Paula Wallace is the president and founder of the Savannah College of Art and Design, a private, nonprofit, accredited university for creative careers. Wallace served as academic dean and provost of SCAD for twenty-two years and has served as president of the university since 2000. Wallace has authored several children's books and two interior design titles  A House in the South and Perfect Porches. Among many awards and honors, she has been named Southeast Area Ernst & Young Principled Leadership Entrepreneur of the Year and was awarded the inaugural Elle Decor Vision Award. Wallace has been appointed a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Academiques by the Conseiller Culturel and Consul General of the French Embassy in the United States of America, and the Georgia Historical Society named her a 2015 Georgia Trustee. She currently serves on the National Advisory Board of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.

Follow Wallace on Twitter and Instagram at @paulaswallace.

SCAD: The University for Creative Careers

The Savannah College of Art and Design is a private, nonprofit, accredited university offering more than one hundred academic degree programs in forty-two majors across its locations in Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia; Hong Kong; Lacoste, France; and online via SCAD eLearning. SCAD enrolls twelve thousand five hundred undergraduate and graduate students from more than one hundred countries. The innovative SCAD curriculum is enhanced by advanced professional-level technology, equipment, and learning resources, as well as opportunities for internships, professional certifications, and collaborative projects with corporate partners.

In 2015, the prestigious Red Dot Design Rankings placed SCAD in the top four universities in the Americas and Europe. Career preparation is woven into every fiber of the university, resulting in a superior alumni placement rate. In a study of Spring 2014 SCAD graduates, ninety-seven percent were employed, pursuing further education, or both within ten months of graduation.

For more information, visit the official SCAD blog.

Assouline Publishing

The first luxury brand dedicated to culture, Assouline began with the belief that a book artfully crafted and highly considered in its visual content can open our eyes and minds. Over two decades, guided by our passion for knowledge, culture, and travel, we have extended our vision to create all that can be desired in a chic library, from lavishly illustrated books and special editions to unique decorative accessories.

In autumn 2014, Assouline celebrated its twentieth anniversary by introducing the Maison Assouline international flagship, showcasing our complete world of culture and lifestyle, situated at 196A Piccadilly in London, a beautifully restored landmark Grade II listed building designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1922, a stately presence in the St. James's neighborhood.

With the recent debut of the Assouline Interiors services and turnkey lines of furniture, library shelving, carpeting, lighting, and art objects, it is possible to create a bespoke salon, lounge, or office space that embodies the sophistication and ambience of a contemporary individualized library.

For more information, visit assouline.com or follow Assouline Publishing on social media:

Instagram: instagram.com/assouline

Facebook: facebook.com/AssoulinePub

Twitter: twitter.com/AssoulinePub

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160310/343077

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160310/343078

SOURCE Savannah College of Art and Design
HERMOSA BEACH, Calif., March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Empanada Shop (TES) (http://the-empanadashop.com/), an organic authentic Mexican food producer, announced today that it is the only certified organic and USDA-inspected company that manufactures empanadas, raising the standards of prepared Mexican food in the U.S. Starting this week, TES's frozen organic empanadas will be available through Tony's Fine Foods, distribution experts in the Western U.S. and a subsidiary of United Natural Foods, Inc.(UNFI).

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160310/342778

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160310/342779

Slow Cook Family Recipes Are the Secret

TES combines treasured family recipes with locally sourced non-GMO food to craft authentic Mexican empanadas. TES is owned and operated by husband-and-wife team Ruben and Charlene Frias. TES features traditional tasty Mexican flavors with fresh ingredients. The handcrafted empanadas begin with organic meats slow-cooked in Mexican chiles, filled with organic vegetables and Mexican cheeses, and baked to a golden brown.

"The Empanada Shop is excited to join Tony's Fine Foods in bringing our delicious family recipes to the American table," Ruben Frias, chef of TES, said. "We slow cook our organic empanadas every day to cultivate the joy of sharing good food."

Committed to Healthy Organic Ingredients

TES was born from the idea that more people want to know how their food is grown or raised, according to Charlene Frias. Headquartered in Hermosa Beach, TES opened their kitchen in the LA Prep (http://www.laprep.la/#make-it-real) production center in the urban neighborhood of Lincoln Heights, becoming the first USDA certified organic plant within the facility. The USDA inspects the plant each day meat is prepared and TES has a management system which keeps food safety addressed at the highest standards.

Tony's Fine Foods (http://www.tonysfinefoods.com/) carries the full organic line of frozen single-serve empanadas, which includes chicken, beef, sweet potato and corn, two popular breakfast choices, Organic Red Lentil, Potato and Egg and Organic Huevos Rancheros and Smashed Bean and the Organic Chicken Empanaditas, translated as "little empanadas."

Tony's Fine Foods is proud to offer our stores the best tasting, frozen organic empanadas available," Shawn Matesen, Tony's category director, said. "On-the-go busy families will be impressed by the convenient, nutritious and delicious meals that The Empanada Shop sustainably prepares."

About The Empanada Shop

The Empanada Shop was created to elevate the prepared Mexican food market to delicious, sustainable and healthy standards. Using family recipes from many generations, TES crafts fresh and frozen Mexican empanadas using organic and local nutritious ingredients. The company's products are distributed regionally through Tony's Fine Foods and Albert's Organics to natural food grocers, including Erewhon, Vintage Grocers, Clark's Nutrition, Organic Roots, PC Greens and Jimbos. TES will expand its product offerings with organic blue corn tamales and Mexican soups this year.

TES will exhibit at Expo West 2016 with Albert's Organics in Hall C, exhibit no. 2530 at the Anaheim Convention Center, March 11-13.

Media Contact

Stephanie Brown

408-693-1273

Email

Website: http://the-empanadashop.com/

Facebook: The Empanada Shop

Twitter: @theempanadashop

YouTube: The Empanada Shop

SOURCE The Empanada Shop

Related Links

http://the-empanadashop.com


Last year Delaware Chief Justice posted an article on the Hobby Lobby case:

This article connects the Supreme Courts decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby to the history of corporate paternalism. It details the history of employer efforts to restrict the freedom of employees, and legislative attempts to ensure worker freedom. It also highlights the role of employment in healthcare coverage, and situates the Affordable Care Acts minimum essential guarantees in a historical and global context. The article also discusses how Hobby Lobby combines with the Supreme Courts earlier decisions in Citizens United and National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius to constrain the governments ability to extend the social safety net, and shows how those decisions put pressure on corporate law itself.

A Job Is Not a Hobby: The Judicial Revival of Corporate Paternalism and Its Problematic Implications (January 26, 2015). Journal of Corporation Law, 2015, Forthcoming; U of Penn, Inst for Law & Econ Research Paper No. 15-2. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2555816

Harry Hutchinson recently posted a reply, which argues that:

In his recent article, A Job is Not a Hobby: The Judicial Revival of Corporate Paternalism and its Problematic Implications, Judge Leo Strine endeavors to fashion an unbreakable link between the Supreme Courts recent decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby in combination with the Courts recent corporate law jurisprudence surfacing in Citizens United and the reappearance of corporate paternalism. This move ostensibly threaten employee autonomy and positive rights. Advancing a profuse panegyric on the New Deal and later Fair Deal reforms, Strine stoutly defends the quest for social progress. He is particularly animated to counter the efforts of employers, such as the respective corporations that participated in the Hobby Lobby decision to pursue a religious accommodation from generally applicable law. Properly appreciated his article raises the vexed question whether corporations  particularly religious corporations  have rights either directly or derivatively when such rights delimit the nations social safety net that progressives and liberals have constructed and sustained through novel interpretation of the law. This article also questions the Supreme Courts understanding of corporate law, which on Strines account threatens the return of wage slavery.



This essay responds to Strines observations and analysis in several ways. After summarizing his argument, this essay ascertains whether Judge Strines largely utilitarian calculus eradicates debate or rather sparks it. This inspection is complemented by reconsidering Progressive Era currents, New Deal labor law and the ongoing plight of marginalized individuals and groups despite increasing levels of government intrusion in society grounded in the presumed benefits of reform initiatives. In addition, this response evaluates the possibility that the United States can be defined plausibly as a truly secular society and the implications arising from an answer to this question for purposes of sorting out whether religious exemptions ought to be available for for-profit corporations either within the meaning of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act or within the parameters of the First Amendment. Lastly, I consider whether Supreme Court jurisprudence has reinstituted corporate paternalism that somehow transforms corporate law or, alternatively strengthens it. Of particular interest is Strines claim that granting corporations statutory or constitutional rights is incompatible with the notion of corporate separateness, a claim that may be difficult to square with a robust conception of the theory of the firm grounded in contractarianism and law and economics scholarship. Taken as a whole, Judge Strines approach is refracted through a prism supplied by political theorists, constitutional scholars and corporate law scholars. Such an inspection exposes the doubtful provenance of his claims.

Hobby Lobby, Corporate Law, and Unsustainable Liberalism: A Reply to Judge Strine (February 16, 2016). Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Vol. 39, 2016, Forthcoming; George Mason Legal Studies Research Paper No. LS 16-06. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2733349
New Delhi : New Delhi March 4 (IANS) CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Friday said that JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar will be campaigning for Left in the upcoming assembly polls in five states, "as he had already been doing".

"He is a leftist and is already campaigning," Yechury told IANS.

The states of West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry will have election in April and May this year.

Left leaders said that students from the student wings of left parties had been campaigning in the elections, for a "United Left" in the past and Kanhaiya Kumar, who is from the Communist Party of India's student wing All India Students Federation was no exception to it.

"He had been campaigning for CPI in his hometown Begusarai in Bihar. He already campaigned during 2014 Lok Sabha elections for the Left. He was not famous at that time though, but now he is. Its natural that he will be campaigning for the left in upcoming assembly elections," CPI-M leader All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) president Subhashini Ali told IANS.

"The whole matter had bought Left at the centre stage of Indian politics though," she added.

Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on February 12 over allegations of raising anti-India slogans. He was released on bail on Thursday. He comes from Begusarai, a left stronghold in Bihar.
Chennai, March 7 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene personally and secure the release of Indian fishermen from Lankan custody.

In a letter to Modi, the text of which was released to the media here, Jayalalithaa requested the former's personal intervention to issue instructions to the Ministry of External Affairs to take up the matter with Sri Lanka and secure the release of 64 Indian fishermen and 77 fishing boats.

"There is an urgent and imperative need to ensure that our fishermen are not arrested and abducted on the high seas. Proactive action needs to be initiated at the highest level to ensure a permanent solution to this sensitive issue that plagues the livelihoods of thousands of Tamil Nadu fishermen," she said.

Jayalalithaa drew Modi's attention to the apprehension of 29 Indian fishermen and their four fishing craft from near Tamil Nadu by the Sri Lankan Navy on Sunday.

A narrow strip of sea divides India and Sri Lanka. Indian fishermen are arrested by the Lankan Navy on the charge that they fish in Lankan waters.

Sri Lanka continues to keep the apprehended Indian fishing boats even though it releases the fishermen.
Chandigarh, March 8 : 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.
United Nations, March 8 : 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.
Agartala, March 8 : 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.
Tehran, March 9 : Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on Wednesday successfully test-fired two ballistic missiles in line with the country's defence doctrine.

The missiles dubbed Qadr-H were test-fired during the ongoing large-scale drills, codenamed Eqtedar-e-Velayat, Iran's Press TV reported.

Earlier, Iran on Tuesday test-fired two ballistic missiles during the drills.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Tuesday said that Iran's recent ballistic missile tests did not violate an international nuclear agreement.

Also on Tuesday, US State Department spokesman John Kirby echoed Earnest that the tests, if confirmed, will not be a breach of the Iran nuclear deal. However, he warned that the US will not "turn a blind eye to this".

Separately, under UN Security Council Resolution 1929, Iran was prohibited from working on ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads.
Moscow, March 9 : A Ukrainian pilot on trial in Russia over the killing of two journalists addressed the court on Wednesday and said she would continue a hunger strike she has been on for five days.

Russia has proceeded with the trial of Nadiya Savchenko despite widespread international condemnation. Last week prosecutors demanded a sentence of 23 years' imprisonment, The Guardian reported.

"It is an absurd situation when those who abduct people, subject them to torture then act as if they have a right to judge them," she said, adding "How can one talk about a fair trial? In Russia, there are no trials or investigations; only a farce played out by Kremlin puppets."

Savchenko has declared a number of hunger strikes during her nearly two years in Russian captivity, but after last week's hearing she declared she would go on full hunger strike, refusing both food and fluids, until she was returned to Ukraine.

Prosecutors claim Savchenko directed an artillery strike that resulted in the deaths of two Russian television journalists in June 2014. Savchenko, a military pilot, was serving on the ground with a volunteer battalion during the conflict in east Ukraine.

The prosecutors said Savchenko was detained in Russia after crossing the border disguised as a refugee.

However, Savchenko has said she was captured by pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine and then handed over to Russian troops, who took her across the border.

On Monday, US secretary of state John Kerry called on Russia to release Savchenko, saying her detention showed a "disregard for international standards, as well as for Russia's commitments under the Minsk agreements".

After Savchenko's statement, the judge retired to consider the verdict and sentencing, which are due on March 21.
Cairo, March 10 : French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Wednesday that his country will not "automatically" recognise the state of Palestine if Paris' initiative to host an international summit to revive the peace process with Israel, fails.

"There is never anything automatic," Ayrault said at a joint press conference with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukri in Cairo, adding that "France will present its initiative to its partners. It will be the first step, there is no pre-requisite."

"What we want, and that is our commitment, is to resume the negotiation process," the French minister noted, indicating that Paris will do its best to provide a favorable climate to revive the Palestine-Israel peace talks.

"France wants to re-launch the peace initiative in the Middle East with the aim of hosting an international conference by this summer... if conditions are met," Ayrault explained.

Shoukri supported France's initiative, which "guarantees the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people," noting that the "two-state solution is the way to end this crisis."

The Egyptian minister also added that Egypt and France agreed on the need to fight terrorism in Libya, whose instability threatens Egyptian borders.
Geneva, March 10 : The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, confirmed on Wednesday that substantive talks will start on March 14 with the delegations from the Syrian government and opposition.

De Mistura noted the talks will focus on forming a transitional government formation, drafting a new constitution and holding general elections within 18 months.

The special envoy denied that the ceasefire in force in Syria will end on March 18 midnight, stressing that it is an indefinite cessation of hostilities "from the point of view" of the United Nations.

He pointed out that negotiations will focus on finding "a political solution" to the Syrian conflict, rather that concentrating on issues relating to the cessation of hostilities or access of humanitarian aid.

De Mistura said that the talks will not last "beyond March 24."

The negotiations will be resumed seven or 10 days after March 24, so that each delegation can hold internal consultations, especially for the groups representing the opposition.
Rome, March 10 : A Somali asylum seeker was arrested in Italy on Wednesday on suspicion that he was planning an attack at the railway station of capital Rome, media reports said.

The 22-year-old asylum seeker, also reportedly a spiritual guide or an imam, was being hosted at a migrant reception facility near Campobasso, the capital of Molise region in central Italy, Xinhua reported.

"We have precise technical evidence about the possibility that he was organizing an attack in Rome," Campobasso chief prosecutor Armando D'Alterio was quoted as saying by Rome-based la Repubblica newspaper.

Prosecutors said the Somali was planning to run away from the facility, named "Happy Family", on Wednesday and then probably head for Rome.

"Let's start with Italy, let's go to Rome and let's start with the railway station," he said according to transcripts.

Police investigated the young man for two months through phone tapping, hidden cameras and bugs, finding out that he was trying to convince the other migrants at the facility to carry out "jihad".

The Somali was also filmed by police while he watched a number of videos showing terrorist attacks in what D'Alterio called an "intense and vehement proselytism" against the West.

The suspected terrorist reportedly praised last year's attacks that killed 130 people in Paris as well as martyrdom, calling on the other migrants at the facility to "fight against the enemies of God."

Prosecutors underlined, however, that many migrants at the facility collaborated with police after distancing themselves from the ideas promoted by their spiritual guide.

Interior Minister Angelino Alfano hailed the arrest saying that Italy has activities of intelligence gathering and prevention that work, although it must be stressed that zero risk does not exist.

A total of 259 extremists were arrested, 74,177 checked and 489 investigated last year, according to the 2015 report of the interior ministry, while several new arrests and investigations have been carried out in 2016 so far.

Italy in recent months has strengthened security measures in the wake of the attacks in Paris and following a warning from American intelligence services that iconic venues of the Mediterranean country could be the targets of terrorists.
Los Angeles, March 10 : Actress Anna Faris took her son to visit a penguin they named Eagle.

The 38-year-old actress and her husband Chris Pratt were asked by Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle to choose a moniker for the new addition to the facility last October and on Tuesday, their three-year-old son, Jack got to meet Eagle the penguin.

Alongside a photograph of her son and the flightless bird, Faris tweeted: "Jack got to meet Eagle the penguin! Thank you so much woodlandparkzoo! prattprattpratt (sic)."

However, it seems the youngster wasn't particularly impressed by the penguin, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

Anna wrote alongside another photograph: "This was also a less-adorable expression upon introduction - turns out sometimes penguins smell (sic)."

The "Mom" actress shared why they had named the bird Eagle.

"Eagle, Chris and I grew up in Washington State, we love bald eagles, and we thought a penguin with an aspiration to fly might be really fun and we can't wait to meet you," she said.
Islamabad, March 10 : Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is scheduled to visit Pakistan at the end of this month in a bid to re-establish bilateral economic ties, the media reported on Thursday.

According to sources, the two-day visit is scheduled from March 25-26, Dawn online reported.

This would be the first visit by an Iranian president to Pakistan after four years. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last visited Islamabad in February 2012 to attend a trilateral summit with Afghan and Pakistani leaders.

Rouhani's visit comes at a time when curbs on Iran have been lifted following a nuclear deal that came into effect in January.

The Iranian president has made a number of overseas trips since the lifting of sanctions to revive his country's trade ties.

Pakistan de-notified the UN sanctions at the end of February paving the way for the re-establishment of trade and business relations.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif last visited Tehran in January looking to mediate between Tehran and Riyadh when tensions between the two countries spiked in the aftermath of the execution of activist and Shia cleric, Sheikh Nimr, by Saudi authorities.

The prime minister had earlier paid a bilateral visit to Tehran in May 2014.
Washington, March 10 : Despite a flap over sale of F-16 aircraft to Pakistan and India's denial of visas to a US commission on religious freedom, the US says it has a strong relationship with India, specifically with the Narendra Modi government.

"No, I would actually disagree with that," State Department spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Wednesday when asked if the US was not having a smooth ride with India in view of such issues.

"I think we have had and we look forward to continuing to have a good, strong relationship with India writ large and with the Modi government specifically," he said.

"And there are a lot of common issues, common challenges, common threats, quite frankly, that we and the Indian people face," Kirby said.

"So no, I would absolutely not characterize that at all," he said. "I think we've got a good, honest, candid, productive relationship with the Modi government, and we look forward to that continuing. In fact, we look forward to it deepening."

Asked whether issues surrounding the landmark India-US civil nuclear deal would be resolved during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Washington for the nuclear security summit later this month, Kirby said he didn't have "anything specific" on the issue.

"Obviously, we're very much looking forward to that and to our ability to participate in it. But I don't have anything specific with the Indian civil nuclear programme to discuss today," he said.

The Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar's who Wednesday concluded a four day visit to Washington to review India-US bilateral relations ahead of Modi's visit "talked about a wide range of bilateral and regional issues" with US officials.

Jaishankar met with Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken and many other officials, and discussed "the full range of issues in the US-India relationship were discussed - economic, political, security," Kirby said.

Asked whether counter-terrorism and the sale of F-16 aircraft to Pakistan in the face of India's strong objections was discussed, the official repeated that "they discussed a wide range to include security issues" but declined to give a detailed readout.

"I can scarcely think of a time when we haven't sat down with our Indian friends that we didn't talk about counterterrorism," Kirby added.

He again declined "to get into great detail" whether India's denial of visas to the US Commission On International Religious Freedom was discussed.

"We had good, productive talks about a wide range of issues facing both our countries as we continue to try to deepen this relationship and deal with very common challenges," Kirby said.

"As for the commission and the visas, we've made our concerns known at various levels," he said. "So we've not been bashful or shy about stating our disappointment.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
Washington, March 10 : Future Mars exploration has got a date, finally. NASA's new InSight mission -- set to study the deep interior of Red Planet -- is targeting a new launch window that begins on May 5, 2018, with a Mars landing scheduled for November 26 in the same year.

The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission will help scientists understand how rocky planets -- including Earth -- formed and evolved.

The spacecraft had been on track to launch this month until a vacuum leak in its prime science instrument prompted NASA in December to suspend preparations for launch.

"The science goals of InSight are compelling and the NASA and France's space agency Centre National d'Atudes Spatiales (CNES) plans to overcome the technical challenges are sound," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, DC.

"The quest to understand the interior of Mars has been a longstanding goal of planetary scientists for decades. We're excited to be back on the path for a launch, now in 2018," he added in a statement.

Engineers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California will redesign, build and conduct qualifications of the new vacuum enclosure for the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) -- the component that failed in December.

CNES will lead instrument level integration and test activities, allowing the InSight Project to take advantage of each organisation's proven strengths.

The seismometer instrument's main sensors need to operate within a vacuum chamber to provide the exquisite sensitivity needed for measuring ground movements as small as half the radius of a hydrogen atom.

The rework of the seismometer's vacuum container will result in a thoroughly tested instrument in 2017 that will maintain a high degree of vacuum around the sensors through rigors of launch, landing, deployment and a two-year prime mission on the surface of Mars.

"The shared and renewed commitment to this mission continues our collaboration to find clues in the heart of Mars about the early evolution of our solar system," said Marc Pircher, director of CNES's Toulouse Space Centre.

NASA is on an ambitious journey to Mars that includes sending humans to the Red Planet, and that work remains on track.

Robotic spacecraft are leading the way for NASA's Mars Exploration Programme, with the upcoming Mars 2020 rover being designed and built and the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers exploring the Martian surface.

The Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft are currently orbiting the planet, along with the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN) orbiter, which is helping scientists understand what happened to the Martian atmosphere.
Berlin, March 10 : German engineering giant Siemens announced that it plans to cut 2,500 jobs worldwide in order to improve competitiveness, the media reported on Thursday.

A total of about 2,500 jobs worldwide, of which 2,000 are in Germany, primarily in Bavaria, will be affected by the realignment, Xinhua reported citing a statement released on the company's official website on Wednesday.

Siemens stated that current locations will be retained, repeating that the main goal of the planned measures is to consolidate the activities and optimise the size of manufacturing locations in Europe in order to improve competitiveness in a market environment that continues to be difficult.

"Plunging demand in raw materials markets has led to a significant intensification of competition, particularly in Asia. To guarantee our competitiveness, we've got to adapt to these conditions," said Juergen Brandes, CEO of Siemens' process industries and drives division.
Chennai, March 10 : Global credit rating agency Fitch Ratings on Thursday said a consolidated Indian banking structure would be a positive development in the long term.

"We believe that consolidation coupled with higher capital requirements and governance reforms would position the banking system better in support of a more open and higher-growth economy," Fitch Ratings said in a statement.

According to the agency, more stable banking systems tend to be structured around a number of large "pillar" banking groups.

"These large banks in a consolidated banking system enjoy scale benefits leading to better diversification of risks and stronger overall profitability contributing to higher credit ratings," the statement added.

The agency said the financial systems would benefit from more banks of a similar size to State Bank of India (SBI).

"The system is quite fragmented at present, with around 50 domestic banks - with PSB's (public sector bank) accounting for around a 70 percent asset share," Fitch Ratings said.

According to Fitch Ratings, SBI has performed much better than its PSB peers through this credit cycle, thanks in part to greater scale benefits which enhance pricing power from a funding perspective and diversification.

SBI has stronger capital ratios and is better positioned to absorb the asset-quality issues that have plagued the sector.

Agreeing on implementation challenges during the consolidation process, Fitch Ratings said the long-term benefits far outweigh short-term challenges that tend to be associated with a consolidation process that is forced on the sector.

However, notwithstanding the talk about potential consolidation, the need to address the PSB's asset quality and potential capital shortfalls are the more immediate issues that need to be addressed.
Jaipur, March 10 : Bollywood actor Salman Khan pleaded "not guilty" in an arms case in a Jodhpur court on Thursday.

Salman was here in connection with the recording of his statement as an accused in the Jodhpur chief judicial magistrate's court in an over-17 years old case of Arms Act violation.

It was the third time that Salman came to the JOdhpur court for the same case.

During the course of hearing on Thursday, Salman replied general questions the court posed in regard to his name, his father's name, age, residential address and caste etc. However, on being asked about the allegations leveled by the prosecution, Salman pleaded "not guilty".

He said to the court: "Main nirdosh hoon. Mujhe jhootha fansaya gaya hai (I am not guilty and I have been falsely implicated)."

Slaman's sister Alvira and his bodyguard Shera were also present during the court proceedings. He stayed in the court for less than about half an hour.

Chief Judicial Magistrate Dalpat Singh Rajpurohit on March 3 asked Salman to appear before the court to record his statement as an accused in the court on Thursday.

The chief judicial magistrate while dismissing an application from Salman's counsel for re-examination of the then collector Rajat Mishra, termed examination of prosecution witnesses completed and ordered Salman to remain present before the court on Thursday for recording of the "accused's statement".

Earlier the court was to pronounce its judgment in this case on February 25 last year, but it was deferred when a few applications for examination of four witnesses were allowed.

After examination of four witnesses, Salman appeared before the local court on April 29 last year.

On March 3, after getting the re-examination completed, Salman's counsel again moved an application to examine witness Rajat Mishra, but the CJM court rejected the plea and ordered Salman to be present before the court on Thursday.

Salman and a few other Bollywood stars were accused of poaching blackbucks on the night of October 1-2, 1998, during the shooting of Hindi movie "Hum Saath Saath Hain".

Two blackbucks, a protected animal under the Wildlife Protection Act, were killed on the outskirts of Kankani village near Jodhpur. Salman is accused of carrying and using illegal arms in killing the protected animals. He is also alleged to have been carrying arms with expired licence.
New Delhi, March 10 : The Congress on Thursday raised the issue of liquor baron Vijay Mallya in the Rajya Sabha and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government of having failed to detain him.

The issue was raised in the house by Leader of Oposition Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Congress, who said Mallya should not have been allowed to leave as there were serious charges against him.

"He could have been identified even at the airport when he was leaving as he is a prominent figure and most people recognise him," he said.

Responding to the charges, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that Mallya was given loans when the Congress-led UPA was in power at the Centre.

On this, Azad said banks gave him loans and since he has cases against him now, he should not have been allowed to leave the country.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also said that the main point was not who gave him loans, it was that who allowed him to leave India.

"The issue is not that who issued loans to him, the real issue is that why he was allowed to leave India," he said.

Mallya on Wednesday was issued notice by the Supreme Court on a plea by a consortium of 17 banks led by the State Bank of India, which sought his personal appearance before the court along with his passport.
Jodhpur (Rajasthan), March 10 : Bollywood actor Salman Khan on Thursday insisted that he had been wrongly accused of having illegal weapons and killing two blackbucks here in 1998.

"Main nirdosh hoon. Mujhe jhootha fasaya gaya hai. (I am not guilty. I have been falsely implicated)," the actor told Chief Judicial Magistrate Dalpat Singh Rajpurohit.

Asked about the allegations by the prosecution, Salman pleaded that he was "not guilty".

Salman has been accused of using illegal arms to kill the protected animals and carrying weapons with expired licence. He has been charged with violating the Arms Act.

Thursday was the third time Salman came to the Jodhpur court in connection with the case.

Khan's counsel Hastimal Sarswat told IANS: "The court has fixed April 4 as the next date of hearing." He said witnesses will be produced in Salman's defence.

During the hearing, Salman replied questions regarding his name, father's name, his age and residential address.

Asked about his caste, the actor was silent for a while before replying that he was an Indian.

Salman's sister Alvira was present in the court, where the actor spent less than half an hour.

Salman and a few Bollywood actors have been accused of poaching the blackbucks on the night of October 1-2, 1998 when he was here to shoot the Hindi movie "Hum Saath Saath Hain".

Two blackbucks, a protected animal under the Wildlife Protection Act, were killed on the outskirts of Kankani village near Jodhpur. The killings triggered outrage.

The court asked several questions regarding the allegations made by the prosecution's witnesses. Salman denied all the charges.

Khan said he was neither with Shivcharan Bohra, the then forest officer, nor did he sign any document.

Asked about the statement of Uday Raghavan, who allegedly brought weapons for Salman from the actor's Mumbai residence, Khan said although the letter authorizing Raghavan to collect the weapons bears his signature, he was forced to sign it.

Chief Judicial Magistrate Rajpurohit had on March 3 asked Salman to appear before the court to record his statement on Thursday.

The magistrate had dismissed an application from Salman's counsel to re-examine then collector Rajat Mishra.

The court was to pronounce its judgment on February 25 last year but this was deferred when a few applications for examination of four witnesses were allowed.

After examination of four witnesses, Salman appeared before the court on April 29 last year.
Riga, March 10 : The inventor of the drug Meldonium has warned that the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) decision to outlaw the formula may soon contribute to a higher death rate among professional athletes.

Ivars Kalnins, of the Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis, invented Meldonium (also known as mildronate) back in the Soviet era. Since January 1, 2016, the drug has featured on WADA's blacklist. Several Russian athletes have proven to have used it lately, reports Tass.

"The ban on the drug is a crime," said Kalvins. "We are surely to see the rate of deaths of professional athletes after competitions climb. Who will be responsible for that? Certainly, not WADA people. They will be throwing hands up in confusion."

"The blame will be placed squarely on the athletes for breaking the limits. Their decision strips the athletes of a chance to protect themselves and stay alive."

"The formula has been on the market for 32 years. And all of a sudden it is blacklisted. Fine, just fine. The athletes have been punished for their wish to go on living," said Kalvins.

Meldonium is used to treat ischaemia: a lack of blood flow to parts of the body, particularly in cases of angina or heart failure. It is manufactured in Latvia and only distributed in Baltic countries and Russia.

It is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in the United States and is not authorised in the rest of Europe. It increases blood flow, which improves exercise capacity in athletes, and is particularly helpful in treating heart ailments.

WDA found "evidence of its use by athletes with the intention of enhancing performance" by virtue of carrying more oxygen to muscle tissue" and has hence banned it.

The presence of this substance identified in the athlete's blood during or between competitions is a violation of the current anti-doping rules. It belongs with the S4 class on WADA's blacklist (hormones and metabolic modulators).

According to the drug's inventor, no scientist in the world still has clear statistics that might confirm how long it takes Meldonium to leave the human body.

"WADA has blacklisted it as a prohibited formula, but nobody knows for how long it may stay in the human body. Nobody has ever conducted research into this matter yet," Kalvins said.

"There had been no need for such research. Clearly, it may be not hours, but days, or possibly weeks. It all depends on the accuracy of the method of testing. You may identify the traces of medications you took three months ago, provided you have the equipment that is sensitive enough."

Kalvins explained that from the medical point of view it is important to know the period over which 50 percent of the drug in question leaves the human body, and not the entire amount.

"For medical purposes it is essential to know the period of half-dissimilation. In other words, the period of time when half of the drug is out," he said.

"In some cases this may happen over 18 hours, and in others, over eight hours. But nobody cares how much time will be necessary for the 'tailing' to disappear without a trace. Will the drug begin to be accumulated in the human body if you start taking it again? No statistics are available at this point."
New Delhi, March 10 : A successful Bharatnatyam dancer and Bollywood's evergreen 'Dreamgirl', Hema Malini, who became a BJP MP in 2004, says that she got "more respect" as a member of parliament than being an artiste.

"You get more respect as a member of parliament. As an artiste, I had my own dignity, but as a politician it increases... It doesn't go down," Hema, who represents the Mathura constituency in Lok Sabha, told IANS in interview here.

Recently, Hema was embroiled in allegations that she had illegally grabbed a plot of land for her dance academy Natyavihar Kalakendra Charity Trust at a nominal price of Rs.70,000 in Mumbai's Andheri area. But the Padma Shri awardee says the whole hullabaloo happened because she was a BJP MP.

"The Maharashtra government giving me land, created a huge ruckus. Why? Just because I am Hema Malini? I don't think it's for Hema Malini... It is because Hema is a BJP member of parliament. This is why it created a problem for people," Hema said, adding that she had kept herself "very different in the political world".

On the big screen, she has essayed a range of glamorous as well as non-glam roles, proving her worth as a versatile talent. The 67-year-old has also showcased her proficiency in dance many a time in movies -- and always had the aura of a star actor.

But as a politician, she has reached out to bring about the changes that she wishes to see in her constituency.

Often, Bollywood celebrities deliberate upon gender bias in the Hindi film industry. Is the scenario same in the political world?

"I don't feel any inequality in my political work. To me, I am different, I don't indulge in small things. So I cannot compare myself to others," Hema said.

However, she said that inequality in Bollywood is nothing new. Pointing out that Bollywood has always been a male and hero-dominated industry, she explained: "Suddenly these points are coming up about inequality. Bollywood was always been as a male-dominated industry."

She said that the characters which Dharmendra or other actors portrayed, the heroines could not do. "For a heroine to get the same kind of acknowledgment, it has to be a heroine-oriented film and for men, a hero-dominated film. There is clearly no comparison," she said.

Dwelling upon the gap in pay for men and women in Hindi films, she said: "Moneywise in those days, the heroes had so much of shooting and so much of work. I don't think heroines had that much of work. Heroines had a few songs to sing, some nice interesting scenes, and that's it."

Nevertheless, the former chairperson of the National Film Development Corporation said there were some exceptions. As an actress, Hema had taken on strong roles in films like "Chaalbaaz", "Mulzim", "Satte Pe Satta" and "Sholay".

(Kishori Sud can be contacted at kishori.s@ians.in)
Mumbai, March 10 : The cross-examination of Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist-turned-approver David Coleman Headley in the Mumbai terror attack case will start before a Special Court here from March 22 for four days, a legal official said on Thursday.

Advocate Abdul Wahab Khan, lawyer of Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, one of the prime accused in the 26/11 cases, will cross-examine Pakistani-American Headley who had given a weeklong deposition via video-conferencing from a US jail in early February.

Earlier, Wahab Khan had moved applications seeking certain documents and CDs pertaining to the case and also objected to Headley being made an approver in the 26/11 case.

The cross-examination will be conducted before Special TADA Court Judge G.A. Sanap through video-conferencing.

On February 13, Headley's weeklong examination-in-chief covering a wide-range of issues concerning the conspiracy and perpetrators of the 26/11 attacks, was completed by Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam.

In December 2015, Headley agreed to turn an approver and in return was pardoned for his role in the terror strikes in Mumbai which left 166 dead.

Advocate Khan added that, if required, Headley could also be re-examined by the prosecution later on after the cross-examination was completed.

Headley, 56, has been sentenced to and is currently serving a 35-year jail term for the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case and the Denmark terror strikes.

During his deposition in the Special TADA Court last month, Headley revealed his association with the LeT and Pakistan's spy agency ISI, his links with Al-Qaeda, the role of various players including Pakistan army officials in the 26/11 attack.

He also unravelled details of his multiple spying missions undertaken in Mumbai prior to the terror attack and other targeted locations like Pune army headquarters and personalities like the late Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, how the 26/11 conspiracy was hatched, the failure of two earlier attempts and other crucial revelations.
New Delhi, March 10 : Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said that key documents related to the Ishrat Jahan case have gone missing from his ministry as he blamed the previous Congress-led government of a flip-flop over the controversial 2004 shootout that killed the alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba woman operative.

"Two letters from the then home secretary to the attorney general in 2009 have gone missing. The then attorney general had vetted two affidavits regarding the case. Those are also not available," Rajnath Singh told the Lok Sabha replying to a brief debate on the controversial June 15, 2004 shootout.

He said that the ministry has launched an internal investigation to find the missing documents "which will bring out all the facts" in the open.

Without naming Congress' P. Chidambaram, Rajnath Singh alleged that affidavits were corrected on the intervention of the then home minister and reaffirmed that an investigation has found that the Thane girl was a terrorist - a claim also seconded by American-Pakistani terrorist David Coleman Headley.

"I am pained to say that there was a flip-flop on Ishrat Jahan case during the previous UPA (United Progressive Alliance) regime. She was described as an LeT terrorist in the first affidavit filed in the Gujarat High Court but unfortunately the facts were given another dimension in an additional affidavit which was filed a month later" Rajnath Singh said, amid pandemonium by the opposition.

"The second affidavit seems to be weakening the fact that Ishrat Jahan was an LeT operative which was clearly stated in the first based on an IB input. It seems the entire episode was a conspiracy to trouble the then chief minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi."

Rajnath Singh alleged that the previous government had tried to give a political and communal colour to terrorism and reminded the Congress of the "saffron terror" label given to describe acts of violence allegedly motivated by Hindu nationalists.

"Saffron terror was the previous government's term. Colour, creed and religion are not linked to terrorism. They gave a communal colour to terrorism. This is opportunistic secularism."

The controversy over the case flared up again after Headley made the startling claim on February 11 this year about the 2004 Gujarat encounter - the already murky Ishrat Jahan case has become even murkier.
New Delhi, March 10 : The number of fighter aircraft squadrons with the Indian Air Force (IAF) is not enough to fight a war on two fronts, Vice Chief of IAF Air Marshal B.S. Dhanoa said on Thursday.

"Our numbers are not adequate to execute an air campaign in a two-front scenario... Probability of a two front scenario is an appreciation which you need to do. But are the numbers adequate? No," Air Marshal Dhanoa said.

He said the government was seized of the problem, and that was the reason why India went for government-to-government deal for Rafale fighter aircraft "because of the urgency".

The Air Marshal was addressing a press conference on the upcoming Iron Fist exercise of the IAF.

He said the IAF at present had 33 operational squadrons. When a new squadron of Light Combat Aircraft Tejas would be inducted later this year, the number will rise to 34.

The sanctioned strength for the IAF at present is 39.5, which is sought to be raised to 42. A parliamentary panel report last year had said that by 2022, the IAF will have just 25 squadrons, losing "even the slight edge over a rival neighbouring nation".

IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha has said in the past that at least six squadrons of medium multi-role combat aircraft are required.

Air Marshal Dhanoa agreed that more Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) will be needed.

"There are various avenues that are being explored. There is a requirement for us to buy a MMRCA class aircraft more than the 36 numbers that we have signed. Which platform may come in, that is something between us and the government. We (both) will have to take a call," he said.

Deputy Chief of the IAF Air Marshal R K S Bhadauria said that a decision on more aircraft will be take only after the conclusion of the contract for 36 Rafale fighter jets.

He also admitted that the delay in procurement of Rafale has upset the plans of IAF.A

"The acquisition of MMRCA has taken really long. It has affected our plans," he said.

Air Marshal Dhanoa also said that increasing serviceability of the existing fighters can help.

"If we have 35 squadrons and 90 percent serviceability, it will be as good as having 42 squadrons," he said.

He refused to reveal the present level of serviceability of aircraft, and said the target for now was to reach 75 percent.
Tehran, March 10 : The Iranian foreign ministry said on Thursday that the country's recent missile launches did not violate a UN resolution.

"The recent (missile) drills and the weapons used in the missile launch neither violate the JCPOA nor the UN Security Council resolution," said Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari.

JCPOA, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, is the formal title of a deal reached with major world powers on Iran's nuclear programme, under which sanctions against Tehran were lifted, Xinhua news agency reported.

Under UN Security Council Resolution 1929, Iran is prohibited from working on ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads.

"All Iranian short, medium and long range missiles and those of ballistic, some of which were test-fired in the recent military drills, are conventional and legitimate defensive tools and are not developed for carrying nuclear warheads," Ansari said.

On Tuesday, Iran fired several ballistic missiles at the start of major missile drills by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

On Wednesday, the IRGC fired Qadr-H and Qadr-F missiles, with a range of 1,700 km and 2,000 km respectively.

The US said on Tuesday that although Iran's recent ballistic missile tests did not violate JCPOA, the issue could be the source of concern for the West and it might be raised at the UN Security Council.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that if it was determined that Iran's ballistic missile tests were in violation of the UN Security Council resolutions, Tehran could face "some consequences".
New Delhi, March 10 : Designer duo Ashima-Leena will celebrate the affluent soul of Persian culture in an Indian form with diverse motifs at the forthcoming edition of Amazon India Fashion Week (AIFW), starting here on March 16.

Influenced by the rich divine motifs of Persian carpets, the luxurious prAt collection titled "Fragrance of Persia" is a complete range of cascading prints, appliquA and playful tassels originating from an analysis on Persian culture peppered with authentic elements of Persia.

The silhouettes are layered and flowing, capturing a balance of vogue for the modern fall-winter twist and simultaneously relishing the rich fantasy of the Persian beauty.

"This year's Amazon collection has been inspired from the rich persian culture. The element and the motifs of persian carpets have been my main source of inspiration behind this collection. Our entire collection is a unique combination of prints, appliquA and specially developed embellishments reflecting the true Persian soul and theme of the show," Leena told IANS.

Leena said that the collection is all about "asymmetrical silhouettes, sheered square tops, flowy skirts, short kaftans and different styles of cowl pants".

"Colours like olive, antique gold, copper tones, merlot-wine, black, navy blue and mustard will be witnessed in our collection with an amalgamation of different fabrics like twill silk, organza, flat chiffon, crepe and felt," Leena added.
New Delhi, March 10 : The Real Estate Bill, proposing a Real Estate Regulatory Authority, was on Thursday approved by India's upper house of parliament after the government accepted as many as 20 amendments to the measure as proposed by a Rajya Sabha Select Committee.

The Bill, pending before parliament since 2013, aims to protect the interests of property buyers from unscrupulous promoters and regulate the real estate sector.

The legislative measure will now go to the Lok Sabha for its approval.
New Delhi, March 10 : Amid anxious moments at the sprawling Yamuna plains, the venue of the World Culture Festival, weather officials here on Thursday forecast that heavy rain is "very likely" in and around Delhi.

"Heavy rain very likely at isolated places over Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi," said an official announcement for March 12 (Saturday) by the Indian Meteorological Department.

An uneasy calm prevailed in the sprawling complex on the fragile Yamuna flood plain

as foot soldiers of the Art of Living struggled to put up a good show for the three-day World Culture Festival in the capital beginning on Friday.

The National Green Tribunal, an environment court, on Wednesday gave the go-ahead to the World Culture Festival, organised by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar-headed Art of Living, on the condition that it pay an advance fine of Rs.5 crore.
Ranchi, March 10 : The Jharkhand assembly on Thursday witnessed disruptions over alleged lowering of land rate in Santhal Pargana division to help the Adani group.

There are six districts under the division.

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) legislator Stephen Marandi brought in an adjournment motion over the issue in the state legislature.

Speaking on the issue, Marandi said: "The state government, through an order dated 28/10/2015, lowered the rate of the Santhal Pargana and the land rate has been reduced up to 80 percent. First time in the history of India, land rate has been reduced up to 80 percent. The land rate has been reduced to help the Adani group."

The opposition members became agitated after Speaker Dinesh Oraon rejected the adjournment motion and some of them trooped near the Speaker's podium during Question Hour, demanding a roll-back of the decision reducing the land rate.

The speaker adjourned the house briefly when the agitated members refused to resume their seats.

Later, talking to reporters, Leader of opposition and JMM leader Hemant Soren said: "The land rate has been reduced to help the private companies. We will continue our agitation till the new rates are rolled back."

The opposition members assembled at the assembly gate after the house was adjourned and shouted slogans saying "Stop acquiring land of the poor farmers and tribal people", "Institute CBI probe to investigate state government and Adani group land deal of Rs.5,000 crore".

Talking to reporters, Pradeep Yadav, a Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajantrik (JVM-P) legislator, said: "A Rs.1,000 crore deal has been done to give benefit up to Rs.5,000 crore to the Adani group. Under the new rate, the price for one acre has been reduced to Rs.13 lakh from Rs.1.25 crore. The Railways is giving Rs.58 lakh per acre to people for the land it acquires and the National Highways Authority of India is giving Rs.75 lakh per acre. Now, the state government will acquire the land for Rs.13 lakh to help the Adani group."

When the house re-assembled at 11.45 a.m., Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das announced constituting a committee headed by the chief secretary to look into the issue. The committee will consult farmers and decide on the issue.

"The rate was fixed based on the report of the finance secretary. The report was prepared by adopting the scientific method. The rate is postponed and a committee headed by the chief secretary will speak to farmers and submit its report within 15 days," the chief minister informed the house.

Dissatisfied with the chief minister's reply, the JMM and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) [JVM-P] boycotted the house.

"An independent body should be constituted to look into the issue. That the committee headed by the chief secretary will submit a fair report is doubtful. We are boycotting the assembly," said JVM-P leader Pradeep Yadav.

After the chief minister's reply, Hemant Soren said: "The land should not be acquired ... rather land should be taken on lease so that the ownership of the land owners continues."

On Tuesday, JVM-P had brought an adjournment motion on the same issue. Last month, the Adani group signed a memorandum of understanding with the state government to set up a 1,600 MW power plant in Santhal Pargana at an investment of Rs.15,000 crore.
New Delhi, March 10 : India may soon sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bahrain to prevent human trafficking. The cabinet on Thursday gave its go ahead for the MoU.

Apart from preventing human trafficking, especially of women and children, the pact would aid in the rescue, recovery, repatriation and re-integration of victims of trafficking, officials said.

The MoU is expected to be signed when Home Minister Rajnath Singh visits Bahrain in the first week of April.

The pact aims to strengthen cooperation to prevent all forms of human trafficking and ensure speedy investigation and prosecution of traffickers and organised crime syndicates in either country.

"Anti-trafficking cells and task force will work on both sides to prevent human trafficking," an official statement said.

"Police and other concerned authorities will work in close cooperation and exchange information which can be used to interdict human traffickers.

"A joint task force with representatives from both sides would be constituted to monitor the working of the MoU," it added.

While many people from India voluntarily migrate to Bahrain to work as domestic workers or as unskilled labourers, some face conditions of forced labour after reaching Bahrain.

"It requires mutual cooperation for intelligence sharing, joint investigation and a coordinated response to the challenges of human trafficking. The MoU will help tackle all such issues," an official said.
Patna, March 10 : After the Patna High Court refused to hear his anticipatory bail plea, RJD legislator Raj Ballabh Yadav, accused of raping a schoolgirl, surrendered on Thursday in a court in Bihar, police said.

Yadav, who represents Nawada constituency in the Bihar assembly, turned up at the court in Biharsharief in Nalanda district, about 100 km from here, and surrendered, a police official said.

"After Yadav surrendered, the court sent him to judicial custody for 14 days," the official said.

Yadav is charged with raping a school-going minor girl in Biharsharief on February 6.

Yadav was absconding for many days after the victim filed a police complaint accusing him of raping her. While on the run, he was petitioning courts to try to get anticipatory bail.

Last week, a lower court rejected his anticipatory bail plea. Four of his accomplices have been arrested.

Earlier, the legislator's two houses, one each in Nawada and Patna, were attached in compliance with an order of the court.

Yadav's 13 bank accounts have been sealed. The police also said it has started the process of auctioning his plots at different places.

The authorities also suspended the licences of three firearms Yadav possessed.

According to the police complaint, a woman, Sulekha Devi, took the girl to an undisclosed location in Nalanda and forced her to have liquor, after which she was raped by a man, later identified as Yadav.

After she was raped, the girl said the woman gave her Rs.30,000.
Thiruvananthapuram, March 10 : Congress leader A.K. Antony, M.P. Veerendra Kumar of the JD(U) and K. Somaprasad of the CPI(M) on Thursday filed their Rajya Sabha nominations as three seats from Kerala will fall vacant this month.

Election for the three seats is scheduled for March 21, but will not be needed if there are no more nominations.

While Antony and Veerendra Kumar are the nominees of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), the ruling coalition in Kerala, Somaprasad has been named by the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).

Going by their strength in the Kerala assembly, the UDF will be able to win two seats and the LDF one.

Secretary of the Kerala legislature P.D. Sarangadharan, before whom the nominations were filed, said that after the 14th of this month, it will become clear if there was need be an election process.

Antony, 75, has served two consecutive terms since 2005 in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament. He was also Rajya Sabha member from 1993 to 1995. He is now seeking another term.

Kumar, 79, is the leader of the Janata Dal (United) in Kerala and also a media baron, heading the Mathrubhumi group.

Somaprasad is a local level CPI-M leader hailing from Kollam and heads the party's scheduled caste (SC) cell. He contested the assembly polls in 2001 but lost and has always been active in party work.
New Delhi, March 10 : The union Cabinet on Thursday approved ratification of the Bay of Bengal Initiative on Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) convention on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters.

The convention aims to extend widest measures of assistance to each other through mutual cooperation for enhancing capability and effectiveness of the member states in investigation and prosecution of crimes, including crimes related to terrorism, transnational organised crime, drug-trafficking, money laundering and cyber-crimes.

The Bay of Bengal Initiative on Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) comprises seven countries -- India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

An official statement here said the ministry of home affairs has been designated as the central authority.

The establishment of regional arrangements for mutual assistance in criminal matters will greatly contribute to more effective cooperation in the control of criminal activities, the government said in a statement.

The statement added after signing as well as ratification of the Convention from the Indian side, the Instrument of Ratification will be deposited to the Secretary-General of BIMSTEC and the Convention shall enter into force on 30th day of the deposit of last instrument of ratification.
New Delhi, March 10 : India will extend a $2-billion line of credit (LoC) to Bangladesh, the largest ever to any country, the government said on Thursday.

This will be in addition to the $1-billion LoC extended to the neighbouring country in 2010.

"The credit line agreement for $2 billion was signed in Dhaka on March 9, 2016, by the chairman and managing director of Exim Bank of India and the secretary, economic relations department of the ministry of finance, Bangladesh," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said at a media briefing here.

The decision to extend this fresh tranche of LoC was taken during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Dhaka in June 2015.

Swarup said the signing of the agreement paved the way for initiation of projects in various identified sectors.

"Apart from infrastructural projects, there is a special focus on social sector cooperation pertaining to health, which involved establishment of medical colleges and hospitals, education, under which there will be modernisation of two teacher training institutes and vocational training involving modernisation of 49 polytechnic institutes," he said.

He said this would further integrate the economies of India and Bangladesh and "strengthen our practical cooperation in these fields".

"This LoC is the biggest credit line India has ever extended to any country," he added.
New Delhi, March 10 : India and Bangladesh have signed a memorandum of understanding to construct a pipeline for supply of high speed diesel, it was announced on Thursday.

"Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) and Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) are working on details for the envisaged project of supply of high speed diesel (HSD) from Numaligarh (in Assam) to Parbatipur in Bangladesh for a period of 20 years under a JV project between NRL and BPC," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said at a media briefing here.

"The product will be transported through a pipeline of approximately 135 km of which 130 km will be in Bangladesh and five km in India," he said.

The pipeline will run from Siliguri in West Bengal to Parbatipur in Bangladesh.

Swarup said, as a goodwill gesture, an initial consignment of 2,200 tonnes of diesel would be transported from Siliguri to Parbatipur by 50 wagons of the Indian Railways.

"This train will be flagged off from Siliguri on March 17 by Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan," he said.

The decision to construct the pipeline was taken during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Dhaka in June 2015.
New Delhi, March 10 : A 28-year-old student from Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh committed suicide here on Thursday, police said, clarifying he was not a JNU student.

The police had earlier described Dushyant Dixit as a doctoral scholar of the Jawaharlal Nehru University. They later said he was a student of M.Sc in a private university in Bareilly.

Dixit was found hanging on Thursday morning from a ceiling fan at his paying guest accommodation in Ber Sarai in south Delhi.

The police said Dixit, who hailed from Dhaneta village in Bareilly, was disturbed over some family problems. A suicide note was recovered.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Prem Nath told IANS that Dixit lived alone in the room.

A friend came to meet him at around 9 a.m. When there was no response to his knocking, he peeped in through a window, only to see Dixit hanging, Prem Nath said.

Police said they were mistakenly led to believe that he was a student of JNU by another student who lived nearby.

"The reason behind Dixit's suicide has no links with JNU or his studies," the officer said. He reportedly came to Delhi to take the help of a JNU professor to complete his project.

The JNU too denied that Dixit was its student.

"The JNU administration expresses deep condolences to the family members of Dushyant. It is clarified that the deceased is not a student of JNU," a statement from the university said.

Ber Sarai, located close to the JNU campus, has a significant population of JNU students.
New Delhi, March 10 : The telecom service providers on Thursday told the Supreme Court that TRAI's decision to saddle them with penalty for call drops was a "populist" measure.

They said it is to accommodate telecom consumers as same (call drop) were happening due to a host of external considerations not attributable to them.

"Object is to penalise me and earn revenues. This is populism," senior counsel Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), told the apex court bench of Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman.

Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and the Association of Unified Service Provider of India (USPAI) have challenged the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) October 16, 2015 notification obligating the service provider to compensate the consumer for the three dropped calls paying Rs.one for each of the call a day.

The call drop penalty was to come in force from January 1, 2016.

The COAI and USPAI have challenged the February 29, 2016, Delhi High Court order upholding the TRAI decision to penalise the telecom companies for call drops.

Assailing the October 16, 2015, notification, Sibal said that under the terms and conditions of licence there is provision of 2 percent call drops and it is only when the call drop exceeds 2 percent ceiling that operators attract penalties.

He said that as of date, it is the admitted position of TRAI that none of the telecom service provider have breached the cap of 2 percent of call drops and none of them have been penalised on this count.

As Sibal reiterated this position in the course of his arguments that stretched through the day, the court asked 12 telecom operators, who are before the court challenging the call drop notification, to individually file affidavits stating that that they have not crossed the limit of 2 percent of call drops as provided in the terms of condition of licence and they have never been penalised on this account.

Telling the court that there was no nexus between the call drop penalty and the objective of achieving the quality and efficient telecom services, Sibal said the regulation is based on presumption that all calls should get through.

"You can't have presumption in law to impose penalty (based) on the presumption that every call drop is attributable to me", Sibal said, pointing to host of factors contributing to call drops which were beyond the control of the service providers.

He said that service providers could be saddled with call drop penalty if he breaches some regulations and not otherwise.

"If there is a regulation that enjoins upon me to do certain things, which if I don't do and results in call drop, then only I am liable. Unless you fault me, my network, I am not liable to pay," Sibal said pointing out that the blame for every call drop could not be put at my door-steps.

The court was told that the call drop could take place on account of Electromagnatic Radiation which are the lowest in the world and more efficient, paucity of air-waves (spectrum), large number of service providers, a large based of consumers, high rise buildings, damage to underground optical fibre lines due to digging by government agencies, inadequate towers or absence of them, poor quality of the consumer's handset, and several other imponderables on which service providers have no control.

Making comparison with other countries who have a large availability of air-waves (spectrum), a fewer competitors, sufficient infrastructure and lesser density of consumer base, Sibal said that telecom service providers in India were operating in strained situations.

The hearing will continue on Tuesday.

The Delhi High Court on February 29 upheld the order of the TRAI making it mandatory for cellular operators to compensate subscribers for call drops.

The High Court had said that the telecom operators would have to compensate subscribers for first three call drops.

The high court order had come as it dismissed the plea of telecom operators for a stay on TRAI's compensation policy, announced on October 16, 2015, for call drops under which a rupee will be credited to the mobile users' account for every call drop (restricted to three per day) starting January 1, 2016.
New Delhi, March 10 : Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said key documents related to the Ishrat Jahan case have gone missing and the government is holding an internal inquiry over the change of affidavit and missing of letters and documents in connection with it.

He also accused the previous Congress-led government of a flip-flop over the controversial 2004 shootout that killed the alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba woman operative.

"Two letters from the then home secretary to the attorney general in 2009 have gone missing. The then attorney general had vetted two affidavits regarding the case. Those are also not available," Rajnath Singh told the Lok Sabha on Thursday, replying to a brief debate on the controversial June 15, 2004, shootout.

He said that the government has launched an "internal inquiry" to find the missing documents "which will bring all the facts out" in the open.

Without naming Congress leader P. Chidambaram, Rajnath Singh alleged that affidavits regarding the case were corrected on the intervention of the then home minister and reaffirmed that an investigation has found that the Thane girl was a terrorist -- a claim also seconded by American-Pakistani terrorist David Coleman Headley in his deposition.

"I am pained to say that there was a flip-flop on Ishrat Jahan case during the previous UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government," Rajnath Singh said, amid a pandemonium by some opposition members.

"She was described as an LeT terrorist in the first affidavit filed in the Gujarat High Court but unfortunately the facts were given another dimension in an additional affidavit which was filed a month later. It seems an attempt was made to weaken the case."

The minister also accused the previous government of hatching a conspiracy to malign the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and his government.

"The affidavit was changed to malign the Gujarat government, the then chief minister. A conspiracy was hatched to drag him into the case."

Rajnath Singh said that government was not relying solely on the testimony of Headley - a Lashkar operative who scouted terror targets before the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.

Headley is currently in a US jail from where he was questioned by an Indian magistrate last month through videoconferencing. The Pakistani-American terrorist said he had heard his LeT handlers talk about a girl in India named Ishrat.

He also accused the opposition party of playing cheap politics over Ishrat Jahan case.

"Headley's deposition proved that Jahan was a terrorist and this fact was also mentioned in the first affidavit filed in Gujarat High Court," he said.

The controversy over the case flared up again after Headley made the startling claim on February 11 this year about the 2004 Gujarat shootout -- the already murky Ishrat Jahan case has become even murkier.

Rajnath Singh alleged that the previous government had tried to give a political and communal colour to terrorism in India and reminded the Congress of the "saffron terror" label given to describe acts of violence allegedly committed by Hindu nationalists.

"Saffron terror was the previous government's term. Colour, creed and religion are not linked to terrorism. They gave a communal colour to terrorism. This is opportunistic secularism."

He said the whole world was battling "the menace of terrorism" and "there should not be politics over it".

Earlier, Rajnath Singh said in his statement that the then union government in its seceond affidavit to the High Court did not mention the reason.

"The notings on the concerned file do not provide any reason for filing of the affidavit on September 29, 2009. It has been mentioned in the affidavit that the further affidavit was being made in view of subsequent developments in relation to the issues connected with the petition and to clarify apprehensions expressed in regard to the affidavit filed by government on August 6, 2009, as well as to refute attempts to misinterpret portions of the affidavit."

Participating in the discussion, BJP member Satyapal Singh, who had once headed the Special Investigation Team, alleged that one of the senior Congress leaders called him and allured if he does as per the desire of then Home Minister.

"I got a call from one of the top Congress leaders, who said that home minister has selected you especially for a mission and that mission is to prove the entire case a lie and have to reach up to Gujrat chief minister," he said.

"I was allured. I told this to then Chief Minister of Maharashtra and his secretary," he said.

Satyapal Singh also clarified why he left to continue as the chairman of the SIT.

"Neither Congress nor BJP can pressurise me. I thought, whatever report I will submit, I will be targeted. So I made excuses of not knowing Gujrati and left," he said.

"I even told the home minister that I can't work under such circumstances," he added.

Biju Janata Dal (BJD) member Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo accused both the BJP and the Congress of doing vote bank politics over the case.

"The UPA did vote bank politics and now the present government is doing the same. In all these credibility of IB and CBI was destroyed," he said.

Terming the Ishrat Jahan shootout as extra judicial killing, the BJD leader said that she was killed in a fake encounter.
Kolkata, March 10 : All three members of the Election Commission of India will arrive here on March 14 to review West Bengal's preparedness for the assembly elections that begin on April 4.

The poll panel's team, led by Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi, will meet all political parties on March 14, an official of the commission told reporters here on Thursday.

The next day, they will hold discussions with the state team, district magistrates and superintendents of police, said the official.
Kolkata, March 10 : The seat-adjustment talks between the Left Front and the Congress hit a major roadblock on Thursday with the former coming out with its second list of 88 candidates that included a number of seats which the Congress has earmarked for itself in the upcoming West Bengal assembly polls.

An angry state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said his party could not be taken for granted, and threatened to put up candidates on all seats.

The 88 seats announced by LF chairman Biman Bose during the day contained 84 where its partners would be contesting. The LF also left two seats each for its associates Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal (United).

The LF had on March 7 announced its first list of 116 candidates for the 294-member assembly, which goes to the hustings in seven phases from April 4 to May 5.

While Chowdhury had on March 7 itself sounded miffed over the LF announcing three candidates in his pocket-borough Murshidabad district, he was left fuming on Thursday after Bose declared candidates for nine other seats in the district which elects altogether 22 seats.

With the Congress having named the 75 seats which it has earmarked for contesting -- though it is yet to announces names of candidates for these constituencies -- there are now 16 seats where both the LF and the Congress have declared nominees.

The biggest hurdle seems to be Murshidabad where LF and the Congress candidates overlap in eight seats. In Birbhum district, candidates of both LF and the Congress are in fray in four seats.

Bose, however, said there could be discussions on some of the seats which were disputed.

"Discussions may be needed for some of the seats. Then we may announce a small third list."

Bose, who gave the call for a people's grand alliance, stressed on the need to prevent any division of anti-Trinamool votes.

But soon after Bose's press meet, Chowdhury went all guns blazing.

"In deference to the peoples' wishes, and taking a pragmatic view, we had shown all sincerity in arriving at an understanding after prolonged talks. We don't know what are their compulsions.

"We had prepared a list of constituencies after the discussions. But now if they feel they will contest more seats, no one should assume that the Congess will accept that."

"Congress will fight where it is organisationally strong."

"Chowdhury said his party had "no problems with triangular fights".

"There can be triangular fights. We have no objection to that. I had persuaded our high command to agree to the understanding, in respect to the people's sentiments. But now if they feel they can take the Congress for granted, they have made a mistake," he said.

Asked whether the eat-adjustment talks would continue, Chowdhury said: "May be, otherwise we will fight all the seats."

The latest LF list included a number of heavyweights. Asim Dasgupta, who holds a record of having been the state finance minister for 24 years till 2011, would take on incumbent finance minister Amit Mitra in his old constituency of Khardah of North 24 Parganas district.

Other former ministers named as candidates are Abdus Sattar (Amdanga), and Debesh Das (Entally) of the CPI-m, and Revlutionary Socialist Party's Biswanath Chowdhury (Balurghat) and Subhas Naska (Basanti).

CPI-M state secretariat member Sujon Chakraborty is joined the fight in South 24 Parganas district's Jadavpur, from where former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was humbled in 2011.

Of the 84 candidates, 42 are from the CPI-M, 17 from the All India Froward Bloc and 16 from RSP. The Communist Party of India is fighting in half a dozen seats, Revolutionary Communist Party fo India in two, and forward Bloc (Marxist) in one seat.

RJD nominees would contest from Kolkata's Jorasanko and Bhatpara of North 24 Parganas district. The JD(U) would fight from Howrah Central in Howrah district and Islampur of North Dinajpur.
New Delhi, March 10 : Even as the government on Thursday assured that "every possible action will be taken" against beleaguered liquor baron Vijay Mallya, the Congress hit out at the Centre asking "how did it allow Mallya to leave the country".

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday questioned the government as to how it allowed liquor baron Vijay Mallya to leave the country.

"I asked a clear question to Jaitley-ji, How did Mallya-ji escape from India? Someone who has stolen Rs.9,000 crore from the government, how did you allow him to leave the country," Gandhi asked.

The issue was also raised in the Rajya Sabha by Leader of Oposition Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Congress, who said Mallya should not have been allowed to leave as there were serious charges against him.

"He could have been identified even at the airport when he was leaving as he is a prominent figure and most people recognise him," Azad said.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley invoked the case of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi while countering Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's allegation that the government had failed to act against Mallya.

Quattrocchi was an Italian businessman who was sought until 2009 in India for criminal charges of acting as a conduit for bribes in the Bofors scandal.

Countering Rahul Gandhi's allegation, Jaitley later told reporters: "Rahul Gandhi should understand that going away of Ottavio Quattrocchi and Vijay Mallya is not the same. When CBI had alerted government about Quattrocchi, it was a criminal case and the then government did not stop him."

Jaitley also added that there is a legal procedure on impounding a passport and action could be taken only based on the provisions of the Passport Act.

During Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha, Jaitley said Mallya, as of the end of November 2015, owed about Rs.90 billion to various banks in the country.

He was responding to the issue raised by Congress floor leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who wanted to know why the government did not "confiscate" the passport of the chief of the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

The Congress leader wanted to know why the government and State Bank of India did not act against Mallya in time, which helped him to flee.

Jaitley said every member of the house shares the concern raised by Kharge, but said the sanction of money to Mallya was made during the UPA regime.

"The banks have started taking action against the companies to recover the debt. Certainly every possible action will be taken against all the defaulters," Jaitley said in the Lok Sabha.

"Some cases were filed in different courts across the country and some counter-cases were also registered," he added.

Jaitley also said that as of November 30, 2015, the total dues compounded with interest stands to the tune of over Rs.9,000 crore against Vijay Mallya's companies.

"As far as accounts are concerned, first sanction was made by the consortium of banks in September 2004," and then again in 2008. "These dates speak for themselves," he said.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Pratap Rudy said Mallya was "no saint" for the NDA regime.

Dissatisfied with Jaitley's reply over Mallya leaving the country, the Congress and the Left parties staged a walkout.

Meanwhile, the biggest public sector lender State Bank of India denied any laxity on the part of the consortium of banks in seeking reliefs against the defunct Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. (KFAL), its promoters and holding-associated company.

It also refuted certain media reports (Not the IANS) purportedly blaming the SBI, the leader of the consortium, for the crisis and termed these as based on "hearsay and conjecture".
Bhubaneswar, March 10 : In a bid to attract more foreign tourists to the state, Odisha Tourism participated in International Tourism Festival (International Tourismus Borse) held in Berlin.

The state put up a stall depicting the innovative and new products of Odisha Tourism like Buddhist heritage, adventure nature tourism, along with the traditional and tribal cultural heritage, said a release on Thursday.

Culture and Tourism minister Ashok Chandra Panda, who opened the Odisha Pavilion highlighted the Golden triangle, Diamond Triangle, Konark Sun Temple, Dhauli equipped with sound and light system and Chilika lake.

Panda said the state will participate in more international fairs and national level programmes to promote Odisha's tourism potential.

The pavilion was visited by Indian Ambassador to Germany Gurjeet Singh who appreciated Odisha Tourism's activities to increase the number of foreign tourist footfalls in the state.
Dhaka, March 10 : Hundreds of Bangladeshi activists set off on a 200 km march from Dhaka to the Sundarbans on Thursday to protest against the $1.5 billion power plant near the world's largest mangrove forests which straddle both Bangladesh and India.

The four-day march of environmentalists, and cultural and political activists started at Dhaka's National Press Club and was being led by a platform of left-leaning political parties, social and cultural activists, experts and professionals -- named the National Committee on Protection of Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports, Xinhua reported.

Anu Muhammad, member secretary of the group, urged the government not to go ahead with the proposed 1,320-MGW plant, to be built in the area of Rampal in Bangladesh's Bagerhat district.

According to the activists, discharge from the plant like fly ash and sulphur dioxide will have disastrous consequences for the fauna and flora of the mangrove forests -- a UNESCO World Heritage site.

They also demanded that the Rampal Thermal Power Plant project in Bagerhat be shelved forever.

Amid severe criticism from many power experts and green activists, Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) and Indian National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) in April 2013 signed three major agreements heading towards implementation of the plant.

Under the deals, the Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company, a joint venture between the PDB and the NTPC with 50:50 share, will implement the project in which officials claim that super critical technology would be used to curb the much talked about carbon emission.

The plant was initially put into motion in a bilateral agreement between Dhaka and Delhi during Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to India in 2011 reportedly without proper environmental impact assessment.

The Bangladeshi government later released an environmental impact assessment on the power plant but was rejected by the environmentalists who argued that the report did not take into consideration most of the important environmental aspects of the Sundarbans.

The National Committee on Protection of Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports also staged similar protest march toward Sundarbans in September 2013.
Ahmedabad, March 10 : The police have lodged a case against Hardik Patel, the jailed leader of the Patidar community's pro-quota agitation, for keeping a cell phone battery and trying to smuggle a parcel out of Lajpore prison in Gujarat.

The parcel, which jail guards seized, contained a mobile phone battery, a charger and a letter to be leaked to the media, said a police officer in Sachin town in Surat district where Lajpore prison is situated.

Patel has been lodged in Lajpore jail since October last year.

The jail authorities filed the case on Wednesday night, said police inspector M. Shaikh.

When Hardik was being taken to Visnagar on March 8 for being produced in court, he tried to pass the parcel to an unidentified person, Shaikh said.

The jail guards accompanying him saw him and seized the packet which contained a mobile phone battery, a charger and a letter to be leaked to the media.

The police claimed that the person to whom Patel tried to hand over the packet managed to give the slip to the jail guards and fled.

Earlier, two mobile phones without SIM cards were found near Patel's ward in the jail.
New Delhi, March 10 : India has sought a probe into the death of an Indian medical student after he was attacked by unidentified people in a Russian city while on a business trip, a senior government official said on Thursday.

Yaasir Javed, hailing from Srinagar, died on March 8 after being comatose following the attack earlier this month in Kazan city of the Tatarstan republic.

"The Indian embassy has sought an investigation into the circumstances leading to the death of an innocent person and the filing of a criminal case," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said at a media briefing here.

Giving details of the incident, Swarup said that Javed was on a business trip for participation in a local trade exhibition in Kazan.

Javed reached Russia on February 26 and was allegedly attacked by some unknown people on March 3.

"A team from the embassy of India was immediately sent to Kazan. They are presently there assisting in expediting the documentation formalities for transfer of the mortal remains to India as soon as possible," Swarup said.

"The embassy team met officials at the hospital, the investigator of the case and the police department to facilitate the early release of the body and to ensure proper investigation of the case," he said, adding that the Russian foreign ministry has also been approached to help release the body.

The victim's brother has gone to Kazan and the body is expected to be brought to India by Friday, the spokesman said.
Mumbai, March 10 : Four days after booking Kingfisher Airlines founder Vijay Mallya in a money-laundering case, the Enforcement Directorate served summons here on Thursday to KFA staffers and officials of the state-owned IDBI bank which he has defaulted of around Rs.900 crore.

Among the top bank officials issued summons are former chairman-cum-managing director Yogesh Aggarwal, chief financial officer A. Raghunathan of the now defunct KFA and other top executives.

Issued summons under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, these officials have been directed to provide details of their personal finances and ITRs of the past years, pointing to suspected cloudy dealings or kickbacks.

These would serve as a prelude to summoning the flamboyant former KFA boss and liquor baron Mallya, who is now said to be abroad even as cases against him pile up in different courts and agencies.

Last Monday (March 7), in a double whammy for the beleaguered Mallya, ED Mumbai lodged a case under PMLA while the Debt Recovery Tribunal in Bengaluru barred British alcoholic beverages giant Diageo from paying him a $75 million settlement till the pending case against him was disposed off.

Two days later on Wednesday, the Maharashtra Service Tax Department moved Bombay High Court to recover Service Tax dues worth several crores of rupees collected from the KFA passengers but not deposited with the department. The case is likely to be heard on Friday.
Gurgaon, March 10 : Sheela Sinha, a former sister-in-law of BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha, was on Thursday found hanging at her house in an upscale Gurgaon area, police said.

The 60-year-old was found hanging from a ceiling fan in her house in Sector 51. Police said they came in after neighbours complained about foul smell.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Hawa Singh told IANS that the main door of the woman's house was broken to enter the premises.

The woman's daughter Bharti lives in Ahmadabad while businessman-son Bharti Hindu is based in Bangalore, Hawa Singh said.

A source said Sinha may have died nearly a week ago. Police said she lived alone and had no domestic help.

Sheela's former husband Bharat Sinha is based in London. The couple separated around 25-years ago.
New Delhi, March 10 : India, Afghanistan and Iran will hold a trilateral meeting next month to finalise an agreement on transport and transit between the three countries, a senior government official said on Thursday.

"We have been discussing for the past few months a trilateral transport and transit agreement between India, Iran and Afghanistan utilising the Chabahar port (in Iran) and the onward connection to west and southwest Afghanistan through Zahedan," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said at a media briefing here.

"The first meeting of the expert group was held in Tehran last year. Only a few points of the draft are left to be finalised," he said.

In the second meeting in India, sometime in April, the remaining points are expected to be tied up, Swarup added.
New Delhi, March 10 : India and the US discussed cooperation in the areas of defence, trade and investment, and civil nuclear energy among others during a visit of Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar to Washington, a senior government official said on Thursday.

Jaishankar met a host of senior officials, including National Security Advisor Suzanne Rice, Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, US Trade Representative Mike Froman and Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

"The meetings focused on further consolidating bilateral relations in key areas of cooperation, including defence, trade and investment, and civil nuclear energy and enhancing convergence on regional and global issues," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup.

"In the US Congress, the foreign secretary held meetings with Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Bob Corker, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator John McCaine, and Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Richard Burr to exchange views on bilateral, regional and international issues," he added.

Jaishankar's visit comes ahead of Narendra Modi's visit to Washington at the end of this month to attend the Nuclear Security Summit.
New Delhi, March 10 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday will attend inaugural function of the three-day World Culture Festival being organised by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art Of Living (AoL) foundation.

AOL foundation has time till Friday to give initial environmental compensation of Rs.5 crore for holding its World Culture Festival on Yamuna flood plains, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) said on Thursday.

The organisation appeared to be softening its stance after initially saying that it will not pay the fine.

Spiritual Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's comments in the morning that he would not pay Rs.5 crore fine slapped by the NGT and was prepared to go jail if the court wanted him to, triggered speculation about the course likely to be adopted by AoL.

However, after a hearing at NGT during the day (Thursday), AoL said that things were changing every moment and they have time to comply with the tribunal's order.

"We have lot of time as the event is beginning tomorrow (Friday) evening. Things are changing every moment. We are focusing on things to make the event successful," Akshama Nath, counsel for Art of Living (AoL) told IANS when asked if the foundation was willing to pay the fine.

In a related development, the Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain a plea seeking to block the holding of three-day event which will have performances from artists of different countries.

The apex court also asked PIL petitioner Anil Kumar to approach the NGT as it was a specialised forum to address the issue and refused to hear the plea mentioned by a counsel in the post lunch sitting of the court.

The weather office's prediction of heavy rains for Saturday gave anxious moments to the organisers who were giving final touches to their preparation for the event that will conclude on Sunday.

"Heavy rain very likely at isolated places over Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi," said an official announcement for March 12 (Saturday) by the India Meteorological Department.

The NGT had on Wednesday imposed an initial fine of Rs.5 crore on AoL headed by spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and said it should be held liable for restoration of "damage caused to environment, ecology, biodiversity and aquatic life of the river".

A day later, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said in a TV interview that he will not mind going to jail if the court wants him to.

Asked if he would go to jail for refusing to pay the fine for the three-day World Culture Festival here, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said: "Yes, I will."

"The structure created for the event is temporary and will be dismantled after the event. We wanted to create awareness about Yamuna through this event," he added.

During its brief hearing on Thursday, the NGT asked the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) if they had issued directions to AoL for the event in accordance with its Wednesday's order.

DPCC said in its reply that "directions will be issued soon after the expert committee completes the inspection of the site".

The expert committee comprising senior officials from Central Pollution Control Board, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Ministry of Water Resources and DPCC inspected the Yamuna flood plains on Thursday.

"The Art of Living has not got the permission from the department of Water resources, Delhi Police, department of fire control and safety for the event. We will move the application in the tribunal regarding the safety of the stage and the venue tomorrow (Friday) morning if required," Sanjay Parikh told reporters after the hearing.

Parikh is counsel of Manoj Misra of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan which filed a petition with the NGT against holding of the festival.

In Goa, Congress demanded an apology from Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar for use of army in making pontoon bridges on Yamuna.

In its order on Wednesday, the NGT had also imposed a fine of Rs.5 lakh on Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and Rs.1 lakh on the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) for failing to discharge their duties.
Kolkata, March 10 : Kolkata Port Trust chairman Raj Pal Singh Kahlon, arrested for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs.20 lakh, was on Thursday sent to five-day police remand by a city court.

Kahlon and Director of Bharat Calcutta Containers Terminal Limited, D.D. Jagtap Dattaji were arrested from a city hotel on Wednesday night by a joint team of the city police and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The duo was subjected to a prolonged interrogation before being arrested. A case has been lodged at the New Market police station.

Kahlon, a 1984-batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre, and Dattaji were presented before judge Debabrata Sinha at the Bankshall court during the day.

The defence counsels for both the accused sought bail, but the plea was turned down by the judge, who ordered that they be kept in police custody till March 17.
United Nations, March 11 : United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday urged all concerned to act with restraint after Iran test-fired two ballistic missiles on Wednesday.

In Ban's statement, he recalled the previous Security Council resolution in which the council "called upon Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology".

The secretary general also noted that it is for the Security Council to examine information regarding the resolution, Xinhua reported.

Moreover, Ban urged all concerned to act with restraint. "In the current political atmosphere in the Middle East region, and so soon after the positive news of the lifting of sanctions against Iran," Ban called on the government of Iran to "act with moderation, caution and the good sense not to increase tensions through any hasty actions," said the statement.

With the achievement of Implementation Day pursuant to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and Security Council resolution 2231 (2015), the Security Council sanctions previously imposed on Iran have been terminated.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said the missiles were conventional armaments for "legitimate defence" and not designed for carrying nuclear warheads, the state-controlled IRNA news agency reported.
Moscow, March 11 : Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday condemned the continued attacks on his nation's diplomatic missions in Ukraine by protesters demanding the release of a Ukrainian pilot by Russian authorities.

"The actions of thugs, who attacked the Russian embassy and our consulates general, broke into our territories and tore flags, are outrageous," Lavrov said in an interview with Russia's REN TV channel, Xinhua reported.

Lavrov said the attacks could not be performed without "a blessing of tutors of Ukrainian authorities".

According to the Russian media, the attacks against Russia's diplomatic missions started on Wednesday in several Ukrainian cities including Kiev, Odessa and Lvov.

Ukrainians rallied to support Nadezhda Savchenko, a 34-year-old Ukrainian female pilot captured in June, 2014 by insurgents in eastern Ukraine near the town of Shchastye, north of Lugansk city.

"I will speak once again today on this issue with the US Secretary of State John Kerry. We have also sent corresponding signals to European capitals," Lavrov said.

Lavrov also expressed disappointment that the international community had not reacted.

Western countries are more concerned with Ukraine's demands -- releasing Savchenko without completing the trial, Lavrov said.

"This is a separate issue, but hypocrisy and double-dealing are obvious here," he said.

Savchenko has been tried in Russia after being accused of directing artillery fire and conspiring the killing of two Russian journalists during fighting between government troops and separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014. She denied any wrongdoing.

Savchenko will face up to 25 years in prison if convicted. The sentencing has been scheduled between March 21 and 22.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Wednesday that he was ready to perform a prisoner exchange to secure Savchenko's return to Ukraine.

The Kremlin said on Thursday that it took notice of Poroshenko's statement, but did not elaborate on its possible consequences.

"We would like to remind once again that the trial is still underway," the Kremlin spokesman told reporters.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said earlier in the day that no talks on Savchenko's swap had been held yet, and that there could not be any until the court gave the verdict.
Manchester is the top location for buy to let investment in England and Wales with cities in the North of England at the bottom, according to the latest lending index.

The highest yields for landlords are in Manchester at 5.55% and the city is also top in terms of rental growth at 5.76% and has a reasonable capital gains growth at 8.34%, the buy to let index from specialist lender LendInvest.

The quarterly index ranks all 105 postcodes in England and Wales based on a combination of rental yields, capital gains, rent growth and transaction volumes.

In terms of the top 10 Colchester is in second place with 3.78% and top for capital gains at 11.96% with rent growth of 5.76%. In third place is Luton with yields of 4.03%, capital gains of 9.16% and rent growth of 5.26%.

All the bottom 10 buy to let locations are in the North of England apart from Enfield and include Durham with yields of 4.47%, a capital gains loss of 2.52% and rents down 0.9%. Sunderland has yields of 5.37% but capital gains down 1.3% and rents down 0.18%.

When it comes to capital gains the top city is Colchester at 11.96%, followed by Southall at 11.09%, Hemel Hempstead at 10.27%, Slough at 10.19%, Harrow at 9.89% and Ipswich at 9.44%. While most are in the South of England Hull is in tenth with 8.46%.

Manchester has the highest rental growth at 5.76%, followed by Leicester at 5.3%, Luton up 5.26%, Rochester up 5.12%, Cardiff up 5%, Brighton up 4.61%, Swansea up 4.47%, Birmingham up 4.29%, Newcastle up 4.18% and Truro up 4.13%.

The index report points out that Manchester has knocked Luton off the overall top spot, Leicester is in the top 10 for the first time and Hull is the biggest climber, up 93 places to sixth since December 2016 while Enfield is the biggest fallers, down from six to 101.

According to Ian Boden, sales director at LendInvest, the figures indicate that the North and the Midlands are becoming good options for landlords. As well as Manchester cities such as Leicester, Birmingham and Nottingham have also made significant gains in the index.
SqueezeCMM announced today a new module that will allow B2B marketers to track lead-generation and conversion from native ads.

While most marketers have a number of data tools at their fingertips for tracking how audiences consume native advertising, SqueezeCMM B2B Native Ads will fill in the missing gap of what audiences do once theyve left the native ad.

Marketers everywhere are increasing their native ad spend, but with content being distributed over so many channels, marketers have no clue what works, which channels drive leads and if the audience that reads a native ad converts, says Jennifer Evans, Co-Founder of SqueezeCMM. The new SqueezeCMM B2B Native Ads module was built to help marketers measure business outcome and performance from native.

The SqueezeCMM B2B Native Ads module allows marketers to:



Track leads and conversion from native advertising.

Track distribution performance to understand which sites deliver the best leads, opt-ins and conversions.

Understand how content types, publishing times and platforms impact conversion.

Differentiate how audiences behave once they move from a native ad and end up on-site or in a conversion funnel.

SqueezeCMM B2B Native Ads is powered by the SqueezeCMM platform, but built specifically for tracking native advertising performance. Customers who already use SqueezeCMM for other types of content marketing measurement can add the B2B Native Ads module to existing SqueezeCMM dashboards in order their leverage data and insight.

"SqueezeCMM can optimize targeting by up to 30%, said Gary Coichy, Associate Director, MediaCom.

SqueezeCMM B2B Native Ads comes with customer, publisher and agency dashboards so each stakeholder can see performance, in real-time. A centralized view also lets marketers see performance data through to lead generation and conversion for all their native ad campaigns in one place  regardless of how many native ads are published, or where theyre published.

Its one thing to have reach from a native ad, but eventually marketers need to know if native ads and the publishers that offer them create business outcomes, says Chris Hogg, a Partner at SqueezeCMM. SqueezeCMM B2B Native Ads shows native performance to lead generation, validates that clicks are human, and applies a standard classification to B2B native ads that can also be applied to other content assets in the organization, for a complete performance picture.

The company has been testing the platform in beta with several customers and is available now to marketers, agencies and publishers here: http://sqz.co/sl9BJVy

For more information contact John Huang at john(at)squeezecmm(dot)com.

About SqueezeCMM: SqueezeCMM is a technology platform that tracks content marketing performance across email, social media, web and native advertising. The platform provides a centralized view of how audiences engage with content, and which content drives business results. Customers include Raymond James, HP, Dell and Environics Research. The company was a part of CIX20, Metabridge Top15, Extreme Startups, and won the SAP Startup Forum. SqueezeCMM was acquired by its customer, Digital Journal Group, in 2015.
Access Healthcare's goal is to help providers create more great patient experiences through best practice revenue cycle management. We have best-in-class HR practices, and we are replicating these best practices in Coimbatore. We will aim to maintain a high level of engagement with our employees, which in turn will increase the certainty of business outcomes for our customer.

Access Healthcare, a leading provider of end-to-end healthcare revenue cycle services, announced today the launch of its 9th Global Delivery Center in Coimbatore, a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The center will cater to the Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) needs of Access Healthcares largest customers in the US and abroad.

The new center will strengthen our ability to cater to our customers needs, connect with multiple time zones more quickly and with more flexibility, said Anurag Jain, Chairman of Access Healthcare. The availability of a talented workforce and a positive environment fostered by the state government makes Coimbatore an attractive destination for us. Our team in Coimbatore will play a key role in accelerating innovation and transformation for our customers.

Access Healthcare Quick Facts:



Founded in 2011 with just 3 employees

Recruited 1,716 employees in 2015

To recruit 1,400 employees for new Coimbatore center

Targeting 7,000 total employees in 2017

Changes in the U.S. healthcare landscape have led to a greater need for outsourcing IT services. Access Healthcare, which specializes in complete Revenue Cycle for medical billing companies and health systems, developed a best practices engine enabling high level scalability. The companys recruitment and training principles, as well as transparency in governance through their arc.in platform, has contributed to consistent, proven operational excellence.

We have best-in-class HR practices, and we are replicating these best practices in Coimbatore. Through this, we will aim to maintain a high level of engagement with our employees, which in turn will increase the certainty of business outcomes for our customers and partners, added Shaji Ravi, President and Managing Director of Access Healthcare Services.

Included in these HR best practices, is the Access Healthcare training and certification methodology. Prior to deployment of an employee on a customer account, Access Healthcare ensures the individual has assimilated the skills and knowledge required to proficiently perform necessary tasks. Access Healthcare believes demonstrated, intricate knowledge of the right process is key to delivering high-quality service. The company has cultivated a strong culture of learning with multiple advanced revenue cycle management certification programs.

About Access Healthcare

Exceptional healthcare organizations compliment the highest standards of care with a commitment to excellence in revenue cycle management. Billing companies and healthcare provider systems use Access Healthcare to bring excellence to their back office Revenue Cycle Management enabling better focus on strategic priorities, like profitability and creating great patient experiences. By leveraging the Access Healthcare Best Practice Engine for Revenue Cycle Management, our focus on creating results enables not only improved profitability, but opportunity to cultivate growth through reduced costs, better productivity, and higher quality. For more information, check out accesshealthcare.org.
Car Solutions Partners with Encore Protection We are very excited to announce this partnership that will greatly benefit our valuable credit union clients.

Encore Protection and Car Solutions are proud to announce their exclusive partnership, established to offer credit union members comprehensive, 24/7 roadside assistance from experienced providers.

Car Solutions car buying service has entrusted Encore Protection with providing members a wide range of roadside service benefits, such as up-to 25 towing miles per breakdown occurrence, flat tire assistance, emergency fuel, oil and fluid delivery, jump-start and lock-out assistance, and more. Services will span 24 hours a day, seven days a week, throughout the entirety of the United States, as well as Canada, Puerto Rico, Mexico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

For more than two decades, Car Solutions has supplemented their car buying service by offering credit unions throughout the country value-added products, such as mechanical breakdown coverage and guaranteed asset protection. With Encore Protection, they can now offer credit union members complete roadside assistance.

Of the partnership, Steve Benise, President of Car Solutions, said, We are very excited to announce this partnership that will greatly benefit our valuable credit union clients. As we have for the last 25 years, we plan to continue to offer outstanding customer service, including quick response times, to show our clients that they are not just a number  especially when they are experiencing a roadside breakdown.

Encore Protection understands the most essential aspects of dependable roadside assistance  speed of service, accuracy, reliability and communication. To help achieve these goals, theyve launched with the help of AT&T their LocateMe GPS technology solution that will pinpoint a members breakdown location in seconds and quickly transmit the dispatched providers information and estimated time-of-arrival.

A full-service roadside assistance company, Encore also offers a variety of plans to individuals, households, and even business owners. Fleet managers can work directly with Encore professionals to develop a customized roadside service plan for their company fleet, while individuals and families can choose from pay-per-vehicle plans that best meet their specific needs.

For more information about Encore Protections roadside assistance plans, or to learn about the many benefits members can receive, please visit http://www.encoreprotection.com.
The Bach to Rock music school franchise announces plans to open four new locations in Connecticut, Georgia, New Jersey and New York. I am very honored to welcome these franchisees to the Bach to Rock family. We are experiencing continued growth due to our proven business model and music education philosophy," said Brian Gross, president of Bach to Rock.

Bach to Rock(B2R), Americas music school for students of all ages, announced today the signing of several franchise development agreements to launch four new schools in the states of Connecticut, Georgia, New Jersey and New York. The brand is experiencing a burst of growth with 30 additional franchised locations slated to break ground between 2016 and 2017.

The present development plans in Connecticut, Georgia, New Jersey and New York include:



Ridgefield, CT: New franchisee Carl Giangrasso is a former financial services executive and IT operations consultant. I am proud to be opening the first Bach to Rock in Connecticut this fall, and am eager to make our school a community hub for musicians of all ages to expand their talents, he said.

Roswell, GA: Husband and wife team Carmen and Nancy Guinto are thrilled to be opening Georgias first Bach to Rock in the Atlanta area in the fall of 2016. Nancy is a classically trained pianist and educator, and while Carmen is an IT professional and business owner, he is also an aspiring vocalist, guitarist, bassist and harmonica player. We want our Bach to Rock school to be a place that everyone enjoys, from our employees to our students. Its like creating a new extended musical family, said the couple.

Rockland County, NY and Paramus/Ridgewood, NJ: Eric Philo is a former investment banker and corporate analyst. He is confident that Bach to Rock is a solid business proposition; however, it is the opportunity to help kids break out of their digital habits that captivated him. Music is a way to teach the digital generation about interacting with other kids by playing music, talking, laughing and joking, he said. With his own album debuting later this year, Philo is delighted to share his passion for music with students when he expands Bach to Rocks presence in New York and New Jersey this fall.

I am very honored to welcome these franchisees to the Bach to Rock family. We are experiencing continued growth due to our proven business model and music education philosophy, said Brian Gross, president of Bach to Rock. We have a winning formula that helps budding musicians of all ages nurture and grow their talent. At the same time, we help fill a void left behind by school budget cutbacks. Bach to Rock offers a prime opportunity for entrepreneurs to become successful.

Bach to Rock franchisees are provided with an array of tools to position them for success, including extensive hands-on training, marketing and public relations support and a proprietary web-based management system, along with demonstrated techniques for business growth. Franchisees also benefit from multiple revenue streams such as individual and group classes, early childhood education programs, state-of-the-art recording studios, summer and winter camps, birthday parties and more.

Bach to Rock has repeatedly been named to Entrepreneurs Franchise 500 and was listed in the Top Ten Trending Categories for 2016. In 2014, Inc. Magazine named Bach to Rock one of the fastest-growing private companies in America for the third consecutive year and Franchise Times ranked it as one of the 500 Powerhouse Brands and on its Next 300 Franchise System list. In addition, Washington Family Magazine named Bach to Rock to its Best Music Instruction list and readers of Northern Virginia Magazine voted the company as Best Piano Instruction. Bach to Rock also was named the number one company to watch by the Washington Business Journal.

Bach to Rock is currently seeking qualified candidates to open franchise locations in markets across the country. Individuals seeking to own and operate a Bach to Rock should possess a minimum net worth of $500,000 and liquid assets of at least $100,000. While music experience or ability is not necessary, candidates should have a passion for music and be able to build a strong team of committed musicians to ensure the schools success. Franchisees can expect their initial investment to range from approximately $370,000 to $522,500, including a $35,000 franchise fee.

To learn more about music school franchise ownership opportunities with Bach to Rock, as well as its veteran and franchise referral programs, contact Ralph Rillon, vice president of franchise development, at 1-855-227-7570 or franchise(at)bachtorock(dot)com, or visit http://www.bachtorockfranchise.com.

About Bach to Rock

Bach to Rock (B2R) is a music education school for students of all ages from early childhood through high school and beyond. B2R knows learning music should be fun and students learn best when they play music they enjoy. Weekly ensemble instruction and band formations lead to public concerts, Battle of the Bands and recording sessions in B2Rs professional recording studios. B2R builds technique, fosters teamwork and enhances self-esteem through private lessons, band instruction, and public performances. Bach to Rock opened its first corporate-owned location in 2007 in Bethesda, MD., and with its most recent opening in Wellesley, MA, has now grown to 12 schools in California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Ten franchised schools are in development in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, New York, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia, with an additional 30 schools in development nationwide. Follow B2R on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/BachtoRock and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/BachtoRock. For more information, visit http://www.bachtorock.com or call 1-877-227-8558.
The Legendary Stories of Don Hansen Jack O'Neill gave me a shaping bay and a stack of blanks and said, "Here, start shaping."

From Don Hansen's humble beginnings in South Dakota to finding his way on the famed North Shore, he has done and seen it all. Hansen Surfboards is honored to share the vision, passion, and amazing journey of one of surfings most iconic surfboard shapers.

Peak to Peak: Part Two-Learning From A Legend, follows along as Don is drafted into the army and moves up the coast to Santa Cruz, CA. While Stationed at Fort Ord, Don meets legendary waterman and wetsuit aficionado Jack ONeill, and under the ONeill label starts to shape his first surfboards.

Don shares what it was like surfing along the California coast in the 1960s, his time in the iconic surf town of Santa Cruz, and working with an eccentric legend like ONeill. Peak to Peak is a documentary series like no other, giving us in-depth insight into one of surfing's most legendary craftsmen.

Peak to Peak is a once in a lifetime opportunity to follow along as the legendary surfer, outdoor enthusiast, and family man shares the story of his journey to icon status.

Watch Peak to Peak: Part Two-Learning From a Legend here.

Hansen Surfboards

Hansen Surfboards is located in Encinitas, California, with over 20,000 square feet of retail space. Hansens is still the largest surf shop in San Diego County, and still family owned and operated. With its independent and family based values still at the center of the Hansens brand, the ongoing passion for providing an unparalleled retail experience hasnt changed. hansensurf.com
Today the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) celebrates the passage of one of its top state legislative priorities by the Utah legislature. The Commercial Interior Design Certification Modification bill will allow commercial interior designers to sign their drawings in order to pull building permits for their scope of work on certain construction / renovation projects. Its passage is another positive step forward to breaking down the barriers to opportunity for interior designers and their businesses everywhere.

"Across America, interior designers have much reason to celebrate," said Randy Fiser, CEO of ASID. "Due to the hard work and dedication of Utahs interior design community, there has been a great victory for the profession."

For years, Utah ASID members have worked tirelessly to create new pathways to opportunity and entrance to the profession. This is a major step forward. As a result, commercial interior designers will not be mandated to work under other members of the design team, such as architects, and instead practice independently within their scope of work. Consequently, this will lead to more opportunities for interior design businesses to grow, thereby creating a means to open their doors for new employees wanting to practice design.

Added Fiser, "This bill is a winning testament to securing just one basic right of interior designers. We have many more to go before we can declare a total victory for the profession. To that end, ASID will continue to lead and unite the profession in state capitals and Washington DC to support advancing the practice of interior design and all those impacted by it.

About ASID

The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) believes that design transforms lives. ASID serves the full range of the interior design profession and practice through the Societys programs, networks, and advocacy. We thrive on the strength of cross-functional and interdisciplinary relationships among designers of all specialties, including workplace, healthcare, retail and hospitality, education, institutional, and residential. We lead interior designers in shared conversations around topics that matter: from evidence-based and human-centric design to social responsibility, well-being, and sustainability. We showcase the impact of design on the human experience and the value interior designers provide.

ASID was founded 40 years ago when two organizations became one, but its legacy dates back to the early 1930s. As we celebrate nearly 85 years of industry leadership, we are leading the future of interior design, continuing to integrate the advantages of local connections with national reach, of small firms with big, and of the places we live with the places we work, play, and heal. Learn more at asid.org.
Teamwire App Icon Teamwire now offers its secure enterprise messaging app for all mobile and desktop platforms. This helps businesses to increase the productivity on all devices and improve the communication of all employees and teams.

Teamwire today releases its secure enterprise messaging app for desktops and PCs. In addition to iPhone, iPad and Android, Teamwire now offers native apps for Windows, Mac and Linux.

The desktop apps of Teamwire provide the same enterprise messaging features as the mobile apps: Users can easily send instant 1:1 and group messages, and share any digital content like photos, videos, voice messages and links. Employees can set up group chats as permanent communication channels for their teams, projects and units. A chat member administration allows to easily add colleagues to ongoing conversations. Read receipts and threaded chats show users nicely, whose input is needed to drive a discussion and make a decision. Besides, the desktop apps have a broad selection of emojis, which help to simplify and ease the internal messaging of an enterprise.

All chats in Teamwire are persistent and synchronized immediately on all the devices of a user. This is a very important feature to enable instant cross-platform use and a seamless user experience. An employee can switch between mobile and desktop devices anytime and directly continue the communication.

The desktop apps feature strong encryption and leading data protection like the mobile apps. Teamwire provides its secure enterprise messaging app based on high German and European privacy and data protection standards. Professional access management, comprehensive user administration and global policies ensure company-wide compliance. Businesses can also choose between a cloud, private cloud or on-premise deployment of Teamwire.

Teamwire now provides a true cross-platform enterprise messaging app, that increases the productivity of businesses and improves the internal communication wherever employees are and whatever device they use. The new enterprise messaging apps for the desktop can be downloaded from the Teamwire website.

About Teamwire:

Teamwire is a fast, easy to use and secure enterprise messaging app. Teamwire improves the internal communication with colleagues and teams, and increases the productivity of businesses and large corporations. Users can send 1:1 and group messages, post status updates, exchange video and voice messages, and share calendar dates, files and much more. Teamwire fully complies with strong German and European data protection needs and is a completely encrypted solution. The service can be easily managed for the whole organization and ensures company-wide compliance. Teamwire is available for all mobile and desktop platforms as a private cloud or an on-premise solution.
We cant wait to share the results of our first major treadmill desk overhaul.

LifeSpan, the active lifestyle brand which popularized treadmill desks and bike desks in the workplace, is announcing its new line of treadmill desks.

Heeding the call for sleek, minimalistic design, LifeSpans treadmill desks have been modernized to reduce their overall dimensions, and been made quieter, for easy placement into smaller, more intimate professional areas and atmospheres.

But the changes go beyond whats immediately noticeable.

The treadmill desks redesigned control consoles now have convenience features like speed presets, customizable settings and are fully integrated with Apple Health and Google Fit  along with improved displays.

Every day since we launched our first treadmill desk, our customers have told us how its helped change their lives, said LifeSpan President Peter Schenk. Theyve also shared feedback on how we could continue to improve on our original design. We heard them, and cant wait to share the results of our first major treadmill desk overhaul with them, he said.

In 2011, having spent years creating exercise equipment, the company turned its attention to treadmill desks when it saw customers building desks to use with their treadmills. It soon applied its years of experience and quality manufacturing to the first LifeSpan treadmill desk. The new line being announced today is a modern refinement of its original design.

Far from just preventing the dreaded sitting disease, LifeSpan workstations have been said to improve energy levels, benefit heart health and blood values, and reduce back and joint pain, among other physical advantages. Increased cognition, enhanced creativity and improved memory have also been cited as benefits.

Research has agreed with these findings. Multiple studies over the last five years have proven the immediate and long-term benefits of light activity during work. Health Services Management Research reported that people who use treadmill desks are slimmer, less stressed and have lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels than those who dont. The University of Montreal recently found treadmill desks enhance workforce performance.

The new LifeSpan treadmill desk line is now available to consumers and businesses at http://lifespanfitness.com/workplace.

This represents a substantial leap forward for our company, Schenk said. But the truly meaningful steps are still the ones that are literal."

LifeSpan is dedicated to benefiting the way people work, exercise, and live in sustainable, healthy ways. Our quality products and progressive vision have inspired fitness and wellness as a sustainable way of everyday life for years. By specializing in products created uniquely for the home, gym, workplace and everywhere in between, LifeSpan is helping to empower individuals to find better health, regardless of the setting. To learn more, visit http://lifespanfitness.com.
Dr. Wallerstein and I are excited to invest in VGH and look forward to being a part of their continued growth over the coming years.

Vision Group Holdings announced today that it has accepted new investments. Macquarie Capital, the corporate advisory, capital markets and principal investing arm of Macquarie Group, Dr. Mark Cohen and Dr. Avi Wallerstein  co-founders of LASIK MD  are minority shareholders in the company moving forward. The transaction, which will help fund growth in the LASIK and cataract markets across the United States, closed last week.

Vision Group Holdings manages several of the leading LASIK surgery providers in the world, including The LASIK Vision Institute and TLC Laser Eye Centers. Between all of its brands, the Company has performed over 3.2 million LASIK eye procedures, more than any other provider of laser vision correction services. VGH also offers convenient and affordable cataract surgery as part of the Cataract Vision Institute brand.

With more than 130 locations in 40 states and Canada, Vision Group Holdings has expanded rapidly in recent years. This latest investment is intended to help ensure future growth and fund acquisitions and capital equipment needs. There will be no changes in structure, direction, or management, and the exceptional patient experience will remain exactly the same. As part of the transaction, Vision Group Holdings will also be investing in LASIKMDs robust state-of-the-art EMR technology for use in all of its clinics.

We are very pleased to be partnering with Macquarie Group, a global leader in the capital investment markets. Dr. Cohen and Dr. Wallersteins experience with the latest technology available in Canada and multiple years of experience with T-CAT (Contoura Vision in the United States) will help us in our rapid growth across the country, said VGH CEO Ben Cook. They are exceptional surgeons and businessmen and we are excited with our strategic partnership with them. Our investment in their state-of-the-art EMR software will be a significant step forward in our technological capabilities.

Larry Handen, Senior Managing Director at Macquarie Capital said: Vision Group Holdings provides a unique value proposition to its clients by combining the highest standards of care with exceptional visual outcomes. Under Ben Cooks leadership the company has enjoyed tremendous growth. We look forward to contributing to Visions continued success.

Dr. Mark Cohen, CEO of LASIK MD said, Ben Cook and his team have built Vision Group Holdings into the leading Laser Vision Correction platform in the United States. Dr. Wallerstein and I are excited to invest in VGH and look forward to being a part of their continued growth over the coming years.

Dr. Avi Wallerstein, Executive Vice President of LASIK MD said, We are very excited to deploy our robust EMR software platform throughout VGH to modernize and streamline the Companys technology and clinical operations.

About Vision Group Holdings

Vision Group Holdings, based in West Palm Beach, Florida, oversees and manages two of the leading LASIK surgery providers in the world: The LASIK Vision Institute and TLC Laser Eye Centers. Vision Group Holdings, the largest LASIK provider in North America, serves multiple markets in the United States and Canada, making it extremely convenient for patients to find a location that is both nearby and well suited to their specific needs.
Cram Fighter, the industry leader in adaptive study plan creation, and McGraw-Hill Education, among the largest learning science companies in the world, announced today they have entered into a partnership. The partnership will provide benefits to medical students worldwide as they prepare for each milestone in their education.

Were excited to work with McGraw-Hill Education, a market leader in the medical education space, said Amit Mathew, the CEO of Cram Fighter. McGraw-Hill Education has maintained a competitive edge across all sectors of education for more than 100 years, and were thrilled to collaborate on the next frontiers of education technology.

Cram Fighter helps more than 20,000 students annually prepare for exams such as the USMLE and COMLEX. The company offers an automated and personalized study plan solution, so students don't have to spend hours or days creating a plan by hand, in Excel, or Google Calendar.

As the most trusted name in USMLE test prep materials, we at MHE are excited to work with Cram Fighter to further our reach among med students and improve our understanding of how we can produce even better outcomes, said Aaron Yaverski, Managing Director, MHEI&P North America.

McGraw-Hill Medical is a leading global provider of electronic and print medical content for business and consumers in the healthcare and education communities.

McGraw-Hill Education joins Cram Fighters growing roster of publishing partnerships in the medical industry, as Cram Fighter further entrenches itself as a major player in edTech and adaptive learning solutions.

We are excited to partner with industry leaders to create new and dynamic ways to embrace student communities and introduce students to great resources as they navigate the fast-changing education landscape, said Mathew.

For more information on Cram Fighter, please visit http://www.cramfighter.com.

For more information on McGraw-Hill, please visit http://mhprofessional.com.

Media Contacts:

Jason Woods

Director of Marketing

jason(at)cramfighter(dot)com

Jared Wright

Associate Director of Marketing

jared.wright(at)mheducation(dot)com
Ian Carr, Intermedix Market Development Director The WebEOC system is tried and tested in the most demanding environments in the US, and we are very excited to now be bringing it to the UK and the rest of the world to meet specific territory crisis management needs.

Calls for a central control centre that facilitates an effective joined-up response to a major incident or disaster in the UK & Europe (and the rest of the world), have been answered as proven incident management technology, WebEOC, launches from its new UK base.

Already the proven and well known backbone of crisis and special event management across the US, WebEOC was the trusted system used to manage Hurricane Irene; the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill; President Obamas Inauguration; and major sporting events like Superbowl among a plethora of effective key US deployments for the Intermedix solution, to date.

The lack of a similarly vigorous technological system enabling emergency services and key agencies - to easily share real-time information in the event of a disaster or incident in the UK and Europe - has been strongly criticised. In January 2016, Home Office minister Mike Penning voiced his criticism, suggesting that the Police Service taking control of the Fire Service would be some kind of solution. An idea that was fiercely rejected by all agencies, who have been quick to defend their collaborative approach. The stumbling block in the past has been the technology. Bring on Intermedixs WebEOC!

WebEOC was built by emergency managers, for emergency managers. The software combines industry expertise and technology advancements for an enhanced tool that provides users with an intuitive experience, familiar processes, and scalability. In addition, optimised workflows simplify the users ability to access and action significant information during an incident. Lastly, incidents and disasters occur at all hours of the day and WebEOC is a supported software 24x7x365. In the UK, Category 1 and 2 Responders (including the Police Services, Fire and Rescue Authorities, Ambulance Services, Hospital Trusts, Public Health, and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency), currently operate using different, disparate systems.

The WebEOC system is tried and tested in the most demanding environments in the US, and we are very excited to now be bringing it to the UK and the rest of the world to meet specific territory crisis management needs, said Intermedix CEO, Joel Portice Intermedixs UK and Europe operation is headed up by Ian Carr, Market Development Director. He says: Many emergency management professionals depend on WebEOC to manage both daily and emergency incidents; to meet these needs, we have always placed a strong emphasis on user feedback in the development. Essentially, WebEOC software supports national and local agencies in handling day-to-day operations, managing special events and responding to disasters.

The technology makes it possible to intelligently aggregate diverse data sources and share critical information across government and non-government agencies, providing the best possible response to any incident or emergency situation. Were absolutely delighted to be launching in the UK and Europe from our base in Reading, Berkshire.

For further information and a demonstration, visit http://www.intermedix.co.uk or contact Ian Carr at Ian.Carr(at)intermedix(dot)com
mLevel Logo We are honored to receive silver and bronze Stevie Awards as it recognizes the unique partnership between mLevel and Microsoft and how that relationship provides value to both our customers, explains Dave Cutler, CEO of mLevel

mLevel was presented with a Silver Stevie Award in the Sales or Customer Service Solutions Technology Partner of the Year category and a Bronze Stevie Award in the Sales Training Practice of the Year category at the tenth annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.

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 Awards(SM) and International Business Awards(SM).

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.A. and several other nations attended.

More than 2,100 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were evaluated in this years competition. 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; more than 50 categories for sales and business development achievements; and categories to recognize new products and services and solution providers.

More than 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.

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.

We are honored to receive silver and bronze Stevie Awards as it recognizes the unique partnership between mLevel and Microsoft and how that relationship provides value to both our customers, explains Dave Cutler, CEO of mLevel. mLevel leverages Microsoft Azure to provide our customers with world-class scale, reliability and performance for our next-generation learning platform. In turn, Microsoft leverages our leading learning platform to help educate the extensive Microsoft partner communitys sales force to address the challenge of selling Microsoft Azure to customers. This relationship provides a clear example of the power of Microsoft Azure and simultaneously the power of the mLevel learning platform.

Details about the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service and the list of Stevie winners in all categories are available at http://www.StevieAwards.com/sales.

About mLevel:

mLevel is the industry leading casual learning platform used by Fortune 500 companies to make learning fun, while improving real business results. Founded in June 2012, and headquartered in Chicago, IL with significant operations in Atlanta, GA, mLevel serves clients from the Fortune Global 500 to small businesses across a wide range of industries. http://www.mLevel.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.
Tony Romas has always been a place to celebrate with family and friends, so were inviting our fans to celebrate the wearing of the green and enjoy the spirit of St. Patricks Day, not just on March 17, but all week long.

Tony Romas, known for its iconic American cuisine and world-famous ribs, is getting its Irish on this St. Patricks Day week with a special menu available March 10  17. To mark the global celebration of St. Patricks Day, participating restaurants will offer two signature dishes featuring a special Guinness BBQ sauce.

Tony Romas has always been a place to celebrate with family and friends, so were inviting our fans to celebrate the wearing of the green and enjoy the spirit of St. Patricks Day, not just on March 17, but all week long, said Jim Rogers, Chief Marketing Officer for Romacorp, Inc., parent company of Tony Romas. We know guests will enjoy our special menu and leave satisfied with big smiles on their faces, like theyve been touched by the luck of the Irish.

Guinness, the beer first brewed by Arthur Guinness more than 250 years ago in Dublin, Ireland, brings the flavor of the food to life on the St. Patricks Festival menu. Tony Romas combines the dark, malty beer with sweet and savory flavors to create a Guinness BBQ sauce, bringing an innovative twist to Tony Romas Irish Baby Back Ribs and the Irish Burger. Both menu items come with a side of potato skins piled high with cheese, bacon and chives.

The warm, woody flavors of Guinness perfectly complement our grilled baby back ribs and savory burger, said Chef Bob Gallagher, Senior Vice President of Culinary for Romacorp, Inc. St. Patricks Day is an excuse to celebrate all things Irish, and I cant wait to see our fans smiling eyes when they try our world-famous ribs with an incredible Irish twist.

About Romacorp, Inc.

Romacorp, Inc. is the parent company of Tony Romas restaurants, the worlds largest casual dining concept specializing in ribs. Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, Romacorp, Inc. has more than 150 restaurant locations in more than 30 countries and is one of the most globally recognizable names in the industry. The first Tony Romas restaurant opened more than 40 years ago in North Miami, Florida. For more information about Romacorp, Inc. and Tony Romas, visit http://www.tonyromas.com.
The winning paper is based on the sociological construct of investment as it relates to identity and language learning

TESOL International Association and Educational Testing Service (ETS), the creator of the TOEFL Program, are pleased to name Bonny Norton and Ron Darvin as co-recipients of the 2016 TESOL Award for Distinguished Research. Norton and Darvin are being honored for their paper Identity and a Model of Investment in Applied Linguistics, published in the American Educational Research Journal. They will be recognized at the opening keynote session of the 2016 TESOL International Convention & English Language Expo, 5-8 April in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

Bonny Norton is a professor and distinguished university scholar in the department of language and literacy education at the University of British Columbia, Canada. Many of her key ideas are found in the second edition of Identity and Language Learning, published in 2013 by Multilingual Matters. A Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), she was the inaugural recipient of the Senior Research Leadership Award of AERAs Second Language Research Special Interest Group.

Ron Darvin is a doctoral candidate and Vanier Scholar at the University of British Columbia. His research focuses on digital literacy and equity, learner investment, and social class. Together with Bonny Norton, he has published in TESOL Quarterly, Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, and Journal of Language, Identity, and Education.

The winning paper is based on the sociological construct of investment as it relates to identity and language learning. In a joint statement, Darvin and Norton explain, Given our increasingly digital and mobile world, we have developed an expanded model of investment, locating it at the intersection of identity, capital, and ideology. Drawing on research in contrasting regions of the world, the paper illustrates the ways in which the model might prove analytically useful as learners and teachers negotiate increasingly invisible relations of power in the 21st century.

The winner of the TESOL Award for Distinguished Research receives US$1,000; a free one-year membership in TESOL International Association; a one-year subscription to TESOL Quarterly; and registration, travel, and accommodations for the TESOL International Convention & English Language Expo. The award recipient also delivers a presentation on the winning research at the TESOL convention.

About 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 ETS

At ETS, we advance quality and equity in education for people worldwide by creating assessments based on rigorous research. ETS serves individuals, educational institutions and government agencies by providing customized solutions for teacher certification, English language learning, and elementary, secondary and postsecondary education, and by conducting education research, analysis and policy studies. Founded as a nonprofit in 1947, ETS develops, administers and scores more than 50 million tests annually  including the TOEFL and TOEIC tests, the GRE tests and The Praxis Series assessments  in more than 180 countries, at over 9,000 locations worldwide. http://www.ets.org

About the TOEFL Test

The TOEFL test is the most widely respected English-language assessment worldwide, recognized by more than 9,000 institutions in more than 130 countries including Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. To date, more than 30 million students have taken the TOEFL test. More information regarding the TOEFL test, including registration, study tips and sample questions, is available on the TOEFL Go Anywhere website.
Patient education is essential in preparing individuals to obtain best possible outcomes.

Dr. Frank Agullo of Southwest Plastic Surgery was recently recognized by RealSelf.com as one of the nations top 500 leading plastic surgeons in the nation. Out of over 13,000 medical specialists, RealSelf chose Dr. Agullo among his peers for his ability and guidance of the public in choosing their next elective cosmetic procedures.

Patient education is essential in preparing individuals to obtain best possible outcomes, said Dr. Agullo. I personally strive to provide my patients with the best techniques and technologies, and I am honored by the recognition.

Approximately 1 in 4 Americans share their medical or cosmetic procedure via social media channels like RealSelf. The online venue brings the public person-to-person with medical professionals across the nation. As a RealSelf medical expert, Dr. Agullo was recognized for his outstanding record of consumer feedback and response to consumer questions as they pertain to cosmetic and plastic surgery. His credible, valuable insights concerning elective procedures made him one of the respected RealSelf 500.

Dr. Frank Agullo and his team at Southwest Plastic Surgery in El Paso, Texas provide expert plastic surgery procedures to residents in West Texas, New Mexico, and Northern Mexico. He specializes in services like breast augmentation, liposuction, and buttock augmentation - just to name a few. He has been in practice since 2009.

In 2015, these 500 doctors collectively impacted tens of millions of consumers, with nearly 30% of our total doctor content posted by this relatively small group, said Tom Seery, RealSelf founder and CEO. When I started RealSelf, many doctors questioned why they should give away their expertise for free on the web. Now, eight years later  and with over one million doctor answers on our platform  we are proud of the standard this select group has set. They're leading the way by empowering millions of consumers to gain access to the information they need to make smart and confident health and beauty decisions.

Frank Agullo, MD is one of RealSelfs top expert contributors, answering personal questions from people across the entire globe, directly through our online system. Every month, people around the world come to RealSelf to ask questions pertaining to their aesthetic procedure concerns, whether medical or dental. To date, he has directly responded with an expert answer to 494 questions and his profile has received 102k views. Dr. Agullo also maintains a patient star rating of five out of five stars in RealSelf reviews. For more information on Dr. Agullo, please visit http://www.agulloplasticsurgery.com, and for a full list of the RealSelf 500 Award winners, visit http://www.realself.com/RS500.

About RealSelf

Since being founded in 2006, RealSelf has become the worlds largest online community for sharing information pertaining to specialty services like cosmetic surgery, dermatology, dentistry, and other elective services. Their online library of reviews, procedure photos, informational videos, and direct Q&A with medical professionals has made RealSelf one of the most trusted online resources for health and beauty patients.
Chicago-based Signature Bank is pleased to announce the hire of David C. Martin as Senior Vice President of Commercial Lending. Martin joins the Signature Bank team with nearly thirty years of experience in the banking industry, with an emphasis on commercial lending in the Chicago area.

We are excited to have someone with Daves experience in commercial lending joining our team, said Mick ORourke, CEO and President of Signature Bank. His deep knowledge of middle-market businesses in Chicago is a real asset to Signature Bank.

Martin joins the Commercial Lending team to build on Signature Banks success at serving Chicagos business community.

Im excited to join Signature Bank at a time when its growing rapidly, said Martin. Signature Bank is a true relationship-focused bank with a robust cash management area that is right for my target client base.

Signature Bank is headquartered at 9701 Higgins Road, Suite 500, Rosemont, IL 60018 and can be reached at 773-467-5600 or online at http://www.signature-bank.com.

About Signature Bank

Signature Bank is wholly owned by Signature Bancorporation, Inc. At its founding in 2006, Signature Bancorporation became the largest privately funded de novo bank holding company in Illinois. Based in Chicago, Signature Bank specializes in middle-market commercial banking and is a full-service retail bank offering an extensive range of financial product lines to consumers. Signature Bank offers a unique balance of relationship-driven service with leading-edge technology to provide customers with the personalization they expect from a community bank and the technology capabilities they demand from a national bank.

Visit Signature Bank online at http://www.signature-bank.com. Member FDIC.
The homepage of the Business Intelligence Groups website reads When it is more than a paycheck, and that really tells you all you need to know about the qualifications for their new business awards program, Best Places to Work.

The 2016 Best Places to Work award program will identify those organizations that are doing all they can to improve performance by challenging their employees in an environment that makes work fun and engaging. The Business Intelligence Group will honor companies who help their employees accelerate their careers, knowledge and performance.

What we are seeing today is that candidates, and even current employees, find it hard to evaluate how organizations treat and manage employees, especially when comparing them against others in a given market or industry, said Russ Fordyce, managing director of the Business Intelligence Group. Our new Best Places to Work awards program seeks to highlight those companies that are truly providing a differentiated environment.

To be considered, organizations can nominate themselves online for a Best Places to Work award. Upon submission of a complete nomination, a profile of the organization will be created so that current and former employees will be able to share their experiences by rating the organization on a Likert scale.

Nominations for the 2016 Best Places to Work are due April 8, 2016; award winners will be announced May 25, 2016. Awards will be given in several segments including organization size, location and industry. Complete details are available on the awards program website, where visitors are encouraged to request, download and read the award programs entry kit.

To learn more about Business Intelligence Groups Best Places to Work, visit the companys website at http://www.bintelligence.com.
Theres a huge market opportunity for country distributors, telcos, and ISPs to tap into the rural, remote and island geographies."

Greg Waite, CEO of InventionShare, announced today that important discussions and negotiations for country and continental 5by5 Wireless large area hot spots took place during the GMSA mobile conference in Barcelona.

Speaking from InventionShares Ottawa office, Mr. Waite said that 5by5 Wireless has reached general agreement for exclusive representation in almost 40 countries, with exciting prospects for nearly double that number by Q3 of 2016.

Mr. Waite said that 5by5 Wireless and its large area hot spots make sense particularly for areas with limited or inefficient wireless internet. 5by5 Wireless installations provide significant value as they offer five times' greater wireless internet coverage and economical wireless internet connectivity, and use the UHF 300-1000 MHz frequency spectrum. Developed by a team of experienced technology entrepreneurs with many years experience in wireless communications, the full duplex wireless communications system is a 100% hardware solution. It affords greater data throughput and wireless coverage up to 25 miles (32 km) - for a total circular coverage area of 1,250 square miles or 3,200 square kilometers from one low cost base station. The 5by5 Wireless circuit also can provide full duplex over all spectrum to all wireless communications devices; it is platform agnostic, providing reliable communications support wherever and whenever it is required.

Mr. Waite said that 5by5 Wireless is a perfect complement to those manufacturers looking to support the use of their devices with full duplex throughout the home and through smart city/rural applications. A 5by5 Wireless installation can also guarantee wireless support for devices through the creation of large area hot spots where all devices and circuits can communicate over large distances.

Mr. Waite said, Theres a huge market opportunity for country distributors, telcos, and ISPs to tap into the rural, remote and island geographies. 5by5 large area wireless is unique, proprietary and allows the operators to extend metro-like services to areas that were previously uneconomically viable because of tough terrain or low population densities."

About InventionShare

InventionShare provides inventors with funding, talent, expert processes to accelerate innovation, patent creation and monetization. Respecting that each of our inventors is the architect and the mastermind behind the invention, we work with our inventors in a professional manner as partners helping them take their inventions to market.

About 5by5 Wireless

5by5 Wireless is a patent pending family of inventions that provides a unique solution in delivering internet services to the entire world. Technically it provides full duplex over wireless and high signal strength with very low noise. It is a low cost hardware solution that delivers on the promise of extended range wireless on UHF and on all spectrums and it delivers full duplex to rural, remote, metro, office, smart city, industrial and home applications.

For more information or to get information on partnering with InventionShare and 5by5 Wireless, contact Kensel Tracy, VP Invention Catalyst at InventionShare at ktracy@inventionshare.com or 613-225-7236 Ext 116
The wait is over and its time to come home again, this time to the Museum Of Moving Image in New York City where the eagerly awaited original film H.O.M.E. is debuting. Director Daniel Maldonados film will be screened at the Sixth Annual Queens World Film Festival in Astoria, Queens. https://www.queensworldfilmfestival.com/films/detail.asp?fid=607

Its fitting that the film will be screened at the Museum of Moving Images, which is in the same borough where it was made. 50% of H.O.M.E. was filmed in Queens and features two simultaneous storylines about communication in the big city, loosely based on actual events in the boroughs of New York.

The first story of H.O.M.E. focuses on a young Latino man with Aspergers Syndrome who hides in the subways, while the second story follows an Ecuadorian driver from Jackson Heights, who offers to give a stranded Chinese woman a ride in order to care for her sick child. Here's a link to the trailer https://vimeo.com/122487161

The ambitious and personal film comes from multiple award-winning director Daniel Maldonado, who previously earned mainstream recognition for his short films. The film is produced by Darren Dean (Independent Spirit Award nominee TANGERINE & Sundance winner KINYARWANDA) and features an award winning ensemble including Jesus Ochoa, Jeremy Ray Valdez and Angela Lin.

As the director explains, the film is about the human condition and in particular urban verbal communication. What we see is that these characters are able to communicate in a universal language and it brings out the idea of universality and the ability we have to cross linguistic and cultural barriers. So while its about intimacy and human connection, the story is told through the lens of a disconnected city in constant motion.

The title of the film is also significant as it is referred to as the acronym of home, which is an open interpretation and a symbolic place wherever one feels comfortable and safe.

The cast and crew of H.O.M.E. are honored to have their movie screened at the same event that will be honoring the great Melvin Van Peebles, an influence for Maldonado who has been studying the nuances of cinema for over twenty years.

Recently mentioned as one of the top U.S. Latino 'first feature' films to watch for in 2016, http://chicanafromchicago.com/2016/02/22/10-mas-american-indie-films-coming-soon/ the full-length seventy-five minute movie will be screened at the festival at 6:00 p.m. on March 18, 2016. For more information, visit http://www.homeacronymfilm.com/ OR buy tickets directly at http://www.queensworldfilmfestival.com/films/detail.asp?fid=607.
Civil Air Patrol National Headquarters is joining with the Air Force Associations Montgomery Chapter to provide School Superintendents of Alabama members a day to learn about the many military-related science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) educational and career opportunities available to students and educators in formal and informal educational programs.

The visit by Dr. Tommy Bice, Alabama state superintendent, and superintendents from around the state will be hosted Wednesday by organizations on Maxwell Air Force Base, including the 908th Airlift Wing, Air University and the Jeanne M. Holm Center for Officer Accessions and Citizen Development.

The group will begin the day with a welcome and educational message from the president and commander of Air University, U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Steven Kwast. Kwast will talk about the new Air Force Cyber College and will emphasize the importance of national cyber security sustainment through education and training of the future cyber workforce.

Col. Adam Willis, commander of the 908th Airlift Wing, and his staff will follow with educational opportunity discussions and will prepare the group for an orientation flight aboard a C-130 transport plane. The C-130, provided by the 357th Airlift Squadron, will take the superintendents on a round-trip flight to Birmingham and will help demonstrate the varied jobs available in military aviation.

The group will then gather at CAPs National Headquarters, where luncheon presentations from CAP, the AFA and Air Force Junior ROTC will showcase K-12 aviation and STEM products and programs that can enhance schools core curriculum and help guide students toward high-demand, exciting STEM careers.

Presentations will promote free STEM programs from CAP, teacher professional development experiences and AFA STEM competitions in cyber and space, as well as career preparation in the CAP and Air Force Junior ROTC cadet programs. The group will then be given a special experience at STARBASE Maxwell, a STEM program for the River Regions fifth-graders.

Bringing the educational leaders of our state to Maxwell and to CAPs National Headquarters gives an opportunity to engage with the Total Air Force family and the high-demand STEM career opportunities available to all student, said Don Rowland, CAP chief operating officer.

Scott Key, Montgomery AFA chapter president, added, The efforts of the Montgomery AFA chapter and our partner sponsors to educate the educators and provide stimulating and challenging educational STEM programs and mentor support will bring great dividends to our schools, our communities and ultimately our nation.
The Central Coast Trial Lawyers Association (CCTLA) has voted Ranger Wiens of Harris Personal Injury Lawyers as the 2015 Trial Lawyer of the Year. Each year, a winner is selected from a pool of nominated trial lawyers on the Central Coast who achieved notable trial successes.

The CCTLA is dedicated to assisting all members of the public with their legal affairs, with the underlying mission of protecting the rights of consumers through the judicial process. Members of the CCTLA nominate one another for Trial Lawyer of the Year and a panel of attorneys reviews the best trial verdicts and vote on a winner.

This year, the CCTLA was specifically impressed by Wiens victory in the case of Renfro v. California Mid State Fair, in which the plaintiff was injured by a bucking bronco that kicked through a fence. This was a challenging case since the defense team argued that the injury was the plaintiffs fault. Ultimately, the jury sided with Wiens arguments and awarded the plaintiff a substantial financial award for her injuries.

No one knows when they are going to need a lawyer, said Wiens. There needs to be lawyers out there who will go to bat for them when misfortune strikes.

Ranger has worked for Harris Personal Injury Lawyers since 2013, following four years as a trial lawyer for State Farm Insurance. In the last two years, he has done more jury trials on the Central Coast than any other plaintiffs lawyer. Ranger was named runner-up in the 2014 Trial Lawyer of the Year selection process.

Harris Personal Injury Lawyers has seven offices across the state. Despite the firms size, Harris strongly values their connection to the local community. They are proud to live, work and raise their families on the Central Coast and recognize their clients as neighbors and fellow community members. Learn more at harrispersonalinjury.com.

###

Harris Personal Injury Lawyers is a personal injury law firm with seven locations across California. Harris Personal Injury Lawyers are proud members of Consumer Attorneys of California and have achieved the highest possible AV Rating for ethical standards and legal ability among California personal injury lawyers. Founded on the principal that injured persons and their families should have access to the same quality legal representation as large insurance companies, Harris represents people injured by auto accidents, dog attacks, defective products and similar injuries caused by the negligence of others.
David Weekley Homes is celebrating 40 years of home building in 2016. The company, which started in 1976 in Houston, Texas, builds in 22 cities in 12 states and is the nations largest private home builder. David Weekley offers a variety of floor plans, including traditional single-family, high-density and attached townhomes, and is one of the most awarded home builders in the industry.

Over the companys four decade history, it has enjoyed several notable milestones:



David Weekley Homes was one of the first builders to incorporate energy-efficient building techniques and developed its EnergySaver homes, which are backed by the Environments For Living Programs heating and cooling energy usage guarantee.

Weekley was an early pioneer of open floor plans utilizing windows and light, traffic patterns, room placement and sight lines, known as the builders LifeDesignSM concept.

In 2015, the company celebrated the closing of its 80,000th home.

Weekley was the first builder in America to earn the Triple Crown of American Home Building, an honor which includes Americas Best Builder, National Housing Quality Award and National Builder of the Year.

"Longevity is important for a product as enduring as a home, and the company that stands behind it, and we are extremely proud of our 40-year history," said Chairman David Weekley. "We've enhanced the lives of homebuyers through good and bad economic times, and we plan to remain a private builder with an unwavering outlook on delighting homebuyers and building a world-class reputation. We look forward to celebrating our 100th anniversary with the same principles and values our customers expect and deserve."

Weekley founded the company at 23 years old and now employs about 1,500 team members. The company prides itself on a work culture of caring and contribution, and has earned coveted spots on FORTUNE magazines 100 Best Companies to Work For list nine times. Giving back is at the heart of the companys culture, and Weekley recently enhanced its robust outreach program and named it CARE. CARE is a charitable and volunteer program that joins team members with homeowners, homebuyers, community partners and local nonprofit organizations to live out the companys purpose, Building Dreams, Enhancing Lives. This is accomplished by team members volunteering countless hours to different organizations in their communities and The David Weekley Family Foundation donating more than $100 million to a variety of organizations through the U.S. and abroad over the past 20 years.

Worlds Largest Parade of Homes

To celebrate its 40th anniversary, the builder is hosting the Worlds Largest Parade of Homes. From April 1-30, 2016, David Weekley invites the public to visit its model or showcase homes to see current innovations in design and get inspired with home decor ideas.

Each visitor who registers during the Parade of Homes may enter into a drawing to win one of the following prizes:



Grand Prize $2,000 Electronics Package

First Prize $1,500 Appliance Package

Second Prize Smart Watch

And, David Weekley Homes will donate $5 to the local chapter of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for every visitor who registers during the event in 17 of our participating cities.

"Big Brothers Big Sisters is honored to be a part of David Weekleys World's Largest Parade of Homes," Paul Dewey, Regional Executive Director for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Houston, said. "This partnership will help us continue to provide programs and services nationally and locally, significantly impacting the 200,000 children we serve. The funds collected during the Parade of Homes are not just donations, they are an investment in our childrens future."

In Austin, donations will benefit Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Texas, which provides a "home-away-from-home" to families with seriously ill or injured children.

Donations in Tampa will benefit The Childrens Home, which strengthens communities through programs that support, serve and protect children and their families.

More information about David Weekley Homes and the Parade of Homes is available at http://www.davidweekleyhomes.com.

About Big Brothers Big Sisters

Big Brothers Big Sisters provides children facing adversity with strong and enduring, professionally supported one-to-one mentoring relationships that change their lives for the better, forever.

About David Weekley Homes

David Weekley Homes, the nations largest privately-held home builder, is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2016. Headquartered in Houston, the company operates in 22 cities and 12 states across the United States. David Weekley Homes was the first builder in the United States to be awarded the Triple Crown of American Home Building, an honor which includes Americas Best Builder, National Housing Quality Award and National Builder of the Year. David Weekley Homes has also appeared 10 times on FORTUNE magazines 100 Best Companies to Work For list. Since 1976, the company has closed more than 80,000 homes. For more information, visit http://www.davidweekleyhomes.com.
Real learning, real math, really fun!

The educational publishers behind Mathseeds, the popular online math program for students in grades K2, are now offering a range of classroom math resources for teachers, as well as a four-week trial of the program.

The resources include Mathseeds apps for grades K2, which are designed to increase students math skills through game-like lessons. Valued at $7.99 each, the apps include a multiplayer feature that teachers can use in the classroom to motivate students to compete for in-game rewards.

Teachers can also now access downloadable math worksheets and posters, which may be used both in and out of the classroom. Once signed up for a four-week Mathseeds trial, educators immediately gain access to additional classroom resources, such as big books, lesson plans, student progress reports, and more.

Mathseeds now includes 145 highly structured lessons designed to keep young students engaged and highly motivated while they learn. The program includes self-paced structured activities, fun songs, colorful animations, topic-specific readers, and collectible pets.

The Mathseeds program was developed by the same team of educational publishers behind the award-winning Reading Eggs, an online reading program thats used in a number of schools throughout the United States. Mathseeds teaches children the fundamental math skills they need to succeed in their early years of school and beyond.

Mathseeds is compatible with PC, Mac, iPad, and Android devices. The program can be accessed directly via the Mathseeds website through a browser or by downloading the Reading Eggs student app for the iPad. For more information on compatibility, please visit mathseeds.com/schools/faq.

Educators can access a free four-week trial and Mathseeds resources at mathseeds.com/schools/free-resources.

For more information, visit mathseeds.com/schools or email contact(at)mathseeds(dot)com.
CANNONFIRE is back!

From 2004 to 2021, the original CANNONFIRE blog kept finding ways to irk nearly everyone on nearly every side of nearly every issue. Last year, Google shut down the site. Why? Dunno. The banishment occurred without warning. Despite numerous inquiries, Google refused to explain or to rescind its edict.



The shutdown may have some connection to the compromising of my email. (Damn hackers!) Or maybe it has some connection to my history as a surly, unclassifiable oddball.



But now the site is back. Don't ask me why or how. Resurrection is a mysterious business and this one is particularly confounding. Revival came only when a reader calling herself Faust -- I'm not making this up -- employed incantations and conjurations unknown to mere mortals and thereby compelled the gods of Google to raise the dead. I owe this female Faust much. As a notable 18th century highway commissioner once said: Das ewig weibliche zieht uns hinan.



The site may migrate to another platform in the future. Google's capriciousness has injured my trust.



My name is Joseph Cannon. That's the name I've used professionally throughout this century; feel free to call me Joseph or Joe. I've decided to use my former name -- my 20th century name, if you will -- when writing about true crime and other non-political topics. Why? Reasons. If Google can be mysterious and capricious, so can I.



Email:



cannonfire [at] vivaldi [dot] net



Rules for comments: Do not insult the host. Try to stay on-topic.
CaseBank Technologies Inc., the leading provider of software solutions for equipment fault isolation and defect trend analysis, has announced that it will be exhibiting in partnership with the International Trade Commission, Government of Canada, at The 5th International Exhibition & Conference on Civil Aviation - India Aviation 2016, March 16-20, at the Begumpet Airport, Hyderabad, India.

CaseBank will be located in the Government of Canadas, Ontario Pavilion, Booth #33 with other Canadian companies such as Air Canada, Bell Helicopter, Bombardier and Pratt & Whitney.

CaseBanks technology has been selected by Gulfstream for the G550, G650 aircraft. Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce have also selected CaseBank technology to support their families of engines.

CaseBank is pleased to attend India Aviation to share how our interactive fault isolation, defect tracking and reliability solutions, help technicians, call centers and support engineers provide best in class service, while capturing field experience, said Tony OHara, CEO of CaseBank Technologies, Inc. He added, By troubleshooting problems accurately, our technology is improving aircraft safety and uptime for some of the most advanced aircraft in the world.

India Aviation is one of the largest and most important events in the international aerospace calendar. The conference brings together airport infrastructure developers/operators, airlines, major manufacturers, suppliers and technology providers to discuss manufacturing capabilities, processes, best practices, advances and innovations, automation, industry trends and forecasts.

About CaseBank Technologies

CaseBanks software solutions improve fault isolation and defect trend analysis of complex equipment and systemssupporting engineers and technicians as they respond to product defects and unscheduled maintenance eventsin a variety of industries, including aviation and defense, rail and transit, automotive and heavy equipment, high technology, energy exploration and extraction, and continuous process industries.

CaseBanks technology combines anticipated product failures (from engineering) with actual product failures (from service and support) and uses case based reasoning (CBR), differential diagnostics and other weighting factors (cost, time, etc.) to deliver a faster, more accurate and inexpensive troubleshooting and repair process. With visibility into fleet-wide service histories engineers can identify recurring or emerging problems to modify service plans, develop corrective actions and redesign components. CaseBank solutions help organizations increase equipment reliability, reduce warranty and service costs, improve product performance and boost customer satisfaction.
Outsourced sales leader Sales Partnerships accepting one of many awards at 2016 Stevies Sales Partnerships Inc. (SPI) was recognized through the Stevie Awards as the USs top outsourced sales company, the top field sales company, the top sales consulting company, and winning the top sales distinction award as well. SPI was also recognized as

Sales Partnerships Inc. (SPI) was recognized through the Stevie Awards as the USs top outsourced sales company, the top field sales company, the top sales consulting company, and winning the top sales distinction award as well. SPI was also recognized as the third most award winning sales organization globally  earning a gold grand Stevie award for that distinction.

Founded in 1997, Sales Partnerships, a sales outsourcing provider (also called sales augmentation or contract sales) provides direct branded turn-key sales forces to augment client sales organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to equity funded start-ups. 2014 and 2015, respectively, marked SPI expanding from providing virtual branded sales forces to also providing sales consulting and sales recruiting services. SPI also expanded its primary service offering, turnkey sales forces, to the current dozen industries being served.

The Stevie Awards show was held in Las Vegas at the Paris Resort on Friday March 4th, 2016. The Stevie Awards for Sales and Customer Service are recognized as the worlds largest and most prominent awards in the fields of sales and customer service. The field of companies competing ranged from dozens of global Fortune 500 companies such as IBM, American Express, Dell, Delta Airlines, Adobe, Cisco and Comcast to smaller companies who are influential in their specialties. Entries covering sales distinctions, case studies, and performance results were judged by more than 100 judges ranging from recognized sales authors to VPs in the Fortune 500 to past Stevie winners.

SPIs win for sales outsourcing was based on head to head competition against more than a dozen major competitors for the same client, a major media company. The companys B2B US push included telesales, Internet marketing, and field sales. Against more than a dozen head to head competitors selling the same products to the same business audiences, SPI led all companies in performance, doubling the performance of the 2nd place competitor. This is SPIs 4th win in this category, more than any other company in history of the awards.

SPI also won as the top field sales company in America (SPI's 3rd win  the most of any single company in the history of the awards). 2015 marked SPI's field sales presence growing to more than 30 cities with 20 more scheduled in 2016. The gold for Sales Distinction was tied to SPI's work in Solar between 2014 and 2015 (one of a dozen verticals SPI works). Average team performance was more than 200% above industry averages. Sales Partnerships President Fred Kessler commented, The successes over the past two years has solidified SPI's position leading the Industry in outsourced sales. It was an important year in proving that SPI could be the industry leader for both field and telesales in business to business environments at the same time.

SPI also won a gold award as the top sales consulting firm in America  only 18 months after that service offering became available (along with sales recruiting). Kessler again, Historically, Sales Partnerships only offered consulting and recruiting to outsourced sales clients as part of the process to be branded sales forces for them. The capabilities existed for years  but it wasnt until late 2014 that SPI had grown enough to be able to offer those services as stand-alone offerings. Winning the award as the top sales consulting company in America in the first year of eligibility is an amazing feat.

SPI also won silver awards for innovations in sales technologies, sales operations, and sales management along with individual silver recognitions for Fred Kessler, SPIs President for top senior sales chief executive and SPIs VP of Operations Aaron Kullman for top sales operations executive of the year.

The quality and quantity of submissions for the 2016 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service were robust. Entries have more than doubled over the past three years and the 2016 winners achieved the highest ratings in the history of the awards, said Michael Gallagher, president and founder of the Stevie Awards. "The Stevie Awards congratulate Fred and the Sales Partnerships team, on their commitment to sales and performance.

Watch some of the SPI acceptance speeches on YouTube. Details about the Stevie wins can be found in SPI's announcements page on our web site.

About Sales Partnerships, Inc

Sales Partnerships Inc (SPI) was founded in 1997 with the mission to provide outsourced sales services for large companies looking to expand or change their sales footprints. Headquartered near Denver, Colorado  SPIs current footprint includes more than 30 US cities with capabilities to add new cities within weeks to meet client requirements. A three time Inc 500/5000 winner, SPI has been recognized as the industry leader in outsourced sales for more than a decade  having won every major industry awards ranging from Stevie Awards for Sales to recognitions within sales outsourcing as the gold standard. More information can be found about Sales Partnerships at http://www.SalesPartnerships.com .
In March, Longnecker & Associates, a strategic compensation and corporate governance consulting firm based in Houston, announced exciting internal growth. The company promoted Kevin Kuschel, who joined the company in 2009, to managing partner.

Previously a director, Kuschel has utilized his extensive experience with the analysis and design of executive and director compensation programs for both public and private sectors to help position Longnecker & Associates as one of the top consultancies in Texas. Hes also written numerous articles on executive compensation for the company. In his new role, Kuschel takes an ownership position in the company and will be more involved with clients peer reviews and leadership within the L&A team.

As a managing partner, Mr. Kuschel will continue to work with my partner, Chris Crawford and I to be the best advisors we can be, said Brent Longnecker, chairman and CEO of Longnecker & Associates. Hell play a major role in the quality of our client service and continue to work with us on business development. Were thrilled to have him as a part of our leadership team.

About Longnecker & Associates

Established in 2003, Longnecker & Associates is a nationally recognized strategic compensation and governance consulting firm based in Houston, Texas. The firms consultants work with public, private and not-for-profit companies on a variety of complex compensation and governance situations that require strategic solutions. The firm is considered a thought leader on compensation and governance issues, and its consultants have been featured on MSNBC, Businessweek, The Wall Street Journal and other national media, as well as speakers for WorldatWork, the Society of Human Resources Management and the American Management Association. For more information, visit http://www.longnecker.com.
Nead & Co.a middle-market business consulting firmis pleased to announce an expansion into the world of virtual and outsourced CFO services. The companys ranks include several Chief Financial Officers that have helped to take companies from several million in revenues to hundreds of millions in annual revenues within just a few years.

A virtual or outsourced CFO provides an array of key services, especially for growing startups. Most newly established startup businesses not only do not require the full time services of a CFO but they also lack the capital required to hire a highly-qualified candidate. A virtual CFO can help bridge this gap. A qualified CFO can also help a newer company establish the proper systems and processes required to make a true platform company that is amply ready for growth and bolt-on acquisitions.

We are very excited to bring in several high profile Chief Financial Offers, each with multiple decades of experience, says Jon Castano, company Vice President. The deep experience in our company partners and affiliates is represented by the companies they have helped to grow to very large revenues, Castano says. By combining CFO services to our Chief Revenue Officer services, we truly believe we can help growing companies not only get to the next level of growth, but scale far beyond where they had even expected.

Nead & Co.s team includes four experienced Chief Financial Officers with CFA and CPA designations. Each partner is available on a part or full-time basis to assist with internal company growth initiatives by establishing company financial procedures, helping to value company metrics for things like employee stock ownership, financial modeling and forecasting for growth, profitability enhancement, cost reduction strategies, compliance for federal and state taxes, maintaining GAAP-focused financial statements.

We are hoping this new expansion into a focus on financial services will work well with our current sales consulting practice, says Castano.

About Nead & Co.

Nead, LLC is a business consulting firm focused on providing tailored solutions to business clients. Their current service offerings include sales & marketing assistance, procurement of investment capital for growth companies and now outsourced CFO services. The company has helped to add millions in top-line revenue to client firms. A typical client engagement includes a full deep-dive into both a clients financial and sales-related activities, assessing areas of weakness and looking for ways to effectively improve the outcomes of a given investment.
5 Horizons Group, a leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of lifestyle bags, accessories and apparel, has acquired Denver Design Company, LLC (DDC)  parent company of two award-winning backpack brands: MHM and CO.ALITION.

DDC founders Jeff Popp and Casey Lorenzen, along with product designer Michelle Hodulik, will join the 5 Horizons team to drive innovation, product design and their unique brand building abilities to new heights within the 5 Horizons platform.

The 5 Horizons eco-system is founded on innovation and forward-looking ideation, and what DDC has accomplished in just a few short years resonated strongly with us, said Jonathan Allen, 5 Horizons co-founder. Jeff and Casey not only bring a unique vision and enthusiasm to the products they design, but also have a very close relationship with their customer, which is everything in this new world of specialized retail, added Kevin Lehrer, 5 Horizons co-founder.

The MHM and CO.ALTION brands have won accolades from numerous industry organizations, including National Geographics Gear of the Year Award (2014), and were most recently featured on ABCs Shark Tank.

Jon, Kevin and the rest of the 5 Horizons team have a clear passion for creating and delivering the same caliber of product that we at DDC feel the industry needs  and that was critical in our decision for this partnership, said Popp, who will assume the role of Product Director within the new division. Casey Lorenzen added: 5H brings the fuel, speed and resources to our vision. To be immediately surrounded by a group of people with a shared philosophy is just amazing. We believe this will help propel the brands we have established to new heights.

DDC will continue to operate out of its headquarters and storefront in Denver, CO. The acquisition coincides with 5 Horizons' recent launch of a design and innovation studio in Boulder, CO.

To learn more about 5 Horizons, please visit 5horizonsgroup.com. For more information, please contact Kevin Lehrer kevin(at)5hgroup(dot)com or Jonathan Allen jon(at)5hgroup(dot)com. To learn more about MHM and CO.ALITION, please visit mhmgear.com or co-alition.com.

###

Denver Design Co. was founded in 2015 in Denver, Colorado to manage the award-winning brands MHM (est. 2009) and CO.ALITON (est. 2014). DDC creates products that enhance peoples shared experiences of adventure & lifestyle pursuits through a relentless focus on innovative product design & technology. DDCs products are timeless, functional and adaptive to evolve with modern needs.

5 Horizons, which launched in 2009, is a creative engine, supply chain leader and market maker for authentic brands. 5H has created a global product platform that designs, manufactures and markets lifestyle accessories, apparel and home furnishings. 5Hs mission is to create and perfect the connection between product, brands and consumers. The Company has offices in Boulder, CO; St Louis, MO; Guangzhou, China and Shanghai, China.
Verto Analytics logo Verto Analytics was built to meet the demands of todays digital publishers and brands that need to understand how, when and where consumers are engaging with their products across every device, app, screen and platform they use throughout their day.

Verto Analytics, (http://www.vertoanalytics.com), the worlds first single-source, cross-device audience measurement solution provider, today announced two key strategic executive appointments to further position Verto Analytics as the global leader in next-generation media measurement services. Alison Murdock has joined Verto Analytics as Senior Vice President, Marketing, and is responsible for leading global brand strategy, marketing, and communications out of Vertos San Francisco office. Michael Read has joined as Managing Director, U.K., and is responsible for growing Vertos new London office and leading all U.K. sales and operations. Murdock and Read bring more than 50 years of combined experience growing high-performing teams, and will both sit on the executive management team of Verto Analytics, reporting directly to CEO Hannu Verkasalo.

Verto Analytics was built to meet the demands of todays digital publishers and brands that need to understand how, when and where consumers are engaging with their products across every device, app, screen and platform they use throughout their day. That knowledge can then be used to make data-driven decisions that boost revenues and optimize profitability, said Dr. Hannu Verkasalo, Ph.D., and CEO of Verto Analytics. The addition of Alison and Michael to our executive team, and their extensive experience in building teams and igniting topline growth, will help further cement Verto Analytics as the next generation currency for audience measurement.

Murdock is a highly experienced Silicon Valley marketing and media executive, and most recently held the role of Vice President, Marketing at 6sense, a B2B predictive intelligence platform for marketing and sales, where she oversaw the initial launch of the company and all marketing, events and corporate communications. Prior to her role at 6sense, Murdock was Vice President, Marketing and Business Development at Gigaom, a global technology media company, where she oversaw marketing, PR and demand generation, and also led the audience development strategy for Gigaom Research.

Verto Analytics solves two critical issues that publishers and marketers have been struggling with for years  and even more so now with the explosion of mobile devices and digital content. First, we give publishers visibility into the net reach of their own and competitive properties and apps, across all platforms and devices. Second, we give marketers a deeper understanding of their target audiences for media planning, audience acquisition, and retention, from a both behavioral and demographic perspective, commented Alison Murdock, Global Senior Vice President, Marketing of Verto Analytics.

Read is a veteran business leader with executive market research, media measurement and data analytics experience across the TV, print and digital sectors. Prior to joining Verto Analytics, Read was Senior Vice President and Managing Director U.K./Europe for comScore, where he opened the companys U.K. office in 2003 and built its EMEA sales organization. He was an elected Board Member and Treasurer of IAB Europe for six years until December 2015.

Verto Analytics has created a clear and transparent way of operating single-source, multi-screen measurement panels  something that other companies have yet to deliver  offering brands and publishers access to daily digital data at a syndicated level, said Mike Read, Managing Director U.K., at Verto Analytics. Im excited to join an experienced team that can deliver on the promise of providing single-source measurement.

Accelerated Growth

Murdock and Read join Verto Analytics at a pivotal time in the growth and development of the company with the launch of Verto App Watch and a partnership with iResearch Consulting. Verto App Watch offers in-depth mobile app behavioral data for all mobile apps, including user-engagement metrics such as time spent, session lengths, in-app monetization, demographics, retention, churn, in-app actions and funnel analyses. iResearch Consulting is the leading Chinese Internet measurement provider and was the first digital measurement company in China. The partnership brings Vertos audience measurement services to China, and enables iResearch to use Verto as a strategic partner to deliver Chinese media measurement data to U.S. and European-based companies.

About Verto Analytics

Verto Analytics measures the complex behavior of todays multi-screen, mobile consumer and every device, app, screen and platform they use throughout their day. Our single-source, cross-device audience measurement solution provides accurate, reliable metrics on content consumption and device usage for advertisers, brands, and publishers who need rich, actionable data to maximize monetization opportunities, optimize media buying, and need daily data to track competitors across the digital space. Backed by Conor Venture Partners and Open Ocean Capital, Verto is a privately held global company with offices in New York City, San Francisco, and Espoo, Finland. Read our blog, follow us on Twitter or learn more at http://www.vertoanalytics.com.

All trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

# # #
Because our product is used for reproduction, we must take every precaution to assure we are providing semen that is safe for both the user and any children that result from it.

Cryos International, the worlds largest international sperm bank, initiated proactive policies to prevent the possible transmission of the mosquito-borne Zika virus through sperm donations. Although not conclusively proven, with the virus believed to cause microcephaly  a neurodevelopmental disorder marked by undersized heads that result in brain deformities  in children born to infected mothers, Cryos is ensuring it has incorporated the guidelines set by U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday, March 1, 2016.

Cryos instituted its polices to prevent the spread of Zika with donors a month prior to the FDA publishing guidelines. The FDA recommendations are aimed towards reducing the risk of Zika virus transmissions through donated human cells, tissues and cellular and tissue-based products (HCT/Ps), which includes semen and oocytes. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), its unknown how long the virus remains present in the semen of men who have had Zika. The consensus among scientists and doctors is to require a six-month deferral period for donors to prevent contamination.

There are currently no commercially available screening tests for Zika, making the only safety measure deferment. Prospective sperm donors that have traveled to areas endemic with Zika (determined by the CDC) within six months prior to making a donation with Cryos will be deferred for six months. Ineligibility to donate is assumed if males were diagnosed with the virus or in an area with active virus transmission.

Because our product is used for reproduction, we must take every precaution to assure we are providing semen that is safe for both the user and any children that result from it, said Corey Burke, Tissue Bank Director for Cryos International. Burkes background in microbiology and embryology/andrology, coupled with his assistance in developing diagnostic testing for the West Nile virus, gives him a unique understanding of Zika as well as the possible spread of it to the mosquito population in Florida.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Zika an international health emergency in February 2016 as it has now spread to 36 countries and territories, mostly in the Americas. WHO has also reported that four out of five people infected with the virus have no symptoms.

States in the Southern U.S., including Cryos U.S headquarters in Orlando, Florida, could potentially see the virus become an endemic as the summer months approach and mosquitos start to swarm. The impact of the worst-case scenario has the potential to affect all tissue donations worldwide including blood, organ, sperm and eggs.

Cryos will remain vigilant when it comes to Zika and alter screening procedures should the severity of the situation heighten and/or new guidelines be released.

For questions regarding Cryos donation and screening processes, contact our headquarters at 407-230-1175.

---

About Cryos International

As the worlds largest sperm bank, Cryos International is the leader in third party reproduction and personalized insemination services. Delivering to more than 80 countries, Cryos aims to ensure a wide selection of high-quality, extensively screened donor sperm from all races, ethnicities and phenotypes for tailored fertility treatments. An extensive network of clients and medical institutions worldwide has helped Cryos achieve the highest number of pregnancies in the world assisted by donor sperm. Through medical partnerships, evolving research and highly customizable insemination, Cryos continues to improve and expand its global services to assist infertile families in achieving successful, full-term pregnancies.

For more information about Cryos International, visit usa.cryosinternational.com.

---

Media Contact

Corey Burke

Tissue Bank Director

Cryos International  USA, LLC

407-230-1175

cb(at)cryosinternational(dot)com
Experlogix has consistently been our strategic, go-to CPQ partner for Dynamics AX.

Experlogix, Inc., the leading provider of Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) solutions for Microsoft Dynamics, announced today full compatibility with the new cloud-based version of Dynamics AX.

The on-demand version of Experlogix CPQ, hosted on Microsoft Azure and certified by Microsoft, delivers deep integration to Dynamics AX, giving users the ability to create complex quotes, orders and projects fast and error-free. Manufacturing organizations can leverage Experlogix's automated AX production order creation to build multi-level bill-of-materials (BOMs) and routings, saving time while completing a true end-to-end quote to cash order fulfillment process in configure-to-order and engineer-to-order environments.

"Experlogix has consistently been our strategic, go-to CPQ partner for Dynamics AX," said Dan Brown, General Manager, Microsoft. "We're excited to have Experlogix CPQ as a Dynamics AX Azure Marketplace solution."

"Being first to market is important to our customers and to our Dynamics partners worldwide," says Christian Stepien, President, Experlogix. "We continue to deliver innovative configurator technology for Dynamics AX and we look forward to supporting this exciting new version of Dynamics AX for the cloud."

The Dynamics AX new release, architected for the cloud, brings the power and intelligence of the next generation of cloud computing in an enterprise-class business application to people and organizations worldwide. This latest release delivers a new, intelligent user experience, optimized to deliver value to organizations by enabling them to make smarter decisions faster. It brings proven business processes to the cloud, which means that the full set of capabilities of this solution will be available to customers from day one. Dynamics AX introduces continuous management services that enable the software to quickly adapt to an organization's business needs. The new Dynamics AX also harnesses the power of the cloud, giving businesses and people global availability and scale to work anywhere, anytime so they can grow at their own pace and on their terms.

"Our ambition to build the intelligent cloud comes to life with apps optimized for modern business, like Dynamics AX," said Scott Guthrie, Executive Vice President, Microsoft Cloud and Enterprise. "When you combine the hyper scale, enterprise-grade and hybrid-cloud capabilities of Microsoft Azure with the real-time insights and intuitive user experience of Dynamics AX, organizations and individuals are empowered to transform their business operations."

Experlogix CPQ combines with Dynamics AX to form a powerful engineering and product management system, automating bill-of-materials (BOMs), production orders, costing and routing. Dynamics AX users receive immediate color-coded feedback after each configuration choice is made. Guided selling with up-sell and cross-sell options, quantity availability, product images and more provide a rich user experience during the quote/order production process. Sophisticated pricing algorithms, discounting costing, profit margins and shipping weight are also provided in real-time.

"Experlogix is a trusted partner of mcaConnect," said Mike Green, Vice President, mcaConnect. "We are excited that they are among the first partners ready to support the new version of Dynamics AX. Our combined offering on this revolutionary platform provides a solid cloud-based configure-to-order solution for our manufacturing client base."

About Experlogix

Experlogix is a premier provider of Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) technology, specializing in fully integrated quote and order automation solutions for Microsoft Dynamics CRM and ERP. Experlogix delivers the scalability and flexibility needed to handle virtually any CPQ requirement at a low total cost of ownership. Formed in 1997, it partners with more than 450 VARs across North and South America, EMEA and Asia Pacific. More than 900 companies worldwide in a variety of industries rely on Experlogix, including, Allegion, AMX, Analogic, Assa Abloy Hospitality, FEI Company, Hitachi Construction Machinery, Husky Injection Molding Systems, Malibu Boats, Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America, Nikon Instruments, Otis (United Technologies), Spectra Logic and TelePacific Communications. For more information, visit http://www.experlogix.com.

About Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics is a line of financial, customer-relationship and supply-chain management solutions that helps businesses work more effectively. Delivered through a network of channel partners providing specialized services, these integrated, adaptable business management solutions work like and with familiar Microsoft software to streamline processes across an entire business.
I know their story and Im the one to tell it. Theyre so ripped up inside that they cant, but someone has to and I want to do that for them

There are an estimated 250,000 child soldiers in the world, according to War Child UK. Although the civil war in Uganda has subsided, the psychological effects are still present with these children.

Paul T. Sugg, author of Oracles of an Ethiopian Coffeehouse, and CEO of AppTech Development International, Inc., has witnessed this brutality first-hand. He has worked in development of Third World countries for more than 40 years.

I have seen and helped victims of the Ugandan civil war, Sugg said. I know their story and Im the one to tell it. Theyre so ripped up inside that they cant, but someone has to and I want to do that for them.

Sugg addresses the situation in Uganda in a coming-of-age novel that blends faith with African traditions and current issues. His book follows two young men with troubled pasts in their journey to seek the Ark of the Covenant. After meeting three religious oracles, they are told three parables that have a significant effect on their quest as well as their personal lives.

The problems facing child soldiers and the struggles of Uganda are discussed in a story format that forces western readers to break out of their ethnocentric paradigms to face issues they often either dont want to confront or simply dont understand, Sugg said.

By incorporating historical elements about Africa, its culture and religion, Suggs novel allows readers to learn more about the world around us.

For more information, visit http://www.paultsugg.com.

Oracles of an Ethiopian Coffeehouse

By Paul T. Sugg

ISBN: 978-1-4917-7715-2

Available in softcover, hardcover, e-book

Available on Amazon Barnes & Noble and iUniverse

About the author

Paul T. Sugg has worked in development in Third World countries for 40 years. He has spent significant time in Africa, helping to build schools and design irrigation schemes for farmers. Sugg is the president and CEO of AppTech Development International, Inc. He received a bachelors degree in political science and history from the University of Iowa and a Master of Science degree in international development from Iowa State University. Sugg resides in West Des Moines, Iowa with his wife.

# # #

For review copies or interview requests, contact:

Brandon Kors

317.602.7137

bkors(at)bohlsengroup.com
Ann Sundstrom, Area Director

Thinking ahead for appropriate care for aging loved ones is not usually a common conversation that comes up in day to day discussion. Most people never even consider it until theyre forced to. Oftentimes, there is a sudden event that causes the need to look outside the family for help with a loved ones care. Acti-Kare Responsive In-Home Care of Cherryhill/Moorestown is positioned to fulfill those needs, whether its something as simple as occasional transportation to appointments, companion and homemaking services, all the way up to full non-medical personal care attention.

The perception that many people have when they think about a caregiver coming into their home is that its only for people who need help with all aspects of daily living. Rarely is that the case, says Ann Sundstrom, Area Director. Our caregivers at Acti-Kare know the importance of remaining as active and independent as long as possible and, to the extent that we can, help assist clients in maintaining their activities of daily living. In many cases, that means starting care early while the client can still be an active part of their own care plan. This gives them time to get used to their caregiver and find comfort in knowing that Acti-Kare is a consistent and reliable part of their life if the time comes when more assistance is needed.

Sundstrom states, During my time working in a nursing home in New Jersey, I realized very quickly that the residents did not want to be there. They missed their homes, their special possessions and their routines.

This is what attracted Sundstrom to Acti-Kare. "With my own parents who are each 87 years old, I see the struggles they go through each day just to complete simple tasks. There are the beginnings of dementia as well as the inability to perform the duties that used to come so easily to them. As their daughter, it is really hard to watch. I want to constantly be at their side, but the reality is that I cant be there all the time.

Ann has a vast experience in the healthcare field, having worked as an administrator for several physicians at Cooper University Hospital, Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, and several private practices as well. This has given her the expertise to understand the nuances of medical care today and how critical it is for our seniors to have someone to help them navigate through the system.

Acti-Kare has created Acti-Vate, a revolutionary program that helps battle fatigue in many seniors. Seeing clients enjoying hobbies or interests that they havent been able to in years because of a highly trained Acti-Kare caregiver assisting them is incredibly rewarding. states Sundstrom.

There is no one size fits all when it comes to home care, which is why great attention to detail and time goes into understanding and assessing an individuals needs. Its important to incorporate a customized care plan in a manner that is comfortable for the client, their family and the caregiver. It didnt take Ann long to decide to bring Acti-Kare to the Cherryhill/Moorestown area.

With 8,000 people turning 65 every single day in the United States, there is a growing shift in the traditional aging model. Now, more than ever, seniors are choosing to age in place, and that usually means remaining in a private home or independent living community as long as possible. Ann states, We know people are happiest and most comfortable in their own homes. Were thrilled to know that we can play such a critical part in helping maintain their quality of life, comfort, and peace of mind. Weve seen firsthand that it not only makes life better for our clients, but their extended family as well.

Anns location serves the Camden & Burlington County including Cherry Hill, Moorestown, Haddonfield, Voorhees Township, Haddon Heights and Mt Laurel areas.
"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." - George Washington
In her current role, Brazzale-Anderson leads all product development of Caterpillars Soil and Landfill Compactor and Material Handler machines.

SAE International announces that Andrea Brazzale-Anderson, Technical Manager and Chief Engineer of the Caterpillar Industrial & Waste Group, is the winner of the Rodica Baranescu Award for Technical & Leadership Excellence.

In her current role, Brazzale-Anderson leads all product development of Caterpillars Soil and Landfill Compactor and Material Handler machines. She has worked at Caterpillar for 17 years in a variety of roles, including quality and reliability, new product introduction, operations, intellectual property protection, sourcing strategy, cost management, and product development. Her top accomplishments include: leading a sourcing team to save more than $500M in unnecessary investment while rationalizing $1.5B in approved capital; reducing $150M in annual material cost by improving processes, tools, portfolio balance, and execution velocity; and embedding a culture of world-class decision making by training and mentoring more than 100 green belts and 25 black belts in Six Sigma tools and methodology.

Brazzale-Anderson also has a passion for lifelong education, in particular, helping young students overcome biases to embrace and leverage their unlimited capabilities. Her consistent desire to foster individual growth and success is evidenced in her involvement with FIRST Robotics. In 2007, she co-founded the Oswego High School (Illinois) FIRST Team 2338, Gear it Forward, which serves more than 100 high school students and continues to grow, establishing and mentoring more than 16 junior high FIRST Lego League teams. More than 1000 high school and junior high school students have been impacted through the Caterpillar Aurora-Joliet facilities support that she has coordinated since 2007. She also brought Baja SAE to Illinois in 2008, 2011 and 2014. Brazzale-Anderson has served in many SAE International functions, at the local level as Section Chair and Baja SAE Illinois Committee Chair, and at the national level on the Sections Board, Executive Nominating Committee, and Fellows Committee. She was awarded the 2004 SAE Distinguished Younger Member Award and the 2005 SAE/AEM Outstanding Young Engineer Award. She has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Established in 2011, the Rodica Baranescu Award celebrates the successes of women in the engineering profession and recognizes their leadership and technical contributions. The award serves to broaden the awareness of the reach and impact of women working in the mobility engineering profession. Its goals are to stimulate the involvement of women in engineering as well as open doors for young girls interested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) activities who wish to pursue engineering careers. Dr. Rodica Baranescu is an SAE Fellow, Past President of SAE International, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. She is a mechanical engineer who started her professional and academic career in her native country, Romania, before immigrating to the United States in 1980. In 2000, she was the first and only woman elected President of SAE International.

SAE International is a global association committed to being the ultimate knowledge source for the engineering profession. By uniting over 127,000 engineers and technical experts, we drive knowledge and expertise across a broad spectrum of industries. We act on two priorities: encouraging a lifetime of learning for mobility engineering professionals and setting the standards for industry engineering. We strive for a better world through the work of our philanthropic SAE Foundation, including programs like A World in Motion and the Collegiate Design Series.

--http://www.sae.org--
"Rediker has enabled us to transform our website into a professional and interactive website. We could not be more pleased with the results. Kim Trask, Cross Schools, Bluffton, SC We now have more than 100 schools using the RediSite solution with great success, and we are thrilled to continue expanding use of this superb and modern website solution for schools.

Rediker Software, a leader in school administrative software, announced today the release of RediSite, a responsive website design and hosting solution for PK-12 schools. The service provides schools and districts with an attractive and affordable website that delivers an optimal viewing experience on any device. The site intelligently adjusts to any size screen for easy reading and navigation on smartphones, tablets and computers without having to maintain a separate mobile site.

In 2015, at least 60 percent of global mobile consumers used their mobile device as their primary or exclusive internet source, stated Andrew Anderlonis, President of Rediker Software. Therefore, it is critical for schools to have an attractive website that can be easily viewed not just on a computer but on a smartphone or tablet, he said.

While there are many responsive website companies on the market, Rediker Software created RediSite to alleviate its customers pain points with their current sites; those being slow turnaround in launching sites, difficulty in making changes quickly and easily, and high costs.

RediSite websites are built with the user-friendly content management system (CMS) concrete5. Rather than relying on a webmaster to make changes to a site, or navigate a cumbersome user interface, RediSite websites allow any user with permission to easily add, edit or reposition content. Users maintain a high level of control over any changes needed while still ensuring the sites responsive integrity.

Cross Schools in Bluffton, SC was one of the first schools to adopt RediSite. With Rediker, our staff is now able to directly sign on to our website, make changes, add content and pictures, and update a calendar of events instantly and easily, said Kim Trask, Business Manager at Cross Schools. Rediker has enabled us to transform our website into a professional and interactive website. We could not be more pleased with the results. Rediker has put our school back in control of its website.

RediSite also offers many built-in design templates that keep costs low and provide schools with the ability to be up and running with their new site in less than 30 days. Whether a school prefers to display large visuals or share more news, documents and text on their website, we offer an attractive and customizable template to fit the schools needs and match its unique brand. Custom designs and themes are also available, explained Anderlonis.

RediSite websites are also integrated with the companys student information system, AdminPlus, and the parent/student web portals, PlusPortals, to create a seamless total solution for schools. Members of a school community with RediSite can directly log into PlusPortals from any page on the schools website to access grades, attendance records, lesson plans, and interactive classroom features such as online discussions, quizzes, homework submissions, and email. The schools Redisite calendar is also linked to PlusPortals so school events are only entered once but appear in both places.

By empowering schools with a responsive website that is easy-to-use and up to date, and that communicates with AdminPlus and PlusPortals, Rediker Software is able to offer a true total solution that helps schools streamline administrative tasks and maximize school-to-home communication, Anderlonis said. RediSite makes beautiful responsive websites quickly attainable, affordable and manageable for all types of schools. We couldnt be more pleased to offer such a great service to our customers.

RediSite websites are search engine optimization (SEO) friendly and include website search and social media features such as Vimeo and YouTube sharing, Facebook and Twitter feeds, alert messages, and much more. A 24/7 Training and Support Portal also offers helpful tips and FAQs to edit and update the site.

We now have more than 100 schools using the RediSite solution with great success, added Anderlonis, and we are thrilled to continue expanding use of this superb and modern website solution for schools.

RediSite is available to any school using any student information system. To learn more about RediSite, visit http://www.rediker.com.

About Rediker Software

For over 35 years, Rediker Software has been a leader in school administrative software for private, public, international, religious and independent schools. Through its innovative solutions, Rediker Software helps schools in over 120 countries manage administrative tasks, maximize school-to-home communication and inspire student performance and success. The companys products include AdminPlus, a cloud-based SIS solution, TeacherPlus Gradebook, Admissions Plus Pro and Teacher Evaluator. Rediker Software offers experience, reliability, unsurpassed technical support, ease of use, and leading-edge features not found in any other system. For more information about Rediker Software, please visit http://www.rediker.com.
All of our clients rely on order management systems, and none of them have found a tool theyve fallen in love with.

WebLinc, the commerce platform provider for the fastest growing online retailers, announced today that it has completed its acquisition of privately-held Orderbot, a Vancouver based order management system. The ability to process orders from start to finish expands the core components of the WebLinc Commerce Cloud.

By acquiring Orderbot, WebLinc delivers an advanced omnichannel toolset which enables businesses to oversee warehouse and inventory management in realtime, gain customer insights through an intuitive CRM, create and track purchase orders, all while easily bringing orders in from multiple channels. The handling of order management often leads to headaches due to overly complicated processes and growing customer expectations. Designed to streamline order management processes and increase the productivity of its customers, Orderbots comprehensive system is based around the full lifecycle of a customer order. The end-to-end solution efficiently manages order processing, inventory, sales, invoicing, and omnichannel fulfillment needs.

All of our clients rely on order management systems, and none of them have found a tool theyve fallen in love with. We wanted to find that kind of OMS for our clients and integrate it seamlessly with our platform, said Darren C. Hill, CEO and co-founder of WebLinc. This is a huge step in our long-term plan to build the most flexible and powerful commerce solution. More than ever, WebLinc is capable of providing all of the technology needs of a rapidly growing retailer. Everyone at WebLinc is excited to welcome Orderbots team to ours.

Orderbots user-friendly dashboard brings integrated payment processing, auto-generated invoicing documents, billing capabilities, and more to the WebLinc Commerce Cloud. Retailers operations can now be unified and supported through WebLincs ecommerce platform and omnichannel order management control.

Steve Izen, Co-founder of Orderbot, said, This is not only a historic day for Orderbot, but for businesses who have been getting by on home-grown or lesser systems. Until now, theyve never had access to such a comprehensive ecommerce system in the mid market that covers every step in the order lifecycle.

The respect for values and culture between our teams is a perfect match, said Marianne Zakhour, Co-founder of Orderbot. Were thrilled and honored to bring our order management expertise to WebLincs current and future clients.

Orderbots solutions will be presented via demos in the WebLinc booth at IRCE 2016. The conference takes place at McCormick Place West in Chicago from June 7-10. Orderbot co-founders, Steve Izen and Marianne Zakhour, and staff will be on hand to interact with and take questions from retailers.

About WebLinc

WebLinc is the commerce platform for fast growing online retailers. Mid to large-size retailers consistently outpace their competition with the modern, agile technologies of the WebLinc Commerce Platform and the companys strategic expertise. Based in Philadelphia with satellite offices in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto, WebLinc powers commerce sites for dynamic, high-growth retailers including Sanrio/Hello Kitty, Urban Outfitters, Inc.s brands Terrain and BHLDN, U.S. Polo Assn., Stila Cosmetics, Jeffers Pet, and others. To learn more, visit http://www.weblinc.com or follow @WebLinc.
The Edge of Space I wanted to make an immersive film that would take the audience to a place where humans rarely travel and give them a first person view of the earth. Thomas Wallner, Director, CEO DEEP Inc.

The 11-minute virtual reality documentary titled The Edge of Space was directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and founder of DEEP Inc., Thomas Wallner and shot by Joergen Geerds, inventor and founder of Freedom 360 and CEO of Koncept VR. On August 27, 2015 the balloon was launched in Timmins, Canada as part of the CSAs stratospheric balloon program Stratos, in collaboration with CNES. The documentary, commissioned by cultural television channel ARTE, tells the unique story of this historical flight that reached an altitude of 40km and captured the first cinematic VR images of the earth shot in the upper stratosphere.

I wanted to make an immersive film that would take the audience to a place where humans rarely travel and give them a first person view of the earth. Thomas Wallner, Director, CEO DEEP Inc.

Collaboration with the CSA and CNES engineers and scientists was an exhilarating experience

Joergen Geerds, Director of Photography, Koncept VR

The Edge of Space was filmed with two custom spherical camera systems, one sported 15 cameras the other 6. The cameras had to survive near vacuum conditions and temperatures ranging from -80 to +50 degrees celsius. Both of the setups required heavy modification in order for the cameras to withstand the harsh environment of the upper stratosphere and still being able to capture the footage needed.

The film produced by DEEP in association with Koncept VR uses new techniques of storytelling that are bound to become part of the evolving language of cinematic virtual reality.

The documentary is available exclusively on ARTEs new mobile app for 360/VR: ARTE360 and can be downloaded on iOS and Google Play Store.

About DEEP Inc: DEEP is a studio dedicated to exploring and defining the evolving language of cinematic VR. Led by multiple Emmy Award winning filmmaker and innovator Thomas Wallner DEEPs aim is to create highly immersive, meaningful stories, utilizing cutting edge technologies.

To meet this challenge DEEP is evolving Liquid Cinema a suite of sophisticated proprietary players and tools that allows the authoring and distribution of story based cinematic VR content across multiple platforms and devices.

http://deep-inc.com/

contact(at)deep-inc(dot)com

About Freedom360: Joergen Geerds, CEO of Freedom360 and Koncept VR was asked to help in the strategizing and execution of this piece. Joergen developed the first ever 360Rig, a camera mount to successfully film a fully spherical production. Freedom360 provides hardware solutions for filming a 360 degree production under nearly any shoot constraints. Koncept VR, a full service VR production house, provided the fine-stitching and post work to create this beautiful piece.

http://freedom360.us/

http://www.konceptvr.com/

hello(at)konceptvr(dot)com

(646) 479-0977

About ARTE: Arte (Association relative a la television europeenne) is a Franco-German TV network, a European channel, that promotes programming in the areas of culture and the arts. In December 2015, ARTE launched the first dedicated broadcaster platform for Virtual Reality experiences, ARTE360 that is powered by DEEPs Liquid Cinema software.

About the CSA and Stratos: The Canadian Space Agencys stratospheric balloon program Stratos was created in 2011 through the CSA's collaboration with the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES). This program gives Canadian academia and industry the opportunity to test and validate new technologies and to perform scientific experiments at an altitude where only balloons can be operated. Stratos therefore contributes to the training and development of the next generation of Canadian engineers and scientists.
Iyanla Vanzant

Iyanla Vanzant, best-selling author, inspirational speaker and and host of the hit reality show "Iyanla: Fix My Life," and Dr. David Satcher, former U.S. surgeon general, will be the keynote speakers at the Seventh Biennial Cultural Competency Conference at Georgia State University, April 7-8.

The theme of the conference, to be held in Georgia States Student Center East, is Cultivating a Culture of Health: Clinical and Community Innovations. Speakers will focus on building skills in culturally competent mental and physical healthcare and creating opportunities for health equity and optimal wellbeing in diverse populations.

"Georgia State University has a long and proud history of training change-makers, said Dr. Jill Lee-Barber, director of psychological and health services at Georgia State. I am thrilled to welcome keynote speakers to the 2016 Cultural Competency Conference, Dr. David Satcher and Iyanla Vanzant, who will offer innovative and engaging perspectives on how we, students, clinicians and educators can make change in the area of mental and physical health equity."

Vanzant, the author of five New York Times bestselling books, appears regularly on stage, radio and television, delivering a message of self-empowerment. Vanzant is a regular guest expert on the Oprah Winfrey Show, and Vanzant's show "Iyanla: Fix My Life" is the number one reality program on the OWN Network, produced by Winfrey's Harpo Studios.

As the 16th surgeon general of the United States from 1998 to 2002, Satcher focused his attention on healthy lifestyles and the elimination of health disparities as national public health issues. He is the founding director and senior adviser of The Satcher Health Leadership Institute, which was established at the Morehouse School of Medicine in 2006. The Institute seeks to develop a diverse group of public health leaders, foster and support leadership strategies, and influence policies toward the reduction and elimination of disparities in health.

The conference welcomes mental and physical health providers who seek greater skill in providing cultural competency services. Participants can obtain continuing education credits for Licensed Professional Counselors, Licensed Clinical Social Workers and psychologists.

Registration is $300 for professionals and $100 for students. For a list of speakers or to register, visit counselingcenter.gsu.edu/cc/. Group rates are available.
Filtered Search Feature on Clarionsafety.com With filtered search, customers can take advantage of simplified product navigation and shopping. It allows online shoppers to sort through the depth of safety signs and labels that Clarion offers to quickly find the specific products they need. Past News Releases RSS Interview with Clarion Safety...

Clarion Safety Systems Expands...

Clarion Safety Systems Launches...

Clarion Safety Systems, a leading designer and manufacturer of safety signs and safety labels, announced today that it has launched a new feature to its clarionsafety.com website: filtered search.

In May 2015, the company unveiled a completely updated website, redesigned from the ground up to feature the latest best practice functionality. Features added included an easy-to-navigate design, completely refreshed Resource Center, custom signs and labels section, efficient online account and ordering tools, access to up-to-date thought-leadership, and improved live chat.

Now, with the addition of filtered search, customers can take advantage of simplified product navigation and shopping. This enhanced search feature allows online shoppers to sort through the depth of safety signs and labels that Clarion offers to quickly find the specific product they need.

These enhancements that weve made to our online presence support our commitment to quality, and to providing unmatched expertise and world-class service to our customers, says Geoffrey Peckham, CEO of Clarion Safety Systems.

At this time, Clarions filtered search allows a customer to search its online catalog using its search bar tool to narrow down the safety sign and label results by two main categories: the format of the product (such as symbol-only or multi-symbol and text) and the products hazard description (such as the type of hazard or point of interaction with the hazard).

We look forward to continuing to add new features to our website to better serve our customers and partners.

To learn more about Clarion and its new website, visit http://www.clarionsafety.com.

ABOUT CLARION SAFETY SYSTEMS

Clarion Safety Systems, LLC, is the leading designer and manufacturer of visual safety solutions that help customers in more than 180 industries worldwide to make their products and premises safer. Clarion offers a full range of standard and custom products including machinery safety labels, environmental and facility safety signs, pipe and valve identification markings, lockout/tagout products, and safety-grade photoluminescent egress path-marking escape systems. Founded in 1990, the company continues to play a leading role in the development and writing of international and national standards for safety signs, labels, and markings. Clarion is headquartered at 190 Old Milford Road in Milford, PA, 18337, and online at http://www.clarionsafety.com.
Johnathan Veal, Area Director for Acti-Kare

Thinking ahead for appropriate care for aging loved ones is not usually a common conversation that comes up in day to day discussion. Most people never even consider it until theyre forced to. Oftentimes, there is a sudden event that causes the need to look outside the family for help with a loved ones care. Acti-Kare Responsive In-Home Care of Glendale is positioned to fulfill those needs, whether its something as simple as occasional transportation to appointments, companion and homemaking services, all the way up to full non-medical personal care attention. The perception that many people have when they think about a caregiver coming into their home is that its only for people who need help with all aspects of daily living. Rarely is that the case, says Johnathan Veal, Area Director. Our caregivers at Acti-Kare know the importance of remaining as active and independent as long as possible and, to the extent that we can, help assist clients in maintaining their activities of daily living. In many cases, that means starting care early while the client can still be an active part of their own care plan. This gives them time to get used to their caregiver and find comfort in knowing that Acti-Kare is a consistent and reliable part of their life if the time comes when more assistance is needed.

Veal states, My vision is to provide the utmost personal care to seniors to ensure that they will have a better quality of life. I believe that everyone should have an opportunity to live life to the fullest, regardless of physical or mental limitations. I am completely focused on helping every individual maintain their independence and dignity.

With a Bachelors degree in Social Work, Veal understands the challenges that seniors face in staying home. He has also served in the U.S. Air Force and has worked in IT, which have both served to help him create a focus on details. He is very compassionate toward others and receives personal satisfaction from helping others in need.

He understands the need for personal care first hand due to his parents having to care for his grandmother when she was no longer able to care for herself. He understands that it can definitely be a challenging time for those entrusted with the task of caring for a loved one. This inspired him to start his own business.

Acti-Kare has created Acti-Vate, a revolutionary program that helps battle fatigue in many seniors. Seeing clients enjoying hobbies or interests that they havent been able to in years because of a highly trained Acti-Kare caregiver assisting them is incredibly rewarding. states Johnathan.

There is no one size fits all when it comes to home care, which is why great attention to detail and time goes into understanding and assessing an individuals needs. Its important to incorporate a customized care plan in a manner that is comfortable for the client, their family and the caregiver.

With 8,000 people turning 65 every single day in the United States there is a growing shift in the traditional aging model. Now, more than ever, seniors are choosing to age in place, and that usually means remaining in a private home or independent living community as long as possible. Acti-Kare plays a big role in helping people live the life they desire.

Johnathans location serves the Glendale, Peoria areas, and parts of northern Phoenix.
Prosperowares Milan IG platform delivers the industrys most comprehensive ethical wall and confidentiality management solution on the market, providing an intuitive and powerful interface for risk teams and matter owners alike.

Prosperoware, a leading enterprise software company delivering innovative technology that connects the business with the practice of legal and professional services, today announces a new webinar series: Must-Have Tools for the Modern Law Firm. Designed to help firms make better use of technology to support information governance strategies and achieve greater lawyer adoption of their document management systems (DMS), the monthly series kick-offs on Wednesday, March 23 at 10am Central / 11am Eastern / 4pm GMT with: Give Your Professionals Flexibility while Maintaining an Umbrella of Control.

Security concerns abound, and the massive amount of data we generate is only growing. Many firms deployed their systems five or more years ago. At that time, service offerings, business mandates, network architectures, and working preferences were substantially different. Today, firms across the globe are looking to revamp their systems to provide modern and improved information governance (IG) solutions and practices to close the gap between physical and digital files and seamlessly shift to todays need-to-know security policies.

Prosperowares Milan family of products address the full range of information governance practicesfrom how information is organized to how it is secured, retained, and discovered. Milan simplifies the administration of the firms DMS, improves user adoption of electronic files, and helps firms properly govern their content  without negatively impacting lawyer productivity.

Milans iManage Add-ons set the industry standard. As documented by iManage itself, a recent Milan success at Drinker Biddle & Reath doubled user adoption of their iManage document management system, enhanced the firms information governance capabilities, and reduced workspace clutter by 95% Milan streamlines how users manage their workspaces, documents, and email while significantly reducing the need for IT assistance.

Prosperowares Milan IG platform delivers the industrys most comprehensive ethical wall and confidentiality management solution on the market, providing an intuitive and powerful interface for risk teams and matter owners alike.

To kick-off the webinar series, please join Milan experts Ben Weinberger, Vice President of Solutions, and Nancy Walker, Senior Training and Solution Engineer, on Wednesday, March 23 as they present Give Your Professionals Flexibility while Maintaining an Umbrella of Control.

In this webinar, Ben and Nancy will discuss how firms can use Milan Matter Hub to balance their lawyers need to work effectively and productively while enabling the firms need to mitigate risk, protect sensitive dataand monitor failures to follow policy. Webinar attendees will take away these specific, Milan Matter Hub how-to strategies:



Streamline folder management

Let professionals manage security while adhering to firm policy

Streamline re-filing of content

Manage My Matters

Stage deleted files in a recycle bin

Ben comments, The current environment of stricter information governance policies and regulations is here to stay. Developing, initiating, and maintaining policies to assure compliance is a daunting task and requires coordination across multiple IT systems. Nevertheless, this is a critical issue for firms to solve. We are pleased to deliver this webinar series in an easy-access format to provide pathways to the technology and processes that will solve these business-critical problemswith little or no intervention from IT."

Register for the Wednesday, March 23 live broadcast, Give Your Professionals Flexibility while Maintaining an Umbrella of Control, here.

Mark your calendars for our other upcoming webinars:

April 20 - Protect Client Data by Evolving to a Need to Know Law Firm

May 25 - Streamline Onboarding/Offboarding and Matter File Transfers

June 15 - Alleviate Service Desk Bottlenecks with Distributed Administration

July 13 - Improve Collaboration Across Offices and Clean Up Old Matters

August 10 - Unify Workspace Provisioning across Your Firm

September 14 - Expand Insight into Your DMS

October 12 - Make Sure Your Clients Email Makes it to the File

November 9 - Keep Your Ethical Walls from Crumbling

About Prosperoware

Prosperoware is an enterprise software company focused on law firms, corporate legal departments, and professional services firms. Our 300,000+ users represent half of the G20 and AmLaw 100 firms as well as large global corporations and Big Four accounting firms. Our innovative software transforms how professionals work and enables firms to deliver more value to clients while protecting profitability. We empower firms to reduce costs, improve profitability, and better compete by:

Improving relationships with clients by delivering predictable fees and beneficial insight into work performed

Empowering professionals to price and budget while leveraging modern profitability metrics

Evolving to a need to know security model without impacting workflow

Simplifying iManage administration and improving user adoption of electronic files

Our teams work primarily from offices in London, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Our 270+ customers range in size from small firms with just a handful of users to those with more than 14,000. Prosperoware customers include: Akin Gump, Goodwin Procter, Baker Botts, Hill Dickinson, Berwin Leighton Paisner, DLA Piper, Duane Morris, Hughes Hubbard & Reed, Sheppard Mullin, Comcast, and NBCUniversal.
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania announced today that its popular online learning product, Nano Tools for Leaders, is now available in an app format, making it easier for executives to access these fast, proven leadership lessons on their smartphones and other mobile devices.

Nano Tools  fast, effective leadership tools that people can start using in less than 15 minutes  are co-published by Whartons Center for Leadership and Change Management and Wharton Executive Education. Nano Tools have been providing leaders with ideas they can immediately use to enhance their effectiveness and strategy since 2011. Categories covered include management, leadership, marketing, innovation, negotiation and persuasion and strategy.

The Nano Tools address a wide variety of topics that leaders are interested in  they cover both personal and strategic leadership, says Deb Giffen, who is director of financial and professional services programs at Wharton Executive Education, and the designer of the Nano Tool library. Giffen says Wharton Executive Education participants overwhelmingly choose Nano Tools as their top method for staying connected with Wharton for follow-up learning and keeping abreast of the latest research and proven business best practices to be more effective leaders.

The app will allow leaders to search by topics, key word, or author. It also will let them know instantly when a new tool is published. The app allows users to favorite a tool they find interesting and share it with friends and colleagues on social media.

Once the app is downloaded, executives can read any Nano Tool offline without needing to be connected to the internet, says Shilpa Patwardhan, connected learning director at Wharton Executive Education.

The app is available in both iOS and Android versions.

Professor Michael Useem, senior sponsor for Nano Tools and director of Whartons Center for Leadership and Change Management, says Nano Tools increasingly will include topics of great interest to executives participating in Whartons Advanced Management Program.

Going forward, we want to expand our tools and make them as timely as possible by listening for what managers are most concerned about in their role as leaders. We want our Nano Tools to be at your fingertips and ready for immediate application when faced with todays most urgent leadership challenges.

Useem emphasizes that there is no silver bullet for developing or exercising leadership. Rather, it requires the mastery of a host of capacities and ways of thinking that range from strategy and finance to operations and management. Our Nano Tools are intended to trigger a focus and provide immediate guidance on how to lead in as many of these ways as possible.

Nano Tools highlight what you have to keep in mind when you are negotiating to sell one of your divisions, considering a new operation in China or India, or preparing for an off-site strategy meeting with your top people. They are intended to be compelling reminders of what to recall and draw upon when your leadership is being put to a test or you have to reach a major decision, Useem says. With the Nano Tools now as an app, they are instantly accessible, providing an immediate reminder of what is essential as you face a leadership moment.

A new Nano Tool will be published every month, and there are plans to offer the tools in video format in the future.

To download the app on iTunes, visit: https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/app/wharton-nanotools/id1083311793?mt=8.

To download the app for Android, visit: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=edu.upenn.wharton.nanotools&hl=en

ABOUT THE WHARTON SCHOOL

Founded in 1881 as the first collegiate business school, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is recognized globally for intellectual leadership and ongoing innovation across every major discipline of business education. With a broad global community and one of the most published business school faculties, Wharton creates economic and social value around the world. The School has 5,000 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral students; more than 9,000 annual participants in executive education programs; and a powerful alumni network of 94,000 graduates.
Whitney Washington, Area Director

Thinking ahead for appropriate care for aging loved ones is not usually a common conversation that comes up in day to day discussion. Most people never even consider it until theyre forced to. Oftentimes, there is a sudden event that causes the need to look outside the family for help with a loved ones care. Acti-Kare Responsive In-Home Care of Northwest San Franchiso is positioned to fulfill those needs, whether its something as simple as occasional transportation to appointments, companion and homemaking services, all the way up to full non-medical personal care attention.

The perception that many people have when they think about a caregiver coming into their home is that its only for people who need help with all aspects of daily living. Rarely is that the case, says Whitney Washington, Area Director. Our caregivers at Acti-Kare know the importance of remaining as active and independent as long as possible and, to the extent that we can, help assist clients in maintaining their activities of daily living.

In many cases, that means starting care early while the client can still be an active part of their own care plan. This gives them time to get used to their caregiver and find comfort in knowing that Acti-Kare is a consistent and reliable part of their life if the time comes when more assistance is needed.

Washington has over eight years of experience in the field of Social Work. She has worked towards increasing the quality of life for families, children and individuals. Many times these people were facing difficulties like institutionalization, emotional and/or environmental disturbance, mental illness and even addiction.

She tells us, I have always found my passion in helping people face personal and life challenges with courage. I believe my calling lies in strengthening family bonds.

Whitney believes in empowering seniors to reach their independence and live at home through personal care and/or companion care.

The best place for someone to feel at peace is within his or her own home. Many seniors experience a better prognosis when they are at home because they are in a positive state of mind, states Washington.

As an advocate in the senior community, Whitney seeks to promote the cause of self and life fulfillment through Acti-kare Responsive In-Home Care. Whitney also recognizes the importance of family care and pet care since many family members work and are unable to take care of their pet or a sick child. Even if the family caregiver simply needs a break or a date night, our caregivers are ready to assist.

Washington tells us, My lifelong dream has been to own and operate an in-home care business.

After researching multiple opportunities, she chose Acti-Kare because they shared his same morals, values, and methods in the way they care for their clients.

They were the only company whose business model focused on keeping seniors mind and body active. I truly believe in keeping seniors mentally, physically and socially active is KEY to their well-being, Washington states.

Acti-Kare has created Acti-Vate, a revolutionary program that helps battle fatigue in many seniors.

Seeing clients enjoying hobbies or interests that they havent been able to in years because of a highly trained Acti-Kare caregiver assisting them is incredibly rewarding. states Whitney.

There is no one size fits all when it comes to home care, which is why great attention to detail and time goes into understanding and assessing an individuals needs. Its important to incorporate a customized care plan in a manner that is comfortable for the client, their family and the caregiver. It didnt take us long to decide to bring Acti-Kare to the Northwest San Francisco area.

With 8,000 people turning 65 every single day in the United States there is a growing shift in the traditional aging model. Now, more than ever, seniors are choosing to age in place, and that usually means remaining in a private home or independent living community as long as possible. Washington states, We know people are happiest and most comfortable in their own homes. Were thrilled to know that we can play such a critical part in helping maintain their quality of life, comfort, and peace of mind. Weve seen firsthand that it not only makes life better for our clients, but their extended family as well.

Whitneys location serves the Daly City, Sausalito, Marin City areas.
We strive each and every day to deliver the superior service that our customers have come to expect, and to keep our operations running smoothly and effectively." -Craig Blacklidge

Crown Buick GMC, part of Crown Automotive Group, is proud to announce that it was recently honored with the 2015 Mark of Excellence Award from GM for both the Buick and GMC brands.

Every year, GM honors the top-performing Buick and GMC dealers in the country with the Mark of Excellence Award. In order to earn this prestigious award, Crown Buick GMC was required to meet or exceed a number of stringent criteria.

Were so proud to be recognized by GM with these awards, said Craig Blacklidge, General Manager of Crown Buick GMC. We strive each and every day to deliver the superior service that our customers have come to expect, and to keep our operations running smoothly and effectively. To achieve this honor for the second year in a row shows that were succeeding at those goals.

These are not the only honors that Crown Buick GMC has achieved so far this year. The St. Petersburg dealership also earned a DealerRater Customer Satisfaction Award for 2016, the DealerRater Dealer of the Year Award for 2016, and the 2016 Edmunds.com Five Star Dealer Award.

To learn more about Crown Buick GMC, or any of the other dealerships that make up Crown Automotive Group, visit CrownCars.com.

ABOUT CROWN AUTOMOTIVE GROUP

Crown Automotive Group has been in business for more than 40 years, and currently operates domestic and international automotive franchises in Florida, Ohio and Tennessee. The group is dedicated to customer and employee satisfaction, and is your source for new and pre-owned vehicles, parts and service, financing and more. No matter what youre looking for, you can be confident that you are getting an incredible deal and outstanding service when you visit one of the many dealerships that make up Crown Automotive Group. To learn more, visit CrownCars.com.
BlueStar Kitchen with new Built-In Refrigerator Winner of the prestigious IFDA Best in Show award at the 2015 Architectural Digest show, the new BlueStar Refrigerator features chef-inspired design, premium performance and unmatched customization.

BlueStar, manufacturer of high-performance appliances for the home, is launching its first Built-in Refrigeration Line, previewing new products and unveiling creative ways to use color and customization to create a true restaurant kitchen at home at the Architectural Digest Design Show in New York City, March 17-20, Booth #287.

Winner of the prestigious IFDA Best in Show award at the 2015 Architectural Digest Design Show, the new BlueStar Refrigerator features chef-inspired design, premium performance and unmatched customization. BlueStar also will preview its first induction cooktop, designed to bring precise and powerful induction cooking into the home kitchen. Other show highlights include the top-of-the-line Platinum range, shown in pale green, and featuring powerful 25K BTUs, an interchangeable charbroiler and griddle, a gentle simmer burner and integrated wok cooking. A 24-inch French Top companion piece plus a salamander broiler also bring the restaurant cooking experience home. BlueStar equipment has been handcrafted in the U.S. since 1880.

At this years show, acclaimed Interior Designer Eric Cohler will announce the winner of the inaugural BlueStar Kitchen Design Contest. Plus, BlueStar will present culinary demos in its booth daily, including a special St. Patricks Day culinary celebration featuring TV Personality & San Francisco Chef Ryan Scott and the BlueStar Platinum Range in Pale Green. Other featured celebrity chefs include Aliyyah Baylor of MakeMy Cake in Harlem; Restaurateur and James Beard Semi-Finalist Alex Raij of Txikito restaurant, NY; and International farm-to-table Chef Paul Marshall.

Color and customization innovation is a hallmark of the BlueStar brand, and the company will be highlighting the latest trends in kitchen design, with appliances, cabinets and backsplashes working in tandem to create a unique, personal statement.

One of the basic aspects of kitchen design involves choosing the right color scheme, said Eliza Sheffield, Vice President-Marketing, BlueStar. When it comes to choosing a color for the kitchen, the possibilities are endless, as BlueStar offers more than 750 color and trim options to suit any taste or style.

Design trends do change, but experts consider some kitchen colors timeless, said Kim Lewis, the lead designer behind ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and founder of Kim Lewis Designs in Los Angeles and Austin, TX. Though white motifs will still dominate in 2016, everything from cabinets to backsplashes will be done in less saturated tones. At the same time, colors also are going bold. Stronger hues, like navy, add a more contemporary feel to an appliance and add a pop of energy in the space, said Lewis.

Restaurant style kitchens are growing in popularity as well, said Lewis. Consumers want a more commercial-style kitchen that keeps up with daily use, but without the cold industrial feel. If you want to warm up a space, consider introducing color on appliances, she said. While bold cobalt blues and ruby reds have become classic appliance colors, the muted, softer tones prevalent today also can be beautifully translated to a professional range  a pale green BlueStar Platinum range is a centerpiece in this years booth. The equipment is accented with brass trim and handles plus soothing white knobs.

The Architectural Digest Design Show is open to the public March 18-20. For tickets, visit http://addesignshow.com/. For information on BlueStar, visit http://www.bluestarcooking.com.

###

BlueStar cooking and refrigeration products are designed for discerning home chefs who demand restaurant-quality results in their own kitchens. BlueStars unique performance features include an open gas burner system that produces up to 25,000 BTUs of cooking power, precise 130 degree simmer burners, and oversized convection ovens with professional-grade infrared broilers and premium performance refrigeration. Available in over 750+ colors and finishes, and with almost infinite configuration possibilities, BlueStar offers virtually unlimited personalization options. Handcrafted in the U.S. since 1880. For more information, please visit http://www.bluestarcooking.com.
[Tom's] depth of knowledge and experience will be an invaluable resource for our clients. We are confident in his abilities as we continue to build Matteson Partners in our relative areas of search expertise.

Matteson Partners, a nationally renowned executive search firm, welcomes Tom Shull as a new Partner and Practice area lead. Shull has over a decade of experience in Corporate Recruiting and over 25 years in Manufacturing/Supply Chain Management and Management Consulting.

Shulls focus will include Supply Chain Management, Production / Operations Management and Engineering positions within Manufacturing and Distribution organizations for domestic and international clients.

His expertise lies in a hand-on, consultative approach to finding true fits for both clients and candidates, resulting in the development of long-term professional relationships. Prior to joining Matteson Partners, Shull worked with several name-worthy organizations, including Ernst & Young, Price Waterhouse, and KPMG.

The addition of Mr. Shull comes at a time of rapid expansion and growth for Matteson Partners, a firm who has remained at the forefront of the Executive Search industry since 1987. We are very honored to have Tom as a new Partner and believe his depth of knowledge and experience will be an invaluable resource for our clients, says CEO and Managing Partner Jerry Schmidt. We are confident in his abilities as we continue to build Matteson Partners in our relative areas of search expertise.

About Matteson Partners:

Matteson Partners was founded in 1987 by William Matteson, who recognized the need for industry-specific and in-depth talent solutions in the marketplace - something that his firm has been delivering successfully and competitively since the firm was established. Headquartered in Atlanta, GA, Matteson Partners provides solutions to businesses across the country in multiple areas of expertise. Their unique value proposition has allowed the firm the opportunity to work with myriad clients, from Fortune 500 companies to multi-generational family businesses.

For more information about Matteson Partners and their executive search services, visit their website or contact David Schmidt at dschmidt(at)mattesonpartners(dot)com.
The Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) Coalition today announced their latest call for research applications in this, the third year of their MSA Research Grant Program. In the interest of identifying the most promising research opportunities for multiple system atrophy, a rare and fatal neurodegenerative disorder the MSA Coalition is issuing this worldwide Request for Applications (RFA) for investigator-initiated studies. Applicants should submit research proposals that can address the cause, prevention, improved treatment or diagnosis, and ultimately provide insights that will lead to a cure for multiple system atrophy. Approximately $500,000 will be awarded this year with an average grant award of nearly $50,000.

Dr. David Robertson, M.D., Professor of Neurology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and Chairman of The MSA Coalition Scientific Advisory Board released this statement, Since the launch of the MSA Research Grant Program in 2013, The MSA Coalition has funded 17 projects with seed grants for a total of over $600,000. Seed grants, although relatively modest in dollars, create a definite impact on research and especially for this rare and under-funded neurodegenerative disease.

The intent of the MSA Coalitions Research Grant Program is to jump-start new and innovative ideas and provide investigators the means to gather data in early-stage pilot studies. MSA Coalition funded studies with the most promising results can then complete more robust applications for submission to the National Institutes of Health or other major funding institution to further validate findings on a larger scale and with human subjects. As the MSA Coalitions grant program grows and evolves, funding for these larger studies could potentially be, at least in part, funded directly by the nonprofit.

Indeed, the MSA Coalition has already been very influential through the choices they have made with their research dollars, continued Dr. Robertson. The NIH has taken notice and recently awarded another five years of funding for the Autonomic Rare Disease Clinical Research Consortium (ARDCRC) on the strength of the international collaboration of the Global MSA Registry, financially and otherwise supported by the MSA Coalition Research Grant Program. This has served to help bring North American and European researchers into a single global outreach to discover the cause and hopefully a cure for MSA. I can truly say the support of the Multiple System Atrophy Coalition has been and continues to be critical to creating the link that brings worldwide MSA investigators together.

Among the very first group of MSA Coalition research grant recipients in the inaugural year of the program was Vikram Khurana, M.D. PhD for his project, "Stem cell-based Therapeutics Platform for Multiple System Atrophy". Dr. Khurana states, I had been developing stem cell-based approaches for drug discovery in Parkinsons disease. The MSA Coalition seed grant gave me the vital research support to apply my findings to multiple system atrophy, a disease I had been focusing my efforts on in the clinic. This has led to tremendous research, clinical and funding opportunities for me - indeed, I was recently recruited to a major academic center in Boston to specifically build a clinical and research program centered on multiple system atrophy and related disorders. None of this would have been possible without the MSA Coalitions support.

The Multiple System Atrophy Coalition accepts research grant applications from researchers located anywhere in the world. With such a rare disease and knowing the urgent need for improved treatments and ultimately a cure, it is important that no stone be left unturned. Taking a world view on research has led to increased collaboration and sharing of ideas. Collaboration is something strongly encouraged by the MSA Coalition and project proposals that have a strong collaborative component definitely are being given more attention during grant review time.

Dr. Nadia Stefanova, M.D. PhD heads the laboratory for Neurodegenerative Disease Research at the Medical University of Innsbruck Austria. Dr. Stefanova in collaboration with Dr. Gal Bitan at UCLA received a research grant from the MSA Coalition in 2015 for the project "Targeting Alpha-Synuclein Pathology with the Molecular Tweezer CLR01 in MSA". Dr. Stefanova states, "Over the past few years the expanded support of the MSA Coalition has provided a platform that attracts the attention of a broader range of scientists to re-focus on multiple system atrophy and even mediates international collaboration in the field, resulting in a budding global network focused on curing MSA. The research grant I received from the Multiple System Atrophy Coalition made it possible to launch a fruitful collaboration with Gal Bitan at UCLA and test for the first time pre-clinically, a molecular tweezer for the therapy of MSA. Our preliminary results strongly support the approach and we are confident to be on the right track towards a successful treatment for this devastating disease. I am grateful to the MSA Coalition for giving me a chance to make a difference!"

Researchers around the globe interested in multiple system atrophy are invited to visit the MSA Coalition web site, http://www.multiplesystematrophy.org for access to the RFA and instructions for submitting a pre-proposal. Pre-proposals are due May 10, 2016, 5:00pm U.S. Eastern Time. For any questions about the program or to request an introduction to a potential scientific collaborator, please email pbower@msacoalition.org.
As technology advances, tradition pays the cost as the world marches on. Change is inevitable, but some still choose to hold on tight to deeply rooted values.

For Triumph Motorcycles, a company built on over a century of heritage and tradition with a loyal following of riders who firmly believe in that heritage, change is something that will do more than lift a few eyebrows. The change referred to, of course, is the transition from air-cooled engines to reborn liquid-cooled engines in their new Street Twin, Bonneville T120, Thruxton, and Thruxton R. But why is Triumph making these changes? What are the costs and benefits? Why are people taking up arms about it? British Customs takes a look with an in-depth piece on their blog.

Traditionally, Triumph, like almost all other motorcycle manufacturers did, always used air-cooled engines to power their motorcycles.

Air-cooled engines are simple, reliable, and look great. The look of a classic motorcycle engine is usually distinguished by rows of nicely sanded fins adorning the cylinders and heads. But those fins arent just for looks. Those fins are designed to dissipate heat into the surrounding air, so that while riding, the air passing over the engine pulls the heat out of the fins and thus out of the engine. Hence  air-cooled.

Air-cooled motorcycles also allow for more customization than their liquid-cooled counterparts due to the simplicity of their design. Without the constrictions of having a radiator and the related components, riders have more room for customization all around the engine. These customizations can be for both appearance and performance.

Due to this design, air-cooled engines have a broader operating temperature range. Since they rely on the environment external to them to keep them cool, the engine operating temperature varies greatly: the engine sitting at a stoplight in July and the engine making a coffee run on a cold December morning are both simply relying on the environmental temperatures to keep coolwhich is to say they cant really do it themselves.

The design of air-cooled engines also leave a bit more room for expansion and contraction in the engine itself, since the temperature range is so broad. This primarily means that they are less efficient because they literally allow for more wiggle room. As such, it also means theres a little bit of internal leakage and a leaner air-to-fuel ratio (typically, a richer a/f ratio yields higher performance).

Air-cooled engines are also very clean looking. Since they dont have radiators, hoses, and pumps, there is less in the way of the engine, allowing it to be viewed in all its glory.

Liquid-cooled engines, on the other hand, regulate their own operating temperatures by encasing the engine in a liquid (usually antifreeze or water) cooled by radiators. The pump circulates the coolant from the radiator, around the engine, and then back to the radiator in an endless cycle of cool. The radiator relies on air streaming into it while the motorcycle is in motion to keep itself cool, but in the instance of sitting at a stoplight in July when the engine starts creeping towards the uncomfortably toasty range of the operating temperature, the fans will kick in and feed air directly into the radiator, keeping the motorcycle from turning into a barbecue.

Since liquid-cooled engines have narrower operating temperatures  meaning that they operate at a more consistent temperature  they tend to be more efficient. Less expansion and contraction means more consistency, and more consistency allows for a more efficient and precise design. It also means they arguably last longer because they endure less wear and tear. However, riders do run the risk of being put out of commission if a rock flies into the radiator while riding at speed, causing very costly damage.

In the end, just because its new doesnt mean its better. Liquid-cooled engines may run at lower temperatures, but they arent necessarily more reliable, and they have severe limitations in terms of personalization. Riders of discerning taste may also frown upon the high number of faux parts adorning Triumphs liquid-cooled engines, including the fake carburetors and fins that serve no purpose other than to hide the fact that it is an engine that has abandoned its heritage.

In an age of irony, authenticity is king.

About British Customs:

British Customs is a Southern California-based lifestyle brand and designer of aftermarket motorcycle parts. They are known for making the highest quality factory-spec bolt-on parts that only require common tools and minimal technical knowledge to install. With any of their parts upgrades, the average rider can completely customize his or her motorcycle in a weekend.
Real Self Top 100 Social Influencers in Cosmetic Medicine We dedicate a great deal of our time contributing to Real Self community, so it is a real honor to be recognized for our ongoing efforts.

Dr. Jed H. Horowitz and Dr. Larry S. Nichter are two of just 100 doctors in the nation to receive the prestigious RealSelf 100 Award, out of nearly 13,000 board certified specialists with a presence on RealSelf; the leading online community for people interested in elective cosmetic procedures.

In a time when 1 in 4 U.S. adults share their health experiences on social media channels, the medical professionals that made the 2015 RealSelf 100 are recognized both for having an outstanding record of consumer feedback and for providing credible, valuable insights in response to consumer questions about elective cosmetic treatments, plastic surgery, dentistry and more.

For example, Drs Horowitz and Nichter own and operate the Pacific Center for Plastic Surgery and BioSpa in Newport Beach, CA. Their specialties include their exclusive LiteLift modified facelift, California breast lift, breast augmentation, tummy tuck, and non-surgical body contouring. Both doctors have been in practice for over 30 years and have received countless awards for their contribution to the field of plastic surgery.

The doctors receiving this award were among the top 1% of our 13,000-member doctor community in 2015, said Tom Seery, RealSelf founder and CEO. When I started RealSelf, many doctors questioned why they should give away their expertise for free on the web. Now, eight years later  and with over one million doctor answers on our platform  we are proud of the standard this select group has set. They're leading the way by empowering millions of consumers to gain access to the information they need to make smart and confident health and beauty decisions.

Dr. Jed Horowitz and Dr. Larry Nichter are expert contributors to RealSelf with Dr. Horowitz answering over 5,000 questions on RealSelf, and Dr. Nichter answering over 9,000. Each month people from all over the world ask important aesthetic-related questions, such as "how early can capsular contracture start and what are the symptoms?" Both doctors also maintain a patient star rating of five out of five stars in RealSelf reviews. For more information about Dr. Horowitz or Dr. Nichter, please visit Pacific Center for Plastic Surgery.

About Pacific Center for Plastic Surgery:

Pacific Center for Plastic Surgery, located in Newport Beach, California is headed by two of Orange Countys word-class plastic surgeons, Dr. Larry Nichter and Dr. Jed Horowitz. Both doctors have over 30 years of experience specializing in cosmetic procedures such as breast augmentation, breast lift and breast reduction, facelift, fat transfer, mommy makeover, and non-surgical treatments for the face, body and skin. Dr. Nichter and Dr. Horowitz are board-certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, and belong to the the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the most exclusive plastic surgery societies in the United States. Dr. Nichter and Dr. Horowitz have received numerous awards over the years for their surgical expertise and patient care.
uBiome Logo uBiome is doing such pioneering work in the microbiome field that I didnt hesitate when invited to join them on their journey.

uBiome, the leading microbial genomics company, welcomes David Agus, MD  one of the worlds leading physicians  to its scientific advisory board. Dr. Agus is a practicing oncologist, research leader, USC professor, and co-founder of two pioneering personalized medicine companies. He regularly comments on important health topics on CBS This Morning, and he has written three books, all New York Times best-sellers: The End of Illness, A Short Guide to a Long Life, and The Lucky Years. He has also been a popular TEDMED speaker.

Dr. Agus completed his medical residency training at Johns Hopkins Hospital, a research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health, and an oncology fellowship at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He is now a professor of medicine and engineering at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine and Viterbi School of Engineering and heads USCs Westside Cancer Center and Center for Applied Molecular Medicine. His clinical responsibilities include the oversight of a team of scientists who are dedicated to the development of clinical trials for new drugs and treatments for cancer, supported by the National Cancer Institute and other private foundations. He serves in a leadership role at the World Economic Forum.

uBiome is the worlds leading microbial genomics company. It uses next generation high-throughput DNA sequencing technology to generate detailed analysis of the human microbiome, the ecosystem of trillions of bacteria which populate the human body, both in and on it. While the majority of an individuals bacteria is found in the gut, there are dozens of other bacteria-harboring sites on the body, most with their own distinct microbial profiles. Bacteria in the gut play a vital part in health, supporting digestion and the synthesis of vitamins. However, pathogenic bacteria are associated with a range of conditions, some of them serious, such as celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease  including both Crohns disease and ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, esophageal reflux and esophageal cancer, Clostridium difficile infection, colorectal cancer, and many others.

Dr. Agus keenly anticipates his advisory role at uBiome. I firmly believe that new technologies emerging today will soon revolutionize the way each of us maintains optimal health. The microbiome is a tremendously exciting area to explore, as it clearly affects so many aspects of health and well-being in both good ways and bad. uBiome is doing such pioneering work in the microbiome field that I didnt hesitate when invited to join them on their journey.

Jessica Richman, co-founder and CEO of uBiome, says: It is a true honor to have Dr. Agus agree to serve on our advisory board. He has a well-deserved reputation as one of the most visionary physicians, not just in the U.S. but across the world. Were all looking forward to working with him.

uBiome was launched in 2012 by scientists and technologists educated at Stanford and UCSF after a crowdfunding campaign raised over $350,000 from citizen scientists, around triple its initial goal. The company is now funded by Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, and other leading investors.

uBiomes mission is to use big data to understand the human microbiome by giving users the power to learn about their bodies, perform experiments, and see how current research studies apply to them.

Contact:

Julie Taylor

julie(at)ubiome.com

415-212-9214
SF State Student Portfolios on Portfolium.com ePortfolios allow students to bridge what is learned from academic contexts to their professional goals - Andrea Taylor, SF State

Portfolium, Incs founder and CEO Adam Markowitz will be speaking today on a panel discussion at the SXSW EDU conference held in Austin, Texas. The panel discussion, entitled, What Higher Ed Can Learn from Uber and AirBNB, will focus on datas disruptive potential in the marketplace for learning and talent. Educators and employers are encouraged to attend and join in the discussion.

Portfolium today also announced a new strategic partnership with San Francisco State University (SF State), a recognized leader in the movement toward competency based assessment and use of ePortfolios in academia. Portfoliums ePortfolio platform will be leveraged internally by students and faculty who will prep and assess students, and externally by employers who will match job and internship openings to students assessed skills.

"ePortfolios allow students to bridge what is learned from academic contexts to their professional goals. By the end of a course of study, SF State students have cultivated signature ePortfolio entries that demonstrate valuable skills, competencies, and achievements to potential employers, said Andrea Taylor, Instructional Designer, Academic Technology at San Francisco State University.

Portfolium will put all 33,000+ SF State Students directly into its talent matching marketplace, giving students an immediate advantage by indexing proof of all their skills, rather than just those that can be summarized in a short resume.

We think that the widely-discussed skills gap is largely a data gap. By adding in 4 years of work samples and class projects, SF State students can put all of their competencies on an employer's radar like never before, said Adam Markowitz, founder and CEO of Portfolium.

About Portfolium

Portfolium partners with colleges & universities to help students transform learning into opportunity. Our ePortfolio network helps 5M+ students and alumni 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 SF State

SF State is a public comprehensive university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different Bachelor's degrees, 94 Master's degrees, 5 Doctoral degrees including two Doctor of Education, a Doctor of Physical Therapy, aPh.D in Education and Doctor of Physical Therapy Science, along with 26 teaching credentials among six academic colleges.
Musings of a Maverick Minister by Marge deGraw There are a lot of lost Christians out there, and I want them to know that it is ok to question their faith. It is ok to not believe what we learned as children in Sunday school. It is ok to go beyond the bounds of Christian belief.

Religion has always been a divisive topic, fueled by peopling holding steadfast to their beliefs. Any variance of interpretation or questioning of church doctrine often incites uproar. Yet retired minister Marge deGraw is actively encouraging Christians to question their religious beliefs through her new book Musings of a Maverick Minister.

This innovative collection of essays calls for practicing Christianity with an openhearted set of beliefs and knowledge. deGraw draws from both her time as an ordained minister and her work with a spiritual mentor to offer Christians a unique view into their faith.

There are a lot of lost Christians out there, and I want them to know that it is ok to question their faith. It is ok to not believe what we learned as children in Sunday school. It is ok to go beyond the bounds of Christian belief, deGraw said.

A self-proclaimed radical Christian, deGraw has studied Buddhism, metaphysics and spirituality. She combines her diversified knowledge to emphasize the importance of compassion, forgiveness and positive attitudes.

We need to understand the simple idea that Jesus came to teach us and transform us from the inside out. He came with a radical message of love that is just as radical and important today as in His time, deGraw said.

No matter a readers religious views, Musings of a Maverick Minister will serve as a guide for self-reflection and spiritual growth.

Musings of a Maverick Minister

By Marge deGraw

ISBN: 978-1-5035-4315-7

Available in softcover and e-book

Available through Amazon and Xlibris

About the author

Ordained in 1992, Marge deGraw is a pastor with the International Council of Community Churches and has spent 29 years working with a spiritual mentor. She resides in Omaha, Neb. where she offers spiritual consultations and Color Vision Quest classes.

# # #

For review or giveaway copies, contact:

Jessica Wenclewicz

317.602.7137

jwenclewicz@bohlsengroup.com
Tribe Pictures short film for AEGBT has earned a Pixie Award for its use of motion graphics. 'Using animation is a great way to reinforce the script while keeping viewers attention and entertaining them, too,' says Tribe CEO and Creative Director Vern Oakley.

A short film produced by Tribe Pictures for American Express Global Business Travel (AEGBT) was recently honored with a Gold Pixie Award. The Pixies, sponsored by the American Pixel Academy (http://www.americanpixelacademy.org), honor and promote outstanding individual work in Motion Graphics, Visual Effects and Animation.

The film showcases the benefits of having your employees working with American Express Global Business Travel. Just under two minutes in length, it screens at trade shows, plays online and is used for sales and marketing efforts. It not only gives a brief history of American Express Global Business Travel, it also demonstrates one of its products, EXPERT CARE. To screen the film, go to: http://www.tribepictures.com/final/amex-axconnect.html.

Employing a fast-paced mix of motion graphics, on-screen type treatments, animated icons, stock photography and 2-D cut-out animation, Tribes production delivers an information-packed story to viewers in a memorable and visually appealing fashion.

The Pixie Awards were founded in 2008 by David E. Carter, the founder of the Telly Awards and American Corporate Identity, and editor of the Creativity Annual. Tribes work for corporate clients has won numerous Telly Awards over the years, but this is its first in the area of motion graphics, design and animation.

When people think of corporate films, they often think of live action talking heads or other traditional documentary formats, says Tribe Pictures CEO and Creative Director Vern Oakley. But this project was a marked departure from those techniques, and thats what the Pixie judges recognized. In this age of emojis, thumbnails and GIFs, using a highly imaginative succession of animated scenes is a great way to reinforce the information contained in the script while keeping our viewers attention and entertaining them, too.

About Tribe Pictures

Tribe Pictures is an award winning, full-service video production company with offices in New York City and Chatham, New Jersey. Tribe specializes in strategic video and film solutions for Fortune 500 corporations and leading colleges, universities and non-profits. For 30 years, Tribe has successfully produced purposeful films through an artful blend of strategic messaging, storytelling and a fine-craft perspective in filmmaking. With a mission of humanizing the most successful companies in the world, Tribe has created compelling content for such household names as American Express, Colgate-Palmolive, Coty, Hamilton College, Hess, Kenyon College, KPMG, Montefiore Medical Center, Stanley Black & Decker and others. The company brings subject-matter and storytelling expertise to areas such as culture change, human resources and investor relations, and is known for its work with corporate CEOs. Led by Founder and Creative Director Vern Oakley, Tribes work has been recognized with over 500 awards including a Gold Dolphin from the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards, a Gold Camera from the US International Film & Video Festival, multiple Golden Eagles from CINE (Council on International Nontheatrical Events), scores of best in shows from Telly Awards, Aurora Awards, CASE Awards and many other industry accolades.

About American Express Global Business Travel

American Express Global Business Travel enables corporations and empowers business travelers with insights, connections and exceptional customer service on a global scale. Through technology and information, American Express Global Business Travel provides leading travel solutions, integrated consulting services, proprietary research, and end-to-end meetings and events capabilities. These innovative offerings enable clients to optimize the return on their travel and meetings investments. American Express Global Business Travel has operations and network partners in nearly 140 countries worldwide with approximately 12,000 employees. American Express Global Business Travel ranked first among corporate travel providers in the 2015 Corporate Travel 100 (CT100), an annual listing compiled by Business Travel News which ranks companies with the largest volume of U.S. air bookings. Learn more about how American Express Global Business Travel connects the world at amexglobalbusinesstravel.com and twitter.com/amexgbt.

American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) is a joint venture that is not wholly-owned by American Express Company or any of its subsidiaries (American Express). American Express Global Business Travel, American Express and the American Express logo are trademarks of American Express, and are used under limited license.
A new compact weight transmitter from METTLER TOLEDO, the ACT350.

The ACT350 weighing transmitter from METTLER TOLEDO is designed for the needs of control system integrators and OEM machine builders. It provides 600 filtered-weight values per second for fast weighing processes with an accuracy of 10,000d. No additional software filtering is necessary to eliminate vibrations. This allows customers to quickly and cost-effectively integrate high-speed weight data into their automated PLC control systems.

Fieldbus connectivity via EtherNet/IP, PROFINET RT or PROFIBUS is incorporated in a compact DIN-Rail unit saving cabinet space. The ACT350 simplifies the integration process by leveraging device description files making installation easy.

An integrated OLED display shows weight values and can be used in combination with the keyboard to configure and receive status information.

When it is impractical to place test weights on the scale, CalFree weightless calibration can reduce commissioning time and provide good results for tanks, vessels, silos, hoppers and conveyors.

Download the data sheet: http://www.mt.com/ind-act350

About METTLER TOLEDO

METTLER TOLEDO is a leading global manufacturer of precision instruments. The Company is the worlds largest manufacturer and marketer of weighing instruments for use in laboratory, industrial and food retailing applications. The Company also holds top-three market positions for several related analytical instruments and is a leading provider of automated chemistry systems used in drug and chemical compound discovery and development. In addition, the Company is the worlds largest manufacturer and marketer of metal detection systems used in production and packaging. Additional information about METTLER TOLEDO can be found at http://www.mt.com.
More than 500 expected to attend fundraising event hosted by Mayor Eric Garcetti.

Who: Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Carl Ballton (retired president of Union Bank Foundation), Helen Easterling Williams, Ed.D. (dean of the Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology), Chris Schauble (KTLA 5 News co-anchor), event chair Faye McClure (AIG), event co-chair Kevin T. McDowell (AEG), Sylvia Castillo (MUFG Union Bank, N.A.), George Gibbs (UPS), Arnold Hackett (Xerox), Helen Tomita (AIG), Patricia H. Miller (Southern California Edison), Dr. Pamela S. Wiley (LA Speech and Language Therapy Center, Inc.) and Chante Moore (award-winning music artist).

What and why: More than 500 business, civic and education leaders from across California are expected to attend the UNCF Los Angeles Mayors Masked Ball on March 11. The event, hosted by Mayor Garcetti and the UNCF Los Angeles Leadership Council, will help provide scholarship funds for area students.

College affordability is one of the defining issues of our time, and we must put higher education within reach for everyone who wants to pursue it, Garcetti said. Historically black colleges and universities have helped count-less people chase their dreams. I am honored to host the Mayors Masked Balland thrilled to support UNCF and its donors in their mission to help students get to and through college.

Ballton and Williams will be recognized with the UNCF Masked Award in Los Angeles for their dedication and support of UNCFs work.

Schauble will be master of ceremonies at the ball, which begins at 6 p.m. at the J.W. Marriott and features a live auction, elegant dining and dancing. Moore, an award-winning R&B artist, will headline the event.

When:

Friday, March 11, 2016

VIP Reception at 6 p.m.

Red Carpet at 7 p.m.

*Red Carpet check-in 6:30 p.m.

Where:

JW Marriott at LA Live

900 W Olympic Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90015

For More Information: [http://www.uncf.org/losangelesmmb

For Media Credentialing Please RSVP to:

Ralina Shaw  Ralina Shaw Public Relations  360.951.0908  rshaw(at)ralinashawpr(dot)com
Nearly 200 elementary and middle-level principal leaders from across the country will gather in the nations capital to attend the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) National Leaders Conference (NLC).

During this meeting, which will take place March 13-15 in Arlington, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., NAESP will launch its 2016 Advocacy Agenda, which focuses on ensuring implementation oversight of the Every School Succeeds Act (ESSA) and ensuring federal funding to meet the needs of every student.

ESSA has created an unprecedented opportunity for states and districts to invest in principal leadership. Its important to note that were just at the beginning of ESSA implementation, and principals want to make sure that Congress continues to play an active role in oversight of the new law, said NAESP Executive Director Gail Connelly. States and districts must be clear on Congressional intent in several areas of the law, especially in the areas related to capacity-building for education leaders, student growth, and moving away from test scores as the single factor in accountability systems.

Highlights of this years conference will include:

Federal Support for a Complete Education. On Tues., March 15, principals will advocate on Capitol Hill to improve federal policies that will help states and districts build the capacity of principals and advance school improvement. Specific points include:



Ensure oversight of ESSA implementation so that states and districts provide comprehensive support for principal leadership.

Strengthen the quality of principal recruitment, preparation and retention programs in any efforts to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA), with support for the Educator Preparation Reform Act (EPRA) to provide principal mentoring, induction and residency programs as part of principal preparation programs.

Build school and educator capacity to address student data privacy, with support for the SAFE KIDS (Safeguarding American Families from Exposure by Keeping Information and Data Secure) Act and the Student Digital Privacy and Parental Rights Act.

Principals will also be advocating for critical funding of federal education programs that continue to be the cornerstone of helping educators improve student outcomes, such as Title I, Title II Part A, IDEA Part B state grants, and the new Title IV formula block grant program.

As part of NLC, NAESP will offer a leadership development program, opening with a session from Ary Amerikaner, who is deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Education. The NLC program will also feature presentations from top thought leaders on the following topics:

Implementing ESSA: State and Local Perpspectives on Major Policy Shifts, Jessah Walker (Council of Chief State School Officers), Jared Billings (National Governors Association), S. Dallas Dance (superintendent of Baltimore County Public Schools), moderated by Reg Leichty (Foresight Law + Policy) and Kelly Pollitt (NAESP): Mon., March 14, 10-11 a.m., Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel.

Education Policy and the 2016 Elections, Celinda Lake (Lake Partner Research), Ed Goeas (The Tarrance Group), moderated by Virginia Edwards (Education Week): Mon., March 14, 1:45-2:45 p.m., Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel.

Note: Principals may be interviewed at the Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel on March 14, or after their congressional appointments on March 15. To interview principals about their congressional meetings, or to locate principals from particular states or districts, please contact Kaylen Tucker (ktucker@naesp.org or 703-518-6257).

###

About NAESP

Principals are the primary catalysts for creating lasting foundations for learning. Since 1921, the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) has been the leading advocate for elementary and middle-level principals in the United States and worldwide. NAESP advances the profession by developing policy, professional development, and resources for instructional leadership including specialized support and mentoring for early career principals. Key focus areas include pre-K-3 education, school safety, technology and digital learning, and effective educator evaluation. For more information about NAESP, please visit http://www.naesp.org. NAESP administers the National Principals Resource Center, the American Student Council Association, and the President's Education Awards & American Citizenship Awards Programs.
The Hartford Business Journals Third Annual Municipal Collaboration Summit will take place Friday, March 18 at the Hartford Hilton in Hartford, Conn.

This event is an opportunity for community leaders to learn the benefits of collaboration for efficiency and cost control, and will highlight key leaders who are already implementing positive changes.

The Municipal Collaboration Annual Summit allows for municipal leaders throughout the Greater Hartford Region to collaborate on innovative ways to create even greater communities, said Joe Zwiebel, founding publisher of the Hartford Business Journal. The Hartford Business Journal is thrilled to be bringing back the summit for its third year, and looks forward to a successful event.

Connecticut House Speaker J. Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden, will serve as the events keynote speaker.

The following workshops will be made available to attendees:

Workshop Session 1:



Leveraging Connections for Better, Affordable IT and Other Municipal Services

Consolidating Town and School Information Technology Administration and Budgets

Bond Financings: What Municipal Issuers Should Know About Direct Purchases

MORE Commission: What's Next?

Workshop Session 2:

VOIP on CEN/Nutmeg Networks

Municipal Collaborative Efforts Related to Blight Ordinance Enforcement

Using Data Sources to Analyze Your Local Economy

Building Vibrant Communities

The workshops will be followed by a panel discussion with speakers, John Elsesser, President of Council of Small Towns (COST), Town Manager, Town of Coventry; Tim Larson, State Senator; Elliot Ginsberg, President and CEO, CCAT; Mary Glassman, Manager of the Office for Regional Efficiencies, CREC; and, Lyle Wray, Executive Director, Capitol Region Council of Governments.

Tickets to the Municipal Collaboration Summit are $40 per person. Municipal/town/city elected officials can register for free. All attendees must register. To register, visit http://www.hartfordbusiness.com.

The presenting sponsor for the Municipal Collaboration Summit is Updike, Kelly & Spellacy. Event sponsors include: Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology, Inc.; Comcast Business and Digital Back Office. Event partners include: Co-Communications, Marketing and Public Relations; Hartford Hilton; J. Fiereck Photography; Local Stage Productions and The Perfect Promotion.

###

About Hartford Business Journal

Hartford Business Journal is the only audited weekly, subscription-based business publication in Connecticut. Whether its market trends, the latest merger news or an update on state government, this award-winning weekly is the must read for area business leaders. Hartford Business Journal has a total readership of 31,000 affluent and educated business decision makers in the 61 towns that make up Metro Hartford. For more information, please visit http://www.hartfordbusiness.com or call 860.236.9998.
Global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP is pleased to announce the addition of Manuel Rajunov and Dania Duncan, who will join the firm as shareholders in the Latin American and Iberian Practice, splitting their time between the Dallas and Mexico City offices. In addition to their broad tax, real estate, and corporate experience, both Rajunov and Duncan have extensive experience in Latin America and strong connections to clients in the region. Both lawyers were previously partners at DLA Piper.

As the Dallas office grows strategically, it is important for us to strengthen our core practice groups while expanding the breadth and depth of services provided, said Joseph F. Coniglio, managing shareholder of Greenberg Traurigs Dallas office. Adding Dania and Manuel to our strong real estate, corporate, and tax teams will allow us to expand the capabilities of these groups in Dallas and further serve clients in Texas, Latin America, and around the world.

In Mexico City we continue to expand our office to serve client needs. Manuel and Dania will play a key role in our development, commented Jose Raz Guzman, managing shareholder of Greenberg Traurig's Mexico City office. Both Manuel and Dania have significant experience serving international clients doing business in Mexico. This practice has involved complex investment transactions in real estate and other industries. Manuel and Dania have also advised Mexican clients and their international business interests. They both have a reputation for a profound commitment to client service. We are delighted to welcome them to Greenberg Traurig.

Yosbel Ibarra, shareholder and co-chair of Greenberg Traurigs Latin American and Iberian Practice, added, With Manuel and Dania, we continue to strengthen the capabilities of our Latin American and Iberian Practice, reflecting the same commitment to excellence in Latin America that Greenberg Traurig has maintained since the firm's founding."

Over the years Greenberg Traurig has built a pre-eminent Global Practice Group. I share the firms goal of continuing to build its premier international legal practice in Mexico, Rajunov said. The opportunity to join Greenberg Traurigs solid platform affords Dania and me the opportunity to bring value to our clients and to expand our practices in multiple and unique ways. Additionally, Greenberg Traurig has shown a clear commitment to the Texas market. The size, breadth, and depth of the Dallas office and the strategy put in motion by the firm and office leadership are very appealing to us.

Rajunov focuses his practice on tax consulting and transactional advice to foreign investors doing business in Mexico, as well as advising Mexican investors on their investments overseas. Based on more than 20 years of experience, Rajunovs practice has a distinct emphasis on real estate, corporate and securities, as well mergers and acquisitions matters. Additionally, Rajunov focuses on the real estate development, finance, private wealth, manufacturing and distribution, retail, technology, gaming, hospitality, and housing sectors and industries.

Duncan focuses her practice on commercial, industrial, and residential real estate matters, including development and acquisitions, structured finance, and corporate matters. Duncan has significant experience representing international and U.S. companies in all aspects of commercial real estate transactions, including leases (retail, office, industrial, warehouse, and ground leases), purchase and sale agreements, development agreements, construction contracts, management agreements, condominiums, and related due diligence matters involving title reports, zoning, and survey analysis; representation of developers and equity investors in partnership and joint venture agreements; and representation of borrowers and lenders in construction financing secured by real estate. Duncan has significant experience representing clients regarding the acquisition and development of all types of real estate projects in a wide variety of areas including retail, hotel, fractional interest, condominium, office, and industrial developments.

About Greenberg Traurig, LLP  Texas

Greenberg Traurig has more than 100 attorneys in Texas, serving clients from offices in Austin, Dallas and Houston.

About Greenberg Traurig, S.C. - Mexico City

Greenberg Traurigs Mexico City office is an integral part of the firms award-winning Latin American and Iberian Practice, offering clients closely integrated strategic legal advice. The Mexico City team is comprised of multilingual, dual-licensed attorneys, many of whom have held positions within the Mexican government and its regulatory agencies as well as served as key contributors to national projects in Mexico. In addition, several attorneys have also played a role in shaping current Mexican jurisprudence in key judicial procedures, helping to establish legal precedents in important sectors of the Mexican economy.

Greenberg Traurigs Latin American and Iberian Practice brings together lawyers in various offices across the firm. This multidisciplinary team has wide-ranging experience representing U.S. and international clients who do business in Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula, as well as advising Latin American and Spanish clients on their business ventures in the United States. Greenberg Traurigs experience throughout the region enables the firm to offer clients local knowledge and resources as they seek market opportunities, investments, financing, access to capital markets, governmental strategies or international dispute resolution. This team includes lawyers who have been chief legal officers at major multi-national companies and who have spent years solving real-world problems worldwide.

About Greenberg Traurig, LLP

Greenberg Traurig, LLP is an international, multi-practice law firm with approximately 1,900 attorneys serving clients from 38 offices in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The firm is No. 1 on the 2015 Law360 Most Charitable Firms list, third largest in the U.S. on the 2015 Law360 400, on the 2015 Am Law Global 100, and among the 2015 BTI Brand Elite. More information at: http://www.gtlaw.com.
Suzanne Scarlata, PhD

Suzanne Scarlata, PhD, the inaugural Richard T. Whitcomb Professor of Biochemistry at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), recently assumed the presidency of the Biophysical Society at the international scientific society's annual meeting. Founded in 1958 to encourage the development and dissemination of knowledge in biophysics, the society has more than 9,000 members worldwide.

Scarlata, who joined the WPI faculty in the fall of 2015, has been a member of the society for more than 30 years and has served the organization in a number of roles, including as a member of the Executive Committee, chair of the Committee for Professional Opportunities for Women, chair of the Education Committee, and a member of the selection committee for the Weber Prize in Fluorescence. She assumed the post of president elect in 2015.

During her presidency, Scarlata says she will pursue a number of initiatives, with a particular focus on issues related to federal funding for research in biophysics, a field that uses the techniques of mathematics and physics to gain new insights into living organisms and systems. She says she expects to meet with congressional leaders and leaders of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to seek ways to increase the number of basic research awards made annually by the NIH and to work in coalition with other scientific societies to urge Congress to consider tying the nation's annual expenditures on scientific research to its GNP (gross national product), as is done in many other nations.

"Part of my agenda when I go to talk to these leaders," she said, "will be to encourage them to consider this model, which will help increase American competiveness by providing stable support for research programs."

Scarlata's own research, which is currently funded by a $308,000 R01 award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, focuses on a group of proteins, known as G proteins (guanine nucleotide-binding proteins), that are involved in transmitting signals from various stimuli from the exterior to the interior of cells. The signaling pathways mediated by G proteins are integral to a wide away of biological functions, from sensory perception, to the regulation of the heart, nervous system, and reproduction, to the development of cancer. "It has been estimated that 70 percent of all pharmaceuticals are targeted at G proteins," Scarlata says.

In work currently under way in her lab, she is exploring how G proteins help regulate calcium signaling within cells, particularly in cardiac myocytes (heart muscle cells) and neurons. In cultured cells that have properties related to heart tissue, Scarlata has found that mechanical stimuli (for example the stretching and relaxing of the muscle cells) cause changes in the release of G proteins from the cell membrane which can, in turn, cause wavelike changes in the concentration of calcium in the cell interior. The movement of calcium in and out of the cell interior plays a role in the contraction of the heart muscle and the transmission of signals along neurons.

She recently discovered that a molecule involved in the activation of G proteins also interacts with a molecule involved in RNA silencing, which can be used by cells to turn off genes and prevent them from expressing certain proteins. She believes this link suggests that the cardiac myocytes are able to use RNA silencing to quickly respond to environmentally induced changes in calcium concentration by regulating the production of G proteins. Maladaptive changes in this system may be responsible for some of the damaging effects of cardiac infarctions, or heart attacks, she said.

Scarlata joined WPI from Stony Brook University on Long Island, where she had been on the faculty since 1991, most recently as a professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics. She had previously been an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at Cornell University Medical College and a member of the technical staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories. She received a BA in chemistry from Temple University and a PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is currently associate editor of the Journal of Bioenergetics and Biomembranes and has served as a member of the editorial boards of BBA Biomembranes (200916), Analytical Biochemistry (200215), and the Journal of Biological Chemistry (200409). From 2001 to 2004, she was an American Heart Association Established Investigator.

The Whitcomb Professorship was established at WPI through a bequest from Richard T. Whitcomb '43, a pioneer in aerodynamics. In 1951 he developed the Transonic Area Rule, which made faster-than-sound flight practical. He also invented the supercritical wing and winglets, which have resulted in large cost savings in military and commercial aviation. Whitcomb is a member of the National Aviation Hall of Fame and the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and his work was recognized with the National Medal of Science and the Collier Trophy, aviation's highest honor. Upon his death in 2009, NASA called Whitcomb the most significant aerodynamic contributor of the second half of the 20th century."

When interviewed for WPI's alumni magazine in 2002, Whitcomb said he advised young people not to go into aeronautics, which he said had become a mature field. "If I were to start today," he said, "I'd go into the life sciences; that's where the big stuff is happening." As part of his bequest to WPI, he asked that his gift be used to support professors whose research "must involve the biochemistry of animals, including humans.

About Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Founded in 1865 in Worcester, Mass., WPI is one of the nations first engineering and technology universities. Its 14 academic departments offer more than 50 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science, engineering, technology, business, the social sciences, and the humanities and arts, leading to bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees. WPI's talented faculty work with students on interdisciplinary research that seeks solutions to important and socially relevant problems in fields as diverse as the life sciences and bioengineering, energy, information security, materials processing, and robotics. Students also have the opportunity to make a difference to communities and organizations around the world through the university's innovative Global Projects Program. There are more than 45 WPI project centers throughout the Americas, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Europe.

Contact:

Michael Dorsey, Director of Research Communications

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Worcester, Massachusetts

508-831-5609, mwdorsey(at)wpi(dot)edu

# # #
Coco Libre, the pioneer of organic coconut water in the U.S., is unveiling a new product line, new packaging formats and a beautifully contemporary brand refresh at Natural Products Expo West 2016, Booth #5306, in Anaheim, Calif., March 11-13, 2016. The innovations reflect the companys energized strategic mission: creating coconut water beverages with a purpose.

We were first to bring organic coconut water to U.S. shoppers, first to market coconut water plus protein, and now were focused on coconut waters broader nutritional promise, said Candace Crawford, CEO of Maverick Brands, Coco Libres parent company. Weve been thinking a lot about consumers and their needs. Weve asked who might want coconut water nutrition in a different experience and package. We thought about those channels where coconut water beverages would be welcome but still hasnt found a way in. Thats where our new Sparkling Organic Coconut Water line, for example, came fromsomething that works as an anytime refresher and also as a cocktail mixer. We want to grow the number of ways people can choose to bring coconut water nutrition into their routine, day and night.

At Natural Products Expo West 2016, Coco Libre will showcase:



New product line: Sparkling Organic Coconut Water, a new product concept available in 3 flavors: Original with a kick of lemon, Grapefruit, Cucumber + Lemongrass. (A fourth flavor, Lemon + Ginger, is exclusive for Whole Foods customers.)

New packaging format: Organic Coconut Water in 100% recyclable 15 oz. aluminum can.

Refreshed brand look: A contemporary flair which updates the companys signature elements to represent Coco Libres growing family of purposeful beverages.

Coco Libre has previewed the innovations to key retail customers over the past several months, and the response has been overwhelming, said John Slee, Vice President of Sales for Coco Libre. Theres so much excitement from retailers about some real innovation into the coconut water category. Its exciting to be first to market and bring real innovation that will bring sales and new customers to their coconut water sets.

Coco Libre has additional products in the R&D pipeline, to be announced later this year, that will further differentiate the companys offerings and excite customers and consumers.

Coco Libre products, made in the U.S.A., are formulated from the foundation of its signature Organic Coconut Water, known for delicious flavor with no added sugar, certified USDA organic, OU kosher, gluten free and Non-GMO Project Verified. Every product extends Coco Libres brand promise to liberate your thirst. The company will be sampling the new products at Natural Products Expo West 2016, Booth #5306.

ABOUT COCO LIBRE

Coco Libres flagship Organic Coconut Water is the nutritional foundation for a growing family of purposeful beverages. Coco Libre is a 2015 NCW Eco-Excellence Award winner and a finalist for Best New Product Line Extension at the World Beverage Innovation Awards 2014. Coco Libre beverages, made in the U.S.A., are available in grocery, natural, specialty and online retailers in the U.S. and Canada.

To learn more visitCocoLibre.com, Facebook.com/CocoLibreOrganic, twitter.com/CocoLibre and Instagram @CocoLibre. Liberate your thirst.

Media contact: Celina Cooper  celina(at)cocolibre(dot)com, (650) 739-0555
Match Day is an exciting moment for students because it validates their years of effort and defines their future careers as physicians.

March 14-18, 2016 is Match Week for the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) 2016 Main Residency Match. In 2015, more than 18,000 U.S. allopathic medical school seniors and 16,000 other applicants vied for over 30,000 residency positions at institutions across the country. The 2016 Match is expected to be even larger. View reports from previous Matches

Applicants will learn on Monday, March 14, whether they matched to a residency position. Those who are unmatched can try to obtain a position during the Match Week Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP) that occurs Wednesday and Thursday. Applicants then learn on Match Day, Friday, March 18, the location of the program where they will train for the next three to seven years.

Match Day is an annual rite of passage for U.S. medical students and other applicants from around the world, a culmination of years of hard work and dedication. The achievements of U.S. students are recognized by medical schools across the country during Match Day ceremonies that begin at 12:00 p.m. ET on March 18. During the ceremonies, students are given personalized letters showing where they matched. All applicants receive their Match results from the NRMP at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Match Day is an exciting moment for students because it validates their years of effort and defines their future careers as physicians, says Mona M. Signer, NRMP President and CEO. We consider it a privilege to share in this life-changing day.

Match Week Celebration with NRMP, AAMC, and AMA

This year, the NRMP is partnering with the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the American Medical Association (AMA) to offer online forums where Match participants can celebrate together by sharing their Match Week photos, videos, and messages with the #Match2016 hashtag. Learn how you can follow the celebration

The Match Process

The Main Residency Match process begins in the fall for applicants, usually in the final year of medical school, when they apply to residency programs at which they would like to train. Program directors review applications and conduct candidate interviews in the fall and early winter. From mid-January to late February, applicants submit to the NRMP their rank order lists of preferred programs, and program directors rank applicants in order of preference for training. The NRMP uses a computerized mathematical algorithm to match applicants with programs using the preferences expressed on their ranked lists. Research on the NRMP algorithm was a basis for awarding The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 2012.

About NRMP

The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) is a private, non-profit organization established in 1952 at the request of medical students to provide an orderly and fair mechanism for matching the preferences of applicants for U.S. residency positions with the preferences of residency program directors. In addition to the annual Main Residency Match for more than 41,000 applicants, the NRMP conducts Fellowship Matches for more than 60 subspecialties through its Specialties Matching Service (SMS).
Operation Homefront today announced the six recipients of the 2016 Military Child of the Year Award. The national non-profit organization that builds strong, stable, and secure military families annually gives the award to an outstanding military child from each branch of service  Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, and the National Guard.

Each award recipient will receive $10,000 and will be flown with a parent or guardian to Washington, D.C., for a special recognition gala on April 14. United Technologies Corp. is the presenting sponsor for the Military Child of the Year Awards Gala. Other sponsors are Wounded Warrior Project, Southern New Hampshire University, Murphy-Goode Winery, MidAtlanticBroadband, La Quinta Inns & Suites, and Aflac. Operation Homefront will also present the inaugural Booz Allen Hamilton Innovation Award for Military Children at the gala, the recipient of which will be announced next week.

Ideal candidates for the Military Child of the Year Award demonstrate resilience and strength of character, and thrive in the face of the challenges of military life. They also demonstrate leadership within their families and within their communities.

The children in our military families demonstrate the best in our society and our Military Child of the Year Award recipients are extraordinary representatives of this spirit of selfless service, said Brig Gen (ret) John I. Pray, Jr., president and CEO of Operation Homefront. They perform at a very high level both in and out of school while simultaneously dealing with parental deployments, recurring relocations, and other challenges associated with military life. I cant wait to meet these outstanding young people and present them with their well-deserved awards.

Following are the 2016 Military Child of the Year Award recipients.

ARMY

Lorelei McIntyre-Brewer, 11

Duncannon, Pa.

Lorelei aspires to be a writer. Her own story has been as compelling as any topic she might choose. The daughter of Michelle McIntyre-Brewer and Medical Service Corps Officer Steven Brewer, Lorelei was missing half her heart before she was born. She underwent open heart surgery shortly after her birth. Indeed, the Duncannon, Pennsylvania, resident has undergone 18 medical procedures, including three open heart surgeries. Lorelei also heightened awareness of conditions such as hers through the Congenital Heart Information Network. She has been involved in Socks for Vets, started by her brother Cavan, who was the 2015 Army Military Child of the Year winner. Lorelei collected goods and helped to train and to care for those who would deliver the goods to veterans. She made the time to participate in the Girl Scouts and in 4-H.

MARINE CORPS

Christian Fagala, 10

Quantico, Virginia

The son of Diana Fagala and Marine Capt. Justin Fagala, Christian, 9-years-old at the time of his nomination, was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 2. He was treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He had a harder time learning due to the cognitive effects of chemotherapy but rose to the advanced reading level and otherwise exceeded academic expectations. Christian has relocated four times already and has endured 16 months of his fathers deployment. Rising to the challenges of military life, Christian at age 4 began doing speaking engagements on behalf of childhood cancer programs. Christian started his own campaign for Childhood Cancer Awareness, and he participates in numerous annual walks to raise money for the cause. Christian has raised more than $20,000 in the last few years for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Christian additionally has devoted more than 100 hours to homeless outreach, participating in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts along the way.

NAVY

Jeffrey Burds, 17

Camp Lejeune, North Carolina

Jeffrey was 9 years old when his mother succumbed to colon cancer. The day before she passed, his mother told him, Do great things in life. It is apparent that this son of Debra Rae Burds and Navy Master Chief Hospital Corpsman Joseph Burds took to those words to heart, devoting his life to making a difference in the lives of others. He is distinguished, above all, by his leadership and by his academic excellence. Posting a 3.94 grade point average, Jeffrey is a National Honor Society volunteer and executive officer of the Camp Lejeune High School Marine Corps JROTC, the boot camp of which he was named an honor graduate in 2013.

AIR FORCE

Madeleine Morlino, 17

Moorestown, New Jersey

Madeleine was adopted from China when she was 11 months old. Believing fervently that her family made her life better than it would have been had she remained in China, Madeleine has devoted her life to keeping America and her community strong. Motivated by the challenges her family faced as her father transitioned from military to civilian life, Madeleine set out to ease the transition for other service members. She conceived, organized and led a job expo for veterans in her hometown. She and her colleagues on the committee that planned the event successfully attracted national and local businesses that were poised to offer veterans meaningful employment. A future U.S. Air Force Academy cadet, with a 4.23 weighted grade point average, Madeleine is the daughter of Kerry Ann Morlino and retired Air Force Master Sgt. Leonard Morlino.

COAST GUARD

Keegan Fike, 17

Fairhaven, Massachusetts

The son of Rebecca Fike and Coast Guard Lt. Brent Fike, Keegan has been active in the Boy Scouts, including, but certainly not limited to, organizing food drives  leading, emceeing, or otherwise participating in flag-retirement ceremonies, and mentoring Cub Scouts and junior Boy Scouts as an assistant scoutmaster. As a junior assistant scoutmaster for Boy Scout Troop 52, Keegan earned the Cachalot Youth Leadership Award of Merit for his participation in the 2014 summer camp, leading boys from three different troops. He also scheduled activities and led training sessions on fire safety, geocaching, flag etiquette, and other instruction. Keegan has seen 125 months of his fathers deployment and has experienced six military permanent change of station relocations.

NATIONAL GUARD

John Trip Landon III, 17

Ellensburg, Washington

A National Honor Society member with a 3.9 grade point average, Trip is homeschooled for academics and participates in extracurricular activities at Ellensburg High School in Ellensburg, Washington. Guided by his faith, the son of Laura Landon and Army National Guard Capt. John Landon II has excelled in academics, sports, Scouting, the arts, and faith-based service to his community. Trip has made his mark in Scouting. As a Silver Palm-awarded Eagle Scout, Trip, who achieved the coveted rank of Eagle Scout before his 15th birthday, led four teenagers and four adults in planning and constructing an archery range backstop, a project that entailed 574 man hours. Trip aspires to work in prosthetics engineering, a career path which would allow him to help wounded warriors to return to service.

# # #

EDITORIAL NOTE: Photos of the award recipients are available by contacting Aaron.Taylor(at)OperationHomefront.net or Stephen.Thomas(at)OperationHomefront.net.

About Operation Homefront: A national nonprofit, Operation Homefront leads more than 2,500 volunteers with nationwide presence who provide emergency and other financial assistance to the families of service members and wounded warriors. Operation Homefront has provided assistance to thousands of military families since its inception in 2002. Recognized for superior performance by leading independent charity watchdog groups, nationally, 92 percent of Operation Homefronts expenditures go directly to programs that provide support to our military families. For more information, go to http://www.OperationHomefront.net.
In Defense of Christians (IDC) and the Knights of Columbus released an extensive report this morning chronicling the genocide of Christians in territories controlled by the Islamic State (ISIS) and its affiliates.

The nearly 300-page report, Genocide against Christians in the Middle East, resulted from a State Department request for specific evidence related to crimes committed against Christians by ISIS. Submitted to Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday, the report was compiled from evidence of a recent fact finding mission to Iraq, which documented the murder, injury, enslavement and displacement that Christians have suffered at the hands of ISIS.

The announcement of the reports release was made at a packed National Press Club conference and included a panel of representatives from IDC, the Knights of Columbus and other esteemed scholars and activists as well as Christian clergy from United Kingdom and Iraq.

Ahead of the press conference IDCs President Toufic Baaklini said, A genocide designation by the United States cannot wait any longer. The atrocities that commenced nearly two years ago have been broadcast to the world, and the United States still stands silent as the international community and the American people continue to raise their voice. To date nearly 65,000 Americans including a number of high-profile public figures have signed the Stop the Christian Genocidepetition launched by IDC and the Knights of Columbus. Baaklini continued that It is time for the United States join the rest of the world by naming the genocide and by taking action against it as required by law. Read Baaklinis full statement here.

The panelists also urged President Obama and Secretary Kerry to officially designate the crimes being committed by ISIS against Christians as genocide. So far, the administration and State have been resistant to do so, said Nina Shea, Director of the Hudson Institutes Center for Religious Freedom. Some State Department officials seem to believe that Christians within ISIS territory are being respected as people of the Book, stated Shea.

As the report demonstrates, ISIS adheres to a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam and believes that Christians dont qualify for the historic protection offered by Islamic law. The notion that Christians are being given the option to pay the jizya tax is ISIS propaganda. Christians cannot pay a tax when everything they have has been taken by ISIS or when the price is extortionately high, sometimes up to and including ones own children, as Johnnie Moore, author of Defying ISIS, described. It is used by ISIS as a license to rape, enslave, and pillage.

Shea further stated, At the same time the Secretary of States staff has contacted our organization and asked for a deal on word-smithing, asking if it would be possible to designate ISIS actions as ethnic cleansing or crimes against humanity rather than genocide.

The panelists decried such word-smithing, vehemently reiterating that genocide is happening and the importance of using the g-word. They also pointed to evidence in the report, which includes the names of the more than 1130 Christians that have been murdered in Iraq from 2003 through June 2014.

The report has unearthed many stories that the world has not heard, Baaklini said in his statement announcing the release. Like the story of Christian women who have been forced into sexual slavery and listed on ISIS slave menus that put a price on Christian or Yazidi women by age. Baaklini continued, Stories of women like Claudia, who was captured and raped several times after ISIS militants spotted her tattoo of a cross. Or like Khalia who fought ISIS militants off as they tried to rape captive girls and take a nine year old as a bride.

Panelists who have recently visited the region described wholescale and systemic elimination of Christian practice as well as the genocidal crimes they witnessed.

I went to Iraq three weeks ago and met a three-year-old girl whom ISIS members had thrown against a wall. She can no longer talk. Where was her father? He had been murdered as he was a Christian, stated Juliana Taimoorazy, an Assyrian Christian and president of Iraqi Christian Relief Council.

At the same time I am witnessing the complete elimination of my nation, the Assyrian nation which is over 7000 years old, one of the first nations to convert to Christianity over 2000 years ago, though the ministry of St. Thomas the apostle. My language, Aramaic, the language of Jesus will be erased and no longer heard. Shea affirmed Taimoorazys description of the crisis. There are no open churches, priests or clergy in ISIS territory and no right to practice, Shea stated. And Father Dankha, a priest from Erbil, said that if the United States waits any longer to designate the genocide none of my people will be left.

Bishop Angaelos of the Coptic Orthodox Church held up the report showing the audience the cover photo of the 21 Coptic Christian men who were beheaded by ISIS in Libya, lamenting the loss of his fellow believers, and said that if we exclude Christians from the genocide designation we risk putting them at greater risk.

Dr. Gregory Stanton, president of Genocide Watch and former president of the International Association for Genocide Scholars, reiterated that ISIS actions must be identified as genocide, not only because it is true but also because of the impact of the word itself. The word genocide packs moral force and requires action from our government, which seems unwilling to truly confront ISIS, said Stanton. He continued We refused to use the word in Rwanda and it resulted in 800,000 victims of genocide. Yet when we used the word with regards to Kosovo and Bosnia, swift international action followed, which ended the killing.

Professor Robert Destro supported Stantons position. What we have is genocide denial, said Destro. It happened in the 1930s, it happened in Cambodia, in Darfur and Rwanda. How long will it take for genocide to be declared in this case?

Panelists included Bishop Anba Angaelos of theCoptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom; Father Douglas al-Bazi, former hostage, now a priest at Mar Elia Refugee Camp in Erbil, Iraq; Prof. Bob Destro, Senior Law and Policy Advisor, In Defense of Christians; Johnnie Moore, Author of Defying ISIS ; Nina Shea, Director of the Hudson Institutes Center for Religious Freedom; Prof. Gregory Stanton, Founding President, Genocide Watch; Juliana Taimoorazy, Founder and President, Iraqi Christian Relief Council; and Rev. Dankha Joola of the Chaldean Archdiocese of Erbil, Iraq

IDC President Toufic Baaklini, Executive Director Kirsten Evans, Director of Media and Communications Ninar Keyrouz and Director of Government Relations Kristina Olney are available to answer questions including the below on the Christian genocide report.

Are Middle Eastern Christians victims of genocide?

Are Christians treated differently by ISIS?

Why does it matter if the United States officially designates the genocide?

What obligations doe the United States have to respond to the genocide?

What should be done to stop the genocide?

Please contact us at press(at)indefenseofchristians(dot)org
ALO Essentials ALO Drink Continues Strong Growth with New Products at Natural Products Expo West.

ALO Drink, the #1 ready-to-drink aloe vera beverage in the U.S. grocery channel, will launch more exciting products at the 2016 Natural Products Expo West show.

ALO Drink, which received Non-GMO Project Verification for all of its products in March 2014, launched a pulp-free line featuring five of its best-selling original flavors in 2015. In addition, ALO Drink added a new original line flavor, ALO Crispa blend of Fuji apple and pear, and a larger 975ml bottle for two of its most popular flavors, ALO Exposed and ALO Allure.

New in February 2016 is ALO Essentials, a 350ml variety that adds new flavors in a smaller delivery. This makes ALOs blend of real aloe vera juice refreshment easier to take on the go and provides a price thats attractive to those wanting to try the leading brand. Two new 16oz, tantalizing, original line flavors are also on board for 2016 to fit every taste moment for new and old fans alike.

Were keeping up our brands momentum and adding more variety to our product lines in a direct response to our fans, said Henry Chen, President of ALO Drink. Our fans love our products and want more options. By adding these new varieties, were satisfying our current fan base as well as attracting new customers.

Aloe vera based beverages have seen a rise in popularity in recent years due to the range of health benefits from drinking aloe vera juice and pulp, which provides a variety of beneficial vitamins, minerals and amino acids.

ALO Drink will be featuring and sampling its newest additions to its product line at the Natural Products Expo West show in March at Booth 3176. ALO Essentials is available now, and the anticipated new original line flavors will launch to retail this summer.

About ALO Drink

The ALO Drink line continues to garner high praise, winning The Gourmet Retailers 2015 Editors Pick Award for the Best New Product in the beverage category. ALO Drink has also received recognition in both 2012 and 2013 as a finalist in The Natural & Organic Awards for Best New Drink, Beverage Innovations 2012 Best Consumer Campaign Award, as well as Beverage Innovations 2011 Best Natural Functional Drink Award. ALO Enrich, ALO Drinks pomegranate & cranberry flavor, was also a 2010 sofi Silver Finalist Award Winner for Best Cold Beverage presented by the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT), while the ALO Drink line won Beverage World Magazines 2010 Bronze Award in the Functional/New Age Drink category.

ALO Drink, a division of SPI West Port, was established in 2009. ALO Drink is the best selling ready-to-drink aloe vera beverage line in the U.S. natural and grocery channel, and the #2 brand in the fast-growing Shelf Stable Functional Juices category. ALO Drink is available in retail stores across the US including nationwide at Whole Foods Market, Rite Aid, Sprouts, Cost Plus, and Vitamin Shoppe; and in regional chains such as Ingles, Hy-Vee, Jewel Osco, Lucky, Save Mart, Raleys, Wegmans, King Soopers, and Albertsons. For more information about ALO Drink products and retailers, visit alodrink.com or email info(at)alodrink(dot)com.
New City, a Gardant affordable assisted living community for older adults, is hosting an Easter Celebration from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. on March 25.

The community, which is located in the historic Goldblatts Department Store at Ashland and 47th in Chicago, serves low-income older adults, including those on Medicaid, who need some help to maintain their independence.

The celebration will include an egg hunt, trivia and lunch. Ham sliders, potato salad and fruit parfaits will be served.

This event is open to the public; there is no charge to attend.

For more information about the celebration or the community, call 773-376-1223.

New City Supportive Living is certified to operate through the Illinois Supportive Living program and operated by Gardant Management Solutions, the largest provider of assisted living in Illinois.

"We provide older adults with a wonderful alternative to a nursing home or to struggling alone at home," said Aisha Burke, Director of Marketing at New City.

The community, which was remodeled and opened last year, combines residential apartment-home living and the availability of personal assistance, help with medications and a variety of convenience and support services.

Residents live in private apartments that feature a kitchenette, spacious bathroom with shower and grab bars, individually-controlled heating and air conditioning, and an emergency alert system.

Certified nursing assistants, working under the direction of a licensed nurse, are on-duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All three meals each day, housekeeping and laundry are among the included services.

"Residents also benefit from all of the opportunities that are available to socialize with friends and neighbors and to participate in activities and special programs," says Burke.

Based in Bradley, Illinois, Gardant Management Solutions operates more than 40 assisted living, senior living and memory care communities that together house nearly 4,000 homes and apartments.

"Our focus," says Rod Burkett, President and CEO of Gardant, "is to provide New City residents with the love, compassion and dignity that they deserve and the help and assistance that they need. Our emphasis is on helping each resident to achieve and maintain as much independence as possible for as long as possible."

Communities managed by Gardant include the Heritage Woods affordable assisted living community in Batavia, Bolingbrook, Chicago, Gurnee, Manteno, McHenry, Plainfield and Yorkville, Illinois.

Gardant, formerly BMA Management, also manages the Heritage Woods assisted living community in Huntley and the St. Anthony affordable assisted living community for older adults in Lansing, Illinois and the Deer Path affordable assisted living community for physically disabled adults in Huntley.

For more information on Gardant Management Solutions and the assisted living, senior living and memory care communities that the company operates, visit http://www.gardant.com or call 1-877-882-1495 toll-free
DUNMORE Corporation, a leader in the design and manufacture of engineered films for nearly two-dozen industries, announces DUNMORE Aerospace, a new division specializing in serving the aerospace industry. According to Art Mallett, Jr., Director, Global Aerospace, the new division's focus is to "provide solutions to our customers' materials challenges, which will be accomplished with DUNMORE's dedicated R&D staff."

What sets DUNMORE Aerospace (http://www.dunmore.com/industries/aerospace.html) apart from its competitors is three-fold. First, DUNMORE Aerospace has the advantage of having multiple manufacturing sites in the United States and in Europe that can produce materials around the world. "Our company has multi-facility, duplicate manufacturing capabilities that address contingency planning for all materials supplied to aerospace manufacturers," Mallett said. Second, DUNMORE Aerospace leverages the knowledge and industry relationships from more than 20 markets DUNMORE serves to provide solutions to customers' unique material challenges. Third, DUNMORE Aerospace services customers of all sizes, from educational and institutional up to the world's largest OEM manufacturers.

"When you have more than 45 years of experience producing and manufacturing products for companies that demand zero defects, you develop a reputation for quality," Mallett said. "We have the facilities, experience, and knowledge to address the needs of the world's top aerospace companies."

Mallett also stressed that the legacy and core values of the company will extend into the new DUNMORE Aerospace division, reiterating the company's mission: to satisfy customer requirements worldwide by delivering the highest quality technically engineered coated, and laminated films. "While DUNMORE Aerospace will have a dedicated sales, technical, and customer service team, the corporation's administrative support system will continue to be in place. This provides the client assurances they are getting the quality that other industries receive - and expect - from DUNMORE," Mallett said.

About DUNMORE

DUNMORE Corporation is a global supplier of engineered coated and laminated films and foils. DUNMORE offers film conversion services such as coating, metalizing and laminating along with contract film manufacturing (http://www.dunmore.com/services/contract-manufacturing.html). DUNMORE produces coated film, metallized film and laminating film substrates for the aircraft, spacecraft, photovoltaic, graphic arts, packaging, insulation, surfacing and fashion industries. DUNMORE is privately held, ISO 9001:2008 and OSHA VPP Star certified. For complete information on DUNMOREs products, services and industries served, please visit DUNMOREs website http://www.dunmore.com.
Fisher Investments Europe is an innovator in wealth management and is making an impact on the UK and European financial landscape.

Fisher Investments Europe, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fisher Investments, was recognized by ADVFN as Wealth Manager of the Year in its International Financial Awards, announced March 8, 2016. The awards aim to recognize and celebrate best of breed products and services from across the financial industry, both nationally and internationally.

In announcing the award, ADVFN CEO Clem Chambers said, Fisher Investments Europe is an innovator in wealth management and is making an impact on the UK and European financial landscape. A panel of judges selected the winners, which include investment advisers, brokerage firms, notable journalists and trading platforms from around the globe.

ADVFN, formerly known as the Advanced Financial Network, is an online community of private investors and offers services such as investment monitoring, quotes and myriad research tools. In 2015, Fisher Investments Europe was chosen for offering a wide range of wealth management strategies managed by Fisher Investments for individuals and institutions by devising a bespoke investment plan for each client.

Carrianne Coffey, Director of Fisher Investments Europe commented, Were honored and delighted that our firm has been recognized by ADVFN for two years in a row. Weve worked very hard to build an offering that betters the investment universe for UK and European investors. Our priority is always on providing them with unparalleled service and continuous education. This helps affirm were making progress towards that endeavor. Fisher Investments Europe joins 33 other financial companies and individuals in receiving an award. Other winners include Barclays Stockbrokers, TD Direct Investing, Morningstar and The Economist.

A complete list of this years winners can be found at ADVFNs website: http://uk.advfn.com/awards_2016.

About Fisher Investments Europe

Established in 2000, Fisher Investments Europe is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fisher Investments, marketing the wealth management services of Fisher Investments to individuals and families in the United Kingdom and providing wealth management services to individuals and families in continental Europe. Founded in 1979 by Ken Fisher, Fisher Investments is an independent, privately-owned money management firm with tens of billions under management. Fisher Investments maintains two principal business units, Fisher Investments Institutional Group and Fisher Investments Private Client Group, which serve a global client base of diverse investors, including over 150 large institutions and over 30,000 high net worth individuals. For more information, visit http://www.fisherinvestments.com or http://www.fisherinvestments.co.uk.
Versus Advantages OR uses real-time locating technology (RTLS) to closely monitor patient flow through Josie Robertson Surgery Center's 12 operating rooms and over 40 perioperative beds. What Josie is doing with Versus is truly innovative. A nurse or provider can glance at one screen and understand immediately where patients are on their clinical care pathway. This is an amazing patient-centric initiative."

Versus Technology, Inc., in cooperation with Ronco Specialized Systems, announces the successful go-live in January of the real-time locating system (RTLS) at Memorial Sloan Ketterings Josie Robertson Surgery Center (JRSC) in New York, New York.

Memorial Sloan Kettering, a worldwide leader in the treatment of cancer, opened JRSC on January 5. It is the first-of-its-kind 16-floor freestanding short-stay surgical facility for cancer patients. Its also the first facility to use RTLS in several innovative ways to support patient outcomes.

As with many Versus customers and other Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) facilities, Versus helps JRSC manage a busy census of 40-50 patient cases per day. Versus Advantages OR closely monitors patient flow through 12 operating rooms and over 40 perioperative beds. The system also integrates 30 points of data from six ancillary systems, including Epic and Allscripts. Thirty-nine Glance-and-Go electronic whiteboards throughout the facility automatically:



Display past, present and future surgery schedules to improve visibility to all staff

Communicate a patients wait or alone time to proactively enhance the patient experience

Monitor OR and bed availability to assist with dynamic room assignment

Deliver alerts when rooms are ready for turnover, improving overall utilization of valuable space

Display name and role as staff members enter or exit a room to put patients at ease

Three additional solutions are the first of their kind for an RTLS implementation:

Bi-directional integration with Epic OpTime to automate documentation and reduce data entry

Versus developed the first-ever, to our knowledge, bi-directional RTLS integration with Epic OpTime to automatically feed case start and stop times to the EMR. This frees staff from manual data entry and increases the accuracy and reliability of EMR data.

Visualization of patient progress on the clinical care pathway using data from Epic & Allscripts

In cooperation with JRSC, Versus developed a PostOp Summary View that details patient progress on their clinical care pathway. The view displays data from Versus, Epic and Allscripts to provide visual alerts regarding the care milestones each post-operative patient must meet before discharge. For example, a nurse or provider can tell at a glance if the patients goals for well-being, activity, etc. are being met and prioritize care appropriately. When a patient has met all their goals, the system indicates that the patient is ready for discharge, so preparations can be made quickly.

Estimation of patient walking distances to document post-operative ambulation

As part of the care pathway, patients are required to ambulate after surgery. Using location data from the RTLS, Versus provides JRSC with an ambulation estimation of how far the patient has walked, helping to ensure each patient meets his or her goal.

What Josie Robertson is doing with Versus is truly innovative, says Tina Soyring, RN, BSN, the Versus Clinical Solutions Consultant who worked on the JRSC implementation. A nurse or provider can glance at one screen and understand immediately where patients are on their clinical care pathway. This is an amazing patient-centric initiative that helps them recover from surgery as soon as possible.

To learn more about Versus Advantages RTLS patient flow systems and receive a live demonstration, visit the Innovation Experience Center at the MGMA/AMA Collaborate in Practice Conference. Or, download our educational white paper, 14 Ways Versus Drives Improvement in Healthcare Operations.

About Ronco Specialized Systems

Ronco Specialized Systems, Inc. is a technology systems integrator that provides healthcare facilities the services to better connect the healthcare providers with patients. Over 500+ healthcare facilities have come to rely on Roncos professional, consulting and 24 x 7 support services. For 50 years, Ronco has supported clients throughout New York, North Carolina, South Carolina and Vermont. To learn more visit ronco.net.

About Versus Technology, Inc.

Established in 1988, Versus Technology, Inc. specializes in Real-time Locating Systems (RTLS) for healthcare. Used by more than 800 hospitals for enterprise patient tracking, bed management, asset tracking, and nurse call automation, Versus improves patient flow and documentation of caregiver and patient interactions, while enhancing communication and efficiency. The Versus infrared (IR), Active RFID and Wi-Fi solution is responsible for enterprise visibility, clinical-grade location and automation at hospitals, clinics, surgery centers and senior care facilities worldwide. To learn more about Versus Technology, Inc., our technology and client successes, visit versustech.com.

Safe Harbor Provision

This release may include forward-looking statements which bespeak caution, and which are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. The statements are made only as of the date of this release, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update them to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

###

Media Contact:

Versus Technology, Inc.

Jeanne Ehinger

Marketing Communications Manager

877.983.7787

jeannee(at)versustech.com

Investor/Analyst Contact:

Versus Technology, Inc.

Joseph Winowiecki

Chief Financial Officer

231.946.5868

joew(at)versustech.com
Were excited to bring this informative DVD to our customers, said Jim Kruse, the companys Chief Operating Officer

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Hoverounds new DVD is worth a million, if not more. The video isnt a boring stat-filled data-dump; instead, it illustrates the companys mission by sharing stories about real people whose lives have been transformed through the life-changing mobility offered by its products. For more information, visit https://www.hoveround.com/dvd-2016.

After viewing this video you will clearly see what Hoveround can do for youand why more people choose Hoveround than any other power chair, said founder and president Tom Kruse. Well show you why Hoveround is the best choice for your mobility needs.

The new video was produced by a team of 15 professionals working together over a period of six months. Production and editing were provided by ShadowBox Pictures in Yardley, PA, under the direction of veteran videographer Ken Barbet. Location shots included Sarasota, FL; Poughkeepsie, NY; and Barnegat, NJ.

Were excited to bring this informative DVD to our customers, said Jim Kruse, the companys Chief Operating Officer, adding that the video is available online as a download or via mail as a DVD. (There is no delivery charge.

The Hoveround story started with a vision: Lets build a power wheelchair that can go anywhere someone can walk, explains its founder, Tom Kruse. As a nurse, Kruse had noticed that most power chairs were really just manual wheelchairs with motors on them.

They were big and bulky, he said. They didnt maneuver well, and didnt really provide the accommodation people needed in their home to go to the places where they used to walk.

Kruse knew, intuitively, that if he could find a way to build a power chair that was small enough to go where people normally walk, it would change lives.

Thats why I tell people that Hoveround was designed Round for a Reason, he explains.

The round design and unique wheel configuration employs a small footprint that makes Hoveround exceptionally maneuverable, a capability well-displayed in its new video. In addition to maneuverability, Hoveround power chairs are comfortable and durablea demonstration of which is apparent in what the company calls its torture chamber.

I am very proud of our reliability and safety, Kruse said. It all starts in our factory with our torture chamber. We basically put the chair through the paces and simulate years of actual use.

Heres the company formula for success: Superior engineered productsdesigned for maneuverability, reliability, comfort and safetymade from quality components, painstakingly hand-assembled by a well-trained and dedicated staff.

Kruse sums it up like this: Nobody will work harder to make sure that you can maintain your independenceand stay in your home than the people at Hoveround.

For more about more about Americas largest direct-to-consumer manufacturer of power wheelchairs, visit https://www.hoveround.com. For its new video, go to https://www.hoveround.com/dvd-2016.

To follow Hoveround on social media, visit https://twitter.com/hoveround or https://www.facebook.com/HoveroundCorp.

ABOUT: Hoveround Corp. is dedicated to providing the highest quality mobility solutions, such as power wheelchairs and scooters, which greatly improve the quality of life for individuals with limited mobility. It is the largest power wheelchair manufacturer that delivers directly to the customer, and every Hoveround power wheelchair is custom assembled in the USA. D80014940

***********
For the second year in a row, the Westbrook Police Department will be participating in Husson University  Southern Maines Annual Business and Management Career Fair. Career fairs are an outstanding way to connect job applicants with the companies that need them.

Nearly 40 employers will be meeting with Husson University students, alumni and the members of the public in an effort to find qualified applicants for open positions at their organizations. Its all part of Husson University  Southern Maines Second Annual Business and Management Career Fair on Thursday, March 10, 2016, from 2 p.m.  6 p.m. at their Westbrook campus.

Career fairs are an outstanding way to connect job applicants with the companies that need them, said Charles Collins, Ed.D., executive director of Husson University - Southern Maine. Anyone thats interested in learning more about the different career and internship opportunities available at area world-class organizations should attend this event.

Companies participating in the Second Annual Husson University  Southern Maine Business and Management Career Fair include (in alphabetical order):



AAA Northern New England

Androscoggin Bank

Bonney Staffing Center, Inc.

Brentwood Center for Health and Rehabilitation

Chalmers Insurance Group

Cliff House Resort & Spa

Connections for Kids

Creative Work Systems

Department of Health and Human Services

EMHS

Friends Camp

Genesis Rehab Services

Goodwill Industries NNE

Great Falls Marketing

IDEXX

Keller Williams Realty

Key Bank

Lowes of Scarborough, ME

Maine Army National Guard

Maine Special Education/Mental Health Collaborative

Maine State Police

Manpower Maine

MAS Home Care of Maine

MEMIC

Migis Hotel Group ~ Black Point Inn & Migis Lodge

Modern Woodmen of America

Ocean Properties / Marriott Sable Oaks/Holiday Inn Express/ Reservation Center

Paychex Inc.

Riverview Psychiatric Center

Sherwin Williams

State of Maine, DAFS, NRSC

Stone Coast Fund Services

The Westin Portland Harborview

Town of Old Orchard Beach Police Department

True North Hotel Group

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

University Credit Union

WB Mason (sales representative)

WB Mason (internship)

Westbrook Police Department

Collins recommends that every job seeker engage in the following activities as part of the upcoming career fair.

1. Research participating companies prior to attending. Job seekers who know more about the skills and interests valued by participating organizations can better explain the ways they can contribute to company success.

2. Remember to bring paper and a pen. Career fair participants should write down details about particular organizations after they leave a company's table.

3. Accept business cards from recruiters. Job seekers should write follow-up notes on the back of the business cards to remind themselves of what was discussed.

4. Take company materials (i.e., brochures, position descriptions, etc.) that are offered for review later.

5. Demonstrate self-confidence. Career fairs are an opportunity for job seekers to practice interview skills in a less formidable place than a formal interview. Conversations should focus on education, professional qualifications, skills, and specific interests.

No appointments are required. Individuals interested in participating in the career fair can walk in and meet with company representatives anytime between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. on March 10 at Husson Universitys Southern Maine campus located at 340 County Road in Westbrook.

Interested participants who have questions or need additional information should contact Husson University - Southern Maine at 207-874-5800 or collinsc(AT)husson.edu.

For more than 100 years, Husson University has prepared future leaders to handle the challenges of tomorrow through innovative undergraduate and graduate degrees. With a commitment to delivering affordable classroom, online and experiential learning opportunities, Husson University has come to represent superior value in higher education. Our Bangor campus and off-campus satellite education centers in Southern Maine, Wells, and Northern Maine provide advanced knowledge in business; health and education; pharmacy studies; science and humanities; as well as communication. In addition, Husson University has a robust adult learning program. For more information about educational opportunities that can lead to personal and professional success, visit Husson.edu.
Dezharae Robinson from Black Hills Spray Tans in Spearfish, South Dakota I learned how to match skin tones, so a client does not look odd or orange, but natural and sun kissed. Her technique is flawless and quick. The amount of support, guidance and advice every day since I finished my classes is wonderful. Past News Releases RSS Hollywood Airbrush Tanning Academy...

Retired NYC Police Detective Opens...

Hollywood Airbrush Tanning Academy...

Hollywood Airbrush Tanning Academy is pleased to announce that their student Dezharae Robinson is now the proud owner of her own independent airbrush tanning business. A California native, Dezharae has recently moved to Spearfish, South Dakota to start her business Black Hills Spray Tan. The areas currently served by this new business covers Spearfish, Sturgis, Belle Fourche, Rapid City and more of the Black Hills.

Hollywood Airbrush Tanning Academy is one of Americas most recommended training destinations to learn the intricate techniques of airbrush tanning. Over the last several years, sunless tanning has gathered momentum all over the world as the healthier alternative to traditional tanning. Under the guidance of airbrush tanning expert Simone Emmons, this academy has played a pivotal role in popularizing spray tanning in America. The academy offers hands-on spray tanning training for their trainees under Simones supervision. This airbrush tanning training school also offers marketing and branding support for the trainees to help them launch their tanning business.

Like many of the previous students from the Hollywood Airbrush Tanning Academy, Dezharae Robinson had no background in airbrush tanning. For the past 9 years I have been driving carpools, having playdates, loading and unloading the little ones in and out of car seats and worshipping nap time. Now with all of our children in school, its time for me to venture out, have fun and get out of the house, she states.

Having launched her airbrush tanning business, Dezharae is extremely confident about the future of her business. How amazing is it, to have someone walk-in feeling pasty, tired and frumpy. You get to spend a few minutes with them and they leave you with a huge smile plastered on their face, feeling thinner, happier and excited to show off their new tan. I hope my future holds a wonderful reputation, happy clients, and the words Black Hills Spray Tan spreading across the State, Dezharae mentions.

Healthy tanning enthusiasts in this region may contact Dezharae by calling her at 605-645-4217. She can also be reached via Facebook and Instagram at facebook.com/blackhillsspraytan/ and instagram.com/blackhillsspraytan/ respectively.

Dezharae feels that her journey towards becoming a spray tan business owner was made possible by the Hollywood Airbrush Tanning Academy. Thanking the academy for all their support, she mentioned, I am so thankful I found the Hollywood Airbrush Tanning Academy just before moving away from California. The owner Simone is nothing short of amazing and has mastered the art of Airbrush Tanning. Learning from her, I learned how to match skin tones, so a client does not look odd or orange, but natural and sun kissed. Her technique is flawless and quick. The amount of support, guidance and advice every day since I finished my classes is wonderful. It is also reassuring to know that Simone and a huge group of wonderful fellow Spray Tan Technicians are always there in my corner, ready to help or answer questions at any time.

About Hollywood Airbrush Tanning Academy:

Hollywood Airbrush Tanning Academy is located in Los Angeles, California and offers an extensive Spray Tanning Certification program to individuals who want to start their own full or part-time airbrush tanning business. Founder and trainer, Simone Emmons is a professional spray tanning expert and teacher and has trained over 300 entrepreneurs from 27 states (and counting) including international students from Trinidad, South Korea, Kuwait and Canada. Simones airbrush tanning business has won the Best of Los Angeles Award 2015 for airbrush tanning in Los Angeles. The spray tanning training provided by the Hollywood Airbrush Tanning Academy is private and hands-on and prepares the student to start in business immediately. Prior to the hands-on training, over four hours of videos lessons are provided to students covering everything from safety and technique to marketing and search engine optimization. Hollywood Airbrush Tanning Academy does not sell any of their own products and provides training and education on all equipment and tanning solutions in the sunless industry. The academy provides hands-on training classes in Los Angeles and Connecticut area as well as online airbrush tanning certification classes.

Visit HollywoodAirbrushTanningAcademy.com to sign up for the next spray tanning class or call Hollywood Airbrush Tanning Academy at (818) 674-9621 for more information.
All registration fees from The Wise Investor Group's 2016 Annual Seminar benefit RESET We believe that childrens natural curiosity to all things scientific should be nurtured and not left to wane.

The Wise Investor Group at Robert W. Baird & Co., a team of experienced financial professionals offering financial planning, portfolio management, investment analysis and account services, today announced it is donating over $14,000 to Raising Enthusiasm for Science, Engineering and Technology (RESET). RESET is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to use hands-on experiments and classroom activities to introduce the joys of STEM education to pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade students.

This donation was raised from registration fees for The Wise Investor Groups Annual Seminar: Value Investing in 2016  Navigating the Path Less Traveled. Scheduled for January 23, the in-person seminar was transformed into a digital affair due to the historic snowfall. A recording of the seminars materials was produced and distributed to over 575 registrants. This digital version of the seminar featured market insight from Simon Hamilton and Eric Wightman, managing directors and portfolio managers at The Wise Investor Group.

Our investing outlook revolves around this critical concept of value investing, said Nancy Popovich, director and portfolio manager at The Wise Investor Group. Its a concept thats helped us produce great results for our clients, but one that they might not have known before working with us. The seminar materials will help current and potential clients better understand this investing strategy and how to use it to their advantage in 2016.

Founded in 1988, RESET provides an innovative teaching model based on the premise that kids must enjoy exciting and positive experiences with Science-Technology-Engineering-Math (STEM) subjects as early as possible to sustain interest, motivation, and performance in these subjects throughout their educational career. The program currently comprises 118 professional scientists and engineer volunteers who serve 35 schools.

We believe that childrens natural curiosity to all things scientific should be nurtured and not left to wane, said Popovich. These STEM subjects are so important for the future of our nations economy. These students could grow up and found companies responsible for world-changing breakthroughs. These are the same companies that can potentially provide our clients tremendous future investment opportunities.

In addition to RESET, The Wise Investor Group is active with other charity organizations such as Hopecam, Neediest Kids and Foster Care to Success, donating to several charitable causes with proceeds from its annual financial seminars. The Wise Investor Group is proud to support their local community through the efforts of these non-profit organizations.

About The Wise Investor Group

The Wise Investor Group (http://www.thewiseinvestorgroup.com) at Robert W. Baird & Co. is a full-service investment firm located in Reston, Virginia focusing on financial planning, portfolio management, investment analysis, insurance and annuity services as well as overall account services. Formed in the 1990s, the firm follows a disciplined, research-based approach to value-oriented investing.
If you are new to iQ you can schedule a demo and learn more about this opportunity.

PSFK iQ - Where Innovators Turn for Research. Our professional-grade research platform is designed specifically for Retail and CX leaders who want to know whats next. Whether youre staying current on trends or need a real-time research partner to help you get ahead, count on PSFK iQ to deliver the info you need to make your next move.
Cookies

What are cookies ?

How do we use cookies?

How to control cookies?

Managing cookies in your browser

see what cookies you have got and delete them on an individual basis

block third party cookies

block cookies from particular sites

block all cookies from being set

delete all cookies when you close your browser

X

A cookie is a small text file that a website saves on your computer or mobile device when you visit the site. Cookies are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.Website use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. ("Google") to help analyse the use of this website. For this purpose, Google Analytics uses"cookies", which are text files placed on your computer.The information generated by the cookies about your use of this website - standard internet log information (including your IP address) and visitor behaviour information in an anonymous form - will be transmitted to and stored by Google including on servers in the United States. Google will anonymize the information sent by removing the last octet of your IP address prior to its storage.According to Google Analytics terms of service, Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website and compiling reports on website activity.We not use, and not allow any third party to use the statistical analytics tool to track or to collect any personally identifiable information of visitors to this site. Google may transfer the information collected by Google Analytics to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google`s behalf.According to Google Analytics terms of service, Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.You may refuse the use of Google Analytics cookies by downloading and installing Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. The add-on communicates with the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js) to indicate that information about the website visit should not be sent to Google Analytics.Cookies are also used to record if you have agreed (or not) to our use of cookies on this site, so that you are not asked the question every time you visit the site.You can control and/or delete cookies as you wish. You can delete all cookies that are already on your computer and you can set most browsers to prevent them from being placed.Most browsers allow you to:If you chose to delete cookies, you should be aware that any preferences will be lost. Also, if you block cookies completely many websites (including ours) will not work properly and webcasts will not work at all. For these reasons, we do not recommend turning cookies off when using our webcasting services.
2016 is shaping up to be a Mo-mentous year for the author-illustrator who brought us the Pigeon, Elephant and Piggie, and Knuffle Bunny, as Mo Willems opens an exhibit of his artwork, ends a beloved series, and ventures into a new medium  cut paper  in his forthcoming picture book, Nanettes Baguette, the cover of which is exclusively revealed here for the first time.

My studio was a mess. There were little snips of paper everywhere, but it was incredibly fun, Willems said.

Fans will have to wait until October for Nanette but can enjoy The Art and Whimsy of Mo Willems beginning this spring. The exhibit, which opens March 18 at the New-York Historical Society, is the latest iteration of a show that chronicles a career that began on Sesame Street and led to a laundromat in Brooklyn and beyond.

The show, which was curated by Nichols Clark, opened at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in 2013 and traveled to Atlantas High Museum of Art in 2015. Obviously, the Historical Society places a great emphasis on all things New York so they took the existing exhibition and amplified it so it had a more New York focus, which was easily done since Mos picture book career was launched when he was living in Brooklyn, said Clark. Special emphasis is given to the Knuffle Bunny books, set in the Park Slope neighborhood, and the pigeon is distinctively a New Yorker  he will even appear as a statue outside the museum entrance, dressed as the Statue of Liberty, but holding a hot dog aloft instead of a torch. Theres a nice irony that this statue of the pigeon will undoubtedly be the recipient of the droppings real pigeons routinely leave on New York City statutes, Clark said.

At Willemss urging, the exhibit is decidedly kid-friendly. Kids (and adults) can learn how to sketch his characters (but dont let the Pigeon sketch on the walls!) On select weekends, Elephant and Piggie will roam the galleries and pose for photos with fans. Willems narrates an audio tour that explains his process as visitors stroll through the gallery. Even Trixie  Willemss daughter and the real-life inspiration for the heroine of the Knuffle Bunny books  gets her turn, hosting a showing of Team Mo, a film she made about her fathers life and career later this spring.

Part of this is about demystifying for kids what a museum is so what we do has to be fun, Willems said, adding that at the other sites theyve had to encourage security guards to expand their idea of appropriate behavior. Clark adds, Its an added layer of challenge for the security folk because we actually give [visitors] pencils and encouraging them to create.

Elephant and Piggie Move On

In May, Disney will release The Thank You Book, the final installment in Willemss acclaimed Elephant & Piggie series. It is the 25th volume in a series that has won two gold medals from the Theodor S. Geisel committee and five Geisel Honors.

Twenty-five is a lot. I guess if you dont know how to read by now you never will, Willems wisecracked. But seriously, I knew from the beginning that Elephant & Piggie would be my lifes work. The part I have enjoyed the most is where they stopped being my invention and I could just put them in a position  say, have a snake show up  and they would essentially write the story for me without being bombastic or difficult like the pigeon.

One of Willemss favorite volumes in the series, We Are in a Book!, actually sprang from an interviewers question: A reporter asked me, What are Elephant and Piggie going to be when they grow up? I was flabbergasted. They are grown up. They have fulltime jobs as characters in books. They show up every morning and they pay elephantine taxes every year.

Though the Elephant & Piggie series is ending, the characters will continue to appear in a new early-reader series called Elephant & Piggie Like Reading. In these books, which will release in September with the same trim size and pagination as the Elephant & Piggie books, the pair of friends will introduce kids to their favorite books with story bumpers written by Willems. The idea is that now that Elephant and Piggie are retired they are spending their time reading books by somebody else. So they introduce each book and at the end they comment on why they like it, Willems said.

The series will launch with two books: one by Caldecott Medalist Dan Santat, called The Cookie Fiasco, and another, We Are Growing! by author-illustrator Laurie Keller.

Finally, Nanettes Baguette, a new stand-picture book title about a frogs first solo trip to a bakery, will be released in October. The story, set in a hand-crafted, paper-modeled French village created by Willems, was inspired by what he calls Trixies bike mitzvah, when father and daughter cycled a thousand kilometers across France, Belgium, and Holland. I was taking pictures the whole time and wanted to build the village in the style of the little towns we passed through, Willems said. He constructed a couple of city blocks worth of trees, buildings, interiors, and then photographed everything from a variety of different angles to use as backgrounds for Nanette and the characters she encounters.

The process led him to see many everyday objects in a completely different light. Toilet paper and paper towel rolls, those are gold, he said. I was out to lunch with Tony diTerlizzi and Norton Juster and I saw a little tin that the restaurant used for takeaway and asked if I could have it. No food. Just the tin. I turned it upside down and used it as the base for a water fountain in the middle of the park.

As with his other, beloved books, Willems believes this new one also has the power to spark his readers own creativity. Im hoping that it will inspire kids to fold and cut and create their own handmade worlds, he said. Im always hoping my books not only get read but played.
Since President Obama announced in December 2014 that the U.S. would be restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba, new developments have come at a steady pace. In July, the U.S. and Cuba reopened embassies in each others countries and the U.S. removed Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. With travel and commerce restrictions eased, American businesses have begun to explore opportunities in Cuba. The December 2015 decision to restore flights between the two countries, for example, has led all the major American airlines to scramble to set up daily flights to Cuba. With Obama set to visit Cuba on March 2122, other steps to normalize relations between the two countries are expected.

Sign the petition to end the embargo on books and educational materials.

Despite the progress that has been made, a complete lifting of the U.S. trade embargo of Cuba, which would require Congressional approval, does not appear to be close at hand. That is why PW is leading a petition drive calling for ending the embargo on books and educational materials as soon as possible. The Cuban peoples desire, and need, for American books was evident during the February U.S. publishing mission to Cuba, organized by PW and Combined Book Exhibit, in close cooperation with Cuban government officials.

As Zuleica Romay Guerra, president of the Cuban Book Institute, observed during one of the panels organized as part of the mission, the Cuban people have not been able to read American authors for more than 50 years. American readers, meanwhile, have been denied access to the works of Cuban writers.

Ending the embargo on books and educational materials would be an important first step in improving relations between the U.S. and Cuba, by allowing for an exchange of information and ideas between them. While we are aware of the need for Cuba to improve its record on human rights, one way forward is for Cubans to be exposed to what is possible in a country where freedom of expression is guaranteed.

The idea for the petition grew out of conversations between American publishers on the mission and their Cuban counterparts. Smashwords founder Mark Coker was a driving force; he talked with the attending American publishers about organizing a petition aimed at lifting the entire trade embargo, or at least the embargo on cultural material. Then, during a day of professional panels on U.S. publishing, Cuban publishers in the audience asked the assembled Americans to join them in calling for the trade embargo to be lifted. Coker realized this was the perfect time to acknowledge that, in fact, U.S. publishers were considering the idea. Once the U.S. publishing contingent was back in the States, a core group composed of Coker, PW executives, and CBEs Jon Malinowski and Janet Fritsch decided it would be more appropriate to focus on ending the embargo on books and educational materials specifically.

To be clear about what we are asking for: the Berman Amendment, approved in 1988, does allow for the export of books to Cuba on a very controlled and limited basis. Given the confusion about what the amendment actually permits, very few publishers have tried to get permission to export to Cuba. We believe the best way to ensure the unfettered exchange of ideas is for the embargo on books and educational materials to be ended completely.

We are deeply appreciative of the companies and associations that have signed the petition, but want to make clear that this is just a first step. The petition is posted at whitehouse.gov, where anyone can add his or her name to support the effort to promote the exchange of ideas found in books.

Signed,

Cevin Bryerman

Publisher

Jim Milliot

Editorial Director

Note: this letter has been edited to include information about the Berman Amendment.
Too modest to claim the title of the fifth Beatle, the tall, elegant Londoner produced some of the most popular and influential albums of modern times  "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," "Revolver," "Rubber Soul," "Abbey Road"  elevating rock LPs to art forms: "concepts."

Martin won six Grammys and was inducted in 1999 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Three years earlier, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

Former Beatle Paul McCartney said Martin had been "a true gentleman and like a second father to me."

"If anyone earned the title of the fifth Beatle it was George," McCartney said. "From the day that he gave the Beatles our first recording contract, to the last time I saw him, he was the most generous, intelligent and musical person I've ever had the pleasure to know."

Beatles drummer Ringo Starr tweeted earlier: "God bless George Martin peace and love to Judy and his family love Ringo and Barbara. George will be missed."

Martin both witnessed and enabled the extraordinary metamorphosis of the Beatles and of the 1960s. From a raw first album in 1962 that took just a day to make, to the months-long production of "Sgt. Pepper," the Beatles advanced rapidly as songwriters and sonic explorers. They composed dozens of classics, from "She Loves You" to "Hey Jude," and turned the studio into a wonderland of tape loops, multi-tracking, unpredictable tempos, unfathomable segues and kaleidoscopic montages.

Never again would rock music be defined by two-minute love songs or guitar-bass-drums arrangements. Lyrically and musically, anything became possible.

"Once we got beyond the bubblegum stage, the early recordings, and they wanted to do something more adventurous, they were saying, 'What can you give us?'" Martin told The Associated Press in 2002. "And I said, 'I can give you anything you like.'"

Besides the Beatles, Martin worked with Jeff Beck, Elton John, Celine Dion and on several solo albums by McCartney. In the 1960s, Martin produced hits by Cilla Black, Gerry and the Pacemakers, and Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas. And for 37 straight weeks in 1963 a Martin recording topped the British charts.

Martin started producing records for EMI's Parlophone label in 1950, working on comedy recordings with Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and others, Sharp said. He had his first No. 1 hit in 1961 with The Temperance Seven.

But his legacy was defined by the Beatles, for the contributions he made, and for those he didn't.

When he took on the Liverpool group, Martin was very much in charge, choosing "Love Me Do" as their first single and initially confining the newly hired Ringo Starr to tambourine  a slight the drummer never quite got over. But during a time when the young were displacing the old, Martin too would be upstaged.

Before the Beatles, producers such as Phil Spector and Berry Gordy controlled the recording process, choosing the arrangements and musicians; picking, and sometimes writing, the songs or claiming credit for them. The Beatles, led by the songwriting team of McCartney and John Lennon, became their own bosses, relying on Martin not for his vision, but for what he could do for theirs.

They were among the first rock groups to compose their own material and, inspired by native genius, a world's tour of musical influences and all the latest stimulants, they demanded new sounds.

Martin was endlessly called on to perform the impossible, and often succeeded, splicing recordings at different speeds for "Strawberry Fields Forever" or, for "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite," simulating a calliope with keyboards, harmonica and a harmonium that the producer himself played with such intensity he passed out on the floor. Martin would have several good turns on the keyboards, performing a lively music hall solo on McCartney's "Lovely Rita" and a speeded-up Baroque reverie on Lennon's "In My Life."

His bearing was infinitely more patrician than that of the Fab Four, but he grew up working class. Born in north London in 1926, Martin was a carpenter's son raised in a three-room flat without a kitchen, bathroom or electricity.

He was a gifted musician who mastered Chopin by ear, a born experimenter enchanted whenever he discovered a new chord. After World War II service in the Fleet Air Arm, he attended London's Guildhall School of Music, studying composition and orchestration, and performance on the oboe and piano.

"Music was pretty well my whole life," Martin wrote in his memoir, "All You Need is Ears," published in 1980.

When he started at Parlophone, Martin worked with primitive technology, recording on wax cylinders with machines driven by weights, not electricity. In 1955, aged 29, Martin became head of Parlophone. He worked with Judy Garland and with jazz stars Stan Getz, Cleo Laine and John Dankworth.

By the early 1960s, Parlophone was fading and Martin was anxious to break into the pop market when a Liverpool shopkeeper and music manager, Brian Epstein, insisted that he listen to a local quartet. The Beatles already had been turned down by Decca Records and told that "guitar groups are on the way out." Martin also was unimpressed by their music, but, to his eternal fortune, was pushed into signing them by EMI executive L.G. Wood.

Martin later said he didn't think much of the band's rough-and-ready music, but "fell in love" with the four Liverpool lads.

He was more than a decade older than any of them and, like an indulgent parent, tolerated and often enjoyed their sassy humor. On the first day in the studio, Martin lectured the Beatles on their weaknesses, then asked if there was anything they didn't like.

"I don't like your tie," George Harrison reportedly quipped.

The backtalk was also professional. After the Beatles had a modest hit with "Love Me Do," Martin recommended they follow with a light pop track, "How Do You Do It." To Martin's surprise, the band insisted on Lennon-McCartney's "Please, Please Me," originally written as a slow, Roy Orbison-styled lament.

Martin backed down, with one condition  that they speed it up. The result was a rush of energy and power, their first smash and the beginning of a phenomenon soon dubbed Beatlemania.

After "Please, Please Me" had been recorded, Martin told the band: "Gentlemen, you have just made your first number one record."

The Beatles seemed to reinvent themselves from album to album, and sometimes from song to song. The single "I Feel Fine" was among the first records to include guitar feedback, while Harrison's sitar on Lennon's "Norwegian Wood" introduced millions of listeners to Eastern sounds. Their lyrics, especially Lennon's, became more personal and sophisticated, and sometimes surreal.

None of the Beatles could read music, so they depended on Martin's classical background. They might hum a melody to the producer, who would translate it into a written score, as he did for a trumpet solo on McCartney's "Penny Lane." For "Yesterday," Martin persuaded McCartney that a string quartet would serve the song's tender remorse.

"When we recorded the string quartet at Abbey Road, it was so thrilling to know his idea was so correct that I went round telling people about it for weeks," McCartney said Wednesday.

Martin initially didn't share in the band's vast wealth, drawing a staff salary from EMI. But in 1965, he left to help form an independent company, Associated Independent Recordings. The Beatles agreed to keep working with him, on a freelance basis, leading Martin to boast that "I suppose I am now earning more than the managing director of EMI records."

He was otherwise unaffected by the madness, keeping his lifestyle clean and his attire businesslike. His naivety led to some comical moments in the studio, like the night that Lennon, high on LSD, complained of feeling ill. An unsuspecting Martin ordered Lennon brought up to the roof, a dangerous place for an acid-head.

The Beatles began to break apart after "Sgt. Pepper," released in 1967, and Martin's contributions would also peak. Responding to the Band and other American groups, the Beatles turned against their own studio tricks and preached a more basic sound. Their double "White" album was far more spare, and individual Beatles essentially served as producers for their own songs.

The album's length was also a rebuke to Martin; he had urged them to put out a single record, saying there wasn't enough good material for two. For "Let It Be," a self-conscious effort to reclaim their early magic, they rejected Martin altogether, turning over the tapes to Spector.

After "Let It Be," an unhappy process for all involved, Martin assumed he was done with the Beatles, but they asked him back for "Abbey Road." Released in the fall of 1969, it was their final, slickest record, capped by an extended suite of song fragments. The band officially split the following year.

Artistically, Martin would never approach such heights again. But he did manage commercial success with such pop acts as America and the Little River Band and produced two James Bond themes  Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger" and McCartney's "Live and Let Die." Martin had intended the production and scoring of "Candle In The Wind '97," Elton John's tribute to Princess Diana at her funeral, to be his last single. But in 2000 he produced "1," a multimillion-selling compilation of Beatles' No. 1 songs, then followed with a six-CD retrospective of his recording career.

In his later years, Martin  with his fine white hair and beautifully tailored clothes  was a treasured figure on Britain's music scene. He played a prominent role at Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee concerts in 2002, leading a cheer of "hip, hip hooray" in her honor, and was sometimes seen at Royal Festival Hall when Brian Wilson performed.

Adam Sharp, a founder of CA Management, said in an email that Martin "passed away peacefully at home yesterday (Tuesday) evening."

McCartney said that with Martin's death, "the world has lost a truly great man who left an indelible mark on my soul and the history of British music."

Martin is survived by his wife Judy and four children from two marriages.
A 15-year-old from Rock Island charged with attempted murder in the near-fatal shooting of a woman last month will remain in juvenile custody, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Solomon R. Parson is accused of shooting a 17-year-old woman from Davenport in the head around 9:40 p.m. Feb. 29 in the 2600 block of North Clark Street, Davenport, causing her life-threatening injuries.

The woman remained hospitalized as of Wednesday, according to Davenport Police Capt. Brent Biggs.

Mr. Parson has been housed in the Scott County Juvenile Detention Center since March 2, per an order by Associate Judge Christine Dalton. At a hearing Wednesday, it was determined Mr. Parson's detention should remain in effect.

"The child cannot be returned to the home as it remains contrary to the child's welfare," District Associate Judge Mark Fowler wrote in an order, adding that Mr. Parson's parent or guardian was not in a position to offer the "necessary level of supervision" for him.

The order stated Mr. Parson, who is represented by attorney Jack Dusthimer, has also requested to undergo a pre-adjudication evaluation at the Boys Training School at Eldora.

The majority of Wednesday's hearing was closed to the public and members of the media, at Mr. Dusthimer's request. The defense attorney told Judge Fowler that "in light of what will likely be discussed," his client's right to confidentiality outweighed the public's right "to know."

The closed hearing lasted about 10 minutes. As of late Wednesday, no future court dates had been set.

Prosecutors allege Mr. Parson "unlawfully and intentionally" tried to cause the victim's death and that, by his actions, he expected to "set in motion a force or chain of events" that would cause or result in her death.

At a prior hearing, a judge found probable cause for charges of attempted murder, willful injury causing serious injury and going armed with intent filed against Mr. Solomon.

Prosecutors have sought to waive the juvenile court's jurisdiction and, instead, prosecute Mr. Parson as a youthful offender in adult court.

A hearing on the motion, filed by Assistant County Attorney Dion Trowers, has not yet been set.

To qualify as a youthful offender, a judge must find that Mr. Parson is 15 or younger; there is probable cause to believe he committed the alleged acts; and there are not reasonable prospects for his rehabilitation before age 18 if his case remained in juvenile court.

If the motion is granted, Mr. Parson would be tried in adult court but, if determined guilty, he would be under the juvenile court system's supervision until his 18th birthday.

Before turning 18, a hearing would be held in the district court to determine what further action to take in the case, which could include sentencing Mr. Parson or terminating the case.

In Iowa, minors accused of a "forcible felony" are automatically tried in adult court if 16 or older.
Authorities say Dennis Nicholl was arrested Tuesday at a stop on the Chicago Transit Authority's Red Line and charged with felony unlawful interference with a public utility. Undercover police officers made the arrest after receiving a tip.

Police say the arrest follows an investigation of complaints by CTA 'L' passengers about cellphone reception on the CTA. Transit officials, Chicago police and Federal Communications Commission investigators were involved in the probe.

Nicholl is scheduled to appear Wednesday in Cook County Circuit Court. It wasn't immediately known if he has obtained legal representation.
"We're on the verge of dismantling the higher education system in Illinois," James Applegate, the director of the state's Board of Higher Education, told the Senate Appropriations Committee, which was hearing funding requests from various institutions. Lawmakers are in the odd situation of considering funding requests for next budget year, which begins July 1, while the state continues to limp along without a budget for the current year.

There's no end in sight to the budget stalemate between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democrats who control the Legislature. Rauner wants business-friendly changes as a condition for a approving a tax hike, while Democrats balk at what they say amounts to Rauner's union-busting proposals.

Higher education institutions haven't received state funding in nine months and are facing cuts because Illinois is dealing with a multi-billion-dollar deficit. The higher education budget was at $1.9 billion last fiscal year and colleges and universities face a 20 percent cut under the budget blueprint that Rauner proposed for the 2016-2017 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

That financial landscape is causing great anxiety among higher education leaders.

Southern Illinois University expects to lay off several hundred employees if it loses over $45 million in state funding from next fiscal year's budget.

Eastern Illinois University's president, David Glassman, told lawmakers that to ensure continued operations through the end of the current year, his university has spent much of its $27 million cash reserves, stopped all hiring, postponed construction projects, and restricted travel and purchasing. But he said that still hasn't done enough to compensate for the lack of state support.

Glassman said staff will be required to take furloughs starting this month and on Friday, 177 civil service employees will be laid off.

"We now stand at a critically threatening precipice having been forced to operate with no state funding for almost an entire year," he said.

To make matters worse, Glassman said he's heard of students looking to take their tuition money elsewhere.

"There is a great deal, a huge amount of angst that is taking place among high school seniors and parents of prospective students as to 'Should we go out to another state?'" he said.

At Western Illinois University, President Jack Thomas said they'll begin operating on cash reserves starting next week. He said he recently announced that the school will have to trim $20 million over the next two years and lay off at least 100 employees.

Applegate, the Board of Higher Education director, told lawmakers that the universities are doing the best they can to spend money wisely and contain costs.

"Of course by now some of them," he said, "they're like they're swimming toward a distant shore but they've got a concrete block around their ankle and they're just trying to grasp for air as opposed to planning, that's our point."

Any legislative progress isn't expected to happen soon. The House is off until April 4 and the Senate is in session for only two days before then.
For years, medical experts have said that C-sections 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 Los Angeles Times analysis of new data.

Whats changed recently, some experts say, is the nature of the health care 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 Health care 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 percent chance of delivering her next babies by C-section. The World Health Organization says the ideal C-section rate is around 15 percent, but in the U.S. it reached 32.9 percent in 2009.

The rates were influenced by factors such as the culture of a hospital 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 percent 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 percent in 2013 to 26 percent 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 percent to 26.1 percent, 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 percent to 42 percent 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 reduced their C-sections rates have faced financial consequences.

The six Providence Health & Services hospitals in Southern California took a revenue hit from doing fewer C-sections, said Regional Chief Medical Officer Michael Bernstein. They also spent money to hire 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, its 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 percent.

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 percent to 70 percent 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 percent to 27 percent.

Gilbert thinks that most of the success came from publishing the doctors rates internally.

Doctors dont want to be the highest rate, he said.
MIAMI (AP)  As high-stakes elections loom in Florida and Ohio, anxious Republican officials are coming to terms with the idea that their second-least-favorite GOP presidential candidate Texas conservative Ted Cruz  may be the party's last best chance to stop Donald Trump.

Trump, in turn, is renewing his vigorous criticism of the Texas senator, casting the rival he calls "Lying Ted" as too polarizing to break the Washington gridlock or win a general election.

"The problem with Ted is that he'll never get anything done," Trump told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Thursday. "And the bigger problem is that it's impossible for him to get elected."

Some of Cruz's would-be backers have those same fears. But they fear the prospect of a Trump candidacy more.

The two men were to clash again on the debate stage Thursday night in Miami, along with Marco Rubio and John Kasich who are fighting with Cruz to emerge as the strongest alternative to Trump. For now at least, Cruz appears to be ahead in that contest.

Possible Cruz supporters include reluctant Senate colleagues and former presidential rivals with strong ties to major donors. The first-term senator announced the backing of one former primary opponent, Carly Fiorina, on Wednesday and is seeking the backing of another, Jeb Bush, on Thursday.

"Donald Trump needs to be beaten at the ballot box," Fiorina declared Thursday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

On Capitol Hill, former Cruz adversary, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, has reluctantly embraced the idea of a Cruz nomination.

"It's an outsider year, and the most logical person to take on Trump based on past performance is Ted Cruz," Graham said. Earlier in the year, Graham likened the choice between Cruz and Trump to "being shot or poisoned."

"He's not my preference," Graham said of Cruz. "But we are where we are. And if Trump wins Florida and Ohio, I don't know if we can stop him."

Indeed, next Tuesday's winner-take-all contests in Florida and Ohio have injected a sense of urgency into the GOP's anti-Trump movement.

The celebrity businessman's critics hope to capitalize on what they see as another inflammatory reference about Muslims. "I think Islam hates us," he said late Wednesday on CNN. "There's a tremendous hatred. We have to get to the bottom of it."

At the same time, Trump is calling on mainstream Republicans to unify behind hm.

"Whatever the establishment is, they should embrace what I've done," he said on CNBC.

He continued: "If for some reason I don't make it or it ends, I don't get there, they're going to have millions and millions of people that are going to walk away from the polls and never vote and the Democrats are assured of victory."

Bush planned to confer with the other candidates  save Trump  ahead of Thursday's debate. He met privately with Florida Sen. Rubio on Wednesday, and planned to meet with Cruz and Ohio Gov. Kasich on Thursday.

Bush and Trump engaged in heated confrontations throughout Bush's campaign, repeatedly referring to each other as "loser."

The GOP establishment's favorite, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, picked up where Bush left off, but struggled badly in this week's round of primary contests, failing to pick up a single delegate. Trump won three contests and Cruz won one.

Now, in the midst of a weeklong march through Florida to save his candidacy, Rubio concedes that he went too far in insulting Trump.

"My kids were embarrassed by it, and if I had it to do over again I wouldn't," Rubio said on MSNBC Wednesday night.

Rubio's weak standing has forced some of his supporters to consider Cruz.

"I could see myself as a Cruz supporter," Nevada Sen. Dean Heller, a Rubio backer, said Wednesday. "I agree with Cruz 80 percent of the time. There are things I don't agree with him on, but if we are agreeing 80 percent of the time and he's a conservative, we are going to get along just fine."

Still, no Republican senator has endorsed Cruz, who called Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a liar and helped engineer the 16-day partial government shutdown in 2013. Half a dozen Senate Republicans said Wednesday that they hadn't heard from either Trump or Cruz.

Trump has one Senate endorsement, from Alabama's Jeff Sessions, while Rubio has endorsements from 14 senators.

On the Democratic side, Clinton and Bernie Sanders tangled Wednesday night over who's a true advocate for Latinos.

The former secretary of state faulted Sanders for repeatedly voting against a 2007 comprehensive immigration reform bill; he faulted her for opposing a 2007 effort to allow people who were in the country illegally to obtain driver's licenses.

Sanders surprised Clinton with a win Tuesday night in Michigan, a victory that breathed new life into his White House bid. But Clinton, who won Mississippi, padded her delegate lead and is now halfway to the number needed to clinch the nomination.
Press release submitted by St. Ambrose

ST. AMBROSE SYMPOSIUM TO FOCUS ON JUSTICE AND HEALTH CARE

DAVENPORT, IowaRecent killings of unarmed black men have discredited the claim of a post-racial country, even at a time when the United States has its first black president, according to ethicist Carol Taylor. On Thursday, March 31, at St. Ambrose University, Taylor, a Kennedy Institute of Ethics Senior Research Scholar  and Georgetown University professor of nursing  will explore the disparity and bias that also exist in the countrys health care system. Persistent Health Disparities: Justice Challenges in the Health Care World, the 2016 Wilber Symposium on the Christian Tradition lecture, will take place at 7 p.m. in the Rogalski Center.

A passionate advocate for improving health care for the chronically and critically ill, Taylor is an internationally recognized expert on health care ethics and a resource for health care organizations, leaders and professionals.

At Georgetown, she has helped develop an innovative ethics curriculum; directed a practicum in clinical ethics for graduate students in the philosophy program; and developed professional seminars in clinical ethics for health care professionals and the public.

Taylor wrote the book Fundamentals of Nursing: The Art and Science of Nursing Care, co-edited Case Studies in Nursing Ethics and has contributed chapters to numerous textbooks. She is a founding member and former director of the Center for Clinical Ethics and a former chaplain-in-residence at Georgetown. Taylor holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree with a concentration in bioethics from Georgetown, and has received two honorary degrees.

The Wilber Symposium is made possible through a gift from Charles K. and Mary Ellen Wilber, of South Bend, Ind. The Wilbers are supporters of the Peter Claver Catholic Worker House in South Bend and other peace and social justice initiatives.

St. Ambroses yearlong Justice project series is focusing attention on concepts and issues related to justice and injustice. Series events include lectures, films, concerts, artistic performances and exhibits that examine this subject through the arts, sciences and humanities. For more information on the series, go to www.sau.edu/justice.

For more information on the lecture, call Rev. Brian Miclot, professor of philosophy, at 563-333-6129.
The thousands of people massing at Greece's northern border are incredulous they won't be allowed onward to its prosperous countries, but after a year of dithering European leaders seem resolved now to keep all but a select few from going any further.

"This is horrible, unbelievable, unbearable. There is war in my country, and they are closing the border," said Mahmoud Hassan, a 23-year-old Syrian. "Where are we supposed to go? Please if you can do anything  help us. The situation is very, very terrible."

A relentless rain Wednesday after an overnight thunderstorm added to the misery in the overflowing camp at Idomeni, which now consists of thousands of small camping tents set up in nearby fields and along railway tracks.

The camp turned into a sodden, muddy mess, with refugees huddling in tents and under ponchos handed out by volunteers to ward off the worst of the wet and cold. Parents covered their children with whatever they could, sometimes resorting to plastic bags. In the brief intervals in the rain, long lines formed in the mud for sandwiches, tea and soup.

A lucky few managed to set up their tents on the train station platform, whose awning provides some shelter, while others slept in disused train carriages.

EU and Turkish leaders agreed at a summit Monday to the broad outlines of a deal that would essentially outsource Europe's refugee emergency. They said 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.

But Greece has a notoriously slow asylum process, and a crippling six-year financial crisis that has left unemployment at about 25 percent. Few of those stuck in Idomeni could envisage a future in Greece as a viable option.

"Greece is a poor country, for us and for (its) people," said 17-year-old Ahmed Merza from Syria's Qamishli, who had been in the camp for eight days. "I don't know anything. It's bad news for us, like a bomb."

Shortly after the summit, countries along the Balkan route decided to allow through only people with valid EU visas and nobody has crossed through the gate in the razor wire-reinforced fence in Idomeni since 6 a.m. Monday.

For the nearly 14,000 people in and around the camp, the news about the border closures was a crushing blow, with many just unable to fathom how Europe could turn away people fleeing war. A few dozen sat on the railway tracks in protest  a frequent occurrence in the camp, where refugees occasionally try to block the passage of freight trains to press their point.

"We're not here to stay. We are here to pass only," said Sami Yanes, a 24-year-old information technology student from the Syrian capital of Damascus hoping to continue his studies in Germany.

"We are going to keep protesting and keep doing what we are doing until they know we are human beings and we deserve simple human rights," he said as he sat on the tracks in the pouring rain after seven nights spent in the camp.

"This is my path," he said, indicating the railroad leading into Macedonia. "I'm going to stay here until my path is open."

But the rapidly deteriorating conditions in the camp, where the sound of men, women and children coughing is as ubiquitous as the sight of people trying to start camp fires with sodden logs and branches ripped from nearby trees, was too much for some.

Several buses headed for refugee camps in and around Athens departed from Idomeni on Tuesday and Wednesday, carrying those who could no longer bear the mud, rain, cold and scant food that require hours-long waits in queues.

Some were hesitant, however, to get on buses without knowing what they would find on the other side.

Tariq Mohammed, a 27-year-old from Aleppo travelling with his wife and daughters, aged 5 and 2, was one of them.

"I don't know what will happen to us," he said, standing in the rising mud near his tent as water dripped off the hood of his donated green poncho.

Mohammed said both his children had fallen very sick, as had his wife. The doctor had given them antibiotics, but in such conditions he worried about how they would recover their health.

"Last night in the rain, my tent was swimming in water," he said.

Although most people say they want to go to Germany, which they see as a welcoming country, Mohammed said he would happily go to any European country that would take in his family. Staying in Greece wasn't an option because there was no work, he said.

"I need to work, to have a life for my children and family," he said, the desperation visible on his face. "You need life."

He left Aleppo a month ago, where the conditions were incredibly dangerous. "There are bombs everywhere, war everywhere," he said, describing a city where children as young as 10 have been recruited to fight and tote guns in the street.

For now, he plans to remain put in the sodden field by the railway tracks in Idomeni.

"I will wait for the border to open," he said. "I can't go back to Turkey, can't go back to Syria. I am here. Where to go?"
The suspects were arrested in the remote island village of Benjina last May after the abuse was revealed by The Associated Press in a report two months earlier. The men were tried separately in Tual, an island in southeastern Maluku province, about 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) east of Jakarta.

The three-judge panel also ordered the defendants to pay fines of about $12,250 each or serve two more months in jail. In addition, the Thai captains  Youngyut Nitiwongchaeron, Boonsom Jaika, Surachai Maneephong, Hatsaphon Phaetjakreng and Somchit Korraneesuk  have to pay a total of $67,800 in compensation to their crew members.

"They all have been proven guilty of violating the anti-human trafficking law," said Edi Toto Purba, who led the panel. "They deserve the jail sentences as well as the fine."

He gave one week for the prosecutors, who had sought heavier sentences, as well as the defendants to appeal the verdict. Indonesian prosecutors had demanded prison sentences of up to 4 1/2 years for the five Thais and Indonesian Hermanwir Martino, and 3 1/2-year sentences for two other Indonesians, Yopi Hanorsian and Muklis Ohoitenan. They also demanded compensation ranging from $3,750 to $26,000 for the crew members.

Thirteen fishermen from Myanmar testified under protection of Indonesia's Witness and Victim Protection Agency. They told the court they had been tortured, forced to work up to 24 hours a day and not paid. They also said they were locked in a prison-like cell in a compound owned by fishing company Pusaka Benjina Resources, which has since been shut down. Martino and Ohoitenan worked for the company, and Hanorsian was known as the "enforcer" among the fishermen, who accused him of beating and torturing them in front of an Indonesian flag until they collapsed.

Some workers were angered by the outcome.

"They should be sentenced more because they tortured many fishermen for years. It's not fair for us," said Win Ko Naing, 26, who was enslaved in Benjina for almost six years. He has been following the case closely from Myanmar, but did not testify at the trial.

"They will never pay us compensation because they know how to get away from punishment," he added. "I will never forget what they did to many people over many years. Three years imprisonment is too easy for them. "

The AP investigation found that thousands of poor migrant fishermen, mostly from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, were recruited in Thailand and brought to Indonesia using fake travel documents where they were subjected to brutal labor abuses. Some had been enslaved for years or decades. The AP found some men locked in a cage and saw others calling out for help over the railing of their trawler. A company graveyard with dozens of bodies buried under fake names was also located. The Indonesian government carried out a dramatic rescue in Benjina in April, just over a week after the report ran.

More than 2,000 men were freed and sent home last year as a result of the investigation, which traced slave-caught seafood to some of the most well-known U.S. grocery stores and pet food brands, including Wal-Mart, Sysco, Kroger, Fancy Feast, Meow Mix and Iams. In addition, U.S. congressional hearings have been held, legislation has been changed, more than a dozen people have been arrested and multi-million dollar seafood cargo ships have been seized.
Following are observations on the race for the Republican nomination for the 74th Illinois House District.

We need the smartest and most effective worker and an articulate spokesperson for our economically struggling area.

That person is Mike DeSutter.

Look at his resume. He's succeeded at everything he has set out to do.

I've seen him in action when we went to Springfield last fall to meet with House Republican leadership. He was welcomed warmly by Minority Leader Jim Durkin and his team. It's clear Mike will be respected and listened to from day one.

A few have said we need a Henry County resident in the job. No, we need the best and most qualified candidate.

During my years with the Kewanee Economic Development Corporation, the state legislator who was most effective on behalf of Kewanee lived the farthest from Kewanee!

Finally, a naive observer suggested the Chicago crowd was attempting to select our nominee when the Liberty PAC provided Mike with in-kind advertising. All three candidates were interviewed by the PAC's representatives and DeSutter was selected as best.

What the observer failed to mention is that the Liberty PAC is Gov. Bruce Rauner's favored vehicle for aiding candidates he feels will be his best and strongest supporters in the Legislature.

Earlier this year, the governor provided the PAC with $1.8 million for this purpose. Republican candidates from all over Illinois are being helped to reduce the Democrat stranglehold on our Legislature. Congratulations to Mike for earning the governor's support!

N. Allen Anderson,

Galva
Think carefully who you vote for in November. Did you know Illinois is fast becoming the epicenter for abortions in the Midwest? Our good Governor JP and his cohorts with the approval of our so-called Catholic president are saying come to Illinois for your abortion. Big corporations such as Amazon, Microsoft and even Walt Disney are paying for Abortion Travel for their employees. Did you know over 63 million babies have been killed since 1973 when abortion was legalized? A whole generation has been lost. Thats pretty sad for America. No longer is there any question on when life begins. Life is just not sacred anymore.
In half a century, William Jordan, barber at the Marine Mart aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico, has called out sick only twice  once for eye surgery and once for a bad reaction he had to a medication.



After giving hundreds of thousands of high-and-tights and building up a clientele of active duty and retired Marines who will not allow any other barber to cut their hair, Jordan will retire March 24.



I dont know what Im going to do now, said retired Marine Jimmy Baker. Jordan has cut his hair since 1967, when Baker was first posted to MCBQ. These days, he comes in from Woodbridge once a month.



Any time I was stationed here, I came back to him, Baker said. He knows exactly how I like my hair cut  I never have to tell him.



Im going to have withdrawal pains, said retired Marine Mark Hayden, who lives in Stafford and comes to Jordan once a month. He was one of the barbers here when I went through [Officer Candidates School] in 1970. Whenever I was stationed here Id come back and get great haircuts.



Jordan was 21 when he came to MCBQ from Jacksonville, North Carolina. His first day on the job was March 15, 1961. Marine Corps Community Services provided him with housing on Base when he first arrived. He lives in Dale City now.



Jordan says that to him, the Base hasnt changed that much in 55 years, except that there are more people and more cars. But whats at its core  the Marines posted here  is the same.



The Marines have always been nice to me, Jordan said. To me theyre like a family. Theyve always treated me well. And the Base has always been fair to me.



The only thing that has changed about his job is that the Base no longer permits razors to be used. Jordan uses trimmers with guard numbers of 0 to 3, which leaves hair between 1/20 and 3/8 of an inch long.



Many Marines, such as Capt. Travis Perkins, come to Jordan for haircuts once a week.



I come for the fellowship and mentorship, Perkins said. Mr. Bill has all the words of wisdom.



Jordan said that talking to Marines  meeting good people  is his favorite part of the job.



I speak to them and I try to get them to be open-minded, he said.



One of his preferred topics is his beloved Redskins. Another is former Commandant Gen. Alfred M. Gray (whose hair he once cut).



Gen. Gray went from enlisted to Commandant, Jordan said. I tell all Marines, if he made it, you can too. You can do all things.



Signed portraits of many prominent Marine clients  including current Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Ronald L. Green, 16th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace, and many more  cover the walls of Jordans shop.



Thank you for 20+ years of friendship and haircuts, reads one.



Thank you for years of dedicated service, role model, mentor and friend, reads another.



Jordan said he decided to retire because his legs have started to give him problems.



I know the more I put it off, the more it will bother me, he said. I have to take care of myself.



He is looking forward to getting himself healthy, spending time with his son, six daughters and 14 grandchildren, working on his house, and volunteering at his church, Star of Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church, where hes a trustee.



But he said hell miss his job.



I miss it already, he said. No doubt about it, its hard to go. If I didnt have to do it, I wouldnt.



Im just so grateful that [the Marines] put their trust in me and let me serve this long, he continued. I appreciate it.



 Writer: auphausconner@quanticosentryonline.com


The station is being rebuilt with new retail, commercial and residential developments as part of an urban renewal project which coincides with the construction of the Tangiers - Kenitra high-speed line. The 23,500m2 station will be constructed on three levels, with platforms, ONCF offices, and a VIP lounge on the ground floor, ticket offices, passenger lounges and shops on the first floor and a food court on the second floor. The rebuilding of the station will increase capacity from around seven million to 30 million passengers per year.

Officials from Moroccan National Railways (ONCF) also briefed the king on plans for a Dirhams 450m project to rebuild Rabat Ville station as a multimodal hub. The project involves constructing a new 16,000m2 three-storey passenger complex across the station's platforms and converting the existing station building into an art gallery and commercial space.

ONCF says the project will seek to create a new iconic building in the heart of the capital while preserving the existing structure as a historic monument.

The new Rabat Ville station will have capacity to accommodate up to 20 million passengers per year, compared with eight million passengers at present.

Photo: Artist's impression of the rebuilt Rabat Ville station.
The protocol, which is expected to come into force at the end of this year, sets foundations for procurement and includes provisions to minimise the risk of mafia infiltration in contracts for the construction of the cross-border section of the route.

Under the agreement, the European Union (EU) is expected to meet 40% of the total project cost, with the Italian government committing 34.74% and the French government 25.26%. The EU has already committed 813.3m towards the project through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), equivalent to 41.1% of the 1.9bn required for construction works before 2019.

The 140km line will have 87km of tunnels including a 57km twin-bore base tunnel between St Jean de Maurienne, France, and Chiomonte in Italy. The cross-border section extends for 18.1km on the Italian side, 12.5km of which will be in the base tunnel. Beyond the Italian portal, there will be a 3km link to the existing line at Bussoleno, including a 2.1km tunnel and a new station at Susa.

Implementation of the project is being managed by Euralpine Tunnel Lyon  Turin (TELT), a 50:50 joint venture between Italian State Railways (FS) and the French state. TELT says the ratification of the latest protocol by the French and Italian governments will enable it to begin tendering for construction contracts.

Preparatory works for the base tunnel are expected to begin in 2017, with major construction due to start the following year. The line is expected to open in 2028 or 2029, reducing Lyon  Turin journey times from 3h 30min to 1h 47min.
The 10-station Line T1 will run west from an interchange with metro lines M1 and M2 at Flon in the city centre, following Rue de Geneve and Avenue des Morges to Preslaz-les-Roses in the district of Malley and continuing to Perrelet, where the line's depot will be located, before terminating outside the Swiss Federal Railways station at Renens.

The project also includes a bus rapid transit line from Preslaz-les-Roses to Saint-Francois and the development of a new cycle corridor along the route of the tram line.

Services will operate at 5-8-minute intervals with a journey time of 15 minutes between the terminus stations.

The aim of the project is to support densification of the west of the city and the line will support a major new residential development on former industrial land in Renens.

Studies into the project were launched by the canton of Vaud, Lausanne Transport (TL) and the municipalities along the route in June 2012. Construction is expected to take four years to complete and an extension from Renens to Villars-Sainte-Croix is proposed in the longer-term.
Rep. Joyce joins MAGNET, REMSA on tour of Iron Horses Ohio facility Written by Carolina Worrell , Senior Editor









U.S. Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio) on March 9, 2016 joined representatives from Iron Horse Engineering, the Manufacturing Advocacy & Growth Network (MAGNET), and the Railway Engineering-Maintenance Suppliers Association (REMSA) to tour Iron Horses manufacturing facility, learn about the burgeoning rail and manufacturing communities in Northeast Ohio, and discuss public policy priorities for the industries. Local manufacturers, railroads, and rail safety groups also joined the group.

MAGNET, a non-profit devoted to supporting, educating, and championing manufacturing in Northeast Ohio, and REMSA, a non-profit trade group representing over 350 railway engineers, contractors, consultants, and suppliers across the country, jointly coordinated the event.

We were extremely pleased by the great turnout for this event, and to partner with REMSA and Iron Horse Engineering to make it happen, said Dr. Ethan Karp, CEO, MAGNET. As Northeast Ohios champion for manufacturing growth and innovation, I was excited to see the new product Iron Horse has developed and we at MAGNET look forward to helping them successfully enter the market.

Joyces tour was led by Iron Horse Engineering Vice President, Tracie Roberts. A division of Montville Plastics & Rubber, Iron Horse Engineering Company was started in 1989 with the invention of the rail boot and continues to supply transit to heavy haul freight lines. All of Iron Horses innovative products are made in America and are a crucial part of the manufacturing renaissance around greater-Cleveland. The company employs roughly 50 people.

Were thrilled to be able to represent a piece of the ever-expanding manufacturing industry in Northeast Ohio, said Roberts. With Iron Horses focus on safety and quality in the rail industry, having other rail industry experts and Congressman Joyce come together to discuss public policies that affect us all is vital to our industry.

The group discussed the private nature of Americas freight railroad network which, unlike other modes of freight transportation, does not rely on federal support for the expansion or maintenance of its network. Additionally, the group highlighted Congressman Joyces support for increased funding for the Section 130, Railway-Highway Crossing Program, which enhances safety for all users of the road, and his support of the Short Line Tax Credit, which enhances transportation options for Ohios manufacturers.

America grew and prospered because of a strong railroad system, said Joyce. This longstanding American tradition is crucial to the economy in Northeast Ohio, and the nation, and Im proud we have the manufacturing base right here in Ohios 14th District to make that happen.

It was a pleasure to host Congressman David Joyce, who continues to be a strong advocate for safe, efficient, and effective rail network, said Sean Winkler, Grassroots Coordinator, REMSA. Iron Horse Engineerings activism and willingness to take part in the public policy process benefits the entire rail supply industry.

The event concluded with a networking lunch featuring attendees from Operation Lifesaver, Delta Railroad Construction, the office of Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio), the office of Secretary of State Jon Husted, and others.
Welcome to Railway Gazette. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. By continuing to browse this site you are agreeing to our use of these cookies. You can learn more about the cookies we use here.

OK
Guardian forces are the increasing numbers of military and non-military personnel who perform national security tasks far from direct violence, like in combating cyber threats, operating satellite constellations, or remotely controlling drones. Increasingly critical to the nation's security, they often fit uneasily into the longstanding conception of U.S. military service. Maybe it's time Congress and the administration consider pulling some of these functions out of the Defense Department.

Since America's founding, the military has been the nation's sanctioned organization to master and employ violence for the common defense. An individual's military training  beyond a technical skill used in or out of combat  has been focused on building physical fitness, learning to endure physical hardship, emphasizing the need for unit hierarchy, placing the unit's needs before any individual ones, and accepting the primacy of a mission, even at the possible loss of one's life.

Guardian forces, through a slow, steady rise, are now challenging this understanding of organized violence and its associated culture. They were created by a confluence of factors, including new technologies and security concerns, and the all-volunteer force. New technologies keep more operators in the United States and away from a theater of conflict. New security concerns, in many cases tied to these same technologies, have expanded our understanding of common defense to include remote and cyber threats. And the expense of the all-volunteer force gradually, but inexorably, turned many military functions into jobs now performed civilian contractors....

The remainder of this commentary is available on defenseone.com.

Paula G. Thornhill is a senior political scientist at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation and retired USAF brigadier general. This piece is based on her forthcoming publication, The Crisis Within: America's Military and the Struggle between the Overseas and Guardian Paradigms.

This commentary originally appeared on Defense One on March 9, 2016. Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis.
Aiming to increase data package subscribers, Colombia's telecom operator Avantel has launched Avantel+, a mobile TV service for 4G customers.





Not having a pay-TV platform of its own, Avantel has reached content agreements with DirecTV and FOX, whose TV everywhere platforms DirecTV Sports, DirecTV Play and FOX Play will now be available for Avantel+ subscribers.For a year, the service will be free for LTE subscribers, who will also be given 20Gb of data to access Avantel+ without an increase in subscription charge. Currently, the company's 4G network only covers Colombia's largest cities such as Bogota, Cali, Medellin, Barranquilla and Bucaramanga.In Colombia, there is a particular situation within telecoms: mobile data is the fastest growing service, but 4G penetration is still very low, under 8%, and there are not many LTE-ready smartphones in the country, said Jose Andres Palacio, president of Avantel, speaking to the newspaper Portafolio Indeed, the latest GSMA report shows the lack of relevant content is hindering mobile broadband penetration in Latin America.
Article 1 :

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2 :
Foreign insurers appeal against ruling in 2012 Superjet crash case set for March 24

MOSCOW, March 10 (RAPSI) - The West-Siberian District Federal Commercial Court has scheduled for March 24 the hearing of a cassation appeal filed by twenty foreign insurance companies against a court order to pay about $16 million over the Superjet 100 aicraft crash in Indonesia in May 2012 to Russia's Kapital Strakhovaniye, according to court records.

In April 2015, a Khanty-Mansi regional commercial court ruled in favor of Kapital Strakhovaniye. Foreign insurers have filed an appeal against the ruling. In July, the Eighth Commercial Court of Appeals has upheld the lower courts ruling.

This decision was appealed as well.

In early April, a Khanty-Mansi regional commercial court ruled in favor of Kapital Strakhovaniye. Foreign insurance companies have filed an appeal against the ruling. In July, the Eighth Commercial Court of Appeals has upheld the lower courts ruling.

Twenty-four companies were initially defendants in the case. However, due to partial payment of the debt, the plaintiff withdrew claims against some of them.

Kapital Strakhovaniye initially claimed $32.4 million in damages from the companies that provided insurance for 48 people on board. The sum was reduced to $16 million after partial payments were made.

The defendants include General Insurance Corporation of India, Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A., UK Branch, Swiss Re Europe S.A., Starr Insurance and Reinsurance Limited (London), and others. The lawsuit was filed back in June 2013.

The Moscow Commercial Court also heard another plane crash related suit. Sukhoi Company demanded $29.5 million in insurance payouts for the SSJ-100 from Kapital Strakhovaniye. In September 2013, the parties signed an amicable agreement under which the underwriter committed to pay the plaintiff $14.1 million in addition to the previous payments. The insurance company claimed that the insurance agreement on the plane was 95% reinsured in the Western market.

The plane crashed on its first ever demonstration tour, that was to include six Asian countries, over Indonesia on May 9, 2012. All those on board, including eight Russian nationals, were killed.

The plane crashed into Mount Salak at an altitude of 1.6 km. The investigation found that the disaster was caused by human error.
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.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Israel on March 8 in the wake of another meaningless crisis in U.S.-Israeli relations. Diplomatic circles are agog with the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not only declined an invitation to visit Washington, but leaked his decision to the press before formally informing the White House. To the cognoscenti of U.S.-Israeli relations, this flows from the deep mutual dislike between Netanyahu and President Barack Obama. And from their point of view, that dislike is driving U.S.-Israeli relations.

It is possible that the two leaders dislike each other. The leak may have been a deliberate insult by Netanyahu or just a typical leak, which is as common in Israel as it is in the U.S. But whichever it is, it is not driving U.S.-Israeli relations, and a new president and a new prime minister would be experiencing the same tensions even if they loved each other. The tension is not personal. It comes from fundamental shifts in U.S. and Israeli interests.

It must be remembered that the United States and Israel were not close prior to the 1967 war. France provided most of Israel's weapons, and the U.S. hardly provided any. It was after the 1967 war and France's break with Israel that the U.S. became Israel's major benefactor. And the flow of arms and aid only became substantial after the 1973 war between Israel, Syria and Egypt. I point this out to make clear that the intimate relationship between Israel and the United States did not exist for the first quarter-century of Israel's history. The relationship is not a given, and it should not be surprising that it is fraying.

There were two parts to the relationship. Israel had security requirements that outstripped its financial and industrial capability. It could defend itself only if it had a great power underwriting its national security. In order to entice such a power, Israel had to be prepared to be useful to the great power, but also prepared to trim its foreign policy to fit within the framework of the great power's interests. France saw value in Israel until 1967 and then broke with it because the war was not in France's interest. Israeli foreign policy was then built around being of value to and aligning with the United States.

The American interest in Israel as a strategic asset doesn't arise until a major shift in the Cold War. In the mid-1960s, there were pro-Soviet coups in Syria and Iraq. Turkey, the critical American ally in the region, was being pressed from the north by the Soviets. If pressure arose from the south as well, Turkey might buckle. Iran served to tie down the Iraqis. Israel tied down the Syrians and, as a bonus, served as a strategic threat to pro-Soviet Egypt. Under these circumstances, aid to Israel was an investment in U.S. national security. Israel threatened Soviet assets in a cost effective way and, along with the Shah's Iran, was a foundation of U.S. strategy in the region.

The Cold War has been over for a quarter-century and for most of that time, the relationship continued. This was in part out of habit and in part out of other interests they shared. But over the past decade, the foundations of the strategic relationship have weakened, and as they weakened, a constant drum beat of mutual dissatisfaction emerged.

From Israel's point of view, it no longer requires a major power to underwrite its national security. Egypt is officially neutral and cooperates with Israel on an array of security issues. Syria is in chaos. Israel has a close relationship with Jordan, and even Hezbollah has greater concerns in Syria than fighting Israel. Israel has a notional enemy in Iran but it is far away, and its nuclear capability is still theoretical at best. With the diminution of a strategic threat, Israel does not need the United States as it once did. It does not want to break the tie with the United States, but U.S. aid is now a very small percentage of Israel's GDP, where it was once a huge part. It is valued, but not to the point of allowing it to keep Israel contained in U.S. foreign policy.

The United States' interests in the region have shifted as well. The experience in Iraq taught the United States that occupying a hostile country is difficult, expensive and may not achieve the fundamental aims. The U.S. saw Iraq as an opportunity to fight terrorism. The pacification of Iraq failed, but even if it had succeeded, it is unlikely that Islamist terrorism would have disappeared.

The United States understands that without a massive commitment of forces - many times the number of troops sent to Iraq and more than the U.S. military has available - the probability of both defeating the Islamic State and winning the resulting insurgency is unlikely at best, and probably impossible.

So the U.S. could let the Middle East take its own course, or try to manage its course through relationships with the major powers in the region: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Israel. Iran is already engaged in Iraq supporting the Baghdad regime, as is the United States. Saudi Arabia is deeply weakened by the collapse of oil prices. Turkey is more focused on the Kurds and has little appetite for incurring the cost of fighting IS. Israel's standing army has 160,000 troops, of which a small fraction are combat forces. It has a large reserve, but like all reserves, the quality is highly variable. Plus, Israel is fairly distant from IS and its logistical ability to sustain a force for an extended period of time at that distance is limited.

If the U.S. decides to allow the region to proceed on its own, Israel's strategic value drastically diminishes. If the United States decides to create a coalition with other nations prepared to bear the primary burden of the fight, Israel has minimal military relevance to that force and would be a political hindrance. Israel's presence would destroy any coalition the U.S. would try to build. Saudi Arabia is not a major military force, which means the United States' prime focus would be Turkey and Iran. And that moves us back to thinking about disengagement.
While Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's police forces close newspaper after radio station after news website, and while Turkish armed forces pursue a veritable civil war with the Kurds, the European Union signals that it is ready to forever stain whatever reputation it once had.

After 29 years of humiliation and being held at arm's length, Turkey delights in the fact that it has completely turned the table on the European Union. On April 14, 1987, Turkey formally applied for membership of the European Community, which has since become the European Union. After almost three decades of standstill and of insults to Turkey's pride, it is now President Erdogan who calls the shots.

For this, Turkey needed no army. This time, there was no Ottoman force at the gates of Vienna.

Nor is the host of refugees Turkey's biggest ally. Erdogan can unleash a stream of refugees at his beck and call. Within Turkey's borders resides a huge number of refugees from a variety of nations, most of them Syrian. And as Turks, Kurds, Assad's forces, and fundamentalist groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State battle it out, more desperate Syrians join the ranks of the refugees every day.

No, Erdogan's real army is the millions of very angry European voters who simply want an end to the influx of refugees. Erdogan is counting on voter fear among his European peers.

The heads of state do not fail to disappoint. The elected leaders of the EU member states appear to be in a state of shock. As poll numbers turn against them because of the refugee crisis, they desperately want a deal -- any deal -- to stem the refugee tide.

They will look away from Erdogan's many atrocities against his own people and especially against the Kurds, if only Erdogan signs a contract that will oblige him to take back refugees from Greek islands and prevent people from stepping into leaking dinghies, choosing peril over uncertainty in Turkey.

The European Union's leaders in principle have now agreed to taking refugees "one for one," as per Turkey's suggestion. Every Syrian taken back by Turkey from the Greek islands will be processed in Turkey and then flown to EU nations that sign up to the deal. Most Eastern European member states have already flat-out refused to accept any refugees within their borders, so it will be a sort of coalition of the willing -- mainly Western European countries -- that will have to redistribute the refugees among themselves.

Aside from this, Turkey has demanded a doubling of the annual funds promised by the European Union for shelter relief for the approximately 2.7 million refugees already in the country. Yet all that didn't quite satisfy Erdogan. At the last moment, he added the demand that the European Union restart in earnest the stalled accession process. The EU member states swallowed the poison pill and agreed.

Principles don't vote. People do

Western Europe's leading politicians privately wince at having to deal with Erdogan. But they also admit that they have little choice.

Poll numbers show that many voters want an end to the seemingly endless stream of refugees trudging along Europe's pastures in search of a better life, of peace and prosperity. Right-wing extremist parties are either winning elections or seem more destined with each image of refugees to do so.

Huge logistical problems in some countries are also forcing hands. Sweden's resourcefulness has been pushed to its limits, while in the Netherlands, the government is having severe difficulties finding enough shelter to house the many displaced. In Germany, local government services have effectively collapsed, unable to cope with the influx.

What these nations are looking for is an orderly way to distribute refugees -- to buy time and increase their societies' absorption capacity and public support for giving shelter. And all this before spring sets in, when the weather in the Aegean Sea calms down, temperatures rise, and refugees will again set out on boats in the mass numbers seen at the end of last summer.

The agreement to restart Turkey's accession talks is publicly ridiculed by some leading players in the European Union. The party of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who currently heads the rotating chair of the presidency of the Council of the EU, cynically said that sure, they will talk to Turkey about EU membership, but that it will never happen. There is no doubt that the Turkish embassy relayed those remarks to Ankara.

Between a rock and Erdogan

The European Union doesn't have much of a choice indeed. It either deals with Erdogan, or it will in the end have to take more desperate and certainly harsh measures. Leaders of some right-wing parties now making strong gains in polls are increasingly giving voice to what those harsher measures would be.

The leader of the Alternativ fur Deutschland, or AfD, for instance suggested that German police be allowed to shoot at refugees trying to cross the border. The vice-chairwoman of the AfD later clarified that children should be left alone, but mothers and women are "sensible," so border police should be allowed to use lethal force against them if needed.

And so this is why Europe's leaders are prepared to dance with the devil in Ankara. Their successors may have very different views on how to solve the humanitarian problem. Better to take the initiative now and solve the problem.

(AP photo)
Property details:

West 57th Street by Hilton Club Here is your chance to own a Deeded Property (Does Not Expire) at a bargain price. This ownership is for a Studio Plus Suite with One Bathroom (Deeded as Unit 508; Week 32; Sleeps 2) for FLOATING GOLD WEEKS 1-6, 29-34 (allows you to travel for any one of the aforementioned weeks based on the ability to travel) at the West 57th Street by Hilton Club, an RCI GOLD CROWN Resort located in the Plaza District of Manhattan in New York City, New York!! This ownership has ...

Price: $ 29,999 Seller State of Residence: Florida Property Address: 102-108 West 57th Street State/Province: New York City: New York City Type: Attractions Number of Bedrooms: Studio Number of Bathrooms: 1 Zip/Postal Code: 10019 Location: 100**, New York, New York

You will be redirected to eBay



Nearby 10019
HOME > Married at First Sight 'Married at First Sight's Vanessa Nelson drops bomb about split from husband Tres Russell

By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 03/09/2016



has once again ended with all of the season's couples divorcing.



ADVERTISEMENT During Tuesday night's reunion special, Dr. Pepper Schwartz met with the six individuals who participated in this extreme experiment to discuss how the six months after Decision Day -- when each couple determined whether they'd like to stay married or split up -- played out.



The big shocker of the night was Tres Russell and Vanessa Nelson, who chose to continue working on their marriage once filming concluded. They were basically America's sweethearts all season long, but Vanessa dropped a bombshell on Dr. Pepper during their session.



She and Tres broke up after the show and are no longer together.



"Things just fell apart," Vanessa said before bursting into tears. "We stopped being physically intimate."



The end of their relationship was prompted by a blowout fight they had when Tres came home at five in the morning after a night out. Vanessa admitted they had said "really mean things" to each other and she was badly hurt.



"It was terrible. Tres tells me that he doesn't have romantic feelings for me. Things weren't perfect at all, but I thought it was at least [assured] that we liked each other," Vanessa explained.



Tres confessed he stopped having sex with Vanessa, which he regrets because it probably planted a lot of insecurities in her.



"I just felt like at times we would take all these steps forward and [then] we would have to start all over," Tres said, adding that the pressure of being married and trying to be the perfect husband all the time didn't help. "I felt like it didn't matter what I said... After a while I got burned out on trying to prove myself."



Vanessa did struggle with trust issues throughout and tended to push Tres away at times in fear of getting her heartbroken. She had high expectations of Tres as a husband, which he often admitted he probably couldn't live up to.



However, the couple had no hard feelings toward each other, and Vanessa said she had no regrets. The pair decided they wanted to work on a friendship and went out to dinner to discuss what went wrong with their marriage in depth. Tres and Vanessa also apologized to each other for the hurtful things that were said.



Meanwhile, Neil Bowlus and Sam Role had become great friends since the show stopped taping. Sam still wears her wedding ring out of respect for Neil, and they do fun activities all the time together.



Dr. Pepper saw real potential for this strong friendship to develop into a romantic relationship down the road. After all, Sam insisted she was falling in love with Neil during the show -- a revelation which shocked him. Sam took responsibility for treating Neil badly, saying she would've asked for a divorce as well had she been in his shoes.

FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS!

Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source!

As for the third couple, Ashley Doherty refused to even sit and talk with David Norton. Ashley said they didn't connect on any level and she lost all trust in him when he asked another girl out behind her back. Ashley explained David was pushy to get her to open up, and if anything, that made things worse.



Dr. Pepper kind of accused Ashley of writing David off the minute she saw him and discovered she wasn't physically attracted to him. The expert also said Ashley was cold and probably made David act out because he felt so rejected.



Ashley didn't admit to any of this, insisting she and David were just two totally different people who never would have clicked. She also refused to make excuses for David's mistakes. David assured Dr. Pepper he never had any intention to cheat on his wife. If anything, he just maybe wanted a little validation from her friend that he was doing things right and truly was a good guy.



David told the expert he was probably overbearing in his marriage but it's because he wanted that life so badly. He tried to start a dialogue with Ashley after the show but she never responded. David is still very hopeful about finding Mrs. David Norton in the future.

About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON GOOGLE NEWS has once again ended with all of the season's couples divorcing.During Tuesday night's reunion special, Dr. Pepper Schwartz met with the six individuals who participated in this extreme experiment to discuss how the six months after Decision Day -- when each couple determined whether they'd like to stay married or split up -- played out.The big shocker of the night was Tres Russell and Vanessa Nelson, who chose to continue working on their marriage once filming concluded. They were basically America's sweethearts all season long, but Vanessa dropped a bombshell on Dr. Pepper during their session.She and Tres broke up after the show and are no longer together."Things just fell apart," Vanessa said before bursting into tears. "We stopped being physically intimate."The end of their relationship was prompted by a blowout fight they had when Tres came home at five in the morning after a night out. Vanessa admitted they had said "really mean things" to each other and she was badly hurt."It was terrible. Tres tells me that he doesn't have romantic feelings for me. Things weren't perfect at all, but I thought it was at least [assured] that we liked each other," Vanessa explained.Tres confessed he stopped having sex with Vanessa, which he regrets because it probably planted a lot of insecurities in her."I just felt like at times we would take all these steps forward and [then] we would have to start all over," Tres said, adding that the pressure of being married and trying to be the perfect husband all the time didn't help. "I felt like it didn't matter what I said... After a while I got burned out on trying to prove myself."Vanessa did struggle with trust issues throughout and tended to push Tres away at times in fear of getting her heartbroken. She had high expectations of Tres as a husband, which he often admitted he probably couldn't live up to.However, the couple had no hard feelings toward each other, and Vanessa said she had no regrets. The pair decided they wanted to work on a friendship and went out to dinner to discuss what went wrong with their marriage in depth. Tres and Vanessa also apologized to each other for the hurtful things that were said.Meanwhile, Neil Bowlus and Sam Role had become great friends since the show stopped taping. Sam still wears her wedding ring out of respect for Neil, and they do fun activities all the time together.Dr. Pepper saw real potential for this strong friendship to develop into a romantic relationship down the road. After all, Sam insisted she was falling in love with Neil during the show -- a revelation which shocked him. Sam took responsibility for treating Neil badly, saying she would've asked for a divorce as well had she been in his shoes.As for the third couple, Ashley Doherty refused to even sit and talk with David Norton. Ashley said they didn't connect on any level and she lost all trust in him when he asked another girl out behind her back. Ashley explained David was pushy to get her to open up, and if anything, that made things worse.Dr. Pepper kind of accused Ashley of writing David off the minute she saw him and discovered she wasn't physically attracted to him. The expert also said Ashley was cold and probably made David act out because he felt so rejected.Ashley didn't admit to any of this, insisting she and David were just two totally different people who never would have clicked. She also refused to make excuses for David's mistakes. David assured Dr. Pepper he never had any intention to cheat on his wife. If anything, he just maybe wanted a little validation from her friend that he was doing things right and truly was a good guy.David told the expert he was probably overbearing in his marriage but it's because he wanted that life so badly. He tried to start a dialogue with Ashley after the show but she never responded. David is still very hopeful about finding Mrs. David Norton in the future. MARRIED AT FIRST SIGHT COUPLES: WHERE ARE THEY NOW? MORE MARRIED AT FIRST SIGHT NEWS << PRIOR STORY

'The Bachelor' insider reveals new details about Ben Higgins' engagement NEXT STORY >>

Exclusive: 'Survivor: Kaoh Rong's Elisabeth "Liz" Markham talks (Part 2)

Get more Reality TV World! Follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook or add our RSS feed.













ADVERTISEMENT

































ADVERTISEMENT





- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

















































Page generated Fri Oct 21, 2022 19:54 pm in 0.70885896682739 seconds




Rosa Mendes is planning her return to the WWE following daughter Jordan's birth.

ADVERTISEMENT

The 36-year-old WWE Divas wrestler and "Total Divas" star discussed her future with the organization with E! News after welcoming Jordan with fiance Bobby Schubenski in February.

"I'm enjoying my time with Jordan," Mendes said. "Of course I can't wait to get back to work and to get in the ring and see everybody, but right now I really want to raise her and be a good mom ... Right now I just want to concentrate on her."

"We haven't really discussed when I'm coming back, because I'm the first pregnant Diva, so this has never happened before," she explained. "So WWE and I are kind of learning as we go here. So I'll be ready to get back to work whenever they need me."

Mendes and Schubenski got engaged in October and welcomed Jordan on Feb. 13.

The WWE Diva recently revealed she will be cleared to return to the gym in late March and told E! she is "really, really looking forward" to resuming her intense workouts.

"My body's already been getting back to normal and I'm not even working out yet because I'm not cleared," the star said. "But I guess because I'm an athlete and I've been so healthy before, my body's just coming back into shape really, really quickly."

"I just want to thank everybody for their messages," she added. "I just really, really appreciate all of the love that I'm getting and the support and everyone just rooting for me and Bobby and Jordan. It's been awesome. I want to thank everyone for that."

FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS!

Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source!

Mendes joined "Total Divas" in Season 2 and filmed Jordan's birth for the E! reality show. The series co-stars the Bella twins, Brie and Nikki Bella , and airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
South Africa was announced by a 2016 report as being the cheapest country in the world to live or retire in.

Using Numbeo, the largest database of cities and countries globally, data were gathered to compare the cost of living and purchasing power of different countries. Using these statistics, GoBankingRates analysed the cost indicators of the top cities across 112 nations. The study concluded that South Africa had the lowest living costs to average salary ratio, IOL reported.

Using median cost indicators of the cities, the database generated a typical cost index for the country.

The study compared the cost index with New York City. It revealed that local fiscal strength in South Africa is 26.9% higher; Groceries are 71% cheaper ; Rent is 87.5% cheaper; Goods and services are 65.8% cheaper.

Monthly expenses in Cape Town are only under R6 200 which is $400 at R15.31/$1. Furthermore, the average rent of a one-bedroom in Durban is around R4 200 which is $280 a month, Traveller24 reported.

East Cost Radio analyst Mike Schussler reports that you have to work less in South Africa for a loaf of bread in minutes than one would need in London. He claimed South Africans need to appreciate the fact that they've done pretty well. He recognized that the problem with South Africans was the tendency to to tell people how poor they were because of their belief in their own negativity. Schussler urged his fellow citizens to realize that they were on the better side of most things and that they were on the cheaper side of most things.

India held the title of second-cheapest country in the world. Other top 10 cheapest countries were: Saudi Arabia, Kosovo, Zambia, Kazakhstan, Oman, Czech Republic, Paraguay and Macedonia.

South Africa was also the world's largest producer of chromium, gold and platinum, which supports further enrichment of the country and its economy.
Buying and selling a house oftentimes lies on the negotiations and understanding brought about by the buyer and seller during a transaction. However, it appears that miscommunication between real estate agents is also a determining factor for the outcome of a transaction. What should you do?

Most people believe that the success of a transaction depends on money and that alone. However, little do people realize that it goes way beyond that and it lies on multiple factors.

According to Realty Times, miscommunication between two real estate agents can lead to transaction problems. The publication noted that Realtor members recently expressed their concerns over the growing lack of civility among agents nowadays.

While the reason behind this lack of civility among real estate agents has not been provided during the discussion, the publication noted on a possible reason for this. Agents have been reportedly experiencing problems in dealing with transactions because they no longer foster harmonious relationships with one another.

Gone are the days when real estate agents would meet face-to-face in order to discuss the details of the transaction, and therefore, facilitate a clearer and more meaningful conversation. Some agents prefer communicating through text messages or phone calls, which often do not convey the exact meaning the sender was intending to give to the receive.

Miscommunication can oftentimes happen when using this form, which can then lead to transaction problems between the buyer and seller. While it has been previously reported here on Realty Today that agents should begin marketing their services and listings on social media, agents should not forget the value of establishing relationships, not just with clients, but also with other agents.

Dealing with other real estate agents in a more professional and civilized way will also benefit your clients. Technology can only make or break you, so you must definitely choose whether to let this get in the way of you getting a successful transaction for your client or not.
The government is planning to introduce a new housing policy which aims to restrict social housing to the neediest. After receiving many criticisms, the ministers decided to taper on how the policy, dubbed as "Pay to Stay," will be implemented.

The policy was announced in last year's budget, a plan created by Chancellor George Osborne which will require tenants to pay the market rental rate when their annual income exceeds 30,000 (40,000 in London). This, however, will result in about 60,000 households being forced out of their homes.

The Local Government Association said that the pay to stay policy is unfair especially for families who are working hard, while Labour and crossbench peers said it is ill-thought-out, The Guardian reported.

Now, amid warnings, the government came up with a new compromise measure. As reported by Financial Times, the rents will be introduced gradually to the tenants so that those who are earning more than 30,000 will see only a modest rental price increases. The full market rental price will only be imposed to households with more than 50,000 earnings per year.

The U.K. government remains firm with the principle that it is not fair for the taxpayers' money to be supporting the lifestyle of those who are earning above average income while they live in social housing.

"Pay to stay better reflects tenants' ability to pay, while those who genuinely need support will continue to receive it," said a spokesman for the Department of Communities and Local Government via Financial Times. "Government has consulted on options for a taper, which if introduced could allow rents to rise gradually in relation to income."

The income to be generated from extra rent are planned to be used on building new housing units. According to the report, there are 350,000 social housing tenants with more than 30,000 annual income and over 40,000 of which are said to be earning 50,000 above.
A Silicon Valley study revealed that not all Americans want to live within the high tech neighborhood. In fact, residents are starting to leave the tech hub location faster than the number of people arriving.

According to the Silicon Valley Competitiveness and Innovation Project, Silicon Valley lost over 7,500 residents last year. This was the first time the region had lost more U.S. workers than it had gained since 2011. Two local groups funded the study to identify strategies to improve the region's innovation.

Although the resident pool was still growing, due to a large number of highly educated foreign workers. The departure of homegrown talent revealed the weaknesses in the region's ability to retain its population, especially with affordable housing, as reported by the WSJ.

John Melville, co-chief executive of the firm that produced the study, had stated that people were leaving for a number of reasons. Most are getting opportunities in other regions where they can opt for less housing costs.

The influx of people towards region was significant because access to a workforce was one of the most critical points in the Silicon Valley economy. One-quarter of all Silicon Valley workers were in what the study describes as industries that are related to technology. Software engineering roles made up 8 percent of the region's workforce, and IT services made up another 4 percent.

Silicon Valley's cost of living had become a main issue. The neighborhood's property prices increased 13 percent between August 2014 and August 2015, higher than all other regions in the study. Meanwhile, transportation had also been listed as an issue. In 2014, the average Silicon Valley commuter spent 67 hours in traffic, an increase of 13.6 percent from 2010.

Seattle and Austin, Texas, the smaller techie hub locations, have been welcoming more U.S. residents, Forbes reported. Over the past year, Seattle saw an increase of more than 17,000 residents and Austin logged an increase of 720 residents from other parts of the U.S.
Facebook has offered single staffers over $10,000 to relocate closer to their Menlo Park headquarters. This was one of the perks of being an employee in one of Silicon Valley's most successful companies on the Bay Area.

San Francisco Business Times also reported that employees with families can receive $15,000 if they opt to take the offer. The report continued to say that on the surface, it seemed like a notable benefit, but the ramifications could be very significant.

According to the report, to receive the payout, an employee must buy or rent within 10 miles of their headquarters. The policy would be implemented for 12 months.

According to a spokesperson quoted in the report, the measure was designed to support their employees who are the people who matter most to them. Meanwhile, others outside the company were worried about the influx of Facebook employees. This could increase home prices, raise rents, and ultimately displace people.

There have been reports that having employees closer to the office would greatly benefit the company. Employees could stay longer at work and Facebook could save on commuter shuttles costs, according to a report from Urban Bound. Those same shuttles have dominated the San Francisco headlines for years. It was about a year ago when Facebook shuttle drivers opted to unionize. It was also been widely reported that apartments and homes near tech bus stops build more wealth than others.

The Facebook relocation report further emphasized that with all the pieces altogether, it can have scenarios with all kinds of possible outcomes, given the fact that the commuter class was continually growing. The article cites a Joint Venture report revealing the number of people commuting from San Francisco to San Mateo County, where Menlo Park is located, between 2011 and 2013 increased 27 percent. Within the same time period, commutes between San Francisco and Alameda County rose by 33 percent; and from San Francisco to Santa Clara by 23 percent.
Josh Altman, the celebrity real estate agent from "Million Dollar Listing" as well as the agent of famous Hollywood personalities like Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Britney Spears, Ashton Kutcher, Miley Cyrus and more, is heading to Australia in June for a speaking tour.

According to a press release, Altman will visit Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane on June 14 to 15 and June 19. Altman is set to share his expertise on becoming a real estate agent, and he'll share a few tips on how to get clients and buy and sell properties worth millions of dollars. His brother and business partner Matt Altman will join him in his Australian tour.

"Whether you're starting out on life, working for someone else or you have your own business. If you're an entrepreneur or just want to improve your family and personal world, then the messages and lessons I've learnt and will tell will help you succeed in every facet of your working and personal life," Josh shared about his experiences in real estate.

Aside from the celebrities previously mentioned, Josh is also the agent of Selena Gomez, Scott Disick, Bill and Guilliana Rancic and other A-list personalities, professional athletes, business tycoons and more. Early bird tickets for his speaking tour are available at www.joshaltman.com.au starting at $99.

In other news, Altman recently talked to the Daily Mail about the Australian real estate market and shared that Australian buyers should look out for coastal properties and those in major cities. Although he admitted that he's not an expert in Australian property market, he said that such prime locations will be the last "to lose value if the market contracts."

"What we're seeing now in a market where it's going to be a more competitive - your product has to be great. In a hot market you can build whatever you want and tend to sell it. [But] when the market tightens up a bit you better be really good building. Your finishes have to be strong because people are smarter, your product has to be better," he said.
Welcome to Line Danci Read more [...]
Participants of the physics and astronomy departments' open house events, usually held once a month on Friday nights, get to see the intricacies of the night sky through telescopes such as this one. ALAN LIOW/Staff
SHARE Poll California Gold Development Corp. has submitted a use permit for the 149,410-square-foot Bonnyview Retail Center just north of South Bonnyview and Churn Creek Road intersection. What would you like to see there? Whole Foods Panera Bread Noodles & Co. Raley's Safeway Ralph's California Pizza Kitchen Dutch Bros Corner Bakery Cafe Einstein Bros Bagels Jason's Deli Albertson's Ray's Food Place Nugget Markets vote View Results Whole Foods: 27% Panera Bread: 16% Noodles & Co.: 3% Raley's: 8% Safeway: 5% Ralph's: 3% California Pizza Kitchen: 6% Dutch Bros: 6% Corner Bakery Cafe: 5% Einstein Bros Bagels: 4% Jason's Deli: 5% Albertson's: 6% Ray's Food Place: 1% Nugget Markets: 4% Total Responses: 435

By David Benda of the Redding Record Searchlight

A Sonora-based developer wants to revive a large commercial shopping center project in south Redding.

California Gold Development Corp. has submitted a use permit for the 149,410-square-foot Bonnyview Retail Center just north of the South Bonnyview and Churn Creek Road intersection.

The center would be anchored by a 50,000-square-foot grocery store and feature eight retail pads, a restaurant, two fast-food restaurants and a coffee shop.

Bonnyview Retail Center would sit on both sides of Churn Creek Road, but most of the stores would be on the east side of the street, including the grocery store. The center would stretch from Bonnyview Road north to Arizona Street and a portion of it would sit on what was the former Kenworth truck property.

"The property is well-suited for development," said Scot Patterson, president of California Gold Development. "That part of south Redding, in our opinion, is underserved for commercial and retail uses. . . . We are community-minded and we intend to develop a top-notch project."

Patterson said they are in talks with a grocery store and several other potential tenants but he declined to name them.

"Of course the way it works for development, you need to secure the anchor then the rest" will come, Patterson said.

Years ago, Raley's was eyeing that property. A 57,000-square-foot Raley's would have been part of a 200,000-square-foot shopping center approved by the Redding Planning Commission in January 2009.

But the project ran into financial difficulties and the property was foreclosed on and went back to the bank in early 2013.

BOW A CA-Land, a Delaware limited liability company, purchased the property from the bank in May 2013 for $2.5 million, according to Shasta County property records.

California Gold Development has a purchase agreement but the deal is contingent on the project getting city approval, Patterson said.

Patterson's company has been developing real estate for more than 35 years in California and Nevada. Retail developments include several Tractor Supply Co.'s stores, a movie theater and Lowe's store in Sonora and a shopping center in Dinuba.

"We are fully committed," Patterson said of Bonnyview Retail Center. "We still have to march through the entitlement process and there are still a lot of stages to get through before any building out there."

The shopping center project approved in 2009 expired, which is why California Gold Development needs a new use permit.

Some of the work to set the table for Bonnyview Retail Center has been done. In 2008, the now-defunct Redding Redevelopment Agency spent about $7.5 million to widen the southernmost stretch of Churn Creek Road to make the road safer, extended utilities in the area and improved drainage.

The shopping center project approved seven years also had a number of traffic mitigation measures attached to the use permit. Vitalis Partners, a Roseville company, was the developer for that project.

Redding Planning Manager Kent Manuel cautioned about attempting to compare both projects at this point.

"Until we receive the traffic analysis and it is vetted by both the city and Caltrans, it would be premature to comment on specific mitigation measures or even try to compare mitigations that may be included with those imposed on the Vitalis project," Manuel said.

California Gold Development's project probably won't come before the Planning Commission before the fall, Manuel said.

Plans for the Bonnyview Retail Center arrived at City Hall about a week after Norton Investments of Yuba City submitted a pre-application for a small retail center on the south side of South Bonnyview Road near the Interstate 5 interchange.

According to the paperwork the city received, The Terraces would feature a Starbucks, Subway and AM/PM minimart. However, Norton Investments has some interest from Starbucks and no commitment from Subway.
SHARE

By Tim Holt

Clarissa Russ sums it up this way: Its a good show with a weird name. Russ plays Little Sally in the current College of the Siskiyous production of Urinetown. Little Sally is one of the downtrodden masses in this dystopian musical. Shes one of the poor people suffering from the effects of a 20-year drought, which has led to severe water conservation measures that include forcing poor people like Little Sally to pay a fee every time they go to the bathroom. And all the pay-to-pee bathrooms are under the control of an evil corporation with the ironic name Urine Good Company.

This is clearly not a happy, feel-good musical, but its over-the-top plot leaves plenty of room for humor. There are indeed some light touches; the play is laced with witty, clever lyrics and a richly harmonic musical score, sung in this production by an ensemble of 19 performers.

Id call it a dark comedy with a spoonful of sugar, says Wendy James, whos directing this production.

Urinetown, which had its premiere in 2001, also celebrates the Broadway musical, paying homage to West Side Story, The Producers, and Fiddler On The Roof, among others. There is also some Romeo And Juliet in it, a Montague-Capulet romance between the leader of a group rebelling against the water restrictions and the daughter of the evil corporations owner.

Along the way, Urinetown takes satirical swipes at a broad range of targets, from capitalism to populism, environmentalism to municipal politics.

Its actually a pretty complex play, but one with a sense of humor and style, says Neil Carpentier-Alting, who heads the COS theater department. Last season he brought Rent, another dark, cutting-edge Broadway musical, to the COS stage. Rent had homelessness as a major theme, and a narrative that played out with grim and tragic consequences. Urinetown, with a lighter touch, is also very topical for Californians with its focus on water scarcity.

Its incredibly smart, incredibly timely, notes James.  Urinetown doesnt preach, but it does have an important message: That neither side, the corporation or the rebels, is right. That we all need to work together to solve our problems.

I can promise you one thing, people will leave the theater with a lot to think about, says Russ.

go now 

What: "Urinetown"

When: 7 p.m. Friday, Saturday, March 18 and 19 with 2 p.m. matinees Sunday and March 20

Where: The Kenneth Ford Theater at the College of the Siskiyous in Weed

Tickets: $15 general, $10 students, seniors, $35 family pack. Call 938-5373 or go to www.siskiyous.edu/theatre/
Photo courtesy of the Musical Arts League

SHARE

By Jon Lewis

As a child piano prodigy, Redding native Duane Hampton was part of a touring group that performed at the Cascade Theatres opening ceremonies in 1935. On Saturday, some 81 years later, he returns to the Cascade for his final benefit concert that will feature many of the child prodigies he helped groom.

Hampton, who said hes just about 90, will not perform himself but nine of his students will. It will be the final Musical Arts League production of A Touch of Classical Piano. The concert has been an annual tradition for 45 years, starting first at Shasta High School before moving to the Civic Auditorium and finally the Cascade.

Hampton, who is highly regarded as a pianist, composer and master teacher, said he looks forward every year to the chance to see his students perform in a concert setting. Musicians donating their time and talents to benefit the Cascade Theatre include Kevin Woodruff, a Shasta High and Stanford graduate who now resides in New York and works as a managing director at Morgan Stanley.

Other returning performers include Vito DAurora, the director of environmental data management at Critigen; Sophia Hackler, a 9-year-old student at Sacred Heart Parish School in Red Bluff who speaks English and Chinese; Nathaniel Bell, a 19-year-old Redding native who making his eighth performance at A Touch of Classical Piano; and Allan Knight, the winner of the 1995 Sacramento Symphony Artists competition who has performed in Berlin, Copenhagen and Sydney.

Hampton enjoys a reputation as a builder of concert pianists with a knack for guiding child prodigies. The first thing is building a good technique, Hampton said of his teaching process. Then form and analysis, so they can plot every phrase or sentence and understand the music themselves. If they understand it, they can play it with conviction.

Although he no longer performs himself, Hampton plans to continue teaching, primarily at the urging of his students. Im trying to wind up my teaching career but a lot of people dont want me to quit. Theyre concertizing and they want me to critique their playing.

Saturdays program includes a video tribute to Hampton. A complimentary champagne reception will be held on the stage following the concert.

go now 

What: Students of Duane Hampton perform A Touch of Classical Piano

Where: Cascade Theatre

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday

Tickets: $12 to $28; call 243-8877 or visit www.cascadetheatre.org
SHARE

By Amber Sandhu of the Redding Record Searchlight

A university study says more than half the population in Shasta County has some form of diabetes, a growing trend that's surpassed California's average.

According to a study conducted by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, commissioned by the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, it's estimated that 61 percent of people in Shasta County either have diabetes or pre-diabetes, while the California average is 55 percent.

The study is the first of its kind to show the prevalence of pre-diabetes in a population. A person is diagnosed as prediabetic if they have a fasting blood sugar level that is higher than normal, but not high enough to qualify for treatment as one would with a diabetes diagnosis.

The Centers for Disease Control defines diabetes as a condition where the blood glucose levels are above normal. Food digested by the body breaks down into glucose, causing the pancreas to secrete insulin, a hormone that keeps the glucose levels in check. But with diabetes, the body is unable to produce insulin properly, causing sugar to build up in the blood.

According to the study, almost 95 percent of diabetes cases are for Type 2 diabetes, whose complications can be preventable. But if left untreated, it can lead to complications such as blindness, neuropathy, nerve damage and high blood pressure.

Susan Babey, a senior research scientist who worked on the UCLA study, said there is no "good data" in California or most states to track prediabetes, which makes the study so unique. The study analyzed Hemoglobin A1c and fasting blood sugar levels from 40,000 respondents who participated through the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and California Health Interview Survey.

And while medications are available to manage diabetes, Babey said they're not nearly as effective as making lifestyle changes.

Dr. Andrew Deckert, health officer of the Shasta County Department of Public Health, said that getting a diagnosis of prediabetes is a "big deal," since many people don't exhibit any symptoms.

"Our county is basically looking at a potential diabetes health crisis," he said. "The longer you have pre-diabetes, the more likely you are to have diabetes."

And if their condition goes unmanaged without lifestyle changes, they will develop diabetes.

"Pre-diabetes is a serious thing. Because you don't feel anything doesn't mean it's not eating away at your blood vessels."

Harold Goldstein, executive director of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, said that looking at the numbers, it's important that California make treating and preventing diabetes a top priority, especially among the people with lower incomes.

"In far too many areas, McDonald's is the only place to play," he said, referring to a lack of parks in neighborhoods. "We've engineered our world to point to where diabetes is the consequence."

At Shasta Regional Medical Center's Diabetes Care Center, where education and counseling services are provided for people diagnosed with diabetes, registered nurse and certified diabetes educator Lou Castillo said she's noticed a trend of younger people in their early 20s coming to seek services.

But for many people battling diabetes, living under the poverty line can mean having other priorities until the effects of diabetes take its toll.

"Diabetes can take a back seat because they don't feel bad. With pre-diabetes, they really don't feel bad," she said.

The authors of the study listed policy recommendations to reduce California diabetes rates such as earmarking state funds to focus on diabetes prevention, insurance coverage to test for prediabetes and holding the food and beverage industry responsible for adding sugars to their products.

But efforts are being made at the local level in Shasta County.

Deckert said the community has been active in creating better walking and biking trails to encourage exercise, which is recommended as part of a lifestyle change. The health department has already received a $1.3 million grant to work on preventing prediabetes and pre-hypertension. However, he believes Shasta County could do better.

Goldstein said that for California, a soda tax, much like the tobacco tax, could help reduce diabetes rates by discouraging people to consume sugary beverages. "We've got to reverse-engineer this," he said. "It's time to make the health of our parents, our kids and ourselves, a priority in California."
Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight The city hopes to encourage Union Pacific to move its railyard out of downtown.

SHARE

By Jenny Espino of the Redding Record Searchlight

The McConnell Foundation is still eyeing a south Redding property that if acquired could lure Union Pacific to consider a land swap for its railway yard in the downtown.

The Redding-based philanthropy began its process to buy a 3.5-acre parcel on Eastside Road. The industrial site is held by Schnitzer Steel Industries of Portland, Oregon.

Last fall, McConnell estimated closing escrow by the end of October.

But the due diligence period had to be extended because the property was once the site of a lumber mill and has environmental issues that need thorough investigation, said John Mancasola, McConnell executive vice president.

He said the foundation is still under contract, with the due diligence period ending on April 29.

"If we can come into ownership, we can continue talking to those folks," said Mancasola, referring to Union Pacific. "There's always the possibility to go forward with this deal and consummate the transaction."

The property's biggest selling point is its rail spur. McConnell offered the land to Union Pacific, but communications last fall were moving at a slow pace. And since the property has yet to be purchased, the talks remain in a holding pattern.

A land swap proposal would require a three-way agreement among McConnell, Union Pacific and the city of Redding.

City Manager Kurt Starman on Wednesday said things have been quiet for now and the city has not been involved in any recent talks with Union Pacific.

Rail carriers have occupied about 6 acres of the downtown block bound by Tehama, Oregon and Yuba streets and the railroad tracks since 1872.

But the site is neglected. Interest in the railyard continues to be high with several projects in the fire, including a new courthouse across the street, the possible transformation of the old police station into a restaurant, a proposed four-story building for apartments and retail at the site of the former Dicker's department store and the upcoming update to the downtown specific plan.

"It's a piece of the puzzle that will help revitalize the downtown and turn around the negative things that are going on in the downtown," said Gary Lewis, a prominent community leader, who reached out to McConnell for its help.

Mancasola said he does not foresee any other delays in its checks on the property.

Lewis sees potential to turn the rail yard into a multi-use facility that permanently houses Redding's farmers' market, provides additional parking for the Shasta County Veterans Hall and the courthouse, which may break ground in 2017. He also saw groups planning events there.

"As long as they are still talking, there is reason to be hopeful," he said.
NAL title on the line: Will West Valley or U-Prep win?

U-Prep and West Valley battle for the NAL title and top speed in CIF Northern Section playoffs Friday.
SHARE

If politicians had to cease being hypocritical, there would be no politics, and for all its sins, we need politics. But if something as big as freedom of speech is on the line, maybe it's time to use the H-word in reference to some of the guilty and to argue against vitiating the First Amendment.

Start with Hillary Clinton. She's as angry as can be with corporate big spenders throwing gobs of money at politicians and thereby corrupting the political system. But there's a catch. Even though she wants to rewrite the First Amendment to fix all this by further controlling who can say what and when, she herself stuffs special interest moola in her purse or campaign coffers every time she gets a chance. Don't worry. She says she herself cannot be corrupted.

Yep, big money is hurtful but cannot buy her influence, because, well, what? In a debate with another Democratic candidate for president, Bernie Sanders, she answered his snarls on the issue by pointing to President Barack Obama. In the 2008 campaign, she said, he got more Wall Street cash to help his cause than any candidate ever did before, and look at how he then jimmied up financial operations by his support of Dodd-Frank regulations people are still trying to figure out.

She didn't put it quite that way, but in bringing up Obama, she did point to another anti-speech hypocrite. Last year, the president was giving a speech about solar power operations he wants to smother with subsidies and excoriated the Koch brothers who oppose that, saying they want to keep these world-saving businesses from succeeding. "That's not the American way," the president said.

Charles Koch, brother of David, responded by saying it was "beneath  the dignity of the president" to be indulging himself in these and other insults, and, yes, throwing mud while splattering one's self is something Oval Office occupants should avoid. That's especially the case when these political contributors would also like to get rid of all subsidies, even those directed at their own fossil fuel business, and have been fighting fiercely and openly for an end to all corporate welfare.

Obama is the one distorting free enterprise in his crony capitalism enthusiasm for ladling out taxpayer money to campaign-contributing solar power companies and the like, and the Koch brothers, of course, are a favorite Democratic punching bag. Get this: As has been reported, numerous Democratic donors have outspent the libertarian Koch brothers over the years, the two side with liberals on many social issues and they have given generously to medical research, the arts and universities.

For a small-H hypocrite, consider Sanders for a minute. He has shunned giant contributors to get his campaign dough from ordinary folks, but this advocate of using public funding instead has not used public funding. That's mainly because he wouldn't get enough early money to win that way, which is much like the Koch brothers still taking subsidies because they would otherwise be at a competitive disadvantage. But it does put this morally superior guy does in the same boat.

The main issue in all of this is the Citizens United Supreme Court case that said unions and corporations can't be shut up on politics. If the NCAA, the Sierra Club, Goldman Sachs or the AFL-CIO want to pay for pamphlets, books, movies or TV ads taking stands on candidates or issues during an election, they can as long as they aren't conniving with the candidates.

That much is clear in the blessed Constitution, which is why Democrats want to change it to better control what people are allowed to say. One argument is that the big voice of big money will fool the voters apparently considered stupid, but that has always been overstated and this year turned upside down as one of the most heavily financed campaigns headed south. Remember Jeb Bush, anybody?

Jay Ambrose is an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service. Readers may email him at speaktojay@aol.com.
SHARE

I have been trying to put this into words for quite some time now. It's important in this current election year because I feel we are at a political crossroad and we absolutely must get this one right.

In order to pull us out of the Great Depression, FDR got many - what would be considered socialist - bills passed through Congress. The one being attacked today is the Social Security Act.

The United States of America came out of the second World War the most powerful industrial nation the world has ever known. We had sent our men to fight around the world and our women went to work in the factories to build the armament necessary to win that great conflict.

At the time, our unemployment number was essentially zero. If you wanted a job, you had a job. We had all these young men coming home from the war and they wanted one thing: to get married and have a home and a family. FDR recognized that and he also realized that this would be a major problem economically because there was this massive labor force with no jobs to go to work in.

I think FDR took a lesson from Henry Ford. As much as Ford hated collective bargaining, he recognized that he had pretty much filled the market for his automobiles and he needed to create a new market if he was going to grow his business. The story I heard was he relented to the UAW, not because his business philosophy had changed but because the men building his product couldn't afford to buy that product. So he signed the contract, raising his employees' income and in a short time the trolly track to the River Rouge plant was pulled up because everyone was driving to work.

So likewise, FDR pushed through the GI Bill in 1944 so he could put the peacetime labor force to work. And work they did, building the homes they would live in. They built thousands of homes, eventually millions of homes. And we needed furniture and appliances for those homes, and we built those too.

The captains of industry like to claim credit for the post-war economy, but they didn't build America. Workers built America. And after they housed and furnished the populace, they built the most extensive road system in the world. These captains decided to reward themselves by sending as many of the jobs as is possible overseas where it would enhance their profits. They forgot what Ford had figured out. This isn't a crisis yet but it is rapidly becoming one.

The other thing FDR got started was the Social Security Act. Contrary to what the captains of industry would have you believe, this is a mandatory, self-funded pension plan. This is the one thing that came out of the Depression that actually works. I rely on my self-funded retirement. When I was working I participated in several corporate-sponsored pension plans, all but one of them went defunct along with the corporations. But Social Security is always there. It is not an entitlement, it is a pension that has been paid for. It is a pre-paid insurance policy that has some minor faults that are easily fixable.

The people who want to do away with or at least privatize Social Security are the people who run our financial institutions. You know them. They run our banking system. That place where you used to save your money and they would pay you for the use of it so they could invest in our communities. The people who stole all that money in scandalous investment schemes that went broke, so the taxpayers had to bail them out with our tax dollars because they were too big to fail. The government claims to have fixed the problem but they didn't even send one of the thieves to prison for it. Why would they? Not only they didn't have to do any jail time, they don't even have to pay us for using our money anymore.

It's not just the presidential race that needs our attention. We have a lot of politicians and judges who have been in office way too long. When you pass laws that absolve the culprit because he is too big to punish, you need to get into another line of work. When you make a decision that businesses are people, your senility is showing.

I probably won't be around to see the bloody end to this fiasco we are condoning, but this should be the year we start to take our country back from these people who have gotten too big for their britches. The "money" class is growing slowly larger, but the middle class is shrinking rapidly, and the poor people are becoming more visible every day.

This used to be the greatest nation the world had ever seen and now it's becoming a comedy of itself.

We ought to be ashamed. I know I am.

Fred Boest lives in Red Bluff.
Bill Preever, left, and Bill Krivan, right, fish Wednesday along with fishing guide Aaron Graviel, center, as light rain falls near Turtle Bay. A series of storms are expected to settle over the North State and deliver as much as 5 1/2 inches of rain through Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.

SHARE

By Damon Arthur of the Redding Record Searchlight

Robert Baruffaldi boiled the weather forecast for the next seven days down to one word.

"'Wet' would be the quick word," said Baruffaldi, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

How wet will it be? Baruffaldi said the North State can expect as much as 5 1/2 inches of rain through Tuesday.

The first of the rain should arrive Thursday morning and then ease off a bit Friday. Another storm is expected to arrive Saturday night. And more is forecast to follow that one through Tuesday.

The series of storms is being drawn up from out in the Pacific Ocean around Hawaii, said David Houck, a meteorologist with Accuweather.

"As we go through time here, we are going to have a whole series of storms," Houck said.

The North State received just under 3 inches of rain from the storms that rolled through the region last weekend. Another half-inch of rain fell at the Weather Service's rain gauge at the Redding Municipal Airport on Wednesday, bringing the March rainfall total to 3.34 inches.

Since the beginning of October, 26.79 inches of rain have fallen at the airport. Last year, the total for this time of year was just under 20 inches, according to the Weather Service.

The forecast rains prompted the Weather Service on Wednesday to issue a warning about possible flooding.

"The upcoming wet pattern might result in increased runoff from heavy rain, leading to rises on many Northern California streams, rivers and weir flows," the Weather Service said. "Thus, low land, urban and small stream flooding area likely."

Shasta County Public Works officials said they took advantage of the dry weather in February to patrol roadside ditches and culverts to clear out debris that can cause water to back up and flood over roads.

"Pretty much, our system is open and ready for the storm," Public Works Director Pat Minturn said.

The Churn Creek Bottom area south of Redding and low-lying areas in southern Shasta County are two areas where flooding has occurred during heavy rains, said Troy Bartolomei, the department's deputy director.

Paul Moreno, a spokesman for Pacific Gas & Electric Co., said this week's storm isn't as much of a concern as last weekend's storms, which packed strong winds that blew trees into utility lines, knocking out power over large areas in the mountains west of Sacramento.

He said if homeowners are forced to evacuate because of flooding they should shut off power to their homes at the service box and shut off gas lines near the meters.

While the storms have the potential to cause flooding and wind damage, the rain has helped fill area lakes. Since last Thursday, Lake Shasta has about 10 percent more water than before the weekend storms, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

Shasta Lake is currently about 20 feet higher than this time last year. Trinity Lake, though, is still 18 feet lower than last year, according to the bureau.
Continued public outrage over the police-involved shootings of Laquan McDonald, Rekia Boyd and Cedrick Chatman has some experts thinking turnout for the March 15th primary election will be higher than in previous years in Chicago.

"I think that's pretty high on the minds of people in Cook County and specifically in Chicago," said Nick Kachiroubas, a professor at DePaul University's School of Public Service. "This is the first time that we've had an election since some of these police shooting videos have come up. I think it's on a lot of people's minds."

Advertisement

Chicagoans won't be able to elect a new mayor on March 15ththat opportunity won't come around for another three yearsbut they will be able to send a message to him in the Cook County State's Attorney race, experts say. The job involves overseeing the office that prosecutes felonies and misdemeanors in Chicago and the suburbs; critics have said that the office has failed to hold law enforcement officers to the same standards as everyone else when it comes to the fatal shootings of unarmed civilians.

"The State's Attorney race affects issues like police brutality and criminal justice," said Dick Simpson, a former Chicago alderman and current political science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Advertisement

Current State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, who came under fire for her handling of the McDonald case, is up for re-election and finds herself in a hotly contested race against challengers Kim Foxx and Donna More in the Democratic primary. On the campaign trail, Foxx and More have gone after Alvarez for taking more than a year to charge white Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke with shooting 16 times and killing black teen McDonald.

Alvarez has pushed back, saying recently: "If I wasn't in the middle of an election, would I still be getting criticized? I think the answer is no."

"The county Democrats have come out for Kim Foxx after a bit of pushing from [Cook County Board President Toni] Preckwinkle," said J. Mark Hansen, a political science professor at the University of Chicago. Preckwinkle is one of the most powerful Democrats in the state.

It's likely that Alvarez and her supporters are beginning to feel the heat. In recent days, the Chicago Tribune reported that Alvarez and her husband loaned her campaign $200,000 to help bolster her re-election bid.

"I think the potential for a higher turnout election is there, particularly with the State's Attorney's race in Cook County," Kachiroubas added.

Of course, it would be hard for voter turnout to get much lower than the last primary election. Data provided by the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners shows that only 16.54 percent of registered voters in Chicago  226,308 total  voted in the most recent primary election in 2014, less than half the average total percentage of registered voters (37.68 percent) who have turned out for primary elections over the past 30 years. During that 30-year span, only three times out of a possible 15 (1988, 1992 and 2008) did more than half of all registered voters in Chicago cast a ballot in the primary election.

During the last presidential primary, in 2012, just 24 percent of eligible voters in Chicago cast a ballot. In 2008, when hometown guy Barack Obama was making his first run at the White House, turnout was 52.7 percent, according to city election data.

So why aren't Chicagoans showing up at the polls during the primaries?

Advertisement

Experts say there are any number of factors at play.

"Voters not voting has more to do with voters not having candidates or issues on the ballot that excite them," Simpson said. "Machine politics tends to reduce choices."

Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. >

"A big part of it simply is people are more motivated to turn out and vote the higher the office that is at stake," Hansen added. "There are just a lot of times that people are called to the polls. Citizens are asked to vote more often than almost anywhere else in the world."

But that's not a bad thing.

While Americans are often asked to cast ballots, it means they tend to have more opportunities to affect change.

"On the down ballot races, there's a huge opportunity to have an impact particularly because we do have a contested State's Attorney's race, you've got an Illinois Senate race on the Democratic side, you've got some Republican races on the other side," Kachiroubas said. "Those races really are impacted in several districts just by a few votes. A lot of decisions that affect your daily lives are not the presidential race."

Advertisement

"It's a civic duty," Hansen adds. "It's a privilege that not everybody in this world has. ... It's an opportunity to express yourself as being satisfied or dissatisfied with what your elected officials are doing."

Matt Lindner is a RedEye contributor.

Contributing: Chicago Tribune
Books like Incarnations: India in 50 Lives, simple and straightforward though they appear, are instead powerful arguments for complexity, for empathy, and for curiosity, observes Mihir S Sharma.

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 Idea of India is a hard act to follow.

Any reiteration, restatement, revisiting or renewal of the argument could easily be seen as a disappointment. But, all these years later, Khilnani has produced something that might well turn out to be as influential. Incarnations: India in 50 Lives is a tremendously ambitious project.

Based on a programme that airs on BBC's Radio 4, it strings together 50 readable little biographies of Indians, from the Buddha to Ambani.

"Show, don't tell", they teach in journalism school, and if Khilnani told us about the complexities of India in that previous book, in this one he shows them to us.

This column does not intend to be a review of Incarnations; for one, it is a hefty book, your money's worth of high-quality paper and wonderful illustrations, and I have as yet not read it through. But you don't need to read each one of the 50 to understand why such books are increasingly important: because we in India have chosen to replace history with politics, biography with myth-making -- and mythology with assertion.

Whatever most of us remember about, say, Shivaji today, is likely to be an Amar-Chitra-Katha version of his rise to power. We know, vaguely, that Shivaji is important politically, too, central to Maratha pride.

But the story of Shivaji, the politician and the ruler, is divorced in our minds from the battles being fought even now between political parties in Pune over statues of Shivaji and his advisors.

When you read Khilnani on Shivaji, however, and his explanation of, say, how Shivaji's extremely Brahminical coronation ritual was and is controversial among some Marathas -- does it "cede control over Shivaji's memory to the upper castes?"



Or was it part of a deal, a payment for Brahmins' acquiescence, and thus a symbol of his dominance? -- you begin to understand the complexity behind the black-and-white "Hindu warrior".

And then the interpretation of Shivaji's story is given one last twist: he was also, Khilnani points out, a self-made man, and perhaps that too will build into his legend in the years to come.

In books such as this, the very choice of individuals reveals much; and Khilnani has struggled to include not just political leaders -- and spiritual ones, this being India, where power as often as not flows from the saying of a prayer -- but also artists like Nainsukh, poets like Amir Khusrau, industrialists like Jamsetji Tata, and even Raj Kapoor. (There aren't enough women. But perhaps that's India's fault as much as it is Khilnani's.)

We live in the midst of our history, but increasingly we turn to it only as a source of glory or of shame.

But there are other questions that we should ask of history, things that might help us understand ourselves better.

Rajaraja Chola was, yes, a seafaring conqueror; but did he also discover something about the glamour of power that persists in South Indian politics to this day?

We know Shivaji was a self-made hero who fought the Mughals; but why are we quiet about Malik Ambar, equally self-made, and an equally potent adversary for the Empire?

Just because he was of African descent? Colonialism was evil; but without the Company's new order, Jyotirao Phule, "one of the nineteenth century's greatest radical humanists -- in any country -- might have been just another unknown vegetable supplier".

In India, as in many parts of the world, history seems more alive today than it has for decades.

Narratives are rewritten, new heroes are raised to the pantheon, new forms of offense and insult are detected, hegemonies are being challenged and established. But, in the midst of this bustling energy, critical thinking about history seems to be dying.

All that the embattled little cadre of liberals can argue for in times such as these is for a recognition of the complexity of our own history -- and for the empathy and the curiosity that would inevitably follow that recognition.

But the acceptance that truth is complex does not mean that the stories we tell have to be; the stories can be simple, but the truth they begin to reveal, and the thoughts they make us think, need not be.

Books like Incarnations, simple and straightforward though they appear, are instead powerful arguments for complexity, for empathy, and for curiosity. We need more like them
It is important to track what is happening in the rest of the world to be able to develop in India 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. Subir Roy explains.

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.

Apple's refusal to comply with the diktat from United States investigating agencies to unlock the iPhone of the perpetrator of a mass shootout, on the ground that it will set a precedent and lead to more similar requests undermining citizens' privacy, is the hugely high-profile drama being played out right now in this space.

In this, Apple has received strong support from the highest UN official for human rights.

His point is if Apple loses the current court battle it will set a precedent, unlock a Pandora's box, which will be a potential gift to authoritarian regimes and criminal hackers and make companies like Apple lose the ability to safeguard clients' privacy and endanger their physical and financial security.

Indian companies need to carefully watch how this plays out for Apple. They do not have Apple's global clout -- and there is no knowing what it would have done if it was in a similar confrontation with, say, the Chinese. They would probably brook no "nonsense" about rights and privacy, something which the US cannot do.

How far Indian companies will go in a similar situation depends not so much on them but the self-perception of the Indian state. Does it jump every time a policeman/security official comes in through the door, or does it remember that as a democracy it has concerns other than security, too?

What technology firms do is critical in this age, particularly in view of what has been revealed by Edward Snowden. The former CIA operative laid bare how phone companies had cooperated with officials across the globe in snooping on citizens, thoroughly undermining their rights -- and he eventually had to take refuge in Russia.

The change in Snowden's image in the popular mind is noteworthy. In the US and the Western world, he was initially considered a traitor who had undermined security. But as the extent of unauthorised snooping that Western security systems did on their citizens became clear, Snowden's image among many transformed into a whistleblower drawing attention to the assault on civil liberties -- and, in fact, he became a patriot.

This brings us to the recent practices in the United Kingdom. It has followed what might be called a dual-track approach. On the one hand, it cooperated wholehearted with US requests for information which led it to engage in swooping exactly as the US authorities did.

But more recently it undertook an elaborate exercise over two years to engage with the public and civil society organisations to evolve proposals for government departments to share and use data effectively. The process has led to the publication of a consultation paper for better use of data through a data-sharing code of practice.

The importance of the second track is that its focus is public welfare.

Data across departments on citizens will be mined and studied to help deliver assistance better to families needing it. The aim is to identify families with multiple problems and receiving support from multiple agencies so that workers under the Troubled Families Programme can coordinate support.

From all this, a pathway for action in India can be evolved.

Citizen's identity (Aadhaar) and other economic data across departments (income, plot holding for farmers, dependencies, etc) needed for calculating and paying subsidies can be put in one silo and ensured the necessary protection and secrecy. This can be governed by the provisions that may be there in the Aadhaar legislation, and what could follow in similar vein.

There should be an entirely different pathway when citizens need to be swooped upon for security purposes. Ideally this should be authorised only by a high-level judicial body.

To evolve a data-protection system peculiar to India, a third perspective is needed. The security establishment here is seriously compromised in having to do the bidding of the political masters of the day who wish to snoop on their political rivals for their political ends.

Such practice is not there in the US or the UK. In India, staff of the Intelligence Bureau have in the past been routinely used to find out the prospect of the ruling party before general elections.

The ultimate touchstone should be that there should be a democratic society, where liberties and privacy are protected, left for the security establishment to protect from fundamentalist forces. The French are currently facing this dilemma. What if the attempt to protect the French way of life from Islamist onslaughts ends up making France a police state?
'The past year has yielded extraordinary results in the strategic, commercial, and people-to-people components of the India-United States partnership, US Ambassador to India Richard Rahul Verma tells Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com in an exclusive interview.

'Our policy has been so pro-active and positive... towards engagement and towards trying to build a bigger and better and deeper relationship with India. What could be more thrilling than having that as your objective each day?' asks Ambassador Verma, the first Indian American to serve as the US envoy to New Delhi. Photograph: Kind courtesy, the US Embassy

In January 2015, when Richard Rahul Verma took over as the US Ambassador to India -- the first Indian American appointed to the post -- he hit the ground running.

US President Barack Obama was to arrive within days to attend India's Republic Day celebrations as the chief guest.

In the months since then Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Obama have met twice (another meeting is on the cards later this month when the Nuclear Security Summit takes place in Washington, DC), there have been several high-level visits and Congressional delegations to India.

Verma has travelled to as many as 17 Indian states to connect with the people of the country and the pace has shown no signs of letting up. And Verma likes it that way.

In the first of a three-part exclusive interview with Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com, the Ambassador looks back at the milestones and challenges of the past year.

How fulfilling has the past year been?

2015 was a historic year in Indo-US relations. The credit for that goes to Prime Minister Modi and President Obama, and so many others who have worked so hard on the relationship over many decades.

It has been a great honour to be here as Ambassador during this time -- both humbling and inspiring.

Following President Obama's historic visit last year as the first American President invited to be chief guest at the Republic Day celebration, my team and I dedicated ourselves to achieving the ambitious strategic vision laid out by the President and Prime Minister Modi.

As we look back over last year, 2015 yielded extraordinary results in the strategic, commercial, and people-to-people components of our partnership.

We established secure lines of communication between South Block and the West Wing, which are frequently used by the President and prime minister and our national security advisors.

We launched the first-ever strategic and commercial dialogue, bringing a whole-of-government approach to our annual engagement, and we continued to push forward on the 30-plus working groups and government-to-government dialogues that cover everything from space cooperation, cyber security, global health security, and civil aviation.

On the economic front, two-way trade now stands at $104 billion (over Rs 7 lakh crore/Rs 7 trillion), compared to $30 billion (over Rs 2 lakh crore/Rs 2 trillion) just 10 years ago, and our sights are set on increasing this figure to $500 billion (Rs 33.6 lakh crore).

In the final three months of 2015, bilateral trade increased by well over $5 billion (Rs 33,655 crore/Rs 336 billion), including a $2.6 billion (Rs 17,500 crore/Rs 175 billion) agreement for GE to provide India's railway network with next generation locomotives, many of which will be made in India.

The number of US companies operating in India today has more than doubled over the past 10 years.

Our people-to-people ties continue to know no bounds.

More than 132,000 Indian students now study in the US. The growth in Indian students was greater than from any other country, and India is second only to China in the number of students currently in the US.

This past year, we processed over 1 million visa applications -- the highest on record.

'India is still working to align itself more completely with the rapidly evolving global marketplace, and we are pleased to be working with the Indian government to assist them in their efforts,' says US Ambassador Verma, seen here at a dhobi ghat in Mumbai. Photograph: Kind courtesy the US Embassy

What are the highlights -- those that have led to a tangible ramping up of the Indo-US strategic partnership? And, as the administration is into its final year, what is on the cards to add oomph to the progress already made?

Some of the highlights of the past year signal a new era in our strategic partnership.

They include not just defence ties, but also progress in addressing threats such as climate change and health.

India and US endorsed a common vision for the security of the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean region based on our shared commitment to the rules-based international systems that have safeguarded peace and prosperity for seven decades.

We executed Malabar 2015 -- our most complex joint naval exercise ever in the Indian Ocean.

During this year's exercise we welcomed Japan as a regular participant and mobilised over 8,000 personnel, including participation from a US Carrier Strike Group, US and Indian submarines, P-8 maritime surveillance aircraft, and a Japanese destroyer.

We launched the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative, further integrating our defence cooperation and industries and creating a boost for the Make in India initiative.

Under DTTI, we launched joint working groups on aircraft carrier and jet engine technology, which will help bolster Indian maritime and aerospace capabilities.

In December, Manohar Parrikar became the first Indian defence minister to visit the US Pacific Command and, earlier in the year, Secretary Carter became the first US defense secretary to visit an Indian military command.

Building on the success of our military-to-military ties, our special operations forces trained together last month, and we look forward to India joining this year's Red Flag aerial exercise.

On the climate front, we launched the Fulbright-India climate fellowship, expanded our Partnership to Advance Clean Energy research, and established a new fund to hasten the commercialisation of innovative, off-grid clean-energy solutions.

Our countries worked together to phase down the production and consumption of super greenhouse gases, known as hydrofluorocarbons, by strengthening the Montreal Protocol.

In Paris, our leaders helped broker an ambitious, transparent, and accountable global framework to combat climate change, providing a strong and irreversible market signal that the world is locking in a low-carbon future.

Addressing some of the world's most vexing public health and development challenges, US and Indian researchers helped launch the world's most inexpensive rotavirus vaccine last year, potentially saving millions of lives.

We also launched new efforts to fight TB, engaged in joint cancer research, and battled acute encephalitis together.

In the year ahead, we will work to refine and operationalise our common security vision for the Indo-Pacific region.

Though anchored in Asia, the Indo-US strategic partnership will also be a truly 21st century relationship of natural allies working together in cyberspace, global hot spots, global commons, outer space, the human genome, and the global biome.

In the same vein, what have been the major challenges, because obviously both sides probably have some qualms on certain issues? What are the specific disappointments?

The change that I have seen in the relationship is that we have the mechanisms in place for both governments to deal with their concerns directly.

The dozens of government-to-government dialogues help build trusted relationships, but also give us the opportunity to tackle big and small problems alike -- such as addressing liability for civil nuclear cooperation, negotiating a way forward on trade matters, and moving to co-production and development in defence and so many other areas.

These kinds of issues were able to be addressed and resolved through hard work and dialogue -- lots of it, and that's a good development in our ties.

On the commercial front, over the next year we are going to continue to work together on improving the ease of doing business in both countries.

We talk a lot about this in our strategic and commercial dialogue, as well as in our Trade Policy Forum.

The challenge comes from aligning two very different systems, which handle import/export, banking, investment, and regulation.

People forget that India fundamentally changed its economic policy in the early 1990s when it moved away from a centrally planned and executed economy. Did you know that in the 1990s, exports were only 8 per cent of India's $500 billion economy?

Today, India&'s GDP has more than quadrupled to $2 trillion, and exports as a share of its GDP are over 23 per cent.

So, it is on the right path.

India is still working to align itself more completely with the rapidly evolving global marketplace, and we are pleased to be working with the Indian government to assist them in their efforts.
'Kashmiryat is the bedrock of our society and thats facing a severe challenge.'

'There were provocations from certain quarters asking us to leave Kashmir but we did not.'

'Violence and extremism have not and will not fetch anything. Dialogue is the only way out.'

Image: The Sikh community holds a protest demonstration on the banks of the Jhelum in Srinagar. Photograph: Mubashir Khan.

According to the 2011 census report, Sikhs account for just 1.87 per cent of the population in Jammu and Kashmir.

After the mass exodus of Pandits at the onset of the militant violence in the early 1990s, Sikhs chose to stay back, even after the gruesome massacre of Chattisinghpora in which 36 members of the community were gunned down.

Currently, Sikhs are the only religious minority in Kashmir valley, which continues to be in the grip of violence and mired in political uncertainties.

The last time the J&K Sikhs grievances were officially acknowledged was in the final report of the group of interlocutors appointed by the United Progressive Alliance government on October 13, 2010, which noted the communitys regional demands, including the demand for granting of minority status and benefits on par with Kashmiri Pandits in terms of housing colonies, free education, rehabilitation measures and preferential employment, require urgent and sympathetic considerations.

However, since 2008, the community has been striving for economic empowerment under the All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee, an amalgamate of more than a dozen political, social and religious groups, including the Shiromani Akali Dal-Badal, Shiromani Akali Dal-Maan and All India Sikh Students Federation.

So far the APSCC is the only representative face and political voice of the Sikhs of J&K.

In this conversation with Pervez Majeed/ Rediff.com, APSCC Chairman Jagmohan Singh Raina, image, below, talks about the Sikh community in a politically surcharged region.

Why are the Sikhs of Jammu & Kashmir politically dormant?

Actually, Sikhs in J&K are scattered in various (assembly) constituencies.

Collectively they are consolidated in five constituencies of Kashmir and 10 in Jammu province.

Since the two provinces of Kashmir and Jammu have two different political thoughts, hence Sikhs as a community cant express their political view collectively, particularly on the Kashmir issue.

Moreover, inherently in our political system, the minority view is either ignored or not heard at all.

Do you think Sikhs of J&K need to assert themselves politically?

There we have a complex situation.

If you see the history around Partition, the Sikhs of the valley were with Sheikh Abdullahs movement, and in Jammu also a majority of Sikhs, under the leadership of Budh Singh Tyagi, supported it.

I mean the Sikh community favoured the political opinion of the National Conference which fought against autocratic rule of Maharaja Hari Singh.

But after the death of Sheikh Abdullah and eventually the new nomenclature of the Kashmir issue, the states political landscape got divided among so many groups -- there is a mainstream camp and separatist camp; then among separatists some want Azadi and some are pro-Pakistan... so there is no unity of political opinion among the majority community, resultantly in this scenario it is difficult for Sikhs to form their political view especially about Kashmir issue.

At the APSCC, what are the major issues of the Sikh community that you demand a solution to?

The biggest one is minority status. The National Commission for Minorities Act is applicable throughout India and Sikhs are demanding its extension to J&K.

We have several serious economic issues and to address them we need economic empowerment. But that is not possible without the granting of minority status.

The second major issue is unemployment of Sikh youth.

Due to certain socio-economic reasons, educated Sikh youth dont get their dues in the current system of government jobs. So some kind of reservation is needed.

Please dont deem it my grudge against my compatriots when I say that people not residing in the state are getting direct employment packages from Delhi while as the majority community living in the state get their share because of the local leaders and political parties.

But Sikhs are totally ignored. Isnt it injustice with a significant population of the state?

Nobody is hearing us. See the 2001 census, it shows us at 1.87 percent of the population. But we are not less than 2 percent. Our population is scattered and it needed serious approach for a census.

We had offered the census authorities our support for the correct enumeration of our population. But they didnt pay heed. This shows how insensitive the administration is towards issues of the Sikh community.

Which political party in the state has been sensitive to Sikhs?

Honestly, none! Sikhs in J&K are politically disempowered and no party has been sensitive about it. Imagine that in the last nearly three decades, there has been no Sikh MLA, no Sikh minister!

Sikhs are the biggest sufferers in the 1947 tribal invasion but the issue of refugees is not being attended by any partys government.

The Sikh refugee camps and colonies in Jammu, like Bhour camp, Simbal camp, Gole Gujral camps, Gadigarh camps are testimony to the betrayal political parties have meted us.

The National Conference governed the state for long time, but didnt bother to settle the issues including those of the refugees.

Sikh leaders like Sant Singh Tegh, Bachan Singh Panchi, Harbans Singh Azad and Budh Singh Taygi were senior NC leaders but still could not make the party act on Sikh issues.

The Congress has been part of the government, but it too turned a deaf ear to our issues.

In the last assembly election the Peoples Democratic Party promised in its manifesto to extend the National Commission for Minorities Act to the state but so far no step has been taken towards that end.

So, in this scenario, will the APSCC assume a political role and fight elections?

No. Because we dont want to position ourselves in a way that segregates us from the common people.

The majority community has been our strength. We live together in an atmosphere of absolute amity and mutual trust. It would be insensitive on our part if we fight elections on the slogan of a community.

Some people are working to polarise our society, we dont want to contribute to their devilish deeds.

As a Sikh leader, what do you think is the ideal solution for the Kashmir issue?

I think the Kashmir issue is a reality and calls for immediate solution. But any solution should lead to peace in the state.

The greater the delay, the more the political and societal division. The continued cycle of propaganda and counter propaganda from both Pakistan and India is a war of nerves but at the cost of the youth of Kashmir.

The states economy is in shambles. Political parties are wasting time in dubious politics. Kashmiryat is the bedrock of our society and thats facing a severe challenge.

Sikhs are a significant minority and we have our own share of tragedies because of the Kashmir issue.

In a state where the majority community has political representation in all the political parties and the Hindus are very close to national political parties, but Sikhs dont have political presence.

Some groups in Punjab still raise the slogan of Khalistan. Do you think there is a possibility of an ideological association between them and the separatists of Kashmir?

I personally dont support extremist political or religious movements.



I remember in 1984 when Punjab was in the grip of turmoil and militancy in Kashmir was showing its shadow, the late Indira Gandhi told me in Delhi that India cannot afford to lose her border states.

Then we saw what happened. India fought the insurgencies with all her might. So I strongly believe violence and extremism have not and will not fetch anything. Dialogue is the only way out.

Is life scary for the leader of a religious minority in a conflict zone?

Certainly not. The majority community may have a different political view than ours but we have not confronted them.

Not because we are scared but because we understand the context. The governments, political parties and leaders have abandoned us but its the people who we have been reckoning with.

We dont have any societal or religious predicament; rather our issues are economic and administrative in nature. And governments and political parties are responsible for that, not the people.

All these 25 years of mayhem, the majority community endured pain and suffering. But it continued to be sensitive and caring towards Sikhs.

Several times, particularly in the aftermath of Chattisinghpora massacre, there were provocations from certain quarters of the country asking us to leave Kashmir but we did not.

Because we are the minority of a place where the majority is taking care of us, we do not and need not to be scared.

Moreover, the Sikhs' place in Kashmir is tied to the origin of Sikhism, since Guru Nanak Devji had visited Kashmir and established Sikhism in Kashmir.

We have our historical, revered religious places here. We live with the blessing of these holy places.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday raked up the Bofors case reminding Rahul Gandhi of Ottavio Quattrocchis escape to hit back at him for his attack on the government over liquor baron Vijay Mallya leaving the country despite owing over Rs 9,000 crore to banks.

Jaitley underscored that the loans were given during United Progressive Alliance rule and said mockingly that the Congress vice president perhaps could not understand his answer. He also advised Gandhi to study Constitution once after the opposition party questioned Mallyas continuance as member of Rajya Sabha.

Debunking Gandhis criticism on why Mallya was not stopped from leaving the country, the minister said, There is a legal process to stop anybody. Either your passport has been impounded or there is any court order. Except that immigration cannot stop you.

Banks have gone to the Supreme Court to take an order and perhaps in the anticipation of that he (Mallya) left before, Jaitley said when asked about Gandhis question as to how did the government allow Mallya to leave the country.

Raking up the Bofors case of Rajiv Gandhi tenure that has haunted Congress for decades, Jaitely trained his guns on the Congress vice president.

But Rahul ji should remember that there is a basic difference in Mallya leaving (the country) and Quattrocchi going out (of India). And let me explain him the difference.

When the officials of Switzerland informed that Quattrocchi was also among the beneficiaries of Bofors and though the person who was heading the CBI investigation

earlier K Madhavan wrote a letter that his passport should be impounded, the then government had not stopped him and within two days he left India. That was a criminal case, the finance minister said addressing the Cabinet briefing.

Stressing that there is a difference between the two incidents, Jaitley also said that by the time Mallya left, the banks had not initiated the legal process.

It would have been better had the banks done it earlier, he, however, acknowledged.

Responding to questions that Rahul Gandhi has accused him of not answering his questions, the Finance Minister said, I had given dates in Parliament that all these loans were sanctioned in 2004 and 2007. In 2009, they became Non-performing asset and even after becoming NPA, it was restructured in 2010.

If Shri Rahul Gandhi could not understand these dates and what I meant to say through them, you please help him understand this.

When asked about Congress questioning how Mallya remains a member in Rajya Sabha even after the issuance of a look out notice against him, he said, There is a constitutional process to suspend the membership. If he (Rahul) studies Constitution once... it can happen only according to that. Membership is not terminated through press conferences.

Rahul had earlier said, We asked Mr Jaitley to tell us how Mallya ran away from India. If there is action against him and a lookout notice has been issued against him, then what is he doing in Rajya Sabha.

Jaitley also dismissed a question on why Mallyas passport was not confiscated.

There has to be a process. There is a law called the Passport Act under which an appropriate order is to be passed by the Passport Authority, he said.

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said that everyone knew Mallya could flee any day and investigating agencies should have confiscated his passport and taken steps to restrict his movement.

Jaitely said, According to me, let the bankers take all steps to recover their money. If somebody is responsible of inaction or any other matter some facts come to notice, certainly, we will look into that and will take appropriate action.

Trying to push the government on the backfoot, Gandhi on Thursday asked how it allowed Mallya, who owes over Rs 9,000 crore to banks, to leave the country and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley have failed to answer this question in their speeches.

The Congress VP attacked the government saying the entire country is questioning why this government was helping people like Mallya by allowing him to escape and not fulfilling its promises made to people for bringing back black money and giving Rs 15 lakh into every persons bank account.

Replying to another question on whether the government could order a probe in Ishrat Jahan case, Jaitely merely said, I think a debate is going on in Parliament. Home Minister is competent and he will make a statement on that.
In a candid admission, the Indian Air Force on Thursday said that given its depleting strength, it does not have the adequate numbers to "fully execute" an air campaign in case of a two-front war involving Pakistan and China simultaneously.

It also sought more 5th generation fighter aircraft over and above the 36 Rafales since it was a requirement.

The revelation by the IAF comes at a time when the squadron strength of the force has come down to 33 in comparison to the sanctioned strength of 42.

Of the 33, a very large chunk is made up of Russian origin Su-30 jets, the front line fighter aircraft of the country.

However, the serviceability ratio of the aircraft is very poor with the figure hovering around 55 per cent. This means that out of 100 aircraft, only around 55 are available at a point of time with the rest being bogged down in service.

"Our numbers are not adequate to fully execute an air campaign in a two front scenario. Probability of a two front scenario is an appreciation which you need to do. But, are the numbers adequate? No. The squadrons are winding down," Air Marshal B S Dhanoa, Vice-Chief of the IAF said addressing a press conference in New Delhi.

He was asked if the IAF has the capability to fight a two-front war if it breaks out tomorrow.

IAF sources said that a two-front war is not a likely possibility for the next few years and in the meantime, the force hopes to come up with the required capability.

"We have conveyed our concerns to the government. The government is seized of this problem and the reason why the government signed the 36 aircraft (Rafale) on G2G basis is because of urgency that they felt because of the depletion in squadron numbers," Dhanoa, a Kargil war veteran said.

Asked if there is a requirement for more Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) type aircraft besides the 36 Rafales, he said yes.

"There are various avenues that are being explored. There is a requirement for us to buy a MMRCA class aircraft more than the 36 numbers that we have signed. Which platform may come in, that is something between us and the government. We (both) will have to take a call," he said.

Deputy Chief of the IAF Air Marshal R K S Bhadauria said that a decision on more aircraft will be take only after the conclusion of the contract for 36 Rafale fighter jets.

Asked how many more MMRCA type aircraft is the IAF looking at, Bhadauria said he would not like to go into numbers.

"I am not going into numbers. MMRCA, you are aware of total numbers (126 fighters). We are getting 36 out of that. So there is a leftover there and we will take a rather holistic view of overall numbers," he said.

The IAF officers said that the Rafale will significantly enhance the capability of the IAF. Talking about the low serviceability of the Su-30, the IAF Vice Chief Dhanoa said that it is an issue.

"It is being monitored at the highest level in the ministry of defence. We want to sign the long term material contract so as to have a quick turnaround," he said.

Dhanoa asserted that the sale of eight F16s to Pakistan does not drastically alter the air power balance in the region but admitted "it makes my life more difficult".

"I have to put more hi-tech platform against it. The MMRCA is designed in such a way that we need to offset this capability. When does war, conflict or adventure (Kargil) take place? It takes place when he has a doubt in your deterrence. If you demonstrate your deterrence, we should have peace because he will know that he will be hit very badly," he said.

To beef up the IAF, Defence Ministry has decided to procure a total of 120 indigenous Tejas Light Combat aircraft.

Of the 120, 100 of them will come with 43 improvements over the existing Tejas, currently being test-flown by the IAF for various parameters and slated for final operation clearance in March.

The first upgraded Tejas is scheduled to be produced in 2018 and the target is to complete the requirement by 2022-2023.

Tejas will fill the void created by aging MiG-21s and MiG-27s that will be phased out by 2022.

There are 260 Soviet-era single-engine MiG-21 and MiG-27 jets in the IAF fleet. The Air Force needs at least 400 additional jets over the next 10 years.

The government is also exploring getting fighter jets through the 'Make in India route'. A number of fighter jet manufacturers have approached the defence ministry with their plans to set up production plants in New Delhi.
A Pakistani militant carrying a bounty for his role in Udhampur attack last year, Abu Okasha, has been killed in an encounter in Pulwama district but a top Lashkar-e-Tayiba commander and four other ultras managed to escape the security ring due to alleged connivance of locals.

The national Investigation Agency had announced a reward of Rs five lakh on information leading to arrest of Okasha, a resident of Khyber Paktukhwa in Pakistan. It had recovered his photograph during raids at various terror hideouts in the Valley in connection with his involvement in the Udhampur terror attack in which a Pakistani LeT terrorist Mohammed Naved Yakub was arrested.

The sources said LeT's Kashmir chief Abu Dujana was among those who managed to escape from the encounter site as local residents allegedly diverted the attention of security forces by pelting stones at them.

The encounter broke out as security forces were conducting search operations in Puchal area of Awantipora and hots were heard from nearby Goripora village, an official said.

He said reinforcements were immediately rushed to Goripora and a cordon was laid around the village to prevent the militants from fleeing. The militants fired towards the security personnel who retaliated, leading to fierce exchange of gunfire, the official said.

Two militants were killed in the exchange of firing but five of their accomplices managed to escape, the official said adding the bodies of the slain ultras have been recovered.

As the security forces were battling the militants, a group of local residents started pelting stones at the security personnel, the official said.

The incident diverted the attention of security personnel and allowed the other militants to escape from the cordon, the official said. Dujana took over operational command of Lashkar following the killing of Abu Qasim in Kulgam area of south Kashmir in October last year.
The Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise Board of Directors has welcomed five new members. The additions include Eugene Buck H. Schimpf, III of The Schimpf Company, Ricardo C. Morris of CoPAC (Contemporary Performing Arts of Chattanooga), Rebekah Marr of CO.STARTERS, Tiffanie Robinson of Lamp Post Properties, and George E. Ricks, Sr. of Southside Dodson Avenue Community Health Centers.

Mr. Shimpf is the president of The Schmipf Company, responsible for the development, construction, leasing, financing and land acquisition for retail commercial real estate and office building with total square footage exceeding two million. He is also currently involved in multiple commercial projects including Cameron Harbor, a large mixed use project along the banks of the Tennessee River in Downtown Chattanooga. Mr. Schimpf has a B.S. from University of Tennessee where he was a Varsity Cheerleader and a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. Schmipf is a former member of The McCallie School Board of Advisors and former officer of The McCallie School Alumni Council. He is a member of St. Pauls Episcopal Church.

Mr. Morris is the executive director of of CoPAC (Contemporary Performing Arts of Chattanooga)/ Barking Legs Theater. Most recently, he worked as a Marketing Consultant for YP formerly AT&T Advertising Solutions. In addition, he has worked as Executive Director of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in Birmingham, Alabama; Green Street Arts Center in Middletown, Connecticut; and the Harris Arts Center in Calhoun, Georgia. A Chattanooga native, Mr. Morris is a graduate of Howard High School and holds a B.S. from Tennessee State University and an MFA from Yale University.

Building on over a decade of experience in community leadership and philanthropic support, Ms. Marr is passionate about helping organizations increase their impact. In Ms. Marrs role at CO.STARTERS, she works to build the most effective and intuitive platform to support startup communities of all kinds. In 2010, she left a career in the foundation world to found her own philanthropic advising business and complete her M.A. in Philanthropic Studies at Indiana University. In addition to advising nonprofit organizations and supporting program development at CO.STARTERS, Ms. Marr also serves on several community boards in the St. Elmo and Alton Park neighborhoods.

Ms. Robinson currently serves as the President of Lamp Post Properties, the real estate arm of Lamp Post Group. She served as head of operations for Lamp Post Group from 2013 through 2015. During her time, she founded WayPaver, the talent innovation lab focusing on recruiting and retaining Millennial talent to Chattanooga. She is a founder and active general partner at The JumpFund, an angel fund made up of all female investors focusing on investments in female led companies. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Lee University. An entrepreneur at heart and in practice, Ms. Robinson has spent the last 10 years launching and building companies, resulting in the sale of two companies.

Mr. Ricks is the Community Outreach Coordinator for the Southside Dodson Avenue Community Health Centers and the Chairman of the Hamilton County Department of Education school board. In addition to CNE, he currently serves on the Night to Remember board. Mr. Ricks has served on many boards including Public Education Foundation, National Urban League, Inc., National Urban League Education/Parent Council, Chattanooga African American Museum Board, Power of Unity  Race Relations Committee and Alton Park Development Corporation.

CNE is excited to add these smart and talented community members to the board, said Martina Guilfoil, president and CEO of CNE. As we continue to move forward as an organization, having the experience and leadership of these hardworking individuals will be a key asset to building a better Chattanooga.

For more information on Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise, visit www.cneinc.org or call 423 756-6201.


The National Green Tribunal on Thursday made it clear to Sri Sri Ravi Shankars Art Of Living Foundation which is organising the World Culture Festival that it has time till Friday to pay Rs five crore fine and law will take its own course if it fails to do so.

They still have time till tomorrow to deposit Rs 5 crore fine as environment compensation in compliance with the directions of the tribunal, the Green Tribunal said on an application, which said AOL has not paid the amount till Thursday.

If there is any breach of any condition, the matter will be taken up as and when required and law will take its own course, NGT Chairperson Swatantar Kumar said.

The tribunal also refused to give an urgent hearing on a fresh plea seeking stay on the three-day event on the banks of river Yamuna from Friday, alleging that AOL has not taken permissions from the competent authority as directed by the tribunal.

There is no urgency in it. You can file a proper application and point out the deficiencies in compliance with the directions of the tribunal. We will see if there is any breach or not as per the law, it said.

The green panel also directed the Central Pollution Control Board, the ministry of environment and forests to issue proper directions to the organisers of the event with regard to disposal of municipal solid waste and drinking water.

The counsel appearing for the Delhi Pollution Control Committee informed the tribunal that as directed by it, a committee is already visiting the site and if necessary, directions will be issued.

The tribunal, which had earlier in the morning asked the DDA counsel whether AOL had deposited the fine or not, had fixed the matter for 4 pm for in chamber hearing.

However, the green panel later agreed to hear the matter in the open court.

The NGT had on Wednesday expressed its helplessness in banning the event, saying it was fait accompli.

Nevertheless, it had imposed a fine of Rs five crore on AOL as environmental compensation after coming down on it heavily for not disclosing its full plans and also on the DDA and environment ministry for their role.

The green tribunal, which found several environmental violations by the organisers, blamed the delay on the part of environmental activists in raising the issue before it which compelled it to grant permission for event.

Meanwhile, a source in DDA said it had not received any amount from AOL.

Money has not been paid by the Art of Living Foundation... From our side, we cay say that we have not received any amount from AOL, the source said.

The NGT which also slapped a fine of Rs 5 lakh on DDA, had earlier questioned the building up of a pontoon bridge by army on Yamuna for the festival and asked the DDA counsel as to who gave the permission for setting it up.

However, DDA had said it has no relation with the grant of permission for setting up the pontoon bridge and the DDA was only required to give no-objection certificate for the bridge.

A senior DDA official said, The permission was granted as per the rules but AOL had not made clear the scale of its arrangements while seeking permission for the event.

Environmental activist Anand Arya, who filed the petition to stop the event, rued that over 1,000-acres of the sensitive area between Delhi and Noida, predominantly marshland, stand shorn of even a single blade of grass.

Image: Workers erect scaffolding to build a stage at the venue of World Culture Festival on the banks of the river Yamuna in New Delhi. Photograph: Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters
Even as rape accused Rashtriya Janata Dal MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav surrendered before the court the victim's family continues to fear the social stigma she would face. M I Khan/ Rediff.com reports from Patna.

Suspended Rashtriya Janata Dal MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav surrendered before a Bihar Sharif court where he was sent to a judicial custody of 14 days in connection with a rape case involving a minor.

I have surrendered as I respect the judiciary, the 53-year-old legislator said.

Yadav was charged with rape of a class 10 girl on February 6. Police, which had initially refused to register a case, was forced to file it on February 9 after a chance inspection by Deputy Inspector General (central range) Shalin Kumar. An arrest order was issued on February 6 against Yadav.

Yadav had been absconding since February 9 although four of his accomplices had been arrested earlier.

The girl had told the police that she was lured by a woman, Sulekha Devi, and her daughter to the MLAs house, where she was raped. She later identified Yadav as the offender recognising him from photographs the police had shown her.

Sulekha Devi, her sister, daughter and mother have been arrested by the police.

After she was raped, the girl said the woman gave her Rs 30,000.

Meanwhile, a day ahead of the matriculation examination, uncertainty looms over whether the minor rape victim will appear for the exams.

The minors father said that she has been isolated due to the social stigma attached to rape.

It is difficult for her to take the examination because other students may pass vulgar comments, some may tease her and embarrass by asking questions related to the incident. In such a situation she may break down in the middle of the exams, he told Rediff.com from his village in the Nalanda district.

The girls father added that the family is still fearful for her life.

When we take her outside of our home to appear for examinations, will the police follow us as a part of security? he questioned.

Taking into consideration the familys reservations, the Nalanda district administration has changed the girls examination centre closer to her home in accordance with the familys request.

The district administration has already made arrangements to take her to the examination centre, where special arrangements will be made for her, away from public gaze, Nalanda District Magistrate Thiyagarajan S M said.

According to district officials, she will take her examination alone in a room but not at her home.

With inputs from agencies.
Many senior officers believe the chief should have taken a stronger stand against using army resources to help what one officer calls a government-friendly godman, reports Ajai Shukla.

IMAGE: Army personnel construct temporary bridges over Yamuna river for the three-day World Culture Festival organised by spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in New Delhi. Photograph: Kamal Kishore/PTI

Serving and retired army personnel and other concerned citizens have protested at the use of army engineers and combat equipment in building two pontoon bridges over the Yamuna river for a three-day World Culture Festival being organised from March 11-13 on the rivers floodplain in Delhi.

Separately, the National Green Tribunal also expressed concern over the impact of hundreds of thousands of visitors and large structures on the fragile Yamuna bed and the flora and fauna that inhabit it.

The WCF is being organised by the Sri Sri Ravi Shankar-led Art of Living Foundation, which claims to propagate a stress-free, violence-free world. The founder, who is widely called Sri Sri, is close to the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership and was awarded the Padma Vibhushan this year. The WCF website prominently displays a photograph of him with BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar admitted on Tuesday, to TV news channel Aaj Tak, that he ordered the army to use combat manpower and equipment to construct the pontoon bridges to deal with security threats to the festival.

Aaj Tak did not ask him how pontoon bridges would help in dealing with security threats to the WCF. Nor, in fact, has the army been given any role in dealing with security or terrorist threats. Parrikar also cited the precedence of the Kumbh Mela, where army engineers build pontoon bridges to allow the millions of visiting pilgrims to move from one side of the river to the other. Suggesting the pontoon bridges would avert the possibility of stampedes, he declared: It was done with the sole purpose of avoiding accidents.



Senior army generals say they are deeply uncomfortable with deploying soldiers and equipment for a function organised by a private, commercial organisation, but they had no choice. We were not asked or consulted. The raksha mantri ordered us to build those bridges, says a general in army headquarters.

The rules governing the deployment of the army in such tasks is laid down in the rulebook, Regulations for the Army. Paragraph 301 on Page 100 legislates on Employment of troops on duties in aid of civil authorities.



It states: Troops may be called upon to perform in aid of the civil authorities any of the following duties: maintenance of law and order; maintenance of essential services; assistance during natural calamities such as earthquakes and floods; and any other type of assistance which may be needed by the civil authorities.



It goes on to state: When the services of troops are required by the civil authorities, the local military commander will first obtain, through authorised channels, the approval of the Central government to their employment.



Since the WCF deployment is clearly unrelated to law and order, essential services or disaster relief, Parrikar evidently invoked the fourth, catch-all, contingency: any other type of assistance which may be needed by the civil authorities.



Technically, therefore, the rulebook backs the defence ministers order and the generals, in fact, had no choice but to obey. It is, however, another matter whether the defence ministers order was ethically and morally grounded.



In a heated debate raging within military circles on social media like WhatsApp, many army officers believe the army chief should have taken a stronger stand against using army resources to help what one officer calls a government-friendly godman.



Had the army chief stood firm on an issue of propriety, the government would have had no choice but to take heed, says one serving officer.



In this politically polarised discussion, some argue that, since the armys resources are legitimately used for organising religious public events like the Amarnath Yatra and the Kumbh Mela, they could also be used for the WCF.

Lieutenant General (Retired) Syed Ata Hasnain counters this, posting on Facebook: When something is wrong it has to be called so. Hundred per cent agree that the army should not be doing this. We provide many things for Shri Amarnath Yatra but that is a completely different issue because of security and the terrain involved.

Furthermore, the Sri Sri Foundation is a commercial organisation that openly seeks donor funding on its website. Does the government even know where Sri Sri gets its funding from? It claims to be a non-profit organisation, but we would love to see the book of accounts, demands another general, who seeks anonymity.



Some, like Lieutenant General (Retired) Raj Kadyan make the weak argument that laying pontoon bridges for such functions provides good training for the army.

Others point out that the environment in which these pontoon bridges were laid bore no similarity to the conditions in which engineer bridging units actually train for war.

Perhaps the strongest argument against using army assistance in such functions relates to precedent. Says a serving lieutenant general: Today, we have come out to support the Sri Sri Foundation. Tomorrow, it could be Baba Ramdev; after that, the Jamaat-e-Islami; the next day the Dera Sacha Sauda or the Nirankari establishment. Where do we draw the line?
The terrible tragedy involving the Ooltewah High School basketball team has obviously struck more than a match in our community. Yet it appears life in the administration of our school system will continue largely unchanged save for some minor public relations optics. Were this awful event the only material problem facing our county school system, it might be possible to conclude that no change in the management system under which the schools operate is required. But sadly it is not.

Our schools are---as I understand itthe worst in the state. We have been failing far too many children for far too many years. Against the backdrop of so many children whose future lives and prospects have been, and continue to be, openly gutted under a failing public education system, we can no longer simply shrug our shoulders and wonder how we got here. We need to recognize that current conditions are the product of human hands. We need to take ownership of the problem.

The process for taking ownership begins by recognizing the obvious, namely, that our schools are operated under a system that has failed us for far too long not to be embarrassed by it. State law divides the operation of our schools between a County Commission responsible for providing funding, and a school board tasked with day to day operational responsibility. See, in particular, Parts 1 and 2 of Chapter 2 of Title 49 of the Tennessee Code, T.C.A. 49-2-101, et. seq.

But the problem is much more profound than the types of problems so often associated with divided management structures. It is a system that fails to account for electoral infirmities, and the ability of busy citizens to make wise and well informed decisions on school board candidates. This is not to say that well qualified candidates have not been elected. I simply knew next of nothing about the issues recited by Rhonda Thurman in a recent letter to the Chattanoogan. In fact, embarrassing as it may be to admit, I know the name of only one current school board member (though I used to know two names). I suspect I am not all that far behind a great many citizens. It is hard enough for citizens to make an informed decision about candidates for county mayor and the County Commission. Expecting voters to make informed decisions about school board candidates is, I believe, a bridge too far in terms of the world of rational expectations. I suspect many people who watched the recent school board meetings regarding Superintendent Smith might readily concur. We have, in a pejorative sense, earned what we have gottenwe have been voting for it election after election.

It is time for our state representatives to draft legislation which would allow counties, by public referendum, to jettison the current school management structure, and move to a consolidated management structure with the schools being managed by a superintendent reporting to the county mayor and serving at the pleasure of the County Commission. Public input on legislative details should be sought, and it is probably too late on the current legislative calendar to move legislation this year. But there is no reason it could not be moved forward and enacted early next year.

Placing school management within a single governmental bodyespecially the preeminent governmental body in any county - will lead to more focused public awareness and scrutiny. It will no less importantly impose a focused sense of responsibility on the primary elected leaders of the county.

The importance of our school system and its success plainly merits the attention of our primary elected leaders. They should be accountable for its success or failure. Expanding the importance of the County Commission may also attract more and better candidates leading to better decisions across the board for all county functions.

Having said all of this, I freely admit the proposed management structure may have its own faults. The more important question to me, however, is whether it could be worse than what we currently have.

David R. Evans

Signal Mountain

* * *

I find your desire to radically change the school board/director of schools (superintendent) system we currently have is as highly unlikely.

Your admission of ignorance about Rhonda Thurman's comments also show that you have been unaware of what has been happening in the schools until the recent controversies.

Mr. Evans, the relationship between the director or schools and board did radically change in the 1990s giving the director fall more responsibilities and authority than in the first 90 years of that century. And it changed the focus of the board of education as well.

What you are suggesting as a change is called an independent school district (you might research this especially in Kentucky). The school board has more authority than what we have as well as the authority to set the tax rate. In Tennessee, the county commission has that authority and is very unlikely to to give that up.

If you think the Tennessee legislature and the County Commissions are going to jump on that band wagon to change to this form of government, you are dreaming. It didn't happen over the last 45 years and won't happen in the foreseeable future.

I would further suggest you contact Ms Thurman and ask her to clarify her comments. She was exactly right in everything she said regarding spending, initiatives, votes and the single track system which almost every teacher opposed.

And if you are wondering why the other major school districts in Tennessee did not drop so drastically when the state testing got more challenging, you might ask how many of them are single path.

Ralph Miller






North Korea: Tightened controls on communications with the outside world leave families devastated

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 9 March 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, North Korea: Tightened controls on communications with the outside world leave families devastated, 9 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56e092801bc.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.

Ordinary North Koreans caught using mobile phones to contact loved ones who have fled abroad, risk being sent to political prison camps or other detention facilities as the government tightens its stranglehold on people's use of communication technology, reveals Amnesty International in a new report published today.

Connection Denied: Restrictions on Mobile Phones and Outside Information in North Korea, documents the intensified controls, repression and intimidation of the population since Kim Jung-un came to power in 2011.

"To maintain their absolute and systematic control, the North Korean authorities are striking back against people using mobile phones to contact family abroad," said Arnold Fang, East Asia Researcher at Amnesty International.

"Kim Jong-un is being deceitful when he justifies such repression as necessary to stop what he calls 'the virus of capitalism'. Nothing can ever justify people being thrown in detention for trying to fulfil a basic human need - to connect with their family and friends."

The digital frontier is the latest battleground in the North Korean government's attempts to isolate its citizens, and obscure information about the heinous human rights situation in the country.

International calls are blocked for North Koreans using the country's popular domestic mobile phone service, which has more than 3 million subscribers. Access to the World Wide Web is restricted to foreigners and a select few citizens. Some North Koreans can access a closed-off computer network, which provides connection only to domestic websites and email.

Most people who flee North Korea have no means to contact their families back home, leaving both sides uncertain about whether their relatives are alive or dead, being investigated by the authorities or imprisoned.

"The absolute control of communications is a key weapon in the authorities' efforts to conceal details about the dire human rights situation in the country. North Koreans are not only deprived of the chance to learn about the world outside, they are suppressed from telling the world about their almost complete denial of human rights," said Arnold Fang.

Despite the risks, many people are taking advantage of North Korea's booming informal private economy, which has seen traders smuggle food, clothing and other goods, especially from neighbouring China. There is a growing illicit trade in imported mobile phones and SIM cards, which are commonly called "Chinese mobile phones", irrespective of the brand, that enable North Koreans living near the border to access Chinese mobile networks and communicate directly with people outside the country.

Risky lifeline

Access to Chinese mobile phone networks provides a risky lifeline for people wanting to communicate with family abroad, for those wanting to escape the country and traders wanting to earn a living.

"North Koreans must go to extraordinary lengths, at great personal danger, to have a brief phone conversation with their loved ones. It is outrageous that people could face unfair charges simply for talking with their relatives abroad," said Arnold Fang.

Speaking on the phone to individuals outside North Korea is not in itself illegal, but private trade of communication devices from other countries is against the law. Individuals who make calls on "Chinese mobile phones" can face criminal charges, including treason if they contact someone in South Korea or other countries labeled as enemies. Lesser charges could include brokerage or illegal trade.

Strengthened surveillance

The report shows that Pyongyang has increased its technological capacity to control and repress people in an effort to block contact with the outside world in the digital age. This includes importing modern surveillance and detection devices, and using signal jammers near the Chinese border.

Eun-mi, a woman in her 40s who left North Korea in 2014, was once arrested for using a "Chinese mobile phone". She told Amnesty International: "Bureau 27 of the State Security Department has this monitoring device, and agents hold this antenna-shaped device in their hands with red lights blinking. They said it was a detection device. When the Bureau 27 agents came to arrest me they took off their coats and there were these electric cords strapped around their body."

Bak-moon, who was an engineer before he left North Korea, recalled hearing about more advanced, imported monitoring equipment that can recognize the contents of communications. He told Amnesty International: "They can figure out the position of mobile phones precisely."

In addition to sophisticated modern technology, everyday person-to-person surveillance remains prevalent. Jong-hee, who left North Korea in 2014, said: "Everybody was monitoring everybody else. In neighbourhoods, and in workplaces, people were monitoring each other."

Extortion and detention

Anyone caught making an international call using a "Chinese mobile phone" risks being sent to a reform facility, or even a political prison camp. For those without influential government contacts, the only hope to avoid prison is by bribing officials. Interviewees told Amnesty International that seeking bribes now often appears to be the real motive behind some arrests.

So-kyung, a North Korean woman who now lives in Japan, told Amnesty International of such dangers: "In a bad case we would be sent to the political prison camp, where we would expect a long sentence. A lighter case, we would be sent to a reform facility and imprisonment would be for one to two years. Most people get out with a bribe though."

High price

In an attempt to avoid detection when making calls abroad, people keep conversations short, use pseudonyms, and go up to remote, mountainous areas. This reduces the chances of calls being jammed and of security agents spotting individuals using the phones.

The most common way for family members abroad to contact loved ones back in North Korea who do not own a "Chinese mobile phone" is to pay someone who owns such a phone -a broker-to set up a call. The broker system grew out of the need of North Koreans who had fled abroad to send money to family members who remained in North Korea, but also serves as a channel of communication, for a fee.

The costs are high. Brokers involved in setting up a call take up to 30% in commission on a minimum USD1000 cash transfer. And because North Korean state security agents try to intercept money being sent home, there is no guarantee the funds will ever reach the intended recipient.

Choi Ji-woo recalled when a broker arrived at her home in North Korea and claimed to have a letter from her father. In the letter, her father asked her to follow the broker's instructions so they could talk on the phone. Months earlier, state security agents had told Ji-woo that her parents had died trying to leave North Korea. In fact, they had successfully escaped to South Korea but there was no other way to let their daughter know.

Ji-woo undertook a perilous journey with the broker to the mountains, in the desperate hope that she could talk to her parents on the phone: "Sometimes we walked all night to cross a mountain. There was no way around it, and we had to move at night, not during day. We couldn't use a flashlight, and it was pitch black. I couldn't see a foot ahead of me. If I could just hear mum and dad's voice one more time. If I could know with certainty that they were alive, I'd die happy. When the broker made the call and I heard my dad's voice, I just thought: 'He's alive, he's alive!'"

Family members living abroad can also covertly send Chinese mobile phones and SIM cards to relatives in North Korea, who take a risk in receiving these items. This typically involves paying a bribe to soldiers at the border. With security being tightened at border checkpoints, the cost of these bribes has increased and can now be as much as USD500.

"The North Korean authorities must end the repressive controls against people wanting to contact the outside world. This pervasive violation of the right to freely express and receive information, including across borders, contributes directly to sustaining the horrific deprivation of human rights in the country," said Arnold Fang.

Amnesty International is calling on the North Korean government to lift all unwarranted restrictions on freedom of expression and allow unhindered flow of information between individuals in North Korea and the rest of the world.

This includes allowing North Koreans full and uncensored access to the World Wide Web and international mobile telephone services. The authorities should further cease any surveillance of and interference with communications that is unnecessary, untargeted, and without a legitimate aim.

In 2014, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea found that the gravity, scale and nature of human rights violations in the country do "not have any parallel" in the modern world. This included the almost complete denial of the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, information and association. The findings increased international pressure on North Korea, and the dire human rights situation was subsequently discussed at both the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Brain drain: the neglected mental health of refugees in Europe

Publisher IRIN Author Shira Rubin Publication Date 9 March 2016 Cite as IRIN, Brain drain: the neglected mental health of refugees in Europe, 9 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56e096b73481.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.

In a hotel set amidst an olive grove on the Greek island of Lesvos, refugees fleeing violence in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other war zones share their traumatic experiences and mourn the loss of their past lives.

A Syrian woman is haunted by the memory of her husband dying from a cardiac arrest as they tried to cross the Turkish border with their four children. An Iraqi woman is traumatised by her encounter with "The Biter," a metal tool used by the so-called Islamic State to clip off the skin of women dressed immodestly. And Hayat, another Syrian refugee, arrives on Lesvos to find that her hands are paralysed - a psychosomatic effect associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

They will only remain on the island for a few days before continuing their journeys to northern Europe, making the provision of clinical therapy for their trauma impossible. A psychosocial support team from an Israeli NGO, IsraAid, offers some short-term coping strategies to help them accept their past and prepare for the future.

"When they come to us destroyed, we tell them, 'Look, you have brought your family to safety, you can continue onwards in your journey,'" said Warda Alkrenawy, who heads the team of volunteer psychologists and counsellors, many of them Arabic speakers.

Lesvos has received 60 percent of the nearly 130,000 refugees and migrants who have arrived in Greece since the beginning of the year. Here, as in other locations on the frontlines of Europe's refugee crisis, the urgent need to provide new arrivals with basics such as food and shelter means that mental healthcare needs go largely unmet.

While there is no data available for how many refugees living in Europe are suffering from psychological trauma resulting from the conflicts they have fled, a studypublished by the German Federal Chamber of Psychotherapists last September estimated that as many as half of the refugees living in Germany - the final destination for many of those arriving on Lesvos - have mental health issues. Besides depression, the most common problem is PTSD. But according to the study, only four percent of PTSD sufferers are receiving treatment.

To treat or not to treat?

In most contexts, delving into traumatic memories forms part of the healing process. But Talya Feldman, a volunteer with IsraAid's psychosocial team, explained that working with refugees in such short timeframes meant that alleviating the symptoms of PTSD was often the best they could hope for.

"Living in denial is not a good coping method, but if you're still in [a potentially traumatic situation], and we don't have the resources to really open the wound and treat it, it can be the best way," she told IRIN.

Hayat, the Syrian refugee with the paralysed hands, recovered quickly once medical tests showed that the cause was high levels of stress preventing oxygen from reaching her muscles, rather than any physiological problem. "Just to know that, with all the uncertainty around her, that there was a cause and solution to this one thing, helped her to immediately relax," recalled Mira Atzil, a clinical psychologist with IsraAid.

Atzil encouraged the woman, whose husband had died as they crossed into Turkey, to view the tragedy as an event over which she had no control, in contrast to her future.

Part of this looking forward to the future involves preparing the refugees for what they will need in the weeks to come, from information on requesting asylum, to the available routes, as well as warnings against the dangers of continuing onwards with smugglers.

Last chance

For many of the refugees, Lesvos may be their first and last opportunity to receive psychological treatment. There is currently no mental healthcare network in place to connect refugees with further treatment in other countries along the western Balkans route, although some psychosocial support is available in Serbia, through Atina, an NGO based in Belgrade.

Rima Alshami, a cultural mediator with the organisation, who moved to Serbia three years ago after narrowly escaping a car bomb that exploded near her home in the Syrian capital of Damascus, noted that refugees in transit have emotional coping mechanisms that allow them to continue onward.

"When you make the decision to fight, you're strong," she said of the refugees she has met. "It's when you settle that you need to collapse."

Originally a stockbroker, Alshami spent much of her first year in Serbia in a deep depression that made it difficult for her to get out of bed, let alone process any of her emotions. She said she didn't seek psychological care because she was too busy finding employment and navigating her new country's bureaucracy.

Limited help

The final destination for more than one million asylum seekers in 2015 and a further 153,000 in the first two months of 2016 has been Germany, according to government figures.

The Berlin Centre for Torture Victims (BZFO) - one of only two organisations in the city that offers trauma care free of charge to refugees - is providing short-term intervention to more than 180 refugees and long-term counselling and psychosocial support to more than 700. But BZFO is only able to help about 20 percent of the refugees who request its trauma treatment services.

The only other option for most refugees is to seek help through the public healthcare system - a bureaucratic process that can take months and where interpreters are not guaranteed during therapy sessions.

A star is born

Syrian filmmaker and anti-regime activist Firas Alshater, 24, first started receiving therapy at the BZFO when he arrived in Germany in 2013 and was having flashbacks and nightmares about the torture he experienced in a Syrian jail.

"When I first arrived, I had to start from zero in this new place where I didn't speak the language. I wanted to talk to someone; still, I need to talk to someone. It's not over," he told IRIN.

While he still suffers from occasional nightmares, Alshater has reinvented himself as one of Germany's most sought-after YouTube stars. His web series "Sugar", which has gone viral since launching last month, comically muses on German society and culture from his perspective as a refugee.

Alshater's experience of accessing long-term psychological care is a rare one. He said a number of his friends suffer from sleepless nights, flashbacks and other symptoms associated with PTSD, but that few have sought help. While some are deterred by the stigma still attached to mental health problems in many cultures, others are intimidated by the prospect of divulging their darkest memories to not one but two strangers: a psychologist and a translator.

The simple approach

BZFO's psychologists say they've seen positive results from the use of relatively new methods like Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET), first used to treat Sudanese child soldiers. Patients recall their experiences chronologically in order to crystallise the trauma as a past event and prevent it from haunting them in the present. The method's relative simplicity means it can be administered by professionals with only basic training.

"It's a really promising approach for patients here in Germany, especially since we have a shortage of Arabic-speaking therapists," said Maria Boettche, head of BZFO's research department.

BZFO press officer Meltem Arsu said that treating refugees for their trauma is critical for their integration into German society, and that there is an urgent need for the government to provide more support to mental healthcare services.

"Even short-term support through a social worker and some level of psychotherapy could be enough to stabilise the person so that they can go on with their lives," she told IRIN.

Alshater said a big part of recovering from his own trauma has been getting back into filmmaking and "giving a message that all of us refugees are just people."

"The most important thing for me was to realise that all that I had before was now gone, and I'm in a new life now."
Reuniting refugee families separated by conflict and bureaucracy

Publisher International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Publication Date 29 February 2016 Cite as International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Reuniting refugee families separated by conflict and bureaucracy, 29 February 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56e09a262080.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.

One-year-old Omar from Aleppo in Syria has rejoined his refugee parents in England after a four-month separation, thanks to the combined efforts of the British Red Cross and the ICRC's Beirut delegation.

Amid the chaos of conflict and violence, many things can get lost or left behind when people flee to safety. Family homes, treasured possessions and connections with loved ones are often the things people on the move miss the most. But also at risk are critical documents: birth certificates, passports and other official paperwork that ensures refugees, asylum seekers and other migrants can cross borders, be resettled and seek assistance in other countries. When homes and offices are reduced to rubble and people have very little time to escape, important documents are often destroyed or left behind, presenting people on the move with major problems when it comes to their legal status, resettlement and access to services.

All over the world, the ICRC helps refugees, displaced or stateless persons who do not have appropriate travel documents and therefore cannot return to their country of origin or residence, or go to a country willing to receive them.

One such case was Omar, a one-year-old baby from the besieged Syrian town of Aleppo who arrived in the UK from Lebanon this week after being separated from his parents and three siblings for almost four months. His father fled Aleppo with his wife, then pregnant with Omar, and their three children. Earlier this year he was able to secure a family reunion visa to bring his wife and children to Cardiff, Wales. But an error on Omar's passport, listing his place of birth as the Syrian capital, Damascus, stopped the newborn from boarding a plane.

"He was only eight months old when we left him - he wasn't even on solid food yet," said his mother. "The authorities in Lebanon told me if I didn't leave the country then I would never be allowed to come to the UK. They said this was my only chance. I felt threatened. My other daughter has Down's syndrome and needs a lot of care. I didn't want to leave her either, or my other children. I had to make a snap decision. Either way it was a huge sacrifice. I feel so guilty for leaving him, but I had no choice."

After hearing about the desperate situation, the British Red Cross approached the ICRC's Beirut delegation for help in overcoming the bureaucratic obstacles preventing Omar from being reunited with his parents.

"Thousands of refugees who fled to Lebanon have no valid travel documents and most can't go back home to get them," explains Christine Rechdane, head of the ICRC's Tracing Unit in Beirut.

"The ICRC has lots of experience in helping facilitate travel for refugees in Lebanon either by issuing travel documents or by spealing to the government," continues Rechdane. "After receiving a call from the British Red Cross, we quickly started discussions with the authorities to make sure Omar could get an exit visa and be reunited with his parents as quickly as possible. The Syrian people have been through unimaginable stress and hardship and it's critical that families fleeing war can stay together."

The ICRC in Lebanon has been helping refugees going to the UK in the past two years in various ways. One thing we do is issue the internationally-recognised ICRC Travel Document (ICRC TD) when not having a passport or other document is preventing resettlement or reunification. "Certain countries, such as the UK, issue their own special one-way travel document and don't need the ICRC TD. But even in those cases, we're helping refugees with administrative procedures and helping them clear their exit visas with the Lebanese authorities," explains Rechdane.

And this week, everybody's efforts finally bore fruit, when Omar arrived in England. "I was so excited to see him again," said Mousa's father after meeting his son at London's Heathrow airport. "I was going hot and cold with nerves. I was so worried that he'd have forgotten my face but he smiled when he saw me. Words can't describe how happy I am to have him back with me in time for his first birthday."
Philippines: Fighting causes new displacements in Mindanao

Publisher International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Publication Date 1 March 2016 Cite as International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Philippines: Fighting causes new displacements in Mindanao, 1 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56e09ace6cf1.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.

Clashes between government security forces and armed groups in the Maguindanao province of Mindanao have continued into their fourth week, causing displacement and casualties.

"We are worried about the fate of civilians caught in the fighting. We call on all parties to the conflict to strictly abide by international humanitarian law (IHL)," said Dominic Earnshaw, head of the ICRC office in Cotabato.

"In particular, we remind them that they should take all measures to avoid indiscriminate attacks that may harm civilians. We are deeply alarmed by incidents involving roadside explosive devices that have resulted in injuries and deaths."

To help treat all weapon-wounded - without any distinction - the ICRC donated emergency kits and medicines to health facilities in Maguindanao, Cotabato City and Sultan Kudarat.

A field assessment conducted by an ICRC team on 24 February showed that the displaced population in Maguindanao and North Cotabato have already benefitted from initial assistance provided by the local authorities.

"The ICRC will continue to monitor the situation of the affected population in order to identify any gaps in humanitarian assistance, in coordination with the authorities and the Philippine Red Cross," added Earnshaw.

In addition, armed clashes erupted in Butig, Lanao del Sur, last week. Some residents had to leave their homes to avoid being caught in the fighting. The ICRC is closely following the situation, including the humanitarian consequences of these incidents. It stands ready to provide assistance to the affected population if needs are identified.

The ICRC is a neutral, impartial and independent humanitarian organization whose mandate is to protect and assist people affected by armed conflict and other situations of violence. It has been present in the Philippines for over 60 years, and in Mindanao since 1982.
Kenya: Hope for women after Lamu attack

Publisher International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Publication Date 7 March 2016 Cite as International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Kenya: Hope for women after Lamu attack, 7 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56e09eba4e1.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 attack on the town of Mpeketoni in Lamu had a devastating effect on Teresia Wangechi.

Invaders killed 85 people - all men, except for one woman, Wangechi's daughter. The assault's aftermath left her in charge of six children, orphans that she now must feed and clothe.

Mpeketoni is approximately 100 kilometers south of the Somalia border, a region that has suffered from an increase in violent attacks. On the evening of 15 June 2014, Wangechi's daughter N'gendo went to the market in Mpeketoni to buy food. As darkness covered Kenya's coastal region, the rest of Wangechi's household went to sleep assuming that N'gendo would return later in the night.

The following morning the family awoke to news of the attack in the town center a good distance away. Wangechi frantically began looking for her daughter. One of her sons soon returned with the news that his sister had been shot in the stomach and was admitted at a small hospital in Lamu. She died shortly thereafter from her wounds, leaving behind an infant daughter.

Old and frail, Wangechi's life suddenly became very demanding. Now the mother figure to six orphans - all of them her own grandchildren, most from other daughters that died previously - life turned very difficult. A woman who looks to be in her mid-60s, Wangechi no longer had the energy to farm or look for manual jobs that could feed her family.

Good news soon arrived. She heard the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was working with Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) in supporting widows who were victims of the massacre. Although her husband is still alive, Wangechi qualified because her daughter was the sole breadwinner and also happened to be the only female killed.

''After the attack, widows were flooding the KRCS Mpeketoni office seeking assistance, and this prompted the ICRC to start this programme,'' recalls Anne Wanjiku, the project officer.

Through the joint ICRC/KRCS programme, Wangechi received 70,000 Kenya shillings, about 685 dollars in two installments. The grant allowed her to set up a goat and chicken rearing business. She now can feed her family with the milk, eggs and meat from the project, and she also sells eggs to buy other goods.

The ICRC's Economic Security Programme Manager for Kenya, Awais Naser Khan, said the programme is important because so many women were turned into widows, leaving them vulnerable without a traditional breadwinner in the household.

"The cash transfer programme has helped the widows increase their income to meet basic needs," Khan said. "It has really been appreciated by beneficiaries, community and key stakeholders."

Wangechi's extended family continues to live in uncertainty as Mpeketoni has been turned into an epicenter of security operations by the Kenyan government. Despite that, Wangechi remains optimistic. Her wish: that her grandchildren have a good life.

"I am old and no longer have the physical ability to do manual work," Wangechi said. "Therefore I plan to continue working on this project until my last breath."
Liberia / Cote d'Ivoire: ICRC resumes cross-border family reunifications

Publisher International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Publication Date 7 March 2016 Cite as International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Liberia / Cote d'Ivoire: ICRC resumes cross-border family reunifications, 7 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56e09f01157f.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.

Fourteen Ivorian children who had sought refuge in Liberia five years ago were reunited with their families between 4 and 12 February. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been able to resume its cross-border family reunification activities between Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire following the decision of the tripartite commission (Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) to reopen the humanitarian corridor between the two countries. The border had been officially closed for the last 16 months owing to the Ebola outbreak, meaning the voluntary repatriation process and cross-border family reunifications had had to be suspended.



"These reunifications mean these children get their lives back. We wish them the best of luck," said Miroslawa Czerna, ICRC protection coordinator in Liberia, who accompanied them to the border. The children, aged between 10 and 20, had been living in the so-called Prime Timber Production refugee camp in Grand Gedeh or with foster parents in host communities in Nimba. The ICRC's delegations in Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire worked together to find their relatives, using radio publicity spots and a poster campaign displaying their pictures. Awebpage was also set up to help identify and match separated family members.

This cross-border reunification is the first the ICRC has been able to conduct since the end of the Ebola outbreak. "We wish to thank the Liberian and Ivorian authorities for reopening the humanitarian corridor, enabling the children to get back to their families," said Julien Lerisson, head of the ICRC delegation in Liberia. "The children became separated from their families in 2011 as a result of the violence in Cote d'Ivoire, and we're delighted they can finally return home."

The ICRC endeavours to reunite families separated by conflict or other violence. With the support of a large network of Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers, it focuses on searching for separated family members, restoring contact through phone calls and written Red Cross messages and ultimately, wherever possible, reuniting families.

In times of armed conflict, children separated from their families are often the most vulnerable to abuse and neglect. Reuniting them with family members is essential to ensure their protection and is a core part of the ICRC's work. Over the past five years, the ICRC has successfully reunited 275 children and vulnerable adults with relatives in Cote d'Ivoire.
Kazakhstan: Crossword books, but no religious literature in prison

Publisher Forum 18 Publication Date 9 March 2016 Cite as Forum 18, Kazakhstan: Crossword books, but no religious literature in prison, 9 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56e1618d4.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.

Prisoners are allowed to have crossword books, but no religious literature, a relative of one of the five Sunni Muslim prisoners of conscience held in Kazakhstan's capital Astana complained to Forum 18 News Service. "I asked the guards if I could bring a Koran. They said religious books, as well as political books, are not allowed." The relative also complained that the men had their beards shaved off and their religious head coverings taken from them. The duty officer at Astana's Interior Ministry Investigation Prison, where the five are held, claimed to Forum 18 that religious books are allowed, provided they are checked and stamped by the KNB secret police. A relative of another Sunni Muslim prisoner of conscience, Saken Tulbayev, complained to Forum 18 of restrictions in labour camp in Pavlodar. "If he prays they beat him. He can only pray to himself without anyone observing."
LGBT detainees suffer higher rates of violence, states new UN report

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 9 March 2016 Related Document(s) Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment Cite as UN News Service, LGBT detainees suffer higher rates of violence, states new UN report, 9 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56e162ca40b.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.

9 March 2016 - Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) detainees suffer more acts of violence than the general population in custody, according to a new United Nations human rights report that explored the link between gender and torture.

"Gender stereotypes still cause us to downplay the suffering of women, girls, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people and sometimes even acquiesce in it," Juan E. Mendez, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, said today.

The report to the Human Rights Council looks at gender-based violence through the prism of the Convention against Torture, and highlights a tendency to regard violations against these groups as "ill-treatment" even where they would more appropriately be defined as "torture."

The human rights expert pointed to the clear link between the criminalization of LGBT people and the violence and stigma these groups face. At least 76 countries have laws criminalizing consensual same-sex relationships between adults, he said.

"States are complicit in the violence women and LGBT groups face if they implement discriminatory laws that trap these people in a spiral of abuse," Mr. Mendez stressed. Under Argentina's military dictatorship in the 1970s torture was widespread - and many thousands were "disappeared". A courageous lawyer was among those who suffered - but today he's campaigning to end torture worldwide. Credit: UN TV

Focusing on detention conditions, the report quotes studies that say women make up between 2 per cent and 9 per cent of the prison population in most of the world's prisons. Of those, up to 80 per cent are mothers and yet most jails are typically designed for men.

The expert recommends that non-custodial sanctions be given to help protect women, in particular mother and child, since the majority of crimes committed by women tend to be non-violent in nature.

Denial of safe abortion services can also amount to torture or ill treatment in some cases, where the life of the mother is endangered, or the pregnancy is the result of rape and incest, he said, urging States to reform their laws in this respect.

Domestic violence is far more prevalent than most people realise, said the rapporteur, citing an estimate that 35 per cent of women worldwide have experienced domestic violence of various kinds. Societal indifference, discriminatory laws and attitudes and a culture of impunity exacerbate problems like this, he said.

"States must finally implement their heightened obligation to prevent and combat gender-based violence and discrimination perpetrated by both State and private actors against women, girls and persons who transgress sexual and gender norms," he stressed.

Independent experts or special rapporteurs are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.
UN chief appoints French national to head new political mission in Colombia

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 9 March 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN chief appoints French national to head new political mission in Colombia, 9 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56e1637140c.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.

9 March 2016 - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Jean Arnault of France as the head of the United Nations political mission that will be deployed in Colombia.

In his new capacity, Mr. Arnault, who has been leading the preparations for the future deployment of the mission, will also serve as the Secretary-General's Special Representative in Colombia.

Mr. Arnault has been serving as the Delegate of the Secretary-General to the Sub-Commission on End of Conflict Issues within the Colombia peace process. This position had him working closely with the negotiating teams of the Government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP) in the context of the peace talks underway in Havana, Cuba.

The Security Council in January 2016 approved moves to set up a UN political mission in Colombia, which would consist of unarmed international observers to monitor disarmament, should a final peace agreement be reached between the Government and the FARC-EP.

An experienced UN political official, Mr. Arnault moderated the peace process in Guatemala before being appointed the head of the verification mission in the country (MINUGUA).

He has also worked in senior positions with the UN in Afghanistan, Burundi, Georgia, and was recently the UN Special Adviser to the Group of Friends of Democratic Pakistan.
UN rights expert calls on Turkey to reverse seizure of independent media group

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 8 March 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN rights expert calls on Turkey to reverse seizure of independent media group, 8 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56e1642c40b.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.

8 March 2016 - An independent United Nations human rights expert today called on the Government of Turkey to relinquish State control over Feza Media Group, which includes the Zaman newspaper.

The Government seized the Media Group on Friday following court action linked to national security, a move the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, David Kaye, called an "extraordinary threat to free media and pluralism."

In a statement today, Mr. Kaye reminded the Turkish Government and courts that they are bound by international law and standards.

"Court decisions should be in strict conformity with the rights to freedom of expression and should not impose restrictions that unduly restrict the freedom of press and media," he said.

Mr. Kaye added that he finds it difficult to see how this seizure "meets the international standard that a restriction must be provided by law and necessary to protect a legitimate government interest."

He called on the Turkish Government and judiciary to ensure "an immediate, fair and impartial appeal procedure" and to reverse the decision.

The UN expert said his upcoming visit to Turkey, scheduled for November 2016, will be an opportunity to address such issues as the independence of the media, the safety of journalists, activists and academics, as well as the measures taken to ensure public debate in the country.

Independent experts or special rapporteurs are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.

Last month, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein expressed concern about actions of security forces in Turkey and an "alarming number" of journalists and other media operatives convicted or awaiting trials. He reiterated that anti-terrorism legislation should not be used as a means to curtail freedom of opinion or expression.
Senator Bob Corker released the following statement on Thursday regarding passage of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA), a bipartisan bill to address the drug crisis across the United States.

The prescription opioid and heroin epidemic is destroying lives and tearing apart families, Senator Corker said. I am pleased the Senate passed this bipartisan legislation, which will responsibly help combat this increasingly devastating problem using resources already appropriated by Congress.

Since 2000, the death rate due to opioid abuse has increased 200 percent. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 28,647 drug overdose deaths in 2014 alone involved some type of opioid, including 1,269 people in Tennessee.
UN expert urges Iraqi Government to protect marginalized ethnic, religious groups

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 8 March 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN expert urges Iraqi Government to protect marginalized ethnic, religious groups, 8 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56e16449309.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.

8 March 2016 - A clear message must be sent to all of Iraq's diverse communities that they have a future in the country, an independent United Nations human rights expert today said, calling on the Government to ensure the protection of the most threatened and marginalized ethnic and religious groups.

Speaking at the end of her first official visit to Iraq, UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues Rita Izsak-Ndiaye said the message from the Government "must come in the form of legal, policy and institutional protection frameworks with immediate and concrete measures to ensure their security, dignity, rights and equality."

Since 27 February, Ms. Izsak-Ndiaye had been assessing the situation of communities, including the Baha'i, Christians, Faili Kurds, Kaka'i, Sabian Mandaeans, Shabak, Turkmen, Yezidis and Zoroastrians, who constitute minority or 'component' groups in the country. She visited Baghdad, Erbil and Dohuk, and their surroundings, including camps for internally displaced persons.

"Due to years of marginalization, conflict, ethnic and religious tensions, and recent terrorism, communities seem to have lost trust in each other and in the Government," the UN expert said, calling for trust to be rebuilt in order to keep Iraq's unique cultural heritage and diversity.

Acknowledging that all Iraqi communities have suffered as a result of recent fighting and the "criminal brutality" of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), known also by its Arabic acronym Daesh, Ms. Izsak-Ndiaye said the smaller communities "feel vulnerable and abandoned and many are questioning their continued existence in the country."

She underscored that while the Government must prioritize the clear and immediate danger posed by Daesh, the challenges that many minority groups face did not begin or end with the criminal group.

"Longstanding societal discrimination and marginalization of ethnic and religious groups must be more comprehensively acknowledged and confronted," the expert stated, calling for more meaningful representation in a more inclusive government.

Specific human rights violations

Ms. Izsak-Ndiaye expressed concern in particular for Shia and Sunni communities "who find themselves in different locations where they are also under threat, displaced or face violation of their human rights."

She also voiced alarm for the Yezidi community, whose women and girls have been held captive by Daesh and subject to starvation, sexual slavery, and trade in slave markets for the price of a cigarette pack, and whose men and boys have been victims of targeted and mass killings.

"The perpetrators must be brought to justice to bring the immense suffering of these vulnerable communities to an end," Ms. Izsak-Ndiaye said.

She called also for concerted efforts to free the hundreds of women and girls still held in captivity, and for protection of mass graves and other evidence of atrocities.

Independent experts or special rapporteurs are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.
UN refugee agency 'concerned' about proposed EU deal to send migrants back to Turkey

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 8 March 2016 Related Document(s) UNHCR's reaction to Statement of the EU Heads of State and Government of Turkey, 7 March Cite as UN News Service, UN refugee agency 'concerned' about proposed EU deal to send migrants back to Turkey, 8 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56e1652440c.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.

8 March 2016 - The United Nations refugee agency today expressed a concern about any European response to the migrant crisis that involves the blanket return of all individuals from one country to another without sufficiently spelling out refugee protection safeguards under international law.

According to media reports, the European Union and Turkey yesterday agreed on a provisional deal that would involve people being sent back to Turkey.

UNHCR [The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees] has taken note of the statement of the EU Heads of State and Government of Turkey last night, and we are concerned with some aspects of the proposal, the refugee agency said in a statement.

Although UNHCR is not a party to it nor privy to all the details and modalities of implementation, it believes that an asylum-seeker should only be returned to a third state if responsibility for assessing the particular asylum application in substance is assumed by the third country; the asylum-seeker will be protected from refoulement; the individual will be able to seek and, if recognized, enjoy asylum in accordance with accepted international standards, with full and effective access to education, work, health care and, as necessary, social assistance.

Legal safeguards would need to govern any mechanism under which responsibility would be transferred for assessing an asylum claim, the agency argues. 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.

Details of all these safeguards should be clarified before the EU Council's next meeting on 17 March, the statement said.

On the resettlement point, UNHCR welcomed any initiative that promotes 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.

We hope that individuals returned to Turkey who have specific resettlement needs, such as family reunification, would be considered for the resettlement/admission programme to the EU, the statement said.

The high-level meeting on global responsibility-sharing through legal pathways for admission of Syrian refugees, to take place in Geneva on 30 March, will be a good opportunity to put the spotlight on this important aspect of responsibility sharing, the statement said.

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.
Reporter kidnapped and tortured two weeks after release

Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 8 March 2016 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, Reporter kidnapped and tortured two weeks after release, 8 March 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/56e166fa40d.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 appalling torture to which newspaper reporter Joseph Afandi was subjected just two weeks after his release from a long period of detention, and calls on the government to guarantee the safety of journalists in South Sudan.

It has only just been reported that Afandi was found badly beaten and burned near a cemetery in the capital, Juba, four days ago, and is now hospitalized. A colleague, Ibrahim Awuol, said he has serious leg injuries caused by burning plastic.

Afandi said he was abducted on 4 March by unidentified men in a white vehicle with tinted windows and no number plate. The authorities recently held him incommunicado for two months for criticizing the government's handling of the civil war, which has dragged on for more than two years.

He was finally freed on 19 February without being notified of any charge.

"We condemn this cruel act of violence against Joseph Afandi with the utmost energy and we call for an immediate investigation with the aim of identifying those responsible," said Clea Kahn-Sriber, the head of RSF's Africa desk.

"In the absence of such an investigation, we remind the South Sudanese authorities that those who make such human rights violations possible will one day be called to account before an international court."

Local observers have reported an increase in attacks on journalists in recent weeks. In most cases, the terrified victims have asked not to be identified.

Freedom of information has declined steadily since the start of the deadly civil war in South Sudan, the world's newest state. Six journalists were killed in connection with their work in 2015, while the government has closed at least five media outlets including journalist Niah Bohl's historic Citizen Newspaper.

South Sudan is ranked 125th out of 180 countries in the 2015 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.

Photo : Joseph Afandi, http://www.jubatv.net/
Cleveland State Community Colleges Omega Omicron Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society was honored at the annual Tennessee Region Phi Theta Kappa Convention at Roane State Community College in Harriman, Tn. Members and advisors from 14 Tennessee chapters competed for recognition in the Societys Hallmarks of Scholarship, Leadership, Service, and Fellowship. Phi Theta Kappa is the international honor society of the two-year college and the largest honor society in the world.

During the event, one member was elected to regional office. Cole Barnes was elected as Vice President of East Tennessee. Anna McDade and Bryan Hidalgo were recognized as All-American Team Scholars.



We are very proud of our 2015-2016 chapter officers and excited to have one of our members as a new regional officer, said PTK Advisor Marchelle Wear. We are looking forward to some new events for PTK in the upcoming year.



For its commitment to chapter development, the Omega Omicron Chapter was recognized as being a Four Star Level chapter, the second highest development distinction that can be earned. This year, the Omega Omicron Chapter participated in a service project that included the hands on education of elementary students on the importance of the restoration of the coral reefs.



The Omega Omicron incoming and outgoing officers plan to attend the International Convention in Washington D.C. in April to learn strategies for successful leadership and planning for the chapters projects in the coming year. Omega Omicron Chapter Secretary Emily Phillips is running for the vice president of Division II at the International Convention.



Im excited to represent both my chapter and our region, said Ms. Phillips. I really enjoy my involvement with PTK. I feel like it is helping me to develop strong leadership skills, and Im excited to take it to the next level.

Phi Theta Kappa is the international honor society of the two-year college and has the largest membership of any honor society in the world with chapters in all fifty states, Guam, Germany, Canada, and Japan. The Society bases its total programming on its commitment to excellence in the four Hallmarks of Scholarship, Leadership, Service, and Fellowship. The Hallmark Awards competition is conducted annually and recognizes chapters and individual achievement. Individual and chapter awards are based on essays; programming; letters of recognition; scholarship; service to and leadership in the community and college; and honor society participation.
Actor Samuel L. Jackson, a Riverside High School graduate, is making a donation to the Hamilton County Schools.

He joined some 50 other actors in an online funding effort for education.

Many Chattanooga residents are aware that actor Samuel L. Jackson was raised in Chattanooga, and went to school here.

The actor made a video about his donation in which he said, "I'm doing this because I'm a proud graduate of Riverside High School in Chattanooga. When I was in ninth grade, Riverside came into being because Chattanooga High School built a new school across the river, and we got their old school. Not such a big deal, but it was a big deal to us because we didn't have to ride the bus all the way across town to Howard. And I was able to continue walking to school to help the same 8 or 9 people that I had been walking to school with since the 4th grade. We talked about our hopes. We talked about our dreams. We all graduated on time. Nobody dropped out. We supported each other and our teachers supported us. I loved my education in the Chattanooga school system."

The campaign is expected to raise over $14 million for schools across the country.
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.
Abilene Christian University Thursday announced the purchase of an apartment building to help relieve housing needs.

The freshman class of almost 1,100 students is the largest in three decades, according to an ACU news release.

Thanks to a gift from Max and Gayle Dillard of Dallas. Abilene Christian University has purchased Christian Village of Abilene at 633 E.N. 19th St. It was formerly owned and operated by Christian Village of Abilene and is being renovating as a sophomore women's residence hall.

According to the news release, the three-story Gayle and Max Dillard Hall will house about 170 students, serving as ACU's 11th residence hall and providing much-needed living space for its growing enrollment.

'Max and Gayle believe strongly in honoring women for the role they play in the development of the faith of their children,' said President Phil Schubert. 'Their gift is a tremendous blessing as it helps provide an important living space for women on this campus.'

Established by the University Church of Christ, Christian Village opened in 1986 as a nonprofit independent living facility for seniors. Land for the project was donated by ACU. Residents often were alumni and retired faculty and staff, as were many of Christian Village's trustees.

Seeing the facility's future in jeopardy in recent years because of shrinking occupancy, Christian Village board members approached ACU in 2015 about the possibility of purchasing the property and restoring its initial connection to the university. The Dillards' gift made this a reality.

'We're very grateful to ACU for purchasing Christian Village's building,' said David Swearingen, president of Christian Village's board of trustees. 'We can't think of a better way for Christian Village to be used in the future  as a place for students to live as they prepare for life as young Christian adults.'

Gayle Dillard attended in ACU in the late 1950s, and together the Dillards have seen three children and three grandchildren attend the university. Max Dillard is managing director of The Dillard Group of Texas, LTD.

'Dillard Hall will be treasured for generations, and I am grateful for Max and Gayle's leadership and dedication to ACU,' Schubert said.

Apartments at Dillard Hall will contain a living space, bedroom and kitchen for two to four students. The first two floors have an indoor commons area and the third floor has an outside deck.

The renovation includes new wiring, plumbing, flooring and furniture, said Kevin Roberts, vice president of planning and operations.

'Dillard Hall is an exciting addition to our on-campus housing,' Roberts said. 'It has fantastic living spaces and some much-needed public spaces. This combination will provide a wonderful place for our students to grow, live and learn.'

Dillard Hall will be open to students beginning in August.
Abilene Christian University's Partnering in the Journey campaign got a boost recently from an alumni donor, allowing the fund to provide more opportunities to assist students with college costs.

A $20 million commitment from Lacy and Dorothy Harber of Denison, helped the fund top $50 million and is the second-largest single scholarship endowment gift in school history, ACU said in a media release.

The Harbers were both raised in the Abilene area, and Lacy attended Abilene Christian in the late 1950s, the school said.

Since the campaign was publicly launched in February 2012, and including gifts made since June 1, 2010, 105 new endowed scholarships have been created and 67 existing endowments received $10,000 or more in new funding, the school said.

All freshmen receive financial aid, the school said, which makes endowed scholarships an important tool for attracting the best students and providing them valuable assistance toward earning a degree.

The average first-year ACU student's financial aid package for 2014-15 was $24,000, which included a combination of scholarships, grants, work-study and loans, according to the school. ACU offered more than 4,400 scholarships and grants valued at more than $34 million to the entering Class of 2015.
Doug Thomas, a sophomore physical therapy major at McMurry University, was informed he had committed three errors while walking a straight line Wednesday.

He was going to jail.

He won't actually be locked up, though. He took off the vision-impairing goggles he was wearing and his record was clear again.

It was all part of the university's Mockaritaville event, designed to inform students of the dangers of drinking and driving.

"It was scary, like I was out of control," Thomas said. "I had to figure out where the line was. It was difficult just trying to pay attention to where the line was."

Administered by Taylor County Deputy Randi Watson, the walking test is designed to help police officers determine if a subject is intoxicated, as a lack of motor coordination is one sign of drunkenness, according to the World Health Organization.

Watson said the event ]also is meant to promote awareness of drinking while driving and what it can cause. A virtual simulator, using a video game and a steering wheel accessory, was available for students to play with while wearing the "beer goggles."

"This allows us to prepare the students for the real world without getting them intoxicated to find out," she said.

About 120 students on average turn out for McMurry's Mockaritaville, a pre-spring break tradition, according to Ronda Hoelscher, a nurse at the school and event coordinator.

In addition to the straight line walk and the virtual simulator, students got to try a peddle car with the "beer goggles," taste nonalcoholic margaritas and learn about what sun exposure can do skin.

This year's event was hampered by the weather, though students still filtered through the Garrison Campus Center.

"We want to show ... they can have a good time without alcohol being involved," Hoelscher said.

Odalis Rodriguez, a psychology major at the school, said she's never driven while intoxicated and that she won't after trying her hand at the virtual simulator.

While she'd driven in the video game before, she was still surprised by what happened enough to scare her away.

"I thought I was doing fine at first, but somehow I ended up going the wrong way," she said. "You have to focus a lot on where you're going. You have to make sure you're going the right way."
SHARE

A bit late in the nomination process, but hours before the debate March 3, Mitt Romney, the GOP nominee who lost to President Obama in 2012, advised Republicans to support anyone but Donald Trump.

Some remarks from this rare speech:

The Economy

Under Trump's plans, "the country would sink into prolonged recession. . .

"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.

"His tax plan in combination with his refusal to reform entitlements and honestly address spending would balloon the deficit and the national debt. . . . He would be very bad for American workers and for American families."

"But you say, wait, wait, wait, isn't he a huge business success? Doesn't he know what he's talking about?

"No, he isn't and no he doesn't.

"Look, his bankruptcies have crushed small businesses and the men and women who work for them. He inherited his business, he didn't create it.

"And whatever happened to Trump Airlines? How about Trump University? And then there's Trump Magazine and Trump Vodka and Trump Steaks and Trump Mortgage. A business genius he is not."

International Affairs

"Mr. Trump's bombast is already alarming the allies and fueling the enmity of our enemies.

"Insulting all Muslims will keep many of them from fully engaging with us in the urgent fight against ISIS, and for what purpose? Muslim terrorists would only have to lie about their religion to enter the country.

"And then what he said . . . about Syria and ISIS, (is) the most ridiculous and dangerous idea of the entire campaign season. Let ISIS take out Assad, he said, and then we can pick up the remnants."

Trump and The Truth

"Dishonesty is Donald Trump's hallmark. He claimed that he had spoken clearly and boldly against going into Iraq. Wrong. He spoke in favor of invading Iraq.

"He said he saw thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating 9/11. Wrong. He saw no such thing. He imagined it.

"He's not of the temperament of the kind of stable, thoughtful person we need as a leader. His imagination must not be married to real power. The president of the United States has long been the leader of the free world."

A Role Model

"The president (helps) define America to billions of people around the world. All of them bear the responsibility of being an example for our children and our grandchildren.

"Think of Donald Trump's personal qualities. The bullying, the greed, the showing off, the misogyny, the absurd third-grade theatrics. . . .

"Now, imagine your children and your grandchildren acting the way he does. Would you welcome that? Haven't we seen before what happens when people in prominent positions fail the basic responsibility of honorable conduct? We have. And it always injures our families and our country."

Tax Returns

"I predict that despite his promise to do so, first made over a year ago, that he will never ever release his tax returns. Never  not the returns under audit; not even the returns that are no longer being audited. He has too much to hide."

The Bottom Line

"Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University.

"He's playing the members of the American public for suckers. He gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat."

Romney's Anybody-But-Trump posture expressed the concern of mainstream Republicans about the potential down-ballot damage the party could suffer with Trump heading the November ticket.

Romney, on "Meet The Press" Sunday, recommended voting for any of the three remaining GOP candidates not named Trump  Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

South Carolina U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, who dropped out of the presidential race just before Christmas, is in the grudging position of even supporting Cruz over Trump.

Graham earlier had compared the choice between Trump and Cruz to choosing "death by being shot or poisoning. Does it really matter?"

"But if Ted's the alternative to Trump, he's at least a Republican and conservative," Graham said.

"Email Dave McNeely at davemcneely111@gmail.com.
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.

Bloomberg View
Today in history: On March 10, 1969, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to the killing of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee, almost a year earlier  April 4, 1968. A hunting rifle was found on a sidewalk near the Motel Lorraine, where King was gravely wounded. Eyewitness reports and fingerprints led police to Ray. He was arrested at a London airport, trying to fly to Belgium on his way to Rhodesia. Ray, who recanted his guilty plea, was given 99 years in prison, where he died in 1998.
My dad could plainly read the tea-leaves - that the U.S. would soon be involved in a second World War. He would sit in the kitchen of a morning before leaving to catch the bus, and read aloud to my mom and me about what "Mr. Hitler" was doing. The unpredictabilities of war were about to change the country's way of life for years to come. Steel would be needed for the war effort and auto manufacturers would be building military vehicles. Gas might also be rationed.

Dad was very conservative in everything he did, so the prospect of buying a new car was something he did a bit grudgingly. It was true that our old "A-Model" Ford was increasingly out of date. His co-workers were urging him toward buying a new car just in case things got bad, and that is what he did. (And things DID get bad!)

He had known the people at Rice Brothers Chrysler and Plymouth for a long time through his mail routes - they were located somewhere near where Zarzours's Restaurant is located today - so he chose them and one day drove home in a brand new 1941 Plymouth!

It was a really great car for its day, although it lacked a heater, and air-conditioning for cars was still about one decade in the future. I was much taken with the odometer which lit up from green to red as you increased the speed; it reminded me of a feature which could have been displayed in the New York World's Fair of 1939, which we had visited.

Dad, of course, had lived all through World War I, and had the suspicion that gas might soon be rationed - and he was right. Partially wishing to "break-in" the new vehicle, and partially simply to enjoy it, he and my mom planned two very nice trips for us. One was to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which had only recently opened and whose popularity was steadily increasing. A second trip was planned to St. Augustine and Daytona Beach, Florida.

Both those trips were of great excitement to me - to meet Chief Standing-Deer in the Smokies, and then to sit on the beach near the then-new clock tower at Daytona while digging periwinkles out of the sand with my mom.

The Smokies impressed me for life! I fell in love with the simple layout of Cherokee, there on the banks of the Oconaluftee River with its dark, mossy bed. It was ideal for kids to wade in, if nothing else. In those days the "trading posts" seemed very real and authentic, like going back a hundred years in time. The pleasant smell of new leather pervaded the atmosphere in those places, and I loved it! There were wigwam-shaped tourist cabins with live bears chained outside them. And then there were the several Native American men who shot their bows and arrows mainly for the fun of it, as nobody had their hand out. My greatest delight in Cherokee was to meet Chief (Carl) Standing-Deer, who was a great tourist attraction in his own right. He got frequent write-ups in newspapers throughout the South, and we kept watch in our local papers for stories about him. I remember him singing some kind of chant for us that sounded like, "wah-HEE-yah", and I never knew if it was an authentic Cherokee chant; I only knew that I was enCHANTed by it and have remembered it all my life.

After Cherokee, we followed Route 441 up the mountain to Newfound Gap and Clingman's Dome. Between those two sites we got stopped in a minor traffic jam where we saw a mother bear with FOUR cubs! That is rare, but I have photographic proof of it. That first trip to the Smokies was seminal, as it has intrigued me ever since 1941 and kept me going back for more. It was many years before I discovered Cades Cove and other delightful areas of the park.

Our Florida trip in the new Plymouth occurred just before I started first grade at Anna B. Lacey. I remember telling Ms. Bynum our teacher about it. My mother knew a very elderly lady at St. Augustine, and so we stopped there to visit with her. She lived in an old house on one of those streets lined by live-oak trees with the very long fronds of Spanish moss which undulated in the breeze. It was near the Fountain of Youth site, and so we visited there. The famous "Bridge of Lions" was new, and it beckoned us on to points south: Daytona!

We stopped at an old-line tourist home in Daytona Beach, which we would see on subsequent trips for many years. It stood beside U.S. Hwy. A1A, the easternmost highway in the country. I saw a documentary on it in the early days of network TV, and it was a virtual "Route 66" of the eastern seaboard, extending from Maine to Key West. There was a pedestrian tunnel under the highway at that time which connected our Parker's Tourist Home (and others) with the beach. A major feature here was a newly built (WPA project) clock tower which has become a defining symbol of Daytona Beach. I recently Googled it and found that it is still there after more than 75 years since I first saw it, and that a high-rise hotel has risen behind it! One would think that if the coast of Florida was gradually sinking into the Atlantic, that the stone clock-tower would have sunk at least an inch or two by now. But no - and I am glad. And the new high-rise hotel looks pretty secure as well!

The Rice Brother's 1941 Plymouth served us well on both those trips, and, although my dad had several new cars in the intervening years, he kept that one purely for sentimental reasons. It stayed with us - and in remarkably good shape - until about 1960. It was my first "dating" car, and we even improved it by adding a heater during my high school years.

(Chester Martin is a native Chattanoogan who is a talented painter as well as local historian. He and his wife, Pat, live in Brainerd. Mr. Martin can be reached at cymppm@comcast.net )
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

This just in...
The Chattanooga Symphony & Opera Youth Orchestras continue their 2015/16 season on March 14 at 7:30 p.m. at Brainerd Baptist Church with a concert performed by the CSOYO Symphony with Gary Wilkes conducting. The music will feature Espana Rhapsody by the French composer Chabrier, and the final movement from Symphony No. 3 by Saint-Saens with the addition of the organ part.

The CSOYO Philharmonic, conducted by Sandy Morris, will open the concert with a variety of selections, featuring music by Robert Sheldon, Enrique Granados, Vittorio Monti, and Antonin Dvorak.

"The New World Symphony by Dvorak, one of the great masterworks of the orchestral repertoire, was written while the composer was visiting in the U.S. Dvorak believed that Americans should look to their own native musical sources (esp. Afro-American spirituals) for inspiration, and this symphony was a demonstration of how that could be accomplished in our own country," officials said.



Also featured on the program is the third-place winner for the 2015 CSOYO Concerto Competition, Christy Song, and CSOYO alumna Sarah Ransom.

This will be a penny performance. All children and students accompanied by a (paying) adult may attend for one penny each. Regular admission is $6 for adults, $4 for children, students, and seniors. Call 423-267-9011 for more information.

Program:

CSOYO Philharmonic

SHELDON Resurgences

GRANADOS Spanish Dance No. 4, Villanesca

MONTI Csardas

DVORAK Symphony No. 9 (from the New World)

I. Adagio; Allegro molto

CSOYO Symphony

CHABRIER Espana Rhapsody for Orchestra

PAGANINI Violin Concerto No. 1

I. Allegro maestoso

Christy Song, soloist

KOUSSEVITZKY Concerto for Contrabass

I. Allegro

Sarah Ransom, soloist

SAINT-SAENS Symphony No. 3 (Organ Symphony)

IV. Maestoso; Allegro

About Christy Song:

Born in Seoul, Korea, Christy began studying the violin at the age of three with Eun-Gyung Shin. At the age of 5, she won first place in a Classic National Competition, and the Korean-American National Competition at age 6.



She was concertmaster of the Korean Youth Orchestra from age 9 to ll. Since coming to Chattanooga in 2012, she has been a student of Ann Rylands, and a member of the CSOYO.

She also studies the flute with Kristen Holritz and was accepted into the GMEA All-State Band in 2015 and 2016.

Christy is a freshman at Heritage High School in Ringgold, GA.



About Sarah Ransom:

A native of Chattanooga, Sarah Ransom enjoys her work as a double bass performer and educator.

She earned her bachelors degree in music education with Steve Benne at Tennessee Technological University and is currently pursuing a masters degree in double bass performance with Micah Howard at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Music. Some of her other teachers include Taylor Brown, Eric Hanson, and her father, James Ransom.

Sarah maintains an active performing career as an orchestral double bass player, chamber musician, and jazz bassist. As an orchestral musician, she has had the privilege of working with such orchestras as the Chattanooga Symphony, Huntsville Symphony, Bryan Symphony, Orchestra Kentucky, as well as many university orchestras throughout Tennessee.

As a jazz bassist, she has enjoyed working with groups such as the Tennessee Tech University Faculty Jazz Ensemble, Uptown Big Band, Swing Street Big Band, All Of Us Jazz Combo, and frequently plays with the Creede Repertory Theater in Creede, Co. as a resident pit musician and jazz bassist. She has also spent some time working on commercial recordings in Tennessee and Colorado.

In addition to maintaining a private teaching studio, Sarah has worked with many public schools and summer music festivals throughout Tennessee and hopes to continue to do so in her new Pittsburgh environment.

She is proud to be analumnus of the CSO Youth Orchestras and is excited to come back and work with the organization that helped propel her into the career she has today.
Author Tsering Woeser uses her blog "Invisible Tibet," together with poetry, historical research, and social media platforms, to give voice to millions of ethnic Tibetans who are denied freedom of expression. In a recent commentary for RFA's Mandarin Service, she talks about the politicization of a centuries-old Tibetan Buddhist dispute by the ruling Chinese Communist Party:



On Dec. 21, 2015, Reuters ran an article by three of their most experienced journalists titled "China co-opts a Buddhist sect in global effort to smear Dalai Lama."



"A Reuters investigation has found that the religious sect behind the protests has the backing of the Communist Party. The group has emerged as an instrument in Beijings long campaign to undermine support for the Dalai Lama," the article said.



The name of this Buddhist sect is Dorje Shugden, shortened to Shugden.



Problems first began to emerge with Shugden in the 17th and 18th centuries, but weren't spoken about publicly until the 1990s.



The Dalai Lama, based on many years of observation and more importantly on Buddhist teaching, has said that if monks and believers wish to be true followers of his Gelugpa sect, they should give up the worship of spirits like Shugden and base their practice on Buddhist doctrine.



The problem of Shugden has lasted for 300-400 years, and through five incarnations of the Dalai Lama.



However, a more detailed examination of the issue would mean investigating experiences which are often only accessible to meditators who have worked through certain practices in sequence. The very precise words used to describe such experiences are frequently misunderstood by a lot of people.



But it's not just about spirits: religious belief is in itself a very personal thing.



There is no question that human beings have worshipped all manner of spirits, gods, animal and plant totems through history.



But if you call yourself a follower of Tibetan Buddhism, and you rely on deities and spirits rather than Buddhist doctrine; if you see them as more important than the Buddha himself, then there's a problem.



Even more importantly, adherents of Shugden practice are the fundamentalists of the Gelugpa sect, because they recognize only the Gelugpa school as the true form of Buddhism. They are intolerant, and reject the Nyingma, Kagyu and Sakya and any other schools of Tibetan Buddhism, seeing them as inauthentic.



The Dalai Lama doesn't want to see infighting between the schools lead to the fragmentation of Tibetan Buddhism, and sees the fundamentalism of the Shugden followers as religious intolerance.



Monks in the pay of China

In indicating that followers of the Gelugpa school should drop their Shugden practice, he is effectively handing over greater religious freedom to believers. It is effectively a negation of something negative that yields a positive.



He also makes the point that Shugden practice doesn't really constitute a religious belief. Tibetan Buddhism has its wellsprings in the teachings transmitted by Nalanda monastery, or university [c. 400 B.C.-1200], and it would be sad and terrible if its rich teachings were to be reduced to the worship of a deity and the protection of a single soul [rather than the salvation of all sentient beings].



That's why the Dalai Lama has acted to set the Gelugpa school to rights. This is the first major reform to Tibetan Buddhism since that of the Tsongkhapa [13571419].



Unlike , Tibet was entirely under self-rule back in the day of the Tsongkhapa, and he was only able to bring in his sweeping reforms and restore Buddhism to its original state because religious affairs were the province of religious people. His reforms ushered in an era of unprecedented prosperity.



The Shugden issue used to be just a religious one, and one confined to the Gelugpa school at that, although the Nyingma, Kagyu and Sakya schools were deeply alienated by the desire of Shugden followers to suppress all of the other schools of Tibetan Buddhism, and despised Shugden as a symbol of evil.



But other forces had to get involved, both overtly and covertly, turning the Dalai Lama's reforms into a tug-of-war, and making what should have been a religious matter political.



As the Reuters report put it: "A leaked internal Communist Party document shows that China is intervening in the dispute. The party document, issued to officials [in 2014], said the Shugden issue is 'an important front in our struggle with the Dalai clique'."



What about the Tibetan view? One Tibetan intellectual told me: "There are many good things about Tibetans as a people, and many weaknesses, which include narrow-minded contentiousness and the endless internecine bickering of religious sects. This even goes on among Tibetans in exile ... And they can be greedy too. Some of these followers of Shugden see him as a lifelong cash cow."



He's right. Some people get their livelihood from Shugden; some have got rich from him or been promoted to higher office because of him.



As the Reuters report said, China paid senior Shugden monks to plan and coordinate the activities of the sects followers overseas, controlled and funded by the ruling Chinese Communist Partys ideological unit, the United Front Work Department.



For a lot of people, Shugden isn't about religious belief any more; he's their bread and butter.



Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
A journalist uses a smartphone to photograph deputies attending the second plenary meeting of the Fourth Session of the 12th National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, March 9, 2016.

As the National Peoples Congress convenes, the Chinese government is attempting to plug the hole virtual private networks have drilled through the Great Firewall as Beijing shores up the complex system of blocks, filters and human censorship the government uses to control speech on the Internet.

Many Internet users in China rely on VPNs to get around the "Great Firewall," the nickname used for the barriers Beijing erects to limit the content users in the country can see -- including sites from overseas media organizations and other politically sensitive content.

Guangzhou-based rights activist Jia Pin said he has been unable to scale the Great Firewall for the past week.

"I used to use ... software that worked really well, and never had any problems before, but I haven't been able to climb the wall in the past week or so," Jia told RFA's Chinese Service. "The VPN isn't working very well either, especially in Guangzhou, where the problem seems to be worse."

Jia said many of his friends reported similar problems.

"I think it's to do with the parliamentary sessions ... because I've never seen this before," he said.

Another Internet user in Guangzhou, Liu Sifang, reported similar issues.

"It's still possible to get around because I have several different VPNs, and I can switch between them," Liu said. "But sometimes it's hard to connect to the VPN server, or the connection needs to be repeatedly reset."

Speed tests

Informal speed testing carried out by the Tips for China blog showed varying speeds, with many VPN services blocked on Sunday, the second day of the annual session of the National Peoples Congress, the blog reported in an update on Thursday.

The blog also reported intermittent service and slow speeds on VPNs run by VyprVPN and ExpressVPN.

One service provider cited the annual parliamentary sessions in Beijing as the reason for the problems.

"Due to political meetings in Beijing, VPN access from China may be limited," the Astrill virtual private network service tweeted ahead of the National People's Congress annual session, which runs from March 5-15.

"We ask for your patience. Thanks for understanding," the tweet said.

One Twitter user commented: "@astrill, I did not sign up for a two year contract for this  already without VPN for one week in China! Has affected my business, not happy."

Without a VPN, many online services run by foreign companies like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are blocked.

Other services hit

While Beijing may be trying to stonewall VPNs, other Internet services are also getting blocked.

Internet users also reported that the social media accounts of Hong Kong's English-language South China Morning Post newspaper were deleted in China during the parliamentary sessions.

Its website, scmp.com was blocked China on Thursday, according to an online analysis by GreatFire.org, while the paper's Chinese-language news site nanzao.com showed contradictory results.

The SCMP's official accounts on the Twitter-like services Tencent and Sina Weibo returned an error page, with users reporting no visible posts on its page on the smart phone app WeChat.

"This account has been closed, and the contents are not viewable," a message on the SCMP's WeChat account page said on Wednesday.

Propaganda memo

The ruling Chinese Communist Party's powerful propaganda department issued a directive last week detailing required coverage of the NPC by the country's media.

Among the points was an order to "strictly control negative reports in new media," according to a translation of a leaked memo published by the China Digital Times website.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists reported last week that heavy-handed government censorship has now been extended to cover social media like Sina Weibo.

The CPJ based its report on leaked censorship logs obtained from a former employee of the company, which list some four pages of dos and don'ts for censorship staff working at the company between April 2011 and late 2014.



Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
A view inside one of the illegal gambling operations shut down by local police in Laos' Luang Namtha province, Feb. 23, 2026.

Local police seized more than 100 slot machines in a raid this month as authorities cracked down on illegal gambling operations in the northern Luang Namtha province, local residents and law enforcement officials told RFA.

On March 4, police and other government officials inspected restaurants and hotels located in the Long and Sing districts as well as the city of Luang Namtha after local people complained that some of the businesses were also illegal gambling dens.

The raid was conducted to keep security and order in the province according to a provincial committee resolution issued in January, police Major Somphone Souvannakasy told RFAs Lao Service. Now, we shut down the restaurants and hotels with slot-machines, and we will re-check the permits.

While Major Somphone Souvannakasy told RFA that government officials are investigating the operators for prosecution, residents in the area say the gambling dens have ties with local officials.

Some Chinese operators open restaurants and hotels, and then with the cooperation and permission of some of the local officials they install slot machines for gambling later on, said a local resident, who talked on condition of anonymity.

Many Southeast Asian countries have seen a surge in casinos as both legal and illicit as gambling is generally illegal in China.

Laos has seen a casino building boom as mostly Chinese investors have built several veritable gambling palaces in the country. While the gambling concessions bring in cash for the government, most casino employees and customers are Chinese with a sprinkling of local people.

That also seemed to be the case for the illegal gambling operations in Luang Namtha.

The gambling ran from 7 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., and the majority of players are Chinese with some Lao young people, some of whom are younger than 18 years old, said the local resident who lives near the gambling district.

While there are doubts over how long it will last, the government-imposed shutdown appears to be working.

It is good that the officials shut it down and now I do not see people come to play, the resident told RFA

Reported by RFA's Lao Service. Translated by Ounkeo Souksavanh. Written in English by Brooks Boliek.
One of Aung San Suu Kyis picks for her partys two presidential candidates pledged Thursday to prioritize ethnic affairs and focus on national reconciliation, echoing her plan to bring together the countrys various armed ethnic groups that have been engaged in hostilities with the Myanmar army for decades.



The National League for Democracy (NLD), which Aung San Suu Kyi chairs, nominated Henry Van Thio, an ethnic Chin NLD deputy in parliaments upper house, along with Htin Kyaw, a long-time aide to Aung San Suu Kyi, for president.



As a Chin ethnic, I am very happy and proud of being nominated as a vice president which is one of the highest positions in the nation, Van Thio said. It highlights how serious I am about acting in the interest of ethnic peoples.



What I would like to say is that I will work as much as I can for the ethnics and to build a new nation, he said.



Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party won last Novembers general elections with more than 80 percent of the vote, has made national reconciliation a cornerstone of the NLD-led government.



What I see on NLDs agenda is that it has given priority to the ethnics groups because our country needs national reconciliation right now, he said.



Myanmars ethnic minority groups, which have long opposed centralized authority, have called for a federal union, giving their states the right to democracy, national equality and autonomy.



We nominated a Chin candidate because we are thinking about national reconciliation, ethnic unity and building a federal union, said NLD spokesman Zaw Myint Maung. We did it according to our policy, which [requires] any president to be one who is faithful to the NLD and will work for the country and the people.



Other ethnic deputies in the National Assembly gave their seal of approval to Van Thio.



What the NLD did for nominating vice presidents was beautiful, said Sai Eik Paung, chairman of the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP). The NLDs action seems to be inclusive and multiethnic which can be seen as [moving closer] to a federal system.



I like it. I hope we will have better situation in the country, he said.



Next president?



Some ethnic deputies also praised the NLDs nomination of Htin Kyaw, an ethnic Burman-Mon who helps run Aung San Suu Kyis charitable foundation, as the candidate in the lower house.



Although the lower house, upper house and military lawmakers, who hold 25 percent of reserved seats, each separately elect a vice-presidential candidate, it is believed that Htin Kyaw will be elected president when the combined, NLD-dominated houses cast votes for the three nominees.



Under Myanmars political system, whoever gets the most votes will become president, while the two runners-up will be appointed vice presidents.



Manan Tuu Jar, chairman of the Kachin State Democracy Party, said Htin Kyaw, son of famous poet Min Thu Wun and son-in-law of former army colonel U Lwin who joined the opposition NLD party in its early stages, was the right person for the job.



He has a political history, is in good health, and is an intellectual  We will support him, he said.



But not everyone agreed.



Htin Kyaw doesnt have much experience, but he has some qualifications, said Thu Wai, chairman of the Democratic Party (Myanmar). The most important thing for him is to have his own power to do what he wants to do.



According to the constitution, Aung San Suu Kyi, cannot become president because her two sons are foreign nationals, as was her late husband. Nevertheless, she has said that she will be above the president.



There are two kinds of presidents, such as the puppet president and the powerful president," Thu Wai said. "We should have a powerful president with full of qualifications.



The military has yet to name its nominee.



Reported by Win Ko Ko Latt, Thin Thiri, Thiha Tun and Wai Mar Tun. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
UPDATED at 10.15 a.m. EST on 2016-03-10

Aung San Suu Kyi tapped a trusted aide and National League for Democracy (NLD) insider as her candidate for president of Myanmar on Thursday, ending months of secrecy surrounding the countrys historic transition to a democratically elected government after decades of military rule.

In the lower house, the NLD nominated Htin Kyaw for vice president, while the outgoing ruling party, the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), nominated Sai Mauk Kham, a current vice president, officials told reporters.

In the upper house, the NLD nominated Henry Ban Thio, an MP representing Chin State in that chamber . The USDP nominated Khin Aung Myint, a former chairman of the upper house.

Under Myanmars complicated formula, the president is selected from among the three vice-presidents elected by the parliament or Pyidaungsu Hluttaw. The Pyithu Hluttaw (lower house), the Amyotha Hluttaw (upper house) and the military lawmakers who hold a 25 percent of reserved seats each separately elect a vice-presidential candidate.

The army, whose representatives did not take part in Thursday's nominations by elected parliamentarians, is expected to propose its candidate next week, officials told reporters.

Following vetting by a selection committee, a three-way run-off will be held in coming days. The two candidates who arent selected as president become vice presidents.

Son, husband of politicians



According to a brief profile in the Bangkok Post, the 69-year-old Htin Kyaw has strong political credentials as the son-in-law of U Lwin, a founder and long-time official of the NLD and the son of a famed poet who won a seat during the partys 1990 parliamentary election victory that the military junta refused to recognize. Htin Kyaw's wife also serves as an NLD lawmaker.



The 1972 Oxford graduate served as Aung San Suu Kyis driver at times during her 15 years of house arrest, and like his late father Min Thu Wun, is a writer who has published under the pen name Dala Ban, or "Mon Warrior", the Post reported. He now works as an executive in Aung San Suu Kyi's charitable education foundation  the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation  named after her mother.

Kachin State Democracy Party Chairman Manan Tuu Jar called Htin Kyaw "the right person" for the job and a man with "almost no weak points."

"He has political history, good health and is an intellectual of a good age. He can still work a lot (for the country), " he said. "We will support him."

The NLDs landslide victories in elections for both houses of parliament last November ensures that Htin Kyaw will become president after three-way parliamentary voting.

Aung San Suu Kyi, 70, the 1991 Nobel Prize winner and leader of the NLD, cannot assume the presidency under a clause in the constitution passed by the junta in 2008 that bars her from Myanmars highest office because her children are British citizens.

Htin Kyaw and Aung San Suu Kyi in the mid-1990s, when he represented her while she was under house arrest. RFA 'Above the president'

She had held three rounds of talks with military chief Min Aung Hlaing as part of the NLDs efforts to persuade the army to amend the constitution or suspend it to allow her to become president. When those negotiations failed, the NLD focused on selecting a proxy president to run the country while Suu Kyi rules from a position she described last year as above the president.

Aung San Suu Kyi has not elaborated on the role she intends to play. Analysts point to other examples in Asia, such as Singapore's late founder Lee Kwan Yew, who remained a senior minister after his official retirement, or India's Sonia Gandhi, who wielded power in her Congress party's government without having an official role.

"According to the constitution, Daw [honorific] Aung San Suu Kyi cant be president, and she already said that she will be above the president," said Sai Late, general secretary of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy. "Therefore, whoever becomes the president, I believe the new NLD government can achieve many more reforms than the current government has been doing if it is running the nation under the direction of Aung San Suu Kyi."



Wai, chairman of the Democratic Party (Myanmar), however, voiced caution about the expected arrangement.

"There are two kinds of presidents, such as the puppet president and the powerful president. We should have a powerful president with full qualifications," he said.

"Htin Kyaw doesnt have much experience, but has some qualifications and abilities. The most important thing for him is to have his own rights and power to do what he wants to do," added Thu Wai.

Ethnic reconciliation goals



Despite the NLDs strong majority in parliament and support from regional ethnic-based political parties, Aung San Suu Kyi and her government will face challenges from a stillpowerful military when it takes power on March 31.

The military junta that ruled since a 1962 coup handed power to a quasi-civilian government made up of outgoing president Thein Sein and other ex-generals in 2011.

The junta, however, drafted a constitution that in addition to preventing Aung San Suu Kyi from becoming president, also gives the military three powerful ministries and 25 percent of the seats in parliament  granting a veto over constitutional change.

NLD spokeswoman Zaw Myint Maung said the choice of little-known ethnic Chin lawmaker Henry Ban Thio represented Aung San Suu Kyi's commitment to achieving national reconciliation in Myanmar, a multi-ethnic former British colony where more than a dozen ethnic armies have been fighting the central government in self-determination conflicts that go back decades. Fighting raged in some regions during the November election campaign.

"We nominated a Chin candidate because we are thinking about national reconciliation, ethnic unity and building a federal union," she said.

Henry Ban Thio said his nomination "highlights how serious I am about the interests of ethnic groups."

What I see in the NLDs action is that it gave priority to the ethnic groups as our country needs national reconciliation right now.

Reported by Win Naing, Win Ko Ko Lat, Thin Thiri, Thiha Tun and Wai Mar Tun for RFA's Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Paul Eckert.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has criticized Afghanistan's justice system over the case of a woman beaten to death by a mob last year.

In a statement on March 10, HRW said the system had bitterly failed Farkhunda Malikzada when it cut the sentences of the 13 men convicted of her murder.

HRW also called it a "bitter irony" that Afghanistan's Supreme Court confirmed the reduced sentences on March 8, International Women's Day.

On March 19 last year, a Kabul mob brutally attacked 27-year-old Malikzada outside a shrine in the Afghan capital, after one of the men in the group shouted that she had burned a Koran, the Muslim holy book -- an accusation that was later found to be false.

The brutal slaying stunned the country and led to calls for reform of the judicial system, long plagued by corruption, partisanship, and incompetence -- and stronger protection for women from violence.

Four men were originally sentenced to death for her murder and another nine were handed long prison sentences.

However, the Supreme Court this week upheld the decision of a lower court to reduce the sentences for all convicted.

Based on reporting by Reuters
The so-called Balkan route to Northern Europe traveled by more than a million migrants in the last year appears to have shut down completely-- and possibly permanently -- this week.

Macedonia, whose border with Greece has been the entry point for asylum seekers hoping to live in countries like Germany and Denmark, has not allowed any migrants to pass through since March 7, following suit with the tight restrictions imposed on migrants by countries to the north like Slovenia and Serbia.

The interior minister of Austria, which launched a wave of border closings in the region this year, proclaimed that the closures were permanent and will save Europe from further heartaches and headaches caused by the migrant crisis.

"My position is clear: the Balkan route remains closed and that permanently," Johanna Mikl-Leitner told German newspaper Die Welt on March 10.

Only such a "consistent signal" will deter migrants from crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece to start the trek to Northern Europe, she said.

"This alliance of reason has so far provided the decisive contribution to preserve stability and order for the people in Europe," she said.

While Austria and the Balkan states adopted tight restrictions to the consternation of top European Union officials last month, on March 10 EU President Donald Tusk appeared to take credit for the shutdown.

"Irregular flows of migrants along Western Balkans route have come to an end," Tusk said on Twitter.

"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."

WATCH: The Macedonian side of the border zone with Greece remained empty on March 9, after the government in Skopje closed entry to any refugees and migrants. (RFE/RL's Balkan Service)



Macedonia was not the only one not letting migrants into the country. Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia said they would bar entry to transiting migrants starting at midnight.

Slovenia said it would make exceptions only for migrants wishing to claim asylum in the country or for those seeking entry "on humanitarian grounds."

Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar said his country would not go back to the liberal policies followed last year, when most migrants were waved through by border guards. He declared that "the route for illegal migrations no longer exists."

Even German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who once seemed to welcome migrants with open arms, has thrown her support behind a plan being negotiated with Turkey to essentially turn back half the migrants who make their way to Greece and accept only migrants eligible for asylum under EU rules.

Speaking during a visit to Washington on March 9, Danish Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen said Merkel had underestimated how many people would arrive after "sending out invitations to refugees around the world" last year.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and AP
Well, if you thought the Kremlin couldn't sink much lower; if you thought it couldn't get any more petty; if you thought it couldn't be any more cruel; then you'd better think again.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has announced that Russia was reneging on its offer to allow Ukrainian doctors to examine kidnapped military pilot Nadia Savchenko.

The reason? The kangaroo court trying Savchenko on fabricated charges was apparently offended by what Lavrov described as her "inflammatory behavior" during her final statement.

Giving the judge the middle finger, calling Vladimir Putin a tyrant, calling your abductors fascists, and defiantly singing the Ukrainian national anthem is apparently not appropriate behavior for a hostage during a Russian-run show trial.

Savchenko is reportedly suffering from heart problems due to her repeated hunger strikes and need medical attention.

You, of course, can't say enough about the bravery and character of this remarkable woman who -- regardless of how this absurd and tragic charade plays out -- is destined to go down in history.

And the contrast with her abductors, with her tormentors, couldn't be more sharp.

Russia's behavior is that of a deeply insecure, deeply dysfunctional, and very dangerous state.

With its duplicity, its pettiness, and its cruelty, Putin's regime is destined to destined to go down in history as well -- but for entirely different reasons than Savchenko.

Keep telling me what you think on The Power Vertical's Twitter feed and on our Facebook page.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has said that authorities in Iran have recently been trying to help locate Robert Levinson, a retired FBI agent who disappeared nine years ago on an Iranian resort island.

"We are encouraged by recent cooperation between the government of Iran and the United States, and believe that our ability to locate Bob and reunite him with his family requires a shared commitment by the Iranian government," the FBI said on March 9 even as the White House urged Iran to keep its promise to help find Levinson.

Iran agreed to provide assistance in his case as part of a prisoner-exchange deal in January.

FBI Director James Comey said his agency was "doing everything in our power to investigate all leads," without elaborating.

Levinson disappeared after flying from Dubai to Kish Island in the Persian Gulf in March 2007.

There he met with Daoud Salahuddin, an American Islamic militant who fled to Iran while facing charges in the murder of an Iranian Embassy official based in Washington.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AP
A commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards has vowed the country's ballistic-missile program will never stop under any circumstances and Tehran has missiles ready to fire.

Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh told state TV late on March 9 that the Revolutionary Guards "never accepted the UN Security Council resolutions on Iran's missile work."

The Revolutionary Guards test-fired several ballistic missiles on March 8 and 9, state media reported.

Iranian reports said the missiles fired on March 9 had "Israel must be wiped out" written on them.

Hajizadeh said on March 9 that the Qadr-H missiles were designed with a range of 2,000 kilometers to attack Israel from a safe distance.

Commentators said the tests are seen as a challenge to a UN resolution and the 2015 nuclear deal under which Tehran agreed to restrict its nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.

But Iran on March 10 denied the missile tests were a violation of the landmark 2015 agreement, which led to the lifting of sanctions in January.

"Iran's missile program and its test-firing of missiles in the past days during a military drill are not against its nuclear commitments and the nuclear deal reached with the six powers," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi-Ansari said.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on Iran to act with moderation and refrain from taking actions that lead to increased tensions.

Ban Ki Moon made the call in reaction to ballistic missile tests carried out this week by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on March 10.

"In the current political atmosphere in the Middle East region, and so soon after the positive news of the lifting of sanctions against Iran, the secretary-general calls on the government of the Islamic republic of Iran to act with moderation, caution and the good sense not to increase tensions through any hasty actions," Dujarric told reporters.

Iran has said that the missile tests on March 8 and 9 did not violate the nuclear accord with world powers or a UN Security Council resolution.

Foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari, said the missiles were "conventional defensive instruments and they were merely for legitimate defense.

Jaberi Ansari added that Iran will continue its missile program. He also said his country will remain committed to its international obligations.

U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said earlier this week that the U.S. is looking into reports of Iran's missile tests and that Washington could take appropriate action "at the UN or unilaterally" if necessary.

The landmark nuclear deal, under which Iran accepted to significantly restrict its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, does not include provisions against missile launches.

Based on reporting by IRNA, AP, Reuters
The U.S. military says it has transferred an Islamic State (IS) chemical weapons expert captured last month, to the control of Iraq's government.

Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook told reporters on March 10 that Sulayman Dawud al-Bakkar was transferred to Iraqi control after the U.S. used information he provided to conduct airstrikes against the extremist group's chemical weapons production facilities.

Cook said the airstrikes conducted as a result of al-Bakkar's capture "disrupted and degraded" the group's chemical weapons capabilities.

"We feel good about the damage we've done to the program," he said.

Al-Bakkar, who is about 50 years old, once worked for Saddam Hussein's Military Industrialization Authority where he specialized in chemical and biological weapons.

Iraqi and U.S. officials have said that he was captured by U.S. Special Forces in a raid last month.

Based on reporting by AP and Reuters


Kosovar opposition lawmakers have again released tear gas to disrupt a parliamentary session to protest government deals with Serbia and Montenegro.

Speaker Kadri Veseli was obliged to suspend the session on March 10 following the opening of a tear-gas canister in the opposition seats.

It was the ninth such protest with tear gas by opposition lawmakers since September.

They have also disrupted parliamentary sessions with pepper spray, whistles, and water bottles to protest a deal between Kosovo and Serbia giving more powers to ethnic Serbs in Kosovo.

The opposition also rejects a border demarcation pact with Montenegro.

Last month, they opposed the election in parliament of Hashim Thaci as the new president and also have contested it at the Constitutional Court.

Based on reporting by AP
A military court in the Russian capital has sentenced six men to prison terms of 11 to 14 years after finding them guilty of planning a terrorist attack on a Moscow suburb in 2014.

The Moscow Regional Military Court on March 10 also found the defendants guilty of illegally producing and distributing weapons.

Investigators said that Semed Nurmagomedov, Azim Ismailov, along with brothers Vagid and Yusuf Guseikhanov, as well another pair of brothers, Asret and Ildarkhan Rizakhanov, planned to carry out a major terrorist act in the town of Odintsovo in 2014 during celebrations marking the end of World War II.

Police apprehended the six shortly before they allegedly were set to carry out the attack on May 9, investigators said.

Police say they also discovered a large cache of ammunition and an explosive device when a search was conducted at the apartment the men were renting in Odintsovo.

Based on reporting by Rapsinews, TASS, and Interfax
U.S. President Barack Obama said that Ukraine "is going to be vulnerable to military domination by Russia no matter what" the United States does.



In one of a series of interviews published on March 10 that formed the basis of an article in The Atlantic magazine, Obama said that Ukraine was clearly a core interest for Russia but suggested that it may not be one for the United States.



Ukraine is "an example of where we have to be very clear about what our core interests are and what we are willing to go to war for," Obama said.



He rejected the notion that "the decision making of Russia or China" could somehow be influenced by "talking tough or engaging in some military action" in such situations. Such an idea "is contrary to all the evidence we have seen over the last 50 years," Obama said.



Obama resisted pressure last year to send lethal military aid to help Kyiv fight against Russia-backed separatists who control part of eastern Ukraine. Their war against government forces has killed more than 9,100 people since it broke out in April 2014 -- shortly after Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine.



Obama said that there are "ways to deter, but it requires you to be very clear ahead of time about what is worth going to war for and what is not."



"If there is somebody in [Washington] that would claim that we would consider going to war with Russia over Crimea and eastern Ukraine, they should speak up and be very clear about it."

'The Obama Doctrine'



The Atlantic article -- titled The Obama Doctrine -- compiles and analyzes remarks on U.S. foreign policy made by Obama in a series of exclusive interviews he has given to the magazine's national correspondent, Jeffrey Goldberg, since 2006.

The image that emerges is of a president who is hesitant to be pulled by his allies in Europe and the Middle East into conflicts that have little to do with what he considers the country's primary interests.



The article reveals that Obama, from 2009 until well into 2013, thought that direct U.S. military intervention in the Middle East was only potentially warranted by a handful of threats -- Al-Qaeda terrorists, threats to the existence of Israel, and attempts by Iran to build nuclear weapons.



Obama defended his initial refusal to support moderate opposition fighters in Syria who had been described by some observers as farmers, doctors, and carpenters.



He told Goldberg it "was never true" that the United States could have "changed the equation on the ground" in Syria without committing U.S. forces.



He said that was because Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces are "a professional army that is well armed and sponsored by two large states [Iran and Russia] who have huge stakes in this, and they are fighting against a farmer, a carpenter, an engineer who started out as protesters and suddenly now see themselves in the midst of a civil conflict."



Obama also defended his refusal to enforce his own "red line" against Assad in August 2013 after United Nations monitors confirmed Assad's forces had used chemical weapons against civilians and opposition fighters in Syria.



Instead of launching air strikes against Assad and his chemical weapons stockpiles, Obama said he pulled Vladimir Putin aside at a summit of the Group of 20 leading industrialized nations (G20) in St. Petersburg a week later and told the Russian president "that if he forced Assad to get rid of the chemical weapons, that would eliminate the need for us taking a military strike."

'Credibility At Stake'



Obama said he was "very proud" of the moment several weeks later when U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov worked out a plan for the removal of most of Syria's chemical weapons.



"The overwhelming weight of conventional wisdom and the machinery of our national-security apparatus had gone fairly far. The perception was that my credibility was at stake, that America's credibility was at stake," Obama said."And for me to press the pause button at that momentto pull back from the immediate pressure and think through in my own mind what was in America's interest, not only with respect to Syria but also with respect to our democracy, was as tough a decision as I've made."



"I believe ultimately it was the right decision to make," he said.

Obama also said that Putin is "constantly interested in being seen as our peer and as working with us, because he's not completely stupid."

Putin "understands that Russia's overall position in the world is significantly diminished," he said. "And the fact that he invades Crimea or is trying to prop up Assad doesn't suddenly make him a player."

Obama said that in both Ukraine and Syria, Putin acted "in response to a client state that was about to slip out of his grasp" and "improvised" a way to maintain control -- but that in Syria, this came at enormous cost to the well-being of his own country."

"And the notion that somehow Russia is in a stronger position now, in Syria or in Ukraine, than they were before they invaded Ukraine or before he had to deploy military forces to Syria is to fundamentally misunderstand the nature of power in foreign affairs or in the world generally," he said. "Real power means you can get what you want without having to exert violence.

Regarding Iran and Saudi Arabia, whose rivalry has helped fuel the war in Syria and violence elsewhere in the Middle East, Obama said that their competition "requires us to say to our friends, as well as to the Iranians, that they need to find an effective way to share the neighborhood and institute some sort of cold peace."



He said that supporting Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally in the Middle East, in all of its disputes with Iran "would mean that we have to start coming in and using our military power to settle scores."



Obama said that would not be in the interest of the United States or of the Middle East.



On Libya, Obama said that the NATO intervention in 2011 "didn't work," and that he had wrongly concluded that Britain and France would carry more of the burden of the military operation.



"What has been a habit over the last several decades in these circumstances is people pushing us to act but then showing an unwillingness to put any skin in the game," Obama said.

With reporting by The Atlantic, The New York Times, AP, and Reuters
Iranian female lawmakers are suing a hard-line male colleague, Nader Ghazipur, for saying parliament was no place for women and donkeys.

Parliamentary deputy Fatemeh Rahbar told the government news agency IRNA that she and some of her colleagues had filed complaints with Iran's prosecutor-general, parliament's supervisory committee, and parliament speaker Ali Larijani.

There has been a defamation against women, and Ghazipur must be held responsible," said Rahbar, who has a similar hard-line stance to her fellow lawmaker on many other issues.

Ghazipur who was returned to parliament in general elections last month, reportedly made the comments during his reelection campaign. A video of his remarks was later posted online, sparking outrage in many quarters.

"The parliament is not a place for women, it's a place for men," Ghazipur says in the video, before going on to place women in the same category as "donkeys," a term used to insult a person's intelligence.

"We didn't easily win control over the country to send every fox, kid, and donkey there. The parliament is not a place for donkeys," he said.

The 57-year-old lawmaker's comments came as a record number of women -- as many as 20 -- were expected to gain seats in the parliament following the February 26 poll.

WATCH: Nader Ghazipur's Controversial Campaign Speech (in Persian, no subtitles)

When the YouTube video of Ghazipur's controversial and crude remarks was published, it quickly attracted both online and offline criticism, as well as calls for him to be barred from office.

Zahra Nejadbahram, the head of the Information Council of the government's office for women's and family affairs, was quoted by Iranian news sites as saying that Ghazipur should be disqualified.

"When his thinking [allows] him to insult half of the country's population, he should expect a reaction, and the reaction should be the rejection of his [credentials]," Nejadbahram said on March 2.

The video also prompted a social media backlash, with some calling on the Guardians Council, which approved Ghazipur's parliamentary candidacy, to disqualify him. Others likened him to former President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, who was known for his use of crude and undiplomatic language.

As the condemnation mounted, the parliamentary deputy apologized to the women of his electoral constituency, saying he "wasn't talking about them."

Ghazipur, however, went on to describe himself as a "servant and soldier" of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and insisted that he would not be changing his "stances."

According to fellow lawmaker Fatemeh Rahbar, Ghazipur has since issued another apology through mediators and said that he didn't mean to insult female parliamentarians. Nonetheless, Rahbar said the complaint won't be withdrawn.

"His words have gone public through the media and gone viral inside and outside Iran," she said. "He should come out and [explain himself] in the same way, she said."

Ghaazipur is currently a member of the parliament's Mine and Industry Commission. His biography says he fought during the 1980-88 war with Iraq to defend "his country and Islamic values."

His biography posted on the website of the parliament's research center says he also worked as Khamenei's campaign manager when the supreme leader ran successfully for president in 1981 and 1985.

According to media reports, the journalist who originally posted the video of Ghazipur's controversial comments online was later beaten up by unknown assailants.

With reporting by IRNA, AFP


Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said he is ready to secure the release of celebrated Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko through a prisoner exchange with Russia.

The Russian trial of Savchenko on allegations that she aided the 2014 killing of two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine wrapped up on March 9.

She rejects the charges and has been on a hunger strike since March 3 to protest her detention.

"If you ask me if an exchange is possible I would tell you 'yes' for the first time, using my constitutional right," Poroshenko said in Ankara on March 9 after meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

But he added that Russia has not come up with "any satisfactory initiative" for such a swap.

Earlier in the day, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said talks on a prisoner exchange could not take place "in theory or in practice" until the verdict, which is expected on March 21.

Savchenko's detention and hunger strike provoked an outpouring of protests in Ukraine and Russia on March 9 and prompted world leaders to call for her immediate release.

Based on reporting by AFP and TASS
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says Russian authorities' inaction in the face of hostility against media was, in part, to blame for an attack near Chechnya that left six journalists injured.

The CPJ's statement on March 10 came a day after attackers intercepted a small bus carrying activists and journalists, beat them, and set the vehicle afire.

The journalists were on a media trip arranged by a nongovernmental organization, the Committee for Prevention of Torture. They were traveling from neighboring Ingushetia, hoping to cross into Chechnya.

Group member Oleg Khabibrakhmanov said there had been two other attacks on their organization recently.

"The attack follows a burst of menacing comments on social media and in the press...by government officials in Chechnya," a CPJ statement said.

CPJ said the March 9 attack "was enabled by the government's inaction in the face of overt hostility to the press."

Chechnya's Kremlin-backed leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, and his supporters have publicly vilified the Committee to Prevent Torture's activists.

Kadyrov has been accused of running Chechnya as if it were his own fiefdom, often disregarding Russian law in his pursuit to keep order in the restive North Caucasus republic.

One of the journalists who was attacked, Norwegian Oystein Windstat, linked the violence to stories he wrote in December about two Chechens found dead in Chechnya after they returned from Norway where they were denied refugee status.

With reporting by AP
Hunger-striking Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko has started drinking water again, reducing fears she could die in a Russian jail before the verdict in her politically charged trial is delivered later this month.



Her lawyer Mark Feigin said on Twitter on March 10 that Savchenko made the decision to tone down her hunger strike after a request from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.



But Feigin later told RFE/RLs Russian Service that a purported letter from Poroshenko he had given Savchenko turned out to be a fake. He asserted that it was orchestrated by Russian authorities in an effort to discredit Savchenko, her lawyers, and Ukraine.



Poroshenkos office confirmed that the president had not sent Savchenko a letter.



A pair of Russian pranksters who call themselves Leksus and Vovan -- and who claimed last year that they had duped British rock star Elton John into believing he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone -- said they were behind the hoax.



Poroshenko's spokesman, Svyatoslav Tseholko, said the Ukrainian president had "has passed his words of support to Savchenko via her sister Vira and her mother," but it was not clear whether Poroshenko had urged her to halt her hunger strike.



Savchenko had stopped drinking fluids on March 4, calling on Russian authorities to send her home to Ukraine and vowing to return "dead or alive."

Symbol Of Defiance



Now one of the most prominent figures from a war between Russia-backed separatists and government forces that has killed more than 9,100 people in eastern Ukraine and ruined ties between Moscow and Kyiv, Savchenko is regarded as a hero in her home country and a symbol of defiance against Russia.



Russian authorities accuse Savchenko, 34, of acting as a spotter who called in coordinates for a mortar attack that killed two Russian journalists during the conflict. They have charged her with murder and illegal border crossing, and state prosecutors have asked the court to to sentence her to 23 years in prison.



Savchenko says she was seized in eastern Ukraine while fighting with a volunteer battalion and illegally taken to Russia, where she has been jailed ever since and went on trial in September by force. She has repeatedly said she will not recognize the court or its verdict.



At a tense hearing on March 9 during which Savchenko raised her middle finger at the court, the judge said that he will begin announcing the verdict on March 21.



Before Feigin said that the purported letter from Poroshenko was a hoax, he posted what he said was a letter from Savchenko that she addressed to "Ukrainians and kind people around the world."



In it, she wrote that she would begin drinking water but would continue to refuse food.



"I will do everything I can to save myself for the further struggle and victories for Ukraine and for the truth," the handwritten letter said.



Rights groups and Western governments, including the United States, have called for Savchenkos immediate release.



Ukrainians protested outside Russian consulates in several cities on March 9, in some cases pelting the buildings with eggs and other objects, and police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd in the Black Sea port city of Odesa.



Some Russians have also protested in support of Savchenko, accusing President Vladimir Putin's government of conducting a shameful and illegal show trial. Dozens of demonstrators were detained by police in Moscow on March 8.

The German government said on March 9 that Savchenko's trial "violates the spirit and letter of the Minsk agreement" -- the French- and German-brokered accord aimed to end the war in eastern Ukraine.



Fighting in eastern Ukraine has diminished under a fragile cease-fire that is part of the Minsk deal, but the separatists still control parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions and other aspects of the accord seem far from implementation.



The war followed Russia's takeover of Crimea, which came after Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was pushed from power by protests over his decision to scrap plans for a landmark deal with the European Union and draw closer to Russia instead.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Russian Service, UNIAN, Twitter, Interfax, Reuters, AP, and AFP
Energy facilities throughout Ukraine were targeted by a new wave of Russian strikes on October 22, while Kyiv's air defense shot down several missiles above the Ukrainian capital.

Local officials said power stations were hit in the regions of Odesa, Kirovohrad, and Lutsk, while other regions reported problems with electricity.

"Another rocket attack from terrorists who are fighting against civilian infrastructure and people," the Ukrainian president's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, wrote on the Telegram app.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that air defense shot down several rockets that were flying in the direction of the capital.

"Several rockets flying towards Kyiv were shot down in the region by air defense forces. Thanks to our defenders!" Klitschko said, while local police chief Andriy Nyebytov posted a photograph of a column of smoke rising from a forest where he said the missile debris had landed.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told a government meeting that from October 10 to October 20, Russian strikes damaged more than 400 facilities in 16 regions of Ukraine, including dozens of energy installations.

"The Russian Amy has identified our energy sector as one of the key targets for its attacks," Shmyhal said on October 21.

"Russian propagandists and officials speak openly about the purpose of all these attacks: Ukraine, according to them, should be left without water, without light, without heat," he said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces shelled Russian positions in the occupied and illegally seized southern Kherson region, targeting Moscow's resupply routes across the Dnieper River in apparent preparation for a full assault on Kherson city, one of the first urban areas occupied by Russia at the start of the invasion.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, Russian protests, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiys office said 88 settlements in the southern Kherson region and 551 settlements in the northeastern Kharkiv region have been de-occupied, while the Ukrainian forces' counteroffensive in the Kherson region moves ahead.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Zelenskiys office, reported the data on Telegram, broadcasting results since the Ukrainian military launched the counteroffensive several weeks ago in the Kherson direction and before that in the Kharkiv direction.

Zelenskiy added in his nightly video address on October 21 that the Ukrainian forces had shown good results in capturing Russian arms in Kherson.

Ukraine is trying to drive Russian forces in Kherson back east across the Dnieper. Russian soldiers on the western bank, where the city of Kherson is located, are reportedly close to being cut off from supply lines and reinforcements.

Natalya Humenyuk, a spokesperson for Ukraines southern operational command, said the Ukrainian military struck the Antonivskiy Bridge over the Dnieper in the city of Kherson during an overnight curfew Russia-installed officials put in place to avoid civilian casualties.

We do not attack civilians and settlements," Humenyuk told Ukrainian television.



Ukrainian strikes made the Antonivskiy Bridge inoperable, prompting Russian authorities to set up ferry crossings and pontoon bridges to relocate civilians and transport supplies.

Russia has sent in thousands of recently mobilized troops to reinforce the defense of Kherson, the General Staff said earlier on October 21.

"Up to 2,000 mobilized Russians arrived in the temporarily captured Kherson region to replenish losses and strengthen units on the contact line," the Ukrainian General Staff said in a statement.

"At the same time, the occupation authorities issued an order to prepare for the evacuation of the so-called 'banking institutions' and Russian medical workers and teachers," the statement said.



Russian-installed officials are trying to evacuate up to 60,000 people from Kherson for their safety and to allow the military to build fortifications.

Zelenskiy again on October 21 urged the West to warn Russia not to blow up a dam at the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant on the Dnieper River as this could flood settlements in the direction of Kherson.

Zelenskiy said Russian forces had planted explosives inside the dam, which holds back an enormous reservoir, and were planning to blow it up.

"Now everyone in the world must act powerfully and quickly to prevent a new Russian terrorist attack. Destroying the dam would mean a large-scale disaster," he said in his nightly address.

Zelenskiy's chief of staff Andriy Yermak tweeted that Moscow's "nuclear blackmail" had failed to intimidate Ukraine and its allies, so now the Russians "are trying to scare everyone by blowing up" the dam.

"Ukraine will not succumb to peace by coercion.... They won't break us. We will hit back even harder," Yermak wrote.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, on a visit to Australia, also warned that the use of a nuclear weapon by Russia in the war in Ukraine would be considered an "act of hostility against humanity."

"Russia's act of threatening the use of nuclear weapons is a serious threat to the peace and security of the international community and absolutely unacceptable," Kishida said on October 22.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, AP, and BBC
Chicago Public Schools Is Suing Barbara Byrd-Bennett For $65 Million

By Sam Stecklow in News on Mar 10, 2016 8:43PM



Getty Images

The Chicago Board of Election and Chicago Public Schools filed a joint lawsuit against disgraced former CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett in circuit court Thursday. They're suing her and conspirators for $65 million over a corruption scandal involving her former employer, SUPES Academy.

"Barbara Byrd-Bennett and her co-conspirators knew the District's dire straits and still concocted this scheme to divert needed resources away from classrooms and line their own pockets," current CPS CEO Forrest Claypool said in a statement. "So today CPS took action in Cook County court to go after the $65 million in damages and civil penalties that our children are entitled to receive. With serious budget challenges facing the district, we'll continue to fight for every dollar our children deserve.

The lawsuit reads, in part, "[Byrd-Bennett and SUPES] have stolen money from [CPS] and the schoolchildren of the City of Chicago, and that money should be returned." In a written statement released after her guilty plea in October, Byrd-Bennett said, "There is nobody to blame but me, and my failings could not have come at a time of greater challenges for CPS."

Notoriously, she said in an email that she'd entered into the rigged arrangement that she had "tuition to pay and casinos to visit." In another email, she expressed anger that aides of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who hired her, were taking a second look at SUPES' $20 million no-bid contract. The level of micro-managing by people who have no track record and have not lead [sic] or managed anything is in some way insulting," she wrote.

Read the full lawsuit embedded below:

Board of Education lawsuit against Barbara Byrd-Bennett by Dave Matthews

(ht DNAinfo)
The UN special rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression has expressed "grave" concern over the situation faced by civil-society groups, independent media, and political opposition in Tajikistan.

In his March 10 statement, David Kayle cautioned about "the widespread blocking of websites and networks, including mobile services, by the Tajik authorities."

Kayle voiced concern over the recent ban of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, prosecution of its leaders in secret trials, and attacks on members of Group 24 and other independent politicians.

Kayle urged the Tajik authorities to release all persons detained on political grounds and ensure due process and a fair trial for those charged with serious crimes.

Kayle is to prepare a report to the UN Human Rights Council on his main findings from a recent official visit to Tajikistan.

He will also make recommendations on how to better promote the right to freedom of expression in Tajikistan.
The actors change, but the stage always looks the same.

The wood-paneled courtroom. The officious judge robed in black. The stern prosecutor. That creepy cage for the accused and the stone-faced cops guarding it. And the defendant in the dock -- sometimes somber, sometimes defiant.

The script changes, but it always follows the same template: Patently ridiculous charges are presented and debated as if they were actually plausible, followed by the faux suspense of a verdict that everybody knows is a foregone conclusion.

It's a game of pretend that has long been a legitimation ritual for Vladimir Putin's regime -- and it has disrupted and ruined many lives in the process.

In fact, the spectacle of the show trial has been an ongoing set piece, a trademark of Putin's rule, virtually from day one.

It's ensnared earnest academics like Igor Sutyagin, wealthy oil barons like Mikhail Khodorkovsky, youthful dissidents like the women of Pussy Riot, and anticorruption crusaders like Aleksei Navalny.

Foreign citizens like U.S. businessman Edmond Pope, Estonian law-enforcement officer Eston Kohver, Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, and, of course, Ukrainian military pilot Nadia Savchenko have found themselves trapped in this weird and cruel hall of mirrors.

And in 2013, whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky became -- to my knowledge -- the first dead man subjected to a Russian show trial.

And in this peculiarly Russian form of performance art, courts aren't bound by the normal rules of reality and logic.

Russian show trials have convicted Khodorkovsky of stealing oil from himself, Navalny of embezzling money without making a profit, and found Sutyagin guilty of espionage for passing "state secrets" to foreign colleagues that came from newspapers.

And later this month, a court in the Rostov Oblast is widely expected to convict Savchenko of killing two Russian journalists in the Donbas -- even though they were killed after she had already been abducted by pro-Moscow separatists.

Each show trial has had its own unique purpose.

The prosecution of Sutyagin, who was Putin's first show-trial victim, appeared to be a signal that the security services were back in charge, as well as a message to academics to be careful about contacts with foreigners.

The Khodorkovsky case was designed to establish Putin's bona fides as a leader who was not afraid of the oligarchs and to send a message to leading tycoons to stay out of politics.

It also had the added benefit of allowing Putin crony Igor Sechin to seize the assets of Khodorkovsky's Yukos oil company.

The Pussy Riot case established the zeitgeist of Putin's third term, an anticosmopolitan conservatism that played to Russia's working classes and rural poor.

And the prosecutions of Navalny and the Bolotnaya Square protesters showed that the Kremlin was prepared to get rough with the opposition.

But while show-trial victims are invariably convicted, the carefully calibrated sentences vary.

The fact that Navalny has avoided prison despite two convictions shows that the Kremlin metes out only as much punishment as it believes it can get away with -- no more and no less.

But as Peter Pomerantsev, author of the book Nothing Is True And Everything Is Possible: Inside The Surreal Heart Of The New Russia, notes, the overarching purpose of the whole exercise -- from Sutyagin to Savchenko -- is the same: to show that the Kremlin "has full control of the script" and is the master of reality.

"This absurdity appears to be deliberate," Pomerantsev wrote in a 2013 report for the Legatum Institute. "It proves to the public that the Kremlin can re-imagine reality at will, can say black is white' and white is black' with no one able to contradict."

And given this, Savchenko's defiant gesture -- giving the judge and the court the middle finger during her closing statement -- was such an appropriate response to the whole outrageous show.

In fact, it may be the only appropriate response.

(Thanks to RFE/RL editor Steve Gutterman for his helpful input and contribution to this post.)
A top Islamic State (IS) militant commander who U.S. officials said was "likely" killed by air strikes last week was actually only badly wounded, Syrian observers and activists say.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of observers within Syria where the air strikes occurred, told news media late on March 9 that Umar al-Shishani, an ethnic Chechen who was born in Georgia, was "seriously injured" by the U.S. strikes, but survived and was transported to a hospital in Raqqa.

"He's not dead," observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. "He was taken from the province of Hasake to a hospital in Raqqa Province where he was treated by a jihadist doctor of European origin."

CNN reported that opposition activists in Syria are also saying Shishani, whose real name is Tarkhan Batirashvili, was "critically injured" and taken to a hospital.

U.S. officials on March 8 had told several news organizations that Shishani was "likely" killed. But they stopped short of saying he was dead and said they were still investigating the matter.

Shishani is considered one of IS's most capable leaders. One official called him the militant group's "secretary of defense."

Based on reporting by AFP, dpa, and CNN
U.S. and Iraqi officials say special forces have captured an Islamic State (IS) chemical-weapons expert in a raid last month in northern Iraq.

Iraqi officials told the Associated Press that the captive was Sleiman Daoud al-Afari, who worked for Saddam Hussein's Military Industrialization Authority, where he specialized in chemical and biological weapons.

They said Afari, who is about 50 years old, had led IS's efforts to develop chemical weapons.

NBC News also reported that Afari was the captive while AFP quoted U.S. officials as confirming his captivity. The Pentagon has not officially named the captive.

IS is believed to have used mustard gas at various times in fighting in Iraq and Syria since 2014.

On March 8, Iraqi Kurdish officials reported that more than 40 people were hospitalized after IS shelled a village with Katyusha rockets filled with a chemical agent.

Based on reporting by AP, AFP, and NBC News
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power has warned that a "humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions" could occur if Iraq's Mosul dam is not repaired soon and collapses.

At a UN meeting hosted by the United States and Iraq on March 9, Power said the international community must act to prevent a cave-in at the dam in northern Iraq that could kill up to 1.5 million people.

"While important steps have been taken to address a potential breach, the dam could still fail," Power said.

"There is the potential in some places for a flood wave up to 14 meters high that could sweep up everything in its path" in the heavily populated Tigris River valley.

She urged countries to assist Iraq with the "urgently needed repair work."

The Mosul dam, which is close to territory held by Islamic State militants, has had problems with erosion around its base since it was constructed in the 1980s.

Iraq has signed a contract with Italy's Trevi Group to reinforce and maintain the dam, but the repairs are considered only temporary.

Based on reporting by Reuters and dpa
College students push poverty rates significantly higher in some Virginia cities, according to researchers, but Richmonds share of poor residents remains high whether its students are factored into the equation or not.

Researchers with the University of Virginias Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service found that because of the way the federal government identifies those in poverty, college students who dont live in dormitories artificially inflate the rates.

They often report little to no income, but typically have other resources keeping them afloat, such as supportive parents and student loans.

When analysts used census data to exclude students who live in apartments or houses (students in dorms already are not counted), poverty rates dropped most notably in Radford, Harrisonburg and Charlottesville  home of Radford University, James Madison University and the University of Virginia, respectively.

Radfords rate, for example, dropped from 40 percent to 15 percent when students were not factored in, according to a study released Monday by Annie Rorem and Luke Juday, analysts with the Cooper Center. The states overall poverty rate, including off-campus students, is 12 percent.

Richmond defied the trend among the states college towns, according to the report.

The citys overall poverty rate is 26 percent. Without students who live off campus, the rate drops to 23 percent  the highest among the college towns Rorem and Juday highlighted and the 10th highest in the state.

The researchers say removing post-secondary students produces data that more clearly reflect the extent of poverty in Virginia towns. And its important to make the distinction, they say, because financial struggles among students often differ from those who suffer from intergenerational poverty.

Juday said students may not require the same kind of services that families in intergenerational poverty need, such as food stamps or housing subsidies.

Hayley Pottle, a sophomore mass communications student at Virginia Commonwealth University, said poverty is an issue for some of her friends, and she sees its effects firsthand as a volunteer for RamPantry, a food pantry that opened in 2013 at VCU for students, faculty and staff.

About 1,260 people visited the pantry last semester.

Pottle said calculating true poverty rates might be more complex because each student has a different set of circumstances.

She saves money by living at home in Glen Allen with her parents, but she works part-time at the school and seasonally at Chick-fil-A to pay for her own tuition and books. While she doesnt consider herself to be in poverty, her tight budget is always on her mind.

Juday said the figures he and Rorem produced should be considered a blunt object and should not be used to recalculate how government aid for social services is distributed. However, he urged officials to develop a new formula that more precisely defines poverty  one that excludes some students, but not all.

Theres disagreement about who should or should not qualify as poor, Juday said. Theyve eliminated students who live in dorms. Now its a question about who else shouldnt count.

Part of the reason Richmonds poverty rate remained so high even without college students can be attributed to the citys size, Juday said. Even though it has a robust population attending Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Richmond and other institutions, those students are diluted by the larger population.

Richmond has one of the highest poverty rates in the state and has for quite some time, Juday said.

John Moeser, a senior fellow with the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement at UR, said public policy decisions drove up the citys poverty rate and held it there for decades. The location of highways and development projects forced many poor African-American families into public housing.

These werent accidents, and thats the troubling part of the citys history, Moeser said.

Thad Williamson, director of Richmonds Office of Community Wealth Building, an anti-poverty initiative, said the city has the highest concentration of public housing communities in the region.

The legacy of racial and economic segregation goes back 40 to 50 years, Williamson said.

In many ways, Richmond is an exaggeration of a national pattern in which a central city is home to racial minorities in poverty while affluent whites surround the city in suburbs, Williamson said.
A Look At The 'Dark Money' Behind Kim Foxx's States Attorney Campaign

By Sam Stecklow in News on Mar 10, 2016 9:00PM



Kim Foxx via Facebook

In the highly contentious Cook County State's Attorney race, each candidate has their funding bases. Incumbent Anita Alvarez has Chicago's "old-boy power support" behind her, according to the Better Government AssociationCity Council's most powerful alderman, Ed Burke; Illinois's last true political boss, Michael Madigan; various associates of former Mayor Richard M. Daley. (She's also accepted over $25,000 from at least 60 of her employees.) Donna More is largely self-funding her campaign, as well as tapping into the Republican donor network. And Kim Foxx is working her political patron Toni Preckwinkle's connections; many of the largest donations to her campaign fund are from unions.

But Kim Foxx has also found two other sources of cash, in the form of twin $300,000 donations to a Super PAC supporting her called Illinois Safety & Justice. The sole donors to the PAC are neoliberal superdonor and conservative-boogeyman George Soros and a "dark-money" group called Civic Participation Action Fund. A Super PAC is a fundraising group, created by the 2010 Supreme Court Citizens United decision, that can raise as much money as they want for any candidate or causeas long as they don't coordinate on any level with political campaigns, which have much smaller campaign limits.

Soros is a notorious liberal donorhe dropped $20 million on the 2004 election, and recently donated $8 million to a leading pro-Hillary Super PAC, as well as put up $5 million to increase Latino voter turnout. But according to Illinois Sunshine, a database of State Election Board filings maintained by the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, this marks the first time Soros has entered into a political race in Illinoisever. (Though he has been intervening in local District/State's Attorney's races with increasing regularity, donating over $400,000 in a Caddo Parish, Louisiana, nearly the same amount in Mississippi last year alone.)

Soros's presence in this race "really speaks to fact that Super PACs have become very influential in Illinois races, especially this cycle," according to Sarah Brune, the executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. A request for comment to Soros's Open Society Foundations went unreturned by press time.

The sole other donor to Foxx's Super PAC is the Civic Participation Action Fund, which, like Soros, has never made a donation in an Illinois race before. CPAF is a 501(c)(4), a special kind of nonprofit organization that at once doesn't have to disclose its donors and can conduct political activity. They are frequently referred to by campaign finance reform advocates as "dark money," since it is usually unknown where the actual funding comes from. The 2010 Citizens United decision set off a spark of 501(c)(4) donations nationwide, and they are a key component of Governor Bruce Rauner's stated plot to take away the Democratic supermajorities in the Illinois General Assembly.

Dark money is "certainly something that's become much more pervasive," said Brune. "[Dark money groups] can be even more frustrating than the Super PAC because you're not able to access information on the donors. It's not something that we enjoy seeing. It's just really troubling to voters when they can't see who is donating to their candidates. Not all donations are a bad thing, but if someone's going to contribute to a candidate for public office, they should understand that they're attempting to influence the outcome of a race for public office, so their contributions are gonna be made public."

Civic Participation Action Fund, according to its website, is a five-year project dedicated to advancing "racial equity, economic opportunity, and civic engagement" and will cease grant-making this year. On its website, it also states that it doesn't fund anything "overtly partisan" (maybe since everyone in the race is a Democrat, a State's Attorney's race doesn't count), anything that involves "institutional or core support for organizations," which is pleasantly meaningless (and also, what is the State's Attorney's office if not an organization?). In an op-ed published by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the Fund's director, Steve McConnell, said that being organized as a "dark money" group allows the fund to "support a much wider range of advocacy and electoral activities that are issue-based, nonpartisan, and not coordinated with candidates or political parties than it could have as a foundation required to follow Section 501(c)(3)," a more traditional nonprofit structure. A request for comment to CPAF went unreturned.

University of Illinois at Chicago professor Dick Simpson says it's "unusual" to see out-of-state donors get involved in local races like this, though he noted that a little over half of the campaign contributions Mayor Rahm Emanuel raised between 2010 and 2015 were also from outside of Chicago.

Simpson says it's "obvious" that the donors' intentions are to oust Alvarez, who has been vilified by progressive media outlets in the for her handling of the high-profile Laquan McDonald police shooting case. He also noted that the Super PAC's current endowment of $600,000 is enough to have "serious effects on the race."

Outside of the Illinois State Board of Election's ruling that Foxx's use of a Preckwinkle-funded poll broke state rules and fined the campaign almost $20,000, the topic of funding has been largely overlooked during the campaign, though there are clearly lots of other issues to look at. In the most recent Tribune poll, Alvarez was beating Foxx by seven points.
Register for more free articles. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading.
Walter Willson Craigie served for more than 40 years as an adviser on state government finances and budgets under 10 Virginia governors, from Mills E. Godwin Jr. to Timothy M. Kaine.

In 1982, under Gov. Charles Robb, he helped create the Virginia Debt Capacity Advisory Committee and served on it until 2010. The committee reviews the amount and condition of the states tax-supported debt and annually reports to the governor the maximum amount of tax-supported debt that may be prudently authorized in ensuing fiscal years.

Mr. Craigie, who served as state treasurer under the Holton administration from 1970 to 1972, when he became the commonwealths first secretary of finance when Holton organized a Cabinet, died March 3 in a Richmond retirement community. He was 84.

A memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at St. Stephens Episcopal Church, 6000 Grove Ave. Burial will be in Hollywood Cemetery.

Former Gov. Linwood Holton recalled, In his first week  almost his first day  he made a very significant change in the handling of state monies that has had a lasting effect that still is going on. He changed the custom for depositing (idle) funds in small banks throughout the state (as a kind of payoff for support) and not charging any interest. Walter put the money out for bid and immediately began earning interest on the funds, a very significant change.

The financial return far exceeded his salary, Holton said, and amounted to a substantial amount of money.

Not only was Walter very competent, he came to become a very good friend. It was a pleasure to work with him. We all had a lot of confidence in him, Holton said.

From 1970 to 1973, when he stepped down as finance secretary, Mr. Craigie also issued bonds for the first time to enable Virginia state colleges and universities to fund infrastructure needs.

He overhauled the Virginia Supplemental Retirement System, doubling its earnings and improving benefits to state retirees without raising taxes.

Mr. Craigie was a principal author of the creation and expansion of the Virginia Port Authority, which unified three municipal ports into a state entity, and increased the resources available for port development. He also helped create and expand the Virginia Housing Development Authority, which helps Virginians attain quality and affordable housing, and the Virginia Education Loan Authority, which helps them obtain college and vocational education and promotes industrial and economic growth in the state.

Returning to the private sector to work for Wheat First Securities in 1973 and later for Morgan Keegan & Co., he continued to have an impact on the state through his municipal underwriting.

For the first time in Virginia, he used federal money to finance municipal projects, such as the widening of the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike from 1974 to 1978 and the Interstate 295 bypass of Richmond and Petersburg in 1980.

Mr. Craigie worked during the 1980s to create the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority and the Metropolitan Washington Rail Transit Authority. He was instrumental in raising money for the Washington Dulles International Airport access road.

Former Virginia Gov. Gerald Baliles remembered how frequently Walter was consulted by  and met with  legislators and administration of both parties on some imponderable question or bottom-line budget challenge. He was well-connected with people over the country as well as knowledgeable of financial systems.

He was a good listener and possessed an uncanny analytical ability of almost any financial problem. The result was that he could  and often would  outline options and recommendations that policymakers could understand and often accept.

I never saw a partisan slant to any of his work, one of the reasons he was so liked and admired by people of all political stripes.

A Richmond native, Mr. Craigie started accompanying his father, an investment banker, to the office on the weekends as a youngster. One Saturday when he was in his teens, he took a call from a banker that resulted in his first sale of bonds. He was bred in it. He had a good way with numbers. He had good judgment, his wife said.

He was a graduate of Woodberry Forest School near the town of Orange  a school his great-grandfather Robert Stringfellow Walker founded  and earned a bachelors degree in economics from Princeton University. Serving in the Marine Corps, he was en route to Korea when the truce was signed halting the Korean War and he was diverted to Japan. He attained the rank of captain.

He met his wife while earning his Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard University Business School.

Mr. Craigie and his wife settled in Richmond, where he pursued a career in investment banking at F.W. Craigie & Co., founded by his father and an uncle. He gave some thought to going to New York, like a lot of his friends. He felt he could do more for people in Virginia than in New York, where he wouldnt have the same contacts and opportunities, his wife said.

He left the family business in 1970 to serve as state treasurer.

Involved with many community activities, he was a former president and trustee emeritus of St. Johns Church Foundation, which preserves the church where his paternal great-grandparents worshipped. He also served as a trustee of Collegiate School, where his wife had taught and daughters attended, as well as of Randolph-Macon College, his great-grandfathers alma mater.

He had secured numerous state grants for the preservation of James Madisons country estate, Montpelier.

During the late 1970s, he began using his talents to help Woodberry Forest establish an endowment that would provide the school with a permanent source of income. He was a trustee from 1983 to 1999 and chaired the board from 1994 to 2001. The school honored him with its highest accolade, the J. Carter Walker Award, in 2002.

Walter Craigie was a genuinely good man, said Dennis Campbell, Woodberrys eighth headmaster. He was an incurable optimist about the stock market, the economy, the church, our country and the world. His legacy to Princeton, Orange, Richmond and the commonwealth of Virginia will endure, but his love for Woodberry was greater than them all, with the exception of Beese and his wonderful family.
Our press and television, preoccupied with domestic politics this year, provide only limited reporting on dangerous situations around the world  among them Syria, Ukraine, Yemen and Libya. The most urgent is Syrias civil war and its disintegration as a state. A massive exodus of refugees seeking a new life in Europe is disrupting Europes valiant efforts to hold the EU together.

Syria is also the heart of a far larger Middle East crisis. With Turkey to the north, Iraq in the east, Jordan in the south, and Lebanon between it and the Mediterranean, Syria is at the center of regional turmoil that could ignite a larger conflict and entangle military forces of Russia and the United States.

At this writing, a tenuous cease-fire holds among Syrias warring factions. U.N. food convoys are reaching Syrians in rebel enclaves surrounded by government forces. U.S. defense and intelligence officials told Congress they dont believe the cease-fire will endure and that fighting will resume.

The Obama administration has had since 2011 three alternative policies, or options, it could pursue in dealing with Syrias civil war: (1) Let the situation run its course and avoid heavy involvement; (2) Pursue intensive diplomacy to persuade all sides to compromise in the search for peace; (3) Employ low levels of armed intervention to prevent a wider conflict and avoid humanitarian disaster.

Obama employed Option 1 in his first term, restraining Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who proposed doing more. In his second term, Obama changed course and assigned his new secretary, John Kerry, to pursue intensive diplomacy with Moscow and Arab leaders to achieve a cease-fire and negotiate a political settlement. What should Obama do if Kerrys diplomacy fails and civil war resumes?

Syrias crisis began in early 2011 when protesters demanded that President Assad agree to hold elections and permit individual freedom. Their hopes were bolstered when Barack Obama called on Assad to step down as president and permit a democratic government to form. What Obama failed to appreciate was that Russia and Syria have a defense alliance and that Vladimir Putin was not about to see his ally ousted and replaced by a pro-Western government. Obama quickly adopted a hands-off policy. Now he and Secretary Kerry are engaged In intensive diplomacy with Moscow to void a larger conflict.

Its problematic whether a durable period of peace will evolve in Syria this year. Its unlikely that Obama, a lame-duck president, will use U.S. forces to carve out a safe zone for refugees in northern Syria along the Turkish border, advocated by Turkeys government since 2012. Instead, Kerry will continue his diplomacy to find a peaceful settlement. In the meantime, European governments cope with the continuing influx of refugees.

In January 2017, how might a new U.S. president deal with Syria, if fighting resumes? If Turkey refuses to accommodate more refugees, and Ankara demands action by the United States and Europe, how would a new president respond?

Judging by the rhetoric of some Republican candidates, we might conclude that, as president, they would build up the armed forces and threaten to use them in Syria, to demonstrate that Washington is reasserting its major role in the Middle East.

Donald Trump says he will make deals with Putin. He thinks the Russian leader is just another businessman he can do deals with, instead of recognizing that Putin is bent on restoring Russias primacy in the Middle East. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio assume that building up military forces will cause all sides to negotiate instead of risking war with the U.S. John Kasich sounds less assertive.

If Hillary Clinton is president in 2017, U.S. policy on Syria will harden. She advocated a more robust policy in Obamas first term, but couldnt persuade him to abandon his hands-off stance. As president, she would chart her own, tougher course and accept that Putin is vigorously pursuing Russias national interests.

The period until January 2017 will be a crucial test for U.S. policy: Syrian fighters may not wait to resume their war against Assads regime; ISIS leaders wont hesitate to expand their new foothold in Libya; and neither Russia nor Iran will stand by while we choose a new president. Its a time for sober thinking by presidential candidates about how they would deal with a Middle East crisis.
Teen Fatally Shot On Milwaukee Avenue In Wicker Park Wednesday Night

By Rachel Cromidas in News on Mar 10, 2016 3:18PM



via Gabriel Michael/Flickr

Updated 9:50 a.m.: A teenager was fatally shot in the head near Wicker Park's main drag Wednesday evening, authorities said.

The 19-year-old man was walking in the 1200 block of North Milwaukee Avenue, not far from the Division Street CTA Blue Line Station, when he was shot around 6:05 p.m. The man, identified by the Tribune as Cesar Perez of nearby Noble Square, was taken to Stroger Hospital in serious condition, where he was pronounced dead shortly after the shooting, according to police.

A police spokeswoman told Chicagoist that no one is in custody for the shooting as of Thursday morning, and Area North detectives are investigating. In the shooting, a man walked up to Perez and fired multiple shots at him, striking him in the stomach and head. Investigators believe the shooting was gang-related.

Authorities say the shooter fled on foot on Ashland Avenue, according to Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd).

"Police have responded in full force, and have increased patrols in the surrounding neighborhood," Hopkins wrote on Facebook Wednesday evening. "A joint investigation between two police districts, the 12th and 14th, is ongoing and will continue in the days ahead."

Hopkins said the suspect has been described as a Hispanic man, about 150 lbs. and 5'7" tall, wearing a red Chicago Bulls jacket.

"The victim was a known gang member, and this appears to be a targeted shooting," Hopkins' post added.

Perez's death was one of several tragic shootings overnight Wednesday to Thursdayan unseasonably warm March night with temperatures in the 60s. And at least two people were killed and 19 others wounded in Chicago gun violence overnight Tuesday to Wednesday, according to the Tribune.

Another young man was recently attackedbut not shotwith a pistol near the Division Blue Line stop as well. In that incident, a man was reportedly hit in the head with a handgun used as a baton, on Feb. 21 in the 1200 block of North Ashland Avenue.
It looks like nothing was found at this location. Maybe try a search?

Search for: Search
Chicagoland Is Teeming With Presidential Hopefuls Ahead Of The Illinois Primary

By aaroncynic in News on Mar 10, 2016 8:05PM



Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Donald Trump and John Kasich meet ahead of the March 3rd GOP debate in Detroit, Michigan. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton will appear for a get out the vote rally in north suburban Vernon Hills Thursday evening at 7:15 p.m. At the event, she will discuss her plans to break down the economic barriers that favor those at the top and build an economy that works for everyone, the Clinton campaign told the Sun-Times. Clinton appeared last month at a rally in Bronzeville, along with several high-dollar fundraisers. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, also appeared in Illinois this week in north suburban Evanston and in Austin on Chicagos West Side.

Meanwhile, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders will host a rally in south suburban Summit tomorrow beginning at 5:00 p.m. at Argo High School. Sanders was also in town last month for a speech to a near capacity crowd of 7,000 at Chicago State University.

The biggest Republican event will likely be carnival barker Donald Trumps rally at the UIC Pavilion, beginning at 6:00 p.m. Friday. Thousands of both pro Trump supporters and anti-Trump protesters will likely be on hand for the event. A Facebook event calling for a 4:30 p.m. protest beginning on the UIC Quad has nearly 10,000 people saying theyll attend, and more than 180 staff and faculty signed a letter asking UIC officials to call the rally and "anathema to the mission of UIC."

Trump rallies have become increasingly known for outbreaks of violence, with protesters often being attacked by supporters. At a rally on Wednesday night in North Carolina, an African-American man was sucker punched by a white man in a cowboy hat while being led out of the venue, while police looked on. Mashable reports the African-American man was then tackled by police, while the white man was not ejected or immediately arrested on the scene.

Its these type of incidents that have staff, faculty and other potential protesters worried. Professor Julie Peters, who signed the letter, told Fox News:





I'm not actually concerned about whats going to happen out on the street. I'm concerned about what is going to happen inside the forum. Weve seen on camera what happens when people who are protesting Donald Trump are escorted, if you will, out of that arena.

In addition to Trump, Ted Cruz will also be in town on Friday at a fundraiser the Illinois Republican Party is hosting in honor of Gov. Bruce Rauner. The event begins at 6:30 p.m. and starts at $500 for a seat, with price brackets that go all the way up to $40,000.

Ohio Governor John Kasich was also in Illinois this week, appearing at 2 town hall meetings in the Chicago suburbs. Speaking in Palatine, Kasich said that he refused to get deep down in the mud thats been slung throughout the GOP primary. I refuse to get down in the mud to be elected president of the United States, said Kasich, according to the Tribune. "You have to show respect to people.

Though Rauner has not chosen to endorse a particular candidate, WLS reports Kasich had some supportive words for Rauner regarding the budget crisis, which has dragged on for 9 months:

"This is the Land of Lincoln. You can't melt down financially in this state and survive - this is ridiculous, why don't you tell 'em all to get along better. Get the legislature to work with the governor to get this state fixed before more businesses leave this state!"
For local business owner Joel Shepherd, owner of Virginia Furniture Market, traveling to Rwanda to help build a school was the trip of a lifetime.

Upon arrival in Rutongo in the Gasabo region of Rwanda, Roanoke-based Church of the Holy Spirits Team Kendall Rwanda began laying the first bricks of the new school.

The school Joel helped build is in memory of Kendall Bayne, a Cave Spring High School student who succumbed to cancer in October 2015. I was blessed to participate in the efforts to bring a school to an underserved area of Rwanda in memory of Kendall Bayne, Shepherd said. The school will serve an estimated 600 students in the local villages in and around Masaka, Rwanda and will provide a brick school for children who previously attended classes under tarps.

Traveling six hours across the country, the team also laid brick, painted and continued work on another new school house on Nkombo Island. Due to the isolated location, the team and villagers transported all wood and materials by hand from small boats onto the island. When Shepherds church first visited Nkombo island several years ago, there was little infrastructure and children were severely malnourished, with distended bellies and other signs of severe malnourishment. It is so important that we always have our hearts open to the needs in our local community and beyond, Shepherd said.

Through the efforts of many, churches have been built and a large school is under construction with hundreds of children taking part in a daily feeding program. Church of the Holy Spirit Pastor Quigg Lawrence says the turnaround has been dramatic.

The team also traveled to the Star School. The school is largely a boarding school and has about 200 students. The church has worked to build a fish farm, which in the long run will provide an important source of income to help sustain the school.

Shepherd and the team wrapped up their trip traveling back to Rutongo to dedicate the Kendall Bayne School with a bronze plaque that was installed permanently in the brick wall of the school. Shepherd said, The more I learned about Kendalls life, the more committed I am to honoring her memory. Shepherd is thankful and grateful to the entire team for the opportunity to serve.

Team Kendall Rwanda hopes to build another ten schools in Kendalls honor.

For photos of the trip to Rwanda, see the photo gallery, or for a different view, click here.

Submitted by Susan Childs
The interim executive director of the Virginia NAACP called for an independent investigation into the fatal police shooting of an 18-year-old black teen armed with a BB gun in Roanoke County last month.

Jack Gravely joined Brenda Hale, the president of the Roanoke branch of the NAACP, for a press conference Wednesday evening on the Martin Luther King Jr. Bridge in Roanoke. They reiterated demands Hale made last week that the Roanoke County Police Department conduct an unbiased and transparent investigation into the death of Kionte Desean Spencer.

Gravely said he wants another agency besides Roanoke County police to investigate the shooting. Currently, Roanoke County police are conducting their own investigation, and then presenting their findings to the commonwealths attorney for a final determination on the case.

We think its very important that an independent set of eyes look at what happened here in Roanoke, Virginia, Gravely said. He added he wasnt suggesting an independent investigation means the Roanoke County police have committed any wrongdoing.

Gravely, Hale, and Virginia NAACP legislative representative Rodney Thomas met with Roanoke County Police Chief Howard Hall Wednesday afternoon to discuss their concerns about the investigation.

Hale has asked that the department release the names of officers involved in the shooting as well as dash-cam video that captured the encounter with Spencer.

Chief Hall had a cordial conversation this afternoon with Ms. Hale and two other representatives from the NAACP, police spokeswoman Amy Whittaker said. The chief reiterated what has already been stated publicly by the department as far as how the investigatory process is handled.

In a statement last week, Roanoke County police said it will complete a thorough and unbiased investigation into the circumstances that resulted in the death of Kionte Spencer.

The statement also said that, in the interest of transparency, police released preliminary information but that additional information would be withheld in order to protect the integrity of the investigation.

Gravely said he did not want to provide a specific strategy until he spoke to more people with the Virginia and Roanoke NAACP organizations, but he said the Virginia State Police or U.S. Justice Department are two possible agencies that could investigate the shooting.

Two officers shot Spencer twice  in the hip and near the collarbone  near the busy corner of Brambleton Avenue and Electric Road on the evening of Feb. 26.

Hall has said that a preliminary investigation indicated his officers repeatedly commanded Spencer to drop the pistol in his right hand when they encountered him. At one point, Hall said an officer got close enough to deploy a Taser two times, but it was not effective. Hall said that is part of the investigation.

Police and witnesses have said they spotted Spencer with what appeared to be a gun. Spencer was also wearing headphones, and whether he heard commands from officers is also part of the investigation.

All weve been looking for since day one is the truth, Hale said. Were looking for an unbiased, transparent investigation. Thats all we ever looked for.

As she did days following Spencers death, Hale called again for the creation of a citizen review panel at the Roanoke County Police Department. She said she would like to see it modeled on one that exists at the Roanoke Police Department.

The Roanoke department has a Citizens Advisory Committee, which does not review officers actions but rather provides input when requested by the chief on policies or ideas.

The departments Disciplinary Review Board, which includes some civilians, reviews misconduct and incidents ranging from controversial Facebook remarks to police shootings. The board can provide suggestions on discipline, but the chief has the final say.

Following the press conference, when asked to elaborate about what shed like to see in this panel, Hale said she wanted a panel that can provide input to the chief about concerns from the community.

Spencers brother, Carl Spencer, 21, was also at the press conference, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with Justice For Kionte. A graphic on the shirt showed a pair of headphones with a red bandanna between the earphones. Its what his brother was wearing the night he died.
Three Franklin County High School students won the Congressional App Challenge for the Fifth District of Virginia.

The students, Matthew Brosinski, Ryan Murphy and Devin McCulley, created an app called the VR Atom History Explorer that teaches users about atoms and their history in a virtual reality environment.

The team, including their teacher William Schmachtenberg, was recognized in a news release from the office of Rep. Robert Hurt, R-Pittsylvania.

Were really happy to see the work we put into it paid off! Brosinski said in a statement. Being able to get the app out on time and see it do so well has been a huge honor were really thankful for. Technology we already have can be used in ways we dont typically expect. I think theres a lot of innovation to be done in this area, and I think our app is a good example of that.

Faith Christian student in mock legislature

Candice Mulinda was selected to serve as page for the youth governor for the mock legislative body run by the Virginia YMCA.

Mulinda is a freshman at Faith Christian School.

High school students who participate in the Model General Assembly assume the same roles held in the real General Assembly and debate legislative topics in committees and on the Senate and House floors.

Franklin County student wins bard competition

A Franklin County High School student won first place in the National Shakespeare Competition for the Southwest Virginia Branch of the English-Speaking Union, according to a news release from the association.

Gwyneth Strope earned the first-place prize and a chance to compete at the national competition in New York City in May. Stropes teacher is Mary Edwards.

Two other Roanoke Valley students earned second- and third-place prizes.

Jack Beedle, of Salem High School, earned second place.

Zach Casey, of Community High School of Arts and Academics, earned third place.

Students who compete in the Shakespeare competition perform a monologue from any Shakespearean play in addition to performing one of his sonnets.
The Republican field for the race to be Virginias next lieutenant governor is getting more crowded by the day.

On Thursday, Del. Glenn Davis, R-Virginia Beach, formally joined the 2017 fray, promising a Virginia turnaround of the states economy.

Im running because too many Virginians are unemployed, underemployed or stuck in part-time jobs desperate for full-time work, Davis 42, said in a statement announcing his campaign. Its time for a Virginia turnaround so we can start creating jobs and growing our economy once again.

A former Virginia Beach city councilman first elected to the House of Delegates in 2013, Davis is seeking to carve out a niche in the field by touting his business credentials as an IT entrepreneur. He says he turned a business run out of a one-bedroom apartment into one that Inc. magazine in 2007 termed one of the fastest growing IT companies in the nation.

Virginia used to be the best state in the nation for business; however, we have been sliding backwards, said Davis, who lives in Virginia Beach with his wife, Chelle.

Its time to get Virginia moving again, and as a job creator I know firsthand what it takes to get the job done.

Davis supports Ohio Gov. John Kasich for the GOP presidential nomination and the delegates Facebook page features a photo of the delegate and the Ohio governor.

A crowded field of potential candidates have expressed interest in a 2017 run for lieutenant governor  a part-time office whose occupant presides over the 40-member Senate and has the power to break ties on most issues.

On Monday, Sen. Bryce Reeves, R-Spotsylvania, announced his campaign for the nomination, which will be decided next year at a party convention. Last Saturday, Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel, R-Fauquier, said she would seek the nomination.

In addition to Reeves and Vogel, others who have begun laying groundwork for a run include Pete Snyder, who lost the partys 2013 nomination for lieutenant governor to E.W. Jackson; and Danny Vargas, a Northern Virginia businessman who lost a race for the House of Delegates in November.

U.S. Rep. Robert Wittman, R-Westmoreland, and Ed Gillespie, the former Republican National Committee chairman who lost a close race in 2014 to U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, say they will run for governor.

Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, the GOPs 2013 nominee for governor who narrowly lost to Democrat Terry McAuliffe, is considering another run in 2017.

Del. Rob Bell, R-Charlottesville, and lawyers John Adams of Richmond and Chuck Smith of Virginia Beach are seeking the Republican nomination for attorney general.

The Democratic field for 2017 is likely to feature two incumbents.

Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam is running for governor and Attorney General Mark Herring is running for re-election, leaving only the lieutenant governor spot on the ticket unoccupied.
RICHMOND  Clifton Forges Historic Masonic Theatre, which is nearing its grand reopening, was presented with a $150,000 check from the state Thursday to contribute to the renovation.

The revitalized theater, located in the heart of downtown, is both a new potential tourism draw and a community fixture with more than 100 years of local history.

Thats really what were talking about, Secretary of Commerce and Trade Maurice Jones said during Thursdays presentation.

Were talking about making sure that our small towns and communities can preserve the assets that have contributed to the soul, not just the economic aspect, but truly the soul of the communities through generations.

The 1905 theater started out as an opera house and Masonic hall, and has played host to the likes of Roy Rogers, Burl Ives and the Count Basie Orchestra.

The theater is nearing the end of a $6.45 million, top-to-bottom renovation and is set to reopen its doors in July.

The bulk of the project was funded through donations and tax credits. Thursdays check is a state grant provided by the new Virginia Tourism Growth Fund. It marks the second grant awarded by the fund.

The renovated beaux arts-style theater will include a performance hall that can host concerts, plays and films. The facility will also offer two event spaces for weddings, receptions and other community events.

This project, in my opinion, will be a destination, said Del. Terry Austin, R-Botetourt, who helped secure the state grant. People will come from all over to the Masonic Theatre.  This is, as the secretary said, what communities need today.

The Historic Masonic Theatre has been closed since 2010. Its reopening is seen as a key piece of an arts and culture revival in the small town of Clifton Forge.

Its going to be a huge thing for Clifton Forge, said Meade Snyder, president of the Masonic Theatre Preservation Foundation and one of several Clifton Forge leaders on hand for Thursdays presentation at the General Assembly Building.

The Masonic Theatre will be the oldest operating theater in Virginia. It retains many of its original design features.

The grand reopening is slated for the weekend of July 2.
Brigadier General Robert O. ( Bob) Petty, 82, of Bassett, Va, passed away on Friday, March 4, 2016.He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Patricia "Pat" Philpott Petty; daughters, Lynn P. Payne and her husband, John, Suzanne P. Fuhrmeister; sons, Robert Mark Petty and his wife, Kelly, Samuel Reed Petty and his wife, Joanie; nine grandchildren, Sarah L. Tulin and her husband, Sean, John C. Payne and his wife, Tumie, Daniel M. Payne and his wife, Katie, Kimberly Fuhrmeister, Cory Fuhrmeister, Toby River Gabriel Rollins, Sierra J. Petty, Logan Davis, and Shane Davis; four great-grandchildren, Slaton A. Payne, Mary Madison T. Payne, Theo K. Payne, and Zinzile D. Payne; his sister, Allie Grace Hodges.In addition to his parents, Grace Agnes Moreland and Alford Petty, Bob was preceded in death by nine brothers and sisters, Ray Burk (R. B.), Ruby Allene Petty, Rosa Lee Barrett, Henry Orville, Virginia Pearl Cutshall, Vera Lucille Jones, Bessie Lorraine Petty, Thelma Lou McMakin, Joyce Elizabeth Townsend.General Petty was born July 25, 1933, in Indian Mound, Texas. In his youth he worked hard on the ranch and in the oil fields. He earned a BS degree in range and forestry management from Texas A&M in 1953 and received his commission through the ROTC program. In 1964, he obtained an MBA from George Washington University.After entering the United States Air Force in December 1953, General Petty spent the next 31 years serving his country in USAF communications, eventually becoming director of the Defense Communications System Organization within the Defense Communications Agency. He and his family loved their years of travel, which took them to Alabama, California, Ohio, New York, Illinois, Washington DC; Prestwick, Scotland; Croughton, England; Wiesbaden and Kaiserslautern, Germany, in addition to solo tours to Greenland, Japan, and Vietnam. He was promoted to brigadier general July 1, 1981. He retired August 1, 1984 and moved to Bassett, Va. with his wife, Pat.His military decorations and awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit with two oak leaf clusters, Bronze Star Medal, Meritorious Service Medal with oak leaf cluster, Joint Service Commendation Medal, Air Force Outstanding Unit Award ribbon and Vietnam Staff Service Medal 1st Class.In addition to his long and illustrious Air Force career, Bob was an active member of his community and church. In 2006, he received the Jack Dalton Community Service Award for his volunteer work to improve life for others in Henry County, including serving several terms as president of the Bassett Kiwanis Club, chair of the Henry County Electoral Board, member of the tax reconciliation board, as well as chairman of the board of directors of Patrick Henry Community College July 2000 to June 2002. He was a born-again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and served faithfully as a lay leader and Sunday School teacher at Bassett and Stanleytown United Methodist Churches.To his family and friends, Bob was deeply respected for his sense of honor, hard work and personal integrity. He was much beloved for his kindness, generosity, and ability to tell a story complete, sometimes with cowboy hat and boots. He was often referred to as "the baby whisperer" for his ability to calm the fussiest little one.The family will host a reception for family and friends from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 12, 2016 in the fellowship hall at Stanleytown United Methodist Church, 24 Maplewood Avenue, Stanleytown, Va., with the memorial service to follow at 2 p.m. in the sanctuary. Immediately afterward, there will be an inurnment ceremony with full military honors at Roselawn Burial Park in Martinsville, Va.Those who wish to make a donation in General Petty's name may consider the following charitable organizations that were close to his heart: for local needs, Bassett Kiwanis Scholarship Fund, Tackfully Teamed, Mountain Valley Hospice, and Stanleytown Methodist Church; for national organizations, Salvation Army and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.The Petty family would like to express deep appreciation to the staff at Mountain Valley Hospice and to Dr. Mark Mahoney for their attentive care and loving support.
A top opera actress revealed at the annual session of China's top political advisory body that the Peking Opera needs modern interpretations and innovation to boost the art.

Shi Min, the leading actress at the Shanghai Jingju Theatre Company and a member of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). [Photo / China.org.cn]

Shi Min, the leading actress at the Shanghai Jingju Theatre Company and a member of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said she participated in shooting one of China's first batch of Peking Opera films, "Farewell My Concubine," as early as 2013. The classic story was made into the first Peking Opera film with advanced 3D technology and Dolby Atmos and went on to win several domestic and international awards in both 2014 and 2015 after its overseas debut on May 30, 2014 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

"The film maintains the authenticity of the original Peking Opera performing arts and has a motion picture expression and narrative, and perfectly combines traditional opera and 3D technology, and won many applauds from audiences both home and abroad," said Shi. "This is an innovative development of a traditional Chinese treasure."

The actress is in Beijing attending the annual session of the 12th CPPCC National Committee, which runs until March 14. In her proposal to the CPPCC, Shi suggested more innovative adaptations for Peking Opera in the digital media era, such as making Peking Opera cartoons and attracting more Peking Opera theater photographers.

However, she also remains worried about these kinds of innovation and film promotion. "In some major cities, 'Farewell My Concubine' was well received and even young people brought along their parents to movie theaters to see it. But in other cities, most showings were arranged in remote theaters or at very late times of the day. I hope the Ministry of Culture and the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television can give opera films a bigger boost and build art film theater chains. Then, such films can be seen more by a wider audience, especially by younger people who are the inheritors of the tradition."

Shi Min also proposed the establishment of Peking Opera and Kunqu Opera courses in Chinese universities to foster an interest in the hearts of China's younger generation.
Chen Man, who was jailed for 23 years for a crime he didn't commit, making him China's longest-serving wrongfully convicted prisoner, is demanding compensation of 9.65 million yuan (US$1.48 million). [Chengdu.cn]

Chen Man, who was jailed for 23 years for a crime he didn't commit, making him China's longest-serving wrongfully convicted prisoner, is demanding compensation of 9.65 million yuan (US$1.48 million), thepaper.cn reported.

The 53-year-old also wants a public apology from the Hainan Provincial High People's Court, it reported.

He is asking for 1.85 million yuan from the court for infringing on his personal freedom, 3 million yuan for damage to his mental health, and 100,000 yuan to cover the cost of his treatment for a severe gastric ulcer that he developed in prison.

He also wants 3.7 million yuan to compensate for the loss of his career as a construction company boss and 1 million yuan to cover the cost of challenging his conviction, it reported.

Chen was arrested in Haikou City, capital of Hainan, in 1992, after being accused of burning down a house in which Zhong Zuokuan, his former landlord, died. In 1994, he was given a suspended death penalty by Haikou Intermediate People's Court and the verdict was upheld by the provincial higher court in 1999.

Chen insisted that the police used torture to extract a false confession from him, and he lodged an appeal with the Supreme People's Procuratorate, which in turn appealed to the Supreme People's Court in February last year.

The top court ordered the Zhejiang Provincial High People's Court to review the case and he was acquitted and released on Febuary 1.
Jewelers of America (JA) will organize free seminars on March 13-14 during the JA New York Show, which runs March 13 to 15.

Leading the program is a keynote presentation by Nicole Leinbach Reyhle, a founder and publisher of Retail Minded, and co-founder of the Independent Retailer Conference, on Tips, Tricks and Techniques to Maximize Your In-Store Experience.

The trade bodys education program will also feature two interactive seminars on March 13, presented by sales experts Janice Mack and Debbie Hiss. Attendees are invited to share their experiences and insights about courting the bridal customer and tips for keeping existing customers.

Separately, Jewelers for Children, in collaboration with JA, is hosting Celebrate New York, a cocktail party and silent auction at events venue 404 NYC. All proceeds benefit Jewelers for Children. JA members receive a discounted price.

JA also said it is offering exams for its Professional Certification in Sales and Management on March 13 during the show.



Theodor Lisovoy, Rough&Polished, Moscow




In an effort to draw attention to Republican obstruction, Senate Democrats sought votes on two long-pending judicial nominees on Thursday but were denied.

Senator John Cornyn, R-Tex., objected to a request for unanimous consent the Senate vote on confirmation of the nominees, arguing that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ken., sets the schedule.

The two nominees, Waverly Crenshaw and Paula Xinis, were both unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Democrats took the opportunity to accuse Republicans of blocking lower court judges in addition to any nominee to fill the current vacancy on the Supreme Court.

"While Republicans refuse to even consider the next Supreme Court nominee, I would think they would at least allow consensus lower court nominees to be confirmed," said Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

He added, "I hope that Republicans are not listening to the moneyed Washington interest groups over their own constituents."

Arguing that the next president should fill the vacancy, Republicans have pledged to not even hold hearings on a Supreme Court nominee.

Crenshaw was nominated to fill an emergency vacancy on the district court for the Middle District of Tennessee and has the support of both the state's Republican Senators. His nomination has been pending for eight months.

Xinis was nominated nearly a year ago to fill a vacancy on the Federal district court in Maryland, and her nomination has been pending for nearly six months.

A statement from Leahy noted Senate Republicans have confirmed just sixteen of President Barack Obama's judicial nominees since taking over the majority in 2015.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Political News
 Flash

Tokyo must not "flare up tension in the South China Sea" or try to contain China by aligning with other parties involved in disputes there, the Chinese Ambassador to Japan told China Daily.

Veteran diplomat and political advisor Cheng Yonghua, 62, made the comments when asked about Japan's recent high-profile stance on maritime issues and its calling for joint sea patrols.

"Japan is unilaterally standing against China on a basis of partiality, and it addresses any country having disputes with China as its 'pal' or 'brother' in an attempt to encircle China. This is utterly wrong from the outset," Cheng said.

Some observers have attributed Japan's stance to the ongoing US pivot to Asia strategy. Cheng responded that "Japan is not even a contracting party in the relevant disputes".

"Freedom of navigation is also a false issue, and what the US is doing in the sea is leading the situation to one of further tension. Both Tokyo and Washington should clearly bear in mind the status quo and not produce tension," he said.

"Japan has turned a blind eye" to a slew of key historical facts, he said, including China retaking islands illegally occupied by Japan during World War II, and countries such as the Philippines illegally occupying some islands and boosting military buildup on them since the 1970s.
Cuba's state newspaper says it welcomes the upcoming historic visit of US President Barack Obama, which is scheduled for later this month, but warned him not to expect political concessions from the Communist nation.

No one can expect any change in Cuba's unconditional adherence to its revolutionary and anti-imperialist ideals, said an editorial published by Cuban official daily Granma.

March 21 marks the latest milestone in a series of developments of improving relations between the two countries, when Obama will begin a two-day tour of the island nation -- the first visit by a US president since Calvin Coolidge in 1928

Obama had insisted he would only travel to Cuba if the communist government made progress on reforms in areas such as human rights. But Granma warned him against putting pressure on Cuba's internal affairs. We have won this sovereign right with great sacrifices. The editorial reiterated Havana's demands for Washington returning the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, lifting more than half-a-century-old embargo on Cuba and fully normalize ties in areas such as immigration.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Political News
A video showing a worker mopping floor of the food court at Disney's Art of Animation Resort and using the same mop to clean tables has gone viral.

Jesse Arias, a guest at the resort, took the video after he noticed the woman's unsanitary working methods.

Arias shared the video with Channel 9 Orlando and said, "Anybody with any kind of common sense can see that is unsanitary. It's just really disturbing that they were doing something like that and exposing us to diseases. There are thousands of people that walk those parks a day."

He said that he reported the incident to the resort manager, however, the manager comped his stay at the resort. Arias, who wasn't satisfied with manager's actions, sent few emails to Disney until they took action.

Disney officials have stated the incident as an isolated one and said that the worker is not actually a Disney cast member, but works for a third-party vendor.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

More Blogs
 Flash

China on Thursday urged the European Union (EU) to obey the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and stop its unfair treatment of China.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei made the remarks following comments by EU Trade Minister Cecilia Malmstrom on Wednesday. She said the EU must maintain solid trade defenses even if it decides to grant China market economy status.

China joined the WTO in 2001. The WTO accession protocol means China will automatically transit to a market economy for Europe by Dec. 11, 2016, the 15th anniversary of its accession to the organization. However, Europe insists this must be debated.

"We've heard different opinions on China's market economy status from the EU recently," Hong said, noting that China had fulfilled its obligations since becoming a member of WTO.

So far, over 80 countries, including Russia, New Zealand, Singapore and Australia, have recognized China's status as a market economy.

China is now the EU's second largest trading partner and one of the biggest markets for the 28-member bloc.

The EU is an important member of the WTO, a vital supporting force to the multilateral trade and international legal systems, Hong said, adding that China hopes the EU will fulfill its commitments to China's entry into WTO.
Millennial Moms Review: 2022 Acura MDX is pretty close to the perfect family car

I dont know if perfect is attainable, especially considering weve got the world of options when it comes to modern vehicles. Were spoiled and, as such, we have very specific needs and wants. Driving-wise, the 2022 Acura MDX is one of my favourite ...
By SA Commercial Prop News

Public Works Minister, Thulas Nxesi recently hosted a meeting with media and CEO's of the countrys property companies stressing the need to stamp out corruption in governments property leasing deals.



Department of Public Works Minister, Thulas Nxesi recently hosted a meeting with media and CEO's of the countrys property companies stressing the need to stamp out corruption in governments property leasing deals.

The strategic planning session aimed to introduce the industry to departmental property services, the Property Management Trading Entity (PMTE)  and issues discussed included transformation in the property sector, boosting transparency in Government property leasing activity, pricing of leases and rental benchmarks.

PMTE operates as a trading entity within DPW and its mandate includes the provision of accommodation and rendering of expert built environment services to user departments at national government level.

About 56% of Government's leasehold portfolio was above market rental and these rentals were on average 45% above market rentals, according to a study done for the department last year.

One reason for the high portfolio rentals relative to market rentals was the escalation mechanism the department had entered into in the past. This included a gross lease agreement at fixed escalation rates over the duration of the lease.

Nxesi has done a lot of work to improve his department which had been highly inefficient and unreliable.

Allow me to remind you where we come from as Public Works. When I was appointed Minister at the end of 2011, the Department was characterised by poor management and weak controls resulting in adverse audit findings culminating in disclaimers, widespread corruption and scandals  particularly in the property and leasing environment, Nxesi said.

Paul Serote, the head of PMTE said these expenditures could be managed through consistent specifications for government accommodation, the alignment of rates to market rentals, and allowing for regular rental reviews possibly every three years, and longer-term leases.

With the states immovable asset register and the PMTE in place, the government now had the tools to leverage the states property portfolio for economic development, job creation and empowerment, he said.

Minister Nxesi stressed that Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in the Budget speech had directed all spheres of government to renegotiate all leases.

With a leased portfolio valued at about R4 billion a year at national level, the PMTE had a responsibility to positively influence the broader property market and to support transformation so that ownership, management and control better reflected the demographics of the country.



Nxesi stressed that the fact earlier attempts at empowerment in relation to leases came with negative unintended consequences should not deter the government from continuing with its mandate to transform the built environment sector.



The issue was how to achieve this goal in such a way that resulted in broad-based empowerment that was balanced with other government imperatives, such as cost containment, and priorities, such as rural development, that implied that development was increasingly rolled out outside of the urban centres.



But we must be very careful that transformation is not just reduced to black and white and what was done by the whites now must be done by the blacks. That is very dangerous, Nxesi said.



Transformation is about race but also the content on how things are done. What we are not going to do is to give business to people and they do not perform. There must be value for both government and yourself as property owners, he said.



The Minister also added that there were significant opportunities for private sector investment in the states property portfolio through the development of unutilised government land and buildings, and the building of small to large government precincts and service delivery outlets in small towns and rural areas

Recently his department had strengthened ties with South African businesses especially property institutions which includes Property Sector Charter Council, South African Institute of Black Property Practitioners (SAIBPP) and South African Property Owners Association (Sapoa).

Vuyiswa Mutshekwane, CEO of SAIBPP commended DPW and the PMTE for their commitment to improving efficiency and curbing excess spending.

"PMTE completion of the asset register will facilitate the administration of government properties and serve as an accurate base for their leasing and disposal strategy. We do however lament the challenges that black property practitioners continue to face as a result of the unfavourable lease terms and, we call for the urgent reinstatement of the 10 year lease policy. This will assist black industrialists by providing favourable conditions for long term funding," she said.
By SA Commercial Prop News - SA Government News Agency

The Gauteng Department of Health has appointed five senior managers, as part of its on-going efforts to achieve a turnaround and stability.

The plan also aims at ensuring that clinics have essential medication, hospitals have proper equipment as well as proper allocation of resources.



Ndoda Biyela has been appointed as the new Chief Financial Officer. Biyela was the General Manager: Public Finance in KwaZulu-Natal Treasury Department and has held a number of senior positions in government departments.



Babalwa Mgolombane, who was responsible for Strategic Management of Development Business Unit at the Intersite Investments, has been appointed to head the infrastructure unit. She has extensive experience in infrastructure.



To boost efforts aimed at re-engineering Primary Health Care, Meisie Lerutla has been appointed as Chief Director: District Health Services. Lerutla has technical and managerial expertise in health services management including Maternal Health, Sexual Reproductive Health and HIV and Aids programming, she also has experience in strategy development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.



The department also appointed Chief Director: Health Economics and Finance, Thulani Matsebula, who joined the department from Council for Medical Schemes, where he worked as Head of Research and Monitoring. Matsebula also held senior positions in different organisations.



Mojalefa Lekoto has been appointed as the Chief Director: Information Communications and Technology. He comes from the Department of Education in Limpopo, where he was General Manager: ICT.
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
I give my consent to Sakshi Post to be in touch with me via email for the purpose of event marketing and corporate communications. Privacy Policy
Country

United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
By Jannette Jauregui

Santa Paula News

Dear Elise,

I sat in the second row of pews at the United Methodist Church on Mill Street in Santa Paula, looking up to the altar and the table upon which there lay an American flag, an urn, flowers, and a photo of Gordon Welsh.

I sat somewhat unsettled, nervous about the psalm I was so graciously asked to read, and torn between wondering why I hadnt seen Gordon before he passed away, and being grateful that my last memory of him was of seeing him smiling in the grocery store just a couple of months before.

I sat with the image of you, me, and Gordon engraved in my head  the one I instinctively had a fellow VFW comrade capture in November following what ended up being Gordons last community based Veterans Day service. The one I have hanging in my office. The one I will have hanging in your room.

I sat curious, wondering if youd ever ask me about the man in that picture. About who he was. About his story.

You wont remember him, or the day we took that picture. You wont know the sound of his voice as he asked about you, methodically calling you by your first and middle names.

Despite the absence of those memories for you, they remain clear to me. They will be added to our repertoire of bedtime stories.

Before Gordons funeral came the funeral of other veterans whose stories Ive shared  veterans who have played a critical role in my life. Veterans who never second-guessed having a young stranger  and a journalist for that matter  come into their home to ask personal and often painful questions about a war theyd just as soon forget. You wont get to meet those veterans. You wont have your picture taken with them standing next to you. But you will get to know them.

When I started writing their stories, I did it for a somewhat selfish reason. Yes, I was passionate about the generation of which they were a part. But the idea of seeing my byline in print? That was equally exciting.

It quickly became apparent, however, that my priorities were mixed up. The first story meant more than a byline before it was ever published. I sat listening to first-hand accounts of being shot in the arm, the leg, of being captured as a prisoner of war.

Of starvation, trench foot, frostbite, and of witnessing a bullet hit the friend sitting no more than two feet away.

I stood on Omaha Beach listening to a man who, as a young medic, gave his all to treat the thousands of wounded soldiers around him as he, too, nearly bled to death.

I listened to stories from a Navy nurse slowly losing her battle with COPD. From a man in a nursing home with no family to visit him. From a retired teacher I was scared of as a child, but who turned out to be one of the kindest men Ive met. From two couples - one sent against their will to an internment camp, and the other who met upon their freedom from a concentration camp. And from a man who taught me the meaning of the word Mitzvah.

I heard a couple married 70 years share the story of survival the day Pearl Harbor was bombed, and how, at 90, they still danced to the same Andrews Sisters song every year on their anniversary as if their love was new.
By Peggy Kelly

Santa Paula News

Santa Paula Hospital (SPH) and Ventura County Medical Center (VCMC) are welcoming mothers-to-be and new mothers to their breastfeeding classes and breastfeeding support groups held on a regular basis.

The free breastfeeding class  once a week for two weeks  is recommended for women before they start the 34th week of pregnancy.

Mothers-to-be are invited to bring their partners to learn about the benefits of breastfeeding, common myths and misconceptions, recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics, positioning and latch techniques, how to return to work or school and continue to breastfeed and community resources and support systems.

Free Breastfeeding Classes are held at the Santa Paula Hospital Library (825 N. 10th St.) from 5 to 7 p.m. with class sessions February through December.

Once youve had your bundle of joy plan on coming to The Breastfeeding Cafe held each Tuesday from 10 a.m. to noon at Santa Paula West Medical Group, 245 W. Harvard Blvd. Suite B.

Mothers meet at The Breastfeeding Cafe to hang out with other new Moms and their babies to offer mutual support, especially for those just getting started on breastfeeding their babies.

The Breastfeeding Cafe, which attracts both English and Spanish-speaking mothers, urges them to Bring your baby, your questions and your stories to share!

According to Carol Lundstrom, RN, CLC, Maternity at SPH and VCMC, the breastfeeding programs were inaugurated about a year ago.

Attendance at the Breastfeeding Classes is higher in Santa Paula, which Lundstrom said is likely due to the soon to be completed major construction at the VCMC campus.

The Santa Paula campus has seen a consistent rise in class attendance and The Breastfeeding Cafe is also growing in popularity.

The programs struggled for a while but now have grown, helping to meet the national health goal for exclusive breastfeeding for better baby health and wellness.

There are so many good reasons to support these moms in their desire to breastfeed, and Lundstrom said although almost 100 percent of new mothers breastfeed in the hospital, If they dont have any support when they have a problem they say forget itwe prepare them ahead of time with a class that helps them stick with it longer, when otherwise they might fail.

The rate is really high when they start out but after a week or so at home, many give up because of problems ranging from latching to pain during nursing.

Ventura County Public Health has a program available to new mothers that deliver at Santa Paula Hospital called Bright Beginnings that offers three free home visits from Public Health Nurses educated in lactation to help mothers with their breastfeeding and screen them for post partum depression.

Lundstrom said mothers that avail themselves of the home visit program have a breastfeeding rate double of others; Bright Beginnings has also launched from VCMC. The free program is available for all mothers who delivered at SPH and VCMC, including those with private insurance.
By Peggy Kelly

Santa Paula News

President Ken Ary of the Santa Paula Lions Club broke his goal of 400 eye examines for those in need Saturday when the club hosted its 3rd Annual California Lions Friends In Sight clinic.

The February 27 clinic was held at the Church of Christ from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. where a cadre of volunteers including optometrists, Lions and individuals helped the event move smoothly in spite of the crowd.

Brian Van Dusen O.D. of Hemet, a California Friends in Sight board director, said 410 patients were screened.

Of those screened 56 patients were found to have no need for eyeglasses, 329 received recycled eyeglasses and another 25 must have new glasses made at an optical lab.

There were drawers and drawers of recycled eyeglasses, about 18,000 pairs and the tables were busy with volunteers finding the right prescription and fit for those with vision needs.

Placing several pairs on the table Lion Glenda Learn told a very petit woman These are actually childs eyeglasses, a last resort after being unable to fit the woman with adult-size glasses.

I brought my friend, and once there, Michele Nava said she decided to get the free eye screening.

The results? I need glasses, no more squinting for me! she noted as she waited for a volunteer to find the correct prescription and fit for her.

Ten patients had more urgent needs and were referred for more complex services.

Van Dusen reported that one patient needed the removal of a pterygium, a growth of pink, fleshy noncancerous tissue on the white of the eye that in advanced cases can interfere with vision. A second patient required a contact lens fitting to control Keratoconus, a thinning disorder of thecornea that causes visual distortion.

Eight patients needed further assessment for glaucoma, a group of diseases that without early detection and treatment can damage the eyes optic nerve and result in vision loss and blindness.

Everyone over age 60, especially Mexican-Americans are at risk of glaucoma.

I really want to give the doctors so much credit, said Ary. We couldnt have done it without them.

Aside from Van Dusen, those offering eye screenings were Aaron M. Luekenga O.D., Carey Poultney O.D. and Franco Castrejon O.D. of Heritage Valley Eye Care Santa Paula-Fillmore and Mark Brunette O.D. of Miramar Eye Care Santa Paula-Ventura.

Members of the Ambers Light Lions Club of Camarillo and Saticoy Lions were on hand to help out including dispensing eyeglasses, as was Scotty Barclay of the Rancho Cucamonga District Host Lions Club.
By Peggy Kelly

Santa Paula News

A Santa Paula Rotarian who Plays with trains and carries his food in lunch pails was honored with a Paul Harris Fellowship recognition at a recent club meeting.

Incoming Club President Carlos Juarez was recognized for his efforts on behalf of Rotary and the community at the February 22 meeting held at Flight 126 Cafe.

Past President Scott Dunbar presented the Fellowship  named in honor of the Rotary founder  to Juarez, a retired Santa Paula Police Lieutenant, noting the history of the fellowship recognition.

The PHF recognizes a $1,000 donation or sponsorship to the Rotary Foundation, which got an early start with a fund started by Rotarian Arch Klump in 1917, an effort that evolved into Easter Seals. Rotary now has the Arch Klump Society honoring those who make a $250,000 donation to the Rotary Foundation.

The Paul Harris Fellowship recognition was created in 1957, a decade after Harris, who saw the Chicago club he started in 1923 with three others grow into an international powerhouse for bettering the world, passed away.

Juarez joined Rotary in 2010 at the same time he had become involved with numerous community activities. Dunbar said Juarez jumped right in serving on  and leading  many Rotary committees as well as chairing the Christmas Basket Program.
By Peggy Kelly

Santa Paula News

Tuesday evening the Santa Paula community can take the opportunity to attend a free program for the whole family to learn about HOPE and what to expect following a crisis or emergency, including how children will be cared for until they can be reunited with their families.

Healing is the focus of the March 8 program sponsored by the Santa Paula Citizens Corps Divine Distractions program, featuring the HOPE Animal-Assisted Crisis Response (AACR) as well as other speakers.

The free program will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Santa Paula Community Center, located at the corner of West Main Street and Steckel Drive.

According to organizer Samantha Frady of Citizens Corps, HOPE dogs are second responder teams that take care of emotional needs following an emergency or disaster.

The Santa Paula Citizens Corps Divine Distractions program, an outshoot of Project Joy, is designed to help children separated from families during times of disaster and crisis with games and toys among other distractions that will ease their minds until they can be reunited with loved ones.

Representative Tressa Saviers of Fillmore brought the concept culled from Project Joy to Citizens Corps, now seeking program volunteers and donations. Project Joy is a nonprofit grassroots organization that uses the power of play to heal and strengthen children whose lives have been impacted by trauma or hardship.

In times of disaster the American Red Cross (ARC) will provide mass care, shelter, food, nurses and other help. The ARC also responds to devastation on smaller levels such as a family losing their home to fire. Mike Ewens of the ARC will also be hand to tell of his experiences with Hurricane Katrina and comfort-therapy dogs.

The stars of the program will be HOPE dogs and their handlers, all volunteers l, featuring LaWana Heald, the Pacific Southwest Regional Director.

HOPE, according to their website, provides wordless love, quiet companionship, and a brief respite for those affected by crisis

Members of Citizen Corps will also be on hand to give information to those interested in their programs and volunteer opportunities.

For more information call Frady, 805-525-7646.
Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/10/2016 -- With technological advances and ongoing research and development (R&D) to commercialize the use of biomass for power generation, the biomass power generation market is anticipated to register higher growth in the next few years. Increasing utilization of biomass, including manure and plant materials, to generate electricity and produce biomass fuels for transportation can provide a low-carbon and sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. Both developing and developed economies are increasingly focusing on biomass for power generation in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is primarily since biomass is carbon-neutral. Biomass power generation produces as much carbon as the plants absorb from the atmosphere.



Power generation through biomass also provides significant benefits to local communities. Biomass is also expected to help a country phase out the use of coal for generating electricity. Biomass power makes productive utilization of wood manufacturing wastes, crop residues and the clean portion of urban wastes. Sustainable biomass resources and scales of operation can be identified by assessing the total biomass production in a particular region, while balancing energy and environmental tradeoffs.



Complete Report with TOC @ http://www.mrrse.com/biomass-power-generation-market



The research study is designed to analyze the global biomass power generation market. The market is calculated in terms of installed capacity (MW), power generation (Million KWh), and revenue (USD Million). The market for biomass power generation, based on feedstock, has been segmented into woody biomass, agriculture & forest residues, biogas & energy crops, urban residues, and landfill gas feedstock. On the basis of technology, the biomass power generation market has been segmented into anaerobic digestion, combustion, gasification, co-firing & CHP, and landfill gas (LFG). The regional segments included in this study are North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America.



These regional segments are further divided into country-wise segments for the respective region. North America is further sub-segmented into the U.S. and Rest of North America; Europe is sub-segmented into Sweden, Finland, the U.K., Germany, Italy, and Rest of Europe; Asia Pacific is sub-segmented into China, India, Japan, and Rest of Asia Pacific; Middle East and Africa (MEA) is further sub-segmented into South Africa and Rest of MEA; and Latin America is sub-segmented into Brazil and Rest of Latin America.



Inquiry on this report @ http://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/729



The report provides a detailed growth forecast for the period 20142022 based on the historical years  2012 and 2013. Projections have been provided for installed capacity (MW), power generation (Million KWh), and revenue (USD Million). The report includes the key market dynamics affecting the demand for biomass power generation feedstock and technologies. As a part of our market dynamics analysis, we have analyzed market drivers, market restraints, and market opportunities. A comprehensive competitive landscape, which includes company market share analysis and market attractiveness analysis, has also been provided in this report.



The report also provides a detailed industry analysis of the global biomass power generation market with the help of Porter's Five Forces model. The Porter's Five Forces analysis aids in understanding the five major forces that affect the industry structure and profitability of the global power generation technology market. The forces analyzed are the bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, threat from new entrants, threat from substitutes, and degree of competition.



The study also includes the value chain of the global biomass power generation market which provides a glimpse of procurement and logistics, biomass conversion techniques as well as interaction of suppliers and buyers with end-users. The company market share analysis has been done considering the biomass installed capacity, number of biomass power plants (installed and upcoming), revenues, and global penetration of key market players in the biomass industry. The market attractiveness analysis involves benchmarking and ranking each technology and region on the basis of numerous parameters. The parameters selected are likely to have a pronounced effect on the demand for each technology in the current scenario as well as in the near future.



Request a Free Sample Copy of the Report @ http://www.mrrse.com/sample/729



Key participants in the global biomass power generation market include Alstom SA, Ameresco, Inc., DONG Energy A/S, Drax Group plc, Forth Energy Ltd., Helius Energy Plc, Enviva LP, MGT Power Ltd., The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and Vattenfall AB. This report provides an overview of these companies, followed by their financial revenues, business strategies, and recent developments.



About MRRSE

MRRSE stands for Market Research Reports Search Engine, the largest online catalog of latest market research reports based on industries, companies, and countries. MRRSE sources thousands of industry reports, market statistics, and company profiles from trusted entities and makes them available at a click. Besides well-known private publishers, the reports featured on MRRSE typically come from national statistics agencies, investment agencies, leading media houses, trade unions, governments, and embassies.



Follow us @ https://twitter.com/MRRSEmrrse
Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/10/2016 -- Broadcast switchers are hardware components used in video transmission process. Switchers are the integral part of the video broadcasting and used in film or video production for selecting or switching different audio and video signals coming in from different sources. Switchers are of different types such as production switchers, routing switchers and master control switchers and are used in control rooms, remote trucks and so on.



The increasing consumer demand for broadcasting major programs including music concerts and live sporting events in HD format requiring equipment to add special effects has resulted in the growing demand for production switchers worldwide. In addition, with increasing demand for higher quality video, the broadcast industry has seen an increase in HD satellite broadcast subscribers globally. HD channels have seen steady growth and with increasing digital transmission, the number of HD channels is expected to grow from 4,500 to 7,547 at a CAGR of 9.0% from 2013 to 2019.



Complete Report with TOC @ http://www.mrrse.com/broadcast-switchers-market



ITU (International Telecommunication Union) has mandated the conversion of digital television broadcasting globally because of its spectrum efficient transmission technology. Digitalization allows broadcast stations to provide more programming opportunities through multiple broadcast streams with improved picture and sound quality. In 2006 at Geneva, at a conference of the ITU, 120 countries signed a treaty to migrate to digital television. In accordance with this treaty, African, European and Middle-East regions have to migrate to digital television before June 17, 2015. Countries of the ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) sub-region are working to adopt a common implementation plan for digital transition. This is expected to boost the market for broadcast equipment and, in turn, broadcast switchers deployed in them. Different countries in South America including Chile, Columbia and Venezuela are expected to adopt digital transmission by 2020. In addition, the Arab countries and CIS countries (Commonwealth of independent states) such as Ukraine and Belarus are also moving towards the transition from analog to digital terrestrial broadcasting and are expected to adopt digital transmission in mid 2015. Countries such as Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Libya, Syrian Arab Republic and the United Arab Emirates among others are expected to show greater market opportunity in near future.



The report includes segmentation of broadcast switchers market by type, application, number of ports, type of ports, video resolution, and by geography. Further, it provides current and forecast market size and volume for the aforementioned categories. Cross sectional analysis for the type of broadcast switchers and geography segments is a part of the scope. Factors influencing and inhibiting the growth of the market have been analyzed. Porter's five forces analysis covered in the report offers insights on market competition.



Inquiry on this report @ http://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/728



The adoption of digital technologies is slow due to the heavy infrastructure required to enable digitized broadcasts. The switchers are used only as a part of broadcast equipment. Moreover, establishing new broadcast facilities involves huge capital investment for purchasing broadcast equipment such as camera control units, lighting equipment, cables, digital audio mixers, converters, controllers, on-field audio recorders, encoders, mobile video studios, video conversion software and most importantly switchers or vision mixers. Thus, the small private broadcasters that operate over-the-air find it difficult to enter into the market, thus restraining the market growth. But the cost of digital equipment is expected to fall during the forecast period. Hence, the impact of these factors is high at present but is analyzed to be medium to low throughout the forecast period.



This study includes profile of key players in the market and the strategies adopted by them to sustain the competition. Recent developments and barriers of the market will help emerging players to design their strategies in an effective manner. The study is expected to help key players in broadcast switchers market to formulate and develop their strategies.



Request a Free Sample Copy of the Report @ http://www.mrrse.com/sample/728



About MRRSE

MRRSE stands for Market Research Reports Search Engine, the largest online catalog of latest market research reports based on industries, companies, and countries. MRRSE sources thousands of industry reports, market statistics, and company profiles from trusted entities and makes them available at a click. Besides well-known private publishers, the reports featured on MRRSE typically come from national statistics agencies, investment agencies, leading media houses, trade unions, governments, and embassies.



Follow us @ https://twitter.com/MRRSEmrrse
Deerfield Beach, FL -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/10/2016 -- The report begins with a detailed overview of the global and China Inductor 2016-2020 industry. Starting with a broad overview, the report narrows down to offer an overview of the Inductor in China 2016-2020 Industry globally as well as with a specific focus on China. By conducting a check of the current status of the Inductor in China 2016-2020 Industry, the report is able to then delve deeper into the various forces that directly and indirectly impact the Industry.



Request For Sample:

http://www.marketresearchstore.com/report/market-research-for-inductor-in-china-2016-47878#RequestSample



Given the ever-shifting and ever-evolving nature of the technologies that enable the products and services contributing to the growth of the Inductor in China 2016-2020 Industry, the report conducts a detailed analysis of the technological trends and developments. This report then moves ahead to focus on the various global and China-based players in the Inductor in China 2016-2020 Industry. In order to obtain specific information about the Industry participants, the report focuses on the following key aspects: Company Profiles, product/services information, contact information, as well as production/revenues.



The report then delves deeper by segmenting the global and Chinese Industry for Inductor in China 2016-2020 into sections, based on parameters such as applications, end-users, geographical regions, or product/technology, where applicable. The degree of competition that exists in the Inductor in China 2016-2020 Industry in the context of both China and the world, is studied in detail.



Access Full Report With TOC:

http://www.marketresearchstore.com/report/market-research-for-inductor-in-china-2016-47878



All Industry forecasts are based on an analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data. For this, specific data has been gleaned from journals, trade magazines, revenues of leading Industry participants, as well as news reports. The impact of the economic condition prevailing in China as well as in other parts of the world is assessed in the context of the Inductor in China 2016-2020 Industry. Both macroeconomic and microeconomic outlooks have been taken into consideration for this purpose. The report then goes on to offer countermeasures to mitigate any adverse impacts of unfavorable economic conditions. The report ends with definitive and authoritative conclusions about the Inductor in China 2016-2020 Industry.

1)The Aim of this report



To provide readers with comprehensive & indepth understanding of China Inductor in China 2016-2020 industry;

To disclose market size of China Inductor in China 2016-2020 industry;

To understand position of China Inductor in China 2016-2020 in the world;

To predict what future of China Inductor in China 2016-2020 industry will be;

To analyze major Inductor in China 2016-2020 producers in China;

To find out the key strengths and weakness of China Inductor in China 2016-2020 producers, and the threats and opportunities they face;

To reveal opportunities in Chinese Inductor in China 2016-2020 industry.



2)Benefit from the report



Obtain latest info of Inductor in China 2016-2020 industry, such as market size, status in the world, hotspots and so on;

Evaluate the financial performance and growth strategies of top 20 Inductor in China 2016-2020 producers in China Inductor in China 2016-2020 industry;

Identify key trends and opportunities in China Inductor in China 2016-2020 industry;

Understand what are the drivers and barriers of China Inductor in China 2016-2020 producers.



Inquiry Before Buying Report Here @:

http://www.marketresearchstore.com/report/market-research-for-inductor-in-china-2016-47878#InquiryForBuying



3)Deliverables



Wordformat report, with around 3050 pages;

Excelformat database of key Inductor in China 2016-2020 producers;

Excelformat market data of Inductor in China 2016-2020 industry;



Contact US:

Joel John

3422 SW 15 Street,Suit #8138

Deerfield Beach,Florida 33442

United States

Toll Free: +1-855-465-4651 FREE (USA-CANADA)

Tel: +1-386-310-3803 FREE

Email: sales@marketresearchstore.com

Website: http://www.marketresearchstore.com/



For More Reprts Under Askci Market Research Reports @: http://www.marketresearchstore.com/publisher/askci-consulting-co-ltd-42
Latest OBITS Initiative Pays over 11 Bitcoin Worth of Digital Currency to Bloggers' Club 500 Members
Lewes, DE -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/10/2016 -- Publisher's commercial banking forecast series covers 62 countries accounting for 80% of global GDP. Each report, researched at source, features Publisher's independent assessment and 5-year forecasts to end-2017 for the commercial banking sector in each market. Using its expertise in both country risk and financial markets analysis, Publisher has created exclusive models to forecast a wealth of key variables on the commercial banking sector. Historic and forecast data are provided for the sector's total asset and liability growth, client loans, and client deposits. Forecasts for key ratios including the loan-deposit ratio and the loan-asset ratio are also included, as well as core macro-economic forecasts. Data is presented in both local currency and US dollar terms.



Each report examines key drivers of growth and future prospects, including the macroeconomic situation, the level of development and potential for growth of the banking sector, the commercial initiatives of major players, government policy and the regulatory environment.



Central to Publisher's analysis are our unique Commercial Banking Business Environment Ratings. Publisher's unique country-comparative Risk-Reward Rating provides a clear, quantified, independent assessment of the opportunities and dangers of operating in each market. The methodology draws together our in-depth knowledge of competitive pressures, our comprehensive industry market forecasts, and our Country Risk team's unrivalled analysis of economic, political and operational risks.



The reports also feature profiles of leading banks, covering total assets, liabilities, client deposits, lending, bond holdings, main products and services, competitive positioning and ownership structure.



For more information Visit at: http://www.marketresearchreports.com/business-monitor-international/latvia-commercial-banking-report-q2-2016



Publisher's commercial banking forecast series covers 62 countries accounting for 80% of global GDP. Each report, researched at source, features Publisher's independent assessment and 5-year forecasts to end-2017 for the commercial banking sector in each market. Using its expertise in both country risk and financial markets analysis, Publisher has created exclusive models to forecast a wealth of key variables on the commercial banking sector. Historic and forecast data are provided for the sector's total asset and liability growth, client loans, and client deposits. Forecasts for key ratios including the loan-deposit ratio and the loan-asset ratio are also included, as well as core macro-economic forecasts. Data is presented in both local currency and US dollar terms.



Each report examines key drivers of growth and future prospects, including the macroeconomic situation, the level of development and potential for growth of the banking sector, the commercial initiatives of major players, government policy and the regulatory environment.



Central to Publisher's analysis are our unique Commercial Banking Business Environment Ratings. Publisher's unique country-comparative Risk-Reward Rating provides a clear, quantified, independent assessment of the opportunities and dangers of operating in each market. The methodology draws together our in-depth knowledge of competitive pressures, our comprehensive industry market forecasts, and our Country Risk team's unrivalled analysis of economic, political and operational risks.



The reports also feature profiles of leading banks, covering total assets, liabilities, client deposits, lending, bond holdings, main products and services, competitive positioning and ownership structure.



For more information Visit at: http://www.marketresearchreports.com/business-monitor-international/nigeria-commercial-banking-report-q2-2016



Publisher's commercial banking forecast series covers 62 countries accounting for 80% of global GDP. Each report, researched at source, features Publisher's independent assessment and 5-year forecasts to end-2017 for the commercial banking sector in each market. Using its expertise in both country risk and financial markets analysis, Publisher has created exclusive models to forecast a wealth of key variables on the commercial banking sector. Historic and forecast data are provided for the sector's total asset and liability growth, client loans, and client deposits. Forecasts for key ratios including the loan-deposit ratio and the loan-asset ratio are also included, as well as core macro-economic forecasts. Data is presented in both local currency and US dollar terms.



Each report examines key drivers of growth and future prospects, including the macroeconomic situation, the level of development and potential for growth of the banking sector, the commercial initiatives of major players, government policy and the regulatory environment.



Central to Publisher's analysis are our unique Commercial Banking Business Environment Ratings. Publisher's unique country-comparative Risk-Reward Rating provides a clear, quantified, independent assessment of the opportunities and dangers of operating in each market. The methodology draws together our in-depth knowledge of competitive pressures, our comprehensive industry market forecasts, and our Country Risk team's unrivalled analysis of economic, political and operational risks.



The reports also feature profiles of leading banks, covering total assets, liabilities, client deposits, lending, bond holdings, main products and services, competitive positioning and ownership structure.



For more information Visit at: http://www.marketresearchreports.com/business-monitor-international/singapore-commercial-banking-report-q2-2016



About Market Research Reports, Inc.

Market Research Reports, Inc. is the world's leading source for market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest market research reports on global markets, key industries, leading companies, new products and latest industry analysis & trends.



Yearly/Quarterly Report Subscription: http://www.marketresearchreports.com/subscriptions
Lewes, DE -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/10/2016 -- United States Renewables Report Q2 2016



Latest Updates and Structural Trends

- We expect wind and solar capacity to grow by 13.5% and 38.5% in 2016 respectively, with overall non hydopower renewables generating a 8.24% share of total electricity generation.

- The multi-year extension of the US government's tax credits in December 2015 for solar and wind power have increased long-term predictability for investors and developers in the sector, rendering the US one of the world's most attractive solar markets in the world and led to a strong ten-year forecast also for the wind sector.

- In December 2015, Google announced in December 2015 that it signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) for 842MW of renewable capacity to power its datacentres.



For more information Visit at: http://www.marketresearchreports.com/business-monitor-international/united-states-renewables-report-q2-2016



Solar capacity will register the fastest growth rates over our 10-year forecast period and dominate the project pipeline. The ongoing sector and country-specific risks, such as the land acquisition bill, T&D bottlenecks and business environment hurdles threaten project realisation. Countries that have recently formed trade links with India, such as UK and US, will continue to play a key role in the competitive landscape.



Latest Updates And Structural Trends

- The Asian Development Bank is providing a USD6mn loan to help fund the installation of 75,000 offgrid solar systems in India - via Simpa Energy India. Mobile phones will used to set up payment plans for the systems.

- Inox Wind commissioned a 170MW wind farm in Ratlam District, Madhya Pradesh in February 2016, for renewable energy group Continuum Wind Energy. The two firms are holding advanced talks regarding more orders in future.

- In January 2016, it was announced that EDF Energies Nouvelles has acquired a 50% stake in Indian wind power company SITAC Wind Management and Development. The venture plans to install 142MW of wind capacity in the country in 2016.



For more information Visit at: http://www.marketresearchreports.com/business-monitor-international/india-renewables-report-q2-2016



We hold a relatively muted outlook for the Swedish non-hydropower renewables sector this quarter, as lack of regulatory clarity will weigh on investor sentiment. We attribute this view to the planned introduction of new taxes for the sector, uncertainty over tax harmonisation with Norway regarding the shared REC subsidy scheme and limited visibility into mooted nuclear power phase-down plans.



Lates Updates And Structural Trends

- The implementation of the proposed removal of tax exemptions for wind power projects and introduction of a tax on photovoltaic (PV) solar power projects with more than 255kW of capacity would dramatically slow deployment of new utility-scale solar projects in Sweden.

- Uncertainty over the renewable energy electricity certificate market (REC) shared between Sweden and Norway and how to equate a highly Sweden-centric investment tendency due to favourable Swedish taxation rules will cause some uncertainty over the direction of the subsidy scheme. As Sweden wished to increase the pool of renewable energy certificates for the scheme, Norway has set Swedish tax harmonisation with Norwegian tax rules as a prerequisite.



For more information Visit at: http://www.marketresearchreports.com/business-monitor-international/sweden-renewables-report-q2-2016



About Market Research Reports, Inc.

Market Research Reports, Inc. is the world's leading source for market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest market research reports on global markets, key industries, leading companies, new products and latest industry analysis & trends.



Yearly/Quarterly Report Subscription: http://www.marketresearchreports.com/subscriptions
Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/09/2016 -- Here is a good news for all those people who want to apply for visa on arrival at Vietnam. Established in the year 2007, Visa On Arrival provides a service of arranging visa pre-approval letter for picking up visa on arrival the moment one arrives at the international airport of Vietnam. The process is completely free of hassles and one need not go about chasing the embassy for a visa. There will not be any passport send-off. There would be an automated discount of 22% for frequent members. There is also a corporate member discount of 26%. The visa pre-approval letter and visa issuing office at the airports come from Vietnam Immigration which is a government body. This is to make the travelers get a visa to Vietnam without much problem, especially for those travelers who come from a country which does not have an embassy or consulate of Vietnam.



The entire process is fast and cheap which makes it easy to get a Visa. The website https://www.visa-vietnam.org/ promises one hundred percent satisfaction. If a traveler faces any kind of difficulty in acquiring the visa, the entire money would be refunded immediately. In order to start the visa process, the traveler would be first required to apply to request visa approval for visa on arrival. The approval letter would be generally received in a day or two via email. Once the mail is received, all that the traveler needs to do is to print the letter and show it at the time of boarding the plane. Once the traveler lands in Vietnam, he can show the visa letter at the Visa On Arrival Office to get the visa. The Visa on Arrival office is open 24 * 7 hours.



The traveler would have to hand over his passport at the office along with a printed copy of visa approval letter and one passport size photo for attaching on the entry form. The traveler would have to pay $25 USD for single entry or $50 USD for multiple entries and get back the passport along with the visa. Once this process is completed, the traveler can check out and enjoy his stay in Vietnam. Visa-Vietnam.org ensures that your purchase is processed securley by PayPal.com, Gate2shop.com and OnePay.Vn. All the passport information will be deleted from the website database on the same day in order to keep your privacy, confidential and passport information safe.Visa-Vietnam is strongly recommended by tripadvisor, Frommer's, Travel, Routard, Lonely Planet, Flysurf, Travelfish, Lintern@ute.com, VoyageForum, GoBackpacking, TravelBlog, Journeys are made and Reiseguiden.no.



About Visa-Vietnam.org

Established in the year 2007, Visa On Arrival provides service of arranging visa pre-approval letter for picking up of visa on arrival at international airport of Vietnam.



Media Contact:

URL: http://www.visa-vietnam.org/

Email: info@visa-vietnam.org

Name: Ta Hoai Nam

Company: Nam Thang Travel Co., LTD

Address: Room A2, 64 Nguyen Dinh Chieu street, Dakao ward, district 1, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam.

Phone (00) (+84) 8 5404 3118
This incredible mosaic of images from NASAs Dawn orbiter shows one of Ceres most intriguing features  a mysterious mountain called Ahuna Mons.

Ahuna Mons has an average overall height of 2.5 miles (4 km). On its steepest side, it is approximately 3 miles (5 km) high. And its diameter is 12 miles (20 km).

The mountain appeared as a small, bright-sided bump on the surface of Ceres as early as February 2015 from a distance of 29,000 miles (46,000 km), before Dawn was captured into orbit.

As the spacecraft circled the dwarf planet at increasingly lower altitudes, the shape of Ahuna Mons began to come into focus.

From afar, this mountain looked to be pyramid-shaped, but upon closer inspection, it is best described as a dome with smooth, steep walls.

No one expected a mountain on Ceres, especially one like Ahuna Mons. We still do not have a satisfactory model to explain how it formed, said Dawn science team member Dr. Chris Russell, from the University of California, Los Angeles.

The latest high-resolution images of Ahuna Mons from Dawn reveal that this mountain has a lot of bright material on some of its slopes, and less on others.

The spacecraft took these images from its low-altitude mapping orbit, 240 miles (385 km) above the surface of Ceres, several months ago.

Ceres has defied our expectations and surprised us in many ways, thanks to a years worth of data from Dawn, said Dawn science team member Dr. Carol Raymond, a scientist at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

We are hard at work on the mysteries the spacecraft has presented to us.
Since 1975, landmines have killed or maimed more than a million people, 80 per cent of them civilians. The disabilities caused by mines are devastating. And, in countries where access to physiotherapy and prostheses is poor  that is, most countries where landmines exist  the lifelong impact on wellbeing is extreme.



Last weeks Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention conference in Switzerland was a reminder that the signatories hope to have eliminated mines within nine years. In that time, more than 100 million mines must be cleared from over 57 countries  and more unexploded bombs are appearing in countries such as Syria and Yemen every day, despite international treaties banning them.

Yet, while scientists regularly invent new ways of detecting mines, their relationship with mine clearance communities is often poor. This is partly because well-meaning inventors often bombard clearance organisations with wacky ideas that dont appreciate the complex realities of their work.

To find out what can be done, I rang Yann Yvinec, of the Royal Military Academy in Belgium. He has just finished coordinating TIRAMISU, a multimillion dollar project designed to bring scientists and mine clearers together to solve problems identified by the clearance community itself, rather than what scientists think they need.

Yvinec says the key was to bring onboard those involved in demining right from the start. The 26 research institutions and engineering companies involved in the programme were guided not just by a scientific board but also an end-user board  those who will use the technologies  at every stage of the project.

They also brought in a technology marketing company to help analyse why deminers might not use new designs. This assessment and conversations with mine clearers highlighted the need for technology to be simple to use, robust  and cheap.

Through this early interaction, scientists realised several further truths. First, says Yvinec, deminers regularly risk their lives, so caution and infallible tools are far more important to them than speed or flashy gadgetry.

Second, a human inching along with a metal detector is, though slow, very accurate. Metal detectors work very well now. Theres little you can do to improve them, Yvinec says. Improving detection itself is not where you can achieve the most in demining.

Instead, the area crying out for more and better solutions is all the work you have to do up to the point of removing landmines  the less glamorous and inefficient work at the beginning to narrow down the target area, before the clearers go in, for example. The clearers can spend days and days and weeks without finding a single mine, he says.

The toolbox of innovations that TIRAMISU came up with includes techniques for distinguishing which suspected areas are actually mined.

These include a remote control aerial drone, equipped with sensors, which can gather data above suspected minefields. There is a tablet device that can digitise and organise the many types of information surveyors gather about an area  from villagers testimonies and military maps, to the opinions of military strategists and topographical information.

A device under development tests the air above a suspected minefield for the scent of explosives. And there is an armoured tractor  cheaper, smaller, lighter and more manoeuvrable than its tank-like predecessors  for clearing vegetation and performing other tasks for demining teams.

TIRAMISU has now finished, but mine clearance organisations have already begun buying the new technologies. And the conversations havent stopped. We are trying to build a centre of excellence, a community to keep the link between all of us and the mine action communities, says Yvinec.

Aisling Irwin is a science journalist and writer based in the United Kingdom, and a former SciDev.Net news editor. She is contactable on [email protected]
[DAKAR] African universities must widen their teaching of maths and its use in research to support efforts to tackle the continents biggest problems, according to experts at a conference this week.

Maths is an essential tool in modern science and supports development through areas such as economic planning, government statistics and the improvement of tax regimes, said attendees at the Next Einstein Forum (NEF), which took place in Dakar, Senegal, on 8-10 March.

If the world is going to be awash with data, you may need the skills to analyse those data. Leszek Borysiewicz, University of Cambridge

At the event, Thierry Zomahoun, president of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, explained how some of the NEF fellows  15 outstanding researchers from Africa who were selected in January to raise the profile of science on the continent  are using maths to tackle malnutrition, improve vaccines and combat HIV and malaria.

The researchers debated how maths could be better integrated into the work of African scientists, teachers and education officials.

In response, Martial De-Paul Ikounga, the African Unions science commissioner, said that traders, even street hawkers, were well-versed in mathematics without knowing it, forming a formidable resource of potential mathematicians.

There is the need to demystify mathematics in Africa, Ikounga said. It must be simplified to almost seem like when a child is learning the mother tongue.

His views were echoed by scientists who said maths should be given greater prominence in university courses and a greater role in research, as well as being integrated better in other disciplines.

This would improve numeracy and modelling skills among scientists and teachers, who could then take those skills into other fields to tackle issues such as food security and environmental problems, said Leszek Borysiewicz, the vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

If the world is going to be awash with data, you may need the skills to analyse those data, he told SciDev.Net. So we need basic mathematical skills in all children, and advanced mathematical skills for those in engineering and other disciplines who are going to apply [them].

One way to achieve this is through better teacher and professor training, the conference heard. For example, Peter Materu, the director of education at the MasterCard Foundation, told the event how the development non-profit is training 3,000 teachers from about 30 African countries to improve their maths skills.

They are expected to go back to their countries and train another 1.7 million teachers on the right way of teaching mathematics, says Materu.

The organisers helped pay for SciDev.Net to travel to the meeting.
The ongoing El Nino event may be spreading cholera and other diseases caused by Vibrio bacteria from Asia to South America, researchers suggest.

This is because the bacteria, which are typically found in salty water, could piggyback on zooplankton that travel to Peru and Chile with the warm easterly and southerly Pacific currents associated with El Nino, according to a comment published in Nature Microbiology last month.

Vibrio bacteria cause severe diarrhoea when people eat raw, contaminated molluscs such as oysters, clams and mussels. Such outbreaks have been linked to previous El Nino episodes.

The ongoing El Nino  dubbed El Nino Godzilla because of its intensity  may be the strongest on record. It is developing similarly to an episode in 1977, during which a diarrhoea epidemic broke out in Peru. In that year, Vibrio parahaemolyticus bacteria caused an estimated 10,000 cases of severe gastroenteritis along the South American coastline.

In 1997, another strong El Nino year, the Vibrio parahaemolyticus strain of the bacteria, which had emerged in India, plagued the South American coast.

The emergence of cases correlated with southward dissemination of El Nino water during the 1997 event, says Jaime Martinez-Urtaza, a biologist at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom, and a coauthor of the article.

In terms of cholera, South America had been free of the disease for almost a century  until it reemerged in the early 1990s. Within weeks, cholera spread across South and Central America, going on to cause more than a million cases and 10,000 deaths by 1994.

Martinez-Urtaza says the cholera outbreak coincided in both time and space with a significant El Nino event in late 1991 and early 1992.

Ronnie Gavilan, a researcher at Perus National Institute of Health, says there is other evidence for El Ninos influence on Vibrio bacteria in the Americas. He points out that, during warm El Nino events, Vibrio infections continue to spread in the cold winter months, when they usually only occur in hot summers.

The current El Nino has not yet led to a Vibrio outbreak, but health authorities in Chile and Peru are closely monitoring water quality near the coast.

The delay could be because the pathogens that may have arrived during the summer season may show up years later, says Romilio Orellana, a biochemist at the University of Chile.
A new single-dose vaccine against Rift Valley fever has shown promising results in livestock, paving the way for human trials later this year, researchers say.

Rift Valley fever  a mosquito-borne viral disease present in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula  mostly affects animals, but can also infect humans. At the moment, no vaccines are available for humans and those widely used in livestock have major safety concerns, scientists write in a paper published last month (5 February) in Scientific Reports.

A large section of the genetic material in the chimpanzee adenovirus ChAd was deleted to prevent the virus from being able to reproduce in human or animals after vaccination. George Warimwe, University of Oxfords Jenner Institute, United Kingdom

In trials carried out in Kenya and Saudi Arabia, they tested an experimental vaccine that could one day be used to treat both humans and livestock. It uses parts of a chimpanzee virus with a record of safe use in human and livestock vaccinations.

The vaccine also incorporates a gene for a Rift Valley fever virus protein, which is recognised by the animal or human immune system, causing antibodies to be produced against the Rift Valley fever virus, explains lead author George Warimwe, an immunologist at the University of Oxfords Jenner Institute in the United Kingdom.

The researchers found that the vaccine is safe for humans and animals, and eliminated the Rift Valley fever virus from the blood.

A large section of the genetic material in the chimpanzee adenovirus ChAd was deleted to prevent the virus from being able to reproduce in human or animals after vaccination, and the immune system rapidly clears the virus, says Warimwe, who tested the vaccine in sheep, goats and cattle in Kenya.

In Saudi Arabia, the research team also tested the vaccine on camels, which can transmit the virus to other animals without showing symptoms, and the results were positive with no side effects, says coauthor Ayman El-Behiry, a microbiologist at Qassim University there.

Ahmed El-Sanousi, a virologist at Cairo Universitys faculty of veterinary medicine in Egypt, praises the new vaccine for its low cost, ease of preparation and high safety.

The new technique can be used in an average laboratory, unlike [other vaccines] that need a highly equipped lab, he says, adding that a similar approach could be used to develop vaccines against other infectious diseases such as malaria , tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

The next step will be human clinical trials later this year, Warimwe says. The team will also test the vaccine in livestock field trials in East Africa and seek licensing for veterinary use. Results from both trials are expected by the end of 2017, Warimwe adds.

This article was published on SciDev.Net's global edition
Mother-to-child transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS, is still a major problem in resource-limited, rural areas of the world where health care providers are scarce.

Major improvements can be made, however, even under the most impoverished and discouraging circumstances, when a family-focused and integrated package of services is implemented.

That's what researchers with the Vanderbilt Institute of Global Health (VIGH) found in a study conducted in rural north-central Nigeria. Their findings, published recently in the British medical journal The Lancet HIV, are helping to raise hopes that mother-to-child transmission of HIV will eventually be eliminated.

"We show that packaging individually effective interventions can have positive and measurable impacts on progress toward eliminating pediatric HIV infections in Africa," said first author Muktar Aliyu, M.D., MPH, DrPH, associate professor of Health Policy and Medicine and the VIGH associate director for Research.

Aliyu also discussed the results of the study at the 2016 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston sponsored by the International Antiviral Society-USA.

HIV infection and death rates have remained stubbornly high in Nigeria. According to a 2014 report by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Nigeria ranked first among all countries in the number of AIDS deaths in 2013, accounting for 10 percent of all AIDS deaths worldwide.

advertisement

Nigeria is also home to the second largest number of new HIV infections among children after South Africa, Aliyu said.

Much of the problem is lack of access to antiretroviral therapy (ART), which can prevent transmission of HIV infection from mothers to their babies and, in people who are already infected, can keep the virus from spreading in their bodies.

Only two out of every 10 Nigerians who are living with HIV have access to treatment.

In their study, the Vanderbilt researchers focused on 12 rural sites in Nigeria. They randomly assigned HIV-infected women who were either pregnant or had recently given birth to receive a special package of services. Another group of women, who served as controls, got the standard level of care.

In the intervention group, men were encouraged to take part in their wives' care, and non-physician health care providers, including midwives and community health workers, were trained to provide a breadth of services as economically and efficiently as possible.

In addition, point-of-care CD4 cell count testing -- a laboratory indicator of immune system function -- was made available, and integrated mother-infant services were provided after delivery.

In both intervention and control groups ART was provided to pregnant women with HIV disease, breast-feeding mothers and infants who had been exposed to HIV by their mothers during delivery.

At the 12-week visit, the incidence of HIV infection among infants in the test group was 2.4 percent, compared to 7.3 percent in the control group -- a 74 percent reduction in the infection rate.

Culturally sensitive policies that include non-physician health care providers, engage men in the community and integrate health care services in resource-strapped settings thus can prevent maternal-to-infant HIV transmission, save lives, and improve outcomes for both mothers and their babies, the researchers concluded.
A technique developed by Northern Arizona University researchers can help invasive pest managers make more informed decisions about how to control Japanese beetles and the extensive damage they cause.

Researchers led by Bruce Hungate, director of the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, used the stable hydrogen isotope signature in body tissue of invasive Japanese beetles to model the source of origin and time since arrival of beetles trapped at Portland International Airport over the past decade.

The results, published in PLOS ONE, can help answer the question of whether a beetle detected in new territory is new or part of an established population in the area. New arrivals point to more control at the source; localized beetles point to more control at the destination.

"Knowing the timing of arrival of these invasive organisms can be really helpful in managing them, and the stable isotope gives us a very useful chemical clock," Hungate said. "It's a powerful addition to the tools we have to understand where these organisms are from and the dynamics of their movements."

Japanese beetles wreak havoc by feeding on over 300 plants, contributing to the billions of dollars per year in economic costs caused by invasive species. Japanese beetles are well established in the eastern United States. Control efforts at airports on both coasts aim to keep the beetles from spreading westward, with only partial success.

The study used isotopes as a sleuthing tool. One of the heavier isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium, is rare but stable, meaning it does not decay. The amount of this isotope--its signature--in local water sources varies from place to place, and has been found to match the signature in tissues of plants and animals consuming the local water.

Researchers found a close relationship between the stable hydrogen isotope signature in beetle tissue and local water from 71 sites around the country. Combined with the signatures of water at known sources of Japanese beetles in the East, these results provide a sort of "geographic fingerprint" to determine where the beetle is from.

To model time since arrival, researchers transplanted Eastern beetles to a Western environment and measured the signature change over time. Changes began after two weeks and the signature took about five weeks to equilibrate to the new environment. This offered a new clue: beetles trapped at points of entry to an area, like airports, are likely to be new arrivals if their signature is distinctly different from the signature in local water.

The transplant experiment also explored whether the signature from the hard, chitin-rich tissue of the beetle's wing covers changed more slowly than the signature in soft tissue, potentially preserving clues about the beetle's origin longer. They found that signatures did shift more slowly in hard tissue, adding it as another potential tool.

The resulting model pointed to the southeastern United States as the origin of beetles trapped at the Portland International Airport. And beetles trapped after 2011 appeared to have been more recent arrivals than beetles trapped in earlier years, suggesting that efforts to prevent beetles from establishing viable populations at the Portland International Airport seemed to be working.
Australia's iconic tourist attraction, the Twelve Apostles, has received an unlikely boost in numbers with the discovery of five extra limestone columns hidden way below the water.

The never-before-seen sea stacks, located 6km offshore from the Great Ocean Road and 50m beneath the water's surface, were revealed during sonar mapping of the seafloor off Victoria's southern coast.

Scientists are dubbing them the "Drowned Apostles."

While the Drowned Apostles are smaller in both size and number than their more famous cousins, their existence alone is remarkable given their defiance of normal erosion rates.

It is understood to be the first time such limestone stacks have been found preserved in the ocean.

The discovery was made by PhD student Rhiannon Bezore, Associate Professor David Kennedy from the University of Melbourne's School of Geography and Deakin University's Dr Daniel Ierodiaconou, who provided the high-resolution sonar data.

advertisement

"Sea stacks are always eroding, as we saw with the one that collapsed in 2005, so it is hugely surprising that any could be preserved at that depth of water," Associate Professor Kennedy said.

"They should have collapsed and eroded as the sea level rose."

Like the Twelve Apostles, the newest additions would have once been part of larger limestone sea cliff.

Ms Bezore, who made the initial discovery in the sonar data, said they probably date back 60,000 years.

"We had to check what we were seeing because no one has seen stacks submerged at this sea level before," she said.

advertisement

Only a very fine balance can create sea stacks, with rock needing to be soft enough to erode quickly from a cliff but hard enough to support a rocky pillar, Dr Ierodiaconou said.

Dr Ierodiaconou's sonar data was collected using the latest advances in multi-beam sonar technology and the team are continuing to fill important knowledge gaps aboard Deakin's $650,000 research vessel "Yolla."

The data is part of a project to map the reef estate in Victoria which supports commercial fisheries for southern rock lobster and abalone.

"We are only just starting to understand the biodiversity value of these deep reefs which harbour diverse invertebrate communities, many unknown to science," he said.

Ms Bezore will present the paper at the International Coastal Symposium in Coogee, Sydney on Thursday morning.

The findings have been published in the US-based Journal of Coastal Research (DOI: 10.2112/S175-119.1)
HARTSVILLE, S.C. - Coker College looked like a true crime scene Wednesday as ambulances, police cars, and fire trucks - all with sirens blaring - converged on the campus for a live-action shooter drill that would test the skills and readiness of Darlington County first responders and of Coker College in the event of a real shooter situation.

It all occurred around 10:30 a.m. in the parking lot next to the science building. Participating in the exercise were the Hartsville Police Department, Hartsville Fire Department, Darlington County Emergency Management, City of Hartsville, Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center, Darlington County Sheriffs Office, 911 Communication Center, Red Cross, Darlington County Emergency medical Services and Coker College.

We are so grateful to the many agencies and people who have collaborated to put this together, said Brianna Douglas, vice president for administration at Coker College, in a release announcing the event. It is unpleasant to even think about the possibility of something like this happening on our campus, but exercises like this are incredibly important for continuing to test and improve our emergency plans. We need to be proactive and prepared, especially where the safety of our students is concerned.

Douglas said she was at the University of South Carolina for a meeting when a professor was shot and suddenly realized that you dont know how you will react in such a situation. She said she acted differently than she would have thought.

I was very nervous, she said.

Through conversations with Mike Mac McDonald, emergency management director for Darlington County, the Coker event took shape.

Before the scenario unfolded, McDonald instructed the students and staff at Coker participating in the drill to do so cautiously.

We are starting out with fake injuries and we want to end with fake injuries, he told the participants as he instructed them on what to do.

Many students on the Coker College softball team were on campus during Spring Break and participated along with their coaches in the exercise.

This is only the second time we have done an active drill in Darlington County, said Sherriff J. Wayne Byrd.

The other one was at the school district during the summer months, he said.

He said these drills give him the opportunity to see how his officers respond and interact with other agencies.

South Carolina Active Shooter Training Coordinator Wayne Freeman of South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) said this is his fulltime job and people would be surprised how often drills are carried out.

This is one of the larger ones, he said.

During a briefing after the event, Freeman said he has trained more than 20,000 people all over the state.

I am the harshest critic, the meanest evaluator in South Carolina, having said that, Freeman said, You guys did a great job I see some real talent.

We, at Darlington County Emergency Management, are extremely satisfied with the outcome of the active shooter exercise, said Molly Odom, emergency management coordinator for Darlington County Emergency Management Department. We were able to meet all our desired objectives and were able to see our emergency operations plans executed with great success. We would like to extend our deepest gratitude to the many first responders, staff and students of Coker College, and the countless others who have supported this valuable event. This is an ongoing training endeavor so that we may instill confidence of providing the best service to all in our county.

It was an overall good job, said McDonald.
TIMMONSVILLE, S.C. Just one day after the State Department of Education declared two of Florence School District Fours three schools to be in a state of emergency, the district is also without a superintendent. During a special meeting Wednesday night, the board of trustees voted to end its contract with Dr. Andre Boyd.

The state of emergency, approved by the State Board of Education on Tuesday, allows S.C. South Carolina Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman to take control of two underperforming schools in District Four.

An executive session to discuss personnel matters was the only thing on the agenda for the District Four board's meeting. About 50 people were present for the meeting, the second one this week. Several came with books in hand, seemingly prepared for a lengthy wait like the one they endured Monday night.

The personnel matter was listed as an action item on the agenda so the board was required to make a motion when it returned from executive session. Board member Dock Smith made the motion, reading a prepared statement.

Mr. Chair, I move that the board, in accordance with the boards contract with district Superintendent Dr. Andre Boyd, execute the boards options to unilaterally terminate the employment agreement with Dr. Boyd and pay him an amount equal to the three months severance pay as provided by the contract.

Smiths statement went on to say that for the contractual termination to pass, at least four members must vote in favor of the motion. While not all board members voted affirmatively, the motion passed.

Board member Brenda McKithen, who voted against terminating the contract, did not have a comment about her reasoning.

After voting to terminate Boyd, board member Derrick Echols made another motion.

Mr. Chair, I move that the board be authorized to enter into an agreement with Dr. Zona Jefferson to serve as interim superintendent, should Dr. Jefferson accept and the State Department of Education approve. Or as an alternative, if Dr. Jefferson does not accept the offer of her appointment, and is not approved by the State Department of Education, I move that two qualified candidates be brought before the board for the interim superintendent position as soon as possible.

The second motion also passed.

No information was available about Jefferson or whether she would accept the interim appointment.

Boyd said after the meeting that he was not surprised by the action taken, but was surprised at the timetable.

I wasnt surprised by the decision, possibly the timing but not the decision, Boyd said.

Boyd said that the State Department of Educations decision was also not surprising.

We have had an ongoing discussion, for several months now, in regards to the declaration of a state of emergency, Boyd said. Molly Spearman outlined the options and as the senior leader, the chief education officer, thats what she deemed appropriate and we had to live with it.

Boyd said that while there were problems in the district before he came, at the end of his contract he would rather focus on the good things that have been accomplished and not the negative things.

I was grateful for the opportunity that I had to serve and I try not to look at (the termination of my contract) in terms of being held responsible for things before my tenure, Boyd said. It was a rich experience and I am thankful for the time I was given; I can only focus on what I did with the time that I was given and not focus on regrets.

Boyd has worked in the district as a teacher and also as a principal. He began his term as superintendent July 1, 2012.
Should the courts order Apple to help the Federal Bureau of Investigation unlock an iPhone seized from a murderous terrorist or a dangerous criminal? For law enforcement officials across the country, this is a question of public safety, even of life and death.

But according to a federal magistrate in Brooklyn, the real issue in such cases is how much power an 18th century law grants the federal government to force innocent parties to do its bidding. He was right about that, even though his ruling in a little-watched fight between Apple and the FBI could make it harder for investigators to uncover the clues that criminals and terrorists might hide in their encrypted devices.

The case before U.S. Magistrate Judge James Orenstein is far less exotic than the more celebrated one in Riverside, Calif., where Apple is resisting a court order to help the FBI decrypt an iPhone used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook.

The Brooklyn case involves an iPhone 5s that the Drug Enforcement Agency seized from a suspected drug dealer, Jun Feng. Although Feng has pleaded guilty, the feds contend that they could learn more about his suppliers and customers by searching the phone. Rather than trying to break into the locked phone through brute computer force, the Justice Department wants Apple to circumvent the passcode, as it has done roughly 70 times before.

But the magistrate balked, troubled by the way the Justice Department was trying to use the All Writs Act  a law that dates back to the very first Congress in 1789. The point of the statute is to give federal courts the power to carry out the orders they issue in situations where Congress hasnt explicitly provided (or denied) that authority. For example, the All Writs Act has been used to compel phone companies to help law enforcement agents monitor the phone lines a court has authorized for surveillance.

Despite the statutes broad reach, Orenstein ruled that All Writs couldnt be used to force Apple to unlock a phone it had no connection to other than having built and sold it. On multiple occasions in the last two decades, Orenstein wrote, Congress has considered whether to require communications and technology companies to help federal agents gather evidence.

And although lawmakers imposed such a duty on phone companies in a 1994 wiretap statute, they exempted companies that provide information services such as those Apple provides. To allow courts to create obligations after Congress has refused to do so, Orenstein ruled, would be a violation of the Constitutions separation of judicial and legislative powers.

That argument relies to some degree on ones reading of the 1994 act, which was adopted a decade before iPhones and other popular smartphones hit the market, and two decades before iPhones started automatically encrypting the data stored on them.

Another plausible conclusion is that Congress didnt contemplate in 1994 the effect that devices with automatic encryption would have on law enforcement, and since then lawmakers have found the issue too difficult to resolve.

Either way, though, its clear that this issue involves a major question of public policy: how to balance the publics interest in stopping crime and preventing terrorism against its need to protect sensitive data against cybercriminals and foreign hackers. Thats just the sort of question that Congress, not the courts, is supposed to answer.

Back in Riverside, the FBI is seeking to use All Writs to go one consequential step further. Its trying to compel Apple to create a product  a new version of its iPhone operating system  that removes the security features that make its passcodes so hard to hack. Thats directly contrary to Apples commercial interests, in addition to being a potential threat to millions of innocent iPhone owners who have stored sensitive personal information on their devices.

If All Writs can be used to do that, its not clear what it cannot do. For example, Orenstein wondered, could a court force a pharmaceutical company whose executives object to capital punishment to supply lethal injection drugs?

The governments ability to enforce the law and protect the public is vital, but so too is the publics ability to limit the power it grants the government through the legislative process. Orensteins ruling makes that point emphatically.
Owned by Hamburg shipowner Hammonia Reederei and operated by New Orleans charterer Intermarine, the vessels Industrial Royal, Industrial Ruby and Industrial Revolution will be fitted with an optimised bulbous bow and coated with high-performance paint, as well undergoing rudder, trim and ballast optimisation at standard drydock.

Under the deal, Intermarine has agreed to award Hammonia market-beating charter rates through a retrofit clause in the charter party, effectively sharing the fuel savings between both companies. "This deal showcases how to overcome the split incentive between owners and charterers, and delivers hard proof of the fuel savings from deep retrofits, said Galen Hon, CWR shipping operations manager.

Hammonia and Intermarine should be congratulated for employing best practices to measure and monitor savings, and for sharing their datawhich will increase industry confidence in the profitability of retrofits. These first movers will inspire more owners and charterers to follow in their footsteps.

CWR also issued a $120,000 retrofit grant to install continuous monitoring software on on the three sister vessels, to be analysed by independent third-party University College London (UCL) over a five-year period.

Liberian-flagged Industrial Ruby will also be eligible for a 50% tonnage tax discount for the first year after retrofit, thanks to an incentive scheme at the registry to reward efficiency retrofits using third-party finance.

This deal proves the profitability of shipowners and charterers collaborating on multi-technology retrofits, said CWR chairman Jose Maria Figueres. Hammonia and Intermarine should be lauded for using innovative financing and best practices in measurement and methodology to win a competitive edge.

Margriet Schreuders, head of charities at the Dutch Postcode Lottery, added: The Dutch Postcode Lottery is thrilled that our commitment to a green and sustainable future is being realised by way of this collaboration. More efficient ships give environmental benefits for port communities around the world.
Capital Links Annual MLP Conference, held in New York, featuring a session devoted to the LNG shipping sector. LNG shipping is suitable for MLP structures, which are, by law, restricted to the energy sector, because of the predilection for lengthy contracts, with very credit-worthy entities. The news is not all bad.

Obstacles facing the shipping MLP reflect the broader set of shoals facing the overall MLP sector- composed of some 121 entities with an overall capitalization of $287bn as of end February, according to Yorkville Capital Management, a packager of MLP funds. As highlighted by Tortoise Capital, an MLP fund specialist, the primary concerns facing midstream MLPs - and shipping finds, with a itself in that niche - are counterparty risk, volume outlook, as well as sector-wide worries about the three Cs: capital expenditure reductions, capital market access, and credit ratings.

Moderator Ben Nolan, the analyst at Stifel, a large US brokerage active in the shipping space, offered a series of provocative questions for the shipping panelists - representing Golar LNG Partners, Hoegh LNG Partners and GasLog Partners. A message from this years panel, following though from a similar event a year ago as oil prices were in free fall, is that many solid MLPs are being unfairly tarnished by the broader energy brush.

Panelist Andrew Orekar, ceo of GasLog Partners, told the audience that: You have to parse the facts for each company rather than engaging in broad categorisations. He added that for GasLogs partnership, the MLP structure was a logical model, with a cost of capital advantage. Richard Tyrrell, from the Hoegh partnership- which has a heavy emphasis on FSRUs, said The business lends itself to the MLP model, and that investors needed to look at the degree and length of contract coverage, as well as unfunded capital expenditure commitments. He stressed that the dropdown model, where the partnership takes on a completed vessel with a charter, is a very sensible structure.

MLPs can purchase assets from their parents with equity (raised from the sale of partnership units), debt, or some combination thereof. Against the backdrop of recent challenges facing shipping MLPs not appearing on the panel, the subject of leverage came up in Nolans questioning.

Debt is not always a bad thing; panelist Graham Robjohns, the ceo of Golar LNG Partners, mentioned that its newest acquisition FSRU Golar Tundra is being financed with debt. He explained that the additional leverage builds upon a previously low amount of leverage, and brings the partnership up to a 4x ratio of debt to EBITDA. He summarized If you have the debt capacity, leverage is not always a bad thing. Hoeghs Tyrrell hinted that in the next few months, we do see a number of opportunities that might result in dropdowns, financed with equity.

In talking about the market, where LNG hires have lately waned due to an oversupply of vessels, the panelists all pointed to a rosy outlook. Andrew Orekar, from GasLog Partners offered a rousing endorsement of the sector, saying, We feel very good about the demand picture. We are on the first page of huge growth of gas supply/shipping demand. He added that he thought that important projects on the drawing boards will indeed get built.

Responding to an inference about the staying power of long term contracts presently in place, he stressed the importance of security of supply to buyers of gas under large contracts they need the gas. In a similar vein, Tyrrell emphasized the strategic importance of Hoegh-owned FSRUs to charterers, which included governmental entities who must keep their grids supplied with gas.
In late January a Spanish court sentenced Apostolos Mangouras, captain of the Prestige to two-yearsfor recklessness resulting in catastrophic environmental damage, according to a statement by the court, overturning a previous sentence which cleared him of criminal responsibility, some 14 years after the accident happened.

The verdict was met with outrage from shipping bodies, and Intertanko, Intermanger and the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) were among those who slammed the verdict.

Belated the ASF has added its voice to the chorus following a meeting of its ship insurance and liability committee this week.

It is a pity, said Robert Ho the chairman of the committee, that the Spanish Supreme Court has decided to depart from normal and accepted legal process by overturning findings of fact made by a lower court, and substituting findings that cannot, in any event, be seen as credible and plausible.

This is a worrying sign that some States, even in apparently well developed countries and by utlising the highest legal level, would appear willing to manipulate the legal process to meet their short term and political needs.

The committee found it was wrong and deeply troubling that seafarers were singled out for blame following an incident.
From an operational perspective the result for 2015 was even better than the 2014 record result, which included a large number of exceptional items on balance before taxation, the company said.

Its dredging & inland infrastructure division achieved a high fleet utilisation rate and good results on projects in progress. The large Suez Canal project, which was completed successfully in 2015, made a significant contribution to both revenue and earnings.

Offshore energy also had a good year and despite the deteriorated market conditions earnings increased slightly, partly helped by the strong US dollar. The good result was driven by good utilisation of the equipment and good project results.

Towage & salvage saw a decline in the result on balance compared to the previous year, mainly as a result of deconsolidation effects at towage. From an operational perspective salvage can look back on a very busy and successful year.

"We look back on a very successful year in which we achieved excellent results across the entire business. While the storm was gathering strength outside, we had an exceptionally busy year with many impressive projects, said Peter Berdowski, ceo of Boskalis.

The stormy conditions outside are also increasingly being felt within our company. Falling prices for oil, gas and commodities are also taking their toll in various market segments we operate in. Volumes and prices are under pressure, which is also translates into our orderbook.

The companys orderbook fell to $2.74bn.
State Supreme Court candidates Rebecca Bradley and JoAnne Kloppenburg clashed Wednesday over who would let their personal political beliefs or connections cloud their ability to fairly interpret the law.

The two met at a Milwaukee Bar Association forum  their first meeting after revelations this week of Bradleys controversial college-era writings, including a new one Wednesday in which she supported a scholars suggestion that women could be partially responsible for date rape.

For the third day in a row, Bradley apologized for making anti-gay comments in opinions written in 1992 and published in the Marquette University student newspaper. She said her worldview had changed in 24 years after listening to people who have experienced terrible prejudices and unfairness in their lives.

You realize how wrong you might have been when you thought you knew everything at the age of 20, Bradley said at the forum.

But Kloppenburg rejected Bradleys claim that she had changed her views.

Justice Bradley talks about change and talks about this being, now is now, then was then, but her career does not show much evidence of changes, Kloppenburg said, citing Bradleys involvement in the conservative Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies and the Republican National Lawyers Association.

Bradley shot back saying she upholds the law regardless of her personal views, and said Kloppenburg espouses a judicial philosophy that aims to inject her personal preferences on public policy into her decision-making as a judge.

She has explained this by saying she thinks it is our job as judges to promote a more equal society, said Bradley. Thats a very nice sentiment but Im not sure what that means because somebodys idea  one judges idea  of what is promoting an equal society can vary greatly from the next judges idea.

The forum took place after the unearthing of controversial opinion pieces Bradley wrote while in college. Most of the examples were released this week by liberal advocacy group One Wisconsin Now. The Wisconsin State Journal uncovered other controversial writings in a review of the Marquette Tribune, a student newspaper.

Bradley apologized in an interview with the State Journal for anti-gay letters and a column that One Wisconsin Now released Monday. She said those opinions no longer reflect her current views.

Bradley, a current justice appointed to the high court last fall by Gov. Scott Walker, and Kloppenburg, an appeals court judge, are facing off in the April 5 election. The position is nonpartisan, but Bradley is backed by conservatives while Kloppenburg is supported by liberals.

Role in date rape

The new Bradley column that OWN revealed Wednesday denounced the rise of feminism. In it Bradley wrote that scholar Camille Paglia legitimately suggested that women play a role in date rape.

Bradley wrote the column, Awaiting feminisms demise, in 1992 for the Marquette Journal, a student-run magazine. In it, she argued that the feminist movement had gone too far and was largely composed of angry, militant, man-hating lesbians who abhor the traditional family.

In the column on feminism, first reported by The Capital Times, Bradley wrote that Paglia had been banned from speaking at several colleges after legitimately suggesting women play a role in date rape.

In a 1991 column in Newsday, Paglia argued society had stopped punishing rape properly and feminism had erroneously taught women they could do anything, go anywhere, say anything, wear anything. She said women will always be in sexual danger and should avoid getting drunk and being alone with men to prevent being raped.

A woman going to a fraternity party is walking into Testosterone Flats, full of prickly cacti and blazing guns, Paglia wrote. If she goes, she should be armed with resolute alertness. She should arrive with girlfriends and leave with them. A girl who lets herself get dead drunk at a fraternity party is a fool. A girl who goes upstairs alone with a brother at a fraternity party is an idiot. Feminists call this blaming the victim. I call it common sense.

The only solution to date rape is female self-awareness and self-control. A womans No. 1 line of defense against rape is herself.

A spokesman for Bradleys campaign did not respond to a request for an interview or comment. Bradley was not asked about the magazine column at the forum.

One Wisconsin Now research director Jenni Dye said in a statement that Bradleys 1992 comments disqualify her from being a Supreme Court justice.

It is abhorrent to blame the victim of a sexual assault, whatever the circumstances, Dye said.

At the forum, Bradley and Kloppenburg agreed on a number of issues, including the fact that there are certain situations that make it appropriate for a justice to not reveal reasons for which they recuse themselves from cases. If the justice had previously been involved in a case before the Supreme Court as a trial attorney, for example, it would make sense to recuse but not reveal why because of attorney-client privilege.

The two disagreed on whether a justice should leave the bench during the oral arguments of a case, however.

On Feb. 24, Bradley left oral arguments to speak at an event hosted by business lobby Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce. The WMC has spent millions on Supreme Court races, typically on conservatives.

Bradley said its common for justices to leave due to scheduling conflicts and said she didnt leave until her questions were answered and that she watched video of what she missed.

But Kloppenburg said it is inappropriate for a justice to leave to attend an event that could benefit his or her campaign.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2016-44

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that a Florida man trading on inside information ahead of a pharmaceutical company merger and a friend who tipped him have agreed to settle enforcement actions against them.

Jay Y. Fung has agreed to pay back more than $700,000 in illegal profits plus more than $60,000 in interest earned after allegedly purchasing stock and call options in Pharmasset Inc. based on his friends tip that it was about to be acquired. The SEC alleges that Fung cashed in when Pharmassets stock rose 84 percent after its acquisition by Gilead Sciences was publicly announced, and he paid kickbacks to his friend who provided the nonpublic information.

The SEC filed a complaint against Fung today in federal district court in Newark, N.J., and the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of New Jersey today announced parallel criminal charges.

The SEC previously charged Fungs friend and tipper Kevin Dowd, who learned the nonpublic information during his employment at an investment advisory firm where a Pharmasset board member maintained an account and confidentially sought financial advice in advance of the acquisition. Dowd has since cooperated with the SECs investigation and agreed to pay back the cash kickbacks he received from Fung and be barred from the securities industry and penny stock offerings. Dowd also pleaded guilty in a parallel criminal case.

SEC enforcement staff continue to develop and refine analytical tools to uncover illicit trading activity and hold accountable those abusing the markets for their own financial gain, said Joseph G. Sansone, Co-Chief of the SECs Market Abuse Unit, which has an Analysis and Detection Center dedicated to crunching trading data to identify suspicious trading patterns.

The SECs settlements with Fung and Dowd are subject to court approval.

The SECs investigation was conducted by Paul T. Chryssikos and Scott A. Thompson of the Market Abuse Unit and the Philadelphia Regional Office with assistance from John Rymas in the Analysis and Detection Center and Christopher R. Kelly of the Philadelphia office. The investigation was supervised by Mr. Sansone. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of New Jersey and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2016-45

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that a developer of technologies for touchscreen devices has agreed to pay $750,000 to settle charges that it misled investors about the production status and sales agreements for a key product.

Two former company executives face related charges in an SEC complaint filed today in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. The SEC entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the companys former chairman of the board, who has agreed to cooperate and be barred from serving as an officer and director for five years.

The SEC alleges that Uni-Pixel Inc. began publicly touting sales of a touchscreen sensor product supposedly in speedy high-volume commercial production when in fact only a few samples had been manually completed. The misrepresentations caused Uni-Pixels stock price to more than double, enabling then-CEO Reed Killion and then-CFO Jeffrey Tomz to make more than $2 million in personal profits from selling their own shares of company stock. Killion and Tomz allegedly knew the companys statements were untrue and Uni-Pixels manufacturing process was still incapable of mass producing commercial quantities of sensors.

We allege that Uni-Pixel and top executives portrayed a company whose technology had arrived when in truth it was still in the developmental stage, said Shamoil T. Shipchandler, Director of the SECs Fort Worth Regional Office. Tech companies and their officers must be honest with investors about the state of their products and cannot portray them as something they are not.

According to the SECs complaint:

Uni-Pixel announced multi-million dollar sales agreements in 2012 and 2013 that highlighted potential revenues but omitted material conditions the company had to meet to actually receive those revenues.

Uni-Pixel announced in April 2013 that its high-volume production line was qualified and production ready and its capacity started at fifty moving to hundreds and then thousands over the next several months. At the time, Uni-Pixel had yet to produce any functional sensors through its high-speed process.

Uni-Pixel issued a press release in November 2013 touting a purchase order for its sensors that expected to ship an initial commercial run of sensors by year-end. The company concealed that the order was for a mere $10 worth of sensors for the customer to review as samples.

Without admitting or denying the SECs charges, Uni-Pixel consented to entry of a final judgment permanently enjoining it from violating Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Sections 10(b), 13(a), and 13(b) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 as well as Rules 10b-5, 12b-20, 13a-1, 13a-11, and 13a-13. The settlement is subject to court approval. The SECs litigation continues against Killion and Tomz.

The deferred prosecution agreement with former board chairman Bernard T. Marren alleges that he became aware that information in Uni-Pixels press releases was inaccurate but failed to ensure that the company corrected the releases. The agreement requires him to cooperate with the SECs continuing case while complying with certain undertakings in order to avoid civil charges against him.

The SECs investigation was conducted by David Whipple, Carol Hahn, and David King, and the case was supervised by Jessica Magee in the SECs Fort Worth Regional Office. The SECs litigation will be led by Matt Gulde.
Press Release

March 9, 2016 POE CALLS FOR VOTERS' VIGILANCE CANDELARIA, QUEZON--Presidential race frontrunner Senator Grace Poe exhorted the voters to be vigilant in guarding the ballot to ensure that the results of the elections will reflect the will of the people. Poe urged the public to work with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in seeing to it that their regional and provincial election officers nationwide would perform their mandate in having a credible elections. While the use of vote-counting machines is a welcome development to the electoral process, she said it takes honest election officers to carry out truthful and fair elections. "A watchful public will help ensure that the Comelec provincial heads are made accountable," she said. In January, the Comelec reshuffled its regional election directors to forestall any accusations of partiality on the part of any election officials. Poe, the lone independent candidate in the presidential race, asked non-government organizations, media entities, supporters and the public to be vigilant in guarding their votes to make sure that there would not be a repeat of the 2004 fraud. In 2004, Poe's father, the late Fernando Poe Jr., lost the presidency amid alleged massive organized cheating. Recordings of phone conversations between then-incumbent President Gloria Arroyo and Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano showed that election results had been manipulated using field election officers. "Talagang 'yan ang isa sa mga pangamba namin. Salamat rin na ngayon kumpara sa 2004 mas aktibo na rin ang non-government organizations (gaya ng) PPCRV, kasama na rin ang media sa pagbabantay. Pero kasama rin diyan dapat sinusuri mabuti 'yung sa PCOS (precinct count optical scan) machines," Poe said. The senator lauded Partido Galing at Puso senatorial bet Dick Gordon for bringing to the Supreme Court the need to issue vote receipts to make sure that all votes were counted and transmitted. The High Tribunal on March 8 granted Gordon's petition and ordered the COMELEC to issue receipts. Before this, the poll body refused to enable receipt-printing feature and instead proposed visual verification of votes. "Isa 'yan sa paraan kung saan mayroon tayong pruweba kung ano ba ang mga naging boto. So malaking pasasalamat kaya nga double victory kami kahapon. Kailangan natin ng mga matatapang katulad ni Senator Dick sapagkat siyempre kapag walang lumalaban ay walang mangyayari," Poe said. The Supreme Court also granted yesterday Poe's petition to reverse the COMELEC ruling cancelling her certificate of candidacy for president. The magistrates voted 9-6 in Poe's favor, paving the way for foundlings to seek the highest post of the land.
Press Release

March 10, 2016 Drilon shoots down Comelec's move to postpone May 2016 polls Senate President and re-electionist senatorial candidate Franklin M. Drilon today said that he will block any attempt to postpone the 2016 May elections. "I strongly oppose the move to postpone the elections. I am strongly against the Commission on Elections' move to hold off the election based on the Supreme Court decision on the printing of receipts," Drilon said. "The Comelec cannot postpone on this ground based on existing law. There should not even be talks about postponement. I will block any attempt to postpone the election," Drilon stressed. The four-time Senate President said there is no legal basis for the Comelec to do so. He explained that under the Omnibus Election Code, postponement may only be effected for "serious causes such as violence, terrorism, loss or destruction of election paraphernalia or records, force majeure, and other analogous causes of such nature that the holding of a free, orderly and honest election should become impossible in any political subdivision." Instead of making speculative public pronouncements on the postponement of elections, Drilon advised the Comelec to find ways on how to comply with the Supreme Court ruling. "It is premature for the Comelec to make public pronouncements on the postponement of elections because there still is time," Drilon said. "I urge the Comelec to instead focus all their resources to follow the Supreme Court decision. We are in favor of observing the May 9 elections, as mandated by the Constitution," he stressed. Drilon said that the Comelec is mandated by no less than the Constitution to conduct, without fail, clean, orderly and credible elections in the country. He concluded that Comelec will violate the Constitution if it fails to execute its mandate.
Press Release

March 10, 2016 GUINGONA SLAMS "DYING" PHILHEALTH CLAIM, VOWS CONTINUED IMPROVEMENT OF SYSTEM "A THREAT to PhilHealth's stability is a threat to the lives of many, if not all, Filipinos. This sudden pronouncement on the vigor of our public health care system is very worrisome and its inaccuracy is alarming." Senator Teofisto "TG" Guingona III, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, expressed his dismay over the reported disclosure of PhilHealth Board Member Ed Dorotan on Thursday that the national health insurance program "is dying." According to reports, PhilHealth paid out a total of P97 billion to claimants as opposed to its P96-billion earnings in 2015. It was further stated that premium payments were allotted to the lifetime insurance of senior citizens and a huge portion of the payout in the last two to three years went to the enrollment of five million Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) beneficiaries. "You can't just threaten that PhilHealth has only 'months to live' because of the billion-peso loss, and you can't just attribute its cause to the benefits received by our elderly and indigent beneficiaries. That would be unfair because more than deserving the assistance, it is their right," Guingona maintained. The re-electionist lawmaker and co-author of the Mandatory PhilHealth Coverage for Senior Citizens and of the Institutionalized Funding of 4Ps added that instead of spreading undue panic, everyone must focus on further improving the system. For his part, he vowed continuous coordination with the health care agency to close any legislative gap. Meanwhile, PhilHealth immediately issued a statement clarifying the health of its funds. According to President and CEO Alexander Padilla, PhilHealth's finances are "as robust, healthy, and substantial as ever," citing its "steadily growing" ability to pay for benefit claims. Padilla also explained that while they indeed exceeded in payout by P1-B vis-a-vis collection last year, PhilHealth gained about P7 billion from investment income apart from its growing reserve funds from P112 billion in 2012 to P128 billion in 2015. "Thus, there is no reason for our members and other stakeholders to worry about our capacity to meet our obligations," Padilla said.
Press Release

March 10, 2016 T'boli tribe declares Bongbong their "Supreme Leader" T'boli tribesmen of South Cotabato on Wednesday gave vice presidential candidate Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" R. Marcos, Jr. the royal treatment as they declared him their "Supreme Leader". Marcos was the guest of honor of the municipality of T'boli on their 47th foundation anniversary and 18th Seslong festival. To welcome Marcos after his helicopter landed, the tribesmen carried him shoulders, never letting his feet touch the ground until he was on the stage several meters away as a sign of utmost respect to his stature in the tribe. The senator was also given a traditional T'boli custome to wear. In a resolution unanimously adopted by the Municapality of T'boli, the tribesmen gave Marcos the highest honor of Supreme Leader with the rank of Datu Kelmokul and the adopted son of T'boli and Blaan tribes. "After 42 years, our tribesmen realized the blessings of self-governance and empowerment from the wisdom of the President, His Excellency Ferdinand E. Marcos, we the tribal people including all T'bolinians who had grown with mutual respect and peaceful co-existence hereby give the highest order of Datu Kelmokul and adopted son of T'boli and Blaan tribesmen to (Marcos) as the T'boli supreme leader in heartfelt appreciation of his late father to continuously protectthe right of the Indigenous People and general welfare of the tribe," T'Boli Mayor Dibu Tan declared as he presented the senator with the plaque. Tuan explained that this was their way of showing gratitude to the senator's father who created the municipality named after their tribe through Presidential Decree No. 407 issued on March 5, 1974. "This is the treasure that you gave us. We cannot forget your generosity as long as we live and we can never repay it," he said. "When your father was ousted all of us cried. All of us, T'boli tribesmen, we went back to the mountains and stayed there for six months to show our support for your father," he added. Tuan noted that upon creation of the municipality of T'boli, it was ranked 400th out of the 900 municipalities in the entire Philippines. "But now, this municipality that you gave us, we are proud to tell you that it is now a first class municipality and ranked 42nd in the Philippines," he added. The mayor said Marcos is the vice presidential candidate the T'boli people will support in the coming elections. For his part, Marcos thanked the people of T'boli for the warm welcome and the honor they gave him. He likewise congratulated them for their good work that enabled their town to rise to the rank of a first class municipality. "I am happy but with a little sadness, because my father is no longer around to thank all of you personally. I hope it is enough for the son to express that gratitude," he added. Marcos said that apart from seeking their votes for his candidacy he is also seeking their support for the realization of his vision for national unity as a means to achieve our dreams for a more progressive future for all Filipinos. He said the steady rise of the municipality of T'boli in the ranks of the Philippine municipalities is a good example of what unity can achieve.
Bongbong's #TayoAngBukas trends to number one on Twitter Philippines

SENATOR Ferdinand "Bongbong" R. Marcos Jr. was delighted by the enormous support he got from netizens as his hashtag #TayoAngBukas trended to the number one spot on Twitter's Philippines Trends on Wednesday.

This developed as Bongbong Marcos was making the rounds in his Unity Caravan campaign in Mindanao espousing the theme of national unity and a progressive tomorrow.

Tweeting back to his followers on the social media platform, Marcos said he was "thrilled to hear that ?#?TayoAngBukas trended as the number one hashtag on Twitter while I was in Mindanao yesterday!"

"Maraming salamat sa inyong pakikiisa sa pagpapaabot ng aking mensahe ng pagkakaisa!", he said in another tweet.
POE BACKS PROPOSALS TO CREATE SAMAR ISLAND REGION

CALBAYOG CITY--Sen. Grace Poe expressed support for the creation of a Samar Island Region to accelerate economic development and improve the delivery of public services in the Samar provinces, which remain among the poorest in the country.

As an administrative region, Eastern Samar, Northern Samar and Samar will be plucked out of the Eastern Visayas Region or Region VIII. It will enjoy independence in regional planning and management.

The proposal follows the creation of a Negros Island Region, the country's 18th region, through an executive order signed by President Aquino in May 2015.

"Ang importante kasi kaya nagkakaroon ng ganyan ay para yung basic services ng gobyerno ay madaling makarating sa ating mga kababayan. Kung ito ay makakatulong at mas mapapadali ang serbisyo ng gobyerno, bakit naman hindi? Kaya para sa akin, prayoridad ko 'yun, susuportahan ko," Poe said when asked by local media on the issue during her visit to Calbayog City, Samar.

Poe, the leading presidential candidate, said creating a Samar region is consistent with her programs of government, which focus on more efficient delivery of services, inclusive economic development and job creation.

She said projects that will effectively reduce poverty will top her First 100 Days agenda.

Based on the 2012 Poverty Statistics, the three Samar provinces are listed in the 15 poorest provinces in the country. Eastern Samar has a 55.4 percent poverty incidence, the second highest in the Philippines.

"Sa first 100 days, nakatutok tayo sa papaano magkakaroon ng mas malaki at mas maraming kabuhayan ang ating mga kababayan, trabaho para sa kanila. Iro-roll out natin ang mga imprastrakturang proyekto kaagad-agad, dahil isang iglap lang tapos na yung anim na taon mo," Poe said.

In an administrative region, provinces can pool their resources together and will have control of the income for the benefit of the local residents.
The struggle is real.

El Cerrito photographer Young Suh and poet Katie Peterson know that firsthand and are exploring lifes struggles in their collaborative exhibit, Can We Live Here? Stories From a Difficult World, at Mills College Art Museum. The married UC Davis professors have tried living in uncomfortable environmental extremes, from the arid desert of Deep Springs (Inyo County) and the chilly climes of Alaska to the bustling Bay Area.

Theres a feeling of difficulty just in California, even when BART is late, or there is a drought, explains 41-year-old Peterson. But theres something about going to these remote landscapes and trying to project a regular life ...

You have to get slow in those places, adds Suh, 45. It can make people, on the one hand, matter-of-fact and strong and, on the other hand, a little dreamy. ... The landscape in these places feels foreign. Many people who live there are not from there. There is a certain sense of openness in these places. Its like everyone is immigrant.

Suh, co-chair of UC Davis department of art and art history, took the photographs on the walls and in the books presented on a set of desks, each housing a white plaster gun in a nod to Emily Dickinson. Peterson wrote the volumes text and collaborated with Suh on their films.

Both admit that the works seem diaristic.

I wanted to tell stories about Western landscapes and the people I had met in them, Suh says. As we got involved in these different ways of telling stories of ordinary struggle, we got excited about creating an environment in the gallery in which the viewer could have a contemplative and yet multisensory experience. We started to see that the feeling of difficulty, anxiety and worry was attached to another set of feelings  hope, relief, excitement, anger, joy.

 Kimberly Chun

Can We Live Here? Stories From a Difficult World: Museum hours 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday and 11 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Through Sunday, March 13. (Writers and Musicians Respond to Can We Live Here? set for 7 p.m. March 9.) Mills College Art Museum, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. (510) 430-2164. www.mcam.mills.edu.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 James Gouldthorpe Show More Show Less 2 of 3 James Gouldthorpe Show More Show Less 3 of 3





Artist James Gouldthorpe attempts to piece together his life by producing and gathering more than 2,000 mixed-media paintings in James Gouldthorpes Particles: A Painting in Ten Chapters.

Over the course of his three-year stay as an Irvine Fellow at the Lucas Artists Program at Montalvo Arts Center, the Bay Area artist found himself reflecting on life, having turned 50 and recently seeing off a son departing for college. The past, present and future were all up for grabs when it came to making these pieces based on personal and found photos. Though the individual paintings are divided into 10 chapters or life stages, Gouldthorpe sees them all as part of one overarching work.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

In a major move, prominent modern art dealers Larry Gagosian and John Berggruen are opening galleries side by side in old brick buildings across the street from the new Howard Street entrance to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Gagosian, an international name in modern and contemporary art, confirmed by phone that he has leased the storefront of Crown Point Press. Berggruen will take over a vacant space at the corner of Howard and Hawthorne streets, and will close his flagship gallery on Grant Avenue, which has anchored the downtown art district for 45 years.

The news comes at a time when the longtime art map of San Francisco is undergoing significant changes, with this months opening of the Minnesota Street Project gallery space in the Dogpatch neighborhood and the May reopening of the expanded and renovated San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

This makes sense with the new museum opening and with the emerging collector base in Silicon Valley, said Gagosian, who will open Gagosian Gallery San Francisco on May 18, with a show of works on paper and sculpture by the likes of Cy Twombly, Richard Serra, Jasper Johns and Pablo Picasso.

Gagosian said he had been shopping the San Francisco real estate market casually, but when 4,000 square feet on the ground floor of a building across from SFMOMA became available, he jumped at it.

Built in 1922, the two-story building at 657 Howard Street was originally the home of the San Francisco News, a broadsheet that later merged with the Call-Bulletin. When Crown Point Press, a specialist in etchings, purchased the building in the late 1980s, the ground floor space was its own gallery. More recently, the space was the dining room and kitchen for the upscale restaurant Hawthorne Lane, which closed in 2010.

Old pals new neighbors

If I didnt find the right space, I wouldnt have done it. I wasnt going to force it, Gagosian said. But San Francisco has always been a great city for art collectors.

Gagosian has a long relationship with Crown Point Press, and his lease is open-ended. When word leaked out that hed taken the space, he got a congratulatory call from his old friend Berggruen, who told Gagosian he is moving into the space next door. The Crown Point building is L-shaped and wraps around a smaller building at 651 Howard, which will be Berggruen Gallery.

I want a change of scenery and I want to be reinvigorated in terms of my surroundings, said Berggruen. The idea of being South of Market is intriguing, and you cannot underestimate the importance of what SFMOMA is embarking upon and what it is bringing to the Bay Area, nationally and internationally.

October opening

Berggruen has taken a 10-year lease on the entire building, two stories and a basement, for a total of 10,000 square feet. The gallery will be on the two upper floors, as it has been at 228 Grant, in approximately 8,000 square feet. After a major build-out, Berggruen Gallery will open in October, with its entrance shifted from 651 Howard around the corner to 10 Hawthorne St.

The two galleries establish a small but significant critical mass, Berggruen said.

It is also confirmation that everybody wants to be on the ground level in terms of educating and making art collectors of the growing tech community that is in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, said Catharine Clark, whose namesake gallery has made three moves, from 49 Geary to SoMa to the new DoReMi arts district, which encompasses Dogpatch, the Mission and Potrero Hill.

It is all heading south, although, according to Gagosian, the destination is far beyond Silicon Valley.

With L.A., it has almost become one corridor, said Gagosian, a UCLA graduate who opened his first gallery in Los Angeles in 1980. Five years later, he opened his first New York gallery, in Chelsea. Gagosian is now a brand, with 15 exhibition spaces spread among New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Rome, Athens, Geneva and Hong Kong.

To be independently curated

Gagosian Gallery will be under the direction of Anna Gavazzi Asseily, who is transferring from Gagosian London. Shows will be curated independently of work at other Gagosian outposts and will not correspond to exhibitions at SFMOMA. The gallery space was designed by Kulapat Yantrasast, who also is designing the expansion of the Asian Art Museum.

Gagosian said he planned his opening to be a few days after the grand reopening of the remodeled and enlarged museum, scheduled for May 14.

Our intention is to not steal anybodys thunder, he said.

Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com
Its not easy leaving the U.S. Mint in San Francisco, not even for a 94-year-old woman.

Thats because the U.S. Mint makes coins, and it wants to keep the coins it makes, and it doesnt particularly trust its extra-special invited guests, even when theyre 94 years old.

The 94-year-old woman was Betty Soskin, the oldest National Park Service ranger in the U.S., whom Mint officials had invited Wednesday to be the guest star at a special ceremony. Her job was to press a black button attached to a coin press and make the first half-dollar in the Mints new commemorative coin series honoring the Park Service. This she did with flair, pushing the button on cue and sending a shiny coin sliding down the chute while about two dozen guests applauded politely.

It was a beautiful coin, complete with likenesses of a backpacker trekking past a mountain lake and a little kid inspecting a frog. It had better be a beautiful coin, because the Mint hopes to sell the 50-cent piece to collectors for $26, beginning later this month.

But when it came time to leave the Mint, Soskin was subjected to the same rigorous metal detector check that all departing Mint employees must go through, to make sure none of the Mints stock in trade is hitchhiking out the door with them. And she flunked it, six times in a row, setting off a bank of red lights as if it were a pinball machine.

Thorough process

Oh no, she said, sweetly, after a Mint cop asked her to remove her Park Service tie pin, and then she said, Oh my goodness when the cop asked her to remove her belt, then her shoes, then her jacket, then her watch, then her Smokey Bear hat, and each time she set off the red lights again.

Is it my bra? she asked with a twinkle, but it wasnt that. Finally a guard used a handheld wand and asked Soskin to stretch her arms and her legs and, at long last, the U.S. government decided that it was reasonably certain its oldest park ranger was on the up-and-up and she was permitted to depart the premises.

Collector specials

It was a curious end to a curious morning in the great granite building on Hermann Street, which has been cranking out coins since 1937. These days, the San Francisco branch of the Mint produces only collectors editions of coins  shiny, mirror-like proof and uncirculated editions in plastic holders  that it sells for enormous markups. Regular, circulating coins are produced at Mint branches in Philadelphia and Denver.

The Park Service half-dollar is a clad coin made of base metal that costs the Mint about 20 cents to produce, according to Mint manager David Jacobs. That means the Mints markup on the new half-dollar is 13,000 percent, making it hard to understand why the U.S. government is always banging the tin cup.

After pressing the button and sending the giant hydraulic press through its paces, Soskin smiled and sat down. She got to hold the first half-dollar, briefly, before Jacobs made her give it back.

Pushing the button was great, Soskin said. I never felt so powerful. It doesnt take much when youre 94.

Melting mistakes

After the ceremony, the Mint went back into regular production of its proof coins. Longtime Mint press operator Gary Ruvo inspects each of his coins for telltale specks of embedded lint. Any lint-specked coins are put into a special bag. Then they get melted down and the Mint tries again.

Sometimes at night, Ruvo said, I dream I see George Washington coming down the chute, over and over and over.

The weirdest part of working at the Mint, he said, could be the vending machines in the employee lounge. Because employees may not bring coins into the Mint, the vending machines accept only currency and give no change. A Clif Bar, Ruvos usual snack of choice, is $2, take it or leave it.

Dead presidents

The San Francisco Mint is not open to the public, but its wares are available online. Among its latest offerings is a set of three $1 proof coins featuring the last three deceased presidents  Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. It sells for $18, not nearly as bad a deal as the new half-dollar.

With presidential coins, as with presidents, marketing is all. Reagan may be the most beloved of the three, but the Reagan coin is not sold separately  if you want one, you have to buy Nixon and Ford, too.

After you buy the set, you can take Nixon and Ford out and spend them and just keep Reagan, if you want, said Mint coin vendor Aaron Isaacson. Thats up to you.

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com
Solano County Sheriffs Office / /

A body found floating in the Suisun Bay last week has been identified as that of a 26-year-old Manteca man, who went missing while on a fishing trip, officials said Thursday.

Daniel Calderon, 26, was with a friend Jan. 23 during a late-night fishing trip when he went into the water for unknown reasons, said Christine Castillo, a Solano County deputy sheriff and spokeswoman.
For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Here are the instructions how to enable JavaScript in your web browser
A brawl erupted during a Spirit Airlines flight when passengers complained about a pair of intoxicated women blasting tunes from a boom box like it was 1989.

When travelers on Wednesday's Spirit Flight 141 from Baltimore to Los Angeles took exception to the assault on their eardrums, the women taunted them, asking "What are you going to do?"
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A federal court jury began deliberations Wednesday in a lawsuit brought by the parents of a man who was killed by San Francisco police after he brandished a stun gun that the officers say they mistook for a pistol.

An attorney for Alejandro Alex Nietos family told the eight-member jury that four police officers violated the 27-year-old City College of San Francisco students civil rights when they shot him to death March 21, 2014, in Bernal Heights Park.

Lt. Jason Sawyer and Officers Roger Morse, Richard Schiff and Nathan Chew fired 59 shots at Nieto without adequately assessing whether he constituted a threat, said the plaintiffs attorney, Adante Pointer, in his closing argument.

What brings us here today are 59 shots, Pointer said in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Fifty-nine shots that were fired during the course of a one-sided firefight.

The four officers were cleared of criminal charges by city prosecutors. An attorney for the city in the civil case, Margaret Baumgartner, argued that the officers had used only the force they deemed necessary to deal with a man they saw as a lethal threat. The defense has also disputed that the officers fired 59 shots.

Cant use hindsight

We all know now that this was a Taser that couldnt harm them from 100 feet away, Baumgartner told the jury, referring to the stun gun she asserted Nieto pulled on the officers and fired. But you cant look at this with the 20/20 vision of hindsight. Its up to you to decide what these officers should have done with the information they had at the time.

Baumgartner told the jury that the question of whether the use of force was reasonable was the crux of the case, noting that they faced a man with a gun who pointed it at them, who understood what the officers were saying.

Testimony disputed

During the trial, officers testified that when they yelled to Nieto, Show me your hands! he responded by saying, No, show me your hands, a point the familys attorneys have disputed.

Pointer noted that no one heard any of the officers give verbal commands before the shooting, and the only witnesses the defense presented to corroborate the officers stories were the officers themselves.

Nieto carried the stun gun for protection on his security-guard job. Much was made during the trial of the internal clock on the stun gun and the time stamps of when the trigger was pulled before Nieto was shot to death.

Bryan Chiles from Taser International, the company that makes the weapon, testified that the original results from the stun gun  showing that the trigger was pulled well before the shooting  were off by four minutes and 29 seconds on the day of the incident because the devices internal clock ran slow, a phenomenon referred to as time drift.

A second set of time stamps was recalibrated after Chiles was told by an unidentified city employee that the original ones did not fit with the officers account of the incident, a fact on which Pointer pounced.

The original time stamps accurate, he told the jurors Wednesday. Alex never pulled and fired that Taser.

Kale Williams is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kwilliams@sfchronicle.com Twitter: SFKale
The entire Bay Area should start to see downpours throughout Thursday, but the brunt of a storm sweeping across the region is expected to hit north counties the hardest with four inches of rain forecast to fall by Friday afternoon, forecasters said.

The precipitation was already being felt early Thursday in Sonoma County and parts of Marin County with the rainfall predicted to move southward into San Francisco at around 10 a.m., said Bob Benjamin, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Monterey. The rains will be relatively persistent, with a few half-hour breaks, from Thursday until Friday night when isolated showers will move in, he said.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

The first of a pair of storms pounded Northern California on Thursday, bringing heavy bands of rain to the North Bay, causing minor flooding and mudslides, and raising the specter that the flood-prone Russian River might spill its banks.

The National Weather Services hazardous outlook remained in place for the most of the Bay Area as on-and-off downpours were forecast to continue Friday. Parts of Sonoma and Napa counties were expecting as much 4 inches of rain by Friday evening, igniting fear that a region thirsty for rain might get too much too fast.

The Russian River, with its long history of surging into streets and homes in the redwood-covered towns west of Santa Rosa, was expected to hit flood stage in Guerneville at 9 p.m Friday. River levels were expected to top out Saturday morning just shy of 3 feet above the 32-foot flood level, forecasters said  a cause for some worry but probably not enough of a deluge to cause major problems.

If youre in that area, its a concern, said Bob Benjamin, a forecaster for the National Weather Service. But it doesnt look like its going to be expansive flooding.

Residents along the river, some of whom still remember the 1986 flood that submerged most of Guerneville, werent fretting Thursday  at least not yet.

This one is going to be minor unless it continues past the weekend, said Richard Evangelisti, 81, as he stood outside the True Value Hardware store across River Road from the roiling, brown stream of water that skirts his community.

RUSSIAN RIVER: Flood forecast at Guerneville gauge The image below is a real-time updated chart using automated forecast data. This image reflects the best information available at the time this article was loaded in your browser.



FLOOD IMPACTS: Complete NOAA River Conditions and flood impacts

His wife, Jacquie  also 81 and a descendant of the Guernes, who founded the town  has lived in Guerneville her entire life and knows enough to have stocked up with food, especially since flooding tends to block the roads she uses to get downtown.

Weve seen many floods, she said, noting that she and her husband have generators, camping stoves and other equipment at the ready.

On Valentines Day 1986, it was 48.5 feet and the water was up to here, Richard added, holding his arm straight above his head. You could row a boat in downtown Guerneville.

Well upstream, water managers released supplies at Lake Sonoma earlier this week for the first time in five years to prevent the reservoir from filling up and having to discharge water when the storms arrive.

The Napa River in St. Helena was also projected to run slightly above flood stage Friday, peaking at around 3 p.m., according to the weather service. Navarro Creek in Mendocino County was expected to swell even higher above its banks between Friday morning and Sunday morning, but the rural waterway is far enough away from most homes as to not cause big problems.

The surging rivers are the result of an atmospheric river off the Pacific Ocean that forecasters say will keep parts of Northern California mostly wet through Monday. The North Bay is likely to bear the brunt of the system.

By Thursday evening, Santa Rosa had recorded 2.46 inches of rain, Point Reyes Station 1.77 inches and Napa an 1.97 inches. The hilly Sonoma County community of Venado had already logged 4.08 inches, with Mt. Tamalpais not far behind at 3.82 inches. The storm arrived later in San Francisco, dropping just 0.82 inches of rain by Thursday evening. The city was expected to pick up 1.5 inches through Friday.

Farther south, flash flood concerns through Niles Canyon delayed eastbound Altamont Commuter Express trains for up to 30 minutes through the evening as officials inspected tracks through the area where a mudslide derailed a train Monday night.

Conditions were forecast to mostly dry out by Saturday morning, according to the weather service, with a chance of showers on Saturday before another storm moves in Sunday.

Highway 1 along the coast was one of Thursdays problem spots. The road was closed in Sonoma County at the community of Valley Ford and at Freestone Valley Ford Road because of flooding, according to the California Highway Patrol. There was also a tricky passage just south of the community of Tomales in Marin County because of a slide.

But the biggest threat remained the Russian River. Folks in Guerneville bought sandbags and prepared as best they could as the rain came down, though many longtime residents mostly shrugged.

Chris Reid, the manager at the True Value store, said he sold a pallet of sandbags in the morning, but didnt expect a rush on flood supplies until things got more serious.

Weve sold some, but we probably wont sell a lot of sandbags until it starts to flood, Reid said. If we hit flood stage, its probably only going to go a few feet over. Wed need four or five days straight of heavy rain for it to really get bad. Ill be open as long as people can get here.

Since the Russian River flooded during the El Nino deluge of 1997-98, more than half of the homes or rentals in the flood plain have been raised on stilts, providing better protection and greater assurances for those who live there. Still, the community is vulnerable.

Bobby Singh, 34, surveyed the raging waters in front of the house his wifes grandmother has owned for 60 years.

Its kind of scary right now, said Singh as he leaned over the soggy bank to see how a partially submerged dock built this past summer was faring. If there are three more days of rain, the water is going to come.

Peter Fimrite, Hamed Aleaziz and Kurtis Alexander are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: haleaziz@sfchronicle.com, pfimrite@sfchronicle.com, kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @haleaziz, @kurtisalexander, @pfimrite
The board of the cash-strapped Transbay Joint Powers Authority struck a deal Thursday with a developer willing to pay $160 million for a key parcel of land near the transit center, money that is badly needed to finance the first phase of the $2.1 billion facility at First and Mission streets.

Development group F4 Transbay Partners plans to build a mixed-use tower with upward of 300 hotel rooms, 200 residential units and as much as 425,000 square feet of office space. In addition, the developer has agreed to pay the transit authority an additional $15 million if it can hammer out a deal to acquire a contiguous piece of privately owned land at 540 Howard St.

The tentative agreement, which the board unanimously approved Thursday morning, represents the third time that the transit authority has tried to sell Parcel F, the last remaining development site in downtown San Francisco zoned for a 750-foot tower. Parcel F is on Howard Street between First and Second streets.

In December, residential builder Crescent Heights backed out of a deal to pay $165 million for the property after concluding that it would not be economically feasible to meet the 35 percent affordable housing requirement set by the transbay district plan. In September, the transit authority canceled a live auction for the property because of lack of interest.

Important transaction

We accomplished our goal, said transit authority Executive Director Maria Ayerdi-Kaplan. We set out to sell it for $160 million and we accomplished that goal. This is a very important transaction for the finances of the project.

The deal with F4, a joint venture of Hines, Urban Pacific and the Goldman Sachs real estate fund Broad Street Real Estate Credit Partners, is to close by summer. It is not a sure bet, however.

It is contingent on the city granting the developer an exclusive negotiation agreement to take on another piece of transbay land  Block 4  currently being used for the temporary bus terminal. That property, zoned for a 450-foot residential building, would give F4 land to build the 70 affordable units connected to Parcel F, as well as additional housing.

Parcel F is adjacent to the transit center and the new suspension bridge to the bus ramp that will connect the facility to the Bay Bridge. It is also the final parcel that can directly connect to the Transbay Transit Center rooftop park via a pedestrian sky bridge.

Rising costs have left the transit authority with a $360 million shortfall for the completion of phase one, a figure that includes a rainy day fund. Phase one includes construction of the five-story Transbay Transit Center, bus ramps and an underground box intended to house a downtown Caltrain extension and high-speed rail someday.

Along with struggles to sell Parcel F, the transit authority found no corporate sponsors willing to buy the naming rights to the transit center. The transit authority is hoping such sponsorship could bring as much as $80 million.

Ayerdi-Kaplan stressed that the developer is taking on all the entitlement risks, meaning that the group has agreed to close on the purchase of the land before gaining the approvals needed to build a soaring complex of condos, hotel rooms and office space. The development itself will need to be approved by the citys Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure and the Planning Commission.

With this transaction, the transit authority has raised $660 million by selling land around the new transit center, which is to open in 2017.

The money will enable the transit authority to pay back all of a $171 million bridge loan from Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs, which provided interim financing for phase one, Ayerdi-Kaplan said. It will also reduce the amount that needs to be borrowed from the city. The transit authority has been in talks to borrow $360 million from the city. That loan would include reserves to cover unexpected costs or escalations, in addition to current shortfalls.

If it goes through, the deal would ensure there is enough money to build City Park, the 5.4-acre rooftop green space on top of the transit center. The transit authority board of directors awarded the contracts for the park after Decembers Crescent Heights deal, but when that fell through it was unclear how the park would be funded.

Absolutely, the park so going to be built, and its going to be beautiful, Ayerdi-Kaplan said.

Savvy developers

While the Goldman Sachs group, which raised a $4 billion development fund in 2014, controls 90 percent of F4, both Hines and Urban Pacific are veterans of the citys land use politics. Hines is the co-developer of the Salesforce Tower next to the transit center, which will be San Franciscos tallest building. And Urban Pacific built One Rincon Hill, the two-tower complex at the entrance to the Bay Bridge.

We are pleased to have this opportunity to develop one of the key buildings in the dynamic transbay project area, said Mike Kriozere, principal of Urban Pacific. What we create will be an asset to this vibrant neighborhood, and we look forward to enhancing San Francisco and its skyline with our plans for a mixed-use tower on Parcel F.

Block 4 makes up about one-third of the land occupied by the temporary terminal. The rest of the property will be used for open space and more low-rise housing and townhomes. The transit authority had planned on releasing Block 4 later this year.

J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfjkdineen
Rival Republicans have hit Donald Trump hard on running an allegedly fraudulent academic institution. In turn, the GOP front runner has responded by saying that the Better Bureau Business gave Trump University an A+ rating.

That statement has been parsed and debunked in the past week. Trump University currently has a no rating from the BBB. The institution stopped accepting new students in 2010.
In its first report as a public company, San Franciscos Square topped analysts fourth-quarter revenue estimates, suggesting the digital-payments business will continue to grow in the face of increasing competition from PayPal Holdings and Apple.

Sales rose 49 percent to $374 million in the quarter, beating the average estimate from analysts of $345 million.

The reason to get excited about Square is its growing very quickly, said Gil Luria, an analyst at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles. Square so far has shown very little inclination to be profitable; theyve been focused on growth.

The company said revenue increased in all its categories  payment transactions, software and data products. Square processed $10.2 billion in payments in the quarter, an increase of 47 percent from a year earlier. More than 2 million merchants used the companys products for transactions. Larger merchants with annual payments volume of more than $125,000 represented 39 percent of all transactions in the quarter, an increase from 33 percent of volume a year earlier.

Ride services

New Mexico

OKs Uber, Lyft

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez arrived Wednesday in her first Uber ride and signed a bill allowing ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft to operate in the state.

The Republican governor said the measure ends the confusion over whether the companies are welcome in New Mexico. After one ride I can see why Uber is so amazing, Martinez said. It makes the state accessible.

Martinez said the companies will help reduce drunken driving in the state and allow tourists to roam.

The legal status of the companies in the state had been in limbo since they began offering service in 2014. The companies had argued that the states Motor Carrier Act did not apply to them because they do not operate as commercial taxi businesses.

The dispute forced Lyft to pull out of New Mexico after state regulators couldnt come up with a solution. Martinez said she hopes Lyft will now give New Mexico another look.

Autos

Volkswagen

U.S. leader out

Volkswagens top U.S. executive is stepping down amid the emissions cheating scandal, the company announced Wednesday.

U.S. President and CEO Michael Horn is leaving to pursue other opportunities effective immediately, the automaker said. He had been with the company for 25 years, assuming his most recent post in 2014.

Horns sudden departure comes as Volkswagen continues to grapple with the fallout from its admission last year that nearly 600,000 cars were sold in the U.S. with software that regulators say was designed to cheat on required emissions tests.

It potentially faces more than $20 billion in fines from state and federal regulators, as well as hundreds of class-action lawsuits on behalf of vehicle owners. The Justice Department is also conducting a criminal investigation.

Solar energy

Vivint sues

SunEdison

SunEdison CEO Ahmad Chatila had doubts about buying Vivint Solar Inc. soon after striking the deal, according to a lawsuit filed by Vivint.

Almost immediately after the deal was inked, however, with its stock price starting to fall, SunEdison began exhibiting classic signs of buyers remorse, Vivint said in the suit, filed Tuesday in Delaware.

SunEdison, which has its solar headquarters in Belmont, has seen its shares slump more than 90 percent since the day the deal was announced, July 20. The worlds biggest renewable energy developer called the acquisition an important part of its growth strategy, and repeatedly said last year that it intended to close the transaction. Vivints complaint contradicts that narrative, citing months of foot-dragging and double-talk.

The Vivint deal capped months of dealmaking, as SunEdison bought projects and developers on six continents. It meant the company was working to digest previous acquisitions while putting together its biggest deal ever, and as this was happening, capital markets started drying up, according to Jeffrey Osborne, an analyst at Cowen & Co.

Vivint canceled the deal after SunEdison missed a Feb. 26 deadline. The transaction was valued at $2.2 billion when it was announced in July, and renegotiated in December to $1.9 billion. Vivint is seeking damages for what it terms SunEdisons willful breach of the agreement.

SunEdison didnt respond to calls and email seeking comment on the suit.

Cybersecurity

Bangladesh,

N.Y. Fed in spat

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 moneys apparent transfer to accounts in the Philippines.

The New York Fed said Wednesday that it had not detected any hacking attempts. The payment instructions in question were fully authenticated ... in accordance with standard authentication protocols, it said.

Chronicle News Services
Gig workers such as Uber and Lyft drivers, as well as many other contractors, would gain the right to collectively bargain over wages and working conditions under legislation being considered in California.

As our economy innovates, so should our labor laws, said Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, a former labor leader who proposed AB1727, the California 1099 Self-Organizing Act. More and more employers are doing business by classifying workers as independent contractors. Under current law, independent contractors cant get together and negotiate with the master employer. The U.S. views contractors as businesses, which means they would violate antitrust law if they pursued collective action to raise rates, for example.

The bill is likely to face stiff opposition from the scores of new Internet platforms that have sprung up to connect workers with people who need rides, deliveries, housecleaning, home repairs, massages, valet parking and other services. These on-demand services typically take a cut of the fee for each job, and consider the workers to be self-employed.

For millions of Americans, the sharing economy is an important safety net that offers flexible earning opportunities, said Michael Beckerman, CEO of the Internet Association, an industry trade group, in a statement. Individuals are now able, like never before, to work for themselves and earn money how, when and where they want. Independent contractors are prevalent in every industry, but this proposal unfairly targets the Internet sector in a way that could hurt the very people it purports to help.

Uber, by far the biggest on-demand platform with a $62.5 billion valuation, referred requests for comment to the Internet Association.

We share Assemblywoman Gonzalezs dedication to workers and agree with the starting point that people engaging with platforms are independent contractors, Lyft spokeswoman Chelsea Wilson said in a statement.

On Wednesday Gonzalez broadened the bills scope beyond the on-demand workers for platforms like Uber, TaskRabbit and Postmates to include contractors in a range of sectors, not just those dispatched by smartphone apps. Truck drivers at the states ports are another potential target group, for instance, she said. The criteria is that the hosting platform must make money off the workers labor, so listing services such as Craigslist and Thumbtack would not be covered.

Gonzalezs bill, which has Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, as a co-sponsor, would allow as few as 10 workers to join forces to negotiate with a company.

Thats a pretty small bargaining unit, said Donald Polden, a law professor at Santa Clara University, who said the bill raises many questions about its validity.

Gig workers, the most visible segment of the nations rapidly growing freelance workforce, have sparked a nationwide debate about their treatment. Workers from several on-demand platforms have sued to be classified as employees. Lawmakers have proposed creating flexible benefits to provide more of a safety net for freelancers. Critics say that contractors lack the benefits and protections of employment, such as workers compensation, a minimum wage, overtime and expense reimbursement.

Enrico Moretti, a UC Berkeley economics professor who studies emerging labor markets, said he thinks the California bill is misguided because it would hurt an industry that has fueled new earning opportunities. Making it less flexible would have considerable costs for the industry and would reduce market entry, innovation and employment growth among incumbent players, he said.

Moreover, Moretti said, If the working conditions were so dismal, it would be a problem for Uber and Lyft to find drivers, but that doesnt seem to be the case. There are plenty of people interested in these types of jobs. As of September, Uber said it had 327,000 U.S. drivers, double the number from a year earlier.

But a San Francisco Uber driver said that many have been leaving Uber because it has continued to cut its rates. Jason, who declined to give his last name for fear it would hurt his job prospects, said that two years ago he earned about $1,000 for a 35-hour week and now struggles to make $650 putting in the same time.

If they allow collective bargaining, the drivers will end up saving the company from itself by pushing back against the price cuts, he said. They are having a hard time recruiting now.

Seattle last year passed an ordinance that would allow Uber and Lyft drivers to unionize. That law is now facing legal challenges from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, who said he will neither sign nor veto the bill, expressed concerned about its administrative costs.

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid
It's a crisp winter morning and we are half a ton of metal and flesh, rumbling down a two-lane Sonoma County back road. George Strait twang wafts from the stereo. Few things in are life finer than this.

The 2016 Indian Chieftain I'm testing has enough v-twin growl to let you know you're running 111 cubic inches of displacement, not so much it shakes the fillings out of your molars. It's just right.

And it should be, for a bike that will set you back at least $22,999.

Specs Price: $22,999

Engine: Thunder Stroke 111

Displacement: 111 cu in / 1811 cc

Peak Torque: 119.2 ft-lbs at 3,000 rpm

Fuel Capacity: 5.5 gallons

Weight: 855 lbs (wet)

Seat height: 26 inches

Standard equipment: ABS; cast aluminum frame with integrated air-box; cruise control; driving lights; highway bar; keyless start; power windshield; leather seats; remote locking hard saddle bags; tire pressure monitoring; 100-watt stereo with AM/FM Bluetooth and USB input See More Collapse

The air-cooled motor, extremely balanced with torque all over the place (119 foot pounds and 3,000 rpm), controlled by throttle-by-wire and matched to a six speed transmission that's so adequate, though clunky, it's almost not worth mentioning  it does just what it's supposed to do.



I dare say, it's almost like riding a metric, but with an exceptional amount of panache  the Chieftain will turn heads like nobody's business. When I'm at the coffee shop, nearly every dude in the parking lot walks over to take it in. When I ride the freeway, noses are pressed against passenger windows. In the city, motor cops low wave.

Like it or not, it's a middle-aged guy magnet  and really, that's what Indian is banking on: a slightly older, well-heeled clientele for whom a reverently classic aesthetic trumps Harley's "Sons of Anarchy" cool.

It's a handsome bike in the matte "Silver Smoke" paint with more than enough thoughtful detail work (though I prefer the paint in Indian Red). Oh yeah, and that ghostly illuminated Chieftain fender statuette. That.

Chris Preovolos

Personally, I've never seen myself as a cruiser guy. I've enjoyed the Harley's I've ridden, but the outlaw image the brand cultivates isn't for everyone. The Indian, however, appeals to me on another level, the part of me that yearns for mile after mile of Super Slab and small towns with bad coffee with good pie. That same part of me that doesn't want to think about my daily commute into San Francisco on a V-Strom, splitting the rutted lanes of Interstate 80.

CHECK CAR PRICES:

Ironically, my relationship with the Indian began just there. I picked up the Chieftain media test loaner form Arlen Ness Motorcycles in Dublin, California just as evening rush hour was stacking up. Leaving the showroom and taking a moment to setup the Bluetooth connection to my iPhone through the bike's relatively simple interface, I took off to navigate the narrow canyon that is the gap between the one and two lanes.

855 pounds wet, with a suspension a little floaty under these conditions, the Indian was somewhat daunting at first, a guy might wonder what would happen if he ripped a side case off a bike he didn't own. With a low center of gravity, the Chieftain is more maneuverable than you'd expect from a bike of this size, and while I would never want to make this my daily commuter (for sundry reasons not necessary to explain), after a few miles things settle into place.

This is precisely when you'll discover some of the finer features of the bike, like an electronically adjustable windscreen  a touch of luxury I didn't know I needed that now feels necessary. It's also when you discover little things, like mirrors that remain so unsullied by vibration that you can actually use them, white-faced gauges trimmed in chrome and the simple LED display, that make the ride a pleasure.

Indian Motorcycle

The LED display itself displays red text over a black background and some owners have complained about its readability, however, I had no such issues and the menu is fairly self explanatory. After pairing a phone via Bluetooth, it can be stowed in a compartment under the dash that is complete with a USB port. While not lockable, the compartment is hidden enough to not worry so much about leaving it there for quick stops  in fact, since the loaner I was riding did not come with an operator's manual, it took me quite a while to locate.

More New Indian Springfield switches from urban to touring

But it's not all perfect in the cockpit. One of the handful of things I found to be a constant annoyance was staring at the plastic dashboard that looked and felt a little too cheap to be on a motorcycle that costs more than my car. If, unlike me, your OCD tendencies do not lead you to obsess over the fit and finish of thermoplastic polymers, you're all set.

Elsewhere, the Chieftain drips with chrome (though not as much as the fairing-free Chief Classic model), Harley guys I showed the bike to invariably noticed controls and other pieces here and there that came stock in black on their bikes. Those same guys dig their side cases more, and, in fact, the weather stripping on my test bike seemed to be coming off. (While my media loaner had issues with the weather stripping, the bikes on the floor at the dealer had more solid stripping installed).

Indian Motorcycle

The Chieftain's side cases have with locks that are controlled either by key or with the remote fob. Sure, cars have had this feature for years, but having these on a stock bike, that's just awesome.

Though this loaner came equipped with an optional rear rack in lieu of a pillion seat, the bike has been built with two-up touring in mind. An air-adjustable rear shock than can be fine-tuned with an included hand pump, oil cooler and open-highway friendly fork rake set the Chieftain apart from the other bikes in the Indian lineup (save for the Roadmaster, which features a touring top case, heated seats and grips and other upgrades).

With those features in mind  plus ample storage  the Chieftain will set you down the road in comfort on a short putt or a multi-day adventure.

If you see a bagger in your future, you want to set yourself apart from the Road Glide set and you have the cash, the Chieftain might be the right fit. It certainly doesn't disappoint.
A Saratoga man was arrested and charged Wednesday in connection with selling art objects made of elephant ivory, a practice banned since 1976, according to federal officials.

Shahram Ron Roohparvar, 61, allegedly offered to sell art objects made of ivory in three internet transactions to Australia and New Zealand between 2012 and 2015, according to the federal indictment.

Roohparvar offered items for sale through the online site www.coinsandantiquesgallery.com and eBay.com, according to the indictment.

In January 2012, he posted an ivory carving on eBay for $1,950 and then shipped it to New Zealand, claiming it was a Japanese statue worth $59.

In December 2013, he received $700 for an ivory carving, which he shipped to Australia, saying it was a small decorative statue worth $135.

And in August 2015, he agreed to sell an ivory carving for $450 to a buyer in New Zealand, which he claimed were two decorative statues worth $117 when he attempted to ship it.

In each of the cases, Roohparvar initiated the transactions without obtaining the proper permits, said acting U.S. Attorney Brian Stretch and Jill Birchell, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service special agent in charge.

Roohparvar was charged with three counts of wildlife trafficking. He was released on a $250,000 bond. The maximum penalty for each charge is five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

This wasnt Roohparvars first arrest. In 2001, he and his brother Shaw Roohparvar faced federal charges including money laundering, interstate commerce in stolen property and violating banking laws, a case that involved stolen computer equipment.

Ron Roohparvar pleaded guilty to financial wrongdoing and got a year of probation in 2004 and was fined $15,000. His brother was sentenced to eight months in prison and eight months of house arrest.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Bob Egelko contributed to this report.

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker
The dean of the prestigious UC Berkeley School of Law resigned his post Thursday amid a sex harassment scandal  but will continue receiving full faculty pay and may still teach.

Sujit Choudhrys resignation as dean comes a day after he was suspended from the top-ranked law school after his former assistant filed a sex harassment lawsuit Tuesday in Alameda County Superior Court. The suit alleges that he hugged, kissed and touched the assistant repeatedly during 2014 and 2015 and that the campus did nothing to stop it. A constitutional law expert, Choudhry, 46, became dean in July 2014. He had been a professor at the New York University School of Law.

UC Berkeleys Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination had investigated the claims by Tyann Sorrell and concluded in July that Choudhry violated policy (and) demonstrated a failure to understand the power dynamic and the effect of his actions on the (assistant) personally and in her employment, Provost Claude Steele said in a statement Wednesday.

As punishment at the time, the dean was docked 10 percent of his pay for one year  from $415,000 to $373,500  and told to apologize. Steele said he also required Choudhry to see a counselor at his own expense.

Retains professors pay

Despite the deans resignation, he will continue to be paid $284,000 as a professor. A faculty conduct procedure involving witnesses, a judgment by the Academic Senate, and a ratification by the UC regents is required to fire a tenured professor, said Dan Mogulof, a campus spokesman. He said he did not know if the campus will seek Choudhrys termination. Whether he will teach is to be determined, Mogulof said.

Sorrells lawsuit claims Choudhrys punishment was far too light: The dean had kept his job, while Sorrell remains on paid leave. During the investigation, it says, Sorrell was told to use her own vacation and sick leave to be paid. It was only after Sorrell sued that the campus placed the dean on leave and further reduced his pay by an unspecified amount.

In a statement from his attorney, Choudhry said Thursday that he will defend himself in court. There are two sides to every narrative, he said.

The campus investigation of Choudhry concluded quietly last summer as another sex harassment scandal was about to break open: Investigators found in June that another Cal professor, famed planet hunter Geoffrey Marcy, had violated UCs sex harassment policy between 2001 and 2010 by giving massages and other unwanted attention to at least four female students. Administrators privately warned him not to do it again but did not fire the astronomer, who many believed would win a Nobel Prize. Yet word leaked, and by fall, UC Berkeley was being widely criticized for its light-handed approach. Marcy resigned in October.

Policy under review

University of California President Janet Napolitano said then that she would review UCs sex harassment policy. A committees recommendations are due in April.

On Thursday, Steele and Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks acknowledged a new groundswell of criticism over their handling of Choudhry and said in a joint statement that the initial decision not to remove the dean from his position is the subject of legitimate criticism. They said the campus needs stronger sanctions and that we can and must do better.

Students outraged

Law students delivered a letter of rebuke to the chancellors office, saying: We are outraged and disgusted by the universitys deliberate withholding of information concerning the safety of students, staff and faculty. They expressed solidarity with Sorrell and announced a vote of no confidence with the administration.

In her lawsuit, Sorrell, 41, says the harassment began in September 2014 with bear hugs and progressed to kisses on the cheek and the dean grabbing Sorrells hands and putting them on his waist. The suit says Sorrell is a former victim of domestic and sexual abuse. It claims Choudhry had a temper and was known for berating and being rude and dismissive of employees when they upset him.

Sorrell would make her body go limp and keep her arms at her sides before pushing the dean away, according to the complaint. She became anxious and depressed, and sought help from a therapist, it says. Sorrell says she reported the alleged harassment in February 2015, but says it continued. She made a more formal complaint in March 2015 and says it took two weeks for the Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination to respond.

As with the Marcy case, social media erupted with criticism.

I am horrified not only by the egregious actions of our dean, but also by the university's efforts to shield him from responsibility, law student Paul Monge Rodriguez posted on Facebook. The universitys decision to slap the dean on the wrist with a one-year 10 percent salary reduction signals exactly how little they value the well-being of the victim.

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov
The Bay is busy this weekend! Although we might see some rain around the area, there are plenty of things to do over the next few days in San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley, both indoors and out (at your own risk).

And  better news  lots of this weekend's attractions are free or cheap.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.  Versatility suits Andrew Susac just fine. The lifetime catcher was asked to play some first base in spring training, so he did the natural thing: He picked up his 13-year-old brothers first basemans mitt.

On Wednesday, Susac played first for the first time since 2013 when he was at Double-A Richmond and played nine games at the position, including seven starts. Manager Bruce Bochy wants his backup catcher, whether its Susac or Trevor Brown, to be available to play first in a pinch.

I feel fine out there, Susac said after playing the final two innings at first. It might take a rocket or two hit at me until I start moving back a little. Its a little different when Im used to wearing gear. Youre awfully close at first base with how hard these guys are swinging.

Susacs kid brother, Daniel, also is a catcher but had a nice Wilson A2000 first basemans mitt he wasnt using, so their dad shipped it to Andrew, who catches with an All-Star mitt. The company sent him a first basemans mitt but it wasnt worked in, so hes using the Wilson.

Its a pretty good glove, said Susac, who had two putouts, just a couple of years old, and he wasnt using it.

Brown has played seven spring training innings at first base.

Flexibility, Bochy said. You never know whats going to happen during the course of a season. We lost (Brandon) Belt last year. Maybe facing a left-hander, I could give Belt a day, and if the backup catcher is swinging the bat well, to have that option would be nice.

Crawfords return: Brandon Crawford played his first game on defense and had one ball hit to him, courtesy of Nolan Arenado in the first inning.

Nice two-hopper. It was about as routine as it gets, said Crawford, who waited to build up shoulder strength before playing shortstop. His first four games, he was a designated hitter.

Crawfords next game at short will be Friday.

Pitchers progressing: Relievers Santiago Casilla and Sergio Romo threw 30 pitches on a back field at Scottsdale Stadium, facing hitters.

Casilla, who had been slowed by flulike symptoms, is penciled in to make his Cactus League debut Saturday. Romo will face hitters once more before appearing in a spring training game Monday or Tuesday.

Matt Cain threw on flat ground, both long toss and then out of the stretch, and mixed in some breaking balls. Cains training camp was put on hold when he had a cyst removed from his upper right arm. His next assignment is to throw a bullpen session.

John Shea is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jshea@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JohnSheaHey

Rockies 8, Giants 6

Notable: After starter Johnny Cueto exited with two aboard in the second inning, reliever Adalberto Mejia let in both inherited runners and completed 22/3 innings, charged with one run and three hits.  Matt Duffy got his first hit in his 11th at-bat, a fifth-inning ground-rule double during a four-run rally.  Brandon Belt returned to first base after missing a few days with a sinus infection.  Samuel Coonrod pitched two scoreless innings and struck out four. ... Ray Black struck out two in a perfect ninth.

Quotable: It was a right-handed hitter. I wasnt going to get hit by a 100-mph-plus shank. Im not that quick. In fact, Dan, the security guy, says, You left me hanging here. Its electric stuff.

 Manager Bruce Bochy, who moved from his on-field chair to the dugout when Black entered in the ninth inning.

Thursdays game: Giants vs. Brewers at Maryvale, Ariz., 12:05 p.m.

 John Shea
GREENWICH  The Greenwich Republican Town Committee has a new leader and its Stephen Walko.

The former state representative and chairman of Greenwichs Board of Estimate and Taxation was elected RTC chairman by a vote of 34 to 22 Wednesday night. Walko, a local attorney, bested Randall Smith in the race to succeed outgoing chairman Jim Campbell who did not run for a new term.

In remarks after his election, Walko vowed to the support of those who did not vote for him and bring the party closer together.

I truly believe that together we can work to elect Republicans to lead our state, our town and our nation, Walko said. But it will take every single one of us, not just the chair and not just the RTC officers.

Greenwich has long been a Republican stronghold in blue state Connecticut and the GOP has dominated in town elections to municipal and state office. But Walko said he believed the party could do even better, not necessarily in bottom line results, but in how the party gets there.

Walko said it was critical the party attract good, qualified Republican candidates and then get them elected. In order to do that, there had to be a cohesive unit working together inside the party eager to work together to support candidates and office holders because the alternative was unacceptable.

He said what united everyone in the party was their love of the town they live in.

As a proud townie, I truly believe we are made up of pieces of the people we come in contact with, Walko said. And there is no finer place to grow as a person than Greenwich, Connecticut.

Walkos term is for two years and he said he was eager to talk to everyone in the RTC about their concerns and develop an action plan to address them. He urged everyone to build up the RTC, not succumb to the culture of tearing it down.

Walko was nominated from the floor by First Selectman Peter Tesei, a longtime supporter. Tesei credited Walko for his years of service to the town and to the state.

At the local level Steve has led with distinction as a RTM and RTC leader, Tesei said, noting Walkos work on the BET to improve the efficiency of town services and institute a spending cap. He not only talked about Republican principles of efficient and responsible government, he applied them.

Before the vote was taken, Campbell, who had been RTC chairman since 2010, said it meant a lot to him to lead the party. He noted there had been disagreements and times where things havent been easy during his tenure, but also many good times.

I care a great deal about this party and this group and about the Republican Party in this town, Campbell said. Ours has been a model in the state and I dare say we have one of the great Republican histories of any town in this country.

The Greenwich Democratic Town Committee is also seeking new leadership as current chairman Frank Farricker is not seeking another term. BET member Jeffrey Ramer and current DTC Treasurer Howard Richman are both seeking the position and the election of officers will take place on March 23 once the new DTC has been sworn in.

The two candidates will first face off in a forum for DTC members on March 16 at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall.

kborsuk@scni.com
A former East Haven zoning official, who once worked in Bridgeport, has been sentenced for extorting bribes in exchange for favorable treatment.

Frank Biancur Jr., 41, of West Haven, was employed as the Town of East Havens Planning and Zoning Administrator/Zoning Enforcement Officer. In pleading guilty,Biancur admitted that he sought and received payments from at least five individuals in exchange for official acts he rendered as the Zoning Enforcement Officer.

Deirdre M. Daly, U.S. Attorney for Connecticut said in a release that the investigation into Biancurs activities began in May 2015 when an East Haven resident told local police and the FBI that he/she had been extorted by Biancur since October 2012 and had made a cash payment to the zoning official.

On May 19, 2015, Biancur called the victim and informed the victim that Biancur had to inspect an addition to the victims residence, Daly said. Although Biancur stated that he was fighting for the victim, he also required a payment of $200 or he would make the victim tear down the addition. On May 21, 2015, the victim engaged in a consensually-recorded meeting with Biancurs office in East Haven Town Hall. During the meeting, the victim gave Biancur $200 in cash, which Biancur put in his pocket.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Victor A. Bolden in Bridgeport sentenced Biancur to 30 days of incarceration in a halfway house, followed by two years of supervised release, for seeking and receiving illegal payments while employed as an East Haven zoning official. During his term of supervised release, Biancur must spend six months in home confinement with electronic monitoring and perform 200 hours of community service. He was was ordered to pay $6,265 in restitution.

Biancur was arrested on May 27, 2015. In December, he pleaded guilty to one count of theft of honest services mail fraud.

Prior to his employment in East Haven, Biancur was employed by the City of West Haven and the City of Bridgeport.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

MIAMI  Fighting for Florida and beyond, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders tangled in an intense debate Wednesday night over whos the true friend of American Latinos, trading accusations over guest worker programs akin to slavery and the embracing of vigilantes against immigrants.

They had even worse things to say about Republican front-runner Donald Trump.

Facing off just six days before Floridas verdict on the presidential race, Clinton faulted Sanders for repeatedly voting against a 2007 comprehensive immigration reform bill. He faulted her for opposing a 2007 effort to let people who were in the country without documentation obtain drivers licenses.

Had the immigration package passed back then, Clinton said, A lot of the issues we are still discussing today would be in the rear-view mirror.

Sanders retorted that he opposed the legislation because it included a guest worker program akin to slavery.

The debate opened with a question that appeared to startle Clinton.

Univisions Jorge Ramos asked her if she would drop out of the race if indicted over the handling of her email while secretary of state.

Oh, for goodness, that is not going to happen, Clinton said. Im not even answering that question.

The FBI is investigating the possibility of mishandling of sensitive information that passed through Clintons private email server.

Sanders, as he has in the past, declined to bite on the issue, saying, The process will take its course. He said hed rather talk about issues of wealth and income inequality.

Both candidates were bidding for momentum after Sanders surprised Clinton with an upset victory in Michigan on Tuesday.

Clinton stressed that she has a strong lead in the delegate count, declaring, This is a marathon ... that can only be carried by the kind of campaign I am running.

Sanders said his Michigan surprise was evidence that his message is resonating.

We are going to continue to do extremely well, he said, adding that he expects to persuade superdelegates to switch from Clinton to his column.

Immigration commanded considerable attention because Florida is home to nearly 1.8 million Latinos, including about 15 percent of the states Democrats.

Latino voters have made up about 10 percent of voters in the Democratic primaries this year, and Clinton has been getting about two-thirds of their votes to about one-third for Sanders. The Vermont senator stresses that hes winning over younger Latinos.

Clinton at one point accused Sanders of supporting legislation that would have led to indefinite detention of people facing deportation, and for standing with Minutemen vigilantes. He called that notion ridiculous and absurd, and accused Clinton of picking small pieces out of big legislative packages to distort his voting record.

For all the disagreements, the overall tone was considerably less tense than the candidates Sunday faceoff. Sanders even made fun of his own pronunciation of huge as yuge.
1 U.S. prisons: A U.N. expert on torture, degrading and inhuman treatment is decrying unsatisfactory results following years of efforts to visit prisons in the United States. Special rapporteur Juan Mendez says U.S. officials continue to set what he considers excessively strict conditions for his visits, such as on which inmates he could see. Mendez told reporters Wednesday: If I accept terms like that, every other government is going to demand the same treatment, and rightly so. Mendez mainly wants to examine use of solitary confinement. He said one good thing was authorization to visit Rikers Island in New York.

2 Clinton emails: Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Wednesday that she hasnt discussed the FBI investigation into Hillary Clintons emails with the White House and doesnt plan to. The investigation deals with the potential mishandling of sensitive information that passed through the former secretary of states private email server, and Lynchs assurance to the Senate Judiciary Committee came shortly after the GOP sued for access to Clintons emails. The two lawsuits spring from Freedom of Information Act requests filed last year seeking copies of her emails and text messages.
MIAMI  Ted Cruz keeps playing political mind games with Marco Rubio.

He quietly opened 10 campaign offices across Rubios home state of Florida. His wife, Heidi Cruz, accepted an invitation to a Miami fundraiser Thursday. He scheduled a last-minute rally in Rubios home town of Miami.

And when he showed up at Miami Dade Colleges Wolfson Campus on Wednesday morning, Cruz made sure to grab the headlines: He announced the surprise endorsement of former Republican presidential rival Carly Fiorina.

Our message today is one of unity, Cruz said after Fiorina trumpeted that Cruz has won over and over and over.

Some people are now saying, Well, Donald Trump wouldnt be so bad. OK, maybe hes a liberal, maybe hes a fraud, but at least hes a dealmaker, Fiorina said, declaring herself horrified by Trump. The truth is that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are two sides of the same coin. They arent going to reform the system. They are the system.

Cruz has hardly campaigned in Florida ahead of Tuesdays primary. Before Wednesday, he had held a single public event in the state, in Orlando in November. Hes invested no money on television, though an allied super PAC plans an ad buy.

Polls show Cruz lagging behind Trump and Rubio in Florida. The Texas senator consistently polls between 16 and 19 percent. Hes got little obvious hope to pull off a win.

But he says he can. And if he cant  though he wont admit it  he can play spoiler to Rubio in Rubios must-win home state.

God bless Miami! Cruz said as he basked in chants of You go, Ted! from a couple of hundred people Wednesday. Yall know how to make a Cuban feel welcome.

Cruz stopped just short of calling on Rubio to drop out, as Trump has done. The man who introduced him at the rally, however  Manny Roman, Cruzs Miami-Dade County campaign chairman  explicitly called for Rubios exit.

Hes not a bad guy, Roman said of Rubio. And now he has a chance to do the right thing.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A wild police chase along highways and neighborhoods on the Peninsula overnight turned into a demolition derby as a fleeing suspect rammed a pursuing San Mateo County deputys cruiser at least twice, officials said Thursday.

Authorities ultimately arrested the 24-year-old driver of a white Dodge Durango and his two passengers after the group lost a tire and tried to flee on foot in front of a Millbrae Best Western motel, said Sgt. Rebecca Rosenblatt, a San Mateo County Sheriffs Office spokeswoman.

The frenzied rundown kicked off around midnight Thursday when two deputies eyed the suspicious sport utility vehicle in the parking lot of Canada College on Farm Hill Boulevard in unincorporated San Mateo County.

But when one of the deputies tried to have a chat with the driver, later identified as Alexander Reyes, the San Bruno resident popped the SUV into reverse and hit the gas, Rosenblatt said.

Reyes then slammed into one of the deputies cruisers before officials said he put the Durango into drive and gunned it in the direction of a second deputy, nearly hitting him.

From then, the chase was on. Reyes got onto northbound Interstate 280 as additional officers joined in the pursuit, Rosenblatt said.

The SUV got off the highway and started heading east on San Bruno Avenue into a residential San Bruno neighborhood.

Then on the 800 block of Kains Avenue, Reyes slammed head-on into the same deputys cruiser he hit earlier and kept going, Rosenblatt said. That deputy, who was not named, was taken to a hospital and treated for minor injuries before being released.

The Durango finally lost a right front tire and stopped in front of the Best Western at 1100 El Camino Real in Millbrae where officials said Reyes and his two passengers got out and ran.

All three suspects were quickly captured and taken into custody, Rosenblatt said.

After being treated at a hospital, Reyes was booked at the Maguire Correctional Facility in Redwood City on suspicion of felony assault on a deputy, hit-and-run with injury, eluding a police officer and parole violation.

The passengers, 18-year-old Myra Ochoa and 22-year-old Breiza Sandoval, both of Redwood City, were arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest.
By October 2020, you might kiss using your California driver's license at airports goodbye because it won't be a valid form of identification for domestic air travel.

California is among 26 states that dont meet federal regulations enacted in 2005, based on the 9/11 Commission findings, the Los Angeles Times reports. These states have been given an extension through Oct. 10, 2016 to comply with the regulations. During this period, federal agencies will have the chance to make licenses Real-ID compliant.
FAIRFIELD  A 23-year-old woman who drove the wrong way through the Post Road traffic circle by McDonalds restaurant last December and hit a truck heading the other way had drugs and alcohol in her system at the time, police said.

Sandy Teixeira, of Perth Street in Bridgeport, was charged Tuesday with operating under the influence and driving the wrong way on a one-way street in connection with the Dec. 27 accident.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Four San Francisco police officers did not use excessive force in 2014 when they shot and killed a man who allegedly pointed a stun gun at them that they mistook for a pistol, a federal jury found Thursday in a lawsuit filed by the mans family.

The eight-member jury decided that the officers had not violated the constitutional rights of Alejandro Alex Nieto, a 27-year-old City College of San Francisco student and security guard, when they fired multiple shots at him in Bernal Heights Park.

Officers Richard Schiff, Nathan Chew and Roger Morse and Lt. Jason Sawyer fired at least 48 shots after they said Nieto pointed what they believed was a handgun at them, but which later turned out to be a Taser stun gun. Attorneys for Nietos parents, Elvira and Refugio Nieto, filed the suit in August 2014, saying the actual number of shots fired was 59 and claiming the officers had deprived Nieto of his right to due process and right to be protected from unreasonable or deadly force.

I am pleased the jury saw the facts the way we presented them, Deputy City Attorney Margaret Baumgartner said outside the courthouse.

Everybody here, including the officers, understands that the Nietos must be very sad to lose a child like that, she added. But my officers didnt do anything wrong.

The trial came amid a national debate and protests over police shootings and tactics, and just three months after the controversial San Francisco police shooting of Mario Woods in the Bayview neighborhood.

The fatal shooting of Woods, who refused to drop a knife after being surrounded by officers, spurred a U.S. Justice Department review of the Police Departments practices.

Parents weep

The Nieto familys attorneys, Adante Pointer and Lateef Gray, comforted their clients after the jurys verdict was read, while city attorneys exchanged hugs with the four defendants. Nietos parents were in tears as they left court.

The verdict was not what the Nietos deserve, and its not what the city deserves, Pointer said outside the courthouse. What you have here is a green light to fire 59 shots in a public park. Its a sad day for the city and county of San Francisco.

Later in the evening, Nietos parents joined supporters at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, where they spoke on the verdict.

Its a shame on the city, his father, Refugio Nieto, told a crowd in Spanish. We need to understand this is a danger to all of us.

The jurys verdict, delivered on the second day of deliberations after eight days of testimony, was the final chapter in a nearly two-year saga.

The fateful encounter with police happened on the evening of March 21, 2014, when Nieto, armed with a Taser that he carried for his job as a security guard, went to Bernal Heights Park to eat a burrito. Much of what happened after he got there was in dispute.

It was a hard case, one juror, who did not give her name, said as she left the courtroom after the verdict.

Asked if there was one piece of evidence the jury focused on, she said, No, we looked at all of it.

None of the other jurors spoke with reporters.

In the months and years after the killing, protesters marched through San Francisco, denouncing what they perceived to be a miscarriage of justice. An investigation into the shooting by the district attorneys office, though, cleared the officers of any criminal wrongdoing in February 2015.

Last legal recourse

The federal civil suit was the familys final recourse in holding the Police Department accountable for what they said was an unprovoked shooting.

Unlike a criminal trial, where defendants must be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, jurors needed only to find that the plaintiffs claims were more probably true than not true, Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins said in his instructions to the panel. But the jury concluded that the Nieto familys attorneys hadnt reached that standard.

This shows that the San Francisco Police Department can shoot 59 shots and get away with it, said a friend of the family, Oscar Salinas. Were still going to continue fighting, and were happy that Alexs story was told, and now the evidence is out and the public can decide for themselves.

Elvira and Refugio Nieto sat in the front row for most of the trial, just feet from the four officers at the defense table. Pointer and Gray questioned a parade of witnesses, including the officers and people who encountered Nieto before the killing. Experts on stun guns and police tactics, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy and Elvira Nieto also testified.

Officers stories

The officers, Schiff and Sawyer, who were first on the scene, and Morse and Chew, who arrived after the shooting had started, came to the stand with nearly identical stories. They each said they had heard a call on the police radio that a man in the park had a gun. When they responded, they said, they were forced to open fire when faced with what they believed was a lethal threat.

It was tragic, Schiff testified. But unfortunately, I was forced.

One plaintiffs witness, Antonio Theodore, carried much of the weight of the Nieto familys claim that the officers had used excessive force.

He was the only person, other than the officers, to witness the shooting, and he told the jury that Nieto had his hands in his pockets when the officers first opened fire. His testimony contradicted the officers assertions that Nieto had pulled the Taser and pointed it at them.

Theodores contention, the plaintiffs attorneys argued, was backed up by a bone fragment from Nietos wrist that was found in his jacket pocket.

To claim a mans hand was in front of him but theres a wrist bone in his pocket, just doesnt add up, Pointer said after Thursdays verdict.

But Baumgartner, the attorney for the city, poked holes in Theodores credibility. She questioned him on cross-examination about a deposition he gave in May 2015, in which some of his answers were purportedly different from the ones he gave in court.

Unprompted, Theodore admitted that hed become an alcoholic since the incident and had memory problems. But he was adamant about what he said he had seen in the park.

Baumgartner told the jury in her closing statement that Theodores testimony was unreliable because he had been too far from the shooting to know what happened  he said he had been roughly 115 feet away  and that he has astigmatism and wasnt wearing his glasses at the time.

Craig Fries, a forensics expert called by the defense, created a three-dimensional model of the shooting scene based on evidence collected at the park, witness testimony and the autopsy report.

The evidence suggests that Mr. Nieto did not, in fact, have his hands in his pockets, Fries said.

Testimony challenged

Pointer attempted to cast doubt on that testimony, however, by pointing out that Fries had never analyzed a scenario in which Nieto was standing with his arms outstretched toward the officers.

Evan Snow, who encountered Nieto about 20 minutes before the shooting, told the jury that the young man had pointed the Taser at him because his dog had been attracted by Nietos burrito.

I thought it was the grip of a pistol, and I was incredibly frightened at that time. I froze in my tracks, Snow said, adding, I thought, Im going to get shot. Im going to die right now.

Gray took Snow to task in cross-examination, however, saying he had admitted to prejudging Nieto as a gang member because he was wearing a red jacket, had been distracted by an attractive jogger and had used racial slurs in text messages about the incident and indicated that he wished he could have shot Nieto.

The most emotional testimony came from Elvira Nieto, who at one point had to leave the courtroom as lawyers displayed autopsy photos of her son. She recounted the good times she had shared with him and how proud she had been when he received his associates degree from City College, a degree mailed to her home weeks after his death.

I got it in the mail, she testified in Spanish 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. This was the outcome of all the effort he had put into this.

Kale Williams , Bob Egelko and Evan Sernoffsky are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: kwilliams@sfchronicle.com, begelko@sfchronicle.com, esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SFKale @egelko @Evan Sernoffsky
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Dubai, U.A.E

Iran test-launched two ballistic missiles Wednesday emblazoned with the phrase "Israel must be wiped out" in Hebrew, Iranian media reported, in a show of power by the Shiite nation as U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited Jerusalem.

The new missile firings were the latest in a series of tests in recent days, aimed at demonstrating that Iran will push ahead with its ballistic program after scaling backing its nuclear program under the deal reached last year with the U.S. and other world powers.

Israel, long an opponent of Iran, offered no comment on the test, though Biden issued a strong warning over any possible violation of the nuclear deal.

"A nuclear-armed Iran is an absolutely unacceptable threat to Israel, to the region and the United States. And I want to reiterate which I know people still doubt here. If in fact they break the deal, we will act," he said.

Biden's comments came after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who strongly opposed the nuclear deal.

The tests, however, don't violate the accord. The landmark deal, which led to Iran dramatically scaling back its nuclear program, does not include provisions against missile launches.

Also, when the nuclear accord came into effect on Jan. 16, the Security Council lifted most U.N. sanctions against Tehran including a ban it had imposed in 2010 on Iran testing missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads  a ban that likely would have covered some of the missile fired this week. To deal with the restrictions in the nuclear agreement, the council adopted a resolution last July which among other measures "calls on" Iran not to carry out such tests.

At the United Nations, there is likely to be a debate about whether Iran is still required to abide by the ballistic missile test ban under council resolutions.

Iran says none of its missiles are designed to carry nuclear weapons and so the resolutions do not apply.

Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Revolutionary Guard's aerospace division, was quoted as saying the test was aimed at showing Israel that Iran could hit it. Israel is within 660 miles of Iranian territory.

"The (1,240-mile) range of our missiles is to confront the Zionist regime," Hajizadeh said. "Israel is surrounded by Islamic countries and it will not last long in a war."
1 Kurdish militants: Turkeys military on Wednesday ended a three-month operation against Kurdish militants in the largest city in the countrys mostly Kurdish southeast, which had raised concerns about civilians being caught up in the fighting and the possible destruction to monuments and heritage. Interior Minister Efkan Ala said security forces have concluded their offensive in Diyarbakir against militants linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party. The military has said at least 271 militants have been killed during the offensive. Rights groups say at least 224 civilians have been killed.

2 Commando raid: Hoping to capture a high-profile target, U.S. special forces hopped off helicopters a couple of miles from an al-Shabab-controlled town, slipped through the dark and then got into a fierce firefight that reportedly killed more than 10 Islamic extremists in Awdhegle town in southern Somalia. A Somali intelligence official said the person they wanted to get was apparently killed during the fight. U.S. officials said American sforces partnered with Somali soldiers in the raid. Roughly 50 U.S. special operations troops have been operating in Somalia on a rotational basis for the past few years.
Even when youre trying to be inclusive, youre bound to offend someone.

Case in point: After releasing a Taiwanese commercial featuring a son coming out to his father, McDonalds angered multiple, local religious groups, according to AdWeek.

The 90-second commercial shows the two sitting in the restaurant. Before giving a McCafe coffee cup to his dad, his son writes I like boys near the rim. At first, it seems the father rejects his sons confession, slamming his fist on the table and walking away. However, the boys father returns with a cup on which he can write a message of his own.

I accept you like boys, he writes, then gives the cup to his son.

Entrepreneur

Related: 5 Uncomfortable Questions Asked at McDonald's Company Shareholders' Meeting

The video has since gone viral online, with more than 3 million views.

But the commercial hasnt made every heart swell with love and pride for the duo. Unhappy with the theme, some groups such as Alliance of Taiwan Religious Groups for the Protection of Family are calling for a boycott against the fast-food chain.

"Even if you want to just take a leak at a McDonald's bathroom, you can't help but feel polluted," an Alliance representative told local media. The rep also accused the franchise of "openly promoting gay issues" and miseducating children on sexual behavior.

Related: How the Gay Marriage Decision Affects Every Small Business

Still, the alliance may be the odd man out in this case. According to a poll conducted by Taiwans Military of Justice, 60 percent of the countrys residents approve of same-sex marriages. The support is even mirrored by the countrys president, Tsai Ing-wen.

"In the face of love, everyone is equal. Let everyone have the freedom to love and to pursue their happiness, she says in a campaign video released earlier this year.

Related:

Some Taiwanese Religious Groups Are Boycotting McDonald's After Seeing its New Ad

The ABCs of Franchise Discovery Days

From Anheurser-Busch Sales Rep to Restaurateur, This Man Has Made a Career of Wings and Beer

Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com
Tuesday in Michigan was brought to you by white working-class men and the people from little towns and small cities. The outcome of a primary that shook the certainties in the Democratic presidential race while also ratifying the ongoing power of Donald Trumps coalition of discontent was determined by voters who dont trust trade deals and dont believe in the promises of the new economy.

Trump and Bernie Sanders are as different as two politicians can be, yet both served as megaphones for a loud cry of protest from the long-suffering and the ignored.

This years primaries can be seen as the end of 1980s conservatism in the Republican Party and 1990s moderation in the Democratic Party. The social compact that underwrote each partys consensus was broken by the long-term effects of working-class income decline and the severe dislocations let loose by the financial collapse of 2008. Economic change has affected regions, states and localities very differently. Few states were as traumatized as Michigan.

Thus did majorities in both parties in Michigan tell exit pollsters that trade takes away rather than creates U.S. jobs. The negative verdict among Republicans was 55 percent to 32 percent, as CNN reported; among Democrats, the figures were 57 percent to 30 percent. Both Trump and Sanders did far better with the critics of trade.

The political crisis  and this is what it is  is especially acute in the Republican Party. For all of their differences, Sanders and Hillary Clinton both support more regulation of Wall Street, more progressive taxes, and government measures to ease economic dislocation and to provide broader social benefits. Clintons program already acknowledges the need for Democrats to go beyond the political approach crafted by her husband, even if her Michigan defeat is an important warning sign that many in her party are still unpersuaded.

Moreover, both Democrats have embraced a multiracial America and courted African Americans aggressively. Sanders ability to win a somewhat higher share of the black vote in Michigan than he has so far contributed to his triumph.

By contrast, the Republican leadership is as chained as ever to the conservatism of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. The incantations about smaller government, less regulation, and lower taxes (especially for the wealthy) are as familiar as the sonorous tones of Gregorian chant.

Trump is a menace to the believers in free market doctrine because he pastes the conservative label on a package of views antithetical to it: He excoriates trade deals, attacks the pharmaceutical companies, pledges not to cut Social Security and Medicare and, in general, suggests that government itself  if led by him  can cure what ails the most angry (white) voters.

Once again, they responded. Trump managed only 27 percent among Michigan primary voters who graduated from college, but 46 percent among those who didnt. And the Trump constituency is very male: Men gave him 45 percent of their ballots, women only 29 percent.

The gender gap would pose an enormous problem for Trump if he became the GOP nominee: The most recent Washington Post-ABC News Poll showed Clinton leading Trump in a hypothetical matchup among registered voters by 50 percent to 41 percent, based on a 21-point lead among women; Trump led by five points among men.

But for now, facing a divided field, Trump has made his irate, masculine and ideologically polyglot constituency a real power in Republican politics. And Marco Rubio, the candidate who hews most closely to the establishment conservative line, finds himself isolated, his candidacy dependent on carrying his home state of Florida next week. Usually, presidential candidates can count on carrying their home states in primaries. That Rubio can harbor no such certainty speaks to the failure of his effort to be all things to all Republicans. He is bleeding more moderately conservative voters to John Kasich and the more ideologically and religiously fervent to Ted Cruz.

But the Michigan Revolt should leave the traditional powers in both parties uneasy and the economically better-off with an intimation of how profoundly their comfort contrasts with the social and economic pain experienced by so many of their fellow citizens.

Take a map of Michigan and draw a line across it at Grand Rapids. The vast majority of counties north of that line supported both Trump and Sanders.

Voters who are geographically and instinctively distant from the power centers and the great metropolises feel ignored and forgotten. Democratic republics do not thrive when so many of their citizens are so alienated.

 2016, Washington Post Writers Group

Email: ejdionne@washpost.com. Twitter: @EJDionne.
It took several attempts to schedule a time to tour San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee's office, but once I got in the door, Mayor Lee and his staff were pretty open to letting me snoop around.

While he's definitely a controversial figure in San Francisco politics, Ed Lee is also a dad who likes candy and gets really excited about sports. Much like my tours of Supervisors' offices, my hope in snapping some behind-the-scenes shots of the Mayor's office was to humanize the guy behind the big title. Does Ed Lee have the same junk under his desk that I do? No. He has different junk and I took pictures of it.
The state Supreme Court kept Gov. Jerry Browns November crime initiative alive Wednesday, rejecting a request by prosecutors to halt signature-gathering on the measure, which would let some nonviolent criminals seek early parole and make it harder to charge juveniles as adults.

The court had cleared the measure for circulation Feb. 26, suspending a ruling by a Sacramento judge blocking it. On Wednesday, the justices refused to reinstate the Sacramento ruling and instead said they would hear arguments on the legality of the initiative. In the meantime, supporters can work on collecting the 585,407 signatures of registered voters they need to put it on the November ballot.

The initiative would allow inmates convicted of certain nonviolent crimes, with good behavior in prison, to apply for parole after completing their basic sentence. They would not have to serve additional time for previous convictions, for the amount of harm they had caused or for other so-called aggravating circumstances. Those inmates now serve full fixed-term sentences, and the parole board considers only the cases of inmates whose maximum sentences are life in prison.

Browns measure would also repeal part of a 2000 initiative that allowed prosecutors to charge adults as young as 14 in adult court for serious crimes. Youths convicted as adults can be sentenced, like other criminals, to terms as long as life in prison, but they cannot face the death penalty. Those sentenced in Juvenile Court must be freed at age 23.

The proposed initiative would restore a previous law that required a Juvenile Court judge to review each case and decide whether it belonged in adult court, based on the youths actions and background.

The changes in juvenile law had been proposed as a separate initiative by private citizens, who agreed to let Brown combine it with his proposals on prison sentencing. The California District Attorneys Association, which opposes the sentencing changes, argued that the governor had hijacked the juvenile initiative and should have given the public an additional 30 days to comment on his measure before submitting it for signature-gathering  a timetable that would have made it impossible to make the November ballot.

Browns lawyers contend that the two measures address the same general subject and that no further comment period was needed. The state Supreme Court said it would hear arguments on that issue after receiving written responses from each side by the end of March. If the court rules that the measures were improperly combined without additional public comment, it would keep the measure off the ballot.

Mark Zahner, executive director of the District Attorneys Association, said he was disappointed that the court had deferred a final decision but remained confident in his groups legal arguments. He said that he understands Browns intention to reduce the states prison population, under federal court scrutiny, but that the proposed sentencing changes are too much, too sweeping.

Brown said it was perplexing why these DAs would deny the people of California the right to vote on this important public-safety measure.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

SACRAMENTO  California lawmakers sent Gov. Jerry Brown six bills Thursday to tighten restrictions on tobacco products in an effort to curb smoking in the state, including one that would raise the age to purchase cigarettes from 18 to 21.

Brown has not indicated publicly whether he plans to sign the bills, but a high-ranking administration official said last year that the governor would closely consider any legislation that reduces the health impacts of smoking.

Many Republicans said the bills reinforce the perception of California as a nanny state and criticized Democrats for circumventing the normal legislative process to push the measures forward. The bills were passed in a special session on health care.

The package includes a measure that would define e-cigarettes as tobacco products and require them to be regulated the same way. Other bills would allow counties and cities to ask for voter approval on tobacco taxes, increase the licensing fee on cigarettes and tobacco products and expand tobacco-free-workplace rules in public places.

Several of the measures stalled last year in an Assembly committee, but lawmakers revived the legislation by introducing them in the special session, which was adjourned Thursday after the bills passed.

The most contentious bill would make it a crime to sell tobacco to anyone under 21, with an exemption for active military personnel. The Senate approved that bill 26-10. The Assembly approved it last week in a 46-26 vote.

Under current law, minors caught smoking could face a $75 fine or community service, but under the legislation approved by lawmakers Thursday, there no longer would be a penalty for anyone under the age of 21 who is caught smoking. It would, however, be a misdemeanor to sell or give tobacco products to anyone under 21.

Brown has 12 days to sign the bill once it reaches his desk. If he does, the law would go into effect 90 days later.

Opposition from Big Tobacco on this measure has been fierce, said Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina (Los Angeles County). Believe me, they have been working this. This only proves how important this is to them and what a big market California is to the tobacco industry.

Sen. Joel Anderson, R-Alpine (San Diego County), said raising the age to 21 to buy tobacco products will incentivize smoking marijuana, particularly if a ballot initiative is approved that would legalize the recreational use of pot by adults.

It may be my libertarian streak  but Im not going to tell someone they shouldnt do something that may even be harmful to them, said Sen. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa (Orange County).

Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, who authored the bill to regulate e-cigarettes, said his legislation would save billions in tax dollars by addressing the health problems that otherwise would be brought by a new generation of nicotine-addicted Californians. Lenos bill passed the Senate 26-11.

The California chapters of the Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association, a vapor products industry group, have been urging Brown to veto Lenos bill.

Treating vapor products like tobacco opens the door to unfair and unwarranted tobacco tax-related implications that will discourage smokers from switching to what science says is an effective and significant alternative to combustible tobacco, Cynthia Cabrera, president the vapor group, said in a statement.

Supporters say studies dont support vapor industry claims that their products help smokers kick their harmful habit.

There is a strong concern that e-cigarettes represent a gateway to traditional cigarettes and other tobacco products, said Sen. Jeff Stone, R-Palm Desert (Riverside County), who voted in support of Lenos bill. All the progress, my friends, that we have made since 1965 to educate people about the hazards of smoking may be for naught, since vaping has started a new generation of nicotine junkies.

Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

SACRAMENTO  Dying Californians can ask their doctors for a lethal prescription to end their lives beginning June 9.

Californias law, which was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last year, is modeled after Oregons Death With Dignity Act, which was enacted in 1997 to give terminal patients the option of dying earlier. Before being prescribed a lethal dose of drugs, two California physicians would have to agree that a mentally competent person has six months or less to live. The patient would then decide whether and when to take the prescription. Those who do so would have to ingest the drugs on their own, without assistance from another person.

Californias law requires a patient to affirm 48 hours in advance of taking the drugs that they are doing so of their own accord. The law expires in 10 years.

Efforts to legalize aid-in-dying were buoyed in 2014 when Brittany Maynard talked openly and publicly about her decision to move from her East Bay home in Alamo to Portland, Ore., to access a lethal prescription that she ultimately used.

Maynard, who was dying of brain cancer, used her final days to advocate for California to adopt a similar law so others would not have to move out of the state for similar relief.

Its crazy to me that other patients suffering with terminal illness dont have the same choice and may not have the same flexibility to pick up and move with their family, Maynard told The Chronicle before she died Nov. 1, 2014.

Her husband, Dan Diaz, took up her cause, repeatedly returning to the state Capitol to share Maynards story.

I feel an enormous sense of gratitude to the governor and to legislators, Diaz said Thursday. Most importantly, what I feel is immense pride in Brittany for speaking up and bringing about this change. We should not have had to leave our home in California and her legacy is that now no one else will have to if they find themselves in this predicament.

Diaz has traveled in recent days to New York, Colorado, New Jersey, Nebraska and Massachusetts to advocate for other states to follow California in passing similar legislation.

Thats the promise I made Brittany, he said.

The state law could not take effect until 90 days after the adjournment of a special legislative session on health care. That session, which began last year, was adjourned Thursday after lawmakers passed the last of the health bills  to minimize tobacco use in the state.

In the intervening days since the governor signed the bill, our offices have received a lot of calls from families and terminally ill patients wanting to know when the law would become effective, said Sen. Bill Monning, D-Carmel, who authored the bill with Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman, D-Stockton, and Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis.

We finally have an answer for them, Monning said.

Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez
Q: I recently booked a round-trip airline ticket from Columbus, Ohio, to Lima, Peru, on Avianca Airlines, a United Airlines partner. The first leg of the itinerary was a codeshare flight with United from Columbus to Washington. This flight was scheduled to depart at 6 a.m. When I arrived at the airport, before 5 a.m., I attempted to check in with a United ticket agent.

After a delay of more than 45 minutes, he told me that he was unable to check me in, although he could see my ticket in the computer system and there were seats available on the plane. The stated reason was that the ticket number given to United by Avianca was invalid. After 30 more minutes of delay, I was told that United would not assist in rebooking for a flight within the next 24 hours.

I called United customer service and was told to take up the issue with Avianca. I contacted Avianca and was told that its ticket was indeed valid, and that it was Uniteds mistake in denying me boarding; United also refused to rebook me on the next available flight. I was also told that the airlines records showed my itinerary was canceled due to no show. I have a signed statement by the United Airlines ticket agent attesting that I was present at the ticket desk an hour before the scheduled departure time.

I had to travel to Lima for an urgent matter, so I booked a new ticket with a different carrier and hoped to clarify the issue later with United and Avianca. Later, I contacted United and received a letter in which the airline reiterated that Avianca was at fault. I corresponded back and forth with an Avianca representative who, after reviewing the letter sent by United, offered to honor the unused ticket for a date in the future. Avianca would allow me to change the ticket without a penalty fee, but I would pay any fare difference. I replied saying that I agreed to those terms and never heard again from that representative.

Id like to be reimbursed for the money I spent on the ticket I had to book at the last minute or, if thats not possible, another round-trip ticket from Columbus to Lima to be used at a later time.

Liz Vivas, Columbus, Ohio

A: If you arrived on time for your flight from Columbus to Washington, they should have let you on the plane. But did you? A review of the correspondence between you and United suggests you missed your check-in time  in airline lingo, thats a no show.

If you werent checking bags, United recommends that you arrive at least an hour before departure; if youre checking bags, the airlines recommended check-in time is 90 minutes before departure. Still, based on your account, it seems as if something was indeed wrong with your ticket. If you tried to check in with more than an hour before your flight, you should have been fine.

It looks as if you arrived at the terminal with time to spare, and that the ticket agent checking you in had an inexplicable problem with your reservation. That was the cause of your delay. Good thing you had a signed statement saying you were on time, and a promise to waive your change fee. So it looks as if United or Avianca was willing to accept some of the blame for this delay. When a company makes a promise it wont keep, its time to call someone higher up. Here are the executive contacts at United Airlines: http://elliott.org/company-contacts/united-airlines/ and here are the managers at Avianca: http://elliott.org/company-contacts/avianca-airlines/.

Personally, I find a case like this to be endlessly frustrating. None of the airlines seemed interested in owning this problem and offering a quick resolution. When you contacted me, they were both in radio silence. How irritating. I contacted United on your behalf, which in turn contacted Avianca. (See what I mean?) Avianca agreed to send you half of your ticket value as a voucher. United Airlines sent you a voucher for $200. Thats not exactly the resolution you were hoping for, and Im sorry we couldnt do better.

Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. Find travel tips at www.elliott.org. E-mail: chris@elliott.org.
WARRI, Nigeria  Nigerias governing party charged Thursday that at least 32 of its members have been shot, clubbed and beheaded to death in escalating violence as oil-rich Rivers state prepares for a rerun of legislative elections previously annulled amid fraud and killings.

Rivers state is a stronghold of the opposition Democrats. The party denies responsibility and blames the spate of killings over two weeks on satanic cult clashes, according to state government spokesman Austin Tam George, who is also an official of the Democrats party. He accused the governing party of reckless and false allegations to destabilize the opposition administration.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Cobus Bodenstein/AP Show More Show Less 2 of 3 WALTER DHLADHLA/AFP/Getty Images Show More Show Less 3 of 3





JOHANNESBURG  A jailed assassin who killed a prominent antiapartheid leader in South Africa in 1993 won a bid for parole Thursday, igniting bitter memories of racial unrest during white minority rule as well as fresh scrutiny of the balance between punishment and leniency for crimes committed during that era.

A Pretoria judge ordered parole within two weeks for Polish immigrant Janusz Walus, whose killing of Chris Hani stirred fears of all-out racial conflict at a time when delicate negotiations for a democratic transition were under way. Hani was head of the South African Communist Party and of the military wing of the African National Congress, the main antiapartheid movement that later became South Africas ruling party.
The City of Santa Fe has signed on to a deal with the state to share the costs of managing forests near the city watershed in an effort to prevent catastrophic wildfire there. The measure saw unanimous approval from councilors, despite a heated public comment over fire science and forest management, laced with a dose of name-calling and finger-pointing.

What's labeled as a grant/loan agreement sees the New Mexico Water Trust Fund granting $135,000 and loaning $15,000, for a total of $150,000, with a 0.25 percent annual administrative fee and zero interest on the loan, which the water fund already has sufficient funds to immediately repay. As of August, work was completed on 5,500 acres of 7,300 acres planned for fire mitigation in the watershed, and the city was seeking to secure funds for the final push.The measure aims at protecting the watershed near Nichols and McClure reservoirs, which provide as much as 50 percent of the citys drinking water. Public comment absorbed the bulk of the time the bill was discussed, with those in favor of it speaking to their concerns for catastrophic fire that would affect the city and its residents, and those opposed questioning the effects of the prescribed burns. Its not a question of it these forests will burn but when. These are fire-adapted forests. They burned for thousands of years before colonists got here, Zander Evans, research director at Forest Stewards Guild, told councilors. We really have a choice about how they burn, not if they burn.Commenters disagreed over the nature of a healthy forest and the consensus reached by scientists, but also questioned the citys transparency in putting forward a bill thats largely about fire management but uses language that describes it as a water project.There is actually very good scientific consensus that thinning and prescribed fire is very effective at reducing the severity of fire, Evans said. Not only are scientific studies stacked quite high in proving this point, but we can go out on the landscape and see it in wildfire. Theres excellent on-the-ground evidence.For evidence, he pointed to those high-severity fires that come down from mountains where there has been little fire mitigation to the wildland-urban interface areas, where cities and homeowners have undertaken efforts to thin trees to create a defensible space. Representatives from the Santa Fe Watershed Association, Santa Fe-Pojoaque Soil and Water Conservation District and Santa Fe Fat Tire Society also spoke in favor of the project.I know that these days, prescribed burns are typically called water projects or water protection projects or restoration, said Jan Boyer, who spoke against the bill. Im opposed to the prescribed burns for a variety of reasons. My request to you all would be to learn a lot more about the toxicity issues involving the prescribed burns.Boyer also cited concerns about the carbon dioxide released through burns and the additional costs the city might face with ongoing management associated with a grant/loan agreement that has a 20-year lifetime. She returned to the microphone as the public comment period was ending to ask, All the people who are getting paid to be involved in the fires keep saying, There will be a fire. I really begin to wonder, are they planning on setting it?Her comments were interrupted by an outcry. As to those objections that this is billed as a water project when its a forest management project, newly elected Councilor Renee Villarreal talked Alan Hook, water resources coordinator assistant for the city and the city staff member representing the bill, through explaining that because the grant came from the state water fund, the state dictated the language that applied, and that the citys contribution, at least for the first three years of management, is expected to be about $10,000 annually.Hook noted that the city has several water supply options, but the watershed is one of the best. This source, the reservoirs and our watershed, is our cheapest source because its our cleanest source, Hook said. Canyon Road is, per gallon, one of our cheapest sources and one of the treasures for the city.

Councilor Joseph Maestas, acknowledging the contention surrounding the issue, asked that any prescribed burns be preceded with a very robust public involvement process.

Santa Fe Reporter
Diversify that Seed Supply

At 6:30 pm on Tuesday, March 29, the Santa Fe Farmers Market Pavilion in the Railyard (1607 Paseo de Peralta) hosts "The Art of Seed Stewardship," a talk by Hudson Valley Seed Library founder Ken Greeneand just in time for spring planting! As more and more organic heirloom seeds disappear in the face of big agriculture, folks like Greene are bringing people together to teach them how to preserve, store, cultivate and share heirloom seeds. The talk is $10 at the door. Call 983-7726 for more information.

Life, and Food, in Wartime

On Friday, April 1, as part of the Santa Fe Culinary Academy's History of Food Series of classes, Chef Rocky Durham presents an intriguing demonstration class at the academy titled "In the Line of Fire." The demo, which includes tastes of the dishes being prepared, is offered in conjunction with the Center for Contemporary Arts exhibit Allison Smith: Source Materiel, which explores (through sculpture and other objects) the trinkets and souvenirs created by soldiers on the battlefield, POW encampments and elsewhere. Besides the demo, chef Durham will discuss the cooking culture during World War I, trench warfare and other topics.

Welcome to the Purim Jungle, Baby!

The Santa Fe Jewish Center is throwing an African jungle-themed party on Thursday, March 24, with cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, dinner, live African music and more to mark the Jewish holiday of Purim. RSVP is required for this popular annual event, whose theme changes every year.

Eat Italian for a Good Cause

Tomorrow, March 11, at 5:30 pm, students and instructors from Santa Fe Community College's Culinary Arts Program invite you to "A Taste of Italy II," a benefit dinner in the campus's Jemez Rooms to help fund the culinary program's study-abroad activities. Diners can look forward grilled calamari and shrimp with lemon aioli, pizza Margherita, eggplant rolls stuffed with basil and smoked provolone, and pork loin stuffed with garlic, pine nuts, spinach, artichokes and ricotta cheese. For dessert? Baba rum cake! Tickets are $75 per person, $125 per couple, and the price includes wine. Reservations are required by calling the Santa Fe Community College Foundation at 428-1855.

SOLD! (But Not Closed)

Well, this one flew under The Fork's radar last week, and he holds his head in shame. The building that houses Coyote Cafe has been purchased by Secured Debt Investments, a Miami-based company. But don't panic! There are no plans to oust the restaurant, which continues to thrive, despite chef Eric DiStefano's sudden passing in early February.

Verde Reaches Downtown

For those those love Verde Food Co.'s awesome juices and other locally sourced, organic goodies at the shop's location on W San Mateo Road, some good news: Verde is set to open a downtown location at 105 E. Marcy St. before the end of March. The company will also be rolling out a menu of grab 'n' go food items and made-to-order cold-pressed juice blends. Congrats on the expansion!



Thank you for subscribing to The Fork. Remember: Your food news could be our food news, and we love hearing from you. Hit us in the culinary sweet spot at thefork@sfreporter.com

Santa Fe Reporter
He's talking about a very tall wall [audience laughter] Right? A beautiful, tall wall [laughter] Ah, the most beautiful, tall wall, better than the Great Wall of China [laughter] that would run the entire border, that he would somehow magically get the Mexican government to pay for [laughter] and, you know, it's just fantasy!

Here is some stuff in the news today...In case you didn't watch the Democratic debate last night, but want to see the very excellent moment in which Hillary Clinton mocked Donald Trump's incessant argle-bargling about how he's going to build a giant wall along the US-Mexico border, here it is:[Content Note: Climate change] "The US and Canada declared they would help lead the transition to a low-carbon global economy on Thursday, in a dramatic role reversal for two countries once derided as climate change villains. The shared vision unveiled by Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau ahead of a meeting at the White House commits the two countries to a range of actions to shore up the historic climate agreement reached in Paris last December. The two leaders committed to rally G20 countries behind the accord, promote North American carbon markets, cap emissions from hundreds of thousands of existing oil and gas wells, and protect indigenous communities in a region which is warming beyond the point of no return, according to a statement from the White House. The initiative announced on Thursday brings the US a big step closer to meeting its own Paris target by committing for the first time to cut emissions of methanea powerful greenhouse gas responsible for about a quarter of warmingfrom existing oil and gas wells." Obama + Trudeau = WIN.Speaking of President Obama: "President Barack Obama earned a 50% job approval rating for the week ending March 6, his highest weekly average since May 2013." Huh! It turns out that Democrats being progressive gets them higher approval ratings! I'm sure looking at Obama in comparison to the nightmare contingent of Republican candidates doesn't hurt, either.[CN: Class warfare] Rage seethe boil: "On Wednesday, lawmakers in the West Virginia House overwhelmingly passed a bill that will drug test some of the poor who apply for state welfare benefits. ...The state Senate already approved the legislation, but will have to hold a vote of concurrence on the amendments added to it in the House. After that, it will head to Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin (D) for a signature. Once the bill arrives at the governor's desk, a spokeswoman for his office told ThinkProgress he will review it with his policy and legal teams and then make a decision about whether to sign it or veto." My thoughts on this garbage previously.[CN: Assault; misogyny] Another reporter has been assaulted at a Trump rally: "The Breitbart News reporter who was allegedly assaulted by Donald Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski at a campaign news conference Tuesday night is speaking out about the incident for the first time in a new op-ed posted to the news outlet's website overnight. Michelle Fields, who covers politics for Breitbart, says she was 'jolted backwards' after she posed a question to the Republican front-runner. 'Trump acknowledged the question, but before he could answer I was jolted backwards. Someone had grabbed me tightly by the arm and yanked me down. I almost fell to the ground, but was able to maintain my balance. Nonetheless, I was shaken,' Fields writes in the post. Fields did not see who pulled her but saids Ben Terris allegedly identified the aggressor as Lewandowski. 'I quickly turned around and saw Lewandowski and Trump exiting the building together. No apology. No explanation for why he did this,' Fields says." Breitbart News is a deeply conservative outlet, so it's unlikely the motivation was ideological. Trump routinely blasts the press at his events.[CN: Assault; racism] Another black protester was also assaulted at a Trump rally: "The now-common violent outbreaks at Donald Trump rallies escalated further at an event in Fayetteville, North Carolina on Wednesday. Footage that surfaced Thursday morning showed a black man getting punched in the face by a white rally attendee and then wrestled to the ground by police officers. The protesters were being led out of the rally by men who were wearing sheriff's uniforms when Rakeem Jones flipped his middle fingers to the crowd. In the video, he's punched in the face by a white man in a cowboy hat. The crowd cheers, and Jones is pushed to the ground by the officers and handcuffed." Fucking hell.Also some dudes apparently ate some nachos at a Trump rally.[CN: Sexual assault; Christian Supremacy; video may autoplay at link] Josh Duggar has left his "rehabilitation program," which was some untherapeutic religious bullshit promoted by a serial sexual abuser, and is now home with his family . I desperately hope that his children and the women around him will be safe, and fear that they won't be.[CN: Video may autoplay at second link] Wow: "A NASA Mars spacecraft celebrates a major milestone todaya decade circling the Red Planet. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) arrived at the Red Planet on March 10, 2006 and has done yeoman's work in the decade since. To mark the occasion, NASA created this video celebrating the MRO's 10 years at Mars."And finally! " Puppies or Food ?" LOL!!! We'd better just NOM NOM NOM all of them to be safe.
Trilogy International, the skincare and home fragrance company, raised its guidance for full-year sales and earnings, partly on the contribution from New Zealand cosmetics and fragrance distribution business, CS Company, acquired last August.

Revenue in the 12 months ending March 31 is forecast to exceed $83 million, up from the $75 million-to-$79 million range given at the time of the first-half results and more than double the year-earlier period.

Earnings before interest and tax are expected to exceed $14 million, the top end of its previous guidance and profit before tax is forecast to top $13 million, compared to a previous guidance range of $10 million to $12 million.

Trilogy last year agreed to buy privately held CS Company, New Zealand's largest independent importer and distributor of fragrances, cosmetics and toiletries, for $37 million plus any earn-out payments. The purchase was debt funded. It added to assets including the Trilogy, Ecoya and Goodness brands.

Trilogy shares rose 2.2 percent to $3.30 and have soared 302 percent in the past 12 months.

The company plans to release its full-year results in May and give guidance for the 2017 year.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

Comments from our readers

No comments yet

Add your comment:

Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process.

Related News:

Mainfreight Investor Day / Market Update

GFI - Greenfern - Offer closes 27th Oct

MCY - Quarterly Operational Update

VCT - Operational performance for the 3 months ended 30 Sept 2022

NZL - Forestry Estate Acquisition

October 21st Morning Report

Air New Zealand Limited Retail Bond Offer Books Close

Spark welcomes C-band spectrum allocation

AIA - 2022 Annual Meeting Chair & Chief Executive Addresses

MOVE Completes Purchase of Vessel for Trans-Tasman Service


New Zealand banks will come under increased pressure from a second season of low dairy prices, as global milk supply exceeds demand, according to ratings agency Moody's Investors Service.

Fonterra Cooperative Group's move this week to cut its forecast payout to farmers for the 2015/16 season to $3.90 per kilogram of milk solids, from a previous estimate of $4.15/kgMS, "is credit negative for New Zealand banks because a lower payout reduces the income that farmers receive, thereby threatening the asset quality of banks exposed to the dairy sector," Daniel Yu, Moody's vice president, senior analyst, said in a Credit Outlook report.

Agriculture makes up about 14 percent of New Zealand banks' total loan portfolios as of January, and is the largest sector concentration in bank loan portfolios behind housing, according to Reserve Bank data. Bank of New Zealand had the biggest exposure at 15 percent, followed by ASB Bank and ANZ Bank New Zealand, both on 11 percent, and Westpac New Zealand with 8 percent. Dairy loans make up about 70 percent of total agricultural loans. Those banks are all rated Aa3 with a stable outlook.

"A deterioration in the asset quality of dairy loans would have a material effect on the banks," Yu said. "Moreover, a weakened dairy sector risks having a meaningful second-order negative effect on New Zealand's economy."

He noted that banks agriculture nonperforming loan ratios spiked to 3.92 percent of total loans in September 2010, following a sharp drop in the dairy payout in 2009, from just 0.2 percent in September 2008. Still, despite the sharp drop in the milk price in the 2014/15 season to $4.40/kgMS from $8.40/kgMS, agricultural non-performing loans had remained relatively stable as farmers knew well in advance that 2015 prices would be lower than 2014 levels, allowing them to manage down expenses and defer any significant capital expenditures, Yu said.

"That said, we expect the asset quality of those banks with dairy exposures to come under pressure as farmers face a second consecutive season of low dairy prices and are likely to have less capacity to reduce expenses further," he said.

There are already signs of "emerging stress", he said, noting that Bank of New Zealand's parent company National Australia Bank announced its non-performing loan ratio rose to 0.68 percent at December 2015 from 0.63 percent at September 2015 owing to the inclusion of a number of dairy exposures as impaired but with no loss currently expected.

Moody's didn't change its credit ratings for any of the banks in its latest report.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

Comments from our readers

No comments yet

Add your comment:

Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process.

Related News:

Mainfreight Investor Day / Market Update

GFI - Greenfern - Offer closes 27th Oct

MCY - Quarterly Operational Update

VCT - Operational performance for the 3 months ended 30 Sept 2022

NZL - Forestry Estate Acquisition

October 21st Morning Report

Air New Zealand Limited Retail Bond Offer Books Close

Spark welcomes C-band spectrum allocation

AIA - 2022 Annual Meeting Chair & Chief Executive Addresses

MOVE Completes Purchase of Vessel for Trans-Tasman Service


The government is investing $14 million over seven years into a $37.8 million public-provider research partnership to promote the new area of "precision-driven" healthcare, building on New Zealands expertise in the health IT sector.

Listed software developer Orion Health and the Waitemata District Health Board, in collaboration with the University of Auckland, are the initial partners with others expected to follow in coming months.

Precision medicine is where all information relating to a persons health and well-being  clinical, genetic, devices, environmental and lifestyle factors  are combined and made available to the patient and health professionals to improve the level of personalised care.

Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce and Health Minister Jonathan Coleman jointly announced the new funding, saying the research will help to deliver more proactive and timely personalised care as well as reduce health system costs.

Health research and health IT are strengths for New Zealand, and Coleman said the investment is aimed at producing innovations that can be commercialised globally, capitalising on the international growth in health IT and data analytics.

Precision medicine is the future of health, said Orion Health chief executive Ian McCrae. New Zealand can lead the world in this area."

Existing medical data sources dont enable personalised care because whats happened in the past is not the sole predictor of someones future health, he said. Other factors such as genetics, social circumstances, behaviour, and environmental exposure also come into play.

McCrae said he expects the results of the research to feed directly into the companys product range in time.

The $14 million in government funding comes through the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employments research partnerships programme, along with $23.8 million in industry and end-user funding, including a personal contribution from McCrae.

Thats despite MBIEs partnership programme being suspended while a focused review is underway to check alignment with the strategic direction of the new National Statement of Science Investment and other current funding mechanisms. The review is expected to be completed by mid-year.

The government provides $25 million annually towards the partnerships which are a formal arrangement between research organisations and end users for long-term research intended to grow the competitiveness of New Zealand industries.

Partnership funding is limited to a maximum of $2.5 million per year while the minimum supplied by the partners is half a million dollars.

MBIEs website says it will invest in research relating to biological industries, energy and minerals, environmental, hazards and infrastructure, and high value manufacturing and services.

One of the current partnerships is the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Consortium and NZ Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre, developing technologies that farmers can use to mitigate methane emissions from cows and sheep.

Others involve the beef, lamb, wool, forestry, wine and kiwifruit industries.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

Comments from our readers

No comments yet

Add your comment:

Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process.

Related News:

Mainfreight Investor Day / Market Update

GFI - Greenfern - Offer closes 27th Oct

MCY - Quarterly Operational Update

VCT - Operational performance for the 3 months ended 30 Sept 2022

NZL - Forestry Estate Acquisition

October 21st Morning Report

Air New Zealand Limited Retail Bond Offer Books Close

Spark welcomes C-band spectrum allocation

AIA - 2022 Annual Meeting Chair & Chief Executive Addresses

MOVE Completes Purchase of Vessel for Trans-Tasman Service


Health Minister Jonathan Coleman has signed a $300 million contract for Christchurch Hospital's new acute services building with Cimic Group's CPB Contractors unit, a project the Auditor-General says was bogged down by a strained relationship between the Ministry of Health and the district health board.

The government will spend a total of $445 million on the project, with another $215 million for the redevelopment of Burwood Hospital, and $72 million for a new outpatients facility.

The acute services building is due to be completed in March 2018, and Coleman said it would allow Canterbury District Health Board to perform 6,000 more surgeries a year.

The central hospital project is being run under a new model, with the ministry responsible for managing the project, and a new group, the Hospital Redevelopment Partnership Group, providing governance. Typically, a district health board is responsible for its own major projects, with the ministry monitoring.

Yesterday, senior auditors from the Office of the Auditor-General told parliament's finance and expenditure committee that not enough thought had been given as to how the DHB would be involved in the project, nor how the governance structure would operate in practice.

Senior performance auditor Kate Williams said it was "no secret" that the relationship between the DHB and ministry had been difficult and strained, with uncertainty about roles and responsibilities within the project, and time had had to be taken to resolve those issues rather than the project.

Coleman did not refer to the dynamic between his ministry and the DHB, but said Canterburys health workforce had "demonstrated incredible resilience and determination" over recent years, and staff had worked significant extra hours on the redevelopment.

ASX-listed Cimic was formerly known as Leighton Holdings. The stock today gained 0.8 percent to A$34.47, having climbed about 42 percent so far this year.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

Comments from our readers

No comments yet

Add your comment:

Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process.

Related News:

Mainfreight Investor Day / Market Update

GFI - Greenfern - Offer closes 27th Oct

MCY - Quarterly Operational Update

VCT - Operational performance for the 3 months ended 30 Sept 2022

NZL - Forestry Estate Acquisition

October 21st Morning Report

Air New Zealand Limited Retail Bond Offer Books Close

Spark welcomes C-band spectrum allocation

AIA - 2022 Annual Meeting Chair & Chief Executive Addresses

MOVE Completes Purchase of Vessel for Trans-Tasman Service


MUMBAI: The cross-examination of Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist-turned-approver in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks case, Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley, will start before a special court on March 22 for four days, a legal official said on Thursday.

Advocate Abdul Wahab Khan, lawyer of Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari, alias Abu Jundal, one of the prime accused in the 26/11 cases, will cross-examine Headley who had given a week-long deposition via video-conferencing from a US jail in early February.

Earlier, Khan had moved applications seeking certain documents and CDs pertaining to the case and also objected to Headley being made an approver in the 26/11 case.

The cross-examination will be conducted before special TADA court Judge G.A. Sanap.

On February 13, Headleys week-long deposition covering a wide range of issues concerning the conspiracy and perpetrators of the 26/11 attacks, was completed by Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam.

Read Also: Cabinet Gives Green Light to 8,000-cr Rural LPG Scheme

Can't Allow Veto To Have A Veto Over UNSC Reform Process:India
NEW DELHI: The surge in foreign patients seeking Indian health facilities for specialised and cost-effective medical care has resulted in the mushrooming of online start-ups that help foreign nationals find the best treatment in the country.

One such medical tourism start-up, PlanMyMedicalTrip.com, which was started nine years back, is now serving as a one-stop solution provider for foreign medical tourists.

"We have patients coming in from all over the world. However, Africa, GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) regions contribute towards the sector by as much as 30 percent of the total inflow," said Anurav Rane, CEO, PlanMyMedicalTrip.com.

"There are a lot of different medical and surgical options for medical tourists coming to India. Primarily, medical tourists get elective procedures done such as cosmetic surgery, hip and knee replacements, dental procedures and infertility treatments," he told IANS.

According to a white paper by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Grant Thornton, the Indian medical tourism market is set to touch $8 billion by 2020, up from the current $3 billion.

Read Also:

10 Unicorn Startups That Created Billionaires Of 2016

Bangalore INDIA NANO 2016 Kicks-off with Huge Expectations
BENGALURU: Republican front-runner Donald Trump today swept to victories in two key primary states, expanding his lead in the White House nomination race while Hillary Clinton won Democratic party's primary in Mississippi.



Celebrating his two wins, Trump, 69, criticised the establishment Republicans who have led recent attacks on him, including heavy negative advertising.



In Mississippi, the real estate tycoon received the support of nearly 50 per cent of the Republican voters. Senator Ted Cruz came second with 35.2 per cent of the votes counted.



In Michigan, Trump received 37.2 per cent of the Republican votes. To the surprise of many Cruz was pushed to the third spot by the Ohio Governor John Kasich in the state who received 25.5 per cent of the votes. Cruz gained the support of 23.7 per cent of the votes.



Clinton, 68, won the Democratic primary contest in Mississippi where she beat her party rival Bernie Sanders, 74 while her battle with Bernie Sanders in Michigan is too close to call.



She won Mississippi by 88 per cent to 10 per cent, bolstered by her overwhelming support among African American voters.



With Mississippi win, Clinton has grabbed 21 delegates at stake taking her total count to 1,134. To win the party's presidential nomination, she needs 2,384 delegates of the total 4,765.



Before today's primaries, Trump was leading with 384 delegates. He needs least 1,237 votes from a total of 2,472 delegates.



Texas Senator Ted Cruz, 45, follows Trump with 300 delegates and Florida Senator Marco Rubio, 44, with 151 delegates.



In addition to Michigan and Mississippi, Republican presidential primaries are also being held in Hawaii and Idaho.



After registering impressive primary wins, Trump exuded confidence of easily defeating his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the November presidential elections.



"I am going to beat Hillary (Clinton). Hillary is going to be very very easy to beat. She is a very easy target, if she is allowed to run. If the government does its job properly, she would not allow to run," Trump told reporters at a late night news conference in Florida.



"I am going to clean the slate," Trump said.



Asserting that he is a Republican unifier, he urged the party establishment to embrace his movement and the massive support that he is getting.



This he said would help the Republican party to win the presidential elections.



Trump claimed that he would win some of the States like New York where the Republican party normally does not win.



In his victory-speech-cum-press conference, the New Yorker said his rivals - Cruz, Rubio and Kasich - have not done well.



Responding to questions, he attributed his impressive wins to his distractors who are running advertisements against him and Mitt Romney, the former presidential candidate, for criticising him.



Trump said so far he has spent just USD 25 million as against USD 160 million by some of his opponents.



ReadAlso:

Sanders, Rubio Wins Keep US Presidential Race Competitive

Trump, Clinton Share Spoils With Rivals In Primaries

Source: PTI
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The only thing better than cheese pizza is adding key breakfast ingredients. At Marie's Gourmet in Sunnyside, the combination of bacon, eggs, fresh mozzarella and peppers melt together to make a pie to die for -- any time of day.

The restaurant at 977 Victory Blvd. is known for its local delivery and sit-down service with omelettes, sandwiches, pizza and varied entree items like pasta, seafood and New York strip steak.

In January 2016, chef Mario Ferraro announced his plan to launch a new late-night menu in a bar area up-lit by L.E.D.s, with tiled walls and a dimmer atmosphere lending the place a bistro feel.

"We want to venture into a late-night dining style. We want to open 'til three in the morning," said Mario, the restaurant's sole proprietor. He serves pizza by-the-slice at night. Plus, new menu items: Pork tenderloin stuffed with sausage, cranberry and apples plus "Chicken Gabrielle."

"That's been a very popular item on the specials," he added. "It's stuffed with spinach, mozzarella, roasted peppers and that's with a lemon-cream sauce."

Hours: 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sundays; 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Down the line, the late-night kitchen will operate from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m.

"I wanted to have an alternative to going to the diner -- a lot of chefs have no place to go after work to grab a bite to eat," Mario said. "So they have to go to a diner. I'll give them a better option for sure."

More information: Call 718-981-4664, email info@mariesgourmet.com or check out MariesGourmet.com for the full menu. Follow the restaurant on Facebook for updates, specials, catering options and more.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- From legislation aimed at preventing drag racing to a heroin budget resolution, here's a recap of what some of Staten Island's lawmakers have been up to recently.

MICHELLE AND JORDAN'S LAW

The New York State Senate passed legislation Tuesday that would increase penalties for unlawful high-speed car racing. Michelle and Jordan's Law, sponsored by Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island), stems from tragic crashes involving suspected drag racing at excessive speeds which killed a 17-year-old Staten Island girl and a 5-year-old Queens boy.

"Cars driven by reckless or inexperienced drivers all too often become deadly weapons," said Lanza.

The measure would help reduce speed-related fatalities by increasing the penalties for unlawful speed contests and races.

In 2007, 17-year-old Michelle Arout of Staten Island was killed when a group of friends were involved in a high-speed car race. In 2008, 5-year-old Jordan McLean of Queens was thrown from his aunt's SUV and killed after their vehicle was struck by a suspected drag-racer.

The bill will be sent to the Assembly.

HEROIN BUDGET RESOLUTION

Assemblyman Michael Cusick (D-Mid-Island) announced on Thursday that $30 million will be included in the Assembly Budget Resolution for the coming year.

The proposal includes: $15 million for treatment and preventative services; $9 million for the post-treatment community to ensure they have the best chance to avoid relapse, and $6 million for patient engagement programs to provide individuals with the information on where to look for the best treatment options available.

In addition to the $30 million to expand treatment options for New Yorkers, the Assembly also announced that $2 million will be included to fund Substance Abuse Prevention and Intervention Specialists (SAPIS) in New York City's schools. This funding was included in last year's budget, resulting in 22 SAPIS employed across Staten Island schools.

LIBERTY MEDAL AWARD

Lanza presented Luke Nasta, executive director of Camelot Counseling Centers, with the New York State Liberty Medal Award in Albany on March 2.

"The New York State Liberty Medal Award is intended to recognize the exceptional actions and achievements of a recipient on behalf of their community and includes criteria such as meritorious, humanitarian, selfless, noble and heroic," Lanza said. "When I first read about the Liberty Medal, I instantly thought of Luke. ..."

CONGRESSIONAL APP CHALLENGE

Congressman Dan Donovan (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) honored a team of tech-savvy high school students for winning his Congressional App Challenge.

The app, called "Neuron," creates a marketplace in which students can buy or sell college textbooks directly to one another. Donovan honored the team in a ceremony at his Staten Island District Office.

Students on the team are: Nouran Ibrahim, Staten Island Technical High School; Dhvanil Shah, Staten Island Technical High School; Johan Ferreras, High School of Language and Innovation in the Bronx, and Sagar Punjabi, Forest Hills High School in Queens.

MENTAL HEALTH COUNCIL MEETING

The Staten Island Mental Health Council met with borough lawmakers last Friday at the Staaten, West Brighton, to discuss urgent needs in the borough for mentally ill children, adults and seniors.

Creating more supportive housing for the mentally ill is an essential first step, said keynote speaker Laura Mascuch, the newly appointed co-chair of Mayor Bill de Blasio's Task Force on Supportive Housing, and executive director of the Supportive Housing Network of New York.

Dozens of community leaders and elected officials took part in the lively conversation about mental health services in the borough, including District Attorney Michael McMahon, Assemblyman Matthew Titone (D-North Shore), Cusick, and the Borough President Health and Wellness Director Dr. Ginny Mantello.
Anthony Santoro, Vito Badamo, Ernest Aiello

Defendants, from left, Anthony Santoro, Vito Badamo and Ernest Aiello listen during their arraignment proceedings in New York Tuesday, July 9, 2013. Nine reputed members of the Bonanno crime family were charged in an indictment unsealed Tuesday with what prosecutors called old-school mob activity: gambling, loan sharking, extortion and drugs. (AP Photo/Bethan McKernan)

(Bethan McKernan)

MANHATTAN, N.Y.-- Innocuous terms and phrases such as "pretty waitress," "pretty girl," "chicken cutlets," "office" and "Captain Crunch" were part of a secret mob language alleged gangsters used before their clandestine codes were cracked, according to law enforcement officials.

After years of surveillance and hundreds of audio recordings obtained through cellphones, authorities were able to decipher the organized crime vernacular to establish an alleged pattern of illegal activity, NYPD Det. Angelo Barone testified Wednesday at the Bonanno crime family trial in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Four alleged Bonanno crime family members -Anthony "Skinny" Santoro, 52, of Great Kills, Nicholas Santora, 73, Vito Badamo and Ernest Aiello, 36- are charged with enterprise corruption, including extortion, gambling, drug dealing and loansharking.

"Let's meet where the pretty waitress is or where the good chicken cutlets are," Barone said in reference to the secret locations where the defendants allegedly met.

"Did you develop any good dining tips," Judge Mark Dwyer jokingly asked the cop.

"Yes," Barone replied, which got a laugh from the jury.

The Staten Island defendant wasn't as entertained listening to a series of 2011 phone calls where he's busted using mob slang in reference to illegal drugs and gambling.

In a phone conversation recorded in March 2011, Santoro and associate Nicholas Bernhard were heard mentioning the word "office, " which was a reference to a wire room or website for Internet gambling, Barone said.

The wire room, prosecutors allege, was an offshore account in Costa Rica. Santoro, also in 2011, was allegedly caught calling the room in Costa Rica.

In another recording, Santoro and Bernhard are talking about "up and down" gamblers. Up refers to winning money, while down means losing money, Barone testified.

Terms like "nickel" and "dime" were discussed in another taped phone call between the two. Nickel, the detective claims, means $500 and dime is $1,000 in organized crime gambling slang.

The gamblers, the detective testified, had accounts and passwords, which were referred to in various letters, numbers and colors, including silver and green.

"They spoke a lot in code to evade law enforcement," Barone said. "When you listen for a long time, you pick up on those things."

In the same year, Santoro was also busted making slang references to drugs.

In a discussion from April 2011, Santoro and Richard Sindae, another Bonnano associate, make references to "girls," "pretty girls" and "pretty girls 34."

Those were codes were for drugs and how much they cost, Barone said.

In a separate recording, Santoro and another associate used the term S.D., identified by Barone as "Sour Diesel," which was also a name for marijuana, he claims.

"Bands" and "headbands" was also mafia slang for pot, the detective said.

In addition to covert names for locations and illegal activity, the mob associates allegedly had funny nicknames for each other, prosecutors alleged.

In the transcripts, authorities were able to establish identities of the defendants by those nicknames. In one of those March recordings, Santoro is referred to "Uncle Skin," "Skin" and "Skinny." Bernhard is called the "Biz."

"Captain Crunch" was a reference to Santora, considered the Bonanno boss, the prosecution alleges.

The defendants were busted in July 2013 when authorities sought to dismantle the nine-man Bonanno family crew. Bernhard and Sindae were among those arrested.

The state claims Santora, the crime family's alleged ringleader, was in charge of an Internet gambling site, sold prescription drugs, such as oxycodone and Viagra, on the black market, and the other three defendants were his associates.

There will be a hearing Thursday morning to determine if Santora, who sits in a wheelchair in the courtroom, could be released on bail and relegated to home confinement due to his medical condition.

Santora, who authorities call the "Captain" or "Capo," inspired the character played by the late Bruno Kirby in the 1997 film "Donnie Brasco."

Testimony resumes Thursday afternoon.

The trial began in early February and is expected to last until at least April.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Fourteen people, including a Staten Island husband and wife, were indicted on federal charges for allegedly smuggling contraband cigarettes from southern states to sell in New York.

The defendants made a "substantial profit," officials said, by purchasing large quantities of cigarettes in Missouri and Georgia, where the state tax is significantly cheaper, and selling them in New York, according to a 14-count indictment handed down Feb. 18 and unsealed last Thursday.

New York, which imposes a combined state-local tax of $5.85 per package compared with 22 cents in Missouri, lost more than $20 million as a result, according to a U.S. Department of Justice statement.

Staten Island resident Sergei Kishchenko and his wife, Svetlana, were arrested last Thursday at the couple's Wainwright Avenue home in Eltingville as part of a multi-agency federal probe, according to a spokeswoman for the city Department of Finance.

In this 2015 photo, Sheriff's Office deputies load contraband into a truck during a special operation to sweep Staten Island convenience stores in search of the illegal selling of tobacco. Members of the Sheriff's Office assisted in the arrests and recovery of contraband, currency and vehicles in connection with a recent multi-agency federal probe, which resulted in an indictment against 14 people accused of smuggling cigarettes. (Staten Island Advance/Vincent Barone)

Kishchenko and his wife, who are in their 40s and have two children, were both charged with conspiracy to traffic in contraband cigarettes and money laundering, according to the indictment.

Authorities allege Kishchenko and another man who was also charged in the bust traveled to numerous wholesale stores in Missouri, and used falsified business membership accounts to illegally obtain more than 2,500 cartons of stamped cigarettes worth more than $105,000, according to the indictment.

"It was the purpose of the conspiracy for defendants ... to enrich themselves by purchasing large quantities of cigarettes in Missouri and Georgia, where the state tax on cigarettes is substantially lower than in New York, transporting those cigarettes to New York, selling those cigarettes without paying the New York cigarette tax, and concealing said transactions, resulting in a substantial profit," the indictment reads.

If convicted, the defendants, who are primarily from New York and Atlanta, could face between five and 20 years in prison, according to the Department of Justice statement.

The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and IRS Criminal Investigation, with the assistance of multiple federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in Missouri, New York, Georgia, Indiana and Illinois. The New York City Sheriff's Office assisted in the arrests and recovery of contraband, currency and vehicles.
Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, John Kasich

In this Feb. 25, 2016, file photo, Republican presidential candidates, from left, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich debate take part in the Republican presidential primary debate at the University of Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Wonder which presidential candidates your neighbors are rooting for?

Apartment listing site Renthop.com recently broke down the donations given by zip code, allowing the public to see which neighborhoods donors are from and which campaigns they gave to.

They used data from the most recent filing on Feb. 20, reflecting fundraising for the month of January.

Hillary Clinton raised far more money on Staten Island in January than any of her opponents on either side of the aisle, bringing in $144,623.60, which is more than half of the total raised on the Island: $238,567.26 among the Island's 12 zip codes.

She did the best in the 10304 zip code, bringing in $57,795 total from 25 donors.

The second best zip code for Clinton was 10305, bringing in $25,160 total from 12 donors.

After the former secretary of state, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was the second best fundraiser for the period, bringing in $17,437.07 Island-wide and faring best in the 10301 zip code, with $4,659.94 from 15 donors there.

On the Republican side, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio led his party's candidates, collecting $8,843 from Staten Islanders, with zip code 10305 bringing him his largest sum: $3,700 from two donors.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz raised $6,910 Island-wide, doing best in zip code 10314, getting $2,364 from nine donors.

Lastly, GOP frontrunner Donald Trump brought in $5,102.92 Island-wide, with his highest yield coming from zip code 10306, getting $1,676.67 from three donors there.

The Federal Election Commission places a $2,700 limit on individuals donating to candidates per election. In a year that has both a primary and general election, an individual can give up to $5,400.

While candidates likes Jeb Bush and Ben Carson collected significant amounts of money, Renthop.com noted in its report, they have since dropped out and so they aren't included in the candidate break-downs.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich is still campaigning for the Republican nomination but he didn't raise any money on Staten Island during January.

Clinton is the only presidential candidate to hold a fundraiser on Staten Island since the campaign began.

She appeared in person at a fundraiser on Todt Hill in September, with attendees donating $2,700 each. While that event included non-Staten Islanders, a good number of Island politicos attended.

Use Renthop's interactive map below to compare candidates and zip codes. And read the full story on Renthop by clicking here.
nws Donovan

Rep. Daniel Donovan on Thursday urges Secretary of State John Kerry to label ISIS' actions as genocide. Pictured are Ronald Castorina Jr, Scott Maurer and Councilman Joe Borelli. (Staten Island Advance/Rachel Shapiro)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The murderous actions of ISIS should be characterized as what they are -- genocide, says Rep. Daniel Donovan, and he is urging Secretary of State John Kerry to label them as such.

Donovan (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) stood with Councilman Joe Borelli (R-South Shore) and about a dozen religious leaders from Muslim, Christian and Jewish faiths on Thursday morning at the Coptic Orthodox Church of Archangel Michael and St. Mina in Great Kills to call attention to ISIS' barbaric actions in the Middle East ahead of an expected vote in the House of Representatives early next week.

Last month, the European Parliament passed a resolution recognizing ISIS's actions as genocide, and next week Congress is expected to vote on a non-binding resolution to urge Kerry to label ISIS' actions as genocide. According to law passed by Congress in December, Kerry has until March 17 to decide whether to do so.

In doing so, a newfound attention would be called to ISIS, and prod American and world leaders to act and stop ISIS' reign of terror against Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities.

"Last year, the world watched a beach turn red as executioners sawed off the heads of 21 Coptic Christians on the shores of the Mediterranean," Donovan said, as religious leaders stood with him. "Last week, terrorists executed nuns caring for the elderly and frail. And in the months between, ISIS has buried hundreds or thousands of slaughtered Yazidis in mass graves. Political correctness cannot stand in the way of our moral obligation to call this what it is: genocide."

He recalled being a child learning about King Herod in Sunday school when he demanded the death of male children in his quest to kill the baby Jesus. A young Donovan asked his mother about the frightening action and she assured her son that could never happen now.

"ISIS atrocities are more reminiscent of Old Testament brutality than an enlightened, modern age," Donovan said.

Borelli said he supports the congressman's efforts and read a definition of genocide from the Webster Dictionary: The deliberate killing of people who belong to a particular racial, political or cultural group.

"So our challenge today is not to explain to you how what we're trying to [stop] is genocide ...the challenge really is for someone to come to us and explain to us how it's not."

The call to Kerry comes one day after the New York Times reported ISIS was planning to use mustard gas in Iraq and Syria.

"This year, 2016, we are living right now with freedom and the comfort of going back to our home every night, knowing we are safe. But this is not for the majority of those who currently live in the Middle East," said the Rev. Samuel Salah Boulos of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

Bishop John O'Hara, from the Archdiocese of New York, said, "We are, needless to say, deeply grieved over the loss of those whose lives have been taken in acts of senseless violence."

Like his fellow speakers, O'Hara stressed the importance of people from different religious backgrounds, like those on the stage, to speak in a unified voice against the "senseless barbaric exterminations."

Scott Maurer, from the Council of Jewish Organizations of Staten Island, spoke about the last time someone wiped out six million people without anyone stopping him.

Reviewing Hitler's reign of terror "you learn history so that you cannot make the same mistakes again," he said.

"When one group wants to wipe out another group based on religion, that is genocide."

Ismail Alaca, executive director of the Turkish Cultural Center of Staten Island, said ISIS members "are a disgrace to the faith they proclaim. ISIS members are either completely ignorant about the faith they proclaim or their actions are designed to serve individual interests."

Ronald Castorina Jr., the unopposed Republican candidate for Assembly on the South Shore, said a nation can't call itself good if they do nothing in the face of evil.

ISIS actions are "religio-ethnic cleansing tantamount only to genocide" and Kerry must recognize them as such.

Donovan said Kerry has given no indication either way to whether he supports designating ISIS activities as genocide.

Doing so would mean world leaders would have to put actions where their words are: a genocide designation would create a moral obligation for action on behalf of victims.

At Borelli's suggestion, as a show of unity, each of the politicians and religious leaders on stage silently said a prayer -- in their own language, in their own faith.

"Brutal attacks" have driven people as refugees from their homes "and has led our world into a humanitarian crisis," said the Rev. Terry Troia of Staten Island Interfaith Clergy Leadership. "No one should have to be a martyr for their faith."
NWS NYTAXI.JPG

New York Water Taxi says it will be forced to go out of business if the city goes ahead and contracts an out-of-town company to provide fast-ferry service. The company said the city is losing money by subsidizing tourists who ride the Staten Island Ferry for free. (Staten Island Advance)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- New York Water Taxi says it will be forced to go out of business if the city goes ahead and contracts an out-of-town company to provide fast-ferry service. The company said the city is losing money by subsidizing tourists who ride the Staten Island Ferry for free.

The for-profit service said New York taxpayers are "subsidizing tourists and recreational riders" on the Staten Island Ferry, thereby "depriving the city of significant tax revenues and jobs."

The company, which runs the black and yellow-checkered ferries that run a service to the Statue of Liberty, Ikea, and up the West Side, is at odds with the city for contracting with a an out-of-town company to provide services to New Yorkers and tourists.

New York Water Taxi with some forceful words on the citywide ferry program. pic.twitter.com/8zbD3ORjYJ  Second Ave. Sagas (@2AvSagas) March 10, 2016

The owners of New York Water Taxi sent a letter to employees Thursday afternoon letting them know that it will have to shut down all operations if the city awards a citywide ferry system contract to an out-of-town company.

"After 15 years of providing waterborne transportation in New York City, we have come to the conclusion that we have no choice, unless New York City's Economic Development Corporation changes its present course, but to close New York Water Taxi and cease all operations by the end of 2016," wrote company co-presidents Helena Durst and David Neil.

New York Water Taxi, a ferry company based in Red Hook, employs 200 people, from deckhands and line catchers, to captains and marketing directors. The company says it serves more than 1.5 million passengers a year.

The company said if it's forced to shut down it would compensate its employees through October.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- What's up, "Doc?"

For a Stapleton man who posed as a clinical psychologist and medical doctor, the answer is up to nine years in a prison cell.

Donald R. Lee-Edwards, 44, admitted Thursday in state Supreme Court, St. George, to practicing psychology and medicine without a license for nearly three years.

Prosecutors said the defendant prescribed unwitting patients antidepressants and interpreted lab tests and results.

Lee-Edwards operated out of a basement below a two-family home at 255 Gordon St., Stapleton, and treated more than 100 patients, including 10 parolees, authorities said.

He lived in a first-floor apartment there.

While the converted office space included a waiting room, front desk and treatment rooms, there were no signs outside to indicate a medical office, authorities said.

Lee advertised himself as a doctor and clinical psychologist. He boasted of having worked "extensively with family members and victims of 9/11," prosecutors said.

He also performed some home visits.

Lee-Edwards routinely diagnosed and treated patients, had them submit blood and urine samples and interpreted lab results, said prosecutors.

He also prescribed the generic antidepressant, Zoloft, which is not on the list of controlled substances doctors and pharmacists are required to log into New York's "I-STOP" database.

That prevented him from being detected by law enforcement, said authorities.

Lee-Edwards called in prescriptions to pharmacies, bypassing the need for a New York-state issued prescription pad, prosecutors said.

In addition, the defendant is accused of giving a patient a loose hydrocodone pill, prosecutors said.

His patients included 10 parolees through word-of-mouth referrals, but not through any contractual agreement with the Parole Department, authorities said.

Lee-Edwards advised parole officers about whether parolees attended sessions and prepared progress reports for their files, said prosecutors.

He collected varying amounts of co-pays from patients, but there's no evidence he billed insurance carriers, authorities said.

At the time of his arrest, there was no claim that any of his patients were physically or mentally harmed.

Prosecutors first became aware of Lee-Edwards in mid-June of last year, when skeptical patients expressed concerns about his treatment and prescribing practices.

Among other things, Lee-Edwards allegedly cooked meals for some patients, met them for drinks, drove and accepted rides from patients after sessions and spoke about himself at length, said prosecutors.

He claimed to have graduated high school at age 13, speak seven languages, attended law school and previously worked as a sky marshal, said prosecutors.

In actuality, records showed he previously worked as a flight attendant and eyebrow threader, prosecutors said.

Lee-Edwards is not licensed to practice medicine or psychology, and there is no record of him enrolling in an online degree program he claims to have completed, said officials.

What Lee-Edwards does have is a 1990 conviction in Manhattan for grand larceny, prosecutors said.

Garbed in a brown shirt and brown pants, the defendant admitted guilt Thursday in a low voice. He made no other statements.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of unauthorized practice, and single counts of first-degree scheme to defraud and fourth-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, all felonies.

Lee-Edwards will be sentenced March 28 to one to three years each for his pleas to unauthorized practice and scheme to defraud. Those sentences will run consecutively.

He will also receive a concurrent sentence of one year for the drug plea.

Lee-Edwards' collective sentence will be three to nine years in prison.

Although a legal resident for more than 30 years, the defendant is not a U.S. citizen, his lawyer, Matthew Blum told the court. He is a Jamaican native.

Justice Stephen J. Rooney told Lee-Edwards he could face deportation under federal law due to the convictions.

Blum declined comment outside court.

In a statement, District Attorney Michael E. McMahon said, "Mr. Lee-Edwards defrauded and endangered the safety and health of Staten Islanders by misrepresenting himself as a licensed and trained doctor and mental health provider. Today's top-count pleas on these serious charges means that he will be held accountable for his criminal actions."

Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Cilia is prosecuting the case.
By clicking Agree, you consent to Slates Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and the use of technologies such as cookies by Slate and our partners to deliver relevant advertising on our iOS app to personalize content and perform site analytics. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information about our use of data, your rights, and how to withdraw consent.

Agree
Afri is "one of the most important leaders in the organization, in charge of ISIS chemical weapons like chlorine and mustard gas," the official said, using an acronym for the Islamic State. "He is in charge of many chemical attacks against the Iraqi forces and peshmerga," the Kurdish security forces.
Best Canadian Blog

2004, 2005, 2006, 2007

About Kate

Why this blog?

Until this moment I have been forced to listen while media and politicians alike have told me "what Canadians think". In all that time they never once asked.

This is just the voice of an ordinary Canadian yelling back at the radio - "You don't speak for me."

(goes to a private mailserver in Europe) I can't answer or use every tip, but all are appreciated!



Katewerk Art

Support SDA

I am not a registered charity. I cannot issue tax receipts.



Reconnaissance Man

Economics for the Disinterested

...a fast-paced polar

bear attack thriller!



Want lies?

Hire a regular consultant.

Want truth?

Hire an asshole.



Weather Shop

Click to inquire about rates.

Dow Jones

What They Say About SDA

"Smalldeadanimals doesn't speak for the people of Saskatchewan" Former Sask Premier Lorne Calvert

"I got so much traffic after your post my web host asked me to buy a larger traffic allowance." Dr.Ross McKitrick

Holy hell, woman. When you send someone traffic, you send someone TRAFFIC. My hosting provider thought I was being DDoSed. - Sean McCormick

"The New York Times link to me yesterday [...] generated one-fifth of the traffic I normally get from a link from Small Dead Animals." Kathy Shaidle

"Thank you for your link. A wave of your Canadian readers came to my blog! Really impressive." Juan Giner - INNOVATION International Media Consulting Group

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


Thank you for visiting the Daily Journal.

Please purchase an Enhanced Subscription to continue reading. To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.



We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.



A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
System error

error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.

context: ... 21: </%method> 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: </%perl> 28: <table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 29: <tr> ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25

/usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948

/var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17

/usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149



Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612efe46a48)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f08c6570)', '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(0x5612efe46a48)') 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(0x5612f08c6570)') 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(0x5612efe473f0)') 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(0x5612f08c6570)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f08c6570)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e880dc98)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f0378548)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f0378548)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
System error

error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.

context: ... 21: </%method> 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: </%perl> 28: <table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 29: <tr> ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25

/usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948

/var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17

/usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149



Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f075e298)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f05d1e30)', '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(0x5612f075e298)') 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(0x5612f05d1e30)') 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(0x5612f089b1c8)') 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(0x5612f05d1e30)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f05d1e30)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e880da88)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f02f2120)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f02f2120)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
System error

error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.

context: ... 21: </%method> 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: </%perl> 28: <table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 29: <tr> ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25

/usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948

/var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17

/usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149



Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f06532f8)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f05d7548)', '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(0x5612f06532f8)') 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(0x5612f05d7548)') 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(0x5612f06f0ab8)') 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(0x5612f05d7548)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f05d7548)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e880cfc8)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f06506e8)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f06506e8)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
When Secret Service agents unwittingly stopped Odom, the 30-year-old was the only suspect in the shooting of an Evangelical pastor in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, on Sunday. Authorities said that Odom had ambushed Tim Remington in his church parking lot, shooting the popular pastor in the head and back at point-blank range before he vanished. Odom was arrested by the secret service near the White House in Washington DC. Credit:AP Remington, who survived the shooting in what one church member called a "miracle", had appeared a day earlier with Texas Senator Ted Cruz at an event hosted by his presidential campaign. That led to speculation that the shooting was politically motivated. But Odom's manifesto suggests that the shooting, if he did it, was something else entirely: the act of an unravelling mind. Coeur d'Alene pastor Tim Remington was shot as he was leaving the Altar Church after Sunday services. Credit:AP

The 21-page manifesto, which authorities say Odom sent to his parents as well as several Idaho television stations, is a window into what he was thinking. Coeur d'Alene police said that Odom had a history of mental illness. In his manifesto, he outlined his path to Sunday's shooting in clear but increasingly paranoid prose. Coeur d'Alene police investigate the scene where pastor Tim Remington was shot. Credit:AP He admitted to plotting to shoot Remington. He also claimed that the pastor was part of a vast alien conspiracy to enslave the human race - a conspiracy that Odom believed extended to Congress. "My last resort was to take actions to bring this to the public's attention," Odom wrote in the manifesto. "I hope that something good comes of it. Just realise that I'm a good person, and I'm completely innocent. Also realise that the 'people' I killed are not what you think."

Coeur d'Alene Police Chief Lee White speaks during a news conference on Monday with a photo of Kyle Andrew Odom in the background. Credit:Kathy Plonka Who is Kyle Odom? The manifesto opens with the question on the minds of many Americans: "Who is Kyle Odom?" Kyle Odom was arrested after throwing objects over the White House fence. Credit:Coeur d'Alene Police Department "Born and raised in North Idaho," Odom wrote. "Grew up in a loving family. Joined the Marine Corps after high school. Developed an interest in science. Went to school for a degree in Biochemistry. Won numerous scholarships and awards. Graduated Magna Cum Laude then got invited to prestigious university to work on genetics.

"Check my personal documents," Odom continued. "As you can see, I'm pretty smart. I'm also 100% sane, 0% crazy." But the documents Odom sent to local media reveal an intense and dangerous paranoia, as well as an obsession over "hypersexual", mind-controlling Martians. "Everything started while I was at University of Idaho," Odom wrote. "Spring 2014 was my final semester and was taking a heavy course load. I was very stressed due to the intensity of my schedule, so I searched for a way to cope. I discovered meditation, which seemed to help, so it became part of my daily routine. As I learned more about meditation, I became interested in consciousness and our ability to affect it. I kept working on my meditation techniques and began achieving extreme states of consciousness." One night in February 2014, Odom was meditating when he said he had an out-of-body experience. "I entered a space that was completely dark and had no awareness of my physical boundaries/orientation," he wrote. "I felt very peaceful there until a blue light began to approach me. As the blue light got closer, I realised that it was another being."

When Odom awoke, he had tears in his eyes, according to his manifesto. At first, the alleged alien encounter seemed like a blessing for Odom. "The remainder of the semester became exceedingly easy for me," he wrote. "It felt like I had tapped into some kind of power. I was exerting no mental effort even though the classes had been extremely difficult before." But Odom's close encounter would prove to be the beginning of his nightmare. Odom accepted an offer from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, to work on a PhD in human genetics, but he quickly dropped out because the work was too easy, thanks to his alien awakening, he wrote. "The day after I decided to leave, my life became a living hell," Odom wrote. He couldn't sleep. After a few days, aliens posing as classmates tried to provoke him to become "the next school shooter", he wrote, so he left Texas and returned to his home town of Coeur d'Alene.

"This is where the story gets weird," he wrote. On a flight home after a job interview, Odom began to suspect that strangers were sending him secret messages. Newspaper headlines had hidden meanings. "It was blatantly obvious they were doing something to me, but I didn't know what," he wrote. "I had applied to several government agencies before this happened, so I thought this might be their way of contacting me." Back in Idaho, a friendly text message would put a beloved local pastor in Odom's path. 'Who I was dealing with was extraterrestrial' In Coeur d'Alene, Odom received a text message from John Padula, the Altar Church's outreach pastor, inviting him to attend service, he wrote.

When Odom first went to the church, though, "something felt very wrong", he wrote. "I felt as if my life were in danger and I became so uncomfortable I had to leave." Odom began receiving text messages from Remington, but he saw them as something more menacing. "At first they were innocuous bible messages, but then he started threatening me," Odom wrote. "He sent messages talking about 'their power' and other things. He did all of this through bible verses so it would not look suspicious." When Remington allegedly sent Odom a text reading "angels", the Marine veteran saw helicopters flying around his house. "At this point, I knew I was in trouble." Odom then began to experience strange sexual feelings - "it felt like someone was manually pumping blood into my penis" - and he heard suggestive songs inside his head, he wrote.

Soon the songs gave way to a voice telling him that he was going to be "sacrificed like Jesus and get beheaded", he said. When a man knocked on his door with a religious pamphlet, Odom "became completely delirious" and "thought for sure I was going to die". He bought a one-way ticket to see his family in Albuquerque, and he said he thought the man next to him on the flight was reading his mind. At the baggage claim, Odom believed he was "surrounded" by aliens, whom he could detect by their constant "sniffing". "The sniff is something they do all the time," he wrote. "I think it has to do with dominance." Odom thought he saw the aliens everywhere. They disguised themselves as humans but really looked like giant green frogs with proboscises on the top of their heads, he wrote. "As time went on, they started coaxing me to go outside alone," he wrote. "I was scared to death they would kill me, so I refused. Eventually, they threatened to harm my family, which caused me to give in to them. I told them I would do whatever they want if they left my family alone. They responded by saying 'Go to church.' I knew they meant The Altar, so I agreed to go when I got back."

At The Altar, Odom smelled something like "a reptile and vinegar", he wrote. "I realised that whoever I was dealing with was extraterrestrial, so I became very scared." At times, Odom's manifesto appears to acknowledge that he is delusional. "I began to hear voices more often and I began to hallucinate things that I knew weren't real," he wrote. But he blames the voices and visions not on his own mind but on telepathic aliens. Part of his alien obsession appears to have been sexual. "They also started playing with me sexually," he wrote of his Martian tormentors, whom he labelled "hypersexual". "Both the males and the females would play out their sexual fantasies in my mind."

Once, in a grocery bakery, Odom believed he was "surrounded by a bunch of old men" who were actually aliens. They "started stimulating" him and ordering him to perform sexual favours, he wrote. Odom's tormenting visions caused him to attempt suicide twice, he said in his manifesto. "I filled a charcoal grill with lit coals, put it in my car and rolled up the windows," he wrote. "I reclined my seat, laid there calmly, then fell asleep." But the aliens didn't allow him to die, Odom wrote.

"They woke me up in an extreme panic, which caused me to get out of the car," he wrote. According to his manifesto, Odom then checked himself into the local Veterans Affairs hospital. A VA spokesman was not available on Tuesday night to confirm whether Odom received treatment at the centre. After leaving the hospital, Odom returned to the Altar Church, where he eventually found himself face-to-face with pastor Remington. 'My life was ruined' It's unclear whether Odom actually met Remington, who emerged from a coma on Monday and has not spoken publicly of the shooting.

In Odom's manifesto, though, the Marine veteran describes sitting down with the pastor sometime around August of last year. "We were in mid conversation when he suddenly revealed himself to me," Odom wrote. "I have no clue how he did it, but it looked as if his human face became his real face ... His eyes ... were huge and bulging, the eyelids were darker green, and the irises were yellow/brown with slit pupils." Odom thought the church was going to turn him into a "sex slave", he wrote, but when that didn't happen, he left and didn't return, allegedly until the shooting on Sunday. For a while, it appeared as if his nightmare might be ending. He returned to school, studying pharmacology at North Idaho College, he said.

"I began to recover," he wrote. "Unfortunately, they followed me to school," he said of the aliens. "There were several of them in every class I took. They made it impossible for me to study, and they continually harassed me especially while I took tests." Odom wrote that he was targeted because of his knowledge of genetics and because the aliens had a hard time controlling his mind. "I was too smart for my own good, so they decided to remove me from society," he wrote. "They were worried I might change the way other people think, which could lead to problems. Problems in the form of a scientific revolution." After trying to kill himself twice, Odom felt that his only option was to go after the aliens, he wrote.

"My life was ruined," he explained. "Ruined by an intelligent species of amphibian-humanoid from Mars." The manifesto doesn't discuss why, exactly, Odom allegedly went after pastor Remington, only that Remington and Padula were supposedly aliens or the aliens' "puppets". But the manifesto helps explain why Odom travelled to Washington after the shooting and tried to communicate with the President. On Tuesday night, Coeur d'Alene Police Chief Lee White said that Odom drove from his home town to Boise, Idaho, where he boarded a flight to the nation's capital. White said it was not clear how Odom was allowed to travel, but he might have boarded before he was identified as a suspect. The manifesto suggests that Odom travelled to Washington to deliver a message to US President Barack Obama. Part of his letter is addressed to the President.

"I want to thank you for your sacrifice to this country," it begins, before suggesting that the President is controlled by aliens. "They brag to me about what they do to you," Odom wrote. "I hope you stop letting them humiliate you ... It's time someone took a stand to end this nonsense. Can you think of a better legacy than that?" The manifesto also includes a list of "noteworthy Martians", On the list are 50 members of Congress - belonging to both parties - as well as roughly three dozen members of the "Israeli leadership", including "every single Prime Minister since 1948".

"This is by no means an all-inclusive list," Odom wrote. "Martians are ubiquitous. They exist at every level of society in every nation. Some have blue collar jobs, while other occupy positions of power. They control our government, our military, and Corporate America as well. They keep track of every 'wild' human on the planet and manage us like animals in a zoo. Our 'freedom' is a carefully crafted illusion." It's unclear what Odom was trying to deliver to Obama when he was arrested Tuesday night, although it could have been flash drives with his manifesto on them, similar to those he sent to his parents and Idaho media. White, the Coeur d'Alene police chief, said the manifesto had "definitely played a part in raising our awareness and concern" about Odom as a fugitive. He said that authorities were stumped about where Odom had gone until he emerged on social media Tuesday. "Things are not what they appear to be. The world is ruled by [an] ancient civilisation from Mars. Pastor Tim was one of them, and he was the reason my life was ruined," Odom wrote in a Facebook post, changing his profile photo to a picture of an alien. "I will be sharing my story with as many people as possible. I don't have time right now, they are chasing me. "I shot Pastor Tim 12 times," he said. "There is no way any human could have survived that event. Anyway, I have sent my story to all the major news organisations. I have no time, I have to go."
The Australian National University is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in private investment to overhaul its student accommodation.

The ANU will on Thursday morning call for expressions of interest from investors in nine ANU residences: the new SA5 building currently under construction, Burton & Garran Hall, Graduate House, Toad Hall, Ursula Hall, Davey Lodge, Lena Karmel Lodge, Kinloch Lodge and Warrumbul Lodge.

The ANU is calling for expressions of interest from investors in several student residences, including Ursula Hall. Credit:Karleen Minney

In return for their capital, investors would receive a 30-year financial concession, or lease arrangement, over the student accommodation.

They would also receive a guaranteed return on investments based on student numbers.
A man accused of killing a Canberra grandfather went to a Belconnen pub the same evening, threatening to kill staff, and ripping open the venue's locked doors to get inside, a court has heard.

The part-owner of the Lighthouse Pub in Belconnen gave evidence in the murder trial of Danny Klobucar, 27, on Thursday morning.

Miodrag Gajic.

Klobucar is accused of beating Miodrag Gajic, 71, to death at his Phillip unit on New Year's Day in 2014, several days after he tried to purchase cannabis from the older man.

The accused was arrested during a disturbance at the Belconnen pub on the evening of the killing.
Confusion about the expiry dates on a batch of EpiPens has prompted the ACT's chief medical officer to issue an urgent warning.

Although no cases have been reported in the ACT yet, Dr Paul Kelly is urging Canberrans to check the expiry dates on their EpiPens, which thousands carry for emergency treatment of anaphylaxis, after reports of mismatched batch number and expiry dates on the carton and the devices inside surfaced on Wednesday.

Thousands of people carry EpiPens to treat anaphylaxis. Credit:Getty Images

"I strongly encourage Canberrans to check the expiry date on any EpiPen devices in their possession, including at home, at school and in the workplace, and compare it with the information on the carton," Dr Kelly said.

"If the batch number and expiry date on the EpiPen device is different to the batch number and expiry date on the EpiPen carton, both the carton and the device should be returned to the place of purchase or their local pharmacy immediately for replacement."
A former ACT Labor sub-branch secretary has pleaded guilty to blackmailing a subcontractor while working for the CFMEU between 2012 and 2014.

Halafihi Kimonu Kivalu, 39, was arrested after damning covert recordings were played to the Trade Union Royal Commission in July last year, in which he told formwork subcontractor Elias Taleb to give him money so he could "get some people off your back".

Convicted blackmailer Halafihi "Fihi" Kivalu. Credit:Jamila Toderas

Kivalu, a CFMEU official, pleaded guilty on Thursday to two charges of blackmailing Mr Taleb.

He blackmailed Mr Taleb in relation to work at a residential development at Yarralumla between February 2012 and June 2013, and an apartment complex development in Braddon between September 2013 and January 2014.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has underscored the need for a high-speed rail link to be operating to Sydney's second airport as soon as possible after the first commercial flight takes off in a decade.

In a speech on Friday, Mr Turnbull emphasised that a rail link will be crucial not only for the new airport at Badgerys Creek but to spur the western Sydney economy.

"[The airport] will be well connected by roads when it opens. But roads are not enough," he said. "World class airports share a common ingredient  fast and convenient public transport links."

The Prime Minister cited remarks last week from Qatar Airways boss Akbar Al Baker, who said the the lack of high-speed rail links meant the airline would not fly to the new airport.
Ms D'Ambra said the reports suggested CommInsure has gone to lengths to ensure some policies are not paid out. "This is exacerbated by the fact that financial advisers are selling these products to customers who do not fully understand the policy carve-outs until it is too late. "It is time directors and management took responsibility to ensure that they are aware and in a position to action real changes to prevent these practices," Ms D'Ambra said. "At the end of the day, it is the customer and investor who suffer from such poor behaviour." Separately, CBA issued a statement on Thursday saying it had accelerated its planned upgrade of its heart attack and severe rheumatoid arthritis definitions in its trauma coverage. The upgrade will be backdated to apply to all claim events from May 2014 onwards. Some CommInsure policies issued through superannuation funds do not include trauma products but allow people to claim for rheumatoid arthritis under the total and permanent disability provision. "The updated definitions cover all CommInsure products that have trauma cover," a CBA spokeswoman said.

In recent years, misconduct has been uncovered in three of the four major banks and a number of other smaller banks. They should be handing out a scandal of the month award. Senator Peter Whish-Wilson When asked why the bank had chosen to backdate the definitions to May 2014, a CBA spokeswoman said: "Some of our peers were updating their definitions around this time and it ties to the last time we undertook a product upgrade for the CommInsure Trauma Product." The bank is also working on a "holistic update" of its definitions for multiple sclerosis, strokes, bladder cancer and benign brain tumours that is due to be released later this year, the spokeswoman said. CommInsure will also introduce an independent review panel to assess "complex" claims that have been declined. The bank will appoint an independent expert to oversee a claim review program. Independent investigation of ethical concerns

"Ethical concerns that have been aired in recent media reports will be independently investigated," the CBA statement said. CBA chief executive Ian Narev said he remained concerned about the customers who were the subject of recent media reports, and welcomed the actions being taken by CommInsure in response to the issues raised. The chairman of the CommInsure board, Geoff Austin said he apologised on behalf of CommInsure to the affected customers. Mr Austin said the CommInsure board has met and reviewed current initiatives and agreed to immediately take additional steps to reassure customers of its values and its commitment to them. "The concerns raised in the recent cases reported are not a reflection of the values of our people or our business," Mr Austin said.

"We expect the highest ethical standards of all our employees and will continue to ensure that the policies and processes within the business support these standards." A CBA spokeswoman cited privacy provisions when asked whether Comminsure customer James Kessel, who had a massive heart attack in September 2014, had been contacted by the bank since it was revealed he was denied a payout. The spokeswoman also cited privacy provisions when asked how CBA chief executive Ian Narev plans to meet with the customer who appeared on Four Corners were going. Range of actions following audit CBA also claimed in its statement that assertions CommInsure was not responsive to internal concerns raised were incorrect.
The 4 million customers of the Commonwealth Bank's insurance arm CommInsure are not the only ones who were feeling a little anxious following the recent revelations of its appalling treatment of claimants.

There is also an insurance company seeking to distance itself from any association with the embattled company.

Communities Insurance is a not-for-profit that obviously had not heard of its antipodean cousin until this week.

"HELP  Please note we are not @comminsure  the scandal hit Aus bank insurer," it tweeted on Wednesday night.
All of the remaining 550 employees of Clive Palmer's Yabulu nickel refinery in northern Queensland are set to be out of a job by Friday afternoon, with the receiver to companies within the group issuing "notices of termination of employment".

Mr Palmer and Mr Clive Mensink undertook earlier this week to rehire the workers. However, they have failed to do so.

On Monday, Mr Palmer took control of the refinery back from the voluntary administrator, FTI Consulting, after raising $23 million in conditional funding.

The move by Mr Palmer came as the administrator was in the final stages of deciding to shutter the refinery because of its continuing losses with little prospect of a turnaround amid dwindling cash reserves and the low price of nickel.
"There were definitely a couple of times when I was almost bankrupt." Hayden Cox takes the view that risk is not a simple calculation. Credit:Edwina Pickles To survive, let alone grow, was tough. Cox made a pact with himself. Rather than get smaller to ride out the storm, Hayden did almost the complete opposite. Credit:Dallas Kilponen

"If I didn't think I was going to make it by the time I was 30, in terms of having a secure business model around making surfboards, then I was going to find something else to do." Luckily for Cox, and for a growing legion of board riders worldwide, he reached that goal a couple of months before he turned 30. A new skill Along the way, Cox had taught himself board shaping, web design, the ins and outs of manufacturing software and finance.

But he also had to learn a new skill, and that was taking on and managing major risks. Cox was game, but not all the directors of this then-fledgling company could stomach it. Some of the directors of the technology company aligned with his business walked away due to the outfit's precarious financial position. Cox says he understands their decision, given the gravity of the situation, which included him having to needing to work out a payment plan with the Australian Taxation Office. But he was hanging in there.

"For myself, this is my life and what I have been doing since I was 15 years old," he thought. "I can't just hang up my boots and relinquish myself of this responsibility." Close to the edge Not that it was easy, because things weren't looking great. "I got close, but it made me fight," Cox says.

"When your back is up against the wall, when you are truly passionate about what you do, when you live and breathe it, you will find a way to solve the issue. "You have to dig deep into how you are running the business model." Thinking big Rather than get smaller to ride out the storm, Cox did almost the complete opposite. He decided his business needed a bigger market and overseas manufacturing facilities.

He needed scale and that meant getting bigger. His boldness paid off. Haydenshapes now manufactures in three continents and through a global distributor sells boards in 70 countries. Having survived the GFC, the company has touched annual growth of up to 1000 per cent in the years since. Cox is riding the success professionally as well as commercially, having recently been awarded the 2015 SIMA surfboard of the year title in the US for the innovative Hypno Krypto design, breaking US rival Channel Islands' seven-year stranglehold on the title in the process.

At home, the design picked up Australian board of the year titles for both 2014 and 2015. More than numbers Cox takes the view that risk is not a simple calculation that numbers alone can define. "I feel that if I made every decision based on what the numbers were saying on paper, I wouldn't be where I am at today," he says. "The risk profile extends beyond the numbers that tell you what should be done.
Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan says keeping up with constant reviews into the tax office may not be the best use of the agency's time and resources, and maybe it's time that external scrutineers focused on being more "forward looking".

A federal inquiry is examining whether the Australian Taxation Office suffers from too much scrutiny.

Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan says there's too much scrutiny of the ATO. Credit:Daniel Kalisz

Parliament's tax and revenue committee last month announced it would look into the ATO's oversight regime.

The committee, chaired by Liberal MP Bert van Manen, was asked by Treasurer Scott Morrison to hold the inquiry. Submissions to the inquiry are due on Friday.
But to boost its quest to keep mining going until its desired end of 2027, privately owned Belgian mining company Sibelco has spread exaggerated claims of job losses of up to 600 to build up fear and support.

Some submissions to the current Stradbroke sand mining Bills Inquiry by the Finance and Administration Committee are illuminating on the jobs issue. For example, one submission ( no. 234 ) from a longterm resident who has closely canvassed the issue 'on the ground' puts the current number of island resident miners at under 50. This submission is supported by others from residents. There are also a similar number of mine employees travelling from their homes on the mainland each day by water taxi and returning home after work. Everyone who lives or spends time regularly on the Island knows this.

Sibelco claims 600 jobs would be lost if it was forced to cease mining sand on North Stradbroke Island, however the most recent census suggests it's far fewer.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures from 2011 (the last published census) indicated that there were just over 100 miners living and working on North Stradbroke. But there were three sand mines operating then. Now there is only one  the so-called 'Enterprise' mine.

In the debate over when sand mining should end on North Stradbroke Island, there is an astonishing lack of clarity about an important issue - the number of jobs at stake.

In an ironic twist however, Sibelco's inflated claim is exposed by the official economic advice from the Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning to the Newman Government in 2013. The advice was attached to a letter from the former Director General of the Department of Natural Resources and Mines to the Chair of the former committee inquiring into the Newman Government Bill. A key element of the economic advice was that from 2015 at stake were 107 full time equivalent jobs, with 86 of those on the island and 21 elsewhere in SEQ. Importantly the economic advice at page 9 indicated that data had been supplied to the Department by Sibelco. Of equal importance, the parameters of the advice included both direct and indirect employment (page 10). The LNP controlled parliamentary committee report which recommended the passing of the Newman amendments, accepted the Department's economic advice, referring to it throughout its report.

It is likely, given the current circumstances, that Sibelco has not yet fully implemented reductions in employment from closing the 'Yarraman' sand mine late last year. But both the 2013 official economic advice and the 'on the ground' assessments by Island residents are further supported by a letter which the former mine owner wrote to the ASX in 2009 before it sold the mineral sand mines to Sibelco. The letter conceded that closure of the Yarraman mine would result in approximately half of the company's employees losing their jobs  see the second last paragraph of the letter.

Similar exaggerated claims were made about job losses on Fraser Island in 1976, following the Fraser Island Inquiry report. The inquiry concluded that sand mining causes "major permanent and irreversible environmental harm" (page 181 of the Report). The Bjelke-Petersen government demanded a two year transition away from mining. The Federal government rejected this and ended sand mining on Fraser Island within two months. Newspaper articles from that time can be read here.

Recently, coal mining company Adani has claimed that 10,000 jobs would be generated if its Carmichael mine in the Galilee basin in central Queensland was to proceed. A December Canberra Times article by the Australia Institute's Richard Denniss exposed that Adani's own economic adviser admitted in court, under oath, that the true figure is 1400  85 per cent smaller.

Sibelco's 600 job loss claim compared with the official economic advice to the Newman Government of 107 direct and indirect jobs makes an interesting comparison  82 per cent smaller.
When I saw that Padma Lakshmi had exposed in gritty detail the ins and outs of her three-year marriage to Salman Rushdie, I wanted to do two things: give her a hug because she went through it, and buy her a drink because she left him.

To say her account of Rushdie's behaviour during their marriage is unflattering would be an understatement. In an interview to promote her memoir Love, Loss and What We Ate, published this week, the former model described her ex?husband as a man who appeared needy; who was begrudging of her success; and who wanted her at his beck and call. As their marriage soured, she claimed that he once referred to her as a "bad investment".

Salman Rushdie and Padma Lakshmi during Fashion Week in New York in 2006. Credit:AP

I immediately recognised the relationship described. Most women know these men. The kind of men who claim they "love women" ("I love my mother!", "I love their smell!", "What would the world be without women?"), but what they mean is, they love the idea of a woman. They love women as a figment of their imagination; vanilla?scented and stress-free. There to listen to them and nourish them. This figment doesn't have problems or goals of her own. She doesn't bleed, cry or complain. She is merely an accessory to his life; an extra in his film.

And - here's a sentence I never thought I'd write - we have all dated a Salman Rushdie. A man who showers you with attention at the beginning, who makes an art of courtship when you're nothing but a dazzling appendage on his arm, but seemingly loses interest when it isn't all about him.
Dutch fashion designers Martijn van Strien and Vera du Pont have proposed a "third industrial revolution" and "democratisation of production" using 3D printing and other technology.

Published in a limited edition of 20 copies and available to order online for free, the duo's Open Source Fashion Manifesto shifts our gaze to what the designers deem the three most important issues facing fashion today  our dwindling planetary resources, the disposability of clothing and the questionable conditions under which that clothing is produced  only to propose a complete shake-up.

Page from Open Source Fashion Manifesto by Dutch designers Martijn van Strien and Vera du Pont.

OPEN SOURCE FASHION MANIFESTO from martijnvanstrien.com on Vimeo.
One week, Glass and his team did a whole show based on the classifieds section in a local newspaper. In another, they claimed to reveal the secret recipe for Coca-Cola, and tried to make some. As podcasting has exploded, legions of admirers have made shows that adopt a similar wry, conversational tone and mission to tell stories that might otherwise be lost in the static. "When I started the radio show 20 years ago, I had no idea that that was a thing that could ever happen," says Glass. "It was not my ambition to create a kind of radio that other people would want to imitate." His voice is instantly recognisable, speaking scripted lines as if they have just occurred to him, in a natural, nasal tone. He has also become an increasingly visible public figure. There's a point in the show when it becomes emotional in a real way. Ira Glass

This American Life has been on tour three times, presenting radio stories as theatre, and for the last three years, on and off, Glass has been performing a live show called Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host with dancers Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass. "You know the expression, 'back by popular demand?'," Glass says. "We knew there was no demand for this." But since they first performed an extract at Carnegie Hall in New York, at a benefit night organised by Ira's cousin, composer Phillip Glass, they have discovered that there is in fact an audience for stories conceived for radio, illustrated and amplified by dance. Glass met Barnes at a talent show in Brooklyn. "It was dancing with the not-stars, basically. They paired one" - he pauses, searching for a modest way to describe himself  "not celebrity, but what would you call us? Semi-famous person. They paired us with an actual dancer and we had to learn dance."

Barnes was one of the judges. "There was one move in particular where the dancer dove into his arms, and he caught her," she says. "And I remember thinking, 'That's a lot of trust to put into a non-dancer.' But now that I know Ira so well, he's such a detail-oriented, hard-working individual. When I give him a tap step, he'll learn it as if he's studying for an exam." Mostly Glass stands at a lectern, presenting the stories as he would on the radio, cueing up interview clips on his iPad, while Barnes and Bass provide visual illustration, in a style that draws as much from physical comedy as it does from modern dance. Most of the stories are culled from This American Life's archive. In one especially powerful sequence, poems written by a man caring for his dying wife are represented as a slow, tender dance atop a kitchen table. But there's also more personal material than one might expect from a radio host who has spent most of his career as a detached, mildly agitated or amused observer. Glass interviewed both dancers while the show was in development. We hear Bass talking about their rivalry, and Barnes admitting that she has been scared of getting too old to dance since she was a little girl. Glass also reveals more of himself than we're accustomed to, talking about his marriage, his therapist, and the passing of close friends. "As soon as we got into it, I thought, 'It's only right that we talk about my experiences as well', and it turned out to be the right emotional choice," Glass says.

"There's a point in the show when it becomes emotional in a real way. At the beginning, the audience don't trust us and feel like they've wasted their money, and there comes a point where  they trust us." I put it to him that he needs the applause and the variety to remain interested in his day job, but he's not buying. "My enthusiasm for making radio continues on its own," he says. "Making the radio show is still hard. It's still a puzzle. I don't need to sleep around with another medium, as well as my wife. I love my wife." A chuckle bubbles up in his voice. "You know, somehow the deeper I get into this sentence I feel like the more trouble I'm going to get into with my actual wife, but I love my wife fully and  oh, my god." As This American Life has grown in reach, it has started producing investigative journalism, in addition to the quotidian vignettes that are its hallmark. Serial, a spin-off series delving deeply into a possible miscarriage of justice became the most downloaded podcast ever. Glass has sent reporters to Guantanamo Bay, to Iraq, and into a school on the south side of Chicago that has suffered an epidemic of shootings.

"The thing that I take the most pleasure in is when we try something that we've never heard of anyone trying," he says. For one show, he deployed seven reporters to a Jeep dealership on Long Island, to follow salesmen attempting to hit their monthly sales quotas. "The amount of reporting firepower is greater than most state legislatures get in the United States. It was exciting to do." The revenue that derives from millions of people downloading old episodes at a dollar a time, enables This American Life to take these risks. Glass apparently has little interest in getting rich. He lives in a small apartment in Manhattan with his wife and his pit bull, Piney. When WBEZ's board almost doubled his salary, to $278,000 per year, he asked them to cut it in half again. For two seasons on the Showtime network, This American Life became a television programme, but although it won three Emmy awards, Glass concedes that "the show was not as interesting as it is on the radio". Other tie-ins have included a comic book, a paint-by-numbers kit, an animated New Yorker cover and a set of temporary tattoos. A few weeks ago, the crew behind Three Acts got together to film a section of the show properly, with multiple cameras and multiple takes.
STRUNG OUT

Friday, March 11, the Metro, ticketek.com.au

The Californian punk legends are no strangers to these shores, but this time they not only bring their raucous selves, but the very excellent New Orleans hardcore upstarts PEARS. Considering they only formed in 2014, it's a coup to get them to these shores already. As well as regional shows in NSW, they play this one city gig; tickets $46.90.

John Grant plays the Metro on March 16.

COURTNEY BARNETT

Saturday, March 12, Vic on the Park, viconthepark.com.au

In a real treat for fans of Melbourne's breakout indie hero Courtney Barnett, she'll play a free small outdoors show at this inner-west pub, with a bunch of her label's other acts including partner Jen Cloher and Ouch My Face. It's free  but only for those who have picked up tickets from the venue before the day.
Bound by shared experience, four migrant, refugee and asylum seeker mothers talk and sing while cooking in a new land.

Nisha Shrestha, Adeeba Kasha, Nasrin, and Yamane Fayed, have travelled far to live in Australia, from Nepal, Iran, Iraq and Lebanon.

Nasrin, from Iran, Yamane Fayed, from Lebanon, Nisha Shrestha, from Nepal, and Adeeba Kasha, from Iraq, take part in the Mother's Spice project. Credit:Louise Kennerley

Now they are embarking on a new journey in Mother's Spice  A Taste of Life-hanging Journeys, an interactive stage performance exploring kinships forged by food and family.

Fayed, who was born in Lebanon, and also lived in France for several years, came to Australia in 2005. Initially a facilitator and storytelling consultant on Mother's Spice, she slowly became part of the performance.
The victim: Killarney the koala, who is thought to have been killed by a mountain lion in Los Angeles Zoo. Credit:Los Angeles Zoo/Facebook Sometime between the night of March 2 and the morning of March 3, the predator visited the koala enclosure, Lewis thinks. That's where it probably found Killarney, 14, the oldest koala in the exhibit, on the ground, unprotected from the elevation the trees provide. Koalas live to be 12 to 15 years old, Lewis said. "She was very individual," Lewis said of the koala, who had no offspring and hailed from Australia. "At night, for whatever reason, it was typical for her to walk around. The other koalas were up in the trees."

There was no blood trail in the enclosure, and no fur to indicate a violent attack, he said. The koalas were kept in an open enclosure surrounded by an 2.5-metre high wall. "He had to jump down into the enclosure and jump back out with the koala," Lewis said of the predator. "It's a pretty good feat in itself. It was a pretty quick snatch." Employees noticed something was amiss the following morning when they conducted a koala head count. There were only 10, when there should have been 11. Killarney weighed seven kilograms and arrived at the zoo in May 2010. She was born on December 17, 2001, Lewis said. "Unfortunately, these types of incidents happen when we have a zoo in such close proximity to one of the largest urban parks in the country," Barbara Romero, deputy mayor for City Services, said in a statement.

"We are investigating the circumstances of the koala's disappearance, but in the meantime, we are taking action to ensure that all of our animals are safe. The koalas have been removed from their public habitats for now, and other animals are being moved to their night quarters when the zoo closes," she said. If P-22 was behind the attack, it wouldn't be a complete surprise, National Park Service official Kate Kuykendall told KNBC-TV. "This wouldn't be an example of him behaving aggressively or abnormally," she said. "Whether it's exotic pets or exotic animals, or our own domestic pets, we need to make sure they're in safe enclosures or brought in at night." LA City Councilman Mitch O'Farrell took a different tack. In a statement released to local media outlets, he suggested it was time for P-22 to find a new home. "Regardless of what predator killed the koala, this tragedy just emphasises the need to contemplate relocating P-22 to a safer, more remote wild area where he has adequate space to roam without the possibility of human interaction," O'Farrell said.

"P-22 is maturing, will continue to wander and runs the risk of a fatal freeway crossing as he searches for a mate. As much as we love P-22 at Griffith Park, we know the park is not ultimately suitable for him. We should consider resettling him in the environment he needs," he said. P-22 has become somewhat of a mascot for Griffith Park, with his majestic image captured in front of the Hollywood sign by a National Geographic wildlife photographer. Last year, the mountain lion caused an only-in-Los Angeles scene - complete with TV news trucks lining the street - when he padded out of Griffith Park and took refuge in the crawl space under a Los Feliz home. He eventually wandered back into the park. State and federal wildlife experts are investigating an uptick in reports over the past year of mountain lions feasting on pets, hobby animals and livestock in and around the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreational Area. Genetic testing from UCLA and UC Davis showed that P-22 was probably born in the Santa Monica Mountains and then crossed the 405 and 101 freeways to make Griffith Park his home in 2012.
They had been married for more than 18 years. But, in the past few, George Tannous became increasingly obsessed with one thing.

He was adamant his wife Margaret was cheating on him - sleeping with men in her office, flirting with tradesman, even having an affair with his cousin.

She was provoking him with such acts and leaving deliberate clues for him to discover, he believed.

It ended with him using a broom handle to bash his 49-year-old wife to death in their Bankstown home on February 17, 2014, despite none of his delusional fears being true.
A proposed Baird government crackdown on anti-mining protests could expose anti-CSG protesters across NSW to criminal penalties and up to seven years' jail.

It has previously been reported the government's proposed anti-mining interference bill would expand police powers to search protesters intent on attaching themselves to mining equipment, seize their materials and levy heavy fines greater than $5000 upon them.

But the bill also potentially exposes a wave of anti-coal seam gas protesters across NSW to criminal penalties and a maximum custodial sentence of seven years' jail.

The bill would amend the state's Crimes Act to extend the crime of "interfering with a mine site" - including hindering a mine's equipment - to CSG extraction and exploration sites instead of an existing focus on coal mines.
A NSW Police crash investigation car will be based in central Sydney after crippling traffic delays on Wednesday were worsened by the time it took investigators to travel from Sydney's far west.

The crash between a car and a motorcyclist on the Harbour Bridge occurred about 5.55am, but police investigators were not at the site until about 7.10am after needing to travel from their base at Huntingwood near Eastern Creek.

Roads Minister Duncan Gay said on Thursday he had been advised that a crash investigation car would be based in Sydney's central business district from 5am for morning peaks.

Mr Gay had earlier told Parliament that there were some delays to clearing the incident and re-opening three lanes of the Bridge because of the late arrival of the Police Crash Investigation Unit.
Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale is being investigated by the state local government department for possible misconduct for allegedly not declaring shares in companies he owned between 2012 and 2015.

An angry Cr Pisasale on Thursday said he had "done nothing wrong", he had declared everything he was required to and questioned why the allegations were being raised so close to the Ipswich City Council election on March 19.

Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale is being investigated for allegedly not declaring his share ownership. Credit:Harrison Saragossi

The investigation was confirmed in a letter seen by Fairfax Media from the Department of Local Government.

It follows a complaint by Cr Pisasale's 2016 mayoral rival, Gary Duffy, on October 6, 2015.
The Sunshine Coast's business community backs existing mayor Mark Jamieson and says the overall mayoral debate is not covering issues important to the growth of the Sunshine Coast.

The Sunshine Coast is now the ninth biggest city in Australia "and a very proud group of villages," Caloundra's Chamber of Commerce president Mike Shadforth said.

Sunshine Coast mayoral candidates Alison Barry-Jones, Tony Gibson, Ron Green and Mark Jamieson.

Both the Maroochy and Caloundra Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday night backed incumbent mayor Mark Jamieson over his three rivals; former Maroochy mayor Alison Barry-Jones, Queensland Greens' Tony Gibson and Connondale businessman Ron Green.

The chief concern for Sunshine Coast businesses is future export potential for Sunshine Coast fruit and vegetable growers to Europe from an expanded Sunshine Coast airport at Maroochydore.
I've experienced each of those throughout my career as you undoubtedly have, too. Being rostered to clean a filthy kitchen is one example. Handing out flyers on the street is another. Writing reports that not a single person is ever going to read is one more. At the time, those experiences resulted in what I realise, in hindsight, was a series of immature reactions on my part  brooding, bitching, baiting and eventually resigning.

These "you've asked me to do what?" situations are known in academic parlance as illegitimate tasks. They include the following:

Here's the conundrum with job descriptions. On the one hand, they're useful documents that provide employees with direction and clarity. On the other, they implicitly restrict people to do only what is formally documented. Anything not on the list is often met with a curt: "That's not my job."

So why do so many of us react with such hostility? Research published in the Journal of Organisational Behaviour in January explains why. In two words: ego deflation. In two sentences: When you're made to do a task you feel is illegitimate, your self-esteem takes a hit. That occurs because we associate our job with our identity (hence why people are so attached to job titles) and why incongruent duties threaten the professional image we've carefully crafted.

The challenge, though, is that illegitimate tasks can rarely be avoided. The dynamic (and understaffed) nature of most workplaces means it's normal these days for everyone to chip in and help out in order to get the work done. We probably should just learn to live with it. Even if it results in sleepless nights.

That reference to sleepless nights, mind you, isn't a figure of speech. It's a genuine consequence endured by those whose sleep is disturbed as a result of what they're reluctantly obligated to do at work. As a 2014 study by Swiss researchers discovered, the more that employees experience these tasks, the longer it takes for them to fall asleep. Then once they've finally dozed off, odds are heightened they'll be plagued by a fragmented slumber.

The scholars suggest that happens because tasks we perceive as illegitimate have a physiological effect on us. They increase our heart rate and levels of cortisol, neither of which may have settled by the time our head hits the pillow. (Cortisol is a hormone released especially during times of stress.)

Now here's what complicates matters a little: illegitimate tasks are contextual. What that means is that you and I could be doing the same tasks in the same organisation. The difference is that you perceive them as necessary and reasonable whereas I deem them to be the opposite.
Millions of customers of Australia's largest banks are the target of a sophisticated Android attack which steals banking details and thwarts two-factor authentication security.

Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, National Australia Bank and ANZ Bank customers are all at risk from the malware which hides on infected devices waiting until users open legitimate banking apps. The malware then superimposes a fake login screen over the top in order to capture usernames and passwords.

The malware is designed to mimic 20 mobile banking apps from Australia, New Zealand and Turkey, as well as login screens for PayPal, eBay, Skype, WhatsApp and several Google services.

Apart from Australia's Big Four banks it targets a range of other financial institutions including Bendigo Bank, St. George Bank, Bankwest, ME Bank, ASB Bank, Bank of New Zealand, Kiwibank, Wells Fargo, Halkbank, Yap Kredi Bank, VakfBank, Garanti Bank, Akbank, Finansbank, Turkiye Is Bankas and Ziraat Bankas.
The inquest into the death of Numan Haider has heard the teenager tried to call a friend three minutes before he died, but the friend says he doesn't remember the call.

Haider, 18, had been under police surveillance for four months when he was shot in the head outside the Endeavour Hills police station after attacking a Victoria Police officer and an Australian Federal Police officer on September 23, 2014, Victorian Coroner John Olle has been told.

The coroner said Numan Haider had been radicalised before the attack.

Counsel assisting the inquest Rachel Ellyard said on Thursday that the second-last thing Haider did with his phone was make and then cancel a Facetime conversation with his friend Habib Paygham.

Mr Paygham, 18, said he didn't remember the call, and when pressed, said Ms Ellyard's question was the first he had heard of the video call.
Two Ballarat police officers have lost their final bid to have examinations into excessive force allegations against them held in secret after the High Court dismissed their appeal.

The officers have been fighting for the case to be investigated in private after the state's anti-corruption body IBAC moved to hold public hearings into the allegations last year.

The officers have lost three appeals to have their case kept secret.

IBAC was probing if the pair had used excessive force during the arrest and detention of a vulnerable woman in custody at the station.
The man police allege raped a 16-year-old girl in her Roxburgh Park home last month is also accused of raping another woman in a home invasion on New Years Eve.

Davut Bulduk, 30, has been charged with seven counts of rape and two counts of aggravated burglary in relation to two separate incidents.



Bulduk, from Coolaroo, did not apply for bail in an out-of-sessions hearing on Thursday evening and was remanded in custody to face the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Friday.

Speaking to reporters at the hearing, Detective Sergeant Rod Neylan from the Sexual Crime Squad said Bulduk had been charged with four counts of rape against a 16-year-old girl who was asleep in her Roxburgh Park home on the morning of February 26. He was also charged with one count of aggravated burglary.

Last week, police told reporters the victim was assaulted by a man wearing a balaclava while her parents slept in the next room. The man then fled over the back fence, police said.
"Never will I be the same; never will my family be the same ... no-one will ever understand that horrific day."

When mother-of-three Lisa McLaughlin lost her five-year-old son in a tragic boat accident, her life spiralled out of control.

She walked out on her husband before killing her lover when high on ice, a court has heard.

As she told police at the time of the crash, "it was not a dream - it was real."
Victoria's key firefighting agencies are ramping up pressure on the industry's maverick union by pushing for big changes to work practices to allow for the hiring of many more women firefighters.

In a submission to the Fair Work Commission the two main agencies say they want to be able to hire firefighters on a part-time basis, a move they say would allow for more women.

Currently just over 3 per cent of MFB firefighters are female.

Victoria is the only state where public fire fighting agencies  in this case the Metropolitan Fire Brigade and Country Fire Authority  cannot hire staff part-time.

The move comes as the United Firefighters Union on Friday morning will take separate legal action to try to injunct the MFB's introduction of a selection process aimed at boosting recruitment of women and applicants from more diverse backgrounds.
Victoria's prisons are so overcrowded some magistrates are releasing prisoners on bail to ensure they'll turn up to court.

It is usually the job of Corrections to bring prisoners on remand to court appearances. But the jails are so full Corrections seems unable to cope.

Prisoners are being released on bail instead of remanded because of overcrowding. Credit:Angela Wylie

In the first seven weeks of 2016 alone, Corrections failed to bring 455 prisoners to their scheduled court appearances, according to Magistrates' Court figures provided to Victoria Legal Aid. Most of these were at Melbourne and Sunshine Magistrates' Courts.
The maverick firefighters union is set to take legal action in an extraordinary bid to block moves to boost the number of female firefighters at Melbourne's key fire agency.

On Friday, the United Firefighters Union will seek to injunct the Metropolitan Fire Brigade's new selection process for recruits, including almost 300 female applicants, whose first test is scheduled for Sunday.

Nearly 300 women have applied to the MFB. Credit:The Age

For the first time, the MFB last month included quotas for the number of female and male applicants. And in a bid to increase diversity, those who pass written and physical tests will also have their gender and cultural background taken into account in the recruitment process, rather than being ranked on score alone.

Currently, slightly more than 3 per cent of MFB firefighters are female.
The spread of anti-social behaviour in Kalgoorlie schools has put the city's top politicians at loggerheads over calls to allow canings for juvenile criminals.

Kalgoorlie-Boulder Mayor John Bowler told the ABC on Wednesday that magistrates should be given the option to turn to corporal punishment as a deterrent for future offending.

Kalgoorlie-Boulder Mayor John Bowler has called for the cane to deter anti-social juveniles Credit:ABC Goldfields: Jasmine Bamford

Despite accepting the idea was "pretty draconian, and some would say barbaric", Mr Bowler suggested caning and even short-term prison sentences for juveniles - on the back of news that as many as 49 students had been suspended from one of the city's high schools in the past three weeks.

But deputy mayor Allan Pendal moved to dismiss the idea on Thursday morning.
Concerns over the validity of drug tests done on WA drivers could mean charges being contested in the courts, according to a prominent Perth QC.

The West Australian reported this week that emails between WA Police and their interstate colleagues, which they obtained under freedom of information laws, showed officers doubted the quality of drug tests done with their Draeger Drug Test 5000 machines.

Documents obtained by The West Australian have called drug-driving test results into question. Credit:Rohan Thomson

It reported that almost a third of saliva testing kits were not working properly, and others were delivering suspect test results, and that other state jurisdictions were experiencing similar problems.

"Unfortunately, our legislation is very particular, so any equipment or consumable faults present a huge roadblock for us in terms of charging the subjects," the newspaper quoted one officer's email as saying.
Jakarta: A fisherman who helped return six Bangladeshis to Indonesia said he felt deceived by Australian authorities and would not have taken the men if he had known they were asylum seekers.

And the Indonesian foreign ministry reiterated on Thursday that Indonesia did not support Australia's unilateral boat turn-back policy, especially when carried out in the middle of the sea.

The latest incident at sea comes at a sensitive time, with the Bali Process - the main regional forum to combat people smuggling - to be held in Bali on March 22 and 23.

A ministerial conference is normally held every two years but did not go ahead last year amid tensions between the two co-chairs - Indonesia and Australia - over the boat push-back policy and executions.
Pittsburgh: Police in western Pennsylvania were searching on Thursday for two suspects who ambushed a backyard party near Pittsburgh the previous night, killing five people execution-style and wounding three others.

One gunman armed with a 40-calibre handgun shepherded victims from the home's yard towards an alley where a second gunman armed with "an AK-47 type" rifle shot them in the head, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala jnr said.

"The murders were planned, calculated, brutal," Mr Zappala said.

The motive for the fatal shooting of four women and one man in a residential neighbourhood of Wilkinsburg, about 13 kilometres east of the city, was unknown, but authorities were exploring whether it might be drug-related, Mr Zappala said.
First edition of PwCs fiscal law book 2016 has been presented to Minister Richard Gibson

PHILIPSBURG:---- Today, PwC presented its latest publication of the Fiscal Law book 2016 "Fiscale Wetgeving 2016" to the Minister of Finance of St. Maarten, Mr. Richard Gibson. The Minister received the publication from the hands of by Paul van Vliet, Director of PwC Dutch Caribbean.Philipsburg, Monday 7 March 2016  Today, PwC presented its latest publication of the Fiscal Law book 2016 "Fiscale Wetgeving 2016" to the Minister of Finance of St. Maarten, Mr. Richard Gibson. The Minister received the publication from the hands of by Paul van Vliet, Director of PwC Dutch Caribbean.

Every year, PwC Dutch Caribbean publishes an overview of current and relevant tax laws of Aruba, the BES islands, Curacao and St. Maarten. Meanwhile, this is the 9th edition of the law bundle that PwC issues.

In the budget of St. Maarten a considerable amount is estimated towards tax incomes. This clearly indicates how significant tax laws are. It is therefore crucial to be aware of these laws. In our local market many entrepreneurs, investors and individuals operate in several parts of the Kingdom in The Caribbean. With all the annual changes it is a challenge even for tax experts to have knowledge at hand of all applicable tax laws in our region, according to Paul van Vliet. There is a large demand for an accurate summary of the applicable tax laws and regulations within the region. With the publication of an annual up-to-date edition of Fiscale Wetgeving, we try to meet this demand. In addition, sharing knowledge with our clients and society is an important objective within our organization. The annual publication which is also available online, free of charge- fits this objective well, says van Vliet.

The main changes to the tax laws and international regulations are included in the latest publication. The tax changes for St. Maarten relate to the introduction of the new Criminal Law code (Nieuwe Wetboek van Strafrecht). For Curacao, this includes the implementation of the new Belastingregeling Nederland Curacao, the establishment of a second court and the National Ordinance in international assistance in the field of tax levies. The recent changes for Aruba discusses the fulfilment of the income tax declaration system. The Fiscal Law book 2016 also includes many more small changes for each island, including shifts in various tables. Finally, the book also

PricewaterhouseCoopers St. Maarten, Emmaplein Building, P.O. Box 195, Philipsburg, St. Maarten

T: +(721) 542 2379, F: +(721) 542 4788, www.pwc.com/dutch-caribbean

summarises the growing number of treaties between the countries within the Kingdom of the

Netherlands and at international level.

The paperback edition of the law book can be obtained from the PwC offices in St. Maarten, Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. For more information or for placing orders please call +1-721 5422379. In addition to the pocket edition there is also an interactive digital version available. This document can be downloaded for free from the PwC website (www.pwc.com/dutch-caribbean).

PwC in the Dutch Caribbean dates back over 75 years. More than 170 people work together out of our offices in St. Maarten, Curacao, Aruba and Bonaire. At PwC Dutch Caribbean, our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. Were a network of firms in 157 countries with more than 208,000 people who are committed to delivering quality in assurance, advisory and tax services. Find out more and tell us what matters to you by visiting us at www.pwc.com/dutch-caribbean.

1. PwC refers to the Dutch Caribbean member firm, and may sometimes refer to the PwC network.

Each member firm is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details.

2. For more information, please contact: Paul van Vliet, phone: +1-721 542 2379, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Hanneke Harmsen, phone: +599 (9) 4300189, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

3. We are now live on facebook and linkedIn. Please follow us on www.facebook.com/PwCDC and www.linkedin.com/company pwc-dutch-caribbean
PHILIPSBURG:--- Additional information has been provided on the Cole Bay Sewage Treatment Plant collaboration project between the Dutch and French side of the island. Policy Advisors and Support Staff of the Dutch Side Ministries further explained that the main objective of the sewage plant is to terminate all the sewage run-off and discharge points in the lagoon, which is negatively effecting the water quality and the marine environment.

Once the sewage plant is established, the process of finally cleaning up the lagoon and putting an end to decades of neglect and contamination, may finally begin.

As for the location of the sewage plant, there are no other alternative locations in the Cole Bay area that comply with the European Union regulations that prohibit a sewage treatment plant being built within 100 meters of any residential area. Cole Bay is an extremely densely populated and urbanized area, with no suitable land that can be used for such a facility.

The design proposal of the sewage treatment plant, which is not yet final, is to blend the plant into the surrounding landscape. From the shoreline or causeway, it will look like an island and the installations will be kept out of sight. Policy Advisors from the Dutch Side Ministries explained that the facility will not spoil the surrounding landscape with the sight of such a facility and the opportunity remains to develop a new piece of nature in the lagoon to mitigate the impact of such a facility. The present eastern shoreline of the Lagoon north of the Causeway will not be disturbed and will be preserved as nature. The artificial island will give us the opportunity to create approximately 400 meters of new nature development along the shoreline of the island and on the island itself thereby creating new habitat for birds, fish and other wildlife.

There is also the intention to construct a pier on this island, which will enable yachts and boats to offload their septic tanks in a pre-treatment facility, thereby reducing the amount of sewage that is released into the lagoon by the Marine industry.

In a Water Quality Research, which was done by the Environmental Protection in the Caribbean (EPIC), the water of the lagoon, the major gutters, streams and pipes were tested. Results of the water tests proved a high degree of sewage pollution, in especially the Cole Bay area, which is very high. The water tests showed a high presence of fecal coliform and enterococci spp., which are good indicators for sewage contamination.

This sewage treatment plant will drastically improve the marine environment of the lagoon and it is essential in improving the living environment of the residents in the Cole Bay and Simpson Bay Lagoon area.

The Policy Advisors and Support Staff of the ministries of both sides of the island will continue their assessments in order to determine the progression of this project.
PHILIPSBURG:---- The permanent Committee of Parliament for Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunications (TEATT), will meet on March 11th with representatives from AVA Airways.

The Committee meeting is set for Friday at 10.00am in the General Assembly Chamber of the House at Wilhelmina Straat #1 in Philipsburg.

The agenda point is a discussion with representatives from AVA Airways concerning the business plan; the Sint Maarten Aviation Open Sky Policy; the private public partnership proposal with WINAIR; the intension with FAA IASA Cat 2 aviation rating and to bring to the attention of Parliament the circumvention, slanderous statement, discrimination and protecting of a monopoly in Air Transport within the Dutch Caribbean by the Government of Curacao.

Members of the public are invited to the House of Parliament to attend parliamentary deliberations.

The House of Parliament is located across from the Court House in Philipsburg.

The parliamentary session will be carried live on St. Maarten Cable TV Channel 120, via Pearl Radio FM 98.1, the audio via the Internet www.pearlfmradio.com and via www.sxmparliament.org.
MemSQL Demonstrates Power of Streaming Data Pipelines Across Industries at Gartner Business Intelligence and Analytics Summit

SAN FRANCISCO, CA  (Marketwired)  03/09/16  MemSQL (), the leader in real-time databases for transactions and analytics, today announced it will demonstrate how to build streaming data pipelines at the Gartner Business Intelligence and Analytics Summit (Booth 108) March 14  16, 2016 in Grapevine, Texas. Real-time data pipelines comprised of Apache Kafka, Apache Spark, and an operational database enable companies to excel, speeding and personalizing every application.

MemSQL Demonstrates Power of Streaming Data Pipelines Across Industries at Gartner Business Intelligence and Analytics Summit 

At the event, Ankur Goyal, Vice President of Engineering at MemSQL will show attendees how to create their own real-time data pipelines step by step. Live on stage, he will build PowerStream, an Internet of Things (IoT) application visualizing and predicting wind turbine health, using Kafka, MemSQL Streamliner, and machine learning. With applications like PowerStream, energy companies can easily process data from billions of sensors while performing predictive analytics to drive efficiency. These models also apply to other data-driven industries such as financial services, telecommunications, and e-commerce.

Companies today are consumed by data, and those that apply it effectively stand to win, said Eric Frenkiel, CEO and co-founder, MemSQL. Organizations must be able to adapt to data in real time in order to understand market trends, speed innovation, and drive growth. Companies embracing new models with hybrid transactional and analytical data processing will quickly surpass those bound by legacy solutions.

Attendees at the summit can also explore TaxiStats, a real-time dashboard application with Zoomdata. TaxiStats simulates pickup and drop-off from real taxi ride data, streamed into MemSQL and visualized with Zoomdata. The business intelligence dashboard displays data as it is collected while simultaneously running SQL analytics.

For a list of real-time analytics tracks at the show, visit

Join Ankur Goyal, Vice President of Engineering at MemSQL for the following demonstration:

Winning the On-Demand Economy with Spark and Predictive Analytics

MemSQL Theater Session

Monday, March 14, 12:45pm  1:05pm

For session details, visit

For more information about PowerStream, read the MemSQL blog post:

For more information about TaxiStats, visit

MemSQL is the leader in real-time databases for transactions and analytics. As a purpose built database for instant access to real-time and historical data, MemSQL uses a familiar SQL interface and a horizontally scalable distributed architecture that runs on commodity hardware or in the cloud. Innovative enterprises use MemSQL to better predict and react to opportunities by extracting previously untapped value in their data to drive new revenue. MemSQL is deployed across hundreds of nodes in high velocity big data environments. Based in San Francisco, MemSQL is a Y Combinator company funded by prominent investors including Accel Partners, Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital and Data Collective. Follow us @MemSQL or visit at .
Transcontinental Inc. Announces Its Financial Results for the First Quarter of Fiscal 2016

MONTREAL, QUEBEC  (Marketwired)  03/09/16  Transcontinental Inc. (TSX: TCL.A)(TSX: TCL.B) announces its results for the first quarter of Fiscal 2016, which ended January 31, 2016.

The growth in our revenues and profitability in the first quarter confirms the success of our strategy, said Francois Olivier, President and Chief Executive Officer of TC Transcontinental. In our printing division, we continued to sign new agreements and adapt our printing platform to industry realities. In our packaging division, we successfully completed the integration of our most recent acquisition and we are satisfied with the results. As for the Media Sector, the acceleration of the transformation of the advertising market led to lower results for the newspapers in our Local Solutions Group. To better adapt to new market realities, we have taken important measures to give ourselves the agility needed to adjust our costs and our service offering.

We will continue to optimize our operations in the printing division and grow our packaging division through acquisitions and sales development. We have a sound financial position and continue to generate significant cash flows that will enable us to pursue our transformation, concluded Francois Olivier.

Financial Highlights

2016 First Quarter Results

Revenues for the first quarter of 2016 went from $489.7 million to $498.9 million. The increase is mainly attributable to the contribution from the acquisition of Ultra Flex Packaging and the appreciation of the U.S. dollar against the Canadian dollar. In our Printing division, revenues remained relatively stable when excluding the effect of the loss of a U.S. customer and a Canadian retailer early in 2015. In addition, the timing of purchases from an important client had an impact on the Packaging division. In the Media Sector, the decline in advertising revenues continues to have a significant impact on the results of our publishing activities, mainly within newspapers in the Local Solutions Group.

Adjusted operating earnings went from $55.7 million to $57.1 million, an increase of 2.5%, in the first quarter of 2016. This performance is attributable to the net effect of an acquisition, disposals and closures and, to the favourable effect of the exchange rate as well as to the favourable effect of a decrease in the stock-based compensation expense. The increase is also attributable to the optimization of the cost structure. It was however mitigated by the aforementioned decrease in revenues in the Media Sector. The recent investments in the structure of the packaging division to promote and support the acquisition and sales development strategy also explain the slight decrease in organic growth.

Adjusted net earnings attributable to shareholders of the Corporation increased 8.4%, from $38.2 million, or $0.49 per share, to $41.4 million, or $0.53 per share. This performance is due to an increase in adjusted operating earnings as well as a decrease in adjusted income taxes and net financial expenses. Net earnings attributable to shareholders of the Corporation decreased from $37.9 million, or $0.49 per share, to $37.3 million, or $0.48 per share. This slight decrease is explained by the sale of a building in the first quarter of 2015 which offset the increase in adjusted net earnings attributable to shareholders of the Corporation.

Other Highlights

For more detailed financial information, please see Managements Discussion and Analysis for the first quarter ended January 31st, 2016 as well as the financial statements in the Investors section of our website at

Outlook 2016

Flyer printing volume is expected to remain stable throughout the remainder of fiscal 2016. In addition, the success of our in-store marketing product offering for retailers and the impact of the previously announced new contracts, including those to print the Toronto Star and the Census of Canada, should act as positive catalysts during the year. However, these items should be offset by the negative impact of the advertising market on our magazine, newspaper and marketing product printing activities. Lastly, we will continue to improve our operational efficiency in order to ensure that we maintain the long-term profitability of the printing division.

We successfully completed our 100-day integration plan with respect to the acquisition of Ultra Flex Packaging and the evolution of our national sales force enables us to continue developing new business opportunities. Furthermore, the recent investments in order to promote and support our acquisition and sales development strategy will have an unfavourable impact on results for the remainder of fiscal 2016.

Within the Media Sector, the significant impact of the transformation of the advertising market should continue to affect our newspaper publishing activities. In order to reduce costs and better adapt to these market dynamics, we have put in place a new operational structure that allows for the necessary agility with a particular focus on the profitability of our products which will ensure their viability and perenity.

Lastly, we expect to continue generating significant cash flows during the next quarters, and our excellent financial position should permit us to continue our transformation in the flexible packaging industry. We will maintain our disciplined acquisition approach in this promising market in order to invest in quality assets that meet our strategic criteria.

Reconciliation of Non-IFRS Financial Measures

Financial information has been prepared in conformity with IFRS. However, certain measures used in this press release do not have any standardized meaning under IFRS and could be calculated differently by other companies. We believe that many readers analyze our results based on certain non-IFRS financial measures because such measures are normalized for evaluating the Corporations operating performance. Management uses such non-IFRS financial information to evaluate the performance of its operations and managers. These measures should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for or superior to, measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with IFRS.

The following table reconciles IFRS financial measures to non-IFRS financial measures.

Dividend

The Corporations Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.185 per share on Class A Subordinate Voting Shares and Class B Shares. This dividend is payable on April 21, 2016 to shareholders of record at the close of business on April 4, 2016. The Corporation thus increased the dividend per participating share by 9%, or $0.06, raising the annual dividend from $0.68 to $0.74 per share. This increase reflects TC Transcontinentals solid cash flow position.

Additional Information

Annual General Meeting of Shareholders

Transcontinental Inc. will hold its Annual General Meeting of Shareholders today at 2:00 p.m. at the Centre Mont-Royal, 2200 Mansfield Street, in Montreal. For those who are unable to attend in person, the Corporation will webcast (audio only) the meeting and post it on its website at as of March 10.

Conference Call

Upon releasing its first quarter 2016 results, the Corporation will hold a conference call for the financial community today at 4:15 p.m. The dial-in numbers are 1 647 788-4922 or 1 877 223-4471. Media may hear the call in listen-in only mode or tune in to the simultaneous audio broadcast on the Corporations website, which will then be archived for 30 days. For media requests or interviews, please contact Nathalie St-Jean, Senior Advisor, Communications of TC Transcontinental, at 514-954-3581.

Profile

Canadas largest printer, with operations in print, flexible packaging, publishing and digital media, TC Transcontinentals mission is to create products and services that allow businesses to attract, reach and retain their target customers.

Respect, teamwork, performance and innovation are strong values held by the Corporation and its employees. The Corporations commitment to all stakeholders is to pursue its business and philanthropic activities in a responsible manner.

Transcontinental Inc. (TSX: TCL.A)(TSX: TCL.B), known as TC Transcontinental, has over 8,000 employees in Canada and the United States, and revenues of C$2.0 billion in 2015. Website

Forward-looking Statements

Our public communications often contain oral or written forward-looking statements which are based on the expectations of management and inherently subject to a certain number of risks and uncertainties, known and unknown. By their very nature, forward- looking statements are derived from both general and specific assumptions. The Corporation cautions against undue reliance on such statements since actual results or events may differ materially from the expectations expressed or implied in them. Forward-looking statements may include observations concerning the Corporations objectives, strategy, anticipated financial results and business outlook. The Corporations future performance may also be affected by a number of factors, many of which are beyond the Corporations will or control. These factors include, but are not limited to, the economic situation in the world and particularly in Canada and the United States, structural changes in the industries in which the Corporation operates, the exchange rate, availability of capital, energy costs, competition, the Corporations capacity to engage in strategic transactions and integrate acquisitions into its activities, the regulatory environment, the safety of its packaging products used in the food industry, innovation of its offering and concentration of its sales in certain segments. The main risks, uncertainties and factors that could influence actual results are described in Managements Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) for the fiscal year ended on October 31st, 2015, in the latest Annual Information Form and have been updated in the MD&A for the first quarter ended January 31st, 2016.

Unless otherwise indicated by the Corporation, forward-looking statements do not take into account the potential impact of nonrecurring or other unusual items, nor of divestitures, business combinations, mergers or acquisitions which may be announced after the date of March 9, 2016.

The forward-looking statements in this press release are made pursuant to the safe harbour provisions of applicable Canadian securities legislation.

The forward-looking statements in this release are based on current expectations and information available as at March 9, 2016. Such forward-looking information may also be found in other documents filed with Canadian securities regulators or in other communications. The Corporations management disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise these statements unless otherwise required by the securities authorities.

Contacts:

Media: Nathalie St-Jean

Senior Advisor, Communications

TC Transcontinental

514-954-3581

Financial Community: Jennifer F. McCaughey

Vice President, Communications

TC Transcontinental

514-954-2821
OnX Enterprise Solutions and Trilio Data Partner to Provide OpenStack Business Assurance IT-as-a-Service Offering

HOPKINTON, MA and TORONTO, ON and NEW YORK, NY  (Marketwired)  03/09/16  , the creators of the first Backup-as-a-Service specification for the OpenStack community, , and , a leading enterprise IT solutions provider, announced today a partnership to deliver state-of-the-art OpenStack solutions for IT-as-a-Service and hybrid cloud implementations. This partnership will enable OnX Enterprise Solutions clients to take full advantage of .

More and more of our enterprise clients are implementing OpenStack to manage their environment under a single platform, develop centralized event-driven operations, and modernize applications to meet changing business demands, said Steve Lankard, CTO and vice president, Business Alliances, OnX Enterprise Solutions. One of the biggest challenges with OpenStack to date has been the lack of comprehensive backup and recovery solutions. TrilioVault is the first product on the market to deliver these business assurance requirements for OpenStack implementations.

OnX brings a wealth of experience and expertise in hybrid cloud implementations and is investing in OpenStack, said David Safaii, CEO, Trilio Data. By partnering together, were able to provide previously unavailable technology to Fortune 500 businesses who are embracing the cost savings and flexibility of OpenStack. With Trilio, organizations can now confidently bring their clouds into production environments.

TrilioVault is a subscription-based, tenant-driven, agent-less, non-disruptive and incremental backup service for OpenStack. With the solution, users can either selectively or with one-click restore production or clone point-in-time data for both development and testing. The solution has built-in high availability and scalability, with the option to replicate workloads for disaster recovery.

Trilio Datas partner ecosystem includes notable vendors and service providers in the OpenStack community, including (acquired by IBM), , , and . For more information on partnering with Trilio Data, contact us at

OnX Enterprise Solutions is a leading global provider of technology services and solutions. They assess, design, build and manage complete technology infrastructure environments with specific expertise in Next-Gen Data Center, IT-as-a-Service & Hybrid Cloud, Information Management & Analytics, and End User Experience & Mobility. For more than 30 years, OnX has helped clients achieve exceptional business results that accelerate their growth and value. OnXs team of more than 600 IT professionals work at OnX offices throughout North America and in the U.K., with global headquarters in Toronto, Canada and U.S. headquarters in New York, NY. OnX is a privately held company and majority owned by Marlin Equity Partners. For more information about OnX and career opportunities, visit .

Trilio Data, headquartered in Hopkinton, Mass., is an innovator in OpenStack backup and recovery solutions. The company was founded by technologists who, combined, have more than 45 years of experience at some of the worlds largest storage vendors. Trilio Data was founded to meet the needs of an ever-changing, growing, complex, and scalable database environment, where flexible and intelligent backup and recovery solutions are no longer a nice to have  instead, they are critical components of a comprehensive IT strategy. For more information, visit or call +1-508-233-3912. Follow us on Twitter: and .
EFT Canada Announces Results of Special Meeting

TORONTO, ON  (Marketwired)  03/09/16  EFT Canada Inc. (EFT Canada or the Company) (TSX VENTURE: EFT) is pleased to announce that EFT Canada shareholders have approved the previously announced plan of arrangement (the Arrangement), pursuant to which 1422748 Ontario Inc. (the Purchaser) will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of EFT Canada.

At the special meeting of EFT Canada shareholders held earlier today, the Arrangement was approved by 100% of the votes cast by shareholders of EFT Canada represented in person or by proxy at the special meeting. In accordance with Multilateral Instrument 61-101  Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions, the Arrangement was also approved by 100% of the votes cast at the meeting by disinterested shareholders represented in person or by proxy at the special meeting.

The completion of the Arrangement remains subject to the approval of the Superior Court of Ontario. The hearing is to be held at 330 University Avenue, 8th Floor, Toronto, Ontario on March 11, 2016 at or about 10:00 a.m. (Toronto time). If approved and all other conditions to the Arrangement are satisfied, the Purchaser will acquire all of the outstanding common shares of EFT Canada not already owned by the Purchaser and EFT Canada will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Purchaser.

The common shares of EFT Canada are expected to be delisted from the TSX Venture Exchange as soon as practicable after the closing of the Arrangement, following which applications will also be made for EFT Canada to cease to be a reporting issuer in the applicable jurisdictions.

Closing of the Arrangement is expected to occur on or about March 14, 2016.

Further information regarding the Arrangement may be found in the management information circular of EFT Canada dated February 3, 2016 prepared in connection with the special meeting of EFT Canada shareholders and which is available on .

EFT CANADA INC.

EFT Canada, founded in 2003, is a financial processing company that offers a complete solution to the collection and payment processing needs of small and medium sized business merchants, banks, credit unions, and other financial firms in Canada and the United States. The Company develops, maintains and delivers innovative electronic transaction processing technologies, such as customized electronic payment and collection processing solutions and gift and loyalty card services, by drawing on its operational and applications expertise. For more information, please visit .

This press release contains forward-looking statements which reflect the Companys current expectations regarding future events. The forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ significantly from those projected herein. 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.

Contacts:

EFT Canada Inc.

Jonathan Pasternak

President

(416) 781-0666

jpasternak(at)eftcanada.com
Shaw Communications Announces New Leadership Team

CALGARY, ALBERTA  (Marketwired)  03/09/16  Shaw Communications Inc. (TSX: SJR.B)(NYSE: SJR) today announced changes to its senior leadership team.

We are making great strides at Shaw with our customers connectivity needs at the heart of every decision we make. With our recent acquisition of WIND, we have the combined power of our fibre, coax, WiFi, and wireless networks to deliver a seamless experience of anytime, anywhere connectivity to our customers, said Brad Shaw, CEO of Shaw Communications. This team of seasoned leaders brings strategy, integrity, and passion to their roles and cares deeply about providing exceptional experiences to our customers.

Effective immediately, the following executive team will report directly to Brad Shaw, providing advice on all facets of Shaws operations and strategic direction:

Jay Mehr, President, Shaw Communications Inc., has been with Shaw for almost 20 years, holding ascending roles that have ranged from regional accountabilities to his most recent role as EVP & Chief Operating Officer. As president, Mr. Mehr will be responsible for overseeing operational and customer-facing areas of the business, including Shaw Consumer, Shaw Business, WIND, and Supply Chain.

Vito Culmone, EVP & Chief Financial Officer is responsible for all Finance functions, including Treasury, Tax, and expanded accountabilities for Facilities and Real Estate.

Jim Little, EVP & Chief Marketing and Culture Officer leads Marketing, Brand experience, and External Affairs, as well as new accountabilities for Human Resources and Shaws corporate culture.

Peter Johnson, EVP & Chief Legal and Regulatory Officer leads the legal team, is Corporate Secretary, responsible for corporate governance, and has expanded accountabilities for Regulatory and Government Relations.

Trevor English, EVP & Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer will guide Shaws strategic planning, business development, Investor Relations, Shaw Ventures, and investment initiatives.

Nancy Phillips, CEO, ViaWest will continue to have accountability for ViaWests operations in the U.S.

Zoran Stakic, EVP & Chief Technology Officer leads Shaws technology strategy and execution, including Shaws multi-year technology and product roadmap.

About Shaw Communications

Shaw is a leading pure-play connectivity provider focused on delivering superior consumer and business broadband communications over its wireline, WiFi and wireless infrastructure. Shaw serves consumers with broadband Internet, WiFi, video and digital phone. Shaw Business Network Services provides business customers with Internet, data, WiFi, telephony, video and fleet tracking services. WIND provides wireless services in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta. Shaw Business Infrastructure Services provides enterprises colocation, cloud and managed services through ViaWest. Shaw Media provides Canadians with engaging programming content through one of Canadas largest conventional television networks and 19 specialty networks. Shaw is traded on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges and is included in the S&P/TSX 60 Index (TSX: SJR.B)(NYSE: SJR). For more information, please visit .

Contacts:

For media inquiries, please contact:

Shaw Communications Inc.

Chethan Lakshman, VP, External Affairs

(403) 930-8448
Top Five Hottest Trends at RSA 2016 Conference

IRVINE, CA  (Marketwired)  03/10/16  The 25th 2016 RSA Conference, held in San Francisco, CA, has brought together the record number of attendees from all over the world to discuss major IT industry trends and upcoming challenges. For the past years, RSA Conference has been raising different hot topics, from unstructured data governance, IT auditing and network monitoring to threat detection and new cost-effective approaches to infrastructure management. This year the RSA Conference continued to provide an exclusive look at common security concerns, demonstrating more clearly than ever that the most pressing problems remain nearly unchanged over the years, while the methods that address these issues are rapidly evolving.

Netwrix Corporation, a provider of software that delivers complete visibility into IT infrastructure changes and data access, summarizes the most interesting highlights from the RSA 2016 and identifies five buzzwords that will matter most to the IT community in the following year:

Each vendor has its own vision of what cyber security threat actually is. As a result, the related taglines of the conference varied from threat defense and threat protection to threat response and threat intelligence. While organizations try to identify which threats pose the greatest risks, vendors are ready to provide various solutions.

Although vendors offer different technologies that somehow provide visibility into hidden processes that occur across the IT environment, such as network monitoring and vulnerability assessment, we suggest the unified meaning of visibility is an ability to provide comprehensive picture of who is doing what, where and when, and who is able to access what files across all critical systems and applications. Despite being a relatively new trend, it has a huge potential to become a synonym to IT security and inevitable part of organizations workflows.

Apart from visibility across the network, it is extremely important to have technologies in place that allow to process large scale of data, as well as conduct thorough root cause and predictive analysis to develop an effective mechanism for decision-making. Many vendors increase effectiveness of their security analytics tools by adding real-time behavior analytics that help gain deeper insight into what is going on in the IT infrastructure and minimize the risk of insider-caused data breaches.

The overall excitement surrounding Big Data is gradually fading. Indeed, customers begin to realize that leveraging Big Data is hard without new cross-disciplinary approaches to cybersecurity. Machine learning is already becoming one of the core technologies to distill voluminous data into actionable intelligence and solve advanced security problems, such as identifying infected machines on the corporate network. Artificial intelligence can empower IT professionals in the fight against sophisticated adversaries by discovering patterns that can be used to compromise security and taking targeted defensive actions.

The Apple/FBI controversy raised one of the most debated issues during the event: the possibility of balancing security and privacy, and whether government intrusion is justified when it comes to extreme circumstances. In this context most of the professionals agreed that encryption is a key to providing end-to-end data protection, and weakening it for convenience of law enforcement would mean that culprits can also take advantage of it.

While in 1991 the hottest topics at the RSA conference were cryptography and adherence to industry regulations, this year the discussion covered much broader range of issues due to rapid development of IT technology and evolution of cybercrime, said Michael Fimin, CEO and co-founder of Netwrix. This year most of tech industrys developments were discussed in a context of cybersecurity, privacy and risk mitigation. In the light of recent headline-making data breaches organizations more than ever have to adopt a comprehensive strategy that combines protective mechanisms with high-level analytics, threat intelligence and visibility to reduce overall vulnerability and ensure integrity of critical assets.

Netwrix Corporation provides IT auditing software that delivers complete visibility into IT infrastructure changes and data access, including who changed what, when and where each change was made and who has access to what. Over 150,000 IT departments worldwide rely on Netwrix to audit IT infrastructure changes and data access, prepare reports required for passing compliance audits, and increase the efficiency of IT operations. Founded in 2006, Netwrix has earned more than 70 industry awards and was named to both the Inc. 5000 and Deloitte Technology Fast 500 lists of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S.

For more information, visit

Erin Jones

Avista PR for Netwrix

P: 704.664.2170

E:
Metalogix to Discuss Microsoft SharePoint 2016  Opportunities and Potential Pitfalls

WASHINGTON, DC  (Marketwired)  03/10/16  , the premier provider of unified software to migrate, manage and secure content across enterprise collaboration platforms, today announced that it will offer Microsoft SharePoint developers, power users and other IT pros actionable insight on SharePoint 2016 and other key issues via live presentations and webinars. Whether you are interested in how to better leverage the new features in SharePoint 2016, avoid common deployment pitfalls, or even how scientists in Antarctica are leveraging SharePoint to manage mission-critical content  Metalogix has an event for you in March.

The Metalogix March 2016 Live Events Calendar:

SharePoint 2016 in Context: What It Will Mean to You!

March 10, 2016, 12:00 p.m. ET

Upgrade, hybrid, manage, experiences and investment are all key words surrounding the release of SharePoint Server 2016. There were several moments of doubts surrounding its release, but Born from the Cloud means something to Microsoft, not to mention how users will look at not only the available features but the evolving roadmap of SharePoint. Whether a decision maker, developer, IT Pro of power user, this live webinar will provide the attendee with actionable insight on what can be lost or gained, and the strategies to determine whether or not SharePoint Server is the right choice for your business.

Adam Levithan, Product Manager, Metalogix

SharePoint Saturday Vancouver

March 12, 2016

The University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC)

SharePoint Saturday Denmark

March 12, 2016

IT University of Copenhagen

SharePoint Saturday Chicago Suburbs

March 19, 2016

DeVry University (Addison, IL)

5 Things to Know for Migrating to SharePoint, OneDrive for Business, or SharePoint Online

Michael Smith, Principal Solutions Engineer, Metalogix

The Art of the Possible

March 23, 2016, 8:30 a.m.  3:30 p.m. ET

Microsoft, Chevy Chase Office (Chevy Chase, MD)

Did you know that scientists in Antarctica, militaries on land and sea, and oil rigs and ships rely SharePoint for mission-critical content? Yes, content that is imperative for the safety and health of distributed personnel and the security of their organizations. These deployments require constant communication from the land-based headquarters to remote and/or ocean-based locations, where users effectiveness relies on the speed of their SharePoint interactions. In this session, Levithan will discuss how these complex deployments architect their environments and how IT teams, whether its two people or a thousand, can apply these technologies to their organizations everyday collaboration needs. Taking advantage of this capability can enhance user experience, create highly available content, and provide an always-on content disaster recovery (DR) solution.

Adam Levithan, Product Manager, Metalogix

: .@Metalogix > Ever wondered how scientists in Antarctica are using SharePoint?

is the premier provider of unified management software to migrate, manage and secure content across enterprise collaboration platforms. Over 20,000 clients trust Metalogix to optimize the availability, performance, and security of their content across the collaboration lifecycle. For more information visit us at or call us at +1 202.609.9100.

Metalogix is a registered trademark of Metalogix, Inc. All other trademarks used are the property of the respective trademark owners.

Sabrina Sanchez

The Ventana Group

(925) 785-3014

Nicole Gorman

The Ventana Group

(508) 397-0131
Transcontinental Inc. Reports on Voting Results Associated to the Election of Directors at Its Annual Meeting of Shareholders

MONTREAL, QUEBEC  (Marketwired)  03/10/16  Transcontinental Inc. (TSX: TCL.A)(TSX: TCL.B) held its Annual Meeting of Shareholders yesterday. All of the candidates proposed as directors were elected by a majority of the votes cast by the shareholders present or represented by proxy at the meeting:

About TC Transcontinental

Canadas largest printer, with operations in print, flexible packaging, publishing and digital media, TC Transcontinentals mission is to create products and services that allow businesses to attract, reach and retain their target customers.

Respect, teamwork, performance and innovation are strong values held by the Corporation and its employees. The Corporations commitment to all stakeholders is to pursue its business and philanthropic activities in a responsible manner.

Transcontinental Inc. (TSX: TCL.A)(TSX: TCL.B), known as TC Transcontinental, has over 8,000 employees in Canada and the United States, and revenues of C$2.0 billion in 2015. Website

Contacts:

Media: Nathalie St-Jean

Senior Advisor, Communications

TC Transcontinental

514-954-3581

Financial Community: Jennifer F. McCaughey

Vice President, Communications

TC Transcontinental

514-954 2821
PuppetConf 2016 Call for Papers Is Now Open

PORTLAND, OR  (Marketwired)  03/10/16  , the leading provider of IT automation software, today announced that it is now accepting talk proposals for . Taking place October 17-21, 2016 at the in San Diego, California, PuppetConf is the cant-miss IT automation event of the year. PuppetConf in sunny San Diego will feature five days of training, more than 100 speakers, a Contributor Summit, certification testing, a Partner Summit and more.

This years PuppetConf will expand on last years captivating conference and will feature more diverse topics, more attendees, and more industry leaders and partners than ever before. Puppet Labs wants to hear how youre driving change across your infrastructure, your team and your organizations culture. Talks in 2016 will include:

Introductory and advanced topics on Puppet, modules, and other Puppet-related technologies like PuppetDB, Razor and Facter.

Using Puppet in software development workflows: release management, continuous delivery, application release automation, and continuous integration.

Future infrastructure: adopting best practices and workflows for the latest technologies, such as containers, microservices, Consul, Mesos, Kubernetes, and more.

DevOps best practices around automation, culture, measurement and sharing.

Security and compliance practices for streamlining the audit process, responding quickly to incidents, automating compliance processes, and detecting and responding to threats.

Cloud topics, including adoption, management, portable workloads, SaaS, PaaS, IaaS and hybrid deployments.

People-related topics such as recruiting, management, team building, career development and collaboration.

If you have a fresh take on Puppet or IT industry trends, submit your talk by May 2, 2016:

Puppet Labs actively works to increase diversity within our company, our community and our industry. The company is offering a limited number of travel scholarships for accepted PuppetConf speakers who come from underrepresented backgrounds, and who will need financial support in order to participate. All speakers receive a free conference pass to PuppetConf.

If you plan to attend PuppetConf and are not submitting a talk, for PuppetConf now and save 40% on your conference pass through 3/10.

:

Register for PuppetConf 2016 for the Best Price through 3/10. 30% off starts 3/11.

To sponsor PuppetConf 2016, email .

Relive some of the great .

Follow PuppetConf on Twitter: .

Puppet Labs, Inc. is the leader in IT automation. Puppet Labs software provides system administrators the operational agility, efficiency and insight they need to proactively manage dynamic infrastructure, scaling from tens of servers to thousands, both on premise and in the cloud. Thousands of the worlds leading organizations use Puppet Labs software to configure and manage their IT infrastructure, including Bank of America, Cisco, NYSE, Salesforce.com and WebEx. Based in Portland, Oregon, Puppet Labs employs more than 400 people. The company is backed by investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Google Ventures, VMware, Cisco, True Ventures and Radar Partners. To learn more, please visit .

Media Contact

Justin Dorff

PR Manager

(510) 875-9608
March 9, 2016

Job churn rate gives American workers new shot at career pivot

PHOENIX  The number of people leaving their jobs has reached record-setting numbers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, leading economists to herald a return in the confidence of the American worker.



This confidence opens up the possibility of a career pivot for those workers who are unsatisfied in their current positions. Sherri Mitchell of the local staffing and recruiting franchise All About People, sees the recent jump in job creation as an encouraging sign for the worker who is looking for a mid-career change.



In order to have a fulfilling career, the research shows you need to be doing something youre good at and that you believe in, said Mitchell. If youre not, thats a big sign you should begin looking elsewhere. And luckily the economy is strong again, and now is the perfect time to seek out a new career.



A Gallup panel, released in November, 2015, supports this interpretation. According to this study, more than half of American workers are considering leaving their current positions for new jobs.



The Gallup panel showed that most people were seeking a career change in order to find a better match for their skill set. Seventy-one percent of respondents said they were looking for a career that would allow them to use their skills and their years of expertise. The feeling of excelling in their role was more important even than money, which ranked third in a list of reasons for a career change.



For those who think its time for a career pivot, Mitchell says there are several strategies a worker can implement to keep from starting at the bottom rung in their new job. Here are five of his tips on how to facilitate your transition into a new career.



Put your experience in simple terms. An employer is unlikely to understand jargon from your prior position, so instead explain the big picture impact you had in your company. Imagine youre explaining your jobs to a college freshman to help you simplify your experiences without dumbing it down.



Focus on the soft skills. If you dont have as much experience in the role youre seeking, focus instead on the soft skills that will help you succeed. These are typically equally important and harder to teach than the hard skills of the job.



Get adequate training. Taking courses and getting needed certifications will go a long way to convincing a new employer to take a chance on you, because it will show that youre independently motivated and a fast learner.



Know what you want. Having a vision in mind for your career change will make your search and applications more targeted.



Talk up your age and expertise. You didnt get where you are without learning a thing or two about the professional world and how it works. Let your interviewer know that what you might lack in youth, you more than make up for in institutional understanding.



Even after implementing all these tips, however, many struggle to get their feet in the door in their desired career. This is where All About People can help. All About Peoples recruiting and staffing expertise has made them a trusted resource for employers and job-seekers alike, and they have placed more than 30,000 people in new positions since 2002.



Most people expect to have several different careers in their lifetimes, and recent research suggests that the typical millennial expects to change jobs about once every two years. There are now fewer obstacles standing in the way of workers who want a different future for themselves. For those looking for their next career, strategic planning and execution, plus a little help from a fast-growing recruiting and staffing firm, can make all the difference.



All About People is an award-winning, minority-owned small business offering an array of staffing solutions nationwide. The firm has extensive commercial and government performance experience and can provide customizable services to meet both immediate and high-volume talent acquisition needs on a local, regional, or national scope. Whether providing support staff or executives, 100 positions or one hard-to-fill position, All About People is the partner of choice for sourcing and placing high-performing talent throughout your organization.
March 9, 2016

Even $1 at tax time helps Arizonas wildlife

Taxpayer donations help bald eagles, tortoises, Sonoran pronghorn and others



PHOENIX  Did you know that your state taxes do not support the conservation of Arizonas wildlife, but your donations do? Taxpayers can help the states wildlife at tax time by making a mark on their state income tax form. The Arizona Wildlife Fund is a voluntary program that allows Arizona taxpayers to make a donation specifically to help imperiled and endangered wildlife, including majestic bald eagles, black-footed ferrets, California condors, Apache trout, Mexican wolves and desert tortoises, among other nongame species.



Since Game and Fish does not receive any general fund dollars, the Arizona Wildlife Fund provides important support for managing and conserving some of the states most iconic native species, says Josh Avey, terrestrial wildlife branch chief for the Arizona Game and Fish Department.



The fund goes only to nongame species that are not hunted or fished, and the cumulative effect of even a dollar can have a tremendous impact on conserving one of Arizonas greatest natural treasures  its wildlife. Since Arizona started the program more than 25 years ago, taxpayers have donated more than $5 million to the conservation of nongame wildlife.



For the 2014 tax year, the average donation was nearly $26. The Arizona Wildlife Fund box can be found on line 64 of the states long income tax form, or line 33 of the short tax form.



To learn more about the conservation and reintroduction efforts the fund supports, visit www.azgfd.gov/nongame.
Feature Articles

March 9, 2016

Inflammatory Bowel Disease in dogs

Like humans, it is normal for dogs to experience the occasional upset stomach, or episode of diarrhea, but experiencing severe symptoms, such as bloody stools, may be a sign of something more serious.

March 2, 2016

20 miniature donkeys to arrive at Triple Horse Rescue All will be searching for forever homes 20 miniature donkeys in a multitude of petite sizes and colors, will make their way from Texas to Triple R Horse Rescue's ranch in Cave Creek, Ariz.



All of the tiny donkeys are anxious to find forever homes with loving families and animal lovers. After their arrival, they will be ready to meet their future owners.

MULLET OVER BY JAMES K. WHITE | MARCH 9, 2016

Visually unattractive animal dubbed the ocean quahog

Reports are a brave soul in Orange County, Florida scoffed at warnings of a mean aggressive alligator that had made a small lake his new home. One Tommie Woodward explained he had grown up around gators and knew how to handle them  by basically showing no fear. It was at a party about 2 a.m. when Tommie announced to those in the vicinity he felt like swimming and continued to ignore verbal warnings referring to the recalcitrant A. mississippiensis. Witnesses indicate Tommie likely suffered only a short time as an 11 foot gator delivered two possibly fatal bites just seconds after Mr. Woodward hit the water. I dont even like to swim where there are rumors of tadpoles.
Guest Editorial



By Robert Quinn | March 9, 2016

Presidential Eligibility Requirements
Guest Editorial



By Robert Romano | March 9, 2016

Will the GOP establishment try to steal the nomination at the convention in July?

As the Donald Trump presidential campaign continues to gather momentum and delegates toward the July 18 through 21 Republican nominating convention in Cleveland, Ohio, there is an emerging theme in GOP establishment circles.



And that is the idea of a brokered or even stolen convention in which the candidate with the most delegates or even a majority of the delegates still somehow does not emerge as the party's nominee.



Normally, such speculation might be consigned as unadulterated nonsense, the fantasies of losing campaigns desperate to justify continued fundraising and public support amid mounting defeats. After all, it has not succeeded before in modern history. It is a hope, but not much of a strategy.



Yet here we are, with a Feb. 27 story in the New York Times, "Inside the Republican Party's Desperate Mission to Stop Donald Trump," by reporters Alexander Burns, Maggie Maberman and Jonathan Martin, where the writing is clearly beginning to appear on the wall.



The odds in favor of a Trump nomination are going up as the calendar proceeds beyond Super Tuesday. And Washington, D.C. insiders will do almost anything to stop it.



"At least two campaigns have drafted plans to overtake Mr. Trump in a brokered convention, and the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has laid out a plan that would have lawmakers break with Mr. Trump explicitly in a general election," report messengers Burns, Maberman and Martin.



On one hand, it is easy to appreciate just how wrong all of the experts were about Trump, as he was consistently underestimated last year. He was a clown. Couldn't win anything. Would disappear in a week or a month. Wasn't really running. In the meantime, ever since he rose in the polls, he has been winning. And even that was supposed to be an illusion, because his supporters would never show up at the polls and the ground game would fail to identify them if he even had one.



Maybe he's that good at this. Or perhaps his competition was never up to the task in the first place, in which case, is that really who should be taking on Hillary? In that context, talk of a brokered convention is just a Hail Mary, a last-minute play with low percentage odds of success.



On the other hand, it is hard to fault campaigns for strategizing on taking the convention. When you're trying to win, you consider every possibility  even long shots.



The last time such an endeavor came close to happening was in 1976 when sitting President Gerald Ford showed up at the nominating convention short of the majority of delegates he needed, thanks to the insurgency by Ronald Reagan.



Even then, although it was close, Ford won the nomination on the first ballot after the states that lacked a primary process at the time had weighed in.



Of course, it is theoretically possible no candidate gets a clear majority going into the convention, but now with every state with some form of a primary or caucus process for allocating delegates  in 1976 that was not the case with only 28 primaries and caucuses  the fact it has never happened before looms large.



So, perhaps this is just all the final death throes of a Washington, D.C. political establishment after it was unable to get its preferred candidate. In other words, pure desperation not to be taken seriously.



To his credit, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus has discounted such a possibility on Feb. 24 on CNN, "My job is to put forward the fairest process that we can put forward, to not put my hand on the scale, to allow our delegates to make the choices that they want to make and then accept the decision that the delegates make, unlike on the Democratic side where they have superdelegates and could give a darn about what the grassroots are telling the party. That's not how we operate our party on our side."



But, still, what if there is something more to this?



What antidemocratic lengths would the party go to in order to deny the people's choice of a candidate? Say, a bid to take the convention fails. What's next? Trying to rig the electoral college with third party, regional bids to somehow force the election into the House of Representatives? If no candidate emerges with a majority of the electoral college, presidential elections go to the House of Representatives per Article II of the Constitution.



In many ways this is the same type of thinking that goes into a lame duck session of Congress, where many Republican leaders and some retiring politicians are already preparing to get one more bite at the legislative apple during the Obama administration.



One key item that may be considered during a lame duck would be the controversial, 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which might not otherwise pass if the vote occurred before the election. Also of note, it is very much opposed by the current Republican frontrunner, Trump.



Would a Republican Congress push the unpopular trade deal opposed by its own nominee across the finish line for fear that a Trump administration might go back to the drawing board?



For obvious reasons, a lame duck Congress is the wrong approach, as it defies the people's express will, all in the pursuit of outgoing Congressmen and their staffs' next jobs on K Street.



Yet, again, here we are, with talk of brokered conventions and last minute back-room deals cementing the Obama legacy  all as an antidemocratic stench permeates the rotten GOP establishment. And folks wonder why voters are so upset?



Robert Romano is the senior editor of Americans for Limited Government.
My View



BY DON SORCHYCH | MARCH 9 , 2016

Insanity in the Republican Party

Letters to the editor

Local Election



The Republican Party is insane! The donor class, the movers and shakers of the party have inducted Mitt Romney to try a hatchet job on Donald Trump. He already has delivered a disgusting litany about Trump.



If they all hadnt been corrupted, reporters would list the establishment party members by name so we know who is using Romney to try to take away our Trump support.





We can thank eight years of Obama to Romney and John McCain. They had plenty of information to bring Obama to his knees. They both refused to tell voters who Obama is. Most probably they were afraid of the racist label and they were disgustingly PC. Clearly they are both Republicans In Name Only (RINOs). McCain is running again and it is way over time to retire him. He has done nothing for the nation or Arizona. He rose to success by leaving an ailing wife and marrying a wealthy woman. His other tactic was to continue to trade on his time spent as a military prisoner in Vietnam.



Both he and Romney are typical RINOs. But they arent alone. The Tea Party supported Republican candidates in the 2014 election it assumed were conservatives that would change Washington. Although both houses became Republican, neither the Senate nor the House of Representatives did anything to rein in the excesses of the Obama Administration. The establishment owns both houses and now they are increasingly in the open. The outrageous speech by Romney shows their ugly face. Now they are attempting to choose an establishment servant by funding Marco Rubio to get 99 Florida Delegates in a winner-take-all primary.



Trump still leads, Cruz is close behind, Rubio is a distant third and Kasich is in the weeds but hoping a win in his state of Ohio, which is also winner-takes-all, will give his candidacy momentum.



There is much fear out there of a brokered convention because the establishment hates both Trump and Cruz.



Senator Cruz said:



We go to 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 happens we will have a manifest revolt on our hands.



The real fear is the Republican ticket would be shattered and Hillary would walk in. But if Washington is as corrupt as many of us believe, Hillary will not be arrested and tried as she should be. If she is arrested, a socialist has a walk in. Think about that.



So stay tuned, this is both exciting and incredibly important to the future of America.



Go Trump!



Letters to the Editor

Letters for publication is a valuable asset in Sonoran News. Letters are the pulse of public opinion and lately there has been much dissent about the massacre of the town core by the mostly federally-funded project. In fact, only a few bicycle riders support the atrocity visited on the town we all love. It just isnt worth it to anyone except bicycle riders.



As I went to lunch last Friday, a bicyclist slowed the already slow traffic, then blew through the stop sign at School House Road. Ahead, people, probably visitors, began to step out on a striped lane which is supposed to halt traffic. They quickly stepped back as the bicyclist whizzed by. And that is typical. I have never seen a bicyclist stop at a stop sign, not once. So Cave Creek has created a monster, destroying our friendly ambience and created expensive space for people who ignore laws.



Shame on politicians.



Local election

We should know by the end of the month who our candidates are for mayor and council. So far, in the mayoral race it is Councilman Ernie Bunch and ex-Town Manager Usama Abujbarah. No dark side candidate has publicly said they will run. Perhaps Bunchs votes have pleased the Dark Side; after all he voted for Eileen Wright to sit on the planning commission.



As far as council goes Steve LaMar insists he is leaving. That would be sad since he and Mayor Vincent Francia have worked together to snare the 4,000 acres of state land for open space. As far as I know Susan Clancy, Mark Lipsky and Thomas McGuire will be running for reelection.



Dick Esser also says he may retire. I think Esser is a good councilman despite the faux pas concerning bicycle lanes.



So there will be two council seats open. I have heard Wright is crafting a slate and that she, Janelle Smith-Haff, and Paul Diefendorfer (Anna Marsolos ex) will run. I think David Smith may run, although I doubt he would be part of the slate.



More to come before the end of the month.
BY LINDA BENTLEY | MARCH 9, 2016

Town to permanently eliminate permits for Open House signs

Eastwood subdivision gets final nod, will start in 30-60 days

CAREFREE  Call to the Public brought a woman named Remy to the podium to complain about the rude treatment she received at town hall after paying for a yard sale permit. She said the person she spoke to was offensive and condescending.



Remy said citizens are only allowed two yard sales per year and the town rents you signs.



She said you are only allowed x-amount of signs, which are not enough to direct anyone to your home.



Remy stated she wished there were more yard sales as its pretty much the only way to network with neighbors without going to the bars.



Rather than be concerned about yard sales, Remy said the town should be more worried about mistletoe killing trees and overhead power lines.



Jim Van Allen also spoke, first to thank the town for having the agenda packet online on Friday.



While he was told the town does this as a courtesy, Van Allen said he would like to make it permanent and have it added to section 2.4.6 of the town code.



Second, Van Allen said, now that the town is gearing up to do its preliminaries on the budget, he would like to see zero-based budgeting, whereas the town would start with zero rather than taking last years budget and adding a percentage.



Last year, the town approved a moratorium on permits for real estate Open House signs.



Since that time, the town had received zero complaints, which was the reason the permits were initiated in the first place.



Staff requested a 90-extension to the moratorium, which expires in April, to allow time to amend the ordinance to remove the permit requirement.



Council voted unanimously to approve the extension and first reading with Mayor Les Peterson thanking realtors for their cooperation.



Council voted unanimously to approve the final plat for the Eastwood subdivision.



Town Planner Stacey Bridge Denzak said the project is located just west of the southwest corner of Cave Creek and Pima roads.



She said nothing has changed from the preliminary plat for the 39-home subdivision.



Peterson asked if the town had heard back from Liberty Utilities about providing service to the subdivision.



Bridge-Denzak said they had and application for service has been made. Councilman Mike Farrar questioned if bond insurance of 110 percent was common. Bridge Denzak said that is what the town requires.



Town Administrator Gary Neiss said that is what the town has always required since hes been there.



Councilwoman Melissa Price questioned aspects of the agreement and asked what recourse the town has once the developer is gone and one or more of the units floods.



Neiss said that it would fall on the engineer who designed the grading and drainage plans.



When questioned about changes to CC&Rs being submitted to the town, Neiss said it was something he added to agreements since hes been there.



He explained the town doesnt really have a dog in that fight since it doesnt enforce CC&Rs and he has no way of knowing if a subdivision has changed anything if they dont provide a copy to the town.



Farrar asked, What was the intent then?



Neiss said it was to provide prospective buyers of vacant lots with as much information as possible.



During public comment, John Traynor said he got the distinct impression the layout was four homes per acre.



However, he stated there were only 5.2 buildable acres, which comes out to eight homes per acre.



Traynor asked, How did we arrive there?



Bridge-Denzak explained density is calculated using gross acreage to provide the number of units per acre.



Traynor then asked if the homes are going to be pre-built spec homes or build to suit as they have buyers. Jeff King with Keystone Homes responded by saying they would mostly be building per their customers specs but would also have four to six spec homes under construction at any given time.



King said they expected to begin construction in 30-60 days.



Council voted unanimously to pass a resolution to amend and restate the qualified retirement plan maintained for the Town of Carefree employees and allow Town clerk Kandace French to execute the documents to satisfy IRS requirements.



French said it was a housekeeping item required by new federal regulations.



Council discussed the second reading of amendments to chapters 2, 3 and 4 of the town code. Peterson said council received some comments, all of which had been considered.



Price suggested an addition to the code of conduct section, which would also be mirrored under sanctions, addressing how the town would mediate disputes and verified complaints to resolve them in a swift and inexpensive manner.



Farrar asked Town Attorney Michael Wright if there were any conflicts by adding the section.



Wright said he didnt believe there were and only added another element to the due process. Council voted unanimously to approve the second reading as amended. Council voted unanimously to award a contract to TLL Electric in the amount of $58,456 to install 26 of the 28 vintage gas (LED) lamps at locations discussed during the December 2015 council meeting.



Neiss said the town put a bid package together and received seven bids ranging from $58,456 to $115,449. He said the low bidder complied with all the lowest responsible bidder requirements.



Councilman Gene Orrico commented, Thats a big swing from $58,000 to $115,000. Councilman Glenn Miller said this happened to be good timing for this contractor right now and is substantially less than what the town paid three-and-a-half years ago, which he said was around $3,000 per lamp. Neiss updated council on negotiations for temporary council chambers for when the lease runs out on their current quarters.



He said the Lutheran Retreat Center offered their facilities at a nominal fee or possibly for free.



Neiss said during their high season they have numerous large events and the town may get bumped around. However he said they also have a backup plan where they can use the conference facilities at the fire station.



He said the Lutheran Retreat Center is slightly larger than their current space and doesnt have the musty smell this building has.



Price announced the splash pad will be open in April.
MARCH 9, 2016

The socialist threat of the 2016 Presidential Election can, and will, be overcome

WASHINGTON, DC,  "For years polls have shown that Americans have been losing trust in government and it's no wonder when you consider the state of employment these days, the sputtering economy and the out-of-control national debt. We haven't reached the crisis stage as yet, but we're heading for it in a fast and furious manner," according to Dan Weber, president of the Association of Mature American Citizens.



Weber said that it is easy enough to blame President Obama for the "mess we are in" but there is more to the story than that.



"Americans, in general, have always had a conservative, capitalistic outlook on life, but now we are seeing a disturbing flirtation with socialism. Even such admired Democrats who called the White House their home in the past - people such as Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Jack Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson - had great respect for the nation's heritage and traditions. They understood that workers need successful business leaders to provide jobs and that by going too far to the left leaves the nation at risk by making it harder to fuel the economy and to provide stability and meaningful employment."



Weber said he was disturbed to learn of a new survey that came out recently indicating the millennial generation, young people under 30 years of age, is being swayed in large numbers by individuals such as Bernie Sanders who unabashedly promote a socialist agenda.



"It took the Soviet Union 70 years to be crushed under the weight of progressive share-the-wealth notions; you can bet that it would take less time than that for the U.S. to succumb to the vagaries of Sanders' Communist-like agenda."



But, don't give up. He said he believes the socialist threat Sanders' poses is "so scary" it might just serve to reinvigorate the nation's conservative base. Remember, he noted, the failures in the past of socialist ideologues to foist their liberal agenda on voters, gives the base cause to become more active in the political process going forward.



A British political analyst, Nile Gardiner, perhaps put it best, Weber noted: "Conservatism is thriving in America today because liberty, freedom and individual responsibility are at the heart of its ideology, one that rejects the foolish notion that government knows best. And its strength owes a great debt to the conviction and ideals of Ronald Reagan, who always believed that America's best days are ahead of her, and for whom the notion of decline was unacceptable. As the Gipper famously put it in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in 1988: 'Those who underestimate the conservative movement are the same people who always underestimate the American people'."
BY LINDA BENTLEY | MARCH 9, 2016

Westside residents restate unfulfilled water promises

That doesnt sound much like a conspiracy, much less a great conspiracy

CAVE CREEK  During Monday nights meeting, Mayor Vincent Francia announced council had completed its review of the general plan and would be presenting it to the public on April 4 along with the reauthorization of Home Rule, a local alternative expenditure limitation, both of which need voter approval in November.



Call to the Public brought Planning Commission Chair David Smith to the podium to express the inaccuracy of the statements made in a recent Pony Express mail piece.



Smith said, after reading the article, the only thing accurate was the quote of a statement he made during a recent general plan workshop when asked why the land use map did not show the lot-size-specific breakdown of Desert Rural zoning.



Smith was quoted as responding, If the map was specific relative to DR-190, 89, et al, every time a zoning change would be made, the general plan would need to be modified.



He went on to state the author (Eileen Wright) of the article also claimed Arizona law requires the land use map to list all four Desert Rural categories.



Smith stated, The reality is that Arizona law does not require such categorization on the land use map.



Smith said all four Desert Rural categories are included in detail in the general plan land use narrative, in compliance with state statute.



He said the present 2005 general plan, which has been in effect for nearly 11 years, displays Desert Rural, Open Space and other zoning categories with no further detailed breakdown on the land use map.



Because the general plan has been developed in accordance with the law, Smith stated, That doesnt sound much like a conspiracy, much less a great conspiracy, referring to the articles headline.



William Basore told council he lives in the farthest west northern corner of the town and a house recently burned down near him.



He said another house previously burned down in the area near the Cahava Springs projects still dry water lines.



Basore noted hydrants are there and joked that they bring satisfaction to the dogs in the area, but said it would be nice if they were hooked up to water.



He pleaded with council, Dont forget about us.



Terry Smith, who owns property along 26th Street, said several people were present that are upset about being promised, year after year, water would be brought to the west side of town.



Now, after being told they would have water in March, he said they are being told June.



Stating two houses have already burned down, Smith said it was a health and safety issue and asked why the town cant find the money to get water to them.



Ron Garlick, who also lives on 26th Street, said he bought his property five years ago and built a house three years ago and was told there would be water in the lines to the street.



As he was building, Garlick said he was told he needed to install a fire suppression system.



However, he said, his well would not provide sufficient water pressure for it to operate without a boosting system.



Garlick said he wasnt required to install a booster because he was told he would have municipal water soon.



Meanwhile, like many west side residents, Garlick said his well has gone dry and, while thankful to live where he does in Cave Creek, pleaded with council to expedite getting them water.



Gary Becker said he has come before council many times on this water issue.



Becker, whose well has gone dry, said he runs a business at his property on 26th Street that requires him to haul approximately 40,000 gallons of water per month, expressing it is very large expense.



He said all theyve gotten so far is lip service from the town.



Kathy Smith, who owns four properties along 26th Street, said she appreciated everything that had been said so far about water.



She said during the recent house fire she saw embers landing on her patio.



Following an inspection by her insurance agent, because of the water issue, she had to get new insurance policies for all of her properties at much higher rates.



Jim Welsh said hes seen council stand on its head to get Cahavas project moving again and complete the water line.



He stated the town should have the financial resources to get it done and claimed the town has never won a lawsuit.



Steve Grimes, a 15-year resident whose well has gone dry, said he was there for all the same reasons.



J.D. Smith said it is inevitable that people will be killed if theres another fire due to the lack of water in the area. Francia said council may not respond during Call to the Public but he was going to make an exception in this case.



He asked Town Manager Peter Jankowski to set up a meeting with Mark Stapp from Cahava as soon as possible and promised the west side residents, if the timeline isnt acceptable, We will do something.



Vice Mayor Steve LaMar reiterated the mayors promise and agreed with citizens the issue has continued for too long.



The first regular agenda item was a presentation by Kevin and Kyle Meyers of Boy Scout Troop 15.



The brothers explained their Eagle Scout project entailed enhancing the two horse monuments at each end of town by adding landscaping that had been removed from some of the medians in town for the bike lane project and installing solar lighting to make the monuments visible at night.



Council voted unanimously to pass a resolution updating the towns hydrant meter policy and fees.



Councilman Thomas McGuire asked if the proposed fees were in line with what other towns charge.



Jankowski stated they were and directed McGuire to the last page of the proposal, which included a comparison of fees charged by other municipalities.
My View

BY DON SORCHYCH | March 9, 2016

The Republican Party is insane! The donor class, the movers and shakers of the party have inducted Mitt Romney to try a hatchet job on Donald Trump. He already has delivered a disgusting litany about Trump.



If they all hadnt been corrupted, reporters would list the establishment party members by name so we know who is using Romney to try to take away our Trump support.



Guest Editorials:

By Laura Capello, Laura Pastor and Kate Gallego | March 9, 2016

The U.S. Education Department reports that 19 percent of high school students didn't graduate in 2012-2013. Alarmingly, Arizona is above the national average with 25 percent of adolescents not graduating. Reports show children who spend time with a mentor are less likely to engage in risky behavior and 52 percent less likely to skip school. In hopes of raising awareness about the essential benefits of mentorship, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arizona (BBBSAZ) and My Brothers Keeper Phoenix have joined together and forged a yearlong commitment to recruit 300 new male mentors.

By Robert Quinn | March 9, 2016

In eight years I have written approximately forty letters denouncing Barack Obama's illegitimate takeover of the Office of President of the United States. Copies of each letter were sent to most everyone mentioned within the letters and to all on my e-mail list. Initially,I expected to find Obama eligible, but, to my surprise, from day one evidence surfaced showing he used deception, lying, limited fraudulent documents, even silence to hide his ineligibility from the eyes of America. By his efforts he displayed his true colors, which, to no surprise, did not include red, white, or blue!



By Rick Manning | March 9, 2016

A decade ago, "free trade" supporter Thomas Friedman of The New York Times appeared on CNBC with the late Tim Russert and declared there was no free trade agreement he would ever oppose.



"No. Absolutely not," he said.



Friedman went on to acknowledge he had written "a column supporting the CAFTA, the Caribbean Free Trade initiative. I didn't even know what was in it. I just knew two words: free trade."

By Robert Romano | March 9, 2016

As the Donald Trump presidential campaign continues to gather momentum and delegates toward the July 18 through 21 Republican nominating convention in Cleveland, Ohio, there is an emerging theme in GOP establishment circles.



And that is the idea of a brokered or even stolen convention in which the candidate with the most delegates or even a majority of the delegates still somehow does not emerge as the party's nominee.
By David P. Ball (The Tyee)

Special to The Post

Ever shown up for work -- only to discover your boss has deactivated you?

"Sounds like a robot," joked Donald Lafleur, vice president of the Canadian Labour Congress.

Uncomfortable laughter erupted around the large conference table as several dozen representatives of the country's major unions gathered behind closed doors to figure out what to do about the technology-fuelled platforms of the "gig economy," or what cheerleaders call the "sharing economy."

Being "deactivated" is the end of the road for an Uber driver. One day, you're being linked with customers through a smartphone app. The next, you're locked out, based on Uber's assessment of your customer ratings or activity -- or for any reason the company chooses.

Uber, Airbnb, Lyft, Handy -- the list of on-demand services is exploding. And union representatives at the meeting in the Ottawa headquarters of the congress were trying to plot a labour response.

"How do people organize when your boss is an app?" asks Emily Norgang, a senior labour congress researcher facilitating the session on the gig economy. "How do you actually organize in this digital environment... where you don't know any of your co-workers or how many are even in the city where you work?"

'You can't even keep a shitty job in Canada anymore'

Uber is the face of the new gig economy. It has dominated Canadian headlines, with reports of furious Montreal taxi drivers smashing operators' smartphones and Edmonton legalizing the service in late January. But it is just one of the online platform businesses raising tough questions for the labour movement.

Airbnb's rentals are seen as a threat to hotels and their unionized workers (and as a factor reducing Vancouver's already limited rental housing stock as the city becomes unaffordable for workers). Handy, an app conceived in 2012 by a 19-year-old entrepreneur, lets customers book handymen, plumbers, electricians, painters, cleaners, movers and even furniture assemblers at the tap of a button. As Handy's website boasts, "We're well on our way to changing the way the world buys services." That promise has many consumers, especially millennials, excited.

The BC Liberals have welcomed the new model. The party recently advertised an online poll that asks, "Do you think it's time to welcome the sharing economy -- including popular services like Uber, Airbnb and Lyft -- to British Columbia?" (There was no option for voting no.)

The party's enthusiasm for the sector is apparent -- "lower priced options... more convenience and choice... new opportunities for entrepreneurs... grow our tech sector."

For the labour movement, the challenges are daunting.

Unifor's Ken Bondy says the solution is simple. "I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for a complete ban," says Bondy, national co-ordinator of health, safety and environment. If a new business model undermines workers' rights, "we have to oppose that 100 per cent," he says. Bondy and others in the union sector recognize that the people offering on-demand services, whether drivers, handymen or other part-time positions -- are themselves workers. But the new model does them no favours, he says.

"You have an entire generation who themselves are being forced into precarious work," Bondy says. "People working part-time jobs are being put out of work. You can't even keep a shitty job in Canada anymore."

Chris Roberts, senior social and economic policy researcher with the congress, said Canadian workers are being forced to cobble together low-paying jobs to make ends meet. "This wouldn't be happening if people had decent job opportunities with decent wages and real chances," he argues. "The goal [is] to turn labour into something that comes out of a tap. You turn it on when you need it, you turn it off when you don't."

That's not how prophets of the sharing economy see it. Handy enthuses about its ability to connect people with jobs on their own schedule. "Make up to $22/hour as a cleaner or $45/hour as a handyman," it promises. Uber entices its drivers -- now more than a million -- with slogans like "Drive when you want, earn what you need."

But the union representatives see trouble, starting with the small-print disclaimer at the bottom of such websites: "Handy is not an employer, but simply connects independent service professionals with customers."

It's a big distinction.

If these workers -- the drivers and electricians -- are employees of Uber or Handy, they can organize unions or at least demand the protection of the Employment Standards Act. But the companies say the service providers are independent contractors, not employees. Gig economy workers tend to make their own hours, are paid by the task, own their own car or tools and aren't tied exclusively to a single employer, the companies note.

Norgang says they're wrong. The people providing the services must follow guidelines, take mandatory training and can't hire somebody else to do the work for them. The companies sets the pay rates and invoice customers. They're employees, and the claim they are independent contractors undermines their rights, she says. "This really shifts the risk and the cost onto the workers," Norgang explains. "And it takes a lot of the liability off of the employer."

Workers in the sector aren't even guaranteed minimum wage. Despite Uber claiming its drivers can make more than $20 a hour, a Journal de Montreal investigation found that after car expenses and the company's 25 per cent cut, a full work week netted only $4.60 an hour. "It's a classic case of the race to the bottom," Norgang warns. "There's nothing in place to protect these workers from being fired."

'I want to organize these workers'

It's not about technology, Norgang says. It's about business models that raise concerns about workers' rights, corporate accountability, public safety and consumer rights. There have been efforts to organize independent contractors, or create online forums or Facebook pages where they can air grievances and solve workplace problems. But the labour movement is divided on the best approach.

Aaron Spires of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers says despite the challenges, unions have to organize these workers. "We need to change the power relations that exist." Forget it, say others around the table. Some see the gig workers in the same light as "scabs" who replace striking employees. Their willingness to work under the companies' conditions undermines the rights of other workers, critics complain.

Bondy is against organizing efforts. Partly, it's too hard. Unifor tried to organize temp agency workers in the past, he says. "It frankly doesn't work." But it should also be a matter of principle for the labour movement, he says.

"When we're talking about these kinds of precarious work changes -- happening on the backs of working people -- organizing them is not the answer because all it's saying is that labour has bought into this type of precarious work."

What's at stake is much bigger than taxis versus Uber, Bondy warns. "This is about every worker in the next generation," he said. "The entire workforce in Canada could become an on-call job app, instead of providing secure, permanent employment."

This article was originally published in The Tyee.
Jan. 6 committee subpoenas Donald Trump

The extraordinary move puts the panel, which the former president has repeatedly criticized as political, into a legal confrontation with Trump.
Oak Creek to host outdoor 2022 World Cup watch party

A partnership between Morans Pub in South Milwaukee and the city of Oak Creek will offer residents food, drinks, music and games on Nov. 25.
Welcome to SwanseaOnline - your home for the best news, sports and what's on coverage of the city.

Never miss a Swansea story with our daily newsletter Sign up to comment on our stories here

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter | Swansea City news | Ospreys news | InYourArea
WASHINGTON  A draft version of a comprehensive space policy bill seeks to make changes to the management and regulation of space activities at NASA, the Defense Department, and other federal agencies while pushing the government to rely more on commercial capabilities.

A draft copy of the American Space Renaissance Act, sponsored by Rep. James Bridenstine (R-Okla.), runs nearly 100 pages and includes sections that address national security, civil and commercial space policy. Bridenstine's office is circulating the bill to seek feedback from industry before formally introducing the bill in April at the 32nd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado. SpaceNewsobtained a copy of the draft.

Bridenstine, speaking Feb. 26 at a Commercial Spaceflight Federation breakfast here, said he did not expect the bill to pass intact.

"I expect it to serve as a conversation piece, as well as a repository for the best ideas that we can plug and play into difference pieces of legislation," he said.

Bridenstine serves on the House's Armed Services and Science, Space and Technology committees.

Civil reforms

Part of the bill's civil space section is patterned after another bill, the Space Leadership Preservation Act. That bill seeks to create a board of directors for the agency that would select nominees for NASA administrator, who would then serve a 10-year term.

Bridenstine's bill addresses some of the criticism that bill received during a Feb. 25 hearing by the House Science Committee. His bill would create a larger "commission" with equal representation by the majority and minority parties in Congress who would nominate individuals to serve as administrator. The administrator would serve a five-year term, in response to concerns that a 10-year term may be too long.

The bill would create a "pioneering doctrine" for NASA, emphasizing human exploration and utilization of space. It amends NASA's objectives currently outlined in federal law to include "the expansion of the human sphere of influence throughout the Solar System."

It would also establish as NASA's "main priority" landing humans on the surface of Mars. As part of that direction, it requires NASA to cancel its proposed Asteroid Redirect Mission "unless NASA can compellingly demonstrate the mission's utility."

To implement that strategy, the bill authorizes multi-year appropriations for NASA starting in 2018. It creates a $250 million "NASA Flexibility Fund" that the agency's administrator could use supplement spending. However, it also requires the cancellation of NASA programs that exceed their cost estimates by 30 percent.

For commercial space, the bill seeks to drastically increase the authorized funding for the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation. The office, which received $17.8 million this year and is requesting $19.8 million for 2017, would instead be authorized for $43.2 million, increasing to $99 million by 2021.

Bridenstine has previously sought budget increases for the office, arguing that it does not have the staff and funding needed to handle projected growth in commercial launch activity. Bridenstine, in his Feb. 26 speech, said he would "exhaust every avenue" to get the office funded at its 2017 request.

The bill also establishes an "Office of Spaceports" within the FAA's commercial space transportation office. That office would administer infrastructure grants to spaceports that could eventually be funded by user fees similar to those imposed by airports.

The bill would begin the process of transferring responsibilities for space situational awareness from the U.S. Air Force to the FAA. It authorizes the FAA to obtain space situational awareness data and provide warnings of potential collisions, a task currently handled by the Air Force. It directs the government to name a lead agency for broader space traffic management activities by 2020.

Another priority for Bridenstine, increased government purchases of commercial data from satellites, is addressed in the bill. It directs the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to develop rules for sharing weather data it acquires from commercial sources, and authorizes NOAA to spend $100 million per year on commercial space-based data buys.

Military space reforms

In the military space arena, Bridenstine's bill pushes the Pentagon to consider non-traditional approaches to gain capabilities on orbit.

Most notably, the bill asks for the Pentagon to provide a plan for increasing the use of hosted payloads.

The Air Force has a contract vehicle for hosting government payloads, known as Hosted Payload Solutions, or HoPS, but for nearly two years, the Defense Department has not yet used that approach, which has been a source of frustration for industry.

The American Space Renaissance Act also pushes for full funding of the Pathfinder program, a series of experiments aimed at exploring new ways for the Pentagon to buy satellite bandwidth from the private sector. The Air Force's budget request for fiscal year 2017 includes $30 million for Pathfinder 3 and a combined $91 million for Pathfinders 4 and 5. That program is of particular interest to Bridenstine, who helped secure $26 million for the second experiment during the 2016 budget cycle.

The draft bill asks the Air Force to consider commercial approaches in several areas: including using industry to operate the Air Force's Satellite Control Network and to obtain weather data. It also accelerates the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency's commercial GEOINT strategy, a roadmap for the intelligence agency will use a host of commercial imagery satellite companies in the near future. Another section asks the Air Force's Operationally Responsive Space office to certify that prior to new development programs, no commercial entity can meet the same requirements.

During recent speeches and congressional hearings, Bridenstine has focused on bolstering space situational awareness capabilities. The bill would require the Defense Department, along with NASA, to create a technology demonstration program for orbital debris removal. It would also make the nearly year-old commercial integration cell, which helps give the Air Force a better sense of how commercial satellites are operated, a permanent part of the Joint Space Operations Center.

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.
In this artist's conception, a Ceres-like asteroid is slowly disintegrating as it orbits a white dwarf star. Astronomers have spotted telltales signs of such an object using data from the Kepler K2 mission.

The real-life "Death Star" that astronomers recently caught in the act of destroying a planet is continuing to disintegrate nearby orbiting objects, researchers say.

This finding could shed light on how dead stars rip apart their planetary systems  a phenomenon that could happen in Earth's solar system billions of years from now, scientists added.

Recently, astronomers detected a dead star tearing apart a planetesimal  a small planetary body, such as a dwarf planet, large asteroid or moon. The dead star is a white dwarfknown as WD 1145+017, which lies about 570 light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. [Planet Ripped Apart by White Dwarf? (Video)]

White dwarfs are superdense, Earth-size cores of dead stars that are left behind when stars have exhausted their fuel and slough off their outer layers. Most stars, including the sun, will become white dwarfs one day.

"Our sun will one day balloon out to become a red giant star, wiping out Mercury and Venus and maybe Earth, before it becomes a white dwarf," said study lead author Boris Gansicke, an astronomer at the University of Warwick in England. "By looking at this white dwarf, we get a look at what the future of the solar system might be like."

Previous research using NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft found a planetesimal transiting, or crossing in front of, the white dwarf at a distance of about 520,000 miles (837,000 kilometers)  more than twice the distance from Earth to the moon. Kepler also discovered a cometlike tail of dust trailing this object, as well as perhaps a few additional chunks orbiting the white dwarf at about the same distance, and a shroud of dust enveloping the white dwarf.

Scientists previously estimated that the amount of material seen circling the white dwarf was about equal to that contained by the 590-mile-wide (950 km) dwarf planet Ceres, the largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. They suggested that the white dwarf was ripping apart the planetary bodyafter it had spiraled too close to the dead star, and that the rock would be fully destroyed within about a million years.

Now Gansicke and his colleagues find that this white dwarf system has rapidly evolved just months since its discovery.

"It's exciting and unexpected that we can see this kind of dramatic change on human timescales," Gansicke told Space.com.

The astronomers used the Thai National Telescope to observe the white dwarf about seven months after previous work detected the system of rocks and dust around it.

Instead of detecting strong evidence of just one body around the white dwarf, "we identified six, but there are clearly more  it could be 10, maybe 15," Gansicke said.

These bodies are orbiting the dead star at about the same distance as the planetesimal that previous research spotted, and are each two to four times the size of the white dwarf. The researchers suggest that these bodies are not giant, solid rocks, but instead are huge clouds of gas and dust flowing from much smaller rocks that are now disintegrating.

"The average amount of light blocked by material around the white dwarf has gone up from 1 percent or a fraction of a percent up to 10 or 11 percent," Gansicke said. "We interpret that as many more fragments of a planetesimal breaking apart."

Gansicke and his colleagues plan on researching this white dwarf system further.

"We can see how things evolve over time," Gansicke said. "How does the disintegration of a planetesimal work? How long does the whole thing last? Will we be able to see everything disappear in a year or two? How does the disk of dust around the star evolve? How will the metal content of the white dwarf change?"

In the future, researchers could also hunt for similar white dwarf systems elsewhere. "Maybe we can find another one or two or 10," Gansicke said. "If we have a sample of these systems, we can look at common properties and differences among them, to advance our knowledge about the process of planetesimal disruption as a whole. This is how science works  we've found one piece of a puzzle, and now we want to find more."

The scientists detailed their findings Feb. 3 in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Follow Charles Q. Choi on Twitter @cqchoi. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
A NASA Mars spacecraft celebrates a major milestone today  a decade circling the Red Planet.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) arrived at the Red Planet on March 10, 2006 and has done yeoman's work in the decade since. To mark the occasion, NASA created this video celebrating the MRO's 10 years at Mars.

MRO images Mars in unprecedented detail, and its observations have helped researchers keep tabs on the dynamic planet. MRO is also responsible for a number of important discoveries over the years including the recent determination that water flows seasonally on some parts of modern-day Mars. [Flowing Water on Mars: The Discovery in Pictures]

"This mission has helped us appreciate how much Mars  a planet that has changed greatly over time  continues to change today," MRO project scientist Rich Zurek, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement.

Artist's illustration showing NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) circling the Red Planet. MRO arrived at Mars on March 10, 2006. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

To date, MRO has sent 264 terabits of scientific data back to Earth  more than all other interplanetary missions in history put together, NASA officials said. Some of the probe's observations help researchers evaluate possible landing sites for future robotic and human missions, and others aid route planning for NASA's two operational Mars rovers, Opportunity and Curiosity.

MRO also serves as a vital communications link between these two rovers and their handlers on Earth. (The agency's Mars Odyssey orbiter also provides this relay service.)

The $720 million MRO mission launched on Aug. 12, 2005, tasked with, among other things, studying Martian geology and climate and searching for evidence that Mars has ever hosted liquid water for long periods of time  long enough to potentially provide a habitat for life.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter used its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera to capture this view of an area on the southern floor of the Red Planets Gale Crater. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona)

MRO's images and measurements have helped scientists flesh out their understanding of Martian history, showing that the ancient Red Planet harbored a variety of watery environments  and that things have changed a lot since then.

"More recently, water cycled as a gas between polar ice deposits and lower-latitude deposits of ice and snow, generating patterns of layering linked to cyclical changes similar to ice ages on Earth," NASA officials wrote in the same statement. "Dynamic activity on today's Mars includes fresh craters, avalanches, dust storms, seasonal freezing and thawing of carbon dioxide sheets, and summertime seeps of brine."

The solar-powered MRO carries six science instruments, including the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, which is powerful enough to resolve features as small as a desk on the Martian surface.

Everything is still working well, even though MRO is now far beyond its original two-year science mission, NASA officials said.

"The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter remains a powerful asset for studying the Red Planet, with its six instruments all continuing capably a decade after orbit insertion," Zurek said. "All this and the valuable infrastructure support that it provides for other Mars missions, present and future, make MRO a keystone of the current Mars Exploration Program."

When it first arrived at Mars, MRO slid into an elliptical orbit that took it as far as 27,000 miles (43,000 km) from the planet at times. But by September 2006, the probe had worked its way to a much closer, nearly circular orbit that features an altitude range of 155 to 196 miles (250 to 316 km), NASA officials said. MRO still occupies this orbit today.

MRO is one of five operational spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet. The others are NASA's Mars Odyssey and MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) probes; Europe's Mars Express spacecraft; and India's Mars Orbiter Mission, which is also known as Mangalyaan.

Long-lived as it is, MRO is not the most venerable member of this group; Mars Odyssey arrived at the Red Planet in October 2001, and Mars Express got there in December 2003. (The Opportunity rover has also put in more time at Mars than MRO has; Opportunity landed in January 2004.)

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
Optimization

Are you frustrated with a slow pc or a hard disk not performing as it should?

Try SLOW-PCfighter to speed up boot time on a slow PC, or try a free scan of FULL-DISKfighter to recover space on a full disk. The latest offering is DRIVERfighter to update your driver updater. Get complete PC optimization and extend the life of your PC with these must-have software tools.
Augustus Prew (Klondike), Rick Yune (Marco Polo) and Steve Mouzakis (I, Frankenstein) are set for heavily recurring roles opposite returning stars Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell in Foxs Prison Break event series, a nine-episode follow-up to the cult 2005 Fox action series.Prew, Yune and Mouzakis join new Prison Break cast addition Mark Feuerstein. Deals are still being finalized for original cast members Sarah Wayne Callies, Robert Knepper, Rockmond Dunbar and Amaury Nolasco to return and reprise their roles as Sara, T-Bag, C-Note and Fernando, respectively.I hear in the followup, shepherded by Prison Break creator Paul Scheuring, Fernando, C-Note, Lincoln, and Sara go on a mission to rescue Michael from Yemen where he is imprisoned after faking his death.Prew will play Whip who is funny, crazy (read: lethal), and pretty damn sharp. Yune will play Ja, a Korean identity thief, who disheveled appearance belies his genius. Mouzakis will play Van Gogh, a bad-ass nut-job.
Fear holds people back when their instinct is to act, but knowledge can dispel fear.

Thats the thinking of Stamford High School social studies teacher Kevin Barry, who discovered something he says would have empowered educators during a leadership crisis at the school about a year ago.

Its that no administrator can stop teachers from speaking out about that administrator by threatening a lawsuit.

Its that teachers, like all citizens, may voice opinions under the protection of the First Amendment, which guarantees free expression as a tenet of democratic government.

Barry said he wishes he knew that in December 2014, when Stamford High teachers wanted to hold a vote to determine whether any confidence remained in Principal Donna Valentine, whod been arrested for failing to report what she knew about a sexual misconduct case at the school.

Teachers organized the vote with help from their union but, before it happened, Valentines attorney said his client could sue teachers if they went forward. Lawyers for the union then advised teachers to postpone the vote.

Now, Barry has learned the advice was wrong. He discovered it on the school districts website, where a report on Valentines termination hearing was recently posted. He said 25 teachers have signed a petition asking the union to find out how that happened, so they will know their rights in the future.

During Valentines hearing, a state-appointed officer reported by engaging an attorney to threaten the teachers with a libel lawsuit if they went ahead with their vote, Valentine interfered with teachers rights under the First Amendment.

A vote of no confidence is an expression of an opinion and is not libel, wrote the hearing officer, Hartford attorney Peter Adomeit. When a governmental official engages an attorney to threaten those who work under her not to take a no-confidence vote, the very purpose of the First Amendment, to hold government accountable, is destroyed.

Students got better

legal advice

Its a sore spot for Stamford High teachers who felt powerless during the sexual misconduct scandal, Barry said. In the fallout, not only was Valentine fired, but the superintendent retired early and most members of the Board of Education either resigned or did not run again.

In the middle of all that, we felt we had no voice, Barry said. There is still resentment about how it was handled on the part of the union.

He is particularly concerned because, the day after the teachers confidence vote was canceled, students held a similar vote.

They were allowed to be heard, Barry said.

Reporters on the school newspaper, The Round Table, polled fellow students about their confidence in school leadership and published the results. Their teacher, Jon Ringel, said he advised students they could go ahead after he spoke to Adam Goldstein, an attorney for the Student Press Law Center, a Washington, D.C., group that provides free legal assistance for student journalists.

Goldstein told him that as long as we werent printing anything untrue, we would be fine, Ringel said, and that students were covered by the First Amendment, which by and large extends the same protections to high school journalists as to professional ones.

Barry said he believed, at the time, the law protected only journalists. But its clear from the hearing officers report that all citizens are protected.

Waiting for answers

Barry is waiting for an answer from the Connecticut Education Association, which provides legal counsel for the Stamford Education Association.

Its about the fact that our union did not represent us as we needed to be represented. They are supposed to be our voice, and they were not, Barry said. We pay dues to the SEA and the CEA, and they are supposed to provide legal advice, and at a crucial time it was incorrect. I understand that lawyers have different interpretations. All we are saying is, whoever decided, explain the rationale.

Lawyers for the CEA did not respond to requests for comment.

SEA President Michael Arcano said CEA attorneys provided their best advice, and as union president he decided to accept it.

It was a very tough call. I felt I needed to be, at the very least, circumspect in trying to protect my members, Arcano said. Looking back, and looking at this report, we may not have gotten sound advice. I would support teachers getting a clear answer on this.

Barry is not the only one to describe the culture of fear in the school system. It was cited by a prosecutor who signed off on Valentines arrest and by an investigative team the city hired to find out how it happened that a number of school employees had reason to suspect an English teacher was having sex with a student for almost an entire school year, and no one reported it.

Barry said teachers who wanted the confidence vote were struggling to overcome that culture, which has pervaded the district for years. The prosecutor and investigators found school employees who raised questions about problems often faced retribution that could include disciplinary letters, transfers, changes in job duties and denial of requests for promotions, training and other opportunities.

The teachers union made it worse by piling fear of a lawsuit on top of fear of retaliation, Barry said.

We cant let that happen again, he said.

angela.carella@scni.com; 203-964-2296; stamfordadvocate.com/angela carella.
STAMFORD  A Stamford High School student has accused two classmates of a bathroom sexual assault in a civil lawsuit that also names school administrators and the district.

The lawsuit, filed last month in state Superior Court in Stamford, says the then-16-year-old Stamford High special-education student was assaulted in February 2014 by a male and female classmate who forced him into a bathroom, locked the door, pinned him to the floor, removed his pants and assaulted him.

They brought me past the security guard, through the cafeteria, the boy told Hearst Connecticut Media. I asked (the security guard) to help me. He thought they were just messing around.

It is the latest scandal to rock Stamford High School, which is trying to shake off the stigma of the past year in which a teacher was convicted of having sex with a student and several administrators left or were removed from their jobs for not reporting the information to police or the states child protective services agency in a timely manner.

In addition to suing the juvenile pair and their parents, the suit also names as defendants former Superintendent Winifred Hamilton, former Stamford High Principal Donna Valentine and former Stamford High Assistant Principal Angela Thomas-Graves and Barbara Boller, Stamford Highs psychologist.

Boller, Valentine and Thomas-Graves are all accused of failing to properly notify the parents of the boy in question, as well as failing to notify police and the states child protection agency.

The complainant is not being identified, as the lawuit says he is the victim of a sex crime. The male and female acquaintances are similarly not being identified, as they were juveniles at the time of the incident.

Locked in

The boy described the horrifying incident in an earlier interview with Hearst at the office of his attorney, Griff Trow.

He said the students had been sitting eating lunch with two acquaintances, the male and the female student. After a while, he said, they both started getting sexually active, touching and biting each other. The student claimed the pair then tried to involve him.

The pair, the student said, decided to go somewhere private, and dragged him along to a boys bathroom on the fifth floor.

Because there were rarely security officers or other authorities in that area of the school, the boy said students called it the rape hallway.

Once inside the bathroom, the male and female acquaintances locked the door behind them, he said, but not before a friend of his had followed.

I was trying to hide in the stalls, locking the stalls, the student said. His friend, he said, tried to help him stay away from the pair.

My friend was helping pull (me into the next stall), the (other) two were pulling me by my legs, he said. They pinned me down in an open area of the bathroom. The girl had pinned me by my chest and arms."

The boy said that while he was pinned, the male student pulled down his pants.

I screamed for help," he said. The female (student) covered my mouth.

The boy said he struggled until a passing custodian heard the noise and unlocked the door to investigate.

I quickly put on my pants and ran when the janitor opened the door, he said. The first thing on my mind was to get away.

I was late for my English class, he recalled. My teacher asked why I was late. I just said I was walking around. I was embarrassed. I was just very upset with myself that I couldnt protect myself more.

Case under seal

The boy said he filled out an incident report with Stamford Highs school resource officer, a police officer assigned to the school.

The two juveniles were arrested in a timely manner and charged with sexual assault, Lt. Diedrich Hohn of the Stamford Police Department said Thursday.

The details of the criminal case against the pair is under seal, as they were tried in juvenile court.

Trow, the attorney for the boy, said that the two alleged perpetrators are not serving prison time.

I believe there was some kind of plea bargain, he said.

It was unclear as of Thursday whether the accused students or their parents had gotten lawyers.

Lawyers for the city representing district officials did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.

A spokeswoman for the schools said it was district policy not to comment on pending litigation.

The lawsuit comes as Stamford High struggles to regain community trust.

School officials learned that a teacher had been having sex with a student for most of the 2013-14 school year but did not report it to required authorities until the last day of school.

The fallout from that led to Valentines ouster in January. Thomas-Graves, the administrator who oversaw the schools special education students, was transferred to the districts adult education program.

The district superintendent, Hamilton, retired early from the district in December, citing a loss of public trust in the district following several cases of teacher misconduct.
The longtime treasurer of the Connecticut Republicans will get to hold onto his elected post for the time being, as well as his paid party job, following his arrest for child endangerment.

Gary Schaffrick, 52, was charged Tuesday with one count of risk of injury/impairing the morals of a minor, according to police in his hometown of Bristol.

The felony charge stems from an incident last October involving a 5-year-old child who was known to Schaffrick, said Lt. Richard Guerrera, the public information officer for Bristol police.

Guerrera said he could not disclose further details about the case, which was ordered sealed by a judge.

Schaffrick was released on a $25,000 bond and is to appear March 21 in state Superior Court in Bristol.

A message seeking comment from Schaffrick was left Thursday at the state Republican Party headquarters in Hartford.

State GOP Chairman J.R. Romano declined to comment, citing the pending nature of the case.

In addition to serving as elected treasurer, Schaffrick is a paid employee of the party and earns about $10,000 a year helping the party leaders with logistics and record keeping.

He also serves on the Republican State Central Committee, the 72-member governing body of the party. The groups next meeting is in April.

The charge of risk of injury to a minor covers a range of offenses, from supplying a child with alcohol, cigarettes or pornographic material to inappropriate sexual contact.

The latter carries a minimum penalty of five years in prison for cases involving minors under the age of 13.

neil.vigdor@scni.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy
STAMFORD  A East Side man was arrested Thursday after firing a warning shot that narrowly missed a woman visiting from Venezuela, police said.

Rodney Canada Jr., 22, received a gun permit three months ago and was bragging Thursday to another man about the weapon he had, when the man told him to either use it or stop talking about it, Police Lt. Diedrich Hohn said. Canada told police he fired the shot as a warning and did not intend to harm the man outside a Dale Street home near Ursula Place about 3:05 p.m., Hohn said.

However, instead of being fired into the air, the bullet slammed through an enclosed porch, pierced a window and narrowly missed a woman sitting on a living room couch, Hohn said. The shot was fired in the direction of the man with whom Canada was arguing, who was about 75 yards away, police said.

Hohn said the bullet came within a few feet of striking the visitor.

She was a very lucky woman, Hohn said.

Canada, of Glenbrook Road, was charged with criminal attempt at first-degree assault, two counts of reckless endangerment, discharging a weapon within the city limits and criminal mischief for the damage he did to the Dale Street home, Hohn said.

This was a great job by responding patrol officers, Assistant Police Chief Matheny said of the quick arrest.
In the extreme in Stamford alone, it would amount to more than $550 million in annual costs added to the balance sheets of businesses; tack on Greenwich, Norwalk, and the Bridgeport and Danbury areas, and the figure shoots by the $1 billion mark.

The dollars in question? Annual office lease payments made by businesses, which companies will soon have to report as liabilities after long being able to treat them as off balance sheet transactions.
T he financial technology sector attracted more money last year than at any time in its history, according to business services firm KPMG.

Research published yesterday showed global investment in fintech companies totalled $19.1 billion (13.4 billion) in 2015.

In Europe, deal activity increased by 30% year on year. The UK consolidated its position as clear leader, with financing deals for the likes of Funding Circle, Atom Bank and WorldRemit meaning half of all European fintech investment came to Britain.

But that is no surprise; the knowledge-based economy, of which fintech is a major part, is driving Londons economic prosperity. As Deloitte reported last week, it has stimulated the creation of almost a quarter of a million jobs in three years.

By chance, publication yesterday of the KPMG report coincided with a meeting of a dozen leading fintech entrepreneurs, hosted by public affairs consultancy Portland. They described a sector of astonishing vitality, developing at breakneck speed and rapidly reaching the point at which the public at large will see a real difference.

We already have a different kind of stock-exchange trading, web-based peer-to-peer lending, invoice discounting and crowdfunding to bypass the banks and raise capital for businesses and individuals. We have a system developed by TransferWise that allows users to buy and sell foreign currency for a fraction of what banks charge.

Another tells you whether your mortgage is good value and what to do if it is not. Soon  probably to be announced in the Budget  we will have a system whereby banks that dont want to lend money to a small business have to refer it on to someone who might. Electronic platforms such as Funding Option will then route them electronically to someone who can.

But there is much more to come. Frustrated with your banks clunky website but reluctant to go through the pain of moving only to find the one next door is just as bad? The technology exists for a non-bank to graft on a completely different front end. Your money stays safe in the bank but the entire customer-facing experience might in future be supplied by a completely different firm  and one of your choice.

Blockchain, also known as distributed ledger technology, refers to having 50 or 60 widely dispersed but totally interlinked computer systems, all of which can be accessed by different user groups but all of which basically store and cross-check the same data so it cannot be tampered with.

"It might be economic to collect a sum as small as 2p from the other side of the world."

It is the next big thing. It will allow newcomers to bypass the computer and transmission networks the banks and insurance companies use to maintain their stranglehold on data, payments and processing that underpins the current system. Innovation is now stifled because of the difficulty of plugging into these existing networks.

Blockchain may well be the force that unleashes the long-awaited back-office revolution and transforms the way firms service their customers.

The savings are astonishing  it might be economic to collect a sum as small as 2p from the other side of the world. That is transformational for the media business, for example, because it would mean content providers could do away with paywalls and all the challenges of getting customers to stump up for content by persuading them to sign up with annual subscriptions.

Anyone in the world would simply click the 2p payment icon  or even 5p if it was especially good  and get access to the specific article they wanted.

This goes way beyond charging for media content. The ability to collect such tiny sums opens up the web to untold numbers of low-value products that were previously excluded because it cost more than the product was worth to collect the payment.

Systems already exist to help exporters get money out of difficult countries, again at a fraction of the cost traditionally charged by banks. It used to be the case that only multinationals with huge accounting and processing departments could afford the administrative costs of doing business in such places.

Today web-based fintech systems are opening up these markets to small business because they give them the means to get paid and convert the money back into sterling without seeing their entire profit disappear in bank charges.

What is also unusual about this sector is that it has only good words to say about government and regulation and it is similarly positive about EU regulation. Being able to operate right across Europe is vital if they are quickly to get to a scale that will stop them being eaten by American rivals.

But there is rather more to it than that. The UK is ahead of mainland Europe in forcing open the traditional areas of finance so that the fintech firms can deploy these new technologies. Brussels is seeking to go down a similar path but, rather than develop its own regulation, it is likely to adopt and adapt what has been developed here.

This potentially gives UK-based firms a considerable advantage. Indeed, one fintech pioneer believes it is only a matter of time before he and his colleagues will be in effect invited by Brussels to roll out across the Continent the kind of stuff they are doing here.
S ainsburys and South African retail group Steinhoff need to hurry up and decide whether they want to make a formal bid for Argos, according to the boss of the catalogues chain.

Both companies have said they are eyeing a takeover of the retailer, but neither has put forward a formal offer.

John Walden, chief executive of Argos parent company Home Retail Group, said the uncertainty was hitting his business and must it be sorted out soon.

He added: Everybody is interested to see this come to an end one way or another. As much as wed like it to come to an end, we have to let the process run its course.

The activity in the business, whether its the sale of Homebase or the offers, havent been without distraction.

In January, Home Retails other operation, Homebase, was sold to Australian retailer Wesfarmers for 340 million, with the new owner sacking the current operating board and replacing them with its own.

"The activity in the business, whether its the sale of Homebase or the offers, havent been without distraction."

Walden said he was disappointed with that decision.

He added: You would not expect me to be thrilled about that. I think we had and still have great people at Homebase and they will be successful in their careers with whatever they do.

The plea for formal bids comes as Home Retail revealed sales at Argos fell 2.6% on a like-for-like basis in the year to February 27 to 4.1 billion.

Homebase improved 5.2% to 1.4 billion, but only after dozens of store closures.

Walden said electricals continue to hamper sales, particularly in computer games and white goods such as fridges and washing machines.

He added: We have seen some success in categories that have previously been problematic, like TVs.

But all eyes are on what Sainsburys and Steinhoff do next.

Suitor: Sainsbury's boss Mike Coupe is keen on a takeover (Picture: Reuters) / Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters

The UKs second-biggest supermarket has made a possible offer of 1.35 billion, which the Home Retail board has accepted in principle.

Steinhoff made a possible cash offer a few weeks later of 1.4 billion.

Today Walden said that bid was attractive and both were now carrying out due diligence on Argos.

Both have until 5pm next Friday to make a formal offer or walk away. However, there have already been extensions made to the original approach from Sainsburys.

Walden would not say whether he hopes to stay on with the business if a sale is successful.

He added there is little he can tell staff about the new owners plans, which are likely to include closing stores.
T he Citys energy giants have welcomed a long-awaited report into the market by the competition watchdog amid campaigners claims they have been let off the hook.

Shares in quoted players SSE and British Gas-owner Centrica rose and chief executive of the latter, Iain Conn, said the majority of recommendations to the pair  and to rivals EDF, npower, E.ON and Scottish Power  would benefit users.

SSE shares opened up 1% at 1484p while Centrica rose 1.4% to 230p.

The Competition and Markets Authority proposes to cap gas and electricity prices temporarily for the UKs four million poorest households on pre-payment meters.

The CMA said customers have been overpaying by around 1.7 billion a year and an Ofgem-run database of customers who havent switched in three years will be made available to rival suppliers and comparison sites to see if any better deals can be offered.

"There is still a long way to go before we will have an energy market that works for all consumers."

The six largest suppliers have learned to take many of their existing domestic customers for granted, said Roger Witcomb, chairman of the CMAs energy market investigation.

He claimed that allowing competing suppliers and price comparison websites to alert customers to the savings they can make will shake up the industry.

Witcomb added the regulator must ensure that releasing customer data will help people switch from the most expensive tariffs to better deals, rather than result in more nuisance calls.

Energy secretary Amber Rudd said this is a wake-up call to the Big Six.

But Richard Lloyd, executive director of Which?, warned: After two years of this energy inquiry, there is still a long way to go before we will have an energy market that works for all.

Independent supplier Green Energys boss Douglas Stewart said: Bombarding potential customers with phone calls or direct mail will almost certainly switch them off the idea of changing energy company.

Campaigning group Fuel Poverty Action accused the CMA of pandering to the Big Six. Laura Hill of Fuel Poverty Action said: Todays announcement is a testimony to the stranglehold of the Big Six over this investigation.
T witter is reportedly trying to prevent an exodus of top talent by offering cash and stock to those who will stick with the struggling company.

Twitter has seen its share price slide around 60% in the past year on growing concerns about the company's future.

Co-founder Jack Dorsey, who returned as chief executive last year, has already given away one-third of his own shares to employees to make up for the performance, but the company is now also stepping in, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In the last month it has granted varying amounts of restricted stock - stock of a company that is not fully transferable until certain conditions have been met - to staff across all levels of the business, the newspaper said.

The awards depend on how much the value of the restricted stock employees were given on arrival at Twitter has fallen.

The cash incentives range in value from $50,000 (35,238) to $200,000 and are aimed at workers who will commit to another six months to a year at the firm.

"Developing, retaining, and recruiting top talent is critical to Twitters business success and building shareholder value, Twitter told the WSJ in a statement.

"Competitive compensation, strong leadership, and a confidence in the direction of the company are all key elements to having top talent. We are investing in all three areas to ensure we maintain these employees."

The strategy follows Dorsey's efforts to turnaround the company after a prolonged period of slowing user growth that rattled investors.

He cut 8% of Twitter's global workforce during a reorganisation of the business. Several senior executives have since left.

Mission morale boost: Twitter boss Jack Dorsey (Picture: Reuters) / Mike Blake/Reuters

Other tech companies have taken the same route as Twitter. LinkedIn recently said its boss Jeff Weiner would share out his annual stock award worth around $14 million.

Twitter's New York-listed shares were last at $17.65, well below is $26 IPO price.

In an annual report filed last week the company admitted it "may not be able to achieve or subsequently maintain profitability".


O ne of the main themes this column has developed over the past few years is the impact of globalisation and technological innovation on the rich worlds poor, and how the resulting anxiety and anger explain the rise of politicians such as Nigel Farage, Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen. For supporters of these creatures change means loss, especially when it is rapid and hard to prepare for.

In the Nineties, the share of national income that went to the labour force in rich countries was 66 per cent. That fell to 62 per cent in the 2000s, and is falling still. This trend has vast social and moral implications. Stemming it may require radical policies. I am in favour of radical policies, especially when they address the biggest challenges we face, and achieve support across the political divide. That is why Im interested in the universal basic income.

This is a guaranteed government payment to all citizens, regardless of their private wealth, which replaces conventional welfare. Sound bonkers? It isnt. After all, its not a million miles from the tax-free allowance of 10,600 that the Coalition passed, which now has support from all the main parties.

For those on the Left a basic income appeals because it provides a safety net and attacks inequality directly. Thomas Paine argued for a version of it in his 1797 pamphlet Agrarian Justice. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canadas version of Nick Clegg, is supporting its introduction in Ontario this week. Yanis Varoufakis, the former finance minister of Greece and an influential Marxist, is an avid supporter.

But the most persuasive arguments emanate from the American Right. Several of the smartest, reform-minded conservatives in the US have endorsed the idea, including David Frum and Charles Murray. And get this: Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman were advocates too. (Any idea that unites those two with Varoufakis has got to be interesting). These influential conservatives were attracted both by the idea of radical simplification of the tax code and lower expenditure on bureaucracy. At a time of austerity and indebted governments, lifting millions out of poverty while increasing efficiency and reducing day-to-day dependency is attractive.

Of course there are snags. It could disincentivise some workers and its not clear when immigrants should qualify. Above all, if all citizens received it the initial cost could be vast, and the poor would end up paying the rich.

That is why it makes sense to test the theory in the real world and to start small  which is what theyre doing not just in Ontario but in parts of Finland and the Dutch city of Utrecht. In Switzerland, theres a vote on the basic income in June. As Hannah Fearn wrote in The Independent this week, if these countries are taking it seriously, Britain cannot keep dismissing it without its own test of the evidence.

I am not yet an advocate because I need to test the idea against strong opposition before I espouse it, and see the evidence. But politics across the Western world is waking up to the need for radical thinking to address our fast-changing labour market. After all, George Osborne increased the minimum wage less than two decades after his party opposed its introduction. Might a Chancellor with big ambitions, and in search of popular appeal, guarantee a basic income for you and me?

Amol Rajan is editor of The Independent. @amolrajan
T his week, Jeremy Hunt has been talking about blunders. The Health Secretary  a man who once stated his faith in magic water (homeopathy) to cure disease  is certainly an expert in those, what with misusing statistics about weekend death rates in the NHS, igniting a mad war on junior doctors and that time he pulled the emergency cord in a train loo en route to Conservative Party conference.

But no, he actually meant mistakes made by the medical profession. It was just one of a number of negative stories about the NHS yesterday, just as junior doctors staged a 48-hour walkout in response to Hunts decision to impose a new contract on them come summer. What an amazing coincidence.

Because who are the laziest, most selfish, money-grabbing tosspots in our society? After nurses and nuns, its got to be doctors, hasnt it? Why else wouldnt they just accept Hunts oh-so-kind proposal of a 13 per cent pay rise? It is, admittedly, a strange kind of pay rise. As a friend and neurosurgeon put it: Just received our new, improved and generous offer from the good old Department of Health. A mere 15.3 per cent pay cut. Delighted.

Junior doctors have taken undeserved flak for striking. On Sunday, a trolling clown from the Adam Smith Institute dismissed them on Twitter as low-tech prescription writing machines. Yup, those magicians who can conjure a new jaw from part of a shoulder blade are just glorified ATMs for drugs.

Theyve been scolded too for having interests outside medicine, because God forbid a doctor would have enough time off work to see their friends, have a drink or travel. They must be chained to the operating table! Imprisoned on wards! My favourite of these smears was the medic accused of taking a lavish holiday when she was actually volunteering at a clinic overseas. But if she had been having a holiday, would that have been so terrible? Someone doesnt have to forgo all joys, accept peanuts for a salary or lump godawful working conditions just because theyre a public-sector employee. They didnt sign up for martyrdom but to save lives.

Most ludicrously  and yet repeatedly  the words of NHS founder Nye Bevan have been used against doctors in a bid to show that they were always out for themselves. Bevan famously said he had stuffed [doctors] mouths with gold to broker the deal to create the NHS. That was in the 1940s. He clearly wasnt talking about the same doctors we are today. Back then, doctors resisted the NHS; now theyre the ones trying to save it.

I bet Bevan would be at the picket line today. Because this isnt just a pay dispute. Its not even about keeping doctors happy (although youd think a contented NHS workforce would be considered an asset), its about keeping them  and their patients  safe.

If this new contract is imposed, NHS England risks haemorrhaging even more junior doctors. Theyll go overseas, or to Scotland, or quit the profession altogether. Medical students will be more inclined to look at other careers. That, in an already overstretched and understaffed NHS, will be catastrophic. Doctors rightly fear being made to work even more hours and ever-more anti-social ones, plugging holes in rotas. As the placards outside hospitals today remind us, tired doctors make mistakes. That isnt in any of our interests.

Even the best medics  as Hunt noted yesterday  do sometimes make mistakes. As Health Secretary, he should be trying to foster an environment where those are as few as possible. Hed be wise to start by dropping this cruel joke of a new contract.

Evil triumphs in the House of Darkness

Power couple: Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright as the Underwoods in House of Cards / Netflix

Like many Netflix subscribers, Ive spent the past six days in a House of Cards bubble, forgoing socialising, sleeping and showering to squeeze in another episode.

The only theory I can share without giving spoilers is that how evil characters are is correlated with the number of pillows and cushions on their beds.

I am, as my boyfriend will testify, the most frustrating person to watch the series with. The success of the Underwoods disturbs my sense of justice. I want evil to out.Frank and Claire to get their comeuppance. The good to stop suffering, being incarcerated or killed. House of Cards may be melodrama but my great fear is that its not as far from the real world as we would wish.

Why backing the little guy makes sense

Back in his days as a financial journalist, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson proposed an investment strategy. He believed that a companys performance was inversely related to the height of its chief executive so you should put your cash with the little guys. The rationale was that the prejudice against the short runs so deep that its harder for them to make it to the top. Thus the few who do  the CEO Smalls  will be more talented and industrious than their taller peers.

Now, a vast study published in this weeks British Medical Journal has fleshed out this idea, finding that height discrimination is so pervasive mini-men earn less too.

Looking at a photo of Sadiq Khan and Zac Goldsmith, I was reminded of Lawsons theory. For the mayoral race isnt just a David v Goliath fight in terms of the leading candidates bank balances. If we followed Lawsons thinking, London should back succinct Sadiq over goliathan Goldsmith come May 5.

* In BBC1s The Night Manager, Olivia Colman plays an intelligence operative who happens to be pregnant. Ive heard pedants complain that this messes up the timeline  Burr seems to be knocked up so long I fear shes gestating a giraffe  but the way the series handles impending motherhood is actually laudable.

Its oddly rare to see pregnancy on screen when it isnt a plot device; the only other example I can recall is Frances McDormands police chief Marge in Fargo. The Night Manager shows a pregnant women acting as they do in the real world  continuing her job, getting on with ordinary life. In other words, being more than just an incubator.
T he morning of July 7 2005 is forever etched on my memory  the desperate attempts to contact friends and family to check they were safe, followed by the horror of the realisation of what had occurred and the precious lives that had been lost. A terrorist attack on London is an attack on us all. Keeping Londoners safe from this kind of atrocity, and protecting Londons children from the growing threat of radicalisation, will be my first priority as Mayor.

More than a decade on there is no doubt that extremism and radicalisation is the most serious security threat facing Londoners today. The terrible attacks on Paris last year showed that the radicalising reach of Islamic State goes well beyond the borders of Syria and Iraq and into European capitals. We cannot afford to be complacent and we have to do much more to keep Londoners safe.

As a nation we have to face up to the fact that the grooming and radicalisation of some British Muslims is a problem that is getting worse rather than better  and its a problem the Government is failing to address. As a parent Im deeply worried that our teenagers can be radicalised online, and tricked into running off to join IS in Syria. Any plan to keep Londoners safe must start with tackling extremism in Britain and stopping the next generation from becoming radicalised.

I have seen the bile and hatred of the extremists up close  they have repeatedly targeted me and my family because of our mainstream British views. Running for election to Parliament, groups of extremists protested outside local mosques in Tooting. They told my friends and neighbours that I was going to hell because I believe in democracy and what they describe as man-made law. It was nasty and personal. And when I voted in favour of same-sex marriage in 2013, I received death threats and even had to discuss police protection with my young daughters.

Ive spent my whole adult life fighting extremism. I know that Muslims have a responsibility to speak up, address this problem head on and to show that it will not be tolerated  and Ive paid a high price for doing exactly that.

Thoughtless attacks on mainstream Muslims, like the desperate attempts to associate me with extremists, just send a message to moderate Muslims that theres no point in getting involved in politics or of speaking out and taking on the problem  youll just be tarred as an extremist by association. This only makes it harder to keep Londoners safe.

In his increasingly desperate and negative campaign Zac Goldsmith is risking dividing communities and setting back the real progress weve made in London in bringing the city together. Its like the nasty party never went away.

At Canary Wharf yesterday I launched my Manifesto for all Londoners. It sets out plans to ensure that all Londoners get the opportunities our city gave to me when I was growing up on a council estate in south London  it also includes a firm plan to tackle extremism and radicalisation. Londoners need to know that their mayor understands the nature of the threat being posed and has a plan to tackle it.

Ill bring back proper community policing to London, cut to the bone by the Tories. There is no substitute for local officers who have strong relationships with local communities and are able to spot trouble before it gets worse. British security services increasingly rely on local policing knowledge to stop terrorist attacks and I will make community policing my highest priority as Mayor.

The Metropolitan Police service has had to cut its budget by more than 600 million since 2010. As a result there are more than 1,000 fewer community police officers based in the London boroughs and the number of community-based PCSOs has fallen by more than 70 per cent.

Cuts on this level have made London more vulnerable to terrorist attacks. George Osborne must do the right thing next week and give Londons police service the resources it needs to keep Londoners safe. Thats why I have promised to keep taxes down as Mayor, but not at the expense of our safety.

I will act to promote community integration and to tackle the social segregation which allows extremists to prey on young people. For example, Ill ensure that people from different communities meet and engage with one another  promoting integration through planning rules, creating spaces where people can mix and promoting community programmes.

And, of course, Ill support and encourage Muslims to speak out and challenge extremists  not because they are more responsible for extremism but because they can be most effective at challenging the poisonous ideology.

I will act to promote community integration and to tackle the social segregation which allows extremists to prey on young people

We need a Mayor who deals with problems as soon as they learn about them. When I heard about the unacceptable online comments made by a junior member of my parliamentary office I didnt hesitate to act. Id take the same attitude to City Hall.

Ill work directly with internet providers to take down the extremist websites that are poisoning minds, and to overhaul the Governments anti-extremism and de-radicalisation programmes such as Prevent  which are clearly failing and no longer fit for purpose.

I will campaign for Britain to remain in the EU, which is crucial to keeping Londoners safe. Four former Home Secretaries told the Evening Standard this week that leaving the union would make London less safe and would leave the capital more vulnerable to terrorist attacks. The current Home Secretary, Theresa May, has said that for reasons of security, protection against crime and terrorism, trade with Europe, and access to markets around the world it is in the national interest to remain a member of the European Union.

The EU plays a vital role in sharing information on terrorists and threats across member states, in implementing tough controls at airport security and enforcing the European Arrest Warrant. Goldsmiths desire for Britain to leave the EU would make it much harder for us to keep Londoners safe.

Nothing is more important than me than keeping Londoners safe. Thats why Im so determined that as Mayor I will be the British Muslim who brings all our communities together and who finally takes the fight to the extremists and acts to stop radicalisation in London.

Sadiq Khan is Labours candidate for London Mayor


Review at a glance









B eryl Burton was one of the finest cyclists Britain has ever produced, a dominant figure in the sport for a quarter of a century. Among her achievements was covering 277 miles in 12 hours  and giving her chief male rival Mike McNamara a liquorice allsort as she overtook him.

Maxine Peakes debut play, first seen at West Yorkshire Playhouse, pays generous tribute to a sporting hero whos today dismayingly obscure. Its a familiar tale of triumph over adversity. A heart problem means that as a child Beryl is informed she cant cycle uphill. She spends nine months in hospital and more than a year convalescing. Establishing her career is hard, and theres prejudice to overcome at every turn. Even once shes a world champion the standard response when she modestly reports her success is: Well, Ive never heard of you.

As Peake methodically works her way through Beryls story, Samantha Power conveys the characters special blend of grit and nervous intensity. Theres bright support from Rebecca Ryan as her daughter Denise, Lee Toomes as husband Charlie, and Dominic Gately, who switches nimbly between contrasting roles (including the Queen).

The cast often address us directly, which creates a warm rapport yet also means were told things rather than shown them. Its an approach that results in too much blunt exposition and betrays Beryls roots as a radio play. But the writing is ultimately inspiring, and Rebecca Gatwards inventive production has genuine charm.

Until March 19, Rose Theatre, Kingston (020 8174 0090, rosetheatrekingston.org)

Follow Going Out on Facebook and on Twitter @ESgoingout
A cold, bright morning and on the tenth-floor roof terrace of a Milan hotel Ethan Peck is leaning nonchalantly against an iron railing. Behind him the citys old town rises into the sky. Dressed in a grey wool and cashmere-blend suit, its not hard to see why the Italian brand Ferragamo chose him to star in its new film: 6ft 1in, square-jawed, hes the spitting image of his grandfather, the actor Gregory Peck.

This short film, Coming Home to Hollywood, is Pecks first fashion gig, but its unlikely to be his last. The 30-year-old actors star is in the ascendant. Born in Los Angeles (his father is the actor Stephen Peck, his mother the abstract artist Francine Matarazzo), he landed his first role aged nine, in TV crime drama Charlie Grace. After graduating from Tisch School of the Arts, he appeared in Gossip Girl; more recently he had a role in the political TV drama Madam Secretary and has just finished a pilot for Fox with Lee Daniels, the producer of Empire.

Off screen hes no slouch either, with a laid-back elegance that again evokes his grandfather. So what are his style secrets? We sit down to talk Hollywood greats, the pressures of a famous family and the problems that come with success

So your childhood must have been far from typical?

Some people assume Im a spoilt trust fund kid whos never had to work for anything, while others think the best of me because of the good experience they had with my grandfather. Its difficult to digest the fact that they may never see me for who I am. I certainly strive to be a good, honest man and hopefully someday my qualities will be seen as my own.

You must have met some of the greats?

I remember meeting Roger Moore at my grandfathers house as a young boy and being impressed because I was such a big fan of 007. But I was young and I didnt have a perception of what celebrity was, or who my grandfather was I still dont really.

Growing up in Hollywood, have you seen a lot of excess?

I had the privilege of attending a couple of very nice private schools [Campbell Hall and Harvard-Westlake] where I saw a lot of excess. There were some destructive drug and alcohol habits. When theres so much freedom  financially and otherwise  smart kids get themselves into trouble. My parents did a good job of sheltering me from the negative aspects of wealth and success.

You had your first audition aged seven. Have you always been driven?

Determined is the word Id use. I work hard and as I mature I become more driven.

Your grandfather was known for his understated elegance and immaculate suits. Whats your signature style?

Its very minimal  denim and black Sunspel T-shirts. Theres a character called Spike Spiegel from a show called Cowboy Bebop that I admired as a kid. Hes animated, but hes got a good look: a futuristic suit and black boots. Relaxed and chic.

Film 2016: 10 highlights 1 /13 Film 2016: 10 highlights The Danish Girl Though initial reviews have been mixed, this film promises to be worth seeing for its star turn alone: Eddie Redmayne plays Einar Wegener/Lili Elbe, the first transgender person known to have had sexual reassignment surgery. Tom Hooper, the man behind The Kings Speech and Les Miserables, directs. Expect Redmayne to get an Oscar nod. In cinemas from January 1. Zoolander 2 The really, really, ridiculously good-looking Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) and Hansel McDonald (Owen Wilson) return for more Blue Steel silliness. This sequel sees the pair called upon by Interpol  really  to help combat assassinations of top musicians. If that wasnt enough, theyll have to take on a revenge-seeking Jacobim Mugatu (Will Ferrell), the man who invented the piano key necktie. Looks set to be a tear-jerker, then. In cinemas from February 12. Race Newcomer Stephan James is set to make a name for himself in this biopic of the extraordinary Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals at the notorious 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin and helped disprove Hitlers myth of Aryan supremacy. It promises to be a powerful one. Release date as yet unconfirmed: expect it mid February (it comes out February 19 in the USA). Hail Caesar! George Clooney stars in the Coen Brothers latest offering, which is set in the Golden Age of Hollywood and sees a studio fixer (Josh Brolin) go through hell and back as the studios biggest star (Clooney) is kidnapped. Its features a star-studded cast of the Coens favourites, including Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Scarlett Johansson, Ralph Fiennes, Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum. In cinemas from February 26. The Jungle Book Jon Favreau steps up as director for this live-animation revival of Disneys 1967 classic, based on Rudyard Kiplings 1894 stories. Itll come out in 3D, and features voicing from a seriously heavyweight cast, including Bill Murray, Sir Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba (promising to be a delicious delight as Shere Khan), Lupita Nyong'o, Scarlett Johansson, Giancarlo Esposito and Christopher Walken (expertly cast as King Louie). In cinemas April 15. Snowden Almost certainly not a date-night movie, despite the presence of Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the title role. This political thriller tells the true story of Edward Snowden, who became a household name after leaking NSA files to The Guardian before going into hiding. Source material for the film is The Snowden Files by Luke Harding. Nicolas Cage makes an appearance too. In cinemas from May 12. Ghostbusters Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon star in this reboot of the 1984 Dan Aykroyd/Bill Murray classic, set and shot in New York. There will be cameos from Bill Murray and Ozzy Osbourne, and, as an added bonus, Chris Hemsworth will star as the teams receptionist. And the best part? The UK is getting the film a week earlier than our American cousins, playing in cinemas from July 15. Finding Dory Disney and Pixar are all but guaranteed a hit with this sequel to 2003s Finding Nemo. Dory, Nemo and Marlin are all set to make a return in this tale, which will see Dory attempt to reunite with her family as the amnesic fish (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres) suddenly recalls her childhood memories. In cinemas from July 19. The Girl on the Train Paula Hawkins thriller, which topped the New York Times best-sellers list for 13 weeks, proved such a smash hit that the rights to it were snapped up immediately. Emily Blunt, Rebecca Ferguson and Justin Theroux take the lead in this dark, confusing tale of murder, love and bad marriages. In cinemas from October 7. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them JK Rowlings slender volume is given a Hollywood makeover. Fantastic Beasts, one of Harrys textbooks, was written by Newt Scamander, and this film tells of his adventures in New York, with the secret community of witches and wizards. Its a prequel to the Harry Potter films, and stars Eddie Redmayne (big year for ol Ed, looks like), as magizoologist Newt. In cinemas from November 18. Entertainment Weekly

When do you think men get it wrong?

I look back at the 1990s with its light-wash jeans and Im like, What?

What is the secret to mens style?

An awareness of what looks good on them. Massimiliano Giornetti, the creative director of Salvatore Ferragamo, dresses so beautifully in slim-fit suits and crisp white shirts.

Whats the worst style crime?

Flip-flops worn with jeans.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter: @EsMagOfficial
U nder the watchful eye of Admiral Lord Nelson and Sir Winston Churchill, City elders gathered in the Guildhall last Thursday. Nine times a year, in the medieval Great Hall replete with monuments to national heroes, the City of London Corporation holds its Court of Common Council, the main decision-making body for the Square Miles local authority.

Over more than three hours, agenda items unfurled that were unlikely to trouble the go-go investment bankers in the gleaming towers of Canary Wharf to the east: a report from the Lord Mayor, delivered in ceremonial dress, on his recent overseas trips, and whether operatic baritone Sir Thomas Boaz Allen should be granted the Freedom of the City. But the reason last weeks gathering gained such attention is that the councils 125 aldermen and councillors voted, by a show of hands of roughly five-to-one, to back the UK remaining in the European Union.

At first glance the battle lines over Brexit are clearly drawn down the middle of the City. On one side, the self-made hedge fund and trading chiefs, who thrive on market mayhem and are tired of Euro-meddling in their businesses. On the other, the investment bankers who mostly report to American paymasters. They want to keep the UK in the EU because London is the most convenient place to locate their headquarters for the entire region.

It is not so simple, however. There are views being advanced by organisations such as the corporation that some critics thought should have stayed neutral. Risk-averse chiefs have taken one look at the John Longworth episode  the British Chambers of Commerce director-general had to resign for making pro-Brexit comments  and decided it pays to stay shtum. And occasionally, different opinions emanate from a single company, which promises to muddy the complicated debate even more.

EU referendum: Stay or leave?

Take Barclays, whose economic analysis predicted that the UK could become a safe haven for investors if a Leave verdict prompted the disintegration of the EU. Meanwhile, the banks chairman John McFarlane  who is also chairman of TheCityUK lobbying group  has warned that the City of London would end up in a significantly worse position if the UK went its own way.

What is true is that the district has thrived over the past decade or so because of the advent of the single currency and access to the single market. Almost half of all euros traded every day change hands in London. The capital has a commanding lead in derivatives trading too, even though many of those contracts are euro-denominated.

Acting as the regions capital of finance has created a flagship industry, one in which the UK enjoys a rare trade surplus. No wonder that last year it had to fight hard to see off a European Central Bank attempt to relocate part of those transactions into the eurozone. Now the City is involved in a multi-billion-pound battle over its future: to prevent decline or unleash even greater potential, depending on whose side you are on.

Bankers backing Remain believe in the former. Wall Street investment banking giants J PMorgan and Goldman Sachs have sunk cash into the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign. Prime movers, including Goldmans double act of Michael Sherwood and Richard Gnodde, have warned regularly of the risks of a Brexit, especially if it hits banks ability to passport their services into other markets within the EU from a hub in London.

Michael Sherwood, Vice Chairman Goldman Sachs & Co

Goldmans economists chimed in last month by saying such a move would precipitate a 15 to 20 per cent collapse in the value of sterling. Morgan Stanley also did its bit for Project Fear, claiming that FTSE100 shares could underperform by 20 per cent if we head for the exit.

Most lenders have drawn up contingency plans to move jobs onto the Continent in that event. In the case of HSBC, which has only just decided against moving its headquarters away from London, that means 1,000 of its 5,000 investment banking staff could transfer to Paris.

For Remainers such as Inga Beale, boss of the Lloyds of London insurance market, open trade and being part of a bigger community rates highly. We believe Brexit would be bad for business, she told the annual meeting of trade body Insurance Europe last year. The same is true for Bill Winters of Standard Chartered, even though his London-headquartered bank has most of its trading activities much further afield.

Those business leaders who last month signed the letter to The Times, including Baroness Vadera, chairman of Santander UK, buy the Prime Ministers deal to reduce regulation.

Even Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, who tries to take fewer political stances than the Queen, appeared on Tuesday to support the outcome of David Camerons renegotiation. He declared it would now be easier to maintain financial stability while members of the eurozone integrate further and that Brexit would without question erode the Citys pre-eminence.

Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney / PA

All of this gives the Remain campaign an establishment air. But that has not put off the enthusiasm and deep pockets of the Leavers. Change and uncertainty can be good for hedgies because they have more to trade against. However, idiosyncratic hedge fund manager Crispin Odey insists that the low opinion his Mayfair set have of Brussels predates the flood of new regulation to hit them.

Believed to be by his side is Sir Michael Hintze, a big donor to the Natural History Museum as well as the Tory party. Other definite Leavers include Oliver Hemsley, chief executive of the stockbroker Numis, and Peter Cruddas, the former Conservative fundraiser who has just floated his spreadbetting firm, CMC Markets and has pledged 1 million to the Vote Leave campaign.

Not all City entrepreneurs have fallen into line, though. David Harding of Winton Capital Management supports staying in the EU, saying when he declared his hand late last year that: Im a physicist and a mathematician so I look at the numbers.

The asset management groups appear more laid-back. Martin Gilbert, boss of Aberdeen Asset Management, said recently that Brexit would be inconvenient, but it would not be too disastrous because so many of his peers already use tax-efficient Luxembourg as a hub for some operations.

Some are keeping the situation under review. Insurer Legal & General says the economic case for Brexit is unproven, even though its own operations would not be hit by such a move. Others are more pragmatic.

Stephen Hester, the former Royal Bank of Scotland boss who now runs insurance giant RSA, said recently that the UK would be fine if it comes out. He said: I think the UK can do well in time both in and outside the EU  but it would do better inside. Much depends on the nature of any exit.

I believe the UK could thrive, not just survive, outside the EU as long as we dont flounce out of the door never to talk to anybody again, says Helena Morrissey, chief executive of Newton Investment Management, speaking in a personal capacity. She is fan of the Flexcit model, set out in a 400-page report by prominent Eurosceptic Richard North, which shows how the UK can extract itself gradually but carry on trading with EU members within the European Economic Area. But wouldnt the Square Mile be weakened, with floods of professionals transferred onto the Continent? I think that has been exaggerated, says Morrissey. The City has been successful through many centuries, before, during and, I think, after the EU.

Follow James Ashton on Twitter: @mrjamesashton
W hen it launched, NTS was Londons newest hyperlocal community radio station, operating out of a low-key unit in Dalston with a shopfront window, championing the capitals talent and generally sticking two fingers up at the commercial radio they thought was crap, to be honest.

Instead of repetitive phone-ins on laddish breakfast shows or the smooth grooves of an Eighties one-hit wonder that no one can remember, on NTS youre more likely to find hip hop from south London female zine-makers Born n Bread or a celebration of world music weirdness from producer Throwing Shade.

In a music scene saturated by Soundcloud and Spotify it might have remained a subversive offshoot of the mainstream radio industry, playing to a tight-knit group of Dalston-based fans and making in-jokes about the Rio cinema and the queue last Friday outside Passing Clouds.

Except it turns out that people still really want to listen to the radio.

Now coming up to its fifth birthday (with a five-night celebration, no less), NTS has more than 300,000 regular listeners. It also has a studio in Manchester and regularly holds events in Tokyo and Los Angeles. It has even just launched on DAB in London, although it doesnt expect Ofcom rules to restrict it too much.

If someone wants to carry on doing their show with profanity they can carry that on the online stream, says the stations managing director Sean McAuliffe.

NTS is not alone, as Londons internet radio marketplace is thriving. Soho Radio has 200,000 listeners every month. Reprezent in Peckham launched the careers of Stormzy and DJ Jamz Supernova. Radar in Clerkenwell was set up specifically to nurture younger talent and London Fields Radio has been successfully broadcasting out of the Wilton Way Cafe since 2010.

Xanthe Fuller is head of community at Mixcloud, a free platform for radio shows and mixes that now has a million DJs and radio stations uploading shows and 17 million unique users per month.

London Fields Radio manager Dimi Shoe / Matt Writtle

At Convergence London, a 10-day festival celebrating music, art and technology which starts tomorrow, Mixcloud has themed its sessions around the resurgence in radio which Fuller believes is thanks to a desire from audiences for curated content.

Theres so much choice now, says Fuller. There are all these platforms allowing us to select our own music but theres almost too much and its hard to filter it all.

What we need is a curator, someone to help us wade through whats out there. Whereas an FM station might need to have a sound that carries across the whole station, with online theres more dipping in and out, listening at any time, so it can be more varied and less constrained.

McAuliffe agrees that freedom is key to the success of internet radio and cites the US tradition of college radio as an inspiration. Everyone is pretty savvy to the idea that most media platforms are only interested in getting their numbers and ratings up. Specialist programming is always just a little ancillary thing keeping up with people who are really deeply passionate.

What online radio has really enabled, compared to the red tape of FM radio, is a chance for a huge cross-section of established and non-established DJs and musicians to have a platform. There are people who are ex-BBC sitting next to people youve never heard of before and that really lies at the core of what were all about.

Stephanie Sesay of Born n Bread, who have a monthly show on NTS, says: We have creative freedom. Sometimes we play music, sometimes we talk. And we can talk about anything we want  theres no censor.

Mister Bounce, show host of LDN HRS on Radar, explains: On no other station on a Monday afternoon will you hear UK grime and rap, the way it was meant to be played. The diversity you hear on internet radio is unparalleled compared to commercial radio stations.

This approach to diversity (of genres, show formats, staff and sounds) might be upheld by all of the capitals rising radio stations but it doesnt mean that they are generic. Fuller notes that theyre quite different from each other in terms of where theyre placed.

The best apps for Londoners 1 /16 The best apps for Londoners Zip car Join, reserve, unlock and drive  it really is that simple. The capitals preferred car clubs app gives 24/7 access to cars and vans in your neighbourhood and lets you extend or cancel reservations on the go. Free Uncover Sick of being stuck on waiting lists? You need Uncover, which redistributes cancelled reservations at some of the capitals top restaurants, including The River Cafe and Nobu. Not for planning freaks, though  tables typically become free at 40 minutes notice. Free Uber So popular its become a verb, this private driver service has revolutionised travel in the capital. Its speedy and affordable, making it a welcome alternative to the night bus. Free Santander Cycles Launched this summer, the official app for Boris fifth child can be used to search for nearby docking stations and check bike availability. Theres also a journey planner featuring easy, moderate and fast routes to satisfy all cycling tribes. Free Plume Air Report This new app has been downloaded by 3,000 Londoners. Sensors gathering air pollution data submit updates every hour, resulting in a scale that ranges from fresh to extremely polluted. Free Nightcapp Heres an app that will have booze hounds raising their glasses. NightCapp is a map that pinpoints more than 1,500 London watering holes that stay open past 11.30pm. It also shows users when a bar is about to close by highlighting it in orange. Better get moving. Free Money Dashboard An award-winning budget planner, this helps you keep track of personal spending across multiple accounts, pay off credit cards and even makes suggestions on how to manage your finances better. Free Her Promising to introduce women to a lesbian that hasnt slept with any of your friends, this revamped dating app includes queer-themed news and blogs, upcoming event notices and an improved algorithm-matching system. Free FoodMood This new startup, which reckons its Tinder for food, pledges to narrow down your choice of lunchbreak destinations. Hit yum or yuk on photos of dishes in your area. Juvenile, but strangely addictive. Free Daily Yoga This offers more than 50 yoga sessions, as well as a database of 500 yoga poses. Suitable for all levels, programmes include yoga aimed at specific areas of the body and weight loss. Namaste to that. Free Coffee Meets Bagel Billed as the anti-Tinder, this new kid on the block delivers just a single match to users once a day. Coffee Meets Bagel uses Facebook profile information to recommend suitors based on friends of friends. Neither coffee nor bagels are included. Free. Bristlr Do you have a beard? Perhaps youd like to stroke one on a regular basis? This can be arranged. Unlike other dating apps, Bristlr is unashamedly all about hooking up the hairy with the hairless. Theres even a beard-rating option for aficionados. Free

Where NTS is casting its net wide and establishing itself as a global player  60 per cent of its listeners are outside the UK  other London stations have a different focus.

Reprezent, based out of three shipping containers at POP Brixton, has a non-American music policy for its playlists, which are curated by a group of around 70 young presenters.

Station manager Adrian Newman says: Pluggers know that to get music on our station they need to send it to our young presenters  and if they dont like it, its not going on. Theres no trading; its honest.

We pick up so much unsigned music and our character is very London: house, grime, hip hop, indie, funk, we are playing the sound of young London. Its very raw, doesnt have to be perfectly mastered or immaculately produced but it has to have guts.

Guts are pretty crucial to the internet radio scene. Without the restrictions of commercial stations every show is born out of passion and enthusiasm, focusing on building an enduring relationship with its audiences.

NTSs McAuliffe talks about the human experience of listening to the radio, of making a personal connection with the host. Londons internet stations are broadcasting to individuals rather than the masses; it just so happens that the masses are listening too.

Follow Rachael on Twitter: @littlewondering
P olice searching for a missing 20-year-old man have recovered a body in woodland in south London.

Officers investigating the disappearance of Jerome Rogers, from New Addington, said a body was discovered near to Featherbed Lane at 9.30pm on Tuesday.

His next of kin have been informed but formal identification has not yet taken place.

At this stage the death, whilst believed to be non-suspicious, is being treated as unexplained pending a post mortem examination, police said.

The coroner has been informed and enquiries into the circumstances of the death are ongoing.

Police had issued a public appeal for help to find Mr Rogers, from New Addington, after he was reported missing at around 10am on Monday morning.

Mr Rogers's sister Hollie Rogers paid tribute to her brother in a post shared on Facebook.

"Thank you to everyone that spread the word yesterday about Jerome Rogers and helped search for him," she wrote.

"I'm informing you that sadly he took his own life and was found last night, it was a shock to us all.

"We know he will be sadly missed, we all loved him so much.
P olice are escalating their efforts to hunt down an attacker targeting lone women on the streets of south London.

A reward of up to 20,000 is being offered by detectives investigating a series of violent attacks.

Three women have been targeted in separate attacks in Peckham and Deptford and detectives said they cannot rule out a sexual motive.

In two of the incidents  one in Hanover Park, Peckham, between 6.15am and 6.45am on December 13 and one in Creekside, Deptford, at about 5am on January 1  the victims had items of clothing removed.

Loading....

A woman had also been attacked between 1.15am and 2.15am on December 4 in Commercial Way, Peckham.

Attacked: The victim is left collapsed on the ground as the attacker runs from the scene / Metropolitan Police

In each attack, the victims have sustained serious injuries to their heads.

New CCTV footage of the attack in Hanover Park will be shown on Thursdays Crimewatch programme, prompting Met detectives to increase the reward on offer up to 20,000.

Detective chief inspector Zena Marshall said: We are yet to identify the man seen on CCTV that we are keen to speak to in connection with this investigation, so we are continuing to appeal for the public's help to find out who he may be.

Attack: The attacker is seen to grab hold of the victim during the assault in Hanover Park / Metropolitan Police

In addition, the reward on offer has been raised to up to 20,000.

We are also releasing CCTV of the Hanover Park attack on Sunday, 13 December 2015. Anyone watching it cannot fail to be shocked by its brutality, and therefore understand the need to catch the person responsible.

I would urge anyone with any information on who the attacker may be, or anyone with any information about the attacks, to come forward and help our investigation.

Appeal: The man is captured approaching one of the victims from behind / Metropolitan Police

Detectives from the Sexual Offences, Exploitation and Child Abuse Command's Complex Case Team are continuing to appeal for a man captured on CCTV, who they want to speak to in connection with the attacks.

Anyone with information should call the investigation team on 020 8217 6541 or via 101. Information can also be given to Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
D etectives investigating the drive-by shooting of a man in north-west London have confirmed they believe the killing was a tragic case of mistaken identity.

The victim in his 20s, named locally as Oliver, was gunned down in the street in Harlesden just before 10pm on Wednesday night.

Witnesses reported hearing the rapid fire of an automatic weapon, apparently an Uzi-style machine gun.

No arrests have been made and on Thursday evening Scotland Yard renewed an appeal for information that could help their inquiry.

Victim: The man in his 20s has been named locally as Oliver / Facebook

DCI Mark Lawson, said: "The investigation to identify and arrest the person [or persons] responsible for this senseless murder is moving at a very fast pace, and I would like to thank everyone who has so far come forward and spoken to the police."

"At this very early stage in the investigation, we are exploring that the shooting was gang related, however I am satisfied that the victim was not the intended target and this was a tragic case of mistaken identity."

"Early indications are that shots were fired from an automatic weapon, although a firearm has not been recovered so we cannot speculate on the exact type."

Harlsden shooting scene

He added officers understood that a man exited a dark-coloured vehicle before firing on the young man. The car was then driven off from the scene of the shooting towards Harlesden town centre.

Scotland Yards appeal came as floral tributes were left at the junction of Church Road and Conley Road, where the shooting took place.

Tributes: Flowers have been left at the scene of the shooting

A note attached to one read: Oliver you will be truly missed.

Passers-by had tried to revive him before paramedics arrived at the scene and pronounced the young man dead from multiple gunshots to his chest and stomach.

Witness Vinod Patel, 48, who lives nearby, said: I was relaxing watching TV when I heard about six shots like a machine gun.

I went outside and saw people running towards him. Hed been shot in the chest and stomach but was still breathing.

Shooting: The scene in Harlesden today / Jeremy Selwyn

A man, who lives yards from the scene, said: I heard the noise, it sounded like more than just one gunshot.

I flew downstairs the body was on the floor. The mother was here within 15 minutes. She was shouting thats my son.

She was crying and collapsed in the street.

Anyone with information should contact police on 0208 358 0200 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
T his is the first picture of a man shot dead in a north-west London street by a gunman armed with a suspected Uzi-style machine gun.

The victim in his late 20s, named locally as Oliver, was gunned down at close-range from a blacked-out hatchback in Harlesden just before 10pm on Wednesday night, witnesses said.

Floral tributes were today being placed at the scene on Church Road, near the junction with Conley Road. A note attached to one of them read: Oliver you will be truly missed.

Passers-by had tried to revive him before paramedics arrived at the scene and pronounced the young man dead from multiple gunshots to his chest and stomach.

Harlsden shooting scene

Witness Vinod Patel, 48, who lives nearby, said: I was relaxing watching TV when I heard about six shots like a machine gun.

Tributes: Flowers have been left at the scene of the shooting

I went outside and saw people running towards him. Hed been shot in the chest and stomach but was still breathing.

A man, who lives yards from the scene, said: I heard the noise, it sounded like more than just one gunshot.

A police forensic team at the site of the shooting last night / Nigel Howard

I flew downstairs the body was on the floor. The mother was here within 15 minutes. She was shouting thats my son.

She was crying and collapsed in the street.

Another witness, aged 18, said: I heard rapid shots. It sounded like a machine gun.

Shooting: The scene in Harlesden today / Jeremy Selwyn

They shot him from point-blank range. They were going slowly at the time and then sped off down the street. The car had tinted windows so you couldnt see inside.

Scotland Yard said it was looking at all lines of enquiry after the shooting and has appealed for any witnesses to come forward.

Detective Inspector Andy George, who is leading the investigation, said: This was a shocking murder with multiple shots fired from what is believed to be a high-powered weapon.

"My team are undertaking a number of active enquiries to trace the vehicle involved and its passengers. Forensic work at the scene is ongoing."

Anyone with information should contact police on 0208 358 0200 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
A judge has ordered that an eight-year-old girl from south London be interviewed by police over concerns she was taken to Somalia by her mother to undergo female genital mutilation.

Metropolitan Police officers suspect the child was not actually cut because of intervention by authorities in the UK who urgently demanded her mother bring her home, the High Courts Family Division heard today.

The 49-year-old says she and her daughter were visiting a sick grandmother and she had no intention to allow FGM on her child.

With her husband acting as an interpreter, she told the court: "I would never agree to FGM. I don't believe in it."

The Metropolitan Police say the mother was found with a bag of medicine and ceremonial robes when she was arrested at Heathrow Airport on a flight from Nairobi, Kenya, at 5am on Wednesday.

Earlier this month a High Court order was obtained for the child's return after a south London school raised concerns that one of its pupils had failed to attend school and was being taken to Somalia.

The 45-year-old father, who had remained in this country, was also arrested at the airport.

An application for an FGM prevention order had been made by local authorities.

Both parents were taken into custody at a south London police station on suspicion of helping a foreign national to commit FGM overseas, and later released on bail.

Their daughter is temporarily in protective care arranged by the Metropolitan Police.

Both police and parents appeared before family judge Mrs Justice Hogg on Thursday to decide on how the case should proceed.

Zimran Samuel, for the police, told the judge: "Concerns originally arose through the school which indicated a child had told school friends she might be away for some three months from her eighth birthday, the age when it is normal for girls in the Somali community to be cut."

Mr Samuel said decisions would now have to be made on whether the girl should be placed in local authority care pending further court hearings, or allowed to return to her parents.

He said the police wished to take stock and interview the girl before putting a further statement before the court later this month. The parents, who had so far given "no comment" interviews, would also have the opportunity to respond.

Additional reporting by PA
A man has been convicted of killing a father after he stabbed him at a restaurant in east London.

Albanian national Hysni Avdyli, 44, of Greenleaf Road, Walthamstow, was found guilty of the manslaughter of Asim Marku, 34, on Wednesday at the Old Bailey.

On Thursday, April 16 last year, Mr Marku, known as Zeni to his friends, died at the Dolce Vita restaurant in Lea Bridge Road, Leyton, after he was stabbed in the chest during a fight.

A post-mortem examination confirmed the cause of death as blood loss due to a stab wound.

Three hours before the stabbing, Mr Marku had been involved in a violent dispute with Avdyli at a cafe in Hoe Street, Leyton.

The incident led to a fight in the Dolce Vita restaurant shortly before 10pm when Avdyli knifed the father-of-one in the chest.

Avdyli had to be pulled away as he sought to inflict further injury on a dying Mr Marku. He was arrested by police the next morning.

Mr Marku moved to the UK from Albania in 2002 and lived in Leyton with his wife and baby daughter, who was just five months-old at the time of his death.

His widow Entela Halaj said both her and her daughters world changed on the day of his death.

She said: "Zeni was our provider and protector, and now that man had been taken from Klea and I. He is a husband who I will never grow old with, and Klea cannot remember her father's hugs or kisses.

"I will have to explain to her how her father was killed. How do I tell her this? What impact is this going to have on her and me for the rest of our lives? None of us know. All we know is that a loving husband and doting father has been taken from us needlessly."

Detective Sergeant Ben Wayment of the Homicide and Major Crime Command said: "It is tragic that a dispute arising from a quarrel over the way Asim and his friends had been speaking at the first venue resulted in such a violent and senseless killing .

"Asim's baby daughter will never know her father, and that only serves to make this case all the more tragic. I hope that today's verdict will in some way help his family to come to terms with their loss.

Avdyli will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on Thursday, March 31.
A man died in a hail of gun fire in a terrifying drive-by in north-west London.

Witnesses reported hearing at least four shots in rapid succession as the man in his 20s was blasted at close-range from a blacked-out hatchback in Harlesden at just before 10pm last night.

Members of the public battled to resuscitate him before emergency services arrived but he was pronounced dead at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds to his chest and stomach.

Streets surrounding the junction of Church Road and Conley Road were sealed off by firearms officers as murder detectives launched an investigation.

Friends of the shot man claimed he was an innocent victim caught in the crossfire of a postcode war between two rival gangs.

Vinod Patel, 48, a builder who lives with his family nearby, told the Standard: I was relaxing watching TV when I heard about six shots like a machine gun.

I went outside and saw people running towards him.

"Hed been shot in the chest and stomach but was still breathing.

One man was trying to help and feeling his pulse.

A forensic officer talks to police in an armed response vehicle Nigel Howard / Nigel Howard

"It was all so quick but he didnt make it.

About 15 minutes later a woman arrived she was shouting, crazy and upset in a serious way. I dont know if she was a relative but she was out of control.

I think it was definitely mistaken identity. I live around here and I know what its like.

Members of the public battled to save the man but he was pronounced dead at the scene Nigel Howard / Nigel Howard

An 18-year-old witness said: I was in the Cash and Carry and I heard a shot and came outside and at least another two shots went off really rapidly. It sounded like a machine gun.

They shot him from point-blank range. They were going slowly at the time and then sped off down the street. The car had tinted windows so you couldnt see inside.

Two men ran after the car to try and get the number plate but it was too fast.

Surrounding streets were sealed off by firearms officers Nigel Howard / Nigel Howard

There was a man who stopped to help the man on the ground. He was doing CPR and trying to keep him alive but I dont think there was anything he could have done to save him. His chest was covered in blood and I saw the wounds.

People were still trying to help him. There was big group standing round until the police came about ten minutes later.

There are gangs in this area but this level violence is terrifying. That an innocent man has been caught up in it like this is just shocking. I just hope they catch them.

Another neighbour said: I heard a lot of gunshots in quick succession. There were lots of loud bangs. Then I saw all the blue lights. Its terrifying.

A Met spokeswoman said: Police were called at 9.58pm on Wednesday to reports of a shooting in Church Road at the junction with Conley Road.

Officers, firearms officers and the London Ambulance Service attended and found a man in his late twenties with gun shot injuries. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Next of kin have yet to be informed. Formal identification and a post-mortem examination will be scheduled in due course.

At this early stage officers believe that the victim was shot by a male suspect who fled the scene in a vehicle.

No arrests have been made and enquires continue.

Anyone who witnessed the incident or has any information is asked to contact police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
A man has been jailed for five years after stabbing a Tube passenger with a pair of scissors in a random attack.

Adeyemi Adekeye, 27, attacked the victim on the Victoria line platform at Finsbury Park Tube station at about 1.30pm on August 11 last year.

The victim thought he had been punched and managed to get onto a train and away from Adekeye. But once on the train, he realised he had been injured and was bleeding.

Adekeye boarded a Piccadilly line train to Heathrow Airport and was arrested by officers at the airports bus station.

He was found guilty of grievous bodily harm at Blackfriars Crown Court on January 28 and was sentenced to five years in prison on March 4.

Detective constable Steve McBride, from British Transport Police, said: This was a random attack on a man who was going about his day. Everyone has the right to travel on the rail network without fear or intimidation.

I hope that the sentence handed to Adekeye will allow him to reflect on his actions on that day.

Steve Burton, Transport for Londons director of enforcement and on-street operations, branded the unprovoked attack as callous.

He added: Thanks to the victims report and the immediate investigation carried out by the British Transport Police this offender was arrested and subsequently jailed.

We are committed to ensuring our customers travel freely across our network in confidence and will continue to work with our police partners to crackdown on any incidents of crime, pushing for the toughest penalties for those caught.
A man was shot dead in the street in north-west London in a drive-by attack by a gunman armed with a suspected Uzi-style machine gun.

Witnesses reported hearing at least four rapid shots as the man in his late 20s was blasted at close-range from a blacked-out hatchback in Harlesden just before 10pm last night.

Passers-by tried to revive the man before paramedics arrived but he was pronounced dead at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds to his chest and stomach.

Scotland Yard said detectives did not believe the shooting was gang related and reports on social media suggested the shooting was the result of a dispute between two rival rappers over stolen jewellery.

Members of the public battled to save the man but he was pronounced dead at the scene / Nigel Howard

There were also claims that the victim was an innocent bystander who had been living locally who was caught in crossfire.

Vinod Patel, 48, who lives nearby, said: I was relaxing watching TV when I heard about six shots like a machine gun.

Shooting: The scene in Harlesden today / Jeremy Selwyn

I went outside and saw people running towards him. Hed been shot in the chest and stomach but was still breathing.

One man was trying to help and feeling his pulse. It was all so quick but he didnt make it.

Carlos Gagolewicz, 38, who works in retail, said: I heard the gun, it was definitely like a short burst from a machine gun. It was like something out of a gangster movie - you dont expect it, not even around here. 

Surrounding streets were sealed off by firearms officers Nigel Howard / Nigel Howard

A local cafe owner, who knew the victim, said he was not a gang member.

She said: He would come here and was polite and nice. I cant believe he was targeted. He was visiting a friend when it happened. I heard that his mum lives around here.

Locals said there had been a series of rows between rival drug dealers at the spot outside a church where the victim was shot.

A forensic officer talks to police in an armed response vehicle Nigel Howard / Nigel Howard

The stretch of Church Road is said to be manned by gangs who run two drug dealing corners one at the junction with Conley Road where the shooting happened.

Gzim Shira, a builder said: The kids on this corner are selling drugs. Its terrible around here. We fear for our lives. You walk down that stretch of road with fear they are scary people.

Electrical engineer Aaron Campbell, 28, who lives yards from the scene, said: I heard the noise, it sounded like more than just one gunshot.

I flew downstairs the body was on the floor. The mother was here within 15 minutes. She was shouting thats my son.

She was crying and collapsed in the street.

A police forensic team at the site of the shooting last night Nigel Howard / Nigel Howard

Another witness, aged 18, said: I heard rapid shots. It sounded like a machine gun.

They shot him from point-blank range. They were going slowly at the time and then sped off down the street. The car had tinted windows so you couldnt see inside.

He said one man stopped at the scene and tried to revive the victim.  I dont think there was anything he could have done to save him. His chest was covered in blood and I saw the wounds. There are gangs in this area but this level of violence is terrifying.

Scotland Yard said it was looking at all lines of inquiry after the shooting.

Detective Inspector Andy George, who is leading the investigation, said: This was a shocking murder with multiple shots fired from what is believed to be a high-powered weapon.

"My team are undertaking a number of active enquiries to trace the vehicle involved and its passengers. Forensic work at the scene is ongoing.

We believe a number of people in the area witnessed what occurred and have yet to come forward. I would urge them and anyone else who has information regarding this incident to contact us right away.

Anyone with information should contact police on 0208 358 0200 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
A carer who suffocated her bed-bound father with a plastic bag in a mercy killing could serve just four years of a life term for his murder.

Claire Darbyshire, 36, was found guilty of killing her father Brian but an Old Bailey judge today accepted he had agreed to die. The sentence of life with a minimum of four years is one of the lowest for murder in UK legal history.

Darbyshire killed the 67-year-old at their Dagenham home before threatening to throw herself off cliffs in Kent.

She claimed they had a suicide pact because her father, who lived with multiple sclerosis, had had enough of suffering. However, a jury rejected her plea to manslaughter and convicted her of murder after a trial.

Nicholas Hilliard QC, the Recorder of London, said she had not proved her father agreed to her also dying. But he told her: Brian Darbyshire did consent to his own death and initiated it happening. The defendant may have agreed to end his life as an act of mercy.

If this was the position, not only was this a mercy killing but it has features in common with assisted suicide.

The judge pointed out she had killed him when nobody could step in to stop it: You did that behind closed doors and you should not have done.

Darbyshire, who is transgender and was born Christopher, is in a mens jail. The court heard she had been verbally abused but staff and inmates had of-fered help and support and she was continuing with her transitioning.

She suffocated her father, a retired Ford stock controller, at about 4.30am on September 2 last year. He was first diagnosed with MS in 1995, and by the time of his death was confined to his bed. Darbyshire took over his care when her mother died in 2008, and by 2014 had given up her volunteer job in a jewellery shop to be his sole carer.

They lived a reclusive life, their only contact with the outside world the nurses who came to change Mr Darbyshires catheter, the court heard.

After the murder Darbyshire sent a text message to a district nurses phone saying: Pls visit brian darbyshire, followed by her address and instructions of how to enter the front door.

The next day she was seen on the clifftops at Dover and said: I want to break my body but Im too scared to go through with it. Five days later she claimed they had taken overdoses together but the drugs failed to work.

The body, accompanied by a teddy bear, was found with a note saying: Dad ... asked me to help him end it.

Now I have to end it too as my action is claimed as a crime. If it was an animal you would stop its suffering, but when it comes to a member of your own species you want to prolong the suffering. We have the cheek to call ourselves civilised. In another note she called her father selfless and wonderful.
A cache of documents containing personal details of thousands of Islamic State (IS) fighters has been leaked by a disillusioned former member.

More than 22,000 documents, described as a gold mine for intelligence services, show addresses, phone numbers and family contacts of people who signed up to join the organisation, including at least 16 British fighters.

The documents, obtained by Sky News, were stolen by a former member of the Syrian Free Army who joined IS and then became disillusioned, saying that it has been taken over by soldiers from the Iraqi Baath party of Saddam Husssein, the broadcaster said.

He said he took them from the head of the group's internal security police. Sky News said it had passed the cache of documents on to the security services.

Former global terrorism operations director at MI6, Richard Barrett, described the leak as a "fantastic coup".

He said: "It will be an absolute gold mine of information of enormous significance and interest to very many people, particularly the security and intelligence services."

Fighter: London rapper Abdel Bary YouTube / YouTube

According to Sky News, one of the forms gives the details of Abdel Bary, a 26-year-old London rapper who joined IS in 2013 after visiting Libya, Egypt and Turkey.

Bary is believed to have left the group last summer after a number of coalition airstrikes.

Another of the forms shows the details of Junaid Hussain, a Briton married to Sally-Anne Jones, the former punk rock group member known as the White Widow.

His form reveals his fighter name "Abu Hasayn Al Britani", his mother's maiden name, his date of birth, the fact that he has a secondary level education and was previously an "electronics specialist".

David Cameron announced in September that Hussain had been killed in an RAF drone strike.

The Prime Minister said that Hussain, along with Reyaad Khan, from Cardiff, who had also been killed, was involced in recruitment and planning a number of attacks against the west, including Britain.
P olice are hunting two men after jewellery was burgled from a house in south-east London.

Officers were called to an address in Woodsyre, Sydenham Hill, at 5.40pm on January 14 to reports of a burglary.

Two men broke into a house and stole a number of jewellery items including pearl drop earrings, a necklace, a jewellery box and a Swarovski crystal dragonfly broach.

Police have released images of the suspects in a bid to identify them.

Police believe the raid may be linked to an attempted burglary at an address near by / Met Police

The first is described as white, aged between 40 and 50, 5ft 7ins with black untidy hair and grey sides. He was seen wearing blue jeans, a black jacket and black trainers.

The second is described as a chubby man who wore a dark coloured tracksuit with the hood up.

Police said the raid is believed to be linked to an attempted burglary at a nearby address.

No arrests have been made.

Anyone with information is asked to call Southwark CID on 020 7232 6127, police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111
A man whose houseboat was gutted by fire has rebuilt his life after his canal neighbours rallied around him to raise money and give him a place to stay.

Stewart Collier, 40, had just finished renovating his houseboat in west London when a bucket of ashes caught fire and flames tore through the vessel.

The boat, Dreamland, which was not fully insured, was left a burnt-out shell  and Mr Collier also lost the tools he needed in his job as a mechanic.

However, the community on the canal in Brentford set up a Facebook appeal and raised more than 2,000.

Mr Collier said: The way people have helped me is amazing. I am a boat mechanic and they have replaced the tools I lost and given me a bicycle to get to jobs.

"They have also offered me loads of places to stay and given me their keys and said, Help yourself to food. I have never felt so good about human nature.

Dreamland, which Mr Collier took trips on as a child, had been a part of his life for almost 30 years. He had gone out to get milk when the fire started at about 10.30pm on February 28.

I was out with the dog, I went to the shop and then popped in to see a friend, he said.

Then someone said a boat was on fire and I rushed back. It was heart-breaking  the fire had really taken hold. The woman on the boat next to mine was in tears, it was really upsetting. It was not so much the boat but the little things I lost, including an 18th birthday present from my mother.

Eilidh Ogden, 32, who lives on the canal and launched the appeal, said: To lose everything like that is terrible and we wanted to do something to help. Stewart is a brilliant mechanic and has helped many people with their boats.

Mr Collier plans to get back on the water with a new version of Dreamland. He said: I am going to call it Phoenix as it will be truly rising from the ashes.
A north London council has become one of the first in the UK to launch a lettings agency.

Haringey Council has set up a private sector lettings agency to help protect renters from "rip-off fees and charges".

Move 51 North, which launched on Thursday, will be the first lettings agency in conjunction with a council to help private tenants who are not on temporary or social housing lists.

The council said it set up the company to give tenants a fairer deal and help landlord provide a reliable service.

Landlords will be matched with tenants who face rent hikes, inflated contract renewal fees or who have had bad service from other lettings companies.

Councillor Alan Strickland, cabinet member for housing and regeneration, said: Private tenants in London are too often forgotten in the noisy debate about the housing market in our city.

Haringey is fast becoming one of Londons most popular places to live and work, and we know many people prefer the flexibility of the private rented sector  which is why its vital we do more to protect them from rogue landlords and unscrupulous lettings firms.

Im delighted to launch our new lettings agency today that will offer both renters and landlords a better deal and help stamp out rip-off fees and charges.
N ew interactive images reveal how Londons skyline could dramatically change if all the skyscrapers with approval are built as planned.

Some 436 skyscrapers of more than 20 floors are now in the pipeline for the capital, according to a report by New London Architecture and GLHearn.

Eighty-nine towers are under construction, 233 have approval but work is yet to start, and 114 are at the planning or pre-application stage, the research found.

In the past 12 months alone, 119 skyscrapers have entered the planning system but only 16 have been completed, which suggests actually building them is another matter.

The pictures show how the view from St Pauls Cathedral towards Blackfriars and the City will look once the tall buildings are constructed.

Loading....

Peter Murray, chairman of New London Architecture, said: "We believe that well designed tall buildings in the right place, and well coordinated clusters, are acceptable. It is increasingly important that the planning and development community improves the way it communicates with the wider public.

Loading....

"We continue to press for the Mayor to prepare a three-dimensional computer model of the whole of London to better assess the impact of these buildings.

"The 436 tall buildings in the pipeline is a significant number. However, with the much publicised softening of the housing market, it remains to be seen how quickly they are delivered."

The study also found that, of the 94 tall buildings submitted for planning approval over the past year, 43 were approved and only three refused.

From the 43 approved, 32 form part of the Greenwich Peninsula while the rejected schemes include Hounslow House in west London, Gagarin Tower in Southwark and the central phase 4 site in Woolwich.

Tower Hamlets is set to become home to 93 proposed skyscrapers, Greenwich has 67, Barnet has 23 and Croydon has 18.
G overnment ministers were today accused of hiding key details of plans to force London boroughs to sell off thousands of high-value council houses.

Labour issued figures claiming that the authorities will lose more council homes than all the other regions in England added together.

The Housing and Planning Bill aims to force the sell-off to fund a new right to buy for housing association tenants.

Ministers argue it is wasteful for boroughs to sit on properties worth 1 million or more. But shadow housing minister John Healey protested that the Government had not yet published draft regulations showing how the rules would work, despite MPs and peers already voting on the powers.

It is not clear if this failure results from incompetence or cynicism, he wrote to Communities Secretary Greg Clark. Does your department really have no idea how to implement the legislation you are putting through Parliament?

He suggested ministers may be avoiding proper scrutiny in Parliament by passing only broad powers while holding back the details.

Mayor Boris Johnson joined Labour council leaders protesting against the scheme last year. Conservative mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith negotiated a guarantee that two affordable homes will be built in London for each council house sold off  but critics still predicted a net loss of social housing.

Experts think more than one in seven of the 400,000 London council houses could be sold off under the plans.

Housing charity Shelter claims the seven authorities losing most homes are all in London  led by Camden, with 11,714 properties over the likely price threshold. Next comes Westminster with 9,213, Kensington & Chelsea on 6,643 and Islington with 6,310.
L ondon is already the worlds most popular tourist destination  now it is pulling ahead of rivals such as New York and Paris on social media too, according to a survey.

The capital was the most talked-about city on Twitter last year and the backdrop for more Instagram selfies than any other place on earth. It has also been Googled more times than anywhere else since 2004.

The Twitter figures, compiled by online data firm Spredfast, show the words London and travel were tweeted together more than 630,000 times last year.

This was almost 50 per cent more than the next most tweeted travel destination, Paris, on 431,662 and more than twice as many as New York, on 291,891.

London was tweeted on its own more than 81 million times last year, more than Sydney, Tokyo and Rome combined. The most tweeted attractions were the London Eye, with 241,570, followed by the British Museum, on 219,074.

The Twitter data was commissioned by the Mayors promotion body London & Partners to mark the launch of a campaign starring superfans of London from America.

Separate analysis from airport transfers company Hoppa shows that London is the Instagram selfies capital of the world, ahead of Buenos Aires, Chennai, Mecca and New York.

But for all categories of Instagram images, London ranks second behind New York with just over 47 million.

Londons tourism bosses are braced for another record-breaking year in 2016 after setting new highs for foreign visitor numbers in 2013 and 2014.

London events being discussed heavily on social media include the Queens 90th birthday celebrations, the 400th anniversary of Shakespeares death and the opening of the play Harry Potter And The Cursed Child.

Boris Johnson said: Its no wonder that London is the most talked-about travel destination on social media. Even better, this online chatter is translating into record-breaking visitor numbers.

US superfan goes on a VIP tour of capital

American monarchist Christine Meer comes face to face with Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace during a trip to London.

Ms Meer, 34, was one of four superfans picked by London & Partners to visit the capital to mark the Fans of London campaign.

Royal Super Fan's Surprise VIP Tour Of Londons Royal Palaces

It was the first time the speech therapist from Columbus, Ohio had visited Britain.

She was given special access to the Historic Royal Palaces, including Kensington Palace and Hampton Court, and had a royal makeover.

She said: Ive been a huge fan of the monarchy ever since I can remember, and love learning about their history. This was like a dream come true for me.
T wo police officers helped to save a mans life after he collapsed just yards from a south-west London police station.

Pc Matt Keen and Pc Will Scott-Barrett, from the Northcote Safer Neighbourhood Team, were alerted by a bystander at 8am on Wednesday to a man who had fallen on the pavement near Lavender Hill Police Station in Battersea.

The man was receiving CPR from a member of the public before Pc Keen took over the chest compressions while Pc Scott-Barrett made the scene safe.

They were quickly joined by first responders from the London Fire Brigade and London Ambulance Service who worked to successfully restart his heart.

The man was then taken to a hospital in south London.

Pc Scott-Barrett said: In a cardiac arrest, the most important task is to provide high-quality, effective CPR and early defibrillation.

I am hugely grateful to the bystander who was the first to deliver good quality CPR and I have no doubt that his efforts combined with the CPR provided by us and the London Fire Brigade played a significant part in the successful restarting of the patient's heart once the paramedics arrived.

Pc Keen said: There aren't many jobs that present you the chance to preserve a mans life thats on the very brink of death.

I am proud to be a Police Constable and days like this reinforce my belief in what we do."

Inspector James Ellis said the men should be very proud after their intervention helped save the mans life.
A Japanese restaurant has been hit with a bill of almost 7,000 after a customer inadvertently drank kitchen descaler.

Representatives for The Japanese Canteen in Middlesex Street, Spitalfields, pleaded guilty at Thames Magistrates Court on February 11.

The case was brought following a complaint to Tower Hamlets Council by a customer last April when they alleged the cleaning fluid was in Jasmine tea they had ordered.

The customer reported a burning sensation in their throat but is believed to have suffered no long-term medical damage.

The restaurant met with the councils environmental health and trading standards service who investigated the complaint last June.

Bosses admitted the incident had taken place and could not show any records to show staff had been trained in health and safety procedures.

In court, the company claimed it was isolated and pleaded for leniency as phosphorus acid found in descaler is also used in Coca Cola.

The hearing heard the company took immediate steps to rectify the situation and co-operated fully with the investigation.

The restaurant was fined 4,000, ordered to pay 2,750 costs and a 120 victim surcharge, meaning the combined cost was 6,970.

Cllr Ayas Miah, Tower Hamlets cabinet member for environment, said: The council take breaches of food safety very seriously, especially when they are extreme cases such as this.

We remind all food retailers of the importance of hygiene, and will take enforcement action when retailers are in breach of the law.

"Our Food Safety team inspects businesses on a regular basis to ensure that everyone who lives, visits or works in the borough can be confident of consuming any food products they purchase.
T wo London parents have created a mini version of the internet aimed at keeping children safe online.

Entrepreneurs Estelle and Douglas Lloyd, from Highbury, came up with the idea after their seven-year-old daughter Chloe Googled three kittens and found unsuitable content.

The couple, who have two other daughters Philomene, nine, and Melusine, two, developed Azoomee, a tablet app for primary-age children which is backed by the NSPCC.

Content, on iOS and Android, includes videos, games such as Angry Birds, audio books and a digital arts and crafts studio. It is managed by a team who include a primary school teacher.

Cartoons teach being a good digital citizen, internet etiquette and how to create and remember strong passwords, plus what happens when you post a photograph online.

Access costs 4.99 a month and there is a free version with fewer features.

A chat function requires the parents of both children to confirm their identities and agree to them speaking.

Mrs Lloyd, 43, said that when their daughters started using the internet they ended up in places where really children have no place to be.

"Were not talking really scary things, but certain types of news, for example when there were people being beheaded, we thought our children were only two clicks away from ending up on a video discussing that.

My daughter was looking for the Three Kittens song, if you type that into Google youll be surprised at what comes up.

A Google News search for three kittens brings up stories about cats dying or being abandoned.

Mr Lloyd, 42, said a key principle of Azoomee is that when children are on it they cant be identified so we abide by the most stringent data rules about what we collect.

He added: Its like a walkie-talkie  they can talk to each other but no one else. There are no group forums because we want to avoid the possibility of cyber-bullying."
D avid Cameron today backed Michael Goves denial that he revealed the Queens private views on Europe.

The Prime Minister rejected Labours call for a Whitehall leak inquiry, making it clear that he believed the Justice Secretary when he said he had no idea who the source of the story was.

Mr Cameron argued that a limited inquiry by the new Press watchdog, Ipso, should handle the matter. But Ipso is expected to investigate only the question of whether the Sun newspapers headline  Queen Backs Brexit  was justified by its evidence.

Tory MP Sir Nicholas Soames said whoever leaked the story should be sacked if caught. As clear as could be theyll have to go, he tweeted.

Asked on BBC Radio Oxford whether he would have to sack Mr Gove if it emerged that he was the source of the story, the Prime Minister said: Obviously, these are very serious matters.

But as far as I can see, Michael Gove has made clear that he has no idea where this story came from either.

TODO: define component type apester

Mr Cameron had an audience with the Queen last night, according to the Court Circular. Asked on the radio if it would be uncomfortable for him if a minister had broken the oath of confidentiality of a Privy Council member, he replied: Of course. But what we have got here is Buckingham Palace and the former deputy prime minister [Nick Clegg] putting out the clearest possible statements denying this story.

And the complaint has been made to the independent standards organisation for the press and they are going to have a look at it, so I think we should let that work continue.

The Suns report alleged that the Queen said Europe was heading in wrong direction during a Privy Council lunch at Windsor Castle in April 2011.

Mr Gove and Mr Clegg were both present, along with Liberal Democrat peer Tom McNally and former Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan. Mr Clegg has dismissed the claim as nonsense and said he cannot remember such a discussion.

Mr Goves allies have insisted they have no idea who the sources are. Both responses were seen by some MPs as falling short of effective denials.

Sun editor Tony Gallagher today defended his papers report. When challenged over its headline, which was not explicitly supported by quotes, he said the paper possessed secret information it had not published.

You are going to have to take my word for it that we are completely confident that the Queens views were expressed exactly as we have outlined them both in the headline and the story, he said.

It is also the case that we knew much more than we published and that remains the case. We are in no doubt that the story is accurate.

Labour has written to Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood demanding an investigation. Downing Street said the letter had not yet been received.
T he driver of a car which plunged into a river in Sweden and killed British band Viola Beach probably acted intentionally, Swedish police have said.

Band members Tom Lowe, 27, Kris Leonard, 20, River Reeves, 19 and Jack Dakin, 19, and their tour manager Craig Tarry, 33, died after the car they were travelling in fell 80ft through a gap on a motorway bridge, which had been lifted to let through a passing boat, last month.

The band, from Warrington, had played their first gig in Europe prior to the early morning crash on February 13.

The Aftonbladet newspaper in Sweden reconstructed the moment the car approached a lane of stationary cars on the bridge before swerving onto the hard shoulder, crashing through the barriers and continuing towards the bridge.

Lars Berglund, who is leading the Swedish polices investigation, told the newspaper: As far as I can see, most [of the band] had already been killed up there on the bridge. It looks like the driver was acting intentionally.

Kjell Lindgren, from Stockholm Police, told the newspaper it was not natural to carry on driving if theres a stop sign, parked cars and blinking red lights.

An inquest which was opened earlier this month heard that the driver  whose identity has not been revealed  had no alcohol or drugs in his blood at the time of the crash.
A man has been charged after a British backpacker was allegedly sexually assaulted and stabbed in Sydney.

The 23-year-old victim was found injured in Redfern at about 3pm local time on Tuesday after a man allegedly entered her bedroom and tried to assault her.

New South Wales Police said the man left the room and returned with a knife, which is used to stab the woman several times.

Police said the woman was able to run from the man and armed herself with a knife, before she stabbed the alleged attacker in the chest as she tried to fight him off.

The man, who has not been named by police, is under guard in hospital.

A beside court was arranged and he was charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent to murder and aggravated sexual assault with threat to inflict actual bodily harm.

He was refused bail and will appear at Sydneys Central Local Court on May 5.
M arvel has unveiled the new full length trailer for Captain America: Civil War  and it features Tom Holland as Spider-Man.

The actor makes his debut as the web-slinging superhero as he swings into the two minute clip after being called in by Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) before stealing Captain Americas shield and adding: Hey everyone.

The new trailer begins with the superheroes being shown footage of a burning New York, Washington D.C and Sokovia before they clash over whether or not their actions should be regulated by the government.

Iron Man states We need to be put in check to which Captain America replies: Sorry Tony, if I see a situation pointing South I cant ignore it. Sometimes I wish I could.

Despite calls to not end their disagreement in a fight, the pair battle it out after Iron Man accuses Captain America of starting a war.

Black widow, Black Panther, War Machine and The Vision throw their allegiance to Iron Man while Ant-Man, Hawkeye, Falcon, Scarlet Witch and Winter Soldier side with Captain America.

The third film in the franchise was directed by the Russo brothers who also helmed The Winter Soldier.

The film is set for UK cinema release on April 29.

Captain America: Civil War - trailer breakdown 1 /30 Captain America: Civil War - trailer breakdown Captain America: Civil War There's a lot to unpack in the brand new trailer - see what you might have missed Gripping opener Those who stayed until after the credits of Ant-Man will recognise this scene of Steve Rogers (aka Captain America) and Sam Wilson (aka Falcon) finally tracking down Rogers old friend Bucky Barnes. In the previous Captain America film, a brainwashed Barnes returned as The Winter Soldier, a deadly assassin with a bionic arm Marvel/Disney Caught in a trap It seems like Barnes is trapped with his metal arm in a vice  it seems like the authorities have also been chasing him down, but why? Marvel/Disney Ka-boom Ah, thats why. Heres a very important-looking building going boom  and the powers that be are probably thinking that The Winter Soldier is responsible. Luckily, Buckys got a very loyal friend hoping to prove his innocence Marvel/Disney Cap vs. The World So theres the set-up  Cap is taking on the government to try and protect Bucky Marvel/Disney Fisticuffs Directors Anthony and Joe Russo, who also helmed Captain America: The Winter Soldier, are returning, and it looks like the impressive hand-to-hand combat from the previous film is coming back too Marvel/Disney A blast from the past The most notable mis-step in the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far has been the 2008 take on The Incredible Hulk  but it hasnt been entirely forgotten. William Hurt is back for the first time since that film as General Ross, here delivering an ominous warning to Cap: While a great many people see you as a hero, there are some who prefer the word vigilante Marvel/Disney Repercussions This chunky document is titled The Sokovia Accords. Sokovia was the name of the city that was attacked in Avengers: Age of Ultron  it seems the super-powered events there will have serious consequences on how the world view heroes Marvel/Disney Nats back Scarlett Johansson is back once again as Caps loyal friend and fellow agent Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow Marvel/Disney The big reveal There he is  Iron Man is back. The Civil War of the title will come to a head between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark Marvel/Disney Damage Worth noting: Tony Starks black eye. Has he been on the receiving end of one of Caps super-powered punches? Marvel/Disney Winging it Falcon, also introduced in The Winter Soldier, is back too  now with a snazzier set of wings Marvel/Disney Team Stark Iron Man  with a new chest-piece, having had the deadly shrapnel in his body removed in Iron Man 3  is backed up by James Rhodes, aka War Machine, as well as Marvel/Disney The newcomer  TChalla, aka Black Panther! Chadwick Boseman has been cast as the pioneering black super hero, and it looks like hell be on Starks side Marvel/Disney Team Cap Fighting alongside Rogers are Falcon, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch (now flying with her spooky red powers), and the Winter Soldier Marvel/Disney Live and kicking Bucky Barnes meets Black Panthers boot Marvel/Disney Where in the world? To hazard a guess, this looks like it could be Wakanda  the fictional African nation ruled in the comics by Black Panther. It was introduced by name in Avengers: Age of Ultron Marvel/Disney Handyman Cap displays his super-strength by stopping a helicopter taking off  with his bare hands Marvel/Disney Big action It looks like one of the biggest action sequences in the film will take place at an airport  heres Black Widow looking at a huge explosion Marvel/Disney The heart of the matter Bucky attempts to stop Iron Man by attacking the chest-piece on his suit Marvel/Disney Sticky end? It would be too much to assume that War Machine dies  would they really put that in the trailer?  but Tony Stark wont be happy about his mate getting hurt Marvel/Disney The killer line Captain America: Im sorry Tony. You know I wouldnt do this if I had any other choice. But hes my friend.

Iron Man: So was I

Everyone: *in tears* Marvel/Disney The money shot And to top everything off, heres Cap and Bucky teaming up to knock seven bells out of Iron Man. Bring on April. Marvel/Disney

Follow @StandardShowbiz for more entertainment news.
C arole King is one of the most celebrated songwriters of the 20th century, but she says she will never pen another hit and is instead working on her first novel.

Rumours had surfaced among fans that King, 74, had been writing her first new music for years.

But the songwriter, pictured, said: Im working on a novel  thats the new material. I do have a memoir out, but my second book is going to be a novel and obviously it will draw on some of my life experiences.

Its also about a fictional character  let that be stated. But I dont write songs any more. I feel that anything that I think that I want to write, I feel like Ive already written.

Music in London 2016: The years biggest gigs 1 /13 Music in London 2016: The years biggest gigs The Libertines The O2 30 January 2016 Pete, Carl and co have been out and about a fair bit since the release of their first album in 11 years, Anthems For Doomed Youth. But catching them live is still a special experience, whatever state they turn up in on the night. The Libertines tickets JOSE JORDAN/AFP/Getty Images Foals Wembley 16 February 2016 This Oxford-formed band are growing their fanbase by the day thanks to a style that combines indie with touches of punk and funk. This gig  part of their very first UK tour  will be the bands biggest to date, and comes with the added bonus of Everything Everything supporting. Foals tickets Warner Bros Adele The O2 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22 March and 4, 5 April 2016 She needs no introduction, and judging by the chaos that ensued when tickets for this tour were released, she needs no help selling seats either. She will play eight dates at the O2 as part of her tour, which also takes in Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Belfast and Dublin as well as cities across Europe. Adele tickets Kevin Winter/Getty Images Wolf Alice The Forum 26, 28 March 2016 Playing in Kentish Town is something of a homecoming for this north London band who have won a Mercury Prize nomination for their debut album My Love Is Cool. Wolf Alice tickets Jenn Five Muse The O2 3, 11, 12, 14, 15 April 2016 Muse know how to pack both energy and immense theatrics into a show, and this run of five nights at the O2 will be no different. The set-up will be quite something in itself  the band will perform in the round, on a stage shaped like a double-headed arrow and we hear the set will also feature a whole swarm of drones. Muse tickets AC/DC Olympic Stadium 4 June 2016 As if a rare UK stadium gig from AC/DC wasnt exciting enough, this will be the first one at Stratfords stadium once it completes being reconfigured after the 2012 games. The gig is part of the Back In Black performers Rock or Bust World Tour and is followed by a date in Manchester on June 9. AC/DC tickets Coldplay Wembley 15, 16, 18, 19 June 2016 Coldplay are rolling into town in June with four nights at a packed Wembley Stadium to mark new album A Head Full of Dreams. Expect Chris Martin and co to put on a characteristically impressive, energetic and atmospheric show. Coldplay tickets Rihanna Wembley 24 June 2016 Rihanna will pack out Wembley as part of a tour to mark her eighth album Anti, with saucy on-stage antics a given. Less certain is whether or not shell be on time  she was 45mins late for a gig in Twickenham in 2013. The Weeknd will be among the singers support. Rihanna tickets Justin Bieber The O2 11, 12, 14, 15 October and 28, 29 November 2016 Love him or loathe him, Bieber is one of the biggest celebrities on the planet right now, and hes laying on a suitably epic-sized world tour to match. Six nights at the O2 are backed up by three each in Birmingham and Glasgow and one in Sheffield. Justin Bieber tickets Kevin Winter/Getty The Cure Wembley 2, 3 December 2016 The iconic English rock band, led by enigmatic frontman Robert Smith, will play Wembley as part of their first European tour since 2008. theyll be supported by The Twilight Sad. The Cure tickets Theo Wargo/Getty Images

Kings 1971 album Tapestry is one of the best-selling records of all time and includes hits Will You Love Me Tomorrow, Youve Got A Friend, (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman and Its Too Late.

It was announced this week that she will perform Tapestry in full at Barclaycard presents British Summer Time in Hyde Park on July 3, her first show in Britain since 1989.

News of the gig comes after Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, recently celebrated its first birthday at the Aldwych Theatre.

King said: My concert is a fantastic way to be able to say thank you to London for making the musical a success.

She has preferred to shy away from the limelight and lives in a cabin in the wilderness in Idaho.

She said: Its a rural lifestyle. Its very down-to-earth, literally and figuratively. I wanted to escape [the limelight] very much and I have.

"I have a relatively quiet life now and Im away from civilisation  if I want to go to the market I have to drive 20 minutes to the nearest one.I sort of stock up on my supplies and live in a cabin in the woods  literally.

Other headliners at the Hyde Park concert series include Take That and Florence + The Machine.
L ouis Tomlinson has helped a Doncaster couple to fly home after they became stranded in Vietnam.

The One Direction star proved that he still has a soft spot for his home town as he stepped in to make a sizable donation to Rhys Sykes, 24, and Sarah Liddle, 23.

After a motorcycle accident on Valentines Day, the couple issued a crowd-funding appeal in a bid to raise money for medical bills and flights home.

The couple were both so badly injured that they required special evacuation flights back to the UK, which cost 15,000 each.

One Direction's Louis Tomlinson tweets picture of baby son Freddie

They were still short of the money they needed to make the return flights this month, so the pop superstar decided to make a contribution.

Liddles aunt Julie told the Doncaster Freepress: Louis heard about our appeal to get Rhys and Sarah home and his mum got in touch saying how upset he was to hear about what had happened and how he would like to help.

He gave a very sizeable donation to the fund and we would like to say a very big thank you to Louis and his family for being so kind.

Liddle, who broke her leg in the crash, is now recovering at Sheffields Northern General Hospital after undergoing an operation.


LINCOLN  Gov. Pete Ricketts endorsed a proposal Tuesday that would ask Nebraska voters to create a constitutional right to farm.

The governor expressed his support for Legislative Resolution 378CA while announcing plans to fly around the state next week promoting National Ag Week.

If the Legislature adopts the resolution, voters will be asked in November whether to amend the State Constitution to protect the right to farm and ranch.

I think its important to protect agriculture from outside extremist groups, Ricketts said.

Senators probably will debate the resolution this year, although it will face opposition from those concerned that it could be used to shield farmers and ranchers from environmental and animal welfare regulations.

The resolution has the support of grain and livestock groups, but it is opposed by the Nebraska Farmers Union. The Nebraska Farm Bureau, the states largest ag group, took a neutral position.

Next week, during National Ag Week, the governor will make appearances in Omaha, Falls City, Hasting and McCook. He will be accompanied by Greg Ibach, director of the Nebraska Department of Agriculture, and Sen. Jerry Johnson of Wahoo, chairman of the Legislatures Agriculture Committee.

Agriculture is fundamental to our state, Ricketts said. It is the heart and soul of who we are.
TORRINGTON, Wyoming  In order to allow members to attend the Matinee for the Museums, scheduled for later in the afternoon, the Goshen County Historical Society has rearranged its March 19 meeting agenda. The program will begin at 11:30 a.m., followed by lunch at 12:30 p.m., and conclude with a short business meeting. This should free members and guests in time to attend the movie, The King and I, at the Wyoming Theater in downtown Torrington.

The days program will be presented by John Kessler, a rancher on Bear Creek, west of LaGrange. His Power Point presentation will include photos of life in the community, which originated with cowboys who found the livestock country in the late 1800s while on cattle drives from Texas. The Kesslers were among the early settlers.

The meeting is free and open to the public. It will be at the VFW Post #2918. Lunch is $10 per person and is prepared by the VFW Auxiliary. Lunch reservations must be made by noon, Tuesday, March 15, by leaving name and number of meals needed with society vice president Sandra Hansen at 532-3619.

The VFW is at 908 W. 25th Ave., east of the National Guard Armory, and is handicap accessible.
A scramble to figure out how the state would pay for LB1032 and its Arkansas-style private insurance entitlement is upending the idea that Medicaid expansion flows with free money to insulate states from tough fiscal decisions.

Competing fiscal notes from the Legislative Fiscal Office (LFO) and Nebraskas Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) provide a small sample of the budget uncertainty lawmakers would face if they accepted Medicaid expansion and its inflexible federal mandates wholesale. Over five fiscal years, DHHS says LB1032 would cost the state $153 million, while LFO estimates $111.6 million.

But supporters are having sticker shock for both estimates. They wanted a lower price that could be financed without using state general funds for some period of time, but there is likely no way to fund expansion outside the general fund without creating a new tax or raising taxes. Worse yet, LFO and DHHS may still be underestimating the true cost of LB1032.

In LB1032s fiscal note, LFO staff acknowledged there is a great degree of uncertainty in projecting the cost of this bill. Their caution is not without merit. Incorrect assumptions in other states have pushed Medicaid expansion enrollments and costs above projections by an average of more than 60 percent. Many of the same assumptions can be observed in the fiscal notes.

One example is LB1032s contention that enrollees will make monthly contributions as a premium. But the bill also says coverage cannot be terminated due to non-payment. That means just as in Arkansas and Iowa, compliance will be the exception, not the rule. Yet both LFO and DHHS assume at least 70 percent of the participants will make regular monthly payments.

Unfortunately, even if participants did pay, it may not improve the states budget. Bill proponents learned in the LFO fiscal note that the federal government  not the state  would collect 90 percent or more of any insurance contributions as reimbursement for their share of the program.

Being able to predict the future costs matters because Medicaid is already one of the four major services (along with K-12 education, higher education, and transportation) accounting for the vast majority of the state budget. In recent years, Nebraskas Medicaid spending has already been consuming an ever-larger share of the budget, taking resources from other core priorities.

Knowing where the money comes from for Medicaid also matters because the program delivers safety net services to individuals with disabilities, the elderly, pregnant women, and children.

Medicaid expansion would allow able-bodied adults with no dependent children to enroll for the first time, and finding money for the program in the long-term may cause services to be taken away from the most vulnerable.

In a budget shortfall, senators will discover that Medicaids lower match rate means they can save more by making cuts to traditional Medicaid populations than to new, able-bodied enrollees. Arizona, for example, eliminated coverage for heart, liver, lung, pancreas, and bone marrow transplants after an earlier Medicaid expansion cost taxpayers nearly four times what was expected. We cannot allow this to happen in Nebraska.

While costs for Medicaid expansion are certainly unpredictable, the future of health care reform itself is also uncertain at the moment.

A decision to expand Medicaid now may seem foolish next year under a new administration. The 45th president may see Obamacare as the logical next step to a single-payer, government-run health care system, or conversely, seek a mandate to replace all or part of the law with free-market medicine.

As an alternative to Medicaid expansion, Nebraska lawmakers instead should look to reform the underlying Medicaid system in a way that works for patients and taxpayers alike.

Lawmakers should focus their efforts on making upgrades that have proven successful in other states, and lay the foundation for even more innovative solutions in the coming years.

Sarah Curry is the Policy Director at the Platte Institute for Economic Research. Adam Weinberg is the Platte Institutes Communications and Outreach Director. The Platte Institute publishes regular research and columns at PlatteInstitute.org.
Countries & Areas

Search for country or area A Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan B Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burma Burundi C Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Costa Rica Cote dIvoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czechia D Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic E Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia F Fiji Finland France G Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana H Haiti Holy See Honduras Hungary I Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy J Jamaica Japan Jordan K Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan L Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg M Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique N Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Korea North Macedonia Norway O Oman P Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Q Qatar R Republic of the Congo Romania Russia Rwanda S Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria T Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu U Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan V Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Y Yemen Z Zambia Zimbabwe
This page may have been moved, deleted, or is otherwise unavailable. To help you find what you are looking for:

Enter Search Term(s):

Still cant find what youre looking for? Send us a message using our contact us form. To report a broken link or other problems with the website, please include the URL.

Thank you for visiting state.gov.
Thursday, 10 March 2016 11:24:45 (GMT+3) | Shanghai

On March 9, Inner Mongolia-based Chinese steelmaker Baotou Iron and Steel (Baogang) announced that its steel rail plant has successfully produced 1,800 mt of 50E2 steel rails which are to be exported to the Philippines. To date, Baogangs steel rails have been exported to 25 countries.





Accordingly, the 50E2 steel rails in question will be used in the construction of an urban subway in the Philippines.
Thursday, 10 March 2016 11:16:46 (GMT+3) | Istanbul

In the local Turkish market, merchant bar prices depending on size, thickness and region are at the following levels:

Equal Angle Prices:

Region Prices (TRY/mt) Price change (TRY/mt) 02.03.2016 Denizli Region (30-100 mm) 1,350-1,370 ($467-474/mt)  150 Karabuk Region (30-100mm) 1,220-1,240 ($422-429/mt)  90 Iskenderun Region (30-100 mm) 1,170-1,190 ($405-412/mt)  80 Izmir Region (30-100 mm) 1,320-1,340 ($457-464/mt)  150

Flat Bar Prices:

Region Prices (TRY/mt) Price change (TRY/mt) 02.03.2016 Denizli Region (30-100 mm) 1,380-1,400 ($478-484/mt)  150 Karabuk Region (30-100mm) 1,250-1,270 ($433-439/mt)  90 Iskenderun Region (30-100 mm) 1,200-1,220 ($415-422/mt)  80 Izmir Region (30-100 mm) 1,350-1,370 ($467-474/mt)  150

NPI-NPU Prices:

Region Prices (TRY/mt) Price change (TRY/mt) 02.03.2016 Denizli Region (30-100 mm) 1,350-1,370 ($467-474/mt)  150 Karabuk Region (30-100 mm) 1,220-1,240 ($422-429/mt)  90 Iskenderun Region (30-100 mm) 1,170-1,190 ($405-412/mt)  80 Izmir Region (30-50 mm) 1,320-1,340 ($457-464/mt)  150

All prices are ex-works, on actual weight basis, for March shipment and excluding VAT.



It should be considered that offers below the prices ranges in question may be available, depending on the buyer and on the method of payment.



$1 = TRY 2.89
Only Yesterday is sometimes referred to as the lost Studio Ghibli film. The only one of the Japanese animation giants features to have never been released in the United States, the 1991 film is finally getting a showing, with a new English voice cast starring Daisy Ridley and Dev Patel.

It was worth the wait.

Directed by Isao Takahata (The Tale of the Princess Kaguya), the film is a poetic, yet lucidly rendered, meditation on memory and maturity. Centering on Taeko (Ridley), a 27-year-old Tokyo office worker with no significant other and (apparently) not much of a life, the movie jumps back and forth between the present day and Taekos recollections of her fifth-grade self, triggered by a visit to a rural farm belonging to relatives of her married sister.

The memories that surface are both momentous and trivial: the rush of a childhood crush one moment and the experience of eating an unripe pineapple the next. Like Prousts madeleine, seemingly meaningless triggers release deep thoughts of the past, present and future. To become a butterfly, Taeko muses, one first has to become a chrysalis, even if one never wanted to become one. It isnt that Taeko doesnt want to grow up, but that she doesnt really know what that means, even after she meets a handsome farmer (Patel) who seems smitten with her.

Despite much of the story involving a little girl, Only Yesterday is not exactly a kids film. An air of grown-up melancholy  underscored by such lovely temporal metaphors as a sunset and night-time shadows on a moving train  will render the film a bit inscrutable for young viewers, who will almost certainly identify with Taekos younger self more than they do with her moody older incarnation.

Small moments take on larger meaning in this exquisite memoir. Thats as true of the plot  in which nothing terribly significant happens, except life  as it is of the visuals. A true artist, Takahata imbues every picture with significance, from the coruscation of headlights from a moving car on the leaves of a wet bush to a minute examination of the harvesting of safflower petals for the production of rouge.

Its not just the animation that stirs, but the sound design. Appropriately enough, the films original Japanese title, Omohide poro poro, translates loosely as Memories [plop plop]. Thats the onomatopoeic sound made by raindrops, or falling tears.
JEFFERSON CITY  Missouri House Republicans this week struck out Medicaid funding provided for Planned Parenthood services in next years budget.

State Rep. Robert Ross, R-Yukon, spearheaded the move Tuesday to strip almost $380,000 out of the 2017 budget that begins July 1, saying he didnt want any state dollars going toward abortions. That amount is based on 2014 budget year expenditures for Planned Parenthood services, when it covered cervical exams, human papillomavirus vaccines and birth control.

There is a whole litany of things on this list that have nothing to do with abortion and simply has to do with womens health care, Rep. Gail McCann Beatty, D-Kansas City, said Tuesday. For the last time, stay out of our uterus.

Other states have tried and failed to cut Medicaid for Planned Parenthood services in the past. It is early in the budgeting process, but we are concerned about these attacks on Medicaid patients throughout our state, said Mary M. Kogut, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri.

The cut is the latest development in a battle over abortion rights in Missouri. It began last summer after Republican state lawmakers decided to investigate allegations that the abortion and health care provider sold fetal tissue. Attorney General Chris Koster, a Democrat running for governor this year, found no evidence of wrongdoing in Missouri, and a Texas grand jury later indicted anti-abortion activists who shot the videos.

There are two Planned Parenthood affiliates in Missouri that oversee 14 centers in the state. Only the St. Louis facility provides abortions. Other services provided include contraception, pregnancy tests and cancer screenings.

Several Republicans said women could go elsewhere, such as federally qualified health centers, for the same care.

Everyone here needs to understand there are (centers that) ... do exactly the same thing and theyre not allowed to do abortions at all, said Rep. Donna Lichtenegger, R-Jackson. To say we are losing everything with this amendment is ludicrous.

Federal law allows Medicaid reimbursement on abortions only when a womans life is in danger or when the pregnancy is caused by rape or incest. The Missouri Planned Parenthood affiliates were reimbursed $126.24 in state and federal Medicaid money in 2015 for those purposes.

An official with the Department of Social Services previously said the state couldnt discriminate in distributing Medicaid funds simply because it didnt like the services Planned Parenthood provided.

Last year, several states were warned against discriminating against Planned Parenthood by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, citing a 2011 memo that says states cannot terminate Medicaid funding to providers because of the services offered. Federal law allows those on Medicaid to obtain services such as family planning from any qualified provider, and ending Medicaid agreements with Planned Parenthood could conflict with that.

Indiana and Arizona have previously battled against Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood in court. Planned Parenthood won both times.

Planned Parenthood Advocates in Missouri tweeted Tuesday that Ross cut would lead to poorer health outcomes for folks who rely on us for care.

The budget needs one more vote in the House before moving to the Senate for further debate.

The bill is House Bill 2011.
NEW FLORENCE, Mo.  Randy J. Nordman, the fifth man to die in a bistate killing spree, was a machinist who was transforming his Montgomery County property into a track for radio-controlled race car enthusiasts.

Police have found no indications that Nordman knew his killer. They say Nordman was an innocent victim, gunned down Tuesday morning by Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino. Serrano-Vitorino was fleeing a murder scene in Kansas City, Kan., and showed up on Nordmans 32-acre property after abandoning his truck a few miles away along Interstate 70, police say.

On Wednesday afternoon, Serrano-Vitorino was charged in Montgomery County with first-degree murder, armed criminal action and burglary in the death of Nordman. He was held without bail in the county jail in Montgomery City. Associate Judge Linda Hamlett set a preliminary hearing for April 28.

Its not clear how Serrano-Vitorino encountered Nordman, leaving friends such as Jason Kleweno to speculate.

Randy was so inviting, so nice, hed help you out, said Kleweno, of Columbia, Mo. The guy probably knocked on the door and Randy thought he needed help or had broken down. He was probably going to help the guy.

Murder suspect charged in Missouri after bi-state slayings Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino surrendered when officers found him lying in a muddy spot near I-70.

Serrano-Vitorino had been living in Kansas City, Kan., and was on the lam, police said, after killing four men at a neighbors home the night before. The motive for that quadruple murder remains unclear.

Nordman, 49, was slain about 7:20 a.m. Tuesday on his property on Tree Farm Road. The manhunt for Serrano-Vitorino went on for 17 hours more before he surrendered. Two troopers with the Missouri Highway Patrol found him lying face down in a muddy ditch just north of I-70 near Route 19. He was armed, but no one was hurt during the arrest.

Nordman lived outside the city limits of New Florence with his wife, Julie. She was unharmed.

The area in Montgomery County is about 20 miles west of Warrenton and about 75 miles west of downtown St. Louis.

The Nordmans home can be seen from the interstate.

Police havent said why Serrano-Vitorino left his truck on the shoulder. Patrol Capt. John Hotz said he didnt know if the truck was abandoned because it ran out of gas or broke down, or for some other reason. Investigators are still trying to answer those questions.

Charlie Leon, another friend of the Nordmans, said he figures Serrano-Vitorino saw the home and vehicles parked on the property.

Bet hes either looking for a hideout or another car, Leon said.

WEEKEND PASSION

Kleweno and Leon first met Nordman and his wife about a year ago when they went to the couples property to race radio-controlled cars and trucks. The gas-fueled vehicles they race are about two feet long, weigh 45 pounds and can move at 40 mph.

He loved the sound of the two-stroke engine, Leon said.

Nordman had installed a track next to his home, and a dirt mound where operators could stand to look down on the action and control it.

He worked full time as a machinist for an aerospace manufacturer, then worked long nights at home, six days a week, building the track. Hed have spotlights shining on his property at night so he could keep working, Leon said.

Nordman also built a concession stand and made room for a camping area. He called it Empire of Dirt RC Park & Campground. It was half-finished, Kleweno said.

Randy put all of his money into that RC park with the intention it was going to take off, Kleweno said. Id go there weekend after weekend to spend time with them.

Kleweno said that when a friends radio-controlled car crashed and broke into pieces, Nordman took parts from one of his own cars to share.

He said, Here you go buddy, well get you running again, Kleweno said. Randy got a kick out of it. He got a lot of joy out of watching the cars going around the track.

This was his weekend passion.
A man who was held in the Montgomery County, Mo., jail on five murder charges in Kansas and Missouri tried to commit suicide with a razor Thursday morning, the sheriffs office confirmed.

Sheriff Robert Davis released a statement that day saying Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino, 40, was in stable condition and under guard in a hospital. Davis said Serrano-Vitorino cut himself with a safety razor in order to attempt to commit suicide.

On Friday, Maj. Matthew Schoo, the sheriff's chief deputy, said Serrano-Vitorino remained in the hospital in good condition. He declined to discuss the suicide attempt or jail policies and said any decision on moving him to another location "is to be detemined." He said he believed the county jail can hold him adequately.

"I don't see why we cannot," Schoo said. "I'm not going to discuss policy until the sheriff authorizes me to."

The suspect is accused of killing four men Monday night in a house next to his residence in Kansas City, Kan., then heading 180 miles east to New Florence, Mo., where he allegedly murdered Randy J. Nordman, 49, Tuesday morning after abandoning his vehicle along Interstate 70. A Missouri Highway Patrol manhunt captured Serrano-Vitorino early Wednesday near the Nordman home in a ditch at I-70 and Missouri Highway 19.

New Florence is 70 miles west of St. Louis.

Troopers took him to the Montgomery County jail, where he was booked on four counts of murder in the Kansas case and later the murder of Nordman.

Davis three-sentence statement says the jail kept Serrano-Vitorino on suicide watch after his arrest until Wednesday afternoon, then moved him to general population. The staff discovered his injury Thursday morning.

Attempts to reach Davis Wednesday to seek more information were not successful. Schoo responded on the sheriff's behalf Friday.

Serrano-Vitorino is a Mexican citizen who was deported from California in 2004 after a felony there, but returned to the United States illegally, according to the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said Missouri will go first in prosecuting Serrano-Vitorino and that his office will assist Montgomery County Prosecuting Attorney Nathan Carroz.

A spokeswoman for Koster on Friday said he declined to discuss the suicide attempt. Carroz also declined comment.

Chris Schneider, a Wyandotte County assistant prosecutor in Kansas City, Kan., said his office is willing to let Missouri prosecutors take the lead. He is there. They have first dibs on him, he said.

Kansas City, Kan., police spokesman Cameron Morgan said investigators did not know a motive for the four killings there. Morgan said police had never been called before to either residence.

His department did arrest Serrano-Vitorino on June 15, 2015, in a domestic battery case  one of his three run-ins with law enforcement in 2014 and 2015 confirmed by the federal immigration agency. Morgan said his department routinely checks for warrants, But we dont enforce the immigration laws.

The federal immigration agency issued a detainer on Serrano-Vitorino on Sept. 14, 2015, the day he appeared in the Overland Park, Kan., municipal court on a traffic summons. But Serrano-Vitorino had already settled his fine and left. Police officials said detainers are placed in crime-information databases alerting them to hold a suspect for federal immigration agents. Overland Park is a suburb of Kansas City.

In November 2014, Serrano-Vitorino was convicted of driving under the influence in Coffey County, Kan., 60 miles southwest of Kansas City. Its unclear why that didnt attract federal attention. Immigration officials say a national fingerprint database is one way it learns of illegal entries, but it had no record of Serrano-Vitorino until 2015.
UNION  The family of a Missouri woman whose boyfriend was held in connection with her death at a Mexican resort said Wednesday they dont know what to think.

Tamra Turpin never complained about John Loveless, the relatives said in a news conference in Union, where she lived.

Her sister, Jodi Mills, described Loveless as nice and generous. John offered to stay with the body and said he would pay for all the expenses to get her back, Mills explained. She never mentioned ever not feeling safe with John.

Mills said, We would like to know what really happened. We want to get to the bottom of it.

Mexican authorities were holding Loveless, 59, a lawyer who practices in the St. Louis area. They said an autopsy showed that Turpin, 36, had died of asphyxiation.

Mills, 43, of Mexico, Mo., said a second autopsy was conducted at the request of the Loveless family but she did not know the results.

She was joined by her mother, Evalena Duncan, 60, and stepfather, John Duncan, 65, of Grand Prairie, Texas.

Turpin died March 2 at a rented condominium at Cancun. Loveless was arrested at the Cancun airport on his way back.

Mills said Turpin and Loveless had taken other vacations together. Her family said Loveless had told them Turpin overdosed on prescription medication, went to a hospital with seizures, was released but still wasnt right before dying.

We are still numb and in shock and out of tears at this point, Mills said.

The family expects Turpins remains to be returned to Union on Thursday or Friday.
COMMENTARY

The 2016 U.S. presidential election is a circus which will produce an outcome and policies that will tend to fatten labor's share of the economy while reducing that of capital.

And yes, that means there may be more emphasis not on growing the pie but on how it is divvied up, a factor which might possibly depress longer-term growth and would definitely tend to drive profit margins lower.

Super Tuesday is past and now Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump look to be on rails to their parties' nominations.

I am assuming Trump loses in a general election, as betting and polling now indicates. If he wins, I wish you the best of luck with your investments. You will need it.

I won't spend too much time working through what would happen if his policies, as now laid out, are put in place, because I don't think it is at all likely they ever will be or even that they answer to the term 'policies'. Suffice to say that we will have volatility during the election season, with risk premia rising to take the Trump factor into account.

Yet Trump's rise is significant in a way that goes beyond "where have we gone wrong?" soul searching.

Investors shouldn't so much worry about what President Trump would do, as he likely won't get a chance, but rather take a hard look at the broader underlying forces which might continue to make themselves felt after his candidacy. And no, I'm not talking about stupidity and folly, though they too won't fly back to New York with him in Trump Force One when this is all over.

Hillary Clinton is being forced left of her natural position by both her primary opponent, Bernie Sanders, and by Trump in a general election. While of course she will run against Trump's more outrageous positions on, well, everything, she is smart enough and well advised enough that she will grasp that to win she must appeal to the voters whose economic vulnerability Trump exploits.

Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren, have been successful in pushing Clinton to the left in financial services regulation, and given that this too is undergirt by Main Street's sense of being cheated by forces beyond its control, it is likely she'll keep going in this direction as she squares off against Trump.

Stronger financial regulation probably means slightly lower growth in the near term, but with the hope that we face fewer destabilizing booms and busts. Longer term that could actually be good for asset prices, but in the near term it means less leverage and is probably a negative for returns.

LABOR SHARE

Trump's positions on immigration and trade, though ranging from wrong-headed to outrageous, are popular, at least in part, because voters in middle- and lower-income groups have seen their share of the pie decline, not for years, but for decades.

Wages and salaries are now 43.8 percent of GDP, up very slightly from all-time lows in 2010 but still in a long-term downtrend which started above 50 percent in 1969.

Corporate profit margins have moved in roughly the opposite direction, upward, for roughly the same amount of time and are now not far off of all-time highs.

Globalization has been great for capital and for people at the very top in the U.S. with the skills to surf its wave. That it has also been good for many in India, Mexico and China who have been lifted out of poverty is not a point which will get much airing between now and November.

What may well get more attention are policies which might protect U.S. jobs, or which might raise U.S. wages, especially in the bottom 80 percent which globalization has hurt. Within this context, it may not be a surprise that the U.S. just imposed a 266 percent tariff on imports of some steel from China and a lesser range of tariffs on six other countries.

Though I wouldn't expect a trade war from a Clinton administration, it will be keen to be seen to be willing to fight the corner of U.S. wage earners, and perhaps less sensitive to the competing demands of multinational corporations. I cannot imagine a Clinton administration approaching a trade deal in the same corporate-friendly spirit as the Obama White House took to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Taxation too will probably be more redistributive than in a world where Trump elected to stay home. Trump's longest-lasting legacy might be that he leaves Republican economic orthodoxy of low taxes and hope for growth fatally wounded.

These outcomes may be for good or ill, but what they will be is bad for corporate profit margins in aggregate.
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.

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
In February 2016 the U.S. Air Force announced that the new LRSB (Long-Range Strike Bomber) project had an official designation; B-21. A picture was released which shows, as the new designation implies, an aircraft that is very similar to the B-2. The first of these new aircraft wont enter service until the mid-2020s. The B-21 is yet another effort to replace the 1950s era B-52 and the air force is determined to learn from the problems encountered with the last (B-2) effort, which cost so much the eventual number built shrank from 132 to 21. The USAF insists that each B-21 will cost about $600 million and the entire program $80 billion. About 30 percent of program cost will be for development and the rest for building about a hundred aircraft.

The B-21 plan was designed to avoid past problems, especially the endless lawsuits from companies that lost design competitions as well as unpredictable and always escalating costs. Two companies were in competition to be the prime (chief) contractor for the project and the loser, Boeing, has agreed to no more legal challenges to the winning bid from Northrup. The air force and major suppliers agree on the importance of getting the B-21 into service on time and under budget.

The B-21 is the latest reboot of air force efforts to create a new heavy bomber. Since the 1990s the air force has been working on the next heavy bomber diligently but without much success. In 2003 the air force announced a development plan that would enable it to start testing a new heavy bomber using very advanced technology by 2037. That did not work out and in 2009 the Department of Defense told the air force that there was be no more money for developing a new heavy bomber. Not for a while, anyway.

Models of what the 2003 bomber might look like were released and the "B-3" (officially the NGB, or New Generation Bomber) looked like the B-2. From the beginning there were only two firms willing and able to compete for the new bomber contract; Northrop Grumman and Boeing. Proposals from both firms were for a B-3 that looked like the B-2. For the Northrop Grumman proposal, the main difference was that the stubby wings are "cranked" (moved forward a bit, rather than continuing in a straight line from the body of the aircraft).

These derivative designs are apparently still favored because the air force knows it was unlikely to get the money for a radical (and expensive) new design. Until recently they were told they would have a difficult time getting money for a "B-2 Lite." There was also talk of building a B-3 that could operate with, or without, a crew. The air force rejected UAV angle. The air force spent several billion dollars on B-3 development. All was not lost. The B-3 spec called for a smaller and stealthier aircraft that carried a ten ton bomb load (less than half what current heavy bombers haul). This recognized the efficiency of smart bombs, which are more than a hundred times more effective than unguided bombs. The B-2 is a 170 ton aircraft and 43 percent of that is fuel. The B-2 alone weighs 71 tons and maximum weapons load is about 23 tons. The seeming success of the B-3 development work and the stark reality that the B-52s and B-1Bs would eventually wear out got the air force enough support to go forward with the B-21, which will replace the 138 B-52s and B-1Bs.

The air force has always believed the political and budget problems could slow down the two decade long air force effort to get a new heavy bomber, but won't stop it. Since the late 1990s the air force has been working on a replacement for its elderly but still very useful B-52s. There are two other heavy bombers in service (B-2s and B-1B) and these two both failed to replace the B-52.

The air force is acutely aware of the fact that their first heavy bomber, the B-17 "Flying Fortress," entered production in 1937 and that the current problems getting a new heavy bomber program going means there has been a record long period in which there was no heavy bomber in production or development. In contrast during the sixty year period from the early 1930s to the early 1990s there were fifteen heavy bombers developed. Thirteen of them actually entered service; B-17 in 1939, B-24 in 1942, B-29 in 1944, B-32 in 1945, B-50 in 1947, B-45 in 1948, B-36 in 1948. The B-49 "Flying Wing" cancelled in 1952 but the B-47 entered service in 1952, the B-52 in 1955, B-58 in 1960 and FB-111 in 1969. B-70 development was halted in 1966 but the B-1 arrived in 1985 and the B-2 in 1992. But since 1992 nothing has come of air force efforts to design and develop a new heavy bomber.

This is all about trying to improve on the B-52, Since the 1950s the air force has developed six heavy bombers; the 240 ton B-52 in 1955, the 74 ton B-58 in 1960, the 47 ton FB-111 in 1969, the 260 ton B-70 in the 1960s, the 236 ton B-1 in 1985, and the 181 ton B-2 in 1992.) All of these were developed primarily to deliver nuclear weapons (bombs or missiles), but have proved more useful dropping non-nuclear bombs. Only the B-70 was cancelled before being deployed. The B-1 was delayed and almost cancelled, but proved that the air force would do anything to keep the heavy bombers coming.

Meanwhile, the most cost-effective bombers continue to be the half century old B-52s, simply because they are cheaper to operate. The well maintained B-52s are quite sturdy and have, on average, only 18,000 flying hours on them. The air force estimates that the B-52s won't become un-maintainable until they reach 28,000 flight hours. Thus these aircraft could serve into the 2030s. The B-1 and B-2 were meant to provide a high tech (and much more expensive) replacement for the B-52, but the end of the Cold War made that impractical. The kinds of anti-aircraft threats the B-1 and B-2 were designed to deal with never materialized. This left the B-52 as the most cost effective way to deliver bombs. The B-1s and B-2s are getting some of the same weapons carrying and communications upgrades as the B-52, if only because these more modern aircraft provide a more expensive backup for the B-52.

Since 200 more people belied it was increasingly likely that the next heavy bomber would be smaller (perhaps only 60-100 tons) subsonic, stealthy, possibly uninhabited and familiar looking. The air force learned the hard way (the B-2) that they will have to propose a substantially cheaper aircraft as well, if they ever want to get Department of Defense backing for a new heavy bomber. The B-21 will have to be cheaper and delivered on time. There has not been a lot of that in the air force for many years. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Why does the U.S. Air Force use dozens of transports that look like Russian aircraft and operate quietly, and unmarked, in many remote areas? Its all about clandestine operations, at least the ones the CIA or DEA arent running. Its all about AFSOC (Air Force Special Operations Command).

AFSOC provides specialized transports, helicopters and gunships for SOCOM (Special Operations Command) missions by army (Special Forces and rangers), navy (SEALs) and marine commandos. AFSOC also supports the air force air commandos (combat weathermen, pararescue, air controllers). This is done with a collection of nearly 200 aircraft and helicopters and 15,000 personnel.

AFSOC, like the rest of SOCOM, prefers to keep a low profile and for that reason many AFSOC transports are unmarked and are rarely noticed as they operate in remote, and often lawless, parts of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and South America. Some of these anonymous transports look like the Russian An-26 transports that were widely used by smugglers after the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. The AFSOC version is called the C-145A and is actually the Polish An-28, built under license in Poland since the 1980s. Fewer than 200 An-28s were built. Costing $14 million each the 7.5 ton C-145A is a twin engine transport that can carry 16 passengers, ten paratroopers or 2.2 tons of cargo. Being a Russian design the C-145A was more familiar to many in places like Africa and Afghanistan, where Russian aircraft had long been used. The C-145A is rugged and simple to fly and maintain.

But the benefit of having a specialty aircraft like this does not justify the expense of the logistics and maintenance infrastructure to keep it operational. Most of the light AFSOC transports are Western models like the Do-328 (as the C-146A) and PC-12 (as the U-28A.) Most AFSOC transports are equipped to operate at night and in any weather, as well as at very low altitudes.
In the West Bank and Israel the Fatah sponsored knife terrorism campaign continues. Since last October 28 Israelis and over 170 Palestinians and have been killed. This is all about making the corrupt and incompetent Fatah more popular in the West Bank but opinion polls show that many (but not most) Palestinians would vote for anyone but Fatah and Hamas if elections were held right now. Moreover polls show enthusiasm for the knife terrorism campaign is waning. Like many past Fatah publicity stunts the knife terrorism makes life worse for most Palestinians and provides one more reason for foreign investment to stay away from the West Bank. Despite the Palestinian terrorists trying to go after tourists (and sometimes succeeding) the latest Palestinian terror campaign has had little impact on the Israeli economy. In 2015 the Israeli economy grew 3.3 percent while the West Bank economy declined nearly as much.

Fatah and Hamas failed to hold another scheduled round of unifications talks in Qatar during late February. The main reason was that too many participants realized that between 2007 and 2014 five earlier unification agreements failed to accomplish anything. Moreover the growing economic and political problems Hamas is having in Gaza are reducing popular support for Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank. This comes ten years after Hamas won control of Gaza via elections. Hamas made a lot of promises back then and the only one it kept was to attack Israel. That was a failure multiple times as were all the promises to improve the economy. Hamas did not win much favor for refusing to hold anymore elections. Turning Gaza into an Islamic terrorist sanctuary was also generally unpopular as were efforts to impose Sharia (Islamic) law and the usual lifestyle restrictions. The Hamas alliance with Iran was and is also unpopular. The latest opinion polls show that 45 percent of Gazans would vote for Fatah if elections were held. That is way up over the past few years. Hamas has also lost a lot of support in the West Bank. The latest opinion polls show that if all Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank were allowed to vote for a new leader of the Palestinian people Hamas would get only 17 percent of the votes. While Fatah would get 39 percent this reminds everyone that most Palestinians still despise Fatah for its decades of corruption and mismanagement. One thing Fatah and Hamas have succeeded at is preventing any more rival political groups from freely operating in the Palestinian territories.

Meanwhile Fatah leaders announced that they would never negotiate with Israel again. At the same time Hamas officially (via diplomats from major Moslem nations like Turkey) let Israel know that Hamas was not planning any major attacks and while it as not joining in the Fatah sponsored knife terrorism campaign the Hamas controlled media was praising all the West Bank Palestinians killed while attacking Israelis. Hamas is also still preparing for another war with Israel and constantly supporting anyone else who shares this obsession. Many Islamic terrorist groups still have sanctuary inside Gaza. While not technically a violation of the ceasefire with Israel it is seen as a way for Hamas to facilitate attacks against Israel without having to take responsibility. Both Israel and Egypt disagree which is why access to Gaza remains so tightly controlled by Egypt and Israel.

As if Hamas didnt have enough trouble it now has to contend with rumors (apparently true) that the recent execution of a senior Hamas military leader (Mahmoud Eshtewi) was not just about his spying for Israel but also because he was a homosexual and had stolen Hamas money to support that and to pay blackmail to his male lovers. Hamas had kept quiet about the sex and embezzlement but the family of the executed man did not. Hamas said Eshtewi admitted that he supplied Israel with information about where the most senior Hamas military commander (Mohammed Deif) was during the mid-2014 50 Day War with Israel. The subsequent Israeli missile attack wounded Deif and killed his wife and child and other Hamas personnel. A year later Israel confirmed that Deif was still alive and hiding in Gaza. Israel considered Mohammed Deif a mass murderer and have been after him since the 1990s. Hamas would not reveal how Eshtewi was found out but now it is clear that it was first the embezzlement and then the homosexuality and then the Israeli connection. All this was very embarrassing for Hamas as Eshtewi was a Hamas member since the 1990s. Eshtewi was arrested in January 2015 and after months of torture his crimes were found out and confirmed.

Egypt continues to insist that it will not intervene militarily in Libya, at least not openly. Egypt does still call for international help, from anyone, to help stop the violence and chaos in neighboring Libya. Egypt has been making this appeal since early 2015 and the response, so far, has been silence. Egypt has carried out some unofficial air strikes but wants an international effort (at least one other nation besides Egypt) to carry out an open and official air support campaign as occurred in 2011. One of the two governments in Libya (Tobruk, the UN approved one) also called for some international help and got the same response as Egypt. In the meantime Egypt has developed closer, and sometimes official, economic relations with the Tobruk government. This includes a deal to buy two million barrels of oil a year from fields Tobruk controls. Egypt probably got a big discount but this deal was probably worth over $50 million to the Tobruk government. Egypt has, since at least 2013, provided the Tobruk forces some covert military support (trainers, advisors, special equipment). That appears to be continuing. What is done quite openly is continually increase security along the Libyan border. So far in 2016 more special operations troops have been sent to the Libyan border to deal with Islamic terrorists and smugglers who are using more innovative methods to get back and forth across the border. Sometimes this means more firepower, finding more obscure routes or a combination of both. Special operations troops are best suited to deal with this. Egypt wants to keep weapons and Islamic terrorists from entering Egypt and stop illegal migrants, some of them new recruits for ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) in Libya, from crossing into Libya. Smugglers still get a lot of people and goods into and out of Libya using the fact that the 1,100 kilometer long border largely runs through thinly populated desert. The desert route is more expensive and many illegals cannot afford it.

Egypt has stabilized the Islamic terrorist situation in Sinai but many Islamic terrorists remain active there, especially inside Gaza. Because of this Egypt is now shifting to a longer term solution and is already spending a lot of money on new roads, infrastructure and housing for Sinai. The lack of this sort of thing has caused growing unrest in Sinai for decades. It will take years of better government and lots of local investment to turn this around. In the meantime Gaza has become enemy territory as far as Egypt is concerned. This is one of the few things Egypt and Israel agree on. Egypt continues to go after tunnels from Gaza. This Egyptian effort has eliminated 98 percent of the tunnels over the last few years. But Hamas finds it worthwhile to keep building more deeper and longer tunnels because Islamic terrorists will pay lots of cash to have access to such tunnels. About a dozen of them remain operational and Hamas replaces them as they are discovered and destroyed. While Egypt and Israel allow lots of legitimate goods into Gaza (after carefully screening them for contraband) Hamas still needs access to weapons and ammo, as well as illegal cash donations. Illegal drugs also still have a market in Gaza, even though Hamas officially opposes this sort of thing. The tunnels will take whatever business they can get to remain operational.

Outside of Sinai there is a growing perception that Egypt is turning into what it was before the 2011; a corrupt police state. There are growing incidents of police acting in a lawless fashion (murder, kidnapping, torture and corruption). The government responds that any misbehavior is the work of rogue cops or lies being spread by the Moslem Brotherhood. At the same time people are desperate for economic growth and less violence. As happened in the 1990s the Islamic terrorists (at least the more extreme ones like ISIL) are attacking the economy, especially tourism which accounts for 11 percent of the GDP and provides jobs (directly or indirectly) for 12 percent of the work force. ISIL attacks against tourists led to a 15 percent decline in tourist income for 2015. For most Egyptians the most important task of the government is improving the economy, followed by reducing Islamic terrorist violence.

March 7, 2016: Off the Egyptian coast French and Egyptian ships and aircraft began several days of joint military exercises. A French aircraft carrier provided most of the French warplanes participating.

March 6, 2016: Egypt announced the results of a long investigation into who killed a senior government official (Hisham Barakat, the chief prosecutor) in June 2015. The conclusion was that the killers were Islamic terrorists associated with the Moslem Brotherhood who were hiding out in Gaza under the protection of Hamas. Barakat was killed by a bomb detonated outside his home. No group took credit for the killing but then that is common with many of the terror attacks in the last few years. Many Egyptians believe the government was responsible and such conspiracy theories often turn out to be true in this part of the world.

March 3, 2016: Hamas revealed that another of its men had died because of a recent tunnel collapse. Hamas blames the six similar incidents (and twelve deaths) since late 2015 on unusually heavy rain storms. Now Hamas has a problem because a growing number of their men are refusing to work in the tunnels because there is a widely believed (among Gazans) rumor that the real cause of all these tunnel collapses (including the unreported ones that didnt kill anyone) were the result of new Israeli anti-tunnel weapons. This sort of thing has been mentioned in the Israeli media, but mainly in terms of new sensors not devices that could remotely trigger a tunnel collapse. Hamas denies Israel has any such weapon and Israel wont discuss classified military matters (like the new sensors). Hamas also does not like to openly discuss the energetic Egyptian anti-tunnel methods which include digging a canal along the Gaza border and flooding it with sea water to collapse tunnels and make it more difficult (because of the unstable wet sand) to build new tunnels into Egypt. Hamas also adds to the mystery by refusing to release any details of their tunneling activities. That is because a lot of the underground work is on rebuilding combat tunnels destroyed by Israel during the mid-2014 50 Day War. In addition new tunnels are being built. Israelis living near the Gaza border complain that they can sometimes hear (or feel) Hamas tunnel building efforts. In 2014 the Israeli military said they would erect a detection system to locate new tunnels so they could be destroyed. The detection system has been delayed because of defense spending cuts but now the government says the detection system is coming soon.

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 the Middle East to try and support any group that is fighting Israel. Hezbollah and Palestinian groups like Hamas are the only ones doing that. In 2013 the GCC criticized Hezbollah for supporting the Assad dictatorship in Syria. Iranian leaders reacted to all this by accusing the GCC of doing this because of Israeli influence and pressure.

February 25, 2016: Iran announced an aid program to Palestinians that would pay $7,000 to the families of Palestinians killed while trying to kill Israelis. Over 120 Palestinians have died that way since September 2015. Iran will also pay $30,000 to Palestinian families who have their homes destroyed by Israel (to encourage families to dissuade their children from being terrorists). Until 2003 Saddam Hussein had a similar Palestinian aid program.

February 20, 2016: Iranian officials came to Russia to discuss a multi-billion dollar deal to buy Russian Su-30 jet fighters, Yak-130 jet trainers and Mi-17 helicopters. The Su-30s are a direct threat to any Israeli efforts to bomb Iranian nuclear weapons facilities, an option that Israel still has. Warplanes sales to Iran are still forbidden without explicit permission from the UN. At the same time it was confirmed that Iran is still discussing details of the Russian S-300 anti-aircraft systems sale. This was thought to be a done deal. In December Russian announced that deliveries would be made via the Caspian Sea. Some supporting equipment has already been flown in or came by sea as non-military equipment. Apparently the key S-300 components (missiles and fire control systems) have not been delivered. This is good news for Israel as the S-300s could be more of a threat to Israeli warplanes than Su-30s.

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. 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.
National intelligence services (like the CIA and MI6) continue to find themselves relying more and more on civilian sources for the best data and analysis. A recent example was revealed because of all the anxiety over the huge numbers of illegal migrants trying to get into Europe and other Western countries, many of them by boat. Turns out that the best tool for reducing the use of ships for smuggling was an Israeli firm that built a business on creating a database of normal, and abnormal (and usually illegal) behavior by ships at sea for shipping and maritime insurance companies.

This data was easier to collect since the 1990s when all larger ships were required to use the AIS (Automated Identification System) which is essentially an automatic radio beacon (transponder) that, when it receives a signal from a nearby AIS equipped ship, responds with the ship's identity, course, and speed. This is meant to enable AIS ships to avoid collisions with each other. An AIS activity database makes it possible to identify patterns of normal and abnormal behavior. The abnormal behavior, like arriving outside a port and waiting for several days to enter, is what smugglers are often forced to do to avoid arrest. Same thing with travelling outside the most efficient (in terms of fuel used and weather encountered) routes. With enough of this data and a thorough analysis it is very difficult for seagoing criminals to escape detection. Now that navies and coast guards are increasing using this maritime BI (Business Intelligence) tool to more quickly shut down the criminal gangs making over a billion dollars a year from all this people smuggling.

AIS is also used to send ships important traffic and weather information. AIS is one of two ship tracking systems required, by law, for most ocean going ships. INMARSAT (International Maritime Satellite) is a more elaborate and longer range system. It enables shipping companies to keep track of their vessels no matter where they are on the planet. INMARSAT uses a system of satellites, which transmit AIS-like signals to anywhere on the oceans. It only costs a few cents to send an INMARSAT signal to one of your ships and a few cents more to receive a reply. Shipping companies have found the INMARSAT a useful business tool as well as a safety feature.

These two systems are now required by law (international agreements) for all sea going vessels greater than 300-tons. The technology has worked, and the U.S. Navy has found them particularly useful in counter-terror operations. Coast Guards the world over have also found the systems a big help. But apparently pirates in some areas have gained access to the systems (via bribes or theft) and a large number of pirate attacks appear to have been helped by technology meant just to safeguard ships at sea. Iran, and other nations involved in smuggling, learned how to have INMARSAT send a false signal, concealing where the ship actually is. This can work for a while but a nation with lots of recon satellites, warships, and cooperation from most of the worlds shipping can get around this.

The use of AIS data is part of a trend in dual-use intelligence tools that depend on OSINT (Open Source Intelligence). While the U.S. intelligence community long resisted recognizing the importance of OSINT, especially after the Cold War ended in 1991, the enthusiastic acceptance of Internet-based OSINT by so many individual military personnel and commercial information gatherers has led to enthusiastic official government acceptance of what many intelligence professionals now consider a crucial tool and one that can only grow in usefulness.

The Internet has made OSINT a really, really huge source of useful intelligence. It's not just the millions of gigabytes of information that is placed on the net but the even more voluminous masses of message board postings, blogs, emails, and IMs (instant messaging) that reveal what the culture is currently thinking. It was corporate intelligence practitioners who alerted the government intel people to the growing usefulness of Internet based data. Even before the Internet became a major factor in the late 1990s corporations had developed a keen interest in gathering intel on competitors, new markets, and all manner of things that might affect them. The Internet has made this a much more useful and affordable exercise, especially since corporations are less likely to break the law when gathering intel, or have access to the powerful legal tools available to government investigators and analysts.

For years corporate intel specialists were concerned that government agencies, especially the CIA, were not taking sufficient advantage of OSINT. Part of the problem was cultural. The intelligence agencies have always been proud of their special intel tools, like spy satellites, electronic listening stations, and spy networks. Most of these things are unique to government intelligence operations. People who use this stuff tend to look down on a bunch of geeks who simply troll the web. Even when the geeks keep coming up with valuable stuff, they don't get any respect. That began to change after September 11, 2001, when many intelligence specialists, who were reservists, were called to active duty. Many of these men and women worked in BI (Business Intelligence, sometimes called corporate spying) and brought with them a respectful attitude towards OSINT and spectacular (to the government intel people) ability to use it.

Before long many junior members of the intel agencies were using OSINT more frequently. Then it was pointed out that there was growing evidence that some foreign countries were exploiting OSINT (especially the Internet) more effectively than the United States. No foreign intel agency will admit to this, but there are indications that some nations are mining the Internet quite intensively and effectively. Data mining is a heavily used commercial tool that the U.S. intel agencies have used, but now they have adopted the corporate techniques of plowing through vast quantities of unclassified data and often finding gold.

An example of this official acceptance occurred in 2012, when the U.S. Army issued a manual, Army Techniques Publication 2-22.9, which detailed how to use open source (mainly searching the Internet) intelligence most effectively. This was the kind of OSINT troops had been using for over a decade. The publication of ATP 22.9 was a way for the senior army leadership to say, "message received and understood." ATP 22.9, despite all the useful tips it contains, won't go far in helping the many soldiers already using the Internet, but it will be useful in convincing their bosses that a lot of useful stuff can be obtained from the Internet.

The government and military intel community has the money and software chops to screen and analyze huge quantities of data on the Internet, both text and pictures. Despite all these resources the intel behemoths continue to get overtaken by civilian amateurs. A large factor in this was the appearance of Google Earth and other commercial satellite photo sources. This revolutionized military intelligence and the way news on military affairs is developed and spread. Case in point was details on the transformation of the Chinese armed forces and the activities of the North Korean military. Both China and North Korea have long been very secretive about military affairs. But the appearance of Google Earth (originally as Earth View) a decade ago changed everything. By putting so much satellite photography at the disposal of so many people, in such an easy- to- use fashion, unexpected discoveries were made.

People soon discovered that if they had a high-speed Internet connection, they could use Google Earth to find satellite photos of all sorts of interesting stuff. This was especially true of the "Forbidden Kingdoms" (China, Russia, North Korea, and a few others). While the CIA and the military has had access to satellite photos of these countries since the 1960s, little of it was shown to the public. Now that so many people can examine these lower resolution civilian satellite images amazing new discoveries are being made. Many of these commercial satellite photos cover vast stretches of the Forbidden Kingdoms that previously were only scrutinized by a few intel agencies. But the greater number of civilians found things that were newsworthy and never reported before. Things like new military bases, test sites for new weapons, and the new weapons themselves. The open discussion of these findings, most of them already known to the large national intel agencies, brought forth insights and analysis that was often superior to what the much smaller number of professional analysts were capable of. Another example of the wisdom of the crowd.

Technically, the countries in question can request that Google not show these classified military facilities. But in making that request, they point out where the classified operation is. So far, a lot of this stuff is just there to find. And users find it. This is called "crowdsourcing" (where large numbers of people accomplish impressive feats of research or analysis because they can quickly mobilize and get to the task via the Internet). The U.S. military will not say that they appreciate the work done via crowdsourcing, but individual analysts and intelligence officials have made it known, unofficially, that crowdsourcing is another useful tool that unexpectedly came their way via the Internet.
In February 2016 France revealed that it had at least fifteen special operations troops in Libya and they had been there since the end of 2015. The French troops were operating from an air base outside the eastern city of Benghazi and were working alongside British and American special operations forces and some other specialists from all three countries. While there were less than 200 foreign troops involved all the Islamic terrorist groups in Libya (and some of the less religious ones) see this presence of foreign troops tantamount to a Western (and non-Moslem) invasion of Libya. Most Libyans dont care. The air base is controlled by the elected Libyan government that is recognized by the UN and on the verge of getting the majority of armed groups in the country to recognize one government and unite against the violent and unwelcome presence of ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant).

The Western commandos are mainly training their Libyan counterparts as well as helping to establish a more efficient intelligence network so that Western warplanes can carry out more strikes on ISIL. Few Libyans object to anything that will hurt ISIL. The French said their troops had carried out four missions so far but nothing was said of how many, if any, the American and British had engaged in. Back in 2013 Islamic terrorist groups tried to conquer Benghazi but failed. Despite that there are still some Islamic terror groups which refuse to leave the city and fight to the death when pressed over the issue.

The internationally recognized government set up shop in the small port city of Tobruk (1,600 kilometers east of Tripoli) after encountering hostility from militias loyal to the pre-June 2014 elections government. Many other government offices moved as well and are finding space where they can. The rebel governments in Tripoli and the Tobruk eventually negotiated a merger deal in late 2015. Most Libyans are fed up with the continuing violence. The 2011 rebellion against Kadaffi left over 30,000 dead but the infighting since then has killed nearly as many. Most major factions agree on peace but Islamic terrorist groups in Tripoli and Benghazi, aided by tribal factions that want more power and money, continue to fight.

Many Libyans are calling for foreign intervention. So has neighbor Egypt. So far the most NATO nations will do is an occasional air strike and a small but growing special operations presence. The main justification this is the growing presence of ISIL in Libya, where the locals were unable to form a national government after the 2011 revolution.
Constellium N.V. (NYSE: CSTM) today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with its Japanese partner UACJ Corporation (UACJ) to expand their existing joint venture to produce automotive Body-in-White (BiW) sheet in the U.S. The final contract is subject to the board approval of each party.

By joining forces, the joint venture will become a leading player in the North American BiW market, combining strengths in technology, know-how and customer relationships. Under the expanded joint venture, Constellium and UACJ contemplate a joint investment in two previously announced 100 kt finishing lines, which would be funded 51% by Constellium and 49% by Tri-Arrows Aluminium Holdings, a U.S. affiliate of UACJ. Location of the finishing lines is still to be decided.

This agreement to share investments in the finishing lines with UACJ enables Constellium to reduce its estimated capital requirement to fund its total BiW investments in the U.S. to approximately $340 million - compared to the $620 million previously announced in October 2015.

"We are delighted to strengthen our successful partnership with UACJ," stated Pierre Vareille, CEO of Constellium. "We are fully committed to our BiW strategy and well placed to execute it. This agreement supports our strategic objective of expanding Constellium's BiW industrial footprint in North America to serve our automotive customers while reducing the capital needed for this project. This partnership positions the joint venture as a leader in the fast expanding North American market".

The Constellium and UACJ joint venture has already invested in a first finishing line located in Bowling Green, Kentucky, which is expected to begin pre-qualification production mid-2016 and ramp-up in 2017 as planned.

Constellium does not intend to make any further comments until its Q4 & FY 2015 Earnings call scheduled for March 15, 2016.
The Twitter logo is shown at its corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California April 28, 2015. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith

(Reuters) - Twitter Inc has been sweetening employee compensation packages to retain talent as the company's user growth stalls and it stock price slides, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Four top executives left the company in January, the biggest leadership exodus since co-founder Jack Dorsey returned as chief executive last year.

The departures added to concerns about the company's ability to make its product more engaging and generate more money from advertising.

Twitter has been offering cash bonuses to some employees, ranging from $50,000 to $200,000 as an incentive to keep them around for another six months to a year, the Journal reported on Wednesday.

The company has also granted varying amounts of restricted stock depending on when the employees started working, intending to make up for the value lost since they joined the company, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Twitter's shares have lost more than 60 percent of their value over the past 12 months.

"Competitive compensation, strong leadership and a confidence in the direction of the company are all key elements to having top talent," a Twitter spokeswoman said in an email.

"We are investing in all three areas to ensure we maintain these employees," she said, without providing further details.

Dorsey said in October he would give a third of his stock in the company, a stake of about 1 percent, to the employee equity pool.

Later that month, he spoke about "hiring and investing in talent" and the need for "bold rethinking."

Twitter showed no growth in users in the fourth quarter. That was the first time that had happened since the company went public in 2013.

Twitter's shares were unchanged at $17.66 in light premarket trading.

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier and Anil D'Silva)
Republican U.S. presidential candidate Ted Cruz speaks during a campaign event at Central Baptist Church in Kannapolis, North Carolina, March 8, 2016. REUTERS/Jason Miczek

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Mike Lee of Utah will endorse Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz on Thursday, becoming the first member of the Senate to back Cruz, BuzzFeed News and Politico reported.

Politico reported the pair would make the announcement later on Thursday at an event in Miami. Republican front-runner Donald Trump has slammed Cruz on the campaign trail for not having received any endorsements from fellow senators.

Lee's office could not confirm the reports.

(Reporting by Emily Stephenson; Writing by Eric Beech)
ATLANTA, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Core Security, a leader in the vulnerability management and attack intelligence space, announced today SC Magazine has recognized Core Insight as the top solution in the 2016 Trust Awards category. The announcement was made during the 19th annual SC Awards Gala in San Francisco last week.

"We provide organizations with the vulnerability management tools they need to detect and deter the serious threats that compromise critical assets and weaken their operations," said David Earhart, CEO of Courion, which acquired Core Security in 2015. "We aim to continue this leadership position around the globe through the joint Courion and Core Security solution set."

IT security professionals from the SC Magazine readership and the magazine's editorial team selected the winners for the newly revamped Trust Awards (formerly Reader Trust Awards). Entrants were narrowed down to a select group of finalists before undergoing a rigorous final judging process to determine the winners.

"As a winner in the Trust Award category, Core Insight stands out for its innovative approach to protecting businesses against the ever-changing threat landscape," said Illena Armstrong, vice president, editorial, SC Magazine. "This is a significant achievement and one that shows Core Security's dedication to improving the IT security industry as a whole."

The SC Awards, now in its 19th year, are recognized throughout the security industry as the gold standard of excellence in cybersecurity. With the awards, SC Magazine recognizes the achievements of security professionals in the field, the innovations happening in the vendor and service provider communities, and the vigilant work of government, commercial and nonprofit entities. Vendors and service providers which offer a product and/or service for the commercial, government, educational, nonprofit or other industries are eligible for the Trust Award category in the SC Awards. For more information and a detailed list of categories and winners, please visit www.scmagazine.com/awards.

ABOUT SC MAGAZINESC Magazine provides IT security professionals with in-depth and unbiased information through timely news, comprehensive analysis, cutting-edge features, contributions from thought leaders and the best, most extensive collection of product reviews in the business. By offering a consolidated view of IT security through independent product tests and well-researched editorial content that provides the contextual backdrop for how these IT security tools will address larger demands put on businesses today, SC Magazine enables IT security pros to make the right security decisions for their companies. Besides the monthly print magazine and vibrant daily website, the brand's portfolio includes the SC Congress series (Chicago, London, Amsterdam, New York, Boston, Atlanta, Toronto), SC Awards (U.S. and U.K.), SC Marketscope, and SC Magazine Newswire.

ABOUT CORE SECURITYCore Security provides the industry's first comprehensive attack intelligence platform offering advanced analytics to prioritize, validate and ultimately eliminate security threats. With Core Security, enterprises and security professionals focus on the most likely threats to their business by modeling, simulating and testing the actions of an actual attacker. The company helps more than 1,000 customers worldwide identify the most vulnerable areas of their IT environments to improve remediation efforts and better secure their business.

Courion, the market leader in Identity Governance and Administration (IGA), recently acquired Core Security. This acquisition of Core Security establishes the next generation of Vulnerability and Risk Management (VRM) Solutions. The combined company's continuous and comprehensive view of security will help deter, detect, and remediate cyber security risk.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/core-security-wins-trust-award-for-best-vulnerability-management-solution-at-sc-awards-2016-300234095.html

SOURCE Core Security
AUBURN HILLS, Mich., March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Jeep Crew Chief 715: a salute to legendary Jeep military service vehicles

Jeep Shortcut: inspired by the classic CJ-5 to handle tight, winding trails

Jeep Renegade Commander: built to blaze a trail deep into the secluded wilderness

Jeep Comanche: designed to be off-road ready with practical utility

Jeep FC 150: heritage cab-over design, rich in history and capable of tackling any terrain

Jeep Trailcat: Hellcat-powered off-roader capable of crawling or high-speed runs

Jeep Trailstorm: added capability with 2-inch lift kit, 37-inch tires and Dana 44 axles

Seven new, ultra-capable Jeep concept vehicles, featuring an array of Mopar and Jeep Performance Parts available to consumers, will conquer the famous and challenging trails of Moab, Utah, at Easter Jeep Safari, March 19-27. Thousands of off-road enthusiasts are expected to descend upon Moab this year to celebrate what will likely be the most popular Jeep Safari ever, as the 50th annual event coincides with the 75th anniversary of the Jeep brand.

"Every year, the Jeep team looks forward to pushing the limits with new, exciting and capable concept vehicles for our most loyal enthusiasts at the Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, where we receive a tremendous amount of valuable feedback," said Mike Manley, Head of Jeep Brand  FCA Global. "This year is extra special, as together with our biggest fans, we celebrate Jeep's 75th anniversary, as well as the 50th running of the Jeep Safari. We're delighted to share seven of the most capable and eye-catching concept Jeep vehicles we've ever created at this year's historic event."

The 2016 crop of Easter Jeep Safari concept vehicles utilizes both production and prototype Jeep Performance Parts. The Mopar brand is responsible for developing, building and ensuring that all Jeep Performance Parts meet rigorous specifications and with 4x4 capabilities in mind, allowing Jeep owners to further enhance their stock vehicle.

"These seven vehicles have been modified with Mopar and Jeep Performance Parts to take on the toughest trails, to go beyond where the road ends," said Pietro Gorlier, Head of Parts and Service (Mopar), FCA  Global. "Mopar's mission is to provide all FCA US vehicle owners with unique performance parts and accessories to tailor vehicles to their individual lifestyles. Nothing supports that more than demonstrating how we can equip Jeep owners to take on some of the more extreme trails in the world."

The seven new Jeep concept vehicles built for Moab this year were created by a team of dedicated, passionate engineers, designers and fabricators that have been customizing production vehicles since 2002, and have introduced more than 50 concept vehicles for the enthusiasts who attend the popular Easter Jeep Safari.

The 2016 Easter Jeep Safari concept vehicles include:

Jeep Crew Chief 715The Jeep Crew Chief 715 concept vehicle was built as a salute to legendary Jeep military service vehicles, in particular the Kaiser M715. This open-air Wrangler Unlimited-based concept vehicle showcases a burly design with heritage styling cues. The Crew Chief 715 utilizes modern-day construction with a rear seat and extra doors for additional passenger capacity while staying close to its classic military roots.

Original Jeep military service vehicles were legendary for getting troops through rugged terrain, and the Jeep Crew Chief 715 illustrates this legacy. Steel front and rear bumpers, 20-inch beadlock wheels and 40-inch NDT military tires pay homage to the original Jeep military vehicles. The Crew Chief 715 utilizes an on-board air system with a hard-mounted quick-disconnect fitting for airing up or lending assistance to other vehicles on the trail. Other features include a master cylinder brake upgrade, cold air intake and a modified exhaust.

Exterior features, such as Jeep Performance Parts off-road rock rails, a winch mounted into the front and rear bumpers, Dana 60 front and rear axles and a 4-inch lift kit with Jeep Performance Parts/Fox 2.0 Remote Reservoir shocks, give the Crew Chief 715 increased capability. The "Tactical Green" color scheme runs from the custom modified M715-inspired front-end to the tailgate. The Crew Chief 715 features a military themed 5-foot cargo bed.

Inside, the no-nonsense interior features leather bucket seats with canvas inserts, aircraft-inspired control switches and Mopar all-weather mats. The media center features a centrally located navigational compass.

The Jeep Crew Chief 715 is powered by the 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6 engine and is mated to a five-speed automatic transmission.

Jeep Shortcut A carefully crafted take on the beloved Jeep CJ-5, this Wrangler-based concept vehicle invokes the spirit of 1950s Americana with a shortened body and functional simplicity.

Exterior styling cues include a unique grille, hood, tailgate, front and rear wheel flares and custom chrome front and rear bumpers. A modified exhaust, 17-inch red steel wheels and 35-inch BF-Goodrich Mud-Terrain T/A KM2 tires help the Jeep Shortcut maintain the look of an icon.

Jeep Performance Parts featured on the Shortcut include a front and rear Dana 44 axle and a 2-inch lift with Fox shocks. Overall body length has been reduced by more than 12 inches to keep the Shortcut concept vehicle light and maneuverable on the trails.

Inside, the simple yet functional interior features low-back leather bucket seats with plaid inserts, a red ball shifter handle, four-point safety cage and Mopar all-weather mats.

The Jeep Shortcut is powered by the 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6 engine and mated to a 5-speed automatic transmission.

Jeep Renegade Commander The Jeep Renegade Commander concept vehicle is equipped with an assortment of Mopar and Jeep Performance Parts for the ultimate off-road adventure. A 2-inch lift kit and 17-inch Rubicon aluminum wheels with 29.5-inch BF-Goodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2 tires increase the off-road capabilities of the Jeep Renegade Commander.

The "Fluorescent Gray" exterior features Renegade's MySky open-air roof with removable panels, custom body decal, Mopar off-road rock rails, skid plates and a modified exhaust. Also featured are the Mopar brand's trailer hitch receiver and front and rear auxiliary lights.

Inside, the Renegade Commander includes Katzkin seat covers, body color bezel accents, a pedal kit, Mopar off-road kit and Mopar all-weather floor mats.

The Jeep Renegade Commander is powered by the 2.4-liter Tigershark engine with MultiAir2 mated to a 9-speed automatic transmission with Jeep Active Drive Low.

Jeep ComancheBased on the Jeep Renegade, the Jeep Comanche concept vehicle is designed to be off-road ready with practical utility. A nod to Jeep pickup trucks of years past, the Comanche concept takes styling cues from military and civilian Jeep heritage.

The Comanche's "Beige Against the Machine" concept exterior paint is accented with a Satin Black hood, a concept lower front fascia, winch, steel rear bumper, soft top and spare tire in the bed. The wheelbase has been stretched an additional six inches versus a production Renegade to accommodate Comanche's 5-foot bed.

Inside, the Comanche features custom seat covers, pedal covers, door sill guards and Mopar all-weather mats. Jeep Performance Parts like off-road rock rails, a 2-inch lift kit and a winch bolster the Comanche's off-road capability. The Comanche rolls on 16-inch painted wheels and 32-inch BF-Goodrich All Terrain T/A tires.

The Jeep Comanche is powered by a 2.0-liter diesel I-4 engine and mated to a 9-speed automatic transmission with Jeep Active Drive Lock, which includes low range and a locking rear differential.

Jeep FC 150 A true American workhorse, this 1960 Jeep FC 150 concept vehicle is rich with heritage and built to tackle both challenging rocky trails and the harshness of a western cattle ranch. Originally built from 1956 to 1965, the FC 150 is based on the CJ-5 and offers a clever packaging solution by keeping overall length to a minimum for maneuverability, but maintaining a full-length cargo box for utility.

This heritage Jeep vehicle continues to utilize its original steel body that proudly bears battle scars while components underneath have been revamped. The FC 150's off-road prowess has been enhanced courtesy of a 2005 Jeep Wrangler chassis modified to accept a Dana 44 front axle, Dana 60 rear axle and 17-inch white steel wheels wrapped in 33-inch BF-Goodrich Mud-Terrain T/A KM2 tires.

Inside, the FC 150 features vinyl seat covers, a custom headliner wrapped in a vintage duck hunting pattern, CB radio, analog compass and Mopar all-weather mats.

The Jeep FC 150 heritage vehicle is powered by a 4.0-liter PowerTech I-6 and is mated to a 3-speed automatic transmission.

Jeep TrailcatThe Jeep Trailcat concept vehicle is the ultimate off-road machine, equally at home on Moab's rugged trails or a high-speed section. Utilizing the supercharged 6.2-liter HEMI Hellcat V-8 engine, and mated to a 6-speed manual transmission with a custom shifter ball featuring an embossed Hellcat logo, the Trailcat concept vehicle leaves everything else in a cloud of dust.

To get the 707-horsepower Hellcat engine into the Trailcat, designers stretched the wheelbase an additional 12 inches while chopping the windshield two inches for a sleeker look. Mopar exterior enhancements include a power-dome vented hood, Satin Black grille, LED headlamps and fog lamps and rock rails.

The robust off-road look is further aided by steel front and rear bumpers, 17-inch beadlock wheels and 39.5-inch BF-Goodrich Krawler T/A KX tires, front and rear Dana 60 axles and Fox shocks.

Subtle design cues, such as a Hellcat decal on the front quarter panels and a "Trailcat" decal on the side of the hood, hint at the horsepower that lurks beneath, making this much more than a typical production Wrangler. The Trailcat's interior is simple yet functional and features sport bucket seats from the Dodge Viper, made from carbon fiber and featuring Katzkin leather seat covers with accent stitching.

Jeep TrailstormThe Trailstorm concept vehicle is the ultimate Jeep Wrangler for exploring off the beaten path. Offering room for extra gear and fuel tanks, it is based on the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, and delivers elevated capability to conquer trails with ease.

Off-road capabilities are enhanced with several Jeep Performance Parts, including 17-inch concept off-road wheels wrapped in 37-inch tires, a 2-inch lift kit with Jeep Performance Parts/Fox shocks, a Jeep Performance Parts Rubicon winch, and Dana 44 front and rear axles. Half doors offer a clear view of obstacles ahead and a bedlined interior makes cleaning up after a day on the trails easy.

Mopar exterior enhancements include a winch guard, Satin Black grille, LED headlights and fog lights, high top fenders, power-dome vented hood, Mopar off-road rock rails with a step, Big Brake Kit, a concept fast-back soft top, tail light guards and a Mopar fuel filler door. Finishing the Trailstorm's exterior upgrades are a steel front and rear Rubicon bumper and a Jeep Performance Parts tire carrier. The Trailstorm is wrapped in camouflage allowing it to blend into its surroundings in the Utah desert.

The Trailstorm's bedlined interior also features Katzkin seat covers and Mopar all-weather floor mats. The Jeep Trailstorm is powered by a 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6 engine and is mated to a 5-speed automatic transmission.

Jeep BrandBuilt on 75 years of legendary heritage, Jeep is the authentic SUV with class-leading capability, craftsmanship and versatility for people who seek extraordinary journeys. The Jeep brand delivers an open invitation to live life to the fullest by offering a full line of vehicles that continue to provide owners with a sense of security to handle any journey with confidence.

The Jeep vehicle lineup consists of the Cherokee, Compass, Grand Cherokee, Patriot, Renegade, Wrangler and Wrangler Unlimited. To meet consumer demand around the world, all Jeep models sold outside North America are available in both left- and right-hand-drive configurations and with gasoline and diesel powertrain options.

Mopar BrandMopar (a simple contraction of the words MOtor and PARts) was trademarked in 1937 with the launch of an antifreeze product, but it truly made its mark in the 1960s during the muscle-car era. From Mopar Performance Parts to enhance speed and handling for both road and racing use, the brand soon expanded to include technical service and customer support.

Today, Mopar is FCA's service, parts and customer-care brand and distributes more than 500,000 parts and accessories in over 150 markets around the world. With more than 50 parts distribution centers and 27 customer-contact hubs globally, Mopar integrates service, parts and customer-care operations in order to enhance dealer and customer support worldwide. Mopar is the source for genuine parts and accessories for FCA brands.

Mopar parts are engineered together with the same teams that create factory-authorized specifications for FCA vehicles. This offers a direct connection that no other aftermarket parts company can provide. A complete list of Mopar accessories and performance parts is available at www.mopar.com.

Jeep Performance PartsThe Jeep Performance Parts portfolio, created in 2012 and offered by Mopar for the Jeep brand, provides enthusiasts with high-end, hard-core, quality aftermarket accessories and performance parts, including axles, lift kits, bumpers, winches, skid plates, suspension components and more. These aftermarket offerings are engineered together with the same teams that create factory-authorized specifications for FCA vehicles and help elevate the Jeep vehicles' already best-in-class off-road performance to the next level. Each part and accessory is specifically designed, built and quality tested to help transform stock rides into even more capable trail performers.

Easter Jeep SafariEaster Jeep Safari consists of trail rides, mostly day long trips, departing from Moab, Utah, throughout the nine-day-long event. The Jeep Safari was started in 1967 by the Moab Chamber of Commerce as a one-day trail ride. Over the years, as participation grew, the Safari expanded until it finally reached the current nine-day event. "Big Saturday" still remains the culmination of the event on the Saturday of Easter weekend.

About FCA US LLCFCA US LLC is a North American automaker with a new name and a long history. Headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, FCA US is a member of the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCA) family of companies. FCA US designs, engineers, manufactures and sells vehicles under the Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram and FIAT brands, as well as the SRT performance vehicle designation. The company also distributes the Alfa Romeo 4C model and Mopar products. FCA US is building upon the historic foundations of Chrysler, the innovative American automaker first established by Walter P. Chrysler in 1925; and Fiat, founded in Italy in 1899 by pioneering entrepreneurs, including Giovanni Agnelli.

FCA, the seventh-largest automaker in the world based on total annual vehicle sales, is an international automotive group. FCA is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "FCAU" and on the Mercato Telematico Azionario under the symbol "FCA."

Follow FCA US news and video on:FCA Content On Demand (COD): www.fcacod.comCompany blog: blog.fcanorthamerica.comCompany website: www.fcanorthamerica.comFCA360: 360.fcanorthamerica.comFacebook: www.facebook.com/ChryslerGroupFlickr: www.flickr.com/photos/chryslergroup/Media website: media.fcanorthamerica.comPinterest: www.pinterest.com/fcacorporateInstagram: www.instagram.com/FiatChrysler_NAStreetfire: www.streetfire.net/uploaded/chryslervideo.htmTwitter: www.twitter.com/FiatChrysler_NATwitter (Spanish): www.twitter.com/fcausespanolYouTube: www.youtube.com/pentastarvideo

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160310/342767 Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160310/342768

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/jeep-and-mopar-unveil-seven-concept-vehicles-built-for-50th-annual-easter-jeep-safari-300234019.html

SOURCE FCA US LLC
WASHINGTON, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

FIRST PHONE CALLProfile America  Thursday, March 10th. For many Americans, trying to envision life without our various telephones would be like trying to live without indoor plumbing. The crucial utility is 140 years old today. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made the first, local, telephone call in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Over a wire to his assistant in the next room, Bell said, "Mister Watson, come here; I want to see you." Only when Bell improved his invention to carry a voice for several miles did the public discover a need for them. Now, the public has an insatiable appetite for multipurpose phones, and there are 98 cell phone subscriptions for every 100 people in the population. Of America's 117 million occupied housing units, just 2.7 million, or under 2.4 percent, have no phone service available. Profile America is in its19th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.

Sources: Kane's Famous First Facts, 7751First call/accessed 1/8/2016: http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/recon/jb_recon_telephone_1.html Cell phone subscriptions/accessed 1/8/2016: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IT.CEL.SETS.P2 Households with phones: http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_14_1YR_DP04&prodType=table

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotions of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button).

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110428/DC91889LOGO

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/us-census-bureau-daily-feature-for-march-10-first-phone-call-300230391.html

SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S.-based stock funds attracted $4.6 billion in new cash during the week ended March 9, Lipper data showed on Thursday, breaking a nine-week streak of outflows.

Taxable bond funds in the United States attracted $5.8 billion in new cash during the same weekly period, their seventh straight week adding new cash, the Lipper data showed.

Investors added $2.4 billion in new cash to relatively low risk money-market funds during the week, according to the fund research service.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Chris Reese)
UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 8-K

CURRENT REPORT

Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported): March 9, 2016

Commission File Number Registrant; State of Incorporation; Address and Telephone Number IRS Employer Identification No. 1-11459 PPL Corporation (Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter) (Pennsylvania) Two North Ninth Street Allentown, PA 18101-1179 (610) 774-5151 23-2758192 1-905 PPL Electric Utilities Corporation (Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter) (Pennsylvania) Two North Ninth Street Allentown, PA 18101-1179 (610) 774-5151 23-0959590

Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions:

[ ] Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425) [ ] Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12) [ ] Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b)) [ ] Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c))

Section 2  Financial Information

Item 2.03 Creation of a Direct Financial Obligation or an Obligation under an Off-Balance Sheet Arrangement of a Registrant

and

Section 8  Other Events

Item 8.01 Other Events

On March 9, 2016, the Lehigh County Industrial Development Authority (the "Authority") issued $115,500,000 aggregate principal amount of its Pollution Control Revenue Refunding Bonds (PPL Electric Utilities Corporation Project) Series 2016A (the "2016A Authority Bonds") and $108,250,000 aggregate principal amount of its Pollution Control Revenue Refunding Bonds (PPL Electric Utilities Corporation Project) Series 2016B (the "2016B Authority Bonds" and, together with the 2016A Authority Bonds, the "Authority Bonds") on behalf of PPL Electric Utilities Corporation ("PPL Electric"). The proceeds of the Authority Bonds were used to redeem $115,500,000 of Pollution Control Revenue Refunding Bonds, 2005 Series A (PPL Electric Utilities Corporation Project) and $108,250,000 of Pollution Control Revenue Refunding Bonds, 2005 Series B (PPL Electric Utilities Corporation Project) issued by the Authority on behalf of PPL Electric, which were redeemed on March 9, 2016. The 2016A Authority Bonds mature on September 1, 2029, but are subject to mandatory purchase on September 1, 2017 (the "2016A Mandatory Purchase Date") at a purchase price equal to the principal amount thereof plus accrued and unpaid interest. The 2016B Authority Bonds mature on February 15, 2027, but are subject to mandatory purchase on August 15, 2017 (the "2016B Mandatory Purchase Date" and, together with 2016A Mandatory Purchase Date, the "Initial Mandatory Purchase Dates") at a purchase price equal to the principal amount thereof plus accrued and unpaid interest.

The Authority Bonds were issued under Trust Indentures, dated as of March 1, 2016 (the "Indentures"), by and between the Authority and The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, N.A., as trustee (the "Authority Bond Trustee"). The Authority has loaned the proceeds of the Authority Bonds to PPL Electric pursuant to Pollution Control Facilities Loan Agreements dated as of March 1, 2016 between PPL Electric and the Authority (the "Loan Agreements"). Pursuant to the Loan Agreements, PPL Electric is obligated to make payments in such amounts and at such times as will be sufficient to pay, when due, the principal and interest on the Authority Bonds. Concurrently with the issuance of the 2016A Authority Bonds and to evidence its obligations under the Loan Agreements, PPL Electric delivered to the Authority Bond Trustee Pollution Control Facilities Notes (Lehigh County Industrial Development Authority), Series 2016A and Series 2016B (together, the "Notes"). The Notes contain principal, interest and prepayment provisions corresponding to the principal, interest and redemption provisions of the related Authority Bonds.

To secure its obligations to make payments on the Notes, PPL Electric has delivered to the Authority Bond Trustee its First Mortgage Bonds, Pollution Control Series 2016A and 2016B (the "Company Mortgage Bonds"), in each case, issued pursuant to PPL Electric's Indenture, dated as of August 1, 2001, to The Bank of New York Mellon (successor to JPMorgan Chase Bank), as trustee, as supplemented by Supplemental Indenture No. 18 ("Supplemental Indenture No. 18") dated as of March 1, 2016 (the "2001 Indenture"). The principal and interest on the Company Mortgage Bonds are payable at the same times as the principal and interest on the Notes and the Authority Bonds. So long as PPL Electric makes the required principal and interest payments on the Notes, it will not be obligated to make additional payments on the Company Mortgage Bonds.

The Authority Bonds initially were issued bearing interest at a term rate of 0.90% through their Initial Mandatory Purchase Dates. The method of determining the interest rate on the Authority Bonds may be converted from time to time after the Initial Mandatory Purchase Dates in accordance with the Indentures to a daily rate, a commercial paper rate, a weekly rate, or a term rate.



The Authority Bonds are not subject to optional redemption by the Authority prior to their applicable Initial Mandatory Purchase Date. The Authority Bonds are subject to special mandatory redemption upon a determination that the interest on the Authority Bonds would be included in the holders' gross income for federal income tax purposes. Any such special mandatory redemption would be at a redemption price of 100% of the principal amount thereof, without premium, plus accrued interest, if any, to the redemption date.

The Loan Agreements (including form of the Notes), Supplemental Indenture, No. 18 and the Officer's Certificates under the 2001 Indenture relating to the Company Mortgage Bonds are filed with this report as Exhibits 4(a), 4(b), 4(c), 4(d) and 4(e), respectively.

Section 9  Financial Statements and Exhibits

Item 9.01 Financial Statements and Exhibits

(d) Exhibits

Exhibit No. Description 4(a) Pollution Control Facilities Loan Agreements dated as of March 1, 2016 between PPL Electric and the Authority (Series 2016 A Bonds). 4(b) Pollution Control Facilities Loan Agreements dated as of March 1, 2016 between PPL Electric and the Authority (Series 2016 B Bonds). 4(c) Supplemental Indenture No. 18, dated as of March 1, 2016, of PPL Electric Utilities Corporation to The Bank of New York Mellon, as Trustee. 4(d) Officer's Certificate, dated March 9, 2016, pursuant to Section 201 and Section 301 of the 2001 Indenture (Series 2016A Company Mortgage Bonds). 4(e) Officer's Certificate, dated March 9, 2016, pursuant to Section 201 and Section 301 of the 2001 Indenture (Series 2016B Company Mortgage Bonds).

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, each Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.

PPL CORPORATION By: /s/ Stephen K. Breininger Stephen K. Breininger Vice President and Controller

PPL ELECTRIC UTILITIES CORPORATION By: /s/ Marlene C. Beers Marlene C. Beers Controller

Dated: March 10, 2016

Exhibit 4(a)

EXECUTION VERSION

POLLUTION CONTROL FACILITIES LOAN AGREEMENT

Between

LEHIGH COUNTY INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

and

PPL ELECTRIC UTILITIES CORPORATION

Dated as of March 1, 2016

Table of Contents

Page

ARTICLE 1. Background, Definitions, Representations and Findings. 1 Section 1.1 Background 1 Section 1.2 Definitions 1 Section 1.3 Company Representations 3 Section 1.4 Authority Findings and Representations 4 ARTICLE 2. Refunding the Prior Bonds. 5 Section 2.1 Issuance of Bonds; Application of Proceeds 5 Section 2.2 Investment and Use of Fund Moneys 5 Section 2.3 Rebate Fund 6 ARTICLE 3. Loan By Authority; Loan Payments; Other Payments 6 Section 3.1 Loan by Authority 6 Section 3.2 Loan Payments 6 Section 3.3 Purchase Payments 7 Section 3.4 Additional Payments 7 Section 3.5 Obligations Unconditional 8 Section 3.6 Assignment of Authoritys Rights 8 ARTICLE 4. Additional Covenants of Company 8 Section 4.1 Corporate Existence 8 Section 4.2 No Assignment 9 Section 4.3 Financial Statements; Books and Records 9 Section 4.4 Taxes, Other Governmental Charges and Utility Charges 9 Section 4.5 Indemnification 9 Section 4.6 Tax Covenants of Company and Authority 10 Section 4.7 Nondiscrimination/Sexual Harassment Clause 11 ARTICLE 5. Redemption of Bonds 11 Section 5.1 Optional Redemption 11 Section 5.2 Mandatory Redemption 11 Section 5.3 Actions by Authority 11 ARTICLE 6. Events of Default And Remedies 11 Section 6.1 Events of Default 12 Section 6.2 Remedies on Default 12 Section 6.3 Remedies Not Exclusive 14 Section 6.4 Payment of Legal Fees and Expenses 14 Section 6.5 No Waiver 14 Section 6.6 Notice of Default 14 ARTICLE 7. Miscellaneous 14 Section 7.1 Term of Agreement 14 Section 7.2 Notices 15 Section 7.3 Limitation of Liability; No Personal Liability 15 Section 7.4 Binding Effect 16 Section 7.5 Amendments 16

i

Section 7.6 Counterparts 16 Section 7.7 Severability 16 Section 7.8 Governing Law 16 Section 7.9 Assignment 17 Section 7.10 Receipt of Indenture 17

EXHIBIT A  Form of Pollution Control Facilities Note A-1 EXHIBIT B  Nondiscrimination / Sexual Harassment Clause B-1

ii

POLLUTION CONTROL FACILITIES LOAN AGREEMENT dated as of March 1, 2016 (the Agreement) between LEHIGH COUNTY INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (the Authority) and PPL ELECTRIC UTILITIES CORPORATION, a Pennsylvania corporation (together with permitted successors and assigns, the Company).

ARTICLE 1.

Background, Definitions, Representations and Findings.

Section 1.1 Background.

Pursuant to the Pennsylvania Economic Development Financing Law (Act No. 102, approved August 23, 1967, P.L. 251, as amended) (the Act), the Authority has heretofore issued $115,500,000 aggregate principal amount of its Pollution Control Revenue Refunding Bonds, 2005 Series A (PPL Electric Utilities Corporation Project) (the Prior Bonds), all of which remain outstanding on the date hereof.

The proceeds of the Prior Bonds were loaned by the Authority to the Company for the purpose of refunding certain prior pollution control revenue bonds issued by the Authority to finance a portion of the cost of certain air or water pollution control facilities or sewage or solid waste disposal facilities at the Susquehanna Steam Generating Station in Salem Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania (the Project Facilities), on behalf of the Company (formerly known as Pennsylvania Power & Light Company).

The Company has requested that the Authority refund the Prior Bonds. In order to pay a portion of the costs of refunding the Prior Bonds, the Authority has agreed to issue $115,500,000 aggregate principal amount of its Pollution Control Revenue Refunding Bonds (PPL Electric Utilities Corporation Project), Series 2016A (the Bonds) on the terms and conditions set forth in the Trust Indenture (the Indenture) dated as of the date hereof made between the Authority and The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, N.A., as trustee (the Trustee), as amended or supplemented from time to time. The Company and the Authority are entering into this Agreement in order to provide for the issuance of the Bonds and the loan of the proceeds of the Bonds to the Company.

In connection with the issuance of the Bonds, the Company will execute and deliver to the Trustee, as the assignee of the Authoritys rights under the Indenture, its Pollution Control Facilities Note (Lehigh County Industrial Development Authority) Series 2016A (the Note), in the aggregate principal amount of $115,500,000, to evidence the Companys loan payment obligations under this Agreement with respect to the Bonds.

The Company has transferred its interests in the Project Facilities to an unrelated third-party.

Section 1.2 Definitions.

Terms used in this Agreement which are defined in the Indenture and are not otherwise defined in this Agreement shall have the meanings set forth in the Indenture unless the context or use clearly indicates another meaning or intent. In addition to the terms defined in the recital clauses of this Agreement, as used herein:

Additional Payments means the amounts required to be paid by the Company pursuant to Section 3.4 hereof.

Agreement means this Pollution Control Facilities Loan Agreement, as amended or supplemented from time to time.

Authoritys Annual Fee means an amount equal to 0.03% of the outstanding principal balance of the Bonds as of April 1 in each year, payable as provided in Section 3.4 hereof.

Authoritys Initial Fee means an amount equal to 0.10% (ten basis points) of the amount of the Loan.

Authorized Representative means, (i) with respect to the Authority, each person at the time designated to act on behalf of the Authority by written certificate furnished to the Trustee containing the specimen signature of such person and signed on behalf of the Authority by its Chair or any Vice Chair, (ii) with respect to the Company, each person at the time designated to act on behalf of the Company by written certificate furnished to the Trustee containing the specimen signature of such person and signed on behalf of the Company by its President, any Vice President, its Treasurer, or any Assistant Treasurer and (iii) with respect to the Credit Facility Issuer, each person at the time designated to act on behalf of any Credit Facility Issuer by written certificate furnished to the Trustee containing the specimen signature of such person and signed on behalf of the Credit Facility Issuer by its President, Vice President, Manager, Treasurer, Secretary, Assistant Treasurer or Assistant Secretary.

Companys Tax Certificate means the Certificate Regarding Federal Tax Matters of the Company executed on the Issue Date with respect to matters necessary to establish and maintain the exclusion from gross income for Federal income tax purposes of the interest on the Bonds.

Debt Service means, for any period or payable at any time, the principal of, premium, if any, on and interest on the Bonds for that period or payable at the time whether due on an Interest Payment Date, at maturity or upon acceleration or redemption.

Issue Date means March 9, 2016.

Loan means the loan by the Authority to the Company of the proceeds of the Bonds pursuant to Section 3.1 hereof in the original aggregate principal amount of $115,500,000.

Loan Payments means the amounts required to be paid by the Company in repayment of the Loan pursuant to Section 3.2 hereof.

Project Facilities Commitments means the Commitments Regarding Pollution Control Facilities executed and delivered to the Company in June 2000 by PPL Susquehanna, LLC, as transferee of the Project Facilities (and the generating facilities to which they relate) and certain other parties, the Commitment Regarding Pollution Control Facilities Agreement dated as of February 23, 2005 of PPL Susquehanna, LLC to the Company in connection with the Prior Bonds, and any and all similar commitments and/or covenants to the Company by any subsequent transferee of the Project Facilities or any thereof.

Purchase Payments means the amounts required to be paid by the Company pursuant to Section 3.3 hereof.

Remarketing Agreement means the Remarketing Agreement between the Company and the Remarketing Agent relating to the Bonds, as the same may be amended, supplemented or replaced from time to time.

Resolutions means the resolutions of the Authority approving and authorizing the Bonds, the Indenture and this Agreement.

Unassigned Authoritys Rights means all of the rights of the Authority to receive Additional Payments under Section 3.4 hereof, to be held harmless and indemnified under Section 4.5 hereof, to be reimbursed for attorneys fees and expenses under Section 6.4, to exercise remedies under Section 6.2 hereof and to give or withhold consent to or approval of amendments, modifications, termination or assignment of this Agreement, or sale, transfer, assignment, lease (or assignment of lease) or other disposal of the Project Facilities, or other matters requiring consent or approval under Sections 4.1, 4.2, 7.5 and 7.9 hereof.

Section 1.3 Company Representations.

The Company represents as of the date hereof that:

(a) It is a corporation duly organized and existing under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, with full power and legal right to enter into this Agreement and the Note and the Company Mortgage Bonds (as defined below) and perform its obligations hereunder and thereunder. The making and performance of this Agreement, the Note and the Company Mortgage Bonds on the part of the Company have been duly authorized by all necessary action.

(b) The Project Facilities constitute pollution control facilities as defined in the Act and are consistent with the purposes of the Act.

(c) Neither the execution and delivery of this Agreement nor the consummation of the transactions contemplated hereby will conflict in any material respect with or constitute a material violation or breach of, or a material default under, the Companys articles of incorporation or by-laws, or any indenture or other material agreement or instrument to which the Company is a party or by which it or any of its property is bound.

(d) This Agreement, the Note and the Company Mortgage Bonds have been duly executed and delivered by the Company and constitute the valid and binding obligations of the Company enforceable in accordance with their terms, except as the enforcement thereof may be limited by bankruptcy, insolvency, fraudulent transfer, reorganization, moratorium and other similar laws relating to or affecting the enforcement of creditors rights generally, to general equitable principles (whether considered in a proceeding in equity or at law) and by an implied covenant of good faith, fair dealing and reasonableness.

(e) All of the proceeds of the Prior Bonds were used to refund certain prior pollution control revenue bonds which, in turn, refunded, directly or through certain prior issues of revenue bonds, $115,500,000 aggregate principal amount of the Authoritys Pollution Control Revenue Bonds, 1984 Series B (Pennsylvania Power & Light Company Project) (the Project Bonds). At least 90% of the proceeds of the Project Bonds (as allocated to original expenditures through the refunding of prior bonds) were issued to provide pollution control facilities and solid waste disposal facilities within the meaning of Sections 103(b)(4)(E) and (F) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as amended, and in effect prior to the passage of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (the 1954 Code), and the applicable regulations thereunder.

(f) Acquisition, construction and installation of the Project Facilities have been accomplished.

(g) As of June 1, 2015, the Company has transferred all of its interests in the Project Facilities to a third-party that is no longer affiliated with the Company. During any period of ownership by the Company or its affiliates of the Project Facilities, the Company or such affiliates used and operated the Project Facilities in a manner consistent with the purposes of the Project Facilities and the Act, and, after due inquiry, the Company has no reasonable basis to believe that the Project Facilities will not continue to be so operated by the owner or owners thereof.

(h) The information furnished by the Company and used by the Authority in preparing the certification pursuant to Section 148 of the Code and in preparing the Form 8038 information statement pursuant to Section 149(e) of the Code will be accurate and complete as of the Issue Date.

(i) Neither the Prior Bonds nor the Bonds are or will be federally guaranteed, as defined in Section 149(b) of the Code; references to the Code and Sections of the Code (or, as applicable, to the 1954 Code and Sections thereof) include Sections 1312 and 1313 of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, relevant applicable regulations and proposed regulations thereunder and under the 1954 Code and any successor provisions to those Sections, regulations or proposed regulations and, in addition, all applicable official rulings and judicial determinations under the foregoing applicable to the Prior Bonds or the Bonds, as applicable.

(j) At no time will any funds constituting gross proceeds of the Bonds be used in a manner as would constitute failure of compliance with Section 148 of the Code.

(k) The proceeds derived from the sale of the Bonds (other than any accrued interest thereon) will be used exclusively to refund the outstanding principal amount of the Prior Bonds. The principal amount of the Bonds does not exceed the outstanding principal amount of the Prior Bonds. None of the proceeds (within the meaning of Section 147(g) of the Code) of the Bonds will be used to pay for any costs of issuance of the Bonds.

(l) It is not anticipated, as of the date hereof, that there will be created any replacement proceeds, within the meaning of Section 1.148-1(c) of the Treasury Regulations, with respect to the Bonds; however, in the event that any such replacement proceeds are deemed to have been created, such amounts will be invested in compliance with Section 148 of the Code.

Section 1.4 Authority Findings and Representations.

The Authority hereby confirms its findings and represents that:

(a) The Authority is a public body corporate and politic established in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania pursuant to the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (including the Act). Under the Act, the Authority has the power to enter into the Indenture, the Purchase Agreement and this Agreement and to carry out its obligations thereunder and to issue the Bonds to finance the Project Facilities.

(b) By adoption of the Resolutions at one or more duly convened meetings of the Authority at which a quorum was present and acting throughout, the Authority has duly authorized the execution and delivery of the Indenture, the Purchase Agreement and this Agreement and performance of its obligations thereunder and the issuance of the Bonds. Simultaneously with the execution and delivery of this Agreement, the Authority has duly executed and delivered the Indenture and issued and sold the Bonds.

(c) Based on representations and information furnished to the Authority by or on behalf of the Company, the Authority has found that the Company is qualified to be a beneficiary of financing provided by the Authority pursuant to the Act.

(d) Based on representations and information furnished to the Authority by or on behalf of the Company, the Authority has found that the Project Facilities (i) will promote the public purposes of the Act, (ii) are located within the boundaries of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and (iii) will constitute a project within the meaning of the Act.

(e) The refunding of the Prior Bonds has been approved by the Authority by adoption of the Resolutions, as required by the Act.

(f) The Authority has not and will not pledge the income and revenues derived from this Agreement other than pursuant to and as set forth in the Indenture.

ARTICLE 2.

Refunding the Prior Bonds.

Section 2.1 Issuance of Bonds; Application of Proceeds.

To provide funds to make the Loan for purposes of refunding the Prior Bonds, the Authority will issue the Bonds in the aggregate principal amount of $115,500,000. The Bonds will be issued pursuant to the Indenture and will bear interest, mature and be subject to redemption all as set forth therein. The Company hereby approves the terms and conditions of the Indenture and the Bonds, and the terms and conditions under which the Bonds will be issued, sold and delivered.

The proceeds from the sale of the Bonds (including any underwriting discount) shall be loaned to the Company pursuant to Section 3.1 hereof, and such proceeds (net of any underwriting discount) shall be paid over to the Trustee for the purpose of refunding the Prior Bonds as provided in the Indenture.

Section 2.2 Investment and Use of Fund Moneys.

At the written request of an Authorized Representative of the Company, any moneys held as part of the Bond Fund (except moneys representing principal of, or premium, if any, or interest on, any Bonds which are deemed paid under Section 16.1 of the Indenture) shall be invested or reinvested by the Trustee as provided in Section 8.2 of the Indenture. The Authority and the Company each hereby covenants that it will restrict that investment and reinvestment and the use of the proceeds of the Bonds in such manner and to such extent, if any, as may be necessary, after taking into account reasonable expectations at the time of delivery of and payment for the Bonds, so that the Bonds will not constitute arbitrage bonds under Section 148 of the Code.

Any Authorized Representative of the Authority having responsibility for issuing the Bonds is authorized and directed, alone or in conjunction with an Authorized Representative of the Company and/or any other officer, partner, employee or agent of or consultant to the Authority or the Company, to give an appropriate certificate of the Authority pursuant to Section 148 of the Code, for inclusion in the transcript of proceedings for the issuance of the Bonds, setting forth the reasonable expectations of the Authority regarding the amount and use of the proceeds of the Bonds and the facts, estimates and circumstances on which those expectations are based, all as of the Issue Date. The Company shall provide the Authority with, and the Authoritys certificate may be based on, a certificate of the Authorized Representative of the Company or other appropriate officer, partner, employee or agent of or consultant to the Company setting forth the reasonable expectations of the Company on the Issue Date

regarding the amount and use of the proceeds of the Bonds and the facts, estimates and circumstances on which they are based.

Section 2.3 Rebate Fund.

The Company agrees to make such payments to the Trustee as are required of the Company under Section 6.4 of the Indenture. The obligation of the Company to make such payments shall remain in effect and be binding upon the Company notwithstanding the release and discharge of the Indenture.

ARTICLE 3.

Loan By Authority; Loan Payments; Other Payments

Section 3.1 Loan by Authority.

Upon the terms and conditions of this Agreement, the Authority will make the Loan to the Company on the Issue Date in a principal amount equal to the aggregate principal amount of the Bonds. The Loan shall be deemed fully advanced upon disbursement of the Bond proceeds in accordance with Section 4.1 of the Indenture.

Section 3.2 Loan Payments.

(a) In consideration of the issuance, sale and delivery of the Bonds by the Authority, the Company hereby agrees to pay to the Trustee for the account of the Authority Loan Payments in such amounts and manner so as to enable the Trustee to make payment of the principal of, and premium, if any, and accrued interest on the Bonds as the same shall become due and payable whether at stated maturity or by acceleration, redemption or otherwise in accordance with the terms of the Indenture; provided, however, that the obligation of the Company to make any Loan Payment hereunder shall be reduced by the amount of any reduction under the Indenture of the amount of the corresponding payment required to be made by the Authority of the principal of or premium, if any, or interest on the Bonds. Pursuant to the Indenture, the Authority directs the Trustee to apply such Loan Payments in the manner provided in the Indenture. Whenever payment or provision for payment has been made in respect of the principal of, or premium, if any, and interest on all of the Bonds, the Loan Payments shall be deemed paid in full.

(b) The obligation of the Company to make the Loan Payments directly to the Trustee, as the assignee of the Authority under the Indenture, shall be evidenced by the Companys Note substantially in the form of Exhibit A hereto, which shall be delivered concurrently with the delivery by the Authority of the Bonds.

(c) Notwithstanding the foregoing, while any Credit Facility is in effect with respect to the Bonds, the Companys obligation to make Loan Payments hereunder in respect of the principal of, and premium, if any, and accrued interest on the Bonds shall be deemed to have been satisfied to the extent that moneys shall have been paid by a Credit Facility Issuer to the Trustee for such payment in respect of the Bonds, which amounts may be reimbursed by the Company directly to such Credit Facility Issuer, and no Event of Default shall occur hereunder by reason of any failure of the Company to make any such Loan Payment to the Trustee under subsection (a) above unless the Trustee is notified by the Credit Facility Issuer of the Companys failure to have reimbursed the Credit Facility Issuer (if any) in accordance with the terms of the Credit Facility.

(d) To secure its obligations under the Note, concurrently with the issuance by the Authority of the Bonds, the Company will execute and deliver to the Trustee its First Mortgage Bonds, Pollution

Control Series 2016A in the aggregate principal amount of $115,500,000 (the Company Mortgage Bonds), to evidence and secure its repayment obligations under the Note, and which will contain principal, interest and redemption provisions corresponding to the principal, interest and redemption provisions of the Bonds. The Company Mortgage Bonds will be issued pursuant to Supplemental Indenture No. 18 dated as of March 1, 2016, supplementing the Companys Indenture dated as of August 1, 2001, as supplemented (as so supplemented, the Company Indenture) to The Bank of New York Mellon (as successor to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.), as trustee (the Company Indenture Trustee). Anything herein to the contrary notwithstanding, the obligation of the Company to make any payment of the principal of, or interest on, the Company Mortgage Bonds shall be deemed to be satisfied and discharged to the extent of the corresponding payment (i) made by the Company to the Trustee pursuant to this Section 3.2 and/or on the Note and/or (ii) made with moneys on deposit in any fund or account maintained under the Indenture for the payment of the principal or redemption price of, or interest on, the Bonds.

At the time any Bonds cease to be Outstanding (other than in connection with the cancellation thereof following an exchange or transfer or the authentication of other Bonds in lieu thereof pursuant to Section 2.9 of the Indenture), the Authority shall cause the Trustee to surrender to the Company Indenture Trustee a corresponding principal amount of Company Mortgage Bonds.

The Authority shall not sell, assign or otherwise transfer the Company Mortgage Bonds, except to the extent provided in Section 12.16 of the Indenture. In view of the assignment referred to in Section 3.6 hereof, the Authority agrees that (i) the Company Mortgage Bonds shall be issued and delivered to, registered in the name of and owned and held by the Trustee for the benefit of the holders from time to time of the Bonds; (ii) the Indenture shall provide that the Trustee shall not sell, assign or transfer the Company Mortgage Bonds except to a successor trustee under the Indenture, and shall surrender Company Mortgage Bonds to the Company Indenture Trustee in accordance with the provisions of this Section 3.2 and Section 12.17(b) of the Indenture; and (iii) the Company may take such actions as it shall deem to be desirable to effect compliance with such restrictions on transfer, including the placing of any appropriate legend on each Company Mortgage Bond and the issuance of stop-transfer instructions to the Company Indenture Trustee or any other transfer agent under the Company Indenture. Any action taken by the Trustee in accordance with the provisions of Section 12.16 of the Indenture shall be binding upon the Company.

Section 3.3 Purchase Payments.

To the extent that moneys on deposit in the Remarketing Proceeds Account of the Purchase Fund established under the Indenture are insufficient to pay the full purchase price of Bonds payable pursuant to Section 5.3 of the Indenture on the applicable Purchase Date, the Company shall promptly pay to the Trustee as Purchase Payments for deposit in the Company Fund established under Section 5.7 of the Indenture amounts sufficient to cover such shortfalls in sufficient time to enable the Trustee to deliver to the Tender Agent the purchase price of Bonds payable pursuant to Section 5.3 of the Indenture; provided, however, that the obligation of the Company to make any Purchase Payment hereunder shall be deemed to have been satisfied to the extent that moneys shall have been paid by a Credit Facility Issuer to the Trustee for such payment in respect of the Bonds.

Section 3.4 Additional Payments.

The Company shall pay as Additional Payments hereunder: (a) to the Authority, (i) the Authoritys Initial Fee on the Issue Date, (ii) the Authoritys Annual Fee which shall be due and payable on April 1 of each year, commencing April 1, 2017, and (iii) any and all other costs and expenses (including reasonable legal fees and expenses) incurred or to be paid by the Authority in connection with

the issuance and delivery of the Bonds or otherwise related to actions taken by the Authority under this Agreement or the Indenture or any amendment thereof, supplement thereto or consent or waiver thereunder, including, without limitation, any annual charge made by a Rating Agency to maintain a rating on the Bonds; and (b) to the Trustee, the Tender Agent, the Bond Registrar, the Paying Agent and their agents, their reasonable fees, charges and expenses (including reasonable legal fees and expenses) for acting as such under the Indenture. The obligations of the Company under clause (b) shall survive the termination of this Agreement and the Indenture, payment or defeasance of the Bonds and the removal or resignation of the Trustee, the Tender Agent, the Bond Registrar or the Paying Agent in accordance with the Indenture for any reason.

Section 3.5 Obligations Unconditional.

The obligations of the Company to make Loan Payments, Purchase Payments and Additional Payments shall be absolute and unconditional, and the Company shall make such payments without abatement, diminution or deduction regardless of any cause or circumstances whatsoever including, without limitation, any defense, set-off, recoupment or counterclaim which the Company may have or assert against the Authority, the Trustee, the Remarketing Agent or any other Person, whether express or implied, or any duty, liability or obligation arising out of or connected with this Agreement, it being the intention of the parties that the payments required of the Company hereunder will be paid in full when due without any delay or diminution whatsoever. Loan Payments and Purchase Payments required to be paid by or on behalf of the Company hereunder shall be received by the Authority or the Trustee as net sums and the Company agrees to pay or cause to be paid all charges against or which might diminish such net sums.

Section 3.6 Assignment of Authoritys Rights.

To secure the payment of the Debt Service, the Authority shall pledge and assign to the Trustee all the Authoritys rights in, to and under this Agreement (except for the Unassigned Authoritys Rights), the Revenues, the Note, the Company Mortgage Bonds and the other property comprising the Trust Estate. The Company consents to such pledge and assignment and agrees to make or cause to be made Loan Payments and Purchase Payments directly to the Trustee without defense or set-off by reason of any dispute between the Company and the Trustee, and further agrees to issue and deliver the Note and the Company Mortgage Bonds directly to the Trustee to be held by the Trustee in accordance with the provisions of the Indenture. Whenever the Company is required to obtain the consent of the Authority hereunder, the Company shall also obtain the consent of the Trustee; provided that, except as otherwise expressly stipulated herein or in the Indenture, the Company shall not be required to obtain the Trustees consent with respect to the Unassigned Authoritys Rights.

ARTICLE 4.

Additional Covenants of Company

Section 4.1 Corporate Existence.

So long as any Bonds are outstanding, the Company agrees to maintain its corporate existence and, to the extent required by Pennsylvania law, its qualification to do business in Pennsylvania, except that it may dispose of all or substantially all of its assets and may consolidate with or merge into another corporation or entity or permit one or more corporations or entities to consolidate with or merge into it so long as (i) (A) the surviving, resulting or transferee corporation or entity, if other than the Company, is solvent, and assumes in writing all of the obligations of the Company hereunder and under the Note and is a corporation or other entity duly organized under the laws of one of the states of the United States of America and, to the extent required by Pennsylvania law, is duly qualified to do business in the

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania provided that the Company shall have delivered to the Trustee a certificate from an Authorized Representative of the Company to the effect that such disposition, consolidation, merger and assumption complies with the provisions of this Agreement, and (B) if the surviving, resulting or transferee corporation or entity is not the Company or an Affiliate of the Company, with the consent of the Authority, which consent shall not be unreasonably withheld, (ii) immediately thereafter neither the Company nor its successor will be in default under the Agreement or the Note and (iii) the provisions of Section 7.9 hereof are satisfied.

Section 4.2 No Assignment.

The Company shall not assign its interest under this Agreement in violation of Section 7.9 hereof.

Section 4.3 Financial Statements; Books and Records.

The Company shall prepare or have prepared financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and shall keep true and proper books of records and accounts in which full and correct entries are made of all its business transactions. Copies of such financial statements shall be provided to the Authority and the Trustee promptly upon request.

Section 4.4 Taxes, Other Governmental Charges and Utility Charges.

The Company shall pay, or cause to be paid before the same become delinquent, all taxes, assessments, whether general or special, and governmental charges of any kind whatsoever that may at any time be lawfully assessed or levied against it; provided that with respect to special assessments or other governmental charges that lawfully may be paid in installments over a period of years, the Company shall be obligated to pay only such installments as are required to be paid during the term hereof; and provided further that the Company may, at its expense, in good faith contest any such taxes, assessments and other charges and, in the event of any such contest, may permit the taxes, assessments or other charges so contested to remain unpaid during the period of such contest and any appeal therefrom.

Section 4.5 Indemnification.

(a) The Company will indemnify and hold harmless the Authority and each member, director, officer, employee, attorney and agent of the Authority from and against any and all claims, losses, damages or liabilities (including the costs and expenses of defending against any such claims) to which the Authority or any member, director, officer, employee or agent of the Authority may become subject, insofar as such losses, claims, damages or liabilities (or actions in respect thereof) arise directly or indirectly out of (a) any loss or damage to property or injury to or death of or loss by any Person that may be occasioned by any cause whatsoever pertaining to the construction, maintenance, operation and use of the Project Facilities; (b) any breach or default on the part of the Company in the performance of any covenant or agreement of the Company under this Agreement or the Note or any related document, or arising from any act or failure to act by the Company or any of its agents, contractors, servants, employees or licensees; (c) the authorization, issuance and sale of the Bonds, or the provision of any information or certification furnished in connection therewith concerning the Bonds, the Project Facilities or the Company (including, without limitation, any information furnished by the Company for inclusion in any certification made by the Authority or for inclusion in, or as a basis for preparation of, the information statements furnished by the Authority and any information or certification obtained from the Company) to assure the exclusion of the interest on the Bonds from the gross income of the holders thereof for federal income tax purposes; (d) the Companys failure to comply with any requirements of this Agreement pertaining to compliance with the Code to assure such exclusion of the interest or the provisions set forth in Section 4.6 hereof; (e) any failure by the Company to comply with the provisions

of the Act; and (f) any claim, action or proceeding brought with respect to any matter set forth in clause (a), (b), (c), (d) or (e) above.

(b) The Company will indemnify and hold the Trustee and its directors, officers, agents, attorneys and employees (collectively, the Indemnitees) harmless from and against any and all claims, liabilities, losses, damages, fines, penalties and expenses, including out-of-pocket expenses, incidental expenses, reasonable legal fees and expenses, and the reasonable costs and expenses of defending against any such claim (Losses) that may be imposed on, incurred by or asserted against the Indemnitees or any of them for following any instruction or other direction upon which the Trustee is authorized to rely pursuant to the terms of this Agreement, the Bonds, the Note or the Indenture. In addition to and not in limitation of the immediately preceding sentence, the Company also agrees to indemnify and hold the Indemnitees and each of them harmless from and against any and all Losses that may be imposed on, incurred by or asserted against the Indemnitees or any of them in connection with or arising out of the Trustees performance under this Agreement, the Bonds or the Indenture or the administration thereof, or in collecting under the Note, except in any case as a result of the gross negligence or willful misconduct of the Trustee.

(c) In case any action or proceeding is brought against the Authority or the Trustee in respect of which indemnity may be sought hereunder, the party seeking indemnity promptly shall give notice of that action or proceeding brought against it to the Company, and the Company, upon receipt of that notice, shall have the obligation and the right to assume the defense of the action or proceeding; provided that failure of a party to give that notice shall not relieve the Company from any of its obligations under this Section. At the expense of the Company, an indemnified party may employ separate counsel and participate in the defense. The Authority or the Trustee, as the case may be, will cooperate with the Company, at the Companys expense, with respect to its assumption of the defense of any such action or proceeding, and will take such reasonable actions as are requested of it by the Company, at the Companys expense, in connection therewith. The Company shall not be liable for any settlement made without its consent, which shall not be unreasonably withheld. The Company shall not approve any settlement involving the Trustee without the Trustees prior written consent, which shall not be unreasonably withheld.

(d) The indemnification set forth above is intended to and shall (i) include the indemnification of all affected directors, officers, agents and employees of the Authority and the Trustee, respectively, and (ii) be enforceable by the Authority and the Trustee, respectively, to the full extent permitted by law.

The provisions of this Section 4.5 shall survive the termination of this Agreement and the Indenture, payment or defeasance of the Bonds and the removal or resignation of the Trustee in accordance with the Indenture for any reason.

Section 4.6 Tax Covenants of Company and Authority.

(a) The Authority and the Company mutually covenant for the benefit of the Bondholders that they will not use the proceeds of the Bonds, any moneys derived, directly or indirectly, from the use or investment thereof or any other moneys on deposit in any fund or account maintained in respect of the Bonds (whether such moneys were derived from the proceeds of the sale of the Bonds or from other sources) in a manner which would cause the Bonds to be treated as arbitrage bonds within the meaning of Section 148 of the Code.

(b) The Company agrees that it will not take any action the taking of which, or omit to exercise any of its rights or options under this Agreement and/or the Project Facilities Commitments the

omission of which, would cause the interest on the Bonds to be included in the gross income of the holders thereof for federal income tax purposes (other than a holder who is a substantial user of the Project Facilities or a related person as those terms are used in Section 147(a) of the Code and Section 103(b)(13) of the 1954 Code), pursuant to the requirements of the Code. The Company shall further comply in all respects with any undertakings made by it with respect to the Bonds set forth in the Companys Tax Certificate.

Section 4.7 Nondiscrimination/Sexual Harassment Clause.

The Company hereby accepts and agrees to be bound by the standard Nondiscrimination/Sexual Harassment Clause set forth in Exhibit B attached hereto. For purposes of such Nondiscrimination/Sexual Harassment Clause, the parties hereto understand that (i) this Agreement is the contract and (ii) there is no subcontractor for the performance of the Companys obligations under this Agreement.

ARTICLE 5.

Redemption of Bonds

Section 5.1 Optional Redemption.

At any time and from time to time, the Company may deliver or cause to be delivered Loan Payments to the Trustee in addition to the scheduled Loan Payments required to be made under Section 3.2 hereof and direct the Trustee to use the Loan Payments so delivered for the purpose of calling Bonds for optional or extraordinary optional redemption in accordance with the applicable provisions of the Indenture and redeeming such Bonds at the redemption price stated in the Indenture. Such Loan Payments shall be held and applied as provided in Section 6.2 of the Indenture and delivery thereof shall not operate to abate or postpone Loan Payments otherwise becoming due or to alter or suspend any other obligations of the Company under this Agreement. Whenever the Bonds are subject to optional redemption pursuant to the Indenture, the Authority will, but only upon direction of the Company, direct the Trustee to call the same for redemption as provided in the Indenture.

Section 5.2 Mandatory Redemption.

The Company shall deliver or cause to be delivered to the Trustee the moneys needed to redeem the Bonds in accordance with the mandatory redemption provisions set forth in the Bonds and the Indenture. Whenever the Bonds are subject to mandatory redemption pursuant to the Indenture, the Company will cooperate with the Authority and the Trustee in effecting such redemption.

Section 5.3 Actions by Authority.

At the written request of the Company or the Trustee, the Authority shall take all steps required of it under the applicable provisions of the Indenture or the Bonds to effect the redemption of all or a portion of the Bonds pursuant to this Article.

ARTICLE 6.

Events of Default And Remedies

Section 6.1 Events of Default.

Each of the following shall be an Event of Default:

(a) Failure by the Company to make or cause to be made any Loan Payment or Purchase Payment which shall have resulted in an Event of Default described in clause (a), (b) or (d) of Section 11.1 of the Indenture;

(b) Failure by the Company to observe and perform any covenant, condition or agreement on its part to be observed or performed under this Agreement or the Note (other than payment obligations on the Note) for a period of 60 days after written notice, specifying such failure and requesting that it be remedied, given to the Company by the Trustee; provided, that if such failure is of such nature that it can be corrected (as certified by an Authorized Representative in a certificate delivered to the Trustee) but not within such period, the same shall not constitute an Event of Default so long as the Company institutes prompt corrective action and is diligently pursuing the same and provided further, that if the Company is unable to institute corrective action or to pursue the same because of circumstances beyond its control, the same shall not constitute an Event of Default until such circumstances no longer exist and then only after the Company has had an opportunity to remedy the same as provided above;

(c) The Company shall (i) apply for or consent to the appointment of a receiver, trustee, liquidator or custodian or the like of itself or of its property, or (ii) admit in writing its inability to pay its debts generally as they become due, or (iii) make a general assignment for the benefit of creditors, or (iv) be adjudicated a bankrupt or insolvent, or (v) commence a voluntary case under the United States Bankruptcy Code, or file a voluntary petition or answer seeking reorganization, an arrangement with creditors or an order for relief, or seeking to take advantage of any insolvency law or file an answer admitting the material allegations of a petition filed against it in any bankruptcy, reorganization, or insolvency proceeding, or corporate action shall be taken by it for the purpose of effecting any of the foregoing, or (vi) have instituted against it, without the application, approval or consent of the Company, a proceeding in any court of competent jurisdiction, under any law relating to bankruptcy, insolvency, reorganization or relief of debtors, seeking in respect of the Company an order for relief or an adjudication in bankruptcy, reorganization, dissolution, winding up, liquidation, a composition or arrangement with creditors, a readjustment of debts, the appointment of a trustee, receiver, liquidator or custodian or the like of the Company or of all or any substantial part of its assets, or other like relief in respect thereof under any bankruptcy or insolvency law, and the same shall (A) result in the entry of an order for relief or any such adjudication or appointment or (B) remain unvacated, undismissed and undischarged for a period of 90 days;

(d) For any reason the Bonds are declared due and payable by acceleration in accordance with Section 11.2 of the Indenture and such acceleration shall not have been annulled; and

(e) The acceleration of the maturity of the Company Mortgage Bonds upon an occurrence of an Event of Default (as defined under the Company Indenture).

Section 6.2 Remedies on Default.

(a) Whenever an Event of Default shall have happened and be subsisting uncured, any one or more of the following remedial steps may be taken:

(i) If acceleration of the principal amount of the Bonds has been declared pursuant to Section 11.2 of the Indenture, the Trustee, by notice in writing to the Company, shall declare all Loan Payments and amounts due on the Note to be immediately due and payable, whereupon the same shall become immediately due and payable; and

(ii) The Authority or the Trustee may pursue any and all remedies now or hereafter existing at law or in equity to collect all amounts then due and thereafter to become due under this

Agreement or to enforce the performance and observance of any other obligation or agreement of the Company under this Agreement and the Note.

(b) The Company covenants that, in case it shall fail to pay or cause to be paid any Loan Payments or Purchase Payments as and when the same shall become due and payable whether at maturity or by acceleration or otherwise, then, upon demand of the Trustee, the Company will pay to the Trustee the whole amount that then shall have become due and payable hereunder; and, in addition thereto, such further amounts as shall be sufficient to cover the reasonable costs and expenses of collection, including a reasonable compensation to the Trustee, its agents and counsel, and any expenses or liabilities incurred by the Authority or the Trustee, including counsel fees and expenses. In case the Company shall fail forthwith to pay such amounts upon such demand, the Trustee shall be entitled and empowered to institute any actions or proceedings at law or in equity for the collection of the sums so due and unpaid.

(c) In case there shall be pending proceedings for the bankruptcy or reorganization of the Company under the federal bankruptcy laws or any other applicable law, or in case a receiver or trustee shall have been appointed for the benefit of the creditors or the property of the Company, the Trustee shall be entitled and empowered, by intervention in such proceedings or otherwise, to file and prove a claim or claims for the whole amount due hereunder, including interest owing and unpaid in respect thereof, and, in case of any judicial proceedings, to file such proofs of claim and other papers or documents as may be necessary or advisable in order to have the claims of the Trustee allowed in such judicial proceedings relative to the Company, its creditors or its property, and to collect and receive any moneys or other property payable or deliverable on any such claims, and to distribute the same after the deduction of its charges and expenses. Any receiver, assignee or trustee in bankruptcy or reorganization is hereby authorized to make such payments to the Authority or the Trustee, and to pay to the Authority or the Trustee any amount due it for compensation and expenses, including counsel fees and expenses incurred by it up to the date of such distribution.

(d) Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Trustee shall not be obligated to take any step which in its opinion will or might cause it to expend money or otherwise incur liability unless and until it has been provided with security or indemnity satisfactory to it. Any amounts collected as Loan Payments or applicable to Loan Payments and any other amounts which would be applicable to payment of Debt Service collected pursuant to action taken under this Section shall, after the deduction of the Trustees charges and expenses, be paid into the Bond Fund and applied in accordance with the provisions of the Indenture or, if the Outstanding Bonds have been paid and discharged in accordance with the provisions of the Indenture, shall be paid as provided in Section 6.2(e) of the Indenture for transfers of remaining amounts in the Bond Fund.

(e) The provisions of this Section are subject to the further limitation that the annulment by the Trustee of its declaration pursuant to Section 11.2 of the Indenture that all of the Bonds are immediately due and payable also shall constitute an annulment of any corresponding declaration made pursuant to Section 6.2(a)(i) hereof; provided that no such waiver or rescission shall extend to or affect any subsequent or other default or impair any right consequent thereon.

(f) If a waiver of any event of default under the Company Mortgage Bonds or any annulment or rescission of any acceleration of Company Mortgage Bonds occurs in accordance with the provisions of the Company Indenture, such waiver, annulment or rescission shall constitute an automatic waiver, annulment or rescission of the Event of Default described in Section 6.1(e) hereof and an automatic annulment and rescission of any resulting acceleration of the Note.

Section 6.3 Remedies Not Exclusive.

No remedy conferred upon or reserved to the Authority or the Trustee by this Agreement is intended to be exclusive of any other available remedy or remedies, including, without limitation, the remedies provided in the Act, but each and every such remedy shall be cumulative and shall be in addition to every other remedy given under this Agreement, or now or hereafter existing at law or in equity. No delay or omission to exercise any right or power accruing upon any default shall impair that right or power or shall be construed to be a waiver thereof, but any such right and power may be exercised from time to time and as often as may be deemed expedient. In order to entitle the Authority or the Trustee to exercise any remedy reserved to it in this Article, it shall not be necessary to give any notice, other than any notice required by law or for which express provision is made herein.

Section 6.4 Payment of Legal Fees and Expenses.

If an Event of Default should occur and the Authority, the Credit Facility Issuer (if any) or the Trustee should incur expenses, including reasonable attorneys fees and expenses, in connection with the enforcement of this Agreement, the Indenture, the Note or the collection of sums due hereunder or thereunder, the Company shall reimburse the Authority, the Credit Facility Issuer (if any) and the Trustee, as applicable, for the expenses so incurred, upon demand.

Section 6.5 No Waiver.

No failure by the Authority or the Trustee to insist upon the strict performance by the Company of any provision hereof or of the Note shall constitute a waiver of its right to strict performance and no express waiver shall be deemed to apply to any other existing or subsequent right to remedy the failure by the Company to observe or comply with any provision hereof. No failure by the Company to observe and perform any of the covenants set forth in Section 4.2 hereof shall be waived by the Trustee without the written consent of the Authority.

Section 6.6 Notice of Default.

The Company shall immediately notify the Trustee and the Authority in writing if it becomes aware of the occurrence of any Event of Default hereunder or of any fact, condition or event which, with the giving of notice or passage of time or both, would become an Event of Default.

ARTICLE 7.

Miscellaneous

Section 7.1 Term of Agreement.

This Agreement shall be and remain in full force and effect from the Issue Date until such time as all of the Bonds shall have been fully paid (or provision made for such payment) pursuant to the Indenture, the Indenture shall have been released pursuant to Section 16.1 thereof, and all other sums payable by the Company under this Agreement shall have been paid, except for obligations of the Company under Section 3.4(b), Section 4.5 and Section 6.4 hereof, which shall survive any termination of this Agreement.

Section 7.2 Notices.

All notices, certificates, requests or other communications hereunder shall be in writing and shall be deemed to be sufficiently given when mailed by registered or certified mail, postage prepaid, sent by

telecopier or nationally recognized overnight courier or delivered in person and addressed or sent as follows:

If to the Company: PPL Electric Utilities Corporation

Two North Ninth Street

Allentown, PA 18101

Telecopier No.: (610) 774-2433

Attention: Treasurer

If to the Authority: Lehigh County Industrial Development Authority

Suite 200

2158 Avenue C

Bethlehem, PA 18017

Telecopier No.: (610) 266-7623

Attention: Chair

If to the Trustee: The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, N.A.

500 Ross Street, 12th Floor

Pittsburgh, PA 15262

Telecopier No.: (215) 553-6915

Attention: Corporate Trust Administration

If to the Remarketing

Agent: Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC

1585 Broadway, 16th Floor

New York, NY 10036

Telecopier No.: (212) 507-2375

Attention: Jay Sweeney

The Company, the Authority, the Trustee and the Remarketing Agent, by notice given hereunder to the Persons listed above, may designate any further or different addresses or telecopier numbers to which subsequent notices, certificates, requests or other communications shall be sent.

Section 7.3 Limitation of Liability; No Personal Liability.

In the exercise of the powers of the Authority or the Trustee hereunder or under the Indenture, including, without limitation, the application of moneys and the investment of funds, neither the Authority or the Trustee nor their members, directors, officers, employees or agents shall be accountable to the Company for any action taken or omitted by any of them in good faith and with the belief that it is authorized or within the discretion or rights or powers conferred. The Authority, the Trustee and their members, directors, officers, employees and agents shall be protected in acting upon any paper or document believed to be genuine, and any of them may conclusively rely upon the advice of counsel and may (but need not) require further evidence of any fact or matter before taking any action. In the event of any default by the Authority hereunder, the liability of the Authority to the Company shall be enforceable only out of the Authoritys interest under this Agreement and there shall be no other recourse for damages by the Company against the Authority, its members, directors, officers, attorneys, agents and employees, or any of the property now or hereafter owned by it or them. All covenants, obligations and agreements of the Authority contained in this Agreement or the Indenture shall be effective to the extent authorized and permitted by applicable law. No such covenant, obligation or agreement shall be deemed to be a covenant, obligation or agreement of any present or future member, director, officer, agent or employee

of the Authority, and no official executing the Bonds shall be liable personally on the Bonds or be subject to any personal liability or accountability by reason of the issuance thereof or by reason of the covenants, obligations or agreements of the Authority contained in this Agreement or the Indenture. Furthermore, no obligation of the Authority hereunder shall be deemed to constitute a pledge of the faith and credit of the Authority, or the faith and credit or taxing power of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the County of Lehigh, or any other political subdivision thereof, but shall be paid solely out of the Revenues pledged therefor.

Section 7.4 Binding Effect.

This Agreement shall inure to the benefit of and shall be binding in accordance with its terms upon the Authority, the Company and their respective successors and assigns, including the Trustee as assignee of the Authoritys rights hereunder pursuant to the Indenture; provided that this Agreement may not be assigned by the Company (except in connection with a sale or transfer of assets pursuant to Section 4.1 hereof or in compliance with Section 7.9 hereof) and may not be assigned by the Authority except to the Trustee pursuant to the Indenture or by the Trustee to a successor Trustee, or as otherwise may be necessary to enforce or secure payment of Debt Service. This Agreement may be enforced only by the parties, their assignees and others who may, by law, stand in their respective places.

Section 7.5 Amendments.

Except as otherwise expressly provided in this Agreement or the Indenture, subsequent to the issuance of the Bonds and unless and until all conditions provided for in the Indenture for release of the Indenture are met, this Agreement may not be effectively amended, modified or terminated except by an instrument in writing signed by the Company and the Authority, consented to by the Trustee, and in accordance with the provisions of Article 15 of the Indenture as applicable.

Section 7.6 Counterparts.

This Agreement may be executed in any number of counterparts, each of which shall be regarded as an original and all of which shall constitute one and the same instrument.

Section 7.7 Severability.

If any provision of this Agreement is determined by a court to be invalid or unenforceable, such determination shall not affect any other provision hereof, each of which shall be construed and enforced as if the invalid or unenforceable portion were not contained herein. Such invalidity or unenforceability shall not affect any valid and enforceable application thereof, and each such provision shall be deemed to be effective, operative and entered into in the manner and to the full extent permitted by applicable law.

Section 7.8 Governing Law.

This Agreement shall be deemed to be a contract made under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and for all purposes shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Section 7.9 Assignment.

Except as otherwise provided in this Section 7.9, the Company shall not assign this Agreement or any interest of the Company herein, either in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of the Trustee, which consent shall be given if the following conditions are fulfilled: (i) the assignee assumes in

writing all of the obligations of the Company hereunder; (ii) the assignee provides the Trustee with an opinion of Counsel to the effect that neither the validity nor the enforceability of this Agreement shall be adversely affected by such assignment; (iii) the Project Facilities shall continue in the opinion of Bond Counsel to be a project as such term is defined in the Act after such assignment; (iv) such assignment shall not, in the opinion of Bond Counsel, have an adverse effect on the exclusion from gross income for federal income tax purposes of interest on the Bonds; and (v) if the assignee is other than an Affiliate of the Company, consent by the Authority, which consent shall not be unreasonably withheld. Subject to the foregoing, the terms Authority, Company, Trustee and Remarketing Agent shall, where the context requires, include the respective successors and assigns of such Persons.

Section 7.10 Receipt of Indenture.

The Company hereby acknowledges that it has received an executed copy of the Indenture and is familiar with its provisions, and agrees that it is subject to and bound by the terms thereof (including the terms thereof relating to obligations of the Company) and it will take all such actions as are required or contemplated of it under the Indenture to preserve and protect the rights of the Trustee and of the Bondholders thereunder and that it will not take any action which would cause a default or Event of Default thereunder.

[Signatures appear on following page]

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the Authority and the Company, intending to be legally bound, have caused this Agreement to be duly executed in their respective names, all as of the date first above written.



[SEAL] Attest: /s/ Frank Kane

Frank Kane

Secretary LEHIGH COUNTY INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY By: /s/ Joanne D. Kuchera

Joanne D. Kuchera

Chair PPL ELECTRIC UTILITIES CORPORATION By: /s/ Tadd J. Henninger

Tadd J. Henninger

Assistant Treasurer

[Loan Agreement (Series 2016A)]

EXHIBIT A

PPL ELECTRIC UTILITIES CORPORATION

POLLUTION CONTROL FACILITIES NOTE

(LEHIGH COUNTY INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY)

SERIES 2016A

This Note is issued pursuant to a Pollution Control Facilities Loan Agreement dated as of March 1, 2016 (the Agreement) by and between the Lehigh County Industrial Development Authority (the Authority) and the Company (as hereinafter defined) relating to the refunding of $115,500,000 aggregate principal amount of the Authoritys Pollution Control Revenue Refunding Bonds, 2005 Series A (PPL Electric Utilities Corporation Project) (the Prior Bonds), issued by the Authority for the purpose of refunding certain prior pollution control revenue bonds issued by the Authority to finance a portion of the cost of certain air or water pollution control facilities or sewage or solid waste disposal facilities at the Susquehanna Steam Generating Station in Salem Township, Luzerne County in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (the Project Facilities).

PPL Electric Utilities Corporation (the Company), a Pennsylvania corporation, for value received, unconditionally promises to pay to The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, N.A., as Trustee (including its successors in such capacity, the Trustee) under the Trust Indenture dated as of March 1, 2016 (as the same may be amended and supplemented from time to time, the Indenture) between the Trustee and the Authority, the principal sum of ONE HUNDRED FIFTEEN MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS ($115,500,000) on September 1, 2029, and to pay (i) interest thereon from the date hereof until the payment of such principal sum has been made or provided for at a rate or rates at all times equal to the interest rate or rates from time to time borne by the Authoritys Pollution Control Revenue Refunding Bonds (PPL Electric Utilities Corporation Project), Series 2016A (the Bonds) and payable on each date that interest is payable on the Bonds, and (ii) to the extent provided by law, on overdue interest at the rate or rates borne by the Bonds; provided, however, that the obligation of the Company to make any payment hereunder (a) shall be reduced by the amount of any reduction under the Indenture of the amount of the corresponding payment required to be made by the Authority of the principal of or premium or interest on the Bonds and (b) if a Credit Facility is in effect with respect to the Bonds, shall be deemed to have been satisfied to the extent that moneys shall have been paid by a Credit Facility Issuer to the Trustee for such payment in respect of the Bonds.

If the Bonds become subject to redemption as provided therein and in the Indenture, the Company shall, as provided in the Agreement, on or before the proposed redemption date for the Bonds, pay to the Trustee the whole or appropriate portion of the unpaid principal amount of this Note with interest accrued to the proposed redemption date, together with such premium as is necessary to pay the corresponding premium, if any, on the Bonds.

In order to secure its obligations with respect to the payment of principal of and interest on this Note, the Company has delivered to the Trustee its First Mortgage Bonds, Pollution Control Series 2016A in the aggregate principal amount of $115,500,000 (the Company Mortgage Bonds). The Company Mortgage Bonds are issued pursuant to Supplemental Indenture No. 18 of the Company dated as of March 1, 2016, which supplements the Indenture dated as of August 1, 2001 of the Company to The Bank of New York Mellon (as successor to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.), as trustee (the Company Indenture Trustee), as supplemented (the Company Indenture). As provided in the Company Indenture, under certain circumstances, the lien of the Company Indenture may be released.

A-1

If, for any reason, the amounts specified above are not sufficient to make corresponding payments of principal of, premium, if any, and interest on, all of the Bonds, when such payments are due, the Company shall pay as additional amounts due hereunder, the amounts required from time to time to make up any such deficiency. Whenever payment or provision for payment has been made in respect of the principal or redemption price of, and interest on, all of the Bonds in accordance with the Indenture, this Note shall be deemed paid in full and shall be canceled and returned to the Company.

All payments of principal, redemption price and interest shall be made to the Trustee at its corporate trust office designated pursuant to the Indenture, in such coin or currency of the United States of America as at the time of payment shall be legal tender for the payment of public and private debts. All payments shall be made in funds which will be available no later than 10:00 a.m. New York time on the applicable due date, and shall be in the full amount required hereunder unless the Trustee notifies the Company that it is entitled to a credit under the Agreement or the Indenture.

The obligations of the Company to make the payments required hereunder shall be absolute and unconditional without defense or setoff by reason of any cause or circumstance whatsoever, including, without limitation, any acts or circumstances that may constitute failure of consideration, destruction of or damage to the Project Facilities, commercial frustration of purpose, or failure of the Authority to perform and observe any agreement, whether express or implied, or any duty, liability or obligation arising out of or connected with the Agreement, it being the intention of the Company and the Authority that the payments hereunder will be paid in full when and as due without any delay or diminution whatsoever.

In case one or more of the Events of Default specified in Section 6.1 of the Agreement shall have occurred and be continuing, then and in each and every such case, the Trustee, by notice in writing to the Company, may declare the unpaid balance of this Note to be due and payable immediately, if concurrently with or prior to such notice the unpaid principal amount of the Bonds has been declared to be due and payable, and upon any such declaration the same shall become and shall be immediately due and payable, anything in this Note or in the Agreement to the contrary notwithstanding. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if after any declaration of acceleration hereunder there is an annulment of any declaration of acceleration with respect to the Bonds, such annulment shall also automatically constitute an annulment of any corresponding declaration under this Note and a waiver and rescission of the consequences of such declaration.

The Company is entitled to a credit against its obligations under this Note and this Note shall not be subject to required payment or prepayment to the extent that amounts which would otherwise be payable by the Company hereunder are paid from funds held by the Trustee under the Indenture and available for such payment (including from payments by the Company on the Company Mortgage Bonds).

In case the Trustee shall have proceeded to enforce its rights under this Note or the Agreement and such proceedings shall have been discontinued or abandoned for any reason or shall have been determined adversely to the Trustee, then and in every such case the Company and the Trustee shall be restored to their respective positions and rights hereunder, and all rights, remedies and powers of the Company and the Trustee shall continue as though no such proceeding had been taken, subject to any such adverse determination.

The Company covenants that, in case default shall be made in the payment of any installment of principal, redemption price of interest in respect of this Note, whether at maturity or by acceleration or otherwise, then, upon demand of the Trustee, the Company will pay to the Trustee the whole amount that then shall have become due and payable on this Note; and, in addition thereto, such further amounts as shall be sufficient to cover the reasonable costs and expenses of collection, including a reasonable

A-2

compensation to the Trustee, its agents and counsel, and any expenses or liabilities incurred by the Authority or the Trustee, including counsel fees and expenses.

In case the Company shall fail forthwith to pay all amounts due hereunder and under the Agreement upon such demand, the Trustee shall be entitled and empowered to institute any action or proceeding at law or in equity for the collection of the sums so due and unpaid, and may prosecute any such action or proceeding to judgment or final decree, and may enforce any such judgment or final decree against the Company and collect, in the manner provided by law out of the property of the Company, the moneys adjudged or decreed to be payable.

This Note shall be governed by and interpreted under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Capitalized terms used in this Note not defined herein shall have the meanings ascribed to them in the Indenture.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the Company has caused this Note to be duly executed and delivered.

Dated: as of ________________ PPL ELECTRIC UTILITIES CORPORATION By:

Name:

Title:

A-3

EXHIBIT B

NONDISCRIMINATION/SEXUAL HARASSMENT CLAUSE

During the term of this contract, the Company agrees as to itself and each tenant of the Project Facilities controlling, controlled by or under common control with the Company (each of the Company and each such tenant, a Contractor) as follows:

1. In the hiring of any employee(s) for the manufacture of supplies, performance of work, or any other activity required under the contract or any subcontract, the Contractor, subcontractor, or any person acting on behalf of the Contractor or subcontractor shall not, by reason of gender, race, creed, or color, discriminate against any citizen of this Commonwealth who is qualified and available to perform the work to which the employment relates.

2. Neither the Contractor nor any subcontractor nor any person on their behalf shall in any manner discriminate against or intimidate any employee involved in the manufacture of supplies, the performance of work, or any other activity required under the contract on account of gender, race, creed, or color.

3. Contractors and subcontractors shall establish and maintain a written sexual harassment policy and shall inform their employees of the policy. The policy must contain a notice that sexual harassment will not be tolerated and employees who practice it will be disciplined.

4. Contractors shall not discriminate by reason of gender, race, creed, or color against any subcontractor or supplier who is qualified to perform the work to which the contracts relates.

5. The Contractor and each subcontractor shall furnish all necessary employment documents and records to and permit access to their books, records, and accounts by the contracting agency and the Bureau of Contract Administration and Business Development, for purposes of investigation, to ascertain compliance with provisions of this Nondiscrimination/Sexual Harassment Clause. If the Contractor or any subcontractor does not possess documents or records reflecting the necessary information requested, the Contractor or subcontractor shall furnish such information on reporting forms supplied by the contracting agency or the Bureau of Contract Administration and Business Development.

6. The Contractor shall include the provisions of this Nondiscrimination/Sexual Harassment Clause in every subcontract so that such provisions will be binding upon each subcontractor.

7. The Commonwealth may cancel or terminate the contract, and all money due or to become due under the contract may be forfeited for a violation of the terms and conditions of this Nondiscrimination/Sexual Harassment Clause. In addition, the agency may proceed with debarment or suspension and may place the Contractor in the Contractor Responsibility File.

B-1

Exhibit 4(b)

EXECUTION VERSION

POLLUTION CONTROL FACILITIES LOAN AGREEMENT

Between

LEHIGH COUNTY INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

and

PPL ELECTRIC UTILITIES CORPORATION

Dated as of March 1, 2016

Table of Contents

Page

ARTICLE 1. Background, Definitions, Representations and Findings. 1 Section 1.1 Background 1 Section 1.2 Definitions 1 Section 1.3 Company Representations 3 Section 1.4 Authority Findings and Representations 4 ARTICLE 2. Refunding the Prior Bonds. 5 Section 2.1 Issuance of Bonds; Application of Proceeds 5 Section 2.2 Investment and Use of Fund Moneys 5 Section 2.3 Rebate Fund 6 ARTICLE 3. Loan By Authority; Loan Payments; Other Payments 6 Section 3.1 Loan by Authority 6 Section 3.2 Loan Payments 6 Section 3.3 Purchase Payments 7 Section 3.4 Additional Payments 8 Section 3.5 Obligations Unconditional 8 Section 3.6 Assignment of Authoritys Rights 8 ARTICLE 4. Additional Covenants of Company 8 Section 4.1 Corporate Existence 8 Section 4.2 No Assignment. 9 Section 4.3 Financial Statements; Books and Records 9 Section 4.4 Taxes, Other Governmental Charges and Utility Charges 9 Section 4.5 Indemnification 9 Section 4.6 Tax Covenants of Company and Authority 10 Section 4.7 Nondiscrimination/Sexual Harassment Clause 11 ARTICLE 5. Redemption of Bonds 11 Section 5.1 Optional Redemption 11 Section 5.2 Mandatory Redemption 11 Section 5.3 Actions by Authority 11 ARTICLE 6. Events of Default And Remedies 12 Section 6.1 Events of Default 12 Section 6.2 Remedies on Default. 12 Section 6.3 Remedies Not Exclusive 14 Section 6.4 Payment of Legal Fees and Expenses 14 Section 6.5 No Waiver 14 Section 6.6 Notice of Default 14 ARTICLE 7. Miscellaneous 14 Section 7.1 Term of Agreement 14 Section 7.2 Notices 15 Section 7.3 Limitation of Liability; No Personal Liability 15 Section 7.4 Binding Effect 16 Section 7.5 Amendments 16

i

Section 7.6 Counterparts 16 Section 7.7 Severability 16 Section 7.8 Governing Law 17 Section 7.9 Assignment 17 Section 7.10 Receipt of Indenture 17 EXHIBIT A  Form of Pollution Control Facilities Note A-1 EXHIBIT B  Nondiscrimination / Sexual Harassment Clause B-1

ii

POLLUTION CONTROL FACILITIES LOAN AGREEMENT dated as of March 1, 2016 (the Agreement) between LEHIGH COUNTY INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (the Authority) and PPL ELECTRIC UTILITIES CORPORATION, a Pennsylvania corporation (together with permitted successors and assigns, the Company).

ARTICLE 1.

Background, Definitions, Representations and Findings.

Section 1.1 Background.

Pursuant to the Pennsylvania Economic Development Financing Law (Act No. 102, approved August 23, 1967, P.L. 251, as amended) (the Act), the Authority has heretofore issued $108,250,000 aggregate principal amount of its Pollution Control Revenue Refunding Bonds, 2005 Series B (PPL Electric Utilities Corporation Project) (the Prior Bonds), all of which remain outstanding on the date hereof.

The proceeds of the Prior Bonds were loaned by the Authority to the Company for the purpose of refunding certain prior pollution control revenue bonds issued by the Authority to finance a portion of the cost of certain air or water pollution control facilities or sewage or solid waste disposal facilities at the Susquehanna Steam Generating Station in Salem Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, the Montour Generating Station in Washingtonville, Montour County, Pennsylvania, the Brunner Island Generating Station in York Haven, York County, Pennsylvania, the Holtwood Station in Holtwood, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the Martins Creek Station in Martins Creek, Northampton County, Pennsylvania and the Sunbury Station in Shamokin Dam, Snyder County, Pennsylvania (the Project Facilities), on behalf of the Company (formerly known as Pennsylvania Power & Light Company).

The Company has requested that the Authority refund the Prior Bonds. In order to pay a portion of the costs of refunding the Prior Bonds, the Authority has agreed to issue $108,250,000 aggregate principal amount of its Pollution Control Revenue Refunding Bonds (PPL Electric Utilities Corporation Project), Series 2016B (the Bonds) on the terms and conditions set forth in the Trust Indenture (the Indenture) dated as of the date hereof made between the Authority and The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, N.A., as trustee (the Trustee), as amended or supplemented from time to time. The Company and the Authority are entering into this Agreement in order to provide for the issuance of the Bonds and the loan of the proceeds of the Bonds to the Company.

In connection with the issuance of the Bonds, the Company will execute and deliver to the Trustee, as the assignee of the Authoritys rights under the Indenture, its Pollution Control Facilities Note (Lehigh County Industrial Development Authority) Series 2016B (the Note), in the aggregate principal amount of $108,250,000, to evidence the Companys loan payment obligations under this Agreement with respect to the Bonds.

The Company has transferred its interests in the Project Facilities to unrelated third-parties.

Section 1.2 Definitions.

Terms used in this Agreement which are defined in the Indenture and are not otherwise defined in this Agreement shall have the meanings set forth in the Indenture unless the context or use clearly indicates another meaning or intent. In addition to the terms defined in the recital clauses of this Agreement, as used herein:

Additional Payments means the amounts required to be paid by the Company pursuant to Section 3.4 hereof.

Agreement means this Pollution Control Facilities Loan Agreement, as amended or supplemented from time to time.

Authoritys Annual Fee means an amount equal to 0.03% of the outstanding principal balance of the Bonds as of April 1 in each year, payable as provided in Section 3.4 hereof.

Authoritys Initial Fee means an amount equal to 0.10% (ten basis points) of the amount of the Loan.

Authorized Representative means, (i) with respect to the Authority, each person at the time designated to act on behalf of the Authority by written certificate furnished to the Trustee containing the specimen signature of such person and signed on behalf of the Authority by its Chair or any Vice Chair, (ii) with respect to the Company, each person at the time designated to act on behalf of the Company by written certificate furnished to the Trustee containing the specimen signature of such person and signed on behalf of the Company by its President, any Vice President, its Treasurer, or any Assistant Treasurer and (iii) with respect to the Credit Facility Issuer, each person at the time designated to act on behalf of any Credit Facility Issuer by written certificate furnished to the Trustee containing the specimen signature of such person and signed on behalf of the Credit Facility Issuer by its President, Vice President, Manager, Treasurer, Secretary, Assistant Treasurer or Assistant Secretary.

Companys Tax Certificate means the Certificate Regarding Federal Tax Matters of the Company executed on the Issue Date with respect to matters necessary to establish and maintain the exclusion from gross income for Federal income tax purposes of the interest on the Bonds.

Debt Service means, for any period or payable at any time, the principal of, premium, if any, on and interest on the Bonds for that period or payable at the time whether due on an Interest Payment Date, at maturity or upon acceleration or redemption.

Issue Date means March 9, 2016.

Loan means the loan by the Authority to the Company of the proceeds of the Bonds pursuant to Section 3.1 hereof in the original aggregate principal amount of $108,250,000.

Loan Payments means the amounts required to be paid by the Company in repayment of the Loan pursuant to Section 3.2 hereof.

Project Facilities Commitments means the Commitments Regarding Pollution Control Facilities executed and delivered to the Company in June 2000 by PPL Susquehanna, LLC, PPL Brunner Island, LLC, PPL Holtwood, LLC, PPL Martins Creek, LLC and PPL Montour, LLC, as transferees of the respective Project Facilities (and the generating facilities to which they relate) and certain other parties, the Commitment Regarding Pollution Control Facilities Agreement dated as of May 17, 2005 of PPL Susquehanna, LLC, PPL Brunner Island, LLC, PPL Holtwood, LLC, PPL Martins Creek, LLC and PPL Montour, LLC to the Company in connection with the Prior Bonds, and any and all similar commitments and/or covenants to the Company by any subsequent transferee of the Project Facilities or any thereof.

Purchase Payments means the amounts required to be paid by the Company pursuant to Section 3.3 hereof.

Remarketing Agreement means the Remarketing Agreement between the Company and the Remarketing Agent relating to the Bonds, as the same may be amended, supplemented or replaced from time to time.

Resolutions means the resolutions of the Authority approving and authorizing the Bonds, the Indenture and this Agreement.

Unassigned Authoritys Rights means all of the rights of the Authority to receive Additional Payments under Section 3.4 hereof, to be held harmless and indemnified under Section 4.5 hereof, to be reimbursed for attorneys fees and expenses under Section 6.4, to exercise remedies under Section 6.2 hereof and to give or withhold consent to or approval of amendments, modifications, termination or assignment of this Agreement, or sale, transfer, assignment, lease (or assignment of lease) or other disposal of the Project Facilities, or other matters requiring consent or approval under Sections 4.1, 4.2, 7.5 and 7.9 hereof.

Section 1.3 Company Representations.

The Company represents as of the date hereof that:

(a) It is a corporation duly organized and existing under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, with full power and legal right to enter into this Agreement and the Note and the Company Mortgage Bonds (as defined below) and perform its obligations hereunder and thereunder. The making and performance of this Agreement, the Note and the Company Mortgage Bonds on the part of the Company have been duly authorized by all necessary action.

(b) The Project Facilities constitute pollution control facilities as defined in the Act and are consistent with the purposes of the Act.

(c) Neither the execution and delivery of this Agreement nor the consummation of the transactions contemplated hereby will conflict in any material respect with or constitute a material violation or breach of, or a material default under, the Companys articles of incorporation or by-laws, or any indenture or other material agreement or instrument to which the Company is a party or by which it or any of its property is bound.

(d) This Agreement, the Note and the Company Mortgage Bonds have been duly executed and delivered by the Company and constitute the valid and binding obligations of the Company enforceable in accordance with their terms, except as the enforcement thereof may be limited by bankruptcy, insolvency, fraudulent transfer, reorganization, moratorium and other similar laws relating to or affecting the enforcement of creditors rights generally, to general equitable principles (whether considered in a proceeding in equity or at law) and by an implied covenant of good faith, fair dealing and reasonableness.

(e) All of the proceeds of the Prior Bonds were used to refund certain prior pollution control revenue bonds which, in turn, refunded, directly or through certain prior issues of revenue bonds, , the following series of original bonds: (i) $15,500,000 aggregate principal amount of the Authoritys Pollution Control Revenue Bonds, 1973 Series A (Pennsylvania Power & Light Company Project) (the Series 1973 Bonds); (ii) $37,750,000 aggregate principal amount of the Authoritys Pollution Control Revenue Bonds, 1984 Series A (Pennsylvania Power & Light Company Project) (the Series 1984A Bonds); and (iii) $55,000,000 aggregate principal amount of the Authoritys Pollution Control Revenue Bonds, 1985 Series A (Pennsylvania Power & Light Company Project) (the Series 1985A Bonds and, together with the Series 1973 Bonds and the Series 1984A Bonds, the Project Bonds). At least 90% of

the proceeds of the Project Bonds (as allocated to original expenditures through the refunding of prior bonds) were issued to provide pollution control facilities and solid waste disposal facilities within the meaning of Sections 103(b)(4)(E) and (F) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as amended, and in effect prior to the passage of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (the 1954 Code), and the applicable regulations thereunder.

(f) Acquisition, construction and installation of the Project Facilities have been accomplished.

(g) As of June 1, 2015, the Company has transferred all of its interests in the Project Facilities to third-parties that are no longer affiliated with the Company. During any period of ownership by the Company or its affiliates of the Project Facilities, the Company or such affiliates used and operated the Project Facilities in a manner consistent with the purposes of the Project Facilities and the Act, and, after due inquiry, the Company has no reasonable basis to believe that the Project Facilities will not continue to be so operated by the owner or owners thereof.

(h) The information furnished by the Company and used by the Authority in preparing the certification pursuant to Section 148 of the Code and in preparing the Form 8038 information statement pursuant to Section 149(e) of the Code will be accurate and complete as of the Issue Date.

(i) Neither the Prior Bonds nor the Bonds are or will be federally guaranteed, as defined in Section 149(b) of the Code; references to the Code and Sections of the Code (or, as applicable, to the 1954 Code and Sections thereof) include Sections 1312 and 1313 of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, relevant applicable regulations and proposed regulations thereunder and under the 1954 Code and any successor provisions to those Sections, regulations or proposed regulations and, in addition, all applicable official rulings and judicial determinations under the foregoing applicable to the Prior Bonds or the Bonds, as applicable.

(j) At no time will any funds constituting gross proceeds of the Bonds be used in a manner as would constitute failure of compliance with Section 148 of the Code.

(k) The proceeds derived from the sale of the Bonds (other than any accrued interest thereon) will be used exclusively to refund the outstanding principal amount of the Prior Bonds. The principal amount of the Bonds does not exceed the outstanding principal amount of the Prior Bonds. None of the proceeds (within the meaning of Section 147(g) of the Code) of the Bonds will be used to pay for any costs of issuance of the Bonds.

(l) It is not anticipated, as of the date hereof, that there will be created any replacement proceeds, within the meaning of Section 1.148-1(c) of the Treasury Regulations, with respect to the Bonds; however, in the event that any such replacement proceeds are deemed to have been created, such amounts will be invested in compliance with Section 148 of the Code.

Section 1.4 Authority Findings and Representations.

The Authority hereby confirms its findings and represents that:

(a) The Authority is a public body corporate and politic established in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania pursuant to the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (including the Act). Under the Act, the Authority has the power to enter into the Indenture, the Purchase Agreement and this Agreement and to carry out its obligations thereunder and to issue the Bonds to finance the Project Facilities.

(b) By adoption of the Resolutions at one or more duly convened meetings of the Authority at which a quorum was present and acting throughout, the Authority has duly authorized the execution and delivery of the Indenture, the Purchase Agreement and this Agreement and performance of its obligations thereunder and the issuance of the Bonds. Simultaneously with the execution and delivery of this Agreement, the Authority has duly executed and delivered the Indenture and issued and sold the Bonds.

(c) Based on representations and information furnished to the Authority by or on behalf of the Company, the Authority has found that the Company is qualified to be a beneficiary of financing provided by the Authority pursuant to the Act.

(d) Based on representations and information furnished to the Authority by or on behalf of the Company, the Authority has found that the Project Facilities (i) will promote the public purposes of the Act, (ii) are located within the boundaries of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and (iii) will constitute a project within the meaning of the Act.

(e) The refunding of the Prior Bonds has been approved by the Authority by adoption of the Resolutions, as required by the Act.

(f) The Authority has not and will not pledge the income and revenues derived from this Agreement other than pursuant to and as set forth in the Indenture.

ARTICLE 2.

Refunding the Prior Bonds.

Section 2.1 Issuance of Bonds; Application of Proceeds.

To provide funds to make the Loan for purposes of refunding the Prior Bonds, the Authority will issue the Bonds in the aggregate principal amount of $108,250,000. The Bonds will be issued pursuant to the Indenture and will bear interest, mature and be subject to redemption all as set forth therein. The Company hereby approves the terms and conditions of the Indenture and the Bonds, and the terms and conditions under which the Bonds will be issued, sold and delivered.

The proceeds from the sale of the Bonds (including any underwriting discount) shall be loaned to the Company pursuant to Section 3.1 hereof, and such proceeds (net of any underwriting discount) shall be paid over to the Trustee for the purpose of refunding the Prior Bonds as provided in the Indenture.

Section 2.2 Investment and Use of Fund Moneys.

At the written request of an Authorized Representative of the Company, any moneys held as part of the Bond Fund (except moneys representing principal of, or premium, if any, or interest on, any Bonds which are deemed paid under Section 16.1 of the Indenture) shall be invested or reinvested by the Trustee as provided in Section 8.2 of the Indenture. The Authority and the Company each hereby covenants that it will restrict that investment and reinvestment and the use of the proceeds of the Bonds in such manner and to such extent, if any, as may be necessary, after taking into account reasonable expectations at the time of delivery of and payment for the Bonds, so that the Bonds will not constitute arbitrage bonds under Section 148 of the Code.

Any Authorized Representative of the Authority having responsibility for issuing the Bonds is authorized and directed, alone or in conjunction with an Authorized Representative of the Company and/or any other officer, partner, employee or agent of or consultant to the Authority or the Company, to

give an appropriate certificate of the Authority pursuant to Section 148 of the Code, for inclusion in the transcript of proceedings for the issuance of the Bonds, setting forth the reasonable expectations of the Authority regarding the amount and use of the proceeds of the Bonds and the facts, estimates and circumstances on which those expectations are based, all as of the Issue Date. The Company shall provide the Authority with, and the Authoritys certificate may be based on, a certificate of the Authorized Representative of the Company or other appropriate officer, partner, employee or agent of or consultant to the Company setting forth the reasonable expectations of the Company on the Issue Date regarding the amount and use of the proceeds of the Bonds and the facts, estimates and circumstances on which they are based.

Section 2.3 Rebate Fund.

The Company agrees to make such payments to the Trustee as are required of the Company under Section 6.4 of the Indenture. The obligation of the Company to make such payments shall remain in effect and be binding upon the Company notwithstanding the release and discharge of the Indenture.

ARTICLE 3.

Loan By Authority; Loan Pa
A new civil case over the police shooting of Steven Wallace in Waitara in 2000 was not an attempt to "go after" the shooter, Senior Constable Keith Abbott, a lawyer says.

Wallace, 23, was shot in the town's main street after breaking shop windows and attacking a police car with officers in it.

HIs family say he was deprived of the right to life and investigations so far have been inadequate, lawyer Graeme Minchin said at the High Court in Wellington on Thursday. Justice Brendan Brown has reserved his decision on the Police Commissioner's application to stop the case now.

PHIL REID/FAIRFAX NZ Senior Constable Keith Abbott during the trial at which he was acquitted of murdering Steven Wallace.

The family said police had options other than shooting Wallace.

READ MORE:

* Steven Wallace's family want legal aid for damages claim

* Report rules "self defence" justified Wallace killing

* Police attack Wallace "myth"

"For the family this really bites, that the police had options."

Police were not cornered and the family could not live with the fact that the truth had not come out, he said.

There was no intention of "going after" Abbott, he said. He was not a party in the case against the Police Commissioner and would not be liable in any financial or legal sense.

After police decided not to charge Abbott  a decision the deputy Solicitor General confirmed  the Wallace family took a private prosecution charging Abbott with murder. In December 2002 a Wellington jury acquitted Abbott who had said he shot Wallace in self defence.

Minchin said the new case was not an attack on the jury's verdict. The jury knew that Abbott mistakenly thought he shot someone he knew, David Toa. But it is now alleged that the pair were hostile and that was the motive for the shooting. Minchin conceded Toa had denied any hostility.

Crown lawyer Peter Gunn said Abbott would inevitably be central in a new case. It was an attempt to call into question the jury's verdict and was an abuse of process.

The motive for the shooting was that Abbott needed to defend himself when Wallace approached with a softball bat, Gunn said.

The Crown said the family's claim had no hope of success and it should be struck out.

The circumstances had been investigated three times  the trial, coroner's inquest, and an Independent Police Conduct Authority investigation, Gunn said.

If it was allowed to go ahead the Crown wanted assurance that a contribution could be made towards its costs, conservatively estimated at just under $50,000 for a two week hearing, in the event the Wallace family lose.

The family are fighting to get legal aid to pay for the case. Minchin said if "substantial" security was ordered for costs, and they did not get legal aid, the case could not go ahead. All their money had gone into the criminal prosecution.

The family have claimed $200,000 compensation for breach of the right to life. They also want a declaration about the right to life being breached and no proper investigation held.
Belinda Bedford has had her five-year disqualification from owning a dog upheld by the Hamilton City Council.

A Hamilton woman banned from owning a dog for five years says her personal safety has been put at risk.

Belinda Bedford fronted at a council hearing on Tuesday to appeal a five-year disqualification from owning a dog.

The 46-year-old was slapped with a five-year ban in June, 2012, after racking up four infringement notices within a two-year period.

Council records show Bedford has owned 15 dogs since the early 1980s and accumulated more than 50 complaints.

On two occasions her dogs have been accused of attacking people.

Her disqualification expires in June next year but Bedford sought to have the ban cut short so she could buy a dog.

Bedford said council staff had portrayed her as a bad dog owner and put undue weight in the "rubbish claims" made by her Jamieson Crescent neighbour.

"It was hearsay that got me into this mess," Bedford told the council's hearing committee.

She asked her ban be lifted so she could buy a small dog for companionship and protection.

"If you Google our address it will show you four robbery suspects live in our street. We have gangs everywhere. I just want a tiny dog for protection because of my health condition. At least a trial, give me the chance is all I'm asking."

Bedford said she was frequently in and out of hospital due to her asthma.

In reply, council's animal education and control manager Susan Stanford said Bedford had been disqualified from owning dogs on two separate occasions.

During the most recent ban, Bedford was found to have an unregistered dog on her property.

She claimed the dog belonged to a flatmate who had since left the address.

Stanford said Bedford had failed to demonstrate responsible dog ownership and successfully requested the ban stay in place.

Speaking afterwards, Bedford said her infringement history implied she was a bad owner.

"My dogs are always loved and fed, they're neutered and I always take them to the vet when they have to go. I once spent $800 taking my dog Bubba to the vet which saved her life.

"So I'm a bit late with my dog registration at times, but who isn't? The council says my dogs have to be microchipped but most people in New Zealand don't bloody know this."

Since July 1, 2006, all dogs registered in New Zealand for the first time must be microchipped, with the exception of working farm dogs.

In 1999, Bedford owned a bull terrier named Hitler.
A Canterbury man and his father stood and watched as the "legacy of the family farm" succumbed to flames.

Graeme and Roger Knowles battled to keep the spreading wildfire away from their home, about 15 kilometres outside of Darfield, Graeme Knowles told RNZ National.

But they lost the battle at about 6pm on Thursday evening.

Stacy Squires Fire crews were still fighting the fires as darkness fell.

Five homes  three in Coalgate in the Malvern Hills west of Christchurch and two near Mt Somers  were saved by firefighters on Thursday after wind-fuelled fires ripped across rural Canterbury.

READ MORE:

* More than 3500 without power in Dunedin, Central Otago

* Two homes saved from Mt Somers blaze

* Thousands without power in Otago

* Truck fire sparks big blaze north of Kaikoura

* Winds fuel fire beside highway near Ashburton

* Hanmer 'wall of flame' contained

* Airport closed, trees down as wind batters Invercargill

Graeme Knowles told RNZ he salvaged a car, jet boat and tractor from the property and his father grabbed his accounts and chequebook.

Stacy Squires The fire was still burning on Thursday evening.

He believed a monsoon bucket would have "absolutely" saved the property from the blaze but said fire crews were fighting more than 30 separate fires in the area.

"[The wind] was just picking up embers and taking them about 700 or 800 metres.

"Some paddocks in between haven't been touched  the fire jumped whole paddocks."

Rural homes were evacuated near Christchurch.

He told RNZ that a digger flattened the property late on Thursday night.

"I'm not quite sure how I feel about it," he said.

"The legacy of the family farm is no longer standing."

SUPPLIED Smoke covered the area and spread into Christchurch.

"The only thing dad grabbed was the accounts and his checkbook, he said. And I managed to get a car out of the shed, and a jetboat and a tractor."

He didn't manage to get any photo albums or anything of sentimental value.

"We didn't even think of that. At that stage we thought we had the house sorted out."

Stacy Squires Cordons were likely to be in place overnight.

"I don't know how to feel to tell the truth."

Firefighters are returning to the site of the fire on Friday, which destroyed the Knowles' home, several outbuildings and forced residents to evacuate.

Fire Service southern communications shift manager Daryl Ball said a rural fire officer had returned to the site of the fire on Friday morning.

Stacy Squires The large scrub fire was fanned by high winds

"We are just heading back out there now to see what's going on and make sure everything's going alright."

"We had a little bit of a flare up in the hedgeline, we are just going to send someone else out to that."

Ball said the rural fire officer would do some "surveillance" of the area and decide what resources were required for the day ahead.

Stacy Squires Helicopters were used to pour water on the flames.

The fire was fuelled by strong winds, which also caused havoc elsewhere up and down the South Island.

Winds of around 60kmh in Darfield were gusting to 90kmh at times, MetService meteorologist Derek Holland said.

Did you take photos or video of the fire? Send them to us at newstips@stuff.co.nz

SUPPLIED A view of the fire at Coalgate , near Darfield, Photo supplied by our readers.

An old rural burn-off re-igniting is thought to have sparked the first, bigger, blaze in Rowallan Rd, Coalgate, about 3.20pm.

Fuelled by strong nor'west winds, it spread south east fast. The main fire leapt Deans Rd and burned through 60 hectare of rural land before firefighters got it under control at Homebush Road at about 7.45pm.

Some 21 fire engines, four helicopters and more than 80 firefighters battled several blazes in scorching temperatures and winds gusting up to 90kmh.

Stacy Squires Six helicopters fought the fire, thought to have started from farm burn-off re-sparking.

They saved three houses on Rowallan Rd but one, on Homebush Rd, was destroyed. The owners were said to be very upset. Two sheds were destroyed.

Police evacuated residents from Rowallan and Deans roads and set up cordons to keep people away from the scene.

At 5pm, firefighters were called to a second large blaze in Tramway Rd in Mt Somers, Mid-Canterbury.

Stacy Squires The smoke blew from the fire scene over Christchurch.

There, 15 fire crews saved two homes and a shed. About 50 firefighters were at the scene tackling seven similar fires.

POWER CUT, SMOKE TRAVELS KILOMETRES

The fires blew smoke across Christchurch and cut power to hundreds of homes across Selwyn on Thursday evening. Linesmen started to reconnect residents as night fell.

Sheryl Watson Roads closed in the area.

Five people were helped at a welfare centre set up at Darfield Recreation Centre.

A Selwyn District Council spokesman said fire crews were assessing when those evacuated could return to their homes. There were no reports of injuries.

Most firefighters left the scene about 8.30pm, when the strong northwest wind turned southerly and the fire started burning back on to itself.

Stacy Squires The air was thick with smoke in the Medbury area, West of Christchurch.

Some firefighters were to stay overnight to ensure the fire stayed under control. Helicopters stopped flying about 8.15pm.

Fire Service area commander Dave Berry said initial suggestions were that the blaze started from an old rural burn-off, which would have had a permit, he said.

'FIRE IS THE GREATEST FEAR'

Stuff.co.nz Otago Harbour has inundated Portobello Road in gusty conditions

Rowallan Rd resident Gillie Deans, who owns Auchenflower farm, was among those evacuated.

As they left she saw her hay shed with the winter feed "fully engulfed in flames".

"Living here, we've always known that fire is the greatest fear," she said.

Gary Jackson Gary Jackson was following a truck down State Highway 1 from Picton to Christchurch when it caught fire.

Their first house on the site burnt down in 2000 and they "lost everything".

"When you live in the country and it's dry, you are always on alert," she said.

Cullens Rd resident John Manhire said he saw a burn off in the Rowallan Rd area about three weeks ago and feared it may have been reignited by the warm winds.

"Hopefully, no one was stupid enough to have a burn off on a day like this," he said.

"Things are quite dry and there is a lot of dry stubble around, so if this fire gets away it could move quite fast."

Louise Deans, who owns the historic Homebush homestead, looked after a local resident who had to be evacuated.

She said the fire burned on farm neighbouring her property.

"It was pillars of black smoke filling the sky," she said.

Deans said there had been many burn-offs in the area recently.

RESTRICTED FIRE SEASON

The entire Selwyn District is in a restricted fire season, meaning people cannot light fires in the open air without a fire permit issued by the principal rural fire officer.

The council reassured residents via its Facebook page there would be an investigation into the Coalgate blaze.

"Anyone who is found to be breaching fire restrictions or fire safety guideline can be responsible for the cost of fire fighting and fire damage if the investigation finds them liable."

GUSTS TO DIE DOWN

Metservice says the gales, roaring at up to 130kmh, would die down from about midnight on Thursday in Canterbury, Otago, Wellington, Wairarapa and the Marlborough Sounds.

Banks Peninsula and Hawke's Bay would be hammered into early Friday morning by winds that had the potential to become severe gales.

The winds had potential to bring down trees and powerlines, damage unsecured structures and make driving hazardous, particularly for high-sided vehicles and motorcycles, Metservice said.

People in those areas were also advised to be aware of the fire risk.
UPDATED: Mount Maunganuis St Thomas More Catholic School was one of 13 schools around the country to receive bomb threats today.

Police say the calls, which began at about 11.20am and stopped at midday, were similar to those received by 27 schools a fortnight ago on February 24 and 25.
UPDATED: The man accused of shooting four police officers has been remanded into custody and will reappear in the Rotorua District Court on March 24.

Rhys Warren, 27, is facing four charges of using a firearm against a law enforcement officer after appearing in the Whakatane District Court this afternoon.
While dignitaries celebrate the completion of the Tauranga ultra-fast broadband roll-out at the Baycourt Community and Arts Centre tomorrow morning, Mount Maunganui based company is already demonstrating what the increased bandwidth can do for local businesses.

PowerSmart is using ultra-fast broadband to monitor up to 30 of their biggest solar power stations across New Zealand and the South Pacific 24 hours a day and provide instant technical support.

The Tauranga company monitors the solar power stations servicing 12 remote Pacific Island communities is proving distance is no barrier to business thanks to Ultra-Fast Broadband.

Now ongoing support is only a phone call away for the communities that can be up to five days travel away, says PowerSmart marketing manager Richard Cullwick.

UFB gives us the ability to sit in our Head Quarters in Tauranga, but monitor and look after sites not only all across the country but also all over the South Pacific.

If anything goes wrong with a system, our technical guys can be on the phone with anybody in New Zealand and throughout the South Pacific, monitoring their system in real time, and talking them through any changes that need to be made.

It means we can provide solutions over the phone, instead of spending five days to get there, which is the very real reality for a lot of these atolls.

Before switching to UFB, the amount of internet traffic in their office would slow the network and become frustrating to work with, says Richard.

Now were able to provide instant support to our clients, saving both us and our clients time and money.

Powersmart only recently completed installation of a $35 million renewable energy project for the New Zealand Aid Programme in October 2014.

In that time, the company installed 12 off-grid solar power stations  eight in the Northern Cook Islands and four on Tuvalus Islands  saving more than 500,000 litres of diesel imported each year. The final installation of the solar power stations was completed just three months ago.

Speeches and opening ceremony for the two day Baycourt UFB workshop begin at 9.30am. In attendance will be Ultrafast Fibre Chief Executive William Hamilton Tauranga mayor Stuart Crosby, and Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller.

The beyond broadband expo includes free workshops and is held Friday and Saturday.
NZ First leader Winston Peters has succeeded in over-turning an Electoral Commission decision over misleading advertisements that appeared online during the 2014 General Election.

The original Electoral Commission complaint was about two political party advertisements which were available on the internet within two days of the election.
Motorists are urged to take care on roads in the Southern District due to gale force winds.

Emergency services have attended a number of jobs in Southland and now coastal Otago where trees have come down at times blocking roads.

Power is also being affected with lines coming down in the windy conditions.

The weather is moving up the country and there have been recent weather related calls from the Oamaru area.

There is currently tree debris on State Highway 1 between Hampden and Oamaru.

Police advise motorists to take care while travelling and treat any downed power lines as being live.

Source: New Zealand Police.
Gustav Stickley relatives.JPG

Brendan McGinn, left, a great-great-grandson of furniture maker Gustav Stickley, and Christopher Wiles, a great-grandson of Stickley, sit on a Stickley couch at Dalton's American Decorative Arts store in Syracuse on Wednesday. The two came to Dalton's to help celebrate Stickley's 158th birthday.

(Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Syracuse, N.Y.  Fans and two relatives of Gustav Stickley gathered in Eastwood Wednesday, not far from where he made his famous Craftsman furniture, to celebrate his 158th birthday.

Gustav Stickley

Among the 15 people who shared a birthday cake at Dalton's American Decorative Arts store on James Street were Christopher Wiles, a great-grandson of Stickley, and Brendan McGinn, a great-great-grandson of the furniture maker. The cake was decorated with the words "Happy Birthday Gus."

Preservation designer Beth Crawford and Dalton's owner David Rudd organized the event on Stickley's birthday to update fans of the furniture maker on plans to restore his house on Columbus Avenue.

Crawford said work on Phase 1 of the restoration  repairs to the home's exterior and structural improvements  will start this year. The University Neighborhood Preservation Association, which will manage the first phase of the project, is shooting for a start this summer, she said.

The second phase of the restoration will focus on the home's Craftsman interior and will be managed by the Onondaga Historical Association. Project officials expect that phase to be completed in 2019.

A birthday cake served during a celebration of furniture maker Gustav Stickley's 158th birthday at Dalton's American Decorative Arts store in Syracuse on Wednesday.

Wiles, 73, an state assistant attorney general, and McGinn, 36, an anesthesiologist at Upstate University Hospital, said they are looking forward to seeing the home restored.

"I've been waiting for about 50 years," said Wiles. "We never thought this would happen."

"It's a monumental endeavor, but well worth it," said McGinn, who grew up in Massachusetts but recently moved to Fayetteville. "I think it will bring a lot more attention to Stickley and his connection to Upstate New York and Syracuse."

Stickley was born on March 9, 1858, in Osceola, Wis. He came to Syracuse in 1900 and began making his Craftsman-style solid-wood furniture in a factory at the intersection of Burnet Avenue and Luddington Street. Stickley also published a magazine called The Craftsman and became a driving force behind the American Arts and Crafts movement.

Hurt by competition from imitators, his company went bankrupt in 1915 and he gave up his business to his two younger brothers, Leopold and John George.

He died in relative obscurity in Syracuse in 1942 at the age of 84. But interest in his furniture designs saw a resurgence in the late 1900s and are still used by L. and J.G. Stickley Co., the Manlius company started by his brothers and owned since 1974 by the Audi family. The Audis bought Stickley's house from Rudd in 1995 and are donating it to the Preservation Association.

Wiles was born a year after his great-grandfather died, so he never had a chance to meet him. But he said he did visit the furniture maker's home when he was a young child.

The Stickley family sold the home in the 1950s, and later owners turned its upper two floors into apartments. Wiles said the home's first floor still looks exactly as it did when he was a child, except it no longer contains any of the Stickley furniture, including a large table and chairs and a classic Stickley sideboard, that he recalls seeing there.

Stickley bought the house new in June 1900 and re-built its interior after a Christmas Eve fire in 1901, making it the first home in the country with a Craftsman interior.

Crawford is researching the home's exterior so that the restoration can match its original design as closely as possible. It has not been easy. Until recently, the oldest known photos of the home's exterior were from the late 1960s, sometime after the home's front porch had been rebuilt.

The porch on the house now is noticeably smaller than the porch's footprint in Stickley's 1902 design. However, without a photo showing it, no one knew for sure whether Stickley built the porch according to his design.

Crawford, however, recently found a Feb. 4, 1911, article from The Post-Standard

that reported Stickley's sale of the house to Isaac Fleischman for $16,000. (The home, which was numbered 416 Columbus Ave. at the time but is numbered 438 Columbus Ave. now, was bought back by Stickley's daughter Barbara a few years later.)

As luck would have it, the Post-Standard article contained a photo of the house, revealing for the first time what the porch looked like when Stickley owned the home. The porch in the photo is larger than the one currently on the house, keeping with his 1902 design.

The photo also shows that the roof of the porch was decorated with a row of balusters, something not previously known. The photo also reveals a row of balusters on the peak of the home's roof. Crawford said those details will be incorporated into the home's restoration.

Crawford is asking that anyone whose family lived on Columbus Avenue and may have other photos showing the exterior of the Stickley home to contact her at stickleyhousefoundation@gmail.com or (315) 463-1568.

A copy of the Post-Standard article from 1911 is below:

Post-Standard Article Feb. 4, 1911, On Sale of Gustav Stickley House

Contact Rick Moriarty anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148
Jeremy Meeks

Jeremy Meeks was arrested in 2014 for felony possession of a firearm during a police sweep on gang activity.

(Stockton, California Police Department's Facebook page)

Remember the "hot mugshot guy" from 2014? He went by many nicknames including "Hot convict," the "sexy felon" and "Mugshot McDreamy," appearing in Internet memes with phrases like "Wanted: In Bed and Alive."

Jeremy Meeks is now out of prison after serving a 27-month sentence on a felony weapons conviction. He was arrested two years ago in a gang sweep by Stockton, California Police; when the department posted his mugshot on Facebook, the photo went viral as women (and men) swooned for the smooth criminal.

He was released Tuesday morning and greeted by his wife, three children and new manager, Jim Jordan.

NBC reports Meeks is now in a Sacramento transitional housing program, where he'll stay until July. He has a swift plan to turn his life around, thanks to a modeling contract he signed while behind bars.

"We have a lot in store regarding Jeremy's new career. There are a multitude of offers on the table," Jim Jordan of White Cross management told BuzzFeed. He added that there are also offers for "movies on the table."

While in prison, Meeks told ABC he was working out and eating healthy to stay fit, hoping to eventually land a role on shows like "Sons of Anarchy." The FX series ended in December 2014.

A new headshot for Meeks hasn't been released -- White Cross is still using his famous booking photo on its website -- but the aspiring model has posted a new photo of what he looks like on Instagram, smiling next to Jordan. Fans can rest assured that his baby blues eyes and chiseled bone structure are still the same.

"I want to thank my family and everybody for all your love, support and prayers. I'm overwhelmed and grateful for what lies ahead," Meeks wrote.

His Instagram profile has picked up nearly 100,000 followers in 24 hours.

According to Esquire, the Stockton Police Department called Meeks "one of the most violent criminals in the area" two years ago. Jordan, however, argued that "everybody deserves a second chance."

"When I first saw Jeremy's picture, the first thing that came to my mind was, 'I needed to help this guy," he said.
water2.jpg

ORLEANS, N.Y. -- Some residents of this small town in Jefferson County are discovering their drinking water from private wells is as bad as the water in Flint, Michigan.

A report by Reuters found people served by wells in the North Country and nationwide drink, bathe and cook with water containing potentially dangerous amounts of lead.

After hearing about the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, Orleans residents Stephanie Weiss and her husband, Andy Greene, worried their corrosive water might be unleashing lead into their tap water.

Stephanie Weiss

Weiss checked water-testing reports in Orleans and discovered lead levels in her water - fed by a private well - are more than double the threshold set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for public water systems and utilities.

"When I realized that my water had the equivalent of Flint levels of lead, I got chills," Weiss, assistant director of Save the River, an environmental advocacy organization, told Reuters. "I felt sick thinking of all the things I had tried to get right as a mother for my kids to grow up happy and healthy, when all the while they were living with lead contaminated water."

Flint is not served by private wells, but its battle to get the lead out of the water has triggered alarms in other communities - including those served by private wells, which can draw in corrosive water that leaches lead, copper and other heavy metals from well components, water pipes and plumbing fixtures.

Though most Americans are served by public water utilities, private wells are the main source of drinking water for 15 percent of U.S. households, or 47.8 million people. Typically located in rural areas, private wells serve residents not connected to municipal water lines. Though many wells are found in impoverished communities, some serve wealthy homeowners and those living in urban environments.

The EPA has no standards for private wells.

The aquifer feeding Weiss and Green's well is polluted with salt from a nearby barn used by the state transportation department to store salt spread on roads during snowstorms, according to an analysis by a consulting firm.

The water in one Orleans household is so corrosive it gutted three dishwashers and two washing machines. Another couple's water is so salty the homeowners tape the taps when guests visit.

Weiss and Greene fear the salt pollution made their water so corrosive it leached lead from plumbing components.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation said the source of the salt is "inconclusive," and that the salt has been stored safely.

Testing by the town and an engineering firm found seven of 49 properties along the St. Lawrence River that use well well water have lead levels that exceed EPA limits.

The town began petitioning the state for municipal water four years ago. Since then, residents have made flyers and set up a Facebook page, but there's still no plan in place for public water.

Contact James T. Mulder anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-470-2245
Elbridge shopping cente_2.JPG

This small shopping center in the village of Elbridge is for sale.

(John Bouck Real Estate)

Elbridge, NY - A little strip shopping center that once held the village of Elbridge's only hardware store is on the market for $725,000.

The center on Route 5 in the heart of the village was built in 1984. It is being sold after the Elbridge ACE Hardware, which was its largest store, closed suddenly on Feb. 1. The hardware store is owned by Ken Nobel, who was unavailable to comment earlier this week about what led to the store closing.

The strip center, at 229-237 E. Main St., is owned by Kano Enterprises, 80 William St., South Glen Falls, the same address as Nobel's ACE Hardware, according to property tax records.

Bouck Real Estate has the Elbridge property listed for sale at $725,000. The price includes a 16,000 square-foot building that houses the former hardware store, Mario's Pizza and another store front. The listing also includes a cottage to the rear of the shopping center and a 3,000 square-foot pole barn.

The store closing came as a shock to the community, said Elbridge Town Supervisor Ken Bush. The closest hardware stores are now Wheeler's Farm and Home in Jordan, Home Depot in Camillus or the Lowe's in Auburn, he said.
Tyler Lanoue (left), 4, his sister Marika, 6, and Kyle Noble, 7, pet a small alligator, held by Ilka Daniel, during a presentation on local reptiles at the 19th annual Pelican Island Wildlife Festival at Riverview Park in Sebastian. (FILE PHOTO)

SHARE Nitay Domingos (center), 6, and his father Alfredo (right), of Sebastian, laugh as they hold a pine snake while attending the Pelican Island Wildlife Festival in 2014. This year's event is Saturday at Riverview Park in Sebastian. (FILE PHOTO)

By Janet Begley, Special to Treasure Coast Newspapers

SEBASTIAN  It's the 113th birthday of the nation's National Wildlife Refuge System and there's a party to celebrate.

The 24th annual Pelican Island Wildlife Festival is 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Riverview Park in Sebastian.

The free event focuses on inspiring families to understand nature through environmental education, children's activities, wildlife presentations and boat tours to Pelican Island.

Community officials and volunteers expect thousands of visitors to attend the festival, sponsored by the Pelican Island Preservation Society, the Indian River County Historical Society and the city of Sebastian.

The Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge was established after President Teddy Roosevelt signed an executive order on March 14, 1903, setting aside a small mangrove island across from Sebastian as the nation's first wildlife refuge. Sebastian resident Paul Kroegel was hired as the first manager for Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, earning $1 a month from the Florida Audubon Society for his efforts.

Since then, the National Wildlife Refuge system has grown to become the world's largest network of lands managed for wildlife with more than 560 refuges totaling 150 million acres.

The opening ceremonies for the festival will begin at 10 a.m. when visitors will gather for opening remarks. Visitors can tour Pelican Island by pontoon boat for $20, weather permitting, with boats throughout the day, and tickets are available at information tent. Also available at the tent will be silent auction and raffle items.

Serving as this year's emcee will be Joe Wiegand, who will reprise the role of President Teddy Roosevelt. Wiegand has studied Roosevelt extensively and has portrayed him at the festival for years. Wiegand will present a "Conservation History" at the festival beginning at 2:30 p.m.

A new feature at this year's festival will be a fossil display and identification with local historian Harry Tanner and fossil hunter James Kennedy. Kennedy is well-known locally for his find of a mammoth tooth with a prehistoric art engraving. They invite festival attendees to bring their own fossil finds to the event for help with identification.

Exhibitors, including arts and crafts, environmental displays and food vendors, will line Riverview Park's sidewalks. Special music by DJ Joe Farroare is offered throughout the day.

ABOUT THE EVENT

What: 24th annual Pelican Island Wildlife Festival

When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday

Where: Riverview Park, 600 U.S. 1 in Sebastian

Cost: Free

Highlight: A live wildlife show will be at 11:15 a.m., with a release of a rehabilitated brown pelican planned. Joe Wiegand, who will reprise the role of President Teddy Roosevelt, will present a "Conservation History" at 2:30 p.m. Learn more about Wiegand at http://www.teddyrooseveltshow.com

Information: See complete schedule at www.firstrefuge.org

PRE-FESTIVAL EVENTS

What: "An Evening with Teddy Roosevelt"

When: 7 p.m. March 11

Where: Sebastian River High School, 9001 90th Ave., Sebastian

Who: Sponsored by the Indian River County Historical Society

Cost: Pre-event tickets $12.50 adults and $8 for students. Reserved seating is $15.

Preshow: "Dinner with Teddy" at Sharky's Cafe beginning at 5:15 p.m. Some of Teddy Roosevelt's favorite foods will be served and each ticket includes reserved seat at show. Cost is $40 per person.

Information: www.irchistorical.org or 772-778-3435 from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. weekdays
SHARE Brooke Anyzeski Brad Lovejoy

By of nicholas.samuel@tcpalm.com

PORT ST. LUCIE

2 PSL residents accused of burglarizing home

Two city residents were arrested Monday morning after police said they stole a television from a home.

Officers responding to a 1:53 a.m. burglary call at a home in the 1900 block of Southwest Sylvester Lane found a crowbar, hammer, white sweater and a screen next to a bedroom window. They earlier saw a man get into a silver pickup two houses away and drive north, according to police reports.

A deputy stopped the truck at White City Park off Midway Road, which was closed to vehicles.

Brooke Anyzeski, 35, of the 1900 block of Southwest Sylvester Lane, was charged with burglary of an occupied dwelling, possession of burglary tools, dealing in stolen property, grand theft and criminal mischief.

Brad Lovejoy, 38, of the same address, was charged with possession of burglary tools, grand theft, burglary of an occupied dwelling, driving while license suspended and criminal mischief.

Lovejoy told officers the television was at a hotel in north Fort Pierce. He said he sold the television to a man, who later gave police the television.

Both Lovejoy and Anyzeski are being held at St. Lucie County Jail, jail officials said Wednesday. Lovejoy has a $34,525 bond and Anyzeski has a $34,625 bail.
SHARE Joe Griffin Jason Nunemaker Jim O'Connor

By Janet Begley, Special to Treasure Coast Newspapers

VERO BEACH  Taxes and economic development were on the minds of three Indian River County city managers Wednesday when they addressed about 75 members of the Taxpayers Association.

Sebastian's Joe Griffin, Vero Beach's Jim O'Connor and Fellsmere's Jason Nunemaker spoke about issues for their three cities, including the need for fiscal conservatism

"Lower taxes; smaller, more efficient government is something I think about all the time," Griffin said.

He recalled the philosophy of Ronald Reagan who believed in less taxes and a more-limited government, and he vowed to keep those ideals in the forefront during the city's upcoming budget process.

Issues of importance for Vero Beach include implementation of the step-sewer system to protect the Indian River Lagoon, encouraging economic development at the city airport and the important role tourism plays in the local economy, according to O'Connor.

"Tourism is the backbone of the city of Vero Beach," O'Connor said. "Tourism has really been abundant this year, but for those of us who drive around town, trying to get through the signal lights, in Vero Beach to wait two signal lights is a major catastrophe for us in the traffic-congestion issue."

Initiatives to sell off public property  such as the former diesel plant  will go a long way in encouraging economic development, he said.

"We are thinking and hoping we're going to see a major redevelopment of the diesel plant," said O'Connor. "Hopefully, we'll be able to work thought the details and make the diesel plant a productive property."

In Fellsmere, Nunemaker said, the recent expansion at Florida Organic Aquaculture's shrimp-farming operations and the approval of Parabel's aqua farm will bring jobs to the city.

"This is a huge infusion for the city," Nunemaker said. "Parabel will take up about 500 acres. The shrimp farm is about 100 acres and they can fill up another couple hundred acres. So over the course of time, you're going to see hundreds of jobs come to Fellsmere."

After their presentations, all three city managers answered questions from the audience, including whether any of the cities plan a referendum on the Nov. 8 November's ballot. Griffin said Sebastian would have a referendum on potential amendments to the city charter and O'Connor said a proposed stormwater utility department may be on Vero's ballot. No November referendum is anticipated in Fellsmere, Nunemaker said.
Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, left, confers Tuesday with Sen. Denise Grimsley, R-Sebring, during session in Tallahassee. (AP Photo/Steve Cannon)

SHARE

By Jeff Schweers, Tampa Tribune

TALLAHASSEE  Several Florida counties can stop their long-standing feud with the Department of Juvenile Justice over shared detention costs.

A bill that clears up 10 years of legal fighting is heading to Gov. Rick Scott to be signed into law.

The House voted 117-0 Wednesday to approve SB 1322 by Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater. Latvala sat behind his son, Rep. Chris Latvala, R-Clearwater, as he read the bill to the House.

Rep. Darryl Rouson, D-Tampa, commended Sen. Latvala for his work on getting the counties and the Department of Juvenile Justice to agree on the solution and urged House members to approve this "very good bill."

Scott plans on signing the bill, said Jackie Schutz, the governor's communications director.

The counties will pay the department $42.5 million for the budget year that begins July 1, $11.8 million less than they paid in the current budget year.

Starting July 1, 2017, the department and 38 counties that are not fiscally constrained will evenly split the cost of detaining young offenders. The Department of Juvenile Justice said it would need $10.5 million for next year and about $8 million for the following and subsequent years.

The state will cover all the costs for the 29 counties that are fiscally constrained.

The Legislature in 2004 began requiring counties to share the cost of holding juveniles in state detention facilities. Counties protested what they considered an unfunded mandate, and sued over a billing scheme they said was inaccurate and forced them to pay more than their share.

Courts have ruled counties were overcharged as much as $200 million.

At the urging of Senate President-designate Joe Negron, R-Stuart, 23 counties that still had cases pending agreed to drop their claims and accept the deal Latvala negotiated and put into the bill. The last holdout dropped the suit Monday.

Resolving the dispute has been a priority of the Florida Association of Counties for seven years, President and Broward County Vice Mayor Barbara Sharief said in a news release.

"This is a compromise and today legislators and commissioners finally put aside their long held beliefs that they were in the right in order to make it right and for that we should all stand up and applaud," Sharief said.
Discharge of polluted freshwater from Lake Okeechobee creat a dark plume of water visible in the St. Lucie Inlet and along the Atlantic Coast. (FILE PHOTO)

SHARE

By Editorial Board

Will there ever be an end to the destructive discharges of polluted water from Lake Okeechobee into the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon?

Since the Army Corps of Engineers opened the spigot on Jan. 30, more than 80 billion gallons of tainted water have fouled our river and estuary.

To make matters worse, Tom Van Lent, senior scientist for the Everglades Foundation, recently said there's a 50-50 chance Lake O discharges will last all year.

The possibility, and the consequences, are unthinkable  and would place 2016 among historic levels with respect to discharge volumes.

Follow our Lake Okeechobee discharge meter for daily updates.

Treasure Coast Newspapers' Editorial Board asked Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, and president-designate of the Florida Senate, to share his strategy to end the discharges. Negron, who takes the helm of the Senate in 2017 and will serve a two-year term, outlined six priorities he plans to pursue:

1. Continue the progress and investment spurred by a 2013 report from the Indian River Lagoon and Lake Okeechobee Basin Select Committee.

Negron points out that, as a result of the committee's work, the state budgeted $231 million to reduce the need for discharges. This includes $90 million to bridge parts of the Tamiami Trail, thereby allowing water to flow south from Everglades National Park into Florida Bay.

2. Obtain final approval of the $7.5 million Negron placed in the Senate budget for construction of the Caulkins Water Farming project in Martin County. When completed, it will hold 30 billion gallons of water, Negron said.

On Thursday, the state House and Senate removed money earmarked for Caulkins from the budget. The money will go to the South Florida Water Management District, which will decide how to use it.

3. Secure final passage of Senate Bill 1168: the Florida Legacy bill. It will provide $200 million a year from Amendment 1 funds  or 25 percent of Amendment 1 funds, whichever is less  for Everglades restoration. The bill, according to Negron, contains a "specific preference for projects that reduce discharges from Lake Okeechobee."

4. Identify public and private lands where excess water can be temporarily stored during this time of emergency.

5. In the 2017 and 2018 sessions, implement the recommendations of the University of Florida Water Institute, which include purchasing additional land for water to be stored, cleaned and sent south.

This may be the most significant item on Negron's list. As Senate president, he would be in a position to make this happen.

6. Pressure the Army Corps of Engineers to revise the Lake Okeechobee Regulation Schedule (LORS), the complicated formula used to decide if and when to release lake water to the estuaries.

As Negron notes, "This change alone would dramatically reduce the need for discharges."

Treasure Coast residents are dealing with a problem that is 80-plus years in the making. Given the severity, it's difficult to accept Negron's assessment that "the overall situation is better today than it was 10 years ago"  especially when our region is staring at the very real possibility of historic discharge volumes.

Sen. Negron has articulated a reasonable plan for tackling the problem  and, as state Senate president, he will be in a position to deliver.

"During my time as the Senate presiding officer, this local issue will be front and center, and a top personal priority," Negron said.

If his priorities translate into action  and, in Tallahassee, that's a big "if"  our region may make real progress toward ending the discharges.
Gov. Rick Scott addresses a joint session of the Florida Legislature during his State of the State address in Tallahassee on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016. (Scott Keeler/The Tampa Bay Times via AP)

SHARE

By Paula Dockery

What a difference a year makes.

The Florida House and Senate have played nice during this legislative session. With both chambers  and the governor's office  controlled by Republicans, you might expect every session to run smoothly, but that hasn't been the case.

Consider the acrimony of last year.

The House walked out of the 2015 regular session without a budget  the one and only bill it is required to pass. The major sticking point was whether to expand Medicaid for nearly a million of the state's working poor. The Senate wanted to take the federal funds; the House did not. Florida Gov. Rick Scott switched positions, at least twice, finally deciding to reject the federal funds for Medicaid expansion.

The Legislature was called back for a June special session to hammer out a budget, which they completed dangerously close to the start of the next fiscal year. Then there was the failed special session on congressional redistricting in August, followed in October by the special session to redraw state Senate districts. Each chamber hired its own legal counsel and at times battled each other in court.

It was difficult to imagine that these two chambers could put the acrimony, accusations and hurt feelings behind them to work cooperatively in the 2016 regular session but the turnaround has been remarkable.

House and Senate leaders passed their priority bills early in the session. For Senate President Andy Gardiner, his long-sought-after legislation providing educational and work opportunities for the developmentally disabled was rushed through the House. Likewise, House Speaker Steve Crisafulli's agriculture-friendly water bill was expedited through the Senate.

Maybe this show of good faith  reversing the usual tactic of holding the leaders' bills hostage as bargaining chips at session's end  led to the detente. Of course, in a presidential election year, political parties want to show they can be trusted to govern. Perhaps that was the motivation after a year of embarrassing dysfunction.

The new congressional and Senate maps might be playing a role. Because the district lines changed, all 40 Senate seats are up for grabs. Senators face tougher re-elections in new districts that were not drawn to favor their party and might find it necessary to modify their voting records to reflect their new constituency. House members planning to run for Senate seats might be trying to get approval from Senate leaders who control the campaign funds.

Whatever the reason, there was a lot of give and take. Neither chamber got everything they wanted, but both got some. Left out in the cold was Gov. Scott.

Scott's three main priorities fell by the wayside. His $1 billion tax cut primarily benefiting businesses was replaced by a much different $400 million tax-cut package.

Ironically, the House  which usually sides with the governor to the detriment of the Senate  was the chamber that handed Scott a defeat on his $250 million pot of incentive funds to lure businesses to Florida.

Both legislative chambers agreed to increase per pupil spending, but neither wanted to use local property taxes  Scott's chosen funding source  to do it.

With little to hang his hat on this session, how will Scott react to this renewed political alliance between House and Senate? Will he wield his veto pen in retaliation?

Scott's not used to being odd man out, as he could usually count on the more conservative House to back his limited but conservative agenda. So what happened?

Could it be that legislators in both chambers are unhappy Scott vetoed the budget items that they worked so hard to get for their communities?

Could it be that they resented his campaign of TV ads and bus tours pressuring them to fund his tax cuts and corporate incentives?

Could it be they didn't like the way he dismissed their revenue projections?

Maybe Scott should work with legislators instead of painting them into a corner.

Paula Dockery is a syndicated columnist who served in the Florida Legislature for 16 years as a Republican from Lakeland. She can be reached at PBDockery@gmail.com.
SHARE President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan go over their joint address which they will give to the nation, Sept. 13, 1986, at the White House in Washington. The address, which will be seen nationally, will focus on the war against drug abuse. (AP File Photo/Charles Tasnadi)

By Stanford Erickson

I covered Ronald Reagan as a newspaper reporter and later as a newspaper editor. Like most print journalists, I never was allowed to interview Nancy Reagan. Her husband was the story, and she kept it that way.

My first encounter with Reagan was when he was governor of California. Although I was a junior reporter at the San Francisco Commercial News, the political editor asked me to cover the governor's news conference at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.

"I hate the guy," the editor told me. "But every time I cover him I end up liking him."

You could not help liking Reagan. He was a perfect mimic and told wonderful anecdotes and jokes.

I became aware of how influential Nancy Reagan was in her husband's political career after Gov. Reagan abruptly left a speaking engagement at a predominantly African-American church in San Francisco. A few parishioners began chanting that Reagan was a racist.

The Reagan glare immediately was on, and he shouted back, "I don't have to take that." He turned and stomped out.

Later, when I was following up on the story, the press secretary told me off-the-record that Nancy Reagan had heatedly told him the president was never to give a speech without a nap at about 5 p.m. Mrs. Reagan informed the press secretary that her husband got up early and always worked hard during the day. Without a nap, she explained, he had a fierce temper.

I learned a great deal about Ronald Reagan in researching my book "Mama's Boy Presidents: Why Do We Keep Electing Them?"

He was a mama's boy, and most journalists had little insight into him. They considered him an amiable dunce.

His biographer, Edmund Morris, who Reagan himself selected because Morris had written a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography on President Theodore Roosevelt, ended up writing, "He is the most mysterious man I have ever confronted. It is impossible to understand him."

Most of those discussing the influence Nancy Reagan had on her husband miss the point. They assume she had more influence on the policies he espoused than she really had.

During the 1984 pre-presidential re-election, Nancy had arranged a dinner with various friends who were interested in President Reagan Ronald modifying his position on abortion, as reported in the 1995 book "First Ladies" by Margaret Truman. Five minutes into the meal, Reagan said to Nancy, "I know what you're up to. I'm not going to change my mind, and that's all there is to it." And it was.

I found Reagan to be one of the more profound and intelligent presidents I ever had the privilege to cover. He was highly sensitive, an introvert and terribly shy.

In the 1984 re-election campaign, Reagan did not perform well in his first debate against his Democratic challenger, Walter Mondale. As Reagan was preparing for his next debate, it became apparent to his handlers that he was shaken and could not get over the memory of having performed so badly. A passage from Truman's "First Ladies" book illustrates Nancy Reagan's response: The first lady entered the debate rehearsal wearing a raincoat and then approached Ronnie, as she referred to him, as if she were a flasher. When she threw open her raincoat, on her sweater were the words "4 more in '84." Reagan cracked up and then seemed to regain his old confidence and, in the best showbiz tradition, said, "Let's take it from the top."

Stanford Erickson lives in Vero Beach and is a 35-year member of the National Press Club. His website is www.stanforderickson.com.
SHARE Lawrence E. Crary III

By Lawrence E. Crary Iii, YourNews contributor

STUART  The measure of any institution is not merely its longevity but, more importantly, its impact upon the community it serves. For 100 years St. Joseph Catholic Church has been one the most impactful institutions in Stuart and Martin County. From this church the Gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed, the seven sacraments are celebrated, the poor are fed, sheltered and clothed, children are educated and the community in and around Stuart is blessed.

St. Joseph is the "mother church" to the seven other Catholic churches in Martin County  St. Christopher in Hobe Sound, St. Jude in Tequesta, St. Lucie in Port St. Lucie, Holy Cross in Indiantown, St. Martin de Porres in Jensen Beach, Holy Redeemer in Palm City and St. Andrew in Port Salerno. All of those vibrant parishes had their origins in St. Joseph Church, through the service and support of St. Joseph's priests and parishioners.

One hundred years ago the formation of St. Joseph Church would not have been possible without the services of St. Anastasia Church in Fort Pierce, whose priests faithfully celebrated the Mass for St. Joseph's early parishioners.

On March 19, 1916 St. Joseph Church celebrated its first Mass in a 20-foot by 30-foot building on Cleveland Avenue in Stuart. March 19 is the feast day of St. Joseph, which is the reason that the church bears his name. Thirty-five parishioners attended the first Mass.

St. Joseph now has 3,500 registered families and a weekly Mass attendance in season of 7,000 worshipers at the church on East 10th Street. In addition to eight Sunday Masses, Holy Eucharist is celebrated every weekday at 7 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. There is an Adoration Chapel adjacent to the church where the Blessed Sacrament is venerated almost 24 hours a day. The chapel is a quiet place to pray and seek God  a refuge from the busy world we live in.

St. Joseph School, with its 243 students in grades Pre-K to 8, is a vital part of the church's commitment to Catholic education. Since its beginning in 1961, thousands of students have received an excellent and faith-filled education at the school, many going on to successful professional, educational, scientific and business careers. St. Joseph School is the only Catholic school in Martin County.

The word "catholic" means universal. Our pastor, Rev. Noel McGrath, is from Ireland. He has served as a priest in Ireland, Peru and the United States. For many years St. Joseph Catholic Church has had priests from all over the world  Vietnam, Nigeria, Ireland, Colombia, Peru, India, Tanzania, Cuba and New York, to name a few. To be a parishioner of St. Joseph is to experience the universality of the Catholic Church. Priests who have served at St. Joseph now serve in parishes from Boca Raton to Sebastian. Our beloved former pastor, Rev. Richard Murphy, is the pastor at Holy Cross Church in Vero Beach.

Each Monday evening 200 or more Stuart residents in need of food receive a good, healthy meal at the St. Joseph Carpenter's Kitchen. Thanks to the generosity of its parishioners, the St. Joseph Conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society provides more than $100,000 annually in emergency relief for families to pay for electricity, food and shelter.

St. Joseph parishioners are deeply engaged in many other ministries to those in need including the homeless through Can We Help and young pregnant women through Mary's Shelter. St. Joseph also ministers to House of Hope. St. Joseph has recently acquired the former Pine School property adjacent to the church. One local leader has called this property the "City of Hope" because it already houses the Boys and Girls Club, Catholic Charities and Can We Help, which serve hundreds of local residents on a daily basis and, with God's help, soon to come will be Light of the World Ministries with its free dental clinic and a new home for Mary's Shelter for at-risk pregnant women.

St. Joseph Church has been the center of spiritual life and service for hundreds of thousands of people during its 100 years and it looks forward to doing even more during the next century by the grace of God.

St. Joseph Church will be celebrating its centennial with a Mass at 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 19. Most Reverend Gerald M. Barbarito, Bishop of Palm Beach, our St. Joseph Parish priests as well as priests from the Diocese, will celebrate the 100th Anniversary Mass. All are invited to come and celebrate this momentous occasion.
bigron Senior - BHPian



Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: NSEW Posts: 1,298 Thanked: 2,659 Times

Re: Suzuki starts local assembly of Hayabusa. Price - Rs. 13.57 lakh Have covered over 30,000 kms on this thing. Have a 2011 Gen 2 but also had a 05 Gen 1 prior to that.

I do extensive sports touring ( 900+ kms a day) and this thing is tailor made for it. The saddle is spacious, the leg room acceptable and the riding posture not to extreme. What makes this a great buy is the extensive after market support there is. You can practically change anything and everything on this bike to suit your need. Brakes, suspension, motor, rear end you name it and there is part for it.

As a track bike yes it will not hold a candle next to a zx10r or a 1000rr but with a few clicks on the suspension and some minor mods it becomes a respectable track bike. Also it is highly likely that the skill of the rider will run out far sooner the bikes capabilities.

Overall, this is one of the finest motorcycles money can buy.
BowMan BHPian

Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: Gandhinagar Posts: 239 Thanked: 567 Times

Re: Mercedes Benz W123 There was a fourth 300D that I came across in Gujarat. It was a white 300D which belonged to an old man who had passed away and his son who was an NRI had flown down to do the last rites and dispose of some of his belongs, the car being one of them. I inspected the car in somewhat sombre circumstances but I noticed from afar that the front suspension was somewhat compressed. Sure enough I inspected the VIN and the car was originally a 230E shipped to Japan and later on converted with a OM617 engine. I have never been a fan of molestations which go under the guise of restorations and passed the car. However the son asked me if I could help him sell the car and I agreed to list it in my name (it was also listed on team bhp).



I will also mention another w123 that was listed on team bhp and from Ahmedabad. That one was repainted poorly, engine redone poorly...in fact the only thing great about that car was that it's asking price and that once upon a time It belonged to the Governor of Gujarat State.



Having seen so many cars in Gujarat I was convinced that now my search would take me out of the state. I decided that I will look at the opportunities in Mumbai next. One of the main reasons was that there were a lot of W123s listed from Mumbai and prices seemed to be competitive. I made an inventory of sorts of about half a dozen cars and then I was ready for Mumbai. I planned a trip in February 2014 (its been two yearswow) specifically for this errand and decided I will check as many as I can in one day which happened to be a weekend.

The first car that I met was in Ghatkopar, a dark blue 200D which looked promising from the pictures. Sadly I was a bit disappointed when I checked her. The first thing I noticed was that the vacuum pump was not working and to shot down the engine a cable had to be pulled which was routed into the engine bay and tied to the accelerator linkage stop lever. There was considerable rust, interiors were not well maintained, engine blow by was prominent, brakes were shuddering and there was no bite in left side calipers or the disks had work, or both, which was resulting in the car drifting towards left under braking. Steering play was excessive.pass.



Next in line was another car, a LHD 200D again in Ghatkopar (in fact right behind Gulati petrol pump). From the images it seemed to be the least promising of all the Mumbai cars to me. It seemed to have been driven through mud and not washed properly and the seats were draped in garish blue seat covers.



The man who owned it was a gulf expat with limited resources and the car seemed to have changed a lot of hands. At some point it was in Kerala and then got transferred to Mumbai, from where it passed on to the hands of a Gujarati businessman and finally with the one to whom I was taking. However I was pleasantly surprised by the car. It had very little miles on it which was not impossible, the car being a LHD. Engine condition seemed to support this thought and there was absolutely no blow by. Inside the car was kept clean and the blue seat covers were only to protect genuine upholstery which was more or less intact underneath. Dashboards did not show any sign of cracking, under pan was clean. Nice! What made me stop from making an offer on the car was the fact that it was a LHD car and it had rust on only one spot, the wheel wells, which had completely rusted through and rust could be seen from engine bay. I knew this area would be a tough job to fix. However some weeks after this I did make an offer but the owner told me he had sold the car by then. But all in all It was a nice experience to see this man who was not too well off treating his car like it was a family member.



Car number three was the worse experience for me. The car was advertised as being in Mumbai but when I called up the guy he said that it is in fact right now in a place called Alibag. I was P***ed but the car had promising pictures so I decided I will take the boat trip from Gateway to Alibag. It was a good hour and a half to reach Alibag beach and when I called the guy after reaching Alibag I was again told by him that I needed to take a bus (I now forgot the name of the town). I was between the devil and the deep blue sea but having ventured so far I decided I will walk the extra mile as well. Finally I reached the place after spending a food 2 and half hours and when I looked at the car I could not believe my eyes. The car that I saw and was accompanied by a flashily dressed young man who told me he is an architect looked completely different from the one which was listed. Not only had the floor pan completely rusted but at places the rust had crept upwards 4-5 inches. The body line had completely disintegrated. The auto did not shift properly. Huge amounts of blow by. I wanted to punch him in the nose. I later found from him that the car was bought by him from Pune and I strongly suspect the pictures were a good 2-3 years old when the car was not affected by the saline climate. I was thoroughly pissed and exhausted. I took the bus back to Alibag and a ferry from there to India gate, had a early dinner and went to bed.



(to be continued) Last edited by BowMan : 6th March 2016 at 23:17 .
The buzz surrounding the FBIs lawsuit to compel Apple to help it unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists increased on Tuesday, when NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden dismissed the agencys stance as bullsh*t.

He made the remark during a video conversation with Malkia Cyril, executive director of the Center for Media Justice, and Dan Froomkin, Washington editor of The Intercept, at Common Causes Blueprint for Democracy conference.

The statement provoked some testy reactions.

Does Snowden really matter any more? asked Jim McGregor, principal at Tirias Research. I think hes just looking for publicity.

Snowdens involvement in the issue will have very little effect, suggested John Gunn, vice president at Vasco Data Security.

Snowden is a polarizing element, Gunn told TechNewsWorld. People see him either as a traitor or the reincarnation of Thomas Jefferson and a patriot willing to give his own life to protect our liberty.

Possible Technical Options for the FBI

The FBI can bypass Apples auto-erase feature by backing up the effaceable storage on the iPhone before trying to guess the passcode, Snowden said, pointing to ACLU Technology Fellow Daniel Gillmors explanation of the possible approach.

Auto-erase in fact does not erase all the data from the iPhones underlying storage, Gillmor argued; instead, it destroys one of the keys that protects the data  the file system key.

That renders the data permanently unreadable. However, the effaceable storage is stored in the iPhones NAND flash memory, and the FBI only has to copy that flash memory before trying to crack the passcode. That NAND flash memory can be restored from its backup copy.

That procedure is routinely carried out in kiosks in Chinese malls to upgrade a 16-GB iPhone to 128-GB for about US$60, according to forensic expert Jonathan Zdziarski.

The FBI has a number of options available, he noted. The bureau could deconstruct the chip on the device in order to read the fuse bank where the UID is stored. If the UID could be extracted, the FBI then could reverse-engineer the rest of Apples encryption and brute force it against the PIN.

Another possibility would be to try to isolate the hardware-based encryption off the silicon and feed encrypt/decrypt requests directly through it, performing an on-chip brute force while bypassing iOS, Zdziarski suggested.

Further, the bureau could borrow time on the NSAs and CIAs supercomputing clusters to try a brute force attack on one or more of the individually encrypted files most critical to the FBIs needs.

The FBI hasnt tried approaching security researchers, who may have proofs of concept that could crack the firmware running on the iPhone in question, believed to be iOS 9.0.x, Zdziarski maintained.

Support for the FBI

Getting a court order forcing Apple to unlock the iPhone in question does not put our security or privacy at risk, since theres a one-to-one capability that would allow for limited access to single devices only via cryptographic techniques, argued Philip Lieberman, president of Lieberman Software.

All devices can be penetrated by an abundance of means available to governments and criminals, irrespective of the representations of Apple and others, he told TechNewsWorld.

Its Just Politics

The FBI wants the rules set in their favor for all future instances, Vascos Gunn contended. Petty criminals dont incite the level of fear that it takes for people to be willing to sacrifice their constitutional rights.

FBI director James Comey has argued against encryption since at least 2014.

The FBI and law enforcement agencies understand very well that legal precedent is much easier to come by than legislative action requiring backdoors be built into encrypted software and devices, Application Developers Alliance CEO Jake Ward told TechNewsWorld.

The lawsuit seems like a pissing match between two bullies  one looking to score points with consumers and privacy advocates, and the other trying to set a precedent and make an example out of Apple, remarked Tirias McGregor.

However, this is a sticky issue because there are gray areas, he told TechNewsWorld. Privacy should be a right of every citizen, but the government has the responsibility to protect its citizens.
The jailing last week of Facebook Regional Vice President Diego Dzoda in Brazil may have been the tip of an iceberg. Frustrated police made the arrest after Facebook failed to produce WhatsApp messages connected to a drug trafficking case. The incident is one of a growing heap of examples that highlight the difficulties law enforcement agencies face when trying to collect evidence in a digital world without borders.

In international cases involving digital data, its not uncommon for national laws to be at loggerheads. Thats especially true when the nations involved have laws that treat privacy differently. Those conflicts can produce frustration that leads to the kind of extreme behavior Brazilian authorities engaged in last week.

These conflicts will continue, because the way foreign governments can obtain data stored with a U.S. provider is to go through the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty process, explained Jadzia Butler, a fellow on privacy, surveillance, and security at the Center for Democracy & Technology.

Unfortunately, this process is extremely cumbersome. It can take up to 10 months for a foreign law enforcement agency to get the data it needs, she told TechNewsWorld.

So governments like Brazil and others have started to resort to extreme tactics in order to get the data, Butler said. Those measures include data localization mandates and intimidation of local officials.

Reform Needed

Reform of the existing MLATs system is on the U.S. congressional agenda.

The House Judiciary Committee last month held a hearing on the subject. The committee is considering what rules should apply when two countries claim jurisdiction over the same piece of data, noted Gregory T. Nojeim, director of the CDTs Project on Freedom, Security and Technology.

Increasingly, one countrys law will require disclosure and another countrys law will prohibit it, or at least subject the disclosure to local rules that the requesting country may find difficult to meet, he observed.

Because of the explosive growth of global communications and of communications service providers, and because of the increasingly central role that communications content and metadata play in law enforcement investigations worldwide, this problem is growing, Nojeim continued.

Moreover, because the largest communications service providers are located in the U.S., the volume of data demands coming into the U.S. from foreign governments far exceeds the volume of demands made by the U.S., he said.

The CDT is one of several groups that are trying to find a way to streamline the MLAT process. One possibility is to create an alternative framework for obtaining data for countries that meet specific human rights criteria, suggested CDTs Butler.

Until that happens, I would say conflicts like the one in Brazil will continue to happen, she said. Its frightening.

The Geography of E-Fraud

Electronic fraud claimed 13 million victims in 2015, according to a Javelin study released earlier this year, but where you live in the United States can determine your chances of being one of those victims.

The states with the highest rates of billing fraud were Florida, Delaware, Oregon, California and Washington, D.C., according to an Experian study released last week. The highest for shipping fraud were Delaware, Oregon, Florida, California and Nevada.

Why are some regions more prone to e-fraud than others?

A lot of it has to do with proximity to port cities, said Adam Fingersh, senior vice president of fraud and identity solutions at Experian.

Counter to many expectations, big cities are not necessarily fraud magnets, he noted.

While there are a number of big cities that are ranked high, we also see a number of small cities that are ranked as having high risk, Fingersh told TechNewsWorld.

Path of Least Resistance

Fraud appears to follow the path of least resistance.

Weve seen that as a result of pulling pin-and-chip technologies into the U.S., fraudsters are looking for other avenues to exploit, Fingerish said.

As a result, card-not-present fraud, as anticipated from what weve seen in other regions, becomes one of those channels that fraudsters can look to backfill opportunities prior to the introduction of chip-and-pin, he explained.

Although hard numbers arent yet available for correlating card-not-present fraud rates with the introduction of chip-and-pin or EMV technology, there is evidence that CNP rates will be getting higher.

During the most recent Black Friday holiday, there was a significant volume in card-not-present fraud, and some of the geographies referenced in our study saw a significant increase in that time frame, Fingersh said.

We know theres a gradual climb in card-not-present fraud as EMV is rolled out, he added.

Drafting Hackers

The Pentagon last week announced that it was launching a bug bounty program to make Defense Department computers more secure.

The Hack the Pentagon initiative is the first bug bounty program in the history of the federal government, according to DoD.

Under the pilot program, the department will use commercial sector crowdsourcing to allow qualified participants to conduct vulnerability identification and analysis on its public Web pages.

The bug bounty program is modeled after similar competitions conducted by some of the nations biggest companies in an effort to improve the security and delivery of networks, products and digital services.

The pilot marks the first in a series of programs designed to find vulnerabilities in the departments applications, websites, and networks.

Outside the 5-Sided Box

The bug bounty program shows a willingness on the part of Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter to push the Pentagon bureaucracy out of its comfort zone in meaningful ways, according to the Center for a New American Security.

This initiative, with its potential to cause embarrassment or unintended breaches of critical systems, undoubtedly drew bureaucratic push back in its development, wrote CNAS Program Director Ben Fitzgerald and CNAS Senior Fellow Loren DeJonge in a statement. But these are precisely the fears and cultural factors the secretary needs to incentivize the institutional Pentagon to overcome if his innovation agenda is to take hold.

Although the bug bounty program has received kudos from the security community, some have questioned whether the momentum Secretary Carter is trying to build will fizzle when a new administration takes office in 2017.

Thats not likely, said Casey Ellis, CEO Bugcrowd.

The need for people to solve the vulnerability discovery problem will never go away, and ultimately a distributed resourcing approach like a bug bounty program is the only way for the DoD to access resourcing and economics that are on parity with their adversaries, he told TechNewsWorld.

Breach Diary

Feb. 29. Federal magistrate judge in New York denies request by U.S. government that Apple be ordered to extract information from an iPhone seized in a drug case.

Feb. 29. Snapchat announces data on current and former employees was compromised by employee who sent the information to an unauthorized third-party in response to a phishing scam.

Feb. 29. Jackson State University in Alabama announces second student has been arrested in connection with data breach resulting in personal information of 40,000 past and present students being posted to the Internet.

March 1. Illinois State University announces data breach resulted in some US$50,000 in direct pay payments of 13 faculty and staff being redirected into an unauthorized account.

March 1. Main Line Health in Philadelphia announces personal information of all its employees has been compromised after employee sent the data to an unauthorized source in response to a spearphishing attack.

March 1. IRS issues alert to payroll and human resources professionals about phishing schemes that appear to be requests from company executives for personal information on employees.

March 2. Krebs on Security reports that a number of credit unions said the level of debit card fraud they experienced from data breach at Wendys exceeded losses from breaches at Target and Home Depot.

March 2. U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fines online payments-transfer network Dwolla $100,000 and orders is to tighten up its security practices after it finds the company has been misleading consumers about its data security practices.

March 3. Motherboard reports that personal information of 40,000 Cox Communications employees is being sold on the Dark Web. Cox says its aware of the matter and is having a private forensics company and law enforcement investigate it.

March 3. Walmart announces personal information of some 5,000 online pharmacy customers was exposed on the Internet Feb. 15-18 due to a coding error.

March 3. Luzerne County Community College in Pennsylvania confirms it sent to more than 200 employees an email with an attachment containing personal information of all those employees.

March 3. Luzerne County Community College in Pennsylvania confirms it sent to more than 200 employees an email with an attachment containing personal information of all those employees.

March 4. The New York Post reports Mansueto Ventures, publisher of Inc. and Fast Company, suffered a massive data breach resulting in the theft of personal information of as many as 90 percent of its employees. Some of the data already has been used to file fraudulent state and federal tax returns, it reports.

March 4. UK supermarket chain Morrisons files court papers claiming it isnt liable for data breach resulting in posting to Internet of personal information of nearly 100,000 employees.

March 4. Amazon announces it will include an option for full disk encryption in an update to its Fire OS operating system this spring. Earlier in the week it was widely reported that the company had quietly removed the option with version 5 of the OS released last fall.

Upcoming Security Events
Tesla owners in the US are eligible for various incentives for purchasing an electric vehicle. It's quite the opposite situation in Singapore, however, as one local recently found out.

Joe Nguyen has spent the past several months trying to import the Tesla Model S he purchased in Hong Kong to his home country. Nguyen anticipating receiving a rebate of S$15,000 (~$11,000) as the car has no exhaust pipe and thus, no emissions. Instead, he was hit with a fine of S$15,000 courtesy of the nation's Carbon Emissions Vehicle Scheme (CEVS).

A spokesperson for the Singapore Land Transport Authority (LTA) told Channel NewsAsia that the Model S in question was tested under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) R101 standards. That test determined that the Tesla vehicle used 444 watt-hours per kilometer driven.

The LTA spokesperson provided the publication with the following explanation.

"As for all electric vehicles, a grid emission factor of 0.5 g CO2/Wh was also applied to the electric energy consumption. This is to account for CO2 emissions during the electricity generation process, even if there are no tail-pipe emissions. The equivalent CO2 emission of Mr Nguyen's car was 222g/km, which is in the CEVS surcharge band."

Or in other words, they're factoring upstream emissions - the environmental impact of producing the electricity to power the car - into the equation. Autoblog also points out that the top-of-the-line Tesla Model S P90D is rated to consume around 210 watt-hours per kilometer driven.

Update: Tesla has reached out and provided us with the following statement on the matter.
LG's innovative G5 smartphone is heading to the US early next month, the South Korean technology giant confirmed on Thursday.

LG unveiled its latest flagship at Mobile World Congress (MWC) last month. The handset utilizes a unique modular design that allows users to swap out a drained battery in seconds. There are also a number of other modular accessories - dubbed LG Friends - that add additional functionality to the handset.

LG accumulated an impressive 33 awards at MWC including a "Best of MWC 2016" award from TechSpot.

The modular concept sounds good on paper but we're still waiting to see how it performs in the real world. One thing that LG is already being criticized for is the fact that swapping modules removes the battery and thus, kills the phone. The ideal solution would have been for LG to integrate a small battery inside the phone that can keep it powered while you swap modules. Perhaps that'll arrive in next year's model (assuming the G6 sticks with the modular concept).

The company said its Friends are also coming to the US but stopped short of specifying exactly which modules will accompany the G5 and how much they're sell for.

The latest from LG will be available at major carriers and retailers including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Verizon, Best Buy, Best Buy Mobile Stores and B&H. For a limited time, LG is also offering customers that order the LG G5 a free extra battery and battery-charging cradle.
Napster co-founder Sean Parker is reportedly backing a startup called Screening Room that aims to let customers rent first-run movies that are still showing in theaters (even beginning the same day they are released in theaters).

The company's secure anti-piracy set-top box will cost $150 while individual movie rentals will go for $50 each. Customers would have a 48-hour window to view a film according to sources briefed on the matter as reported by Variety.

Sources say Screening Room is preparing to share as much as $20 of the $50 rental fee with exhibitors to make up for lost sales. The $50 rental would also include two free tickets to go see the film at a nearby cinema so theater owners would have a chance to make money from concession sales.

$50 may sound like a hell of a lot of money to spend on a single movie rental (and it is, in certain situations). If you're single, this makes very little sense. Those with families or those that want to host movie watch parties with friends could certainly see the value here.

Simply divide up the cost of "admission" among friends and it's suddenly pretty affordable. If you spring for a few pizzas or Chinese takeout, you can eat for far cheaper per person than what you'll pay at the theater. And if your host has an awesome home theater setup, well, that's an added bonus. Oh, and you won't have to deal with idiots in the theater that'd rather play or talk on their phones than watch the movie they paid to see (don't forget the people that bring screaming babies, either). And did I mention, it's far cheaper than the alternative?

Some of my fellow tech writers are labeling the whole idea as absurd but I think it's a pretty great idea given the right circumstances. What do you think? Would you be willing to spend $50 on a movie rental to host a movie watch party for your friends or family? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Lead image courtesy Audio Dimensions
The world's darkest material gets even darker, defying spectrometers which are unable to quantify its blackness. The nanotechnology company Surrey NanoSystem (SNS) announced that they made a new darker version of Vantablack.

Vantablack is the darkest and blackest material ever invented in the planet. It was first released by the company in 2014 with carbon nanotubes capable of absorbing 99.96 percent of visual light, setting a new world record. Now, the firm has outdone itself and developed the new version of the material.

In a YouTube video, the researchers demonstrated the new material they developed. The blackness of Vantablack is so dense that it confounds the eye.



"It resulted in a coating so black that our spectrometers can't measure it!" a team member in the video explained.

"Even running a high power laser pointer across it barely reflects anything back to the viewer. We have never before made a material so 'black' that it can't be picked up on our spectrometers in the infrared," he added.

What Is Vantablack?

This material is the new black simply because it is blacker than all previous blacks known to man. It is made primarily of carbon nanotubes so thin it is like the size of a hair strand split 10,000 times.

"Vantablack is a major breakthrough by UK industry in the application of nanotechnology to optical instrumentation," said Ben Jensen, Chief Technology Officer, Surrey NanoSystems in a statement in 2014.

"For example, it reduces stray-light, improving the ability of sensitive telescopes to see the faintest stars, and allows the use of smaller, lighter sources in space-borne black body calibration systems. Its ultra-low reflectance improves the sensitivity of terrestrial, space and air-borne instrumentation", he added.

What Is It For?

This material has the highest thermal conductivity and lowest mass-volume which can be used in a wide range of high-emissivity applications.

It is generally used to limit unwanted stray light from ultraviolet rays for many applications including infrared cameras, scientific equipment, sensors, satellite-borne calibration sources and provide aesthetic effect in luxury products. Since it absorbs light energy, it could be used in solar power development. The material, however, is not yet sold to the public and all sales are handled by the company in the United Kingdom.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Sony PlayStation recently told the media that its upcoming virtual reality headset is unsuitable for children younger than 12.

With 2016 being the year when the first VR headsets are coming out, early adopters must gauge carefully which of the head mounts suits them best. Some of them, namely tech passionate parents, ponder which device will bring more value to their children's education.

Is it the Oculus Rift, the motion-tracking HTC Vive, best buddy of smartphones Gear VR or the gaming-centric PlayStation VR?

Oculus and Samsung announced that users of their head-mounted displays should have a minimum age of 13, and the former motivated its choice by saying that kids under that age are in "a critical period in visual development." Some manufacturers did not yet announce an age restriction. The Vive from HTC is in such a position, but the information should surface before the company starts to ship its preordered head-mounted devices.

Sony, on the other hand, came out and underlined that children under 12 should not make use of the PlayStation VR. The company recently released the 3.5 software update for PlayStation 4, and its notes seem to set the frame for the upcoming VR headset's release.

Alongside the age-restriction warning, the company points out that users should clear the VR area before engulfing in virtual reality experiences. Considering how immersive the process can be, it's a sound advice to keep children, pets and other obstacles out of the area.

Most educators and tech experts agree that virtual reality will play a paramount role in schools and educational facilities. However, the manufacturers of VR headsets are taking their time. For example, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey wants to see the general public embracing the technology before thinking about lowering the age ratings.

It is possible that some parents will allow their children who are younger than 12 to use Sony's VR headset. As usage can be controlled and verified, there is no reason to hold the kids back from positive experiences. It should be noted, however, that a virtual reality experience is much more powerful than anything the human body normally experiences.

This is why Sony included a disclaimer in the update notes, saying that symptoms such as "motion sickness, nausea, disorientation and blurred vision" could pop up.

As a quick reminder, the PlayStation VR is designed to sport compatibility with the latest console from Sony, the PlayStation 4.

The specs of the PlayStation VR indicate that it will provide graphics at 120 Hz refresh rate via a 5.7-inch OLED display. The field-of-view will stretch to a full 100 degrees.

"Games for PlayStation VR can be rendered at 120fps. When combined with the OLED display's high refresh rate and the power of PS4, it means PS VR outputs amazingly smooth visuals," Sony points out.

But the bigger issue when it comes to children using VR headsets is finding ways to protect them from getting in contact with adult content too early. Some companies already took a stand towards the issue, with Oculus announcing what kind of adult-oriented content it will feature in its online home store.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
OnePlus smartphones were recently spotted in the fourth season of "House of Cards," but the product placement did not come cheap.

The handset manufacturer is the latest to join the platoon of tech names that not-so-discreetly create brand awareness by placing their phones in a TV series or movie.

According to a Weibo post, OnePlus paid no less than $300,000 to have three of its models, namely the OnePlus One, OnePlus Two and OnePlus X feature in the TV series "House of Cards." It is true that mainly secondary characters used the devices, but the fact that Claire Underwood aims to secure a OnePlus invite is both hilarious and endearing.

Check out the differences between the three devices in our coverage.

Going on a limb here, but most of us did play "spot the smartphone" when such a device appeared on a TV screen. Multiple OnePlus handset cameos starred in the latest season of "House of Cards," the popular TV series that follows Frank Underwood's power plays around Capitol Hill.

The OEM is far from being the first to pay its way into the limelight. Microsoft and Apple have been doing this for years now and the few seconds of product placement seem to pay off.

The aforementioned tech companies do not bat an eye when they have to shell out $300,000, but it might be different for OnePlus.

So far, the company relied powerfully on grassroots marketing, meaning that its message was spread from person to person in a "tell a friend"-like scenario that attracted quite a number of fans. Considering the broad appeal of "House of Cards," OnePlus hopes to tap into a wider demographic.

However, there is a problem with OnePlus' strategy: the company has almost no brand recognition outside Chinese borders. What is more, the company's phones are not even present in many global showrooms. This dims the chances for a "House of Cards" fan to spot a OnePlus device on the shelf and make a buying decision on the spot.

Other Chinese companies followed the product placement route in TV series and movies from the United States.

Observant viewers might have noticed that Oppo was a partner of "America's Next Top Model" in 2015. Vivo Electronics also took a shot at screen time by inserting its X5 Pro in the latest Matt Damon rescue mission, "The Martian."

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A teacher from Wisconsin volunteers to donate her kidney to her sick student.

Oakfield Elementary School District was able to capture a video of the heartwarming moment when first-grade teacher Jodi Schmidt announced her decision to her student Natasha Fuller's family.

The Announcement

When she found out that she was a match, Schmidt invited Natasha's grandmother Chris Burelton to school. The staff told Burelton that they will just give a gift to her for taking care of her granddaughter.

When Burelton arrived, Schmidt handed her a pink gift box with a message inside that read "It's a match."

"You? Oh my gosh!" exclaims a teary-eyed Burelton, who thought she was invited to school because Natasha was naughty.

Schmidt's Big-Hearted Move

Schmidt started undergoing medical tests in December 2015 in the hopes of being a kidney donor to Natasha.

Schmidt thought and prayed a lot about it and told her husband about the idea of giving her kidney to her student.

Just recently, she found out that she was a match and fully decided to go with it.

The Connection

Schmidt felt that she is indeed the right person to donate. Although she generally loves children and see sparks in their eyes, it was Natasha's spark that moved her.

Natasha says Mrs. Schmidt is always smiling and for this she smiles back and gives her teacher a hug.

Natasha's Response

After the surprise presentation for Burelton, the school staff brought in Natasha to the room to tell her the news as well. She saw the gift, but was not entirely aware of what it meant.

She read the note and thanked and hugged Schmidt. When the staff asked if she understood what the note meant, she shook her head no. Despite this, she got excited about the thought of her, and her teacher getting a popsicle in the hospital.

Natasha's Journey

Natasha was diagnosed with Chronic Kidney disease when she was still a toddler. Because of this, she had to move to her grandparents' place in Milwaukee to receive dialysis and specialized treatment at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. Her parents and twin sister live in Oklahoma.

In August 2015, she was placed under the list of recipients for kidney donations. People usually wait for more than three years just to get a match. Some even resort to other less conventional organ transplant procedures such those involving 3D printing technology.

With Schmidt's courageous and selfless move, Natasha may have her kidney transplant surgery sooner than the usual waiting time.

Photo: Sean McGrath | Flickr

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
As we anticipate the new Spider-Man's appearance in "Captain America: Civil War," let's gush about another amazing spider: Brian, a newly discovered Australian arachnid with a love for "surfing waves."

Introduced at the World Science Festival in Queensland on Wednesday, Brian is a young male spider that is part of Dolomedes briangreenei, a new species named in honor of string theorist Professor Brian Greene.

Brian is an incredible water spider endemic to the freshwaters of Brisbane, and is capable of using vibrations or waves on the water's surface to navigate and hunt prey. It eats fish, tadpoles and even toads thrice its size.

Scientist Robert Raven of Queensland Museum said Brian can just sit on the water for up to an hour. When an insect suddenly hits the surface, it races out to grab it. The spider dives under the water and then swims back to the shore to start eating its prize.

Fortunately, Brian does not pose any danger to humans.

"I've been bitten by this spider and it's not particularly dangerous. It just stung for a little while," said Raven. No hope for turning into a wave-surfing masked hero with special abilities there.

Meanwhile, Greene quickly bonded with his wave-loving namesake.

Greene mentioned that the field of physics and understanding the universe is all about waves. With the announcement of the detection of gravitational waves, or the ripples on the surface of space-time, Greene said he is honored to be closely associated with a spider that has a deep affinity for waves.

Annastacia Palaszczuk, the premier of Queensland, finds the discovery very fascinating. She said it is wonderful that the native spider, which strongly relies on waves for its survival, is named after a man who is one of the scientific community's leading experts in explaining and exploring the effects of waves in the universe.

On Wednesday, Greene talked to the press with little Brian in a fish bowl by his side about the World Science Festival's launch in the southern hemisphere.

"The goal [of the festival is] quite simple: to create a new experience of science, to have a place where young and old, novice and experienced can come in and experience science in a way that feels compelling and dramatic - not intimidating - and utterly inspiring," said Greene.

The World Science Festival, which began in 2008 in New York City, brings together the greatest scientific minds. This year's celebration is the first time it was held outside the city.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The U.S. Senate has passed a resolution honoring Scott Kelly for his record-breaking stay in space.

Senators Cory Booker and Robert Menendez of New Jersey became the latest among public officials to honor Kelly, who himself hails from West Orange in Essex County, and laud him for his 340-day stay at the International Space Station.

Sen. Booker  sitting on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee that oversees NASA  filed the resolution March 1 hours before the celebrated American astronaut closed the hatch on the ISS to voyage back home. Kelly safely landed in Kazakhstan and returned to the U.S. the next day.

The resolution passed Wednesday, highlighting Kellys safe return as a proud moment for the whole state and in the name of science and exploration.

"It's important that we, as a nation, stand up and recognize greatness in order to inspire youngsters and future generations of what is possible when we push ourselves to excel," says Sen. Menendez.

Kellys stay in space was part of the space agencys plan to bring humans to Mars by the 2030s, showing how micro-gravity environments and space conditions affect astronauts physical and mental conditions.

His test results will be compared to those of his twin, Mark Kelly, to lend insight into the extreme effects of weightlessness on the body, based on the identical brothers data.

Kellys stint in space, alongside cosmonaut Mikhail Korniyenko, is the longest among humans since 1999. In a video press conference from orbit, Kelly said he would stay another year in orbit 240 miles above Earth if he needs to.

Now he is dealing with a range of health predicaments, such as sore muscles, joint pains, and skin issues, which he deemed unexpected and different from those from his previous space missions. He will undergo medical tests for an entire year.

University of Pennsylvania researchers, for instance, developed a battery of cognitive tests that Kelly himself took in space repeatedly. Among them is the ability to recognize and interpret emotions coming from facial expressions.

If youre flying to Mars and cant read your fellow astronauts facial expressions, that could lead to conflicts, says professor Mathias Basner, from the University of Pennsylvania.

In 1996, Kelly and his twin brother entered NASAs Astronaut Group 16. Prior to his record-setting trip, the 52-year-old former space shuttle commander spent more than 180 days in space through three separate flights.

Co-sponsoring the Senate resolution were Sens. Bill Nelson (D-FL), Gary Peters (D-MI), and Ted Cruz (R-TX).

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The fallout continues over Volkswagen's emissions scandal, with Michael Horn, the company's CEO for United States operations, suddenly indicating that he will be stepping down from his position.

According to reports, the decision for Horn to vacate his seat was mutual, and he will be replaced in the interim by executive Hinrich Woebcken. Horn has been with Volkswagen for 25 years, but is said to be now leaving to pursue other interests after running the United States operations of the company since the start of 2014.

Horn served as the public face of the embattled brand, reaching out to consumers and dealers in events such as auto shows with an endless stream of apologies for the so-called cheat devices that were found to be installed in 11 million Volkswagen diesel vehicles. The devices allowed the vehicles to cheat emissions tests, passing them despite normally releasing more emissions than allowed.

Prosecutors in Germany have expanded the investigation of the scandal from six suspects to 17 suspects. The names of the individuals have not been revealed but is said that there is no current or former member of the Volkswagen management board on the list of suspects.

It was earlier reported that former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn, along with other senior leaders, knew about the cheating early on. Horn was never implicated in the issue, and was in fact very active in guiding the brand when the scandal exploded. This could explain why there is a lot of criticism with the move.

"People know this scandal was rooted in Germany, which is why this is so surprising," said Kelley Blue Book senior analyst Rebecca Lindland, adding that if Volkswagen wanted scapegoats to take the blame, there were other options that would be a better fit aside from Horn.

"We are troubled watching the mismanagement of this scandal from Germany, and how it may impact the ultimate decisions by the authorities in the United States," said the Volkswagen dealers association in a statement. It added that the departure of Horn could lead to more risks for the car company and is seen as a serious blow to dealers in the country, who have long been complaining the lack of support that they have received from Volkswagen's management in Germany.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
One of cinematic history's most enduring friendships is that of the young-smuggler-turned-Rebel-Alliance-fighter-turned-back-into-smuggler, Han Solo, and his walking carpet of a partner, Chewbacca. Although their friendship has endured through war and their many pirating adventures on the Millennium Falcon, no one really knows how the Corellian and the Wookiee actually met in the first place.

But it looks like we'll finally be getting an origin story for the galaxy's best friendship with the Han Solo standalone film currently being cast and set to be released in theatres in 2018, after Episode VIII.

According to Bob Iger, Disney CEO, the Han Solo movie will be one of several standalone Star Wars films that Disney has planned. The first, of course, is Rogue One.

Rogue One  is about a band of rebels plotting to steal the plans to the Death Star. It takes place right before what was George Lucass first film, which came out in 1977 and is now called A New Hope.' We have others in the works, including one, which is an origin story about Han Solo and Chewy, Iger said.

The much-coveted role of Han Solo has yet to be cast but the studio is reportedly looking for a 20-something actor to fill in the shoes of Harrison Ford who made the iconic role famous.

Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca, recently teased that he'd be donning the furry costume once again so it's possible that he may be making a return for the Han Solo flick.

Chewbacca is one of the few characters who spans all trilogies, and now even this upcoming standalone film. He was first introduced along wtih Han in A New Hope and stayed along throughout the entire original trilogy.

He was also seen on his home planet of Kashyyyk helping Yoda along with other Wookiees when the Clones started killing off the Jedi in the Prequel trilogy, and making a triumphant return along with Han in A New Hope.

Han and Chewy certainly have a friendship that lasts through generations and theirs are #FriendshipGoals we can't wait to see unfold on the big screen.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Stephen Hawking has received and garnered tremendous achievements in his line of expertise. Although, no prestige can ever make the acclaimed theoretical physicist and cosmologist forget the person who influenced and inspired him to love math.

Professor Dikran Tahta, a British mathematician, is one of Hawking's teachers at St. Albans School in Hertfordshire, England. Speaking ahead of this weekend's award of the Global Teacher Prize, he commended the said teacher, who died at the age of 78 in 2006.

"My handwriting was bad, and I could be lazy. Many teachers were boring. Not Mr. Tahta," Hawking said, adding that his teacher opened his eyes to math, which he dubbed as the blueprints of the universe.

"His classes were lively and exciting. Everything could be debated. Together we built my first computer, it was made with electro-mechanical switches."

Who Is Professor Dikran Tahta?

Professor Dikran Tahta was one of the most outstanding mathematics teacher during his time. He was born in Manchester after his American parents moved there after the World War.

He received a scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford in 1946 with mathematics as his main subject. Though it's his line of expertise, he also equipped himself with knowledge from various fields like English literature, philosophy and history.

In 1954, he was invited back to Rossall School to be a professor of history and English, but he found that he enjoyed teaching mathematics more. He moved to St. Albans school, Hertfordshire, where he met Hawking as an eager pupil.

Tahta's devotion to his profession has produced numerous students who are now achievers in their own field.

For instance, Hawking has contributed much on understanding the universe. His scientific works include a collaboration with Roger Penrose on gravitational singularity theorems based on the idea of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity and the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation.

Despite being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a form of motor neuron disease, and wheelchair bound, Hawking continues to contribute to theoretical physics in the hope to shed light on the universe's many mysteries.

"Thanks to Tahta, I became a professor of mathematics at Cambridge, a position once held by Isaac Newton," Hawking added.

As Benjamin Franklin said, a genius without education is like silver in the mine. Scientists are nothing without their teachers who taught them knowledge from the basics to the most complicated ones.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Samsung has just released the latest update of the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow operating system, but it seems that it may have a few bugs that need some working on.

Some Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S7 owners have turned to various Samsung community forums to complain about a number of issues with the Android OS update.

When the latest version of the Marshmallow OS was first rolled out last month, some Galaxy users claimed that their devices started to drain battery charges faster after they installed the update. Others also encountered issues with their Gear VR headsets that fail to establish connection with their Samsung smartphones.

One user going by the handle KruseLudsMobile posted on XDA-Developers's Android forum complaining that after upgrading to the latest Marshmallow OS version, his Samsung device started to use up its battery at a much faster rate than before. He said he is using an unrooted OEM device.

Another forum member, ptko15, said he has been unable to download or update Amazon apps on his Galaxy Note 5 after getting the update. His device also started to experience lag problems with the new Marshmallow update installed.

Problems with the Android OS update seem to apply with Galaxy Note 5 handsets carried by Verizon, which gave the Marshmallow rollout ahead of AT&T and T-Mobile. Several subscribers have flocked the telecom company's community page to ask help with their devices.

A Verizon subscriber wrote about an issue with Wi-Fi connectivity after installing the Marshmallow update on his Samsung device.

"Upon completing the OTA update to Android Marshmallow last evening, my Wi-Fi connection is not stable," user jpheim589 pointed out. "It connects to the network, but anytime I go to a Web page I get DNS probe and connection errors. Anytime I switch back to 4G the issues go away until back on Wi-Fi."

While jpheim589 later claimed that he was able to find a fix after resetting the network setting on his device, his troubleshooting tip doesn't seem to work on other gadgets, just like what another user, Dano1321, experienced.

Another user on the Verizon community page shared that his Galaxy Note 5 keeps dropping the Wi-Fi connection after 20 seconds every time he tries to download from the Google app store. His device also drains its battery much faster after installing the Marshmallow update.

Samsung has received news about these issues and is now planning to release a second version of the Android 6.0.1 update to fix problems with Galaxy devices. Meanwhile, here are some possible quick fixes for Lollipop problems and Marshmallow problems that are also troubling the Galaxy smartphones mentioned above.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Verizon has recently announced that the Samsung Galaxy S7 will be available from March 11. Now, the carrier has also confirmed that the Korean company's mobile payment and digital wallet service for the new smartphone will also be available on the same date.

The new Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge smartphones are loaded with features to keep the handsets at par with other flagships in the market. Reports suggested that Verizon versions of the Galaxy S7 will not include the Samsung Pay app. However, Verizon has clarified the issue and confirmed that the new Samsung phones will have the framework for using Samsung Pay.

"Samsung Pay is supported on the Verizon S7 models," says Albert Aydin, a Verizon spokesperson. "It's accurate that it's not a preload but we have not blocked or prevented the app from working on the device. Once it's available for download, customers can add or remove it whenever they'd like."

Jeffrey Nelson, the VP of communications at Verizon's Consumer and Enterprise businesses, also confirmed in a tweet that Samsung Pay is in testing but will be available for the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge when the carrier launches them.

.@SamsungSupport confirms Samsung Pay is

undergoing testing & will be avail on schedule for our 3/11 launch of

Galaxy S7 & Galaxy S7 edge  Jeffrey Nelson (@JNels) March 9, 2016

Samsung Pay was initially launched in August 2015 in South Korea. The service made its way to select Samsung devices in the U.S. in September 2015. The mobile payment system is also expected to reach other countries such as the UK, Australia, Brazil and Singapore in 2016.

Customers who want to benefit from Samsung Pay will need to have a supported card from an accredited bank. The Samsung Pay app is available as a free download on the Google Play Store and the download file weighs only 3.2 MB.

Currently, customers who own a Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Active, Galaxy S6 edge, Galaxy S6 edge+ or Galaxy Note 5 can benefit from Samsung Pay. The device should be AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint or US Cellular.

The demand for mobile payment services has been increasingly growing. The International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts that mobile payments may reach as high as $4 trillion by 2020.

"As consumers' reliance on smartphones grows, as well as their level of trust that the devices are safe and secure, so will their use of mobile devices to complete transactions. The necessary pieces to spur consumer adoption of mobile payments are finally in place," says James Wester, the research director of worldwide payment strategies at IDC Financial Insights.

Verizon not supporting Samsung Pay on Galaxy S7 would have been a deterring factor for customers looking to purchase the device from the carrier. Fortunately for them, the latest confirmation from the carrier clears the air once and for all.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A startup dubbed Screening Room wants you to pay $50 to watch new movies at home at the same time they hit movie theaters.

A report from Variety says the company is backed by Sean Parker, a co-founder of Napster and former Facebook President. It says that Parker is partnering with music executive Prem Akkaraju in this in-home movie service.

Jeff Blake, the former chief of Sony Pictures worldwide marketing and distribution, is also said to be tapped by Parker as a consultant for the company.

Citing its sources, Variety says that Screening Room will reportedly charge consumers about $150 to gain access to a secure set-top box plus $50 for a 48-hour movie rental.

Parker and Akkaraju's firm is trying to get exhibitors on board by offering them a share on its revenue, which is $20 for every movie. To sweeten the deal, Screening Room is also going to give away two tickets to those who fork out $50 so they can watch the movie at a cinema of their choice. This will enable cinema owners to profit from concession sales later on. Moreover, the startup is said to share 20 percent of the proceeds to participating distributors.

Variety says that "more than a half dozen" sources who are industry insiders confirmed that the company's representatives had met up with major Hollywood studios and cinema owners to promote this venture.

During presentations, the company's officials have told executives of major studios that it is already close to a deal with AMC Theaters, which previously bought Carmike Cinemas for more than a billion dollars.

While the report says that some studios, such as Sony, Fox and Universal, appear to be interested in the plan, it also says that Disney isn't fascinated with it.

A report from Deadline also cites a studio distribution executive saying that if Screening Room turns out to be true, this would be the start of "the end" and that "half of theaters in this country would close."

"This news is so damaging, I can't tell you right now how unhappy I am," says another executive.

Photo : Jereme Rauckman | Flickr

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Facebook recently let the media know that Facebook Lite, its Android app for developing countries, reached 100 million monthly active users.

The figure comes almost nine months after the app rolled out, making it the fastest-growing version of Facebook.

The company released Facebook Lite back in June 2015 and it's come a long way since then. To adapt it to the conditions in developing countries, Facebook packed the software at under 1 MB in size and designed it to work well with slow Internet speeds. You can use it in over 50 languages, with the app reaching more than 150 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and some European areas.

According to Facebook, India leads the pack of emerging countries: the country has 142 million monthly active users, 69 million of which log in daily to their Facebook accounts. A whopping 94 percent of the daily logins take place via mobile devices.

Vijay Shankar, Facebook's Leader of Product for Emerging Markets, tells Gadgets 360 that Facebook Lite comes to meet the needs of about 1.6 billion people who do not have the luxury of connecting to 3G or 4G networks.

He exemplifies by saying that Indonesia, Philippines, Brazil, India and Mexico are the places where the app sees unrivaled popularity. Shankar notes that even those users who do have access to 3G networks face problems due to unstable connections and on-and-off signal.

He reminisces about the starting point in 2015 when his company realized how popular the minimalistic variant of the app was becoming.

"We wanted to stay true to the core values of the app, which is working on any phone or connection, and having good data usage," Shankar says.

He goes on to say that each feature of the mini FB was carefully pondered upon, so that the re-engineering would be reduced to a minimum.

Since its launch in June 2015, FB Lite saw increased features and support. The company added video-support and the possibility for users to upload multiple photos. Also, performance was in developers' focus all along, and they managed to cut down app loading time by as much as 25 percent.

In its announcement, Facebook notes that it checked three important criteria when creating Facebook Lite: keep the app under 1 MB; craft the app so it plays nicely with Gingerbread and works fine on devices from 2009; and design client-server interaction that utilizes minimal data, thus delivering optimal experience on slower 2G networks.

Shankar explains how his company managed to bundle all these demanding requests into such a tiny app.

"We call out the file size of the video. It sounds like a small thing, but this has really helped. We also make the resolution slightly lower, so it loads faster," he says.

Gautam Roy, Technical Lead on Facebook Lite at Facebook, also details other means that helped lighten the app.

"Instead of using HTTPS, Lite uses a custom message protocol over TLS (directly over TCP)," Roy says.

By using compressed message exchange and the TLS connection, the client uses the data in a more economical way. Using this particular design gives way to optimization that trims data usage and increases performance on 2G networks.

How is your experience with Facebook Lite? Let us know in the comment section below.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Google recently delivered good news to Android developers and fans, announcing that interested parties could get an early taste of Android N.

Not only that, but Google launched the Android Beta Program, which lets users test the latest mobile Android OS and send their feedback to the company. During the beta, users who enroll will get new builds via over-the-air (OTA) updates.

It was surprising to see Google announce the Android N developer preview, as the enterprise usually rolls out its latest mobile OS during the I/O developer conference. This year, the event will take place between May 18 and May 20 in Mountain View, California.

The search engine company took notes from the likes of Microsoft and Apple and introduced the Android Beta Program. The digital testing ground allows all Android loyalists who own eligible devices to join the quest of improving the latest mobile OS. As part of the program, users who enroll will be getting the preview of Android N in the form of a system update.

With no beta program available until now, Android fans previously had to go through a bit of a hassle to check out the operating system previews. Interested users had to download the image of the preview from the developer site and manually flash the image file on their device (tablet or smartphone).

Albeit it was not exactly rocket science, it certainly was not the average user's cup of tea.

Should you want to test out the Android N on your Nexus tablet or smartphone, simply head over to the official website, log in with your Google credentials and click "Enroll Device." This option will only be available if you have an eligible device.

Once you enroll your eligible smartphone or tablet, expect to see a notification about the Android N preview. For now, only the following devices are supported: Nexus 5X, Nexus 6, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9, Pixel C, General Mobile 4G Android One and Nexus Player.

"You may remain in the Android Beta Program beyond the N release to preview future Android N maintenance releases (MRs)," Google says.

Testers who remain in the program will get OTA updates of pre-release variants of the MR automatically. When the beta program ends, testers will start receiving regular public updates, just like everyone else.

The road map for the testing phase shows the following.

Preview 1, the initial variant (alpha build) of Android N is open for download, with the second update scheduled for April. In May, a third preview should become available. According to Google, June will see the outing of the final APIs and the official SDK for Android N.

The final testing images will be released in July, with an expected live version of Android N heading to global markets in the third quarter of 2016.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Facebook's Open Compute Project (OCP) was the social media company's initiative to open up its data center technology to the rest of the world. Heavyweight tech companies joined the fray, including Microsoft, Intel, Rackspace and Apple.

There were two holdouts among the largest Internet companies, namely Google and Amazon, which have kept their data center designs all to themselves. Google, however, has now left Amazon alone by joining the OCP today at the Open Compute Project Summit.

In the past, Google would voluntarily share some of the designs of its servers and data centers via white papers, but the company would still keep the majority of its inner workings to itself. The secrecy behind its data centers was one of the competitive advantages it had over companies just like Facebook.

Now as Google joins the OCP, the search company's first major contribution to the group will be its 48-volt rack power distribution architecture. These are more advanced than the current 12-volt designs used in most other data centers, as these are able to support higher-performance computing systems while being more energy-efficient and cost-effective.

Google has been using the 48-volt designs for years so the technology is more than ready for more widespread use outside of Google's data centers.

"We feel comfortable with the robustness of the design and its reliability," says John Zipfel, Technical Program Manager at Google.

Besides sharing hardware, Google's SVP in charge of infrastructure Urs Holzle said at the Open Compute Project Summit that the company also has other OCP projects in mind. These include the standardization of software, alternatives to SNMP (which is used to share operational data inside data centers) and redesigning disk drives used in cloud data centers to better work together.

By combining their knowledge, these companies ultimately help forward technology to the next level in various areas such as artificial intelligence. Making AI happen at a worldwide scale will require a level of collaboration great enough to make a massive neural network work.

It's not only Google giving to the group, however. Facebook is also sharing its designs for a GPU-based system that powers its networks, while Intel and Microsoft are also expected to submit some of their technologies during the OCP event.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Just because Honda and General Motors are competitors doesn't mean they can't rev up their engines together for the greater good of the auto industry.

Reuters is reporting that the Honda is in talks with GM over manufacturing and attaining parts for hydrogen fuel cell stacks, continuing the automakers' technology partnership.

That's right, continuing. Within the same report, the news agency revealed that Honda and GM have been working together on developing fuel cell technology since 2013.

This latest announcement, which was made by Honda CEO Takahiro Hachigo on Thursday, comes on the heels of the automaker launching its Clarity hydrogen fuel cell in Japan. So, continuing to collaborate with GM could pave the way for the technology to be cheaper in the future, perhaps enabling Honda to sell more of that model worldwide.

The collaboration should aid each company in that both Honda and GM will be able to come up with a more cost-effective way of manufacturing and attaining the parts necessary for hydrogren fuel cell stacks, perhaps even leading the auto industry's push for more eco-friendly vehicles. After all, despite being competitors, there's strength in numbers.

Honda working with GM seemingly allows each company to also have an edge over Toyota and Hyundai, which are each developing fuel cell vehicles as well.

In the past, Honda said that its first mass-produced fuel cell vehicle, the Clarity, will be powered by hydrogen, delivering a driving range of up to 466 miles, while touting zero emissions for the price of $67,000 starting in Japan, before being available in California for $60,000 by the end of this year, as reported by Bloomberg.

Seeing the diesel emissions crisis that Volkswagen continues to trudge through, it's especially significant that key automakers such as Honda, Toyota and GM are looking into ways of bringing costs of fuel cell technology down so that more of the public embraces and adopts it as soon as possible.

As fuel cell technology grows, though, automakers will need to figure out ways to sprout more hydrogen stations  but one step at a time.

Let's see what Honda and GM come back with first as a result of their continued collaboration.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Esteemed members of tech media  check your inbox.

On Thursday, Apple sent out invitations to select media to attend a March 21 event at its Cupertino, Calif., campus. Mashable and other websites believe this event will confirm the long-rumored reports about the technology company revealing its new iPhone 5SE four-inch smartphone. That's just the beginning of what could be many announcements of the day.

That being said, Apple doesn't give away much on the invitation, only using the phrase, "Let us loop you in," paving the way for everyone to speculate more  and some to salivate  over the next 11 days.

The four-inch 5SE smartphone is expected to tout an A8 chip along with an 8-megapixel camera, marked with its widely rumored $450 price tag, which would be considerably less than the company's bigger iPhone 6s and 6s Plus smartphones.

The event could also reveal an iPad Air 3, widely rumored as well, although some expect the 9.7-inch tablet to merely have the name "Pro" attached to it. In addition, the 21st could include some type of announcement about the Apple Watch, considering the event draws near to the wearable device's one-year anniversary. That could be something to the effect of more watch band styles and colors, if not something more significant.

Interestingly enough, Apple's media event will be held a day before a federal court hearing over the company's battle with the U.S. government about a locked iPhone.

For the next 11 days, though, the media will likely speculate over the "let us loop you in" tease on the invitation, with a Wall Street Journal blog already guessing that it could just simply be a play on Apple's Cupertino address of One Infinite Loop or a less-likely chance of it having something to do with a hyperloop.

With all the speculation swirling around Apple and its latest reveals, the company could easily hit us with a surprise that hasn't been rumored as well.

So, stay tuned.

For those who aren't members of the media, the entire March 21 event will be live-streamed on Apple's website, in addition to Apple TV.

If the new iPhone 5SE and iPad announcements pan out, what else would you like to see Apple include in its announcements?

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Gig workers such as Uber and Lyft drivers would gain the right to collectively bargain for benefits and wages under legislation introduced in California on Wednesday.The bill, authored by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, seeks to amend state labor law and allow 10 or more independent contractors, who work for hosting platforms such as Uber and Lyft, to join in union-like groups and negotiate workplace protections.Called the 1099 Self-Organizing Act, the legislation applies to businesses and workers who participate in whats sometimes called the  gig economy or the on-demand economy , where companies use online systems and mobile apps to match laborers with customers.Gig workers include Uber or Lyft drivers, DoorDash or Postmates food delivery drivers, Handy house cleaners and Amazon flex workers who deliver packages. They are technically independent contractors who set their own terms of employment  taking as many or as few jobs as they want  but they have no control over wages, which can be changed at a whim by the companies in charge.Gonzalez believes theres a gap in labor law that leaves these workers with few safeguards. Though her bill doesnt mandate terms, it would provide independent-contractor groups with some bargaining muscle to potentially secure better wages or insurance.Obviously our economy is changing, Gonzalez said. We think its time that our labor laws catch up with that reality.She estimates that there are 1 million to 2 million gig workers in California, or roughly 10 percent of the states workforce.Its really a free market approach to an innovative economy, Gonzalez said of her bill. We can start to regulate this activity. ... But as a former regulator, I just think its better to allow the workers and the employers to get together and negotiate something that works for both of them.Opponents, however, argue that the legislation, in requiring bargaining collectives, undercuts the definition of independent contractor. In granting more power to workers, the bill could also stifle the growth of on-demand companies, which would have to change the way they do business.Individuals are now able, like never before, to work for themselves and earn money how, when, and where they want, said Michael Beckerman, CEO and president of the Internet Association, which represents the interests of Uber, Lyft and other Internet-based companies. Independent contractors are prevalent in every industry, but this proposal unfairly targets the Internet sector in a way that could hurt the very people it purports to help.The 1099 Self-Organizing Act, however, applies to people not just working for tech companies. The legislation would allow a seemingly broad spectrum of independent contractors to unionize, and not in the kind of unions familiar to most Americans.Currently, U.S. federal labor law only grants the collective bargaining privilege to workers who are classified as employees. And it only compels employers to bargain with an employee group if a majority of the workers in a workplace want to be represented by that union.It is a dramatic departure from traditional labor law, said Seth Harris, a distinguished scholar at Cornell Universitys School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and the former deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor.(The 1099 Self-Organizing Act) would create what some people call a members-only or minority union bargaining relationship wherein the workers dont have to get a majority of all of the workers in the workplace to agree to join the union. Instead you just need to get 10 or more people working for the online gig economy company to say they want to bargain together with the employer. And thats enough. That does not exist in U.S. federal, private sector labor law.The California bill seeks to level the playing field between workers and employers  but it does not seek to classify gig workers as employees.Rather, the 1099 Self-Organizing Act creates a hybrid breed of worker who is granted some of the legal protections afforded to employees, said Dan Eaton, a business ethics lecturer at San Diego State University and an employment lawyer.This is an effort to shift the power here, he said. The measure is designed to make it easier for independent contractors in the gig economy to bargain for more in the way of pay, in the way of benefits and to give them greater leverage.Uber and Lyft driver Kevin McGraham, 39, of Mission Valley views the bill as a positive development for drivers. The San Diegan began working to establish a local drivers association after the ride-hail companies slashed their fares in January, which negatively impacted drivers per-ride earnings by around 30 percent.Thus far, McGraham says hes recruited more than 240 people to join a Facebook group.The highest thing on all of our priority lists is negotiating pay, he said. I think being able to collectively bargain with companies like Uber would help the independent contractors have job security and income security.Still, the 1099-bill-to-state-law process could take years.In order for Gonzalezs bill to become law, it will first go through various committee hearings  likely starting with the labor committee and then moving to the appropriations committee. Then, it would need simple-majority approval, first in the Assembly, and second in state Senate. Finally, the 1099 Self-Organizing would need to be signed into law by Californias governor.And, even if signed into law, the bill will likely face court challenges contesting its legality.Last week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed suit against the city of Seattle, which recently granted independent drivers for Uber, Lyft and taxis the right to unionize. The suit alleges that the Seattle ordinance is illegal and violates federal anti-trust and labor law.Whether labor changes are enacted sooner or later, Gonzalez believes some type of remedy for independent contractors is inevitable.We live in a society of rules. We have this Wild West economy right now that is being conducted with very few or no rules, she said. That's not fit for the state. Its not fit for the workers, and ultimately not fit for our country.
Goddamit, even Google engineers cant understand the new RankBrain AI system used in search

Seems like Googles RankBrain AI is a Skynet in making because even the engineers working on it are unable to understand it. According to Paul Haahr, one of the companys top engineers working on the Google Search team said that Googles new RankBrain AI engine is actually more complex than thought before, and even some of Googles own staff is clueless how it is exactly working.

The statement was made by Haahr at SMX West, a search marketing conference that was scheduled in San Jose, California between March 1 and 3.

Google understands how RankBrain works but not really what it is doing. @haahr #SMX  Jonah Stein (@Jonahstein) March 3, 2016

Haahr was responding to queries about Googles search products in general during the events keynote, when someone questioned him about the companys latest addition, the RankBrain AI.

The engineers answer, as Barry Schwartz, SERoundtable reporter, and many other conference attendants confirmed on Twitter, was that many of Googles own engineers dont quite fully understand how the new RankBrain algorithm works.

Google started working on RankBrain, an artificial intelligence system, during the past years under the supervision of top engineer John Giannandrea, an AI expert.

Google doesn't quite understand what RankBrain is doing says @haahr #smx  AJ Kohn (@ajkohn) March 3, 2016

While the system was announced in October 2015, Google said that RankBrain had in fact gone live months before, only they had not informed anybody about it.

As Google explained, RankBrain is the companys third most important indicator, among hundreds of others, when it comes to ranking the search results that appear on your screen.

RankBrain works based on an artificial intelligence system that Google periodically reorients, and is said to have a so-called gut feeling when it comes to selecting the correct answers to your search queries.

Actually, this gut feeling is what most engineers are unable to understand. RankBrain was specially created to sort out tricky questions, explained a Google engineer in a TV interview with Bloomberg. However, later it became so good that it started being more and more of a valuable tool in determining the final ranking of a querys search results.

RankBrains success was even more noticeable when Giannandrea was named the head of Google Search last month, after Amit Singhal, the previous head of Googles Search division for the past fifteen years, announced his retirement.

Considering the heights that Google search has reached today due to Singhals efforts, handing over the controls to an AI guy, confirms the direction and the trust Google is putting into RankBrain, a system that some of its engineers openly acknowledge to having no idea as to how its working.

Since AI is still in its developing stages of implementation, it is scary as it only covers unimportant Web services, and not countrywide operations like the ill-famed Skynet in the Terminator movies. As Stephen Hawking had pointed out a few years ago, if this small search helper is difficult to understand, then AI is truly the biggest threat to humanity.
FCC is planning a monthly subsidy to increase internet access to low-income American households

In order to make the internet more affordable for the low-income Americans, the 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.

If implemented, the scheme will see the FCCs Lifeline programme, which gives eligible consumers a US$9.25 monthly subsidy for fixed voice services, extended to include standalone fixed or mobile broadband services and bundles of fixed or mobile voice and data services.

The proposal announced by the FCC would involve reorganizing the Lifeline plan that is now available for telephone service. Under a proposed update to its existing Lifeline financial assistance program for phone services, the FCC would expand the use of monthly subsidies to include broadband services.

Lifeline was established in 1985 to help low-income Americans afford access to vital communications, and the program has allowed tens of millions of Americans to afford basic phone service, Wheeler and Clyburn wrote in a blog post this week. But at a time when our economy and lives are increasingly moving online and millions of Americans remain offline, it doesnt make sense for Lifeline to remain focused only on 20th century voice service.

Lifeline was updated in 2005 to include support for mobile phones. However, the new plan helps close the broadband affordability gap, Wheeler said in a blog post with Clyburn.

The biggest reason these Americans dont sign up for broadband is cost. Only half of the nations households in the lowest income tier subscribe to broadband, Wheeler and Clyburn wrote.

Of the low-income Americans who do subscribe to online services, staying connected isnt easy either. Almost half (48 percent) of low-income consumers for whom a smartphone is the way to access to the Internet have had to cancel or shut off their service at some point for reasons of financial hardship.

Wheeler and Clyburn say real people are hiding in these statistics: [U]nemployed 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 cant look up health information when they get sick.

Under the proposal, the FCC will apply minimum service standards to make sure that subsidised broadband services meet modern needs.

The proposed standards are 10 Mbps downlink and 1 Mbps uplink speeds, and a minimum allowance of 150 GB per month for fixed broadband, and 500 MB per month of 3G data, increasing to 2 GB per month by 2018 for mobile broadband. From 1 December this year, subsidised mobile services must also include unlimited voice minutes.

Internet access has become a pre-requisite 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, write Wheeler and Clyburn. We can do better. We must do better.

The FCC said it plans to set up a National Eligibility Verifier, a neutral third party tasked with stopping ineligible consumers receiving subsidies and reducing the administrative burden on telcos.

The extended Lifeline programme will be subject to a review in mid-2019.
Theres no question that wireless networks are on the verge of obsolescence if they dont innovate. For one, the Internet of Things (IoT) is quickly emerging as a significant agent of transformation as it blends the physical and digital worlds. In the latest Ericsson Mobility Report, 28 billion connected devices are forecasted by the year 2021, more than half of which will be machine to machine (M2M) and IoT connections. And that, along with consumer video traffic and bandwidth-hungry rich media apps, is driving wireless operators to look to LTE advancements and 5G to help them prepare for future network demands.

The advent of next-gen LTE standards as well as 5G will mark a sea change in how wireless networks are architected. The first commercially available network of interest will be the next iteration of LTE, which should see rollouts starting late next year. Full advanced LTE implementations are expected by 2022 in most markets, with 5G starting to really ramp up about then. Then, a commercial RAN overlay with a new, standard 5G interface will happen sometime in the mid-2020s and beyond.

Regardless, the 5G goal is to provide 1,000 times the current available capacity, with links capable of offering a fiber-like 1Gbps throughput. That will require 10 times the cell sites that exist today, and 10 times the spectrum, making for a big expansion of operators spectral holdings in both licensed and unlicensed frequencies (and a great deal of future regulatory debate). Getting there will also take at least a 10X improvement in spectral efficiency thanks to better radio interfaces and core networks.

Suffice it to say that achieving the 5G vision will require a significant re-architecting and densification of the network as we know it today. And unlike the majority of previous wireless technology standards, once the final specifications are released, 5G wont have merely a single interface. It will encompass multiple networks, including LTE, small cells, and Wi-Fi and other unlicensed spectrum technologies.

The future architecture is multi-access, multi-frequency, unlicensed and licensed, and capable of handling all of those characteristics at the same time, explained Andy Castonguay, an analyst with Machina Research. This likely means that the actual standards process will be laid out in multiple stages over multiple years.

Standards Beginning to Coalesce

Technical standards for 5G began to coalesce in 2015, with the goal of making 5G-based services commercially available by the end of this decade. But because the architecture design will be multi-access, denser and more complex, global standards bodies are just beginning to put parameters around its definition.

For now, the NGMN Alliance defines the following requirements for 5G networks:

Data rates of several tens of megabits per second should be supported for tens of thousands of users

1Gbps to be offered simultaneously to many workers on the same office floor

Several hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections to be supported for massive sensor deploymentsa 100X increase in the number of devices connected

Capacity should increase by a factor of 100X over todays networks

Spectral efficiency should be significantly enhanced compared to 4G

Coverage should be improved

Signaling efficiency should be enhanced

Latency should be reduced significantly compared to LTE, by a factor of 5X to 10X

Network density should increase by a factor of 10X

Operators of course are interested in leveraging their investments as long as possible before eventually transitioning to a 5G air interface. In a nod to that evolution-not-revolution approach, the next generation of LTE standards, beginning with release 13, are considered part of the 5G family. Critically, release 13 modules are expected to be finalized sometime this year.

After that, according to the 3GPP timeline, the first phase of the 5G standards process should be completed in the second half of 2018, with a second phase following by December of 2019, just in time for the global ITU evaluation process known as IMT-2020. What those phases will consist of is still a work in progress.

Innovating for Use Cases

With so many new devices and systems being connected to the Internet, wireless operators have plenty of new opportunities lurking amidst the challenges. And its likely that defining the industry requirements for the next generation of mobile networks will revolve around supporting specific operator business models and use cases.

For instance, IoT and low-latency machine-to-machine (M2M) and critical communications will be a big part of the future traffic mix.

The use cases will drive investment, explained Nokia Networks Edwin Sutedjo, head of service innovation, in an interview. There are many different technologies existing in short rage and long range environments, and its a segmented opportunity. Certain verticals have simple IT requirements that can be served with best-efforts connectivity to a device. Others have requirements that are more stringent.

There are also other, more specific requirements. In the IoT world, some of the sensors are not attached to electric grids, so they have specific requirements for battery life, said Sutedjo. Not all wireless approaches are suitable to support battery life. 3GGP LTEM aims to reduce the energy consumptionbut the connectivity component should be very low cost.

Another challenge and opportunity for operators is to rethink their business model to go beyond just offering connectivity.

There are opportunities for device management, and to monetize the data itself by going up the ladder to offer some form of analytics, said Sutedjo. The more you go up the service stack, the requirement to specialize in that vertical and use case increases.

Another space where operators play a vital role is in critical and low-latency communications.

The first showcase of this took place on German highways, said Stefan Kindt, head of IoT marketing at Nokia Networks. DT built an extended LTE network to deliver apps right from the base station to alert drivers to incidents on the highway. Connected cars get an alert of whats happening, allowing them to avoid accidents and emergency braking, and to know when passing lanes were coming up.

Most carriers see immediate opportunities in supporting enhanced mobile broadband services like these for consumers and businesses. "New experiences like virtual reality, self-driving cars, robotics, smart cities and more are about to test networks like never before," explained John Donovan, AT&T's chief strategy officer. "5G will help make them a reality."

And as with IoT, theres also a value-added, beyond-connectivity piece that better, faster networks can enable on the consumer side. According to a Vindicia study, 90% of U.S. consumers are interested in upgrading from a basic subscription to a package with added privileges such as discounts, exclusive offers and access to events or activities with other subscribers. Of those, more than half are either extremely interested or very interested in these types of privileges. In addition, 76% of consumers are willing to pay $3.99 extra each month for a subscription that gives them special access to premium content or members-only benefits, with that percentage increasing to 84% if the price is set at $1.99 extra.

"Vindicia's subscription survey offers two compelling truths," said Gene Hoffman, CEO of Vindicia. First, as long as service providers deliver sustained and obvious value for money, customers will stick around. Second, demand for value-added benefits is so high that service providers can consider it a reliable avenue for significant business expansion. Our survey found that despite the notion that consumers dont want to add significant financial obligations to their lives, they are very willing to pay for the services they value.

And when it comes to ranking the number one reason for subscribing to digital services to begin with, convenience was the top of the list, followed by the value of the service, cost savings, selection and, finally, personalization.

Operators Plan Pre-Standard 5G Deployment

Faced with a rapidly developing set of fresh market opportunities, operators are already planning pre-standard deployments of advanced technologies.

Verizon was a first mover, and has talked about being first-to-market with 5G, with builds starting in 2017. Verizon's tests have shown that the technology will have 50 times the capacity of its current 4G network and be able to "handle exponentially more Internet-connected devices," at speeds around 40 times faster than LTE. Initial lab tests will take place in the Boston and San Francisco areas.

AT&T is beginning testing 5G this year, and said that it would start using some 5G components commercially by the end of 2016. Partnering with Ericsson and Intel, AT&T will begin testing in its labs in the first half of 2016, before moving on to field testing the next generation mobile networks in Austin, Texas in the second half.

Asia also has its share of movement: NTT DoCoMo, Japans largest wireless carrier, has been conducting its first real-world tests of its own next-gen network technology, in partnership with Nokia Networks, as the company prepares to launch what it, too, is calling 5G, by 2020. And, Korea Telecom has pledged that its 5G network will be available for its consumers in 2018, before it hosts the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. This will be a wireless network that can host up to 250,000 devices simultaneously at 10Gbps speeds. Also, SK Telecom has demonstrated a 5G platform built in collaboration with Nokia and Intel that offers 20Gbpswhich is 200 times faster and with 1,000 times more data capacity than the current 4G LTE network.

Edited by Stefania Viscusi
We've noticed you're adblocking.

We rely on advertising to help fund our award-winning journalism.

We urge you to turn off your ad blocker for The Telegraph website so that you can continue to access our quality content in the future.

Thank you for your support.
NUEVA YORK  Un hombre fue apunalado mortalmente este miercoles en Washington Heights.

La victima es un hombre de 57 anos que fue encontrado en el interior de su apartamento con varias punaladas en el torso.

Todo ocurrio alrededor de las 10 p.m. en una de las viviendas de del edificio numero 213 de la avenida Bennet en Manhattan.

En la residencia, la policia recupero dos cuchillos y puso bajo arresto a un joven de 25 anos que, segun las autoridades, es la persona que compartia el apartamento con la victima.

La investigacion continua.
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
The Ones Below is a British thriller with a very European aesthetic. Producer Nikki Parrott tells Tim Dams about the making of the film

Billed as a dark, modern fairy tale, The Ones Below sees the lives of two couples become fatally intertwined. Both couples, who live in flats in the same London building, are expecting their first child. The pregnancies initially bring the couples together, but everything changes after a tragic accident throws the couples into a nightmare and a reign of psychological terror begins.



The Ones Below is the directorial film debut of David Farr, a Royal Shakespeare Company director and screenwriter of TV dramas The Night Manager and Spooks, and feature hit Hanna.

The project dates back to 2012, when Farr began to develop his first feature for BBC Films and Cuba Pictures, the production arm of his agency Curtis Brown. About that time, Farr approached Tigerlily producer Nikki Parrott, a long-term collaborator, to produce his short film Cool Box.

This short, which is similar in terms of characters and story, became a test run for the feature, helping to reassure backers that Farr could make the transition to film director. Its about a woman who ended up putting her child in the fridge. Theres a theme running through this jokes Parrott.

Farr then sent Parrott his screenplay for The Ones Below. From the short, she says she knew Farr could direct for the screen and had a strong vision. But once she picked up the screenplay, Parrott says she couldnt put is down. It was a real page turner.

Funding, says Parrott, was relatively easy to secure because of the strength of the script, as well as strong relationships with the BBC (which had recently produced Cubas London Road) and the BFI, which had backed another Tigerlilly production Remainder. Protagonist boarded as the sales company, while Icon Films pre-bought UK rights.

Additionally, financiers Head Gear Film cash flowed the tax credit. In total, the budget was 2.2m. We came in on schedule and under budget, notes Parrott, who says she was always aware of the need to save extra money for post, just in case.

Farr delivered his script in September 2013, and the film was shot for seven weeks the following September. It was a contained shoot, with six weeks spent on location at a large house in Highbury. Production designer Francesca Di Mottola transformed the house to look like two flats, so the audience could believe that one couple lived above, the other below.

The look of the two flats was all-important, dictated by the contrast between the two different couples. The flat below was designed to look nouveau riche, with strong yellows and blues  slightly inspired by Roman Polanskis Rosemarys Baby. Upstairs was more cultural and shambolic with a very Farrow and Ball look.

In terms of overall look, the reference point was European film rather than British film, adds Parrott, particularly for DoP Ed Rutherford, who lit and shot The Ones Below using an Arri Alexa. Meanwhile, Di Mottola brought a European style to the film. Because she is from Italy, she saw things in a different light and it wasnt jaded. That is what gives it such a different feel to some other British films.

Farrs theatre background is also key in the look. Parrott describes how Farr frames shots as if they were on a stage, paying attention to where characters and objects are placed and the spaces between them.

There are a lot of tracking shots but the simpler shots were often the best ones, notes Parrott of the cinematography. Farr concurs: Weve used handheld photography in moments where it is really appropriate, where there are moments of terrific anxiety and a desire to get somewhere. Then there are a lot of other scenes that are quite withheld and quite restrained, where the camera is quite wide and we let the space do more of the work. Its a mixture in that senseOften in film when you see a big space and then something really tight, it helps create that feeling of anxiety.

Editor Chris Wyatt, meanwhile, began assembling the film during the shoot, with Farr popping over several times a week to look at scenes. It was great  Chris could tell us what we needed more of, and David could see how it was going and how the characters were developing. Parrott calls Wyatt one of the most amazing editors I have ever worked with. Evidently, he helped Farr squeeze and squeeze and squeeze the film like a cloth until it was wrung like a tight thriller (the run time is an economic 92 mins). Whole scenes were pulled out of the film, including one car chase which served to introduce the audience to the psycho tendencies of the David Morrissey character.

A few test screenings helped inform the tighter final edit too. Says Parrott: We realised that we didnt have to tell everyone all the time what is happening  they like to work it out for themselves. Post was completed at Molinare (they were great and really supportive, says Parrott), with the final edit delivered in May 2015. Since then, it has played at the Toronto, London and Berlin film festivals ahead of its UK release this month.

Looking back, Parrott says the toughest time for her as a producer was at the very beginning, in pre-production. Its then that the film looks all set to happen, but could still fall apart. The pressure of that is really scary. You have got people working to you  and you have to keep the whole thing going. As a producer, you have to believe  if you dont, no one else will believe for you.

The Ones Below is released on March 11

Details

Cast Clemence Poesy, Stephen Campbell Moore, David Morrissey, Laura Birn

Production companies Cuba Pictures in assoc with Tigerlily Films

Writer director David Farr

Producer Nikki Parrott

Exec producers Dixie Linder, Nick Marston, Ben Hall, Christine Langan, Joe Oppenheimer, Lizzie Francke and Nigel Williams

Line producer Yvonne Isimeme Ibazebo

DoP Ed Rutherford

Editor Chris Wyatt

Production design Francesca Di Mottola

Post production picture and vfx Molinare

Camera Arri Alexa

Share this story
Hindupur women Burnt Balayya's Effigy

TDP legislator from Hindupur and star hero Nandamuri Balakrishna has expressed regrets over his alleged "objectionable" remarks on women at a movie function. Balakrishna said he treated every woman as a family member.Even after expressing apologies Balayya is under fire from various political parties and women organisations for his alleged objectionable remarks on women.



Now he is facing wrath from women of his own constituenct. Some women in Hindupur took to streets and burnt an effigy of Balayya at the Ambedkar Centre. They protested against the MLA shouting anti slogans and then burnt his effigy. The rally was led by YSRCP leaders.



President of YSRCP's urban woman division Nagamani slammed Balayya statements.She commented that Balakrishna spoke this sort of statements in real life while delivering huge speeches in movies in women's honour.









News Posted: 10 March, 2016








Governor's address reflects KCR's vision: TRS

Hyderabad, March 10 (INN): The Telangana Rashtra Samithi legislators hailed the address delivered by Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan to the joint session of Telangana Assembly and Council on Thursday.



Speaking to media persons at Assembly Media Point, TRS MLCs Karne Prabhakar and MS Prabhakar and MLA Rasmai Balakrishna said that the Governor's address reflects the vision of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao for the development of Telangana State. They said KCR has resolving a long-pending dispute over sharing of Godavari River water. They said that the move would help in irrigating about one lakh crore acres of land. They said that the government has also spelled out its comprehensive plans to provide drinking water to all households and 2BHK housing to all needy persons.



Prabhakar said that KCR has a vision for development of Hyderabad and he would turn the city into a global destination. He said that the development of Hyderabad would boost investments and tourism.









News Posted: 10 March, 2016








Telangana Govt to induct 145 new 108 vehicles

Hyderabad, March 10 (INN): The Telangana Government would induct 145 new 108 Emergency ambulances.



Panchayat Raj Minister K. Tarakarama Rao and Health Minister C. Lakshma Reddy would induct the new vehicles at a ceremony to be held on March 14. The State Government had sanctioned funds for the purchase of 290 ambulances. In the first phase, 145 vehicles have been purchased and equipped with modernised medical and life support equipment.



Presently, 312 old vehicles are being used for 108 Emergency services. The addition of 145 new vehicles would reduce the response time by almost 50%. As against the response time of nearly 15-20 minutes to reach the spot, the addition of new fleet would reduce the time to 9-10 minutes.









News Posted: 10 March, 2016








Heads up to prevent injury from falls Morning walks in my neighborhood are one of the most enjoyable parts of my day. I love the coolness of daybreak and the special sightings of the stag and two does that frequent our open space. I also enjoy my walk because each day at...

Signs that point to the best time for retirement Ive been thinking a lot about retirement lately. One of our amazing staff members, who has been with Senior Concerns for the last 13 years, retired last month. It just doesnt seem real. I always thought of Dana as young. Certainly not the person to...

Rethinking the mandatory retirement age How old is too old for working at a job? Last week a news story hit my inbox and it really got me to thinking about age and retirement. The article noted that Target Corp. abandoned its mandatory retirement age of 65 for its CEO,...

Tips to promoting a healthy nights sleep for children Question: Help, please. My daughter is almost 2 years old and has been an easy child to put into her own bed. Yet in the past few weeks she is purposefully stretching out the bedtime routine longer and longer. She wants more: more stories, more...
A tearful Billy Brownless has said rumours that Garry Lyon had an affair with his 20-year-old daughter were hurtful and untrue.

The television host and former Geelong footballer appeared alongside host James Brayshaw and Sam Newman at the start of Channel Nine's The Footy Show on Thursday night to discuss Lyon's affair with Brownless' ex-wife Nicky.

The three sat on chairs in front of the desk, rather than behind it, and Newman hugged Brownless before the start of the interview.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's decision on Thursday will see Coles buy supermarkets in the Canberra Centre, Kaleen and Wanniassa, as well as at Five Dock and Sutherland in Sydney.

Supabarn's store at the Canberra Centre is one of five which will be acquired by Coles. Credit:Graham Tidy

Mr Barr said Australia's competition watchdog had hedged its bets in allowing Coles to buy up five Supabarn supermarkets in the ACT and Sydney, lower than the original plan for nine stores.

The ACT government can do little to break the Coles and Woolworths supermarket duopoly despite working to attract big overseas retailers to Canberra, Chief Minister Andrew Barr said on Thursday.

The supermarket giant plans to invest $22 million in upgrading the five Canberra stores and will offer to keep on existing employees. The stores being sold will be rebranded as Coles outlets.

The Canberra-based Koundouris Group, which owns Supabarn, says it will "reposition and refresh" its six remaining supermarkets in Casey, Crace and Kingston in the ACT and Sans Souci, Gymea and Annandale. They will continue under the Supabarn brand.

"There are obviously some personal and localised issues that are behind the decisions of the Supabarn group to want to sell to Coles," Mr Barr said.

"The extent that the Canberra market place is dominated more by Woolworths, selling to Coles is a better outcome than selling to Woolworths. It does reinforce the point that in this country, by and large, we have a supermarket duopoly."

He said the government supported the arrival of international players including Aldi and Costco into the ACT but releasing land for new stores was no guarantee successful outlets wouldn't be acquired in the competitive $88 billion grocery market. A "vibrant independent network" of smaller stores remained in Canberra and shoppers could choose IGA stores or markets, Mr Barr said.
Some Australians wrongly believe asylum seekers and refugees in this country are given a $10,000 lump sum, Nike shoes and preferential treatment for public housing, according to research that also found religious prejudice against Muslims is largely driving negative attitudes towards the newcomers.

The University of Melbourne study also revealed many people concerned about the "Islamisation" of Australia were "unshakably convinced" Muslims were universally overpowering Christian traditions, such as Christmas cards and the singing of carols in schools, despite having no such direct or second-hand experiences.

Nike shoes are given to asylum seekers, along with $10,000 in cash - according to some. Credit:Pablo Cuadra

The qualitative research involved 10 focus group discussions in metropolitan, regional and remote locations in NSW, Victoria and Queensland between August 24 and September 3 last year.
Armed with rainbow-coloured chalk and umbrellas, hundreds of people rallied behind the Safe Schools Coalition in Melbourne's CBD on Thursday evening.

The crowd gathered at the State Library despite the drizzly weather in a show of support for the program, which aims to promote acceptance of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students.

In recent weeks, the program has been criticised by conservative politicians and the Australian Christian Lobby, who have argued the Safe Schools teaching manual contains inappropriate material. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull subsequently ordered an independent review of the program last month.
Playhouse Creatures is about the first women on the English stage. Credit:Kelly McGannon

And what the king wanted, he got  and audiences flocked to see women on stage. Acting was not yet quite a respectable means of employment for a woman but Best says the fact they were finally permitted to become employed empowered them to some extent, even if men would pay to see them getting dressed.

"The play has five women in it  it's very much an ensemble piece," Best says. Nell Gwynn (played by Amy Dunham) was popular both with the people and the king (she became one of his mistresses and bore him two sons). Mrs Betterton (Vickery) was, Best says, "one of the greatest actresses of the Restoration; there was no scandal associated with her") and Mrs Farley (Jenna Roberts) was the daughter of a preacher who died of the plague. Mrs Marshall (Emma Wood) is a more mysterious historical figure and the last actress depicted in the show; the other character, Doll Common (Bradley), is a backstage worker who sweeps and dresses and does other jobs.

"She's part of the theatre  before that it was a bear pit and her father was the bearkeeper."

Playhouse Creatures is about these women both on and off the stage and their struggle to establish themselves and to be taken seriously in a male-dominated world  in some ways, Best says, little has changed. But, she says, it's a "funny, sad, beautiful play" and not one that's only accessible to women.
Lyndall Thorn, of Chifley, is prepared to travel to shop at Supabarn. Credit:Jay Cronan Mrs Black said she would change her schedules and shop at other Supabarn stores. "I'm actually pretty devastated," she said. "The ACCC got it wrong. Robert Aylen, of Wanniassa, refuses to shop at Coles or Woolworths. Credit:Jay Cronan "It's the quality of the fruit and veg here and the quality's just going to deteriorate, that's our biggest concern."

Lyndall Thorn, of Chifley, said she always shopped at Supabarn in Wanniassa and when her family had previously lived in Forde, shopped at the Supabarn in Kaleen. Bob Cox, of Holder, will shop at other Supabarn stores in Canberra after the Wanniassa store is sold to Coles. Credit:Jay Cronan "I deliberately come to Supabarn because I don't want to go to Coles or Woolies," she said. "I just like that it's not Coles or Woolies. They have a nice variety. The local Pialligo bacon and stuff like that." News Emma Paton, with her six-week-old son Wyatt, says one of the things she likes about Supabarn is that it doesn't have self-serve counters so preserves more jobs. Credit:Jay Cronan

Ms Thorn said she "had no idea" where she would shop once Coles moved in. Robert Aylen of Wanniassa said "he didn't want to go to Woolworths, we're not happy with them, and we're equally unhappy about Coles". "Supabarn is independent and we can get things here that we can't get at the other places," he said. Emma Paton, of Wanniassa, said was upset there would be fewer options for shoppers. "I think it's a huge disappointment for local businesses," she said.

"They [Coles and Woolworths] have the monopoly as it is, especially in the bigger states and territories, and it's just a bit disappointing it's happening here. "There's a lot more variety in Supabarn. I get a little bit frustrated with Woolworths especially, with their Select brand. You often don't have an option but to buy the Select brand. I do like they have different things here you can't get in the mainstream stores." Mrs Paton said she also liked the fact Supabarn did not have self-serve counters which provided for more jobs. Robyn Soxsmith, of Kambah, said she, too, liked the variety at Supabarn. "Particularly as a vegan, I find they have a good supply of things that I need, so I'm very disappointed," she said.

David Hagan, of Wanniassa, said a Coles-Woolworths duopoly seemed inevitable. "I think it's terrible businesses of this size are being squeezed out by larger concerns," he said. "Where's the next independent corner store? Not close by." Mr Hagan said he was concerned for the future of Supabarn staff. "I think most of the people here do a good job so I would hope that Coles take them on and continue their entitlements as they are," he said.

Bob Cox, of Holder, said he would not be shopping at Coles. "I'll go to one of the other stores that hasn't been taken over. There's too many monopolies," he said "Paul", of Wanniassa, said he shopped at Supabarn daily. "It's always been here for me, Supabarn. It's familiar," he said. "There are excellent staff here, very helpful."
Lifeline is calling for the federal government to double funding to suicide prevention, as almost eight people take their lives every day in Australia.

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.

Lifeline wants more funding for suicide prevention.

The shocking data, published on Tuesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, has prompted the national phone crisis service to launch an online petition to push the case for more money.

Lifeline Australia CEO Pete Shmigel says the government should acknowledge the "growing national suicide emergency".
A woman who was convicted of manslaughter in the ACT has been jailed for breaching her parole conditions a decade ago after police arrested her in Canberra on Thursday, a court has heard.

Kylie Ann Scott, 36, pleaded guilty to manslaughter over the death of her flatmate Joanne Elizabeth Corkhill during an violent argument between the pair in 2000.

court

She was arrested when police arrived at a property she was staying at in Latham on Thursday morning.

Documents tendered in court showed Scott was sentenced in the ACT Supreme Court to six years behind bars with a non-parole period of three years, meaning she was eligible for release in June 2003.
A revolution is threatening behind the scenes in coking coal, pointing to heightened uncertainty in one of the most conservative of markets.

The move towards spot pricing that has been embraced in iron ore, and increasingly dominates thermal coal trade, has been until now largely sidestepped in coking coal, where buyers demand at least medium-term visibility on prices for different grades of product that are closely matched with steel mills.

Pricing in coking coal is becoming more transparent than ever. Credit:Andrey Rudakov

But that could be about to change, at least in a scenario put forward by industry consultancy IHS.

Anglo American's surprise decision in February to exit its high-quality Moranbah North and Grosvenor mines in Queensland, a deal regarded as fetching potentially $US2 billion ($2.68 billion) or more, could hasten the end of the system, clients at an IHS seminar heard this week in Sydney.
No matter what you think of Credlin personally  her style or her substance  our willingness to embrace such a narrative is a bleak reminder that a woman's value has less to do with what's between her ears than what's between her legs. Why else  we're meant to understand  would Abbott have listened so assiduously to Credlin's advice if he wasn't bonking her?

Credlin is apparently furious: no surprises there, indeed goading her may have been not entirely unintended . But the basic premise at the heart of these new disclosures, sourced from senior Liberal MPs and burnished by Savva  that a woman could only exert such influence if she was screwing the boss  is pretty insulting to women everywhere.

Not because of fresh anecdotes of administrative incompetence, mind you, or a forensic analysis of Abbott's slavish reliance on a small coterie of advisers at the expense of collegial relations. What's got everyone hyperventilating is the vague but palpable suggestion that the former prime minister was having an affair with his chief of staff, Peta Credlin. Sex sells, as they say.

The Road to Ruin, political journalist Niki Savva's new book on the unravelling of Tony Abbott's leadership, is apparently running out of the stores. Bookshops are having trouble keeping up with demand .

Alistair Campbell being interviewed on Britain's Channel 4 News over a dispute between the BBC and then prime minister Tony Blair over the government's use of intelligence information as it made the case for war in Iraq.

It's not that the implosion of Abbott's leadership isn't richly deserving of scrutiny or that the former prime minister's peculiar decision-making style, exacerbated by the pressures of modern governance, doesn't have broader lessons for others. What's deeply troubling, though, is how much of the analysis around Abbott and Credlin is rooted  pardon the pun  in the belief that the only way a woman can wield power in a male-dominated world is not through her character, or intellect, or even ruthless ambition, but through her feminine wiles.

The commentary around the former prime minister and his chief of staff is awash with sexual innuendo: his relationship with her was "odd", it was "weird", "weirder than weird", she had a "hold" over him, it was "all-consuming". But in the high-stakes fishbowl of federal politics, was it really so unusual? Certainly if you look at the well documented relationship between former British prime minister Tony Blair and his chief of staff Alastair Campbell  who were described as "living out of each other's pockets"  Credlin's relationship with Abbott seemed par for the course.

Once you get past the unsubstantiated allegations of pasta twirling and bum slapping to look at the facts  such as they are  it's all pretty thin. Aside from having a bit of a temper and a proclivity for the F-bomb, Credlin's key transgressions  apparently also evidence of an improper relationship  were that she sometimes applied Abbott's make-up, made it her business to know everything that was going on, and sidelined his wife.

There's no doubt the relationship had a degree of intimacy, but must we really fall back on that tired old cliche of a clandestine affair? Campbell's memoirs, for comparison, detail numerous meetings with Blair in various stages of undress, stark naked, and even in the bath, as well as a dust-up with another member of Blair's staff over a necktie. Campbell also made no secret of the fact that he thought Cherie Blair was a liability and Cherie, meanwhile, complained about their connubial relationship, observing that Blair "only came alive around Alastair".
As an openly gay politician, Andrew Barr might be said to have a better understanding of homophobic bullying in the school yard than most. His passionate defence of the Safe Schools program in the Legislative Assembly this week was unsurprising, therefore, even if his description of the program's opponents (Neanderthal conservatives) raised eyebrows in some quarters.

What began as an ostensibly apolitical anti-bullying program designed to promote acceptance and understanding of children dealing with questions of sexuality and gender has become a political hot potato, as the Chief Minister's comments attest. Last month, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull ordered a review of the partly Commonwealth-funded program, apparently after concerns were raised in the Coalition party room that it was the equivalent of "social engineering", and that it risked prematurely sexualising children.

An initiative of Safe Schools Coalition Australia (which calls itself a "national coalition of organisations and schools working together to create safe and inclusive school environments for same-sex attracted, intersex and gender-diverse students, staff and families"), the program has been embraced by about 500 schools across the country. Most are in Victoria, where the Andrews Labor government has said it will make the program mandatory in all schools except independent ones by 2018. Around a quarter of ACT public schools, and the Canberra Girls Grammar school, have signed up as well.

In the culture wars which have become an enduring aspect of Australia's political landscape, social conservatives and social progressives need few incentive to rush to arms. And in a case such as this, when accusations of cultural Marxism are being hurled (the Safe Schools architect, La Trobe University academic Roz Ward, has described the Commonwealth marriage act as "state-sponsored homophobia") and insults traded over who is really "standing up for kids", responses are likely to become heated.
Dorothy Richards remained at what she considered the centre of the universe  the dockside suburb of Williamstown  for most of her 99 years and eight months. She was born in an era of lamplighters in the street and gas lamps at home. She went on to help found the state branch of the Society of Women Writers and to produce an impressive collection of stories, books, and other writing.

Dorothy's grandfather, Henry Hick, twice mayor of the port suburb, arrived as a boy in the gold rush; her lawyer father was a school friend of noted jurist Sir John Latham; and at her birth in 1916 she narrowly escaped being named after the British Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener.

Her Cornish great-grandfather brought his family, including Henry, to Port Phillip to seek gold. With the drying-up of mining at Clunes, the family next decided on Williamstown, which had been the first alighting place in the colony for many settlers.

Dorothy's father, Ernest, was builder Henry's second of 12 children. Her mother was a Williamstown girl Lily Strafford, a milliner. She and Ernest had caught each other's eye while attending services and choir practice at the Electra Street Methodist church.

Dorothy was the fourth of five girls. Her mother's parents were from Norfolk and Yorkshire. On June 7, 1916, two years after the start of the Great War, her patriotic father was in court in Melbourne when the magistrate announced momentous news - Lord Kitchener had been killed when a mine sank a vessel carrying him on a mission to Russia.

Ernest sped home on the train to North Williamstown, to learn that Lily had given birth to a fourth daughter. He declared that the girl would be called Kitchener. Uncharacteristically, the usually placid Lily firmly rejected the idea. After two weeks of stand-off, Lily won and the child was named: Dorothy.
In giving them a deal, Martin was going against the conventional wisdom of the early pop business. Up to that point, no group had enjoyed the success of individual singers such as Elvis Presley and Tommy Steele (whom Martin had turned down). Indeed, when Epstein came to him, Martin was looking for a rival to Cliff Richard.

While the importance of Martin's aural contribution to the records made by the group has always been acknowledged  he was regularly hailed as "the Fifth Beatle"  it has not always been appreciated how vital he was to their early career. It was to Martin, then head of Parlophone Records, a subsidiary of EMI, that Brian Epstein turned in 1962 when every other label had rejected the band, and it was Martin who signed The Beatles after meeting them in June of that year.

Sir George Martin will forever be associated with the music of The Beatles which he helped to create; his work with them redefined both the expectations of pop and the very role of the producer.

In the control room: Producer George Martin, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

Having ventured north to Liverpool to see The Beatles play at the Cavern Club, Martin understood, however, that it was their collective energy that might make them stars. He was also instrumental in persuading the band to replace their drummer, Pete Best, with one who would be steadier for recording purposes.

Two other decisions of Martin's were to prove of crucial significance. First, having realised that EMI would not give enough of a push to four unknowns from the provinces, he persuaded his friend Dick James to set up a publishing company, Northern Songs, to promote their music; by turning down shares in the business (feeling, as the employee of a rival, that he could not accept them) he missed out on millions.

Secondly, against his better judgment, he allowed the group to record another of their own tunes for release as their second single after the first, Love Me Do, had only just reached the Top 20. Until then, very few musicians wrote their own songs, and Martin was not yet convinced of the quality of John Lennon and Paul McCartney's material. He relented in the case of Please Please Me, and in January 1963 it became the first of 12 straight No 1s for the group, and the first of 30 in all for Martin.

Before Martin, music producers were much like theatrical producers, in charge of hiring and publicising the artists and of supervising the recording of their performances; but with technology still primitive, unionisation at its most formidable and musicianship deferred to, they rarely questioned the sound being made or how the engineers were capturing it.
The Turnbull government should know better than to trot out its Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton, to talk about economic issues, especially if it wants to discuss policy in a mature and sensible manner. For it was Mr Dutton who blithely declared in a radio interview this week that "the economy will come to a shuddering halt" and "the stock market will crash" if the Labor Party's policy on negative gearing ever came to fruition.

It was shrill and irresponsible scaremongering on the part of Mr Dutton, and it was based on patent falsehoods. Consider this: if the unwinding of negative gearing genuinely risked sending the Australian economy into a tailspin and plunging the $1.5 trillion equities markets into a deep dive, then the economy would be founded on the flimsiest of pretexts  a tax incentive.

Malcolm Turnbull is struggling to maintain momentum. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Unfortunately, Mr Dutton is not the only purveyor of alarmist hyperbole in the government. Finance Minister Mathias Cormann told ABC's 7.30 that Labor's negative gearing policy would "drive down the value of established properties", "push up the cost of rental accommodation" and "make it harder for families to get ahead".

Again, it's fatuous hoo-ha and negative politicking. Yet this is the quality of debate that seems to be taking hold in the Turnbull government, and that is a great disappointment. The electorate deserves leadership that soberly, sincerely and publicly considers and appraises policy initiatives, even if those policies are not fully formed. Instead, voters are getting ping-pong dialogue and brush-offs.
Her reason is, naturally, because "The time has come to be available to my family and to pursue other opportunities," and definitely not because she's cranky about being overlooked for a ministerial position (as her colleagues have suggested) or because she's looked at the polls and gone "yeah, nuts to this". But the guaranteed erosion of his support base of younger, more progressive MPs within the party aside, there's no reason for Turnbull not to go to the polls early. Oh, except for two teeny-tiny little things: the functioning of the economy, and the functioning of democracy. Budging the Budget

The first is connected with the need to bring the Budget forward a week from May 10 to May 3, since it's not practical (nor politically smart) to release the budget and then call a DD the following day. Moving the budget is no easy task for a bunch of reasons, mainly practical (like the physical writing, proofing, printing and distributing of the actual information in said budget, which is frantic enough at the best of times), but also political because the government desperately needs Scott Morrison to not make a complete goose of himself. And there are plenty of reasons why that's an issue: he's never delivered a budget before and he's not exactly distinguished himself in the portfolio so far. After all, he failed to notice that a report he cited underreported the size of the Australian economy by 90 per cent, and he's been a major contributor to the government's strident argument that negative gearing reform would drive house prices up and also down. That's not someone you can be entirely confident will be able to correctly interpret policy that's been written on the fly using figures compiled with little hope of oversight.

And then there's the small matter of the election itself. Who counts the counters? Voting's not just a matter of shoving paper into a box and heading out to the sausage sizzle. Those ballots have to be collected, scrutinised and collated - and that takes time, training and very carefully designed software. So the question remains: how the hell can the Australian Electoral Commission can get things in place for the new ballot by July 2? In theory, the AEC could tell Turnbull that there's no time for them to guarantee that a ballot change could be processed within the time frame. However, he's under no obligation to act on that advice.

If the AEC decide they can't do it correctly, their only available option is essentially to suck it up and do it anyway - and that's not great as far as responsible oversight of the process goes. While some of the advance work is almost certainly already happening, the AEC can't do much until the new ballot is actually legislated, since things could still change before Parliament sign off on it. And the election would have to be in early July, as a double dissolution can't be called within the last six months of a government's usual term. But there's another reason for the government's unseemly haste Timing is everything The new Senate legislation will involve new registration requirements for minor parties - and the less time they have to fulfil the new requirements, the harder it's going to be to get on the ballot in the first place.

And sure, the Greens and Nick Xenophon could make their support for the changes contingent on guaranteeing the AEC time to make the change - for example, by legislating the new ballot to only apply from say, September - but that would only make sense if they were genuinely worried about preserving voter choice, and not so concerned with clearing competing minor parties out of their way. So let's see how that shakes out, shall we? The bigger picture And all of this might be not quite so important after all, because something fairly important happened a week ago. You might be aware that climate scientists have been saying stuff for the last decade or so along the lines of "a global temperature rise of two degrees would be bad but manageable - anything above that is going to start involving strategies that assume certain bits of the world will no longer be inhabitable by humans". Ring a bell?
Korean-Australian pop star Dami Im will sing a dramatic, soaring ballad that channels songwriting queen Sia at the Eurovision song contest in Stockholm, Sweden on May 12.

Im's song and clip, Sound of Silence, had its television debut on SBS2's The Feed on Thursday night. The song, released by her label Sony, will be available to buy on iTunes after midnight.

Im, 27, and Sony teased the moody video clip with 23 seconds of the first verse, released on her twitter feed around lunchtime on Thursday, but the chorus was held back until Thursday night. Fans had to wait til The Feed played another minute of it for the inevitable payoff, Im unleashing her full floor-shaking assault.
In 2010 trainer Dawn Brancheau died after being attacked by Tilikum. Credit:Corbis Male orcas in the wild have an average life span of 50 to 60 years, but the expectancy for killer whales in captivity is much shorter. Tilikum is believed to be about 35; the median survival rate for orcas in US marine parks is just 12 years. If Tilikum dies, he will be remembered for a number of things: the three human deaths - among them, the violent death SeaWorld darling Dawn Branchaeu - to which he has been linked, the documentary that spurred a movement to have him freed and the complicated questions he has inspired about humans' relationship to the animals we attempt to control.

Before Tili, there was Namu, the first orca to be captured and trained. Then there was Shamu (a portmanteau of "she" and "Namu"), who starred in eponymous and iconic killer whale shows. And who could forget Keiko, the orca who starred in Free Willy? Yet none of these former aquatic stars have attracted quite the same mixture of scandal and sympathy as the energetic killer whale whose name means "friend" in Chinook. In November 1983, Tilikum was found with two female orcas in the icy waters of west Iceland. He was netted as part of an extensive capture network organised by the Don Goldsberry, who created the original Shamu shows with Ted Griffin. According to Outside Magazine, the killer whales were housed in a concrete holding tank for nearly a year before being transferred to Sealand of the Pacific, a marine park near Victoria, British Columbia. The conditions at Sealand were poor. The killer whales were confined to pools less than six metres deep, and Tilikum had to contend with two aggressive roommates (females are dominant in the orca world).

It was there that the first death occurred. Eight years after Tilikum and the two female orcas were taken from the wild, a 20-year-old part-time trainer named Keltie Byrne slipped and fell into their tank. "She tried to get back out and the other girl tried to pull her up, but the whale grabbed her back foot and pulled her under," a witness told CNN in 1991. "And then the whales - they bounced her around the pool a whole bunch of times, and she was screaming for help." Byrne, a marine biology student and a competitive swimmer, had plenty of experience in water. But none of that mattered when faced with several tonnes of killer whale. Byrne drowned before anyone could save her.

She was the first trainer to be killed by orcas at a marine park, Outside reported, but she wouldn't be the last, or even the last one with which Tilikum would come into contact. And yet, a former employer at Sealand recalled to CNN that Tilikum was very "easy to work with". "He was very easygoing, he learnt quickly," Colin Baird said. "You know, he was probably my favourite of the three." Sealand's business prospects never recovered from the incident. It closed in 1992, a year after selling its killer whales to SeaWorld. To observers, it may have seemed a curious decision on SeaWorld's part. Why would it want, after all, three orcas that had just been involved in a high-profile tragedy?

A major factor was Tilikum's virility. In an attempt to distance itself from capture methods that were coming under fire, SeaWorld was focusing its energies on establishing a strong captive breeding network. The park discovered that Tilikum had impregnated both of the female orcas at Sealand, indicating that his sperm could be of great use. Today, Tilikum is regarded as prolific in his capacity for insemination, having sired 21 offspring (10 of which are still alive). But even this achievement has been questioned. Given his violent tendencies, was it a good idea to continue spreading his genes? As The Washington Post's Michael O'Sullivan wrote in his review of Blackfish, "A dog that had bitten that many people would have been euthanised long ago and not sent to a stud farm." SeaWorld was a major upgrade for the Sealand killer whales, with some of the best facilities for marine animals in the world. And yet, tragedies continued to unfold. In 1999, the body of 27-year-old Daniel Dukes was found lying across Tilikum's back. He had recently been released from a county jail, and appeared to have sneaked into the park at night. By the time they found Dukes, he had drowned.

Ric O'Barry, a marine mammal trainer of 40 years, told Orlando Weekly that, regardless of what caused Dukes' death, the orcas' lifestyle was less than ideal, despite SeaWorld's numerous amenities. "They're bored," O'Barry said of the killer whales. "We literally bore them to death. It's like you living in the bathroom for your life." Experts say it was something more than boredom that led to the death of star trainer Dawn Brancheau. The word orca researcher Ken Balcomb used in Blackfish was "psychotic". Brancheau had wanted to work with killer whales since she was nine, when she took a trip to SeaWorld with her family, Outside reported. She trusted the animals, she was comfortable around them, and, at age 40, the "vivacious" blonde was "literally the poster girl for the marine park ... appearing on billboards around the city".

In February 2010, Brancheau had just completed a show and was feeding Tilikum when he suddenly grabbed her by the hair and started "thrashing" her around the tank, the Associated Press reported at the time. To many onlookers, the attack looked deliberate. "We don't know for sure what motivated Tilikum," former trainer Jeffrey Ventre told Outside. "But there's no doubt that he knew exactly what he was doing. He killed her." As with the others, Brancheau was dead by the time they got hold of her body. Tilikum was retired from doing shows, but not for long. He returned to public performances in the spring of 2011. Two years later, Blackfish was released, documenting the plight of killer whales at marine parks across the country. Tilikum instantly became a cause for viewers, who called for his release and rallied around the demand to "Free Tili", despite the difficulties of ensuring a captive orca's survival in the wild.
Former prime minister John Howard has confirmed he urged Tony Abbott to remove Peta Credlin as his chief of staff.

In an interview with Sky News political editor David Speers, the former PM admitted he gave Mr Abbott advice on two "personnel issues".

"Did you urge him (Abbott) to remove Peta Credlin, for example?" asked Mr Speers.

"Look I did give him advice on two personnel issues and that was one of them, and also the Treasurer," Mr Howard said.
Iran's Ambassador has poured cold water on hopes of any imminent deal to forcibly send up to 9000 failed Iranian asylum seekers home.

Ahead of a visit by the nation's foreign minister next week, Ambassador Abdolhossein Vahaji told Fairfax Media that Iran had no intention of accepting back its citizens returned forcibly after their asylum applications had been rejected.

His comments follow a report in The West Australian newspaper this week that said talks on the long-running point of contention between the two countries were well-advanced and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was hopeful of a deal next week.

Asked whether there was any chance of a deal on returning people involuntarily, Mr Vahaji said: "No agreement. No improvement in that regard."
Former Queensland premier Campbell Newman has ruled himself out of the running for the federal seat of Brisbane, as Trevor Evans emerged as the likely Liberal National Party candidate.

There was some speculation Mr Newman could throw his hat in the ring for the federal campaign following incumbent MP Teresa Gambaro's decision to retire from politics at the next election.

No Can Do. Campbell Newman has ruled out a tilt at federal politics. Credit:Renee Melides

But the former premier and lord mayor of Brisbane confirmed to News Corp on Thursday afternoon he would not run and that he would support Mr Evans in his bid.

Mr Evans, the National Retail Association chief executive, has emerged at the most likely candidate for the seat going into the next election.
It's not often that a 65 year-old retired politician can, with a straight face, pitch himself as the future-looking candidate in an election contest.

Tony Windsor just about got away with it.

He mounts a strong case that Barnaby Joyce, 48, is one of a cabal of "right wingers", along with Tony Abbott, Eric Abetz and Kevin Andrews, who are acting, in his words, as a "handbrake" on the progressive instincts of Malcolm Turnbull.
Barnaby Joyce has a fight on his hands to avoid becoming the first deputy Prime Minister to be unseated and leave politics the way John Howard did in 2007.

Ending months of speculation - and 24 hours of foxing with the media over whether he would stand for the Senate or the House of Representatives - Tony Windsor announced his bid to win back his former seat of New England.

Painting himself as the forward-focused candidate compared to Mr Joyce's conservative outlook, Mr Windsor said he saw things "stalling" in New England under the Coalition.
The NSW government will advocate to allow private health insurers to cover visits to general practitioners, in what would significantly extend the power and reach of the industry.

A submission to the federal government's review of the private insurance industry advocates a greater role for private health insurance in primary care, particularly to manage people with chronic conditions and prevent them from going to hospital.

NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner has been called a "gay icon" as she championed the the trial. Credit:Peter Rae

Critics have warned that allowing private health insurers into GP practices will create a "two-tier system", because those with private cover will get longer consultations and preventative care, while those who cannot afford it will get more superficial treatment.

Opposition health spokesman Walt Secord, who obtained the submission under freedom of information laws, said it revealed the NSW government did not support a public health system.
Health authorities are investigating whether earlier cases of Legionnaires' disease are linked to an outbreak in Sydney's CBD.

Four people contracted legionnaires disease after spending time in the Druitt, Market, Sussex and Pitt Street areas, NSW Health reported on Wednesday.

Investigators suspected that an infected cooling tower near Town Hall Station was responsible for an outbreak.

Three men aged in their sixties and one in his 30s are receiving treatment for Legionnaires' disease in hospital. Three of the patients work in the area and one was visiting.
Police have charged a man for allegedly stabbing his housemate and attempting to sexually assault her at a backpacker sharehouse in Sydney's inner south.

The victim, a 23-year-old British backpacker, fought off the man after he allegedly forced his way into her bedroom in the home they shared on Cleveland Street, Redfern, about 3pm on Tuesday, police said.

The woman tried to resist the man, a Mexican national, who police believed entered her room to sexually assault her.

He left her room, only to return armed with a knife, police said.
A mother trapped in her burning second-storey apartment dropped her newborn baby and toddler from a window down to a passerby when flames tore through the building in Sydney's south-west overnight.

Firefighters arrived at the unit block on Wangee Road in Lakemba on Thursday night to find the 27-year-old woman sitting on the edge of a windowsill, unable to escape the flames that had engulfed her apartment. Just minutes earlier, she had dropped her two-day-old son and her toddler, aged two, down to a rescuer below.

Firefighters used a ladder to rescue the woman who, with her children, escaped serious injury.

Residents from surrounding apartments made numerous calls to triple zero about 9.30pm on Thursday to report that a number of apartments in the three-storey block were on fire, and people were possibly trapped inside.
Forget NAPLAN. For more than two years, 11-year-old Patrick Talty-Bormans has been swotting for a much bigger exam.

The Ashfield Primary student has been having tutoring to prepare him for the highly competitive selective schools test in the hope he will score a place at one of the top performing state high schools. Fort Street High School is at the top of his list.

Lisa Tran, Patrick Talty-Bormans, Samuel Li, Pallav Baniya, Victoria Trinh, Nabilah Chowdhury and Ellen Wlodarczyk sat the year 7 selective school exams. Credit:Nic Walker

Patrick is one of a record 13,442 students vying for 4214 selective high schools places in 2017.

He was joined by nine of his year 6 classmates from the inner-west school, many of whom also had formal tutoring, in sitting the exam on Thursday at one of many exam centres across Sydney.
Logan City Council mayoral candidate Luke Smith. Credit:Tuba Media Productions Also in the mix is former Logan mayor John Freeman, truck driver and businessman Steve Shoard and Ken Houliston, who has a family service and pastoral background. It hasn't been the cleanest campaign. Candidates have accused each other of dirty tricks and threatening behaviour, Logan City Council mayoral candidate Brett Raguse. Fairfax Media asked five questions of all candidates. Their answers are listed in the order they will appear on the March 19 ballot paper.

If elected, what would you aim to do in your first 100 days? Steve Shoard Logan City Council mayoral candidate Ken Houliston. Mayor Pam Parker, I believe, is leaving a legacy of a well maintained council. I intend to familiarise myself with the staff, processes and workings of council.

Logan City Council mayoral candidate John Freeman. I will not make uninformed decisions. My focus will be, of course, road infrastructure and transport, as I have worked in this arena for many years. There is much work to do in Logan. In the first 100 days I will be planning this work. Luke Smith Implement my jobs policy and host at least two forums across the city to bring together job seekers and employers to try and get as many unemployed people working as soon as possible.

Start immediate negotiations with the state and federal governments to ensure Logan is a priority for the NBN roll out and key transport infrastructure that will enhance bus services in Logan. Brett Raguse Confirm and publish the priorities for Logan City for the next four years and have these priorities endorsed by council. Complete an audit of Logan City finances to give transparency to our residents on our true financial position and to then establish the financial priorities to ensure my commitment to lowering rates and building a more efficient council business to attract true investment for our city's wealth creation. Ken Houliston

I would set up a number of reference groups as advisories to me, including: Women's advisory panel

Youth council

Senior's advisory panel

City development advisory  including developers (UDIA), home owners, environmentalists and town planners Begin planning for a major Logan 'Icon', including a global village, theme park and a Logan NRL team home stadium Continue to be fiercely Independent and keep party politics out of local government John Freeman

Deliver a budget for the residential and business communities that will minimise or negate a general rate increase. To start the process to have a new robust economic development strategy developed and adopted by council, with strategies, plans, and actions to position the city for sound development and growth for our current and future business community as well as identify new areas of growth for the city in the innovation and tourism sectors. Why do you love Logan? Steve Shoard When I first arrived in Logan around 1980, I thought to myself "wow, this is great" and this first impression has never left me.

I have seen new arrivals enter this community and thrive, the opportunities in Logan are endless. Previously, I have been exposed to other people's perception of Logan, but do you know what? Often people who view Logan with negativity have never lived here, so in my opinion their thoughts don't count. Luke Smith I love Logan because this is my home; I was born and raised here. Logan has a community spirit second to none and stands firm in the face of adversity.

Logan is ideally located in the heart of south-east Queensland and, with affordable land, we have capacity to cater for the growth that is heading our way. Logan continues to honour our indigenous heritage and with 217 cultures represented, we are rich in cultural diversity. Brett Raguse I have lived in the now Logan City since its creation in 1979. I raised my four children and now have two grandchildren who would expect a prosperous future and a local job.

Logan City is a great city for families. Ken Houliston I'm proud to call Logan my home for the past 21 years, raising my children and grandchildren here. Our city is a region with amazing heart, resilience and cultural diversity. Everyone has great opportunities to pursue in every field. Logan is accessible to Australia and the world.

As Mayor, I will be too. Logan City is a great city to live, to learn, to love and to laugh! John Freeman I have lived in Logan with my wife and family for 41 years, our children have been educated in the city, and Logan has given my wife and me everything that we have ever wanted or needed. I love the diversity of the city's people, their cultures and that, every day, I meet Logan City residents who are proud of where they're from, and are as passionate as I am about our city's potential.

What is the main problem in Logan that needs to be addressed as a priority? Steve Shoard Lack of public transport in outlying suburbs has to be addressed. I have been advocating this since 2008. I am astounded that, in 2016, there is a total inadequacy in relation to people being able to commute in Logan. Even third-world countries have systems of public transport. People must be afforded a means to commute without solely relying on private vehicles.

Luke Smith There are two main issues that I hear when I travel around the city and they are jobs and transport. This is why my two first policy announcements were around these issues and that is why in my first 100 days of office I will be hitting the ground running to implement these to make them happen. Brett Raguse Job creation.

Lowering the cost of water and subsequent rating charges. Public transport (mobility) across most parts of the city's key centres. Ken Houliston While some knockers would say branding and image, I certainly don't. I don't see anything as a problem  but rather an opportunity  with this.

Logan has economic, social and lifestyle opportunities in abundance. Logan must become an even greater region, to be one of Australia's leaders in building strong families and outstanding children, who will then go on to contribute to this city of unlimited potential. John Freeman The only area of concern I see in our city is an issue of self-pride. All cities have their issues  Logan is no different  and our community will rise about these as we move forward.

The city has strong foundations and as such there is no one area that needs more attention than another. The community has told the council what they expect from it and I will continue to address those areas. What is your favourite spot in Logan? Steve Shoard Without a doubt, the Logan River.

I am afraid this answer may make more people aware of a place that is not used all that much, but the upper reaches of the Logan can be navigated, with a little bit of effort, and the journey is as good as any river trip anywhere, with plenty of wildlife, and if you study the river, at times, good fishing. There, my secret is out. Luke Smith I have many different places that I go to and enjoy on a regular basis, however, to choose one I would have to say that the Global Food Market each Sunday is something that I have come to value. Any place that people of Logan gather is a great place to be.

Brett Raguse Various locations, depending on the activities. Berrinba and Daisy Hill for a touch of environment and nature. Ikea and Loganholme for retail therapy. Kingston Park Raceway and Cable Ski for adrenalin sports.

Canterbury College and John Paul Colleges for educational excellence. Logan River to Logan Village for historical pursuits. Ken Houliston I love to sit up on the water reservoir behind Springwood on Daisy Hill overlooking the view. It is inspiring to see not just the populated areas of our great city, but the majesty of green space, back dropped by beautiful mountains in the distance around Logan.

But just about any spot in Logan is full of surprises, particularly with 216 diverse ethnic groups. John Freeman Logan, every square inch, there are too many places to mention, no matter if I am in the north, south, east or west I love it all. I just love Logan with a passionate heart. What do you drive past two to three times a week and say "If I'm elected I am going to fix that"?

Steve Shoard I want to fix: Dangerous school bus stops. I am appalled that kids are being dropped off and picked up in unsafe environments;

Road works. My profession is in road maintenance. I will be putting systems in place to improve the time taken on road repairs.

Illegal dumping. I want to provide free dumping for residents.

Amenities in parks, eg toilets BBQs, drink fountains. Luke Smith The M1 and the Mt Lindsay Highway.

These are massive issues that affect the entire city. Although they are state government issues, the people of Logan need a champion to stand up and bang on the door of the state and federal governments to make sure that these are fixed and we aren't left behind with funding. Brett Raguse Loganholme 'Antique' building and adjacent land (future tourism precinct). Ken Houliston

Traffic congestion! There is far too much time being wasted by the mums and dads and businesses of Logan  costing us all precious time  and lots of money on the motorways. Traffic should flow, like life. I will work with all levels of government and private investors to put an end to the highway car parks. It's an absolute priority in my books as the next energetic mayor of Logan  the best city in Australia.
Two Far north Queensland police officers who found messages in a bottle washed up on a beach have made contact with the crew who released the bottle from the Galapagos Islands in 2014.

After floating more than 14,000km, the bottle still contained legible notes and email addresses for the crew members who were ecstatic to hear their messages had been found.

The 5 messages in French and English detailing where members of the crew are from and where they were when the bottle was thrown

One crew member also sent a video of the moment the bottle was launched in 2014.

"Say good things to the bottle ... say hi to Neptune ... and Poseidon," the sailors say in the short clip, as the bottle begins its two-year journey across the Pacific Ocean.
A police officer has told an inquest he tried to resuscitate a Gold Coast man fatally shot by his colleagues despite his eyes looking "empty" and his body showing little sign of life.

Senior Constable Lyall Slingsby said Troy Foster laid lifeless within seconds of the shooting outside his mother's Southport home on November 24, 2014.

An inquest into the death of Troy Foster is being held on the Gold Coast.

The inquest into Mr Foster's death is set to conclude on Thursday at Southport District Court with a second officer involved in the shooting expected to take the stand following Senior Constable Slingsby's evidence.

"His eyes were busy at first," Senior Constable Slingsby told the court.
It's signatures at 30 paces, with Parliament being asked to ensure LGBTI and gender diverse anti-bullying resources remain available to Queensland schools  as well as suspend them.

Education Minister Kate Jones has been forced to defend the resources availability to Queensland principals on the Parliament floor, after her LNP counterpart called for their review.

"We want all school children to be safe, happy and healthy and to be treated with dignity and respect," the counter petition reads.

Ms Jones refused, but the Federal Government complied to look into 'concerns' being raised by MPs critical of the program, such as Cory Bernardi.

The Queensland Australian Christian Lobby responded by once again calling on the State Government to follow through with what had been Mr Manders requests  a review of the materials, their suspension while the review is carried out and to reveal the list of Queensland schools which asked to use the materials.
Australia's largest asylum seeker service is in upheaval after an exodus of its most senior staff and claims of a toxic work environment, mismanagement and bullying.

Six out of seven directors at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre quit last year, including one who lodged a successful WorkCover claim for stress and anxiety caused by her employment.

ASRC founder and chief executive Kon Karapanagiotidis. Credit:Pat Scala

An internal report, prepared for the board and obtained by Fairfax Media, shows the resignations came amid a slew of complaints about the centre's chief executive, Kon Karapanagiotidis, widely considered one of the nation's top human rights advocates.

"We are greatly concerned about our safety and wellbeing, and that of our staff, due to the unknown response from an increasingly volatile CEO," said the confidential report, co-signed by four of the former directors.
The bullet hole in a red Mazda that was shot in Sunshine West on Wednesday night. Credit:Courtesy of Seven News A fourth man was released from police custody, pending further investigations. About two hours later, a man was shot with what police believe was a pen pistol in an unrelated incident in Rassay Court, Frankston. The red Mazda shot in a bizarre incident in Sunshine West. Credit:Courtesy of Seven News Police said all the people involved in the Frankston shooting were known to each other.

The victim was taken to The Alfred hospital with a wound to his upper body. Mahamd Hassan (left) posing with former bikie Toby Mitchell. Credit:Facebook It was Melbourne's 15th shooting in just six days, exceeding the spike seen in October last year, when there were 12 shootings during the month. Three of the latest shootings occurred on Wednesday alone. Former Reservoir High School student Mahamd Hassan, 23, was shot and killed inside a budget motel in Kingsbury. Credit:Facebook.

One involved a man who may have been targeted for looking the "wrong way" at a passing car. Another involved three adults whose house was sprayed with four bullets in a drive-by shooting that may have been a case of mistaken identity. The third involved a young couple in Sunshine West who were sitting in their red Mazda at an intersection when two men in a black Audi fired shots into the back passenger door. The latest rash of shootings started with three incidents on Saturday, including the wounding of two men outside the Bros bikie gang clubhouse in Yarraville and the shooting of Mohammad Hassan, 23, who was killed inside the Parkside Inn Motel in Kingsbury. Albert Rapovski, 20, was arrested at Melbourne Airport and later charged with Mr Hassan's murder.

On Monday, a man was shot at random when he noticed a car parked with no lights on outside his semi-rural Lara property, near Geelong. A Fairfax Media analysis has found the focus of the state's gun crime is an area of about 10 square kilometres around Broadmeadows, where at least 12 shootings have been recorded in less than 15 months. A third of all the shootings this year have occurred in the area, which is loosely bordered by Sydney, Camp, Pascoe Vale, and Barry roads. Detectives with the Embona Taskforce arrested six people on Wednesday connected with the cluster of Broadmeadows shootings, but it is believed a gunman is yet to be caught. Police are now pushing for legislation to make "drive-by shooting" a specific offence.

The state government already strengthened gun laws last year, amending the definition of gun trafficking, as well as making it illegal to manufacture guns and introducing the offence of theft of a firearm. But Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton said police would soon also ask for a stronger suite of laws, as well as new ones, to make it more difficult to obtain illegal firearms, as well as introducing harsher sentencing. Shootings in Victoria in the past week

Saturday, March 5 Parkside Inn Motel, Kingsbury: Mohammad Hassan, 23, is killed inside the motel. Albert Rapovski, 20, is later arrested at Melbourne Airport and charged with Mr Hassan's murder. Campbell Street, Yarraville: Two men, 37 and 38, shot in ankle and abdomen respectively at the Bros outlaw motorcycle gang clubhouse. Eileen Street, Hadfield: A 36-year-old man is shot in the leg, only four hours after the shooting at the Bros bikie gang clubhouse. Unclear if linked. Monday, March 7

Anakie Road, Norlane: A 23-year-old woman with a gunshot wound to the stomach is dropped at Geelong hospital, but police believe she was shot near the Bell Post shopping centre. Alison Drive, Lara: Lee Pitcher, 49, is shot in the chest after going to investigate a car parked outside his semi-rural property with the lights off. Police believe Mr Pitcher did not know the group of men inside the car. Wednesday, March 9 Watson Road, Noble Park North: A 25-year-old man leaving his girlfriend's place is shot in the arm, possibly by someone in a car which he may have looked "the wrong way" at earlier in the evening. Frawley Road, Hallam: As many as five shots fired at the Hallam house of a local restaurant owner. The three adults inside were unhurt.
Nobody doubts Peter Marshall's commitment to the United Firefighters Union and his members. But there is real and growing doubt, even among those close to him, about the firebrand union leader's political judgment.

Negotiations between fire chiefs and the UFU aimed at updating the enterprise bargaining agreement from 2010 have been dragging on for more than two years, with progress stalled for months.

Now, the union's extraordinary bid to injunct the Metropolitan Fire Brigade's new pro-diversity selection procedure, and the MFB and Country Fire Authority seeking to force the introduction of part-time firefighters are further evidence that both sides have given up on talks and compromise.
Victoria Police will push for a further tightening of gun legislation, including creating a new offence for drive-by shootings, aimed at stemming the surge in gunslinging gangsters.

It comes as police revealed on Thursday there have been 13 shootings in the space of a week  almost two a day  in Melbourne and Geelong. One of these shootings has been fatal, while five resulted in injuries.

Two men were wounded outside this motorcycle clubhouse in Yarraville on Saturday.

A cluster of another five, all drive-bys between last Friday and Sunday, were over one spat between two feuding groups in Melbourne's north.

Embona taskforce police arrested six people connected to this cluster in raids at Broadmeadows, Thomastown and Dallas on Wednesday, but it is believed a gunman is yet to be caught.
South Perth council wants a 38-storey apartment block on the Swan River Foreshore rejected in light of a Supreme Court ruling to overturn a nearby development because it breached local planning laws.

Last month, WA Supreme Court Justice John Chaney deemed the State Government Metro-Central Joint Development Assessment Panel's approval of a $60 million Lumiere apartment block at 74 Mill Point Road because it did not meet the correct residential and commercial mix under the Town Planning scheme.

South Perth council wants a $174 million development at 90 Mill Point Road refused.

Two South Perth residents took the matter to the Supreme Court claiming the development would obstruct their views of the Swan River and that the height of the proposed 29-storey apartment block was nearly four times the limit permitted under local council laws.

Now South Perth council wants a $174 million development at 90 Mill Point Road refused on the back of the Supreme Court ruling.
Paris: French authorities have opened an investigation after a baby was found hidden in a bag belonging to a passenger on board an Air France plane.

The French company says the child, who travelled with "an adult" on Air France Flight 1891 from Istanbul to Paris on Monday, did not have a valid ticket.

A child was found travelling on a Paris-bound flight without a ticket. Credit:The Deseret News/AP

Agence-France Presse reported the child, a girl, was travelling with a woman who was in the process of adopting the child from Haiti.

"She was apparently in the transit zone in Istanbul, and had crossed the customs checkpoint with the child, when she was prevented from boarding a flight with her," AFP reported a source at Charles De Gaulle Airport as saying.
Washington: The Obama administration is planning to publicly blame Iranian hackers for a 2013 cyber attack against a small dam in New York state, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The Justice Department has prepared an indictment against the hackers, two of the sources said, and a public announcement could come as soon as next week.

Iranian hackers gained access only to some back-office systems of the Bowman Avenue Dam, a flood control system in New York state in 2013, US officials say. Credit:Tanya Lake

US officials believe the hackers gained access only to some back-office systems, not the operational system of the Bowman Avenue Dam, a flood control system about 50 kilometres north of New York City. The attack was not considered sophisticated, the sources said.

A Justice Department spokesman said he had no comment. CNN first reported news of the planned indictment.
It's either a massive, Edward Snowden-scale breach of the strict discipline imposed by Islamic State and an unprecedented intelligence windfall for Western governments, or a stupendous attempt at a hoax.

But security agencies are now poring over a list, reportedly running to 22,000 names, said to be stolen from the Islamist extremists, tallying the foreign fighters to have joined its bloody cause.

Reports of the list first emerged on Monday in Germany, where the Munich newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung reported the trove of names had found its way into the hands of German spies.

The report didn't explain exactly how the list was obtained, only that it included 23 questions comprising "entrance interviews" for would-be terrorists, asking their previous residence, family members, education and "so-called jihadist experience".
For Dogs, its Trick and Treat Its almost Halloween, a great time to teach your dog a trick and give him a treat. Most trainers are fans of trick training. Its not as silly as it...

Muzzle is not a bad word If you see a dog in a muzzle, you immediately think the dog is aggressive. Right? Well, this is not always true. Unfortunately, seeing a dog in a muzzle carries...
IDOMENI, Greece  Hussam appeared to be slipping through the final crack of a swiftly closing door on Friday when Macedonian police finally allowed him into the no-mans land at the border with Greece.

A young Syrian who lived in the Yarmouk refugee camp, Hussam survived years of a devastating siege before escaping to Lebanon, and finally trying to make his way to Europe. After 10 days of waiting in this muddy, desperate encampment on Macedonias frontier, he was on the verge of finally continuing his journey north.

The police made him wait two days in no-mans land before finally summoning him, in the early hours of Monday, to examine his ID. The officer took one look at it, and pointed to the line that said in Arabic: Place of birth: Damascus.

In the latest version of the ever-tightening criteria that had steadily whittled down the number of people deemed worthy to cross the border, officials decided that certain areas in Syria and Iraqincluding Damascuswere safe, their residents not in need of international protection.

And just like that, Hussams dream of reaching the safety of Germany seemed to be over. Get out! said the officer, ushering Hussam back into the camp where around 12,000 refugees were waiting.

The gate into Macedonia slammed shut and may not open again. With Slovenias announcement Tuesday evening that it would no longer allow refugees passage through its borders to reach Austria or Germany, the route used by the majority of the more than a million refugees who made their way to Europe last year appears to be effectively closed. Croatia, Serbia, and Macedonia quickly announced they would follow Slovenias lead.

Many refugees, their way forward blocked, their futures now uncertain, dont know where to turn. Hussam, a 25-year-old with shoulder-length curly hair, was at a loss for what to do next. I feel like I should go back to the sea and throw myself in, he said. They killed our hope.

The border closures come days after European Union and Turkish leaders agreed on the framework of a deal they say will stop the flow of refugees into Greece. In a statement issued by EU heads of state after the summit, they declared that irregular flows of migrants along the western Balkans route have now come to an end.

But more than 1,300 refugees and migrants continue to arrive on Greek islands every day, and more than 36,000 refugees are now stuck in the country. Those in Idomeni are skeptical about an EU relocation plan that officials are encouraging them to apply for.

A spokeswoman for Macedonias Interior Ministry said Wednesday that Macedonias border would remain shut to refugees if other countries along the route did not open theirs. Nearly 1,500 refugees are stuck on Macedonias northern border with Serbia, where border guards have denied them entry.

Its unclear how long refugees will cling to hope that the border may reopen, and stay in Idomeni. Conditions are difficult, and around 62 percent of the people here are women and children, according to Babar Baloch, spokesman for the United Nations Refugee Agency in Idomeni.

Greece says its planning to build nine new shelters for refugees, but people will be reluctant to move without clear information, said Baloch. Theres no clear sense, in terms of flow of information from the authorities on any side, of whats going to happen to them, he said.

Wednesday morning, Hussam and several friends tried to ward off the damp cold by lighting a fire in a pit dug in the mud outside their tents. Hussams hands bear wounds from foraging firewood in nearby forests, but the wood was wet from overnight rain and stubbornly refused to catch fire as they used plastic and clothingall that was availablefor kindling.

Hussam says that during the siege of Yarmouk, he helped friends who were doctors provide medical care for starving residents. A musician, he and friends put on concerts to provide cheer in a situation so grim that residents were eating dogs, cats, and soup made of boiled tree bark. He posted videos on YouTube, he says, to show the world what was happening in the camp. When he finally escaped, he immediately left for Lebanon; his friends who stayed in Damascus were arrested a week later. He hopes to finish his law degree in Germanyif he can get there.

For many of the refugees, the thought of turning around and heading back at this point is too hard to bear after everything theyve given up to reach this point. No one knows what each family here has lost or sold in order to be hereeveryone has an enormous story, says Hussam, gesturing at the vast expanse of tents.

Officials in the camp were handing out flyers for the EU relocation plan, which aims to distribute 160,000 refugees from Greece and Italy throughout the EU. But only some 660 have been relocated so far, and some refugees in Idomeni are afraid the scheme is simply a ploy to get them away from the border.

A crowd gathered in front of the office of the UNs refugee agency here Wednesday, clamoring for information. If we sign up for this project, maybe theyll just drop us in Athens, said Nizar, a Syrian from Damascus. Whats the guarantee? Give me a guarantee, and I will go.

But having paid $10,000 to bring his family of six this far, he insisted he would not give up on getting to Germany. I wont leave, he said. Im going to cross the border. If they dont open it, Ill cross it illegally. He said he would try to get into Macedonia by going through nearby fields away from the crossing point used by refugees, but many of those who try that route are caught by Macedonian police and returned to Greece. Some refugees say theyre considering trying to forge a new route into Albania, but so far it has not caught on.

I escaped from death, torture, and pain, said Nizar. I will not stop here.
2016 seems like a strange time to be arguing the merits of socialism in an American presidential campaign. But its also strange for the prospective leaders of the free world to be talking about the KKK and their appendages, so clearly this year is not like any other. While the latter topics are, thankfully, beyond my purview, I have a great deal of interest in socialism.

Last week I expressed some of these thoughts on Facebook after hearing a clip of democratic socialist candidate Senator Bernie Sanders on Super Tuesday. This was already a rarity, considering how little time the networks have left after their blanket coverage of Donald Trumps latest outrages. My post on the nature of socialism was 113 words long, a quick response to critics of a cartoon I had posted of Bernie Sanders wearing a baseball cap reading Make America Greece Again.

My goal was to remind people that Americans talking about socialism in the 21st century was a luxury paid for by the successes of capitalism in the 20th. And that while inequality is a huge problem, the best way to increase everyones share of pie is to make the pie bigger, not to dismantle the bakery. Much to my surprise, my little rant went viral, as the saying goes. Instead of the usual few hundred Facebook shares, this paragraph quickly reached tens of thousands. By the next morning it had reached several million people, more than any of the days political posts by the leading candidates. A week later and it has over 3,000 comments, 57,000 shares, and a 9.3 million reach that is in the category usually reserved for photos of pop stars and kitten videos.

My conclusion that the idea that the solution [to inequality] is more government, more regulation, more debt, and less risk is dangerously absurd apparently had great resonance, and I think I know why. There is a growing consensus that America has deep troubles, and no one can agree on solutions. Everyone agrees that Washington should change, and some want the government to do much more while others want it to do much less. Many of the traditional economic numbers say that America is doing fine, and yet polls say that Americansespecially Sanders supportersare angry about the present and fearful about the future.

I often talk about the need to restore a vision of America as a positive force in the world, a force for liberty and peace. The essential complement to this is having big positive dreams at home as well, of restoring Americas belief in ambition and risk, of innovation and exploration, of free markets and free people. America transformed the 20th century in its image with its unparalleled success. American technology created the modern world while American culture infused it and American values inspired it.

In recent decades that storyline has flipped. The tireless work ethic and spirit of risk-taking and sacrifice have slowly eroded. This complacency was accelerated by the end of the Cold War and it has proved very difficult to overcome in the absence of an existential enemy to compete with. The booming innovation engine of job creation has fallen behind the accelerating pace of technology that replaces workers. The result has been slower growth, stagnant wages, and the steady shift of wealth from labor to capital. In such situations many people turn to the government for help and the siren song of socialism grows louder.

I respect and even like Bernie Sanders. Hes a charismatic speaker and a passionate believer in his cause. He believes deeply in what he is saying, which is more than what can be said about nearly every other 2016 candidate, or about politicians in general. I say this while disagreeing vehemently with nearly everything he says about policy. The revolution rhetoric of Senator Sanders has struck a chord with many Americans, especially the young voters who are realizing that their own lives are unlikely to match the opportunities and wealth of their parents and grandparents. They are being left behind in a rapidly changing world. It is a helpless, hopeless feeling.

The problem is with the proposed solutions. A society that relies too heavily on redistributing wealth eventually runs out of wealth to redistribute. The historical record is clear. Its capitalism that brought billions of people out of poverty in the 20th century. Its socialism that enslaved them and impoverished them. Of course Senator Sanders does not want to turn America into a totalitarian state like the one I grew up in. But its a valuable example of the inevitable failure of a state-run economy and distribution system. (Check in on Venezuela for a more recent example.) Once you give power to the government it is nearly impossible to get it back, and it will be used in ways you cannot expect.

The USSR collapsed because it couldnt compete over time, despite its massive resources and devout ideology. The Soviets put a man in space before America but couldnt keep up the pace against an innovating, free-market competitor. My Facebook post went around the world on technology created in America. The networks, the satellites, the software, nearly every ingredient in every mobile device and desktop computer, was invented in the USA. It is not a coincidence that the most capitalist country in the world created all these things. Innovation requires freedom of thought, freedom of capital, and people who believe in changing the world.

Yes, the free market can be cruel and it is by definition unequal. It has winners and losers. It also sparks the spirit of creativity that humanity desperately needs to flourish in our ever-increasing billions. Failure is an essential part of innovation and the free market. Of every 10 new companies, perhaps nine will fail in brutal Darwinian competition. A centrally-planned economy cannot imitate this engine of creative destruction because you cannot plan for failure. You cannot predestine which two college dropouts in a garage will produce the next Apple.

A popular rebuttal is to invoke the socialist leanings of several European countries with high living standards, especially in Scandinavia. Why cant America be more like happy Denmark, with its high taxes and giant public sector, or at least more like France? Even the more pro-free-market United Kingdom has national health care, after all. First off, comparing relatively small, homogeneous populations to the churning, ocean-spanning American giant is rarely useful. And even the most socialist of the European countries only became wealthy enough to embrace redistribution after free-market success made them rich. Still, why cannot America follow this path if that is what the people want? What is the problem if American voters are willing to accept higher taxes in exchange for greater security in the embrace of the government?

The answer takes us back to all those inventions America has produced decade after decade. As long as Europe had America taking risks, investing ambitiously, attracting the worlds dreamers and entrepreneurs, and yes, being unequal, it could benefit from the results without making the same sacrifices. Add to that the incalculable windfall of not having to spend on national defense thanks to Americas massive investment in a global security umbrella. America doesnt have the same luxury of coasting on the ambition and sacrifice of another country.

Who will be Americas America? What other nation could attract the brightest students, the biggest investors, the most ambitious entrepreneurs in the same way? Germany? Russia? Japan? China? India? Each may take over leadership in some areas if America continues to falter, but none is equipped to lead the world in innovation the way the United States has since Thomas Edisons day. None possesses the combination of political and economic freedoms and the human and natural resources required.

The government does have a role in addressing rising inequality. I turn not to Denmark or Venezuela or, god forbid, to the Soviet Union. Instead let us look to the last great battle between labor and capital in America, between public and private power. Just over 100 years ago, President Teddy Roosevelt spoke loudly and used his big stick against some of the worlds largest corporations when they were abusing their monopoly power. His successor, fellow Republican William Taft, continued the antitrust mission, at least initially.

Both men dealt with critics from industry and Wall Street who called their use of government power against them socialism and both answered eloquently. In his 1908 State of the Union address, Roosevelt spoke about the huge wealth that has been accumulated by a few individuals of recent years being possible only by the improper use of the modern corporation, and that these corporations lend themselves to fraud and oppression than any device yet evolved in the human brain. He also warned against the accrual of unaccountable political power in the hands of men who work in secret, whose very names are unknown to the common people. You can easily imagine Teddy in the bully pulpit today calling for the breakup of the big banks and ending their cozy relationship with Washington.

To give credit, Senator Sanders supports breaking up the giant banking institutions that dominate American finance and politics in a way that would evoke jealousy from John Pierpont Morgan himself. However, Sanderss socialist policies would replace banks that are too big to fail with a government that is too big to succeed.

Taft warned about exactly this in his 1911 State of the Union. Busting the trusts was to free the market, not to insert the government into it. It was necessary to break up Standard Oil and American Tobacco in order to preserve capitalism, not to institute socialism. Taft said, The anti-trust act is the expression of the effort of a freedom-loving people to preserve equality of opportunity. It is the result of the confident determination of such a people to maintain their future growth by preserving uncontrolled and unrestricted the enterprise of the individual, his industry, his ingenuity, his intelligence, and his independent courage.

Bravo! Beautiful words and an even more beautiful sentiment that is deserving of its own Facebook meme! Unfortunately, todays progressive solution would instead be to raise Standard Oils taxes and those of its wealthiest shareholders in order to pay for more services, like free college and health care. It would have been an acceptable choice for many, but the American 20th century would never have happened.

Garry Kasparov is the chairman of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation and the author of Winter is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped.
Donald Trump took his anti-Muslim jihad to a new, bone-chilling level on Wednesday night. Thats when he declared to CNNs Anderson Cooper that Islam hates us. Trump is wrong, but let me blunt. I hate Trump. Not because he demonizes Muslims, but because hes a threat to our nations soul.

If Trump truly thinks Islam hates us, then he should tell that to the families of Muslim Americans who have died for our country. I doubt Trump has the balls to tell the family of U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who received the Purple Heart and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery after being killed in Iraq in 2004. And lets see Trump tell that to the family of Corp. Kareem Khan, who also received the Purple Heart and is buried in Arlington after giving his life in 2007 in defense of our nation.

Does Trump even have the courage to tell the Muslims who have volunteered to serve our nation, including my cousin who served in the U.S. Marines, that they hate America? In fact, almost 6,000 Muslims are currently serving in our armed forces fighting to ensure that all Americansnot just ones of certain faithshave the same rights.

Will Trump tell the Muslims serving in our Congress, Keith Ellison and Andre Carson, that they hate America? Will he say that to the thousands of Muslims serving as police officers, paramedics, judges, schoolteachers, and others in professions designed to help the people of our nation?

Nah, Trump wont ever do that because bullies are cowards. But what Trump despicably did during his interview on CNN was to paint all Muslims as potential threats to our country. Its very hard to define and very hard to separate the good from the bad Muslims, because you dont know whos who, Trump stated.

I want you to think about what Trump is saying here. The GOP frontrunner is telling Americans to fear every single Muslim because any one of them might be plotting to kill you and your family. If you believe Trumps words, whats the next likely step? Trump has already proposed policies to discriminate against Muslim Americans, which polls show his supporters overwhelmingly support. What could be in store next for American Muslims?

Maybe because I recently read an article saying that Trump, according to his ex-wife, kept by his bedside a book of Hitlers speeches that the Fuhrer gave during his ascent to power, I couldnt help but wonder, What did Jews living in Germany when Hitler first sought office think? Did they dismiss his extreme rhetoric as nothing more than political talk to get the support of people? Or were they frightened, like many Muslim Americans are today?

To be clear, Im am in no way saying that if he became president, Trump would be like Hitler, seizing emergency powers and worse. But perhaps we need to pause as a nation when Anne Franks stepsister, Eva Schloss, an Auschwitz survivor, warned us in January that Trump is acting like another Hitler by inciting racism.

But Trumps hate has not just been about Muslims. His campaign from Day One can best be best summed up as putting minorities back in their place. Thats why we have seen white supremacists flock to Trumps side. For example, the vile white supremacist leader Jared Taylor, a man who publicly endorsed Trump and has made robocalls on Trumps behalf, wrote a few months ago: Donald Trump may be the last hope for a president who would be good for white people.

And Trump has given these hatemongers exactly what they have been dreaming of for years. He has stirred up hate versus Latinos, implying that they were coming to rape your wives and daughters. He has defended his white supporters in November beating up a Black Lives Matter protester and calling the man a monkey and the n-word. And we just saw Trump refuse to denounce the support of former Klan leader David Duke.

But lets return to Trumps comment that Islam hates us. Are there a fraction of Muslims who hate our nation? No doubt. Is that because of Islam, a religion that came into being over a thousand years before America was founded? The counter-terrorism experts I have spoken to have made it clear that the anger directed against our nation is generally grounded in foreign policy grievances or personal issues such as wanting to join an organization that makes them feel a sense of self worth. But there are a fraction of radical religious leaders who will try to teach younger Muslims that somehow America is a religious-based enemy. We must be united to countering their hateful message, not divided along religious lines as ISIS hopes we become.

Perhaps Trump is simply making the remarks about Muslims now because the GOP race is tightening and he knows bashing Muslims plays well with the GOP base. Trump noted as much after Ben Carson stated in October that no Muslim should be president of the United States, and he got a big boost in the polls. Trump then remarked, Carsons been getting a lot of ink on the Muslims I guess people look at that and they probably like it. Within weeks Trump began first using Muslims as a scapegoat.

Or perhaps Trumps info comes from Frank Gaffney, whose poll Trump read from on the campaign trail about alleged hatred of Muslims. Gaffney is a discredited figure whom the Southern Poverty Law Center recently listed as the leader of an Anti-Muslim group. And Gaffney has also been a supporter of the very same White Supremacy leader, Jared Taylor, who has been campaigning for Trump. As the SPLC notes, Gaffney invited Taylor on his radio show and has heaped praise upon his work that promotes anti-Black and anti-Latino racists.

No, Islam doesnt hate America. But Trump clearly hates American values.
Donald Trump pledged last month to pay the legal fees of any of his supporters who rough up protesters and now he may have to pony up.

It will take $250 to spring John McGraw, the Trump fan who cold-cocked a black protester at a Trump rally Wednesday night in North Carolina, from the Cumberland County Jail.

Next time we see him, McGraw said minutes after the attack, we might have to kill him.

Surely Trump, with all his billions, can afford to post McGraws bail. McGraw is the first Trump supporter to be charged with a crime for getting violent, but he is not the only one who has assaulted protesters in the name of Trump.

Here is a list of the more egregious physical attacks on those who have dared to protest Trump, which does not include the Time photographer choke-slammed by security last month, or Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who allegedly bruised Michele Fields of Breitbart News. None of the instances listed below have resulted in arrests of the Trump supporters who have carried out the attacks.

October: Immigration rights activist Ariel Rojas is pulled out of a campaign event in Doral, Florida, by Trump supporters. A sign reading Equality was ripped from Rojass hands and Rojas was dragged from behind by a Trump supporter. (Rojas hit the ground hard but was able to walk out under his own power.) A Doral police detective told The Daily Beast on Thursday he wasnt aware of charges ever being fileddespite the fact that the attack, again, was captured on video. The detective mused that the incident may have been handled internally, by Trumps security people.

November: Mercutio Southall is pushed to the ground in Birmingham, Alabama, and claims he was punched when he showed up wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt. Southalls attorney told The Daily Beast in November that his client suffered a mild concussion and would be looking into filing hate-crime charges after Trumps supporters called him a nigger and a monkey while he was being escorted out by police. While Southall was being attacked, Trump told the crowd, Get him the hell outta here, would you please? The Birmingham Police Department said it wouldnt pursue charges on its own because the attack appeared to qualify only as a misdemeanor. Southall told The Daily Beast on Thursday that he and his attorney met with Birmingham police, but as of yet no charges have been filed against those responsible for the attack.

January: Two men in Lowell, Massachusetts, were sitting quietly at a Trump rally have their signs (America Already Great and God Bless President Obama) torn up. The men continue to sit peacefully as the crowd around them becomes rowdy. Eventually, a police officer arrives to escort the men out, while ignoring the people around them who ripped up the signs. A chant of USA, USA, USA! closes out a video of the incident.

January: Two men standing at a Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, are being yelled at by the candidates supporters. About a minute later, a large man in a cowboy hat attempts to put one of the protesters into a headlock and drag him up the stairs. Two officers quickly arrived and broke up the attack, apparently escorting the protesters out. Trump, meanwhile, continues to yell, We are going to win, we are going to win, we are going to win!

March: A black woman is shoved by several protesters, one of whom, Matthew Heimbach, was later revealed to be a white nationalist known as The Little Fuhrer. Video shows the protester at the Louisville, Kentucky, event walking down a gantlet of Trump supporters, all yelling for her to leave while Heimbach follows closely behind. Molly Shah, a protester also at the rally, has filed a complaint against Heimbach, who she says punched and kicked her when she held up a sign reading, Black Lives Matter.

Esmeralda and Zayra Barragan say they were assaulted by an unidentified man at the same Trump rally. Like Shah, the Barragans have also filed a complaint with the Louisville Police Department. At some point during the alleged attack, the aggressor turned toward the daughter and told her, You will never be anyone.

Trump is scheduled to speak at the University of Illinois at Chicago pavilion on Friday, which holds approximately 7,000 people. Hispanic leaders, including Rep. Luis Gutierrez, will hold a counter-rally outside the pavilion. Thousands of protesters have pledged online to attend.
Flying Scotsman commemorative whisky launched

Speyside Distillery has produced a special edition whisky to mark the return of the iconic Flying Scotsman steam locomotive to the National Railway Museum following a major restoration.

The commemorative bottle of the distillerys Beinn Dubh ruby black whisky has been produced under licence for the museum, which has welcomed back its most famous  and best loved - exhibit after a decade-long absence.

Speyside Distillery, which is based at the foot of the Cairngorm mountain range in the Scottish Highlands, was selected to produce the Flying Scotsman Beinn Dubh single malt Scotch whisky because of its track record working with other historic brands.

Flying Scotsman  arguably the best known train in the world - shot to fame after becoming the first steam locomotive to break the 100mph barrier in 1934 during a run from London to Leeds. The locomotive returns to the National Railway Museum in York today following a 4.2m restoration  and as a working exhibit sets a new record for the oldest mainline working locomotive on Britains railway tracks.

Beinn Dubh Flying Scotsman is 40% ABV and has an RRP of 50. It will be available to buy from the National Railway Museum retail outlets. Speyside Distillery will also be putting the commemorative bottle on general release, with distributors receiving a limited allocation of the stock.

10 March 2016 - Felicity Murray The Drinks Report, editor
Most consumers want to know where their food has come from and to have the option to purchase products that ensure higher welfare for farm animals.

Unfortunately, current EU legislation means that labelling on meat and dairy products can often be bewildering and doesn't always provide customers with the information they want.

Understandably, many consumers are taken in by the power of suggestion that appear on many food labels. I myself - with a wealth of knowledge on the subject - can still find labels challenging to decipher.

Marketing techniques can be clever at creating confusing visual and written cues that make shoppers feel, at a glance, that they are buying a fair, sustainable product. It's nothing short of scandalous.

Labels on intensively reared products often display images of rolling landscapes, cosy family farms and happy animals when in reality the livestock are crammed into barren cages, or kept in such close confinement with one another, that they are unable to express their natural behaviours.

Generic, meaningless phrases are brandished across a lot of factory farmed food packaging, such as 'farm fresh' and 'natural', when in fact more appropriate slogans would be 'raised in confinement' or 'grown quickly, without access to the outdoors'. When you think about it, it's obvious. The truth about factory farming isn't advertised on food labels because it's an unsavoury one.

Consumer power can create change

A staggering 50 billion animals exist in factory farms globally, where they are treated as commodities, kept in confinement, and routinely deprived of the freedoms that are so central to their welfare.

Animals commonly injure one another out of boredom and stress. In order to reduce these injuries, mutilations such as teeth clipping, tail docking and beak trimming are commonplace and usually carried out without pain relief.

Many breeds are selected for fast growth and high yields, putting them at risk of developing physical problems such as lameness, and infections. Factory farming is also highly dependent on large quantities of precious resources, contributing to a catalogue of social and environmental ills, from pollution and deforestation to poverty, hunger and disease.

More than 80% of the animals raised in the EU each year are factory farmed. These inhumane farming practices are hidden behind closed doors, out of public view. But consumer power can change this and allow shoppers clarity when opting for foods that are better for animal welfare.

Mandatory method of production labelling for eggs sold in the European Union was introduced in 2004, allowing customers to easily see the system used to produce them - whether it be caged, barn, free-range, or organic. Since then, the proportion of hens in cage-free systems has more than doubled, from 19.7% in 2003 to 44.3% in 2014.

When consumers know which farm system has been used to produce their eggs, many opt for higher welfare. In turn, this increases demand for higher welfare eggs, helping to drive welfare improvements for millions of egg-laying hens. This is an excellent example of how effective and honest labelling can re-shape the market.
Each story is unique and worth re-telling

On my first journey along the South Downs of England, for example, I met with an elderly man on the top of Beacon Hill. We started talking about love and he told me that every day, he and his dog walked the same path in remembrance of his wife who had passed away the previous year.

Walking the same route was the only way he could re-awaken her presence with him. The walk was his love story, an epitaph to love and lost love. He expressed the depth of this daily connection, he felt her by his side, in communion with the fields and the sky and their dog, and love continued to unfold through this simple process.

Last year as I walked along a canal towpath through Birmingham a woman in her forties stopped me and asked what I was doing. We walked the path together for a while and she shared her love story with me. Tearfully she spoke of her pain as a mother struggling to let go of her child as he grew older and more independent. He had gone away with friends and she was out of communication with him. This was a love story of letting go.

In 2013 I was fortunate to collaborate with the Pimlico Opera, who worked alongside prisoners to create theatrical productions. I sat down with a group of eight prisoners for a couple of hours and we talked about what love might mean to them, both on the inside and in relation to the outside world. For them love was experienced as a brief moment of connection, an open door, a pat of recognition or a nod.

One man, pointing a finger at his friend, said solemnly that "he is my love story" - not in the romantic sense but because he offered kindness, and there was acceptance in their friendship. On leaving I asked them if they would jot their names down on a piece of paper so I could remember them. Each one, without exception, wrote down their prisoner number first: loss of identity, separation - the antithesis of love.

A re-occurring theme on my journeys has been a lack of self love among many of the people I meet - an inability to value themselves, to offer themselves love and kindness.

One woman who offered me hospitality for the night told me that she found it almost impossible to look at herself in the mirror, and refused to keep an image of herself on the wall. Her mother had been asking her for a photograph for years, but she had been unable to give her one. She did not consider herself beautiful enough to look at.

Love stories often have their roots in hospitality, in providing welcome to a stranger, an acknowledgement of a shared humanity. In his autobiographical book 'Letter to a Hostage', the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery talks about the miraculous nature of a smile, not only to obscure the trauma of being taken hostage but to remove it all together, as if it never existed.

As I have walked from place to place, the willingness of communities to welcome me in, to offer me hospitality and shelter, or just a kind word, has been life affirming.

How can sharing love stories like these become part of a process of social change?

First of all, sharing your love story takes courage. It requires us to become vulnerable with others, and asks us to be present in the moment. Through becoming vulnerable we make ourselves visible to others, and this can be challenging - like an unmasking.

But through this process we are given time and space to talk and be heard, and to be nurtured. Sharing can create understanding, establish common ground, and build connection. And through compassionate connection we can begin to find the foundations of community.

Secondly, the act of sharing encourages us to express moments when we experience our humanity profoundly, but it also provides an opportunity to create new and evolving narratives of love. For example, the woman in Birmingham who found it hard to look at herself was able to voice her fears and her sense of disconnection, but she also found the courage to take a photo of herself and give it to her mum - a small but not unimportant transformation.

It is these micro-changes that form the basis of transformation on a larger scale, and that's my third point: the process of building loving narratives can be initiated and scaled up at every level of human interaction - in how we choose to respond to local or global issues, and in every aspect of society where there is division, injustice, fear, and separation; in every place where there is disconnection.

The ability to share openly, to listen and truly hear, provides us with the tools we need to connect with people we may not understand or do not recognize. Through this process the stranger becomes less strange. We see the mother in the refugee, the daughter in the prisoner. In loving narratives there is no 'I' or 'you', only 'we.'

Where do these experiences lead us? Much like the powerful resonance that exists in the silence after experiencing a sound, or the ripples that spread across a pond when a stone is cast into water, the reverberations initiated through storytelling support deep healing and connection. The stories are merely vehicles, the first steps on a journey to more conscious and connected communities.

But in the end we must let go of our stories, of words, and move into action, living in the moment and responding to what we see and encounter. We must create new narratives that are not grounded in words, but are rooted in loving presence and connection. And we must be brave.

We must engage in defiant acts of personal exploration, of vulnerability and sharing, of listening and understanding. Our activism must start with ourselves just as it extends to others. We must go out on the longest of limbs to practice love in action.

Matt Hopwood is a Storyteller and a facilitator of sharing spaces. Since 2012 he has run the community project A Human Love Story, based in Sussex. A graduate in Applied Anthropolgy at Goldsmiths University he has also worked alongside community projects in Kenya, Palestine and Israel.

This article was originally published by openDemocracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.
In 2014 the state of South Australia had 39% of annual electricity consumption from renewable energy (33% wind + 6% solar) and, as a result, the state's base-load coal-fired power stations are being shut down as redundant. For several periods the whole state system has operated reliably on a combination of renewables and gas with only small imports from the neighbouring state of Victoria.

The north German states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein are already operating on 100% net renewable energy, mostly wind. The 'net' indicates trading with each other and their neighbours. They do not rely on baseload power stations.

A host of studies agree: baseload power stations are not needed

"That's cheating", nuclear proponents may reply. "They are relying on power imported by transmission lines from baseload power stations elsewhere." Well, actually the imports from baseload power stations are small.

For countries that are completely isolated (e.g. Australia) or almost isolated (e.g. the USA) from their neighbours, hourly computer simulations of the operation of the electricity supply-demand system, based on commercially available renewable energy sources scaled up to 80-100% annual contributions, confirm the practical experience.

In the USA a major computer simulation by a large team of scientists and engineers found that 80-90% renewable electricity is technically feasible and reliable (They didn't examine 100%.) The 2012 report, Renewable Electricity Futures Study. Vol.1. Technical report TP-6A20-A52409-1 was published by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The simulation balances supply and demand each hour.

The report finds that "renewable electricity generation from technologies that are commercially available today, in combination with a more flexible electric system, is more than adequate to supply 80% of total U.S. electricity generation in 2050 while meeting electricity demand on an hourly basis in every region of the United States."

Similar results have been obtained from hourly simulation modeling of the Australian National Electricity Market with 100% renewable energy (published by Ben Elliston, Iain MacGill and I in 2013 and 2014) based on commercially available technologies and real data on electricity demand, wind and solar energy. There are no baseload power stations in the Australian model and only a relatively small amount of storage. Recent simulations, which have yet to be published, span eight years of hourly data.

These, together with studies from Europe, find that baseload power stations are unnecessary to meet standard reliability criteria for the whole supply-demand system, such as loss-of-load probability or annual energy shortfall.

Furthermore, they find that reliability can be maintained even when variable renewable energy sources, wind and solar PV, provide major contributions to annual electricity generation, up to 70% in Australia. How is this possible?

Fluctuations balanced by flexible power stations

First, the fluctuations in variable wind and solar PV are balanced by flexible renewable energy sources that are dispatchable, i.e. can supply power on demand. These are hydro with dams, Open Cycle Gas Turbines (OCGTs) and concentrated solar thermal power (CST) with thermal storage, as illustrated in Figure 2. It 's not essential for every power station in the system to be dispatchable.

Incidentally the gas turbines can themselves be fuelled by 'green gas', for example from composting municipal and agricultural wastes, or produced from surpluses of renewable electricity. More on this below ...

Second, drawing on diverse renewable energy sources, with different statistical properties, provides reliability. This means relying on multiple technologies and spreading out wind and solar PV farms geographically to reduce fluctuations in their total output. This further reduces the already small contribution from gas turbines to just a few percent of annual electricity generation.

Third, new transmission lines may be needed to achieve wide geographic distribution of renewable energy sources, and to multiply the diversity of renewable energy sources feeding into the grid. For example, an important proposed link is between the high wind regions in north Germany and the low wind, limited solar regions in south Germany. Texas, with its huge wind resource, needs greater connectivity with its neighbouring US states.

Fourth, introducing 'smart demand management' to shave the peaks in electricity demand and to manage periods of low electricity supply, can further increase reliability. This can be assisted with smart meters and switches controlled by both electricity suppliers and consumers, and programmed by consumers to switch off certain circuits (e.g. air conditioning, water heating, aluminium smelting) for short periods when demand on the grid is high and/or supply is low.

As summarized by the NREL study: "RE (Renewable Energy) Futures finds that increased electricity system flexibility, needed to enable electricity supply-demand balance with high levels of renewable generation, can come from a portfolio of supply- and demand-side options, including flexible conventional generation, grid storage, new transmission, more responsive loads, and changes in power system operations."

A recent study by Mark Jacobson and colleagues went well beyond the above studies. It showed that all energy use in the USA, including transport and heat, could be supplied by renewable electricity. The computer simulation used synthetic data on electricity demand, wind and sunshine taken every 30 seconds over a period of six years.

Storage or 'windgas' could also manage fluctuations

The above 'flexible' approach may not be economically optimal for the UK and other countries with excellent wind resource but limited solar resource. Another solution to managing fluctuations in wind and solar is more storage, e.g. as batteries or pumped hydro or compressed air.

A further alternative is the 'windgas' scenario recently advocated by Energy Brainpool as a greener and lower cost alternative to the UK's Hinkley C nuclear project. The idea is to use excess wind energy to produce hydrogen gas by electrolysing water and then convert the hydrogen to methane that fuels combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power stations.

In fact, not all the hydrogen needs to be converted into methane, and it's more efficient to keep some of it as hydrogen, a useful fuel in its own right. Another option is to use the hydrogen to make ammonia (NH 3 ) which can both be used as a fuel, and as a feedstock for the fertiliser industry, displacing coal or natural gas.

In Brainpool's scenario, the system is used to replicate the power output of the 3.2GW Hinkley C nuclear power station, and shows it can be done at a lower cost. But in fact, it gets much better than that:

as each wind turbine, CCGT, gas storage unit and 'power to gas' facility is completed, its contribution begins immediately, with no need for the whole system to be built out;

the system would in practice be used to provide, not baseload power, but flexible power to meet actual demand, and so would be much more valuable;

as solar power gets cheaper, it will integrate with the system and further increase resilience and reduce cost;

the whole system creates grid stability and cannot drop out all at once like a nuclear plant, producing negative 'integration costs'.

But in all the flexible, renewables-based approaches set out above, conventional baseload power stations are unnecessary. In the words of former Australian Greens' Senator Christine Milne: "We are now in the midst of a fight between the past and the future".

The refutation of the baseload fairy tale and other myths falsely denigrating renewable energy are a key part of that struggle.

Dr Mark Diesendorf is Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies at UNSW Australia. Previously, at various times, he was a Principal Research Scientist in CSIRO, Professor of Environmental Science and Founding Director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures at University of Technology Sydney, and Director of Sustainability Centre Pty Ltd.

Books: Sustainable Energy Solutions for Climate Change and Climate Action: A campaign manual for greenhouse solutions.
DENNY SIMMONS / THE GLEANER Mary Beth McCollum of Clay, Ky., (left) and Levi Tapp of Dixon, Ky., visit the Tyson information table where Rachel Snyder asnwered their questions at the regional job fair at Henderson Community College Wednesday morning. "We're both in school and we're trying to get an idea of where to go after we graduate," Tapp said.

SHARE

By Laura Acchiardo, laura.acchiardo@thegleaner.com

The Regional Hiring Fair brought employers and potential employees together at Henderson Community College Wednesday.

Businesses throughout the area such as Accuride and J.D. Byrider set up booths for the event in hopes of finding new employees. In partnership with Kyndle, Green River Area Development District and the Kentucky Career Center, HCC hosted 25 businesses in the Sandy Watkins Training Center to connect employers with job seekers.

"We've found a lot of companies that are having a hard time finding qualified workers," said Donna Crooks, Kyndle's vice president of economic development. "There also have been several announcements lately of businesses shutting down."

In past years HCC has hosted job fairs when the need arises. In September, Alliance Resource Partners announced coal mines in Gibson County, Indiana, and Sebree, Kentucky, would stop production, losing 250 jobs. In January, Alcoa in Warrick County, Indiana, announced they would shut down their smelting operations this month, bringing the loss of hundreds of jobs.

"Their employees will be actively looking for employment," said Crooks. "It made sense to hold a job fair to bring the job seekers and employers together."

Whether hoping for a new job or looking to change careers, job seekers were able to find employment options. All companies at the fair had job openings, while several conducted interviews and actually hired candidates that day. Along with employment opportunities, information for higher education was available and community agencies like the Health First Community Health Center offered information for those without medical coverage.

"Information for those services are available here for anyone who needs them for themselves or their families," said Angela Watson, the career services coordinator at HCC.
SHARE

By Erin Schmitt of The Gleaner

Henderson County school officials are waiting for the rest of the puzzle pieces to fall in place as they put together a tentative budget for 2016-17.

One large missing piece is whether Gov. Matt Bevin's proposed state budget, which would cut the Kentucky Department of Education's funding by $72 million over the next two years, is approved by the General Assembly.

Cindy Cloutier, the district's finance director, has been planning budget work sessions to start the task of creating a tentative budget for the 2016-17 school year. The budget must be passed by May 30.

Cloutier has said that budget expenditures are on track, Superintendent Marganna Stanley shared with the school board at a recent work session.

What concerns schools officials are the revenues coming in  or rather the lack of revenues that may come in.

It's unclear whether the governor's state budget, and the proposed cuts, will be passed. "If that's the case we have to plan for maximum reductions, there's just not a choice," said Stanley.

As it is, school officials are looking at areas that will significantly impact planning and budget due to the lack of projected revenue coming in if the governor's state budget passes.

Preschool services funding statewide would receive $4 million less each biennium. Cloutier has put together spreadsheets for the administrative team to study to take a close look at the allocations used to run the Early Learning Center.

The governor's proposed budget would reduce locally operated Career and Technology Education funding by $1 million. This would impact about 42 or 43 centers across Kentucky, including Henderson's.

Stanley said there would also be reduced funding for professional development, safe schools and the gifted and talented program. School officials also plan to take a close look at spending at the alternative school.

"The Family Resource Centers would take a large hit for just the remainder of this year," she said. "That would be about $26,000."

The following year it would be an additional $53,000, and the next year the same amount.

School officials are also looking closely at SEEK money. The Support Education Excellence in Kentucky funding program is a formula-driven allocation of state provided funds to local school districts.

In other business:

Geothermal test wall: MidSouth Geothermal's proposal for a geothermal test wall was approved in the amount of $16,500. The test is being conducted for the Spottsville Elementary project.

Bend Gate: The board approved a change order for a floor replacing project at Bend Gate Elementary School at a cost of $2,116.

Maintenance: Steve Steiner, assistant superintendent of district relations and operations, said his team has been strategically looking at what improvements should be done in regards to maintaining schools. The three areas of focus they keyed into were energy efficiency, safety and pressing needs, and aging equipment.

Installing LED lighting at all of the schools, except for Spottsville and Jefferson which are slated to be replaced, would benefit schools districtwide and save on energy costs, he said.

Gifted and talented: A committee was formed to evaluate gifted and talented education, in part to look at reducing the program's costs. They have been meeting at least once a month since August.

The program has five people  two at the elementary schools, two at the middle schools and one at the high schools. The committee proposed three options: keeping a staff of five, reducing it to four people, or just three.

The school board discussed the option of leaving the staff at five people, but the person at Henderson County High School would also double as the music teacher for the newly proposed school-within-a-school concept called School of Fine Arts.

Technology: The district's devices to technician ratio is somewhat out of balance compared to school systems statewide, said Director of Technology Brian Bailey. There are 841 devices per technician compared to the state average of between 500-600.

To get into a balance of about 588 to 1, Bailey proposed hiring two microcomputer specialist positions as soon as possible and creating a network administrative position for the next school year. The first two positions wouldn't impact the general fund because there's money in the technology budget and the other could be funded through the Kentucky Education Technology Systems project.
SHARE President Barack Obama comments on the passing of the former first lady Nancy Reagan, during his meeting with financial regulators in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, March 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

By Adam Beam, The Associated Press

Democrat Jeff Taylor was at home Monday night, getting ready to have one last campaign rally before Tuesday's special House election in Kentucky, when the phone rang.

It was Barack Obama urging him to vote for Jeff Taylor.

"It was very exhilarating," Taylor said of the recorded phone call that went to households in the Hopkinsville area. "I mean, I am Jeff Taylor!"

Taylor was one of three Democrats to win special House elections on Tuesday, solidifying power in the last legislative body in the South still controlled by Democrats. The recorded phone call from Obama was surprising  even Taylor did not know about it  given that Kentucky Democrats have famously shunned the country's first black president because of his dismal approval ratings in the bluegrass state. Alison Lundergan Grimes, the 2014 Democratic Senate nominee, refused to say if she voted for the president and ran TV ads where she looked at the camera and said "I'm not Barack Obama" while holding a shotgun.

But Taylor, who is black, told everyone he voted for Obama twice, and would vote for him a third time if he could. He said that honesty helped to blunt Republican attacks, which he said included an edited image of him wearing a cheerleading uniform telling voters he would be an Obama cheerleader.

"I'm not selling my soul to get Frankfort," Taylor said. "Me taking ownership of it hurt them."

But a day after the election, Democrats were still not eager to acknowledge the president. No one was willing to take credit for persuading the president to record the call. Jerry Abramson, the former Louisville mayor and lieutenant governor who now works in the White House, declined to comment. So did Jerry Lundergan, the former state party chairman and close friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo said he did not contact the president, proudly adding: "I've never spoken to the president. The last time I was up there I got thrown out of the White House or asked to leave," referencing a July 2014 meeting with White House aides.

When asked if the state party had asked Obama to make the call, state Democratic Party chairwoman, Sannie Overly, paused 10 seconds before answering.

"I did not reach out and ask him to do that," she said. "I'm just very thankful that the president was willing to stand up for our candidates who are willing to stand up for his health care policy."

House Republican Floor Leader Jeff Hoover credited Taylor's victory to Obama's phone call, saying it significantly boosted turnout in Hopkinsville, which has one of the largest African-American populations in the state. But he said Obama's involvement could come back to haunt Democrats as Republicans focus their attention on the fall elections, where all 100 House seats will be up for re-election.

"We are going to point out, and continue to point out, what Barack Obama has done to the people of Kentucky," Hoover said.

Taylor acknowledged that Obama's phone call helped his campaign, adding voters were "very excited to hear his voice." But he said it was not the reason he won.

"It's insulting to think that African-Americans can be so shallow that one phone call made 24 hours before the election would give me a (1,000) vote difference," Taylor said.
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.
Faster loading time (lower bounce rates from)

A faster loading ensures that your site visitors don't leave your site when it starts to load for too long.

Guaranteed dedicated resources

Bandwidth, memory, CPU power, storage of up to 200 GB SSD Storage, NVMe.

Privacy and control (server admin)

You will get total control over digital assets, databases, customer information, and files with no ovhcloud control panel.

Easier scalability

You will able to increase your resources as often as you want easily.

Dedicated IP address

Our VPS services will ensure that you get IPv4 and IPv6 for a reasonable fee.

Other amazing benefits include the following:

- Better capabilities to handle additional websites

- Unaffected by traffic and security of other sites

- Control panel and full root access to your server

- Lower cost than hardware and management of physical servers

A possible reason not to use a VPS hosting provider is that it costs a bit more than shared hosting (but far less costly than physical servers). But the costs arent much higher, and if youve outgrown your shared account, or want the value of the advantages listed above, then its time to upgrade.

Another reason might be a lack of technical knowledge, making VPS servers harder to set up, manage, and secure. But thats why managed VPS hosting is such a good choice.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

NORWALK  Residents left City Hall angry and frustrated Wednesday evening after the chairman of the Common Councils Recreation, Parks and Cultural Affairs Committee advanced plans for a zip-line course at Cranbury Park.

These are the people that pay taxes. Its so bad. Youre not listening to the people and the people that vote you, said Bayne Street resident Angela Karounos. Its wrong. I will move out of here.

Karounos said she has nothing against the park trails, but added that the zip-line course would bring noise and traffic to a quiet part of Norwalk.

Under the plan, Go Ape! Treetop Adventure of Frederick, Maryland, would build and operate a Rope Zip Line Course at the south end of Cranbury Park in the area of the new pavilion and bunkhouse.

About 75 people attended the parks committee meeting, which was moved to the council chambers for lack of space in the adjacent room.

Passions flared after Councilman Travis L. Simms invited public comment and afterward exercised his authority as parks committee chairman to advance the proposal to the full council without a vote.

Out of respect for the committee members that serve on this committee that were not here, and for council members who also want to hear more of this dialogue and discussions and concerns, Im going to take the duty as the chair(man) and move this item to the full council for further discussion, Simms said.

Councilwoman Shannon OToole Giandurco, in whose district the park is located, said she plans to vote against the plan when it comes to the full council.

I try to walk to the park and I almost get hit, said OToole Giandurco, referring to traffic.

While some people brought signs expressing support for the zip line, most were in opposition  Sink The Zip Line and Lets Preserve Cranbury Park  only one person spoke in favor of the plan.

Michael G. Mushak, a former city zoning commissioner, said misinformation has circulated about the plan, which he described as a tree-top adventure course that will exist in the canopy and not destroy trees.

He said supporters of the plan havent expressed their support for fear of being shouted at by a mob.

I think youll hear a lot more from the supporters soon, Mushak said.

Such support wasnt evident Wednesday evening.

We dont need a zip line in this town, said resident Joe DeBone, who described Cranbury Park as woodland with wetlands, deer, birds and other wildlife. Its going to bring people and youre going to have an event like you had last year, 600 people running up and down that park in front of all these peoples places.

Raffaele Ruffo presented the committee petitions with 474 signatures opposed to the zip-line plan.

Matt Forte, co-chairman of the newly formed Cranbury Preservation Association (CPA), gave the panel photographs of oil tanks, roofing materials and construction debris dumped in the area where the zip line has been proposed.

Residents rejected Director of Recreation and Parks Michael A. Mocciae assertion that the fill and debris date back to 40 years ago.

There are fresh tracks of leveling right at the top of the slopes. It is hitting a wetland that you are responsible for, said Diane Lauricella, who has been hired by the CPA to research the issues.

Lauricella said she filed a cease-and-desist request with the citys senior environmental officer Wednesday regarding the filling activity at the park.

Moccia has presented the pavilion, bunkhouse and proposed zip-line course as in keeping with the Master Plan for Cranbury Park.

Gretchen Crowley concluded otherwise.

The master plan says for this section there will be an adventure playground, Crowley said. There is no mention of an outside company coming in and putting in a zip line.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- NASA's next Mars mission is still alive.

Instead of scrapping the grounded Mars InSight spacecraft, the space agency announced Wednesday it's shooting for a 2018 launch. The robotic lander was supposed to lift off this month, but ended up sidelined in December by a leak in a key French instrument. Project managers said the device should be redesigned in time.

May 2018 represents the next available launch window. Opportunities to launch to Mars arise just every two years, based on the alignment of Earth and its neighbor.

The InSight spacecraft aims to study the interior of Mars by drilling deep within. The sensors for the French seismometer need to operate in a vacuum chamber in order to measure subtle ground movements. The vacuum chamber was leaking. The other main science instrument, a German heat-flow probe, was ready to fly.

It's unknown how much the two-year delay will cost. NASA's only other option was to kill the project.

John Grunsfeld, head of NASA's science mission directorate, said the scientific goals are compelling and the repair plans are sound. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, will take over the redesign, building and testing of the vacuum chamber, while the French space agency focuses on the science instrument itself.

"The quest to understand the interior of Mars has been a long-standing goal of planetary scientists for decades," Grunsfeld said in a statement. "We're excited to be back on the path for a launch, now in 2018."

Mars is NASA's prime focus these days. Just last week, astronaut Scott Kelly completed a 340-day mission at the International Space Station that's considered a scientific steppingstone for sending humans to the red planet in the 2030s.

Another NASA Mars lander -- this one a car-sized, wheeled rover -- is scheduled for a 2020 launch.

The red planet already is teeming with active spacecraft, including NASA's Opportunity and Curiosity rovers on the surface, and Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Maven orbiter from high above. Europe has its Express spacecraft in orbit around the red planet.

Europe is launching another Mars mission Monday from Kazakhstan -- an orbiter for measuring atmospheric gases and a lander collectively known as ExoMars 2016.

___

Online:

NASA: http://insight.jpl.nasa.gov/home.cfm
NORWALK -- Two local architects who sit on the SoNo Comeback Task Force believe they've found an innovative way to connect The SoNo Collection to the rest of SoNo while capitalizing on the Norwalk River.

Under the conceptual plan drawn up by architect Bruce Beinfield and landscape architect Eric Rains, a 400-foot dock structure would run along the edge of the Norwalk River in the area of North Water Street.

"SoNo River Esplanade" could become a home to Maritime Aquarium exhibits, historic vessels, a floating oyster bar celebrating the local industry and mall-based retailers of kayaks, paddleboards and fishing gear, according to the architects.

"The goal is to get people that are visiting the mall to get out of the building and onto the streets of South Norwalk before they get back in their cars and leave," Beinfield told fellow task force members Wednesday. "That was the motivation for this thinking and it's just an idea to throw out as a possibility."

The possibility of river esplanade comes as General Growth Properties, Inc. (GGP) moves through zoning review for The SoNo Collection, a proposed million-square-foot regional shopping center that would fill the last dozen acres of the city's Reed Putnam Urban Renewal Plan area off West Avenue and Interstate 95.

GGP has sought to integrate the mall into the existing fabric of Norwalk without harming local businesses or attractions, particularly in nearby SoNo. For example, the mall plan calls for a limited number of restaurants so as not to compete with existing food establishments.

Redevelopment Agency officials have long viewed North Water Street, which would bisect the mall, as an important pedestrian way to the heart of SoNo.

The concept of connecting the mall to The Maritime Aquarium with waterfront attractions is relatively new.

In a narrative of their proposal, Beinfield and Rains note that the Norwalk River is located 100 yards from the east side of the proposed mall. The front entrance to The Maritime Aquarium is 300 yards from the mall. That leaves the Aquarium and Washington Street well within walking distance of mall visitors.

"Since the Norwalk River is at the heart of the city, it has the potential to form an important link between the GGP Mall and The Maritime Aquarium, that invites Mall visitors onto the streets of SoNo, while celebrating the history and culture of the City of Norwalk," they wrote.

Former Norwalk Mayor Bill Collins, chairman of the SoNo Comeback Task Force, found the "SoNo River Esplanade" as put forward to be "exciting" and "innovative."

"And it's good to know what goes on in other towns to adapt some of it to our own place," Collins said.

The architects cited San Francisco, London, Panama City, Miami, Toronto, Amsterdam, Dubai, New York City, Graz, San Antonio, Paris, Ao Nang (Thailand) and Hamburg as cities that have waterfront esplanades with activities.

Kathryn Hebert, the city's administrative services manager and staff person to the Norwalk Parking Authority, described the waterfront area between the mall and The Maritime Aquarium as "very important."

"There will be spinoff, for sure. Even if you get a half a percent of the people going to the mall, that's a lot of people that wouldn't typically go this way," Hebert said. "And you already have The Maritime Garage, so you have parking in this area and all of these open storefronts now, these are all going to be activated."

Beinfield suggested the money collected by the city for an easement over North Water Street -- GGP plans to build above the street to connect the north and south portions of the mall -- could be used to build the esplanade.

GGP Senior Director Douglas T. Adams was not at the task force meeting and said afterward that GGP is not familiar with the specifics of the esplanade plan.

"But (we) do believe that creating a vibrant, exciting, and eclectic hub of activity in the area will be positive for tourists and locals alike," Adams said. "The waterfront is one of Norwalk's most important assets and a plan that connects and engages will benefit everyone."
NORWALK -- Forty years after 14-year-old Maria Anjiras disappeared from her Midwood Road home, Norwalk Police Cold Case Unit investigator Lt. Art Weisgerber would like to bring closure to Maria's remaining family.

Maria's case, one of 24 unsolved Norwalk Cold Cases dating back to 1971, came to Weisgerber's immediate attention when he received an anonymous email last year with a possible lead from the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs).

"The email said that there was a (deceased) Jane Doe in Baltimore City, Maryland in 1976 from someone who thought there was a connection, " he said.

Following correspondence with Baltimore City detectives, it was determined that the Maryland victim was not Maria.

"I'm starting from the beginning again," Weisgerber said. "I've interviewed some of Maria's friends over the past six months in the hope that they may have information that would be useful to the investigation. When they were 14 or 15 years old, they may have been afraid to give police information about when Maria was last seen or when they last heard from her, but there's no criminal aspect to this and they're in their 50's now."

In the hope that someone may have information that will determine Maria's whereabouts, Weisgerber posted the details of the case on the Norwalk Police Department Facebook page:

"On February 12th, 1976 at 5:46 PM, the Norwalk Police received a Missing Person complaint from Mr. Anjiras of 2 Midwood Road that his 14 year old daughter had run away from the house at approximately 2:15 PM. It was reported that Maria left her house on a blue English racer bicycle and was wearing her Norwalk High School jacket with the # 79 and her nickname "Mia". After Maria did not return home in time for her music lesson, Mr. Anjiras checked the homes of some friends and located the bicycle at the home of Judy Altemose at 50 St. Mary's Lane. Judy and other friends of Maria reported to the Police that they had not seen Maria or heard from her."

"Over the next few days, there were reported sightings of Maria at Duchess Restaurant on Main Street and possible in an orange car and a black car in the same general area. She was never located. A list of friends were interviewed several times by the police and all reported not knowing where Maria was or hearing from her. Numerous leads were followed, even the possibility of Maria being with the Charter Oaks Motorcycle Club in Bethel, CT. After September of 1976, little information or leads came in for Maria Anjiras and none of her family or friends reported being contacted by Maria. Mr. Anjiras passed away in 1983 and Mrs. Anjiras a few years later without ever hearing from Maria again."

"In recent years, DNA samples were collected from Maria's older siblings and entered into the University of North Texas database that is linked Nationally to CODIS in an effort to connect Missing Persons to Unidentified Persons/Remains. There is some difficulty in that connection as blood samples were not collected in Unidentified Remains in the 1970's with the intention of developing DNA profiles. Dental and fingerprint identification were more prevalent."

Maria's case is listed on the Norwalk Police website under Cold Cases; in National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs).

"Her parents have passed away, but I'm trying to get a resolution to this for her older brother and sister," Weisgerber said.

Anybody that spoke with Maria Anjiras in the weeks or years after she ran away from home or has information on the location of Maria Anjiras can contact Lt. Art Weisgerber at (203) 854-3028; or aweisgerber@norwalkct.org

Anonymous Internet tips can be sent through the Norwalk police website at: www.norwalkpd.com

Anonymous text tips can be submitted by typing "NPD" into the text field, followed by the message and sending it to CRIMES (274637).
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

NORWALK  In an undercover operation by Norwalk Police Department Special Services Unit (SSU) and NPD Special Victims Unit (SVU), multiple prostitution-related arrests were made on Wednesday in what police said had a human trafficking component.

Police said that the prostitution investigation, which also involved the Connecticut State Police Department Organized Crime Task Force, remains a continuing investigation.

Contact with the suspects was made pursuant to ads on the website Backpage in which the women allegedly posted ads for services in exchange for money, police said.

Meetings were arranged at a Norwalk location on Wednesday. NPD declined to disclose the location given the continuing nature of the investigation.

At approximately 5:30 p.m., five suspects were arrested, including a Bridgeport man who has promotion of prostitution charges pending out of Milford,

Jason Prawl, 28, of 570 Capitol Ave., Bridgeport, was charged with promoting prostitution.

He was issued a $50,000 bond and was arraigned Thursday in Norwalk Superior Court where he was threatened with a charge of contempt of court by Judge Alex Hernandez following an outburst of anger against the prosecutor.

As prosecutor Attorney Donahue was outlining the complaint against him, which allegedly included Prawl giving instructions to the female suspects to make sure nobody is a cop or a weirdo, get on with the date, and get the money first, a shackled Prawl glared at the prosecutor and yelled out, Thats a lie. Thats a lie.

When Donahue indicated that Prawl had been glaring at her, his family members burst into laughter.

Hernandez halted the proceedings and strongly cautioned Prawl that his outburst offended the dignity of the court and violated the decorum of the courtroom. The judge then told the defendant that he could be cited for contempt of court and sentenced to dead time in which he would receive no credit for time served. After Prawl had a short conference with Public Defender Attorney Elizabeth Reid, he said, Alright Im sorry.

Hernandez ordered that Prawls bond would remain at a $50,000 cash bond and said, (Prawl) carries a high threat of violence not only to customers but to the women.

In Prawls Milford case, Norwalk Police said that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was involved in that investigation based on allegations of human trafficking.

At approximately 2 p.m. Sean Lewis, 28, of 16 School St., was taken into custody and charged with promoting prostitution. He was issued a $1,000 bond and given a court date of March 18.

Kaitlin Long, 24, of no known address, was charged with prostitution at that time. She was issued a $1,000 bond and given a court date of March 18.

In the second undercover arrest that day, at around 5:10 p.m., Paris Lacy, 23, of 57 Beaver Ln., Bridgeport, N.Y. was charged with possession of narcotics and prostitution. Police said that she was in possession of cocaine. She was given a court date of March 18.

Also arrested were:

Paula Koonce, 19, of 2600 Marion Ave., Bronx, N.Y., who was charged with prostitution. She was issued a $1,500 bond and given a court date of March 18.

Alondra Adames, 19, of 570 Capitol Ave., Bridgeport was charged with interfering with an officer. She was given a court date of March 18.

Shaquanna Wheeler, 19, of 215 South Clinton Ave., E. Orange, N.J., was charged with prostitution. She was issued a $1,500 bond and given a court date of March 18.

Paris Lacy, 23, of 57 Beaver Ln., Bridgeport, N.Y. was charged with possession of narcotics and prostitution. She was given a court date of March 18.

Police said that an undisclosed amount of cash was seized as well as the vehicle that Adames was driving.
I am a patron of the Centura School District due to owning land and actively farming in the Dannebrog/Cairo area since the mid-70s. A look at the taxes paid in this district in the last 10 years  that is, 2006-2016  shows who is paying the bill.

A typical irrigated farm in Howard County paid property taxes that increased from $6,709 to $17,577, or an increase of 162 percent. A typical residential home in Cairo with 2004 square feet living area increased from $3,500 to $3,567, an increase of 2 percent, during the same time period. This shows that the increase in budgets for this school district came mostly from one segment of the population.

A look at the budgets of the Centura School District shows a substantially increased budget and cost per student figure for the most recent three years of approximately 39 percent.

Budget year Amount budgeted Cost per student

2013-14 $9,095,459 $17,799

2014-15 $10,515,895 $21,201

2015-16 $12,605,588 $26,205

I am understanding that LB1059 was passed in 1990 to address the over-reliance on property tax and limit the growth of spending by school districts. State aid was started with the idea that it would help with this shift. The problem with the bill is that it only applies the growth limits to a portion of the total budget. In the case of Centura, the budget authority for 2015-16 under the growth rate of 2.5 percent is $6,628,229 and the budget is $12,604,588, which means only 53 percent of the budget is under a growth rate constraint. The rest of the budget is limited only by the mill cap rate, which is 1.05 mills. The increase in valuation during the past four to five years allows this portion of the budget to increase at the discretion of the school board and school superintendent.

It would appear that greed and deceit are a factor in our current property tax crises. Excess monies in the budget are deposited in accounts such as the Special Building Fund, which was set at $1,170,000, or an increase of $802,345 for this year. Also, the carryover dollars from 2014-15 were $4,100,573, or 39 percent of the budget. This is reported to be used for expenses in the next fiscal year until the income is received, but it can also be used on projects without patron votes. The carryover from the 2013-14 budget was $2,051,912. The school and the Department of Education like to talk about the spending and not the budget, but the fact is the budget dollars are spent over time and only a portion are used for carryover expenses.

Another interesting note would be to look at educator salaries. Due to the legislative transparency act, the salary contract for superintendents is public information, and it is somewhat disturbing to find our local leader at Centura is paid $194,801 in salary and benefits. This is an increase of 30 percent from last years contract of $150,283. The July minutes of the board show a change of 1.6 percent, with no mention of increased insurance benefits and paying the employee share of retirement, FICA and Medicare, totaling an additional $41,992. The student census in the Centura district is 481. Compare this to other superintendents in the region. Yorks earns $211,760, with 1,365 students; Elwood, $145,793, with 222 students; St. Paul, $183,570, with 709 students; and Adams Central, $189,837, with 917 students.

A Feb. 22 article in the Omaha World-Herald points out that despite spending more dollars, Nebraska failed to keep pace with the rate of student improvement in other states. According to the nonprofit group Educate NE, only 16 other states spent more than Nebraskas average per-student cost of $11,579 in fiscal year 2013. It is also worth noting that in Iowa, the average tax on 500 acres of agriculture land is $10,500 or $21 per acre. Similar land in Nebraska would be taxed at $60 to $100 per acre.

The decadent increases in school budgets are not enhancing the quality of education for most students, and the control of this spending in the end will only be affected by involvement of local patrons. Reliance on property tax must be changed, but that is a difficult achievement in a unicameral system that represents a broad diversity.
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.
Laumeier Sculpture Park presents Gigi Scaria: Time, April 16-August 14, 2016. The multimedia exhibition consists of recent photographs, films and a large sculpture inside the Whitaker Foundation Gallery at the Adam Aronson Fine Arts Center, plus an outdoor commission located in Laumeiers Museum Circle. Gigi Scaria: Time is organized by Dana Turkovic, Laumeiers Curator of Exhibitions.

New Delhi-based artist Gigi Scarias work focuses on "social mapping"whether territorial, cultural, environmental or of the hierarchies and systems of our global communities. Each element draws on these themes, continuing Scarias inquiry into time, migration, community collapse and the beauty in labor and collaboration. He explores the layers of ancient cultures as they get subsumed in the worlds mega-cities and reflects on the unique form of city-building that exists in St. Louis by cross-pollinating the disappearing architecture and symbols from New Delhi with the Woodhenge at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site.

This show is an attempt to observe the intricacies of the phenomena called ' time,' said Scaria. Memories and histories of our 'time' are slipping into the whirlpool of change, which is only understood by the notion called 'speed. Invoking the Mounds at Cahokia to the present-day crisis of widespread migrant population, Time tries to grab our time through many perspectives. This is the first time my large-scale sculptural work will be exhibited in a public space abroad. I am really excited for this opportunity at Laumeier, and am looking forward to the interaction of the Parks visitors with my work.

Scarias practice focuses on the hurried transformation of cityscapesmore specifically, the sprawl of New Delhi and the chaotic demolition and displacement throughout impoverished areas. With a layer of satire and cynicism, his abstracted structuresboth imagined and constructedexplore the themes and experience of time in an analysis of urban architecture and investigate the past, present and future of his location and the permanence and impermanence of personal and social space.

Gigi Scaria: Time is part of Laumeiers new five-year programming theme, New Territories: BRICS, 2015-19. New Territories takes a broad look at the worlds cultural zones as they have directly and indirectly impacted life in St. Louis. Projects and activities under New Territories will twist the economic acronym BRICS [Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa] beyond the market forces driving the global economy.

Laumeier Sculpture Park is free and open daily from 8:00 a.m.-30 minutes past sunset. The Adam Aronson Fine Arts Center is open Wednesday-Sunday from 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. during exhibitions only.

What:

Gigi Scaria: Time

Supported by Joan and Mitch Markow and Ellen and Durb Curlee

Where:

Laumeier Sculpture Park, 12580 Rott Road, Saint Louis, Missouri 63127

Adam Aronson Fine Arts Center, Museum Circle

When:

Saturday, April 16-Sunday, August 14, 2016

Public Opening: Saturday, April 16, 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

Gigi Scaria has curated a series of films in collaboration with Webster University Film Series Director James Harrison. The films will be screened at the Webster University Winifred Moore Auditorium located at 470 East Lockwood, Saint Louis, Missouri 63119. Tickets are $6 for general admission and $5 for Laumeier Members, Webster University alumni, senior citizens and students. All tickets will be sold at the door.

Kutty Srank (The Sailor of Hearts), Directed by Shaji N. Karun / Thursday, May 26 / 7:30 p.m.

Satya (Truth), Directed by Ram Gopal Varma / Thursday, June 23 / 7:30 p.m.

Stalker, Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky / Thursday, July 21 / 7:30 p.m.

Artist Biography

Gigi Scaria was born in 1973 in Kothanalloor, Kerala, India. He received his M.F.A. in Painting at Jamia Millia University, New Delhi, in 1998 and his B.F.A. in Painting from the College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram, in 1995. Scarias works have been included in a number of important exhibitions and venuesmost notably, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2014 and the India Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale, the 3rd Singapore Biennale and the Prague Biennale, all in 2011. He has had solo exhibitions at the Smart Museum of Art-The University of Chicago; Ian Potter Museum of Art-The University of Melbourne; Dubai Art Fair, United Arab Emirates; Gallery Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai; Galerie Christain Hosp, Berlin; Video Space, Budapest; The National Art Studio, Changdong, Seoul; Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi; and the Inter America Space, Trinidad. He has also exhibited at India China Contemporary Art, Shanghai; Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei; Helsinki City Art Museum; Kulturhuset, Stockholm; and at Vadehra Art Gallery, London; The Jewish Museum, New York; The 4th International video art Biennial, Tel Aviv; National Gallery of Modern Art Bangalore; Govett Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand; Helsinki City Art Museum, Finland; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; and The Newark Museum, New Jersey, among many others. Scaria lives and works in New Delhi.
Warning!

Only registered members are allowed to access this section.

Please login below or register an account with iSONEWS.

Login
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Agnes Anya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 10, 2016

The Jakarta administration is reconsidering its decision to ban the integrated bus network (APTB) from the capital after the buses' operators proposed a dialogue.



Jakarta Transportation Agency head Andri Yansah said that considering the high demand for public transportation in the capital, he would reconsider the policy.



Last Saturday, the administration issued a notice banning the operation of APTB buses in the capital following their operators' refusal to comply with the administration's demand that they charge passengers a flat fare. As of Sunday, APTB buses have not been allowed to enter the capital.



'The operators want their buses to operate again in the capital to fulfill demand for transportation between satellite cities and Jakarta,' Andri said recently. 'We will allow their operation if several requirements are met.'



Andri said that the APTB buses could operate in the capital as long as they picked up and dropped off passengers only from Transjakarta bus stops.



The operator is also prohibited from charging passengers commuting from and to Tangerang, Bekasi, Bogor and Jakarta more than Rp 3,500 (25 US cents) ' a flat fare the administration wants passengers to be charged. In comparison, a recent fare for an APTB bus ride from Ciputat in South Tangerang to Blok M in South Jakarta was Rp 10,000.



He further said if the operators complied with the policy, the administration would pay them a per-kilometer tariff.



On Monday, Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama said that APTB operators had violated regulations for a long time by operating buses in the capital without paying taxes to the administration.



He added that the city would soon receive 600 buses from the Transportation Ministry. Of the 600 buses, 400 are set to replace buses in the APTB fleet. The new buses, now undergoing road feasibility tests, are scheduled to commence operating at the end of March.



The governor then called on the APTB operators to join the Transjakarta management system.



'If they don't want to join us, we will take over their routes. We will increase the number of our buses,' Ahok said, adding that if the operators continued to send buses into Jakarta, the administration would confiscate the vehicles.



As of Monday, around six APTB fleets had been impounded by the administration for continuing to operate in the capital. Meanwhile, one of six APTB operators, Perum PPD, said that it preferred to not operate in the capital than have its fleet impounded by the Jakarta administration.



PPD was among six APTB operators that agreed in January to join Transjakarta's management after a year of tortuous discussion and negotiation. The other operators are PT Bianglala Metropolitan, PT Mayasari Bakti, PT Sinar Jaya Megah Langgeng, PT Hiba Utama and PT Agra Mas.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Farida Susanty (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 10, 2016

State airport operator Angkasa Pura II (AP II) has said it will sign an agreement with Lion Air Group to jointly manage Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in Jakarta, a move that may resolve a prolonged dispute regarding management of the facility.



Over the past few years, the two companies have been locked in a legal battle over the right to manage the airport, a former air force base that currently shares its airstrip and flight slots with commercial aircraft.



The dispute stemmed from an agreement between the Air Force Cooperative (Inkopau) and Lion subsidiary Angkasa Transportindo Selaras (ATS) to manage the airport back in 2005; AP II still manages the airport to date, prompting ATS to file a lawsuit against both Inkopau and Lion Group.



In 2014, the Supreme Court issued a cassation ruling in favor of ATS. AP II later filed a case review request with the court, which issued a ruling rejecting the request on Feb. 16.



In response to the ruling, AP II corporate secretary Agus Haryadi said that his company was expecting to seal an agreement with Lion, the country's largest low-cost carrier, regarding the management of the airport by the end of this year.



'We already have a framework on how we will work together with Lion,' Agus said on Tuesday.



'However, there have been tough discussions on several issues, including whether Lion will have the right to propose a name for the general manager position in the management'.



Under the planned cooperation scheme, ATS will be the investor in the airport and AP II its operator, Agus said.



AP II currently holds around Rp 200 billion (US$15.2 million) in assets at the airport, which the company expects to be converted into shares under the new management.



Located in East Jakarta, Halim previously served as a non-commercial airport for state visits or military exercises. In January 2014, the airport began its commercial operations, serving as a secondary airport to lighten the burden on Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, which processes over 1,000 flights daily.



The anticipated AP II ' Lion cooperation, Agus said, was expected to increase the number of flight slots at Halim and boost the number of passengers from the current 1.5 million to 5 million.



He added that Lion Group had informed AP II that it would prepare investment in the airport, though the details remain uncertain.



Lion, which does not possess an airport operator permit (BUBU) from the Transportation Ministry, meanwhile, earlier signaled that it would work with AP II to manage the airport.



In a recent press statement, Lion Group president director Edward Sirait said that the group did not intend to fully take over management of the airport from AP II, but would invest in the airport's development.



'Lion Air Group will cooperate with other airport business entities such as AP II. We have no intention to take over everything,' he said.



While the information about the ruling is available on the court's website, Agus claimed that his company had not received an official copy.



The cooperation with Lion, he said, could only proceed once AP II had received and studied the ruling.



The company, Agus said, would spend Rp 46.6 billion this year for maintenance at Halim; the funds will be used to replace the airport's lighting, buy new generators and install new fire alarm systems, among other things.



'We allocated the funds last year when the legal problem was still ongoing,' Agus said.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Raul Dancel (The Jakarta Post) Manila  Thu, March 10, 2016

President Benigno Aquino has named one of his closest aides - a former classmate informally designated "little President" - as the Philippines' new foreign minister.

Jose Rene Almendras was energy minister before Aquino appointed him Secretary to the Cabinet, a post equivalent to a chief of staff, in 2012.

Aquino, 56, told reporters Wednesday: "He has my utmost trust and confidence.

"But at the end of the day, it's his commitment to stay with me, through all of the hardship in this post, with the expectation that he will do it for only 113 days."

Aquino will step down in June.

Meanwhile, Almendras, 55, is expected to toe Aquino's hawkish line towards China.

The President had pressed for the filing of a 4,000-page case with an international court in The Hague in 2013, claiming that China's claims to nearly all of the 3.5 million sq km South China Sea are violations of international laws.

Aquino has also backed a 998 billion peso (US$56 billion) military modernization program, as well as closer ties with the United States, Japan and Vietnam, to build a more credible force to challenge China in the high seas. On Wednesday, Aquino announced that the Philippines will be leasing five surveillance aircraft from Japan for longer-range patrols in disputed waters.

Defending his choice of foreign minister, Aquino told reporters that Almendras had been his "troubleshooter" in some crucial foreign policy matters.

Almendras led negotiations in 2013 that headed off plans by Hong Kong to impose punitive sanctions on the Philippines over a hostage crisis in 2010 that cost the lives of eight Hong Kong tourists.

He also led talks that year to placate Taiwan, after a Philippine Coast Guard unit shot at a Taiwanese fishing boat, killing its captain.

Taipei had threatened to stop renewing the work permits of thousands of Filipinos working in Taiwan because of the incident.

Insiders said Almendras is part of a circle of three former university classmates of Aquino who are often at his side at social events, overseas trips and when he wants to unwind, usually during karaoke sessions.

Almendras was president of Manila Water Company, one of two big corporations supplying water in metropolitan Manila, when Aquino named him energy minister in 2010.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Agung Parameswara (The Jakarta Post) Gianyar  Thu, March 10, 2016

Held on the eve of Nyepi, the Hindu Day of Silence, Mesabatan api is a unique tradition from Pakraman Nagi village in Gianyar regency, 30 kilometers from Denpasar, Bali.

At sunset, 15 young men played gamelan instruments at a brisk tempo. Meanwhile, other youngsters standing opposite a field were burning dry coconut fibers, taking only five minutes to set the heap alight.



A gripping atmosphere prevailed as two main lights in the location were turned off.



'Inggih rarisan,' a man said in Balinese, sending dozens of bare-breasted young men with headdresses and checkered cloths scurrying and kicking the burning husks. So the Mesabatan api (battle of fire) ritual began.



Amid the chaos, two youths picked up pieces of blazing coconut husks with their bare hands. One of them threw the burning material at the other's back, which was retaliated with a toss at the face. In the dark, the fire battle between the youths created an intriguing spectacle.



They were laughing and rejoicing in the ritual. 'I've practiced this tradition since I attended senior high school. I feel no pain and heat during the battle, it's just warm and exciting,' said Wayan Ekayana. The pain sets in the day after.



'We usually treat injuries with shredded turmeric and coconut oil, which helps them heal within three days,' he said.



Jasri village in Karangasem has a similar tradition called Ter-teran which is also held on pengerupukan, the eve of Nyepi.



On the same day, Bali's Hindu community also organizes a parade of ogoh-ogoh (giant effigies), a manifestation of Bhuta Kala in fearsome form. The ogoh-ogoh are eventually burned to visualize the neutralization of negative forces.



After all the rituals, a new moment begins. When everything becomes quiet, the whole community is invited to enter the Day of Silence with brand new vigor as they hope to discover the true meaning of life for humanity and the entire universe
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Stefani Ribka and Haeril Halim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 10, 2016

The National Police named on Tuesday a second suspect in the investigation into the allegedly corrupt procurement of 10 container cranes for state-owned port operator PT Pelindo II. He is Haryadi Budi Kuncoro, a former senior manager with the port operating company.



Haryadi, the younger brother of former deputy chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Bambang Widjojanto, is being held as a result of his direct involvement in the procurement of the cranes.



'Haryadi is the one who put the procurement plan into the budget without sufficient analysis. He also designed the specifications that led to specific suppliers,' head of the police's money laundering crimes unit (TPPU) Sr. Comr. Golkar Pangarso told the media.



Haryadi is the second suspect named by the police, after former operations and technical director Ferialdy Nurlan, in their investigation into the case since it began in August last year. The Supreme Audit Agency's (BPK) 2015 audit report shows the procurement of the cranes led to possible state losses of Rp 37.9 billion (US$2.9 million).



The deputy head of the police's special economic crimes directorate, Sr. Comr. Agung Setya, said the police would summon Haryadi on March 14 for interrogation.



As of Tuesday, the police had questioned 75 witnesses, including former Pelindo II president director Richard Joost Lino.



The police allege the purchase of the 10 cranes for Tanjung Priok Port was a case of money laundering as the procurement was not based on the port's priority list and had involved suspicious payment terms.



In 2011, Pelindo II purchased 10 cranes from Guangxi Narishi Century Equipment Co. Ltd. after tenders from other companies had failed. Guangxi offered the cranes at Rp 45.6 billion.



After the deal was made, Pelindo II changed the contract twice. First in December 2012 when the company changed the payment terms from four payments to three. The second change took place in August 2013, when it changed the placement of the cranes, which had originally been designated for ports outside Java, to Tanjung Priok Port.



The police have also questioned regional port heads to find out whether they had asked for the cranes that led to the procurement contract in the first place. The latter claimed that there was no such need for the cranes.



The police believe Guangxi, the tender winner, lacked experience and skill in heavy equipment, so the reasons for choosing the firm are not clear.



However, Lino has repeatedly told reporters that the procurement went through the correct procedure and had since benefited the state.



Lino has also been implicated in another case related to Pelindo II. He was named a suspect by the KPK in December over the procurement of three other cranes in 2010. He appointed Wuxi Huadong Heavy Machinery Science and Technology Group as crane supplier but the KPK regard this as a procedural violation as the procurement did not go through a tender process. Lino said the direct appointment had to be made after the failure of nine tenders.



In a separate case, the Supreme Court on Wednesday reminded the South Jakarta District Court not to approve a recent pretrial motion submitted to the court challenging Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo's decision to drop the prosecutions of former KPK leaders Abraham Samad and Bambang through the deponering mechanism.

____________________________________________

To receive comprehensive and earlier access to The Jakarta Post print edition, please subscribe to our epaper through iOS' iTunes, Android's Google Play, Blackberry World or Microsoft's Windows Store. Subscription includes free daily editions of The Nation, The Star Malaysia, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia News.

For print subscription, please contact our call center at (+6221) 5360014 or subscription@thejakartapost.com
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin The Jakarta Post  Thu, March 10, 2016

Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain says the voices of Pakistan and Indonesia, by the sheer size of their populations, can make a difference in the Muslim world, including in the search for a just solution for the people of Palestine and in fighting against the rise of religious extremism and terrorism. President Mamnoon took part in the Extraordinary Summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to discuss the Palestinian issue in Jakarta this week. He spoke with The Jakarta Post's Endy M. Bayuni. Here are excerpts from the interview:



Question: Can the OIC do more in the search for a just solution for Palestine beyond making declarations?



Answer: The OIC was founded because of the Palestinian problem. This is the biggest organization, or forum, after the United Nations. The conferences and deliberations by the OIC have been successful in the past. The Muslim ummah [community] succeeded in raising the Palestinian flag at the United Nations. Now, they [Palestinians] can tell their problems to people coming from all parts of the world at the forum of the United Nations.



The Palestinian people are resolved that they will continue their struggle until they reach the required goal of getting back their land, their houses and of making Al-Quds Al-Sharif [Jerusalem] the capital of their state. Insya Allah [God willing], the time will come that they will be successful in their endeavor, with the help of the OIC and other Muslim countries and their friends in the world.



But can't Pakistan and Indonesia, being the largest Muslim-majority countries, do more?



Pakistan and Indonesia, being the most populated countries in the Muslim world, have their own importance, and they are doing something for the people of Palestine, whether individually, or as is always a very strong point, jointly in some international forum such as the OIC. When they join hands, their voices are more strong, and are heard not only in the United Nations but also in different parts of the world. With this resolve by Indonesia and Pakistan, they will continue and will be supporting the Palestinian people in their struggle to get back their land from the Israelis.



Should there be a common OIC stance against the Islamic State (IS) movement that is threatening many Muslim-majority countries?



This IS or Daesh and al-Qaeda have created a great problem for humanity. They claim to be good Muslims but I think they are not Muslims at all. They are misguided people. Pakistan has a very comprehensive plan to combat the militants of these organizations. In Pakistan there is no organized presence of Daesh. There are individuals who claim that they belong to these organizations. The militancy in Pakistan was created by the war in Afghanistan, not by Daesh. Because Daesh is creating problems in different parts of the world, we [Pakistan] are with the Muslim countries, with the world who wants to fight against this menace.



The Sunni-Shia tension is tearing apart the Muslim world. Do you have any suggestion on resolving this?



The basic teaching and message from the Prophet, peace be upon him, was that all Muslims in the world are brothers. I don't think brothers should have such points of view like Sunni, Shia or segregation from any other points of view. This is not the teaching of Islam. A man can have his own ideas, his own faith. I don't think there is any serious problem because of this divide of Shia-Sunni. Even if it is there, I am sure forums like the OIC and other forums of Muslim countries will solve it. For example, on the recent problem between Saudi Arabia and Iran, I am sure we will be able to bring them together. In a day or two, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is going to visit Saudi Arabia and [Iranian] President [Hassan] Rouhani will be coming to Pakistan by the end of this month. If there is some issue, we will try to help and to end that issue between those two countries.



Is Islam compatible with democracy?



Islam gives basic rights to everybody. Democracy follows it and democratic systems have the same approach toward the rights of human beings. In democratic systems, governments always have in mind to bring prosperity and to keep in mind the rights of the different people of different segments. I don't think there is any conflict between democratic values and Islam. In democracy, most of the teachings in Islam we follow because they are mostly concerned with the values of human beings. Democracy is a system where human values come above all other considerations.



Can Indonesia and Pakistan work together in countering religious extremism and terrorism?



We are already working together against this militancy, terrorism and extremism. Pakistan is fighting an organized war against these militants, and we have achieved great successes. Indonesia and Pakistan are cooperating with each other. The whole Muslim world is conscious of the problems of these militant Daesh and al-Qaeda. I am sure that with the passage of time, the cooperation between different Muslim countries, especially Pakistan and Indonesia, will grow to more heights.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta  Thu, March 10, 2016

The public should not be concerned about a potential influx of workers as a result of the implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) at the start of this year, a minister has said.

'The AEC has often been misunderstood - there are a lot of myths surrounding it that worry people,' said Manpower Minister Muhammad Hanif Dhakiri in a meeting with the House of Representatives' Commission IX overseeing labor affairs on Thursday.

'Many people think foreign workers will flock into the country, but that's not entirely true,' he went on.

Hanif said the number of foreign workers coming to Indonesia had in fact decreased over the past five years, from 77,000 in 2011 to 69,000 in 2015. After the implementation of the AEC, foreign workers may only be employed in certain jobs, covering eight professions and 12 sectors. Most of the jobs are in the line of managers, directors, advisors, commissioners, expert technicians or expert supervisors, the minister explained.

The AEC is one of three ASEAN pillars, alongside the ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC) and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC). The primary goal of the AEC is to create a single market among ASEAN nations. However, questions still arise among the public about the potential impacts of the AEC on the country's business environment.

'People are worried that foreign workers will flood into Indonesia while our local workers are not yet ready to compete,' said lawmaker Djoni Rolindrawan at the meeting.

Hanif said the government planned to improve the quality of Indonesian workers, providing them with better education and training programs. School-age children should go to a good-quality school and uneducated people of productive age should be offered good-quality training courses in the field of their choice, he noted.

'The standard of our education and training programs should be balanced. If there is a certification program for teachers, there should also be an instructor certification program. If there are scholarships for students, there should be scholarship offers for trainees too,' said Hanif. (vps/ebf)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin The Jakarta Post  Thu, March 10, 2016

Nothing is unusual about the police's efforts to rebuild their reputation, the latest being the Turn Back Crime campaign, which takes the form of nationwide sales of merchandise related to the now-popular slogan and cops appearing in the campaign's dark blue polo shirts while on duty, just to name a few.



The law-enforcement agency unsurprisingly needs as many PR activities as possible to keep the public's confidence intact amid allegations that corrupt practices have infected both the rank and file and the top brass.



But the repeated escape of a former low-ranking officer, Labora Sitorus, despite the Supreme Court sentencing him to 15 years' imprisonment in 2014 for illegal logging, fuel hoarding and money laundering, is indicative of the long and winding road the police must take to restore their good name.



Labora surrendered to the West Papua Police early on Monday after a siege at an empty house in Sorong, where he had sought shelter for three days. Later in the day he was transferred to Cipinang Penitentiary in East Jakarta to serve his prison term.



It was partly the persistent, widespread media coverage of Labora's evasion that put pressure on the police to act against the ex-cop, who was taken to court after the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) discovered suspicious transactions in his bank accounts, which contained Rp 1.5 trillion (US$113 million).



Labora, however, seemed to enjoy special treatment despite his imprisonment, probably because of the huge sum of money he controls. Several times he left the prison either for medical treatment or family visits without a proper escort, allowing him to obstruct justice, which eventually forced the police to rearrest him.



As Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly stated in response to Labora's easy access to freedom, 'rogue officials' might have extended a helping hand to the convict. Yasonna might be referring to Sorong prison wardens who in fact fall under his auspices, but an investigation to shed light on why Labora could gain reprieves from his sentence should go beyond the flawed penitentiary system.



From the beginning, the probe into Labora's case raised many eyebrows as it was entrusted to the police, rather than an outside institution like the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), which is undoubtedly more credible and has no conflicts of interest regarding the case.



When interviewed by the media at his hideout last year, Labora said he was simply a victim of foul play involving the police top brass in Jakarta and Papua, and therefore asked for witness protection before naming his partners in crime.



Follow-up investigations to uncover the beneficiaries of Labora's crimes or those who may have protected him are imperative. Police cooperation is therefore a must if they are to clean up their tarnished image.



While the Turn Back Crime campaign is just cosmetic, facilitating a thorough investigation into the Labora case would help the police prove wrong those who doubt their credibility.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Khoirul Amin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 10, 2016

The government needs to pay more attention to the service sector, which is constantly growing, as commodity prices slump and the manufacturing industry faces flat growth, experts and industry players have said.



Mari Elka Pangestu, an economist and former trade minister, said Tuesday the service sector could be an alternative engine of growth and could serve as a tool to boost competitive advantage amid unfavorable commodity prices.



'Besides adding value to the manufacturing industry, it is also very much feasible to jack up trade with services,' she said.



The government is now pushing hard to provide added value in the manufacturing industry to stimulate growth and offset low commodity and oil prices. The non-oil and gas manufacturing industry grew by only 5.04 percent last year, far lower than the initial target of around 6 percent.



Sigma Sembada Group chairman Chris Kanter said the service sector was of great importance for supporting national growth.



'Infrastructure development has always been on top of the national agenda, but I think services also need to be made a priority,' said Chris, who chairs the board of founders at the Indonesia Services Dialogue (ISD).



The services industry, which covers various sectors from transportation to communications, has made a growing contribution to gross domestic product (GDP), from 45 percent in 2000 to 55 percent in 2012, according to ISD data.



The data has also revealed that the service industry provided jobs to 21.7 million people from 2000 to 2010, far higher than the 2.2 million jobs created by the manufacturing industry during the same period.



Mari, who is also a former tourism and creative economy minister, said the government needed to be more open to foreign talent developing sectors that were lagging behind.



'However, it must be assured that a transfer of knowledge and technology prevails,' she said.



A member of the board of directors at cigarette giant PT HM Sampoerna, Yos Adiguna Ginting, said his company used various services throughout the manufacturing process.



Its products rely on services such as logistics and packaging before arriving at end-consumers, he said, signaling that the potential for the service industry was huge.



Compared to regional peers like the Philippines and India, which are famous for their outsourced call center services, Indonesia is still lagging behind in providing services in the global value chain.



'Call centers probably aren't our strength, but graphic design, animation or anything to do with drawing or the arts; we win,' said Mari when asked which service sectors the country could capitalize on.



In garment manufacturing, for example, the country should also aim to increase fashion design and eventually have its own brands, she added.



Arianto Patunru, a professor at the Australian National University (ANU), said developing global-standard education and hospital services would also be a great tool for preventing money from flowing overseas.



The Health Ministry has previously revealed that as many as 600,000 Indonesians traveled overseas for medical treatment in 2012, a surge from 350,000 people in 2010.



It is also estimated that total medical spending by Indonesians overseas hit US$1.4 billion in 2012, up from only $500 million in 2010.



In an attempt to open up a discussion on services with the public, the ISD is set to hold the Sadli Lecture and the International Services Summit 2016 on April 12 in partnership with ANU and University of Indonesia.



Set to present at the summit are a number of high-ranking officials, such as Trade Minister Thomas Lembong, Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution and Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Farida Susanty (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 10, 2016

Only 10 percent of construction experts in the country are certified, raising concerns over the capacity of domestic human resources to compete with workers from other Southeast Asian countries amid the implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).



Among skilled laborers, certification levels reach around 30-40 percent of the total number, according to data from the National Construction Service and Development Board (LPJKN).



'More than Rp 100 trillion was allocated to the sector this year, and Rp 5.5 quadrillion over the next five years. We're ready for the AEC, but we have to increase the proportion of certified workers,' said Insannul Kamil, a top official with the West Sumatra Construction Service and Development Board, on Tuesday.



He was referring to the budget of the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry, one of President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo's strategic bodies, which was recorded at Rp 104 trillion (US$7.88 billion) this year.



The ministry is expected to receive Rp 5.5 quadrillion over the next five years.



Insannul said the board aimed to increase certified skilled construction labor to 60 percent in order to compete with the country's ASEAN neighbors.



The move chimes with the ministry's directorate general of construction's target to add 750,000 new certified laborers by 2019. The ministry also launched a mobile training unit (MTU) to be deployed in South Sumatra on Tuesday, in order to boost training and certification for construction laborers.



Insannul meanwhile criticized the plan to revise the 1999 law on construction and overhaul the process of certification of construction workers. The bill, which is slated for deliberation in May, will give construction associations the authority to issue certification for members through a new agency ' the Construction Service Registration and Certification Body (BRSJK) ' to be set up later.



'The government will decide who certifies the workers, whether to set up a new body or to maximize the role of the current construction association,' he said.



The bill will also address other issues such as the organization of the construction industry, payment of workers and the criminalization of failing construction.



Previously, legislator Muhidin Mohamad Said said that once the bill was passed into law, it would also empower construction associations to certify their members, with accreditation given by the certification body.



Muhidin said there would be requirements for an association before it was authorized to certify, including having a certain number of branches across the country.



Meanwhile, LPJKN official Darma Tyanto Saptodewo said several issues in the bill should be harmonized with existing laws on certification, such as the Standardization and Appropriateness Evaluation Law.



The bill, Darma added, needed to create a system that removed any chance for associations to sell certification to certain groups.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Djemi Amnifu (The Jakarta Post) Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara  Thu, March 10, 2016

Indonesian fishermen reportedly handed over six undocumented Bangladeshi migrants to authorities in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, claiming they had been tricked by Australian naval officers into taking the undocumented migrants into Indonesian territory.

The fishermen said they were first told that the six people they had been entrusted with were Indonesian fishermen whose ship sunk while fishing in Indonesian and Australian waters.

'We later found out that six of the eight people were foreigners while the two Indonesians acted as their guides,' Gab Oma, 39, a fisherman from Oesapa, Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, told thejakartapost.com on Wednesday evening. Accompanied by fellow fishermen Muhamad Hatta, Hamzah, and Soewardi, Gab explained the chronology of their encounter with the six Bangladeshis.

Before handing over the migrants, Gab said, the Australian naval officers gave him and his fellow fishermen two bags of rice weighing 10 kilograms each, two boxes of mineral water, fuel in two jerry cans with a capacity of 30 liters each, 14 cans of soda, eight life jackets and snacks.

'After we accepted the supplies and fuel, they escorted the migrants and their smugglers onto our boat,' said Gab.

After learning that six of the men were undocumented migrants, Gab said, he and his fellow fishermen tried to turn down the request to help them, but the naval vessel quickly moved back into Australian territory.

'If we knew that those people were undocumented migrants, we would have said no from the start. They told us that they found fishermen whose vessel sank and we thought they were Indonesian. Apparently, they were Bangladeshi migrants,' Gab deplored.

He further said that in February, an Indonesian fishing boat sank while fishing in Indonesian and Australian waters. Australian naval officers helped rescue seven fishermen during the incident and entrusted them with an Indonesian fishermen boat.

'Frankly, we felt tricked,' said Gab.

As the six people are undocumented migrants, he said, the Australian navy should have handed them over directly to the Indonesian government.

Gab said he and his fishermen friends felt uneasy about the actions of the Australian naval officers.

'Those migrants were depressed. If they realized that they were going to be handed over to Indonesia, they might have tried to steal our boat to get to Australia on their own,' he said.

Gab further said that he and his friends suffered losses from the incident because it forced them to return to Oesapa without any catch.

As reported earlier, a patrol vessel from the East Nusa Tenggara Police Water Police picked up the Bangladeshi migrants and their smugglers around 12 miles from Tablolong Beach, West Kupang district, Kupang regency, on Wednesday.

Gab said he was shocked by the Indonesian government's carelessness on the issue of undocumented migrants and that the Australian naval officers had entered Indonesian waters.

'They [Australian naval officers] were within Indonesian territory. According to my GPS, we were only 28 miles from Amarasi Beach when they escorted the undocumented migrants onto our boat,' said Gab. (ebf)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta  Thu, March 10, 2016

The government is scrambling for a quick plan to plug the gap in state finances after legislators from the House of Representatives stopped deliberations on a draft bill related to a tax amnesty. It now hopes to improve and expand its inspection of recalcitrant individual taxpayers in a bid to double tax revenues this year.



Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said stern inspection measures would be implemented and would involve at least 4,550 tax officers.



Bambang said the measures would be implemented should the government's plan to get extra revenue from its proposed tax amnesty bill be turned down by the House.



'If the [tax amnesty] draft bill is rejected, we will intensify inspections,' Bambang told a press briefing on Tuesday, adding that 'the inspections will focus more on individual taxpayers.'



The government expects the House to soon approve the tax amnesty bill to help boost tax revenues, which are expected to suffer a significant shortage this year due to a predicted fall in corporate income taxes amid the country's economic slowdown.



The proposed bill, which offers a tax rate of between just 1 percent and 3 percent, is expected to lure in billions of US dollars kept abroad by wealthy Indonesians.



Bambang estimates that around Rp 2.7 quadrillion (US$195 billion) worth of assets are kept overseas by wealthy Indonesians and Rp 1.4 quadrillion worth of domestic assets have not been properly reported.



Bambang said the contribution of individual taxpayers was whoppingly small compared to the contribution from non-oil tax revenues, which reached Rp 1.011 quadrillion.



'We need to improve this sector. A lot of businesses and individuals still operate and even generate huge gains, yet they never pay taxes,' Bambang said.



Out of 129 million people subject to tax, only 27 million people actually pay taxes. Income taxes from individuals currently account for less than 1 percent of total tax revenue.



Newly-installed tax chief Ken Dwijugiasteadi vowed to force wealthy individuals to comply with tax regulations. Ken is seeking to double the Rp 9 trillion in income tax collected from individuals last year.



Ken was inuaurated last week as the new director general of taxation three months after previous tax chief Sigit Pramudito resigned after failing to increase tax revenues by 30 percent.



The hightened inspection procedures on individual taxpayers will be in line with the directorate general's 2015-2019 Strategic Plan, which has emphasized law enforcement in 2016.



In addition to the tax officers, the Finance Ministry will deploy 32,000 personnel to secure the compliance of individual taxpayers and help the government meet this year's target of Rp 1.36 quadrillion in tax revenues.



The tax target accounts for around 70 percent of total state revenue.



The ministry hopes to increase the country's tax ratio, which currently stands at only 11 percent, lower than the 13 or 14 percent recorded by its ASEAN peers Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.



Minister Bambang said that taxes from individuals could help offset the decline in taxes paid by companies due to the slowing economy.



'In the more developed countries, individual tax is bigger than corporate tax. To achieve it, we need to increase their level of awareness,' he asserted.



The tax office will be supported by the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) and the National Police when dealing with recalcitrant taxpayers. (adt)

____________________________________

To receive comprehensive and earlier access to The Jakarta Post print edition, please subscribe to our epaper through iOS' iTunes, Android's Google Play, Blackberry World or Microsoft's Windows Store. Subscription includes free daily editions of The Nation, The Star Malaysia, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia News.

For print subscription, please contact our call center at (+6221) 5360014 or subscription@thejakartapost.com
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta  Thu, March 10, 2016

The government has warned Indonesia's most-wanted terrorist Santoso and his militant group hiding in the forests of Poso, Central Sulawesi, to immediately surrender, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said.



The government will keep carrying out the joint police and Indonesian Military (TNI) Tinombala Operation in Poso if Santoso's East Indonesia Mujahidin terrorist group fails to comply with the warning.



"We hope Santoso and his group will immediately come down from the mountain and surrender, or else we will continue the offensive military operation until we eradicate them," Luhut said during a visit to Poso as quoted by kompas.com on Wednesday.



During the visit, Luhut also stressed the importance of maximizing deradicalization measures for people living in the area, especially since Santoso and his group are living inside Poso forests and carrying out guerilla attacks against security officers.



Previously, Central Sulawesi Governor Longki Djanggola has also called on Santoso and his group to surrender as the local government is willing to facilitate the process.



Operation Tinombala has taken place since January, aiming to eradicate the terrorist group and its leader Santoso, aka Abu Wardah, who had publicly claimed to be the commander of the Islamic State (IS) army in Indonesia.



Initially scheduled to end on March 10, the operation that combines at least 2,000 officers from the police and the TNI, has been officially extended until May 10. The operation has not yet succeeded in capturing the group, which is now believed to comprise 15 to 30 members. Several people believed to be members of the East Indonesia Mujahidin have died in shootouts with police officers in Poso. (afr/rin)(+)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta  Thu, March 10, 2016

An alleged thief was taken into police custody after being beaten by angry eclipse spectators at the Planetarium, Central Jakarta, on Wednesday morning.



It was reported that the alleged thief, identified as Rahman, stole a cellphone belonging to Ilham, a Planetarium visitor who was observing the solar eclipse through a telescope with his girlfriend.



'When I was watching the eclipse through the telescope, I felt someone pushing into me. At that time, not many people wanted to gaze through the telescope,' Ilham said on Wednesday as quoted by kompas.com.



Ilham, suspecting Rahman was a thief, immediately checked his pocket and found his cellphone was missing. The victim chased the suspect and confronted him.



'He said he didn't know about my cellphone and asked me to meet his friends. I refused and tried to bring him to the nearest police office, at that point he ran off,' Ilham said, adding that he then attracted other spectators by calling out 'Stop thief!'



Other spectators caught Rahman and beat him before taking him to the Menteng Police subprecinct office, where he was held for questioning.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta  Thu, March 10, 2016

A 16-year-old girl, identified only by the initials NPL, who had been reported missing the previous day, was found with her boyfriend at a food stall in Cisarua, Bogor, West Java, on Monday night.



South Jakarta's Pasar Minggu Police chief Comr. Zaki Nasution said on Tuesday that NPL, a first grader at a vocational school, had run away from home with MF, her 16-year-old boyfriend who was in the third grade of junior high school, because her parents disapproved of the relationship.



Zaki said the police located the pair after NPL sent a text message to her parents, claiming that she had gone to Cisarua with a female friend.



'They said they wanted to live together and the boy would find a job,' Zaki said, as quoted by tribunnews.com.



Zaki said the police found no evidence of abduction or coercion in NPL's disappearance and concluded the couple were simply in love.



NPL's father Budiyanto, however, insisted on reporting the incident to the police. 'I do not approve of their relationship because they are still young. They need to focus on their studies,' he said.



He added that the incident had shocked his family.



The boyfriend could be charged under Article 332 of the Criminal Code on eloping with an underage girl, it has a maximum penalty of seven years.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta  Thu, March 10, 2016

House of Representatives ways and means committee deputy chairman Achmad Dimyati Natakusumah said on Tuesday that a plan to expand the House complex was still on track despite the government's decision to extend a moratorium on the construction of official buildings.



Dimyati said that the government had not sent an official request to the House to halt the project.



'Going only by an oral statement [...] we cannot conclude that the moratorium is already official,' the United Development Party (PPP) politician told the The Jakarta Post.



With only the Gerindra Party expressing opposition, the House of Representatives approved a budget allocation for the construction of a new Rp 740 billion (US$56 million) legislative building in October.



In the 2016 state budget, the government allocated Rp 570 billion to the construction.



But President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo said last week that the moratorium he issued in late 2014 would be extended in an effort to make sure that state funds were spent only on 'very important matters'.



'Construction will only be allowed for education, for example building schools, and for emergencies, such as for narcotics rehabilitation centers or counterterrorism purposes,' Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said last week as quoted by tempo.co.



On Monday, House Speaker Ade Komarudin said that construction would be halted only with the agreement of the entire House.



'I still need to consult with all political party factions and internal bodies at the House,' the Golkar Party politician said.



Lawmaker Hendrawan Supratikno from the ruling Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said on Wednesday that he opposed the moratorium if it meant calling off the plan to add to the House complex.



'The moratorium only applies to non-urgent projects. The plan to revamp the House complex, meanwhile, needs to be carried out as soon as possible, give the current inadequacy [of the complex],' he said.



Lawmaker Muhammad Syafi'i from Gerindra said that the House building itself needed an overhaul, as it was no longer able to cope with the growing numbers of people working there.



'The building was supposed to be an office for 500 legislators, with one staff member each. Now the building is used by 560 lawmakers, each with a staff of seven. Just calculate the number of people who pile into this building every day,' he said.



He added, however, that the Gerindra faction at the House would not pledge its support to the plan, nor any other program that met public opposition.



Gerindra was the only party to oppose the plan when it was floated by the ways and means committee last year. Although the plan caused a public outcry, the government decided to allocate Rp 740 billion, though refused to meet the House's demand for Rp 1.6 trillion for the project.



The idea of a megaproject to revamp the legislative complex was first broached in 2008. The concept included the construction of a 'civil square', a museum, a library and renovation of offices for legislators and their staff.



In 2011, under the speakership of Democratic Party politician Marzuki Alie, the House once again proposed the project at a cost of Rp 1.16 trillion. The plan was canceled following widespread public criticism and suggestions that drastic improvement of lawmakers' performance was more important than construction of new legislative buildings. (mos)

_______________________________________

To receive comprehensive and earlier access to The Jakarta Post print edition, please subscribe to our epaper through iOS' iTunes, Android's Google Play, Blackberry World or Microsoft's Windows Store. Subscription includes free daily editions of The Nation, The Star Malaysia, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia News.

For print subscription, please contact our call center at (+6221) 5360014 or subscription@thejakartapost.com
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 10, 2016

Indonesia is likely to host the headquarter of Islamic Mega Infrastructure Bank, a forthcoming new lender facilitated by Islamic Development Bank (IDB).

A delegation from IDB recently visited Jakarta to discuss with the government the recent updates regarding the establishment of Islamic Mega Infrastructure Bank to be founded by Indonesia, Turkey, IDB and other potential OIC countries.

IDB Indonesia country director Ibrahim Shoukry said the bank had committed to investing US$1.2 billion on projects in Indonesia this year. However, the host country for the bank's headquarter is yet to be decided.

"It will be Indonesia or Turkey. Hopefully, the investors will choose Indonesia [for the headquarters]. In May we will hold an investors' gathering at the Jakarta Convention Center. We've been here for 41 years and are committed to staying here," he said in Jakarta on Tuesday.

In the five-year plan, Ibrahim said, the IDB group would focus on five pillars in Indonesia namely infrastructure, private sector development, South to South cooperation, Islamic finance, and human development.

"We have shown them [the investors] our infrastructure and banking system. They are fascinated with our projects," Financial Services Authority (OJK) chairman Muliaman D. Hadad told thejakartapost.com.

Indonesia, he further said, had some advantages over Turkey due to its prospective market in Asia, which is healthier than Turkey's main market, Europe. Indonesia's market will be broader due to the ASEAN Economic Community.

"And Indonesia is more attractive than Turkey in terms of small and medium enterprise financing," Muliaman said.

Ibrahim added that IDB is going to have its 41st Annual Meeting organized in Jakarta in coming May. 'The hosting of the meeting by the government of Indonesia is a clear indication of the government's support to Islamic finance development and the IDB operations in Indonesia,' Ibrahim said. (ags)

-----

Eds: Corrections on the lead and the title, underlining that it is the headquarter of Islamic Mega Infrastructure Bank, and the caption (4th paragraph) from '31 years' to '41 years'.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Jusuf Wanandi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 10, 2016

Don Emmerson's diatribe, published in The Jakarta Post's Feb. 25 edition, against the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is typical of a scholar who has forgotten what ASEAN is all about.



As an expert on the subject, Emmerson should understand that ASEAN consists of individual state members that strongly uphold the principle of sovereignty. ASEAN state members take collective action on issues of international or regional interest only if they can come to an agreement as a group. That is why ASEAN is not a supra-national entity.



External powers, including the US, consider ASEAN the center of the region. Nonetheless, ASEAN+1 meetings, such as the recent ASEAN-US summit in Sunnylands, should not try to make ASEAN a united front against any other country ' in this case against China on the South China Sea issue.



It is not up to external powers to decide how the countries in Southeast Asia should manage their relations with China. I, for one, believe that Indonesia can manage its foreign relations well as a sovereign country, as it has done so for decades since independence.



Other members of ASEAN may take a different approach to their foreign policy, and that is their choice, in accordance with their sovereign rights.



On the South China Sea, ASEAN should remain a united front by holding regular dialogue through which each member state can convey its stance and policies, while at the same time maintaining understanding and cooperation with China. ASEAN states fully realize the difficulty of maintaining a united front, as only four are claimant states. In this regard, ASEAN states recognize that their efforts may have limited outcomes.



Although facing difficulties, it is in the interests of all ASEAN member states to establish a regional order in the South China Sea for peace and development in Southeast Asia in general. In accordance with the ASEAN 'way', some countries may consider ASEAN actions too slow, but that is part of the ASEAN character. Remember, it took ASEAN nine years to host its first summit, in Bali in 1976.



I strongly advocate the implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC). ASEAN and China are also currently engaged in dialogue to discuss the formulation of a code of conduct (COC), with some commonalities or principles of approach already agreed. We can use these accomplishments as a base for further efforts. I believe that both China and most ASEAN members can get their act together to quicken the process. It is time for all stakeholders and interested parties to trust ASEAN.



Back to Emmerson's article, some of the points made were dangerously divisive against ASEAN's unity. I thought that Emmerson would understand ASEAN better than suggested by his article. Encouragements to 'stand up' against China are not helping the ongoing process. Cynically and sarcastically blaming ASEAN is the wrong approach.



Furthermore, the US 'pivot' or 'rebalancing' to Asia does not mean a return to US Cold War-era dominance. The US has never left Asia, and its presence is welcomed, but not its overbearing attitudes, such as its approach to the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which may well prove divisive for ASEAN, and fail to achieve its goal of boosting the wellbeing of the East Asian region.

_________________________



The writer is vice chair of the Board of Trustees, CSIS Foundation.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin The Jakarta Post Cianjur  Thu, March 10, 2016

Three people were still trapped as of Wednesday after a hotel collapsed due to landslides on Monday in Cianjur regency, West Java. A couple was also killed in the landslide.



West Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Sulistyo Pudjo Hartono said two of the trapped victims, identified as Nathasha and Dewi, were still alive in the rubble of Club Bali Hotel in Cipanas district.



'We are focusing on saving them. We know the location,' Sulistyo told The Jakarta Post.



He said the hotel collapsed when the slope, which served as the hotel's foundation, began to move. 'It's been raining for days in the area.'



Meanwhile, Antara reported that Jajang Mulyana, 30, and his wife, Sapatihah, 30, of Sukaresmi district, Cianjur, were buried in the rubble of the landslide when a cliff behind their house collapsed while they were asleep. The 6-meter high landslide occurred due to heavy rain.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin The Jakarta Post Batam  Thu, March 10, 2016

The Immigration Office is hunting Singaporean Damar Bahadur Chettri, alias Sam Chettri, after he escaped from a detention center on Jan. 24.



The escape of the 55-year-old Chettri, who was arrested on Nov. 21 last year for possessing fake immigration documents, was discovered by the media on Friday after the police questioned several immigration officers over alleged bribery in relation to the case.



Batam Immigration Office head Agus Wijaya denied the possibility that Chettri, who was detained along with 12 other foreigners, had bribed his employees, saying that his employees had simply been negligent when the Singaporean ran away. 'Our internal team has not found any indication of bribery in the escape of Chettri. But we will let the police investigate it,' Agus told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.



He said that immigration had decided to bring Chettri to court for violating immigration law. Chettri could have faced a maximum punishment of seven years in prison. However, he escaped the day before he was due in court.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Indra Budiari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 10, 2016

It was Friday noon when a middle-aged man walked out from an old office building in Kalibata, South Jakarta, with a blue folder full of papers in his hand.



Bagus Mulyono, a worker at the office, said the man was one of dozens of people who had registered themselves as potential Muslim candidates for Jakarta governor in opposition to incumbent Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama, a Protestant.



The office, he said, had been used for weeks by the Muslim Forum Secretariat as a registration post.



'He forgot to bring some required documents, so I asked him to return tomorrow,' Bagus, training coordinator for the gubernatorial candidates, told The Jakarta Post.



Since Feb. 20, the Muslim Forum Secretariat has run a selection process for potential candidates to be endorsed by Muslim groups in the Jakarta gubernatorial election on Feb. 15 next year.



The selection process was initiated by a number of Muslim figures including Islam Defenders Front (FPI) patron Habib Rizieq and Fahrurozzi Ishaq, who was 'sworn in' by the Betawi Brotherhood Forum (FBR) in December 2014 as a rival governor.



Things have begun heating up with several prominent people declaring their possible candidacy, including politician-cum-lawyer Yusril Ihza Mahendra, music producer Ahmad Dhani and businessman Sandiaga Uno.



Ahok has declared he will run as an independent with Heru Budi Hartono, the head of the city's Financial and Asset Management Board, as his running mate.



'The Papuan governor is a Christian, the governor of Bali is a Hindu. So as we are the majority here, Muslims should reclaim the governor's position in Jakarta as well,' Bagus said. Denying that the movement was exploiting the religious issue for political purposes, he said they were only 'obeying God's command.'



The secretariat has established 135 coordination posts throughout Jakarta and expect to have another 133 within the next few months. 'We are looking for the best Muslim candidates,' he said.



Around 7 million voters in Jakarta will be eligible to vote in the gubernatorial election next year.



Ahok became the governor in November 2014 to replace President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo, who left Jakarta for the State Palace.



Websites and preachers at mosques have urged voters to vote based on the candidate's religion. Campaigns in a similar vein have also appeared on Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp groups and other social media.



However, a survey released by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in January found that religion would not play a significant role in the election as 45 percent of 400 respondents were prepared to vote for Ahok.



In November 2014, many Muslims showed their support for Ahok, in response to an FPI campaign to prevent Ahok from being sworn in as governor. Several Muslim groups visited Ahok to offer support while others rallied at Hotel Indonesia Traffic Circle to show that not all Muslims had a problem with a non-Muslim leader.



Dharma Rozali Azhar, a Jakarta resident, said he hoped that the election would result in the best candidate for governor, regardless of the candidate's religion or ethnicity.



Dharma considers himself to be a committed Muslim. However, the 27-year-old lawyer believes that mixing religion and politics is problematic.



'The country has adopted a separation of powers with three branches: the executive, legislature and judiciary. If you require your leader to be a Muslim, you must apply it in other branches as well, and that could cause difficulties,' he said.



He said he was undecided in his choice for the election, but he had problems with Ahok's tough eviction policy, not his religion.



Hamdi Muluk, a political analyst from the University of Indonesia, said the election of Jokowi and Ahok as Jakarta governor and deputy governor in 2012 was solid proof that Jakarta voters could see beyond religious and ethnic backgrounds when choosing their leaders.



He said the most important thing in voters' eyes was the candidate's ability to manage the city and how they responded to problems.

___________________________________

To receive comprehensive and earlier access to The Jakarta Post print edition, please subscribe to our epaper through iOS' iTunes, Android's Google Play, Blackberry World or Microsoft's Windows Store. Subscription includes free daily editions of The Nation, The Star Malaysia, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia News.

For print subscription, please contact our call center at (+6221) 5360014 or subscription@thejakartapost.com
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Indra Budiari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 10, 2016

Jakarta saw the highest number of cases of violence against women of any Indonesian city in 2015 based on data gathered by partner institutions of the National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan).



An annual study carried out by the commission has found that 3,320 out of 16,217 cases were reported in Jakarta, almost double the number in the second province on the list, East Java, that saw 1,785 cases. West Java had the third most reported cases with 1,540.



However, Komnas Perempuan believes a number of factors contributed to the results such as the high level of public awareness of women's rights in the capital.



The report reveals that the three provinces with the lowest number of reported cases of violence against women are Papua with 21 cases and North Maluku and West Papua with four cases each.



'North Maluku and West Papua are relatively new provinces and consequently their infrastructure and human resources are different from conditions in Java,' the report said. The report suggests that this poses a challenge for women in those provinces that want to report cases of violence.



Besides data submitted by its 232 partner institutions, the commission also gathered data from religious courts throughout the country and found that 305,535 cases of violence against women were recorded by the courts in 2015.



Azriana, Komnas Perempuan chairwoman, said during a press conference on Monday that the data was only the tip of the iceberg as most victims of were reluctant to file a report because of the stigma attached to being a women and experiencing abuse.



'Not only that, a lot of the victims stay silent because they believe that even if they file a report, the case would not go anywhere,' she continued.



The report also showed that 69 percent of reported cases took place in a domestic context, including the abuse of wives and daughters, and in a dating context, while 31 percent of cases happened in the community, such as at school and in the workplace.



Yuniyanti Chuzaifah, the commission's deputy chairwoman, said the government also played a role in causing violence against women through various policies. For example, she said, the Jakarta administration's decision to evict the residents and workers of the Kalijodo red-light district was not only an ineffective solution to the issue, but also potentially made conditions even worse for the sex workers.



She said after losing their workplace in an eviction by the city administration in February, sex workers of Kalijodo in North and West Jakarta would find another place to work such as online prostitution networks or other red-light districts.



Tangerang regency has recorded about 20 sex workers from Kalijodo that have moved to the regency's red-light district Dadap.



'Eviction is not the answer, the girls will only move elsewhere and, worse still, they could potentially spread HIV,' Yuniyanti said.



Komnas Perempuan points out that perpetrators of violence come from all walks of life.



Azriana said the commission had recorded private employees, students, teachers, police officers, military officers and religious leaders as being perpetrators. 'Even a public figure has been named a suspect of committing violence against women,' she said.



She was referring to the domestic abuse case that implicated lawmaker Fanny Safriansyah, better known as Ivan Haz.



Ivan, son of former vice president Hamzah Haz, has been arrested by the Jakarta Police and charged with abusing his child's nanny, a 20-year-old woman. If proven guilty, he faces a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison.



In the report, the commission recommends that the government be more active in preventing violence against women by including anti-discrimination and women's rights education in the school curriculum.



The commission also demands that the Education Ministry apply a new policy preventing schools or any educational institutions from dismissing students who are pregnant.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Ayomi Amindoni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 21, 2016

Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has welcomed the arrival of his first grandson, born in Solo, Central Java on Thursday, Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung confirmed.

Jolowis daughter-in-law Selvi Ananda, wife of his eldest son Gibran Rakabuming, gave birth to a son in Solo, Jokowi's hometown, at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday.

"Please pray that he will be a pious son and respectful to his parents. May he be granted with health and happiness," Pramono said in a text message to journalists.

Gibran and Selvi married on June 11, 2015. Gibran lives in Solo where he runs a catering and wedding business.

Jokowi is scheduled to leave for Solo this afternoon after they have attended the inauguration of a logistics center in Cakung, North Jakarta.

Jokowi smiled but gave no comment when journalists asked about his grandson. (rin)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Haeril Halim and Tassia Sipahutar (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta/Palu  Thu, March 10, 2016

The government is moving to another method of promoting social harmony in Indonesia's pluralistic, heterogeneous society by asking mosques to curtail the use of loudspeakers that disrupt neighborhoods.



It has also called on the leaders of mosques, the houses of worship for the country's largest religious community, Muslims, to be at the forefront of the promotion of peace and harmony.



Vice President Jusuf Kalla criticized on Wednesday mosque administrators for relaying Koranic recitals at too high a volume over their loudspeakers and disrupting life in their neighborhoods, especially before morning prayers at 4 a.m. Recitals, he said, should go on for no longer than 30 minutes.



'Consider the fact that there are babies out there, or ill people, or people who got home late at night and want to go to work at 7 a.m. but are awakened at 4 a.m. They will go to the office with sleepy eyes,' Kalla said.



As mosques are located close to each other in Indonesia, Kalla said it was important for mosque managers to soften the volume of their amplifiers so that recitals and the call to prayer could be heard clearly but softly by congregation members.



Kalla also reminded the management of mosques across the country to stay alert, watching out for and curbing any potential campaigns by radical preachers wanting to spread extreme messages to mosque congregations.



Speaking in his capacity as chairman of the Indonesian Mosque Council (DMI) while inaugurating new members of the Central Sulawesi DMI board of leadership, Kalla encouraged mosque administrators to revitalize the function of the mosque to make it not only a place for worship but also a place that strengthens social cohesion among religious believers.



The senior member of the Association of Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals Association (ICMI) made the call just weeks after authorities revealed suspicions that five mosques in Jakarta had been used as recruitment centers for the Islamic State (IS) movement.



'Mosques should not be used to spread inappropriate things such as radicalism,' Kalla said in his speech.



Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) chairman Ma'ruf Amin said the volume of mosques' loudspeakers should be adjusted to the needs of local residents because some people found them helpful as an alarm before morning prayer whereas others found them disturbing.



'Things related to religious practices should not disturb others. If people feel that [the recital] is disturbing then that mosque should limit its volume,' Ma'ruf told The Jakarta Post.



Muhammadiyah leadership board member M. Busyro Muqoddas said there was no need to establish a special regulation on mosque amplifiers because they were part of religious practices and as such protected by the Constitution.



He said that the call to prayer, which runs for around three to five minutes, should remain as it is, but that each mosque should consider adjusting the volume of its loudspeakers when broadcasting recitals or other religious activities.



'It is important for Muslims to hear the call to prayer so they know that they should prepare themselves to go to the mosque,' Busyro said.



As one of the new social harmony measures, regional DMI offices will be expected to encourage mosques to facilitate more non-prayer activities such as inviting banking experts to give speeches briefing congregations on how to improve their respective businesses.



Kalla said it was important to regulate the establishment of new mosques in the future to ensure that they complied with spatial planning laws. There are now around 800,000 to 1 million mosques in Indonesia and the number will keep growing, Kalla believes, because some mosques are established without the required permits from authorities.



'Only God knows the exact figure due to the lack of official data. So now, statistically, every 200 Muslims have one mosque and that makes the space between mosques very small. Every one, or even half-kilometer, there is a mosque,' said Kalla.



The Vice President added that mosque managers in Indonesia enjoyed a lot of freedom because they were not supervised by the government as mosques were built using private donations, not state funding.



'Only in Indonesia and Pakistan is the establishment of mosques initiated and funded by locals. In other countries they are built and supervised by the government,' Kalla said.

___________________________________________

To receive comprehensive and earlier access to The Jakarta Post print edition, please subscribe to our epaper through iOS' iTunes, Android's Google Play, Blackberry World or Microsoft's Windows Store. Subscription includes free daily editions of The Nation, The Star Malaysia, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia News.

For print subscription, please contact our call center at (+6221) 5360014 or subscription@thejakartapost.com
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 10, 2016

The Indonesia Local TV Association (ATVLI) has urged the government to set up a new TV-rating agency with comprehensive coverage, as current TV-rating bodies only covered big TV stations and not local TV content.



ATVLI chairman Jimmy Silalahi said current rating bodies only covered 10 out of 98 cities. Indonesia has 34 provinces, 415 regencies and thousands of villages.



"We need a rating body that covers broader areas of Indonesia and is more independent," he said in Jakarta on Tuesday.



As previously reported, the Communications and Information Ministry offered to audit TV-rating agencies. "But that is not what we want. We need a fair, independent rating body," Jimmy said.



Among TV-rating agencies, Nielsen Media Partner dominates TV rating in Indonesia. Its survey is based on how many households watch a program and how many paid advertisements run during the airing of a program. It does not assess the quality of a program. (ags)(+)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta  Thu, March 10, 2016

The Indonesian Navy's western fleet has brought FV Viking, an outlaw Nigerian vessel, to Jakarta while it waits for a court ruling on whether or not the Navy can sink the vessel. FV Viking was caught off Riau Islands a few days ago.



Navy spokesperson Commodore Muhammad Zainuddin said the vessel was cruising with a Nigerian flag and had long been a target of the international police (Interpol) because of its illegal activities.



'The vessel was on Interpol's purple-notice list. FV Viking has changed its name on 13 occasions, changed its flags on 12 occasions, and changed its call-sign on eight occasions,' Zainuddin said on Wednesday.



The vessel will be handed over to the illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing taskforce at the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry to be destroyed while the ship's 11 crew members ' five foreigners from Argentina, Peru and Myanmar and six Indonesians ' will be charged with violating the Law on Shipping and the Law on Fisheries.



Zainuddin said four Interpol members from Norway and South Africa have arrived in Jakarta to check on the vessel before it is destroyed.



Since the government began its war on illegal fishing last year, Indonesia has destroyed 117 foreign fishing boats. The coast guard is permitted by law to sink foreign vessels caught operating illegally in the country's territorial waters based on sufficient preliminary evidence.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Foster Klug and Hyung-Jin Kim (The Jakarta Post) Seoul, South Korea  Thu, March 10, 2016

North Korea on Thursday responded to South Korean unilateral sanctions by firing short-range ballistic missiles into the sea in a show of defiance and vowing to "liquidate" all remaining South Korean assets at former cooperative projects in the North.

The moves are the latest in an escalating standoff between the Koreas that began in January when North Korea detonated what it said was an "H-bomb of justice," its fourth nuclear test. Since then, Pyongyang has launched a long-range rocket; Seoul has shut down the last remaining cooperative project between the rivals, a jointly run factory park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, and slapped sanctions on the North over its recent nuclear test and rocket launch; the UN has imposed sanctions; and the North has threatened nuclear strikes on Seoul and the US mainland.

The missile firing Thursday comes a day after the North released photos of leader Kim Jong Un standing beside what appears to be a nuclear warhead mock-up.

The North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said Thursday that Pyongyang will "liquidate" South Korean assets at the closed Kaesong factory park and the scrapped tourism resort at Diamond Mountain, both of which are in North Korea. In a continuation of bellicose rhetoric that has spiked in recent weeks, the statement said North Korea will also take a series of unspecified steps to impose "lethal" military, political and economic blows on the South Korean government to accelerate its "pitiable demise."

The statement called South Korea's unilateral sanctions "laughable, unsightly" behavior, and referred to South Korea's female president, Park Geun-hye, as an "American prostitute," the latest in a series of crude sexist attacks on her.

All of this ratchets up hostility on the already anxious Korean Peninsula. But, so far, analysts don't see the possibility of things spinning out of control. In part, some of the North's rhetoric and actions is intended for domestic audiences in an attempt to show government strength ahead of a major meeting of the ruling party in May.

The South Korean Defense Ministry says the North's missiles were fired from North Hwanghae province, flew about 500 kilometers (310 miles) and fell into the water off the country's east coast. They are believed to be Scud-type missiles, said ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun.

Such missile firings by the North are not uncommon when animosity rises here. North Korea hates the massive annual military drills staged by Seoul and Washington, calling them invasion preparations. The allies say the drills, which this year are described as the biggest ever, defensive and routine. Pyongyang is also angry over tough United Nations sanctions following its recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.

The latest firings come a day after North Korea caused a new stir by publicizing a purported mock-up of a key part of a nuclear warhead, with leader Kim Jong Un repeating a claim that his country has developed miniaturized atomic bombs that can be placed on missiles.

The North's Rodong Sinmun newspaper carried photos on its front page showing Kim and nuclear scientists standing beside what outside analysts say appears to be a model warhead part ' a small, silverish globe with a ballistic missile or a model ballistic missile in the background.

The newspaper said Kim was briefed by his nuclear scientists and declared he was greatly pleased that warheads had been standardized and miniaturized for use on ballistic missiles.

Information from secretive, authoritarian North Korea is often impossible to confirm, and the country's state media have a history of photo manipulations. But it was the first time the North has publicly displayed its purported nuclear designs, though it remains unclear whether the country has functioning warheads of that size or is simply trying to develop one.

South Korea's Defense Ministry quickly disputed the North's claim that it possesses miniaturized warheads. It called the photos and miniaturization claim an "intolerable direct challenge" to the international community.

US State Department spokesman John Kirby declined to comment on North Korea's nuclear capabilities, saying it was an intelligence matter, but told reporters the US takes Pyongyang's rhetoric seriously.

North Korea warned Monday of pre-emptive nuclear strikes after the United States and South Korea began the war games, which are to last until the end of April.

North Korea has previously said it has nuclear warheads small enough to put on long-range missiles capable of striking the US mainland, but experts have questioned those claims.

The round object shown in the photos appears to be a model of a warhead trigger device which would contain uranium or plutonium, according to nuclear expert Whang Joo-ho of Kyung Hee University in South Korea. He said it was obviously a model because Kim and others would not stand near an actual device because of concerns about radioactivity.

Also shown in the photos is a KN-08 ballistic missile or its model, which reportedly has an estimated range of 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles), according to South Korean analysts. The KN-08, which North Korea showed off in 2012, is said to be capable of being launched from a road-mobile vehicle, which would make it difficult to monitor via satellite. The South Korean Defense Ministry said it believes the missile hasn't been proven functional.

North Korea says it tested its first Hydrogen bomb on Jan. 6, followed last month by the launch of a rocket that put a satellite into orbit but which violated UN resolutions because it employs dual-use technology that could also be applied to long-range ballistic missiles.

___

AP writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed to this report from Seoul. (**)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Nethy Dharma Somba (The Jakarta Post) Jayapura, Papua  Thu, March 10, 2016

The Papua Police narcotics unit destroyed 2.2 kilograms of marijuana smuggled from Papua New Guinea at an event in Jayapura, Papua, on Thursday.

The marijuana was confiscated in separate operations that took place from Feb.4 to 16, during which seven suspects were arrested.

'Today we destroyed 2.2 kg of marijuana, the evidence confiscated in the operations, and handed over seven suspects in the cases to prosecutor offices,' the Papua Police's narcotics unit deputy chief, Adj.Sr.Comr.JS Napitupulu, said on Thursday.

Jayapura has become a popular place for the distribution of marijuana from Papua New Guinea, and in many cases, it is bartered with electronic goods, fuel and stolen motorcycles. Marijuana is smuggled via both land and sea routes in border areas.

'Police and military personnel guarding the Indonesian-Papua New Guinea border in Skouw Wutung continue to carry out security patrols and surveillance to minimize marijuana smuggling attempts,' said Napitupulu.

Skouw Wutung is located 40 kilometers east of Jayapura.

The head of the Papua Narcotics Agency (BNN), Jackson Lapalongan, said the agency had intensified efforts to disseminate information on the dangerous impacts of narcotics in schools to prevent the spread of the harmful substances as the young generation in Papua had become the main target of marijuana distribution.

'Without preventive measures, our young generation will be destroyed by drugs. They will destroy the future of our children,' he said in Jayapura. (afr/ebf)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta  Thu, March 10, 2016

The Jakarta Police are convinced that the cable jackets found recently in drains in high-security areas of the capital are owned by state electricity firm PLN.



Jakarta Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Mohammad Iqbal told reporters on Wednesday that PLN owned most of the cable jackets abandoned in waterways around Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan in Central Jakarta.



'Our personnel from special crimes are still investigating the case. Hopefully we can arrest the perpetrators soon,' he said.



He previously said that the cable waste was likely to be related to a theft by a syndicate.



'Based on statements from witnesses and evidence, we have almost drawn the conclusion that it was an act of stealing by a syndicate,' he said.



Iqbal said PLN had been involved in the investigation and he suspected the cable jackets had been there for around one or two years.



In the past few weeks, the Jakarta Police and the city administration have been busy dealing with the discovery of cable jackets in waterways near high-security sites including the State Palace, the Vice Presidential Office, the US Embassy and City Hall.



It is reported that 22 truckloads of cable jackets were found in the area.



Mambang Hertadi, Jakarta's PLN spokesperson, said the cables were possibly PLN's old cables from the 1970s.



'We are currently using cables that are bigger in diameter than the ones found in the waterways,' he said, adding that PLN would support the police with their investigation.



'The diameter of cable jackets currently being used by PLN is 10 centimeters, while the ones found in the waterways were 3 to 5 cm. But they are quite similar to the cable we used in the past,' said Nurul Huda, PLN's manager of distribution for Greater Jakarta.



He further added that his office had handed over the case to the police and was waiting for their results before drawing conclusions.



A day earlier, PLN signed an agreement with the Jakarta Police aimed at protecting PLN assets including electricity installations throughout the capital.



General manager of PLN Unit Development V, Robert Aprianto Purba, said that the agreement was expected to curb incidences of PLN assets being stolen and see the police help to ensure the smooth running of future projects planned by his office.



'Currently there are 11 [electricity] depots in Greater Jakarta, some of which have almost reached their maximum limits. In response, we are attempting to [...] increase our electricity capacity to prevent potential blackouts,' he said.



Purba expressed hope that residents whose land bordered on planned transmission cable between Balaraja in Tangerang and Muara Tawar in Bekasi would support the project.



'We will cooperate with the [Jakarta] governor to use some of the remaining assets owned by the local administration to increase electrical power,' he said. (fac/rez)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Ina Parlina and Nethy Dharma Somba (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta/Jayapura  Thu, March 10, 2016

The repeated failure by prison officials to keep convicted money-launderer and former low-ranking police officer Labora Sitorus in his cell has not only raised questions about how such failures could occur in that specific case, but also about the state of the country's penitentiary system overall.



Reform of the penitentiary system has long been considered. However, jails across the country still continue to face the same old problems: overcapacity, a lack of properly trained prison staff, inadequate infrastructure and poor monitoring within prisons.



Prisons and detention centers across Indonesia continue to endure overwhelming capacity demands, with an average of 75 percent overcrowding, according to data from the official website of the Law and Human Rights Ministry's directorate general of correctional institutions. Indonesia has 477 penitentiaries and detention centers overseen by 33 regional offices with a total capacity of nearly 118,954 inmates, but currently holding a total of 207,697 detainees and convicts.



The data also shows that only eight regional offices do not suffer from overcapacity, including West Papua where Labora was supposed to have been detained inside its Sorong Penitentiary. The other seven are Yogyakarta, Gorontalo, West Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, Maluku, North Maluku and Papua.



Jakarta's jails saw the highest overcrowding rates in March with a combined overcapacity of 617 percent. In total, seven prisons in Jakarta currently house 42,221 inmates although their total capacity should only be 5,891 inmates.



Meanwhile, as of February, there were only a total of 8,502 prison guards in Jakarta's prisons.



Director general of correctional institutions I Wayan K. Dusak said the difficulty in getting Labora back behind bars had demonstrated the poor levels of training among prison officials and guards.



'Even [outsourced] security services in hotels are better [than our guards]; they receive a kind of three-month training, while we don't,' Wayan said on Saturday.



According to Wayan, a lack of funding was also among the reasons why reform had been slow as they could not introduce better technology in penitentiaries across the country.



However, the directorate general of correctional institution is determined to continue with the ongoing reform of institutions within its remit.



'This is a very complex issue; therefore, the results cannot be seen immediately. It needs time,' Wayan said, while adding that support from other law-enforcement agencies was also essential.



Labora was flown to Jakarta from Dominique Edward Osok Airport in Sorong, West Papua, on Monday. Having been sentenced to 15 years for illegal logging and money laundering in 2014, the former Raja Ampat Police officer will serve his sentence at Cipinang Penitentiary in East Jakarta.



As earlier reported, Labora became a fugitive from the West Papua Police and the Law and Human Rights Ministry after he fled from his home on Jl. Tampa Garam, Sorong, on Friday. Labora escaped as authorities were about to transfer him to the Cipinang prison from the Class II-B Sorong Penitentiary, where he was supposed to be serving his sentence.



A joint security team comprising 623 military and police personnel was deployed for Labora's transfer on Friday. However, he managed to escape shortly before the security forces arrived at his home, which also functioned as a wood-processing factory owned by his timber company, PT Rotua, on Jl. Tampa Garam.



Labora hid for three days until he surrendered to police on Monday.



Besides Labora, another notorious low-ranking former government official and graft convict Gayus Tambunan has also been known for his repeated illegal excursions while supposedly locked up behind bars. Last September, Gayus was spotted having lunch at a Jakarta restaurant with two women while he was supposed to be serving his sentence in Sukamiskin Penitentiary in Bandung, West Java. At that time, authorities said Gayus made a lunch stop at a restaurant on his way back to Sukamiskin after attending his divorce hearing in Jakarta.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Fedina S. Sundaryani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 10, 2016

The government will facilitate state-owned companies to develop electricity infrastructure in several remote areas across the country and provide as many as 12,659 villages with access to electricity.



Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said said in two weeks his ministry would coordinate with local administrations to setup task forces for the program Indonesia Terang (Bright Indonesia) program.



Electricity infrastructure development in remote villages and border areas has long been considered unfeasible economically, leaving many investors uninterested.



Lack of human resources, funding and geographic location are factors that mean these villages, 65 percent of which are located in six provinces in eastern Indonesia, are without access to electricity.



'The fact is, if electricity can be accessed in these villages then there will be local economic growth. Local businesses will thrive and the people's and the country's income will also rise,' Sudirman said in a statement on Tuesday.



'So this can become an even wider economic movement.'



The ministry has mulled over several possible schemes in order to implement the program and close the economic gap, including providing infrastructure, a feed-in tariff (FIT) and subsidized prices.



To date, the country has a total installed power-plant capacity of about 55,000 megawatts (MW).



The electrification ratio stood at 88 percent as of the end of last year. However, there are numerous areas, particularly outside of Java, with lower ratios and frequent blackouts as the demand is higher than the available capacity.



There are several developments that the government has been pushing in order to fulfil its ambitious program to supply an additional 35,000 MW of electricity within five years.



Sudirman added that in the past decade the state had spent Rp 2,600 trillion (US$197.15 billion) of state funds in the form of subsidized fuel, That funding had been completely consumed, polluted the environment and increased the need for imports, he said.



The Indonesia Terang program is expected to only need to use 10 percent of the available subsidized budget. This funding will be used for renewable energy, in accordance with government regulation No. 79/2014 on National Energy Policy (KEN) which stipulates that renewable energy should make up 23 percent of the primary energy source by 2025.



Meanwhile, Deputy Finance Minister Mardiasmo said there were three schemes that could potentially help fund the Indonesia Terang program: specific allocation funding for the energy sector, funding for oil and gas or the village funds.



'The use of those funds requires a legal basis in the form of the State Budget Law, which can be inserted in the revised state budget,' he said.



'If the legal basis is agreed upon then the Finance Ministry will be ready to disburse the funds for the Indonesia Terang program.'
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Anggi M. Lubis (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 10, 2016

The US should ratify the statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) or just 'shut up', Sudan has declared in a statement.



The Sudanese Embassy in Jakarta published the statement on Tuesday in response to a statement issued on Monday by the US Embassy in Jakarta, which expressed concern over Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's attendance at the fifth Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Extraordinary Summit on Sunday and Monday.



Sudan stated that it needed to remind the US that its [Sudan's] president was in Jakarta at the request of the Indonesian government and the OIC secretary-general and that his presence was to show support for 'the innocent Palestinians being killed in cold blood by the Zionist State with the full support and protection of the US'.



'If the US administration is in full support of the so-called ICC and very concerned about international justice then in support of this endeavor it has to go forward and join the ICC and become party to its statute, or shut up,' the statement read.



There were over 500 delegates from 49 countries in attendance at the Jakarta summit, which was held on Palestine's request to address issues around Jerusalem.



Bashir, who led a Sudanese delegation at the summit, arrived in Jakarta on Sunday and had a bilateral meeting with President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo on Monday, noting the intention of some Indonesian companies to invest in the oil sector in Sudan. The visit was a rare instance of the Sudanese president traveling outside of the Middle East and Africa.



The US Embassy published a statement on Monday saying the US was concerned about Bashir traveling to Indonesia for the summit.



'President Bashir has been charged by the ICC with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and warrants for his arrest remain outstanding,' it said in the statement.



'While the United States is not party to the Rome Statute, which is the treaty that established the ICC, we strongly support the ICC's efforts to hold accountable those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.'



The US and Sudan are among three countries that have stated that they no longer intend to become state parties to the ICC and, as such, have no legal obligation under the statute. The third country is Israel.



The Hague-based ICC issued arrest warrants in 2009 and 2010 for Bashir, who has ruled Sudan since a 1989 Islamist- and army-backed coup. State parties of the ICC are obliged to act on arrest warrants.



Bashir is the only sitting head of state wanted for allegedly masterminding 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 for the leader to be detained.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 10, 2016

To boost tax revenue this year, the directorate general of taxation is working with four ministries to conduct tax checks as part of requirements to obtain new mining and plantation licenses.



The four ministries are the Environment and Forestry Ministry, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, the Home Ministry and the Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister, said tax directorate general spokesperson Mekar Satria Utama.



"They need to disclose tax data and documents before obtaining licenses," he told thejakartapost.com in Jakarta on Tuesday.



He claimed that the Bogor administration and most cities and regencies on the Java northern coast (Pantura) supported the new requirements and were ready to make tax checks.



"As for regional governments in the mining and plantation-based regions, we will approach them this year," Mekar said.



He added that the tax office had called on the House of Representatives to give it the authority to access bank accounts to estimate the total wealth of unregistered, potential taxpayers.



"We have talked with the House of Representative and found that there are 44 million accounts in Indonesia, far above the 27 million taxpayers registered with the tax directorate," Mekar said. (ags)(+)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Ganug Nugroho Adi (The Jakarta Post) Surakarta, Central Java  Thu, March 10, 2016

First Lady Iriana could not hide her happiness at becoming a grandmother. Her face was very bright when she attended a press conference to announce the birth of her first grandson, born to her eldest son Gibran Rakabuming Raka and his wife Selvi Ananda, at the hall of the PKU Muhammadiyah Hospital, Surakarta, Central Java.

'Alhamdulillah [thank God], he is healthy. Both mother and her baby are in good health. My first grandchild is a boy, but the most important thing is he is healthy,' said Iriana, accompanied by Gibran and the hospital's medical team, on Thursday.

The first grandchild of President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo was born at 9:28 a.m. local time, with a birth weight of 3.09 kilograms and a height of 48.5 centimeters.

PKU Muhammadiyah Hospital president director Mardiatmo said Gibran and Selvi's baby boy was born through a caesarean section.

In the press conference, Gibran said he thanked God because his first son was born safely and healthy. The young businessman who runs several martabak (egg pancake) outlets expressed his thanks to the PKU Muhammadiyah Hospital's medical team, which had handled the birth of his son.

'The birth process ran smoothly. I give a lot of thanks to the PKU Muhammadiyah's team of doctors. Again, thank you very much,' said Gibran.

He kept the name of his son secret, however. He only said that currently his son was still in a recovery room under the monitoring of a medical team led by Soffin Arfian, a gynaecologist.

'His name? I will let you know later. Now, it's still a secret,' said Gibran.

On the sidelines of the press conference, Gibran had instead promoted his culinary business, in which he had created a signature snack called 'pasta buntel'. He said 'pasta buntel' was pasta covered in a banana leaf and grilled on charcoal.

'It's an innovative culinary dish. You must try this,' Gibran told journalists.

All this time, President Jokowi's eldest son has been focusing his activity to develop his own culinary business. Apart from running a catering company called Chilli Pari, Gibran runs a number of martabak outlets called Markobar. His martabak is quite different from other martabak because it offers 16 different toppings in one serving.

A number of security officers are providing tight security in areas around the hospital, which is located on Jl. Ronggo Warsito, Surakarta. (ebf)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Medan  Thu, March 10, 2016

A female Sumatran tiger has been shot dead after wandering into a village in North Tapanuli regency, North Sumatra, according to the North Sumatra Natural Resource Conservation Agency (BKSDA).



The agency's protection, preservation and mapping section head, Joko Iswanto, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that residents of Silantom Tong village had had the beast shot, then butchered it.



'Only the head remains; we're keeping it safe at the BKSDA office in Medan,' Joko said.



His office, he added, had not yet ascertained the age of the ill-fated animal, but said that going by the size of its head, it was an adult.



According to reports compiled by Joko, the tiger was caught in a trap set by villagers.



It managed to free itself, but instead of fleeing back into the jungle, the tiger instead made its way into the village.



The tiger reportedly roamed the streets of the village for some time, unnerving residents, who reported the sighting to the police.



R. Simatupang, a resident of Silantom Tong, said that he and his fellow villagers had asked the police to shoot the tiger; once the tiger was dead, the villagers dismembered and diced the carcass, distributing the meat to the settlement's households to be eaten.



Locals refer to such practices as binda.



'Binda is a traditional way to treat wild animals ' we cut them into pieces and distribute the meat,' Simatupang said.



He would not be surprised, he added, to see further tigers enter the village, which is located on the edge of the jungle.



'We hope the [local] forestry agency and security officers will determine the whereabouts of tigers in the forest near Silantom and stop them from disturbing people,' Simatupang said.



Joko, meanwhile, said that the tiger was a victim of growing conflict between humankind and other species, as its habitat had been destroyed by illegal logging.



'Tigers are forced to leave their natural habitats because the forest and surroundings are being damaged by illegal logging,' Joko said.



He added that the conflict between tigers and humans had claimed numerous lives on both sides.



In 2014, a Sumatran tiger was speared to death by people in Toba Samosir regency.



Last year, a 5-year-old tiger almost died after one of its legs was amputated. The leg was decaying after being caught in a trap set by residents of Batu Madinding subdistrict in Mandailing Natal regency.



In terms of human fatalities, Joko said, at least eight people living in the environs of Batang Gadis National Park (TNBG) in North Sumatra had reportedly been killed in tiger attacks between 2008 and 2014.



The population of Sumatran tigers in the park is thought to stand at between 10 and 19.



The Switzerland-based International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed the Sumatran tiger as a critically endangered species since 1996.



The organization has reported that the species is struggling with habitat loss amid the expansion of oil palm and acacia plantations, as well as illegal trading, primarily for the domestic market.



Poachers frequently hunt the tigers, which are native to the vast and diverse habitats of Sumatra, as their body parts fetch high prices for use in traditional medicines in Asia.



Data from the BKSDA show that the population of Sumatran tigers in the wild currently stands at around 400 across the entirety of the island of Sumatra.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Tama Salim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 10, 2016

Turkey has pledged to support the Palestinian cause, rejecting allegations that it remains a close military ally of Israel.



According to Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus, Turkey is committed to the Palestinian agenda and has called Turkey's position on Palestine a permanent position.



'We have to defend the rights of the Palestinians and we have to defend the existence of a sovereign and independent Palestinian state,' Kurtulmus said during a discussion in Jakarta on Tuesday.



He claimed that Turkey had severed the majority of its ties with Israel following the latter's 2010 attack on the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish ship carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza strip. Israel's assault on the ship resulted in the death of scores of passengers.



The Israeli military stormed the passenger vessel, which was part of a 'freedom flotilla' from 50 countries, in international waters while the ship was attempting to reach a blockaded Gaza. As a Muslim-majority member of NATO, Turkey had long been a ally to Israel until relations deteriorated following the incident.



Both sides have since kept each other at arm's length, with Israel apologizing for the incident in 2013 but refusing to dismantle the Gaza blockade.



Kurtulmus did not respond to a question on whether or not Turkey would completely sever its ties with Israel in order to fully back the Palestinian agenda.



A member of Kurtulmus' entourage claimed that Ankara had discontinued significant military deals with Israel, such as the procurement of fighter jets, save for a few that were still under contract.



Even so, Kurtulmus insisted that Ankara's position on the Palestinian issue was not up for debate, as it remained an issue that was close to the hearts of many Turks. 'This is not the obligation of the Turkish state. This is the responsibility of Turkish society,' he asserted. 'It is not our political intention. It is a position that comes from our faith.'



Kurtulmus called for the propagation of Islamic values of peace and harmony in the present context of global politics so as to provide good examples of just and inclusive governance to the international community.



'It is justice, not power, that is essential,' he said, referring to a principle rooted in Islamic tradition that he believed showcased the weakness of the current international political process.



The Turkish official argued that part of the source of the Palestinian crisis was the fact that the existing global system privileged power over justice to legitimize international inaction.



He argued that the current permanent membership of the UN Security Council aided parties like Israel, a country that has privileged relations with the US. Because of Israel's alliance with the US, Kurtulmus said Israel had free reign over its actions.



'If you have someone who defends you at the UN Security Council, then you are free to make any unlawful action against anyone,' he said. 'We say the world is bigger than five states. We have to change the world system in a peaceful way.'



Israel has repeatedly ignored a number of UN resolutions aimed at ending its occupation of Palestine.



Peace talks between the two states collapsed in April 2014 and since then the situation has deteriorated, with the prospect of fresh dialogue appearing ever more remote.



The Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) concluded on Monday a two-day summit on Palestine and Al-Quds Al-Sharif in Jakarta with a call for united action to end Israel's hostile policies.



The measures proposed in the Jakarta Declaration 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.



Turkey, represented by Kurtulmus at the summit, pledged to advocate for the Palestinian agenda.



The summit also called on Indonesia to play a larger role in resolving conflict in the Middle East and help restore the image of Islam that has been tarnished of late by radical extremism.



By leveraging Islamic values that promote multiculturalism and religious tolerance, Turkey expects Indonesia to address the root causes of the Palestinian conflict and other international conflicts.



'Terrorism and the refugee problem [are] some of the results of the current international system. Actually, these problems have their roots in economic and political instability, invasion, internal conflict and proxy war,' Kurtulmus said.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta  Thu, March 10, 2016

As a personal care company, British-Dutch multinational consumer goods company Unilever boasts a personal approach in addition to the latest technology.



Its personal approach includes visiting over 500,000 people annually to learn about where they live, how they use personal care products, what they like, what they do not like; to grasp a better understanding of the company's consumers to build global brands based on local values.



As for technology, the company reportedly has six research and development (R&D) centers around the globe, which host some 6,000 experts (almost half are women) and produces over 20,000 patents and patent applications.



In Indonesia, Unilever has 16 brands, ranging from mass to premium products. The company has launched various campaigns related to the brands, including Pepsodent's dental health campaign, which is said to have reached 13 million Indonesian children, Rexona's school education program that targets healthy teenagers, Dove's female self-esteem project, and Lifebuoy's hygiene campaign conducted in schools, homes and hospitals. (kes)(+)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta  Thu, March 10, 2016

A number of US investors have expressed interest in investing in the country's creative economy and cold storage and health service sectors with planned investment of Rp 263 billion (US$20 million).



Their interest was expressed through the Indonesia Investment Promotion Center (IIPC) , a representative office of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) in New York.



'The investors are interested in building animation studios in Indonesia by working together with local partners in Batam, Bandung and Yogyakarta,' BKPM chief Franky Sibarani said recently.



One US investor has considered entering Indonesia's cold storage business with an investment of about Rp 66 billion (US$5 million).



'The company will first build processing plants in Sumbawa, and continue in Alor, Serang and Sorong. These processing plants will process seafood before it is marketed to retailers in the US,' Franky explained.



For health services, US firms will open weight-loss businesses at two potential locations, namely Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara and Bintan in Riau Islands. Currently, the firms are mostly engaged in selling organic spices.



Elsa Noviliyanti, IIPC's executive in New York, said she would continue to communicate extensively with US investors.



'Regarding the creative economy, we have met with the investors and talked about the next investment stage,' Elsa said.



The US is one of Indonesia's priority countries for investment. According to data from the BKPM in 2015, the realized value of US investment reached $893 million, comprising 261 projects, most of them in the mining sector.



Throughout 2015, BKPM received investment commitments worth $4.6 billion from US investors for 76 projects.



'The IIPC New York together with RI representatives and the US marketing officer are going to oversee the process to make sure that their commitment to invest in Indonesia can be realized as soon as possible,' Elsa said.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin George Jahn (The Jakarta Post) Vienna  Thu, March 10, 2016

The United States on Wednesday urged the UN atomic agency to continue providing details on Iran's compliance with a deal crimping its nuclear work amid Western concerns that the agency's newest report is too light on specifics.

With the US and partner nations that negotiated the deal with Iran keen not to jeopardize it, such concerns have mostly been voiced privately.

But chief US IAEA delegate Henry S. Ensher told the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency board Wednesday that continued "robust and detailed reporting on Iran's implementation of its commitments" remains vital even with the agreement now in effect. US State Department spokesman John Kirby echoed those sentiments, saying "we want these reports to be as thorough as they need to be, and as detailed as they need to be."

All six nations that struck the deal with Iran are confident that the agency has a better-than-ever overview of Tehran's nuclear program due to transparency commitments on the part of the Islamic Republic as part of the deal.

But the four Western countries that negotiated with Iran ' the US, Britain, France and Germany ' prefer more details than were evident in last month's first post-deal report.

In contrast, the other two countries ' Russia and China ' consider the new report balanced, while Iran complains the report is too in-depth. IAEA chief Yukiya Amano feels he has struck the right balance, considering Iran is no longer in violation of UN and agency demands to curb its nuclear program.

His report was much less detailed than pre-nuclear deal summaries, essentially ticking off the major obligations that Iran agreed to when the deal took hold Jan. 16 and stating that most were met or minor deviations quickly remedied.

Amano has suggested he won't be pressured, telling The Associated Press that his Iran reporting will remain "factual, impartial and include the information which the agency considers necessary."

___

This story has been corrected to give the US delegate's name as Ensher.

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed from Washington (**)


Sebastian Schipper's much-buzzed-about, single shot crime drama is much bigger than simply just its leading gimmick.

Many films have tried to pull off the unparalleled feat of unravelling their story in one, long, continuous take. Hitchcock started it all with Rope some 70 years ago, whilst last year's Oscar-winning Birdman attempted a similar style. Neither quite managed it though, adopting some visual trickery to help them out along the way. Sebastian Schipper's Victoria however, is the real deal.

Starting with his eponymous heroine (Laia Costa) dancing the night away alone in a Berlin club, Schipper tracks her movements in real time with zero cuts, as she falls in with a charming gang of locals who promise to show her the city's true colours. A few counts of petty crime and a big ol' bank robbery later, Victoria finds herself unwittingly dragged in to a far larger web of murder and deceit; her quiet little existence forever changed by what proves to be the most dangerous night of her life.

It's a beautifully simplistic set-up and one which falls in line with Schipper's grander stylistic plans perfectly. The spontaneity of the film's narrative goes hand in hand with its continuous camera movements, making for a truly streamlined experience: nothing ever feels forced or out of place. Victoria never feels defined by its central gimmick; it flows so seamlessly between set pieces that it's often easy to forget that it even had one in the first place.

A great deal of this is down to the film's cast, who show off a certain natural chemistry and playful form of improvisation that really keeps the plot ticking along nicely. Rarely are there lulls in dialogue or movement, and when there are, Schipper is always on hand to throw in a curveball, whether it be an emotional or physical one.

This, of course, makes for a film that moves extraordinarily quickly, which for the most part, is a definite blessing, keeping things thrilling at every turn. There are occasionally moments that feel like they deserve a little longer in order to be appreciated fully, and as a whole, Victoria's events are certainly a lot to take in in such a small amount of time, but these are worthy sacrifices for a film that is overall, a fantastically driven experience.

Victoria is, after all, very much deserving of its hype; a masterclass in real-time storytelling that covers a huge amount within a limited time frame and a bare-bones narrative. There are few thrillers that unfold as cleverly and uniquely as this one does, and in spite of a few heavy-handed moments of Schipper cutting corners, Victoria stands as arguably one of the year's most exciting releases.

Victoria is out in the UK on April 1st through Curzon Artificial Eye.
Unfortunately, The Content Is Not Here

You have arrived at this page because the page or post you were looking for no longer exists. Please check our main navigation pages for other content: 

Home Page
Tentang Situs Slot Online Resmi MGS88 Nama Situs  MGS88 Minimal Deposit  Rp. 10.000,- (Sepuluh Ribu Rupiah) Proses Deposit   2 Menit Metode Deposit  Bank Transfer,  Pulsa,  E-Wallet Judi Online Terbaik  Slot Online,  Judi Bola,  Casino Online,  Togel Online,  Tembak Ikan Provider Slot Gacor Mudah Maxwin  Pragmatic Play,  PGSoft,  MicroGaming,  Habanero Slot Gacor Gampang Menang  Gates of Olympus,  Sweet Bonanza,  Wild West Gold,  Starlight Princess Win Rate 98%

RTP Live Slot Gacor Tertinggi Hari Ini Terbaru Terlengkap

Selamat datang di halaman RTP live dan informasi soal slot gacor hari ini dari situs MGS88 yang setiap hari selalu update. Berdasarkan RTP Live MGS88, Anda bisa mendapatkan informasi tentang slot online yang saat ini yang sedang Gacor atau onfire dengan persentase yang terbukti akurat, ini bisa menjadi rekomendasi anda sebelum memilih permainan slot online di situs MGS88. Cek RTP Slot sekarang juga bosku

Klik Provider Slot Untuk Mengetahui RTP Slot Secara Real Time

Selamat datang bagi kalian yang sedang mencari situs RTP Live terlengkap dan terkini hari ini. Sangat sesuai jika Anda mengunjungi website MGS88 RTP live untuk informasi tentang permainan slot yang lagi gacor dengan slot RTP yang terupdate. Persentase kemenangan yang kami berikan tentunya diambil dengan data yang sangat valid dan hanya untuk permainan slot yang tersedia di situs MGS88. RTP yang tersedia juga akan selalu diperbarui setiap hari berdasarkan level kemenangan yang diberikan kepada member kami.

Memang sih untuk bermain slot itu tergantung hoki dari setiap pemain, Namun RTP live atau bocoran slot dari yang kami sediakan ini adalah data autentik dari banyaknya pemain yang telah bermain dan mencapai kemenangan tinggi. Sederhananya, kalau banyak pemain yang menang di dalam 1 permainan slot, karena itu permainan slot tersebut akan mempunyai persentase RTP yang sangat tinggi.

Namun kami tegaskan sekali lagi, ini bukan sebuah paksaan kami situs MGS88 untuk anda bermain di game slot yang mana. Ini bisa dijadikan sebagai referensi atau tolok ukur, boleh dicoba kalau anda mempunyai feel yang kuat dalam memainkan permainan game slot. Anda dapat mengakses kapan saja dan di mana saja selama anda siap bermain. Jangan ragu untuk bertanya ya seputar pola putaran terhadap kami, sebab kami juga menyediakannya loh.

Apa itu RTP Live?

RTP Live ialah informasi mengenai persentase tertinggi saat ini dari hasil RTP Live dengan bocoran kemenangan pemain saat ini. RTP Live merupakan singkatan dari Return To Play atau bisa juga diartikan sebagai Return to Player. Karena itu, para pemain slot sekarang jika ingin mengetahui seberapa besar kemenangannya, bisa dengan memainkan permainan yang akan dimainkannya dan bisa untung dengan mudah dan tentunya maksimal.

Apa itu RTP Slot?

RTP Slot juga dikenal sebagai return to player atau pengembalian ke Pemain. RTP slot ialah persentase dari nilai pengembalian semua uang yang dipertaruhkan pemain dari waktu ke waktu. Dengan kata lain, RTP juga dianggap sebagai salah satu fitur slot yang mengembalikan uang pemain saat pemain kalah.

Persentase digunakan untuk menghitung RTP dalam permainan slot. Misalnya, jika slot memiliki RTP 97%, itu berarti untuk setiap 100.000 koin yang hilang di slot, slot dapat mengembalikan 97.000. Jika Anda mengetahui RTP sebuah permainan slot, Anda dapat memutuskan permainan slot mana yang akan dimainkan tanpa kerugian besar.

Apakah Angka Persentase RTP Slot Itu Penting?

Biasanya pemain slot itu tidak memperhatikan RTP dalam permainan yang akan dimainkan, biasanya setelah anda mengisi saldo utama anda akan langsung buru-buru memainkannya. Yang terakhir 90-96% mempengaruhi jumlah kemenangan. Semakin tinggi jumlah RTP yang digunakan, semakin luas peluang untuk mendapatkan keuntungan.

Akan namun itu segala tak secara 100% menjamin kemenangan kau dalam bermain, RTP itu cuma sebagai kalkulasi pengeluaran anda saja selama bermain slot.Dengan adanya RTP, kau dapat mengerjakan pengaturan atas uang yang akan kau pertaruhkan nanti pada ketika bermain.Untuk itu pada ketika kau bermain slot dan telah mengalami banyak kekalahan di satu permainan, direkomendasikan kau pindah ke permainan slot lainnya yang RTP nya lebih tinggi dari permainan yang tadi kau mainkan.

Keuntungan Menggunakan Bocoran RTP Slot Hari Ini

Situs MGS88 Akan dengan senang hati akan beberapa keuntungan yang didapatkan jika anda bermain slot dengan menggunakan RTP Live yang telah disediakan. Berikut Keuntungannya :

Peluang Kemenangan Meningkat Tentu saja, saat bermain slot online, menang adalah hal yang paling penting. Di sinilah RTP berperan sebagai metode atau metode baru yang akan membantu Anda memilih permainan slot persentase tinggi. Mendapat variasi dalam Memainkan Game Slot Pastinya banyak pemain slot online yang hanya memainkan 3-5 permainan slot saja. Namun dengan RTP Live slot akan memberikan banyak game slot lain yang bisa anda coba. Tentunya semua permainan slot memiliki potensi kemenangan yang besar, jadi jangan hanya mengandalkan beberapa permainan saja. Menambah Pengalaman Dalam Bermain Slot Keuntungan terakhir adalah Anda tentu saja menambah pengalaman dan keahlian dalam permainan slot online. Dengan berbagai macam permainan slot yang dimainkan, Anda pasti mengetahui karakteristik dari setiap permainan slot yang Anda mainkan. Akibatnya, Anda pasti bisa dianggap sebagai pemain slot yang andal, yang pasti akan meningkatkan peluang Anda untuk menang besar menggunakan RTP.

Daftar 8 Situs Dengan RTP Slot Live Tertinggi Hari Ini

Ada banyak penyedia mesin slot online di internet. Tetapi tidak semuanya memiliki peluang tinggi atau RTP Live Slot yang sangat tinggi. Tapi jangan khawatir, berikut ini adalah situs slot gacor yang akan memberikan bocoran slot dengan RTP Live Tertinggi:

RTP Live Slot Pragmatic Play (RTP Slot 97.85%) RTP Live Slot PG Soft (RTP Live 96.15%) RTP Live Slot Habanero (RTP Slot 95.89%) RTP Live Slot CQ9 (RTP Live 98.83%) RTP Live Slot Spade Gaming (RTP Live 94.99%) RTP Live Slot Micro Gaming (RTP Slot 95.39%) RTP Slot Live Top Trend Gaming (RTP Live 96.14%) RTP Slot Live JOKER123 (RTP Live 97.45%)

Itulah Daftar 8 Provider Slot Gacor dengan RTP Live teratas diatas tentunya kami analisa terlebih dahulu. Anda bisa membuktikannya langsung dengan mengklik banner atau meprovider game slot yang sudah tersedia di atas. Saran kami yaitu Anda harus memainkan semua penyedia slot di atas untuk mencapai peluang kemenangan terbaik.

Daftar Slot RTP Live Tertinggi Sering Kasih Jackpot

Selain mempertimbangkan RTP Slot Gacor yang ada, sebenarnya ada banyak faktor penting untuk menang dalam permainan judi online. Sebab ada banyak game yang memiliki fitur dan mekanisme unik dan bisa membantu anda meraih Jackpot yang sangat besar.

Berikut ini akan kami ulas daftar 5 game slot paling populer karena sering memberikan jackpot:

RTP Live Gates of Olympus Gates of Olympus adalah game slot teraneh dan terbaik di Indonesia. Karena permainan mesin slot ini paling populer karena kakek Zeus dapat mengizinkan pengganda x500. Selain itu, fitur dan mekanik Gates of Olympus juga sangat menguntungkan untuk memenangkan Grand Jackpot. Secara teoritis, RTP slot langsung Gates of Olympus bernilai 96,50%, yang berarti peluang Anda untuk memenangkan MaxWin cukup tinggi. RTP live Sweet Bonanza Sweet Bonanza adalah permainan slot terpopuler kedua. Game slot bertema buah dan permen yang lezat ini sepertinya akan menarik banyak perhatian karena tergolong slot gacor yang mudah menang. Secara teoritis, slot Sweet Bonanza RTP bernilai 96,48%, yang berarti peluang Anda cukup tinggi untuk memenangkan jackpot. RTP Live Wild West Gold Wild West Gold adalah permainan slot bertema koboi yang juga populer di kalangan penggemar konspirasi. Permainan slot Wild West Gold sendiri kerap menawarkan kejutan jackpot bagi para pemainnya. Selain itu, nilai RTP Live Slot menunjukkan indeks tertinggi hari ini, yang berarti sangat layak dan sangat direkomendasikan. RTP Live Starlight Princess Slot Starlight Princess ini memiliki gaya dan fitur yang mirip dengan Gates of Olympus. Perbedaannya hanya pada desain dan karakter gamenya saja, karena memiliki fitur dan mekanik yang sama tentunya RTP slot teoritis pada game slot ini sama yaitu 96,50%. RTP Live Cash Elevator Mungkin sebagian dari Anda baru mengenal slot Cash Elevator. Namun dari data benchmark yang diungkap, ternyata banyak sekali yang menikmati permainan slot ini. Dengan fitur dan mekanisme unik seperti Lift up and down asli, slot ini juga memiliki slot RTP Live dasar 96,64% yang juga memiliki mekanisme yang sangat menguntungkan untuk memperlancar tingkat kemenangan besar.

Bocoran Jam Main Slot Gacor Hari Ini

Dalam bermain permainan slot online itu tidak bisa dilakukan dengan sembarangan yah. Jadi, Jika anda bermain pada waktu tertentu seperti yang akan kita bahas sesaat lagi, ada kemungkinan anda untuk mendapatkan kemenangan lebih tinggi. Jam RTP Slot Gacor merupakan bocoran jam main slot yang akan memberikan anda kapan waktu yang pas dalam bermain game slot.

Tentu saja seluruh provider slot online memiliki jam tertentu dalam memberikan peluang kepada para pemainnya untuk mendapatkan kemenangan. Disini kami akan memberikan anda Bocoran Jam Slot Gacor yang Paling Akurat Hari ini:

Jam Slot Gacor Pragmatic Play 02:30 WIB - Jam 05:25 WIB Jam Slot Gacor Habanero 14:26 WIB - Jam 17:38 WIB Jam Slot Gacor CQ9 00:45 WIB - Jam 05:53 WIB Jam Slot Gacor PG SOFT 14:25 WIB - Jam 17:35 WIB Jam Slot Gacor Joker123 17:41 WIB - Jam 20:42 WIB Jam Slot Gacor Microgaming 22:30 WIB - Jam 00:35 WIB

MGS88: Situs Judi Slot Online Gacor Pay4D Resmi dan Terpercaya

MGS88 adalah situs game slot online Gacor terbaru yang bermitra dengan Pay4D, Pay4D sendiri merupakan daftar situs game slot online terpercaya dengan berbagai macam permainan judi yang mudah dimenangkan seperti Game Bola, Casino Online, Slot Pay4D, Tembak Ikan dan Pay4D Online Permainan togel seperti Singapura, Hongkong, Sydney dan lain-lain. Tujuan utama kami adalah menjadi situs judi online Pay4D yang menyediakan layanan judi online terbaik di Indonesia.

Kami juga salah satu situs resmi PAY4D di Indonesia yang pasti akan membayarkan semua kemenangan kepada semua member kami, karena kepercayaan dari semua member kami adalah prioritas utama kami sebagai mesin slot 4d Asia terbaik di Asia, khususnya di Indonesia.

Dalam melakukan sistem transaksi sistem simpanan dapat dilakukan dengan mudah melalui mobile banking dan electronic banking berupa bank BCA, BSI, BRI, BNI, Cimb Niaga, Permata dan Mandiri. Selain itu, transaksi e-wallet juga tersedia melalui Dana, Gopay, LinkAja dan Ovo serta dapat digunakan untuk pulsa tanpa dipotong.

Untuk mempermudah dan kenyamanan dalam melakukan registrasi atau melakukan setiap transaksi, MGS88 menyediakan layanan live chat dan Whatsapp terhubung langsung dengan customer service online 24 jam.

Mengenal Istilah Dalam RTP SLOT

Di slot RTP Live Anda akan melihat berbagai fitur yang mungkin tidak Anda pahami masing-masing. Namun jangan khawatir, disini sebagai situs slot gacor MGS88 kami akan memberikan penjelasan lengkap mengenai tentang istilah yang ada di RTP SLOT dibawah ini.
Home >Police Enforcement > Checkpoints and Stops > Florida Court: Cops May Not Hold Licenses As Leverage To Search
Burgerfest 2016 - Who has Phukets Best Burger?

Start From: Saturday 19 March 2016, 04:00PM to Saturday 19 March 2016, 10:00PM Mon. Tue. Wed. Thu. Fri. Sat. Sun.

Phuket's best-of-the-best restaurateurs and chefs are set to battle it out to see whose burger reigns supreme and is crowned Phuket's Best Burger 2016. The inaugural 2015 Phuket's Best Burger was won by Xana Beach Club who have worn the crown proudly for the past year. A panel of expert judges will blind judge, their scores will be combined with the new public vote. There will be live music and activities for the kids, plus special rates at Kids Mania at RPM. From 16:00  22:00, Town Square, Royal Phuket Marina.
Financial stress blamed for Phuket gun range suicide

PHUKET: Police believe that Estonian national Andres Podra, 38, dramatically took his own life at a Phuket gun range yesterday (Mar 9) due to stress over his lack of finances.

healthhomicidepolicepatong

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Thursday 10 March 2016, 12:43PM

Police believe Estonian national Andres Podra shot himself in the head at the gun range due to financial problems. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Mr Podra shot himself in the head with high-powered handgun at the Patong Hill Shooting Range yesterday afternoon after firing seven rounds at a target. (See story here.)

He left behind two handwritten letters: one to his sister written in Estonian, and another in English instructing police to contact his wife, Rachaneewan Punkoon, at a hotel in Patong.

We contacted Ms Ratchaneewan and she told us that Mr Podra had been unemployed for months and that he was under tremendous stress due to his finances, said Lt Sawanya Eidsong of the Thung Thong Police.

She said that Mr Podra told her often that he wanted to kill himself. He wanted to stay in Thailand and live in Phuket, but he could not find a job that he liked, Lt Sawanya added.

She also said that all his friends that were helping him to find work never contacted him back.

The Estonian embassy in Bangkok has been notified, Lt Sawanya said.

And Ms Rachaneewan is contacting his family, he added.

Regarding reports that Mr Podra lived in the US (see here), Lt Sanya said, We have no information about whether or not Mr Podra was a resident or had lived in America.

But we have confirmed that Mr Podra did not have any children with Ms Ratchaneewan.

Mr Podras self-shooting death at a Phuket gun range follows that of 21-year-old Liam Colven of Scotland shooting himself dead a year ago at a shooting range in Thalang. (See story here.)
PGFC host yet another successful Classic

FISHING: Now in its sixth year, the Phuket Game Fishing Clubs annual tournament was once again held offshore from the Similan Islands. This year, bearing the title PGFC Thailand 2016 Classic, the event ran continuously over three days with non-stop fishing from 8am on March 1 to 4pm on March 3, with teams battling for an impressive array of prizes.



By The Phuket News

Thursday 10 March 2016, 10:04AM

Sergei from runaway winners and Champion Team for the second year running, phuketfishing.ru.

With the wind of the previous few days mercifully having abated, conditions were once again excellent for fishing, allowing anglers plenty of opportunity for a variety of techniques, including jigging and bottom fishing as well as daytime trolling.

Prize categories were for the largest fish of each of nine eligible species. The Champion Team trophy was awarded to the team securing most points from the species awards, and the prize list ensured plenty of keen competition among the more than 30 anglers taking part.

Whilst fishing was challenging, those choosing the right techniques and locations showed the quality and quantity of fish to be caught. Although no marlin or sailfish were recorded as caught and released this year, it was not for lack of strikes, with over 10 having been reported, of which at least three marlin were lost within a few feet of the boat, the largest of which was estimated at over 350lbs.

After the three hard fought days, over 75 participants and their families, anglers, boat owners, sponsors and crew members gathered at KanEang@Pier restaurant, Chalong for a splendid dinner followed by presentation of the awards.

Congratulations to the runaway winners and Champion Team for the second year running, phuketfishing.ru, with a massive 150 points total. Their winning haul included the heaviest Trevally, 21.8Kg; Tuna, 20.4Kg; Mackerel, 7.0Kg and Barracuda, 4.8KG, as well as the largest Other Species fish, a whopping 27.4Kg grouper.

In second place, the Slough Sharks with 30 points claimed the best Dorado of 8.4Kg and the runner-up Wahoo of 7.4Kg. The tournaments only all-ladies team, the Outcasts from Australia claimed third place with the largest Wahoo of 9.0Kg.

Sincere thanks go to all our sponsors for their generous support of the event, without whom it wouldnt be possible.

Full results and event photographs can be seen on the PGFC website, www.phuketgamefishingclub.com.

The Phuket News were proud media sponsors of this event.
Phuket DDPM holds sea rescue exercise at deep sea port

PHUKET: The Phuket office of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) yesterday (Mar 9) held a sea rescue exercise at the deep sea port in Ao Makham.

marinedisasterstransport

By The Phuket News

Thursday 10 March 2016, 01:03PM

Vice Governor Chokdee Amornwat together with Phuket DDPM Office chief Sirisak Sakulsoratja presided over the drill which was held with the aim of increasing rescue workers skills and provide them with up-to-date training.

V/Gov Chokdee said, The island is growing rapidly in terms of economy and transportation both on land and at sea. Now more items such as chemicals, other hazardous materials and oil are being transported by sea more frequently and if such materials leak into the sea it will damage the environment.

The exercise held today is part of rescue workers annual training which usually focus on incidents such as earthquakes, landslides or floods, he said.

This year, Phuket DDPM worked together with Wichit Municipality and local officials to conducted a sea drill to rescue victims from the water at Phukets deep sea port. The mission of the exercise was to test our emergency equipment and train rescue workers to be quick when saving lives, added V/Gov Chokdee.

Mr Sirisak said, The Ministry of Interior ordered Phuket Governor to have an emergency drill according to the islands environment and demographics because Phuket is considered to be a high risk area for natural disaster.

Phuket deep sea port is the best place to set up such a drill, and we want our rescue team to be provided with more knowledge and to gain more experience, he said.

Emergency responders must understand about natural disasters and they must act quickly to prevent loss of lives and damage to property, he added.
Phuket street racers wanted for assault and intimidation

PHUKET: Police on the island are currently looking for a group of teenage street racers who are alleged to have crashed into a German tourist leaving him with minor injuries, smashed up his pickup truck and assaulted one of his friends in Rawai in the early hours of this morning (Mar 10).

crimeviolencepolice

By Darawan Naknakhon

Thursday 10 March 2016, 11:33AM

Mr Stegfried is treated for injuries he sustained after being knocked over by a teenage street racer in Rawai. Photo: Darawan Noknokhon

Maj Thada Sodarat of Chalong Police was call to investigate an incident on Wichet Rd in Rawai just after midnight where it had been reported a 59-year-old German man had his pickup truck smashed up and one of his friends was assaulted by a group of teenage street racers.

Police arrived at the scene, a unknown resort on Wichet Rd, to find Mr Kiesl Stegfried, 59, and three of his friends, including two Thai women, waiting for an ambulance to arrive. Mr Stegfried had suffered scratches his right arm and leg and had bruises all over his body after being knocked down by one of the street racers.

Mr Stegfried led police to his damaged pick up truck and said, The group of teenagers surrounded my truck, they kicked and smacked the drivers door, the back of the vehicle and broke the side mirror.

He explained to police that he and his friends had walked across the street in front of a restaurant on Rawai beach road going back to his truck when they came across a group of between 7-10 street racers.

One of them rode his bike into me causing me to fall over. I knew that they were all teenagers, and as I'm only a tourist here I did not try to confront them. An official from Rawai Municipality showed up to question us but i wanted the matter left alone.

I left with my friends and returned to our resort which is about three kilo from where the incident took place, Mr Stegfried said.

Mr Stegfried went on to say that thought that the mater was over, but when he pulled up at the resort he realised the group had followed him.

They started yelling at us and banging on the door of the truck, others from the group then started to smash my truck, he said.

One of my Thai friends got out of the vehicle and tried to talk to them, but one teen kicked her. Staff from the resort ran out to help and the group dispersed, he added.

Maj Thada Sodarat said, The hotel staff told us that they had CCTV footage of the group damaging the vehicle and assaulting the Thai woman.

Mr Stegfried said that at first he wanted to forget about the incident because he only suffered minor injuries. But the fact that the group followed him to the resort, damaged his truck and assaulted his friend is unacceptable, he said.

I ordered officers to look for the group after they had checked CCTV footage, but they could not find them on the street.

We will check CCTV from along Wichet Rd with the aim of finding out their licence plates. I believe they are local teenagers and officers already have some of their names.

Most of them are students and I was told they often raced along Wichet Rd, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. We will find them soon before they cause more damage to residents and tourists, Maj Thada Sodarat concluded.
To help us keep this website secure, please wait while we verify you're not a robot! It will only take a few seconds...

Loading...
Live music highlights from March 10 to 16:

Thursday

Radio Radio, My Dance Floor

Acadian pair appears ready to rule the country with latest Light the Sky, which as their first fully English-language LP might well be termed their coming-out party in these parts. And we mean party, this cheeky, rabble-rousing anthem but one of many. It should translate well to a live stage, or at least as well as possible in the less than ideal surroundings of this cagelike place; just the ticket to start the weekend early. (Adelaide Hall, doors 8 p.m.)

Friday

Jay Prince, 1993

To the long list of young, buzzy Brits here for local debuts over the last year or so, add this 22-year-old East Londoner. Hes overdue after a February date at the same place was scrubbed. A quick and complimentary flow over warm, nostalgic beats, and a wary positivity  City full of dreams, city full of vultures, I do it for the culture  have earned him a few lofty comparisons to American hip-hop lords. (Drake Underground, doors 7:30 p.m.)

Saturday

Lemon Bucket Orkestra, Niska Banja

Having started as buskers working around the downtown, the Toronto group remains close to those anarchic street roots, but they have earned some acclaim as they make their way into new worlds, with LP Moorka earning them a Juno nomination and Ukrainian folk opera Counting Sheep at last years SummerWorks festival. Live, they remain a sweaty, satisfying workout. This inaugural two-night brass band festival will provide a months worth of cardio as theyre joined on the bill by fellow hell-raisers Gipsy Kumbia Orchestra (from Montreal), Torontos Rambunctious and the Detroit Party Marching Band. (Opera House, doors 9 p.m.)

Sunday

RNDM, Ghost Riding

When visual artist and songwriter Joseph Arthur was asked to sing a track he co-wrote on Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Aments solo album, While My Heart Beats, he probably didnt think hed soon be called upon to front Aments new band. An informal invitation in 2012 to an Ament house jam unexpectedly birthed a full album, Acts, and sophomore LP Ghost Riding brings them here and continues the mostly aggressive, intelligent rock n pop vibe, this title track taking a reflective look at childhood play. With drummer Richard Stuverud rounding out the threesome, they do love the colour orange, so expect to see orange jumpsuits, instruments, balaclavas . . . (Mod Club, doors 8 p.m.)

Monday

David Simard, Good Clean Water

Montreal, northern B.C. and Paris are among the base stickers on the guitar case of this troubadour, though he seems to have been all over: a songsmith, performer and collaborator with the gravitas of a seasoned baritone to bring it all back home. Protest songs like the one linked here evoke Pete Seeger, and his 2015 EP with Theo Lawrence was a smoky country-blues delight. For this particular show hes flying solo. While he sometimes gets yoked with the alt-folk moniker, he sounds more like the real trad deal. (Burdock, doors 8:30 p.m.)

Tuesday

Bonnie Raitt, Gypsy in Me

Raitt is 66 and with 20 LPs in the bank following the latest, Dig in Deep, her biggest problem is coming up with a setlist thatll avoid leaving out any essentials while allowing her to explore these new songs. On that count she makes the trip worthwhile, balancing balladry and four-on-the-floor rockers with the guitar and warm, world-weary vocals getting bluesier and more knowing as time passes. Add her longtime touring band, who are a tight bunch, and Oakland funk fivesome California Honeydrops opening, and a hot time is pretty much assured in this pick of the week. (Sony Centre, 8 p.m.)

Wednesday

Mike Janzen Trio, Nudge

T.O. keyboard man leads the most talented group of instrumentalists playing this evening  most any evening they play, actually. Janzens an expressive, exuberant player, as at home slyly reinventing standards as pitching his own compositions, whether arranged for larger orchestral settings or the trio: longtime pal George Koller on bass, his steady companion in lyrical arms, and Davide Direnzo returning on drums for Larnell Lewis and bringing his own unique edge. Theyre both amazing drummers: Larnells more of a technician, while Davides so excellent at the rock-jazz thing, says Janzen. In this comfy, unpretentious venue, thatll do nicely. (The Rex, 9:30 p.m.)

SHARE:
The Afghan soldiers first brush against my left breast could have been accidental contact. The second time, moments later, was a firmer probe and clearly intentional. The third accosting was overt and beyond ignoring. Knock it off!

We were squished into the back seat of a vehicle, part of the convoy which had brought then-presidential contender, now-President Ashraf Ghani, to a campaign event in distant Farah Province. This soldier, his rifle knocking up against the cars roof, was part of Ghanis personal security detail.

I wasnt deeply offended, given the general view of Afghans towards Western women  we were all little better than whores. I was wary of planting an elbow in the midriff of an armed individual. But I did mention it afterwards, in passing, in the column I filed. That infuriated Team Ghanis handlers  mad at me, not Grope-Fingers  and got me boycotted from any further media field trips with the candidate.

Annoying. And nowhere near as satisfying as the kick in the ass I gave to a man, just a passerby, whod reached out and twisted my nipple  hard  when I was walking along the Tigris River in Baghdad a couple of years earlier. In that part of the world, males arent accustomed to female retaliation. And, again, I was obviously a foreigner, thus excluded from all the religious and social conventions that rendered women untouchable.

The truth is, most of the molestation I encountered in Afghanistan came from other women  the pinch-faced harridans who conducted aggressive pat-downs of female reporters at the many security checkpoints that had to be negotiated when attending a government press conference or arriving at a government ministry for an interview. Those women took an inordinate interest in lady-parts, as if a girl reporter from Canada would have a bomb stuffed down her pants. Afterwards theyd proffer a cheek: Kiss me. And stick out a palm: Pay me.

I was reminded of these everyday vexatious experiences while reading The Taliban Shuffle, Kim Barkers hilarious account of the five years she spent in Afghanistan and Pakistan as a foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. The memoir has been turned into a film, renamed Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (WTF, get it?) starring and co-produced by Tina Fey. The (considerably fictionalized) movie, which opened a week ago, is a perfect vehicle for Fey, who extends her acting chops portraying Barkers initial cluelessness as a front-line journalist, thrust into  soon becoming a hearty participant in  the boozy Kabul High party scene, and eventual transformation into a war junkie addicted to bang-bang. A land where a woman who was a 6 at home became a 10 immediately upon stepping outside Kabul Airport.

Ultimately Barker came to her senses, weaning herself from a high-risk existence that had become all-consuming. In any event, the Tribune, like so many other news organizations, had lost interest in Afghanistan and, under new (cockamamie) ownership, shuttered most of its foreign bureaus.

If Id ever contemplated writing a book about My Adventures in Afghanistan  nine tours of reportorial duty in a fantastical place that had seized my imagination since childhood  Barkers wisecracking chronicle would be a dissuading influence. Shes set the bar high. But I regret never having met her since, as The Taliban Shuffle makes clear, we were on occasion in the same spot, mere feet from each other. Unlike Barker I was never propositioned by Afghanistans attorney-general nor had the former president of Pakistan offer to find me a special friend to alleviate loneliness.

In Afghanistan, particularly, there was a firm distinction between reporters who came and went and those who dug in for the long haul, even as the old hands complained that their war had been forgotten, relegated to the B Theatre during the long years of U.S. deployment in Iraq. Even the bang-bang became boring to editors back home in a country which boasted, Barker argues, the most incompetent suicide bombers on the planet. Which may have been true at one time but certainly not any more, not in the era of the New Taliban  the Haqqani Network, Hezb-e-Islamist  that slithered back into the vacuum of departing NATO/American troops and now controls one-fifth of the terrain.

While effectively capturing the stock-characters who roamed around Afghanistan  RoboCop Reporters, usurious fixers, corrupt warlords, kohl-eyed boy-toys and hapless national troops  Barker often writes in an almost Bridget Joness Diary way about the war-sex social scene in Kabul, where the bacchanal seems only intermittently interrupted by embeds and actual reportage. Its amusing to revisit such foreigner hot spots as Latmosphere restaurant, where journalists and the NGO hordes were served alcohol but fixers, translators and Afghan reporters werent served at all. In retrospect  even back then  this caste system struck me as appalling.

Unlike Barker, I generally avoid the Gandamack Lodge too, where most foreign reporters washed up and hunkered down during their Kabul sojourns. I remember the twinkling lights of the outdoor restaurant and the beer chits but not the seemingly endless bohemian excesses. If there was tons of revelry in the private compounds rented out by groups of reporters and Western debauchery at the red-light brothels that sprung up around the capital, I missed that also. But I didnt usually linger in Kabul for long because Kabul was so strikingly not Afghanistan. Yet I know of at least one Canadian journalist who was so bewitched by Kabuls lures that he abandoned the profession and moved there full time as an analyst widget.

Barkers narrative is more compelling, if less ribald, in the second half of her book, devoted mostly to the Pakistan bureau part of her protracted overseas assignment. That entire section has no presence in the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot movie  an entertaining film, nevertheless, which I highly recommend.

She never warmed to Pakistan but Afghanistan, for all its craziness, enthralled and Barker  now an investigative journalist at the New York Times  remains besotted. I think she nails the seduction of living and working in the hot zones, in this passage: Why did I want to stay so much, in a region that was falling apart as my newspaper was dying? Because despite the missed vacations, despite everything, this still felt more like home than anywhere else. Only in this madness was it possible to feel such purpose. I was paid to watch history. In a small way, I felt that I was part of something much bigger, like I mattered in a way I never did back home. Every dinner conversation felt important; every turn of the screw felt momentous. This was my life. I wanted to know how the story ended.

Nobody knows how the story will end. But I hope to get back there to tell it, inshallah.

Rosie DiManno usually appears Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

Read more about:

SHARE:
Another migrant has died in the custody of the Canadian Border Services Agency. I would tell you his name, his age, his country of origin, and the circumstances of his death, but CBSA refuses to share any of this information. Apparently, the power to detain migrants indefinitely, often in maximum security jails, is not enough for our border officials. They insist on erasing the humanity of the migrants they detain, even in death.

Each year, our border security agency detains thousands of migrants, even though it is not a crime to be in Canada without status. About one third of undocumented people detained by CBSA are taken to jail, usually without any criminal charge. Migrants end up in detention centres and jails, for indefinite periods of time, because they are not Canadian citizens, and are therefore deemed to have no rights. The federal Liberal government has the power to end this disgusting practice, and must do so without delay.

The unnamed migrant who died in the Toronto East Detention Centre, a maximum security jail in Scarborough, is the 13th person to die in CBSA custody since the year 2000. CBSA says it cant tell us anything about the most recent death because it is under investigation. But border agents often close such investigations without saying how a migrant died in custody. Without publicity of the circumstances of detained migrants deaths, it is nearly impossible to advocate for reform.

One of the reasons CBSA cites for detaining a person without full status is that it cannot confirm that persons identity. When a migrant dies in CBSA custody and provincial investigators are called in, they too can refuse to identify the person on the grounds that his or her family members have not given permission to do so. But how can officials track down the family of someone whose identity is unknown? The system is set up for human life to expire in almost total secrecy.

Death is the worst outcome for detained migrants, but far from the only concern. Many are denied access to a lawyer, and are often bullied into signing deportation orders through monthly immigration hearings that can go on indefinitely. The United Nations has said that Canadas practice of indefinite detention amounts to cruel and unusual punishment of migrants. The government carries on, in defiance of international law and any basic definition of human dignity.

Migrants who do find a way to get their stories out tell of unspeakable prison conditions: solitary confinement, regular lockdowns, a lack of basic health care, neglect or verbal abuse from prison guards, heavily restricted access to family and friends. Many of these individuals, who are disproportionately black and brown men from Africa, Asia, and Latin America, use words like garbage and animals to describe their treatment. Many have engaged in lengthy hunger strikes in protest. Conditions seem not to improve and the deaths continue.

Immigration and human rights advocates have been demanding better oversight of migrant detentions for years, to no avail. In 2013, a 42-year-old Mexican migrant hotel worker named Lucia Vega Jimenez, was arrested and detained in Vancouver. CBSA wanted to send Jimenez, who did not have Canadian status, back to Mexico. She told a fellow inmate she feared she would be tortured and killed if she was sent home. When officials proceeded with the deportation process, Jimenez hanged herself in her holding cell, and died of her injuries eight days later.

An inquest into Jimenezs death recommended dedicated holding facilities for migrants, and an independent civilian oversight body to investigate serious incidents with detained migrants. Nothing has changed, but even these proposals fall short. Canada does not need to detain people who have not broken the law. Migrants like Jimenez, who was initially arrested because she could not pay her fare on public transit in Vancouver, should be given a pathway to citizenship instead of a deportation order.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has condemned a law by the previous government to strip citizenship from some dual Canadian citizens. In doing so, Trudeau has famously repeated that a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian. This lofty declaration ignores a simple fact: some people in Canada are not Canadian, and status should have no bearing on our responsibility to protect them. Trudeau and his government must defend those who do not enjoy legal status, and end the serial detention of migrants that continues to result in abuse, degradation, and death.

Desmond Cole is a Toronto-based journalist. His column appears every Thursday.

SHARE:
Canadians warm reception of Syrian refugees has become a feel-good story for the nation. When Donald Trump declared that he would ban all Muslim immigration to the United States, many juxtaposed his vitriol against the large numbers of Syrian refugees being taken in by Canada. Images of Canadians welcoming Syrians into their homes and communities have been contrasted positively with the protests and violence of groups like Pegida, the anti-Islam and anti-immigrant movement spreading across Europe. (Pegida is the German acronym for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West.)

But we miss seeing some important things, blinded by the glare of our own sunny ways.

An online Care2 petition asking the government to stop resettling 25,000 Syrian refugees in Canada has garnered almost 50,000 signatures, accompanied by comments such as terrists [sic] and If the Liberal Government wishes to increase the number of refugee's [sic] to Canada, BRING IN THE CHRISTIANS. I don't think Mr. Trudeau will as he seems to be dedicated to the Muslim Brotherhood. Calgary schools have been defaced by anti-Muslim graffiti, most recently two weeks ago. In January, a group of Syrian refugees attending a welcome event in Vancouver were attacked with pepper spray. Anti-immigrant groups have organized demonstrations in Canada; Pegida Quebecs march in Montreal on Feb. 6 was shut down by activists.

And right-wing European demagogues have been invited to Canada to share their fear-mongering. On March 10, the Jewish Defense League (JDL)  identified as a violent extremist organization by the FBI  is hosting British politician Paul Weston in Toronto for an event claiming to reveal the threat of radical Islamic immigration and the erosion of our freedoms.

Weston is currently the leader of Pegida UK, launched earlier this year by former English Defense League leader Tommy Robinson. In the UK, Weston is perhaps best known for a viral video rant in which he proudly labelled himself a racist, and declared that Islam is a thoroughly savage religious and political ideology. Islam is Nazism incarnate, Weston announced at a recent Pegida UK rally in Birmingham, to an audience of protestors waving signs proclaiming Trump is Right. Never mind that in the current climate of anti-Muslim suspicion in Britain, it is the Muslim population that is increasingly under attack: London police reported that there were 816 assaults on Muslims in the city between July 2014 and July 2015  a 70-per-cent spike from the year before.

In 2010, Weston warned that the UK was being colonized by immigrants from countries like Bangladesh, resulting in the ethnic cleansing of the English. One can only marvel at the chutzpah of complaining about the reverse colonization of the UK by Britains former colonial subjects. In fact, a 2014 Ipsos Mori poll found that Britons, like Canadians, tend to vastly overestimate the size of their countrys immigrant and Muslim populations: for example, while Muslims comprise 5 per cent of the British population, those surveyed thought it was 21 per cent. (And the numbers are similar in Canada.)

Hysterical accounts of dangerous Muslims and invading immigrants drastically skew the perceptions of a majority made to feel under siege. It is not entirely surprising that Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik cited Westons writings in his anti-multiculturalism manifesto.

We ought to pay attention to the resonance Westons anti-Islam screeds appear to be finding with an apparently expanding segment of the Canadian population. The Facebook page of Pegida Canada (dedicated to stopping the Islamization of the West and preserving and protecting our Christian-Judeo based culture) is accumulating support at a worrying pace: from 5,500 likes in September to over 11,000 today. Pegida Canada is one element of what Macleans Magazines Martin Patriquin has described as Canadas angry, radical right: the growing number of extremists lashing out publicly at Muslim immigrants. A 2016 study by academics Barbara Perry and Ryan Scrivens found that right-wing extremism in Canada is more extensive and more active than public rhetoric would suggest, comprising at least 100 active groups  many of which are linked to like-minded European and American organizations.

In a secret briefing last September, CSIS flagged Canadas burgeoning anti-Islam and anti-immigrant movement as a security threat. And according to the Chief of the Surete du Quebecs Division of Investigations on Extremist Threats, the majority of the services active files deal with the extreme right. However, Canadian security agencies have been far more publicly vocal about the dangers of Islamist terrorism  lending state legitimacy to the narrative of Muslim threat driving anti-immigrant activism.

Azeezah Kanji is a legal scholar based in Toronto.

Read more about:

SHARE:
Fidel Castro probably never imagined a day when Americans would book flights to Cuba on their smartphones.

But, in a mind-bending example of just how quickly times have changed, that day has arrived. It's being ushered in via an Uber-style, on-demand flight app created by Victor, a private jet hire company.

In the wake of restored diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Cuba, few have been quicker than private jet chartering companies to make the most of the cordial, post-Cold War relationship.

Victor, for instance, was among the first private jet chartering companies to offer U.S. travelers direct flights to Havana from 19 U.S. cities. And more recently, the company began witnessing its customers booking flights to the island nation via the Victor app.

"The fact that you can book a trip to Cuba on a smartphone through the Victor app is really as contemporary as it gets," says David Young, senior vice president of North America for Victor. "It's a moment in history that will never come again. It's an exciting period. Visiting Cuba is going to be as commonplace as going to Mexico in the coming years."

While Cuba becoming the next Mexico remains a little hard to imagine, these are groundbreaking and fascinating times, particularly when it comes to the island nation's engagement with the world at large.

In just a few weeks, Cuba will host the first visit from a sitting U.S. president in 88 years, when Barack Obama descends on the tiny country for two days.



Shortly after Obama's visit, the Rolling Stones will hold a free concert in Havana at Ciudad Deportiva de la Habana, the first open air concert in the country by a British rock band.

One can only imagine what Fidel Castro, a dictator famous for jailing people for any actions that might be interpreted as dissent or criticism, must think of all the changes.

In perhaps the most notable recent development for average citizens, the U.S. and Cuba have agreed to re-establish scheduled air services between the two countries. The agreement creates the potential for as many as 110 daily, round-trip flights in and out of Cuba.

Not long after the agreement was inked, United Airlines submitted its formal application to the U.S. Department of Transportation to provide service to Havana from such gateway cities as Newark/New York, Houston, Washington, D.C. and Chicago. The airline's proposed service would include 11 round-trip flights each week, including daily flights from Newark Liberty.

American Airlines, meanwhile, is seeking to operate its own scheduled services, including ten daily flights to Havana from Miami. The airline is also hoping to offer additional service to Havana from hubs in Charlotte, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles and Chicago.





These are just a few of the airlines reportedly lining up to fly to Cuba. Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, and JetBlue have also submitted applications, according news reports.

The DOT will make the ultimate determination regarding which airlines are awarded routes.

"Flights to Cuba are opening in a big way," says Vinay Bhaskara, a senior business analyst for Airways News. "It's going to get a lot easier to fly to and from Cuba, compared to when there were just the few charter flights operating."

The renewed commercial flights to Cuba are not only a boon for travelers but also a welcome, and very lucrative, opportunity for the airlines, which stand to make millions of dollars from the new routes, notes Bhaskara.

"This is a genuine sort of boost to the U.S. airline industry," he explains. "It's a new source of revenue. This is a huge destination with lots of demand - there's a lot of Cuban Americans who all want to go back...This could add two to three million international travelers a year, and you're talking on the order of a couple hundred million dollars of revenue."

While large commercial airlines vie for a piece of the action, others have already begun figuring out ways to capitalize on present conditions.





CheapAir.com, for instance, says it was the first online travel agency to sell direct flights to Cuba for qualified U.S. citizens.

The site started constructing itineraries that allowed travelers to get to Cuba as early as last February, says CEO Jeff Klee, by routing fliers through Mexico or Panama City. After that, CheapAir added charter flight inventory to its offerings.

"Once we added the charter flights, that's when it really took off," says Klee.

The site sells tickets for direct, charter flights departing daily from Miami International Airport, Tampa and New York's JFK.

While charters to Cuba are not entirely a new offering, being able to book such a flight online, or via an app like Victor jets for that matter, is definitely part of the emerging, more modern dynamic tied to the country. Each innovation is one more step forward in the march toward Cuban-American relations 2.0.

"This is a huge deal," says Klee of the easing airline industry regulations and increasing commerce. "This was the forbidden market. You couldn't get to Cuba. No one could fly there. Since I've been in this business and many decades before that, American airlines have not flown to Cuba."

One remaining obstacle amid in all of this historic momentum, thawing of relations, and ingenuity, however, is the still standing U.S. law prohibiting Americans from flying to Cuba purely to vacation.

U.S. visitors must continue to meet one of 12 criteria - such as family visits, government work, journalism, professional research, humanitarian work to provide support to the Cuban people or people to people travel.

"Nothing about opening the market to scheduled flights is changing one of those 12 reasons," emphasizes Klee.

Still, those 12 reasons haven't exactly kept U.S. travelers, or businesses offering flights to Cuba, at bay.

Magellan Jets, which offers clients private charter flights, began flying to Cuba within hours of the embargo being removed by President Obama, and business has steadily increased ever since. The company is currently booking about two flights a week to the country.

"After the embargo was lifted, people didn't know what to do, except for us, we were doing our research ahead of time," says Magellan's Joe Scanto.

Victor's Young, meanwhile, says the company has paired with Cuba Educational Travel (CET) to create acceptable itineraries for its U.S. fliers, which are specifically designed to allow American visitors to comply with those 12 regulations.

The customized CET trips include such activities as tours of Havana with urban planners to learn about the city's architectural past and future; dining with artists and musicians and meeting with diplomats to discuss the current political climate among other topics.

"CET creates the cultural exchange," says Young, a service that comes with a price-tag of about $1,000 per day, which covers two people. That fee is in addition to the cost of the flight, which can range depending on the type of plane and departure location from about $15,000 to $20,000 for a roundtrip flight from Miami, to $65,000 to $120,000 from Los Angeles.



While those prices alone will be prohibitive for many, it seems not to have dampened the enthusiasm of the average private jet customer.

"We're getting requests weekly to fly there," says Young. "I would anticipate that will increase to several trips a week in the coming months."
Donald Trump may as well come to Thursday's Republican debate in Miami with a bullseye on his back.

The New York businessman is poised to win Florida's March 15 winner-take-all primary, and its 99 delegates, and leads in Ohio, Illinois and Missouri, which account for another 259 delegates, and also hold their votes on Tuesday. Trump holds 458 delegates to Texas Senator Ted Cruz's 359. A total of 1,237 is needed to secure the nomination.

Judging by Trump's solid victories Tuesday in Michigan, Mississippi and Hawaii, Cruz, Ohio Governor John Kasich and Florida Senator Marco Rubio can be expected to throw everything they can at the GOP frontrunner. If the past 12 televised debates are any guide, all three are likely to charge that Trump isn't conservative enough on abortion or government's role in healthcare and education, or sufficiently supportive of corporate-backed "free" trade. Rubio, in particular, is likely to unload on Trump.

Thus far, such arguments have hardly destroyed his dominance at the polls. According to a Quinnipiac University Poll published Wednesday, Trump held a commanding 45% to 22% lead over Rubio in Florida. Kasich trails Trump in Ohio by 38% to 32%, the poll showed.

Rubio's rapid fall from grace has been one of the most stunning developments of the past six weeks. Arguably, the first-term senator never recovered from the body-slam interrogation he endured from a bloodthirsty Chris Christie, now a sometime aide-de-camp to Trump. The #RobotRubio monicker was hard to shake.

It's unclear what the future holds for Rubio, who elected not to run for re-election to the U.S. Senate.

The debate at the University of Miami comes as a collection of Super PACs are spending more than $10 million in television advertising aimed solely on disparaging the former reality-TV star. The "Never Trump" movement includes the anti-tax group, the Club for Growth, which is spending $2 million in Illinois and another $1 million in Florida attacking Trump.

Trump called the ads were "vicious."

The expenditure may seem odd, considering that Trump has been largely impervious to negative advertising. Even the effectiveness of political TV advertising is being questioned, considering the reach and weight of social media platforms led by Twitter and Facebook. Jeb Bush, famously spent $1,150 per vote in New Hampshire and $2,800 per vote in Iowa, both highs for Republicans. Bush withdrew from the race late last month.

Substantively, Trump's message that immigration and free trade has damaged the American dream, continues to sway voters. Exit polls in Michigan showed that "economy/jobs" was the top concern of Republican voters, scoring 35% compared to "government spending" and "terrorism." Of those voters, 38% voted for Trump.

And even as Michigan voters said Cruz was the candidate who best "shares my values," Trump was the overwhelming selection for the candidate who "tells it like it is."

As for the debate, CNN's moderators are probably relieved Trump promised them a "nicer, softer, lighter" showing. Execs perhaps not so much: the raucous GOP tilts have been delivering record television ratings.

In last week's Republican debate, held in Detroit, a visibly bothered Trump countered a Rubio jab about the size of his hands with a thinly-veiled claim that his penis is anything but small.

That was a first for any presidential debate. Heading to Miami, that will be a hard act to follow.
With fears of another recession threatening the West, emerging economies are once again in focus.

However, as China grapples with an economic slowdown, and political and economic uncertainty rule Brazil, investors are betting on Indian markets as the most promising of the emerging economies.

With its young demographic, and the promise of changes to policy to attract private investments, India is poised to record robust growth.

We recommend two Asian American Depository Receipts (ADRs) to include a bite of Asia in your portfolio. They are among a group of growth investments with enough momentum to "beat the bear" in 2016. Both companies offer products and services in high demand and have robust pipelines of business.

INFY

data by

YCharts

Infosys (INFY)

IT outsourcing pioneer Infosys is on track to return to its pre-2011 glory.

Infosys was the jewel in India's outsourcing services crown. The company, along with peers Wipro, TCS and Cognizant has contributed a heft part of what is now India's $150 billion IT industry.

But operating margins started going downhill post the retirement of top executives, particularly its widely praised former CEO Narayan Murthy largely due to lack of innovation.

Murthy returned as executive chairman in 2013 to help Infosys regain its lost luster. In 2014, he hired Vishal Sikka formerly of SAP as CEO. The move and others spurred Infosys. Share prices have risen over 20% in the last two years.

Under Sikka's leadership, Infosys has renewed its focus on automation, artificial intelligence and digital technology among others. That's translated to higher revenues and net profits. In the third quarter, Infosys displayed revenue increase of 15.2% year over year and raised full year 2016 revenue guidance to 12.8%-13.2% in constant currency from 10%-12% earlier.

With over 60 customer projects pertaining to the Infosys Automation Platform, over 125 projects on the data processing platform and development of a software platform that can provide solutions for complex business issues, Infosys seems on track to differentiate itself from its peers and achieve its goal of $20 billion in revenue by 2020.

Not only is Infosys recording better growth than rivals, at 18.29 forward earnings, it is also cheaper than Wipro at 20. Infosys deserves to be a part of your wealth-building strategy.

WNS

data by

YCharts

WNS (Holdings) (WNS)

Business process management company WNS Global is so far enjoying a good year. The company recently announced that it had extended service contracts with pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline until December 2020 and Scandinavian Airlines until October 2019.

WNS provides research and analytics services to GSK and has even set up an advanced Knowledge Center under the partnership with the pharma company.

For Scandinavian Airlines, in addition to passenger revenue accounting services, WNS will incrementally provide analytical support, with solutions across risk, audit and compliance.

In the most recent quarter, the company reported revenue of $144.4 million, up 6.2% year over year year and up 2.4% on the quarter. The major verticals that led to the rise in revenues were Shipping and Logistics, Retail/CPG, Travel and Utilities. At least for the last four quarters, WNS has beat analyst estimates on earnings per share.

The company has displayed a strong appetite for organic and inorganic growth as it builds capabilities in health care and analytics. With zero debt, net income growth (three-year average) that dwarfs the industry average, and higher operating and net margins than the industry, WNS boasts a strong balance sheet.

Analysts are bullish on the ADR with nine rating it a Buy, three rating it a Hold and zero rating it a Sell. Analysts have a 12-month price target of $34.50, representing a 19.34% upside from current levels.

85% Accurate Trader gives his Personal Guarantee. He turned $50,000 into $5 million trading this way and for a limited time, he's guaranteeing you at least $67,548 per year in profitable trades if you follow this simple step-by-step process. Click here to see how easy it is to collect thousands of dollars in "Free Money" every month.

This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.
Workers on a new Trump building in Uruguay are unfazed by Donald Trump's inflammatory rhetoric, but mess with their lunch, and there's hell to pay.

Construction workers on the Trump Tower building currently under development in South American coastal city Punta del Este, Uruguay went on a short strike last December, reports local media outlet El Pais. The motive: about a dozen stolen sausages.

While preparing a lunchtime barbecue, workers discovered that 11 chorizos -- pork sausages that are a must-have at any local asado-- were nowhere to be found. In response to the chorizo robbery, the group halted work until the missing meat was located.

A quick and thorough search began, resulting in the eventual discovery of the lost sausages in one of the workers' backpacks. The barbecue recommenced, as did work on Trump Tower.

The development is expected to be completed in 2017 -- provided there are no more meat-based scandals to get in the way.

Juan di Salvo, Sales Director of Trump Tower Punta del Este, confirmed the incident in a phone interview from Buenos Aires, Argentina. "It was real," he said, chuckling, adding that the building's developers were only alerted to the hiccup by the El Pais report, the source of which he assumed must have been one of the union workers on the job.

Di Salvo works for Fortune International Realty, the Miami-based real estate sales and rental company that has teamed up with Buenos Aires developer YY Development Group to market Trump Tower Punta del Este.

Announced in 2012 at a press conference attended by real-estate-magnate-turned-Republican-frontrunner Trump and his three children, Eric, Ivanka and Donald, Jr., the luxury residential oceanfront building is being spearheaded by Argentine architects Bernardo Dujovne, Silvia Hirsch and Maria Dujovne of Dujovne-Hirsch & Associates.

From time to time, Trump's son Eric travels to the beachfront city, a popular destination for many of South America's most affluent individuals, for a few days to scope out the progress of the development, to which the Trump Organization has licensed its name and brand. While visiting, Trump does a mini media tour as well.

During a January 2015 visit, Eric's wife, Lara Yunaska, who he married in late 2014, revealed in an interview with Hola! that the pair's travel schedule had kept them from taking a honeymoon. While on this year's trip, Eric talked to El Paisabout his father's White House prospects, telling the publication he believes he will win and comparing him to Argentine President Mauricio Macri.

Once completed, Trump Tower Punta del Este will have 154 apartments and two penthouse spaces. According to di Salvo, about 60% of the development's apartments have already been sold, largely to Argentines, Uruguayans, Europeans and Americans. The going price: about $450 to $650 per square foot, with one-bedroom apartments starting at about $419,500 and three-bedroom spaces starting at $1.4 million. The penthouses have not yet been priced.

Move-ins will begin in December 2017. The development was initially expected to be completed sometime this year, but shake-ups in internal directors and floor plan modifications have extended the timeline.

As to whether Trump's controversial comments on the campaign trail have had any impact on the Uruguay development, di Salvo says no. "For us, in sales, it hasn't changed absolutely anything," he said.

In fact, by his estimates, apartment prices have increased about 10% since last year.

And it's not just Trump Tower Punta del Este's developers and sellers who aren't concerned about Trump's wild ride to the White House -- workers on the development probably aren't, either.

In an interview last July on the heels of the businessman's inflammatory comments about Mexicans and immigrants, Faustino Rodriguez, head of Uruguayan construction labor union SUNCA, said it doesn't matter what Trump says as long as his workers are getting paid.

"We don't need to agree with whatever he decides to say," he said. "We just want to keep our jobs."
Is Bernie Sanders a Wall Street menace? He says so.

At Wednesday's Democratic presidential debate in Miami, the Vermont senator bragged about his anti-establishment credentials in contrasting himself with fellow White House contender Hillary Clinton.

"There is nobody in the United States Congress who has taken on the Koch brothers, who want to destroy Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and virtually every federal program passed since the 1930s more than Bernie Sanders," he said. And later, to bring the point home, he added, "I am dangerous to Wall Street."

The assertion came as a reference to comments made by Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who in February responded to Sanders' ongoing assault on the banking giant. Sanders has invoked Goldman numerous times on the campaign trail as an example of the "billionaire class" he despises and in a January interview cited Blankfein by name as an example of corporate greed.

"It has the potential to personalize it, it has the potential to be a dangerous moment. Not just for Wall Street not just for the people who are particularly targeted but for anybody who is a little bit out of line," Blankfein said. "It's a liability to say I'm going to compromise I'm going to get one millimeter off the extreme position I have and if you do you have to back track and swear to people that you'll never compromise. It's just incredible. It's a moment in history."

Sanders appears to wear his Wall Street danger badge with pride -- in the wake of Wednesday's debate, his campaign sent out a fundraising email to supporters with the subject line: "I am dangerous to Wall Street."

But is he?

The Vermont senator certainly has big plans for the financial industry should he be elected president.

He has pledged to reinstate Glass-Steagall, a Depression era law separating commercial banking and investment banking that was repealed in 1999. Doing so would require some of the biggest banks to be broken up -- names like JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and, of course, Goldman Sachs.

The senator also plans to tackle what he calls a Wall Street speculation tax, more commonly known as a financial transaction tax. Aimed at raising billions of dollars in revenue by placing a small levy on every stock, bond and derivative bought and sold in the United States, he says the measure would cover the entirety of his $75-billion-a-year-plan to make public college tuition-free.

Other measures touted by Sanders include prohibiting what he considers "too-big-to-fail institutions" from accessing the Federal Reserve's discount facilities or using insured deposits for risky activities, ending the practice of paying big bonuses to Wall Street execs who take government jobs, and auditing the Federal Reserve.

As to how dangerous all of that really is to the finance industry, it depends who you ask.

Sanders' and, for that matter, Clinton's plans to break up the banks and tackle Wall Street would be difficult to enact, noted Politicoassistant editor Danny Vinik in the wake of Sunday's previous Democratic debate in Flint, Mich.

"The law does give the government the ability to break up big banks if the Federal Reserve board of governors votes that the institutions pose a 'grave threat to the financial stability of the United States,' and if two-thirds of the Financial Stability Oversight Council agree with that finding," he wrote. "But that's a process the president controls only remotely, by appointing people over the years who'd be more inclined to be tough on banks. So while it's a promise that enthuses Democratic voters, it's a huge stretch to imagine either candidate could suddenly make it happen."

Still, his rhetoric alone could be enough to spook financial institutions and traders should he land in the Oval Office, at least initially, said John Hudak, a fellow in governance studies at Washington, D.C.-based think tank the Brookings Institution, in an October interview contemplating the prospect of a Sanders presidency.

"It would rebound only if policies under Sanders were shown to be economically positive," he said.

Matt Dickinson, Middlebury College political science professor and expert in presidential politics, echoed the sentiment: "The basic question that drives everything is whether the financial markets believe the Sanders numbers add up."

Wall Street still doesn't appear to be too concerned about a Sanders presidency -- at least not in the way it seems worried about the prospect of Clinton. Her tweets on issues like eliminating private prisons and tackling price gouging by pharmaceutical companies have moved markets.

Sanders' Wall Street speculation tax, of course, could be impactful to Wall Streeters, but until it is implemented, we wouldn't know how much.

A recent study published by the Tax Policy Center indicated that a revenue-maximizing financial transaction tax could generate about $75 billion but poses risks in significantly discouraging trading and creating new distortions among asset classes. And it wouldn't just hit Wall Street -- it would hit investors across the board, including those with their 401Ks and pensions in the markets.

"To increase the transaction fees...would be reflected ultimately in the price of securities, that is, lower the price of securities, and that would be a burden on investors and the holders of capital in general," said Steve Rosenthal, senior fellow at the Urban Institute and one of the researchers behind the study, in a February interview.

The question of whether Sanders would really be dangerous for Wall Street ultimately comes down to whether he would be good for the economy at large.

A February report from University of Massachusetts Amherst economist Gerald Friedman indicates that Sanders' plans would lead to a roaring economy, and though the findings have come under criticism from the left and from the right, Friedman isn't alone in thinking Sanders' economic plans would bring about good things.

In fact, this week, Sanders found support from an unlikely source: Asher Edelman, the American financier who is said to be one of the inspirations for Gordon Gekko of the 1987 film Wall Street.

When asked in an interview with CNBC who he believes the best presidential candidate for the economy would be, Edelman responded unequivocally. "Bernie Sanders, no question," he said, later adding, "Bernie is the only person out there who I think is talking at all about both fiscal stimulation and banking rules that will get the banks to begin to generate lending again as opposed to speculation."
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) stock is rebounding 1.16% to $512.51 in pre-market trading on Thursday, as the Mexican-style food chain will reopen its Billerica, MA restaurant today following a thorough cleaning.

The restaurant closed yesterday after three employees who are suspected of having norovirus called in sick.

One of the employees was later confirmed as having the virus, Billerica's Public Health Director Richard Berube told reporters, Reuters reports.

Chipotle has been "very proactive," and the other staff at the restaurant will be screened for norovirus, Berube continued. So far, no customers are known to be sick.

"They did the right thing," Howard Penney, who covers the chain for Hedgeye Risk Management, told Reuters, adding that Chipotle is still a "broken company" following last year's E. coli outbreaks and that it would take years to return to its peak performance.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates the stock as a "hold" with a ratings score of C+.

Chipotle has strengths, such as its respectable return on equity, which TheStreet Ratings expects to continue. At the same time is said weaknesses include generally disappointing performance in the stock itself, unimpressive growth in net income and poor profit margins.

You can view the full analysis from the report here: CMG

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.
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Petrobras (PBR.A) are up 0.49% to $4.08 on Thursday morning as Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva faces money laundering charges, which could be connected to the ongoing corruption scheme at the Rio de Janeiro-based oil giant, the New York Times reports.

The specific charges against the former president are not yet clear.

Yesterday's charges from prosecutors in Sao Paulo are linked to money laundering allegations and the misrepresentation of assets involving a luxury apartment in the beach city of Guaruja, Brazil.

Federal investigators said da Silva effectively acquired the property, which he denies, and that construction company O.A.S. paid for apartment improvements with funds that could have come from the corruption scandal at oil company Petrobras, the Times added.

A judge must still determine whether to accept the charges and put da Silva on trial.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings Team has a "Sell" rating with a score of D on the stock.

This is driven by some concerns, 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, weak operating cash flow, generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself 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: PBR.A
As Linn Energy reportedly considers bankruptcy, the company might alter its corporate structure or merge with its corporate affiliate to shield investors from a tax hit, TheStreet TV anchor Rhonda Schaffler reports in the above video.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Linn Energy (LINE) stock is plummeting 11.24% to $1.42 in afternoon trading on Thursday, as the oil and natural gas company explores changing its corporate structure to insulate investors from a tax hit related to a likely debt restructuring, sources told the Wall Street Journal.

As oil prices have plunged roughly 60% since the summer of 2014, Linn has been pressured to consider debt-restructuring options and a potential bankruptcy, the Journal notes.

Even though Linn Energy's stock price has tanked from $30 per share two years ago, investors might still owe taxes on debt that is excused in a bankruptcy or out-of-court restructuring.

This is because Linn Energy is taxed like a master limited partnership, which passes tax burdens and a share of its income to investors rather than paying corporate taxes itself.

The company is considering workarounds that might shield investors from a large tax bill related to a debt reduction, the Journal adds.

Options include allowing Linn to merge with a publicly traded corporate affiliate, LinnCo (LNCO), or letting investors trade Linn units for LinnCo shares before a restructuring.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates the stock as a "sell" with a ratings score of D.

Linn Energy's weaknesses include its deteriorating net income, generally high debt management risk, disappointing return on equity, weak operating cash flow and generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself.

You can view the full analysis from the report here: LINE

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.

LINE

data by

YCharts
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- CEMEX (CX) stock is declining 0.90% to $6.03 in afternoon trading on Thursday after the company agreed to sell its assets in Bangladesh and Thailand to Siam City Cement (SCVUF) for about $53 million.

CEMEX, a Mexican construction materials company, will use the proceeds of the sale to reduce its debt and for general corporate purposes.

The operations included in the deal have a combined annual cement capacity of 1.32 million metric tons, the Wall Street Journal reports.

"Although the proceeds from the asset sale with $53 million are rather small, we believe the benefit of cost savings going forward and the company's ability to focus in Asia on its operations in the Philippines will deliver improving profitability and ultimately cash generation," Barclays noted, according to the Journal.

The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2016.

Separately, CEMEX has a "sell" rating and a letter grade of D at TheStreet Ratings because of the company's generally disappointing stock performance and poor profit margins.

You can view the full analysis from the report here: CX

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.
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- FireEye (FEYE) stock is slumping 3.05% to $17.48 this afternoon, even though the cyber security company's Mandiant forensics unit is helping with an investigation into a cyber heist that occurred at Bangladesh's central bank last month, sources told Reuters.

The hackers stole more than $80 million from a Bangladesh Bank account at the New York Fed.

Any involvement by U.S. authorities will probably center around learning how the criminals hacked into the bank's network, whether any of the money can be recovered and how the funds traveled the world, Reuters adds.

FireEye has previously been hired to help with investigating some of the largest thefts on record.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates the stock as a "sell" with a ratings score of D-.

FireEye's weaknesses include its deteriorating net income, disappointing return on equity, generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself and feeble growth in its earnings per share.

You can view the full analysis from the report here: FEYE

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.
In 'What's Ahead on Wall Street' for Thursday March 10, investors will get earnings reports from Dollar General (DG), Vail Resorts (MTN) and ULTA Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance (ULTA). Investors will be watching Dollar General when the discount retailer releases its latest quarterly earnings. Wall Street is looking for profits of $1.26 a share on revenue of over $5 billion. Both the top and bottom line are projected to increase from a year ago. Its focus on cost containment and operations will likely lift results. The key economic reports coming out are jobless claims and the treasury budget. TheStreet's U-Jin Lee reports from New York.


remaining of

Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading.
This undated photo provided by the Coeur dAlene Police Department via the The Spokesman-Review shows Kyle Andrew Odom. 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. The Coeur dAlene Police Department said it is looking for local resident Odom, 30, a decorated former Marine who should be considered armed and dangerous. (Coeur dAlene Police Department via The Spokesman-Review via AP)
n this Thursday March 10, 2016 photo released by the Saudi Press Agency, SPA, Saudi King Salman watches the North Thunder military exercises in Hafr Al-Baten, Saudi Arabia. Heads of state from across the Muslim world gathered in Saudi Arabia on Thursday for the conclusion of a nearly three-week-long counter-terrorism military exercise that included 20 participating countries. (Saudi Press Agency via AP)
Recover your password.

A password will be e-mailed to you.




Days ago, long before the media inaccurately reported this tale, I received some information that a member of the House brought raw milk to the Floor to offer to those present to drink. I posted it, too. As it really was, by chance.

It was said suggested by those who had not been supportive of the Raw Milk Herdshare bill on that date that, when some members of the House of Delegates and staff were sick afterward, the illnesses could have been be due to the raw milk given out they chose to drink.The issue was, from the start, many were sick that had not consumed the raw milk on the day it was brought with the same symptoms at the same time.

Norovirus has been confirmed to be making the rounds, and it almost certainly was to blame. Members of the legislature have confirmed this is common at this time of the year, and that before the milk was brought, folks were already beginning to catch the virus. So why, when a known virus with easy to recognize symptoms and common this time of year is circulating to many at the capitol, blame raw milk? Because the government has done one thing right: they have accomplished building tremendous fear and hysteria around real food.

All direct and local sources Ive spoken to have confirmed this story of raw milk illness to be an unfounded rumor. It is a tale without merit. Further, to date, no medical professional has come forward with evidence to confirm ( this is easy to prove from stool and blood culture/testing) that any illness was connected to food borne illness of any kind, let alone related to contaminated milk. Actually, one delegates doctor is reported to have confirmed to that legislator that raw milk was not related. Every single person who has been ill has dispelled the rumor. In a world concerned with honesty, not another word would have been said. Yet, Journalists have avoided the truth in order to sensationalize a story that doesnt exist. They have opted to not interview those who have been confirmed ill at the Capitol that not only did not drink milk, were never even around milk. American Journalism at its finest. This attempt to damage farmers and local foods is sickening, but it shows what a warped and disconnected society we have become.Too few reading these media reports are bothering to fact check. We, the people, are as much to blame. We have stopped caring about the truth, friends.

Given the radical opposition from the DHHR, Local Health Departments and FDA toward the Herdshare bill, any person who ever becomes ill and has also drank raw milk in their lifetime will find the milk is blamed unjustly. That is largely at the root of the statistics the CDC collects on raw milk, I suspect, as is.

While it has been disheartening to see many folks willing to jump to assume the milk was the culprit during stomach flu season in a crowded place of government business, given the decades of propaganda behind this issue, I can only sigh and think, Of course.

The Herdshare law does expressly say milk cannot be given out second hand, so it is worth noting, the Herdshare law passing was not involved in the delegate bringing real milk to give out on the House floor. It is not legal in West Virginia for a producer of milk to give it out, sell it or make it available. It is not legal for a Grade A dairy to sell or make raw milk available. It is not directly illegal, from my lay persons understanding of the rules and law for a non-producer to accept the milk, however, and then give the milk out.

Real Milk, like undercooked eggs, raw oysters, sushi, cantaloupe and lettuce, can become contaminated. Any food, cooked or uncooked, can. There is a low level of risk with food in general; the risk in consuming raw milk is actually less than in some other whole, raw foods. Those seeking out herdshares understand this. It is a personal choice, and many millions of people decide real milk is the right choice for their family, and they use it daily without any concern or issue.

Thankfully, the risk with real milk is minimal, though not non existent, properly handled real foods, including fresh milk, are safe.
On motzei Shabbos 25 Adar-I, Honenu Attorney Menashe Yado filed an urgent complaint with the Public Complaints Unit of the Israeli Police about an interrogator at the Merchav David (Old City) Police Station, for abuse of a Jewish minor who had been assaulted by Arabs before he was detained.

On the preceding Friday night, as the minor and his brother were returning from tefilos Shabbos at the Kosel to their home in the Old City of Jerusalem, several Arabs began to taunt and curse them. At some point the Arabs assaulted the brothers and choked the minor for several minutes. Jewish passers-by who arrived on the scene rescued them and summoned policemen and medical personnel.

After the assaulted youths received first aid care at the scene, the policemen followed the recommendation of the medic who treated the youths and evacuated the older brother to the hospital for further medical treatment.

However, the younger brother, a 16-year old minor, who had been choked for approximately three minutes by the Arabs and suffered difficulty breathing, was detained on a claim that the incident was a fight between the Jewish brothers and the Arab assailants, a few of whom were also detained.

In his complaint filed with the Public Complaints Unit, Yado stated that the interrogator did not inform the minor of his right to consult with an attorney and also denied him his legal right as a minor to be interrogated in the presence of one of his parents, even though his father was at the police station.

Yado adds that the minor was suffering from shortness of breath due to the assault and choking and asked to be allowed to walk in fresh air in a open area in order to catch his breath. Despite his pleading and his fathers pleading the interrogator needlessly delayed fulfilling the request, and only after the father announced that he was calling a doctor, was the minor allowed to walk around in the open area of the police station and breathe fresh air.

The father added that while he sat waiting outside of the interrogation room for close to two hours, his son was interrogated by an interrogator who repeatedly screamed at him. Only after several hours of interrogation and giving testimony about the Arab assailants was the minor released to his home.

There was no cause to interrogate my client so aggressively. My client and his brother were assaulted by Arabs. They did not assault, wrote Yado in his complaint. Yado also demanded that the commander of the Merchav David Police Department conduct an investigation of the incident and that the interrogator be suspended immediately.

Recently Honenu Attorney Menashe Yado filed a complaint with the Public Complaints Unit about the same interrogator for abusing two Jewish girls who were interrogated by her and had their rights severely violated.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Donald Trump is making overtures to a Republican Party establishment that remains deeply leery of his insurgent presidential campaign.

Coming off a night where he won three of four Republican election contests, Trump said Wednesday that he had a smart and conciliatory discussion this week with U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan and he believes the two have respect for each other.

We get along well. I like him a lot. I respect him a lot, Trump said of Ryan, during an appearance on CNN. I think he respects me. I think he really does respect what Ive done.

Ryan, whose staff acknowledged the telephone call earlier this week, has tried to remain aloof from the nomination battle, but the 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee has indirectly criticized Trump twice in the past few months.

Until now, most Republicans in Congress have remained deeply skeptical, even alarmed, by the prospect of Trump as their partys nominee. Trumps controversial statements about banning Muslims from the U.S. and his slowness in disavowing the support of white supremacists have particularly troubled Republican senators and House members running for re-election this year.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he hadnt yet spoken with Trump, but that the candidates conversation with Ryan was appropriate.

Thats just fine that hes done that, McConnell said. I think what the speaker is trying to do by developing a platform, something were in discussion with him, the agenda, is a good idea. And Im glad.

Ryan has said that he wants to use the House this year to chart a course for conservative policies that could be implemented under a Republican president.

Trump, however, frequently breaks from Republican positions in his rhetoric, which has sowed doubts about how likely he would be to defer to a Republican-led Congress.

Trump, who won contests in Michigan, Mississippi and Hawaii on Tuesday, acknowledged that differences remain with Ryan and many congressional Republicans on some issues.

He was asked in an interview Tuesday on MSNBC how far hed embrace the House Republican agenda, including Ryans push on alleviating poverty and overhauling Social Security and Medicare.

Trump asserted at least some of the differences can be negotiated.

Well, Id be talking to him, Trump said of Ryan.

Again, I dont agree with them on all of these things and I certainly dont agree on the border because Im much stronger on the border than they are and they have a different  well, they have a different feeling as to what should take place on the border, said Trump.

The billionaire noted that Republican rival Sen. Ted Cruz has tried to make an issue of Trumps willingness to negotiate on issues  which he said should be regarded as a positive attribute, not a negative one.

Let me tell you, thats what youre supposed to do, Trump said. Youre supposed to gather people around and make great deals.

I want to make great deals for my side of the equation. But otherwise youre just going to have a stagnant country like you do right now. You have no negotiation. You have Washington is in total gridlock, he said.

So I will, said Trump.

Trump downplayed on CNN his comment last week that Ryans going to have to pay a big price if he didnt do what Trump wants. He said he didnt mean that as a threat.

We should be talking and unifying, said Trump, noting all the new voters his campaign has drawn to the party.

Republican senators remain largely unswayed by Trump.

South Carolinas Lindsey Graham has said he even preferred Cruz to Trump as someone who can be trusted on the Supreme Court and other issues, although Graham and other Republicans still say they intend to support whoever becomes the nominee.

So far no Republican senators have joined Sen. Ben Sasse in saying they would never vote for Trump.

Trumps lone Senate endorser, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, continued to stand by him this week despite flaps over Trumps hiring of immigrant labor and support for some high-skilled immigration.

(c) 2016, Bloomberg  Billy House
Its a pretty common feeling. You get a new smartphone and are thrilled with it. A year goes by, a new phone comes out and suddenly youre left with a debate. Should you wait a year, or is it worth it to upgrade now?

Samsung is trying to make it easier for some of its customers to make that decision, officially launching an upgrade program that makes it easy to trade in your old Samsung smartphone when a new one comes along. The program appears to have launched in South Korea and in Britain. Users are asked to agree to pay a small additional monthly fee  the price seems to vary by market  for 24 months when they buy their phone. After 12 months, if their phone is in good condition, they can trade their old phone in for a new one. Its timed to the launch of the new Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.

Samsung hasnt made any announcement about whether the option will come to the United States. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Apple already has a similar program for the iPhone. Many carriers also offer plans that let you upgrade your phone more frequently. But the benefit for smartphone makers to run these programs is clear: getting people signed up on their own upgrade plan gives them a better shot at a repeat consumer, and more often. If youre paying for an annual upgrade plan, chances are pretty good that you wont be waiting two years before buying your next phone.

Thats particularly appealing to companies such as Samsung right now. Because, overall, growth has slowed for the high-end smartphone market. Consumers, it seems, arent quite as excited as they used to be about yearly smartphone upgrades, which have tended toward the incremental rather than the revolutionary lately. Not only that, low-end smartphones are improving in overall quality, making them more appealing to those who dont need to stay on the cutting edge of smartphone design.

Samsung has been hit particularly hard by cooling enthusiasm for smartphones. The company said in January during its quarterly earnings report that it expects smartphone sales to be slow throughout the year. While it reported a fairly strong holiday quarter for 2015, the company said that its net profits had fallen 40 percent from the previous year.

Samsungs new phones, however, have gotten rave reviews for combining the strengths of its most recent phones  metal construction, an excellent camera  with some features it brought back from older phones, such as expandable memory and water-resistance. The phones will officially go on sale Friday.

(c) 2016, The Washington Post  Hayley Tsukayama
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch insisted Wednesday that she had not discussed the Justice Departments investigation into former secretary of state Hillary Clintons use of a private email server during her time in office with anyone at the White House and had no plans to do so.

Lynchs comments  which came during an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee  were aimed at assuring legislators and the public that the investigation is insulated from political pressure. Lynch mostly deflected specific questions about the case, though she said she would do the same in all ongoing investigations whether they involve someone with a famous last name or not.

We treat them the same, and that is how the public has confidence in the investigations that we conduct, Lynch said.

Under questioning from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Lynch said she did not know why a White House spokesman was speaking in a way that suggested that he had inside knowledge of the probe and where it would lead. She seemed to offer a soft jab at the spokesman for talking about the case.

Certainly, its my hope, when it comes to ongoing investigations, that we all would stay silent, she said.

The spokesman, Josh Earnest, said at a press briefing last month: What I know that some officials over there have said is that she is not a target of the investigation. So that does not seem to be the direction that its trending, but Im certainly not going to weigh in on a decision or in that process in any way. That is a decision to be made solely by independent prosecutors. But, again, based on what we know from the Department of Justice, it does not seem to be headed in that direction.

Lynch declined to provide details about an immunity agreement for a former State Department staffer who worked on Hillary Clintons private email server, though she said the department was preparing a written response to Sen. Charles Grassleys, R-Iowa, request for a copy of the agreement. The staffer had invoked his Fifth Amendment rights and refused to testify before a congressional panel in September, and Grassley said he wondered why the agreement would not allow him to do so without fear of prosecution now.

If it covers him for Justice Department matters, why wouldnt it cover him so he could testify before Congress? Grassley said.

At one point, under questioning from Sen. John Cornyn III, R-Texas, Lynch refused to even concede specifically that a decision to charge someone in the case would rest with her or someone working for her.

Everybody in the Department of Justice works for me, including the FBI, sir, she said.

Asked if the Justice Department was analyzing Clinton or the Clinton Foundations foreign sources of income for possible ethical or legal violations, Lynch said she was unfamiliar with such a probe, at least by those under her command.

Im not aware of any other issues along the lines of what you have outlined, she said. The Washington Post has reported that investigators with the State Department, which is separate from the FBI, issued a subpoena to the foundation last fall seeking documents about the charitys projects that may have required approval from the federal government during Clintons term as secretary of state.

(c) 2016, The Washington Post  Matt Zapotosky
Mike Bloombergs presidential campaign-that-never-was had put together a few dozen strategists and staffers. It had set up campaign offices in two states. It had produced television ads calling the former New York mayor and financial media titan no nonsense, non-ideological, centrist, results-oriented.

The New York Times reported it all following Bloombergs announcement that he would not run because of the risk it created of Donald Trump being elected.

But the most interesting detail about the billionaires preparations was who Bloomberg was reportedly going to ask to be his running mate.

Michael Mullen, the retired admiral and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had been vetted by Bloombergs legal team and the two had undergone extensive talks, the Times reported, with only a formal invitation remaining.

Talk of vice presidential running mates is starting to heat up, and none of the remaining contenders has served in the armed forces. Meanwhile, GOP front-runner Donald Trump is being called out by retired military leaders for his positions. Somebody needs to remind Mr. Trump that the military is not his palace guards, Ret. Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling said Monday.

Had Bloomberg entered the campaign, and had Mullen been on the ticket, he would have had few peers. While many running mates have been veterans of the armed forces, only two other candidates for vice president in the modern, post-World War II era have been generals, admirals or other career military leaders.

And they both ran as independents.

The most recent was U.S. Navy vice admiral James Stockdale, who was Ross Perots running mate in 1992. He had retired from the Navy in 1979 and then worked at Stanford Universitys Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank. He was a Vietnam War hero who was tortured  the highest-ranking naval officer held as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam; he had also been president of the Naval War College and briefly, The Citadel. Readers of leadership guru Jim Collins will recall his description of the Stockdale Paradox, the concept of combining realism with optimism to survive extraordinary difficulty.

His selection as Perots running mate was supposed to be temporary, but he ultimately remained in the race, even participating in the vice presidential debate. Thats where Stockdale, who had difficulties with his hearing aid during the debate, opened with his famous rhetorical question, perhaps thought but not uttered by vice presidents through the ages: Who am I? Why am I here?

Before that was Gen. Curtis LeMay, a controversial giant of U.S. Air Force history who ran on former Alabama Gov. George Wallaces independent ticket in 1968. He led key bombing raids in both Europe and Japan during World War II, headed the U.S. Strategic Air Command for 10 years and ultimately became chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, retiring in 1965.

Before being selected to run on Wallaces ticket, LeMay was last seen in Dr. Strangelove,  quips Duke University political scientist John Aldrich, referring to the similarities many found between LeMay and the deranged character Gen. Jack D. Ripper in Stanley Kubricks 1964 Cold War satire. (When LeMay was told by the director of a secret panel in the 1950s that one of his strategies was not national policy, he was said to have replied, I dont care. Its my policy. Thats what Im going to do.)

Of course, military leaders have often run for president  some memorably, some less so. Dwight D. Eisenhower was the only U.S. president in the 20th century who was a former U.S. general. But others have run, including Gen. Wesley Clark in 2004 and Maj. Gen. Leonard Wood, a U.S. Army chief of staff who went into the deadlocked 1920 Republican convention with the most delegates, but lost to Warren Harding.

Theyve run for president more often than youd think throughout history, or openly considered running, says Richard Kohn, a professor emeritus of history at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Of course, most of them fail.

Why have so few military leaders been nominated for vice president?

For one, Aldrich says, few generals have the name recognition that could help add spark to the ticket. Generals are pretty anonymous today, he says, noting the few exceptions  retired generals David Petraeus, say, or Stanley McChrystal, have seen their careers end in ways that make a presidential bid unlikely.

Another reason could be that senior military leaders  even if theyve spent most of their careers taking commands from others  might not be interested in sitting in the second spot. That heroic persons not necessarily going to take the No. 2 spot, Aldrich says.

But UNCs Kohn says the real reason is that the traditional parties tend to pick running mates who can help reinforce or fill gaps in their resume among a group of voters in their party.

Theyre usually trying to provide some kind of political bump or political energy or political attractiveness with their VP nominee in such a way as to carry a state or a region or to send some sort of a message, he says.

Independent candidates, meanwhile, appear more apt to choose military leaders because its a way to emphasize to voters that theyre nonpartisan, Kohn says.

While its hard to know how many military leaders might have been asked but turned a candidate down  the primary system inevitably means there are more would-be presidential candidates than vice presidential nominees  Kohn thinks that with the exception of a few big names (former Gen. Colin Powell, say) he doubts many generals make it onto the short lists for No. 2.

I dont know how much politicians trust the military, he says. Theyre known to be nonpartisan and independent minded, people of great integrity, moral strength and professionalism. Would they subordinate themselves? Would they pander? Would they spin? Would they promote policies they didnt completely embrace?

To be a political leader is not to be morally reprehensible, he says. But its to adopt a set of norms and values and professional behaviors that are not exactly congruent with those of the military.

Then again, even if members of the military brass are asked, they might not want the job. The philosophy they grow up with in the military is to remain strictly nonpartisan, though the number of political endorsements from military leaders has been growing, Kohn says.

(I am a general for life, and I should remain true to our professional ethos, which is to be apolitical for life  unless I run, retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey said of endorsements in 2014.)

Says Kohn: Many, if not most of them, think politics is a dirty business. They spend their whole lives in a kind of nonpolitical role.



(c) 2016, The Washington Post  Jena McGregor
Who are the lawmakers who have endorsed Donald Trump for president?

Capitol Hills Trump caucus is a group of just five Republicans, but it still has time to grow. Trump, after all, is running against the GOP establishment (though he made some overtures after wins Tuesday night in Hawaii, Michigan and Mississippi), so theres some street cred that comes with a lack of approval from Washington pols. But that could change as Trump claims more delegates in the GOP primary contest and the The Donald seeks backing from lawmakers  or they rush to join what looks like a winning team.

The lawmakers who have endorsed Trump appear to have little in common apart from their political party and their preference for The Donald in 2016. They hail from California, the South and the Northeast. They were elected at different times. And they range in public stature from conservative rock stars to anonymous back-benchers.

Heres your guide to the five lawmakers who have endorsed Trump so far, including a former Jeb Bush supporter and the so-called vaping congressman:

  

1. Rep. Chris Collins (R-New York)

Collins made headlines on Feb. 24 as the first lawmaker to publicly back Trump. Complimenting Trumps business experience, Collins said the moguls message about restoring American greatness echoed his own campaign speeches.

Donald Trump has clearly demonstrated that he has both the guts and the fortitude to return our nations jobs stolen by China, take on our enemies like ISIS, Iran, North Korea and Russia, and most importantly, re-establish the opportunity for our children and grandchildren to attain the American Dream, Collins said in a statement. That is why I am proud to endorse him as the next president of the United States.

The decision can appear strange given that Collins first backed former Florida governor Jeb Bush in the Republican presidential primary. (Bush and Trump  candidates that were, in many ways, polar opposites of one another  feuded until Bush left the race on Feb. 20.) Collins, 65, is a businessman-turned-politician who was elected in 2012 to represent western New York state. He received a 48 percent rating on Heritage Action for Americas congressional scorecard, which grades lawmakers on how they vote on matters important to conservatives (the House Republican average is 63 percent).

  

2. Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tennessee)

DesJarlais, a physician by trade, is the Trump supporter whose congressional career has been most tarnished by personal scandal. After the three-term lawmaker said Feb. 29 he cast a ballot for Trump in early voting, National Review ran with this headline: Americas Worst Congressman Endorses Donald Trump.

Elected in 2010, DesJarlais represents parts of rural Tennessee. He has an extremely conservative voting record, earning a 92 percent score from Heritage Action. But his reputation on Capitol Hill is more heavily defined by the controversies that dominated his 2012 reelection campaign, including revelations that he had extramarital affairs with several patients and colleagues and a report that he pressured his mistress to have an abortion.

I believe Donald Trump is the candidate best poised to make America great again, DesJarlais said in a statement announcing his endorsement.

  

3. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-California)

Hunter was elected in 2008 to replace his father, Duncan L. Hunter, in representing San Diego County, California. (The elder Hunter launched an unsuccessful bid for president.) Like Collins, Hunter endorsed Trump on Feb. 24 after the businessman won the Nevada caucuses. Before that, he was perhaps best known for vaping during a congressional hearing and a heated exchange with then-Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno in 2013.

Immigration is a big issue for Hunter, 39, a former Marine whose district is close to the U.S.-Mexico border. A Hunter bill cracking down on so-called sanctuary cities passed the House last July. He has a 72 percent rating from Heritage Action.

We dont need a policy wonk as president. We need a leader as president, Hunter told Politico.

  

4. Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pennsylvania)

Marino, who backed Trump on Feb. 29, is perhaps The Donalds least-well-known congressional supporter. Elected in 2010, the 63-year-old represents central and northeastern Pennsylvania and was once U.S. attorney for the states Middle District. In the House, he has mostly kept a low profile and is not typically identified as one of the chambers more conservative Republicans. (On Heritage Actions scorecard, he earned a 53 percent, below the House GOP average.)

His public appearances have become much more frequent since he endorsed Trump. Marinos campaign Twitter feed is awash in photos of his pro-Trump television and radio hits. Donald Trump is saying what the voters agree on and what the voters are feeling, Marino told Politico Feb. 29, calling his endorsement decision one of my life-changing moments.

  

5. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama)

Sessions is by far the best-known of Trumps Capitol Hill backers, and his endorsement for the businessman came as a surprise to many who though the Alabaman might throw his lot in with Ted Cruz. Sessions announced his support for Trump at a rally on Feb. 28, citing Trumps support for strict measures against illegal immigration.

Politicians have promised for 30 years to fix illegal immigration. Have they done it? Donald Trump will do it, Sessions said in Madison, Alabama. Ive told Donald Trump this isnt a campaign, this is a movement.

Gaining support from a prominent immigration hardliner only helped Trump. But pundits have wondered whether Sessions, who was first elected in 1996, might regret his decision given Trump softened his position on H1B visas last week.

Sessions was a U.S. attorney in Alabama, as well as the states attorney general, before his election to the Senate. He has a grade of 82 percent from Heritage Action, higher than the 61 percent average among Senate Republicans.

(c) 2016, The Washington Post  Elise Viebeck
Donald Trump is in a tight contest with Marco Rubio in the Florida senators home-state Republican presidential primary, according to a new Washington Post-Univision News poll.

Trump edges out Rubio slightly: 38 percent to 31 percent among likely Republican voters in the Sunshine State. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, places third with 19 percent, followed by Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 4 percent.

The Florida Republican primary next Tuesday is a must-win for Rubio, who has suffered through a string of humiliating losses in recent days that yielded him no delegates. He trails Trump and Cruz in the delegate race but has vowed to stay in the race even if he loses his home state.

Across Florida, Republican support divides along gender, racial and generational lines. Trump holds a double-digit edge over Rubio among white voters (42 to 28 percent), while Rubio leads Trump by 49 to 20 percent among Hispanic Republicans, with Cruz at 20 percent. Trump leads Rubio among older voters, while they are nearly tied among those under age 50 (37 percent for Trump vs. 35 percent for Rubio). And Trump holds a 13-point lead among men (42 to 29 percent) while he and Rubio are about even among female Republican voters, 35 percent for Trump and 33 percent for Rubio.

A majority of Florida Republicans, 59 percent, think Rubio should bow out of the presidential campaign if he does not win the states primary; 33 percent say he should keep running.

The poll was taken March 2 to 5, preceding Rubios losses Saturday night in Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and Maine. On Sunday, he won the Puerto Rico GOP primary, but placed third or fourth Tuesday night in Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan and Mississippi. Those losses could be a factor for voters when deciding whether Rubios candidacy is viable.

The survey was also taken just as several political groups began airing tens of millions of dollars in attack ads against Trump, targeting his business practices and caustic rhetoric. But Florida Republicans have largely favorable opinions of Trump.

Over half, 57 percent, view the New York businessman favorably, compared with 39 percent who view him unfavorably. Rubio is seen in a slightly more positive light, with 62 percent rating him favorably while 31 percent view him unfavorably. And while 24 percent find Trump very unfavorable, only 13 percent say the same of Rubio. Cruz is also viewed positively by 56 percent of Florida voters, compared with 35 percent who are unfavorable toward him.

Among Hispanic Republicans, Rubio has the highest favorability mark at 76 percent, slightly higher than Cruzs 68 percent positive rating but far higher than Trumps 36 percent favorable rating. Over 6 in 10 Hispanic Republicans report an unfavorable opinion of the GOP front-runner.

Looking specifically at different candidate attributes, Florida Republicans rate Trump as having the best chance compared with Rubio and Cruz of being elected president in November (60 percent) and the candidate who could best bring needed change to Washington (55 percent). By a smaller margin, Trump edges out Rubio on who is closest to them on the issues (39 percent for Trump; 32 percent for Rubio).

But Rubio is seen more positively than Trump is on some other attributes: He leads Trump by 13 points and Cruz by 14 points as the candidate with the best personality and temperament to serve as president. Roughly similar shares pick Rubio and Trump as the most honest and trustworthy candidate (34 percent vs. 30 percent), while 21 percent say this of Cruz.

Republicans trust Trump more to handle several issues. Over half (56 percent) say they trust Trump most to handle the economy, and a 45 percent plurality say they trust him most to handle immigration. An identical 45 percent trust him most to handle the threat of terrorism. Trumps edge is smaller on health care, with 36 percent trusting him, compared with 29 percent for Rubio and 23 percent for Cruz.

One of Trumps mainstay issues, temporarily banning Muslims who are not U.S. citizens from coming into the country, is supported by a majority of Florida Republican likely voters. In all, 57 percent support banning Muslims, and that support is strong  39 percent strongly support such an action, while 17 percent are strongly opposed.

The issue of Cuba resonates in Florida like no other state. President Obama plans to visit the island nation this month, making him the first sitting president to do so in 88 years. In Florida, 59 percent of all Republicans disapprove of Obamas visit. Notably, 66 percent of Floridas Hispanic Republicans agree that Obama should not visit Cuba. A bare 51 percent majority supports for the wet foot, dry foot policy allowing Cuban refugees to stay in the United States if they reach the shores of the country  no surprise in a state where the Hispanic population is predominantly Cuban.

Meanwhile, a majority of Florida Republicans, 72 percent, think the Senate should delay a vote on a replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia until the next president takes office. And a majority, 62 percent, oppose providing financial assistance to Puerto Rico to avert a default on its debt. Here, Hispanic Florida Republicans are split: 41 percent support assisting Puerto Rico financially while 44 percent oppose such action.

Florida Republicans cite jobs and the economy as the most important issue when deciding their vote (43 percent) followed by terrorism (27 percent) and foreign policy (8 percent). Immigration (6 percent) ranks farther behind. Most of the states Hispanic population is either Cuban or Puerto Rican, two groups less affected by immigration policy, since Puerto Ricans can easily migrate from the island territory and federal law grants protections to Cuban immigrants who reach the United States.

Rubios decision not to run for reelection has sparked a crowded race to succeed him, with contested primaries on both sides of the aisle.

On the Republican side, 74 percent of Republican primary voters remain undecided about a Senate candidate. No candidate breaks out of the single digits: Two contenders, Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera and Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., stand at 6 percent, while Rep. David Jolly, R-Fla., receives 5 percent. Candidates Todd Wilcox and Carlos Beruff trail farther behind.

This Washington Post-Univision poll surveyed a random sample of 450 likely voters ahead of Floridas March 15 Republican primary, including interviews on land-line and cellular phones. The survey included an oversample of Hispanic likely voters, which were weighted back to an estimate of their share of the primary electorate. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 5.5 percentage points for overall results; the error margin is 9.5 points for results among the sample of 164 Hispanic likely voters.

The survey was conducted by the independent firm Bendixen and Amandi International and the Tarrance Group, a Republican firm.

(c) 2016, The Washington Post  Ed OKeefe, Emily Guskin
The trial of former Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Yona Metzger Shlita got underway in the Jerusalem District Court on Thursday, 1 Rosh Chodesh Adar-II. The rabbi faces a multicount indictment that includes charges of breach of trust, fraud, money laundering and tax evasion; all allegedly during his tenure as Chief Rabbi. The prosecution explained they have gathered 150 folders of evidence in the case.

The rabbi refused to respond to questions and his attorney, Tal Gabbai, explained his client was the subject of a witch hunt.

The rabbi was arrested in June of 2013 and the investigation was given over to the Lahav 433 Unit, Israels FBI. He was remanded to house arrest for a period of time. The arrest followed months of an undercover investigation. According to the News1 website, the rabbi accepted NIS 10 million in bribes.

Chaim Eisenstatt, the rabbis former driver and assistant is the states star witness. Eisenstatt did not provide information against his former employer until Rabbi Metzger tried to place the blame for the illegal actions attributed to him on Eisenstatt, after which he agreed to become a state witness.

The opening of the trial was simply a technical formality as the court agreed to postpone the next hearing to January 2017 after Gabbai explained Rabbi Metzger only hired him for the case a week ago, changing attorneys, and he requires time to familiarize himself with the case.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
In his response to mounting opposition to the granting of an egalitarian prayer area near the Kosel, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu explains he did not go behind the backs of the chareidim but quite the contrary. He explains that he asked Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to probe the legalities of such a reality.

Last motzei Shabbos Shas party leader Minister Aryeh Deri called on the Prime Minister to cancel the planned meeting that was to include the Chief Rabbis of Israel. If there is no chance of reaching agreement then there is no point in meeting Deri is quoting saying.

That said, it appears PM Netanyahu is surprised by the magnitude of the response opposing the prayer area decision. However, officials in the Prime Ministers Office believe if the current situation is challenged in the Supreme Court, the latters decision will be far more radical in the eyes of the chareidi tzibur, compelling a situation that will.

Health Minister Yaakov Litzman has contacted the Prime Ministers Office in behalf of the Moetzas Gedolei Yisrael of Agudas Yisrael. It appears the Prime Minister is facing the breakup of his coalition over the prayer area issue.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Speaking to Galei Tzahal (Army Radio), Minister of Transportation Yisrael Katz explained he feels the expulsion of families of terrorists would serve as a deterrent to bring a halt to the current wave of Palestinian terror. Katz told Assaf Lieberman that he continues to push the initiative over the objections of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit.

Katz feels that the First and Second Intifadas had different characteristics and today, this is a war against ISIS and radical Islam and therefore, there must be a deterrent in place suitable to address these realities. He feels the role of government is to overcome the difficulties with the legal system providing the necessary tools to accomplish this. He stated the government must also make certain that Jews are not murdered, and this is what the government will do. He is confident the legal system will accommodate this and the law will be amended if necessary.

The law received a broad consensus in the Knesset and the public added Katz, explaining the Prime Minister is continuing to work with the Attorney General, asking him to review the call to expel the families of terrorists towards preventing future attacks.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
The four Republican presidential candidates will face off Thursday night at a moment both crucial and surreal  their last debate before the winner-take-all primaries in Ohio and Florida.

The debate, held at the University of Miami, will be broadcast at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time on CNN.

The center of attention will once again be billionaire front-runner Donald Trump, who in the last debate reassured the audience  without being asked  that there is no problem with the size of his fingers, or his manhood.

That odd moment hasnt seemed to hurt him. In fact, Trump has won five of the eight states that have held GOP contests since then. He has now won 15 states, and has accumulated about 458 Republican delegates, which is 99 more than his closest rival, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Trump needs 1,237 delegates to win the nomination.

Instead, the GOP electorate has turned to devour the candidate who insulted Trumps fingers.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who had launched a series of Trump-style attacks on the front-runner  mocking his hands and his tan, now finds himself in a dreadful slump at the worst possible time. In all four states that voted Tuesday, Rubio finished so far behind that he was awarded zero delegates for the night.

Now, Rubio is trailing Trump badly, even in Rubios own home state  Florida, which will award all 99 of its delegates to the winner of Tuesdays primary.

If Rubio loses there, it would be a devastating blow not just to his presidential campaign but his political career. Rubio is leaving the Senate, and he would have to face the next phase of his life with Trumps epithet Little Marco metaphorically hung around his neck.

On Wednesday, as his supporters fretted, Rubio conceded his efforts to out-Trump Trump had backfired  and diminished Rubio himself instead.

In terms of things that have to do with personal stuff, yeah, at the end of the day its not something Im entirely proud of, Rubio said in a town hall on MSNBC. My kids were embarrassed by it, and if I had to do it again, I wouldnt.

On Thursday night, Rubio will have to decide whether to continue on the attack against Trump  but in more genteel terms  or whether to abstain, try to rebuild his gravitas, and make a personal plea to his home-state voters.

But other candidates smell weakness, so Rubio will undoubtedly face new attacks.

In addition to Trump, who should relish a chance to mock Rubios slumping poll numbers, Cruz should also be on the offensive. Cruz believes he can beat Trump in a two-man race, so both the candidate and a pro-Cruz super PAC have been hammering Rubio in Florida, hoping that a loss there will get Rubio out of the race entirely.

The fourth candidate onstage will be Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who has tried to stay out of the fighting between Trump, Rubio and Cruz. For now, Kasichs above-it-all strategy seems to have worked better than Rubios: polls show Kasich actually in a close race with Trump in his home state of Ohio.

On Tuesday, Ohio will be almost as big a prize as Florida, with 66 delegates for the winner and zero for everybody else. In Ohio, Kasich has the states GOP apparatus strongly behind him, and a fairly high approval rating. If he can beat Trump anywhere, this is it.

Because of that, Kasich may have a hard time staying out of a fight with the front-runner on Thursday night. Already, Trump has been calling him an absentee governor for spending so much time on the campaign trail, according to news reports.

Trump himself may also face new questions about his recent tax returns  which he has refused to release  and the true size of his wealth.

A recent report in Crains New York Business showed that Trump had received a tax break from New York state, which is only available to couples with an annual income of $500,000 or less. Trumps campaign manager told Crains that this was an error by the state.

Trump will also likely face questions about the physical violence used against protesters at his rallies, which Trump has seemed to encourage from the stage. The latest violence came to light on Thursday, when videos seemed to show a protester  already being led out of a rally by men in uniform  being punched in the face by a Trump supporter as he passed.

The shock of it all is starting to set in, Rakeem Jones, the man who was hit, told The Washington Post in a telephone interview. This dude really hit me, and they let him get away with it. I was basically in police custody and got hit.

Trump could also face questions about the alleged behavior of his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, after Trumps post-primary press conference Tuesday. A Washington Post reporter witnessed Lewandowski roughly grab the arm of a reporter for Breitbart  a conservative news outlet generally friendly to the front-runner  as the Breitbart reporter tried to ask another question while Trump made his exit.

Breitbart chief executive Larry Solov later issued a statement saying that Its obviously unacceptable that someone crossed a line and made physical contact with our reporter. But the statement did not say with certainty that Lewandowski was the person who had done the grabbing.

(c) 2016, The Washington Post  David A. Fahrenthold
Primate says Kenya will not attend ACC-16 in Lusaka

According to an announcement on the GAFCON website, the Anglican Church of Kenya will not participate in the upcoming Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Lusaka, Zambia, in April. The full statement is available here as a PDF  from the official provincial website, and is also copied below the fold.

The Most Revd Dr Eliud Wabukala has been the Chairman of the GAFCON Primates Council since 2010.

Earlier this year, he issued this statement following the Primates Gathering in Canterbury in January.

And then in February he issued this pastoral letter.

To the Bishops, Clergy and all the Faithful of the Anglican Church of Kenya

from the Most Revd Dr Eliud Wabukala, Primate of Kenya and Bishop, All Saints Cathedral Diocese Nairobi

Statement on Anglican Consultative Council 16, Lusaka

Greetings in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

I am deeply committed to the unity and restoration of our beloved Anglican Communion. It was for this reason that I and brother Primates from GAFCON and other orthodox provinces were willing to accept the Archbishop of Canterburys invitation to a meeting of Primates in Canterbury earlier this year, despite the representation of Provinces with which the Anglican Church of Kenya is in a state of broken communion.

It seemed that this might be an opportunity to restore godly faith and order and, although the resolution agreed by an overwhelming majority of those present was not all we hoped for, it sent a powerful message around the world that the collective mind of the Communion was to remain faithful to the Scriptures and Gods purpose for man and woman in marriage.

In particular, the Episcopal Church in the United States (TEC) was required to withdraw its representatives from groups representing the Anglican Communion ecumenically and it was agreed that TEC should not participate in votes on doctrine and polity in the Communions institutions.

However, the Presiding Bishop of TEC has made it clear that his Church will not think again about same sex marriage and he expects his Church to play a full part in next months Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) meeting in Lusaka. This defiance of the Primates moral and spiritual authority has been supported by the Chairman of the ACC, Bishop Tengatenga, who has confirmed that TEC will participate fully.

There can be no true walking together with those who persistently refuse to walk in accordance with Gods Word and the Anglican Church of Kenya will not therefore be participating in the forthcoming meeting of the ACC in Lusaka.

An opportunity has been missed to use the ACC for good and it is increasingly clear that the GAFCON movement must continue to provide a focus for that godly unity so many of us desire.
It's early morning in the fashionable Plum + Spilt Milk restaurant in Kings Cross, central London, but Joanne Segars has already found time for her favourite pastime.

Shes been out and about, snapping portraits of strangers on her camera.

The engaging boss of the Pensions And Lifetime Savings Association loves photographing people minding their own business.

How fitting that the woman responsible for looking after the pension schemes of millions of people shes never met, should spend her free time capturing the lives of strangers.

Responsibilities: Joanne Segars manages 900billion in savings across the private and public sector

Like many she snaps today, Joanne is passing through. Shes just off to Edinburgh for the PLSAs investment conference.

As she eats her eggs benedict, she expresses surprise at George Osbornes decision to end speculation about pensions tax reforms.

We could sense the politics was getting very difficult. It was interesting to me that we hadnt heard any real hint of the option which might be chosen, Segars says.

The representative of 17million pensions managing 900billion in savings across the private and public sector might expect to be alerted to big changes. But that has not always been George Osbornes way.

Like all Chancellors, he likes to pull a rabbit out of the hat  as when he announced pensions freedoms in 2014 without having consulted the industry.

Pensioners were given the right to invest or spend their pots, instead of having to buy an annuity.

In the build-up to next Wednesdays Budget, much of the speculation focused on three possible changes: A cut in the lifetime allowance, which Osborne had already brought down from 1.8million to 1million; an end to higher-rate tax relief; or the introduction of a pensions ISA.

The latter would have transformed pensions saving. Instead of workers getting tax relief when they paid into a plan, they would pay no tax when they retired.

PHOTOGRAPHY FAN WITH AN EYE ON YOUR SAVINGS Full Name: Joanne Segars Age: 52 Family: Partner, David Coats Hobbies: Travel, photography Favourite gadget: A purple Fitbit health monitor Box set: House of Cards Reading: A stack of unread volumes! Career: Graduated from Liverpool Poly with a BA in Economics before doing an MA in Industrial Relations at the University of Warwick. Joined the TUC as a senior policy officer looking at pensions. In 2001 she became head of pensions and savings at the Association of British Insurers. Became chief executive of the National Association of Pension Funds (now the PLSA) in 2006 and is still enjoying it. Working Day: Not a massively early starter. Arrives at the office at 8.45am after breakfasting on porridge and coffee. Eggs benedict a special treat. Look over the media coverage on pensions and see if there are any issues to be discussed or statements to be issued. Rest of the day spent in meetings with staff, government officials and often ministers. Will think about big conference agendas and discussing with colleagues the direction of policy. Tends to have a working lunch in the office and leaves at 7pm. Heads to the gym to try and run 5km. Works through emails when she gets home. Spare time: As when we meet, she enjoys taking candid street photographs in the hip London borough of Shoreditch, where she lives.

Segars suggests several reasons for the Treasury retreat, adding: Short-term, it was the politics.

You could see the mood music changing through the Daily Mail and other papers. You could sense that backbenchers were starting to get quite unhappy.

The overlay on that was Europe and the unrest and disquiet.

But, most importantly, she said: They were finding it genuinely difficult to make a policy stamp on either of the main options  flat-rate pensions relief or the ISA.

In spite of a career in which she spent 13 years working in pensions for the TUC, she doesnt see todays system, in which relief is biased towards higher-rate taxpayers, as particularly unfair.

Its very easy to say that lots of tax relief goes to higher-rate taxpayers, but theyre the people that pay more tax in retirement.

She also disputes claims that the 1million limit on pension pots is too high. You dont have to be terribly highly paid to be caught by the 1million limit, she says.

The real question, she says, in an era when there are so many calls on younger peoples incomes, is how to incentivise more saving. She is still not ruling out changes in the Budget.

But Segars wants to see more stability and a long-term vision.

She thinks the best way to do this is to have a second Pension Commission, a follow-up to Adair Turners report in 2005, which set the scene for the higher, improved flat-rate state pension and introduced auto-enrolment.

She adds: How do we make sure more people are saving more for the long-term and can we help people when it comes to the end of their pensions saving? We need to make a bigger pot for more people.

'The big success of the Turner Commission was the political consensus, which is sticking but could easily start to peel.

Segars thinks such a commission could look at inter-generational problems, such as millennials who begin working later than previous generations because of education changes and arrive loaded with student debt and facing an increasingly expensive housing ladder.

At the other end of the age spectrum there is concern about the ageing population, which presents its own problems. Segars says: What about a link between pensions and long-term care?

Today, she launches a defined benefit taskforce to look at the future of final-salary pensions. One model is reshaping local-government schemes, of which the PLSA represents 72 of a total of 101.

She said: They are pooling assets. That might be something we could do in the private sector to give investment efficiencies.

She thinks the PLSA is in a good position, if funds are pooled, to invest in the UKs infrastructure at a time when pension funds are desperate for new asset classes.

It has set up its own infrastructure investment manager, with 1billion committed to UK building.
More than three million jobs will be created over the next decade as British workers swap the factory floor for offices, schools and hospitals, according to a report published today.

The number of jobs in the UK will soar to an all-time high of nearly 37million in 2025 as people work longer and migrants come to Britain in search of employment.

But the number of manufacturing jobs will fall by 600,000 while some 3.6million new opportunities are created in the rapidly expanding services sector.

By 2025, less than 5.5 per cent of the workforce is expected to be in manufacturing, down from 7.7 per cent today and more than 35 per cent in 1961, as advances in technology and robotics cost jobs.

The analysis, by PricewaterhouseCoopers, underlines the dramatic change in the workforce as manufacturing declines and other sectors prosper.

The UK has been a powerful job-creating machine in recent years and the dominant story of the last century has been the rise of services, says PwC chief economist John Hawksworth.

Manufacturing accounts for less than 10 per cent of UK jobs and there is little prospect of this reversing.

The report comes after official figures yesterday showed manufacturing growth of 0.7 per cent in January  the first expansion for four months.

A separate report from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research showed GDP grew by just 0.3 per cent in the three months to February.

Jack Meaning, research fellow at NIESR, said the start of the year has been subdued  setting the scene for a bleak Budget next week.
The degree of uncertainty in the projections is also reflected by the projections' high and low ranges, when noted.



ThreeHundredEight.com is a non-partisan site and is committed to reporting on polls responsibly.



Details on the methodology of the poll aggregation and seat projections are available here and here . Methodology for the forecasting model used during election campaigns is available here Projections on this site are subject to the margins of error of the opinion polls included in the model, as well as the unpredictable nature of politics at the riding level.
MBABANE  For the first time in the University of Swaziland (UNISWAs) history, there was no Miss UNISWA pageant this year, resulting in a secret pageant being held to select students who will represent them at Intervarsity pageants.



The contest which was held in closed set on Tuesday night, meaning no students allowed to be part of the audience except the Students Representative Committee (SRC). During the closed door session, eight students were selected to represent the country in the Mr and Miss Intervarsity Beauty Pageant to be held next week Monday.



The SRC selected only two judges to assist them in selecting the best students fit for a beauty pageant, the two judges were socialites Frankie and Ayanda Dlamini. Unlike in other years where the Miss UNISWA pageant is a grand affair, with dazzling outfits and performances, this time none of the students were allowed to witness this session.

The whole change of scenario was due to the strike that caused a halt in all UNISWA activities.

The SRC felt that because the students are expected to leave the country tomorrow for the Intervarsity Games that will take place in Lesotho, it would be impossible for them to host the Miss UNISWA Beauty Pageant, resulting in them taking a decision of hosting the closed door auditions.

Information gathered is that the SRC issued a memo to all the campuses which are Luyengo, Mbabane and Kwaluseni, inviting those who were interested in taking part in the auditions to register. During the auditions, there were 16 students who tried their luck and eight of them made it through.



Brighten Mkhatjwa, the SRC Minister of Internal Affairs confirmed that eight students were selected on Tuesday night and they would be representing the country during the Miss Intervarsity Beauty Pageant that will be taking place on Monday.
These two SNAT members were captured singing and dancing while carrying placards with different messages.

MANZINI  Teachers have resolved to demand a 100 per cent increment as part of their recommendations for the salary review report.



They have further given government a 14-day ultimatum, which elapses on March 29, to have their recommendations included in the report and adopted. They resolved that they would engage in a strike action if their demand is not met.



This was decided during a heated mass meeting held at the Bosco Skills Centre in Manzini yesterday by members of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT). In effect, teachers have agreed to remove all the unnumbered pages in the report, which also do not bear the kingdoms Coat of Arms or the logo of the consultancy which compiled the report.

It was mentioned that SNAT wholly disregarded these unnumbered pages and could only consider the parts of the report which were clearly marked.



One of the demands which were forwarded by members of SNAT during the meeting was that all teachers who were holders of Primary Teaching Certificates (PTC) should receive a 100 per cent salary increment under the review.

Currently, a PTC holder earns E5 515 per month.



It was argued that even during the last review exercise, this cadre of teachers, who are remunerated under C1, missed out on receiving an enhanced package despite the fact that government had agreed that they had been graded wrongly and needed to be reviewed.



We had appealed the salaries of PTC teachers after the 2004 review and since then nothing has been forthcoming from government, SNAT Secretary General Muzi Mhlanga said. He further urged teachers to make their own decision concerning what should be done with the report as the outcome would affect them mostly.
Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams

By Gabriel Rom

State Sen. Joseph Addabbo, Jr (D-Howard Beach) is asking the city to reconsider its procedures for selecting an operator for ferry service to and from Rockaway.

After attending a meeting in Rockaway last week hosted by the city Development Corporation, Addabbo mentioned several items that the city should take into account before awarding a contract.

According to news reports published in February, Mayor Bill de Blasio tapped San Francisco-based Hornblower Cruises & Events to run the citys water routes.

The new ferry routes are set to open in 2017. One will connect Rockaway to south Brooklyn and downtown Manhattan; a second will go from Astoria to Long Island City, Roosevelt Island and Midtown Manhattan; and a third will connect Brooklyn and Manhattan .

But with several ferry operators already in place that currently do business with the city, running vessels through various unique waterways surrounding New York, Addabbo urged de Blasio to consider contracting a company that has both local experience and economic advantages as opposed to working with an out-of-state businesses.

Rockaway residents and I certainly know the severe need for improved transportation on the peninsula, Addabbo said. That is why the success of this ferry initiative, and ultimately the success of the Rockaway peninsula, is dependent on making sure the city chooses the right operator. The meeting I recently attended with EDC and the community highlighted the fact that the lowest bidder is not always necessarily the most responsible choice, and there are many other factors besides the price tag that we must keep in mind. It is important that whichever operator is ultimately chosen can promise jobs to Rockaway residents and can also ensure that the already agreed-upon fare to ride the ferry stays the same, regardless of operating costs.

The city will spend $55 million on docks and capital costs for the ferries, in addition to subsidizing the service.

Addabbo also noted a promise made by de Blasio when announcing the resurrected ferry service. According to Addabbo, the mayor committed to choosing an operator that would provide newly constructed boats for this project, a promise which the senator said must be kept. He also believes the community, or at least the city, should be able to inspect the boats from a potential ferry operator prior to any final deal being signed.

Addabbo also said he also wants to explore the communitys funding request, made through NY Rising, for roughly $8 million to build a proper dock for these boats and their riders to use.
Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams

By Gabriel Rom

Queens Borough President Melinda Katz has thrown her support behind a proposal to return commuter rail service to the Long Island Rail Roads Lower Montauk Branch. Katz said a light rail service should run from Long Island City to Jamaica, and advocated for the rail system be integrated into a larger transportation plan for Queens.

In a letter addressed to MTA Chairman Tom Prendergast, Katz said that as the population of Queens has boomed, additional transit options are required.

Katz also pushed for transit options that would connect the Jamaica LIRR Station to the Hunters Point Terminal in Long Island City.

This passenger rail line should be considered as part of the master plan for a new regional rail system, she said in the letter.

The notion of a transportation master plan has been raised by Queens civic leaders in the past, including Community Board 5 Chairman Vincent Arcuri and Juniper Valley Civic Association President Robert Holden.

Several elected officials came out in favor of reactivating the Rockaway Line and currently the light-rail from JFK goes to Jamaica, Arcuri said in a December interview. So if you could tie these all in, it would be a whole master plan that could be accomplished. Arcuri contrasted the large-scale plan with Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Glendale) light-rail proposal from Glendale to Long Island City.

In December Community Board 5 voted to support City Councilwoman Elizbaeth Crowleys (D-Glendale) proposed commuter-rail plan from Glendale to Long Island City, without explicitly recommending the usage of light-rail.

The vote, which ended up 36 in support, six against and one abstention, came on the heels of CB5s Transportation and Public Transit committees narrowly recommending the proposal the week before.

Katz, who requested that the MTA conduct a travel demand study to determine potential and future ridership levels, applauded CB5 specifically in her letter for voting in favor of Crowleys light rail proposal.

Crowley anticipates a rail car will cost about $3 million. The tracks and the right-of-waytwo of the most expensive pieceshave been secured for the future project, according to a Crowley spokeswoman.

Crowleys proposed rail line would run from Glendale near Woodhaven Boulevard into Long Island City, with passenger stops at the Metro Mall in Middle Village and in Long Island City. The approximately 5-mile stretch of tracks that runs from Long Island City to Glendale is currently used only for a brief period overnight to transport freight.
Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams

By Madina Toure

Borough elected officials say they are disappointed in the city Department of Educations decision to keep parent-teacher conferences scheduled on St. Patricks Day, although they differ on whether it should be a school holiday.

St. Patricks Day is a religious feast day marking the death of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, that has become an international festival honoring Irish culture.

Yuridia Pena, the DOEs deputy press secretary, said the parent-teacher conference must take place the same day as the March 17 holiday.

Schools are responsible for holding one of four parent-teacher conferences on St. Patricks Day, and weve directed schools to work with families and provide other opportunities to have parent conferences for those unable to attend, Pena said.

A bill that state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) introduced to establish St. Patricks Day as a school holiday in districts with an Irish population of one million or more passed the state Senates Rules Committee by a vote of 15 to three.

At 12.9 percent, the state has the largest concentrated Irish population and New York City was the first to host a Saint Patricks Day Parade in 1762, according to Avella, who called the holiday a day of religious and cultural significance for the Irish-American community.

New York City got it right when we became the first to host the Saint Patricks Day Paradelets continue that tradition by ensuring that students and teachers alike are able to observe this special holiday, he said.

Last week, he condemned City Schools Chancellor Carmen Farinas decision to write-off the possibility of a Saint Patricks Day school holiday before a conversation has even occurred.

Just as she demonstrated an insensitivity to the Irish community by scheduling parent-teacher conferences on their sole holiday, she has once again shown that insensitivity through this recent dismissal, he said.

City Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights), who is Irish-American, said he wrote a letter to the DOE five years ago about the need to reschedule the parent-teacher conferences and that he also dealt with the issues when he was a public school teacher.

In a letter dated Jan. 13 to Farina about the DOEs decision to allow middle schools to hold parent-teacher conferences on St. Patricks Day, Dromm asked that any conferences that day be rescheduled and that they not be scheduled on that day in the future.

But he said the holiday is not a holy day of obligation in the Catholic Churchdays where Catholics are obliged to attend masslike other holidays such as the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on Dec. 8, Christmas on Dec. 25 and Ascension Thursday on May 5, the 40th day of Easter.

What I was asking for is a rearranging of the parent-teacher conference to another date, Dromm said. Im not generally opposed to it, having a holiday. My ideas was just to reschedule those parent-teacher conferences. I havent really taken a position on Senator Avellas bill, so Im neither in favor of or against it at this point.
Airport development adding to economy, jobs in the region

Pittsburgh may always be known as the Steel City, but a wave of new industries are popping up near its airport to redefine business in the region.
Captain Frazier leads Hirschi to 56-14 win against Snyder

Javian Frazier bore the captain's "C" on his shoulder proudly Friday, plugging a hold in the Hirschi backfield and leading the Huskies to victory.
Alamo Elementary School

SHARE

By Lana Sweeten-Shults of the Times Record News

Tearing down Alamo Elementary School and the old A.E. Holland School  a red brick edifice on Jalonic Street that was the original Barwise  may be in the future for the Wichita Falls ISD.

The district also is looking at turning Sam Houston Elementary School into a storage building for the district.

The three structures no longer house students.

Alamo and Sam Houston were closed in 2014 as the district looked for ways to make better use of its aging buildings, and A.E. Holland, which operated as an alternative school in the years before it closed, is a storage facility.

School board president Trey Sralla brought up the idea of demolishing Alamo and Holland at Wednesday's special session.

"We're giving the thumbs-up to administration to get bids to tear Holland and Alamo down," Sralla said.

What the district does want to keep, however, are the gyms at Alamo and Sam Houston, which WFISD Communications Officer Ashley Thomas said are fairly new.

The district's hope is to partner with various community groups that might use the gyms.

The idea to raze Alamo is a bit of a turnaround for the district, though it never appeared as if it wanted to demolish the schools' gyms.

In a June 25, 2014, Times Record News article, Sralla said the board at that time had "no intention of tearing them (Alamo and Sam Houston) down... For sure, we're going to use those gyms, even if we do remove part of the school. We'll use the gyms for sure.  We definitely want to put those buildings to good use. We don't want them to be eyesores, so if we have to remove part of them, we may."

While the public likely is familiar with Alamo and Sam Houston, it might not remember Holland School. It was called Barwise before it was renamed after A.E. Holland, a longtime principal of Booker T. Washington School in 1956. The first graduating class of eighth graders from Holland School was in 1957.

Although it was nominally integrated, the school on Jalonic Street had only black students, including some from surrounding communities. It became one of the first schools to close in the name of integration, shutting its doors in 1969. It reopened within months as Holland House, a halfway house for troubled students, and then was closed permanently in 2002 as part of budget-cutting initiatives. It has since been used for storage and also for training by the Wichita Falls Police Department.

Sralla also said at Wednesday's meeting that, in addition to tearing down Holland and Alamo, the district would like to abandon the Education Center at 1104 Broad, another aging district structure downtown that houses administration offices.

"This building is the oldest in the school district that is being used," Thomas said.

The Wichita Falls ISD administration and board are keeping their eyes out for property that may become available, she said, or if a district building becomes available, that might be an option. She emphasized, however, that there are no immediate or set plans regarding moving from the Education Center.
SHARE

By John Ingle of the Times Record News

U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry provided an "update from Washington" on Thursday to the Wichita Falls Rotary Club on topics ranging from global threats to defense spending and reform.

The Republican from Clarendon said he was in the district this week to attend a couple of functions and visit with people while no votes were scheduled in the House.

The only topic he said he would not address is presidential politics, which drew a little laughter. He said he is not able to explain the phenomenon that is happening on the campaign trail or the results of some of the early primaries and caucuses.

"I've been shocked and surprised at what's happened so far," he said. "I'm absolutely convinced there will be more shocks and surprises to come."

Thornberry said one of the more encouraging aspects of his time on the House Armed Services Committee  especially the past year as its chairman  has been spending time with the men and women who continually volunteer to serve in the U.S. military. He said their commitment is remarkable considering "the world we're sending them out into" given the global challenges posed by Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.

He said it has been since World War II that the country has faced so many threats simultaneously. Russia has "forcibly changed" boundaries in Europe; China is staking claim to portions of the South China Sea that is used for trade with hopes of pushing the U.S. out of Asia; North Korea's dictator Kim Jong Un has threatened nuclear action recently; and Iran has launched a couple missiles, declaring it doesn't violate the nuke deal struck by the terror sponsor and the Obama administration.

Thornberry said the defense budget had been cut by 25 percent from 2010-2014, and finally realized a meager 1-percent increase in 2015. He said he's fighting on behalf of the military for more defense spending to provide the all-volunteer force with what it needs, not what they can get by with.

"Even if I'm completely successful, in two years time we will have the smallest Army we have had since the beginning of World War II," he said. "We already have the smallest Navy we have had since 1916, and we already have the smallest Air Force, whether you want to measure it in people or airplanes, that we've had since the Air Force was created as a separate service."

The congressman said he will continue to push for two basic characteristics for the U.S. military: strength and agility. Using athletes as an analogy, he said the athlete has to be strong enough in what they do, but agile enough to get there in the first place.

"If you're big and strong but you can't move, then you're not going to be very successful," he said. "If you move really fast but if you can't get the job done to get where you're supposed to go, it's not going to work. We have to have both strength and agility."

Thornberry said terrorist organizations continue to grow, and not just in the Middle East. He said the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and al-Qaeda continue to duke it out to see who is the toughest kid on the block, which doesn't bode well for the rest of the world.

The congressman also spoke on reforming the defense retirement system for people entering the military with a 401K-like program, and a hybrid of the old and new systems for those in now. He said people are the important piece to national defense because they have the "judgment, skills and commitment" that separates the U.S. military from others.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Albany

A proposed state subsidy for nuclear power plants will come too late to save one of the state's four remaining plants.

On Thursday, Michael Twomey, a vice president for Entergy Corp., told the state Public Service Commission that the subsidy, even if adopted, will not affect company plans to shutter the James A. FitzPatrick nuclear plant near Oswego by January 2017.

After Entergy announced the closure plans in November for the 40-year-old facility, Gov. Andrew Cuomo vowed to fight the closing with "every legal and regulatory resource." Cuomo wants Entergy to close its other nuclear plant, Indian Point, on the Hudson River in Westchester County.

PSC members met Thursday to talk about Cuomo's proposed Clean Energy Standard, which will require the state to produce half of its electric power from renewable sources by 2030. Part of that plan includes a subsidy for nuclear plants that would be paid for by utility customers.

The proposal has no details as to how the subsidy would be structured or how much it might mean in additional annual revenue to nuclear plant owners.

While a subsidy would come too late for FitzPatrick, said Twomey, it could help Indian Point by providing additional revenue. Currently, wholesale electricity prices are historically low, driven by cheap natural gas.

"We have every expectation that Indian Point will be included," Twomey said, adding if the plant is excluded and forced to close, Cuomo's clean energy goals would be "unattainable."

Currently, the state gets 27 percent from renewables, not including nuclear, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Natural gas is the single largest source of electricity at 37 percent. Nuclear comes next at 35 percent, with Indian Point providing 40 percent of that figure. FitzPatrick supplies about 15 percent of the nuclear total.

The state's other nuclear plants are the Robert E. Ginna facility near Rochester, which is slated to run through at least 2017 after the state reached a 2014 deal to subsidize its money-losing operation; and Nine Mile Point, in Oswego.

Michael Mager, a lawyer for Multiple Intervenors, a coalition of commercial and industrial electric customers, questioned how the level of the nuclear subsidy would be crafted.

"This is going to be a customer-funded subsidy," Mager said. "How much? Hundreds of millions of dollars? Billions? I don't know."

The coalition represents about 60 members, including Alcoa, Cornell University, Corning Inc., Occidental Energy Ventures Corp., Praxair Inc., Quad Graphics Inc., State University of New York, and Wegmans Food Markets Inc.

PSC staff is still preparing a study of potential costs for the clean energy initiative.

Scott Weiner, deputy director for markets and innovation at PSC, said release of the study is "imminent." The commission has scheduled a March 21 meeting to discuss the cost study.

A coalition of labor and industry groups, supported by the Oswego County Industrial Development Agency, also is pushing FitzPatrick to stay open. But some renewable energy advocates have questioned how nuclear, which relies on uranium mining for fuel, could be considered renewable.

Tim Judson, executive director of Nuclear Information and Resource Service, an anti-nuclear not-for-profit group, said nuclear plant owners are being financially pressured by low electricity prices.

Two years ago, wholesale electricity sold for $44 a megawatt hour, he said; the current figure is about $20.

bnearing@timesunion.com  518-454-5094  @Bnearing10
On this date in ...

1916: J. H. McAdan, a mail carrier from Rome, Oneida County, was sentenced to pay a fine of $500 in federal court in Albany. Some time earlier, McAdan had been working his mail route while intoxicated and failed to deliver a letter containing a money order made out for $2.50. When he returned to town, he was searched and the unopened letter was found.

1966: The city of Albany asked the state to sell it a nine-acre park adjacent to St. Mary's Park for a new high school and a two-acre lot on Robin Street for a new central library.

1991: A study was planned to catalog the number of emerging graduates from about 16 colleges and universities in the region. The results would present an attractive labor pool to lure new businesses to the area, according to several business and civic leaders behind the effort.

Want to read more about the Capital Region's past? See http://blog.timesunion.com/history/
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

London

George Martin, the Beatles' urbane producer who quietly guided the band's swift, historic transformation from rowdy club act to musical and cultural revolutionaries, has died, his management said Wednesday. He was 90.

Too modest to claim the title of the fifth Beatle, the tall, elegant Londoner produced some of the most popular and influential albums of modern times  "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," "Revolver," "Rubber Soul," "Abbey Road"  elevating rock LPs to concept art forms.

Martin won six Grammys and was inducted in 1999 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Three years earlier, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

Former Beatle Paul McCartney said Martin had been "a true gentleman and like a second father to me."

"If anyone earned the title of the fifth Beatle it was George," McCartney said. "From the day that he gave the Beatles our first recording contract, to the last time I saw him, he was the most generous, intelligent and musical person I've ever had the pleasure to know."

Beatles drummer Ringo Starr tweeted earlier: "God bless George Martin peace and love to Judy and his family love Ringo and Barbara. George will be missed."

Martin both witnessed and enabled the extraordinary metamorphosis of the Beatles and of the 1960s. From a raw first album in 1962 that took just a day to make, to the months-long production of "Sgt. Pepper," the Beatles advanced rapidly as songwriters and sonic explorers. They composed dozens of classics, from "She Loves You" to "Hey Jude," and turned the studio into a wonderland of tape loops, multitracking, unpredictable tempos, unfathomable segues and kaleidoscopic montages.

Never again would rock music be defined by two-minute love songs or guitar-bass-drums arrangements. Lyrically and musically, anything became possible.

Besides the Beatles, Martin worked with Jeff Beck, Elton John, Celine Dion and on several solo albums by McCartney. In the 1960s, Martin produced hits by Cilla Black, Gerry and the Pacemakers, and Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas. And for 37 straight weeks in 1963 a Martin recording topped the British charts.

Martin started producing records for EMI's Parlophone label in 1950, working on comedy recordings with Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and others, Sharp said. He had his first No. 1 hit in 1961 with The Temperance Seven.

But his legacy was defined by the Beatles, for the contributions he made, and for those he didn't.

They were among the first rock groups to compose their own material and, inspired by native genius, a world's tour of musical influences and all the latest stimulants, they demanded new sounds.

Martin was endlessly called on to perform the impossible, and often succeeded, splicing recordings at different speeds for "Strawberry Fields Forever" or, for "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite," simulating a calliope with keyboards, harmonica and a harmonium that the producer himself played with such intensity he passed out on the floor. Martin would have several good turns on the keyboards, performing a lively music hall solo on McCartney's "Lovely Rita" and a speeded-up Baroque reverie on Lennon's "In My Life."

Born in north London in 1926, Martin was a carpenter's son raised in a three-room flat without a kitchen, bathroom or electricity.

He was a gifted musician who mastered Chopin by ear, a born experimenter enchanted whenever he discovered a new chord. After World War II service in the Fleet Air Arm, he attended London's Guildhall School of Music, studying composition and orchestration, and performance on the oboe and piano.

"Music was pretty well my whole life," Martin wrote in his memoir, "All You Need is Ears," published in 1980.

When he started at Parlophone, Martin worked with primitive technology, recording on wax cylinders with machines driven by weights, not electricity.

In 1955, aged 29, Martin became head of Parlophone. He worked with Judy Garland and with jazz stars Stan Getz, Cleo Laine and John Dankworth.

By the early 1960s, Parlophone was fading and Martin was anxious to break into the pop market when a Liverpool shopkeeper and music manager, Brian Epstein, insisted that he listen to a local quartet. The Beatles already had been turned down by Decca Records and told that "guitar groups are on the way out." Martin also was unimpressed by their music, but, to his eternal fortune, was pushed into signing them.

Martin later said he didn't think much of the band's rough-and-ready music, but "fell in love" with the four Liverpool lads.

He was more than a decade older than any of them and, like an indulgent parent, tolerated and often enjoyed their sassy humor. On the first day in the studio, Martin lectured the Beatles on their weaknesses, then asked if there was anything they didn't like.

"I don't like your tie," George Harrison reportedly quipped.

The backtalk was also professional. After the Beatles had a modest hit with "Love Me Do," Martin recommended they follow with a light pop track, "How Do You Do It." To Martin's surprise, the band insisted on Lennon-McCartney's "Please, Please Me," originally written as a slow, Roy Orbison-styled lament.

Martin backed down, with one condition  that they speed it up. The result their first smash and the beginning of a phenomenon soon dubbed Beatlemania.

After "Please, Please Me" had been recorded, Martin told the band: "Gentlemen, you have just made your first number one record."

The Beatles seemed to reinvent themselves from album to album, and sometimes from song to song. Their lyrics, especially Lennon's, became more personal and sophisticated, and sometimes surreal.

For "Yesterday," Martin persuaded McCartney that a string quartet would serve the song's tender remorse.

"When we recorded the string quartet at Abbey Road, it was so thrilling to know his idea was so correct that I went round telling people about it for weeks," McCartney said Wednesday.

After "Let It Be," Martin assumed he was done with the Beatles, but they asked him back for "Abbey Road." Released in the fall of 1969, it was their final, slickest record.

Martin did manage commercial success with such pop acts as America and the Little River Band and produced two James Bond themes  Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger" and McCartney's "Live and Let Die." Martin had intended the production and scoring of "Candle In The Wind '97," Elton John's tribute to Princess Diana at her funeral, to be his last single.

In his later years, Martin  with his fine white hair and beautifully tailored clothes  was a treasured figure on Britain's music scene. He played a prominent role at Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee concerts in 2002, leading a cheer of "hip, hip hooray" in her honor.

McCartney said that with Martin's death, "the world has lost a truly great man who left an indelible mark on my soul and the history of British music."

Martin is survived by his wife Judy and four children from two marriages.
Washington

An Islamic State detainee currently in U.S. custody at a temporary detention facility in Erbil, Iraq, is a specialist in chemical weapons whom U.S. military officials are questioning about the militant Sunni group's plans to use the banned substances in Iraq and Syria, defense officials said.

The detainee was identified as Sleiman Daoud al-Afari, a chemical and biological weapons expert who worked for Saddam Hussein's Military Industrialization Authority.

Al-Afari, described by the military as a "significant" Islamic State operative was captured a month ago by commandos in an elite American Special Operations force, has, under interrogation, provided his captors with details about how the group had weaponized mustard gas into powdered form and loaded it into artillery shells, the officials said.

One official said the gas was not concentrated enough to kill anyone, but that it could maim people.

As is protocol, Defense Department officials notified the International Committee of the Red Cross, which monitors the treatment of detainees, that they were holding an Islamic State fighter. The Red Cross acknowledged in a statement on Tuesday that it had visited the detainee but gave no other information.

Defense Department officials insist the U.S. has no plans to hold the detainee or other captives indefinitely, and they would be handed over to Iraqi and Kurdish authorities after they had been interviewed. The officials say they did not intend to establish a long-term U.S. site to hold Islamic State detainees, and Obama administration officials rule out sending any to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Al-Afari was captured last month, shortly after the arrival in Iraq of a new Special Operations force made up primarily of Delta Force commandos. They are the first major U.S. combat force on the ground there since the U.S. pulled out of the country at the end of 2011.

Before this, the U.S. military has largely fought the Islamic State with airstrikes.

But the 200-member Special Operations team has been given the task of killing and capturing Islamic State operatives, the latter in particular to use in gathering intelligence.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 1 of 5 Butch Comegys Show More Show Less 2 of 5 Butch Comegys Show More Show Less 3 of 5 4 of 5 Butch Comegys Show More Show Less 5 of 5









Two couples were awarded nearly $4.25 million on Thursday after a federal jury found one of the largest natural gas producers in Pennsylvania was responsible for the contamination of their well water, capping a six-year odyssey that turned their sleepy village into a battleground over the nation's shale drilling and hydraulic fracturing boom.

The verdict in Scranton came at the end of a bitter lawsuit pitting homeowners in Dimock against Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. The company, a prolific driller in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale formation, said it will appeal, accusing the jury of ignoring "overwhelming scientific and factual evidence that Cabot acted as a prudent operator in conducting its operations."
PLATTSBURGH  When Donnie Cook retired last July, he was expecting time to relax and be with his beloved family and friends.

What the former University of Vermont, Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital operating room technician wasn't expecting was a diagnosis of his own.

On Feb. 15, Cook was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease.

A progressive neurodegenerative disease, ALS affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, according to the ALS Association.

More Information IF YOU GO WHAT: Benefit for Donnie (Big D) Cook, with free corned beef and cabbage, live music from 5 p.m. to midnight, 50/50 raffle, auction. WHEN: 3 p.m. Saturday, March 12. WHERE: Dry Dock Lounge, 5143 U.S. Ave., Plattsburgh. ADMISSION: $10 at the door. See More Collapse

While there is no known cure, treatment can greatly help improve quality of life, it says.

Knowing this, neither Cook, 66, nor his family or friends are willing to give in without a fight.

'NO BETTER DAD'

Susan Stefanick, Cook's ex-wife and decades-long best friend, is among them.

When the time comes that he can't live in his own home anymore, he will move in with her.

And she has planned a benefit to help Cook with his medical expenses, set for 3 p.m. Saturday.

Held at Stefanick's Dry Dock Lounge on U.S. Avenue here, the benefit is in conjunction with the bar's annual Anniversary/ St. Patrick's Day Party.

There would be no better place for the event, Stefanick said.

"I have the most dedicated, loyal customers," she said.

Previous get-togethers she has hosted at the venue, including Cook's retirement party, were major successes, and she hopes for the same turnout this weekend.

"He's just loved by all," she said, with tears in her eyes and a small smile on her face.

Megan Cook, Cook and Stefanick's daughter, agreed.

"I just couldn't ask for a better dad," she said. "He's my best friend. He was there for everything. He was there for the birth of both my kids (Hannah and Ty); he's been such a great grandfather, too."

MILITARY CONNECTION

Cook, an Ellenburg native, enlisted in the military and was sent to Vietnam in 1969.

He served in combat and as a medic on the front lines, where he was exposed to Agent Orange, an herbicide used during the war to clear away trees and vegetation.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs presumes that ALS diagnoses in veterans who had 90 days or more of continuous active military service are related to their service, according to its website.

The ALS Association reports that military veterans are approximately twice as likely to be diagnosed with ALS as the general public.

"It (ALS) is not as rare as people think," Stefanick said.

Cook was highly decorated for his time in the service, receiving the Air Medal, Bronze Star and Silver Star.

"He never spoke of it," Stefanick said. "Nobody even knew!"

'INVALUABLE SUPPORT'

She credited family friend Ken Hynes of the North Country Vietnam Veterans Association for giving Cook invaluable support and resources.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter.

In addition, the VA will provide Cook with ramps and railings at home, as well as a home health aide. He is also currently taking an experimental medication.

"He's always been so independent; he doesn't accept help easily," Stefanick said.

Cook remains optimistic and continues to spend time with his loved ones at the Dry Dock.

"I'm doing the best I can," he said. "Just taking it one day at a time."

Email Maggie McVey:

mmcveypressrepublican.com

Twitter: maggiemcveypr

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Benefit for Donnie (Big D) Cook, with free corned beef and cabbage, live music from 5 p.m. to midnight, 50/50 raffle, auction.

WHEN: 3 p.m. Saturday, March 12.

WHERE: Dry Dock Lounge, 5143 U.S. Ave., Plattsburgh.

ADMISSION: $10 at the door.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Despite routine talk that driverless cars are the future, so far there has been no effort to bring them to New York.

Google, Tesla and other manufacturers are focused on building cars that can navigate roads without humans behind the wheel. Time magazine last week had a cover story about the benefits of people giving up their right to drive.

"I read about it all the time, and I've never heard even a whisper about bringing it to New York for any purpose," said Don Metzner, president and CEO of Armory Garage, an Albany-based automotive dealership. "It's an interesting theory."

Story after story in the media depicts a future where cars take you to your destination and then go park themselves. The cars would reduce traffic, decrease accidents and reduce the need for parking spaces, proponents argue.

California, Nevada, Florida, Michigan and Tennessee have passed legislation governing self-driving vehicles, as has Washington, D.C.

George Berg, an associate professor in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University at Albany, said it may be a while before the cars come to New York.

"I think the broadest answer is it's early days yet," he said. "Google, Tesla and Ford are still prototyping and getting the kinks out."

Google is located in California's Silicon Valley, he noted, so it makes sense for the company to test drive its cars there. In addition, the weather there is easier for early testing than New York's sometimes slick or snowy roads.

But he added Michigan is on the list thanks to Ford, which is trying to test out the vehicles in snowy conditions where you can't see the road surface or the lane markings that autonomous cars use to guide themselves.

A Google spokesman said the company typically does not discuss its future plans, but it has been testing the cars in snowier California climes. Google has logged mileage on its cars in only three states  California, Texas and Washington  so New York is hardly alone in not seeing them yet. Messages to Tesla and Ford were not returned.

Before self-driving cars could be on New York's roads, state motor vehicle law would have to change.

The law now says: "No person shall operate a motor vehicle without having at least one hand or, in the case of a physically handicapped person, at least one prosthetic device or aid on the steering mechanism at all times when the motor vehicle is in motion."

Assemblyman Phil Steck, who serves on the Transportation Committee, said the subject has never come up. There has been no lobbying by car manufacturers to allow them, and no suggested legislation to come to the committee, the Colonie Democrat said.

"Obviously it's going to be an issue that is going to have to be studied very, very carefully," he said. "We all use technology, and technology does sometimes go wrong."

But Steck said while there has been a push to allow Uber and other ride-hailing services in the state, there has yet to be any discussion of self-driving vehicles.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter.

"It's funny too because California and New York are parallel in a lot of ways," he said. "They are both highly regulated states. The governments are not that dissimilar."

California does have a far worse problem with pollution, he said, which may increase the appeal of driverless cars there.

The state Senate too has never heard from makers of the autonomous vehicles.

"There hasn't been anything yet regarding driverless cars," said Steve Barz, communications director for State Sen. Joseph Robach, R-Rochester, chairman of the Transportation Committee. "They're probably waiting to look at the viability."

Berg said he couldn't hazard a guess when the first New York driver might get to ride in a self-driving car within the state.

"I suspect certainly within a generation, we'll see them being a significant player on our roadways," he said.

tobrien@timesunion.com  518-454-5092  @timobrientu
Albany

Are you a disaffected Democrat dying to switch parties to vote for Donald Trump in next month's presidential primary? A revolted Republican raring to flee the GOP and throw your support behind Bernie Sanders as he battles Hillary Clinton?

Sorry  you're stuck.

According to state election law, registered voters missed the last chance to change their party affiliation for the entire 2016 primary season  presidential on April 19, congressional on June 28, state and local on Sept. 13  more than five months ago. State law says that such changes, including adding a party affiliation if you've previously been a "blank," must be submitted to your local board of elections no later than 25 days before the general election preceding the one in which the change would be effective.

More Information At a glance To register to vote, a New Yorker must:  Be a U.S. citizen.  Be 18 years old by the date of the general, primary or other election in which you want to vote.  Live at your present address at least 30 days before an election.  Not be in prison or on parole for a felony conviction.  Not be judged mentally incompetent by a court.  Not claim the right to vote elsewhere. For more information, visit http://dmv.ny.gov/more-info/motor-voter-faqs Source: Executive Chamber See More Collapse

That means that any changes filed after Oct. 9, 2015, will go into effect after this year's Nov. 8 general election.

Voters who are registering to vote in New York for the first time, however, have until March 25 to do so and can pick which party's presidential primary, if any, they'd like to take part in. (Those who want to register for the general election must do so in person or have their application postmarked no later than by Oct. 14 and if mailed, received by their local board of elections not later than Oct. 19)

Thomas Connolly, a spokesman for the state Board of Elections, said that as primary season heats up around the nation, the office has been receiving more than a half-dozen calls a day from previously registered voters who were surprised to learn they had missed the boat to switch their affiliation.

New York is among the states with the earliest deadlines for registered voters to join a new party.

"Historically, the reason (for the October deadline) has been to avoid party-raiding," Connolly said.

In such a Trojan horse scenario, members of one party change their enrollment as part of a concerted scheme to monkey with the opposing party's nominating process  such as by voting for a rival-party candidate who's perceived as the weakest general election challenger.

"As a practical matter, people don't do that  people don't change parties en masse except in the most extreme examples," said Jerry Goldfeder, a prominent election lawyer and author of "Goldfeder's Modern Election Law."

Such a case occurred on Long Island in 2008, when leaders of the Suffolk County Conservative Party sniffed out that members of the local police union were switching their party enrollments in an attempt to bring about the defeat of a county sheriff who was seen as cooperating in an effort to downsize the department. A state Supreme Court decision ultimately ordered hundreds of newly enrolled party members struck from its rolls, and noted that the court "cannot countenance the attempted destruction of a minor political party for ulterior gain."

New York's deadline was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 in the case of Rinaldo v. Rockefeller, in a decision that said the state law was "not arbitrary when viewed in light of the legitimate state purpose of avoiding disruptive party raiding."

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter.

Goldfeder noted New York's deadline is actually closer to the first state primary in a presidential election year: Those seeking to change their party affiliation for the September state legislative primary have to make the switch more than 11 months before heading to the polls.

While New York's primaries are members-only affairs, many states allow those in other parties  or no party  to cast a vote. New Hampshire, home to the nation's first presidential primary, allows voters to switch parties the day of the vote.

"That kind of fluidity appears in a number of states, and we read about it and we say, 'Hey, I'd like to do that!'" Goldfeder said.

There have been several legislative efforts to tighten the gap between the deadline and primary voting. Gov. Andrew Cuomo's 2015 State of the State address floated the idea of changing the law to make the voter's party enrollment change take effect three months after the application is received by the local board of elections. Cuomo also suggested allowing new voters to register up to 10 days ahead of a primary or election, as opposed to the current 25 days.

Cuomo's briefing book noted New York in 2012 ranked 44th in the nation in voter turnout, with only 54 percent of eligible voters heading to the polls.

Neither proposal saw action. This year, Cuomo didn't offer them up.
The following editorial appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

The United States carried out an aircraft and drone attack at Raso, Somalia, on Saturday that killed 150 members of the militia group al-Shabab.

Administration officials said the strike was conducted in anticipation of an al-Shabab assault on American interests or the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia, which the United States finances and advises.

Americans should be troubled by the deadly attack for several reasons.

 Although the Pentagon claims there weren't any civilian casualties and that all of the victims were Islamic militants, that is hard to believe.

The U.S. military acknowledged that the attack on the al-Shabab training camp occurred during a graduation ceremony. Were any civilians in attendance? Who knows?

 The assault is the latest U.S. military strike in a decades-long failed effort to install a sustainable government after the collapse of authority in Somalia in 1991. The collapse triggered a humanitarian crisis that led to many deaths from hunger and disease. The East African country now has an unelected government, protected by 21,500 foreign troops including U.S. Special Operations forces, that is under constant attack by al-Shabab.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter.

 The effort to prop up Somalia has cost American taxpayers a lot of money, including the millions of dollars needed to maintain what has become a major U.S. military base in neighboring Djibouti, the former French Somaliland.

 Finally, and perhaps what should be the biggest concern for Americans, is that such a major attack on al-Shabab militants risks provoking a revenge assault on the United States. It would be foolish for the United States to imagine that such an attack could not occur.

If these concerns are sound, the next questions have to be, first, why was Saturday's attack carried out, and, second, why is the U.S. still involved in an expensive, unsuccessful effort in Somalia?
To mark the centenary of the Proclamation of Independence, every child who takes part in the Cashel St. Patrick's Day Parade will be presented with a commemorative medal.

The medal feature a silhouette of the Rock of Cashel on a tri-colour flag as a green white and gold inset and is inscribed on the back with "Cashel St Patrick's Parade 17/3/2016" These will become treasured family heirlooms, and who knows they may re-appear on the 300th anniversary in 2116.

In addition to the regular cash prizes, this year to mark the 1916-2016 centenary there will be 3 trophies awarded to 1916 themed entries in the Walking, Motorised and Youth categories. We know that St. John The Baptist Boys school will be on hand with a re-enactment of the Siege of the GPO and the Girls school will present Countess Markiewicz's speech on supporting Irish industry. Trophies will be presented at Halla Na Feile at 4:30 on St. Patrick's Day. We are expecting a larger parade this year and consequently the start time will be at 2pm. The format is the same as last year with walking groups meeting at the Bru Boru car park from noon and motorised entries lining up on the Dublin road from 12:30pm. The parade will be lead off by the Demott O Hurley Pipe Band and the Grand Marshall will be the 2105 Cashel Person of the year, who will be announced on Tuesday 15th March. We had hoped to secure funding for the Children's Medals from the County Tipperary 1916 Community Fund, but we were not successful in our bid, if anyone would like to help sponsor some of the costs of the medals they can send their donation to: The Parade Treasurer, Wally Ryan, at Ashmore House B& B in John Street Cashel, cheques should be made out to Cashel St. Patrick's Parade. We might not have a Government but we will have a Parade!
I agree with the program

I don't agree with the program

I like the idea, but feel the current proposal is too broad

Let me park where I want!

Vote

View Results
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 10, 2016] New Appthority Android App Expands On-device Security and Employee Self-remediation Capabilities

SAN FRANCISCO, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Appthority , the leader in enterprise mobile app risk management, today announced the general availability of its Android app, responding to increased market demand for on-device enterprise mobile security solutions that empower employees to understand mobile app risks and help protect themselves and the enterprise. The new Android app complements the already available iOS app, providing Appthority customers with comprehensive on-device monitoring and protection. Appthority's mobile apps extend the defense perimeter for risky app behavior out to the end user, reducing the number of malicious apps that enter the enterprise ecosystem and, thus, the data leakage and privacy invasions associated with risky apps. Together with the Appthority portal, administrators can manage and automate the creation of white and blacklisted apps, instantly alert employees about risky apps and remediate against any suspicious apps that are detected. Adding the Android app to its suite of protection capabilities now is especially important for two reasons. First, Appthority's own research has shown, Android users are especially vulnerable to attack with nearly 90 percent of all Android apps on enterprise devices exhibiting data leakage behaviors. Second, enterprises are looking for lightweight, yet comprehensive mobile security solutions that employees will embrace. The Appthority apps are easy to use and clearly show compliant and non-compliant apps already on the employee's device and allow users to easily search and check apps for risky non-compliant behaviors prior to download. This approach allows new safe apps to be used, educates employees about dangerous app behaviors and protects enterprises and employees alike from data leakage and privacy invasion. Unlike traditional anti-malware tools, the Appthority app allows users to be proactive, arming them with the ability to know an app's risk before it is ever installed on their device. "More than 70 percent of our customers and prospects have expressed the need for a solution that empowers and educates employees," said Domingo Guerra, president and co-founder of Appthority. "Our on-device app risk management solution meets that need, giving enterprises a comprehnsive mobile security tool that offers the power of self-management and self-remediation and also goes beyond malware protection.



"This is why a Fortune 50 customer recently replaced its existing malware-only mobile security solution with Appthority's - to fully empower its employees against not just malware, but also apps that risk leaking sensitive data," said Guerra. "Although iOS still leads in enterprise device market share, an increasing number of our customers are seeing demand for Android, particularly in BYOD environments. These customers see Appthority's solution as a key enabler of secure Android adoption." The new Appthority Android app includes the following features:

Malicious app detection directly on employee devices : With its Android and iOS apps, Appthority enables on-device malware and additional threat detection that constantly assesses employee installed apps against the latest mobile risks and corporate policies to provide immediate alerts and remediation in case of a malicious app.

: With its Android and iOS apps, Appthority enables on-device malware and additional threat detection that constantly assesses employee installed apps against the latest mobile risks and corporate policies to provide immediate alerts and remediation in case of a malicious app. Proactive security: Traditional antivirus solutions wait until an app is installed before evaluating it for risk. With the Appthority apps, employees can search the app store and see an app's security and risk posture before installing it on their device.

Traditional antivirus solutions wait until an app is installed before evaluating it for risk. With the Appthority apps, employees can search the app store and see an app's security and risk posture before installing it on their device. Employee self-remediation: Appthority's on-device mobile app security provides a self-remediation tool for enterprises looking to educate employees about mobile threats like risky apps and empower them to delete those apps. Increasing awareness of risky behaviors and reducing the number of risky apps in enterprise environment significantly lowers enterprise risk.

Appthority's on-device mobile app security provides a self-remediation tool for enterprises looking to educate employees about mobile threats like risky apps and empower them to delete those apps. Increasing awareness of risky behaviors and reducing the number of risky apps in enterprise environment significantly lowers enterprise risk. Compliance monitoring and whitelist browsing: Enterprises can automate the creation of whitelists and blacklists and search the app store for apps that are compliant based on their security policies. For example, an employee could search for an expense reporting app and see which apps have been pre-approved based on corporate policies. The new Android app is available as part of Appthority's complete mobile app risk management solution. For more information, please visit: https://www.appthority.com/products/explore-features/on-device-protection-and-alerts/ On February 23, Appthority announced the release of its new Q1 2016 Enterprise Mobile Threat Report, testing hundreds of thousands of apps that were added into its global database in the second half of 2015. The analysis determines how high risk data leakage and privacy invasive app behaviors impact enterprise environments. To download the report, please visit: http://info.appthority.com/-q1-2016-mtr-download. For a video on the findings, please see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QapUfQk1XVs&feature=youtu.be In addition to quarterly reports assessing the overall state of mobile app risks to the enterprise, Appthority's Enterprise Mobile Threat Team offers on-going mobile threat analysis and reporting via its blog. About Appthority

Appthority provides the industry's first all-in-one Mobile App Risk Management service that employs dynamic and behavioral analysis to immediately discover the hidden actions of apps and empower organizations to apply custom policies to prevent unwanted app behaviors. Having analyzed more than three million apps for its Global 2000 and government customers, only Appthority combines the largest global database of analyzed public and private apps with advanced policy management tools to automate control over risky app actions and protect corporate data. Appthority delivers visibility and trust to enterprises and their rapidly expanding app ecosystems. Headquartered in San Francisco, Appthority is venture-backed by U.S. Venture Partners and Venrock and additionally funded by Blue Coat Systems, and Knollwood Investment Advisory. More information on Appthority can be found at https://www.appthority.com/. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160309/342710

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130826/SF69650LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-appthority-android-app-expands-on-device-security-and-employee-self-remediation-capabilities-300233962.html SOURCE Appthority

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 10, 2016] KPMG Finance Leader Morris Treadway and Political Commentator James Carville to Headline Tagetik in Touch Conference

STAMFORD, Connecticut and LUCCA, Italy, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- New Orleans event includes 40 sessions covering all aspects of budgeting, planning, forecasting, and financial reporting required by modern finance Tagetik, a visionary leader in global performance management software solutions, today announced that KPMG international finance leader Morris Treadway and political analyst James Carville will keynote the company's tenth annual global conference, Tagetik in Touch, from April 24 - 27, at the Royal Sonesta in New Orleans. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140625/694014 )

Treadway's keynote, "Are CFOs Ready for the Challenge?" will present findings from KPMG's View from the Top, a recent survey of 549 global CEOs on the role of CFOs in business today. He will discuss the unique challenges and transformative attributes of the CFO's role, the implications to finance and other functions, and what CFOs need to do to close the gap between expectations and the reality on the ground. "We have entered the age of the Renaissance CFO," said Treadway, global head of financial management and global enterprise performance management center of excellence lead. "Today's CFO is expected to operate on a global scale, leveraging financial data and analytics to achieve profitable growth, capitalizing on a dynamic regulatory environment and nurturing and acquiring top talent. He or she is managing a vast ecosystem of expanding complexity with the goal of achieving competitive advantage." Treadway's keynote will be held at 9:15 a.m. on Tuesday, April 26.



Carville's keynote, "Politics and the 2016 Race to the White House," will examine the political power shifts over the past years and dissect the extreme forces shaping the 2016 presidential election. A native of New Orleans, Carville will also discuss what trends from the last two decades mean for the future and will share favorite political and personal stories from his three decades in politics. Carville's keynote will be held at 5:45 p.m. on Monday, April 25. Overall, the conference agenda encompasses 40 sessions, covering topics critical to modern finance such as what-if modeling and scenario planning, forecasting, dashboarding, and narrative reporting, in addition to product roadmap details, the direction of the CPM market and enterprise cloud technology. Tagetik will also host a French Quarter scavenger hunt on Sunday afternoon to benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Southeast Louisiana.

"These conferences are hugely important to our customer partnerships and contribute to the consistently high marks our solution gets for customer satisfaction," said Manuel Vellutini, Tagetik co-CEO. "Our customers gain from the direct guidance and insights offered by our finance and technology experts who are onsite. In turn, the input and suggestions we get from our customers influence our development priorities and help us keep up with the practical and strategic needs of today's forward-thinking financial leaders." Registration for Tagetik in Touch is open. For more details, visit the Tagetik in Touch conference website. About Tagetik Tagetik understands the complex challenges that face the Office of Finance and translates that knowledge into intuitive, enterprise-scale performance management software solutions that drive business results. With Tagetik, companies get the simplicity of the Cloud and the power to unify financial and operational planning; shorten the consolidation and close process; immediately analyze results, model and compare full financial statement impact of business scenarios; adjust strategic plans; seamlessly update rolling forecasts; produce formatted and auditable financial statements and management reports; collaborate on business reviews, and automate disclosure and board reporting. Tagetik has built-in financial intelligence so that CFOs, finance managers, and operations executives can orchestrate multiple or all processes in one software solution. More than 850 customers across 35 countries count on Tagetik to improve efficiency, reduce risk, save money and deliver results. For more information, visit http://www.tagetik.com. We get Finance. You get results. Follow us on social media: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Google+ YouTube Blog Media Contacts:

Linda Galloway

insidHR Communications

+1-303-863-8620 office

+1-203-733-7446 mobile

[email protected]

SOURCE Tagetik

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 10, 2016] Easy Deployment and Mobility Is Key Focus for IntelliPower Briefcase UPS and Power Conditioning Units

ORANGE, Calif., March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- IntelliPower, Inc. recently announced the launch of three variations of its easily transportable briefcase power solution which weighs less than 50lbs. These rugged, deployable systems are composed of a hard shell transit case with wheels and handle for ease of movement, UPS and accessories. The customer can use the power system directly in the transit case or remove it completely from the briefcase enclosure and install it elsewhere. The system can be plugged in anywhere an 85 through 270 volts AC input is available for global operations. Premium features for this product include galvanic isolation and -10C to +60C rated lithium iron phosphate batteries. All units are designed with the display module, the input connector port and the output connector ports on the top of the unit for quick and easy setup and operation. In order to assist U.S. warfighters in accomplishing their worldwide power requirements, IntelliPower has developed three different versions of their briefcase UPS and Power Conditioning units and have been supporting this application with one of the most deployable, highly regarded communications unit in the DOD for several years with glowing praise. They have adapted their original design in order to meet the demanding needs of several customers while still maintaining the incredibly high reliability rate of the initial unit.



About IntelliPower IntelliPower, Inc., located in Orange, California, has been designing, manufacturing and supporting high-performance, cost effective Uninterruptible Power Systems (UPS) and power conversion solutions to protect mission-critical applications since 1988. Their on-line UPS, power conditioner and frequency/voltage converter solutions utilize digitally controlled, high-efficiency power switching technology that has been proven for over 27 years on numerous platforms.

IntelliPower's in-house development proprietary circuit design, DSP firmware/software technology and wide range of enclosure designs give the company unmatched capabilities to deliver systems configured to customer requirements backed by expert support. Their ability to design and configure quickly is based on their standard proprietary subassemblies that go into variations of power systems as required. All IntelliPower products are built, field tested and supported in the USA. Delivered around the globe, their solutions are used for military, industrial and mission-critical commercial applications. For more information, please call 714-921-1580 or visit www.intellipower.com. Contact:

Bill Shipman, Media Relations

[email protected]

(714) 921-1580 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/easy-deployment-and-mobility-is-key-focus-for-intellipower-briefcase-ups-and-power-conditioning-units-300233709.html SOURCE IntelliPower, Inc.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 10, 2016] MicroTech Secures U.S. Army's $5B ITES-3H Contract

VIENNA, Va., March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- MicroTech, an information technology solutions provider, today announced that the United States Army Contracting Command has awarded the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), the Information Technology Enterprise Solutions-3 Hardware (ITES-3H) contract, valued at $5 billion. MicroTech is only one of 17 businesses awarded an ITES-3H contract and was the only SDVOSB to receive an award. As part of the U.S. Army's plans to modernize its IT network and services, the ITES-3H contract vehicle enables purchases of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware, including servers, laptops, PCs, networking equipment, storage and secure computing solutions. These solutions can include a range of devices, such as workstations, networking technology, displays, video teleconferencing (VTC) capabilities and the related services for their configuration, implementation, maintenance and relocation. "This landmark award identifies those businesses most prepared to anticipate the information technology challenges of warfighters," says Tony Jimenez, President and CEO of MicroTech. "I cannot stress enough how excited we are to be part of this contract and look forward to suppling the U.S. Army and the Department of Defense with MicroTech's top-of-the-line capabilities." With this win, MicroTech now holds more than 25 multiple-award type contracts with several Federal Agencies through which MicroTech provides Federal, State and Local Government Agencies a broad range of technology and telecom solutions.



MicroTech is only one of nine small businesses awarded an ITES-3H contract and was the only SDVOSB to receive an award. About MicroTech: MicroTech, a certified and verified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) and a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) certified by the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC), has had noteworthy success since its inception in 2004. Under Mr. Jimenez's leadership, the privately owned company has experienced exponential growth and has been repeatedly recognized as a small business success story. Described as the "hottest Hispanic business in the nation," MicroTech was ranked as the #1 Fastest Growing Hispanic Company in the Nation for three consecutive years by Hispanic Business Magazine. MicroTech was also named one of the Top 10 Fastest Growing Hispanic-Owned Companies in the Nation for five consecutive years and has been repeatedly listed on Washington Technology's annual list of the Top 100 Government Contractors.

MicroTech provides Cloud Computing, Technology Services, Cyber Security Solutions, Products & Managed Service Solutions, Network Systems Integration, Big Data Management, Telecom Solutions & Integration and Financial Services to the public sector, as well as commercial enterprises -- managing more than a quarter of a million technology users daily. A prime contractor of over 500 Federal projects and more-than-25 procurement vehicles, MicroTech offers access to 2500 vendors and a million technology products and services across the government. Jennifer Berman

Director, Executive Operations

MicroTech

Vienna, VA

703-891-1073 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/microtech-secures-us-armys-5b-ites-3h-contract-300234107.html SOURCE MicroTech

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
Volunteer walks in honor of her husband Thousand Oaks resident Joan Hull will be among those participating in this years Conejo Valley Walk to End Alzheimers at 9 a.m. Sat., Oct. 22 at the Westlake Promenade. Hull...

Overpass could get protective fencing A substantial safety upgrade for the areas most notorious overpass is finally getting some Caltrans considerationbut dont expect changes any time soon. At the Sept. 21 Moorpark City Council meeting,...

Early detection is the best way to survive breast cancer Every October, we celebrate those men and women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. But what is breast cancer and how can it be diagnosed and managed? There are...
TWITTER- https://twitter.com/TomRtweets

EMAIL  TRogan@WashingtonExaminer.com OR Thomas.RoganE@gmail.com (please remember the ''E'': which stands for email) OR TJRogan@Protonmail.com

Foreign Policy/National Security at The Washington Examiner.

FOREIGN POLICY/NATIONAL SECURITY While I occasionally write on domestic policy, my passion and primary focus is on foreign policy/national security. I write on a range of subjects, focusing on China, Russia, India, North Korea, the Middle East (in particular Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Terrorism-related concerns). I also write on the broader question of international order.
Melbourne garage rock staples The Pretty Littles are gearing up to release their forthcoming album and to get you ready theyre today unveiling Pride  the freshest cut from the LP.

It feels strangely contradictory to call The Pretty Little mature but with the release of Pride we really get to see the guys take their song-crafting abilities to a whole new level.

Blistering, fuzz laden pop sensibilities ooze from the tracks powerful guitar hooks, while the bands frontman Jack Parson tears at your eardrums and punches you square in the stomach with his raw vocal command of angst-riddled lyrics.

Garnering fans nation wide thanks to their unrelenting attitude to playing live, The Pretty Littles know how to bring it to the stage. Catch the guys in their natural habitat when they launch the single at Melbournes John Curtin Hotel on Friday March 18. For more info pop by the bands Facebook page.
Here's the world according to our favorite Latina hack . . . "First, cease the easy finger-pointing. The issue of illegal immigrants who commit heinous crimes often raises uninformed hackles; people claiming that cities are giving immigrant criminals sanctuary, or that sheriffs arent cooperating with Department of Homeland Security." Mary Sanchez: Whose fault was it that the suspect in multiple slayings was loose in America?
ONE AGAIN IT SEEMS THAT KANSAS CITY MAYOR SLY MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO DELIVER OR INSPIRE AFRICAN-AMERICAN VOTERS!!!

The Missouri Primary is heating up andoffers a bit of insight into how this one might play out . . .Remember that theBut this isn't just a size measuring contest.Consider that the support ofhas been instrumental in listening to his constituents when it comes to the upcoming Presidential vote.Rep. Ellington has offered his unwavering support to the Bernie Sanders campaign for Prez . . .By contrast . . .Despite fuzzy math claims from consultants, the East Side didn't vote for the Streetcar extension and it's taking millions worth of subsidy in hopes they they won't also ignore election pleas when it's time for the E-tax vote.But other than a cadre of clergy and Democratic Party leaders . . . There weren't many African-American voters or denizens of the urban core at the abandoned union hall yesterday. That's a sad greeting for the so-called 1st Black President and an embarrassment former President Clinton didn't want to brave a few light showers to endure.Meanwhile, in terms of popular support . . . In Kansas City, Bernie Sanders seems to have a much more enthusiastic and diverse group of backers that could propel him to an upset in Missouri.You decide . . .
"The 39 hour filibuster was so life-affirming. These Senators talked on and on. Not one of them has declared him or herself a member of the LGBTQ community, but they had their LGBTQ brothers' and sisters' backs. They stood up to protect their constituents, all of their constituents, not just those in the majority. That is what makes our country great, we protect those in minorities. We abhor fascism.





"The Senate majority effectively stopped the filibuster by using a little use technique and the measure will likely pass, for now. The Missouri Constitution will probably be amended, because that just takes a majority of Missouri voters. The LGBTQ community is not in the majority. This demonstrates why the actions of the Democratic Senators was so important, and so heroic . . ."

An impassioned post from a Kansas City blogger atoffers a better perspective on recent events than MSM coverage. Take a look . . .Money line . . .Developing . . .
LET'S DECONSTRUCT THE LATEST KANSAS CITY EARNINGS TAX ADVERT FEATURING PROMINENT DENIZENS OF THIS TOWN'S POLITICAL SCENE!!!

MARKETING LADY ROSHANN PARRIS PITCHING THE E-TAX RUINS THE FLOW OF THE ADVERT AS SHE HITS VIEWERS WITH A CLUMSY SELL FROM JOHNSON COUNTY!!!

- The E-Tax campaign is targeted directly toward senior citizen KCMO voters more than anyone else.





- Public safety is a big part of it but not as front and center as the old Pat Gray campaign. This is a softer touch without the EKG scare tactics that marked most of Mr. Gray's later campaigns. The soft sell may or may not be regarded as a more honest approach by voters.





- The local elite talking down to voters along with Mayor Sly's commands with either be casually accepted or met with ambivalence . . . Recent polling trends suggest Kansas City moving away from voting in smallish elections and this soft call to action doesn't do a lot to inspire people to leave the comfort of their homes.

The tactics of the Kansas City Earnings Tax renewal campaign 2016 have been consistent during this election cycle and it's important to understand exactly what they're saying.To wit . . .More than talking points, this message says a lot about the strategy of the Progress KC brain trust.On Youtube this video is utterly unnoticed but it's worth mentioning that Facebook views number in the thousands with a few dozen shares.Now . . .Mayor Sly's message is pretty straightforward . . .He doesn't give voter a choice or make his case . . . It's a simple demand . . . Voterrenew. The former military man and law firm owner is accustomed to barking orders and in this video he doesn't bother to change styles . . . Only a smile hides the stern nature of the dictate.Next up . . .offers a more calm, reassuring and empathetic request of voters.This is actually the best shot of the commercial. Sitting next to a cup of coffee, the power broker's conversational tone and soft piano music in the background lures the viewer into a sense of intimacy as Mr. Brooks talks about "keeping the city safe" because of the earnings tax . . .The next shot is a mistake in every way possible . . .Here's why she's all wrong for this ad . . .- She's an out of towner with no vote.- The pitch is shrill and desperate. Of the whole crew she is the least comfortable on camera despite her marketing background.- Her claim just doesn't make any sense to even the most lackadaisical voter.I can see the twisted reasoning on this one . . . They're trying to convince voters that JoCo loves the e-tax and renewing this thing isn't taking money right out of their pocket. The strange passage in this clip might be a admission that research suggests JoCo criticism of this tax is having an impact on KCMO voters if such a clumsy effort to contradict the argument is employed.Finally . . . A local stalwart takes the screen . . .hasnamed after her.undoubtedly deserves respect.Her non-partisan call to action is nice and when she talks about safety she seems to. . . Anybody with a grandma would be hard pressed to ignore her.. . .What have we learned???You decide . . .
The Acropolis Museum will inaugurate on March 11 a precursor exhibition presenting exhibits from the Hermitage Museum as part of the cultural program titled Year of Russia in Greece, the Culture ministry announced on Wednesday.

As part of the exchange program, the Acropolis museum will exhibit three golden objects from the Hermitages collection of Scythian treasures, while the Russian museum will exhibit a marble statue of an Archaic Kore, lended by the Acropolis Museum.

The aim of the joint Greco-Russian initiative of the Year 2016 is to highlight and strengthen the close historical and cultural ties between the two nations and to promote each countys culture to the other.

Series of cultural events

During the 2016 Greek-Russian initiative," which is dedicated to the promotion of Greece to the Russian public and of Russia to the Greek public, Athens and Moscow are planning a series of cultural events aiming at renewing the traditional bonds of friendship and to enhance awareness and cooperation, the ministry statement said.

The Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Prikhodko and Greek Minister for Culture and Sports, Aristides Baltas will sign an official minutes document confirming the exchange of items by the two countries for the event.

During the event, Baltas and Prikhodko will also sign an agreement for the official exchange of specific programs during the Greek-Russia year.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
Stathakis disclosed that by June and in cooperation with OECD, the ministry will present the new framework for e-transactions and that a new development plan for the country will be announced soon in agreement with the institutions

"Today we start talks to complete the first review," Economy, Development and Tourism Minister George Stathakis announced on Wednesday.

Addressing a "Digital Economy Forum 2016 - The restart is digital", organized by the Federation of Information Technology and Communications Enterprises (SEPE), the Minister stressed that the stabilisation of the economy, following the summer 2015 agreement, the two successful rounds of negotiations in autumn and the recapitalisation of Greek banks and completion of the first review of the Greek programme, will pave the way for a restructuring of the Greek debt and the return of the economy to growth in the second half of the year. He added that the Economy ministry will soon announce new actions in the framework of the 2014-2020 EU funds programme.

"We will announce actions for the development of partnerships and networking for supporting innovative business activity (clusters, meta-clusters). We want to create domestic chains of value that will exploit human resources in various stages of productive process," Stathakis underlined, adding that a new development law will have the same rationale. He said that the ministry will soon table to Parliament a new regulatory framework for public procurement, unifying tender and public procurement regulations for all kind of projects, services and goods through a fully electronic framework which will allow small- and medium-sized enterprises to claim share of these markets.

Stathakis disclosed that by June and in cooperation with OECD, the ministry will present the new framework for e-transactions and that a new development plan for the country will be announced soon in agreement with the institutions.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
ABTA Chairman Noel Josephides said Samos was running a smooth operation to receive up to 500 refugees each day.

Greece is putting together a tourism action plan to support islands handling large numbers of refugees as the EU and Turkey thrash out a deal to reduce the flow of migrants. travelweekly reports.

Greek tourism minister Elena Kountoura has announced extra funds for the islands hardest hit by the refugee crisis, and is set to unveil marketing plans at German trade show ITB this week.

This is likely to include fam trips to the Aegean islands to show the media and trade how far refugee camps are from resorts, and funding for joint promotions with tour operators.

Bookings to Kos, Samos, Lesbos and Chios have been hit hard by the refugee crisis. Sunvil reported last week that bookings to Samos were down 35% year on year, despite analyst GfK reporting Greece is among the destinations showing greatest growth at the end of January.

Smooth operation

Chairman Noel Josephides said Samos was running a smooth operation to receive up to 500 refugees each day. Its efficient and well run, he said.

Peter Cookson, managing director of agency chain Spear Travels, said Kountoura was one of the best-placed people to help put Greece back on the tourism map this year, but admitted: Fam trips wont solve the problem of tourists not going to Greece. Those of us who know it well still manage to sell it, but the whole perspective of the country with regards to the immigrants and other internal problems has to change.

Shona Lyons, head of sales and marketing at Crusader Travel, which partnered with Sunvil to fly supplies to refugees in Samos last year, welcomed moves to promote Greece. Ive not noticed a drop in bookings to Greece, but fam trips would be fantastic. We need to support Greece; it is dealing with a very difficult situation.

Akin Koc, managing director of Turkey specialist Anatolian Sky, said: Both Greece and Turkey need more positive promotion; everyone has forgotten how beautiful and good value they are.

Repatriation of immigrants

The tourism plan comes as the EU and Turkey agreed in principle to return migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey. For each Syrian sent back, a Syrian already in Turkey would be resettled in the EU.

Commenting on the plan, Cookson said: The proposed repatriation of immigrants will hopefully improve matters but, equally, it could be disastrous PR if it all backfires.

Christina Kalogera, director of the Greek National Tourist Office, said UK visitor numbers to Greece were up 14.7% last year to more than 2.3 million and is confident numbers will rise again this year.

The migrant crisis is obviously an important humanitarian issue, but we anticipate Greek tourism will remain unaffected, she said.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
Turkey and Greece vowed close cooperation on Tuesday on 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.

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."

The prime ministers were meeting a day after Ankara offered to the EU to take back all migrants who cross into Europe from Turkish soil in return for agreement in principle on its demands for more money, faster EU membership talks and earlier visa-free travel.

Fleeing war and poverty

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.

Important victory

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.

"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".

NATO naval back-up

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."

Davutoglu also said a resolution of the division of Cyprus was close. The island has been split along ethnic lines since 1974. The EU considers the Greek Cypriot government in Nicosia to represent the whole island, while Ankara recognises a breakaway Turkish Cypriot administration in the north.

Source: Reuters

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
Tourexpi, turizm haberleri, Reiseburos, tourism news, noticias de turismo, Tourismus Nachrichten,  , travel tourism news, international tourism news, Urlaub, urlaub in der turkei,  , holidays in Turkey,   , global tourism news, dunya turizm, dunya turizm haberleri, Seyahat Acentas,

This site is best viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0+, at a minimum screen resolution of 1024 x 768.
The business model of Sadara Chemical, a joint venture developed by Saudi Aramco and The Dow Chemical Company, offers competitive advantages to enable downstream investments, said a top official.



Ziad Al-Labban, CEO of Sadara was speaking at the Saudi Downstream Forum 2016, which is concluding today (March 10) in Jubail, Saudi Arabia.



Al-Labban identified four key competitive advantages enjoyed by Saudi Arabia during a presentation entitled Downstream Manufacturing Opportunities in Saudi Arabia. These include the Kingdoms abundant natural resources, skilled human capital, proximity to growth markets, and access to finances.



Sadaras range of differentiated, high value products, enabled by the cracking of naphtha as well as ethane, makes us a true game changer. By capitalizing on Saudi Arabias unique competitive advantages, Sadara is positioned to become a key enabler for downstream investments and value added job opportunities for Saudis, which in turn will accelerate the Kingdoms economic diversification, and create a nurturing environment for Made in KSA to truly take shape, he noted.



In addition to its vast natural resources, which include 20 per cent of the worlds proven oil reserves and the sixth largest proven natural gas reserves, Saudi Arabia also offers competitive corporate taxes, a range of funding sources, a growing Islamic bond (sukuk) market, the largest stock exchange in the Mena region, and a large number of locally-based companies and investors.



Al-Labban further explained that the countrys close proximity to Asia, Africa, and Europe affords investors easy access to the growing markets within those continents.



In terms of skilled human capital, investors are able to tap into a substantial pool of qualified and skilled young Saudis, including over one million students currently enrolled in higher education programs, a number which is slated to grow in the coming years.



To take advantage of these attributes, Sadara has integrated state of the art technologies into its 26 manufacturing plants to address the regional supply gap in differentiated specialty chemicals, which, as of 2015, constituted just 0.3 per cent of the regions total capacity estimated at 360 million tons, while the remaining 99.7 per cent was made up of commodity chemicals.



Currently at 98 per cent complete, the 6-sq-km mega-complex started producing the first of its specialty products - Solution Polyethylene  in December 2015, the first plant of its kind in the Middle East. The rest of the units are now going through a phased start up and commissioning process and are expected to be fully operational in 2017.



In addition, Sadara is working in collaboration with the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu to develop PlasChem Park, a chemical and conversion industrial park adjacent to the companys chemical complex. PlasChem Park will offer easy access to Sadaras products and infrastructure in Jubail, fueling investment, innovation, growth development and job opportunities with a sustainable impact on the Saudi economy.  TradeArabia News Service
US Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton has called for sanctions against Iran after the Islamic Republic brushed off US concerns and test-fired two ballistic missiles that it said were designed to be able to hit Israel.



Iranian state television showed footage of two Qadr missiles being launched from northern Iran, which the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said hit targets 1,400 km (870 miles) away.



Iranian agencies said the missiles were stamped with the Hebrew words, "Israel should be wiped from the pages of history," though the inscription could not be seen on any photographs.



Clinton, a former secretary of state under President Barack Obama, said she was "deeply concerned" by the tests, the second round of Iranian missile launches in two days.



"Iran should face sanctions for these activities and the international community must demonstrate that Iran's threats toward Israel will not be tolerated," said Clinton, who is ahead in the race to be Democratic nominee at the Nov. 8 presidential elections.



Her call for sanctions reflected a tougher line against Iran's recent missile activity than that taken so far by the White House, which said it is aware of and reviewing reports of the Iranian tests, and would determine an appropriate response.



"We know that Iran is in a season of carrying out a number of military activities, and so it certainly would not be a surprise if there are additional launches over the next several days," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.



The Iranian move on Wednesday came despite warning from the US State Department after Tuesday's missile tests that Washington continues to "aggressively apply our unilateral tools to counter threats from Iran's missile program," a possible reference to additional US sanctions.



Secretary of State John Kerry spoke on Wednesday with Iran's foreign minister about the test-firing of two ballistic missiles, a State Department spokesman said.



The missile tests underline a rift in Iran between hard-line factions opposed to normalizing relations with the West, and President Hassan Rouhani's relatively moderate government, which is trying to attract foreign investors to Iran.



ISRAEL IN MIND



Iran's IRGC said the missiles tested on Wednesday were designed with Israel in mind.



"The reason we designed our missiles with a range of 2,000 km is to be able to hit our enemy the Zionist regime from a safe distance," Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh was quoted as saying by the ISNA agency. The nearest point in Iran is around 1,000 km (600 miles) from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.



Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon told Israel Radio the tests showed Iran's hostility had not changed since implementing a nuclear deal with world powers in January, despite Rouhani's overtures to the West.



"To my regret there are some in the West who are misled by the honeyed words of part of the Iranian leadership while the other part continues to procure equipment and weaponry, to arm terrorist groups," Yaalon said.



Representative Ed Royce, the Republican chairman of the US House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee, said: "Iran is making a mockery of President Obama's vow to confront Iran's dangerous and illicit acts."



He urged Obama to "aggressively enforce all sanctions against Iran's missile programs, support for terrorism and human rights abuses. No more looking the other way."



Washington imposed sanctions against businesses and individuals in January over another missile test in October 2015. But the IRGC said it would not bow to pressure.



"The more sanctions and pressure our enemies apply ... the more we will develop our missile program," Hajizadeh said on state television.



The IRGC maintains dozens of short and medium-range ballistic missiles, the largest stock in the Middle East. It says they are solely for defensive use with conventional, non-nuclear warheads.



Tehran has denied US accusations of acting "provocatively," citing the long history of US interventions in the Middle East and its own right to self-defence.  Reuters
Omans maiden wind-powered electricity generation venture will have a strong In-Country Value (ICV) component, a top official was quoted as saying.



The successful bidder must prioritise preference to indigenous Omani goods and services in the implementation of the scheme, Hamed bin Salim al Magdheri, CEO of Rural Areas Electricity Company (RAECO) was quoted in the Oman Observer report.



RAECO is executing the project valued at $125 million along with UAE-based Masdar, the report said.



In-Country Value capture is an important objective of the project and is clearly articulated in the project scope and tender documents, said Al Maghderi.



The contractor is obligated to not only source locally manufactured goods, such as transformers, cables, building materials and so on, during the construction phase, but also train Omani technical staff who will take over operation and management of the plant over the long term, he added.



About five international companies are in contention for an Engineering-Procurement-Construction (EPC) contract to implement the 50 megawatt (MW) project at Thamrait in Dhofar Governorate, he said.



Development of the wind farm project is progressing well. Design work has been completed in line with project implementation schedules. We expect to be in a better position (to make an announcement) in the second quarter of this year. The project is targeted for completion by around the first quarter of 2018, Al Maghderi said.
Qatar Airways stepped up its criticism of US engine maker Pratt & Whitney over delays and technical problems on Wednesday, saying that engines for its Airbus A320neo aircraft had not been adequately tested.



Qatar Airways has refused to take the jets because of engine glitches. Last month it threatened to switch to alternative engine supplier CFM International .



"I don't think this engine was tested adequately, especially for the temperatures in which Qatar Airways will operate," chief executive Akbar Al Baker said.



"We will only accept it when we are fully satisfied that it can operate efficiently and safely at Qatar operations (and) ... once we get sufficient performance guarantees and undertakings from both Airbus and Pratt & Whitney," he told a news conference at the ITB tourism exhibition in Berlin.



"We are at the threshold of the walk-away clause in our contract, but I hope we will not have to exercise this."



Pratt & Whitney had no immediate comment but has said it is on track to eliminate problems with slow engine start-up times and erroneous software messages by June.



Meanwhile, industry sources say that more than a dozen part-built A320neo jets are on the ground at Airbus headquarters in Toulouse waiting for their engines before they can be delivered.



While keeping up the pressure in public, people familiar with the matter say that Qatar Airways is expected to give the planemaker and its engine supplier more time to fix the problems.



"We're confident that with Pratt & Whitney's support we will address any early (lessons) and meet our targets," Airbus said.



OIL FACTOR



CEO Al Baker disclosed that the airline had earlier deferred delivery of four Airbus A380s by one year when oil prices were high, only to agree to take delivery now prices have dropped.



The company would consider exercising options for a further three jets if oil prices remain low, he said, though he warned that oil prices are a "double-edged sword" for airlines because premium traffic yields have slipped in the face of weaker business sentiment and a drop in spending by oil producers.



On the airline's international ties, Al Baker predicted deeper links with British Airways owner IAG, in which it holds a 10.08 percent stake.



Areas for possible cooperation include procurement, computer systems, fuel, insurance and even aircraft buying after a joint Boeing purchase with Emirates in 2013.



In Iran, he sees room for expansion after the lifting of sanctions that he said had been unfairly applied to the country's civil aircraft fleet -- an unusual statement from a senior Gulf state official amid rising tensions in the area.



"My country has very good relations with Iran and has ... always played a balancing role in the region," he said.



He dismissed warnings from some analysts that Iran's airspace would be dominated by foreign carriers, saying that "there is enough demand for everyone".



On a recent trade row with major US carriers, Al Baker taunted his airline's most vocal adversary by saying that a decision to fly to Atlanta would "rub salt in the wounds" of Delta Air Lines but denied it would cause the airline harm.



Atlanta-based Delta and others have said that Gulf carriers have received state support that contravenes Open Skies agreements, a charge denied by Gulf airlines.  Reuters
Qatar Airways group chief executive Akbar Al Baker announced a significant network expansion of 14 new destinations at a press conference on the opening day of ITB Berlin, the worlds largest international travel fair.



Spread across four continents, the new routes will further expand the reach of the airlines network, and will include the worlds longest flight, between Doha and Auckland, New Zealand.



Al Baker remarked: Qatar Airways prides itself on being a global connector, and most importantly, providing seamless and convenient connections for our customers, so that we remain their airline of choice. These new destinations are where our customers want to go, and where we see the most opportunity to provide a best-in-class experience at great value. We look forward to growing our network and welcoming new passengers to Qatar Airways.



The five new European destinations for Qatar Airways include:

* The Italian city of Pisa, starting on August 2 with daily non-stop A320-family service from Doha, will be the fourth Italian destination for Qatar Airways, joining Venice, Rome and Milan.

* Service to Sarajevo (Bosnia) will start on September 7, with three flights per week on A320-family aircraft.

* Daily non-stop flights from Doha to Helsinki (Finland) will start on October 10, offering new connections between oneworld hubs.

* A three times weekly service between Doha and Skopje (Macedonia) will commence in November. Both new cities will be served with A320-family aircraft.

* Qatar Airways will return to Nice (France) by summer 2017, with five flights per week with wide-body aircraft.

Qatar Airways will also begin services to six new destinations in Africa:

Marrakech (Morocco) will begin in July, three times per week, from Doha on the airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

Four flights per week between Doha and Windhoek (Namibia) will begin on September 28.

Daily scheduled service to the Seychelles will resume on December 12 .

In January, Qatar Airways will offer three flights per week from Doha to Douala (Cameroon) and Libreville (Gabon) utilising one aircraft. Non-stop service, three times weekly from Doha to Lusaka (Zambia) will begin by summer 2017.

New Qatar Airways destinations in South West Pacific/Southeast Asia are:

Daily service to Auckland  Qatar Airways first route to New Zealand, and what will be the worlds longest flight  will begin on December 3. Qatar Airways will use the Boeing 777 aircraft for this route.

Just in time for the winter break Qatar Airways will begin four flights per week to Krabi (Thailand) on December 6 and three flights per week to Chiang Mai (Thailand) also in December, enhancing overall connectivity to Thailand through four gateways. Qatar Airways currently flies to Bangkok and Phuket.



The introduction of the new destinations comes two years after the opening of Qatar Airways hub, Hamad International Airport. The airport, one of the most technologically advanced modern airports in the world, serves more than 28 million passengers annually  and is set to grow up to 50 million in 2018.



The addition of new routes has also consistently taken place in parallel with the growth plans of the Qatar Airways fleet. As the global launch customer of the Airbus A350 and the Middle East launch customer of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, introducing next-generation aircraft is of key importance to the overall growth strategy. On average the airline receives a new aircraft once every 10 days, and the average age of the fleet is less than four years.



Qatar Airways recently started service to Los Angeles, US on January 1, Ras Al Khaimah, UAE on February 2 and Sydney on March 1. The airline will begin service to Boston, US from March 16; Birmingham, UK on March 30; Adelaide, Australia from May 2; Yerevan, Armenia from May 15 and Atlanta, US from June 1. - TradeArabia News Service
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.
TASTE THE MEDITERRANEAN, Literally, with Catalunya Experiences New Facebook and Twitter Contest



(TRAVPR.COM) USA - March 10th, 2016 - TASTE THE MEDITERRANEAN, Literally, with Catalunya Experiences New Facebook and Twitter Contest

New York City  10 March 2016  The Catalan Tourist Board USA launches a new contest today on Facebook and Twitter to promote different destinations to visit in Catalonia next summer. At the same time, it will introduce Americans to its world-famous cuisine by offering Mediterranean dining experiences at different Catalan restaurants in the United States as prizes.

Its both fun and easy: participants simply choose the three destinations theyd most like to visit on a trip to Catalonia, for a chance to win a dinner for two in one of the participating restaurants in the US. The contest will run from today, March 10, 2016 to March 27, 2016. The prize drawing and winners will be announced on both social networks between March 28 and April 3, 2016.

The Catalan Tourist Board wishes to thank the following five restaurants, which will surely delight the lucky winners with their magnificent Mediterranean dishes, for their kind sponsorship of this contest:

New York City:

 El Born

 Casa Mono

California:

 Catalan Restaurant

Miami:

 Barceloneta Restaurant

Chicago:

 Mercat a la Planxa

Catalonia is, without a doubt, one of the top tourist destinations for American travelers who want to enjoy cosmopolitan European cities such as Barcelona or Girona, with their strong cultural and architectural heritage; to discover the beauty of the Mediterranean Sea with its picture-perfect coastal towns; and to experience the awe-inspiring landscapes of the Pyrenees Mountains.

To participate, please visit the contest website or Catalunya Experiences Facebook and Twitter profiles.

More information:

Mariona Lloreta

Info.act.usa@gencat.cat

###
When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site.
The tiny house movement is partly a response to the Great Recession, as people looked for smaller, more affordable forms of housing. Back in the Great Depression, Frank Lloyd Wright came up with the Usonian House as a response- smaller and more affordable houses that he thought would be snapped up by the middle class.

William Wesley (Wes) Peters was a disciple of Wrights, and built what may be the prototype Usonian tiny house in Evansville, Indiana, 552 square foot little diamond, described by Patrick Sisson in Curbed:

This eccentric cottage and proto-tiny house offers perhaps the earliest example of Usonian-style architecture, a vision of residential construction and planning for the common man that was a passion of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Adam Green, old photo of exterior/via

Interestingly, Peters was only in private practice for a few years; according to Sisson, Wright did not approve of Peters relationship with his daughter Svetlana. He later relented to it and Peters came back to become Wrights right hand man, working on Fallingwater and finishing the Guggenheim.

The 22 year old architect started out the way many do: a little help from the bank of mom and dad to build a house on spec to showcase his practice. Sisson talks to architect Adam Green, who is working on the preservation of the house:

What blows me away is that Peters was 22 when he did this. Its a bold step to take, to invest in yourself. Hed just got his architectural license, and just walked away from this great position. This is a bold decision for a young man just starting his career to make.

 Jordon Barclay Photography

The Evansville Press reviewed the house at the time, noting how small and unusual it was:

 Jordon Barclay Photography

Combining the advantages of an apartment for convenience, and ease and economy of maintenance, with the seclusion, freedom and spaciousness of a separate home.

 Jordon Barclay Photography

It had hinged panels at the top of walls for cross ventilation, a big fireplace in the centre that could heat the house, The walls were lined with aluminum foil insulating material. The wood gets its lovely color from being treated with creosote, not something we would do in a healthy little home today. The reviewer continues:

Although to the eye of the layman the house apparently is of the so-called modern school of architecture, Peters disclaims relationship in his design with any particular group or movement. He explained that his philosophy of building design, which he has attempted to express in the house, is that builders should not use traditional forms; rather they should create former and decorations from the nature of the materials used and the purpose for which intended. Also, the building should be planned for utility and in such a way as to achieve as much privacy and seclusion as is possible in the city.

Adam Green/via

Its a neat little house, and as might be expected of something so small on a big lot, its on Indianas 10 most endangered buildings list, and is the subject of a fundraising campaign to move and restore the house. Adam Green tells Sisson:

This is really, in our view, the most pure of all Usonian homes. It was very pure to the concept, to provide housing for a huge part of the population that deserves a quality lifestyle but didnt have much money. Its such a miracle that it survived.

And with two bedrooms, a bath and a comfy living space in just 552 square feet, its a good model for compact modern living. It's another example of how old buildings are not just relics from the past, but can be templates for the future.

Curbed/via
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 10

Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar is embroiled in a fresh controversy after a complaint by a former student last year in connection with her objecting to his urinating in public. The contentious issue has surfaced today.

On the basis of the complaint, a copy of which was posted on Facebook last night by the complainant- now an assistant professor at Delhi Universitys Institute of Home Economics- Kanhaiya was fined Rs 3,000 in October last year for misbehaving with her.

The Delhi University JNU Chief Proctor's office has confirmed that president Kanhaiya Kumar was actually issued a notice dated October 16 saying he has been found guilty of misbehaving and threatening an ex-student (female) of JNU on Poorvanchal Road; calls for strict disciplinary action. He is fined Rs 3,000 and warned not to get involved in such incidents in future.

The complainant, who passed out in 2013, said she had complained to Chief Proctor in June last year and in her complaint she had mentioned the arguments between her and Kanhaiya.

I used to go jogging on campus when I was staying in Munirka. When I objected to his urinating in public he in turn called me names (psycho, mad) and even threatened me. I filed a complaint with the Chief Proctor and was assured of strict action. He was later fined Rs 3,000, said the complainant.

However, the Left and JNUSU representatives questioned the timing of the leak of the complaint alleging a clear motive to further defame the student leader. To which, the complainant when asked explained, He (Kanhaiya) talks about gender justice and during International Womens Day in his address he made speeches on dignity of women while doesn't even have the manner to speak to woman. Rather than being apologetic he was so audacious. I want the world to know the duality in what he says and does. This is harassment in legal terms.

Noting that sharing the information now is far from any political motives, she said that she had posted on February 16 about the incident and uploaded a photo of her handwritten complaint followed by

an open letter charging that the JNU community had ganged up to create a false revolutionary.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 10

Haryana Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma today said the late Justice NK Sanghi had personally told him about the Murthal rapes after taking suo motu notice of reports appearing in the media.

Briefing mediapersons on behalf of the CM after a Cabinet meeting here, he said, The late Justice Sanghi was a dear friend of mine. He was from my village. He took suo motu notice of the Murthal gangrapes. Before leaving for Tirupati, he called me up from Jaipur and told me that he had vital evidence pertaining to the gangrapes and would take action on his return.

Speaking to The Tribune, Sharma said: The government is very serious on taking the issue to its logical end. An all-party meeting has been called on March 12 to decide on how to proceed on the matter. Justice Sanghi had told me that he had concrete proof and that he would discuss the matter with me on his return from Tirupati.

Justice Sanghi had on February 24 taken suo motu cognisance of the report Women commuters violated by highway goons" published by The Tribune. He had said that the incident needed to be probed by a premier investigating agency. After him, Justice Amit Rawal too had taken up the issue. The case pertaining to the suo motu notices by the High Court is listed for March 14.

Health Minister Anil Vij said: I have read the statement and it looks like an admittance. But I am yet to speak to the minister. Sharma's statements have taken aback the head of the SIT probing the violence. We are trying to contact the minister, said Rajshree Singh, DIG.
Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, March 10

World Kidney Day was observed by different hospitals with great enthusiasm today giving out a message of organ donation and taking care of kidneys in a healthy way.

A cycle rally was organised to highlight kidney diseases and the need for organ donation with the help of GLODAS (Gift of life organ donation awareness society), Dayanand Medical College and Police Commissionerate of Ludhiana.

The rally was led by Dr Baldev Singh Aulakh, professor of urology and transplant surgery, President GLODAS from the Circuit House via Ghumar Mandi to Jacab Hall PAU. Around 300 cyclists from various groups including Ludhiana Peddlers Club, Girls Peddlers club, NCC cadets and MBBS students of the DMCH and students from Khalsa College and Arya College took part in the rally, which was flagged by Chief Guest ADCP Dhruv Dahiya, ADCP SS Brar, DMCH Principal Dr Sandeep Puri, Civil Surgeon Dr Renu Chhatwal, cardiologist HDHI Dr Bishav Mohan, Federation of Industrial and Commercial Organisation President, Gurmeet Singh Kular and Khalsa College for Women Principal Mukti Gill.

Cops to create awareness on brain death

Police Commissioner Dhruv said the police would provide all help for organ donation especially in medico legal cases. Shortly they would depute a person for this cause. He said: We will regularly conduct medical camps for our force. ADCP SS Brar said: We will sensitise the police force and public about brain death and organ donation.

Civil Surgeon Renu Chhatwal said the Health Department would provide all possible help for organ donation after brain death including certification of brain death.

Principal Dr Sandeep Puri said the DMCH had all facilities for cadaver organ donation and transplantation.

Poster-making contest held

Department of Paediatrics along with the Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP), Ludhiana, and the International Society of Nephrology also celebrated the day by organising a poster contest in paediatrics OPD Block of the DMCH.

More than 100 children of different age groups participated in the event. Prizes were distributed by Principal Dr Sandeep Puri and Medical Superintendent Dr Sandeep Sharma. A seminar was also organised at the DMCH on Kidney diseases in children with focus on the treatment and preventive aspects. This years focus on kidney disease in childhood

According to Dr JS Sandhu (professor and head of nephrology) World Kidney Day 2016 focuses on kidney disease in childhood and the antecedents of adult kidney disease that can begin in earliest childhood.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) in childhood differs from that in adults, as the largest diagnostic group among children includes congenital anomalies and inherited disorders, with glomerulopathies and kidney disease in the setting of diabetes being relatively uncommon. Children born early have relatively increased risk for the development of CKD later in life. Persons with a high-risk birth and early childhood history should be watched closely to help detect early signs of kidney disease in time to provide effective prevention or treatment. Successful therapy is feasible for advanced CKD in childhood. Because there are disparities in access to care, effort is needed so that those children with kidney disease, wherever they live, may be treated effectively, irrespective of their geographic or economic circumstances.

Kidneys complicated, yet amazing organs!

Meanwhile, Ludhiana Institute of Nursing celebrated World Kidney Day with great zeal and enthusiasm under the guidance of managing director, Kanika Gupta and Principal Parminder Kaur.

The kidneys are complicated and amazing organs that do many essential tasks to keep us healthy. The main job of kidneys is to remove toxins and excess water from your blood. Kidneys also help in controlling blood pressure, to produce red blood cells and to keep bones healthy. Each roughly the size of a fist, kidneys are located deep in the abdomen, beneath the rib cage. Kidneys control blood stream levels of many minerals and molecules including sodium and potassium and help in controlling the blood acidity. Every day kidneys carefully control the salt and water in your body so that your blood pressure remains the same, said Parminder Kaur, while addressing the students.
Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 10

The Indian Air Force on Thursday sounded an alarm saying it does not have enough fighter jets to tackle a simultaneous two-front war with Pakistan and China.

The Vice-Chief, Air Marshall BS Dhanoa, said at press conference: "We do not have adequate numbers to tackle a two-front war scenario".

The government is aware of this and steps are under way to ramp up the numbers.

The IAF is now at its lowest combat strength in more than a decade. The Tribune was the first to report this on February 25.

The IAF has informed the government of the gravity of the situation that the force is now in a shortage.

Three squadrons of the vintage single-engine Soviet-origin MiG-21 and MiG-27 were phased out on January 1 this year, leaving the IAF with only 33 squadrons (16-18 planes in each).

This is nine short of the government mandated 42 squadrons needed to tackle a simultaneous two-front war with China and Pakistan.

Of the 33 squadrons, the vintage MiG-21 and MiG -27 form 11 squadrons. The Sukhoi 30-MKI populates 10 squadrons, the 1970s design British Jaguar is in six squadrons, followed by the French Mirage 2000 and the Soviet MiG-29 in two and three squadrons, respectively. The last three are being upgraded with better missiles and avionics.

The country is now facing the reality of various projections regarding the IAF fighter fleet, made over the past 10 years by the Indian Air Force, strategic thinkers, successive reports of Parliamentary Committees on Defence, and reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

Warnings on the lackadaisical pace of induction of new fighter jets into the Air Force and the resultant loss of combative edge in battle are now ringing true, sources say. A senior official admitted, We are in the middle of the predicted shortage.

It is the replacements which bother the IAF, which will be raising a squadron of the twin-engine Russian-origin Sukhoi 30-MKI this year, but much depends on the speed of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), which is licensed to produce it in India. HAL, a Ministry of Defence (MoD) owned public sector undertaking, was mandated by the Cabinet Committee on Security in March 2006 to produce 16 planes annually and deliver 180 in phases by 2017. The project is running three years behind schedule.

Till 2011, HAL had the capacity to produce just eight Sukhoi-30 jets annually, said a report of the CAG in 2014.The Sukhois were ordered in phases since 1997; the IAF wants 272 of these by 2020. The other choice is to seek faster induction of the 106 Tejas Mark-1A, which have been ordered. The MoD has set a 2018 deadline for the first aircraft to be ready with a target to complete its production by 2022-2023. In September, new specifications were agreed pon and the IAF accepted 43 modifications that could be carried out without changing the existing design.
Simran Sodhi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 10

India on Thursday confirmed that Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar will be travelling to Nepal next week to participate in the March 15-17 meeting of the Foreign Ministers of South Asia in Kathmandu. However, no bilaterals have been scheduled with any country, including Pakistan, as of now.

This statement comes amid speculation that Kathmandu might see the next level of interaction between the Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan. Since the Pathankot attacks in early January this year, the dialogue between the two countries has seen a rapid downslide and the scheduled Foreign-Secretary level talks have remained in a state of suspension.

Kathmandu will also host Pakistan Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry for the SAARC meetings and hence there seems to be a possibility of a meeting on the sidelines.

Foreign Secretary Jaishankar will travel to Kathmandu to attend the meeting of the SAARC Standing Committee and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will participate in the SAARC ministerial meeting, said Vikas Swarup, spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also be travelling to the US to attend the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) scheduled from March 31 to April 1. Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif will also be attending the NSS summit and there seems to be a possibility that the two leaders might meet in Washington DC on the sidelines of the NSS.

The next SAARC summit is scheduled to be held in Pakistan later this year and Modi is likely to attend it. However, for that to happen, the Foreign Secretary-level talks will first have to get back on agenda.
Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 10

The Indian Air Force today sounded an alarm saying it does not have enough fighter jets to tackle a simultaneous two-front war with Pakistan and China.

Vice-Chief of IAF Air Marshal BS Dhanoa said at a press conference: Our numbers are not adequate to fully execute an air campaign in a two-front scenario. Probability of a two-front scenario is an appreciation that you need to do. But, are the numbers adequate? No. The squadrons are winding down.

He was asked if the IAF had the capability to fight a two-front war. "We have conveyed our concerns to the government (which) is seized of the problem, said the IAF Vice-Chief, a Kargil war veteran.

The IAF is now at its lowest combat strength in more than a decade. The Tribune was the first to report this in its February 25 edition. The IAF has informed the government of the gravity of the situation.

Three squadrons of the vintage single-engine Soviet Union origin MiG-21 and MiG-27 have been phased out as on January 1 this year, leaving the IAF with only 33 squadrons (16-18 planes in each).

This is nine short of the government-mandated 42 squadrons needed to tackle a simultaneous two-front war with China and Pakistan.

Of the 33 squadrons, the vintage MiG-21 and MiG-27 aircraft form 11 squadrons. The Sukhoi 30-MKI populates 11 squadron, British Jaguar of 1970s is in six squadrons followed by French Mirage 2000 and Soviet Unions MiG-29 in two and three squadrons, respectively. The last three are being upgraded with better missiles and avionics.

The country is now facing the reality of projections on IAF fighter fleet made separately over the past 10 years by the Indian Air Force, strategic thinkers, successive reports of Parliamentary Committees on Defence and the reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

Warnings on the lackadaisical pace of induction of new fighter jets into the Indian Air Force and the resultant loss of combative edge in battle were now ringing true, sources said.
Neena Sharma

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, March 10

The Opposition tried to nail the government by asking pointed questions on the second day of the Budget session here today. The BJP asked a question whether Chief Minister Harish Rawat was in control of his government in the light of a letter written by Chief Secretary Shatrughan Singh about political appointments being made without his (Chief Ministers) consent. It also drew the attention of Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal towards inclusion of President Pranab Mukherjees address to the Legislative Assembly in 2015, in the proceedings of the House.

As soon as the House assembled, Leader of the Opposition Ajay Bhatt showed an official letter written by the Chief Secretary to his fellow officers. Bhatt said, A perusal of the contents of the letter suggests there can be two possibilities. First, unknown to Chief Minister Harish Rawat, there is somebody who is exercising his powers and taking suo motto decisions. Second, it is the Chief Minister himself who is making appointments without the knowledge of bureaucrats and his colleagues, he said.

Bhatt added the Chief Secretary in his letter written last month had asked fellow officials not to pass files recommending political appointments without the recommendation of the Chief Minister. How could a Chief Secretary of the state write such a letter, as the right to make appointments is vested in the Chief Minister? Something is amiss here. It means around 300 red beacon posts that this government has given are illegal, he said.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Indira Hridayesh finding herself caught on the wrong foot could give a feeble reply saying, The Chief Secretary was not aware that the Chief Minister had recommended these appointments.

Not satisfied with her reply, the Opposition walked out of the House only to return after a few seconds.

Similarly, BJP legislator Madan Kaushik raised the issue of government aid not reaching the family members of the youths who were brutally murdered in Haridwar last year. I had raised the issue at the Assembly sessions in Dehradun and Gairsain last year. The Home Minister had assured the House of providing assistance to the youths but nothing happened. It is a fit case of breach of privilege, he said.

However, both Kunjwal and Hridayesh said the issue did not merit categorisation under breach of privilege. To satisfy the MLA, she said the promise to provide aid to the victims families would be fulfilled during the ongoing Budget session.

Kaushik also drew the attention of the House towards the lapse that had gone unnoticed regarding an address by President Pranab Mukherjee to the House last year that had been included in the proceedings of the Legislative Assembly. I have checked up with the officials of the Legislative Assemblies of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh where the President of India had delivered an address but that was not included in the proceedings of that day. I, therefore, demand that the address should be expunged from the proceedings of the Uttarakhand Assembly, he said.

The Speaker referred the matter to be examined by a technical team of the House.
Karachi, March 8

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 then 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.  PTI
Seoul, March 10

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on Thursday, Seoul said, as South Korea and the US conducted massive war games.

The North also announced it has scrapped all agreements with the South on commercial exchange projects and would liquidate South Korean assets left behind in its territory.

North Korea has a large stockpile of short-range missiles and is developing long-range and intercontinental missiles as well. The missiles fired on Thursday flew about 500 km (300 miles) off its east coast city of Wonsan and were likely from the Soviet-developed Scud series, South Koreas defence ministry said.

Japan, which is within range of the longer-range variant of Scud missiles or the upgraded Rodong missiles, lodged a protest through the North Korean embassy in Beijing, Japans Kyodo news agency reported.

North Korea often fires short-range missiles when tensions rise on the Korean peninsula. Pyongyang gets particularly upset about the annual US-South Korea drills, which it says are preparations for an invasion.

The US and South Korea remain technically at war with the North because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armed truce instead of a peace agreement.

Around 17,000 US military personnel are participating alongside some 3,00,000 South Korean troops in what South Koreas Defence Ministry has called the largest-ever joint military exercises.

North Korea on Sunday warned it would make a pre-emptive and offensive nuclear strike in response to the exercises.

Liquidating assets

After the short-range missile launches on Thursday, North Korea announced it would liquidate South Korean assets left behind in the Kaesong industrial zone and in the Mount Kumgang tourist zone.

Seoul suspended operations in the jointly-run zone last month as punishment for the Norths rocket launch and nuclear test.

Mount Kumgang was the first major inter-Korean cooperation project. Thousands of South Koreans visited the resort between 1998 and 2008. Seoul ended the tours in 2008 after a North Korean soldier shot dead a South Korean tourist who wandered into a restricted zone.

North Korea is also livid about stepped up United Nations sanctions following its recent nuclear test and long-range missile launch.

Miniaturised warheads

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country has miniaturised nuclear warheads to mount on ballistic missiles, state media reported on Wednesday, and called on his military to be prepared to mount pre-emptive attacks against the United States and South Korea.

It was his first direct comment on the technology needed to deploy nuclear missiles. North Korean state media released photographs it said showed Kim Jong Un inspecting a spherical miniaturised warhead. State media has previously made that claim, which has been widely questioned and never independently verified.

South Koreas defence ministry said it did not believe the North has successfully miniaturised a nuclear warhead or deployed a functioning intercontinental ballistic missile.

State Department spokesman John Kirby declined to comment on Kims claim to have miniaturised nuclear warheads and accused him of provocative rhetoric.

Id say the young man needs to pay more attention to the North Korean people and taking care of them than in pursuing these sorts of reckless capabilities, Kirby said.

The Pentagon said this week it had not seen North Korea demonstrate a capability to miniaturise a nuclear warhead. But Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the department was working on US ballistic missile defences to be prepared.

North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6 but its claim to have set off a miniaturised hydrogen bomb last month has been disputed by the US and South Korean governments and many experts, who said the blast was too small to back it up.  Reuters
Lahore: Amid joyous scenes, the son of slain Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, who was dramatically rescued from the clutches of the Pakistani Taliban, was today reunited with his family here after nearly five years in captivity. Shahbaz Taseer, 33, was flown to Lahore from Quetta in a special aircraft, a day after he was rescued by Pakistani security and intelligence operatives from the restive Balochistan province. Shahbaz was dramatically rescued by security forces from a hotel on the outskirts of Kuchlak town in Quetta. PTI
Be Pro, Be Proud rig was displayed in the equipment expo during TMC's annual meeting in Nashville last week. Photo: Tom Berg

The other day I told my 16-year-old granddaughter, whos thinking about what she wants to do after high school, Go to diesel mechanic school. Youll never want for a job. She laughed because shes not a car gal, but didnt argue, either, because she knows Im right (or maybe it's because Im her grandpa).

If she lived in Arkansas, she might get such advice via a custom-built trailer set up as an instructional classroom. Its begun traveling under the banner, Be Pro, Be Proud, and is part of an initiative to promote vocational education among students, their parents and school counselors.

Among the many job openings the program seeks to fill are truck driving and truck technicians, says its originator, the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce and the Associated Industries of Arkansas (ASCC/AIA).

It set up the program to try to convince kids to aim for training and work in the skilled trades. The group displayed the trailer at the Technology & Maintenance Councils meeting last week in Nashville, Tenn., and officially announced the program Wednesday.

Todays skilled professional workforce is aging out and the next generation of new talent is not sufficient to fill the demand, the emailed announcement said. Nationwide, there are an estimated 5.6 million job openings, with approximately 60,000 of these openings here in Arkansas. The majority of these are in high skilled technical fields.

This gap in our states employment can be directly attributed to a lack of knowledge, interest and preparation, the statement continued. These jobs make up a vast majority of the manufacturing sector, which represents more than 90% of Arkansass exports, and are a cornerstone to the states economy. In addition, industries such as construction and trucking are also struggling to find qualified technical professionals.

The program wants to dispel any myths about skilled trades and manufacturing jobs, like theyre second choices for someone whos not college material, as its sometimes put (or was when I was college-age). In fact, those jobs often pay well and sometimes are more secure than white-collar jobs sought by graduates of four-year colleges (as a college graduate, I can testify that thats absolutely true).

The reality is that many of these professions today take place in technologically advanced facilities with the latest tools, and there are many opportunities for Arkansas with the right skills to have a successful career with high wages in a skilled trade, said Randy Zook, president and CEO of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, who spoke at a breakfast during the TMCs meeting.

We must make sure our young people know of these opportunities and have access to the appropriate resources and training to succeed in a globally competitive environment. The Be Pro, Be Proud initiative will help in this effort.

Research conducted prior to the development of this campaign indicates that 82% of companies regularly have positions they are unable to fill with qualified workers. Furthermore, 44% of average, entry-level salaries for these open positions start at or above $31,000 a year.

Among the programs sponsors is Truck Centers of Arkansas, which is supplying the Freightliner M2 set up as a tractor to pull the special trailer. The Arkansas Trucking Association is another sponsor, along with numerous companies and government agencies.

Be Pro, Be Prouds mobile unit will travel the state and visit companies, schools and events to showcase skilled trade professions, and broaden awareness of their impact on the states workforce, Wednesdays announcement said. It will provide information about training resources, currently available positions and descriptions, skills needed, and how to start the process of starting a skilled professional career.

As we are seeing more and more companies come back to America and locate in the Midsouth, our communities must have a skilled and abundant workforce to attract jobs and support businesses as they grow in our region, said Chris Masingill, federal co-chairman of the Delta Regional Authority, another program sponsor.

This initiative will provide students, families, and community leaders in Arkansass Delta region with the information and inspiration to obtain technical skills and career training that meets the needs of businesses and industries to attract good-paying jobs to Delta Communities.

The initiatives website, www.BeProBeProud.org, has information on lines of work, training and job opportunities. Employers can use the site to actively engage students, and current skilled trade professionals can become ambassadors and work with students to spur interest. Parents and educators can find facts and materials for encouraging students to learn about potential career opportunities.

Social media channels designed to help keep top-of-mind awareness about the need for skilled professionals will also support the initiative and provide relevant updates during the campaign.

Maybe officials here in Ohio will set up such a program with a training trailer that my granddaughter will see and it will help her decide which road to travel. I hope so.
SPOKANE, Wash.  A fugitive wanted by Idaho authorities for wounding a church pastor apparently wrote a manifesto contending that Martians controlled the Earth, police said.

Kyle Odom, 30, was arrested Tuesday afternoon by U.S. Secret Service agents after allegedly throwing items over the fence at the White House in Washington, D.C.

"I think everyone can breathe a good sigh of relief that at least this part of the case has come to a conclusion," said Lee White, police chief for Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, where the shooting occurred.

White said he was told Odom threw computer flash drives and other items over the White House fence on Tuesday.

Odom appeared in District of Columbia Superior Court on Wednesday, wearing handcuffs and a chain connecting his ankles. He said only his name when asked. Public defender Ieshaah Murphy said Odom declined to waive an extradition hearing and be sent back to Idaho in the next few days. He will be held in jail pending a hearing scheduled for April 6 in Washington, where the only issue is whether the Idaho warrant for attempted first-degree murder in his case is valid.

Meanwhile, Pastor Tim Remington, shot six times Sunday outside his church in Coeur d'Alene, about 30 miles east of Spokane, had regained consciousness and is talking with his family.

Coeur d'Alene Police Detective Jared Reneau said Odom had attended Remington's church a few times and apparently was the author of a manifesto that contended the pastor was a member of a Martian species that had taken over the Earth. Details were contained in electronic documents that Odom apparently mailed to his family and news media outlets this week.

Given Odom's apparent state of mind, "we feel pretty fortunate something worse didn't happen," Reneau said.

Odom's family issued a statement Tuesday evening, saying they were thankful for the safe apprehension of their son.

"As Kyle was not living with us, we are learning of his plans as they are being released by police," Odom's family said. "We are truly thankful to God he is safe and no one else has been injured."

After the Sunday afternoon shooting, Odom drove west toward Spokane, Washington. He boarded a flight at the Boise Airport sometime Monday, White said.

The Transportation Security Administration says a bulletin notifying the agency of law enforcement's interest in Odom was not received until Monday evening.

The TSA says it screens passengers against the government's Terrorist Watchlist, but it does not search for requests for criminals and warrants when routinely screening passengers.

It's unclear how Odom was able to board a plane with a warrant out for his arrest, White said.

A former Marine from Coeur d'Alene, Odom is suspected of shooting Remington a day after the pastor 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.

Odom graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in biochemistry. The manifesto contended that his life started to deteriorate during his final semester and was now ruined.

"Ruined by an intelligent species of amphibian-humanoid from Mars," the manifesto said.

Odom contended that the Martians were here before humans, lived underground and operated a breeding program for humans, the manifesto said.

"Don't believe me? Ask President Obama to take a lie detector test of this one," the manifesto said.

Odom contended the Martians were unable to control his mind but had been following him. He said he had attempted suicide twice, but they stopped him.

"As you can see, I'm pretty smart," the manifesto said. "I'm also 100% sane, 0% crazy."

The manifesto included the names of members of Congress, members of the Israeli government, Remington and John Padula, outreach pastor for The Altar Church, where Remington is the senior pastor.

"My last resort was to take actions that would bring this to the public's attention," the manifesto said.

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.

Remington, who is married and has four children, has no feeling in his right arm, Padula said.

Remington has been with The Altar Church for nearly two decades, specializing in the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction, Padula said.

The Coeur d'Alene Police Department issued a warrant for Odom, who has no criminal record but does have a history of mental illness.

Police said Odom drove to the Spokane area on Interstate 90 after the Sunday afternoon shooting, according traffic camera footage. He then turned south before they lost his trail. Odom's car was found in Boise, White said.
WASHINGTON  The government would standardize the way airlines disclose fees for basic services like checked bags, seat assignments and ticket changes so that passengers can more easily comparison-shop the full cost of flights under a bipartisan Senate bill introduced Wednesday.

The proposal is part of an airline policy bill sponsored by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., the committees senior Democrat. It would extend the operating authority of the Federal Aviation Administration through Oct. 1, 2017. That authority is due to expire on March 31.

The bill would require the Department of Transportation develop a way to display fees thats easy for consumers to understand and require that airlines and ticket agents use the system. A report last year by the committees Democratic staff found that airline fees, especially for things like ticket cancellations or changes, are often hidden from consumers while shopping fares online or disclosed in lengthy paragraphs of tiny type-face thats difficult to read.

Airlines would also have to return fees for bags that are lost or delayed more than six hours after the arrival of a domestic flight, and more than 12 hours after the arrival of an international flight under the bill. Airlines would also be required to automatically refund fees for services purchased but not received by passengers.

The consumer provisions were a compromise that doesnt go far enough some senators. Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., also introduced a proposal to prohibit airlines from charging fees for basic services that are not reasonable and proportional to the costs of the serves provided. The proposal is likely to be one of several amendments offered next week.

Missing from the bill is any effort to wrest air traffic control operations from the FAA and spin them off into a private, nonprofit corporation. An FAA reauthorization bill that would have privatized air traffic control services was passed last month by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on a mostly party-line vote with Democrats unanimously opposed. The bill has the backing of the committees chairman, Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., and the airline industry, but it was sidelined by House leaders in the face of opposition from other powerful GOP lawmakers and influential segments of the aviation industry.

Eighteen months is an unusually short time-frame for an FAA reauthorization bill. But Thune and Nelson are pitching their bill to their House counterparts as a means to make important policy changes while continuing to work on politically difficult question of whether to pass a privatization bill. Privatization supporters say it would make the funding of air traffic control operations more stable and speed up the modernization of the air traffic system from one based on radar to one based on satellite technology.

The Senate bill also requires the government to set safety standards for small drones and that consumers and hobbyists take an online safety knowledge test before they fly their unmanned vehicles. The Department of Transportation is directed to adopt an international ban on cargo shipments of rechargeable lithium on passenger planes. FAA tests have shown the batteries are capable of igniting intense fires.The bill also authorizes greater use by the FAA of the employees of manufacturers as surrogates for government inspectors in order to speed up the safety certification of planes and aviation equipment. Manufacturers have complained they lose business to overseas competitors because they have to wait too long for FAA approval of their products.
Rosa Parks Elementary first grade teacher Laura Latta was named the 2015-2016 Union Public Schools District Teacher of the Year during a reception today at the Union Performing Arts Center, 6636 S. Mingo Road. All of the Site Teachers of the Year were also honored during the reception.

I have just always genuinely loved school and being a part of a learning community, Latta said. I enjoy coming up with creative ways to explain concepts and engage students in the learning process. All children possess different learning styles and preferences. I find it both challenging and rewarding to discover and support these different learning styles in my classroom. The teaching profession is truly unique in that teachers support every other existing profession. Doctors, scientists, artists, and tradespeople would not be able to do their jobs successfully without instruction from teachers. Teaching is an honorable and rewarding profession, and I consider myself blessed to teach my students every day.

Latta has a bachelors degree with honors in elementary education and early childhood education from Oral Roberts University, a masters degree in educational administration and curriculum supervision from the University of Oklahoma, and she is working on a Ph.D. in instructional leadership and academic curriculum with a focus on early childhood education.

Latta said she feels a sense of hope there are positive things on the horizon for education in Oklahoma. At any point in time, there may be a handful of things to complain about regarding education in any state, but the states emphasis on early childhood education, school health, and community schools fills Latta with excitement about Oklahoma education.

In response to a change in state level educational leadership, educators from counties across the state of Oklahoma appear to have a renewed sense of hope and purpose, Latta said. Now more than ever, Oklahoma educators and researchers are actively advocating for policies that will support student learning, school improvement, and overall student outcomes.

Latta predicts good things are on the horizon for education in Oklahoma.

It is up to administrators, teachers, families, and community members to remain optimistic and advocate for positive change, she said. The future for Union is very bright. The districts strategic plan reflects the intentionality and foresight of an extremely wise group of leaders. Research indicates that, over time, high quality early childhood education will contribute to the decrease in the achievement gap. The Rosa Parks Early Childhood Education Center is a beautiful example of high quality early childhood education. The inclusion of community partners and organizations in Unions Community Schools helps to develop a sense of unity and togetherness within our city. The Community School model implemented by Union schools across the district is highly transformative as Union staff and faculty, families, and community members all come together to support our kids. The inclusion of high quality STEM programs in Union classrooms is a key component in supporting children as they cultivate interests in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math. Finally, the districts Collegiate Academy is intently focused on helping students become ready for both college and career pathways. Children who attend school in the Union district are being set up for success both during their time at Union and beyond. It is truly a beautiful time to be a part of the Union community.

After Latta completes her dissertation for a Ph.D. in instructional leadership at the University of Oklahoma, she plans to remain actively engaged in the research and publication process.

I am passionate about educational research. Research is the force that shapes policy and instructional practice, Latta said. School leadership is my eventual goal. However, I will always be a teacher no matter what my title may be in the coming years.
OKLAHOMA CITY  Public frustration and the pressure building inside the Capitol manifested itself last weekend in a Tulsa-area legislators intemperate response to an angry email.

State Rep. Glen Mulready, R-Tulsa, says he shouldnt have answered an email from Chris Shoaf as he did, but after reading a number of emails that were kind of in a similar vein he let his temper get the best of him.

I should have hit delete, Mulready said.

Shoaf, of Tulsa, wrote most members of the Legislature about House Bill 2428, by Rep. Sally Kern, R-Oklahoma City. The measure would allow private child welfare services under contract with the state to discriminate based on sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions, and would not allow the state to exclude such providers on the basis of those beliefs.

The bill is widely seen as an attempt to prevent non-heterosexuals from adopting children or serving as foster parents.

Mulready said it wasnt Shoafs opposition to HB 2428 that set him off  it was the mention of the states impending $1.3 billion general revenue shortfall in the first paragraph.

I am uncertain how anybody could possibly think it reasonable to put forward or even discuss such a bill in the midst of a 1.3 BILLION dollar revenue failure, one which most of the sitting members have helped to create, Shoaf wrote.

That prompted Mulready to reply: When you start your note with a quote like, which most of the sitting members have helped to create, I have to assume you believe I have some control over the price of a barrel of oil?? With that in mind, the rest of your note holds zero credibility with me.

Shoaf said he was surprised by Mulreadys response  but also surprised he received any response at all. Mulready was one of only two or three legislators to answer Shoafs email, he said.

I write a dozen or more letters a week, said Shoaf, an activist on LGBTQ and other issues. Im not used to anyone responding, let alone that way.

And that, said Shoaf, is his bigger complaint  no one at the Capitol seems to be paying attention.

My point (to the Legislature) is that Youre wasting the peoples time. I sit here every session and look at hundreds of bills that do nothing to fix the problems of the state, he said.

Mulreadys response, while in a private message, is not any different than the public statements of many in the Legislature, especially in the Republican majority and administration. Mulready acknowledged Tuesday that lawmakers should own up to their mistakes.

That is what Shoaf wants to hear.

To not take responsibility for anything thats going on is just incredible, he said.
OKLAHOMA CITY  A proposed ballot initiative that would repeal a section of the state Constitution which prohibits use of state assets for religious purposes was approved Wednesday by the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

House Joint Resolution 1062 by Rep. John Paul Jordan, R-Yukon, passed 86-10 after nearly 2 hours of discussion that took up most of the Houses morning session.

The proposal to repeal Article 2, Section 5 of the Oklahoma Constitution is billed as a response to a 2015 state Supreme Court decision that resulted in the removal of a Ten Commandments monument from the Capitol grounds.

There has also been some concern the ruling could interfere with such things as publicly funded scholarships to private schools and universities.

As originally written, HJR 1062 would have substituted the words The Legislature shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion for the current language, which states: No public money or property shall ever be appropriated, applied, donated, or used, directly or indirectly, for the use, benefit, or support of any sect, church, denomination, or system of religion, or for the use, benefit, or support of any priest, preacher, minister, or other religious teacher or dignitary, or sectarian institution as such.

Jordan, however, pushed through a floor substitute that simply repeals the existing section.

House Minority Leader Scott Inman, D-Del City, argued that removing the current language will lead to unintended consequences, including perhaps a Satanic monument on the Capitol grounds.

Inman, who ultimately voted for the measure, even tried to introduce an amendment specifically barring Satanic monuments but was thwarted by the Republican majority.

Rep. David Perryman, D-Chickasha, pointed out that the section in question has been in the Constitution since statehood without causing lawsuits over whether we can have Christmas lights in Chickasha.

Jordan replied that Article 2, Section 5, has been like a rabid dog in a cage and the Supreme Court decision opened the door of that cage.

HJR 1062 now goes to the Senate, which has approved a similar measure. The proposed amendment requires a vote of the people.
OKLAHOMA CITY  The state auditor agreed Wednesday to conduct an investigative audit of Oklahoma County Sheriff John Whetsel and his office over allegations of financial wrongdoing.

State Auditor and Inspector Gary Jones said the audit will be started as soon as he can put an audit team together. He said he has no idea how long it will take.

Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater requested the investigative audit, stating in a letter there are multiple areas of concern.

There is reason to believe that the Oklahoma County sheriff and/or his administrative staff have violated sections of the Oklahoma statutes and articles of the Oklahoma Constitution, Prater wrote. Documents of evidentiary value and proposed witness names will be disclosed to you when you are prepared to receive them.

Oklahoman Writer Randy Ellis contributed to this report.
At the Fifth Annual White House Science Fair in 2015, President Barack Obama shared why educational opportunities, such as a science fair, are important to him.

Science is more than a school subject, or the periodic table, or the properties of waves, Obama said. It is an approach to the world, a critical way to understand and explore and engage with the world, and then change that world.

Statistics show, however, that as a country, we are not using science to its fullest potential, to explore and engage; consequently, we are falling behind. According to the Programme for International Student Assessment results from 2012, the United States ranked 27th in math and 20th in science among the top 34 industrialized nations, placing the United States at the below average mark internationally. While these results are from 2012, there have been no significant changes in the United States performances over time.

This needs to be addressed if we want to reclaim our reputation as a competitive global leader.

The good news is that the solution is not more money. The U.S. spends a whopping $115,000 per student collectively, but the PISA results show this does not translate into better performance.

Its time to go back to the drawing board and look at the way we, as a nation, do education as a whole. Who better to do that than students currently in the education system?

I am a member of the eighth cohort of an organization called Youth Philanthropy Initiative. YPI, a vision of Lynn Schusterman, is a Tulsa-based, youth-led program that encourages teens to identify an issue facing the their community and develop a way to address it. After months of research, my cohort and I found ourselves passionate about science, technology, engineering, and math education and ways to improve it in our community.

Reflecting on our elementary school experiences, we saw a correlation between those of us who had science and math enrichment and those of us engaged in STEM. We shared a mutual appreciation for the STEM opportunities our schools provided us, but quickly realized this was not a universal experience.

Our research found students socioeconomic background has a significant impact on their interest in STEM. This drove our decision to prioritize increasing accessibility to STEM education in Tulsa from the beginning. Our goal is to create a program for elementary school students that will spark a lifelong interest in the STEM subjects.

After months of work, we are excited to introduce our program, Spark Karts Tulsa. The programs purpose is to engage students by introducing subjects like meteorology or neuroscience in a fun, hands-on way.

We hope that by creating a positive association, STEM will be less intimidating and more exciting to students as they start choosing classes and career paths. We have had the privilege of partnering with the Tulsa Regional STEM Alliance and Tulsa Public Schools as we begin to transform our vision into reality.

Spark Karts are a series of 10 mobile carts that are packed full of STEM enrichment resources. Each cart has a unique theme that covers different educational topics based on Oklahomas standard curriculum for 1st grade science and math. With the help of TPS Library coordinator Earon Cunningham, we chose 10 schools based on their socioeconomic makeup to receive the first Spark Karts. The carts will be available for teachers to check out of the schools library to use to expand a lesson plan or show a real world application to a STEM concept.

As students, we believe that the first step to improving STEM education and addressing the STEM crisis in the United States is by making sure every child is given the chance to be inspired by science, encouraged in math, and fascinated by technology and engineering  all it takes is a spark.

Layla Mortadha is a junior at Booker T. Washington High School and a member of the eighth cohort of the Youth Philanthropy Initiative.
It's Divali time so at TV6 over the next few days, we bring you some of the interesting aspe
Former Home and Away actor Martin Lynes has been charged with raping and assaulting a woman.

News Corp reports he has been charged with one count of having sexual intercourse without consent, one count of assault with act of indecency, three counts of common assault and four counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The offences are alleged to have taken place at his Bateau Bay home in late February.

Police have also taken out an apprehended violence order against Lynes that bans him from going within 100m of the alleged victim.

Lynes has strenuously denied the allegations.

I will be defending them, he said.

Lynes, 48, has also appeared in Bluewater High & Packed to the Rafters.

Since retiring from acting, Lynes, has become a real estate agent on the New South Wales Central Coast.
Performer Jon English, best known for the songs Hollywood Seven, Six Ribbons and his work on stage and screen has died, aged 66.

English died after suffering complications while undergoing surgery yesterday, after cancelling a show in Newcastle on Sunday due to ill health. He was performing until he very end.

We are needless to say completely shocked and devastated by this enormous and unexpected loss, a statement from his management read.

The music industry, and indeed the world, has lost an incredible talent and the biggest of big hearts. We are inconsolable and will miss you immeasurably.

English migrated to Australia from the UK at the age of 12 and rocketed to fame in the role of Judas Iscariot in stage productions of Jesus Christ Superstar, after outings with the band Sebastian Hardie.

It led to a pop career with such hits as Turn the Page, Hollywood Seven, Six Ribbons, Words Are Not Enough and Nights in Paradise. He was a regular performer on such shows and Countdown (where he also hosted), Hey Hey its Saturday, Blankety Blanks, King of Pop, Spicks and Specks and RocKwiz.

He also forged a successful acting career on stage and screen.

On television he was well-received as the convict Jonathan Garrett in the hit miniseries Against the Wind, also co-composing the theme song Six Ribbons. It was followed by a comedy role as rocker Bobby Rivers in Nines sitcom All Together Now, alongside Rebecca Gibney, Steve Jacobs and Jane Hall, which ran for 3 seasons.

Today both Gibney and Jacobs paid tribute.

Just heard the news about Jon English. So incredibly sad. All Together Now was one of the joys of my career. My love to his family, said Gibney.

RIP Jon English. A great actor and true rock legend. An all round performer and gentleman. You will be missed mate, wrote Jacobs.

Jon English was a force of nature, Jane Hall said. He was incredibly smart, hard working and talented. To meet and work with him on All Together Now was an amazing and slightly surreal experience.

Jon English.Too sad.The best Judas.Generous on stage. What a privilege Rockwiz had you for a whole tour. xx Julia Zemiro.

Just hearing about Jon English. What a shame. Beautiful bloke.  David Campbell.

So incredibly saddened to hear of the passing of Jon English, a talented and gifted man. Rest in peace my friend. -Marcia Hines.

I have fond memories of the great times back when all of us were starting out in this beautiful music industry, Daryl Braithwaite said.

Such sad news. Jon English., Great talent. Great bloke. Even made bags under the eyes fashionable. -Derryn Hinch

He was one of the loveliest people on earth, Molly Meldrum told News Corp. I never heard him say a bad word about anyone. And I never heard anyone say a bad word about him. And he was an incredible performer. Even before the spotlight was on him, the moment he walked on stage he was the spotlight. He had that presence. He had those piercing eyes.

English also had a second stage career, notably in the revival of Gilbert and Sullivan musicals, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado, plus productions of Big River, Dads Army, Hairspray, Spamalot and The Removalists.

Performer / producer Simon Gallaher said, He came from good working class stock and never forgot that, but just aspired to doing what he did and what he loved most which was entertaining.

You put him in front of an audience and he just had to entertain.

His own rock musical, Paris, was a labour of love, following the Lloyd-Webber path of releasing as an album prior to stage productions. Although it was performed a number of times, it never rose to the heights of being a commercial hit but it did win an ARIA -it will be performed by Warragul Theatre Company in May.

English continued to perform in pubs and bars across the country, winning MO Awards and Green Room Awards. He was interviewed on Studio 10 last month.

Known for his larrikin streak, he was frequently nicknamed Ol Black Eyes.

He was a rocker to the end

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=298OsuFbOu0

Source: Fairfax
2:07 p.m., March 10, 2016--Jinfa Cai, professor of mathematical sciences with a joint appointment in the School of Education at the University of Delaware, has been named a fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), which cited his notable and sustained research achievements in the field of mathematics education.

Cai was one of 22 scholars selected as 2016 fellows of the association, which is the largest national interdisciplinary research association devoted to the scientific study of education and learning. The new fellows will be inducted at the AERA annual meeting in April in Washington, D.C.

We are delighted to honor these 22 scholars for their contributions to education research and for their dedication to the field, Felice J. Levine, AERAs executive director, said. [They] exemplify the highest standards of excellence through accomplishment, professionalism and commitment.



A member of the UD faculty since 1996, Cai conducts two lines of research into the teaching and learning of mathematics. One line of research consists of cross-cultural studies examining differences and similarities between American and Chinese students. He said he has a personal interest in that cross-cultural work.

When I came to the United States [for doctoral studies at the University of Pittsburgh], I visited math classes, Cai said. My observation was somewhat different from what I expected based on studies that show students in the United States dont perform well in math compared to students in many other countries. It made me want to investigate this.

The result has been a long-running research project in which Cai examines students mathematical thinking and reasoning in various tasks in both nations. He has found that Chinese students do much better than U.S. students on tasks learned in school, while U.S. students perform equally well or even better than Chinese students on tasks that are not routinely learned, such as those asking students to generate their own mathematical problems to solve.

Cai has conducted a series of follow-up studies to understand the possible reasons for the differences in U.S. and Chinese students mathematical thinking. He thinks that teachers in both countries might learn from these findings and, for example, start spending more instructional time on the areas of relative weakness and less on the areas where students already do well.

Its hard to transfer lessons from one culture to another, but I think we can learn a lot from each other, he said.

Cais other line of research has involved following a group of U.S. students from grades six through 12 and assessing the results of various approaches to teaching math.

The project began in 2005 when the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $2.4 million grant for Cai and colleagues to investigate whether using a problem-based mathematics curriculum called the Connected Mathematics Project (CMP) improved the results for middle school students learning algebra. The NSF awarded an additional $1.5 million grant in 2010 to extend the study to high school.

After following the same students for seven years, Cai said he found positive effects of the curriculum on problem-solving skills, without sacrificing the kinds of basic math skills assessed through state testing. And those benefits continued as the students went through high school, showing the long-lasting effects of using a particular curriculum and the importance of continuing research for years after a curriculum is first implemented.

This is the only longitudinal project in mathematics education research that has examined the effect of a curriculum on students learning beyond the grade band in which the curriculum was used, Cai said. The persistence of the CMP students advantages on some measures into high school is quite important.

In addition to his research and teaching, Cai began serving last year as editor of the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education (JRME), the premier research journal in the field. His editorship will continue through 2020.

JRME advances the frontiers of mathematics education by disseminating the highest quality research on the learning and teaching of mathematics at all levels, from preschool through college. The work it has published over the past several decades has helped to guide research, foster innovations in practice and inform policy debates and decisions.

Cai also is in the final stage of editing a research compendium in mathematics education, which involves nearly 100 scholars worldwide and nearly 3,000 manuscript pages, to be published later this year.

Article by Ann Manser

Photo by Evan Krape
9:31 a.m., March 10, 2016--University of Delaware faculty members interested in directing a study abroad program during summer session 2017 are encouraged to submit their proposals by Friday, July 1.

Those with questions should plan to attend the faculty how-to workshop today, Thursday, March 10, from 3:30-4:45 p.m. in 222 Gore Hall.

In addition to a session-long program, faculty may choose to develop a micro-mester model. These programs are three weeks in length, travel to a single country no more than 10 hours away by direct flight, and are led by one faculty director.

Before submitting a new proposal, faculty are asked to review current offerings and develop a program which diversifies the countries, cultures, languages and focused disciplines offered. Programs should align with the departments global education goals and have a clear, relevant and sustainable target audience.

Further information on getting started with study abroad and submitting a proposal can be found on the Institute for Global Studies website.

For more details or to RSVP for todays workshop, contact Lisa Chieffo, associate director for study abroad.

Study abroad at UD

The University of Delaware is a national leader in study abroad programs. Approximately 35 percent of undergraduates study outside of the U.S. on an annual basis. Winter Session is the most popular time for Delaware students to do so, with approximately 80 percent of all study abroad activity taking place during this session.

The year 2013 marked the 90th anniversary of the Universitys study abroad program, considered the first in America, after eight students set sail for France in 1923.

Since then, UD has continued to expand education abroad opportunities to include academic coursework, internships, research and service learning across the globe.

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.

Those with interest can explore UD study abroad programs online, follow #UDAbroad and @UDGlobal on Instagram and Twitter, and attend an interest meeting to learn more.

Photo courtesy of Donald Lehman
The militants launched 49 attacks on the ATO troops in eastern Ukraine over the past day.

This is reported by the ATO Headquarters press center.

"The Russian-backed militants do not stop shelling the Ukrainian military positions. They launched 49 attacks on our fortifications over the past day," reads the statement.

As noted, the tensest situation was observed near Avdiyivka (18km north of Donetsk), where the enemy used different types of weapons, including 120mm mortars, to fire at our positions.

In addition, the terrorists used grenade launchers and heavy machine guns to shell Ukrainian positions outside Pisky (12km north-west of Donetsk) and Opytne (11.5km north-west of Donetsk).

ol
Ukraine and Turkey have agreed on the inadmissibility of Russia's actions in Crimea, which actually turns the peninsula into a military base, and expressed their intention to coordinate efforts to de-occupy Crimea.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said this at the joint press conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday.

"We discussed in detail the situation in the occupied Crimea and emphasized the unacceptability of the fact that Crimea has been militarized and actually turned into a military base as a result of the temporary occupation. I and Mr. President [Erdogan] called for the joint efforts which will be focused on de-occupation of Crimea. To this end, we plan to unite efforts within the framework of international organizations as well as on the basis of new international formats, including the "Geneva plus" format involving the Budapest Memorandum guarantors, Turkey and Ukraine," President Poroshenko said.

ol
facebook like button Tweet tweet button for twitter

Published March 9, 2016

ULMs President, Dr. Nick J. Bruno, has made the decision to extend the University closure through Friday, March 11.

Per University communications protocol, the University will continue to notify the campus and community of future closures and delays through Warhawk Alert, ulm.edu, e-mail, and social media platforms.

Please note the status of the following campus services for Thursday, March 10 and Friday, March 11:

Dining Services

-Schulze: 10 a.m.  7 p.m.

-Student Union Building (SUB): Closed

Library

-7:30 a.m.  5 p.m. (Thursday)

-9 a.m.  5 p.m. (Friday)

Activity Center

-9 a.m.  4 p.m.

Public Safety

-For emergencies on campus, contact the ULM Police Department at 318-342-5350

Students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to exercise caution and avoid travel unless it is absolutely essential.
INTRODUCTION - Understanding the physiology of penile erection is important for all who work in the field of sexual medicine.

AIM - The aim of this study was to highlight and analyze historical aspects of the scientific understanding of penile erection.

METHODS - (i) Review of the chapters on the physiology of erection out of the author's collection of books dealing with male sexual functioning published in the German, French, Dutch, and English language in between 1780 and 1940. (ii) Review of the topic "physiology of penile erection" of relevant chapters of C lassical writings on erectile dysfunction. A n annotated collection of original texts from three millennia, including the study of all relevant references mentioned in these books.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES - The main outcome measure used for the study was the scientific understanding of the physiology of penile erection.

RESULTS - In Antiquity, Galen considered penile erection as the result the accumulation of air. His ideas so dominated medieval medicine that nearly everyone then alive was a Galenist. The beginning of the Renaissance shows meaningful examples of experimental scientific work on the penis. Da Vinci correctly concluded that erections were caused by blood, and in the 18th century, Von Haller from Switzerland was the first who explained that erections were under the control of the nervous system. In the 19th century, a mindset that emphasized on experimentation determined a new direction, namely experimental physiology. Animal studies clarified that stimulation of the nervi erigentes-induced small muscle relaxation in the corpora cavernosa. Nearly all were published in the German language. That may be one of the reasons that the existence of the concept of smooth muscle relaxation remained controversial until the first World Congress on Impotence in 1984 in Paris.

CONCLUSIONS - As the Renaissance's innovative research defined neural and vascular physiologic phenomena responsible for penile erection. The concepts from animal experimentations in Europe in the 19th century significantly contributed to the current understanding of penile erection. van Driel MF. Physiology of penile erection-a brief history of the scientific understanding up till the eighties of the 20th century. Sex Med 2015;3:343-351.

Sexual medicine. 2015 Oct 22*** epublish ***

Mels F van Driel

Department of Urology, UMCG University of Groningen Groningen The Netherlands.

PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26797073 Full Text Article
All the latest Uttoxeter news

Story Saved

You can find this story in My Bookmarks.

Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.
University of Wyoming Calendar for March 14-20

These are among the activities scheduled March 14-20 at the University of Wyoming:

Monday, March 14-Friday March 18 -- UW classes are dismissed for spring break, but most business and administrative offices will remain open.

Friday, March 18, 7 p.m. -- Planetarium show, Astronomy 101. A STAR Observatory tour follows at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $3 for students and $4 for non-students, Physical Sciences Building basement. Advance tickets are available in Room 204 of the Physical Sciences Building.

Dinosaur fossils, ancient mammals and some of the rocks and minerals found in Wyoming are among exhibits on display in the UW Geological Museum, open Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Free.

A variety of exhibitions are on display in the UW Art Museum, located in the Centennial Complex, 2111 Willett Drive. Hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Mondays. Free.
Silicon Valley's venture capital seed fund and accelerator, 500 Startups, announced it's move to start funding in Vietnam. Considering the country as one of the most promising on Asia's fast-growing startup climate, 500 Startups has decided to allocate a $10 million fund for Vietnam startups.

500 Startups partners Binh Tran and Eddie Thai will be leading the fund dedicated to Vietnam. This was the firm's first initiative to allocate funds for the country. However, 500 Startups has been funding in other Asian countries over the past year. According to TechCrunch, the firm has introduced $30 million of funds in Japan, $15 million in Korea, $25 million in India, and $12 million in Thailand.

VentureBeat reported that 500 Startups plans to fund 100 to 150 companies that have some connection to Vietnam with the $10 million fund. Each startup will gain checks ranging from $100,000 to $250,000. 500 Startups Vietnam is the latest regional investment tool that the firm has set up in the past year.

Even though the series of fund is 500 Startups's first to be devoted to Vietnam, the accelerator has invested in a few Vietnamese startups before. 500 Startups has previously funded beauty startup Ipsy, social photography app Lightbox, social intelligence platform DataRank, ticketing platform TicketBox, language learning app ELSA, and social networking app Tappy.

Vietnam has been selected to receive the investment program because of its potential. It has a promising demographic, with 90 million of total population, where more than half of whom are aged under 30. Another report also mentioned that 41 percent of the country's people are below the age of 24. The Wall Street Journal noted that 55 percent of adults in the country use smartphones.

In addition to the facts that makes Vietnam promising, 500 Startups partner Eddie Thai also told TechCrunch about the advantage of the timing. "The timing is right. Ten years ago when VCs first came here there were around four million internet users, now there are around 40 million. There really is potential to grow connectivity, income and spending," he said.

"We really want to bring this to the next level, and make the country's startup scene more efficient, professional and founder friendly - and ultimately build companies that can exit," Thai added, underlining the program's goal. 500 Startups is now managing $240 million of assets in 1,500 companies in more than 50 countries, after closing its third round of global fund with $85 million. The firm is now looking to raise $200 million for its fourth global fund.

Vietnam will be the next Asian country to receive an investment fund from Silicon Valley's 500 Startups. With $10 million, the firm is seeking to improve the country's potential and helping startups from the country.
Franchise and Concession Review Committee of New York City approve the acquisition in a Wednesday's public meeting. Merger between Charter Communication Inc. and Time Warner Cable Inc. will become the second-largest cable operator in the U.S.

Previously in January, City of New York's Public Service Commission had approved the deal, following commitment from Charter Communication to increase broadband speeds, expand network access in low-income communities and improve customer service.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, as quoted by Bloomberg counsel to the New York city mayor Maya Wiley said, "We are pleased that this merger between Charter and Time Warner Cable is moving forward in a way that ensures they will meet all franchise obligations, and as well as the conditions set forth by the PSC - and advocated for by the city - with respect to broadband speed, cost, and availability and job protections."

Charter Communication has agreed to launch initiatives to increase diversity and improve public access program. One of initiative is to appoint three minority members to its board within two years, consist of African American, Asian or Pacific Island and Hispanic American. The company will also hire more minorities and set a position of chief diversity officer to manage the diversity in the company.

"We look forward to successfully completing this transaction and bringing its many benefits to customers in New York City," Justin Venech, Charter Communications spokesman, said in a statement. However, he did not give more details regarding the company's commitment to New York city.

Meanwhile in California, a rejection with the merger arose. One California's state consumer group urged the state of California to reject merger between the companies. The group claim such deal will increase prices and decline quality service. St. Louis Business Journal reported that an independent division of the California Public Utilities Commission, The Office of Ratepayer Advocates rejected the deal in the filing on March 1.

The group said that both companies need to prove the merger will improve the services. That include broadband speeds upgrade and coverage expansion to low-income homes before receiving approval from the state.

Another concern also raised by Time Warner Inc., a former parent company of Time Warner Cable, which since 2009 has spun off its cable channel division to become independent company. According to Chicago Tribune, Time Warner Inc. made a formal filing to Federal Communications Commission on March 3, asking the regulator to further investigate the acquisition plan. Time Warner Inc. suspected that Charter may try to harm streaming video service once the acquisition is approved.

Many people has concerns with the acquisition. Even Senator Harry Reid, the Senate Democratic leader voiced concern that such deal will create a duopoly in cable service.

Although New York City has approved the Charter's acquisition of Time Warner Cable, the full acquisition process need more steps and regulatory approval. Many has concerns regarding the acquisition.
E.ON SE, the Dusseldorf, Germany based electric utility service provider, has disclosed that its annual net loss has doubled in 2015 to 7billion (5.4billion). Incurred loss of one of the world's largest investor-owned utility service providers has reached to that amount after writing down its value by 8.8 billion. Meanwhile, profit from its UK business has appeared flat while supply business earnings falls 9% to 267million.

The power provider has blamed the record low wholesale electricity prices as the other major cause behind further deterioration in its earning scenario. However, frustrating report from UK business appears due to 3.5% cut in gas prices since January 2015 and keen competition in the marketplace. The utility has again reduced its standard gas price in the UK by an average of 5.1% from February 1 following latest bout of tariff cuts in the industry, reports BBC.

Meanwhile, the spin-off of its oil and gas-fired power activities from its renewable energy division, completed in January, is expected to dishearten the outlook for 2016 too. E.ON and RWE, Germany's biggest energy firms, have been forced to write off billions in the value of their conventional energy assets. German government demands a shift to cleaner sources, a fair analysis from Sky News.
German auto major Volkswagen Group has announced exit of Michael Horn as CEO of Volkswagen Group of America. Volkswagen is facing US regulatory investigation over emissions results rigging scandal. Hinrich J. Woebcken will be interim CEO for Volkswagen Group of America from 1 April 2016 onwards.

Major shuffle at top management position at Volkswagen came after six months since emissions scandal came into light. German-based global auto major has admitted that it installed manipulative software in 580,000 diesel vehicles sold in the US market. These diesel vehicles are proved to discharge excess emission higher than stipulated US norms without detection.

CNBC reports that Hinrich J. Woebcken will take charge as an interim CEO for Volkswagen Group of America. Volkswagen Group is still negotiating with California and Justice Department over fixing the cheating software or buyback of diesel vehicles.



Volkswagen in a statement said: "Horn will depart to pursue other opportunities effective immediately." Hinrich J. Woebcken will assume charges as an interim CEO for Volkswagen Group of America on 1 April 2016.

Michael Horn joined Volkswagen in 1990 and was President and CEO of America operations since January 2004. "During his tenure in the US, Michael Horn built up a strong relationship with our national dealer body and showed exemplary leadership during difficult times for the brand," said Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen brand, in a statement.

However, Volkswagen of America's Vice-President (marketing) Vinay Shahani will remain in his position. He has been V-P since 2013. Michael Horn's exit comes close on the heels of drop in sales volume in the US market. Volkswagen is still struggling to conclude any deal on emissions scandal and unable to settle the issue with US regulators, according to AdvertisingAge India.



Volkswagen's dealer council said in a statement: "The Volkswagen's National Dealer Advisory Council wants to acknowledge Michael for his leadership and strength through the continued mismanagement of the diesel scandal that has plagued our sales and reputation more than any other global market."

Michael Horn is known for its straight forwardness. He also played a key role in enhancing dealer profits and strong network with US retailers. Horn had been a favorite official among Volkswagen's US dealers, who term exit of Horn is a serious blow to Volkswagen's America operations, according to Digital Trends.



It's estimated that illegal cheating software has been installed in over 600,000 diesel vehicles of Volkswagen. Handling the issue after emissions scandal has been a major challenge for Volkswagen's management.
Facebook allows owners of Samsung Gear VR to connect the headset to their Facebook accounts. Starting next week, users will be able to like and share 360-degree video from inside their headset.

On Wednesday, Oculus launched its new features into the Samsung Gear VR headset. In its official blog, Oculus announced, "Starting tomorrow, people with a Samsung Gear VR, powered by Oculus, can create a profile and then easily search for others on the platform by real name or Oculus username."

This new features is called Oculus Social Features, which allow owners of Samsung Gear VR to connect with their friends. Oculus also launched two new social VR games: Social Trivia and Herobound Gladiators.

Oculus is a virtual reality technology company founded in 2012 by Palmer Luckey and Brendan Iribe. Facebook acquired the company in 2014 for $2 billion, in $400 million of cash and 23.1 million Facebook shares. The social network giant has tried to integrate its social network into VR technology with the acquisition.

"VR is going to be the most social platform," Mark Zuckerbeg told audience in Samsung's Galaxy S7 event earlier this month as ZDNet reported.

"Facebook with Oculus are committed to this for the long term. We've recently created new teams at Facebook to build the next generation of social apps and VR," Zuckerberd added.

Now, Facebook and VR integration is moving one step further. Along with its new feature and games, Oculus also add Facebook video tab to Oculus Video. This enable owners of Samsung Gear VR to connect their Facebook account and personalizing their 360-degree video, based on pages and people they follow.

In the coming weeks new feature will be added. Venture Beat reported that owners will be able to like, share, and react to their favorite Facebook 360 videos directly in virtual reality. According to the Facebook data in February, Samsung Gear VR owners had watched 1 million hours of video using the device.

Samsung Gear VR is a virtual reality headset developed in collaboration between Samsung and Oculus. When Samsung launched the headset in November last year, it has achieved a good commercial success.

Oculus also provide applications for the headset which is available in the Oculus Store. Prior to the new social games and Facebook 360-degree video connection, there are 185 games and application available for Samsung Gear VR owners.

Starting next week, owners of Samsung Gear VR will be able to connect the headset to their Facebook accounts, and watch the 360-degree video. They will also be able to like and share the video from inside the headset.
Corona beer bottles are being recalled when the Constellation Brands Inc., who owns the Corona brand in the U.S., said that there might be small pieces of glass in the bottles. At Wednesday, the company announced a voluntary recall of select Corona Extra 12-packs and 18-packs with deposit labels in the U.S. that may contain the shards of glass.

The company stated that the recall affects a very limited scope. Constellation Brands reported that in estimation only one in every 5,000 bottles is affected, and the recalled bottles make up less than one-tenth of 1 percent of Corona Extra 12-ounce clear bottles. Constellation Brands also said that there have been no injuries reported to date, and the company is initiating the recall as a precaution to ensure consumers' safety.

"The safety and well-being of consumers are our top priority and we take matters pertaining to the quality of our products very seriously," said the president of Constellation Brands' beer division Paul Hetterich, as quoted by Time. "We're committed to doing everything possible to complete this recall quickly and ensure the safety of our consumers and integrity of our products."

According to Bloomberg, the recall was announced after routine inspections at two Anheuser-Busch InBev breweries, which currently produce Constellation's beer products. "Since learning of this issue, we immediately began working with AB InBev and jointly took prompt action to investigate the issue," Hetterich noted.

In the company's official announcement of the recall, Constellation Brands elaborated how consumers can determine whether they have the affected product. Consumers can simply check the 8-digit alphanumeric code printed on the side panels of the cardboard cartons of 12-packs and 18-packs, and on the necks of Corona Extra 12-ounce bottles. Details on the digits of recalled products are listed on the announcement.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Constellation Brands faced a similar issue 2014 when the company recalled Corona packages over the fear of glass particles inside bottles. After that incident, the company bought the glass manufacturing plant at its brewery in Mexico from AB InBev. The move was made to avoid future disruptions, which cost the company an estimated $37 million from recalls in the first incident.

The recalling of 12-packs and 18-packs Corona bottles is now in the process after the company announced concerns over possible glass particles inside the bottles. This was the second time the company had to recall Corona bottles over the similar concern. Although there has been no report on injury because of the matter, the company stated that they are taking precaution to protect consumers' safety and the product's integrity.
Japan considered wine industry to be a good way to revive economy in northeastern part of the country, in the area devastated by tsunami. A winery is pioneered in Miyagi prefecture, a new area from major Japanese wine producing regions.

Although the soil of Japan lacks the favorable substance to grow grapes, the demand for locally produced wine is growing. In general, Japanese soil has a shortfall in stony, limestone soil, furthermore dry weather needed to produce a grape is also deficient. This condition also applied to soil and weather in the area near Fukushima which demolished in the 2011 disaster.

However, Japanese government has committed to boost the economy in the northeastern area of Japan has been the most conomically depressed regions. Wine indstry is considered as good option to bring abandon land to productivity and revive the economy.

Akiu Winery, located in the outskirt of Sendai was opened in December with financial help from the Mitsubishi Corp. Disaster Relief Foundation. The winery is a pioneer in wine-tourism industry in the Miyagi prefecture, 300 kilometers (186 miles) north of Tokyo.

The winery is operated by Chikafusa Mohri, an architect whose long career was a renosned designer of hot-spring baths or Onsen. "If you make one winery, there is a ripple effect," he said in an interview with Bloomberg.

"People come and support the local restaurants and industries. Especially right now, when Japan is undergoing a wine boom."

Japan is recognized as the most advanced Asian winemaking nation. Eddie McDougall, a famous TV host of The Flying Winemaker, aired in TLC Asia also acknowledged that. In his recent column for Time Out, he wrote, "Viticulturally, Japan offers diverse microclimates that allow winemakers to experiment with a range of styles and varietals."

In regards to Japanese wine production, McDougall said, 'The development of wine production in the nation has diversified the country's alcoholic offerings and forced certain agricultural groups to shift from mass commercialisation towards a focus on achieving quality in their raw produce."

Recently, some Japanese vintners adopted ancient methods of wine making which are commonly seen in Eastern Europe.

Japanese wine has gained a growing reputation in the international market. According to latest report from market researchers Euromonitor International, sales of Japanese sparkling and still wine made from grapes reached 324 billion yen ($2.9 billion) in 2014. That is a 35% increase in five years.

One small burden is the different in packaging between Japan and Europe. Recently Japan had requested European Union to allow Japanese wine to be exported in a smaller 720 ml bottle which commonly used by Japanese wineries.

In respond to the request, Japan Times reported that EU refused. European Union insisted Japan to use 750 ml bottles which are widely used in Europe and other major markets. This objection will make Japanese winery to use separate bottles for export and domestic market.

Japan is considered to be the most advanced wine industry in Asia. Therefore, winery is expected to boost economy in the region struck by 2011 tsunami. A new winery is pioneered in Miyagi prefecture since last year.
Valeant Pharmaceutical announced on Wednesday to add three new directors to its board. Representative from Pershing Square Capital Management was among one of the directors.

According to Reuters, Pershing Square Capital Management purchased shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals last year when the company's shares were on the rise. However, since then the company's shares have dropped 68%.

The hedge fund manager also added its shares by purchasing another 2 million shares last October. After the purchase Pershing own 6.3% of Valiant Pharmaceuticals, and become the third-largest shareholders of the company. Pershing also became the biggest booster as the company's shares continuously plunged for the last six months.

The company's stock plunged even deeper last month, when the Quebec-based drugmaker admitted to be under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and other agencies. Besides SEC, Valeant is also under investigation from the United States Congress, U.S. Attorney's Offices for Massachusetts and the Southern District of New York.

In order to regain investors' trust, the company added three people to its board members. They are veteran pharmaceutical executive Fred Eshelman, former president of the University of North Carolina system, Thomas Ross, and senior executive at William Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management LP, Stephen Fraidin.

Valiant aimed to recover William Ackman's trust in the company by adding his executives in the board. Previously, William Ackman, the activist investors signaled to break the company by selling Bausch & Lomb. During Harbor Investment event in New York on Tuesday, as quoted by Bloomberg, Ackman said, "Bausch & Lomb is a very valuable standalone business and some day -- if Valeant chose to -- they could sell a piece of that to pay down their debt,"

"Either management will restore confidence in the reputation of the company with the public and the investment community or they won't," Ackman said, in response to question from the audience. "If they can't then one of two things will happen  new management will be bought in or the business will be sold."

Business Insider acknowledged that Ackman is planning to setup the oldest trick in the book: to build up and break down the company. As the one who assisted Valeant to acquire Allergan Pharmaceuticals in 2014, Ackman sees that it is time to consider breaking up the platform.

Valeant Pharmaceutical announced on Wednesday to add executives from Pershing Square Capital Management into its board. The company also added two other new directors, as it works hard to regain investors trust. Since October last year, the company's shares have plunged 68%.
Kenya Airways Ltd. (KA), the third largest aircraft in sub-Saharan Africa, has disclosed planning for a KES70 billion ($690 million) restructuring program. The restructuring includes reducing fleet and job cutting as the management seeks to turn around the fortunes of the struggling national carrier.

The Nairobi based carrier has reported for a full year loss of KES25.7 billion ($261 million) during last year, the largest lost in Kenyan corporate history. Now, it has been planning to raise KES40 billion through debt and equity funding as part of its strategy, reports Bloomberg quoting Mbuvi Ngunze, chief executive officer for KA while addressing an interview aired on Wednesday through Citizen TV, a Nairobi based broadcaster.

KA is expected to hold a board meeting on Thursday discuss pay cut option or further retrenchment. The agenda also includes a major shake-up targeting aiming to cut operation costs. The meeting is expected to deliberate on a number of recommendations aimed at helping the firm bounce back.
British liquor giant Diageo Plc has confirmed that it paid $40 million to trouble-ridden Indian businessman Vijay Mallya. Diageo's spokesperson has confirmed the payment to Mallya. This assumes significance as Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) has ordered not to pay Mallya any amount. Diageo's Indian subsidiary is United Spirits Ltd (USL).

Diageo Plc and Vijay Mallya made a $75-million agreement on 25 February. As part of this agreement, Diagio has paid $40 million (INR 275 crore). Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) on 7 March passed an order restricting all the payments to Vijay Mallya. DRT has barred any payment as part of the severance package until next hearing on 28 March.

FirstPost reports that Diageo Plc is yet receive such an order. Diageo's spokesperson Kirsty King is of the view that DRT is in the process of issuing an interim order. Diageo will review the order once it receives from DRT. DRT Presiding Officer R Benkanahalli on 7 March directed Diago and United Spirits not to pay Mallya.



Kirsty King told IANS from London on telephone and said: "We paid Mallya $40 million immediately as part of the $75-million agreement he signed with our company on February 25, with the balance ($35 million) being payable in equal installments over five years."

The bar on payments to Mallya is effective until the disposal of application by State Bank of India (SBI). DRT has ordered for a temporary attachment of the deal amount till 28 March. Mallya has already resigned as Chairman and Director of USL. He has also agreed not to compete with Diageo in spirits business anywhere in the world for next five years. Mallya is not supposed to get involved in Indian subsidiary USL.

Indian liquor baron Vijay Mallya, 60, owes about INR 9,000 crore (1crore=10millions). A consortium of 17 banks requested Supreme Court to prevent Vijay Mallya from moving out of the country. However, the Centre told Supreme Court that Mallya left the country on 2 March. Later, the confirmation of $40 million payment from Diageo came up. Subsequently, court had ruled that entire settlement should be put on hold, as reported by NDTV.



State Bank of India approached the tribunal a day after the agreement on 26 February requesting it to advance hearing on application filed in June 2013 for recovery of loans from Mallya. SBI counsel said: "We were not aware that Diageo had paid Mallya $40 million and even Mallya's counsel (Uday Holla) did not tell the tribunal during arguments on March 4 about the payment. We will seek action against him (Mallya) for suppressing the fact."

Diageo had agreed to pay $75 million (Inr515crore) to Vijay Mallya over five years for stepping down from Chairman position. Of this, Diageo says it paid $40 million to Mallya. The consortium of 17 banks on 2 March moved DRT, Bengaluru, with four applications against Vijay Mallya. Banks on 3-4 March moved Karnataka High Court against delay before DRT. High Court on 4 March issued notices to Mallya and others. High Court has also allowed DRT to go ahead with proceedings. DRT on 7 March passed interim orders restraining any payment to Mallya, according to The Hindu.



Along with SBI, 16 other state-run and private banks had lent huge amounts to Mallya's King Fisher Airlines during 2004-12. Now, Kingfisher Airlines is defunct.
Food safety authorities in Uttar Pradesh, India, claimed that Nestle's Maggi noodles products were sub-standard. The claim was stated after a series of tests of fresh samples conducted by the state authorities, but the accusation was strongly denied by Nestle.

According to the Economic Times, the Indian food safety officials claimed that the test found 1.85 percent of ash content in Maggi Masala. The percentage is higher than the limit of 1 percent permissible by the regulations. The tests used samples of the product collected from Safedabad in Barabanki district, and it was conducted by a Lucknow-based state-owned lab.

District Chief Food Safety Officer Manoj Kumar was the one announcing the claim based on the tests. He described the products, as the samples represent them, as sub-standard. He also said that the officials would be sending notices to both the retailer and the company. And if they are dissatisfied with the report, they can conduct another test or send it to a referral lab at their own expense.

Kumar also explained that he expects the retailer and the company to send their applications to the officials regarding that matter. He said, if no application was received within a month, the case would be lodged in the court of the additional district magistrate. If that happens, the company could face a penalty of up to Rs.5 lakh for the case.

Nestle, on the other hand, strongly denied the accusations, noting that the claim was based on a wrongful standard. The company's representation in India said, as quoted by Business Insider, "Maggi noodles is 100 percent safe for consumption. It is apparent from media reports that standards for 'macaroni products' are being applied for 'instant noodles with seasoning' which is erroneous and misleading."

The Swiss food company then stressed the importance of quality and safety for them. "We categorically reiterate that testing of instant noodles against norms set for macaroni products will reflect in incorrect results and wrong interpretations. The quality and safety of our products are non-negotiable priorities for us," the company stated.

India reported that last year, Gujarat, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh and Rajasthan have also conducted similar sample tests on the product, after many state governments banned it. Nestle Maggi has been facing strong food quality checks in India, leading the Nepal government to impose a ban on the noodles. It's also noted that although the ban on Maggi was lifted, the instant noodles were not gaining ground in markets again.

A series of tests conducted by the Uttar Pradesh food safety authority showed that Nestle's Maggi contained a percentage of ash more than permitted. The company responded with a statement, noting that the authorities have been using the wrong standard to evaluate their product and that the instant noodles are safe to consume.
WASHINGTON  When you enter into financial deals with family, be prepared for some uncomfortable and sometimes ugly disagreements. When things go wrong, it does become personal.

Recently I weighed in on the financial situation of twin brothers. They had bought a home together. One brother took off after a few years of sharing the home, leaving his twin to take complete care of the property, physically and financially. When the brother living in the home got married, he refinanced and his twin agreed to sign a "quitclaim deed," giving up ownership in exchange for an unspecified share of profits once the home was sold.

No sale is pending, but the brother who left is trying to negotiate  after the fact  what he's owed based on the home's appreciated value. So what's fair?

I don't think they call it "sweat equity" for nothing. What I thought was fair was to give the brother back his down payment of $20,000, plus a modest return. The brother had walked away from the investment leaving the responsibility for the mortgage and upkeep to his brother. Now he wants back in. With a vague agreement for money later, why should he get more when he did so little?

Well, some of you thought he does deserve more. I have a feature I call "Talk Back" in which I allow readers to provide counterarguments to something I've written.

One reader, Valerie from Quartz Hill, suggested that the fair thing would be to get the home professionally appraised and then decide on a split.

"Subtract expenses, including refinancing fees, annual real estate taxes, property improvements, etc., and don't forget ongoing maintenance; and offer him half of what is left," she wrote.

For reader Christine, the situation hit home. She and her sister also bought a home together. Her sister lives in the house but Christine does not.

She says her sister also wanted her to sign a quitclaim deed to refinance the property. "I didn't trust her and did not do it. I do not live in the town where the building I own is located, but that does not vacate my right to ownership. ... The lesson might be: Don't trust anyone to do the right thing: Get it in writing, even if it is your twin brother."

One reader suggested the brothers try mediation. There are nonprofit community-based conflict dispute centers around the country that offer free mediation such as the Conflict Resolution Center of Montgomery County. Nolo.com provides some good tips on what's involved in that process. Search the site for "Why Consider Mediation?"

"Mediation is particularly valuable when your dispute involves another person with whom  either by choice or circumstance  you need to remain on good terms," according to Nolo.com, "so a huge advantage of mediation is its ability to get a dispute resolved without destroying a relationship."

Reader Joyce Ellis, a retired California real estate broker, said she's seen a lot of situations like the one pitting brother against brother.

"Many important issues were neglected between the brothers over time," she wrote. "However, in order to reach a fair solution, one must treat it as an arm's-length transaction."

Ellis offered some very useful questions:

From the time the brother left, what has been the fair-market rental value on the property?

What is the value of the tax advantages that the remaining brother enjoyed that the departing brother didn't share?

What is a fair management credit to the remaining brother, since the absent one didn't have that burden?

What is the vacancy factor for that area?

What is the value of the improvements made by the remaining brother?

"When these matters are factored in and then balanced against the appreciation or depreciation in value today, there is likely to be a different picture altogether," Ellis wrote. "I imagine some accommodation could be made on each of their parts but, make no mistake, memories are long, and hurts fester. If this matter is allowed to be treated as anything but an arm's-length transaction, it will color relationships from now on and rear its head in surprising and painful ways for years to come."

It's too late to try and treat the situation as an arm's-length transaction. This is exactly why you need to work out all this stuff before you mix your money with a relative. Better yet, perhaps you should just avoid business deals that rely on good faith before or after the fact. At least spell out the arrangement formally in a written contract so that family bonds don't cloud what's financially fair.

Readers can write to Michelle Singletary c/o The Washington Post, 1150 15th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20071. Her email address is michelle.singletary@washpost.com. Follow her on Twitter (@SingletaryM) or Facebook. Comments and questions are welcome, but due to the volume of mail, personal responses may not be possible. Please also note comments or questions may be used in a future column, with the writer's name, unless a specific request to do otherwise is indicated.
SHARE Michael Powers, county executive officer, is scheduled to be on a panel of judges at Startup Weekend Ventura County, which begins Friday evening in Camarillo.

By John Scheibe of the Ventura County Star

Anyone looking to get their great idea off the ground should consider attending a workshop in Camarillo this weekend where budding entrepreneurs can pitch their concepts and get feedback from experienced business leaders.

"We're especially looking for those with ideas in the area of health care and agriculture," said Martin Shum, a board member of the Camarillo Chamber of Commerce and organizer of Startup Weekend.

The 54-hour event will begin at 6 p.m. Friday and end at 9 p.m. Sunday. It will be held at Rancho Campana High School, 4235 Mar Vista Drive, Camarillo.

Events such as Startup Weekend are crucial to the future prosperity of the region, Shum said, since they carry the promise of bringing more high-technology businesses to the area and high-paying jobs.

Attendees will learn about the highs and lows of starting a new business, Shum said. They will also learn what it takes to found a company and get to know investors, sponsors and other business leaders with valuable insights.

They will also pitch their ideas to a group, taking 60 seconds or less to do so. On Sunday, they will show a model of their start up to a group of judges.

The winners will be picked from two categories  health care and agriculture. Each of the two winners will receive $10,000 in seed funding, money that does not have to be repaid.

The only requirement is that to receive the money the startup has to be incorporated as a business.

"It takes money to raise money," he said, noting the $10,000 in seed funding can help those with a really good business idea to get their venture off the ground.

To win, contestants will need to develop something having to do with the Internet of Things. The concept is rapidly changing many industries, including health care and agriculture.

As part of this, a network links a multitude of equipment, everything from sensors to vehicles and more, allowing these devices to gather and transmit data to each other.

CEOs and others will be on the panel of judges, including Darren Lee, president and CEO of St. John's Hospitals, and Michael Powers, Ventura County's chief executive.

Organizers also decided to open the competition and judging portion of Startup Weekend to the public starting at 5 p.m. Monday, Shum said.

"One of the key challenges in tackling agriculture and health care is to get agriculturalists and health care professionals to bring their ideas to this event," Shum said. "They are just not used to teaming up with engineers. But team up they must."

It's because of this that organizers want to expose the public to how an idea materializes into a "proof of concept" and how a business' value proposition is judged, he said.

Shum said the idea for this weekend's Startup Weekend began some 18 months ago when the Camarillo Chamber of Commerce approached him and others about the need to connect with bigger businesses operating in Camarillo.

"The chamber advocates on behalf of smaller businesses and is mostly for them," he said.

Larger companies generally belong to trade groups or associations, he said, adding, "I saw a benefit for the CEOs of larger businesses who are here to give back to the community by mentoring those who are involved in smaller businesses."

Shum said he also looked at how nurturing the existing environment in the area was for startups and found it wanting. As part of this, he visited a co-working space in Ventura, where new businesses can share office space and thereby save money.

"When I toured the co-working space it was empty. There was no one using it," he said.

Shum decided there's a need in this area to create a startup ecosystem "that really focuses on helping new businesses to launch."

A nurturing system for startup founders includes helping them form a team of people who specialize in different areas, he said.

For example, a doctor who has an idea for a startup in the health care industry might find it very useful to partner with an engineer who understands the technical details of getting the business up and running.

Shum and others hope this weekend's workshop will only be the first of more to come.

Part of the reason this weekend's workshop is focusing on Internet of Things technology has to do with Semtech, a Camarillo company that uses the technology. The firm produces devices used in communications, computers, industrial equipment and other areas.

Startup Weekend began in Colorado in 2007. Since then it has expanded to many places around the world.

Many of the workshop's participants continue to collaborate after the workshop to build their startup.

The registration for the Startup Weekend is $100.

To register or get more information on this weekend's event, go to startupweekendvc.com.
STAR FILE PHOTO The Fillmore City Council decided this week to reinstate a daytime curfew for schoolchildren and remove signs deterring people from hanging out on downtown sidewalks.

SHARE

By Tony Biasotti, Special to The Star

The Fillmore City Council reinstituted its daytime curfew to keep children off the street during school hours and at the same meeting reaffirmed the right of adults to hang out on downtown sidewalks.

The council voted 4-1 on Tuesday to impose the daytime curfew. It forbids anyone under age 18 from being out in public between 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on days when school is in session. The ordinance has a list of nine exemptions, including a child accompanied by a parent or on an errand directed by a parent, a child who has permission to leave school or is on a school trip, and a child "who is being home-schooled in a full-time day school."

Councilman Rick Neal voted against the ordinance because the rest of the council declined his request to clearly exempt children who are home-schooled by a parent.

Tiffany Israel, Fillmore's city attorney, said she thought the ordinance, as passed by the council, might already exempt home-schooled children. She promised to research the issue and report back to the council.

Fillmore had a daytime curfew until the council repealed it in 2014. Without the curfew, children caught skipping school could only be taken back to school. Repeat truants can be cited, but they must first go before a School Attendance Review Board and have their citations approved by the district attorney's office. It can take as long as six months for a citation to be issued in those circumstances.

With a daytime curfew, citations, starting around $50, can be issued immediately, though sheriff's deputies typically give warnings first.

Representatives of the both the Sheriff's Department and the Fillmore Unified School District attended Tuesday's City Council meeting to ask the council to pass the curfew ordinance.

"This is a tool that I lost, and it's a tool that I need," said Deputy Leo Vasquez, the school resource officer for Fillmore Unified. "The curfew citation is an immediate consequence for their actions."

Vasquez said he only plans to hand out citations to children who consistently refuse to go to school.

"It's not automatic, where you're out in public, so you get a ticket," he said. "You have to do police work and investigate. Not every case deserves a ticket."

Earlier in Tuesday night's meeting, the City Council decided to remove signs the city recently placed on planter boxes along Central Avenue that say "No sitting on the wall." There was never a city ordinance against sitting on the planter boxes  and Israel said there probably can't be one  so the signs amounted to a request, and that request was generally ignored.

For more than a year, the city has received complaints from some residents about groups of people who socialize for hours at a time while sitting along Central Avenue in the downtown business district. They are mainly older men, though a group of older women has also begun to hang out downtown, City Manager Dave Rowlands said Tuesday.

They tend to gather around noon or a little earlier and stay until 3 or 4 p.m., Rowlands said. Some residents claim that the groups block the sidewalk or crosswalk or wander into the street, but police and city officials have not found them to be breaking any laws. The city code states that loitering is only prohibited if it interferes with pedestrians, vehicles or bicyclists.

"We've talked to them and asked them if they'd rather go to the Active Adult Center or the park," Rowlands said. "They say, 'No, we like being here. We like being where the action is.' This is their neighborhood, for lack of a better term."

All five city council members said they wanted the signs taken down, and most of the council didn't want the city to do anything to discourage people from congregating downtown.

"There are a lot of areas in this town where we can spend more productive time in enhancing the services that we provide to the community, and I don't think this is one of them," Councilman Manuel Minjares said. "I see where the intent came from, but I was not in favor of putting up any type of sign to begin with. I think it sends the wrong message to the community.  I would like us to remove them right away and be done with it, and let our residents enjoy their downtown."

There have been reports of men downtown catcalling young women, including girls walking home from Fillmore High School. The council members all condemned that behavior and endorsed a public education campaign to discourage it and to encourage girls to call the police if someone makes them feel uncomfortable.

"Those comments are unacceptable," Neal said. "To harass girls coming home from school, that's disgusting. Our kids shouldn't have to accept this, and for us to ignore it is wrong."
STAR FILE PHOTO The Port Hueneme City Council learned this week that dredging is on target for October and that the city's beaches will be replenished with sand. That will avoid a repeat of this scene in 2014, when lack of sand caused such bad erosion that Surfside Drive was undercut and boulders had to be brought in to protect the area.

SHARE

By Anne Kallas, Special to The Star

The every-other-year dredging that replenishes the sand on Port Hueneme's beaches is on track for October, according to Channel Islands Harbor Development Director Lyn Krieger.

In a report to the Port Hueneme City Council at its regular meeting Monday, Krieger said $7.89 million has been allocated in the president's budget, with another $1.5 million expected from the U.S. Navy, for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to dredge some of the 3.5 million cubic yards of sand that has collected at the northern end of the Channel Island Harbor entrance.

She said around 1 million cubic yards will be dredged and pumped out near the mouth of the Port of Hueneme, where it will follow natural currents and be deposited on beaches farther down the coast, primarily the beach at Hueneme.

When the amount of dredged sand was dramatically reduced during the 2010-11 and the 2012-13 cycles because of federal budget cutbacks, Port Hueneme's beaches eroded to the point where the city had to import boulders to build a sea wall to hold the ocean back. By April of 2014, high-tide waves were undercutting Surfside Drive, and storms were damaging Hueneme Pier.

Councilman Tom Figg has said the situation could have been avoided if the various agencies and offices charged with securing funding had done so earlier. Monday's presentation was arranged by Interim City Manager John Baker in response to Figg's concerns.

"Something like this doesn't just happen overnight. How do we avoid a communication breakdown such as the one that happened before?" Figg asked.

Krieger said there was no such breakdown and that the situation was caused by changes to rules governing federal funding for projects like sand dredging.

"We are always well aware of the sand issue," Krieger said. "It comes down to how we can get funding by the rules established by Congress. It makes it hard."

She also noted that while the federal government is authorized to pay for the dredging, it is not obligated to do so, pointing to other locations across the United States where waterways are becoming so clogged with silt, sediment and sand that they are becoming unusable.

Krieger said the Port Hueneme City Council could help with the sand replenishment by joining the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, the office of U.S. Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Westlake Village, and other government agencies in writing letters and advocating for the project.

Also during Monday's meeting, some residents of the Hueneme Bay retirement community spoke out during the public forum portion of the evening to request that a signal be installed at Lido and Channel Islands boulevards to make crossing the intersection safer for the senior population. The council cannot address issues brought up by citizens during the public comment period, but Mayor Doug Breeze promised to have the issue included on a future agenda.

Port Hueneme resident Erik Cortez received a proclamation from the city for his actions on Oct. 11 when a Port Hueneme girl, Emily Raya, 11, almost drowned after being caught in a rip current. Cortez jumped off the Hueneme Pier and was able to keep Emily's head out of the water until she was rescued by Channel Islands Harbor personnel.

"It wasn't just my effort," Cortez said as Emily sat in the audience with her family. "It was everyone who was on the pier that day who helped."
SHARE

By The Associated Press

An autopsy on a Santa Paula man who was found dead early Thursday morning at a Montana ski resort is scheduled for next week, authorities said.

Brandon Kelly, a sergeant with the Gallatin County Sheriff's Department, said investigators found nothing suspicious in connection with the death of Paul James Stoll, 82.

Stoll was reported missing while attending a conference at the Huntley Lodge at Big Sky Resort in Bozeman about 7 p.m. Wednesday after he failed to show up for an event.

Searchers found his body in a wooded area near a ski lift about 5 a.m. Thursday.

Kelly said investigators hope to find a cause of death during next week's autopsy.

Staff writer John Scheibe contributed to this report
AP PHOTO/JAE C. HONG Library volunteers pause as they pay their respects beside the casket of Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum in Simi Valley.

By Tom Kisken of the Ventura County Star

The three women wearing Reagan red, one in the pearls the former first lady favored, sweltered in a line that stretched forever because, to them, Nancy Reagan represents an endangered time.

"It's almost all gone," said Kathy Melanson who lives near Pasadena, "tradition, class, integrity ..."

The women  two sisters and a friend  boarded the buses that on Wednesday shuttled thousands of people across Simi Valley, past bouquets shaped like hearts and crosses, up a drive lined with American flags to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

There, they said farewell to the former first lady who died Sunday morning at age 94. She lay in a closed casket covered with white roses and peonies.

FINAL RESPECTS

Public viewing of Nancy Reagan continues Thursday.

Presidential Drive leading up to the library will be closed, but free shuttles will be available for visitors at 400 National Way, Simi Valley, where they can also park.

The first shuttle will leave at 9:45 a.m. Thursday. The service will run until 2 p.m. No large bags or cameras are permitted.

After another day of public viewing on Thursday, a private funeral will be held Friday. She will be laid to rest, in the words of one spokesman, "as close as possible" to her husband, former President Ronald Reagan.

She arrived Thursday morning in a hearse near the front of a motorcade that carried daughter Patti Davis and about two dozen other family members. Son Ron Reagan and stepson Michael Reagan were expected at another time.

As the vehicles entered the library drive, dozens of people lined along Madera Road snapped cellphone photos. They placed their hands over their hearts.

It felt surreal to Angelica Super who watched with her sister. Afterward, they talked of how their father immigrated from Mexico and urged them to pursue the highest goals.

For women of all races, Nancy Reagan was a role model, said Super who lives in Thousand Oaks. She embodied strength and dignity.

"She was really for the human race," she said.

Before the public viewing began, two ministers read passages from the Bible in a service for family members and friends.

"Even though we knew this day was inevitable, everyone sitting in that room was in shock," said John Heubusch, executive director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation.

The buses came earlier than expected, loaded with people wearing everything from business suits to red, white and blue bandannas. One man carried a "Star Trek" book.

They came from Riverside, Bakersfield, east Texas and beyond. Some waited for hours in a line that serpentined across a massive parking lot about five miles from the presidential library.

Jack Rico, who is 9, wore a red bow tie and a black suitcoat. He hails from Whittier and told his mother he wanted to say goodbye to the former first lady.

Waiting in line, Jack offered this explanation for why he liked the Reagans.

"They're Republicans," he said.

Others crossed party lines to pay their respects. The people who came to pay their respects included a woman who immigrated from Belize, a father and daughter who carried pictures of when they visited Ronald Reagan's casket in 2004 and a survivor of the 9/11 attacks at the World Trade Center.

Richard Wajda left the tower's 96th floor to get his mail two minutes before the terrorist attack. He remembered watching Nancy Reagan appear on the television show, "Diff'rent Strokes" as part of her campaign against drugs.

He was 10 and lived in Long Island. He took the advice to heart because government, or at least the Reagans, seemed trustworthy.

"I really felt like they were our friends," he said.

At the library, people from the buses walked through a courtyard and past a large picture of Nancy Reagan in a long red dress. Inside, they filed past the casket guarded by officers standing at attention.

It was serene. It was quiet.

"I told her 'You're now with your loved one,'" said Nancy Green who arrived in California Sunday night from east Texas. Then she learned of the death.

The visit lasted only a moment. Still, it felt complete, said Kathy Beyers of Simi Valley.

Beyers' ex-husband was a consultant for Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" project. They once attended a Reagan inaugural ball in Washington, D.C.

Like many others, Beyers thought of Nancy and Ronnie as she stood in front of the casket.

"They were a couple that was so connected to each other," she said. "The passing, to me anyway, unites them again."

The three women who dressed in Reagan red as a tribute made the sign of the cross at the casket. They offered silent prayers.

"What did it feel like?" said Melanson. "Sad but a beautiful tribute."

The funeral begins at 11 a.m. Friday. People expected at the service include former President George W. Bush and his wife, former first lady Laura Bush; former first lady Rosalynn Carter; first lady Michelle Obama; and former first lady Hillary Clinton.

Other expected guests include Tricia Nixon Cox, Anjelica Huston, Wayne Newton and Mr. T.

Star staff writers Mike Harris and Wendy Leung, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
ANTHONY PLASCENCIA/THE STAR (From left) Archeologist Steve Schwartz, professor Sara Schwebel of the University of South Carolina, and ranger Dave Begun of the National Park Service discuss the book "Island of the Blue Dolphins" during a live video stream with students. The broadcast was filmed at Anacapa Island in the Channel Islands National Park on Wednesday.

SHARE ANTHONY PLASCENCIA/THE STAR Former Navy archeologist Steve Schwartz and Dr. Sara Schwebel, of the University of South Carolina, discuss the story behind the book "Island of the Blue Dolphins" on Anacapa Island on Wednesday. Students in three states watched the live broadcast online. ANTHONY PLASCENCIA/THE STAR Waves crash along the east end of Anacapa Island on Wednesday, when National Park Service personnel hosted a live discussion on the story behind the book "Island of the Blue Dolphins." ANTHONY PLASCENCIA/THE STAR Steve Schwartz, a retired archeologist who worked for 25 years on San Nicolas Island, visited Anacapa Island on Wednesday to discuss facts versus fiction of the book "Island of the Blue Dolphins" during a live video stream with students. ANTHONY PLASCENCIA/THE STAR A stone grinding bowl sits on display at Anacapa Island. National Parks personnel hosted a live discussion about the story behind the book "Island of the Blue Dolphins." The discussion on the famous lone woman of San Nicolas Island featured a live web chat with students from three schools.

By Cheri Carlson of the Ventura County Star

As early as 1847, a story was spreading from state to state, country to country about a woman living alone on a remote island off the Ventura County coast.

That was even before the Lone Woman came to the mainland; long before Scott O'Dell made her story famous in the children's book "Island of the Blue Dolphins."

A staple in U.S. schools and credited with spurring researchers to dig deeper into the Lone Woman's story, the 1960 book has been translated into more than 30 languages and read in countries around the world.

But in the mid-1800s, a woman living alone on San Nicolas Island became its own worldwide story, picked up by newspapers in Boston, Newfoundland, Germany and London.

"It went viral, so to speak, in the 19th century," said historian Sara Schwebel, a professor at the University of South Carolina.

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.

Then in 1853, she was taken to Santa Barbara. She contracted dysentery and died just seven weeks later.

Schwebel, who is putting together a digital archive of media reports, said she found hundreds of articles, including one from 1847, years before the Lone Woman went to the mainland.

This week, Channel Islands National Park hosted Schwebel and archeologist Steve Schwartz for a live broadcast from Anacapa, another of the Channel Islands, about the story behind O'Dell's historical fiction.

Students from three schools in Idaho, Ohio and Santa Paula participated online.

Schwartz and Schwebel and others have worked with the Channel Islands National Park to put together research about the Lone Woman and her story for the public. A website is expected to launch late this summer.

"The research doesn't detract from the book, and the book doesn't detract from the research," said Schwartz, who worked on the Navy-owned San Nicolas Island for 25 years. "They are very complementary because the book puts in all the details that make it real."

"We put out little bits and pieces of information that maybe, eventually paints a whole story," said Schwartz, now retired. "But it's just bits and pieces here to start with, and the book has the whole story, the whole drama built into it."

And while he wrote a fictional story about what could have happened on the island, O'Dell did his research.

"In some respects, it is amazing how much Scott O'Dell got right," said Schwebel, who has spent years digging through historical records found as far away as Russia.

One of those details was the site of a village located above Corral Harbor where the Nicoleno likely lived.

O'Dell, who called it Coral Cove, had a description of what the harbor looked like and either knew or assumed there was a major village above it, Schwartz said.

"That is very correct. There was a big village up there. We've excavated it," he said. "As far as we can tell, it is the last village that was occupied on the island."

A lot of questions still remain, some likely never will be answered, including why the Lone Woman was left on the island.

"This is a question that is probably unanswerable. Historians often face the limits of evidence," Schwebel said. "We have many accounts that provide different hypotheses."

"Personally, I think that's part of the beauty of it," Schwebel said. "Humans have an insatiable curiosity. Researchers want to uncover the past. But sometimes there is a limit to where evidence can take us."

O'Dell told part of her story in a powerful way, but there are other stories that could be told, she said.

Some of the answers might be buried in archives, others may lie inside an island cave Schwartz and others uncovered on the island several years ago.

"The story spans 18 years, but the middle 18 years are missing," he said.

Most of the time, archeologists research, dig up stuff and write some obscure paper that maybe a half-dozen people might know what they are talking about, Schwartz said.

This work was different. When it came to the Lone Woman's story, he was hounded for more information.

"It's just amazing to have archaeology really contribute to modern discussions," Schwartz said. "It has been an incredible experience to be involved in that, to be a small part of that, and to help bring that story alive."

Story behind Island of the Blue Dolphins

An archived recording of the Channel Islands Live episode with historian Sara Schwebel and archeologist Steve Schwartz is expected to be available on the parks website within the next few weeks.

Go to http://www.nps.gov/chis and click on the link for Channel Islands Live to find archived recordings and upcoming episodes.

Coming later this year, the National Park Service will launch a website with research, interviews and historical documents related to the book. Channel Islands park staff, Schwebel, Schwartz and others contributed to the site.


For the fifth year, Las Vegas Restaurant Week will provide locals and tourists the unique opportunity to dine at many of the citys best restaurants at affordable prix fixe prices while helping to support Three Square Food Bank (Pictured above: Chef Kim Canteenwalla of Society Cafe Encore puts the finishing touches on lunch offerings during Restaurant Week 2010).

Las Vegas Restaurant Week 2011 will be held August 29 through September 11, with more than 80 restaurants throughout the Valley participating.

Taking part in Las Vegas Restaurant Week 2011 is simple. Diners can visit any participating restaurant during the specified timeframe and enjoy a multi-course, prix fixe menu specially created for Las Vegas Restaurant Week. Each restaurant will create their own delicious menu offering at one of the following price points: $20.11, $30.11 or $50.11 with a fixed portion of the proceeds benefiting Three Square and the fight against hunger in Southern Nevada.

We are thrilled for the continued support of the Las Vegas culinary community who make this fun and interactive fundraiser possible year-after-year, said Brian Burton President and CEO of Three Square Food Bank. In celebration of the fifth anniversary of Las Vegas Restaurant Week, diners will have the opportunity to enjoy some of Las Vegas finest restaurants at amazing prices for two entire weeks.

The Capital Grille at Fashion Show Mall, Rick Moonens rm seafood at Mandalay Bay, Comme Ca at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, TAO at The Venetian, Panevino located off strip and Diego Mexican Cuisine at MGM Grand are a few fine examples of the more than 80 restaurants participating in this years restaurant week festivities. Offerings range from succulent steaks and seafood to French cuisine, decadent desserts and more. For a complete list of Restaurant Week participants and menu details visit www.helpoutdineoutlv.org; the new site allows diners to search by type of cuisine, restaurant location or donation amount.

Diners are encouraged to share their experiences and be a part of the conversation on Twitter by following @threesquarelv and using the hashtag #LVRW2011, and on Facebook by liking the Las Vegas Restaurant Week page.


Senor Frogs Las Vegas will keep the fiesta going during a weekend-long celebration in honor of Mexican Independence Day from Friday, Sept. 14, through Sunday, Sept. 16, at Treasure Island Hotel & Casino.

Patrons will enjoy live Mariachi music and Mexican party specials including two-for-one tequila shots and Senor Frogs signature flavored margaritas. Partygoers can celebrate in true Mexican fashion while performing their favorite South of the Border tunes during Mexican karaoke and dancing in the party bars famous conga lines.

For those looking to grub on some festive nosh during the holiday, the restaurant will offer an extensive authentic Mexican buffet on Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. The buffet spread, priced at $25 per person, will offer specialties including barbacoa beef, carnitas, tamales, papas con chorizo, rajas con crema, tinga de pollo, picadillo, pozole soup, arroz con leche, corn and flour tortillas, rice and more.
The latest regional round of micro-funding will earmark 100-150 investments in Vietnam-connected startups, including in teams addressing local market needs and groups that are tackling the overseas market, according to the announcement.

The checks will typically be up to $100,000, but may be as high as $250,000.

500 Startups is the $100 million Silicon Valley venture capital fund best known for its incubator program for young companies.

In addition to financing, portfolio companies get access to 500 Startups international network of 3,000 mentors and founders, $1.5 million of credits with partners like Amazon and Facebook, and other support to help them scale their business.

The fund said it believes there are many interesting near-term investment opportunities in business-to-business and enterprise software-as-a-service (SAAS), financial technology, and e-commerce.



Peter Nguyen, founder of Buzzmetrics, a Ho Chi Minh City-based startup, guides his employees at the company's office.

Photo: Tuoi Tre

500 Startups plans to work together with Vietnamese investors and the local tech community to build a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem, 500 Startups founding partner Dave McClure said in a statement.

The fund will be led by venture partners Binh Tran and Eddie Thai, who joined 500 Startups last year to lead the firms Vietnam efforts, according to the announcement.

McClure said Vietnam is a vibrant and growing country, with many talented entrepreneurs and engineers, adding that Eddie and Binh are experienced operators who combine Silicon Valley know-how with Vietnamese hustle, and they are going to invest aggressively in the best and brightest founders all over the country.

Why Vietnam?

500 Startups also listed several reasons as to why Vietnam has been chosen for this $10 million micro-fund.

Vietnam has more people than California, New York, and Florida combined, and more than 40 million of them are on the Internet, the announcement reads.

It is one of the worlds fastest growing economies and has been Apples fastest growing market in the world.

Vietnam was recently ranked number three in U.S. Newss Best Countries to Invest In list thanks to developments like the agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, inexpensive labor costs, and growing consumer spending, according to 500 Startups.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and other notable tech leaders have visited Vietnam in the last few months alone, it added.

500 Startups said it hopes to become the most active Silicon Valley seed stage venture capital firm in Vietnam and to build on the pioneering efforts of IDG Ventures Vietnam, DFJ VinaCapital and others to develop the Vietnamese startup ecosystem.

We will be working with Anh-Minh Do, one of Vietnams most prominent ecosystem developers [who is] notably plugged into the startup scene in Vietnam as the former Vietnam Editor for Tech in Asia, the company said.



Tran Tuan Anh, founder of Ticketbox, an online ticketing platform backed by 500 Startups,

speaks to team members at the company's office. Photo: Tuoi Tre

500 Startups has already invested in several Vietnam-connected companies, including Ipsy, the beauty startup co-founded by Michelle Phan that closed a $100 million Series B last year; Lightbox, a social photography app acquired by Facebook; and DataRank, a social intelligence platform acquired by Simply Measured.

Binh Tran is a San Francisco-based technologist with more than 20 years of experience. His most recent win was Klout, which pioneered influencer marketing and was acquired in 2014 at a $200 million valuation. He was ranked in Business Insiders Silicon Valley 100 list in 2013 and 26 Up-and-Coming Tech Entrepreneurs You Need to Watch in 2012.

Eddie Thai is a Vietnam-based businessman with more than six years of experience in strategy and finance for companies ranging from startups to Fortune 500 corporations across tech, media, telecommunications, and others. He was recognized in the Forbes Vietnam 30 Under 30 List in 2015 and invited to the World Economic Forums Davos conference in 2016. He received degrees from Harvard and Yale.
A corner of the Tan Son Nhat airport in HCM City. The Airports Corporation of Viet Nam plans to sell a 7.4 per cent stake to a French partner.  Photo doisongphapluat.com

ACV, the largest enterprise in Viet Nams transport sector, said in a draft resolution prepared for its first shareholders meeting next Wednesday in HCM City that the initial price of the shares are expected to be VN13,100 (58 US cents) each.

With such share volume and price, ADP will hold some 7.4 per cent of ACVs total equity of VN22.4 trillion. If the agreement is successful, the French company will be restricted in transferring its shares for at least 10 years.

ACV Chairman Nguyen Nguyen Hung told the press in January that ADP was the only investor, at that time, that met the requirements of the Ministry of Transport to conduct negotiations in the role of a strategic partner.

Other organisations that proposed, but failed, to become strategic investors of ACV were Changi Airport International, a subsidiary of Singapores Changi Airport Group, and the Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam.

After launching an initial public offering on the HCM City Stock Exchange last December, ACV announced it would offer strategic investors a 20 per cent stake. This means a remaining stake of 12.6 per cent is still available for other investors.

Meanwhile, industry insiders said ANA Holdings Inc, owner of Japans largest airline, All Nippon Airways, might be the next potential strategic investor of ACV.

Japan has expressed interest in the VN336.6 trillion Long Thanh international aviation terminal, which will be developed by ACV in southern ong Nai Province, following the governments designation. Japan is reportedly considering funding the terminal with government capital set aside for development assistance.

Additionally, national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines has also decided to sell an 8.8 per cent stake to ANA Holdings at an estimated price of nearly $109 million, and the agreement is expected to be concluded in June.

In another statement, ACV said concentrating resources for Long Thanh development will be one of its business strategies for the next five years. The company will mobilise VN114.5 trillion to complete the first phase of the terminal by 2025.

Between 2016 and 2020, the company projects passenger growth rates of six to eight per cent per year at its airport system. Also, it expects annual growth rates in freight to reach some five per cent.

This year, it plans to report total revenues of VN12.1 trillion, with revenues from services increasing 5.1 per cent over last year. It is set to pay dividends at a rate of five per cent, with pre-tax profits expected to reach VN2.1 trillion.

The company also plans to spend no more than VN5.8 trillion on infrastructure upgrades at half of its 22 nationwide airports this year, including major terminals in Ha Noi, HCM City and central a Nang City.

Currently, the State retains a stake of 75 per cent in ACV.

Vu Anh Minh, the director of the transport ministrys enterprise management department, told Vietnam News Agency last November that the States stake in ACV would be reduced from 75 to 65 per cent at a suitable time.

The reduction would depend upon the governments calculations in retaining its stake in the company, and the need for capital to assure progress in the Long Thanh project, he said.


photo source: offshoreenergytoday.com

This is the first time that Rosneft is operating a drilling project in international waters.

The designed depth of the well will be around 1,380 metres, while the sea depth in the area is about 162 metres. The expected recoverable reserves of natural gas in PLDD geological structure are estimated at 12.6 billion cubic metres and 0.6 million tonnes of gas condensate, which can be developed by subsea completion systems and tied-back to Rosnefts Lan Tay platform in Block 6.1.

The drilling will be performed using the HAKURYU-5 drilling rig owned and operated by Japan Drilling Co., Ltd.

Following PLDD, the company will drill another exploration well in Block 05.3/11, also in the Nam Con Son basin. According to Rosneft, incorporating the two wells into the same programme will ensure synergy between the two projects and help reduce their implementation time, thus maximising the efficiency of exploration projects at the companys Vietnamese assets.

Vietnam B.V. also plans to map Block 6.1 operatorship, using broadband 3D seismic technology, later this year to enhance on-going production recovery and explore potential prospects of deeper reserves.

Commenting on the start of drilling, chairman of the Rosneft Management Board Igor Sechin said, Rosneft has already demonstrated their competence in Russia with the successful drilling of the world's northernmost well in the Kara Sea, which resulted in the discovery of the Pobeda field. Today, the company starts a similar project in international waters. I am sure that the experience gained in Vietnam will be utilised by the company not only in the southern seas, but in the planning and implementation of upstream projects in remote areas.

I would especially like to emphasise that this project is an example of advanced cooperation with the company's partners in the Asia-Pacific: PetroVietnam and Indias Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. We appreciate not only the current progress of joint projects in Vietnam, but also the future prospect for their development, he added.
A corner of sea port in the central province of Nghe Tinh. The port is one of nine ports expected to get investment capital from Singaporean businesses. - Photo ndh.vn

Speaking at the meeting with Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Hong Truong in Ha Noi on March 8, the ambassador said his term of office had witnessed an obvious development co-operation between Viet Nam and Singapore.

He said three years ago, Singapore was the fourth largest investors in Viet Nam. It was now the third largest investor in the country with total investment capital of US$34.7 billion.

The two countries have developed co-operation as two friends rather than two competitors. Therefore there will be many areas the two sides can further co-operation in the future, Ng Tech Hean said.

He said he had kept track on the information of the country's equitisation. Singaporean businesses had invested in many big projects such as Cai Mep  Thi Vai and Sai Gon Port. The businesses expected to learn more about equitisation at the Viet Nam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines).

At the meeting, Truong said Singapore was well experienced in transport management and investment and exploitation of sea port for Viet Nam to learn and study.

As for the equitisation of the transport ministry's enterprises, the deputy minister said all maritime businesses had carried them out. Meanwhile, Vinalines had submitted its plan to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung for approval.

He said the seaports companies had completed equitisation, were regularly reducing the State's capital. The prime minister had recently asked the transport ministry to build an overall plan for a seaport system and draw the entire capital of the State at nine seaports.

Nine sea ports include cang Khuyen Luong, Da Nang, Vinalines - Dinh Vu, and Cam Ranh, apart from Nam Can, Nghe Tinh, Can Tho and Cai Lan.

Truong said he hoped Singaporean businesses would invest in buying stakes at these ports. With the SP-PSA joint venture port, the dredged system was able to receive vessels with tonnage of 50,000 tonnes.

The ministry had also submitted the government charges of the seaport service. The charges would be applied for seaports in Cai Mep  Thi Vai area and HCM City, Truong said.
Photo: VNA

The two sides highly appraised the active developments in the two nations relations over the recent 50 years since 1965.

The two leaders agreed to enhance bilateral political ties through delegation exchanges, intensifying coordination and support at the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement and other international forums as well as shared opinions on regional and international situations and shared common principles to address disputes and differences in order to ensure peace and stability in regions and the world.

They consented that territorial disputes and conflicts must be dealt with peaceful measures based on international regulations.

In terms of trade, the two sides discussed a number of measures to enhance bilateral trade to be suitable with their countries potential.

Viet Nam is ready to assist Tanzanias commodity to get access to ASEAN and members of free trade agreements to which Viet Nam is a member, State President Sang said, expecting that Tanzania will facilitate Vietnamese commodities entering Tanzania, other East African countries and the Southern African Development Community, heading to a two-way trade turnover of US$1 billion by 2020.

The two leaders also agreed to organize the second meeting of the Viet Nam-Tanzania Joint Committee in Dar es Salaam in 2016. They encouraged the two sides localities to directly cooperate.

They reached a consensus on accelerating the signing of an agreement on avoidance of double taxation and an agreement on investment encouragement and protection.

State President Sang took the occasion to invite his Tanzanian counterpart to visit Viet Nam. As the invitation is accepted, the date of the visit will be arranged through the diplomatic channel.
The amount of imported steel billets rose from more than 466,000 tonnes in 2012 to 1.5 million tonnes in 2015. The amount of imported long steel products also rose from more than 387,000 tonnes in 2012 to 1.2 million tonnes in 2015. - Photo dantri.com.vn

As per the Decision No 862/QD-BCT issued by the ministry, it will impose temporary safeguard duties of 23.3 per cent on steel billets and 14.2 per cent on long steel products for a maximum of 200 days.

However, these safeguards will not be applicable on products from developing countries such as Cambodia and Indonesia, whose steel exports to Viet Nam account for less than 3 per cent of the country's total imports.

On December 25, 2015, the MoIT issued Decision No 14296/QD-BCT on a safeguard investigation into imports of steel billets and long steel products, on a complaint lodged by local producers Hoa Phat Steel Joint Stock Company (JSC), Southern Steel Co Ltd, Thai Nguyen Iron and Steel JSC and Viet Nam-Italy Steel JSC.

The four companies said the proposal for investigations came from a surge of imported steel billets and long steel products.

Specifically, the amount of imported steel billets rose from more than 466,000 tonnes in 2012 to 1.5 million tonnes in 2015. The amount of imported long steel products also rose from more than 387,000 tonnes in 2012 to 1.2 million tonnes in 2015.

Many others, however, called for a halt to the investigation as unlike big companies they depended on imported steel billets for production, and high duties would increase their input costs and lowering profit margin.

Investigated steel products are classified under Harmonisation System Codes or HS 7207.11.00; 7207.19.00; 7207.20.29; and 7207.20.99; in addition to 7224.90.00; 7213.10.00; 7213.91.20; and 7214.20.31. More classifications are 7214.20.41; 7227.90.00; 7228.30.10; and 9811.00.00.

Viet Nam has been already imposing trade tariffs of up to 20 per cent on these products.

The ministry said it will continue with an investigation launched at the end of last year into possible damage caused by steel imports.

Initial findings suggested that the recent surge of imports has caused serious damage to local production of steel billets and long steel products, the ministry said.

Last year, steel imports surged 218 per cent to nearly 1.89 million tonnes, compared to an increase of between 5 per cent and 10 per cent on the sales of domestic products.

More than 1.28 million tonnes of long steel products were brought into Viet Nam last year, up 47 per cent from 2014, while local producers posted increases between 15 per cent and 25 per cent in sales.

Investigation

The Ministry of Industry and Trade last week decided to carry out an anti-dumping investigation into coated steel sheets imported from China and South Korea.

The Viet Nam Competition Authority (VCA) said on its website that measures would be enacted to prevent such products imported from China, including Hong Kong, and South Korea, from being dumped in the Vietnamese market, the VCA added.

The final conclusion would be announced within 12 months since the beginning of the investigation or extended more six months in special situation.

The VCA would provide questions on quantity and prices to the producers and exporters in the markets which have been blamed for dumping in Viet Nam, as well as producers and importers in the country.

Investigated steel products are classified under Harmonisation System Codes or HS 7210.41.11; 7210.41.12; and 7210.41.19 from October 1, 2014 to September 30, 2015.

On December 24, 2015, the VCA received appeals from four steel firms, including China Steel Sumikin Viet Nam JSC, Phuong Nam Co Ltd, Nam Kim Steel JSC, and Dong A Steel JSC, demanding the implementation of measures to prevent coated steel sheets shipped from these markets from being sold at cheap prices in Viet Nam.

The four firms have accused companies from the markets of dumping their products in the Southeast Asian country, which seriously affects local businesses.

In 2015, China exported between 1.6 million metric tonnes and 1.8 million metric tonnes to Viet Nam, covering nearly a half of the total products currently manufactured by local enterprises.

This is the second time Viet Nam has officially started an investigation into anti-dumping issues.

In October, 2014, Viet Nam started to prevent dumping of stainless steel imported from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Taiwan by applying tariffs of 3.41 per cent to 37.29 per cent, depending on the manufacturing nations, for a five-year period.
The workers were Dang Quoc Nghia, 44, and Nguyen Viet Hau, 33, both Vietnamese nationals, who were in the southern African nation on valid work visas.

Nghia, from Cam Nam Village at the Cam Xuyen District of Ha Tinh Province had worked in Angola for three years while his coworker, Hau , was from Son Tho Village at the Vu Quang District of Ha Tinh Province.

The Vietnam Embassy believes that there was only one gunman involved in the shooting but said the motivation was unclear. The Embassy has started a collection to raise funds to help transport the two mens remains home.
The Vietnam 2035 report covers recommendations for the country to reach an upper-middle-income status within two decades. Which recommendations impress you the most?

This report was compiled based on a thorough analysis of Vietnams potentials and opportunities over the next 20 years, and the countrys achievement of deeper international integration via its participation in various free trade agreements (FTAs). Benefiting from these agreements, Vietnam will have more leverage to speed up industrialisation.

In the report, experts optimistically forecast that in order to become an upper-middle-income nation, Vietnam will have to produce an annual growth of at least 7 per cent, raising the average income to over $7,000 ($18,000 after purchasing power parity adjustment) by 2035, from the $2,052 ($5,370 after PPP adjustment) in 2014.

I think that Vietnam has what it takes to do this and even boot it with an additional per cent of annual growth, as well as realise its industrialisation and modernisation ambitions successfully.

However, in order to reach this target, Vietnam would have to continue bolstering its Doi moi policy reforms more vehemently. We have done a good job in introducing economic reforms. But if we stop short now, we will surely miss opportunities.

The key message of the reports recommendations is for Vietnam to boost the construction and implementation of a market mechanism. In this market, all relations and resource allocations must be conducted in a transparent and regulated environment.

Over the past decades, the state has been performing as a regulator, a producer, and a trader. Thus, it is extremely important now to separate its regulatory and commercial activities by transforming its role in the economy from producer to effective regulator and facilitator.

The Vietnam 2035 recommendations are quite appropriate to Vietnams needs and the countrys leadership must have a thorough study of them.

Investing into institutional reforms is the most cost-efficient avenue to Vietnams ambitions. In addition, we would need to materialise the 12th National Party Congresss spirit and continue reforming our economic institutions in tandem with effectively renewing the administrative apparatus, public financial policies, and investments.

It is of particular importance to enhance the role of private enterprises. Building a strong base of local private enterprises must be considered a priority. A nations internal strength is extremely important and is a key to higher economic growth.

To this end, it is necessary to review all policies and laws so as to build an effective market mechanism. A modern market must be erected, with the effective use of opportunities brought about by international integration, such as the import tariff reductions from FTA member states, in order to increase exports.

Additionally, all policies allocating national resources must bear in mind the benefit of all people, not only select groups. Otherwise, economic inequality (also known as the gap between the rich and the poor, income inequality, wealth disparity, or wealth and income differences) will expand even wider.

How can these recommendations be realised? Does the report see many obstacles in Vietnam?

To be precise, there is a web of many intertwined and vexed interests in Vietnam, which the report claims must be removed. If we fail, economic inequality will grow and further impede the countrys development. This will go against the principle of sustainable development.

I would like to stress that a multitude of policies will have to be adjusted, so that the reports recommendations can be materialised. For instance, the current framework of citizens rights to own assets and land need to be revised.

One of the noteworthy recommendations suggests that Vietnam remove the commercialisation of state institutions in economic activities. What are your views on this issue?

As a matter of fact, over the past many years, the state has been strongly and directly engaged in economic activities through state-owned enterprises (SOEs), particularly through large state economic groups, and indirectly through close linkages between the state and an exclusive segment of the domestic private sector.

However, the scene has moved on by now, meaning that we must renew the role of the state. The state has become a producer and trader, but what it currently needs to do is become a regulator and facilitator. It should support private enterprises in human resources training and the application of new technologies. The state should only engage where private enterprises cannot or do not want to.

Under the Law on Management and Use of State Capital Invested in Production and Business at Enterprises, the state shall make investments in four sectorial groups, namely public goods and services, security, key telecommunications and satellites related to national interests, and sectors unattractive to private enterprises.

However, I would advise caution and patiencelet us wait and see how this law will be implemented.

The World Bank and various international organisations proposed Vietnam need strong political commitment to implement the reports recommendations. What do you think of this?

In my opinion, political commitment in this case means the countrys enactment of laws. For example, we recently amended the Civil Code, highlighting the issue of citizens rights to own assets. Also, we revised the Code of Criminal Procedure, acknowledging the right to silence.

That is political commitment, which is reflected in legislation. However, international organisations have proposed that Vietnam make stronger political commitment. It is likely that they require Vietnam to further clarify land and asset ownership rights, because such rights remain unclear for now.


illustration photo

Deputy Minister Nguyen The Phuong stated that under Vietnams new strategy to draw in foreign direct investment (FDI) for the 2016-2020 period, total FDI (excluding locally-contributed capital) is expected to reach around $65.5-72.8 billion, occupying 14.7-15 per cent of Vietnams total development capital for the period (see table).

In order to attract such a sizeable volume of FDI, the local business climate will be further reformed in order to take full advantage of free trade agreements (FTAs), Phuong said at a recent meeting on Vietnams socio-economic environment organised by the National Assemblys Economic Committee.

A large part of this capital will come from hi-tech and environmentally friendly projects that are also labour intensive, he said.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), over the next five years the government will prioritise projects on developing supporting industries, renewable energy, new materials, electronics, information and technology, biological technology, human resource training, and high-quality health care.

Special projects will receive special incentives. Founding research and development centres will be strongly encouraged, said an MPI report highlighting Vietnams potential FDI attraction for the 2016-2020 period.

At the same time, the government will reject projects that consume high amounts of energy, unprocessed natural resources, or out-dated technology, as well as projects that are likely to pollute the environment.

Kim Kyong Keun, head of Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agencys Investment Support Division, said that Vietnam is expected to attract more and more FDI in the near future, and the countrys economic growth would continue to rely on foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs), which held 68.2 per cent of Vietnams total export turnover last year.

This rate has been steadily rising over the past few years, from 49.1 per cent in 2011 to 62.5 per cent in 2014.

FIEs import ratio of Vietnams total import turnover also climbed from 45.7 per cent in 2011 to 57 per cent in 2014, ultimately reaching 58.7 per cent last year.

One of the reasons behind an expected surge of FDI into Vietnam is that Vietnam has joined and will join many FTAs, Keun said.

For instance, after the Trans-Pacific Partnership takes effect (slated for early 2018), the Vietnamese textile export turnover to the US, EU, and Japan will increase to an expected $30 billion by 2020.

Also, thanks to the ASEAN Economic Community, many Thai, Singaporean, and Japanese firms entered the mergers and acquisitions market in Vietnam, said Keun, adding that Korean firms were likely to join in the action as well.

According to the MPI, FDI contributed greatly to Vietnams socio-economic development over the past five years, with a total disbursed sum (including locally-contributed capital) of $60.5 billion, up 35.6 per cent compared to the 2006-2010 period. Disbursed FDI in 2011-2015 steadily increased from $11 billion in 2011 and 2012 to hit $14.5 billion last year.

In the same period, total newly-registered and newly-added FDI reached $99 billion.

In the first two months of this year, Vietnam drew in $2.8 billion of newly-registered and newly-added FDI (up 35 per cent on-year), with a total disbursement of $1.5 billion (up 15.4 per cent on-year).



Last year, the country attracted $22.8 billion in newly-registered and newly-added FDI (up 2.5 per cent on-year), with a total disbursement of $14.5 billion (up 17.4 per cent on-year).
You have permission to edit this article.

Edit Close
Forensic testing on reported O.J. Simpson knife should be completed within two weeks
Aid agencies say there is a desperate need to train more mental health professionals in Iraq to treat the survivors of Islamic State kidnappings and attacks.

In 2014, Islamic State militants entered 17-year-old Nihad Barakat's Yazidi village in northern Iraq. They killed the men and kidnapped 28 members of her family.

Speaking at a news conference in London Wednesday, Nihad described what happened next.

"The worst torture happened to us in Mosul, she says. The girls were raped, they were all taken from their families and raped constantly. And then they were handed out to the emirs [leaders] from Daesh. We were beaten and raped constantly for two weeks, and then I was chosen by one of the emirs and taken to another place," she said.

Her kidnapper was killed in fighting  and Nihad was sold to another Islamic State fighter as a sex slave. She became pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy.

"With the help of somebody I managed to make a phone call to my family. I managed to escape after that, but I had to leave my baby behind," she said.

Such trauma leaves huge mental scars - that are often left untreated. Nihad is receiving practical and psychological support from the AMAR Foundation aid group  which is raising money to train more mental health professionals in Iraq. Doctor Ali Muthanna is Iraq director for the charity.

They have witnessed plenty of things that will never be erased from their memory. They have witnessed killing, they have witnessed parts of bodies scattered here and there, the screaming of their mothers and sisters, etc. So we need a very comprehensive collaboration from different partners in order to establish a rehabilitation program," said Muthanna.

Hundreds of Yazidi women are still being held in slavery by Islamic State.

Protests were held Tuesday this week  International Women's Day  to highlight their plight.

Protest leader Samia Shingali says they want to send a message to the international community to do something to bring back our Yazidi mothers and sisters, to save them from the hands of Islamic State terrorists. She says it has been two years now since the kidnappings, and the issue is being ignored internationally.

Aid agencies say a whole generation of young Iraqis and Syrians are being left with deep psychological scars  and many of them will likely never receive treatment.
Austria has endorsed four Balkan countries' decision to close their borders this week to almost all migrants, and called for the migrants' path to remain closed indefinitely.

Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner says her government supports the action to restrict immigrants trying to cross the Balkans to northern Europe. This week's action by Slovenia, Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia applies to all migrants except those planning to seek asylum in those four countries.

Mikl-Leitner told the German daily Die Welt Thursday that the so-called "Balkan route" for migrants should stay closed permanently, because - in her words - "The clock will not be turned back."

More migrants die

Meanwhile, Turkish news agencies say five migrants, including a three-month-old infant, have drowned off Turkey's western coast after a boat taking them to Greece sank on the way to the island of Lesbos.

Nine people were reported rescued from the boat, which was carrying Afghan and Iranian migrants. Two are still missing.

In the face of U.N. opposition, the European Union and Turkey are working to finalize a plan to return to Turkey all migrants arriving in Greece from there.

The U.N. human rights chief, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, says such a plan would be illegal.



"I urge the EU to adopt a much more rights-compliant and humane set of measures on migration" at a summit scheduled to begin March 17, Al Hussein told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva Thursday.

"International guarantees protecting human rights may not be side-stepped or diluted," he added. "Any returns of people must be in conformity with international human-rights standards. Arbitrary and prolonged detention must be avoided."

Deal with Turkey

After months of disagreements among the 28 EU nations, EU leaders said this week they will give Turkey more than $3 billion to help with the costs of hosting nearly 3 million Syrian refugees. In exchange for Turkey's help in stemming migration flows to Europe, the deal would include ease European visa requirements for Turks and a promise to speed up talks about Ankara's application to join the EU.

A tentative agreement also calls for the EU to resettle one Syrian refugee from Turkey in return for every Syrian refugee Turkey takes back from Greece.

Tens of thousands of migrants from Syria and other countries are now stranded in Greece, blocked from their goal of reaching northern Europe since Macedonia closed its border Wednesday.

The situation near the Greek-Macedonian border was described as dire this week. Authorities say nearly 36,000 migrants and refugees are stranded in a muddy, unhygienic camp near the Idomeni border crossing into Macedonia. Others are stuck in Macedonia near the Serbian border, in a "no-man's-land" between the two countries' frontiers.
The special U.N. investigator on freedom of religion or belief is calling for the universal repeal of blasphemy laws, saying they restrict freedom of expression and promote hatred of and intolerance toward minority religions.

In a report submitted Thursday to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Heiner Bielefeldt said freedom of religion and freedom of expression are mutually reinforcing, allowing both rights to flourish, but that blasphemy laws cast a pall over these basic rights. He said religious minorities suffer most from the chilling effects the laws create.

Bielefeldt said Pakistan is known for its draconian blasphemy laws that even carry the death penalty. Although the ultimate sentence has never been carried out, he said many people accused of blasphemy are on death row.

The investigator said studies show that religious minorities in Pakistan who suffer disproportionally from the laws include Shiites, Christians and Ahmadis, who are accused of not being true Muslims; but, he noted numerous countries - in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Central Asia and even Europe - have blasphemy laws on the books.

Bielefeldt said Germany, Denmark, Poland and Greece either have laws that hark back to the old colonial period or, what he calls, post-blasphemy laws. These, he said, are not meant to honor God, but to protect religious feelings. He told VOA that Russia also has tightened its blasphemy laws.



Russia, also in the U.N. Human Rights Council now, really has taken over the torch from Pakistan to argue for the protection of the feelings of ordinary believers, which means mainly, of course, Orthodox believers. So, usually these blasphemy laws protect majorities... the feelings of majorities, while minorities pay the price, Bielefeldt said.

In the interest of clarity and credibility, Bielefeldt said European countries should clean up the old-fashioned blasphemy laws or post-blasphemy laws as the Parliamentarian Assembly of the Council of Europe has demanded.

While the laws are largely associated with Muslim countries, he said they also exist within Hindu, Buddhist and Christian societies. He said they often are used to stifle critical voices and breed intolerance, discrimination and hatred against people based on religious belief.

In Central Asian countries and Russia, Bielefeldt said religious minorities increasingly are being targeted and arrested in the name of fighting extremism. While fighting extremism is a legitimate concern, he said this must not be done at the expense of restricting peoples basic human rights.
Tensions are brewing in eastern Cameroon between residents and small-scale Chinese gold miners who began setting up camp there six years ago. Local miners say the Chinese have taken away their livelihoods and are not living up to promises to develop the area.



Local miners began extracting gold around Betare Oya in 2007. Three years later, the Chinese arrived.



Miner Emmanuel Manga says he couldnt compete and had to become a commercial moto driver. He says he now makes barely $60 a month, a quarter of what he used to earn.



He says Cameroon should not allow Chinese to go so far as digging in their gold fields or hiring laborers for very little wages to dig. He says it has made them poor.



About 300 Chinese miners are now working in the area, far more than the 100 authorized by Cameroonian authorities.

The Chinese miners use Caterpillar tractors and equipment that clean stones and sift soil allowing them to detect gold faster than locals who use manual tools.

Angry locals have responded by slashing tires, vandalizing equipment and even beating some Chinese miners. Dozens of the Chinese have fled for safety to neighboring towns and only visit to oversee their businesses.



Broken promises

Adamou Assamou, the traditional ruler of the locality, says locals have not seen any sign of the development they were promised.



He says they were told by their local authorities that all Chinese gold miners had to buy pieces of land and construct beautiful houses in their villages but, he adds, that has not happened. He says the Chinese have instead built temporary camps near their mining areas and they dont close the open pits they dig when they are finished. He says they only see Chinese miners in town when they come to buy food.

Locals say the gold exploitation also leaves polluted holes and destroys vegetation and animal habitats.

But Chinese gold miner Chris Ho says his company, which is operating with a temporary permit, has provided roads, generators and safe drinking water.

"We have built a lot of houses, I guess a lot of things. A lot of [Chinese] have already come here. They have brought a lot of things and they are changing the lives of the local people because Chinese and Cameroonians are just like together and we understand each other better," Ho says.

Ghana, one of the worlds top gold producing countries, has experienced similar tensions. In 2013, the government cracked down, arresting illegal foreign miners and ultimately deporting thousands of Chinese nationals.

Crackdown urged

Economic analyst Emmanuel Mihamle says Cameroon could crack down as well, despite its longstanding ties to China.



Mihamle says since independence in 1960, China has built roads, hospitals, schools and hydroelectric dams and, in return, he says Cameroon has allowed Chinese companies to exploit and export natural resources like gold, rubber, diamonds and wood but he adds that the understanding is that these activities should be mutually beneficial.



In 2014, the government cracked down on what it said was the illegal export of gold and diamonds, and suspended some foreign mining contracts.
In February, China suffered a sharp 20 percent decline in its exports, exacerbating concerns that the country may be dragging down the world economy faster than previously estimated. Economists say they are also worried that China is slowing down its reforms agenda, and focusing too much attention on the immediate need to save jobs and maintain political stability.



The issues top the agenda this week as officials in China hold high level political meetings in Beijing. But despite official candor about the hard battle China faces, the focus still appears to be on cautious steps to maintain economic growth, analysts said.



Their (Chinese leaders) immediate worry is to shore up the economy in the short run, said Julian Evans-Pritchard, a China economist with Capital Economics. Because of that, he adds, China is not going for any major restructuring that would lead to significant layoffs and consequent social unrest.



The government will keep inefficient public companies alive rather than risk job losses, he said.



Who is dragging whom down?



In a report on Wednesday, the World Bank said slowing growth in China and Asia's emerging economies are driving the slowdown.



China disagrees and in his speech to the National Peoples Congress, Premier Li Keqiang argued that that it was declining global growth that is affecting the Chinese economy and not the other way around.



Li pointed out that China continues to be a major contributor to the world economy, and said that there will be no hard landing of the Chinese economy as some experts have predicted. Li said that Chinas growth this year is expected to be between 6.5 and seven percent.



His comments were seen as a signal to financial markets, which are nervous about a major downscaling of the Chinese economy.



Hard landing



Some economists note that it is difficult to gauge what amounts to a "hard landing."



There is no definition for hard landing. I don't know why some people are talking about it. I don't expect the Chinese economy to come down sharply, though the growth will be a little below the target, said Andrew Batson, China research director for consulting firm Gavekal Dragonomics in Beijing.



Batson did agree, however, with predictions that the governments policies would enlarge the size of local debt, which is already weighing down the economy. Government debt is going to increase in 2016 as there is a lot of hidden debt, he said.



To keep growth going and minimize the impact on society and jobs, Premier Li also announced a $16 billion package for resettling workers who would be unemployed due to the expected closure of certain sunset industries and mines. Observers said that in doing this, the Chinese leader was signaling the Communist Party to prepare for large scale layoffs, which risks serious social unrest.

Reforms slow



Some analysts said the Communist Partys obsession with controlling every aspect of the economy instead of giving market forces free rein continues to stifle growth.



Domestic and foreign observers have noted that Chinas reform efforts are not progressing as fast as many would have hoped. This has impeded efforts by international companies to access the Chinese market, and stunted opportunities for domestic firms as well.



Last year, the financial magazine Caixin analyzed 113 key reforms initiated by the government and found that only 23 were progressing on what it called the "fast lane." Most were moving along slowly, while others had completely stalled.



China could easily generate faster and healthier growth by reducing barriers to private and foreign investment in services such as healthcare, education, and logistics, and by making the anti-corruption program operate less like a campaign, said Scott Kennedy, deputy director of the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But he added that they are unlikely to do either.



Chinas trilemma



For their part, Chinese officials said reforms are going forward and they called 2016 the year of intensifying reform implementation.



Even so, concern about Chinas reform efforts is spreading and having an impact.



Earlier this week, the global credit ratings agency Moodys warned that China was trying to take on too much at once, and that it would not succeed to simultaneously restructure the economy, promote growth and ensure stability because of the conflicting efforts needed for them.



The comments about Chinas conflicting agendas comes as Moodys downgraded its outlook on the Chinese economy to negative.

That has triggered a backlash among Chinas political elite.



Moody's and other Western ratings agencies should put into full consideration China's weight and unique economic and political structures before they rush to judgment, an editorial in the communist party-backed Global Times wrote. They should research the special role of the Communist Party of China in state governance. This is the kernel of China's system.



The paper added that the Western elite should stay humble and open-minded until they really understand China.



Pansy Yau, deputy chief economist with the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, believes China will be able to achieve structural reforms without suffering negative fallout because its unemployment rate is stable.



China will implement structural reforms and also make sure there is enough job creation, she said. Besides, she added, the government will use monetary measures to stimulate the economy to boost growth.
The White House said it is not particularly concerned about an editorial published in Cubas state newspaper warning the United States against meddling in its internal affairs. The editorial comes as President Barack Obama prepares for a historic visit to Havana, March 21-22.



The editorial published on Wednesday in the Communist Partys official newspaper, Granma, said while Barack Obama will be warmly welcomed, the communist government has no plans to change its political system as the two nations normalize relations after more than 50 years.



The article noted there should be no doubt about the Cuban governments commitment to its revolutionary and anti-imperialist ideals. It also criticized U.S. support for the rights of political dissidents, saying Washington should abandon the pretense of fabricating an internal political opposition, paid for with money from U.S. taxpayers.



White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Wednesday the White House is not worried about the opinion piece and reiterated the president's intention of meeting with political opponents of the Cuban government and standing up for, in a very tangible way, the universal human rights of the Cuban people.



There are reports the two countries have been at odds about which dissidents Obama will meet. According to reports, Havana is proposing that he meet only with government-approved members of "civil society."

The White House has insisted it solely will determine the list of Cuban citizens, including anti-government activists, with whom the president will visit during the trip.



This is an opportunity to use the moral influence of the United States to advocate for greater freedoms for the Cuban people, Earnest said. Thats something that the United States does around the world and it certainly makes sense that we would be doing that in a country just 90 miles off our shores.



Since the policy shift, the U.S. has cleared the path for more travel, trade and commerce with Cuba and has urged the Cuban government to make it easier for Cuban citizens to start businesses, engage in trade and access information online.

Too many concessions

The Obama administration approach toward Cuba is sharply opposed by many in the Republican-led Congress and by some Republican presidential hopefuls. Florida Senator Marco Rubio has threatened to reverse the change in U.S.-Cuba relations.



U.S. critics of Obamas policy to normalize relations argue the U.S. leader gave too many concessions in the policy shift, particularly when it comes rights, such as freedom of association, freedom of speech and the ability to engage in politics.



But [Obama] is not giving up on human rights in order to normalize relations with Cuba; he is normalizing with relations with Cuba as a way to make progress on human rights, said William LeoGrande, Cuba expert and American University government professor.



In December 2014, Obama announced the United States would re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba and begin the process of normalizing relations. The White House has argued that decades of U.S. isolation of Cuba failed to build an open and democratic country and diminished U.S. influence in the Western Hemisphere.
Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders challenged each other's records, particularly on immigration, in a sometimes contentious debate Wednesday night in the southeastern state of Florida.

They compete in a primary there and in four other delegate-rich states next Tuesday with Vermont Senator Sanders trying to build off a surprise win in Michigan and catch the former secretary of state.

Clinton criticized Sanders for voting against an immigration reform bill in 2007, while he slammed Clinton for opposing a push to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses. But both candidates said they would not deport children or immigrants who do not have a criminal record.

They addressed Republican candidate Donald Trump's much different stances on immigration that include a pledge to build a wall at the Mexican border and deporting the 11 million people living in the country illegally.

Clinton called the wall plan a fantasy, while Sanders said the idea of removing 11 million people is a "vulgar, absurd idea."

Clinton again defended using a personal email account for official business when she was secretary of state, repeating her assertion that she did nothing illegal. When asked if she will pull out of the presidential race if she faces criminal charges, an exasperated Clinton said she would not even respond.



WATCH: Clinton, Sanders trade barbs on immigration

Sanders said he is the strongest candidate to beat Republican front-runner Donald Trump in a head-to-head match.

Referring to the top Republican, Sanders said the American people are never going to elect a president who insults Mexicans, Muslims, women and blacks.

While Clinton declined to outright call Trump a racist, she turned his campaign slogan against him by saying: "You don't make America great by getting rid of everything that made America great."
El Salvador could declare a state of emergency, suspending some constitutional rights, to fight the alarming wave of gang violence that has pushed murder rates to record levels, the government said on Tuesday.

Leftist President Salvador Sanchez Ceren met with the Supreme Court, legislature and public prosecutor's office to discuss the legal viability of actions such as prohibiting meetings and free movement, or tapping into mail, phone calls and social media, officials said.

The small, impoverished Central American state ranks among the world's most violent, with criminal gangs controlling chunks of territory. Murders jumped almost 120 percent in the first two months of this year compared to 2015.

Just last week, gangs were fingered for 11 deaths in a rural part of the country.

The constitution allows the government to declare a state of emergency in cases of war, invasion, uprising or sedition, which would restrict free movement, freedom of expression and meetings, and suspend the privacy of traditional and electronic correspondence.

The opposition party is also in favor of any measures, but labor unions fear such methods could be used against them.

Eugenio Chicas, communications secretary, told reporters the government was considering a range of measures and would make the decision in coming days.
The United States' first uterus transplant has failed.

Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio said Wednesday the 26-year-old patient developed a "sudden complication" and the transplanted organ had to be removed.

Doctors gave no additional information on the condition itself. They said there is always a risk in organ transplants, and that they took all necessary precautions and measures to ensure patient safety.

The patient, who is only identified as Lindsey, says she is doing "OK" and thanked her medical team for putting her health and safety first.

She was given the uterus from a deceased donor Feb. 24.

Despite Wednesday's developments, the Cleveland Clinic says the study is still ongoing "with a commitment to the advancement of medical research to provide an additional option for women and their families."

The study is to involve 10 women who have problems conceiving a child.

The procedure has been successful in Sweden with five healthy births from nine transplants.
The ashes of half a dozen unidentified laborers ended up at a Buddhist temple in this town just north of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

Some of the dead men had no papers, others left no emergency contacts. Their names could not be confirmed and no family members had been tracked down to claim their remains.

They were simply labeled decontamination troops -- unknown soldiers in Japan's massive cleanup campaign to make Fukushima livable again five years after radiation poisoned the fertile countryside.

Contamination zone

The men were among the 26,000 workers -- many in their 50s and 60s from the margins of society with no special skills or close family ties -- tasked with removing the contaminated topsoil and stuffing it into tens of thousands of black bags lining the fields and roads. They wipe off roofs, clean out gutters and chop down trees in a seemingly endless routine.

Coming from across Japan to do a dirty, risky and undesirable job, the workers make up the very bottom of the nation's murky, caste-like subcontractor system long criticized for labor violations.

Vulnerable to exploitation and shunned by local residents, they typically work on three-to-six-month contracts with little or no benefits, living in makeshift company barracks. And the government is not even making sure that their radiation levels are individually tested.

They're cleaning up radiation in Fukushima, doing sometimes unsafe work, and yet they can't be proud of what they do or even considered legitimate workers, said Mitsuo Nakamura, a former day laborer who now heads a citizens' group supporting decontamination laborers. They are exploited by the vested interests that have grown in the massive project.

Workers' ghettos

Residents of still partly deserted towns such as Minamisoma, where 8,000 laborers are based, worry that neighborhoods have turned into workers' ghettos with deteriorating safety.

Police data shows arrests among laborers since 2011 have climbed steadily from just one to 210 last year, including a dozen yakuza, or gangsters, police official Katsuhiko Ishida told a prefectural assembly. Residents are spooked by rumors that some laborers sport tattoos linked with yakuza, and by reports that a suspect in serial killings arrested in Osaka last year had worked in the area.

Their massive presence has simply intimidated residents, said Mayor Katsunobu Sakurai. Frankly, the residents need their help but don't want any trouble.

Most of the men work for small subcontractors that are many layers beneath the few giants at the top of the construction food chain. Major projects such as this one are divided up among contractors, which then subcontract jobs to smaller outfits, some of which have dubious records.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare examined more than 300 companies doing Fukushima decontamination work and found that nearly 70 committed violations in the first half of last year, including underpayment of wages and overtime and failure to do compulsory radiation checks. Those companies were randomly chosen among thousands believed to be working in the area.

Violations are so widespread in this multilayer subcontract system. It's like a whack-a-mole situation, said Mitsuaki Karino, a city assemblyman in Iwaki, a Fukushima city where his civil group has helped workers with complaints about employers.

Concern for workers

Karino said workers are sometimes charged for meals or housing they were told would be free, he said, and if they lose jobs or contracts aren't renewed, some go homeless.

It's a serious concern, particularly for workers who don't have families or lost ties with them, he said.

Government officials say they see no other way than to depend on the contracting system to clean up the radiated zone, a project whose ballooning cost is now estimated at 5 trillion yen ($44 billion).

That's how the construction industry has long operated. In order to accomplish decontamination, we need to rely on the practice, said Tadashi Mouri, a health and labor ministry official in charge of nuclear workers' health. He said the ministry has instructed top contractors to improve oversight of subcontractors.

Several arrests have been made in recent months over alleged labor violations.

A complaint filed by a worker with labor officials led to the October arrest of a construction company president who had allegedly dispatched workers to Fukushima under misleading circumstances. The investigation found that the worker had been offered pay of 17,000 yen ($150) per day, but after middlemen took a cut he was getting only 8,000 yen ($70).

In another case, a supervisor and a crane operator were arrested in July for alleged illegal dumping of radiated plant debris in Minamisoma. Five companies heading the project were suspended for six weeks.

Workers' fears

Most workers keep their mouths shut for fear of losing their jobs. One laborer in a gray jacket and baggy pants, carrying cans of beer on his way home, said he was instructed never to talk to reporters.

A 62-year-old seasonal worker, Munenori Kagaya, said he had trouble finding jobs after he and his fellow workers fought for and won unpaid daily danger allowance of 10,000 yen ($88) for work in Tamura city in 2012.

Officials keep close tabs on journalists. Minutes after chatting with some workers in Minamisoma, Associated Press journalists received a call from a city official warning them not to talk to decontamination crews.

Beyond the work's arduous nature, the men also face radiation exposure risks. Inhaling radioactive particles could trigger lung cancer, said Junji Kato, a doctor who provides health checks for some workers.

Although most laborers working in residential areas use protective gear properly, others in remote areas are not monitored closely, according to workers and Nakamura, the leader of the radiation workers support group. Many are not given compulsory training or education about dealing with radiation, he said.

Though group leaders' radiation exposure levels are regularly checked, decontamination workers' individual levels have not been systematically recorded. The government introduced a system in 2013 but only for a fee, and many lower subcontractor workers are likely not covered. Even non-alarmist experts say that workers doses must be kept individually for their own records as well as for studies of low-dose radiation impact.

Contamination levels

Mouri, the government official, said decontamination workers' average annual dose fell to 0.7 millisievert last year, a fraction of the 20-millisievert annual limit for those working at the nuclear plant, and is not a concern.

Though no radiation-induced illness has been detected, workers have developed diabetes, cerebral and respiratory problems, often long untreated due to lack of money, awareness and social ties, local hospital intern Toyoaki Sawano said in a medical magazine last month.

Having trouble making ends meet, a growing number of laborers are seeking welfare assistance, local authorities say. The officials worry that they may end up staying on, like construction laborers did in Osaka and Tokyo after the 1960s building boom, forming Japan's poorest ghettos.

Police and volunteers have started neighborhood patrols amid concerns about safety. Some big construction companies have taken steps to address concerns. Hazama Ando Corp. imposed an 11 p.m. curfew on workers.

Residents say they avoid convenience stores in the evenings, when many laborers stop by after work to buy snacks, bento boxes or beer on their way home. Some of them used to discard their contaminated gloves and masks in garbage bins there, triggering complaints from the neighborhood and prompting the government to launch a manner campaign in December.

At a convenience store in Minamisoma on a recent evening, workers came in waves, waiting quietly in line to pay for food and other items.

The workers face heartless rumors as if they are all reckless outlaws. They are the same human beings. Like anywhere, there are good guys and bad guys, said Nakamura, the support group leader.

One resident grateful for the workers is Hideaki Kinoshita, a Buddhist monk who keeps the unidentified laborers' ashes at his temple, in wooden boxes and wrapped in white cloth.

We owe a lot to those who clean this town, doing the work that locals don't even want to, he said.

Minamisoma city official Tomoyuki Ohwada said the worker population should decline next year, when intensive decontamination efforts are scheduled to end. But Kinoshita believes many will still be needed, given the amount of work left to do.

There is no end to this job, Kinoshita said. Five years from now, the workers will still be around. And more unclaimed ashes may end up here.
It had happened countless times to her before, but when Myra el-Mir shared her anger at being followed by a car full of men and verbally abused, a chance response from a friend gave her cause for reflection.

She told me I should report it on a new site shed heard about, said el-Mir, who, coincidentally, had just launched the site in question  HarassTracker, Lebanons first online tool mapping sexual harassment.

It is exactly the kind of exchange that those behind the website, which went online just two weeks ago, want to generate.

In doing so, they want to help women in Lebanon overcome a culture of acceptance and speak out about a topic that, for many, is as taboo as it is prevalent.

"It's Something You Expect"

The main problem we face is that youre supposed to accept it whether walking down the street or taking a taxi, said el-Mir. Its something you expect.

HarassTracker, which includes resources and links, aims to play a role in helping change that.

It allows victims to anonymously pinpoint where in Beirut they have experienced sexual harassment and include a brief description of what happened.

The hope is that the online map will be rolled out to Lebanon more widely after three months.

We want to allow people to speak anonymously as we know how vicious and virulent the shaming culture is, added Nay el-Rahi, who also worked on the site alongside friend and fellow activist Sandra Hassan.

The idea is that in saying this is wrong and this is happening, the act of reporting itself is empowering.

Inspiration from Egypt

The inspiration behind HarassTracker can be found in Cairo, where a similar site was set up in 2010, just before Egypt was swept up in revolution.

Since then, the site in Egypt, HarassMap, has accumulated around 1,500 reports documenting harassment in categories ranging from catcalls to rape and mob attacks.

It remains a huge problem, but now the issue is more in the open and it is being discussed, said Noora Flinkman, a spokeswoman for HarassMap.

There are lot of reasons why, but HarassMap played a part in that, she added.

Some of these victories are more tangible than others.

In 2014, sexual harassment in Egypt was made a crime punishable by up to five years in jail.

Lack of recognition

In Lebanon, there is no law against sexual harassment.

Laws relating to gender and violence are all too often unaltered relics from the time of the French mandate well over half a century ago, while the countrys extensive network of religious courts often proves less than progressive on the issue.

Meanwhile, lack of recognition both among the public and by authorities means that statistics are hard to come by.

A 2012 study, however, reported that more than a third of women experienced rude, vulgar or harassing noises and gestures toward them most or every time they go out in public.

The issue is massively undocumented, said el-Rahi, who said that harassment and sexism are not just local problems, but global ones.

We think that by having it on a map it will allow us to be able to quantify it and gather information that is a bit more concrete. This should make it easier to prove what is happening.

No one to go to

Beirut resident Haya Farah welcomes the arrival of the site.

The 25-year-old recalled how she felt after a driver of one of the citys many taxis performed a sexual act in front of her.

I was shocked. I consider myself rebellious but felt very weak at the time, said Farah, who told VOA that eight years on she still blamed herself for not reacting differently.

Farah didnt go to the authorities at the time  she said she wouldnt trust them to help and would be better off posting about her experiences on social media instead.

Many women who spoke to VOA about the issue said they did not feel authorities would necessarily take them seriously.

Meanwhile, within these authorities, the gender bias is clear - a source from the Internal Security Forces, (ISF), which oversees policing in the country, revealed that of 26,100 staff, around 1,000 were women.

Beyond the activists

Pins documenting harassment are already scattered across the HarassTracker map of Beirut.

Roula Masri, who works with gender equality-focused non-governmental organization Abaad, warns that while the tool could be very useful, the real challenge will be to reach beyond activists.

Last month, Amnesty International detailed the harassment faced by Syrian refugee women in Lebanon, who it said were at high risk of exploitation because of their financial situation.

And all of those pushing for womens rights are fully aware that, while the site can give much-needed visibility to the issue, the fight is a far bigger one.

There is such a burden on women all the time, added Masri. This is one step, and we must always be taking steps forward.
Subscribe to Colombia Gold newsletter for only US$200 per year to receive the latest news about exploration and development in Latin America each month. Each issue contains news about junior exploration company activity, drilling, financings, deals, regulatory environment and more. Email paul.corresponsal@gmail.com for a sample issue or subscribe today using the Paypal link below.
A human rights expert has condemned Irans excessive use of the death penalty, especially for juvenile offenders, and is calling for a moratorium on the governments use of capital punishment.

Ahmed Shaheed, the special U.N. investigator on human rights in Iran, said he is appalled at the high number of executions in Iran. Last year, he said, nearly 1,000 people were executed, the highest number in two decades.

Shaheed, whose expert findings will be debated at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, said he is alarmed by the ongoing practice of executing juvenile offenders, a procedure that is prohibited under international law. Over the past decade, he said at least 73 minors under age 18 were put to death. He said 16 of them reportedly were executed in 2014 and 2015, the highest figure for five years.

Irans penal code explicitly retains the death penalty for boys as young as 15 lunar years of age and girls as young as nine lunar years for certain crimes such as murder, adultery and sodomyThe number of juvenile executions has increased, not decreased, in the two last years, he said.



In his report, Shaheed said Irans criminal justice system violates the legal rights of its citizens and denies them a fair trial. He said he continues to receive frequent and alarming reports about people being detained for long periods without access to lawyers and subject to torture and ill treatment. He said prisoners are routinely tortured to obtain confessions that are then used as evidence in court.

The report also documents the ongoing abuse of the Bahai religious community. It says the Bahai are harassed and intimidated. They are denied the right to higher education and employment. Many of the communitys leaders are imprisoned.

Shaheed has been investigating Irans human rights record for the past five years. He said the government has never allowed him to visit the country. His mandate comes up for renewal at this session of the human rights council. As in previous years, Shaheed said he expects Iran to try to abolish this position. He said Iran lobbies hard for this to happen. He said that is because Iran, unlike a country like North Korea, cares about its reputation and does not want its human rights record to be displayed before the whole world.
The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee told VOA that Irans missile launches are sparking stronger resolve in Congress to renew and boost U.S. sanctions on Tehran.



There are three categories [of sanctions] that can be looked at in a bipartisan way, and we are attempting to do that now, Republican Senator Bob Corker said.



In particular, Corker said he is working to extend the Iran Sanctions Act, which was suspended as part of last years landmark international nuclear accord with Tehran. The law targets international investment in Iran. It remains on the books but will expire at the end of the year unless Congress extends it.

Responding to congressional developments on Iran, a senior administration official told VOA, "It's not necessary to extend the Iran Sanctions Act at this time since it does not expire until the end of the year. Right now our focus is on implementing the deal, and verifying that Iran completes its key nuclear steps."



President Barack Obama has stated repeatedly that sanctions will snap back if Iran violates the nuclear accord. Such leverage will be lost if the Iran Sanctions Act expires, according to Corker.



In the event there are violations, the snap-back provisions that are a part of the [nuclear] agreement mean that there has to be something to snap back to, the senator said. So extending that, dealing with conventional weapons and dealing with ballistic missiles are three areas that I think we have a possibility of reaching consensus on.



Another committee member, Democrat Robert Menendez, also is on record supporting the ISAs renewal through 2026.



In a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry last October, Menendez wrote, Provisions of the Iran Sanctions Act expire in 2016. Failing to reauthorize these provisions is also a message to the Iranian regime.

Testifying on Capitol Hill last month, Kerry counseled against a rush to extend the ISA and suggested patience during the implementation of the international nuclear deal.



Patience at an end



Iran is developing a nuclear program so that they can put it on top of a ballistic missile and destroy the nation of Israel, Republican Senator Cory Gardner told VOA. They wrote as much on the ballistic missile [launched this week] itself.



Absolutely Congress should increase our sanctions and efforts. But the president might veto it, because this president doesnt seem to want to stop Iranian bad behavior. In fact, in many ways, I think the Iran nuclear deal has enabled Iranian bad behavior, Gardner added.



Democratic Senator Chris Coons hopes for a unified international response to Irans violations of the U.N. resolution.



I think this calls for sustained active global engagement. I think the Security Council should act against this recent ballistic missile launch, Coons said. I continue to urge the administration to be engaged and strenuous in enforcing our existing sanctions against their ballistic missile program, their ongoing human rights violations, as well as their support for terrorism in the region.



Corker said renewing the Iran Sanctions Act would be a unilateral U.S. move, but could cause other nations to act, as well.

Weve seen in the past, sometimes when we begin  just like with North Korea  there are follow-ons that are taken up by other countries, Corker said.



Iran has warned that punitive measures would cause it to terminate its adherence to the nuclear deal.



Asked about Irans most recent missile launches, on Wednesday State Department spokesman John Kirby said the United States will take whatever appropriate response is necessary, either at the U.N. or unilaterally.



We condemn all threats to Israel, and we stand  will stand  with Israel to help it defend itself against all kinds of threats, Kirby added.
With less than a year left in his White House tenure, U.S. President Barack Obama says he has reached an overriding conclusion that the United States can be a force for good in world affairs, but by no means can it or should it try to control every uprising that does not threaten its national security.

In a wide-ranging discourse about his foreign policies during his seven-plus years in office, Obama acknowledged to The Atlantic magazine that he is "controversial" when it comes to the use of American military power, even though he has launched thousands of airstrikes and drone attacks in the Middle East against Islamic State jihadists and provided military support leading to the overthrow of Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi.

"There's a playbook in Washington that presidents are supposed to follow," he told the magazine's correspondent, Jeffrey Goldberg. "It's a playbook that comes out of the foreign policy establishment. And the playbook prescribes responses to different events, and these responses tend to be militarized responses. Where America is directly threatened, the playbook works. But the playbook can also be a trap that can lead to bad decisions."

Reluctance on Assad

In one defining foreign affairs moment of his presidency, Obama backed off from an imminent 2013 attack against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad when Western experts discovered he had amassed chemical weapons and believed he was ordering their use against rebel groups fighting government forces.



But Obama said he concluded "that while we could inflict some damage on Assad, we could not, through a missile strike, eliminate the chemical weapons themselves, and what I would then face was the prospect of Assad having survived the strike and claiming he had successfully defied the United States, that the United States had acted unlawfully in the absence of a U.N. mandate."

Realistic on Russia

Similarly, Obama said he adopted a realistic stance to Russia's 2014 takeover and annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.

"This is an example of where we have to be very clear about what our core interests are and what we are willing to go to war for," he said. "And at the end of the day, there's going to be some ambiguity."

Obama said Russian President Vladimir Putin "acted in Ukraine in response to a client state that was about to slip out of his grasp. And he improvised in a way to hang on to his control there. He's done the exact same thing in Syria (in launching airstrikes to support Assad's forces), at enormous cost to the well-being of his own country.

"And the notion that somehow Russia is in a stronger position now, in Syria or in Ukraine," Obama said, "than they were before they invaded Ukraine or before he had to deploy military forces to Syria is to fundamentally misunderstand the nature of power in foreign affairs or in the world generally."

Comments draw silence, criticism

Saudi Arabia drew Obamas criticism on a couple of fronts. The president faulted Riyadh for funding Wahhabi madrassas that promote a strict Islamic fundamentalism and for its resistance to effectively share the neighborhood with rival Iran, beneficiary of a new nuclear deal negotiated by the United States and other global leaders.

A spokesman with the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C., asked by Foreign Policy to comment on the remarks, tersely said, "No."

By publicly airing such views, Obama will "inflict further damage" on some already-frayed American alliances, said an op-ed for Israel Hayom written by Elliott Abrams. Now a senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, Abrams supervised U.S. policy in the region for the George W. Bush administration.

"American alliances are not in good shape these days, with many countries worrying that President Barack Obama does not value the alliances, their own role in those alliances, or the commitments our alliances imply to the safety of states that are to some degree dependent on the United States, Abrams wrote.

Political surveys in the United States have generally shown Obama's views on the limited use of American force overseas are aligned with those of a U.S. public that is wary of more military intervention after years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq. But Republican presidential candidates looking to succeed him when he leaves office next January have denounced his views, saying he has left the United States a weakened power.

Putting stock in China

Obama said that in the coming decades the U.S. relationship with China "is going to be the most critical."

He said that "if we get that right and China continues on a peaceful rise, then we have a partner that is growing in capability and sharing with us the burdens and responsibilities of maintaining an international order."

But Obama added, "If China fails; if it is not able to maintain a trajectory that satisfies its population and has to resort to nationalism as an organizing principle; if it feels so overwhelmed that it never takes on the responsibilities of a country its size in maintaining the international order; if it views the world only in terms of regional spheres of influence - then not only do we see the potential for conflict with China, but we will find ourselves having more difficulty dealing with these other challenges that are going to come."
Authorities in Pakistan say security forces have arrested 14 suspected militants linked to the Afghan Taliban in the southwestern city of Quetta.

The detainees are being questioned and more information will be shared with media, but it is not known if high-profile (Taliban) leaders are among them, security officials told VOA Thursday on condition of anonymity.

The officials said law enforcement agencies, acting on a tip, picked up the men from the citys eastern Pashtoonabad area, which houses mostly Afghan refugees.

We have also seized important maps and documents about sensitive places and installations in the province, they added, without sharing more details.

Government officials did not immediately comment on the arrests in Quetta.

Peace talk delays



PeacePakistan was supposed to host peace talks between Taliban and Afghan government officials in the first week of March, but, in a last-minute announcement, the insurgent group refused to attend the meeting, citing certain pre-conditions.

Earlier, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Nafees Zakaria, at his weekly news conference in Islamabad, reiterated Pakistan's commitment to promoting the Afghan peace efforts.

It has been our consistent position that a political negotiated settlement is the most viable option for bringing lasting peace to Afghanistan. We will continue to play our positive role in this regard, he said

The Taliban leadership is believed to be sheltering and directing the Afghan insurgency from areas in and around Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, which shares a border with Afghanistan.

For years, Pakistan rejected Afghan and U.S. assertions that Taliban insurgents are using Pakistani soil for their insurgent activities.

Taliban leaders in Pakistan



Last week, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's adviser on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz, for the first time, publicly admitted that Taliban leaders are present in Pakistan and that leverage can be used to push them to the negotiating table for talks with the Afghan government.

We have some influence on them because their leadership is in Pakistan, and they get some medical facilities; their families are here. So we can use those levers to pressurize them to say, 'Come to the table,' Aziz said at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.

Afghan officials say Pakistan has assured a four-nation contact group, which includes China and the United States, that Islamabad will take action against Taliban insurgents on its soil who oppose political reconciliation with Kabul and want to continue with their violent campaign in Afghanistan.
Two Hong Kong booksellers recently released from mainland Chinese custody have returned to Beijing after briefly stopping in Hong Kong, where they asked local police to drop their missing persons cases.

Cheung Chi-ping and Lui Por were released by Chinese officials on separate days last week. Both men immediately departed Beijing for Hong Kong and then crossed back into mainland China on the same days, according to friends and acquaintances.

They probably were given less than 24 hours, the purpose of their return is to ask Hong Kong police to drop their cases," said Bei Ling, a poet and friend of Gui Minhai, one of the missing booksellers. "They had to go back to mainland China, [and] of course it is also to let Hong Kong people think they came back.

Writer Hu Zhiwei, who is a longtime friend of the bookstore owner, Lee Bo, also confirmed to VOA Thursday that the two had returned to mainland China.

According to Hu, Lees wife has sold nearly 450,000 copies of books in a warehouse to a pulp mill and will probably destroy 50,000 copies of books in the store, to shut down the business for good.

After Lees abduction, Lees wife said she would give up everything for her husbands release, including the warehouse and bookstore.

All five missing booksellers were from Causeway Bay Books, a Hong Kong book shop that specializes in gossipy political books about Chinese leaders.

Their cases have raised concern in Hong Kong that Chinese authorities are overriding a "one country, two systems" formula protecting Hong Kong's freedoms since its return to mainland China from British rule in 1997.

Bruce Lui, a senior lecturer at Hong Kongs Baptist University who heads an association of independent commentators, told VOA the pair's swift return to mainland China doesn't appear to "reflect their free will," and suggests they "had been coerced to return to Hong Kong [only] to close the case."

The way it was handled shows mainland China doesnt want the outside world to to investigate, or ask how the booksellers went missing, or whether mainland police illegally conducted the so-called cross-border law enforcement," Lui said. "They want no more pressure from Hong Kong police or civil investigation."

Chinese officials have denied wrongdoing. When asked about the case at a daily news briefing in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said he did not have a "grasp" of the situation and declined further comment.

Mainland Chinese police said in a statement last week that three of the five booksellers  Cheung, Lui and Lam Wing Kee  would be released on bail. It was not clear what would happen to the other two: Gui Minhai, who is a Swedish national who went missing in Thailand last October, and Lee Bo, who is a British citizen and went missing from Hong Kong.

Many in Hong Kong believe the booksellers, who have all appeared in what seem to be staged confessions on Chinese television, were abducted by mainland police.

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA's Mandarin Service. Some information is from Reuters.
Trade Union groups in Swaziland are considering nationwide demonstrations to pressure the administration in Mbabane to increase public sector workers pay.

The government released a salary review report which the unions say increases salaries of mostly senior officials in the public sector but see very little increase for ordinary workers.

Public sector workers in Swaziland have called for increased pay for the last 10 years. The government has often said the global economic downturn has made it difficult to meet those demands. King Mswati's government has called on Swazis to tighten their belts this year.

But, the unions are holding consultations with members to decide when to begin protests, according to Wandile Dludlu, national coordinator for a pro-democracy group known as the Swaziland United Democratic Front (SUDF).

All the public sector workers unions have reacted in a very shocked way in the sense that they have not accepted most of the recommendations of the salaries review report because it seems to give more money to the upper section of the civil service, and very little to the ones that need it the most, which is the middle and the lower sections of the public service. [They] have been calling for the last 10 years... So that is what has basically caused shock waves in most of the public sector unions, said Dludlu.

So far, the reaction points to a possible mass rolling action in terms of protests to force government to concede [by] giving more salary increment to the middle and lower sections of the civil service, as most have been calling for.

Dludlu says the government appears not to heed its own warning to tighten its belt because of the challenging economic conditions in the kingdom. This after the administration announced it has budgeted $6 million ($6,211,983) to buy a new jet for King Mswati. Members of parliament had urged the government to consider buying the king a new jet to replace the current DC-9.

Local media reported the government also aims to seek $9 million from the international community to help pay for drought relief after months of poor rain in parts of the country. Dludlu says Swazis are scared of the repercussions if they were to publicly challenge things that are meant for the kings use, which he adds might not be beneficial to the citizens.

[People] are silent on that, not because Swazis are not necessarily angry or shocked about the confused priorities in the sense that on one hand the country is plunging into a drought disaster, on the [other] hand the king has called in his speech on the throne that there must be tightening of belt by everybody. But government is seen loosening the belt on the spending on [the] kings needs and wants, said Dludlu.

There has been quite an interesting reaction. On one hand public servants have been very angry openly against the prime minister in the issue of the salary review. But there have been quite silence on the other facts around on the reservation of money to be spent just on a jet for the king that is not quiet shocking for some of us because they are afraid to challenge the king openly.

The government plans to buy new cars for use by visiting heads of state and government when Swaziland hosts the Southern African Development Community (SADC) meeting in August. Pro-democracy groups say the planned purchases, which they estimate at more than $11 million, reflect misplaced government priorities.

Supporters of the government insist the administration has an obligation to host the summit as a member of the regional bloc. But Dludlu argued that the administration cannot legitimately spend extravagantly on the summit while claiming it cannot afford to increase the pay of public sector workers.

The reason why we are putting this demand is that on one hand they are saying the workers must tighten their belt, but they at the top are loosening their own belt, by spending more, buying new cars, a fleet of cars [to host] the SADC meeting. The expenditure of the monarchy is going up, but they are saying to the workers, we must tighten belt. It is on the basis of that is why we are not listening to them at all, because they seem not to walk their talk, said Dludlu.

The summit cannot be done at the expense of the abject poverty that continues to ground and grind Swazis.
Switzerland will repatriate about $321 million to Nigeria following an agreement between the governments in Abuja and Geneva, according to Nigerian presidential spokesman Garba Shehu.

The agreement was signed Tuesday by Nigeria's Attorney General Abubakar Malami and Switzerland's Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter in Abuja.

The money represents what's left from funds that former military ruler Sani Abacha stashed in banks in Switzerland. Shehu says he expects the funds to be repatriated soon.

But some Nigerians are skeptical the remaining Abacha funds will be put to good use. They cite previous money repatriated, which they said was stolen or wasn't used to benefit citizens.

Shehu says President Muhammadu Buhari's government, with its zero tolerance for corruption and its transparency and demands for accountability, is winning the confidence of the international community to help the West African country recover public funds siphoned out of its borders.

"It is a happy development and the Nigerian government has been on these issues for quite a while, Shehu said. And it is quite a coincidence that at a time when our reserves are really going down, and there is a yearning for more and more cash, that the Swiss federation is delivering this windfall."

Billions of dollars allegedly missing

Nigerians say the government appears to have lost some steam on the effort to recover stolen public funds allegedly siphoned out of the country by senior officials.

They say the administration announced billions of dollars taken out of the country, but has kept quiet about the process to repatriate those funds. They are demanding more action from the government to recover the money.

Shehu says the administration is continuing efforts to recover the stolen funds despite challenges. He says it will take the political will of some of the leaders in the foreign countries where the public funds were siphoned and transferred to help Nigeria recoup the losses.

"The recovery of the stolen assets  does not itself come easy because it will require a lot of processes  sometimes going through the court system of the countries that are involved, Shehu said. In some of the countries, they enjoyed it when [the funds] are in their own countries in their own systems, so they don't want to let go.

He adds that the country needs to recover the stolen funds to build more infrastructure, among other government priorities, to improve the living conditions of Nigerians.
A group that monitors violence in Syria says an Islamic State militant described as the group's military commander was seriously injured, but not killed, in an airstrike last week.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday that Tarkhan Batirashvili, also known as Abu Omar al-Shishani or "Omar the Chechen," was taken after the strike to the Islamic State stronghold in Raqqa, Syria for treatment.

U.S. officials had said he was likely killed by the airstrike near the northeastern town of al-Shaddadi.

An official speaking to VOA on the condition of anonymity Tuesday said Batirashvili was believed to be in the area to assess the strength of his forces and boost morale after losing territory to U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. The official said the airstrike killed as many as 12 Islamic State fighters.

Batirashvili is one of the most wanted terrorists by the United States, which is offering a $5 million reward for information that brings him to justice.
A new strategy to prevent malaria, a disease that puts newborns at risk of death, offers hope that expectant mothers in malaria-endemic countries in Africa will be able to deliver healthy babies.

The risk of pregnant women becoming infected with malaria is very high in developing African countries. Researchers say 60 percent of women who showed up to be recruited for a prevention study had evidence of the parasite.

Malaria is responsible for more than 100,000 newborns death in sub-Saharan Africa each year. The disease can also cause infants to be born prematurely or at low birth weight, both of which are risk factors for newborn mortality.

So pregnant women in malaria-endemic regions are urged to sleep under insecticide-treated bed nets. Many also receive the inexpensive drug combination sulfadoxinepyrimethamine, recommended by the World Health Organization to protect them against malaria.

That was once the standard treatment for the disease, but the malaria parasite has become largely resistant to those drugs, according to Grant Dorsey, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of California-San Francisco.

We abandoned it over a decade ago for treatment because of resistance," Dorsey said. "However, we are still using it to prevent malaria in pregnant women. So that was the kind of rationale behind our study  this drug currently being recommended to prevent malaria in pregnancy may not be working.

Researchers have been experimenting with an artemisinin-based therapy, called dihydroartemisininpiperaquine. In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dorsey and colleagues reported that treatment with the drug combination dramatically reduced the risk of malaria in a group of 300 Ugandan women, none of whom was infected when the study began.

Some women were given three doses over the course of their pregnancies, others received it monthly, and a third group got the standard treatment. In the first group, Dorsey said, the risk of being infected with malaria was reduced to 17 percent, and for those who got the drug each month, the risk fell to 5 percent. These figures contrasted with the risk for women in the third group, which was 40 percent.

Dorsey found the results encouraging.

"I think that this is a very exciting area, and if things play out as it looks, this could lead to a change in policy and really improve outcomes for women, he said.

But there are drawbacks. Dorsey said the artemisinin drug combination is more expensive and must be given more frequently than the usual preventive medication.

The World Health Organization has requested larger studies looking at the effectiveness of dihydroartemisininpiperaquine before recommending it to prevent malaria in pregnant women.
Despite his blunt criticism of Vietnam for taking American jobs, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is nonetheless sowing inspiration half a world away.

Trumps unexpected Southeast Asian fan base reckons his anti-China rhetoric would somehow stop "Beijing expansionism" in the South China Sea, where Vietnam has overlapping territorial claims with the world's most populous nation.

Listener Nguyen Dinh Thieu told VOAs Vietnamese service that he hoped the billionaire would take military and economic measures to weaken China, "calm the disputed waters" and "bring back islands" allegedly taken from Vietnam.

Many Vietnamese nationals are interested in the U.S. foreign policy position regarding the disputed, resource-rich sea lanes, according to Nguyen Manh Hung, a George Mason University professor of international affairs.

The majority of Vietnamese are frustrated with Chinas aggressive moves, so it is not surprising to see they support a U.S. presidential candidate who takes a harsh and intolerant stance against China, said Hung, an expert on U.S.-Vietnamese relations.

While the New York real estate mogul's notoriously controversial campaign rhetoric might appeal to some Vietnamese citizens, it has ruffled feathers in Beijing.

Chinas Foreign Ministry called the reality television stars opinions about Sino-U.S. relations "disturbances," shortly after Trump told CNN that China had "gotten rich off" the U.S. and rebuilt itself with the money and "jobs it sucked out of the United States."

'Shocking' comments

Hanoi hasn't commented on Trumps vows to bring jobs back from China and other Asian nations, including Vietnam, but the state-controlled Thanh Nien daily newspaper called his comments shocking.

In a country where a majority of people traditionally back Democratic candidates, whom they view as more left-leaning, Nguyen Manh Ha, an independent parliamentary candidate, said the broad spectrum of views about Trump bode well for increased pluralization in a single-party system.

"Those who detest China support Trump," said the social activist. "But there are others who think it would be a disaster if he becomes U.S. president because of his appalling statements."

Ha hoped future Vietnamese candidates would similarly have a chance for open and live debates to outline social and economic policies, engaging voters in the electoral process.

Professor Nguyen Ngoc Bich, chairman of the National Congress of Vietnamese in the United States, said the current American presidential election campaign grabs the attention of some parts of society in Vietnam where selection of officials has been criticized by rights groups.

Some understand that democracy should bring the country forward, just like what happened in Myanmar, Bich said.
COLUMBUS  The Columbus office of Lincoln-based Smith Hayes will be part of a merger with D.A. Davidson & Co., an employee-owned full-service Montana investment firm with major business hubs in Denver, Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle.

Officials of the Montana-based D.A. Davidson said the merger broadens the companys presence in Nebraska, building on Smith Hayes reputation as a trusted advisor in the region for 30 years.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of 2016.

We are proud to join forces with a firm that has Smith Hayes reputation and track record. Smith Hayes has grown deep roots in the communities it serves over the course of the last 30 years, said Jim Kerr, president and chief executive officer of the Montana firm.

That commitment, Kerr said, echoed by D.A. Davidsons 80-year history, makes Smith Hayes an ideal addition to Davidsons Individual Investor Group.

We are eager to reach our full potential in Nebraska with greater resources, a consistent brand and a continued commitment to growth, the CEO said.

Smith Hayes provides financial advisory services to clients in Lincoln, Omaha and Columbus, complementing D.A. Davidsons locations in Lincoln and Omaha, Kerr said.

Things won't change much for Smith Hayes' Columbus clients.

"Our Smith Hayes clients in Columbus will continue their relationships with the same financial advisors and the same branch staff they already know, but will have access to a broader array of investment services and products through D.A. Davidson," Kerr said Thursday morning.

"One of the many shared beliefs between the two firms is that we are committed to the communities in which we serve, and we are pleased to offer the added personalized solutions for which D.A. Davidson is known," he said.

As a result of the Smith Hayes transaction, Davidsons Individual Investor Groups total assets under management and administration will be nearly $40 billion.
Two years after Russia annexed Ukraines Crimean peninsula, resentment is building among the region's Tatars. The Muslim minority group is native to Crimea. But many have been leaving the peninsula, saying Russian authorities are running them out of government jobs and taking away the autonomy that they once enjoyed under Ukrainian rule.

Seeing Moscow again controlling their native Crimea brings ugly memories to Azime Umerova and her husband. They remember 1944 when Soviet leader Josef Stalin deported their families and thousands of other Tatars from the peninsula.

At her home on Ukrainian-controlled territory just a few kilometers from where Russian authorities have established a new international border, Umerova, 77, describes the day Stalin's security forces showed up at her family's house and ordered family members out at gunpoint.



"They gave us an order to get ready quickly, that we had 15 minutes to take our most important belongings," she said. "Everyone was tremendously upset and shouting 'where and why.' Nobody knew anything. Everyone was crying, both children and adults. And soldiers with automatic guns were pushing us to pack into the boxcars."

The journey to the deserts of Uzbekistan was torturous and they endured years of slave labor. Stalin accused the Tatars, who chose their traditional way of life over the forced collectivization and atheism of Stalinist Russia, of treason.

Feelings of bitterness

Umerova is famous in the town for the delicious hard candy she makes and sells, and which she proudly displays. Two years after her people once again lost Crimea to the Russians, it is hard to fight feelings of bitterness against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"If I was a bird, I would fly over and destroy the Kremlin down to the last brick and him with it," she tells VOA. The words are stronger than expected from a grandmother whose bright smile, repeated hugs to a reporter and thick eyeglasses project an image of warmth and tenderness.



Her husband of 58 years, Rustem Umerov, 81, was also deported as a child and suffered similar experiences. He shares his wife's sentiments on what has happened in Crimea in the past two years.

He said, "every nationality has its motherland, and ours is Crimea, so how can we not feel sick about it?"

At the town mosque, there is anger at what is perceived as inaction by Ukraine's leaders. A group of men gathering for morning prayers say Ukraine has given up on Crimea and never really put up a fight.

"The problem of Crimea is mentioned only in passing. It would seem there is no problem there, that everything is all right there, and that we have resigned ourselves to the situation," says their imam, who identified himself only as Usein.

Volunteer battalion

Despite a doubling of manpower and the defense budget over the last year, Ukraine's armed forces are stretched as the war against Russian-backed separatists drags on in the countrys eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.



Activists backed by Turkey and other majority Muslim countries have taken matters into their own hands. Last September, they set up a fully equipped force called the Noman Chelibijihan Battalion. VOA visited their camp, with tents and barricades, built next to the highway that leads north on a stretch of land connecting the Ukrainian mainland with the Crimean peninsula.

Men and women in combat uniforms and ski masks gather inside the tents. They stand at the barricades, looking across the horizon where a Russian flag waves at a distance of about 2 kilometers from the first Russian checkpoint on the highway from mainland Ukraine.

"We are ready for everything," Haydarma, one of the battalion's members, says. "Coming here is not a simple proposition, and our goals are not simple. Personally, I am ready to give my life for this."

Members say they do not rule out a Russian attack and are ready for it. They declined to answer questions about weaponry, but asserted they are "fully equipped." Behind the tents is a line of trenches, sandbag barricades, and lookout points.

The group's leaders declined to discuss their numbers, but told VOA they are no fewer than 100, comprised mostly of Tatars but also include Chechens, Ukrainians, and Afghans. They receive training from Ukrainian military advisers.



Ukraine's government allows the group to operate but battalion leaders say Kyiv does not provide support other than training.

Enforcing blockade

For now, their actions have been limited to enforcing a blockade of cargo from Ukraine to Russian-controlled Crimea. Battalion members have set up a checkpoint next to their camp, where they stop large trucks traveling to the peninsula.

Their aim is to stop any form of support from Ukraine to Crimea as long as the Russians control the territory.

The group has not claimed responsibility for acts of sabotage on power lines that supply Ukrainian electricity to the peninsula. The acts, widely believed to have been carried out by Tatar activists, have resulted in blackouts of several days and sent Russian officials scrambling to install generators and find other sources.



The actions have been no more than a nuisance for Russia, and there is no hint whatsoever that the Tatars' actions are having any effect toward reversing the annexation of the territory.

But the volunteers say they cannot sit idle and remain silent.

"If we do not fight for Crimea, then who else will?" one volunteer asked.
U.S.-based Uber plans to expand in Tanzania, Uganda and Ghana this year and will focus on convincing traditional taxi drivers to work for the ride-hailing service, said Alon Lits, Uber's general manager for sub-Saharan Africa.

Traffic-clogged roads, high rates of urban crime and a lack of credit cards are big challenges Uber faces in sub-Saharan Africa, where it operates in seven cities in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.

But its biggest problem is the one it faces from Rome to Rio; the friction with traditional taxi drivers who see Uber as a threat to their livelihoods.

In the Kenyan capital Nairobi, Uber's fastest-growing market in sub-Saharan Africa, an Uber driver was attacked and his car torched last month after the government rejected calls by Kenya's taxi association to ban the company.

"Part of our strategy when we launch in new markets will be that engagement up front with taxi operators," Lits told Reuters in an interview in Nairobi. "We will be doing a better job of engaging."

That strategy will involve convincing traditional taxi drivers to work for Uber, showing them they can continue working on their own, but when they don't have a fare they can also choose to use the Uber smartphone app to pick up passengers and make extra money.

Lits said Uber, which operates in more than 400 cities worldwide, will set up East and West Africa "hubs" in Nairobi and Lagos to act as launch pads for forays into Tanzania, Uganda and Ghana, and would begin operating in a second city each in Nigeria and Kenya.

"We feel we are at a point now where we have a strong sense for what it takes to build a successful Uber business in Africa," Lits said.

In Europe and North America, Uber accounts are tied to a customer's credit card, eliminating the need for cash. But in sub-Saharan Africa, where only about a third of people own a bank account, low credit card usage has presented another obstacle to Uber's growth.

Lits said Uber's experiment in Kenya to let riders pay fares with cash or via mobile money had boosted growth in Nairobi, where about 100,000 people open the Uber app once a month.

"It's definitely going to be part of our strategy as we push across Africa," he said.

Lits said Uber's overtures to prospective full-time Uber drivers in sub-Saharan Africa  where the company launched in 2013  will be mainly financial. As with traditional taxis, most Uber drivers rent their vehicles, which eats into their income.

In Kenya and Nigeria, the company is looking to make it cheaper for Uber drivers to rent vehicles.

In South Africa, the company has teamed up with a financing company to help drivers obtain car loans based on their work history with Uber, including the customer ratings they received on the app.
Former Ugandan Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi said Ugandan police Wednesday broke into his lawyers' offices and seized computers and documents containing affidavits of witnesses to electoral fraud in the country's February 18 national poll.

Mbabazi, who was the presidential candidate for the Go Forward Team, is challenging President Yoweri Museveni's re-election in Uganda's Supreme Court, claiming widespread election fraud. His legal team was to present evidence to the Court on Wednesday, but Mbabazi said the theft of witness affidavits has complicated the process.

First of all, it meant that we were not able to meet the Supreme Court deadline of filing the evidence today, and although we will be going there Thursday for a conferencing meeting, it will be very clear that we would have failed to meet that deadline because the evidence has been taken away by the police, Mbabazi said.

Mbabazi said witnesses saw men in uniform break into the law offices. "There were at least four eyewitnesses. It was police in uniform, police in civilian clothing, and the military as well. So it was a big force, he said.

Mbabazi also said the police have been arresting his supporters and potential witnesses.

The Ugandan police strongly denied Mbabazis allegations and said in a statement Wednesday they have mobilized a team to investigate the alleged break-ins. Ugandan government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said the suspected break-ins could be an insider job for propaganda value.

International election observers said Uganda's February 18 election was marred by irregularities, including the late delivery of polling materials in opposition strongholds, some incidents of violence and a government shutdown of social media.

Museveni has been in power since 1986. Previous election victories in 2001 and 2006 were also challenged in court as fraudulent.

Museveni has denied the allegations.
Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko, who has been on a hunger strike since last week to protest the Russian criminal case against her, has begun taking liquids, according to her lawyer.

Nikolai Polozov posted on Twitter Thursday that his client has stopped her hunger strike, a day after she appeared in court to face accusations she killed two Russian journalists in a 2014 mortar attack in Ukraine's Luhansk region.

Wednesday, while Savchenko appeared in a Russian courtroom to face the charges, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko posted video on social media calling Savchenko's trial a "farce" conducted in a "kangaroo court."

Sentencing set



Savchenko's trial is being held in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia. The judge in her case has announced Savchenko will be sentenced on March 21-22.

Prosecutors have asked the court to sentence her to 23 years in prison.

Ukraine says Savchenko was kidnapped by the Russians and should be treated as a prisoner of war. Her case inspired some 2,000 Ukrainians to rally in her defense in Kyiv on Sunday.

On Tuesday, U.S. vice president Joe Biden issued a statement on her behalf, calling on Russia to release her immediately.

Savchenko on Wednesday echoed Poroshenko's words in court, calling the proceedings a farce and reminding officials, "we are playing with my life. The stakes are high and I have nothing to lose."

She punctuated her contemptuous words by raising her middle finger (in a vulgar gesture).

Savchenko is accused of aiding in a June 2014 mortar attack on Ukraine's Luhansk region, where a shell killed two Russian television reporters.
Nadiya Savchenko's fight against Russia's justice system captures headlines, but it is her persistence in the face of discrimination in Ukraine to which many women relate.

The 34-year-old is Ukraine's only female military pilot and a veteran of Ukraine's mission to Iraq, with a military career spanning 13 years. When her 2014 request to deploy to the war zone was rejected, she joined a volunteer battalion.

She trained recruits and fought alongside men, yet was officially offered a non-combatant position of "morale officer," as related to activist Maria Berlinska by Savchenko's sister, Vera. Before Nadiya Savchenko could decline or accept, she was captured in battle by Russia-backed separatists and subsequently taken to Russia.

She is now facing a 23-year prison sentence in Russia and is hailed as a hero in Ukraine.

"She set an example of unbreakable will, both as a woman and an officer, by taking up arms to do what is every Ukrainian's duty: to protect our native land," said Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko before a crowd of Ukrainian female leaders at a ceremony dedicated to International Women's Day.

The recognition comes despite the fact that Ukraine's military regulations, supported by the country's labor regulations, ban women from professions associated with hard labor  including multiple military specializations and participation in active combat. Military education opportunities are also limited. Savchenko dealt with this reality in her military career.

She is now hailed as a female military pilot by the government, but in 2005  after serving in Ukraine's mission in Iraq  she had to personally lobby the minister of defense to be able to enroll in Ukraine's Air Force University in Kharkiv. Savchenko had dreamed of being a jetfighter pilot since childhood, but graduated as a helicopter navigator. She was twice expelled from the university.

Recognition, pay fall short

By many accounts, Savchenko was not treated as a man's equal in the military.

"Women's role in Ukraine is not recognized appropriately. This fact vividly highlights the inequality between men and women in the country," Iryna Troian, expert in Gender Studies at Ukraine's Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, told VOA.

Only a small fraction of the 14,000 women who served in Ukraine's armed forces in 2015  including almost 1,000 at the front lines  enjoy the same salary, benefits, recognition and prospects as men in equal roles, according to a recent study. The report, entitled The Invisible Battalion, highlights the lack of recognition of women in combat.

Existing regulations neither honor women who went through combat, nor provide incentives for women with invaluable combat experience to stay in the army, says activist Berlinska, one of the report's authors.

Berlinska trains drone operators and conducts aerial reconnaissance for the military in eastern Ukraine as a volunteer. A past run-in she had with the military was bitter.

She joined the army to work in aerial reconnaissance. Commanders did not mind, but offered to enlist her as a bookkeeper. "This meant accepting five to 10 times lesser salary," she told VOA.

Additional strain on women

Labor regulations that thwart and discriminate against women in the military based on their gender also govern employment rules in other spheres, Berlinska points out.

"In reality, women do hard physical labor just as men do, but are paid less," she said of the situation in Ukraine's labor force.

According to the IMF and the World Bank, in militarily- and economically-troubled Ukraine, an average monthly salary was roughly $147 in 2015. Yearly per capita income dropped to $2,108, as compared to $4,029 in 2013. This, among many other debilitating factors affecting the population in general, also undermines women's opportunities to participate in social and political life.

"Women occupying the same positions as men on average are paid 25 percent less," Iryna Troian of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy told VOA.

Some wartime problems touch virtually every Ukrainian citizen; others are most severe for women. According to La Strada Ukraine, an international women's rights center, many women suffered from violence and sexual abuse in the war zone; others suffered at the hands of men returning from the war.

Domestic violence is also widespread, according to La Strada.

"Currently, almost every woman in Ukraine performs acts of civil heroism to maintain households and provide for their children, especially women in the war-torn east," says Nina Potarskaya, director of Ukraine's NGO Center for Social and Labor Studies.

Underrepresented in politics

Increased participation by women in politics could advance gender equality and help address the plight of Ukrainian women. Political life, however, is where gender inequality is most striking in Ukraine, says The Global Gender Gap Report.

Women in leadership positions are no rarity in Ukraine's politics, as seen by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Current Minister of Finance Natalia Jaresko is likely to take over the government, should Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk leave the cabinet over public discontent with the slow pace of reform and corruption.

Still, women hold only 47 seats in Ukraine's 450-member parliament.

Women are severely underrepresented in Ukraine's political life, according to a study by the National Democratic Institute (NDI), a U.S. non-profit organization.

"There is a widespread acceptance of women in leadership positions in Ukraine, but the law hasn't quite caught up with the public opinion," Laura Jewett, NDI's regional director for Eurasia, told VOA.

Jewett argues that gender quotas granting representation of women on party tickets can ensure change.

Quotas granting that women make up no less than 30 percent of a party ticket in parliamentary or local elections were embedded into various laws after Euromaidan, but they are not enforced, which effectively leaves women's participation at the discretion of party leaders.

"Ukraine is largely a patriarchal society," said Svitlana Zalishchuk, a reform and anti-corruption activist turned member of parliament.

Zalishchuk authored a bill suggesting financial incentives to political parties granting women representation on election tickets. She says that she never encountered discrimination, but suggests institutionalized sexism is a problem.

"Women have visibly less opportunities to break through in politics, and as a politician I see various mechanisms at play here," Zalishchuk told VOA.

Some high-ranking male officials might be interested in securing gender-based privileges for men, Oleg Marushchenko, director of the KRONA Gender Informational and Analytical Center in Ukraine, told VOA.

Yet despite challenges, Ukraine's progress is noticeable. For instance, Ukraine's first Rada in 1990 had only 11 female parliamentarians (2.3 percent). And Ukraine's national police is now trained to prevent gender-based violence. Multiple activists and politicians VOA spoke to are determined to continue pushing for change.

Yet for quicker progress, commitment from Ukraine's elite is crucial.

"Women are changing the dominant culture, but the change will come sooner if the country's leadership will show goodwill and enable women's advancement," Zalischuk said.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday that decisive and bold action is required to end sexual abuse and exploitation by U.N. peacekeepers.

Speaking to the 15-nation U.N. Security Council, Ban said such abuse  69 allegations last year alone  undermines the trust between the U.N. and the people it is sent to protect.

"It ... betrays the values and principles that the U.N. purports to advance, and tarnishes the credibility of United Nations peacekeeping operations and the United Nations as a whole, Ban said.

The U.N. mission in the Central African Republic, MINUSCA, has been the subject of the most allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation  22 last year and several more in 2016.

The U.N. chief has pursued a zero tolerance policy against such crimes for several years, but cases have continued to rise.

In a report last month on the subject, the secretary-general proposed new initiatives to strengthen the U.N.s response, including to help end impunity, assist victims and improve accountability for perpetrators.

The secretary-general has asked countries providing troops and police to conduct courts-martial at the missions where the abuse is alleged to have occurred, and he has called for the collection of DNA samples from alleged perpetrators.

Ban has also recommended that investigations into allegations be concluded within three to six months. And he has called for the salaries of peacekeepers, in cases where allegations are substantiated, to be transferred to a trust fund to compensate victims.

In situations where multiple members of the same contingent have been accused of sexual abuse or exploitation, the entire unit could be repatriated. This has already occurred, with a contingent from the Democratic Republic of Congo being sent home last month from the Central African Republic mission.

Council action

The United States has drafted a resolution that endorses the secretary-general's recommendations. After several negotiating sessions with council members, a vote is expected Friday afternoon.

Russias deputy ambassador, Petr Iliichev, told council members that the draft is far from ideal, and that Moscow would prefer it be broader and include U.N. civilian staff as well as foreign troops that are sometimes deployed under U.N. mandates but not as part of U.N. peacekeeping missions.

A total of 30 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation were made against civilian U.N. personnel in 2015.

The Russian and Egyptian envoys also said existing committees in the General Assembly that deal with conduct and disciplinary issues in peacekeeping missions should take up the issue, not the Security Council.

But U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power strongly disagreed, saying the Security Council, which has responsibility for all aspects of authorizing and mandating peacekeeping operations, must address the issue of abuse and exploitation. She also chided the General Assembly for not taking more constructive action and aggressive steps to curb the problem.

Egyptian Ambassador Amr Aboulatta also expressed concern about efforts to repatriate entire contingents where some members are accused, calling it collective punishment.

Accountability must be confined to those involved in the crimes, and not the others, he said.
A report released Wednesday by the U.N. agriculture agency said 34 countries around the world, nearly all of them in Africa, do not have enough food to feed their people and need help.

The number has risen since December's report with the addition of Swaziland.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization report blamed the food shortages on drought caused by the weather phenomenon known as El Nino, along with floods in other places and wars.

The report said the El Nino drought had "sharply reduced" crop production expectations this year in southern Africa, Central America and the Caribbean.

Fighting in such places as Syria, Yemen and Somalia is making bad growing conditions even worse. Poor crop conditions in North Korea are adding to the already desperate conditions in that dictatorship, where the U.N. report said "most households were already estimated to have borderline or poor food consumption."

The report said crop conditions for 2016 have been generally favorable in the Northern Hemisphere, and it forecast large wheat crops for most Asian countries.
U.S. officials are pushing a select group of allies to expand their sights beyond Iraq and Syria in the global effort to destroy the Islamic State (IS) terror group.

Spurred on by IS's growing strength in Libya as well as the deadly terror attacks in Paris this past November, U.S. officials see a clear need for a broader, more comprehensive approach.

"They have talked about it," a Western diplomat told VOA on condition of anonymity. "There are discussions on their side."

Those discussions have become more urgent as intelligence shows an increasing number of IS fighters and recruits making their way to Libya from across North Africa, parts of east Africa and the Sahel.

Libya attack



Already, Libya is home to what U.S. intelligence officials consider IS's most lethal affiliate, with an estimated 5,000 fighters, steadily expanding from the group's stronghold in the town of Sirte. This past Monday, an estimated 50 IS militants launched an attack in Ben Guerdan, along the Libyan-Tunisian border, killing 55 people.

Top U.S. military officials have identified Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Spain as key partners in the fight against IS in Libya.

"We, as part of that international community, have to do more," the Africa Command commander, Army Gen. David Rodriguez, warned the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

"The international community has to take action to halt the expansion, degrade it and eventually defeat it," he added.

Nothing concrete

But those with knowledge of the U.S. discussions about a broader coalition strategy caution they have yet to coalesce into any concrete proposals.

"Our government's extremely concerned about the growing extremist threat in Libya," said a Western official whose government is "working closely" with the U.S.

The official added that, despite a desire to develop a comprehensive approach, it is "a little too early to say what the support might look like."

"It's clear a number of states are now actively working to counter ISIL in coordination outside of Iraq and Syria," said Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. ISIL is an acronym for Islamic State.

"But how big a coalition, how sustained it will be is the question," he said.

For now, it seems Washington is counting on a consensus on the need to fight IS wherever it tries to take hold to keep pushing a broader effort forward.

"I see a common view," chief White House Counterterrorism Adviser Lisa Monaco told an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington this past week. "There's a recognition that ISIL poses a distinct threat to European countries."

Obstacles

But gaining support for any proposal may prove difficult.

"Our forces are completely stretched," said the Western diplomat, who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity. "It's difficult now for us to intervene more."

There also appear to be differences on timing.

While the U.S., Britain, Italy and France all have forces in Libya, their roles have been limited. The U.S., in particular, has confined its special forces to looking for partners on the ground once a unity government is established.

The concern is that use of military force before a Government of National Accord is firmly in place could undermine the country's political transition.

Yet the process has been dragging on, and some U.S. officials, including CIA Director John Brennan, have warned against waiting too long.

"You cannot put off the kind of terrorism operations as this long process of government building continues to take place," Brennan told lawmakers late last month.

Finding partners is also problematic.

"There is no group on the ground currently that cares enough about ISIS in Sirte or has that effort up high enough on its priority list to actually hit ISIS in its core terrain," said Harleen Gambhir, a counterterrorism analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, using another acronym for Islamic State.

Too late?

Others fear too much time has already gone by for a coalition of U.S. and European countries to halt IS's expansion.

"This might be too little too late," said Michael Horowitz of the Levantine Group.

"ISIS has been able to largely expand to North Africa and south of it, using its Libyan colonies both as an entry point for its militants and as a magnet for local militants already operating inside the African continent," he said.

Others see another potential problem: The use of military force, however coordinated it may be, can still backfire.

"The concern is that implementing counterterrorism tactics in order to fight this group will not actually defeat it and might make it more resilient," said American Enterprise Institute Research Fellow Katherine Zimmerman.

"We've seen this happen with al-Qaida globally, where airstrikes have certainly degraded the leadership but the groups themselves have become more resilient in terms of regenerating their capabilities," she said. "ISIS is likely able to do the same."
The United States and Western countries have criticized Chinas ongoing problematic human rights record, in an unprecedented joint statement issued Thursday during a United Nations Human Rights Council session in Geneva.

A U.S. State Department official told VOA this joint statement is the first collective action taken regarding China at the Human Rights Council since its inception in 2007.

Chinese diplomat Fu Cong vigorously rejected the U.S.-led criticism. He in turn criticized the U.S. for crimes including the rape and murder of civilians.

Fu told the Council the U.S. is notorious for prison abuse at Guantanamo prison; its gun violence is rampant, racism is its deep-rooted malaise."

State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said on Thursday during the daily briefing that disagreement on human rights issues between two countries will not affect overall cooperation.

We are by no means perfect, said Toner, it [human rights] remains an important part of our foreign policy agenda, and something we were continuing to pursue, not just with China, but with a number of other countries.

The joint statement called recent cases of unexplained disappearances and apparent coerced returns of Chinese and foreign citizens from outside mainland China unacceptable extraterritorial actions, as well as out of step with the expectations of the international community and a challenge to the rules based international order.

Five Hong Kong booksellers, including owner Gui Minghai, have gone missing since last October. They were thought to have been abducted and taken into Beijings custody for selling literature banned in mainland China.

Earlier this month, two of the Causeway Bay bookshop employees were released briefly and allowed to return to Hong Kong. After they requested the police to drop their cases of missing persons, two booksellers were reported going straight back to the mainland.

The joint statement also expressed concern about the increasing number of individuals whose confessions have been aired on state media prior to any indictment or judicial process.

In late February, a prominent Chinese rights lawyer Zhang Kai confessed on state television to disturbing social order. He has been helping to defend Christians resisting authoritys orders to remove crosses from buildings. Zhang was arrested last year shortly before a planned meeting with the U.S. envoy on religious freedoms.

Following Zhang Kais purported confession, the State Department urged China to release Zhang and others detained for seeking to peacefully uphold the freedom of religion guaranteed in Chinas constitution.

Human Rights Watchs China director, Sophie Richardson, applauded the joint statement, saying it took an unprecedented and courageous stand condemning Chinas relentless crackdown on human rights.

The joint statement was endorsed by the United States, Ireland, the U.K., Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.
A federal jury in New York Wednesday found a former member of the U.S. Air Force guilty of trying to enter Syria and join Islamic State.

Forty-eight year-old Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh faces up to 35 years in federal prison when he is sentenced later this year.

This is the first time a jury has convicted a suspect for trying to join the Islamic State terrorist group. Others have entered plea bargains to avoid trial.

U.S. Attorney Robert L. Capers said Wednesday "the evidence presented at trial and the jury's verdict instill confidence that our law enforcement agencies and their many important partners at home and abroad work effectively to disrupt and defeat the deadly siren's call of terrorist groups around the globe."

Pugh was an Air Force technician who specialized in installing and maintaining engines and navigation and weapons systems. He worked as an airplane mechanic in the U.S. and Middle East after leaving the service.

Prosecutors say Pugh traveled from Egypt to Turkey in January, 2015 to try to cross the border with Syria and join up with Islamic State to wage "jihad." Turkish authorities sent him back to Egypt and he was deported back to the United States within days.

With the help of an undercover agent, the FBI arrested Pugh less than a week after he returned to New York.

Investigators found evidence on Pugh's laptop computer, including gruesome Islamic State videos of executions, terrorist propaganda videos, and a letter Pugh wrote before heading to Egypt. He declared himself an Islamic warrior who intended to defend Islamic State.

"There are only two possible outcomes for me," he wrote. "Victory or martyr."
Chuck Hassebrook, the 2014 Democratic gubernatorial nominee, will seek the post of Democratic state chairman at the party's state convention this summer.

Hassebrook said he is committed to trying to build a strong two-party system in the state, targeting registration of new millennial and Latino voters while clearly demonstrating to Nebraskans that "this is the party that fights for ordinary working people."

Democratic State Chairman Vince Powers of Lincoln does not plan to seek re-election at the Democratic convention in Kearney in June.

The newly elected chairman would not assume office until after the November general election.

Hassebrook, a former nonpartisan University of Nebraska regent, was defeated by Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts in last November's election.

"This is one of those times in America when politics are being scrambled," Hassebrook said. "The apple cart is being upset.

"The rise of, and interaction to, Donald Trump creates opportunities as well as risks."

Working people are "not sharing in economic opportunity," Hassebrook said, and his party is on their side.

"Democrats also need to demonstrate that we are the responsible party," he said, "and there is no better example of that than looking at differences on climate change.

"We have a moral obligation to our kids and grandkids to be responsible about recognizing climate change and investing in our future."

Hassebrook, who lives in Lyons, is vice president of project development at Sandhills Energy, which is developing wind and solar energy in Nebraska.

Seeking his party's chairmanship was "a hard decision," Hassebrook said. "But I decided it was a job that needed to be done."

Leading Nebraska's Democratic Party would not preclude him from considering a future race for elective office, Hassebrook said, but he acknowledged that it might have some impact on his opportunity to win.

"I doubt that it helps," he said.

"I've never been an especially partisan person," Hassebrook said.

"I believe both parties bring important insights to government and it's important for both of them to be strong.

"And we are at risk of losing a strong two-party system in this state."
Venezuela's president has recalled the country's top diplomat from the United States to protest a U.S. decree imposing sanctions on several top officials and calling Venezuela a security threat.

President Nicolas Maduro made the announcement Wednesday at a ceremony organized to condemn the decree, which was made initially last year and renewed last week.

"Enough of the arrogance," Maduro said, complaining also that the United States displayed condescension and double standards.

The decree classifies Venezuela as an "unusual and extraordinary threat" to U.S. national security.

The U.S. and Venezuela have not had ambassador-level diplomatic relations since 2010. Venezuela approved charge d'affaires Maximilien Arvelaiz as ambassador to Washington last year, but the U.S. Department of State has not approved him.

Relations between the U.S. and Venezuela have been tense for some time over Caracas' accusations that the United States meddles in Latin American affairs.

Meanwhile, the Venezuelan government is facing political turmoil at home, where the opposition alliance has launched a campaign to oust President Maduro. Government figures have painted the oppositions plans as an effort to carry out a coup d'etat backed by the United States.
Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, says Zimbabwe is targeting an annual growth rate of between six and 10 percent in order to revamp the economy.

Chinamasa says for this to happen, the country must embark on serious policy reforms as agreed under the International Monetary Fund Staff Monitored Program.

Speaking at a meeting organized by his ministry and the IMF, Chinamasa said any policy changes would be difficult to undertake but the country has no option.

Any reform agenda is painful and I want to acknowledge the road that we have travelled, the journey that we have travelled has been very difficult and is going to remain difficult.

He said Zimbabwe must pay its debt to the Bretton Woods institutions and mend its relations with international creditors so as to attract new funding to revamp the economy.

We need to make friends, we dont need enemies, especially if those enemies, or if you call them enemies, lend you money, said Chinamasa.

Visiting IMF head of mission, Domenico Fanizza, said Zimbabwe has many options to revamp its economy, adding that for this to happen it must implement reforms now.

The message is that if we dont start the transformation now, when are we going to do it. Zimbabwe cannot wait.

Economist, Ashok Chakravati, echoed the same sentiments, noting that while reforms were critical for the country to move forward, there was strong resistance to change at all levels.

Chakravati said, We have a lot of vested interests within the structure of government which resists the policy reform, measures of the government itself. There is willingness at the top to change laws, regulations and policies but there is massive resistance all the way down to the local level to bring about this change so I am not sure what can be done.

Some of the reforms agreed between Zimbabwe and the IMF include compensation for evicted white commercial farmers, the reduction of the public sector wage bill and labor reforms.

According to the IMF, Zimbabwe has met all quantitative targets and structural benchmarks under the third and final review of the Staff Monitored Program.

The IMF board is set to review Zimbabwes position in May.
President Mugabe abandons a controversial cultural festival in India amid protests from local people that delegates will pollute the local environment. Mr. Mugabes spokesperson, George Charamba, says the presidents trip was cut short due to security concerns.

Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, says Zimbabwe is targeting an annual growth rate of between six to 10 percent in order to revamp the economy. He says for this to happen, the country must embark on serious policy reforms as agreed under the International Monetary Fund Staff Monitored Program.

Zimbabwe today joined the international community in marking World Kidney Day amid concerns over the increasing number of people affected by non-communicable diseases.

We will give you a closer look at yesterdays public march staged by some Zimbabweans in Harare demanding that the government should play a critical role in stopping abductions of political activists.

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 Womens Round Table Praxedes Jeremiah and Marvellous Mhlanga Nyahuye will be talking with listeners and experts the sexual abuse of children in Zimbabwe.

Send us your numbers on our WhatsApp number 001 202 465 0318. The number again 001 202 465 0318. Stay tuned!!!!!!
President Mugabe has abandoned a controversial cultural festival in India amid protests from local people claiming that delegates will pollute the local environment.

Mr. Mugabes spokesperson, George Charamba, says the presidents trip was cut short due to security concerns.

But Zimbabweans are not buying this saying they are shocked by the Mr. Mugabes visit to India when other world leaders appear to have stayed away from the World Culture Festival organized by a local entity - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar of Art of Living.

The president decided to stop attending the event when he was already in that country and according to presidential spokesperson, George Charamba, this move was necessitated by security concerns.

In a statement, Charamba said, The cancellation follows communication from organisers of the festival acknowledging substantial inadequacies in protocol and security arrangements around the event. A number of leaders slotted for participation, including those from the host country, have also withdrawn their participation. The president is expected home in a couple of days.

Indian Prime Minister Pranab Mukherjee boycotted the event following concerns by environmentalists that the delegates were expected to pollute the local environment.

In an informal street survey, Zimbabweans expressed anger over the presidents move to attend the event when other nations had sent ministers and low key delegates to New Delhi for the festival.

Harare resident, Value Dick, said she was shocked by the waste of state resources at a time the countrys economy continues to nosedive.

They are wasting resources generated by the taxpayer thus increasing poverty yet at the same time the government talks about eradicating poverty. The government is failing to take responsibility.

Equally furious was Samantha Munyenyiwa, who pointed out that the presidents withdrawal from the event showed lack of proper planning in the office of the president.

This shows lack of planning of the trip itself and a waste of resources. It also shows that the president himself was ignorant of the event and its depth. He decided to go and find out and when he saw that the Indian leader had aborted (attending the event) he also decided to abort. He was acting like he was being blown by the wind. He should have properly planned and not just taken off.

Mr. Mugabe, according to the independent Newsday newspaper, left for the event without Rural Development, Preservation and Promotion of Culture and Heritage Minister Abednico Ncube.

Another Harare resident, Samson Wafawarova, said he was surprised that President Mugabe would fly to India for a cultural event instead of saving funds for buying maize for about three million Zimbabweans facing hunger due to the El Nino-induced drought.

The president just flew away to India leaving the responsible minister back home. What it means to Zimbabwe is that the president is only interested in squandering the resources of the nation. The minister responsible was left because of factional wars so to me the president was just out there for a shopping spree, said Wafawarova.

Charamba was not available for comment as his mobile phone was not taking incoming calls. Mr. Mugabe was scheduled to be the guest of honour at the event, which is a celebration of peace in multiculturalism.

According to Sky Scanner, a travelling agent website, the cheapest flight to India from Zimbabwe costs about 2,000 pounds when using public flights.



Some opposition parties have complained aboutMr. Mugabe's travelling expenses with reports that in 2015 he spent about $33 million in foreign trips.

Twitter was on fire Thursday with some Zimbabweans questioning why the head of state made the trip even without Ncube.

Mr. Mugabe was supposed to fly to Singapore from India but it is not clear whether he is still to proceed to Singapore.
Some villagers in the diamond-rich Manicaland province, are vowing to continue looking for the gems even if they are being given a torrid time by state security agents that have sealed off mining areas following a government order for companies to cease operations after they failed to register on time and being part of a state-run diamond mining entity.

They claim that illegal diamond mining is the only way of making a livelihood in province hit by an El-Nino induced drought.

Villagers facing serious food shortages in Chiadzwa communal lands, Muchena, Hot Springs, Tonhorai, Chakohwa and Bambazonke in Marange area say they will not stop illegal mining activities as they are failing to cater for the needs of their families due to the current drought.

They say to make matters worse, they have not benefited from diamonds sales ever since foreign and local mining companies started their operations in Manicaland province. Most of the villagers claim that they are not gainfully employed.

The diamond mining fields now almost resemble a war zone as villagers are constantly detained by state security agents and mining company guards, who normally arrest and torture them.

The villagers claim that some of them, including former workers of some of the shutdown diamond mines, have even been hospitalized following serious beatings by law enforcing agents.

Richard Goto, a former worker at one of the closed diamond mining firms, says poverty is driving most people to engage in illegal diamond mining.

According to Goto, people caught in the diamond fields are normally given a hard time by the police, members of the Zimbabwe National Army and private security guards.

General poverty is leading people to go into the diamond fields including the economic situation in the country  Police in there are treating people roughly and how they are doing it is really unfair.

An illegal miner, Lewis Rwizi, says he was recently detained by the police together with 30 other people after they went into a protected mining area.

When we were caught by the Police Support Unit we were made to stay in the hot sun the whole day without being given water. We were also made to jog around none stop and to sing all night.

Rwizi claims that they were released the following night after being beaten up and tortured by the police.

They later released us the following day but we spent the whole night doing all the activities, singing, jogging, press-ups and a lot of other hard things any human being can be made to do.

Unemployed Fungai Mutunhu of Muchena Village in Chiadzwa area says illegal diamond mining is the only way of eking out a living.

The fact is that poverty is the most leading factor for people like myself to encroach into the mines, especially with the drought; we are facing more problems and life is very hard for people in this area especially for people in Bocha, Chakohwa where there has not been any harvest and the only income comes from the diamond sales we have to mine in the fields.

Mutunhu says state security agents at times set dogs on them, resulting in some villagers suffering serious injuries.

When caught, people are brutally beaten by the security people and dogs are set on them as well and are mauled and when taken to a place called Diamond Base there is further abuses and many people get seriously injured in the process of these abuses.

Mutunhu adds that they will continue engaging in illegal activities as long as they are not guaranteed benefits from diamond sales.

The most effective way to stop this is to set aside a place or claim where the local people can do their official mining, because besides that this problem of illegal diamond mining will continue unabated.

Police refused to comment on the illegal diamond mining activities in Manicaland province. Executives, whose firms were forced by the government to stop diamond operations in the region, were not reachable for comment.

President Robert Mugabe said last week his government wont reverse its decision to stop operations of private diamond mining companies saying Zimbabwe has lost up to $15 billion in diamond revenues.

He said the state has only received $2 billion since the companies started operating in Manicaland province a couple of years ago.

Independent diamond monitors and opposition parties have over the years warned government that it is losing millions of dollars per month in potential diamond revenue due to lack of transparency in the mining and selling of the gems.
LINCOLN  Sponsors of legislation to expand health care coverage to the working poor and other needy Nebraskans through access to federal Medicaid dollars turned their proposal Wednesday into a three-year pilot project with no cost to the state tax-supported general fund.

The project would be subjected to a fiscal and performance review by an independent consultant before a future Legislature would decide whether to revise or renew the program three years from now.

The program would provide health care insurance for 97,000 eligible Nebraskans using additional federal Medicaid dollars that are available to the state under the Affordable Care Act.

Most of those Nebraskans work at part-time or low-paying jobs and cannot afford health care insurance of their own.

The revised plan was unveiled in the form of an amendment that Sen. John McCollister of Omaha will offer to his bill (LB1032) prior to its consideration by the Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee at an executive session early Thursday morning.

The bill is expected to be advanced to the floor where it will confront sharp opposition from senators who are opposed to any form of expanded health care coverage using Medicaid dollars available under Obamacare.

Opponents argue Nebraska cannot afford to bear the additional costs even though the federal government will pay 94 percent of the financial burden in the first year of the Nebraska plan with federal participation gradually dipping to a permanent floor of 90 percent.

The revised McCollister proposal would pay the state's three-year costs with $63 million appropriated from the transitional health insurance cash fund, which includes tobacco settlement dollars allocated to the states for tobacco-related health care costs.

Estimates are that participation in the program would bring nearly $1 billion in federal funding to the state by fiscal 2020-21.

At a briefing for the news media, Sen. Heath Mello of Omaha said the three-year project, which would need to be authorized by a federal waiver, would allow the state to "get a complete picture" of the future fiscal impact and effectiveness of the program.

That could lead to potential savings and improvements in the program, he said.

Mello is chairman of the Legislature's Appropriations Committee.

Sen. Kathy Campbell of Lincoln, chairwoman of the Health and Human Services Committee, said funding from the cash fund has no tax implications and places no other program that now receives money from that fund at risk of losing its funding.

Participants in the new health care insurance program would be notified it is a temporary three-year commitment that might not be renewed by a future Legislature, Campbell said.

But even if it was not renewed, she said, it would allow recipients to deal with health care issues that might be more costly in the future if they are not addressed now.

Recipients would have no right to appeal the loss of eligibility if a future Legislature allowed the program to expire.

The proposed legislation includes requirements for personal responsibility, Mello noted, including referral to job training and education programs that would allow recipients to move from transitional assistance to financial independence.

The amended version of the bill "puts the governor and the Legislature in the driver's seat to measure and evaluate the program over the next three years," he said.

Campbell and Mello said the three senators, including McCollister, will brief Gov. Pete Ricketts on the proposal.

Arkansas recently chose to renew its own version of Medicaid expansion after a three-year pilot program, Mello and Campbell noted.

The bill is expected to encounter continued opposition from Ricketts, who has said its costs would crowd out other priorities, and faces an uphill climb in the Legislature.
John Goodman, as Howard; Mary Elizabeth Winstead, as Michelle, in 10 Cloverfield Lane. Photo: Michele K. Short/Paramount Pictures

On March 11, Paramount will release 10 Cloverfield Lane, complete with a tagline thats shown up in all of its marketing material, from posters to billboards to synopses: Monsters come in many forms. This slogan can be read as an explanation or an apology, but theres no doubt about what its referring to: Cloverfield, the J.J. Abrams-produced found-footage Godzilla-in-New-York movie from 2008. Cloverfield had a monster, the details of which were gleefully obscured by Abrams and co. in the lead-up to its release; 10 Cloverfield Lane does not feature that same monster, though there is a mystery, the nature of which, as you might suspect, is being kept closely under wraps. But by connecting the two films, Paramount and Bad Robot are making an interesting bet: that in the era of franchise movie-making, the limits of what can become a universe are wider than we might think.



Lets back up. While Abramss association with the original Cloverfield tends to be the glitziest thing about it, it was actually directed by his Felicity co-creator Matt Reeves and written by Drew Goddard, formerly of Lost and Alias and now, most notably, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of The Martian. Following the top-secret run-up to release, Cloverfield turned out to be a modest hit: It made $170 million worldwide on a budget of only $25 million. A year later, District 9, another found-footage event-type movie, this time about aliens, also found success, making $210 million on a budget of $30 million and earning itself a Best Picture nomination. A genre was born.

But in the years since, the Cloverfield name had lain dormant. In 2012, Abramss production company, Bad Robot, purchased a spec script called The Cellar, written by Josh Campbell and Matt Stuecken. The logline at the time was, A woman wakes up in a bomb shelter with a mysterious man who says he rescued her from an apocalyptic event, and Campbell and Stuecken wrote the spec so it could be produced on a bare-bones budget, mostly set in one place: the bomb shelter.

Abrams lays it out like this: Originally, the producers brought on a young Damien Chazelle to do a rewrite and make his directing debut. But once Chazelles short film Whiplash received funding to be made into a feature film, he left the project as director, with another young first-timer, Dan Trachtenberg, taking his place. At some point around the time of Trachtenbergs involvement, Bad Robot code-named the project Valencia, after a speech made in the script, and realized there were echoes of the Cloverfield world in the projects DNA. Reeves and Goddard came on as executive producers, and the whole team went to work making it rhyme with the original Cloverfield.

We began to internally realize that we could actually make this explicit, Abrams told Vulture at the films premiere on Tuesday. Instead of just feeling like, oh, it feels like another Cloverfield movie. What if there was a connection? And we started to realize that there was a bigger idea that, if we were lucky enough to pull it off, would connect the movies. On the one hand, its like a Twilight Zone. Its an anthology of different stories. On the other hand, theres a connective piece that we can hopefully pull off one day, but it wouldnt be immediately.

The exact way in which it connected to Cloverfield remained more a part of the meta-narrative than the actual movie  to the point where even the stars were kept in the dark. John Goodman told Vulture on Tuesday that he learned that 10 Cloverfield Lane intersected with Cloverfield about a week ago. John Gallagher, Jr., said he knew it was related in a distant way, but learned it was explicit about three days before the trailer came out. And Mary Elizabeth Winstead said shed heard talk of the connections since she signed on, but also didnt know it was explicit until the trailer.

Thats coming from the cast, a group of people with what you might call above-average familiarity with the film. In other words, the connection to Cloverfield isnt too pronounced. And the many interviews Abrams has done for the movie hint at why this could be a challenge for the film upon its release: He keeps having to field some variation of the question, What does this have to do with Cloverfield?

Our current moviegoing landscape tends to encourage, if not require, slavish devotion to the grander narratives of the films being released. Call it the universe effect: The comic-book movies, as well as franchises like Transformers and Star Wars and even the upcoming Ghostbusters resurrection, are supposed to intersect and inform each other. None of these stories are evaluated on their own; they become most important for how they fit into the greater puzzle or saga. By making this decision to turn Valencia into a cousin of Cloverfield, if not an explicit sequel, Abrams is running the risk of betraying this expectation. If audiences dont perceive 10 Cloverfield Lane as being close enough to the original Cloverfield, cries of cash grab could abound from fans wanting a true sequel, no matter how good the movie itself is.

On the other hand, 10 Cloverfield Lane also presents an opportunity. If it hits  and right now, that looks to be very possible; its tracking at a $25-30 million opening, with early reviews positive  it could be the first exhibit in a new approach to franchise- and universe-making that lets stranger, less conventional stories fit in under the big tent that dominates mainstream studio filmmaking. It would also reaffirm Abramss place as one of the savviest creative minds in Hollywood, always one step ahead of industry trends and packaging. While its unlikely that 10 Cloverfield Lane alone will determine that future, call it the latest case study in branding and selling the modern movie.

Additional reporting by Trupti Rami
The Beatles with George Martin. Photo: Michael Ochs Archives

Outside of his arrangement and recording skills, one of late producer George Martins greatest talents was taking the Beatles ambitious, often psychedelic concepts and making them into reality. It was particularly challenging when it came to the abstract ideas of John Lennon, whom Martin called an aural Salvador Dali. Unlike Paul McCartney, who could generally offer concrete suggestions for his sounds, Lennon would speak of colors and sensations, which Martin somehow managed to translate to tape. In the wake of Martins passing, Vulture looks back at the many times he turned Lennons far-out ideas into musical legend.

The First Feedback Ever Recorded

The beginning five seconds of the Beatles$2 1964 single I Feel Fine contains nothing but a thick buzzing, which was actually feedback from a guitar Lennon left leaning up against his amp. Martin agreed to keep the accidental noise in, years before ax men like Jimi Hendrix and Pete Townshend would incorporate the screeches and howls in their songs. Thats me, including the guitar lick with the first feedback ever recorded, Lennon told Playboy in 1980. I defy anybody to find an earlier record  unless it is some old blues record from the 20s  with feedback on it.

Something Baroque-Sounding

For the poignant Rubber Soul track In My Life, Lennon knew he needed something unique for the instrumental section in the middle. As usual, his instructions to Martin were vague, telling the producer he wanted something Baroque-sounding. Martin composed a piano solo but, thanks to his limitations with the instrument, couldnt play it quickly enough to match the songs pace. Rather than bring in another musician, Martin decided to experiment with the studios technology, recording the solo at half-tempo and speeding up the tape to make it fit, inadvertently giving the piano the sound of a harpsichord.

Thousands of Monks Chanting

As the Beatles got more into drugs and the burgeoning hippie movement, Lennon composed his most ambitious song yet, Tomorrow Never Knows, for 1966s Revolver, interpreting lyrics from The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead by Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, and Ralph Metzner. Lennons dream sound for the droning album closer? Id imagined in my head that in the background you would hear thousands of monks chanting. That was impractical of course and we did something different. Instead, Martin ran Lennons vocals through a rotating Leslie speaker, though Lennon pondered the possibility of being hung upside down from the ceiling and being spun around a microphone to get a similar effect. He and the rest of the group also used the innovative techniques of playing certain instrumental tracks in reverse and looping tapes to create surreal background noises, such as Paul McCartneys laugh being tweaked into the sound of a seagull.

Just Join Them Together

After Revolver, Lennon continued his boundary-pushing writing, penning the nostalgic Strawberry Fields Forever about his Liverpool childhood, ultimately recording two distinct versions of it. The first, featuring just the bands sparser electric instruments, came out a little too brash for his tastes, but the second, with the more dramatic addition of strings and horns, also didnt fully live up to his standards. According to Martins 1979 memoir, All You Need Is Ears, he made an offhand comment to Lennon about splitting hairs, leading the Beatle to suggest splicing the two takes together  Why dont we just join them together? Martin balked, telling Lennon that the takes were in different tempos and keys, but Lennon insisted, saying he knew the producer could tackle the problem. John always left this kind of thing to me, Martin wrote. He never professed to know anything about recording. He was the least technical of the Beatles. Challenge accepted, Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick adjusted the tracks speeds to make their pitches match and, using a pair of editing scissors, spliced the tapes together around the one-minute mark to make one of the Beatles most-loved songs. That is how Strawberry Fields was issued, and that is how it remains today  two recordings, wrote Martin.

Inject My Voice

In order to get a beefier bass sound for the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band title track, Martin and his team had McCartney plug his instrument directly into their studio console, a now-common but then-pioneering tactic. Lennon loved the sound so much that he wondered if they could do the same for his vocals. John came up to the control room one day and asked if we could possibly inject his voice directly into the console, engineer Geoff Emerick said, according to Ultimate Classic Rock. George replied, Yes, if you go and have an operation. It means sticking a jack-plug into your neck!

Smell the Sawdust

Based on an old poster he owned, Lennon wrote Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! and asked Martin to help him evoke the sights, sounds, and smells of a carnival, with his usual vague ideas. Hed make whooshing noises and try to describe what only he could hear in his head, saying he wanted a song to sound like an orange, Martin recalled in Mark Lewisohns 1988 book The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. John had said that he wanted to smell the sawdust on the floor, wanted to taste the atmosphere of the circus. Martin took recordings of old Victorian steam organs and told Emerick to cut the tapes into small pieces, toss them in the air, then reassemble them at random and include them in the song to re-create the cacophony of a circus.

A Chicken Cluck

For no discernible reason, Lennons upbeat, soulful Good Morning, Good Morning is, excuse the pun, peppered throughout with the sounds of dogs and farm animals. Seeking to make the album flow seamlessly, Martin stumbled on the perfect solution to bridge the gap between Good Morning and the Sgt. Peppers reprise. Imagine my delight when I discovered that the sound of a chicken cluck at the end of Good Morning was remarkably like the guitar sound at the beginning of Sergeant Pepper, he wrote in All You Need Is Ears. I was able to cut and mix the two tracks in such a way that the one actually turned into the other.

Like the End of the World

While working on A Day in the Life, the final Sgt. Peppers song, the Beatles and Martin were at a loss for how to fill in the 24 bars that close it out. As always, it was a matter of my trying to get inside his mind, discover what pictures he wanted to paint and then try to realize them for him, Martin wrote of Lennon in Ears. He said, What Id like to hear is a tremendous build-up, from nothing up to something absolutely like the end of the world. Martin hired a 40-piece orchestra and gave them an improvised score to create the grand dissonance, while the band invited a number of friends, include several Rolling Stones and Marianne Faithfull, to the session, and kept the mood loose by giving the orchestra members gag props to wear, such as fake nipples and gorilla-paw gloves. McCartney then convinced Martin to add in another couple strange bits to close out the LP after the final piano chord faded. The first is a high-pitched noise set at a frequency where only dogs can hear it, followed by a sampling of random studio chatter that originally appeared on the vinyl LPs run-off groove. Some fans claimed that if they played the gibberish backward, they heard a random, hidden obscene phrase. Well, with a huge stretch of the imagination, I supposed it did, but that was certainly never intended, Martin said.

Some Weird Noises

After learning that an English teacher from his old high school was having students analyze his lyrics, Lennon wrote I Am the Walrus, just for the sake of writing something so surreal and confusing that people wouldnt be able to decipher it. Martin was flummoxed, recalling the sessions in a 2013 interview with Rock Cellar magazine: When I first heard that he just stood in front of me with a guitar and sang it through. But it was weird. I said to him, What the hell am I going to do with this, John? And he said, Id like for you to do a score and use some brass and some strings and some weird noises. You know the kind of thing I want. But I didnt but I mean I just went away and did that. And thats how the Magical Mystery Tour single  with its acid-influenced references to Lewis Carroll, Ginsberg, schoolyard rhymes, and King Lear  came to fruition.

A Picture in Sound

Revolution 9, the divisive avant-garde collage from The White Album, is easily the weirdest thing the Beatles ever released. In a 1971 interview with Melody Maker, Martin took credit for much of the songs oddities: It was just an extension of Tomorrow Never Knows, a similar kind of thing with various tapes, and I guess this was largely influenced by Yoko, because it was her kind of scene. But again I was painting a picture in sound, and if you sat in front of the speakers you just lost yourself in stereo. All sorts of things are happening in there: you can see people running all over the place and fires burning, it was real imagery in sound. It was funny in places too, but I suppose it went on a bit long. Lennon took umbrage with these comments, as well as some in which the producer criticized his solo work, and wrote directly to the interviewer. When people ask me questions about What did George Martin really do for you?, I have only one answer, What does he do now? I noticed you had no answer for that! Its not a putdown, its the truth, he said, before adding, For Martin to state that he was painting a sound picture is pure hallucination. Ask any of the other people involved. The final editing Yoko and I did alone (which took four hours). According to Rolling Stone, a calmer Lennon later took it all back, saying, George Martin made us what we were in the studio. He helped us develop a language to talk to other musicians.
LINCOLN  Tractors, combines and fertilizer spreaders would have a little more freedom on Nebraska's roadways under a bill that won first-round approval from lawmakers Wednesday.

Senators advanced a bill, 39-0, that would relax weight and load restrictions for farm equipment on the state's roads.

Nebraska's restrictions are designed to keep heavy vehicles from damaging roads and bridges, but agricultural groups say the rules haven't kept pace with farming equipment and trucks that have grown larger and heavier over time.

"The industry has changed, and the equipment being used doesn't always fit" the rules, said Sen. Matt Williams of Gothenburg.

The rules have also created confusion among farmers and ranchers, some of whom have paid thousands of dollars in fines, and led to complaints that they are interpreted differently in different parts of the state.

Under the bill, weight and load restrictions would stay in place for bridges, and farm equipment would remain banned on Interstate 80.

The Nebraska Farm Bureau Federation and Nebraska Cattlemen Association have identified the bill as one of their top priorities in this year's session. The Department of Roads, a part of Gov. Pete Ricketts' administration, has also endorsed the legislation.

"This is something we can do to relieve some of the pressure on businesses, especially ag businesses," said Sen. Jim Smith of Papillion, chairman of the Legislature's Transportation and Telecommunications Committee.

Several Nebraska counties still have concerns about the bill but will work with Smith to find a compromise before a second-round vote, said Larry Dix, executive director of the Nebraska Association of County Officials. Two additional votes are required before the bill goes to Ricketts.

The wear on roads tends to be worse in counties with large feedlots because trucks hauling manure generally weigh more than other farm trucks, Dix said.

Smith said one possible compromise could include an amendment that would allow local governments to maintain weight restrictions on roads that are especially vulnerable to damage from heavy vehicles.

Farmers and cattle owners have said they have an obvious incentive to use the roads sparingly so they can preserve them for their livelihood and families. Last year, the Nebraska Farm Bureau endorsed a 6-cent-per-gallon fuel tax increase to help pay for road and bridge maintenance.

Nebraska's bill is modeled after a 2014 Kansas law that exempted certain pieces of farm equipment from that state's highway weight and load restrictions. Iowa and Wisconsin have adopted similar laws.

The proposal was approved as part of a larger legislative package aimed at state roads.
the real estate

The Only Reason We Got It Was That I Lied

The Only Reason We Got It Was That I Lied
Chumlee. Photo: Handout/Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department

Pawn Starss Chumlee was arrested Wednesday for drug and weapon possession, according to reports. Las Vegas authorities had gone to the reality stars residence earlier in the day to implement a search warrant for an ongoing sex-assault investigation. While there, they found several illicit items, including methamphetamine, marijuana, and at least one gun. KTNVs Action News notes that Chumlee (a.k.a. Austin Lee Russell), 33, hasnt been charged with assault. But the Sun reports he now faces 19 charges for drug possession and one for the gun. He was booked at Clark County Detention Center, with bail set at $62,000. Chumlee is a fan favorite on the PS series, as the comical employee and family friend of the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop squad. We dont have details yet, his co-star Rick Harrison told the Sun, but are here to help Chumlee however we can.



Update: According to Chumlees arrest report, police discovered 12 guns  including handguns, revolvers, rifles, and shotguns  some of which were loaded, at his residence. Four of the guns were registered under Chumlees legal name. They also seized marijuana, methamphetamine, drug pipes, and other paraphernalia, as well as a clear plastic baggie with white residue and a $1 bill rolled up with white powdery residue, all found in a vault in the reality stars Chum Chum room, which apparently has a stripper pole. Police say the seized items are commonly found with persons who package and sell controlled substances. Russell reportedly told police during the search that he doesnt sell drugs.
Hughes. Photo: Stefan M. Prager/Getty Images

Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes is continuing to speak out on last Novembers terrorist attacks in Paris. Hughes recently blamed Frances gun-control laws for not doing enough to prevent the attacks at Le Bataclan, where his band was playing when 89 people were killed. Now he tells Fox Business, in an interview that aired Wednesday night, that security at the venue may have had prior knowledge about the attacks. When asked if he remembers anything from that night that seemed off, he notes feeling uneasy about backstage security. When I first got to the venue and walked in, I walked past the dude who was supposed to be the security guard for the backstage. He didnt even look at me,  he recalls. I immediately went to the promoter and said, Whos that guy? I want to put another dude on, and he goes, Well, some of the other guards arent here yet. And eventually I found out that six or so wouldnt show up at all. Because a police investigation is still ongoing, Hughes says he doesnt want to make any definitive accusations about securitys involvement, except this: It seems rather obvious that they had a reason not to show up. The second part of his interview airs Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET.

Update, March 11: Le Bataclan has issued a statement denying Hughess insane claims. Jesse Hughes spread some very grave and defamatory accusations against the Bataclan teams, a Bataclan rep tells Variety. A judicial investigation is undergoing. We wish to let justice proceed serenely. All the testimonies gathered to this day demonstrate the professionalism and courage of the security agents who were on the ground on November 13. Hundreds of people were saved thanks to [these agents] intervention.

Update, March 12: Jesse Hughes has issued a statement apologizing for his absurd accusations. I humbly beg forgiveness from the people of France, the staff and security of the Bataclan, my fans, family, friends and anyone else hurt or offended by the absurd accusations I made in my Fox Business Channel interview. My suggestions that anyone affiliated with the Bataclan played a role in the events of November 13 are unfounded and baseless  and I take full responsibility for them. They do not reflect opinions of my bandmates or anyone associated with Eagles of Death Metal. The shame is 100 percent mine. Ive been dealing with nonstop nightmares and struggling through therapy to make sense of this tragedy and insanity. I havent been myself since November 13. I realize theres no excuse for my words, but for what its worth: I am sincerely sorry for having hurt, disrespected or accused anyone.
Kimmy Gibbler doesnt just eat food; she also wears it. Who else not only has a bacon-and-eggs scarf, but also one that is made out of cupcakes? And who else would have a cheesecake purse? Only Kimmy Gibbler, because food is not something that should just travel down to your stomach, through your intestines, and then out the San Francisco sewer system. Food is something that should travel all around the streets for everyone to see. What could Kimmy Gibbler possibly wear next? Kimchee sandals? Avocado earrings? Artisanal beet-pickle halter tops? The world is Kimmy Gibblers oyster (Capri pants).

Kimmy Gibbler is very busy this episode, so busy that she has to hire Stephanie Tanner, a woman who has been working only on her walk-of-shame skills since arriving in San Francisco. And good for slutty Stephanie. Apparently since that Giants player Under Pants dumped her, shes a bit of a local celebrity and all the boys at the bar want to do shots with her. Not saying no to a male suitor is the one thing that Stephanie seems genetically disposed to do.

However, Stephanie is broke and Kimmy Gibbler needs extra help putting together an Indian-themed retirement party for D.J.s boss. She gives Stephanie a job interview, which is honestly one of the funniest moments of the entire series. Gosh, I love that Kimmy Gibbler so much. I also loved when Stephanie rented a cow for the party because she thought, What would Kimmy Gibbler do? and, obviously, Kimmy Gibbler would rent a cow. Although it didnt really fit with the theme of the party, I have a feeling that Kimmy Gibbler has rented more than one cow in her day. Its St. Patricks Day? Lets get a cow. Arbor Day? Lets get a cow! Sabrina Nussbaums bat mitzvah? Is this cow kosher?

Yes, the cow is cute, but the keep-it-away-from-D.J. gag is totally lame. Thats Stephanies only misstep. I would totally have gone to that Bollywood-flavored retirement party, worn some traditional garments in a fit of cultural appropriation, and even done the Jai Ho number from Slumdog Millionaire like a bunch of Filipino prisoners trying to make a viral video. Gibbler Style sure did do this one up right, though. I dont believe for a second that Stephanie could pull that whole thing together in a single afternoon, but whatever. Fuller House regularly asks us to believe much more absurd things, like that a killjoy like D.J. could have two guys fighting over her.

The D.J./Starving Steve/Hunky Vet Matt love triangle has just started and I already want it to end. Why do either of these wonderful, eligible, available men (whose arms stretch out the sleeves of their shirts in a way that is less than Mario Lopez but more than anyone on The Big Bang Theory) want to be with her? Theyre fighting over D.J. Tanner, a woman whose idea of a fun night is eating some cut-up fruit in a bowl and then cleaning out the lint traps in her dryer.

Anyway, shes excited because she thinks her boss is going to leave her the pet clinic when he retires because hes been talking about it for the seven years shes worked there. However, she convinced her bosss son, Hunky Vet Matt, to move to San Francisco to be close to her crunchy honey pot, so he inherits it instead. D.J. mopes around like a kid who just lost one of his Voltron lions so now the robot needs to limp around on one leg while it battles the mystical forces of evil.

Then, she decides to steal the show at the retirement party and say that she is going to start her own vet clinic. As the Real Housewives love to say, it was not the time nor the place to make those remarks. This is the guys big party before he moves to an ashram in Mumbai for the rest of his life and D.J. is taking the mic so she can let him know that she is going to steal half of his clients and open a business of her own? How rude! as a very wise poetess used to say.

After D.J. throws her passive-aggressive hissy fit at the party, Hunky Vet Matt is all like, Im so sorry. What can I do to make you love me again? Then he gives her half of the business. This is kind of messed up. D.J. gets upset when her boss, whom she is totally unrelated to, wont just give her a very valuable asset, his business. She thinks that because shes worked there for so long and hes retiring she should just get it. Please. Do you think that when Ronald McDonald finally calls it quits, hes just going to hand the whole operation over to Grimace? No. Hes going to give it to his son, Ronnie, and keep it in the family. Its just natural.

Then Hunky Vet Matt, whom D.J. has been dating for maybe three weeks and who hasnt even gotten to home plate yet (even though theyve been thrown out of the Giants game together) just gives her half the business to make her happy. Does he realize how much that is worth? A lot. Well, maybe not that much, but it should be a lot. So now, D.J. has been given a $10 million townhouse in San Francisco from her dad, an equal share of a successful vet clinic from her not-even boyfriend, and free child care in perpetuity from her best friend and sister. D.J. Fuller is what the GOP would call a taker. There, I said it.

To her credit, D.J. is kind of like, Um, we just started dating, I dont know if this is a good idea, but now she owns half of a pet clinic and she didnt even put out.

I feel like D.J.s son is just as entitled as she is. Hes been hoarding money in a plastic bag in his closet like hes Scrooge McDuckling, and lends some to Ramona and J-Money after they get hacked. Then, he makes them treat him like a king before they repay the debt. This is so D.J.s son, the kind of kid who thinks that the world should be handed to him on a silver platter just by accident of birth. Maybe hell learn a life lesson or two from his aunt Stephanie. She makes it through life the hard way: one suitor at a time.
Portrait of record producer Sir George Martin in the recording studio, London, 1990s. Photo: Eamonn McCabe/Getty Images

One of the truisms of the recording industry is that the powers that be will always resist technological change. When George Martin, then in his 20s, joined, in 1950, the British giant EMI, the biggest and grandest record label in the world, he was a classical music aficionado and one of no little talent. Back then, records were vinyl platters that played at 78 revolutions per minute and lasted a maximum of four minutes and 15 seconds. A typical piece of classical music, then the central product of the industry, was divided up into musical chunks of that size, and technicians like Martin would split up, say, the movement of a symphony, sometimes crudely duplicating chords after the switch-over to give listeners a reminder of where the melody had left off.

Not long after, a new technology emerged: the LP record, which could last 20 or 30 minutes, allowing classical music fans, for example, to hear a full movement, or even two, of a symphony. EMI was adamantly opposed to it, consumers be damned, and over the first half of the 1950s it lost its dominance of the U.K. recording market.

This was a lesson not lost on Martin, and was a major part of what became a charmed life for him, one that he graciously acknowledged was driven at key points by the machinations of a fairy godfather completely unrelated to his natural talents.

Martin came of age precisely when a medium perfectly suited to his sensibilities came to the fore: electronic recording. He was old enough to slipstream into one minor cultural revolution (British comedy in the 1950s) and yet just barely still young enough to hitch a ride when that major one  electronic recording, arguably the definitive one of the century  emerged. He fell into those things through a patchwork of coincidence, luck, mettle, and (that word again) talent. He could discourse on Ravel (his favorite artist), Bach, electronic microphones, tape setups, pop music, and record-industry machinations even as his patrician mien eventually made him the friend of stars and royals.

Martin was 90 when he died, last night, a connection to a time distant to most of us. Despite his outward urbanity hed come from a poor family, growing up without electricity, or even a kitchen, in a tiny apartment in North London. Even members of the Beatles had grown up without indoor plumbing, children of a land that had taken the brunt of the effort to stop Hitler. Martin, of course, was just shy of a generation older, and only by chance was not a potential victim of the war himself  hed volunteered to be a pilot, but by that time the U.S. had dropped atomic bombs on Japan, and the war was on its way to being over. In his memoir, All You Need Is Ears, Martin casually mentions flying off aircraft carriers; with nothing like modern navigation systems, pilots would take off, fly for hours, and then have to find their way back to the ships through their own sense of navigation. The result of failure in this enterprise was obvious, he wrote.

Martin had taught himself to read and write music, and after a time of living, along with his first wife, at his parents after the war, he made a living at it. Through the intervention of that fairy godfather, he was summoned to a division of EMI to be an assistant to the subsidiarys president. This was Parlophone, the conglomerates backward and forgotten cousin. (The president, as it turned out, was essentially its only employee.) But Martin learned for five years, and then was rewarded the top position himself. He made the label a lot of money by delving into a new world of manic British comedy, and recorded The Goon Show and Peter Sellers, among many others. You can hear in this hit he made with Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren the tastefulness and dry wit he brought even to a novelty record:

The man whod orchestrated and recorded symphonies was now playing with the so-called wobble board, which made the high-larious popping sound on the Sellers track. Martin could do anything. Bach, he wrote many years later, had 20 kids and wrote incessantly for decades; he was, Martin noted approvingly, a worker and a craftsman. Martin himself, juggling everything he could to keep little Parlophone afloat, was correspondingly open-minded when, after some internal machinations, he was confronted in the studio by a band that had been turned down by virtually every label in the land.

It was love at first sight, Martin said later.

He found the four young men in the band charming. He couldnt figure out which one was the groups leader  all bands at the time had a leader  but decided to let it go. John was manic and Paul was quite pleasant. The guitarist George wasnt as talented as the other two, but not bad. The drummer was quite a looker, a not insignificant factor at the time, but simply couldnt play well enough. He pulled the others aside and told them Pete Best had to go. This was fine  they already had their eye on another friend from Liverpool, Richard Starkey, known as Ringo.

It was a time when producers and musicians wore coats and ties, and engineers white lab-coats. Assembled in the studio, Martin heard  something. More than anything else, he had ears that could hear what others couldnt. He knew why the band hadnt been signed by producers at the countrys many tonier labels: They couldnt hear the music for the noise.

Martin may have been talented musically; his genius socially was to find in this disparate group a sound and a purpose, and guide their natural talents to a place in history. Such phrases are overused in the Age of Kardashian, but any sober observer will attest that the world pre- and post-Beatles was very different indeed.

The Beatles had assets that were simply inconceivable at the time. Paul McCartney would become one of the greatest pop songwriters of the century, and possibly the greatest  beating Irving Berlin on points, and in sophistication and class up there with Gershwin and Porter. He was also adorable to look at. In Lennon, the group had another very significant pop songwriter, and, if I can make this distinction, one of the very greatest (Dylan, not too many others) rock songwriters. Harrison was a decent and valuable guitarist and would contribute a few classic songs to the bands repertoire, and in Ringo they ended up with a steady and distinctive drummer.

When Lennon and McCartney were asked by Martin for some original songs, they brought in two so-so ones  Love Me Do and P.S. I Love You. From the first, Martin invited the members into the control room, to ask them what they liked and didnt like in the recording. (I dont like your tie, Harrison told him.) Asked to bring in more, they produced indications of what Martin immediately recognized was astonishing growth, including Please Please Me and She Loves You.

For the latter song, Martin created an appropriately explosive beginning, which hailed a new sound and era. After a first album filled out with covers, the band began to scale upward from there, into pop hit after pop hit after pop hit (I Want to Hold Your Hand, Cant Buy Me Love, A Hard Days Night), to classic after classic after classic (Help, Yesterday, Ticket to Ride), and then to one cultural-firmament-shaking landmark after another (Strawberry Fields Forever, Sgt. Pepper, Hey Jude, The White Album, Abbey Road, etc., etc., etc.).

There was always experimentation and open-mindedness, but the experimentation was in the service of pop. And if the pop world was an Inferno, Martin was a Virgilian figure to the four young men  in various senses their leader, their teacher, their master  and they indeed were possessors of sprawling Dantean ingenuity in their own right. Martin would never have created the epochal Strawberry Fields Forever on his own. But the combination of Johns inchoate ideas and Martins studio virtuosity allowed them to seek together a corporeal, ultimately shattering manifestation of Lennons vision.

(YouTube has it taken down right now, but poke around for the Strawberry Fields Forever edit take from the Anthology collection to hear this dynamic in action.)

Even today, its hard to encapsulate everything Martin and the four members of the group did. Just as Debussy and Ravel, in Martins words, painted with sound, using the various instruments of the orchestra, he and the Beatles used a studio palette in a metaphorically similar, if technologically distinct, way. Leaving aside the catholic instrumentation (everything from strings to French horn to tabla dotted the groups songs), voices and instrument were slightly sped up or slowed down; pieces of songs were taken apart, run backward, and stitched together; recordings were mixed down and compressed, and then mixed down some more; after years of dedication to mono (the only way to hear Beatles songs up to Sgt. Pepper), some stereo was experimented with. (And lets face it, Sgt. Pepper is mind-blowing in stereo, too). Even the physical tape was manipulated and abused, and some variety or combination of all of this created the somehow organic, yet entirely electronic, magic that the five put down on record again and again.

Within a few years, the group had mastered the pop idiom, flaking these songs with variously technological innovations (like the guitar feedback at the top of I Feel Fine). Then came full-on experimentation, as on pastiches like Tomorrow Never Knows  even as they kept having hits with utterly commercial things like Michelle, Eleanor Rigby, and Day Tripper. The world is different now, but its worth noting that back then, besides the 13 or so (!) albums worth of material they released on formal releases over the bands seven-year career, there was an additional absurd number of single tracks occasionally thrown together on compilation albums. The band produced at full speed for seven years, and yet from start to finish, and to this day, offered their audience only a handful of inferior tracks. With each of these, and then with Sgt. Pepper, an album that had no hit singles and forever changed the direction of pop music, the band did something few artists have ever done, which is essentially embody in itself the furthest reaches of the potential of that medium.

Martin in the 40-something years since the Beatles produced a variety of other artists and oversaw the Beatles recorded legacy. He left EMI in the mid-1960s to form his own production company (and thereby make more than a salary off the groups recordings), but by his own admission was not a millionaire later in life. He was mostly this: a pop elder statesman, consorting with royalty and always retaining his air of goodwill, common sense, good taste, and unflappability.

He never took too much credit from the band, but never downplayed his own contributions either. He was patrician in his later years, sure, but at heart really a man who came out of a war to a broken society and helped create the world we live in now. He was a genius at guidance, collaboration, and creating joy through pure sound  a worker, you might say, and a craftsman.
Dr. Luke. Photo: Jason LaVeris/Getty Images

Sony Music is expected to sever ties with Dr. Luke, reports The Wrap. According to knowledgeable individuals, the record label will end its contract with the producer  whose Kemosabe Records operates under a deal with Sony  before it expires next year. The pressure on Sony to drop Luke has been mounting since Kesha first sued Luke, in 2014, for sexual, physical, and emotional abuse (later adding Sony to that suit), and more recently after Kesha lost an injunction to be released from her contract with Dr. Luke. Sony has previously said it is not legally permitted to free Kesha from that contract because she signed it through a separate deal with Lukes publishing companies.

Lukes five-year contract with Sony is reportedly not set to expire until early 2017, and Keshas lawsuit against him is still pending, which sources tell The Wrap means Sony and Luke would have to come to a mutual agreement to dissolve their deal. (It is not clear whether Luke has been informed of any of this.) Kesha has no case in regards to her contract, but [Sony] cant afford the Adeles of the world out in the streets calling the label unsupportive, a source tells The Wrap. The fact that this hasnt already been taken care of is confusing, especially for people in the building.

Meanwhile, Keshas fans have planned a second protest outside of Sonys NYC headquarters for this Friday, where theyre expected to present a petition with over 411,000 signatures demanding that Sony release Kesha.

Vulture has reached out to Sony Music for comment.

Update: In a statement to EW, Dr. Lukes attorney denies the report: This is not true. Luke has an excellent relationship with Sony. His representatives are in regular contact with executives at the highest levels at Sony and this has never come up.
Klassy Glass Wine Bar & Bistro

723 Austin Ave.

752-1808, 630-5074 for parties and special occasions

klassyglasswinebar.com and on Facebook.

Hours: 11 a.m.- 10 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 11 a.m.-midnight Fridays, 2 p.m-midnight Saturdays.

Price: $-$$ (see guide below)

Alcohol: Wine and beer by the glass and bottle.

On the menu: Bistro fare with sandwiches, salads, soups, appetizers and desserts. Full menu served throughout the day. Off-menu lunch specials on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

Good to know: Discounted prices on wine and beer by the glass and bottle during happy hour, 4-7 p.m. weekdays. Live music on Friday nights. The Red Goose names of several menu offerings refer to the wine bars location in what was once the Lewis Shoe Store, which sold Red Goose Shoes.

Restaurant origin: New owners Carrie and J.P. Johnson reopened the Klassy Glass on Feb. 8.

Texas State Technical College Culinary Arts Connection

Greta W. Watson Culinary Arts Center, Campus Drive and Eighth Street

254-867-4868

Hours: 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays through April 24

Price: $ (see guide below)

Takeout: Yes

Credit cards: Yes

Good to know: Will accept reservations for parties of six or more. Patrons who wish to dine in should arrive between 11 and 11:30 a.m. to get seating. Customers can order a meal to go at the counter.

Dining schedule:

Wednesday and March 18  Pacific Rim

March 23 and 25  Italian

March 30 and April 1  Southern

April 6 and 8  English

April 13 and 15  Texas

April 22  Live action buffet

In-N-Out Burger

801 S. Fourth St.

800-786-1000 752-1185

Hours: 10:30 a.m.- 1 a.m. Sundays-Thursdays, 10:30 a.m.-1:30 a.m. Fridays-Saturdays,

Price: $ (see guide below)

Takeout: Yes

On the menu: Burger basics: hamburgers and cheeseburgers with a multiple patty option, french fries, milk shakes.

Good to know: Customers can order off a secret menu and get such variations as double meat, 3 X 3 and 4 X 4 (two- , three- and four-patty burgers), animal style (In-N-Out sauce and grilled onions) and protein style (no bun).

Restaurant origin: Started in 1948 in California by drive-through pioneers Harry and Esther Snyder, who were among the first restauranteurs to develop the drive-through.

Barnetts Public House

420 Franklin Avenue

254-714-1356

On Facebook, and at barnettspublichouse.com

Hours: Closed Mondays; 4-11 p.m. Tuesdays-Wednesdays; 4 p.m.-midnight Thursdays; 4 p.m.-1 a.m. Fridays; 10 a.m.-1 a.m. Saturdays; and 10 a.m.- 2 p.m. Sundays.

Price: $ (see guide below)

Takeout: Yes

Alcohol: Yes, full bar

On the menu: The restaurant recently revamped its menu, with only a few items carried over from the previous menu. New menu items include The Cajun, The Italian Stallion, The Greek and Bahn Mi, all featuring gourmet sausages served with flat bread or a baguette. Other new items include Andouille sausage or shrimp with jalapeno grits, homemade boudin and beans, bratwurst and The Blue Collar Dog, a black Angus beef hot dog. Desserts include salted caramel cheese cake, bread pudding and a smore kit.

Good to know: Offers free Wi-Fi and daily drink specials.

Restaurant origin: Barnetts opened in the spring of 2010 before closing its doors Dec. 31, 2014. Under new ownership, the pub reopened in February 2015.

Tandoori Trailer

Waco Chowtown food truck court (University Parks Drive at Franklin Avenue.)

254-495-6466

On Facebook, Twitter and at tandooritrailer.com

Hours: 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays and 5-7 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. Hours may vary due to weather; dinner hours longer in spring and summer. Closed Dec. 31-Jan. 3.

Price: $

Takeout: Yes. Curbside service and phone app allowing ordering available after mid-January.

Alcohol: No

On the menu: Tandoori chicken (roasted in a tandoor, an Indian clay oven), chicken curry, paneer makhani (cubes of paneer cheese in a spiced tomato and cream sauce), chole (chickpeas), naan (baked flatbread), samosas (deep-fried pastry with savory fillings), basmati rice.

Good to know: Garlic naan is a customer favorite. All dishes are made fresh daily.

Restaurant origin: Co-owner Johnny Bhojwani came to work in Baylor Universitys admissions office in 2011 only to discover the nearest Indian restaurant was in Killeen. Houston resident Naresh Thadani was looking for a business in which to invest and Bhojwani suggested creating an Indian cuisine food truck.

Freddys Frozen Custard and Steakburgers

817 S. Jack Kultgen Freeway

254-301-7330

On Facebook and at

Hours: 10:30 a.m.- 10 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays. 10:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays. Drive-through open 10:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays, 10:30 a.m.-midnight Fridays-Saturday.

Price: $-$$

Alcohol: No

On the menu: Steakburgers, hot dogs, chicken breast sandwiches, veggie burgers, french fries, cheese fries, frozen custard sundaes and milkshakes.

Good to know: Most popular order is the No. 1 combo, a double cheeseburger with fries and drink. Steakburgers made fresh daily and vegetable sides cut fresh daily. Freddys Fry Sauce also sold separately.

Restaurant origin: World War II veteran Freddy Simon started the original Freddys in 1950s in Wichita, Kansas.

Guide: $  main dishes less than $10; $$  $10 to $20; $$$  more than $20.
Texas Democratic Women of Central Texas will meet at 11 a.m. Saturday at the McLennan County Democratic Partys office, 4800 W. Waco Drive, Suite 135.

Light refreshments will be served, and networking will begin at 10:45 a.m.

Nazry and Hope Mustakim, with Waco Immigration Alliance, and Bonnie Lesley, co-founder of Texas Kids Cant Wait, will be program presenters.

The meeting is open to like-minded individuals.

For more information, email Colleen Haley at colleenh531@gmail.com or call 855-1994.

Fish fry in Lott

Westphalia Knights of Columbus will have a Lenten fish fry from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday at the Westphalia Parish Hall Pit, 144 County Road 3000 in Lott.

Cost is $9 for a plate of catfish, shrimp, french fries, beans and coleslaw.

For more information, call Ronnie Ranly at 770-8366 or Junior Hering at 721-1916.

Clogging rally

The annual Texas Clogging Council Rally will be Friday and Saturday at the Waco Convention Center, 100 Washington Ave.

Activities open to the public will include a clogging class for beginners from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and a line dancing class from 4 to 5 p.m. Saturday.

Cost is $7, which includes the two classes and admission to an 8 p.m. Saturday clogging show featuring clogging teams from across Texas.

Workshops for experienced cloggers will be from 1 to 5 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Fee is $42 for TCC members and $57 for nonmembers.

For more information, call Jean Moeller at 722-0511.

Cemetery association

China Spring Cemetery Association will have its annual meeting at 10 a.m. Saturday at the China Spring Tabernacle Community Center, 127 Ford St.

For more information, call 799-2973.

Railroad dinner

Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum, 315 W. Avenue B in Temple, will have a dinner program featuring author and railroad enthusiast George C. Werner at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. for the program, which is in conjunction with the museums latest exhibit, Trains Around the World: The Railroad Photography of Fred Springer.

Werner will discuss his experiences of riding the rails with Springer throughout the United States and abroad.

Tickets cost $25, which includes dinner.

Reservations are required. For reservations, call 298-5172 or visit rrhm.org/werner.

Writers group

Creative Minds, an all-genre writers group, will meet at 11 a.m. Saturday in the conference room at the West Waco Library, 5301 Bosque Blvd.

Guest speaker Michael Bracken will talk about Writing Confessions for Fun and Profit.

Button Club

Brazos Button Club will meet from 9:30 a.m. to noon Saturday in the Fellowship Hall at Bellmead Church of Christ, 907 Hogan Lane.

Discussion topic will be Button Superstitions.

For more information, call Kathy May at 715-8439.

Submit items for Briefly to goingson@wacotrib.com.
A Dallas-based real estate company has bought Woodhollow Apartments, 4502 Lake Shore Drive, and plans to remodel the interiors of its 220 units. The acquisition is part of Performance Properties strategy to acquire 1,500 upscale apartment units around the state.

Woodhollow, which is located near Lake Waco and McLennan Community College, is a mix of one- and two-bedroom units averaging 741 square feet in size. It sits on 11 acres in a wooded setting, is 96 percent occupied, and amenities include a sand volleyball court, hot tub, two swimming pools and a dog park.

Since 2013, partners David McQuaid and Todd White have focused on acquiring older apartments in need of repair. They have completed more than $73 million in transactions, amassing more than 1,000 units in Dallas and creating $10 million in gross annual revenue, according to a company news release.

The company said acquisitions so far generally have required major renovations inside and out, but that Woodhollow received an exterior overhaul under the previous owners about two years ago. That allows Performance Properties to focus on renovating interiors as the catalyst for increased returns through future rent hikes.

After so much heavy lifting with our first 1,105 units, which were older complexes, it will be nice to focus on creating value through significant upgrades to Woodhollows interiors, Performance Properties President Pam Garcia said in a prepared statement released this week.

The company kind of fell in love with Waco after being shown several properties by other real estate agents from the Dallas area, Garcia said.

We see it as a dynamic, growing area, and this submarket off Lake Shore Drive, which is close to the lake, really piqued our interest, she said in a phone interview.

Garcia said the company hopes to redo countertops, cabinets, flooring and fixtures in the apartments, with work to be performed between occupancies.

Turnover is rare there, so we realize some of the work may have to involve occupied units. Thats part of the challenge, Garcia said.

She said rental rates may rise after the improvements, but Performance Properties will keep the prevailing rates of the marketplace in mind when making adjustments. She said the company will keep in mind how long each resident has lived at the complex when adjusting rates.

We hope those living there will appreciate that we are attempting to make it one of the more premier properties in the sub market, Garcia said.

She said the company is planning to spend about $800,000 on the upgrades to Woodhollow Luxury Apartments.

Partner David McQuaid, reached by phone, declined to comment on how much he and White spent to acquire Woodhollow.

We see Waco as a good, solid secondary market, with a high-profile university, good hospitals, everything we like in a community, McQuaid said.

The partnership likely will keep Woodhollow for three to five years, possibly put it on the market and then pursue other properties in the area, he said.

We really like Waco, which has become our second level of priority behind only the Dallas-Fort Worth area, McQuaid said.

Apartments at Woodhollow range in size from 480 to 1,200 square feet, with monthly rates from $590 to more than $815.
Local shoppers may have suffered from post-holiday blues when it came to spending, as the sales-tax rebate received this week by the city of Waco barely exceeded that of March last year.

March rebates reflect sales in January and are reported to the Texas Comptrollers Office in February.

Waco received a rebate of $2.6 million, only six-tenths of 1 percent more than the $2.59 million received a year earlier.

Still, Laura Chiota, the citys budget officer, said she was not going to complain.

Anything in the positive direction is good, she said, adding that Waco has received rebates totaling $18.6 million for the first six months of the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, which is about $800,000 more than budgeted. For the calendar year, rebates have totaled $9.5 million, a 2.57 percent increase.

Chiota said the year-over-year percentage increase may have been modest because Waco is in the midst of a long-running increase in sales tax rebates that reflects retail and restaurant growth dating back three years. Waco in the past 18 months has seen the arrival of a new Cavenders Boot City superstore, Havertys Furniture, La-Z-Boy Home Furnishings & Decor, Cost Plus/World Market, Saltgrass Steakhouse, Potbelly Sandwich Shop, Bubbas 33, In-N-Out Burger and Zoes Kitchen, among others.

Wacos sales-tax figures also have benefitted from the opening of a 121,000-square-foot H-E-B Plus! store at Interstate 35 and South Valley Mills Drive, replacing smaller H-E-B locations at Dutton Avenue and Valley Mills Drive in Beverly Hills and near the Baylor University campus.

The opening of Magnolia Market at the Silos at the intersection of South Sixth Street and Webster Avenue also is generating traffic and spending.

Increased sales in Waco and its suburbs have become a regular finding in the monthly Greater Waco Economic Index prepared by Amarillo-based economist Karr Ingham, who has credited improved employment figures and the growing number of retail and dining establishments for the surge.

Chiota said sales-tax rebates go into the citys general fund, providing revenue for the fire, police, street and traffic departments, among others.

Statewide, Comptroller Glenn Hegar sent $585 million to cities, counties, transit systems and special-purpose taxing districts for March, which is seven-tenths of 1 percent less than in March 2015. The suffering oil patch continues to wreak havoc with sales tax totals.

Hegar announced the state sales-tax revenue totaled $2.3 billion in February, down 6.8 percent from February 2015.

It is from that total that the Comptrollers Office sends rebates to taxing entities such as the city of Waco.

Last months decrease in sales tax collections as compared to February 2015 was expected with the continued contraction in both the manufacturing and oil industries, Hegar said, adding he expects comparisions to be more favorable in coming months because collections in the last half of 2015 did not grow as fast as those in the first half.

Total sales-tax revenue for the three months ending in February 2016 is down 4 percent compared to the same period a year ago.

Revenue from the sales tax is the largest souce of funding for the state budget, accounting for 56 percent of all tax collections. Motor vehicles sales and rental taxes, motor fuel taxes, and oil and natural gas production taxes also are large revenue streams for the state.

In February, motor vehicle sales and rental taxes totaled $372 million, up 5.2 percent from February of last year; motor fuel taxes totaled $286 million, an increase of 1 percent from a year earlier; and oil and natural gas production taxes totaled $111 million, a 62 percent drop from last year.
Its been almost six years since the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered additional hearings in convicted murderer Darlene Gentrys efforts to win a new trial.

The hearings were conducted almost five years ago, but the judge who is charged with submitting his findings to the states highest criminal court has since been elected to the Court of Criminal Appeals and has yet to make his recommendations in the case.

Gentry, now 41, has been in prison eight years since her conviction in the 2005 shooting death of her husband, Keith Gentry, the father of their three sons.

Gentrys oldest son has a pickup truck now and will turn 16 in June. Her younger boys will turn 13 and 12 this month, said their grandfather, Waymon Gentry, who is caring for the boys with their grandmother.

Waymon Gentry has long since lost his patience waiting for a ruling in his former daughter-in-laws appeal. But he said Wednesday that as long as she remains locked up  where he said she belongs  there is no sense worrying about what might happen with the courts ruling.

I am just waiting to see what happens, he said. She is there, locked up, so I might as well not worry about it. I dont see how in the world they could change anything.

Former visiting Judge Bert Richardson, of San Antonio, was appointed to hear Darlene Gentrys writ arguments after ruling that 19th State District Judge Ralph Strother should be recused based on Gentrys complaints that Strother showed bias against her.

Richardson, a former adjunct law professor at St. Marys University School of Law, was elected to the Court of Criminal Appeals in 2014 but retained Gentrys case and others he was appointed to hear.

Richardson said Wednesday that he could not discuss Gentrys case. His findings now will be forwarded to the very court on which he sits, but he will not be allowed to participate in the final order.

Gentry is serving a 60-year prison term, convicted of shooting her husband in the head while he slept and then trying to stage the scene to make it appear that he was shot by an intruder. Gentry told the 9-1-1 dispatcher that she was asleep down the hall with one of her sons who was not feeling well.

Court orders prevent Gentry from having any contact with her three sons, and Waymon Gentry said it has been a long time since the boys have asked about their mother.

They know everything that has happened. They asked why she did it, and we told them we dont know why, Waymon Gentry said.

The boys last saw their mother when Darlene Gentrys mother took them to the prison in Gatesville without authorization during the first year of her incarceration, Waymon Gentry said.

McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna recused his office from Gentrys writ process because he consulted with Gentry when he was a defense attorney before he took office.

Former Brazos County District Attorney Bill Turner agreed to handle the writ proceedings for the state but later left office and turned the case over to John Jasuta, of Austin.

Those changes, plus Richardsons busy schedule, slowed the case. Richardson was appointed to oversee the criminal case against former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, maintained a regular prison docket in South Texas and presided over high-profile murder cases. That was while he was running for a spot on the nine-member Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

But it is still hard to understand why the writ process has taken so long, Waymon Gentry and others have said.

This case has taken quite awhile to get resolved, no question about that, Richardson told the Tribune-Herald in September 2013. We are under no deadlines now from the Court of Criminal Appeals, so as long as the defendant is not screaming that she needs to be out of prison, which she is not, then we are OK. But there have just been so many different players involved in this from day one.

Gentrys direct appeal has been rejected by Wacos 10th Court of Appeals and the Court of Criminal Appeals.

6-year process

The writ process began almost six years ago, when Gentry filed a voluminous application for writ of habeas corpus, claiming a multitude of allegations that she said combined to deprive her of a fair trial.

Saying in June 2010 that Gentry has alleged facts that, if true, might entitle her to relief. Additional facts are needed, the states highest criminal court ordered hearings in 19th State District Court to hear allegations in Gentrys writ application.

Gentrys legal team  Stephanie Stevens, Anne Burnham and their volunteer innocence project law students from St. Marys Center for Legal and Social Justice  stopped short of saying Gentry is innocent. But they claim she was not afforded a fair trial because an incriminating videotape of Gentry searching a pond for the murder weapon was improperly admitted at trial.

Neither Stevens nor Burnham returned phone messages Wednesday.

The attorneys also have said that Gentry deserves a new trial because her trial attorneys were ineffective, in part, because they persuaded Gentry not to testify at her trial.

Gentry wanted to testify and she and her attorneys debated the issue before deciding against it, Stevens has said.

Asked how Gentry would have explained why she went wading knee-high into a chilly pond near Axtell after police found the murder weapon dumped there, Stevens said Gentry would have explained that upon hearing rumors around town that the murder weapon was thrown there, Gentry attempted to find it so she could bring it to police and aid in finding who killed her husband.

Unfortunately for Gentry, jurors viewed the videotape of her at the pond in a different light.

Gentry had inquired about buying the land on which the pond sat. She said she was excited because her young boys could fish there.

Trial testimony indicated Gentry dumped the gun there and then told the owner that she had changed her mind about the pond and asked if he would fill it in.

Suspicious of the request, the owner contacted police, who found the gun. Police asked the owner to tell Gentry he would have to drain the pond before filling it in. Hoping that Gentry would return to get the gun before the owner drained it, Texas Rangers hid a video camera in a wooded area near the pond and then waited for Gentry to return, which she did.

Officers placed a large stick to mark the spot where they found the gun in the pond.

Jurors watched in amazement as the hidden video showed Gentry walk to the edge of the water, look around to see if anyone was watching and then wade into the water and head straight for the stick.
McLennan County Precinct 1 Commissioner Kelly Snell retained his primary election win after Wednesdays recount and said he opposes his challengers attempts to get a new election after 606 voters received the wrong ballots on Election Day.

Cory Priest, who narrowly lost the March 1 primary election to Snell, requested the recount, which cut Snells margin of victory from 29 votes to 25 votes.

The recount was not about achieving another outcome, Priest said, but reviewing totals or any other errors and gathering proof for a lawsuit to bring a fair election to McLennan County.

There were 145 Precinct 1 residents who did not get to vote in the Precinct 1 county commissioner race because they received the wrong ballot, Priest said. He said he plans to file a lawsuit in the coming days to force a new election.

In last weeks primary, 606 voters at four of the countys 32 vote centers received the wrong ballot. The Republican primary for Precinct 3 County Commissioner also was affected. Incumbent Will Jones beat challenger Ben Matus by a margin of 821 votes.

Snell, who hired attorney Donna Garcia Davidson, of Austin, said one race shouldnt be singled out. If more than 600 voters were disenfranchised, then any race affected should have a new election, he said. But Snell said he is not requesting that because he is happy with the results.

Snell said there were 709 Precinct 1 residents who voted in the primary election but opted not to vote in that race.

Its not like were at the top of the ticket, you know, Snell said. I dont think it was a good thing we had a messed-up election, but then again, I dont think its correct we had 6,000 voters show up on the day they were supposed to and they looked at their ballot before they cast their vote and they made sure their people were there before they pushed the cast- vote button. I dont want to disenfranchise them and make them vote again.

Elections Administrator Kathy Van Wolfe has repeatedly stated only two people called her office on Election Day about not having their commissioner on the ballot, and both did so after they had cast their votes, left the ballot box and gone home. Van Wolfe, who has been with the county for 19 years, has said voters should have alerted someone before casting their ballot to draw attention to the mistake.

Attorney Trey Trainor, who is representing Priest, said there were enough clerical errors in the election to justify a suit stating a true winner could not be determined.

The case law is very clear. The burden is never on the voter to get it right. The burden is always on the administrators of the election to get it right. . . . We all know, OK, well, I generally live in McLennan County and I generally live in Precinct 1, but its the old story of, I live across the street from somebody, but were in different school districts, said Trainor, who is with Beirne, Maynard & Parsons LLP.

Joe Nixon, also with Beirne, Maynard & Parsons LLP, said administrative errors prevented a proper election.

The only remedy is a do-over, Nixon said.

Nixon said by Friday or Monday, they will file a lawsuit in McLennan County in hopes of prompting a new election against Snell. He said they want to move quickly, even though the law allows 30 days to contest the election.

If the case is approved by the judge, they can get a new election on the May ballot, he said. There are already two runoff elections for state races, which will minimize expenses.

The county will appoint a visiting judge to hear the case, as required by law, Nixon said.

There are similar issues every election statewide, he said. There is always going to be human error because elections are run by people, he said.

This is not an unusual situation, but votes are rarely close enough for it to matter, Nixon said.

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.

The recount

Volunteers filed in Wednesday morning, signing in, before hearing guidelines for the days activities. They were divided into seven counting groups and hand-tallied more than 6,100 ballots from the 32 vote centers for the Precinct 1 race. Priest requested a hand count of electronically cast ballots that were printed.

Jeb Leutwyler, outgoing McLennan County Republican Party chairman, approved the recount petition from Priest.

Snell said it was a long day Wednesday. The electronic recount gave him a 30-vote margin win, and two hand counts of the ballots gave him a 25-vote margin win, Snell said.

Regardless of however you count them, the problem is, you have a lot of human error and its really tough counting those votes, he said.

Snell said those almost 200 people who didnt get to vote in his precinct are important. But it doesnt justify throwing out the votes of every one else who cast their ballot in Precinct 1 for a new election, Snell said.

If hes going to say, Well, they should get to vote. Yeah, everyone should get to vote  the whole 600. We should have all the people affected run again. That would be the fair thing, Snell said. Because then it would be fair.

Snell said one race shouldnt be singled out.

Hopefully, well make sure this never happens again, he said.
Two men were arrested after a reported armed robbery took an unexpected twist and led to a prostitution bust Wednesday afternoon, Waco police Officer Garen Bynum said.

John Pete Jr., 29, was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance and trafficking of persons. Johnathan Nard, 30, was charged with promoting prostitution and providing false information to a peace officer after he told police he was the victim of an armed robbery in North Waco, Bynum said.

Shortly after 1 p.m., Nard notified police that he was walking near 35th Street and Colcord Avenue when a vehicle approached him and a woman jumped out of the passenger side, Bynum said. Nard told police the woman threatened him with a knife and stole about $60 before she returned to the vehicle and left the area, Bynum said.

Officers were able to find the vehicle and make a traffic stop at a gas station and arrest a man and woman in the vehicle Nard reported, Bynum said.

We were able to do a high-risk traffic stop and safely take both into custody, he said.

With many people in the area of the gas station, officers approached the vehicle with guns drawn, using a loud speaker to order the two occupants out of the vehicle. After they were detained, officers searched the car and found a small knife and ecstasy pills he said.

Both said that they are from Houston, and the man said he was just in town looking for a job, Bynum said, adding that the alleged robbery victim declined to press charges.

Officers continued to probe the story and determined that Nard had lied about the robbery, Bynum said. He said officers believe Nard was meeting the woman for a prostitution arrangement, allegedly arranged by Pete.

This case took a completely unexpected twist that is not an everyday type of case, Bynum said. These types of cases take a lot of effort and investigation to conduct, so its not every day that these just kind of fall into your lap.

Officers spent several hours at the scene and called detectives to assist. Investigators took written statements from the woman Nard originally said robbed him. They determined she was a victim and transported her to an area hospital as a precaution, Bynum said.

Both men were booked in at the McLennan County Jail Wednesday evening.
McLennan County Precinct 1 Commissioner Kelly Snell is right to be bewildered by Tuesdays rare county elections commission meeting. Some mistakes were clearly noted, others mentioned without elaboration  enough for us to conclude almost everyone involved in the Election Day issuing of incorrect ballots at four different polling places is at fault, at least to some degree.

Hart InterCivic, the countys election equipment vendor, obviously fumbled in not sending out a timely reminder to its customers about the special software procedures required whenever a joint primary election is held using so-called vote centers. The latter allow people to vote at any polling place in the county rather than at a specific polling place dependent on a voters address. A Hart InterCivic representative said Tuesday that the company sent out these critical notices in 2012 and 2014 but failed to do so for 2016.

That notice might well have benefited the four Republican candidates for county commissioner and several hundred local voters, given that McLennan County was holding its first joint primary election with these very same vote centers. Since 2014, vote centers in our county have been employed in general elections, which are far less complex.

Yes, Hart InterCivic should have dispatched another reminder this past winter, given that vote centers are so popular. Then again, this raises only more questions. For instance, assuming previous notices were sent to all Hart InterCivic customers in 2012 and 2014, shouldnt someone in the local elections office have made a note of this for the time when vote centers were fully employed in McLennan County? Its a legitimate question, given that these vote centers were long envisioned for our county.

Even minus this assumption, local election officials should have been more vigilant in anticipating problems. A good dose of skepticism would have helped. While Elections Administrator Kathy Van Wolfe might be correct to note that voters can help out by informing poll workers of problems as soon as they recognize them  not after theyve left polling places and gone home  it was also obvious from Tuesdays meeting that other counties with similar complications became aware of these problems soon enough to make the proper adjustments. Why didnt that happen here?

In any case, the snafu now prompting a recount for the narrowly decided Precinct 1 county commissioner race (and likely a costly election redo) was the perfect storm, one complicated by what Van Wolfe said was the failure by some election judges to convey to poll workers proper protocol for handling this belatedly discovered joint primary election problem. Large numbers of voters at the polls on Election Day must have worsened matters. Voters were still casting ballots in China Spring at 10 p.m. Some poll workers worked long shifts with nary a break.

Van Wolfe might follow up on one interesting insight that she offered Tuesday about how young people more readily learn protocol involving software programs than older folks. This might be a good opening for political science students at the college level to sign up to help staff polling places in elections. It could broaden their political awareness by not only capitalizing on their talents but also allowing them to work with polling-place veterans who, as Van Wolfe said, are on the front line of democracy.

The morning of the commission meeting, The Texas Tribune reported that while Texas saw record turnout in last weeks Super Tuesday presidential primaries, our state still had one of the lowest voting-age participation rates of states that have held primaries so far. Gerrymandering, political gridlock and voter suppression are the likely suspects, but Election Day debacles such as last weeks sure dont help any.
Dr Pepper forever!

The collectors begin arriving today in what has become known to some as the holy land  the home of the nations oldest major soft drink, Dr Pepper. Several hundred collectors of soft-drink memorabilia will gather from all over the United States for a three-day convention. Its a lively congregation of the 10-2-4 Collectors Club. Its name is an engaging reference to the best times of the day to drink Dr Pepper.

Collectors will be setting up exhibits and displays in the Waco Hilton. Registration and membership information is available by contacting Charles Brizius at 214- 520-5777. Club members will be treated to a reception and cutting of an anniversary cake at the Dr Pepper Museum from 5:30 to 7:45 p.m. today. Fridays events begin with some seminars at 10 and 11 a.m., a business meeting at 1:15 p.m. and dinner (members only), all at the Waco Convention Center. Fridays events conclude at 6:30 p.m. with an auction.

The convention wraps up Saturday with a swap meet to be held in the Waco Hilton beginning at 10 a.m. Its open to the public, which is welcome to bring in collectibles and related items for appraisal and sale.

This year will have the added attraction of members visiting Magnolia at the Silos only a block and a half away. If you are interested in joining the 10-2-4 Collectors Club, call Charles. But remember: There is no known cure for collecting.

Wilton Lanning, Waco

Pope & politics

First, let me say I have the utmost respect for Pope Francis, but he really needs to keep out of our politics. American voters need to make up their minds how to vote and who to elect without outside intervention. The choices are tough enough without Pope Francis trying to persuade the voting public to his way of thinking. He certainly should not be naming Donald Trump a non-Christian for promoting a wall to keep out our undesirables, drug dealers, scam artists, human traffickers, criminals, etc.

Mary Ellis, Hewitt

Conservatism

As one who would not be described as conservative, I find myself defending what seems to be a redefinition of conservative by a person shown with a rifle in a political ad. I think of kindness and compassion when the word conservative comes up. If we ever differ, it may be over what is prudent.

In any case, I take umbrage at the efforts of a political candidate to cast a new definition. I know it is hard to run for office, but please stick to your own qualifications.

Dick Hartley, Robinson

Obama in Cuba

The glaring absence of President Obama at the funeral of Justice Antonin Scalia no doubt resonated throughout the legal community as well as among conservatives in general. Cuba could have waited.

Frank Smith, Clifton




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.
A collaboration between German watchmaker Stowa and Red Army Watches, a Singapore watch retailer, the Marine Singapura Red Hill commemorates an a fable about a heroic boy who saved an island kingdom from murderous fish, only to be executed by a spiteful monarch who resented the boys fame.

One of the tales in the Sejarah Melayu, a 15th century compendium of stories tracing the rise and fall of the Malacca Sultanate, an empire that once included Singapore, is that of a boy who saved a kingdom from vicious swordfish (though some say the creatures were garfish instead). According to the story, the island of Singapore was regularly assailed by menacing swordfish which impaled unsuspecting locals living on the coast.

The ruling Maharajah had no solution to the maritime attacks, until a clever boy suggested building a barricade of banana stems. The banana stem wall halted the swordfish advance, with the killer fish impaling themselves on the stems. Trapped on the barricade, the fish were swiftly killed by the Maharajahs troops.

Soon the boy was feted as the islands saviour, adored by the masses. But the envious Maharajah soon resented the boys popularity, and dispatched his men to kill the child, who lived on a hill. The murdered boys blood soaked into the hill, turning its soil red and giving it the name Bukit Merah, or Red Hill.

Named after this 500-year old legend, the Singapura Red Hill is the second watch made in collaboration with Red Army Watches, the first being the Flieger Lady Chin Swee. Its based on the Stowa Marine, a wristwatch based on the deck watches Stowa once made for the German navy. The Stowa Marine has the same oversized Arabic numerals, blued steel hands and railway minute track found on the original deck watches.

The dial is made of solid sterling silver with a matte, grained finish thats covered with clear lacquer to prevent tarnishing, with the 12 printed in metallic silver ink to distinguish it from the ordinary Marine. And the stainless steel case is 40 mm in diameter, with a brushed finish on all surfaces.

Inside is a ETA 2824, a robust automatic movement thats been decorated enough to make it attractive. Its visible through the display back, but can also be hidden by replacing the clear back with the second solid back engraved with swordfish rising from the waves.

Limited to 25 pieces, numbered from 1/28 to 28/28 (with the omission of the unlucky numbers 4, 13, 14 and 24), the Singapura Red Hill is priced at S$1888 including taxes. It is available only at Red Army Watches, starting April 2016.
Osama bin Laden relied on Iran as a conduit to replenish his terrorist army with money and fighters as he worked to keep al Qaeda in the killing business during his decade in hiding.

Details on the Iran-bin Laden strategic link come from the terrorist leader himself, who handwrote a steady stream of letters from various hideouts, including the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where Navy SEALs killed him in May 2011. The SEALs seized reams of documents, and the government released a second declassified batch this month.





It has been known that Iran allowed al Qaeda fighters to travel through its territory from the tribal areas of Pakistan to Iraq, where the parent terrorist group founded al Qaeda in Iraq. Iran also gave safe haven, sometimes in the form of accommodations, to al Qaeda leaders and bin Laden family members.

The bin Laden letters show the relationship ran deeper. While not an operational alliance, it was a logistical one. It underscores the reality that both Sunni Muslim al Qaeda and the Shiite Iranian regime shared one overriding emotion: an intense hatred of the United States.

Iran itself, and through surrogates such as Hezbollah, has been responsible for the killings of hundreds of Americans. It trained Iraqi Shiites in how to bomb and shell U.S. military personnel in Iraq. In that vein, Iran was an ally of al Qaeda in Iraq, which was targeting the same personnel.

In a 2007 letter to a terrorist named Karim at a time of intense fighting in Iraq, bin Laden warned his ally not to begin attacking Iran in retaliation for Tehrans arming and training of Iraqi Shiites.

You did not consult with us on that serious issue that affects the general welfare of all of us, bin Laden admonished Karim, who had made public threats. We expected you would consult with us for these important matters, for as you are aware, Iran is our main artery for funds, personnel, and communication, as well as the matter of hostages.

That disclosure, that Iran is a main logistics channel, would indicate that Tehran was either actively supporting al Qaeda in Pakistans tribal regions or tacitly letting the flow go through its territory. Why else would bin Laden not want to agitate Tehran?

The manpower flow through Iran appears to have continued for years.

Bin Laden wrote in 2010 in a letter to an ally: As it pertains to the brothers coming from Iran, I think that at this stage they are in safe places outside the areas of bombardment.

The bombardment may refer to the U.S. drone war over the tribal areas, where U.S. intelligence hunted down terrorist leaders and killed them with Hellfire missiles.

It was sort of a nonaggression pact between Iran and al Qaeda, said Kenneth Katzman, a Middle East scholar at the Congressional Research Service. A lot of this was tactical. This was part of Irans way of saying, Were not going to make trouble for your people, and in return, you dont make trouble for us.

A senior U.S. intelligence official told The Washington Times that Karim was Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who led al Qaeda in Iraq in 2007.

Al-Masri was killed in April 2010 by a U.S.-Iraq raid. A month later, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi assumed command of what became the Islamic State of Iraq. He fled for civil war-torn Syria and founded what is today the Islamic State terrorist army that controls sections of both countries.

Absolute control

The intelligence official said the bin Laden letter does not necessarily mean the Iranian regime had an official policy of nurturing al Qaeda in Pakistan.

For clarity, the reference to Iran as an artery should not be read as anything official with respect to the Iranian regime, the official said. We have not uncovered any evidence of anything formal or official when it comes to Iran and AQ.

James Phillips, a Middle East expert at The Heritage Foundation, calls al Qaeda and Iran frenemies.

They cooperated against common enemies, especially the United States, but were divided by ideology, priorities and sectarian differences, he said.

Mr. Phillips said there is a history to the al Qaeda-Iran relationship that predates the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. For example, Hezbollah, a creation of Iran in Lebanon, trained al Qaeda terrorists in bomb-making.

Hezbollah and al Qaeda both played a role in the 1996 Khobar Towers truck bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 Americans.

Iran allowed members of al Qaeda to travel freely through Iran without stamping their passports, including at least eight of the 9/11 hijackers, Mr. Phillips said. After al Qaeda was forced out of Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Tehran allowed surviving members to transit freely to Iraq to fight the U.S.

Iran housed al Qaeda VIPs, such as bin Ladens son, Saad, and Saif al Adel, a top al Qaeda military leader who is under indictment for his role in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa. Press reports say Adel was traded for an Iranian prisoner and is at large today. Saad was killed in a 2009 U.S. drone strike.

That supports the conclusion that bin Ladens relations with Irans dictatorship were convoluted, a mix of cooperation, competition, distrust and opportunistic collusion, Mr. Phillips said.

The Obama administration has reached out to the hard-line Islamic regime in Tehran, culminating in a landmark nuclear deal that freed up billions of dollars in Iranian cash in exchange for suspending its pursuit for 10 years of nuclear weapons research. Republican critics say the cash will be used to fund terrorism and that Iran will likely violate the deal. Iran this week test-fired two ballistic missiles in violation of U.N. resolutions.

Bin Ladens writings touched on the health of his family members residing in Iran and on Tehrans overall strategic objectives, which included kicking the U.S. out of the Persian Gulf.

They want the whole Gulf to be under their direct and absolute control, he wrote in a draft speech.

They started with the south of Iraq, and some of its center, and got no opposition from the Gulf states, which encouraged them to go on, as Iran sees itself as holding rights in that matter because it is a Gulf and major regional country, and claims that its security requirements call for there being no American military bases on the other shore of the Gulf.

The U.S. permanently stations ground, air and naval forces in the Gulf area to block Irans regional ambitions.

If, as it appears, that Iran was actively aiding al Qaeda, as the bin Laden letter states, the action would place it in jeopardy under the 2001 Authorization of Use of Military Force signed into law by President George W. Bush. The AUMF was essentially Congress declaration of war against al Qaeda as well as countries and organizations that support it.

The law says, in part: That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.
Valentines Day is a time to reflect and appreciate the relationships in our lives. However, it can also be a time to reflect on...
IMAGINING Arts was about all we could do over the last 18 months or so, but now we need imagine no more. Celebrating its 20th...
IF you are one of those parents who bought your child a bicycle for the new year but are struggling to find somewhere to...
RENTS in Waterford are now spiralling out of control, with costs 16.2% higher than they were in the same period last year  and...
THERE was a great response to this years Spring Clean initiative in Waterford, as over 50 groups from the county registered to get down and...
Seven jobs at a Waterford charity look set to be lost after it was announced that it is to be wound down. The U-Casadh...
CHANGES to the junction between New Street and Barrack Street have backfired, becoming yet another source of traffic chaos in the heart of the...
History is a set of lies agreed upon. The Dude
Former Home and Away actor Martin Lynes has been charged with sexually and indecently assaulting a woman in his home on the NSW Central Coast.

The 48-year-old has been charged with nine offences including having sexual intercourse without consent, assault with an act of indecency, four counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and three counts of common assault.

The attack allegedly occurred on February 29 when Lynes became involved in a dispute with a woman in his home in Sycamore Avenue, Bateau Bay.

"The altercation allegedly escalated, during which the man sexually and indecently assaulted the woman," a police statement said.
They have been eyes for the blind and therapeutic for children with autism. Now assistance dogs are enriching the lives of people with dementia who often find it difficult to stay connected to the world around them.

For the first time in Australia, labradors and golden retrievers are being trained to support people with dementia, a disease that affects about 350,000 Australians, 70 per cent of whom live at home.

Rolf and Vyrna Beilharz with their assistance dog Jiyu at home in Carlton. Credit:Eddie Jim

Assistance Dogs Australia and Hammond Care are hoping a trial of dogs for people living at home with the disease will improve their quality of life; allow them to stay at home longer; and ease the stress of their condition on them and their families.

Director of Hammond Care's Dementia Centre, Professor Colm Cunningham, said a small trial of three dogs for people with dementia in Scotland had already achieved encouraging results for some people, inspiring a trial of 10 dogs in Australia.
The parents of a police officer disabled by illness contracted in the line of duty has pleaded with the government to increase a $5.5 million compensation offer.

Constable Ryan Marron, 34, contracted the mosquito-borne Murray Valley encephalitis virus while working in the remote Balgo community in the Kimberley in 2011.

He was not expected to survive, but woke from a coma with brain injuries that affected his ability to move and speak.

As police officers are ineligible for worker's compensation, his family asked for $12 million to cover his lifelong medical and care needs, lost earnings and superannuation.
A Chinese official has a novel plan for Woody Island, a tiny, tropical and very much contested speck in the South China Sea.

Han Fangming, a businessman and political adviser, said this week that the government ought to turn the 2.13-square-kilometre outpost into China's version of the British Virgin Islands.

This image with notations provided by ImageSat International N.V., in February shows satellite images of Woody Island. A US official confirmed that China has placed a surface-to-air missile system on the island. Credit:AP

His pitch is to use the place as a hub for company registration. Chinese companies like Alibaba and Baidu are doing business in the Cayman Islands, he said in a news release, so why not bring that money home?

Well, why not indeed.
Liberty? "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear" George Orwell , '1984'

Church of Christ The Church of Christ [the Catholic Church], therefore, is one and the same forever. Whoever leaves her departs from the will and command of Our Lord Jesus Christ; leaving the path of salvation, he enters that of perdition. Whosoever [says St. Cyprian] is separated from the Church is united to an adulteress. He has cut himself off from the promises of the Church. Whosoever leaves the Church of Christ cannot arrive at the rewards of Christ. ... Whosoever observes not this unity observes not the law of God; whosoever holds not the faith of the Father and the Son, holds not to life and salvation. - Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum

Thorn "If you're not a thorn in somebody's side, you aren't doing Christianity right." Mother Angelica

Say NO to ignorance "Ignorance is no excuse when we have neglected to learn what we are obliged to know."St. Ambrose



Church Militant "We belong to the Church militant; and She is militant because on earth the powers of darkness are ever restless to encompass Her destruction." -Pius XII, AD 1953

Thank God Never forget to thank God daily for having made you a member of His indefectible Church, and grow daily in your attachment, devotion, and loyalty to the Vicar of Christ. Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia: Where Peter is, there the Church is. BECAUSE Because we are human, we are not strong. Because we are not strong, we pray. St. Augustine

The Golden Arrow The following prayer is from 1843, and is by Our Lord Who said: "This Golden Arrow will wound My Heart delightfully and heal the wounds inflicted by blasphemy."



'May the Most Holy, Most Sacred, Most Adorable, Most Mysterious and unutterable Name of God be always praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified in heaven, on earth and under the earth, by all the creatures of God, and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amen.'

Just a thought We're in the midst of climate change--one that's getting colder and colder toward religion.

Council of Trent, on the Sacraments "If anyone says that the received and approved rites of the Catholic Church, accustomed to be used in the administration of the sacraments, may be despised or omitted by the ministers without sin and at their pleasure, or may be changed by any pastor of the churches to other new ones, let him be anathema."



Canons on the Sacraments in General, Session 7, Canon 13

DON'T BE ROADKILL!



DON'T DO IT! Never do anything against conscience, even if the state demands it (Albert Einstein) Be watchful and diligent

"Be watchful and diligent in the service of God, and think often: why have I been created? If you are faithful and fervent in the performance of your work, God will be faithful and generous in rewarding you." St. Thomas a Kempis FIGHTING LIBERALISM! Considering 'Catholic 'liberalism': "to fight...this great evil of the present time that is pretending to please God without offending the devil, or, to put it better, to serve the devil without offending God."

Cardinal Louis Billot (1846-1931), teacher of Dogmatic Theology appointed by Pope Leo XIII

St. Fidelis

ERRORS?

OBEYING? Card. Torquemada, 15th century theologian: "Were the Pope to command anything against Holy Scriptures, or the articles of Faith, or the truth of the Sacraments, or the commands of the natural of Divine Law, he ought not to be obeyed, but in such commands he is to be disregarded."



And, from Pope Innocent III(16th century): "...it is necessary to obey the Pope in all things as long as he, himself, does not go against the universal customs of the Church, but should he go against the universal customs of the Church, he need not be followed..."

Scotland's William Wallace


Free Chances to Win a Trip to Paradise!

Would you like the chance to visit beautiful Hawaii? The 50th state gives you chances to surf big waves, relax on picturesque beaches, snorkel with exotic fish, and luxuriate in some of the most beautiful nature our planet has to offer. And these Hawaii Sweepstakes and Contests give you chances to win an unforgettable vacation for free.

Check this page regularly to find free chances to win a Hawaiian vacation. This list is updated every day, and it's full of the best current Hawaii giveaways offered by trustworthy companies. You can also find chances to win free airfare to the Hawaii islands, free stays at beachfront resorts, and other related prizes.

Before you enter any of these giveaways, it's a good idea to consider whether each vacation giveaway is right for you. If you are new to entering and winning sweepstakes, find out how to enter online sweepstakes like a pro to make sure you don't make any mistakes that would affect your chances of winning.

If another type of vacation is also on your agenda, check out these sweepstakes lists:

And don't forget to stop by TheBalance's Sweepstakes Directory to find even more prize categories, like chances to win cash or instant prizes.

If you are chosen as the winner, you'll be notified by the sweepstakes sponsors directly. You can learn more about what happens when you win sweepstakes and how to recognize the warning signs of sweepstakes scams.

Ready to start entering? Here are the current chances to win a free trip to Hawaii:

1. Roxy - Waikiki Sweepstakes

Get the chance to win a five-night getaway for two people to Hawaii.

Entry Frequency: One time per person/email/household

End Date: September 30th, 2022

Eligibility: Open to the U.S. and Canada

More Information about this Sweepstakes

Enter Sweepstakes Directly
This blog is written by a German professor, Debora Weber-Wulff, who has been researching about plagiarism since 2002. She runs a German-language " Portal Plagiat" that regularly tests plagiarism detection software. She is also a member of the " Computing and Ethics " group of the German computing society, GI, and active in the VroniPlag Wiki
Story Saved

You can find this story in My Bookmarks.

Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 09, 2016 | 06:50 AM | PADUCAH, KY

In their March 8 meeting, The Paducah Board of Commissioners approved an ordinance for Change Order #2 with Environmental Abatement, Inc. (EAI) for the 432 Broadway Demolition Project.This change order increases the project amount by $15,160 and extends the completion date to March 8. The additional time and costs resulted from the need to stop the demolition work while the steel reinforcement work, which was completed by a separate contractor (Darnell Steel & Construction), was being finished. For safety reasons, EAI did not want to continue with the demolition work until Darnells crews were finished which led to increased costs for the rental of equipment and the need to extend the contract deadline.This change order brings the total cost with EAI to $494,778. Now that the demolition project is complete, the barricades have been removed from Broadway and 5Street and the construction of an 18-foot masonry wall adjacent to the Varney Building will begin this week.

In July 2015, the City of Paducah purchased the condemned building at 432 Broadway for $1 from a limited liability company. The buildings owner indicated that he did not have the financial means to stabilize the building or bring it up to code. The City had been working with the buildings owner since 2010 on correction measures.

Also last July, the City approved a contract with Environmental Abatement, Inc. (EAI) for the buildings demolition. After EAI began the project, it was discovered that the existing steel column that supports 432 Broadway (OLeary Building) also supports the adjacent building at 430 Broadway (Varney Building). Demolition was halted until an engineer could design the temporary and permanent shoring of the Varney Building. The shoring work has been completed by Darnell Steel & Construction.



The City will receive Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds in the amount of $500,000 for the 432 Broadway Demolition Project. A match of $125,000 is required from the City. The City had to own the building in order to submit the grant application. Before the decision to demolish the building was made, the City worked with Sullivan Cozart out of Louisville, Kentucky to get demolition and stabilization cost estimates. Preliminary estimates to only stabilize (not rehabilitate) the building were between $1.9 and $2.0 million.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 10, 2016 | 11:07 AM | PADUCAH, KY

A Mayfield woman was charged Thursday with stealing thousands of dollars from a McCracken County residence.

According to the McCracken County Sheriff's Department, a resident of a home in the 2600 block of Cleary Drive in Paducah called police after discovering that an estimated $8,000 was taken from a hidden safe inside the home.

Deputies say the alleged theft took place on March 4 when the discovery of the missing money took place. Deputies say they were provided with names of individuals that had access to the home, however the victim didnt believe the persons of interest would have known the safes combination to enable them access to the money.

During an interview with 35-year-old Melita Painter of Mayfield, who worked for the victim, she allegedly admitted to being the individual responsible for taking money from the safe on two separate occasions in February. Deputies say Painter explained that she had observed the victim access the safe, and she had memorized the safes combination while looking over the victim's shoulder.

Painter was arrested Thursday and charged with theft by unlawful taking over $500. She was booked into the McCracken County Regional Jail.
Advertisement

By West Kentucky Star Staff

Mar. 10, 2016 | PADUCAH, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 10, 2016 | 10:54 AM | PADUCAH, KY

Paducah police have arrested a Paducah man after a tip was reported that he had allegedly been selling drugs to teenagers.



According to Paducah police, drug detectives received a tip from a citizen, who said Jeremy D. Kimbro, 33 of Paducah, was allegedly selling drugs to teenagers from his home and from the fast food restaurant where he works. The name of the restaurant was not released by police.



According to police, detectives conducted an undercover investigation and gathered enough evidence to obtain a search warrant for Kimbros home.



Police say they went to Kimbros home and detained him as he was leaving for work. Police say they found more than $1,000 cash, about five ounces of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.



They also recovered a quantity of methamphetamine during the investigation.



Kimbro has been arrested and charged with trafficking in marijuana and trafficking in a controlled substance (methamphetamine). He was booked into the McCracken County Jail.




Advertisement

By West Kentucky Star Staff

Mar. 10, 2016 | MCCRACKEN COUNTY, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 10, 2016 | 03:10 AM | MCCRACKEN COUNTY, KY

A McCracken County man escaped death Wednesday night in his submerged car.



At approximately 9:30 pm, the McCracken County Sheriffs Department responded to an injury accident in the 8900 block of New Hope Road. Deputies were advised that the vehicle had left the roadway, landed in a creek and was quickly filling with water with the driver trapped inside.



Upon arrival, deputies found that 37 year old Jason Lampley from Paducah, was northbound in the 8900 block of New Hope Road. As Lampley approached a curve, his vehicle hydroplaned causing him to leave the roadway on the east side. Once the vehicle left the roadway, it fell approximately 15 feet into a flooded creek. Lampley was trapped in the vehicle which was almost completely filled with water.



Deputy Trent Hardin was the first to arrive and jumped into the creek to assist Lampley. Sgt. Todd Ray and Deputy Jerry Jones arrived on scene shortly thereafter and jumped into chest high water to assist Deputy Hardin.



During the assist, water was up to Lampleys neck and he was unable to move. Deputies were able to extricate Lampley through the sun roof of the vehicle and strap him to a safety board.



The Lone Oak Fire Department and Concord Fire Department assisted in removing Lampley from the creek where Mercy Regional EMS administered first aid.



Lampley was treated at the scene then transported to Baptist hospital for multiple incapacitating injuries.
By KYTC Mar. 09, 2016 | 09:29 PM | FULTON, KY

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet reports that they are assisting crews from the city of Fulton tonight, barricading a section of Lake Street in downtown Fulton. The affected section is near The Keg restaurant.

Water is over parts of KY 94 in Fulton County. One section is located south of Hickman, between The Dip and KY 311. Also, a three-mile section of KY 94 has portions of water-covered roadway in the Willingham Bottom.

In Graves County, KY 58 is closed at the Graves-Hickman county line.

In Carlisle County, KY 1628 and KY 1820 have sections of roadway under water tonight.

In McCracken County, Bonds Road has water over the road between the 2 and 3 mile markers.

During and after periods of heavy rains, other roadways may have water rise over them briefly, then recede. Drive carefully tonight, and do not drive into water where you cannot see the roadway under it.

On the Net:
By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 10, 2016 | 12:25 PM | CALDWELL COUNTY, KY

A Lyon County man faces assault and gun charges, after a shooting Tuesday morning in Caldwell County.

Kentucky State Police got a call around 9:30 am to investigate an alleged shooting of a Caldwell County woman in Lyon County. Troopers said 33-year-old Tera Brown of Princeton had been at an address on Leroy Road while looking for her adult daughter, when she was shot in the leg.

Brown reportedly drove herself to the Caldwell County Hospital emergency room where she was treated and admitted to the hospital.

Police identified the shooter as 29-year-old Charles Breedlove of Lyon County. Troopers located Breedlove at his home. He was arrested without incident and booked into the Caldwell County Jail.

Breedlove is charged with assault, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and tampering with physical evidence.
By The Associated Press Mar. 09, 2016 | 08:02 PM | FRANKFORT, KY

A bill aimed at abolishing the death penalty in Kentucky has been defeated by a House committee.

The measure proposed replacing the death penalty with life in prison without parole. It stalled Wednesday when it failed to muster enough support in the House Judiciary Committee.

Death penalty opponents said the hearing represented progress in their campaign to end capital punishment.

A former prosecutor and a former judge condemned the death penalty during the hearing. They pointed to the millions of dollars spent to prosecute and defend death penalty cases during years of appeals. They said the system sometimes puts innocent people on death row.

The bill's opponents said the death penalty should be an option. Rep. Johnny Bell said convicted murders should feel "the same terror and dread" as victims.
Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier

The board earmarked $1.54 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds for the dredge, designed to keep channels open and supply sand to nourish eroding beaches up and down the York County coast and beyond.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 09/03/2016 (2418 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Maybe you know New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province, or that Alberta and Saskatchewan joined Confederation in 1905.

And who doesnt know  or should know  the Governor General is the Queens representative in Canada?

Back in 1982, the Constitution in Canada was amended to embrace the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and not the Magna Carta. You knew that, eh?

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Sisler High School student Jia Garcia scored 100 per cent on the Historica Foundation citizenship challenge.

But did you know the Official Languages Act passed in 1969, or that 600,000 Canadians served in the First World War?

Jia Garcia knows all of that Canadian history, and shes only been here six years.

Grade 9 social studies at Sisler High School must be a humdinger of a course.

Back in the day  or, more precisely, two years ago  Jia soaked up so much knowledge about Canadian history in Grade 9 she not only aced her own Canadian citizenship test and mentored her mom to pass, too, but she got a perfect mark in the Historica Foundation citizenship challenge for high school students.

She and a boy from Alberta were chosen randomly from among students across Canada with perfect scores to be awarded a trip to Ottawa this weekend. More than 72,000 students took the challenge. Because it was an online test with each students questions randomly selected from a bank of questions, exactly what Jia was asked and then answered correctly isnt available, Historica said Wednesday.

But she knew everything she was asked.

Most of them that I knew, I learned a lot here in Grade 9, the Grade 11 student explained Wednesday.

Jias family came to Canada from the Philippines.

She said the Historica competition was much tougher than the Canadian citizenship test.

It was hard  it was random questions about everyday life, she said, such as naming the people who appear on Canadian money.

When her mother was preparing to take the Canadian citizenship test last year, Jia piped up that she was learning all that material in school: She was studying, and she was telling me she didnt know some of the questions. It was mostly government type of questions, Jia said.

Now, Jia is helping her dad prepare, and next will be helping her 15-year-old brother  what sister wouldnt want to help out a kid brother?

Historica is taking Jia and her mother to Ottawa this weekend, where theyll tour the Canadian War Museum, Museum of History and Parliament.

Jias teacher, Orysya Petryshyn, said Sisler had Manitobas top marks, with 36 students trying the Historica test.

They emphasize more on contemporary Canadian history, Petryshyn said. In order to get these questions, you have to know the entire history of Canada.

Jia was keenly interested in the federal election, and shes signed up with Elections Manitoba to be a student ambassador on April 19, helping voters to find their way at the polls.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 09/03/2016 (2418 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  A northern Manitoba First Nation declared a state of emergency after 140 students and young adults stepped forward and admitted to seriously considering suicide in the past three months.

Pimicikamak Cree Nation in Cross Lake hopes their declaration Wednesday gets immediate help from the federal and provincial governments. Typically such a declaration triggers additional assistance. Both levels of government were rushing to fill the need by late Wednesday, provincial ministers said.

Five people have taken their own lives in Cross Lake First Nation in the last three months. At least 18 more have attempted suicide. Pimicikamak, the third-largest First Nation in Manitoba, is about 700 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

University College of the North photo Cross Lake has declared a state of emergency after a rash of suicides.

The elected chief is on a medical leave. Acting Chief Shirley Robinson told the Free Press there needs to be an intervention to help the community of more than 8,000 people. She said they need social workers, crisis counsellors, psychologists and more doctors and nurses to be in the First Nation 24 hours a day for an indefinite period.

Our school counsellors, our teachers, chief and council, our clergy, elders, our doctors and nurses, weve all come together and weve tried. Were tired. Were exhausted. The whole community is grief-stricken, Robinson said.

As the crisis deepened, the community took stock this week and tallied up the scores of students and young adults who have said they want to take their own lives. On Tuesday, two more students attempted suicide, triggering the call for a state of emergency, Robinson said. Altogether, there have been 140 separate pleas, including attempts and confessions of plans to commit suicide since the first suicide Dec. 12, she said.

The way its been is that while were in the middle of dealing with one person, we get a call to go to another, Robinson said.

With 80 per cent unemployment, a housing crisis, overcrowding and growing homelessness, the community is overwhelmed and underserved, she said.

The latest suicide, a woman in her 30s with three children, is Robinsons cousin.

I dont want to put any more of my people six feet under, Robinson said. We deserve the same standard of health care as any other Canadian.

The band first approached federal officials after the second suicide in early January, and now theyre desperate.

This is not the first time Cross Lake has faced a suicide crisis, particularly among young people. In 1999, a number of suicides led to the funding of a crisis intervention program, but after two years funding expired and the program ended. The provincial government has spent $10 million since 2008 on youth suicide prevention, including funding peer-support workers and crisis intervention programs for youth in rural and remote communities.

Wednesday afternoon, a spokeswoman with Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada said theyd not yet received a band council resolution calling for a state of emergency, but INAC officials were preparing to respond regardless.

A spokeswoman for Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett said INAC is doing everything it can to help prevent deaths.

INAC is already working with the chief and council to identify what is needed and respond as soon as possible. An additional mental-health worker was sent to Cross Lake for 19 days last month, the spokeswoman said.

Acting Chief Shirley Robinson: I dont want to put any more of my people six feet under.

Several provincial government departments scrambled Wednesday to deal with the crisis.

Aboriginal and Northern Affairs Minister Eric Robinson said he spoke earlier in the day with Bennett. He said he and The Pas MLA Amanda Lathlin will travel to the community as soon as they can, perhaps on Monday.

Robinson said he and Premier Greg Selinger were awaiting a letter from the community on Wednesday setting out its needs.

Some lives have been lost that shouldnt have been lost, but were trying to deal with the issue the best way we know how, Robinson said.

A provincial mobile crisis unit, based in Thompson, has arrived in the community, and the Manitoba Adolescent Treatment Centre is also involved, provincial ministers said.

There are a number of counsellors that are on the ground now providing support. Everyone in that community is exhausted, is afraid and scared that its going to happen to their loved one, Family Services Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross said.

 with files from Alexandra Paul and Larry Kusch

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca
A ban on frac sand mining in Winona County would be possible, but fraught with legal concerns.

And a voter referendum on a ban? No chance, at least in Minnesota.

That was the opinion the Winona County Attorneys Office provided this week to county commissioners and residents, amid a renewed swell of calls for the county to consider an outright ban on the practice.

Winona County Attorney Karin Sonneman, in a detailed legal analysis of case law and state statutes, concluded that a referendum on whether or not to ban frac sand operations was not possible because its outside the scope of the countys legal authority.

Sonnemans report concluded that the county would have the authority to ban sand mining, but stressed that approving such a sweeping regulation, without a comprehensive and nuanced approach to account for a number of variables, would leave the county exposed to potential lawsuits.

Sonneman argued that the county is likely best served by using its existing authority and framework to continue to regulate the industry, which boomed about five years ago but has all but disappeared in recent years because of plummeting oil prices.

The county board not only has the ability to deny conditional-use permits that do not meet the criteria for issuance, but also has the ability to impose conditions on such permits that address the issues a particular proposal raises, Sonneman wrote in the report.

There hasnt appeared to be much enthusiasm among county commissioners to consider a ban, even as groups like the Land Stewardship Project and other frac-sand opponents have led a sustained public effort calling for a ban. Still, commissioners have expressed support to bring the issue formally before the board at some point for discussion.

Commissioner Marcia Ward said Wednesday that Sonnemans opinion aligned well with her beliefs on the issue. Ward said she didnt know whether the issue would come before the board any time soon.

You dont ban it, Ward said. You regulate it.

Commissioner Steve Jacob said he included studying a referendum in his request to the county attorneys office for more information, because hes found it difficult to judge exactly how much support a ban would have county-wide.

Jacob said he has received several phone calls from people who were equally divided on the issue, as well as almost 100 postcards in support of a ban. He said hes been trying to gauge the level of willingness for residents with competing views to work together to develop regulations without placing onerous restrictions on the industry.

Are people willing to bring both sides to the table? Jacob said. Is there any place in the middle?

Over the past several Winona County board meetings, many speakers have used the public-hearing portion to speak about the idea of a ban.

Johanna Rupprecht, policy organizer for the Land Stewardship Project, said one of the concerns with addressing sand mining issues through existing regulation is the question of holding mines and their owners accountable, and not just assuming they will follow regulations.

Rupprecht said relying too heavily on state regulations in particular, which can have loopholes and exceptions, can be problematic. She cited a state regulation referenced in Sonnemans opinion, which requires a one-mile setback from trout streams for silica sand excavation or mining, but can be overridden with a state permit.

Rupprecht said she believes it would be possible to approve a ban that still allows the mining of sand for purposes other than shipping it to other places in the country for fracking.

Those other uses are smaller-scale and less harmful than frac-sand operations, Rupprecht said. Its a process and thats what well have to work on.

Bans exist elsewhere

The reports research found that several smaller government bodies have adopted bans, after concluding that large-scale mining and processing were incompatible with their communities.

Florence and Hay Creek Townships, both in Goodhue County, have banned frac sand operations, as has Pepin County in Wisconsin.

However, those bans are not without exceptions.

Florence Township allows small amounts of mining for material to be used on the property for agricultural or construction purposes. Hay Creek Township allows mining that is not large-scale industrial. and Pepin County only bans mining within a certain geographical area.

The main legal concern with a ban is that land with existing or potential frac sand operations would lose value, at which point the owners would sue the county, Sonneman concluded.

Additionally, the fact that Minnesota and Winona County already have what the report referred to as an extensive regulatory framework suggests that a ban could be seen as overly restrictive.

Winona County is currently regulating frac sand mining, as is the city of Winona, and Houston, Wabasha and Goodhue counties, which also have ordinances to address mining and processing, Sonneman noted.

Even the jurisdictions that are said to have banned silica sand mining operations have really only regulated it, Sonneman wrote.

CLARIFICATION: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this story suggested that the Land Stewardship Project would support small-scale mining of frac sand; LSP would only support mining sand for purposes other than use in the fracking industry.
A group of farmers and sustainable agriculture activists with the Land Stewardship Project plan to embark Thursday on a 10-day delegation to rural communities in southwest Mexico.

Its not a sightseeing trip for the 20 participants, who hail from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa, said Doug Nopar, a policy program organizer with the Land Stewardship Project in Lewiston.

Instead, its an opportunity for LSP members to get a firsthand understanding of Mexico and build relationships with people there, gaining tools to effectively address current issues in agriculture, land rights, and immigration.

The connection between the Midwest and Mexico is a timely one, as rural communities in the Upper Midwest, including the Winona area, have seen increasing immigration from Mexico for the past decade.

Nopar traced that spike to the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, which did away with price supports for Mexican farmers and tariffs on U.S. corn, among other things.

The result was that U.S.-grown corn could be sold more cheaply than Mexican corn in Mexico, which put millions of farmers out of work, fueling their migration to urban centersor across the border.

The rural economy in Mexico just crumbled, Nopar said.

Dairy and hog farm expansions in southeast Minnesota created a need for skilled farm workers, and now many Mexicans are employed on farms in this area. While many are treated fairly, some are not.

Stories that have come to the LSP recently include various incidences of wage theft, like docking wages for damages caused on the job, not paying for all hours worked, or keeping the final paycheck if an employee is fired or quits.

Right now they dont feel like they can say anything, Nopar said, adding that if immigrant workers had a path to being here legally, they would be able to speak upor get a job somewhere else.

Nopar said some LSP members would like to hire immigrant workers, but are stymied by the complex immigration laws involved. Immigration reform would allow farmers to feel more comfortable hiring immigrant workers, and also allow immigrants who want to start their own farms to do so without fear of repercussions.

This is a bridge-building experience for our members, and a knowledge-building experience, Nopar said. Our hope is that this trip provides the fuel for our members and the public to work for fair and just immigration reform, that legalizes the workers who are here.

The delegation, jointly organized with the U.S. nonprofit Witness for Peace, will visit several rural communities in the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Morelos to talk with organizations and individuals working to preserve their land and way of life.

Delegates will interview producers, listen to stories of migration, and observe the effects of U.S. trade policy in the communities. Theyll also hear about sustainable solutions to those challenges.

Puente, an organization in Oaxaca, provides economic opportunities for farmers through cultivation of the traditional amaranth plant, because cash crops like corn and beans are no longer profitable. Asamblea, another organization in the area, is made up of indigenous communities of farmers and fishermen who work to protect the land from wind farms owned by non-local corporations.

The delegation will also visit villages that have resisted out-migration through community development and ecotourism, along with promotion of local markets and local food production.

Several members of the delegation are from southeast Minnesota and western Wisconsin, including two from Winona. About half of them are young farmers, but some have other reasons for going.

The Peoples Food Co-op, with locations in La Crosse and Rochester, is sponsoring a delegate on the trip, their social media marketing coordinator, Karissa Kostka.

Peoples Food Co-op general manager Lizzy Haywood said as a longtime member of the Land Stewardship Project, she appreciates how the organization brings global issues to the local level.

For the co-op, which serves more than 8,000 member-households and more than 17,000 shoppers per week, Haywood sees the trip as an investment in environmental and social responsibility, which are at the core of the co-ops mission.

I see this peace delegation as a clear fit with those goals, she said. We can be a voice for people who dont have a voice.

Haywood said Peoples Food Co-op has several connections with producers in Mexico, but none in the areas the delegation will visit. She said exploring new partnerships is part of the picture, but the primary goal of the trip is learning and bringing that to the co-op community.

Kostka plans to share stories from the trip with co-op members, in hopes of encouraging them to make sure their daily choices impact the world in a positive way.

Theres been a lot of conversation in our organization about connecting our members and shoppers with actions they can take today with fair trade, she said.
Rep. Gene Pelowski, DFL-Winona, has been appointed to serve on the conference committee for the omnibus tax bill. The bill stalled last year when the Senate and House couldnt come to an agreement.

With a new legislative session and the appointment of new conferees, I am looking forward to working with Rep. Greg Davids and appreciate his support for selecting me, Pelowski said in a statement. One of the major proposals of this session is targeted tax relief. It has to be accomplished with a compromise that reflects what is best for Minnesota.

The conference committee will need to work out a difference of close to $2 billion in total tax cuts between the House and Senate bills passed last year. House Chair of the Taxes Committee and lead House conferee, Rep. Greg Davids, R-Preston, has remained hopeful that an agreement will be made, referring to the bill as the Dont Stop Believing tax bill.

We have the money to provide comprehensive tax relief to millions of hardworking Minnesotans and we certainly have the need, Davids said in a statement. I am very confident lawmakers, including the new conferees, will put their differences aside and make tax relief happen. Im looking forward to working with Rep. Pelowski to get this bill passed.
Dennis Blocker follows through on his promises.

The grandson of a World War II veteran told his mother he would find out what happened to her father in the war, which the family believes contributed to his eventual suicide. Blockers 15 years of research resulted in the newly released book, The Heart of Hell.

The book follows the lives of the sailors on gunboat LCI449, including one with ties to Baraboo, which was attacked just two days before the World War II battle of Iwo Jima.

Blocker, who is the grandson of the late Clifford Lemke, said his grandparents met at the former Badger Army Ammunition Plant, after his father moved to the area and worked with Eleanore Boyd of Baraboo. The couple married shortly before he went to war.

After his wife died of cancer, Lemke was devastated, his grandson said. His grandfather committed suicide Aug. 11, 1999. On the two-year anniversary of his death, Blockers father asked him to comfort his mother.

I walked up behind her, massaged her shoulders, then she turned around and said I want you to find out what happened to daddy during the war.

Blocker said he never expected that comment to come from his mother. She said, I want to know why he couldnt sit through a WWII documentary without crying, he said. His grandfather had also experienced night terrors.

It haunted my mom, he said. She asked me to find out what happened.

Blocker began researching the parts of history his grandfather contributed to, finding horrific details in some of the battles. Lemke had been an ammunition passer to a 40mm gun on the gunboat LCI449, and instrumental in making the gun crew an efficient fighting unit.

Two days before U.S. Marines stormed the island of Iwo Jima, the LCI449 was on a secret recon mission. As part of LCI Group Eight, 12 gunboats were tasked with covering the frogmen of the underwater demolition teams.

The Japanese saw these LCIs and thought they were full of troops, not realizing these had been converted to gunboats, Blocker said. So, the Japanese unleashed everything.

The ship was hit three times, killing 22 of the 70 on board and wounding another 22. Thats 60 percent of the crew, Blocker said. Grandpa didnt get a scratch. He had a hard time with that.

Through interviews with almost all of the survivors, Blocker learned being killed on a gunboat was a lot different than being killed in a foxhole. There were body parts everywhere, he said. There was blood everywhere.

He said his grandfather was traumatized by seeing his buddies being picked up piece by piece. Officers who were on the ship six months after that said water would seep down into the decks below and it would be red.

After compiling his research, Blocker was put in touch with Mitch Weiss, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, who specializes in military narratives.

Weiss agreed to write the book.

It was a labor of love for Dennis for years and years, Weiss said in a telephone interview Wednesday. Dennis wasnt a researcher, but he made a promise to his mom.

Weiss said he decided to write The Heart of Hell, his fifth book, because he said there was something about the story that drew him to it.

Maybe it was because my father served in WWII, he said. I started doing my own research and I put together this story of the crew to tell a bigger story of the battle before the battle. As with all military narratives, you want to be able to tell their story and make it real for the people. These were average Americans who wanted to enlist and fight in the war.

He said Blocker had done a lot of the legwork.

Look at the bibliography in the back of the book and the number of interviews, he said. The history of some of the sailors also is revealed, including the romance between Blockers grandparents and where it all started. Baraboo is kind of a little character in the book, Weiss said.

It all comes back to my mom and her simple request  I want you to find out what happened to Daddy during the war, Blocker said. I feel honored I was given this task. It really all starts in Baraboo.
Eurosurveillance has just published its March 10 issue, including this rapid communication: Isolation of infectious Zika virus from saliva and prolonged viral RNA shedding in a traveller returning from the Dominican Republic to Italy, January 2016. The abstract:

We report the isolation of infectious Zika virus (ZIKV) in cell culture from the saliva of a patient who developed a febrile illness after returning from the Dominican Republic to Italy, in January 2016. The patient had prolonged shedding of viral RNA in saliva and urine, at higher load than in blood, for up to 29 days after symptom onset. Sequencing of ZIKV genome showed relatedness with strains from Latin America.
Baraboo police are warning people about what they say is a scam in which a company offers to help people collect an unclaimed refund from a local hospital.

The firm involved insists it is not running a con. However, the paid service the company provides is something that anyone could do for themselves at no cost.

On Tuesday, a Baraboo resident received a letter from a business called MyMoneyMonitor, a California firm that claimed it could help the person recover $315 in unclaimed funds from St. Clare Hospital in Baraboo.

The letter said that after trying unsuccessfully to reach the person about a $315 refund, St. Clare Hospital transferred the money to a third party trust account, where it is now being held on their behalf.

MyMoneyMonitor offered to retrieve the money. However, the firm said the person would have to pay a 15 percent fee and provide certain personal information, including their social security number and a copy of their photo ID.

St. Clare Hospital has never used a third-party trust account with any of our patient accounts, said St. Clare spokeswoman Melanie Platt-Gibson. This is the first that weve seen of something like this. So we wanted to make sure we brought it to our local law enforcement agencies right away.

The information from St. Clare prompted the Baraboo Police Department to issue a press release that referred to MyMoneyMonitors letter as a scam.

Releasing your personal information via these means will most certainly result in financial loss, the release said. Please contact your local law enforcement agency if any such letter is received.

But a representative of MyMoneyMonitor insists the letter is not a scam. The company is essentially a private investigation service that locates people and informs them of unclaimed funds being held on their behalf. If the person signs a contract with the firm, it charges them a fee to deliver the money they are owed.

New Concepts Development Inc.  which does business as MyMoneyMonitor in Wisconsin  is registered with the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions and lists its registered agent as Wyant Law Offices in Racine.

We are not a scam, said MyMoneyMonitor claims manager Maria Muralles. We are just individuals trying to offer a service.

The third-party trust account referred to in the letter is actually the Wisconsin Department of Revenue, Muralles said. In fact, the state agencys website confirms that the Baraboo resident who received the letter from MyMoneyMonitor is owed an amount between $100 and $1,000 from St. Clare Hospital in Baraboo.

The catch is that the person who received the letter doesnt actually need MyMoneyMonitor to recover their unclaimed funds. They can do it for free through the Wisconsin Department of Revenues website.

When asked why MyMoneyMonitor does not notify people that the third party trust account is a state agency, and that their money can be recovered for free, Muralles said: Were not required to by law.

MyMoneyMonitor is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau, and gets a D- rating from the organization because it has a pattern of complaints.
Dreams of becoming a professional makeup artist in the film industry dont seem at all far-fetched for a 14-year-old girl from Portage.

Participating in an event that proved theres no age limit for talent, Kyra Christopherson on Saturday provided makeup demonstrations for dozens of fans of special effects and prosthetics methods at the Las Cruces International Film Festival in New Mexico.

Kyra, self-taught, has been interested in doing hair and makeup professionally for about three years, traveling last week to New Mexico with her uncle, and Pardeeville native, Jim Wisniewski.

Kyra during her time in New Mexico was interviewed for stories by Albuquerque TV station KOB-TV, Albuquerque radio station 94.1 Rock and Las Cruces Sun-News, touted as a makeup prodigy.

It was really awesome. Exciting but pretty scary. There were a lot of people I had to be in front of, Kyra said of her trip.

Wisniewski is a New Mexico film industry veteran who has had small acting roles in numerous films and TV programs, often playing a police officer in such programs as Breaking Bad and The Night Shift, he said.

Wisniewski knew Kyra had special talent from the moment he saw her makeup work posted on her Facebook page, he said.

We got one of the youngest people weve ever known doing high-level quality work, said Wisniewski of his niece. The talent she displays is about even with the talent that is acquired from years of college schooling that some go through.

This summer Kyra will return to New Mexico for what will likely be an internship position doing hair and makeup for the Netflix and A&E TV program, Longmire, for which Wisniewski is a casting director.

Its a big opening door, Wisniewski said.

Kyra, who is home-schooled, lives with her parents Angie Christopherson and Travis Teubert, both of Portage.

I love it

Las Cruces was the first time Kyra could showcase her hair and makeup talents in a professional setting, having learned the trade by watching YouTube videos and other online tutorials.

It just started by trying to look cool for Halloween, Kyra said.

In Saturdays makeup workshop at the festival, Kyra worked on the face of Zachary Brown, who in 45 minutes went from your average New Mexico cosmetology student to certified zombie.

I work on making the skin look like its coming up, Kyra said of her zombie work, noting she uses latex, cream body paint, common tissue paper, and lots and lots of fake blood.

For her work Saturday on Wisniewskis wife, Tamara, she used cotton balls and more fake blood, binding real sticks to Tamaras head using tissue and liquid latex.

Kyra said she isnt sure exactly how, at such a young age, shes performed so well with special effects makeup, though she credited her ability to visualize her ideas.

Patience, she added, might be the most important thing.

Kyra also noted mentorship from her best friends grandmother, Michelle Maier, who went to school for cosmetology and makeup. If it werent for her, I wouldnt be doing makeup today.

Its a lot of practice, watching videos and trying new things, Kyra said of her interest in the field. I love it a lot.
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.
Structured Light Laboratory launched at Wits

People from business and industry were treated to the fascinating work undertaken at the Structured Light Laboratory which was launched on 4 March 2016.

Professor Andrew Forbes, a Distinguished Professor and Head of the laboratory together with the 15- member team explained the purpose of the laboratory at Wits University and some of the latest research that is being conducted to over 50 interested stakeholders.

The laboratory, which started off has an empty room with old wooden tables, now offers equipment and space to carry out work at both the classical and quantum levels and includes topics that range from purely theoretical to purely experimental.

Growth in photonics

Forbes joined Wits University last year. During his presentation, he said he has a strong team that comprises post graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and visiting academics.

Forbes spoke about photonics, one of the fastest growing technology fields. He said South Africa doesnt have an electronics nor photonics industry to speak of but small groups are starting to make a dent in this field and branching out into new technology.

We can structure light and tailor and customize it to be almost anything that we want. Structured Light relates to the creation of arbitrarily complex light patterns, for example, accelerating light, non-diffracting light, vector light fields and light carrying optical vortices and orbital angular momentum.

Applications

Forbes explained on their website that they create these fields by a range of techniques, but primarily using digital holograms written to spatial light modulators.

We then apply such Structured Light in applications such as optical trapping and tweezing of single cells, increased optical bandwidth in free space and in fibre optical communication systems using spatial modes of light, and increased security in quantum links. In many cases our detection schemes are also digital holograms  it is our aim to demonstrate the all-digital control of light, Forbes explained.

Our research builds competency in mathematical algorithms applied in optics, both theoretically and computationally, non-linear optics, diffractive optical elements, micro optics, adaptive optics, refractive beam shapers, digital holograms, spatial light modulators and wavefront sensing.

Accolades

In 2015, which was declared the Year of Light by UNESCO, Forbes and his team produced 17 journal papers, won seven prizes and produced four popular articles. Team members attended 13 international conference proceedings and Forbes delivered 14 invited talks to speak at various events around the globe. This teams work also generated significant media interest, having featured in at least 20 news stories. This unit has numerous national and international collaborators and several industry partners.

Thus far in 2016, there are four notable achievements: the creation of a vector microchip laser; the first demonstration of quantum interference in high dimensions; a new approach to packing information into light, which the group sent over free space (air) and optical fibre (glass) , as well as bringing this cutting edge science back into teaching through the use of digital holograms to demonstrate some very basic physics and mathematics in a laboratory.

Forbes said there are more projects in the pipeline for this year.

Professor Zeblon Vilakazi, DVC: Research & Postgraduate Affairs said for those people that follow global trends, the fourth revolution, based on light and photonics is about to unleashed. He added that the only way for South Africa to not miss out on this revolution is to invest in this science. Vilakazi said that he feels there will be lots of investment in physics partially because it responds to some of our global challenges.

Main projects presently include:

Classical entanglement with vector vortex beams;

Quantum imaging;

Secure quantum communication with high-dimensional entangled states;

Propagation of spatial modes in free space and fibres for high bandwidth communication;

Optical imaging and control of nanostructures; and

Novel lasers using both the dynamic and geometric phase of light.

For more information visit: http://structuredlight.org/
Silicosis: Why African miners' fight for compensation is a just one

More than 4400 miners who contracted silicosis and TB from working on the Anglo American South Africa and AngloGold Ashanti mines will have to be compensated

Mining giants Anglo American South Africa and AngloGold Ashanti will have to pay R464 million to more than 4400 miners who contracted silicosis and TB from working on the their mines. This follows a judgment handed down in the South Gauteng High Court. The ruling comes four years after miners initiated the court case against the company. Health and Medicine editor Candice Bailey asked Professor Jill Murray to explain some of the basis of the case.

What is silicosis and what is its relationship to TB?

Silicosis is a disease that you get from inhaling silica dust, also known as quartz, the rock the gold dust is embedded in. Drilling the rock generates the dust which miners then breathe into their lungs. This eventually scars their lung tissue.

Breathing in silica dust also compromises a persons immune system which increases the risk of developing TB. Not everyone who develops silicosis contracts TB but they are between four and five times more likely to get TB than someone who doesnt have silicosis.

Silica dust can never be removed from the lungs so a person with silicosis has an increased risk of contracting TB for their entire lives, even well after they have left the mines.

Some of the highest TB rates in the world have been recorded in South African gold miners. The World Health Organisations definition of an epidemic is if a country has a TB rate of 250 cases for every 100,000 people. At its height the mining industry in 2007-08, South Africa recorded 4000 cases for every 100,000 mine workers. That reflected a combination of silica, HIV and living conditions.

South African gold miners still have rates of more than 1000 per 100,000 people. In the US and Cuba, the TB rate per 100,000 people is less than 20 cases.

What is the burden of these diseases on society?

Silicosis takes a long time to develop. On average, it takes up to 15 years before symptoms show. If you look at people who have left the mines or who were exposed for long periods, one in three have silicosis.

Most silicosis cases are ex-miners who have either retired, been retrenched or lost their jobs because of injury or disease. Silicosis is not contagious but TB is. This means a person suffering from silicosis who contracts TB, is ill and needs care is a big risk to their family and to the population around them. It then becomes a problem for the entire society.

The burden of silicosis and tuberculosis associated with silica dust is being borne, not by the industry which caused the problem, but by governments in southern Africa, the communities that miners live in and their families. The burden has shifted unfairly from the mining industry to the state and the family.

What has been the mining industrys role?

Silicosis is a preventable disease if proper controls are enforced. Australia has a large mining sector but there are no silicosis cases. Any case of silicosis is a failure of the mining bosses to control the dust in the mines. It may be expensive to control dust levels, but there is a technical solution available.

More recently mines have made strong efforts to reduce dust levels and if current dust controls are rigorously applied and adhered to, they may provide enough protection. We will have to watch and see how it develops.

But the problem lies with enforcement. The South African Department of Minerals has a shortage of inspectors to monitor dust levels at the mines. This needs highly skilled people. Mines are relied on to measure and report their own dust levels. In truth, a rigorous external body is needed to run checks. The inspectorate needs to be beefed up.

Are there adequate measures for compensation for miners who develop disease?

Miners who fall ill at a mine can go through a compensation process. But the challenge lies with the hundreds of thousands of ex-miners scattered across the southern African region.

A recent report, which is not yet published, was submitted to the South African National Department of Health. It handles the compensation process, highlights the problem. One of the main challenges is that facilities to examine potentially diseased ex-miners are few and far between.

There are vast areas in South Africa and the region where these clinics simply do not exist. So accessing the compensation system and getting paid out is impossible for most claimants.

In addition, the once-off payment they get is a disgrace. There are international standards that stipulate miners who can no longer work because they are suffering from an occupational disease should be paid enough to live a dignified existence. This is certainly not the case.

Jill Murray, Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Via The Korea Herald: Zika virus fears lead to mass cancellation of flights in Korea. Excerpt:

Growing fears about the spread of the Zika virus have led to more than 1,000 people canceling their international flights in February, according to Korean airlines Thursday.

They said a total of 1,376 pregnant women and their families canceled flights from six airlines -- Korean Air, Asiana Airlines, Jeju Air, Jin Air, Eastar and Tway Airlines -- flying to countries where Zika virus infections broke out.

These Korean airlines, which include low-cost carriers, have been offering fee waivers for flight refunds or reservation changes for pregnant women and their families who had booked tickets to countries with infection cases.

The remaining Korean carrier Air Busan had no cancellations because it offered no direct flights to infected countries. The Zika virus in pregnant women has been linked to serious birth defects including microcephaly, which causes babies to be born with unusually small heads.

Most Korean carriers do not offer direct flights to many of the infected countries, which are mostly in Central and South America. The vast majority of the canceled flights have been to Thailand -- roughly 820 passengers to Bangkok and 410 to Phuket. Thailand is a popular vacation spot for Koreans and one of two Asian countries identified on the nations disease control agencys list.

The other is the Philippines, which was added to the list just on Tuesday. More flights are expected to be canceled, as the Philippines is another popular destination. Air Busan offers one flight a day to the Philippines, and will now be offering fee exemptions for passengers who wish to cancel those tickets.




China News on Women





Sorry, the page you requested was not found. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Womenofchina.cn, try visiting the Womenofchina Home page
Winner of CWA Photo of the Year 2016 is Shuo Huang for his picture entitled Waking up with the Moai, Easter Island (Rapa Nui). Click on the images below for a full screen version of the winning picture, and also the three runners up.

Our annual photographic competition, sponsored this year by Andante Travels, attracted a bumper crop of entries, and the quality of photography was truly exceptional. We were treated to an eclectic range of artistic styles, taking in a dizzying variety of sites from across the globe, and encompassing a dazzling array of cultures, periods, and artefacts. Images included monumental Roman architecture in Tunisia, an exquisite opaque carnelian intaglio from India, bleak standing stones in Brittany; we saw a Roman-era hill-top fortress in Israel, terracotta soldiers in China, and field-survey during a desert sandstorm in Egypt. So, it was considerable with relief that we handed over the unenviable task of choosing a winner to Aerial-Cams Adam Stanford, who used his expert judgement to whittle down the contenders. Eventually, we were left with our winner and three runners up, whose pictures were placed on display at the CA Live! 2016 conference in London in February. Congratulations to Shuo Huang for his wonderful photograph Waking with the Moai on Easter Island, and to the runners-up (in alphabetical order) Christoph Baumer (Jiaohe Stupa, China), Dominic Burdon (Palmyras Ruins, Syria), and Christoffer Krook (An Abandoned Monastery outside Dilijan, Armenia).

If you would like to see your pictures up on screen and in CWA, look out for dates and details of our 2017 competition which will be announced later in the year on the pages of Current World Archaeology magazine.
IAEA holds first SMR workshop

10 March 2016

Share

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has held the first of a series of workshops to help regulators prepare for the global deployment of small modular reactors (SMRs).

Participants at the IAEA workshop (Image: O Lockyer/IAEA)

Participants from the Arab Atomic Energy Agency (AAEA) and Arab Network of Nuclear Regulators (ANNuR) took part in the workshop on safety and licensing requirements of SMRs, which was co-sponsored by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The workshop brought together regulatory authorities, operator companies, and other governmental organizations, working or expected to work towards the establishment of national safety and technical infrastructures for SMRs.

Workshop participants received detailed information about the role of regulatory authorities and licensing requirements, including the approval of SMR designs, siting and operations. The IAEA facilitated discussions among regulators on use of IAEA Safety Standards and on changes that may be needed in national regulations.

AAEA director general Abdelmajid Mahjoub, who chaired the workshop, said: "Small modular reactors are a very attractive proposition for the Arab world as more than half the countries in our region don't have the resources to build large, traditional nuclear power plants. SMRs are more feasible, manageable and require lower investment - it is a very realistic option for Arab countries to consider."

The same global safety and security standards that are applicable to existing nuclear power reactors as well as those under construction are mostly applicable to SMRs, but Greg Rzentkowski, director of the division of nuclear installation safety at the IAEA, said that regulatory certainty will be essential for their successful deployment. "We need to establish a set of clear and pragmatic requirements for safety and licensing," he said.

The IAEA will coordinate additional work in this area in coming years, which is likely to include the development of an overarching safety objective and a guidance document on establishing relevant requirements in accordance with facility type and size, Rzentkowski said.

The IAEA is also developing a technology roadmap for the deployment of SMRs - modular units built using pre-fabricated technology with an output of less than 300 MW - and is conducting a study on SMR development indicators in developing countries to assist member states in developing, assessing or deploying SMRs.

The next IAEA workshop on the safety and licensing requirements for SMRs is for members of the Forum of Nuclear Regulatory Bodies in Africa and will be held in June.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

Related topics
Blue Origin has announced that it might be able to provide would-be astronauts the chance to explore space with commercial suborbital flights by 2018.

We have very clearly entered the future, so why havent we gotten a chance to go to space yet? Well, if youve been dreaming about going to space your whole life, Ive got some good news: we could be looking at the introduction of private space travel as early as 2018.

According to Huffington Post, Blue Origin, the commercial space venture of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, is planning on launching its first suborbital test flight, complete with human passengers, in 2017. Should this test prove to be a success, the company could start selling tickets for short trips into suborbit as soon as 2018.

I only pursue things that I am passionate about, Bezos said during a media tour of Blue Origins Seattle-based research and development site. Blue Origin has only opened its doors to the publicly very recently, specifically for the announcement that commercial spaceflight might be a reality far more quickly than we might have imagined.

Blue Origin has successfully launched and landed two unmanned spacecrafts since their formation in 2000. The 2017 suborbital flight test will mark the first time that the company has launched a manned spacecraft.

Though the company has yet to sell any tickets for spaceflight, they have expressed that they are confident that thousands of people would jump at the chance to see space.

Among them is NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who expressed his excitement for this and the future of commercial space travel at a news conference.

I think everyone should be able to go to space, Kelly said at a news conference last week after returning from a nearly year-long stint aboard the International Space Station. Maybe in the next 20 years, youll be able to just buy a cheap ticket, go for a little visit.
A young man wanted to make a point about racism in the United States, but his plan backfired when he was exposed for a liar by police. 20-year-old Khalil Cavil of Texas was working at the Saltgrass Steak House in Odessa when he claimed he was discriminated against because of his Muslim name. Cavil took
Coins (illustration)

By: Wayne Morin

A man who worked for the Brinkas company, stole a lot of money on the job.

49-year-old Stephen Lancaster Dennis of Birmingham, Alabama, was arrested after he was caught stealing quarters from the company.

Dennis managed to pocket $196,000 in quarters from the company, where millions of coins are stored for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

Dennis, who worked as a security official for the company, had access to bags containing $50,000 in quarters. They were stored on skids inside a acoin room,a according to court documents.

An audit revealed that four of the bags were tampered with and contained only $1,000 in quarters, and the rest were filled with beads.

While investigating Dennis, officials realized that he came to work on Sunday, which was supposed to be his day off. He was seen collecting four empty bags, which he then filled with beads and placed them inside the coin room.

Dennis made sure that $1,000 of quarters remained on top, and were visible through a plastic window on the bags after he took the rest of the money, according to the Northern Alabama District Attorneys Office.

Dennis plead guilty to theft and he agreed to repay the entire $196,000 that he stole. He now faces a maximum of 10 years in prison as well as an additional $250,000 fine.
Marinela Benea

By: Feng Qian

(Scroll down for video) A woman who was angry that her husband ignored her, decided to rip off his private arts as revenge, police in Romania said.

Dragomiresti police said that they have arrested Marinela Benea, after being accused of ripping off the private parts of 39-year-old Ionel Popa.

According to the police investigation, an argument broke out at the couples home on Tuesday, after Popa did not buy his wife flowers on International Womenas Day.

At some point during the argument, Benea grabbed her husbands private parts and pulled with all her strength. Popa was taken to a hospital, where he is recovering from his wounds.

He is said to be in stable condition.

Benea told police that she just held onto her husbandas private parts while he tried to run away, which caused the horrific injuries.

She also said that he deserved the punishment because he has been ignoring her for the past 15 years.
We run various sites in defense of human rights and need support to pay for more powerful servers. Thank you.
Juneau architect Chris Mertl explains to onlookers one of seven proposed designs for the Institute during a presentation March 2.

Use of Wrangell's former Institute property continues to take shape after a pair of town meetings last week.

Acquired by the city in 1995, the 134-acre property has potential for residential development, and the city last year commissioned a team of architects, statisticians and engineers to begin looking into a master plan. The public meetings on Feb. 29 and March 2 were the first step in that process,

"I think they went really well," economic director Carol Rushmore said of the sessions. "There was some really good input and some really consistent input, which helps."

The design team included project lead Chris Mertl of Corvus Design, architect James Bibb of NorthWind Architects, analyst Meilani Schijvens of Rain Coast Data and surveyor Greg Scheff of R&M Engineering. Together they took input from the public and explained some concepts at the first meeting, working the next two days in open door sessions to draw up some preliminary sketches. By the second meeting the design team had whittled down their ideas from 15 to seven concepts, which were presented to the public for comment at the Nolan Center.

One of the more commented-on layouts featured a centralized vocational education facility with some roadside retail space, and a large assisted living campus. High-density housing further to the property's southeast would be offset by single-family units to the north.

The layout would accommodate a "bridge" into senior care, Bibb explained, affording older residents the opportunity to live in the neighborhood a bit independently before eventually transitioning to assisted care.

Demographically Alaska is an aging state, with Southeast having a higher proportion of older residents than the rest of the state. Wrangell is at the far end of this trend, with an average age of 48 to the state's average of 34 years.

In a housing needs survey conducted by Wrangell Cooperative Association last year, senior housing was among the top priorities listed. But housing availability in general is a need in Wrangell, particularly among renters, with current properties at near- or full-capacity.

The city has not undertaken a formal housing study, but concurs with WCA's findings.

"I think what the Tribe's results are would be similar to the wider community," Rushmore said.

Addressing the housing issues of the present also ties in to what Wrangell hopes to achieve in the future, with similar design projects completed for the waterfront and underway for the old mill property at 6-Mile Zimovia. At the latter, the city is looking to eventually acquire and develop the site for industrial and maritime uses. Better housing accommodation would be necessary before the city could expect to draw in additional workers and families.

"I think it ties in because we're looking at the housing component," Rushmore explained. "There needs to be growth in our housing. We are very limited for our short-term rentals."

Other concepts being presented found different configurations for the Institute property, all focused on addressing the community's identified housing needs. For example, one nicknamed as the "Traditional" design for ease of reference featured an assisted senior care facility and some medium density housing, with some opportunity for small retail at the highway. A straightforward grid of approximately acre-sized lots maximized space for single-family and starter homes, with pedestrian thoroughfares linking the two neighborhoods.

"It's kind of Anytown U.S.A.," Mertl explained.

Another, simply called "The Institute," evokes the layout of the original facility, with an assisted living center, retail area and community center dominating access to the highway at the property's north end. Behind and around that was a mixture of single-family lots on cul-de-sacs with cottage-style housing and more medium-density housing.

In a similar layout, "Campus Greens" instead emphasizes educational opportunities, with the possible vocational learning center where the Institute was. Some retail and senior housing would be available to the south, with further clusters of cottages and small family units inland. More space would be set aside for green space, and the neighborhoods would be more buffered from the highway than in other scenarios.

Submitted Photo Proposal D for development at the former Institute property was among those getting lots of positive feedback from residents during last week's presentation at the Nolan Center. The plan incorporates a combination of residential, assisted care and educational uses for the 134-acre property.

All seven of the concepts incorporated elements and ideas gathered from community members at the Monday evening meeting and subsequent workshops. Bibb, Mertl and Scheff then found ways to fit these different components using the geography available to best effect, and which could also be more easily developed in phases.

"More than likely there'll be an initial first push," Bibb explained.

A modestly-sized group of residents were on hand to review and comment on the draft ideas, highlighting what they liked, preferred or else detested about any individual components. Heading into another round of sessions next month, Mertl said the team is still up for suggestions from residents who were unable to attend last week.

Design concepts and contact information are available online at a blog dedicated to the project, http://www.wrangell-institute.blogspot.com. In the meantime, the team will begin putting numbers to the concepts, evaluating costs and market potential. They will return in April for a follow-up presentation and draft proposal, again open to the public.
Vehicle Destroyed & Another Damaged in Early Morning Arson Attack

This article is old - Published: Thursday, Mar 10th, 2016

A vehicle has been destroyed after it was set alight by arsonists early this morning.



North Wales Fire and Rescue Service were called to the blaze on Sontley Road at 5:52am after a car was set alight by arsonists. Wrexham.com believe the fire took place on the Squire Yorke Car Park.

The fire also spread to a second vehicle which was parked nearby.

One crew from Wrexham attended the scene and one hose reel jet and breathing apparatus was used to extinguish the blaze.

One vehicle was left with 80% fire damage as a result of the blaze, with the second vehicle sustaining 30% damage.

A spokesperson for North Wales Fire and Rescue Service confirmed the cause of the fire was deliberate ignition.

Town Centre Inspector Simon Kneale has since tweeted to say: We have seen a great reduction in arsons recently. This is believed to be an isolated incident. Patrols in place. 101 or 0800 555 111/
Vomiting or Have Flu Like Symptoms? Dont Attend Hospital Unless Urgent!

This article is old - Published: Thursday, Mar 10th, 2016

People suffering with flu symptoms or the winter vomiting bug norovirus are being urged to avoid attending or visiting hospitals unless absolutely it is necessary.

The advice has been issued by Wales Chief Medical Officer, Dr Ruth Hussey who is urging people to seek advice from the NHS Direct Wales telephone service about managing norovirus or to contact their pharmacist or GP about flu-like symptoms instead of attending accident and emergency departments.

Norovirus, or the Winter Vomiting Bug as it is also known, is a highly common stomach bug that causes vomiting and diarrhoea for those who have contracted it. The bug is contracted by being in close contact with someone who has Norovirus, eating contaminated food or by touching contaminated surfaces or objects.

Hospitals across Wales have had to close a number of beds to prevent the spread of norovirus among vulnerable patients. This has affected their ability to admit new patients quickly from A&E departments.

In January a number of wards at the Wrexham Maelor Hospital were hit with outbreaks of norovirus, causing the hospital to temporarily suspend admissions to several wards.

At its peak almost 60 patients were infected with the bug, resulting in the closure of seven wards.

Emergency departments and the Welsh Ambulance Service are also continuing to experience significant peaks in demand  with attendances peaking at 25% higher than the average daily number this year.

Dr Hussey said: GPs across Wales have seen a growing number of people with the winter vomiting bug or flu-like symptoms as well as an increase in respiratory conditions following the recent cold snap.

This has created an increased demand for urgent GP appointments and may have made it difficult to book planned appointments.

Hospital staff are reporting an increase in norovirus and flu on wards. We are asking people not to visit friends or relatives in hospital if they have experienced any sickness or diarrhoea in the last 48 hours. Norovirus is highly contagious and can spread rapidly, just like flu, and some hospital patients could be particularly vulnerable.

Advice and information is available through NHS Direct on 0845 46 47, in pharmacies and through the Choose Pharmacy minor ailments scheme which includes prescriptions for certain conditions.

People across Wales are being urged to choose well by using the right NHS service for their needs.

These include:

 Self care  taking care of yourself if you have conditions such as a cough, sore throat, grazed knee, other minor issues

 GP or out of hours services  for vomiting, ear pain/hearing loss, painful cough, symptoms that wont go away

 Community pharmacists  for diarrhoea, runny nose, upset stomach, headache

 Opticians  problems with eyes

 Minor Injury units  for cuts, sprains, bites, minor illnesses or injuries

 Emergency departments  chocking, chest pain, blacking out, blood loss, serious, life-threatening injury, suspected stroke.
We run various sites in defense of human rights and need support in paying for servers. Thank you.
HYAK - A new traffic shift is now in effect near Easton as one of the busiest construction seasons on Interstate 90 between North Bend and Ellensburg winds down for the upcoming winter.
Baltimore City Schools police officers Anthony Spence, 44, and Saverna Bias, 53, face felony assault charges after a cell phone video emerged last week showing them assaulting a student on the stairs of REACH! Partnership Academy, where both officers were on duty. The video, taken by a witness, shows Spence slapping and kicking an unnamed youth as Bias stands by, not bothering to stop the attack.

School officials initially sought to play down the assault, alleging that the young man, who is obviously school-aged, was not a student and had been trespassing on the campus. According to Mike Davey, Spences attorney, an altercation ensued between the officer and the youth which led to the slapping incident caught on film. On Friday, after meetings with the boys family and attorneys, officials were forced to admit that the youth, whose name has not been released, was believed to be a student on the schools roster.

They were trying to find anything they could to point the finger at the victim, stated Charles Gilman, an attorney for the boys family. According to attorney Lauren Geisser, who spoke to the Baltimore Sun, injuries sustained to the youths face and ribs required a trip to the hospital after the incident.

Eyewitness accounts cited in the court filings stated that Bias had encouraged Spences violent actions, proclaiming you need to smack him [the student] because hes got too much mouth. Spence has been charged with second-degree assault, second-degree child abuse by a custodian as well as misconduct while in office, while Bias received charges for second-degree assault and misconduct in office as well. School Police Chief Marshall Goodwin and both of the officers involved have been placed on leave due to the incident, while Spence and Bias face arraignment in early April.

Baltimores municipal police department, which is separate from the school districts officers, has announced that it will conduct a criminal investigation of the incident. This has occurred while the municipal police force is under federal investigation for its conduct relating to the April 2015 death of Freddie Gray, a Baltimore man who died after being given a rough ride in the back of a police wagon. Grays death resulted in mass protests against police brutality in the city, which the states National Guard was called in to suppress and during which a citywide curfew was declared.

Baltimore city officials immediately went into damage control after the latest assault became public. Democratic Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake declared the officers actions were appalling, raising significant concerns. Schools CEO Gregory Thornton said he was completely appalled and disappointed by the video. Baltimore city schools spokeswoman Edie House Foster stated Spences behavior was absolutely appalling and is not how our police interact with students, administrators or anyone in our school communities.

Officer Spence had been involved in a number of violent altercations prior to the March 1 assault at REACH!, including a tasering incident of a construction worker in 2003 which led to his being fired by the citys sheriffs department. In 2011, Spences girlfriend at the time requested a restraining order against the officer after he physically assaulted her during an argument.

The city of Baltimore is wracked by an epidemic of police brutality. According to the Baltimore Sun, from 2011 to 2014 the city was forced to pay over $5.7 million in restitution for cases stemming from police misconduct. In 2005, as a product of then-Democratic Mayor Martin OMalleys zero tolerance policing policy, the city reported over 108,000 people, roughly a sixth of Baltimores population, had been arrested during the course of the year.

In October, Baltimore schools resource officer Lakisha Pulley pleaded guilty to three charges of second-degree assault stemming from a 2014 attack in which an officer clubbed three students with a baton, requiring one to receive stitches. In 2014, Baltimore officials enacted a curfew law for youth under the age of 14, requiring parents of children caught outside after 9:00 pm on weekdays to pay a fine of up to $500. Since 2012, the city has cut over $6 million from after-school programs.

This is something that goes on far too much, the only thing different about this time is that the beating was caught on camera, said Antoine Harris, a Baltimore parent who spoke to the World Socialist Web Site about the incident. You can tell by the officers behavior that he was very comfortable doing what he did, he didnt even seem to mind being filmed.

Continuing, Harris stated, The one thing taught to kids in these schools [like REACH! Partnership] is to obey authority, even more so than learning an education. The only thing different about this time is that the political correctness police in the media have picked up on the video, so now the city officials are making these statements so that things will quiet down and go back to the status quo.

With more than 85,000 students, the Baltimore public school system is the states largest. Eighty-four percent of students in the citys public schools are classified as low income and eligible for free lunches according to city statistics. A 2014 study released by Johns Hopkins University reports that, in contrast to groups of teenagers from New Delhi, Johannesburg, Shanghai and Ibadan, Nigeria, youth in Baltimore appear to experience the most severe health consequences stemming from poverty.

The police assault on an unnamed youth comes as the trials for the six Baltimore police officers responsible for the death of Freddie Gray continue. On Tuesday, Marylands Court of Appeals ruled that Baltimore police officer William G. Porter, the only officer to have yet seen a trial, can be compelled to testify against all five other officers in the case. In December, Porters case resulted in a mistrial, which forced prosecutors to place the other trials on hold while Porter was compelled to turn states witness. According to a Washington Post investigation released last year, out of the police-involved killings which occurred from 2005 to 2015, only 54 officers have ever been charged and even fewer have been found guilty.

The author also recommends:



The deindustrialization of Baltimore

[20 May 2015]
The conditions facing hundreds of thousands of people fleeing to Europe to escape escalating wars across the Middle East and Africa are an indictment of European society. Camps lack sufficient basic resources, such as water, electricity, food, and medical supplies and operate exclusively with the assistance and donations of volunteers. In many European countries, the camps are deemed illegal.

The refugee camp in Grand-Synthe, France, is one of the very worst places for refugees to be stranded. An estimated 2,500 people live there, and around 50 new refugees, often families including children, the elderly, and pregnant women, arrive every day. Froom here many attempt a crossing into England, hidden on trucks, hoping for asylum there.

WSWS reporters interviewed Joel Sames, a volunteer in one of these camps.

On health conditions in the camp, he stated, MSF is here but the problem is the waiting times are very long. Sometimes you wait three hours when you are sick. There is a danger of spreading of measlesin Calais, the bigger camp close to us, there is a confirmed cases of measles. ... Besides this, the hygienic conditions are horrible, the perfect breeding ground for any kind of disease, there are many rats. If you go out at night you see many rats on the ground and they are big as a Kanickel [a large European rabbit].

Though temperatures often drop below freezing, people sleep in thin tents set up in thick mud, amid trash and feces. Refugees get insufficient food and only rudimentary medical treatment, and often contract diseases, such as pneumonia due to the cold. Infrastructure is improvised and inadequate, with only 32 toilets, 48 showers, two places with clean water, and an unreliable power line.

Joel said, They [MSF] provide infrastructure, yet there could be more infrastructure to make sure that people have decent tents and heaters in the tents. But mainly I think its the officials who make appropriate assistance impossible by restricting what comes into the camp. For example, police block the road.

While the city of Grande-Synthe initially tried to dispose of waste to contain the rat infestation, the French state not only refused to improve the conditions at the camp but has stationed police at the entrance to block the arrival of tents and construction materials.

Joel said the camp is growing every day, but also people are leaving because the conditions are so horriblepeople try to find other ways. Some people went to Belgium and every day people try to go to England. Most people are stuck in the camp because they dont see any prospects for themselves in France. Even if France would offer them asylum some say they wouldnt like to stay. Ive asked those people, Why cant you just stay in France? Why do you risk your life and the life of your family under these horrible conditions in this camp? They tell me how people come back from the asylum centers in France with horrible stories of how nobody takes care of you. There are no prospects for these people in France.

Joel described altercations between the police and immigrants at the camp: They [refugees] get checked at the entrance.  Sometimes they make fun of the refugees. For example they wouldnt let refugees bring the firewood into the camp while it was pouring rain. If the firewood is too big, they say it could potentially be used as construction wood. So the refugees had to saw it into small pieces in pouring rain while the police were making jokes about them.

Discussing why refugees are fleeing their countries, he said, I think its because the war has been going on for many years and the conditions have been bad for so long. I think what happened is that they kind of lost hope for a better future in their country.

Many of them were internally displaced, and others were in neighbouring countries such as Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan. They were always hoping that the war would end and then they could return to their homes, family, friends, and their regular lives, but I think it switched at some point and they realized its not going to happen. More and more parties and countries got involved [in the war] and I think that triggered this wave. Suddenly there was this Aufbruchsstimmung (atmosphere of departure).

The camp is along a highway where trucks stop. People attempt to reach England, which reportedly accounts for some of the recent migration to the camp.

After the recent flood of refugees into the camp, the municipality of Grande-Synthe and MSF are planning to build a new legal camp. According to MSF, this camp will provide 500 tents, each big enough for five people, as well as toilets and showers in sufficient numbers (126 toilets and 66 showers), designed to accommodate 2,500 people.

Immigrants are afraid to be registered in the new camp and largely oppose a move. The French government has already established a camp with bio-metric controls and surrounded by high fences in neighboring Calais, to justify launching the destruction of the existing Calais refugee camp.
Canadas House of Commons voted Tuesday in favour of the Liberal governments plan to expand the countrys role in the US-led war in Iraq and Syria.

A motion approving the Liberal plan for Canadas military to play a leading role in the US-led war coalition for at least two more years passed by 178 votes to 147, with the Liberals voting in favour and the opposition Conservatives, NDP and Bloc Quebecois against.

Announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last month, the new plan will see a trebling of the number of Canadian Special Forces troops deployed in Iraq to more than 200. These forces are to advise and assist Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq.

The 69 fighters Canada has deployed in the region on the same mandate since late 2014 have been involved in frontline combat, including direct exchanges of fire with Islamic State (ISIS) forces. Military officials this week confirmed four occasions since the fall of 2014 in which Canadian forces engaged in firefights with ISIS militants.

The plan also calls for additional financial support to Jordan and Lebanon to deal with refugees and for six CF-18 fighter jets to be withdrawn from bombing targets in Iraq and Syria. The surveillance and refueling aircraft that the previous Conservative government deployed to the Mideast in the fall of 2014 are to continue assisting the US-led bombing campaign.

The Liberal government is also increasing the total number of military personnel seconded to the US war coalition from 650 to 830. This includes senior officers who will provide additional support for the coalitions command and intelligence structures, and potentially a team to advise the Iraqi Defence Ministry in Baghdad modelled on a Canadian team of experts that operated for several years within the Afghan government.

Making a mockery of the Liberals claims to have ended Canadas combat mission in the Middle East, Chief of the Defence Staff General Jonathan Vance told parliament Tuesday that the Special Forces would be authorized to shoot first if they detected hostile intent from Islamic State militants. The rules of engagementallow Canadian forces to defend themselves, Vance told the House of Commons defence committee, [to] anticipate their defence so they can engage a hostile actor an intent before it materializes. In other wordswe can anticipate to protect ourselves.

A day earlier, Vance told the Senate defence committee that a key element of the Canadian Armed Forces mission will be to help identify and form a battalion of around 600 Kurdish fighters who are to be given more advanced training so as to create a Kurdish special forces unit. This unit will ultimately be tasked with leading major attacks, including potentially the long-discussed assault on Iraqs second-largest city, Mosul, currently held by ISIS.

The Liberal governments expansion of Canadas Mideast war intervention exposes the thoroughly fraudulent character of the anti-war pose it sought to strike in last years federal election by calling for the withdrawal of the CF-18s.

In reality, the Liberalsand indeed the entire Canadian ruling classare fully on board with Washingtons drive to consolidate US hegemony over the worlds most important oil-producing region, as well as its strategic offensives against Russia and China.

Washingtons reckless policy of never-ending war has thrown the entire Middle East into chaos, forcing millions to flee their homes and costing the lives of millions more.

The current US-led intervention is only further exacerbating ethnic and regional tensions. The Kurdish Peshmerga with whom the Canadian Special Forces are operating are seeking to establish an independent Kurdistan through the partition of Iraq and Syria along Sunni, Shia and Kurdish lines. In a report earlier this year, Amnesty International accused the Peshmerga of war crimes, including burning down Arab villages retaken from Islamic State forces so as to expel the local Arab population.

In the month since Trudeau unveiled Canadas new Mideast war plan, his government has deployed four CF-18 fighter jets to participate in a training mission in Romania, a move clearly aimed at stepping up the US-led encirclement and isolation of Russia in eastern Europe. Canada has been one of the staunchest supporters of the pro-Western regime in Kiev, which was brought to power in a Western-sponsored coup two years ago and is now waging war against pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. Ottawa has also provided air, sea and land support to NATOs aggressive operations aimed at Moscow in eastern Europe and the Baltic and Black Seas.

By pursuing aggressive militarist policies in the Middle East, eastern Europe, and the Asia-Pacific as part of Washingtons pivot or rebalance to Asia, the Canadian ruling elite is determined to strengthen its longstanding strategic collaboration with US imperialism, so as to uphold its own predatory global interests.

The parliamentary vote on the Liberals Mideast war plan was held two days prior to Trudeau travelling to Washington, where President Obama will host a state dinner for him today. Intensified Canadian-US military and security cooperation, including in the Arctic, is expected to be high on the agenda of the Obama-Trudeau summit.

Discussion is already well under way within Canadian ruling circles about further military interventions. Last month, in the wake of talks with his NATO counterparts, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan indicated that Canada is considering involvement in a new military mission in Libya. The country was plunged into chaos following NATOs air war in 2011 that toppled the Gaddafi regime. Recent reports have revealed that US and French Special Forces are already operating in Libya, one of Africas principal oil producers, under the pretext of combatting the Islamic State.

Yesterday, the Montreal daily Le Devoir reported that Ottawa is considering deploying up to 2,000 army and police personnel to Haiti and assuming the leadership of the UN peacekeeping force that has occupied that country since the US, with Canadas military support, ousted the countrys elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in 2004.

Canada has longstanding economic and geo-political interests in Haiti and the broader Caribbean. Recently Canada helped Haiti modernize its mining codethat is, make it more amenable to Canadas mining companies.

There are also growing calls from Canadas national-security establishment and corporate media for the government to substantially hike military spending. The Liberals have promised a comprehensive defence review by the end of 2016, prompting numerous journalists and think tanks to declare that more resources need to be deployed in asserting Canadian strategic interests around the globe. Some of the most significant proposals already being raised are an expansion of the militarys presence the Arctic, joining the US ballistic missile defence shield and increasing annual military spending to 2 percent of GDP.

Following his appearance in parliament Monday, Vance weighed into the debate, supporting calls for the purchase of weaponized drones for Canadas military. Referring to conflicts like those in Iraq, he declared that there is little point in purchasing such vehicles if they cannot fire weapons.

The media has continued to be critical of the Liberals new Mideast war plan, focusing above all on Trudeaus supposed failure to provide a rationale for the withdrawal of the fighter jets.

None of the parties that voted against the Liberals motion to expand Canadas role in the Mideast war have any disagreement with the Canadian elites aggressive, militarist agenda. The Conservatives voted against the motion based on the demagogic and bellicose claim that the withdrawal of the CF-18 fighter jets means Canada is shirking its duty to lead the war on terrorism.

The Conservatives claims were echoed by the pro-Quebec-independence Bloc Quebecois (BQ). During last years election campaign, the BQ joined with the Conservatives in attacking the New Democratic Party (NDP) for being soft on terrorism and whipping up a reactionary chauvinist campaign over Muslim women wearing the niqab at citizenship ceremonies.

The social-democratic NDP took the government to task for its lack of clarity on whether the new plan is for a combat mission and when it will end. Party leader Thomas Mulcair insisted that the NDP is fully behind Canada remaining part of the US-led war coalition, but argued it should focus on providing humanitarian support. This exemplifies the lack of any principled opposition within the NDP to Canadian imperialist operations in the Middle East and around the world.

The NDP in fact voted in favour of the 2011 NATO-led bombardment of Libya, promoting the lie that it was aimed at providing humanitarian assistance to the population. As part of its openly right-wing, Harper-lite election campaign last fall, the NDP also vowed to increase military spending and equip Canadas armed forces with better weapons so as to enable them to intervene more actively around the globe.
The summoning of dockers and of cashiers of the Casino store chain for interrogation by the gendarmerie triggered a one-day strike in the port of Marseille at the end of February. It is a warning that the state will attack workers even when they strike on limited demands at their workplaces.

Strike action began in November, as nine workers at a Casino store in Port Saint Louis demanded the extension of three short-term contracts until Christmas, the replacement of another worker, and an increase in their working hours from 30 to 36 hours per week. The strike lasted two months, the longest of any strike at the Casino chain.

In an unprecedented move, the gendarmerie at Port Saint Louis interrogated the nine workers and the national delegate of the Stalinist General Confederation of Labor (CGT) union for Casino. The Casino stores manager had filed a complaint for aggravated theft and occupation of the workplace during the strike, and also for blocking and threatening freedom to work in a coordinated fashion.

This complaint is a direct and extraordinary threat against the constitutionally-protected right to strike, facilitated by the hysterical atmosphere the Socialist Party (PS) is promoting under the state of emergency. As for the charge of aggravated theftbased on the disappearance of one packet each of M&Ms, potato chips, and Kinder chocolatesit is a provocation against the strikers.

The PS government of President Francois Hollande has exploited the reactionary state of emergency it imposed after the November 13 terror attacks in Paris to ban protests and public gatherings, carry out mass extrajudicial searches and seizures, and eviscerate democratic rights. These measures are aimed not at Islamist terrorist groups, which the NATO powers in fact use to carry out their war for regime change in Syria. Rather, it is aimed at intimidating workers and trying to block opposition to the PSs reactionary policies.

A few days after the Casino workers were interrogated, three port workers including two dockers were interrogated for two hours on charges of jointly committing voluntary acts of violence against Casino management during the strike.

The CGT port union in Marseille protested the summoning of the three port workers, calling a 24-hour strike and a protest in front of the police commissariat that was attended by 2,000 workers. A delegation of port workers was allowed to enter into the commissariat and listen to the interrogations.

CGT officials demanded the canceling of the summons, noting they were on false and ridiculous charges and denouncing trade union discrimination and attacks on the CGT.

Workers should be warned that the CGT and other trade union bureaucracies will not struggle against either the state of emergency or the criminalisation of workers opposition to big business and the PS. The defense of the cashiers and of the port workers requires a broader mobilisation of workers, not only against Casino and the interrogation, but against the state of emergency and the PSs reactionary policies.

The CGT has supported Hollandes imposition of a state of emergency, and the CGT-linked Left Front voted outright for the state of emergency in the National Assembly, trampling democratic rights underfoot.

The interrogation of CGT delegates does not signify an attempt to crush the CGT bureaucracy, which has long played an essential role in organizing the orderly enforcement of austerity policies and mass sackings in work places. In the Marseille port, the CGT constantly divides different sections of the work force and plays them against each other, while threatening workers that it considers too militant.

Nevertheless, as it faces a profound global economic crisis and rising social anger among workers, the state aims to discipline even more firmly bureaucracies that are proven tools of the established social order. It wants to show that any struggle will be severely punished. It aims thus to intimidate the workers and to discourage any union official tempted to let off steam at his work place by organizing a protest from doing so, if this protest is considered ill-timed by management or the state.

The cashiers and port workers are not yet clear of all accusations from the justice system. Based on what has occurred to other strikers attacked by the courts during the state of emergency, such as the Goodyear and Air France workers, it must be assumed that the unions will do nothing to ensure the broad mobilisation necessary to defend them.
Remarks by Chinas Finance Minister Lou Jiwei on Monday, criticising the countrys labour laws, are a warning sign that the government is preparing savage attacks on the jobs, pay and working conditions of the working class.

In televised comments on the sidelines of this weeks National Peoples Congress (NPC) in Beijing, Lou complained that the legal system was tilted too much in favour of employees. If an employee does not work hard it is difficult for a company to do anything like dismissing them, he declared.

Lous statement could have been uttered by any CEO or big business politician around the world. They repeatedly call for greater labour flexibility, especially when it comes to hiring and firing workers. And his arguments were dressed up with the same sham concern for employees.

The original purpose of the law is to protect workers, but in the end it harms the interests of some workers and may lead to a rapid rise in wages, Lou explained, saying that rising costs were leading firms to move their operations overseas. Ultimately who is harmed? Its workers who are harmed.

According to National Bureau of Statistics, wages levels in China have doubled over the past decade, leading to low-end manufacturing, in particular, moving to sources of cheaper labour such as Vietnam and Bangladesh.

The answer of Lou and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime is the response of capitalist governments internationally: to boost international competitiveness through a never-ending drive to lower wages and drive up production by slashing conditions.

In recent years, the increase in workers income is faster than the increase in productivity. This is not sustainable, Lou bluntly declared.

The finance ministers remarks highlight the class character of the CCP, which speaks for the tiny super-wealthy elite who have enriched themselves through the processes of capitalist restoration in China over the past three decades.

Significantly, the official Xinhua news agency highlighted Lous statements to demonstrate that the NPC was not just a stage-managed affair but an example of spontaneous dissent and robust debate among the delegates.

The report noted that Lou was not alone in criticising the Labor Contract Lawother NPC delegates, all business owners, joined the chorus.

Zeng Xiaohe, who runs the Anhui Tianfang Tea Group, declared that the 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.

Gao Yafe, an entrepreneur, complained: 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.

Zhang Yansen, another businessman and member of the National Committee of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference, said the spirit of the law was to protect employees, but it had crossed the line and had to be amended.

These signs of dissent and debate are all from the standpoint of members of the corporate elite, who are closely intertwined with the upper echelons of the CCP apparatus. The congress delegates include many of the countrys wealthiest billionaires and a long list of business people.

A businesswoman and NPC delegate from Shanghai, Fan Yun, used the opening session of the congress to lambast market regulators for triggering last years share price collapse. She declared: The ten years of stock market development since 2007 is a decade of tears for Chinese investors.

Under conditions of sharp economic slowdown, these social layers are demanding an acceleration of pro-market liberalisation and restructuring that was set out in the latest five-year plan and the work report presented by Premier Li Keqiang on Saturday.

For all of Finance Minister Lous protestations of concern about harming workers, the CCP government is preparing to devastate the lives of millions of workers through mass layoffs in heavy industry. In his work report, Premier Li announced the governments intention to slash massive overcapacities and merge, reorganise or shut down zombie state-owned enterprises that are being kept afloat through state financing.

Before the congress, Employment Minister Yin Weimin announced plans to destroy 1.8 million jobs in the steel and coal industries. Glass, cement, shipbuilding, aluminium and other heavy industries also face severe downsizing, with estimates of up to 6 million jobs being axed.

On Tuesday, Zhang Qingwei, governor of the northern province of Hebei, announced that 240 of the provinces 400 steel plants would be shut down by 2020. He also said the provincial government would slash cement production capacity by two thirds and impose heavy cuts to coal and glass. Zhang estimated that more than one million workers would be laid off over the next two years.

These measures will have a severe impact on the working class in already economically depressed areas. While Premier Li projected annual growth over the next five years of 6.5 percent, the economy in large areas of China is stagnant or in recession. That is particularly the case in the so-called rust bucket provinces in the countrys northeast, including Hebei and Liaoning.

An article in last weekends Wall Street Journal, entitled Chinas Two-Speed Economy, painted a bleak picture: Chinas slow lane is choked with state-owned industrial firms in sectors linked to real estatesteel, cement, coal and construction equipmentall suffering from massive overcapacity. Many get by on bank loans, endlessly rolled over, and orders for boondoggle civil-works projects. They are zombies in a phantom economy.

The article explained that Liaoning boomed after the 2008 global economic crisis on the basis of the huge government stimulus spending and cheap credit that fuelled a speculative housing bubble. The voice of American finance capital left no doubt that if China keeps subsidising wasteful investment to keep industrial cities alive, its financial system will eventually blow up.

Finance Minister Lou, along with the rest of the CCP bureaucracy, doubtless agrees. That is why he is stridently advocating changes to labour laws to facilitate the avalanche of job destruction being prepared. If the regime has held back until now, it is only because of fears of the widespread social unrest that will result and for which a build-up of the police-state apparatus has taken place.

The social devastation facing Chinese workers is part and parcel of what is confronting the working class around the world. In every country, governments are imposing the burden of the worsening global crisis onto the backs of workers, insisting that pay, conditions and jobs must be sacrificed to make corporations internationally competitive.
On March 4, at approximately 5:30 a.m., a two-alarm fire broke out at the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) located in southwest Detroit. The fire occurred at the end of the week just days before the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was scheduled to conduct an audit of the plant.

This is the first potentially serious environmental and public health threat since the municipally owned Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) facility was taken over by the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA). The regional authority began operating the facility three months ago as part of the 2013-2014 bankruptcy restructuring of the city of Detroit.

The capacity to prevent the fire or to respond safely to it has been undermined by the huge job cutting at the facility. Since 2011, the number of city employees at the massive facility has been reduced from 650 to 150.

The cause of the fire, which started on the fourth floor of Complex 2 Incineration, was friction created from a moving conveyor belt rubbing up against massive piles of dry sludge wedged throughout the metal frame. The sludge is made up of semi-solid material that is the byproduct of de-watering (drying) of human waste and other organic material. The heat caused the sludge to ignite while employees were conducting cleanup one floor above. The large diagonal belt, known as Conveyor Belt H, is four feet wide and several hundred feet long, with a three-story tall incline.

Over the weekend, it was revealed that the fire had not successfully been put out and that several hot spots and flare-ups in the pile were emerging due to spontaneous combustion. The media reported that another fire broke out on Saturday. In at least two additional instances, smoldering embers reignited decomposing sludge, slowly releasing methane gas in a confined work area with little or no ventilation.

Several GLWA employees who spoke anonymously to the World Socialist Web Site said the fire hose cabinets were empty and the fire connections had inadequate water pressure.

Only a few hours after the first fire was extinguished, and before any professional or technical assessment could be made, GLWA chief administrator and compliance officer William M. Wolfson rushed before television news cameras to downplay the extent of the fire and subsequent damage.

The Detroit WWTP is the largest single-site wastewater facility in the United States, and the presence of substantial combustible material and stored chemicals in the six-story C2 Incineration facility poses a huge danger to workers and residents of the surrounding working class community.

There is no environmental issue; there is no employee safety issue; and were going to be able to continue to treat the sludge as we would normally, Wolfson insisted.

Images of large, bright red flames coming from the rooftop of C2 Incineration were captured from the ground by WWJ News and in the air by a FOX2 helicopter news crew.

While GLWA officials downplayed concerns, plant management threatened sewage treatment workers and technicians with termination if they were caught anywhere near the area. Workers have reported that flimsy barricades were hastily constructed to prevent anyone from entering. Some workers believe that management did not want any photos or videos to be posted on social media to convey the real damage caused by the fire, or contradict the official narrative by GWLA authorities.

Several City of Detroit retirees who used to work at the plant told the WSWS that the images seen on television suggest that this industrial fire was the worst in last 30 years at the facility.

Detroit Fire Department officials have had to put highly trained firefighters on an around-the-clock fire-watch alert. Hazardous materials (HAZMAT) team members were the only ones authorized to occupy the control room and man the phones in the C2 Incineration facility not far from where the conveyor belt fire started.

In spite of the fact that workers have been reassigned to other locations onsite, the workforce as a whole has been subjected to airborne carcinogens emitted from the charred remains of building materials and industrial pollutants, including the dry sludge.

The C2 Incineration facility is currently completely shut down. It may be inoperable for some time. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on projects to upgrade the eight multiple-hearth incinerators at the facility, which began almost 18 months ago. A final assessment has yet to be made as to how severely the fire damaged the upgrades.

On March 7, upper plant management and safety personnel conducted an initial walkout to survey the damaged caused by the fire. They reported that the metal frame, which supports H belt, had been warped in several spots. This means it will have to be dismantled and a new metal frame constructed and re-installed. A 25-ton overheard crane was affected by the intense heat. Other conveyor belts were also severely damaged.

The incineration facility is an integral part of the wastewater treatment process. With the rainy season comingwhich can send a huge volume of water and silt to the treatment plantC2 Incinerations capacity to burn several hundred tons of wet sludge in an eight-hour shift will now be extremely limited for weeks, perhaps months.

The incineration facility will become the sole workhorse when the older Complex Incineration is permanently mothballed on March 21. The City of Detroit has not invested $25 million to rehabilitate the original six multiple-hearth incinerators in the complex, which has been operational since the 1950s.

The City of Detroit partnered with the New England Fertilizer Company (NEFCO) to get into the fertilizer market by building another sludge processing facility across the street from the Detroit WWTP. Although the BioSolids Drying Facility (BDF) is owned by the City of Detroit, it is run by NEFCO for profit.

GLWA spokesman Wolfson claims BDF will be sufficient to treat sludge. In recent weeks, however, the facility has had continuous problems meeting state regulations for emissions.

Even if the current situation is resolved, it is only a matter of time before another crisis occurs. The drastic cut in the workforce, reduction in wages and benefits of current employees, and lack of sufficient supplies are a recipe for an industrial disaster. In the past, experienced and trained city employees would have recognized the potential for fire hazards and acted accordingly to reduce the contributing factors associated with the danger. But instead, hundreds of workers such as custodians, engineers, laboratory technicians, sewage plant operators, maintenance repairman, safety officers and supervisors have been laid off since April 2015.

In addition, physical stress is taking its toll on the small number of employees who were selected to remain with GLWA. A female employee who gave birth to a child December 30 of last year had a stroke and went into a coma two weeks later. A sewage plant operator with over 10 years of experience quit and moved to Texas to work as an aviation repair mechanic.

In a press statement, GLWA CEO Sue F. McCormick claimed, Understaffing was not the cause of the fire. Officials have said that they will look into the possibility that the fire was caused by mechanical failure or human error. Any such investigation will only be used to cover up managements role in savage cost cutting and to shift blame onto the workers themselves.

For its part, Local 207 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which used to represent more than 900 workers, mostly at WWTP, issued a statement saying, GLWA management and MDEQ (Michigan Department of Environmental Quality) are to blame for this costly accident, which could lead to further rate increases, and not the workers who are forced to labor under these conditions.

AFSCME is currently involved in a sordid jurisdictional dispute with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 324, which is now the officially recognized bargaining unit for the dwindling number of employees. In fact, the AFSCME union has been complicit in the attacks on city workers. The union agreed to the Grand Bargain crafted by US Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes (now the transitional manager of the Detroit Public Schools) that cut workers health and pension benefits, sold off public assets and established the GLWA, which is a prelude for the privatization of the water system. In return, AFSCME was given control of a $500 million retiree trust fund, which will serve as a lucrative investment vehicle for the union bureaucrats.

From the beginning, the municipally-owned water system was looked at as the jewel in the crown by the citys emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, who immediately sent out bids for the privatization of the system. Tens of thousands of residents had their service terminated in an effort to clear the systems bad debt and entice Wall Street investors to take it over.

Orr also contracted Veolia North America, an affiliate of the giant French conglomerate that is one of the largest water privatizers in the world, to slash the workforce. The GLWA was set up to bypass any obstacle to privatization contained in the City Charter or other municipal regulations.

The same players pushing for this from the Republican administration of Governor Rick Snyder, including former secretary treasurer Andy Dillon, a Democrat and former investment banker, also pushed for the setting up of a regional water authority to take over the provision of Flints water. The April 2014 decision to separate Flint from the DWSD-controlled pipeline and water treatment plant near Lake Huron set into motion the current lead poisoning disaster in Flint.

While it is fortunate that no GLWA employee or contractor was hurt in the Detroit fire, the fate of workers and residents of the area cannot be left in the hands of officials, Democrat or Republican, whose single-minded drive to satisfy the demands of Wall Street are creating the conditions for more Flints.
The US must escalate its intervention in Iraq and Syria with more troops on the ground, both the outgoing commander of US military forces in the Middle East and his designated replacement told Congress in hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Gen. Joseph Votel, the current head of the US Special Operations Command, who has been tapped by President Barack Obama to lead US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees both the ongoing intervention in Iraq and Syria and the continuing American occupation of Afghanistan, told the Senate Armed Services Committee Wednesday that an offensive to retake the Syrian city of Raqqa and the Iraqi city of Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) will take more resources than the Pentagon currently has deployed in the region.

His comments echoed those made the day before by the man he is succeeding, Gen. Lloyd Austin, who also pointed to the need for additional capability to launch an offensive against the two cities.

Clearly there are things that we will want to do to increase the capability a bit to be able to increase the pace of operations, and that will require some additional capability, Austin said.

We have gone through and done some analysis ... to see what types of things we need to provide, he continued. And we have made some recommendations.

While refusing to tell the committee precisely what he had recommended to the Obama administration, Austin indicated that it included the deployment of more US military personnel in order to increase the number of advise and assist teams deployed with Iraqi security forces, improve intelligence on the ground and intensify logistical support.

We could increase some elements of the Special Operations footprint, he added.

Well over 4,000 US troops are already deployed in Iraq, while scores more have been sent into Syria, in violation of international law.

The additional capability demanded by the Pentagon brass will almost certainly entail thousands more American soldiers being sent into the two countries.

Austin also touched on the continuing US operation in Afghanistan, stressing that a review was needed of existing plans to draw down the number of US troops deployed there after the end of this year.

Referring to the defeats suffered at the hands of the Taliban by the security forces of the US puppet regime in Kabul, Austin said, When the situation changes so that those facts are no longer valid or the assumptions that you made are no longer appropriate, then I think you have to go back and revisit your plan.

President Obama last October rescinded his previously announced plan to pull out virtually all US forces from Afghanistan, adopting a plan dictated by the Pentagon to keep the roughly 10,000 troops there, likely beyond the end of his presidency. Austins demand to revisit that plan indicates that the military brass believes that the current or even greater number of troops must remain in Afghanistan indefinitely.

Austin told the committee that the Pentagon currently has 84,000 US troops deployed in CENTCOMs area of operations, along with an unmatched ability to provide rapid reinforcement in response to unforeseen contingencies.

In his testimony Wednesday, General Votel argued against any reduction of this US presence in the region on the grounds that it could provide opportunities that other countries such as Russia or China could exploit.

While Votel described ISIS as the biggest near-term threat to US interests in the region, he stressed that Iran and Russia, which are both combating ISIS, represented the larger strategic challenge.

We should understand that Iran is not ambiguous in their activities and their focus is on the United States, the general said.

In describing CENTCOMs mission, Votel placed the need to check Irans malign influence above that of seeking to degrade and ultimately defeat ISIL [ISIS].

The generals comments came as Washington responded to Irans test firing Wednesday of two ballistic missiles. Speaking from Israel, where he was on a state visit to reassure the Zionist state in the wake of last years nuclear deal with Iran, Vice President Joe Biden vowed that the US will act if Iran violates the terms of the agreement. He added that the US was closely following Irans non-nuclear military activity, declaring we will and are attempting to act wherever we can find it.

Meanwhile, former secretary of state and Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton denounced the missile tests, declaring, Iran should face sanctions for these activities and the international community must demonstrate that Irans threats toward Israel will not be tolerated.

General Votel also echoed Austins testimony in calling for a revival of the Pentagons aborted train and equip program for the purpose of creating an indigenous ground force to further US operations in Syria.

A $500 million Pentagon program for arming and training so-called moderate rebels ostensibly to fight against ISIS was terminated after General Austin admitted last September that no more than four or five such rebels were on the ground in Syria a year after the program was launched. Other US-trained elements sent into Syria rapidly surrendered to the Al Nusra Front, the Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda, handing over their US-supplied armaments.

Votel faced questioning from the Senate panel over the composition of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces, which are being assisted by US Special Forces troops. He acknowledged that the group is probably about 80 percent Kurdish.

These forces are comprised of the YPG, the Syrian Kurdish militia, which reported on Monday that its fighters are facing continuous artillery fire from the Turkish military in violation of a cessation of hostilities agreement brokered by the United Nations.

While Turkey is a NATO ally of the US, and Washington describes it as a key member of the anti-ISIS coalition, the Islamist government in Ankara has concentrated its fire on the Kurdish forces that the Pentagon is supporting, and there is extensive evidence that it has funneled arms and funding to ISIS and other Al Qaeda-linked forces in Syria.
On Saturday March 5, more than 3,500 workers at the ArcelorMittal (AM) steel plant in the port city of Lazaro Cardenas in Michoacan, Mexico went on strike against the worlds largest steelmaker. The workers rallied at the Miners Monument, marched to the plant, and set up a picket line to protest summary dismissals and other violations of their contract. There are also reports that workers are engaged in a plant occupation.

Last year 300 workers were laid off from the coke facility at the plant. The strikers are demanding their rehiring and the reopening of the sheet steel facility, where over one thousand workers were sacked in 2014.

ArcelorMittal management released a statement declaring the walkout illegal and calling for three-party talks between management, the union and the administration of President Pena Nieto. The workers are members of the National Miners, Metal and Steel workers Union (SNTMMSRM). The Labor Ministry (STPS) issued a statement, saying, With respect to the occupation of the AM Mill, the STPS calls on the National Miners, Metal and Steelworkers Union (SNTMMSRM) to take the road of negotiations and respect for the law.

The STPS has a history of intervening on the side of big business to make strikes illegal, or inexistent, in the language of Mexican legislation. It has happened repeatedly, both under National Action Party governments (PAN) as well as under PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) administrations. In some cases dubious interpretations of Mexican law have been rubberstamped by the Labor Ministry to justify mass layoffs and other attacks on Mexican miners.

AM and a Mexican firm, the Villacero Group, benefited from the 1991 privatization of the state-owned Sicarsa steel mill, at fire sale prices. The government of president Raul Salinas justified the give away price (USD 170 million, a fraction of its yearly revenues) declaring that the firm required an investment of USD 2 billion to modernize. Far from modernizing the mill, the new owners allowed it to continue to deteriorate.

In 2006, AM absorbed Villaceros half, following the events of jueves negro (Black Thursday). On April 20, 800 federal police officers violently invaded the plant to expel 500 workers who had been occupying it for nearly three weeks. They killed two workers and wounded 41.

Last March, AM threatened to close the mill and lay off thousands of workers. At the time, the SNTMMSRM bureaucracy argued against a strike claiming they could keep the layoffs to a minimum. SNTMMSRM again stood in the way of the strike last July insisting that it was necessary to aid management as it faced critical competition in the Mexican market from Chinese steel. The union sided with the companys economic nationalism, claiming China was dumping steel products at below market prices.

The Lazaro Cardenas mill, the largest in Mexico, employs 7,000 workers. ArcelorMittal, a Luxemburg-based transnational corporation headed by Indian billionaire steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, operates in 27 countries and has a work force of 320,000.

In parallel with the negotiations with ArcelorMittal Mexico, the company is also negotiating with the United Steelworkers union (USW) in the US, which has forced 13,000 AM workers in the US to work without a contract since last September. The USW has offered massive concessions to the steelmaker, in line with the sellout agreements it has imposed on workers at US Steel and specialty steelmaker Allegheny Technologies (ATI). At the same time, the USW has pledged to strengthen its partnership with US Steel and AM by pushing a virulently nationalist campaign for tariffs against steel from China, Russia, Japan, Brazil and other countries (See: US steelworker union hails Obama trade war measures).
The victory of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in the March 8 Democratic primary in Michigan is a clear indicator of growing radicalization in the American working class. More than half a million people cast their votes for a candidate claiming to be socialist. This gave Sanders an unanticipated victory over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the consensus presidential nominee of the Democratic Party establishment. Sanders won despite the support for Clinton by the corporate-controlled media, whose polls invariably predicted a Clinton victory by double-digit margins.

The vote did not come in a small rural state or in caucuses attended by a few thousand Democratic Party activists. Michigan was the first major industrial state to vote in the presidential nomination campaign, and the turnout was relatively high.

Historically, Michigan was a center of the American labor movementthe site of sit-down strikes that paved the way for the formation of the industrial unions in the 1930s. It has become ground zero for the crushing impact of plant closures, wage cuts and the growth of poverty and social misery, carried out with the full collaboration of unions, including the United Auto Workers, which have been transformed into industrial policemen for the corporations.

The primary campaigns in both big business parties have been dominated by the growth of popular anger and disgust with the political establishment. Eight years after the Wall Street crash, the mass experience of economic insecurity and falling living standards is beginning to find a political expression, however distorted. Broad sections of working people and youth have gravitated to candidates who portray themselves as anti-establishment outsiders.

This has taken an overtly right-wing and ominous form in the support, including among highly impoverished and oppressed sections of the working class, for the fascistic real estate billionaire and Republican front-runner Donald Trump. In the Michigan Republican primary, Trump won easily, taking nearly 50 percent of the vote in Macomb County, a center of the auto industry in the suburbs north of Detroit.

Opposition to the political establishment has found a more left-wing expression in the broad support of workers and young people for Sanders, whose claim to be a democratic socialist has connected with growing anti-capitalist sentiment. Sanders, to his own surprise, has found a strong response to a campaign that was launched largely to provide the Democratic Party with a left cover before the planned nomination of Clinton. Sanders pledged from the outset to support the eventual Democratic nominee, whomever that turned out to be.

The glaring failure of media polling to detect the shift in class sentiment, assuming that the polls in Michigan were not simply rigged to assist in a Clinton victory, is itself a demonstration of the chasm that separates the entire political establishment, including both major parties and the corporate interests they serve, from the vast majority of the population. This was summed up last Friday when President Obama, responding to the February jobs report, made the astounding boast that America is pretty darn great right now.

For decades, as the political system has moved ever further to the right, pursuing policies of social reaction at home and permanent war abroad, a manufactured public opinion has been used to suppress opposition and justify a reactionary agenda. This has been buttressed by the so-called left of American politics, concentrated in the Democratic Party, which, with the eager assistance of various middle-class pseudo-left organizations, has worked to conceal the basic class divide in American capitalist society and instead define all social and political issues on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation and life-style questions. The aim of the fixation on such secondary questions is to divide the working class and block its emergence as an independent and united political force.

Sanders victory in Michigan reflects the intrusion of class issues into the elections. The Clinton campaign, like the media, was taken unawares by Sanders win. At a campaign rally Tuesday night in Cleveland, Clinton made no reference to the close contest in the neighboring state and instead described the campaign for the Democratic nomination as in its final stages. The sooner I can become your nominee, the more I can begin to turn my attention to the Republicans, she told her audience.

Sanders was similarly oblivious to the real state of affairs. He held no election night rally for his supporters and campaign workers in Michigan, choosing instead to leave the state for events in Florida. He gave a perfunctory seven-minute news conference in Miami shortly before 11 p.m. without making any claim to victory.

Clinton won a majority among only two demographic groups: the highest income bracket, those making over $100,000 a year; and the poorest sections of African-American workers in Detroit, Pontiac and Flint. Sanders won every region of the state outside the Detroit metropolitan area. Significantly, he won an even higher percentage of the vote in industrial cities like Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo than in college towns like Ann Arbor and East Lansing.

The class character of the vote for Sanders was further demonstrated in exit polls, which found that people under 30 voted for the senator from Vermont by a margin of 81 percent to 18 percent. Sanders won majorities of voters making less than $50,000 a year, whites without a college degree (by 17 points), and even union voters (by two points) despiteor because ofunion endorsements for Clinton. Sanders also won white women by a margin of five points, refuting suggestions that the former secretary of state would have a natural advantage with those of her own gender.

The exit polls indicated another significant political fact: most voters did not suddenly change their minds, under the impact of last Sundays debate or other events. That means that the polls conducted in the weeks leading up to the primary consistently underestimated the support for Sanders.

It remains very difficult to predict what the outcome of the 2016 election campaign will be. The two-party system, which the American ruling class has maintained for nearly two centuries to safeguard its political monopoly, is in increasing crisis. While the support for the Sanders campaign reveals a shift to the left among working people, Sanders conscious aim is to contain this radicalization within the framework of the Democratic Party, whether as the partys nominee himself, or by delivering his supporters to the camp of Clinton.

Moreover, both Sanders and Trump, in different ways, base themselves on the reactionary program of economic nationalism. Sanders attacks NAFTA and other pro-corporate trade deals not from the standpoint of the unity of the working class internationally against the transnational corporations, but from the standpoint of playing off American workers against their class brothers and sisters in other countries. Trump combines this with openly racist and anti-immigrant demagogy and bellicose denunciations of Mexico, Japan and China. Whether in left or openly right-wing garb, protectionism fuels the growth of militarism and war.

The 2016 election campaign has revealed a mounting crisis of the US political system. The ruling class uses all its political instruments to manage and exploit the crisis, from the left-talking Sanders to Trump or some other far-right figure. The growing popular indignation and search for a way out of the crisis must be developed into a conscious independent political movement of the working class along genuinely socialistand therefore internationalistlines.
The Remain campaign in the June 23 referendum on Britains continued membership in the European Union is led by the Conservative government of Prime Minister David Cameron.

Support for a Remain vote, therefore, necessitates an endorsement of the renegotiation of the UKs terms of EU membership secured by Cameron last month. These centre on measures limiting in-work benefits for migrants and protecting the City of London from financial regulation.

For the dominant sections of Britains financial and business elite, continued EU membership is vital to maintaining trade links within the worlds largest single market. Their campaign for membership of a reformed EU translates into support for a Europe dominated by finance capital and dedicated to policies of austerity, militarism and war.

Britain Stronger in Europe (BSE), likely to be the officially designated Remain campaign group, stresses that EU membership is vital to the UKs economy. Some three to four million jobs are linked to trade with Europe, with 44 percent of all exportsworth 229 billion in 2014going to Europe. Foreign Direct Investment in the UK from Europe averaged 24 billion a year over the last 10 years.

David Sainsbury, the Labour peer, supermarket heir and billionaire businessman, provided BSEs start-up funding. The group is headed by former Marks & Spencer boss Lord Stuart Rose, who currently chairs online grocery group Ocado. Co-treasurers are Roland Rudd, founder of public relations corporation Finsbury, and Sir Michael Rake, chairman of BT Group, former president of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), and former chairman of KPMG International.

BSE has lined up the main international financial and economic institutions to warn against a Brexit (British exit from the EU), with the G20 and the International Monetary Fund issuing statements supporting EU membership. The United States and the major European powers, which fear that a Brexit would precipitate the breakup of the EU, have all lent their support.

The heads of GlaxoSmithKline, Siemens, Vodafone and Virgin Group have endorsed a Remain vote, while the chairmen or chief executives of 36 FTSE 100 companies, including Burberry, BAE Systems, BP, Shell and EasyJet, wrote to the Times calling for support. The CBI, which represents 190,000 businesses across Britain, said that the majority of its members want the UK to be in a reformed EU.

Other board members are drawn from all the main parliamentary parties, including Lord Cooper, a former director of strategy at Downing Street under Cameron, and Sir Danny Alexander, Liberal Democrat chief secretary to the treasury in the 2010-15 Conservative-led coalition.

The Tories and Lib-Dems are working hand-in-glove with the Blairite wing of the Labour Party. Former Labour prime ministers Blair and Gordon Brown sit alongside the only other surviving former Conservative prime minister, John Major. They are joined by Lord Peter Mandelson, Blairs closest adviser, and Stephen Kinnock, son of former Labour leader Neil Kinnock. The executive director of BSE is Will Straw, son of former foreign secretary Jack Straw.

Caroline Lucas, the former leader of the Green Party and its only MP, has offered her threadbare credentials as a political progressive to BSE.

The Remain campaigns propaganda also focuses on the importance of British defence capabilities as a member of NATO with the worlds fifth largest military budget. One of the key members of the BSEs board is General Sir Peter Wall, who was chief of the general staff until September 2014.

Wall is a vocal advocate of confronting Russia and last year complained that UK defence cuts, including the 2010 defence review, set a lower level of ambition for UK involvement in global security than ever before. He warned of the state-on-state confrontation in Europe initiated by Russia and urged sustained reinvestment in the military.

A joint article by Tory MP Nicholas Soames and Mandelson, published in the Daily Mail, stressed the need to confront Russia as a key argument in favour of EU membership. Soames is the grandson of former prime minister Winston Churchill. Mandelson is the grandson of Herbert Morrison, Labour home secretary in the wartime coalition led by Churchill.

Invoking World War Two to appeal for national unity, they stated, Britain and our allies emerged victorious, but to do so, everyone, including politicians from opposing parties, had to pull in the same direction.

Calling on anti-communist sentiment, the two authors wrote of when the Russians drew down the Iron Curtain on a broken and suffering Eastern Europe, and of how When the Berlin Wall fell at the end of the 1980s, those countries and their great capitalsWarsaw, Prague, Berlin, Bucharest and Sofiawere released from the grip of a ruthless Soviet machine and stampeded to be a part of the European Union

A Remain vote is officially backed by the Labour Party and the Trades Union Congress, including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. But given the overtly Tory agenda of Britain Stronger in Europe, they have not affiliated to it, fearing a repeat of the political damage that uniting with the Tories in the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence caused. Even so, Sir Brendan Barber, a former leader of the TUC from 2003 to 2012, who also served as a director on the Bank of England board, is a BSE board member.

Corbyn has stated that he will not personally share a platform with the Conservatives in the referendum campaign, which prompted denunciations from within the parliamentary Labour Party. But whether he sits alongside Cameron or not, he shares a common political platform thanks to his efforts to whitewash the EU and insist that it can be reformed in the interests of the working class.

Corbyn attempts to strike an oppositional pose by calling for progressive reform in Europe. But he endorses anti-immigrant measures by complaining of the undercutting of wage rates and industry-wide agreements through the exploitation of migrant workers. He echoes the criticism of the Tory right and UK Independence Party that Camerons much-heralded emergency brake on in-work migrants benefits will do nothing to cut inward migration to Britain.

No event more surely exposes the lie that the EU is either a progressive body or one that can be made progressive than the fate of Greece, which was targeted by the EU for austerity measures that destroyed the jobs, livelihoods and social conditions, including access to health care, of millions of workers and their families.

As such, it is treated as radioactive political material by everyone aligning with the Remain camp, especially Corbyn. Even when addressing the Party of European Socialists in the European Parliament last month, he spoke only of a general need to work in a common way to address the negatives of the European Union from a progressive point of view before urging closer cooperation with the United Left group. The latter formation includes Syriza, whose own pro-EU stance was integral to its betrayal of the struggle of the Greek working class against the troika of the EU, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.

As the Socialist Equality Partys statement For an active boycott of the Brexit referendum! explains, The SEP is irreconcilably hostile to the European Union, but our opposition is from the left, not the right. The EU is not an instrument for realising the genuine and necessary unification of Europe. It is a mechanism for the subjugation of the continent to the dictates of the financial markets and a forum in which competing states fight amongst themselves and conspire against the working class.

We call for a rejection of the Remain campaign in defence of the EU and of the Leave campaign dominated by far-right forces preaching nationalism and xenophobia, and for the working class to take up the perspective of a common struggle with their brothers and sisters across the continent for the United Socialist States of Europe.
The United Steelworkers union (USW) is predictably hailing new trade war measures recently implemented by the Obama administration targeting certain imported steel products.

USW President Leo Gerard issued a chauvinist statement calling the opening of a preliminary anti-dumping investigation by the US Department of Commerce welcome news and a step toward making our nations trade policies work better for working Americans. Gerard went on to blame China for creating overcapacity in the global steel industry and called for duties on other imported steel products.

The order by the White House will result in customs officials requiring a cash deposit on the duty rates for cold rolled steel imports from China and six other countriesRussia, Brazil, Japan, India, Korea and Britain. The duties imposed on Chinese steel are particularly stiff, 266 percent. The International Trade Commission will make a final decision on the duties later this year.

In a related development, the Obama administration imposed trade restrictions on Chinese telecommunications supplier ZTE Corp. The White House claimed the company violated US technology restrictions targeting Iran. It is the only Chinese smartphone brand with substantial handset sales in the US. The new rules bar US companies from supplying ZTE with an array of goods including computers, software and telecommunications equipment.

The trade measures announced by the US take place under conditions of an intensifying global economic crisis that has seen the mass layoff of steelworkers globally. In the US, some 12,000 steelworkers are on layoff or threatened with layoff in steel towns across the Midwest. Taconite miners in the Iron Range of Northern Minnesota have also faced layoffs. In China, some 400,000 workers at state affiliated steel companies are targeted for job cuts. In Britain, Tata steel recently announced the elimination of over 1,000 jobs.

The measures being implemented by the Obama administration have two purposes. In the first place US capitalism is seeking to offload the impact of the deteriorating world economic situation onto the backs of its overseas rivals by restricting imports. Further, both political parties are seeking to divert anger over declining living standards and job insecurity by pitting American workers against their co-workers in other countries through the whipping up of nationalism. This is aimed at covering up the responsibility of the capitalist system for the economic distress afflicting not just steelworkers, but hundreds of millions of workers in the US and globally.

Both the presidential campaigns of Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Bernie Sanders are playing the nationalist card. While Trump resorts to openly racist denunciations of Muslims and Mexican immigrants, the Sanders campaign, by its call for tougher trade measures against US overseas competitors, effectively tells American workers that workers in other countries are responsible for taking their jobs. The ultimate logic of the position of both Sanders and Trump is to line American workers up in a shooting war with the capitalist rivals of the United States, including nuclear-armed countries such as Russia and China.

USW President Gerard has close ties to the Obama administration, including a seat on the Presidents Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations. Former US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner visited USW headquarters in Pittsburgh and US Trade Representative Ron Kirk met with the USW executive board.

Under Gerard the USW has filed more trade law complaints than any other union or US corporation. The USW has in particular targeted China, claiming it is dumping steel in US markets.

The promotion of nationalism by the USW is the other side of its suppression of the class struggle within the US. While denouncing China the steel union is responsible for carrying out grotesque betrayals of American workers in the name of making the steel giants more competitive.

The USW recently imposed a miserable sellout on locked out workers at Allegheny Technologies (ATI). The deal ending the six-month lockout imposed a host of concessions including higher out of pocket medical payments, the end of defined-benefit pensions for new hires and the creation a new second tier of lower paid workers. It also permits increased sub contracting and imposes brutally arbitrary scheduling practices.

During the course of the lockout, the USW worked to separate the struggle of ATI workers from workers at US Steel and ArcelorMittal, who also faced contract expirations. Workers were forced to rely on meager state unemployment benefits during the lockout while the USW sat on a strike fund of some $350 million.

Workers at ArcelorMittal and US Steel are already feeling the consequences of the USW betrayal of ATI workers. After isolating the ATI workers for months, the USW forced through a sellout agreement at US Steel. According to reports the contract freezes wages for three years and does not contain a signing bonus. It also eliminates retiree health care benefits for those hired after January 1.

Meanwhile, at ArcelorMittal, the USW has offered millions in concessions aimed at keeping the worlds largest steelmaker profitable. Instead of wage increases this includes a system of lump sum payments based on the pricing for hot band steel. For its part the steelmaker is holding out for even deeper cuts. All the while the USW has stressed its partnership with management, aimed at imposing the burden of the crisis in the steel industry on the backs of workers.

Steelworkers throughout the world, including in China, are coming into struggle against the attack on their jobs and living standards. Nearly 4,000 workers at the ArcelorMittal mill at Lazaro Cardenas on Mexico's Pacific coast went on strike earlier this week. The Mexican government has declared the strike illegal, however workers are pressing ahead citing multiple contract violations by management. The walkout followed the closure of a coke plant resulting in 238 layoffs.

The virulent nationalism promoted by the USW cuts across the establishment of any kind of unity between US and Mexican workers. Indeed, the recent press release by the union on the strike by Mexican ArcelorMittal reproduces a statement by USW Vice President Tom Conway denouncing United Technologies for shipping 2,100 good Steelworkers jobs to Mexico.

Under conditions of mounting global economic crisis and the rumblings of war between the US and China the establishment of the international unity of the working class assumes critical urgency. If this unity is to consist of more than hollow phrases it must be based on a socialist and internationalist perspective.

This requires bitter opposition to the economic nationalism promoted by the USW and capitalist politicians such as Sanders and Trump. The allies of American steelworkers are not the steel corporations, but the workers in China, Mexico and globally. The defense of jobs requires the unification of the international working class in a struggle for the social ownership of the steel industry under the democratic control of the working class. This would make possible a vast expansion of production based on meeting human need, not private profit.
6 years, 7 months ago by Jim Dewey

Quincy Police Officers were dispatched to Family Dollar at 620 Broadway in reference to Retail Theft shortly before 9 last (Wednesday) night.

On arrival, Officers met with store employees and made contact with 37 year old Heather Riley who is homeless.

Riley was ultimately arrested for Retail Theft and transported to Police Headquarters where officers found stolen property from Family Dollar, along with multiple syringes that later field tested positive for methamphetamine.

While she was being booked into the Adams County Jail - an additional syringe was found concealed on Riley's person.

That syringe also tested positive for methamphetamine.

Riley was lodged for Possession of Meth, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Bringing Contraband into a Penal Institution, and Felony Retail Theft.

She is also already on bond for Possession of Meth from earlier this year.
6 years, 7 months ago by Jim Dewey

Illinois Drivers are being reminded to check the registration stickers on all vehicles.

According to reports - The State of Illinois has snagged a windfall of $1.2 million thanks to its budget-related decision to stop mailing reminders to motorists to renew license plate stickers.

The income from the $20 late fines has more than doubled for the first two months of this year, according to figures provided to AP by the secretary of states office.

Drivers paid more than $2.7 million in fines from January 1st through February 22nd. Last year, the state collected about $1.5 million in fines for those two months, according to AP.

The secretary of state's office isn't the only agency not mailing reminders due to the budget gridlock.

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is no longer mailing reminders for vehicle emission tests.

However, the secretary of state is temporarily allowing license plate renewals for vehicle owners who haven't taken the emissions test.
6 years, 7 months ago QPD

Sawyer W Wassell (21) Palmyra, MO for No Valid Registration and No Insurance at 3/Broadway on 3/9/16. Released on NTA.

Rachelle A Hessling (27) 922 Cherry St for Sale of Tobacco to a Minor at 923 N 12th on 3/8/16. Released on NTA.

Robert S Taylor (26) 1101 Adams St for Sale of Tobacco to a Minor at 4727 State St on 3/8/16. Released on NTA.

Mary K Sandlin (50) Liberty, IL for Sale of Tobacco to a Minor at 4830 Broadway St on 3/8/16. Released on NTA.

Hafed Mohammed Musleh (31) 1001 N 5th Apt 2 for Sale of Tobacco to a Minor at 1001 N 5th on 3/8/16. Released on NTA.

Chayla L Smith (24) Ursa, IL for Sale of Tobacco to a Minor at 432 S 36th St on 3/8/16. Released on NTA.

Todd E Dugal (51) 1503 Chestnut for Expired Registration at 12/Lind on 3/9/16. Released on PTC.

Alexis D Kaufman (24) 2100 S 8th for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and FTA-Obstructing ID. She was located at 5/State on

3/9/16 and lodged.

Timothy O Perkins (45) 2321 Monroe for Domestic Battery that occurred at 2321 Monroe on 3/9/16. Lodged.

Robert W Eyler Jr (46) 1431 N 10th for Phone Harassment that occurred on 10/9/16 and Fleeing to Elude Peace Officer, Driving While License Suspended, Failure to Signal, Disobey Stop Sign, Expired Registration, and Squealing Tires that occurred on 10/15/16. Eyler was located on 3/9/16 and lodged.

Michael N Randall (22) 1509 N 3rd for FTA-Flight on Foot. He was located on 3/9/16 at 1509 N 3rd and lodged.

Micah S Milsap (23) 429 N 8th St Apt E for Obstructing Justice and Driving While License Suspended at 9/Washington-Jefferson on 3/9/16.Lodged.

Breiania T Osborne (27) of Quincy for Operation of an Uninsured Motor Vehicle at 8th & Maine on 3/9/16. NTA

Sam J Douglas (21) of Quincy for Expired Registration & Operation of an Uninsured Motor Vehicle at 18th & State on 3/9/16. NTA

Gavin L.M. McFadyn (19) of Quincy for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia at 7th & Jefferson on 3/9/16. NTA

Daniel S Tournear (31) of Quincy for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia at 18th & State on 3/9/16. Cash bond

Lewis G. Allen, 31, of 828 Jonathan Lane for Improper Passing on the Right in the 1500 block of Harrison St. on 03-09-16. PTC

Ahmed A. Fayed, 29, of 1432 State for DWLR & Operation of an Uninsured Motor Vehicle in the alleyway, 9th - 10th, Maine to Hampshire on 03-06-16 @ 0318 hours. Cash bond

Abigail L. Oshner, 25, of 2418 Green Acres for Permitting an Unauthorized Person to Drive in the alleyway, 9th - 10th, Maine to Hampshire on 03-06-16. PTC

Kenneth T. Brooks, 32, of 518 Oak for DUI - Drugs in the 600 block of Payson Avenue on 03-05-16. DL/Cash bond

Chris M. Bronestine of 718 N. 12th reported a brick had been thrown through the passenger side window on her 2014 Hyundai Tucson while parked at her residence between 0115 and 0600 hours on 02-24-16.

John S. McKenzie of 1227 S. 8th reported that his 2016 Kia Forte was keyed while parked in front of his residence sometime between 1900 hours on 02-23-16 and 1000 hours on 02-24-16. No suspects

Kayla B. Mason of 2225 N. 12th #606 reported the theft of a blue metal patio table from the front porch of her residence sometime between 0001 hours on 02-22-16 and 0900 hours on 02-24-16.

Lacey C Hills (23) 1038 Payson Ave for Driving While License Suspended at 2/Maine on 3/9/16. NTA

Spencer L Coats (18) LaGrange, MO for Fighting at 4122 Broadway on 3/7/16. NTA

Landon M Huston (29) 513 Hampshire Apt 524 for Shoplifting at 620 Broadway on 2/26/16. Cash bond

Joann M Frieden (46) 5205 Hinton Ct. N for Speeding at Gardner & Maiden Ln on 3/8/16. PTC

Harley D Foster (22) Homeless for Improper Walking on Roadway and FTA-Public Drinking. Located at 36/Meadowbrook on 3/9/16 and lodged
India inks Raptor MoU to save birds of prey

Published: March 10, 2016

India has signed Raptor MoU, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on conservation of birds of prey in Africa and Eurasia.

With this India becomes 56th county to sign the Raptor MoU under the Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS).

The MoU was singed Ambassador of India to the UAE Shri T.P Seetharam the Convention on Migratory Species Office in Abu Dhabi.

Earlier in December 2015, the Union Cabinet in its meeting had approved the proposal of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) to sign Raptor MoU.

About Raptor MoU

It is a multilateral agreement under Article IV paragraph 4 of the CMS and is not legally binding on signatory parties. It was CMS in October 2008 and came into effect on November 1, 2008.

of the CMS and is not legally binding on signatory parties. It was CMS in October 2008 and came into effect on November 1, 2008. The MoU seeks willingness of the signatory states for working for conservation of the raptor species and their habitats.

It covers 76 species of birds of prey under its ambit and an action plan has been formulated under it that envisages the conservation action for Raptor species.

Of the total 76 species of birds that fall in Raptor MoU, 46 species occur in India including vultures, falcons, eagles, owls, hawks, kites, harriers, etc.

Benefits to India

Gain knowledge in effectively managing the habitats of to 76 species of birds under ambit of it.

It is also in conformity with the provisions of Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 wherein the birds have been accorded protection in India.

Concert trans-boundary efforts for conservation of migratory birds through interaction with other signatory countries of the MoU with the CMS.

Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS): It is also known as Bonn Convention under the aegis of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). It aims to conserve migratory species throughout their range. India had become a party to the CMS since 1st November 1983.

Month: Current Affairs - March, 2016

Topics: Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species  Current Affairs - 2017  Current Affairs 2016  Envrionment  Raptor MoU  Wildlife Protection

Latest E-Books
RBI inks information exchange MoU with Bank of Israel

Published: March 10, 2016

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bank of Israel (BOI) for exchange of information pertaining to banking supervision.

It was signed by Parvathy V Sundaram, Chief General Manager-in-Charge, Department of Banking Supervision on behalf of RBI and Hedva Ber, Supervisor of banks on behalf of BOI.

With this RBI has signed 32 such MoUs, 1 Letter for Supervisory Co-operation and 1 Statement of Co-operation (SoC).

By signing such MoU/SoC with supervisors of other countries, RBI is seeking to promote greater co-operation and share supervisory information among the authorities.

Month: Current Affairs - March, 2016

Topics: Banking  India-Israel  RBI

Latest E-Books
Taylor Allen Force, 28, a former Officer in the US Army, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was killed Tuesday in a terrorist stabbing attack in Jaffa that wounded 11 others.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



Force graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and served in the US Army from 2009-2014, in Iraq and Afghanistan among other places. He lived in Fort Hood, Texas, and served as an artillery officer in various different roles. He was visiting Israel as part of a student group trip from Vanderbilt University, where he studied Business Administration.

The terrorist who killed Force was Bashar Masalha, a 22 year-old illegal alien from Qalqilya, who went on a stabbing spree in Jaffa. He attacked Force and his wife, who were walking not far from the city's famous clock tower square, and began to stab them.

Reconstruction of terror attack in Jaffa (:  )

X

Yosef Hen, a bystander who saw the incident from his car, tried to stop the stabber and hit him with an iron bar. Another 11 people were wounded along the way as Masalha fled, with different civilians trying to stop him, until a policeman shot him a few meters outside a restaurant that was teeming with people.

Taylor Allen Force. Killed in Jaffa attack.

Force attended a military high school in New Mexico. At West Point, he earned a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering and management. In a past interview he said that the program he was taking part in at Vanderbilt University would help him learn the skills needed to be successful in business. Force said he wanted to establish life-long connections and friendships with his fellow students from the US and around the globe.

Chancellor of Vanderbilt University Nicholas Zeppos, said that "Taylor's family and his friends and colleagues have our deepest sympathy and utmost support. 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 continued, "In light of this loss, we as a community can look to find strength by continuing our commitment to build and nurture an educational environment whose foundational mission is to expand world peace and enlightenment."

Force with his friend Barrett Caldwell.

Force was one of 29 Vanderbilt alumni who participated in a trip to Israel to learn about global entrepreneurship. According to a press release from the university, the other tour participants and staff members were not in danger.

The National Insurance Institute's (NII) Hostile Action Casualties department contacted the Foreign Ministry to give care to Forces family, and handle the procedures involved in transporting his body abroad.

The NII's statement said that its employees are awaiting the decision of the family as to whether Force's body would be brought to rest in Israel of elsewhere. It was reported that, according to the Law of Victims of Hostilities, the NII will cover the costs of transporting the body or bringing the family to Israel, and will cover all of the costs of the funeral. The family of the victim will be entitled to an allowances and benefits as a bereaved family.

Omri Efraim contributed to this report.
The current escalation in Palestinian-Israeli violence, which began in East Jerusalem, has led to the establishment of the Save Jewish Jerusalem (SJJ) movement, whose founders  former high-ranking politicians and military leaders  are calling for a partial separation from Palestinian villages in East Jerusalem. They conducted a tour of Palestinian villages on Wednesday, which began in Qalandia and concluded in Jabel Mukaber.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



Among the SJJ members are former MKs Haim Ramon, Ami Ayalon, David Tzur (who's also a former police deputy commissioner), retired IDF Colonel Shaul Arieli, an expert on the separation fence issue, and Amir Cheshin, who served as an Arab affairs advisor to former Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek.

SJJ members during the tour. (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

"A substantial percent of the terror attacks in the current escalation came from East Jerusalem," explained Ramon, "so, in order to strengthen security, we have to separate these villages from Jerusalem via a security fence." According to the movement's plan, Israel should essentially extend the existing separation fence into Jerusalem, creating a barrier between Jewish neighborhoods  from Neve Yaakov, through Pisgat Ze'ev and the French Hill, and into Har Homa  and adjacent Palestinian neighborhoods such as Beit Hanina, Shuafat, Issawiya, Jabel Mukaber, and Zur Baher. Under the SJJ plan, these neighborhoods will be treated as B and C areas, under complete Israeli security control, much like similar areas in the West Bank.

(Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

The SJJ founders understand they're starting a long process, during which they will have to convince the Israeli public of their plan's correctness. The plan would, in practice, place about 200,000 Palestinians outside the borders of Jerusalem, with their Israeli citizenships being revoked. This would create a situation in which about 80 percent of Jerusalem residents are Jewish, as opposed to about 60 percent today. "In the current situation, if Palestinians decide to vote in elections one day, the mayor of Jerusalem would be the Mufti's grandson," explained Ramon. "You can't build a strategy of a Jewish and Zionist capital like this, just based on the fact that they have decided not to vote."

According to the plan, not all Palestinian neighborhoods will be disconnected from the capital. More sensitive areas such as Silwan, Wadi Juz, Ras al-Amud, and Abu Tur will stay inside the borders of Municipal Jerusalem, along with their residents. The fact that the plan only gives partial solutions for the neighborhoods, specifically those related to religious holy sights, will likely lead to the Palestinian Authority's complete condemnation and strong resistance. The SJJ members are aware of this.

The lack of a comprehensive solution regarding the holy sights makes Palestinian cooperation with the SJJ plan unlikely. (Photo: Reuters)

"We are making a great effort to start with something, even though I know it's not an optimal move," admits former deputy police commissioner Alik Ron. "I don't believe it can be a move that will stand on its own when we move down the road, but we must start with something." Haim Ramon said that there is no plan regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that is problem-free, and there never was, saying, "there's evil, and there's the lesser evil  so it was with the separation fence and with exiting the Gaza Strip  and it's the same here."
Thousands of documents identifying 22,000 supporters of Islamic State in over 50 countries were handed over to Sky News by a disillusioned former member of the group, the British television channel reported on Thursday.

It said it had informed the authorities about the documents, which were on a memory stick stolen from the head of Islamic State's internal security force by a man who had been part of the Free Syrian Army rebel group before joining Islamic State.

The man, who called himself Abu Hamed, handed over the memory stick during a meeting at an undisclosed location in Turkey, according to the Sky News report
More than 250 Palestinian illegal aliens were arrested throughout the country Thursday by the police, in accordance with a government directive to implement steps to curb and stop the current wave of terror.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



Police know that the courts tend to be easy on illegal aliens if they are not involved in criminal activity, so they are now targeting employers for punishment.

Illegal alien tents in Habesor Stream (Photo: Police spokesperson)

This week, the government convened a security meeting in light of the escalating violence, some of has been traced to illegal aliens, such as Tuesdays deadly terror attack in Jaffa. Among the decisions taken were to close loopholes in the security fence around Jerusalem, build a fence in the area of Taruqumiya (a Palestinian village northwest of Hebron) and the construction of the area Tarqumyia and promote speedy legislation to punish those assisting or giving lodging to illegal aliens.

Illegal aliens arrested in Kiryat Malachi (Photo: Police spokesperson)

Wednesday night police seized hundreds of illegal aliens, most of whom were staying in Israel because they had found a job.

In Holon, three illegal aliens who were renovating an apartment, as well as their employer, were arrested. In Bat Yam, two Palestinians without work permits were arrested. Another eleven illegal aliens were arrested in Bnei Brak and Ramat Gan. A Bnei Brak business owner was detained for questioning for employing one of them.

22 others were arrested in an improvised residential area near Habesor Stream in the Negev. Intelligence information led Israel police, Border police and volunteers to the site, where they found that the illegal aliens had put up showers, sleeping tents, toilets and a field kitchen.

Five illegal aliens, including two minors were arrested in Kiryat Malachi. They were found at a construction site and were taken in for questioning. One of them was arrested and the others were expelled from Israel.

Police said that their actions against illegal aliens, whether in the past or the present, is meant to strengthen citizens' sense of security. They clarified that strong measures will be taken against employers, and that they will not balk at closing restaurants, construction sites or stores that employ illegal aliens and will file charges and impound vehicles.
Security company G4S says it is selling its business in Israel for "commercial reasons" and not because of a boycott movement against Israel.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



While announcing its 2015 results Wednesday, G4S said it was selling its business interests in Israel as part of a portfolio review that will see the sale of some 60 other businesses as well.

The company has been the target of pressure by activists calling for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. G4S provides security equipment and has contracts with Israel's prison system, as well as commercial and government clients. It employs 8,000 people in Israel.

The BDS campaign says G4S's pullout was a result of its campaign.

G4S spokesman Nigel Fairbrass says Thursday the decision to sell its business in Israel was "entirely" for commercial reasons.

The firm was singled out in BDS ads that were plastered throughout London underground trains  reportedly 500 of them  in February.

BDS ad in London underground

The ad alleged that G4S was complicit in holding children without trial, sexual abuse, and torture.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected a peace initiative presented by US Vice President Joe Biden during their meeting in Ramallah on Wednesday, according to Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



According to Al-Quds, the US initiative included four main clauses: East Jerusalem as a Palestinian capital, an end to settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, and Palestinians' forfeiting the right of return.

Biden proposed the peace initiative at a time when the White House is reviewing its options to revive negotiations and present an alternative to a French proposal for an international peace conference, according to The Wall Street Journal. The main option considered by the US administration is support for a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution calling on both sides to reach a compromise on outstanding issues. The US has previously vetoed other similar UNSC resolutions.

President Abbas and VP Biden meet in Ramallah

The Palestinian assessment is that the US initiative does not present innovative ideas and will, at most, result in a presidential document or a proposal submitted to the UNSC.

Pierre Vimont, the French special envoy for the international peace initiative, is set to arrive in Israel and the Palestinian Territories on March 13 for a two-day visit. Vimont is to speak with the both sides about holding an international conference by summer to bring together Israelis, Palestinians, and their principal partners.

Biden and Abbas met in Ramallah for two hours. In an unusual move, Abbas offered his condolences to the American VP for the murder of an American tourist in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, but also said that Israel has killed 200 Palestinians in the past five months. It was the first time that Abbas has indirectly condemned an attack since the start of the ongoing violence.
      :   ,       ;       
A soldier delivered a sealed letter in a manila envelope, decorated with notes and warnings of its highly sensitive and classified nature, from the Military Intelligence chief's office to the defense ministers office, on February 27, 2000. The letter was addressed to Ehud Barak, the prime minister and defense minister," and stated, "The fact AMAN (Israels Military Intelligence Directorate) was not asked to provide a focused intelligence assessment ahead of government discussions on the withdrawal from Lebanon constitutes a flaw in the process, denies government members of information and estimates (needed to make the decision) and undermines the role of AMAN as a national assessor.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



The head of AMAN at that time, Maj.-Gen. Amos Malka, scolds Barak in the letter, For the first time since the formation of the current government, a significant discussion about the possibility of a unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon is taking place. The IDF and AMAN were not invited to this discussion in order to provide our assessments. I consider it very strange that AMAN was not asked to give its assessment and this, in my opinion, undermines the upcoming discussion about the matter. The different forums of the political echelon  the prime minister and defense minister, the cabinet and the government  have not been privy to an in-depth intelligence assessment on this central issue.

IDF soldiers on the eve of the withdrawal (Photo: Yaakov Ben Alfi/GPO)

"It is clear to me as it is to you that AMANs assessment on the issue of a unilateral withdrawal does not exactly match that of some members of government. Yet we must insist that this assessment be presented. You can contradict this assessment, you can accept it, you can also criticize it, but it is inappropriate to prevent its delivery."

The letter was a part of the growing tensions between Barak and Malka, and essentially between Barak and the IDF's top command. The existence of letter and its contents comprise selected excerpts from Amos Gilboa's new book "The true story of how Israel left Lebanon (May 2000) codenamed: Dawn. The letter highlights one of the crises, but not necessarily the most severe, between the IDF and Barak over the withdrawal from Lebanon. Barak had promised the public that he would leave, while most generals intensely opposed such a move if it is not part of an agreement with Syria.

Gilboa was the head of the Research Division of AMAN in the early 1980s and is considered to be one of the most knowledgeable minds in the intelligence community's history. He doesn't remember many incidents of this sort either. "It seems to me that Malkas letter is unprecedented, and serves as a rebuke of the political establishment by the military establishment over incorrect conduct," he said. "This is the first manifestation of the disconnect between the political and military establishments, which would only become deeper and take the ugly form of leaks to the press."

In the past 15 years, Gilboa has authored a number of internal investigative reports for AMAN, referred to as "methodological discussions," whose aim was to draw lessons from historical events  some successful, most not very much so  from the annals of the State of Israel and its intelligence community.

For his research of the exit from Lebanon, Gilboa received access to all the relevant documents, recordings, transcripts, and discussion summaries (including the detailed personal diary of then-IDF chief of staff Shaul Mofaz). He also interviewed all parties involved. While the military censor has classified most studies, it approved the study on the withdrawal from Lebanon for publication, and this is what Gilboa's book is based on.

The book is fascinating. The unprecedented access given to Gilboa, as well as his time-honed research abilities, make it read like both a suspense story and an important  and sometimes quite grim  documentation of the Israeli decision-making process. Gilboa spares no one, and few people come out unscathed. Barak comes across as a groundbreaking and visionary statesman, but also as one who adopted a disorderly decision-making process in addition to being indifferent to the suffering of the soldiers of the South Lebanon Army (SLA) - the militias Israel established to aid it in its fight against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon  and their families.

The top IDF command at the time is portrayed as being closed-minded for its continued opposition to a unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon, despite emerging realities, but also as more sensitive to important and human issues than Barak.

The names of the players in this story are quite interesting: Ehud Barak stars alongside Gabi Ashkenazi, Gadi Eisenkot, Benny Gantz, Amos Gilad, Amos Malka and many other senior figures who continue to play a major role in Israel's history.

Preventing a public panic

Gilboa deals with the withdrawal from Lebanon and not the IDF's 18 years in the area that preceded it, but he employs data that indicates the cost, power, and magnitude of the Israeli presences there: From June 1985 until the beginning of 2000, the IDF sustained 235 fatalities in Lebanon (not including the 73 who died in 1997 when two helicopters crashed). The number of SLA fatalities reached more than 500.

"It is hard to understand, hard to believe," says Gilboa, "you can't help but raise a few troubling questions: Why did it take so long to reach the decision to leave Lebanon once and for all? Why wasn't it decided by prime ministers that came before Barak?"

Barak was the first to escape the mental stagnation. In his view, as presented in the remarks he made to the General Staff on March 9, 2000, for which Gilboa has the transcript, "for the past 18 years, Israel has been in Lebanon, 'surrendering' to the Syrians, giving them an unusual opportunity to constantly draw the blood of its soldiers. What is our interest in this? What does Israel gain from the fact that it continues to hold the security zone in southern Lebanon? Nothing! Only casualties, only an internal split. Why should we give Hezbollah the legitimacy to lead the Lebanese fight against us, attack the IDF, and make the entire north of Israel a constant target for their rockets? Is the security zone really providing security for Israel?"

Gabi Ashkenazi and Ehud Barak before the decision to create the security zone (Photo: Yaakov Ben Alfi/GPO)

On March 1, 1999, the day after the top IDF commander in southern Lebanon, Brig.-Gen. Erez Gerstein, was killed in an ambush in Lebanon, Barak promised that if he wins the election and forms a government, the IDF will withdraw from Lebanon within a year and Israel will be "deep in discussions with Syria on a permanent settlement." When he won the election, he quickly worked to fulfill this promise.

Barak gave priority to conducting secret negotiations with Syria over the Palestinian issue because he believed it was simpler. He believed he would succeed in reaching a comprehensive agreement with Syria, which would also include the question of the IDFs presence in Lebanon and the disarmament of Hezbollah - or at least secure a Syrian commitment to stop the organization's activities against Israel.

Here was the central fallacy behind the Israeli preparations, especially the militarys, for the withdrawal. Gilboa says that "Barak ordered the IDF to prepare for the evacuation from Lebanon as part of a comprehensive peace agreement with Syria. Such withdrawal is very convenient for the military: neat, not done under fire, not during the chaos of fighting, and it's known ahead of time that the border will be quiet, a peaceful border.

"The Northern Command prepared itself for withdrawal even without an agreement with Syria. Preparing the border when you have an agreement is 180 degrees different from preparing it if you exit without one. Ashkenazi said to Barak, 'If I pull out without an agreement - it will be under fire,' but Barak instructed them not to produce any official paperwork that deals with a withdrawal sans an agreement. Perhaps he feared that the existence of such administrative work will make the option of unilateral withdrawal, which he really did not want, possible. And above all, he feared that it will despair the SLA and break it."

Barak understood that a unilateral withdrawal would be interpreted as a retreat and a submission to Hezbollahs IEDs, so he took care to only talk about a withdrawal following an agreement in his speeches and briefings to the General Staff. The prime minister and defense minister, according to sources familiar with the matter, knew that the military would strongly resist withdrawal and feared that if he were to allow preparations for it during a time of fighting, the information would be leaked to the media and cause public panic.

At the end of 1999, Barak sought to reach an agreement with Syria and meet with President Assad. But the more time passed without the attempts bearing fruit, the more he apparently realized that there's a possibility that the retreat would look different than planned. On October 14, 1999 Barak summoned IDF Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz and told him that he would make every effort to ensure the withdrawal follows an agreement, but that "Mofaz as COS has to prepare the IDF for withdrawal from Lebanon under fire and pillars of smoke." On the other hand, he still barred Mofaz from ordering the IDF to conduct written preparatory work on the subject.

Israel, with Baraks support and the mediation of President Clinton, continued to make an effort to reach an agreement with Syria. Its highlights were the meeting between Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa in Shepherdstown and in Clinton's meeting with Assad in Geneva in March 2000. But all these attempts failed miserably.

According to records made by Mofaz on February 8 during his meeting with the Military Secretary to the Prime Minister, Eisenkot, and a group of senior officers of the General Staff, Barak asked Mofaz to stay behind for a private talk (alongside Eisenkot, who is present in all meetings). "I made every effort for the negotiations with Syria to succeed, but we failed," said Barak. "It's clear to me that we need to start preparing for the possibility of evacuation from Lebanon without an agreement."

Mofaz responded, saying, "Does this mean that your political decision not to prepare administrative work in relation to a unilateral withdrawal is no longer in effect? That I can begin to formally plan a withdrawal without an agreement?

Barak answered, "We should not do it all at once, but gradually. We can go on saying that the priority continues to be at this stage withdrawal following an agreement, while starting to prepare for the possibility of evacuation without an agreement."

"I understand," muttered Mofaz, and it was at that very second, he later told Gilboa, that he clearly and sharply recognized that the withdrawal will be done with no agreement.

"As you know," Barak interrupted his thoughts, "this is a most sensitive issue. We should make every effort so that preparations for a unilateral withdrawal will not be seen outwardly, and we must maintain a high degree of classification and keep as few people in the loop as possible. It is very important that the SLA not know about this! I plan to meet with all the battalion commanders and senior officers of the SLA soon in order to raise their morale."

At that point, Barak actually came to terms with reality, but wasn't willing to give the military an unequivocal directive. The plans trickle down to the General Staff and create strong opposition among its members. In the concluding remarks to his book, which deal with the lessons learned from this event that he recommends decision-makers take to heart, Gilboa writes of the former prime minister, "Even if Barak needed secrecy, especially on the eve of departure, the general picture displayed in front of us is one that shows a culture of defeatist action: Compartmentalization, secrecy, not involving professional entities in the process, private conversations with no protocol, no records. It seems like the process is conducted in the dark, as if surreptitiously, and it just seems like the conductor of this piece has no orchestra.

"This pattern of behavior created tension between Barak and the military leadership from the start, which harmed (Barak) himself and his status, spilled over into the public sphere, and poisoned the public atmosphere and (Barak's) personal relationship with Maj.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi. This substandard conduct was what, in part, caused resistance to his decision to withdraw from Lebanon without an agreement with Lebanon. The quality of the historic decision he made was damaged by the substandard way in which it was made and implemented."

To the last centimeter

The AMAN assessment, written by head of Research Division Maj.-Gen. Amos Gilad (who is now the director of the Political-Military Affairs Bureau at the Defense Ministry) was quite frightening. "A withdrawal without an agreement leaves no chance for quiet," Gilad said in an internal discussion at the Research Division. "Will we be able to move freely along the border when Hezbollah's men are just a few dozen meters away? It is very possible that at first, a few months after the withdrawal, it will be quiet, as Hezbollah settles down and improves its deterrent capabilities, but then we can expect terror attacks. And the terror attacks wouldn't just be on the Lebanese border, but also abroad and deep inside the borders of the State of Israel."

A "Special intelligence evaluation - expected developments following the unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, March 3," which was distributed to the political and security echelons, stated, among other things, that "Most of the attacks will be directed against military targets along the border fence (in particular IDF outposts that remain inside Lebanon), but because of the situation on the ground, these attacks will also endanger civilian areas and severely affect the quality of life and sense of security of the residents of northern Israel." In short, a gloomy prophecy.

Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz and the IDF adopted AMAN's strict assessment, and added to its gravity. The IDF's grave assessment was leaked to the media by "senior officials at the General Staff."

Gilboa states that "The problem with AMAN's assessments was that they did not point to any prospects or benefits of the withdrawal. AMAN's tune was always that of military marches."

The day-to-day battle between the government - mostly led by then-education minister Yossi Sarid - which wholeheartedly supported the withdrawal even if there was no agreement, and the IDF leadership, which strictly opposed it. It was against this backdrop that Barak decided to remove AMAN from the decision-making process, and did not invite the intelligence heads to present their position to the government, a move that led to the unprecedented letter from Maj.-Gen. Malka described above.

Things went so far that there were some who advised Barak to dismiss part of the General Staff in fear that they will not follow his orders during the evacuation. Barak refused and said that he had no doubt that the IDF "will conform to the political leadership's views."

During a cabinet meeting that Malka did end up attending, one of the ministers yelled at him: "You present a development in which any decision will lead to attacks, and our situation will bad. You're basically telling us a unilateral withdrawal is not good, and that the government's decision is wrong."

Before Mofaz could come to the defense of the AMAN commander, Malka responded: "First of all, what I say is partly based on solid information. Secondly, AMAN has no position on a unilateral withdrawal. It is neither in favor nor against it. The political decision has been made. All AMAN is doing is describe, as best as it can, the possible consequences for Israel, both good and bad."

Without an agreement with Syria, the Coordinator of the Activities of Israeli Government in Lebanon and Syria, Uri Lubrani, and his deputy, Col. Dr. Reuven Erlich, proposed an idea that some in the IDF considered absurd and preposterous: to withdraw from Lebanon with UN confirmation that Israel withdrew to the international border, according to Resolution 425 of the Security Council in 1978 (following the Litani Operation). The objective was to receive legitimacy from the world and essentially refute the claims made by Hezbollah, Lebanon and Syria that they are fighting Israel over land it stole from Lebanon.

Gilboa relates, "Barak decided that there won't be a unilateral withdrawal, but rather withdrawal following an 'agreement' with the United Nations. I believe that herein lies the unique nature of the decision, which is based on the perception that international legitimacy for the withdrawal, and for Israeli retaliation if it should be attacked from Lebanon, is in itself a strategic asset for Israel's security and eliminates any justification for attacks against Israel from Lebanese territory."

But where will the border with Lebanon pass? Here began a long saga, leading the Israeli, American, French, Lebanese and many other experts who were recruited for the task, to researching maps from the beginning of the 20th century, Lebanese deeds that included the country's map, the UN archives in East Talpiot in Jerusalem, ownership documents over agricultural land which were examined with the help of aerial photographs, three-dimensional renderings, and much electronic equipment.

Gilboa: "It was clear to Israel that only a complete withdrawal from all the territories to the last centimeter, according to UN definitions, would lead the secretary general to declare that Resolution 425 has been implemented."

In order to reach the desired outcome, Barak instructed the IDF, once again in the face of fierce opposition, to prepare to evacuate any outpost that is even a few meters inside Lebanon - even intelligence posts that have important strategic significance for Israel.

"The political leadership is determined to implement Resolution 425," cynically said one of the generals in the General Staff, according to the transcript of a meeting at Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz's office on March 11. "And what the prime minister has already stated regarding that essential outpost: If we can keep it, great. If we can't, then we simply can't!"

The AMAN Unit 8200 learned that the Lebanese, Hezbollah and the Syrians were completely surprised by the Israeli move. No one there expected that Barak would keep his promise. The Syrians, who felt that an Israeli withdrawal takes away the legitimacy of their presence in Lebanon, initiated a move to sabotage the withdrawal - Lebanon suddenly told the UN that the Shebaa Farms (Mount Dov) belong to Lebanon and not Syria, and therefore Israel must evacuate that area as well.

The UN told the Lebanese that it does not accept their position on the Shebaa Farms, and that Secretary-General Kofi Annan intends to firmly state this in his report to the Security Council, but the Lebanese dug their heels in. The Syrians worked to pressure the UN to recognize that the territory is Lebanese, while Hezbollah in turn stated that if the IDF remains in the Shebaa Farms, the organization will continue to attack it. "This is the excuse, this is the area that Syria and Hezbollah chose to justify the continued terrorist activity after our departure from Lebanon," AMAN's Research Department concluded.

Barak decided to put the Syrians to the test: He told the Americans that as far as he is concerned, he has no issues with the Shebaa Farms. If the Syrians say it was an area given to Lebanon, then President Assad should have it in writing, thus confirming to the world that Syria is willing to give up part of the Golan Heights. Of course no such letter arrived from Assad, and Barak thus proved to the UN that the Syrian foreign minister was simply lying.

When the IDF is being intransigent

The UN planned to finish the mapping process and its talks with the sides by July of 2000, but new facts were determined on the ground. AMAN has been collecting more intelligence that Hezbollah was preparing a bloody farewell for the IDF that would include as many attacks and casualties as possible. "Hezbollah, with Syrian encouragement, was prepared to turn the withdrawal into a humiliation for Israel," the head of the Research Department, Amos Gilad, said in one of the meetings. "The goal was to make it the withdrawal difficult for the IDF and turn it into a defeat."

Meanwhile, the number of attacks against IDF and SLA soldiers sharply increased. The GOC Northern Command Ashkenazi was watching the SLA fall apart. Gilboa says, "Ashkenazi felt, perhaps more than anyone else, a moral responsibility for the fate of the SLA. So did Benny Gantz, the commander of the Lebanon Liaison Unit." The book describes how Ashkenazi, upset, spoke up against abandoning the SLA and turning them into the biggest losers out of all the parties involved.

Ashkenazi was worried that the SLA will refuse to return the heavy weapons that Israel has given it. If the SLA failed to return the weapons, it was clear to all, the UN would not give the desired confirmation that Israel completely withdrew from Lebanon, and regardless - a bloody civil war would break out in Lebanon. The IDF's assessments regarding the SLA were completely unrealistic, "a form of unfounded wishful thinking," as Gilboa explains it, thinking that the SLA could continue to exist as small units in villages, with some of the weapons supplied by Israel and its secret support.

Hezbollah, incidentally, had other plans. It announced that any SLA soldier who kills one of the SLA and IDF's senior commanders and leaves the security zone, will be pardoned.

The SLA's disintegration began with one battalion, the Shi'ite battalion, and it spread quickly throughout the entire army. General Antoine Lahad, who received a promise from Barak that Israel would continue supporting him and the SLA, left to visit his family in Paris, while relying on Baraks promise. The IDF continued promising SLA their support - despite already knowing that this promise could not hold water.

The desertions from the SLA and the abandonment of outposts were accompanied by mass processions of Hezbollah supporters who "conquered" every outpost that was abandoned, breaking down the barriers, doing whatever they wanted. Mofaz and Ashkenazi briefly debated whether to send attack helicopters to stop the processions, and decide against it, in light of the risk of hurting the civilian population. They did order the preparation of an attack plan against Lebanese and Syrian targets in case fighting breaks out during or after the Israeli withdrawal.

AMAN chief Malka told Gilboa in interviews that he was jealous of Hezbollah's propaganda, their psychological warfare capabilities, their talent to quickly understand the situation and maximize their exploitation of the media. "I would give their propaganda a commendation," he said, "and give our hasbara a fail grade." He remembers that while reading through intelligence material he noticed another thing in Hezbollah's credit - it prevented looting and robbery in "liberated areas," and with that reassured the local population.

I need another month!

The GOC Northern Command's biggest nightmare - a complete disintegration of the SLA, while the IDF is left alone facing Hezbollah in Lebanon - was becoming a reality. At this point, the beginning of May, the tables have turned: the Northern Command wanted to leave Lebanon as soon as possible so as not to jeopardize IDF soldiers further, while Barak wanted to postpone the withdrawal as much as possible to get the stamp of approval from the UN.

Ashkenazi wrote to the chief of staff, sending copies to many of the members of the General Staff: "Re: Bringing forward the withdrawal from the security zone ... terrorist operatives have upped shooting attacks, there have been significant attempts to commit large-scale attacks, the pressure on the SLA is increasing, the time left allows Hezbollah to better prepare so they could inflict casualties during the withdrawal. Our deployment at the new border is not going improve during the time that is left anyway, not on the border fence and not in technological measures ... therefore I recommend that you implement the withdrawal plan ... within a day or two."

Gilboa remarks, "Ashkenazi's letter was interpreted by Barak as if the military was trying to spite him, as if the IDF was trying to force its will upon him and demonstrate to him that in the end, the military's position is what matters. 'Their mentality was, and remains, against a unilateral withdrawal,' Barak kept telling himself."

But even Barak could not keep ignoring the facts for long. Incidents became more frequent - more attacks, more deserters, more territories captured by Hezbollah, while the Lebanese army and UNIFIL  the UNs international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon - were doing nothing.

On the morning of May 22, another dramatic matter came up, both related and not - Imad Mughniyah, Hezbollah's military commander and Israels number one most wanted target, was in the Israeli intelligence's crosshairs, which knew Mughniyah was going to lead a delegation of senior Hezbollah official to southern Lebanon, to prepare for Israel's withdrawal. Barak, who was at a political event in the north that day, called the heads of the military and the intelligence community to the headquarters of the regional brigade in Shomera to discuss the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to strike the most important terrorist in the world.

Eisenkot accompanied Barak to the meeting. Even Gantz and Kaplinsky, senior commanders in the Northern Command, were asked to leave the meeting because of its highly classified nature. Malka presented the information to the attendees. After a few minutes, Barak stopped him. "Keep gathering intelligence on the target," he told him.

But that meeting to discuss Mughniyah very quickly became the most important meeting concerning the Israeli presence in Lebanon since the Begin government decided to invade the country in June 1982. Malka presented a general picture, in which he put an emphasis on the fact that Hezbollah was surprised by what is happening, and that it was planning a series of bombings in preparation for and during the IDF's withdrawal, which he said Hezbollah believes would happen in a month. Ashkenazi described what is happening on the ground and the military consequences of that. Mofaz briefly presented the military's recommendations.

Ashkenazi, according to his summary of the meeting, intervened at that point, declaring out aloud, "Prime Minister, we have to withdraw! It is better to leave now, there will not be a lot of casualties, Hezbollah is not ready for it, and we can surprise everybody. At the moment we have all the advantages, but within a few days we will lose everything and we will have all of the disadvantages."

Barak responded, "I need time to exhaust the process of (resolution) 425, I need another month!"

But all of those present thought otherwise and pressured Barak to authorize an immediate withdrawal.

Barak to Mofaz: "How many troops will we need to send into the security zone if the SLA completely collapses everywhere except in the Druze areas?"

Ashkenazi: "Two infantry brigades and an armored brigade."

Barak (who was reportedly surprised by the size of force that would be needed to enter Lebanon): "Gabi, would you be able to leave Lebanon with a minimum amount of casualties and no fire on the State of Israel?" Ashkenazi said yes.

Barak returned by helicopter to Tel Aviv and called an urgent meeting at the defense minister's office with his deputy (Ephraim Sneh), the defense ministry's director-general, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Yaron, and his Military Secretary Eisenkot. With a grave face, he discussed the situation they were facing and decided to ask the cabinet that same evening to give the IDF the freedom of action to decide when to withdraw to the international border in accordance with Resolution 425. When everyone got up to leave, Barak asked Mofaz to stay behind. Eisenkot also stayed.

"Can you withdraw as early as tonight? Is Gabi ready?" Barak wanted to know. Mofaz was shocked, paused, and then replied: "We can withdraw tonight!" "Then you have my authorization to withdraw," Barak replied.

Gilboa comments, "At this point Barak demonstrates, in his own unique way of management, the decision-making ability of a politician who is no longer fighting the cruel reality. He understands that this is exactly the right moment, literally, to make the tactical decision."

Mofaz went to his office and called Ashkenazi on an encrypted phone. Ashkenazi affirmed that they would be able to withdraw the following night, within 24 hours. Mofaz then updated Barak. Barak nodded his head in understanding, "We are set for tomorrow night. In a bit I will conduct a phone survey among the cabinet members, getting them to leave the freedom of action on the withdrawal in the hands of the IDF. Of course they will not know about our understanding that the withdrawal will be tomorrow." Barak paused, thought on it for a moment and added, "As long as there are no leaks from the Northern Command."

"In this way," Gilboa narrates, "the decision was made on the time of departure from Lebanon. Orally, with only three people present. There is no written document about it, no directive from the IDFs Operations Division."

Because the decision excluded the General Staff, the next morning's meeting was a strange one - only the chief of staff, his assistant and Eisenkot know the truth, that the die had already been cast and the withdrawal would be that very night. The rest of the generals have no clue.

Ashkenazi kept his promise to withdraw IDF forces without any casualties. "This is a historic event for the IDF and the State of Israel, where the IDF concluded its presence in Lebanon after 18 years, and redeployed to the international border," thus Mofaz began his report during a video conference of the General Staff on May 24, at 7:30am.

Gilboa elucidates, "However, this event was branded in the national and international consciousness unjustifiably differently - the Israeli media reports about the IDF's escape from Lebanon. This is the motto that so unjustly stuck to the IDF, this is how it will be etched into the collective consciousness."

Gilboas conclusion and the insights from his research are twofold. On the one hand, Barak's move to get international legitimacy was a positive one. "It is unfortunate that in 2005, when we left Gaza, the withdrawal was completely unilateral, without any agreement with the Palestinian Authority or the UN, without any international legitimacy. The lesson left by Barak - the need for international legitimacy - was not learned or implemented. To date, there has been no international recognition of our withdrawal, and Gaza is still considered occupied territory by most countries in the world. This despite the fact the IDF fully withdrew from the Gaza Strip, all the way to the Green Line (Israel-Egypt border in 1967)."

On the other hand, "On July 12, 2006, the deterrence on the Lebanese border was shattered when two soldiers were abducted and the Second Lebanon War began. The main conclusion, in my opinion, is that the withdrawal itself and the international legitimacy do not provide a complete deterrent, certainly not for an extended period of time, and should be supplemented with military moves. Historically, the Second Lebanon War can be seen as a necessary move to supplement the May 2000 withdrawal. In that war (that was managed in such a poor manner), full long-term deterrence was achieved, primarily thanks to the destruction of Dahiya in Beirut, meaning the destruction of Hezbollah's stronghold, in the most cruel and merciless manner."
The Israeli cosmetics firm Ahava Dead Sea is moving its factory from Mitzpe Shalem to an area outside of Kibbutz Ein Gedi, according to a deal signed this week.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



The move will held mitigate the difficulties the company experienced because of the European boycott of goods produced in the West Bank. Ahava has been under pressure from BDS and foreign pro-Palestinian groups, and three years ago had to close its London branch after the store became a central point for protesters calling for a boycott of Israel.

Ahava is not the only company that caved into boycott demands to move their factory from the West Bank: SodaStream recently moved its Ma'ale Adumim factory to the Negev, Bagel Bagel  owned by Unilever  moved its production facilities from the Barkan Industrial Zone in the Samaria region at Unilever's request, and Multi-lock also moved its production facilities from the Barkan Industrial Zone.

Quality control at the Ahava factory in Kibbutz Ein Gedi (Photo: Guy Asiag)

The new Ahava factory will be built with a NIS 25 million investment on land leased from the kibbutz for 25 years, and it is estimated that the factory will take two years to build. The factory will also include a visitor's center.

Ahava announced that it was examining the possibility of relocating from Kibbutz Mitzpe Shalem to the Tamar Regional Council last June. The head of the Tamar Regional Council, Dov Litbinof, told Yedioth Ahronoth at the time that the two locations being looked at were next to Kibbutz Ein Gedi and next to Neve Zohar.



Ahava is owned by Gaon holdings and the Livnat family in Kibbutz Kalyah, Kibbutz Mitzpe Shalem, and other Kibbutzim in the Dead Sea area. The company is expected to be sold to the Chinese company Puson for approximately NIS 300 million.

The acquisition of Ahava by Puson was done through the Puson Capital Investment Fund. After the transaction, Puson intends to open up the Chinese market to the company's products.

Ahava operates in over 30 countries, and distributes wholesale through department stores and in a chain of shops in Hungary, Germany, Korea, Singapore, and the Philippines.
AALEN - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday around 3,000 migrants were returning to Iraq from Germany every month and that the number was on the rise.

Many are living in shelters and are frustrated with a slow asylum process in a country struggling to work through a backlog of asylum applications after 1.1 million migrants arrived last year.

"At the moment 3,000 are returning to Iraq every month for example - and it's an upward trend - when their cities are liberated from Islamic State," Merkel said at a campaign event in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg ahead of a regional election there and in two other states on Sunday.
CNN - The Mosul Dam, the largest dam in Iraq, is in danger of "catastrophic failure."

The Mosul Dam is a two-mile-long barrier that can hold back as much as 441 million cubic feet of water, and if breached, half a million Iraqis could be at risk.

'In the event of a breach, there is the potential in some places for a flood wave up to 45 feet high that could sweep up everything in its path, including people, cars, unexploded ordnance, waste and other hazardous materials,' US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power said.

It is expected that the entirety of the city of Mosul would be flooded within four hours of a breach.
In 1975, 23-year-old Fran Taylor decided she wanted to serve her country and continue a family legacy of military service, having a father and uncle who served during World War II. Taylor visited an Air Force Reserve (AFR) recruiter here to discuss her options. After scoring very well on her Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) tests, there we few limitations on what career she could pursue. Working in radiology at St. Elizabeths Hospital and studying mathematics at Youngstown State University might have compelled Taylor to enlist in a medical or financial field, but she told her recruiter she wanted to do something different.

As Taylor and her recruiter flipped through the book of Air Force jobs, her recruiter said, Do you want to be a firefighter? We dont have any female firefighters.

Oh, that sounds good, Fran said.

Really? the recruiter replied, laughing.

Taylors recruiter took her down to the base fire station. They pulled out some fire hose, attached it to a fire hydrant and let Fran get a first-hand feel for what shed be doing. The fire chief insisted that firefighting wasnt a career she wanted to pursue.

Fran didnt listen.

Taylor began her career at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, for Basic Military Training before heading to Chanute Air Force Base, Illinois, which housed the Air Force firefighting technical school. Once there, she learned that not only were there no female firefighters in the AFR, but there never were, making her the first. She heard that the first active duty Air Force female firefighter had gone through the technical school only two months earlier.

Because women were so new to the military firefighting field, neither the infrastructure nor the culture of the school had caught up.

There was a thousand-man dorm for the guys, said Taylor, but they kept me with a welders squadron where they had one flight of women.

Her instructors and many of her fellow students told her she couldnt make it, though some were supportive. She recalls going into several fires per day as some of her instructors tried to overwhelm and discourage her, whereas most of the men complained they didnt get enough live fire training opportunities. The extra pressure motivated her, as she wanted to prove that she was just as capable as her peers and could make it through the course.

The more (my instructor) told me I couldnt do it, the more determined I was to do it, said Taylor.

There were other complications. Her clothing and uniforms were designed for her male counterparts. They never fit right and needed altered. Taylor wore size five shoes but was issued size ten boots.

Id go up to get on the truck and the boot would stay there on the ground, said Taylor, laughing, But you just suck it up and move on.

Taylor said she was in good shape going into the school, having practiced Tae Kwan Do and being an avid cycler. The physical side wasnt too bad, but the emotional side was challenging, and she often had to bite her tongue, said Taylor.

While at Chanute, Fran met her future husband, John, who was in training to be an Active Duty Air Force firefighter. In his trademark career humor, John tells everyone that Fran swept him off his feet, alluding to the firefighters carry for rescuing victims. John recalls that by the time Fran graduated, about 90 percent of her male peers had become supportive, but there were still those who opposed her.

"They were out to put her out," John said. "Our instructors even told us that. She was very slight of build, very feminine, but she fooled all of us, had a tenacity you wouldn't believe.

After technical school, Fran came to Youngstown Air Reserve Station for duty with the 910th Tactical Fighter Group, now the 910th Airlift Wing, while John went to Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.

A year later, they were married, and Fran transferred to the 908th Airlift Wing at Maxwell as a Reservist. Early in their relationship, Fran and John often heard the saying, tech school romances dont last. Theyll celebrate their 40th anniversary in August this year.

Fran Taylor wasnt just a trendsetter for the Air Force. While serving with the 908th as a Reservist, Fran applied for a job with the Fire Department in Montgomery, Alabama. Her test scores were high enough that she became the first paid full-time female firefighter in the state, garnering widespread media attention.

Fran didnt work with or encounter another female firefighter for her first four years as a Reservist. She eventually went Active Duty to follow her husband to an assignment at Zweibrucken Air Base, Germany. She spent 14 years on Active Duty before switching back to the Reserve once her husband retired from the Air Force in 1994. The couple settled in the Youngstown area with their two children, and Fran continued service as a Reserve firefighter until her retirement as a master sergeant. in 2007.

Today, John and Fran both work for the 910th Civil Engineer Squadron Fire Department, sharing an office with desks about ten feet apart. Fran is the assistant chief of fire prevention and John is the fire inspector. Having witnessed the devastation fire can cause, Fran relishes the opportunity to help YARS personnel stay safe by regularly inspecting fire extinguishers, checking work areas for possible hazards and training personnel on fire safety and prevention. Since returning to YARS, shes had several opportunities to work with other female firefighters as the industry normalizes what was once unheard of.

I think its a great decision to go into the military, said Fran. It gives you so much self-confidence and self-discipline. Theres just so much opportunity out there, and really I think it would be a great career for anyone, even if you just stay in for a four year assignment.

Although her search for something different led her to a military career that began with adversity and challenged her to overcome several obstacles, Fran says theres nothing shed change about her experiences.

Its a great thing going into any branch of the military and getting that experience, said Fran. It prepares you for life, because life can be tough out there. I think youll see that with a lot of female veterans you encounter.

By all accounts that something different worked out pretty well for Fran Taylor.
Country

Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Canada Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cuba, Republic of Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Dominican Republic Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Haiti, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Jamaica Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Mexico, United Mexican States Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu US Virgin Islands Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. 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
With Monday to be a public holiday in Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide only 1,371 auctions are set to be held this weekend according to CoreLogic RP Data, well down on the 2,304 held last week.

Last weeks national clearance rate finalised at 68.6%, breaking a five-week run where it had finished above 70%.

Source: CoreLogic RP Data

Melbourne is easily the main reason for the fall in volumes nationally, with auction numbers down 70% over the week.

Last week saw the Victorian capital hold 1,236 auction, while only 378 are scheduled for this week.

Melbournes final clearance rate of 72.1% last week was the highest clearance rate in any individual market.

Melbournes fall in auction volumes means Sydney is by far the busiest market this week, with 671 homes scheduled to go under the hammer compared to the 708 that did last week.

Mosman, on Sydneys north shore will be the busiest suburb this week with 17 auctions scheduled, followed by Lane Cove with 15.

Sydney had the second highest clearance rate of any market last week, returning a final result of 68.7%.

Volumes in Brisbane look to be slightly up this week, with 140 auctions scheduled for the city after it held 133 last week.

Of the capital cities, Brisbanes final clearance rate last week of 50.9% was the second lowest recorded.

The long weekend hasnt had quite the effect in Adelaide as it has in Melbourne, with 91 auctions scheduled this week, only slightly down on last weeks 99.

Auctioneers will have a more relaxed week in Canberra however, with volumes falling by more than half.

The national capital held 88 auctions last week and returned a clearance rate of 67.5%, but only 37 auctions are scheduled for this week.

Volumes are expected to rise slightly in Perth, which had the nations lowest clearance rate at 21.7%. with 38 auctions scheduled compared to last weeks 29.
As a homeowner, you probably already know that you should be working to maintain your home. But, chances are, you Read More
Sign up to get the latest news delivered to your inbox every week!

Amal and George Clooney have amped up their security after the Human Rights Lawyer received death threats.

Metro reported that Amal Alamuddin-Clooney now has full-time security after her life was threatened. The worrying messages came after she agreed to represent the former president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed.

George Clooney has asked help from South Oxfordshire district councilor Paul Harrison to increase the security for his wife. The councilor has also been involved with negotiations with the actor and the village regarding security cameras.

Advertisement

"Security isn't so much for him but for her," Harrison said. "From George's point of view, the high-level legal work she does and the death threats she gets, it's quite serious."

It was previously reported that Amal and George Clooney faced complaints from their neighbors regarding their CCTV system. The couple's neighbors have called the installation "unsightly and intrusive."

The cameras were denied installation after protests that it would be a "potential infringement of the privacy of neighboring properties." However, the councilor has added that they "have now been reduced from six to three meters, so we're happy with that."

Closer Weekly noted that, last September, one of Amal's colleagues was stabbed by masked assailants. The Human Rights Lawyer also claimed that Egyptian officials threatened to jail her for criticizing their legal system.

"George absolutely worries about Amal's safety," a source said. "He wants to protect her from any kind of threat - big or small. George realizes it's the nature of her business, but it unnerves him."

Amal and George Clooney met with German chancellor Angela Merkel to talk about Europe's growing refugee crisis last month. They discussed the issues with Europe's greatest refugee crisis since World War II. The German chancellery shared a photo of the meeting.

Former British foreign secretary, David Miliband, who is now the head of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), also joined the discussion.
Sign up to get the latest news delivered to your inbox every week!

Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna were seen at the Los Angeles International Airport.

Us Weekly reported that the reclusive actor was spotted at one of the most public places in the city on Mar. 8. He is said to be on his way to meeting his girlfriend in Atlanta.

The publication noted that Kardashian opted to keep out of the spotlight for almost three years. He was last spotted at LAX on May 2014 for Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's wedding in Florence, Italy.

Advertisement

The "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" star appeared to be slimmer. Us noted that he may have regained his confidence.

Meanwhile, French Montana shared his thoughts on Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna's relationship. "I think that anybody that makes you do great in life, motivates you, I think it's good for you," he told E! News.

"I love the energy Rob has right now. I just love that. He's in just a happy spirit."

It was previously reported that Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna have split up recently. According to People, the actor has moved out of the model's home and is living at his new house.

"They had a fight and both need some space," an insider said. "They have had a great few weeks, but things got too serious too fast. They were spending a lot of time together and not giving each other enough space."

The "KUWTK" actor did clarify things on his Instagram account. "Chy and I are not broken up we just feel like it would be a lot healthier for our relationship if we kept a lot more to ourselves," he wrote.

"It's impossible to have a positive relationship with so much negativity from the media and outsiders and we would appreciate it if everyone respects that -ChyRo"

Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna started dating last January. They have known each other since 2014 when they met at Kendall Jenner's 18th birthday party at an amusement park in Los Angeles. Chyna was still with Kylie Jenner's current boyfriend, Tyga.
Our directory features more than 18 million business listings from across the entire US. However, if we're missing your business, add your business by clicking on Add Your Business.
Thank you for reading!

To read this article and more, subscribe now for as little as $1.99.
A look back at the highlights of the year, scientific news, innovations and enhancements, the measures deployed to move the establishment forward.
- Ghanaian child actor, Abraham Attah is to receive another honour following his international achievements.

- Elizabeth Ofosu Agyare, the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts has hinted her ministry's desire to make Abraham Attah a tourism ambassador as part of the Easter Paragliding festival.

- She also hinted the efforts of the ministry to replicate the paragliding festival in other regions.

Movie star, Abraham Attah meets Veep, Kwesi Amissah-Arthur at the Flagstaff House

The Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu Agyare, has hinted that the ministry is looking at making Abraham Attah Ghanas tourism ambassador.

Speaking at the the launch of the 11th Kwahu Paragliding Festival which is slated for Friday, March 25 to Sunday, March 17 at the Odweanoma Mountains in Kwahu, the minister noted that the young man had made Ghana proud and deserved to be celebrated.

She added that her ministry 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 Ghanas Tourism Ambassador.

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.

At the launch the minister, announced efforts by the ministry to replicate the annual Kwahu Easter Paragliding Festival in other parts of the nation. 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.

READ ALSO: Korle Bu eye clinic closed to the public

She hinted that 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.

This years Okwahu Paragliding Festival is expected to be fun-filled with other activities aside paragliding. There will be 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.

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. Bisa Kdei's 'Mansa' was unveiled as the theme song for the 2016 Kwahu Paragliding Festival.

Source: YEN.com.gh
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: Amid a raging controversy over the Art of Living foundation's attempt to organise its World Culture Festival on the fragile Yamuna banks, PM Narendra Modi on Thursday confirmed his participation at the upcoming mega global event here in which tens of thousands of people are expected to attend.

The three-day festival will kick off on Friday and people from more than 100 countries are expected to attend the event.

Modi's decision to attend the festival, confirmed by the government, has been criticised by some sections of the society as the mega event could potentially destroy the sensitive floodplains of the river, India Today reported.

The National Green Tribunal as ordered the organisers to pay Rs 5 crore as fine to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for violating environmental norms.

The fine was imposed after it came to light that the organisers did not giving sufficient details of the event being held on the Yamuna banks.

The Art of Living has been accused of destroying the fragile ecosystem of the river by felling trees and making concrete structure for the event.

A massive stage, covering seven acres of land, has been built on the riverbed for the event.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the spiritual guru who heads the Art of Living, said the structures are temporary and would be dismantled after the event.
Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Punjabi households are known for their no holds barred attitude when it comes to the love of food. They live to eat and the khaate peete ghar ke tag was probably meant for them and rightly so!

However, Punjabis' love for food is exactly what has worked against them, if a statement given by union health minister JP Nadda is anything to go by.

According to the Times of India, JP Nadda told Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, that Punjabis are the most obese people in the country, while men from Tripura and women from Meghalaya are the leanest.

This statement has a tight hold since India already comes third under the 'most obese countries in the world' list and is showing a rapid growth of obesity among children and adolescents in urban areas.

Times of India further reported that according to the data presented by Nadda in Rajya Sabha, men and women from Punjab followed by Kerala and Delhi are the most obese people with 22.2, 17.8 and 16.8% of men and 29.9, 28.1 and 26.4% of women from the respective states reporting a body mass index (BMI) of more than 25.

Data also show women everywhere, except Bihar and Meghalaya, are more overweight than men. In Tripura, only 4.8% of men and 7.1% of women are obese while in Meghalaya, only 5.9% men and 5.3% women are overweight. The figures have been sourced to a 2005-06 National Family Health Survey.
Kanpur: JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar landed in further trouble on Thursday after a case was filed against him in a Kanpur court over his objectionable remarks against Indian Army personnel posted in Kashmir.

While addressing students at a womens day march on Wednesday, Kanhaiya Kumar had said, No matter how much you try to stop us, we will speak up against human rights violations. We will raise our voice against AFSPA. While we have a lot of respect for our soldiers, we will still talk about the fact that in Kashmir women are raped by security personnel.

During war in Rwanda 1000 women were raped. In Africa during the ethnic conflict, when military attacks other group firstly their women were raped. You take example of Gujarat, women were not just killed but were raped first, he added.

Yesterday, the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) had filed a complaint in Vasant Vihar police station against Kanhaiya and JNU professor Nivedita Menon saying they made anti-national statements in the aftermath of February 9 event.

Despite the submission of an undertaking before court, Kanhaiya has yet again addressed a gathering of students and uttered poisonous words against the Indian Army, labelling them as rapists of Kashmiri Women, a BJYM statement said. 

JNU professor Nivedita Menon has been spewing hatred against the Indian Armed Forces in public meetings as well. She made statements like it is recognized worldwide that India is illegally occupying Kashmir, it added.
Dharamsala: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who underwent prostrate surgery in the US, will return to Dharamsala soon, Tibetan Prime Minister-in-exile Lobsang Sangay said on Thursday.

"His Holiness will return to Dharamsala in the next few days after having successfully completed medical treatment in the US," Sangay said here on the 57th anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising Day.

Reiterating the commitment to the "middle way approach" of not seeking separation from China but genuine autonomy for the people in Tibet, he said: "We firmly believe that the longstanding issue of Tibet can be resolved through dialogue between the envoys of His Holiness and representatives of the Chinese government."

He clarified that the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) remained fully committed to the "middle way approach" that clearly seeks genuine autonomy for the Tibetan people within China.

"It is hoped the leaders in Beijing will see reason with the middle way approach, instead of distorting it, and step forward to engage in dialogue with the Dalai Lama's envoys."

The Dalai Lama along with his followers has lived in India since fleeing his homeland in 1959. The Tibetan administration in exile is based in this northern Indian hill town.

The recent self-immolation by two youths in addition to 142 self-immolations in the past is evidence of the lack of freedom in Tibet, said Sangay, the first elected "prime minister" whose first term is nearing completion.

On China's stand to right to decide reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, he said: "The power and authority to decide the reincarnation rests solely with the Dalai Lama. Nobody else has the right to do so."

The Tibetan administration-in-exile observes March 10 as the day Chinese troops suppressed the Tibetan uprising in Lhasa in 1959, forcing the Dalai Lama and over 80,000 Tibetans into exile in India and other countries.
New Delhi: Former Jawaharlal Nehru University student and Delhi University assistant professor, Kamlesh Narwana has called JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar a 'false revolutionary' and ridiculed his speech about his fight for 'dignity of women'.

While posting her views on her Facebook account, Narwana questioned a section of JNU faculty and students, who are hell bend to portray Kanhaiya as the Bhagat Singh of this century.

While narrating her past encounter with Kanhaiya, Narwana wrote, I am eligible to write this letter because I have an ugly encounter with this newly found Che Guevara of JNU and therefore I know his real face which I should definitely expose. I had my first and may be last encounter with this moron known as Kanahiya (the president of JNUSU) in June last year when he was urinating on road in JNU campus. When I objected, instead of saying sorry he not only shouted at me but also threatened me of dire consequence and suggested that I should take psychiatrist help. Being a JNUite, I filed a complained against him with JNU proctor office in June 2015. After enquiry, Chief Proctor and Vice-Chancellor of JNU found his behavior So unbecoming of a JNU student and fined Rs 3000.

The assistant professor Institute of Home Economics Delhi University furtehr expressed shock to see how a misogynist like Kanhaiya is being hailed as revolutionary.

Narwana also took pot shots at the JNUSU president for repeatedly harping on his poor family background. Hitting out at Kanhaiya, the DU professor said: In your (Kanhaiya) speech, you informed that you came from a very poor family where your mothers monthly salary is 3000 rs per month. So Mr. Revolutionary! Do you really value her struggle?? You spend 3000 bucks as fine for Public Urination and harassing and threatening a girl! Stop making a hue and cry about poverty of your family when you dont even value their struggle. I also belong to a poor family. My mother has worked as an agriculture labourer for raising me and my 4 other siblings. I know what does Dignity of female means. We females, struggle at every step to uphold our dignity. When I see a male urinating in public place, I feel unsafe for me and my fellow females (forget about hygiene). I have seen how females are being molested on the pretext of public urination. This is what I tried to explain to you when your fragile male ego got hurt.
A blog about life under, and resisting, a dictatorship
Mumbai: The cross-examination of Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist-turned-approver David Coleman Headley in the Mumbai terror attack case will start before a Special Court here from March 22 for four days, a legal official said on Thursday.

Advocate Abdul Wahab Khan, lawyer of Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, one of the prime accused in the 26/11 cases, will cross-examine Pakistani-American Headley who had given a weeklong deposition via video-conferencing from a US jail in early February.

Earlier, Wahab Khan had moved applications seeking certain documents and CDs pertaining to the case and also objected to Headley being made an approver in the 26/11 case.

The cross-examination will be conducted before Special TADA Court Judge G.A. Sanap through video-conferencing.

On February 13, Headley`s weeklong examination-in-chief covering a wide-range of issues concerning the conspiracy and perpetrators of the 26/11 attacks, was completed by Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam.

In December 2015, Headley agreed to turn an approver and in return was pardoned for his role in the terror strikes in Mumbai which left 166 dead.

Advocate Khan added that, if required, Headley could also be re-examined by the prosecution later on after the cross-examination was completed.

Headley, 56, has been sentenced to and is currently serving a 35-year jail term for the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case and the Denmark terror strikes.

During his deposition in the Special TADA Court last month, Headley revealed his association with the LeT and Pakistan`s spy agency ISI, his links with Al-Qaeda, the role of various players including Pakistan army officials in the 26/11 attack.

He also unravelled details of his multiple spying missions undertaken in Mumbai prior to the terror attack and other targeted locations like Pune army headquarters and personalities like the late Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, how the 26/11 conspiracy was hatched, the failure of two earlier attempts and other crucial revelations.


Washington: When it comes to vulnerability to cyber attacks, India along with China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and South Korea is most vulnerable, says research led by an Indian-American scientist.

While the US is ranked 11th safest of 44 nations studied, several Scandinavian countries like Denmark, Norway and Finland were ranked the safest in the book authored by V.S. Subrahmanian, professor of computer science at the University of Maryland.

"Our goal was to characterise how vulnerable different countries were, identify their current cyber security policies and determine how those policies might need to change in response to this new information," said Subrahmanian, with the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS).

Damaging cyber attacks on a global scale continue to surface every day. Some nations are better prepared than others to deal with online threats from criminals, terrorists and rogue nations.

Subrahmanian discussed the findings at a panel discussion hosted by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington on Wednesday.

The authors conducted a two-year study that analysed more than 20 billion automatically generated reports, collected from four million machines per year worldwide.

The researchers based their rankings, in part, on the number of machines attacked in a given country and the number of times each machine was attacked.

Machines using Symantec anti-virus software automatically generated these reports, but only when a machine's user opted in to provide the data.

Trojans, followed by viruses and worms, posed the principal threats to machines in the US.

However, misleading software (fake anti-virus programmes and disk cleanup utilities) was far more prevalent in the US compared with other nations that have a similar gross domestic product, the authors noted.

The results suggest that US efforts to reduce cyber threats should focus on education to recognise and avoid misleading software.

People - even experts - often have gross misconceptions about the relative vulnerability (to cyber attack) of certain countries. The authors of this book succeed in empirically refuting many of those wrong beliefs, said Isaac Ben-Israel, chair of the Israeli Space Agency and former head of that nation's National Cyber Bureau, in a foreword to the book.

The co-authors on the book are Michael Ovelgonne, a former UMIACS postdoctoral researcher; Tudor Dumitras, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering in the Maryland Cybersecurity Centre; and B. Aditya Prakash, assistant professor of computer science at Virginia Tech.

A related research paper was presented at the 9th ACM International Conference of Web Search and Data Mining in February this year.
New Delhi: Assassinating former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was the Tamil Tigers` biggest mistake, a new book quotes the late LTTE ideologue Anton Balasingham as saying.

Balasingham told Norway`s former Special Envoy to Sri Lanka Erik Solheim that LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and his feared intelligence chief Pottu Amman initially denied their involvement in the killing.

But they admitted the truth to Balasingham "a few weeks" after the May 21, 1991 assassination, says Mark Salter`s book "To End A Civil War" (Hurst & Company, London).

The just released 549-page book is the most exhaustive account of the Norwegian-led peace process that sought to end three decades of conflict in Sri Lanka.

The conflict finally ended when the Sri Lankan military crushed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May 2009, wiping out its entire leadership including Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman.

"Perhaps most controversially, in terms of official LTTE policies, Balasingham conceded that the killing of Rajiv Gandhi was the biggest mistake the LTTE had ever made," says the book.

The LTTE has never officially admitted to killing Gandhi, who was blown up by a Sri Lankan Tamil woman suicide bomber at an election rally near Chennai.

Privately, Balasingham told the Norwegians that Gandhi`s killing "was a complete disaster".

According to Solheim, Balasingham put the decision to kill Gandhi to Prabhakaran`s desire for revenge for Tamils killed by Indian troops when they were deployed in Sri Lanka in 1987-90, and a belief that Gandhi may again send the troops to Sri Lanka if he returned to power.

Solheim also says that although Balasingham, who in his final year was based in London and died of cancer in December 2006, wanted to reach out to the US and Europe, his real affinity was with India.

"Thus at the end of his life in 2006, Balasingham went so far as to try and `apologize` to India for this misdeed (assassination)."

After Gandhi`s killing, India outlawed the LTTE - which was earlier based in Tamil Nadu and enjoyed New Delhi`s blessings - and declared Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman proclaimed offenders.

In contrast, Balasingham had no hesitation in admitting that the LTTE assassinated moderate Tamil leader and academic Neelan Tiruchelvam - who was critical of the Tamil Tigers -- in July 1999 on a Colombo street.

When the Norwegians, Solheim included, confronted Balasingham on the killing, the book quotes the latter as saying point-blank: "Yes, we killed him and if you listen to me I will tell you why."

The book quotes Solheim as saying that Balasingham once referred to Prabhakaran as a "warlord" and said the LTTE needed to transform into a political entity.

Balasingham also told Solheim, who is now based in Paris: "You must never underestimate the capacity for violence of these guys (LTTE)."

According to Solheim, Balasingham "was very frank with us, including admitting to the LTTE`s mistakes.

"Over time I came to regard Bala highly and to consider him as a great human being as well as a good friend."
Mumbai: Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley will be cross-examined in the 26/11 terror attacks case from March 22-25, said reports on Thursday.

Headley, convicted in the United States for his role in 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, had earlier deposed before a Mumbai court via a video link and exposed Pakistan's role in the 26/11 attacks.

Headley had earlier confirmed that Ishrat Jahan, killed in an encounter in Gujarat, was indeed a Lashkar-e-Toiba operative.

Headley had also revealed that he came to Mumbai to select 26/11 attack sites.

In further disclosures, 55-year-old Headley, who recently turned approver in the 26/11 case, said LeT had planned attacks on the famous Akshardham temple in Ahmedabad to avenge the Babri Masjid demolition and that terror handler Abu Kahfa was in continuous touch with 10 of his members, sent to Mumbai to launch the 26/11 attack, from a control room in Karachi.

Headley also told the court how ISI and LeT majorly funded terror operations in India and financed him from time to time and that Pakistan native Tahawwur Rana visited Mumbai before the terror strikes in November 2008, which left 166 people dead and 309 injured.

(With PTI inputs)
Lucknow: Poll strategist Prashant Kishor on Thursday held a marathon meeting with leaders and workers of Congress in a bid to galvanise the party for the 2017 state Assembly elections.

Ideas and suggestions were invited from state, district and city unit level office-bearers on ways to strengthen the party, whose vote share has fallen significantly, UP PCC chief Nirmal Khatri said.

Kishor was earlier roped in by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his immensely successful 2014 Lok Sabha campaign and is said to have played a key role in the victory of JD(U)-RJD-Congress alliance in Bihar polls.

Khatri said the party would chalk out its strategy on the basis of ideas mooted during the meeting held in the presence of Kishor.

Meanwhile, BJP took a swipe at Congress for approaching Kishor to improve its performance in the 2017 Assembly elections.

"The party has to first decide whether it will ride piggy back on ruling Samajwadi Party or oppose it in the polls," BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said.

He also wondered as to how the party of Nehru-Gandhi was "banking" on the charisma of Kishor rather than relying on Sonia Gandhi and Rahul to "regain its lost moorings" in the state.
New Delhi: Noted spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Thursday, expressed confidence over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's presence at the Art of Living's mega event World Culture Festival.

Speaking exclusively to NDTV, Sri Sri said, President Pranab Mukherjee had sent a beautiful message for the World Culture Festival. He has expressed his inability to attend the event because he has to attend a program in Allahabad.

When asked, whether he was confident about Prime Minister's presence at the mega event beginning March 11, the spiritual guru replied yes.

Faulting every concerned government agency over a cultural event on the fragile banks of Yamuna this weekend, the National Green Tribunal slapped a Rs 5 crore fine on its organisers, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar-led Art of Living (AoL). But it did not stay the event.

The President, who was scheduled to deliver the valedictory address at Sri Sri Ravi Shankars WCF commencing in Delhi from March 11, on Monday decided to distance itself from the event.

An official of the Rashtrapati Bhavan had announced: "The President cannot attend the function due to unavoidable circumstances."

The three-day event will be held from March 11-13 on the west bank of Yamuna to celebrate 35 years of the foundation.

The programme that is expected to be attended by 35 lakh people from 155 countries.
Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) President Kanhaiya Kumar was on Thursday roughed up by a man on the university campus.

The varsity's security held the accused man, who identified himself as Vikas Chaudhary, a builder from Ghaziabad, detained him at the administration block and called police.

According to students and teachers present there, the attacker called Kanhaiya for an interaction when he was attending the "nationalism" lecture at the varsity's administration block.

"Kanhaiya went to a corner to talk to him where the man started abusing him and, following an argument, slapped him. Seeing this, many students and university's security guards rushed to rescue him," a student said.

When police asked for a formal complaint to initiate legal action against the alleged offender, the students refused to do so as of now saying, they have submitted an undertaking to the university's security department that the students would not file a police complaint and that the varsity authorities were free to take a call on the issue.

University authorities, when contacted said, they have got to know about the attack from media reports and whether or not they will approach the police will be decided tomorrow, as per PTI.

Later, talking to the press, Vikas said that he was upset with Kumar over his remarks regarding the Army.

"Kanhaiya has abused the nation, he has abused our Army by raising allegations against our soldiers. He shouted anti-national slogans and also sided with anti-national people, that is why I attacked him," he said.

On the other hand, Kumar said while addressing the students, "You can hurt me, you can silence me but you cannot scare me... If you will try to hurt me then remember Rohith Vemula. You killed one Rohith and so many have stood up, now if you will hurt someone else then imagine how many will stand up (against you)," as per IANS.

"It is not important what you write against me. It is not important that today you slapped me tomorrow you may stab me with knife. For us, the people of JNU, our own lives have never been important. We always think of nation and its future," Kumar added.

"They are doing such activities very cleverly and carefully. First they priced my tongue and tried to provoke me so that I can retaliate. But I didn't say anything... Then they priced my neck for Rs.11 lakh, I didn't say anything then also... But now you've attacked our home (JNU). It's an attack on university, its tradition and what it stands for," Kumar said.

Kanhaiya faces sedition charges in connection with an event on campus against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.

He was granted interim bail for six months by the Delhi High Court last week after spending 18 days in jail.

The students and teachers of the varsity had expressed apprehension about Kanhaiya's security after he was attacked by a group of lawyers in Patiala Court premises on February 17. The Delhi police has asked the varsity authorities to intimate them about Kanhaiya's movements outside the campus.

(With Agency inputs)
Kolkata: Bollywood actor and Padma Bhushan awardee Anupam Kher took a dig at the Congress and Rahul Gandhi saying, the people in the grand old party are the most tolerant, as they are tolerating a person who they want to project as the prime ministerial candidate.

Speaking at the Telegraph National Debate 2016 recently, Kher mocked at the grand old party saying, Congress is tolerating a person who they want to project as the PM of this country and can't even say to each other that what they are doing is wrong.

They can't even say that they are sorry that this is our PM candidate, he said adding, If you can tolerate this person, you can tolerate everything in the world."

However, the maverick actor didn't mention Rahul Gandhi's name.

Coming down hard at the intellectuals for propagating the intolerance debate, the Padma Bhushan awardee asked, whether anyone had heard the words intolerant or tolerant eight months back.

The world intolerance was marketed and it was done as they suffered a huge loss during 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Kher exhorted. He further accused the Congress of taking a revenge for the drubbing in the parliamentary elections.

The Bollywood actor came down hard at the Congress saying they cannot digest the fact that a tea seller has become the prime minister of the country.

While making his statements Kher clarified that he was not advocating for PM Modi, but only speaking as a citizen of India.

Taking on his critics for calling him a 'chamcha' of the BJP, the actor said, I am married to Kiran for the last 30 years and I don't have to prove my loyalty towards her by talking on behalf of the BJP.

Watch video:
New Delhi: In a candid admission, the IAF Thursday said that given its depleting strength, it does not have the adequate numbers to "fully execute" an air campaign in case of a two-front war involving Pakistan and China simultaneously.

It also sought more 5th generation fighter aircraft over and above the 36 Rafales since it was a requirement.

The revelation by the IAF comes at a time when the squadron strength of the force has come down to 33 in comparison to the sanctioned strength of 42.

Of the 33, a very large chunk is made up of Russian origin Su-30 jets, the front line fighter aircraft of the country.

However, the serviceability ratio of the aircraft is very poor with the figure hovering around 55 per cent. This means that out of 100 aircraft, only around 55 are available at a point of time with the rest being bogged down in service.

"Our numbers are not adequate to fully execute an air campaign in a two front scenario. Probability of a two front scenario is an appreciation which you need to do. But, are the numbers adequate? No. The squadrons are winding down," Air Marshal B S Dhanoa, Vice-Chief of the IAF said addressing a press conference here.

He was asked if the IAF has the capability to fight a two-front war if it breaks out tomorrow.

IAF sources said that a two-front war is not a likely possibility for the next few years and in the meantime, the force hopes to come up with the required capability.

"We have conveyed our concerns to the government. Government is seized of this problem and the reason why the government signed the 36 aircraft (Rafale) on G2G basis is because of urgency that they felt because of the depletion in squadron numbers," Dhanoa, a Kargil war veteran said.Dhanoa, a Kargil war veteran said.

Asked if there is a requirement for more Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) type aircraft besides the 36 Rafales, he said yes.

"There are various avenues that are being explored. There is a requirement for us to buy a MMRCA class aircraft more than the 36 numbers that we have signed. Which platform may come in, that is something between us and the government. We (both) will have to take a call," he said.

Deputy Chief of the IAF Air Marshal R K S Bhadauria said that a decision on more aircraft will be take only after the conclusion of the contract for 36 Rafale fighter jets.
New Delhi: In what can bring in more trouble for Union Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani, the son of a doctor killed in an accident on the Yamuna Expressway has written to President Pranab Mukherjee claiming that he was forced by the police station in-charge to change the registration number of a "wrong car" in the FIR, a report said on Thursday.

According to a report published in 'The Times of India', Dr Ramesh Nagar's son Abhishek Nagar has appealed to the President for justice. TOI has claimed to have got access to the letter.

In the letter, Abhishek has accused Smriti Irani of being 'insensitive' and maintained that her convoy rammed into his father's motorcycle.

He further wrote that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP didn't help even as his sister Sandali who begged her with folded hands.

Abhishek's letter states, The station in-charge of Manth police station refused to register the case if I didn't mention the number in the FIR. The inspector claimed that he had seized the car, but was reluctant to show it."

He has also alleged that the driver of the vehicle ran away after the accident.

The children of the Agra-based doctor killed in an accident on the Yamuna Expressway on Saturday night had earlier contradicted Irani's claim that she had tried to help the injured and ensure they reached the hospital.

On Saturday night, Irani escaped with minor injuries after her vehicle and her escort vehicle had rammed into a vehicle that had allegedly hit a motor cycle killing one Dr Ramesh Nagar and injuring his daughter Sandali and nephew Pankaj.

Commenting on the accident, SSP Mathura, Rakesh Singh said the minister's car had nothing to do with the accident involving the motorcycle. "The bike was hit by a Honda City (car). Two other cars also hit it. Then came Smriti Irani's pilot car. The minister reached the spot 7-8 minutes after the accident. She got out and called our control room for help," said Rakesh Singh.

Later, the minister's office said in a statement that the vehicle mentioned in the media reports of having hit the motorcycle had nothing to do with Irani's cavalcade and that she had directed SSP, Mathura, to arrange ambulance immediately so that injured could be given medical treatment at the earliest.

Irani's office issued a statement in which it said that in sections of media a news story was being run regarding an accident that happened on Yamuna Expressway on late night of March 5, in which it has been mentioned that vehicle with registration number (DL 3C BA 5315 - Honda city) has allegedly hit a biker.

"It is clarified hereunder that this vehicle has nothing to do with HRD Minister's cavalcade, while it is to be noted that Union HRD Minister, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, had directed SSP, Mathura, to arrange ambulance immediately so that injured could be given medical treatment at the earliest," it said.
Mumbai: An educated woman is mature enough to understand the consequences of having physical relations with her partner and such cases will not fall under the ambit of rape, the Bombay High Court said on Thursday while granting anticipatory bail to a 25-year-old man.

Justice Mridula Bhatkar was hearing the anticipatory bail plea of the youth from Solapur claiming he was in a relationship with the 24-year-old woman from Mumbai and when he broke up with her she lodged an FIR against him in October last with the suburban Goregaon police on charges of rape, cheating and criminal intimidation.

According to the woman's lawyer Aniket Nikam, the couple met in March 2015 and fell in love. "The boy on the false pretext of marriage forced the girl into a physical relation. When the girl conceived in May 2015 the boy forced her to get an abortion and later ended all relations with her," Nikam said.

The court was, however, of a different view and said, "In such matters I am of the view that it is consensual and hence, bail should be granted."

"I know our society has certain taboos. But if you consider western culture then this is consensual. This is not rape. When the woman is educated and mature she can say no. When you (girl) say yes then it becomes mutual," Justice Bhatkar said.

The court while granting the man bail on a surety of Rs 25,000 directed him to not contact the girl or harass her or her family members in any manner.
New Delhi: BJP on Thursday nominated former Amritsar Mayor Shwet Malik as the party nominee for Rajya Sabha from Punjab, as the term of Avinash Rai Khanna is coming to an end.

Khanna, who is incharge of party affairs in Jammu and Kashmir and is also party's central election officer was not given a renomination. His term comes to an end on April 9.

The decision to nominate Malik was taken at a meeting of the Central Election Committee here.

"The party's Central Election Committee has decided to nominate former Amritsar mayor Shwet Malik as BJP's nominee for the Rajya Sabha polls from Punjab," State BJP president Kamal Sharma told PTI.

He said Malik would file his nominations tomorrow in Chandigarh.

Tomorrow is the last date for filing of nominations for the Rajya Sabha election, if any, that is scheduled to be held on March 21.

Different names were doing the rounds in the party including that of cricketer turned politician and former Amritsar MP Navjot Singh Sidhu.

Of the five Rajya Sabha seats that are falling vacant on April 9 with the retirement of some members, two each are from the Akali Dal and Congress and one from BJP.


New Delhi: Following a string of bloody assaults by terror groups, India recently carried out a thorough review of security prepardness at all its missions in Afghanistan.

Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh, while replying to a question in Rajya Sabha, said inspection teams headed by senior security experts visited the missions to take stock of the security measures. He said the government kept reviewing and upgrading security arrangements at these diplomatic missions.

"A thorough review of security measures regarding our missions and posts in Afghanistan was undertaken earlier this year through the visits to the Embassy and Consulates General by security and inspection teams headed by senior officers from the headquarters," he said.

Heavily-armed terrorists, including suicide bombers, had attacked the Indian Consulate in Jalalabad city on March 2, killing nine persons including an Afghan security personnel. It was the fourth attack on the Consulate since 2007.

On January 3, terrorists had carried out an attack on the Indian mission in Mazar-e-Sharif which lasted over 25 hours. All the attackers who attempted to storm the building were killed by the Afghan forces.

The Minister said government remained vigilant to ensure safety and security of Indian diplomats and staff in its missions and posts abroad.

To a separate question, he said a total of 1,575 Indians are lodged in jails in Saudi Arabia. "They are convicted of crimes committed by them in violation of laws and regulation of Saudi Arabia."

Replying to a question on whether Indian firms operating in Nepal were attacked by protesters, Singh said sites and offices of foreign investors were reportedly targeted by miscreants.
Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday wished a speedy recovery for Syed Ali Shah Geelani while hailing the hardline Kashmiri separatist's "indefatigable leadership" which he said was a "beacon of freedom" for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

Geelani was admitted in a private hospital in New Delhi after he complained of breathlessness and his condition was tonight described as stable by doctors.

The 86-year-old leader had complained of breathlessness and high blood pressure and was taken to Max Hospital, Saket.

In a message, Sharif on behalf of the people of Pakistan as well as on his own behalf "prayed for full and speedy recovery of Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani."

"The Prime Minister said Syed Geelani's indefatigable leadership is a beacon of freedom for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. We pray for his quick recovery and good health," an official statement said. PTI PYK ASK

ASK

03102248

NNNN
Hyderabad: The re-design of irrigation projects, implementation of election promises like double bed room houses and farm loan waiver, several opposition MLAs switching loyalty to the ruling TRS, besides the budget, are among the issues expected to dominate the Budget session of Telangana Legislative Assembly beginning here on Thursday.

The state government has taken up re-designing of irrigation projects and entered into an agreement with Maharashtra on Tuesday for construction of five barrages on Godavari and two other rivers.

Observing that the agreement with Maharashtra is extremely useful for Telangana, the state government said the projects, upon completion, would immensely benefit farmers of the state.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who travelled to Mumbai on Wednesday to sign an agreement with his Maharashtra counterpart Devendra Fadnavis, said Karimnagar and Warangal districts would benefit first and that Nizamabad district would regain its past glory.

The main opposition Congress, however, slammed the Chief Minister for signing the pact with the Maharashtra government.

Leader of Opposition in Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir, who termed the agreement as "mega cheating", alleged that it caused injustice to people as the height of the proposed barrages would be decreased to 148 metres from the earlier proposal of 152 meters.

TDP floor leader in the Assembly, A Revanth Reddy alleged yesterday that corruption is taking place in the name of re-designing of projects and that reducing the height of barrages would hurt the interests of Telangana.

He has said that his party has identified 21 issues for raising in the assembly, including drought, scarcity of drinking water and alleged faulty implementation of election promises like double-bed room houses for the poor.

As many as 10 MLAs, out of 15, from TDP and several others from Congress and YSR Congress have switched loyalty to the ruling TRS in recent months.

Media reports suggested that two more TDP MLAs are likely to cross over to the ruling party in the coming days.

Their parent parties have filed disqualification petitions against such MLAs and the issue may also come up in the Assembly.

The ruling TRS is, however, on a high after a series of electoral wins, including in Warangal and Khammam civic body polls on Wednesday and massive victories in Medak and Warangal Lok Sabha bypolls and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) election earlier.
Lucknow: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court will on Thursday hear a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging Justice Vishnu Sahai Commission`s report on the Muzaffarnagar riots.

According to reports, 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.

With Agency inputs
Dhaka: A Bangladeshi nurse has been reportedly missing in New York for over three months, a media report said on Thursday.

Mahfuza Rahman, 30, was last seen at her workplace, the Bellevue Hospital, on December 8, 2015, bdnews24 reported.

The next day her husband Mohammad Chowdhury, 38, informed the hospital authorities, when they called to inquire about her, that she had returned to Bangladesh because a close relative was injured in an accident. He also said his wife would return to New York by the first week of March 2016.

However, Mahfuza did not return and Chowdhury, meanwhile, left the house with their 9-year-old daughter, telling the neighbours that they were returning to Dhaka.

Last week, Bellevue Hospital authorities informed local police who then went to the couple's Kingsbridge Heights home in Bronx.

The neighbours told police that the house had been locked since Chowdhury "left for Bangladesh" with his daughter on December 15, 2015. Before leaving, he had requested the neighbours to keep an eye on the house.

Fearing that Mahfuza might have been killed, police on Monday searched the family's home on East 198th Street, dug up the patio and had a cadaver dog search for any scent. Police now have sought permission from a local court to inquire about Rahman's bank accounts.

The couple's friend Mohammad N. Majumder, a Bangldeshi lawyer living in Bronx, said they too were trying to track the couple.

"We are trying to establish contact with their relatives in Bangladesh as well," he said.
Beijing: Displaying a sense of urgency, the Chinese Navy has commissioned three new stealth landing ships on a single day for the first time amid escalating tensions with the US in the disputed South China Sea.

The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has commissioned CNS Wuyishan, CNS Culaishan and CNS Wutaishan, having improved amphibious capabilities, official media here quoted PLAN's statement.

They were delivered to the East Sea Fleet at an unidentified naval port on Monday.

The ships have a displacement of 5,008 metric tonnes and a maximum speed of 20 knots (37 km/h).

Compared with predecessors, the new design has a lower radar signature, which makes it harder to detect it at sea, and a streamlined design that helps speed up the loading of amphibious vehicles.

The ships are armed with close-in weapons systems capable of hitting mid- and short-range targets, and include a flight pad that can accommodate a helicopter, state-run China Daily reported.

The ships will strengthen the Navy's capabilities in joint landing operations and transportation, the statement said.

According to IHS Jane's Navy International, the new-type vessel is able to transport 10 armoured vehicles and 250 fully armed troops, which means that three ships can ferry roughly an entire amphibious assault battalion.

This is the first-time the PLAN has commissioned three ships in a single day, the report said.

At least 100 new ships and submarines have joined the Navy since 2012, including an aircraft carrier, three Type-052D guided missile destroyers that have cutting-edge air defence abilities, 13 Type-054A large multi-role frigates and four Type-903A supply ships as China braced for a showdown with the US in the South China Sea to assert its sovereignty in the area.

Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and the Philippines contest China's claims of sovereignty on all most all of the South China Sea.

In February, the Chinese Navy commissioned the CNS Xiangtan, a Type-054A frigate, the CNS Tongren, a Type-056A corvette and the CNS Yimengshan, a Type-071 amphibious transport dock.

However, much of the Navy's new equipment is still not as good as that of their counterparts in the United States Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, the report quoted a PLA officer as saying.

"There are a great number of things that we need to catch up on - for instance, the technological level of ships and submarines as well as our crew's skills and experience," he said.
Islamabad: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is scheduled to visit Pakistan at the end of this month in a bid to re-establish bilateral economic ties, the media reported on Thursday.

According to sources, the two-day visit is scheduled from March 25-26, Dawn online reported.

This would be the first visit by an Iranian president to Pakistan after four years. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last visited Islamabad in February 2012 to attend a trilateral summit with Afghan and Pakistani leaders.

Rouhani`s visit comes at a time when curbs on Iran have been lifted following a nuclear deal that came into effect in January.

The Iranian President has made a number of overseas trips since the lifting of sanctions to revive his country`s trade ties.

Pakistan de-notified the UN sanctions at the end of February paving the way for the re-establishment of trade and business relations.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif last visited Tehran in January looking to mediate between Tehran and Riyadh when tensions between the two countries spiked in the aftermath of the execution of activist and Shia cleric, Sheikh Nimr, by Saudi authorities.

The Prime Minister had earlier paid a bilateral visit to Tehran in May 2014.
Beirut: Lebanese army troops clashed with jihadists in the country`s northeast near the Syrian border Thursday, leaving one soldier and eight gunmen dead, a security official said.

Lebanon has been the scene of frequent violence, including deadly bombings and fighting between jihadists and the army, since war erupted in neighbouring Syria in 2011.

Clashes broke out "between terrorists and the Lebanese army" at around 3:00 am (0100 GMT) Thursday near the flashpoint town of Ras Baalbek, the official, who did not want to be named, told AFP.

It was unclear which group the jihadists were fighting for.

The area was now "calm" and eight wounded soldiers were receiving treatment in nearby hospitals, the official said.

The army has regularly fought extremists near Ras Baalbek. Last year, at least five troops were killed in clashes with gunmen there.

In August 2014, the army clashed with the Islamic State (IS) group and Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda`s affiliate in Syria, in the border town of Arsal, near Ras Baalbek.

IS and Al-Nusra kidnapped 30 Lebanese soldiers and policemen as they withdrew.

After long negotiations, 16 of the kidnapped men were released at the start of December in exchange for Islamist prisoners jailed in Lebanon.
Qatar: The number of religious television broadcasters across the Middle East has risen by 50 percent, reflecting a rise in sectarianism in the region, according to a study published Thursday.

The Northwestern University in Qatar in its study of the media industry found that the number of religious free-to-air channels had jumped to 75 in 2014, from 50 three years earlier.

Sunni television channels remain by far the highest in number and increased to 55 from 43, three years previously, the research found.

But the rate of growth in the Middle East and North Africa region where Sunni Islam is the dominant religion has been higher for Shiite and Christian broadcasters.

Eleven Shiite channels are now broadcasting in the region, up from five in 2011, while the number of Christian stations has risen to nine from two over the same period, according to the report.

A Northwestern academic, Khaled Hroub, professor of Middle East politics and Arab media, attributed the increase to "bad politics".

"Such increase reflects the volatile sectarian politics that has been engulfing the region for the past decade or so, since the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the sectarianisation of Iraqi politics," said Hroub.

"The root cause of the rise is bad politics and the use of religious discourses in political rivalry...

"With the intensification of Saudi-Iranian rivalry in recent years many ... channels started to slip into political discourses that would mix with religious claims.

"All have fallen in a vicious spiral and vicious circle of tit-for-tat broadcasting where vilifying the other is the norm."

He said Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Egypt hosted most of the religious channels, which are "covertly or overtly controlled by states or semi-states outfits".

Ibrahim Al-Naimi, chairman of the Doha International Centre for Interfaith Dialogue, said he was more concerned by the messages carried by some of the channels.

"Some of these religious channels are misused, sometimes calling for division more than dialogue and peaceful coexistence," said Naimi.
New York: The United States on Wednesday urged governments to quickly mobilize to prevent a "humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions" from the possible collapse of Iraq`s Mosul dam.

Concern has grown in recent months over a possible breach in Iraq`s largest dam, which would unleash a wave as high as 14 meters (45 feet), devastating Mosul and flooding much of the capital Baghdad, with up to 1.5 million people at grave risk.

After hosting a meeting with Iraq`s UN Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim to hear briefings on the potential disaster, US Ambassador Samantha Power called on all UN member states to take immediate steps.

"It is crucial that all UN member states quickly get informed about the magnitude of the problem and the importance of readiness to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions," said Power.

The ambassador described briefings by technical experts, engineers and representatives from UN aid and development agencies as "chilling."

The dam in northern Iraq was built on an unstable foundation that continuously erodes, and a lapse in required maintenance after the Islamic State jihadist group briefly seized it in 2014 weakened the already flawed structure.

"In the event of a breach, there is the potential in some places for a flood wave up to 14 meters high that could sweep up everything in its path, including people, cars, unexploded ordnance, waste and other hazardous material, further endangering massive population centers that lie in the flood path," said Power in a statement released by the US mission.

Power said repair work must be undertaken as soon as possible and Iraqis must be well informed about the best evacuation routes.

Italian firm Trevi has been selected to carry out crucial repair work on the dam, which is currently protected by Kurdish peshmerga forces.

A UN aid appeal for Iraq has received only eight percent of the $861 million requested, compounding concerns about badly needed assistance.
Naypyidaw: Htin Kyaw, a former driver for Aung San Suu Kyi and a close friend, was nominated to be Myanmar`s first civilian president in decades Thursday.

He will act as a proxy for Suu Kyi who is barred from the presidency by the military-drafted constitution because she has foreign-born children.

So what now for Suu Kyi and the impoverished but hopeful nation she plans to lead from behind the scenes?

Htin Kyaw has been nominated but still needs to be assessed for suitability by the same constitution that bars Suu Kyi and then voted into office by Myanmar`s two legislatures over the coming days.

Barring last minute upsets, that vote should be a forgone conclusion -- both houses are comfortably dominated by Suu Kyi`s party.

He will take over from outgoing army-backed president Thein Sein on March 31. In the meantime, Suu Kyi will pick her cabinet and her government will start operating in earnest from early April.

Suu Kyi has yet to say. Some compare the situation to that of India`s Sonia Gandhi, who wielded huge influence over her Congress party`s administration despite having no official government role.

Another example is Singapore`s Lee Kwan Yew, who held an advisory position in the cabinet long after his official retirement.

Suu Kyi is expected to be president in all but name, possibly taking the foreign minister post, which would mean relinquishing her party position but on the other hand would give her a seat at the country`s military-dominated Security Council.

There are other pitfalls. The military may decide her proxy president goes against the constitution.

And a puppet leader may not be one hundred percent compliant -- as Sonia Gandhi often discovered.

Far from it.

It is difficult to overstate just how monumental both November`s polls and the so far peaceful transition of power are in a country battered by decades of corrupt and brutal junta rule.

But Myanmar`s military is far from a spent force because the constitution ensures it retains significant power.

A quarter of parliamentary seats are reserved for unelected soldiers, while the military will retain a vice president and control of three crucial ministries: home, defence and border affairs.

The generals also oversee the National Defence and Security Council, a body which can seize power in times of national emergency, and also runs two huge business conglomerates.

The NLD has provided few policy details beyond a broad campaigning slogan of "change".

But the challenges are both numerous and complex.

Myanmar remains one of Asia`s poorest countries, blighted by cronyism, corruption and a woeful lack of investment during the junta years with education and health especially underfunded.

Many of its ethnic minority border regions are still wracked by insurgencies and Suu Kyi has said securing a country-wide peace deal will be a priority.

But it is unclear how much say the NLD will have on pushing a peace process that will require cooperation from the still-powerful army.

Sharing Myanmar`s natural resources more equitably and dealing with sectarian tensions are also major hurdles.

Never say never. Suu Kyi has always maintained that she intends to overturn the ban. Doing that will be no small feat.

In the immediate months after the election she held meetings with Myanmar`s army chief to build trust.

But it soon became apparent those talks made little headway in changing the constitution before the presidential nominees were announced.

Constitutional changes need the approval of more than three quarters of both legislatures. But in a system where the military is guaranteed a quarter of parliamentary seats, they have a de facto veto.

Suu Kyi has said she needs "one brave soldier" to cross the aisle to her cause.
By Aaron Maasho ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia, which plans to become a top regional electricity exporter, will soon launch a new 2,000 megawatt hydropower dam, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said on Thursday. Under a new 2015-2020 development plan, Addis Ababa wants to raise output to 17,346 megawatts from a current capacity of just over 2,200 from hydropower, wind and geothermal sources. "The launch of this new dam will be commenced soon," Hailemariam told parliament, without giving further details.Ethiopia's bid to tap several rivers for power generation is part of plans to boost manufacturing and industrialize its agrarian economy. It already has an array of projects under construction, including the $4.1 billion Grand Renaissance Dam that will churn out 6,000 megawatts upon completion within the next five years, as well as a 1,800-megawatt Gilgel Gibe 3 Dam in its southern region. But the country's power ambitions have caused disputes in the past. Egypt - solely dependent on the Nile - has expressed concern that the Renaissance Dam will reduce the river's flow. Both countries are currently locked in discussions over the project's technical details. And rights groups in Kenya say that the Gibe 3 Dam, and a related irrigation scheme, could dramatically reduce the volume of water in its Lake Turkana. Experts put Ethiopia's hydropower potential at about 45,000 megawatts and geothermal at 5,000, while its wind power potential is believed to be Africa's third-largest behind Egypt and Morocco. Hailemariam said Ethiopia, which signed a $4 billion-deal with a U.S.-Icelandic firm in 2013 to a build a 1,000 megawatt geothermal plant which will be the country's first privately-run utility, was also in negotiations with international companies to build more power generating projects. Once Ethiopia's grand plans are complete, it wants to export power to countries in North and southern Africa and beyond. But poor rainy seasons that have left 10.2 million people requiring food aid in the country of 90 million have also had an adverse impact on existing dams, Hailemariam said. Four hydropower plants generating a total of 675 megawatts were either producing "as low as 10 percent or nothing at all" owing to low water levels, he said. (Reporting by Aaron Maasho; editing by Edith Honan and Angus MacSwan)
A Manitoba resident lost approximately $100,000 plus credit card charges after sending money to Onetwotrade.com, a trading website that says it's based in Malta.

The Manitoba Securities Commission warns investors that OneTwoTrade.com and the company that operates it, Up and Down Marketing Ltd., are not registered to sell securities in the province and their actions are not in compliance with Manitoba's securities laws.

The securities commission said along with losing thousands of dollars, the Manitoba resident may have to pay higher interest on loans in the future.

Up and Down Marketing Ltd. is also on the Ontario Securities Commission's warning list.

Onetwotrade.com calls itself a binary option firm.

"With more than 350 underlying assets spanning stocks, currencies, commodities and indices, OneTwoTrade provides traders with more opportunities to profit," the website states.

Binary options are a type of "wager" in which investors bet on the performance of an underlying asset, often a currency, stock index or share, usually in a short period of time, said the MSC.

"When that period is up, the investor receives a predetermined payout or loses his wager. It's an 'all or nothing' proposition," the MSC said in a news release.

Sometimes with offshore investments, no trading actually takes place and the online "investment" is simply a tool to steal money, the securities commission said. Any request to send money offshore to an unregistered firm is a red flag for investment fraud, it warned.

The securities commission offers these tips to investors:

- Never send money to anyone you only know from an unsolicited phone call or email.

- Never give out sensitive personal information online or over the phone.

- Research an investment before making a commitment.

- Make sure the firm and individual you are dealing with are registered in Manitoba by checking their registration status.
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)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Barack Obama have agreed to take joint steps to fight climate change, including cutting methane emissions from the oil and gas industry and protecting the Arctic.

Canada and the U.S. issued a joint statement outlining those steps ahead of a meeting Thursday between the two leaders in the Oval Office on Trudeau's first full day on an official visit in Washington.

Reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas sector is a main commitment laid out in the statement, setting a goal of reducing them by 40 to 45 per cent below 2012 levels by 2025.

Environment Canada will regulate emissions from new and existing oil and gas sources, the statement said, and move "as expeditiously as possible" to implement national regulations in collaboration with the provinces and territories and other stakeholders. The department intends to publish an initial phase of proposed regulations by early 2017.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will develop regulations on the south side of the border and starting next month will start a process to require companies to provide information about their methane emissions.

"We know that by tackling methane emissions, we can continue to unlock amazing opportunity to better protect our environment for the future," Gina McCarthy, the EPA's administrator, said in a call with reporters.

Both countries also committed to reducing emissions from hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and said in their public procurement processes that they will seek to buy greener equipment and products.

Paris a 'turning point'

They also said they would continue to collaborate on emission standards for vehicles, and would work on adopting a carbon offset measure in 2016 for the aviation sector.

The two countries also intend to align the ways they assess the impact of greenhouse gas emissions caused by major projects, and co-ordinate measures to reduce those emissions. The White House said given the integrated nature of their economies, it is mutually beneficial for Canada and the U.S. to work together on GHGs. This will mark the first time the two countries will collaborate on calculating the effects of these projects on the environment.

Story continues

The announcement said Obama and Trudeau consider the agreement reached in Paris a "turning point" in global efforts to combat climate change, and they will work together to implement it, committing to joining it and signing it "as soon as feasible."

Another part of the joint plan involves co-operating on clean energy. The two countries intend to collaborate on expanding wind, solar and other renewable energy sources and on clean energy research.

Officials had suggested earlier in the week that the efforts to address the effects of climate change in the Arctic would be part of the plan, and indeed Trudeau and Obama announced a new partnership to "embrace the opportunities and to confront the challenges in the changing Arctic."

Protecting the Arctic

It includes sticking to the goals of protecting at least 17 per cent of land areas and 10 per cent of marine areas by 2020, and ideally going beyond those goals, the plan said. Obama and Trudeau want to engage other Arctic nations to develop a pan-Arctic marine protection area network.

The plan also talks about building a sustainable Arctic economy, and says commercial activities will only occur when the highest safety and environmental standards are met. Shipping corridors will be developed to have as little impact as possible on the environment.

"The Arctic is a leading indicator of what the planet faces in the years and decades ahead," Sally Jewell, secretary of the interior, told reporters.

Trudeau and Obama also want a binding international agreement to prevent the opening of unregulated fisheries in the central Arctic, and Canada has offered to host talks.

When it comes to oil and gas exploration in the Arctic, the agreement says if it proceeds, it must align with science-based standards and include "robust and effective" well control and emergency response measures.

Canadian Environment Minister Catherine McKenna and Fisheries Minister Hunter Tootoo are also in Washington with Trudeau.

Earlier in the week, the White House's special envoy on climate change praised Trudeau and McKenna for their participation at the Paris climate change talks,
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday vowed to work with whomever replaces President Barack Obama when his term ends in January following the U.S. presidential election in November. "The relationship, the friendship between our two countries goes far beyond any two individuals or any ideology. I have tremendous confidence in the American people and look forward to working with whomever they chose to send to this White House later this year," said Trudeau, speaking at a White House press conference alongside Obama, a Democrat. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Jeff Mason and David Ljunggren; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by James Dalgleish)
By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Hillary Clinton's unexpected defeat in Michigan has laid bare growing voter anger over international trade, raising warning flags for her ahead of a possible presidential election showdown against Republican front-runner Donald Trump. Trump has built his campaign on pledges to scrap international trade deals and do more to protect American workers from foreign competition, tapping the same groundswell of discontent that propelled Clinton's rival Bernie Sanders to victory in the Midwestern state on Tuesday. Clinton remains heavily favored to win the Democratic nomination. But the setback in Michigan could signal further troubles in upcoming primaries in other Rust Belt states such as Ohio, forcing her further to the left on economic issues and possibly influencing her choice for an eventual running mate, strategists said. The backlash against 20 years of trade liberalization has stalled the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), a sweeping Pacific trade deal backed by President Barack Obama and threatens to stymie the trade agenda for years to come. "It's politically radioactive to support free trade right now," said Greg Valliere, a Washington analyst for Horizon Investments, a financial firm. Clinton's troubles with her party's left wing -- and with white, working class voters more generally -- may steer her toward a trade skeptic such as Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio as a vice presidential running mate, said Democratic strategist Steve Jarding. Political pundits had expected Clinton to pick someone to increase her appeal to Hispanic or other minority voters, such as U.S. Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro. Sanders, 74, is unlikely to end up as Clintons running mate, partly due to his age, Democrats said. Both Sanders, a democratic socialist, and billionaire Trump have harnessed anti-trade sentiment in their insurgent White House bids, criticizing deals like NAFTA as job killers that have depressed the living standards of working Americans. Exit polls from Michigan, a hub of the U.S. auto industry, show widespread voter skepticism on trade that may have helped Sanders and Trump win their respective party primaries. "She made a fundamental mistake early on in this campaign to try to stay in the center," Democratic strategist Steve Jarding said of Clinton. "This cycle, there is no center." NUANCED TRADE STANCE Sanders campaigned heavily against foreign trade in a state that has been hammered by overseas competition since the 1980s. Some 58 percent of his supporters in Michigan exit polls said that trade takes away U.S. jobs, while a slight majority - 53 percent - of Clinton backers said trade creates U.S. jobs. The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, estimates that Michigan would lose 5 percent of its jobs if TPP were to take effect, the highest proportion of any state. Gary Hunley, a substitute teacher in Dearborn, Michigan, said he believed Clinton was partially to blame for stagnant wages because NAFTA was enacted under her husband Bill Clinton's presidency in the 1990s. "She was not a passive first lady," Hunley said. Clinton's stance on trade is more nuanced than Trump's and Sanders'. After NAFTA was enacted, she voted against a free-trade deal with Central America while serving as a U.S. senator in the following decade. As Obama's secretary of state, Clinton helped negotiate the TPP with Japan, Vietnam and other Pacific Rim countries. As a presidential candidate, Clinton has said after reading the final language of the deal she would vote against it because it does not adequately protect U.S. workers. Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook told reporters Wednesday there were no plans to adjust her stance and that he would "put Secretary Clinton up against any candidate in this race on trade," including Trump. Despite backing by the Obama administration, Republican lawmakers and many business groups, Republican leaders in Congress have shown no sign that they will bring TPP up for a vote this year. The Obama administration says the deal has high labor and environmental standards that were not part of NAFTA. "Im not sure that has fully been absorbed in the public mindset," U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice told Reuters. [L1N16H1VJ] The deal may fare no better under the next president. Sanders and Trump oppose TPP, and Senator Ted Cruz, who is in second place in the Republican contest, has said he would not vote for it this year. "They've listened to the public and politicians have caught up with the public on this," Brown, the Ohio Democratic senator, told Reuters. The evidence that the TPP would help the U.S. economy much is less than conclusive. The Peter G. Peterson Institute, a pro-trade think tank, estimates that it would boost economic growth by just 0.5 percent after 15 years. The deal would not boost employment overall, but would result in a "churn" of 53,700 jobs lost and created each year, and it would boost incomes by 0.5 percent, the institute found. Another estimate by the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University found the trade deal would slow growth by 0.54 percent after 10 years and cost 448,000 jobs in the United States. (Additional reporting by David Lawder, Amanda Becker, Valerie Volcovici, Richard Cowan, Roberta Rampton and John Whitesides; editing by Stuart Grudgings)
Scientists say they have found five "Drowned Apostles" near Australia's popular Twelve Apostles rock formations.

The limestone stacks were discovered around 3.7 miles (6km) offshore and 164ft (50m) below the surface during sonar mapping of the sea floor off the Victoria state coast.

Researchers from the University of Melbourne were surprised by the find as underwater sea stacks usually erode and collapse as sea levels rise.

Rhiannon Bezore, from the university's geography department, said: "When we did find them, it was quite a shock. They are pretty unique features and we don't expect to find sea stacks that are not eroded.

"The fact that these are preserved at that depth is very unique."

The Twelve Apostles - found in the Southern Ocean off Australia's Great Ocean Road - started forming some 20 million years ago when erosion began whittling away at limestone cliffs.

One of the columns, a 45m rock pillar, collapsed in 2005.

The newly-discovered stacks are thought to date back 60,000 years and were probably formed when sea levels rose very quickly after a glacial period or ice age.

Ms Bezore said: "The reason that they survived is because as the sea level rose after they were formed, it must have been rising at such a fast pace that they were submerged before the waves had the chance to erode them away and they collapse."
By Gabriela Baczynska and Alastair Macdonald BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union aims to rehouse thousands of asylum-seekers from Greece in the coming months, officials said on Thursday as EU ministers wrestled with concerns about the legality of a new plan to force migrants back to Turkey. Dimitris Avramopoulos, the member of the executive European Commission who handles migration, told reporters at a meeting of national interior ministers that at least 6,000 people a month should be relocated to other member states under a scheme which has moved only about 900 hundred people so far. Avramopoulos noted a recent acceleration in relocations under the system which has divided EU governments as some refuse to take in refugees, most of whom are from Syria and Iraq, though he acknowledged the target was ambitious. Some 35,000 people have been stranded in Greece since Austria and states on the route to Germany began closing borders, barring access to migrants hoping to follow more than a million who reached northern Europe last year. EU officials said that blockage appeared to have made more asylum seekers ask for relocation rather than try to make their own way northward. Chancellor Angela Merkel, under electoral pressure at home after opening Germany's doors to a million Syrians, has pressed EU partners to share the load. But few are keen and critics say many of those rehoused elsewhere will head for Germany anyway. On Monday, Merkel pushed EU leaders to pencil a surprise deal she brokered with Ankara to halt the flow to Greece by returning to Turkey anyone arriving on the Greeks islands. But legal details are still being worked out for an EU summit next week and many governments are still skeptical of the scheme. The top United Nations human rights official said it could mean illegal "collective and arbitrary expulsions". EU ministers also voiced unease at the price of Ankara's cooperation, notably an accelerated process to ease visa rules for Turks by June and revive negotiations on Turkey's distant EU membership hopes. "I ask myself if the EU is throwing its values overboard," said Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner, whose government has led a push to seal off Greece from the north as an alternative to relying on Turkey to stop migrants leaving. She noted the seizure of an opposition newspaper in Turkey three days before it presented EU leaders with the draft deal, under which Europeans will take one Syrian direct from Turkey for every compatriot who is detained and sent back from Greece. "SAFE" COUNTRY? Human rights concerns also pose problems for EU lawyers trying to tie up the package by the March 17-18 summit, notably because to despatch people at speed back to Turkey relies on an assessment that Turkey is a "safe" country for them to be in. An EU definition of such a state includes a reference to the Geneva Convention on refugees, to which Turkey does not fully comply, leaving legal experts in Brussels hunting a solution. "It will be very difficult to arrive at something legally sound and implementable before the summit," an EU official said. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that Greece and Turkey might have to pass new legislation. The conundrum highlights how far the EU is willing to go to win Turkey's help on the crisis, which poses security risks and plays into the hands of right-wing populists in the bloc. Asked about how much force might be used to deport people who have risked their lives and spent large sums to reach Europe, Avramopoulos said there could be "no push-back methods". Klaas Dijkhoff, the Dutch minister who chaired the meeting, said the mix of expulsion and legal resettlement should deter smuggling and help Turkey: "We have to show that it doesn't pay to use a trafficker and come to Europe in an illegal way and we have to show Turkey we are not leaving them with all the work." But ministers also discussed a need to prepare for people turning to other routes, including by sea to Italy from Albania or Libya. The death rate last year on the route to Italy from North Africa, based on data from the International Organization for Migration, was nearly one in 20, compared with less than one in 1,000 between Turkey and Greece. Nonetheless, three Afghan children, one an infant of six months, were among five people drowned off Lesbos on Thursday as people continue to risk the trip before a Turkey-EU deal bites. EU officials acknowledge that deterring people who have shown such desperation to reach Europe will be difficult - and deporting them back to Turkey will be tough: "I don't know how to do it," said one. "It could get very ugly." (Additional reporting by Tom Koerkemeier; Writing by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Dominic Evans)
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - A senior Islamic State militant has said in an interview identifying him as the new leader of the jihadists' Libyan offshoot that the extremist organization is getting "stronger every day" in the north African country. Abdul Qadr al-Najdi, described in an interview released by the SITE monitoring group on Thursday as "the emir tasked with administering the Libyan provinces", said he was praying for Libya to be made the "vanguard of the Caliphate". He also warned neighboring countries that they would not be able to defend themselves from the militants. "You are protecting yourself from the detonators with shields of bamboo, and from the flood with a ring of wood," he said, in the interview in the Islamic State publication al-Naba. Tunisia, where more than 50 people died in an assault by Islamists near the Libyan border this week, has just completed a trench and barrier on its southern frontier in an effort to stop militants crossing. Islamic State has taken advantage of the political chaos and security vacuum following the 2011 uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi to establish a presence in several cities. Western officials have expressed alarm over the expansion and estimates the number of its fighters to be as high as 6,000. Last year it took full control of the eastern city of Sirte and the surrounding coastline. That had proved easier than expanding elsewhere in Libya, where "the number of factions and their disputes" was one reason for failure, Nadji said. Islamic State militants were mostly pushed out of the eastern city of Derna by rival Islamist factions in June, and has been targeted by local security forces in the western city of Sabratha following a U.S. air strike on a suspected training camp in February. Najdi described Islamic State in Libya as "still young" but said it was making progress in imposing religious law in areas under its control, in line with its actions in Iraq and Syria. "The provinces of Libya have become the destination of the mujahideen and a sanctuary for the oppressed," he said. "The numbers of immigrants multiplied from all areas despite the ardent attempts by the West to prevent their immigration." Najdi said the Libyan province was "in constant communication" with central offices in Iraq and Syria, where the group took swathes of territory in 2014 but has since come under increasing pressure from air strikes and local forces. A U.S. air strike in a suburb of Derna in November killed Islamic State's previous leader in Libya, known as Abu Nabil. (Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Louise Ireland)
By Ted Siefer

CONCORD, N.H. (Reuters) - A judge has denied bail for a New Hampshire man accused of being a mid-level organizer in a high-profile 2014 armed standoff with federal agents at the Nevada ranch of Cliven Bundy.

Jerry DeLemus was ordered on Tuesday to remain jailed pending trial in connection with the standoff, which began when federal agents seized cattle at the ranch over unpaid grazing fees. The incident came to symbolize opposition to federal management of public lands in the West.

Nineteen people have been indicted in the case, including Bundy and two of his sons, who face charges that include assault on a federal agent, threatening a law enforcement officer, conspiracy and firearms violations.

In denying bail, U.S. District Court Judge Andrea Johnstone said DeLemus' actions at the Bundy ranch indicated he could "pose a serious danger to the community if released."

DeLemus' attorney, Jonathan Saxe, had argued that while DeLemus held right-wing political beliefs, he was law-abiding and devoutly religious and 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," Saxe said at a court hearing on Monday.

DeLemus made headlines in January when he traveled to remote eastern Oregon to join members of the Bundy family at another anti-government protest, meeting with the armed group who had taken over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. The occupiers were led by Ammon Bundy, another son of Cliven Bundy, who along with brother Ryan faces charges in both the Nevada and Oregon incidents.

DeLemus co-chairs the New Hampshire Veterans for Trump coalition organized by the presidential campaign of Republican businessman Donald Trump. DeLemus said that when he went to Oregon he was acting on his own and not as a representative of the Trump campaign.

U.S. prosecutors in court papers accused DeLemus of being a gunman and mid-level organizer who joined in a conspiracy to commit an unprecedented and extremely violent and massive armed assault on federal law enforcement officers in the 2014 standoff.

DeLemus wife is a Republican state representative and several Republican state legislators testified in support of him on Monday.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg)
The US has urged governments to act to prevent a "humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions", amid fears Iraq's Mosul dam could collapse.

Concern has been growing in recent months over a possible breach in the country's largest dam.

This would unleash a wave as high as 14 metres (45ft), devastating Mosul and flooding much of Baghdad, with up to 1.5 million people at grave risk.

US Ambassador Samantha Power has called on UN member states to take immediate action.

Speaking after hosting a meeting with Iraq's UN Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim, she said: "It is crucial that all UN member states quickly get informed about the magnitude of the problem and the importance of readiness to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions."

The ambassador described briefings she had received from technical experts, engineers and representatives from UN aid and development agencies as "chilling".

The dam in northern Iraq was built on an unstable foundation that continuously erodes.

The already flawed structure was weakened further when maintenance could not be carried out because of the Islamic State takeover of the facility in 2014.

"In the event of a breach, there is the potential in some places for a flood wave up to 14 metres high that could sweep up everything in its path, including people, cars, unexploded ordnance, waste and other hazardous material, further endangering massive population centres that lie in the flood path," Ms Power said in a statement released by the US mission.

She said repair work must be carried out as soon as possible, and Iraqis must be told about the best evacuation routes.

Approximately 500,000 to 1.47 million Iraqis live in the flood path, the US statement said.

Italian company Trevi has been chosen to carry out crucial repair work on the dam, which is currently protected by Kurdish Peshmerga troops.

The contract is worth 273m (192m) and will reinforce and maintain the dam for 18 months.

Story continues

Italy plans to send 450 troops to protect the site, which is 2.2 miles (3.6km) long and close to territory held by IS.

Militants from the group seized the dam in August 2014, raising fears they might blow it up.

It was retaken two weeks later by Iraqi government forces supported by US-led coalition airstrikes.
(Reuters) - Bernie Sanders' Democratic presidential campaign has sued Ohio's secretary of state in federal court over what it calls an unconstitutional attempt to prevent young people from voting in the state's March 15 primary election. It is an outrage that the secretary of state in Ohio is going out of his way to keep young people  significantly African-American young people, Latino young people  from participating, the U.S. senator from Vermont said in a statement released on Tuesday. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Columbus and joined by six Ohio 17-year-olds, alleged that a directive by Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted would "arbitrarily discriminate" against young voters. Citing U.S. Census figures, it said such voters were more likely to be black or Latino than older groups of voters. Sanders, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the Nov. 8 election, has attracted support from young voters but has lagged behind rival Hillary Clinton in winning votes among minorities. Ohio is one of more than 20 states where 17-year-olds who will be 18 by the time of the general election are allowed to vote in primaries, the campaign statement said. Husted ruled last December that those voters would not be allowed to participate in the presidential primary. He denied there had been any changes to voting rules. "We are following the same rules Ohio has operated under in past primaries, under both Democrat and Republican administrations. There is nothing new here," Husted said on Twitter. "If you are going to be 18 by the November election, you can vote, just not on every issue." He said that 17-year-olds were "not permitted to elect candidates, which is what voters are doing in a primary when they elect delegates to represent them at their political party's national convention." (Reporting by Eric Walsh in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney)
After weeks in a Toronto hotel eating food they don't know among strangers who speak a language they don't understand, a Syrian refugee family's patience was rewarded.

They got a phone call telling them they would be transferred to a permanent home. Although, it wasn't clear where they were going.

In fact, they thought they were destined for another country.

"We didn't know where Winnipeg was," said Amer Mejarmish, who spoke exclusively to CBC News through an interpreter.

But Winnipeg is where they were going to be. And soon.

What's Winnipeg?

The first call, Mejarmish said, came at around 6:30 p.m. Friday. The translator on the phone said to start packing and get ready to move in the morning.

Hours later, at 4:30 a.m., a second call. And a warning: the bus is coming to take your family to the airport  and on to Winnipeg  at 6 a.m. sharp.

The federal government helped Mejarmish move to Canada with his pregnant wife and two-year-old daughter about 20 days ago. Winnipeg was not one of the three Canadian cities he Googled before he left the refugee settlement in Jordan, where he couldn't get identity papers and couldn't work.

Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto were the names he knew. Toronto was the shiniest of those. It was where he was told he would land, where he planned to make his home. This new change in plan was a shock, and confusing.

At the airport Saturday morning, the Mejarmish family joined a lineup of other refugee families, bussed in from hotels across the GTA. One by one they signed the paperwork for their transfers to Manitoba.

Those families told Mejarmish to stop hesitating, worried there could be repercussions if he didn't go.

But the plane left without him on it. Mejarmish refused to leave. Now, his family doesn't know what happens next.

'Changes happen'

The people in charge are offering no answers. On Tuesday, CBC reached the head of the non-profit company charged with overseeing the refugees at the hotel where Mejarmish stayed.

Story continues

"Changes happen," said Jacquie Lewis, executive director the Malton Neighbourhood Services.

She confirmed several government-assisted refugees were relocated from Toronto to Winnipeg over the weekend. But refused to say how much notice they were given.

"We got instructions that there would be changes on the weekend," she said, adding her organization was just following government orders.

As of Tuesday night, the media section for the federal government's Ministry of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship had not responded to requests for interviews.

Forever running

"They may not have a choice, but we can at least make the change easier," said Sam Jisri, who runs a group that helps refugees resettle in Canada called Syrian Active Volunteers.

He said he understands that refugees must move where the resources exist to take them, but believes those transfers should be facilitated fairly.

"Give them notice, tell them about it, explain what is there [in that province or city]," he said. "Those people ran from a regime, so the last thing they want to see is any kind of oppression."

Mejarmish doesn't feel like he's running anymore, he's treading water.

His family transferred to a different hotel. And like hundreds of others, they wait: looking forward to doing the normal things their Canadian neighbours do, like opening bank accounts and buying hummus at the grocery store.

And wondering what city they'll land in next.
By Mark Hosenball and Susan Heavey WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump acknowledged on Tuesday he does not yet have a foreign policy team, and three former U.S. military and intelligence officials who have endorsed him are little known in either the Republican Party or the wider foreign policy community. The New York billionaire, who had promised to name his foreign policy and national security advisers last month, told MSNBC that he has met with people but made no decision yet on who to advise him on global affairs. Asked whether he had a team, Trump said on Tuesday: "Yes, there is a team. Well, there's not a team. I'm going to be forming a team at the appropriate time. I've met with far more than three people." Trump has given hints of the kind of advisor he would hire to promote his national security policy, much of which is focused on cracking down on Islamic State. He also promises to gut global trade deals and build a wall on the Mexican border to halt illegal immigration. Asked during a debate last week who he trusts on national security, Trump had warm words for three men with world views that differ from one another: former diplomat Richard Haass and retired U.S. Army officers Gen. Jack Keane and Col. Jack Jacobs. And on his campaign website last month, Trump announced that he had received endorsements in Florida from two "top national security experts." Foreign policy experts say they know little about those Trump supporters. They are Gary Berntsen, a former senior CIA officer, and retired Colonel James Waurishuk, a one-time deputy chief of intelligence for U.S. Central Command during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq who also once served on the National Security Council staff. "These people are not well known in foreign policy circles...I never heard of any of them," said Harvard professor and former Kennedy School of Government dean Joseph Nye. BUSH SNUB Waurishuk said on Tuesday he would have been happy to give advice if asked, by any presidential candidate, including Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. Apart from Trump, however, Waurishuk said that the only other candidate he had contact with was Republican Jeb Bush, who he says snubbed him when they met at an event in 2014. Bush "ignored me and walked away," Waurishuk said. Former CIA officer Berntsen is perhaps the best known of the three endorsers. A participant in efforts to hunt down Osama bin Laden, he later wrote a book entitled "Jawbreaker, The Attack on Bin Laden and Al Qaeda." According to The Hill newspaper, one of its contributors, J.D. Gordon, has also endorsed Trump. Gordon is a former Navy commander officer and former Pentagon spokesman. On Tuesday, Trump described U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions from Alabama, as someone he would consider for his team, adding that he would make a decision "in due time." Sessions is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and one of the few senior mainstream Republicans to endorse Trump. Sessions is not known as one of the partys leading foreign policy voices in the Senate. He opposes comprehensive immigration reform and supports tight border security measures. On Tuesday, Trump, dismissed criticism that his harsh rhetoric would damage America's standing in the world. Foreign diplomats from Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia have expressed alarm to U.S. government officials about Trump, calling his public statements inflammatory and insulting. The businessman shot back, saying diplomats are upset over his tough stance on trade and returning jobs to the United States as he seeks the party's nomination for the Nov. 8 presidential election. "Every country is ripping us off in trade, and other things. And they know that won't happen with me. I'm going to bring trade back, I'm going to bring our jobs back," Trump told Fox News. (Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Alistair Bell)
Policy & Funding

U.S. Education Department Makes Push for $1.1 Billion in CTE Funding

The United States Department of Education is looking to re-up a $1.1 billion investment in career and technical education. Education Secretary John B. King Jr. this week called for Congress to reauthorize the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006, a piece of bipartisan Bush-era legislation that funds CTE in middle schools, high schools and post-secondary institutions.

According to information released by ED, the administration's priorities for the reauthorization include alignment with the needs of the current labor market; greater collaboration between schools, post-secondary institutions and employers; improved "academic and employment" outcomes for students; and increased state and local involvement.

"We've come a long way from what we used to refer to as vocational education," said Acting U.S. Education Secretary John B. King Jr. in a prepared statement. "Today, every job that leads to a secure future requires critical thinking, problem solving and creativity, as well as some postsecondary education or training. The best career and technical education programs help students prepare for this future once they graduate from high school. Career and technical education is not just about preparing some students for successful lives and careers, it's about giving all students the tools to shape our future."

Reauthorization of Perkins has been in the works for several years. In 2012, the Congressional Research Service released a report for Congress detailing potential issues involved with reauthorization, which included measures of performance, competing priorities for CTE and the need for greater innovation in CTE programs. The full report can be viewed on wi.gov.

The U.S. Department of Education also announced a new competition called the Career Technical Education (CTE) Makeover Challenge. It calls of high school educators to submit proposals for makerspaces in their schools, either new spaces or renovations of existing spaces, and describe how the new design would impact students. Further information about the competition can be found at ctemakeoverchallenge.com.
By Mayank Bhardwaj NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Monsanto Co, the world's biggest seed company, threatened to pull out of India on Friday if the government imposed a big cut in royalties that local firms pay for its genetically modified cotton seeds. Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (India)(MMB), a joint venture with India's Mahyco, licenses a gene that produces its own pesticide to a number of local seed companies in lieu of royalties and an upfront payment. MMB also markets the seeds directly, though the local licensees together command 90 percent of the market. Acting on complaints of local seeds companies that MMB was charging high fees, the farm ministry last year formed a committee to look into the matter. The committee has now recommended about a 70 percent cut in royalty, or trait fee, that the seed companies pay to MMB, government sources said. The farm ministry is yet to take a decision on the committee's recommendation. "If the committee recommends imposing a sharp, mandatory cut in the trait fees paid on Bt-cotton seeds, MMB will have no choice but to re-evaluate every aspect of our position in India," Shilpa Divekar Nirula, Monsanto's chief executive for the India region, said in a statement. "It is difficult for MMB to justify bringing new technologies into India in an environment where such arbitrary and innovation stifling government interventions make it impossible to recoup research and development investments," she said. Shares of Monsanto India dropped as much as 7 pct to a near 2-year low before ending down 2.4 pct. MMB does not publish revenue figures or say how much it contributes to Monsanto's overall revenue. Separately, MMB has filed a case in a Delhi court, challenging the authority of the committee to determine the trade fee agreed upon by MMB and a number of Indian seed companies In a partnership with Mahyco, U.S.-based Monsanto launched a GM cotton variety in India in 2002 despite opposition from critics who questioned its safety, helping transform the country into the world's top producer and second-largest exporter of the fiber. In a ruling last month, the Competition Commission of India, the antitrust regulator, said there were indications that MMB had abused its dominant position in the country and asked its director general to complete an investigation within two months. The government-appointed committee has also recommended cutting Bt cotton seed prices to about 800 rupees for a packet of 400 grams. Currently Bt cotton seeds are being sold between 830 and 1100 rupees in different parts of the country. (Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Adrian Croft)
WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland will dispute the opinion of the Venice Commission, a panel of constitutional law experts of the human rights body Council of Europe, regarding changes in the country's constitutional court, the foreign minister said on Thursday. The Venice Commission is due to issue its opinion this week and a leaked draft said a government-sponsored reform of the constitutional court threatened the rule of law in Poland. "We will dispute this opinion," Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski told public radio on Thursday, adding the ministry has received a draft version of the opinion. The European Commission has said before it wants to see the opinion of the Venice Commission before making its own assessment of Poland's adherence to EU rule of law standards. The constitutional crisis in Poland deepened on Wednesday stirring concerns about democracy and the rule of law in the EU's largest eastern member after the top court ruled that the government's overhaul of the court was illegal. (Reporting by Marcin Goettig)
Airbus A320neo Qatar

In 2011, Airbus and Qatar Airways announced to great fanfare a 50-plane order for the new A320neo airliner.

Five years later, that deal could be jeopardy.

The Pratt & Whitney 1100G geared turbofans engines Qatar selected to power the planes are not up to Qatar's exacting standards, Bloomberg's Andrea Rothman reported.

According to Bloomberg, Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker told the press in Germany this week that his airline is at the point where they will either walkaway from the deal or select an alternative engine.

"While we dont discuss the details of our talks with customers, we can say that we are working closely with Qatar Airways to agree on deliveries and were confident that with Pratt & Whitneys support we will address any early learnings and meet our targets," Airbus said in a statement to Business Insider.

"The A320neo is already meeting its commitments regarding fuel burn, noise and weight."

At 2015 prices, the 50 A320neos are valued at roughly $5.3 billion, although it's likely Qatar negotiated a sizable wholesale discount.

The PW1100G engines are said to be experiencing uneven cooling, which leads to parts of the engine rubbing together, Bloomberg reported.

To alleviate these cooling problems, operators must run cool air through the engine for three minutes, Pratt & Whitney said in December.

However, Qatar Airways, which operates in an extreme Middle Eastern climate, is particularly wary of any potential overheating. Al Baker, who is known for his tough tactics, has also declined to take delivery of new airplanes for far less serious problems.

The A320neo, or "New Engine Option," is Airbus' next generation short/medium range airliner with upgraded aerodynamics, avionics and engines. The jet is supposed to deliver significantly improved range, acoustics, and fuel economy.

Much of the A320neo's magic comes from the two advanced engines options from CFM International and Pratt & Whitney.

Story continues

Airbus A320neo Pratt & Whitney 1100G

The Pratt & Whitney powerplant Qatar selected is considered to be one of the best new engines around. In fact, a variant of the geared turbofan engine can also be found on Bombardier's fuel-sipping C-Series airliner. Earlier this year, Delta Airlines CEO Richard Anderson praised the Pratt & Whitney engine's innovative technology.

Should Pratt not be able to come up with an acceptable fix in time, Qatar could opt for the CFM's highly acclaimed LEAP 1-A engine.

The Airbus A320neo quietly entered service in January with Germany's Lufthansa with the PW1100G engines. Although it should be noted that while Qatar's fleet spends much of its time in 100-plus degree desert heat, Lufthansa's A320neos tend to operate in more temperate locales.

Qatar Airways and Pratt & Whitney were not immediately available for comment.

NOW WATCH: Airbus invented a rocket-powered airliner that can cross the Atlantic in an hour





More From Business Insider


(Adds launch details)

By Will Caiger-Smith

NEW YORK, March 10 (IFR) - Brazil is set to raise US$1.5bn on Thursday from its first US dollar bond sale since 2014 as the indictment of the former president bolstered sentiment about the country's war on corruption.

Investors shrugged off the fact that the sovereign was downgraded to junk just weeks ago, pouring more than US$5bn of orders into the deal, a banker close to the trade told IFR.

That allowed leads to tighten pricing on the 10-year trade to 6.125% at launch from IPTs of 6.5% area - offering flat to 22.5bp in new issue concessions compared to Brazil's outstanding January 2025s seen anywhere between 5.9%-6.1%, said bankers and investors.

The surprise deal comes amid renewed hopes of a change in Brazil's government, which has been embroiled in a corruption scandal for much of the last two years.

"The risk premium across the curve has decreased," said an emerging markets analyst.

The yield on the 2025s was 7.2% on February 12, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Market players said the sovereign was likely trying to set a new benchmark that might help Brazilian corporates, hampered by the corruption scandal, to return to the debt markets.

But the buyside is still looking for a decent pick-up on the trade.

"The market is pretty much closed to Brazilian corporates at this time, so the sovereign wants to make sure there's a reference deal," said Sean Newman, senior emerging markets portfolio manager at Invesco.

"If [the new bond] comes inside 6.25% we would not find it attractive," he said.

Bookrunners Bank of America Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan are expected to price the deal later on Thursday.

Former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was indicted Wednesday on corruption charges, and the opposition is hoping to force current President Dilma Rousseff out of office.

(Reporting by Will Caiger-Smith; Editing by Marc Carnegie and Shankar Ramakrishnan)
There is no doubt that oil has been one of the hottest and most volatile commodities so far this year. It is again showing large swings in its prices. Over the last three weeks, oil prices spiked 42% since its collapse back on February 11, when it briefly sunk to $26 a barrel.

This may be a sign that the global oil market hasregained some momentum, possibly indicating that the worst might be over for the commodity.



Continued Oil Rebound in the Cards?

Over the last several years, United States domestic production has almost doubled, consequently driving out other oil imports. Oil from Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Algeria once sold in the U.S. are now competing in the growing Asian markets. Canadian and Iraqi oil exports have been rising continuously year after year. And Russian production has even managed to stay steady, despite the countrys economic problems.

There have been signs, however, that production is falling. On February 16, OPEC members Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Qatar, along with Russia, announced a plan to freeze output at current levels (for more information on OPEC, read our article Everything You Need to Know About OPEC).

Consulting firm Wood MacKenzie identified 68 large global oil and natural gas projects that have been put on holdsince prices began to fall. RBC Capital Markets, meanwhile, has calculated that other oil projects, some capable of producing a half million barrels of oil per day, were cancelled, delayed, or shelved by OPEC countries in 2015, with this year promising more of the same.

Despite this, a drop in production is not happening quickly enough, delaying the likelihood that prices will fully recover any time soon. Some analysts question how long the resurgence can be sustained since the global oil market remains substantially oversupplied.



Given the somewhat renewed optimism and improving supply & demand fundamentals, many oil ETFs and ETNs have seen smooth trading lately, and are doing better from longer time frames too. Two of the most popular ETFs in the space United States Oil Fund (USO)and PowerShares DB Oil Fund DBOboth provide exposure to WTI oil, and have gained 11.69% and 5.51% over the past month, respectively.



Though the duo might appear similar at a glance, there are a number of key differences between the two that are detailed below.



USO

Story continues

This is the largest and actively traded ETF in the oil space with AUM of $3.96 billion and average daily volume of around 527.15 million shares. The fund provides investors with exposure to front-month oil futures contract traded on the NYMEX. The expense ratio comes in at 0.74%.



As traders need to roll from one futures contract to another in order to avoid delivery, the fund is susceptible to roll yield. Notably, roll yield is positive when the futures market is in backwardation and negative when the futures market is in contango. Basically, if the price of the near month contract is higher than the next month futures contract, this is backwardation and the opposite holds true for contango.



DBO



Unlike USO, this ETF follows the DBIQ Optimum Yield Crude Oil Index Excess Return plus the interest income from the fund's holdings of primarily US Treasury securities. The Index employs the rules based approach when rolling from one futures contract to another in order to minimize the effect of contango.



Instead of automatically rolling into the near-month oil futures contract, the benchmark selects the futures contract with a delivery month within the next 13 months, when the best possible implied roll yield is generated. As a result, DBO potentially maximizes the roll benefits in backwardated markets and minimize the losses from rolling in contangoed markets.



The fund has an AUM of $449.71 million and an average daily volume of $11.98 million. It trades in good volume of 1,612,424 shares a day on average.



Bottom Line



While DBO has better roll strategies with higher potential returns, it lagged USO in terms of investor preference. First, DBO charges a 33-bp higher initial fee. Second, it has some hidden costs in the form of bid/ask spread as the ETF trades in lower volume than USO. Further, the construction of the ETF is a bit complex and requires systematic study of many futures contracts. Either way, both look to be promising choices if the oil price surge continues later this year.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >>



Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report



US-OIL FUND LP (USO): ETF Research Reports



PWRSH-DB OIL FD (DBO): ETF Research Reports



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



Zacks Investment Research
Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) -The banks providing $13 billion in financing for Tesla CEO Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter Inc have abandoned plans to sell the debt to investors because of uncertainty around the social media company's fortunes and losses, people familiar with the matter said. The banks are not planning to syndicate the debt as is typical with such acquisitions, and are instead planning to keep it on their balance sheets until there is more investor appetite, the sources said. The banks, which include Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and Barclays Plc, declined to comment.
GENEVA, March 10, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- At a time when markets are offering historically low yields and heightened volatility, multi-asset strategies have a good opportunity to prove their mettle and meet investor expectations. SYZ Asset Management, the institutional management division of the SYZ Group, is capitalizing on its expertise and newly acquired skills to add two new strategies to its range: Active Allocation and Risk-Based Allocation.

SYZ Asset Management has successfully offered Multi-Asset investment solutions to institutional investors for over 15 years, including an Active Allocation strategy since 1999 and the well-established Absolute Return strategy since 2003, both known for their active allocation style based on in-depth analysis of the macro-economic framework.

New skills

Recent arrivals in 2015 have brought new skills to SYZ Asset Management, which now offers a comprehensive range of Multi-Asset products. Hartwig Kos, Co-Head of the Multi-Asset team and Vice-CIO, has contributed in expanding research to cover new markets, currencies and asset classes. Using proprietary models, the two managers Guido Bolliger and Claude Cornioley have brought expertise in dynamic portfolio coverage as well as risk-based portfolio construction thanks to their recognised quantitative investment approach.

An expanded range

The addition of these skills has made it possible to add two new strategies to the existing range. Hartwig Kos, building on his experience of managing a multi-asset fund at Baring Asset Management, took over from 1 January the lead-management of OYSTER Multi-Asset Diversified. In collaboration with Fabrizio Quirighetti, Co-Head of the Multi-Asset team and CIO, he is targeting a similar performance to stock markets by adopting a dynamic capital allocation approach, but with less risk. Guido Bolliger and Claude Cornioley, two managers who bring strong quantitative skills, particularly at Dynagest, Olympia Capital and Julius Baer, lead the Risk-Based Allocation strategy. This strategy has a target of two-thirds of the performance of certain specified stock markets, with an aim of achieving this with one third of the corresponding risk. These two complementary approaches join the Absolute Return strategy, which aims to protect capital while offering a comparable risk-return profile to bond investments.

In the United Kingdom, SYZ Asset Management offers two UK-registered funds: OYSTER Absolute Return GBP and OYSTER Multi-Asset Absolute Return EUR.

A solid investment process

All these multi-asset strategies share the benefits of a common and formalised 3-leg investment process that has been developed and refined over 15 years: Economic Cycle Analysis, a detailed and standardised macro-economic analysis of the leading global economies, Asset Valuation Analysis, focussed on asset class valuations and the Investment Strategy Group, which ranks investment preferences based on the first two analyses. This shared investment process drives asset allocations in the various funds according to their specific objectives and risk profiles.

"I am delighted with the developments in SYZ Asset Management's Multi-Asset team. The expansion in asset classes covered addresses timing and asset allocation issues in an economic context of historically low rates, greater market volatility and less stable correlations between assets," says Fabrizio Quirighetti, Chief Investment Officer at SYZ Asset Management.

For further information, please contact:

Moreno Volpi

Tel.: +41 (0)58 799 16 98

E-mail: moreno.volpi@syzgroup.com

Administrative Information

OYSTER Absolute Return GBP

Available share classes ISIN Mgmt Fee Perf. fee Class I M GBP LU1130232017 0.50% -- Class R GBP D LU1130245779 0.50% --

Risk profile:

Lower risk Higher risk Potentially lower risk Potentially higher risk 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

OYSTER Multi-Asset Absolute Return EUR

Available share classes ISIN Mgmt Fee Perf. fee Class I M EUR PR LU1130167288 0.50% Max. 10.00 (Relative)*

* The percentage indicated for the performance fee applies to net annual outperformance relative to the following benchmark: BofAML Euro LIBOR 1 Month Constant Maturity TR EUR

Risk profile:

Lower risk Higher risk Potentially lower risk Potentially higher risk 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

The prospectus, the key investor information documents, the articles of association and the annual and semi-annual reports on the funds are available from the representative and payment agents.

Note to the Editor

About SYZ Asset Management*

SYZ Asset Management, the institutional asset management division of the SYZ Group, provides investment solutions to Swiss and international institutional investors, such as pension funds, insurance companies, corporations and investment funds. SYZ Asset Management meets the highest standards in terms of institutional management and service to its clients using its own resources as regards economic research and financial analysis as well as in portfolio management and risk management.

*Any reference to SYZ Asset Management (SYZ AM) in this document, should be construed as being a reference to any one or more of the legal entities, listed below, dependent on the particular jurisdiction in which the document is published, subject to the investment products and services referred to herein being available to potential investors or categories of investors in such jurisdictions.

SYZ Asset Management (Luxembourg) SA, SYZ Asset Management (Suisse) SA, SYZ Asset Management (Asia) Limited, SYZ Asset Management (Europe) Limited, SYZ (France) SAS

About SYZ Group

Founded in 1996 in Geneva, Swiss banking group SYZ focuses exclusively on asset management via two complementary pillars: high-end private banking and asset management. SYZ employs 575 staff and has CHF 39 billion in assets under management (EUR 36 billion, USD 39 billion). Headquartered in Geneva, the Group also has offices in Zurich, Lugano, Locarno, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Zaragoza, London, Luxembourg, Brussels, Paris, Dubai, Johannesburg, Miami, Nassau and Hong Kong.

www.syzgroup.com

About OYSTER Funds

OYSTER is SYZ Asset Management's UCITS investment fund range, developed by SYZ Asset Management to address the needs of a diversified client base including professionals. With a strong commitment to performance, this Luxembourg SICAV comprises nearly 30 sub-funds, covering a variety of asset classes, markets and investment styles. OYSTER is currently registered and/or distributed in various European and Asian countries through a vast distribution network. To satisfy a discerning and demanding client base, SYZ Asset Management entrusts management of its OYSTER funds to internal and external fund managers. A number of strategies have resulted in certain sub funds being the recipients of internationally recognised awards.

www.oysterfunds.com

This document has been issued in the UK by SYZ Asset Management (Europe) Limited (authorised and regulated by the FCA with reference number 666766)

Contacts

OYSTER Sicav SYZ Asset Management 11-13 Boulevard de la Foire (Luxembourg) SA L-1528 Luxembourg 54 rue Charles Martel info@oysterfunds.com L-2134 Luxembourg Tel. : +352 26 27 36 1

REPRESENTATIVES

Switzerland Germany Italy Service de paiement Zahlstelle Soggetto incaricato dei pagamenti Banque SYZ SA BHF-BANK AG RBC Investor Services Bank SA Succursale di Milano Rue du Rhone 30 Bockenheimer Landstrasse 10 Vie Vittor Pisani 26 CH-1204 Geneve D-60323 Frankfurt I-20124 Milano Tel. : +41 (0)58 799 19 05 Tel.: +49 (0)69 718 22 75 Tel.: +39 02 305 756 1 France Soggeto incaricato dei pagamenti Representant Agent centralisateur State Street Bank SpA SYZ Asset Management (Suisse) SA BNP Paribas Securities Services Via Col Moschin 16 Rue du Rhone 30 9 rue du Debarcadere I-20136 Milano CH-1204 Geneve F-93500 Pantin Tel.: +39 02 879 671 53 Tel.: +41 (0)58 799 19 05 Tel. : +33 1 57 43 12 58 Soggeto incaricato dei pagamenti Spain Austria Societe Generale Securities Services SpA Entidad comercializadora Zahlstelle Via Benigno Crespi 19/A-MAC 2 Allfunds Bank Raiffeisen Bank International AG I-20159 Milano C/ Estafeta N6 (La Moraleja) Am Stadtpark 9 Tel.: 39 02 917 846 61 Complejo Pza. de la Fuente- Edificio 3 A-1030 Wien 28109 Alcobendas Tel.: +43 (0)1 717 070 Soggeto incaricato dei pagamenti Tel.: +34 (0)91 274 64 00 Allfunds Bank SA Via Santa Margherita 7 I-20121 Milano Tel.: +39 02 896 283 01 Belgium Sweden Agent financier - Financiele agent Paying Agent Caceis Belgium SA MFEX Mutual Funds Exchange AB Avenue du Port 320 Linnegatan 9-11 Havenlaan 86C b 114 47 - Stockholm B-1000 Bruxelles Sweden Tel. : +32 (0)2 209 26 40 Tel.: +46 (0)8 559 03 650 United Kingdom Representative SYZ Asset Management (Europe) Limited Authorised and Regulated by the FCA Southwest House 11a Regent Street London SW1Y 4LR Tel: +44 (0) 20 30 400 500

Disclaimer

Oyster SICAV is an open-ended multi-fund investment company established and regulated in Luxembourg and is managed by SYZ Asset Management (Luxembourg) SA which is described in this document as "SYZ Asset Management". Oyster SICAV is recognised by the FCA under s. 264 Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 with reference number 534187. This document has been issued in the United Kingdom by SYZ Asset Management (Europe) Ltd (authorised and regulated by the FCA (with reference number 666766). SYZ Asset Management (Europe) Ltd market the Oyster SICAV in the UK and copies in English of the SICAV's current Prospectus and Key Investor Information Document can be obtained from them. Instructions to purchase or redeem shares of any class available to UK Investors can also be placed with them. Potential investors in the United Kingdom are advised that none of the protections afforded by the UK regulatory system will apply to an investment in any Oyster SICAV sub fund and that compensation will not generally be available under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. An investment in sub-funds of Oyster SICAV involves risks that are more fully described in the Prospectus. The content of this advertisement is provided solely for information purposes and constitutes neither a recommendation to buy or sell. Always consider taking independent investment advice from a person authorised and regulated by the FCA prior to investing.

Press release mutli-asset: http://hugin.info/166509/R/1993346/733841.pdf
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ
Check back often for new Q&As, and for daily historical factoids about books. On Facebook at www.facebook.com/deborahkalbbooks. Follow me on Twitter @deborahkalb.
New Delhi: Industrialist Vijay Mallya has left the country the day public sector banks, to whom he owed over Rs 9,000 crore in loans, moved the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) on March 2, 2016 against him, attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi informed the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Mr Rohatgi, appearing for a consortium of banks, made this submission before a bench of Justices Kurian Joseph and Rohinton Nariman when the Bench wanted to know the whereabouts of Mr Mallya and whether he will receive court notice.

Mr Rohatgi submitted that he asked the CBI a few minutes ago about Mr Mallya, and he was informed that the Rajya Sabha MP had left India on March 2, the day the banks approached the Debt Recovery Tribunal.
In worldwide trade, gold weakened for the third straight session and traded within a narrow range amid caution ahead of the ECB rate decision.

Mumbai: Gold prices drifted further to close below the significant milestone mark of Rs 29,000 as intense selling continued for a second straight day at the domestic bullion market here. Strong rupee value as well as profit taking by jewellery traders and investors after its recent swift rally largely impacted trading sentiment, a bullion trader said.

Elsewhere, silver also moved down owing to subdued demand from consuming industries. Standard gold (99.5 purity) slipped by Rs 255 to conclude at Rs 28,945 per 10 grams from overnight closing value of Rs 29,200. Pure gold (99.9 purity) also fell by a similar margin to end at Rs 29,095 per 10 grams as compared to Rs 29,350 earlier. Silver (.999 fineness) moved down by Rs 150 per kg to settle at Rs 37,350 from Wednesday's finish of Rs 37,500.

In worldwide trade, gold weakened for the third straight session and traded within a narrow range amid caution ahead of the ECB rate decision. Investors are expecting the European Central Bank to unveil further easing measures through adjustments to the quantitative easing program to avoid another recession. Spot was trading weak at USD 1,249.10 an ounce in early European trade, while silver quoted little changed at USD 15.26 an ounce.
Mumbai: Key benchmark indices extended their losses, with the Sensex falling 294 points and the Nifty 69 points, weighed down by sustained selling mainly in IT and technology. The BSE Sensex opened higher before quoting at 24,499.57 at 1221 hours, down 294.39 points or 1.19 per cent.

The NSE Nifty-50 was also down by 68.65 points, or 0.91 per cent, at 7,463.15 at 1221 hours. Major losers were Infosys 2.65 per cent, Reliance 1.88 per cent, Larsen 1.78 per cent and Bhel 1.63 per cent. Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 462.86 crore yesterday, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.

Most other Asian stocks edged higher after New Zealand surprised markets with a rate cut, keeping investors primed for more stimulus from the European Central Bank (ECB) later today. Global policymakers are stepping up efforts to revive their weak economies.

A rebound in the price of oil, a source of recent anxiety, also calmed investor nerves. US stocks closed modestly higher yesterday as a rally in oil prices and sharp advances in energy and technology stocks kept the main indices upbeat.
Going by the picture, it seems that Anurag Kashyap is gearing up to join the 'six-pack abs' club.

Mumbai: Seems like Bollywood filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, wholl be soon seen in Sonakshi Sinha starrer Akira in a negative role, plans on being a full time actor.

Going by the picture, it seems that Anurag Kashyap is gearing up for a full-time career as an actor in the film industry. Anurag, who played a small role in film I Am, was spotted sweating it out in the gym alongside Shirish Kunders brother, Ashmit Kunder.

Well not be surprised if the director joins the six-pack abs club in the industry. Not many know this but while shooting for 'Bombay Velvet', Anurag used to work out with Ranbir Kapoor, during which he lost a lot of weight.

Earlier in an interview, Sonakshi Sinha revealed that Anurags performance in the action-drama will surprise everyone. The actress went ahead saying that the audiences will get scared of Anurags power-packed performance as a villain in the well.

I was convincing him (Anurag Kashyap) to become an actor now. He has fit the role, the character so well Youll really connect with him in that way. You will actually be scared of him Hes played the character really well. He is a great actor, Sonakshi told reporters at an event.

The filmmaker recently wrapped up 'Raman Raghav 2.0' which stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui.

The film is titled 'Raman Raghav 2.0' and apparently the character was going to be a part of 'Bombay Velvet'. It is a small budget film.

Raman Raghav known as Psycho Raman, committed a spate of murder and assaults in the mid-1960s.
While Hrithik matches up to Sylvester Stallones Rambo physique, fans wonder if the remake will stay true to the franchise.

Heres an exciting new development on Hrithik Roshans desi Rambo remake. Reports have been doing the rounds that the Bollywood hunk has been roped in to star in the Hollywood remake of the hit franchise Rambo.

Hrithik took to his social networking handle on Thursday afternoon, to comment on the reports, and surprisingly didn't have much to say. The actor shared a newspaper clipping of the story and said, Lovely.

Reports doing the rounds stated that director Sidharth Anand, who directed Hrithik in Bang Bang- the Bollywood remake of Knight and Day, has bought the remake rights of Rambo, and is in talks with Hrithik for the leading role in the film.

While there is no doubt that Hrithik matches up to Sylvester Stallones Rambo physique, fans of the Hollywood franchise worry if the remake would stay true to its political connotations.

However, itll be months before we see Hrithik put on his army uniform and head to the jungle for the project as he is currently tied up with his Kaabil shoot. Hrithik will begin shooting for the Sanjay Gupta's romantic tale later this month.
Rowling posted the first part of a four-part series, the "History of Magic in North America" on her website Pottermore, on March 8. (Photo: Facebook)

London: "Harry Potter" author JK Rowling has been accused of appropriating the "living tradition of a marginalised people" by writing about the Navajo legend of the

skinwalker in a new story.

Rowling posted the first part of a four-part series, the "History of Magic in North America" on her website Pottermore, on March 8, depicting the magical history of America within her fictional universe of witches and wizards.

The series of stories, titled "A History of Magic in North America", will give fans the historical background to the latest "Harry Potter" film, "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", ahead of its November release, reported Guardian online.

But it has upset a number of Native American writers and activists, who have objected to the new material's depiction of their spiritual beliefs.

In particular, the inclusion of characters based on the Native American concept of 'skinwalkers' - humans who can transform into animals at will - in publicity materials and a video trailer have led to accusations of cultural insensitivity.

Dr Adrienne Keene, a Cherokee scholar, called out the novelist on Twitter, posting, "You can't just claim and take a living tradition of a marginalized people. That's straight up colonialism/appropriation @jk_rowling."

Keene detailed her objections at length on her blog, writing, "Native spirituality and religions are not fantasy on the same level as wizards. These beliefs are alive, practiced, and protected. The fact that the trailer even mentions the Navajo concept of skinwalkers sends red flags all over the place, and that it's mentioned next to the Salem witch trials (in Massachusetts) Disaster... Navajo writer Brian Young wrote on Twitter that he was "broken hearted" about the new piece of writing.

"JK Rowling, my beliefs are not fantasy. If ever there was a need for diversity in YA lit it is bullsh!t like this, said Young. "My ancestors didn't survive colonisation so you could use our culture as a convenient prop." Rowling's representatives have yet to respond to a request for comment.
Closing the gender gap could add $12 trillion to global gross domestic product by 2025, according to a report from the McKinsey Global Institute.

Progress, suggests the global consulting firm's economic research group, depends on the creation of economic opportunity, effective laws, policies and regulations and not least of all, a shift in the global mindset toward women and equality.

Of the 10 countries perceived to be the worst in terms of gender equality -- based on data from the 2016 Best Countries rankings that evaluated 60 countries -- eight are Muslim-majority nations. Islamic Sharia law often plays a large role in the governance of personal matters like marriage, divorce and inheritance among Muslim populations.

Cultural traditions can dictate different interpretations of the code, but common gender-based discrimination includes stipulations that women cannot pass citizenship to their children, spousal rape is not illegal, two women are equal to one man in court and women cannot divorce their husbands.

The Best Countries rankings are a characterization of 60 countries based on a survey of more than 16,000 people from four regions. In the survey, respondents answered how closely they related each of the 60 countries to the term "gender equality." Respondents were given no further specifications of the term, so interpretation of the phrase "gender equality" was left to survey respondents. Here are the top 10 worst countries for gender equality, ranked by perception.

No. 10: Jordan

Despite education levels that are equal to or greater than those of men, Jordanian women do not have equal economic opportunity or participation; at 20 percent, unemployment among women is more than double that of men, according to the World Bank. Queen Rania Al Abdullah is an active and outspoken advocate for women's empowerment in Jordan and abroad, most recently winning the Mohammed Bin Rashid Medal of Honor for Women at the Global Women's Forum in Dubai. Women are legally guaranteed 15 of parliament's 225 seats in an electoral law updated in 2012.



Story continues

No. 9: Egypt

Egypt's well-educated women were active participants in Cairo's Tahrir Square protests, where they were subject to alarming rates of rape and sexual assault. In response to complaints, the government established a department to investigate violent crimes against women in May 2013. A reformed constitution from 2014 explicitly guarantees gender equality, but the law is not consistently enforced. Egypt is also home to the largest number of women and girls who have undergone female genital mutilation, a practice that more than 90 percent of married Egyptian women between ages 15 and 49 have been subjected to, according to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Health and Population.



No. 8: Indonesia

Hundreds of discriminatory laws -- from a ban on dancing to mandatory head scarf use -- are written into local code in this decentralized archipelagic state. The Indonesian government has declared a "no tolerance policy" on violence against women, but the National Commission on Violence Against Women found that the number of reported incidents almost tripled between 2010 and 2014. The average wage for females working in urban Indonesia was 30 percent lower than the average for that of their male counterparts, according to a 2014 Asian Development Bank study, and female military recruits are subject to a virginity test.



No. 7: Turkey

Turkey was the first Muslim-majority nation to form a secular state, affording women the right to vote and equal rights in personal matters like divorce and child custody earlier than may have been otherwise. At No. 39, the country ranks higher in Best Countries for Women overall, but lags behind its European neighbors when it comes to women's participation in government and the labor force. These inequalities have raised concerns during the country's European Union membership negotiations. The murder of Ozgecan Aslan, a college student who was slain after resisting attempted rape, garnered the attention of international rights groups.



No. 6: Iran

Iran is one of six member nations that has not ratified the United Nation's Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, a decades-old treaty that aims to standardize the rights of women across the globe. Progressive gender equality laws reverted after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and gender segregation exists in the workplace, sporting events and more. Iran ranks 141 out of 145 countries in the World Economic Forum's 2015 Global Gender Gap Index.



No. 5: Malaysia

A patriarchal society typical of Asian nations, coupled with conservative Muslim law does not encourage gender equality. The 30% Club, a British organization that aims to have 30 percent female representation on leadership boards, launched a chapter in Malaysia in May 2015. The country is one of the poorest performing upper-middle-income nations when it comes to gender equality, especially in terms of female political empowerment, according to the World Economic Forum. As others improve, Malaysia's measures remain relatively stagnant and reflect a downward trend in Global Gender Gap Index rankings.



No. 4: Algeria

Women hold about a third of parliamentary seats in Algeria, an impressive ratio compared to global averages of less than 20 percent. The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women, launched a three-year program in September 2015 to enhance the role of women in elected positions and further understanding of women's rights in the nation. While female employment is not restricted by industry, stereotypes and societal norms in the Arab nation create workplace discrimination.



No. 3: India

India stands to gain the most from increased gender equality, according to a 2015 report from the McKinsey Global Institute. Female participation in the labor force hovers around 30 percent, but a substantial increase could add $700 billion to the national economy and increase gross domestic product by 1.3 percent by 2025, the report says. Male children often receive preferential treatment and it is not uncommon for pregnancies to be aborted once it is determined the sex is female, creating a young population that is disproportionately male.



No. 2: South Korea

Female workers in South Korea earn a third less than their male counterparts on average, the highest gender wage gap among Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development member nations. Labor force participation is high among women between the ages of 20 and 25, but shifts to part-time employment in later years. Park Geun-hye became the nation's first female president in 2013. She promised expanded child care and female management development programs during her campaign.



No. 1: Saudi Arabia

Some of the strictest interpretations of Sharia law are practiced in Saudi Arabia, enforced by the nation's religious police force. Women are considered minors under male guardians known as 'mahrams,' whom they are not permitted to leave home without, whether it be to go shopping or to a doctor's appointment. A historic election in 2015 granted Saudi women the right to vote for the first time, but they are not permitted to drive and most public spaces are segregated.



Want to Know More?

Explore Best Countries data, rankings -- including the Best Countries for Women and Most Corrupt Countries -- and news on U.S. News.

Deidre McPhillips is a data reporter at U.S. News. You can find her on Twitter or email her at dmcphillips@usnews.com.
Los Angeles (AFP) - A Los Angeles judge on Tuesday dismissed a case in which Dole Food Company was accused of involvement in 57 murders in Colombia, the company said.

The lawsuit had been brought by 167 plaintiffs who alleged the California-based multinational had funded violent paramilitaries during the countrys civil conflict.

Superior Court Judge Jane Johnson took the action after Dole attorneys earlier this month asked that the case be thrown out.

The case cannot be retried.

The Colombian plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in 2009 alleging Dole paid a right-wing paramilitary group known in Spanish as Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia between 1997 and 2006 to provide security for banana-growing operations.

The victims were union-member employees of a Dole subsidiary who had raised complaints or were living on land the company wanted for its operations, the plaintiffs said.

They accused the company of direct involvement in the violence.

Dole, which had always denied the allegations, welcomed the action.

"This is a long overdue dismissal of a case that should never have been brought in the first place," Genevieve Kelly, Dole vice president and general counsel, said in a statement.

"These plaintiffs' lawyers acted in bad faith throughout almost seven years of litigation in trying to extract undeserved payments from the company and making false and inflammatory accusations," she said.
Vyjayanthi Kashi, Kuchipudi exponent and member of Sangeet Natak Akademi from Bengaluru, was in the city as part of a dance festival at Shilparamam.

My grandfather Dr Gubbi Veeranna was deep into the promotion of Indian theatre through his Gubbi theatre, said Vyjayanthi, adding, He was even responsible for inspiring Surabhi theatre in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh.

Vyjayanthi is currently working on the project Eternal Kanya, based on the life of Devi Kanya Kumari. There is a need to find out the reason why you were born and work towards achieving your purpose. For some time, I also helped people suffering from depression, down syndrome, etc., to stabilise their life through dance movements and therapy. Shastras have always talked about dance giving you many things in life in terms of fame, money including Sampoorna Aarogyam.

Talking about the residential dance school Shambhavi School of Dance at Bengaluru, wherein Kuchipudi is taught to students from all over the world, Vyjayanthi said, My daughter Prateeksha Kashi has been performing the dance production Rudrama Devi for the past two years. This production is all about the valour of Rani Rudrama Devi, who was a ruler of the Kakatiya Dynasty from the Warangal region. Sreelaxmi from Kerala, Yael Tal from Israel, Leelavati from Italy, Srivani from USA and Gururaju from Bengaluru are some of my disciples who are taking the art form to a larger audience.

Today, the number of students learning traditional dance has increased tremendously. But, at the same time, the patience level of the students is on the decline. They do not have the time to understand the approach and philosophy of their guru. One need not try and become a photocopy of the guru because there is a need to understand the larger gamut of art and create an individual style, she concluded.

 The writer is a musician, creator of Jaywant Guitar and a photographer
Berlin (AFP) - The German and Greek leaders blasted Balkan countries for shutting their borders to migrants ahead of an EU ministers meeting Thursday, with Greek Premier Alexis Tsipras warning that the EU "has no future if it goes on like that".

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel said the closures are "neither sustainable nor lasting" in tackling Europe's biggest migrant crisis since World War II and would leave Greece bearing the burden of the influx.

Underlining the deep divisions cleaving the bloc, Merkel and Tsipras' reactions flew in the face of the response of EU President Donald Tusk, who welcomed the route closure as being part of a collective response of the 28-member EU.

The strong words came after Slovenia and Croatia barred entry to transiting migrants from Wednesday and Serbia indicated it would follow suit.

EU member Slovenia said it would allow in only migrants wishing to claim asylum there or 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 Tusk on Twitter called the decision "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," he wrote.

Tsipras retorted on Twitter that Tusk should "focus efforts on implementing our common decisions and not encourage those who ignore them".

- Leaving Greece in the lurch -

The EU has been locked in dispute over how to stem an unprecedented influx of migrants that reached more than a million in 2015, many from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq and most aiming to reach wealthy Germany, Austria and Scandinavia.

Under pressure at home to reduce the influx, Merkel acknowledged that the western Balkan states' action "will obviously bring us fewer refugees, but they put Greece in a very difficult situation".

Story continues

Her Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel noted that while some at home are "secretly pleased that the Balkan states... are doing Germany's dirty work", their actions would not help in the long term.

Merkel is battling to avoid leaving Greece in the lurch as the number of migrants stranded there is still steadily growing.

Greek authorities said Thursday there were 41,973 asylum seekers in the country, including some 12,000 stuck at Idomeni on the closed Macedonian border.

Migrants also did not appear dissuaded by latest developments, and were still risking their lives to cross to Europe.

At least another five migrants, including a baby, drowned as they tried to sail from Turkey to Greece, the Dogan news agency reported on Thursday.

Merkel wants a comprehensive European deal with Turkey to stop asylum seekers from jumping on unseaworthy rubber boats to get to Europe.

The plan involves joint action with Ankara to tighten the EU's external borders, while also distributing refugees among EU members.

"If we do not manage to reach a deal with Turkey, then Greece cannot bear the burden for long," she told public radio MDR.

"That's why I am seeking a real European solution, that is, a solution for all 28 (EU members)," stressed Merkel, who was once vilified in Greece over her hardline push for austerity, but who is today standing firmly by Athens.

- Vienna criticises Turkey deal -

But the mooted Turkish deal is controversial, and ahead of an EU interior ministers meeting later Thursday, Vienna signaled its opposition.

"I am extremely critical. I am seriously wondering whether we are taking ourselves and our values seriously or if we are throwing them overboard," said Austria's interior minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner, in a reference to concerns over human rights violations in Turkey.

The mooted Ankara-Brussels deal, discussed at an EU summit on Monday and due to be finalised on March 17-18, would see Turkey 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, 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.

Ankara's EU affairs minister Volkan Bozkir underlined Thursday however that the deal would not be retroactive, and would "not include the existing refugees on the Greek islands".
Niamey (AFP) - The head of Niger's national electoral commission (CENI) on Thursday said the country's presidential run-off vote will go ahead as planned, even after the opposition declared that its candidate was withdrawing from the race.

"We are determined to organise these polls on March 20," CENI chief Boube Ibrahim told reporters in Niamey, adding that the commission had to respect "constitutional deadlines".

Niger's opposition coalition, known as COPA 2016, on Tuesday announced that its jailed candidate Hama Amadou was dropping out of the "unfair" race.

But Boube Ibrahim said CENI had yet to be formally notified of Amadou's decision.

Amadou, a former prime minister, has been held in jail since November on shadowy baby-trafficking charges he says are politically motivated.

Despite having to campaign from behind bars, he came second in the first round on February 21 with nearly 18 percent of the votes, and is set to face off against incumbent President Mahamadou Issoufou, who took 48 percent.

The opposition has accused the government of fraud in the first round, claiming "unfair treatment between the two candidates" and complaining that the Constitutional Court has yet to officially confirm the first-round results.

The government maintains the polls were "free and transparent" while the African Union, which sent observers, said it was generally satisfied with the organisation of the vote, despite logistical glitches and delays.

Niger's Interior Minister Hassoumi Massaoudou had earlier told AFP the second round would take place as planned, in what will be the impoverished country's first-ever run-off vote.

President Issoufou, 63, is seeking a second five-year term.

A total of 7.5 million people were eligible to vote in the country, which lies on the edge of the Sahara desert, where security is a growing concern after attacks by jihadists from neighbouring Nigeria, Mali and Libya.

Niger's Court of Cassation must rule on whether to go ahead with Amadou's baby-trafficking trial on March 23, three days after the run-off ballot.
(Reuters) - A man suspected of killing four people in Kansas and one in Missouri was arrested in Missouri early on Wednesday after a 17-hour manhunt, Missouri state police said.

Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino was captured in Montgomery County in eastern Missouri, the state highway patrol said. He was being held on $2 million bond.

Before the arrest, a prosecutor in Kansas had filed four first-degree murder charges against him.

Serrano-Vitorino, 40, also was wanted for questioning in a slaying in New Florence, Missouri, about 170 miles east of Kansas City, Missouri officials said.

Serrano-Vitorino is a Mexican national who was deported from the United States in 2004. He later illegally re-entered the country, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.

He was deported after being imprisoned for a March 2003 conviction in California on a felony charge of making a terrorist threat, the immigration agency said.

Serrano-Vitorino was charged on Tuesday in four fatal shootings at a home in Kansas City, Kansas, Wyandotte County District Attorney Jerome Gorman said. The Kansas City Star reported that the murders took place in the house next door to the suspect's residence, and two of the victims were brothers.

Serrano-Vitorino was captured after a citizen reported being approached by a man with a gun, a Missouri State Highway Patrol statement said. After that report, two troopers spotted the suspect face-down in a ditch and took him into custody without resistance, police said. A rifle was recovered.

(Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales and Victoria Cavaliere; Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by David Gregorio)
MSHA's Main Celebrates Agency's Progress

"In 2015, 28 miners lost their lives, the lowest number of deaths ever recorded in a single year.... I am proud to be part of this institution and its legacy," Assistant Secretary Joseph A. Main wrote in a blog post honoring the agency on its 38th birthday.

Assistant Secretary Joseph A. Main celebrated the 38th birthday of the Mine Safety and Health Administration with a post on the DOL blog about its progress to date. MSHA was created when the Department of the Interior's Mining Enforcement and Safety Administration was permanently transferred to the Department of Labor.

"To get a sense of mining's legislative history in this country, you have to go back to 1891, when Congress passed the first federal statute governing mine safety. In 1910, following a decade in which the number of coal mine fatalities exceeded 2,000 annually, Congress established the Bureau of Mines within DOI. It was granted no inspection authority until 1941, when federal inspectors were finally empowered to enter mines. Six years later, the first code of federal regulations for mine safety was authorized," Main wrote. "Fast forward to 1973, when the secretary of interior, through administrative action, created the Mining Enforcement and Safety Administration as a new departmental agency separate from the Bureau of Mines. MESA assumed the safety and health enforcement functions formerly carried out by the bureau to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest between the enforcement of mine safety and health standards and the bureau's responsibilities for mineral resource development. And on March 9, 1978, implementation of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 began, which included the transfer of MESA to the Labor Department, where it was renamed the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Like previous mining laws, this legislation was born out of mining injuries, illnesses, deaths and terrible mining disasters. Unlike the Coal Act of 1969, which was passed after national outrage over the deaths of 78 miners in West Virginia the previous year, it extended the same protections to workers at metal and nonmetal mining operations.

"Since its inception, MSHA has had a profound history of protecting the health and safety of our nation's miners, tackling many serious safety hazards and health risks. In 1978, 242 miners perished in mining accidents in the United States. The number steadily dropped over the years, and in 2015, 28 miners lost their lives, the lowest number of deaths ever recorded in a single year. Thanks to strategic enforcement initiatives such as impact inspections that quickly address problem mines, the pattern of violations tool that targets mines with chronic violations, the final respirable coal dust rule that will end black lung disease once and for all, compliance assistance, and training and outreach to the mining industry, more miners will return home to their loved ones, safe and healthy, after every shift. I am proud to be part of this institution and its legacy."
A piece of debris found in Mozambique arrived in Malaysia on Thursday for initial investigations into whether it came from missing flight MH370 before being taken to Australia for deeper analysis, officials said.

Department of Civil Aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman confirmed to AFP that the one-metre long (three-foot) object was in Malaysia.

He declined to provide further details but Malaysia's transport minister told local media it would be passed along to Australia, which is leading a huge Indian Ocean search for the missing aircraft.

"We will send it to Australia for further examinations," Liow Tiong Lai was quoted as saying.

Liow has previously said there is a "high probability" the piece of debris came from a Boeing 777.

The debris could provide fresh clues into the mystery of the Malaysia Airlines flight, a Boeing 777.

Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester said last week the debris would be analysed there by Malaysian and Australian officials and specialists, including from Boeing, to determine its origin.

Mozambican authorities on Monday had handed over the debris to Malaysian experts after it was found washed up on a sandbar by an American amateur investigator.

Tuesday marked the second anniversary of the plane's disappearance.

MH370 was carrying 239 passengers and crew when it vanished on March 8, 2014 on an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Last July, a wing fragment was found washed ashore on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion and later confirmed to be from the plane.

More possible MH370 debris in the same area was found on Sunday and authorities are studying it.

But the search has been unable to pinpoint an actual crash site, which could help to solve the baffling mystery.

skc/dma/mtp
A Frenchman described as "radicalised" was arrested in Morocco after arriving on a flight with a machete, knives and a gas bottle in his luggage, French authorities said Wednesday.

The 31-year-old man, who had previously been under house arrest in France, was held upon arrival in Fez on Sunday, where authorities discovered the items, as well as a black balaclava, in his luggage.

He was not challenged as he checked in with low-cost airline Ryanair from Nantes in western France, despite heightened security following an Islamic State group attack on Paris in November that left 130 people dead.

Local government officials identified him as convert Manuel Broustail, a former soldier who was expelled from the army in 2014 following a report that he had been radicalised during a mission in Djibouti.

He then became the leader of a group of radicalised Muslims in the city of Angers, also in western France, even organising "paramilitary-style training exercises", including one that took place just days before the November attacks, according to French intelligence.

He was arrested in November after the attacks and placed under house arrest.

The municipality of the Loire-Atlantique region said Broustail was no longer under house arrest when he checked in for the flight, and there was no reason to stop him leaving France.

According to photos published in Moroccan media, Broustail's luggage appeared to contain at least four kitchen knives, a machete, two pocket knives, a truncheon, a balaclava and gas bottle.

Another photo showed Broustail with a bald head and long, bushy beard.

The municipality said France had signalled the man's presence to the Moroccan authorities and that his arrest in Fez "was not a matter of chance".

The Dublin-based carrier Ryanair told AFP the case was "the responsibility of Nantes airport security officials who are investigating".

The municipality said his hand luggage had contained nothing out of the ordinary, and his checked baggage had not raised alarm bells when passing through electronic detectors as it did not contain explosives.

bar/fb/gd/hmw/tm/jah
Overstretched Afghan forces are pulling back from violent southern districts without a fight, ceding key territory to the resurgent Taliban as part of an unprecedented "strategic retreat" that has stoked fears government control is slipping. Beset by record casualties, desertions and troop shortages, Afghan troops have recently abandoned outposts in parts of central Uruzgan province, extending a withdrawal which began last month. They have already pulled out of Musa Qala and Nowzad districts in neighbouring Helmand, bastions that foreign troops struggled for years to defend as the opium-rich region teeters on the brink of collapse. The retreat has triggered fevered speculation about possible government backroom deals with the Taliban at a time when international efforts are growing to bring the insurgents to the negotiating table. "Once you start pulling out troops and surrendering hard-won territory, you are basically admitting that the Taliban have won," said Mohammad Ismail, a tribal elder from Musa Qala who fled the area after government troops pulled out. "This is a betrayal to all those who have sacrificed their lives to defend these areas over 15 years." The withdrawal, which comes as Afghan forces struggle to fight off the increasingly bloody insurgency, has sparked concerns that the government is fast losing control of volatile Helmand. The Taliban effectively control or contest at least 10 of the 14 districts in Afghanistan's biggest centre for opium production, a lucrative source of insurgent funding which makes the province a hotly contested area. - 'Effectively a surrender' - But Afghan commanders dismiss claims of any Taliban deal, describing the recent withdrawals as a "tactical" manouevre aimed at consolidating forces from isolated, hard-to-defend areas. "Those who are criticising the plan do not know the art of war," defence ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri told AFP. "We are not withdrawing from Helmand; Afghan forces are being redistributed in order to mount more effective offensives against the enemy." Many of the hundreds of withdrawn forces have been redeployed to beef up a security belt around Lashkar Gah, Helmand's capital which recently came close to falling to the Taliban, officials said. But many experts reject government claims that the withdrawal qualified as a "strategic retreat". "This new strategy is effectively a surrender to the Taliban. That's because there's no reason to think that this territory will be taken back anytime soon," said Michael Kugelman, Afghanistan expert at Washington-based think tank the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. "A strategic retreat suggests that at some later point Afghan forces will return to reengage the Taliban and take back control. "Afghan forces are overstretched and under-resourced. I can't see them being in a position to win back these areas." - 'Defend everywhere, defend nowhere' - The plan reflects a longstanding demand from NATO, which has been advising Afghan forces -- stretched thin across multiple fronts across Afghanistan -- to reduce its footprint around the country. "They (Afghan forces) have got too many checkpoints and they've got too many of their forces strung out on checkpoints," US military spokesman Brigadier General Wilson Shoffner told reporters in January. "There's an old military saying that if you defend everywhere, you defend nowhere, and this is particularly true in Afghanistan." Shoffner said the Afghan national army faces a huge manpower shortfall of about 25,000, making it necessary to cut back some outposts. Government forces, which have been fighting without the full support of NATO since its combat mission ended in December 2014, are expected to abandon more checkpoints as fighting intensifies amid faltering peace efforts. Last year was a record for civilian casualties, according to the UN, which reported 11,000 civilian casualties in 2015 including 3,545 deaths -- the most since the agency began tabulating the statistics in 2009. The Taliban on Saturday refused to hold direct peace talks with the Afghan government, dealing a blow to international efforts to revive negotiations aimed at ending their 14-year insurgency. But the new strategy does not factor in a crucial element -- the plight of the local population. "The Taliban are hunting down residents who worked for the government," said Abdul Ahad, a local elder in the Kharkhord area of Uruzgan, from where dozens of Afghan troops recently pulled out. "Government soldiers left us here to die," he told AFP by telephone from the area, which is home to some 20,000 families.
"We got far more than we ever expected, and theres no more storage room," said the Tweet of a cat caretaker. (Photo: Twitter/ aoshima_cat)

The famous Cat Island Aoshima, is a place where cats outnumber humans 6 to 1. Its a tiny remote island in the Ehime Prefecture of southern Japan.

(Photo: Twitter/ aoshima_cat)

One can easily imagine what people felt when the food service was kept on hold due to bad weather condition.

(Photo: Twitter/ aoshima_cat)

To prevent the starving condition for the cat, they turned to the Internet for help and it turned out to be fruitful.

(Photo: Twitter/ aoshima_cat)

Please send cat food to Aoshima, a cat caretaker tweeted. There are no stores to buy food here on Aoshima. The people here acquire their necessities by taking a boat to the mainland. However, its extremely windy in winter, and boat service is often suspended.

(Photo: Twitter/ aoshima_cat)

Her request was answered and the island was flooding with donation.

(Photo: Twitter/ aoshima_cat)

Please stop sending cat food to Aoshima, the caretaker tweeted few days later. We got far more than we ever expected, and theres no more storage room. Well be fine until April. Thank you all very much.
DHAKA/NEW YORK (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. (Reporting by Serajul Quadir; Additional reporting by Jonathan Spicer in New York; Editing by Gareth Jones, Bernadette Baum and Diane Craft)
By Marc Frank HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba said it would welcome President Barack Obama to Havana later this month, but the Communist government had no intention of changing its policies in exchange for normal relations with the United States. In a long editorial on Wednesday in Communist Party newspaper Granma and other official media, Cuba demanded Washington cease meddling in its internal affairs and said Obama could do more to change U.S. policy. The White House brushed off the piece and defended the president's trip next month as an opportunity to engage both with Cuba's government and its citizens. Obama will visit on March 20-22, 15 months after he and Cuban President Raul Castro agreed to end more than five decades of Cold War-era animosity. They have restored diplomatic ties, and Obama has relaxed a trade sanctions and travel restrictions, leading Republican opponents and some of the president's fellow Democrats to question whether Washington was offering too much without reciprocation from Havana. But the editorial made it clear that Cuba still has a long list of grievances with the United States, starting with the comprehensive trade embargo. Obama wants to rescind the embargo but Republican leadership in Congress has blocked the move. Cuba also objected to U.S. support for its political dissidents, whom some Americans consider champions of human rights but whom the Cuban government views as an unrepresentative minority funded by U.S. interests. "(The United States) should abandon the pretense of fabricating an internal political opposition, paid for with money from U.S. taxpayers," the nearly 3,000-word editorial said. White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters that Obama's "long agenda includes visiting with political opposition of the Cuban government and standing up for, in a very tangible way, the universal human rights of the Cuban people." Obama visit will be only the second by a U.S. president and the first since the 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro that overthrew a pro-American government. The editorial said Cuba no one should assume Cuba had to "renounce any of its principles or cede the slightest bit in its defense" to do so. The two countries have also negotiated greater cooperation on law enforcement and environmental issues and agreed to resume scheduled commercial flights and postal services. Obama has removed Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism. The editorial acknowledged Obama had taken positive steps but criticized their "limited nature and the existence of other regulations and intimidation caused by the overall blockade that has been in force for more than 50 years." (Reporting by Marc Frank; Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner and Susan Heavey in Washington; Editing by Daniel Trotta, Lisa Von Ahn and Alistair Bell)
By Gabriela Baczynska and Alastair Macdonald BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union aims to rehouse thousands of asylum-seekers from Greece in the coming months, officials said on Thursday as EU ministers wrestled with concerns about the legality of a new plan to force migrants back to Turkey. Dimitris Avramopoulos, the member of the executive European Commission who handles migration, told reporters at a meeting of national interior ministers that at least 6,000 people a month should be relocated to other member states under a scheme which has moved only about 900 hundred people so far. Avramopoulos noted a recent acceleration in relocations under the system which has divided EU governments as some refuse to take in refugees, most of whom are from Syria and Iraq, though he acknowledged the target was ambitious. Some 35,000 people have been stranded in Greece since Austria and states on the route to Germany began closing borders, barring access to migrants hoping to follow more than a million who reached northern Europe last year. EU officials said that blockage appeared to have made more asylum seekers ask for relocation rather than try to make their own way northward. Chancellor Angela Merkel, under electoral pressure at home after opening Germany's doors to a million Syrians, has pressed EU partners to share the load. But few are keen and critics say many of those rehoused elsewhere will head for Germany anyway. On Monday, Merkel pushed EU leaders to pencil a surprise deal she brokered with Ankara to halt the flow to Greece by returning to Turkey anyone arriving on the Greeks islands. But legal details are still being worked out for an EU summit next week and many governments are still sceptical of the scheme. The top United Nations human rights official said it could mean illegal "collective and arbitrary expulsions". EU ministers also voiced unease at the price of Ankara's cooperation, notably an accelerated process to ease visa rules for Turks by June and revive negotiations on Turkey's distant EU membership hopes. "I ask myself if the EU is throwing its values overboard," said Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner, whose government has led a push to seal off Greece from the north as an alternative to relying on Turkey to stop migrants leaving. She noted the seizure of an opposition newspaper in Turkey three days before it presented EU leaders with the draft deal, under which Europeans will take one Syrian direct from Turkey for every compatriot who is detained and sent back from Greece. "SAFE" COUNTRY? Human rights concerns also pose problems for EU lawyers trying to tie up the package by the March 17-18 summit, notably because to despatch people at speed back to Turkey relies on an assessment that Turkey is a "safe" country for them to be in. An EU definition of such a state includes a reference to the Geneva Convention on refugees, to which Turkey does not fully comply, leaving legal experts in Brussels hunting a solution. "It will be very difficult to arrive at something legally sound and implementable before the summit," an EU official said. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that Greece and Turkey might have to pass new legislation. The conundrum highlights how far the EU is willing to go to win Turkey's help on the crisis, which poses security risks and plays into the hands of right-wing populists in the bloc. Asked about how much force might be used to deport people who have risked their lives and spent large sums to reach Europe, Avramopoulos said there could be "no push-back methods". Klaas Dijkhoff, the Dutch minister who chaired the meeting, said the mix of expulsion and legal resettlement should deter smuggling and help Turkey: "We have to show that it doesn't pay to use a trafficker and come to Europe in an illegal way and we have to show Turkey we are not leaving them with all the work." But ministers also discussed a need to prepare for people turning to other routes, including by sea to Italy from Albania or Libya. The death rate last year on the route to Italy from North Africa, based on data from the International Organization for Migration, was nearly one in 20, compared with less than one in 1,000 between Turkey and Greece. Nonetheless, three Afghan children, one an infant of six months, were among five people drowned off Lesbos on Thursday as people continue to risk the trip before a Turkey-EU deal bites. EU officials acknowledge that deterring people who have shown such desperation to reach Europe will be difficult - and deporting them back to Turkey will be tough: "I don't know how to do it," said one. "It could get very ugly." (Additional reporting by Tom Koerkemeier; Writing by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Dominic Evans)
The German and Greek leaders blasted Balkan countries for shutting their borders to migrants ahead of an EU ministers meeting Thursday, with Greek Premier Alexis Tsipras warning that the EU "has no future if it goes on like that". Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel said the closures are "neither sustainable nor lasting" in tackling Europe's biggest migrant crisis since World War II and would leave Greece bearing the burden of the influx. Underlining the deep divisions cleaving the bloc, Merkel and Tsipras' reactions flew in the face of the response of EU President Donald Tusk, who welcomed the route closure as being part of a collective response of the 28-member EU. The strong words came after Slovenia and Croatia barred entry to transiting migrants from Wednesday and Serbia indicated it would follow suit. EU member Slovenia said it would allow in only migrants wishing to claim asylum there or 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 Tusk on Twitter called the decision "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," he wrote. Tsipras retorted on Twitter that Tusk should "focus efforts on implementing our common decisions and not encourage those who ignore them". - Leaving Greece in the lurch - The EU has been locked in dispute over how to stem an unprecedented influx of migrants that reached more than a million in 2015, many from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq and most aiming to reach wealthy Germany, Austria and Scandinavia. Under pressure at home to reduce the influx, Merkel acknowledged that the western Balkan states' action "will obviously bring us fewer refugees, but they put Greece in a very difficult situation". Her Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel noted that while some at home are "secretly pleased that the Balkan states... are doing Germany's dirty work", their actions would not help in the long term. Merkel is battling to avoid leaving Greece in the lurch as the number of migrants stranded there is still steadily growing. Greek authorities said Thursday there were 41,973 asylum seekers in the country, including some 12,000 stuck at Idomeni on the closed Macedonian border. Migrants also did not appear dissuaded by latest developments, and were still risking their lives to cross to Europe. At least another five migrants, including a baby, drowned as they tried to sail from Turkey to Greece, the Dogan news agency reported on Thursday. Merkel wants a comprehensive European deal with Turkey to stop asylum seekers from jumping on unseaworthy rubber boats to get to Europe. The plan involves joint action with Ankara to tighten the EU's external borders, while also distributing refugees among EU members. "If we do not manage to reach a deal with Turkey, then Greece cannot bear the burden for long," she told public radio MDR. "That's why I am seeking a real European solution, that is, a solution for all 28 (EU members)," stressed Merkel, who was once vilified in Greece over her hardline push for austerity, but who is today standing firmly by Athens. - Vienna criticises Turkey deal - But the mooted Turkish deal is controversial, and ahead of an EU interior ministers meeting later Thursday, Vienna signaled its opposition. "I am extremely critical. I am seriously wondering whether we are taking ourselves and our values seriously or if we are throwing them overboard," said Austria's interior minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner, in a reference to concerns over human rights violations in Turkey. The mooted Ankara-Brussels deal, discussed at an EU summit on Monday and due to be finalised on March 17-18, would see Turkey 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, 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. Ankara's EU affairs minister Volkan Bozkir underlined Thursday however that the deal would not be retroactive, and would "not include the existing refugees on the Greek islands".
By Mohammed Ghobari and Angus McDowall CAIRO/RIYADH (Reuters) - A Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said on Wednesday it had exchanged prisoners with its Houthi opponents and also welcomed a pause in combat on the border, prompting hopes of a push to end the year-long war that has killed some 6,000 people. Riyadh's confirmation of a rare confidence-building measure in the conflict came a day after senior Yemeni officials said a delegation from the Houthis, who are allies of the kingdom's arch foe Iran, was in Saudi Arabia for talks to end the war. However, both the Saudi Arabian and Yemeni foreign ministers later said any formal negotiations to end the fighting could only take place under the auspices of the United Nations and must include Yemen's internationally recognised government. Riyadh and a coalition of Arab states entered Yemen's civil war a year ago in an attempt to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after the Houthis and forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh ousted him from power. The Saudi state news agency SPA said Yemeni tribal mediators had facilitated the exchange of a Saudi lieutenant captured by the Houthis for seven Yemeni prisoners held in the kingdom. The agency gave no further details, but some Yemeni media have reported that the exchange happened on the border between the two countries earlier this week. Quoting a Saudi statement, SPA also said: "The leadership of the coalition forces welcomed the continuation of a state of calm along the border ... which contributes to arriving at a political solution." After meeting his Gulf Arab and Yemeni counterparts, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said he backed U.N. special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed's efforts to resolve the crisis based on U.N. resolution 2216, which calls on the Houthis to return power to Hadi's government. However, he added in a news conference that the lull was important to deliver aid and medical supplies to people in northern regions of Yemen. Saleh's General People's Congress party said in a statement it supported any efforts to bring peace to Yemen. HOUTHIS SNUB IRAN Yemen's conflict has fallen into a stalemate, in which the Houthis still control the capital Sanaa and other major cities in central Yemen, while its guerrilla forces have shelled and harassed Saudi forces along the rugged northern frontier. In what could be a goodwill message to Saudi Arabia, a senior Houthi official sought to distance his group from Riyadh's main regional foe Tehran, telling Iranian officials in a Facebook posting to stay out of Yemen's conflict. "Officials in the Islamic Republic of Iran must be silent and leave aside the exploitation of the Yemen file," said Yousef al-Feshi, a member of the Revolutionary Committee which runs areas of Yemen held by the Houthis. Asked about the posting, Jubeir said he had not seen it but that it appeared to be a "positive" statement. Sunni power Saudi Arabia has long accused Shi'ite Iran of trying to expand its influence in Yemen by helping the Houthis, who hail from the Zaydi branch of Shi'ite Islam. The comments by Feshi, who is seen as close to the Houthis' overall leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, were the first snub by the group to Iran, long seen as its main supporter. On Tuesday, Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, deputy chief of staff of Iran's armed forces, suggested that Tehran could send military advisers to help the Houthis in Yemen just as it has done in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad's forces. The coalition spokesman, Brigadier General Ahmed al-Asseri, said Yemeni tribal chiefs had asked for a period of calm to let humanitarian supplies pass through but he declined to be drawn into commenting on the reported visit by a Houthi delegation. "It is too early to focus on those who are carrying out this role," Asseri told the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV. "Let's focus on the result, that there be benefit to our brothers who are affected by what the Houthi militias are carrying out. We do not want to talk about individuals." Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdelmalek al-Mekhlafi said the talks in Saudi Arabia were "on the intelligence level about prisoners and other issues", adding that peace talks could only happen in accordance with the U.N. resolution. "This is the only way forward with political negotiations. Anything else is operational and not political," Mekhlafi said after the meeting with his Gulf Arab counterparts in Riyadh. (Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy and Noah Browning in Dubai, Omar Fahmy in Cairo, Writing by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Gareth Jones)
LIPA CITY  President Aquino believes Secretary to the Cabinet Jose Rene Almendras is capable of handling the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

Like former DFA chief Albert del Rosario, whose resignation took effect on March 7, Almendras was in the private sector before he joined the Aquino administration  first as energy secretary and then Cabinet secretary.

Isnt it that as Cabinet secretary he functions like a troubleshooter? He had been through a lot, the ports, et cetera, Aquino said.

The President noted that Almendras was one of those who played a big part in resolving the countrys disagreement with Hong Kong after the Manila hostage crisis.

Almendras was also instrumental in ironing out economic relations with Taiwan after the Philippine Coast Guards shooting of Taiwanese fishermen in Balintang Channel, Aquino said.

Aquino said the people were not aware of these efforts by Almendras.

He was with me most of the time in my foreign engagements. He was able to help Secretary Del Rosario in his job at the DFA, Aquino said.

The President said he appointed Almendras to the DFA because he has, of course, my utmost trust and confidence. He has proven his skills in so many different fora.

Aquino said he had taken full advantage of Almendras cooperation and concern from the beginning until now that he has little more than 100 days left in office.

It will be difficult to get somebody to go through all of the hardship in this post, with the expectation that he will only do it for 113 days, the President said.

I had expected Secretary Del Rosario to finish the term with me. But as you have noticed, his health has really deteriorated so we had to rush a bit and fortunately, Secretary Almendras was willing to take on this responsibility, he added.
BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday that Islamic State's military commander was badly wounded but still alive, appearing to contradict U.S. officials who said he was likely killed in a U.S. air strike. The U.S. officials said on Tuesday that Abu Omar al-Shishani, also known as Omar the Chechen and described by the Pentagon as the group's "minister of war", was targeted near the town of al-Shadadi in Syria. Observatory director Rami Abdulrahman said he had been badly wounded but not killed and had been moved to Islamic State's base of operations in Raqqa for treatment. "He did not die," Abdulrahman said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says it gathers its information from all sides in the conflict. Reuters had no way to independently verify the report. Born in 1986 in Georgia, which was then still part of the Soviet Union, the red-bearded Shishani had a reputation as a close military adviser to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was said by followers to have relied heavily on Shishani. The strike itself involved multiple waves of manned and unmanned aircraft, targeting Shishani near al-Shadadi in Syria, a U.S. official said. The Pentagon believes Shishani was sent there to bolster Islamic State troops after they suffered a series of setbacks at the hands of U.S.-allied Arab and Kurdish forces on the ground. An official in the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which has been fighting Islamic State in the al-Shadadi area, said on Tuesday it had received information that 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. (Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
The man found a tiny penguin, in very critical condition, covered in oil, lying on a rock, he was almost close to his death. (Photo: Screen grab)

You might have heard many heartwarming reunion stories but this one will surely make your day. This story revolves around a South American Magellanic penguin and a man. This penguin swims 5,000 miles every year to reunite with the man who saved his life.

Joao Pereira de Souza, 71, who is a part time fisherman and retired bricklayer, lives in a village located outside Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In 2011, he found a tiny penguin, in very critical condition, covered in oil, lying on a rock, he was almost close to his death.

(Photo: Screen grab)

Joao took him under his protection and gave him a new life. He cleaned the oil from his body and started feeding him fish everyday in order to regain his health. Joao named him Dindim, reports Mirror.UK.

When Dindim was healthy, Joao tried to release him back into the sea, but Dindim decided to stayed with him.

He stayed with me for 11 months and then, just after he changed his coat with new feathers, he disappeared, Joao recalls as reported by Mirror.UK.

(Photo: Screen grab)

But the story doesnt end here, Dindim was back after few months and since 5 years he has been spending 8 months of the year with Joao. Its believed that the penguin spends rest of the time breeding off the coast of Chile and Argentina. And its amazing to see how he swims 5000 miles every year to meet the man who once saved his life.

"I love the penguin like its my own child and I believe the penguin loves me. No one else is allowed to touch him. He pecks them if they do. He lays on my lap, lets me give him showers, allows me to feed him sardines and to pick him up," Joao told Globo TV.

(Photo: Screen grab)

Every year he comes to Joao in June and leaves for his home in February. Seems like Joao is a very important part of Dindims family and he loves him a lot.

Biologist Professor Krajewski, who interviewed the Joao for Globo TV, told The Independent, I have never seen anything like this before. I think the penguin believes Joao is part of his family and probably a penguin as well. When he sees him he wags his tail like a dog and honks with delight.

Now isn't it indeed a wonderful story of a beautiful bonding. Stories like these are worth sharing and makes us believe that the world is need a beautiful place to live in.

Click here to watch the video:
Assessment

Nation's Report Card Trial for Large, Urban Districts Grows

For the first time since 2009, the Nation's Report Card will include results from six additional urban school systems as part of the Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) program. The National Assessment Governing Board has added districts covering Las Vegas, Denver, Fort Worth, Milwaukee, Greensboro and Memphis to its voluntary study that measures student performance city-wide on math, reading, writing and science in grades 4 and 8. The move signals the demographic and economic shifts of the country's public schools, which now educate a 50 million-student population where more than half are from minority groups.

The governing board sets policy for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), otherwise known as the Nation's Report Card. The latest additions bring the number of large, urban school districts in TUDA to 27 as of 2017.

The idea of running a "big-city" version of NAEP came out in 2000, when the Council of the Great City Schools  a coalition of large, urban public districts  requested a "trial" NAEP for that type of school system. Congress gave funding to the effort in 2002 and has since increased the funding, enabling the expansion of TUDA.

The purpose of TUDA, as with NAEP, is to test representative samples of students and report student achievement results for comparison over time. Every TUDA participant is affiliated with a city that has a population of at least 250,000 and a student population where at least half include minority racial or ethnic groups or are eligible for free and reduced-price lunch. The districts must also be sizable enough to sustain testing of three NAEP subjects each year in grades 4 and 8.

With the addition of the six new districts, "We now have an ever-greater geographic representation in TUDA," said Governing Board Chair Terry Mazany. "This will provide the nation with an objective picture of the achievement spanning the diversity of our nation's students, recognizing that the majority of students in our nation's schools is now composed of minority populations."
By Anthony Boadle BRASILIA (Reuters) - An investigation into a massive corruption scheme centered on Brazilian state oil company Petrobras enjoys overwhelming public support but concern is growing that prosecutors may be over-reaching as they pursue politicians and executives. The high-profile detention for questioning last week of former president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva drew criticism from the government and federal judges, reigniting debate over the methods used in "Operation Car Wash". Critics say prosecutors trying to unravel the vast network of bribery and political kickbacks and Judge Sergio Moro, who presides over the case, are unfairly leaking evidence to the media and have left defendants in prison for months without charges as part of a strategy to win plea bargain deals. Those allegations have intensified in the last few days. "The detention of Lula has put a lot of stress on the whole investigation," said Rafael Mafei, a law professor at the University of Sao Paulo. "It was a very public incident broadcast live on television and involved an ex-president." Mafei said Moro's methods test the limits of the law but are warranted by the scale of the graft scheme, a situation he compared to Colombia's war on drug cartels in the 1990s. "Many Brazilians believe that our existing legal system is poorly equipped to handle such massive illegality that is larger than the justice system itself," he said. Crucially, Moro's tactics have won the backing of higher courts in dealing with Brazil's biggest ever corruption scandal, in which a cartel of builders overcharged Petrobras for contracts, paying bribes to company directors and kickbacks to politicians. Prosecutors have struck more than a dozen plea bargain deals and none of them have been denied by the Supreme Court, which has to approve testimony before it can be accepted as evidence. While some Supreme Court justices questioned the way police arrived unannounced to pick up Lula, they publicly backed the investigation. Moro has used questioning in custody and lengthy pre-trial detentions to garner information leading to dozens of arrests and the recovery of billions of dollars in bribes and political kickbacks. Backed by an elite police unit in commando gear, officers arrived at Lula's Sao Paulo apartment last Friday at dawn and took the 70-year-old into custody for over three hours of questioning on suspicion he took bribes paid by engineering firms with graft money. Lula's lawyer said the measure was based on scant evidence and illegal because the former union leader should have been served a subpoena asking him to make a statement before a warrant was issued to bring him in. "They arrived by surprise with a disproportionate show of force, intent on making a public spectacle of his detention," his lawyer, Cristiano Martins, told Reuters. "You cannot resort to illegal methods under the pretext of fighting corruption, just by saying the ends justify the means." COURTS BACK UP PROSECUTORS Lula, popular leftist leader who was president from 2003 to 2010, went straight to the headquarters of the ruling Workers' Party after his questioning and rallied his followers to take to the streets to defend him. His protege President Dilma Rousseff, fighting to survive the scandal amid a severe recession, said Lula's detention was "unnecessary" because he would have answered questions voluntarily. The Workers' Party said the move was aimed at destroying Lula's legacy as defender of the poor so he cannot run again for president in 2018. Federal prosecutors insist that they will push ahead with the probe regardless of the consequences. "The storm will pass. Our only concern is that our investigations not be used politically by one side or the other," said a senior official in the federal prosecutor's office, known as the PGR. Prosecutors are confident the Supreme Court will accept a plea bargain testimony of Workers' Party senator Delcidio do Amaral, reports of which sent shockwaves through Brazil's political establishment last week. According to the IstoE news magazine, which had access to the document, Amaral accused Rousseff of trying to interfere in the Petrobras investigation, an impeachable offence, and said her 2014 re-election campaign was funded by graft money. ODEBRECHT PUT AWAY Lawyers for Marcelo Odebrecht, former CEO of Latin America's largest engineering group, criticized judicial overreach in arguing for his release after six months of pre-trial detention, but Brazil's second-highest court voted against the appeal. Odebrecht was sentenced on Tuesday to 19 years in prison for bribery, money laundering and organised crime. Prosecutors hope the stiff sentence will lead one of Brazil's richest men to seek a plea bargain. Last month, the Supreme Court ruled convicted criminals should start their prison sentence as soon as it is confirmed by the circuit court and not after a lengthy appeals process. The decision will reinforce Moro's strategy, Mafei said. The Supreme Court ruling prompted Workers' Party lawmaker Wadih Damous to proposed a bill banning plea bargains by anyone in jail. "Anyone behind bars will do anything to get out, even lie," the congressman said. Damous echoed Rousseff's criticism of frequent leaks of plea bargain testimony to Brazilian media before courts rule on whether the evidence is valid. "Every time a defendant's plea bargain is leaked, it becomes truth the very next day," he said. (Additional reporting by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Kieran Murray)
By Francesco Guarascio BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission warned Italy on Wednesday that its 2016 budget may break EU fiscal rules and urged Rome to take measures to redress the situation. The warning came in a letter sent to the Italian authorities. Similar letters were sent to Belgium, Croatia, Finland and Romania. Spain received a more formal warning to reduce its excessive deficit. "We have identified six countries whose budgetary strategies may entail risks to respecting their commitments under the Stability and Growth Pact. There is still time to take necessary measures and this is why we are sending an early warning signal today," the Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said in a statement. The Commission letter followed a joint statement of euro zone finance ministers on Monday that warned Italy over its high debt and its expansionary 2016 budget. Italy's debt is the second biggest in the European Union, after Greece. It is projected to be 132.4 percent of the Gross Domestic Product in 2016, well above the 60 percent ceiling set by EU rules, according to forecasts of the European Commission. Italy's 2016 budget respects EU rules on the headline deficit which is safely below the 3 percent GDP ceiling, but the country's structural deficit, which excludes one-off revenues and payments and the effect of the business cycle, is rising, rather than falling as it should according to the rules. The Commission warnings come before European Union governments are supposed to submit their budgetary plans for the coming years to Brussels. The plans are to be sent in preferably by 15 April, but no later than the end of April. "We have now done everything we can to alert national authorities to compliance risks. It is now up to them to take this input on board when they submit their medium-term fiscal plans in April," the EU commissioner for economic affairs Pierre Moscovici said in a statement. The Commission will decide in May whether Italy and the other countries have taken sufficient measures. In May, The EU Executive will also say how much leeway Italy will get in 2016 under EU fiscal rules for reforms, investments and exceptional expenditures, such as the refugee crisis. EU finance ministers warned this week that even if Italy got all the flexibility it has asked for, which amounts to around 10 billion euros of further deficit spending, it would still be at risk of breaking EU fiscal rules. (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; editing by Philip Blenkinsop)
By Emma Farge DAKAR (Reuters) - The African Union will send a mission to northern Mali in the next few weeks to look into setting up a counter-terrorism force to support vulnerable U.N. peacekeepers, sources familiar with the matter said. The Bamako government, as well as some officials of the U.N. force in Mali, MINUSMA, have called for more help in fighting al Qaeda-linked insurgents, who have become increasingly active despite the efforts of French, Malian and U.N. troops. French forces drove the jihadists out of northern Malian cities in 2013 but they have regrouped, and in November al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb attacked a luxury hotel in Bamako, killing 20 people in a demonstration of their ability to strike beyond their desert bases. Critics say the 10,000-strong U.N. force's ability to bring peace to Mali is hamstrung by its lack of an aggressive counter-terrorism mandate, meaning it cannot hunt down militants and is vulnerable to attack. At least 20 Malian and U.N. troops from Africa have been killed this year, according to Reuters estimates. While an expansion of the U.N. mandate was discussed during a Security Council visit to Mali last week, some permanent members such as France say it is already sufficiently robust, although they back additional resources for the force. The AU initiative is being floated as an alternative route to improved security, the sources say. "There is an (AU) mission to assess the security threats in northern Mali in the next few weeks," said one security source familiar with the visit who is not authorised to speak publicly. "This will allow the development of a plan for an international force in the fight against terrorism," he added, saying the AU planned to seek U.N. and Malian backing. A Western diplomat said the force's remit would be similar to an existing AU regional task force set up last year to fight jihadist group Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin. Planning is at an early stage and details of troop numbers and financing have not yet been determined, the sources said. AU officials at the continental body's headquarters in Addis Ababa could not be reached for comment. A spokesman for the Malian defence ministry declined to comment. Army spokesman Colonel Souleymane Maiga said: "I know that there have been recent meetings on a possible rapid intervention force but the form this force will take has not yet been decided as far as I know." FRANCE OVERSTRETCHED? Besides funding, one of the difficulties might be harmonising security initiatives in a region where neighbours have a history of vying for influence, the sources added. The Group of Five Sahel (G5 Sahel) - Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Mauritania - have also agreed to create EU-backed regional rapid reaction forces to counter Islamist militants. G5 Sahel permanent secretary Najim Elhadj Mohamed said he had not been informed of the AU initiative and it was not clear if the two bodies would cooperate. Mali's northern neighbour Algeria set up a joint military operations centre for Sahel countries in 2010 but there have been few signs of progress on the ground. Some security experts say more support is needed to fight jihadists in Mali since France's 3,500-strong Barkhane force is overstretched. The Chad-based force was set up to combat Islamists across West Africa's vast Sahel region. "A bigger contribution from African forces could take the pressure off the French, who could focus more on securing borders and on ISIS (Islamic State) in Libya," said Rida Lyammouri, an independent consultant focused on the Sahel and north Africa. "But to succeed (the AU force) would have to match the violent extremist organisations in terms of their outreach to local communities in Mali," he added. (Additional reporting by Aaron Maasho in Addis Ababa and Adama Diarra in Bamako; Writing by Emma Farge; Editing by Giles Elgood)
HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland's parliament will debate in the coming weeks whether the country should quit the euro, an official said on Thursday, following a petition on the issue signed by more than the required 50,000 citizens. The debate is very unlikely to lead to Finland's exit from the common currency but the decision to hold such a debate demonstrates a high level of dissatisfaction among Finns with their country's economic performance. The petition, signed by more than 53,000 people, demands a referendum on leaving the euro. "We haven't decided the date yet but a preliminary debate will likely be held during a plenary session (of the parliament) in the coming weeks," said Johanna Sarhimaa, parliamentary secretary. The Finnish economy grew by just 0.4 percent last year after three years of contraction, hit by high labour costs, the decline of Nokia's former phone business and a recession in neighbouring Russia. The centre-right government is struggling to balance public finances and improve export competitiveness through 'internal devaluation', including cuts to workers' benefits, amid opposition from unions. Paavo Vayrynen, a Finnish member of the European Parliament who launched the anti-euro initiative, compared the country's performance to that of Finland's non-euro neighbour Sweden, which has grown much faster in recent years. "We should revive our economy by leaving the euro zone and reinstating our own currency (with a floating exchange rate). This will restore our competitiveness," he said as he handed the petition to Maria Lohela, the speaker of parliament. "If the parliament supports the petition, it would urge the government to prepare a law for arranging a referendum." Despite the initiative, a Eurobarometer poll from November showed 64 percent of Finns backed the euro. The coalition government remains officially committed to eurozone membership. (Reporting by Jussi Rosendahl and Tuomas Forsell; Editing by Gareth Jones)
The Government has backed down on plans to extend Sunday trading laws and offered Tory rebels the chance to trial it first.

George Osborne was facing defeat at the hands of Conservative rebel MPs and SNP politicians over the plans to relax the rules in England and Wales in a vote in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

However, Business Secretary Sajid Javid has tabled an amendment offering 12-month pilots in 12 areas after it appeared the SNP, Lib Dems and Labour had mustered enough votes to defeat the Government.

It now remains to be seen if it is enough to keep the SNP and rebels from voting against the plans later on Wednesday.

The SNP announced on Tuesday its MPs would vote against the proposals for England and Wales claiming that "the bill fails to protect the premium pay currently received by employees in Scotland".

Scotland has already relaxed Sunday trading laws, and traditionally Scottish MPs don't vote on matters that only affect England in the House of Commons. However, the Government did not use the English Votes for English Laws to enforce this.

More follows...
Police said that owner of the unit Atheek was manufacturing oil from animal carcasses and marketing as cooking oil in surroundings areas of Hyderabad. (Representational Image)

Hyderabad: South Zone Task Force police on Thursday raided an oil manufacturing unit that manufactured oil from animal carcasses and apprehended two workers, while the owner is absconding. Around 1,120 litres of oil prepared from the wastage was seized.

Police said that the owner of the unit Atheek was running it for the past few months and manufacturing oil from animal carcasses and marketing as cooking oil in surroundings areas of Hyderabad.

Atheek collected waste from meat shops across the city. The wastage was melted at the manufacturing unit and oil extracted from it, said Task Force additional DCP N. Koti Reddy, adding that this oil would have adverse effects on the consumers.

The oil manufactured was packed in tins of 15 litres capacity and sold for Rs 600 each to customers in Hyderabad and surrounding areas.
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Macedonia has closed its border completely to illegal migrants after Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia announced tight new restrictions on migrant entry, a police official said on Wednesday. Thousands of migrants have built up on the Greek side of the Macedonian border. Macedonia had been allowing small numbers of Syrians and Iraqis through but stopped this after its neighbours tightened up their policies. "We have completely closed the border," the police official, who declined to be named, told Reuters. According to the Macedonian Interior Ministry, no migrants entered from Greece on Tuesday. "Macedonia will act according to the decisions taken by other countries on the Balkan route," an Interior Ministry spokesman said, referring to the main routes taken by more than a million migrants to reach the European Union over the last year. Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia said on Tuesday they would place new restrictions on the entry of migrants. The decisions were announced hours after EU leaders outlined an agreement intended to end a mass movement to reach wealthy countries in Europe from war zones. Croatia's Interior Minister Vlaho Orepic told a news conference on Wednesday in Zagreb that the new decision meant reestablishing of a "regular border regime". "The essence of this is to firmly stick to a regular border regime and to be ready to react to any exceptional circumstances," Orepic said. He added that talks were proceeding on return of 408 migrants, currently stranded in a camp in Croatia, to Greece. Around 1,000 migrants remain stranded in a refugee camp on the Macedonian side of the Serbian border while more than 400 are stranded in "No Man's Land" between Serbia and Macedonia. They refuse to go back to Macedonia and are not being allowed to cross in to Serbia. (Reporting by Kole Casule, additional reporting by Igor Ilic in Zagreb writing by Ivana Sekularac and Adrian Croft; Editing by Ralph Boulton)
By MacDonald Dzirutwe HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe agreed to major reforms including compensation for evicted white farmers and a big reduction in public sector wages as the government tries to woo back international lenders, the finance minister said. The economy was under siege from the worst drought since 1992, Patrick Chinamasa said on Wednesday, noting that the reforms had the full backing of Mugabe, who has previously attacked the IMF for imposing stringent credit conditions. Mugabe's government started defaulting on debts to the IMF, World Bank, African Development Bank (AfDB) and several Western lenders in 1999, leading to a freeze in financial aid. Chinamasa told reporters at the end of a economic review by an IMF team that the government's wage bill would be cut to 52 percent of government spending by 2019 from 82 percent but did not elaborate on how this would be achieved. The government would also target ten state-owned firms to try to make them profitable and evaluate all land seized from white farmers in a bid to compensate displaced farmers. Chinamasa said production by black farmers who took over the previously white-owned farms was "scandalously low". He said Harare broke bilateral investment agreements when it seized farms owned by foreigners and that this would be fixed. Compensation would be paid out of rent from black farmers who benefited from the seizures, a ministry circular said. Zimbabwe made world headlines in 2000 when thousands of war veterans and Mugabe's supporters started violently evicting white farmers. More than a dozen farmers were killed. Chinamasa said Zimbabwe had drafted a new financing programme to be presented to the IMF, whose executive board will vote on Harare's plan to repay $1.8 billion (1.2 billion) in arrears on May 2. Zimbabwe is struggling to emerge from a deep recession in the decade to 2008, which slashed its GDP by nearly half, drove hundreds of thousands abroad in search of better paying jobs and pushed formal unemployment above 85 percent. The IMF expects the economy to grow by 1.4 percent this year from 1.1 percent in 2015 and to rise 5.6 percent in 2017. The IMF's head of mission to Zimbabwe, Domenico Fanizza, said Harare met all its targets under a fund monitoring programme, but improving fiscal discipline and re-engaging the international community should be a major priority. "It will also send strong signals to the international community, reduce the perceived country risk premium and unlock affordable financing for the government and private sector," Fanizza said. (Editing by James Macharia and Louise Ireland)
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>
SYDNEY/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is in talks to base long-range bombers in Australia, U.S. defence officials said, within striking distance of the disputed South China Sea, a move that could inflame tensions with China. The deployments could include B-1 bombers and an expansion of B-52 bomber missions, said Lt. Col. Damien Pickart, a spokesman for the U.S. Air Force in the Pacific, stressing that discussions were continuing and no decisions had yet been reached. "These bomber rotations provide opportunities for our Airmen to advance and strengthen our regional alliances and provide (Pacific Air Forces) and U.S. Pacific Command leaders with a credible global strike and deterrence capability to help maintain peace and security in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region," said Pickart. The United States does not currently fly B-1 bombers from Australia, but does conduct periodic B-52 missions. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull declined to comment on the discussions. "I can just assure you that everything we do in this area is very carefully determined to ensure that our respective military forces work together as closely as possible in our mutual national interests," he told reporters on Wednesday. Should an agreement be reached, it would position further U.S. military aircraft close to the disputed South China Sea and risk angering China, analysts said. "China will see it in the context of the (Australian Defence) White Paper which they have already mentioned that they expressed a certain degree of dissatisfaction," said Euan Graham, director of the International Security Program at Sydney-based think tank, the Lowy Institute. China's Foreign Ministry expressed concern. "Cooperation among relevant counties should protect regional peace and stability, and not target the interests of third parties," spokesman Hong Lei told a daily news briefing. Australia last month committed to increase defence spending by nearly A$30 billion ($22 billion), seeking to protect its strategic and trade interests in the Asia-Pacific as the United States and its allies grapple with China's rising power. The potential stationing of B-1 bombers in Australia was raised by U.S. officials last year, but Australia's then Defence Minister said they had misspoken. China claims almost all of the South China Sea, but Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have overlapping claims. Tensions between the U.S. and China have been inflamed in recent weeks. The U.S. Navy has carried out freedom of navigation exercises, sailing and flying 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 militarising the region. General Lori Robinson, talking to reporters in Canberra, said the U.S. would continue to conduct exercises through the disputed waterway, while calling on Australia to conduct similar freedom of navigation exercises. "We would encourage anybody in the region and around the world to fly and sail in international air space in accordance with international rules and norms" the Australian Broadcasting Corporation quoted Robinson as saying. (Reporting by Colin Packham in Sydney and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Additional reporting by Jessica Macy Yu in Beijing; Editing by Bernard Orr and Lincoln Feast)
KKR has agreed to buy into seeds provider Advanta Enterprises in a deal which values the business at about $2.25bn.
Headley, who has turned an approver, concluded his week-long deposition through video-link on February 13. (Photo: PTI)

Mumbai: Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley will be cross-examined by key 26/11 plotter Abu Jundal's lawyer for four days in the 2008 terror attack case, beginning from March 22.

"We informed the court that Headley will depose from March 22-25 via video link from an undisclosed location in US, and the court passed an order," Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said.

He also said that if needed Headley might also be re-examined by the prosecution later.

Read: 26/11 attacks: If Pak sends formal request on witnesses, we will consider, says India

Headley, who has turned an approver, concluded his week-long deposition through video-link on February 13 in which he revealed the role and plans of LeT, ISI and Al Qeada to target India.

Last month, on February 22, Judge G A Sanap had directed Nikam to contact US authorities for Headley's second round of deposition and inform the court by February 25, after which the dates of his testification were to be finalised.

Jundal's lawyer Abdul Wahab Khan had then also sought four days to cross-examine Headley besides moving an application objecting to his being made an approver in the terror attack case.

Earlier on February 13, the day on which Headley's week-long deposition ended, the court had adjourned the case for cross-examination by Jundal's lawyer for a future date.

Headley, who is serving a 35-year jail term in the US in connection with the terror attacks case, had made some startling disclosures during his testimony which began on February 8. He spilled beans on how Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI provides "financial, military and moral support" to terror outfits LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen and how LeT had planned and executed the 26/11 attacks and the role played by ISI officials, involving him too.

He also revealed that LeT had planned an attack at a conference of Indian defence scientists at Taj Mahal Hotel a year before the 26/11 strikes and had even prepared its dummy.

Deposing via a video-link from the US, the 55-year-old terrorist had told the court that --Ishrat Jahan--who was killed in an alleged fake encounter in 2004 in Gujarat--was an operative of LeT.

Headley had also revealed that Al-Qaeda was in touch with him to attack Delhi's National Defence College and unravelled the plot by LeT and ISI to target Mumbai airport, BARC and the Naval air station here.

He also visited the Indian Army's Southern Command headquarters at Pune in 2009 on the instructions of ISI's Major Iqbal, who wanted him to recruit some military personnel to get "classified" information, the court was told.
Santa Clara, CA: The Swedish Medical Center, in Denver, is facing a class action lawsuit alleging The Swedish Medical Center, in Denver, is facing a class action lawsuit alleging negligence regarding the hiring of an employee who, the three named plaintiffs Angelica Porras, Catherine Pecha and Gary Wolter, claim exposed themselves and other patients at the centre to HIV, hepatitis B or hepatitis C.

Negligence Legal Help

Specifically, the lawsuit claims the hospital negligently hired Rocky Allen, who has been indicted on two federal counts alleging he was caught stealing a syringe filled with fentanyl from an operating room. According to court documents, by the time the hospital hired Allen, he had been fired from four other hospitals. Further, he was court-martialed in 2011, when he was serving with the Navy in Afghanistan, for the theft of fentanyl. Court testimony revealed that he is carrying an undisclosed bloodborne pathogen."By the time Allen appeared on the doorstep of SMC in August 2015 looking for a job as a surgical technician, all the warning signs of what would later occur at SMC were present," the lawsuit states. "Allen already had been terminated by numerous other hospitals for the exact conduct that has now exposed thousands of SMC patients at an increased risk of bloodborne pathogens."According to the complaint, despite having received negative test results for the three viruses, the three named plaintiffs were told that they remain at risk and should pursue continued blood testing.The lawsuit claims the hospital negligently inflicted emotional distress and failed to properly supervise Allen after hiring him. The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status for anyone who had surgery at Swedish between August 17 and January 22. The hospital has offered free blood tests to 2,900 patients.The named defendants are Swedish and its parent companies, Hospital Corp. of America and HealthONE of Denver Inc. The lawsuit also notes that another HealthONE hospital, Rose Medical Center, has experienced a drug-theft scandal.Plaintiffs are represented by McCune Wright LLP.If you or a loved one has suffered similar damages or injuries, please fill in our form on the right and your complaint will be sent to a malpractice lawyer who may evaluate your claim at no cost or obligation.
The association filed a petition to direct HUL to evolve a scheme of economic rehabilitation and health care for the workers and it was pending.

Chennai: The 15-year-long dispute between the management and workers, who were allegedly exposed to toxic mercury vapour during their employment at Hindustan Lever Limited at Kodaikanal, now known as Hindustan Unilever Limited, came to an amicable end with the parties finally entering into a settlement.

When the petition filed by Ponds Hindustan Lever Limited Ex Mercury Employees Welfare Association came up for hearing Wednesday, counsel for both parties produced the settlement records in a sealed cover before a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M.M. Sundresh.

Taking the settlement arrived at between the parties on record, the Bench posted the matter for March 28 for reporting compliance. According to a press release by Ponds Hindustan Lever Limited Ex-Mercury Employees Welfare Association and Hindustan Unilever Limited, an agreement was signed on March 4, 2015, in the presence of representatives of former workers and HUL. As part of the agreement, HUL with an objective to ensure long term well being of its former workers, has agreed to provide ex-gratia payments to 591 former workers/association members and their families towards livelihood enhancement project and skill enhancement programs. The former employees have confirmed this as a full and final settlement of all their claims and demands, the release added.

In its petition, the association submitted that the former workers had been exposed to toxic mercury vapour during their employment at the factory in 2001. Many workers and their family members had lost their lives and others had suffered severe ailments like respiratory, cardiac, renal, skin, eye, liver, brain impairment, depression and loss of speech. Women workers suffered foetal abortions and children of workers were born with physical deformities and mental disabilities.

The association filed a petition to direct HUL to evolve a scheme of economic rehabilitation and health care for the workers and it was pending. In the meantime, the Central government appointed committee after enquiry held there was prima facie evidence that not only the ex-workers but also their new born children have suffered on account of mercury exposure.

The company objected to the same and filed petitions, which were also pending. While so, in deference to the courts suggestion to explore an out of court settlement, the association and the company held negotiations and finally both parties arrived at a settlement on March 4. Therefore, the association filed the present petition to take on record the settlement and dispose of the petition filed in 2006, the association added.
Modified On Mar 11, 2016 03:56 PM By Nabeel for Maruti Baleno 2015-2022

The Maruti Baleno has been well accepted by the Indian customers. Over 38,000 units of the premium have been sold in the Indian market and it will be exported to over 100 countries. Adding another feather to its cap, the Made in India Baleno has been launched by Suzuki in Japan. The exported models are manufactured exclusively in India at Maruti Suzukis Manesar facility in Haryana. The Baleno gets a 1.2-litre Dualjet naturally-aspirated engine for the Japanese market. The 1.0-litre Boosterjet variant is expected to be launched on May 13, 2016.

Unlike its sedan predecessor, the hatchback has definitely earned Maruti the premium tag. First showcased at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2015 and launched in India on October 26, 2015, the car has been a runaway sales hit for Maruti Suzuki India.

The 1.2-litre VVT petrol and the DDiS190 diesel are very well suited for city driving and do not disappoint on the highways either. Like all Maruti cars, the Baleno claims stellar fuel economy figures of 21.4kmpl and 27.39kmpl for petrol and diesel variants respectively.

Also, for people who enjoy occasional street light drag races, Maruti will soon be launching an RS variant of its civilized hatch. The RS will feature a 1.0-litre, 3-cylinder turbocharged engine with the 'Boosterjet' moniker. Output is rated at 110bhp and 170Nm. With those kind of numbers, the Baleno RS will compete against the Volkswagen Polo GT TSi.

During the occasion of launch held in Tokyo, Mr. Sujan R. Chinoy, Ambassador of India to Japan said, Maruti Suzuki exports to over 125 countries including those in Europe, which is proof of their quality. The model being launched today, the Baleno is a state-of-the-art car developed and manufactured in India through Suzukis excellence. It will be exported to 100 global markets including Japan. I am confident that the Baleno will prove to be a huge success in Japan. I wish the launch complete success.

Mr. Kenichi Ayukawa, MD & CEO of Maruti Suzuki India Limited said, A landmark moment like this is a true testimony to the success of Indian Governments Make in India campaign. Launch of Made in India Baleno in Japan is a proud moment for all of us. This reaffirms Maruti Suzukis manufacturing potential and growing importance of Maruti Suzuki India Limited in Suzuki Motor Corporations global business strategies. I am confident our Baleno would be well accepted by Japanese customers as well.

Watch First Drive of Maruti Baleno

Also Read: Maruti Vitara Brezza: Key Features & Highlights

Read More on : Maruti Baleno 2016
watch now

watch now

watch now

Global currency devaluation efforts are hurting the U.S. and costing American jobs, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump told CNBC in a wide-ranging interview Thursday. "You see [devaluations] almost everywhere except for the United States," he said. "We do nothing about it. We just sit back and let everybody do it. And that's getting to be very dangerous." To combat currency debasements, the U.S. should tax overseas products to level the trade playing field, he said. "They're taking advantage of our country. We don't have strong leadership. We don't have strong economic leadership at all."

On one hand, Trump ramped up his blame-China rhetoric, calling Beijing "the grandmaster of all" when it comes to currency manipulation and free trade cheating. At the same time, he said: "My relationships with China are fantastic. I have great relationships and business relationships with China. Even those people are saying they can't believe what they are getting away with." "We can't let the world take advantage of us from an economic standpoint. And that's what they are doing," he contended, calling for a stop to efforts by other countries to "suck more blood out of the United States." Trump added that he supports the idea of free trade if the right people are negotiating the terms so that both sides benefit. "We are being out-negotiated at every corner."

Corporate tax code "structurally wrong"

Pointing to Pfizer 's planned tax inversion takeover of Irish drugmaker Allergan , he said the trend of American companies merging and re-corporating overseas to avoid paying higher U.S. business taxes is a sign of something "structurally wrong." The U.S. needs to keep American companies from moving, and it's worse than the media is reporting, Trump said, arguing his tax ideas would incentivize firms to stay put, while cutting waste and spurring the economy.

'Elites' should stop working against me

watch now

watch now

watch now

Trump also said establishment Republicans should get on board with what the voters want, because Americans turned out in droves to support his candidacy. He said he's surprised that party "elites" are working against him. "You would think that Republicans would say, 'Wow, we have hit pay dirt. This is incredible. Let's embrace Trump and let's go and win the election.'" "I am a unifier. I am not a divider. When things settle down ... I think people will see that," Trump said in the phone interview on "Squawk Box," ahead of Thursday night's debate in Miami and Tuesday's key primaries in Florida and Ohio. The GOP presidential front-runner said if he were not chosen as the party's nominee, the Democrats would keep the White House  thus ensuring more liberal Supreme Court justices. He said rival Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has no chance in a general election: "He'll never win states that you have to ... because of his views on things." Trump said he probably hasn't been as nice or as "politically correct" as he would have liked in the race, because of the cut-throat nature of the primary process, which started out with 17 candidates. "They were very tough on me. And I was tougher on them," he said. "I have actually taken my positives up a lot, but it's hard when you're in a battle like this."

Next up: key primaries in Florida and Ohio

In the lead-up to Tuesday's 99-delegate, winner-take-all Florida primary, Trump leads Florida Sen. Marco Rubio by 17 percentage points in the lawmaker's home state, according to the RealClear Politics polling aggregator. Rubio's support has been recently fading  exemplified by a string of weak performances in the latest nominating contests. Ohio, with 66 winner-take-all delegates up for grabs, also holds its primary Tuesday, and Trump has a narrow 2.5 percentage point lead over Ohio Gov. John Kasich there, according to the latest polls. "I think I have a good shot in Ohio. And I have a much better than good shot in Florida," Trump predicted, saying he created many jobs in Florida through his business ventures and owns a lot of property there.

Kasich, with billionaire Wall Street backers Stanley Druckenmiller and Ken Langone, hopes to win his home state and jumpstart his struggling campaign. Kasich is dead last in the delegate count, behind Trump, Cruz and Rubio. Trump said it's too early in the race to talk about a vice presidential running mate. Speculation has swirled around whether Chris Christie might be on the short-list, after the New Jersey governor and former GOP presidential candidate endorsed Trump last week. "Chris is a good man," Trump said. "[But] it's too early." He added he'd pick "somebody very good" when the time is right. Trump refused to speculate on what a two-man race with Cruz might look like. "Who knows what happens. It's politics. It's crazier than business."

'Do what's right' on Clinton email flap

watch now

watch now

watch now
AIG Auto Insurance Read 101 Reviews Provides car insurance to members of its private client group. Includes worldwide liability coverage, rental reimbursement with no per-day limit and original manufacturer parts. Offers complimentary lifestyle reviews upon request.

Grange Insurance Read 125 Reviews Offers customizable car insurance in 13 states. Has over a dozen types of discounts to help you save on coverage. Local service from independent agents. Provides online account access, claims reporting and tracking. Find out more Get a Quote on SmartFinancial

Automobile Club of Southern California Read 102 Reviews AAA club serving 13 counties. Policyholders save with yearly dividends. Get a lifetime workmanship warranty on repairs at qualifying shops. Offers a complimentary policy review to go over coverage options and discounts.

Erie Auto Insurance Read 195 Reviews Offers car insurance in 12 states and Washington, D.C., with locked rates, accident forgiveness, diminishing deductibles, roadside assistance, pet coverage and glass repair. Local agents help find discounts and make claims.

Hartford - Auto Read 302 Reviews Specializes in auto coverage for those 50 and older. Policyholders get 12-month rate protection, financial assistance after an accident, lifetime repair assistance and 24/7 claims assistance. Save up to 5% by bundling insurance. Get a Quote on SmartFinancial

USAA Auto Insurance Read 2,083 Reviews Offers car insurance to current and former military members, their spouses and their children. Flexible payment plans with no upfront payment. Free accident forgiveness after five years if you have no at-fault accidents. Get a Quote on SmartFinancial

SafeAuto Insurance Read 160 Reviews Specializes in nonstandard coverage for drivers with poor driving records. Get short- or long-term protection. Offers policies for those with low incomes or those in need of SR-22 filings. 24/7 customer service. Find out more Get a Quote on SmartFinancial

Hanover Auto Insurance Read 63 Reviews Customized car insurance to fit your needs. Offers accident forgiveness, OEM parts coverage, newer car replacement, deductible dividends, roadside assistance and rental coverage. Manage your account through the app. Find out more Get a Quote on SmartFinancial

AAA Auto Insurance Read 1,221 Reviews Provides auto insurance through regional clubs. May require membership in order to purchase a policy. Provides roadside assistance, discounts and deals, travel planning tools and financial services to over 57 million members. Get a Quote on SmartFinancial

Liberty Mutual - Auto Read 1,485 Reviews Customizes car insurance so you pay only for what you need. Has add-ons for new vehicle replacement, accident forgiveness and deductible savings. Over 15 types of discounts. Use the app to get ID cards, pay a bill or file a claim. Get a Quote on SmartFinancial

Allstate Auto Insurance Read 2,169 Reviews Protects drivers with standard and specialty coverages. Policies include claim satisfaction guarantee, Drivewise and Allstate Rewards. Accident forgiveness and roadside assistance add-ons. Offers more than 10 types of discounts. Get a Quote on SmartFinancial

Kemper - Auto Read 213 Reviews Offers auto insurance in 26 states, with Protect Your Wallet, Protect Your Sanity and family protection coverage options. Multiple discounts available. Choose from various payment plans. Get a quote in just minutes online.

SAFECO Auto Insurance Read 183 Reviews Provides car insurance exclusively through independent agents. Standard features include claims-free cashback and diminishing deductibles. Save by enrolling in RightTrack. Use the app to obtain ID cards and pay bills. Find out more Get a Quote on SmartFinancial

Progressive Auto Insurance Read 4,373 Reviews See car insurance within your budget with the Name Your Price tool. Get a personalized rate based on your driving with Snapshot. 99% of drivers earn at least one of multiple discounts. Insures over 20 million drivers. Get a Quote on SmartFinancial

Plymouth Rock Auto Insurance Read 64 Reviews Provides car insurance backed by the companys Pledge of Assurance in Northeastern states. Offers valet claims service, Get Home Safe coverage, rewards for loyal customers and benefits for sports fans. Free quotes online. Get a Quote on SmartFinancial

State Farm Auto Insurance Read 3,784 Reviews One of the largest auto insurers in the U.S. Offers personalized service from agents nationwide. Safe driver, safe vehicle and loyal customer discounts. Manage insurance, get roadside assistance and file a claim using the app. Get a Quote on SmartFinancial

Farmers Auto Insurance Read 532 Reviews Provides tailored auto coverage with personal service from an agent. Offers discounts for bundling, going paperless, being a safe driver, being a good student and using the Signal app. Policy management through the Farmers app. Get a Quote on SmartFinancial

The General Auto Insurance Read 554 Reviews Insures all types of drivers, including those with accident history or poor credit. Offers budget-sensitive payment plans. Use the app to make payments, start a claim or get support. Get a free quote in two minutes. Get a Quote on SmartFinancial

AARP/The Hartford Auto Insurance Read 583 Reviews Provides coverage exclusively for AARP members. Features include lifetime repair assurance, 24/7 claims, accident forgiveness and disappearing deductibles. Gives quotes in as little as eight minutes.

Nationwide Insurance - Auto Read 1,063 Reviews Provides standard car insurance protections and optional coverages like accident forgiveness, roadside assistance, vanishing deductibles and total loss deductible waivers. Save multiple ways. Free annual On Your Side reviews. Get a Quote on SmartFinancial

Esurance Read 1,063 Reviews Offers car insurance backed by Allstate. Make claims and pay bills using the mobile app. Gives discounts for using the DriveSense app. Repairs from E-star facilities are guaranteed for life. Get a quote online in six minutes. Get a Quote on SmartFinancial

NJM Auto Insurance Read 54 Reviews Covers drivers and vehicles in Connecticut, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Physical damage coverage includes limited pet coverage, transportation expenses and new car replacement. Offers more than 10 types of discounts.

Auto-Owners Insurance Read 132 Reviews Offers car insurance through independent agents in 26 states. Save by getting a quote in advance, purchasing multiple policies, paying on time, going paperless or being a good student. Promises No Problem claims service. Find out more Get a Quote on SmartFinancial

Mercury Auto Insurance Read 408 Reviews Offers auto insurance in 11 states, with add-on coverages available for roadside assistance and ride-sharing. Provides multiple opportunities for discounts. Guarantees repairs from authorized facilities. 24/7 claims filing. Get a Quote on SmartFinancial

Wawanesa Auto Insurance Read 192 Reviews Provides auto insurance to drivers in California and Oregon. Offers discounts for good drivers, mature drivers, loyal customers and those insuring multiple cars. 24/7 claims service. Get a quote online or over the phone. Find out more Get a Quote on SmartFinancial

Alfa Auto Insurance Read 176 Reviews Covers drivers in Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia. Get discounts for insuring multiple vehicles, taking a defensive driving course, having a qualifying occupation or using safety features. Alfa2Go app helps manage policies.

21st Century Insurance Read 239 Reviews Part of the Farmers family. Provides car insurance in California. Offers driver and vehicle discounts and online tips and resources. Mobile app lets you view ID cards, review and pay bills and make claims. Quotes in minutes. Compare Quotes on Quotewizard

Fiesta Auto Insurance Read 26 Reviews Offers car insurance for as little as $1 a day. Customers have access to 40 insurance carriers. Provides services in Spanish. Also offers tax preparation services. Contact for free quotes and information about discounts.

Hagerty Read 27 Reviews Insures collector and classic cars, trucks and SUVs. Includes instant new purchase coverage, spare parts coverage and auto show medical reimbursement. Responds to claims within one business day and pays most claims within 15 days. Get a Quote on SmartFinancial

American Freedom Insurance Read 41 Reviews Offers insurance for drivers in Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. English- and Spanish-speaking agents. Accepts drivers licensed in Mexico and unlicensed drivers. Multiple discounts available.

Mendota Auto Insurance Read 101 Reviews Car insurance for all types of drivers. Accepts low down payments and offers flexible payment options. Claims service is available 24/7. Tailors coverage to customers needs, working closely with independent agents.

Compare AUTHORIZED PARTNER Cost-U-Less Insurance Read 47 Reviews Covers drivers throughout California. Finds and personalizes policies for customers with tickets, accidents and DUIs. Assists with SR-22s. Discounts for good drivers, students and military. Service in English and Spanish. Find out more

Bristol West Insurance Read 271 Reviews Offers car insurance for customers in 42 states, including those with no or poor credit, little driving history, accidents or DUIs. Get 24/7 policy access online. Set up a flexible monthly payment plan with a low down payment.

NetQuote.com Read 51 Reviews Operates an online insurance marketplace with access to over 100 companies. Fill out a simple application and get connected with up to four car insurance offers in minutes at no cost. Offers online insurance calculators and tools.

Fred Loya Read 265 Reviews Hispanic-owned company with over 700 offices in 11 states. Provides quotes to all customers despite poor driving or credit history. Low down payments and convenient monthly payment plans. Claims department open six days a week.

American Access Casualty Read 212 Reviews Focuses on car insurance for Spanish-speaking communities in Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, Arizona and Texas. Works with individuals with Mexican, international or no drivers licenses. Low down payments and flexible payment plans.

EverQuote Insurance Services Share your experience with this company Free online marketplace that matches you with car insurers in minutes. Works with more than 160 insurance companies. Has handled over 35 million quote requests. Offers online resources on car insurance topics. Compare Quotes

Compare AUTHORIZED PARTNER SmartFinancial Read Reviews Share your experience with this company Finds the lowest rates from over 200 insurance companies. Costs nothing to use and takes just a few minutes. Users can also call 24/7 for quotes. Provides real-time rates and services in all 50 states. Get a Quote

Grundy Read Reviews Share your experience with this company Specializes in insuring classic cars. Also protects modern muscle cars and exotic vehicles. Agreed value insurance gives you 100% of agreed car value in case of total loss. Combine all vehicles on one policy with MVP coverage.
Bengaluru: Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president, Dr G. Parameshwar's visit to New Delhi, reportedly resulted in discussions on a wide range of subjects with AICC president Sonia Gandhi, including the possibility of organising the AICC session in Bengaluru and the state government's nominations to the Legislative Council.

Dr Parameshwar reportedly batted in favour of noted film actress and former Mandya MP, Ramya and a businessman, K.P. Nanjundi for the two vacant Council seats to which nominations can be made by the state government.

It is reliably learnt that Mr Siddaramaiah has two other names in mind for the same seats: Film actress and Bal Bhavan chairperson Bhavana and noted writer, K. Marulasiddappa.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, a senior leader in New Delhi said Dr Parameshwar managed to secure the appointment with Mrs Sonia Gandhi after trying for the last couple of weeks.

He discussed the party's performance in the just concluded ZP/TP polls as well as the possibility of organising the AICC session in Bengaluru, the source explained.

Meanwhile Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah said on Wednesday that he was planning a Delhi visit soon after presenting the state budget on March 18.

Speaking to reporters after meeting ADB President, Takehiko Nakoa here, Mr Siddaramaiah said, "Yes, I am aware of Dr Parameshwar's visit to Delhi which he discussed with me before he left on Tuesday. I am also planning a Delhi visit. I am going there to discuss the possibility of carrying out a full-fledged Cabinet reshuffle.
The number of federal legislators calling for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to use its authority to protect credit unions hit 330 as of Wednesday, with a final count likely to come by the end of the week. This effort has been fully led by credit unions.

The letter, composed by Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Steve Stivers (R-Ohio), has garnered support from both sides of the aisle.

With major rules already being implemented and new regulations on the horizon, our letter reminds the CFPB that Congress intentionally provided for regulatory flexibility to mitigate collateral damage on smaller financial institutions, Schiff and Stivers noted in their call for signers.

The letter itself cites the section of the Dodd-Frank Act that states the CFPB has the authority to adapt regulations by allowing it to exempt any class of entity from its rulemaking.

The creation of the letter, and the widespread support it has garnered, represents a successful deployment of the fierce, 360-degree advocacy Credit Union National Association President/CEO Jim Nussle has touted, including recently at the recent CUNA Governmental Affairs Conference.
President Obamas final fiscal year budget proposal is a record $4.1 trillion package that includes provisions to increase access to retirement plans and portability of retirement benefits.

Many of the Presidents retirement plan provisions in his final budget proposal were included in previous budget proposals but were not acted upon, reflecting the difficulty that the Obama administration has had in moving retirement plan legislation through Congress. The Obama administration included two new provisions in its final budget proposal, both aimed at increasing access to retirement plans.

One proposal would allow for the creation of open multiple employer plans that would permit unaffiliated employers to offer benefits through a single plan. Under current law, employers that participate in multiple employer plans are often employers that have some type of affiliation, such as belonging to the same trade or business association. The administrations proposal would eliminate this common bond requirement.

Allowing unaffiliated employers to participate in a single multiple employer plan, which would be treated as a single plan under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), would make it easier and less costly for small employers to offer tax-qualified retirement benefits to their employees. The administration believes that if it can reduce the complexities and costs associated with maintaining a retirement plan, small businesses will be more willing to offer retirement plans to their employees.

The administrations other new proposal is intended to encourage state retirement savings initiatives, such as the Illinois Secure Choice Savings Program. The Department of Labor (DOL) has recently proposed regulations and guidance to move forward with state-based retirement savings initiatives consistent with ERISA regulations. To further encourage these initiatives, the administration proposes to set aside $6.5 million to allow a handful of states to pilot and evaluate state-based 401(k)-type programs and automatic enrollment IRAs.

All of the other retirement plan provisions in the Presidents final budget proposal were included in previous budget proposals. Following are the major provisions that would affect IRAs.

Required Minimum Distributions for Roth IRAs

Roth IRAs would be subject to the same required minimum distribution (RMD) rules as Traditional IRAs. The proposal would require IRA owners to begin receiving RMDs from Roth IRAs in the year that they attain age 70 and would no longer permit Roth IRA contributions after reaching age 70.

Automatic IRA Program

Employers in business for at least two years that have 10 or more employees would be required to offer an automatic IRA option. Employers sponsoring a qualified retirement plan, simplified employee pension (SEP) plan, or savings incentive match plan for employees of small employers (SIMPLE) plan would not be required to offer an automatic IRA option. Under the administrations proposal, annual contributions would be made to the IRAs on a payroll deduction basis. Employers would facilitate employee contributions using their existing payroll deduction systems, but no employer contributions would be required.

Deductibility of Retirement Savings Plan Contributions

Another administration proposal would limit the tax value of specified deductions or exclusions from adjusted gross income and all itemized deductions.

The tax value of the exclusion for employee contributions would be reduced to a maximum of 28 percent for defined contribution retirement plans and IRAs instead of allowing taxpayers to exclude the contributions from the full 33 percent, 35 percent, or 39.6 percent that they would otherwise owe. Taxpayers in the 28 percent and lower brackets would be unaffected. This same provision also would limit the tax value of contributions made by these upper-income taxpayers to health savings accounts and Archer medical savings accounts.

Limited Payout Options for Nonspouse Beneficiaries

Nonspouse beneficiaries of retirement plans and IRAs would be required to take distributions over a period of no more than five years. Under current law, depending on the original IRA owners date of death and whether there is a designated beneficiary under the plan, a nonspouse beneficiary may be able to take payments over his or her own life expectancy.

Nonspouse Beneficiary Rollovers to Inherited IRAs

The options available to a nonspouse beneficiary under an employer-sponsored retirement plan or IRA for moving inherited plan or IRA assets to an inherited IRA would be expanded to allow 60-day rollovers (i.e., indirect rollovers) of such assets.

No RMDs for Some Taxpayers

RMDs would be eliminated if the aggregate value of an individuals IRA and other tax-favored retirement plan accumulations does not exceed $100,000 on a measurement date. The RMD requirements would phase in ratably for individuals with aggregate retirement benefits between $100,000 and $110,000.

Other Provisions

Other provisions in the administrations budget proposal would cap tax-advantaged retirement savings plan accumulations, expand penalty-free withdrawals from tax-qualified plans and IRAs for long-term unemployed individuals, limit Roth conversions to pretax dollars, and modify the cost-of-living adjustments to prevent deflationary adjustments.

Chance of Becoming Law

The prospect for passing any of the Presidents retirement savings proposals looks dim. The general consensus is that the Obama administration budget was dead on arrival on Capitol Hill, but the White House has expressed hope that it can obtain bipartisan support for a number of the Presidents initiatives.

That may be difficult with Republicans in control of both houses of Congress and the Presidents lame-duck status, and given that many of his retirement savings proposals were included in previous budget packages and were not acted upon. Add that its a presidential election year with a highly polarized electorate, the prospect of a long drawn-out primary season for both parties with potential implications for down-ballot races, and a Supreme Court vacancy thrown in for good measure and it may be nearly impossible. Stay tuned.
The National Credit Union Foundation is honoring three individuals with 2016 Herb Wegner Memorial Awards, the highest honors in the credit union movement.

Credit Union Magazine asked these credit union leaders to share their best leadership advice.

C. Alan Peppers

Former President/CEO of Westerra Credit Union, Denver. Peppers receives the award for his remarkable leadership, tireless advocacy for the movement, and vigorous charitable efforts.

Peppers top five pieces of advice:

1. Do everything you can to help credit union members achieve financial success.
Land ownership and tenure in Scotland faces the biggest shake-up for nearly 70 years when SMPs put the Scottish Land Reform Bill through its last stage in Holyrood.

The bill, which has attracted both support and criticism has cross-party support and looks likely to go through with only a few final tweaks on 16 March.

It will reset the way land ownership and use is approached, with an emphasis on greater collaboration between landowners, farmers and local communities in decision making and a wide range of changes to tenancy legislation.

Land reforms will not stop there, with the introduction of Scottish Land Commission to oversee ongoing changes. A lot of unknowns remain with the bill, however, which look likely to be fleshed out after it is passed.

Here are the main changes that will affect farmers:

Community right to buy

One of the most controversial proposals. Communities will be able to buy land to further sustainable development, such as energy projects, park creation or affordable housing, if they can prove it is necessary for the community.

Landowners will have the right to contest applications.

Groups will be allowed to involve a third party, which some worry could allow developers or other corporate interests to drive right to buy.

The proposal may get some last-minute tweaks next week  NFU Scotland is pushing for a gap of three years between applications on the same piece of land and for the impact on the agricultural productive capacity of the holding to be taken into account.

Guidelines on how landowners should engage with communities will further detail how right-to-buy will work  but these wont be drafted until after the bill has been passed.

Codes for tenant-landlord relationships

A new Tenant Farming Commissioner (TFC) will bring in codes of practice for landlord-tenant relationships and agents dealing with them.

It will handle alleged code breaches and its reports will be admissible before an arbitrator or court. The TFC will sit on the Land and Property Commission.

More flexible tenancy successions and assignations

Tenants will be able to pass their lifetime tenancies on to a wider range of relatives.

If a farmer on a 1991 Act tenancy does not have a successor they will be able to assign their tenancy (with their landlords agreement) to a new entrant or farmer progressing through the industry. However, the landlord will have first refusal to buy the tenancy back.

Tenant right to buy

If a landlords persistent failure to meet their obligations affects the tenants ability to maintain productive capacity, the tenant could gain the right to buy their holding.

Rent reviews change of focus

Rents will have to be based on the agricultural productive capacity of the holding rather than comparable evidence.

Repairs amnesty

During an amnesty, 1991 Act tenants will be able to ask for improvements they have made to be recognised by their landlord so they are properly compensated for them when they leave their tenancy.

Industry views

NFU Scotland recognises community ownership of assets can have benefits.

However, it remains concerned the bill does not provide adequate protection for farmers [in community right to buy].

Ministers must have due regard to the detrimental impact on the business losing the land, particularly units where loss of any piece of land could be devastating.

NFUS has held extensive discussions with members regarding the agricultural holdings provisions and have pressed strongly for a Tenant Farming Commissioner, a productive capacity test for secure tenants, robust codes of practice, and a waygo [the negotiations at the end of a tenancy surrounding the value of improvements carried out or crops or livestock left at the point of departure] amnesty.

Gemma Thomson, policy manager, NFUS

This bill represents the most significant changes to tenancy legislation since security of tenure was introduced in 1948.

These reforms should result in fairer and more sustainable rents, provide greater confidence for tenants to invest, and create opportunities for new entrants and farmers to progress through the sector.

Christopher Nicholson, tenant farmer and chairman of the Scottish Tenant Farmers Association

Many of our clients are concerned about the amendment that will enable 1991 Act tenants to sell or assign their tenancy to an individual who is either a new entrant or progressing in farming.

We are sceptical this amendment will breathe new life into the tenancy sector and suspect it will lead to a reduction in the amount of land being brought on to the letting market.

The bill is very light touch in saying how many of its provisions will actually be put into practice, and allows for the relevant Scottish minister to make decisions on this by means of secondary legislation, [which could] not be subject to consultation, or scrutiny via the Scottish parliamentary committee.

Ralph Peters, partner and head of estate management in Scotland, Bidwells
A family of beef farmers in Canada are celebrating the one-in-11-million birth of quadruplet calves.

Last Friday, a Charolais cow on a farm in Saskatchewan, Canada, gave birth to quadruplet calves  beating reported odds of 11.2m to one.

Calvin Lamport and his family, who run the farm near Alida in south east Saskatchewan, had expected the five-year-old Charolais to deliver twins.

But after the first two were born, Mr Lamport noticed a third one and pulled it out. The fourth calf was born about half an hour later unassisted, it was reported.

Quadruplets born tonight on our farm in SE Sask! Unbelievable!! Chances of this are 1 in 11.2 million!! #beef pic.twitter.com/ory0SVmlst  Kayla Lamport (@KaylaLamportED) March 5, 2016

For the past two years in a row, she had twins. We were kind of expecting her to have twins again this year, but we definitely werent expecting that she was going to have four, Mr Lamports son, Layne, who assisted his father, told the Times Colonist.

According to reports, the two bull and two heifer calves each weighed about 23kg. A nurse cow has been drafted in to help raise the calves.

Mr Lamports daughter Kayla later posted pictures and videos online of the newborn quadruplets.
Rural Payments Agency (RPA) boss Mark Grimshaw has defended delays in delivering money to farmers  and insisted claimants would have enough time to make applications for 2016.

Mr Grimshaw made the pledge to MPs just a week after the governments Public Accounts Committee said farmers had borne the brunt of a childish turf war between senior civil servants.

See also: Childish turf war delayed payments to farmers

Although thousands of farmers are still waiting for their 2015 payments, Mr Grimshaw said claimants would still have a clear six to eight weeks to complete their BPS 2016 applications.

Mr Grimshaw was giving evidence to the House of Commons environment, food and rural affairs committee on Wednesday (9 March).

We are expecting to send out the pre-populated online forms from Saturday 19 March, he said.

For all of those customers who have already been paid, the information that will be on their pre-populated form online will have been validated and verified.

Evidence session

In a frequently tense evidence session, Mr Grimshaw repeatedly defended his actions as head of the agency, which has been heavily criticised over slow support payments to farmers.

Some 16,000 farmers across England are still waiting for their 2015 basic payments following difficulties at the agency as it implemented a new IT system.

Last week, a report by the Public Accounts Committee said dysfunctional and inappropriate behaviour among senior civil servants had been a key challenge for the project.

The report said major problems had been caused by the inability of Defra, the RPA and the governments Digital Service to work together effectively.

Mr Grimshaw said he accepted there was an element of truth in the document, but suggested language used by the committee had been sensationalist.

However, MPs appeared to grow increasingly frustrated by Mr Grimshaws responses to their questions over his involvement with the payments project.

At one point, Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire MP Simon Hart said there was something which I really dont like about the conversation with Mr Grimshaw.

Take responsibility

Mr Hart suggested Mr Grimshaw should take responsibility for the situation at the agency as well as for the subsequent slow rollout of payments to farmers.

He added: I cant quite put my finger on it  youve said the Public Accounts Committee were essentially wrong and exaggerated and sensationalised your role in this.

Mr Grimshaw denied saying the Public Accounts Committee was wrong.

I am certainly not in the position of accusing the committee of being inaccurate  and if those are the words I used then I will recant them here and now.

The point about the leadership issue  again I would just remind you that I was not in charge of the CAP delivery programme until May of last year.

I was in charge of the Rural Payments Agency, which was a customer of the CAP delivery programme and not the leader of the CAP delivery programme.

Not entirely truthful

Efra committee chairman Neil Parish told Mr Grimshaw he felt no-one involved in the project had been entirely truthful when questioned by MPs over the matter.

Mr Parish asked: At the end of the day, you are head of the Rural Payments Agency  why did your position not prevail? Who was it who was causing the problem?

Should you have given advice sooner? Could you have worked with these people better?

This is what we want to know and yet nobody is being entirely truthful  either with the Public Accounts Committee or with us, I feel. Is that being unkind?

Mr Grimshaw said he didnt necessarily feel it was being kind or unkind. He added: I was not in a position to have my opinion prevail, as youve just suggested.

Mr Grimshaw said his biggest regret was not being able to get over to the programme the requirements of the business from a delivery and functional perspective.

He added: That is a concern that will live with me for many years.

As a personal failing, I was not able to communicate and not able to get senior people to recognise that the programme was in difficulty.
Lambholm Tampa Bay Derby 2016: Posts, Odds, Plays Let the Derby fever begin, as we head to Florida this weekend for the 36th edition of the Grade II, Tampa Bay Derby. The race is set for Saturday, March 12, 2016 at Tampa Bay Downs, in Tampa, Florida. The race is now an official prep for the Kentucky Derby and will offer points of 50-20-10-5 for the first four finishers to compete in the 2016 Yums Brand Kentucky Derby on Saturday, May 7. Since its gain in popularity, the Tampa Bay Derby was upgraded to a Grade II in 2011. The race is for 3 year-olds going a 1 1/16 on the dirt for a purse of $350,000.

The speed record is held by Street Sense, set in 2007, which still stands as the stakes & track record for this distance. Street Sense also became the first Tampa Bay Derby participant to win the Kentucky Derby. Super Saver finished 3rd in the 2010 Tampa Bay Derby and went on to win the Kentucky Derby for trainer Todd Pletcher that year. Mr. Pletcher also owns the most trainer wins for this race with three: 2004 with Limehouse, 2013 with Verrazano and 2015 with Carpe Diem. Carpe Diem went on to win the 1 1/8 miles Toyota Blue Grass Stakes and finished up 10th in the 2015 Kentucky Derby.

Tampa Bay Downs is kicking of the weekend with Festival Day 36 which features four stakes races worth $850,000. Also on the card is the 18th running of the Grade II $200,000 Hillsborough Stakes, which is a 1 1/8 event on the turf for fillies and mares. We also have the 33rd running of the Grade III $200,000 Florida Oaks, which is a 1 1/16 grass race for 3 year-old fillies. Last, but not least, we have the 25th running of the $100,000 Challenger Stakes.

The 2016 Tampa Bay Derby is the 11th race of the day on a card of 12 with a start time of 5:24 p.m. EST. This is one full-punch card day at Tampa Bay Downs, with most likely a full-house, so get there early folks. The gates open at 10:30 a.m. with the first race starting at noon. Cooler bags with an embroidered Tampa Bay Downs logo will be handed-out to the first 7,500 entrants, free of charge, with paid admission. Game on! I cant wait to watch this card Saturday.

We have a salty group of ten entered in this race and it looks like a nice deep field to me for a Grade II.

I have to say, I got sucked onto the Destin bandwagon early last year after finding out this son of Giants Causeway/Dream of Summer, was a full-brother to Creative Cause. Creative Cause broke my heart on the 2011 Triple Crown trail as he always tried his hardest but couldnt quite make it, finishing a respectable 5th in the Kentucky Derby and 3rd in the Preakness, to be retired after. Im hoping his little brother can step-up to the plate this year in the three big-ones.

Destin has a very light racing career with 4:2:1 and reeks of continued improvement to me. He broke his maiden at first asking last October at Belmont, then subsequently ran second in an allowance race and 4th in the Lecomte. He definitely ran much better winning the Sam F. Davis on this track February 13th digging in hard to overcome his challenger Rafting by 2  lengths. If he can at least come in the top two places Saturday, he should make the starting gate for the 2016 Kentucky Derby. He may buck the trend, but the Sam F. Davis winner hasnt fared too well in the Tampa Bay Derby; however, Im hoping he makes a good showing of himself Saturday as the competition continues to stiffen. It doesnt hurt that hes won on this track either, that is a plus for me. Destin could be a handful come the first Saturday in May if he continues to move forward, as he has, from start to start.

Its tough to look past Economic Model coming in sharp, 2nd off the layoff and lightly raced for trainer Chad Brown. The son of Flatter has two races under his belt. Most recently, finishing up 2nd in the Grade II Swale Stakes at Gulfstream Park in January, at 7 furlongs, making a huge late rally off the rail. He should dig the added real-estate and it doesnt hurt that Brown is 30% going sprint to route. The colt broke his maiden in August of last year at 6 furlongs by 2  length under Irad Ortiz, who gets the mount again. He is coming in with some nice works and looks ready to romp.

Another interesting character in here is the speedy colt Riker, who was bought privately by Team Valor International and Gary Barber to be handed over to trainer Mark Casse. This son of Include is a three-time stakes winner at Woodbine, all going gate to wire, after breaking his maiden at first asking. Two races back he became a Grade III winner at Woodbine October 4th of last year in the Grey stakes winning that race by 1  lengths at 1 1/16 miles on the synthetic. His only loss came in the Breeders Cup Juvenile last October 31st finishing up 6th by only 4 lengths after faltering as the pace setter in the final stages. Hes got a few sharp works and is sitting just inside Destin in post #6 with Florent Geroux up, which doesnt hurt a bit. He could wire this group firing fresh off the bench.

This is a tough race with a lot of early speed signed on with #1 Morning Fire, who is speedy already and will be coming from the rail. Outwork, whom is also very lightly raced and coming in second off the lay, who has won gate-to-wire in both of his races (Im wondering if they will try to rate him). Then we have the speedy Awesome Banner coming from outside post #10.

I look for Riker to take up the front with Awesome Banner to possibly wear him out on the front-end. Im banking on Destin to hang back a bit and hopefully win this race, when and IF, the pace collapses. Ill be playing a win bet on Destin if he is 3-1 or higher. Ill also post my plays the day of the race on Twitter.

Best of luck to everyone and giddy-up!

Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby 2016 Post Positions & Odds

Race 11 5:24 PM ET

1 Morning Fire* 15-1 Centeno/Nations

2 Rafting 6-1 Prado/Motion

3 Outwork 12-1 Velazquez/Pletcher

4 Economic Model 5-1 Ortiz, Jr./Brown

5 Star Hill 15-1 Leparoux/Arnold, II

6 Riker 8-1 Geroux/Casse

7 Destin 9-2 Castellano/Pletcher

8 Brodys Cause 5-1 Lanerie/Romans

9 Tale of Savall 12-1 Bravo/Tagg

10 Awesome Banner 8-1 Gallardo/Gold

*Blinkers off Morning Fire.
Utilityman Skip Schumaker has departed Padres camp and appears to be wrapping up his MLB career, manager Andy Green told reporters including Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune (Twitter link). Though hes not referring to the decision as a formal retirement, the veteran made clear he is moving on from his playing days to spend more time with his family.

Schumaker, 36, signed a minor league deal with San Diego a month ago, and had made a strong impression in camp on the field staff and younger players in the organization. Earlier in the winter, the Reds declined an option to put him onto the open market.

Schumaker has spent parts of eleven seasons in the majors. Most recently, he logged two disappointing seasons in Cincinnati, putting up a meager .238/.297/.322 batting line over 539 turns at bat.

Hell be remembered most for his time with the Cardinals, where he was a strong contributor for eight campaigns. Schumaker was a regular contributor over 2008 through 2012, and ultimately provided St. Louis with over 2,500 plate appearances with a .288/.345/.377 slash line while splitting his time between second base and the outfield. Schumaker also played for one season with the Dodgers.

With the move, the Padres seem positioned to infuse some additional youth onto the active roster, as players such as Jose Pirela and Jabari Blash now have a clearer path to cracking the club. The competition is also thinned for other potential utility/bench/platoon options in camp, including Alexi Amarista, Brett Wallace, Adam Rosales, Nick Noonan, Jemile Weeks, and Alex Dickerson.

MLBTR wishes Schumaker the best in his future pursuits.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe pulled out of the Sri Sri event due to security and protocol issues. (Photo: AP)

New Delhi: Already mired in controversy, the Art of Living foundations culture festival has suffered another blow with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe pulling out of the event due to security and protocol issues.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said, "MEA did not invite the President. The invitation was extended entirely by the Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Foundation" when asked about whether Zimbabwe President has pulled out from the event due to security and protocol issues.

The Spokesperson also said Mugabe's pullout could have been due to the fact that currently there is no Presidential-level participation at the event but asserted that the MEA had nothing to do with the matter which was between the foundation and the Zimbabwean President.

Zimbabwe State-controlled ZBC TV reported, "President Robert Mugabe has called off his engagement in India where he was scheduled (to be) the guest of honour at the world culture festival.

"In a statement to the ZBC news, presidential spokesperson Cde George Charamba said the cancellation follows communication from the organisers of the festival acknowledging substantial inadequacies in protocol and security arrangements around the event."

The three-day World Culture Festival organised by Sri Sri Ravi Shankars foundation from tomorrow is scheduled to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Foundation been criticised for allegedly damaging the banks of the Yamuna river for building a massive stage for the festival. A case on the issue is before the National Green Tribunal.
- A Nigerian man claiming to be a leader of the pro-Biafra movement who is detained in Norway may be deported to Nigeria

- Lotachukwu Okolie said he is the leader of IPOB in Norway

- He claimed to have come to Norway after escaping from prison in Nigeria in 2004

- He said he is scared to return home because of his position on Biafra

Favour Lotachukwu Okolie during a pro-Biafran demonstration in Norway, who claimed to be one of the leaders of Biafra movement, has said that he is afraid of returning back to Nigeria.

Lotachukwu Okolie, who claims to be a leader of the pro-Biafran movement, said that he is due to be "illegally deported" from Norway to Nigeria, where he fears his life will be in danger because of his activities.

In an interview with the IB Times UK Okolie said that he is currently being detained at the Trandum Detention Centre and he believes he will be deported to Nigeria on 9 March.

READ ALSO: Biafra: Kanus wife reveals how she survives without her husband

"I have been here at the deportation centre for more than one year and I already told them that instead of being deported, I will commit suicide here," he said.

"I am scared of going back to Nigeria because I am a Biafran leader here in Norway and Nigeria. The Nigerian embassy [in Sweden] does not want to give me travel documents. I am tired of the politics, I am not a criminal, I am an activist. I am still suffering every day."

The pro-Biafran activist claimed he left Nigeria in 2004 after being supposedly tortured in a jail. According to his friend Okolie was arrested in Nigeria due to his activism and broke out from the Oko prison in Edo state in 2004.

He became the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra in Norway in 2013.

The source also claimed that after Okolie organised a pro-Biafran conference in Oslo in August 2014, he was contacted by some Nigerians living in Norway who warned him to stop his activities.

"These individuals demanded Okolie should stop campaigning for Biafra restoration because the Nigerian embassy in Stockholm is aware of him escaping Oko prison," the source added that Okolie was then arrested. Okolie claimed that he had been visited several times at the detention centre by representatives of the Nigerian embassy in London, who he said told the Norwegian police that he was an enemy of Nigeria.

READ ALSO: Unbelievable! See what Biafrans did to Governor Okorocha in London (photos, video)

Okolie told reporters that he began the pro-Biafran movement with Nnamdi Kanu, the Radio Biafra director and head of the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), who is currently in DSS custody and standing trial on six counts of treason in Nigeria. The two leaders no longer work together.

The Norwegian immigration service declined to comment on the case, saying they never provide information before a deportation has taken place.

Source: Legit.ng
New Delhi: A fresh complaint has been lodged against Jawaharlal Nehru students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar for remarks made by him at a student's gathering on women's day. The complaint has been filed by BJP's youth wing, which allege Kanhaiya's statements were "anti-national".

"No matter how much you try to stop us, we will speak up against human rights violations. We will raise our voice against AFSPA. While we have a lot of respect for our soldiers, we will still talk about the fact that in Kashmir women are raped by security personnel," Kanhaiya reportedly said while addressing students at a women's day march late on Tuesday night.

"During war in Rwanda 1000 women were raped. In Africa during the ethnic conflict, when military attacks other group firstly their women were raped. You take example of Gujarat, women were not just killed but were raped first," the JNU student leader purportedly said at the event.

Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) filed a complaint in Vasant Vihar police station saying these remarks were "anti-national" and that Kanhaiya defied his bail conditions.

"Despite the submission of an undertaking before court, Kanhaiya has yet again addressed a gathering of students and uttered poisonous words against the Indian Army, labelling them as rapists of Kashmiri Women," a BJYM statement said.

The BJYM also filed a complaint against JNU professor Nivedita Menon who, in a new video, is heard saying Kashmir is not a part of India and that pro-azaadi slogans are justified..

"JNU professor Nivedita Menon has been spewing hatred against the Indian Armed Forces in public meetings as well. She made statements like it is recognized worldwide that India is illegally occupying Kashmir," it added.

"We have received the complaint and the matter is being looked into. No FIR has been registered yet," a senior police official said.

However, Menon, who teaches at the Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory at the School of International Studies in JNU, said, "I don't believe anything I said was anti-national".

The All India Students Federation (AISF), to which Kanhaiya belongs to, clarified his remarks saying, "He made the remarks in context of atrocities on women worldwide and not just in Kashmir. He in no way meant to demean Army or any other force and he clarified that in his speech too".

Kanhaiya was arrested on February 12 and charged with sedition over an event on campus on February 9 against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised. He was granted an interim bail for six months by Delhi High Court last week.
Srinagar: Army on Thursday cautioned it would use force if pro-freedom crowds hinder its counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir.

In case a crowd takes law in its hands and threatens life and property, security forces will be constrained to initiate appropriate action to counter it, it said in a statement here issued to explain a recent incident in which two Kashmiri youth were injured in troops firing in Aishmuqam area of southern Anantnag district.

A new trend has emerged in Kashmir Valley. It is not just massive attendance in militant funerals, a routine occurrence now, which has got security officials worried, people in large numbers come out of their homes and start chanting pro-azadi slogans on seeing security forces arriving in their area to take on militants. Often they move close to encounter sites and even target security forces with stones if they try to come in their way.

An Army soldier during a search operation to flush out militants at Hadoora Balla on the out skirts of Srinagar. (Photo: PTI)

In several such cases in the recent past, womenfolk also joined them to encourage trapped or holed up militants. During one of the longest fire fights in which five security personnel including two Army officers and all the three militants were killed at Sempora, Pampore near here last month, mosque loudspeakers were also used to broadcast rebellious songs to hearten militants.

While the encounter was still underway thousands of residents took to the streets in the neighbourhood areas to chant pro-freedom slogans. As they tried to relocate to encounter site police fired teargas canisters and pellet guns to push them back. 15 protesters and five policemen were injured in clashes.

In an earlier incident, two students including a woman were killed when Army fired live ammunition after sections of protesters while chanting pro-azadi slogans turned violent near an encounter site in Kakapora area of southern Pulwama district. Neither of them were part of the violent crowd, residents claimed later. The killings triggered widespread protests in the Valley and the authorities had to impose curfews or curfew-like restrictions in several volatile areas including central Srinagar amid rising anger.

Following the bloody incident, Governor N.N. Vohra held a series of meetings with police, Army and other law enforcing authorities to discuss the fallout and issued them strict instruction to exercise restraint while dealing with such situations.

As crowd interference near encounter sites is becoming a norm, the Jammu and Kashmir police on February 18 issued an advisory to the public asking them to desist from it. In case an encounter starts anywhere, the people particularly the parents of young adults of nearby area(s) are requested not to allow their wards to move towards the encounter site. In case they are outside home they be recalled to home, the advisory had said.

The police also imposed a ban on assembly of people within the radius of two kilometres of an encounter site and advised people to stay indoors and do not peep out of the windows of their houses to avoid being hit by stray bullets. It further said that since Section 144 CrPC immediately comes into force at and around encounter sites, assembly of five or more people near these is unlawful.

But neither police advisory nor the Kakapora like incidents could serve as a deterrent. Kashmir Valley continues to witness protests by surging crowds around the sites of encounters between security forces and militants.

On Wednesday, a huge crowd assembled near a poplar nursery outside Padgam Pora-Wandakpora villages of Pulwama where a large group of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba militants were engaged in a gun fight with security forces. Though two militants including Abu Okasha involved in the August 5, 2015 ambush on a BSF convoy near the garrison town of Udhampur were killed, the others including most wanted LeT commander Abu Dujana escaped through the security forces dragnet.

A senior police officer confirmed that the people have in several instances while chanting pro-freedom slogans targeted the security forces with stones in their attempts to create situations which could be seized by holed up militants to escape or, at least, receive encouragement.

Army said on Thursday that about 1,000 people had gathered at Aishmuqams Magray mohalla where the troops had launched an operation against militants reportedly present in the area last week. The crowd tried to disrupt the operation in clear violation of existing orders which had also been recently reiterated by the police, it said adding that a section of the crowd also resorted to heavy stone pelting amid chanting of slogans, injuring a dozen personnel including a JCO of the Army and an ASI of the J&K police.

The incident has been investigated and it is established that the security forces were forced to open cautionary fire to prevent any further injury, loss or damage to personnel, weapons equipment and other government property in which two persons resorting to stone pelting were injured, it said warning that similar acts would evoke appropriate action from troops in future.
Chennai: Neela was thrilled like a kid. The 72-year-old tribal woman from Annai Sathya Nagar barely two km from the famous pilgrim town of Thirukazhukundram in Kancheepuram district had not seen a train, much less ride on one, until then.

The excursion to Chennai for Neela and 31 other women from her hamlet, organised by the MSW (Masters in Social Work) students of Madras Christian College as a gift in celebration of the International Womens Day on Tuesday had included a train ride from Chengalpet to Tambaram and a daylong exposure to civilisation that had eluded the 100-odd tribal families living in the Nagar barely 70 km from Chennai.

I have never come out of my hamlet till now. Most of us in this group have not seen life in towns and cities. This is very exciting, cackled Neela. The MCC students picked up the group of 32 from their Nagar, walked two km to catch the bus to Chingleput and took a train there to reach Potheri for a session on mushroom cultivation, pisiculture and vermi composting at the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) of the Indian Council for Agriculture Research.

We learnt a lot in that class that lasted almost two hours. The teacher was very kind and understanding. He was so patient because he knew that we were not only zero-literate but also very new to outside world, said Neelas daughter Bhavani.

We will put this knowledge to practice. We have been promised that our produce will be marketed and we will earn some money. The KVK-ICAR complex holds a weekly shandy on Saturdays, where the trainees produce is shown, and sold.

The tribal women were taken by train from Potheri to Tambaram, where they spent over two hours interacting with the faculty and students at the MCC. If the tribal people were awe-struck seeing our urban life and the train rides, we were equally shocked at their ignorance and innocence. We have seen such people only in the movies and read in the travelogues of archeologists.

We taught them how to buy tickets for the train travel at Chegalpet railway station and after the interact at MCC, we put them on the train to reach their hamlet on their own. Those women were smart, brave, Ms Anupriya, postgraduate MSW student, told DC.

I am finishing my PG degree in April but will continue in the course just to work among these tribal people. We want to give them some basic education and soft skills. Now many of them do not even know how to count money, she said.

Her classmate Shilpa, who is also part of the Project Tribal, said it was pathetic to see people live in such abysmally unhygienic and poor conditions, that too so close to the state capital city.

Even newborn babies suffered from scabies and other ailments and the Public Health Centre, more than a kilometre away, does not help. There are no roads, no electricity and no schools in Neelas Nagar.

With the elections round the corner, will there be some hope for these tribal people? Nobody has come to us for votes all these years. It appears none knew our existence, until the floods (November,2015) marooned us and some relief teams heard us screaming, said Selvi, who is now all excited at not just the train ride but also the new job she has secured through the MCC-MSW efforts to launch womens self-groups to bring in some socio-economic activity into her hamlet.
New Delhi: Amidst the ongoing row over the controversial Ishrat Jahan case, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Thursday said the affidavit describing her as LeT operative was changed by the then Home Minister P Chidambaram due to some "undue pressure".

"Personally, I feel that Chidambaram is a very experienced politician and is a very learned man. He will not on his own go to the extent of giving a clean chit to a terrorist. There must have been some kind of undue pressure on him," he told reporters here.

Read: Ishrat Jahan case: Dont politicise terror, Rajnath Singh tells Opposition

Rijiju said it was clear that there must have been something in the mind of Chidambaram and due to some consideration "which forced him to take such a drastic action which can be termed as anti-national".

"We will try to find out what went wrong and who all are responsible for that," he said.

The Minister of State for Home's comments came in the wake of his senior Rajnath Singh's statement in Parliament where he accused the erstwhile UPA government of hatching a "deep conspiracy" to frame Narendra Modi when he was then the Gujarat Chief Minister.

Read: Ishrat case: Jaitley accuses Congress of 'colluding' with accused

Singh also alleged that the previous government had done a 'flip-flop' on the links of Ishrat Jahan with terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Ishrat was killed in an alleged fake encounter in Gujarat in 2004.

The first affidavit was filed on the basis of inputs from Maharashtra and Gujarat Police besides the Intelligence Bureau where it was said that the 19-year-old girl from Mumbai outskirts was a Lashkar-e-Taiba activist but it was ignored in the second affidavit, Home Ministry officials said.

Read: Ishrat killed in cold blood, encounter was fake, says SIT officer

The second affidavit, claimed to have been drafted by Chidambaram, said there was no conclusive evidence to prove that Ishrat was a terrorist, officials said.

Referring to missing of some key files related to the case, Rijiju said it was very surprising that the matter has reached Parliament.

"We all are very surprised with the missing of files. Some of the important documents, specially when the then Home Minister was to make a substantial change in the affidavit. It amounted to giving a clean chit to a terrorist. Also the related files and documents, specially the draft portion which was vetted by the then Attorney General," he said.

Rijiju said the Home Ministry officials were yet to trace all these documents. "What we have is the file noting and the affidavit which is being filed in the court. That's all. What is very apparent is that the then Home Minister very clearly approved a file which stated that a particular lady is a LeT operative and subsequently he changes his mind and said that there is no conclusive proof," he said.
- Kano APC vice-chairman Ali Danmaraya passes on

- Danmaraya is buried hours after according to Islamic rites

- Governor Ganduje pays tribute to the late Danmaraya

Ali Danmaraya, vice-chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kano state, is dead, The Cable reports.

Danmaraya died at his residence on Thursday morning, March 10, after a brief illness.

READ ALSO: Late James Ocholi to be buried next week

According to the report, the 73 year old has been buried according to Islamic rites at the Farm Centre Cemetery in Tarauni local government area of the state.

A twitter user with the name (@danzainabsports) also confirmed the report.

In English, it means:

READ ALSO: Photo: Late wife and son of James Ocholi

His funeral prayer was attended by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano state and Hafizu Abubakar, his deputy.

Addressing newsmen at the ceremony, Governor Ganduje described the late Danmaraya as a hard working and dedicated member of the APC.

Ganduje said the party would miss him greatly because of his exemplary leadership qualities and kindness to the people.

Danmaraya death comes just 48 hours after Senator Abdulmimun Zareko, who represented Jigawa state in the 7th National Assembly passed on.

His death also comes four days after Nigeria's minister of state for Labour and Productivity, James Ocholi, his wife and son lost their lives on the Kaduna-Abuja expressway after a fatal car crash.

Source: Legit.ng
The Govt said there was no order to stop Vijay Mallya from leaving the country. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Congress on Thursday accused the BJP-led government of "criminal consipracy" in allowing businessman Vijay Mallya, facing probe in several loan default cases, to fly out of the country, as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley sought to corner the main opposition party by saying the loans were given to him during UPA rule.

"My charge against this government is that when so many agencies were interrogating him (Mallya), why was he not arrested, why was his passport not confiscated," Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said in Rajya Sabha.

Read: Govt will not let Mallya live in peace, says BJP

Raising the matter during Zero Hour, Azad said everyone knew Mallya "could flee any day" and the investigating agencies should have seized his passport and taken steps to restrict his movement.

Maintaining that Mallya lived a "luxurious life" and had bases in several countries, the Congress leader said Mallya is not a "needle" and moves around with an entourage and expressed surprise how he managed to leave the country despite a CBI "Look Out Notice".

"My allegation is that this government is party to this criminal conspiracy of allowing him to escape and leave the country. In this criminal conspiracy, this Government should be made party and the Supreme Court should take note of this.

Read: Banks should have acted earlier to stop Mallya, says Arun Jaitley

"Without the participation and without the active support of this government, he could not have left the country. That is my allegation," Azad said, adding that "one had escaped, the second Lalit Modi (Mallya) should not be allowed to escape".

Countering the charges, Jaitley said the banks have been asked to recover "every penny that is due", adding that the first banking facility was given to Mallya and his companies in September 2004 which were renewed in February 2008.

The Leader of the House further said the accounts were declared non-performing assets (NPA) on April 30, 2009 and these debts were restructured and more facilites extened in December 2010.

Read: Vijay Mallya has left India, Centre informs Supreme Court

"In what circumstances were the loans given is an issue of investigation and the CBI is investigating," he said. "How these accounts were running, what facilities were given, the dates tell their own story," Jaitley said, adding "when the loans were given, how they were given... introspection will be required."

Jaitley said the liabilities including interest aggregates to Rs 9,091.4 crore as on November 30, 2015.

Read: Loan default case: ED summons bank, airline officials

Maintaining that banks and financial institutions were taking steps to recover dues and attachment of properties, the Minister said he had a list of 22 cases filed in different parts of the country and added that some assets have also been attached.

He also said there was no order to stop Mallya from leaving the country.

"That day, there was no order of any agency to stop him (from leaving the country)," Jaitley said, adding Mallya had left the country before the banks moved the Supreme Court for seizure of his passport. Mallya had left the country on March 2.

On Azad's contention that the present government had failed to bring back Lalit Modi, Jaitley said it was during the UPA rule that the former IPL chief had left the country.

"I was giving an example that one had escaped, the second Lalit Modi (Mallya) should not be allowed to escape," Azad said.

The senior Congress leader also said that during his long political career, he has never recommended to any bank for advancing loan to any person.

Earlier, Naresh Agrawal (SP) said the matter of Mallya, a Rajya Sabha MP, should be referred to Ethics Committee.

Deputy Chairman P J Kurien said: "I agree with you. This is a matter to be taken up by the Ethics Committee".
New Delhi: Minister of State (MoS) for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Thursday said the government will not let liquor baron Vijay Mallya live in peace and escape with the money of Indian citizens.

"We will get hold of Vijay Mallya, we will not let him escape like this. Anyone who has siphoned nation's money illicitly we will not let them live in peace," Naqvi said.

Mallya has been in the UK since March 2. The amount owed by his company is around 9,000 crores.

The Supreme Court has issued a notice to Mallya on a plea filed by a consortium of 13 PSU banks headed by State Bank of India. The lenders had moved the apex court to prevent Mallya from leaving the country and impounding his passport even as the loan recovery procedure for Kingfisher Airlines is still on.

The Supreme Court has sought Mallya's response to the banks' plea by 30 March which is the next date of hearing.


Javascript Error

Javascript is deactivated in your browser. To use all functions on this portal, for example the login, Javascript must be activated. Please activate Javascript in your browser settings.
According to a Budapest City Report by JLL, portfolio transactions remained the key driver of Hungarian investment activity in Q4 2015. The report also investigated the rest of the market.

Economy/Investment Market



Quarterly summary

 The quarterly transactional volume reac...

[]
Around 270 New Zealand Defence Force engineers and naval personnel have been sent to Fiji to continue support and rebuilding efforts following Tropical Cyclone Winston, bringing the number of New Zealand troops in Fiji close to 500.

Commanding Officer of HMNZS Canterbury, Commander Simon Rooke says the multi-role vessel is anchored off Lomaloma, the main village on the island of Vanua Balavu, and is serving as the maritime hub for New Zealands post-disaster recovery operations in Fijis northern outer islands.
<p>Judy Obregon</p>

It started with a phone call. Then a rush to her local humane society, even though Judy Obregon was dripping wet having just stepped out of the shower. The call no animal rescuer wants to receive. Ever.

Benji was dumped at the shelter by his owners after four years. | Judy Obregon

A dog whom Obregon saved four years ago and adopted out to a family had been dumped at the shelter. The dog, Benji, was left there in a cage on a cold cement floor even though Obregon makes every adopter promise that they will return the animal to her should things not work out. Anytime. No. Matter. What. It's even in the adoption contract.

Dodo Shows Odd Couples Kitten Isn't Sure About His Pittie Brother  At First

Benji quickly warmed up to Obregon soon after they left the shelter. | Judy Obregon

Obregon, founder of The Abandoned Ones "Saving Animals in Danger" (TAO) rescue in Fort Worth, Texas, rushed down to the Humane Society of North Texas (HSNT) and ran inside. "I knew he was shutting down," Obregon told The Dodo. A microchip saved him HSNT found her through the dog's microchip information. Although the adopters who dumped Benji did not register the chip in their name, with a little research, the HSNT found Obregon's information since all her animals are also chipped to her organization.

When Benji was first rescued four years ago, his fur was severely matted and had duct tape embedded in it. | Judy Obregon

"When I got there it was really devastating," Obregon said. "I really just wanted to fly through the lobby so I wouldn't see the sadness, so I wouldn't see the dogs waiting at the front counter. There were at least 10 of them being surrendered."

Benji was shaved after they found him and was skinny and fragile. | Judy Obregon

Obregon walked to the back with an HSNT employee and tried to keep her focus. Then she saw Benji. His head was down looking toward the concrete. It was minutes since he had been surrendered. He looked defeated. "When I called his name he barely lifted his head," Obregon said. "He shook as he was so afraid." She looked at him. "Benji, it's me," she said. "I'm here to rescue you again, and I'm taking you home." Benji looked up at Obregon and his eyes widened. She asked the employee if she could just take Benji home right then and there. "Yeah let's take him out, put him on a leash, take you upstairs and get you both out of here," the employee said to Obregon. A dog originally found on the highway When Obregon first saved Benji, a wheaten terrier mix, in 2012, he had been a stray her husband found running down a busy highway. Her husband directed Benji out of traffic and called his wife, and they were able to capture him.

Benji loves to pose for the camera. | Judy Obregon

At the time, Benji was extremely matted and had duct tape embedded in his fur. "His ears were so matted they probably weighed a pound each," Obregon said. After he was shaved he was skin and bones, fragile and afraid. A vet visit showed he had worms, fleas and ticks. Benji got neutered and received all his shots. He went into a foster home and then about three months later he was adopted by a young couple. Dumped at the shelter When that same couple dumped Benji at the HSNT in mid-January, they said it was because he was not good with children. "I don't know what happened in the four years," Obregon said. "Maybe they had a baby; I don't know anything." He was surrendered without a collar or tags. "Our contract states we are to be contacted if they can no longer care for the animal," Obregon said. "It's not only in the contract that they sign, but it is also verbally stated by me or by whoever [from her organization] does the home visit."

Benji is thriving and happy since Obregon saved him again. | Judy Obregon

In Benji's case, Obregon knows because she did the home visit. "I remember him being so happy," she said. "There's a sleepover before they make the final decision to see if the dog is a good fit. They basically knew what they were adopting because they chose to adopt him." Obregon was told by the HSNT that the family said they tried to contact her organization before leaving him at the shelter. "I never got any contacts," Obregon said. "We have a website with a phone number; it's on the contract and on our Facebook page."

Saved again By the time Obregon left the HSNT facility, a TAO foster had stepped up to take Benji. Benji's physical condition was OK, but emotionally he was fragile. As they left the parking lot, Benji cried. "I think he was looking for his owners and that's why I cried too," she said, referring to the photo she took of herself in tears. "I cried not just for Benji but because I saw a line of dogs being surrendered, knowing I cannot save them all."

Benji loves Judy. | Judy Obregon

But Benji warmed up to Obregon quickly and started licking her face. "He remembered me," she said. "I wish that the owners surrendering their animals could see what happens after they leave the shelter, because I saw it that day." "Animals are not disposable," she added. "They have feelings." Benji may have been left and forgotten by his former family, but Obregon said he is now doing great and surrounded by love at his new foster home.
At a March 10 news conference at the White House, President Obama said the Republican Party establishment is to blame for the divisive tone of the 2016 presidential race. (The White House)

At a March 10 news conference at the White House, President Obama said the Republican Party establishment is to blame for the divisive tone of the 2016 presidential race. (The White House)

President Obama said Thursday that he is not responsible for the Republican Partys crackup even though some GOP leaders have blamed him for Donald Trumps divisive-but-effective campaign for the partys presidential nomination.

I have been blamed by Republicans for a lot of things, but being blamed for their primaries and who theyre selecting for their party is novel, he said during a joint news conference with visiting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The president instead pointed a finger at the Republican Party leaders who have been feeding the Republican base for the last seven years a notion that everything I do is to be opposed and that cooperation or compromise somehow is a betrayal, that maximalist, absolutist positions on issues are politically advantageous.

Obama said that ultimately I want an effective Republican Party that would be prepared to govern, whether in the minority or the majority, whether in the White House or not. He said such a party could challenge some of the blind spots and dogmas in the Democratic Party. I think thats useful.

But he said he was not responsible for the circus playing out in the GOP primaries.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived in Washington for the White House state dinner, and Twitter users remarked on the "bromance" friendship between Trudeau and President Obama. (Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)

Obama and Trudeau also addressed bilateral issues. They announced they would seek a 40 percent to 45 percent reduction in methane emissions below 2012 levels by the oil and gas industry by 2025, and, to meet that commitment, both governments said they would regulate emissions from existing sources, not just new wells.

The Environmental Protection Agency will begin drafting regulations immediately, according to a joint statement from the two leaders.

The oil and gas industry is the single largest industrial source of methane emissions in the United States and globally. Mark Brownstein, vice president of climate and energy at the Environmental Defense Fund, said that, if adopted, the proposed cut in emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, worldwide would be like closing a third of the worlds coal plants.

This is arguably the single biggest, most impactful, most immediate thing we can do to slow the rate of warming right now, Brownstein said.

Obama and Trudeau also pledged to safeguard the Arctic with a series of initiatives that will protect more than 10 percent of the marine areas, designate shipping corridors with low environmental impact, and establish new offshore oil and gas leasing plans, White House officials said.

The focus on the Arctic reflects both a shared sense of alarm about growing signs of climate change in the region and the fruits of Trudeaus victory last fall over the previous Conservative Party prime minister, Stephen Harper.

The change in the relationship was clear Thursday morning when Trudeau and his wife, Sophie, arrived on the South Lawn, where a welcoming group was gathered.

1 of 22 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  See what guests are wearing at the state dinner for Canadas Justin Trudeau View Photos President Obama hosts the first state dinner honoring a Canadian prime minister in nearly 20 years Caption President Obama hosted the first state dinner honoring a Canadian prime minister in nearly 20 years March 10, 2016 Actor Ryan Reynolds and wife Blake Lively arrive at the state dinner for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the White House in Washington. Andrew Harnik/AP Wait 1 second to continue.

Its long been said that you can choose your friends, but you cannot choose your neighbors, Obama joked. We are very proud to welcome the first official visit by a Canadian prime minister in nearly 20 years. Then, appropriating a peculiarly Canadian figure of speech, he added to laughter, Its about time, eh?

With this partnership, the U.S. and Canada are charting a new, ambitious vision for Arctic conservation and putting in place concrete mechanisms to drive future progress, Brian Deese, a senior adviser to the president, said in an earlier interview promoting the attention paid to Arctic issues.

The fact that this is being raised at the highest levels shows that both countries recognize the Arctic is a real, emerging priority, Gerald Butts, senior political adviser to Trudeau, said in a statement.

U.S. officials said that the enhanced collaboration between the United States and Canada will spur other Arctic nations to match these commitments but that agreements on the Arctic must include a wide array of nations, including Russia, Denmark and Norway.

The U.S.-Canada pledge to expand protected areas in the Arctic reflects a recent push by Obama and Trudeau to put some areas of the Arctic off-limits to development at a time when they are becoming more accessible to commercial exploitation and shipping, activities that bring with them risks of underwater noise, black-carbon pollution, collisions and potential oil spills.

Trudeau came into office promising to protect 5 percent of Canadian waters by the end of next year  less than 1 percent are protected now  and 10 percent by 2020. One of the key areas under consideration is the northern part of Ellesmere Island, which, along with the northern part of Greenland, is poised to be the last place with summer sea ice as the planet warms. It is largely uninhabited, and there is no shipping there because the ice is too thick.

Canada has a lot of catching up to do here, and also on the climate file, as they have dragged their feet for decades, said Dalhousie University marine biology professor Boris Worm in an email. But Trudeau seems determined to do it. The question is: How?

On the U.S. side, environmentalists have lobbied the administration to ban all oil and gas exploration in the Arctic  something Obama has resisted  and have pushed for even greater protections in specific parts of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.

For example, Barrow Canyon is a deep, 150-mile-long underwater trench that straddles the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. Between the movement of sea ice and ocean mixing, it represents a foraging hot spot for a range of species including seabirds and bowhead whales, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.

The Beaufort Sea is particularly sensitive to shipping, too.

Another marine area that could qualify for new protection in the U.S. Arctic would be the western Aleutian islands, and groups such as the Sierra Club are pushing the president to declare the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge a national monument.

On methane emissions, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said the agency was asking oil and gas companies to provide data on emissions from existing wells. But the industry is expected to oppose new regulations on those sites.

New regulations to address existing wells are really unnecessary window dressing, as industry is already reducing methane dramatically, said Frank Maisano, an energy policy expert at Bracewell, a law and lobbying firm. Industry has been ahead of the curve on this for years, working diligently on its own to reduce methane emissions, which he said made good business and environmental sense.

Sandra Snyder, a lawyer at Bracewell, said compliance with EPA rules on existing wells would be a burden, adding that all of this imposes an additional strain on an industry that is struggling under low oil and gas prices.

But Brownstein said that the industry response has been underwhelming, and we basically have to do something.
A. It was a no-brainer, he said. Q. Why did the zombie send back his restaurant meal? Mark Raffmans example for this weeks contest. (Bob Staake for The Washington Post )

(Click here to skip down to this weeks winning Onion-style headlines)

A. It was a no-brainer, he said. (The Washington Post, March 7)

Q. Why did the zombie send back his restaurant meal? (Mark Raffman)

The Evolution Eraser: Finish second and rub out humanity. Or at least simianity. (Sausalitoferry.com)

A. At least it did on Friday night, when the Washington Concert Opera brought it to Lisner Auditorium. (The Post)

Q. Is Koko the Poo-Flinging Monkey always going to pick the worst time to misbehave? (Brendan Beary)

A. Its not nearly as complicated for us as it is for him. (The Post)

Q. When asked to remove their heads from their posteriors, what did two of the three Republican front-runners reply? (Marni Penning Coleman)

This perennial Style Invitational contest  weve run it at least 10 times since 1998 has never failed us. This week: Take a sentence (or most of a sentence) that appears in text (not a headline) in The Washington Post or on washingtonpost.com dated March 10-21 and make up a question that the sentence could answer, as in the examples above from earlier this week; the Empress solicited them in the Style Invitational Devotees group on Facebook. If youre using print stories, include the date and page number; for online stories, copying out the URL above or below your entry would be very helpful (but please do not embed the link within the entry itself).

Winner gets the Inkin Memorial, the Lincoln statue bobblehead that is the official Style Invitational trophy. Second place receives an Invite Desk Set consisting of an Evolution eraser  a beautiful two-inch-tall creation thats in the shape of an ape on one end and a man on the other, so as you erase, you can evolve toward the man (or perhaps toward the ape)  and the iPlunge, a nifty cellphone stand in the shape of a toilet plunger. Donated eons ago by Losers Kevin Dopart and Nandini Lal, respectively.

Other runners-up win their choice of a yearned-for Loser Mug, the older-model This Is Your Brain on Mugs mug or a vintage Loser T-shirt. Honorable mentions get one of our lusted-after Loser magnets, Magnet Dum Laude or Falling Jest Short. First Offenders receive a smelly tree-shaped air freshener (FirStink for their first ink). Email entries to losers@washpost.com. Deadline is Monday night, March 21; results published April 10 (online April 7). You may submit up to 25 entries per contest. Include Week 1166 in your email subject line or it might be ignored as spam. Include your real name, postal address and phone number with your entry. See contest rules and guidelines at wapo.st/InvRules. The headline for this weeks results is by Kevin Dopart; the honorable-mentions subhead is by William Kennard. Join the lively Style Invitational Devotees group on Facebook at on.fb.me/invdev. Like the Style Invitational Ink of the Day on Facebook at bit.ly/inkofday; follow @StyleInvite on Twitter.

The Style Conversational: The Empresss weekly online column, published late Thursday afternoon, discusses each new contest and set of results. Especially if you plan to enter Week 1166, check it out at wapo.st/styleconv.

What Losers desk is complete without something in a toilet theme? The second-place finisher also gets the iPlunge. (Fancy.com)

And from the Style Invitational contest announced four weeks ago . . .

THE UNNION: THE WINNING HEADLINES FROM WEEK 1162

In Week 1162 we asked for headlines in the style of the Onions. We got plenty of both the real-issues-satire type and the treat-little-daily-behaviors-as-news type  around 1,700 in all. And a lot of them were from first-time entrants, so its not so surprising we have six First Offenders this week; their names are marked with asterisks.

4th place:

Barry Gibb Announces Dates Of Bee Gee Reunion Tour (Jeff Contompasis, Ashburn, Va.)

3rd place:

Mel Gibsons Career Destroyed By Jewish Distillers, Zionist Bartenders (Lawrence McGuire, Waldorf, Md.)

2nd place and the 1926 sex manual Ideal Marriage:

Winner Of $100 Lotto Scratch-Off Probably Wont Quit Job (Mark Briscoe, Alexandria, Va., whose last blot of Invite ink was in 2005  for a headline contest)

And the winner of the Inkin Memorial:

ISIS Now Offering Tote Bag With 5-Year Membership (Neal Starkman, Seattle)

Creamed Onions: honorable mentions

Meghan Trainor Angers Fans With New 80% Bass, 20% Treble Mix (Brendan Beary, Great Mills, Md.)

St. Louis Gateway Arch Will Follow Rams To Los Angeles (Larry McClemons, Annandale, Va.)

Cat Needs To Be Fed Again, Declares Cat (Josh Feldblyum, Philadelphia)

GOP Candidates To Wear Shock Collars To Enforce Debate Time Limits (David Graham,* Sterling, Va.)

Apache High School Adopts Shylock As Mascot (Mike Gips, Bethesda, Md.)

Local Wag With Great Scalia Joke Itches For Too Soon To Be Over (Brendan Beary)

Millions In Path Of Hysterical Winter Weather Forecast (Bruce Niedt, Cherry Hill, N.J.)

32 Oz. Jar Of Kirkland Garlic Was Best Before 02/2011 (Bill Dorner, Indianapolis)

Well, Thats 10 Seconds Ill Never Get Back To Replace I Just Threw Up A Little In My Mouth As Ebola of Lame, According To Area Teen (Sandy Moran, Santa Rosa, Calif.)

Apple Introduces First Self-Texting Car (Rob Huffman, Fredericksburg, Va.)

Targeting Pickiest Eaters, McDonalds Adds Boogers, School Paste To Happy Meals (May Jampathom, Oakhurst, N.J.)

Chipotle To Serve Only Locally Sourced Bacteria (Art Grinath, Takoma Park, Md.)

Sophomore Trapped Overnight In Campus Safe Space Is Now Triggered By Safe Spaces (Michael Rolfe, Cape Town, South Africa)

Holocaust Foundation, Disney Announce World Tour Of Schindlers List On Ice (Michael Ginsberg,* Nashville)

Pope Francis Says Sanders Not Christian (Robert Schechter, Dix Hills, N.Y.)

Obama: Im Not Giving Trump The Netflix Password (Danielle Nowlin, Fairfax Station, Va.)

In Bid To Soften Brash Image, Trump Eyes Kanye As Running Mate (John Hutchins,* Silver Spring, Md.)

Jake From State Farm To Wed Rachel From Cardholder Services (Bill Dorner)

Linda Continues To Say For All Intensive Purposes Despite Being Corrected By Co-Worker 2 Weeks Ago (Kurt Stahl, Frederick, Md.)

GOP Debate: Immigrant, Son of Immigrants, Grandson of Immigrants Argue Over Who Hates Immigrants More (Shannon Bartlett Kizer*, Beaverton, Ore.)

RNC Researchers Strive To Develop Better Code Words By Fall Campaign (Kevin Dopart, Washington)

Tiger Moms Fetus Delays Development To Savor Remaining Me-Time (Randal Wetzel, Hagerstown, Md., who last got ink 16 years ago)

Eying Enhanced Visitor Experience, Stonehenge To Install Ferris Wheel (Howard Walderman, Columbia, Md.)

Satan Announces New Addition To Admissions: Wait List (Phil Frankenfeld, Washington)

Local Twins Have No Idea What Other Is Thinking (Jeff Shirley, Richmond, Va.)

Lopez, Kardashian, Minaj Share Uncomfortable Flight As Occupants of Seats 12A, 12B And 12C (Rob Huffman)

Attend Community College, Work Cinnabon Part-Time: Malia Reveals Plans (Brendan Beary)

Woman Disguises Knock So Restroom User Will Not Know She Knocked Before (Sandy Moran)

1 Percenters Granted Protected Minority Status (Mary Kappus, Washington)

Trump To Drop Presidential Bid After Encounter With Younger, Prettier Country (Lee Graham,* Arlington, Va.)

Ted Cruzs Trousers Spontaneously Ignite At Town Hall Meeting (Chris Doyle, Denton, Tex.)

Regular Mechanic Inquires What Clown Installed These Brake Pads (Sandy Moran)

Spinach Cans Were Spiked With Steroids, Olive Oyl Confesses (Rachel Bernhardt, Silver Spring, Md.)

Christie Proudly Displays N.H. Primary Participant Trophy In Governors Mansion (Brian Finch*, Reston, Va.)

Despite Blowing Out All His Birthday Candles, Area Boy Not Starting For Golden State Warriors (Todd DeLap, Fairfax, Va.)

EPA Approves Homeland Security Low-Flow Waterboarding Plan (Elden Carnahan, Laurel, Md.)

Experts Agree Obama Nominee is Just Plain Fun To Say (Jeff Contompasis)

Copy Editor Quits Yoga After Instructor Tells Class To Lay On Mats (Megan Durham, Reston, Va.)

Editor Resigns After Printing Series Of Bogus Headlines (Jesse Frankovich, Lansing, Mich.)

*A First Offender

Still running  deadline Monday night, March 14: our contest for adding Bs to words to make new words. See bit.ly/invite1165
Marjorie Lancaster, the lead character in Jordan Harrisons Marjorie Prime, is an 85-year-old woman who has trouble remembering things. But Kathleen Butler, whos playing the role in the current production at the Olney Theatre, has resisted the common temptation to play old age as a second childhood. Instead, she portrays this matriarch as a woman with deep knowledge and strong opinions despite her spotty memory. The hard drive is fully loaded, even if the information retrieval system is faulty.

Shes still viable, Butler insists. Shes strong and smart, even though shes forgetful. It doesnt mean that she isnt still Marjorie; shes just at a different stage in life. I dont think any stage in your life is a lesser stage. Every minute youre alive is where you should be at that moment. You have to embrace that moment and find the joy and meaning it has.

Butler declines to divulge her age; all she will say is that she is younger than God. But she does acknowledge feeling comfortable playing a woman in her 80s. And she is an outspoken advocate for theater artists older than 55  both onstage and backstage. She is a co-founder of the New York theater company Triumvirate Artists, dedicated to mounting productions that will provide jobs for older actors, directors, designers and crew members.

So many talented professionals out there arent getting work, she says. Like many professions, theater is ageist. Ive had gray hair since my 40s, and its amazing: You walk into a room for an audition, and when they see gray hair, they gulp. You can hear them thinking, Oh, my God, gray hair. Can she remember her lines? There are doubts that older stage designers have kept up with the technology. They have, but there are still doubts. Weve become a culture of young people; we dont listen to the voices of experience. It was probably always that way, but you sure notice a lot more when youre older than 55.

In the Olney play, Marjories daughter, Tess, and Tesss husband, Jon, have installed a computer program to help Marjorie remember things. The program projects her dead husband as a holographic image: He looks like Walter and sounds like Walter but knows only what has been programmed into his memory chip, which he supplements with knowledge gleaned from his ongoing conversation with the family.

Im relating to Walter Prime as both a computer program and as a person, Butler says of her performance. At one point, Marjorie says, Something is a little off with the nose, so shes aware that its not the real Walter. But she becomes caught up in what hes telling her, and so I do, too. I wonder how many people will see this play and say, If I could talk to my husband or brother again, Id tell him this. 

But both Harrisons script and Jason Loewiths direction play down the futuristic, sci-fi aspects of the story and emphasize what the device reveals about family memories. Although Walter proposed to Marjorie when they went to see My Best Friends Wedding, it would have been so much nicer if they had seen Casablanca instead. After a while, they remember it that way. On the other hand, one painful memory is evaded for as long as possible.

The inaccuracy of memory is something that happens a lot in real life, Butler says. Think of Brian Williams. What was that about? Maybe your mother gave you some cheap candy in your Easter basket, but you may think of it as the best chocolate you ever tasted. I dont think its a good thing or a bad thing; I think its a human thing.

Butler is best known for acting in the world premieres of three Edward Albee plays. She had taken 15 years off to raise her kids and returned to work in the late 80s. In 1987, when she visited Actors Equity to check on her pension, she discovered that an open-call audition was in progress for a play opening in Vienna later that year. On the spur of the moment, she ducked in and read a monologue. Against all odds, she got a callback and met Albee, who had written and was directing the show Marriage Play. She did the show in Austria and then again in New York in 1993.

In early 1991, Butler says, I got a call from Edward and he said, Are you tall? I remember you were tall. I said, Edward, you know Im tall; you just saw me at Christmas. He said, I have a new play called Three Tall Women, and Id like you to be part of it. The three women were based on his mother at three ages. Myra Carter played that 91-year-old role and boy, oh boy, was that an amazing performance. I played the middle woman.

Butler admires Albee for many reasons, not the least of which is his gift for creating indelible, older-female characters, most of them based on women in his life. The character of Claire in A Delicate Balance, Butler points out, is based on Albees Aunt Sis. The 86-year-old Grandma in The Sandbox is based on his grandmother. The sculptor Louise Nevelson, a longtime Albee friend, was portrayed by Butler in the world premiere of Occupant.

People think his writing is difficult to learn and difficult to do, Butler acknowledges. But for some reason, I have an affinity for it; I just get it. The miracle of his writing is that it just keeps coming at you. Ive never come off the stage in one of his plays without saying, Oh, thats what that was about. Hes a picturesque writer; he creates pictures with his words. You can see what youre talking about when you say his words. As an actress, my first job is to honor the playwright. I learn his words; I learn his punctuation and pauses. I know if I follow his road map, the truth will come out.

By reigniting her career with three Albee premieres, Butler developed a high standard for playwriting. At this stage in her life, shes no longer willing to spend time on bad plays. Rather than stay home in New York and do mediocre work, she prefers to travel to perform in a really good play, she says. And so she has come to suburban Maryland to do Marjorie Prime.
The bronze Civil War Nurses Memorial  Nuns of the Battlefield  was designed in 1924 by Jerome Connor, from County Kerry, Ireland. The statue is at Rhode Island Avenue and M Street, east of Connecticut Avenue NW in the District. (Amy Rogers Nazarov)

The District and its environs are dotted with quiet monuments dedicated to Irish men and women for their contributions and sacrifices in the United States.

Its possible to trace their footsteps across the Washington metro area. Here are a few of the statues and their stories.

In 1792, for example, Irish-born architect James Hoban won a contest to design the White House. He also helped oversee construction of the U.S. Capitol, work that included slave labor. Hobans grave is at the Catholic Mount Olivet Cemetery in Northeast Washington.

Also in the mix is the story of abolitionist Frederick Douglass and his Irish ties. In November, a bronze statue of Douglass was dedicated at the University of Maryland in College Park.

When he visited Ireland in 1845, he was still chattel, albeit chattel that had stolen his freedom and written about it, no less, in the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave.

I love that the statue shows him  cloak billowing, arm outstretched  in his fiery abolitionist years, says Kenneth B. Morris Jr., a great-great-great-grandson.

The last thing you want when you are on the run from your master is a best-selling book, Morris adds. The trips second purpose was to give Douglasss supporters time to secure funds to buy his freedom.

At 27, he arrived in Ireland at the start of the potato famine, and wrote to say that it was the first time in his life that he was not being treated differently because of the color of his skin, says Morris, whose nonprofit, Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives, fights human trafficking. He saw others facing all kinds of injustice.

Daniel OConnell, who fought for Catholic emancipation in Ireland and for the enslaved everywhere, had invited Douglass to speak. Douglass toured Ireland, then England, for about two years.

When he returned home, he found the Irish, fleeing famine, were arriving, too.

By the time the Civil War erupted, Irish men and women, many poor and marginalized, were deep in the fray. Their stories range from the ugly New York draft riots of 1863, when innocent black people were scapegoated and slain, to other tragedies, to the many acts of wartime heroism and sacrifice.

In the District, a slender obelisk was resurrected to memorialize a tragedy on June 17, 1864. A munitions factory explosion at what is today Fort McNair killed about two dozen young female workers, mostly Irish immigrants. President Lincoln attended their mass funeral, and the entire city mourned.

Many were buried beneath that obelisk  on a plot bought by the U.S. government  in Congressional Cemeteryin Southeast Washington, says Dayle Dooley, the archivist there.

All the womens names are known, Dooley says. But the elements have worn away the letters carved in the white marble since it was placed there in 1865. Volunteers have raised money for a new marker with the names. Heirloom rose varieties, including one called Mr. Lincoln, bloom annually around its base.

Another set of women is honored on the wedge of land where Rhode Island Avenue meets M Street, east of Connecticut Avenue NW. The bronze Civil War Nurses Memorial  Nuns of the Battlefield  was designed in 1924 by Jerome Connor, from County Kerry, Ireland. Congress authorized the work, but the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Irish Catholic fraternal group, raised $50,000 to pay for it.

District Deputy City Administrator Kevin Donahue, who is of Irish heritage and has visited distant cousins in Ireland, didnt know about the local monuments.

Now I want to see them all, he says.
The governments plan to shift to the online mode for the Eamcet medical entrance test to eliminate scope for irregularities is facing opposition from a few sections.(Representational Image)

Hyderabad: The governments plan to shift to the online mode for the Eamcet medical entrance test to eliminate scope for irregularities is facing opposition from a few sections.

Aspirants from a rural background, particularly those who studied in government schools, could lose out in an online test, teachers and students said.Inter II student K. Chander studying at the Tribal Gurukulam School in Ranga Reddy district, who secured 98 per cent marks in Inter I, feels the online test would deprive him a of fair chance.

Students like me from remote villages have not worked on computers much. The government should reconsider the decision and implement it from next year, he said. Junior lecturer P. Venkataramana, who teaches physics at a centre in Rajendranagar, suggested the council could hold both online and off-line versions of the test. This system is being followed in IIT JEE Mains, he said.

TJAC chairman Prof. Kodandaram said that students from a rural background make mistakes while submitting applications online and have to take the assistance of others at internet centres. How could they write the exam sitting in front of a computer, he asked.
Dear Amy: I am a single mother of a 17-year-old son in his last year of high school. He is an only child. I gave birth to him in my senior year of high school. I never got married and never brought men into our lives.

I went through a really significant rough patch for about three years during his young teenage life. I have bounced back, and life is pretty great now.

He and I were so close before the tough times started, and now that things are good again he seems so withdrawn from me. I try so hard and I love him more than anything in this world.

He will be headed to college soon, and its causing me so much anxiety. I dont know how to get him to connect with me prior to graduating and beginning his young life away from home.

My heart is aching, and I think about it all the time.

I try to make special plans with him, but he never wants to do anything with me. Hes so great and incredibly humble. I am so proud of him and just want to be close again. Do you have any suggestions?

Mother in Tears

Mother in Tears: Heres my advice: Abide with him. Be patient with him. Love him in the ways you have always loved him and work hard  not to win him over but to let him leave you.

It is a universal fact that even in intact, low-drama and highly functional families, children push their parents away before leaving home. Sons are especially good at this detachment (though Ive personally dealt with it with daughters).

Although your last year in high school was much different from your sons, perhaps you remember a version of this with your own parents.

Unless you suspect his withdrawing from you is due to some special problem, like depression or drug-taking, do not beg him for connection. This will create pressure for him. Do your best to support his efforts to complete his senior year and encourage him regarding his future.

Your extreme feelings have a diagnosis: Empty Nest Syndrome. A professional counselor could help you navigate through this challenging phase of your (and your sons) life.

Also, read Letting Go (Fifth Edition): A Parents Guide to Understanding the College Years by Karen Levin Coburn and Madge Lawrence Treeger (2009, Harper Perennial).

Dear Amy: I have an issue with my fiance, who enables his 39-year-old divorced daughter. I watch her manipulate him into buying her things (a house, trips, etc.), and if she doesnt get those things, she gets physically ill and then he feels sorry for her and breaks down and buys her anything she wants.

It has interfered with our own goals and plans. If I say anything, he denies hes in this pattern with her and blows up at me. I go back and forth between thinking its none of my business and wanting to speak up when it delays our financial and other plans for the future.

After the most recent incident, I wonder if I should move on. I dont think I want to marry into this family pattern and his denial about the part he plays in it.

Your perspective on this would be helpful.

Married to his Daughter

Married to his Daughter: Stepparents have a very tough burden regarding their partners children. Your fiance has an independent relationship with his daughter. He has done a very poor job of acknowledging the stake you have in this relationship, and (partly because of this) you dont seem to have developed a feeling of closeness or fondness toward his daughter.

In order for any marriage to work, spouses need to come together as a team, making mutual decisions over expenditures to family members (even if the money comes from his funds). If he is forced to explain and justify significant expenses to you  before he makes them  he may also start to see things from your perspective.

I agree with you that you should not marry unless or until you arrive at some equilibrium and consensus. Moving on might be best for you.

Dear Amy: I enjoyed your recent best of columns. Im so curious about how things turn out for the people. Do they ever follow up?

Curious

Curious: I am extremely curious and would like to encourage any person who has had a letter published in my column to contact me again to let us all know how things turned out.

Amys column appears seven days a week at washingtonpost.com/advice. Write to Amy Dickinson at askamy@tribpub.com or Ask Amy, Chicago Tribune, TT500, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611.
Alexandria

These were among incidents reported by the Alexandria Police Department. For information, call 703-838-4636 or visit alexandriava.gov.

ASSAULTS

Braddock Rd. W., 3800 block, 2:18 p.m. March 2. An assault was reported.

Century Dr., 100 block, 6:28 p.m. March 1. An assault was reported.

Duke St., 3200 block, 3:25 p.m. Feb. 26. An assault was reported.

Duke St., 4600 block, 3:01 p.m. Feb. 27. An assault was reported.

Edsall Rd., 6200 block, 1:22 p.m. March 2. An assault was reported.

Executive Ave., 3800 block, 3:52 p.m. Feb. 27. An assault was reported.

Fendall Ave., unit block, 2:15 p.m. Feb. 26. An assault was reported. An arrest was made.

Four Mile Rd., 600 block, 2:58 p.m. Feb. 26. An assault was reported.

Holmes Run Pkwy., 5500 block, 9:35 p.m. Feb. 26. An assault was reported.

Merton Ct., 5800 block, 9:19 a.m. March 1. An assault was reported.

Mount Vernon Ave., 3900 block, 12:26 a.m. Feb. 29. An assault was reported. An arrest was made.

Powhatan St., 900 block, 12:47 a.m. Feb. 29. An assault was reported. An arrest was made.

Quantrell Ave., 5800 block, 5:17 a.m. Feb. 27. An assault was reported.

Sanger Ave., 5800 block, 3:53 a.m. March 1. An assault was reported. An arrest was made.

Seminary Rd., 4300 block, 11:12 p.m. Feb. 27. An assault was reported.

Seminary Rd., 4600 block, 5:15 p.m. Feb. 28. An assault was reported.

Van Dorn St. S., unit block, 8:39 a.m. Feb. 27. An assault was reported. An arrest was made.

Wyndham Cir., 3300 block, 6:20 p.m. Feb. 29. An assault was reported.

Yoakum Pkwy., 200 block, 10:04 p.m. Feb. 26. An assault was reported.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Armistead St. N., 400 block, 3:15 p.m. Feb. 28. A theft was reported.

Bradford Ct., 5400 block, 9:36 a.m. Feb. 24. Property was stolen from a residence.

Braxton Pl., 500 block, 11:03 a.m. Feb. 26. A theft was reported.

Duke St., 3000 block, 6:29 p.m. Feb. 28. A theft was reported.

Duke St., 5700 block, 4:08 p.m. Feb. 27. A theft was reported. An arrest was made.

Duke St., 5800 block, 8:12 a.m. Feb. 29. A theft was reported.

Duke St., 5800 block, 5:59 p.m. Feb. 27. A theft was reported.

Duke St., 5900 block, 4:47 a.m. Feb. 26. An employee theft was reported. An arrest was made.

Essex Ct., 5300 block, 9:38 a.m. March 1. A theft was reported.

Four Mile Rd., 600 block, 9:30p. Feb. 27. Property was entered. Property was entered.

Gibbon and S. Union streets, 3:25 a.m. Feb. 27. A theft was reported.

Henry St. N., 900 block, 1:03 a.m. Feb. 25. A theft was reported.

Jefferson Davis Hwy., 2100 block, 7:10 a.m. Feb. 24. Vehicle parts were stolen.

Jefferson Davis Hwy., 3800 block, 7:44 p.m. Feb. 24. A shoplifting incident was reported. An arrest was made.

Jefferson St., 1100 block, 3:48 p.m. Feb. 26. An employee theft was reported.

King St., 300 block, 11:17 a.m. March 1. A theft was reported.

King St., 1300 block, 9:18 p.m. Feb. 24. Property was stolen from a vehicle.

King St., 3300 block, 11:33 a.m. Feb. 29. Property was entered. An arrest was made.

King St., 3500 block, 6:35 p.m. Feb. 29. A theft was reported. An arrest was made.

King St., 4600 block, 2:54 p.m. Feb. 29. A theft was reported.

King St., 4700 block, 1:30 a.m. Feb. 27. Two thefts were reported.

Martha Custis Dr., 3300 block, 1:04 p.m. Feb. 26. A theft was reported.

Mason Dr. E., 200 block, 12:36 p.m. Feb. 27. A theft was reported.

Mount Vernon Ave., 3900 block, 12:26 a.m. Feb. 29. Property was entered. An arrest was made.

Oakcrest Dr., 1400 block, 8:53 p.m. Feb. 27. Property was entered.

Princess and N. Fairfax streets, 10:30 p.m. Feb. 29. A theft was reported.

Quaker Lane N., 500 block, 3:40 p.m. Feb. 27. A theft was reported.

Royal St. S., 500 block, 9:14 p.m. Feb. 25. A shoplifting incident was reported.

Seminary Rd., 3800 block, 12:23 a.m. Feb. 28. A theft was reported.

Seminary Rd., 4900 block, 7:47 p.m. Feb. 26. Property was stolen.

Sharp Pl., 4000 block, 11:08 a.m. Feb. 25. Property was stolen from a vehicle.

Sheffield Ct., 5400 block, 11:22 a.m. March 1. A theft was reported.

Sheffield Ct., 5400 block, 3:48 p.m. March 1. A theft was reported.

Swamp Fox Rd., 200 block, 11:58 a.m. Feb. 26. An employee theft was reported.

Van Dorn St. S., 700 block, 10:10 a.m. March 1. A theft was reported.

MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS

Bradford Ct., 5400 block, 8:14 a.m. Feb. 25. A vehicle was stolen.

Princess and N. Royal streets, 9:54 a.m. March 2. A vehicle was stolen.

Raleigh Ave., 4500 block, 1:55 p.m. Feb. 28. A vehicle was stolen.

Saint Asaph St. N., 700 block, 8:40 a.m. Feb. 24. A vehicle was stolen.

VANDALISM

Braddock Rd. E., 300 block, 7:05 p.m. March 1. Property was damaged.

Callahan Dr., 100 block, 2:49 p.m. Feb. 25. Graffiti was painted on a vehicle.

Cambridge Rd., 400 block, 8:05 a.m. Feb. 27. Property was damaged.

Duke St., unit block, noon Feb. 29. Property was damaged.

Dunster Ct., 5700 block, 9:22 a.m. Feb. 25. A vehicle was damaged

Edsall Rd., 6200 block, 12:17 p.m. Feb. 26. Property was damaged.

Executive Ave., 3800 block, 3:52 p.m. Feb. 27. Property was damaged.

Gibbon and S. Union streets, 3:25 a.m. Feb. 27. Property was damaged.

King St., 3200 block, 12:43 p.m. Feb. 24. A vehicle was damaged.

Mount Vernon Ave, unit block, 7:39 p.m. Feb. 24. City property was damaged.

Seminary Rd., 4900 block, 7:47 p.m. Feb. 26. Property was damaged.

Washington St. N., 800 block, 11:39 p.m. Feb. 24. Property was damaged. An arrest was made.

Yale Dr., 100 block, 2:47 p.m. March 1. Property was damaged.

Yoakum Pkwy., 300 block, 11:05 a.m. Feb. 29. Property was damaged.

Arlington

These were among incidents reported from Feb. 24 to March 3 by the Arlington County Police Department. For information, call 703-558-2222 or visit newsroom.arlingtonva.us.

ASSAULTS

Army Navy Dr. S., 800 block. A police officer was assaulted.

Carlin Springs Rd. S., 200 block. Two assaults were reported.

Columbia Pike S., 4700 block. An assault was reported.

Fairfax Dr. N., 3300 block. Threats were reported.

Garfield St. N., 1200 block. An assault was reported.

George Mason Dr. N., 1700 block. An assault was reported.

Jefferson St. S., 1000 block. An assault was reported.

Joyce St. S., 1400 block. An assault was reported.

Lee Hwy. N., 4300 block. An assault was reported.

Scott St. N., 1500 block. An assault was reported.

Walter Reed Dr. S., 800 block. An assault was reported.

Washington Blvd. S., 2100 block. A harassment incident was reported.

Wilson Blvd. N., 2700 block. A police officer was assaulted.

Yorktown Blvd. S., 5200 block. An assault was reported.

Fourth Rd. N., 4400 block. An assault was reported.

INDECENT EXPOSURE

Harrison St. S., 800 block, 10 a.m. Feb. 25. A naked man was seen walking down a street. An Arlington man, 55, was charged.

Wakefield St. S., 2800 block, 11:15 p.m. Feb. 26. A woman observed a man with his genitals exposed outside her window.

14th St. S., 5000 block, 7:15 p.m. Feb. 25. A man was observed fondling himself. A Sterling man, 18, was charged.

ROBBERIES

George Mason Dr. S., 1200 block, 3:05 a.m. Feb. 28. A man attempted to rob a male of property by punching him in the face. The assailant implied he was armed.

Thomas St. N., 500 block, 8:15 p.m. Feb. 24. A female got out of a vehicle and attempted to take a womans purse. The woman fought back and the female fled in the vehicle driven by another person.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Columbia Pike S., 2900 block. Three thefts were reported.

Columbia Pike S., 4800 block. A theft was reported.

Columbia Pike S., 5500 block. Property was entered.

Columbus St. N., 900 block. A theft was reported.

Crystal Dr. S., 2100 block. A theft was reported.

Crystal Dr. S., 2200 block. Five thefts were reported.

Dinwiddie St. S., 900 block. Property was entered.

Glebe Rd. N., 200 block. A theft was reported.

Glebe Rd. N., 700 block. Two thefts were reported.

Glebe Rd. S., 1000 block. A theft was reported.

Hayes St. S., 1000 block. Two thefts were reported.

Hayes St. S., 1100 block. Seven thefts were reported.

Hayes St. S., 1200 block. A theft was reported.

Hayes St. S., 1700 block. A theft was reported.

Hayes St. S., 2400 block. A theft was reported.

Joyce St. S., 1200 block. A theft was reported.

Quincy St. N., 800 block. A theft was reported.

Quinn St. N., 1800 block. Property was stolen from a vehicle.

Scott St. S., 1300 block. A theft was reported.

Stafford St. N., 1000 block. A theft was reported.

Trenton St. N., 200 block. A theft was reported.

Vance Ct. S., 2600 block. Property was stolen from a vehicle.

Washington Blvd. N., 5800 block. A theft was reported.

Williamsburg Blvd. N., 6400 block. A theft was reported.

Wilson Blvd. N., 1900 block. A theft was reported.

Wilson Blvd. N., 3100 block. A theft was reported.

Wilson Blvd. N., 4200 block. A theft was reported.

Wilson Blvd. N., 4200 block. An employee theft was reported.

Seventh St. N., 3800 block, 2 to 8:15 p.m. Feb. 26. Property was stolen from a residence entered through a window.

13th St. N., 3400 block, 8 p.m. Feb. 27 to 6:45 a.m. Feb. 28. An attempt was made to enter a building by force.

28th St. S., 4800 block. Property was stolen from a vehicle.

MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS

Columbia Pike S., 5500 block, Feb. 26. A gray 2007 Toyota Corolla was stolen.

Jefferson Davis Hwy. S., 2000 block, 10:52 p.m. Feb. 26. Officers conducted a traffic stop on a stolen vehicle. A Temple Hills man, 49, and a District woman, 25, were charged.

VANDALISM

Wilson Blvd. N., 3400 block. Property was damaged.

Wilson Blvd. N., 4200 block. A business was damaged.

Seventh Rd. S., 5000 block. Two properties were damaged.

12th St. S., 200 block. A vehicle was tampered with.

22nd St. N., 3600 block. Property was damaged.
THE DISTRICT

Shooting suspect to stay in jail for weeks

The Marine veteran wanted for the shooting Sunday of an Idaho pastor will stay in D.C. Jail until April 6, when he has a hearing on whether he will be extradited to Idaho to face first-degree attempted-murder charges.

Kyle Odom stood before a D.C. Superior Court judge Wednesday with his wrists and ankles shackled. Odom, 29, who is accused of shooting pastor Tim Remington, was arrested Tuesday evening outside the White House. Secret Service agents said he was seen throwing an unknown material over the south fence line.

Odom spoke only his name during the brief hearing. Ieshaah Murphy, with the D.C. Public Defender Service, told Magistrate Judge Renee Raymond that her client wanted to have an extradition hearing in which prosecutors would have to prove that Odom was the person wanted by Idaho police and that the warrant supported such an arrest. It is rare for individuals wanted for crimes outside the District to agree to sit in jail for nearly a month for such a hearing.

Police in Coeur dAlene, Idaho, where the shooting took place, said Monday that Odom has a history of mental illness.

 Keith Alexander

Man shot, wounded near Franklin Square

A man was shot and wounded early Wednesday near Franklin Square Park in downtown Washington, apparently while arguing with another man, D.C. police said.

The shooting occurred about 1:05 a.m. in the 1300 block of I Street NW, on the southwest corner of the intersection and in front of a bank.

A D.C. police spokeswoman said the man apparently suffered injuries not considered life-threatening, but the victims condition was not available.

Police were looking for a gray Mercedes-Benz with paper license plates last seen heading south on 14th Street NW.

 Peter Hermann

Resident, firefighters injured during blaze

A Southeast Washington resident was critically injured in a building fire Wednesday afternoon, and two firefighters were also injured, a D.C. fire department spokesman said.

One firefighter suffered serious injuries in the blaze, in the 1700 block of Minnesota Avenue SE, and the other had minor injuries, said Tim Wilson, a spokesman for the fire department. All three were transported to a hospital.
Marylands Board of Revenue Estimates on Wednesday projected that less money than expected would flow into the states coffers in 2016 and 2017, largely because of weak sales during the holiday shopping season and in the month of January.

The board said general-fund revenues probably would be $51.4 million lower than estimated in December, when officials announced the state was on track to collect $33.5 billion over the two-year period.

The difference is relatively small in the context of Republican Gov. Larry Hogans proposed $17 billion general-fund budget for fiscal 2017. But Comptroller Peter Franchot (D), one of three members of the board, cautioned against drastic spending increases in light of the new figures.

Clearly we shouldnt make spending plans that include revenues we know have a strong chance of never showing up, Franchot said. And we shouldnt make wishful assumptions that sales-tax revenue will increase.

[Tensions mount over Hogans plan to restrict automatic spending increases]

The board revised its estimates for sales-tax collections downward by a combined $127 million for 2016 and 2017. The new projections suggest consumers are reining in their discretionary spending.

Franchot attributed the sales-tax sluggishness to lackluster growth in wages and higher-paying jobs, along with an unemployment rate that, at 5 percent in December, remains high by Maryland standards.

Without a doubt, this continues to be the slowest and most tepid economic recovery of our lifetimes, Franchot said. I believe the most prudent path is to accept these economic conditions as our new normal. 

The board revised its December numbers for lottery sales, estate-tax revenue and corporate income-tax collections upward by a combined $9.2 million, softening the blow from its lower sales-tax estimates.

It said the large Powerball jackpot earlier this year contributed to higher lottery sales; the jump in estate-tax revenue was due to a higher-than-usual number of deaths of wealthy individuals; and dispute resolutions raised the amount of corporate income taxes collected.

Wednesdays estimates came as the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee works to finalize its recommendations on Hogans 2017 budget.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the Board of Revenue Estimates revised its two-year revenue projections downward by $501 million. The correct figure is $51 million. The story has been corrected.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced new spending proposals Thursday that would boost funding for K-12 education and drug addiction treatment and pay for new construction at five of the states universities.

The $77 million plan is the latest addition to the $42 billion budget Hogan (R) pitched to the state legislature in January. The Senate Budget and Taxation Committee is expected to approve the original budget with minor tweaks before next week, sending it to the full Senate for consideration.

Much of the additional money for Hogans new proposals would come from an estimated $58 million in savings from fewer Marylanders enrolling in Medicaid because the state economy improved, the administration said.

The proposals include $13.8 million in one-time funding for K-12 education, with $12.7 million slated for Baltimore and $1.1 million for Calvert County. Enrollment has declined in both jurisdictions, which means they would receive less money next year under the states school-funding formula. Earlier this year, the governor recommended similar aid for other counties where enrollment has declined, including Carroll, Garrett and Kent.

Hogans latest plan would also provide $3 million to support addiction treatment in prisons as part of the administrations efforts to address a fast-growing heroin and opioid addiction epidemic.

[Hundreds attend Md. rally for mental-health, drug-treatment funding]

The governor proposed an additional $46.2 million for construction at various public universities, including nearly $32 million for a new biomedical sciences and engineering building at the Universities at Shady Grove in Montgomery County and $4.7 million for a student services facility at Morgan State University in Baltimore. Coppin State, the University of Maryland at Baltimore County and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore would also receive funding.

Marylands Legislative Black Caucus sharply criticized Hogan last month for deferring money for Morgan State, a historically black college, while funding a new Baltimore jail. The governor responded by saying he would cancel the jail construction plan to free up money for educational priorities.

[Lawmakers accuse Hogan of assaults on black communities]

Hogan said his new spending proposals would leave the state with a projected surplus of $303 million at the end of the year, compared with an estimated $450 million cash balance under his initial budget.

The governors announcement came one day after the state Board of Revenue Estimates revised its two-year revenue projections downward by about $51 million and encouraged fiscal restraint. Earlier in the week, Hogan blasted Democrats for proposing dozens of bills that  if they all passed  would increase spending by $3.7 billion over the next five years.

Hogan spokesman Doug Mayer said the governors spending proposals are different from those measures because they involve one-year rather than long-term expenditures.

Hogans original budget fully funded all state spending formulas, and the supplemental proposals have addressed other priorities raised by the Democrat-controlled state legislature. As a result, Democrats in the General Assembly have found few aspects of the plan to challenge.

Many of the things we have been pushing for that we were going to try to address, the governor addressed them, said Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (D-Montgomery), Senate Budget and Taxation Committee vice chair.

The committee has made only slight changes to Hogans fiscal plan, largely by adding language that would withhold some funding if recipients or the administration fail to meet various reporting requirements, such as one that says non-public schools must show compliance with anti-discrimination policies to receive state aid.

The panel postponed its scheduled Thursday vote on Hogans budget until Friday morning to determine whether changes are needed in light of the new spending proposals.
In deep-blue Maryland, Democratic state lawmakers have shown little interest in giving up their power to redraw the boundaries of congressional districts every 10 years. The Republicans who control the legislature in Virginia are similarly unwilling.

But with both states congressional maps under attack for unfairly favoring the majority party, a few lawmakers have come up with a new suggestion: Why dont we give up our power together, negating the political effects?

The only way to get through this now is for everybody to give up a little bit in a partisan sense for everyone to gain a lot in terms of principle, said Maryland state Sen. Jamie B. Raskin. The Montgomery County Democrat is calling for a Potomac compact in which a single, independent panel would draw congressional lines for both states.

[Opinion: Congress could reduce polarization. It has chosen not to.]

State Sen. Paul G. Pinsky (D-Prince Georges) has proposed turning control over to a commission made up of legislative appointees  provided that a comparable red state does the same.

And Del. Kirill Reznik, also a Democrat representing Montgomery, is calling for technical experts to redraw Marylands maps  considered some of the most gerrymandered in the country  but only if Virginia and Republican-leaning Pennsylvania follow suit.

The political establishment here, especially in the legislature, does not feel it would be fair to unilaterally disarm, Reznik said. If we are going to fix it, it cannot just be Democrats saying, We will be the nice guys. 

So far, at least, these creative approaches seem no more likely to succeed than Republican Gov. Larry Hogans proposal  made earlier this year  for a constitutional amendment to turn redistricting power in Maryland over to an independent panel.

Although that idea was supported by 75 percent of Marylanders in a recent Goucher College poll, Democratic lawmakers assailed Hogans plan as poorly written and said it was developed without the perspective of minority communities.

Neither it nor the other proposals generated much discussion or interest at legislative hearings this month. Proposals for an independent redistricting commission have also gone nowhere in Virginia, even though that states districts are under legal challenge in a case that will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court this month.

The idea of independent commissions seems like an intellectually compelling argument, said Michael Li, who follows redistricting reform efforts for the Brennan Center for Justice. But politics isnt always about intellectual compellingness.

[Running, biking, boating to show Md.s gerrymandered districts]

Critics of allowing state legislatures to control redistricting say lawmakers of both parties tend to abuse their power, resetting boundaries in ways that protect incumbents and dilute the opposition.

One of the most egregious examples is Marylands 3rd Congressional District, which one judge likened to a broken-winged pterodactyl because of how it stretches across narrow parts of four counties.

Democrats hold seven of Marylands eight congressional seats, even though registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans in the state by a far-smaller ratio of 2 to 1. In Virginia, where there is no party registration but Democrats have prevailed in recent years in statewide races, Republicans hold eight of 11 congressional seats.

Brian Cannon, executive director of the advocacy group One Virginia 2021, said redistricting reform is not a Republican or Democratic issue. Its just a power issue and whether youre going to let politicians continue to abuse their power.

Six states use independent redistricting commissions, and at least 11 state legislatures rely on advisory panels to help draw districts or resolve disputes. In Iowa, legislative staff members draw congressional maps based on geography and population, without data on party registration.

In California and Arizona, residents successfully launched ballot initiatives to overhaul redistricting powers. But that option is unavailable in Maryland and Virginia.

[The Supreme Court ruling on independent redistricting, explained]

Across the country, Republicans in general have viewed independent commissions with suspicion, in part because their implementation led to an increase in the number of Democrats elected in California and Arizona, said Nick Goedert, a visiting professor at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., who has studied redistricting and is joining the faculty of Virginia Tech this summer.

Walter Olson, a Cato Institute fellow and co-chairman of Hogans redistricting task force, said the proposals for interstate agreements can easily become an excuse for not acting at all.

The longtime Democratic leaders of the Maryland General Assembly have said national reform should come from Congress, where Republicans retain power  in part because of partisan redistricting  or from the Supreme Court.

But House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) indicated that they would be open to adopting an independent redistricting commission if GOP-controlled states do so, as well.

Alexandra Hughes, Buschs chief of staff, said the speaker plans to contact legislators in Virginia and Pennsylvania to determine their interest.

Hogans office had little patience for the initiatives aimed at compromise.

Its preposterous on its face that we have to wait for Virginia, said Douglass Mayer, a spokesman for the governor. Maryland shouldnt wait to act for others to do whats right.
Former inmates Gerald Dent, James Featherstone and Niles Ringgold, from left, attend a rally for felon voting rights Thursday outside the Baltimore City Board of Elections. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

Gregory Carpenter served 20 years in prison for armed robbery. Hes been out for 21 years. Hes gotten married, raised a family, bought a home  all the things he teaches other ex-offenders at his nonprofit to do to turn their lives around.

But, he admits, he has never felt whole. Thats because Carpenter, 62, is on parole, a stipulation under Maryland law that made him ineligible to vote.

Until Thursday, when a new law took effect that allows felons who are on probation or parole to participate in the electoral process.

Carpenter was among more than a dozen ex-offenders who completed voter-registration paperwork outside the Baltimore City Board of Elections office. Many, including Carpenter, said they were registering for the first time in their lives.

Its a sweet and liberating moment, Carpenter said.

After a divisive battle with Gov. Larry Hogan (R), the General Assembly voted last month to override the governors veto of its 2015 voting-rights bill.

Hogan had argued that felons should only be able to vote after they have finished parole and probation. Members of the General Assembly who supported the override said restoring voting rights was part of helping ex-offenders become full citizens.

[Maryland Senate overrides Hogans veto of felon voting-rights bill]

Tessa Hill-Aston, the president of the Baltimore City branch of the NAACP, cheered as Carpenter turned in his form. Hill-Aston said she has worked with Carpenter and knew he was an ex-offender, but was not aware that he was still on parole.

I just get chills, Hill-Aston said as she watched Carpenter and others walk away from the Board of Elections counter. This is such a good thing.

The felons, most of them middle-aged black men, held a rally outside the Board of Elections office urging others with a criminal history to register to vote. They were joined by advocates and supporters.

People need to know, if youre out of prison, you can vote, said Perry Hopkins, an organizer with Communities United, a grass-roots organization that led the campaign to restore the voting rights.

As a result of the legislation, about 44,000 former prisoners on parole or probation are newly eligible to register to vote. Nearly half of those people live in Baltimore, where a recent Baltimore Sun poll indicated Sen. Catherine E. Pugh (D-Baltimore) and former mayor Sheila Dixon (D) essentially tied atop a crowded field of mayoral hopefuls.

With less than seven weeks before the April 26 primary, Hopkins said the 20,000 potential new voters could be pivotal in deciding who leads the city. With so many candidates in this race, we have enough votes in this election . . . to affect the outcome, he said.

As each person turned in their form, the clerk said: Thank you, your card will come in the mail.

It cant come soon enough for Carpenter. He plans to do early voting. Maybe even an absentee ballot, he said.

He said the thrill or victory for him is not walking into a polling place on Election Day.

Instead, he said, it is in knowing that he does not have to live vicariously through his family members as they make their voices heard at the ballot box.
Caitlin DiMaina, left, of Pathways to Housing DC, helps an upset Tamir Brown pack up before the city's Department of Health and Human Services clears out a tent city near Union Station. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

The city told the homeless men and women camped under the H Street bridge that their belongings would be removed at 10 a.m. sharp Thursday. The city was right on time.

At the top of the hour, workers wearing gloves and carrying shovels and rakes moved in to begin ridding the sidewalk of evidence of the tents and personal items of 15 or so homeless people under the bridge in Northeast Washington, just steps from Union Station and a few blocks from the Capitol.

Some had been living there for just a few weeks. Others, for years.

For the homeless, there was mostly resignation as they watched their meager possessions being trashed or tagged for temporary storage.

I think we were just a nuisance to people who walk by here, said Omar Abdullah, 41, who had camped at the site with his twin brother, Ali, for the past six months. He said that it was difficult to get adequate help from the people who provide services to the homeless and to navigate the system.

Henry Palmer shouts at lunchtime passersby and reporters as the city's Department of Health and Human Services clears out a tent encampment on First Street in Northeast Washington. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

Im always starting from zero, just not having anything, said Abdullah, a native Washingtonian who a few years ago had been working as a carpenter in Atlanta. Drugs and depression had derailed him, and now he watched as another chapter in his life came to another disappointing end.

People out here are just tired out, burned out, he said. You end up here and you end up stuck.

[In Georgetown, the homeless can be hidden amid the million-dollar homes]

City officials and homelessness-services contractors were on hand to assure those they were moving that their belongings would be stored nearby for 30 days and that anyone who wanted to stay in a shelter would be accommodated.

But many of the homeless didnt want to move and werent convinced by the citys promises.

They dont have any shelters for seniors, said Bobbie Mascuch, 64, who said she has been living under the bridge for the past 18 months. Mascuch said the only reason the city was acting to remove them was because, a few months ago, a good Samaritan gave the homeless tents to sleep in, which raised their visibility.

I was rained on, sleeted on, snowed on, and no one did anything, Mascuch said. Then, in December, we got tents and now they want us out. That started problems and that started people complaining.

Tamir Brown peers out from her tent before being forced to move. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

Mascuch said she would be back under the bridge Thursday night  without a tent.

Let em take me to jail, she said. Its not against the law to sleep in the street.

City officials said the removal of the tents was necessary because the encampment violated a law against camping without a permit. In November, the city removed residents of an encampment for the homeless where dozens of tents had been erected at 26th and K streets NW, just blocks from the Kennedy Center.

[He made a promise to help others. Now hes giving tents to the homeless]

Its not illegal to sleep on the street, but you cant pitch a tent on the street, said Rachel Joseph, chief of staff to Brenda Donald, the citys deputy mayor for health and human services. The city, Joseph said, had reached out to the homeless to give them lots of advance notice of the plans to remove the tents, and was working with its contractors to arrange housing .

Chris Parks is torn about the citys response. Parks, who works nearby, started a Gofundme.com campaign in December to supply the tents and sleeping bags to the homeless living under the bridge.

It was starting to get really cold, and I would see them every day, and I felt that something needed to be done immediately, Parks said. But it wasnt until the tents went up that the city posted the removal signs.

Parks realizes that the tents led to the displacement, but he also thinks it made the homeless more visible. People started taking notice, and theyre getting more involved, he said.

Other advocates for the homeless were also on hand Thursday to keep an eye on the tent removal and to offer assistance.

These people have mental issues; they have physical issues, said Eric Sheptock, who lives in a shelter and has been a longtime advocate. We want to make sure that the city keeps its promises. And if the city doesnt, we want to hold their feet to the fire.

The city has been under pressure to address its homelessness issues. An audit released Wednesday by the Office of the District of Columbia Auditor found that the Human Services Department mismanaged a private contract for the citys homelessness program in fiscal 2014. The audit said the department did not provide adequate oversight of the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness, the main city contractor that administers services to the homeless, including at D.C. General, the citys troubled shelter. According to the audit, the city overpaid for services and didnt monitor its contracts adequately.

But Kathy Patterson, the Districts auditor, did praise the administration of Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) as taking steps to improve oversight of homelessness programs and instituting reforms of the system it inherited.

The removal of the encampments recently has become a flash point in the citys homelessness crisis. It has drawn attention back to the plight of thousands of homeless single adults after years of an increasing amount of city resources going to deal with the Districts soaring numbers of homeless families. Many homeless men and women say that the conditions of the citys shelters are deplorable and that they feel safer sleeping outside.

Bowsers administration has taken a hard line against encampments, with some homelessness advocates saying that the removals seem focused primarily on avoiding the poor optics of tent cities that have taken root in Los Angeles. The mayor, however, said she plans to begin refurbishing or replacing shelters for singles, as well as opening day centers where they could do laundry.

For Abdullah, the politics and policy of homelessness felt removed from his immediate situation. The days events created an unwanted disruption to his routine and added yet more pressure to life on the streets.

It seems desperate. Im trying not to get stressed-out, he said. We got accustomed to this and knew what to expect.

Staff writer Aaron Davis contributed to this report.
Trapped by fire and choking on thick smoke, Phyliss Terrell stuck her head out the window of her third-floor apartment on Minnesota Avenue in Southeast Washington. She was about to jump.

Just then, Truck 7 from a station at Eastern Market pulled up. Danny Lovato, an 11-year veteran, grabbed a ladder and threw it against the red brick wall. He climbed to nearly the top rung, but found it too dangerous to pull the 64-year-old woman out.

So Lovato, 39, pulled off his breathing mask and put it on Terrells face, sacrificing the air from the tank on his back. They stayed like that for several minutes, until other firefighters could reach the woman from the inside. A photo making the rounds on social media shows Lovatos torso on the ladder, his head engulfed in a cloud of toxic smoke.

He took a beating to protect that woman, said Ed Smith, president of the firefighters union.

Terrells son-in-law, Robert Thornton, said Terrell, who he calls mother, is so grateful that she cant stop crying. . . . She cant believe that he came up and got her. And Im thankful that my mother is still here. If it wasnt for that firefighter, my mother wouldnt be here anymore.

Lovato, who is married and has a 6-year-old son, and the woman were rushed to the burn unit at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, where both remained Thursday. The fire occurred about 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Terrell, who works at the federal Office of Personnel Management, has been alert and talking and is expected to recover. She was listed in serious condition on Thursday. Thornton, 55, said the fire started in a furnace in an apartment next to his mothers.

The firefighters, Thornton said, do jobs that we cant do. . . . Im sorry that one got hurt in this, but I thank him so much.

Lovato suffered smoke inhalation and internal injuries from the toxic smoke, and was sedated and intubated until Thursday afternoon. He was listed in fair condition. Jeffrey Shupp, director of the hospitals burn center, said Lovato had some swelling in his airways and soot that doctors were able to suction out. He said the firefighter could be home by Friday. He was very lucky, Shupp said.

D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department Chief Gregory M. Dean met with the rescuer and the rescued on Thursday. Lovato told me he was just doing his job, Dean said. The woman was concerned about him. Dean said Terrell, from her hospital room across the hall from Lovatos, chatted with his wife, Adrienne, and asked her, Why would someone risk their life for someone else?

Several D.C. police officers also helped get people out of the burning apartment, and another firefighter was injured in the blaze. A cause has not yet been determined.

Jason Woods, president of the nonprofit D.C. Firefighters Burn Foundation and a firefighter assigned to the Districts Rescue 1 unit, said he also talked to the trapped woman, who told him she was seconds away from jumping out of that window.

Its not just the smoke that is so dangerous, but the toxic gases that can singe internal organs. Danny was very lucky, said Woods, a 16-year veteran whose foundation helps firefighters and families who suffer burns. It could have been a lot worse for both of them.
Hyderabad: The TS Council for Higher Education stated on Wed-nesday that the Eamcet medical entrance this year will only partly be online. A cap of 25,000 has been put on the online test on a first-come-first-served basis. Once the limit is reached, the other candidates will have to give the test offline.

The authorities had initially planned to conduct the test online. Logistical problems coupled with the likely rise in the number of candidates prompted them to play safe and go for the dual mode of exam.The online test will be conducted at selected centres, mostly engineering colleges that are equipped with computers and Inter-net facilities, in Hyderabad and Warangal. Both tests will be held on May 2.

A new option, to select online or offline, will be included in the registration link of the Eamcet website, officials said after their meeting.

Within the first 10 days of online registrations, nearly 24,000 candidates applied for the medical stream, while for engineering it was below 19,000, a trend seen during previous years.
Three people were shot and wounded in two separate incidents Thursday in Southeast Washington, according to D.C. police.

The second incident occurred about 1:30 a.m. in 400 block of Atlantic Street SE, near Washington Highlands. Police said a gunman approached the victim and shot him.

The victim was taken to an area hospital and was reported to be conscious and breathing, police said. No arrests were made.

[Man shot on Chesapeake Street is critically wounded]

Less than a half-hour earlier, shortly before 1 a.m., police said two people were shot in the 4700 block of Benning Road SE. Police said both victims were conscious and breathing and taken to hospitals for treatment. One was a man; police had no immediate information on the second victim.

D.C. police also said that a man who was shot in Southeast on Wednesday afternoon remains in critical condition.

That shooting occurred about 5:30 p.m. in the 800 block of Chesapeake Street SE It was just a few blocks from where a man was fatally shot last week while sitting in a car.
A former aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin who was found dead in a Dupont Circle hotel room in November died of blunt force trauma to the head, the D.C. medical examiners office said Thursday.

Mikhail Lesin, 59, also suffered injuries to his neck, torso and upper and lower extremities, the medical examiner said in a statement. The medical examiner had not concluded whether the injuries were the result of a crime, an accident or some other means.

[Former Putin aide found dead in Dupont Circle hotel]

Dustin Sternbeck, the D.C. police departments chief spokesman, said the case remains under investigation. He would not say whether the medical examiners ruling means a crime may have been committed. Were not willing to close off anything at this point, Sternbeck said.

Russian officials complained Thursday that the United States was not keeping them informed about the investigation.

Mikhail Lesin is seen in a 2002 photo. (ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/Getty Images)

The Russian Embassy in the United States has repeatedly sent a request through diplomatic channels about the investigation into the death of a Russian citizen, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, in a post on Facebook. The U.S. side has not provided us with any substantive information. We are waiting for clarification from Washington and the relevant official details on the progress of the investigation.

Lesins body was found before noon Nov. 5 in a room at the Dupont Circle Hotel, in the 1500 block of New Hampshire Avenue NW.

Authorities on Thursday released no other information about the mysterious death of Lesin, a prominent political figure who once served as a press minister and an executive of GazpromMedia, a holding company that controls several popular television channels and other media outlets. It was unclear why Lesin was in Washington.

Citing his long-term illnesses, family members told Russian news media in November that they thought Lesin had suffered a heart attack.
Police are looking for help in identifying the occupants of a newer-model, black BMW who shot at another car Tuesday afternoon on New York Avenue NE.

U.S. Park Police said one car was struck by bullets. Sgt. Anna Rose, a spokeswoman for the department, said no one was injured. Police did not say what they thought prompted the shooting.

The incident occurred about 2:30 p.m. in the eastbound lanes of the road, approaching the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. Police said the BMW was last seen heading east along U.S. Route 50.

New York Avenue is a main thoroughfare in and out of Washington and is usually crowded throughout most of the day.

Police are asking anyone with information to call 202-610-8737.
D.C. police have arrested a man who is suspected in at least 14 robberies in the District and is being investigated in several more in Prince Georges County, according to police officials in the two jurisdictions.

Authorities said the suspect is a member of a crew that targeted women who were alone and that in one case attacked and injured an 81-year-old during a robbery.

Were still counting, D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said of the number of cases being reviewed in the District and neighboring Prince Georges.

Terrell Strickland, 23, of Northeast Washington, has been charged in the District with 14 counts of robbery. On Thursday, A D.C. Superior Court judge ordered him detained until a preliminary hearing Monday. Stricklands attorney did not return a call seeking comment.

[Police detail 14 robberies linked to one suspect]

D.C. police said the rash of robberies began in January and continued through early March in Northeast and Northwest Washington, mostly along the border with Maryland. In Prince Georges, police said the robberies, including one carjacking, happened along Eastern Avenue and in communities such as Mount Rainier and Brentwood.

In many cases, police said, the crew members forcefully took womens purses, ripping them from hands or from the insides of cars. In one case in February, on Underwood Street in Northwest Washington, police said a woman would not let go of her purse and the assailant dragged her to his car, punching and kicking her along the way.

[Map of robberies linked to single suspect]

In another case, police said, a woman was attacked at the front door of her home on Newton Street in Northeast Washington. Police said the attacker pulled the purse from the womans shoulder, causing her to fall.

Robberies have been a concern for D.C. police this year. The numbers have risen 38 percent, with 601 reported so far this year, up from 435 at this time in 2015. Police have formed a task force with prosecutors.

Police announced Stricklands arrest at a news conference. Most troubling about these robberies, despite the sheer volume, is that these individuals targeted lone women, Lanier said. They would use violence against women who resisted these robberies.

Lanier said detectives have been working specifically on this crew for some time. We knew it was the same group of people. She said police are seeking others connected to the robberies.
Authorities charged Erik David Johnson, 46, of Ashburn with four counts of burglary and four counts of larceny, police said. (Prince William County Police Department)

A 46-year-old Virginia man was charged with burglary after police said he went to several open houses pretending to be a potential buyer and stole over $15,000 worth of items.

Erik David Johnson of Ashburn was arrested Tuesday after investigators searched his home and found evidence that connected him to the thefts, a spokesman said.

He was charged with four counts of burglary and four counts of larceny, Prince William County police said Thursday.

Authorities think that Johnson attended real estate open houses in the Gainesville area since August. As a part of a ruse, he gave false information, toured the homes and allegedly stole jewelry, prescription medication and electronics, police said in a press release.

[How show houses keep designing visitors on the straight and narrow]

He later tried to pawn the items at stores in Loudoun County, authorities said.

Detectives tied Johnson to the burglaries through pawn store transactions of items reported stolen by homeowners, said officer Nathan Probus, a department spokesman.

Probus added that investigators think Johnson may have stolen from other homes, and they are investigating the incidents.
Tavon JuiceStewart, 23, charged in warrant with second-degree murder in March 1 fatal shooting on Rudolph Garris, 25, of Suitland. (D.C. police handout/D.C. police handout)

D.C. police are searching for a 23-year-old man charged in connection with a fatal shooting that occurred on the afternoon of March 1 near an elementary school and a child learning center in Southeast Washington.

Tavon Stewart, known as Juice, is being charged with second-degree murder while armed. He is wanted on an arrest warrant.

[Man shot near elementary school, learning center]

The shooting occurred shortly after 3 p.m. in the 4200 block of Seventh Street SE, in Washington Highlands and near the Hendley Elementary School and the Sunshine Early Learning Center. The victim, Rudolph Garris, 25, of Suitland, Md., was shot in a car.

A teacher said at the time that children were playing in a playground and were rushed inside at the sound of gunshots. About 230 children attend the elementary school and the learning center.

There have been several shootings recently in Washington Highlands, all in the late afternoon.

On Wednesday, police said a man was shot about 5:30 p.m. in the 800 block of Chesapeake Street SE, a few blocks from where Garris was shot in his car. And on Feb. 29, police said a man was shot in the 4300 block of Fourth Street SE, about a half-mile south of the fatal shooting. That occurred at 4:40 p.m.

Both those victims survived. Police would not say on Thursday whether they believe any of the crimes to be related.
Kyle Odom was arrested after throwing objects over the White House fence on March 8. He is suspected of shooting an Idaho pastor two days earlier, and released a manifesto warning of "Martians" in Congress before his arrest. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

Kyle Odom was arrested after throwing objects over the White House fence on March 8. He is suspected of shooting an Idaho pastor two days earlier, and released a manifesto warning of "Martians" in Congress before his arrest. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

The former Marine wanted in the shooting of an Idaho pastor on Sunday will remain in D.C. Jail until April 6, when a hearing is scheduled on whether he will be extradited to Idaho to face first-degree, attempted-murder charges.

Kyle Odom stood before a D.C. Superior Court judge Wednesday with his wrists and ankles shackled and wearing blue shorts, a green t-shirts and green sneakers. Odom is wanted in the shooting of Idaho pastor Tim Remington.

Odom was arrested Tuesday evening outside the White House after Secret Service agents said he was seen throwing an unknown material over the south fence line of the White House.

Odom spoke only his name during the brief hearing. Ieshaah Murphy with the D.C. Public Defender Service told Magistrate Judge Renee Raymond that her client wanted to have an extradition hearing, in which prosecutors would have to prove that Odom was the person wanted by Idaho police and that the warrant supported such an arrest.

It is rare for a person wanted for crimes outside the District to agree to wait and sit in jail for nearly a month for such a hearing. Most wanted fugitives waive the hearing and agree to wait several days for the authorities to pick them up and transport them back to where the alleged crime occurred.

Police in Coeur dAlene, Idaho, where the shooting took place, said Monday that Odom had a history of mental illness. Remington was shot several times in the head and back after delivering his Sunday sermon at the Altar Church.

The shooting gained national attention, in part because Remington had prayed with Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas at a campaign rally in Coeur dAlene on Saturday.



Prior to his arrest Tuesday, someone posted a message to Odoms Facebook page claiming that Remington was shot because the pastor was from Mars and had ruined Odoms life, according to Washington state television station KXLY.

A copy of the manifesto allegedly written by Odom and posted online by an Idaho TV station had a section addressed to President Obama in which Odom asks Obama to resist Martians. Another section is titled noteworthy Martians, which lists 50 members of Congress  including members of both parties  and dozens of Israeli officials.

[A look at the alleged manifesto of Odom]

At the hearing, prosecutors urged the judge not to release Odom, arguing he was a danger.

He fled all the way across the country in just two days. Hes a danger and a flight risk, argued Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Cobb. The judge agreed.

The extradition hearing could be a strategic move by the local public defenders office. Idaho is one of the few states that does not allow an insanity defense. Waiting a month or more could give Odoms attorneys in Idaho time to investigate and prepare for their case if the D.C. judge finds enough evidence that allow for Odom to be extradited.
A Virginia teenager who authorities said intervened when his mother was being attacked by her boyfriend  fatally shooting the man  has been charged with second-degree murder.

Police said the son, who is 15, shot and killed John Conroy Jr., 37, as Conroy physically attacked his mother during an argument at their house.

The teen faces charges of second-degree murder and use of a firearm during the commission of a felony, Deputy Commonwealths Attorney Duncan Minton said. The teenagers name is not being released because he is charged as a juvenile.

Minton said every homicide in Virginia is presumed to be murder in the second degree, but that the charge can be reduced or increased as the investigation goes on.

Because of the fact that hes a juvenile and because there may be extenuating circumstances, there is a whole wide range of things that could happen, Minton said.

The teen will appear for a hearing in Spotsylvania juvenile court within the next 21 days, Minton said.

Police on the afternoon of March 8 responded to a report of a shooting at a house in the 5300 block of Towles Mill Road. They said they found Conroy dead in the front room with multiple gunshot wounds.

An argument had broken out between Conroy and the mother, 36, and at some point Conroy attacked her, authorities said.

The teen took a semiautomatic gun that was in the room and fired at Conroy, striking him several times, according to a statement from the Spotsylvania County Sheriffs Office.

The teens mother was treated for injuries that werent considered life-threatening, the statement said. Police took the teen to Rappahannock Regional Juvenile Detention Center.
Franklin Square in the District fills with people taking advantage of unusually warm weather in early March. Spring is just around the corner. Maybe youd like to write a haiku about it. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

If youve spent any time this week trekking through the Golden Triangle  not the area in Southeast Asia known for its opium production but the 43-block neighborhood stretching from the White House to Dupont Circle  you may have noticed signs bearing three-line poems. There are 125 in all, culled from the more than 900 entries submitted to the Golden Triangle Business Improvement Districts Golden Haiku Contest.

The theme of the contest was springtime. Kala Ramesh of India won first place, and a $500 gift card to the Tiny Jewel Box. Kalas haiku:

spring breeze

the sari slides down

her shoulder

Second place went to Peter Newton of Massachusetts:

almost spring

the florist waters

her sidewalk

Third place was awarded to Pennsylvanias Meik Blottenberger:

green heart

inside a twig

broken off

These are all lovely  and evocative of spring, which sure has come in like a lion  but I wouldnt exactly call them D.C.-centric. It may be that the winners dont have a lot of experience with our fair city. Heres a haiku I came up with after walking around downtown Washington:

The homeless man says

Change? No? Have a blessed day.

That makes me feel worse.

How would you describe springtime in the Washington area? Send me your haiku and Ill print some of my favorites in a future column.

You neednt be snarky, like I was, but you should strive to make your entry redolent of the DMV. (Thats the District, Maryland and Virginia.) And while the Golden Triangle BID didnt insist on the 5-7-5 rule when it comes to syllables, I will. Why should I make things easy?

The winner gets lunch with me, my treat, somewhere in the Golden Triangle  the one in the District, not the one in Southeast Asia. Send your entries  with D.C. Haiku in the subject line  to me at john.kelly@washpost.com. The deadline is March 29.

The tooth is out there

You know how you can sort of be right about something, but also sort of wrong? And how a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing?

Monica Nelson of Fairfax City does. She responded to my recent request for twisted Aha! moments, those times when our sudden understanding of a situation is somewhat fractured and imperfect.

When Monicas son, Cameron, was little and had lost a tooth, he discovered a note from the Tooth Fairy under his pillow, along with a little money.

He held the note and read it slowly, Monica wrote. Then he looked at me and said he knew I was the Tooth Fairy but, How do you get into other kids houses? He was very serious.

Monica said that after that, she stopped writing Tooth Fairy notes and just handed her son the cash. Cameron is now studying at the London School of Economics. I predict that he will go far.

Reunited, and it feels so good

These area schools are among those reuniting in the coming months.

Bethesda-Chevy Chase High Class of 1961  Oct. 8 and 9. Contact 61.committee@gmail.com.

Bladensburg High Class of 1966  Aug. 26 and 27. Contact: Jan (Boho) Stotlemyer at jandenny69@aol.com.

Winston Churchill High Class of 1976  Oct 1. Visit www.churchill76reunion.myevent.com or contact Diane at Pfeiffer80@aol.com.

Coolidge High Class of 1956  Sept. 17 and 18. Contact Harriet Tudor Platt at 301-468-6792.

Fairmont Heights High Class of 1966  Sept. 16-18. Email fhhsroute66@verizon.net or search Fairmont Heights Class of 1966 on Facebook.

Fauquier High Classes of 1975, 1976 and 1977  June 11. Visit www.fhs-reunion.com.

Holy Redeemer (Kensington) grade school  Class of 1971. Sept. 10. Contact Dan Delacey at ddelacey@aol.com.

Walter Johnson High Class of 1970  Planning its 50th reunion and seeks classmates. Contact Tom Baron at bear2327@hotmail.com or Karen Hazlett (Keigher) at khkeigher@gmail.com.

Loudoun County High Classes of 1964, 1965 and 1966  Sept. 16-18. Contact Judy Fisher at mommyfisher@aol.com or 703-777-3156.

Northwood High Class of 1965  April 2 and 3. Contact Julian Rich at JRich44673@aol.com or Nancy Smith at nancyh2osweet@gmail.com.

Peary High Class of 1971  April 9. Search Peary Class of 71 Reunion on Facebook or call Barbara Riley at 301-607-9430.

Queen Annes County High Class of 1976  Sept. 24. Contact Henry Covington (410-758-2247), Sonnie Boyd Kelly (443-221-3403), Robyn Klages Smith (301-373-9762), Bill Jones (410-286-7353) or Jane Anthony (443-480-3901).

Wheaton High Class of 1986  Oct. 8. Email WheatonKnights1986@gmail.com.

Woodrow Wilson High Class of 1976  June 24-26. Visit www.wwilsonclassof76.com or email wwilsonclassof76@gmail.com.

Twitter: @johnkelly

For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/johnkelly.
Metro General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld has floated the idea of selling the transit agencys headquarters to raise money. (Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post)

Buried in the details of Metro General Manager Paul J. Wiedefelds plan to fix the regions beleaguered transit system is an intriguing strategy for shoring up its shaky finances: selling the agencys Fifth Street NW headquarters.

An eight-story fixer-upper on prime real estate in the heart of Penn Quarter? Sure, why not? After all, it is Metro-friendly.

The new GM wants to take a fresh look at the idea to determine whether conditions have changed and whether a sale of the building could generate money that could be used to improve customer service, Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said. Beyond that, we are going to wait until the analysis is complete.

[Metro chief: Heres how were going to fix Metro]

Wiedefelds idea comes as many government agencies and private companies are re-evaluating their real estate portfolios. In October, Fannie Mae put three buildings, including its main campus on Wisconsin Avenue just north of the National Cathedral, on the market. NPR traded in its rickety old headquarters in Mount Vernon Square for swanky new digs in the up-and-coming NoMa neighborhood. Most famously, the federal government is looking for a deal to help it unload the FBIs downtown headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue so it can relocate to a more modern, state-of-the-art building  gasp  outside of the District.

Such efforts have met with mixed results. While enticing, old buildings such as Metros 1970s-era headquarters can present challenges to redevelopment.

This WMATA thing is like Groundhog Day,  said Paul Hanafin, corporate managing director at the real estate firm Savills Studley, referring to the Bill Murray movie. Every so many years, it comes up again.

But it doesnt surprise me that this has been resurrected again, he added. It follows a discernible trend right now of public and private institutions taking a very hard look at their own real estate.

In 2005, Metro received an unsolicited proposal from a developer to sell the building and relocate, but it turned down the plan because it didnt make financial sense. Two years later, then-D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) approached Metro with the idea of moving to Anacostia  part of his ambitious effort to jump-start economic development in the area.

[Fenty proposes Metro move its headquarters to Anacostia]

Under the deal, the city would have been given the rights to sell the building, which it estimated would have fetched $68 million or more. To sweeten the pot, Fenty offered an additional $40 million to build a tunnel that would link the Metro Center and Gallery Place stations. The tunnel, which would allow passengers to connect with all five rail lines at two of the busiest downtown stations, had been discussed by Metro planners for years, but the agency lacked funding.

D.C. wanted Metro to relocate near the Anacostia station, said Peter Benjamin, who was on the Metro board when Fenty broached the idea. The problem was, to move it somewhere else at any kind of reasonable price would have been difficult.

Even so, the board thought the plan was worth exploring and hired a real estate consulting firm to study whether it made sense.

The 2008 report, which put the headquarters value at roughly $90 million, laid out the pros and cons.

The location was prime, but the building had shortcomings, including a significant lack of natural light, which analysts politely characterized as a substandard proportion of windows to floor area. The buildings elevator banks also were situated in a way that would make redevelopment to Class A office space difficult.

Consultants also looked at redevelopment options for the property, including residential or hotel use, but found that substantial portions of the building would have to be demolished to increase the amount of natural light, reducing the density.

The reports authors concluded: The easiest way to remedy the buildings existing problems is to demolish and start anew, however, the new construction would be encumbered by the very significant on-site Metro- related specialty assets.

In addition to office space for employees, Metros headquarters also sits atop a Red Line tunnel, which runs through the buildings basement; on its roof are chillers that serve the Gallery Place-Chinatown, Judiciary Square and Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter stations. There also are miles of fiber optic cable that connect all Metrorail stations with a backup Rail Operations Control Center, the central communications hub for the buses, trains and Metro Transit Police.

In the end, Chris Zimmerman, then a Metro board member, said selling the building was a deal that simply didnt pencil out.

Despite its central location  just footsteps from several Metro stations  there are peculiar things to the building itself that make it harder for someone to take advantage of, Zimmerman said. It seemed like valuable real estate  but there were other costs.

The matter was abruptly dropped later that year.

But with new leadership in place, its possible the idea may be revived. According to the most recent data available, the D.C. government assessed the Fifth Street NW property at $116.3 million.

Hanafin said Metros headquarters may have issues, but its hard to ignore its prime location  the building spans an entire block  in a city where theres little buildable land.

You could do something very, very cool there, he said. Its not Verizon Center-prime, but its pretty darn close.

According to Stessel, no decision has been made on whether the new assessment will be done by Metros staff members or an outside firm.

I applaud WMATA General Manager Paul Wiedefeld for his plan to focus the entire agency on getting better at the basics as step one of restoring our public transit system, said D.C. Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), chairman of the Metro board. He is turning over every stone to find what works and what doesnt and reorganize an agency where too many vertical silos remain, and staffing is not mission-focused or aligned in key priority areas, most importantly, the customer experience.
Most industrialists complained that the power distribution companies had taken feedback from one section of industrialists before proposing the tariff hike to the Electricity Regulatory Commission. (Representational Image)

Hyderabad: Industrialists faulted the Telangana state power discoms for proposing to tariff hike for the sector as it works against the policy of incentives being offered by the state government to attract new industries in the State.

Most industrialists complained that the power distribution companies had taken feedback from one section of industrialists before proposing the tariff hike to the Electricity Regulatory Commission.

The meeting was held over a month ago only with representatives of the Confederation of Indian Industry. Other major industrial associations and its members like Federation of Telangana Chambers of Commerce and Industry, associations of spiining and textile mills, the steel industry to name a few were not invited, sources said.

Arun Kumar D, president of AGI Glasspack Industries, pointed out that while the K. Chandrasekhar Rao government was offering incentives such as power at a lower cost to industries coming to the state to set up their units, the discoms want to burden the existing industries.

There will be no level playing field. As it is, there are not many orders for any industry. At a time when we were appreciating the government for giving a much-needed lifeline to the industries by ensuring 24x7 power supply for more than a year, the tariff hike has come as a major disappointment and is not good for the growth of industry in Telangana, he said.

Devendra Surana of Surana Industries said that the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry congratulated the TS government for 24x7 power supply, it was disappointed with the proposed tariff hike particularly at a time when energy prices in the international market were coming down.

Power is available at lower prices and there is no need to increase the tariff when industry has just started to get back into rhythm due to the 24x7 power supply, Mr Surana said.

New tariff to be effective from May 1

Electricity bills for the month of April would be collected based on the existing tariff. The revised tariff hike, if allowed by the regulatory commission, would come into effect from May 1.

The public hearing on the tariff hike sought by Southern Discom will be held at the The Federation of Telangana and AndhraPradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry Building, Red Hills, from 10 am to 5 pm on April 6 and April 7.

For the Northern Discom, it will be held at Karimnagar ZP School Compound from 10 am to 5 pm on April 9.
U.S. Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) kicked off her reelection bid Wednesday night amid questions over whether she should switch her support from struggling presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to front-runner Donald J. Trump.

Speaking to about 200 supporters gathered inside a Loudoun County volunteer fire station, Comstock ticked off what she considered her first-term successes and reiterated her support for Rubio  who outperformed Trump in Northern Virginia on Super Tuesday, even though Trump won the state.

As you look at the issues and problems we have today, theres not a one of them that we cant fix with the people . . . and the diverse community that we have here in the 10th District, Comstock told the cheering crowd.

Several audience members wondered whether Trumps candidacy could somehow hurt Comstock if he becomes the Republican nominee.

As the incumbent in what is likely to be an aggressive congressional race, Comstock has the advantage in her evenly split Northern Virginia district over Democrat LuAnn Bennett.

Bennett, a real estate executive and an ex-wife of former congressman Jim Moran (D-Va,) has tried to sway moderate voters to her side by linking Comstock to Trump. Her campaign has highlighted a comment Comstock made in 2014 that likened illegal immigrants to FedEx packages and characterizes Comstocks opposition to abortion as on par to demeaning comments Trump has made about women.

[Barbara Comstock challenger raises $281,000 in three weeks]

There are really interesting comparisons there when you look at their positions and records, and we think its important that voters in the 10th District are aware of those, said Bennetts campaign spokesman Adam Zuckerman.

But Comstock could also benefit from a groundswell of new voters who might come out to help Trump defeat the Democratic nominee in November.

That probably would be Barbara Comstocks biggest concern: You dont get the enthusiasm; you dont get the volunteers,said Ron Wright, a Herndon business owner who is vice chairman for finance for the Fairfax County Republican Committee.

After her campaign event, Comstock played down the role any Republican presidential nominee might have in her reelection bid, arguing that her accomplishments, including work on legislation to combat human trafficking and to create jobs for war veterans, will carry the day for her in November. She declined to say whether she would support Trump or any other nominee if Rubio fails.

Id like to have Marco Rubio at the top of the ticket, for the country, for a lot of reasons, she said. Im focusing on helping Marco Rubio.
Court of Appeals Judge Stephen R. McCullough is seen during an interview for an appointment to the Virginia Supreme Court in the House Courts of Justice Committee at the Capitol on March 9, 2016. (Bob Brown/AP)

Republicans finally defeated Gov. Terry McAuliffe in a long, unpredictable battle over who should sit on the Supreme Court of Virginia, electing a conservative judge Thursday to a slot that the governor was poised to fill on his own.

The House and Senate elected Appeals Court Judge Stephen R. McCullough to the high court, concluding a drama that has played out since summer in brash political schemes, arcane legal arguments and startling flip-flops.

McCullough, 44, is well-known and well-regarded in conservative circles and considers the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia a role model. His name was in the mix as a potential state Supreme Court nominee for years.

The vote came one day after Republicans dropped a plan to elect former attorney general Ken Cuccinelli II (R) to the bench  an effort that started out as a tactical ploy aimed at flipping a Democrat but which unexpectedly prodded the lone GOP holdout back into the party fold.

In between, the Cuccinelli gambit nearly became the dog that caught the car: Republican legislators briefly but seriously considered the possibility of putting Cuccinelli, one of the states most polarizing political figures, on the high court, according to interviews with five Republican insiders familiar with the effort. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal party strategy.

[Virginia Senate drops plan to put Cuccinelli on the bench]

Cuccinelli considered but ultimately turned down the job, which would have precluded a potential run for governor in 2017 and forced him to stop campaigning for GOP presidential hopeful Ted Cruz.

But after he privately bowed out, Republicans let the possibility of his appointment dangle in Richmond for half a day, using it as leverage to break the impasse.

The long battle over the Supreme Court seat began in July, when McAuliffe gave the first of two temporary appointments to Jane Marum Roush, a widely respected jurist from Northern Virginia with 22 years of trial-court experience.

[Time runs out  again  for McAuliffes Supreme Court pick]

Republicans who control the legislature, irked that McAuliffe had not consulted them about appointing Roush and eager to assert their authority, declined to give Roush a full, 12-year appointment. They let both of her temporary stints expire and planned to elevate Appeals Court Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. instead. Virginia is one of only two states whose legislatures are empowered to choose judges.

But that effort was thwarted in the closely divided Senate, where freshman Sen. Glen Sturtevant (R-Richmond) had refused to go along with his partys plan to unseat Roush.

Since the General Assembly session began in January, Republicans had tried to flip a member of the Senates black caucus to support Alston, who is black. They touted the notion that Alston would be the third sitting black justice on the high court  a first for any state, they said.

Twice the GOP appeared close to victory. Sen. Kenneth Alexander (D-Norfolk) said he was considering Alston but hours later stuck with Roush. Then Sen. L. Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth) said she would back Alston in a deal to fill his Appeals Court slot with Portsmouth Circuit Court Judge Kenneth Melvin, a former Democratic delegate, African American and her neighbor. But McAuliffe talked her out of it.

[With rebel Democrat, Va. Senate poised to vote on Roush replacement]

With the session on track to conclude by Saturday, it appeared that McAuliffe might have the chance to give Roush a third recess appointment. Republicans suggested that they might not adjourn, thus preventing such a move.

On Tuesday, a Senate panel set Richmond reeling when it announced that it would nominate Cuccinelli for the Supreme Court. Senate Republicans released a statement from Cuccinelli saying he and his wife, Teiro, were praying on it. At 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, Cuccinelli texted a Republican legislator to say he and his wife had decided against it.

But it was not until after 3 p.m. Wednesday that Republicans publicly declared that Cuccinelli was out and that they were nominating McCullough instead.

In the intervening hours, Republicans tried to use the possibility of a Justice Cuccinelli to convince one or more Senate Democrats to break with their party to support Alston. It had the desired effect on Lucas, who, like many liberals, considers tea party hero Cuccinelli hostile to abortion, gay rights and climate science.

I heard the name, I flew back over to [Sen. Ryan T. McDougle (R-Hanover)], and I said, Are you all serious about Cuccinelli? This has got to be a joke. He said, Well, we cant get any movement on Alston and Melvin unless we get your vote. I told him Id rather go with Alston and Melvin than Cuccinelli.

Lucas said she called Melvin, who said he was interested in the job but urged Lucas to get other black Democrats to stand with her. Melvin did not respond to a request for comment.

Lucas set out to round up votes in the black caucus Wednesday morning, not knowing that Cuccinelli had bowed out overnight. When McAuliffe heard about her lobbying, he summoned Lucas and other black senators individually to his office to urge them to hold firm until the end of the session, Lucas said. McAuliffe spokesman Brian Coy declined to comment.

Lucas was undeterred, but it soon became clear that the GOP did not need her after all. Much to the surprise of fellow Republicans, Sturtevant said he was willing to vote for Cuccinelli.

Sturtevant had stood firmly against unseating Roush all session. But some Republicans said he had been quietly looking for a way out without violating his vow not to vote for Alston, whom he had called a political pawn in the Roush drama. A new candidate provided just that opportunity. And Cuccinelli had supported Sturtevant in his race last fall.

When Republican leaders made it clear that Cuccinelli had bowed out, Sturtevant threw his support to McCullough, who had at one time worked for Cuccinelli in the state attorney generals office and earned Sturtevants admiration. Republicans moved ahead with McCulloughs nomination Wednesday and took the final vote Thursday.

Everything happened so fast, Lucas said. Before we could do anything, it all just blew up.
Maryland will keep fighting Dominion Virginia Powers plan to release coal-ash water into a Potomac River tributary, despite modifications that resulted in Prince William County dropping its objections.

At this point, we are continuing our review of the contested permit, Ben Grumbles, Marylands secretary of the environment, said in a statement Wednesday. He said the state was also looking for opportunities with Virginia to ensure wastewater and waste pits at Possum Point are managed for effective, long-term protection of the Potomac.

In an agreement that was announced Tuesday evening, Dominion promised to test the coal-ash water it treats at its Possum Point plant in Prince William on an hourly basis  instead of the three times a week currently required by its permit  before it releases the water into the creek.

The company also agreed to lower levels of contamination than what the state requires, promising to add an extra step of treatment in cases where the amount of metals in the water remains above those new limits, Dominion officials said.

In addition, Dominion reached an agreement this week for coal-ash water treatment at a site near the James River, about 60 miles west of Richmond, that is similar to the Prince William arrangement.

In return, both Prince William and the James River Association environmental group promised to stop fighting the companys water-treatment plans.

Corey A. Stewart (R-At Large), chairman of Prince Williams Board of County Supervisors, said the agreement came about in part because of public pressure placed on Dominion and state officials after the Possum Point permit was approved in January.

As part of its deal, Prince William secured $50,000 from Dominion to pay for a consultant to monitor the companys permit process.

We used the bully pulpit. We used public pressure and humiliation to get them to comply, Stewart said. Now we can assure the public that this dewatering process will be absolutely safe.

[Previous contamination from Possum Point site fuels current opposition]

When the permit was issued, Dominions critics said it did not go far enough to guard against contaminating bass and other fish caught in the Potomac.

Dominion is trying to drain and permanently seal its five coal ash ponds at Possum Point, part of the companys effort to comply with a federal mandate to safely dispose of all forms of coal ash nationwide. Dominion stopped burning coal to provide electricity at Possum Point in 2003.

Dominion spokesman Dan Genest would not say Wednesday whether the company is pursuing agreements with Maryland or its other critics. But he characterized the Prince William deal as a model that others might wish to duplicate.

Dean Naujoks, an environmentalist with the Potomac Riverkeeper Network, said his group also intends to keep fighting the Possum Point plan.

This just shows the failure of [the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality] and their permitting process, which clearly was not adequate enough to protect water quality, Naujoks said.
Washingtons population is projected to expand to nearly 1 million residents over the next 30 years. (Andre Chung for The Washington Post)

The Districts population will continue to grow steadily and reach nearly 1 million residents in the next 30 years, according to a major new regional forecast, presenting some challenges for the city.

The city is projected to expand from 672,000 residents last year to 987,000 in 2045, when it will be just shy of replacing Prince Georges County as the regions third-most-populous jurisdiction, according to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG).

Fairfax and Montgomery counties will continue to rank first and second. They and other counties in the region will continue to grow. But only Charles County, which is a quarter of the Districts size, will gain population at a faster rate than the city.

The forecast, presented at a COG directors meeting Wednesday, is welcome news for the District. The city has taken pride in the steady recovery of its population since it hit a low of 565,000 in 1998 after decades of losing residents to the suburbs.

Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and other officials like to boast about the number of cranes heralding new construction around the city. The District also relishes its reputation as a magnet for young adults of the millennial generation, who account for most of the citys growth.

But the surge of arrivals also will test the city in important ways, especially in whether it can provide affordable housing and high-quality transportation.

Our challenge is planning for growth while preserving the character that makes the District unique, Bowser spokesman Michael Czin said. He noted that the mayor has committed to invest $100 million a year in a trust fund to expand and preserve affordable housing, as the city grows by nearly 1,000 residents a month.

Speaking of the housing pressures in the region, COG Chairman Roger Berliner said, Its important to understand that this is only going to intensify going forward.

In a sign of concern about transportation, COG and the Greater Washington Board of Trade said they would host a high-level, regionwide forum on March 30 to discuss how to fix chronic problems with the Metro transit system.

COG has invited Bowser, and the governors of Virginia and Maryland to the invitation-only event, which it expects about 100 senior officials and business executives to attend.

The event is timed partly to mark the 40th anniversary of Metrorails opening. Hailed then as a model transit system, Metro has been plagued in recent years by safety lapses, unreliable service, troubled finances and falling ridership.

We will begin a year-long investigation into what it would take to recapture Metros world-class status, said Berliner (D), who also is a member of the Montgomery County Council.

Two long-standing problems to be addressed are finding a regionwide dedicated source of funding for Metro and streamlining its unwieldy governance structure.

COG Executive Director Chuck Bean, acknowledging the mixed emotions over the Metro anniversary, commented, Were not popping champagne. Its more drinking a bottle of vegetable juice.

COG considers this long-term forecast for population and jobs, called the Cooperative Forecasts of Future Growth, to be the most reliable projection available. It is the latest in a series of predictions conducted every five years that are based on both region-wide demographic and economic models, and on local jurisdictions own predictions.

A bright spot was the prediction that the regions economic growth rate would recover to the point where it again exceeds the national average  despite the loss of jobs because of federal budget cuts known as sequestration.

The region began lagging the nation in economic growth in 2011 because of the federal spending slowdown, which has cost the region nearly $14 billion a year.

Nevertheless, from 2015 to 2025, the regions job growth is projected to be 13 percent, compared with 10 percent for the nation.

The region will outperform the nation in job growth in the following two decades, as well, even though it is projected to lose 44,000 federal jobs by 2045.

The loss of federal government jobs will be offset mainly by a huge increase  more than 600,000 jobs  in professional and business services.

The forecasts were dismaying for Prince Georges County, but officials there said they thought COG was basing its predictions for the county on outdated data.

The county was projected to have jobs growth by 2045 of 19 percent, far below the forecast of 36 percent for the region.

Prince Georges also was predicted to have the slowest population growth  of 10 percent, to 991,000 residents  of any jurisdiction in the region.

David S. Iannucci, the top economic development adviser to County Executive Rushern L. Baker III, expressed doubts.

I question the methodology that might have looked at 2013 or 2014 data for Prince Georges County and predicts what is going to happen in 2025, Iannucci said.

He noted that 4,000 jobs are coming soon with the opening of the casino at National Harbor.

By contrast, the two counties projected to have the highest rate of job growth, by far, were Loudoun and Prince William. Each was expected to gain more than 100,000 jobs by 2045, which represented increases of more than 75 percent apiece.

Paul DesJardin, the COG official who oversaw the projections, said the growth in each county was expected to be concentrated around transit.

The region as a whole will add nearly 1.5 million people, to a total of 6.9 million, according to the forecasts.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor (left) and Ruth Bader Ginsburg (center) with Justice Elena Kagan in the Justices Conference Room prior to Justice Kagans Investiture Ceremony in 2010. (Steve Petteway/Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States)

In early Egypt, in ancient Rome, in Renaissance Europe and outside most 21st-century American courthouses, justice has been represented by that woman with a sword, scales and a blindfold. You know her, right? Lady Justice.

But funny how inside the courtrooms? There are not many Lady Justices to be found.

The majority of this countrys population is represented by only three female justices on the nine-member U.S. Supreme Court. Activists are pressing President Obama to nominate a women of color to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, who died suddenly last month. But Senate Republicans  overwhelmingly male  have vowed to block any nominee, of any gender, color or qualification. Nice, right?

The Supreme Courts gender diversity is actually a little better than a lot of benches. In the highest state courts across the country, only 29 percent of judges are women, according to the National Association for Women Judges.

Is this because we simply dont have women qualified for judicial appointments? Of course not.

President Obama is considering who to nominate to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. Here are six people he's most likely to choose. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

Take the example in Virginia. The cartoonish resistance to female judges played out there yet again this week, when Republicans finally won an ugly partisan battle to dump a nonpartisan, high-quality female judge for the state Supreme Court.

[GOP wins long Virginia Supreme Court fight with McAuliffe ]

Justice Jane Marum Roush, who deftly presided over the Beltway sniper trial, had a distinguished 22-year judicial record in Fairfax County. She came recommended by a Republican.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) appointed Roush to a seat on the Virginia Supreme Court that opened while the legislature was out of session last summer. She became the third woman among seven justices. And that should have won McAuliffe praise.

Instead it touched off a political firestorm, pitting the governor against Republican members of the House of Delegates, who refused to make her temporary appointment permanent. No reason given, no interviews done, no formal complaints filed.

At first, it looked as though this might just be partisan politics, a sucker punch to McAuliffe. If he wanted her, the Republicans didnt.

But throughout the political showdown, its been raining men in Virginia  a parade of male candidates for the job, not a female candidate in sight.

Judge Jane Marum Roush is seen during a motions hearing in the murder case against Charles Severance in Fairfax County Circuit Court in 2015. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

They tried to pick their own guy, Court of Appeals Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. But he didnt appeal enough to get a passing vote.

Then they tried to throw a cherry bomb  former attorney general Ken Cuccinelli (R)  into the mix. Cuccinelli, one of Virginias most polarizing politicians, recently lost the gubernatorial race.

But Cuccinelli withdrew from the contest Wednesday, after prayerfully considering the run.

On Thursday, though, the House Republicans handed a 12-year judgeship to Stephen R. McCullough, a state Court of Appeals jurist who worked in the attorney generals office under Cuccinelli. He breezed through his 20-minute interview on Wednesday.

Yup, 20 minutes.

Judge Roush served with an impeccable and impartial record for 22 years, then served on the Supreme Court for nearly a full year. Her opponents never gave a reason to get rid of her.

[Virginias GOP male lawmakers are gifted at antagonizing women]

But a 20-minute interview  which was shorter than my sons preschool interview, shorter than the grilling a candidate for a fast-food job gets  was enough for yet another white male to sit on the state Supreme Court.

Why all these machinations to keep Roush off the bench?

Because of politics?

Roush was backed by a Republican, so no.

Because of diversity?

Alston is African American, so no.

Because they didnt want an activist, unabashedly partisan judge in the mix?

Cucinnelli is vociferous in his politics, and Roush is not, so no.

Because they wanted someone with more courtroom experience?

McCullough was just getting out of law school when Roush was serving her fifth year as a Virginia judge, and he didnt make it onto the bench until 2011, so no.

Is it because Roush is a woman?

Well, unless their real hangup is they simply dont want people whose last name begins with R, her gender is about all thats left for them to object to, right?

Its because were not in the back rooms yet, Penny J. White, a law professor at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, told me when Roush was fighting to keep her job last fall. White knows something about this, having served on the Tennessee State Supreme Court. When those backroom deals are made, its mostly men making those decisions.

And some of the same forces are in play as President Obama tries to fill the seat left open by Scalia (R). (Oh, wait, were not supposed to place that R behind a judges name? Scalia made me forget).

The Notorious RBG  Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg  has her ideas about what this president and the next president should do.

People ask me sometimes, When do you think it will be enough? When will there be enough women on the court?  she once said in a speech. And my answer is when there are nine.

Nine?

Yup. Because until 1981, when Sandra Day OConnor was appointed by a Republican icon, President Ronald Reagan, there had always  ALWAYS  been nine men.

Think about it. For 192 years, nine men had the last, legal word across the land.

Why not nine women?

Lets get started.

Twitter: @petulad
The JNU student left a suicide note in which he mentioned about some personal problems. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: A 26-year-old PhD student of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) was found dead in Delhis Ber Sarai area on Thursday morning. The scholar allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan of his room at his rented accommodation.

The deceased, Dushyant, a native of Bareily in Uttar Pradesh, left a suicide note in which he mentioned about some personal problems, including family issues and his relationship with a woman, police said.

"We received the call in the morning and rushed a team. A suicide note was found in the room. We have informed his family and initiated an inquest into the matter," DCP (South) Prem Nath said.
New Delhi: Amid a raging row at JNU, it has now emerged that its students union president Kanhaiya Kumar, who is facing sedition charge, was fined by the varsity administration last year for allegedly misbehaving with a girl student and threatening her.

The incident had occurred on June 10, 2015, when the girl student asked Kanhaiya, who at the time was not the students union president, to not urinate in the open inside the campus. The girl, who now teaches at Delhi University, alleged that Kanhaiya misbehaved with her when she objected and also called her a psychopath while threatening her with dire consequences.

Following a complaint by her, the JNU administration held a proctorial inquiry that found Kanhaiya guilty. The university has found Kanhaiya Kumar guilty of misbehaving with an ex-student (female) and threatening her. This act is serious in nature and unbecoming of a student of JNU and calls for a strict disciplinary action against him (Kanhaiya) keeping his career prospects in mind, the Vice Chancellor has taken a lenient view in the matter, said the office order issued on October 16, 2015 by the then Chief Proctor, Krishna Kumar.

Kanhaiya is fined Rs 3,000 and also warned to be careful and not get involved in any such incidents in future. Otherwise, strict disciplinary action will be taken against him, the order said. While an unsigned order was shared on social media by the girl, who accused Kanhaiya of being a false revolutionary making claims about upholding the dignity of women, the university administration confirmed in a statement that the letter was authentic and action was taken against the student leader.

I am dejected and pained to see how my JNU community has ganged up to create false revolutionary. I want to ask, do you really understand the D for Dignity of a female, Mr Kanhaiya? Unzipping your private part in public and urinating on road  are these your revolutionary tools to uphold a females dignity? I am shocked to see how a misogynist like Kanhaiya is being hailed as revolutionary, she said in an open letter that is circulating online.

Kanhaiya faces sedition charges in connection with an event on campus against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.

He was granted interim bail for six months by the Delhi High Court last week after spending 18 days in jail.

Meanwhile, All India Students Federation (AISF), the outfit to which Kanhaiya belongs, said in a statement, "Talks about public urination and threatening are being spread to malign Kanhaiya's image. He had a verbal argument with the girl following which she had registered a complaint. We do respect the girl's right to criticise Kanhaiya but we want to reiterate that he has always stood for gender justice. Also, when the incident took place, he was not the president of the students' union," it added.
Courtroom file sketch, Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh, right, sits at the defense table with his attorney Zachary S. Taylor. (Elizabeth Williams/AP)

NATIONAL SECURITY

Veteran convicted in terrorism case

A U.S. Air Force veteran was found guilty Wednesday of trying to provide material support to the Islamic State in what authorities hailed as a first-of-its-kind conviction after a trial.

Twenty-four others have been convicted of offenses related to the Islamic State. But Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh, 48, is the first to be found guilty by a jury weighing evidence at a trial, John P. Carlin, assistant attorney general for national security, said in a news release.

The conviction in federal court in Brooklyn comes as prosecutors in Arizona are trying to convince jurors that another alleged Islamic State supporter, Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem, 44, helped in a 2015 attack on a prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas.

Pugh, of Neptune, N.J., served in the Air Force from October 1986 until October 1990 as an avionics instrument system specialist, authorities have said. He traveled last year from Egypt to Turkey  allegedly hoping to cross the border into Syria and join the Islamic State  but was intercepted by Turkish authorities and eventually deported to the United States, prosecutors said.

Court records say Pugh became interested in extremism long before the rise of the Islamic State. An associate of his told the FBI that he showed interest in moving to Chechnya to fight jihad as far back as 2002.

Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh, one of the first U.S. defendants to face trial for supporting IS, is shown in this government exhibit image provided by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. (Handout/Reuters)

 Matt Zapotosky

FLORIDA

Lawmakers tighten abortion restrictions

State legislators on Wednesday approved abortion restrictions that include requirements for physicians similar to a Texas law currently under review by the U.S. Supreme Court and prohibited state funding for routine care at abortion clinics.

The measure imposes regulations that could force clinics to close, provider Planned Parenthood said.

The legislation passed in a vote largely along party lines in the Florida House and Senate, both controlled by Republicans. Gov. Rick Scott (R) did not immediately say whether he would sign the measure.

Another Florida law passed last year requiring women to wait 24 hours before getting abortions recently took effect.

 Reuters

NEW YORK

Man found guilty of hate-crime murder

A man charged with shooting a gay man he taunted on a street was found guilty Wednesday of murder as a hate crime despite his assertions that he could not be an anti-gay bigot because he was bisexual.

A Manhattan jury deliberated over two days before finding Elliot Morales guilty in the May 2013 shooting of Mark Carson in Greenwich Village, a center of American gay life for decades.

Morales, 36, who represented himself at the trial, faces 20 years to life in prison. His sentencing is set for April 11.

Morales admitted shooting Carson but said he acted in self-defense. His star witness was a transgender woman who testified that she is his ex-lover.

Police said Carson and his roommate were passing a pizza parlor shortly after midnight on May 18, 2013, when Morales called out to them, using slurs and saying the men looked like gay wrestlers. The two confronted Morales, following him around a corner, before he pulled a revolver and shot Carson in the face at close range, authorities said. Arrested moments later, Morales laughed and admitted killing Carson.

 Associated Press

Gas explosion destroys businesses in Seattle: A natural gas explosion rocked a Seattle neighborhood early Wednesday, destroying several businesses and sending nine firefighters to a hospital. There were no reports of any other injuries or anyone missing.

Suspect in Kansas, Missouri killings captured: A Mexican national suspected of killing his neighbor and three other men at his neighbors Kansas home before killing another man about 170 miles away in Missouri was captured early Wednesday, authorities said. Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino, 40, was found hiding face-down in a ditch about two or three miles from the scene of the last killing.

 From news services
COLOMBIA

Santos says deadline for deal may be missed

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos acknowledged Wednesday that his government may miss a fast-approaching deadline to sign a peace deal with rebels and end the main part of his countrys decades-long conflict.

Im not going to sign a bad agreement to meet a date, Santos said at a public event. It was the presidents first public statement suggesting that the two sides may miss the March 23 deadline they agreed to last year.

He said that if the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, do not come up with an acceptable deal, they will simply set a new deadline.

The two sides have come to agreements on many key issues in recent months during talks in Cuba but still have to hammer out a plan for disarming the guerrillas. A smaller rebel group has not joined the negotiations.

 Associated Press

Building collapse kills at least 30 in Nigeria: At least 30 people were killed when a five-story building under construction collapsed in Nigerias commercial capital, Lagos, officials said. Thirteen people were rescued. The Lagos state government said the owners of the house, which authorities had sealed off, had criminally unsealed the property and continued building beyond the approved floors.

2 arrested in Cologne sex assaults: Two men were taken into custody on suspicion of involvement in sex crimes on New Years Eve in the German city of Cologne, after they were identified among photos of suspects released to the public, officials said. Authorities are trying to determine the status of the suspects  a 26-year-old Algerian and a 31-year-old Iraqi  in Germany. The spate of thefts and assaults on women near Colognes main train station, blamed largely on foreigners, stoked a debate in Germany about how to integrate the 1.1 million asylum seekers who arrived last year.

No. 2 candidate blocked from Perus presidential race: Perus electoral council has blocked the candidacy of the main challenger to front-runner Keiko Fujimori in the April 10 presidential election. The body voided Julio Guzmans candidacy by a 3-to-2 vote. It cited technical reasons that many Peruvians have criticized as petty. Guzman had surged in opinion polls, coming in at 17 percent behind 35 percent for Fujimori, whose father, former president Alberto Fujimori, is in prison after being convicted of corruption and authorizing death squads.

Indian teen dies after being raped, set on fire: A 15-year-old Indian girl who was raped and set on fire this week died in the New Delhi hospital where she was being treated, police said. Police have arrested a 20-year-old man who the girls family said had stalked her for several months. Her father had filed a police complaint, and police had issued a warning to the man last year.

Rape charges against Mandela grandson withdrawn: Criminal charges have been withdrawn against one of Nelson Mandelas grandsons, who was accused of raping a teenage girl, a spokeswoman for South Africas National Prosecuting Authority said. The state withdrew the charges for further investigation after new evidence was found, she said. The grandson, in his mid-20s, was accused of raping the teenager at a Johannesburg restaurant in August.

Police headquarters in Helmand attacked: The Taliban attacked a police headquarters and an intelligence agency office in Afghanistans southern Helmand province, where the group has been battling government forces for months. At least three police officers and seven attackers were killed, said a lawmaker appointed by the president to investigate the situation. Afghan forces have struggled to combat the Taliban since U.S.-led NATO forces concluded their combat mission at the end of 2014.

 From news services
WHEN CHINAS president, Xi Jinping, visited the leading party and state news organizations Feb. 19, he demanded absolute loyalty to the Communist Party, saying the media must have the party as their family name. His purpose was to cajole and intimidate. But for intimidation to work, it has to inspire fear. This week, a Chinese news organization showed that it was not afraid.

The publication, Caixin Media, is headed by one of Chinas most respected journalists, Hu Shuli, who has often pioneered reporting that exposed failures by the state and private sector. Her journalism has pushed the limits of whats permissible in a nation where free expression and independent journalism are usually and routinely suffocated by the state.

On Tuesday, Caixin Medias English-language website reported that the Cyberspace Administration of China, which it described as a government censorship office, had ordered the removal of an article on Caixins Chinese site, saying the article contained illegal content.

The article quoted Jiang Hong, who advises the government on economic policy, as saying that people like himself should feel free to give their opinions to party leaders about economics, politics, cultural and societal issues. His comments came at the same time as the annual meeting in Beijing of the National Peoples Congress. He insisted the rights to speak freely must be protected but lamented that a chill was in the air, saying everyone is a bit dazed and doesnt want to talk too much. Thats what the atmosphere is like now. Mr. Jiang did not say why there is a chill, but it is not hard to guess: Chinas economic slowdown, the governments halting response and Mr. Xis severe, ongoing crackdown against dissent.

To its credit, Caixin Media was not to be intimidated by the censors hand or Mr. Xis exhortations. Soon after the article in Chinese was removed, the news organization posted a new article on its English-language website, revealing the censorship, accompanied by a photograph of a mouth that had been sealed with tape. Caixin also interviewed Mr. Jiang again. He described the censorship as baffling, terrible and bewildering and said he examined the original article and I couldnt see anything illegal. Not long after, the English-language article disappeared, too, although a cached version remained online.

If Mr. Xi believed that his demands for loyalty would be met with obsequious passivity, Caixin Media has demonstrated otherwise. Even the most determined journalists in China have often had to make delicate calculations about how far to go in reporting, balancing the risks of possible censorship and punishment. In this case, Caixin decided to confront the censor with the most potent response available: sunlight. It was a display of courage, however brief.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton stands on stage during the National Anthem before a Democratic presidential primary debate at the University of Michigan-Flint, Sunday, March 6, 2016, in Flint, Mich. (Charlie Neibergall/AP)

After Hillary Clintons surprise loss in the Michigan primary Tuesday night raised fresh questions about her appeal, her campaign manager, Robby Mook, arranged a conference call Wednesday with reporters to reveal a new strategy.

He would stun and subdue Clintons doubters with unflinching monotony.

Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times asked what Clinton would do to compete in the Illinois primary next week. She is going to build on the work she did, Mook said, to lay out a specific plan to create more good-paying jobs.

Politicos Annie Karni asked whether the Michigan loss identified any vulnerabilities for Clinton against a populist opponent. She is the only candidate that has rolled out a specific plan to create more good-paying manufacturing jobs, Mook answered.

Chris Megerian of the Los Angeles Times asked how the loss would affect Clintons debate strategy. Secretary Clinton is the only candidate who has put out a specific plan to create more good-paying manufacturing jobs, Mook replied.

Bernie Sanders won Michigan on March 8 by getting votes from several key groups. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

Uncle! Mercy!

But Mook wouldnt relent.

NBCs Alex Seitz-Wald pointed out that exit polls showed trouble for Clinton on the trade issue. Voters are looking for their next president to create more good-paying jobs, Mook countered.

USA Todays Susan Page inquired about Clintons trouble with young voters. Secretary Clinton, the campaign manager said, has been aggressively addressing . . . how we can make sure there are good-paying jobs.

The call was now 25 minutes old. The last questioner, Amie Parnes of the Hill, asked about Clintons deficit among white men and blue-collar workers. She has rolled out policies that are going to create more good-paying jobs, Mook informed her.

It was probably the most mechanical performance by a human being since the RubioBot got stuck in an infinite loop on the GOP debate stage in New Hampshire. And the Mook Malfunction is worrying, because it underscores a certain lack of imagination in Clintons candidacy. She will almost certainly be the Democratic nominee, yet she doesnt seem to have anything to say to the young people and white middle-class voters who dont see her appeal.

Considering she won the other primary held Tuesday night (in Mississippi), the headlines Wednesday morning were murderous.

CNN: What went wrong for Hillary Clinton in Michigan?

The Post: The two big warning signs in Hillary Clintons shocking Michigan loss

Slate: Bernie Sanders pulls off stunning upset win in Michigan primary

The Boston Globe: With Sanders Mich. win, Clintons vulnerabilities revealed

Clinton is now in the opposite position from 2008. Then, she had a seemingly hopeless path to amass enough delegates, but she won enough states  Ohio, Pennsylvania  to keep her campaign going. Now, Sanders is coming up with enough surprises to keep his campaign going, and the Clinton campaign is making its case based on the uninspiring logic of delegate math.

The delegate math dictates that Sen. Sanders must expand his map and compete in more states than he currently is and he needs to not just win those states but he needs to do so by very lopsided margins if hes going to catch up, Mook declared Wednesday. For that reason we are confident that we are nearing the point where our delegate lead will effectively become insurmountable.

The Posts Anne Gearan wasnt swayed: I get your point about math, but he won one state, you guys won one. What is the argument that he should stand down?

Mook did not offer one.

Asked Karni, Does Bernies come-from-behind victory highlight anything you need to work on aside from the math?

Mook encouraged her not to read too much into these primary contests.

True, primary results dont necessarily predict general-election patterns, and the Republicans disunity could make Clintons vulnerabilities moot. But her campaign has a desultory feel right now. She has all but won the nomination, but shes doing it shakily, by attrition, her superior coalition-building defeating Sanderss more inspiring message. She simply hasnt caught fire with voters anxious about the economy, which is why the notion of choosing a populist as her running mate has merit.

In the meantime, the Clinton campaigns solution seems to be repetition. Mook on Wednesday, in answer to three separate questions, said Clinton would fight harder for young peoples votes, would continue to fight hard for white, blue-collar voters and would work as hard as she can to win in the industrial Midwest.

But he returned to arithmetic. Even if Clinton were to lose Ohio, Illinois and Missouri next week, Mook predicted, we will add to our already commanding pledged-delegate lead and will be a significant step closer to securing the nomination.

The math is on Clintons side. Whats problematic is the message.

Twitter: @Milbank

Read more from Dana Milbanks archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
The man said he was lured by the idea of getting paid in gold coins if he got a job with the Islamic State. (Representational Image)

Mumbai: A Mumbai man who had sent his resume to the Islamic State in hopes of getting a job as their political spokesperson in Iraq, has managed to find a job in his own city with the help of the Anti-Terrorism Squad, according to a report.

48-year-old Zubair Khan had been detained outside the Iraq embassy in August 2015 and further probe revealed that he had misguided ideas about the ISIS. He seemed to be a regular bloke who took the drastic step of applying to the terror group due to despair and unemployment.

Khan is a well-educated man, who has a master's degree in mass communication and was a journalist at one point of time. He had even worked as a secretary of a NCP leader for a few years.

In 2007, he was fired from his job, due to alleged display of religious fervour and because he constantly kept talking about Islam and scriptures.

After an extended period of unemployment, Khan decided to join the Islamic State and sent his resume to the Iraq embassy and asked them to forward it to the terrorist organisation. He claimed that he was the editor-in-chief of a newspaper and that he aspired to become ISIS spokesperson. He reportedly felt that it was good job opportunity for him and was lured by the idea of being paid in gold coins for his service.

After he was detained, he soon changed his stance and said that Islamic State was against humanity. He was let off by the police but was ostracised by the society for his act.

Khan who resides Khargar with his wife and two children, was shunned by those who knew them and it became extremely difficult for him to get a new job. Nobody wanted to employ him after he made headlines for all the wrong reasons. He tried hard to plead his innocence and told people he was no terrorist, but his appeals fell on deaf ears.

After several months of despair, ATS officers from Thane decided to take the matter in their own hands and turn his life around. They ensured that he was de-radicalised and sent him for counselling sessions so that he could settle into a normal life. The ATS then managed to get Khan a job in a Navi Mumbai showroom where he now works as a salesman.

Life is slowly returning to being normal in the Khan household, with the promise of a steady income and some acceptance from the society, his relative are relieved that he has found his feet again.
If Virginias two U.S. senators and its governor were truly interested in the University of Virginia, they would demand an investigation into the school rather than letting it cover up sexual violence. Thanks to The Post for the March 6 Metro article Letter blasted U-Va.s handling of sexual violence.

My family has benefited from U-Va. with two degrees. However, I am disappointed that the school does not serve the needs of all of Virginias citizens. Sexual violence and harassment are only part of the problem. U-Va. needs to be a state university in the truest sense.

Dreama Frisk, Arlington
Pavin Chachavalpongpun is an associate professor at Kyoto Universitys Center for Southeast Asian Studies. He is currently a visiting scholar at St Johns College, University of Cambridge.

Just as I was about to begin a lecture recently at Oxford University about the future of Thailands monarchy, I received an urgent message from my family in Bangkok to call home. When my sister answered the phone, her voice quivered with stress and worry: The junta are demanding that you stop commenting on the monarchy immediately. Otherwise, your family will pay the price.

My sister told me that four plainclothes police officers had visited our home in central Bangkok and ordered my family to warn me to stop giving lectures about the Thai royals at universities around the world. If I failed to heed the warning, the police said, I would be charged with the crime of lese-majeste.

The draconian lese-majeste law  Article 112 of the Thai criminal code  decrees that comments about the king, queen or regent deemed to be defamatory, insulting or threatening are punishable by three to 15 years in prison. In practice, the law is interpreted so broadly by the ultra-royalist judiciary that almost any frank discussion of the monarchy and its problems is criminalized.

I have long been critical of the role of the monarchy in Thai politics. When the military staged a coup in 2014, overthrowing the elected government of then-Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, one of its main aims was to silence perceived enemies of the monarchy. While I was teaching at Kyoto University in Japan, I was summoned twice by the junta to return to Thailand for attitude adjustment. I rejected the summons because I did not accept the legitimacy of the coup. So the military issued a warrant for my arrest and revoked my Thai passport. I was forced to apply for refugee status in Japan.

Since the coup, I have been invited to speak by several leading universities in the United States and Britain. My main topic has been the looming royal succession in Thailand and the future of the monarchy.

This has enraged the junta and powerful figures in the Thai palace. With Thailand approaching a highly sensitive royal transition upon the death of the ailing 88-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej, critics of the monarchy are being dealt with ever more harshly. This explains the juntas harassment of my family in Thailand. It is using my family to try to silence me.

In addition to visiting my family home, police called my other sister twice at her workplace. They demanded a guarantee from her that I would stop talking about the monarchy. I have nothing to do with my brother, she told them. You have no right to harass me.

Since he is your brother, an officer replied, you and your whole family must bear the consequences of his actions.

All of my family members have been ordered to report to an army camp for attitude adjustment. This is an outrageous escalation of the juntas efforts to stifle dissent. Now Thai dissidents such as myself who criticize the junta from abroad face the threat of our families in Thailand being targeted even though they have done nothing wrong.

I was shocked when I heard about the intimidation of my family. There is a real risk to their safety  in recent months at least two people accused of lese-majeste have died in prison under suspicious circumstances. One of them was Mor Yong, also known as Suriyan Sujaritpalawong, a famous fortuneteller who was close to Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn. He was arrested for allegedly exploiting his ties to the prince to make illicit profits and days later was found dead in prison.

My first instinct after learning of the threats to my family was to reach out to major international organizations working on human rights protection in Thailand, particularly those within the United Nations, as well as to foreign ambassadors in Bangkok. I am also sharing my story in international media outlets such as The Post because I hope it will help protect my family.

I do not know what the juntas next move will be. My family does not feel safe. Im terribly concerned about their plight. But I am not willing to be silenced. As an academic, I have a responsibility to discuss even the most sensitive and controversial issues.

Thailand is going from bad to worse under the junta. Freedom of expression is being crushed. Academics in Thailand and overseas are being targeted and intimidated. Cases of lese-majeste have multiplied, with the law being used as a weapon to silence opponents of the monarchy and the junta.

As the royal succession draws closer, heralding more uncertainty and upheaval, the military is likely to crack down even more intensely on discussion of the monarchy. Unless the international community takes a stand against the juntas oppression, many more families will endure the harassment that mine now faces.
In the March 8 Metro article Bill would shield young special-needs defendants, Lori Digiosia claimed that prosecutors do not want to prosecute juveniles for misdemeanors when their disability is the root cause of that criminal behavior.

Is she kidding? Not only do Virginia prosecutors bring charges against children with autism and other disabilities, but they also are known to charge children with felonies to try to ensure pleas to misdemeanors. Virginia has nearly three times the national rate of criminal referrals of schoolchildren, making it No. 1 in the nation. When exactly has the Virginia Association of Commonwealths Attorneys stepped up to address this appalling record?

Lets let our judges weigh in for each case. Thats what House Bill 1213 permits. Its just common sense, and the governor should sign this bill.

Teresa Champion, Springfield

The writer is president

of the Virginia Autism Project.
Astra Taylor is is a co-founder of the Debt Collective and a Shuttleworth Foundation fellow.

Since Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was elected to the Senate in 2012, she has shown an uncommon ability to make footage from committee hearings go viral, as many a government bureaucrat or business leader who has appeared before her can attest. But her questioning of acting Education Secretary John B. King Jr. during his confirmation hearing last month seems to have slipped under the radar. As she said to King, the Education Department has been woefully slow in assisting victims cheated by Corinthian Colleges, which sucked down billions and billions of dollars in federal student loan aid by roping in students with false and misleading information and then saddling them with debt that was just going to be impossible to repay. Only 1,300 of the 40,000 students the department said could eligible for fast-track relief had received it, according to Warren. When King assured her that a team was working on the issue, she replied, This isnt hard, what were trying to do here. Students are waiting, their credit is getting worse and worse, the interest is accumulating on these loans, the process needs to move faster. And I dont get why it doesnt move faster. We know theyve been defrauded.

Warrens demands are based on the right under federal law known as defense to repayment, which requires that student borrowers whose schools engage in abusive and deceptive practices get relief. The Education Department had ignored the law in this area for decades until the Debt Collective, a group I co-founded, helped a group of Corinthian students launch a student debt strike and facilitated the submission of more than 5,000 defense-to-repayment applications, forcing the Obama administration to deal with the issue. Unfortunately, instead of granting the applications and discharging peoples federal loans, they decided to rewrite the regulation by initiating a series of negotiated rulemaking sessions to establish a new federal standard. Obama appointees appear to be on a path to make it nearly impossible for students to get the debt cancellations to which they are entitled. In the words of California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris, the federal standard that officials have proposed will have the effect of narrowing, limiting, and delaying student relief in crucial ways Ill get back to.

The stakes are high: Hundreds of thousands of students have been deceived by schools such as Corinthian. Furthermore, whatever rules are eventually adopted will apply to all students, whether they attended for-profit, private or public institutions of higher learning. Yet Warrens questioning and the rulemaking sessions have gone mostly unnoticed outside education policy circles. The conspicuous lack of attention stands in stark opposition to the story of a Texas man named Paul Aker being dragged to court by seven federal marshals for a $1,500, 29-year-old student loan debt. The story spread like wildfire over traditional and social media the same week the Washington meetings were held.

After Akers story went viral, further details suggested the story was more complicated. But the contrast between the attention paid to the original story of Aker being escorted from his home by men holding guns and the far more consequential actions in rooms full of legislators and bureaucrats exemplifies the distinction the philosopher Slavoj Zizek makes between subjective violence and systemic violence. Where subjective violence is visceral, shocking and immediate, systemic violence is subtle, hard to see and drawn out. Systemic violence, according to Zizek, is the often catastrophic consequences of the functioning of our economic and political systems. Thats what we will see if, over the objections of students and their allies, the Education Department condemns countless people to a fate worse than Akers  or, at least, to what are likely far larger debt loads.

The draft of the federal standard that officials are proposing (which has not been adopted yet and is likely to change after next months third and final meeting) is even more restrictive than the existing defense-to-repayment guidelines, substantially narrowing the categories of school misconduct that can yield relief. Among other problems, the draft rules include a statute of limitations of two years, though it often takes students much longer to realize they were duped. (The limitations are also ironic, given the fact there is no statute of limitations for collecting on student loans.) In some cases, the proposed rules would require students seeking a discharge to go to bat against their much-better-resourced schools, a situation that would all but require a lawyer, which most deceived borrowers cannot afford. Finally, as Harris notes, the proposal does not provide any procedure to grant broad, automatic relief to borrowers, even when it is clear that a predatory school has systematically abused and deceived large numbers of students through widespread practices. On Wednesday, Warren and 31 other Senate Democrats sent a letter expressing their concerns that the departments current proposal does not seem to ensure the process is fair for students.

Should the Education Department implement the latest rules draft, or something close to it, the consequences for peoples lives will be, to use Zizeks term, catastrophic. True, federal marshals wont drag them to jail, but hundreds of thousands of people will continue to suffer the daily indignities of educational and financial inequity, for which they will be forced to make steep monthly payments on loans that were issued for worthless degrees. Unemployed or stuck in dead-end jobs, pushed to default, many will have their tax returns, Social Security payments or disability benefits garnished. Because their federal student aid has been maxed out, they will be denied the chance to attend a school that could provide them with a high-quality education and help them secure basic employment or, better yet, a meaningful and remunerative career. In their struggle to make ends meet, some will find themselves homeless, which has already happened to several strikers and their family members. They will suffer the stress, anxiety, health problems and reduced lifespans that a growing number of studies show are part and parcel of being poor in the United States.

This brazen dismissal of borrowers rights stands in stark contrast to the Education Departments earlier public pronouncements. Last June, under pressure from the Corinthian strike, then-Education Secretary Arne Duncan promised to provide scammed students with every penny of relief they are entitled to under the law. Eight months later, that promise remains unfulfilled.

Meanwhile, for-profit colleges that have been under investigation and even fined continue to enroll students  disproportionately people of color, women, veterans and the poor  in substandard programs at exorbitant costs, funneling billions of taxpayer dollars into private coffers. Instead of propping up such corporations and wrecking lives, authorities should turn off the faucet of federal funds to for-profit schools and grant the class-wide debt discharges to which Corinthian students and others are legally entitled.
Both Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders spoke passionately about the desire to stop deporting immigrants who entered the country illegally and to provide a path to citizenship at The Washington Post/Univision debate in Miami. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

Both Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders spoke passionately about the desire to stop deporting immigrants who entered the country illegally and to provide a path to citizenship at The Washington Post/Univision debate in Miami. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

Democrats got a taste Wednesday night of where their nominating contest between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders could be heading  toward a grueling and increasingly contentious battle that could continue until the primaries end in June.

A few days ago, Wednesdays debate here appeared as if it might be an anticlimax as Clinton rolled toward the nomination. Instead, Sanders arrived reenergized and reinvigorated after his surprising victory in Michigan. Rather than questions about Sanderss viability, Clinton faced questions about what had gone wrong with her campaign.

The two squabbled at length over immigration. They traded charges over bailing out the automobile industry. They argued again over health care and about how to combat climate change. A quiet start turned into a spirited and at times tense series of exchanges that highlighted their differences and the state of their competition.

Clinton sought to brush aside her Michigan loss, pointing to a big victory in Mississippi and the fact that she emerged with more total delegates on Tuesday than her opponent. But it was clear that, if she remains the front-runner for the nomination, she has yet to put to rest questions about her candidacy or put away an opponent who has proved to be more resilient and effective than most people imagined.

Wednesdays debate settled little. Both Clinton and Sanders were effective in making their cases. Picking winners and losers seemed beside the point. From here on, the voters will decide winners and losers, week after week, in primaries and caucuses. Clinton may hold a lead in pledged delegates, but that isnt likely to intimidate Sanders after what happened in Michigan.

At a debate hosted by The Washington Post and Univision in Miami, a Guatemalan woman whose husband was deported asked candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton what they would do reunite families. Lucia Quiej brought her five children, who haven't seen their father in three years, to the debate. (The Washington Post)

Clinton should be familiar with what awaits her in the weeks ahead. She went through this in 2008 against then-Sen. Barack Obama, but from the other side, playing the role that Sanders plays today: the dogged challenger hanging in against long odds.

Eight years ago, Obama was on the brink of ending the race for the nomination, having won 11 consecutive victories in February after Super Tuesday. One last obstacle remained: contests in Ohio and Texas in early March.

Then, Bill Clinton set his wifes expectations almost impossibly high. He suggested that a loss in either state would knock her out of the race. The Obama team poured more than $15 million into those contests, determined to bring the race to a close.

Instead, Clinton began to find her voice  with a more populist economic message. Sound familiar? She went on to win Ohio and a popular-vote victory in the Texas primary. A dejected Obama knew instantly what the results meant. Though he had a lead in delegates that would be difficult to surmount, he realized the race would grind on interminably for three more months.

Thats the possible impact of what happened in Michigan on Tuesday. A Clinton victory could have effectively ended Sanderss rationale for continuing, though it was doubtful he would have gotten out of the race soon. Now, though he trails in pledged delegates by a substantial margin, he has been revived, just as Clinton was eight years ago this month. This cannot be a happy moment for Clinton this week as she assesses the cost of her Michigan loss.

Sanders had been told just before Tuesdays vote that he probably would lose narrowly. Clintons campaign knew it was possible, though not necessarily likely, that she could lose Michigan. The demographics played better to Sanders than other recent states. Ironically it was her ability to win white, working-class Democrats against Obama that kept her 2008 campaign going. Against Sanders on Tuesday, she lost not only whites without college degrees but also whites with college degrees.

Much of this goes to the issue of the continuing weakness in her candidacy, the issues of trust and authenticity. Asked a direct question about this in the debate, Clinton said, I do take responsibility. She followed that by saying, I am not a natural politician, in case you havent noticed, unlike my husband and President Obama . . . I have to do the best I can.

After a year of campaigning, Clinton still seems not to have found a comfortable voice or a message that comes from her heart, unlike eight years ago as she battled to overtake Obama. This came to the fore in Michigan, a trade-sensitive state, where she struggled to demonstrate that she is as resistant to trade agreements as her opponent.

Her attack on Sanders in last Sundays debate as an opponent of the auto bailout was a stretch at best, a deliberate distortion at worst. On Tuesday she doubled down on the issue, seeking to show that Sanders had opposed a bill early in 2009 that included funds to save the industry.

But almost immediately after she did, David Axelrod, who was senior adviser to Obama in the White House, tweeted this: She did it again and Ill say it again. Its misleading to imply that TARP II was an auto bailout bill.

The tactic was reminiscent of the campaigns earlier claim that Sanders wanted to dismantle the Affordable Care Act and leave millions of people without health insurance  an argument that, no matter how one feels about his support for a single-payer type system, did not ring true. Sanderss message has defined the contest and she has had to respond to it, just as she has had to adapt to a changing Democratic Party.

Clintons clear advantage today is the same one Obama enjoyed in 2008 after he lost Ohio and Texas. Thanks to Democratic rules of proportionality, Sanders probably will struggle to make up his deficit in delegates. That hill is even higher when Clintons support from elected officials and party leaders  the superdelegates  is included.

Next week will bring contests in Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina. Florida and North Carolina look good for Clinton; the other three present opportunities for Sanders, though none will be easy for him. By next week at this time, if she runs the table or comes close, the conversation might have shifted again, to the reality of the delegate math.

That, however, will not deter Sanders. He sees the calendar farther ahead as increasingly favorable. He has the money and now the incentive to stay in until the end and already is eyeing big efforts in big states such as New York and California. His advisers believe he can win a series of states later in March and beyond, even if he makes much less progress in cutting down Clintons advantage in delegates.

Whatever transpires from here, this is not the campaign Clinton envisioned. She remains the favorite to win the nomination. Michigan did not change that. But because of that vote, she faces renewed doubts about her effectiveness as a candidate. They are many of the same ones she has been dealing with since the campaign began long ago.
Marco Rubio has been remarkably upbeat in the wake of primary losses. Now he's staking everything on Florida. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

Marco Rubio has been remarkably upbeat in the wake of primary losses. Now he's staking everything on Florida. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

 Marco Rubio had suffered three electoral thumpings in a row when the senator from Florida and his image-makers abruptly shifted strategy. The aspirational candidate, whose presidential campaign was built on a promise of generational change and Republican unity, would morph overnight into Donald Trumps chief assailant.

Rubio launched what he and his team felt was an imperative assault on the front-runner at the Houston debate on Feb. 25. The next morning at a Dallas rally, he mocked Trump mercilessly. Rubio whipped out his iPhone and, with boyish glee, read aloud the billionaire moguls misspelled tweets. He made fun of Trumps makeup and sweat mustache, and suggested the mogul had wet his pants.

For the next three days, Rubios crude schoolyard taunts continued: over Trumps made-in-China suits, his horrible spray tan and his small hands  a quip that, as Trump would later explain on the debate stage in Detroit, implied something else was small, too.

Rubios benefactors were aghast to see their candidate practicing Trumps gutter politics. Everyone went, What?. . . Why are you going down to that level?  recalled one fundraiser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly. You might as well support Trump.

Looking back, Rubios supporters see these fateful days as central to his unraveling. A strategy designed to get under Trumps skin and force him on the defensive instead backfired on Rubio, diminishing the 44-year-old senator who had spent years trying to demonstrate presidential gravitas. At rally after rally, Rubio was unintentionally personifying the caricature that Trump was perpetually drawing of him: Little Marco.

Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio spoke with reporters ahead of the Florida primary on March 15. (Ed O'Keefe/The Washington Post)

The results were not pretty. Rubio lost 18 of the next 20 contests, with his only wins in Minnesotas caucuses and Puerto Ricos primary. The ultimate humiliation came on Tuesday, when Rubio performed so poorly in four states  he got just 5 percent in Mississippi  that he was shut out from gaining any delegates.

A reflective Rubio expressed regret Wednesday over his name-calling of Trump, saying at an MSNBC town hall that the insults had upset his children.

In terms of things that have to do with personal stuff, yeah, at the end of the day its not something Im entirely proud of, Rubio said. My kids were embarrassed by it, and if I had to do it again, I wouldnt.

A cloud of fatalism

Rubio vowed to soldier on into next Tuesdays must-win Florida primary. I will campaign as long and as hard as it takes, the senator, joined by wife, Jeanette, said at a Wednesday evening rally in Hialeah, a heavily Cuban American city outside of his Miami home town.

But a cloud of fatalism now hovers over his campaign. Aides on Wednesday tried to beat back rumors he would quit the race  perhaps before Thursdays CNN debate in Miami. Donors exchanged grim messages about Rubios fate in Florida, where his campaign, short on cash, is running no advertisements. New polls showed him trailing Trump here badly.

Supporters in the small and subdued Hialeah crowd all but conceded defeat. Ive been around for a long time, said Sal Pittelli, 70. And you can smell the flop sweat.

Meanwhile, rival Ted Cruz of Texas, campaigning in Miami, needled Rubio by arguing that his was the only credible path to deny Trump the nomination.

Its certainly a possibility that he could lose on Tuesday, and perhaps by double digits, said John McKager Mac Stipanovich, a Tallahassee lobbyist and Rubio supporter. Hes sworn to win, which might take some divine intervention, but thats what hes said, and hes trying to persuade the people who love him and follow him that thats the case.

There was evidence of some Rubio enthusiasm in South Florida. Blue Florida Is Marco Rubio Country signs adorn many lawns and busy intersections, and the campaign has secured valuable airtime on Radio Mambi, an AM station that is popular among the regions Cuban Americans. Rubio aides host 15-minute segments each morning.

[Supporters say bad strategy, poorly run campaign killing Rubios chances]

Adam Hasner, Rubios Florida campaign co-chairman, dismissed the suggestion that Rubio might drop out before the primary. He noted that Rubio plans to attend a series of Florida fundraisers on Friday and would campaign hard across the state.

He has demonstrated that he has a message that resonates and hes the right messenger, Hasner said. Hes come so far in six years, to leave it a couple of yards from the goal line and taking a knee on third down? Its just not who Marco Rubio is.

Rubios major donors are descending on Miami for a finance retreat. They will be joined for lunch Thursday by New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, an endorser, and by Rubio at breakfast Friday.

Rubios backers on Capitol Hill tried to show a united front of optimism amid the negative chatter.

I hope Marco wins. I know hes working really hard. Im with him on this, said Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.). But she declined to address next steps if Rubio does not win Florida. Were positive, she said. I think hes the guy, going to keep supporting him. Well find out next week.

Other Rubio associates were downright despondent. They were reticent to speak openly because they did not want to damage their friends prospects, but one confessed privately, I dont see how this campaign continues.

Miami locals who know Rubio and his family and have supported his campaigns over the years said they blame Rubios advisers for improperly managing what seemed to them only a few weeks ago like a sure thing.

Up until he started talking about how Trump has a small penis, it was brilliant, said the same friend, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly. Focusing on the size of his hands or the color of his skin  that was stupid.

Pretty much finished

There are a multitude of reasons to account for Rubios collapse: He is a career politician in a season when GOP primary voters crave outsiders; he was the subject of tens of millions of dollars in negative advertising from former Florida governor Jeb Bushs super PAC; he could not raise enough money to keep up his own ad blitz; his ground game was weak; and his Senate work seeking comprehensive immigration reform constituted apostasy to many conservatives.

Yet another reason is that Rubio has no natural base. In the sprawling field, he was never the most experienced establishment-friendly candidate (that was Bush), nor the most conservative ideological warrior (Cruz), nor the rebellious outsider (Trump).

Beyond the appeal of his personal story, Im not sure Marco ever grew a constituency that would carry him to the finish line, said Stipanovich, who initially supported Bush.

Interviews with more than a dozen Rubio advisers, fundraisers and other supporters suggest that perhaps the key inflection point came in that late-February change of strategy on Trump, when Rubio sacrificed the uplifting message that had won over late-deciding voters in Iowa and South Carolina for an all-out brawl.

[Spray tans, pants-wetting and little hands: The GOP race goes in the gutter]

That was when private pollsters tracking the race began to see Rubios favorability rating and his standing in the horse race stall out and soon erode.

Consider Kansas, where one private poll showed Cruz, Rubio and Trump in a virtual tie a week before the caucuses there. Rubio lunged for the win: He trumpeted the endorsements of Gov. Sam Brownback and Sen. Pat Roberts, as well as the revered former Senate leader Robert J. Dole, and campaigned hard there for a full day. But in last Saturdays voting, Rubio ended up a distant third with 16.7 percent; Cruz won with nearly half of the vote.

Rubio found himself locked in a downward spiral. He kept arguing on the stump that he was the most electable candidate and could unite all factions of the Republican Party. Yet electable candidates are expected to win  and Rubio was mostly losing.

Those exchanges with Mr. Trump were damaging, Al Cardenas, a conservative activist who is a Bush friend and a former Rubio employer, wrote in an email. Perhaps not as damaging as the dismal results in Kansas, Maine and Louisiana. If you finish under 20 percent in the South, Midwest and Northeast, this far out in the campaign, you are pretty much finished.

It was a conscious decision

Rubios pivot to Trump was by all accounts deliberate and carefully planned. With the exception of his debate meltdown in New Hampshire  when he was mocked for robotically repeating talking points  Rubio had a strong early February, slowly gaining momentum, money and high-wattage endorsements. Once Trump beat him and Cruz in South Carolina and Nevada, however, Rubios supporters agitated for him to take a more aggressive stance or risk letting Trump run away with the nomination.

Randy Kendrick, an influential conservative donor, said she and her husband, owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks, encouraged Rubio to go on the offensive, defining Trump.

Stand up for what we believe in, she said. If we lose, okay. But he will be able to say, We did the right thing. 

As the Houston debate approached, the senior leadership of Rubios campaign decided to go after Trump. They fed the candidate a mountain of opposition research about Trumps business dealings and past liberal positions. Senior adviser Todd Harris, who runs Rubios debate preparation sessions, helped him develop specific lines of attack that would serve Trump some of his own medicine.

Rubio felt he needed to point out some of Trumps massive inconsistencies  and to try to do it with a little bit of humor, said one Republican with knowledge of the preparations, who requested anonymity to speak candidly. It was a conscious decision.

In the post-debate spin room, Rubios team boasted that their candidate had finally found Trumps Kryptonite.

Donald Trump has always been effective at picking up someones perceived weakness, and really exploiting it, campaign manager Terry Sullivan told reporters. Well, guess what? Marco has Donalds number. And its that this is a joke.

[Can Marco Rubio save his campaign, and his career, in Florida?]

Harris told reporters that Rubio had proved he could mix it up by mocking Trump. Was it a substantive argument? No, he admitted. But as weve seen from most of, if not all of, the media coverage over the past eight months, trying to wage a battle of substance against Trump is a pretty futile effort.

At that point, Harris described the petty attacks as a tactic, not a new strategy. Were not going to go chase all of these little temporary narratives, temporary media trends, and whatever seems to be trending on Twitter, he said. The overwhelming majority of Marcos stump speech is positive, and thats not going to change.

Not 12 hours later, Rubios stump speech had changed  dramatically. At a rally in downtown Dallas, Rubio spent close to eight minutes taking potshots at Trump, even as his audiences titters turned to nervous unease.

First [Trump] had this little makeup thing applying, like, makeup around his mustache because he had one of those sweat mustaches, Rubio said. Then, then he asked for a full-length mirror. . . . He wanted a full-length mirror, maybe to make sure his pants werent wet  I dont know.

The speech was carried live on cable news. Donors swamped Rubio and his advisers with messages urging him to abandon the insult-fest. Eventually, after he lost 10 of 11 states on Super Tuesday, Rubio dropped the line of attack.

In the days that followed, Rubio insisted his swipes at Trump did not define his candidacy. Trump is a bully, he said, and bullies must be stood up to. Then at Wednesdays MSNBC town hall, Rubio not only voiced regret, but also blamed the insult-spewing front-runner for setting a juvenile tone for the entire race.

I dont want to be that, Rubio said. If thats what it takes to become president of the United States, then I dont want to be president.

Sean Sullivan in Hialeah, Fla., Katie Zezima in Miami; David Weigel in Palatine, Ill.; and Paul Kane in Washington contributed to this report.
Marco Rubio has been remarkably upbeat in the wake of primary losses. Now he's staking everything on Florida. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

Marco Rubio has been remarkably upbeat in the wake of primary losses. Now he's staking everything on Florida. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

Donald Trump is in a tight contest with Marco Rubio of Florida in the U.S. senators home-state Republican presidential primary, according to a new Washington Post-Univision News poll.

Trump edges out Rubio slightly: 38 percent to 31 percent among likely Republican voters in the Sunshine State. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) places third with 19 percent, followed by Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 4 percent.

The Florida Republican primary Tuesday is a must-win for Rubio, who has suffered through a string of humiliating losses in recent days that yielded him no delegates. He trails Trump and Cruz in the delegate race but has vowed to stay in the race even if he loses his home state.

[Read full survey results]

Across Florida, Republican support divides along gender, racial and generational lines. Trump holds a double-digit edge over Rubio among white voters (42 percent to 28 percent), while Rubio leads Trump by 49 percent to 20 percent among Hispanic Republicans, with Cruz at 21 percent. Trump leads Rubio by 12 points among voters 50 and older, while they are nearly tied among those younger than 50 (37 percent for Rubio vs. 35 percent for Trump). And Trump holds a 13-point lead among men (42 percent to 29 percent), while he and Rubio are about even among Republican women  35 percent for Trump and 33 percent for Rubio.





A majority of Florida Republicans  59 percent  think Rubio should bow out of the presidential campaign if he does not win the states primary; 33 percent say he should keep running.

The poll was taken March 2 to 5, preceding Rubios losses Saturday night in Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and Maine. He won the Puerto Rico primary Sunday but placed third or fourth Tuesday night in Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan and Mississippi. Those losses could be a factor for voters when deciding whether Rubios candidacy is viable.

The survey was also taken just as several political groups began airing tens of millions of dollars in attack ads against Trump, targeting his business practices and caustic rhetoric. But Florida Republicans have largely favorable opinions of Trump.

More than half  57 percent  view the New York businessman favorably, compared with 39 percent who view him unfavorably. Rubio is seen in a slightly more positive light, with 62 percent rating him favorably while 31 percent view him unfavorably. And while 24 percent find Trump very unfavorable, only 13 percent say the same of Rubio. Cruz is viewed positively by 56 percent of Florida voters, compared with 35 percent who are unfavorable toward him.

Among Hispanic Republicans, Rubio has the highest favorability mark at 76 percent, slightly higher than Cruzs 68 percent positive rating but far higher than Trumps 36 percent favorable rating. More than 6 in 10 Hispanic Republicans report an unfavorable opinion of the GOP front-runner.

Looking specifically at different candidate attributes, Florida Republicans rate Trump as having the best chance compared with Rubio and Cruz of being elected president in November (60 percent) and the candidate who could best bring needed change to Washington (55 percent). By a smaller margin, Trump edges out Rubio on who is closest to them on the issues (39 percent for Trump; 32 percent for Rubio).

But Rubio is seen more positively on other attributes: He leads Trump by 13 points and Cruz by 14 points as the candidate with the best personality and temperament to serve as president. Roughly similar shares pick Rubio and Trump as the most honest and trustworthy candidate (34 percent vs. 30 percent), while 21 percent say this of Cruz.





Republicans trust Trump more to handle several issues. More than half (56 percent) say they trust Trump most to handle the economy, and a 45 percent plurality say they trust him most to handle immigration. An identical 45 percent trust him most to handle the threat of terrorism. Trumps edge is smaller on health care, with 36 percent trusting him, compared with 29 percent for Rubio and 23 percent for Cruz.

One of Trumps mainstay issues, temporarily banning Muslims who are not U.S. citizens from coming into the country, is supported by a majority of Florida Republican likely voters. In all, 57 percent support banning Muslims  39 percent strongly support such an action. Seventeen percent are strongly opposed.

The issue of Cuba resonates in Florida like no other state. President Obama plans to visit the island nation this month, making him the first sitting president to do so in 88 years. In Florida, 59 percent of all Republicans disapprove of Obamas visit. Notably, 66 percent of Floridas Hispanic Republicans agree that Obama should not visit Cuba. A 51 percent majority of all Republican voters support ending the wet foot, dry foot policy allowing Cuban refugees to stay in the United States if they reach the shores of the country.

Meanwhile, a majority of Florida Republicans, 72 percent, think the Senate should delay a vote on a replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia until the next president takes office. And a majority, 62 percent, oppose providing financial assistance to Puerto Rico to avert a default on its debt. Here, Hispanic Florida Republicans are split: 41 percent support assisting Puerto Rico financially while 44 percent oppose such action.

Florida Republicans cite jobs and the economy as the most important issue when deciding their vote (43 percent) followed by terrorism (27 percent), with foreign policy (8 percent) and immigration (6 percent) ranking further behind. Most of the states Hispanic population is either Cuban or Puerto Rican, two groups less affected by immigration policy, since Puerto Ricans  as U.S. citizens  can easily migrate from the island territory, and federal law grants protection to Cuban immigrants who reach the United States.

Rubios decision not to run for reelection to the Senate has sparked a crowded race to succeed him, with contested primaries on both sides of the aisle.

On the Republican side, 74 percent of Republican primary voters remain undecided about a Senate candidate. No candidate breaks out of the single digits: Two contenders, Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera and Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), stand at 6 percent, while Rep. David Jolly (R-Fla.) receives 5 percent. Candidates Todd Wilcox and Carlos Beruff trail further behind.

The Post-Univision poll surveyed a random sample of 450 likely voters ahead of Tuesdays Republican primary, including interviews on conventional and cellular phones. The survey included an oversample of Hispanic likely voters, which were weighted back to an estimate of their share of the primary electorate. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 5.5 percentage points for overall results; the error margin is 9.5 points for results among the sample of 164 Hispanic likely voters.

The survey was conducted by the independent firm Bendixen and Amandi International and the Tarrance Group, a Republican firm.

Scott Clement contributed to this report.
At the CNN debate in Miami, GOP candidates sparred over immigration, social security, how to talk about Muslims and more. Here are the key moments. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

At the CNN debate in Miami, GOP candidates sparred over immigration, social security, how to talk about Muslims and more. Here are the key moments. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

They had tried criticizing him, interrupting him, insulting his tan and mocking his fingers. On Thursday night  after nothing else worked  the rivals of Donald Trump seemed to try another tactic: They would try . . . nothing at all.

The result was a low-key, civil debate, where the Republican front-runner was often given free reign to muse. In some cases, that meant contradicting himself  Trump excoriated visas for high-skilled workers but said he used them. He lamented that Democrats would not change Social Security and then said he, too, wouldnt change it. He attacked the current system of big-money campaign finance but then said that as a donor he had used it  and might soon use it again, by possibly soliciting big donations as a general-election candidate. He said he wanted to be neutral in negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. Except that he would be really pro-Israeli. Except that hed say he was neutral so that the Palestinians would trust him.

At one point, Trump hinted that he would change his mind far more often as president, hinting that he would be flexible on a variety of topics after a campaign built on hard-line, taboo-breaking proposals. A moderator asked: Flexible about what? It depends on what comes up, Trump said.

His rivals rarely pointed out when Trump had contradicted himself. The moderators often let him off without follow-ups, in contrast to the probing questions Trump got from Fox News last week.

Even Trump himself seemed surprised. So far, I cannot believe how civil its been up here, he said at one point.

1 of 18 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  The Republican presidential candidates faced off during the CNN debate in Miami View Photos The four remaining candidates debated in Miami, five days before the winner-take-all GOP primary in Florida on March 15. Caption The four remaining candidates debated in Miami, five days before the winner-take-all GOP primary in Florida on March 15. March 10, 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with rival Ted Cruz as they arrive onstage for the CNN debate at the University of Miami. Carlo Allegri/Reuters Wait 1 second to continue.

[Winners and losers from the 12th Republican presidential debate]

Would civility be the thing that finally took Trump down? It doesnt seem likely. But nothing else about this campaign has, either.

Sometimes, being positive isnt all that interesting, said Ohio Gov. John Kasich at the debates end. Kasich, like the others, had largely spared Trump as the night went on. Now, he was making his final closing argument before his home state votes Tuesday, and he was admitting that many people might not find him very exciting. But its very interesting to my family and friends, Kasich said.

The other two candidates onstage  Sens. Ted Cruz (Tex.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.)  seemed to take on Trump only on the issues, not his character.

When Trump said that he does not condone violence against protesters at his rallies  but also seemed to excuse the anger that motivated them, Rubio said: Im concerned about violence in general in this society.

Kasichs criticism was relatively oblique: Elections are important. But the unity of this country really matters.

And Cruz turned his attack instead on President Obama. Weve seen for seven years, a president who believes hes above the law, who behaves like an emperor, Cruz said. He turned to the crowd: How many of yall feel disrespected by Washington. Washington isnt listening to the people. And thats the frustration that is boiling over.

That seemed to reinforce Trumps statement when he was asked about an altercation at a rally between a protester and one of his supporters, who on Thursday was charged with assault.

People come with tremendous passion and love for the country. And when they see protesters, Trump said, then trailed off. When they see whats going on with this country, they have anger that is unbelievable.

He was asked by a moderator about statements the candidate himself had made from the stage, suggesting that protesters might be punched, or roughed up by the crowd. Trump responded by saying that the violence was often started by protesters.

We have some protesters who are bad dudes. They have done bad things. They are swinging, they are really dangerous, and they get in there and they start hitting people, Trump said.

[The debate transcript, annotated]

Earlier, Trump gave an unusually wide-ranging denunciation of Islam and Muslims in Thursdays GOP debate, saying that a lot of em hate America.

I will tell you, theres something going on that maybe you dont know about, maybe a lot of other people dont know about, but theres tremendous hatred, Trump said, after he was asked about a comment he made this week that Islam hates us.

Rubio criticized Trump in his most forceful attack of the night, saying that Trumps comments would hurt Americas interests by alienating Muslims overseas. Trump stood by it, and expanded with his own criticism of Islams treatment of women.

You can be politically correct if you want. I dont want to be so politically correct. I like to solve problems, Trump said. Islam. Large portions want to use very, very harsh means. Let me go a step further. Women are treated horribly. You know that, you do know that.

That brought a rebuttal from Cruz, who had mocked Trump several times in the debate with caveman-like over-simplifications of policy arguments.

Islamic terrorism was a huge threat, Cruz said, and he blamed President Obama for under-playing and under-estimating the threat. That is maddening, Cruz said. But the answer is not simply to yell, China bad! Muslims bad!

Then Cruz turned to an argument that, in essence, Trumps harsh rhetoric belied his actual policy positions on the Middle East, which Cruz believed were not hard-line enough. For instance, Cruz believed that Trump was not sufficiently pro-Israel and would give away too much by seeking to be a neutral broker in future talks between Israel and Palestinians.

Prior to the exchange, the most spectacular arguments were between Trump and  himself. In two instances, Trump outlined a policy that he said was bad  and then explained how he himself embraced it.

On the question of immigration, for instance, Trump said that the system of H-1B visas, meant for highly skilled foreigners, was harmful to U.S. workers. But he still uses it at his businesses.

Its something that I frankly use. And I shouldnt be allowed to use. And we shouldnt have it, Trump said of the H-1B program. Its sitting there waiting for you. But its very bad . . . for our workers. And its very unfair for our workers.

And then, on the subject of Social Security, Trump seemed to criticize Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders for saying they didnt want to change Social Security, and even wanted to expand it.

Trump then said that he, too, did not want to change Social Security.

I will do everything in my power not to touch Social Security, to leave it the way it is, Trump said, after Rubio had said he wanted to gradually change Social Security so that future generations of retirees would retire later. Its my absolute intention to leave Social Security the way it is.

It was an almost post-apocalyptic debate, in which Trump rivals who had been blasting him a week earlier seemed to see little point in fighting anymore. As the debate went on, Trump even seemed to turn the heat up gradually against Cruz, saying that he had supported amnesty for undocumented immigrants. It was one of the worst insults of this campaign so far. Cruz just laughed, and the debate moved on. At another moment, a moderator noted that Cruz had mocked Clinton for saying something that Trump had just said right in front of him  that Social Security could be salvaged by cutting only Waste, fraud and abuse  and not any benefits that people actually need.

Did he just compare Trump to Hillary Clinton? A moderator asked.

Cruz, even then, didnt bite. I will let Donald speak for himself, Cruz said.

[The real difference between Trump and his opponents, in one debate question]

Social Security is a major issue in Florida, where Thursdays debate was held. That the debate was held in Florida was recognition that the biggest prize at stake on Tuesday is the Sunshine State, where 99 delegates will be awarded to the winner, regardless of the voting percentages.

On Thursday, a Washington Post-Univision News poll showed Trump leading Rubio by 38 percent to 31 percent among likely Republican voters in Florida. That actually is good news for Rubio: Previous polls have shown him losing to Trump by double digits. But still, he would come away empty handed if he lost his home state.

On another key issue in Florida, climate change, Rubio took a strong stance, although one that may not prove popular in Miami. He rejected the idea of adopting new policies to fight climate change, saying that the U.S. government could do nothing that would make a difference.

Rubio was asked by a moderator about a statement from Miamis mayor, a Republican who has endorsed Rubio, worrying that rising sea levels would swamp parts of his city. Rubio responded with skepticism that climate change was really a man-made phenomenon, saying that the climate was always changing. Rubio then pivoted to a slightly different argument  saying, in essence, that U.S. policies could not stop climate change because other countries were already pumping out so many greenhouse gases.

I am not going to destroy the U.S. economy for a law that will do nothing for the environment, Rubio said. It was a remarkable contrast from the Democratic debate the night before, when both Democratic candidates spoke about climate change as an urgent problem and articulated an urgent need to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

Kasich responded by saying, I do believe that man-made climate change is occurring. Trump and Cruz were not asked their opinion.

[Why climate change is such a big issue in Florida]

Thursday nights debate contrasted sharply with previous few weeks encounters, when the GOP nominating process became surreal as Trumps challengers turned desperate.

Rubio, in particular, had sought to copy Trumps insult-comic style, mocking the front-runners tan and insulting the size of his fingers. Trump responded in the next debate with an even more surreal moment: to reassure anyone who would draw implications from the size of his hands, he volunteered onstage that there was not a problem with the size of his genitals.

If that moment hurt Trump, it didnt hurt him much: He has won five of the seven states that have voted since then.

Losing Florida would be devastating not just to Rubios presidential campaign, but also to his political career. Rubio is leaving the Senate, and he would have to face the next phase of his life with Trumps epithet Little Marco metaphorically hung around his neck.

For Kasich, who as in previous debates tried to stay out of the fighting, the firewall is his home state, Ohio, which will be almost as big a prize as Florida, with 66 delegates for the winner and zero for everybody else. Polls show Kasich in a close race with Trump in Ohio, where the GOP apparatus is strongly behind the governor and he has a fairly high approval rating. If he can beat Trump anywhere, Ohio is it.

Trump so far has won GOP contests in 15 states. He has accumulated about 458 Republican delegates, 99 more than Cruz, his closest rival. Trump needs 1,237 delegates to win the nomination.

During the debate, Trump said he would be the best at undoing the damage done to American workers by foreign trade deals  and his argument was that, as a businessman, he has exploited those very laws skilfully.

Nobody knows the system better than me, Trump said when debate moderator Anderson Cooper asked about Trumps hiring of foreign workers for his businesses. Trump also has been criticized for having his name-branded clothing and other products made overseas, despite his campaign-trail rhetoric bemoaning the loss of American manufacturing jobs. I will take advantage of it  theyre the laws. But Im the one who knows how to change it, Trump said.

The subject of foreign trade has become a powerful issue in both the Republican and Democratic presidential primaries, with Trump and Democratic-primary candidate Bernie Sanders appealing to white working-class voters by blaming long-serving politicians for the trade deals that shipped jobs away.

In Thursdays GOP debate, the two candidates who are in the Senate sounded strongly skeptical of deals that allow freer trade, which have long been favored by Republicans in Washington. Both accused the Obama administration of essentially failing to hammer out trade deals that worked well and failing to properly enforce what had been agreed to before.

There are great trade deals, and there are bad ones, Rubio said.

Were getting killed in international trade right now, Cruz said.

Another Washington deal issue came up during the debate: Cuba.

Trump appeared to make up his policy on Cuba on the spot, pausing for a moment to decide that he would undo President Obamas decision to reopen the U.S. Embassy in Havana.

I would probably have the embassy closed, Trump said, after being pressed by CNNs Dana Bash. He said the closure would be temporary, while he renegotiated the terms of Americas rapprochement with Cuba. Make a deal. It would be great. But its got to be a great deal. Not a bad deal by the United States.

What followed was one of Rubios best moments of the night  a chance to defend a hard-line policy toward Cubas communist regime, which was a key part of his platform during his rise in Florida politics. Rubio is the son of Cuban immigrants.

Heres a good deal. Cuba has free elections. Cuba stops putting people in jail for political reasons, Rubio said, listing the details he would demand in a future deal with the islands communist government. You know what? Then we can have a relationship with Cuba. Thats a good deal.

Trump opened the debate by saying that his partys establishment should embrace him  not fight him  because he is bringing new voters into the primary process.

Theyre voting out of enthusiasm. Theyre voting out of love. Some of these people, frankly, have never voted before, Trump said, calling his success in the GOP primaries one of the biggest political stories around the globe. He said that the GOP establishment should accept him, because he could defeat a Democrat in the fall: Were going to beat them soundly.

Earlier in the day, reports indicated that Trump will soon be endorsed by a candidate who was involved in earlier main-stage debates  retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.

Later in the debate, Trump was asked whether he would give up a pledge to self-fund his campaign if he became the Republican nominee and needed an influx of cash to take on a Democratic candidate.

I have not made that decision yet, Trump said. My decision was that I would go through the entire primary season without taking large contributions, Trump said. Despite his rhetoric, he is still taking donations, including from people who use the Donate button on his website.

He later condemned the very system he was now considering joining. They make large contributions to politicians, and they have total control over those politicians. I dont want anybody to control me, but the people right out there he said, meaning the debate audience.

Trump then returned to a tactic he employed several times Thursday night: citing his political impurities as a private citizens as proof that he can purify the system as a politician.

I know the system is broken, Trump said, speaking of campaign finance as someone who has given large amounts to politicians from both parties. Frankly, I know the system better than anybody else. And Im the only up here whos going to be able to fix that system.

Toward the end of the debate, Trump seemed to sum up his approach to governing in one sentence: despite his promises of a hard-line stance on a variety of subjects, he would be flexible when actually setting policy. Flexible on what? It depends on what comes up, he said.
Six days before the Ohio Republican primary that will either end or kick-start his presidential campaign, Ohio Gov. John Kasich was playing catch-up. He started a Wednesday swing through the Chicago suburbs at Navistar, a truck manufacturer, and recounted that the chief executive had just told him that international bureaucrats were taking advantage of trade deals.

Were not going to sit here and have the American worker beaten on because were relying on some international bureaucrat, Kasich said at the factory and at a stop in Cook County. Now, that doesnt make the free-traders in my party happy. Tough. Because I am for free trade.

Hours later, Donald Trump  who defeated Kasich in Michigan and is leading in Ohio polls  put the trade issue in his own terms.

You know, Michigans been stripped, Trump told CNNs Anderson Cooper on Wednesday. You look at those empty factories all over the place. And nobody hits that message better than me.

As the primary season moves to the industrial Midwest, blunt talk about trade  and deep skepticism  are winning out over nuance. Trumps victory in Michigan was expected, but the victory of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont defied every poll and rattled a Democratic establishment that was already talking about a race between Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Bernie Sanders won Michigan on March 8 by getting votes from several key groups. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

The salience of trade, in a state where unemployment had tumbled more than half since the start of the Great Recession, blindsided a Democratic Party that has struggled to find coherence between its labor base and its neoliberal leadership. It also worried Republicans, whose leaders and donors are resolutely in favor of free trade.

There has been a bipartisan conventional wisdom that the damage done to working-class jobs and incomes are simply part of inevitable changes, ones we cannot and should not challenge, said Larry Mishel, president of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. Even President Obama is blaming inequality problems on technological change, which is not even a plausible explanation for post-2000 America. People correctly understand that many elites simply believe that wage stagnation is something we cannot change.

The post-2009 increase in overall employment has masked a steady decline of Midwestern manufacturing jobs. Ohio is down 6,900 manufacturing jobs from the start of 2008, according to the Labor Department, a decline of 9 percent. It has lost one-third of the factory jobs it had in 2000  a total of 340,000.

Michigan has gained just 1,300 manufacturing jobs since the start of 2008, and it still has 285,000 fewer factory jobs than it did in 2000, a drop of 32 percent.

In Michigan, exit pollsters for the first time asked voters whether they thought trade created or took away American jobs. The take away faction made up 55 percent of the Republican primary vote and 57 percent of the Democratic primary vote. Trump won the GOP faction with 45 percent, and Sanders won the Democratic side with 56 percent.

Both men spent long sections of their stump speeches to assault trade deals and the political classes that had negotiated them. They differed only in the analysis of whether the dealmakers were venal or merely stupid.

Many, many Republicans and far too many Democrats supported these disastrous trade policies, Sanders said Sunday at the pre-primary debate in Flint. Not only job loss by the millions, but a race to the bottom so that new jobs in manufacturing in some cases pay 50 percent less than they did 20 years ago. How stupid is that trade policy?

1 of 27 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  With delegates from four states on the line, voters made their picks View Photos Mississippi, Michigan, Idaho and Hawaii held primaries on Tuesday. Caption Mississippi, Michigan, Idaho and Hawaii held primaries on Tuesday. March 8, 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign news conference at the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

In the 2008 Democratic primary, Barack Obama made a fitful promise to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, but it did not move votes in Ohio. This year was different, because the candidates were different. Lori Wallach, the director of Public Citizens Global Trade Watch, said this election has elevated a candidate in each political party with a long record of questioning trade deals. She recalled Trump speaking out along with Ross Perot against NAFTA in the early 1990s, and Sanders being one of the first members of Congress to actually read the agreement in full before it was voted on.

On a bipartisan basis, the political class in this country has underestimated the political potency of the publics opposition to job-killing trade agreements or have dismissed it as ill-informed, she said. Trump and Sanders, she said, are articulating, pretty concretely, why whats happening has happened, and heres how we do it differently.

Stephen Moore, a conservative economist who has advised several Republican candidates on economic policy this cycle and who supports free trade, said Republicans shouldnt be surprised that voters have turned against trade deals.

Its really hard and painful to find something else to do when youre 58 years old and laid off, he said. Our side has to do a really better job of explaining the ways trade makes people better off.

No one on the mainstream right has really done so. The Club for Growth, a free-market group that has poured millions of dollars into anti-Trump TV ads, has focused on the mogul-turned-candidates past support for Democrats and his comfort with eminent domain law.

Whats needed now by the supporters of free trade is a public education campaign to talk to these voters and explain to them and their family members whats at stake, said David McIntosh, the president of the Club for Growth. Its a matter of having an economic policy that will create new jobs to replace those jobs being lost. Theres a lot at stake here if we get into a trade war.

Yet McIntosh was not shocked by the anti-free-trade sentiment rising in the primaries. When NAFTA came up for a vote, he, like Kasich, supported it  and had to fight a backlash at home.

Pat Buchanan, the insurgent Republican who won the New Hampshire primary in 1996, was one candidate who capitalized on the backlash to both NAFTA and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). At the time, a stronger Republican establishment managed to stop him. That experience made Buchanan wonder why the elites in both parties seemed so startled by Michigan.

If theyre surprised, theres something wrong with their antennae and their radars, Buchanan said Wednesday. When we were arguing against NAFTA and GATT, it was quite clear that the country was with us. Global free trade has never had, in my estimation, real majority support. In Michigan and Ohio, youve got voters who have lived through what we predicted.

DePillis reported from Washington. Jim Tankersley in Washington contributed to this report.
New Delhi: Amid a war of words between the government and opposition over his sudden 'disappearance' from the country, External Affairs Ministry on Thursday said it has not been asked to take any action against liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who is facing legal proceedings for alleged loan defaults by his group to the tune of over Rs 9000 crore.

Read: Banks should have acted earlier to stop Mallya, says Arun Jaitley

"As far as Vijay Mallya is concerned MEA has not been asked to take any action," MEA Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.

He was asked if the ministry was taking any action against Mallya, who has left the country, as per the Attorney General's submission in the court yesterday.

Read: Mallya went abroad 4 times before Mar 2 departure since Look

Asked about reports that Mallya was in the UK, the spokesperson said, "We cannot comment on that beyond what the Attorney General said in court."

Yesterday, AG Mukul Rohatgi had told the Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Kurian Joseph and R F Nariman that Mallya left the country a week back as per the CBI input.

Read: Sparks fly in Parliament as Mallya flees to London

The bench issued notice to Mallya and sought his response within two weeks on pleas filed by a consortium of banks seeking direction for freezing his passport and his presence before the apex court.

Since the court was informed that Mallya has already left the country, probably for UK, the bench allowed the plea of AG that the notice to him can be served through his official Rajya Sabha Email ID, Indian High Commission at London and also through counsel representing him before various high courts, Debt Recovery Tribunal and also through his Company.

Read: Govt will not let Mallya live in peace, says BJP

Asked about India recently approaching the Interpol with its demand for an early notification of the Red warrant sought by the ED against Lalit Modi, the former IPL Chairman, in connection with its money laundering case, Swarup said,"We have yet to receive the request from the Enforcement Directorate. As soon as that comes, we will immediately take action."
The party of Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi nominated one of her closest advisers Thursday as its candidate for president, ending for now her efforts to negotiate a deal with the military to take the post herself.

In a subdued session, Suu Kyis party members in the lower house of parliament chose Htin Kyaw, a trusted confidant who runs an educational foundation, as the partys candidate in the presidential selection process that began Thursday. If he is elected by a parliamentary body, Htin Kyaw would be the first leader in decades from outside the military in Burma, a Southeast Asian nation long ruled by an oppressive regime.

The nomination followed weeks of talks with Burmas powerful generals on circumventing a military-imposed constitutional provision that bars the revered Nobel Peace laureate from becoming president. The military refused to budge on the prohibition, which applies to Burmese with foreign spouses or children. Suu Kyis two sons are British, as was her late husband.

In a meeting with fellow party members, Suu Kyi praised Htin Kyaws loyalty, saying her longtime friend had the intellectual weight to appeal to both local and international audiences.

Suu Kyi has said that she will be the one managing the new government anyway, in a role that she describes as above the president.

[Obama calls Aung San Suu Kyi as she nears victory in Burmas elections]

Suu Kyis National League for Democracy (NLD) will dominate the historic selection process as it holds a comfortable majority in parliament after a landslide victory in Novembers general election, the first democratic contest in years. After a winnowing process, Burmas parliament will formally select the president and two vice presidents from three candidates. Nominations have also been made by the opposition Union Solidarity and Development Party, the party of outgoing president Thein Sein. In addition, a nominee will be offered by parliaments military wing. The election process will continue into next week.

Henry Van Thio, from the ethnic Chin minority, was nominated by the NLD in parliaments upper house and is favored to become one of the two vice presidents.

Analysts and supporters agreed that the partys choice of Htin Kyaw, 69, leaves no doubt that Suu Kyi will have control of the countrys nascent democratic government for as long as he serves. The two attended the same school as children, and he became an important sounding board after she returned to her homeland from England in 1988 and became a leader in Burmas pro-democracy movement, enduring years of house arrest at the hands of the military.

He is a gentleman, faithful and loyal, said May Win Myint, an NLD member of parliament familiar with the nominating process. He is the closest to Aung San Suu Kyi, and he is the one who would completely follow her advice.

Htin Kyaw is a senior executive in Suu Kyis charity, the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, which is named after her late mother and provides development aid and skills training in poorer areas of Burma. The country, also known as Myanmar, remains one of the most impoverished in Asia.

The son of a respected Burmese writer and poet, he earned a statistics degree at a university in Rangoon, studied computer science at the University of London and worked as a university tutor and government servant.

Aung San Suu Kyi, right, arrives to participate in a gathering with newly elected lawmakers of the National League for Democracy on March 10 in Naypyidaw. (Aung Shine Oo/AP)

[Burmese president congratulates Aung San Suu Kyi on her partys lead in elections]

Shortly after Suu Kyi addressed her party members Thursday, NLD spokesman Zaw Myint Maung hinted that if Htin Kyaw is voted in as president in the coming days and the party launches its government on April 1, it will work to amend the section of the constitution that bars Suu Kyi from the presidency as early as possible.

It's the peoples desire. They want Aung San Suu Kyi to become president, he said.

However, passing such an amendment would be a tall order. The military-drafted constitution requires more than 75 percent of legislators to approve a constitutional amendment, and 25 percent of the seats are reserved for the military.

Since Novembers victory, Suu Kyi has had a singular role in the transition process, holding prominent meetings with key generals and revealing her plans to only her closest advisers.

The situation is quite unique and cant be compared to a full-fledged democratic process that is transparent, said Thet Thet Khine, a member of parliament from Rangoon in Suu Kyis party. Here, the situation is very vulnerable, very sensitive and very fragile. So she is handling the situation carefully.

Legislators from her party  including former political prisoners and dozens who had never served in public office before  have been largely sequestered since they assembled to begin the process of transitioning to the new government in February.

They are living in spartan barracks in Burmas eerie capital of Naypyidaw, a city with few permanent residents and dozens of towering buildings that were secretly carved out of the farmland and scrub brush by the regime in the mid-2000s. The military began the process of democratic reforms and a transition to a civilian-led government in 2010.

The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, which was trounced in Novembers elections, has said it will cooperate with a smooth transition. But the military still runs the security forces and the key ministries of home, border protection and defense, besides holding a mandatory quarter of the seats in parliament.

Eaint Thiri Thu contributed to this report.

Read more:

Hungry Mumbai workers are ditching a century-old lunchbox service  for food apps

Indian students called it free speech. The government called it sedition.

Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world
A man holds up a sign that reads: "Many thanks, Mrs. Merkel" during the arrival of German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a rally ahead of Baden-Wuerttemberg state elections on March 8, 2016 in Nuertingen, Germany. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

In a new German political ad, a young woman in a dimly lighted underground crossing gazes directly into the camera. She flashes a concerned look, then references the series of sexual assaults in the city of Cologne allegedly committed by migrants on New Years Eve.

I want to feel carefree and safe when I go out, the woman says in the spot. Afterward, a voice demands the deportation of criminal migrants .

Sponsored by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party ahead of key local elections this Sunday, the ad is heralding the rise of a new brand of right-wing populism in this nation still haunted by its Nazi past.

Polling as high as 18 percent in one of the three states where voters are heading to the ballot box this weekend, the three-year-old AfD is catching on as never before. It has done that in part by turning Sundays vote into a referendum on Chancellor Angela Merkels open-door policy for asylum seekers.

After largely wallowing on the fringes of German politics, the party could leverage a strong showing this weekend, emerging as a significant new political force here  this despite harsh statements by its leaders deemed outrageous by German political elites and seen by some observers as downright Donald Trumpesque.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel waves at a campaign rally as she receives applause from Julia Klockner, the Christian Democratic Union partys top candidate for in a state election Sunday. (Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters)

[Think Merkel isnt in trouble? Look at these charts.]

In recent weeks, the AfDs chairwoman, Frauke Petry, went as far as openly suggesting that police officers could, as a last resort, open fire on asylum seekers trying to cross German borders. Later, a senior AfD politician, Beatrix von Storch, seemed to suggest that police could even fire upon women and children illegally crossing the border.

Von Storch later backtracked. But this is still strong stuff in a country that, given its past, had largely resisted the trend toward extremist politics that is sweeping both sides of the Atlantic. Right-wing parties with authoritarian bents now hold sway in Hungary and Poland. And in recent elections in Slovakia, a group of black-clad, storm-trooping, right-wing militants entered the national parliament.

Should the AfD live up to prognostications, experts say, it would mark the best result for right-wing populists in Germany since the 1960s, when economic hard times allowed the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) to gain a foothold.

Rather than chalking up the AfDs success to the same neo-Nazi sympathies that helped fuel the NPD, however, experts see a reflection of the voter disenchantment that is sweeping the West.

Its a similar phenomenon as Trump, said Heinrich Oberreuter, a political scientist at the University of Passau. People are angry at the political establishment, and they feel they are not being taken seriously. Political elites are the targets. Alternative for Germany is an expression, an articulation of this imprecise feeling of dissent.

Founded in 2013 as a party opposed to German-backed Greek bailouts and the euro, the AfD has morphed in the years since, finding a new reason for being as more than 1 million migrants arrived in Germany last year.

Many in the party insist it is wrong to speak of it in the same breath as the NPD, calling themselves an amalgamation of concerned citizens and former Merkel supporters who feel betrayed. Officially, the partys platform is far more tempered than the NPDs. While it says Syrian and Iraqi refugees should be housed in Middle Eastern nations, it officially states that the ones already here who are genuinely fleeing war should be granted temporary protection. It even says immigrants who want to integrate are acceptable.

They are a mix of rather moderate conservatives and people more to the right, with some members flirting with being even further right, said Jurgen Falter, a professor of political science at Mainz University. But together, they are no further to the right than the tea party.

[German chancellor pledges crackdown on criminal asylum seekers]

Still, its unofficial stance  as suggested in campaign materials  is markedly more populist.

Unrestrained mass immigration is threatening our modest wealth and our domestic peace, reads an AfD election pamphlet distributed in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. Apparently referencing the Nazi era, it also argues in favor of German pride: A one-sided focus on twelve unlucky years of our history obstructs our view of centuries, in which a unique culture and state order was created.

Late polling suggests the chancellors Christian Democratic Union is poised for net losses in the three states voting on Sunday. Although the voting is for state parliaments, the outcome has national implications  affecting the makeup of the German Bundesrat, which effectively functions as the countrys second legislative chamber.

Should Merkels party truly go down in flames in a manner not yet forecast, she could face rising pressure to step aside in the coming months. But most observers are predicting milder losses as the popularity of Merkel  whose poll numbers had fallen sharply during the refugee crisis  appears to be staging a comeback following an impressive TV interview last week.

And yet, this Sunday could, experts say, give the AfD a seat at the table in German politics even as it continues poaching disenfranchised voters from the mainstream right and left. That prospect is alarming its critics  including Merkel.

The AfD is a party that doesnt unite society and that doesnt offer appropriate solutions for the problems but one that stokes prejudice and divides, Merkel told the German news outlet Bild last week.

Read more

As the route to Europe closes, migrants journey through grief

Migrant exchange: Turkey accepts mass returns but sends Syrians to Europe

Most of the refugees stuck in Greece are now women and children

Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Site of World Culture festival organised by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art Of Living foundation on the flood plain of Yamuna River in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday said that if the Art of Living (AOL) foundation doesn't pay the penalty of Rs 5 crores to the Delhi Development Authority by tomorrow, it could revoke clearance for the three-day World Culture Festival. "Art of Living has time till tomorrow to pay Rs 5 crore fine and if there is any breach, law will take its own course," the tribunal said.

The green tribunal also asked the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to issue a proper direction to the AOL with regard to disposal of municipal waste.

NGT, meanwhile, refused to give an urgent hearing to a fresh plea seeking stay on the event on the ground that it did not have the requisite permission from fire authorities and police.

Earlier in the day, Ravi Shankar told a news channel that he would rather go to jail than pay the fine imposed by NGT. We have not done anything wrong we will go to jail but not pay a penny, said the spiritual leader.

Read: Will go to jail but wont pay a penny: Sri Sri on NGT fine

The NGT on Wednesday gave its consent for the event, but imposed a penalty of Rs 5 crores on the Art of Living Foundation for damaging the environment.

A bench headed by NGT chairperson Swantanter Kumar on Wednesday asked the Ministry of Environment and Forests to file an affidavit and spell out why no environmental clearance is needed for raising temporary structures.

For the reason of delay and lapses on the part of the applicant in approaching the Tribunal, and for the reason of fait accompli capable of restoration and restitution, we are unable to grant prayer of prohibitory order, the bench observed.

Read: NGT gives reluctant nod to Sri Sri event, Art of Living fined Rs 5 crore

As per documents placed on record it is evident that flood plains have been drastically tampered with and ramps, roads, compaction of earth, pontoon bridges and other semi-permanent or temporary structures were constructed without the requisite permission of the concerned authorities, including ministry of water resources, it added.

The direction came after the counsel appearing for the Ministry of Environment and Forests said that they have found no debris when an expert team visited the site. The counsel added that as per Environment Impact Assessment notification 2006, no environment clearance is needed for temporary structures.

Read: SC junks plea seeking to stop Sri Sris World Culture Festival

The AOL had earlier announced later that it would appeal against the NGT order as its chief, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, tweeted that he was not satisfied with the verdict.

Read: Sri Sri defends mega event, says 'eco stability' has been maintained

Warning the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and Delhi Pollution Control Committee to not issue such orders in future, a fine of Rs 5 lakh and Rs 1 lakh, respectively, was slapped on the civic bodies for failing to perform their statutory functions.

Read: Why different rules for 'ostensible God': Congress on Sri Sri

Earlier, President Pranab Mukherjee cancelled his plan to attend Sundays valedictory session.
A TV screen shows a file footage of the missile launch conducted by North Korea, at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday. (Ahn Young-Joon/AP)

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan Thursday morning, in clear defiance of U.N. resolutions, as tensions on the Korean Peninsula mount.

With the U.S. and South Korean militaries conducting huge military exercises that North Korea views as a pretext for an invasion, and new sanctions being imposed on the regime in Pyongyang, Kim Jong Un has been showing he wont be cowed.

Two missiles were fired from Hwanghae province, south of Pyongyang, at about 5:20 a.m. and landed in the sea off the east coast city of Wonsan, South Koreas joint chiefs of staff said. The missiles, thought to be Scud-Cs, traveled about 300 miles.

The military is keeping close tabs on the situation and is prepared to deal with any North Korean provocations, the joint chiefs said, according to the Yonhap News Agency.

The Japanese government lodged a protest with the North Korean Embassy in Beijing over the launch, the Kyodo news agency reported, while Defense Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters in Tokyo that Japan would stay alert. Its possible that they were both Scud missiles. We cannot deny the possibility of more provocative actions, he said.

A woman passes by a TV screen showing a file footage of the missile launch conducted by North Korea, at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday (Ahn Young-Joon/AP)

Amid international condemnation of Pyongyangs January nuclear test and February long-range missile launch, Kim appears to be going out of his way to show that his regime will not give in to pressure.

North Koreas official media this week showed Kim visiting nuclear scientists and lauding their achievement in fitting a nuclear warhead onto a ballistic missile. The Rodong Sinmun, the mouthpiece of the Workers Party, ran a front-page photo of Kim with what it said was a miniaturized nuclear weapon.

The right to make a preemptive nuclear strike is by no means a monopoly of the U.S., the Korean Central News Agency cited Kim as saying during the visit, adding that he said if the U.S. imperialists infringe upon [North Koreas] sovereignty and right to existence with nuclear weapons, it will never hesitate to make a preemptive nuclear strike at them.

Last week, Kim oversaw the testing of a new 300-millimeter-caliber multiple launch rocket system. He told the military to be ready to use its nuclear weapons at any time, saying they were needed given the ferocious hostility of new gangster-like sanctions leveled against Pyongyang.

North Koreas actions come at a tense time on the peninsula as the United States and South Korea kicked off major military exercises on Monday with 17,000 U.S. forces and 300,000 South Korean personnel.

The exercises always anger North Korea, but this year the regimes response has been particularly vicious because the allies are practicing surgical strikes on North Koreas main nuclear and missile facilities and decapitation raids by special forces targeting the Norths leadership.

This coincides with coordinated moves to punish Kim for his transgressions.

Both the United States and the United Nations have imposed tough sanctions on the North  the latter supported by China, North Koreas main patron  and this week South Korea introduced its own unilateral sanctions. The U.N. sanctions reiterated a previous ban on North Korea conducting nuclear or missile tests.
President Obama is expected to nominate Merrick Garland to serve on the Supreme Court. Here is what you need to know about Garland. (Claritza Jimenez,Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post)

President Obama is expected to nominate Merrick Garland to serve on the Supreme Court. Here is what you need to know about Garland. (Claritza Jimenez,Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post)

To some, Merrick Garlands experience and demeanor could make him the quintessential Supreme Court candidate for a Democratic president.

A magna cum laude Harvard Law School graduate, he clerked not just for any Supreme Court justice but for William J. Brennan Jr., the legendary liberal champion. He was a partner at a prominent Washington law firm, then ascended the ranks at the Justice Department, where he oversaw two of the biggest domestic terrorism cases in U.S. history.

Now, the well-regarded chief judge of the D.C. federal appeals court is under serious consideration to be President Obamas nominee for the nations highest court, according to people familiar with the deliberations. Merrick is in his own league . . . Hes pretty unassailable from a reputational standpoint, said a person close to the selection process who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

But Garland could face a number of political factors that would put him out of contention, according to legal experts and others who have spoken with administration officials. Garlands two-decade track record as a judge may wind up working against him, these people said, because if Republicans pore over his career, they may find more to use against him in a fierce confirmation battle. By contrast, many of the others being considered by the White House are younger and have had shorter careers.

[Activists push Obama to nominate black woman to the Supreme Court]

In addition, Garland is a white male at a moment when Democrats may want a nominee around whom they can rally minorities in the partys base, particularly during a presidential election year. Civil rights groups, for example, are pressing the nations first African American president to nominate the first black woman to the court.

Barbara R. Arnwine, president of the Transformative Justice Coalition and a longtime civil rights activist, said that while Garland brings incredible qualifications and an impressive background and resume, she believes a number of female black judges are just as qualified. Nominating Garland, she said, would send a message that the status quo of American privilege is still in place.

Given that Republicans in the Senate have vowed to block any nominee, the presidents pick could be more important for its political symbolism.

You know the person isnt getting confirmed, said one legal expert who closely follows the Supreme Court and spoke on the condition of anonymity out of respect for Garland, whose nomination he considers unlikely. Why would you disappoint every significant constituency when youre trying to motivate people?

[What would a Hindu justice mean for the Supreme Court?]

Garland was also a finalist for the first two Supreme Court vacancies Obama filled, according to sources who were close to those processes. But even if he is not chosen this time, people who know him say he feels honored just to be considered.

He is very content to be the chief judge of the D.C. Circuit. Its a wonderful job, and hes wonderfully suited to it, said Jamie Gorelick, a former deputy attorney general who worked with Garland at the Justice Department in the Clinton administration and considers her former colleague supremely qualified for the high court. Getting an appointment to the Supreme Court requires lightning to strike.

Gorelick praised Garlands role at the Justice Department in supervising the massive investigations that led to the prosecutions of the bombers of the federal building in Oklahoma City and the Unabomber.

We had a lot of very seasoned prosecutors, but when you have a matter that is both substantively difficult and cuts across the department, a really talented person such as Merrick will lead those, said Gorelick, who added that Garland is a brilliant lawyer and judge who is known to be highly collegial even with colleagues across the ideological spectrum.

Garland was nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by President Bill Clinton in 1997 and confirmed on a 76-to-32 vote. He won support from 32 Republicans.

In 2010, when Garland was under consideration for the Supreme Court vacancy that went to Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) told Reuters that he had known Garland for years and that he would be a consensus nominee.

Hatch, a powerful voice on judicial selection, said then that there was no question Garland could be confirmed.

Garland is among at least six candidates known to be under consideration. The others are judges Sri Srinivasan and Patricia A. Millett, more recent appointees to the D.C. appeals court that Garland heads; Jane L. Kelly, an appeals court judge based in Iowa; Paul J. Watford, an appeals court judge in California; and Ketanji Brown Jackson, a U.S. district judge in Washington. At 63, Garland is by far the oldest candidate for the lifetime Supreme Court appointment.

Hes extremely well qualified, and hes a superb judge, said Michael Greenberger, a University of Maryland law professor who was a senior Justice Department official in the Clinton administration. Hes widely revered on both sides of the aisle. If the White House is looking to get somebody through . . . he would be a great candidate.
Former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, popularly known as Lula, greets supporters in Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil, on Saturday. (Andre Penner/AP)

A corruption scandal that has entangled the highest echelons of power is sharply dividing Brazil, which is already grappling with an economic crisis and a public health emergency over the Zika virus.

Now it has reached Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was Brazils most popular president in decades. On Wednesday, state prosecutors filed money-laundering and misrepresentation charges against Lula in a related but separate case involving executives of one of the companies implicated in the scandal.

And with anti-government demonstrations looming Sunday, nervous Brazilians are wondering: Whats next?

[An oil scandal is shaking Brazils democracy to its core]

Last week, police in Sao Paulo detained Lula, as the charismatic former union leader is known in Brazil, for questioning in a sprawling federal investigation into billions of dollars in bribes, kickbacks and favors offered to executives, political parties and lawmakers for valuable contracts with the state-controlled oil company Petrobras.

Lula was not charged then, but people were shaken by the sight of this political icon being led from his house by police, a spectacle broadcast live on Brazilian television.

It is difficult to convey the symbolism of this gesture, said Jairo Nicolau, a professor of political science at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Lula is still the biggest leader in Brazil.

The targeting of Lula also potentially hurts Dilma Rousseff, his political protege and successor as president. She was narrowly reelected in 2014 with his support but is facing impeachment proceedings and an investigation by an electoral court.

[Arrest in Brazil bribery scandal raises the stakes for President Rousseff]

The federal investigators who detained Lula on March 4 are looking into a country estate used by him and his family, as well as a seaside apartment. They allege that Lula hid his ownership of the properties and that construction companies caught up in the scandal did extensive work on the properties in return for political favors. Lula denies the charges.

In a video interview released on YouTube, Lulas attorney, Cristiano Martins, said the ex-presidents family acquired a share of a building being constructed by a housing cooperative but chose not to buy the seaside apartment after the construction firm OAS took over the cooperatives properties. Martins said that the estate was renovated for the use of friends and that Lula considered storing some of his presidential records there.

Investigators are also examining $8 million in speaking fees and donations that Lula and his Lula Institute received from construction companies embroiled in the scandal.

On Wednesday, Sao Paulo state prosecutors filed charges against Lula, his wife and one of their sons in a separate case that also involves executives from OAS, one of the main companies involved in the Petrobras scandal. A judge has to approve the charges.

Charges were also filed against OASs former chief executive and the former treasurer of Lulas Workers Party  both of whom have received jail sentences in the Petrobras scandal.

[Brazils new hero is a nerdy judge who is tough on official corruption]

They are vermin

The allegations against Lula have roiled his supporters, who say Brazils rich and powerful are seeking to destroy his reputation and a potential shot at a third presidential mandate.

An emotional and combative speech by the former president on March 4 has deepened the divide.

This is the class struggle, yes. This theme is not over, Leonardo Boff, a left-wing writer and proponent of Catholic liberation theology, wrote on a pro-government website.

Conservative, white, upper-class Brazilians  many of whom loathe the Workers Party and have played a big role in antigovernment demonstrations  have responded with equal vitriol.

Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians  many from more privileged classes  took to city streets nationwide several times last year to protest corruption and call for Rousseffs impeachment and Lulas imprisonment. More protests are planned for Sunday.

Lula manipulates and deludes the people, said Giuliana Campanari, 43, director of a Sao Paulo advertising agency and a protest regular. She said his Workers Party is motivated by greed, not ideology. They are vermin. They finished off the country, she said.

Some commentators criticize the heightened rhetoric and worsening polarization.

This climate of hysteria is reciprocal. It contaminates both sides of the debate, popular broadcaster Ricardo Boechat said in a radio commentary.

An expanding investigation

Experts say the corruption probe is being properly handled.

What we are seeing is very strong people who are doing their job right, said Alejandro Salas, regional director for the Americas at Transparency International, a Berlin-based group that studies corruption.

Since Operation Carwash, as the investigation into bribes and kickbacks at Petrobras is called, began in March 2014, prosecutors have charged 179 people. The scheme led the company to write off $2 billion.

The investigation has since expanded to target Brazils notoriously corrupt politicians: The Supreme Court is investigating an additional 94 people, mostly lawmakers, including the speaker of the lower house of parliament, Eduardo Cunha, who faces corruption and money-laundering charges.

[Brazilian corruption scandal ensnares top senator, investment banker]

We can see we are reaching a point at which the law really does apply to all, said Gustavo de Oliveira, a law professor at the University of Sao Paulo who teaches a course on corruption.

Lula, a former metalworker who grew up in deep poverty, presided over dramatic social change.

During his 2003-2011 rule, more than 30 million Brazilians escaped poverty and joined a nascent lower middle class as their country rode a commodities boom. He came to represent a future that Brazilians thought would never be theirs  in which the poor, too, could live in decent houses, work for just salaries and rely on a functioning health-care system.

Lula also appeared to embody a new breed of politician  one who could be trusted. Now, many disappointed Brazilians are not so sure.

He promised an honest and transparent government. And you see this, its sad, said Adilson dos Santos, 53, a telecommunications technician in Recife, capital of Lulas home state of Pernambuco, who voted for him and Rousseff. He has lost a little credibility for everything that he did.

Rousseff, whose approval ratings have plummeted despite her insistence that she is not guilty in the corruption scandal, also looks increasingly fragile. The economy is tanking, and some blame years of neglect for the Zika epidemic  which many say is behind the recent jump in cases of microcephaly, a birth defect, in the country.

I think she will fall, said Nicolau, the professor. It is not possible for the country to continue without a solution, and the solution becomes her removal.

Read more:

Operation Carwash in Brazil causes normally staid business meeting to go off script

Thousands turn out across Brazil to demand presidents ouster

Brazils president says, Im not guilty, but even allies wonder if she can survive

Brazils ruling party wonders how it lost its populist touch
The signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership in New Zealand last month was met with some of the largest protests in recent years. The march in Auckland attracted 20,000 people, reflecting widespread opposition in the working class to a deal that will strengthen multinational corporations at the expense of jobs, working conditions and the environment, and drive up the cost of medicines.

The TPP, an agreement of 12 countries led by the US, aims to cement Washingtons control over the Asia-Pacific regions economy and roll back Chinas influence. As President Barack Obama said following the signing: TPP allows Americaand not countries like Chinato write the rules of the road in the 21st century. It is the economic front of the Obama administrations pivot to Asia which also involves a huge US military expansion throughout the region in preparation for war with China.

The organisers of the anti-TPP protests, however, support New Zealands alliance with US imperialism and its military build-up against China. They include the opposition Labour Party, the Greens, the anti-immigrant New Zealand First, the Council of Trade Unions and the two Maori nationalist partiesMana and the Maori Party. These parties oppose the TPP, or aspects of it, because they fear it will weaken less competitive sections of New Zealand business, which favour protectionist policies.

The previous Labour government cemented military and intelligence ties with the US by participating in the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Far from opposing the build-up to war, Mana recently joined the Labour Party and New Zealand First in a xenophobic campaign scapegoating Chinese immigrants and investors for New Zealands social crisis that only assists in creating the climate for war.

These parties and their pseudo-left supporters have remained silent on the growing threat of war between two nuclear-armed powers, deliberately keeping workers in the dark. They have sought, above all, to prevent the protests against the TPP from becoming part of a broader movement of the working class against war and austerity.

Instead, the protest organisers heavily promoted Maori nationalism, a pervasive form of identity politics used to divide the working class along racial lines and shackle Maori workers to their own capitalist class. Speakers from Labour, the Greens and Mana joined the right-wing Maori Party, which is part of the ruling coalition, in denouncing the TPP as both an attack on New Zealands national sovereignty and on Maori rights under the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi.

Labour Party MP Grant Robertson declared he was disgusted by the National governments decision to sign this agreement two days before we celebrate Waitangi Day, the national holiday that commemorates the signing of the Treaty by the British Empire and Maori tribal chiefs. He attacked the government for not consulting tribal leaders during TPP negotiations. The opposition parties all denounced Prime Minister John Key for refusing to attend official Waitangi Day commemorations hosted by the Ngapuhi tribe, which opposes the TPP.

The Treaty of Waitangi and Waitangi Day have assumed a quasi-religious status under successive governments as a symbol of national identity based on a supposed partnership between the European and Maori races. The media and political establishments obsessive focus on Waitangi is aimed at making race relations the axis of official politics and cultural life, and preventing workers of all races from uniting against their shared class oppression.

The promotion of the treaty as progressive is a sham. The document facilitated Britains conquest of the country with the false promise that Maori land would be protected. For most of the 20th century, the treaty was widely regarded as a confidence trick, one of many perpetrated by British imperialism throughout the world.

Since the 1980s, however, the treaty has been embraced by the ruling class as a founding national document, placing it at the centre of New Zealand nationalism. The Waitangi Tribunal, established in 1975, ostensibly to provide redress for the crimes of colonialism, began making multi-million dollar payments to Maori tribes in the early 1990s, transforming them into profitable capitalist businesses.

During this period, Labour and National governments carried out historic attacks on the working class, gutting and privatising social services, slashing corporate taxes and overseeing mass redundancies. The Waitangi Tribunal became the mechanism to elevate a handful of Maori tribal leaders and entrepreneurs into the ranks of the capitalist elite. A well-off middle class layer of lawyers, state bureaucrats and politicians has also been cultivated to act as a buffer against the Maori working class, which gained nothing from the settlements and remains one of the most oppressed sections of the working class.

This elite layer is represented in government by the Maori Party, and in opposition by the Mana Party. Both parties use the slogan of Maori sovereignty to demand a greater portion for Maori capitalists of the surplus value extracted from the working class as a whole.

In an attempt to appease the Maori Party, the National government negotiated the insertion of a clause in the TPP (Article 29.6) allowing New Zealand to adopt measures giving more favourable treatment to Maori in matters covered by the agreement, in order to fulfil its obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi.

According to the Mana and Maori Parties, however, this clause is too vague and does not guarantee that Maori business interests will be protected. Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox complained that it leaves it up to the government of the day to interpret our treaty rights.

A Maori Party spokesman at the Wellington rally on February 4 called for measures to strengthen the status of the treaty, such as an upper treaty house in parliament, [and] a parliamentary commissioner for the treaty.

Mana leader Hone Harawira, who was a member of the Maori Party until 2011, has made similar statements. He told Maori Television on February 1: We must get rid of [Prime Minister John Key] and create a Maori government and a Maori parliament that will rid us of this deal that is no good for this country or its people.

The Maori Partys opposition to the TPP is its first major dispute with the National Party government. For eight years it has loyally supported Nationals anti-working class policies of austerity and privatisation. In exchange, the government has boosted treaty settlement payments and created opportunities for Maori businesses to profit from privately-run charter schools, the sale of state-owned housing, and the privatisation of health and welfare services under the Whanau Ora scheme.

As a result, since the eruption of the 2008 global financial crisis, the wealth of the tribal elite has soared, while the working class has been hit by thousands of redundancies and other attacks on living standards.

The Auckland-based Ngati Whatua Orakei (NWO), which has been hailed by the Mana Party for supporting the anti-TPP protests, is a case in point.

The value of NWOs assets nearly doubled from $400 million in 2010 to $767 million in 2015helped by an $18 million government payment in 2011. The New Zealand Herald recently reported that the tribes commercial arm has big cashflow from occupants of its Quay Park land holdings, including Vector Arena, the three Scene apartment blocks and the Countdown supermarket and rent from the Aecom House office block.

NWO purports to invest its profits in affordable housing, for instance at the Kainga Tuatahi Housing Project on land purchased from the government in 1996. In fact, according to the Herald, 12 state houses were demolished to make way for the project. The tribe has begun to sell newly built houses, each priced at under $550,000, to meet the governments absurd definition of affordable.

The coming together of Mana with the Maori Party against the TPP exposes, once again, the fraudulent character of Manas claims to be left wing. The pseudo-left groupsFightback, the International Socialist Organisation (ISO) and Socialist Aotearoajoined Mana and campaigned for it in the 2011 and 2014 elections, falsely claiming it was pro-poor and even anti-capitalist.

The ISO published four articles on last months protests, none of which mentioned the TPPs role in Washingtons war preparations against China. The group instead echoed the bourgeois parties, stating that the TPP would undermine the governments requirement to honour the treaty [of Waitangi]. A February 16 article attacked the governments multi-million dollar payments to Maori tribes as paltry, effectively calling for larger settlements.

The ISO also complained that the TPP could imperil a claim lodged with the Waitangi Tribunal by six tribes (known as the Wai 262 claim) aimed at establishing private property rights over native New Zealand flora and fauna, and intellectual property rights over a range of traditional Maori cultural practices.

The ISOs support for this grasping Maori elite underscores its hostility to the working class. Like the other pseudo-left organisations, the ISO represents the interests of affluent sections of the middle classincluding academics, trade union bureaucrats, entrepreneurs and bourgeois party hacks. The race-based identity politics promoted by Mana and the pseudo-lefts has nothing to do with socialism, but is one of the political levers used by this layer to improve their lot under capitalism.

A genuine struggle against the TPP and thus against war and austerity can be waged only on an internationalist and socialist basis, unifying workers to put an end to their common source of oppressionthe profit system. That requires a complete break with all forms of nationalism and identity politics, including Maori nationalism, that seek to divide workers and subordinate them to sections of the ruling class.
Hillary Clinton deployed a new line of attack against her rival, Bernie Sanders, at Wednesdays Democratic debate in Miami, attacking him for supporting a 2006 amendment that protected armed volunteers at the United States southern border.



[Sanders] stood with the Minutemen vigilantes in their ridiculous, absurd efforts to, quote, hunt down immigrants, Clinton said.

It was the second time the former secretary of state had brought up the vote in the Univision/Washington Post debate at Miami Dade College. The first time, the senator from Vermont dodged the accusation and began talking about his support for immigrant workers. The second time, the moderators picked up on the charge and pressed Sanders. Did you support the Minutemen? one asked.

Of course not! he said. He accused Clinton of cherry-picking, in criticizing him for his support of one item in a larger bill he voted for. No, I do not support vigilantes, and that is a horrific statement, an unfair statement to make, he replied.

But as BuzzFeed reported earlier this year, Sanders voted yes on the amendment itself, which prevented the federal government from providing a foreign government information relating to the activities of an organized volunteer civilian action group, operating in the state of California, Texas, New Mexico or Arizona.

This was meant to protect volunteer, armed, anti-illegal immigration activists from encountering interference from Mexico. The Minutemen movement had largely died out by 2010, but at its height, it attracted thousands of activists, many of them armed, who demonstrated on the border. Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver told Yahoo News after the debate that the amendment was essentially meaningless, which was why Sanders decided he could vote for it. It was a mischievous Republican bill, Weaver said.

Clinton and Sanders waged a grueling point-by-point battle over various aspects of immigration on Wednesday night. Sanders swiped Clinton for her past support of President Obamas deportations, including those of Central American children who arrive at the border alone, and for her early opposition to providing drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants. Clinton knocked Sanders for voting against comprehensive immigration reform in 2007 and for the Minutemen vote.

Both candidates vowed that if they were elected president, they would deport only undocumented immigrants who were criminals. Democratic voters in Florida choose between the candidates in a primary Tuesday.

(Cover tile photo: Wilfredo Lee/AP)
New Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Thursday discussed the raging controversy over the affidavits filed in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case. Replying on the issue, Home minister Rajnath Singh said any issue related to terrorism should not be politicised.

Be it Ishrat Jahan case or any such case, there should not be a flip-flop by any government. But there has been a flip-flop by UPA govt in this case, said Singh.

Amid protests and slogan shouting by Congress members who had trooped into the Well of the House, Singh charged Chidambaram of coining the term "saffron terror" and "Hindu terror".

"Colour, creed and religion should not be associated with terrorism. Terror has no colour... The seculars gave colour to terrorism. Selective secularism cannot be accepted by the country," Singh said.

He said the recent statement made by Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley before a Mumbai court only reaffirmed the first affidavit filed by the UPA government on August 6, 2009 before the Gujarat High Court that Ishrat had links with LeT.

"It (Headley's statement) was the second clear indication that she was a terrorist," he said.

The minister said the second affidavit filed by the government before the High Court on September 29, 2009 "weakened" the fact that she was an LeT operative.

The Home Minister said a few key documents including two letters written by the then Home Secretary (G K Pillai) to then Attorney General late G E Vahanvati and the copy of the draft affidavit have so far been untracable.

He said the missing documents include the copy of the affidavit vetted by the AG and the draft of the second affidavit vetted by the AG on which changes were made.

"We have ordered an internal enquiry in the Home Ministry in this regard and necessary action will be taken accordingly," he said.

In his written response to the Calling Attention Motion, Singh said the notings on the concerned file do not provide any reason for filing of the second affidavit. "It has been mentioned in the affidavit that the further affidavit was being made in view of subsequent developments in relation to the issues connected with the petition and to clarify apprehensions expressed in regard to the (first) affidavit filed by Union of India as well as to refute attempts to misinterpret portions of the affidavit."

He said the second affidavit stated that all intelligence inputs "do not constitute conclusive proof" and it is for the state government and the state police to act on such inputs.

"It was further submitted that the central government is in no way concerned with such action nor does it condone or endorse any unjustified or excessive action.

"It was also mentioned that the main purpose of the first affidavit was to highlight the contradiction in the pleadings averred in the petition filed by Shamima Kausar (Ishrat's mother) and the petition which had been filed by M R Gopinath Pillai (Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai's father)," read the statement.

The first affidavit was filed on the basis of inputs from the Maharashtra and Gujarat police, besides the Intelligence Bureau, where it was said that the 19-year-old girl from the outskirts of Mumbai was an LeT activist, but this was ignored in the second affidavit, home ministry officials said.

The second affidavit, said to have been drafted by then home minister P. Chidambaram, said there was no conclusive evidence to prove that Ishrat was a terrorist, officials said.

Former home secretary G.K. Pillai had claimed that as home minister, Mr Chidambaram had recalled the file a month after the original affidavit, which described Ishrat and her slain aides as LeT operatives, was filed in the court.

Only after the affidavit was revised, as directed by the minister, did the file come to me, Mr Pillai had said.

Mr Chidambaram had said the second affidavit in the case was absolutely correct.

He had also maintained that intelligence agencies can only get inputs, they could not certify. The state police, which was to file the chargesheet, has to investigate and get evidence before filing it, he had said.

Mr Chidambaram has also expressed disappointment over Mr Pillai distancing himself from the affidavit issue, despite being equally responsible.

Ishrat, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an encounter with the Gujarat Police on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.

The city crime branch had then said those killed in the encounters were LeT terrorists and had landed in Gujarat to kill then Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
It has been a while since the Democratic candidates faced off on the subject of Hillary Clintons email during a televised debate, so it was something of a nostalgic moment when the question came up in the Univision/Washington Post event on Wednesday night.

After the disclaimer that My daughter, Paola, works for your campaign, moderator Jorge Ramos posed a multipart question to the former secretary of state, asking if it was President Obama who specifically gave you permission to use a private email server. He pressed on, asking: Would you resign if you are indicted? referring to the 104 emails that Clinton sent and received on that server that have since been labeled classified.

Clinton answered the first part by repeating what she has said on previous occasions  that the emails were not classified when she sent them, and that she did not need to ask anyone for permission because there were no restrictions on the practice when she took office. If you get indicted, would you drop out? Ramos asked again.

Oh for goodness sake, Clinton replied. Its not going to happen. Im not even answering that question.

Ramos then tried to get Bernie Sanders involved, saying he had started his campaign saying, Nobody cares about your damn emails but has referred to them more recently as a very serious issue. But Sanders wasnt biting. It is a process, and it will take its course, he said, neatly pivoting back to his campaign themes. Today in this country, the middle class is disappearing, we have massive levels of income and wealth inequality, climate change threatens the whole planet, 47 million people live in poverty.  Im going to focus on the issues facing the working families of this country.

The give-and-take set the tone for the rest of the debate  with the moderators asking pointed questions and the candidates bristling, often in unison. Do you think Donald Trump is racist? was the next question, and they refused to take the bait on that one, too.

(Cover tile photo: Carlo Allegri/Reuters)
The Democratic National Committee joined the fray of groups trolling Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump by ridiculing his now-defunct Trump University.

In the ad, released Wednesday, a fake Trump University spokesman encourages prospective students to forget the legal troubles plaguing it and look at its new course offerings.

Trump University. Yes, we have run into some hiccups, he says. But we are offering a new program: How to run for president like Donald Trump.

The supposed lessons include inflicting low blows on political opponents to prove oneself as a statesman, alienating entire groups of Americans and covering up shady finances like a warm glove on a tiny, tiny hand.

The parody ad ridicules the temperament, policy proposals and financial decisions of Trump as well as his competition for the partys nod: Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. By splicing in news clips, the Democrats strongly suggest that each is immature, intolerant, corrupt, and overall unfit to lead the United States.

Eric Walker, deputy communications director at the DNC, said that the Democrats are not going to make the same mistake the Republican campaigns did by not taking Trump seriously early in the race.

The stories about Trump University speak for themselves, Walker said in an interview with Yahoo News. It seems to have defrauded a number of individuals, and I think that should be concerning to a number of voters.

Donald Trump, left, listens as Michael Sexton introduces him at a news conference in New York at which he announced the establishment of Trump University on May 23, 2005. (Photo: Bebeto Matthews/AP)

The take-away from this election cycle, he continued, is that when confronted with such a negative force, the Republican establishment has not stood up to Trump and in fact embraced him.

The Republicans being negligent in their approach toward Trump, we have to train our firepower on him to stop him from being the president, Walker said.

Story continues

Trump University, which was founded in 2005, has been a liability for the billionaire businessman in the 2016 White House race. Rubio and Cruz have repeatedly cited the company, claiming it is an example of Trump defrauding the public.

At the GOP debate in Detroit on March 3, for instance, Rubio said he spoke to one of the programs alleged victims, who told him exactly what happened.

Donald Trump signs autographs during a campaign rally in Concord, N.C., on March 7. (Photo: Gerry Broome/AP)



They paid $15,000 for this course. They were asked for additional money for this course. If they really wanted the real secrets of success, they had to pay even more money, and so they did, Rubio said. And you know what they got in these courses? Stuff you can pull off of Zillow. When they finally realized what a scam it was, they asked for their money back. And you refused to give them their money back.

Trump countered that many, many people signed a report card at the end of the course saying it was terrific and conceded that the company provided refunds to some customers who were unhappy with their experiences. He has argued that 98 percent of participants walked away happy.



Cruzs campaign website joined in the attack by offering a Trump University Certificate of Deception. The website said Trump deceived thousands of hard-working men and women looking to make a better life for themselves.

Certificate of Deception, as shown on the Ted Cruz 2016 website. (www.tedcruz.org)

The online education program was not an accredited university and did not award college credit, despite being advertised as a university where aspiring real estate entrepreneurs would learn the tricks of the trade. Several pending class-action lawsuits accuse the for-profit operation of being a scam and misleading customers.

After the New York State Department of Education said, in a letter obtained by the New York Daily News, that the companys name was misleading and illegal, Trump University was renamed Trump Entrepreneur Initiative.

Although the DNC is just now targeting Trump with ads, the Republican National Committee (RNC) has been ridiculing Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton in attack ads for months.

This is not the first time parody has been used this campaign season. A Cruz ad, for instance, parodied a famous scene from the comedy film Office Space to portray Clinton as a criminal.

Related video:
The toxic environment thats become a trademark of Donald Trumps raucous campaign turned violent again on Wednesday when a protester at the Republican frontrunners rally in Fayetteville, N.C., was sucker-punched by one of Trumps supporters.

In a video of the incident posted to YouTube, Rakeem Jones, a 26-year-old black protester, was seen being led out of the event by security when he was punched in the face by what appeared to be a white Trump supporter. The audience cheered, and Jones was thrown to the ground by police.

The police jumped on me like I was the one swinging, Jones said. My eye still hurts. Its just shocking. The shock of it all is starting to set in. Its like this dude really hit me, and they let him get away with it. I was basically in police custody and got hit.

According to ABC News, Trumps speech was interrupted at least 17 times by anti-Trump demonstrators.

The Fayetteville Police Department said no arrests were made at the rally. But after reviewing video of the incident, police in Cumberland County arrested the man who allegedly threw the punch  John McGraw, 78, of Linden, N.C  and charged him with assault and disorderly conduct.

No one should be subjected to such a cowardly, unprovoked act as that committed by McGraw, Cumberland County Sheriff Earl Moose" Butler said in a statement Thursday afternoon. Regardless of political affiliation, speech, race, national origin, color, gender, bad reputation, prior acts or political demonstration, no other citizen has the right to assault another person or to act in such a way as this defendant did. I hope that the courts will handle this matter with the appropriate severity for McGraws severe and gross violation of this victims rights.

Shortly after the conclusion Wednesdays rally, Inside Edition interviewed McGraw, who freely admitted assaulting Jones.

You bet I liked it, McGraw said when asked if he liked the event, "clocking the hell out of that big mouth.

Story continues

McGraw was then asked why he punched Jones.

Well, number one, we dont know if hes ISIS, McGraw said, We dont know who he is, but we know hes not acting like an American and cussing meand sticking his face in my head. If he wants it laid out, I laid it out.

He added: Yes, he deserved it. The next time we see him, we might have to kill him.

Meanwhile, Trumps Democratic counterparts condemned the incident.

"No one in America should ever fear for their safety at a political rally, Bernie Sanders said in a statement. This ugly incident confirms that the politics of division has no place in our country. Mr. Trump should take responsibility for addressing his supporters violent actions.

Count me among those who are truly distraught and even appalled by a lot of what I see going on, what I hear being said, Hillary Clinton told MSNBC. "You know, you dont make America great by, you know, dumping on everything that made America great, like freedom of speech and assembly and, you know, the right of people to protest.

She added: As the [Trump] campaign goes further, more and more Americans are going to be really disturbed by the kind of campaign hes running.

Its not the first time a Trump rally has taken a violent turn. CBS News reports that police are investigating at least two alleged assaults that occurred at a rally in Kentucky.

And Trump himself has helped fuel the violence.

At a rally in Las Vegas last month, the brash billionaire said he wanted to punch a protester who was being escorted from the event.

Theres a guy, totally disruptive, throwing punches. Were not allowed to punch back anymore, Trump said. I love the old days. You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? Theyd be carried out in a stretcher.

He added: Id like to punch him in the face, Ill tell ya.

In November, after a Black Lives Matter demonstrator was punched and kicked at a rally in Birmingham, Ala., Trump suggested the activist deserved to be assaulted.

Maybe he should have been roughed up, Trump said on Fox News.

And its not just protesters who have been roughed up at the real estate moguls campaign events.

Last month, a Time magazine photographer was grabbed by the neck and slammed to the ground by a member of the Secret Service at a Trump rally at Radford University in Virginia.

And on Tuesday, Michelle Fields, a reporter for Breitbart News, was reportedly grabbed and nearly thrown to the ground by Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski as she was attempting to ask the GOP frontrunner a question after his press conference.

Trump acknowledged the question, but before he could answer I was jolted backwards, Fields wrote in a blog post. Someone had grabbed me tightly by the arm and yanked me down. I almost fell to the ground, but was able to maintain my balance. Nonetheless, I was shaken.

While Fields did not see who grabbed her, a reporter for the Washington Post told her it was Lewandowski.

I quickly turned around and saw Lewandowski and Trump exiting the building together. No apology. No explanation for why he did this, she wrote. Even if Trump was done taking questions, Lewandowski would be out of line. Campaign managers arent supposed to try to forcefully throw reporters to the ground, no matter the circumstance.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks dismissed Fields claim.

"There are often large crowds aggressively seeking access to Mr. Trump, Hicks said in a statement to ABC News. And our staff would never do anything to harm another individual.

In response, Fields tweeted a photo of bruises on her left arm.





I guess these just magically appeared on me @CLewandowski_ @realDonaldTrump. So weird. pic.twitter.com/oD8c4D7tw3  Michelle Fields (@MichelleFields) March 10, 2016



I guess these just magically appeared on me, she wrote.

At Thursdays Republican presidential debate in Miami, Trump was asked if he believes hes helped create a tone at his rallies where violence would be encouraged.

I hope not. I truly hope not, Trump replied. People come with tremendous passion and love for the country, and when they see protest  when they see whats going on in this country, they have anger thats unbelievable. They have anger.

He added: We have some protesters who are bad dudes, they have done bad things. They are swinging, they are really dangerous and they get in there and they start hitting people. And we had a couple big, strong, powerful guys doing damage to people, not only the loudness, the loudness I dont mind. But doing serious damage.
Photography: Roy Beeson



A former face of Boss, Calvin Klein, and H&M, Garrett Neff may be the closest thing we have to a male supermodel, one whos posed for Vogue, appeared on 30 Rock as a young Jack Donaghy, and counts Karl Lagerfeld as a colleague and friend. It may be surprising then that the 31-year-old Delaware native and founder of swimwear line Katama chooses to make his home not in some loft in NoHo or waterfront property in Dumbo  nope, Neff lives with a roommate (!) on the Upper West Side.

Its definitely not some super cool, sleek neighborhood, Neff says, but thats actually the way I like it. You dont run into people from work or have to deal with a scene, like in the Meatpacking or something. The model, who was discovered at the Miami International Airport in 2005 (and soon began working for Ralph Lauren and Abercrombie & Fitch), may owe at least some of his longevity to this low-key demeanor. Unlike some pretty boys who flame out after a few years, you wont see Neff gramming from the club or posting butt shots on the beach  his feed feels much more, well, mundane: old family pictures figure heavily, as do work images and evidence of healthy living.

Known in the fashion world for his work ethic (and his down-to-earth reputation), Neffs home feels like a spiritual extension of his personality. So much of New York feels out of your control, he says, so when I was thinking about my home, I really wanted it to be my own sanctuary, so its all very comfortable and organized, but not sterile. Though Neff has lived in New York since 2007, he only moved into this apartment in 2012, when one of his fraternity brothers (he graduated from Bucknell in 2007) inherited his parents apartment right off Central Park West and was looking for a roommate. The out-of-the-way location came with an unheard-of amount of space  all the better to accommodate everything Neffs acquired over the years: artwork by friends like Jeremy Kost and nightlife photographer Hanuk Hanuk, midcentury family heirlooms, souvenirs from jobs abroad. Ive gone through phases, for sure, says Neff, There was a time when all I wanted were really chunky, heavy, masculine things. Ive gone through midcentury modern phases. Everything just sort of finds its place now that I have the space.

Story continues

For someone with no formal design training, Neff has shown a surprising knack for understanding interiors  lush green plants complement antique pieces of wooden furniture, a series of white frames punctuates a darkly painted wall, and a circular motif softens a whitewashed bedroom. Much of Neffs furniture pays homage to New England (he often spent summers in Marthas Vineyard), and its probably fair to say that the apartment has something of a Lands End aesthetic, but that would overlook the mementos from Europe and South America and the original pieces of modern art. I like mixing the old with the new, says Neff, and things with actual sentimental value, whether its a piece by a friend or something I inherit from a grandparent or a souvenir I bought abroad that reminds me of a time in my life. Which isnt to say that Neff is above the occasional piece from Restoration Hardware. Thats also the beauty of New York  if I really need something, I can go out and get it, and its not going to look out of place or big box.

Being on the Upper West Side has the added advantage of proximity to the garment district in midtown Manhattan, where Neff often scouts fabrics and trim for Katama, now gearing up for its second summer season. Are there other things the neighborhood (known for Barney Greengrass, Zabars, and being the stroller capital of Manhattan) has going for it, though? Theres not a whole lot going on, I gotta say, laughs Neff. The avenues are really wide, and it takes a long time to walk everywhere, unlike Tribeca, where I used to live and everything was half a block away. But you find your gems. My go-to spot is this Peruvian joint called Pio Pio, which is rotisserie chicken, or if Im feeling adventurous Ill walk 10 blocks to this country diner called Good Enough to Eat. As someone whos professionally wearing a bathing suit year-round, though, Neff knows one way that the Upper West Side beats Tribeca: Im literally across from Central Park and the reservoir. I mean, being able to run in that park is the dream.

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.
The bench noted that emphasis and stress have been laid that due to stray dogs, there has been threat to life, health, movement and sometimes security of the human beings. (Representational image)

New Delhi: With a view to striking a balance between safety of human beings from dog bites and protection of animals, the Supreme Court on Wednesday empowered the authorities across the country to sterilise or vaccinate stray dogs in accordance with the procedure contemplated in the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and the rules.

Issuing this direction, a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C. Pant made it clear that no organisation should create any kind of obstacle or impediment for such sterilisation or vaccination. We are sure that the Board and the Animal Welfare Organisation sha-ll act within the parameters of the Act and the Rules.

Earlier senior advocate and amicus curiae Mr. Dushyant A. Dave submitted that though the Act and Rules provide for sterilization of dogs so that safety of the human beings is not jeopardised, yet they are not being sterilised by the authorities, either for lack of funds or due to apathy.

He said none of the activists or animal lovers come forward whenever there is a dog bite and even when some children had been killed by stray dogs they did not bother to come to their rescue. He said due to stray dog menace many foreigners are not willing to come to India and this menace is affecting the tourism industry'

Senior advocate Shekar Naphade, for Mumbai Municipal Council said that it is the duty of the Board and the Animal Welfare Organisation to assist the local authorities and not to create impediment. The bench noted that emphasis and stress have been laid that due to stray dogs, there has been threat to life, health, movement and sometimes security of the human beings.
Lakhimpur: Controversial leader Sadhvi Prachi on Wednesday dared actor Anupam Kher to send her and BJP lawmaker Yogi Adityanath to jail.

Addressing a programme in Kolkata recently, Kher had said "there are some people in the party (BJP) who speak nonsense, and ill-behave, whether it is Sadhvi or Yogi...they should be put behind the bars, thrown out of the party."

Responding to this, Sadhvi Prachi said, "We will continue our fight for the Hindu cause and if Kher has courage, he should jail me and Yogi Adityanath."

Sadhvi Prachi termed the Justice Vishnu Sahai Commission report on the Muzaffarnagar riots as a "mere eye-wash".

She said the report had "failed" to pinpoint the prime accused who is a "prominent political personality".

Sadhvi Prachi termed JNU as "a factory of anti-national activities" and demanded immediate ban on "such activities" on the JNU campus.
Mumbai: Lavishing praise on Anna Hazare for his contribution to society, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said he cannot withdraw his security cover after the social activist questioned the protection assigned to him.

In a letter to Hazare, Fadnavis also apologised to him for any "lapses" in the security cover provided to him.

Describing Hazare as a "sage-like personality", he said the social activist had done a lot for society and his life was precious. "I can't withdraw your security cover," the CM wrote.

Hazare, who has been given 'Z' category security cover, had recently alleged that the security personnel assigned to him were lax in their duty.

At the same time, he had said the government need not upgrade his security and that he won't blame it if something untoward were to happen to him.

Hazare said it was not easy to support a retinue of nine bodyguards and 28 police personnel at Ralegan Siddhi village.

He had said many a times those tasked with his security weren't there or come late when he is doing his morning yoga exercise.

"They are also engrossed in their mobile phones and busy chatting. They won't even realise if someone were to walk in and kill me," he had said.

The anti-corruption crusader had said that increasing his security would put a financial burden on the state. Hazare's statement had come after several threat letters were sent to him last year.
The allegations, challenges and counter-challenges rocked the House through the day, with Mr Reddy daring the Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to seek a CBI probe into the land scam.

Hyderabad: All YSR Congress MLAs except the party chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy were suspended for day after they stalled the AP Assembly demanding a CBI probe into the alleged land scam in Amaravati.

The allegations, challenges and counter-challenges rocked the House through the day, with Mr Reddy daring the Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to seek a CBI probe into the land scam.

Mr Naidu countered Mr Reddys charge by challenging him to back his allegations with proof. He said that if this was done, he would dismiss the guilty ministers from the Cabinet or else Mr Reddy would have to tender an apology. Agreeing with Mr Naidus defence, the Speaker said that if a CBI inquiry was ordered, the image of the new state would be damaged and eventually deter investors.

Earlier, the Assembly witnessed repeated disruptions from both ruling and Opposition members, after Mr Reddy raised the alleged Amaravati land scam issue. Mr Reddy alleged that ministers, TD MLAs and leaders managed to purchase huge chunks of land in the capital region on the basis of insider information. He accused the CM of violating the oath of secrecy and leaking the location of the capital area before announcing it officially.

Jagans Insider trading barb leaves CM confused

While YSR Congress chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy used the term insider trading several times during his speech accusing the AP CM of being the main culprit in the land scam, Mr Naidu, in his response, used the word inside instead of insider.

The CM said that the farmers pooled about 34,000 acres and another 20,000 acres of state-owned land is available to build the capital.

A total of 54,000 acres of land is with the government and no one has purchased any land. I dont understand the meaning of this inside trading. I ask the YSRC MLAs if they know the meaning, Mr Naidu said.
Hyderabad: In a controversial decision, TS Assembly Speaker S. Madhusudhana Chary on Thursday accepted the merger of 12 TD MLAs into the TRS Legislature Party and allotted them seats in the Treasury benches.

The Assembly issued a bulletin on Thursday stating that the Speaker, after considering the TD MLAs plea seeking merger with the TRS since they constituted more than two-thirds of the TDLP in the House, agreed to allot seats in the Treasury benches. The 12 MLAs include minister Talasani Srinivasa Yadav and legislature party leader Errabelli Dayakar Rao. With this decision the strength of the TRS in the Assembly rose from 66 to 78 officially, without considering the defection of four Congress and two YSR Congress MLAs in the House of 120.

Now, Mr Srinivas Yadav, who had joined the K. Chandrasekhar Rao Cabinet on December 17, 2014, need not seek re-election. He had tendered his resignation as an MLA on the day he took oath as minister, but it had not been accepted. He may now formally inform the Speaker about the withdrawal of his resignation letter.
The number of IAF fighter squadrons are set to drop with the phasing out of old planes like the MiG-21. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: In a major admission, the Indian Air Force said Thursday it simply didnt have adequate fighter planes to launch a full-fledged air campaign in case of a two-front war, an euphemism for the theoretical possibility of a joint Sino-Pakistani attack on India. The IAF has been desperately seeking the induction of new fighter jets like the Rafale but the MMRCA acquisition has been delayed for years.

The number of IAF fighter squadrons are set to drop with the phasing out of old planes like the MiG-21. To make things worse, the induction of the Tejas, the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft, has been delayed as well. The sanctioned strength of IAF fighter squadrons should be 42, but it is only 33 at present.

On Thursday, speaking a few days before a massive IAF firepower demonstration in the western desert area of Pokhran, IAF vice-chief Air Marshal B.S. Dhanoa, who is likely to be the next IAF chief, said: Our numbers are not adequate to fully execute an air campaign in a two-front scenario... Are the numbers adequate? No. The squadrons are winding down. We have given our concerns to the government. (It) is seized of this problem, and the reason the government signed the deal for 36 aircraft (Rafale) on a government-to-government basis is the urgency it felt because of the depletion in squadron numbers.

IAF officers said the defence and external affairs ministries had decided, after consultations, that Pakistani and Chinese air attaches posted in New Delhi will not be invited to attend the firepower demonstration at Pokhran on March 18, that is organised once every three years.

The IAF vice-chief also said the proposed acquisition of F-16 aircraft by Pakistan from the US would not alter the balance of air power in the subcontinent but will make it more difficult for India to maintain air supremacy. I have to put more hi-tech platforms against it. MMRCA is designed in such a way that we need to offset this capability, he said.

Defence observers note that the IAF show of strength at Pokhran, designed to project the capability to punish an aggressor, will send a clear signal to Pakistan about the strength of the Indian deterrent capability. In fact, the IAF vice-chief said events like the Kargil conflict happened whenever the adversary (Pakistan) developed doubts on the strength of Indian deterrence. When does war, conflict or adventure (Kargil) take place? It takes place when he (adversary) has a doubt (about) your deterrence. If you demonstrate your deterrence, we should have peace as he will know that he will be hit very badly, Air Marshal Dhanoa added.

Sources, meanwhile, pointed out there was no immediate danger or prospect of any two-front war since China was focusing elsewhere and not showing any aggressive intent on air power vis-a-vis India but the possibility of a two-front scenario some time in the future is something Indian strategic planners will always factor in.
Hyderabad: Political parties on Thursday came in support of parents associations in their struggle for bringing about fee regulation in private schools and vowed to participate in agitations taken up for the purpose.

The Hyderabad School Parents Association, along with NGOs working in the education sector, had recently formed a Joint Action Committee for School Fee Regulation.

The JAC held a round-table conference with all political parties on Thursday.

BJP floor leader K. Laxman, Congress deputy floor leader Mallu Bhatti Vikra-marka, TRS leader Ashwin Maganti, AAP leader M. Venkat Reddy, MIM MLC Altaf Hyder Rizvi, CPM leader Sitaramulu and CPI leader Gunda Mal-lesh were among those who took part.

The leaders promised to take up the issue in the ongoing Assembly session and bring pressure on the government to pass legislation on fee regulation along the lines of Tamil Nadu.

JAC leader M. Subramaniam said political support would go a long way in building consensus on passing a Bill to establish an autonomous fee regulatory body for private schools.

Mr Vikramarka said when the government could regulate fees in professional colleges by setting up the Admissions and Fee Regulatory Committee headed by a retired High Court judge, there was no reason why it could not do the same for private schools.

"Almost all parents are dependent on private schools for education of their wards due to poor standards in government schools. The private schools are exploiting this demand and collecting hefty fees. Even for a nursery seat, lakhs in fees are being collected in some schools,? he said and promised to demand a legislation.
The Upper House, which had been witnessing a united Opposition trying to corner the government on several issues, saw a rare bonhomie between the treasury bench and the Opposition.

New Delhi: A Bill seeking to regulate the real estate sector, bring in transparency and help protect consumer interests was passed by the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

Moving The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2015 for consideration and passage, urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said it aims to protect the interests of buyers.

The Congress had extended its support to the Bill. The Bill also provides for imprisonment of up to three years in case of promoters and up to one year in case of real estate agents and buyers for violation of orders.

No more Realty bites

The Rajya Sabha on Thursday passed the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2015, which is aimed at bringing transparency in the sector and protecting consumer interests.

Describing it as a great news for aspiring house buyers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the Bill fully ensures more transparency, accountability and efficiency in real estate sector, freeing it from many existing flaws" and will give a strong impetus to our vision of 'housing for all.

The Upper House, which had been witnessing a united Opposition trying to corner the government on several issues, saw a rare bonhomie between the treasury bench and the Opposition.

The Congress, which had extended full support to the Bill, also congratulated BJP MP Anil Dave, who headed the select committee that looked into the Bill, for taking everyone on board.

Congress Kumari Selja said the whole country is waiting for this Bill... Consumers are waiting with bated breath for this.

Urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu described the Bill, which was passed by a voice vote, as the need of the hour. He also sought the support of AIADMK members, who had opposed the measure. Mr Naidu also said the Bill will renew investors' confidence and ensure timely completion of projects and create more opportunities.

Asserting that Bill would prohibit unaccounted money from being pumped into the sector, the minister said 70 per cent of the money has to be deposited in bank accounts through cheques. To a suggestion by Ms Selja on inclusion of a non-discriminatory clause in the Bill, Mr Naidu said, There will be no discrimination of any kind on basis of religion, region, caste, creed or sex and gender and we will include that in the rules.

There has to be single-window clearance for all approvals, he added. The Bill also provides for imprisonment of up to three years in case of promoters and up to one year in case of real estate agents and buyers for any violation of orders of appellate tribunals or monetary penalties or both.

Mr Naidu said it proposed that a minimum of 70 per cent collections from buyers should be deposited in separate escrow account to cover cost of construction and land.
Hyderabad: With the Telangana State Assembly Speaker S. Madhusudana Chary accepting the merger of 12 Telugu Desam MLAs into the TRS Legislature Party on Thursday, the TDLP now has only three legislators  A. Revanth Reddy, Sandra Venkata Veeraiah and R. Krishnaiah.

As per convention and Assembly rules, since it has fewer than five MLAs, it cannot have a separate legislature party office and will have to vacate the office that it occupies.

The Speakers decision is most likely to create a controversy in the backdrop of petitions filed against the former TD MLAs seeking their disqualification on grounds of defection.

The petitions filed by E. Dayakar Rao, then a TD MLA, are pending with the Speaker who had issued notices to the MLAs and sought replies. Mr Dayakar Rao had unsuccessfully approached the High Court and the Supreme Court over the issue. Whether or not a Legislature Party can adopt a merger resolution on its own without the original party taking such a decision is a grey area.

In 2011, the Praja Rajyam, headed by actor-politician K. Chiranjeevi had decided to merge with the Congress both at the party and at the legislature party levels.

Last year, Telangana Legislative Council Chairman K. Swamy Goud had also merged five TD MLCs into the TRS based on a petition submitted by the MLCs pending their petitions seeking disqualification.

The TD legislators submitted a petition to the Speaker which stated: We have the required strength for merger into the TRS Legislature Party under Para 4 of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution. The petition was duly accepted by Mr Madhusudana Chary.

The legislators are:

Errabelli Dayakar Rao, Talasani Srinivas Yadav (at present a minister in the TS Cabinet), G. Sayanna, T. Prakash Goud, Teegala Krishna Reddy, Manchireddy Kishan Reddy, Madhavaram Krishna Rao, K.P. Vivekananda Goud, Challa Dharma Reddy, S. Rajender Reddy, Maganti Gopinath and Arikepudi Gandhi.

What the law says

Paragraph 4 of 10th Schedule of Constitution states:

Disqualification on ground of defection not to apply in case of merger.

(1) A member of a House shall not be disqualified under sub-paragraph (1) of paragraph 2 where his original political party merges with another political party and he claims that he and any other members of his original political party (a) have become members of such other political party or, as the case may be, of a new political party formed by such merger; or (b) have not accepted the merger and opted to function as a separate group, and from the time of such merger, such other political party or new political party or group, as the case may be, shall be deemed to be the political party to which he belongs for the purposes of sub-paragraph (1) of paragraph 2 and to be his original political party for the purposes of this sub-paragraph.

(2) For the purposes of sub-paragraph (1) of this paragraph, the merger of the original political party of a member of a House shall be deemed to have taken place if, and only if, not less than two-thirds of the members of the legislature party concerned have agreed to such merger.
Teach for Change founder Chaitanya M.S.R.K, actor Lakshmi Manchu, former minister Geetha Reddy, actor and former Miss Universe Sushmita Sen, and socialites Pinky Reddy and Shilpa Reddy, former Mrs India, at the annual fundraiser of Teach for Change at Taj Falaknuma Palace. (Photo: DC)

Hyderabad: Teach For Change launched its 2016 campaign of the Passionate Foundations English Programme that is aimed at supporting English in government high schools.

Deccan Chronicle supports Teach for Change in its initiative. Actor Sushmita Sen, who was part of the event at Taj Falaknuma, urged citizens to volunteer for the 2016 academic year.

Anyone with a passion to bring about change and who can spare two hours every Saturday can volunteer with Teach for Change. The programme is active in 100 government high schools in Hyderabad and 10 each in Vijayawada. Chennai and Bengaluru.

Teach founder CEO Chaitanya M.R.S.K. said, The programme focuses on enhancing exposure to spoken English while introducing students to entry-level reading and writing skills. Since the programme is delivered by a teacher, an innovative teacher-training package has been devised to build confidence and increase the capacity of the teacher. The supporting teaching-learning material is child and teacher-friendly and set in a contextual framework.

The key elements of the programme are teacher training and simple, attractive teaching-learning material. There is a need for volunteers in Hyderabad, Chennai and Karnataka. Anybody who has the passion and can spare some time can join us as volunteers, added Mr Chaitanya.
Hyderabad: The TRS governments poll promise of KG to PG free education scheme isnt a reality as it enters the third year.

The government has failed to come out with a base document on how to implement this scheme even after extending the deadline many times. The base document had to be prepared by December 2015.

After the base document, the government wants to evolve consensus among all stakeholders, incorporating their views on the modalities of the scheme.

Going by present conditions, it appears that the scheme may not see the light of day till the 2017-18 academic year, at the very least.

Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari, who holds the education portfolio, said, The government is trying to launch the scheme in some schools on a pilot basis in the new academic year. We want a fool-proof policy and mechanism in place for the effective implementation of the scheme. The delay is because we didnt want to implement it in haste, which will defeat the very purpose of the scheme.

The major hindrance remains the government itself: It lacks clarity over what KG to PG free education means. It has not decided whether the scheme would cover government educational institutions or private ones.

If it is to be restricted to government institutions, education is already free in these institutions. But there are few takers for government schools and junior colleges, due to poor facilities and teaching standards.

If the government wants to cover private schools, it is not in a position to pay private institutions due to financial constraints.The government is planning to construct residential schools with English medium (preferably CBSE syllabus) to launch the scheme.

That would take three to five years since the existing budgetary allocation isnt sufficient. A major chunk of funds is going towards salaries and pensions for government teachers.

Due to financial constraints, it is avoiding implementation of even the 25 per cent Right to Education quota for poor in private schools as hundreds of crores are needed to pay the fees for students. Notwithstanding this, it is planning to provide free education from KG to PG for all students.
New Delhi: While controversy continues to plague the Art of Livings World Culture Festival as its founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar sounded defiant on Thursday, saying he would rather go to jail than pay the Rs 5-crore fine imposed by the National Green Tribunal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to attend the cultural extravaganza starting Friday on the Yamuna flood plains. President Pranab Mukherjee had earlier cancelled plans to attend the valedictory session on Sunday. The NGT bench, headed by its chief Swatantar Kumar, sternly asked Art of Living Foundation to deposit the penalty by Friday, failing which the law will take its own course.

In a separate development, Zimbabwes state-controlled ZBC TV confirmed that President Robert Mugabe, who was to be one of the guests of honour, has called off his engagement at the festival.

The Supreme Court refused to entertain a plea seeking its direction to stop the three-day mega-event as a bench headed by Chief Justice T.S. Thakur asked the petitioner, Bhartiya Kishan Majdoor Samiti, to approach the NGT.

Defending the festival, Union urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said the event was being opposed as it was Hindu and Bharatiya.

The AOL has drawn a lot of criticism over the possible environmental damage the event, likely to be attended by over 3.5 million people, will cause to the Yamuna. On Wednesday the NGT imposed a fine of Rs 5 crores on AOL for violating several environmental norms, and penalised and reprimanded the Delhi Development Authority and the Delhi Pollution Control Board for not applying their mind and failing to perform their functions.

We have not done anything wrong. We have been taintless and will remain so. We are law-abiding citizens. We will go to jail but not pay a penny, said spiritual guru Ravi Shankar on Thursday, reiterating: Not a single tree has been felled, and just four have been pruned. He said: It was unreasonable to ask to shift the venue just two weeks before the event.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said his government would have suggested some environmentally suitable venue for the gala event had AOL approached it earlier.

The Delhi police, which has been monitoring the security situation at the venue closely, prepared a fresh status report under the supervision of special commissioner (law and order) Deepak Mishra and decided to heighten its deployment to around 6,000 personnel by roping in all 11 police districts and several specialised units.

Red-flagging some shortcomings, the Delhi police said a lack of direction boards, no fencing on the path leading to the venue, especially from Gates 10 and 11, which are to be open to the public, and inadequate CCTV cameras were some shortcomings listed in the status report.

Special commissioner of police (traffic) Muktesh Chander, who is charting out the traffic plan for the event, also visited the venue on Thursday to take stock of the arrangements and advised people to take public transport while avoiding the Noida Link Road, NH-24 and the Ring Road stretch from the point of intersection with Bhairon Marg till the mouth of the DND Flyway.

This comes a day after the green tribunal had expressed helplessness over banning the event because of fait accompli.

They still have time till tomorrow to deposit Rs 5 crores fine as environment compensation in compliance with the directions of the tribunal, NGT chairman Swatantar Kumar said Thursday on an application which said AOL had not paid the amount, adding: If there is any breach of any condition, the matter will be taken up as and when required and the law will take its own course. The NGT also refused to hold an urgent hearing on a fresh plea seeking a stay on the event, stating: There is no urgency in it.

The petitioner, environmentalist Manoj Mishra, is likely to move court with a plea of contempt against AOL for not paying the fine on Wednesday. He approached the NGT on Thursday complaining AOL has not taken permissions from agencies like the police, fire brigade and CPWD.

Dismissing reports that the culture ministry had given Rs 2.25 crores to AOL for the event, Union minister Mahesh Sharma clarified that the government has not extended any financial support for the event but Rs 2.25 crores was given to the Art of Living Foundation as part of routine grants to organisations promoting art and culture.

Swaraj Abhiyan leader Prashant Bhushan attacked the Centre and the Delhi government, accusing them of violating rules and destroying the environment by allowing the event. Modi & Kejriwal govts come together to violate every rule & destroy Env to sponsor SriSri Circus. Both Supremos also agreed not to allow Lokpal! Violation of all Env rules, no fire clearance & corroded pipes used for stage. Will Modi/AK be held liable for disaster?(sic) Mr Bhushan tweeted.
New Delhi: A Supreme Court judge on Thursday recused from hearing appeals pertaining to dropping of criminal conspiracy charge against L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and other BJP-VHP leaders in the Babri Masjid demolition case.

Justice V Gopala Gowda, who was heading the bench also comprising Justice Arun Mishra, recused himself from the hearing without citing any reason and said, "let the matter be placed before the Chief Justice" for its allocation to some other bench.

The appeals were filed by one Haji Mahboob Ahmad and the CBI against the dropping of conspiracy charges against senior BJP leaders Advani, Joshi and 16 others, for demolition of the disputed medieval structure in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.

The pleas had sought setting aside of the Allahabad High Court's order of May 20, 2010, which had dropped section 120B (criminal conspiracy) under the IPC while upholding a special court's decision.

In September last year, the CBI had told the apex court that its decision-making was not influenced by anyone and the dropping of criminal conspiracy charge against senior BJP leaders in the case was not at its instance.

"The decision-making process of the CBI is completely independent. All decisions are taken based on correct facts in the light of the extant law. There is no question of any person, body or institution influencing the decision-making process of CBI or the manner in which it pursues its cases in courts," the agency had said in an affidavit.

The agency had said its decision-making process was carried out strictly in accordance with the provisions of CBI Crime Manual and there was a "hierarchic" mechanism that allowed officers at each level to take decisions and make reasoned recommendations in an independent manner.

Earlier, the apex court had sought responses of Advani, Joshi, union minister Uma Bharti and 16 others on Ahmad's plea.

Besides BJP leaders Advani, Joshi and Bharti, the court had also sought response from Himachal Pradesh Governor Kalyan Singh, among others.

Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray and VHP leader Acharya Giriraj Kishore were among the accused, who have since died.

The others against whom the charge was dropped included Vinay Katiyar and Vishnu Hari Dalmiya, Satish Pradhan, C R Bansal, Ashok Singhal, Giriraj Kishore (now deceased), Sadhvi Ritambhara, V H Dalmia, Mahant Avaidhynath, R V Vedanti, Paramhans Ram Chandra Das, Jagdish Muni Maharaj, B L Sharma, Nritya Gopal Das, Dharam Das, Satish Nagar and Moreshwar Save.

The Allahabad high court, while upholding dropping of criminal conspiracy charge, however, had at that time allowed CBI to proceed with other charges against Advani and others in a Rae Bareily court, under whose jurisdiction the case falls.

The May 2010 order of the high court had said there was no merit in CBI's revision petition against the May 4, 2001 order of the special court which had directed dropping of criminal conspiracy charge against them.

There are two sets of cases -- one against Advani and others who were on the dais at Ram Katha Kunj in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992 when the Babri Masjid was demolished, while the other case was against lakhs of unknown 'karsevaks' who were in and around the disputed structure.

CBI had chargesheeted Advani and 20 others under sections 153A (promoting enmity between classes), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 505 (false statements, rumours etc circulated with the intent to cause mutiny or disturb public peace) of the IPC.

It had subsequently invoked charges under section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC, which was quashed by the special court whose decision was upheld by the high court.

While upholding the special court's order, the high court had said CBI at no point of time, either during the trial at Rae Bareily or in its revision petition, ever stated that there was offence of criminal conspiracy against the leaders.
New Delhi: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Lok Sabha on Wednesday over the issue of black money and JNU.

Gandhi said Modiji brought a 'Fair and Lovely Yojna' to convert black money into white and further blamed him of destroying UPA's work against insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir and terrorism.

Here are the live updates:

5:30 pm: On India-Pakistan relations, Gandhi says that Pakistan sent trained killers into the heart of Mumbai, who killed and butchered 200 people.

Our government begged the then CM of Gujarat, not to go to Mumbai. And he went there and grabbed his headlines while our people died, says Gandhi.

It is the work in J&K that the UPA did, that makes us proud. By the end we had broken the back of insurgency. But what does the PM do? He decides to have a cup of tea with Nawaz Sharif. PM destroyed our work in J&K when he went to meet Pakistan PM Nawaz, because he thinks only his opinion matters. He did not consult the country's able bureaucrats and experts. He disrespected the flag and destroyed the conversations with the country's citizens. PM just has to listen to his country, listen to Rajnath, Smriti, Sushma, listen to your MPs. We are not your enemies, listen to us as well, we don't hate you. Just give the people the dignity of their word, says Rahul.

5:25 pm: On the Naga Peace Accord, Gandhi says, PM said that he'd solved the Nagaland crisis. Our CMs had not briefed us about anything, so we called them and they said they hadn't heard anything of the sort. Even the Home Minister had no idea about this. Did the Home Minister know about the accord? Did the Naga CM know about the accord? And where has it gone now? Gone with the wind?

5:20 pm: Gandhi says, You have been taught by your RSS teachers that there's only one truth in the universe - your own. That nobody's opinion matters. PM can't run the country based on his own opinion. Country is not the PM, and PM is not the country.

5:15 pm: On JNU row, Gandhi said the students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar gave a 20-minute speech on the campus, in which he never said a word against the country, and still has been put in jail.

40 per cent students of JNU, their parents income is less than Rs 6,000. Why are you behind JNU? Because they are poor, weak, Dalits and Tribals. You want them to stay behind? We will not let this happen. You will not be able to crush JNU or the poor of the country. I want to speak a little bit about religion. Tell me, which holy book says that we should thrash our teachers. Why were JNU teachers, students and media beaten outside the Patiala House courts? And when they were, why did your government not even say a word? says Gandhi.

5:10 pm: There's Modi Ji 'Fair and Lovely Yojna', kale dhan to kaise gora banaya jaye (How to convert black money into white), says Gandhi.

"Modi ji had promised employment. When you ask people have they been given employment, nobody is raising their hands. Modi ji said I have not seen a scheme as bad as MGNREGA. He said it is a failed scheme and it has destroyed the nation but I will not remove it so people can see UPA's mistake. But Arun Jaitley came to me and said that it's a very good scheme. I told him, why don't you say this to your boss. When money was allotted to MGNREGA, I closed my eyes and thought it was Chidambaram presenting Budget'," says Rahul Gandhi.

5:00 pm: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi attacks Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Lok Sabha over the issue of black money. "Country is not the PM, and PM is not the country," says Gandhi.

3.35 pm: "We have no holy cows to be protect," says Arun Jaitley on Aircel-Maxis case.

3.30 pm: "Allegation that the probe is slow is incorrect. If in any scam, a person is found connected or cornered, no one will be spared," says Jaitley.

3.22 pm: Arun Jaitley informed the Lok Sabha that the CBI had already filed a chargesheet in the matter and the Aircel-Maxis case would now proceed to trial. "As result of series of raid conducted by Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax Department, lot of incriminating things have been seized," informed Jaitley.

3.20 pm: Cannot disclose details of the Aircel-Maxis deal case, says Arun Jaitley.

3.15 pm: Guilty will be punished, says Arun Jaitley in LS on Aircel-Maxis case.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament on Wednesday. (Photo: Video grab)

1.07 pm: Lok Sabha takes up debate on Aircel-Maxis issue amid loud protests from Congress MPs who said that it is not on the agenda.

1.05 pm: Rajya Sabha adjourned till 2 pm amid ruckus.

11.50 am: Rajya Sabha has been adjourned till noon following uproar by AIADMK MPs on Chidambaram issue. The Congress party members, meanwhile, protested over alleged Gujarat land scam.

11.30 am: Amid protests, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told Rajya Sabha that there should be a inquiry in the Gujarat land issue involving Chief Minister Anandiben Patel's daughter.

11.10 am: "We are ready for discussion on Karti Chidambaram issue, AIADMK should give notice," says MA Naqvi in Rajya Sabha.

11.00 am: AIADMK members continue protest against Karti Chidambaram in Rajya Sabha.

Read: Ready for discussion over Chidambaram issue: BJP

In a major revelation on Tuesday that has the potential to spark a fresh political row and disrupt the functioning of the Parliament, Mani claimed that he did not draft the second affidavit and had been ordered to sign the file in the Ishrat Jahan case. His claims came days after former home secretary G.K. Pillai alleged that Chidambaram bypassed him and rewrote the second affidavit submitted to a court in this connection.

As soon as the House met on Wednesday, AIADMK MPs trooped into the Well of Lok Sabha shouting slogans and demanded action from the government. Amid the din, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said the government has no problem in discussing the matter in any manner and also take necessary action.

AIADMK members were earlier raising slogans like 'NDA sarkar take action' and displaying copies of a newspaper which has claimed that Karti has invested in real estate in various countries, as per investigations by Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax authorities during searches at his premises.

Protesting against the Speaker's decision to allow discussion on the matter, Congress members rushed into the Well. Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge wondered how can it be allowed.

The Congress members were heard shouting 'we want privilege motion'. Congress and other party members have given notices for privilege motion against HRD Minister Smriti Irani for allegedly misleading the House.

In response, Mahajan said, "I want to make it clear that there is a procedure (related to privilege motion notice)".

Left members were also seen vociferously demanding something which could not be heard amid the din. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present in the House.
Whew! All is not lost. The future seems safe in the hands of student leaders like Kanhaiya Kumar. Charged as an anti-national on the basis of doctored videos the blockbuster speech he delivered on his return to the JNU campus and his extremely sensible views make him the hero the country needs right now. Meanwhile, lets sort out who an anti-national is. Right now, anyone can be called an anti-national. So who exactly is an anti-national?

Since doctored videos, fake tweets and rabble-rousing anchors, didnt help, I went to the the dictionary. The Oxford dictionary said an anti-national was one who was opposed to national interests. Rabindranath Tagore has taught me to be very suspicious of the idea of nationalism. At the dictionary again. What exactly does nation mean? A large body of people united by common descent, history, culture or language, inhabiting a particular territory. The word comes from the Latin natio, which is from the verb nasci, meaning born. So are we a nation?

Certainly not, dont be foolish. We are a country of the sons of Ram, of course. But then there are the sons of Babur. Then there are the Christians and others. The rest is all of us, children of Ram. Er, well, almost. Psst! There are others too, who cant be the children of Ram, no, of course, not, chhi! But I cant quite recall where these low caste chaps sprouted from... Dalits have a very different bloodline. What? The tribal lot? I am not sure, really, but not from Ram, no. They have always been around, you know.

Clearly, we are not all of common descent. The north differs from the south, the west differs from the east, mainland India from the islands and mainstream India from the Northeast and tribal India. Third, do we have one common culture? God knows we tried, but the roots of these Indian cultures are too strong, their plurality impossible to smooth out. And what a host of races, tribes, regions, religions we have. So We remain distressingly multicultural.

Fourth, do all of us inhabiting our state speak the same language? You must be joking! There are almost 800 languages in India, of which 24 are officially accepted as strong languages. So how can a country that does not meet any requirement of nationhood claim to be a nation? And if we are not a nation, how can anyone be anti-national?

Nationalism stems from an imagined bond that we in India never really had. It is a contrived idea that cannot contain our motherland. A century ago, in 1917, Tagore had rejected the idea of a nation because it attempted to make a population into a soulless organisation that can only serve political purposes. Thirty years before India became free, Tagore told the West: You who live under the delusion that you are free, are every day sacrificing your freedom to this fetish of nationalism... Besides, India was too diverse to be one nation.

Not much has changed. Does the dalit and the upper caste man who can kill him for harming a cow have equal ownership of this nation? Do the farmers who kill themselves when they cant pay back a bank loan of a few thousands share the same nation as the corporates who have loans worth billions waived? Do the tribals of Bastar who routinely face rape by security forces, have no access to justice and have any protest silenced by fake encounters live in the same nation as Mumbais glitterati?

Our realities are starkly different. Delhis view of the nation is very different from the view from the Northeast. In the saffron nation, Nathuram Godse is a hero, Afzal Guru a terrorist. In the non-saffron nation the killer of the Mahatma is no hero, just a murderer. In Kashmir Guru is not a terrorist but a victim of judicial murder. In the saffron nation, Mr Kumar can be jailed as an anti-national just for being at a rally where someone shouted objectionable slogans, but Kuldeep Varshney, the saffron leader who offers on TV and FB a reward of Rs 5 lakh for cutting off Mr Kumars tongue, roams free.

If we do want one nation we need to go by one fundamental reality and belief system. We need to go by the Constitution. Not sidestep it ever for reasons of politics, economy, tradition or custom. As long as we dont doggedly accept the Constitution as our primal truth, we cannot be a nation. Except as a nation of anti-nationals.
Obama's Republican opponents accuse him of betraying the cause of human rights in Cuba by engaging with the Castro regime. (Photo: AP)

Havana: Cuba's state newspaper said Wednesday US President Barack Obama will be warmly welcomed when he makes a historic visit this month, but warned him not to expect political concessions.

"The US leader will be welcomed by the government of Cuba and its people with the hospitality that distinguishes them and will be treated with all consideration and respect," official daily Granma said in an editorial. But it hastened to add: "No one can harbour the slightest doubt about Cuba's unconditional adherence to its revolutionary and anti-imperialist ideals."

Obama will visit the island March 21 and 22, the first visit by a US president since Calvin Coolidge in 1928, and a symbolically charged capstone to the rapprochement that he and Cuban leader Raul Castro announced in December 2014.

Obama has vowed to press the regime on human rights issues and democracy during his visit. But Granma warned him not to be a pushy guest, quoting Castro himself as saying: "We will not allow ourselves to be pressured on our internal affairs. We have won this sovereign right with great sacrifices."

The editorial reiterated the Castro government's demands for the United States to return the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, end its more than 50-year-old embargo on Cuba, and fully normalize ties in areas such as immigration.

Obama's Republican opponents accuse him of betraying the cause of human rights in Cuba by engaging with the Castro regime.

In a bid to fend off such criticism, the White House has announced Obama will meet with anti-regime dissidents in Havana, although it has not given any details beyond insisting that the Cuban government will not be allowed to hand-pick them.

Cuban dissidents appeared to differ over how hard Obama should push a human rights agenda during his visit.

"I believe that if Obama sends a message of detente, that the United States is with the Cuban people and is not the enemy of the Cuban people it will greatly advance human rights," said Manuel Cuesta, a moderate.

Other dissidents like Berta Soler, the leader of a woman's group founded by wives and mothers of political prisoners, have called on Obama to make firm demands for change.

Cuesta said a softer touch would ease doubts and encourage those who believe the country should move in the direction of greater rights but are wary of Washington's intentions.

In Miami, former political prisoner Martha Beatriz Roque said Obama should be an advocate in Havana for democracy and give recognition to opponents of the Castro regime in his conversations and contacts on the island.

She told a news conference she did not expect a lot from Obama's visit, but added "the important thing is to take advantage of the small space that could be created."

Since taking over nearly a decade ago from his older brother Fidel, the father of Cuba's 1959 revolution, Raul Castro has slowly opened up the Cuban economy. But the political system is still completely dominated by the regime, and dissidents regularly face crack-downs and arrest.
The F-16 deal drew immediate criticism from India and concern from some members of Congress. (Photo: AFP)

Washington: US senator Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on Wednesday he does not expect an upcoming vote on a $700 million sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan to keep the deal from going ahead.

However, he said there was still discussion of whether US taxpayer funds could be used to finance the purchase.

President Barack Obamas administration announced on February 12 that it had approved the sale of the Lockheed Martin Corp aircraft as well as radars and other equipment to Pakistan.

It drew immediate criticism from India and concern from some members of Congress.

Republican senator Rand Paul, in late February, invoked legislation known as the Arms Export Control Act in the hope of stopping the sale by passing a Resolution of Disapproval, calling Pakistan an uncertain ally.

Cardin told reporters he opposed Pauls resolution and expected it to fail, with the chambers Republican and Democratic leaders opposing it. The measure could be taken up by the Senate as soon as Thursday.

Cardin said lawmakers had concerns about Pakistans nuclear program, commitment to fighting terrorist organisations and cooperation in the Afghanistan peace process but generally supported the sale.

It was not controversial that Pakistan needs to modernise its air force and its counter insurgency and counter-terrorism activities, particularly in the mountainous territory of the border with Afghanistan, he said.

Congress is considering a request to reprogram some funds, in other words, use them for a different purpose than allocated in a budget bill, to help finance the deal.

Cardin said he was not yet prepared to make a judgment on whether US taxpayer funds should be used to help Pakistan with the purchase.
The Pakistanis are uniquely positioned to counter the Haqqani network, says US. (Photo: AFP)

Washington: Terming Haqqani network as the greatest threat to the US forces in Afghanistan, a top American general has said it is time for Pakistan to "take decisive action" against this Pakistan-based terror group.

"We need Pakistan to take decisive actions against the Haqqani Network (HQN). The Pakistanis are uniquely positioned to counter the HQN, which remains the greatest threat to our forces and to stability in Afghanistan long-term," Commander of US Central Command General Lloyd J Austin told members of the Senate Armed Service Committee at a Congressional hearing.

The US is encouraged by some signs from Kabul and Islamabad that point towards a renewed effort at improving Afghanistan-Pakistan relations, and Pakistani support for the reconciliation process in Afghanistan, Austin said yesterday.

"The Pakistan military continues to play a visible role in efforts to reduce safe havens in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, while at the same time actively countering VEOs, including AQ, Tehrik- e-Taliban Pakistan, and the newly-emerged ISIL-KP," he said.

"During the most recent fighting season, we saw increased collaboration among Afghan and Pakistani military leadership. Commanders at the corps level have met multiple times and continue their efforts to increase interoperability between the forces. Both countries' military leaders are working to secure a bilateral border standard operating procedure," Austin said.

Noting that US-Pakistan military-to-military relationship remains stable, he said key contributing factors are the American security assistance and the Coalition Support Fund.

"In December 2015, we participated in the Defence Consultative Group, a component of the US-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue, which focused on future initiatives that will help sustain US-Pakistan bilateral defence cooperation on shared security interests," Austin added.
A lawsuit was filed this week against him in Alameda County Superior Court in California against Choudhry and the University of California Board of Regents by the assistant, who is suing for sexual harassment, failure to prevent harassment, retaliation, infliction of emotional distress and assault (Representational image).

New York: A 45-year-old Indian-origin dean of a prestigious US law school has been accused of sexually harassing his assistant for over a period of several months.

Sujit Choudhry has taken an indefinite leave of absence after his executive assistant at the Berkeley Law School filed a lawsuit against him for sexually harassing her from September 2014 until March 2015.

A lawsuit was filed this week against him in Alameda County Superior Court in California against Choudhry and the University of California Board of Regents by the assistant, who is suing for sexual harassment, failure to prevent harassment, retaliation, infliction of emotional distress and assault. The lawsuit alleges that Choudhry hugged and kissed his assistant almost daily for several months.
Colombo: Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena on Thursday appointed a committee to probe the harassment of media personnel under the regime of his powerful predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa.

A notice from the President's office said that all journalists who suffered harassment and loss of property under Rajapaksa must report to an Additional Secretary under Sirisena by mid June.

Media freedom in Sri Lanka was rated low when the former president was at the helm for a decade. The Reporters Without Borders, 2015 world press freedom index ranked Sri Lanka at 165 out of 180 countries, up 2 positions compared to 2013, which was an improvement post-Rajapaksa.

In 2013, Sri Lanka was ranked 162 out of 178 countries. Sri Lanka was also ranked among the most dangerous countries to practice journalism.

Many journalists reported harassment under Rajapaksa, the most prominent was the broad day-light murder of the editor of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickrematunga, while several other media institutions faced attacks by goon squads.

Rajapaksa, credited with ending the country's nearly three-decades-old civil war with LTTE in 2009, was in power from 2005 to 2015. He was defeated by Sirisena in January last year.
Kuala Lumpur: A piece of debris found in Mozambique arrived in Malaysia on Thursday for initial investigations into whether it came from missing flight MH370 before being taken to Australia for deeper analysis, officials said.

Department of Civil Aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman confirmed to AFP that the one-metre long (three-foot) object was in Malaysia.

He declined to provide further details but Malaysia's transport minister told local media it would be passed along to Australia, which is leading a huge Indian Ocean search for the missing aircraft.

"We will send it to Australia for further examinations," Liow Tiong Lai was quoted as saying.

Liow has previously said there is a "high probability" the piece of debris came from a Boeing 777. The debris could provide fresh clues into the mystery of the Malaysia Airlines flight, a Boeing 777.

Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester said last week the debris would be analysed there by Malaysian and Australian officials and specialists, including from Boeing, to determine its origin.

Mozambican authorities on Monday had handed over the debris to Malaysian experts after it was found washed up on a sandbar by an American amateur investigator.

Tuesday marked the second anniversary of the plane's disappearance.

MH370 was carrying 239 passengers and crew when it vanished on March 8, 2014 on an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Last July, a wing fragment was found washed ashore on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion and later confirmed to be from the plane.

More possible MH370 debris in the same area was found on Sunday and authorities are studying it.

But the search has been unable to pinpoint an actual crash site, which could help to solve the baffling mystery.
Tension in the region was already high as South Korean and U.S. troops began large-scale military exercises on Monday in a test of their defences against North Korea. (Photo: AP)

Cheorwon, South Korea: There's more to do in South Korea's heavily forested Rocket Valley, just a few miles from the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, than fire rockets. In quieter times, people tend vegetable patches along ice-cold streams.

But on Wednesday, a U.S. artillery brigade based in the South heated things up, launching a barrage of rockets close to the border town of Cheorwon.

The live-fire drills came hours after a report by reclusive North Korea that it had miniaturised nuclear warheads to be mounted on ballistic missiles and leader Kim Jong Un had ordered further improvements to its arsenal.

Tension in the region was already high as South Korean and U.S. troops began large-scale military exercises on Monday in a test of their defences against North Korea, which called the drills "nuclear war moves" and threatened to respond with an all-out offensive.

The U.N. Security Council imposed harsh new sanctions on North Korea last week for its Jan. 6 nuclear test. The North launched a long-range rocket a month later, drawing international criticism and sanctions from South Korea.

The drills in Rocket Valley were separate to the annual joint U.S.-South Korean manoeuvres which involve about 17,000 U.S. troops and more than 300,000 South Koreans.

They were a test of the U.S. Army M270A1 system, a multiple-launch rocket system (MLRS) built by Lockheed Martin that can fire 12 rounds and re-load and move at 64 km (40 miles) per hour.

One unit was dug in at the foot of Rocket Valley, under the swaying firs. A sonic boom followed the rockets as they screamed over the tree line followed by trails of flame towards targets eight km (five miles) away, invisible over the ridge lines.

"If North Korea decides to use their long-range artillery, which they have so many pieces of, Seoul would be in direct range," Captain Harry Lu of the U.S. Army's 37th Field Artillery Regiment said.

"So our mission here is to make sure we destroy that artillery before they can cause any more damage to the greater Seoul metropolitan area."

Shrill threats of war

In bellicose rhetoric, North Korea routinely threatens to turn Seoul into a "sea of flames" and the city was reduced to rubble in the 1950-53 Korean conflict, which ended in a truce, not a treaty, meaning the two sides are technically still at war.

Kim Jong Un's announcement of advances in North Korea's nuclear programme followed his order last week for the country to be prepared to mount pre-emptive attacks against the United States and South Korea and stand ready to use nuclear weapons.

He issued the command as the North showcased its own MLRS which is carried by a Chinese-made truck and may be able to operate outside the range of similar U.S. and South Korean weapons, according to an expert.

South Korea's defence ministry said the North's rockets flew up to 150 km (90 miles) off the east coast and into the sea, a display of power seen as a response to the U.N. sanctions.

The U.S. 210th Field Artillery Brigade, based in Dongducheon, north of Seoul, is one of the only U.S. battalions that will not move to a newly expanded military base south of the capital under an agreement between South Korean and U.S. defence chiefs.

That is because it is considered part of South Korea's "counter-fire plan" and contains MLRS, capable of firing a barrage of rockets at a target beyond the range of conventional artillery. It is one of South Korea's first lines of defence in the event of war.

"Unless using guided munitions, (multiple-launch rockets) are less accurate than tube artillery but can put a lot of steel downrange with devastating effect," said Bruce Klinger, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former Korea specialist at the CIA.

On Wednesday, the devastating effect was being unleashed over an idyllic landscape which belies its name. In just a few weeks, holiday makers will return to the private cottages, camp sites and vegetable plots that dot the hills to get away from the summer heat of the city.
The victim had filed a complaint at the Vitoria police station. She said that a man had repeatedly abused and raped her. (Representational Image)

Violating the dignity of a woman, a judge in Spain's Basque Country has been accused of asking derogatory questions to a rape victim, according to a report in the Independent.

A campaign has been rolled out for the suspension of Maria del Carmen Molina Mansilla, the woman judge who allegedly asked a rape victim whether she had tried 'closing her legs' while getting raped and abused.

"Did you try closing your legs and other female organs," Judge Maria was quoted as saying while questioning the victim.

Clara Camoamor Association, a campaigning group for the victims of gender bias, claimed that the judge's questions clearly stated her gender bias as well as her disbelief towards the victim's testimony.

The association also claimed the judge did not allow the victim to speak, while asking her offensive questions.

The victim filed a complaint at the Vitoria police station. She said a man had repeatedly abused and raped her. When the complainant gave a statement to the police, the judge asked her if she had tried to stop the rapist.

The association fighting for the suspension of the judge has claimed that this was not the first incident when the judge had made abusive and offensive remarks about victims of physical and sexual abuse.
More than 14,000 mainly Syrian and Iraqi refugees have camped out on the Greece-Macedonia border. (Photo: AP)

Brussels: EU interior ministers were set to meet in Brussels Thursday to discuss the migrant crisis after western Balkan nations slammed shut their borders, exacerbating a dire humanitarian situation on the Macedonian frontier.

The scheduled two-day meeting will tackle various areas including a proposed deal with Turkey and the restoration of the visa-free Schengen zone, along with plans for a European border and coastguard system seen as a key step for securing the bloc's frontiers.

The talks come after Slovenia and Croatia, two of the countries along the Balkan route used by hundreds of thousands of people in recent months, barred entry to transiting migrants from midnight Wednesday and 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.

A demand too far

A controversial deal discussed with Turkey at an EU summit on Monday and due to be finalised on March 17-18 would see the country 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.

The country currently hosts 2.7 million refugees from the five-year-old Syrian civil war and is the main springboard for migrants heading to the EU.

Hoping for a 'miracle

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.

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.

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".
Though the significance of these files is yet to be gauged, they could be the largest yet treasure trove of documents found on IS and the most significant leak on its past and present fighters and operations across the Mideast. (Photo: AP)

Berlin: Germany's federal criminal police said Thursday they are in possession of files containing personal data on members of the extremist Islamic State group and believe them to be authentic.

The announcement came after Britain's Sky News reported it had obtained 22,000 Islamic State files on the border with Turkey and Syria, files that detail IS fighters' real names, where they were from, telephone numbers, and even names of those who sponsored and recruited the militants.

Though the significance of these files is yet to be gauged, they could be the largest yet treasure trove of documents found on IS and the most significant leak on its past and present fighters and operations across the Mideast.

They could also shape the campaign against the extremist group, which emerged formal-Qaida in Iraq. The cache, exposing its members and their families, could undermine its future ability to recruit and inspire would-be members.

US Army Col. Steve Warren, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State, said the information could help the coalition fight the Islamic State group by aiding in a crack-down on IS's foreign fighter networks.

He said that while he was not able to verify the documents, he hoped that "if there is a media outlet that has these names and numbers, I hope they publish them." This would help bring attention to the problem of foreign fighters joining IS, and would help law enforcement crack down on the problem, he said.

"This would allow the law enforcement apparatus across the world to become much more engaged and begin to help do what we can to stem this flow of foreign fighters - so we're hopeful that its accurate and if so we certainly plan to do everything we can to help," he said.

Sky said the files were passed on to them on a memory stick stolen from the head of Islamic State's internal security police by a former fighter who had grown disillusioned with the group.

Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported it had also obtained "dozens" of similar files on the Turkey-Syria border, where it said Islamic State files and videos were widely available from anti-IS Kurdish fighters and also members of the Islamic State group itself.

A spokeswoman for Germany's Bundeskriminalamt, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter with the media, said her agency is currently evaluating the files. She declined to say where the agency obtained the files, how many documents are involved and how long it has had them.

Sky reported that the documents are a collection of forms filled out by recruits when they were inducted into the Islamic State. The forms have 23 questions and include nationals from at least 51 countries, Sky reported.

Germany's Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told the dpa news agency that the material would give authorities a better chance to track down and prosecute people who had fought with IS.

The material also seems to have the potential to help authorities crack recruitment networks in Europe and elsewhere that have been sending fighters to join the Islamic State group, which has seized large swaths of land in Syria and Iraq and declared a self-styled caliphate on the territory under its control.

There are no clear estimates of how many Islamic State fighters there are in Iraq and Syria, but the numbers range between 30,000 and 100,000. A CIA assessment in late 2014 put the number of IS fighters at around 31,500.
n The documents are forms that IS recruits had to fill out in order to be accepted into the organisation.

London: Tens of thousands of documents containing the names, addresses, phone numbers and family contacts of jihadis who joined the Islamic State group have been given to the UKs Sky News, the broadcaster said on Thursday.

Sky reported that a disillusioned former member had handed over the documents on a memory stick that had been stolen from the head of the groups internal security police.

The documents are forms that ISIS recruits had to fill out in order to be accepted into the organisation, and contain information on nationals from 51 countries, the broadcaster reported.

Sky News has informed the authorities about the haul, the news channel wrote on its website. No comment was immediately available from Britains interior or foreign ministries.

Some of the documents reportedly contain the information of previously unknown jihadis in northern Europe, the United States and Canada, as well as North Africa and the Middle-East, it said.This could be a massive development, Chris Phillips, managing director of counter terrorism consultancy International Protect and Prepare Security Office, said.

It shows how ISIS is vulnerable to its own people turning against them... The potential for security services identifying unknown terrorists is greatly enhanced, he said, using another term for IS.

He added that the leak could inspire others to turn against the group, that the documents could be used in future prosecutions, and that they could help stop a flow of volunteers travelling to join ISIS from Europe and the US.Understanding how people have travelled and who recruited them, is a key opportunity to reduce those leaving in the future, Phillips said.

Copies of the documents broadcast by Sky News showed that recruits would have to answer 23 questions including on their blood type, mothers maiden name, level of sharia understanding and previous experience.

Some of the names in the documents are of fighters who have been already identified, such as Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, a former rapper from west London who once posted an image of himself on Twitter holding a severed head.

Another named is Junaid Hussain, a cyber-operative for IS from the British city of Birmingham, and 21-year-old Reyaad Khan who appeared in a recruitment video, both killed last year.

The documents were obtained from a man who uses the name Abu Hamed, a former Free Syrian Army member who joined ISIS. He stole the memory stick of documents and handed them over in Turkey to a journalist.
Shishani was one of the IS leaders most wanted by Washington, which put a $5 million bounty on his head. (Photo: AP)

Beirut: Top Islamic State commander leader Omar al-Shishani, known as Omar the Chechen, was "seriously injured" in a recent strike in northeastern Syria but not killed despite US suggestions to the contrary, a monitoring group said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday that according to its sources the March 4 strike had indeed targeted the jihadist's convoy, killing his bodyguards, while Shishani himself "was seriously injured".

"He's not dead," the Observatory's director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"He was taken from the province of Hasake to a hospital in Raqa province where he was treated by a jihadist doctor of European origin," he said. Raqa is IS's main stronghold.

The United States had stopped short of declaring Shishani dead, but a US official speaking on condition of anonymity said Shishani "likely died" in the assault by waves of US warplanes and drones, along with 12 other IS fighters.

The US official branded Shishani "the ISIL equivalent of the secretary of defence", using another acronym for the group. Shishani was one of the IS leaders most wanted by Washington, which put a $5 million bounty on his head.

Shishani comes from the Pankisi Gorge region that is populated mainly by ethnic Chechens. He fought as a Chechen rebel against Russian forces before joining the Georgian military in 2006, and fought Russian forces again in Georgia in 2008.

He resurfaced in northern Syria in 2012 as the leader of a battalion of foreign fighters, said Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, research fellow at the Middle East Forum, a US think tank.

As early as May 2013, when IS was just emerging in Syria, he was appointed the group's military commander for the north of the country, Tamimi said.

While Shishani's exact rank is unclear, Richard Barrett of the US-based Soufan Group has described him as IS's "most senior military commander", adding that he has been in charge of key battles.

"He is clearly a very capable commander and has the loyalty of Chechen fighters who are considered by ISIS as elite troops," Barrett told AFP.

Shishani is not, however, a member of IS's political leadership, a structure that is even murkier than its military command.

The lack of a US presence on the ground makes it difficult to assess the success of operations targeting militants in Syria, and Shishani's death has been falsely reported several times.

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook on Tuesday described Shishani as "a battle-tested leader with experience who had led ISIL (IS) fighters in numerous engagements in Iraq and Syria".

The March 4 strikes took place near Al-Shadadi, a town in northeastern Syria that was retaken from IS last month by local anti-IS fighters allied with the US-led coalition.
Islamabad: Pakistan's interior minister on Thursday ordered a probe into circumstances surrounding the release from captivity of the son of a slain governor after claims that a $10 ransom had been paid for his life.

Initial reports said a joint Pakistani special forces' operation rescued 33-year-old Shahbaz Taseer who was held for five years by Islamic militants. Taseer was found on Tuesday in a hotel room in the town of Kuchlak near Quetta, the Baluchistan provincial capital. But after the rescue, reports surfaced that nearly $10 million had been paid for his life.

The Pakistani paramilitary Frontier Corps, which took part in the operation, later said Taseer was safe and well and that he will be taken to the city of Lahore to be reunited with his family.

On Thursday, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan ordered the probe, saying "the facts are different," without elaborating.

Taseer is the son of late governor Salman Taseer, who was assassinated by his guard in 2011 over accusations of blasphemy. He was abducted in Lahore, just eight months after his father's killing. The guard behind the assassination, Mumtaz Qadri, was convicted and hanged last week.

Khan's announcement came after several Pakistani TV stations aired an interview with a restaurant owner in Kuchlak about the day of Taseer's rescue.

The restaurant owner, Mohammad Saleem, said a man in dirty clothes with overgrown hair and a beard walked in, ate at his establishment, then asked for phone and made a call.

Less than an hour later, Saleem said, a Pakistani military convoy arrived, blind-folded the guest and bundled him off in one of the vehicles. Saleem said he only recognized Taseer only after TV reports about the rescue.

The account fueled speculation about a ransom payment, though it was never clear which militant group abducted and held Taseer. Pakistani media reported that the ransom had been paid but there was no official confirmation.

The Afghan Taliban leadership is believed to reside in the area where Taseer was found, though Baluchistan - which shares a border with Afghanistan - has its own, low-level insurgency waged by Baloch separatist groups demanding a greater share of the region's natural resources or outright independence.
Officials said that Rouhani will have detailed discussion with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to expand economic and commercial ties. (Photo: AP)

Islamabad: Energy-starved Pakistan may strike multiple commercial deals with Iran on import of 3,000 MW of electricity and construction of a gas pipeline during Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's first official visit this month.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif met the Iranian ambassador to Pakistan Mehdi Honardoost to discuss Rouhani's visit. "Pakistan is looking forward to the scheduled visit from March 25 to 26 of President of Iran and hopes that it would further strengthen relations between the two countries," the ministry quoted Asif as saying.

Officials said that Rouhani will have detailed discussion with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to expand economic and commercial ties.

Oil-rich Iran is keen to sell petroleum product, electricity and expediting start of construction of a pipeline bring gas to Pakistan.

"It is hoped that a deal to import 3,000 MW of electricity from Iran will be reached," an official of finance ministry said.

Iran is feeling free to expand commercial ties with other nations after successful implementation of last year's nuclear deal with leading world powers.

Apart for the economic ties, the two sides will also discuss various security issues including tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia and situation in Syria and Iraq.

Sharif last visited Tehran in January to ease tension between Tehran and Riyadh in the aftermath of the execution of activist and Shia cleric, Sheikh Nimr, by Saudi authorities.

It will be first visit by any Iranian president after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to Islamabad in 2012.
Myanmar's new President nominee, U Htin Kyaw, is the former driver and close aide of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Naypyidaw: Aung San Suu Kyi's party on Thursday nominated her former driver and close aide to be Myanmar's next president, as the Nobel laureate looks to rule her former junta-run homeland through a trusted proxy.

Suu Kyi has vowed to rule "above" the president, despite being barred from top office by the army-scripted constitution, as she strives to fulfil the huge mandate delivered by millions of voters in her National League for Democracy's landslide election victory in November.

The selection of Htin Kyaw, a genial 69-year-old who went to school with Suu Kyi and now helps run her charitable foundation, comes after months of fevered speculation.

Even her own MPs were kept in the dark about the deliberations, with the party fearful of upsetting a delicate political transition in a nation where the military still casts a long shadow.

"This is an important step in implementing the desires and expectations of voters who enthusiastically supported the NLD," Suu Kyi said in a statement published on her party website early Thursday, urging people to support the party's goal "peacefully".

Many in Myanmar have clung to faint hopes that the 70-year-old democracy campaigner could still be named president, but months of talks with the powerful military have failed to remove the legal obstacles in her way.

She is barred by a charter clause that disqualifies anyone with close foreign relatives. Her late husband and two sons are British.

"I would like to propose U Htin Kyaw, from the NLD," said Khin San Hlaing, a lower house MP for Suu Kyi's NLD, which will also nominate another candidate from the upper house.

Though Htin Kyaw is almost certain to clinch the nomination with backing from the NLD-dominated parliament, his official confirmation may take days.

Two other candidates will be put forth one from the upper house and the other from the military, which still controls a quarter of the legislature.

A final vote of the combined houses will then determine which will become the president, leaving the other two as vice presidents.

Stellar choice

Htin Kyaw is considered as a smart choice by Suu Kyi and her party. The affable economics graduate, who acted as a driver for Suu Kyi in brief spells of freedom from her long years of house arrest, has the democracy movement in the family.

He is married to sitting NLD MP Su Su Lwin, whose late father was the NLD's respected spokesman. Neither he or his wife attended the parliament on Thursday.

Myanmar historian and political analyst Thant Myint-U said Htin Kyaw was a "stellar choice" who had "unimpeachable integrity" in a tweet soon after the announcement.

Online comments reacting to the announcement were generally positive.

"We have waited a long time to see an educated president for Myanmar. And now he and Mother Suu will lead the country together," said Thiri Khinsanar in a post on a local news website.

Suu Kyi has not outlined what her precise role will be or how she will be able to play puppet-master to a president. Some have suggested she could mimic India's Sonia Gandhi, who wielded huge influence over her Congress party's administrations despite having no official government role.

There has also been speculation that she could take the role of foreign minister, which would give her a cabinet post as well as a seat at the country's influential military-dominated security council. But under Myanmar's complex political system, this would mean ceding her party role.

Having tasted new freedoms in a nation recently released from the shackles of military oppression and international isolation, millions of voters are eager to see further changes that were Suu Kyi's central election promise.

Suu Kyi has vowed to create a government of national reconciliation and the cabinet is expected to contain figures from across the political spectrum. But the key challenge will be to maintain smooth relations with the army, which controls the key home, defence, and border ministries.

The former ruling generals held Suu Kyi under house arrest for 15 years and swatted away the NLD's 1990 election landslide. Thein Sein's quasi-civilian government has ushered in a raft of political and economic reforms that saw most sanctions lifted.
Obama is Skipping Nancy Reagan Funeral. Like Cheney he has better things to do like appoint a new SCJudge to replace another funeral he missed going to for Scalia. Quite remarkably, Obama is going into the breach of Dallas where Kennedy was assassinated in 1961. That was another funneral he missed going to. Anyway, ol Nancy will be sticking around, plenty of time to go see the ol bitch. I mean that in a nice way.President Barack Obama will not attend Nancy Reagans funeral this Friday, keeping his originally scheduled appearance as a keynote speaker at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive festival.The president will not attend Mrs. Reagans funeral, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Tuesday. The president is actually traveling in Texas on Friday.The SXSW Interactive Festival is an annual symposium for digital startups and emerging technologies that takes place each year in Austin, Texas, concurrently with a film and music festival.The president courted outrage just a few weeks ago, when he did not attend the funeral of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. He also did not attend the funeral of First Lady Betty Ford in 2011.
The FBI agents are being investigated, not the Oregon troopers. One agent appears to have fired two rounds, both missed, and then failed to tell investigators he had fired (and missed). Four other agents are being investigated for apparently also covering up that shooting. That is a felony, and has nothing to do with the Oregon troopers killing Finicum



The thread title is the same as the title 'The Hill' used, because the article is about the FBI agents apparently obstructing the investigation, and has zero to do with the Oregon troopers. That was a sideline in the article so as not to confuse readers.








You know that saying the Supreme Court (or any of the dozens of inferior courts) are wrong is not an argument either.



The arguments were made, in court before judges and YOUR SIDE LOST.



That is all that needs to be said. If you think the courts were wrong then carry your happy *** into said court and tell them why they were wrong.



But until that happens and until the courts agree with you the fact of the matter is that your arguments FAILED. Same sex marriage is legal in all 50 states and all your crapping on the chessboard and strutting around like you won isn't going to do squat.



You can claim that the gravity does not exist, you can give whatever reasons and arguments you want that gravity is a lie but when you drop a hammer it is still going to hit the floor.



You can claim that the courts are wrong, you can give whatever reasons and arguments you want that prohibitions on same sex marriage are Constitutional but when Sam and Dave (or Brenda and Linda) go to the City Hall and request a marriage license in any of the 50 states they are going to get one.
a citizen of israel is randomly stabbed by a terrorist, and you are surprised that the terrorist is a muslim. when was the last time you heard of any terrorist event that wasnt done by a mulsim? the palestinians have launched a wave of stabbing, rock thowing and other random violent attacks against israel in the last several months, dozens have been stabbed and killed, or wounded.this is how it is generally reported outside of israel.inside israel, they include other salient points.note the selective editing to remove guilt from the islamists and make the jews look like the bad guy.pointing out that there are frequent atrocities committed in the name of allah by followers of the islamic faith is not outrageous ****, its reality. whats outrageous is that the liberal side of politics has started to defend atrocities in the name of allah and criticize those who stand against them.yes i lost it a bit on another thread, i do that when people stick their heads in the sand and just refuse to see a truth standing right in front of them. islam is dangerous. says so in the quran "kill the unbeliever who is near you" "go forth light armed and heavy armed and make war in the name of allah" the muslims are harsh to the unbeliever but generous to one another" "i (muhammad) have been made victorious with terror". islam is a religion that celebrates violence and death and its no surprise that many muslims do too.here is a cute palestinian home videohere is the charter of HAMAS, the ELECTED governing body of half of the palestinian population. the people voted in leaders who follow this:the other half of the palestinian people are governed by a different group, the palestinian authority. who have refused to hold elections for the last 10 years because they know HAMAS will win.you know what, this is outrageous!
Lyzza said: You were just lecturing morons for posting ridiculous and outrageous **** in another thread, and here you go..... Click to expand...

Israeli soldiers have shot and killed two Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip during confrontations Click to expand...

During routine IDF security activity, forces spotted assailants hurling rocks at civilian vehicles on Route 60, adjacent to al-Aroub, an IDF spokesperson said in a statement.



Forces responded to the immediate threat and fired toward one of the attackers, Click to expand...

The Slogan of the Hamas



Article Eight



Allah is its goal, the Prophet its model, the Quzan its Constitution, Jihad its path and death for the case of Allah its most sublime belief. Click to expand...

Peaceful Solutions [Peace] Initiatives and International Conferences



Article Thirteen



[Peace] initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement. Click to expand...

a citizen of israel is randomly stabbed by a terrorist, and you are surprised that the terrorist is a muslim. when was the last time you heard of any terrorist event that wasnt done by a mulsim? the palestinians have launched a wave of stabbing, rock thowing and other random violent attacks against israel in the last several months, dozens have been stabbed and killed, or wounded.this is how it is generally reported outside of israel.inside israel, they include other salient points.note the selective editing to remove guilt from the islamists and make the jews look like the bad guy.pointing out that there are frequent atrocities committed in the name of allah by followers of the islamic faith is not outrageous ****, its reality. whats outrageous is that the liberal side of politics has started to defend atrocities in the name of allah and criticize those who stand against them.yes i lost it a bit on another thread, i do that when people stick their heads in the sand and just refuse to see a truth standing right in front of them. islam is dangerous. says so in the quran "kill the unbeliever who is near you" "go forth light armed and heavy armed and make war in the name of allah" the muslims are harsh to the unbeliever but generous to one another" "i (muhammad) have been made victorious with terror". islam is a religion that celebrates violence and death and its no surprise that many muslims do too.here is a cute palestinian home videohere is the charter of HAMAS, the ELECTED governing body of half of the palestinian population. the people voted in leaders who follow this:the other half of the palestinian people are governed by a different group, the palestinian authority. who have refused to hold elections for the last 10 years because they know HAMAS will win.you know what, this is outrageous!
Union Label is Trump land.



Workers know Sanders is *** hat for them.



Workers know that Hillary has sold them out to Wall Street



Workers don't trust Establishment GOP or Democrats for good reason.



So what do they have left Trump land.
What does rebuild the military mean? Has the budget been gutted? Have the useless weapons programs like the F-35 finally been shut down? No, the United States still spends more on its military than the next 14 countries combined. And the official military budget is only part of the story. The total spending on the US empire is well over one trillion dollars per year. Under the Obama Administration the military budget is still 41 percent more than it was in 2001, and seven percent higher than at the peak of the Cold War.Russia, which the neocons claim is the greatest threat to the United States, spends about one-tenth what we do on its military. China, the other greatest threat, has a military budget less than 25 percent of ours.Last week the Pentagon announced it is sending a small naval force of US warships to the South China Sea because, as Commander of the US Pacific Command Adm. Harry Harris told the House Armed Services Committee, China is militarizing the area. Yes, China is supposedly militarizing the area around China, so the US is justified in sending its own military to the area. Is that a wise use of the US military?The US military maintains over 900 bases in 130 countries. It is actively involved in at least seven wars right now, including in Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, and elsewhere. US Special Forces are deployed in 134 countries across the globe. Does that sound like a military that has been gutted?
Two people were injured when a fleeing suspect led police on a chase both in his car and on foot, according to a report from the Albany Police Department.

At 9:10 p.m., a patrol officer spotted a vehicle with the wrong license plates and attempted a traffic stop. The driver, Steven Allen Jones, 37, sped off, ultimately running a red light at the intersection of Santiam Highway and Pacific Boulevard, where he crashed into another vehicle, sending two people to Samaritan Albany General Hospital, where they were treated for minor injuries and released.

Jones fled the scene of the crash on foot, but officers later found him in the 1900 block of Santiam Highway. He was arrested and charged with two counts of third-degree assault, two counts of reckless endangerment, driving under the influence of intoxicants, felony elude, eluding on foot and failure to perform the duties of a driver at the scene of an accident. He also was cited for failure to register as a sex offender.

Jones also has a warrant from Collin County, Texas, for domestic assault and strangulation. He was booked into the Linn County Jail.
LEBANON  Six people, two businesses and a nonprofit were honored for their outstanding community contributions Tuesday evening at the Lebanon Distinguished Service Awards, held at the Boulder Falls Inn Conference Center.

The 2015 Lebanon community awards for First Senior Citizen, Man of the Year, and Junior First Citizen were presented by last years winners. The award for Woman of the Year was presented by the 2012 Woman of the Year, Laura Gillott, as 2014 winner Rachel Kittson-Maqatish was out of town.

Woman of the Year: Denise Downer

Gillott said Downer received the award for helping out with youth in the community, which includes going mission trips to Mexico with her church, attending city council meetings and overseeing the Mayors Youth Council

The one praise we continually hear in describing our winner was that she has a strong commitment to young people, Gillott said. One letter indicated that she had been involved in guiding, supporting, encouraging and fundraising for young people for over 30 years.

Man of the Year:

Bill Flesher

Brian Vandetta said Flesher deserved the award because of his successful work in commercial real estate and his extensive volunteerism.

Fleshers volunteer work has included participating in several community organizations, such as delivering for Meals on Wheels, assisting with the Lebanon 2040 Visioning Task Force and participating in a post-prison mentor program.

Vandetta added that Flesher keeps a enthusiastic demeanor.

His positive and infectious attitude benefits us all who have the pleasure of being around him, Vandetta said. The Man of the Year title does not do this individual justice for all he has done and all he continues to do for our great community.

Sr. First Citizen:

Dorothy Page

Steve Latimer presented the award to Page. The award is given to a person age 60 or older for a lifetime of volunteer service to the community.

Latimer said Page devoted much of her life to Lebanon schools and the city.

In the 60s, a small group of concerned citizens, led by this lady, recognized the need for a cooperative preschool and together created the first preschool co-op in Lebanon, Latimer said. This preschool continued for 40 years, providing enriching experiences for the youngsters of Lebanon and parenting education for young families.

Page has played the pipe organ at First Presbyterian Church every Sunday since she was 18.

She has known and loved Lebanon and its people for more than 90 years and continues to be a bright strong force to change peoples lives, Latimer said.

Jr. First Citizen:

Michelle Steinhebel

Last years Jr. First Citizen, Wyatt King, said Steinhebel received the award for chronicling the history of Lebanon and shaping its voice, first as a writer and editor for the Lebanon Express, and continues to promote the citys medical school by working as the public affairs specialist for the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific Northwest. She also serves on the Lebanon 2040 vision citizens task force.

She is a dedicated mother, wife and daughter, who supports more causes than you can count on your fingers, and quite possibly toes, King said. She is now using her vision, insight and ability to communicate to define the path Lebanon is about to take on as we work toward our bright future.

Frankie Gray award: Terri Krebs

Lebanon Chamber of Commerce Office Manager Mary Garner presented the Frankie Gray Answering the Call Award to Krebs.

The Frankie Gray Answering the Call Award was designed to honor a person of any age who is noted for answering the call, Garner said. A person you can depend on. This person has unselfish devotion to serving friends, community and anyone in need whenever called upon.

Garner presented a long list of the activities Krebs has been involved with. This included teaching every class, except kindergarten, for 16 years in several Lebanon schools, she co-founded Lebanon Association for Theatre Arts in 2008 and started a musical theater camp for second to eighth graders in 2010.

When referring to Terri, people have told us she is the perfect fit for Answering the Call, Garner said. Her talent level is high, matched by passion, organizational skill and volunteerism without equal in Lebanon.

Business awards

Garrett presented the awards from the Lebanon Chamber of Commerce for Business Leader of the Year, Small Business of the Year, Large Business of the Year and Nonprofit of the Year.

Joyce Kanoff was named business leader of the year. Kanoff owns several H&R block locations, and opened a new restaurant Zoup in Corvallis. Kanoff is a strong supporter of education and the communities she works in, which include Linn and Benton County, Garrett said.

Adam Kirkpatrick Family Dentistry was named Small Business of the Year.

Kirkpatrick is a supporter of chamber activities, the Lebanon Downtown Association, and has served on city of Lebanon committees.

Every Halloween his dental office does a candy buy-back, Garrett said.After paying all the kids for their Halloween candy, Dr. Adam has his staff ship candy oversees.

Best Western Premier Boulder Falls Inn was named the Large Business of the Year.

The hotel has made a significant impact on the community, Garrett said.

Theyve hosted nearly 70 community or nonprofit events at a reduced rate, which has allowed these organization to channel more of their proceeds toward their important causes for the community. They also sponsor many organizations and indeed are the presenting sponsor for the evenings DSA.

The Boys & Girls Club of the Greater Santiam was named as this years Nonprofit of the Year.

The Club serves 50,000 meals per year to local children, Garrett said.

It is a safe, warm, positive place for kids, Garrett said. Its not just day care; they provide structured, organized, quality programs with trained, dedicated staff.
Linn County Commissioners Roger Nyquist, John Lindsey and Will Tucker plan to file a $1.4 billion breach of contract class action lawsuit today against the State of Oregon in Linn County Circuit Court.

The commissioners are seeking compensation for 15 Forest Trust Counties and some 150 other local taxing districts.

On Jan. 13 the commissioners, represented by John DiLorenzo of the Portland-based law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, notified Gov. Kate Brown and the Oregon Department of Forestry of Linn Countys intent to file a lawsuit.

A 30-day notification is required by Oregon statute.

The response to our notice of intent to file this lawsuit has been overwhelmingly positive in our community, Nyquist said in a prepared statement. The states contractual obligation is to manage our forests in a way that benefits both rural counties and the environment. Theyre not doing that, and rural communities are paying the price. I believe that a jury will reach the same conclusion.

According to the commissioners, for more than 70 years the state was to adhere to a legal framework for the conveyance of forest lands from the county to the state. In exchange for the conveyances, the lands were to be managed and revenues returned to the counties, with the state taking a management fee.

The counties then allocate those funds to county services such as law enforcement or to local districts such as the OSU Extension Service District  Linn County.

The commissioners contend that since 1998 the Oregon Department of Forestry has put more emphasis on uses other than timber harvesting  such as fish and wildlife habitat, trails, campgrounds and open spaces  which have resulted in a $35 million per year reduction in revenue to the counties.

When the state acquired the mostly cut-over timber lands, starting in the 1930s and 1940s, the management was to be focused on the greatest permanent value.

Linn County believes that means a sustainable timber harvest that generates income, while others, including environmental groups, believe that means including giving weight to the other public uses.

This is a straightforward breach of contract case, DiLorenzo said. The states breach has strained county budgets and impacted public safety, education and other basic services local citizens need. Theyre not getting the benefit of their bargain with the state.

Other counties named in the lawsuit are Clackamas, Clatsop, Columbia, Coos, Douglas, Josephine, Klamath, Lane, Lincoln, Marion, Polk, Tillamook and Washington. Those counties can opt out of the lawsuit if they wish, once the lawsuit is certified as a class action by the court.

The $1.4 billion figure was calculated based on the loss of potential county revenues since 2001, plus projecting years into the future if the current reimbursement model is allowed to continue unchallenged.

There are about 654,000 acres of Forest Trust Lands in Oregon, including about 21,000 acres in the Mill City area in northeast Linn County.

There are about 8,000 acres in Benton County.

In February, the Oregon Department of Forestry released its annual report of management activities for 2015, which included distributing $54.9 million to county governments and taxing districts collected from timber sales.

Nearly 5,000 acres were replanted with about 1 million trees, and 50,000 persons took advantage of campgrounds on Oregon Department of Forestry lands.

People interact with and prioritize forest values differently. Under Oregon law, we manage state forests to provide a sustainable variety of benefits over time for all Oregonians, said Liz Dent, chief of the ODFs State Forest Division. Im proud of the story that this report tells, highlighting both challenges and opportunities, and an array of accomplishments that we deliver daily.

Other report highlights included:

30,846 hours contributed by State Forests Division staff to support wildfire operations.

258.9 million board feet of timber provided through management activities.

$181,864 generated in campground revenues via 47,393 campers visiting state forest-managed campgrounds.

2.4 miles of fish access restored in streams and rivers.

188 miles of trails maintained or restored.

54,915 visitors to the ODF Tillamook Forest Center.

Oregon has six state forests: the Tillamook and Clatsop State Forests in northwest Oregon near Astoria and Tillamook; the Santiam State Forest west of Detroit Lake in Linn County; the Gilchrist and Sun Pass State Forests in south central Oregon; and the Elliott State Forest, owned by the Department of State Lands, and managed by ODF.

Shortly after the commissioners January lawsuit press conferences, members of the North Coast State Forest Coalition issued a press release opposing the litigation. Comprising the coalition are the Association of Northwest Steelheaders, Wild Salmon Center, Oregon Council of Trout Unlimited, Oregon Chapter of Sierra Club, Native Fish Society, Pacific Rivers and Northwest Guides & Anglers Association.

Coalition coordinator Chris Smith, said greatest permanent value refers to benefits to all Oregonians, not just the general funds of the 15 counties named in the lawsuit.

The Board of Forestry is engaged in a multiyear process to look at different ways to manage state forests across Oregon, Smith said. That process has been frustrating for both conservationists and counties, because frankly, the forests are asked to provide more than they are capable of. Theres not enough timber out there to cover all bases.
If youre wondering how Oregons recent decision to increase the minimum wage will play out in the real world, you might take a look at the decisions facing the states public universities.

As you might imagine, Oregons four-year universities employ thousands of students in a variety of jobs, and a lot of those jobs pay the minimum wage.

Oregon State University alone has nearly 8,000 positions intended to be filled by student workers. (The actual number of students working might be different, because some students might hold more than one of those jobs.) Roughly half of those positions pay less than the $9.75 an hour minimum wage that will click into place beginning July 1.

Of course, thats just the first increase: By the time the wage hikes approved by the Legislature are fully in place, the minimum wage in Benton County will be $13.50 an hour. In the states rural areas, the minimum wage will be $12.50. In the Portland metro area, the minimum wage will be $14.75.

OSU is in a unique position among the states universities in that it has employees in all three of those areas. One decision OSU officials will need to make is whether to pay all of its employees at the higher Portland rate; this mirrors the sort of decision that statewide private businesses will have to make in the next few years.

OSU officials say the increases in the minimum wage will cost the university an additional $4 million (including payroll taxes) in the two-year budget cycle that begins in 2017. And thats just the start: For the 2019-21 budget cycle, the estimate rises to $8.6 million, again including payroll taxes.

How will universities find the extra money to pay for the wage increases? University officials across the state say theyre still weighing their options.

The problem is, they dont have all that many options  especially considering that they hold out little hope for additional state funding in the 2017-19 budget cycle, since the state will be trying to figure out ways to pay for the obligations incurred by the Public Employees Retirement System.

But, really, the universities have basically two choices, and they are remarkably similar to the options that will be available to private businesses in the next few years: cut back the number of student jobs and the hours available for students to work, or find the revenue to cover those additional costs. (Of course, the mostly likely scenario would have the universities combining those two actions.) And where will universities turn to generate additional money, especially if its not going to come from the state? One possible answer: tuition.

Already, early estimates from OSU suggest it might need to trim as many as 700 student jobs.

Of course, students who did manage to hang onto their jobs would be paid a higher minimum wage  but they might find that higher tuition will take a big bite out of those increased paychecks. Workers for private businesses may well find themselves in a similar situation, as they find that their bigger paychecks dont buy as much as they thought.

So lets summarize: For universities, it appears that the increase in the minimum wage could result in fewer jobs for students  and higher prices, in the form of increased tuition. We often joke about how insulated the ivory towers of academia can be from the real world, but this looks like a case in which the campus experience will foreshadow what happens in the private sector. (mm)
The campaign for Ann Roe, who is running for Congress against Lyin' Bryan Steil has come out with the best one-liner of this cycle so far: I can't argue...

11 months ago
Why "Divers and Sundry"?

Because this blog does not consist of a single focus topic I chose the name Divers and Sundry where "Divers" means being of many and various kinds, and "Sundry" means consisting of a haphazard assortment of different kinds.
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.
The entire corrupt Democratic establishment and its media lackeys went full bore against Bernie in Michigan. The final Fox poll of Michigan Democrats, released Monday, showed Hillary ahead 61-34%. MSNBC repeated Hillary's well-rehearsed ugly debate smear of Bernie regarding the auto bailout for two solid days. I thought Chris Matthews had a tape of it implanted in his parched, ancient brain. But in the end Bernie beat her 50% to 48% and it looks like he'll walk away with 65 delegates to her 58. His win will only make the corrupt Democratic establishment dig its heels in even deeper and harder. For them, it isn't about values or principles; it's about their careerist business model (power and corruption). Right after Bernie was declared the winner, Working Families Party National Director Dan Cantor issued a press release that said, "The Beltway elite may never have really understood why job-killing trade deals are such a big deal. But the people of Michigan surely do, and Bernie Sanders does too. The political revolution is only getting started. This is a movement that has baffled the political establishment from day one, and it's sure to surprise them a few more times in the months to come." By tomorrow we can all expect Hillary to solemnly swear that when she was out knocking on doors for Nixon and Goldwater, she was handing out anti-trade agreement pamphlets.





The Hill asked the question, Yesterday,asked the question, Could Herr Trumpf nomination put House up for grabs? Short answer: no, not with this DCCC. No matter how bad it gets for the Republicans, the Democrats are incapable of winning. Pelosi's DCCC is corrupt and incompetent. The only thing they know how to do is lose. And lose. And lose. And lose.





The Republicans are up by 30 seats and the DSCC has recruited viable candidates in enough districts to win the House back and MOST-- the majority-- of the candidates they have recruited are unelectable losers chosen because they are wealthy enough to self-fund and because they are conservative. The DCCC started losing when they started a systemic policy of sabotaging progressives and working class Democrats. As the GOP moved further and further right, away from conservatism and into a fully reactionary stance, the DC Democratic establishment followed them further right-- into the conservatism the GOP has pretty much abandoned.





So far the DCCC is backing just two dozen candidates, including several with viable primaries, supporting, for example Val Demings in the Orlando area , Bill Golderer in Bucks County, Pennsylvania and Monica Vernon (a Republican disguised as a Democrat) in northeast Iowa running against more electable candidates (Bob Poe and Geraldine Thompson in Florida, Mary Ellen Balchunis in Pennsylvania and Pat Murphy in Iowa).





Conservatives like Wall Streeter Josh Gottheimer, 2014-defeated Texas Blue Dog Pete Gallego and Michigan drunkard Lon Johnson are exactly the wrong kinds of candidates to recruit and support if the DCCC wanted to rebuild a vibrant Democrat Party in Congress. But the DCCC doesn't. The DCCC wants tools like Demings and Johnson, who will do what they're told by party leaders and they want corrupt individuals who will be happy to play the money game that makes American politics go round and round. Instead the DCCC is building up a New Dem/Blue Dog power nexus in Congress. In district after district around the country they are undermining Democrats and trying to push their own horrible candidates.

What would a progressive-run Democratic House be able to accomplish if we were able to rid Congress of the corrupt bosses like Schumer, Hoyer, Wasserman Schultz, et al? Look no further than the budget the Congressional Progressive Caucus just proposed. Conservative Establishment Democrats from the Hillary Clinton wing of the party will join with the GOP to defeat it but if you want to see what electing candidates like the ones Blue America has endorsed , this is the place to look. Richard Kirsch from the Roosevelt Institute did a good summary today of how all those big progressive ideas would work if there were enough progressives in Congress to pass the People's Budget , which would make "major investments in creating good jobs, educating our children, stopping the disruption of our climate, changing the priorities in Pentagon spending, and restoring our democracy. It would pay for these and other public goods by turning our upside-down tax system right side up. In doing so, it would actually cut the federal budget deficit..

A core premise of the Peoples Budget is that every American who wants to work should have a good job that allows them to care for and support their family. The budget aims to reach full employment and makes a $1 trillion investment in infrastructure in addition to financing for clean and renewable energy. It would also make essential investments in families, like universal pre-K, funding for every child eligible for Head Start, and building more affordable housing.



In addition to boosting wages through full employment, the Peoples Budget calls for raising the minimum wage and the overtime threshold so companies can no longer avoid paying overtime to millions of workers. It would help working people care for loved ones and for themselves by guaranteeing paid sick days and by assisting states that establish insurance funds for paid family leave. And it would repeal the federal ban on Medicaid paying for abortions so that mothers who rely on that program for their health care can decide whether its the right time for them to have a child.



...Mindful that so much of our spending is driven by lobbyists and campaign cash, the Peoples Budget would fund a small-donor matching system so candidates for Congress could compete for office without taking big money.



All that and more adds up to spending $3.4 trillion more over the next 10 years than we would under current law. Sound like a lot? Not when compared to how much revenue the Peoples Budget would generate by rejecting the idea that raising taxes is unpopular. In fact, raising taxes on the wealthy and closing big corporate loopholes is hugely popular with everyone outside of the super-rich and corporate lobbyists.



By asking the wealthy and big corporations to stop shirking their responsibility to support the working families that create wealth and the public structures that enable businesses to operate, the Peoples Budget would raise $8.8 trillion more than the budget thats in place now. How? Corporations would not be able to dodge taxes by shipping their profits overseas. Too-big-to-fail banks would be taxed. A tiny tax on Wall Street trades would discourage speculation while raising $900 billion over 10 years. Corporations would no longer be able to write off multimillion-dollar CEO compensation.



The Peoples Budget takes aim at climate change, too. Oil and gas companies would stop getting tax breaks for pulling more of their planet-destroying products out of the ground. A new tax on oil would finance modernizing our transportation system. More broadly, a tax on all carbon-- with most of the proceeds going to investments in renewable energy-- would power a 26 percent reduction in climate-destroying pollution. At the same time, families with low-incomes would be protected from the hike in oil and gas prices from taxing carbon.



The budget also asks those who make more to pay more. returning the income tax rate for the 2 percent of people making more than $250,000 a year to what it was under President Clinton. The budget would also lower the estate tax exemption to $2.5 million for an individual; while not exactly a daring proposal, this would still raise $231 billion.

A public option would, in effect, quickly turn Obamacare into Medicare-For-All and negotiated prices for drugs may upset Big Pharma and their lobbyists but it will bring the costs of health care down significantly for all Americans.





Last year when the Progressive Caucus' budget was defeated in the House, many of today's worst Senate candidates, the establishment and Wall Street shills Schumer is pushing, voted with the Republicans against it-- like Patrick Murphy (FL), Tammy Duckworth (IL), Chris Van Hollen (MD) and Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ). Voting matters-- and so does supporting candidates who are willing to stand and fight.
Subscribe

EastCoastLife demands accountability and transparency from all civil servants in Singapore.... those who lie or cover-up should be severely punished.

EastCoastLife reviewing Singapore's :



1) Judicial System

2) Police Force

3) MOE's Feedback System

4) Healthcare

5) Corruption Laws

6) Maid Agencies



********ooOoo********



The Sale Of Limited Publicly Funded Places in Singapore Government Schools

********ooOoo********



Harassment and Violence Against Women Members at Hainan Tan Clan Association Singapore




Asotthalom, Republic of Hungary - The Hungarian government has proclaimed the preparation of a further one,500 troops and law enforcement officials on its border with geographical region, because it extended a nationwide state of emergency in response to the continuing exile crisis in Europe.Interior Minister Sandor dramatist created the announcement throughout a conference in Hungary's capital Hungarian capital on weekday.The move comes simply on a daily basis when Slovenia proclaimed the closure of its border crossings to those that don't have valid world organisation entry visas, effectively block the Balkan route that refugees use to succeed in Western Europe.Referring to the choice to deploy a lot of security forces on the border, dramatist said: "We don't savvy the migrants stuck within the Balkan countries can react".Syrian exile at Idomeni: it is a terribly unhealthy life, it is a second war hereRiskier routesMacedonia, Serbia, Slovenia and Hrvatska have drastically tightened border restrictions since late 2015, resulting in a pointy increase in refugees trying to breach Hungary's 175-kilometre fence on the Serbian border."There are breaches at varied points on the Hungarian-Serbian border," a Hungarian police voice told Al Jazeera, explaining that typically between one hundred and two hundred folks square measure inactive for crossing the fence daily.On Tuesday, the police same that 127 folks were caught trying to enter Republic of Hungary from geographical region. they're among the 976 folks inactive by Hungarian police since March one for breaching the fence.Andras Kovats, director of the Hungarian Association for Migrants, explained that the quantity of refugees and migrants in detention centres and open camps has tripled since the center of Gregorian calendar month."The open and closed facilities square measure full," he told Al Jazeera, adding that the spate of border closures can probably push refugees to require riskier routes into Western Europe."We don't have any clue what percentage enter the country [from Serbia] while not obtaining caught," Kovats same, argument that Republic of Hungary's strict measures create it just about not possible for asylum seekers to realize asylum in Hungary.Those who square measure caught coming into the country by breaching the border fence square measure usually barred from applying for asylum and prohibited from the EU's Schengen zone for a amount of 1 year.Meanwhile, only a few asylum candidates World Health Organization take the right legal steps square measure accepted, per Mark Kekesi, voice for Szeged chapter of the Migrant commonness cluster of Republic of Hungary."If you do not cut the fence and enter illicitly and take the legal entree, then you have got a virtually one hundred pc probability of being kicked back to geographical region," Kekesi told Al Jazeera.Only 146 of the 177,135 candidates were granted asylum in Republic of Hungary in 2015, per the government's workplace of statistics.Another 362 refugees weren't given asylum, however were supplied with residency and permissible to remain."The government has created it as shut as wrongfully doable to creating it not possible [to acquire asylum] in Republic of Hungary," Kekesi same.More than 1,000,000 refugees and migrants reached European shores by boat in 2015, per the administrative unit for refugees (UNHCR), whereas Associate in Nursing calculable 141,930 have created it to Europe since the start of this year.Earlier on, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's workplace proclaimed plans to slash subsidies and services for refugees and asylum seekers within the country.
Libertarianism Against the Welfare State: A Refresher By: Bryan Caplan

Im a hard-core libertarian who defines libertarianism broadly. If you think voluntarism is seriously underrated and government is seriously overrated, youre a libertarian in my book. I also strive to treat others with common decency regardless of their political views. That includes libertarian apostates. People sometimes cease to be libertarians even on my broad definition  and when that happens, the proper reaction is not anger and ostracism, but friendliness and curiosity.

In recent years, Ive heard many libertarians expressing new-found appreciation for the welfare state. This is most pronounced at the Niskanen Center, but thats only part of a broader trend. If the revisionist position were a clear-cut, Sure, most of the welfare state is terrible, but the rest of okay. We should cut social spending by 80%, not 100%, their libertarian credentials would not be at issue.

When libertarians start describing Danish flexicurity with deep admiration, however, I dont just doubt their libertarian commitment. More importantly, I wonder why they changed their minds. And to be honest, the more I listen to them, the more I wonder. The most enlightening path, I think, is to restate what I see as the standard libertarian case against the welfare state, and find out exactly where they demur. Here goes.

Soft-Core Case

1. Universal social programs that help everyone are folly. Regardless of your political philosophy, taxing everyone to help everyone makes no sense.

2. In the U.S. (along with virtually every other country), most government social spending is devoted to these indefensible universal programs  Social Security, Medicare, and K-12 public education, for starters.

3. Social programs  universal or means-tested  give people perverse incentives, discouraging work, planning, and self-insurance. The programs give recipients very bad incentives; the taxes required to fund the programs give everyone moderately bad incentives. The more generous the programs, the worse the collateral damage. As a result, even programs carefully targeted to help the truly poor often fail a cost-benefit test. And while libertarians need not favor every government act that passes the cost-benefit test, they should at least oppose every government act that fails it.

4. Helping people sounds good; complaining about perverse incentives sounds bad. Since humans focus on how policies sound, rather than what they actually achieve, governments have a built-in tendency to adopt and preserve social programs that fail a cost-benefit test. Upshot: We should view even seemingly promising social programs with a skeptical eye.

Medium-Core Case

5. There is a plausible moral case for social programs that help people who are absolutely poor through no fault of their own. Otherwise, the case falters.

6. Absolutely poor. When Jean Valjean steals a loaf of bread to save his sisters son, he

has a credible excuse. By extension, so does a government

program to tax strangers to feed Valjeans nephew. If Valjean steals a

smartphone to amuse his sisters son, though, his excuse falls flat  and

so does a government program designed to do the same.

7. No fault of their own. Why youre poor matters. Starving because youre born blind is morally problematic. Starving because you drink yourself into a stupor every day is far less so. Indeed, you might call it just deserts.

8. Existing means-tested programs generally run afoul of one or both conditions. Even if the welfare state did not exist, few people in First World countries would be absolutely poor. And most poor people engage in a lot of irresponsible behavior. Check out any ethnography of poverty.

9. First World welfare states provide a popular rationale for restricting immigration from countries where absolute poverty is rampant: Theyre just coming to sponge off of us. Given the rarity of absolute poverty in the First World and the massive labor market benefits of migration from the Third World to the First, it is therefore likely that existing welfare states make global absolute poverty worse.

Hard-Core Case

10. Ambiguity about what constitutes absolute poverty and irresponsible behavior should be resolved in favor of taxpayers, not recipients. Coercion is not acceptable when justification is debatable.

11. If private charity can provide for people in absolute poverty through no fault of their own, there is no good reason for government to use tax dollars to do so. The best way to measure the adequacy of private charity is to put it to the test by abolishing existing social programs.

12. Consider the best-case scenario for forced charity. Someone is absolutely poor through no fault of his own, and there are no disincentive effects of transfers or taxes. Even here, the moral case for forced charity is much less plausible than it looks. Think of the Good Samaritan. Did he do a noble deed  or merely fulfill his minimal obligation? Patriotic brainwashing notwithstanding, our fellow citizens are strangers  and the moral intuition that helping strangers is supererogatory is hard to escape. And even if you think the opposite, can you honestly deny that its debatable? If so, how can you in good conscience coerce dissenters?

Personally, I embrace all twelve theses. But even the Soft-Core Case implies radical opposition to the welfare state as it currently exists. My questions for lapsed critics of the welfare state: Precisely which theses do you reject  and whats the largest welfare state consistent with the theses you accept?
The tomb of the Unknown Solider in Cairo

On 9 March, Egypt commemorated the Martyr's Day where the Egyptian armed forces remembered its martyrs especially those who have fallen recently in Sinai.The Egyptian armed forces' Morale department released a group of short documentaries about fallen officers and soldiers and their heroic acts in North Sinai against the terrorists of Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis.All respect to Egypt's martyrs whether military or civilians as well their families who are paying a huge price.I believe on the Martyr's Day, we should not only remember our martyrs and heroes whether they are military or civilian, put flowers on the Unknown Solider graves and share short documentaries and patriot songs. We should ask questions about why and how those people are killed like that in young age and how that blood river in North Sinai does not want to stop.We should stop commemorating our martyrs whether military or civilians using very empty nationalistic slogans and empty words for real.Already I have lost counting on how many times Egyptian military and security officials that Egypt purged North Sinai of terrorism and next day we find a terrorist attack killing not less than 4 security personnel !!BuzzFeed's Maged Atef revealed in his report about life in North Sinai between the fires of Daesh-Subsidiary Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis "ABM" and the Egyptian security forces that no less than 2000 soldiers were killed in clashes according to an anonymous source in the army. I think this number is realistic if we add up all the casualties of the Egyptian security forces since 2013 unfortunately.Of course, we do not have any confirmed or official or precise number of casualties among the terrorists or the civilians who are paying the heaviest price actually.Jut scrolling back in the official posts and announcements on the Official Facebook page of the Egyptian armed forces spokesperson , I noticed that recently there has not been any statement about the losses among the Egyptian armed forces personnel.This is at the same time, I find out about the Egyptian armed forces officers and soldiers getting killed from the social media and unofficial Facebook.We must ask questions for the sake of those martyrs and their families.Who will stand accountable from the officials for what is happening in North Sinai ? When will they stand accountable !? Why are they getting killed like that !?Egypt's Marty's Day commemorate the martyrdom of the Egyptian Chief of staff Abdel Moneim Riad in 1969 during the war of attrition between Egypt and Israel.Riad was from the men who re-built the Egyptian armed forces after the humiliating defeat in 1967.I think it is frustrating to find out that after 47 years , we find Egyptian military personnel as well civilians are still getting killed in another North Sinai endless war.
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 18 years and 38,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
ELKO  Two Rotary clubs in Elko have been helping six guests from Russia get acquainted with the culture of rural Nevada this week.

The Rotary Club of Elko and Rotary Club of Desert Sunrise are hosting six businesswomen from Russia through the Open World Program which allows guests in different countries to visit host cities around the world. The program is sponsored and funded by the United States Congress, and is administered Rotary International.

The six Russian delegates are staying with host families from the Rotary clubs during their weeklong visit.

Lucy Tomera-Miller, president of the Rotary Club of Elko, said that hosting their overseas guests has been just as fun for her as it has been for them.

Its been fantastic. They have been so friendly and want to know information that we can share with them from Elko, she said.

However, before Elko could be allowed to host the delegates they had to put together a proposal to exhibit the cultural value of visiting.

Our club and the Elko Desert Sunrise Club filled out an application to apply to be a host for this particular program, she said. We had to submit a schedule of events of what we can do that would be of interest for these ladies.

On Wednesday the Russian Delegates got a brief history lesson of the cowboy culture in Elko with their tour of the Western Folklife Center. With the assistance of a translator, the delegates heard the stories behind the artwork in the center and watched a brief video presentation about the history of cowboy poetry in the West.

Executive Director of the Western Folklife Center David Roache said that even though the delegates were from a different cultural background that they should be able to relate to aspects of cowboy culture.

This group is from the far eastern part of Russia, he said. Thats also a very remote part of that country so there is a parallel here. This group can relate to what were doing out here in Elko.

One of the other things that Elko is doing that has defined the region is the mining industry. Earlier in the week the delegates visited a Newmont Mining Corp. gold mine and were able to get a tour of the facility. Tomera-Miller said it was the most memorable event the group attended so far.

Their tour was at the gold mines and they got to walk around the plant and see the open pit of Newmont mining here in Elko, she said.

The delegates also pointed to the gold mines as being one of the most memorable experiences of their visit to Elko but also said they enjoyed spending time with their American hosts.

We enjoyed the Ruby Mountains and were very impressed with the gold mine, said translator Elana Golis speaking on behalf of the group. We also enjoyed being hosted by the American families. We have fun with them and will remember this time for a long, long time.

Even though the delegates are from a different culture and a different country the delegates have seen that people from different countires still face a lot of the same challenges.

People are very much alike, said Golis. People are facing the same issues and problems, and I think the people of our two countries are very much alike.
ELKO  Great Basin Colleges Arts and Literary magazine, Argentum is seeking submissions.

GBC students, staff, and faculty, as well as high school students and community members are invited to enter short stories, poetry, photography, drawing, painting, graphic design, or fabric arts.

The magazine started around 2005 and was first called Idea, put together by GBC employee Mary Baker. Outgoing Vice President of Academic Affairs Mike McFarlane saw similar arts publications at other universities and supported annual financial support to keep Argentum alive for the past six years.

As a student, I enjoyed seeing those publications. I thought it was something we were missing at Great Basin, McFarlane said. I feel strongly about institutionalizing it.

The Arts and Cultural Enrichment Committee oversees it now, explained McFarlane.

Theyve been a major force with it, and has done a lot for the college, he said.

The name changed to Argentum, the Latin word for silver, by the ACE committee, then called the Intellectual and Cultural Enrichment committee. The community in each of GBC service areas, including Battle Mountain, Winnemucca, Ely, Pahrump and Lovelock, were invited to participate a few years ago.

For 2016s issue, high school students are also invited to participate, with parental permission for those under 18. This includes dual credit students who are also earning high school as well as college credit.

Dual credit students are full-fledged college students, emphasized McFarlane.

Angie de Braga, chairwoman of the ACE committee agrees and also welcomes their involvement in Argentum.

It is important to invite them to participate, as we have some very talented high school students taking college courses at GBC, she said.

Submissions are judged by a rotating selection committee of professionals in art, photography and writing. The selected works are then published and the artists are invited to show their work at the Spring Student Art Show and receive a copy of the magazine.

Being published in Argentum is an honor that students can include on their resumes, said de Braga. While it can be scary to have ones work judged, it is a good process for students to go through and find out what others think of it.

McFarlane, who is retiring after 33 years at Great Basin College, has entered his own work in photography and pottery in support of Argentum.

I think the quality has gone up, he said.

Over the years, we have seen a great increase in the number of entries being considered for Argentum, de Braga added. The competition has grown a little keener to have ones work published. Its fun to see the finished product each year and the variety of work that comes in.

Participants may submit up to three works by March 11.

Those interested may view past issues and download forms to submit work at www.gbcnv.edu/argentum or call 753-2149 for more information.
RENO  An Elko senior will be one of 12 high school students to compete at the 11th annual Nevada Poetry Out Loud State finals.

The competition is from noon to 3 p.m. March 19 at KNPB Channel 5 Public Broadcastings studios, 1670 N. Virginia St., in Reno.

Mikayla Bates of Elko High School will represent Elko County.

The event is free and open to the public, though seating is limited, so attendees should plan to arrive early. The state champion will represent Nevada at the National Poetry Out Loud competition in Washington, D.C., May 2-4.

We congratulate the more than 2,750 students who engaged in this years Poetry Out Loud, said Susan Boskoff, executive director of Nevada Arts Council. They continue to select more complex and demanding poems to explore, memorize and ultimately own. We anticipate a very competitive and inspiring state finals.

Distinguished members of Nevadas literary community are participating in the 2016 state finals. Renos Poet Laureate Gailmarie Pahmeier is serving as the master of ceremonies. Guest judges include Bruce Isaacson, Clark County poet laureate; Vogue Robinson, Las Vegas poet and educator; Larry Ollivier, Reno poet and educator; NV Energy government strategy executive Linda Bissett; and Vicky Meissner, Humboldt County School District educator.

District Finalists competing for the state title include:

 Carson City: Shaylin Segura, junior, Carson High School

 Clark County: Christopher Alvarez, senior, Las Vegas Academy

 Douglas County: Vanessa Blackwell, senior Douglas County High School

 Elko County: Mikayla Bates, senior, Elko High School

 Eureka County: Stephen Watts, senior, Eureka County High School

 Lincoln County: Allyssa Wadsworth, junior, Lincoln County High School

 Lyon County: Gabrielle Hunt, sophomore, Yerington High School

 Nevada Virtual: Erik Jett, senior, Nevada Virtual Academy

 Nye County: Summer Taylor, freshman Beatty High School

 Pershing County: Loree Brimage, junior, Pershing County High School

 Storey County: John Dexter Yago, freshman, Virginia City High School

 Washoe County: Natalie Rodriguez, senior, Wooster High School

A dynamic educational program, Poetry Out Loud begins at the local level as students learn about, memorize and finally present poetryout loud. Participants advance from school to district competitions and then to the Nevada State Finals, where the stakes are high. The Poetry Out Loud State Champion earns $1,000, wins $1,000 for his or her school to support literary programs, and travels with a chaperone to Washington, D.C. to compete for $50,000 in scholarships and school prizes at the National Poetry Out Loud Finals, held May 2-4. Those who place second and third at the Nevada State Finals each receive $500 and $500 for their schools to support literary programs.

Poetry Out Loud is a program of the Nevada Arts Council, presented in partnership with National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation.
The poster for Face 2 Faces A Midsummer Nights Dream.

You probably dont need reminding that this year marks the 400thanniversary of the death of two of literatures most towering figures: Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare, who both shuffled off their mortal coil in April 1616.

But as the row over how best to commemorate the Don Quixote author rages on in Spain, the Face 2 Face English-language theater company in Madrid has moved full steam ahead with its plans to celebrate the life of the great English playwright.

A Midsummer Nights Dream is the groups new innovative family-focused version of Shakespeares comedy of star-crossed lovers.

Transporting the action to turn-of-the-20th-century India, it brings an exotic and spiritual touch to the storys three interweaving strands: a battle between fairy king Oberon and fairy queen Titiana; the adventures of four lovers in a forest; and the antics of a group of amateur actors staging a play.

The production mixes the original Shakespearean prose with modern English and action comedy

The production mixes the original Shakespearean prose with modern English, action comedy, and live music, so that native speakers and learners alike can enjoy its mix of love, confusion, magic and mischief. Have no fear of Shakespeare! urges the company, which has more than 15 years of bringing English-language classics to Spanish stages.

Suitable for adults and children aged eight and over, the show runs from Saturday March 12 until Saturday April 23 at the Infanta Isabel Theater on Madrids Barquillo street. Tickets are available from the Face 2 Face website.

A Midsummer Nights Dream. From March 12 to April 23 at Teatro Infanta Isabel, Calle Barquillo, Madrid (Metro: Chueca). Show starts 5pm. Tickets: http://en.face2faceproductions.com.
The Spanish royals sent messages of support to an old friend who got caught up in a corruption scandal. Ricardo Garcia ( Pool/ Getty Images)

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain sent private messages of support to a businessman caught up in a Madrid savings bank scandal involving secret credit cards for executives, the online daily eldiario.es has reported.

Javier Lopez Madrid, who is the CEO of Villar Mir, a large industrial group, spent 34,800 of taxpayers money on expensive restaurants and luxury items, using a discretionary credit card given to members of the boards of Caja Madrid and its successor, Bankia. This lender was bailed out with 23 billion in public funds.

You know what I think, Javier. We know who you are, you know who we are. We know each other, we have affection for one another, we respect one another. As for everything else, merde.

Queen Letizia to Javier Lopez Madrid

The messages of support were sent to Lopez Madrid, who is also being investigated in the Punica kickbacks-for-contracts case, on October 15, 2014, just five days after details emerged of how 86 bank executives spent a collective 15.2 million in personal expenses that were paid for by the bank, although the money was not properly declared on their income tax filings.

Although Lopez Madrid tried to delete these messages, sent through Apples iMessage chat system, they were recovered by Civil Guard specialists as part of another investigation into claims of sexual harassment made against him by a woman.

Court papers show that a person identified on Lopez Madrids cellphone as Ltzia sent the following text message: I wrote to you when the article about the cards came out in that shitty LOC [a possible reference to an article about him in a newspaper supplement], and you know what I think, Javier. We know who you are, you know who we are. We know each other, we have affection for one another, we respect one another. As for everything else, merde. Kisses, fellow yogui (miss you!!!).

Official royal sources have confirmed to EL PAIS that the messages of support for Lopez Madrid were sent by the king and queen but were part of a friendship that no longer exists

At the time, Queen Letizia and Lopez Madrid were taking yoga classes together.

Lopez Madrid, who has since returned the money spent on the credit card and is awaiting a trial date, replies: I am very grateful to you. In future I will be extremely cautious, we live in a very difficult country and I will be increasingly aware of my own conduct.

A third person identified as PF PT then joins the conversation, coinciding with the acronyms Principe Felipe (still referring to the recently crowned Felipe VI as the prince) and personal, as in personal phone line. Both men had been friends for years.

This individual writes: I am joining the chat, but would rather spend some time chatting without the electronics or telephones in the middle. Shall we meet for lunch tomorrow? Hugs.

The lunch date was postponed because Lopez Madrid was in San Francisco, but he and King Felipe met on October 24, according to a message the businessman sent to the head of the royal household.

Official royal sources have confirmed to EL PAIS that the messages of support for Lopez Madrid were sent by the king and queen but were part of a friendship that no longer exists.

English version by Susana Urra.
Montserrat Gonzalez.

A mother and daughter have been sentenced to prison terms of 22 and 20 years, respectively, for the murder of Leon politician Isabel Carrasco on May 12, 2014.

A policewoman who was also a defendant in the case received a five-year term after being acquitted of the murder charge but found guilty of covering up for the killers and illegally possessing weapons.

On February 20, a popular jury found that Montserrat Gonzalez and Triana Martinez conspired to kill the Popular Party (PP) politician, who was shot dead by the former in broad daylight on a footbridge in Leon.

The role of policewoman Raquel Gago consisted of safekeeping the murder weapon for several hours

Gonzalez, who admitted the facts, acted out of hate over what she felt was unfair persecution of her daughter Triana at the hands of the regional leader, who had once employed Triana at the provincial authority.

The role of the policewoman, Raquel Gago, consisted of taking the murder weapon for safekeeping for several hours.

English version by Susana Urra.
Former Brazil president Lula da Silva this Wednesday in Brasilia. Fernando Bizerra Jr. (EFE)

More information La fiscalia denuncia a Lula da Silva por lavado de dinero y ocultacion de patrimonio

Sao Paulo prosecutors on Wednesday filed charges against former Brazil president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in connection with money laundering and misrepresentation of assets, according to the Brazilian media.

The move is a new blow to Lula da Silva, who governed Brazil between 2003 and 2010. Last week he was held for questioning over a parallel investigation into graft at state oil company Petrobras.

Sao Paulo prosecutors are accusing Lula da Silva and his wife, Marisa Leticia Lula da Silva, of concealing their ownership of a luxury apartment on the coast. The property is registered in the name of construction company OAS, itself a target in the Petrobras probe.

Suspicions of corruption had been dogging Lula da Silva for some time, but this is the first clear-cut accusation leveled against him

The former president has always denied ownership of this upscale apartment, which is mentioned in the Petrobras investigation as evidence that Lula da Silva benefited unlawfully from construction companies.

Lula da Silva has refuted the charges, and his foundation, the Lula Institute, released a statement on Tuesday saying that the former leader does not own the apartment and committed no illegalities.

Suspicions of corruption had been dogging Lula da Silva for some time, but this is the first clear-cut accusation leveled against him. On Friday, the police raided his home and took him in for questioning for three hours. State prosecutors have accused him of being one of the main beneficiaries of a corruption scheme that allegedly diverted 10 billion reales (around 2.4 billion) between 2004 and 2012.

In order to protect a man who remains a towering figure in the Workers Party (PT) and a potential candidate in the 2018 presidential elections, a few ministers have offered Lula da Silva the chance to fill a government position.

Police stationed outside Lula da Silva's house last Friday. AFP

Were he to accept a post, he would automatically receive legal protection from the courts. At that point, only the Supreme Federal Court would have the power to try him, and he would be safe from the lower-court judge Sergio Moro, who is leading the Petrobras investigation and forced Lula to provide testimony last Friday.

I am the victim of a media circus, said the former president as he was taken to Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo to give evidence. If they wanted to hear me out, all they had to do was call me and I would have come, since I owe nothing to nobody, and fear nothing.

These latest developments have ramped up tensions in Brazil, where a political crisis has been brewing for months. President Dilma Rousseffs popularity ratings are at an all-time low of 11%, and the economic crisis is contributing to the gloomy scenario. The latest economic figures show that GDP contracted 3.8% in 2015 compared with the previous year, representing the worst results on record since 1996.

Opposition parties and social movements are expressing their discontent by organizing large protest marches in dozens of cities for this coming Sunday. The government has already expressed fears of violent street clashes, and asked Brazilians for tolerance and unity.

English version by Susana Urra.
A specialist examines the virus in a laboratory in Campinas, Brazil. PAULO FRIDMAN ((BLOOMBERG))

The first baby to be born in Spain to a mother who had been infected with the Zika virus is out of danger and, for the moment, everything indicates that the child has not been affected by exposure to the disease, health service sources in Galicia have told EL PAIS.

However, it has not yet been confirmed whether the newborn is suffering any after-effects.

Routine tests showed that the mother had been exposed to the virus during a stay in Venezuela

Doctors at the University of Santiago Hospital Complex are closely following the development of the youngster  who was also born prematurely  to avoid complications, the sources said.

The mother, who has since completely recovered from the virus, discovered she had been infected when she went to the Santiago de Compostela hospital at the end of February because she was about to give birth prematurely.

Routine tests showed that she might have been exposed to the virus between the fourth and fifth month of her pregnancy, a time that coincided with a stay in Venezuela.

Thirty-eight Zika cases have been diagnosed in Spain up until Monday, according to the Spanish Health Ministry

Although she had gone for a checkup at the time after feeling unwell, medics in the South American country were not able to confirm her exposure to Zika.

Thirty-eight Zika cases have been diagnosed in Spain up until Monday, according to the Spanish Health Ministry. Among them are two other pregnant women in Madrid and two more in Catalonia.

The World Health Organization Emergency Committee has recently said that there is more and more evidence linking the virus to serious neurological diseases such as microcephaly  a condition when babies are born with abnormally small heads.

English version by Nick Funnell.
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton during the debate. JOE RAEDLE (AFP)

More information Clinton y Sanders se desmarcan de Obama sobre las deportaciones

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both distanced themselves from President Barack Obamas policy of deporting undocumented immigrants when they held their eighth televised debate on Wednesday night.

The two contenders said the United States had to put limits on a policy that even some Democrats have criticized. Sanders and Clinton agreed on the need for comprehensive immigration reform for the countrys 11 million undocumented residents. Yet, they still criticized each other over their former positions on the issue.

Univision and CNN hosted the debate at Miami Dade College, just six days before Florida holds its primary. The state is home to a large Hispanic community: around 20% of its residents are of Latino descent and immigration is a sensitive issue there. Univision journalist Jorge Ramos, a well-known activist for immigrants who has criticized Obamas deportation policy, asked the contenders to explain their views.

Though Sanders and Clinton hope to distinguish themselves, they do admit when they agree

Sanders and Clinton tried to disassociate themselves from the president. Clinton promised not to deport children and their families and assured voters that she would only back deportations for undocumented immigrants who threaten us.

Sanders added: [Obama] is wrong on this issue of deportation and called separating families immoral.

Both candidates were asked if they considered Donald Trump, the front-runner in the Republican race who speaks out against immigrants, a racist. Clinton quickly reminded the crowd that I was the first one to call him out. I called him out when he was calling Mexicans rapists.

Sanders also evaded the direct question, but later stated that Trump and others resorted to racism and xenophobia and that the Republican contenders goal to deport 11 million undocumented US residents was absurd.

Although Sanders and Clinton both call for comprehensive immigration reform, Clinton censured the Vermont senator for voting against an immigration bill sponsored by Ted Kennedy in 2007 and she promised to propose a plan within her first 100 days in office. Sanders said the reform bill had not had the support of Latino organizations and that he did later back a 2013 bipartisan bill that eventually failed to pass Congress.

Both agreed that Cuba must start building a democratic system and respect human rights

Unlike the Republican debates where the contenders have grown increasingly aggressive with one another, the Democratic encounters have ebbed and flowed. Though Sanders and Clinton hope to distinguish themselves, they do admit when they agree.

Both candidates said they supported the Obama administrations work on US-Cuban relations. Sanders said he was in favor of lifting the economic embargo, a measure that former secretary of state Clinton proposed months ago. Both agreed that Cuba must start building a democratic system and respect human rights.

Then, Sanders offered an alternative view of American foreign policy in Latin America. He criticized the Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961 and efforts to overthrow governments in Nicaragua, Guatemala and Chile. The Vermont senator, who identifies himself as a socialist, said it was a mistake not to recognize Cuban advances in medicine and education.

Meanwhile, Clinton said she supported restructuring Puerto Ricos $70 billion debt, a comment clearly meant to warm the hearts of one million Puerto Ricans living in Florida, many of whom came to the mainland in the wake of the economic crisis on the island.

Recent polls give Clinton a comfortable lead over Sanders in Florida, especially because she has the support of the Latino community.

English version by Dyane Jean Francois.
SUBSCRIBERS OF UCOMS ALL TIME BEST OFFER TO ENJOY ADDITIONAL BENEFITS

Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders

PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia concerned by reports of alleged war crimes or inhuman treatment perpetrated by Azerbaijans armed forces

There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan

Google Ad

Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia

Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair

Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan

I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General

I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox

UCOMS SPECIAL OFFER OF THE UNLIMITED INTERNET IS NOW TERMLESS

There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur

EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol  Armenia and Azerbaijan  to do so without delay

An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan".

UCOM AND PES-PES CONTINUE COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECT

The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022

Largest Corporate Bond Program at the Securities Market of Armenia Completed Successfully

Google Ad

The statement of the Defender on the video of the execution of Armenian PoWs by the Azerbaijani armed forces

LEVEL UP ONLY FOR STUDENTS: UCOM OFFERS X2 AND X3 MORE INTERNET

STATEMENT BY SECRETARY ANTONY J. BLINKEN

This criminal act is another proof that the Armenophobia policy. Tatoyan

Nikol Pashinyan, Nancy Pelosi discuss a number of issues related to the Armenian-American agenda and regional developments

Delegation by Nancy Pelosi Accompanied by Alen Simonyan Visits Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi Arrives in Yerevan

Armenian Revytech, global technology leader SAP and financial services software specialist SAP Fioneer sign a cooperation agreement

With 120 million drams donated by Mikael Vardanyan, the defenders of the homeland will be treated in a new building

OSCE Chairman-in-Office and OSCE Secretary General call for immediate cessation of hostilities along Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh

USA Embassy Message for U.S. Citizens

ANCA Issues National Call to Action to Stop Taxpayer Funding of Aliyevs Aggression
SUBSCRIBERS OF UCOMS ALL TIME BEST OFFER TO ENJOY ADDITIONAL BENEFITS

Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders

PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia concerned by reports of alleged war crimes or inhuman treatment perpetrated by Azerbaijans armed forces

There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan

Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia

Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair

Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan

I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General

I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox

UCOMS SPECIAL OFFER OF THE UNLIMITED INTERNET IS NOW TERMLESS

There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur

EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol  Armenia and Azerbaijan  to do so without delay

An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan".

UCOM AND PES-PES CONTINUE COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECT

The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022

Largest Corporate Bond Program at the Securities Market of Armenia Completed Successfully

Google Ad

The statement of the Defender on the video of the execution of Armenian PoWs by the Azerbaijani armed forces

LEVEL UP ONLY FOR STUDENTS: UCOM OFFERS X2 AND X3 MORE INTERNET

STATEMENT BY SECRETARY ANTONY J. BLINKEN

This criminal act is another proof that the Armenophobia policy. Tatoyan

Nikol Pashinyan, Nancy Pelosi discuss a number of issues related to the Armenian-American agenda and regional developments

Delegation by Nancy Pelosi Accompanied by Alen Simonyan Visits Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi Arrives in Yerevan

Armenian Revytech, global technology leader SAP and financial services software specialist SAP Fioneer sign a cooperation agreement

With 120 million drams donated by Mikael Vardanyan, the defenders of the homeland will be treated in a new building

OSCE Chairman-in-Office and OSCE Secretary General call for immediate cessation of hostilities along Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh

USA Embassy Message for U.S. Citizens

ANCA Issues National Call to Action to Stop Taxpayer Funding of Aliyevs Aggression
Latest developments in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement process discussed at NATO Headquarters

On March 9, Armenias Minister of Foreign Affairs Edward Nalbandian and Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Ambassadors of 28 NATO member-states, NATO high-level officials and heads of the military structure participated in the session of the North Atlantic Council in 28+1 format which took place at NATO Headquarters in Brussels. During the session, chaired by the NATO Secretary General, Armenias Foreign and Defense Ministers delivered speeches. In his speech Minister Nalbandian touched upon Armenia-NATO cooperation in different areas, priorities of Armenias foreign policy, latest developments in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement process, fight against terrorism, Armenias participation in peace keeping operations, implementation of the Iranian nuclear deal, Syrian crisis and issues emanating from it, Armenias stance on pressing issues on international agenda. Reflecting on Armenia-NATO relations, Edward Nalbandian positively assessed the effective partnership established in the frameworks of Individual Partnership Action Plan. Minister Nalbandian mentioned that Armenia-NATO IPAP for 2014-2016 (which is the 4th in a row) is effectively translated into life, and stressed that the process of drafting of IPAP for 2017-2018 would kick off soon between corresponding agencies. Edward Nalbandian presented to the members of the North Atlantic Council the results of referendum on constitutional reforms held in Armenia and the reform process arising from that. In his remarks, Armenias Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan referred to the process of reforms undertaken in the defense system, expansion of capabilities in the field of military education and highlighted the importance of Armenia-NATO partnership in this context. In their speeches during the session of the North Atlantic Council, NATO SG, representatives of about a dozen member-states positively assessed effective cooperation between Armenia and the Alliance and the results achieved. Speakers commended the results of implementation of Individual Partnership Action Plan, the process of reforms in Armenia, Armenias participation in the peacekeeping operations in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Lebanon. Afterwards, Ministers Nalbandian and Ohanyan answered numerous questions raised by NATO member-states Ambassadors concerning Armenias foreign policy, regional developments, efforts exerted by Armenia and the international community towards peaceful settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, reforms in the defense and security areas of Armenia. Prior to the session of North Atlantic Council, Armenias Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan had a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. During the meeting, the sides touched upon Armenia-NATO cooperation in the frameworks of different programmes, exchanged thoughts on the regional issues. MFA
Secret of Sargsyan-Putin meeting (video)

In the near future Russia will try to transfer the confrontation with Turkey to the Black Sea and it [Russia] needs Armenias support. Political expert Stepan Safaryan considers todays meeting between Serzh Sargsyan and Vladimir Putin in this context. It considers Armenias participation and Armenias territory as an arena of military operations, which is unacceptable and disturbing. Recently information about the weapons and the location of the military units of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh has been published in the Russian military weekly. Stepan Safaryan notes, It was message that warns us that we are weaker than Azerbaijan and that we must agree with the proposal, which must be put forward in Moscow. It says that the most important problem is Turkey and suggests handling the issues of Turkey together. Yet, political expert Sergey Minasyan isnt concerned about the report published by the weekly. 99 percent of that data was taken in different ways from open sources and, by the way, I must say, those numbers are several times lower, than the military potential Nagorno-Karabakh DA or the RA Armed forces have. Political expert doesnt think that anything will change in the NK issue after the meeting of Serzh Sargsyan and Vladimir Putin. If there are any changes, only in the issues, which are connected with the mechanisms of decreasing tension at the borders. This week he participated in the closed discussion held in Tbilisi with the participation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and Armenian and Azerbaijani expert circles. Only issues relating to Madrid principles and possible implementation were discussed. It had consultative importance from the point of view of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs, who always need new ideas. He got the impression that Azerbaijan has begun to understand that escalating the situation over Nagorno-Karabakh not only hinders the process of peaceful negotiations but also makes the Armenian side strengthen its stance.
Issues of NKR conflict discussed with Serbian Delegation

On March 10, the Head of the Armenian Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO PA) Eduard Sharmazanov received the Head of the Permanent Delegation of the Parliament of the Republic of Serbia Milovan Drecun and the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Serbia Veroljub Arsic who visited the Republic of Armenia within the framework of the visiting session of the CSTO PA. Eduard Sharmazanov has noted that the relations of the two countries develop adequately and regularly, but there is potential to more develop those relations. The Head of the Armenian Delegation has stated that the Armenian and Serbian peoples have a series of commonalities: now the two peoples live in independent countries, and the Christian values unite them. Eduard Sharmazanov also has underlined that the Armenian people dont forget the Serbian pilots, hurrying to help the Armenian people during the disastrous earthquake that occurred to the Armenians about three decades ago, who died fulfilling their humanitarian mission. Eduard Sharmazanov has considered prior the development and cooperation of the inter-parliamentary relations in different international structures. In this context he has considered non-understandable the fact of the Serbian Delegations support to the two anti-Armenian Resolutions in the PACE Session. The interlocutors also touched upon the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and Kosovo problem and the fight against international terrorism. In terms of the NK conflict settlement issue, Eduard Sharmazanov has noted that it differs from Kosovo problem: unlike Kosovo, Nagorno Karabakh has no connection with the principle of territorial integrity, as it has never been part of Azerbaijan. Eduard Sharmazanov has reaffirmed that Armenia sees the NK conflict settlement exclusively through peaceful means, within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group: The realization of the Karabakh peoples right to self-determination has no alternative, and Nagorno Karabakh can never have lower status, than it has now, he said. Considering the fight against terrorism a universal goal, Eduard Sharmazanov has stated that as a consequence of terrorism, about 20.000 Syrian Armenians has found asylum in Armenia. The Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Serbia Veroljub Arsic has thanked his colleague for the reception and has noted that though the relations of the two countries rapidly develop, nonetheless there are spheres which should be activated. Veroljub Arsic has deemed necessary to develop especially the inter-parliamentary ties and the economic field. Touching upon the issue of the conflict settlement, he has noted that Serbia tries to regulate the conflicts through dialogue and peaceful means. The Deputy Speaker of the Serbian Parliament also has noticed that the NK conflict and the Kosovo problem are at different planes. In the course of the meeting the Armenian and Serbian parliamentarians referred to the cooperation in different international organizations and highlighted the constructive work.
Illegal turnover of narcotic drugs in particularly large amount revealed

In the framework of the criminal case investigated in the Investigative Division of Ajapnyak and Davtashen administrative districts of Yerevan Investigative Department of the RA Investigative Committee a case of illegal turnover of narcotic drugs in particularly large amount was revealed, about 250 grams of narcotic drugs of methamphetamine type was found, charge was pressed against 4 persons. On February 22, 2016 materials on procurement and keeping of 5 grams of narcotic drugs of methamphetamine type were received in the Investigative Division of Ajapnyak and Davtashen administrative districts of Yerevan Investigative Department of the RA Investigative Committee from the Police. A citizen was apprehended by the employees of Criminal Intelligence Unit of Yerevan of General Department for Struggle against Organized Crime on suspicion of keeping drugs and two parcels were found with him. In one of the parcels there was 0.01 grams of yellow-green mass, in the other one there was 5.1 grams of mass like methamphetamine. Through the conclusion of forensic chemical expertise it was stated that the mass in the first parcel was narcotic drugs of marijuana and the mass in the second one was narcotic drugs of methamphetamine type. A criminal case was initiated in the Investigative Division of Ajapnyak and Davtashen administrative districts and operative-intelligence measures of great volume were taken to find the source and the way of drug procurement. During preliminary investigation evidence were obtained on the allegation that the drugs were procured by the citizen on February 22, the person who had sold drugs was identified, sufficient evidence were obtained on the allegation that in the process of passing the drug by the seller and paying for it the citizen had been supported through phone calls by a prisoner serving his term in Hrazdan penitentiary. Through investigation the source of drug procurement by the person who had sold them to the citizen was found; he was also a resident of Yerevan. The latter procured the drugs from a citizen of IRI who was identified and his temporary residence in Yerevan was found, as well. In the result of measures taken in the order defined by law about 250 grams of narcotic drugs of methamphetamine type was found in the inguinal section of the citizen of the IRI and in his jacket pocket which was in the hotel room. On the base of the evidence obtained through preliminary investigation charge was pressed against 4 persons, two of them were charged with selling drugs in particularly large amount. Preliminary investigation is ongoing. Necessary investigatory actions are conducted to find other persons possibly involved in illegal turnover of drugs, to find the role of each of them. Note; Everyone charged with alleged crime offence shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law. Department of Information and Public Relations of the RA Investigative Committee
The contracts, worth more than USD530,000, will be provided for the building of six new rural transport bridges in three districts of Kien Giang province, an additional five classrooms for Ea Mta primary school in Ea Bhok commune, Dak Lak province and two new rural transport bridges in Thanh Son commune, Dong Nai province.



The signing ceremony. (Photo: qdnd.vn)



In addition, the aid will be used to equip two hospitals in Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan provinces and build a rehabilitation ward for a medical center in Tan Bien district, Tay Ninh province.



The aid will be transferred to the appropriate authorities in March 2016.



In his speech at the event, the Consul General of Japan in Ho Chi Minh city Satoshi Nakajima, affirmed that Vietnams development was stable and the relationship between the two countries has been strengthening. The Japanese Government always makes the utmost efforts to help Vietnam realize big projects as well as provide non-refundable aids for rural infrastructure, healthcare and education projects.



From 1995 to 2015, Japan has signed contracts for 158 projects in 26 southern provinces and cities, worth a total of more than USD12.59 million, covering education, healthcare, agriculture, and rural infrastructure./.


Vietnamese women in Laos marks International Women's Day (Photo: VNA)

The overseas Vietnamese Association in Norway organized a meeting to honour Vietnamese womens good virtues and further promote the role of women in strengthening cohesion and mutual aid, contributing to the common development of the community.



At the event, Vietnamese Ambassador to Norway Le Thi Tuyet Mai expressed her pride of Vietnamese womens tradition. She said that Norwegian officials and people highly appreciated the active contributions of Vietnamese women in particular, and the Vietnamese community in general, to local society.



In spite of residing in Norway, Vietnamese women still maintain and promote their good tradition, preserving Vietnamese culture and keeping the fire alight in families while actively participating in social activities.

To further promote their important role in building the Vietnamese community in Norway, the Ambassador said that Vietnamese women should maintain the special cultural features of the nation, especially Vietnamese language.

The Overseas Vietnamese Association in Norway is regarded as achieving the most successful integration among foreign communities from outside Europe in Norway.

On March 6th, the Vietnamese Embassy and the overseas Vietnamese Association in Romania organized a celebration to mark the International Womens Day.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Romania Tran Thanh Cong hoped that women would continue to build the success of Vietnamese families in Romania and continue contributing to activities of the community. At the event, participants enjoyed an art performance honoring women.

The Overseas Vietnamese Association in Vientiane on March 6th marked the International Womens Day.

On behalf of overseas Vietnamese women in Vientiane, Ms. Luong Thi Ngan, Deputy Head of the associations womens board, looked back over the history of the International Womens Day and good traditions of Vietnamese women in the process of fighting and protecting the nation.

She hoped that overseas Vietnamese women in Vientiane in particular and in Laos in general would continue to promote the good traditions of Vietnamese women, further improving their knowledge and capacity to contribute to the community, and their families economic development while always looking toward the homeland.

On behalf of the Vietnamese Embassy in Laos, Minister Hoang Xuan Hai highly appreciated the overseas Vietnamese womens contribution in Laos in general and in Vientiane in particular, and sent best wishes to the women and hoped continue to hold activities to build the community, local society and look toward the homeland.

On this occasion, the Vietnamese Embassy in Laos presented certificates of merit to collectives and individuals for good achievements toward the communitys development over the past time./.
THE CENTRAL ORGAN OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF VIETNAM The Voice of the party, State and Vietnamese people on the internet

Notify:

The requested content was not found or the content is invalid!


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
BEIJING, March 9, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang(C, back) joins a group deliberation of deputies from Guangdong Province to the annual session of the National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 9, 2016. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

BEIJING, March 9 (Xinhua) -- Premier Li Keqiang has told Guangdong Province to continue in its pioneering role in reform and opening up, as the slowing economy is restructured.

Joining national lawmakers during the annual session of the National People's Congress Wednesday, Li said the region should propel supply-side structural reforms and promote mass entrepreneurship and innovation.

"In the vanguard of the reform and opening up, Guangdong has made major contribution to China's economic development," Li said.

Given the complicated situation this year, Li said he hoped the region would continue to take the lead in reform, cutting red tape, eliminating barriers and facing global competition.

The province should encourage new industries by promoting new technology and supporting startups in all sectors. More needs to be done to encourage investment in upgrades of traditional sectors and in personnel, Li said.

Speaking to lawmakers from Hainan, Liu Yunshan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, said cultural and ideological progress is needed along with material progress to achieve the goals set in the 13th Five-Year Plan.

Liu called on the authorities to promote socialist core values and traditional Chinese virtues, and advocate green and carbon-efficient lifestyles.

[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ]
Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC), delivers a report on the work of the NPC Standing Committee during the second plenary meeting of the fourth session of the 12th NPC at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 9, 2016. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)

BEIJING, March 9 (Xinhua) -- The National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, has announced its major tasks for 2016, a crucial year in the journey toward a moderately prosperous society by 2020.

Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, made the announcement at the NPC Wednesday afternoon session, attended by President Xi Jinpingand other Chinese leaders.

Addressing nearly 3,000 NPC deputies, Zhang said the committee will make secure a good beginning to the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) and the decisive push to a moderately prosperous society.

Zhang said leadership by the Communist Party of China (CPC) is the essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and its greatest strength.

The year 2016 marks the beginning of the 13th five-year plan, the decisive stage in doubling 2010 GDPand per capita income by 2020.

Reviewing the work of the past year, Zhang said, "We have maintained the correct political direction and ensured that the Party line, principles, policies, decisions, and plans have been fully and effectively implemented in the work of the state. We have ensured that the Party can exercise leadership over the state and society through the organs of political power."

In 2015, the NPC Standing Committee oversaw enforcement of the Constitution, made new strides in key areas of legislation, supported and promoted reform and made progress toward more effective supervision, said Zhang.

"Our legislative initiatives led to important achievements that have supported and promoted reform and development and ensured stability, " said Zhang.

According to the work report, major tasks for the NPC Standing Committee in 2016 will include strengthening and improving legislative work in new circumstances; accelerating the formation of a complete framework of laws and regulations; and exercising legitimate and effective oversight.

The committee's legislative agenda for 2016 includes formulation of the general provisions of the civil law, along with new laws on environmental protection tax, promoting the film industry and international criminal judicial assistance.

The NPC Standing Committee will ask the State Council, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate to strengthen their ties with NPC deputies and open up more channels for deputies to learn about state affairs and government work.

Under the leadership of the party, the people's congress will support innovation and reform through its legislative work, and exercise direct and specific oversight over the government, both of which are instrumental to maintaining medium-high economic growth, said Zhang Zhao'an, an NPC deputy and economist with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

Liang Ying, with the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee, said the work report embodied democracy with Chinese characteristics, of which the Party's leadership over the people's congress is a part.

Liang said the revision of the Legislation Law last year, which expands legislative power from 49 cities in China to 288 and empowers their legislatures to make by-laws, testifies to the people being their own masters.

The draft of the Charity Law, the first to regulate such organizations, was submitted to the legislature on Wednesday. The law would recruit help from the public to realize the 2020 poverty alleviation target, another pro-growth measure.

Liang said the system of people's congress ensures that reform and development advances under a legal framework. Meanwhile, the development and optimization of the system itself is an integral part of modernization.

Top legislator Zhang concluded his report by calling on fellow lawmakers to rally even closer around the CPC Central Committee headed by General Secretary Xi Jinping.

3

1

[ Editor: Jiaming ]
(Xinhua file pic of Xisha Islands in the South China Sea)

BEIJING, March 10 (Xinhua) -- The South China Sea has long since been known for its safe sea passage and hailed as one of the world's safest navigation routes by experts and maritime business leaders.

"Several of our services are touching the South China Sea. We have not experienced anything negative (about the navigation freedom in the South China Sea) yet," said Rainer Horn, spokesman for German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd.

Horn expressed hopes for continued peace across the region. He said Hapag-Lloyd was "monitoring closely local disputes" as they can have an impact on its business.

Dong Danqi, general director of the Dutch branch of COSCON, one of the top five global liners, said he "never heard of any saying that the South China Sea has any problem of freedom of navigation" during his 30-year experience in the shipping industry.

4

1

[ Editor: Jiaming ]
Westminster Court in London has declined to extradite former Board Chairman of Kazakhstan's BTA Bank Roman Solodchenko, who is accused of embezzlement of assets and abuse of office, to the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine, Ilyashev & Partners law firm defending the financial institution has said in a press release.

The law firm that Sollodchenko could be imprisoned for the period of up to 12 years with seizure of property to the national budget in Ukraine.

According to the document, the court ruled this, as there is no fair judicial system in Ukraine and the state will fail to provide for fair legal process.

In general the situation in Ukraine looks like improving, although when the prime minister of the country says that he wants to hire all new judges and fully reshuffle the existing system, this does not signal that the situations has considerably changed, the court said.

According to the press release, the court did not find infringements in the investigation procedure in Ukraine and the court established that Ukrainian prisons comply with the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The law firm said that Solodchenko was arrested in London on January 8, 2015. Ukrainian authorities suspect him of crimes under the Ukrainian Criminal Code. Solodchenko and former owner of BTA Bank Mukhtar Ablyazov and other members of the criminal group are accused of causing losses of over $6 billion to the bank.

Actions of Ablyazov and his partners in crime are being investigated by law enforcement agencies in Kazakhstan, Russia, Hungary, Latvia and other countries.

Earlier English courts satisfied claims of BTA against Ablyazov and his partners in crime to collect over $4 billion.
The proper work of the government and the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) in the past 15 months has created enough margin of safety and stability and there is no need to change the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) launched for Ukraine in 2015 due to the political crisis, Finance Minister of Ukraine Natalie Jaresko has said.

"A memorandum [with the IMF] could be changed, and I don't see the reasons to change the program," she said on the sidelines of the 12th Annual Investor Conference organized by Dragon Capital in Kyiv on Thursday.

Jaresko said that the situation is different compared to H2 2014 and early 2015 when it was required to switch from the Stand-By Arrangement to the EFF arrangement. She said that then there was an awful financial and economic situation and war in Ukraine.

"We dont have this situation [now]. The financial situation in the country [is the following:] we are not on the verge of the disaster, as the government and the NBU worked properly in the past 15 months. There are reserves, and the government has currency accounts," the minister said.

"A week or two [of a delay] affects nothing," she said.

Jaresko said that a slight worsening of the economic pace at the beginning of the year and the forecast for its growth in general does not considerably influence the situation.

"The budget is being implemented," she said.

The minister said that at present work on the revised memorandum of the economic and financial policy that precedes the receiving of the new tranche under the EFF program is underway.

Jaresko said that it is important for Ukraine to resume the EFF with the IMF as soon as possible due to various reasons, including the further expansion of forex reserves in Ukraine, as it creates confidence in the national currency, in the banking system and among investors.

She said that the current EFF program with the IMF is the indicator of the pace of reforms.
Economic cooperation was highlighted at the negotiations held in Ankara on Wednesday, the Ukrainian presidential press service has said.

"We have agreed to boost negotiations on a free trade area agreement and a number of other bilateral documents, including an avoidance of double taxation agreement and an agreement on the mutual protection of investments," the press service quoted Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko as saying.

"We have invited Turkey to take active part in privatization processes," Poroshenko said at a joint press conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held in Ankara on Wednesday after bilateral negotiations.

According to Poroshenko, Ukraine and Turkey will be expanding cooperation in international multimodal and container transit and will be searching for other efficient logistic solutions.

The sides pledged to step up their involvement in bilateral and multilateral energy projects and to promote cooperation in tourism, for instance, to provide Turkish resort discounts for Ukrainian nationals, the press service said.

Poroshenko thanked the Turkish president for the assistance to Ukraine and mentioned a $50 million loan agreement signed in February during a visit of the Turkish prime minister to Kyiv.

The Turkish president reiterated the promise of $10 million for Ukrainian humanitarian needs and urged the international community to bolster assistance to Ukraine.
Turkey is interested in the privatization of Ukrainian mines.

This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine after a meeting of Ukrainian Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn with Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Berat Albayrak on March 9.

According to the press service, the sides also discussed possible cooperation in the issue of delivery of Caspian and Iranian gas to Ukraine, building gas storage facilities in Turkey.

In addition, the Ukrainian and Turkish delegations discussed the prospects of uranium ore mining and uranium concentrate production.
10:30 10.03.2016 Interfax-Ukraine to host press conference 'Ukrainian Business Forum: Urgent Measures to Overcome Socio-Economic Crisis and Develop Future Strategy of Country's Growth'

1 min read

On Thursday, March 10, at 11.00, the press centre of the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency will host a press conference entitled "Ukrainian Business Forum: Urgent Measures to Overcome Socio-Economic Crisis and Develop Future Strategy of Country's Growth." The participants include: Head of Ukraine's Anti-Crisis Council of Non-Governmental Organizations, ULIE President, Anatoliy Kinakh; MP, co-initiator of the Ukrainian Business Initiative Association Serhiy Taruta; Deputy Head of Ukraine's Council of the Federation of Employers Dmytro Oliynyk; MP, Head of Ukraine's Council of Entrepreneurs under the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Leonid Kozachenko; and co-founder of Mykhaylivsky Club Serhiy Ivanov (8/5-A Reitarska Street). Accreditation by phone: (044) 536 9632, (096) 950 7565.
Ukrainian military positions in Donbas came under fire on 49 occasions on Wednesday, including 42 times in the Donetsk region, the press center of Kyiv's army operation in eastern Ukraine reported on its Facebook account.

"The heaviest shelling occurred near Avdiyivka, where the adversary fired weapons of different types against our positions, and launched ten 122mm projectiles using a self-propelled artillery system at around 9:00 p.m.," the press center said.

A 120mm mortar was later used in strikes against Ukrainian army positions near Avdiyivka, it said.

Infantry fighting vehicle weapons were also fired at Ukrainian military checkpoints in the vicinity of Novhorodske and Luhanske.

Grenade launchers and large-caliber submachine guns were fired at Ukrainian army positions in Pisky and Opytne, on the outskirts of Donetsk, the press center said.

Grenade launchers, submachine guns and small arms were used in strikes against Ukrainian military positions in the vicinity of Maryinka, Hnutove and Hranitne, near the city of Mariupol.

There has been no shelling of Ukrainian positions since midnight, the press center said.
Turkey does not and will not recognize Crimea's accession to the Russian Federation, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.

"Turkey has not recognized the illegal annexation of Crimea, and it is not going to do so," he said at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Ankara on Wednesday after bilateral negotiations.

The Turkish president said that Russia had breached international law in this case.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called for Turkey's engagement in international negotiations on the Crimea issue, including the 'Geneva plus' format (Ukraine, Russia, the United States and the European Union).

"Mr. President [of Turkey] and I have called for joint steps towards the de-occupation of Crimea. With this in mind, we plan to pool our efforts at international organizations, on the basis of new international formats, among them 'Geneva plus' involving Budapest Memorandum guarantors, Turkey and Ukraine," Poroshenko said at the joint press conference.
Operating life of An-26 aircraft crashed in Bangladesh with Ukrainian crew is until middle of 2017  Antonov

The operating life of An-26 freight aircraft with the Ukrainian crew that crashed on Wednesday off the coast of Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh was until June 2017 and the aircraft passed technical inspection in September 2015, the designer of the plane, Antonov State Enterprise (Kyiv) has said.

"According to information available at Antonov State Enterprise, An-26B aircraft with tail number S2-AGZ and serial number N134-08 belonged to Air URGA and was operated by True Aviation. The aircraft was built in Kyiv in 1984. Its operating life was until June 15, 2017," the press service of Antonov State Enterprise told Interfax-Ukraine.

"Last time the aircraft passed technical inspection in September 2015," Antonov said.

As reported, an Antonov An-26 plane crashed off the Bangladesh coast on March 9; it had four crewmembers onboard (all of them Ukrainian citizens). Bangladesh rescuers have found three crewmembers of the aforesaid plane. Three Ukrainian citizens were killed in the air crash, and another one is in critical condition at a local hospital where he is receiving all possible medical assistance.

URGA was founded in 1993 and put on the list of official carriers of the United Nations Organization in 1994. It provides passenger, luggage and cargo transportation to UN missions.
European Commission waiting for all visa-free travel criteria to be performed by Ukraine  Commissioner

European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos has said Ukraine woks under all criteria needed to fulfill requirements for the introduction of visa-free travel with Europe.

During a briefing in Brussels on Wednesday, the commissioner has said that the EU doesn't lose courage over including Ukraine into the list on visa liberalization within next few weeks.

The commissioner has said he sees a positive signal that the duties undertaken by Ukraine still are underpinned by the deeds.

According to the commissioner, some time is needed before all criteria are fulfilled as a part of a Ukraine-EU visa dialogue.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he backs settlement of the situation in the eastern part of Ukraine exclusively due to the diplomatic means and underlined the importance to implement Minsk Agreements by all conflicting sides.

"We believe that the problems in the east of Ukraine may be resolved only through diplomatic and peaceful way. So we back the Minsk process in this regard," he said during a joint press conference with President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko in Ankara following the talks of the delegations of both states on Wednesday.

The Turkey's head of state stressed how it is important to achieve a mutual ceasefire, to withdraw heavy weapons from the contact line in Donbas and to return to Ukraine a control on the state border.

"Russia said it came to Syria under invitation of the local administration, so who invited it [Russia] to Ukraine? I wonder how did they motivate it on the international level? They have a logic according to which 'I'm right because I'm strong'," Erdogan said.
Three persons who threw Molotov cocktails into Russian Embassy compound in Kyiv let go by police

Officers of Ukraine's law enforcement agencies detained three people who threw bottles filled with an unknown highly flammable substance into the Russian Embassy's compound in Kyiv, but released them after an interrogation, the Main Department of Ukraine's National Police in Kyiv said in a press release.

"At around 4:00 a.m. today, a woman and two men threw three bottles with an unknown substance, which subsequently started to burn, into the premises of a foreign state's embassy," it said.

Investigators who arrived at the site confiscated a cigarette lighter, fragments of glass dishware and two bottles filled with liquid. The items were sent for examination.

Shortly afterwards, officers of law enforcement agencies identified these three people involved in the attack. The woman, born in 1984, introduced herself as the editor-in-chief of a print publication. She was accompanied by two men, born in 1964 and 1979. The suspects were taken to the Solomyanska police station, were interviewed and then released, the National Police said.

The investigative department of Kyiv's Solomyanska police station has opened a criminal inquiry into the incident on a count of 'deliberate destruction of or damage to property'. The police are now working to establish all circumstances of what happened.

Information earlier appeared on social networking websites that journalist, human rights campaigner and EuroMaidan activist Irma Krat was among those who attacked the Russian Embassy.

Press officer for the Russian Embassy in Ukraine Oleg Grishin told Interfax that several bottles filled with flammable liquid had been thrown into the Russian diplomatic mission's compound in Kyiv, but no fire broke out.

"At around 3:00 a.m., several Molotov cocktails were hurled into the embassy compound. Luckily, no fire erupted," he said.

Security has now been increased around the Russian Embassy building, located on Povitroflotsky Avenue in Kyiv.
Savchenko's lawyer says attempt made to discredit her with fake letter from Ukrainian president

Mark Feygin, a lawyer for Nadia Savchenko, said that the letter allegedly sent to his client from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko turned out to be a fake.

"I have to urgently report the following. The Ukrainian Consulate General and I became an object of a rather impudent special operation this morning. A fake letter from the Ukrainian president was handed over for Nadia to discredit her after the end of the 'dry' hunger strike," the lawyer tweeted, putting the blame on the Kremlin.

Feygin apologized to those who had read the letter posted on his Twitter account. "We are the object of an operation, and we can do little to counteract this," the lawyer said.

Latter on, Feygin wrote on Twitter that his micro-blog was being hacked 'right now'.

Feygin said on Thursday morning that Savchenko showed him a written statement declaring the end of her 'dry' hunger strike as a response to the letter from Poroshenko during their meeting at the detention center.
Ukraine does not recognize court verdicts against four Ukrainians convicted in Russia

The Ukrainian Justice Ministry has sent a request to the Russian counterparts asking them to transfer four Ukrainians convicted by Russian courts to Ukraine under the Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko has said.

"The Justice Ministry of Ukraine appeals to the Justice Ministry of the Russian Federation with a request to hand over four of our citizens to the territory of Ukraine... We do not recognize the justness of verdicts against them," he said at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in Kyiv on Thursday.

After that, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said that they were talking about Ukrainian citizens Oleh Sentsov, Hennadiy Afanasyev, Oleksandr Kolchenko and Yuriy Soloshenko.

Yatseniuk also instructed the Foreign Ministry to involve international partners into this matter.

The justice minister noted that at present the health condition of the four Ukrainian convicts who were transferred to Russian penal colonies is rather grave.

"The Russian sentences have already entered into force and the Ukrainian political prisoners are already in colonies... Their health conditions are grave, there is a real threat to lives of some of them. Afanasyev has blood poisoning, they are not provided proper medical care," Petrenko stressed.

On August 25, 2015, the North Caucasus District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don issued a guilty verdict against Sentsov. The film director was sentenced to a cumulative term of 20 years in a high-security prison.

The second defendant in the case, Kolchenko, was sentenced to ten years in a high-security prison.

On December 25, 2014, the Moscow City Court found Afanasyev guilty of a terrorist attack and sentenced him to seven years in a high-security penal colony.

In mid-October 2015, the Moscow City Court found Yuriy Soloshenko, former director of the Ukrainian plant Znamya, guilty of espionage for Ukraine and sentenced him to six years in a high-security penal colony.
Former U.S. ambassador to Kyiv favors new sanctions against Russia after Savchenko's case verdict

The introduction of the new sanctions against Russia by the U.S. in relation to the case of Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko would be a justified step, a leading expert of Brookings Institute in Washington, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer has said.

He said he would support this measure if it was clearly differentiated from those which had been already introduced, namely sanctions related to the Russian aggression in Ukraine's east and the Crimean annexation, Pifer told Interfax on Thursday.

At the same time, he suggested waiting for the Russian court ruling in Savchenko's case and see what happens afterwards. Pifer said he had no doubts she would be found guilty.

He also stressed that the Russian leadership had to have a clear understanding of conditions for the sanctions to be lifted, noting that unless there were a clear distinction between various kinds of sanctions, they were unlikely to achieve a desired result.

There should be no confusion as to the steps Russia had to take to lift the sanctions, Pifer added.
Blast and fire broke out at around 3 p.m. on Wednesday in a factory in east Chinas Zhejiang Province. Two were confirmed killed, one severely injured, and another two injured. The factory belonged to Zhejiang Dragon Chemical Group, which dedicated to supply of higher-end cosmetics brands. Fire fighters were on scene. The cause of the explosion requires further investigation.
MACAO, March 9 -- Macao has submitted its report on diversified economy development to China's central government earlier this month, the special administrative region's (SAR) authorities said Wednesday.

Office of the Chief Executive of the Macao SAR said the report combined suggestions from government units and civil society to boost Macao's diversified economy development.

The report considers Macao's comparative advantage and negative factors, especially its part in China's 13th five-year plan, the "Belt and Road" initiative, and regional economic integration, to find out its future opportunities.

The report emphasizes the diversified economy development by cultivating new industries with potentials, medium- and small-sized local enterprises, and encouraging professionals and young people to start up.

It also suggests that Macao should realize its position as a world tourism and leisure industry center, and a platform for commercial cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries.
The first signs of a particle heavier than the Higgs boson has been seen at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

Unexplained by current models, its existence might lead to the discovery of a whole new set of particles and possibly even a fifth fundamental force.

But the first results are not enough to confirm the particle exists, and more measurements still need to be taken when the LHC begins to fire up again next month.

'

Two of the detectors, ATLAS and CMS, were searching for new physics by counting particle decays that ended up in two photons, and found a potential new particle. If it turns out to be real, and not a blip, this would be a huge discovery. Two high-energy photons whose energy, shown in red, was measured in the CMS is illustrated

In data produced last December at the LHC in Geneva, two separate measurements found what looked like a particle six time heavier than the Higgs boson.

If it turns out to be real, and not just a blip in the measurements, this would be a huge discovery.

'It would be something completely beyond the Standard Model, and the tip of an iceberg of a large new set of particles,' Professor John Ellis, theoretical physicist at Kings College London told MailOnline, 'if it exists!'

Two of the detectors, ATLAS and CMS, were searching for new physics by counting particle decays that ended up in two photons.

Measuring photons is a good method for detecting new physics because photons are easy to detect and physicists know what to expect in terms of results from background events.

They both separately saw photons with a combined energy of 750 GeV.

When particles decay into photons, they release energy equivalent to their mass multiplied by the speed of light squared.

Were all familiar with Einsteins most famous equation, and this observation is it in action. This means the particle that produced these photons is an as yet unknown with this exact amount of energy in the form of its mass.

It weighs about 750 GeV, corresponding to about six times heavier than the Higgs boson, and almost 800 times heavier than the proton, said Ellis.

It was a similar 'bump' that gave the first hints to the Higgs boson.

But the difference now is that the existence of the Higgs boson had already been predicted.

This new particle, if it exists, has not been predicted by the Standard Model, so would open up physicists to a whole new unexplored world and could lead to the discovery of a new set of particles.

In December last year the two observations, in the ATLAS and CMS detectors, hinted at a new particle six times heavier than the Higgs boson. The LHC will start making more collisions next month, April 2016, and experts can expect confirmation or refutation in the summer
Todays most heartwarming story tells about a touching relationship between a penguin and a 71-year-old man.

Joao Pereira de Souza, a retired bricklayer and part time fisherman found a dying penguin starving and covered in gasoline on beach in Brazil in 2011. He took him home and nursed him back to health. Joao named the South American Magellanic penguin Dindim, released him back into wild, and never expected to see him again.

Nevertheless, Dindim returned to the island where he recognized Joao and went home with him just a few months later.

Now, Dindim spends eight months of the year with Joao and the rest of his time breeding off the coast of Argentina and Chile. The flightless bird is believed to swim around 5,000 miles every time he returns to his rescuer.

I love the penguin like it's my own child and I believe the penguin loves me. Mr. Pereira de Souza said, Everyone said he wouldn't return but he has been coming back to visit me for the past four years.
Photos taken on March 9, 2016 show that a heritage building of over 100 years has been scaffolded for a parallel transport of 90 meters in Wuhan, capital city of central Chinas Hubei province.

The foundation of the building has been hollowed and six concrete slideways are built to help with the moving. According to head of the construction team Li Liangliang, the most significant part of the project is the reinforcement of the building, so as to make sure it does not fall apart.

The three-story red building is a cultural relic from Chinas Republican era (1912-1949). During that time, merchants in Wuhan decided to raise fund to set up a fire department to protect the area. The building was where the headquarter of the department resided. After 1949, the building was handed over to the Wuhan Public Security Bureau. Now, as land of this area was sold to real estate developers, the heritage building has to be moved out. Parallel transport is the best moving scheme chosen out of several others.
(Global Times) 07:19, March 10, 2016

China urges calm after potential step toward strike on US

In an undated photo released Wednesday by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, leader Kim Jong-un(center) meets with nuclear weapons scientists and technicians at an undisclosed location. Photo: Global Times/AFP

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said his country has successfully miniaturized a thermonuclear warhead, as Pyongyang continued to talk up its nuclear strike capabilities on Wednesday amid rising military tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

While the North has boasted of mastering miniaturization before, this is the first time Kim has directly claimed the breakthrough that experts see as a game-changing step towards a credible North Korean nuclear threat to the US mainland.

Kim's comments came a day after the North's powerful National Defense Commission threatened pre-emptive nuclear attacks on South Korea and the US mainland, as Seoul and Washington began large-scale joint military exercises.

Military tensions have surged in the region since the North carried out its fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch last month.

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi called on all parties to keep calm, exercise restraint and avoid provoking each other after holding talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry via telephone on Wednesday.

"China's reasonable and legitimate strategic security concerns and interests must not be damaged when dealing with the current situation," Wang was quoted as saying by foreign ministry spokesperson Hong Lei on Wednesday.

Hong also noted that China is firmly pushing for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

"We stay committed to promoting and realizing denuclearization and maintaining peace and stability on the Peninsula," Hong said. "Disputes should be resolved through dialogue and negotiations."

The UN Security Council responded to North Korea's moves by imposing tough new sanctions last week, which Pyongyang has condemned and labeled as part of a US-led conspiracy to bring down Kim's regime by force.

"The nuclear warheads have been standardized to be fit for ballistic missiles by miniaturizing them," Kim said during a visit with nuclear technicians that was reported by state media on Wednesday.

"This can be called a true nuclear deterrent," he said.

Kim also stressed that the miniaturized warheads were "thermonuclear" devices, echoing the North's claim that the nuclear test it conducted in January was of a more powerful hydrogen bomb.

The North Korean ruling party's newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, carried a large front-page picture of Kim standing in front of what some experts said appeared to be a sized-down nuclear device.

South Korea's defense ministry was skeptical, saying its own assessment was that North Korea had "not yet secured miniaturized nuclear warheads."

North Korea's claim to have successfully tested an H-bomb in January was greeted with skepticism at the time, as the estimated yield was seen as far too low for a full-fledged thermonuclear device.
Premier Li Keqiang meets with Guangdong deputies to the annual session of the NPC during a panel discussion in Beijing on March 9, 2016. [Photo/China Daily]

Premier Li Keqiang has encouraged Guangdong province to take the lead in introducing more Chinese brands and products to markets in developed economies such as the United States and the European Union.

Praising the province for its 0.8 percent export growth last year, he urged the manufacturing powerhouse to further sharpen competitiveness.

He made the remarks to about 160 deputies from Guangdong to the National People's Congress when he joined them for a panel discussion on Wednesday.

Guangdong was at the forefront of the nation's reform and opening-up policy during the 1980s.

Export growth is high on Li's agenda in meetings with deputies from four provinces during this year's NPC annual session. China's exports fell by 2.8 percent last year.

Many in the Guangdong delegation own some of the most successful businesses in China, such as Ma Huateng, chairman and CEO of Tencent Holdings, one of the country's largest private Internet service portals based in Guangdong, and Dong Mingzhu, president of Gree Electric Appliances.

Li said a key factor for the Chinese economy to achieve medium to high economic growth is to join competition in developed countries.

He said this will be more challenging for China, as the competition for quality in developed countries is higher. Such competition will help domestic manufacturers to improve product quality, something that is hard to achieve through the country's present exports to many developing countries.

China's exports to the US and EU countries fell by 12.2 percent and 10.7 percent year-on-year in January and February. This year, Guangdong has set a target of 1 percent growth in exports.

Zhong Nanshan, a respiratory expert and academic at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said China also needs to improve its ability to build more good-quality air purifying machines. At present, most Chinese people tend to buy imported air purifiers, which sometimes cost 10 times more than domestic ones.

Xu Hongcai, an economist at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said real technology innovation is a key factor for Guangdong products to be able to compete in foreign markets.
Japanese tourists slammed for mass naked swim in Thailand; finger-pointing at Chinese due to stereotype

Viral photos of dozens of Asian tourists, at first assumed as Chinese, frolicking naked in the surf of Hua Hin, have stirred up a storm in Thailand. Some Thai people gave the "Chinese tourists" a dig about their immoral behaviors on the social media.

However, subsequent investigation by Hua Hin police revealed that the 20 to 30 men involved in the mass skinny dipping session were NOT Chinese tourists but part of a Japanese tour group.

The case came to light after a Twitter user named @KomsakAddams posted photos showing the naked young men, arms locked together, ankle-deep in the sea Saturday on Hua Hin beach.

"I was having a meal with friends at a seaside restaurant when all of sudden dozens of a Chinese male group stripped naked. Do you think I can eat anything now?" Komsak wrote in a message, which had been retweeted more than 11,000 times.

While some expressed shock, others found humor.

"My dear friend, why are you doing this? This is disgusting! Why didnt you get closer? I cant see anything," user Tanacarnn wrote in reply.

When news reports identified the tourists as Japanese, Komsak took to Twitter to apologize for his assumption they were Chinese.

"I would like to apologize to China for accusing your tourists of stripping on Hua Hin Beach Saturday," he wrote.
The subway cars developed for Iran.(CNS Photo)

The CNR Changchun Railway Vehicles Co., a subsidiary of the China Railway Rolling Stock Corp., the country's biggest train manufacturer, announced on Wednesday that the subway cars developed for Iran have officially rolled off the assembly line in Changchun, the capital of Jilin province, according to the China News Service website.

These subway trains will be used for operation on the subway Line 2 in Mashhad, Iran's holiest and second-biggest city. The order from Iran included a total of 100 vehicles, a portion of which will be produced by Tehran Wagon Manufacturing, a joint venture between Iran and the CNR Changchun Railway Vehicles Co.

Because Mashhad abounds with turquoise, the color turquoise was extensively used for the exterior decoration of the train cars, and the color of the interiors is also fresh and bright. In addition, some carriages are reserved for women only.

Mohammad Mahdi Baradan, deputy mayor of Mashhad, said that the light rail trains developed by the CNR Changchun Railway Vehicles Co. have been running for six years already, providing very good service for the city's public transport.

Carriages reserved for women only.(CNS Photo)

Since 1995, the company has provided 2,000 vehicles to Iran, including subway cars, light rail trains and passenger trains. In December 2015, the company, along with NORINCO International, signed a contract with Tehran, involving 1,008 subways cars and amounting to more than 9 billion yuan.
Editor's note: The People's Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force is equipped with different types of missiles including nuclear missiles, ordinary missiles, and even intercontinental missiles. Let's take a look at a series of intermediate and intercontinental ballistic missiles, code-named Dongfeng and typically shortened to "DF."

DF-26

The penetration capability of this missile has been greatly improved. It has good performance on precise strikes.

DF-26, a new-type long-range ballistic missile, made its first formal appearance in Beijing on Sept. 3, 2015 during the military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.

Besides conducting nuclear counterattack missions, the DF-26 can also attack medium-size ships at sea as part of a conventional long-range precision strike.
The one-meter long wreckage that is suspected of coming from the missing plane MH370 has arrived in Malaysia for analysis on Thursday, says Chief of Department of Civil Aviation Azharuddin Abdul Rahman.

No further details is given by the officials. However, local media quoted Malaysian transport minister saying that the debris will be sent to Australia, "We will send it to Australia for further examinations," Liow Tiong Lai was quoted as saying.

The Transport Minister previously has commented that the piece has a high probability that it belong to a Boeing 777.
File photo

The world's biggest train maker, China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) announces Thursday it has won contract to build rail cars for Chicago. This $1.3 billion bid is the companys second major contract landed in the United States.

According to the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), the project is to build 846 7000-series rail cars. Chicago will first order 400 cars, then possibly with options to purchase the rest in the coming years, the CTA said.

Chinas CRRC won its first U.S. contract in 2014 with a $567 million deal to supply subway trains to Boston.
SEOUL, March 10-- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) declared a plan on Thursday to liquidate all of South Korean assets in the DPRK, while nullifying all inter-Korean economic cooperation projects in response to Seoul's unilateral sanctions against Pyongyang.

The DPRK's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) said in an unnamed spokesman's statement that its country declares all of inter-Korean agreements, which are relevant to economic cooperation and exchange projects, "null and void" from now on.

The statement said the decision was made in response to a series of unilateral sanctions unveiled Tuesday by Seoul on the DPRK after the UN Security Council voted to adopt a tough resolution against Pyongyang earlier this month.

DPRK started off a new year with the testing of what it claimed was its first hydrogen bomb on Jan. 6 and followed up with the launch of a long-range rocket, which outsiders see as a disguised test of missile technology, on Feb. 7.

The UN Security Council unanimously approved new tougher sanctions on Pyongyang on March 2, including a ban on all cargo heading to and from the DPRK and its exports of coal and mineral resources.

South Korea imposed standalone sanctions on the DPRK, including a ban on third-country ships having docked at the DPRK within 180 days from accessing South Korean ports.

The standalone sanctions came after Seoul announced a plan to shut down the inter-Korean factory park in the DPRK's border city of Kaesong on Feb. 10, three days after Pyongyang's satellite launch.

The CPRK statement said that special measures will continue to be taken to bring forward a "miserable demise" of the South Korean government by inflicting political, military, and economic damages. It didn't elaborate on which measures would be taken further.

The statement noted that DPRK forces turned to a "pre-emptive" strikes strategy, which can put enemies in a sea of fire at a blow, threatening that South Korea's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae lies within a range of its first strike by DPRK forces.

The military threat was Pyongyang's repeated response to the largest-ever joint annual war games between Seoul and Washington that kicked off on Monday.

The drills, codenamed Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, will run by the end of April, mobilizing a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrierand its attendant fleet, a nuclear-capable submarine and aerial tankers to refuel fighter jets.

Calling the war games as "undisguised nuclear war drills," the DPRK warned of "pre-emptive and aggressive nuclear strikes" against South Korea and the U.S. mainland, saying it had a military operation plan for such nuclear strikes.

Top DPRK leader Kim Jong Unhas ordered his country's nuclear warheads for national defense to be placed always on standby for use at any time.
KATHMANDU, March 10 -- Nepal has officially become a member of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD), a senior official told Xinhua on Thursday.

The 14th Ministerial Meeting of Asia Cooperation Dialogue being held in Bangkok, Thailand unanimously endorsed Nepal as the 34th member of Asia Cooperation Dialogue Wednesday morning, said Bharat Kumar Regmi, a senior official at the Nepal's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Nepal's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Kamal Thapa thanked the ACD for accepting Nepal as a new member.

While delivering a speech at the meeting, Thapa reiterated full commitment to the principles, values and objectives of the ACD. He also assured that Nepal will continue to engage in its activities and programs with sincerity and dedication. The ACD currently has 34 members.

The regional forum, established in June 2002, is the only official dialog and cooperation mechanism in Asia at a continental level.

The Nepalese government has expressed hope that the country's association with the ACD will help Nepal expand relations in the international arena, a spokesman at the Nepalese Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Xinhua.

Nepal's engagement with the ACD will help further enhance its cooperation with ACD member states on various fields such as economy, tourism, commerce, foreign direct investment and foreign employment among others, the spokesman added.
A piece of an airplane is displayed during a news conference in Maputo, capital of Mozambique, March 3, 2016. Mozambican aviation authorities on Wednesday night confirmed the finding of a piece of an airplane off the coast of Mozambique, but considered it "premature" to relate it with a Boeing 777 aircraft. [Photo: Xinhua/Li Xiaopeng]

KUALA LUMPUR, March 10 -- Suspected debris of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 found in Mozambique have arrived in Malaysia for analysis, officials said Thursday.

Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai was quoted as saying by local media that the debris would be analyzed by experts to determine if it came from the missing flight.

He said initial analysis wound be done in Malaysia before being sent to Australia for further verification.

Flight MH370 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 in South Indian Ocean, where the flight presumably had ended its journey, has yet to found its wreckage.

A wing part called flaperon was recovered in the French oversea island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean last July and was determined to have been a part of the Boeing 777.
Two characters from Pirates of the Caribbeanare featured in this view at Shanghai Disneyland. [Photo/Chinanews.com]

Monday marked the 100-day countdown to the opening of Shanghai Disneyland. The resort will open its doors on June 16, the Walt Disney Company and its Chinese partner said in January.

To mark the occasion, the $5.5 billion resort published its first batch of Shanghai Disneyland images, giving people a glimpse of China's biggest foreign investment project to date.
Li Yihu, left, a deputy to the National People's Congress and head of Peking University's Taiwan Institute, answers questions from reporters at a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday during the ongoing session of China's top legislature and advisory body.

Li told reporters that relations across the Straits will be affected if the new leader of Taiwan continues to avoid upholding the 1992 Consensus after they take office on May 20.

The 1992 Consensus clearly defines the nature of cross-Straits ties and is the basis for the peaceful development of relations in the long run.

Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party, who won Taiwan's leadership election in January, remains ambiguous about her stance on the 1992 Consensus, stating only that she wishes to "maintain the status quo." [Photo by Wang Zhuangfei/chinadaily.com.cn]
Chinese President Xi Jinping joins a group deliberation of deputies from Qinghai Province to the annual session of the National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 10, 2016. (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen)

BEIJING, March 10-- Chinese President Xi Jinping called for greater efforts in eco-system protection and poverty relief in the country's ethnic regions Thursday.

He made the remarks when joining national lawmakers from the northwestern province of Qinghai on the sidelines of the annual parliamentary session.
Chen Man (pictured) walks out of the prison in Hainan Province, China, after he was acquitted.

HAIKOU, March 10 -- A man who spent 23 years in prison after he was wrongly found guilty of murder and arson is seeking 9.66 million yuan (about 1.48 million U.S. dollars) in compensation.

According to the application, which was shared with Xinhua on Thursday by the man's attorney, Chen Man, 53, filed his request with the Higher People's Court of Hainan Province in south China.

The demand includes 1.85 million yuan for deprivation of personal freedom, 3.71 million yuan for loss of work, three million yuan for psychological trauma, 1 million to cover legal costs, and 100,000 yuan for medical costs.

He also requested a public apology by the court to help him clear his name, Chen said.

An unnamed official with the court told Xinhua that they had yet to receive the application on Thursday morning. "When we receive it, we will handle it carefully in accordance with the laws," he said.

Chen Man was released last month from Meilan Prison in Hainan.

He was arrested at the end of 1992 and was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve by Haikou Intermediate People's Court in November 1994.

The local procuratorate deemed the sentence "too light" and called for Chen to be executed. The request was rejected by Hainan Higher People's Court in 1999, beginning Chen's 16-year appeal ordeal.
BEIJING, March 10 -- China warned the Philippines not to challenge its sovereignty and security interests on Thursday, after the Philippines' announcement of a plan to lease Japanese planes to patrol the South China Sea.

The Philippines will lease five aircraft from Japan to help patrol the South China Sea, President Benigno Aquino announced on Wednesday.

"We have noticed relevant media reports. China resolutely opposes the Philippines' move if it aims to challenge China's sovereignty and security interests," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said at a regular news briefing.

"Meanwhile, China will be on high alert for Japan's actions."

As Japan is a non-claimant country in the South China Sea dispute, China demands Japan be prudent in words and deeds and refrain from actions that jeopardize regional peace and stability, the spokesperson added.

China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have agreed on a dual-track approach to resolve the South China Sea disputes. The directly concerned states, namely China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia, will peacefully negotiate while China and ASEAN countries work together to maintain peace and stability in the region.
Chinese leaders often act as "salesmen" for Chinese equipment and technology on their foreign trips, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said so when commenting the countrys busy diplomatic agenda. Their efforts have benefited the countrys economy, trade and investment.

Even when they are abroad, what they think about is China's development and the well-being of the Chinese people, Wang made the remarks at a press conference during the Fourth Session of the 12th National People's Congress Tuesday.

He illustrated how the diplomatic achievement benefits peoples livelihood, citing the examples of the railway line from Yiwu in Zhejiang Province to Tehran, capital of Iran and diplomatic platforms to promote local development.

According to him, the first Yiwu-Tehran freight train began operation just four days after President Xi Jinping visited Iran. As a cost-effective transportation route, the railway created more profits for over 70,000 businesses in Yiwu, the world's largest wholesale market.

Besides, the ministry recently created a new platform to showcase and promote Chinese provinces. At the promotional events, invited foreign diplomatic envoys and businesses can have face-to-face discussions with Chinese provincial representatives. The first event focusing on Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region took place on March 2, Wang said.

Besides the Yiwu-Tehran freight railway, the "Yixin'ou" cargo railway connecting Yiwu and Madrid, began running in November, 2014. The route was proposed by President Xi and Spanish Prime Minster. The 24-hour cargo route enables Chinas goods to enter the European market, and puts Spanish wine and olive oil on Chinese dining tables.

Facilitating Chinas export of production capacity

The YASREF refinery, a joint-venture invested by Saudi Aramco and Chinas Sinopec, went into trial operation in April, 2015. The project, as the first overseas refinery program of Sinopec, is the largest project invested by China in Saudi Arabia.

It is designed to refine 20 million tons of Arabian heavy crude per year. Most of its products will be sold to the overseas market. The project not only helps Saudi Arabia diversify its economy, but also reveals Chinas ability in chemical processing in the overseas market.

The project was inaugurated by President Xi and Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud during the formers Saudi visit in January. King Salman said at the opening ceremony that Saudi Arabia-China cooperation is bound to be a success and both peoples will be satisfied.

Promoting industrial-cluster cooperation

The China-Belarus Industrial Park in Minsk, capital of the Eastern European nation, is a flagship project to expand Chinas industrial cluster in overseas market. The industrial park, as the largest cooperation program between the two countries, is also a flagship project along the Silk Road Economic Belt.

In May, 2015, President Xi and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko inspected the Park during his state visit, injecting impetus to the parks further development.

The park has so far met all assigned targets of 2015. Thirty-six enterprises have signed agreements to set up business in the park. The first 10 companies that operate in the park are estimated to attract investment worth 2 billion dollar.

Chinas diplomacy not only created a sound global environment for the countrys development, but also benefited the Chinese people.

Since the end of 2015, as the China-Australia and China-ROK free trade agreements came into effect, Chinese people become able to buy imported products from both countries at lower prices.

In November, 2014, China and the US reached an agreement to issue 10-year-long visas that allow multiple entries to both businesspeople and tourists.

Whats more, with easier access to foreign movies and technological products, Chinese people are more integrated into the world. Nowadays, more Chinese students choose to pursue studies abroad.

China's diplomacy will only get busier. We'll provide ever stronger services and support for China's development, and Chinese people can expect more benefits from China's diplomacy. Wang said at the press conference.
LONDON Mar. 9 (People's Daily Online) Guildhall's historic facade became the canvas for a spectacular son et lumiere show to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death.

The light and sound performance took place in Guildhall Yard, using period music and images from the City of Londons extensive archives, and in collaboration with Guildhall Library and Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

Using video technology, the Dance Porch of the 15th century Guildhall will be illuminated with 3D projection mapping to transform irregularly shaped objects and surfaces to create an extraordinary living display of sound and colour.

Vivienne Littlechild, Chairman of the City of London Corporation's Culture, Heritage and Libraries Committee, said: "William Shakespeare was one of the Citys most famous residents and it is entirely right that the City of London should pull out the stops to mark the 400th anniversary of his death and celebrate his enduring legacy."
In photo: Citizens release fish into Daming Lake

The ecosystem is damaged by released fish in Daling Lake, one of Jinans main natural and cultural landmarks in east Chinas Shandong province, head of the Daminghu Park Yang Junguo said on March 9, 2016.

The park has to clear out 50 to 100 kilograms of dead fish from the Daming Lake every day. Most of them belong to those species released by local residents, Yang said.

In photo: Staff of the park gather dead fish from Daming Lake

The life release act, or fangsheng, is a traditional Buddhist practice of saving animals from captivity and release them into the wild. People often perform life release to pray for good luck, especially on every first and 15th day of the lunar month.

In photo: The fish to be released

However, according to a park official Su Jian, up to 70 percent of the released fish would die in the Daming Lake as they are not adapted to the lake environment, and the park has to clear out as many as 1500 kilograms of dead fish from the lake every month. Whats worse, some of the released fish are destroying the lakes ecosystem as the landscape plants are eaten, and the original species threatened.
File photo: TC-90 training aircraft

China expressed high alert on Thursday about the Philippines saying it would lease five TC-90 training aircraft from Japan to help patrol the South China Sea.

If the Philippines meant to challenge China's sovereignty and security interests, it will be met with firm opposition from the Chinese side, Chinas Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hong Lei told a daily news briefing on Thursday.

Japan is not a party directly concerned in the South China Sea dispute, he added.

I also wish to reiterate that Japan is not a party related to the South China Sea dispute. We are on high alert against its move. We urge the Japanese side to act with prudence instead of further complicating the situation and jeopardizing regional peace and stability, said Hong.
My Favorite Quotes Recent Quotes

Portfolio Summary Your most recently viewed tickers will automatically show up here if you type a ticker in the Get Quotes box on the top of the page.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Anvar Mammadov - Trend:

The international ratings agency Fitch Ratings has affirmed Pasha Bank's Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'BB-', according to the message of the agency published March 10 on its website.

The agency has also affirmed the bank's short-term foreign-currency IDR at 'B'.

Viability rating of the bank has been affirmed at 'b+', support rating at '3', support rating floor at 'BB-'.

The affirmation of the Pasha Bank's ratings is underpinned by the potential support available to the bank from the Azerbaijan authorities, in case of need, according to the message.

Fitch's view on support takes into account the combined market shares of Pasha Bank and its sister Kapital Bank in considering systemic importance, as they are part of a single group.

Pasha Bank and Kapital Bank, which are both owned by Pasha Holding, at the end of the first half of 2015 had combined market shares of 14.1 percent in deposits (Kapital Bank has 6 percent; Pasha Bank has 8.1 percent) and 8.8 percent of loans (5.6 percent at Kapital Bank, 3.2 percent at Pasha Bank), making them comfortably the second-largest banking group in Azerbaijan after IBA, according to Fitch.

In Fitch's view, any sovereign support would likely be available to both of the banks, in case of need, rather than one of the institutions in isolation.

Pasha Bank and Kapital Bank themselves haven't recently needed support of the government, according to the agency.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

Trend:

The energy ministry of Indonesia has urged the country's state oil company Pertamina to acquire oil and gas blocks in Azerbaijan, Indonesian media outlets reported March 10.

Indonesian government is aware that domestic oil reserves of the country are limited, and would like state-owned oil and gas giant Pertamina to manage oil and gas blocks abroad, and one country with the potential for this plan to work is Azerbaijan.

"Potential oil supply from Azerbaijan is more than 50 million barrels," the ministry's Director General for Oil and Gas Affairs, I.G.N. Wiratmaja Puja said. "Also, operational and production costs in Azerbaijan are reasonable."

He mentioned that Pertamina could learn from Petronas' move into Azerbaijan, where the Malaysian oil and gas firm is acquiring part ownership in oil and gas blocks.

Azerbaijan produces 800,000 barrels of oil per day, he said.

"This is comparable to the amount of oil Indonesia produces, but the difference is that Azerbaijan has a much smaller population," he said. "Daily oil consumption there is just 200,000 barrels, and the remainder is exported. Indonesia, meanwhile, does not produce enough oil to meet daily demand."

"Since last year, the government has been importing crude oil directly from Azerbaijan," Puja said. "So it would be a great opportunity if Pertamina, which was also involved in this business arrangement, could acquire stakes in oil and gas blocks there."

Sudirman Said, the energy minister of Indonesia, confirmed this and claimed that Azerbaijan has already committed to supplying 1 million barrels of oil per month. Syamsu Alam, Pertamina's Upstream oil and gas director, also supports the plan and has suggested that the oil from Azerbaijan might be used to supply Pertamina's Cilacap refinery.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10



Trend:

The Azerbaijani embassy in Germany together with the organizers of the International Tourism Exhibition in Berlin (March 9-13) is taking measures to remove the stand exposition about the unrecognized regime, established in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, Hikmat Hajiyev, spokesman for the Azerbaijani foreign ministry, told Trend March 10.

"Yerevan made a provocative attempt to present the unrecognized regime, established in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, at the Berlin Tourism Fair (ITB) in 2009," he said. "This attempt was foiled."



"The presentation of the separatist regime at a separate stand exposition of the ITB exhibition has been effectively suppressed due to the proactive measures taken by the Azerbaijani embassy in Germany since 2016," Hajiyev said.

Hajiyev said that an organization misled the organizing committee of the exhibition and registered under other name in 2016.

He added that on the opening day of the exhibition, the organization stuck a Karabakh placard in its exposition pavilion.

Hajiyev said that therefore, the unrecognized regime has once again testified its criminal nature.

The spokesman said that in close contact with the organizers of the exhibition, the Azerbaijani embassy in Germany is taking actions to remove this exhibition stand.

"Armenia is trying to maintain the unrecognized regime and strengthen the consequences of the occupation through abuse in the tourism sector," Hajiyev said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:

Israel's former prime minister Ehud Barak supports fair solution to the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

He made the remarks on the sidelines of the 4th Global Baku Forum March 10.

Bringing together so many leaders is a great step taken in the sphere of multiculturalism by building mutual understanding among people, said Barak.

Azerbaijan is developing year by year and everyone participating in this event praises the developments in this country, he added.

Israel's former prime minister noted that Azerbaijan has open, strong and tolerant society.

One the one hand, Azerbaijan is an open country and on the other hand, it supports good, balanced relations with its neighbors, except for one, according to Barak.

It shows that regional countries should make great efforts to live in peace and cooperation with all neighbors, he added.

The 4th Global Baku Forum titled "Towards a Multipolar World" kicked off March 10.

The Forum has been organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center in partnership with the Interaction Council, the Club of Madrid, Library of Alexandria, the Club of Rome and World Academy of Science and Culture.

Over 300 delegates from 53 countries attend the forum.

The two-day forum will focus on topical issues such as the role of interreligious dialogue in conflict prevention, migration, multiculturalism, integration and global security. The forum's agenda also includes prospects for energy and global management issues.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:

Azerbaijan, which is currently a developed country integrating into the world, has one problem - the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Turkey's former foreign minister Hikmet Cetin told reporters in Baku, March 10.

Settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will benefit not only Azerbaijan, but the entire region, according to Cetin.

"I believe that this conflict can be resolved through peaceful means," said Turkey's former minister, adding that Azerbaijan also wants to resolve the conflict peacefully.

"I hope that the major world powers, the UN will make necessary efforts to resolve this conflict," Cetin said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

Trend:

The IV Global Baku Forum titled "Towards a Multipolar World" has started its work March 10.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva and Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Leyla Aliyeva are taking part in the forum.

Founding director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA), the new Library of Alexandria, co-chair of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center Ismail Serageldin opened the forum.

Azerbaijani president made a speech at the event.

The forum, organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, is held in cooperation with InterAction Council, Club of Madrid, Library of Alexandria, Club of Rome, and World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS).

Such topics as international security, regional threats, serious consequences of global economic challenges, climate change and energy policy: role of oil-producing countries, multiculturalism, interreligious dialogue and mutual integration will be discussed during the two-day event.

The conflicts on ethnic, religious and political grounds, global challenges in the democratic development, education, and environment will also be the topics of the forum.

Heads of states and governments will participate and deliver speeches in the opening of session 'Global Challenges of Modern World'.



Heads of states and governments, prominent public and political figures, authoritative experts will hold discussions and exchange views on various topics.



Seven incumbent presidents, 27 former presidents, one vice-president, 23 former prime ministers, a lot of incumbent and former officials, heads of authoritative international organizations, famous politicians and experts will take part in the forum.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

Trend:

The IV Global Baku Forum titled "Towards a Multipolar World" launched in the Azerbaijani capital on March 10.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev congratulated and welcomed the guests at the event.

"First of all, I'd like to welcome you all to Azerbaijan. I am very glad that Baku Global Forum becomes a good tradition."

He thanked the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, its board, its co-chairs, Mrs. Vaira Vike-Freiberga, Mr. Ismail Serageldin for transforming, in a very short period of time, the center into a world-scale international institution.

The president noted that the forum today will discuss broad issues of international agenda.

"The topics of discussions are very important to all of us, and the whole mankind," the president added.

"I am sure that the guests at the forum will contribute valuable thoughts to the cause of peace, security, predictability in the world," he said.

Ilham Aliyev added that every international forum and its level mainly depends on the list of its participants, heads of states and governments, prominent politicians, public figures, and experts.

"Therefore, this shows the level of discussions that we will have today and tomorrow," he said.

"Since we met last spring, the situation in the world has changed, unfortunately not in positive direction," the president said.

He added that the world didn't become safer and more secure, while the conflicts remain unresolved.

"Our main goal is to play our role as countries, governments, politicians, to try to reduce tensions, create grounds for cooperation, mutual understanding, mutual respect," he said. "Otherwise, the situation in the future will continue to deteriorate."

Among the troubling issues, President Aliyev named the situation in the Middle East, situation in parts of Europe, refugee crisis - all the realities of the recent years.

The president said that one of the main objectives of the Fourth Global Baku Forum is to address these issues, especially taking into account the level of participants and their contribution to the world affairs, their experience, and knowledge, and that may help to find a way out of the existing situation.

"We are all united in one objective - to promote mutual cooperation, mutual understanding," said the president."We are all interrelated."

"Sometimes it may seem that what we see on TV, the dangerous events happening in different parts of the world, one may think this is happening on another planet, but it is just the next door. The refugee crisis showed that we're all interrelated."

Azerbaijani president said that every action, every step, every interference in other countries' internal affairs may result in difficulties for those, who interfere.

"That, I think, is the main lesson of today's reality. We all need to respect each other, respect our choice, territorial integrity, our plans for the future, we all need to interact, because the main goal is to reduce tensions and diminish the existing threats."

Independence and Nagorno Karabakh conflict

The president further said that this year Azerbaijan will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its independence.

"During the early years of independence, we've suffered from civil war, humanitarian crisis, occupation, aggression, economic difficulties, actually an economic collapse," he said. "Azerbaijan became a target of terrorist attacks. Armenian terrorist organizations committed numerous acts of terror in the 1990s against civilians. And the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan unfortunately is not resolved."

He went on to add that though Azerbaijan achieved some success during the early years of independence, and today is developing as a modern, stable, predictable, self-sufficient country, the conflict still needs to be resolved.

"The conflict needs to be resolved in order to allow a million of Azerbaijani refugees to return to their homeland, stop violence and establish peace in our region, because without it, all the countries will suffer," Ilham Aliyev said.

The president noted that Armenia, which continues to illegally occupy historic and legal part of Azerbaijan, didn't benefit from the occupation as the country continues to suffer from economic difficulties, isolation, migration, poverty - all of that is because of aggression and occupation of Azerbaijan's lands.

"Nagorno Karabakh is a historic, legal part of Azerbaijan," said President Aliyev. "The international community recognizes Nagorno Karabakh as Azerbaijan's integral part. As a result of the conflict, one million of Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced persons, became subjected to ethnic cleansing. The occupation of almost 20 percent of our territory continues."

The president reminded that International organizations, in particular the UN and its Security Council, adopted numerous resolutions, demanding unconditional and immediate withdrawal of Armenian troops from the territory of Azerbaijan, however these resolutions are not implemented.

Ilham Aliyev further suggested that the mechanism of implementation of these resolutions should be a topic of discussions.

"In some cases, the resolutions of the UN Security Council are implemented within hours or days, in our case - it's more than 20 years," he said. "That shows the lack of political will, especially of those countries that have adopted these resolutions."

Ilham Aliyev said today the negotiating process continues without any success and the main reason for that is because Armenia doesn't want peace.

"They want to keep the occupied territories under illegal control, they want to keep the status quo unchanged, but this cannot remain this way," he said. "The countries chairing the negotiation process, the three permanent members of the UN Security Council, in numerous occasions, publicly spoke about that."

"They said that status quo is unacceptable, and must be changed," he said. "To change the status quo, Armenia needs to leave the occupied territories, and stop occupation."

The president said that in the 21st century it is absolutely abnormal from all points of view, political, legal, humanitarian, to illegally occupy the territory of a neighboring country and block the negotiation process.

"I think that to resolve the conflict, first, Azerbaijan needs to become stronger and this is already happening and second, the international community, especially those who are obliged to have a mandate to deal with this conflict, must show political will and force the aggressor to stop the occupation, like we see in many other places around the world where the aggressor is stopped, punished, sanctioned and forced to stop the aggression."

Azerbaijani president reminded that Azerbaijan's historic heritage has been destroyed on the occupied territories.

"The OSCE twice sent the fact-finding and field assessment missions to the occupied territories and they reflected the real situation there. All our historic monuments, graves, mosques are destroyed," he said.

"Today we see TV reports on destruction of historic monuments in the Middle East. Twenty years ago the same was happening on the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, but at that time the international community and media didn't pay attention, or didn't have access to that information, but it is the same story, the same approach," Ilham Aliyev said.

The president added that the existing situation is dangerous for the future, peace and security in the region, since if the aggressor is not punished, it will plan something else.

The development of Azerbaijan

Despite difficulties, which included the humanitarian crisis that Azerbaijan has faced in the early 1990s, the country is successfully developing, said Ilham Aliyev.

"We had the highest figure of refugees per capita at the time," he said. "One million of people became refugees and internally displaced on their own land -- at that time the population of Azerbaijan was something more than 8 million. So we know how to deal with the humanitarian crisis."

He recalled that at the time Azerbaijan was different from today's Azerbaijan, it was a very poor country, a newly independent state, the economy was ruined, the industry was collapsed, and there were no prospects for the future.

"Our main goal was to establish the state, to create strong economy, to open the country for foreign investments, and to become part of the world market economy," he said. "And that happened."

"Today the country is stable. We continue our political and economic reforms that go in the country in parallel. All the fundamental freedoms are provided, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, religious freedom, media freedom, we have free internet, and more than 70 percent of our people are internet users."

The president noted that in Azerbaijan political freedom is supported by economic reforms.

"Since 2004 and up to 2014, Azerbaijan's economy was the fastest growing in the world," he said. "We managed to dramatically reduce poverty and unemployment down to 5 percent. Economy became more competitive, and according to the Davos Economic Forum, Azerbaijan's economy ranks 40th in terms of competitiveness."

President Aliyev said that Azerbaijan implemented many infrastructure projects, including social infrastructure projects to improve the living standards of people and at the same time create better conditions for investments.

"We were among the countries that received, per capita, one of the biggest direct foreign investments, primarily in the oil and gas sector," he said. "Now our goal is to attract investors in the non-oil sector."

"Reduction of dependence on oil and gas was part of our reforms. And today as a result of our reforms, oil and gas sector makes up for something more than 30 percent of our GDP and about a half of our budget revenues. So the target is to completely reduce the dependence on oil and gas."

The president went on to add that for Azerbaijan, the post-oil period has already started, and not because of reduction of production, but due to the collapse of the oil price.

"This is an absolutely new situation, no country in the world was prepared for that, no one could imagine the fall of oil price would be so dramatic. And it happened within one year," he said. "So we had to work very actively, very efficiently, to reduce negative impacts of this, and now our financial situation is again stable, predictable, and our budget is based on the price of oil of $25 per barrel - a kind of guarantee from any kind of economic complications."

President Ilham Aliyev noted that Azerbaijan has substantial amount of reserves in the Sovereign Wealth Fund and that allows the country to get of the situation with minimum risk.

"At the same time, this situation forces us to be more efficient with our reforms. The big package of reforms, which has already been introduced, by the way, is supported by the International Monetary Fund. So we are on the right track," Ilham Aliyev said.

Diversifying economy, building transportation networks

President Aliyev further said that today Azerbaijan is mainly dealing with diversification of economy, finding new areas of economic development.

"One of them, which we've worked on for many years, is new for international community -- it is transportation infrastructure. We are building transportation network, which will allow Azerbaijan in the future to have a strong position in the region. Geographic position is very preferable, so investments in transportation infrastructure, including railroads, airports, a seaport, allow us to be a crossroad transportation infrastructure," the president said.

He added that the East-West transportation corridor has already started to work.

"Hopefully this year we will finalize the connection of railroads between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, thus Europe and Asia will have new, shortest transportation route," he said.

President Aliyev further said that the first container train from China to Europe already passed through Azerbaijan, so this is a new Silk Road with a modern infrastructure.

"We made a proposal to our partners to have single transportation tariffs to make this route attractive," he said.

The president added that another transportation route, on which Azerbaijan has been actively working with neighbors and partners, is the North-South transportation route.

"It will allow cargoes to be transported from Pakistan, India, Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia to Northern Europe. Azerbaijan is investing in the modern infrastructure and hopefully soon this route will be in operation," President Aliyev said. "So, all these routes cross our territory, and this increases geopolitical importance of our country, generates additional revenue that we will use for development in the future."

Energy

President Aliyev further said that the energy sector remains very important for Azerbaijan's economy, and now also more important for energy security. He reminded that on Feb. 29 Baku held the second meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council.

"The Southern Gas Corridor is the project that we call the project of the 21st century," the president said. "It is a mega-project, one of the biggest infrastructure and energy projects in Europe, initiated by Azerbaijan."

President Aliyev added that in this project, Azerbaijan plays the leading role as initiator, organizer and investor. He said the Southern Gas Corridor is a project worth $45 billion of investment.

"We've established a strong team of companies and countries, and the purpose of having this advisory council meeting was to coordinate our efforts, to meet the targets of implementation of this project, because it will be implemented in stages," Ilham Aliyev said.

The president went on to add that the project consists of four elements, which include production of gas from huge new Azerbaijani gas field and three integrated gas pipelines that will allow connecting Baku with Italy, through a 3,500 kilometer pipeline.

"Of course this is a huge investment and at the same time the project needs coordination. So in this room on Feb. 29, 11 countries plus the European Commission signed a declaration which underlines key and strategic role of Azerbaijan as a main enabler of implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor," said the president.

Noting that Azerbaijan established a team of countries, President Aliyev named the participants of the project in accordance with the route of the pipeline: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, and Italy.

"We have two more signatures on the declaration - Croatia and Montenegro, who, I am sure, will join the team in the coming years," President Aliyev said, adding that the governments of the US and the UK, and the vice-president of the European Commission also undersigned the document. So, twelve signatures actually show that the Southern Gas Corridor is already a reality."

Azerbaijani president went on to add that the Southern Gas Corridor is a project of energy security, energy diversification, and free competition.

"I think this is how the energy projects should be implemented, and our main goal is to implement this project and to treat it as a commercial one," he said.

"Sometimes, issues related to the energy security are too much politicized and we're against that. Politics and energy should be separated. Energy should not be used as a political tool. At the same time, political tools interfering in business development sometimes create complications," Ilham Aliyev said.

The president said this is a project for Azerbaijan to be able to export its natural resources, for decades ahead, to diversify markets.

"For Europe it means additional source of gas which it will need," said the president, adding that the producers, including Azerbaijan, will need the demand of European consumers.

He went on to add that ongoing economic difficulties observed worldwide today are temporary.

"The price of oil will not remain at this low level," he said. "The economic growth will generate activity, and the demand for natural gas in Europe will only grow. There will be enough room for everyone. I think the producers will also need to coordinate their efforts, to avoid unnecessary competition. Because producers have their own goals, consumers have theirs."

"I think that in the Southern Gas Corridor project we manage to provide the balance between producers, transitors and consumers. It is a win-win situation, that's why it develops successfully," said the president.

Ilham Aliyev noted that it is a serious challenge to implement such a huge project with so many participants, in a short period of time, in time when the oil price is down and you have to spend billions.

"The energy security definitely will dominate in the political agenda, and I think that with the example that we show with the Southern Gas Corridor, when energy and politics are separated, you can achieve success," Ilham Aliyev said.

Multiculturalism



The president reminded that this year Azerbaijan marks the year of multiculturalism.



"For centuries, peoples of different nationality, ethnic roots, and religions, lived in Azerbaijan in peace and dignity, and we're proud of it," said the president.



"We are proud that during the years of independence, these positive tendencies only became stronger," he said.



The president said that multiculturalism, religious tolerance is a state policy in Azerbaijan.



"At the same time, this is also a reflection of the mood of the society," he said. "This is important because state policy and general atmosphere in Azerbaijan in this respect is not different."



President Aliyev said that Azerbaijan in 2008 launched the Baku Process, when the country invited the culture ministers of member countries of the Islamic Cooperation Organizationnto participate in the meeting of the culture ministers of the Council of Europe members for the first time.



"That worked, and the Baku Process became a reality," President Aliyev said. "We organized numerous events in Azerbaijan, promoting the values of multiculturalism - the World Religious Leaders summit, humanitarian forum, and intercultural dialogue forum twice. And this April we will have the 7th UNAOC Global Forum."



Ilham Aliyev said that Azerbaijan's experience in this area is highly appreciated by leading international organizations, by international community, and it demonstrates that multiculturalism is alive, that it has a future.



The president added that those who can influence public opinion, politicians, media representatives, should be more responsible regarding the issue.



The role of media in this respect must be more positive, because unfortunately what we see on the news is mainly confrontation, refugee crisis and this leads only to alienation, said the president.



"We cannot afford alienation, because as I said before, we are all interconnected, we are all living on the same planet, and the distance between Europe and the Middle East, as we all see, isn't long. And even if it is, it doesn't stop people from trying to find shelter or trying to save their lives or lives of their families," he said.



"I think that concentrating on positive examples of multiculturalism and promoting these values will help all of us. Because no country, no nation can live in the future in isolation. We are all interconnected. Absolute majorities of the world countries have multi-ethnic, multi-religious population, and we must be proud of that," President Aliyev said.



President Aliyev said that last month Azerbaijan celebrated the inauguration of the one of the sacred places in the Muslim World, the Imamzadeh religious and historic monument, which is in Ganja, the motherland of great Azerbaijani poet Nizami Ganjavi.



Ilham Aliyev noted that the people of Azerbaijan protected the monument since the 8th century, adding that it was inaugurated and a new mosque was built there.



"We had a ceremony, and I invited all the representatives from all the regions of Azerbaijan, and at that ceremony, along with me, other speakers were the leaders of traditional religions in Azerbaijan - leader of Azerbaijani Muslims, leader of Azerbaijani-Russian Orthodox church, leader of Azerbaijani Jewish community and the leader of the Catholic church," the president said.



"They all not only participated but also spoke to the audience," Ilham Aliyev said. "Then we jointly moved to the newly built mosque. This is how it works in our country. That was a message to our society, message to our people, and message to our world."



The president also recalled that recently, in the biggest mosque of Azerbaijan, Shia and Sunni Muslims of Azerbaijan prayed together for the first time, and it demonstrates the real situation with the religious tolerance in the country.



"There is no distinction here, neither inside the Muslim community, nor inside our society. This is the reality of Azerbaijan, and is probably one of our biggest assets, and this is the main guarantee for successful development. Because without this consensus, without unity, we cannot achieve success. And we want to achieve more success, we want to continue to modernize our country and only based on these common values of friendship, multiculturalism."



Ilham Aliyev said that last year Azerbaijan hosted the inaugural European Games and I n 2012 it hosted the Eurovision Song Contest. Baku was announced the Capital of Islamic Culture and the next year Azerbaijan will host the Islamic Solidarity Games.



"Azerbaijan is the member of the Council of Europe, member of the Islamic Cooperation Organization. It is a bridge between cultures, traditions, religions, and this is our responsibility. We play this role in order to provide successful development of our country, and also to create most stable, predictable situation in the region," said the president.



"I am sure the discussions on the important topics of the program will contribute a lot to the positive development both in the region and the world," he concluded.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Seymur Aliyev - Trend:

It is necessary to increase the efficiency of the international organizations' activity in the settlement of conflicts in the world, said Viktor Zubkov, the former prime minister of Russia.

Of course, this should be done at such forums as the Global Baku Forum, Zubkov, who currently chairs the Russian Gazprom's Board of Directors, told reporters in Baku in the sidelines of the Forum March 10.

He added that experts must work out specific suggestions by further submitting them to the international organizations.

Zubkov further highlighted the good organizing level and compositions of the delegations taking part in the Global Baku Forum.

The IV Global Baku Forum titled "Towards a Multipolar World" started its work March 10.

Zubkov said that the current changes in Azerbaijan are obvious.

"Azerbaijan is being changed," he said. "Everything is impressive and done for people living in Azerbaijan."

While speaking about Russia's role in resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Zubkov said that Moscow is taking all measures to resolve it.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Seymur Aliyev - Trend:

The IV Global Baku Forum is an important international event, which brought together a lot of representatives of governments and international institutions, Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri, director general of the Islamic Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), told reporters March 10 in Baku.

They all have gathered in the beautiful Baku to discuss cooperation on the most important issues, said Altwaijri adding, "I am glad to be a part of this society, whose main objective is becoming a dialogue on joint efforts to ensure security."

International community should pay more attention to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the withdrawal of Armenian occupation troops from Azerbaijan's territories, to facilitate the return of refugees to their lands, he added.

ISESCO's position remains unchanged: the organization will support justice and call for immediately withdrawing Armenian occupation troops from Azerbaijan's territories and end the occupation, noted Altwaijri.

The IV Global Baku Forum, organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, is held in cooperation with InterAction Council, Club of Madrid, Library of Alexandria, Club of Rome, and World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS).

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.



The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:

Creating relations and cooperation between countries and cultures is of great importance, Norway's former prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland told Trend on the sidelines of the 4th Global Baku Forum March 10.

Brundtland expressed satisfaction that Baku has become a center for creating such cooperation.

She noted that the 4th Global Baku Forum is global cooperation that covers the whole world.

Declaring 2016 the Year of Multiculturalism in Azerbaijan is of great importance, said Norway's former prime minister.

The multicultural world creates great opportunities for the future generations, she said.

Brundtland congratulated Azerbaijan with putting forward such an initiative that will contribute to promoting such multicultural world which is very important.

The 4th Global Baku Forum titled "Towards a Multipolar World" kicked off March 10.

The Forum has been organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center in partnership with the Interaction Council, the Club of Madrid, Library of Alexandria, the Club of Rome and World Academy of Science and Culture.

Over 300 delegates from 53 countries attend the forum.

The two-day forum will focus on topical issues such as the role of interreligious dialogue in conflict prevention, migration, multiculturalism, integration and global security. The forum's agenda also includes prospects for energy and global management issues.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

Trend:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has met with President of Bulgaria Rosen Plevneliev, who is attending the 4th Global Baku Forum.

The parties hailed the current level of bilateral relations and their rapid development in recent years.

They emphasized that the bilateral ties reached the level of strategic partnership. Opportunities for cooperation in investment making, energy, pharmaceutics and other areas were discussed at the meeting.

The development of Azerbaijan-European Union relations was hailed, and the Bulgarian president expressed his country's readiness to make its contribution to the expansion of these ties.

The importance of the 4th Global Baku Forum was underlined, and the presidents said the event created a good opportunity for conducting fruitful discussion.

It was noted that the issues on the agenda of the forum are topical and important in terms of expansion of international cooperation.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Anakhanum Hidayatova - Trend:

Italy supports the quick implementation of construction project of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which will connect Azerbaijan through Turkey and Albania with Greece and Italy, Franco Frattini, Italy's ex-foreign minister, told reporters March 10 in Baku.

It is extremely important that this project plays an important role from the standpoint of a good example of making efforts and a healthy competition, he said.

This project is very important for the Southern Gas Corridor, which will very soon become a reality, added Frattini.

Speaking about the IV Global Baku Forum, at which he participates, the ex-foreign minister said that this event is important, because it brings together a lot of politicians to discuss modern global issues.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. It envisages transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe through Georgia and Turkey.

The IV Global Baku Forum titled "Towards a Multipolar World" kicked off March 10.

The Forum has been organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center in partnership with the Interaction Council, the Club of Madrid, Library of Alexandria, the Club of Rome and World Academy of Science and Culture.

Over 300 delegates from 53 countries attend the forum.

The two-day forum will focus on topical issues such as the role of interreligious dialogue in conflict prevention, migration, multiculturalism, integration and global security. The forum's agenda also includes prospects for energy and global management issues.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Anahanum
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Anakhanum Khidayatova - Trend:

The Fourth Global Baku Forum is going to be something like political, geopolitical Davos, former prime minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zlatko Lagumdzija, told reporters in Baku on the sidelines of the forum March 10.

If Davos is about economy, then the Baku Forum is slowly and slightly becoming a geopolitical Davos, he added.

"Every year, I have been coming here from the very beginning and it is incredible that this forum is becoming a place with not only more people, [but] more relevant people," said Lagumdzija.

The 4th Global Baku Forum titled "Towards a Multipolar World" kicked off March 10.

The Forum has been organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center in partnership with the Interaction Council, the Club of Madrid, Library of Alexandria, the Club of Rome and World Academy of Science and Culture.

Over 300 delegates from 53 countries attend the forum.

The two-day forum will focus on topical issues such as the role of interreligious dialogue in conflict prevention, migration, multiculturalism, integration and global security. The forum's agenda also includes prospects for energy and global management issues.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Anahanum
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Anakhanum Khidayatova - Trend:

The Fourth Global Baku Forum is very important, and its significance and popularity grow with each passing year, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak told reporters March 10 in the lobby of the forum.

He said that this forum is a great achievement of Azerbaijan, because the event is respected around the whole world.

More and more influential personalities, world leaders come to the forum with each passing year, they gather here in order to share their vision of the existing problems so that the world would become a little bit better, said Barak.

The Fourth Global Baku Forum titled "Towards a Multipolar World" is being held in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, March 10.

The Forum has been organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center in partnership with the Interaction Council, the Club of Madrid, Library of Alexandria, the Club of Rome and World Academy of Science and Culture.

Over 300 delegates from 53 countries attend the forum.

The two-day forum will focus on topical issues such as the role of interreligious dialogue in conflict prevention, migration, multiculturalism, integration and global security. The forum's agenda also includes prospects for energy and global management issues.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Anahanum
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Anakhanum Khidayatova - Trend:

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not the conflict that should be frozen forever, it should be solved by dialogue and talking, Secretary General of the Club de Madrid Carlos Westendorp told Trend March 10.

He went on to add that nowadays good-neighborly relations among the countries are very important. "It is good for you and your neighbor, neighbor also should recognize that you cannot grab a territory by force, and there are always ways to explain by talking," he said.

Westendorp also emphasized the importance of holding the Fourth Global Baku Forum.

"The forum is very important especially because of the problems of the whole region," he said. "The impact of this forum always depends on quality of the people who are here, here they have achieved a gathering of more than fifty former government leaders," Westendorp said, adding that the forum is important on a global level.

He went on to add that regionally, the forum is much more important because this region is specific and Azerbaijan is in the middle of this region. Nizami Ganjavi center is doing a great job, according to him.

The Fourth Global Baku Forum titled "Towards a Multipolar World" is being held in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, March 10.

The Forum has been organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center in partnership with the Interaction Council, the Club of Madrid, Library of Alexandria, the Club of Rome and World Academy of Science and Culture.

Over 300 delegates from 53 countries attend the forum.

The two-day forum will focus on topical issues such as the role of interreligious dialogue in conflict prevention, migration, multiculturalism, integration and global security. The forum's agenda also includes prospects for energy and global management issues.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:

Serbia has great potential for cooperation with Azerbaijan in the energy sphere, Serbia's ex-president Boris Tadic told reporters March 10 in Baku.

During his presidency he contributed to the establishing of close relationship between Azerbaijan and Serbia, according to Tadic.

"Now we have a new government, the new president, who successfully continue the work initiated by me," he said.

Azerbaijan and Serbia have similar geostrategic positions, according to Tadic.

Serbia faced the Kosovo problem, which is similar to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, he added.

The ex-president also touched upon Azerbaijan's important role in the energy sphere.

"We signed an agreement with Azerbaijan on strategic partnership last year. A number of Azerbaijan's construction companies operate in Serbia," said Tadic adding that he would like Serbia to join the Southern Gas Corridor.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

Trend:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has met with President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili.

The successful development of the relations between the two countries in different areas was stressed at the meeting.

They said the execution of the agreements reached and decisions adopted during high-level meetings contributed to the strengthening of the bilateral ties.

The presidents emphasized the significance of global projects implemented by the two countries in terms of the expansion of the regional cooperation. They said friendship and good neighbourly relations between Azerbaijan and Georgia have ancient history and traditions. The parties pointed to good opportunities for further enhancing strategic friendly ties.

President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili said he is impressed by development processes in Azerbaijan.

The parties noted the excellent organization of the Global Baku Forum held by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center. It was noted that the forum created a good opportunity for discussing international and regional issues.

They also stressed the importance of the event in terms of the development of cooperation between countries.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Anakhanum Khidayatova - Trend:

Russia may act as a major mediator in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, special representative of the Russian president, the country's former prime minister Viktor Zubkov told Trend March 10.

"One has to agree regarding the issue of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by the means of Russia," said Zubkov.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

He went on to add that now there is a very high level of trust between Azerbaijan and Russia, contacts of first persons are very frequent, there are also many other high-level visits.



The tensions between Russia and Turkey will have no influence on the South Caucasus, said Zubkov.

The remarks come in the wake of deterioration of relations between Turkey and Russia after downing of a Russian Su-24 bomber by a Turkish warplane.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Anahanum
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:

The Fourth Global Baku Forum is of great importance for the whole world, Turkey's former foreign minister Hikmet Cetin told reporters in Baku, March 10, on the sidelines of the forum.

By hosting this event, Azerbaijan shows that it is interested in discussing not only its own problems, but also global issues and the country is open for a dialogue, he added.

"Azerbaijan organizes very important forums and each time brings together the world leaders," said the former minister.

The 4th Global Baku Forum titled "Towards a Multipolar World" kicked off March 10.

The Forum has been organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center in partnership with the Interaction Council, the Club of Madrid, Library of Alexandria, the Club of Rome and World Academy of Science and Culture.

Over 300 delegates from 53 countries attend the forum.

The two-day forum will focus on topical issues such as the role of interreligious dialogue in conflict prevention, migration, multiculturalism, integration and global security. The forum's agenda also includes prospects for energy and global management issues.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Anakhanum Hidayatova - Trend:

The IV Global Baku Forum is very important, as it covers a large number of topical issues, Croatia's ex-president Stjepan Mesic told reporters March 10 in Baku.

This forum pays great attention to the search for ways out of the various conflicts, said Mesic.

Speaking about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Mesic said that this issue should be resolved peacefully.

For the beginning, the international community must know how the occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh happened, he said.

Azerbaijan shows its great role in the region, said the ex-president adding that Baku conducts principled independent policy in the region.

The IV Global Baku Forum titled "Towards a Multipolar World" kicked off March 10.

The two-day forum will focus on topical issues such as the role of interreligious dialogue in conflict prevention, migration, multiculturalism, integration and global security. The forum's agenda also includes prospects for energy and global management issues.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Anahanum
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Anakhanum Khidayatova - Trend:

The Fourth Global Baku Forum provides an opportunity to exchange views, Aira Kalela, advisor to Finland's former president Tarja Halonen, told Trend March 10, on the sidelines of the forum.

"I have participated at all four forums. This year, we have more leaders than ever," said Kalela, adding that they are discussing most of the present challenges.

The 4th Global Baku Forum titled "Towards a Multipolar World" kicked off March 10.

The Forum has been organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center in partnership with the Interaction Council, the Club of Madrid, Library of Alexandria, the Club of Rome and World Academy of Science and Culture.

Over 300 delegates from 53 countries attend the forum.

The two-day forum will focus on topical issues such as the role of interreligious dialogue in conflict prevention, migration, multiculturalism, integration and global security. The forum's agenda also includes prospects for energy and global management issues.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Anahanum
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

Trend:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has met with President of the Republic of Macedonia Gjorge Ivanov.

It was noted that President Gjorge Ivanov`s visit to Azerbaijan created a good opportunity for discussing the bilateral ties between the two countries.

During the conversation, the sides hailed an important role of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, and noted that the 4th Global Baku Forum has already become a globally important event.

The presidents underlined that the program of the forum covers a wide range of areas, adding it was important in terms of discussing political, economic, energy, security and other issues in the forefront of global attention.

They also exchanged views over the current state and prospects of friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries in variety of fields, including energy sector.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Anakhanum Khidayatova - Trend:

Georgia and Azerbaijan have perfect relations and today's meeting with Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev proved it once again, Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili told reporters in Baku March 10.

"We will continue to develop our cooperation as an example of perfect good neighborhood," said the president.

Margvelashvili is attending the 4th Global Baku Forum titled "Towards a Multipolar World" that kicked off March 10.

The Forum has been organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center in partnership with the Interaction Council, the Club of Madrid, Library of Alexandria, the Club of Rome and World Academy of Science and Culture.

Over 300 delegates from 53 countries attend the forum.

The two-day forum will focus on topical issues such as the role of interreligious dialogue in conflict prevention, migration, multiculturalism, integration and global security. The forum's agenda also includes prospects for energy and global management issues.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Anahanum
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

Trend:

Azerbaijan's first lady, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva has met with Iranian Ambassador to the country Mohsen Pak Ayeen.

The president of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation highlighted the successful cooperation between Azerbaijan and Iran, adding the political relations contributed to the development of the two countries.

The first lady noted that reciprocal visits of the heads of state strengthened the bilateral ties even more. Mehriban Aliyeva expressed confidence that the cooperation will continue to expand.

Stressing the role of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation in developing relations among countries, the first lady said the Foundation attaches special importance to humanitarian cooperation. Mehriban Aliyeva expressed confidence that educational and cultural relations between the two countries will be strengthened even further.

Mohsen Pak Ayeen said he has been the ambassador in Azerbaijan for more than two years. He spoke of historical and cultural ties between the two countries. The ambassador praised the activity of the Foundation.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

Trend:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has met with President of the Republic of Albania Bujar Nishani.

Saying the 4th Global Baku Forum has already become a big international event, the head of state expressed his satisfaction with the fact that the number of influential guests participating in the event increases.

Expressing his gratitude to President Aliyev for inviting him to the 4th Global Baku Forum, Albanian President Bujar Nishani stressed that the event, where representatives of various countries came together, created a good opportunity for discussing a number of important issues facing the world countries.

Touching upon the close friendly and partnership relations between the two countries, Bujar Nishani said there were good opportunities for strengthening the cooperation in all areas.

Bujar Nishani personally thanked President Aliyev for supporting the development of the bilateral relations and for his friendly attitude to his country.

He noted that Albania is interested in developing ties with Azerbaijan. Noting there are similarities in the history of Albania and Azerbaijan, Bujar Nishani underlined the significance of the two countries` joint activity towards addressing a number of important issues.

Emphasizing that Azerbaijan achieved rapid growth within a short space of time, the Albanian president said it could be an example for the region and other countries.

Bujar Nishani hailed President Aliyev`s supporting a number of important projects, including TAP. The Albanian leader said this project is of vital importance not only for participating countries, but also for entire Europe.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10



Trend:



Azerbaijan's first lady, president of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, head of the Azerbaijan-France Interparliamentary Friendship Group Mehriban Aliyeva met ambassador of France to Azerbaijan Aurelia Bouchez, March 10.



Mehriban Aliyeva talked about the developing relations between Azerbaijan and France in political, economic and humanitarian spheres, noting that high-level meetings of the both countries' heads of state have contributed to strengthening of these relations further.



Saying that a great number of French companies are operating in Azerbaijan, Mehriban Aliyeva particularly underscored the cooperation in the humanitarian field.



The well-established relations between Azerbaijani and French legislative bodies were noted as well.



Implementation of a number of projects in France with the help and at the initiative of the Foundation was noted, and it was emphasized that these projects serve to making peoples of the two countries closer.



Expressing honour of meeting with Azerbaijan's first lady, the head of France's diplomatic mission in Azerbaijan, ambassador Aurelia Bouchez underscored the strong relations between Azerbaijan and France.



Aurelia Bouchez said there was no area where relations between the two countries did not develop.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

Trend:

Azerbaijan State University of Economics (UNEC) has started new project. UNEC employees make tours to the leading schools of Baku and hold meetings with the pupils of upper classes within the project. Trips to the lyceum "Istek", and the secondary schools 1 and 54 of Nasimi district have also been organized within the framework of the project.

The schoolchildren have been in detail informed about UNEC and the innovations applied here. Being the biggest university of economic profile of the region, UNEC is the only Azerbaijan University to have a branch in Russia. Teaching is held here in 4 languages- Azerbaijani, Russian, English and Turkish. UNEC is the biggest higher education institution for the number of its students.

SABAH Groups, International School of Economics and the opportunity of getting the Bachelor degree of the University of London/London School of Economics at UNEC were of great interest by the schoolchildren. They have also been informed about the chance of getting the internal scholarship provided for the excellent students.

Students have been distributed leaflets and demonstrated a video reflecting the broad information about UNEC. Questions by the pupils have been responded in the end.

Tours to other schools will take place throughout the March.
By Azad Hasanli - Trend:

Swiss companies can take an active part in the privatization of state enterprises in Azerbaijan, Shahin Mustafayev, Azerbaijani economy minister, said March 10.

Mustafayev made this statement at a joint meeting of the Azerbaijani-Swiss intergovernmental commission being held in Baku.

The minister stressed the successful trade cooperation between the two countries, adding that there is a potential to increase investments in Azerbaijan.

"At present, some 65 companies with Swiss capital are operating in Azerbaijan," he said. "They invested $220 million in the country's economy. One of them is Holcim Azerbaijan, one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan."

Mustafayev also stressed the activity of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).

"SECO has successfully implemented 30 projects worth $90 million in Azerbaijan," he said. "The secretariat itself has allocated $25 million of this amount."

"Currently, SECO is implementing eight projects worth $15.7 million in the country, including the infrastructure projects and the projects on improving the business sphere," the minister said.

Mustafayev also stressed the successful cooperation of Azerbaijani and Swiss companies.

He said that SOCAR (the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan) has invested 400 million Swiss francs in Switzerland's energy sector.

"SOCAR bought 148 filling stations in the country," he said. "Seven percent of the retail market and eight percent of the wholesale market of oil products, as well as 25 percent of the LPG market of Switzerland account for SOCAR."

Mustafayev said that the two countries are successfully cooperating in the fields of transport and tourism.

The minister stressed the need to increase the tourist flow between Azerbaijan and Switzerland.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10



By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:

Azerbaijan's gas reserves are quite enough to fill Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), Natiq Aliyev, Azerbaijani energy minister, said in an interview with Natural Gas Europe.

He said that the project is designed to export Shah Deniz gas field's second phase (SD2) gas and Azerbaijani gas is its major source.

"During the next decade, the Absheron gas field is expected to be started and other fields also developed," he said. "Azerbaijan's gas reserves are quite enough to fill SGC, but it is open to other states' reserves as well. "We have good experience in this sphere."

"We started the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline to transit Azeri oil, but within a few years of the project's start-up in 2006, it began shipping oil from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan," he said. "We should adopt that approach for the SGC."

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for EU. It envisages transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe through Georgia and Turkey.

At the initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage.

As part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz development, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:

The capital expenditure on construction of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) has decreased by $2.5 billion in three years, Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Natig Aliyev said in an interview with Natural Gas Europe.

"Once, we contracted to build TANAP in 2013, the capital expenditure was estimated to stand at $11.7 billion, but currently, the figure is $9.2 billion, namely $2.5 billion less than three years ago owing to declining the materials and service costs," said the minister.

Natig Aliyev noted that for now, about 938 km pipes have been produced, of which 720 km have been delivered to the construction area and 281 km have been welded.

Further, Azerbaijan's energy minister said that currently, the Shah Deniz-2 project is 66 percent complete and the South Caucasus Pipeline Expansion project is 33 percent complete.

TANAP project envisages transportation of gas of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field from Georgian-Turkish border to the western borders of Turkey.

Turkey will get gas in 2018 and after completing the construction of Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), it will be delivered to Europe in early 2020.

Currently, the shareholders of TANAP are: the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) - 58 percent, Botas - 30 percent and BP - 12 percent.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:

The revenues of Shah Deniz -2 and Southern Gas Corridor projects will exceed the expenditures by 2028-2030, Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Natig Aliyev said in an interview with Natural Gas Europe.

Azerbaijan eyes Shah Deniz, TANAP and TAP as a united project, he added.

"The capital expenditure on Shah Deniz -2 project is estimated at $20 billion and Southern Gas Corridor at $25 billion," said the minister. "We would start gas export to Turkey (from Shah Deniz -2) in 2018 and to EU in 2020."

"Based on the production-sharing contract, some of the costs will be clawed back annually from the produced gas until 2020," said Aliyev. "On the other hand, alongside with the 16 billion cubic meters of natural gas, there are more than 29 million barrels of gas condensate from Shah Deniz -2. This will be shipped through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline."

The natural gas and gas condensate production level of Shah Deniz -1 is about 10 billion cubic meters and 16.4 million barrels annually, said the energy minister.

He noted that the Southern Gas Corridor is projected to remain active for 50-60 years.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for EU. It envisages the transportation of gas from the Caspian Sea region to the European countries through Georgia and Turkey.

At the initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage.

As part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz development, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:

BP Azerbaijan company remains committed to its plan on transportation of the first gas from the second phase of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas field's operation to Turkey in 2018, to Europe - in 2020, said Gordon Birrell, BP's Regional President for Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia.

All work on the Shah Deniz-2 project has been done by approximately two thirds to date, according to him.

"Shah Deniz field remains stable and reliable," said Birrell adding that it was produced about 10 billion cubic meters of gas and 2.3 million tons of condensate in this field in 2015.

These volumes were produced in just six wells, according to him.

As part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz development, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline.

The contract for development of the Shah Deniz offshore field was signed on June 4, 1996.

The field's reserve is estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas. The shareholders in the contract are: BP, operator (28.8 percent), AzSD (10 percent), SGC Upstream (6.7 percent), Petronas (15.5 percent), Lukoil (10 percent), NIOC (10 percent) and TPAO (19 percent).

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:

Azerbaijan makes significant contribution to ensuring the world's energy security, Turkey's former foreign minister Hikmet Cetin told reporters in Baku, March 10.

He noted that the energy security is a very important issue.

"The Middle East and South America also play a role in this sphere. But the Caspian Sea region holds the most important place in this process," said Cetin.

Turkey's former minister noted that today, Azerbaijan plays a leading role in the Caspian Sea region as a producer.

He pointed out that the Southern Gas Corridor is a large and important project.

"The Southern Gas Corridor is a project for transporting natural gas. It starts from Azerbaijan, runs through Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece and is able to reach Europe," said Cetin.

"It will contribute to the energy security and create conditions for increasing the energy sources," said the former minister.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for EU. It envisages the transportation of gas from the Caspian Sea region to the European countries through Georgia and Turkey.

At the initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage.

As part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz development, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

Trend:

On the eve of Novruz holiday Azercell Telecom has launched a new campaign for its subscribers.

Starting from March 7, all individual post-paid subscribers will be able to benefit from special campaign "Bahar" (Spring Campaign). All existing postpaid subscribers, as well as postpaid subscribers who already ported in to Azercell network via mobile number portability services can get iPhone 6S (16 GB) and iPhone 6S (64 GB) by subscribing to "Hedsiz", "Hedsiz Zeng" or "Hedsiz Internet" tariffs with the discount at Azercell dealer network or Azercell Express offices.

Following the purchase of iPhone 6S (16 GB) and iPhone 6S (64 GB) under the campaign, the subscriber will need to pay a monthly subscription fee 12/24 consecutive payment periods.

Tariff pack Price for Phone 6s 16GB payable in 12 invoice period (VAT inc.) Price for Phone 6s 64GB payable in 12 invoice period (VAT inc.) Hedsiz 179 AZN 199 AZN Hedsiz Zeng 159 AZN 179 AZN Hedsiz Internet 149 AZN 169 AZN Price for Phone 6s 16GB payable in 24 invoice period (VAT inc.) Price for Phone 6s 64GB payable in 24 invoice period (VAT inc.) Hedsiz 119 AZN 129 AZN Hedsiz Zng 99 AZN 109 AZN Hedsiz Internet 89 AZN 99 AZN

Subscriber can join the campaign instantly and "Hedsiz", "Hedsiz Zeng" or "Hedsiz Internet" tariff packs are activated the next day. Subscribers joining the campaign with "Hedsiz Zeng" pack will receive 1GB monthly data twice for free if they order internet data of 1GB during two invoice period. The subscirbers will also get special bonuses and discounts by joining this campaign. Subscriber should use his/her own number in order to enjoy the campaign. A subscriber can get only one cell phone within the campaign. Subscribers may address the AZEX or Customer Service offices in order to benefit from the camapign.

Azercell will continue to please its 4.5 million subscribers with new campaigns and services during this spring.

For more information, please contact [email protected]

Azercell Telecom LLC was founded in 1996 and since the first years sustains a leading position in the market. Azercell introduced number of technological innovations in Azerbaijan: GSM technology, advance payment mobile services, M2M,MobilBank, GPRS/EDGE (mobile internet), 24/7 Customer Care, full-time operating Azercell Express offices, mobile e-service "ASAN imza" (ASAN signature) and others.

With 48.2 percent share of Azerbaijan's mobile market Azercell's network covers 99.8 percent of the country's population. In 2015, the number of Azercell's subscribers reached 4.5 million people. In 2011 Azercell deployed 3G and in 2012 the fourth generation network - LTE in Azerbaijan. The company is the leader of Azerbaijan's mobile communication industry and the biggest investor in the non-oil sector. Azercell is a part of TeliaSonera Group of Companies serving 186 million subscribers in 17 countries worldwide with 27,000 employees.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Fatih Karimov - Trend:

An Iranian delegation led by deputy health minister Rasoul Dinarvand will visit Azerbaijan to discuss cooperation in medicine and health.

The Iranian delegation will arrive in Baku March 10, the press office of Iran's embassy to Azerbaijan said.

Dinarvand is scheduled to meet with Oktay Shiraliyev Azerbaijan's Health Minister as well as Shahin Mustafayev, Azerbaijani minister of economy.

The visit comes following visit of Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev to Tehran, when the two neighboring countries signed cooperation documents in various sectors including health.

The Iranian delegation will discuss issues of opening joint medicine production line in Azerbaijan as well as boosting cooperation in the health area with Azerbaijani officials.

Iran's labor and social welfare minister Ali Rabeei said early in March that Iran plans to launch medicine production line in Azerbaijan.

The Iranian pharmaceutical company Pharma Chemie, which operates under the ministry will cooperate with Azerbaijan in producing medicines, according to the Iranian minister.

The two parties will make joint investment on the issue.

It should be noted that Azerbaijan's Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev received a delegation of Iranian pharmaceutical company Darou Pakhsh Feb. 29.

The sides discussed the prospects of cooperation in the sphere of production of drugs, in particular, the issue of joint production of drugs in Azerbaijan.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Fatih Karimov - Trend:

Iran's foreign ministry rejected reports about phone talk between Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his US counterpart John Kerry on Tehran's recent missile tests.

No phone talk was done between the two diplomats, the ministry said, Iran's state-run IRINN TV reported March 10.

The top US diplomat sent an email to Zarif, asking for negotiation, according to the report.

Iran's missile tests were one of the issues asked by the US diplomat to confer on, but the talk was not realized due to Zarif's visit to south-east Asia.

Some western media outlets reported that Kerry called on Zarif on March 9 to protest Tehran's latest round of ballistic missile tests.

Following the adoption of the Iranian nuclear agreement last July, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2231, which prohibits Iran from engaging in activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.

The United States argues that a series of apparent missile tests breach the terms of a UN Security Council resolution and will result in new economic sanctions - either from Washington or the UN.

On March 9, Iran's IRGC hit pre-designated targets using Qadr H and Qadr F ballistic missiles in the country's southern coasts of Mokran, as part of massive missile drills at several bases across the country.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Fatih Karimov - Trend:

Iran's recent missile tests violate neither nuclear deal, nor the 2231 resolution of the UN Security Council, says Hossein Jaber Ansari, the Iranian foreign ministry's spokesman.

The recent military drills of Iran's armed forces and the weapons used in them are not violating Iran's commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iranian IRNA news agency quoted Ansari as saying March 10.

Paragraph 3 of Annex B of resolution 2231 (2015), adopted by the UN Security Council on July 20, 2015, endorsing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA/nuclear deal), calls upon Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear warheads, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.

Further commenting on the matter, Ansari said all the Iranian short-range, mid-range and long-range missiles, including the ballistic ones, some of which were test-fired in the recent military drills, are conventional defensive weapons and aren't capable of delivering nuclear warheads.

He explained that as the Iranian missiles are not designed to carry nuclear warheads, Iran's missile program is not breaching the 2231 resolution, as well as its appendixes.

Ansari added that weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, have no place in Iran's defense doctrine.

On March 9, Iran's IRGC hit pre-designated targets using Qadr H and Qadr F ballistic missiles in the country's southern coasts of Mokran, as part of massive missile drills at several bases across the country.

The US government officials have said the tests, if verified, would violate UN resolutions, but not the terms of the JCPOA.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said the high turnout in the country's recent general elections displayed the nation's trust to the Islamic System.

"Demonstrating high turnout at the elections, people proved in action their trust in the Islamic System," the supreme leader's official website quoted him as saying at a meeting with the members of the Assembly of Experts at his office March 10 morning.

Iranians went to polling stations on Feb. 26 to vote in elections for the 290-seat parliament and the 88-seat Assembly of Experts, a powerful clerical body that appoints the country's supreme leader.

Ayatollah Khamenei described the elections as meaningful, saying the participation of 62 percent of eligible voters is a high turnout compared with many other countries, even the US.

The supreme leader added that attempts were made to say the elections were not competitive, but they were such, as different political groups participated in the elections with various slogans.

He further added that Iranian voters cast ballots on their own will, while there are no obligations in the country forcing people to participate in the elections.

Iran's February parliamentary election saw a moderate, pro-government coalition of pragmatic conservatives, centrists and reformists winning 136 seats out of 290.

Candidates will compete to secure 64 remaining seats in the second round elections for the parliament.

Commentators believe that the outcome of the elections will help President Hassan Rouhani's government to enact economic reforms that will attract foreign investment.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has called for unilateral regional cooperation aimed at tackling terrorism and extremism.

Mohammad Javad Zarif addressed the 14th Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) Ministerial Meeting on March 10 in Bangkok, Thailand, IRNA news agency reported.

Foreign Minister Zarif arrived in Bangkok last night as part of his regional tour to several Asian and Pacific countries.

Earlier, Zarif conferred with Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah during his visit to East Asian country on March 9.

Mohammad Javad Zarif arrived in Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital and largest city of the Sultanate of Brunei, on March 9 in a one-day official visit.

During the meeting, Zarif called for the expansion of economic and politic ties with the Muslim populated country.

He also underlined the threat of extremism and terrorism and said that the extremist groups put the unity of Muslim nations at stake.

In turn, calling for strengthening unity among Islamic countries, Hassanal Bolkiah expressed interest in the expansion of bilateral ties with Iran particularly in petrochemical and technical sectors in the post-sanctions-era.

Iranian foreign minister left Brunei for Thailand last night. New Zealand and Australia are next expected destinations of the foreign minister's regional tour.

The tiny state of Brunei is a reach oil and gas country with the world's highest standards of living.

Zarif set out an official tour late on March 6 taking him to six Southeast Asian and Pacific countries.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Hossein Jaber Ansari earlier said that Zarif's trips are aimed at taking advantage of the chances created for the country following the removal of international sanctions.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Farhad Daneshvar - Trend:

Commander of Iran's Border Police Brigadier-General Qasem Rezaei and Azerbaijan's Interior Minister Colonel-General Ramil Usubov have discussed expansion of bilateral ties between two neighboring countries at a meeting in Baku.

During the meeting, calling for the expansion of unilateral cooperation particularly in combating drug smuggling, Brig-Gen Qasem Rezaei invited Colonel-General Ramil Usubov to pay an official visit to Tehran, Iranian Ambassador to Baku Mohsen Pak Ayeen announced. Brig-Gen Rezai expressed Tehran's readiness for cooperation with Azerbaijan for combating drug smuggling and terrorism.

Saying that the Islamic Republic seeks expansion of ties with neighboring countries, he added that strengthening ties with Baku is of high importance for Tehran.



In turn, Azerbaijani Interior Minister expressed his positive views over joint cooperation with Iran aimed at confronting drug smuggling, organized crimes and sharing experiences between police forces from both sides though holding training courses.

Highlighting friendly ties between Tehran and Baku, the minister expressed his satisfaction over security and peaceful conditions along the borders of Iran and Azerbaijan.

He further added that the Republic of Azerbaijan is fully ready to promote cooperation with Iran's border police.

Brig-Gen Rezaei has arrived in Baku at the official invitation of Azerbaijani State Border Service's (SBS) Chief, Border Troops Commander, Colonel general Elchin Guliyev to attend the ninth meeting of the border commanders of Iran and Azerbaijan discussing the issues of common threats along the borders, joint fight against narcotics trafficking, organized crimes as well as protecting the security of borders.
Presidential Chief of Staff Mohammad Nahavandian said on Thursday that the Islamic Republic of Iran is to broaden cooperation with those countries mind to do investment in Iran, IRNA reported.

Nahavandian made the remarks in a meeting with UK Minister of Trade and Investment Lord Francis Maude, in London on Thursday.

Implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) has created suitable economic opportunity in Iran which should be seized, he said.

After removal of economic sanctions which inflicted loses on all sides, Iran is ready to broaden cooperation with all countries wishing to play roles in the country's economy, Nahavandian said.

Iran has already defined policies to broaden economic cooperation with the countries seeking to invest in the country, Nahavandian said.

Iran's economy has many potentials in different fields and grounds for huge investments in the country and in various sectors are well prepared, Nahavandian said.

Grounds for investment in energy, mines, automobiles and other sectors are well prepared, he said.

The UK minister, for his part expressed satisfaction over lift of economic sanctions and welcomed recent accords between the two countries in various economic fields.

London regards expansion of economic cooperation with Iran for its very special status and is to broaden such wide-scale cooperation in various fields.

London is ready to help Iran to join World Trade Organization (WTO) to speed up pace of economic cooperation between the two sides, said UK minister.
Tehran, Iran, March 9

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

Iran's Amirkabir University of Technology has plans to offer educational service to Iraq, according to Amir Golroo, assistant professor at Department of Civil & Enviromental Engineering of Iran's Amirkabir University of Technology.

There is room for work there and the Iraqi side is willing to use Amirkabir's services, Golroo told Trend, adding that a separate office for Amirkabir University is being built on campus of one of Iraqi universities.

Golroo went on to say that cooperation between Iran and Iraq in this regard goes beyond science.

"We are especially focusing on southern parts of Iraq like Shia cities of Karbala, Kufa, and Najaf because of the spiritual bond we have with them. We want their people to be educated into capable indigenous future leaders," he pointed out.

Referring to foreign cooperation following Iran's nuclear deal, Golroo said that during the Iranian calendar year (since March 21), the Amirkabir University has conducted about 90 exchanges of visits with such countries as Germany, France, Austria, the Netherlands, Iraq, and Turkey.

"Through these visits, we try to boost cooperation at the levels of professors and students where educational services can be exchanged," Golroo further said.

Iranian universities have found new hopes of international cooperation in the wake of the country's nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

"We have no shortcomings as far as professors and the quality of education service is concerned," Golroo said.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Fatih Karimov - Trend:

Iranian defense ministry delivered dozens of home-made Ashura and Zulfiqar speedboats to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy during a ceremony in the Bandar Abbas port in southern Iran.

Iran's Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan and the IRGC Navy Commander Admiral Ali Fadavi attended the ceremony, Fars news agency reported March 10.

During the ceremony, Admiral Fadavi announced that the next year Iran's defense ministry will start the production of speedboats making 80 knots.

The IRGC navy currently possesses boats capable to sail at 60 knots, he added.

The new generation of the Zolfaghar vessel is capable of launching Nasr-1 missiles, and sailing at a speed of 70 knots. It is claimed to be able to operate in an average wave height of 1.21 meters, while its missiles will effectively work at a height of 1.25 meters.

Ashura small boats were used for mine laying and MLRS (multiple launch rocket systems) attacks during the Iran-Iraq war and formed the bulk of the MLRS boat fleet during the 1990s.

Still widely deployed, they are however overshadowed by more recent designs.

Iranian media outlets report that Iran has made great achievements in its defense sector and attained self-sufficiency in producing essential military equipment and systems in recent years.

Iran has manufactured its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles, radars, boats, submarines and fighter planes since 1992. Iran also unveiled its first domestically-manufactured long-range unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in 2010.
Tehran, Iran, March 9

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

Iran is fighting brain drain through cooperation with foreign universities and educational centers in a bid to preserve the country's human resources, according to Amir Golroo, assistant professor at Department of Civil & Enviromental Engineering of Iran's Amirkabir University of Technology.

"We promote brain gain," he said."Rather than having Iranian students receive their degrees abroad through full programs, we provide them with opportunity to receive international education experience," he told Trend March 9.

Golroo said Iran has specific 2+2 programs that have Iranian doctorate students spend two years studying in Iran, then two years abroad to complete their course, as well as 1+1 programs for graduate students.

"In both of these programs, a student has to return to Iran to defend his/her thesis in order to receive a degree," Golroo explained.

Amirkabir University has also started conducting students and professors exchange, joint workshops, and joint seminars in order to engage in more international experiences, he added.

Iran has been recently freed from international sanctions under a comprehensive agreement with world powers called the JCPOA. Under the sanctions, scientific and technological cooperation with Iran were also forbidden. But in the post-sanctions era, Iranian universities have found new hopes of international experiences.

Golroo explained that since the start of the current Iranian calendar year (starts on March 21), the Amirkabir University has arranged eight 2+2 programs, signed five contracts on student exchange, and planned 20 international internship courses.

"There is no concern regarding education quality inside the country. The concern is rather about lab equipment and such things. So, we give our students the opportunity to work abroad for a short term to partially carry out their projects at a university abroad," he said.

Iran has suffered high degrees of brain drain in the past, as many talented students ended up in Western universities, further deciding to stay, after finishing their education.

Top Iranian universities such as Amirkabir University of Technology, Sharif University of Technology, University of Tehran, and Shahid Beheshti University have been the source of much educated talent heading abroad and flourishing as great scientific figures there.
Tairod Pugh, a US Air Force veteran, was found guilty on Wednesday of attempting to join Islamic State, according to his lawyer, Reuters reported.



The conviction marks the first case in more than 75 Islamic State-related prosecutions brought since 2014 by the US Department of Justice to reach a jury verdict.



After a week-long trial in Brooklyn federal court, a jury found Pugh, 48, guilty of attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization, and obstruction for destroying four portable electronic storage devices after his detention in Turkey.



"Of course, we are disappointed with the verdict as we put in great effort to defend the case, but the jury appeared to be fair and genuinely concerned about reaching the correct verdict as they saw it," Pugh's lawyer Eric Creizman said.



Pugh will be sentenced in September, Creizman said.



Prosecutors said Pugh immersed himself in violent Islamic State propaganda for months before buying a one-way flight from his home in Egypt to Turkey, where he hoped to cross the Syrian border into territory controlled by the extremist group.



He was detained by Turkish authorities at an Istanbul airport and eventually flown to the United States to face terrorism charges.



Pugh's defense lawyers argued that his only offense was to express "repugnant" views about Islamic State in Facebook posts and to watch dozens of the group's slickly produced recruitment videos. They said he traveled to Turkey to find work, not to become a jihadist.



But prosecutors pointed to a letter he drafted to his Egyptian wife, found on his laptop, in which he vowed to fight for Islam and declared he had two options: "Victory or Martyr." The letter was written days before he flew to Turkey, though it was unclear whether he ever sent it.



He also took with him to Istanbul a black facemask, a map depicting Islamic State's strongholds in Syria and a chart of the border crossings between Turkey and Syria.



Only one other Islamic State-related US prosecution has reached trial. In Phoenix, Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem is on trial for plotting with others to attack a Prophet Mohammed cartoon contest in Texas. Two of his alleged associates were killed in a shootout with police at the event.



Pugh served as an avionics specialist in the Air Force from 1986 to 1990 and later worked as an Army contractor in Iraq from 2009 to 2010, prosecutors said.
Turkish parliament has approved the government's central administration budget for 2016 with 301 votes in favor and 129 against, according to Anadolu agency.



The budget was debated in the parliament's planning and budget commission, and the general assembly during last few weeks before it got approved Wednesday.



Speaking at the general assembly, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek praised structural reforms made by the AK Party government to raise income levels in the country.



We aim to raise Turkey to a high-income level country through new reforms that we have made in the last two years, Simsek said.



He said the reforms would consist of sector-wise reforms, micro-reforms, structural macro reforms, and EU accession process.



The deputy premier also highlighted the importance of women's participation in the labor force.



"Women's participation in the labor force has increased by 10 points within the last 10 years. This is a good development but not enough," he said.



"We will continue putting regulations into practice, which will increase the rate of women participation in labor force," he added.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

Visa-free regime between Turkey and the European Union (EU), which will enter into force in autumn 2016, in the first place is beneficial for the EU itself, Volkan Bozkr, the Turkish minister for EU affairs, said, the Turkish news agency Anadolu reported March 10.

Bozkir said it is possible that after the visa-free regime between Turkey and the EU enters into force, Ankara may establish visa regime with a number of Eastern European countries.

Unlike some EU countries, there are normal conditions for doing business in Turkey, he said.

Earlier, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker said that the EU may introduce a visa-free regime with Turkey in the autumn of 2016, assuming Ankara implements all the necessary requirements.

Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that full membership in the EU continues to remain a priority for Turkey.

The Association Agreement between the EU and Turkey was signed in 1963. Ankara filed application for the EU membership in 1987. The negotiations on Ankara's joining the EU started only in 2005.

Although Turkey annually conducts a series of reforms for the EU membership, Ankara still cannot become a full member of the European Union.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Dorian Murray with Parents (Photo : Facebook/Praying for Dorian)

Dorian Murray, the 8-year-old American boy with rhabdomyosarcoma who requested people to post their photos of The Great Wall of China, passed away on Tuesday night.



The Facebook page created for Murray, Praying for Dorian, announced his demise on behalf of the boys grieving parents, Melissa and Chris Murray. The post partly reads, Dorian J. Murray (#dstrong) has gained his beautiful angel wings tonight and is now pain free. He was surrounded by people who love him and his transition to heaven was very peaceful. He was embraced by both mom and dad.



Advertisement

Earlier on the same day, his parents wrote that watching the boy slip away is a torture. On Monday night, they called hospice to evaluate Dorians condition because the child was agitated and uncomfortable. It was scary and we thought it was the end, his parents wrote.



He survived the night. In the morning, the parents told him that they love Dorian, and the boy replied I know.



On that same morning, the Murrays announced the establishment of the Dorian J. Murray Foundation, which they plan to register as a non-profit organization with the aim of raising funds to support pediatric cancer research. The boy died of a cancer that hits children.



Dorian was four when he was diagnosed, had treatment and went into remission in 2013. The cancer returned in December 2015, and in January, his family decided to stop treatment. Before he died, he asked people to post their photos in the Great Wall of China because he wanted to be famous in the country.



The foundation will donate to organizations such as St. Baldricks, CureSearch and Dr. Keller of CHOOP. It would also support families of children diagnosed with cancer by donating to The Tomorrow Fund. The website of the foundation is being designed but donations could be made to Dorian J. Murray Foundation at PO Box 1225, Westerly RI 02891.



On March 4, the parents shared that they went to Florida to see Dorians grandparents from both sides. The 9-day trip includes two days at Universal Studios, but they flew home four days ahead of schedule because Dorian  who was diagnosed with early stage liver failure before they left  took a turn for the worse. They wrote that update aboard a plane back home.






India-based automaker Mahindra plans to have its cars manufactured in China and put on hold its U.S. expansion plan. (Photo : REUTERS)

India-based conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra has shifted strategy and will manufacture cars in China, putting aside plans to expand to the U.S. following the loss of South Korean automaker Ssangyong Motor Co., according to a report by Reuters.



Advertisement

Mahindra Executive Director Pawan Goenka told Reuters that the company is negotiating with Chinese companies for a contract manufacturing agreement or a joint venture to build Ssangyong vehicles in China. The vehicles are currently exported by South Korea and sold through a local distributor in China.



In 2011, Ssangyong was rescued by Mahindra from near insolvency when it acquired over 70 percent stakes. Although Ssangyong made a net profit in the final quarter, South Korea's fourth top carmaker still struggled to break even and incurred a net loss of 61.9 billion won ($51.6 million) in 2015.



The report said that by having the cars manufactured in China, Ssangyong could lower its prices in the country. Goenka said that it makes more sense to focus on expanding sales in an existing market before going to the U.S. and build a distribution network from scratch.



"China is easier to look at right now because Ssangyong already has a presence there," Goenka was quoted as saying. "We have some traction and need to ramp up our products for local manufacturing."



"China is here and now, the U.S. is the future. We are still deciding what it takes for us to launch in the U.S.," said the executive director.



The report said that Ssangyong is rushing to boost overseas sales as it is experiencing declining sales in Russia, once its biggest export market contributing more than 20 percent of total shipments.



In 2015, exports made up only one-third of Ssangyong's total sales of 144,764 vehicles, a decline of more than half in 2014, when it sold 141,047 vehicles, and short of its export target of 60 percent of total sales, the report added.



Goenka said that currently, the South Korean carmaker also does not have a vehicle that meets U.S. regulatory requirements.



"The U.S. is not somewhere you can go in without significant investment in product and brand development. Given the various priorities we have, the U.S. is now somewhat on the back burner, but not stopped," Goenka said.



Goenka, who is also chairman of Ssangyong, did not specify which Chinese companies it was talking to.



Under Mahindra's management, Ssangyong is investing nearly $1 billion to refresh its product line. Mahindra is expecting that the launch of its new compact sport utility vehicle (SUV) Tivoli will drive sales in China, where sales of small SUVs are booming.


Nurses and parents massage newborn babies at Xining Children Hospital on May 17, 2006, in Xining of Qinghai Province, China. (Photo : Getty Images)

For a country with almost 23 percent of the global population, China worries over its low birth rate.



Thats because the modern Chinese woman is no longer the housewife with no career. In view of the growing number of working wives in the Asian giant, birth rate has gone down to 1.5 child per woman of childbearing age, substantially lower than 2.2 which population officials believe is the healthy rate for China.



Advertisement

That would mean that when all the babies born under the countrys new two-child policy are added to the headcount, the largest population would be 1.45 billion. The initial projection of the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) was it would be reached in 2030, according to projections in January, said Wang Peian, deputy head of NHFPC.



However, Mu Guangzong, professor at the Institute of Population Research of the Peking University, warned that it could be reached earlier by seven years because the low fertility rate would be felt and there would be more deaths than births from 2023.



That would mean that Chinas headcount in 2050 of 1.38 billion would be the same as that of 2015, said Li Bin, the NHFPC head, at the press briefing for the National Peoples Congress on Tuesday. Despite these forecasts, Beijing has no timetable when to further relax its two-child policy, reported CCTV.



Mu insisted there should be a timetable because of the population issues impact on all Chinese families. But Song Jian, demographics professor at the Renmin University of China, preferred to first see the impact of the two-child policy on the country before the government thinks of relaxing it.



Li estimated that the two-child policy will add 30 million Chinese until 2050.






Beijing officials are discussing various ways on how to counter traffic congestion. (Photo : Getty Images)

A group of car owners in Beijing have taken matters into their own hands to provide a solution to the capital's increasing traffic woes, according to an article by China Daily. The answer? Carpooling.



Advertisement

"I learnt of this car-sharing app from my friends. They said it's quite nice," said Zhang Jiayu, a 29-year-old man who works at the financial district of Guomao. Through the ride-sharing app, his daily commutes to and from work have become less lonely and more interesting.



Within the past two months, Zhang has already given a lift to 27 fellow commuters who share his route. Through ride-sharing, commuters also get to slash about half of the fare they usually spend for one taxi trip.



"It's not a lot of money," said Zhang, "but enough to cover my fuel costs. Besides, it is very interesting experience. Those who want a lift are from different walks of life. They include people with occupations such as doctor, IT engineer, red wine businessman, music teacher. . . . I have learnt so many things I never knew before."



Zhang is only one of over 18 million riders who use the carpooling app called Shunfengche, which was launched by Didi Chuxing, one of the country's largest car-hailing service providers, last July.



In a city like Beijing, which is often plagued by horrendous traffic jams, carpooling is cheaper and saves a lot of time.



There are currently 60,000 taxis that operate in the city, while there are over 4 million private cars. If 10 percent of the total private car owners in Beijing participate in ride-sharing, the roads would be rid of 400,000 cars.



"This city has little capacity to accommodate more private vehicles, which means a great deal if carpooling services are needed," said Liu Qing, president of Didi Chuxing, in an interview with China Daily.



Despite the popularity of ride-sharing, firms like Didi Chuxing and even Uber still haven't gained legitimacy in the country. Both firms have been summoned several times by local governments to observe Chinese laws.



Local authorities have also intensified their crackdowns on car-hailing services. Those who are caught can face fines of up to 10,000 yuan.


China Seen as Key Market for Global Brewers Looking for Growth, Profits

Global beer brewers looking for growth and profit take advantage of the demand for premium beer by cosmopolitan Chinese consumers. (Photo : REUTERS)

Global brewers are taking advantage of the growing demand of cosmopolitan Chinese consumers for high-end beers, a trend which could give global brewing giants more profits in the worlds largest beer market, Shanghai Daily report.



Advertisement

According to the report, international beer brands could find growth in China, which account for half of the industry's global volume increase last year.



Deutsche Bank analysts, however, said that although China drinks a quarter of the world's beer, brewers profit only 3 percent from the sales.



"The premium segment will be an important battleground for brewers going forward because it will be the main growth driver," Shanghai-based Rabobank analyst Katharine Song said. "Brewers are adjusting their strategy to focus more on high-end products."



The report said that volume and distribution networks have been recently driving global industry consolidation through larger deals and crushing margins.



Industry data showed that in 2004, about half the world market by volume was controlled by the biggest 10 brewers, with 47 percent of volumes and three-quarters of profits controlled by just four brewers: AB InBev, SABMiller, Heineken and Carlsberg.



However, with the planned $100-billion-plus takeover of SABMiller by AB Inbev, the number of major brewers in control of the world market is soon to drop to three, the report said.



The report said that the country's 1.4 billion consumers now want more tailored and individual products from fast food to travel, which explains the focus to premium products.



By the end of 2020, premium beers are expected to make up over a third of the $80 billion Chinese market, compared with under 10 percent in 2010.



Last year, imported high-end beers saw a 60-percent jump as consumers splashed out on brews such as Hop Zombie and Armageddon IPA.



A growing number of Chinese beer drinkers are looking for unique taste in beer, the report said.



"I think more and more Chinese customers are about the flavor of the beer itself, and if the beer is unique and rare then they will choose it," said bar owner Chen Jiaqi, who flew to Shanghai from Wuhan to sample a New Zealand craft ale. He added that beer choice is also about individuality.



The report said that the willingness of Chinese customers to spend has attracted small craft brewers such as Scotland BrewDog and New York's Brooklyn Brewery, which have started aiming for the Chinese market.



Euromonitor data showed that premium beer sales grew under 25 percent last year versus 7.5 percent in the overall market.


Since Jan. 2015, the use of organs from executed prisoners for transplant surgery was banned by the government, making voluntary donors the only source of much-needed transplant organs. (Photo : Getty Images)

Organ donations in China reached record numbers last year following the ban on sourcing of organs from executed prisoners, China Daily reported.



"Organ transplantation in China has made a successful transformation in the past year," said Huang Jiefu, former vice minister of health, in an interview with China Daily. "It has won recognition by the world."



Advertisement

According to Huang, organ donations reached 2,766 in 2015, helping over 10,000 surgeries in the country to be performed--a significant change from the total numbers from 2013 and 2014.



Since Jan. 2015, the use of organs from executed prisoners for transplant surgery was banned by the government, making voluntary donors the only source of much-needed transplant organs.



The National Health and Family Planning Commission backs Huang's statement, as statistics from the commission show increasing organ donations at a rapid pace. In 2014, the rate for organ donation per million of population reached 1.2, about 60 times from the level in 2010. Last year, the rate increased to 2.1 per million.



"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," said Huang, who now serves as the chair of the National Organ Donation and Transplantation Committee.



Huang was one of the 19 recipients of the Gusi International Peace Price last August. The award is given to individuals who have contributed to global peace and progress.



Aside from his contributions in improving medical conditions in the country, Huang was also awarded because of "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."



Huang expects major leaps in organ donations and transplants in the country this year. Among his proposals include kidney transplant surgery that is paid for by the country's medical insurance system.



"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."


The IED targeted a police convoy in the Faisal district of the capital

Egypt's interior ministry said three civilians were injured late on Wednesday night in a bombing in the Greater Cairo neighbourhood of Faisal.

An improvised explosive device detonated while a police convoy was passing through a local street, the ministry said in a statement released late on Wednesday.

The explosion injured three people who happened to be at the scene and damaged two police vehicles.

One suspect has been arrested in relation to the attack, the ministry added.

Egypt's army has been grappling with an insurgency based in North Sinai, which has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of militants and security forces. Bombings in the Nile Delta are also commonplace, with most attacks targeting security forces.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


The charges relate to events that took place in August 2013 in Beheria; public prosecution can appeal the verdict

An Egyptian court acquitted Thursday 49 Muslim Brotherhood members of illegal protesting and attempting to overthrow the ruling regime.

Some of the defendants were tried in absentia, such as prominent Muslim Brotherhood leader Gamal Heshmet - who is currently in Turkey - and former Brotherhood parliamentarians Ossama Soliman and Maher Hezima.

The case dates back to events that took place in Egypt's Delta governorate of Beheria in August 2013, one month after the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi.

The public prosecution can appeal the verdict.

In August 2015, a military court sentenced Heshmet among 250 Muslim Brotherhood to life in prison for their involvement in violent actions that took place in Beheira following the ouster of Morsi.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


The European Parliament has called on Egyptian authorities to provide Italy with all data necessary for ongoing investigations to unravel the mysterious murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni.

The body of the PhD student, who was living in Cairo and conducting research on Egyptian trade unions, was found by a highway on 3 February with signs of torture. The 28-year-old Regini had been reported missing since 25 January.

Italy's interior minister Angelino Alfano said that an autopsy conducted in Italy, which followed an initial post-mortem examination in Egypt, revealed that Regini was subject to "something inhuman, something animal."

Thursday's resolution by the European parliament called on Cairo to provide their Italian counterparts "with all the documents and information necessary to enable a swift, transparent and impartial joint investigation."

It also urged the Egyptian authorities "to bring the perpetrators of the crime to justice as soon as possible."

Final results of post-mortem examination carried out by Egypt and Italy have yet to be made public.

The resolution stated that Regeni's killing was not an isolated incident.

The case of Regeni "is not an isolated incident but occurred within a context of torture, death in custody and enforced disappearances across Egypt in recent years", MEPs said, according to a press release on the parliament's official website on Thursday.

"These are not allegations. All those violations are real. We're currently witnessing the worst era of human rights in Egypt," Kamal Abbas, a member of Egypt's semi-governmental National Council for Human Rights, told Ahram Online.

Egypt's foreign ministry spokesman was not immediately available to comment.

Egyptian officials have said that the ongoing investigation into Regenis death has indicated he was not detained by security forces.

Egyptian government officials have also repeatedly denied that there are any political detainees or any cases of forcible disappearances in Egypt's prisons.

The foreign and interior ministries have dismissed reports of torture by security forces as "isolated cases."

The vice-chair of the European Parliament's human rights subcommittee, Cristian Dan Preda, said earlier that Regeni's case "serves as a reminder of the fact that respect for human rights should be the basis of our relations with Egypt."

The European parliament also expressed its deep concern about what it considered "harassment" against the non-governmental Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms for its role in organising the Stop Enforced Disappearance campaign in the country.

The parliament also expressed concern over a recent administrative order which closed El Nadeem Center for the Management and Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture.

The parliament had called last month on the Egyptian government to rescind its decision to shut-down El Nadeem.

The EU parliament resolution reminded member states that the EU's Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) had called in 2013 on members to "suspend export licences to Egypt of any equipment which might be used for internal repression and to reassess export licences of equipment covered by Common Position." That call for suspension on licences of such equipment was renewed by the FAC in February 2014, read the statement.

The EU parliament also urged Egypt's new House of Representatives to review the controversial protest law, as well as all other "repressive legislations adopted in violation of Egyptian constitution including the terrorism law and terrorist entities law."

Such laws, EU's parliament stated, "could be misused for internal repression rather than to improve collective security."

Search Keywords:

Short link:


The Arab League has approved on Thursday evening the appointment of Ahmed Aboul-Gheit, Egypt's former foreign minister, to become the eighth head of the organisation

Aboul-Gheit, 73, will succeed outgoing secretary-general Nabil El-Araby, another former Egypt foreign minister, who recently announced he would not seek a second five-year term.

Aboul-Gheit served as Egypt's foreign minister between 2004-2011.

The career diplomat was the permanent representative of Egypt at the UN headquarters in New York 1999-2004.

Ahmed Aboul-Gheit was born in cairo in 1942.

He graduated from Ain Shams University in 1964 with a degree in business.

He rose through the ranks of the ministry over the next two decades and was appointed as the chief of staff of former Egyptian foreign minister Amr Moussa in the early 1990's.

He was appointed Egypt's ambassador to Italy in 1992.

During his service under Moussa and then in New York, Aboul-Gheit showed excellent administrative skills and considerable diplomatic poise, according to fellow diplomats.

Aboul-Gheit did not assume any public position following the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

The Arab League was formed in Cairo by six Arab countries in 1945.

Today, the league comprises 22 countries.

Six of the seven previous secretary-generals have been Egyptian.

The league maintains its main headquarters in Cairo.

Aboul-Gheit will assume his responsibilities as secretary-general in an official manner starting July 2016.

More to follow

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Yet again, Lebanon is a bellwether for the state of relations between key regional powers. Saudi Arabia is flexing its muscles, which has consequences for Egyptian national security

The recent decision by Saudi Arabia to cut billions of dollars of aid to Lebanon hints at a wider transformation in the Gulf country's foreign policy, with implications for the rest of the region.

In the modern history of the Middle East, Lebanon has always been regarded as an object as opposed to an agent of action.

In this capacity it has been termed the "barometer" of relations in the region. So, when Lebanon becomes an arena for regional agents to settle political scores, the calculations that shape a regional decision with respect to Lebanon or any of the parties in that country obviously take into account factors that extend beyond the scope of the Lebanese domestic context.

Therefore, any attempt to explain the Saudi decision, supported by Arab Gulf countries and then other Arab countries, to impose a series of economic and political sanctions on Lebanon cannot be approached solely through an analysis of the bilateral relations between Riyadh and Beirut.

Rather, it is crucial to situate such an analysis in the framework of regional developments as a whole.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is in the process of revising its strategic vision of its regional environment. This signifies that it has a strategic vision and mechanisms to reformulate its policies on the region and its future and that it has developed new instruments to implement these policies.

This has been made evident in the application of the gradated collective punishment by Arab Gulf and then other Arab countries against Lebanon. Before this, it was manifested in the Saudi drive to forge the largest ever number of regional coalitions, such as the Storm of Resolve coalition, followed by the Islamic Coalition for the War against Terrorism.

This new behaviour on the part of Saudi Arabia indicates that it is redrawing the map of its foreign relations, which is evidenced in the Saudi mechanisms used in the revaluation of its regional relations.

The Saudi decision to reassess its relations with Lebanon (and not Hezbollah) took the form of a directive to the Saudi foreign ministry not to send any of its staff members to Lebanon, thereby introducing the first reduction in the level of diplomatic representation between the two countries since the Lebanese civil war.

This was followed by a series of economic sanctions. Saudi Arabia applied the same mechanism to Iran after Iranian extremists attacked its diplomatic missions in Tehran and Mashhad on 3 January following the execution, in Saudi Arabia, of the prominent Saudi Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir Al-Nimr.

In like manner, Riyadh withdrew its diplomatic missions in Yemen following the Houthi-Saleh coup that culminated in the Houthi occupation of Sanaa on 21 September 2014.

The mechanism may be the same, but the applications depict a trajectory that Muataz Salama, an expert in Gulf relations at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, described as a radical transformation in Saudi foreign policy.

If, in the past, Riyadh approached regional issues in a diplomatic framework or indirectly through proxies, the shift to the direct approach is a response shaped by the context of current changes at the regional level.

These can be viewed in the framework of a number of crucial developments. The first is the circumstances generated by the gradual and unilateral US withdrawal from the region, which have kindled Riyadhs awareness of the need to fill the vacuum.

Riyadh translated this awareness into proactive measures and drives, most notably its military intervention in Yemen and, more recently, its declaration of its possible intent to intervene militarily in Syria and its implementation of training manoeuvres to prepare forces for a ground offensive there.

With regard to the question at hand, regarding sanctions against Lebanon, to Riyadh these are clearly connected with Hezbollahs role in the Yemeni and Syrian crises, which Riyadh perceives as threatening its interests in both countries.

Another critical development with a major regional impact is the nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1, which comes on top of Tehrans drive to expand its influence in Iraq and then in Syria and Yemen within the context of the Arab Spring.

This raises the need to discuss and delineate camps. Whereas Hezbollah had previously affiliated with Arab identity it has since boasted of its affiliation with Iran and its implementation of the Iranian agenda.

Accordingly, the Saudi reassessment of its commitments and allocations to Lebanon was informed by the consideration of who stands in the opposing camp. The same applies to its reaction to the Houthi movement.

Moreover, now that the Iranian nuclear accord may open the way for Iran to become a regional player freed of international sanctions, Saudi Arabia is undoubtedly keen to reassert itself as a regional leader and it is using all available cards in a drive to align Arab parties outside of the Gulf as well as non-Arab regional parties, such as Turkey, behind it in its regional battle.

At the international level, Russias return to the region does not favour the KSAs perceived interests and this has implications with respect to developments in Saudi foreign policy at the international level.

Riyadh was surely wary of a shift in Washingtons and other Western powers outlook toward the region from unequivocal support for Saudi Arabia vis-a-vis Iran to the need to strike a strategic equilibrium between the two.

At the same time, Riyadh has been observing Russian-US performance in the region and it believes that the coordination it sees between the two does not work in its interests.

This became clear in the context of the ceasefire agreement in Syria, which it believes opens horizons to a political settlement on a basis that does not attain Saudi interests in that crisis. Therefore, it sought to circumvent such a political settlement mechanism by calling for a move to Plan B, pertaining to a federal system in Syria.

Saudi Arabia certainly realises that current international policies will lead to sweeping change in the region that will extend beyond the framework of the Arab order (covering the Gulf, the Levant and North Africa) and even the conventional Middle Eastern system.

Both Arab and Western experts believe that political contours are shifting and mutating to the degree that the Middle East that had arisen in the decades after the Sykes-Picot Agreement will no longer be recognisable as the same Middle East once the storms of the Arab Spring epoch subside.

Riyadh, therefore, feels that it must rally all its energies and work to assemble as many assets as possible in order to weather these changes and emerge in the end relatively unscathed.

Towards this end, Saudi Arabia is working to build itself into a major regional power whose influence extends beyond the Gulf and Arab spheres, and it knows that this can not be achieved in an environment of open conflicts unless it develops strong claws.

But Riyadh is simultaneous gauging the costs of sustaining protracted conflicts, especially in terms of material costs in light of economic circumstances related to plunging oil prices.

This has induced it to search for alternatives to the settlement mechanism, which it believes will accomplish nothing but the reorganisation of the management of conflicts, rather than their conclusion.

This was manifested in the intersection betweenthe decision to widen the sanctions against Hezbollah and the Saudi call to UN Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura to move to Plan B regarding the federal proposition.

But there is yet another important development that cannot be excluded from the picture. Reacting to the proposal for a federal formula for Syria, the Egyptian foreign ministry declared that the unity of Syria is a red line.

In the same statement, the ministry described Cairos relations with Riyadh as excellent. At the same time, Saudi Arabia made a slight concession with regard to the Syrian president, saying that he would have to go sooner rather than later.

This marks a small Saudi retreat with respect to the outputs of the Vienna talks at the beginning of the year, which yielded a project for an interim phase in Syria. Egypt, for its part, still maintains that the political settlement process holds the key to remedying the Syrian crisis.

Most likely, if Egypt does not work with an Arab and international bloc to safeguard Syrian unity and ward off the spectre of partition that appears to be looming on the basis of the policies of various regional and international powers, there will be no future for a united Syria and the world will see a repeat of the Iraq scenario which, according to all available indicators, would ultimately jeopardise Egyptian national security.

*This story was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Six Palestinians were trapped and another was missing Thursday after a Gaza smuggling tunnel collapsed, a local civil defence official said.

He described the underground passage from the southern Gaza town of Rafah into neighbouring Egypt as a "trade tunnel".

The cave-in, the sixth since January.

Authorities have spoken to one of the trapped men by mobile telephone and rescue efforts are under way, he added.

Since January 26, 12 Gazans have been killed in five separate tunnel collapses.

Such collapses have previously occurred in the coastal strip, which is under an Israeli blockade and has seen three wars with Israel since 2008.

During a 50-day Israeli assault in 2014, Israeli warplanes destroyed a large part of the underground network of tunnels used by Gazans.

Hamas has reportedly rebuilt tunnels destroyed in the 2014 conflict that Israeli officials say could be used to carry out attacks.

Israel's blockade severely restricts the movement of people and goods into and out of the enclave.

*The story was edited by Ahram Online.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


A senior Islamic State group militant has said in an interview identifying him as the new leader of the militants' Libyan offshoot that the extremist organisation is getting "stronger every day" in the north African country.

Abdul Qadr al-Najdi, described in an interview released by the SITE monitoring group on Thursday as "the emir tasked with administering the Libyan provinces", said he was praying for Libya to be made the "vanguard of the Caliphate".

He also warned neighbouring countries that they would not be able to defend themselves from the militants.

"You are protecting yourself from the detonators with shields of bamboo, and from the flood with a ring of wood," he said, in the interview in the IS group publication al-Naba.

Tunisia, where more than 50 people died in an assault by Islamists near the Libyan border this week, has just completed a trench and barrier on its southern frontier in an effort to stop militants crossing.

Islamic State has taken advantage of the political chaos and security vacuum following the 2011 uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi to establish a presence in several cities. Western officials have expressed alarm over the expansion and estimates the number of its fighters to be as high as 6,000.

Last year it took full control of the eastern city of Sirte and the surrounding coastline. That had proved easier than expanding elsewhere in Libya, where "the number of factions and their disputes" was one reason for failure, Nadji said.

IS group militants were mostly pushed out of the eastern city of Derna by rival Islamist factions in June, and has been targeted by local security forces in the western city of Sabratha following a U.S. air strike on a suspected training camp in February.

Najdi described IS group in Libya as "still young" but said it was making progress in imposing religious law in areas under its control, in line with its actions in Iraq and Syria.

"The provinces of Libya have become the destination of the mujahideen and a sanctuary for the oppressed," he said.

"The numbers of immigrants multiplied from all areas despite the ardent attempts by the West to prevent their immigration."

Najdi said the Libyan province was "in constant communication" with central offices in Iraq and Syria, where the group took swathes of territory in 2014 but has since come under increasing pressure from air strikes and local forces.

A U.S. air strike in a suburb of Derna in November killed IS group's previous leader in Libya, known as Abu Nabil.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


A Bahraini court jailed three people for life and sentenced another to 15 years on Thursday for attacking a bus during a protest in a Shia village.

Sunni-ruled Bahrain has been shaken by unrest since it quelled a month-long Shia-led uprising demanding reforms five years ago.

Quoted by the official BNA news agency, prosecutor Ahmed al-Hammadi said the four had attacked the bus during a protest that blocked a highway near the Shia village of Sanabis in November 2014.

The four intercepted the approaching bus during the protest, set it alight and opened fire on its driver "in an attempt to kill him and those aboard," Hammadi said.

No casualties were reported in the incident and it was unclear why the protesters may have targeted the bus, which the statement said belonged to a private company in Bahrain.

Tiny but strategic Bahrain, which is connected to regional Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia by a causeway, lies across the Gulf from Shia Iran and is home to the US Fifth Fleet.

Despite the crackdown on the 2011 uprising, protesters continue to clash frequently with police in Shia villages outside the capital Manama.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


The Tunisian military said it killed three militants on Thursday in an operation to clear them out of a border town where more than 50 people died on Monday in an attack the government blamed on Islamic State group.

Monday's attack on Ben Guerdan, when around 50 militants stormed through the town assaulting army and police posts, reinforced fears about spillover from militant camps in neighbouring Libya.

"Security and army units killed three terrorists, arrested another and seized five Kalashnikov rifles in Ben Guerdan on Thursday," the army said in statement.

Since the 2011 revolt against autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia has seen a growing threat from Islamist militancy at home and from over the border.

Tunisians trained in jihadist camps in Libya carried out two attacks last year on foreign tourists in Tunisia.

IS group's increasing foothold in Libya is worrying its North African neighbours and Western governments. US forces have launched air strikes against the group in Libya, and Western military advisers are helping Tunisia better protect its frontier.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Bahraini Ambassador Rashid bin Abdulrahman Al Khalifa chaired Thursday the first session of new 145th session of the Arab League in its headquarter in Cairo succeeding the United Arab Emirates as chair.

Khalifa, who is Head of Bahrain's Diplomatic Mission to the Arab Republic of Egypt at the rank of Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador, said that there are critical issues to be discussed in the agenda of the new round.

On top of this session's agenda is the appointment of the new secretary-general for the Arab League.

Egypt has officially nominated its former foreign minister Ahmed Aboul-Gheit as chair of the Arab League, to succeed Nabil El Araby who announced he would not seek a new term.

During his opening speech, the Bahraini diplomat said, "The most dangerous challenge [facing Arab states] is terrorism and the spread of terrorist groups," according to his statement published on Bahrain's News Agency.

Khalifa also condemned "Iran's support to terrorist groups" and rejected its interference in Arab affairs.

He asserted the situation in occupied Palestine is critical due to increasing Israeli aggression.

On the Syrian conflict, Khalifa said "we affirm our position on the unity of Syria and combating terrorist groups as the Islamic State group and Hezbollah."

Gulf Cooperation Councils has recently designated the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah a "terrorist organization" in a move criticised both by the group and Iran.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


The mass expulsion of migrants from Greece to Turkey under a draft EU-Ankara deal to ease the migrant crisis would be "illegal," the UN warned Thursday, as some of the bloc's own ministers also criticised the plan.

While EU countries squabbled over how to cope with the continent's worst migration crisis since World War II, UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said the proposed deal with Turkey raised "a number of very serious concerns".

"Among my concerns is the potential for collective and arbitrary expulsions, which are illegal," he told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

EU leaders had hoped the mooted deal with Turkey -- due to be finalised at an EU summit on March 17-18 -- could stem the flood of migrants streaming through the bloc in search of a better life, many fleeing the war in Syria.

Underscoring yet again the human tragedy of the crisis, a fresh shipwreck off the Turkish coast claimed five lives including a baby as a boat full of migrants heading for Greece capsized.

The EU-Turkey plan drawn up on Monday would see Ankara take back all migrants landing in Greece, in a bid to reduce their incentive to get to Europe.

In return for every Syrian expelled from Greece, the EU would resettle one Syrian refugee from camps in Turkey -- which is hosting about 2.7 million people who have fled the conflict across the border.

In exchange for its cooperation, 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 its efforts to join the EU.

But some EU ministers have voiced opposition to the plan.

"I am extremely critical," said Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting in Brussels.

"I am seriously wondering whether we are taking ourselves and our values seriously or if we are throwing them overboard," she said, in a reference to concerns over human rights violations in Turkey.

The migrant crisis has exposed sharp divisions in the 28-member bloc and the leaders of Greece and Germany blasted Balkan countries for slamming shut their borders.

The EU "has no future if it goes on like that," warned Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the closures were "neither sustainable nor lasting."

Their reactions flew in the face of the response of EU President Donald Tusk, who welcomed the Balkan route closure as part of a collective response from the bloc.

The strong words came after Slovenia and Croatia barred entry to transiting migrants from Wednesday and Serbia indicated it would follow suit.

EU member Slovenia said it would allow in only migrants wishing to claim asylum there or those seeking entry "on humanitarian grounds" and in accordance with Schengen rules.

The border closures have created a huge bottleneck on the Greece-Macedonia border.

European Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos on Thursday urged member states to speed up efforts to help relieve the burden, urging them to admit "at least 6,000" refugees a month from overstretched Greece and Italy.

Under a controversial scheme adopted in September, some 160,000 refugees are to be shared out across the bloc, but only 885 people have been relocated so far.

Slovenia on Thursday announced that it would begin accepting refugees from the scheme in April.

Under pressure at home to reduce the influx, Merkel acknowledged that the western Balkan states' border actions "will obviously bring us fewer refugees, but they put Greece in a very difficult situation".

"If we do not manage to reach a deal with Turkey, then Greece cannot bear the burden for long," she told public radio MDR.

Her Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel noted that while some at home are "secretly pleased that the Balkan states... are doing Germany's dirty work", their actions would not help in the long term.

Merkel is battling to avoid leaving Greece in the lurch as the number of migrants stranded there is still steadily growing.

Meanwhile, Italy's interior minister Angelino Alfano voiced concern that migrants trapped in Greece would seek out alternative routes, such as travelling by sea to Albania and then to southern Italy.

But he added: "For now, there is no sign of such an enormous influx."

Spain's interior minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz worried that migrants might head to north Africa in order to reach Europe through Spain.

"We must not lower our guard," he warned.

Greek authorities said Thursday there were 41,973 asylum seekers in the country, including some 12,000 stuck at Idomeni on the closed Macedonian border.

Zeid said more than 400 people had died trying to reach Europe in the first two months of the year alone.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


The United States has carried out air strikes that it believes have degraded the chemical weapons capabilities of Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq after using information obtained from a captured militant, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

US-led coalition forces detained Sulayman Dawud al Bakkar, IS group's head of chemical and traditional weapons manufacturing, during an operation in Iraq in February, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said in a statement.

"We believe that the information we've been able to obtain will allow us to conduct additional operations," Cook said at a news briefing on Thursday. Cook said the intelligence came from "the information we learned from this individual."

Al Bakkar, also known as Abu Dawud, was transferred to Iraqi custody on Thursday, Cook said. He gave details about IS group's chemical weapons facilities and production and the people involved, Cook said.

He said the United States does not believe it has been able to altogether eliminate IS group's chemical weapons capability.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Celebrating more than 90 years as the Middle Easts premier purveyor of grocery and household products, Spinneys is returning to Alexandria, the city Arthur Rawdon Spinney chose for his first store in Egypt.

On March 10,the newest Spinneys supermarket opened its doors to Alexandrians in the upscale neighborhood of Smouha.



Dr. Khaled Hanafy, Minister of Supply & Internal Trade, accompanied with Eng. Mohamed Abdel Zaher, Governor of Alexandria and several executive, popular, and media leaders, opened Spinneys store at Smouha area in Alexandria last Thursday. The new store is the 1st Spinneys store in Alexandria and the 8thof total Spinneysstores.



We are overjoyed to be responding to requests by residents to open a store in Alexandria with our unique brand, said Mohanad Adly, Chief Executive Officer of Spinneys Egypt.Mr. Spinney was the inspiration for what has become a much-loved experience for grocery shoppers from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea.



Adly pointed out that three new Spinneys stores opened in Egypt in 2015: at Mokattam in Cairo, in the tourist resort town of Hurghada and the historic Gizadistrict near the Pyramids. Expectations were exceeded, despite competing grocery stores nearby. Not only are we bringing the products and services customers are seeking, but the numbers of customers proves the Spinneys brand is highly valued in Egypt, Adly said.Weve developed a format that enables us to offer a very large variety of quality goods at a very competitive priceand in very convenient locations.



Our investment in staff training is very rewarding and highly appreciated by customers, Adly said.The new Alexandria store creates 150 new jobs in the Spinneys workforce of 1,500.More than 20,000 products are displayed on the grocery shelves. Fridges imported directly from Europe ensure the freshness of the fruits and vegetables as well as the meat and delicatessen sections. Full bakery lines imported from Italy provide a wide variety of freshly baked breads, croissants and pastries.



Spinneys new 2,000 m2 Alexandria store brings the total number of Spinneys hypermarkets and supermarkets in Egypt to 8. "We have an aggressive growth plan for Egypt with a very experienced retail team to see it through. Our strategy is to diversify our formats by opening big hypermarkets along with smaller size supermarkets conveniently located close to our customers.



Spinneys values were enshrined in Arthur Spinneys vision when he opened the first neighbourhood grocery store in Alexandria in 1924. Today, the brand is acknowledged for setting the highest standards of quality, service and value, offering high quality fresh produce, grocery and baked goods at a fair price in a fresh and friendly shopping environment.



The diverse range of fresh food, FMCG and general merchandise is complemented by a comprehensive selection of household goods and appliances.The electronics section offers a wide range of home and kitchen appliances from TV screens and washing machines to coffee machines and other smaller appliances.



This is the first store opening this year following the successful launch of 3 new stores last year. Two other Spinneys store locations will also be celebrating launches in 2016 with the next planned launch in New Cairo in May.

Short link:


The film attempts to explore and problematise the role of mass media in Egypt

Documentary film Azziara ("The Visit") will be screened at the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC) on Sunday 20 March, and will be followed by a Q&A session with the filmmakers.

The documentary, which was made in collaboration with Islam Kamal, was filmed in one of Egypts villages after the 2011 revolution, during a visit by an inspection team from the World Bank in which the team sought to assess how the transformation of agricultural management has progressed since the political upheaval, reads the event description on Facebook.

The filmmakers, Marouan Omara and Nadia Mounier. documented the particulars of this visit, but also decided to keep their camera switched on after the television crew which was recording their visit had concluded their work. The result was a behind-the-scenes view where the television crewmembers become just additional actors in the film.

As such, the filmmakers aspired to explore and deconstruct the mass media role in Egypt, where media has become the main tool of creating and reshaping the public opinion, reads the event description on Facebook.

Programme:

Sunday 20 March, 7:30pm

Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo, 1 Dr Mahmoud Azmi Street, Zamalek, Cairo

For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture

Search Keywords:

Short link:


A collection of 778 ancient Egyptian artefacts is set to arrive tomorrow from Luxor to the Grand Egyptian Museum, which is set to open in 2018

A batch of 778 artefacts will arrive at the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) overlooking the Giza Plateau on Thursday from Luxor to bolster the museum.

The GEM is home to a permanent collection of antiquities that were carefully selected from different sites and museums around Egypt.

GEM general supervisor Tarek Tawfik told Ahram Online that the objects to be delivered to the museum were previously stored in Ali Hassan and Abul-Goud's archaeological galleries in Luxor, as well as in archaeological storehouses in Esna.

Tawfik explained that the objects will be restored upon arrival to prepare them for permanent exhibition in the GEM by the time of its soft opening planned for 2018.

The artefacts were carefully protected and secured by the Tourism and Antiquities Police durin transfer.

Tawfik added that the objects are dated to different dynasties of the ancient Egyptian era, but the majority belong to the New Kingdom.

The most important pieces are the red granite colossus of king Amenhotep III with the god Horus that weighs four tonnes. The statue is planned to be put on display on the GEM's grand staircase.

Also among the transported objects are a collection of clay pots and pans as well as a collection of painted sarcophagi.

Eissa Zidan, the general director of restoration at the GEM, told Ahram Online that preliminary restoration work has been performed on some objects in situ in order to guarantee their safe transportation from Luxor. The packing was carried out in accordance with the latest technology.

Zidan said that the antiquities were transported in special trucks equipped with electronic devices that control of the level of humidity and heat around the objects as well as the prevent any movement during transportation.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


"One of the goals, one of the missions we anticipate they they will do is that they will capture a small number of ISIL leaders," he said, using another acronym for Islamic State. "The detention of these we anticipate to be very short term. It will be coordinated with Iraqi authorities."

A Pentagon spokesman, Captain Jeff Davis, would not comment on recent operations but made general remarks about the "expeditionary targeting force."

The unidentified suspect's detention was reported last week, but his link to chemical weapons was not disclosed until now by defense officials who requested anonymity. The Islamic State agent was captured during raids in Iraq and Syria by a U.S. "expeditionary targeting force," assigned to gather intelligence and identify high-ranking IS leaders.

U.S. defense officials say an Islamic State operative captured by American special-operations forces is a key figure in the militant group's chemical-weapons program in Iraq, where new gas attacks by the terror group were reported Wednesday.

Officials in Iraq told VOA Wednesday that Islamic State fighters fired rockets loaded with mustard gas, also known as sulfur mustard, into a town north of Baghdad late Tuesday and early Wednesday. Iraqi and Kurdish officials said dozens of civilians were injured by the attack on Taza Khurmatu, a town whose residents are mostly Shi'ite Muslim ethnic Turkmens.

"The rockets spread a garlicky smell and caused nausea and vomiting," according to Soran Jalal, head of Taza Khurmatus civil defense office. He told VOA that investigators confirmed the weapons carried mustard gas.

A commander in Kirkuk, the Kurdish population center north of Turkmen town, estimated about 30 people required hospital treatment. Lieutenant Muhammad Qadir told VOA at least five of the wounded had facial burns caused by chemical agents.

Separately, a police official in Kirkuk, Brigadier General Sarhad Qadir, said it was determined the rockets were fired into Taza Khurmatu from territory controlled by the Islamic State group.

U.S. officials are aware of the group's use of such weapons.

"We know that they have used chemical weapons on multiple occasions in both Iraq and Syria and we should have no misconceptions.  This is a group that does not observe international laws or international norms. They have demonstrated they will stop at nothing to inflict death and destruction on innocent people," Pentagon spokesman Davis said. "Sulfur mustard -- it's usually in a powdered form and it's put into artillery shells, rockets. And when those blow up it creates a dust cloud that can primarily aggravate but in large doses can absolutely kill."

U.S. officials say Islamic State is still developing its chemical weapons program, so some reports about the terror group's use of chemical weapons on the battlefield is "still largely about fear." Islamic State fighters still find it easier to manufacture and use improvised explosive devices (IEDs) or to use suicide bombers to inflict casualties, according to the American officials.
It was the first time Kim has commented on the renegade country's ability to make a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on a missile.

The official Rodong Sinmun daily quoted North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as saying, "The nuclear warheads have been standardized to be fit for ballistic missiles by miniaturizing them" alongside pictures of a round silver object and several missiles.

The Defense Ministry here said it is unlikely that the North really has the wherewithal to miniaturize nuclear warheads, but some experts warn that it is at least on the way.

North Korea on Wednesday showed off what it claims is a miniaturized nuclear weapon and a purported diagram of a nuclear warhead that can be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile.

North Korea has conducted around 130 detonation tests from the 1980s until the 2000s to develop a trigger that could be used on a warhead. The detonator revealed Wednesday measures 60 to 80 cm. There are around 70 hexagonal shapes on its surface, which are believed to be high-explosive charges called lenses. They would detonate simultaneously to create a high-pressure environment that triggers a nuclear explosion.

"The more lenses there are, the more uniformly nuclear material can be compressed to induce an effective nuclear explosion," said Lee Choon-geun at the Science and Technology Policy Institute. "If the detonator is genuine, it is probably very sophisticated and means that the North has succeeded to some degree in miniaturizing a nuclear weapon."

When China conducted its first nuclear test in 1964, there were only around 30 lenses, which means North Korea's technology could be superior to China's during the infant stage of nuclear development.

The KN-08 ICBM has a range of 9,000 km to 12,000 km, but a nuclear warhead must be 60 cm in diameter and weigh less than 500 kg, so the detonator the North unveiled may be too large.

But to be compatible with a Scud missile, which has a range of 300-700 km and could strike anywhere in South Korea, the warhead can be 88 cm in diameter and weigh up to a ton. A warhead for a Rodong missile can have a diameter of 1 m and weigh less than 700 kg.

The paper also printed a photo of Kim standing in front of a blurred diagram of the purported warhead, which consists of circular and semi-circular objects.

Lee at the institute said, "If the semi-circular objects are nuclear materials, that could be a hydrogen bomb."

Pundits guess that Kim is showing off the warhead, whether genuine or not, mostly for domestic purposes as a big party congress looms in May and North Koreans are nervous about tighter international sanctions.

One military source here said, "If the claim is genuine, we need to hurry to come up with an effective nuclear deterrent and leave all possibilities open, including building the capability to launch preemptive strikes and homegrown missile defense system as well as deploying U.S. tactical nuclear weapons.


Growing economy to draw more Latvians home from abroad: Latvian gov't

2016-03-10 12:04

RIGA, March 9 (Xinhua) -- The Economics Ministry of Latvia onWednesday said Latvia's economic growth would motivate more of itsnationals to return to the country from abroad.

Without presenting specific numbers, the ministry'srepresentative Olegs Baranovs said the government planned tosupport emigrants who want to return and work in Latvia or who wantto maintain closer ties with Latvia from their countries ofresidence.

"The goal is not to provide solutions to all the chronic issuesin Latvia, although we see migration is largely driven by economicfactors," Baranovs said.

The trend of Latvians emigrating, which peaked during theeconomic crisis, has been steadily slowing. But the number ofimmigrants arriving in Latvia still remains nearly two times lowerthan the number of people leaving Latvia.

Latvia's population of two million last year decreased by 8,000due to the negative migration rate.

The Economics Ministry expects the migration rate to even outsometime around 2020 if current trends continue.

Representatives of the Ministries of Economics, Culture andForeign Affairs told lawmakers that the low wages employees receivein Latvia are the main reason hampering remigration and that theminimum wage in Latvia should be increased to the level of Europe'sdeveloped countries to remove that obstacle.

Other issues holding back remigration include difficultiesfinding good jobs in Latvia, limited housing availability, and thelack of information about support mechanisms available to peoplemoving back to Latvia.

Assessing the Remigration Plan for 2013-2016, members of theparliament's human rights and public affairs committee criticizedit as too fragmented and requiring the involvement of too manystate institutions.

Latvian lawmakers said the government's plans to lure backemigrants were "too vague and ineffective." Enditem
Ready to rumble

From:chinadaily.com.cn | 2016-03-10 09:23

The Bodyguard, directed by Hong Kong kung fu star Sammo Hung (above), is set to wow audiences with its fight scenes.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Two kung fu-film directors eagerly await their chances to follow the success of Ip Man 3, Xu Fan reports.

China's big screen, recently rocked by the kung fu epic Ip Man 3, will soon see two more action films aiming to draw big audiences.

Martial arts-movie director Xu Haofeng's Judge Archer opens on Friday, soon to be followed by Hong Kong kung fu giant Sammo Hung's The Bodyguard, which will be released across the Chinese mainland on April 1.

Adapted from Xu's namesake novella, Judge Archer narrates the revenge adventure of an archery master amid the upheavals in 1930s China.

With a more stellar cast led by Hung and Andy Lau, The Bodyguard revolves around a retired Chinese agent's daredevil rescue of a friend from a Russian criminal group.

Although the booming movie industry is increasingly relying on digital cinematography, the two movies still stick to old-school ways. Most of the fights on screen succeed thanks to live action.

Martial arts films like Ip Man 3 (right) are expected to taste success at the box office though the genre has seen a slowdown in recent years.[Photo provided to China Daily]

That's no surprise considering the two directors' profiles. Despite different backgrounds, both directors are martial arts practitioners and favor vivid presentations of Chinese kung fu on the big screen.

Xu, an emerging representative of the Chinese mainland's martial arts movies, is known for his in-depth study of China's dying martial arts schools.

The director-writer learned combat skills from his grandfather and an apprentice of Guangdong Wing Chun master Ip Man, or Yip Man.

An ardent supporter of real fights on screen, Xu tailors harsh training programs for his actors, including title-role actor Liao Fan in his 2015 hit The Master.

Hung, who received kung fu training from childhood, is an iconic actor and action director, who has rolled with the ups and downs of Hong Kong's action movies. The 67-year-old veteran is among the top action choreographers in Hong Kong.

Xu and Hung met at a recent forum at the Communications University of China on the evolution and future of Chinese-language action movies.

Judge Archer, directed by Xu Haofeng, will hit screens on Friday.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Their forthcoming titles and enthusiasm may signal new potential for the sluggish genre.

"Chinese martial arts movies have experienced lows several times during the past decades," says Xu, who's also a professor with the Beijing Film Academy.

But talented filmmakers have successfully added new elements to revive the genre, he says. "I believe the spirit will also work today."

Take Tsui Hark and his films: Xu says that in the 1990s, Tsui creatively transformed stereotypical martial arts content into a blend of fantasy, science fiction and special effects. The innovation brought a new frenzy to martial arts movies in Tsui's golden era.

"If the filmmakers can find something fresh to attract viewers, the genre can find its way to survive and then revive," Xu says.

[Photo provided to China Daily]

Echoing Xu, Hung says Hong Kong cinemas saw a much earlier slowdown for martial arts movies than the Chinese mainland, which he adds has much more resources and talent.

"And the rapidly booming market provides a huge demand for quality content," Hung says.

With regard to the frequently discussed concerns about Hollywood rivals, Hung says local filmmakers enjoy their cultural advantages in appealing to local audiences.

China has developed its unique narrative and value systems from Eastern philosophies, literature and history, which are difficult for Western filmmakers to master, Xu says.

"When Chinese filmmakers tell stories for locals, they have a lot at stake," he says.
Essayist Lu Xun commemorated in new Beijing exhibition

From:chinadaily.com.cn | 2016-03-10 18:28

Portrait of Lu Xun, by Zhang Songhe, 1974. [Photo/www.namoc.org]

Writer Lu Xun stands as a cultural giant of the 20th-century in China, his influence extending beyond literature to the world of ideas, art, and even politics. To mark the 80th Anniversary of his passing, the Lu Xun Museum of Beijing has teamed up with the National Art Museum of China.

Born in 1881, Lu Xun not only emerged as a leading figure of modern Chinese literature but also a proponent of fine art as part of the "New Cultural Movement".

Marking the 100th anniversary of that movement, as well as the 80th anniversary of Lu Xun's death, this exhibition at the National Art Museum of China demonstrates Lu Xun's enduring popularity and relevance in present-day China.

Lu Xun was the pen name of Zhou Shuren. He gave up medical studies in Japan in his 20s after realizing it was more important to spiritually enlighten his compatriots than to restore their physical health.

While presenting Lu Xun's creative output and artistic development through different periods, the exhibition also unveils the evolution of Chinese art in the 20th century.

It runs until May the 22nd at the National Art Museum of China.
Mike Dynan: We want to promote great Chinese designs through Design Shanghai

By:Wang Jiaye | From:english.eastday.com | 2016-03-08 18:44

"Design Shanghai is more than an exhibition; we want it to be a festival creativity, an exciting place for people to engage in all of the events like design forums", as the show director Mr. Mike Dynan said in the interview with Eastday.com ahead of the opening of Design Shanghai 2016, the Asia's leading international design event.

Starting from March 9, the design show will present more than 300 world's leading brands and 1,000 new designs at the Shanghai Exhibition Centre. An estimated 300 exhibitors and more than 42,000 visitors are expected to attend the four-day event.



When speaking of the highlights of this show, Mr. Dynan said that besides the bigger scale, Design Shanghai 2016 will present a collection of fantastic installations and features, some of which are never seen before. One of the eye-catcher is Zotem, a dynamic installation of movement and light created by London-based Norwegian designer Kim Thome for Swarovski.

It is known that over 50% of the exhibitors at this year's event are Chinese designers, much more than that in the previous years. Mr. Dynan said that they want to promote great Chinese designs, both established and emerging ones through Design Shanghai, and bring together the best of international and home-grown talents. "We bring a lot of international companies to China because they want to experience the market and collaborate with Chinese design partners."

Mr. Dynan viewed that it is a fantastic combination between the traditional techniques and modern life in Chinese design. He took Jamy Yang as an instance, who will present the "YANG HOUSE Craftsmanship" installation, which encourages the audience to rediscover traditional handcrafts and reflect on how Chinese tradition can blend with modern aesthetics and lifestyle.

Launched in 2014, Design Shanghai has made much progress in just a couple of year. Mr. Dynan attributes the success to time. "Time is exactly perfect, and there are several things coming together to make perfect results, like lots of Chinese design students, creative generation and buildings going up in Shanghai...People have a real want or hunger for great design."

When it comes to the current trends of design, Mr. Dynan thought that "design is obviously bracing technology" and more and more technology is seen involving in the design like digital installation shown in the exhibition. Moreover, in China particularly, he said that traditional craftsmanship and materials blending with modern life will be very fashionable this year.

Design Shanghai 2016 opens on Mar 9 >>


The police has begun an investigation and are sweeping footage of CCTVs installed in the neighborhood.
Parents say one thing and do another, teachers afraid of students

Do Lan Anh (right)

Teachers as well as the entire society should take responsibility to stop school violence, educators say







VietNamNet Bridge - Teachers as well as the entire society should take responsibility to stop school violence, educators say.Do Lan Anh, an eighth grader in Dinh Hoa commune of Yen Dinh district in Thanh Hoa province, was hit with a stick by his teacher some days ago.According to Doan Van Hoc, the teacher, Lan Anh did not concentrate during the lesson, but gossiped with friends. Hoc asked Anh to stop gossiping and laughing, but Anh did not obey the teachers request.Hoc decided to ask Anh to stand at a corner. However, Anh once again tried to talk with friends by play acting, interfering with the lesson. Hoc then tried to hit Anh slightly on the bum with a ruler. As Anh parried the hit with his arm, he felt a pain and went to the Yen Dinh district hospital for examination.Physicians came to a conclusion that the student had a fracture and he had to have his arm cast in plaster.The news immediately raised anger among the public, while Hoc has been criticized harshly because of the unreasonable behavior towards students.On education forums, people called for the dismissal of teachers who teach students with anti-professional or anti-rational measures and cant behave correctly towards students.The teacher was reprimanded and suspended.However, just some days later, the Thanh Hoa General Hospital, after re-examining Anhs arm, affirmed that Anh was not injured, and discharged Anh from hospital and allowed him to go back to school.As such, the hospitals conclusion confirmed the teachers statement that he just tried to hit Anh slightly. This shows that the report by some local newspapers that a student was brutally beaten was wrong.Phan Tuyet, a teacher, in an article published on Giao Duc Viet Nam, commented that the local mass media accidentally lent a hand to Anhs family to cover up Anhs misconduct at school.Tuyet agreed that Hoc, the teacher, behaved inappropriately when trying to hit the student. However, she called on people to put themselves in the teachers position before judging the teacher.If the teacher had ignored Anhs misconduct and continued his lesson until the last minute as usual, he could have been safe.However, as he did his job conscientiously, he tried to stop Anh, so that Anhs misconduct could not interfere other students. And the teacher was criticized for this.A primary school teacher in Hanoi commented that teachers tend to be afraid of students.If you lose your temper and hit a student, you will be sacked. What you should do is give lessons and leave class safely; there is no need to take care if students listen to your words, she said.GDVN
#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...
Is 10 Cloverfield Lane really a sequel to Matt Reevess 2008 found footage sci-fi?

The Cellar, the story the script is based on, isnt in the same fictional universe as the 2008 Kaiju outing and producer JJ Abrams, who has claimed this as a spiritual successor, only gave the film its current title shortly before release. 10 Cloverfield Lane is certainly closer to Cloverfield that say, Troll 2 is to Troll, but it is almost an entirely separate entity in style, story and theme.

Good movie, though.

Michelle (Winstead) packs up her things and flees New Orleans, ignoring phone calls from an apologetic ex as she drives into the country. Distracted by another call, she crashes the car and wakes up in an underground bunker chained to the wall. Weirdo Howard (Goodman) unlocks the steel door and explains, in frustratingly broad terms, that there has been an attack and that bringing her here has saved her life. Shes not the only one: injured Emmet (Gallagher Jr.) somewhat allays her fears that while Howard is kooky, irritable and a black belt conspiracy theorist, hes no kidnapper/rapist. However, as time in the bunker goes on, and Howard becomes increasingly paranoid, Michelle and Emmet begin to think that maybe venturing topside is a good idea

Forget Cloverfield. This has more in common with The Mist: holed up in relative safety for now, the protagonists are at a loss to explain the otherworldly goings on outside and soon tension and paranoia ensures they turn on each other. The writers  five in all with Whiplash on some CVs  do what they can to first convince and then doubt that Howard is on the level (Its a gas attack its Russians its Martians). Where they missed a trick though is to work away at Winstead, letting her exhibit signs of paranoia herself and so create more confusion as to who exactly is going bananas. After a steady and patient build up events do get too hot too quickly towards the end as first-time director Dan Trachtenberg seems to get bored with shooting indoors.

With just three actors in the mix, the film pulls attention away from Trachtenbergs unshowy style to the performances. Goodman has fun as Howard, veering from decent to psychotic at the drop of a hat (his hulking frame makes him a potential threat throughout), while Winstead has a steely yet nervous quality thats hard to balance. John Gallagher Jr is underused.

Its itchy, uncomfortable stuff, it doesnt have a lot of good things to say about people and its sequel status is ropey at best, but 10 Cloverfield Lane is a fun B movie.
Last episode in the series of Don't Tell the Bride tonight on RTE2, and it's one not to be missed as it will be the very first same-sex marriage show, with a 1916 theme to boot. The show has previously had couples on who've had civil partnerships, but following last year's momentous referendum, this will mark the show's first official same-sex wedding.

The lucky grooms are Mark and Kerwin, who met in Dublin bar The Dragon four years ago and it was love at first sight. It would have had to have been though as Venezuelan man Kerwin didn't have a word of English. However with a little help from google translator, they've went from "friends to lovers and soul buddies". N'aww.

The pair had a civil partnership ceremony in May 2014, and while Mark said that it was amazing, "marriage offers so much more".

"This is the real thing, we are as one", added Kerwin.

It will be down to Mark to deliver his dream wedding with just three weeks to pull it all together. For the year that's in it, he's decided to go with a 1916 theme, although not sure how Kerwin will feel about that given that it's not his history and also he wants "everything white, modern, sleek and classy".

We're pretty confident some 1916 volunteer wedding uniforms and an army tank down the Quays of Dublin will be a classy affair though. While Mark also has to get his future mother-in-law to the wedding on time, who's coming all the way from Venezuela to watch her son get married.

Here's hoping Mark pulls it off!

Catch Don't Tell the Bride tonight on RTE2 at 9.30pm.
AWARD 1







I won the second prize in policy category of the African Information society Initiative ( AISI) awards 2004 which is annually organized by the United Nations- Economic Commission for Africa ( UNECA) based in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia. On the first photo above standing with other awardees after the Ceremony at the National Settlers monument in Grahamstown, South Africa.This was during the 8th Highway Africa Conference.The second photo shows the cross section of Jounalists from different African countries who attended the ceremony.



AWARD 2



I also won the AISI-GKP/SDC Media Award special reporting on WSIS process and Africa, and conferred with the award in Tunis, Tunisia during WSIS summit in 2005. See the photo above.



AWARD 3



Winner on the Media Competition on writing about " Stigma denial and Discrimination " associated with HIV/AIDS . This was organized by the Association of Journalists Against Aids in Tanzania ( AJAAT ). On the Photo above President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete of Tanzania, ( then the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation) was the guest of honour during the award giving ceremony.This was at Maelezo auditorium in Dar-es-Salaam September 2005.



AWARD 4 Winner on the Media Competition on writing about " Vulnerable Children " associated with HIV/AIDS This was organized by the Association of Journalists Against Aids in Tanzania ( AJAAT)



AWARD 5



Winner of the National ICT Media Award organized By SWOPNET in the Country. On the photo above Morogoro Regional Commissioner, Brigadier General ( Rt) Saidi Kalembo was the guest of honour during the award giving ceremony which was held at New Sarvoy Hotel in morogoro town.I was awarded a Mobile phone and a tape-recorder.



AWARD 6



I participated in the Media Competition in writing about VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing) in Tanzania which was held between July 15th and October 30th 2008 whereby I emerged among the top five winners. The competition was under the program known as Tanzania bila Ukwimwi inawezekana which literally means, Tanzania without AIDS disease transmission is possible. This is a program which was organized by the Association of Journalists Against AIDS in Tanzania (AJAAT) under TACAIDS funding. In the photo, I am being presented with a certificate of participation by the Chairman of the Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS) Dr. Fatma Mrisho in a colorful ceremony which was held on 22nd December 2008 at Tanzania Information Centre in Dar es Salaam.

AWARD 7



AWARD 8



AWARD 9



Google Site Translator Get the Google Site Translator widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox!
The European Commission yesterday (9 March) proposed to the Council of European Union and the European Parliament to lift the visa requirements for the citizens of Georgia when entering the Schengen area. The proposal follows a positive evaluation in which the Caucasian country met all benchmarks under the Visa Liberalization Action Plan. Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos, commented that the Commissions proposal is a follow-up to the EUs commitment to ensure visa-free travel for Georgian nationals.

Todays proposal recognises the efforts of the Georgian authorities to carry out far-reaching and difficult reforms with a significant impact on the rule of law and the justice system. Mr Avramopoulus added. If the proposal is adopted by the European Parliament and the Council, Georgian nationals will be able to travel to the Schengen area for up to 90 days visa-free if they are holders of biometric passports. The visa-free travel will apply to all EU countries, except for the UK and Ireland, and the four non-EU but Schengen-associated countries (Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland). For travels longer than 90 days, Georgians will still have to obtain visa. The visa exemption, however, does not guarantee the right to work in the EU.

Visa-free region in a well-managed environment is one of the core objectives of the Eastern Partnership. The main tool for attaining an enhanced mobility program is the Visa Liberalisation Action Plan (VLAP), which is tailor-made for each partner country and structured around four blocks concerning, firstly, document security, including biometrics, secondly, integrated border management, migration management and asylum, thirdly, public order and security and, finally, external relations and fundamental rights. The dialogue with Georgia was initiated on 4 June 2012 and presented to the Georgian authorities on 25 February 2013. The last progress report on reforms and progress was adopted in mid-December 2015. EU citizens have been able to travel visa-free to Georgia for short stays since 2006.
Steelmakers' dilemma: To keep plants running or cut losses Updated: 2016-03-10 14:18 By Dai Tian(chinadaily.com.cn)

A worker at a steel company in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, in January 2015. The steel sector will reduce capacity by 100 to 150 million metric tons in five years, according to China's top economic planner. [Photo/China Daily]

As steel price shows signs of recovery, some private factories in Hebei province resume production for lack of knowing what else to do.

"Government has offered subsidies to help steelmakers reduce capacity and relocate workers, but it seems private firms are not entitled. When production was suspended, we had to deal with labor issue by ourselves," a factory manager told China Business News.

Such concern added to their reluctance to a complete shutdown. With steel price rebounding and some manufacturers starting to see profits, an increasing number of factories are choosing to resume production, said the newspaper.

Rate of capacity utilization has picked up 5.7 percent so far this month, according to mysteel.com, an industry e-commerce platform, as the crude steel price rose some 37 percent since the Spring Festival holiday.

The rebound came after the Purchasing Managers' Index of the steel industry remained below 50 for 22 consecutive months and stood at 49 in February, according to the Steel Logistics Professional Committee. A reading of 50 is a dividing point between expansion and contraction.

In 2015, China consumed only 664 million out of the 804 million tons of crude steel, according to government-led agency China Metallurgical Planning and Research Institute, with steel prices falling to 1,500 yuan per ton from 5,600 yuan in its heyday.

The State Council, China's Cabinet, announced earlier last month that crude steel production capacity will be slashed by 100 million tons to 150 million tons over the next five years.

Beijing's smog-hit neighbor Hebei, a province pivoting heavy industries for years, has vowed to further reduce overcapacity, said governor Zhang Qingwei. According to Xinhua news agency, the target it set means 60 percent of existing iron and steel companies in the province will be shut down or merged during the next four years.

"Hebei's overall capacity was round 300 to 320 million tons by the end of last year. In order to achieve the goal, it has to cut the capacity by over 30 million tons annually over the next four years. As de-capacity is carried on, the pressure ahead will be bigger," Xu Liying, analyst with Lange Steel Information Research Center, told the newspaper.

The country expects the industry to lay off some 500,000 workers. Analysts said the situation is more severe with private steelmakers who, as major employers, have been facing more difficulty in staff relocation.

Xinhua contributed to this story.
My time in Goettingen has been very profitable thus far. I have scanned or photographed most of the necessary manuscripts (mss) for my project (of course o...
Description

On March 10, 2016 New York State Assemblymember Michaelle C. Solages (D-Elmont) will celebrate Womens History Month with the Annual Women of Distinction Awards Ceremony to be held at the Gateway Community Center in Valley Stream.



This years program, Healing our Families, honors women from the Twenty-Second Assembly District who positively impact and heal lives in the community. In addition, this years ceremony welcomes New York State Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul as the keynote speaker.



The program includes guest speakers CBS New York News Reporter, Sophia Hall and Cardiologist Dr. Everlina Grayver at Northwell Health Hospital. The evening will be emceed by radio personality Roxie Digital of Radio 103.9 NY, and Debra Gallimore will be giving the invocation.



During the ceremony, Assemblymember Solages will also give special recognition to nurses within the community who offer a reminder for women dedicated to providing superior and compassionate care. Assemblymember Solages stated, It is important that during Womens History Month we honor and remember how much women give of themselves to better the community around them. Too often the contributions of these women are not lauded, and so this is a way for the 22nd Assembly District to say thank you.



The evening will be complimented by Floral Park Memorial High School Orchestra, as well as the Girl Scouts of Nassau County for the flag ceremony. Over 200 people are expected to attend to celebrate the women of the 22nd District. The program was made successful by the generous donations of local businesses and volunteers, which include Chef Bs, Health First, Bethpage, Twenty First Century Management and New York Life, among others.
Testosterone

Oxytocin

Cortisol

Leptin

Thyroid Hormone

Every person in the world has one thing in common is the need for fat loss. Unfortunately, this is a common scenario for many people. Thats why its important to know what hormones or steroids are available that can help you reach your goal sooner and more efficiently. If you are interested in buying weight loss steroids, then a Great place to buy weight loss steroids at LAWeekly . Five essential hormones can help increase your metabolism and burn calories at a faster rate. They are all easy to use, just like any other hormone supplement would be.Testosterone is a natural hormone that is mainly produced in males. It is the best testosterone booster you can get when burning fat  even if you have a low testosterone level. You need some testosterone to make your muscles hard and your body feel healthier. The best thing about this hormone supplement is that its use does not require a prescription for any condition. More importantly, this drug has no side effects and should be used only by adults.This hormone regulates fertility. However, this is not the only reason why it is so popular. Oxytocin helps you increase your connection and trust with other people, which makes some people addicted. Sometimes, oxytocin is used instead of morphine because of its analgesic effect. Nowadays, oxytocin fat burners are very popular among women and men who want to get rid of extra calories. Oxytocin is beneficial to lose weight faster without any side effects.Cortisol reduces stress and increases blood pressure levels in the body. It also increases blood sugar levels, contributing to more energy during a workout session or sports activities. The best thing about cortisol is that it can increase your metabolism, making it the perfect hormone for people who dont have the time and energy to go to the gym to lose fat.This is a direct response to the leptin level in your body. If it becomes too low, your hunger will increase, and you will feel inclined to eat more food than needed. Leptin can help suppress that feeling and regulate your eating habits and diet plans for losing weight fast.T3 and T4 are the hormones that promote healthy metabolism, essential for burning more calories. The only drawback to these two hormones is that they require prescriptions like any other hormone supplement and from a specialist. So whenever you want to take thyroid hormone pills, you should always check with your doctor first if it is right for you or not. There is no point in risking your health just because you dont have enough money for prescription drugs.Eating less and working out more is not the only way to lose weight. You need to do it faster and easier if you want to see results in a short time. The five hormones listed above can help you burn calories faster than ever without any effort at all.
Chinas economy continues its decline, as reports earlier this week revealed that exports had their biggest monthly drop since May 2009. That fall underscores the Chinese governments announcement last week lowering its economic growth target for 2016 to between 6.5% and 7%, compared with 6.9% last year. Last week, ratings agency Moodys also said it has lowered its outlook for Chinese government bonds from stable to negative.

Against that backdrop, China is preparing for millions of layoffs in the steel and coal sectors, while a potential real estate bubble looms. What Beijing could do to manage the fallout and help entrepreneurial activity pick up some of the slack in the economy are open questions, according to experts.

In February, Chinas exports fell 25.4% compared to those of a year ago, while imports fell 13.8% over the same period. [That is] just another sign that the downward forces are substantial in the Chinese economy, saidBarry Naughton, chair of Chinese International Affairs at the School of Global Policy & Strategy at the University of California, San Diego.

Over the next six months to a year, things will get worse, said Naughton. He pointed to two factors driving that scenario. One is a set of structural elements that are pushing down the Chinese economys growth rate. The other is the governments new approach with supply-side reforms with the downsizing of production capacities that will see the first round of massive layoffs in the steel and coal industries. The fact that the economy is slowing is going to be brought more personally home to more consumers, he added. That will mean a more difficult and more troubled part of the economic transition that we have seen so far.

Between three and five million people will be laid off over the next two to three years in China, said Naughton. In the short run, 1.3 million people in the coal industry and half a million people in the steel industry will lose their jobs, he added.

The problem is that the layoffs are combined with uncertainty, said Wharton management professor Minyuan Zhao. That will reduce a lot of the incentives people may have to take themselves out [of economic decline]. She recalled that the automobile capital of Detroit in Michigan went through several rounds of massive job losses, but eventually rebounded. If you look at the history of countries, every economy has gone through that kind of period once in a while.

Zhao and Naughton discussed the outlook for the Chinese economy on the Knowledge@Wharton show on Wharton Business Radio on SiriusXM channel 111. (Listen to the podcast at the top of this page.)

Is the entrepreneurial class in China ready to pick up the economic slack in the country? If there is a well-defined future, I believe in the entrepreneurship of the Chinese people, and there are ways they can get themselves out, said Zhao. Yes, the layoffs are painful, but it is a short-term pain for better efficiency in the market. She noted that the Chinese government has for long encouraged entrepreneurial activity  partly because that is a bright spot [in the economy] and partly because it eases the burden on employment.

The outlook for entrepreneurship in China is mixed, according to Naughton. He said that several sectors have strong growth potential, including online finance, where he noted that China is already ahead of the U.S. He acknowledged that the Chinese people are tremendously entrepreneurial, and many sectors in the country hold significant growth potential.

[However,] the last year hasnt been great in terms of seeing those people putting their shoulder to the wheel to start up new businesses and shift the structure of the economy, Naughton said. He blamed politics for some of that underwhelming entrepreneurial activity. The Chinese government says all the right things about structural change, but doesnt say all the right things about entrepreneurial freedom, he added.

Notwithstanding its bright spots, the Chinese economy is still struggling with the difficulty of adjusting to a slower growth rate, said Naughton. He noted that countries that are in the midst of structural transformations tend to make mistakes in policy decisions, citing Japan and Korea as examples of that. China has made its share of mistakes in the past few years with many policy missteps, he added. Zhao agreed with Naughton.

Managing the Pain

Zhao noted that the legitimacy of the Chinese regime is based on stability and economic growth. The government is nervous about any social instability coming out of unemployment, she said. The Chinese government will also be watchful about what is said on social media, she added.

In order to contain any negative fallout of the job layoffs, Beijing may resort to quick-fix measures, according to Zhao. They will in the short-term prop up some of the economic activity that may not make sense in the long run just because they want to avoid any social unrest that may occur, she said. That may make things worse, if these short-term policies come in the way of long-term transition.

In attempting to ease the pain from layoffs, Naughton said he expected the Chinese government to also loosen monetary and fiscal policy to some extent. They recognize that [such] restructuring can be painful and they need a little bit more stimulus. He added that market watchers view those measures as a short-term positive.

Real Estate Bubble Forming?

Another big long-term worry for China stems from its overhang of real estate that is built out but unoccupied, said Naughton. It helps that of late, real estate prices have stabilized and risen a bit in the big cities including Beijing and Shanghai, he added.

But Zhao pointed out that those higher prices are a result of people financing their home purchases with more borrowings. There are increasing signs of a bubble, she said. [People] are using higher leverage. The down payment requirement is lower, [and] scrutiny is lower. If you look at the policies rolled out to boost the market, they have every sign of what we saw in the U.S. between 2003 and 2006 [that eventually fed the subprime housing crisis that followed]. It is controversial whether that upward movement of housing prices  given the glut we see  is a healthy sign.

Naughton agreed with Zhao, and said that in every sector in China, credit has increased 8% to 10% faster than GDP every year since 2009. Eventually, there has got to be either a crisis or a much more aggressive debt restructuring program, he warned.

Tech Giant Dreams

Naughton noted that Chinas large investments in high technology industries may produce some successes over the next two decades. But the question is: Are those successes going to be commensurate with the amount of money they are pouring into those sectors? Enormous amounts of money have gone into electric vehicles with relatively meager returns.

The Chinese government has similarly made large investments in other sectors as well, but kept much of that activity secret, he added. In his view, those large investments to make China a technology powerhouse could turn out to be a gigantic waste.
Mary Desmond marydesmond@live.com >

Date: Wed, Mar 9, 2016 at 9:06 PM

Subject: MY LOVE ONE PLEASE I NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE.





Dearest One,

firstly i thank you for your response to my email. How is everything over there, i believe that you are in good health and that the atmosphere over there in your country is very nice today? Mine is a bit warm over here in Dakar Senegal. My name is Mary Desmond i am (24 years old) but age doesn' t matter in a real relationship so i am comfortable with your age, I am from (Central African Republic) 5.3 ft tall, fair in complexion, single (never married ) and presently i am residing here in Dakar Senegal as a result of the civil war that was fought in my country some years ago.



My late father Dr.Philip Desmond was a politician and the managing director of a (Gold & Mine Industry) in Central African Republic before the rebels attacked our house one early morning and killed my father and mother in cold blood. I know that i should have waited for our relationship to last a while before i tell you all this secret, but because of my situation here in the camp, and i don' t want to die here, please understand me. Right now, as i am talking to you, i am the only person alive in my family, and I managed to make my way to a near by country (Senegal) where i am leaving now as a refugee under the care of a Reverend Pastor and i am using his computer to send these message to you now.



Please do not be offended for this message that comes from me, its just that i don' t know what else to do, because my situation here as a refugee is giving me a great concern, therefore i will like you to consider my situation as an orphan, and be kind with me, as i am putting the whole of my trust on you without fear, though i don' t know who you are before, but i believe that you can not betray it at the end. I have contacted you because of my difficult situation here in this refugee camp, It' s just like one staying in the prison and i hope by Gods grace i will come out here soon. I don' t have any relatives now whom i can go to, all my relatives ran away in the middle of the war the only person i have now is the reverend(Rev-Fr Patrick Devinne ), who is the reverend father of the ( ST, PAUL CATHOLIC MISSION), here in the camp he has been very nice to every body, but we are not leaving with him rather we are leaving in the hostel, which is divided into two sections, one for the male, and the other for the female.

The Reverend Tel. number is (+221-781-232-519), if you call and tell him that you want to speak with me ( Mary) he will send for me in the hostel. As a refugee here, i don' t have any right or privilege to anything be it phone or what ever, because it' s against their law. My love I want to go back to my studies because i only attended my first year before the tragic incident that lead to my being in this situation now took place. NOTE; Please listen to this (please it' s a secret, even no one knows about it except the Reverend father that knows about it),When he was alive he deposited some amount of money in a leading Foreign bank which he used my name as the next of kin, the total amount, is $6.7 ( $6.7 Six Million Seven Hundred Thousand US Dollars).



So i will like you to help me transfer this money to your account and from it you can send some money for me to get my traveling documents and air ticket to come over to meet with you. I kept this secret to people in the camp here, the only person that knows about it, is the Reverend because he is like a father to me. So, i will like you to keep it to yourself and don' t tell it to anyone because i am afraid of loosing my life and the money if people gets to know about it. Remember i am giving you all this information due to the trust i deposed on you. I like honest and understanding people, truthful and a man of vision, hardworking and GOD fearing people. My favorite language is English and i speak French very fluently. Meanwhile i will like you to call me like i said i have a lot to tell you, the attached are my pictures. Have a nice day and think about me, awaiting to hear from you soonest.

Your beloved one

Miss Mary. From:Date: Wed, Mar 9, 2016 at 9:06 PMSubject: MY LOVE ONE PLEASE I NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE.









If you received a similar letter, please ignore it. Do not answer it. If you do, you will end up on more of the mailing lists used by the criminals behind this fraud. Read more....
ABC News(WASHINGTON) -- All eyes are on Floridas primary next Tuesday. The winner takes all of the Sunshine State's 99 delegates and the outcome could possibly spell the end for certain GOP candidates.



Tuesday is Florida Sen. Marco Rubios last attempt to salvage his faltering campaign and it could also be the Republican Party's last chance to stop front-runner Donald Trump from securing the necessary number of delegates to take the nomination.



For Republicans, the 99 delegates up for grabs will go to one of the four remaining candidates. For Democrats, the states 214 pledged delegates (excluding superdelegates) are awarded proportionally, meaning that both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will come away with some delegates.



Thats good news for Sanders. The latest Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday has him trailing Clinton by 30 points.



The race is just slightly tighter for the Republicans and appears to be a battle between Trump and Rubio. Trump leads Rubio by 16 points in the Quinnipiac poll.



"Its a make or break state for Marco Rubio," said Michael McDonald, an associate professor of political science at the University of Florida.



Battle of the "Native" Sons



From the outset of the election, Florida was largely seen as a contest between the states two politicians that were running for president: former Gov. Jeb Bush and Rubio.



"Within the Republican Party, I think there was a lot of hope that either a candidate like Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio would have won the state," McDonald said.



Now that Bush has suspended his campaign, hes hoping his endorsement will bolster the campaigns of one of his former rivals (Bush is meeting with Rubio, Ted Cruz and John Kasich ahead of Thursday nights debate in Miami. Bush is reportedly not meeting with Trump).



The "native son" badge is one that Trump has been trying to secure for himself. Even though Trump was born in Queens and has lived in New York throughout his life, he has been quick to point out that he has sizable property holdings in Florida and has even called his private residence-turned-club Mar-a-Lago his second home.



"I happen to love Florida, in all fairness," Trump said at an event in Orlando last week. "Truly, truly, my second home. I'm here all the time, as you know."



Spending Serious Money



The non-Trump groups have clearly done the delegate math as well. The real estate moguls campaign has been outspent by at least two to one in Florida.



Three anti-Trump groups -- American Future Fund, Our Principles PAC and Club for Growth -- spent a total of $4,056,246 in Florida, according to an ABC News analysis of data from CMAG/Kantar Media.



By comparison, Trumps campaign has spent $1,988,920, which equals 49 percent of the other groups collective spending.



For her part, Clinton has been responsible for more than a third of all Democratic spending in Florida. CMAG/Kantar Media reports that she has spent $81,401 in the state, which amounts to 35 percent of all the funds spent by Democrats there.



Long Voting Period and Big Turnout



Even though the primary does not take place until March 15, a number of polling places are currently open, allowing residents to cast their votes early.



Voting technically started in early March, a spokesperson for the Pasco County supervisor of elections confirmed. Mass mailings of ballots were sent out on Feb. 9 to Florida residents.



And Republicans have been voting early. The Florida Department of State said Thursday morning that 282,076 Republicans have already voted in person compared to 210,398 for Democrats.



The number of early absentee votes submitted is more than double: 575,104 for Republicans and 437,080 for Democrats.



"What we're seeing so far...it doesnt appear as though Hispanics are voting in high rates as other groups within the state," McDonald said of the data accumulated from the early ballot submissions.



"Theres still an opportunity to turn that around on Election Day, but it may be suggestive of Marco Rubios appeal to Hispanics," he said.

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Documents containing personal details from thousands of ISIS militants have been leaked to investigators in Europe.



The German Criminal Police Office confirms to ABC News that they are now in posession of the documents, which they believe to be genuine.



The documents, first obtained by Sky News, contain the names and identifying information of some 22,000 ISIS supporters who filled out questionnaires to join the group. The information includes date and place of birth, hometown, phone numbers, and even blood type.



A disgruntled fighter who defected to the West, reportedly stole the information from ISIS security police inside Syria.



The documents show jihadist applicants from at least 51 countries around the world. The Guardian reports there are at least four Americans among them.



Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
* Exiting Singapore, Vietnam, HK, Indonesia, Taiwan -spokesman

* Exit to reduce lending to low-returning businesses -sources

* Weighing sale of minority stakes in Asian banks (Adds quotes from sources, context)

By Sharon Klyne and Saeed Azhar

SYDNEY/SINGAPORE, March 10 (Reuters) - Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ) has closed its business lending to small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) in five Asian countries, cutting around 100 jobs, in a sign its new chief executive is slimming presence in the region.

ANZ has exited what it dubs its "emerging corporate" business in Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Taiwan, the bank's Melbourne-based spokesman told Reuters. Separately, people familiar with the matter said ANZ was streamlining its SME business in Asia.

The aim is to reduce lending to low-returning businesses, the people familiar with ANZ's thinking said, declining to be identified as the matter was not public.

ANZ is alone among Australia's major four banks to have made a big push in Asia. CEO Shayne Elliott has shifted focused to areas where growth is faster and returns are particularly attractive.

The bank is "not generally targeting the smaller end of town anymore," one of the people told Reuters.

"There is much more focus on account planning and strategy, making sure that the client mixes the bank has got are right and that the bank has enough tentacles of products being sold to those clients."

It was not clear how big the SME unit was nor how big its revenue contribution was to the overall business.

Two of the people said they expected more change to come, particularly at the bank's markets division which the Australian regulator has taken to court for suspected market manipulation. ANZ said it would vigorously defend itself.

Already under consideration is the sale of minority stakes in banks in Indonesia, Malaysia and China, for which Elliott has put Deputy Chief Executive Graham Hodges in charge.

Story continues

As part of this retreat, the bank has been trying to sell its 39 percent stake in PT Bank Pan Indonesia Tbk (Panin) , Reuters previously reported.

It has also made a slew of announcements over recent months including a management shake-up that involved the exit of Andrew Geczy, who headed the international and institutional business.

Earlier this month, ANZ said it would break up its global wealth division to focus on improving returns and capital efficiency in insurance and superannuation. (Reporting by Sharon Klyne in SYDNEY and Saeed Azhar in SINGAPORE; Additional reporting by Swati Pandey and Prakash Chakravarti; Writing by Swati Pandey; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Christopher Cushing)
(Adds names of creditors and values of their settlement)

By Daniel Bases

NEW YORK, March 9 (Reuters) - Argentina settled with an additional seven creditors holding defaulted sovereign bonds for $190 million, Daniel Pollack, the court-appointed mediator in the long-running case said in a statement on Wednesday.

Pollack's announcement brings the total amount of settlements agreed in principle with U.S. creditors to more than $6.4 billion.

The latest agreements take Latin America's No. 3 economy closer to ending the 14-year legal battle over its historic default which blocked it from global credit markets.

Pollack said the following institutions and individuals reached settlements with Argentina: "BNP Paribas, $52.4 million, GMO (Boston) $119 million, Carlo Regazzoni $1.7 million, Elazar Romano $11.3 million, Grazia Valenti $172,000, La Societa Ymus SRL $375,000 and Tomaso Zappoli Thyrion $5.2 million."

Since the election of President Mauricio Macri in November, Argentina has moved swiftly to settle the debt dispute, mainly with U.S.-based hedge funds that sued in federal court for full payment on sovereign bonds defaulted upon in early 2002.

On Feb. 2 it reached a $1.35 billion agreement to settle with a group of Italian investors who held defaulted bonds.

On Feb. 5 it committed to spending $6.5 billion in order to settle more than $9 billion worth of claims in the U.S. courts before U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa. So far it has agreements from more than 85 percent of remaining holdouts.

It reached agreement in principle with four major U.S. holdout creditors on Feb. 29.

Barring a disagreement over technical terms, and the possibility the deal falls apart, Argentina should be able to come back as planned to the international capital markets in mid-April.

"All such settlements are subject to two conditions: first, the lifting of the Lock Law and the Sovereign Payment Law by the Congress of Argentina, and second, the lifting of the Injunction by Judge Griesa," said Pollack, named Special Master by Griesa in 2014 in order to facilitate a negotiated settlement.

Story continues

A bill addressing the conditions to end the dispute cleared its first legislative hurdle on Tuesday when an Argentine Congressional committee sent the measure to the full house of representatives.

Argentina plans to sell three bonds for a total of $11.68 billion in mid-April in order to pay the creditors in cash.

(Reporting by Daniel Bases; Editing by James Dalgleish and Andrew Hay)
People enter and exit the AVIVA headquarters building in Dublin October 19, 2011. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton

By Carolyn Cohn

LONDON (Reuters) - Aviva chief executive Mark Wilson said on Thursday the insurer could give cash back to shareholders, after it beat forecasts with a 20 percent 2015 operating profit rise.

Aviva reported a solvency capital ratio under new European rules of 180 percent, at the top of its 150-180 percent target range. A ratio of 100 percent shows insurers have sufficient capital to cover underwriting, investment and operational risks.

Wilson said the company's strong capital position meant it could grow businesses organically, and reiterated it could also make "bolt-on" acquisitions in markets such as Poland.

"Capital returns to shareholders are also on our radar," he said on a media call following the results.

Aviva's shares rose 4 percent to 478 pence at 0825 GMT, the top performer in the FTSE 100 index.

Aviva bought rival Friends Life last year in a 5.6 billion pound deal, creating a market leader in life insurance.

The life and general insurer said it would achieve its target of 225 million pounds in integration synergies in 2016, a year ahead of schedule, and that it expected 1.2 billion pounds in capital synergies.

"The key question now is what will Aviva do with the additional cash - we think it will in part be used to hike future dividends," said Barrie Cornes, analyst at Panmure Gordon, in a note.

Aviva's operating profit of 2.7 billion pounds came in above expectations of 2.49 billion pounds from a forecast compiled by the insurer.

Its combined operating ratio, a key measure of performance in its general insurance business, strengthened to 94.6 percent, against a forecast of 96 percent. A level below 100 percent indicates an underwriting profit.

Aviva said floods in Britain in December had cost it 132 million pounds.

The company said it would pay a final dividend of 14.05 pence per share and total dividend of 20.8 pence, up 15 percent from 2014 but below a forecast of 21.2 pence.

(Editing by Sinead Cruise and Alexander Smith)
Bernie Sanders

During the Wednesday-night Democratic debate, Univision moderator Maria Elena Salinas confronted Bernie Sanders with a decades-old clip of him heaping apparent praise on former Cuban President Fidel Castro.

Sanders, who has identified himself as a democratic socialist, had earlier in the debate called for "full and normalized political relations with Cuba"  a position he shares with Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner.

"I think at the end of the day, it will be a good thing for the Cuban people," Sanders said. "It will enable them, I think, when they see people coming into their country from the United States, move in a more Democratic direction, which I what I want to see."

Salinas then brought out a video clip from 1985 showing Sanders apparently defending Castro, who was a leader of the Cuban Revolution and whose rule led the small island country to become a one-party, communist state.

In the clip, Sanders said:

You may recall way back in, what was it, 1961, they invaded Cuba. And everybody was totally convinced that Castro was the worst guy in the world, that all the Cuban people were going to rise up in rebellion against Fidel Castro. They had forgotten that he had educated their kids, given them healthcare, totally transformed their society.

"In south Florida, there are still some open wounds among exiles regarding socialism and communism," Salinas told Sanders. "So please explain, what is the difference between the socialism that you profess and the socialism in Nicaragua, Cuba, and Venezuela?"

Bernie Sanders

Sanders defended his prior statements:

What that was about was saying that the United States was wrong for trying to invade Cuba. That the United States was wrong trying to support people to overthrow the Nicaraguan government. That the United States was wrong trying to overthrow in 1954 the government, the democratically elected government of Guatemala. Throughout the history of our relationship with Latin America, we've operated under the so-called Monroe Doctrine. And that said that the United States had the right to do anything that they wanted to do in Latin America. So I actually went to Nicaragua, and I very strongly opposed the Reagan administration's effort to overthrow that government.

Story continues

He added that the US should be "working with governments around the world" and not "get involved in regime change." Sanders also claimed that US intervention in Latin America stoked anti-US sentiment there.

Salinas pressed Sanders if he ever regretted his past characterizations of Castro and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. The latter led the Sandinista National Liberation Front, which overthrew the Nicaraguan dictatorship.

"The key issue here was whether the United States should go around overthrowing small Latin American countries," Sanders said. "I think that was a mistake, both in Nicaragua and Cuba."

He then touted advances Cuba has made in healthcare and education since communism came to the country.

"It would be wrong not to state that in Cuba they have made some good advances in healthcare," Sanders said. "They are sending doctors all over the world. They are making some progress in education."

Clinton, however, dismissed Sanders' explanation for his decades-old remarks. She noted that in an unaired portion of the clip, Sanders talked about the "revolution of values" in Cuba and people "working for the common good."

The Clinton campaign continued to hit Sanders over the remarks after the debate. It sent an email blast to reporters titled, "Bernie Sanders Refuses to Disavow Praise for Fidel Castro."

Clinton "has made clear the Castros have been enemies of their own people, and that her efforts to end our isolationist policies were driven by her belief that they were actually strengthening Castro," her campaign said.

NOW WATCH: Sanders predicts he'll win the democratic nomination in one of the great 'political upsets in the history of the US'





More From Business Insider


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday blocked an effort to prevent the $700 million sale of Lockheed Martin Corp F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, although a key lawmaker said he would not allow the use of U.S. funds to finance it. Lawmakers voted 71 to 24 against an attempt introduced by Republican Senator Rand Paul to prevent the sale under legislation known as the Arms Control Act. President Barack Obama's administration announced on Feb. 12 that it had approved the sale to Pakistan of the aircraft, as well as radars and other equipment. It drew immediate criticism from India and concern from some members of Congress. Paul had called Pakistan "an uncertain ally" and other lawmakers expressed concerns about Pakistan's nuclear program, commitment to fighting terrorist organizations and cooperation in the Afghanistan peace process. However, they generally supported the sale, saying the South Asian state needs to modernize its air force and counter-terrorism activities. Republican Senator Bob Corker said he would use his power as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to bar the use of any U.S. funds for the deal. In a statement, Corker said, "Prohibiting a taxpayer subsidy sends a much-needed message to Pakistan that it needs to change its behavior, but preventing the purchase of U.S. aircraft would do more harm than good by paving the way for countries like Russia and China to sell to Pakistan while also inhibiting greater cooperation on counterterrorism." The United States identified Pakistan as a key partner in its war against terror following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and spent billions of dollars on military aid to help the country fight insurgents. But there is growing consternation in Washington about continuing with the same level of assistance unless Pakistan provides evidence it is using the funds effectively to eliminate militants. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Dan Grebler and Alistair Bell)
By Anthony Boadle

BRASILIA, March 10 (Reuters) - A widening corruption probe has turned key lawmakers from Brazil's largest party against leftist President Dilma Rousseff, threatening to split her coalition and increasing chances of her impeachment in Congress this year.

The Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, known as the PMDB, is the main ally of the ruling Workers' Party. Its leader, Michel Temer, is Rousseff's vice president.

But a growing number of legislators from the fractious party, which accommodates centrist and center-right politicians, say it is time to abandon a president they see as paralyzed by political gridlock and unable to lead Brazil out of an intense economic recession.

"This is a very delicate moment," said the party's vice-president, Senator Valdir Raupp, who no longer wants to support Rousseff's coalition. "The country needs a change of course now."

What little patience some PMDB lawmakers still had for the coalition has frayed amid an investigation into the ruling party's founder, former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and new allegations money from a far-reaching corruption scandal helped fund Rousseff's 2014 re-election.

At its biennial convention Saturday, the PMDB will loosen its alliance with the administration, which has been roiled by the ongoing kickback scandal around state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA.

While avoiding an outright break with Rousseff, PMDB officials say they will vote on measures intended to give individual party lawmakers more freedom to rebel against Rousseff initiatives and ultimately vote in favor of ousting the president, who faces impeachment proceedings because of accounting irregularities in the government budget.

Raupp said the party's more anti-Rousseff factions will table a motion to leave the coalition outright, but a second motion to declare independence from the government will most likely prevail.

If PMDB legislators do end up voting to impeach Rousseff, one benefit for the party, which plans to field its own candidate in the 2018 presidential election, is that Temer would become president.

Story continues

Many within the party believe the impeachment drive could come to a vote in both chambers of Congress after it passes a committee in the lower house next month.

Rousseff has denied any wrongdoing and dismissed the impeachment efforts as baseless.

PMDB Congressman Darcisio Perondi, a staunch opponent of the Workers' Party, said the desire to bolt from the Rousseff coalition has spread to colleagues in the Senate, previously a chamber considered more favorable for Rousseff.

"The economy is in a meltdown," he said.

Lawmakers are being pressured by failing businesses and the loss of jobs in their states. They say constituents want new policies to restore growth to an economy that shrank 3.8 percent in 2015.

The graft investigation surrounding Petrobras has deepened Brazil's political crisis in recent weeks and boosted the country's stock market and currency as investors bet on the prospects of a change of government and more business-friendly policies.

At the convention, the PMDB is expected to reconfirm Temer as its leader, a sign it is not ready, despite its rebelliousness, to relinquish its share of power in Rousseff's government. In addition to the vice presidency, it holds six cabinet posts.

"It is going to be a noisy convention," said PMDB whip in the lower house of Congress, Leonardo Picciani, who represents a Rio de Janeiro faction that came out in support of Rousseff last year in return for two cabinet ministries.

"But in practical terms, a far as staying in the government or leaving, nothing will be decided yet," he told Reuters.

PMDB support for an immediate departure from Rousseff's coalition could gather more force if there is a massive turnout in a nationwide protest for Rousseff's impeachment called for Sunday by opposition parties.

"The streets of Brazil will be decisive," said Perondi, the PMDB Congressman.

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Andrew Hay)
By Brad Haynes and Eduardo Simoes SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva faces charges of money laundering and identity fraud for concealing ownership of a beachfront apartment, state prosecutors in Sao Paulo said on Thursday. The charges reinforce suspicions raised in a separate federal investigation that detained Lula for questioning in police custody last week, fanning a political crisis that has rattled his successor, President Dilma Rousseff. State prosecutor Cassio Roberto Conserino told reporters that two dozen witnesses said that the former president was the owner of a luxury condo in the city of Guaruja, benefiting from real estate projects financed by a state bankers' cooperative. Lula has disavowed ownership of the apartment and denied any wrongdoing. His attorney has asked the Supreme Court to decide if the case is under the jurisdiction of state prosecutors or a separate federal probe tackling graft at state-run oil company Petrobras. That two-year-old federal investigation has already rocked Brazil's political and business establishment with high-profile arrests and convictions, while deepening the worst recession in decades in Latin America's biggest economy. The investigations now threaten to tarnish the legacy of Brazil's most powerful politician, whose humble roots and anti-poverty programs made him a folk hero, by putting a spotlight on how members of his left-leaning Workers' Party consolidated wealth and power since he rose to the presidency 13 years ago. Lula's lawyer, Cristiano Zanin Martins, said the prosecutors' news conference on Thursday was further evidence of a "media campaign" against the former president. "The owner of a property is the person listed in the registry. It doesn't matter who some people think it belongs to," he said. Martins reiterated the former president's account that he had invested in the real estate project, visited the unfinished apartment twice and then asked for his money back rather than receiving property. (Reporting by Brad Haynes and Eduardo Simoes; Editing by Andrew Hay)
SAO PAULO, March 10 (Reuters) - Sao Paulo state prosecutors said on Thursday that charges against former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his family follow a five-year investigation of alleged crimes including fraud and money laundering in the state.

State prosecutor Cassio Roberto Conserino said the former president benefited unfairly from real estate projects financed by a Sao Paulo bankers' cooperative.

Lula has denied any wrongdoing and disavowed ownership of a luxury condo in the Sao Paulo beach town of Guaruja that is cited in the case.

His attorney has asked the Supreme Court to decide whether state prosecutors invaded the jurisdiction of a separate federal probe tackling graft at state-run oil company Petrobras .

(Reporting by Brad Haynes and Eduardo Simoes)
KIGALI (Reuters) - Burundi tea output, the African nations second-biggest foreign exchange earner after coffee, is expected to rise 2.4 percent in 2016 due to increasing use of fertilisers and expanding areas under production, a tea board official said on Thursday. The staterun tea board (OTB) said production of dry tea would reach 11,211 tonnes up from 10,952 tonnes in 2015. The tea industry has survived months of political violence that has killed more than 400 deaths and pushed 250,000 people into exile, hitting an already fragile economy in one of Africa's poorest nations. Most violence has been reported in the capital area. "The goal is to increase quantities of fertilizers on tea farms, but we also expect the first harvests from the new tea plantations," OTBs head of exports Joseph Marc Ndahigeze said. We hope the two factors combined will give us a better harvest than the one obtained last year, he told Reuters. Violence erupted after President Pierre Nkurunziza said in April he would run for a third term, which he won in a disputed election in July. Opponents said he was violating the countrys constitution and a peace pact that ended civil war in 2005. In 2015, revenue from the commodity jumped 52 percent to $32.4 million compared with the previous year, boosted by a fall in output of regional rival Kenya. The landlocked nation exports 80 percent of its tea through a regional weekly auction held in Kenya's port city of Mombasa. The sector employs some 300,000 smallholder farmers in a nation of 10 million people. (Reporting by Patrick Nduwimana; Editing by Edmund Blair)
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at the White House on Thursday he has great faith in the American electoral process.



"The relationship, the friendship between our two countries goes far beyond any two individuals or any ideologies," he said during a news conference with President Barack Obama. "I have tremendous confidence in the American people and I look forward to working with whomever they choose to send to this White House later this year."



Obama said the turmoil in the Republican Party, with anti-establishment candidates leading the party's presidential nomination race, is not the result of actions he has taken as president.

"I have been blamed by Republicans for a lot of things, but being blamed for their primaries and who they're selecting for their party is novel," Obama said. "What I'm not going to do is to validate some notion that the Republican crackup that's been taking place is a consequence of actions that I've taken."

"There are thoughtful conservatives who are troubled by this, who are troubled by the direction of their party," he added.

On the topic of the Supreme Court vacancy, Obama said he's holding out hope that "cooler heads will prevail" and Republicans will back down from their plan to block his nominee.



Obama said he's looking for a candidate whose credentials would earn easy confirmation in a less-heated political environment. He said he's also looking for a candidate with "humility," who doesn't make policy from the bench, and someone who recognizes the role judges play in protecting minorities.

The president also praised Trudeau for his commitment to governing with inclusivity and equality, a likely nod to how the new Canadian leader made headlines in November for appointing a gender-equal Cabinet .

In his opening statement, Obama mentioned that he and Trudeau are working to ease cross-border trade by "reducing bottlenecks and streamlining regulations." Obama also said they discussed how to move forward with the Trans-Pacific Partnership.



Story continues

Obama's red-carpet welcome ended a frosty period in U.S.-Canada relations and celebrated their shared goals on climate and trade. On Thursday evening, Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau, will attend a State Dinner hosted by the president and first lady Michelle Obama. This will be Canada's first state dinner since 1997.

The United States and Canada agreed to joint steps on Thursday to fight climate change, including cutting methane emissions from oil and gas operations and signing last year's Paris climate deal "as soon as feasible." The Paris accord , approved at a climate change summit in December, requires nations to take concrete steps to regulate emissions linked to global warming.

"This is going to be a big problem for everybody. There are countries that are going to be hit worse by it" than the United States and Canada, Obama said.

"If we don't agree, if we're not aggressive, if we're not far-sighted, if we don't pool our resources around the research and development and clean energy agenda that's required to solve this problem, then other countries won't step up and it won't get solved," he explained.

In October, Trudeau became prime minister with a surprising majority victory , ousting incumbent Stephen Harper. The 43-year-old son of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau campaigned on a promise of change in contrast to Harper and the Conservative Party's fiscal and cultural conservatism. Trudeau has pledged to tackle climate change, boost the economy and legalize marijuana.



 The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.







More From CNBC


China's Trade Data: What Does It Mean for Metal Investors?

(Continued from Prior Part)

Chinas steel exports

The global steel markets have been spooked by rising Chinese steel exports. Just for the record, China exported 112 million metric tons of steel last year. This is more than what Japan, the second-largest steel producer, produced in the entire year. Earlier this year, China announced plans to curtail its excess steel capacity. Lets see if Chinas commitment showed in February steel exports.

Exports rise

The above graph shows the monthly trend in Chinas steel exports. In February, China exported 8.1 million metric tons of steel productsthe lowest in the last 11 months. Also, steel exports fell 16% compared to January. But heres the catch, Chinas February steel exports rose more than 4% YoY (year-over-year). As we discussed previously, February is generally a slow month in China due to the Lunar New Year holidays. As a result, its important to look at the YoY changes in data rather that the monthly change.

Is China really cutting capacity?

Well have to wait a few more months to see if China is really delivering on its commitment to cut the excess steel capacity. It wouldnt be easy for China to cut its excess steel capacity because it would lead to job losses. This could put more pressure on Chinas already weak economic growth.

You can read more about Chinas excess steel capacity problem in our series Steel, Copper, or Aluminum: Whats Best for Your Portfolio? US (DIA) steel companies including U.S. Steel (X), Commercial Metals Company (CMC), Nucor (NUE), and Steel Dynamics (STLD) are impacted negatively by rising Chinese steel exports.

The aluminum industry has been under pressure due to Chinese aluminum exports. In the next part, well explore how much aluminum China exported in February.

Continue to Next Part

Browse this series on Market Realist:
China's Trade Data: What Does It Mean for Metal Investors?

Chinas February trade data

On March 8, 2016, Chinas February trade data spooked the global markets. Stock markets across the globe fell after Chinas trade data released. There were valid reasons for the severe reaction. Chinas exports fell more than 25% YoY (year-over-year) in February. Its important to note that falling exports arent a surprise. The markets dont really expect China to post export growth YoY. However, its the rate of the decline that took the markets by surprise.

According to Reuters, the rate of decline was twice what the markets were expecting. Incidentally, this is the second straight month that Chinese exports have been worse than expected. The slowdown in Chinese exports signals weakness in global demand. Chinese imports also fell 13.8% YoY in February. The slowdown in imports signals weakness in Chinas domestic demand.

How will it impact metals?

Chinas trade data are especially crucial for metal investors. China is the dominant player in all of the industrial metals from steel to copper. The impact of Chinas slowdown is visible in all of the commodities (GCC). The above graph shows the movement of steel, copper, and aluminum prices. As you can see, all of the metals have fallen steeply over the past few years. Chinas slowdown is the key factor thats driving metals to multiyear lows.

Series overview

China impacts metals in different ways. In steel and aluminum, rising Chinese exports distorted the global markets. US producers including U.S. Steel (X), Alcoa (AA), and Nucor (NUE) have been crying foul over more exports from China for quite some time. However, in copper, we need to look at Chinas imports of the metal. The demand slowdown in China was negative for US-based copper miners including Freeport-McMoRan (FCX).

Chinas February trade data were terrible. However, it wasnt all bad for metal investors.

Continue to Next Part

Browse this series on Market Realist:
(Adds comment from CRRC Corp)

SHANGHAI, March 10 (Reuters) - China's CRRC Corp said it has won its second major contract in the United States after the Chicago transport authority accepted its $1.3 billion bid to build rail cars for the city.

"This is the largest subway car project that a Chinese railway equipment company has received from a developed country to date. 'Made in China' rail is set to land in the United States' Chicago," the company said in an e-mailed statement.

Encouraged by Beijing, China's railway firms are aggressively bidding for contracts in overseas markets but have so far been successful mostly in developing markets. Chinese firms have also expressed interest in building high-speed rail lines in California and Nevada.

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) said on Wednesday that it had awarded the order to build 846 7000-series rail cars to CRRC subsidiary CSR Sifang America, which had submitted the lowest bid. It did not name the other bidders.

The company, formed from the merger of former rivals CNR Corp and China CSR, won its first U.S. contract in 2014 when CNR was awarded a $567 million deal to supply subway trains to Boston.

Chicago will first place a base order of 400 cars, with options to buy the remainder in the coming years, the CTA said. CSR will build a new $40 million factory in the city, with the aim of seeing the first cars going into service in 2020.

(Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Stephen Coates and Edwina Gibbs)
By Nelson Bocanegra and Helen Murphy

BOGOTA, March 10 (Reuters) - Spending cuts worth 6 trillion pesos ($1.8 billion) will likely be insufficient for Colombia to meet its 2016 fiscal goals, economists and investors say, arguing that more may be needed to prevent a debt downgrade.

The country is far better off than neighboring Brazil, which is battling a deep recession. But plunging oil and coal revenues have eroded Colombia's fiscal accounts, leaving Latin America's fourth biggest economy scrounging for savings across the board.

Finance Minister Mauricio Cardenas has said the spending cuts, affecting 30 ministries and other state entities, amount to 0.7 percent of gross domestic product and are enough to ensure the government hits its budget deficit goal of 3.6 percent of GDP.

But economists warn the official numbers do not add up and could be even weaker if revenue from oil or taxes come in lower than projected.

"It's a good measure that calms the effect of the decline in oil revenue, but it's clearly insufficient taking into account the magnitude of the fiscal problem," said Andres Abadia, senior economist at London-based consultancy Pantheon Macroeconomics.

The cuts being implemented represent 2.8 percent of the government's budget. Analysts estimate that a further reduction of about 3 trillion pesos may be needed to hit the target and warn that, without them, the deficit could blow out to as much as 4 percent of GDP this year.

While Cardenas expects government revenue from oil - including overseas sales and royalties paid by companies operating in Colombia - to plunge to $218 million this year from $2.9 billion in 2015, economists see an even bigger drop.

"Government oil revenues are likely to fall to almost zero this year," said Adam Collins, strategist at London-based Capital Economics.

The value of exports fell 36.6 percent in January compared with the year before - mostly due to the drop in crude prices - and most economists believe the official 3 percent forecast for economic growth this year is optimistic.

Story continues

The economy grew 3.1 percent in 2015, the government said on Thursday.

Colombia's debt is rated two notches above speculative grade, but Standard & Poor's last month lowered its outlook to negative from stable. A downgrade could prompt some investors to leave Colombia's capital markets.

"They need to be bolder than they have been," said John Peta, emerging market fund manager for Old Mutual Global Investors in London, which holds Colombian bonds.

"The fiscal issue is a concern and in those circumstances people sell bonds and ask questions later."

A crucial tax reform could help lift investor sentiment. But it is currently only set to go to Congress in the second half of this year and would not take effect until 2017.

The government has taken austerity measures including double-sided photocopying, reduced gasoline purchases for official cars and a hiring freeze. Cardenas flew to Davos for the World Economic Forum in economy class.

If tax revenue falls below the government's expected 130 trillion pesos or the reform struggles in Congress, it would "bring the government's credit rating further into doubt," said Capital Economics' Collins.

Rating agency Moody's said on Wednesday that despite "headwinds" Colombia will be able to avoid a downgrade, as long as it moves toward the fiscal deficit target and the economic slowdown is not sustained.

Still, analysts believe the tight fiscal scenario means the government may also need to engage in domestic bond swaps to extend maturities and amortizations.

Some 15.2 trillion pesos ($4.76 billion) in local treasury bonds come due this year, about 10 percent of total peso-denominated debt.

In June, 11.3 trillion pesos come due, but a high-level finance ministry official ruled out a swap then and declined to be drawn on future actions.

Economists see swaps as inevitable.

"Almost certainly there will be a swap this year," said Camilo Perez, chief economist at Banco de Bogota.

(Reporting by Helen Murphy and Nelson Bocanegra; Editing by Kieran Murray and Tom Brown)
WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwired - March 10, 2016) - The United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC) is proud to announce that U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker will address the association's membership at the State of Hispanic Small Business Breakfast, taking place during the USHCC Legislative Summit on April 20 in Washington, D.C. At the Summit, the USHCC will address the nation's defining issues, ensuring that its members are equipped with the knowledge, resources, and networks they need to lead thriving business ventures.

Secretary Pritzker leads the federal Department that equips American businesses with the tools they need to thrive in the 21st century global economy. The Department of Commerce is responsible for promoting trade and investment, spurring innovation and entrepreneurship, gathering and acting on environmental intelligence, and fueling a data-driven economy. As the Administration's point person on entrepreneurship and chair of the President's Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship, Secretary Pritzker has helped to foster a culture of innovation around the world.

Secretary Pritzker also fights to ensure that American companies have access to foreign markets and can compete on a level playing field. She has traveled to 34 countries to strengthen our commercial and economic relationships abroad.

"As the country's chief commercial advocate, Secretary Pritzker recognizes that entrepreneurial risk-taking is America's greatest export," said USHCC President & CEO Javier Palomarez. "She has demonstrated her commitment to advancing the power of the American economy by supporting bold and strategic plans to spur innovation at the local level while simultaneously expanding trade and investment abroad. The USHCC is honored to have the Secretary address our constituents during the 2016 Legislative Summit."

"We are delighted to have Secretary Pritzker join us at the State of Hispanic Small Business Breakfast," said USHCC Foundation Chair Nina Vaca. "Through my involvement as a Presidential Ambassador on Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE), I've had the opportunity to travel abroad with Secretary Pritzker. As a result of her leadership, the U.S. Department of Commerce has prioritized job-driven training to make sure that workers are better equipped to meet the demands of the global marketplace. We applaud Secretary Pritzker's forward-looking agenda and look forward to discussing the interests of America's small business community."

Story continues

"The American small business community is critical to the strength and competitiveness of our nation's economy," said Secretary Pritzker. "I am thrilled to be addressing the USHCC membership, which includes some of the fastest-growing and most prominent companies in America."

This year's State of Hispanic Small Business will convene business leaders and entrepreneurs to discuss the progress that has been made in the Hispanic business community, and the role policymakers and corporate leaders play in shaping America's business future. The event will be attended by hundreds of chamber executives, Hispanic business owners, Fortune 500 corporate representatives and leaders in federal and state government.

About the 2016 Legislative Summit

The Legislative Summit is the USHCC's premier advocacy event, offering numerous high-level engagements with leading government officials, training opportunities, workshops, roundtable discussions, procurement matchmaking sessions with federal agencies, and the chance to meet with congressional representatives on Capitol Hill.

About the USHCC

The USHCC actively promotes the economic growth, development and interests of more than 4.1 million Hispanic-owned businesses, that combined, contribute over $661 billion to the American economy every year. It also advocates on behalf of 260 major American corporations and serves as the umbrella organization for more than 200 local chambers and business associations nationwide. For more information, visit www.ushcc.com.
Former Republican rival and Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina officially endorsed Texas Senator Ted Cruz on Wednesday at a rally in Miami, Florida. Fiorina, who suspended her own presidential campaign last month, told Cruz supporters she checked his name at the ballot box in the Virginia primary last week.

It is my great honor to be here today to tell you why I voted for Ted and why I will work hard to make sure he is our Republican nominee and our next President of the United States, said Fiorina.

Fiorina, who promoted herself as an outsider candidate with business experience, told the audience Cruz is the candidate that stands for conservative principles and will never settle for the status quo.

It is time to unite behind Ted Cruz my fellow conservatives, my fellow Republicans, my fellow citizens. It is time to take our party back. It is time to take our government back. It is time to take our country back, said Fiorina.

Ford OConnell, a Republican strategist and advisor to the 2008 McCain-Palin campaign, says with Fiorinas support people are beginning to see the GOP field as a two-person race between Cruz and billionaire businessman Donald Trump.

All the bigger name Republicans are starting to pick sides. Clearly with Carly Fiorina, Im sure there would be place in the cabinet if Cruz wins the nomination, but overall Carly Fiorina is looking to stop Trump and legitimize Cruzs case, said OConnell.

Fiorina, who was the only female GOP candidate in the 2016 race, tried to position herself to be the conservative alternative to Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton. Throughout her campaign she took shots from GOP frontrunner Donald Trump about her business record and her looks. Those comments backfired on Trump, turning off some Republican female voters, which OConnell says Cruz is poised to gain.

This will help soften Ted Cruzs image who is among some of the remaining candidates for the War on Women meme in the election and it will also help broaden his appeal, said OConnell. As this gets down to a two-man race, he needs a surrogate out there to broaden his appeal and connect with women.

Story continues

OConnell says Cruz hasnt really attracted female voters with his extreme conservative message but says with Fiorinas backing he could capture some of the fence sitting voters who still have hesitations with choosing between Cruz and Trump.

According to Public Policy Polling in February, Cruz had 23% of the female vote compared to Florida Senator Marco Rubios 39% support and Trumps 28%.

Fiorinas endorsement comes on the heels of Cruzs latest primary win on Tuesday; The state of Idaho rounded out his seventh victory. The next primary contests on March 15 include Florida and Ohio, two winner-take-all states.

Related Articles
By Bruno Federowski SAO PAULO, March 10 (Reuters) - Brazil's stocks and currency rose on Thursday, extending a recent rally fueled by hopes of political change after prosecutors charged former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in a money laundering investigation.

State investigators suspect the family of the former president, who was detained for questioning by federal police on Friday, owned an undeclared beachfront apartment in the city of Guaruja.

Lula's support for current President Dilma Rousseff was widely seen as a key factor behind her re-election.

Rousseff is facing impeachment proceedings in Congress and many traders believe the corruption probe could strengthen the odds of her ouster and thus help the crisis-ridden country recoup its credibility.

"Political issues are the main market driver and will remain so for a while," said Carlos Vieira, an economist with Lerosa brokerage in Sao Paulo.

Shares of state-controlled oil company Petrobras, the center of a wide-reaching graft scandal, rose as much as 3 percent, but later turned negative on the back of lower crude prices.

Nevertheless, the benchmark Bovespa stock index remained in the black, supported by leading banks ItauUnibanco and Bradesco, up 3.3 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively.

Investors said the banks, as well as state lender Banco do Brasil SA, were being lifted by optimism about the political scenario.

Traders saw little immediate market impact from Brazil's plan to tap global markets for the first time since it lost its investment grade rating with a dollar-denominated bond.

The Brazilian real revisited its six-month highs and strengthened for the seventh session in the last eight. Trading was volatile, however, as some investors bet the central bank could see the recent rally as a cue to reduce its support for the currency.

Brazil's central bank has about 110 billion reais ($29.92 billion) in outstanding currency swaps on its books, contracts which offer protection from sharp currency devaluations. The strategy has drawn criticism from some analysts due to its high fiscal costs.

The bank has been fully rolling over the stock of currency swaps for several months. Some traders saw a decision to only sell some of the contracts offered in a daily auction on Friday as a signal it could allow some to mature in April.

Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1550 GMT: Stock indexes daily % YTD % Latest change change MSCI Emerging Markets 791.04 0.43 -0.81 MSCI LatAm 2041.61 0.44 11.08 Brazil Bovespa 49114.93 0.92 13.30 Mexico IPC 44293.23 -0.45 3.06 Chile IPSA 3832.02 0.51 4.13 Chile IGPA 18754.70 0.46 3.32 Argentina MerVal 0.00 0 -100.00 Colombia IGBC 9573.20 -0.26 12.00 Venezuela IBC 16124.89 -1.07 10.53 Currencies daily % YTD % change change Latest Brazil real 3.6678 0.77 7.61 Mexico peso 17.8095 -0.28 -3.25 Chile peso 679 -0.56 4.52 Colombia peso 3222.7 -1.16 -1.66 Peru sol 3.4341 0.06 -0.59 Argentina peso (interbank) 15.3300 0.31 -15.31 Argentina peso (parallel) 15.66 0.38 -8.88 ($1 = 3.6767 Brazilian reais) (Reporting by Bruno Federowski; Additional reporting by Paula Arend Laier; Editing by Alistair Bell)
The Allergan logo is seen in this photo illustration in Singapore November 23, 2015. REUTERS/Thomas White

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission on Thursday approved Teva Pharmaceutical Industries' $40.5 billion (28.6 billion) acquisition of the generics activities of Allergan conditional on a number of divestments, notably Allergan businesses in Britain and Ireland.

Reuters earlier reported that Teva was expected to win EU antitrust approval after agreeing to sell off some of its activities.

The Commission said in a statement it had had concerns that the merged entity would have faced insufficient competition for a number of generic pharmaceuticals as well as in generics overall in Britain, Ireland and Iceland.

To address these concerns, the two companies had offered to divest each of the marketed molecules and molecules in development pipeline in 24 European countries, Teva's portfolio in Iceland and the great majority of Allergan's generics activities in Britain and Ireland.

"Following an extensive market test, the Commission found that the commitments address the competition concerns identified and concluded that the proposed transaction, as modified by the commitments would raise no competition concerns," the Commission said in a statement.

(Reporting By Philip Blenkinsop; editing by Robert-Jan Bartunek)
(Reuters) - China's central bank is preparing regulations that would allow commercial lenders to swap non-performing loans of companies for stakes in those firms, two people with direct knowledge of the new policy told Reuters.

The new rules would reduce commercial banks' non-performing loan (NPL) ratios, and free up cash for fresh lending for investment in a new wave of infrastructure products and factory upgrades that the government hopes will rejuvenate the world's second-largest economy.

NPLs surged to a decade-high last year as China's economy grew at its slowest pace in a quarter of a century. Official data showed banks held more than 4 trillion yuan ($614 billion) in NPLs and "special mention" loans, or debts that could sour, at the year-end.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the release of a new document explaining the regulatory change was imminent. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

"Such a rule change shows banks' bad loans have risen to such a level that this issue has to be tackled now before it's too late," said Wu Kan, Shanghai-based head of equity trading at investment firm Shanshan Finance.

State banks have extended loans to government financing vehicles and state-owned coal and steel producers, so this policy can help give lenders time to deal with non-performing assets as China pushes supply-side reforms, Wu added.

The quality of assets held by banks is worse than it looks, analysts have said. To avoid stumping up capital and to protect their balance sheets, some banks have under-reported bad loans and under-recognised overdue debt.

The top banking regulator has warned commercial lenders to pay special attention to risks.

Bank shares fell more than 2 percent on Thursday, with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China down 2 percent and Bank of Communications losing 2.7 percent.

"This was mainly due to a technical correction, but there's also investor uncertainty over how those non-performing assets would be valued, and disposed of eventually," said Wu at Shanshan Finance.

Story continues

CABINET APPROVAL

The sources said the new regulations would get special approval from the State Council, China's cabinet-equivalent body, thus skirting the need to revise commercial bank law, which bars banks from investing in non-financial institutions.

Previously, Chinese commercial banks usually dealt with NPLs by selling them at a discount to state-designated asset management companies which, in turn, would try to recover the debt or re-sell at a profit to distressed debt investors.

The sources had no further detail on how banks would value the new equity stakes, which would represent assets on their balance sheets, or what ratio or amount of NPLs they would be able to convert this way.

On paper, the move would also represent a way for indebted companies to reduce their leverage, cutting the cost of servicing debt and making them more worthy of fresh credit.

Beijing has prioritised the closure of so-called "zombie" firms responsible for much of China's corporate debt overhang, and has taken aim at overcapacity in industries such as steel and coal.

Lai Xiaomin, chairman of China Huarong Asset Management Co, the country's biggest bad debt manager, said he had no direct knowledge of the move, but would welcome such debt-to-equity swaps.

These would help companies "improve their financial situation" and "prevent the spread of financial risk", Lai told Reuters. Coal, steel, real estate and machinery were among the sectors he thought most suitable for debt-to-equity swaps.

"(In China) credit to non-financial corporates has risen in the last five years from 120 percent of GDP to more than 160 percent in May 2015," Jose Vinals, director of monetary and capital markets at the International Monetary Fund, said at an event in Mumbai.

"These vulnerabilities ... will need to be addressed strongly as the economy moves towards a more market-based financial system, including for the exchange rate."

($1=6.51 yuan)

(Reporting by Hong Kong Newsroom, Samuel Shen, Pete Sweeney and Matthew Miller in Beijing and Suvashree Choudhury in Mumbai; Writing by Pete Sweeney, Shu Zhang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Sam Holmes, Neil Fullick and Ian Geoghegan)
PARIS (Reuters) - France's finance minister said on Thursday that talks among 10 European countries for a financial transaction tax had deadlocked amid reservations from Belgium, Slovakia and Spain.

France with Germany has led efforts to create the tax which was supposed to help recover public funds used to bail out banks during the financial crisis while curbing speculative trading.

However, the talks have dragged on since 2011 as the countries struggled to agree what instruments should be covered and at which tax rate.

"We have reached a point of deadlock," French Finance Minister Michel Sapin told a news conference, adding that the European Union's current Austrian presidency had not abandoned hopes of getting an agreement in June.

Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Greece, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain originally agreed to create the tax.

But Estonia dropped out last year, leaving only 10 countries, dangerously close to the nine needed to pursue the project under EU rules, Sapin acknowledged.

Sapin said that Slovakia and Spain were not currently in a position to take a political decision on the tax while Belgium now had misgivings.

"We are really at the limit (of countries) necessary to go forward. I'm concerned given things are frozen, but France still wants to keep going and will push for it," he said.

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Ingrid Melander)
Laszlo Bock

Google is known for encouraging employees to set stretch goals, and for expecting that they might not always get all the way there.

At the same time, Google managers don't simply accept failure and move on. In fact, they spend as much time discussing projects that went wrong as they do talking about successful initiatives.

That's according to Laszlo Bock, Google's SVP of people operations. Bock recently spoke with Kris Duggan, CEO of software company BetterWorks, about goal-setting at Google.

"We spend probably an equal amount of time actually talking about failure" and planning for future success, Bock said of managers' conversations with employees.

Bock cited Jeff Huber, former SVP of Google X: "He spends 50% of his staff meeting on what failed last week and what did we learn from it? So by making conversation about misses normal, you end up actually driving lots of improvement in the organization."

Linda Hill, a professor at Harvard Business School, has voiced support for this strategy of addressing failures head-on.

As she told the Harvard Business Review, "Hold people accountable. You can't say, 'Gee, that's too bad.' You need to figure out what went wrong and why."

At the same time, Hill said that leaders shouldn't dwell on their team's mistakes: "Do the diagnosis, get the learning, and move on," she told the Review.

Whether you're working at Google or elsewhere, the point is that you shouldn't shy away from talking about employees' failures. If you address them in a way that's constructive, it'll be an experience everyone learns and grows from.

NOW WATCH: 5 awesome Google features you didn't know about





More From Business Insider


* Unknown hackers breached Bangladesh central bank systems

* Sent transfer requests to Federal Reserve Bank of New York

* Misspelling of Sri Lanka NGO raised suspicions

* Bangladesh says may sue Fed to recover lost money

* Finance minister blames Fed for not stopping transfers earlier (Adds Sri Lankan NGO name, bank details, INSIGHT tag, bullets)

By Serajul Quadir

DHAKA, March 10 (Reuters) - A spelling mistake in an online bank transfer instruction helped prevent a nearly $1 billion heist last month involving the Bangladesh central bank and the New York Fed, banking officials said.

Unknown hackers still managed to get away with about $80 million, one of the largest known bank thefts in history.

The hackers breached Bangladesh Bank's systems and stole its credentials for payment transfers, two senior officials at the bank said. They then bombarded the Federal Reserve Bank of New York with nearly three dozen requests to move money from the Bangladesh Bank's account there to entities in the Philippines and Sri Lanka, the officials said.

Four requests to transfer a total of about $81 million to the Philippines went through, but a fifth, for $20 million, to a Sri Lankan non-profit organisation was held up because the hackers misspelled the name of the NGO, Shalika Foundation.

Hackers misspelled "foundation" in the NGO's name as "fandation", prompting a routing bank, Deutsche Bank, to seek clarification from the Bangladesh central bank, which stopped the transaction, one of the officials said.

There is no NGO under the name of Shalika Foundation in the list of registered Sri Lankan non-profits. Reuters could not immediately find contact information for the organization.

Deutsche Bank declined to comment.

At the same time, the unusually high number of payment instructions and the transfer requests to private entities - as opposed to other banks - raised suspicions at the Fed, which also alerted the Bangladeshis, the officials said.

The details of how the hacking came to light and was stopped before it did more damage have not been previously reported. Bangladesh Bank has billions of dollars in a current account with the Fed, which it uses for international settlements.

Story continues

The transactions that were stopped totalled $850-$870 million, one of the officials said.

Last year, Russian computer security company Kaspersky Lab said a multinational gang of cyber criminals had stolen as much as $1 billion from as many as 100 financial institutions around the world in about two years.

Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's son Qusay took $1 billion from Iraq's central bank on the orders of his father on the day before coalition forces began bombing the country in 2003, American and Iraqi officials have said. In 2007, guards at the Dar Es Salaam bank in Baghdad made off with $282 million.

MONEY RECOVERED

Bangladesh Bank has said it has recovered some of the money that was stolen, and is working with anti-money laundering authorities in the Philippines to try to recover the rest.

A bank spokesman could not be reached for comment late on Thursday.

The recovered funds refer to the Sri Lanka transfer, which was stopped, one of the officials said.

Initially, the Sri Lankan transaction reached Pan Asia Banking Corp, which went back to Deutsche Bank for more verification because of the unusually large size of the payment, a Pan Asia official said.

"The transaction was too large for a country like us," the official said. "Then (Deutsche) came back and said it was a suspect transaction."

A Pan Asia spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.

The dizzying, global reach of the heist underscores the growing threat of cyber crime and how hackers can find weak links in even the most secure computer networks.

More than a month after the attack, Bangladeshi officials are scrambling to trace the money, shore up security and identify weaknesses in their systems. They said there is little hope of ever catching the hackers, and it could take months before the money is recovered, if at all.

Security experts said the perpetrators had deep knowledge of the Bangladeshi institution's internal workings, likely gained by spying on bank workers.

The Bangladesh government, meanwhile, is blaming the Fed for not stopping the transactions earlier. Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith told reporters on Tuesday that the country may resort to suing the Fed to recover the money.

"The Fed must take responsibility," he said.

The New York Fed has said its systems were not breached, and it has been working with the Bangladesh central bank since the incident occurred.

The hacking of Bangladesh Bank happened sometime between Feb. 4-5, over the Bangladeshi weekend, which falls on a Friday, the officials said. The bank's offices were shut.

Initially, the central bank was not sure if its system had been breached, but cyber security experts brought in to investigate found hacker "footprints" that suggested the system had been compromised, the officials said.

These experts could also tell that the attack originated from outside Bangladesh, they said, adding the bank is looking into how they got into the system and an internal investigation is ongoing.

The bank suspects money sent to the Philippines was further diverted to casinos there, the officials said.

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp, which oversees the gaming industry, said it has launched an investigation. The country's anti-money laundering authority is also working on the case.

(Additional reporting by Jim Finkle in BOSTON, Jonathan Spicer in NEW YORK, Farah Master in HONG KONG and Shihar Aneez in COLOMBO; Editing by Paritosh Bansal and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Jack Dorsey (L), CEO of Square and CEO of Twitter, and Jim McKelvey, co-founder of Square, (2nd R) applaud as NYSE President Tom Farley (R) fist bumps Mac Riley after the IPO of Square Inc., in New York November 19, 2015. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

From tech companies like PayPal to big banks like Bank of America, everyone seems to be gunning for a piece of Square's business.

But Square CEO Jack Dorsey says there's one major difference between his company and the rest of the competition that makes it better: its suite of services that cover everything from lending to analytics.

That's what Dorsey told a Square customer who Bank of America approached with much better payment processing rates.

"The rate actually matters less to our sellers than we first imagined. Its the suite of services and cohesion that matter a whole lot more," Dorsey said during Square's earnings call Wednesday.

Aside from its credit card reading dongle, Square offers a number of different services to its customers, including its cash-advance program, Square Capital, and a variety of software that handles everything from payroll and invoicing to analytics.

In fact, that part of its business, which is looped under the software and data products segment, saw the biggest growth last quarter, nearly quadrupling in revenue to $22 million. That's still small relative to Square's quarterly revenue of $374 million, but it's the part that has the highest margin and growth potential.

"What we have seen from our competitors is theyre all going after parts of the system, and we believe that were the only ones that are going after a cohesive whole end-to-end," Dorsey added. "That is the biggest competitive advantage that we have."

And it seems to be helping grow Square's active seller base too. Square CFO Sarah Friar said it adds about 100,000 active sellers a quarter, and that it expects to see a "continuation of that trend" going forward. Square hasn't disclosed the exact number of its active seller number, only saying it's "over 2 million," which is pretty much where it was last quarter.

Story continues

Square had a solid earnings report Wednesday which exceeded analyst expectations. Its shares were up roughly 2.5% in after hours.

NOW WATCH: We tried Lenovos new $500 tablet that features a built-in projector





More From Business Insider


Saudi Arabia riyal

Saudi Arabia needs more cash.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the world's second-largest oil producer is looking for an $8 billion loan from international banks. As The Journal reported, the country ran a record $100 billion deficit in 2015, largely because of the sharp decline in oil prices.

Over the past few months, Saudi Arabia has adjusted to low oil prices by following a strategy that seems primarily aimed at avoiding production cuts.

Riyadh has implemented new taxes, cut funding for social programs, and prepared to sell off parts of Saudi Aramco, the country's multitrillion-dollar state oil concern. The moves are meant to cushion the long-term effects of lagging oil revenue without requiring any deeper cuts.

At the same time, this new fiscal strategy, along with Saudi Arabia's uniquely low break-even price for oil, allows the country to continue pumping at unprecedented rates. This approach preserves Saudi Arabia's leadership position in determining global production and price and cuts into the oil revenue of Iran, Riyadh's top regional foe  all without seeming to pose any kind of long-term threat to the country's bottom line.

The trouble is that oil is so cheap. And Saudi Arabia's various regional policies are so expensive that the country apparently needs an additional line of funding on top of its various tax increases and sell-offs. Saudi Arabia is looking to borrow substantial amounts of money for the first time in more than a decade, according to The Journal, because it's following a set of policies that require a measure of fiscal stability.

Screen Shot 2016 03 09 at 6.21.03 PM

Right now, Saudi Arabia is leading a multinational Arab coalition that's attempting to restore Yemen's internationally recognized government, which Iranian-backed Houthi rebels overthrew in early 2015. The military effort has stalled and is widely considered to have been a strategic blunder.

Story continues

Saudi Arabia was the world's largest arms importer in 2014 and had the world's third-largest defense budget in 2015. In February, Saudi Arabia held what was reported to be one of the largest military exercises in the country's history. ISIS has attacked Saudi Arabia repeatedly over the past year, while Riyadh is also engaged in a high-stakes military and diplomatic face-off with Iran that's forced it to essentially purchase the loyalty of some of its allies.

Saudi Arabia is beginning to see the geopolitical limitations of its oil strategy.

The country can afford to produce at a level that's guaranteed to keep prices low. But the cost of covering the country's budgetary needs becomes steeper the longer oil remains in a price trough. And the costs become steeper the longer Saudi Arabia maintains such a confrontational regional stance  a strategy that might actually explain oil's low price in the first place.

NOW WATCH: A Navy SEAL explains why hell never go skydiving as a civilian again





More From Business Insider


By Jessica DiNapoli

NEW YORK (Reuters) - iHeartMedia Inc, the largest owner of U.S. radio stations, on Wednesday secured a temporary restraining order from a state court in Texas rescinding notices of default it received from a small number of its senior creditors.

The San Antonio, Texas-based company has been battling with creditors, a group made up mostly of hedge funds, after it moved Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc shares to another subsidiary, Broader Media LLC.

iHeart this week received a default notice from the creditors, arguing the transfer is technically a default, and saying they could call their debt due in 60 days - a sum more than $6 billion - according to a lawsuit iHeart filed in State District Court in Bexar County, Texas.

The lawsuit also claims that the creditors' actions threaten to force the company into bankruptcy.

The restraining order iHeart won expires in 14 days, but the court may extend it, according to a public filing from the company. The order also stops the creditors from issuing additional notices of default.

iHeart said in a prepared statement that it was pleased with the outcome and looks forward to a favorable ruling.

The share move could be used to help the company, struggling with a $21 billion debt load, to find other financing opportunities, Moody's Investors Service said in a research note.

(Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli)
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina clap during signing ceremony of agreements between India and Bangladesh in Dhaka June 6, 2015. REUTERS/Rafiqur Rahman/Files

DHAKA (Reuters) - India has signed an agreement extending $2 billion in development financing to Bangladesh, the Indian government's external lending arm said on Thursday, in the agency's biggest ever credit facility to another country.

The deal, signed on Wednesday in Dhaka, came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement of the new credit line to Bangladesh during his Dhaka visit in June last year. It follows India's $1 billion in assistance provided to Bangladesh in 2011 for infrastructure development.

The credit line would be used to finance development in the power sector, railways, road transportation, information and communication technology, shipping, health and technical education sectors, the Exim Bank said it a statement.

During Modi's visit, the two countries signed a land boundary agreement, more than four decades after the neighbours first tried to resolve the complex territorial disputes.

Exim Bank is also in the process of extending $1.60 billion in buyer's credit to an India-Bangladesh joint venture to build a 1,320 megawatt thermal power plant project in Bangladesh.

(Reporting by Ruma Paul; Editing by Sam Holmes)
Mohammad Nahavandian Chief of Staff of Iran Presidency attends the session "Next Steps for Iran and the World" during the Annual Meeting 2016 of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 20, 2016. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich

By William James

LONDON (Reuters) - Iran needs full access to the international banking system, the chief of staff to President Hassan Rouhani said on Thursday, adding that London has an important role to play following the lifting of sanctions.

Mohammad Nahavandian also said Iran must regain its share of the global oil market before it would participate in any agreement among oil producing countries to restrict supply.

International sanctions against Iran, including banking restrictions, ended in January under a deal with world powers in which Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear programme.

But Nahavandian, speaking at the Royal United Services Institute in London, said there should be greater clarity about the application of secondary U.S. financial sanctions to allow non-U.S. banks to conduct business freely with Iran.

"We need to see facilitation of banking relations as soon as possible and as complete as possible, and London can do that," he said.

U.S. measures still in place have left non-U.S. banks and insurers wary of processing transactions with Iran.

"Big banks are still worried about primary sanctions from the United States, I think they have to come with a very clear interpretation drawing the line between primary sanctions and secondary sanctions," he said. "Non-U.S. banks should not be limited in any kind of banking transactions with Iranian banks."

Nahavandian suggested Britain could have moved faster to capitalise on the lifting of sanctions, adding: "Those who act quickly get the best results."

Other European Union countries including Italy, France and Germany have already struck billions of dollars worth of deals with Iran.

British business Secretary Sajid Javid said on Wednesday that he and other European counterparts were working towards easing the impact of banking restrictions, and that he would lead a trade delegation to Iran later this year.

Iran is focused on increasing its oil sales now it can trade more freely, but the oil price collapse since mid-2014 has led some big exporters to suggest an output freeze.

Story continues

"Of course the oil market has to be managed more wisely," Nahavandian. But "for Iran to participate in supply reduction, the prerequisite is to come to ... the share of the market it had and then from that position help with a decrease in supply."

Nahavandian said Iran's reliance on oil revenue was now minimal, and it was up to other producers to restrict supply.

(Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
By William James

LONDON (Reuters) - Iran needs full access to the international banking system, the chief of staff to President Hassan Rouhani said on Thursday, adding that London has an important role to play following the lifting of sanctions.

Mohammad Nahavandian also said Iran must regain its share of the global oil market before it would participate in any agreement among oil producing countries to restrict supply.

International sanctions against Iran, including banking restrictions, ended in January under a deal with world powers in which Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear program.

But Nahavandian, speaking at the Royal United Services Institute in London, said there should be greater clarity about the application of secondary U.S. financial sanctions to allow non-U.S. banks to conduct business freely with Iran.

"We need to see facilitation of banking relations as soon as possible and as complete as possible, and London can do that," he said.

U.S. measures still in place have left non-U.S. banks and insurers wary of processing transactions with Iran.

"Big banks are still worried about primary sanctions from the United States, I think they have to come with a very clear interpretation drawing the line between primary sanctions and secondary sanctions," he said. "Non-U.S. banks should not be limited in any kind of banking transactions with Iranian banks."

Nahavandian suggested Britain could have moved faster to capitalize on the lifting of sanctions, adding: "Those who act quickly get the best results."

Other European Union countries including Italy, France and Germany have already struck billions of dollars worth of deals with Iran.

British business Secretary Sajid Javid said on Wednesday that he and other European counterparts were working towards easing the impact of banking restrictions, and that he would lead a trade delegation to Iran later this year.

Iran is focused on increasing its oil sales now it can trade more freely, but the oil price collapse since mid-2014 has led some big exporters to suggest an output freeze.

Story continues

"Of course the oil market has to be managed more wisely," Nahavandian. But "for Iran to participate in supply reduction, the prerequisite is to come to ... the share of the market it had and then from that position help with a decrease in supply."

Nahavandian said Iran's reliance on oil revenue was now minimal, and it was up to other producers to restrict supply.

(Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
John McGraw

A man was reportedly charged Thursday with assaulting a protester who was being escorted out of a rally in North Carolina the previous day for Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump.

John McGraw, 78, was charged with assault and battery and disorderly conduct stemming from the incident, WRAL reported, citing the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office.

Multiple videos posted online showed McGraw allegedly throwing a punch at Rakeem Jones, identified by reports as the victim, as Jones was being escorted out of the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

After Jones was hit, he was thrown to the ground by law-enforcement officials who were escorting him out of the event.

The police jumped on me like I was the one swinging," he told The Washington Post. My eye still hurts. Its just shocking."

The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office defended the actions of its deputies to The Huffington Post and cautioned against making snap judgments from the short videos.

"Our mission was to make sure all the 14,000 people stay safe, to separate protesters from supporters and to exit them as quickly as possible," Sgt. Sean Swain told The Huffington Post. "What we did was to de-escalate the situation."

Here's a look at the incident as captured by a bystander's video:

The incident is the latest instance of the mogul's rallies featuring episodes of violence. Most recently, a Time magazine photographer was thrown to the ground by a Secret Service agent in what the publication called a "chokehold."

Trump has been criticized for not condemning such violence in the past. Last November, for example, Trump suggested the protester who was reportedly kicked and punched Alabama rally attendees days before "maybe ... should have been roughed up" because "it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing."

Story continues

NOW WATCH: Remember when Trump said he 'might be dating' Ivanka if she weren't his daughter? Even his supporters were creeped out





More From Business Insider


ill never be this cool again

The reasons why individuals join the US military are as diverse and unique as each person serving.

But, whatever the reasons for why someone joined the military, service members can bond with each other over both the negatives and positives of serving in the armed forces.

In a recent Reddit thread, military members responded to the question, "What is your favorite part of being in the military?"

Predictably, the answers varied greatly, from the steadiness of pay in the military to the sense of belonging to something greater than the individual. We've collected our favorite answers below.

For Reddit user terrez, the greatest part of being in the military was the opportunities to see and experience things he would never have had the opportunity to otherwise:

Got to live in Japan, a place I never thought I would see I person. So that's pretty neat. Occasionally an f16 will be doing loopdy loops and stuff over the flight line (idk why) and it's like a quick little air show.

This point of view, the fact that the military is an eye-opening experience, was echoed by LordWartooth:

I would honestly have to say, both sarcastically and seriously, that my favorite part of being in the military has to be the eye opening experience about life in general. When you see senior field grade officers who can barely read, or senior enlisted whose uniforms could be painted on, considering how tight they are, and you know that they have found success in life, then I should know that consistently aiming to be better than that will take me where I want to be in life, in the military or outside of it.

Reddit user Esdarke quickly agreed with LordWartooth's point:

Absolutely this. If nothing else, the military will teach you about yourself.

I for one have resolved to be less of a d--- to people. Because now I've seen what happens when everyone acts like a YouTube comments section and nobody needs that in their life.

Marines Military US

Story continues

And for some, serving in the military was made worth it simply for the camaraderie and diversity that it fostered in the ranks. StonehengeMan writes of his favorite part of being in the military:

The people in the military.

All kinds of backgrounds - but we all work together as one (mostly). The sense of camaraderie and purpose.

Sorry if that comes across as a little earnest but it's the people you work with that get you through the really bad days and who let you enjoy the good days even more :)

This sense of family that the military fosters was a common theme for the Reddit users. User Asymmetric_Warfare noted that the military imbues service members with a support system, adventure, and experiences that someone fresh out of high school might never otherwise experience:

For me first and foremost it has been mentoring my joe's and watching my junior enlisted soldiers grow and mature and become NCO's themselves.

Being able to call my deployment buddies up at any time any place anywhere with any issue and they will be there for me and vice a versa.

Making friendships with the people you deploy with that are stronger then your own familial bonds to your siblings and family back home.

Going to war, realizing a lot of sh-- back home is just that, white noise, definitely puts life into perspective after.

Being stationed in germany at 18 years old, Donor Kabab's, them crazy foam parties in Nuremburg. All those lovely German single ladies...I miss you Fraulein's.

US Army 2015

And of course, for some, the best part of joining the military are the practical and concrete benefits that the organization imparts. As zaishade writes:

Not worrying about my finances: I don't have to worry about being laid off tomorrow, or not making enough to cover rent and groceries. As much as I like fantasizing about my separation date, whenever I go visit civilian friends and family I'm reminded of how much the common man still has to struggle.

Reddit user jeebus_t_christ echoes the practical benefits of joining the military by writing simply: "Free college."

And ultimately, as Reddit user ChumBucket1 notes flippantly, "Blowing shit up and shooting machine guns never got old."

NOW WATCH: This is the Marine Corps' monstrous new assault vehicle





More From Business Insider


* Retailers and petrochemicals are main drags in Saudi

* Egypt jumps 3 pct as institutional buyers return

* Abu Dhabi's Etisalat main drag on market

* Dubai slips as some shares go ex-dividend

* Qatar almost flat in thin trade

By Celine Aswad

DUBAI, March 10 (Reuters) - Most stock markets in the Gulf fell on Thursday as investors sold off cyclical sectors and some shares went ex-dividend, while Egypt's bourse jumped 3 percent in robust volume after the central bank acted to improve dollar supplies to the economy.

Riyadh's index fell back 0.3 percent, giving up early gains, as the petrochemical and retail sectors dragged the market lower. Trading volume was the lowest this week.

The index had rallied 14 percent since mid-February, buoyed by a belief that oil prices have bottomed out. Investors' selling of sectors vulnerable to downturns in the global and domestic economies may indicate investors are focusing on earnings outlooks once more, rather than oil.

Saudi Basic Industries, the largest listed petrochemical producer, fell 0.7 percent. But PetroRabigh added 0.9 percent after the company said it would book around 750 million riyals ($200 million) in revenue this year with the full start-up of its expanded ethane cracker.

After an initial climb, the retail sector dropped for a second day. Late on Tuesday, electronics retailer Jarir Marketing warned that its sales would plunge as much as 30 percent year-on-year in the first quarter. Jarir, which sank 9.1 percent on Wednesday, fell a further 2.7 percent on Thursday.

But Mouwasat Medical Services rose 3.5 percent after it signed an agreement with oil giant Saudi Aramco to provide healthcare services for another two years. According to a bourse statement, the new contract's revenue will rise by at least 10 percent. Over the past five years, yearly revenue from Aramco averaged about 184 million riyals.

Cairo's main index added 3.0 percent in this year's heaviest trading volume; the index's break above the February peak this week has left it technically bullish.

Story continues

Investors welcomed the central bank's move to remove caps on foreign exchange deposits and withdrawals for companies importing essential goods, to boost liquidity in a dollar-starved economy - although it is still unclear how authorities can cope in the long term with an endemic hard currency shortage and pressure for a devaluation.

Bourse data showed foreign and local institutional investors were net buyers on the exchange on Thursday.

"When you see institutional buyers coming back to the markets, this is a positive sign that, at least for now, the market is in good shape," said a Cairo-based trader.

Shares favoured by foreign investors rose sharply. Global Telecom and Commercial International Bank, added 3.5 and 5.6 percent respectively.

Orascom Telecom climbed 1.6 percent and was the most heavily traded stock. But its affiliate Beltone Financial , which had more than quadrupled in price over the past three weeks on its buyout of CI Capital, nosedived its 10 percent daily limit for a second day in a row.

UAE, QATAR

Abu Dhabi's largest listed stock by market value, Eisalat , tumbled 4.0 percent as the market reopened after being closed on Wednesday because of poor weather.

The telecommunications giant proposed a cash dividend of 0.4 dirham per share for the second half of 2015, bringing its total payout for last year to 0.8 dirham. For all of 2014, Etisalat paid a cash dividend of 0.70 dirham plus 10 percent in bonus shares.

It also announced on Thursday the appointment of an acting chief executive, Hatem Dowidar, until the group restructures by end-June. It did not elaborate on its restructuring plans.

Other market heavyweights also fell back, with First Gulf Bank retreating 1.9 percent and Union National Bank , which went ex-dividend on Wednesday, tumbling 7.0 percent. The index dropped 1.9 percent.

In Dubai, the index dropped 0.7 percent; it is now up 6.5 percent in 2016. Dubai Islamic Bank tumbled 6.6 percent as it went ex-dividend. National Central Cooling (Tabreed), which also went ex-dividend, fell 3.4 percent.

But the most heavily traded stock on the bourse, Arabtec , climbed 0.6 percent. The builder announced it had been awarded a contract to build a 1.1 billion dirham ($300 million) twin-towers project in central Dubai.
By Rania El Gamal and Alex Lawler DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) - A meeting between oil producers to discuss a global pact on freezing production is unlikely to take place in Russia on March 20, sources familiar with the matter say, as OPEC member Iran is yet to say whether it would participate in such a deal. OPEC officials including Nigeria's oil minister have said a meeting would take place in Moscow on that date, potentially as the next step in widening an agreement to freeze output at January levels struck by OPEC members Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Qatar plus non-member Russia last month. But the biggest roadblock to a wider deal, OPEC delegates say, is Iran. Tehran feels it should be exempt from the agreement as it wants to recover market share it lost under Western sanctions. Kuwait said on Tuesday it will commit to the deal - if all major producers including Iran do so. "They are not agreeing on the meeting. Why would the ministers meet again now? Iran says they will not do anything," said an OPEC source from a major producer. "Only if Iran agrees, things will change." The pact on freezing output has helped support oil prices, which started a slide in mid-2014 due to oversupply. Brent crude was trading above $40 a barrel on Thursday, up 50 percent from a 12-year low of $27.10 reached in January. Some delegates are wary that if many oil producers met too soon before getting the nod from everyone, prices could weaken again if the talks ended in disarray. "Our view is not to go there with the possibility of no agreement so as not to affect prices negatively," said another source from a major OPEC member, referring to the proposed March 20 meeting. OPEC's Gulf members favour meeting in the first half of April, in Doha or another Gulf city, a Gulf delegate said last week. Another OPEC delegate was more pessimistic, saying he expected no major progress until OPEC's next scheduled meeting in June. IRAN COMPROMISE? Tehran has rejected freezing its output at January levels, put by OPEC secondary sources at 2.93 million barrels per day (bpd), and wants to return to much higher pre-sanctions production. "Tehran wanted a freeze ... for them to be based on 4 million barrels per day, their pre-sanctions production figure," said one source familiar with the discussions. A source familiar with Iranian thinking agreed. The issue is set to be discussed when Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak meets Iranian counterpart Bijan Zanganeh. Novak is visiting Tehran on Monday, RIA news agency reported, citing the Russian embassy in Iran. Some OPEC sources hinted that there could be a workable agreement on the table to get Tehran on board. "If they are willing to find a solution, they should offer a fair deal to Iran," one said. There are precedents for OPEC members to be exempt from agreements on output restraint. Iraq, for example, was not included for many years due to sanctions and war. (Reporting by Rania El Gamal and Alex Lawler; Editing by Dale Hudson and David Evans)
By David DeKok

HARRISBURG, Pa., March 10 (Reuters) - A federal jury ruled on Thursday that Cabot Oil & Gas Co must pay more than $4.2 million in damages to two families in northeastern Pennsylvania who said the company's fracking operations contaminated their ground water.

Six jurors in federal court in Scranton awarded $1.3 million each to Scott Ely and Monica Marta-Ely, a married couple in Dimock. Each of their three children received an award of $50,000.

A second couple, Ray and Victoria Hubert, also of Dimock, about 32 miles (50 km) south of Binghamton, New York, each received $720,000, and their daughter Hope was awarded $50,000.

The families had no immediate reaction but were seen thanking jurors after the verdict in the U.S. District Court of the Middle District of Pennsylvania, which came after 13 days of testimony.

Cabot had no immediate comment but spokesman George Stark said the company was preparing a statement.

The Elys and Huberts were the last of more than 40 families who had sued Cabot. They alleged that their water was contaminated with methane gas after the company began using the process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to extract gas from underground shale formations near Dimock in 2008.

The other families settled with the company in 2012.

"We haven't had clean water since he was in kindergarten," said Monica Marta-Ely, referring to her 13-year-old son, Jared, before the trial began.

The family's lawyer, Leslie Lewis, accused Cabot of "reckless disregard" for the families' safety.

Dimock was made infamous in the 2010 documentary "Gasland" by Josh Fox. It showed local residents lighting their tap water on fire because of the high amount of methane it contained.

Stephen Dillard, a lawyer for Cabot, argued in court that the methane occurred naturally and was not caused by the company's drilling operations. He contended that the ground water, while aesthetically displeasing, was safe to drink.

(Editing By Frank McGurty; Editing by Frances Kerry)
(Fixes spelling of Deutsche in first paragraph.)

NEW YORK, March 10 (Reuters) - Pratt & Whitney said on Thursday that its new geared turbofan jetliner engine had logged high reliability at its initial customer, Deutsche Lufthansa AG.

"We're 99 percent dispatch reliable at Lufthansa," Bob Leduc, president of Pratt & Whitney, said at an investor conference held by parent United Technologies.

"An engine that's not robust, an engine that's not durable does not demonstrate 99 percent dispatch out of the box."

Lufthansa took delivery of the first Airbus A320neo jet, equipped with the Pratt & Whitney's engines, in January after launch customer Qatar Airways raised concern about the engine's performance in hot climates. On Wednesday, Qatar Airways said the engines were not adequately tested and that it was seeking performance guarantees from Airbus and Pratt.

(Reporting by Alwyn Scott; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)
(updates throughout)

By Will Caiger-Smith

NEW YORK, March 10 (IFR) - The Republic of Panama has set initial price thoughts on a new 12-year benchmark senior bond at Treasuries plus 212.5bp, taking advantage of continued strong sentiment towards the region.

Market participants have been anticipating the deal amid a rally in Latin American bonds which encouraged The Province of Buenos Aires and Cemex to tap the primary market on Wednesday.

"Panama has been looming...we were starting to wonder what they were waiting for so they obviously pulled the trigger which is good," said a syndicate banker.

He put the new issue concession at around 30bp, working from Panama's existing 2025s which were trading at a G-spread in the high 160bp area on Thursday morning.

"It's a name that is well-liked and not super frequent," said the banker.

Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse are active bookrunners on Panama's deal.

(Reporting by Will Caiger-Smith; editing by Shankar Ramakrishnan)
The options are dwindling.

Refugees trying to reach Europe are now running out of options.

Europe was gripped was record-breaking refugee crisis last year, where more than a million migrants and refugees crossed into Europe. The crisis shows no signs of settling down, with the number of migrants and refugees arriving this year on pace to smash last years record. In the last two months, the number of arrivals has already exceeded what took six months in 2015.

Several countriesincluding a number of Balkan statesare closing down some of the paths that smugglers have exploited to get people into the EU. In the last month, a number of European countries have closed or severely restricted the major routes used by hundreds of thousands of refugees to get into the EU. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has condemed European countries for unilaterally closing the Balkan routes for refugees.

Hungary responded by building a razor-wire barrier on its border with Serbia, and later with Croatia after having 3,000 migrants and refugees crossing into the country in one day last year. The fences had effectively sealed of those routes. Hungary is now threatening to erect a fence along its border with Romania .

Austria erected a four-kilometer-long fence at the Slovenian border, deployed armed forces around the border. and last month limited asylum applications to 80 a day and the number of people allowed to transit through the country to 3,200.

Macedonia , Croatia , and Slovenia all announced this week that they will no longer be letting migrants and refugees through their borders with Greece. Croatia will only be allowing those with proper visas in, while Slovenia will only allow migrants who want to seek asylum or those with humanitarian needs through. This has effectively shut down a Balkan route into the EU, leaving some 13,000 migrants and refugees stranded at the border. Slovenias prime minister said: The so-called western Balkan route for irregular migrants is no more.

As the Balkan routes are sealed, migrants and refugees may try to cross through Albania . In the 1990s, more than 250,000 people crossed into Greece after the government collapsed.

Bulgaria is also another potential route into Western Europethough it does have a barrier along some of its border.

Turkey, which borders Syria, has agreed a deal with the EU to reduce the flow of refugees to both nations. The controversial deal involves a one-for-one swap: a Syrian in Greece will be sent to Turkey in exchange for a Syrian in Turkey who qualifies for asylum somewhere in Europe. Human Rights Watch have slammed the so-called one in, one out scheme, arguing it contradicts EU principles guaranteeing the right to seek asylum. The UN has warned the deal could violate international law.

Story continues

Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief, our free daily newsletter with the worlds most important and interesting news.

More stories from Quartz:
See all our Week 9 Iowa high school football photos

All of our images from Friday night's Iowa high school football games, Week 9 of the 2022 season.
(Updates with reports of filing for arrest, comment from Workers' Party president)

By Brad Haynes and Eduardo Simoes

SAO PAULO, March 10 (Reuters) - State prosecutors in Brazil are seeking the arrest of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on charges of money laundering and identity fraud for concealing ownership of a beachfront apartment, local media reported on Thursday.

Sao Paulo state prosecutors declined to comment on possible arrests in a news conference regarding the charges earlier in the day, and court officials declined to comment on the news.

Newspapers O Globo and O Estado de S. Paulo reported the filing for Lula's arrest citing court papers. Such a motion would have to be approved by a judge, who is unlikely to do so, according to the head of the ruling Workers' Party.

Arresting the former president would raise the stakes dramatically in a crisis that has rattled his successor, President Dilma Rousseff, and may further polarize protests called for Sunday by the opposition to demand her impeachment.

Earlier Thursday, state prosecutor Cassio Roberto Conserino told reporters that two dozen witnesses said Lula was the owner of a luxury condo in the city of Guaruja, benefiting from real estate projects financed by a state bankers' cooperative.

Lula has disavowed ownership of the apartment and denied any wrongdoing. His attorney has asked the Supreme Court to decide if the case is under the jurisdiction of state prosecutors or a separate federal probe tackling graft at state-run oil company Petrobras.

That two-year-old federal investigation has already rocked Brazil's political and business establishment with high-profile arrests and convictions, while deepening the worst recession in decades in Latin America's biggest economy.

The investigations now threaten to tarnish the legacy of Brazil's most powerful politician, whose humble roots and anti-poverty programs made him a folk hero, by putting a spotlight on how members of his left-leaning Workers' Party consolidated wealth and power since he rose to the presidency 13 years ago.

Story continues

Workers' Party President Rui Falcao told journalists in Brasilia that there were no grounds to arrest Lula and he was confident a judge would not grant a warrant.

Asked if the former president could join the current government as a minister, as some members of Rousseff's cabinet have suggested, Falcao said the decision was up to Lula.

If appointed, Lula could only be tried in the Supreme Court, placing him out of the reach of the state and federal probes.

Lula's lawyer, Cristiano Zanin Martins, said the prosecutors' news conference on Thursday was further evidence of a "media campaign" against the former president.

"The owner of a property is the person listed in the registry. It doesn't matter who some people think it belongs to," he said.

Martins reiterated the former president's account that he had invested in the real estate project, visited the unfinished apartment twice and then asked for his money back rather than receiving property.

(Reporting by Brad Haynes and Eduardo Simoes; Editing by Andrew Hay)
Must Read: Notes on Shake Shacks 4Q15 Earnings and Conference

(Continued from Prior Part)

Unit growth

Unit growth is vital for a company like Shake Shack (SHAK) that is in its growth phase. Unit growth not only increases a companys top line but also increases a companys visibility.

Overall, Shake Shack added nine new units in 4Q15 to increase the unit count to 84. When we see Shake Shacks (SHAK) peers, we can realize the scope of expansion that a company like Shake Shack has. For example, Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) operates more than 1,850 restaurants, Starbucks (SBUX) has more than 2,000 stores, and Panera Bread (PNRA) operates 1,900-plus restaurants.

Currently, Chipotle (CMG) and Starbucks (SBUX) form about 3.9% of the iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETFs (MTUM) portfolio.

Analyzing 4Q15 unit growth

Shake Shack (SHAK) has classified its restaurants into company-operated, domestic-licensed, and international-licensed. In 4Q15, the company added three domestic company-operated and six international-licensed restaurants.

Internationally, the company expanded its Middle East presence with new restaurants in Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. SHAK also opened two new restaurants in the UK, with one restaurant in London and one in Cardiff, Wales. The sixth international-licensed restaurant came up in Tokyo, Japan.

2016 outlook

For fiscal 2016, Shake Shack has planned to open 14 domestic company-owned restaurants, with the majority being skewed toward the later quarters of 2016. The company had opened its first restaurant in Arizona on February 26, 2016. SHAK plans to open two new restaurants in mid-March, one each in Phoenix and Los Angeles.

Internationally, Shake Shack management has plans to add six more restaurants this year in the Middle East, London, Japan, and South Korea. The company has signed a development agreement with SPC Group to develop 25 new restaurants in the next ten years. The first restaurant is scheduled to open in 2016.

Story continues

Continue to Next Part

Browse this series on Market Realist:
Its time to push for modernisation.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) has teamed up with the Civil Aviation Bureau of Japan (JCAB) to jointly promote air traffic management transformation in the Asia Pacific.

The two regulators inked a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC)to facilitate information sharing between the two organisations.

It will also enable collaboration in air traffic management modernisation efforts and in research activities to develop air traffic management concepts, solutions and technologies for the next generation of air traffic management systems.

The MoC was signed by Kevin Shum, Director-General of CAAS, and Hitoshi Ishizaki, Director-General of JCABs Air Navigation Services Department (JANS).





More From Singapore Business Review


Institutional investors are buying again.

Large foreign funds have dumped Singapore stocks in recent months, but analysts say that the local equity market is finally headed for a rebound as institutional investors strike back.

A report by RHB Research said that large funds have been mostly net sellers for Singapore over the past six months, but this trend is likely to be reversed soon due to the recent improvement in risk appetite.

The improvement has been mostly driven by the continued optimism of further easing in China and the stabilisation of crude oil prices, RHB said.

In terms of valuation, the Singapore market is painfully cheap, having fallen by a staggering 20.2% from its previous peak in April 2015.

However, RHB Research cautioned that bullishness could be tempered by weak domestic earnings growth and the possibility of an easing in Monetary Authority of Singapore's upcoming policy meeting. RHB also noted that within the ASEAN, investor interest is still weighted toward Indonesia and Thailand.

"Nonetheless, we expect the market to progressively post a rebound on the back of Singapores safe haven status and laggard play. We expect the recovery plays in Singapores large cap companies to step up first, before the upswing percolates down to small-mid caps, RHB Research said.







More From Singapore Business Review


Slovakia's Prime minister Robert Fico lost his majority in parliament as two far-right nationalist groups made spectacular gains (AFP Photo/Thierry Charlier) (AFP)

Bratislava (AFP) - Slovakia's president said Monday he will ask leftist Prime Minister Robert Fico, who won weekend elections but lost his parliamentary majority, to try to form a coalition government.

"I have decided, after the first round of talks, to entrust the chairman of the Smer party, which won the most votes in the elections, with the formation of a government and a majority coalition, which would back such a government," President Andrej Kiska announced.

Results from Saturday's elections showed Fico's Smer-Social Democrats (Smer-SD) party had won 49 seats, down sharply from its comfortable 83-seat majority in the 150-member parliament.

The liberal Freedom and Solidarity SaS came second with 21 seats, followed by the conservative OLANO-NOVA which took 19 seats.

But two far-right nationalist groups made spectacular gains, giving them a potential role in determining the stability and lifespan of the future government.

The Slovak National Party (SNS) made it back into parliament after a four-year absence with 15 seats, while LS-Nase Slovensko (Our Slovakia) led by Marian Kotleba secured 14 seats to enter the assembly for the first time.

"We will have in parliament radical political extremism in uniforms," Kiska said Monday, in a reference to Our Slovakia, which is considered neo-Nazi by some analysts and whose members dress in navy blue military-style uniforms.

The rise of the far right has spurred dismay among mainstream parties and political commentators, as well as soul-searching about the cause of their success.

"We need to dramatically increase confidence in the country... We need a government and an opposition able to convince people that they do not have to take part in the election as a protest," Kiska said Monday.

He added that he will begin talks with all chairmen of the eight political parties elected "except for Mr. Kotleba".

Fico dubbed the outcome a "big mishmash" of parties and announced the start of exploratory talks with other mainstream parties about forming a coalition.

But the SaS said it would reject any alliance with Fico, a populist who campaigned on a fiercely anti-refugee platform.

Slovakia is gearing up to take the EU's rotating presidency from July -- a role that will put the health of its democracy in the world's spotlight.
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's foreign exchange bank deposits fell for a fourth straight month in February to their lowest level in nearly two years, central bank data showed on Thursday.

Foreign exchange bank deposits stood at $53.47 billion at the end of February, the Bank of Korea said, down from $55.60 billion in the previous month. This was the lowest since end-March 2014.

A Bank of Korea official said the deposits mainly fell on a decline in dollar holdings as local companies withdrew them to pay for import settlements.

Dollar deposits fell to $42.51 billion as of end-February from $44.16 billion, while deposits denominated in the yuan edged down to $4.34 billion from $4.40 billion over the same period.

Deposits held by companies declined by $1.83 billion in February, while those held by private entities eased $0.3 billion. Companies held 87.7 percent of foreign exchange deposits as of the end of last month, the central bank said.

(Reporting by Christine Kim and Yena Park; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
Starbucks barista

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is making it easier for employees to vote.

The coffee giants CEO sent a letter to all employees on Monday about the companys role in increasing voter registration and participation, reports Politico.

"It does not matter if you are a Republican, a Democrat or an Independent," the letter reads. "Our intention is nonpartisan, and it is simple: by helping to increase voter registration and participation, we believe more people will have an opportunity to make their voices count."

Starbucks is making a TurboVote digital tool that allows for speedy voter registration accessible to the company's 114,000-plus US employees  the equivalent of about 20% of Wyoming's state population.

Howard Schultz

Schultz writes that he was inspired to emphasize voting after a February forum with employees in Brooklyn. Employees said that making "people aware of the importance to vote" was one of the top ways that Starbucks could elevate citizenship in the US.

Starbucks and Schultz are known for politically-oriented initiatives. In 2008, the coffee chain gave customers who said they voted on Election Day a free cup of coffee. More recently, Starbucks launched the much-maligned "race together" campaign, which encouraged baristas to talk about race relations with customers and write "race together" on coffee cups.

There were even rumors last year that Schultz was considering a campaign for the White House himself, which he shut down with an August op-ed in the New York Times. However, that doesnt mean that the CEO is loving the current batch of presidential candidates. In February, Schultz said that the US presidential election has turned into a "circus" and he has "grave concern" about the country's future.

NOW WATCH: This NYC bar serves 'Jell-Ohh' shots made with real fruit and they're amazing





More From Business Insider


The stock market (^GSPC) has now been in a bull market for seven years.

And much of this rally is owed to the rebound in profits, which is arguably the most important long-term driver of stock prices.

But what if corporate profits right now arent as strong as companies are telling us?

Currently, profits as measured by standardized accounting principles are much lower than the profits executives are spouting to their investors. And it has billionaire investors and Wall Street strategists wrestling with the possibility that the much of the profit growth weve seen is actually just an illusion



Beware the "GAAP gap"

When accounting for business, CFOs are guided by a standard known as generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP. GAAP represents an attempt to promote uniformity in how companies report their financial performance.

But income statements reported based on GAAP don't always do a good job of reflecting the ongoing performance of a company's underlying operations.

The main bone of contention is over the effects of write-downs primarily following acquisitions, restructurings or valuation impairment, particularly for goodwill, Jefferies Sean Darby said on Wednesday.

These actions usually come with large one-time costs that distort company profits and misrepresent long-term profitability. And so, a company will also provide an adjusted, or non-GAAP earnings number that excludes what are arguably non-recurring items.

Excluding these items, which are true and potentially recurring costs, results in a tendency for [non-GAAP] EPS to overstate true earnings, Bank of America Merrill Lynchs Dan Suzuki said in a March 1 note to clients. But on the other hand, including lumpy costs can make it more difficult to assess the underlying earnings potential.

Indeed, this is a debate dominated by a lof of "on the one hand ... but on the other hand" type of language.

Analysts will argue that the differences will tend to fluctuate through the economic cycle and a smoothed approach is valid, while purists will complain that companies tend to 'kitchen sink' or recognize losses at the nadir or lowest point," Darby said.

Story continues

The "GAAP gap" hasnt been this wide since the crisis

Wall Street gurus like Societe Generales Andrew Lapthorne, have been tracking the discrepancy between GAAP and non-GAAP reported profits for years.

But last fall, more experts like Deutsche Banks David Bianco grew increasingly concerned with what was becoming a growing divide between GAAP and non-GAAP profits.

Blended [non-GAAP] 4Q earnings per share is $29.49 with GAAP EPS of $19.92, Bianco said of S&P 500 profits on Monday. He further noted that this 67% ratio of GAAP to non-GAAP EPS is well below the normal ~90% ex. recessions.

Deutsche Bank

The gap between GAAP and adjusted [non-GAAP] EPS is the widest since the crisis, Bank of America Merrill Lynchs Dan Suzuki said in a March 1 note to clients. The causes have varied, but the biggest recent contributors have been asset impairment charges and write-downs within the commodity complex, and acquisition charges (many of which are in Health Care).

A widening GAAP gap is not a leading indicator for a market downturn, but rather more of a coincident measure, Suzuki continued.

Everyone from Warren Buffett to Carl Icahn warn

The earnings they are putting out today, I think, they are very suspect, billionaire investor Carl Icahn said. You havent really increased earnings for three years. GAAP earnings [for the S&P 500] have stayed at around $100 a share for three years.



Ultimately, it comes down to whether its indeed fair for managers to exclude certain items when reporting profits. The problem, of course, arises when whats excluded actually is reflective of an ongoing issue in a companys operations.

[I]t has become common for managers to tell their owners to ignore certain expense items that are all too real, Warren Buffett warned in his recent letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders.

Employing financial sleight of hand to create an illusion of profits is not a sustainable strategy.
President and CEO Russ Girling of TransCanada addresses shareholders during the company's annual general meeting in Calgary, Alberta, May 1, 2015. REUTERS/Todd Korol

By Mike Stone

(Reuters) - TransCanada Corp (TRP.TO), the company behind the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline project, is in talks to buy U.S. natural gas pipeline operator Columbia Pipeline Group Inc (CPGX.N), two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The two companies have so far failed to agree on a price, and a deal remains uncertain, one of the sources said.

TransCanada said in a statement it was in discussions with a third party for a potential transaction, but no agreement had been reached.

The Wall Street Journal, which first reported talks between the two companies on Thursday, said the deal could be valued at more than $10 billion.

Columbia Pipeline Group had a market value of about $8 billion as of Wednesday's close and long-term debt of $2.75 billion as of Dec. 31.

Details of the possible deal, including the role of Columbia Pipeline Partners LP (CPPL.N), could not be learned, the Journal said, citing sources. Columbia Pipeline Group owns the general partner of Columbia Pipeline Partners LP.

Houston-based Columbia Pipeline Group declined to comment.

Shares of Columbia Pipeline Group were up 16.6 percent at $23.03 after being halted briefly.

TransCanada's shares were down 3.2 percent at C$47.65, while its U.S.-listed stock (TRP.N) was down 4 percent at $35.62. Both stocks were halted earlier.

"TransCanada always seems to do well investing in its core business, which is gas pipelines," said Steven Paget, an analyst at FirstEnergy Capital in Calgary.

"The Marcellus is a growing basin and the Columbia system looks a lot like the NGTL system that TransCanada operates in western Canada."

Columbia Pipeline Group owns and operates about 15,000 miles of natural gas pipelines, connecting the U.S. Gulf Coast to the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast United States.

TransCanada's Chief Operating Officer Alex Pourbaix said in February that the company was "going to look for transactions that are accretive."

The company suffered a major blow in November when U.S. President Barack Obama blocked the cross-border Keystone XL pipeline in a victory for environmentalists who campaigned against the project for more than seven years.

TransCanada's proposed Energy East oil pipeline also faced a setback this month, when the Quebec government filed a motion for an injunction to ensure that the pipeline complied with the province's environmental laws.

(Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru and Nia Williams in Calgary; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
SYDNEY, March 10 (Reuters) - U.S. data management company Iron Mountain Inc will sell its Australian unit to ease regulatory concerns hampering its A$2.7 billion ($2 billion) buyout of Sydney-listed rival Recall Holdings Ltd, a regulator said.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said on Thursday that Boston-based Iron Mountain offered to make a court-enforcable promise to sell its existing Australian operations, which extend to all eight states and territories.

The ACCC added that it would invite feedback on the proposal for two weeks and decide whether to accept it by the end of this month.

The offering from Iron Mountain demonstrates the muscle being exerted by the ACCC as it adjudicates a host of mega-deals from offshore spurred by declines in the Australian dollar and the sharemarket over the past year.

In October, it warned that Halliburton Co's proposed $35 billion buyout of rival Baker Hughes Inc may result in price fixing locally, and it has forced Canada's Brookfield Asset Management Inc to pare its $6.4 billion takeover of port and rail giant Asciano ltd for similar reasons.

In November, the regulator indicated that it may block Iron Mountain's move on Recall, warning that it would give one company 71 percent marketshare and leave customers "vulnerable to price increases or reduced service levels".

Recall shares rose 1.6 percent to A$7.15 in mid-session trading on Thursday, while the broader market was flat. But the shares are below Iron Mountain's A$8.50 offer amid concerns the deal may not progress.

($1 = 1.3390 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Byron Kaye; Editing by Miral Fahmy)
By Dan Levine

(Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday said Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) rhetoric was "false" in a high-profile fight over the government's bid to unlock an encrypted iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters.

The dispute between Apple and the government burst into the open last month when the Federal Bureau of Investigation obtained a court order requiring Apple to write new software and take other measures to disable passcode protection and allow access to shooter Rizwan Farook's iPhone.

Apple has said the government's request would create a "back door" to phones that could be abused by criminals and governments, and that Congress hasn't given the Justice Department legal authority to make such a demand.

In the court filing on Thursday, federal prosecutors said Apple's stance was "corrosive" of institutions best able to safeguard "our liberty and our rights." The government also said Apple "deliberately raised technological barriers" to prevent the execution of a warrant.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Justice Departments new filing.

Earlier this week, the government also sought to overturn a ruling which protects Apple from unlocking an iPhone in a New York drug case, which raises similar legal issues as the California litigation.

The FBI says Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, were inspired by Islamist militants when they shot and killed 14 people on Dec. 2 at a holiday party. The couple later died in a shootout with police and the FBI said it wants to read the data on Farook's work phone to investigate any links with militant groups.

Tech industry leaders including Google, Facebook and Microsoft and more than two dozen other companies filed legal briefs last week supporting Apple. The Justice Department received support from law enforcement groups and six relatives of San Bernardino victims.

A hearing in the case is scheduled for March 22 in a Riverside, California federal court. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook has said he is willing to take the case to the Supreme Court.

(Reporting by Dan Levine; Additional reporting by Julia Edwards and Dustin Volz in Washington; Editing by Chris Reese)
SUGAR LAND, TX--(Marketwired - Mar 10, 2016) - Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas) -- The U.S. Power Industry is expected to see a strong continued investment in renewables and natural gas over the next few years, with the transmission and distribution segment struggling to keep pace with development, according to Britt Burt, Industrial Info's Vice President of Global Power Industry Research. Burt recently discussed the dramatic ups and downs of the industry, and the opportunities it offers in the near future.

Within this article: Details on the status and future of the U.S. Power Industry, with a video presentation in which Burt discusses trends within the industry.

For details, view the entire article by subscribing to Industrial Info's Premium Industry News, or browse other breaking industrial news stories at www.industrialinfo.com.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, five offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. To contact an office in your area, visit the www.industrialinfo.com "Contact Us" page.
Vice tv

Vice Media has confirmed a non-exclusive deal with Sky to broadcast its first TV channel in Europe.

Launching in September, the channel is one of 12 that Vice plans to launch across Europe in just 18-months.

The international version of VICELAND will include most of the shows that appear on the American channel, including Weediquette, "Gaycation and "F--k, That's Delicious."

VICELAND has already launched in the US. The channel plans to bring shrinking millennial audiences back to traditional TV.

Shane Smith, VICE co-founder and CEO, had talks with many media companies including Virgin Media, BT, and Netflix before making the deal with Sky, The Guardian reported.

viceland

Shane Smith, VICE co-founder and CEO said in a press release: "This is the biggest move yet in our long love affair with our British and Irish audience. VICELAND is going to give them a whole new way to experience VICE contenton their own televisions, around the clock."

For us at VICE, this is the just the latest top-level partnership to establish the VICE presence on all screens, at all times, in all places," he added.

Vice already has commercial links with Sky. Fox  owned by Rupert Murdoch  has a 39% stake in Sky and a 5% stake in Vice. Sky will handle ad sales for the new channel, the statement said.

Shane Smith has previously expressed his motivation to get a share of TV advertising, which he described as "75% of the world's advertising budget."

"Why don't I get that 75% while all these other guys who don't know what the f--k they're doing are getting it?" Smith asked the Hollywood Reporter back in February.

NOW WATCH: Why you should never throw away these bags again





More From Business Insider


thaad final amanda

MCGREGOR RANGE, New Mexico  The most advanced missile system on the planet can hunt and blast incoming missiles right out of the sky with a 100% success rate  and we got to spend a day with it.

Meet the US's THAAD system.

THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) is a unique missile-defense system with unmatched precision, capable of countering threats around the world with its mobility and strategic battery-unit placement.

"It is the most technically advanced missile-defense system in the world," US Army Col. Alan Wiernicki, commander of the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, told Business Insider in an interview.

"Combatant commanders and our allies know this, which puts our THAAD Batteries in very high global demand," Wiernicki added.

And that demand seems poised to rise.

Deploying America's THAAD

On Wednesday,

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un claimed his country had developed miniaturized nuclear warheads, which can be mounted to long-range ballistic missiles.

obama south korea

The rogue regime's latest announcement is a follow-through pass to

last month's long-range-rocket launch and January's purported hydrogen-bomb test.

Negotiations to equip South Korea with THAAD have been ongoing since South Korean President Park Geun-hye's October 2015 visit to the White House.

As of yet, there has not been a formal move to deploy the missile system.

"The complexity of global-security challenges is increasingly causing combatant commanders to request more Army forces," US Army Capt. Gus Cunningham told Business Insider.

"With that said, THAAD is ready to respond to any request, at any time," Cunningham added.

If a THAAD battery were deployed to South Korea, depending on its exact location, nearly all incoming missiles from the North could be eliminated, as displayed by the following graphic from The Heritage Foundation.

Story continues

thaad range

Meanwhile, China is spooked over the potential THAAD assignment to South Korea.

Chinese Ambassador Qiu Guohong warned that basing the US-made THAAD missile system in South Korea would irreparably damage relations between the countries, The Chosunilbo reported.

THAAD deployment, Qiu said, "would break the strategic balance in the region and create a vicious cycle of Cold War-style confrontations and an arms race, which could escalate tensions."

During his most recent visit to Beijing, Secretary of State John Kerry explained that the US was "not hungry or anxious or looking for an opportunity to deploy THAAD," CNN reported.

"THAAD is a purely defensive weapon. It is purely capable of shooting down a ballistic missile it intercepts. And it is there for the protection of the United States," Kerry said.

"If we can get to denuclearization, there's no need to deploy THAAD," he added.

How THAAD's 'hit to kill' lethality works

Currently, there five THAAD batteries  each of approximately 100 soldiers  assigned to Ft. Bliss in El Paso, Texas.

One of those THAAD batteries was deployed to Guam in April 2013 in order to deter North Korean provocations and further defend the Pacific region.

Impressively, the THAAD interceptor does not carry a warhead. Instead, the interceptor missile uses pure kinetic energy to deliver "hit to kill" strikes to incoming ballistic threats inside or outside the atmosphere.

Each launcher carries up to eight missiles and can send multiple kill vehicles at once, depending on the severity of the threat.

Lockheed Martin's missile launcher is just one element of the four-part antimissile system. The graphic below shows the rest of the components needed for each enemy-target interception.

thaad amanda

THAAD's first line of defense is its radar system.

"We have one of the most powerful radars in the world," US Army Capt. Kyle Terza, a THAAD battery commander, told Business Insider.

Raytheon's AN/TPY-2 radar is used to detect, track, and discriminate ballistic missiles in the terminal (or descent) phase of flight.

The mobile radar is about the size of a bus and is so powerful that it can scan areas the size of entire countries, according to Raytheon.

thaad amanda raytheon

Once an enemy threat has been identified, THAAD's Fire Control and Communications (TFCC) support team kicks in. If there is a decision to engage the incoming missile, the launcher fires an interceptor to hunt for its target.

Here's what the launch looks like from far away:

While in flight, the interceptor will track its target and obliterate it in the sky.

The following infrared imagery shows THAAD demolishing the target:

By the end of 2016, the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is scheduled to deliver an additional 48 THAAD interceptors to the US military, bringing the total up to 155, according to a statement from the MDA's director, Vice Admiral J.D. Syring, given before the House Armed Service Committee.

According to the MDA, there are more than 6,300 ballistic missiles outside of US, NATO, Russian, and Chinese control.

While other US partners around the globe are interested in purchasing THAAD, the United Arab Emirates is the sole foreign buyer after signing a deal with the Department of Defense for $3.4 billion.

NOW WATCH: Meet America's THAAD: One of the world's most advanced missile-defense systems that has China spooked





More From Business Insider


2000 - 2022   24 .-   .       focus-news.net,                 () .                  24 .                 24      .       .       24 .
We value your privacy.

Focus Taiwan (CNA) uses tracking technologies to provide better reading experiences, but it also respects readers' privacy. Click here to find out more about Focus Taiwan's privacy policy. When you close this window, it means you agree with this policy.
The Egyptian parliament is drafting a law banning women from wearing the niqab veil. The ban will apply to wearing the clothing in public places and government institutions, it has been reported.The news is never boring...This will be interesting to follow.__________________________The full-face veil is worn by some followers of Islam and typically covers all of the wearers face other than their eyes. The clothing is common in Egypt which is a predominantly Muslim country.MP Amna Nosseir, professor of comparative jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University, who has backed the ban, said that wearing the veil is not a requirement of Islam and in fact has non-Islamic origins. She has argued that it is a Jewish tradition which appeared in the Arabian Peninsula prior to Islam and that a variety of Quran passages contradict its use. Instead, she has advocated that the Quran calls for modest clothing and covered hair, but does not require facial covering.A number of restrictions have been placed on wearing the niqab in Egypt in recent years. In February, Cairo University banned nurses and doctors from wearing it in medical schools and in teaching hospitals, arguing the ban would: protect patients rights and interests.In September of last year, the university also banned academic staff from wearing the niqab in classrooms in response to complaints from students that it was too difficult for niqab wearers to communicate effectively with students.
Maybe the ridiculousness of extreme Islam is being seen from within...finally...___________________________________Dozens of Afghan men have taken to the streets of Kabul wearing burqas in a protest against violations of women's rights in the country.The burqa is a garment that covers the entire body with a semi-transparent cloth covering the eyes, and is worn by some Muslim women while they are in public. In Afghanistan, it is compulsory for women and girls.Kabul: Men stone woman protesting sexual harassment with metal armourThe demonstrators rallied from the Pul-e-Surkh area of Kabul to the near Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), Afghanistan's news agency Tolo News reported."I walked the streets today in a burqa to understand how my sisters and mothers face violence from men on a daily basis," a protester said. "I wanted to understand the situation."The men, who said they are part of a group called Afghan Peace Volunteers, referred several cases and complaints to the IHRC following episodes of violence against women.The activists were both praised and ridiculed by spectators, with some accusing them of tarnishing Afghanistan's reputation.The demonstration occurred shortly after a woman was almost killed by some men after walking through the streets of Kabul wearing metal armour in a bid to denounce sexual harassment.When the Taliban came to power in the late 1990s and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar - leader of political party Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin - was elected as Afghanistan's prime minister, women's rights were drastically reduced and new laws were implemented.According to the laws, many of which are still in place today, women were not allowed to access education after the age of eight, and they could not work or leave their houses unless they were accompanied by a male guardian.They were not allowed to appear on the balconies of their houses, they had to wear the burqa when in public and could not speak loudly because no men external to their family should hear their voices.Visits from a male doctor were also prohibited unless the woman was accompanied by a male guardian and they were banned from TV channels, radio stations and all public places.Women found violating these laws were at risk of being executed by the insurgents.According to a February 2015 report by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (Rawa), the AIHRC registered over 4,000 cases of violations against women, including rape, extrajudicial executions and torture, in nine months.The rest and pictures: Afghanistan: Men wear burqas and march through Kabul protesting violence against women




The Sun 'completely confident' over 'Queen backs Brexit' story

STEPHEN GLOVER: I'd be amazed if the Queen wasn't Eurosceptic - and good for her if she had a pop at Cleggie

BBC News10 March 2016The Sun's editor-in-chief has said he is "in no doubt" that the newspaper's article claiming the Queen backs a UK exit from the EU is accurate.Tony Gallagher told the BBC he was "completely confident" that the report and its headline reflected her views.Buckingham Palace complained to the press watchdog on Wednesday about the article , which was headlined "Queen backs Brexit".The palace has insisted the Queen is "politically neutral".The Sun quoted anonymous sources, one of whom claimed to have witnessed a "bust-up" between the Queen and pro-EU former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg in 2011.Mr Clegg has said he could not remember any such incident and called the story "nonsense".The UK is due to hold an in/out referendum on its membership of the EU on 23 June.Mr Gallagher told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that it was "not my fault" if the Sun had published an "inconvenient" story.He said the paper's duty was to its readers, "not the elite who might be upset at what we've written".Asked if the headline "Queen backs Brexit" had been overwritten, he replied: "Absolutely not.""We knew much more than we published."When it was put to him that the Queen's alleged remarks had been made before it was known there would be a referendum, Mr Gallagher said this was "semantics".Leader of the House of Commons Chris Grayling, who wants Britain to leave the EU, told Today that conversations with the Queen were "always to be kept private"."She's always been very scrupulous about not being politically partisan," he said.The Sun's report had said the Queen's exchange with Mr Clegg at a lunch left "no room for doubt about her passionate feelings over Europe".It said her "reprimand" of Mr Clegg "went on for some time and stunned other guests".The paper said the Queen also revealed her feelings about Europe during a separate conversation with MPs at Buckingham Palace "a few years ago".It claimed the Queen told them: "I don't understand Europe" - words an unnamed parliamentary source said she spoke with "venom and emotion".Prime Minister David Cameron, who is leading the campaign for Britain to stay in the EU, said Justice Secretary Michael Gove, who backs so-called Brexit, had "made clear" that he was not the source of the apparent leak."He has no idea where this story came from," the prime minister told the BBC, following a report in the Daily Telegraph that Mr Gove was facing claims he was the source.The Buckingham Palace complaint to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) was made under clause one of the editors' code of practice, which relates to accuracy and specifies that headlines should be supported by the main text of reports.Media commentator Steve Hewlett said that since the "principal conversation" reported by the Sun had taken place in 2011 when "the term Brexit hadn't even been invented", Ipso was likely to investigate "whether the Sun had any more [material] than they have published, in order to justify the headline".He told Today his "best guess" was that such an inquiry would take "two months or slightly longer", pushing completion close to the date of the referendum.Ipso declined to comment on the inquiry or timing of publication, referring the BBC to its website, which says decisions are published "as soon as is reasonably possible following the conclusion of the complaint".In other comments, Mr Gallagher said it was "ridiculous" to suggest the Sun had adopted a deliberate, more critical tone towards the royal family, including the Duke of Cambridge, saying the paper judged stories on their merits."It's not just the Sun newspaper that's highlighted the fact that we see Prince William as being work shy," he said."Most of the national press have pointed out the fact that he doesn't seem to have a very taxing job in Norfolk and does very few royal duties. It's a matter of record."By Stephen Glover for the Daily Mail 10 March 2016We cannot be sure what the Queen thinks about all manner of things, but we may take it for granted that she is a fierce patriot and British Unionist who has given her life to the service of this country.It seems to me highly likely that she is a convinced Eurosceptic, though whether she really wants us to pull out of the European Union, as The Sun newspaper has suggested, is unknowable.How could she not be sceptical about an institution which challenges the British sovereignty which she symbolises, and has eroded so many of the powers of Parliament as well as the independence of British courts?She was born in 1926, a year after the British Empire Exhibition in Wembley showed off the manufactured wonders of Great Britain and many of its far-flung colonies.The notion of a united Europe would have then seemed outlandish to virtually every Briton of every class  though not to the nascent Nazis, including Adolf Hitler, who later promulgated their sinister version of a federal Europe dominated by Germany.Throughout her long life, the Queen has seen Britain dwindle from a proud and independent great power with the biggest navy in the world to a sort of craven outpost of the EU which must get the say-so of mini-states such as Estonia and Latvia before it puts the paltry terms of David Camerons so-called renegotiation to the British people.How could a person born at such a time and in such a place not hold Eurosceptic views? Indeed, apart from a handful of sandal-wearing Lefties with their heads in the clouds, almost everyone over the age of 75 probably thinks the EU constitutes an undemocratic  and unreformable  racket.So I have no difficulty in believing that at a lunch at Windsor Castle on April 7, 2011, the Queen had a pop at the arch-Europhile and former EU employee Nick Clegg, then Deputy Prime Minister. I can easily imagine that she bowled him a few bouncers and suggested that the EU is heading in the wrong direction. Good for her, if she did!Of course, it goes without saying that in the presence of Clegg and three other government ministers, including Michael Gove, she had every right to expect that any remarks would not be leaked. She was not airing views in public and she broke no convention.I dont point the finger at Cleggie but his mealy-mouthed assertion yesterday that he has no recollection of the conversation lacks plausibility. If Her Majesty the Queen confronts you at a Windsor Castle lunch on a subject close to your heart, you dont forget it.As I say, I have no idea whether the Queen is so frustrated by the EU that she may be privately backing Brexit, but a review of the relentless encroachments of the EU on British sovereignty must grieve her heart.She will have seen, as we all have, how Britain can no longer control its borders  and will remain powerless to do so under the terms extracted by Mr Cameron. Should a country that isnt allowed to determine who can and cant come in be described as sovereign? I hardly think so.The Queen will have observed how British foreign policy, which used to be conducted by her ministers, is increasingly in the hands of an unaccountable bureaucracy based in Brussels headed by a High Representative  currently an Italian lady whom 99 people out of 100 will never have heard of.We no longer have unfettered bilateral relations with other countries. The EU acts on our behalf, as it did when it succeeded in aggravating Russias President Putin by trying to lure Ukraine into the Wests sphere of influence. Mr Cameron obtained nothing in his modest renegotiation which will halt the EUs foreign policy juggernaut for one second.Her Majesty is an intelligent and observant woman who will have noted that Parliament has ceded ultimate sovereignty to EU institutions for as long we remain a member of the organisation. The British Government has no authority to overturn a directive from Brussels, however much it dislikes it.And the Queen will also be aware that the European Court of Human Rights (a non-EU body which EU countries are obliged to respect) and the European Court of Justice can trump the judgment of any British court even though the royal coat of arms will hang proudly within it, proclaiming a bogus supremacy.Is it surprising that the Queen might marvel at these developments which have taken place since Britain joined the Common Market in 1973, and express the view that the EU is heading in the wrong direction? The wonder is that the insufferably smug Mr Clegg should remain unconcerned by the drip-drip, never-ending loss of sovereignty, but then his heart probably lies in Brussels.One thing we do know about Her Majesty is that she is devoted to the Commonwealth, of which she is head. She is also sovereign of 15 countries in the global organisation other than the United Kingdom.The Commonwealth includes the soaring economy of India and rising ex-colonies of Africa, as well as Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Over the past four decades, Britain has largely turned its back on its old friends, preferring to trade with the EU.Now trade with our continental partners is falling as a proportion of the whole because most of the economies in the European Union are faltering. Establishing stronger links with the Queens cherished Commonwealth, which successive British governments have so long sidelined, seems suddenly wise.So for all these reasons it is easy to understand her possible impatience with the EU. On the other hand, the threat of Scotland seceding from Britain in the event of Brexit  for we also know that she is, above all, a committed Unionist  might affect her view.That said, would the EU welcome a breakaway Scotland? Spain, for one, would be against it for fear of encouraging its own independent-minded region of Catalonia down the same path.There are good reasons for believing that Her Majesty may be profoundly suspicious of the EU and all its worksIn the end, the Queen is a symbol of Britain, its history and its traditions. And it is these very things which the monolithic European Union, with its homogenising tendencies, either does not value or threatens to eradicate.We may be certain that not a single interfering bureaucrat in Brussels is aware of the injunction in the book of Common Prayer that our monarch ought not to be subject to any foreign jurisdiction. The Queen, as head of the Church of England, wont have forgotten it.Of course, one can understand why Buckingham Palace should be so furious with the suggestion that she is backing Brexit, since such a policy would put her at odds with her Government and break her lifelong habit of avoiding any hint of divisiveness. Moreover, when these reported comments were made in 2011, Brexit was not on the political agenda.But there are good reasons for believing that Her Majesty may be profoundly suspicious of the EU and all its works, and that The Suns report of what she is supposed to have said to Nick Clegg is true.In fact, in view of all she has seen and experienced during her long life, it would be a shock if our monarch were anything other than a concerned Eurosceptic who believes that the European Union is heading at breakneck speed in the wrong direction.
Former Playboy model gets 2 1/2 years for role in attempted murder of rival gangsterPostmedia NetworkFirst posted: Wednesday, March 09, 2016 07:30 PM EST | Updated: Wednesday, March 09, 2016 07:37 PM ESTA former Miss Bosnia and Playboy model has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in jail for her part in the attempted murder of her Mob boyfriend's rival.Court heard of Slobodanka Tosic's membership in an organized crime gang in her home country, responsible for at least five Mob murders.The 30-year-old beauty was one of 32 suspects rounded up after a long investigation that started with the 2005 robbery of an armoured car carrying million of euros between banks. The same gang is accused of attempting other similar robberies.Court heard she lured Djordje Zdrale, a known local gangster -- and her former lover -- into an ambush organized by her then-boyfriend, gangster Darko Elez.Elez is already in jail, sentenced to 20 years for robbery and murder.Tosic fled the country in 2014. Croatia extradited her last summer.She posed for Playboy and starred in a Serbian version of Survivor after she left the country, making her something of a celebrity in Bosnia.Slobodanka Tosic is pictured in this undated Facebook photo. Tosic, a Playboy model and former Miss Bosnia, has been extradited after being linked with five murders and a string of robberies. (Handout/Postmedia Network)
Ken Korkow will tell you that he was a nice boy before he went to Vietnam.

A kid from the small town of Blunt, S.D., Korkow was the local and district president of his church youth group. He was even the Protestant lay leader of Bravo 1/26 in U.S. Marines.

But Korkows life would change after combat in a place called Khe Sanh.

On March 25, the highly decorated veteran will be the guest speaker at the 12th Annual Fremont Area Leadership Prayer Breakfast. Doors open at 6:30 a.m. with the breakfast at 7 in the Midland University Event Center, 10th and Clarkson streets.

The public is invited to the event to hear Korkow, founder and executive director of the Post Traumatic Growth Institute.

Ill talk about the issues we hit when we deal with military people, he said. Their identity is so wrapped up in their rank and their job description and that establishes their purpose, but frankly its a wrong world view. Well talk about Gods perspective on identity and purpose  which gives us a sense of peace and purpose and power and excitement that will knock your socks off.

Korkow hopes the talk will inspire and give people tools to know Christ more intimately, to understand their identity and the purpose that is lifes highest adventure.

Looking back, Korkow remembers that small-town guy who decided to join the U.S. Marines.

Id watched too many John Wayne movies and felt that going into combat was a passage into manhood. I can tell you now, John Wayne lied, he said.

Korkow, who was 20 when he went to Vietnam, would be in a place called Khe Sanh, the site of a 77-day siege.

It was 1968.

We were getting up to 2,000 rounds of incoming artillery per day, Korkow said.

One round cut a man in two. He died before anyone could get him to a helicopter. Another man died on the helicopter. A third lost his mind.

Korkow had been close to two of those men.

That night, through tears, I made a vow to never again have friends or feelings, Korkow said.

Three weeks later, about 40 men in the Ghost Patrol were looking for an enemy mortar position when they were ambushed on Feb. 25. Twenty-seven were killed, 19 wounded and one would become a prisoner of war for five years.

Korkow, an E4 Corporal, had been in charge of nine men assigned to that patrol.

I transitioned from being very cold to being very cruel, he said. I was very, very filled with hate.

Korkow and other U.S. Marines werent allowed to recover the wounded or gather the bodies of the dead.

We were under fire. We were surrounded. We were overwhelmed  They didnt want to throw good men after dead men, he said. In the Marines Corps, we always recover our dead, but we left those bodies out in front of us for 30 days.

On March 30, Korkow became part of the Payback Patrol and he and other Marines went out with body bags to recover the dead.

Moreover, they went out with fixed bayonets and flame throwers.

They encountered heavy enemy resistance and hand-to-hand combat. Enemy soldiers were in trenches and spider holes.

I killed a bunch of people and I started saving some of our wounded, Korkow said.

But Korkow would be wounded by mortars. He went into shock.

A Marine who helped rescue him would wonder: Why are we wasting time on a dead man?

Korkow would undergo many surgeries.

I was hit bad enough that a doctor told me that I would never walk again or use my hands, he said.

Sent stateside, Korkow would marry his sweetheart, Liz, whom he met in Wahoo before going to Vietnam. They would have three children.

Korkow would receive the Navy Cross, the nations second highest award for combat valor.

The governor even named a special day in his honor  as South Dakotas most highly decorated Vietnam veteran.

Korkow would earn a bachelors degree in agri-economics in 1970 and a masters degree in business administration in 1972.

He immersed himself in business and became a millionaire.

Some people medicate their pain with drugs and alcohol ... Some of us medicate pain by becoming excessively busy and successful, he said.

At that time, God wasnt in the picture for Korkow.

I walked away from God, because he didnt live up to my expectations, Korkow said. I became my own god, doing what pleased me.

Yet life would begin to change.

In 1978, I was in the process of building a mansion as a monument to my ego and a bricklayer  in a very, non-threatening way  shared Bible basics, Korkow said. I went home, pulled out a Bible, looked up the verses and for the first time, considered two things.

For one, everything he had wasnt fulfilling him.

Secondly, he began to piece together all the times he should have been dead or in prison. Those times went way beyond statistical probability.

Thats when my life started to change, he said. Id walked away from religion, but I discovered a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

The challenges and rewards of business would become minor to him. He began to care for people.

For years, he would try to use what he calls a workaholic, systematic approach to ministry.

Then Korkow began to realize that he was a walking billboard for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

God began to show me a whole different way to live, he said.

Korkow understands the pain experienced by military personnel and veterans.

Were averaging, right now, about 23 suicides per day of people who are either in or have been in the military, he said. There are over 140,000 veterans incarcerated across the United States.

War has an impact on people. Ive been there, experienced some of the toughest combat in Vietnam and had to deal with PTSD myself. What weve found is that God doesnt waste pain. So the things that weve learned were now able to share with many, many other people.

PTGI connects military personnel, including the chaplain corps, with church/para-church organizations to provide faith-based materials to them and their families via pre- and post-deployment programs.

Weve got field representatives, we have volunteers across the United States that have also been in combat, found that in and of themselves they have no capacity to deal with those experiences and so, frankly, theyve hit the end of their rope and found that God was holding the rope, he said.

Area residents are encouraged to hear Korkow at the breakfast.

Tickets are $20 per person or $160 for a table. They can be purchased at the Fremont Area Chamber of Commerce, 128 E. Sixth St., or by calling 402-721-2641.
A bill that would refine changes to the state parole administration got a hitchhiker Wednesday on its journey through the legislative process.

And although several senators tried to kick it off the ride, the amendment, which would eliminate a prohibition against three-time drug felons getting food stamps, hung on and was advanced along with the bill (LB910).

Its that time in the session when senators try to amend bills that are prioritized and being debated with bills they like, but that dont have a priority and not much chance of getting debated.

Such was the case with a bill (LB690) by Lincoln Sen. Adam Morfeld that would allow Nebraska to join 18 other states and opt out of a federal ban on eligibility for food assistance for those with past drug offenses  three or more convictions for possession, use or distribution.

The federal rule was instituted in the 1990s during the war on drugs, he said.

Morfeld made the argument that benefits such as food stamps are critical for people getting out of prison and trying to keep from going back in. If a parolee cant get a job and cant pay for food, the temptation to commit crimes to get money for basic needs is greater, Morfeld and supporters of the amendment said.

The supplemental nutrition assistance program  known as SNAP  is short term, Morfeld said. You must be working to receive benefits for more than 90 days.

Theres nothing, other than sleep, more basic than food, Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers said.

They were talking about feeding people who have paid their debt to society, he said, even when that crime is not nearly as heinous and hurtful as some other kinds committed directly against people.

Sen. Les Seiler of Hastings said he had a problem with the federal ban. A person who sells drugs, and goes to prison for it, can be banned for life from food stamps. But a person who holds up a bank to get drug money to support a habit, can get food stamps upon release.

That makes no sense, he said.

Opponents  after trying and failing to rid the bill of the amendment by claiming it wasnt germane  said the amendment would allow food stamps for serious repeat offenders.

Theyve been given one, two chances. And they continue to sell drugs. Continue to use drugs. Continue to destroy our communities, said Sen. Bill Kintner of Papillion.

Omaha Sen. Merv Riepe said the Bible told people to feed the poor, it did not tell the government to do so.

The amendment would also remove from law a requirement that a person with one or two felony drug convictions would be eligible for SNAP benefits only if taking or completing a substance abuse program.

That, said Sen. Mike Groene of North Platte, takes away the motivation for a person to participate in drug treatment.

Why would you take that out? It makes no sense, he said. We preach, we preach, we preach treatment, and then we change a bill to take it out.

The amendment was adopted on a 35-5 vote, with Sens. Groene, Kintner, Riepe, Beau McCoy and Dave Schnoor voting no.

The parole bill itself requires the Office of Parole Administration to cooperate with the state inspector general for corrections and give that person direct access to computerized records. It requires reporting on inmates with mental and behavioral health needs who are in solitary confinement. And it defines more clearly the role of parole administrator.

The bill advanced from first reading on a 31-5 vote.
New state patrolmen wont be able to bank unused paid leave to boost their retirement benefits under a measure advanced by Nebraska lawmakers Wednesday.

The practice of spiking  saving overtime, holiday and other compensatory time until immediately before retirement to boost the salary used to calculate a persons pension payout  has grown increasingly common among State Patrol retirees over the past decade.

Last year, every retiring trooper who was eligible to receive a payout for unused holiday time did so. All but one did in 2014.

Eliminating that option is among half a dozen major changes to the patrol retirement plan included in a bill (LB467) that received first-round approval in the Legislature on Wednesday. The changes would only impact State Patrol officers who join the plan on or after July 1, not those who are already enrolled.

The goal is to protect the troopers pension fund from failing to meet its obligations and thus requiring a bailout from taxpayers, said Sen. Mark Kolterman of Seward, chairman of the Legislatures Nebraska Retirement Systems Committee.

Lawmakers advanced the bill on a 32-0 vote.

The Legislature has created similar second tier retirement plans in recent years for judges and school district employees with the goal of ensuring those plans are self-sustaining.

The bill would eliminate spiking by omitting paid leave from the compensation used to calculate a persons retirement benefits. It would also limit the extent to which raises troopers receive during their final years can impact their pensions.

The state troopers union opposes both changes, along with a provision that would eliminate the Deferred Option Retirement Plan (DROP) for new patrol members. That plan allows troopers to accumulate lump-sum payouts at retirement.

Other changes in the bill include increasing contribution rates by new patrolmen and the state from 16 percent to 17 percent of the troopers pay, and considering five years average pay instead of three when determining a troopers final compensation.

Collectively, the changes will harm recruiting by making Nebraskas pensions less competitive with those in surrounding states, said Kurt Frazey, a Lincoln-based patrolman and legislative liaison for the State Troopers Association of Nebraska.

In 1996, the year Frazey became a trooper, about 1,500 people applied for 35 openings in the patrols academy, he said. This year, 303 people applied for a similar number of positions, and just 23 accepted offers to attend the academy.

Since then, Frazey said, Weve already lost two and were only into week three. ... We will be lucky if we graduate 18 people when we had hoped to hire 30.
The best of vintage automobiles will be exhibited at the Milano AutoClassica, the Milanese classic car show held at Fiera Milano in Rho from 18 to 20 March.

Milano AutoClassica features 50,000 square meters of exhibition space, over 1500 cars, more than 350 exhibitors and 12 automobile brands. There will be the classic sections dedicated to original spare parts and a big private market, an outside track for races, exhibitions and test drives and a programme of initiatives and special events and plenty of international previews.

The biggest names will all be there - Abarth, Alfa Romeo, AstonMartin, Bentley, Infiniti, Jaguar, Lamborghini, Maserati, Mc Laren, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche. There will also be the second edition of the Historic Rally Milano AutoClassica which, in the Classic Circuit Arena, will see racing on a 1.4 km tarmac track by a Lancia Stratos driven by Febis from Novara, a Talbot Lotus with rally driver Federico Ormezzano, a Porsche 911, an Opel Kadett and Ascona and the legendary Mini. The first edition of the Historic Speed Milano AutoClassica will also be held, a speed race for classic GT and Turismo cars, which will see Porsches and Alfa Romeos battling it out on different track layouts.

Present as always the section for spare parts, which this year will have a whole pavilion to itself and, for the first time, will host the prize-giving ceremonies for the ASI (the Italian historic automobile club) events in 2015. Lots of initiatives and special events as well, like the 100th anniversary of BMW with an extraordinary gallery of vehicles, the 80th anniversary of the Fiat 500 Topolino, the 70th anniversary of Vespa and 50th anniversary of the Alfa Romeo Duetto. As usual, there will be the Queens Car Show with fantastic cars, like the Porsche 550rs, on display at the entrance to the show to welcome visitors. Finally there will be the Elegance Competition, with prizes for three categories: Style and speed class the best mix of elegance and performance; Perfection class, the most sensitive restauration and Best of show. The latest new entry for 2016 will be the presence at Milano AutoClassica of a section dedicated to classic motorcycles.

For info: www.milanoautoclassica.com
According to official figures Cuba welcomed more than 3.524 million tourists from all over the world in 2015, a substantial improvement of 17.4 per cent compared with the previous year.

This is a result not only of a thaw in relations between the USA and Cuba, but is also due to increased interest from, among other countries, Canada, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Mexico and Venezuela, all of which are reporting double-digit growth rates. Canada is currently the single largest market. In 2015 over 175,000 visitors came from Germany, an increase of 26 per cent.

Industry players say that in 2016 one in ten people visiting Cuba will be from the USA. Washington's travel embargo is still in force, but group travel from the USA has been possible since the end of 2014. In addition Cuban exiles living in the USA and US citizens have for many years been flying to Havana from third countries such as Mexico and the Bahamas.

Moreover, US President Barack Obama together with his wife Michelle, and Mick Jagger with the Rolling Stones, who have announced a free concert, due to take place in Havana in March 2016, will be among the visitors of the socialist island.
During Q4 2015, all international arrivals maintained their level with only a 0.7% decrease following Paris attacks from November 13th, while long haul travels in Europe stayed on the right track.However long haul travels into Europe grew by +3.1%.

Travelers from North America, and Asia & Oceania rose strongly (+3.5% and +6.9% respectively) fostered by strong dollar and the emerging markets in Asia - Pacific (APAC).

On the other hand, Intra-European flows decreased by -2.7% due to Paris attacks on November 13th, the Brussels lockdown and the eroded relationship between Russia and Turkey. This noticeably hindered the tourism sector.

Stays in Europe between 6 and 13 nights are growing faster, but stays up to one week still represent 55% of total stays in Europe in Q4 2015. 42% of total bookings were issued more than 2 months in advance. This is in line with the increase on long haul trips from North American, and Asia & Pacific.

These are the latest results from the Air Travellers' Traffic Barometer1 produced by European Cities Marketing and ForwardKeys.

However international bookings to Europe for Q1 2016 are slightly declining

Overall international bookings for flights to Europe during Q1 2016 are down by -0.9%. Intra-European travellers will still be affected by latest events in Q1 2016. Central & South America have reduced their volume, as many countries have devalued their currencies and are subject to uncertainty concerning political stability.

Paris bookings in Q1 2016, significantly affected (-16.9%), may have been transferred to Madrid and Barcelona, up by +24.1% and +32.1% respectively. Madeira and Dubrovnik are also seeing more advanced bookings in comparison to Q1 2015.
There's a sense of unrest surrounding Japan's mobile industry after developer Cygames allegedly used false advertising to encourage players to spend huge sums of cash in a bid to unlock rare characters.

As reported by Bloomberg, earlier this year Cygames announced it would run a promotion making it easier to win certain rare characters in its smartphone game Granblue Fantasy.

In the wake of that announcement, some of Granblue's most dedicated players spent thousands of dollars on in-game crystals that are used to unlock characters. Sometimes the crystals contain weapons and amour, but, on the rarest of occasions, they'll contain a hard-to-find companion.

Why spend so much? Their reasoning was simple. Cygames said it would up the odds of unlocking its most sought after characters from 3 percent to 6 percent; a move which convinced some players to spend over $6,000 in mere hours.

Although many unlocked their desired character (with some even streaming their spending spree online) some feel cheated by Cygames, and have now filed a formal complained with the Consumer Affairs Agency.

Cygames has issued refunds - in the form of in-game currency - in response, however, on the day those refunds went out the combined stock value of Japan's mobile developers reportedly fell by over $1 billion dollars.

This isn't the first time that "gacha" marketing tactics (marketing techniques that implement some form of gambling) have come under fire in Japan's mobile game industry. Back in 2012, stocks took another hit after regulators banned certain gacha tactics that were deemed too exploitative.

At the time, Japanese game companies (including Konami, Gree and DeNA) made a public show of abandoning those gacha tactics. In the years since, Japanese game companies have found new ways to use gacha techniques and, as Bloomberg notes, the average revenue per paying user (ARPPU) for the region's biggest games now ranges from $373 a month for Mixi's Monster Strike, and $57 for GungHo's Puzzle & Dragons.

Dr Serkan Toto, a expert on Japan's mobile games industry (and occasional Gamasutra blogger) weighed in on the matter, suggesting that Japanese creators might've just shot themselves in the foot.

Its the perfect fodder for people who are against the mobile game industry in Japan, said Toto, speaking to Bloomberg. The videos [which show players spending massive amounts of money in Granblue Fantasy] are basically delivering the ammunition for people who are critical of the industry for being exploitative and greedy.

As it stands, Cygames is being chased by frustrated consumers who want answers, and although it's unclear as to how the saga will end, Macquarie analyst David Gibson believes, at the very least, it could force companies to become more transparent.

"Whats more likely from an industry point of view is we might see an adjustment to the way the odds are displayed so theyre clearer and simpler and less misleading," said Gibson, speaking to Bloomberg.

The full report on this matter is worth reading over on Bloomberg.
DALLAS, Texas and ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 9, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Meeting Professionals International (MPI) and the GBTA Foundation, the education and research arm of the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), recently presented the distinguished Certificate in Meeting Management (CMM) to 17 more meeting and travel professionals, bringing the total number of holders to 1,087 worldwide. This class participated in the program held October 1  4, 2015, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

"The CMM Program has become THE business standard of excellence for meeting and travel professionals since its inception three decades ago," said Paul Van Deventer, president and CEO of MPI. "Congratulations to each of these leaders on their momentous achievement."

MPI and GBTA are currently accepting applications for two CMM programs scheduled later this year in Las Vegas (May 6  9) and Norfolk, Virginia (August 25  28). Each program is limited to only 50 participants so interested applicants are encouraged to apply early. Note, the deadline to submit an application for the upcoming Las Vegas program at the Aria Resort & Casino is April 5, 2016.

In addition, the MPI Foundation has CMM Program scholarship opportunities available for MPI members. Scholarships are awarded for up to $2,000 and must be used toward program fees. Last year, the MPI Foundation awarded 31 CMM Program scholarships to MPI members. To apply for a scholarship, visit www.mpiweb.org/foundation/grantsandscholarships. For more information on the CMM Program, please visit www.mpiweb.org/CMM. To learn more about the MPI Academy's various professional development offerings, check out www.mpiweb.org/mpi-academy.

MPI and GBTA commend the following 17 professionals from the Dominican Republic class on obtaining the CMM designation.

Sherri Beck/Jack Morton Worldwide

Norma Christina Bock/UNIVERSITY / MYW

Cori Brown, CMP, CMM /Opus Agency

Rochelle Rupnick/Milwaukee Area Technical College

Virginia Williams Fountain/North Carolina Association of Electric Cooperatives

Deanna Kay Griffith/Time Warner Cable Media

Monica Grinage Cooper, CMP/International Facility Management Association

Catherine Jones/Edventives Group

Jessica M. Lamb/Young Presidents' Organization, Inc.

Kristina Nichols/MassMutual Financial Group

Davide Odella/The National Stadium in Warsaw

Connie Pronschinske/Ashley Furniture Ind

Falon Veit Scott/Evolution Event Solutions

Cynnamon Spain/CCS, LLC

Jessie States/Meeting Professionals International

Sandra M. Totti/Innovation DMC, Inc.

Lisa Volpi/Netflix

About MPI

Meeting Professionals International (MPI) is the largest and most vibrant global meeting and event industry association. The organization provides innovative and relevant education, networking opportunities and business exchanges, and acts as a prominent voice for the promotion and growth of the industry. MPI membership is comprised of approximately 18,500 members belonging to more than 80 chapters and clubs in 22 countries. For additional information or to join, visit www.mpiweb.org.

About the GBTA Foundation

Collectively, GBTA's 7,000-plus members manage more than $345 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually. GBTA provides its growing network of more than 28,000 travel professionals and 125,000 active contacts with world-class education, events, research, advocacy and media. The Foundation was established in 1997 to support GBTA's members and the industry as a whole. As the leading education and research foundation in the business travel industry, the GBTA Foundation seeks to fund initiatives to advance the business travel profession. The GBTA Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. For more information, see gbta.org and gbta.org/foundation.
NEW YORK, March 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Yappn Corp. (Yappn or Company) (OCTQB:YPPN), a leader in real-time language technology and translation, announces today that it has negotiated a revised three (3) year Master Service Agreement (MSA) with Intelligent Content Enterprises Inc. (ICE) with respect to its Digital Widget Factory Inc. (Ontario) platform. Yappn will continue to service ICE directly through the MSA under the revised fee for services program.



On March 4, 2016 Intelligent Content Enterprises Inc. announced the acquisition of all of the assets and ongoing operations of Digital Widget Factory (Belize)(DWF Belize). DWF Belizes payables to Yappn Corp., up to the closing date, are secured by way of DWF Belizes equity in ICE and DWF Belize has already begun to make cash payments to Yappn against the receivables.

Shortly after the contract with DWF (Belize) and Yappn was initiated, Yappn announced on January 22, 2015, the launch of Yadmark Inc. (Yadmark) and Yaffiliate Marketing Services Inc. (Yaffiliate), as part of the DWF Belize program. These divisions, together with Langulas Inc. were registered by Yappn on behalf of DWF Belize to support its revenue programs and transferred to ICEs new subsidiary DWF (Ontario) in accordance with that understanding as part of the transaction with DWF (Belize) and ICE.

Ed Karthaus, President & CEO of Yappn Corp. stated: We are very pleased to have a secured commitment to continue Yappn services and have already received partial payment of the outstanding receivable since the completion of the acquisition of DWF Belize by ICE. With further funds forthcoming to ultimately satisfy the secured receivable, we will continue to move forward with further development of the platform under ICEs ownership program.

About Yappn

Yappn Corp. (OTCQB:YPPN) empowers brands to globalize their offerings and build larger market share by efficiently removing the language barrier in real-time. Focusing on the Ecommerce market, Yappn is the most innovative supplier of Advanced Machine Translation Services to provide a complete customizable set of tools to engage consumers in up to 67 languages to support the entire sales cycle, in real-time, from online marketing to Ecommerce sales and customer care.

Yappn provides high fidelity language services, utilizing its 3 US patents and proprietary technology to understand the true meaning of the message. System integration is quick and cost-effective, increasing efficiency, effectiveness and customer satisfaction.

For more information, please visit http://www.yappn.com or contact:

Jeanny So, VP, Strategy & Corporate Communications

E: jeanny@yappn.com

T: 1.800.395.9943 x 228

To be added to the news release distribution list, please email: jeanny@yappn.com with the word News on the subject line

Forward Looking Information

Legal Notice and Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, and those preceded by or that include the words believes, expects, given, targets, intends, anticipates, plans, projects, forecasts or similar expressions, are forward-looking statements. Although Yappn Corp.s management believes that such forward-looking statements are reasonable; it cannot guarantee that such expectations are, or will be, correct. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, which could cause the Company's future results to differ materially from those anticipated. Additional information regarding the factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements is available in the Company's filings with the SEC including the Current Reports on Form 8-K and the Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Annual Reports on Form 10-K. The Company assumes no obligation to update any of the information contained or referenced in this press release.
Deerfield Beach, FL, March 10, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zion Research has published a new report titled Pyrrolidone (2-Pyrrolidone, N-Methylpyrrolidone, N-Vinylpyrrolidone, N-Octylpyrrolidone) Market for Recovery of Pure Hydrocarbons, Paints and Coatings, Desulfurization of Gases, Plastics, Agrochemicals and Others Applications - Global Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Segment, Trends and Forecast, 2014  2020. According to the report, global pyrrolidone market was valued at around USD 1.75 billion in 2014 and is expected to reach USD 2.50 billion in 2020, growing at a CAGR of around 6.0% between 2015 and 2020. In terms of volume, the global pyrrolidone market stood at above 460 kilo tons in 2014.

Pyrrolidone is an organic compound which is obtained by reaction of butyrolactone with ammonia. Pyrrolidone is a colorless liquid, used in dehumidifying liquids. Due to this property, pyrrolidone is extensively used to extract natural gas from the mixture of crude oil. Increasing demand of natural gas in developed as well as the developing countries drives the global pyrrolidone market. Pyrrolidone is used in different applications such as production of SBR latex, lube oil processing, metal finishing etc. It also used as intermediate for the synthesis of agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, textile auxiliaries, plasticizers, and stabilizers.

Browse the full "Pyrrolidone (2-Pyrrolidone, N-Methylpyrrolidone, N-Vinylpyrrolidone, N-Octylpyrrolidone) Market for Recovery of Pure Hydrocarbons, Paints and Coatings, Desulfurization of Gases, Plastics, Agrochemicals and Others Applications - Global Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Segment, Trends and Forecast, 2014  2020" report at http://www.marketresearchstore.com/report/pyrrolidone-market-z49317



Pyrrolidone market is mainly driven by strong demand for natural gases from different countries worldwide. Pyrrolidone is used for recovery of pure hydrocarbons in petrochemical processing. The desulfurization of gases is the major application in which pyrrolidone is widely used. Pyrrolidone posses a broad range of applications in different industries such as paints and coatings, agrochemical, plastics etc., which boost the pyrrolidone market. Growing demand for medicines simultaneously increased the use of pyrrolidone as an intermediate for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals is expected to escalate demand for this compound in the years to come. However, health issues caused due to this chemical is expected to hamper growth of pyrrolidone market.

On the basis of product type pyrrolidone market can be segmented into 2-pyrrolidone, N-methylpyrrolidone, N-vinylpyrrolidone, N-octylpyrrolidone. N-methylpyrrolidone was the largest product segment in 2014 and accounted for over 70% share of the total volume consumed. Owing to the use of N-methylpyrrolidone in various end-use sectors such as paints and coatings, automobile and plastics it is expected to maintain its dominance in the forecast period. N-vinylpyrrolidone was the second largest product segment of the global pyrrolidone market in 2014. However, N-octylpyrrolidone is expected to exhibit rapid growth owing to demand from chemicals, pesticides and fertilizers industry.

Browse 46 Market Tables and 24 Figures spread through 70 Pages and an in-depth TOC on Pyrrolidone Market - Global Size, Shares, Trends, Segment & Forecast to 2020

Get Sample Research Report at http://www.marketresearchstore.com/report/pyrrolidone-market-z49317#RequestSample



Key application markets for pyrrolidone include recovery of pure hydrocarbons, paints and coatings, desulfurization of gases, plastics, agrochemicals and others applications such as including pharmaceuticals, electronics, etc. Recovery of pure hydrocarbons in petrochemical processing was the largest application segment for pyrrolidone in 2014, which accounted for about 25% of global consumption in 2014. Additionally, desulfurization of gases is also expected to fuel demand of pyrrolidone over the next few years. Desulfurization of gases application was the second largest application segment of pyrrolidone market.

Pyrrolidone market was dominated by Asia Pacific accounted with around 40% share in total 2014. North America and Europe was another major consumer of pyrrolidone.. Asia Pacific is expected to further complement pyrrolidone demand in the region due to increasing pharmaceuticals production in India and China.

Key players operating in this market includes Ashland Inc, BASF SE, J&K Chemical Ltd, Abtonsmart Chemical Co., Ltd., Hefei TNJ Chemical Industry Co., Ltd., NIPPON SHOKUBAI Co., Ltd., Balaji Amines Ltd., and LyondellBasell Industries.

Related Published Reports:

Plastic Packaging Market: http://www.marketresearchstore.com/report/plastic-packaging-market-z47941



http://www.marketresearchstore.com/report/plastic-packaging-market-z47941 Specialty Chemicals Market: http://www.marketresearchstore.com/report/specialty-chemicals-market-z45989



http://www.marketresearchstore.com/report/specialty-chemicals-market-z45989 Paints and Coatings Market: http://www.marketresearchstore.com/report/paints-and-coatings-market-by-product-segment-z37356



The report segments the global pyrrolidone market into:

Global Pyrrolidone Market: Product Segment Analysis

2-Pyrrolidone

N-Methylpyrrolidone

N-Vinylpyrrolidone

N-Octylpyrrolidone

Global Pyrrolidone Market: Application Segment Analysis

Recovery of pure hydrocarbons

Paints and coatings

Desulfurization of gases

Plastics

Agrochemicals

Others (Including pharmaceuticals, electronics, etc.)

Global Pyrrolidone Market: Regional Segment Analysis

North America U.S.

Europe UK France Germany

Asia Pacific China Japan India

Latin America Brazil

Middle East & Africa

Browse Press Release: http://www.marketresearchstore.com/news/global-pyrrolidone-market-181



About Us

Market Research Store is a market intelligence company providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. Market Research Store experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants uses proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.

Each Market Research Store syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food and beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports strive to serve the overall research requirement of clients.

Follow Us LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/market-research-store



Follow Us Twitter: https://twitter.com/marketrstore



Blog: http://www.syndicatemarketresearch.com/


DGAP-News: Ahlers AG / Key word(s): Final Results Ahlers AG: Ahlers' results decline due to reduced revenues in FY 2014/15, while cash flow picks up and balance sheet remains solid. Increased consolidated net income expected for 2015/16. 10.03.2016 / 11:20 The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- PRESS RELEASE 10 March 2016 Ahlers' results decline due to reduced revenues in FY 2014/15, while cash flow picks up and balance sheet remains solid Dividend proposal of EUR 0.25 per preferred share and EUR 0.20 per common share Increased consolidated net income expected for 2015/16 - Sales revenues in 2014/15 down by 5.9 percent due to strong decline in Russian business, reduced sales to last remaining private label customer and Gin Tonic - Premium segment now accounts for 66 percent of total sales revenues (previous year: 64 percent) - Solid performance in Western Europe and Poland - Own Retail sales climb 6 percent - EBIT and consolidated net income drop sharply due to lower revenues - Financial situation remains solid as reflected in equity ratio of 58 percent and increased cash flow Decline in sales revenues in FY 2014/15 essentially attributable to three factors Sales revenues declined by 5.9 percent from EUR 257.1 million to EUR 241.9 million in the fiscal year 2014/15. This reduction is essentially attributable to three factors. The crisis in Russia and Ukraine sent sales revenues falling by EUR 9.0 million. In addition, sales to the last remaining large private label customer were halved by EUR 4.2 million. And finally, sales revenues of Gin Tonic decreased by EUR 2.1 million. Solid performance in declining European clothing market Apart from these three factors, Ahlers held its ground in a declining European apparel market. While the Baldessarini and Pierre Cardin premium brands remained robust under the difficult conditions prevailing in the German market, the Pioneer Authentic Jeans brand outperformed the market as a whole. Ahlers increased its revenues and gained market share in important Western European markets but also in some parts of Eastern Europe. The Premium segment accounts for 66 percent of total sales revenues in FY 2014/15, up from 64 percent in the previous year. Own Retail revenues pick up sharply New stores opened in Germany and Eastern Europe as well as increased retail productivity sent the company's own Retail revenues rising by 5.7 percent in 2014/15. The Retail segment's share in total revenues climbed from 10.5 to 11.8 percent. In spite of the difficult market developments, like-for-like sales also climbed by 1.7 percent. In the fiscal year 2014/15, e-commerce revenues increased by an impressive 26 percent. Strong decline in earnings due to decrease in sales revenues Although personnel, operating, financial and tax expenses were reduced significantly, the lower gross profits from decreased sales revenues had a notable effect on the results. EBITDA before special effects declined by 44 percent from EUR 16.8 million to EUR 9.5 million. EBIT before special effects declined by 65 percent from EUR 11.7 million to EUR 4.1 million and consolidated net income contracted by 77 percent from EUR 6.0 million to EUR 1.4 million. Increased equity ratio and positive free cash flow Thanks to strict net working capital management, inventories and receivables declined by EUR 9.0 million. The equity ratio climbed from 57.9 percent to 58.3 percent. This means that the quality of Ahlers' balance sheet even improved during the difficult fiscal year 2014/15. Due to the reduced net working capital cash flow from operating activities rose by 15.6 percent to EUR 12.6 million in fiscal 2014/15. The free cashflow was clearly positive with EUR 2.8 million. Ahlers maintains its consistent dividend policy, which is characterised by reliable dividend payments and high payout ratios, also this year. The Management Board and the Supervisory Board will propose a dividend of EUR 0.20 per common share and EUR 0.25 per preferred share to the Annual General Meeting. Based on the share prices on March 9, 2016, the dividend yields amounted to 2.6 percent (common share) and 3.5 percent (preferred share). Increased consolidated net income expected for the fiscal year 2015/16 For the current fiscal year 2015/16, Ahlers projects a notable increase in sales revenues of the Premium segment, which comprises the Pierre Cardin, Baldessarini and Otto Kern brands. Pioneer revenues should pick up as well. This assumption is supported by the order situation for the spring/summer season 2016 as well as by the results of the current pre-orders for autumn/winter 2016. By contrast, Gin Tonic will no longer generate revenues once the distribution activities are discontinued after the summer season 2016. From today's point of view Ahlers expects a very moderate decline against the previous year in total sales revenues. As a result of cost-cutting measures, both EBIT after special effects and consolidated net income after taxes should clearly exceed the prior year level in 2015/16. Summary of Ahlers Group figures: in EUR millions 2014/15 2013/14 Change in % Sales revenues 241.9 257.1 -5.9 EBIT before special effects 9.5 16.8 -43.5 EBIT margin (in %) before special effects 3.9 6.5 Consolidated net income after taxes 1.4 6.0 -76.7 Cash flow from operating activities 12.6 10.9 15.6 Dividend* 3.0 5.8 -48.3 Dividend per share (EUR)* Common share 0.20 0.40 Preferred share 0.25 0.45 Employees as of the reporting date 2,042 2,250 -9.2 Equity ratio (in %) 58.3 57.9 0.4 PP * 2014/15: dividend proposal Inquiries: Ahlers AG Gotz Borchert Head of Marketing, Retail and Corporate Communications Phone: +49 (0)5221/ 979 270 E-mail: goetz.borchert@ahlers-ag.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10.03.2016 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. Media archive at www.dgap-medientreff.de and www.dgap.de --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Language: English Company: Ahlers AG Elverdisser Strae 313 32052 Herford Germany Phone: +49 (0)5221 979-0 Fax: +49 (0)5221 70058 E-mail: ahlers-ag@ahlers-ag.com Internet: www.ahlers-ag.com ISIN: DE0005009708, DE0005009732 WKN: 500970, 500973 Listed: Regulated Market in Dusseldorf, Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Regulated Unofficial Market in Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart End of News DGAP News Service --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 444021 10.03.2016
San Francisco, March 10, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Deceptive representation of an original food product and pharmaceutical is referred to as counterferfeiting. Increasing growth of low quality and cheap counterfeit products mainly pertaining to the food and pharmaceuticals industries have promoted the rate of implementation of anti-counterfeiting technologies. Trace technologies, covert features enabling and overt/visible feature are some of the key technologies associated with anti-counterfeiting. The U.S FDA stated that, Pharmaceutical manufacturers in the U.S suffer revenue loss of USD 300 billion everywhere .This was mainly due to the counterfeiting in the region. On addition, these products also affect the brand image of the original manufacturer as they achieve low on quality.

Rising awareness levels of regulatory authorities like the U.S FDA coupled with manufacturers losses in terms of brand image and revenue is likely to boost the anti-counterfeiting technologies market.

Browse to access In-depth research report on Global Pharmaceuticals And Food Anti-Counterfeiting Technologies Market with detailed charts and figures: http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/pharmaceuticals-and-food-anti-counterfeiting

Abundant existence of untapped opportunities in Asian countries with increased counterfeiting occurrences in china coupled with Augmenting demand for advanced technologies like ultra high RFID tags is expected to boost the industry growth over the coming years. China contributes for over 70% of the total customs seizures according to the report published by World Customs Organization.

In 2012, bar codes segment dominated the worldwide pharmaceutical and food anti-counterfeiting technologies market. Advanced existence of high market penetration rates of this technology in food and drugs industries mainly pertaining to the packaging and inventory management facets displayed by this technology will drive the industry. RFID based technology acts as the driver for the overall market as the technology is relatively cheaper as compared to others.

Request for free sample of this research report: http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/pharmaceuticals-and-food-anti-counterfeiting/request

In terms of revenue, Pharmaceutical anti-counterfeiting applications dominated the entire market in 2013. It contributed the market share of over USD 40 billion in the year 2012. Increasing adoption rates of anti- counterfeiting in the pharmaceuticals sector is the major factor boosting the market. Furthermore, food counterferfeiting technologies industry is likely to undergo a highest CAGR over the coming years. This is mainly due to rising awareness levels of manufacturers and existence of a constantly advancing infrastructure that support the execution of these technologies

In terms of revenue share, North America dominated the overall market for anti-counterfeiting technologies in the year 2012.Implementation of strict and diligent regulations by the FDA coupled with existence of sophisticated healthcare infrastructure in the region are the factors expected to drive the market further.

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-pharmaceuticals-and-food-anti-counterfeiting

Contact:

Sherry James

Corporate Sales Specialist, USA

Grand View Research, Inc

Phone: 1-415-349-0058

Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519

email: sales@grandviewresearch.com

Web: www.grandviewresearch.com
CAMBRIDGE, Ontario, March 10, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadian biofertilizer producer Lystek International is excited to release a first round of in-depth, third-party, field data derived from crop trials completed during the 2015 growing year in Ontario's agricultural heartland.

The Cambridge-based firm is quickly establishing itself as a market leader in the low temperature, low cost Thermal Hydrolysis space. This is being achieved by demonstrating how advanced technology based in sound science and research can not only help reduce the volumes and GHG's that can be associated with biosolids and organics management, but also how these amazing resources can be safely diverted from landfills (or other, less beneficial uses) and converted into biogas for green energy, an alternative carbon source for BNR systems and a highly effective, pathogen free "Class A quality" biofertilizer product.

In an effort to better quantify the positive results seen by growers using the LysteGro product, in 2015 Lystek participated with the Georgian Central Soil and Crop Improvement Association in a trial comparing the use of typical application rates of commercial fertilizer with LysteGro at five field locations. The trials were conducted by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) and each treatment was replicated three times at each location. On average, the LysteGro treatments increased yield by 16.5 bushels/acre in comparison to the commercial fertilizer treatments. Other tests conducted during the trial, such as grain protein content and stalk nitrate tests also showed that the LysteGro treatments produced superior results, for lower costs, as compared to commercial fertilizer.

Due to the pressures of increasing fertilizer costs and the need to boost organic matter concentrations in soils, some farmers in Southern Ontario have embraced the use of organically-based biofertilizers to replace commercial fertilizer, build nutrient levels in soils and improve overall health. What they are finding is that the LysteGro product (in particular) offers a unique combination of balanced nutrients, ideal for crop production as well as organic matter, which help to improve soil health over the long term. In addition to providing nutrient concentrations of N-P-K (Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium) at levels which meet crop demands, LysteGro also provides a suite of micronutrients, including Sulphur, Magnesium, Calcium, Zinc and many others.

Demand for the LysteGro fertilizer produced at Lystek's OMRC in Southgate, ON and a growing list of converted, municipal Wastewater Resource Recovery Centers (WRRC's) has been outstanding during the initial years of distribution, and continues to grow as word gets out about the results producers are seeing.

For example, Wayne Metzger of Highland Custom Farming, an organization that farms approximately 1,500 acres of their own land and an additional 8,000 acres as a custom operator in Grey County, was one of the first to use LysteGro. He describes it as; "an important part of our long term strategy, this product allows us to build up our soils, which are typically low, to very low, in potassium and phosphorus." He adds; "The initial results have been great. We're getting 200 bushel corn on ground applied with LysteGro, which is extremely rare for this area. I'm really excited to watch the long term effects of this product. When you see the positive impact this material has had on our soil, and the results of this trial, it's a wonder why anyone would allow these materials to be sent to landfill, or anywhere else for that matter."

Following the trial, Jon Wiley, a trial participant and former President of the Grey County Soil and Crop improvement Association, stated that; "While I believed in the product before the trials, the results really do pop out at you, so I'm excited to use the product on my farm going forward".

Full results from the 2015 trials, they can be found here http://lystek.com/solutions/lystegro-biofertilizer/

The company (Lystek) will continue trials with OMAFRA in 2016, investigating applying the material side dressed into established corn as well as with cover crop following wheat harvest.

About Lystek International Inc.

Lystek is an award-winning organic materials recovery firm with proven solutions that is helping municipalities and other generators reduce waste, costs, odors and greenhouse gas emissions through its innovative approach to biosolids and organics management. Lystek is committed to beneficial use through the transformation of non-hazardous, organic materials into nutrient rich, federally registered, fertilizer products. The same, innovative system can also be used to optimize the performance of digesters and BNR systems, while reducing overall volumes and increasing biogas production for green energy.



A photo accompanying this release is available at:

http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=39387
WASHINGTON, March 10, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Members of the National Apartment Association (NAA) and nearly 170 affiliated associations this week turned out for their largest ever advocacy campaign, both on Capitol Hill and in congressional districts from coast to coast. Telling lawmakers that apartments work, industry members emphasized that lawmakers must enact public policies that promote rather than obstruct the industry's ability to provide housing and jobs.



"The apartment industry provides homes to 38 million Americans, contributes $1.3 trillion annually to the economy and supports 12.3 million jobs. As compelling as these facts are in building our case with Congress, the real stories come from the people who work in the industry, who are impacted daily, whether positively or negatively, by decisions made on Capitol Hill," said Gregory S. Brown, NAA Senior Vice President of Government Affairs. "That's why our advocacy power grows each year as more and more apartment owners, managers and other industry members come together as advocates to educate their members of Congress about the value apartments bring to communities across the country."



NAA members connected with their congressional offices either on March 9 on Capitol Hill during NAA's Lobby Day or in their home communities during the House of Representatives in-district work period this week.



NAA members advocated for three key issues impacting their businesses:

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Fair Housing Accessibility: Support legislation that provides a business owner with the opportunity to cure an alleged ADA deficiency prior to the initiation of a lawsuit.

National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and Reauthorization: Support legislation reforming the NFIP and providing for long-term reauthorization of the program before it expires in September 2017.

Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program: Support legislation reforming the Section 8 program, including the contract term, property inspections, tenant screening and funding stream. The House has already approved this bill.

"These issues are among our most important priorities for this Congress," said Cindy Chetti, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs for the National Multifamily Housing Council, which partners with NAA for the apartment industry's federal legislative and regulatory priorities. "Enacting them would help ease burdens unfairly placed on apartment owners and managers. Only through collaboration between government and the private sector can we reach our shared goal of providing a variety of quality housing options for all Americans."



Learn more about apartments at www.weareapartments.org.



For nearly 25 years, the National Apartment Association (NAA) and the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) have partnered on behalf of America's apartment industry. Drawing on the knowledge and policy expertise of staff in Washington, D.C., as well as the advocacy power of nearly 170 NAA state and local affiliated associations, NMHC and NAA provide a single voice for developers, owners and operators of multifamily rental housing.



For more information, contact:

NAA at 703-797-0616 or carole@naahq.org or www.naahq.org/governmentaffairs

NMHC at 202-974-2300 or info@nmhc.org or www.nmhc.org
Introducing our guest

Cornell Business Journal.

Path to b-school

Learning about leadership from diverse fields  such as history

Why Cornell Johnson?

Any challenges adjusting?

Hardest part of the application process

How he made the case for admission with no work experience

Whats great about Johnson?

Areas that have fallen short

Cornell Business Journal: his plans

The Economist

Associate of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Institute

Has what hes learned in class helped him with his start-up?

Summer and Post-MBA plans

Advice for applicants

Making personal connections with professors

Related Links:

Related Shows:

Subscribe:

you

Are you an aspiring entrepreneur? Considering an MBA at Cornell Johnson? Or are you thinking of applying to MBA programs with less-than-average work experience? If this is you, youll want to listen to this weeks show [0:44]Meet Jonathan Hua, a first year MBA student at Cornell Johnson and Editor in Chief of theHe is also an Associate of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Institute at Johnson and co-founder of the start-up UNICiD.Jonathan grew up in Taipei, and attended Rice University in Houston, where he earned his bachelors in history and got bit by the start-up bug. Somewhere along the way he spent two years in Tokyo, He plays trumpet and also trains for triathlons.[1:47]He started off pre-med, but when his friend recruited him to work with a start-up, he became interested in business. Realizing his strength in communication, he decided on a history major. He applied to b-schools his senior year and deferred offers to work on UNICiDa 3D fitting room application for online shopping. Working on start-ups made him realize he needs a formal b-school education.[7:10][7:35]Jonathan anted a new challenge in a very different environment (new climate, small town vs big city). He was impressed by the core curriculum and respected Cornells recent investment in entrepreneurship education  an example is the Cornell Tech campus.[10:35]Small town forces you to be more proactivea good experience.[12:20]Since he was applying right out of college, he didnt have traditional work experience to draw on in his application. The essays are also challenging  such as the Table of Contents essay, which requires creativity.[14:55]Focused on describing his goals and the practical management experience hed gotten from his startup experience (teamwork, leadership, getting funding, etc). Identified what he needed from b-school, why it was important to go: sold them on potential.[19:30]Its academically challenging. Team projects are great, and the experience of working with diverse team members is a really valuable part of the experience.[21:52]The MBA program is working on boosting entrepreneurship education, but the resources still arent as extensive as they are for other areas (such as finance).[28:20]Looking to publish his first issue as editor-in-chief by April. He plans to expand the scope of the journal beyond the b-school: looking for writers from diverse backgrounds interested in policy issues, the application of business concepts to broader topics, etc. His model is[31:45]This means he takes entrepreneurship classes, promotes entrepreneurship education at Johnson, and will complete a capstone project (capstone can be starting your own company, helping another start-up, etc). Associates who fulfill all the requirements become Fellows of the Institute at graduation.[34:00]Yes, definitely! Courses in financial management, marketing, etc. have given him a fuller understanding of how to run a business.[36:18]He plans to take the start up to an incubator in Silicon Valley to work on developing the project with resources there (funding, mentors). If that doesnt work out, then he would like to gain experience working with a start-up.[39:40]Reach out to the committee (he knows people who were waitlisted who reached out and got in). He contacted professors before he applied and thinks the connection helped.[42:40]He researched their professional/start-up experience, their research, their courses, etc. He read their work (articles and books) and asked questions that showed real interest (and a connection between his interests/goals and their work). Interview with Tom Schick , former Executive VP at American Express This article originally appeared on blog.accepted.com Applying to a top b-school? The talented folks at Accepted have helped hundreds of applicants get accepted to their dream programs. Whether you are figuring out where apply, writing your application essays, or prepping for your interviews, we are just a call (or click) away.Contact us, and get matched up with the consultant who will help_________________
We rely on your support to make local news available to all

Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2022. Donate today
A 34-year-old father of two has died from injuries sustained after two men beat him in the head with a pipe in Woodside. The incident occurred over the weekend, and though the NYPD arrested one suspect, the second is still at large.

Police say Martin Quiej, 34, was editing children's birthday party videos at the party supply store he owned in the vicinity of Roosevelt Avenue and 54th Street at around 1:45 a.m. on Saturday when one of his co-workers got into an argument with two other men right next dooraccording to surveillance video, one of the suspects screamed anti-Mexican slurs at the co-worker.

Quiej, an immigrant from Guatemala, reportedly grabbed a metal pole to fend off the attackers and break up the fight, but one of them apparently managed to get it from him and hit him in the head with it.

He was rushed to Elmhurst Hospital and died Tuesday, leaving behind a 4-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son. "They miss him so much. They ask for him, his wife, Guadalupe Serrano, told the Daily News of his children. He was a hardworking man who dedicated himself to his family. He didn't deserve to be attacked like this, to die like this. Family members are trying to raise funds for Quiej's funeral.

One suspect, 21-year-old Victor Mendoza, was arrested on Sunday and charged with attempted murder, assault, criminal possession of a weapon, criminal mischief and aggravated harassment. Police say he may have been drunk at the time of the attack.
Last weekend was just the warm-up to St. Patrick's Dayhere are more notable parades in the area, including the big one on March 17:



SUNDAY, MARCH 13:

Throggs Neck St. Patrick's Day Parade

Bronx

12 p.m. Parade begins at East Tremont and Lafayette Avenues (route continues down East Tremont and then takes a right onto Harding Avenue and concludes at Harding and Brinsmade Avenues)



istockphoto

THURSDAY, MARCH 17

New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade

Midtown Manhattan

Mayor Bill de Blasio will be joining the parade this year, making him the first Democratic mayor in 20 years to march. The parade attracts 2.5 million spectators, who are advised "Best views to those who show up early."

11 a.m. Parade start on Fifth Avenue at 44th Street (the parade goes up Fifth Avenue and ends at 79th Street)



SUNDAY, MARCH 20:

Brooklyn St. Patrick's Day Parade

Park Slope, Brooklyn

1 p.m. Parade Step-off at Prospect Park West and 15th Street (the route goes down 15th Street to 7th Avenue; then along 7th Avenue to Garfield; up Garfield to Prospect Park West and along PPW to 15th Street)

Bay Ridge St. Patrick's Day Parade

Bay Ridge, Brooklyn

1 p.m. Parade kick off at Third Avenue and Marine Avenue (the route goes down to 67th Street)
I like to think of myself as a Renaissance Man, who champions the values of the Enlightenment and aspires to the Cardinal Virtues of Prudence, Temperance, Justice and Fortitude.

I am also a student of the Misery of the Human Condition.

""

[more]
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.
1. To believe in the existence and providence of G-d.

2. Not to believe that there are any other gods.

3. To believe that G-d is an absolute unity.

4. To love G-d.

5. To fear G-d.

6. To guard oneself from foreign thoughts.
Your digital subscription includes access to all content on our agricultural websites across the nation. Access unlimited content and the digital versions of our print editions - This Week's Paper.
Natural history lecture series underway

The Last Chance Audubon Society Natural History Lecture Series theme for 2016 is restoration. The lectures take place at the Montana Historical Society Auditorium, 225 N. Roberts.

March 10, 6:30 p.m -- The Matador Ranch. The speaker, Brian Martin, has spent the last 20 years as the grasslands conservation director for Nature Conservancy, working with 13 family ranches in north central Montana. In 2000 Nature Conservancy acquired the 60,000-acre Matador Ranch, which provides habitat for a variety of wildlife. Martin will talk about the Matador Grassbank, a 320,000 acre grassland that Nature Conservancy collaborates with area ranchers to enhance habitat for a variety of birds and wildlife.

March 17, 6:30 p.m. -- The Blackfoot Challenge. Speaker, Sara Schmidt, the outreach and conservation strategies coordinator, will present an overview of natural resource conservation efforts in the Blackfoot River drainage. She will describe in detail some of the conservation easements they helped to establish. The Blackfoot Challenge has worked with area ranchers, conservationists, and loggers to help maintain a way of life while conserving wildlife and habitat in the area.

***

Upland game bird council to meet

The Upland Game Bird Enhancement Program Advisory Council will meet in Helena on March 1415 to participate in program planning efforts for the 2016 field season. The meeting will be held at FWPs Montana Wild, 2668 Broadwater Ave., beginning Monday at 8 a.m.

The public is invited to attend the meeting and may provide comments to the council during the time identified on the agenda, which can be found at http://fwp.mt.gov/default.html. Click Upland Game Bird Council for meeting details.

For more information, contact Debbie Hohler at 406-444-5674, or by e-mail: dhohler@mt.gov.

***

Interpretive Center hosts spring star party

The Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center has revived the annual spring Star Party Extravaganza. The event will take place on Friday, March 11, from 6-9 p.m. at the Interpretive Center, 4201 Giant Springs Road, Great Falls. A variety of activities that are fun for all ages will be available for attendees. Outdoors, the Central Montana Astronomy Society will have telescopes and astronomy enthusiasts available for night sky viewing and celestial identification. Indoors, visitors can enjoy cookies and cocoa, lectures by guest speaker Dr. Art Alt, and a childrens activity of building a bean mosaic of the planet Jupiter.

The event is free to everyone, but folks who are able, are encouraged to bring a nonperishable food item to donate to the Great Falls Food Bank. For more information, please contact the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center at 406-727-8733.

***

Proposed update to commercial bait fish rule

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is proposing an update to commercial seining rules to reflect current procedures and law, while providing consistency between recent regulation changes and administrative rules.

The proposed changes would require a commercial bait fish seining license for the collection and possession of more than 24 dozen nongame baitfish, as described in the current fishing regulations.

Under the new rule, a commercial bait fish seining license can be obtained by application to FWP. The application fee would remain $10 and would be refunded if the application was denied.

If you would like to comment on the proposed rule contact Joel Tohtz, Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, P.O. Box 200701, Helena 59601-0701; fax at (406) 444-4952; or email jtohtz@mt.gov. Comments must be received by 5 p.m. March 18, 2016.

A public hearing on the proposed rule may be scheduled if the department receives enough requests.

***

Montana Wild, Wild Sheep Foundation hosting youth event

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, the Montana Wild Sheep Foundation and several partner organizations will provide a free youth Outdoor Youth Educational Experience at Montana Wild and Spring Meadow Lake State Park. The event is set for 10 a.m.1 p.m. on Saturday, March 19. Participants can access the event at the Montana Wild Education Center at 2668 Broadwater Ave. or from Spring Meadow Lake State Park off of Country Club Road.

This is an opportunity for youth and families to participate in a variety of hands-on, outdoor activities, including archery, pellet gun shooting, laser target shooting, bighorn sheep displays, Boone & Crockett scoring clinics and more.

For more information call Montana Wild at 444-9944 or visit the Montana Wild Sheep Foundations website at www.montanawsf.org.

***

Bear identification training required for hunters

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks reminds all black bear hunters of the responsibility to avoid mistakenly shooting a grizzly bear during the state's upcoming spring black bear hunt. Montana's spring black bear hunting season begins April 15.

Before first-time bear hunters can purchase a black bear hunting license, they must be certified by successfully completing FWP's bear identification training. FWP offers a bear identification training course on its website under the Education tab at fwp.mt.gov. Click "Hunter Education," and then "Bear Identification Program."

Go online or pick up a mail-in test from any FWP office. Bear identification tests can also be obtained by writing to: FWP Bear Test, P.O. Box 200701, Helena, MT 59620-0701.

Hunters may purchase black bear hunting licenses online at fwp.mt.gov, at FWP license providers, or download and print a paper license application and mail it to FWP. Licenses issued through the mail may take two weeks to process.

***

Hunter's ed class planned in Townsend

A hunters education class is scheduled for May 16-21 from 6:30-9 p.m. in Townsend. A mandatory orientation night will be held from 6-7 p.m. April 11. Register online at fwp.mt.gov. For more information, call Ivan Jenkins at 406-459-9492.

***

Campground host sought for Crystal Lake

The Helena-Lewis & Clark National Forest staff is recruiting volunteers to serve as a campground host for the Crystal Lake Campground, located south east of Lewistown in the Big Snowy Mountains.

Campground hosts may provide their own trailer and occupy a prominent campsite in a campground, or if they prefer, they may stay in the Forest Service cabin located at the campground. The campground host will welcome guests, answer questions, explain and encourage compliance with the rules, and provide light maintenance of campsites, outhouses and other facilities in the campground.

Ideally, the Forest Service would like to have a host in the campground through Labor Day weekend. The host may leave for a couple of days throughout the week; however they would need to be at the campground over the weekends. Interested parties who would like to work in this role for at least a month are encouraged to inquire. Depending on interest, this position could be filled with a couple of hosts spanning the duration of the summer.

While this is a volunteer position, a daily per diem will be paid to the volunteer host to help defray costs of food, propane and other expenses.

For additional information, please contact Tray Hall, recreation technician, at 406-547-6011.

***

District prepares for spring burning

The Lincoln Ranger District of the Helena-Lewis & Clark National Forest is preparing to conduct prescribed burning in the Ogden Mountain area and Poorman Creek area this spring if weather conditions become favorable. Burning will begin as weather, air quality, and fuel conditions allow and will continue into late spring and early summer.

The Helmville Face Wildlife Enhancement Project is located in the Ogden Mountain area. Multiple units are planned to be treated this spring, totaling 335 acres. This project is a joint effort between the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Helena-Lewis & Clark National Forest and is intended to enhance big game forage by reintroducing fire into a historically fire dominated ecosystem

The burning in the Poorman Creek area will consist of Ethel units 22, 23 and Crater units 1 and 15. Unit 22 is located in Long Gulch and totals 120 acres. Unit 23, which is located in Rochester Gulch, is comprised of approximately 540 acres.

For more information on this burning project plan, please contact the Lincoln Ranger District at 406-362-7000.

***

Adult hunter education available online

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks offers hunter education on the Internet to anyone 18 years and older.

State law requires anyone born after Jan. 1, 1985, to take a hunter education course and complete a field course before purchasing a hunting license in Montana. The $25 online course allows adults to take the required hunter education course at their convenience.

Following the online coursework, students must sign up for a scheduled field day. There are field days available throughout Montana every spring and into the fall.

For more information go to the FWP website at fwp.mt.gov. Click on the Education tab and then click "Hunter Education."
Over the years I've received thousands of money-saving tips from readers, many of which I've shared in books, newsletters and this column. I haven't shared plenty of other tips for a variety of reasons, but mostly because I've found they don't work. Some don't work so much that they actually end up costing time and money, not saving.

One of those useless tips still makes me laugh. It goes like this:

Start with two empty toilet paper tubes and one new roll of two-ply toilet paper. Carefully separate the two layers of toilet paper, re-rolling each of the layers onto an empty tube to create two rolls of toilet paper for the price of one.

Not only does this take an unbelievable amount time (unless you own a toilet tissue rolling machine of some kind); but doing so results in a ginormous mess of toilet paper that is so thin it takes at least twice as many squares to get the job done.

Don't do that, OK? Instead, learn how to price compare for toilet paper. And stock up when you find it on sale.

NO STANDARDIZATION. Comparing the prices of toilet paper can be confusing because no two rolls or packages are alike. There are no set standards for toilet paper. (And I'm not suggesting there should be). We can't compare roll-for-roll because roll sizes vary from one manufacturer to another. Companies offer double rolls, jumbo rolls or even 1,000-sheet rolls. What's more, there is no standardized size for a sheet. And to make things even more confusing, rolls vary in layers between single-ply and 2-ply.

UNIT PRICING. The price per square foot for thick (two-ply) or thin (one-ply) toilet paper is the most reliable method for comparing prices. Most manufacturers list both of these measurements on the product label. You may have to search for it, but you should be able to find this information.

DO THE MATH. So you thought all those math classes you took in school were for naught? They're finally about to pay off. The goal is to discover the price, per square foot, of the products you're comparing.

Do this by dividing the price of the product by the number of square feet in each roll.

If the product label shows the number of square feet contained therein, you're in luck. Do the math. If the label shows how many square inches of product are contained in the package, convert that number to square feet by multiplying by 144; then divide that number into the price. If the store's shelf label reveals the price per 100 square feet, divide that price by 100 to get the price of one square foot.

EXAMPLE. As I write, a 30-roll pack of Costco's Kirkland brand two-ply toilet paper contains a total of 1,594 square feet of paper for $15.99, or one cent per square foot. Right next to that is the 30-roll package of Charmin two-ply, containing 865 square feet of paper for $21.99, or 2.5 cents per square foot. It's no-brainer which is cheaper: At 1 penny per square foot versus 2.5 pennies per square foot, the Kirkland brand wins big.

Now that you know how to compare prices of toilet paper, it's easy to know which toilet paper is the best deal on any given day. The ply and number of rolls don't matter. The price per square foot is the only number you need.

IT'S NOT ALL MATH. Author Linda Wright has found a way to turn one of life's necessities to an art form. Her book "Toilet Paper Origami on a Roll" is one of my favorites. It's a step-by-step guide to folding toilet paper into beautiful flourishes, such as a bow, an elegant swan and so much more. I haven't mastered this delightful art form yet, but I'm working on it.
Gov. Bruce Rauner wants the Illinois General Assembly, particularly the House, to get to work.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Rauner criticized House Speaker Michael Madigan for adjourning the House until April 4. The General Assembly wont meet next week because of the Illinois primary and then will take a two-week "spring break."

"Thats a dereliction of duty and a failure to do their jobs," Rauner said.

The governor is right, although its rarely gone well when governors criticize legislators. Rauner also said he wouldnt call a special session because, "that never works." Hes right about that, also.

The General Assembly is hardly a "nose to the grindstone," organization. According to the General Assemblys own records, the House and Senate have each been in session less than 15 times since Jan. 1. Senate sessions are scheduled for next week, but the House doesnt plan to meet again until April 4.

Such a schedule might be acceptable if the state was operating smoothly. But the state, as we all feel every day, is entering its ninth month without a state budget. While legislators are enjoying their "spring break," the rest of the state is suffering because the government has not performed the most basic of its functions.

Rauner also asked Tuesday for a "clean" education bill that would provide more funding to the states public schools. While additional, dependable money for schools is warranted, Rauner seems to be dismissing school funding reform. Under the current system, students in districts that are poor don't receive the same education as those students fortunate to live in better off districts. Democrats, led by State Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, have proposed plans that would simplify and equalize school funding.

Lower school funding in some districts can be a hard political pill to swallow, but something needs to be done. Placing more money into the public school system will help, but it will still amount to investing more taxpayer dollars in a system that penalizes poor students. Rauner has stated he doesnt want Democrats holding state education funding hostage in exchange for a Chicago school system bailout. We agree with that sentiment, but its also important that state funding for schools go to the students that need it the most.

This political posturing was tiring a long time ago. Its clear that Madigan has little desire to work with Rauner, even on the most basic of issues. Its also clear that Madigans House Democrats, despite what they say at home, are not capable of acting independently.

The state needs a budget, school spending reform, pension reform and a host of other issues resolved. Instead, our legislative leaders are going on "spring break."
Here's the News. All the news worth reading. (To me anyway) Note that this is a news clippings blog. Articles (mainly from Straits Times) are NOT written by me. Due to spam comments, comments are now moderated. Please read "This Blog" and "Before you comment".
Switzerland and Nigeria have agreed to work towards return of assets worth US$ 321 million stolen from Nigeria by its former dictator Sani Abacha, a Swiss Federal Council news release said Tuesday.

Abacha ruled Nigeria for five years after a 1993 coup. He is believed to have stashed billions of stolen dollars in European bank accounts, according to the Guardian. After Abachas death in 1998, Nigeria asked Switzerland for help in recovering an estimated US$ 2.2 billion hidden in Europe, the Guardian said.



Liechtenstein has returned hundreds of millions of dollars recovered from the Abacha family, according to the BBC. Stashes in several other European jurisdictions are also being pursued.

Abacha was accused of numerous human rights abuses, with the 1995 hanging of several dissidents, including activist and writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, sparking a worldwide outcry, the Guardian writes.

A plan to return the recovered funds will now be developed to guarantee that returned assets will be used in the interest of the people [of Nigeria], said Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Nigerian Vice President, in a news release from the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to combat corruption. He has asked both Britain and the United States for help in recovering money stolen by various Nigerian elites. An economic crisis in Nigeria triggered by low oil prices has made recouping the stolen money paramount, Reuters reports.

Africa loses upwards of US$ 50 billion each year in illicit financial outflows, the African Union Commission/United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (AUC/ECA) noted in a report.

occrp.org
Gruver Man Joins The Texas Lyceum

The Texas Lyceum is excited to welcome Garrett Gumfory as a Director into their organization. He begins a 3 year term in January 2016. Garrett joins a 96-member board that consists of young Texans with demonstrated leadership abilities who are committed to building a better state. Lyceum directors reflect a diversity of ideas, philosophies, occupations, ethnicities, and geographic areas of the State.



During the next several years, as a member of The Texas Lyceum, Garrett will participate in discussions on a wide range of current issues and challenges facing Texas at locations within the state and abroad. During 2016, the Lyceum Directors will meet in Galveston, Fort Worth, Havana, Cuba, the Rio Grande Valley and San Antonio to discuss issues such as: Storm Preparedness, Trade with Cuba, Immigration, and the Auto Industry to name a few.



Founded in 1980, the Lyceum blends the philosophical, the educational, and the practical with a goal of promoting understanding of events and ideas shaping the future of Texas. To that end, the Texas Lyceum is an association of Texans whose purposes are:



1. To identify and develop the next generation of top leadership in the State of Texas;

2. To educate its Directors by identifying and exploring the interrelationships of the major issues facing Texas;

3. To help bring a better understanding of these issues to the states key decision makers; and

4. To promote an appreciation of the responsibilities of stewardship of the values, traditions, and resources of Texas.



Garrett is a Gruver native. He graduated from Texas Tech and completed an MBA at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He has worked in various industries, including energy and insurance, in Texas and across the U.S. In 2013, Garrett returned to Gruver to assist in his familys businesses. He is married to Mika and they have four children.






" " In the wake of World War II, scientists tested nuclear weapons in the hopes of using them for more peaceful, civilian purposes. Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS

Around 9 a.m. on Aug. 6, 1945, Lt. Col. Paul Tibbets was flying a plane named after his mom high above the Japanese island of Honshu. A few seconds past 9:15, the Enola Gay released its payload, and Tibbets put his plane into a tight 159-degree turn to escape the shockwaves he knew would be coming [source: Terkel].

Far down below him, a man named Tsutomu Yamaguchi was just arriving in downtown Hiroshima on his way to a meeting. An engineer for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Yamaguchi was in town on a business trip. As he stepped off the tram, a white light filled his vision. Two miles (3 kilometers) away, an atomic bomb known as "Little Boy" had just detonated, instantly killing 80,000 people [source: McCurry]. Temporarily blinded, left eardrum destroyed, the top half of his body horribly burned, Yamaguchi made his way down the street. As he walked he passed the real "walking dead"  people burned so badly, flesh was hanging off them. Eventually, he found an air raid shelter where he spent the night [source: McNeil].

Advertisement

The next morning Yamaguchi was determined to get out of the city and managed to board a train back to his hometown. His hometown happened to be a city called Nagasaki. Two days later, Yamaguchi was at his workplace telling his boss about his harrowing near-death experience in Hiroshima when a familiar white light flooded the room. Once again he was 2 miles (3 kilometers) from Ground Zero where a second atom bomb called "Fat Man" had found its target. 70,000 people died that day. Somehow, Yamaguchi wasn't one of them [source: McNeil].

After years of recovery, Yamaguchi returned to work as an engineer, dying in 2010 at the age of 93. Despite his remarkable longevity, the world's only officially recognized double nuclear bomb survivor was plagued by painful health problems all his life. His children also say they believe the illnesses they suffer are related to their father's double-radiation exposure [source: McNeil].

People have called Yamaguchi "lucky," but that's definitely a "glass-half-full" assessment. Was he incredibly lucky to survive two nuclear blasts? Or incredibly unlucky to be in the wrong place at the wrong time  twice? One way or another, Yamaguchi witnessed two of the most nightmarish events in human history.

The people responsible for dropping those bombs, from the pilot of the Enola Gay to President Truman who gave the order, always maintained they had no regrets [source: Terkel]. But there's a reason nuclear bombs have never been used since Nagasaki. Actually, there are lots of reasons. But one of the most powerful is the sheer inhuman magnitude of the devastation they can wreak. Since 1945 no nation has been able to bring itself to unleash that degree of destruction on the world.

But humanity has also never had so much power at its disposal, and in the wake of World War II, some wondered whether nuclear weapons could be used for peaceful, civilian purposes. It was with that thought in mind that some of the scientists who helped develop the bomb began suggesting to government officials that there might be ways to deploy nukes without blowing anybody up. It seemed at the time that atomic weapons could provide enormous explosive power for relatively little cost. In other words, you could literally get a lot of bang for your buck. But enthusiasm isn't enough by itself. It took one of the biggest international crises of the 20th century to bring Operation Plowshare into being in 1958 [source: OSTI].
Morning briefing: Walker and Supreme Court justice have long known each other
First responders told Bethany Olson her daughter, rear, would have died had she not been in a rear-facing car seat when Olson's car was T-boned in 2014. Her daughter just turned 3.
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents approved new policies for faculty tenure and performance reviews on Thursday over the objections of professors who said the new rules will make it easier for administrators to deal with budget cuts by laying them off.

The nearly unanimous vote to adopt the policies brought to a close a major piece of the lengthy and controversial process of rewriting tenure rules that started last summer, when lawmakers stripped the protections from state law and widely expanded administrators power to fire faculty in the 2015-17 budget.

Under the new rules, UW officials will have the authority to discontinue academic programs and lay off tenured faculty for educational or financial reasons  such as if administrators decide other higher priority programs need funding. Professors could also face discipline, including firing, if they are found to be falling short of expectations under a new policy for post-tenure review.

With new statewide rules in place, the Regents next step is to approve more specific tenure policies for each UW System campus. The board is expected to act in April on a policy from UW-Madison that would give professors stronger protections; System president Ray Cross indicated the Regents could make changes to the proposal.

UW officials insist the new policies will preserve academic freedom and free speech, striking the right balance between protecting tenured faculty and giving chancellors the flexibility they need to get through tough times, according to Regent John Behling.

Previously, faculty could only be fired for just cause, or in the event of a campus-wide financial emergency.

Regent President Regina Millner said the policies will be a critical new tool for our chancellors, to help them better align their resources with the needs of the state without jeopardizing academic freedom or putting us at a competitive disadvantage.

Professors were far from satisfied with the new rules, however. The Regents voted down several policy amendments, supported by faculty, that would have given professors stronger protections from losing their jobs and more power in determining when layoffs could occur.

UW-Madison professor Dorothy Farrar-Edwards said she was bitterly disappointed by the new policy. Julie Schmid, executive director of the Association of American University Professors, said it could set a precedent for weakening tenure protections across the country.

The Board of Regents today voted to diminish tenure and academic freedom in the UW System, and with it to diminish the reputation of the system, and to undermine the Wisconsin Idea, Schmid said.

Regent Jose Vasquez, who opposed the policies, questioned why changes to tenure  which have drawn national attention to Wisconsin, and according to UW-Madison officials made it harder for the campus to recruit and retain top faculty  were necessary in the first place.

Ive never been convinced that we had a broken system, Vasquez said.

The financial challenges on UW campuses are the result of large state budget cuts to higher education funding, Vasquez said, and weakening tenure rules and laying off faculty will not solve the systems problems.

It wasnt tenure that caused the fiscal crisis, Vasquez said. The fiscal crisis that we have has been imposed on us.

Different philosophies

on display

Discussion of the new policies at times laid bare major differences in how the Regents  many of whom are appointees of Republican Gov. Scott Walker  believe the UW System should be managed.

Some saw decisions to close programs and dismiss faculty as analogous to companies in the private sector deciding to shift investment from one less-profitable product to another that is selling well.

The needs of Wisconsin change, Regent Jose Delgado said. We need resources in order to be able to invest in the needs.

After state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers, who is also a Regent, proposed creating a faculty committee that would weigh in on program closures, other Regents said no business would go through such a lengthy process.

Welcome to the 21st century, said Regent Margaret Farrow.

Vasquez and others pushed back against the idea of managing the UW System like a business, saying the job of a university is different from making widgets.

Many of the professors at the meeting agreed, saying UW institutions do more than simply grant degrees and produce graduates.

We are not running cash registers and (students) are not buying Pop Tarts, UW-Eau Claire professor Geoffrey Peterson said. What we do is far more complicated than that.

Campus policies

next step

Cross said the new policies were written broadly, to allow for each of the systems campuses to write rules that are tailored to their institutions needs.

What works precisely at Madison will be different than what works precisely at Superior, Cross said.

But campus policies will still have to be in line with the statewide rules passed Thursday, Cross said. The policy approved by faculty at UW-Madison, which offers stronger protections to professors, will likely face some critical changes to keep it compatible with the statewide rules, he said, such as noting more clearly that the campus chancellor has the final authority to decide on layoffs.

Noel Radomski, executive director of the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education, said UW-Madisons policy could serve as a framework for rules at other campuses.

But, he noted, having each campus write tenure policies could lead to a future in which the rules vary by campus, and professors at UW-Madison enjoy greater protection than those at other schools.

Layoffs could come at struggling campuses

It remains to be seen whether and how UW System chancellors will use the authority the new policies gave them.

Radomski said its likely that chancellors at cash-strapped UW campuses  particularly those at regional campuses where declining enrollment has compounded the effect of state budget cuts  could look to close departments and dismiss faculty members.

The new uncertainty, and the new concern, is going to be: Are the enrollment and the fiscal problems going to trigger program discontinuation, and therefore trigger faculty layoffs? Radomski said.

If chancellors make layoffs under the policy, Schmid said, the AAUP could investigate and censure their campus.
Madison Planning Director Katherine Cornwell will step down this summer to return to her private practice in Colorado.

Natalie Erdman, director of the Department of Planning, Community & Economic Development, announced Cornwells departure in an email to city staff Wednesday.

Cornwell led Denver-based K. Cornwell Designs from 2009 to March 2013, when she was hired as Madisons planning director. The firm provides development planning, market analysis and other services. She was also a project manager for Discover Denver at Historic Denver Inc., a nonprofit that advocates for historic preservation.

Erdman lauded Cornwells tenure in Madison, crediting her with securing sustainable-development grants that have allowed the department to expand planning and analysis efforts.

Cornwells resignation is effective June 1. Erdman said she will move quickly to begin the hiring process for a new planning director.
Cyprus PIO: Turkish Cypriot and Turkish Media Review, 16-03-10 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. 47/16 10.03.2016 [A] TURKISH CYPRIOT / TURKISH PRESS [01] Colak says that they must prevent Turkey's report from allegedly becoming worse on the Cyprus problem [02] Cavusoglu: "Cyprus problem should not be made a pre-condition in Turkey's EU accession process" [03] Delegation of the "assembly" held contacts in Strasbourg [04] Milliyet: PKK's plans to penetrate in "universities" in the occupied area of Cyprus are revealed [05] Turkish Cypriot politicians say they have a security weakness [06] "KTSO" held a meeting with the ambassadors of the Netherlands and Italy [07] Turkey and Ukraine boost ties amid growing tension with Russia [08] The Turkish Parliament receives official appeal that seeks to lift HDP Deputies' immunity [09] The Turkish government approves $5.9 billion on defense projects [A] TURKISH CYPRIOT / TURKISH PRESS [01] Colak says that they must prevent Turkey's report from allegedly becoming worse on the Cyprus problem Under the title "We must prevent the report from becoming worse", Turkish Cypriot daily Kibris newspaper (10.03.16) reports that Emine Colak, self-styled foreign minister of the breakaway regime in the occupied area of the Republic of Cyprus, has alleged that the changes which the European Parliament (EP) demands in Turkey's report on the Cyprus problem are worrying and added that they have conveyed to "the persons concerned" their view that the wording to be used should protect and support the ongoing negotiations in the island. In statements at a lunch with Turkish Cypriot journalists in Strasbourg where she held contacts with both EP and Council of Europe officials upon an invitation by the EP's office in Cyprus, Colak argued that "those who brought these proposals and the side which supports them are dominant and influential" and added that in spite of the fact that a chapter on the guarantees exists in the negotiations, the draft-report provides for the withdrawal of the Turkish occupation army from Cyprus. She alleged: "Taking out this expression could be evaluated as optimism, but it could not be included in the report. The actual issue for us is to prevent the report from becoming worse than it is now and minimize to the possible extent the factors which will both spoil the existing good climate and the outside factors". Evaluating her meetings, Colak said: "The persons we had contacts with are interested on the Cyprus problem and ask the details of the process and how we predict the next stages. They listen to our stance as Turkish Cypriots. And the most important thing is perhaps that they ask how they could support us". Colak said that within the framework of her contacts she met with Johannes Hahn, Commissioner Responsible for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Gabriella Battaini ? Dragoni, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Gianni Pittella, President of EP's Friends of Turkey and Socialist Group, Rebecca Harms, Co-president of the Greens' Group and Kati Piri, EP's Reporter on Turkey. Evaluating the EP's draft-report on Turkey, Colak said that they asked from their interlocutors the report to be written with a perception that appreciates and encourages the existing situation on the island instead of remaining the same as two years ago. Referring to the points which the Turkish side wants to change in the report, Colak argued: "Reference is made to the 10th Protocol in the draft report. This protocol included some measures to the Cyprus' accession in case of a non-solution in 2004. We shared our view that while reference is made to something aimed at the solution and the future, there will be no use of talking about the 10th protocol and it would be better if this was not included in the report. We made a call on every official we met that we should at all events protect and support the process". (I/Ts.) [02] Cavusoglu: "Cyprus problem should not be made a pre-condition in Turkey's EU accession process" Turkish Cypriot daily Kibris newspaper (10.03.16) reports that the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu made statements on Cyprus during a Foreign Affairs, Justice and Interior Ministers meeting in Ankara on March 9. Noting that Turkey's expectations on visa liberalizations and the necessity of opening new chapters for the European Union accession had been delivered to the Belgian Ministers, Cavusoglu said that the Cyprus problem should not be made a pre-condition in Turkey's EU accession process. He went on and added that until the solution of the Cyprus problem is not reached, Cyprus should not be allowed to block important issues and the EU and argued that pressure should be exerted for the solution of the Cyprus problem. "We see the unfair accusations targeting Turkey. It is as if this money is given to Turkey. It is as if Turkey is begging for money," Cavusoglu said, referring to the recent deal signed between Turkey and the EU to settle the migrant crisis. (CS) [03] Delegation of the "assembly" held contacts in Strasbourg The illegal Bayrak (09.03.16) broadcast that a "parliamentary delegation" consisting of Republican Turkish Party (CTP) "deputy" Armagan Candan, National Unity Party (UBP) "deputy" Hamza Ersan Saner, Democrat Party National Forces (DPUG) "deputy" Hasan Tacoy and Social Democratic Party (TDP) "deputy" Zeki Celer is visiting Strasbourg. During its contacts at the European Parliament, the delegation discussed the report on Turkey which will be voted on at the European Parliament, the Cyprus problem and the issue of the Turkish language becoming an official EU language. Candan said that they held meetings with MPs from different political groups at the European Parliament and added that they conveyed the demands of the Turkish Cypriots from the EU and the European Parliament. Reminding that the final discussions on Turkey's report were being held, Candan said paragraphs related to Cyprus on the report were more comprehensive than before. Saner on his part criticized the European Parliament for associating Cyprus with the report on Turkey. He also said that no progress had occurred on the Free Trade Regulation which was promised by the EU to the Turkish Cypriots before the Annan Plan referendum. Tacoy said it was important to enable Turkish Cypriot representation at the European Parliament and expressed his views on the issue of the Turkish language to become an EU language. Celer stated that there were important sections in Turkey's report which were so important for the Turkish Cypriots and added that they will continue to give support to the report to pass from the EU Parliament as it is. [04] Milliyet: PKK's plans to penetrate in "universities" in the occupied area of Cyprus are revealed Under the banner front-page title "Warning for PKK in Cyprus", Turkish daily Milliyet newspaper (10.03.16) reports that the plans of the Kurdistan's Workers' Party (PKK) to penetrate in illegal universities in the occupied area of the Republic of Cyprus have been revealed. According to Safa Karahasan, the paper's correspondent in the occupied area of Cyprus, an urgent high level security meeting was held with the participation of the so-called security forces commander of the breakaway regime, Major General Erhan Uzun, the self-styled general director of the "police" Suleyman Manavoglu and the administrations of the illegal universities. During the meeting it was said that the PKK is organizing meetings under the name of art, theater and music activities trying to create groups of 20-25 persons. The paper writes that the measures to be taken were determined in the meeting, where it was noted that around 70 meetings of the PKK had been organized in the occupied area of Cyprus in 2015. The organization's structuring was explained with slides and pictures in the meeting where it was pointed out that the organization's militants are registered as students with false documents. The "university officials" were warned that they should urgently do whatever is necessary on this issue. The paper writes that the "authorities" of the breakaway regime were alarmed after the bomb attack in Istanbul, after which it was found out that the perpetrator of the attack, a woman named Berna Yilmaz, member of the DHKP-C organization, had been born and raised in the occupied area of Cyprus. According to Milliyet, during the meeting it was noted that an organization named DEMGENC, which acts in Turkey, has been organized in the occupied area of Cyprus as well and some of its members are students in the illegal universities. It was said that PKK members started making propaganda under the slogan "We are constructing free areas" and established a "Communal Solidarity Network Association" in the occupied area of Cyprus. Some "university officials" pointed out to the necessity of cleaning up the "universities" from these students, adding that in the past the "authorities" were telling them to accept such students. Major General Uzun has reportedly said that the "rotten apples in the universities should be cleaned" and added "I will also clean my own rotten apples". (I/Ts.) [05] Turkish Cypriot politicians say they have a security weakness Under the title "We have security weaknesses", Turkish Cypriot daily Kibrisli newspaper (10.03.16) reports that the terror attacks in Turkey and some other places of the world have created concerns in the occupied area of Cyprus as well. The allegation that the breakaway regime's "security forces" had been warned on the issue by MIT "exploded like a bomb", writes the paper adding that in spite of a statement by the "police" declaring false the above allegation, the security measures in front of some buildings such as Turkey's so-called embassy in the occupied part of Nicosia and the self-styled assembly were increased. In addition, last night fully equipped anti-riot forces were patrolling in front of these buildings and in Dereboyu, the most crowded boulevard in the occupied part of Nicosia. The self-styled deputy with the Democratic Party (DP) Mentes Gunduz told Kibrisli that many statements are made on security issues and added: "I said that we have security weaknesses and the TRNC is not the old TRNC anymore. Therefore, every team is obliged to do its duty". Moreover, the self-styled deputy with the National Unity Party (UBP) Zorlu Tore argued that they do not know "when and where terror will occur", adding that terror attacks could be held in the occupied area of Cyprus as well. He claimed that no one can do anything from outside, but the attack could come from the inside. Furthermore, the self-styled deputy with the Social Democracy Party (TDP) Huseyin Angolemli told Kibrsli that they should be careful and anything could happen any time in the occupied area of Cyprus. He recalled that "we are a part of the Middle East" and that "many refugees came here as well". (I/Ts.) [06] "KTSO" held a meeting with the ambassadors of the Netherlands and Italy Turkish Cypriot daily Kibris newspaper (10.03.16) reports that a delegation of the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Industry (KTSO) paid a visit to the Ambassador of the Netherlands to Lefkosia Brechje Schwachofer and to the Ambassador of Italy to Lefkosia Guidi Cerboni. According to a statement issued by the "KTSO", the "chamber" pays visits to foreign representations in Cyprus aiming to improve its relations with EU countries and institutions. The issue of halloumi/hellim and the progress of the Cyprus negotiations were discussed during the meetings. (CS) [07] Turkey and Ukraine boost ties amid growing tension with Russia Turkish Hurriyet Daily News (10.03.16) reports that Turkey and Ukraine have deepened political, military and economic ties through consecutive high-level visits following the Turkish military's downing of a Russian warplane in November 2015 and the deterioration in ties between Ankara and Moscow. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was in Ankara on March 9 for a high-level strategic cooperation council meeting as the guest of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, only three weeks after Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu paid a snap visit to Kiev. On the same day as Davutoglu was in Kiev to hold talks with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Ukrainian Chief of General Staff Viktor Muzhenko met with his Turkish counterpart Gen. Hulusi Akar, in a sign of intensified military and defense relations. The situation of the Crimean Tatars was discussed in detail during the meetings. The main reason why Poroshenko was in Ankara was the holding of the fifth session of the high-level strategic council between Ukraine and Turkey. The two Presidents chaired the council meeting with the participation of their countries' Foreign, Defense, Trade and Energy Ministers in order to shape a new phase in bilateral political and economic relations. The two sides were scheduled to sign agreements to boost trade and increase mutual investment. Poroshenko will also hold meetings with Turkish business representatives on March 10, while he will encourage Turkish investors to remain in Ukraine despite the ongoing political crisis with Russia. Turkey and Ukraine currently enjoy bilateral trade worth $4.5 billion. [08] The Turkish Parliament receives official appeal that seeks to lift HDP deputies' immunity Ankara Anatolia news agency (10.03.16) reports that the Turkish Parliament has received Wednesday the official appeal that seeks to lift the legislative immunity of the co-chairs of the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party's (HDP), along that of three other Deputies. Parliamentary sources told AA that the Prime Ministry Office submitted a motion to life the parliamentary immunity of HDP Co-Chairs Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag and of party Deputies Selma Irmak, S?rr? Sureyya Onder, and Ertugrul Kurkcu. The Ministry of Justice sent a related summary of proceedings on Friday. The office of the Parliament Speaker then forwarded the motion to the joint parliamentary commission on constitution and justice, which will decide whether the general assembly should vote on lifting the immunity. If put to a vote, the motion to lift the HDP MPs' immunity requires an absolute majority, i.e. 276 votes. [09] The Turkish government approves $5.9 billion on defense projects Turkish daily Sabah (10.03.16) reports that Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that the Turkish government has approved new defense projects totaling $5.9 billion, $4.5 billion of which will be designated to domestic production projects. He made the comments after a meeting with the defense industry. In the first two months of 2016, Turkey's defense industry exports increased 35% and, according to the Prime Minister, mass production of the national infantry rifle will begin this year. Davutoglu also said that research developments regarding the production of a joint fighter aircraft have been revised. The defense industry has seen a sharp increase in developments since the early 2000s, and today the sector's total exports have reached almost $2 billion. Moreover, in the last few years, national projects, including a warship, battle tank and warplane, have attracted international attention. 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, 16-03-09 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/> CONTENTS [01] German Chancellor Merkel: Western Balkan border shutdowns "is not a solution" to migrant flows [01] German Chancellor Merkel: Western Balkan border shutdowns "is not a solution" to migrant flows German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticised the shutdown of borders along the Western Balkan route yesterday, in a campaign speech in the Rhineland-Palatinate state where she took a differing stance from that of European Council President Donald Tusk, who had earlier welcomed the shutdowns in his tweeter statements. Earlier in the day, Tusk had sent two messages through Twitter, "I thank Western Balkan countries for implementing part of EU's comprehensive strategy to deal with migration crisis," and "Irregular flows of migrants along Western Balkans route have come to an end. Not a question of unilateral actions but common EU28 decision." In comments reproduced by the e-edition of Der Tagesspiegel newspaper, Merkel commented that the measures Balkan countries take will not be viable without support by a larger plan to the migrant crisis coming from the European Union. Closing the borders "is not a solution to the overall issue," she said, adding that fewer migrants may be requesting asylum in Germany but this meant the proliferation of refugees trapped in Greece. "The 27 countries cannot rest on their laurels and let a country deal with the problem by itself," she said, referring to the EU block and Greece, respectively, adding that the solution required a balanced European plan. In statements published on the internet page of central Germany's radio (MDR info), Merkel stated that a solution should be helpful to all 28 EU member-states, while the redistribution of refugees among EU countries is not a decision of the Turkish government, but must involve the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Responding to Tusk's tweets, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said that "the Balkan route shut down because of unilateral acts by countries of the Western Balkans," and underlined that "we expect Tusk, as president of EU28, to focus his efforts on the implementation of joint decisions, rather than encouraging those who scorn them." Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article
Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-03-10 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/> CONTENTS [01] Unfortunate and not helpful the unilateral closure of borders in Balkans, said Peter Altmaier (Die Welt) [01] Unfortunate and not helpful the unilateral closure of borders in Balkans, said Peter Altmaier (Die Welt) "We have worked very closely and constructively with Austria on the (refugees) crisis. However, we consider the decision for the unilateral closure of the borders as most unfortunate and not helpful. In the long run this will lead us again to the point that the countries of the EU will be summoned to resolve the situation (caused by the refugees problem) in Greece", told the head of the German Chancelorship for the refugees Peter Altmaier in an interview with the German newspaper Die Welt on Thursday. Altmaier reacted by making these remarks to the reporter's question if the regulatory role Austria aspires to take over in Balkans disrupts in any way the effectiveness of the German propositions about the solution of the refugees problem. Asked if Germany and its Chancelor Angela Merkel are isolated because of these initiatives, Altmaier answered: "This phrase is a clichA and it was equally wrong both in the case of Greece and the case of Ukrania. In the end, we could always managed to achieve a European consensus thanks to the substantial contribution of Germany. Also now is even more proven that our approach is correct and is backed by many more other countries". Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article
Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-03-10 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/> CONTENTS [01] FinMin Tsakalotos meets with institutions on taxation, new talks on Saturday [02] Mouzalas: Greece asked EU to activate relocation, readmission of refugees [03] NATO's Stoltenberg presents operation plan for the Aegean [01] FinMin Tsakalotos meets with institutions on taxation, new talks on Saturday A meeting between Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, Alternate Finance Minister Giorgos Chouliarakis with the heads of the quartet of institutions ended on Thursday evening, with the two sides discussing the changes in the system of taxation. According to a senior ministry official, the institutions presented their own proposals on taxation and a new meeting has been scheduled for Saturday. Currently, the mission chiefs are meeting with Rural Development and Food Minister Vangelis Apostolou to discuss a national plan for the development of the agricultural economy. On Friday, at 11.00 (local) the government will meet again with the mission chiefs to negotiate on issues concerning the financial sector and the completion of the institutional framework on non-performing loans. Two more meetings will follow at 14.30 and at 18.00 on competitiveness and closed professions and on the setting up of the new public revenues body respectively. [02] Mouzalas: Greece asked EU to activate relocation, readmission of refugees BRUSSELS (ANA-MPA/M. Aroni)  European Union interior ministers discussed the implementation of the EU-Turkey action plan during their meeting in Brussels on Thursday, Alternate Minister for Migration Policy Yiannis Mouzalas after the meeting. The minister said his EU counterparts also finally discussed after a long time the issue of relocation and readmission of refugees and migrants to Turkey, with many member-states  except those of Eastern Europe - stating they will participate and promising to increase the number of people they accept. Member-states also pledged to cover the needs of Frontex and EASO in staff. Mouzalas said Greece noted the need to activate relocation and reminded his peers it is obligatory and he also suggested practical solutions on how Turkey can help in this. On the issue of readmissions, the minister said Greece asked the EU for help to speed it up, without stripping refugees of their rights. As to the issue of Turkey's designation as a "safe third country" Mouzalas expressed the opinion that insofar as Turkey hosts 2.5 million refugees and the EU and UNHCR intervene to check the living conditions in the camps, then the neighboring country is indeed a safe third country. [03] NATO's Stoltenberg presents operation plan for the Aegean BRUSSELS (ANA-MPA/M. Spinthourakis) - NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg presented the three parts of the organization's operation in the Aegean on Thursday, during a press conference in Brussels ahead of his meeting with European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker. The first part is the enlargement of the Alliance's activity areas in Greek and in Turkish territorial waters, in cooperation with Frontex, he said, highlighting the crucial role of Lesvos. The second part concerns strengthening NATO's cooperation with Frontex through the exchange of information and personnel and the third is the participation of five NATO ships and helicopters. Asked on whether rescued refugees will be returned to Turkey, Stoltenberg said that the country has agreed to that, but noted that NATO will also take into account the rules that apply to the country from which the ship comes from. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article
May 20 it will be exactly ten years hell froze over and quite a few Finns ate a hatful of sh*t. Finland won the Eurovision song contest after 45 years of hoping and praying. When all the hope was gone the monsters saved the day, the Eurovision nightmare bubble was blown away and Finns started to think about it again as it is. A song contest. And not so dead serious.

Mr Lordi or Tomi Putaansuu remembers now how it all begun and how it has been with them since. When they were asked to take part, four members of five said Yes. One said Yes only after sleeping it over. "It was a good decisions. We got loadfuls of sh*t for it but in the end it has been a positive thing for the band" he says. Mr Lordi had high fever when the Finnish final took place on March 10, 2006 in Turku and says he remembers pretty much nothing. After the national selection win the war started in media: Can we send such monsters to Eurovision? People were really pro or against. Some said they will emigrate if Lordi go to Athens and they must be disqualified. Others said they will eat a hatful of sh't if they win. But later when the votes started rolling in and the band returned home as national heroes all of sudden everyone was their fan and friends and "always said they would win it!" Yeah right.

Two weeks in Athens were sweaty and smelly. The band kept their masks on everytime they were in public - meaning 18 hrs a day. They had interested the international media already beforehand but in Athens it was a full blast media circus. "We didn't have time to think about it, that we were interviewed much more than anybody else. The performances went like any other, we had been rehearsing for so long it wasn't any different. I was only stressing if we win do we have time to fix the wings and do we have pyros, all kind of technical details were on my mind only".

After returning home he retired immediately to his summer house for a day or two to recover. Then it was back to Helsinki's Market Place for the triumphant homecoming show. 90.000 people showed up, the President of the Republic was there as was the Mayor, it was live on television.... Finland practically stopped during it. Helsinki city traffic was jammed. Nothing happened but Lordi on stage and tv screens. "We kinda missed all that. We were on stage and saw only those people we could see. We saw it all later on video and newspapers".

The hype didn't last long, less than a year. "It really sucked. Years of work was dismissed for a song contest. All that work, We were "only" Eurovision winners now. Like "they did it, now they can stop". We still don't have gigs in Finland. Only maybe one a year in some festival. Abroad we tour regularly and we are treated like just another heavy band without the Eurovision label." Mr Lordi concludes with a little bitter voice.

But it's not over, the band has a lot of plans. This summer they will be touring festivals again, abroad that is, and then it's time for a new album. In Finland they have only one gig, in Tuska festival where they will play their 2006 set again.

In May there will be an exhibition in Helsinki to celebrate the Eurovision win that has for example their masks and wardrobe. As we remember they have a new one for each album, the current one is already 7th Lordi look.
LaHood - once a Senate colleague of McCann - and Davis joined Rauner's gang by announcing their endorsements of Bryce Benton, Republican challenger in the 50th District.

SPRINGFIELD - If GOP Senator Sam McCann hasn't been beat up enough by the governor's henchmen and their political action committees, he added two more tough guys to take down McCann this week - U.S. Reps Darin LaHood (IL-18) and Rodney Davis (IL-13).

"When you think about Central Illinois and the 50th Senate district - its people who work hard, play by the rules, have a strong faith in God, love their community, and are frustrated with state government," said LaHood. "Bryce epitomizes those values. He has served us honorably as a law enforcement officer, and will serve voters well in the State Senate. I endorse Bryce Benton for State Senate because he's one of us, and will serve us with integrity and pride."

There was no mention about Sam McCann serving the Senate honorably, although LaHood and McCann's voting records in the Senate were almost identical.

And although nearly $2.5 million from Chicago donors has funded attack ads in a downstate Republican primary and the strategy to oust McCann has been planned by Chicago consultants and political pundits, Davis played up McCann's challenger Bryce Benton's "small town values."

"I've known Bryce for over a decade and am proud to call him a friend," said Davis. "We both grew up in Taylorville and share the same small town values - hard work, honesty, and accountability. I know Bryce will serve us with the same dedication and integrity that he's brought to his career in law enforcement. I am proud to endorse Bryce Benton for State Senate because he'll make sure our children will inherit a better, stronger Illinois."

McCann is being challenged because he defied Governor Rauner's legislative override twice, siding instead with state employee unions.
WASHINGTON  Thursday, U.S. Representatives Peter Roskam (R-IL) and Grace Meng (D-NY) called on the European Union (EU) to designate all of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.

In a letter to David OSullivan, European Union Ambassador to the U.S., the lawmakers noted the EU previously labeled Hezbollahs military arm as a terrorist organization but failed to do the same with its political wing.

Roskam and Meng sent the letter in the wake of last weeks move by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to fully designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization without making any distinction between its military and political arms.
Acts and regulations are not helping the Dalit population as much as it should: Read to know why.

By India Today Web Desk: Untouchability, one of the most ridiculous and widely followed ideologies in the world, has deep roots in the Indian social spectrum. From the age of Vedas till today, the invalid subjugation of a class of people at the hands of another has troubled the overall social growth of the country.

Who are untouchable? Where did it all start?

advertisement

The Varna or caste division propounded in the Rig Veda describes the society as a four-varna or caste system. The supreme varna is Brahman, the second is Kshatriya, the third is Vaishya and the last is Sudra. This idea of social stratification was further developed in the Laws of Manu, written in Manu Smriti.

No mention of the untouchable class can be found here as the Varna division system excluded the untouchables altogether. They have been identified as Ati Sudra or inferior to the Sudras. Later in the fourth century, they came to be known as Avarnas or the people with no caste.

The untouchables or chandalas are also mentioned in the Upanishads and Buddhist texts as the 'fifth caste' or Panchama, which spawned from the contact between Sudra men and Brahman women.

Dalit woman works as manual scavenger (Image source: Borgen Project)

Untouchability in India:

Untouchability is the Achilles' heel of the Indian society. Many leaders have tried to eradicate the untouchable issue from this country and failed.

Mahatma Gandhi was one of the most prominent personalities who protested against untouchability in India. He had published three publications for the under-privileged class, namely Harijan in English, Harijan Bandu in Gujarati and Harijan Sevak in Hindi. This led to the Harijan Movement in India. Gandhi primarily concentrated on the social and economic stability of the untouchable groups of people and reformed the society's outlook towards them. But all in vain!

Even today, there are separate crematoria for Brahmans and non-Brahmans at Radhanagar in Hooghly district, West Bengal, which the birthplace of 'the father of modern India' Raja Ram Mohan Roy.

In India, terms such as 'untouchable' or 'harijan' were replaced by the word 'Dalit' since the 1970s. The new term was earlier used by Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar. At present, issues related to the Dalits have become a political leitmotif and the people are used as vote banks.

According to the 2011 census, the Dalits or the Scheduled Castes (16.6) and Scheduled Tribes (8.6) comprise over 25 percent of India's population.

advertisement

Image source: Wordpress



The Dalit situation in India:

Although the Indian government has constituted many laws and policies to help the Dalit population, atrocities and injustices are quite common all over the country.

In order to prevent such uncalled for incidents against the Dalits, the government enacted the Prevention of Atrocity (POA) Act on March 31 in 1995.

However, social ostracising against the Dalit people is still rampant in the country. Dalits are still prohibited from entering temples, attending mass ceremonies, using resources and working alongside people from other castes.

Image source: Tracks

Here are a few instances of Dalit injustice in India



Karnataka holds the record for the highest number of Dalit atrocity cases. Gulbarga, a city in the southern state, alone has 126 cases registered under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989, and the Protection of Civil Rights Act 1955

In Uttar Pradesh, many villages are populated by people from the Chamar caste, which is tantamount to the majority of the Dalit population. The situation is so tense there that the post of gram pradhan, which is reserved for the scheduled caste, has been lying vacant since long as no Dalit person has the courage to contest the polls against the Thakurs

At Dholaria Shashan village in Rajasthan, Dalit people are scrutinised before entering the village. They are not allowed to wear shoes and headgear while passing any upper-caste area

In another bizarre incident, Thakurs at Rajpur tehsil near Kanpur withdrew the names of their children from a school when the institute appointed a Dalit cook to prepare the midday meal

In June 2012, Mohan Paswan, a Dalit resident at the Parhuti village in Bihar, was lynched when he disobeyed a local thug by using a hand pump during the heatwave

In August 2015, a Jat khap panchayat in Haryana ordered the rape of two Dalit sisters because their brother had a love affair with a Jat girl.

advertisement

Interested in General Knowledge and Current Affairs? Click here to stay informed and know what is happening around the world with our G.K. and Current Affairs section.



--- ENDS ---
While Mamata Banerjee scripted a jatra (play) to reach out to rural voters, TMC's chief whip and candidate from south Kolkata's Rashbihari seat Sovandeb Chattopadhyay has taken to comic characters to influence urban voters

By Soudhriti Bhabani: To attract the maximum number of votes, Trinamool Congress is taking to new ways to canvass for party candidates in 294 Assembly seats across the state.

While party chief Mamata Banerjee scripted a jatra (play) to reach out to rural voters, TMC's chief whip and candidate from south Kolkata's Rashbihari seat Sovandeb Chattopadhyay has taken to comic characters to influence urban voters. Inspired by Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, Chattopadhya painted various walls of his Assembly constituency to entertain the educated urban voter with a subtle political undertone.

advertisement

From Mickey Mouse to Bengalis' favourite comic characters like Handa-Bhonda, Bnatul the Great, Nante-Fante, they have all figured in Trinamool Congress' campaign in the run up to the Assembly polls this year. "I have started the campaign with popular cartoon characters in various parts of my constituency. Local residents are welcoming the thought. They are happy that their walls are not littered by political graffiti which, in most of the cases, looks unimpressive," Chattopadhyay said.

Across walls of Kolkata-Rashbihari Assembly constituency, party workers have put up colourful cartoon characters with political messages. The unique method of campaigning was taken up to reach out to educated urban voters in southern parts of Kolkata who dislike wall graffiti and typical political mud-slinging during campaigns, party sources said.

The unique move is the brainchild of Chattopadhyay, who dislikes wall graffiti, and is painting most of the comic characters himself as he believes they are visually more appealing than political slogans.

Also read: BJP fields Netaji's grand-nephew against Mamata Banerjee in Bengal polls



--- ENDS ---
Art of Living has been given permission to organise the World Culture Festival by National Green Tribunal on Wednesday.

Preparations being carried out on the banks of the Yamuna for the Art of Living event.

By Baishali Adak: Even as the controversy around it refuses to die down, Art of Living (AOL) was given permission to organise the World Culture Festival by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Wednesday.

The bench refused to stay the event "at this stage" citing time constraint. The NGT declined to issue a prohibitory order, though it observed that the information provided by AOL to authorities was "incomplete, vague and uncertain". The NGT also imposed an "environmental compensation" of Rs 5 crore on AOL. It said a final amount would be decided by a court-appointed 'Principal Committee'.

advertisement

A scientific panel that NGT had constituted has already recommended a fine of Rs 120 crore on AOL to restore the venue site on Yamuna floodplain to its original condition. Natural vegetation, marshland with reed beds, ecology and flora and fauna of the river has been disturbed, the panel report stated.

The bench, headed by Justice Swatanter Kumar, said AOL did not provide specific data that it would carry out such huge construction.

Safety concerns were raised primarily by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) which conveyed to the Delhi Police that the main dais was structurally unsafe. In a letter dated March 9 to DCP (PM security), Special Director General (CPWD) Upendra Malik pointed out that 'corroded' and 'worn out' pipes have been used to construct the stage. The letter highlighted more loopholes: "The system is further compromised by 'no ground preparation for creating leveled and firm ground for supporting structure', 'inadequate size of base plates resulting in excessive soil bearing pressure' and 'non-staggering of splice joints creating weak links at some level in vertical members'.

Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to pay a visit, these concerns assume greater significance. Nearly 35 lakh people may visit the venue over three days starting Friday. The Delhi Police has raised concerns of a stampede and unmanageable chaos unless the shortcomings are addressed immediately.

On March 1, a police team had inspected the venue of the event and found certain shortcomings, especially with the stage where the PM and other VVIPs are to be seated, said a police source. The stage for VVIPs did not have the mandatory structural certificate. The police communicated the matter to the Ministry of Urban Development. In the wake of security concerns, a separate stage is now being built for the PM.

During the court proceedings, the counsel for Art of Living, Saraswati Aksham Nath, sought to reject security concerns. She said: "It is true that a parallel stage is being erected for dignitaries, but it's solely for their convenience. Our only aim is to conduct the event smoothly, with as little hassle to our VVIPs as possible. There is no safety issue involved."

MAIL TODAY tried to contact AOL for its response on security concerns but got no reply. Earlier in the day, when MAIL TODAY visited the venue, AOL spokesperson Dinesh Ghodke said they were in constant touch with authorities to ensure security.

advertisement

"Apart from police personnel, our volunteers will ensure there is no chaos. We are discussing the matter with concerned authorities," Ghodke told MAIL TODAY.

Sources said PM Modi, who was expected to inaugurate the event on March 11, is yet to take a call on the matter. President Pranab Mukherjee, who was to deliver the valedictory speech, has already NGT's clearance for the World Culture Festival 4,000 cops will be deployed to man the security at the event, with the maximum being sourced from the local police district decided to give it a miss.

Defending the decision to deploy Army soldiers for the construction of two pontoon bridges over Yamuna, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said the decision was taken to ensure there is no threat to the security of people expected to attend the event

Meanwhile, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has also defended its permission to the event, a decision that was challenged by the NGT

The World Culture Festival from March 11-13 is being held by Art of Living to celebrate 35 years of 'humanitarian service'.

advertisement

Meanwhile, AOL said it would challenge the NGT order in Supreme Court. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar also tweeted that AOL was not satisfied with the NGT verdict and would appeal against it.

In its judgement on Wednesday, the NGT bench said: "For the reason of delay on the part of the petitioner (Manoj Misra) in approaching the tribunal and for the reason of fait accompli capable of restoration and restitution, we are unable to grant the prayer of prohibitory order?at this stage."

The court also fined the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) Rs 5 lakh and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee Rs. 1 lakh, saying, "All authorities have abdicated their responsibility?only passing the buck?They have failed to exercise due diligence in fulfillment of their public duties."

Misra said: "The NGT bench has thought it out well. Everyone, in this case, has faulted. There is a moral, ethical and financial question involved. It is time of introspection for us. Is it right to kill a river, revered in our holy books and essential to this city, like this?"

Also Read:

Art of Living asks Centre to sponsor toilets for Sri Sri event



--- ENDS ---
Karnataka's Transport Minister R Ramalinga Reddy announced this initiative, as crimes against women have gone up in the city in the last one year.

By Mail Today: In an effort to enhance security for women, the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) will install CCTV cameras inside buses and bus stations across Bengaluru.

Karnataka's Transport Minister R Ramalinga Reddy announced this initiative, as crimes against women have gone up in the city in the last one year. Several women have also complained against the alleged rowdy behavior of the bus drivers and conductors in BMTC buses. To rein in on such unruly staff, the BMTC will monitor them.

advertisement

The CCTV footage recorded inside the bus will be stored for at least a week. The BMTC will take at least five months to install the CCTV cameras inside the buses. The CCTV cameras will also be installed in intra-state and inter-state buses operated by the government companies, such as, KSRTC, NWKRTC and NEKRTC.

--- ENDS ---
Her collaboration with Coldplay for Hymn For The Weekend may be old news, but this popstar is not quite over her Indian fever, it seems.

By Hemul Goel: As hard as that might seem to believe, that black-and-white Instagram post above actually belongs to popstar and powerhouse Beyonce. For those who have seen the video of the songstress' collaboration with British rock band Coldplay for Hymn For The Weekend--which also stars our very own Sonam Kapoor--the image is something one can recognise in a beat.

Also read: Hairspiration: Six ways to update your hair like Sonam Kapoor

advertisement

While the video was shot at various locations in and around Mumbai, Beyonce's bit wasn't shot in the country. Nevertheless, it seems like Beyonce's India fever is on full swing, as one can make out from her Instagram.

She shared a shot of herself wearing henna (mehendi) on her hands, and her legs came with henna anklets, all finished with bright coral nails.

Picture courtesy: Instagram/@beyonce

And in case you were wondering, this is how pretty her henna looked after being complemented with all that heavy-duty bling. Those bangles! *Want*

Picture courtesy: Instagram/@beyonce

While that Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla piece against a bright floral backdrop seems a tad bit too much to take in, it does look exquisite, right?

Picture courtesy: Instagram/@beyonce Picture courtesy: Instagram/@beyonce

And the gold lipstick, while not something we would see on Beyonce, it would fit so well with the beauty looks Bollywood actresses were sporting in the '80s. #ThrowbackThursday

Picture courtesy: Instagram/@beyonce

And it doesn't seem like she enjoyed it all alone. She let her 4-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, join in on the fun by sporting crimson lips, messy liner and lots and lots of colourful bindis.

Also read: Totes adorbs: 8 awww-worthy photos of birthday baby, Blue Ivy Carter

Picture courtesy: Instagram/@beyonce

--- ENDS ---
By India Today Web Desk: Bigg Boss 9 ex-contestant Aman Verma is all set to tie the knot with fiancee Vandana Lalwani on April 20.

The actor-couple met on the sets of TV series Shapath, and got engaged in a private ceremony on December 14 last year.



Aman had shared the good news on Twitter. "Some moments in life change u forever .. ths ones mine .. just put a ring on my frens .. need your love and wishes. The two mothers who make us wht v r. have learnt a lot frm my mum. If u can b just 1% what she is. my life is sorted. Some emotions which I cld not register whn i am close to my mum. but here a moment that has just held me spellbound," he wrote on the micro-blogging site.

Aman Verma and Vandana Lalwani's wedding invite.

advertisement

The wedding invite that's doing the rounds on the internet reveals that the couple will exchange wedding vows on April 20 this year. The simple blue and pink wedding invite says, "two lives, two hearts, joined together in friendship, united forever in love," with a picture of the couple. "Save the date, 20th April 2016."

Aman and Vandana's love story began in the most unconventional way. The couple first met on the sets of Shapath in which Vandana was playing the role of Aman's sister. Initially, Vandana tried to keep Aman at bay but once they got talking there was no looking back.

Talking to The Times Of India, the Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi actor had said that in his first scene with Vandana, she had to tie him a rakhi but what surprised him was that even off screen she insisted on tying him a rakhi. Later, they got along like a house on fire.



Vandana Lalwani has worked in several TV soaps including Kesariya Balam Aavo Hamare Des, Bitto and Doli Sajake Rakhna, Adaalat and Crime Patrol. A professionally trained Bharatnatyam dancer, Vandana also worked as an instructor in Shiamak Davar's dance institute.

--- ENDS ---
Salman Khan will appear before a Jodhpur court today in connection with a 17-year-old trial in Arms Act case against him. The actor has already landed at the Jodhpur airport.

By India Today Web Desk: Bollywood actor Salman Khan will appear before a Jodhpur court today in connection with a 17-year-old trial in a Arms Act case against him.

The district and session trial court is hearing a case of alleged illegal possession of arms against the actor in connection with blackbuck poaching.



According to reports, the actor has already landed at the Jodhpur airport. Earlier, the court had summoned him for recording his statements.

advertisement

Khan had appeared in the court on April 29 last year and pleaded innocence.

The case under Arms Act was registered after the weapons, allegedly used by him for hunting down two blackbucks in 1998, had their licences expired. While a case against him for poaching a blackbuck near Jodhpur's Kankani is still underway, the forest department filed a separate case under the Arms Act.

The actor could be sentenced to jail for maximum seven years if convicted. He has already spent time in the Jodhpur jail in April 2006 and again in August 2007.

Salman Khan leaves from Mumbai residence for Jodhpur, will appear before court to record statement in Arms Act casehttps://t.co/hdHuMuYazm ANI (@ANI_news) March 10, 2016

/

ALSO READ | 2002 hit-and-run case: Supreme Court issues notice to Salman Khan on Maharashtra govt's plea







--- ENDS ---
The BJP on Wednesday announced that it would field Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's grandnephew Chandra Kumar Bose against Mamata Banerjee in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections.

By Soudhriti Bhabani: The BJP on Wednesday announced that it would field Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's grandnephew Chandra Kumar Bose against Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee in her Bhawanipore Assembly constituency in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections.

Minister for Human Resource Development Smriti Irani made the announcement in the national Capital saying: "Chandra Kumar Bose will be BJP's candidate against Mamata Banerjee."

advertisement

BJP is trying hard to make its presence felt in the state where it had drawn a blank in the Assembly polls and the party believes that a high-pitched battle against the TMC chief could be of help.

"Well, we have seen West Bengal for the last 67 years. We have seen Congress, Left Front and now Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government also. People wanted a change in Bengal but the point is they wanted a basic change in areas like law and order, infrastructure, governance, healthcare, education and investment climate.

Sadly, there has only been a name change in the state," Chandra Kumar Bose, 65, told Mail Today over the phone. He said that the time has come when the people of West Bengal have to make an effort so that the new generation does not need to relocate to other states for jobs.

"Brain drain that has occurred in past years should immediately be arrested now. I believe people in West Bengal are waiting for a change in governance. They don't want change which is absolutely superficial in nature," added Bose, a London educated HR and IT professional who now lives in South Kolkata.

Netaji's grandnephew said rabble-rousing and making false promises to the people was pointless. He said the promised change, for which people had voted TMC to power in 2011, had not come yet. "It is time to act and only the BJP is capable of bringing change to Bengal," he said.

Interestingly, Bose's ancestral house on Elgin Road comes under Bhawanipore Assembly constituency.

Chandra Bose had joined the BJP on January 25 this year at BJP chief Amit Shah's rally in Howrah district. The Trinamool Congress chief had emerged victorious in the Bhawanipore Assembly byelection in 2011 by a convincing margin of 54,213 votes while defeating her nearest rival Nandini Mukhopadhyay of the CPI-M.

Elections in Bengal will be held in six phases. The first phase will see polling on April 4 and April 11. Votes will be cast during the second phase on April 17, third on April 21, fourth on April 25, fifth on April 30 and the last phase on May 5. Counting will begin on May 19.

advertisement

Also read: BJP fields Netaji's grand-nephew against Mamata Banerjee in Bengal polls



--- ENDS ---
The BJP and Congress party workers clashed in Bhatkal, a communally sensitive coastal town in Uttara Kannada district in Karnataka on Wednesday leading to the arrest of 10 people.

By Mail Today: The BJP and Congress party workers clashed in Bhatkal, a communally sensitive coastal town in Uttara Kannada district in Karnataka on Wednesday leading to the arrest of 10 people.

According to the police, the Congress party workers and local leaders were upset with the alleged derogatory message against them circulated on WhatsApp by BJP workers. It is alleged that Bhatkal Block Congress Committee president Vittal Naik was assaulted by the BJP workers when he questioned them about the WhatsApp message. Subsequently, the Congress party workers allegedly assaulted the BJP workers. The police arrested 10 workers from both the parties in connection with the clash.

advertisement

Around 8 pm, hundreds of workers from both the parties turned up at the Bhatkal police station and raised slogans against each other. Sensing trouble, the police caned the protesters to bring the situation under control.

--- ENDS ---
By Mail Today: While the Centre came in for criticism over extending support to the Art of Living's World Culture Festival, the Delhi government was not far behind. It was on request of the Delhi government that Army was roped in to construct an extra pontoon bridge across Yamuna.

In a letter to Union Defence Ministry, Delhi's water resource minister Kapil Mishra had requested Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar to make provision of adequate number of pontoon bridges over river Yamuna.

advertisement

In the letter dated February 16, Mishra said, "A large number of people, who will be approaching the venue from Noida Link Road, will be required to cross Yamuna to reach the venue. This requires making of suitable, adequate and safe arrangements for people to reach the venue. Provision of adequate number of pontoon bridges on Yamuna (around four) is being seen as imperative for this purpose," Mishra said in the letter.

"I am in favour of this event and now that the court has cleared the controversy we will try to make it a success. It will also boost Delhi's tourism as people from so many foreign countries will take part here," Mishra told Mail Today adding that he appreciates Army's move to construct second bridge after sending the letter.

Also Read: Sri Sri mega show: Manohar Parrikar explains why Army building Yamuna bridges, DDA defends permit

Art of Living asks Centre to sponsor toilets for Sri Sri event

--- ENDS ---
The mammoth gathering at the World Culture Festival in East Delhi along with the Radha Soami Satsang in South Delhi and marriages scheduled over the next three days are set to choke the border points of the city.

"March 11 will be a tough day for us as besides marriages and AOL event, the Radha Soami Satsang Beas has also organised a gathering. We have made proper arrangements and additional force will be deployed at various spots. Senior officers will assist traf

By Ankur Sharma: Brace up for a traffic gridlock in Delhi over the weekend. The mammoth gathering at the Art of Living's (AOL) World Cultural Festival in East Delhi along with the Radha Soami Satsang in South Delhi and marriages scheduled over the three days is set to choke the border points of the city.

According to officials, the AOL event is likely to cause traffic snarls on NH-24, Vikas Marg, Noida Link Road, Mayur Vihar, DND Flyway and Kalindi Kunj. Similarly, traffic will be affected on Delhi-Gurgaon stretch during the first half of the day. During the evening, marriage parties are expected to add to the chaos across the city.

advertisement

To manage all this, there are only 5,500 traffic cops but the department has arranged for an additional 600 personnel for the job. Senior officials claimed, traffic cops will be made to work for 16 to 18 hours to handle the situation.

"March 11 will be a tough day for us as besides marraiges and AOL event, the Radha Soami Satsang Beas has also organised a gathering. We have made proper arrangements and additional force will be deployed at various spots. Senior officers will assist traffic cops to clear the snarls," Special Commissioner of Police (traffic) Muktesh Chander told Mail Today.



Also Read: Kundli-Manesar-Palwal expressway to help lessen Delhi's traffic, pollution

DDA faces court's ire over Art of Living event



Art of Living row: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says villagers are happy

--- ENDS ---
In a welcome move, Airtel has decided to grant women employees 22 weeks of maternity leave. Here are some other companies that have also recently offered extended maternity leave in India.

By Somya Abrol: While Indian women continue to shrink the employment gender gap in the country, employers cannot ignore the fact that women are differently wired biologically than men. While paternity leave is a whole other debate, maternity leave in the country has been a topic of discussion for a while now. It garnered more interest when reports about the Centre agreeing to increasing maternity leave for women in the private sector--from the present 12 weeks to 26 weeks--started coming in.

advertisement

A recent survey by Assocham found that a quarter of Indian women give up their careers after having a baby. In fact, maternity leave has been such an issue with employers that many women candidates have experienced interviews where employers have asked veiled questions about when they plan to have a baby, though that amounts to an invasion of privacy, among other things.

It clearly comes as a welcome surprise then, when a private company as big as Airtel takes steps to promote gender equality. This company, however, is not the only one.

AIRTEL

On Wednesday, telecom operator Bharti Airtel increased maternity leave for women employees to 22 weeks, from 12 weeks.

The company's office in Gurgaon also has modern-day care facilities for children.

Airtel said the objective of the policy was to provide adequate support to employees to balance their role as parents with professional commitments at work.

In case of adoption, if the child's age is less than 2 years, women employees can avail 12 weeks of leave, and if the age is above 2 years, a leave of 6 weeks can be availed. Male employees can take one week off in both cases.

FLIPKART

Probably the only online retail company that's offering an extended maternity leave of 24 weeks, Flipkart also encourages women employees to avail benefits of their flexible working hours (with full pay) for as long as four months after their maternity leave.

If needed, women can also take a 1-year career break without pay at Flipkart.

MICROSOFT INDIA

As of February 1, 2016, Microsoft India is offering 6 months maternity leave--extended from 3 months' leave--to its women employees. The company is also offering 2 weeks paternity leave to new fathers. This is in addition to Microsoft India offering women employees the option of availing unpaid leave for up to three months and flexible work arrangements for up to two years.



Additionally, to care for adopted children, mothers will be eligible for eight calendar weeks of paid leave, while fathers are eligible for two weeks of paid leave.

NESTLE INDIA

Nestle India has extended its maternity leave policy to 6 months, effective February 1, 2016, from the previous leave of 18 weeks, while granting adoption leave for six weeks with full pay and benefits for all permanent women employees.

advertisement

Besides, a paternity policy has been introduced with a leave of five working days with full pay and benefits for all permanent male employees, reports DNA.



OTHERS

HCL Technologies, Godrej and Hindustan Unilever (HUL) offer over 24 weeks (180 days) of maternity leave to all women employees.

The Ministry of Labour and Employment is considering a proposal to make it compulsory for any company that employs more than 30 women to have childcare facilities, either on campus or at a short distance from the workplace.

Maternity leave around the world:

India: 12 weeks at full pay (currently)

UK: 39 weeks of paid leave

China: 14 weeks, paid the average wage at the company

US: 12 weeks, employers not obliged to pay anything

Canada: 15 weeks paid leave; can take up to 52 weeks of leave

--- ENDS ---
A four-year-old boy accidentally shot his pro-gun activist mother in the back with her own gun in Florida.

By India Today Web Desk: A four-year-old boy accidentally shot his mother in the back in Florida on Tuesday afternoon, reports AP.

The 31-year-old woman, Jamie Gilt, was driving a pick up truck in north Florida when her son, seated in the backseat, fired a .45-caliber gun that hit her in the back.



Also read: Meanwhile in Australia, a man gets jailed for attempting to murder a dead man

advertisement

A deputy saw Gilt behaving frantically inside the truck stopped partially in the road, soon realising she had been shot.

The woman was then rushed to the hospital. With the bullet having exited through her stomach area, she is in stable condition.

Also read: Woman with a pair of gun-shaped stilettos caught in Maryland airport

Jamie Gilt happens to be a pro-gun activist who runs a Facebook page called 'Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense', where she is said to have posted articles critical of gun control.

It also had a post that read: "My right to protect my child with a gun trumps your fear of my gun."

The page has now been taken down.

Screenshot of the Facebook page, Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense.

Sheriff's investigators are now trying to determine how a 4-year-old boy had access to the gun, which turns out to have been legally owned by Gilt.

Although Gilt has told deputies her son had accidentally shot her, it is still a misdemeanor under Florida law for someone to store or leave a loaded gun where a child has access.

The boy, who was not injured, is with relatives. The Florida Department of Children and Families is also investigating.



--- ENDS ---
How can a phone which was bought for Rs 3600 be sold for Rs 251? Can Ringing Bell deliver on their tall promises? Or is the dream of the Rs 251 phone too good to be true? This is an India Today exclusive.

By Rahul Kanwal: The makers of the much-hyped Freedom 251 smartphone claim that their incredibly low pricing is because they are taking advantage of new government initiatives like Make in India and Start Up India. The company, Ringing Bells, said that the Rs 251 smartphone will be a showcase for Make in India. But an India Today's Special Investigation has found out that the phone which Ringing Bells is projecting as its own was actually bought from a company in New Delhi's Kirti Nagar for Rs 3,600 a piece.

advertisement

The Freedom 251 smartphone is possibly the most-hyped product launch in recent years. A stylish, sophisticated phone for Rs 250 is the kind of product that consumers can only dream about. But now a new player in the crowded telecom market is promising to go where no phone manufacturer has gone before. Ringing Bells promises a smartphone which can do what an Apple or a Samsung can, at a fraction of the cost. Soon after their glitzy launch, the management team of Ringing Bells was in the India Today studios talking about how indigenous manufacturing will help keep prices at rock bottom.



During a sting operation, the president Ringing Bells Ashok Chadha said: "The phone is roughly at a cost of about Rs 2,200 to 2,300 depending upon how much quantity you procure. The answer to why we are selling it at Rs 251 is... a import duty hedge of about 13.5 per cent [as per Make in India]. There is an economics of scale. We are looking at a production when people want about a lakh [phones] a month. We are looking at multipliers of that, which is economic of scale in terms of production."

However, the telecom industry reacted angrily to the claims being made by Ringing Bells. The Indian Cellular Association called the Freedom 251 a big joke. Founder and National President of Indian Cellular Association Pankaj Mohindroo said, "There is no way a phone can be sold so cheap. It's impossible."

India Today's Operation Freedom 251 Team first visited the Kirti Nagar offices of Advantage Communication (Adcom). Adcom is a manufacturer and distributor of mobile phones and tablets.



ADCOM owner Sanjeev Bhatia confirmed that the phone which Ringing Bells was tomtomming on TV channels had actually been bought from his company and wasn't produced by Ringing Bells at all.

"We got an order after which we started manufacturing and delivered them the product. We have even received the payment for the order. Till three days before the launch, we had no clue about our phone being renamed as Freedom 251," said Bhatia.

When the investigation team confronted president of Ringing Bells, he was forced to admit that the phone was bought from another company. But he insisted that only the touch plate had been bought from ADCOM while the rest of the phone had been put together by Ringing Bells.



advertisement

"ADCOM has just manufactured the touch plate, rest all is ours," said Chadha.



However, this claim was also refuted by the ADCOM. Bhatia said, "It wasn't just one part, but the entire phone, which had been bought from ADCOM."



According to Bhatia, Freedom 251 is actually Ikon 4, white. Bhatia says that Ringing Bells erased the brand name of Ikon 4 from the panel and placed their own sticker instead.

Bhatia's company is now also looking for legal option and is planning to sue Ringing Bells.

Ringing Bells had originally claimed that they will start selling the Freedom 251 phone in the market from the end of February.

Ringing Bells told India Today that the company had outsourced the task of assembling Freedom 251 to two production units near the national capital and one near Mumbai. These companies are Vie Technology and Eminence Technologies. The Ringing Bells management told us that they had already placed orders to produce 50 lakh units of the Rs 251 phone. The company claimed that all these phones will be sold in the market by June this year.

When contacted Eminence Technologies director Nidhi Khullar said that it was only five days before the grand launch that Ringing Bells first approached them.



advertisement

Khullar said, "They launched the phone on February 17 and informed us only on February 11." Khullar also revealed that so far they had not received any green signal from Ringing Bells to start the assembly process.



Prabhupreet Singh, the business head of Vie Technology also confirmed that so far production on the Rs 251 phone has not started. He said, "The average cost of assembling will come up to $30, but when it is inbuilt, the cost comes down. We were under this impression that the company is getting some kind of subsidy."

Both the production units that are supposed to ship 50 lakh phones in 90 days say that work on assembling the phone has not even started. So far Ringing Bells has not defrauded any consumer. The company says it will take cash only on delivery. But the India Today investigation shows that consumers need to be be aware of some of the tall claims being made by the makers of Freedom 251.

With Vishwas Kumar and Harish Sharma

--- ENDS ---
Zimbabwe rode on solid performances from Sean Williams and Wellington Masakadza to beat Scotland by 11 runs on Thursday.

By AP: Zimbabwe beat Scotland by 11 runs after a brisk half century by Sean Williams and a four-wicket haul by left-arm spinner Wellington Masakadza in the first round Group B match at the World Twenty20 on Thursday.

Williams hit 53 off 36 balls as Zimbabwe made 147-7. Masakadza then took 4-28 as Scotland was bowled out for 136 in 19.4 overs, Richie Berrington top scoring with 36.

advertisement

It means Scotland exit the tournament early as in its two previous appearances in 2007 and 2009, the team still winless after three World Twenty20 tournaments.

Hong Kong, which is Scotland's opponent in the final match on Saturday, won the toss and opted to bat first against Afghanistan in the second Group B match.

Zimbabwe, which defeated Hong Kong by 14 runs in its first game, stayed on course for the next stage with their second straight victory and will meet Afghanistan in the last group match on Saturday.

"We have been playing well and the guys are gelling well," said Zimbabwe captain Hamilton Masakadza. "The boys are believing a bit more, and that's paying off."

After winning the toss and electing to bat first, Zimbabwe ran into trouble at 67-4 in the 11th over before Williams rebuilt the innings, hitting six boundaries.

Hamilton Masakadza was run out for the second successive time in a mid-pitch collision with opening batsman Vusi Sibanda, who resumed his innings after getting a bandage on his injured chin.

Scotland hit back late in the Zimbabwe innings when Williams holed out at square leg in the 17th over off Safyaan Sharif's full toss with the score on 128 as Zimbabwe could add only 19 off the last 18 deliveries.

However, Wellington Masakadza and Tendai Chatara took two wickets each inside the first four overs to reduce Scotland to 20-4 before Berrington added 51 runs with captain Preston Mommsen (31) to narrow the margin of defeat.

"It was a difficult start," Mommsen said. "We got to a better position to have a crack and it would have been different had we got that partnership going further."

--- ENDS ---
Indian Space agency ISRO's sixth navigation satellite IRNSS-1F on board trusted workhorse PSLV C32 has successful been launched and the lift off was normal. Here is a quick recap of five IRNSS in orbit.

By India Today Web Desk: The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) is ISRO's maiden project for launching India's own satellite navigation system.

The IRNSS project kicked off after America turned down the GPS data agreement during the Kargil War.

The IRNSS system will comprise of seven satellites, out of which five are already in orbit with the sixth launched today.

advertisement

The ISRO team members are positive that IRNSS constellation satellites when fully operational will be more accurate than the American GPS system.

"With the launch of four satellites, we were able to provide navigation for 18 hours. But after the fifth launch, we increased the capacity to 24 hours with an accuracy of 20 metres. The sixth IRNSS-1F and seventh launch (IRNSS-1G) will be accurate and more efficient," an ISRO official told PTI.

ISRO also aims to make signals available not just in India and surrounding countries but also to the entire world.

Almost all the satellites are set to cost around cost Rs 125 crore and all of them will be identical. The seven rockets would involve an outlay of around Rs.910 crore.

Here is a quick recap of the five successful launches, including the most recent one, the IRNSS 1F:

The first IRNSS-1A on July 1 2013:

The launch of this satellite ushered India into the new era of space application. RNSS-1A, first of the seven satellites, constituting the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) was launched using Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.





The second IRNSS-1:

It was launched on April 4.IRNSS 1B has a mission life of 10 years from the date of launch. IRNSS' applications include terrestrial and marine navigation, disaster management, vehicle tracking and fleet management.The second IRNSS has a mission life of 10 years

.

The third in the series IRNSS-1C



It was launched on October 16 2014. The vehicle carried 1,425 kg IRNSS-1C. The lift-off was to originally take place on October 10 but was postponed because of a problem in the mission's tele-command systems.





The fourth IRNSS-1d



The launch that was earlier scheduled for March 9 was deferred after an anomaly was found in one of the telemetry transmitters of the spacecraft. The launch which took place on March 28 put India's navigation system on par with the Global Positioning System of the US.

The fifth was launched on January 20 this year:

The navigation payload of IRNSS-1E will transmit navigation service signals to the users. IRNSS-1E also carries Corner Cube Retro Reflectors for laser ranging.

advertisement

Apart from the few minutes delay owing to space debris, the sixth navigation satellite named IRNSS-1F met with a triumphant lift off headed to orbit:

PSLV C32/ IRNSS 1F Launch: Lift off normal! pic.twitter.com/hFmWtPUEmw ISRO (@isro) March 10, 2016

--- ENDS ---
JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar has triggered another controversy by his remarks on security forces in Jammu and Kashmir.

Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on February 12 in a sedition case for organising and participating an event at JNU in support of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

By India Today Web Desk: Kanhaiya Kumar, the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union president who is out on bail in a sedition case, has triggered another controversy by his remarks on security forces in Jammu and Kashmir. The BJP's youth wing, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha or BJYM, has filed a police complaint against Kanhaiya for his latest "anti-national" statement.

In a late night speech on the university campus, Kanhaiya raised the issue of Armed Forces Special Powers Act or AFSPA imposed in Kashmir. "No matter how much you try to stop us, we will speak up against human rights violations. We will raise our voice against AFSPA. While we have a lot of respect for our soldiers, we will still talk about the fact that in Kashmir women are raped by security personnel," he said.

advertisement

"During war in Rwanda 1000 women were raped. In Africa during the ethnic conflict, when military attacks other group firstly their women were raped. You take example of Gujarat, women were not just killed but were raped first," Kanhaiya added.

The BJYM has now filed a complaint in Vasant Vihar police station against the JNU student leader Kanhaiya and professor Nivedita Menon claiming that they made "anti-national" statements. A senior police officer said that a complaint has been received and the matter is being looked into. "No FIR has been registered yet," he said.

Menon, who teaches at the Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory at the School of International Studies in JNU, however rejected the charge against her. " I dont believe anything I said was anti-national," she said.

Kanhaiya, who was arrested on February 12 in a sedition case for organising and participating an event at JNU in support of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, was granted a six-month interim bail by the Delhi High Court earlier this month.

Two other JNU students, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, who were arrested on similar charges, are still in jail.

ALSO READ | JNU professor exposes Kanhaiya, asks if he checked facts before making the speech



--- ENDS ---
Liqour baron Vijay Mallya's exit from India stirred an uproar in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha today.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said that documents on Ishrat Jahan are missing from ministry.

By India Today Web Desk: Liqour baron Vijay Mallya's exit from India stirred an uproar in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha today.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the CBI is investigating why Kingerfisher got a loan in 2004 then again in 2008. The opposition, in its rebuttal, said that the issue of discussion wasn't about why Mallya was given a loan but why he was allowed to leave the country.



advertisement

The Congress further asked why the government didn't take necessary steps to keep Mallya back, and avoid, what they called, "a Lalit-Modi like situation".

Here are the highlights:

Home Minister Rajnath Singh addresses Lok Sabha:



- Not only India but the entire world is facing menace of terrorism today. Any issue related to terrorism shouldn't be politicised, says Rajnath Singh.

There has been a flip-flop by previous government with regard to Ishrat Jahan case.

Documents on Ishrat missing from ministry.

Conspiracy hatched to defame Modi.



- PM Modi spoke in both houses of Parliament but he did not answer a single question on 'Fair & Lovely' scheme, says Rahul Gandhi.



- "Vijay Mallya is not a saint for us. There are huge debts and money he has to pay back," Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy said.



- Congress MPs led by Congress president Sonia Gandhi stage a walkout in Lok Sabha over Vijay Mallya issue.

- Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said banks will take every possible action against defaulters.

- Jaitley defended saying that Mallya left the country before the banks approached the Supreme Court to keep him back.



Also Read:

Ishrat Jahan case: A timeline



Arun Jaitley's Ishrat Jahan salvo: Congress tried to fix a BJP leader



Unlikely that Ishrat Jahan was a terrorist: Former SIT chief Sathish Verma

--- ENDS ---
Talking to reporters outside the Parliament, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi accused the government of allowing a free passage to Mallya, who owes nearly Rs 9000 to Indian banks.

By India Today Web Desk: The issue of former Kingfisher Airlines boss Vijay Mallya quietly catching a flight, probably to, London rocked Parliament proceedings today. While the Opposition led by the Congress blamed the government of allowing Mallya to sneak out of the country, the NDA hit back saying Mallya was granted loan during the UPA regime.

Talking to reporters outside the Parliament, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi accused the government of allowing a free passage to Mallya, who owes nearly Rs 9000 to Indian banks.

advertisement

"We asked Arun Jaitley how they could allow someone like that to flee the country. He gave such a long speech but refused to answer our question," said Rahul and repeated his "fair and lovely" taunt over the government's amnesty scheme for tax defaulters.

Every paisa will be recovered from Mallya: Jaitley

Raising the issue in the Rajya Sabha, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad charged the BJP-led government of being a part and party in the conspiracy behind allowing Mallya to flee.

"Why was he not arrested? He was being interrogated by several agencies. Why wasn't his passport taken away? He is a tall and well-endowed man and travels with a whole cavalcade. How can he disappear?" Azad said.

Hitting back, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that for 10 years, till 2014, the Congress turned a blind eye towards recovering the loans from Mallya.

"Banks are taking all steps to recover every paisa taken from them," Jaitley said and questioned how former IPL boss Lalit Modi was allowed to leave the country.

"You could not stop him or arrest him. I can share the details. This will require a lot of introspection on your end," Jaitley added.

Also Read:

Vijay Mallya's secret house in London has famous neighbours



Congress asks why Vijay Mallya was not arrested before he fled to London



No sweetheart deal: Vijay Mallya barred from accessing Rs 515 cr Diageo deal money



--- ENDS ---
By Giridhar Jha: Every year, thousands of people fall prey to cancer but only a few get over their trauma, muster courage and fight back with a never-say-die spirit against the scourge.

A Patna-based architect, Sneha Routray was leading a happy life, contributing her mite to society by espousing different causes, when her whole world started crumbling. At first, she could not believe her doctors who told her, two years ago, that she had breast cancer. Routray was shaken.

advertisement

Also read: Pavani Reddy: My choice of profession, especially being a woman, was frowned upon

It was the darkest day not only for her, but also for all her family members who were all devastated by the diagnosis. Like a majority of other cancer patients, she rued her fate. "I was only 32 years old at that time," recalls Routray. "I thought, why did it have to happen to me?" However, Routray soon realised that there was no point cursing her fate. She knew there were lakhs of other people like her who were afflicted with the disease.

Patna-based architect Sneha Routray was diagnosed with cancer when she was just 32 years old.

It was important for her to put up a spirited fight to tame the Big C, just the way many brave cancer patients do. "I had two choices - either I resigned to my fate or gathered all my strength to rid myself of cancer," says Routray. "I told myself never to give up."

Thankfully, Routray's husband, Ganga Kumar, an IAS officer, stood by her side not only to lend all support in her fight but also to help her overcome her initial anxiety and trauma. Fortunately, the disease was diagnosed in the initial stage and she was cured. But her experience set her thinking.

Realising that scores of people, especially those living in rural areas, used to die from the same disease due to lack of awareness, she decided to dedicate the rest of her life to spreading cancer awareness.

Also read: Driving her way to gender equality; meet Delhi's first female auto driver

Incidentally, Routray and her husband had set up a voluntary organisation - Grameen Sneh Foundation - in 2009 to work in the fields of primary education, health awareness, and art and culture. But now, her focus has shifted on cancer.

With support from her husband, she organises workshops, seminars and cancer detection camps at different places in Bihar, Odisha and Delhi-NCR to spread awareness about the disease.

Her health camps have helped detect cancer in early stages in many patients who are subsequently provided guidance on how to go about their treatment. Her efforts have helped in saving the lives of many individuals.

advertisement

As part of her mission, a three-day health and wellness festival was organised in Patna in January this year which was attended among others by Bollywood veteran Shatrughan Sinha, who has been spearheading a cancer awareness campaign in Bihar for more than a decade, and actress Manisha Koirala, herself a cancer survivor.

The success of her mission has inspired Routray and her husband to reach out to more people and as many places as possible. "I would not mind if I have to give up my job for the sake of this campaign," says her husband. After overcoming breast cancer, she decided to dedicate the rest of her life to spreading cancer awareness.

--- ENDS ---
The National Green Tribunal today said if Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living doesn't pay the Rs 5 crore fine to the Delhi development Authority (DDA) by 4 pm today, it could revoke its clearance for the mega event starting Friday.

The three-day World Culture Festival being held on the banks of river Yamuna in the national capital.

By India Today Web Desk: The National Green Tribunal today said if Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living doesn't pay the Rs 5 crore fine to the Delhi development Authority (DDA) by 4 pm today, it could revoke its clearance for the mega event starting Friday.

The green court had imposed the fine on Wednesday after it found the Art of Living guilty of not giving complete details of the three-day World Culture Festival being held on the banks of river Yamuna in the national capital.

advertisement

The Art of Living has been accused of destroying the fragile ecosystem on the Yamuna floodplains by felling trees and making concrete construction for the event, expected to be attended by 35 lakh people.

Earlier today, Sri Sri said he does not mind going to jail if the green court wants him to. Asked if he would go to jail having refused to pay the fine, he told NDTV: "Yes, I will". He also said that he would not pay the fine of Rs 5 crore slapped by the National Green Tribunal.

The spiritual guru also said that the structure being made for the event was temporary and will be dismantaled after the event. "The structure created for the event is temporary and will be dismantled after the event. We wanted to create awareness about Yamuna through this event," said Shankar.

The spiritual guru also claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be attending the event. "The Prime Minister is coming and the President has sent a letter wishing us for the event," he said.

There were reports that Modi might skip the event due to security reasons. President Pranab Mukherjee had already refused to attend after photos of Indian Army soldiers deployed to work for the event went viral earlier this week.

ALSO READ | EXCLUSIVE: Ulterior motives behind protest against Yamuna event, says Sri Sri Ravi Shankar



--- ENDS ---
After firing two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, North Korea said it would 'liquidate' South Korean assets left behind in its territory.

By India Today Web Desk: After firing two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on Thursday, North Korea has announced that it has scrapped all agreements with South Korea on commercial exchange projects.

North Korea said it would 'liquidate' South Korean assets left behind in its territory.

Kim Jong un led country is developing long-range and intercontinental missiles to add to existing stock which contains many short-range missiles. The missiles fired flew about 500 km (300 miles) off its east coast city of Wonsan and were likely from the Soviet-developed Scud series, South Korea's defence ministry said.

advertisement

According to Japanese media, Japan has lodged a protest through the North Korean embassy in Beijing because Japan is within the range of the longer-range variant of Scud missiles.

North Korea uses these short-range missiles when tensions rise on the Korean peninsula. The country finds the annual US-South Korea drills upsetting and takes it to be as preparations for an invasion.

Around 17,000 U.S. military personnel are participating alongside some 300,000 South Korean troops in what South Korea's Defence Ministry has called the "largest-ever" joint military exercises.

North Korea has warned that it will make a "preemptive and offensive nuclear strike" in response to the exercises.

Technically, the US and South Korea are still at war with North Korea because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armed truce and not a peace agreement.

--- ENDS ---
After making many faces on the Congress benches go red in Lok Sabha earlier in this session, Modi this time, compared the largest Opposition party with death.

By Mail Today: Another day, another house. But the target of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's attacks remained the same.

After making many faces on the Congress benches go red in Lok Sabha earlier in this session, Modi this time, compared the largest Opposition party with death. In his reply in the Rajya Sabha to the motion of thanks on the President's address, Modi said that like death, the Congress was also above criticism.

advertisement

"Ek baat zaroor hai...mrityu ko kabhi dosh nahi lagta. Mrityu kabhi badnam nahi hoti. Kabhi kabhi lagta hai Congress ko aisa koi vardan hai. Vardaan is arth mein hai ki agar hum Congress ki alochna karein, to aap ne media pe dekha hoga ki 'vipaksh pe hamla', vipaksh par arop. Kabhi ye nahi aata ki Congress pe hamla, Congress pe arop (Death is blessed that it doesn't get defamed. Sometimes it seems that the Congress also has the similar blessing. Whenever we attack or criticise the Congress, media calls in attack on the Opposition, accusation against the Opposition)."

The PM gave a detailed presentation of his government's achievements and his style of functioning as he used barbs, sarcasm and poetry to floor the opponents. Quoting Nida Fazli, the PM threw a challenge at the Congress stressing that he will chart his own course.

The tone of the PM's speech in the Upper House was less combative than the one in Lok Sabha last week, where he had taken on Rahul Gandhi in a point-by-point rebuttal of the Congress vice-president's speech attacking the government during the debate in that House.

Modi hit back at the Congress leaders' criticism of his government's policies by detailing schemes and initiatives, also telling the opposition party, "You are looking at my work through a microscope. Had you used but a binocular and critiqued your own initiatives while you were in power then it would have been better."

Modi praised the Rajya Sabha as a "chamber of ideas" and insisted on coordination between both Houses. "Nation is waiting for us to pass many bills. Let us pass those bills passed in the Lok Sabha as soon as possible and give impetus to India's progress," he said.

Modi's comments were seen as an attempt to reach out to non-Congress Opposition parties as the government is unlikely to cobble together a majority in the Rajya Sabha on its own for at least the next two years.

Modi appreciated the cooperation of members in the present session and said unlike in previous sessions, the proceedings were going on smoothly. But, he attacked Rahul Gandhi, saying there are two kinds of people - one who work and the other who take credit for it.

advertisement

"If they had done so much hard work when they were in power, they wouldn't be here," Modi said while blaming previous Congress governments for the crises the country finds itself in. "What we have inherited from you... We are getting tired trying to clean up the mess," Modi said.

Also Read:

Congress slams Modi government for Pathankot terror attacks



--- ENDS ---
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the controversial World Culture Festival being held by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living foundation starting Friday on the banks of Yamuna in New Delhi.

By India Today Web Desk: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the controversial World Culture Festival being held by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living foundation starting Friday on the banks of Yamuna in New Delhi, the government confirmed today.



Earlier, there were rumours that Modi may skip the event due to security concerns after it was estimated that nearly 35 lakh people will attend the three-day event. Modi's decision to attend endorses the mega event now widely criticised for destroying the Yamuna floodplains.

advertisement

Meanwhile, Sri Sri's Art of Living is yet to pay the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) the Rs 5 crore fine imposed by the National Green Tribunal for violating environmental norms for the event.

The green court had imposed the fine on Wednesday after it found the Art of Living guilty of not giving complete details of the three-day World Culture Festival being held on the banks of river Yamuna in the national capital.

The Art of Living has been accused of destroying the fragile ecosystem on the Yamuna floodplains by felling trees and making concrete construction for the event for which a massive stage covering 7 acres of land has been built on the riverbed.

Earlier today, Sri Sri said he does not mind going to jail if the green court wants him to. Asked if he would go to jail having refused to pay the fine, he told NDTV: "Yes, I will". He also said that he would not pay the fine of Rs 5 crore slapped by the National Green Tribunal.

The spiritual guru also said that the structure being made for the event was temporary and will be dismantaled after the event. "The structure created for the event is temporary and will be dismantled after the event. We wanted to create awareness about Yamuna through this event," said Shankar.

Also Read

Now, PM Modi may skip Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Culture Festival

Ulterior motives behind protest against Yamuna event, says Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

NGT to Art of Living: Pay Rs 5 crore fine or face cancellation; Sri Sri says ready to go to jail





--- ENDS ---
We have to give it to Sonakshi--that is some way of marking the occasion!

By India Today Web Desk: Known for her bubbly onscreen presence, actress Sonakshi Sinha was joined by hordes of women to set a rather unique world record.

Also read: Beauties at work: Sonakshi, Parineeti and Kangana rock business casuals

March 8 aka International Women's Day saw the actress and her mother Poonam Sinha, accompanied by a number of women, attempt to achieve the Guinness World Record title of 'Most people painting their fingernails simultaneously'.

advertisement

Held at Palladium Mall, Mumbai, the event saw a brightly dressed Sonakshi in a Promod blazer and top, Mango pants, Charles & Keith shoes and accessories from Aldo and Fendi. Sticking to the bright hues she was sporting, the actress chose to paint her nails in a similar tint.

Picture courtesy: Yogen Shah

Also read: Pink on point: 3 times Sonakshi Sinha made pink her colour

The Akira star also took to Instagram to convey her excitement after successfully completing the record.

Picture courtesy: Instagram/@aslisona Picture courtesy: Instagram/@aslisona

Organised in collaboration with Polish beauty brand Inglot, Sonakshi had earlier expressed her eagerness over accomplishing the record. The Rowdy Rathore actress had been quoted saying, "As kids we had always heard that so and so has set a record or broken a record and has made a mark for themselves in the Guinness Book of World Records, it was always considered to be prestigious to have a record against your name in the Guinness Book. Back then I never imagined I would get to be a part of one such attempt."

--- ENDS ---
The stage is now set for the three-day cultural event starting on the Yamuna floodplains in Delhi on Friday. However, Art of Living guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar today struck a defiant note that he will not pay Rs 5 crore fine imposed by Green Tribunal and would rather go to jail.

Artists rehearse on the eve of the three-day World Culture Festival being organised by Art of Living Foundation in New Delhi on Thursday. (Photo: PTI)

By India Today Web Desk: The stage is now set for the three-day cultural event starting on the Yamuna floodplains in Delhi on Friday. However, Art of Living guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar today struck a defiant note that he will not pay Rs 5 crore fine imposed by Green Tribunal and would rather go to jail.

The NGT bench, headed by chairperson Swatanter Kumar, said that Art of Living (AOL) has time to pay the fine till Friday and law will take its course if it fails to do so.

advertisement

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the 'World Culture Festival' in which 3.5 million people are expected to participate.

Ravi Shankar also expressed confidence that Modi will attend the festival. "This is like a Cultural Olympics. 37,000 artistes from all over the world would come together at one single platform.

This is an event to bring people closer to each other. Event of this magnitude should be welcomed," Sri Sri said.

In the wake of controversies triggered by concerns over environmental violations, President Pranab Mukherjee pulled out of the event.

On Wednesday, NGT imposed a fine of Rs 5 crore on Art of Living as environmental compensation and asked the organisation to deposit the amount with the Delhi Development Authority on Friday.

It found several environmental violations by the organisers of the event.

Meanwhile, Congress accused the Centre and Delhi government of "totally ignoring" the damage to environment while allowing World Culture Festival on Yamuna floodplains.

Also Read

PM Modi to attend Sri Sri event, Art of Living yet to pay Rs 5 crore fine

Now, PM Modi may skip Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Culture Festival

Ulterior motives behind protest against Yamuna event, says Sri Sri Ravi Shankar NGT to Art of Living: Pay Rs 5 crore fine or face cancellation; Sri Sri says ready to go to jail

--- ENDS ---
Prosecutors said Tairod Pugh, immersed himself in violent Islamic State propaganda for months before buying a one-way flight from his home in Egypt to Turkey, where he hoped to cross the Syrian border into territory controlled by the extremist group.

By Reuters: A U.S. Air Force veteran was found guilty on Wednesday of attempting to join Islamic State, according to Newsday and other local media.

Tairod Pugh, 48, was convicted after a week-long trial in Brooklyn federal court. The case is the first in more than 75 Islamic State-related prosecutions brought since 2014 by the U.S. Department of Justice to reach a jury verdict.

advertisement

Prosecutors said Pugh immersed himself in violent Islamic State propaganda for months before buying a one-way flight from his home in Egypt to Turkey, where he hoped to cross the Syrian border into territory controlled by the extremist group.

He was detained by Turkish authorities at an Istanbul airport and eventually flown to the United States to face terrorism charges.

Pugh's defense lawyers argued that his only offense was to express "repugnant" views about Islamic State in Facebook posts and to watch dozens of the group's slickly produced recruitment videos. They said he traveled to Turkey to find work, not to become a jihadist.

But prosecutors pointed to a letter he drafted to his Egyptian wife, found on his laptop, in which he vowed to fight for Islam and declared he had two options: "Victory or Martyr." The letter was written days before he flew to Turkey, though it was unclear whether he ever sent it.

He also took with him to Istanbul a black facemask, a map depicting Islamic State's strongholds in Syria and a chart of the border crossings between Turkey and Syria.

Only one other Islamic State-related U.S. prosecution has reached trial. In Phoenix, Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem is on trial for plotting with others to attack a Prophet Mohammed cartoon contest in Texas. Two of his alleged associates were killed in a shootout with police at the event.

Pugh served as an avionics specialist in the Air Force from 1986 to 1990 and later worked as an Army contractor in Iraq from 2009 to 2010, prosecutors said.

In addition to attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization, Pugh also was convicted of obstruction for destroying four portable electronic storage devices after his detention in Turkey, local media reported.

Also read:



Desi Jihadi John? How a Sanskrit speaking Muslim guy became dreaded ISIS terrorist

ISIS threatens to kill Zuckerberg and Dorsey

--- ENDS ---
India Today has managed to track Vijay Mallya's residences in England. Mallya has at least two houses, maybe more, in London. One in the central posh area of the metropolis and the other in the northern outskirts of the city in a quaint little village called Tewin.

By India Today Web Desk: By the time a plea by a consortium of 17 banks, which loaned around Rs 9000 crore to business tycoon Vijay Mallya, came up for hearing in the Supreme Court, the former Kingfisher Airlines boss had already sneaked out of the country.

The banks asked the Supreme Court to prevent Mallya from travelling abroad. However, the government told the top court that the liquour baron fled India on March 2.

advertisement

While there is no information where Mallya is, reports suggest that he may have landed at his secret house in London.

India Today has managed to track Vijay Mallya's residences in England. Mallya has at least two houses, maybe more, in London. One in the central posh area of the metropolis and the other in the northern outskirts of the city in a quaint little village called Tewin.

The London residence is on the Baker Street, made famous by the legend of Sherlock Holmes. While Holmes lived at 221B Baker street, Mallya's address is 18-19 Baker Street, just behind the world famous Madame Tussauds' wax museum.

The Supreme Court, acting on the banks' plea, issued a notice to Mallya seeking the disclosure of his assets and seizure of his passport. Mallya has two weeks to reply to the notice, which will be served to him through the Indian High Commission in London.

Mallya's now defunct Kingfisher Airline owes the consortium a whopping Rs 9,000 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 Enforcement Directorate in Mumbai lodged the money laundering case, the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) in Bengaluru barred British liquor giant Diageo from paying Mallya a payout of Rs 515 crore till a case against him was disposed off.

However, the British liquor major has confirmed that is has already paid Mallys $40 million (Rs 275 crore) of the severance agreement.

"We paid Mallya $40 million immediately as part of the $75-million agreement he signed with our company on February 25, with the balance ($35 million) being payable in equal instalments over five years," Diageo spokesperson Kirsty King said.

ALSO READ | Vijay Mallya has left India, government informs Supreme Court

Kingfisher employees stage protest against Vijay Mallya, seek PM intervention



--- ENDS ---
The film is produced by Vishal under his banner Vishal Film Factory (VFF). The cast and crew of the film are still under wraps.

By India Today Web Desk: Tamil actor Vishal recently announced that his sequel to 2009 actioner Sandakozhi was shelved since the film's director Lingusamy backed out from the project without prior announcement. Now, the actor has joined hands with director Mysskin for a yet-untitled film.

ALSO READ: Sandakozhi 2: Vishal's film with Lingusamy shelved



Vishal took to Twitter to announce that he has started working on the project from Thursday. The actor also said he is pretty excited to join hands with the director.

Startd my nxt film wit Dir mysskin today wit a formal Pooja under my home prod @VffVishal. Exciting film.exciting genre.lookin fwd.god bless Vishal (@VishalKOfficial) March 10, 2016

advertisement

The film is produced by Vishal under his banner Vishal Film Factory (VFF). The yet-untitled film is said to be a fantasy movie.

The cast and crew of the film are still under wraps.

Mysskin last outing, Pisaasu, was lauded by audiences and critics alike. The director was appreciated for making a superhit film on a shoestring budget.

--- ENDS ---
India Today accesses a Ministry of Home Affairs inspection report which has found glaring violations in the manner in which the NGO used the foreign donations received by it.

By Rahul Kanwal: High profile lawyer is now in the cross-hairs of the Narendra Modi government. India Today has been able to exclusively access the inspection report of the Ministry of Home Affairs, which scrutinised the accounts of Lawyers Collective, a well-known NGO run by former additional solicitor general Indira Jaising. The report has found glaring violations in the manner in which the NGO used the foreign donations received by it.

advertisement

According to the report, which is exclusively in the possession of India Today, Lawyers Collective received foreign contribution of Rs 32 crore between 2006 and 2014. The MHA inspection team found that a large part of the money was spent on activities which were outside the list of items for which it had been collected. Paying volunteers to organise dharnas, receiving foreign contributions while working for the government, sending foreign donations outside India, spending foreign money to lobby with parliamentarians are some of the main violations listed in the report.

Under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act 2010, an Indian NGO can spend the foreign contribution only for the purpose for which the money has been collected. Lawyers Collective has been given one month by the MHA to reply to the notice, after which legal proceedings will be initiated against the NGO.

According to the report, Rs 88,978 was paid to Delhi Network of Positive People on October 21, 2009 for paying 250 people for holding a dharna outside the Law Ministry. They were paid Rs 200 each for food and conveyance to stage a protest for the HIV/AIDS Bill. To hold paid dharnas by utilising foreign contribution is a violation of Section 8 of the FCRA, 2010.

The report says that a large amount of foreign contribution was spent on air travel, boarding and lodging of Indira Jaising's husband Anand Grover and other members of Lawyers Collective for draft legislation meetings and advocacy with MPs. The report says Rs 13 lakh was spent on media and advocacy with 67 MPs in April 2010 and 99 MPs in August 2010. According to the report, "The utilisation of Foreign Contribution for advocacy indulging in lobbying with MPs and thereby influencing the political process and parliamentary institutions is in clear violation of the letter and spirit of the FCRA Act. Section 3 of the FCRA clearly prohibits acceptance of foreign contribution by any member of any party so that parliamentary institutions are not influenced in any manner."

The report also says that large sums of foreign contribution was used by Lawyers Collective for air travel and other expenses to attend conferences and charity dinners in different parts of the world. This according to the report is a violation of Section 7 of the FCRA as there is no provision for using money received from abroad outside India.

advertisement

The report also says that Jaising received compensation of Rs 96 lakh while she was the Additional Solicitor General during the UPA 2 government's tenure. The report alleges that Jaising's travel expenses to Nepal and USA were borne by Lawyers Collective from the Foreign Contribution without approval of the MHA. As a high ranking legal officer of the Union government, Jaising was being paid a salary from government funds and receiving foreign contribution without government approval is a violation of Section 3 and 11 of the FCRA.

Lawyers Collective is a public interest NGO, established in 1981, which works in the areas of human rights, legal aid and litigation. According to the NGO's website, it was created to provide expert legal assistance to the underprivileged, especially women and children, workers in the unorganised sector and other members of marginalised groups. Jaising, her Grover, Sanober Keshwaar, Norma Alvares, Justice Suresh, Nilima Dutta and Mihir Desai are the trustees of the NGO.

advertisement

The action of the MHA is based on a complaint by an activist named Raj Kumar Sharma who alleged that Jaising had been misusing foreign funds received from international organisations like Ford Foundation, Open Society Institute and the Levi Strauss Foundation.

India Today spoke to Grover who's a Trustee of Lawyers Collective. He said, "This is a deliberate and mischievous attempt to tarnish our image. These notices are supposed to be confidential. We have filed a complaint with the Ministry of Home Affairs. We believe in the process of law and will respond to the notice which has been sent to us."

Jaising told India Today, "I am calling for an investigation about how this information got into the public domain. We have been given 30 days to reply to the notice. We are in the process of consulting our accountants and filing an appropriate reply. They have not found anything wrong in our accounts. They have found problems with the way some of the money has been used. This according to us is beyond the purview of the FCRA."



--- ENDS ---
India Today has also accessed the hand written letter of the girl, a PhD scholar at the African Studies Centre, in which she had complained about Kanhaiya. The PhD student, in her complaint, claimed that she was abused and threatened by Kanhaiya when she tried to stop him from urinating in public inside the campus.

By India Today Web Desk: A fresh controversy has erupted at the Jawaharlal Nehru University surrounding student leader Kanhaiya Kumar. The university administration has issued a press release which says that Kanhaiya was fined Rs 3000 for misbehaving with a girl student in 2015.

India Today has also accessed the hand written letter of the girl, a PhD scholar at the African Studies Centre, in which she had complained about Kanhaiya.

advertisement

The PhD student, in her complaint, claimed that she was abused and threatened by Kanhaiya when she tried to stop him from urinating in public inside the campus.

Yesterday, the BJP's youth wing, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha or BJYM, filed a police complaint against Kanhaiya for his controversial remark on security forces in Jammu and Kashmir.

In a late night speech on the university campus, Kanhaiya raised the issue of Armed Forces Special Powers Act or AFSPA imposed in Kashmir.

"No matter how much you try to stop us, we will speak up against human rights violations. We will raise our voice against AFSPA. While we have a lot of respect for our soldiers, we will still talk about the fact that in Kashmir women are raped by security personnel," Kanhaiya, who is out on bail in a sedition case, said.

"During war in Rwanda 1000 women were raped. In Africa during the ethnic conflict, when military attacks other group firstly their women were raped. You take example of Gujarat, women were not just killed but were raped first," he added.

Also Read

JNU professor exposes Kanhaiya, asks if he checked facts before making the speech

Kanhaiya Kumar's remarks on security forces trigger fresh row, BJP youth wing files complaint

Ludhiana teen Jhanvi Behal trolled for challenging Kanhaiya Kumar

--- ENDS ---
Young Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya said he wanted to become a world-class all-rounder like South Africa's Jacques Kallis. The Mumbai Indians' all-rounder attributed his success to the Indian Premier League.

By Press Trust of India: Yuvraj Singh recently compared Hardik Pandya to the West Indians, for his on-field flair, but the Baroda youngster dreams of emulating legendary South African Jacques Kallis.

"Big things start with the dream only. This was the dream. Yes, it's fulfilling. I want to be like Jacques Kallis. What he has done for Proteas in batting and bowling. I want to do the same thing for India," Pandya said during a media session in Kolkata. (Hardik Pandya a fan of Mahendra Singh Dhoni's big-hitting prowess)



advertisement

According to skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Pandya has brought stability with his skills but he reveals that there is no particular brief given to him.

"The best part is I'm not told anything. I've not given been any instruction. That's something good for me. I can now read situations as I have got used to international pressure," the 23-year-old added. (Mahendra Singh Dhoni blessed with good all-rounders, says VVS Laxman)



He said that playing for Mumbai Indians has been the turning point in his career

"IPL has changed my life big time. Same time last year, I had posted a photo saying that I was sold to Mumbai Indians for Rs 10 lakh. This year on same day, I won the Asia Cup. Just imagine playing for the national team within a year and winning the Asia Cup. The journey has been quite amazing."

Pandya backs himself as a proper batsman.

"I find myself a proper batsman. I play according to situation. There will be a time where I will have to stick around."

He is thankful to Dhoni for showing faith in his abilities.

"When you see your captain promoting you ahead of big names is really a good thing. It helps a lot. I quite like the faith he is showing. I want to contribute as many times as I can. I don't take pressure (on myself)," Pandya added.

--- ENDS ---
By Javed Anwer: Last year's Android Marshmallow mas a rather mellow update for Android. It kept the same users interface that we first saw in the Android Lollipop and most of the features and improvements were under the hood. There was little explicit in terms of differences between Android Lollipop and Android Marshmallow.

Android N looks like a much bigger and significant update. Not only it comes with several significantly major changes under the hood - support for Java 8 language etc - that will have performance-related impact, Android N also comes with big new features that people will see and use. As the new N version of Android reaches more people we will get to know more about the new features, but for now here are 10 features that you should expect in an Android N-powered phone.Also read: Google announces Android N early, invites all developers



advertisement

Split Screen





We have already seen this feature in Samsung's high-end phones and tablets. Now it is coming to the stock Android. And it works more or less similarly. Once an app supports split-screen mode, people will be able to use it along with other apps on the same screen. This means you will be able to open two apps side-by-side on the phone's screen. Depending the phone - large screen or small screen - it is also possible that users will be able to also resize the screens, similar to how it is possible on a Windows 10 device.

New quick settings



In the Android N, Google is adding a small bar in the notification shade. This has a few quick toggles for settings. This is somewhat similar to what you get with Samsung's TouchWiz user interface but without all the heavy UI elements. The design is slicker and simple. Tapping on an arrow on this little bar opens the usual quick setting buttons that are similar to what you get in Android Marshmallow. But the one addition here is that whole of this quick setting area is editable. This means you can customise what quick settings you want and where. This is similar to the functionality that most of custom Android users interface already offer.

Also read: Android N: How to get and who can get it



Direct reply



Along with the tweaked notifications, the Android N also adds ability to directly reply to notifications from the notification area. This is similar to what iOS on the iPhone offers. This means when you get an email, you will be able to type out a quick reply directly from the notification area.

System DPI change



In Android, you can already change the font size for the whole system. But with Android N, you will be able to change the DPI settings. This means, depending on what is comfortable to you, you will be able to use bigger UI element along with bigger font on your phone. This will be particularly cool on all these big screen, high-resolution phones in the world of Android.

Redesigned notification





The way notifications are shown in Android has been tweaked with the Android N. The whole user interface is now even flatter and slicker. Also, notifications from the same app now bunch together and can be accessed one by one. So no more "4 messages from 3 chats" as the WhatsApp notification in the Android N. All the chats will bunch together and will be visible directly in the notification area.

advertisement

Beefier Doze



Doze was unveiled in Android Marshmallow. It puts the phone into a sort of deep sleep when the device senses that it has been lying idle, for example while you are sleeping. This saves battery. But in Android N, Google is improving Doze. Now, the phone will go into a sort of light sleep as soon as the phone is in your pocket and its screen is turned off. This should save even more battery life.

Project Svelte



Google continues with Project Svelte in Android N. This is a performance-related project, aimed at making Android faster and smoother on budget phones. Google says that Android N will be better at handling memory and processing and hence run faster on budget phones compared to the Android Marshmallow.

Picture in picture



This again is a feature that we have seen in custom user interface that many Android companies offer. But with Android N, ability to have a floating window open for an app is going to be part of the default system. Once implemented, this would help users keep track of two apps together. For example, you will be able to read an email as well as watch a YoutTube video at the same time, if you are into that sort of thing.

advertisement

Also read: And the final name of Android N is...Nutella



Night Mode



The iPhone already has it. Now Android is getting it. With Night Mode, Android N will automatically turn the user interface to a darker theme after the sunset. At the same time, it will also offer a consumer option to set specific white balance and display temperature for night mode so that when you are browsing 9Gag before going to sleep, the screen doesn't hurt your eyes.

Data Saver



This again is a feature that most Android phones already have. But now it will be part of Android. This feature will help a user restrict data use by apps when they are background. This will help users save the cellular data, which is costly, and use Wi-Fi for heavy duty downloading.



--- ENDS ---
The Redmi Note 3 is definitely a better deal over the Honor 5X because it excels in raw performance and battery life. It is slick, easy to use and fairly good looking. Its fingerprint scanner is also tad faster than the one on the Honor 5X, and more accurate as well.

By Saurabh Singh: All-metal phones under Rs 15,000 were hard to find -- and imagine -- a couple of years ago. Then again, seems like only yesterday that we were revelling over a couple of odd phones under Rs 15,000 that (for a pleasant surprise) came with FullHD displays. Not to mention, the growing surge of fingerprint scanner-totting affordable phones.

The message is loud and clear: you don't have to burn your pocket in order to buy a fancy smartphone anymore and something that is cheap in terms of cash doesn't necessarily have to be cheap in terms of quality.

advertisement

We reviewed two such -- fancy yet affordable -- phones recently, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 and Huawei's Honor 5X. Both the phones are pretty exciting in their own right. But which one's better? Which one gives you better bang for the buck?

Here's a point-by-point breakdown of the Redmi Note 3 and Honor 5X, our affordable knights in shining armour:



Design and build quality

Both the Redmi Note 3 and Honor 5X are clad in metal, almost to the brim. The upper and lower ends sport plastic with brushed metal finish to accommodate the sensors and the antenna. You will notice the stark distinction, but keep in mind that these are the phones that are priced below Rs 15,000. And frankly, phones have never looked so good (read premium) at this price point.

Of the two, the Honor 5X looks slightly better, and shinier. So, if you're someone who likes to flaunt his/her phone for the world to see then the Honor 5X is definitely the one that you're looking for. Weighing in at 158 grams and 8.2mm, the Honor 5X is also barely there. It's so thin and light (even more so than the Redmi Note 3) that it's hardly noticeable in hand.

If we were to talk about real estate, both the phones offer more or less the same screen-to-body-ratio. Bezels are quite prominent, but since the Redmi Note 3 employs physical capacitive keys, it would appear that it's giving you a bigger screen in comparison to the Honor 5X.

Looks aside, the Redmi Note 3 has a slight ergonomic edge over the Honor 5X in that the latter is very slippery to hold on to.

Verdict: The Honor 5X is definitely sexier, but the Redmi Note 3 is more ergonomic.



Display

Both the Redmi Note 3 and Honor 5X come with 5.5-inch FullHD display with a 1080 x 1920 pixels resolution. On paper, both the phones have the exact display specifics, and mete out almost similar output in real world usage as well, with slight differences.

advertisement

The screen of the Honor 5X is tad brighter than the screen of the Redmi Note 3, but suffers from inaccurate colours. The Honor 5X (in general) shows slightly colder colours by default, as opposed to the Redmi Note 3 which is more balanced in comparison.

Verdict: Xiaomi Redmi Note 3



Software

Both the Redmi Note 3 and Honor 5X run Android 5.1.1 Lollipop out-of-the-box. While the Honor 5X comes with Huawei's EMUI 3.1 custom user interface, the Redmi Note 3 has Xiaomi's MIUI 7.0 over Android. Being UIs from reputable Chinese brands, both the user interfaces lack a traditional app drawer, and instead come with a springboard of apps and widgets. Skinning is heavy, and bloat or unwanted apps are hard to overlook.

In terms of looks and feel, Xiaomi's MIUI 7 is definitely the more appealing alternative. MIUI is for someone who likes in your face animations and funky colour schemes. The UI is basically entrenched in these aspects. There are of course options to tone down these aspects, should you find them too overwhelming. Focus is largely on customisation here.

Huawei's EMUI may not be as visually appealing as MIUI, but it is feature packed to the brim provided you're the kind of person who likes to dig into things. EMUI 3.1 focuses largely on customisability and battery management. It has a number of useful Easter eggs scattered all across its length and breadth, which is always nice to explore and make use of.

advertisement

Having said that, a user interface is about user experience. Xiaomi's MIUI holds the upper hand here because it's more polished in almost every sense of the word. It's slick to use with minimum or no lag at all. The Emotion UI on the other hand is prone to lag every now and then, which hits user experience in the longer run.

Verdict: Xiaomi Redmi Note 3



Performance

The Honor 5X is powered by a 1.5GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 processor with Adreno 405 GPU and 2GB RAM. It comes with 16GB of internal memory which is expandable by up to 128GB microSD card.

The Redmi Note 3 on the other hand is powered by a 1.8GHz hexa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 processor with Adreno 510 GPU and 3GB RAM. It comes with 32GB of internal memory which is expandable by up to 128GB microSD card.

There's no doubt that both the Honor 5X and Redmi Note 3 are very capable phones (for the price) and won't disappoint in basic everyday usage. That said, the Redmi Note 3 holds noticeable edge over the Honor 5X, not just because it is honing a more potent processor (and more RAM) but also because its MIUI 7 user interface doesn't stress the machinery inside. Good hardware complimented with a slick and responsive user interface ensures that the Redmi Note 3 feels faster at almost every task that you throw at it. The Honor 5X is a breeze once your app is up and running, but getting the app to start (and close) often takes an odd second or two and that could be a problem.

advertisement

The Honor 5X also has a tendency to run slightly warmer (in comparison to the Redmi Note 3) especially while playing demanding games, using the camera or streaming 1080p content for longer periods.

Verdict: Xiaomi Redmi Note 3



Connectivity and Speakers

Both the Redmi Note 3 and Honor 5X are dualSIM 4G-capable phones featuring a hybrid card slot to accommodate a microSD card. This means you can't use two SIMs and microSD card simultaneously. Call quality is excellent on the Honor 5X. The Redmi Note 3 is pretty standard in network performance in comparison.

While the Honor 5X has its speaker vent at the bottom edge, the Redmi Note 3 has it on the rear. Both the phones churn out loud audio (for the price) with Huawei's offering being a tad louder. There is distortion at peak volume in the case of the Honor 5X but unlike the Redmi Note 3, its sound isn't muffled when the phone is kept back facing down. Overall, we feel that the Honor 5X has a slightly better speaker than the Redmi Note 3, but for most users the difference would be indiscernible.

Also read: Dissected: What is inside Xiaomi Redmi Note 3



Camera

The Honor 5X comes with a 13-megapxiel camera on the rear with f/2.0 aperture, autofocus and LED flash. It has a 5-megapixel front camera.



The Redmi Note 3 on the other hand has a 16-megapixel camera on the rear with f/2.0 aperture, phase detection autofocus and dualLED (dual tone) flash. It comes with a 5-megapixel front camera.

Without beating around the bush, let's get straight to the point. Both the phones have disappointing cameras, even for the price at hand. This is because both the Honor 4X (predecessor to Honor 5X) and Xiaomi Mi 4i (that retails around the same price point) had pretty amazing cameras for the price. The Honor 5X and Redmi Note 3 leave a lot to be desired in this department.

There's a very fine difference between a picture clicked with the Honor 5X and the Redmi Note 3.

Although images clicked in good light pack some detail, zooming into some of these pictures shows noise. Low-light photos are just bad with noise taking the better of them on all counts.

Verdict: Tie



Battery

While the Xiaomi Redmi 3 packs in a massive 4,050 battery, the Honor 5X has a much smaller 3,000mAh battery inside in comparison. Any guesses? Well, yes, the Redmi Note 3 has far superior battery life than the Honor 5X. Not that the Honor 5X has poor battery life, but the Redmi Note 3 is just fabulous. No matter what you do, the Redmi Note 3 will last in excess of a day with ease. The Honor 5X has that potential but you'll have to use one of its power saving features at some point of time. Moreover, Xiaomi's phone also supports fast charging, while the Honor 5X doesn't.

Verdict: Xiaomi Redmi Note 3



Which one should you buy?

The Redmi Note 3 is definitely a better deal over the Honor 5X because it excels in raw performance and battery life. It is slick, easy to use and fairly good looking. Its fingerprint scanner is also tad faster than the one on the Honor 5X, and more accurate as well.

But more importantly, it's the price aspect. The Redmi Note 3 is priced at Rs 11,999 for the 3GB RAM and 32GB memory variant, which is Rs 1,000 less than the Honor 5X. For Rs 1,000 less you're getting a faster phone with far better battery life in the Redmi Note 3. The choice is pretty much obvious. The Redmi Note 3 is undoubtedly the budget smartphone to beat at the moment. For those of you looking for an even more affordable option, Xiaomi is also selling a 2GB RAM and 16GB memory variant for Rs 9,999. The Honor 5X is good, just that the Redmi Note 3 is so much better.

You may also like to read:

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 review: Mr dependable like Rahul Dravid

Huawei Honor 5X review: Good but competitors are better



--- ENDS ---
APA petitions are one more tool we use to protect public lands or threatened wildlife by engaging federal agencies and pushing them to do better for the ...
Savchenko agreed to begin drinking water after Poroshenko's request, to refuse food until verdict handed down

Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko, charged with involvement in the killing of Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine in 2014, has started to drink water, her lawyer has confirmed.

"I visited Nadia at the remand center today. She began drinking water, stopped her 'dry' hunger strike," lawyer Mark Feygin told Interfax on Thursday.

However, Savchenko is still refusing food, he said.

"And she will not [eat] until March 21-22," he added.

Savchenko agreed to begin drinking water following a request from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

The Donetsk City Court in Russia's southern Rostov region is expected to hand down its verdict in Savchenko's case on March 21-22.
To the best of my ability I write about my experience of the Universe Past, Present and Future
"The reason he will (use force) is because he's not going to get anywhere doing anything else..." The post David Roche: Taiwan Invasion Inevitable appear...
From 1962 to 1971, the US military sprayed herbicides over Vietnam to strip the thick jungle canopy that could conceal opposition forces, to destroy crops that those forces might depend on, and to clear tall grasses and bushes from the perimeters of US base camps and outlying fire-support bases. Mixtures of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T), picloram, and cacodylic acid made up the bulk of the herbicides sprayed. The main chemical mixture sprayed was Agent Orange, a 50:50 mixture of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T. At the time of the spraying, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), the most toxic form of dioxin, was an unintended contaminant generated during the production of 2,4,5-T and so was present in Agent Orange and some other formulations sprayed in Vietnam.

Because of complaints from returning Vietnam veterans about their own health and that of their children combined with emerging toxicologic evidence of adverse effects of phenoxy herbicides and TCDD, the National Academy of Sciences was asked to perform a comprehensive evaluation of scientific and medical information regarding the health effects of exposure to Agent Orange, other herbicides used in Vietnam, and the various components of those herbicides, including TCDD. Updated evaluations were conducted every two years to review newly available literature and draw conclusions from the overall evidence. Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 2014 is a cumulative report of the series thus far.
The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reported last week that the activist Esmail Ahmadi-Ragheb had been sentenced to six months in prison for propaganda against the state. The only apparent basis for this charge was his activity as a blogger and a participant in peaceful activism. Some things that were presented as evidence included his use of the phrase religious dictatorship in his online writings and the fact that he had met with the mother of Sattar Beheshti, another blogger who was famously murdered by his interrogators after being arrested.

On Monday, the Human Rights Activists News Agency reported that Nahid Gorji had been sentenced to a three year prison term  six times longer than Ahmadi-Raghebs sentence  and apparently on the basis of even less evidence. Sources close to Gorji said that she was engaged in no explicitly political activities and that her charges were based entirely upon her activities on social networking platforms such as Facebook.

Also on Monday, the International Campaign recalled attention to the September 2014 arrest of two men who had formerly served time as political prisoners. The incident also led to a friend of theirs and one mans wife being held in jail, as well. Sentences were recently handed down and upheld on appeal in these cases, and as the International Campaign details in two separate reports, neither the reasons for the arrest nor the evidence leading to convictions were clear in any case.

The sole target of the original arrest warrant was Arash Sadeghi, and he received by far the heaviest sentence, a cumulative 15 years in prison for collusion against national security, propaganda against the state, spreading lies in cyberspace, and insulting the Founder of the Islamic Republic. The decision to sentence him to a number of sentences back-to-back is in violation of Iranian law, as the New Islamic Penal Code specifies that inmates are to serve only the longest of multiple sentences.

The International Campaign also notes that Sadeghis lawyer was denied access to the case file on his client and was prevented from attending the opening session of the trial. Such secrecy is often regarded as evidence that the state has failed to formulate specific charges and is building a case through the course of the trial. And in the present case, defenders of the accused feel that this effort was motivated by a desire to retroactively and redundantly punish Sadeghi and his friend and fellow activist Navid Kamran for prior activities including their participation in the Green Movement protests in 2009.

In Kamrans case, this perception is strengthened by the fact that some of the evidence presented against him was notably outdated, including posts from a Facebook account that had been inactive for some time. Other evidence was misrepresented, as when the prosecution said that Kamran had actively gathered signatures on political petitions when in fact he had merely signed them.

Kamran has received a sentence of one year in prison despite these prosecutorial deficiencies. And Sadeghis wife, Golrokh Iraee received a six year sentence for propaganda against the state and insulting the sacred. She has no previous criminal record, and the rather harsh sentence has led to suggestions that her punishment is based on guilt by association, or is being treated as a supplementary punishment for her husband. The Iranian judiciary is notorious for using threats against arrestees families in order to help secure false confessions.

Threats to ones family can also simply be a punitive measure, and indeed the Iranian criminal justice system is known to utilize a number of extrajudicial punishments, especially against political prisoners. One well-known tactic is the denial of needed medical attention. The Human Rights Activists News Agency reported on multiple recent examples of this on Tuesday.

Journalist and human rights activist Mohammad Sadiq Kaboudvand has suffered two heart attacks while in prison and is at risk of another due to problems with blood pressure. He is also experiencing kidney and digestive diseases, but his relatives say that authorities are fiercely opposing efforts to transfer him to a hospital for treatment and monitoring.

Similar statements have been made by the family of Hossein Ronaghi. They allege that authorities prevented the blogger and human rights activist from going to hospital for recommended tests of his bone marrow. Since his arrest in 2009, he has developed kidney and respiration problems, blood and eye infections, and has experienced internal bleeding. His family has requested medical furlough in line with Iranian law that allows for release of persons whose life is at risk from continued imprisonment. But these requests also have been opposed by authorities.

IranWire reports that Ronaghis illness has left him with only one functioning kidney and that he has now been diagnosed with liver disease as well. This diagnosis came during a previous medical furlough which was truncated by the prosecutors office, which ordered him back to prison in January before he was able to receive treatment. This was described as incomprehensible and illegal by the blogger himself, and his father Ahmad Ronaghi-Maleki accused the regime of trying to turn him into another Sattar Beheshti.

In the case of Ali Moezzi, authorities not only opposed transfer, but reportedly opened a new case against him while he was in prison, at a time when he was in hospital to receive treatment for bladder and kidney problems. He was returned to prison and placed in solitary confinement before being sentenced to an additional year in prison for propaganda against the state, in addition to the four years that he was then serving for advocacy on behalf of the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran. Today, Moezzi is suffering from bladder cancer but he has been denied all subsequent requests of medical furlough.

Many of these stories are indicative of the harsh conditions and mistreatment that are prevalent in Iranian prisons, which contribute to severe deterioration in the health of some inmates. But in some cases, the deterioration is made worse by hunger strikes that prisoners stage to bring attention to these conditions or to the lack of due process in their cases. One recent example of this was also covered by the Human Rights Activists News Agency on Monday and Tuesday.

HRANA notes that Saeed Hoseinzadehs hunger strike has surpassed 15 days and has led him to critical health conditions including a substantial drop in blood pressure that puts him at severe risk of a heart attack. His action was motivated by other, preexisting health conditions, for which he too has been denied furlough. Despite urging from family, he has promised that the hunger strike will continue until his demands for release to hospital are met.
Tuesdays singular test launch was reminiscent of two illicit launches that took place in October and November. Not only was the provocative gesture similar in itself, so too was the response. At the time of the prior launches, UN Security Council resolution 1929 remained in place as a result of the July 14 nuclear agreement having not yet been implemented. The resolution banned proliferation or testing of Iranian ballistic missiles capable of carrying a nuclear payload, and as such, US congressmen and other critics of the Iranian regime were quick to demand enforcement measures including new sanctions, to demonstrate that the Islamic Republic would face consequences for such defiance of international will.

While that resolution lapsed with the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in January, it was immediately replaced with similar but somewhat less strict UN and EU resolutions. CNN reported on Wednesday that the Ghadr missile launches were clear violations of UN resolution 2231. The previous days launch quickly prompted members of the US Senates Foreign Affairs Committee to write to the Obama administration to respond more quickly to the latest provocations than it had done in the case of last years incidents.

In that case, the U.S. administration did respond with the imposition of new sanctions on 11 individuals and businesses with ties to the Iranian ballistic missile program. But the action was not taken until after the implementation of the JCPOA and the concurrent prisoner exchange between Iran and the US. In the present case, the White House has indicated that it will raise the issue of the latest tests with the United Nations Security Council, but it remains unclear when that will happen or whether it will lead to immediate action.

It is clear, however, that calls for such action will be amplified in light of the three rapid violations by the IRGC. American legislators, especially members of the Republican Party, have variously expressed concern that a delayed response to such incidents demonstrates weakness or indecision and encourages Iranian regime to further test the limits of Western enforcement.

On the other hand, the, Joe Biden, the US Vice President also said of Tehran, All their conventional activity outside the deal, which is still beyond the deal, we will and are attempting to act wherever we can find it. CNN reported, but the meaning of these remarks was unclear and CNN would only say that they were a possible reference to the ballistic missile tests.

Meanwhile, some critics of recent Western policy toward the Islamic Republic are apparently worried that the potential effectiveness of sanctions-based enforcement measures is degrading as the nuclear deal remains in place and various countries seek to expand their economic relations with Iran. One of the latest indicators of this expansion came in the form of a Reuters report that pointed out that several commodities traders have begun engaging in barter transactions with Iran, specifically trading Irans surplus oil for gas.

Bartering had been used while sanctions were still in full effect in order to evade US-led sanctions. And even now, with nuclear-related sanctions suspended, many international businesses worry that they could fall afoul or renewed or still-extant sanctions in the future if they rush to reestablish traditional economic relations. Barter transactions could help to evade this danger as well, by avoiding US-linked payment processing, thereby limiting the effectiveness of later sanctions that might be imposed in response to ongoing Iranian provocations.
Many women were excluded from standing for election, including all of those who sought election to the Assembly of Experts, which is tasked with selecting a new supreme leader in the event of retirement or death. A number of women were carried into office on the support for current President Hassan Rouhani and former President Hashemi Rafsanjani. At the same time, existing female parliamentarians were ousted as a result of their well-established affiliation with hardline factions and ideologies.

The IranWire feature consisted of an interview with one of these ousted representatives, Sakineh Omrani, whose responses to policy questions are indicative of the lack of representation for actual womens rights positions that had come from the nine women serving in parliament. But obviously it is not enough to hold sway in the 290-member legislative body. Furthermore, Iran News Update previously pointed out that many female government officials have been effectively forced to remain either silent or supportive of positions that are adverse to womens rights, in order to preserve their political careers.

Indeed, the aforementioned vetting process has been described by the Iranian opposition as a process whereby anyone who displays the least non-conformity with the positions of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is disqualified. And in recent months and years, Khamenei has famously spearheaded an initiative to reassert traditional gender roles and to encourage women to focus on their roles as wives and mothers.

The vetting process has also contributed to suggestions that the supposed reformists and moderates who scored significant victories in the elections are not serious about reformist policies and are unlikely to contribute to the changes that were initially expected in the wake of President Rouhanis election in 2013.

One of the key campaign promises that Rouhani made at that time was a loosening of the countrys strict controls over the media and free expression. But Rouhanis harshest critics feel that the situation has only gotten worse in the intervening two and a half years. Many therefore expect that the election of his supporters to parliament will only lead to more of the same.

One example of the deteriorating situation for the press came in November when several Iranian journalists were rounded up and charged with being members of a vaguely-defined infiltration network as a result of their connections to the West. And the lack of progress in this area was reiterated on Wednesday when IranWire reported that three of these journalists were tried this week and largely denied due process. Although the judiciary was unable to find evidence of its original accusations of infiltration, it has instead built a case against them on familiar, vague charges of propaganda, acting against national security, and insulting government officials.

A fourth journalist is expected to be tried next week.

While Iranian dissidents and opposition figures are often highly skeptical of prospects for change in this situation of repression coming from within the regime, they are supportive of the actions of journalists and activists, who are often credited with continuing their work in spite of the repression.

This is certainly evidenced by the continuance of arrests of prominent journalists, but also by the growth of activist movements of various sorts. One such was highlighted on Wednesday by the Christian Times, which pointed out that the house church movement for Iranian Christians appeared to be growing internally, as well as receiving international support in the form of activist training.

The report indicates that estimates of the number of Christians in Iran ranges from 450,000 to over a million, despite conversion being illegal and a possible basis for the death penalty.
[March 09, 2016] Technology Shifts and Buyer Demands Drive Changes in Worldwide Large Format Printer Shipments in 2015, According to IDC

According to new data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Large Format Printer Tracker, the technology trends that are shaped by buyer demands are driving mix changes in the worldwide large format printer (LFP) market. The move to color printing in the technical market and the need for faster turnaround in the graphics business has reshaped important segments of the large format printer business, yet key technologies, such as eco-solvent inkjet, have continued to prosper. "Overall, large format printer shipments declined by about 2% in 2015 with monochrome toner-based printers and conventional aqueous inkjet printer shipments slipping, but key areas of growth included eco-solvent, Latex, UV and color toner printers," said Tim Greene, Research Director, U.S. Large Format Printer Tracker. Segment Highlights The large format CAD/Technical printer market segment declined by about 1.5% year over year in 2015, which is partly due to mix changes with the entry of high-speed single-pass aqueous inkjet printers such as HP's PageWide XL-series on the inkjet side and KIP's 800-series color toner devices, both of which came to market towards the end of 2015 and did well in the fourth quarter of 2015.

On the large format graphics side, the low end of the aqueous inkjet market continues to decline with users shifting to electronic communications, thereby reducing the need for low-end large format proofing systems. Low-end aqueous inkjet printer shipments declined by more than 15% worldwide. That decline was offset somewhat by the growth of low-end UV-curable inkjet graphics printers that are intended to replace some of the capabilities of pad printing in the promotional graphics market.

Shipments of large format printers that serve the durable graphics business grew by almost 10% worldwide in 2015, led by UV-curable inkjet, Latex, eco-solvent, and dye-sublimation inkjet printers. Vendor Highlights The top five large format printer suppliers worldwide in 2015 were, in order: HP Inc, Canon (News - Alert) (when combined with Oce), Seiko Epson, Roland DG, and Mimaki. HP was impacted by the softness in the CAD/Technical market through the second half of the year, where it has more than 63% share of shipments. But HP was able to grow its share of total large format printer shipments year over year in 2015 by increasing its share of the graphics market.

was impacted by the softness in the CAD/Technical market through the second half of the year, where it has more than 63% share of shipments. But HP was able to grow its share of total large format printer shipments year over year in 2015 by increasing its share of the graphics market. Canon's total large format printer shipments were fairly flat in 2015 but the overall market declined so Canon's share of shipments grew very slightly in 2015 to 20% overall.

total large format printer shipments were fairly flat in 2015 but the overall market declined so Canon's share of shipments grew very slightly in 2015 to 20% overall. Epson maintained its position as the number 3 worldwide supplier to the large format digital printer market but the declines at the low-end aqueous inkjet market acutely impacted Epson, which dominates that segment.

maintained its position as the number 3 worldwide supplier to the large format digital printer market but the declines at the low-end aqueous inkjet market acutely impacted Epson, which dominates that segment. Roland DG was the fourth-ranked supplier of large format printers worldwide, but is actually the top supplier in the durable graphics printer segment, which includes eco-solvent, solvent, dye-sublimation, Latex, and UV-curable inkjet printers. Roland also does particularly well in the printer-cutter segment.

was the fourth-ranked supplier of large format printers worldwide, but is actually the top supplier in the durable graphics printer segment, which includes eco-solvent, solvent, dye-sublimation, Latex, and UV-curable inkjet printers. Roland also does particularly well in the printer-cutter segment. Mimaki recaptured its number 5 position among large format printer manufacturers, surpassing Ricoh (News - Alert). Mimaki and Ricoh work closely together with Ricoh distributing some of Mimaki's UV-curable inkjet and Latex inkjet printers. An interactive graphic depicting the worldwide market share of the top 5 large format printer vendors in 4Q15 and 4Q14 is available here. The chart is intended for public use in online news articles and social media. Instructions on how to embed this graphic can be found by viewing this press release on IDC.com.







Worldwide Large Format Printer Shipments, Market Share, and Year-Over-Year Growth, 2015 Vendors 2015

Shipments

(K) 2015 Market

Share 2014

Shipments

(K) 2014 Market

Share 2015/2014

Growth 1. HP Inc 130.6 41.5% 132.4 41.1% -1.40% 2. Canon 62.7 20.0% 63.6 19.7% -1.30% 3. Epson 57.2 18.2% 61.7 19.2% -7.30% 4. Roland 10.7 3.4% 11.0 3.4% -2.20% 5. Mimaki 7.9 2.5% 8.0 2.5% -0.90% Others 45.3 14.4% 45.4 14.1% -0.20% Total 314.5 100.0% 322.1 100.0% -2.40% Source (News - Alert): IDC Worldwide Quarterly Large Format Printer Tracker, March 8, 2016

Other Highlights Overall, large format printer shipments in the EMEA declined by 7.8% year over year in 2015 in the graphics market, and by nearly 2% on the CAD/technical side.

Q4 2015 was fairly strong, with shipments increasing by nearly 5% over Q3.

Mutoh had a strong year worldwide in 2015, growing its shipments by about 20% in 2015 compared to 2014, aided by new eco-solvent, dye-sublimation, and UV-curable inkjet printers. Notes: IDC (News - Alert) tracks A2-A0+ devices in the LFP market.

The LFP market includes single-function printers, as well as multifunctional systems (MFPs).

Data for all vendors are reported for calendar periods. About IDC Trackers

IDC Tracker products provide accurate and timely market size, vendor share, and forecasts for hundreds of technology markets from more than 100 countries around the globe. Using proprietary tools and research processes, IDC's Trackers are updated on a semiannual, quarterly, and monthly basis. Tracker results are delivered to clients in user-friendly excel deliverables and on-line query tools. The IDC Tracker Charts app allows users to view data charts from the most recent IDC Tracker products on their iPhone and iPad. The IDC Tracker Chart app is also available for Android Phones and Android Tablets. About IDC

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. IDC's 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 world's leading technology media, research, and events company. To learn more about IDC, please visit www.idc.com. Follow IDC on Twitter (News - Alert) at @IDC. All product and company names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160309006290/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 09, 2016] Fitch Rates DePaul University, IL's Series 2016 Revs 'A'; Outlook Stable

Fitch Ratings has assigned an 'A' rating to the approximately $70.385 million series 2016 revenue bonds issued by Illinois Finance authority on behalf of DePaul University. The bonds are expected to sell via negotiation the week of March 21, 2016. Bond proceeds will provide about $80 million towards a new School of Music building on the Lincoln Park campus. Fitch has also affirmed various revenue bonds issued by either DePaul University (DePaul) or the Illinois Finance Authority (IFA) on behalf of DePaul, as listed at the end of this release. The Rating Outlook is Stable. SECURITY The bonds are an unsecured general obligation of the university. KEY RATING DRIVERS STABLE FINANCIAL METRICS: The 'A' rating reflects DePaul's history of positive operations, sound balance sheet resources for the rating category, and active expense management. However, enrollment for graduate, law and undergraduate transfer students has declined in recent years, which is a concern. PROACTIVE MANAGEMENT: DePaul has effectively managed expenses to match enrollment fluctuations and operates in a competitive regional market. Fiscal 2015 results generated a strong 7.8% operating margin. Slimmer results are projected for fiscal 2016 due in part to scholarship awards to low income students not being paid by the State of Illinois, and DePaul's commitment to cover those costs. MANAGEABLE DEBT BURDEN: DePaul's pro-forma maximum annual debt service (MADS) burden was 6.2% of fiscal 2015 operating revenues. This moderately high MADS burden is mitigated largely by rapid principal amortization, a conservative fixed rate debt structure and no near-term debt plans. RATING SENSITIVITIES BALANCE SHEET RESERVES: DePaul University's high reliance on student revenue requires strong management of both enrollment and expenses to maintain positive operating results. Solid balance sheet reserves provide some operating cushion, even with a planned draw-down for the strategic Events Center project. OPERATING PERFORMANCE: Declines in DePaul's operating performance and debt service would negatively pressure the rating. At this time the university's ability to cover unpaid state scholarship grants to low-income students demonstrates operating flexibility. CREDIT PROFILE Founded in 1898, DePaul is a private non-profit institution, and one of the largest Catholic universities in the U.S. DePaul has large campuses in Chicago's Loop business district and the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. There are also two leased suburban satellite campuses. DePaul is a co-educational institution offering extensive undergraduate and graduate degree programs. In fall 2015, about 76% of the 20,607 full-time equivalent (FTE) students were undergraduates. Large professional and graduate programs include law, business, computing and digital media, nursing, and education. Management reports that about 10% of credit hours are delivered on-line. The university's student draw remains regional, with new freshman undergraduate students coming primarily from Illinois and the Chicago metropolitan area (about 59%). ENROLLMENT VOLATILITY Total FTE enrollment for fall 2015 (fiscal 2016) stabilized at 20,607, essentially the same as fall 2014. This followed several years with declines primarily in graduate and law enrollment, as well as undergraduate transfer students. Management reports that enrollment fluctuations were anticipated, and remained within budget. Fall 2015 law school head-count was 778, down from 1,076 in fall 2010. Fitch understands that law enrollment is beginning to stabilize, and the law school continues to operate within budget. Graduate FTE enrollment in fall 2015 was up slightly from fall 2014, as the university has seen some uptick in its computing and digital media and education programs. Other graduate programs, such as business and health sciences, have seen greater stability. Fall 2015 FTE graduate enrollment was 5,041 (including law), up slightly from 5,003 in fall 2014, but down from 5,851 in fall 2010. Full-time undergraduate students remain an enrollment strength. These students represent a substantial 58% of total headcount, and have grown a modest 3.1% in recent years (from 13,250 in fall 2010 to 13,664 in fall 2015). Part-time undergraduates, however, who include a sizable commuter and transfer population, dipped to 2,297 in fall 2015. Management reports that there is increased competition for transfer students in the Chicago metropolitan market. OPERATING MARGINS OFFSET TUITION DEPENDENCY DePaul has consistently generated positive operating margins. The operating surplus for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2015 was $43.8 million, a solid 7.8%margin which returned to more typical levels. This margin was primarily driven by expense controls and the effect of the early retirement program, as net tuition revenue was essentially flat. Expense controls continue.



Fiscal 2014 results were adjusted by Fitch for a one-time $23 million retirement incentive expense. DePaul generated a $21.2 million adjusted surplus (about 3.8% operating margin). Management reports that all incentive expenses were recorded in fiscal 2014. Management reports fiscal 2016 operations will again be positive, but expects slimmer margins if Illinois (Fitch rated 'BBB+'/Stable Outlook) does not pay about $20 million of scholarship funds (MAP grants) awarded to low income students enrolled at DePaul. The university has made a commitment not to charge these students if the state does not pay, consistent with its mission. Fitch considers DePaul's ability to cover these scholarship grants, and still generate a positive net margin, a positive factor. Fitch will monitor the long-term financial implications, if any.

Given DePaul's high student fee dependency (91% of fiscal 2015 unrestricted operating revenues), slowly stabilizing enrollment, and operation in a highly competitive regional market, Fitch views maintenance of positive operating margin as critical in supporting the 'A' rating. ADEQUATE LIQUIDITY The university's balance sheet remains solid for the rating category, even after planned payments towards its share of the McCormick Place Events Center. Available funds (AF), defined by Fitch as unrestricted cash and investments, was $618 million at the end of fiscal 2015, equal to a healthy 119% of operating expenses and 155% of pro forma debt. When fiscal 2015 AF is adjusted for the $82.5 million Events Center contribution, which will be made in cash from reserves at the end of fiscal 2016, the AF-to-debt ratio remains sound for the rating category at about 134%. DePaul has a history of designating reserves for strategic capital projects, such as the Events Center, a practice that Fitch views as conservative. At the end of fiscal 2015, institutional reserves were about $131 million, up from $81 million at the end of fiscal 2014. The increase is from a mix of additional board designations, land sale proceeds, and state capital grant reimbursements. These and other reserves not specifically board-designated are included in Fitch's AF valuation. MANAGEABLE DEBT AND CAPITAL PLANS Post issuance debt is about $399 million, including parity revenue bonds and various mortgage notes and leases. The university's debt structure is fixed rate with declining debt service. Fitch views this structure favorably, and notes that it provides DePaul with some flexibility to layer in the series 2016 debt service. DePaul is issuing the series 2016 tax-exempt bonds for the School of Music building. It will use internal reserves to make the planned $82.5 million contribution to an events center facility. The events center is under construction, and is owned by the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, which operates the McCormick Place convention center south of the Chicago 'Loop' business center. DePaul has naming and scheduling rights, long-term access to seating, but limited operating liabilities. The facility has access to mass transportation convenient to students at both the Lincoln Park and Chicago Loop campuses. Pro forma MADS (about $35 million) was 6.2% of fiscal 2015 operating revenues. Fitch considers this moderate to moderately high, but manageable due to the declining debt amortization structure. With no additional debt plans for 4-5 years, Fitch expects DePaul to moderate the MADS burden over time. Pro forma MADS coverage for DePaul remained solid in fiscal 2015 at 2.9x. MADS coverage is expected to be positive but slimmer in fiscal 2016, particularly if awarded state scholarship payments are not released. Fitch affirms the following outstanding ratings issued by IFA bonds on behalf of DePaul University: --$17.675 million DePaul University revenue refunding bonds series 2004A at 'A'; --$37.275 million DePaul University revenue bonds series 2008 at 'A'; --$115 million DePaul University revenue refunding bonds series 2011A at 'A'; --$42.380 million DePaul University revenue refunding bonds series 2011B at 'A'; --$29.555 million DePaul University revenue refunding bonds series 2013 at 'A'. Fitch has also affirmed the $18.260 million DePaul University taxable revenue refunding bonds, series 2015, issued by DePaul. Additional information is available at 'www.fitchratings.com'. Applicable Criteria Revenue-Supported Rating Criteria (pub. 16 Jun 2014) https://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/reports/report_frame.cfm?rpt_id=750012 U.S. College and University Rating Criteria (pub. 12 May 2014) https://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/reports/report_frame.cfm?rpt_id=748013 Additional Disclosures Dodd-Frank Rating Information Disclosure Form https://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/press_releases/content/ridf_frame.cfm?pr_id=1000692 Solicitation Status https://www.fitchratings.com/gws/en/disclosure/solicitation?pr_id=1000692 Endorsement Policy https://www.fitchratings.com/jsp/creditdesk/PolicyRegulation.faces?context=2&detail=31 ALL FITCH CREDIT RATINGS ARE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS. PLEASE READ THESE LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS BY FOLLOWING THIS LINK: HTTP://FITCHRATINGS.COM/UNDERSTANDINGCREDITRATINGS. IN ADDITION, RATING DEFINITIONS AND THE TERMS OF USE OF SUCH RATINGS ARE AVAILABLE ON (News - Alert) THE AGENCY'S PUBLIC WEBSITE 'WWW.FITCHRATINGS.COM'. PUBLISHED RATINGS, CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGIES ARE AVAILABLE FROM THIS SITE AT ALL TIMES. FITCH'S CODE OF CONDUCT, CONFIDENTIALITY, CONFLICTS OF INTEREST, AFFILIATE FIREWALL, COMPLIANCE AND OTHER RELEVANT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES ARE ALSO AVAILABLE FROM THE 'CODE OF CONDUCT' SECTION OF THIS SITE. FITCH MAY HAVE PROVIDED ANOTHER PERMISSIBLE SERVICE TO THE RATED ENTITY OR ITS RELATED THIRD PARTIES. DETAILS OF THIS SERVICE FOR RATINGS FOR WHICH THE LEAD ANALYST IS BASED IN AN EU-REGISTERED ENTITY CAN BE FOUND ON THE ENTITY SUMMARY PAGE FOR THIS ISSUER ON THE FITCH WEBSITE. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160309006445/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[March 10, 2016] Identity and Access Management Market Worth 12.78 Billion USD by 2020

PUNE, India, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new market research report "Identity and Access Management Market by Component (Provisioning, Directory Services, Password Management, SSO, & Audit, Compliance, and Governance), by Organization Size, by Deployment, by Vertical, and by Region - Global Forecast to 2020", published by MarketsandMarkets, The market is estimated to grow from USD 7.20 Billion in 2015 to USD 12.78 Billion by 2020, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12.2% during the forecast period. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 ) Browse 71 Tables and 47 Figures spread through 136 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Identity and Access Management Market" http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/identity-access-management-iam-market-1168.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report. Growing emphasis on compliance management, increasing trend of mobility, and growing demand from BFSI, telecommunications, public and critical infrastructure sectors are the main drivers driving the growth of the identity and access management market. Audit, compliance, and governance is expected to gain maximum traction during the forecast period The audit, compliance, and governance component is estimated to grow with the highest CAGR during the forecast period. However, provisioning services have captured the highest market share as the provisioning lies at the core of access rights compliance and enforcement initiatives. Cloud deployment is expected to grow with the highest rate from 2015 to 2020. However, on-premises deployment is expected to contribute largest market share during the forecast period. Large Enterprises has captured the largest market share in identity and access management, by organization size market Affordability of resources and high economies of scale has allowed large enterprises to leverage the benefits of IAM soutions. Moreover, huge workforce enables them to specify experts in different areas of IAM security and helps them to better manage their data and privacy.



North America the largest revenue generator of the Identity and Access Management Market in 2015 North America is contributing maximum toward the Identity and Access Management Market through component, deployment type, and organizational size. The changing needs of the workforce, adoption of cloud applications, BYOD, and mobile practices along with meeting the heavy compliance regulations are driving the organizations in North America to adopt IAM solutions. Europe and Asia-Pacific are the second and third-largest regions in terms of market size for identity and access management.

Ask for Sample Pages @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsample.asp?id=1168 The market is competitive due to the entry of new players with new and innovative offerings. Major vendors in the Identity and Access Management Market space include large number of vendors such as IBM, Microsoft, Hitachi, Dell Software, EMC Corporation, Okta, and Centrify. The report shows growth of the Identity and Access Management Market in various regions. The report aims at estimating the market size and future growth potential of this market across segments such as components, deployment type, organizational size, and regions. Furthermore, the report also includes an in-depth competitive analysis of key players in the identity and access management market, with their company profiles, SWOT analysis, recent developments, and key market strategies. Browse Related Reports



Cyber Security Market by Solution (IAM, Encryption, DLP, Risk and Compliance Management, IDS/IPS, UTM, Firewall, Antivirus/Antimalware, SIEM, Disaster Recovery, DDOS Mitigation, Web Filtering, and Security Services) - Global Forecast to 2020

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/cyber-security-market-505.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. Contact:

Mr. Rohan

Markets and Markets

UNIT no 802, Tower no. 7, SEZ

Magarpatta city, Hadapsar

Pune, Maharashtra 411013, India

1-888-600-6441

Email: [email protected]



Visit MarketsandMarkets Blog @ http://www.marketsandmarketsblog.com/market-reports/telecom-it Connect with us on LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets SOURCE MarketsandMarkets

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
anterior

CIPEMU. Cabalat Shabat para acercar las tradiciones de nuestro pueblo a las generaciones mas jovenes
Yes, Simon's Cat is between the covers again The new book is called Simon's Cat vs the World and you can win your own copy, acco...
Vacancy Announcement

ETHIOPIAN AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION AGENCY

Position: Director- Livestock Program

Term of Employment: Fixed

Duty Station(s): Addis Ababa

Required Number: One

Salary & Benefits: Competitive with comparable positions for international staff

Application Deadline: March 21, 2016

BACKGROUND:

The Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) has been established by the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) to identify and address systemic bottlenecks to Ethiopias agricultural development. The Agency does this through problem-solving, implementation support, and capacity building of stakeholders involved in implementation of interventions that address the systemic bottlenecks. The Agency reports to a Transformation Council chaired by the Prime Minister and whose co-chair is the Minister of Agriculture.

The programmatic focus of the Agency responds to a core set of needs identified by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Transformation Council. Within the Agency, issues are divided into four different groups: Production and Productivity which includes Inputs and Crop Protection, Livestock, Research and Extension, Mechanization, Rural Finance & Agro-Processing Value Addition; Agribusiness and Markets including Market Services, Market Infrastructure, Commercial & Contract Farming, Domestic and Export Market Development, and Cooperatives Development; Environmentally Sustainable and Inclusive Agricultural Growth including Sustainable Irrigation & Watershed Management, Sustainable Land Management, Gender Equality and Nutrition, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management, and Planning and MLE; and Enhanced Implementation Capacity which includes ICT, Private Sector, and Organizational and Human Capacity. Across the programs, the ATA engages public, private and non-governmental stakeholders to support strategic planning, manage and strengthen implementation capacity and test innovative models.

Our Culture

We have an exceptional team of employees with highly competent and proven track record of success in managing complex activities and achieving transformational results. Our culture is one where talented, dedicated and adaptable individuals are committed to doing their best and exhibit great team work to achieve excellent results.

At ATA, we provide an exceptional platform for people who want to achieve their highest potential and make a meaningful contribution in changing the countrys agricultural sector. We offer rewarding work in a young, fast-paced growing organization with passionate, committed, motivated colleagues and excellent career development and training. We recognize our most valuable assets are our staff and are committed to providing our employees with the tools, training and mentorships necessary to achieve their career goals.

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Director of the Livestock program will primarily be responsible for mapping out and addressing the key bottlenecks in the priority components of the livestock sector  from research and development to value addition and marketing for domestic and international markets. In line with the GTPII strategic direction, the livestock program during the GTPII period will focus on, but not limited to, addressing systemic bottlenecks in three program areas, namely Feeds & Feeding, Animal Health and Genetic & Breed Improvement. The Director will work with key stakeholders in addressing prioritized systemic constraints along the livestock value chains including federal level institutions, regional bureaus, research centers, cooperatives, farmer unions, commercial livestock farmers, traders, wholesalers, agri-businesses and others and develop linkages to farmers/livestock keepers to improve the ease of market transactions, to decrease market dysfunctions, and to increase small holder farmer income.

The ATA seeks to recruit a Director for the Livestock Program who demonstrates clear passion for improving the lives of smallholder livestock keepers/farmers and pastoralists and a thorough familiarity with key issues of the livestock sector both in the domestic and key international markets, a good understanding of livestock development models, linkages with the rest of the economy and their alignment with major national economic development strategies. S/he would ideally possess knowledge of Ethiopias livestock sector and extensive knowledge of its structure, governance, and marketing. S/he would likewise possess the entrepreneurial ability to visualize transformation, to mobilize stakeholders across systems, to be innovative and to drive practical change on the ground.

The Director will report directly to the Senior Director for Production and Productivity and be based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES:

Serving as the leader of the Livestock Program team, with responsibility for the overall direction and management of the Program.



 Engaging stakeholders across the priority livestock value chains (government, private sector, non-governmental organizations, universities, research centres, cooperatives, farmers unions, farmers, donors, etc.) to identify and prioritize actions to improve all components of key areas in the livestock value chain.

Working with stakeholders to design and then implement high-priority interventions to bring about lasting transformation of the smallholder livestock production towards greater market orientation and commercialization.



Supporting ATA and other stakeholders to mobilize needed financial, human or organizational resources for project execution.



Managing the performance of the interventions designed to strengthen the value chain of key selected areas; setting key performance indicators, milestones and targets; engaging stakeholders to creatively solve problems and overcome obstacles in order to achieve desired results.



Critically assessing capacity gaps hindering the effective implementation of interventions designed and developing approaches for improving capabilities as required.



Integrating the livestock program interventions with other ATA programs to achieve synergies and outcomes that impact the broader agricultural system.



REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:
Reports to: Area Manager, Shire

Location: Shire

Start of Contract & Duration: 12 months with possibility of extension (Subject to fund availability)

Posting date: March 7, 2016

INTRODUCTION

The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is a humanitarian, non-governmental, non-profit organization founded in 1956 that works in more than 30 countries throughout the world, including Ethiopia. DRC fulfills its mandate by providing direct assistance to conflict-affected populations, including refugees, internally displaced people and host communities. Under its mandate, the organization focuses on emergency humanitarian response, rehabilitation and post-conflict recovery.

DRC commenced work in Ethiopia in 2009 and currently provides expertise in shelter, WASH, livelihoods and protection in the Gambella and Somali regions of the country. Activities implemented by DRC are funded by money raised from the Danish public and by project grants from the Danish government and other bilateral and multi-lateral donors.

DRC is in the process of starting a new program in Tigray regional state, where the organization anticipates implementing a variety of youth protection activities in Hitsats, Shimelba, Mai-Aini and Adharush refugee camps, which are currently hosting a combined population of over 30,000 Eritrean refugees.

POSITIONS OVERALL OBJECTIVES

Working under the direct management of the Shire-based Deputy Area Manager, the Protection Team Leader will be responsible for the overall implementation of the organizations current and future protection activities in Tigray regional state. The Protection Team Leader will be the direct supervisor of Protection Officers, Protection Assistants and refugee incentive outreach workers. The Team Leader will regularly collaborate with other program staff, such as the Youth Education Team Leader and Infrastructure Team Leader, to ensure DRCs protection activities are holistic and that protection concerns and considerations are effectively mainstreamed throughout the program. Furthermore, the Protection Team Leader will be required to provide regular support and guidance to project cycle management, proposal development and program strategy, with specific contributions in the area of technical protection knowledge. The Team Leader will ensure the successful implementation of all protection-related activities and will work collaboratively with the Deputy Area Manager to monitor the operating context to ensure DRCs protection programing is relevant and responsive to priority humanitarian needs.

RESPONSIBILITIES AND TASKS

To achieve the objectives of the position, the Protection Team Leader, in coordination with the Deputy Area Manager will perform the following tasks and undertake the following responsibilities:

1. Technical Support:

Support the Deputy Area Manager in the setup of the Shire protection department and the development of a local protection strategy in Tigray regional state. Initial responsibilities will also include designing and leading baseline needs assessments, community outreach in the selected refugee communities and forging strong professional relationships with representatives from ARRA and UNHCR.



Collaborate closely with the Deputy Area Manager to design and implement relevant and responsive, rights-based protection activities that build upon the existing assets of the targeted refugee communities. Activities will emphasize the protection of youth and secondary migration, but may expand into child protection in the future. Activities are expected to be highly participatory through engaging beneficiaries in learning and information sharing, capacity building and incentive work opportunities. This will require collaboration with other DRC program staff and a keen interest in integrating migration, psychosocial and educational components and considerations into all protection activities.



Ensure high quality day-to-day technical management of all protection activities to ensure strict adherence with international best practice protections standards, including the identification of protection risks and vulnerabilities with acute awareness of issues related to gender, age and diversity.



Work with the Area Manager and Deputy Area Manager to contribute to new project development, including both narratives and budgets, by coordinating and compiling inputs from other technical and support staff.



Collaborate with the Deputy Area Manager, Youth Education Team Leader and Addis Ababa based Protection Coordinator to ensure field-based protection records and documentation are properly managed and compliant with DRC requirements and international best practices.



Support staff to integrate protection concerns and awareness in other sectors as relevant.



2. General Management and Support:

Manage all Protection Officers, Protection Assistants and Outreach Workers, and support respectful and positive working relationships which allow for the effective implementation of all DRC protection activities. This is to be achieved through leadership, team building, day-to-day support and capacity-building.



Assume budget holder responsibilities, as directed by the Deputy Area manager, including the development of protection related budgets for new projects, detailed tracking of protection related spending and participation in monthly budget versus actual meetings.



Oversee all daily protection activities in sub-offices and project locations, including the management of staff and regular activity monitoring.



Identify training and capacity building opportunities for protection staff and ensure they are well versed in key protection concepts relevant to the context, DRCs code of conduct, accountability, respectful dialogue with the refugee population, and prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse.



Collaborate with the Deputy Area Manager and Finance and human resource department to ensure objectives are set and that evaluations and performance reviews are conducted on a regular basis for all staff managed.



Collaborate with the Deputy Area Manager and logistics and procurement department in developing comprehensive procurement plans and Order Requests. Upon receipt of protection related goods and services, the Team Leader will collaborate with the logistics and procurement teams in the receipt of goods and services and will lead in quality assurance. As part of the procurement process, the Team Leader may also be requested by the Deputy Area Manager to participate in tendering processes, procurement committee meetings and in the review of bid analyses, as well as working with the logistics and procurement teams to arrange storage and warehousing for protection related items.



3. Reporting:
Thursday, March 10, 2016 The Guv's Office Really, Really Doesn't Like Michael Sanchez; We Have An Example, Plus: Boom! 25% Of State's Population Receives Food Stamps; May Be Historic High As Slow Motion Econ Crisis Drags On They really, really don't like Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez on the Fourth Floor of the Roundhouse where Governor Martinez and her staff hold forth. How much do they dislike him? Well. . .



One of our Alligators was visiting the Fourth Floor recently (they're everywhere!) and got this screen grab outside the Guv's office of the wireless networks available there. One of them is named "MichaelSanchezHatesNewMexico." Who that wifi network belongs to is unknown (no way that's you, Susana?) but it publicly captures the depth of hostility the Guv and her political machine have for the Valencia County lawmaker who has often frustrated the Governor by derailing her legislative proposals.



The Fourth Floor is obviously relishing the candidacy of GOP attorney Greg Baca who filed for the Sanchez seat this week and is unopposed in the primary. Sanchez is also unopposed for his party's nomination, setting the pair up for an expensive general election duel.



The Guv's machine failed miserably in trying to take out Sanchez four years ago. There were complaints from some R's then and we will no doubt hear them again that the money devoted to take out Sanchez could be better spent on other races that are more winnable.



In any event, after six years of unbridled animosity in New Mexico government, maybe it's time to "Stop the Hatin'."



JAWDROPPING ECON NEWS



Now more of our real deal economic coverage. The stuff you will only get here. . .



It was no small news that US District Judge Ken Gonzales



We think that is an historic high as the rate has been hovering around the low 20's for a number of years. It speaks to the deepening and widening recession/stagnation gripping this state. The food stamp news comes on the heels of the shocker that in a year or so 50% of the state's population will be on the government Medicaid program.



New Mexico's economy is regressing; much of the population is going backwards. It is a slow motion crisis that our political and business leadership has been unable to interrupt.



The food stamp work rules that Gov. Martinez wanted impacted only a small portion of those receiving the benefit. Besides, it's jobs most people want, not government handouts. Didn't the Governor and her staff hear the news that 10,000 people recently applied for 290 jobs at the new ABQ Cheesecake Factory?



People are losing hope and leaving. The welfare state is deepening. The New Mexico that was always poor but not so impoverished is fading away. Leaders are needed who have a deep passion for the state, who are willing to admit this new reality and who are willing to take unpopular positions to address it.



Gentle reader, we've got to say it again, although it may sound like a broken record. Before this transformative economic era in this state is over you are going to see things you never thought you would see, like 25% of the population on food stamps and 50% on Medicaid.



HE'S A COP



Ed Perea We blogged that Dem BernCo District Attorney candidate Ed Perea is a "cop turned lawyer and sometimes prosecutor." Perea writes:



Yes, I am a former cop. I strapped on a gun and vest for nearly 24 years. I lost my partner, Jerry Cline, who was killed in the line of duty in my rookie year. I worked my way up through the ranks taking on the toughest assignments, including supervising the Gang Unit. I prosecuted my first DWI case in the early 80s. In 2005, I became a lawyer and prosecutor now handling cases as a Special Prosecutor. In the past 30 years Ive probably spent more time in the courtroom then most legal professionals. Ive been a leader in law enforcement and the legal community. Ive been appointed by the City Council to help revamp the Police Oversight Ordinance and was appointed by the County Commission to serve on the Code of Conduct Review (ethics) Board to ensure employees and elected officials are held accountable. Just a quick snapshotbut wanted to expand on being a former cop. Thanks, Joe.



Perea and Raul Torrez are seeking the Dem nod for district attorney in the June primary election.



THE BOTTOM LINES



Here's the



This is the home of New Mexico politics.







Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here.



( c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2016 They really, really don't like Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez on the Fourth Floor of the Roundhouse where Governor Martinez and her staff hold forth. How much do they dislike him? Well. . .One of our Alligators was visiting the Fourth Floor recently (they're everywhere!) and got this screen grab outside the Guv's office of the wireless networks available there. One of them is named "MichaelSanchezHatesNewMexico." Who that wifi network belongs to is unknown (no way that's you, Susana?) but it publicly captures the depth of hostility the Guv and her political machine have for the Valencia County lawmaker who has often frustrated the Governor by derailing her legislative proposals.The Fourth Floor is obviously relishing the candidacy of GOP attorney Greg Baca who filed for the Sanchez seat this week and is unopposed in the primary. Sanchez is also unopposed for his party's nomination, setting the pair up for an expensive general election duel.The Guv's machine failed miserably in trying to take out Sanchez four years ago. There were complaints from some R's then and we will no doubt hear them again that the money devoted to take out Sanchez could be better spent on other races that are more winnable.In any event, after six years of unbridled animosity in New Mexico government, maybe it's time to "Stop the Hatin'."Now more of our real deal economic coverage. The stuff you will only get here. . .It was no small news that US District Judge Ken Gonzales issued an injunction that prevents NM from enforcing work requirements for certain food stamp (SNAP) recipients. But what really grabbed our attention was the statement from the Human Services Department that as of January there are now over 500,000 New Mexicans receiving the food assistance. It's 514,000 to be precise . With a state population of 2.086 million as of 2014, it means 25% of the state's residents are on food stamps. Wow.We think that is an historic high as the rate has been hovering around the low 20's for a number of years. It speaks to the deepening and widening recession/stagnation gripping this state. The food stamp news comes on the heels of the shocker that in a year or so 50% of the state's population will be on the government Medicaid program.New Mexico's economy is regressing; much of the population is going backwards. It is a slow motion crisis that our political and business leadership has been unable to interrupt.The food stamp work rules that Gov. Martinez wanted impacted only a small portion of those receiving the benefit. Besides, it's jobs most people want, not government handouts. Didn't the Governor and her staff hear the news that 10,000 people recently applied for 290 jobs at the new ABQ Cheesecake Factory?People are losing hope and leaving. The welfare state is deepening. The New Mexico that was always poor but not so impoverished is fading away. Leaders are needed who have a deep passion for the state, who are willing to admit this new reality and who are willing to take unpopular positions to address it.Gentle reader, we've got to say it again, although it may sound like a broken record. Before this transformative economic era in this state is over you are going to see things you never thought you would see, like 25% of the population on food stamps and 50% on Medicaid.We blogged that Dem BernCo District Attorney candidate Ed Perea is a "cop turned lawyer and sometimes prosecutor." Perea writes:Perea and Raul Torrez are seeking the Dem nod for district attorney in the June primary election.Here's the obituary of former NM Congressman Tom Morris of Tucumcari who died at the age of 96. . . Some clean up: We blogged this week that 1954 was a presidential election year. It was not. . .And Dem ABQ State House candidate Damon Ely is a former Sandoval County Commissioner, not a current commissioner.This is the home of New Mexico politics. E-mail your news and comments. (jmonahan@ix.netcom.com) Links HOME

E-MAIL ME

About Joe

Google News

Real Clear Politics

Huffington Post

Drudge Report

The Politico

New Mexico newspapers

NM TV stations

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham

NM Legislature Archives Select: 9/28/03 - 10/5/03 10/5/03 - 10/12/03 10/12/03 - 10/19/03 10/19/03 - 10/26/03 10/26/03 - 11/2/03 11/2/03 - 11/9/03 11/9/03 - 11/16/03 11/16/03 - 11/23/03 11/23/03 - 11/30/03 11/30/03 - 12/7/03 12/7/03 - 12/14/03 12/14/03 - 12/21/03 12/21/03 - 12/28/03 12/28/03 - 1/4/04 1/4/04 - 1/11/04 1/11/04 - 1/18/04 1/18/04 - 1/25/04 1/25/04 - 2/1/04 2/1/04 - 2/8/04 2/8/04 - 2/15/04 2/15/04 - 2/22/04 2/22/04 - 2/29/04 2/29/04 - 3/7/04 3/7/04 - 3/14/04 3/14/04 - 3/21/04 3/21/04 - 3/28/04 3/28/04 - 4/4/04 4/4/04 - 4/11/04 4/11/04 - 4/18/04 4/18/04 - 4/25/04 4/25/04 - 5/2/04 5/2/04 - 5/9/04 5/9/04 - 5/16/04 5/16/04 - 5/23/04 5/23/04 - 5/30/04 5/30/04 - 6/6/04 6/6/04 - 6/13/04 6/13/04 - 6/20/04 6/20/04 - 6/27/04 6/27/04 - 7/4/04 7/4/04 - 7/11/04 7/11/04 - 7/18/04 7/18/04 - 7/25/04 7/25/04 - 8/1/04 8/1/04 - 8/8/04 8/8/04 - 8/15/04 8/15/04 - 8/22/04 8/22/04 - 8/29/04 8/29/04 - 9/5/04 9/5/04 - 9/12/04 9/12/04 - 9/19/04 9/19/04 - 9/26/04 9/26/04 - 10/3/04 10/3/04 - 10/10/04 10/10/04 - 10/17/04 10/17/04 - 10/24/04 10/24/04 - 10/31/04 10/31/04 - 11/7/04 11/7/04 - 11/14/04 11/14/04 - 11/21/04 11/21/04 - 11/28/04 11/28/04 - 12/5/04 12/5/04 - 12/12/04 12/12/04 - 12/19/04 12/19/04 - 12/26/04 1/2/05 - 1/9/05 1/9/05 - 1/16/05 1/16/05 - 1/23/05 1/23/05 - 1/30/05 1/30/05 - 2/6/05 2/6/05 - 2/13/05 2/13/05 - 2/20/05 2/20/05 - 2/27/05 2/27/05 - 3/6/05 3/6/05 - 3/13/05 3/13/05 - 3/20/05 3/20/05 - 3/27/05 3/27/05 - 4/3/05 4/3/05 - 4/10/05 4/10/05 - 4/17/05 4/17/05 - 4/24/05 4/24/05 - 5/1/05 5/1/05 - 5/8/05 5/8/05 - 5/15/05 5/15/05 - 5/22/05 5/22/05 - 5/29/05 5/29/05 - 6/5/05 6/5/05 - 6/12/05 6/12/05 - 6/19/05 6/19/05 - 6/26/05 6/26/05 - 7/3/05 7/3/05 - 7/10/05 7/10/05 - 7/17/05 7/17/05 - 7/24/05 7/24/05 - 7/31/05 7/31/05 - 8/7/05 8/7/05 - 8/14/05 8/14/05 - 8/21/05 8/21/05 - 8/28/05 8/28/05 - 9/4/05 9/4/05 - 9/11/05 9/11/05 - 9/18/05 9/18/05 - 9/25/05 9/25/05 - 10/2/05 10/2/05 - 10/9/05 10/9/05 - 10/16/05 10/16/05 - 10/23/05 10/23/05 - 10/30/05 10/30/05 - 11/6/05 11/6/05 - 11/13/05 11/13/05 - 11/20/05 11/20/05 - 11/27/05 11/27/05 - 12/4/05 12/4/05 - 12/11/05 12/11/05 - 12/18/05 12/18/05 - 12/25/05 1/1/06 - 1/8/06 1/8/06 - 1/15/06 1/15/06 - 1/22/06 1/22/06 - 1/29/06 1/29/06 - 2/5/06 2/5/06 - 2/12/06 2/12/06 - 2/19/06 2/19/06 - 2/26/06 2/26/06 - 3/5/06 3/5/06 - 3/12/06 3/12/06 - 3/19/06 3/19/06 - 3/26/06 3/26/06 - 4/2/06 4/2/06 - 4/9/06 4/9/06 - 4/16/06 4/16/06 - 4/23/06 4/23/06 - 4/30/06 4/30/06 - 5/7/06 5/7/06 - 5/14/06 5/14/06 - 5/21/06 5/21/06 - 5/28/06 5/28/06 - 6/4/06 6/4/06 - 6/11/06 6/11/06 - 6/18/06 6/18/06 - 6/25/06 6/25/06 - 7/2/06 7/9/06 - 7/16/06 7/16/06 - 7/23/06 7/23/06 - 7/30/06 7/30/06 - 8/6/06 8/6/06 - 8/13/06 8/13/06 - 8/20/06 8/20/06 - 8/27/06 8/27/06 - 9/3/06 9/3/06 - 9/10/06 9/10/06 - 9/17/06 9/17/06 - 9/24/06 9/24/06 - 10/1/06 10/1/06 - 10/8/06 10/8/06 - 10/15/06 10/15/06 - 10/22/06 10/22/06 - 10/29/06 10/29/06 - 11/5/06 11/5/06 - 11/12/06 11/12/06 - 11/19/06 11/19/06 - 11/26/06 11/26/06 - 12/3/06 12/3/06 - 12/10/06 12/10/06 - 12/17/06 12/17/06 - 12/24/06 12/31/06 - 1/7/07 1/7/07 - 1/14/07 1/14/07 - 1/21/07 1/21/07 - 1/28/07 1/28/07 - 2/4/07 2/4/07 - 2/11/07 2/11/07 - 2/18/07 2/18/07 - 2/25/07 2/25/07 - 3/4/07 3/4/07 - 3/11/07 3/11/07 - 3/18/07 3/18/07 - 3/25/07 3/25/07 - 4/1/07 4/1/07 - 4/8/07 4/8/07 - 4/15/07 4/15/07 - 4/22/07 4/22/07 - 4/29/07 4/29/07 - 5/6/07 5/6/07 - 5/13/07 5/13/07 - 5/20/07 5/20/07 - 5/27/07 5/27/07 - 6/3/07 6/3/07 - 6/10/07 6/10/07 - 6/17/07 6/17/07 - 6/24/07 6/24/07 - 7/1/07 7/1/07 - 7/8/07 7/8/07 - 7/15/07 7/15/07 - 7/22/07 7/22/07 - 7/29/07 7/29/07 - 8/5/07 8/5/07 - 8/12/07 8/12/07 - 8/19/07 8/19/07 - 8/26/07 8/26/07 - 9/2/07 9/2/07 - 9/9/07 9/9/07 - 9/16/07 9/16/07 - 9/23/07 9/23/07 - 9/30/07 9/30/07 - 10/7/07 10/7/07 - 10/14/07 10/14/07 - 10/21/07 10/21/07 - 10/28/07 10/28/07 - 11/4/07 11/4/07 - 11/11/07 11/11/07 - 11/18/07 11/18/07 - 11/25/07 11/25/07 - 12/2/07 12/2/07 - 12/9/07 12/9/07 - 12/16/07 12/16/07 - 12/23/07 12/23/07 - 12/30/07 12/30/07 - 1/6/08 1/6/08 - 1/13/08 1/13/08 - 1/20/08 1/20/08 - 1/27/08 1/27/08 - 2/3/08 2/3/08 - 2/10/08 2/10/08 - 2/17/08 2/17/08 - 2/24/08 2/24/08 - 3/2/08 3/2/08 - 3/9/08 3/9/08 - 3/16/08 3/16/08 - 3/23/08 3/23/08 - 3/30/08 3/30/08 - 4/6/08 4/6/08 - 4/13/08 4/13/08 - 4/20/08 4/20/08 - 4/27/08 4/27/08 - 5/4/08 5/4/08 - 5/11/08 5/11/08 - 5/18/08 5/18/08 - 5/25/08 5/25/08 - 6/1/08 6/1/08 - 6/8/08 6/8/08 - 6/15/08 6/15/08 - 6/22/08 6/22/08 - 6/29/08 6/29/08 - 7/6/08 7/6/08 - 7/13/08 7/13/08 - 7/20/08 7/20/08 - 7/27/08 7/27/08 - 8/3/08 8/3/08 - 8/10/08 8/10/08 - 8/17/08 8/17/08 - 8/24/08 8/24/08 - 8/31/08 8/31/08 - 9/7/08 9/7/08 - 9/14/08 9/14/08 - 9/21/08 9/21/08 - 9/28/08 9/28/08 - 10/5/08 10/5/08 - 10/12/08 10/12/08 - 10/19/08 10/19/08 - 10/26/08 10/26/08 - 11/2/08 11/2/08 - 11/9/08 11/9/08 - 11/16/08 11/16/08 - 11/23/08 11/23/08 - 11/30/08 11/30/08 - 12/7/08 12/7/08 - 12/14/08 12/14/08 - 12/21/08 12/21/08 - 12/28/08 12/28/08 - 1/4/09 1/4/09 - 1/11/09 1/11/09 - 1/18/09 1/18/09 - 1/25/09 1/25/09 - 2/1/09 2/1/09 - 2/8/09 2/8/09 - 2/15/09 2/15/09 - 2/22/09 2/22/09 - 3/1/09 3/1/09 - 3/8/09 3/8/09 - 3/15/09 3/15/09 - 3/22/09 3/22/09 - 3/29/09 3/29/09 - 4/5/09 4/5/09 - 4/12/09 4/12/09 - 4/19/09 4/19/09 - 4/26/09 4/26/09 - 5/3/09 5/3/09 - 5/10/09 5/10/09 - 5/17/09 5/17/09 - 5/24/09 5/24/09 - 5/31/09 5/31/09 - 6/7/09 6/7/09 - 6/14/09 6/14/09 - 6/21/09 6/21/09 - 6/28/09 6/28/09 - 7/5/09 7/5/09 - 7/12/09 7/12/09 - 7/19/09 7/19/09 - 7/26/09 7/26/09 - 8/2/09 8/2/09 - 8/9/09 8/9/09 - 8/16/09 8/16/09 - 8/23/09 8/23/09 - 8/30/09 8/30/09 - 9/6/09 9/6/09 - 9/13/09 9/13/09 - 9/20/09 9/20/09 - 9/27/09 9/27/09 - 10/4/09 10/4/09 - 10/11/09 10/11/09 - 10/18/09 10/18/09 - 10/25/09 10/25/09 - 11/1/09 11/1/09 - 11/8/09 11/8/09 - 11/15/09 11/15/09 - 11/22/09 11/22/09 - 11/29/09 11/29/09 - 12/6/09 12/6/09 - 12/13/09 12/13/09 - 12/20/09 12/20/09 - 12/27/09 12/27/09 - 1/3/10 1/3/10 - 1/10/10 1/10/10 - 1/17/10 1/17/10 - 1/24/10 1/24/10 - 1/31/10 1/31/10 - 2/7/10 2/7/10 - 2/14/10 2/14/10 - 2/21/10 2/21/10 - 2/28/10 2/28/10 - 3/7/10 3/7/10 - 3/14/10 3/14/10 - 3/21/10 3/21/10 - 3/28/10 3/28/10 - 4/4/10 4/4/10 - 4/11/10 4/11/10 - 4/18/10 4/18/10 - 4/25/10 4/25/10 - 5/2/10 5/2/10 - 5/9/10 5/9/10 - 5/16/10 5/16/10 - 5/23/10 5/23/10 - 5/30/10 5/30/10 - 6/6/10 6/6/10 - 6/13/10 6/13/10 - 6/20/10 6/20/10 - 6/27/10 6/27/10 - 7/4/10 7/4/10 - 7/11/10 7/11/10 - 7/18/10 7/18/10 - 7/25/10 7/25/10 - 8/1/10 8/1/10 - 8/8/10 8/8/10 - 8/15/10 8/15/10 - 8/22/10 8/22/10 - 8/29/10 8/29/10 - 9/5/10 9/5/10 - 9/12/10 9/12/10 - 9/19/10 9/19/10 - 9/26/10 9/26/10 - 10/3/10 10/3/10 - 10/10/10 10/10/10 - 10/17/10 10/17/10 - 10/24/10 10/24/10 - 10/31/10 10/31/10 - 11/7/10 11/7/10 - 11/14/10 11/14/10 - 11/21/10 11/21/10 - 11/28/10 11/28/10 - 12/5/10 12/5/10 - 12/12/10 12/12/10 - 12/19/10 12/19/10 - 12/26/10 12/26/10 - 1/2/11 1/2/11 - 1/9/11 1/9/11 - 1/16/11 1/16/11 - 1/23/11 1/23/11 - 1/30/11 1/30/11 - 2/6/11 2/6/11 - 2/13/11 2/13/11 - 2/20/11 2/20/11 - 2/27/11 2/27/11 - 3/6/11 3/6/11 - 3/13/11 3/13/11 - 3/20/11 3/20/11 - 3/27/11 3/27/11 - 4/3/11 4/3/11 - 4/10/11 4/10/11 - 4/17/11 4/17/11 - 4/24/11 4/24/11 - 5/1/11 5/1/11 - 5/8/11 5/8/11 - 5/15/11 5/15/11 - 5/22/11 5/22/11 - 5/29/11 5/29/11 - 6/5/11 6/5/11 - 6/12/11 6/12/11 - 6/19/11 6/19/11 - 6/26/11 6/26/11 - 7/3/11 7/3/11 - 7/10/11 7/10/11 - 7/17/11 7/17/11 - 7/24/11 7/24/11 - 7/31/11 7/31/11 - 8/7/11 8/7/11 - 8/14/11 8/14/11 - 8/21/11 8/21/11 - 8/28/11 8/28/11 - 9/4/11 9/4/11 - 9/11/11 9/11/11 - 9/18/11 9/18/11 - 9/25/11 9/25/11 - 10/2/11 10/2/11 - 10/9/11 10/9/11 - 10/16/11 10/16/11 - 10/23/11 10/23/11 - 10/30/11 10/30/11 - 11/6/11 11/6/11 - 11/13/11 11/13/11 - 11/20/11 11/20/11 - 11/27/11 11/27/11 - 12/4/11 12/4/11 - 12/11/11 12/11/11 - 12/18/11 12/18/11 - 12/25/11 12/25/11 - 1/1/12 1/1/12 - 1/8/12 1/8/12 - 1/15/12 1/15/12 - 1/22/12 1/22/12 - 1/29/12 1/29/12 - 2/5/12 2/5/12 - 2/12/12 2/12/12 - 2/19/12 2/19/12 - 2/26/12 2/26/12 - 3/4/12 3/4/12 - 3/11/12 3/11/12 - 3/18/12 3/18/12 - 3/25/12 3/25/12 - 4/1/12 4/1/12 - 4/8/12 4/8/12 - 4/15/12 4/15/12 - 4/22/12 4/22/12 - 4/29/12 4/29/12 - 5/6/12 5/6/12 - 5/13/12 5/13/12 - 5/20/12 5/20/12 - 5/27/12 5/27/12 - 6/3/12 6/3/12 - 6/10/12 6/10/12 - 6/17/12 6/17/12 - 6/24/12 6/24/12 - 7/1/12 7/1/12 - 7/8/12 7/8/12 - 7/15/12 7/15/12 - 7/22/12 7/22/12 - 7/29/12 7/29/12 - 8/5/12 8/5/12 - 8/12/12 8/12/12 - 8/19/12 8/19/12 - 8/26/12 8/26/12 - 9/2/12 9/2/12 - 9/9/12 9/9/12 - 9/16/12 9/16/12 - 9/23/12 9/23/12 - 9/30/12 9/30/12 - 10/7/12 10/7/12 - 10/14/12 10/14/12 - 10/21/12 10/21/12 - 10/28/12 10/28/12 - 11/4/12 11/4/12 - 11/11/12 11/11/12 - 11/18/12 11/18/12 - 11/25/12 11/25/12 - 12/2/12 12/2/12 - 12/9/12 12/9/12 - 12/16/12 12/16/12 - 12/23/12 12/23/12 - 12/30/12 12/30/12 - 1/6/13 1/6/13 - 1/13/13 1/13/13 - 1/20/13 1/20/13 - 1/27/13 1/27/13 - 2/3/13 2/3/13 - 2/10/13 2/10/13 - 2/17/13 2/17/13 - 2/24/13 2/24/13 - 3/3/13 3/3/13 - 3/10/13 3/10/13 - 3/17/13 3/17/13 - 3/24/13 3/24/13 - 3/31/13 3/31/13 - 4/7/13 4/7/13 - 4/14/13 4/14/13 - 4/21/13 4/21/13 - 4/28/13 4/28/13 - 5/5/13 5/5/13 - 5/12/13 5/12/13 - 5/19/13 5/19/13 - 5/26/13 5/26/13 - 6/2/13 6/2/13 - 6/9/13 6/9/13 - 6/16/13 6/16/13 - 6/23/13 6/23/13 - 6/30/13 6/30/13 - 7/7/13 7/7/13 - 7/14/13 7/14/13 - 7/21/13 7/21/13 - 7/28/13 7/28/13 - 8/4/13 8/4/13 - 8/11/13 8/11/13 - 8/18/13 8/18/13 - 8/25/13 8/25/13 - 9/1/13 9/1/13 - 9/8/13 9/8/13 - 9/15/13 9/15/13 - 9/22/13 9/22/13 - 9/29/13 9/29/13 - 10/6/13 10/6/13 - 10/13/13 10/13/13 - 10/20/13 10/20/13 - 10/27/13 10/27/13 - 11/3/13 11/3/13 - 11/10/13 11/10/13 - 11/17/13 11/17/13 - 11/24/13 11/24/13 - 12/1/13 12/1/13 - 12/8/13 12/8/13 - 12/15/13 12/15/13 - 12/22/13 12/22/13 - 12/29/13 12/29/13 - 1/5/14 1/5/14 - 1/12/14 1/12/14 - 1/19/14 1/19/14 - 1/26/14 1/26/14 - 2/2/14 2/2/14 - 2/9/14 2/9/14 - 2/16/14 2/16/14 - 2/23/14 2/23/14 - 3/2/14 3/2/14 - 3/9/14 3/9/14 - 3/16/14 3/16/14 - 3/23/14 3/23/14 - 3/30/14 3/30/14 - 4/6/14 4/6/14 - 4/13/14 4/13/14 - 4/20/14 4/20/14 - 4/27/14 4/27/14 - 5/4/14 5/4/14 - 5/11/14 5/11/14 - 5/18/14 5/18/14 - 5/25/14 5/25/14 - 6/1/14 6/1/14 - 6/8/14 6/8/14 - 6/15/14 6/15/14 - 6/22/14 6/22/14 - 6/29/14 6/29/14 - 7/6/14 7/6/14 - 7/13/14 7/13/14 - 7/20/14 7/20/14 - 7/27/14 7/27/14 - 8/3/14 8/3/14 - 8/10/14 8/10/14 - 8/17/14 8/17/14 - 8/24/14 8/24/14 - 8/31/14 8/31/14 - 9/7/14 9/7/14 - 9/14/14 9/14/14 - 9/21/14 9/21/14 - 9/28/14 9/28/14 - 10/5/14 10/5/14 - 10/12/14 10/12/14 - 10/19/14 10/19/14 - 10/26/14 10/26/14 - 11/2/14 11/2/14 - 11/9/14 11/9/14 - 11/16/14 11/16/14 - 11/23/14 11/23/14 - 11/30/14 11/30/14 - 12/7/14 12/7/14 - 12/14/14 12/14/14 - 12/21/14 12/21/14 - 12/28/14 12/28/14 - 1/4/15 1/4/15 - 1/11/15 1/11/15 - 1/18/15 1/18/15 - 1/25/15 1/25/15 - 2/1/15 2/1/15 - 2/8/15 2/8/15 - 2/15/15 2/15/15 - 2/22/15 2/22/15 - 3/1/15 3/1/15 - 3/8/15 3/8/15 - 3/15/15 3/15/15 - 3/22/15 3/22/15 - 3/29/15 3/29/15 - 4/5/15 4/5/15 - 4/12/15 4/12/15 - 4/19/15 4/19/15 - 4/26/15 4/26/15 - 5/3/15 5/3/15 - 5/10/15 5/10/15 - 5/17/15 5/17/15 - 5/24/15 5/24/15 - 5/31/15 5/31/15 - 6/7/15 6/7/15 - 6/14/15 6/14/15 - 6/21/15 6/21/15 - 6/28/15 6/28/15 - 7/5/15 7/5/15 - 7/12/15 7/12/15 - 7/19/15 7/19/15 - 7/26/15 7/26/15 - 8/2/15 8/2/15 - 8/9/15 8/9/15 - 8/16/15 8/16/15 - 8/23/15 8/23/15 - 8/30/15 8/30/15 - 9/6/15 9/6/15 - 9/13/15 9/13/15 - 9/20/15 9/20/15 - 9/27/15 9/27/15 - 10/4/15 10/4/15 - 10/11/15 10/11/15 - 10/18/15 10/18/15 - 10/25/15 10/25/15 - 11/1/15 11/1/15 - 11/8/15 11/8/15 - 11/15/15 11/15/15 - 11/22/15 11/22/15 - 11/29/15 11/29/15 - 12/6/15 12/6/15 - 12/13/15 12/13/15 - 12/20/15 12/20/15 - 12/27/15 12/27/15 - 1/3/16 1/3/16 - 1/10/16 1/10/16 - 1/17/16 1/17/16 - 1/24/16 1/24/16 - 1/31/16 1/31/16 - 2/7/16 2/7/16 - 2/14/16 2/14/16 - 2/21/16 2/21/16 - 2/28/16 2/28/16 - 3/6/16 3/6/16 - 3/13/16 3/13/16 - 3/20/16 3/20/16 - 3/27/16 3/27/16 - 4/3/16 4/3/16 - 4/10/16 4/10/16 - 4/17/16 4/17/16 - 4/24/16 4/24/16 - 5/1/16 5/1/16 - 5/8/16 5/8/16 - 5/15/16 5/15/16 - 5/22/16 5/22/16 - 5/29/16 5/29/16 - 6/5/16 6/5/16 - 6/12/16 6/12/16 - 6/19/16 6/19/16 - 6/26/16 6/26/16 - 7/3/16 7/3/16 - 7/10/16 7/10/16 - 7/17/16 7/17/16 - 7/24/16 7/24/16 - 7/31/16 7/31/16 - 8/7/16 8/7/16 - 8/14/16 8/14/16 - 8/21/16 8/21/16 - 8/28/16 8/28/16 - 9/4/16 9/4/16 - 9/11/16 9/11/16 - 9/18/16 9/18/16 - 9/25/16 9/25/16 - 10/2/16 10/2/16 - 10/9/16 10/9/16 - 10/16/16 10/16/16 - 10/23/16 10/23/16 - 10/30/16 10/30/16 - 11/6/16 11/6/16 - 11/13/16 11/13/16 - 11/20/16 11/20/16 - 11/27/16 11/27/16 - 12/4/16 12/4/16 - 12/11/16 12/11/16 - 12/18/16 12/18/16 - 12/25/16 12/25/16 - 1/1/17 1/1/17 - 1/8/17 1/8/17 - 1/15/17 1/15/17 - 1/22/17 1/22/17 - 1/29/17 1/29/17 - 2/5/17 2/5/17 - 2/12/17 2/12/17 - 2/19/17 2/19/17 - 2/26/17 2/26/17 - 3/5/17 3/5/17 - 3/12/17 3/12/17 - 3/19/17 3/19/17 - 3/26/17 3/26/17 - 4/2/17 4/2/17 - 4/9/17 4/9/17 - 4/16/17 4/16/17 - 4/23/17 4/23/17 - 4/30/17 4/30/17 - 5/7/17 5/7/17 - 5/14/17 5/14/17 - 5/21/17 5/21/17 - 5/28/17 5/28/17 - 6/4/17 6/4/17 - 6/11/17 6/11/17 - 6/18/17 6/18/17 - 6/25/17 6/25/17 - 7/2/17 7/2/17 - 7/9/17 7/9/17 - 7/16/17 7/16/17 - 7/23/17 7/23/17 - 7/30/17 7/30/17 - 8/6/17 8/6/17 - 8/13/17 8/13/17 - 8/20/17 8/20/17 - 8/27/17 8/27/17 - 9/3/17 9/3/17 - 9/10/17 9/10/17 - 9/17/17 9/17/17 - 9/24/17 9/24/17 - 10/1/17 10/1/17 - 10/8/17 10/8/17 - 10/15/17 10/15/17 - 10/22/17 10/22/17 - 10/29/17 10/29/17 - 11/5/17 11/5/17 - 11/12/17 11/12/17 - 11/19/17 11/19/17 - 11/26/17 11/26/17 - 12/3/17 12/3/17 - 12/10/17 12/10/17 - 12/17/17 12/17/17 - 12/24/17 12/24/17 - 12/31/17 12/31/17 - 1/7/18 1/7/18 - 1/14/18 1/14/18 - 1/21/18 1/21/18 - 1/28/18 1/28/18 - 2/4/18 2/4/18 - 2/11/18 2/11/18 - 2/18/18 2/18/18 - 2/25/18 2/25/18 - 3/4/18 3/4/18 - 3/11/18 3/11/18 - 3/18/18 3/18/18 - 3/25/18 3/25/18 - 4/1/18 4/1/18 - 4/8/18 4/8/18 - 4/15/18 4/15/18 - 4/22/18 4/22/18 - 4/29/18 4/29/18 - 5/6/18 5/6/18 - 5/13/18 5/13/18 - 5/20/18 5/20/18 - 5/27/18 5/27/18 - 6/3/18 6/3/18 - 6/10/18 6/10/18 - 6/17/18 6/17/18 - 6/24/18 6/24/18 - 7/1/18 7/1/18 - 7/8/18 7/8/18 - 7/15/18 7/15/18 - 7/22/18 7/22/18 - 7/29/18 7/29/18 - 8/5/18 8/5/18 - 8/12/18 8/12/18 - 8/19/18 8/19/18 - 8/26/18 8/26/18 - 9/2/18 9/2/18 - 9/9/18 9/9/18 - 9/16/18 9/16/18 - 9/23/18 9/23/18 - 9/30/18 9/30/18 - 10/7/18 10/7/18 - 10/14/18 10/14/18 - 10/21/18 10/21/18 - 10/28/18 10/28/18 - 11/4/18 11/4/18 - 11/11/18 11/11/18 - 11/18/18 11/18/18 - 11/25/18 11/25/18 - 12/2/18 12/2/18 - 12/9/18 12/9/18 - 12/16/18 12/16/18 - 12/23/18 12/23/18 - 12/30/18 12/30/18 - 1/6/19 1/6/19 - 1/13/19 1/13/19 - 1/20/19 1/20/19 - 1/27/19 1/27/19 - 2/3/19 2/3/19 - 2/10/19 2/10/19 - 2/17/19 2/17/19 - 2/24/19 2/24/19 - 3/3/19 3/3/19 - 3/10/19 3/10/19 - 3/17/19 3/17/19 - 3/24/19 3/24/19 - 3/31/19 3/31/19 - 4/7/19 4/7/19 - 4/14/19 4/14/19 - 4/21/19 4/21/19 - 4/28/19 4/28/19 - 5/5/19 5/5/19 - 5/12/19 5/12/19 - 5/19/19 5/19/19 - 5/26/19 5/26/19 - 6/2/19 6/2/19 - 6/9/19 6/9/19 - 6/16/19 6/16/19 - 6/23/19 6/23/19 - 6/30/19 6/30/19 - 7/7/19 7/7/19 - 7/14/19 7/14/19 - 7/21/19 7/21/19 - 7/28/19 7/28/19 - 8/4/19 8/4/19 - 8/11/19 8/11/19 - 8/18/19 8/18/19 - 8/25/19 8/25/19 - 9/1/19 9/1/19 - 9/8/19 9/8/19 - 9/15/19 9/15/19 - 9/22/19 9/22/19 - 9/29/19 9/29/19 - 10/6/19 10/6/19 - 10/13/19 10/13/19 - 10/20/19 10/20/19 - 10/27/19 10/27/19 - 11/3/19 11/3/19 - 11/10/19 11/10/19 - 11/17/19 11/17/19 - 11/24/19 11/24/19 - 12/1/19 12/1/19 - 12/8/19 12/8/19 - 12/15/19 12/15/19 - 12/22/19 12/22/19 - 12/29/19 12/29/19 - 1/5/20 1/5/20 - 1/12/20 1/12/20 - 1/19/20 1/19/20 - 1/26/20 1/26/20 - 2/2/20 2/2/20 - 2/9/20 2/9/20 - 2/16/20 2/16/20 - 2/23/20 2/23/20 - 3/1/20 3/1/20 - 3/8/20 3/8/20 - 3/15/20 3/15/20 - 3/22/20 3/22/20 - 3/29/20 3/29/20 - 4/5/20 4/5/20 - 4/12/20 4/12/20 - 4/19/20 4/19/20 - 4/26/20 4/26/20 - 5/3/20 5/3/20 - 5/10/20 5/10/20 - 5/17/20 5/17/20 - 5/24/20 5/24/20 - 5/31/20 5/31/20 - 6/7/20 6/7/20 - 6/14/20 6/14/20 - 6/21/20 6/21/20 - 6/28/20 6/28/20 - 7/5/20 7/5/20 - 7/12/20 7/12/20 - 7/19/20 7/19/20 - 7/26/20 7/26/20 - 8/2/20 8/2/20 - 8/9/20 8/9/20 - 8/16/20 8/16/20 - 8/23/20 8/23/20 - 8/30/20 8/30/20 - 9/6/20 9/6/20 - 9/13/20 9/13/20 - 9/20/20 9/20/20 - 9/27/20 9/27/20 - 10/4/20 10/4/20 - 10/11/20 10/11/20 - 10/18/20 10/18/20 - 10/25/20 10/25/20 - 11/1/20 11/1/20 - 11/8/20 11/8/20 - 11/15/20 11/15/20 - 11/22/20 11/22/20 - 11/29/20 11/29/20 - 12/6/20 12/6/20 - 12/13/20 12/13/20 - 12/20/20 12/20/20 - 12/27/20 1/3/21 - 1/10/21 1/10/21 - 1/17/21 1/17/21 - 1/24/21 1/24/21 - 1/31/21 1/31/21 - 2/7/21 2/7/21 - 2/14/21 2/14/21 - 2/21/21 2/21/21 - 2/28/21 2/28/21 - 3/7/21 3/7/21 - 3/14/21 3/14/21 - 3/21/21 3/21/21 - 3/28/21 3/28/21 - 4/4/21 4/4/21 - 4/11/21 4/11/21 - 4/18/21 4/18/21 - 4/25/21 4/25/21 - 5/2/21 5/2/21 - 5/9/21 5/9/21 - 5/16/21 5/16/21 - 5/23/21 5/23/21 - 5/30/21 5/30/21 - 6/6/21 6/6/21 - 6/13/21 6/13/21 - 6/20/21 6/20/21 - 6/27/21 6/27/21 - 7/4/21 7/4/21 - 7/11/21 7/11/21 - 7/18/21 7/18/21 - 7/25/21 7/25/21 - 8/1/21 8/1/21 - 8/8/21 8/8/21 - 8/15/21 8/15/21 - 8/22/21 8/22/21 - 8/29/21 8/29/21 - 9/5/21 9/5/21 - 9/12/21 9/12/21 - 9/19/21 9/19/21 - 9/26/21 9/26/21 - 10/3/21 10/3/21 - 10/10/21 10/10/21 - 10/17/21 10/17/21 - 10/24/21 10/24/21 - 10/31/21 10/31/21 - 11/7/21 11/7/21 - 11/14/21 11/14/21 - 11/21/21 11/21/21 - 11/28/21 11/28/21 - 12/5/21 12/5/21 - 12/12/21 12/12/21 - 12/19/21 12/19/21 - 12/26/21 1/2/22 - 1/9/22 1/9/22 - 1/16/22 1/16/22 - 1/23/22 1/23/22 - 1/30/22 1/30/22 - 2/6/22 2/6/22 - 2/13/22 2/13/22 - 2/20/22 2/20/22 - 2/27/22 2/27/22 - 3/6/22 3/6/22 - 3/13/22 3/13/22 - 3/20/22 3/20/22 - 3/27/22 3/27/22 - 4/3/22 4/3/22 - 4/10/22 4/10/22 - 4/17/22 4/17/22 - 4/24/22 4/24/22 - 5/1/22 5/1/22 - 5/8/22 5/8/22 - 5/15/22 5/15/22 - 5/22/22 5/22/22 - 5/29/22 5/29/22 - 6/5/22 6/5/22 - 6/12/22 6/12/22 - 6/19/22 6/19/22 - 6/26/22 6/26/22 - 7/3/22 7/10/22 - 7/17/22 7/17/22 - 7/24/22 7/24/22 - 7/31/22 7/31/22 - 8/7/22 8/7/22 - 8/14/22 8/14/22 - 8/21/22 8/21/22 - 8/28/22 8/28/22 - 9/4/22 9/4/22 - 9/11/22 9/11/22 - 9/18/22 9/18/22 - 9/25/22 9/25/22 - 10/2/22 10/2/22 - 10/9/22 10/9/22 - 10/16/22 10/16/22 - 10/23/22 website design by website design by limwebdesign
Winnebago, the Class C-1 champ last year led by David Wingett (27.8 points), had its first-round game with West Holt moved to a separate venue to accommodate the expected crowd.

The Indians had some close calls down the stretch, twice in conference tourney play against Class D-1 schools.

Amherst has the Eckhout brothers, Breyden and Holden, and must deal with Ainsworth's high-scoring Brady Delimont (27.6 ppg.). Hastings St. Cecilia's resume includes a win against Class B Sidney, and its conference play provided a tough test.

A Winnebago-St. Cecilia final is highly anticipated.

Quick hits

Most state titles: Hastings St. Cecilia (6)

Most state appearances: Ainsworth and Hastings St. Cecilia (21)

Largest enrollment: Ainsworth (115)

Smallest enrollment: Amherst (82)

Tallest player: Winnebago's David Wingett and Ainsworth's Luke McLeod (6-foot-7)

Points leader: David Wingett, Winnebago (27.8)

Rebounds leader: David Wingett, Winnebago (11.5)

Assists leader: Aspen LaPointe, Winnebago (179)

Steals leader: Trevor Adelung, Amherst (140)

Blocks leader: David Wingett, Winnebago (73)

Most-experienced team: Ainsworth (8 seniors, 1 junior, 2 sophomores, 3 freshmen)

Least-experienced team: Elmwood-Murdock (3 seniors, 5 juniors, 3 sophomores, 3 freshmen)

Longest trip: Ainsworth (268 miles)
Both sitting down and standing up, Lincoln-area Kiwanians did their part last week for the clubs children- and youth-related projects.

On Monday (March 7), 67 Kiwanians from several clubs were among the hundreds of people who filled a large room at the Cornhusker Marriott, serving as investment companies bidders at the annual Lancaster County delinquent taxes sale. Investors pay people from service groups, churches and other places to bid on their behalf to buy delinquent tax bills.

Investors can make 14 percent interest when property owners eventually pay their late bills. For Kiwanians, standing in a registration line for an hour then sitting in chairs for three hours earned the clubs $6,700 -- $100 per bidder for a short days work. The clubs use the proceeds for their many programs.

Cornhusker Kiwanis, for example, had 14 members at the sale, bringing in $1,400, just $100 shy of a $1,500 scholarship. The club offers three $1,500 scholarships to Lancaster County graduates each year.

The 67 Kiwanians got the opportunity to earn funds for their clubs through Guardian Tax Partners, Inc., which is able to buy back taxes and support groups such as Kiwanis at the same time.

The following day (March 8), Cornhusker and Southeast Lincoln Kiwanians greeted hundreds of customers, from morning until night, at the IHOP restaurant near 27th and Superior streets to help raise funds for the Childrens Miracle Network of hospitals and clinics. Kiwanis International and IHOP both partner with CMN to raise funds for the network. In Nebraska, the network includes Childrens Hospital in Omaha and 10 clinics, including one in Lincoln.

The Lincoln IHOP gave away stacks and stacks of full-size pancakes and encouraged diners to donate to CMN. IHOPs goal for the day was $3,000 in donations.

The Kiwanians were on hand to greet customers, hand out CMN fliers and also encourage donations. Joining them at the entrance for much of the day were reigning queens from the Miss Nebraska Organization, also a CMN supporter.
The page may have moved, you may have mistyped the address, or followed a bad link.

Visit our homepage, or search for whatever you were looking for
ELMWOOD PARK  EverGreen Academy has made an offer to the Village of Elmwood Park to purchase the Taylor Complex, 3131 Taylor Ave., for $900,000, Village President Ellis Steiner said Wednesday.

But after meeting on the issue Tuesday, village trustees appear to be locked in a battle over whether to accept the private schools offer as it stands.

To sort everything out, the board plans to discuss the proposal when it meets for its regularly scheduled board meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 10, in the Elmwood Park Village Hall (building 3), 3131 Taylor Ave.

The Taylor Complex, which is in the Racine city limits but owned by Elmwood Park, includes five buildings, three of which are fully occupied professional buildings.

The school, which opened in 2013, began at the former Beebe School, 3554 Taylor Ave., but expanded its operations to Building 2 of the Taylor Complex the following year. It currently leases space at that building, as well as Beebe School, which is also owned by the village and previously served as the Village Hall. As part of that lease agreement, the school also is allowed use of a gymnasium located in Building 3, which contains the hall that the village uses for board meetings and voting. Building 1 is where the villages administrative offices are located.

According to the minutes of the boards Tuesday meeting, trustees voted 4-3 to accept the schools offer to purchase the complex contingent upon an all-clear from the village attorney or an expert attorney of the village attorneys choice.

Trustees Pete Clouthier, Alan Bagg, Nick Haas and Jeff Klimek voted in favor of the motion. Trustees Kathy Wells and Laura Rude voted against it, as did Steiner.

Steiner said Wednesday that he opposed the motion because the offer to purchase, among other things, failed to specify if the village would be able to continue to use sections of the complex after the sale.

It wasnt what I wanted, he added, noting that most trustees agree that the village should sell the complex.

Its the agreement itself that is at question, he said.

Another concern, he said, is whether Tuesdays special board meeting where the vote took place was properly noticed. To help determine if it was, Steiner said he is having a fellow trustee, as well as a village attorney, look into the matter. Steiner declined to say which trustee was looking into the matter.

A great deal

Klimek said Wednesday that he voted to accept the schools offer because it is a great deal for the village.

I think it is great and fair deal for the village knowing the expenses that are going to have to be paid to maintain those (buildings) in the future, Klimek said. Can you imagine a better thing going in there other than a school?

Attempts to obtain a copy of what the meeting minutes describe as a 13-page offer to purchase were unsuccessful.

The Journal Times was unable to speak with school officials on Wednesday. In a voicemail, Principal Michael Meier confirmed that the school had made an offer on the complex but had not yet heard back from the village.

Steiner said Wednesday that the villages attorneys had not yet recommended approval of the offer.

(Based on the legal opinion we received) we need to come back with a counter offer to EverGreen Academy, he said.
The birds and birding travels of June and Peter.
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit [official website] agreed [order, PDF] Wednesday to reconsider Texas voter identification law before the entire court. A three-judge panel had ruled in August that the law, which requires 14.6 million registered voters to show photo ID at the polls to prevent voter fraud, violates [JURIST report] section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Opponents had claimed that the law is discriminatory and intended to prevent poor and minority voters from being heard. The state of Texas requested an en banc rehearing, and the appeals court agreed. The court has yet to announce the date for oral arguments.

Voting rights have been a contentious issue in the US recently. In May the New Hampshire Supreme Court struck down [JURIST report] a 2012 law requiring voters to be state residents, not just domiciled in the state. Last March the US Supreme Court denied certiorari [JURIST report] in Frank v. Walker, allowing Wisconsins voter ID law to stand. Wisconsins Act 23, which requires residents to present photo ID to vote, was struck down by a federal district court, but reinstated [JURIST reports] by the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Also last March Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed a new law [JURIST report] that made Oregon the first state in the nation to institute automatic voter registration. In November 2014 a federal appeals court rejected [JURIST report] a Kansas rule that required prospective voters to show proof-of-citizenship documents before registering using a federal voter registration form.
The Otsu District Court in Japan ordered an injunction halting the operation of two nuclear reactors Wednesday, days before the fifth anniversary of the Fukuishima nuclear disaster. The Fukuishima disaster [BBC timeline], meltdowns triggered by a tsunami, was rated a 4 on a 0-7 international scale used to measure the severity of nuclear accidents. Since the disaster, Japan has shut down and restarted its nuclear reactors multiple times under stricter regulations. Reactors numbers 3 and 4 are operated by Kansai Electric Power [official website] at the Takahama Nuclear Power Plant. The decision was encouraged by public concerns over the safety of the plant, and the injunction was requested by nearly 30 residents living within 30 miles the plant in Shiga Perfecture. Japan now has only two operating reactors in Sendai. Kansai Electric Power said the it plans to file an immediate appeal [press release, PDF].

Japans court system [JURIST report] has been busy adjudicating issues relating to the 2011 Fukushima disaster. In February court-appointed prosecutors charged three former utility executives [JURIST report] with counts of negligence in relation to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant disaster. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) executives Tsunehisa Katsumata, Sakae Muto and Ichiro Takekuro were charged for their failure to foresee and prepare for the tsunami in 2011. In August 2012 Japanese authorities opened [JURIST report] a criminal investigation into the power plant meltdown after more than 1,300 people filed [JURIST report] a criminal complaint against TEPCO for causing the catastrophe and the resulting radiation. The complaint came two months after an expert panel reported [JURIST report] that the disaster was preventable and was not caused solely by the earthquake and tsunami, but that officials did not act quickly enough to prevent the meltdown. In March 2012 a group of TEPCO shareholders filed [JURIST report] a USD $67 billion lawsuit against TEPCO also for failing to prevent the disaster. In August 2011 five months after the meltdown, Japans legislature voted to compensate those adversely affected by the incident by creating a fund for dispensing money to such victims.
Polands Constitutional Court [official website, in Polish] ruled [judgment, in Polish; press release, in Polish] Wednesday that controversial government reforms to the court violate the constitution [text]. The ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) [party website, in Polish] pushed the legislation through [JURIST report] in December, creating deep divisions in the country and sparking widespread protests. The new legislation required the court to have 13 judges present, as well as a two-thirds majority vote to make a ruling. The previous procedures required only nine judges present and a basic majority of the 15 total judges. The legislation also implemented a longer waiting period for a ruling to be made from the time a decision is solicited, increasing from two weeks to to three to six months. Wednesdays ruling will likely increase tensions within the country, as Prime Minister Beata Szydlo has already pledged not to abide by it [WSJ report].

The PiS has made numerous controversial reforms since taking power last fall. Last month President Andrzej Duda approved a new law that grants the government greater access to digital data and broader use of surveillance [JURIST report] for law enforcement. In January Duda signed [JURIST report] a controversial media control bill into law. Under that law, the treasury minister will replace the National Broadcasting Council in appointing and removing media executives in charge of public radio and television programming. The European Commission announced in January that it had begun an assessment of the rule of law [JURIST report] in Poland, in response to the governments reforms.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi [official profile], expressed concerns [text] Tuesday for a proposed migrant exchange program [press release] between the EU [official website] and Turkey. The Joint Action Plan [text, PDF], was proposed to decrease human smuggling along the shores of southern Europe and to help alleviate the massive influx of refugees hosted by Turkey. The most controversial aspect of the deal is the objective to resettle, for every Syrian readmitted by Turkey from Greek islands, another Syrian from Turkey to the EU Member States.

Grandi said in his speech before the European Parliament [official website], 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. The High Commissioner spoke to the council shortly after it had met with the Prime Minister of Turkey, Ahmet Davutoglu [BBC profile] to discuss the final steps of the exchange program. Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] also demonstrated concern [press release] over the deal, calling it an alarmingly short-sighted and inhumane attitude to handling this crisis.
West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin [official website] on Wednesday vetoed [veto message, PDF] a bill [SB 10 materials] banning second-trimester abortions. Tomblin expressed concern that the bill creates constitutional issues and conflicts with womens health rights. Supporters argue the procedures required during the second-trimester are particularly violent. A majority vote of both chambers would override the governors veto. Last year, Tomblins veto banning abortions 20 weeks after conception was later overridden [JURIST reports] by lawmakers.

Abortion procedures and reproductive rights issues have been controversial topics throughout the US. Last month the Indiana Senate released a bill [JURIST report] from committee that would ban abortions based on genetic disabilities and would also require aborted or miscarried fetuses to be cremated or interred. Also last month the Oklahoma Supreme Court reversed [JURIST report] a lower court decision upholding a law that restricts use of medication abortion drugs. In November the US Supreme Court [official website] granted certiorari [JURIST report] to decide whether a Texas law, which requires that clinics have similar facilities to surgical center, posed an undue burden on the availability of abortion on the state.
O that this too sullied flesh would melt,

Thaw and reslove itself into a dew,

Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd

His canon 'gainst self-slaughter. O God! God!

How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable

Seem to me all the uses of this world!



Fie on't, ah fie, 'tis an unweeded garden

That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature

Possess it merely. That it should come to this!



Hamlet
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.
A lot on his plate

Election results offer NC, Deuba another opportunity to improve on mixed record
Are talks in the cards for change of guard

With the conclusion of the Nepali Congress (NC) General Convention (GC) and election for a new leadership, there are early signs of some discussions around a change in the government.
Back again

There are many reasons why Deuba will be much more than a footnote in Nepals political history
Bumper to bumper

Unfortunately people in most developing countries think that public transport is intended for the poor
Chipleti locals sans land ownership certificates

Locals of Chipleti in Hetauda-17 are still without land ownership certificates despite living in the settlement for more than four decades.
Country does not progress amidst political instability: Shashank Koirala

The newly-elected general secretary of the Nepali Congress, Shashank Koirala, has asserted that the country could not make headway amidst political instability.
Ensure safety before rebuilding: Singati folk

Around 200 earthquake affected households in Singati of Dolakha district are reluctant to receive government aid of Rs200,000 for rebuilding new houses.
Florida boy of four shoots mother

A four-year old boy accidentally shot and injured his mother in their car in northern Florida, US media report.
Himalaya Airlines takes delivery of first aircraft

Himalaya Airlines, a Nepal-China joint-venture company, has taken delivery of its first aircraftthe brand new Airbus A320to serve the international market starting next month.
Importers forced to pay high detention charges

Traders have complained they have been forced to pay high detention charges to shipping lines as a result of delay in delivery of goods imported from third countries to Nepal from Indias Kolkata port due to unavailability of enough railway racks.
In a simple test, hackers breach into NTs server

A group of hackers calling itself Anonymous#opnep has claimed to have breached into the server of Nepal Telecom (NT), gaining access to all the information of its users.
Japan approves Counterpart Fund usage

The Government of Japan has approved the usage of counterpart funds to the sum of one hundred million Nepalese Rupees (NPR 100,000,000) for the implementation of the Project for Cooperative Farming, Small Irrigation and Transportation Subsidy on Fertilizers and Improved Seeds- Earthquake severely affected districts of Nepal.
KMC starts dog census

The Kathmandu Metropolitan City has begun an official census of stray dogs in the Capital.
Locals ask govt to seek Chinese aid

People of Olangchungola in Taplejung which borders China have asked the government to seek Chinese assistance to construct roads and other infrastructure on Nepal side so that the frontier can be opened for formal trade.
NC vote count for 25 CWC: Old faces maintain lead [Updated]

The Nepal Congress (NC) has counted 400 votes cast for the 25 Nepali Congress central working committee (CWC) seats under open category as of Thursday evening.
Nepal becomes 34th Member of Asia Cooperation Dialogue

Nepal has been picked as the 34th member of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) during the 14th Ministerial Meeting of Asia Cooperation Dialogue being held in Bangkok, Thailand.
Nepal to host its first ever Girl Summit

Nepal is all set to organise the first ever Girl Summit in Kathmandu on March 23 as a follow up to the first Girl Summit 2014, co-hosted by the UK government and UNICEF, where commitments were made to end child, early and forced marriage.
Nepali woman raped in Kuwait

A Nepali woman working in Kuwait has registered a complaint with local police, stating that her company manager had raped her.
North Korea 'fires short-range missiles'

North Korea has fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, South Korea's military has said.
Talk of quick survey for aid hollow

The promise of swift verification of earthquake-damaged houses to facilitate the disbursement of grant assistance to nearly 770,000 homeowners has remained hollow.
Two held with leopard skin in Kanchanpur

Two persons were arrested with leopard skin from Krishnapur Municipality-2 of Kanchanpur district on Wednesday. The seized skin is nearly six-feet long and two-feet wide.
Woman smuggles child in hand luggage on Paris-bound plane

A woman flew from Istanbul to Paris with a four-year-old girl hidden inside her hand luggage, Air France has said.
1. Yes. Its important to cast my votes early and avoid the lines on Election Day.

2. Yes. With nearly two weeks of early voting, its a more convenient way to take part.

3. No. Its better to wait until Election Day, in case any last-minute information surfaces.

4. No. Im not planning to vote early or on Election Day. It isnt worth my time.

5. Unsure. It depends on how the campaigns are shaping up. Ill play it by ear.

Vote

View Results
Named one of the BEST 25 BLOGS by TIME Magazine. Ken Levine is an Emmy winning writer/director/producer/major league baseball announcer. In a career that has spanned over 30 years Ken has worked on MASH, CHEERS, FRASIER, THE SIMPSONS, WINGS, EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND, BECKER, DHARMA & GREG, and has co-created three series. He and his partner wrote the feature VOLUNTEERS. Ken has also been the radio/TV play-by-play voice of the Baltimore Orioles, Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres. and Dodger Talk. He is a contributing cartoonist to the New Yorker magazine, and he hosts the podcast HOLLYWOOD & LEVINE


South Korea will relax requirements for issuing trade visas starting next week in an effort to increase exports of domestic products, the government said Thursday.



The Ministry of Justice said a points system will be introduced from Monday to issue D-9-1 visas to overseas traders who perform export and import activities in South Korea.



Previously, the visa type was only provided to those who have a trade performance of $500,000 a year or more, the ministry said in a press release.



With the new system, the ministry will grant visas based on diverse criteria, including the applicant's career, capital, academic background and study experience in South Korea, according to the ministry.



The justice ministry said it is expecting to expand the number of foreigners holding the trade visa to some 1,000 by 2018 from about 50 people at the moment.



"With the new system, there may be a rise in outbound shipments that can translate into more jobs being created," a ministry official said.



In 2015, South Korea's exports backtracked by around 8 percent on-year while imports nosedived by some 17 percent, fueling concerns that the country's main economic growth engines were losing steam. (Yonhap)




South Korea has deployed a newly developed anti-aircraft missile system along the maritime border with North Korea in the Yellow Sea, a military official said Thursday.



"The surface-to-air guided missile system, Cheongung, was placed in the northwest islands area early this year to defend it from North Korean aircraft," the military official said, asking not to be named.



The system can intercept North Korean airplanes or other hostile aircraft penetrating into South Korean airspace with almost no warning, the official noted.



The maritime border area, dotted with a group of South Korean-controlled islands, has witnessed several inter-Korean military clashes in the past decade.



In November 2010, North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong Island, killing four civilians and soldiers.



The deployed medium-range missile system was developed by South Korean weapons manufacturer LIG Nex 1 in 2011 and passed the military's operational requirement verification test in July last year.



The 3-D radar-equipped system can intercept aircraft and missiles within a 40-kilometer range at an altitude lower than 40 km.



"The system's multifunctional phased array radar can simultaneously detect and track up to dozens of enemy aircraft from all directions," the official added. (Yonhap)




No

Yes, a light case

Yes, two or more light cases

One serious case

Two or more serious bouts

Vote

View Results
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED

The Novel Conversations group will meet at Joannas Dealicious Treats in downtown Kendallville on Thursday, March 31 at 6:30 p.m. to discuss A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman.
ANGOLA  An Angola High School student has been chosen to participate in the Indiana University Honors Program in Foreign Languages program in Ciudad Real, Spain, this summer.

Yosmhara Fuentes, Yoshie for short, was selected from applicants across the state and currently is raising funds to participate. She went through an in-depth selection process that started in September with a language assessment test at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, a detailed application with numerous letters of recommendation and a personal interview.

The process was long, but worth it, said Fuentes. I had many great people helping me who recommended me, a great school administrative staff that got my paperwork, and very supportive parents that helped me to complete my application.

Fuentes must raise funds to make the trip possible. She works at Pokagon State Park and a retail store and said shes been saving what she can and applying for scholarships. There are payment deadlines that must be met, she said.

A fund has been set up at Star Financial Fund, account number 18350038. She also has a page at www.gofundme.com/bspaygy8. As of Tuesday, the page had raised $355 of the $5,000 needed.

The money raised will be used toward my flight, course fees and excursions, said Fuentes. This isnt a vacation for me, not at all. I will have class daily, and the most challenging part is I can only speak Spanish. Yeah! Only Spanish for six weeks, from the time I get off the plane til I go home.

She will spend seven weeks in Spain attending grammar, literature and history classes, studying Spanish, participating in cultural activities like music, dance, theater and sports, living with a Spanish host family and taking weekend group trips to sites of tourist and historical interest.

Students promise to speak only Spanish the entire time as well as abide by a very strict honor code, said Angola Spanish teacher Clara Boyles. While it is an honor to be selected, it is also an expensive academic program.

Fuentes is involved in many facets of Angola High School. She is a Spanish Club president, Student Council junior representative, Key Club vice president, a member of the marching band, pep band and concert band, a member of the National Honor society, a cheerleader and on the track and field team.
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Sunny. High around 75F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Mainly clear. Low 53F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.
Challenger Jack Pogreba and Onalaska Mayor Joe Chilsen werent combative in their first forum together Tuesday, despite Pogrebas challenge of Chilsens nomination papers that knocked the incumbent off the April 5 ballot.

An audience of about 50 business representatives listened to each candidate, who then took questions from members of the Onalaska Area Business Association over lunch at the La Crosse Country Club.

Pogreba talked about the need for more government transparency; Chilsen touted the growth of the tax base and increased visibility for Onalaska during his term as mayor.

Pogreba, a former Onalaska Common Council member, said: We need to notify our citizens what our local governments involved in doing to our community. (The citizens) are not informed.

Pogreba talked about pursuing fiscal responsibility by continuing to expand the city and doubling or tripling the tax base.

Continuing to expand the tax base, he said, is feasible if the city continues developing waterfront property. He proposes the city develop anchor businesses, such as hotels, that can thrive on Onalaskas location and waterfront availability.

Pogreba said developing Onalaskas waterfront property and expanding its tax base could lead to expansion into areas such as Brice Prairie or West Salem.

However, if the three-way boundary agreement among the city of Onalaska, the village of Holmen and town of Onalaska is soon approved by each municipality, Pogreba said, Onalaska might face trouble expanding into Brice Prairie.

Besides transparency, Pogreba didnt have much criticism for the condition the of the city under Chilsen.

We have been a great fiscally responsible community, he said. We want to continue that, keep growing the city, keep improving and expanding our base.

Chilsen appealed to the audience as the candidate for more of the same.

Coming into office four years ago, I had a very simple plan: I wanted to grow the tax base, and I wanted to make Onalaska more visible in the Coulee Region, Chilsen said. I have accomplished those two goals.

The mayor, who remains optimistic about support for his write-in campaign to his job, also spoke about expanding the city, citing his own success at developing waterfront property.

I dont think it takes too much of an imagination or too good a memory to look back and see that we can see water at the end of main street now, he said, referring to the Great River Landing Project, which he said will begin its first phase after this election.

During his tenure, Chilsen said, Onalaska has experienced its greatest tax base increase since 2006  a year he described as the holy grail of expansion.

We didnt quite beat 2006, but we came really close, he said, finishing his speech with: We have the three things that are really vital to a city: great education, great health care, and a good business community. With those three, the road ahead looks bright.

Bill Feehan, chairman of the La Crosse County Republican Party, said Chilsens campaign is pretty much a long shot.

A review of the facts will show that the Democrats are running his campaign, Feehan said.

Chilsen denied local Democratic Party involvement. I dont, at any time, ask anyone that volunteers for my campaign what party theyre from. Its not important.

The candidates both supported the switch from a full-time to a part-time mayor with this election.

Pogreba said that when he was a council member, he encouraged the city to go with a part-time mayor and full-time city administrator, because having a full-time administrator would give consistency and thought process to city projects moving forward.

Chilsen said that since he has worked on putting together job descriptions for those positions, hes well aware of what the necessities of those two jobs are going to be.

Both described themselves as leaders who listen.

My grandfather always taught me that youre best off to listen to the people closest to the problem, so I kind of live by that, Chilsen said.

I agree with Joe here in the aspect of listening to your constituents, Pogreba said, saying that his management experience at Woodmans, where he works as an equipment manager, has helped prepare him for weighing options as the next mayor.
Holmen High Schools Family Career and Community Leaders of America team competed against area schools at the regional competition held at Western Technical College late last month.

Holmens team was made up of 19 students, 12 of whom will be moving on to the state competition in the Wisconsin Dells on April 18.

I think they all did pretty well, Holmen FCCLA adviser Kassey Ewoldt said. All 19 seemed pretty prepared.

FCCLA is a club that promotes growth through career preparation, and consumer sciences education.

Students presented various projects including handcrafted clothing, cooking and service projects.

It all relates to family and consumer health type of things, Ewoldt said.

Ten of the 19 Holmen High School students received gold while the remaining nice received silver. Two of the students who received silver qualified for the state competition.

Ewoldt said two students going to state, Holly Kuchel and Mikala Wuensch, stood out for their skills as seamstresses.

Kuchel crafted a two-piece skirt and top, while Wuensch crafted her own prom dress.

Ewoldt said both students learned these skills in classes offered in the family and consumer science program offered at the high school.

She said another project that stood out at the competition was a community service project put together by student Makinsey Schmidt.

She visited schools throughout the tri-state area collecting books which she later donated to area hospitals and shelters to help improve literacy in the region.

At the state competition the students will face off against their toughest competition in the state.

Any students who receive gold at the state competition will be eligible to attend the nation competition in San Diego later this spring.

Ewoldt said six students from Holmen High School attended the national competition last year.
Comment Policy

Advance Indiana allows you to post comments via this blog subject to the guidelines set forth herein. You understand that any comments you post are your own and are not those of Advance Indiana. You further understand that Advance Indiana is not responsible for the content of any external sites referenced in your comments. Unlawful, harassing, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, racially offensive, or otherwise objectionable comments are not acceptable. If you think any content posted or otherwise included in Advance Indiana violates the guidelines set forth herein, then please alert Advance Indiana. Advance Indiana reserves the right to pre-screen, edit, and remove any post as it deems appropriate. You specifically acknowledge that Advance Indiana has no obligation to display any post submitted or otherwise provided via Advance Indiana.
Art Linkletter for 25 years had a program called House Party on CBS. Linkletters show included interviews with children titled Kids Say the Darndest Things. I thought of Linkletter, who died in 2010 at the age of 98, when I was reflecting on something my granddaughter, Ella, said to me on our recent visit to her home in Ouray, Colo.

Ella, who just turned 8, leaned over to me one morning before she headed off to school, and said, You know, Pop Pop, its really interesting having grandparents around because theyre always looking for something. She was reacting, as I recall, to Gretchens search at that moment for something she had set down somewhere in the living room.

I shared Ellas comment with Gretchen and Ellas parents and we all had a good laugh about it. On reflection, though, Ive questioned my retelling the story with such glee. I admire Ellas observation and frankness; Im totally charmed by my grandchildren, all of them, of course. But Id rather that they didnt accept the stereotypes of grandparents as forgetful, feeble and somehow less capable because of their age.

To some extent, those of us of a certain age feed those stereotypes every time we use age as an excuse not to do something. We accept discounts on food, clothing and cost of admission just because were over 55 or 65. We feed stereotyping when we make casual jokes about being old. We accept the status retired even though, in fact, we remain busy in a variety of ways, albeit often without compensation.

There is research that says the way we view aging may influence how we age. If we think of it as negative, those of us older than 50 could be reducing our lifespan by as much as 7.5 years, according to one study. In other words, we need to adopt an attitude of confidence and competence whatever our age.

Role models are important, then. Linkletter, for example, was still active in his 90s as a philanthropist and spokesman for the United Seniors Association. He was a member of the Presidents Council on Service and Participation. Lets see. What other role models can we think of?

So you know now where Im going with this, Weve arrived at the topic of the age of many of our presidential candidates. Im sensitive on this subject; Im the same age as Bernie Sanders, one of the most energetic contenders, who would be 75 if elected, compared with Ronald Reagan, the oldest president when elected at age 69. Hillary Clinton would be 69 if elected, a few months younger than Reagan was, and Trump, 70.

A Chicago Tribune writer said that Sanders age should disqualify him for the office, saying that theres nothing ageist about recognizing the genuine risks of an elderly president. One might respond that thats why we have a presidential succession plan; a vice presidential choice is critical regardless of the age of the president.

I may not vote for Sanders and certainly not Trump, but my vote will be based on factors other than age. And Im pleased to see the strength of Sanders support among young people.

Elizabeth Siyan Lee, a junior at Middlebury College, explained: Age becomes meaningless when candidates emphasize the right principles. Lee, the founder of College Students for Bernie, said in a New York Times op ed piece that Sanders has support from young people because he focuses on the issues that young people truly care about. She cited efforts against climate change, expanding affordable college education, ending abusive private prisons and breaking up the big banks on Wall Street to address economic inequality.

As Linkletter put it, kids say the darndest things. Imagine that, actual issues making a difference.
MINNEAPOLIS  The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday let the murder conviction stand of a Little Falls man who killed two teenagers when they broke into his home on Thanksgiving Day 2012.

Byron Smith, 67, was convicted in 2014 of first-degree premeditated murder in the fatal shootings of 18-year-old Haile Kifer and her 17-year-old cousin, Nick Brady. Smith was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Smiths attorneys had sought a new trial, but the Supreme Court ruled that alleged errors by the trial court did not deprive him of a fair trial. The justices also ruled ordered that the Kifer and Brady families be paid more than $19,000 to cover the cost of their childrens headstones.

I am happy for the Kifer and Brady families as the case is now concluded but their grief, sadly, goes on, lead prosecutor Pete Orput said.

Defense attorney Steve Meshbesher said he was still reviewing the opinion, but that he believes Smith still has several avenues for further appeals.

Im not sure where were going to go but its far from over, Meshbesher said.

Smith had claimed he used reasonable force to defend himself and feared for his life after several break-ins at his home. But prosecutors said he sat in his basement with guns, waiting for the teens to enter his house with a setup so elaborate that Orput compared it to a deer stand a hunter would use. Prosecutors argued Smith then went too far when he continued to shoot them after they were no longer a threat.

The key evidence for prosecutors was an audio recording that Smith made himself, which captured the killings in chilling detail, including Smiths taunts as the teens died.

The killings stunned Little Falls, a central Minnesota community of 8,000, and stirred debate about how far people can go to defend their homes. Under Minnesota law, a person may use deadly force to prevent a felony from taking place in ones home or dwelling, but the force must be reasonable.

On appeal, Meshbesher, argued that Smith didnt get a fair trial due to cumulative errors in the case. Among other things, he argued the courtroom was improperly closed to the public on the trials opening day for a discussion on a pretrial evidentiary issue. He also argued that there were prosecution errors during the grand jury proceedings and that the trial judge erred when he limited who could be called as defense witnesses.

But the justices said none of the alleged errors deprived Smith of a fair grand jury, his right to a public trial or his right to present a complete defense. They also found that the prosecutor did not commit misconduct during his closing argument.
Wisconsins highest court wont review Eric Koulas convictions for the 2010 murders of his parents.

Koulas attorney asked the state Supreme Court to review a state appellate courts decision to uphold the convictions. His attorney was unavailable Wednesday.

Koula, overwhelmed by debt and a floundering day-trading career, shot his parents, Dennis and Merna Koula, in their town of Barre house on May 21, 2010, to claim a substantial inheritance. He deposited a forged $50,000 check drawn from their account the day after the killings, then lied and planted false evidence to divert investigators.

His defense team argued during the 3-week trial in La Crosse County Circuit Court that the Koulas were the unintended victims of a hit man. Their son is serving two life sentences.

Koula, now 46, argued on appeal that his attorneys failed him with a faulty jury instruction and that the judge erred when he allowed testimony that supported motive and excluded evidence that supported his innocence.

At trial, Dennis Koulas brother and a co-worker testified that Dennis Koula, in the days before his death, said he was done giving to the kids. Koulas attorneys fought to exclude the testimony.

The District 4 Court of Appeals found there must be evidence that Koula knew his father intended to sever financial support in order for Dennis Koulas statement to be admissible.

While Koula argued there was not, prosecutors pointed out that Koula sought a cash advance from his credit card company the day before the murders and deposited the forged $50,000 check the day after the killings.

We conclude that a reasonable judge could determine that a reasonable inference from the totality of the evidence set forth  that Eric had knowledge, whether by virtue of the particular out-of-court statements at issue or by some other means, that Dennis intended to stop providing financial support to Eric, the appeals court wrote in its decision.

Koulas new attorneys also argued his trial attorneys failed him when they agreed to a prejudicial jury instruction that highlighted the testimony.

The court rejected Koulas argument, finding that he did not show the case would have ended differently given the volume of evidence against him, including his financial motive, a note he planted to divert investigators and a receipt he volunteered as an alibi that actually showed he knew when his parents were killed.

Koulas appellate attorneys also argued that he deserved a new trial because the judge erred when he refused evidence that was critical to his defense.

They contend Google Maps takes users near Dennis and Merna Koulas house when another address on Fox Hollow Drive is entered into the website. His attorneys argued at trial that the Koulas were the unintended victims of a hit man pursuing Steve Burgess, who lived on the same street.

The judge did not allow testimony about the map, telling Koulas defense team they were illogically trying to argue the Koulas were the victims of an organized experienced killer who used an online map to find them and killed the couple without confirming the address.

Koulas defense team did not raise the issue until the 15th day of trial and did not present evidence that Koulas parents house was mistaken by someone searching for Burgess house, the appellate court found.

Circuit Judge Scott Horne properly excluded the map because it would have misled the jury, given the visible address of the Koula house and lack of evidence to support a hit man used the online map, according to the decision.

Eric has not offered an explanation as to why a hired killer would disregard the address sign on the street, which the court found was an obvious indicator of Dennis and Mernas address, according to the decision.
In 2001, I landed my job as a history professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I was overjoyed for many reasons, including that UW-Madison is one of the best public universities in the country. I was also glad because it placed me within driving distance of my father, then in his 70s, who lives in the Twin Cities.

Soon after I started at UW, my dad came to visit. We went to Memorial Union Terrace, shared a Wisconsin-brewed beer and gazed out at Lake Mendota. Im proud of you getting this job, he said. I raised my eyebrows: this unexpected praise counts as effusive gushing in my taciturn Midwestern family. But the best part, he continued, is that no one would ever know that you are smart.

A couple of my friends have been bewildered by this story, but Midwesterners understand: My dad is proud that becoming a professor hasnt turned me into an egghead. He is glad I dont blather on about my latest research at social occasions or use words that no one says out loud like, moreover or, heretofore. Here in the Midwest, we dont like people who put themselves above others.

For my dad, this Midwestern democratic spirit is not opposed to public education but is dedicated passionately to it. The great public education systems of Wisconsin and Minnesota come from the idea that you should not have to be a blueblood elite or go to Harvard to get an education. You should not have to be rich or the very best in your high school class. Public universities help us to develop ourselves and improve our communities.

Today, the UW Board of Regents will vote on a new faculty tenure policy. If they destroy tenure protections, particularly if they allow that faculty may be fired in the case of program discontinuance, curtailment, modification or redirection, they will open the door to a radical restructuring of our universities.

The assault on tenure has been accompanied by allegations that tenure makes faculty too privileged. This is a red herring. Some legislators wish to cut programs across the state and faculty tenure is standing in their way.

Faculty tenure should be of concern to all Wisconsinites because it is a stabilizing and conservative force in public higher education. Faculty tenure ensures that people with a vested interest in the educational mission of the university are included in making decisions about its future. The governor-appointed Board of Regents gives the current political administration a strong voice in the direction of the university; faculty tenure ensures that no single administration can quickly undo decades of creative work and state investment for short-term gain.

When a professor earns tenure, the university invests in the body of knowledge that the professor contributes to the state. Tenure means that the commitment to this valued knowledge cannot be reneged on a whim.

What is valuable, of course, shifts over time. Sixty years ago, genetics was a tiny field; now it is huge. Knowledge changes, societal needs change, and universities also must change. On this point, professors and the Legislature agree.

However, what is valuable also shifts politically. We are in imminent danger of losing a superb educational system, built over more than a century, in one political storm. Should every administration be empowered to choose how the university works, what departments are cut or survive, and indeed, what is taught? Many want the university to work more like a corporation, but corporations are not subject to restructuring every four years depending on the political party in power.

Wisconsin students deserve excellent educational access across the state. When students have to leave a locale for a program or basic education, fewer find a way to enroll. Those who do leave form their professional experience and networks elsewhere, which leads to brain drain.

Legislators and commentators cover their attack on public education by presenting it as a reform of elitist professors. Dont fall for it. My father taught me that our Midwestern democratic ethic depends on public education. Protect faculty tenure and defend our precious resource of the University of Wisconsin System.
When you enter the city of La Crosse from Hwy. 16 down La Crosse Street, you get a good look at what our community is all about.

From the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse to Myrick Park, churches and schools and school crossings, parks, tennis courts, a cemetery, you get a pretty good feel for our vibrant community and its tight-knit neighborhoods.

At least, thats the splendid experience you get if youre in one of more than 10,000 vehicles to drive along that corridor every day.

But if youre a pedestrian, crossing La Crosse Street and other parts of the university neighborhood can be a terrifying  and, at times, deadly  experience.

Its just downright dangerous. If youve ever stood on La Crosse Street and tried to cross, at certain times of the day, youre taking your life into your hands, said Barb Janssen, co-chair of the Grandview Emerson Neighborhood Association.

Theres no excuse for that dangerous condition to continue.

With all of the school children, university students, neighbors and park enthusiasts who walk, run or bike through that corridor, its time to make changes to increase safety.

Tonight, the La Crosse Common Council will consider $470,000 in safety improvements for La Crosse Street, Campbell Road and Myrick Park, and the investment is long overdue.

Work will include adding pedestrian crossings, speed-indicator signs, trees and bike lanes  all designed to make the neighborhood easier to traverse for the thousands of residents and visitors who use it daily.

Sadly, there are too few drivers who obey the pedestrian crosswalks and show courtesy to those who wish to cross.

Regardless of the circumstances, all of that congestion can have fatal consequences.

A bright, talented UW-L student from China, Jing Gu, was killed in 2012 after she was struck by a vehicle while crossing La Crosse Street near Oakland Street.

Four others reported being hit by vehicles while trying to cross La Crosse in the past five years, and there were five collisions of bicycle and vehicle from 2011 to 2015.

On the other side of campus, two key administrators of UW-L were struck and seriously injured while crossing State Street. Since then, a pedestrian crossing  with flashing lights and narrowed lanes  has made the crossing safer.

Crossings have been added along West Avenue, too, to help the hundreds of students cross from neighborhood to campus each day. Still, too many drivers are in too much of a hurry and dont use good judgment.

But, its clear the pedestrian crossings and other safety measures are a smart way of making our neighborhoods safer for everyone.

Thankfully, there are so many reasons to enjoy that neighborhood.

There really needs to be a safe harbor for people to get off the street and be able to head over to the park and the marsh trails, Janssen said.

Her neighborhood group has done a nice job of building consensus among residents, using a community survey to develop ideas and priorities for improving the neighborhood.

The results were clear: Please make it safer and easier to enjoy our parks and other attractions.

The biggest project requested by GENA is a $60,000 pedestrian crossing at the corner of La Crosse Street and Myrick Park Lane

On Campbell Road, the recommendation includes adding safety crossings for the students and families heading to and from Emerson School.

These are not frivolous projects. They will make our neighborhoods safer and easier to use and enjoy.

Its hard to imagine a better investment.
On university and college campuses across the country, speakers have been shouted down, interrupted and protested. Recently, the University of Minnesotas president called it a form of bullying and urged students to respect opposing points of view.

Last month, conservative journalist Milo Yiannopoulos spoke at the University of Minnesota. Hes well known for provoking controversy.

He was interrupted three times during his talk by air horns.

More than a dozen campus police officers were on hand to escort protesters out and keep others from entering.

A conservative campus organization, Minnesota Republic, set up the Yiannopoulos talk. Blake Krausel was at the door, greeting guests.

If they wanted to be in here and respectfully listen and ask questions at the end, I encourage it, he said. Theyre more than welcome to voice their opinions outside. As long as its not disrupting the speech, the speakers, then we have no problem with it. Theyre more than welcome to protest.

Skyler Dorr with Students for a Democratic Society was outside the auditorium holding a sign and shouting as people walked in.

So theres this idea that were opposing free speech, which is ridiculous, Dorr said. What were really doing is just using our right to free speech and free assembly.

Two weeks later, President Eric Kaler devoted some of his state of the university speech to a trend he doesnt like.

I am opposed to hate speech of any kind. While the university encourages all members of the community to speak with respect and understanding of others, we should not forbid speech that shocks, hurts or angers. We must not tolerate the shouting down of points of view as weve seen in our community in recent months, he said.

But some contend shouting down or rejecting speakers altogether is a form of protected speech.

Greg Magarian is a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis. He said civil debate is essential.

But, at the same time, when those flashpoints occur, when those clashes occur, yeah, of course that stimulates thinking and argument and discussion. So, theres a paradox, he said.

St. Olaf College political science professor Dan Hofrenning, who heads the schools Institute on Freedom and Community, said protest, in many cases, has been a key in making changes and starting conversations.

If some particular political perspective is consistently ignored, you can understand where people feel like they have to try other tactics to get heard, Hofrenning said.

St. Olaf used a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to address the issue of debate and political discourse. The school hosts debates on hot button issues such as race and policing. The debates also serve to show students how to engage in civil debate.

Outside the Yiannopoulos talk at the U of M, junior Connor Mikry stood near two dozen protesters. He held a sign.

So my sign reads, is there a liberal ideology so fragile that we cant let him speak?

Mikry said he detests Yiannopoulos views.

I just dont want us to get to the point where were able to shut down anybody that will have views that are too far to one direction, he said.

After the three air horn blasts, Yiannopoulos talk continued without more disruptions.
MADISON  The personal and political lives of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and an embattled state Supreme Court justice have been intertwined for decades, starting with their overlapping semesters at Marquette University, where the future justice penned anti-gay opinion pieces and threatened to resign from the student government over a multicultural course requirement.

Justice Rebecca Bradleys writings bashing gays, feminism, abortion and political correctness at Marquette University from the early 1990s resurfaced this week, in the midst of her run for a full 10-year term on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. They have become a central issue in the April 5 election, where she faces state Appeals Court Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg.

Walker hasnt said whether he knew about Bradleys writings before he appointed her to three judicial openings. Bradley said she has never spoken with Walker about them.

But his political opponents say theres no way the former Republican presidential candidate couldnt have known about Bradleys outspoken positions, given their connections at Marquette.

Walker and Bradley only overlapped at the private Jesuit school in Milwaukee for a year, a time when they coincidentally both had letters to the editor published in the student newspaper, an Associated Press review of records showed. Bradleys most controversial writings, including her column calling gay people queers and degenerates, were not published until two years after Walker left college.

Bradley, in a forum Wednesday at the Milwaukee Bar Association, apologized for the third time in as many days for her college opinions, saying her views are different today thanks to a mosaic of life experiences.

There are other ties from Marquette connecting Bradley and Walker decades ago.

The future state Supreme Court justice served as a senator on Marquettes student government alongside Jim Villa, one of Walkers longest and most trusted advisers. Villa and Bradley were on the student senate together at a heated meeting in 1991 where Bradley slammed down her nameplate and threatened to resign during a discussion of whether the university should add a multicultural course requirement, according to an article in the Marquette Tribune, the student newspaper.

Villa, who graduated from Marquette in 1994, went on to serve as Walkers chief of staff for five years when Walker was Milwaukee County executive and as an informal adviser to Walkers ill-fated presidential run last year. Villa, who is also a close personal friend of Walkers, currently works as a top vice president at the University of Wisconsin.

Scot Ross, director of One Wisconsin Now, the liberal group that brought to light Bradleys college writings, said he thinks Villa must have told Walker about Bradleys political past.

But Villa told AP on Wednesday that he did not, even as she was applying for judicial appointments. He said he remembered Bradley from college, but they were not close friends.

I didnt advise the governor on Rebecca Bradleys appointments, whatsoever, Villa said. He also said he didnt talk with Walker about her college writings.

Not only did I not speak to him about it, I didnt remember those writings, Villa said.

Walkers spokeswoman, Laurel Patrick, didnt immediately respond to messages asking when Walker first met Bradley and first learned of her college writing.

Bradley told reporters Wednesday that she cant remember when she first met Walker, and that shes never discussed her college writings with him.

Theyve practically been neighbors for the past decade. Their homes in Wauwatosa are around the corner from one another, less than half a mile away. Walker put his house up for sale in January.

Another column written by Bradley for Marquettes student magazine in 1992 came to light Wednesday. In it, Bradley argued that writer and critic Camille Paglia legitimately suggested that women play a role in date rape. In a collection of essays published that year, Paglia wrote that a girl who gets dead drunk at a fraternity party is a fool, and that if she goes upstairs with a fraternity brother she is an idiot.

Feminists call this blaming the victim. I call it common sense, Paglia wrote.

Bradley also wrote that she intended to expose the feminist movement as largely composed of angry, militant, man-hating lesbians who abhor the traditional family.

Bradley didnt disclose any of the college writings in the application materials she submitted to Walker for the three judicial openings, even though the application forms asked for a list of academic activities, including extracurricular involvement. She did list her time as a Marquette University student senator and as editor of the student newspaper at Divine Savior Holy Angels High School.

Walker first appointed Bradley as a judge on the Milwaukee County circuit court in 2012 before naming her to the state Court of Appeals in May 2015. He named her to the state Supreme Court last October. Bradley also donated $250 to Walkers recall election campaign in 2012.

Bradley has tried to distance herself from Walker, arguing that she applies the law independently and fairly and does not let politics sway her decisions. The race is officially nonpartisan, but conservatives are backing Bradley and liberals are supporting Kloppenburg.

Walker on Tuesday dodged a question about whether he would have appointed Bradley had she disclosed any of her previous writings, which have elicited criticism from liberals and Democrats who say she should resign over her anti-gay comments.

Its really irrelevant, Walker said, adding its right now up to the voters.
MADISON  A La Crosse woman who passed six balloons containing marijuana to an inmate during a long kiss was placed on two years probation Wednesday in federal court.

While visiting the Federal Correctional Institution in Oxford with a friend, Kalean Erickson, 35, struck up a relationship with Curtis Stewart, 37, who had been sentenced for robbery, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Anderson said.

During the span of several visits, Stewart convinced Erickson to bring him marijuana contained in balloons and explained how she should pass it to him, Anderson said.

On Dec. 14, 2014, Erickson greeted Stewart in a visitation area with an extended kiss, which is prohibited contact at Oxford FCI and made guards suspicious about the couple, said Anderson.

These are closely monitored visits, he said.

After the visit, guards put Stewart in a cell without plumbing and waited for him to pass the balloons. Six balloons were recovered, and their contents tested positive for marijuana, said Anderson.

Erickson was living in a shelter and caring for her children when she met Stewart, her attorney, Kelly Welsh, told Magistrate Stephen Crocker.

She was in the lowest place Ive seen of any of my clients, Welsh said.

But in the past 15 months, Ericksons transformation to a more stable life has been amazing, said Welsh. Shell never do anything this stupid again.

Erickson told Crocker that she knew that what she did was wrong and it put her and her childrens lives at risk. As part of her transformation she has quit associating with criminals and wants to live more responsibly.

In exchange for agreeing to testify against Stewart, Erickson was charged with a misdemeanor, introducing a prohibited item into a prison, which has maximum penalties of six months in prison.

Crocker said he would impose probation only and echoed Welshs remarks that Erickson was in a pretty deep valley when she committed the offense.

Stewart, who has since been transferred to a federal prison in Pennsylvania, was indicted Wednesday for possessing contraband in prison. He faces a maximum of five years in prison if convicted.
Jonathan Abbamonte

There are no restrictions on the use of hormonal contraceptives, including DMPA for women at high risk of HIV (MEC Category 1)



There is no evidence of a causal association between DMPA use and an increase in womens risk of HIV acquisition.



Women and couples at high risk of HIV acquisition considering progestogen-only injectables should also be informed about and have access to HIV preventive measures, including male and female condoms.



March 8, 2016 ( POP ) -- A new peer-reviewed study conducted in collaboration with the Population Research Institute (PRI), shows that women who use Depo-Provera are significantly more likely to acquire HIV.Due to funding from organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and agencies like the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Depo-Provera is the most widely used form of birth control by women in Sub-Saharan Africa where HIV prevalence remains high.The study found that Depo-Provera and other DMPA based injectable contraceptives increased womens risk of acquiring HIV-1 by 49% compared to those not using hormonal contraception.Depo-Provera, a pharmaceutical brand owned by Pfizer, Inc., is a long-term injectable contraceptive that prevents pregnancy for three months.The active ingredient in Depo-Provera, and other injectable contraceptives like Depo Sub-Q Provera 104, is a progestin known as depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA). DMPA based injectable contraceptives account for an estimated 70% of injectable contraceptives procured by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and government agencies, like the UNFPA and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).The study involved a meta-analysis of 23 articles from peer-reviewed journals, making this study the largest of its kind to date. The authors found consistent evidence that women using DMPA acquired the HIV-1 virus at significantly higher rates than the general population. In total, 88% of cross-sectional studies and 75% of longitudinal studies demonstrated a higher risk among DMPA users.Joel Brind, Professor of Biology and Endocrinology at the City University of New York, Steven Condly, Research Psychologist at the U.S. Military Academy, Steven W. Mosher, President of the Population Research Institute, Anne Morse, graduate student at Pennsylvania State University, and Jennifer Kimball, Adjunct Professor of Bioethics at the Ave Maria School of Law participated in the study.The authors also delved into possible biological explanations for why DMPA increases the risk of HIV. Researchers found a number of studies showing that DMPA weakens the bodys immune system and thins natural epithelial barriers that prevent the HIV virus from infecting women.While study after study has demonstrated a clear and strong association between HIV and DMPA, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Gates Foundation and other interested parties involved in procuring injectable contraceptives worldwide have been less keen on the issue.The WHOs failure to acknowledge the associated risk has caused a controversy that has spanned political persuasions on both the left and the right.A controversial statement released by the WHO acknowledges the evidence of an increased HIV risk. Yet, in spite of the associated risks involved, the WHO recommends that:While scientists are still not certain why women who used DMPA were more likely to acquire HIV, a number of studies have found significant evidence of possible causal associations between DMPA and HIV transmission.Huijbreghts, et al. (2013),for example, found in in vitro experiments that MPA decreased immune cells production of cytokines and chemokines essentially to the immune system and reduced the proliferation of T-cells. Others like Govender, et al. (2014),have shown that MPA, unlike endogenous progesterone, represses inflammatory cytokines by acting as a glucocorticoid receptor agonist.In spite of the evidence, the WHO claims:It is unclear why the WHO continues to ignore the evidence of the associated risk of HIV. Some have suggested that the WHO and the U.N. are catering to some their largest donors. Up to 10% of the WHOs annual budget is financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. DMPA injectables are often appealing for population control programs because they are not subject to user-error and remain effective for long periods of time.The WHO could also be turning a blind eye to the issue in light of the recent release of Sayana Press, Pfizers one-time use DMPA injectable intended for self-injection, which has been strongly promoted with the support of the Gates Foundation, USAID, and others. Trial introductions of the injectable in Africa have not relied on doctors and nurses but rather largely on unlicensed community health workers for distribution. A stronger statement from the WHO on recommendations for DMPA use would necessarily hamper efforts to widely distribute the new injectable contraceptive.Depo-Provera is also one of Pfizers fastest growing products by total sales, with an almost 30% increase in revenue from FY 2012-2013. In 2014, Pfizer took in over $200 million in revenues from Depo-Provera salesSource: LifeSite NewsWith HIV prevalence rates exceeding 20% of the adult population in some African countries, the WHO offers condoms as a solution to any possible risk associated with the use of DMPA. According to the WHO:As Brind, et al. (2015) includes both DMPA users who reported using and not using condoms, there is reason to doubt that the recommendationthat serodiscordant and high risk couples use barrier methods such as condoms for protection against HIV-1 transmissionwill be effective. As condom failure rates for pregnancy prevention are 18-21% within the first year with typical use,failure rates for STI prevention are likely similar.Areas where HIV prevalence is high are also areas where condom use is inconsistent and has high failure rates.A large study in Ugandashowed inconsistent condom use failed to protect against HIV acquisition. Inconsistent users were found to contract HIV at incidence rates higher than persons who reported not using condoms at all. Even as consistent usage was found to reduce the risk, almost four times as many persons who reported using condoms used them inconsistently rather than consistently. As Uganda ranked 10th in the world for HIV prevalence among adults of reproductive age in 2013, according WHO data, adopting a policy of recommending condom usage with DMPA could have disastrous consequences.Conversely, Niger, a country with one of the lowest contraceptive prevalence rates in the world, has one of the lowest HIV prevalence rates in Sub-Saharan Africa. Prevalence of HIV among adults of reproductive age in Niger match those in Spain and are only 0.1% higher than HIV prevalence in the U.K. According to 2012 data from the U.N. Population Division, female contraceptive prevalence in the U.K. was second only to China.It is not likely that advising women who use DMPA to also use condoms will have much effect. Even in the United States where contraceptive prevalence and education remains high, among couples who report using dual methods of contraception, over 40% reported using condoms incorrectly and half fail to use them on a consistent basis.As less than one-third of South African women using hormonal contraception reported using dual methods,it is irresponsible to counsel women to use condoms as an effective means of protection against HIV.For more information about PRIs new study and the promotion of injectable contraceptive worldwide, visit https://www.pop.org/depo-provera-hiv 1. Joel Brind, Steven J. Condly, Steven W. Mosher, Anne R. Morse, and Jennifer Kimball, Risk of HIV infection in depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) users: a systematic review and meta-analysis, Issues in Law & Medicine, 2015; 30(2):129-139.2. Huijbregts, Richard P. H., E. Scott Helton, Katherine G. Michel, Steffanie Sabbaj, Holly E. Richter, Paul A. Goepfert, Zdenek Hell, Hormonal contraception and HIV-1 infection: medroxyprogesterone acetate suppresses innate and adaptive immune mechanisms, Endocrinology, 2013; 154(3): 1282-1295, doi: 10.1210/en.2012-1850.3. Govender, Yashini, Chanel Avenant, Nicolette J. D. Verhoog, Roslyn M. Ray, Nicholas J. Grantham, Donita Africander, Janet P. Hapgood, The injectable-only contraceptive medroxyprogesterone acetate, unlike norethisterone acetate and progesterone, regulates inflammatory genes in endocervical cells via the glucocorticoid receptor, PLOS ONE, 2014; 9(5), doi:10. 1371/journal.pone.0096497.4. Lisa B. Haddad, Chelsea B. Polis, Anandi N. Sheth, Jennifer Brown, Athena P. Kourtis, Caroline King, Rana Chakraborty, Igho Ofotokun, Contraceptive methods and risk of HIV acquisition or female-to-male transmission, HHS public access author manuscript, published in: Current HIV/AIDS Reports, 2014; 11(4): 447458, doi:10.1007/s11904-014-0236-6.5. Saifuddin Ahmed, Tom Lutalo, Maria Wawer, David Serwadda, Nelson K. Sewankambo, Fred Nalugoda, Fred Makumbi, Fred Wabwire-Mangen, Noah Kiwanuka, Godfrey Kigozi, Mohamed Kiddugavu and Ron Gray, HIV incidence and sexually transmitted disease prevalence associated with condom use: a population study in Rakai, Uganda, AIDS, 2001; 15:2171-2179.6. Jenny A. Higgins, Nicole K. Smith, Stephanie A. Sanders, Vanessa Schick, Debby Herbenick, Michael Reece, Brian Dodge, J. Dennis Fortenberry, Dual method use at last sexual encounter: a nationally representative, episode-level analysis of US men and women, HHS public access author manuscript, published in: Contraception, 2014; 90(4): 399406, doi:10.1016/j.contraception.2014.06.003.7. Catherine MacPhail, Audrey Pettifor, Sophie Pascoe, Helen Rees, Predictors of dual method use for pregnancy and HIV prevention among adolescent South African women, Contraception, 2007; 75(5): 383-389.Reprinted with permission from Population Research Institute


Cambodia's ruling party spokesman has dismissed a report that the Prime Minister inflated the number of "likes" on his Facebook page.

Prime Minister Hun Sen, of the Cambodian Peoples Party, recently announced he had reached 3 million likes on the social media site. He joked that his popularity made him "the Facebook Prime Minister."

He joined Facebook six months ago. Hun Sen appeared to have overtaken opposition leader Sam Rainsys 2.2 million likes. Sam Rainsy, head of the Cambodian National Rescue Party, has been on Facebook for at least five years.

Wednesday, a report released from The Phnom Penh Post newspaper said that only about 20 percent of Hun Sen's recently added fans were Cambodia-based users. The report noted numbers from the media analytics company socialbakers.com.

Many of the likes came from countries whose citizens would have little reason to support Cambodias long-time ruler. The report also said a great number of likes posted in the past 30 days came from India, the Philippines, Burma, Indonesia, Turkey and Mexico.

The report raised the question that the prime minister might have been buying his popularity on the site.

Chok Sopheap is executive director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights. She said she was "surprised" by the report, adding that it raises questions about the transparency of Facebooks "likes" function. Cambodian politicians have used Facebook likes to compete for popularity.

She added that a politicians popularity should not be judged by social media activity alone, but by their effectiveness as public officials.

"The real concern is that the users themselves have to understand that the number of likes they gain on Facebook does not [accurately] reflect their popularity or [whether] theres full support for them," she said.

Nget Moses is head of the Internet technology department at Phnom Penh-based CENTRAL, an online rights advocacy group. He explained that Facebook users could pay money to advertise their Facebook posts or page, a mechanism known as "boosting."

"We cannot use money to buy likes," he told VOA Khmer. "However, what we can do is pay money to boost our page or posts in order to reach a wider audience, as well as select where the page or the posts can be most seen.

The expert suggested that the administrators of the Prime Ministers Facebook Page could release reports on the page.

Sok Eysan, spokesman for the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party, dismissed the report. He said the prime minister had no reason to inflate his online popularity. He added that it was mostly people within the nation.

Hun Sen has been in power for more than 30 years. He recently announced that Cambodians can send messages directly to his Facebook page in order to raise concerns and issues.

He also urged officials to create their own Facebook pages along with accounts for government institutions.

Political observers said Hun Sen is hoping that he can use Facebook to gain popularity. Important local, commune elections take place in 2017 and national elections are to be held the following year.

I'm Mario Ritter.

Neou Vannarin in Phnom Penh reported this story for VOANews.com. Mario Ritter adapted the story for Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

inflate  v. to say something is larger or more important than it actually is

boost  v. to increase the amount of something


North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Wednesday his country has developed nuclear weapons of a size small enough for a ballistic missile.

This is the first time the North Korean leader has made such a claim.

The state Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Wednesday that Kim met with nuclear scientists and technicians. It said they discussed "research conducted to tip various types of tactical and strategic ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads."

The agency also published photographs that appeared to show the North Korean leader visiting a factory where the warheads were made.

The authenticity of the photos could not be independently confirmed. A number of military experts have said they question the North Korean claim.

U.S. military leaders have said in the past that North Korea has the right connections and technology to develop a small nuclear device. However, the country has yet to demonstrate that ability.

The claim comes as North Korea faces intense international pressure because of its recent nuclear and missile tests.

North Koreas public diplomacy, or lack of it, has only increased the pressure. Last week, North Korea answered new United Nations sanctions by firing projectiles into the sea. Kim also threatened to carry out a nuclear strike against South Korea and the United States.

History of confrontational words

Brian Myers studies North Korean propaganda. He wrote the 2010 book, The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why it Matters.

He said the Norths confrontational public relations campaigns go back to the countrys founder, Kim Il Sung. He came to power with the help of the Soviet Union at the end of World War II.

Myers is an associate professor of International Studies at Dongseo University in South Korea. He said North Korea uses threats and warlike language as a way to get the U.S. government to react.

"This rhetoric is the North's way of saying to Washington, You guys better keep us on the front burner because we are just as ready to fight and die as your enemies in the Middle East are.

In recent years, North Korea's language has become stronger and more bellicose. Myers says that is partly because more information from overseas is entering the North.

"In the old days, the regime could make very peaceful noises to the outside world and make very bellicose racist noises in what I call megaphone propaganda, the sort of thing that North Koreans get in their farms and factories.

But now, as more and more North Koreans access outside sources of information, as you just said, the regime is under much and more pressure to speak in one voice. And that means making much the same warlike and often racist noises in export propaganda that it has always made on the home front."

Myers says North Korea's warlike statements are meant to increase a sense of national pride. Outside the country, they are designed to increase anti-American feelings in South Korea and other countries.

This use of language may be counterproductive. However, Myers believes this rhetoric reflects the uncompromising position of the North Korean leadership.

"Those are ultranationalists, who are genuinely outraged by the presence of American troops in South Korea, who remain genuinely committed to reunifying the peninsula. And this is the problem with ultranationalists everywhere, is that it's very difficult for them to put themselves in the shoes of other nations, of other races, and has great difficulty presenting itself in a sophisticated way to them.

Im Mario Ritter.

VOAs Brian Padden in Seoul reported on this story for VOANews.com. Mario Ritter adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Leave your thoughts in the Comments section and on our Facebook page.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

ballistic missile  n. a missile designed to travel long distances to deliver explosives

projectile  n. something launched as a weapon

confrontational  adj. challenging or opposing someone in a strong or threatening way

bellicose  adj. warlike, ready to argue or fight

regime  n. a system of government

authenticity  n. the quality of being truthful

pride  n. a feeling of self-respect, a feeling of importance

rhetoric  n. language used to influence people


Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders won primary elections in Michigan on Tuesday.

Sanders victory in the Democratic Party primary in Michigan was a surprise, or upset, against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Many polls showed Clinton a big favorite to defeat Sanders. Sanders, a senator from Vermont, got 50 percent of the vote in Michigan. Clinton received 48 percent of the vote.

Sanders said the victory in Michigan means his political revolution is strong across America.

Sanders had support from minorities and young voters, according to pollsters.

Clinton won the primary held Tuesday in the southern state of Mississippi.

Clinton has the support of 1,221 delegates according to the Associated Press delegate tracker. Sanders has 571.

A total of 2,383 Democratic delegates are needed to be nominated.

Republican Party candidate Donald Trump widened his lead for the GOP nomination with victories in Michigan, Mississippi and Hawaii.

Trump won in Michigan by receiving 37 percent of the vote. He won the support of 25 delegates.

Ted Cruz, a senator from Texas, won the Idaho primary. Cruz finished second to Trump in the Michigan primary.

The state primary to watch for the GOP candidates next week is the Florida primary. Republican candidate Marco Rubio is a senator from Florida. He predicted victory in his home state. Ninety-nine delegates are at stake in the Florida primary.

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 supporters.

Trump also predicted victory in Florida. He called Florida his second home. Trump is ahead in the polls over Rubio.

Trump has won 458 delegates, overall. Cruz is in second place with 359 delegates. A total of 1,237 GOP delegates are needed for nomination.

Im Dorothy Gundy.

This story is based on reports from 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 and visit our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

primary election  n. an election in which members of the same political party compete against each other for the chance to be in a more important election

poll  n. an activity in which several or many people are asked a series of questions in order to get information about what most people think about something

Democratic Party  n. one of the two main political parties in the U.S.

Republican Party  n. one of the two main political parties in the U.S.

GOP  n. short for "Grand Old Party," the nickname of the Republican Party

stake  n. in a position to be lost or gained


This is Whats Trending Today.

English record producer George Martin is credited with helping The Beatles become famous.

He is the only producer that would offer them a recording contract after they had been rejected by many others.

He helped John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr produce 20 No. 1 songs during the 1960s.

Martin died on March 8. The news came out on the morning of March 9. He was 90 years old.

According to an obituary in the Washington Post, Martin studied piano while he was a boy in London before World War II. He entered the Navy during the war, then studied music and oboe.

He started his career with the British Broadcasting Corporation, working in the music library.

In 1950, he went to work for the record company EMI. Twelve years later, he met The Beatles. And a short time after, he helped them create their first big hit, called Please Please Me, in early 1963.

McCartney and Starr used Twitter to send messages expressing their respect for Martin and their sadness about his death.

McCartney said: The world has lost a truly great man, and he was like a second father to me. He posted a photo of the two of them from a recording session and referred people to a longer blog post on his website.

Starr posted a message saying, Thank you for all your love and kindness, George, Peace and Love... It also included a photo of The Beatles with Martin when they were just getting started.

Martin produced the famous Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Other songs that Martin recorded with The Beatles were Cant Buy Me Love, Yesterday, Hey Jude, Penny Lane and Eleanor Rigby.

Lots of people expressed their feelings about Martin and The Beatles after hearing the news.

Martin was the top trending topic on Twitter, with almost 300,000 mentions.

British Prime Minister David Cameron called Martin, a giant of music.

John Lennons son, Sean, said Im so gutted. I dont have many words. Gutted is a British English slang word meaning sad and disappointed.

American record producer Quincy Jones, famous for working with Michael Jackson, called Martin his musical brother.

Mark Ronson, another British music producer who earned his fame more recently by working with Amy Winehouse and Bruno Mars, said we will never stop living in the world you helped create.

And Thats Whats Trending Today.

Im Dan Friedell.

Dan Friedell wrote this story for Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor.

What is your favorite Beatles song from the time Martin worked with the band? Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

producer  n. someone who supervises the recording (or production) of a performer's music.

contract  n. a legal agreement between people and businesses to produce work for pay

hit  n. something that is very successful, like a song, movie or book

slang  n. words and expressions that are considered informal in speech

gutted  adj. sad or depressed

obituary  n. a report in a newspaper about the life of someone who has died recently
It is a shame that the Sandinista issue in the debate is proving to be just Clinton's way of calling out to old Reagan-ites and doing her shitty redbaiting, because what happened in Central America in the eighties has a lot of relevance to what is happening today.

The eighties were the crest of a century of American interventions in Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America. Any quasi-endogenous political structure had to be vetted with the USA, or the USA would simply knock it over. Ditto with economic po licy.

However, although the US took the right to intervene as it saw fit, it did not, as other imperialist systems did, take on the responsibility for governing, or for developing these areas in any way. Even the Soviets in Eastern Europe aided the development of industry. Not the US.

In consequence of a hundred years of soft imperialism, the US helped produced a perfect pocket of poor and desperate people. Many of them have, in the past two decades, decided to immigrate, one way or another, to the US. Why not? After all, they have the experience of having their own independence in their own countries overturned by the whim of American power.

This is not, as the snark-fest on twitter treats it, just an old story. It is the story of the pattern of American foreign policy.

To see what Reagan did in Central America is to see what Clinton advocated in North Africa and the Middle East. Intervention without responsibility.

The result is a sort of speeded up picture of Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. Libya is a perfect example. Intervention ruined the country, and irresponsibility didn't wait around to build it up. The Benghazi crime is not, as the GOP would have it, that Clinton abandoned Benghazi. The crime is that Obama, with CLinton urging him on, performed another immoral act of imperialism on the cheap.

Result? In Central America, the result is not only poverty, but a huge drug economy and states like El Salvador crippled by gangs. In Libya, the result is a state fractured between gangs, and providing a launching point for desperate refugees aiming for Europe.

Unfortunately, there will not be a question in this election campaign that will come close to pointing at this malign syndrome. Nobody will ask the obvious question: why, if we are unwilling to accept millions of immigrants, did we spend a trillion dollars in Afghanistan over the last fourteen years instead of Mexico or Central America? Because the answer is rooted in the same shadow side in the States that produces systematic racism: exploitation without responsibility, and a wholly unearned feeling that the fruits of that exploitation are somehow "earned".
When JK Rowling announced that she would be releasing a new story called The History of Magic in North America, fans were understandably elated.

While she has released the occasional snippet or story on her website Pottermore, her literary endeavours of late have been more in the R Galbraith (the pseudonym under which she writes detective fiction) direction.

So for her to return to the wizarding world, with perhaps some in-depth writing is exciting  we can well image how much gleeful-hand-rubbing that might have generated. History of Magic in North America was to be released in four parts, exclusively on Pottermore, laying the background for the Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them film which releases this November.

Is the new story worth the hype?

Two of the four promised pieces are already out on Pottermore, titled Fourteenth Century to Seventeenth Century and Seventeenth Century and Beyond, but theyre not exactly stories. They read more like an academic thesis on the magical world in North America  if academic theses included terms like Non-Maj (apparently, the American slang for Muggles).

The first piece tells readers that the magical world they thought they knew is just the tip of the iceberg and that theres a whole history to it that we just arent aware of.

So Rowling describes the early years of North America, before European Non-Majs (should that be Majii?) began going over in droves. She says that magical folk, however, knew each other across continents. She then refers to specific Native American folklore (such as that of skin walkers, or those who could change from human to animal form) to explain the presence of these magical folk on the continent.

The second piece looks into the hardships even magic folk faced when they came to the New Continent (Rowling says they were driven there by feuds, persecution). She describes a menace called the scourers who basically created a slave trade of sorts in witches and wizards and some hapless Muggles too. The Salem Witch trials, she writes, were triggered by some of these scourers. The incident may have contributed to the formation of the Magical Congress of the Unites States of America.

There isnt much storytelling here, and the pieces themselves are fairly short. This is more a basic narration of a history for the world her characters will come to inhabit.

What is it all leading up to?

History of Magic in North America is a prequel of sorts to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which in a way, is a prequel to the Harry Potter series. Phew.

We first came across Fantastic Beasts in Harrys curriculum at Hogwarts, and the textbooks author, Newt Scamander. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them tells the story of how Scamander  a magizoologist  comes across, well, several fantastic beasts.

History of Magic in North America will bring the narrative to 1920s America, which is around the time when Scamander (played by Eddie Redmayne in the film, which Rowling has scripted) comes to New York, and kickstarts his adventures.

Not everyone is happy

Rowlings first piece has made at least one section of readers unhappy  Native Americans. They have accused the writer of appropriating their cultural myths (such as that of skin walkers, a phenomenon thats a Navajo legend) to spin her yarns.

Objections have also been raised to Rowlings use of the term Native American community, which is felt not to take into account the multiplicity and diversity of the people and their cultures. Some self-confessed Potterheads took to social media to say that they felt their culture had been used as a convenient prop by the writer, while others said it was disrespectfully done. Rowling has not responded to these comments so far.

because @jk_rowling has based her "native wizards" off the same racist stereotypes & miseducation that JM Barrie used in Peter Pan.  Johnnie Jae (@johnniejae) March 8, 2016

Some cranky, tired thoughts about Rowling's "Magical America", and what could have been. https://t.co/aWtIeO83sp  N. K. Jemisin (@nkjemisin) March 9, 2016

Watch the trailer for History of Magic in North America here:
Bollywood superstar Salman Khan has pleaded not guilty in his Arms Act case in a Jodhpur court.

The Times of India reported that Khan left Mumbai in the early hours of Thursday morning, and reached Jodhpur by 9.15 am. After consulting with his lawyers, Khan headed to court to record his statement before the chief judicial magistrate.

This is the third time that Salman has appeared in the Jodhpur court for the same case.

Pleading his innocence, Salman Khan alleged that he has been framed by forest officials as he recorded his statement in a court here in an

Arms Act case against him in connection with poaching of protected black bucks at Kankani village in October, 1998.

"I am innocent and have been framed by the forest officials," Khan said before the chief judicial magistrate.

Referring to a statement signed by him in which a witness Uday Raghvan had stated that he had brought the arms from Mumbai following directions from Khan, the actor claimed that he had signed the statement under pressure from forest officials.

At the start, Khan told the court "I am Indian and that is my caste".

Salman also replied to general questions the court posed with respect to his name, his father's name, age, residential address and caste etc. However, on being asked about the allegations levelled against him by the prosecution, Salman pleaded "not guilty".

He said to the court: "Main nirdosh hoon. Mujhe jhootha fansaya gaya hai (I am not guilty and I have been falsely implicated)."

Salman's sister Alvira and his bodyguard Shera were also present during the court proceedings. He stayed in the court for less than half an hour.

Chief Judicial Magistrate Dalpat Singh Rajpurohit on March 3 asked Salman to appear before the court to record his statement as an accused in the court.

The Arms Act case against the actor is an offshoot of the blackbuck poaching incident which took place in October 1998 near Jodhpur, while he was shooting for Sooraj Barjatyas Hum Saath Saath Hain. Salman had been accused of poaching three chinkaras and a blackbuck near Kankani village.

Later, the forest department registered a case under the Arms Act against Khan on 15 October 1998, stating that the licences of the guns used he used for allegedly hunting the animals.

According to The Indian Express, however, Khan has argued that he had applied for the licences to be renewed.

The Arms Act was passed by the Indian parliament in 1959 to curb the use of illegal weapons in the country.

With inputs from IANS
The fandom is strong with Star Wars.

So strong that no matter how much effort is put into the writing and production of a movie, fans are bound pick on sequences and even take offence.

One such (major spoilers ahead!) instance from the latest, Star Wars: Force Awakens, was when following Han Solo's death, when Rey, Chewbacca and and Finn return to the rebel base, Leia Organa hugs Rey, whom she has never met before, while Chewie walks right past her.

via GIPHY

Why Chewie get no hugs?

via GIPHY

The concern raised was, why would Leia choose to embrace a complete stranger, Rey and ignore Chewbacca  Han's best friend and someone she's known for years?

Well, no one to better to quench the burning thirst of the raging fans than director JJ Abrams himself.

In an interview with Slash Film, Abrams offered a clarification regarding the scene.

That was probably one of the mistakes I made in that. My thinking at the time was that Chewbacca, despite the pain he was feeling, was focused on trying to save Finn and getting him taken care of. So I tried to have Chewbacca go off with him and focus on Rey, and then have Rey find Leia and Leia find Rey. The idea being that both of them being strong with the Force and never having met, would know about each other  that Leia would have been told about her beyond what we saw onscreen and Rey of course would have learned about Leia. And that reunion would be a meeting and a reunion all in one, and a sort of commiseration of their mutual loss.

He also added that if Chewbacca wasn't present in the scene, perhaps it wouldn't have irked the fans so much. You never know, JJ.

So there you have it. The man is sorry and we can move on.

Meanwhile, here is another awesome hug from the franchise:

via GIPHY
Every year, the Hindi film industry comes out with close to 1000 films a year, and (excuse the blanket statement, but we're sure you agree with us) about 900 of them are love stories. We are the masters of churning out multiple versions of the girl-meets-boy-and-they-fall-in-love premise.

And who is the master of them all? Yash Raj Films. They've been the pioneers in love stories since Rajesh Khanna's Daag back in 1973. Think of all the romantic milestones of the industry, and YRF will probably be behind most of them. And yet, they churn out fresh takes on love and romance every year.

It takes a different kind of talent to do the same thing differently, time and again. This time, YRF's youth division Y Films, has come out with a new web series titled 'Love Shots' which they are calling a collection of six short films with a twist.

" Love Shots is our gear shift from web series to the short films format -- guaranteed to get you high on love," said Ashish Patil, head of Y Films, at the premiere of the series.

First in the series is a film titled The Road Trip, and it stars Nimrat Kaur and Tahir Raj Bhasin (of Mardaani fame). The 10-minute short film revolves around a married couple whose car breaks down on their way to Pune from Mumbai.

The most refreshing thing about the film is not its actors or the fact that it is dialogue heavy (akin to the Before Sunrise series), but it is realistically showing a conversation between a married couple, which steers from old crushes, to older brothers and even the couple's preferred taste in music.

Nimrat Kaur is a breath of fresh air (as she usually is) and even though she plays quite the typical wife character, her responses are genuine. Bhasin, on the other hand, (apart from looking drool-worthy) matches up to Kaur's authenticity to a point where it seems as a though there is no camera and you're eavesdropping on a private conversation.

If we reveal anything else about The Road Trip, we'll be giving away crucial elements about the film. What you should look out for however, is a small snippet of their next film Koi Dekh Lega at the end of the film, starring the yummy Saqib Saleem, and Shweta Tripathi, of Masaan fame. Also don't miss the soothing single 'Life Changes Everything' helmed by Nischay Parekh and Ankur Tiwari, who is also the director of The Road Trip.

Watch the film down below:
New Delhi - Vittal Mallya was very careful with money. The business tycoon, whose son Vijay has been hogging headlines across newspapers this week for alleged money laundering, failure to repay bank loans and other misdemeanors, was mindful of the fact that money with him was shareholders wealth and he had no business wasting any of it.

In his book The Vijay Mallya Story, senior journalist K Giriprakash has devoted an entire chapter to the father. It was after all, the elder who laid the foundations of the Mallya empire and after whose death the son went about creating an enormous corporation before one company in this empire, Kingfisher Airlines, caused that fortune to crash and burn.

In Vijay Mallyas case at least, the adage Like Father, Like Son does not quite apply. Mallya senior was diligent about spending even small amounts of money as this incident from the book shows: On one occasion, a manager who had accompanied Mallya senior to Bombay, saw him spending several minutes examining a bill after checking out of the 5-star Taj Mahal Hotel and punching some numbers into his watch which had an in-built calculator. This happened again when both of them checked out of another five-star hotel in Panaji in Goa some time later. The manager was extremely puzzled. On the way back to the airport, he mustered up enough courage to ask his boss why he was checking every bill.

Sir, do you think a five-star hotel would cheat us, he asked. Mallya replied that the money he was spending belonged to the shareholders and as he was the custodian of their company, he had to be doubly careful while using their resources.

Compare this with the son who has been allegedly splurging money, which should rightfully belong to shareholders, in buying expensive yachts, holding larger-than-life birthday bashes and gifting an airline company to his son on his birthday. According to this report in the Times of India, there have been several allegations about possible fund diversions from Mallya's one-time flagship United Spirits (USL) to the grounded Kingfisher Airlines as well as overseas entities.

This was first alleged by unsecured creditors of Kingfisher in a case filed at the Karnataka high court, and then last year an international investigation ordered by USL's new owner Diageo also came up with charges of fund transfers from India's largest distiller to other UB group companies.

Now, a consortium of 13 banks are after Vijay Mallya to recover loans over Rs 7,000 crore, the CBI is examining charges of money laundering whereas former Kingfisher Airlines employees are planning to take the tycoon to court over non-payment of salaries and arrears.

In the chapter A Magnate in the Making, Giriprakash says no employee, even those who came on board after an acquisition, ever went without salary under Mallya senior, no matter how bad the situation in some of the companies was. Known to be scrupulous, Vittal Mallya actually remitted any unspent foreign exchange after his trips abroad!

Vittals son and sole heir Vijay Mallya started Kingfisher Airlines almost on a whim in 2005, with a sudden announcement at a board meeting, disregarding warnings by his trusted lieutenants about a business which required insane amounts of cash and gave little or no returns. But once the airline was set up, anyone who travelled on it sang its praises due to excellent service standards, set by Mallya himself. However, never in all of its existence did Kingfisher Airlines turn in a profit though.

Also, it must be noted that had the Indian government allowed airlines to fly overseas without restrictions (the 5/20 rule for example), perhaps the downfall of Kingfisher Airlines may not have been so steep. The 5/20 rule bars Indian airlines from flying on foreign skies unless they have completed five years of Indian operations and have a fleet of 20 aircraft.

Mallya wanted his airline to fly abroad not just to create a favourable impression at home but also perhaps because this would allow better fleet utilisation (using same aircraft for longer hours) and allow the airline to lift fuel at rates cheaper than in India (India taxes jet fuel highest in the world).

But since the government rules barred overseas flying, Mallya compounded his commercial short-sightedness by acquiring Air Deccan to fulfill his overseas dreams. Air Deccan, the brainchild of Captain G R Gopinath, was an airline which introduced Indians to one rupee tickets and drove almost every airline company nuts with its rock-bottom ticket pricing before itself drowning in red ink.

In the book quoted above, the author virtually says that Vijay Mallya bought Air Deccan with his eyes closed. His team never went through the books of the loss making Air Deccan before Mallya agreed to buy it for a total consideration of Rs 1,000 crore in 2007.

This is what the book says: Gopinath told a reporter later that what impressed him about Mallya was how badly he wanted the airline and how swiftly he had moved to bag the deal. When a reporter asked him whether that meant the deal had been made without any due diligence or checking the balance sheet, Captain Gopinath replied that it was true that during the negotiations, neither Mallya nor his officials ever asked to examine the books. They took Captain Gopinath's assurances at face value because they were eager to go through with the deal.

It is interesting to note that Gopinath himself mentioned this since the ToI report says that along with key officials of Mallyas liquor business and Mallya himself, the Serious Frauds Investigation Office (SFIO) has now also summoned Gopinath over the Kingfisher Airlines saga. Despite several attempts, Captain Gopinath remained unavailable for comments today.

After his fathers death, young Vijay Mallya had said I suddenly realised that the buck stops with me, according to the book. Perhaps time has come for someone to once again show this man that the buck still stops with him.
The Vijay Mallya episode proves once again that our system takes a soft approach towards the cronies.

A look at the sequence of events over the last few days shows that Mallya was not even playing a catch-me-if-you-can game with the government, banks, investigative authorities and the judiciary. It is just that the system has enough pores for people like Mallya to escape.

Here's how it all unfolded:

1) On 26 February, Vijay Mallya announces his sweethheart deal with Diageo. The agreement is that he will be paid Rs 515 crore ($75 million) as the severance package. He also resigned as chairman and director of United Spirits, agreed not to compete with Diageo in spirits business the world over for the next five years and not to interfere in its Indian arm's business matters. Mallya was to get an initial payment of $40 million. The balance was to be paid over five years, said a ToI report. In a statement, he also said he wants to move to London to spend time with his kids.

2) On 27 February, fearing Mallya may move out of the country without repaying the Rs 2,000 odd crores he had taken from it, SBI rushes to the Debt Recovery Tribunal in Bangalore. The bank wanted to advance the hearing on its original application filed in June 2013 (nearly three years back) for recovery of the loans it and 16 other state-run and private banks advanced to Kingfisher Airlines during 2004-12. However, an IANS report says SBI, when it approached the DRT, was not aware of Diageo's part payment to Mallya. "We were not aware that Diageo had paid Mallya $40 million and even Mallya's counsel (Uday Holla) did not tell the tribunal during arguments on March 4 about the payment. We will seek action against him (Mallya) for suppressing the fact," SBI counsel told IANS.

3) On 1 March, Mallya attends Rajya Sabha.

4) On 2 March, the SBI files four interlocutory applications in the tribunal after CBI director Anil Sinha expressed concern over its delay in acting against Mallya. The bank sought to impound Mallya's passport, get him arrested, secure the lenders' first right on the payout from Diageo and getting full disclosure of his assets in the country and abroad.

4) On 2 March, Mallya flies out of India, as has been revelealed by attorney general Mukul Rohatgi in The Supreme Court on Wednesday. This he manages despite the look-out notice issued by the CBI. Look-out notices are issued to alert immigration authorities to prevent any move of a person facing probe from leaving the country. "We cannot arm twist a bank in terming a loan default as fraud. We can only advice them which we have done. It is up to banks now to give us complaints based on which we can act," a senior CBI official has been quoted as saying in a PTI report. The report also notes that Mallya managed to escape though he notice was issued to all exit points from the country aimed at preventing the Rajya Sabha MP from moving out. Interestingly, much of the action in the drama has happened after he left the country.

5) On 6 March, Mallya issued a statement accusing media of sensationalism. He also said he was neither an absconder nor a defaulter. "I have been most pained as being painted as an absconder  I have neither the intention nor any reason to abscond. I have been a non resident for almost 28 years and the Reserve Bank of India has acknowledged this in writing. Over the years, I have built successful businesses in India and abroad. I am also honoured to be a member of the Rajya Sabha," he said. It now turns out that the statment was issued after he left the country.

6) On 7 March, the DRT ruled that Diageo should not give $75 million to Mallya until its next hearing which was posted on 28 March, a good 21 days later, giving probably enough time for the tycoon to think about his next move and act. But it now turns out that the order never reached Diageo. "We understand that the Debt Recovery Tribunal is in the process of issuing an interim order, which we will review once the full details are available," the Diageo spokesperson has told IANS.

7) On 7 March, Enforcement Directorate also registers money laundering case against Mallya. "Mallya and others will soon be questioned. The agency has collected relevant documents from concerned authorities and the bank in question," ED sources told PTI. The agency may have to put the questioning on hold now, as he has already left the country.

8) On 8 March, probably after banks found that the DRT order was not going to help them, they approached the Supreme Court to block Mallya from leaving the country. The court listed the case to be heard on 9 March.

9) On 8 March, corporate affairs minister Arun Jaitley said in written reply to a Rajya Sabha question that a Serious Frauds Investigation Office investigation into alleged fund diversion by Kingfisher Arilines is underway.

10) On 9 March, AG informs the court that Mallya had left the country already on 2 March. The court issues notice to Mallya to be present with passport in the court on 30 March, the date it will hear the case next.

11) On 9 March, the Maharashtra sales tax department also woke up and filed a plea in the Bombay High Court seeking recovery of dues worth nearly Rs 60 crore from Kingfisher.

12) On 9 March, a Delhi court fixed 24 April for hearing the final arguments in a case against Mallya for allegedly evading summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with alleged violation of foreign exchange rules.

Clearly, there are gaping holes in the system which need to be filled in at the earliest. It may be coincidental that the developments happen at a time when the Parliament session is on. But it should prompt the politicians, who are now engaged in a blame game over Mallya, should take note and act fast.

With inputs from PTI and IANS
Which is the state where businesses are happiest in and dont think the grass is greener in some other state? It is the newly-created state of Telangana, with 97.1 per cent of businesses polled for a survey saying they did not think it is easier to operate a business in other states.

Businessmen in Jharkhand appear most unhappy with their state and think they would be better off elsewhere  62.5 per cent of them said they believed ease of doing business is better in other states.

The survey is an integral part of an index ranking states on their investment drawing potential. The index, which will be an annual affair, was constructed by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and is called the N-SIPI (NCAER State Investment Potential Index).

Like many other indices on the business environment in states, the N-SIPI also uses hard data and facts as parameters. Four of its five pillars are data-based  labour, infrastructure, economic climate, political stability and governance. But then it goes one step further and adds a fifth pillar  perceptions, which is based on a survey of 1011 industrial units in 40 districts of 21 states. They were polled on issues relating to labour, land, infrastructure, business expectations and political stability and governance.

In the overall ranking based on all five pillars (which encompass 51 sub sections), the top five states are Gujarat, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. The ranking based on just perception throws up a different result  then the top five states are Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Andhra Pradesh. That Andhra Pradesh should come behind Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand and states like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka and Haryana do not figure at all in the top five does boggle the mind, but businesses obviously have a better view from up close.

It is when one goes into details of the survey results that a lot of widely held assumptions are proven wrong.

Gujarat may well top the rankings in both the overall N-SIPI as well as the perception parameter, but only 64.6 per cent of units located in the state felt that conditions in other states were not better and 30.8 per cent were non-committal. Sure, 64.6 per cent is not a number to be sneezed at, but look at Punjab, which follows Telangana in having the most satisfied investors  81 per cent of units surveyed said conditions in other states were not better. The remaining were equally divided between yes (conditions were better in other states) and cant say. Andhra Pradesh comes third, with 80 per cent of units surveyed saying conditions elsewhere were not better than Andhra Pradesh and 20 per cent remaining non-committal. The majority of the respondents in Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh (60 per cent each) were satisfied with their respective states.

What is even more interesting is the fact that Maharashtra comes second after Jharkhand where existing industrial units responded with a yes, they believed conditions in other states were better. That fact that Jharkhand tops this list is understandable  the state with enormous potential after its separation from Bihar has gone to seed mainly due to political instability leading to policy uncertainty and a complete lack of concern about basic infrastructure issues.

But why should more investors in Maharashtra (58.1 per cent) be unhappy with a state widely perceived to be industry-friendly than in the case of West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh (50 per cent each)? This is something the Maharashtra government clearly needs to worry about.

In the case of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the majority of the respondents (61.4 per cent and 64.1 per cent) were non-committal.

How do states stack up on perceptions relating to the three factors of land, labour and capital?

Industry has constantly been arguing that the existing land acquisition laws are coming in the way of its progress. But the survey shows that 73 per cent of respondents find land acquisition is not a problem at all. All the respondents in Rajasthan and Telangana said they faced no problems whatsoever in getting land.

Five states  Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh  had more than 90 per cent respondents say they faced no problem in getting land. Acquiring land is most problematic in West Bengal (82.6 per cent) and Odisha (65.1 per cent). Haryana comes third with 52.5 per cent.

Nor does industry appear handicapped by labour laws, the relaxation of which is a permanent item on India Incs wish list. It turns out that only 10.3 per cent of the companies surveyed find this a severe constraint. As many as 52.9 per cent feel it is not a problem and 36.8 per cent feel it is a moderate problem.

It is only in Delhi (24 per cent) and Kerala (20.5 per cent) that businesses reported problems with labour laws. Across 13 states, the percentage range of businesses saying labour laws are not a problem ranged from 50 per cent (Assam) to 85 per cent (Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh). Even in West Bengal, 64.3 per cent companies say there are no labour law problems.

Gujarat tops in terms of perceptions on labour relations, with 92.3 per cent businesses saying they faced no problem. Next comes Haryana (85 per cent) and Rajasthan (80 per cent). Kerala stands out as the state with the most problematic labour relations  25 per cent of the companies surveyed believe this problem is severe and another 45.5 per cent believe it is moderate; only 29.5 per cent felt there were no problems. Bihar and Tamil Nadu had the maximum number of respondents saying the labour relations problem is moderate  75 per cent and 71.8 per cent respectively.

Access to finance is the most problematic in Kerala (52.3 per cent) and Assam (32.5 per cent). In Kerala, only 9.1 per cent respondents saying they face no problem at all. For the rest 20, between 22 per cent (Chhattisgarh and Karnataka) and 92.3 per cent (Gujarat) respondents say they face no problem in accessing finance.

So what is the biggest constraint of investors? Corruption, with 79.4 per cent companies listing this as a problem. The state topping the list on this parameter is Tamil Nadu  not a single company voted `no problem; 71.8 per cent say it is a severe problem and another 28.2 say it is a moderate problem. West Bengal comes second in terms of severity of the problem, with 64.3 per cent companies saying so. The southern states, widely perceived as less corrupt than their northern counterparts, dont do so well in the survey. In Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, the number of companies saying corruption was not a problem ranging between 4.4 per cent and 10.1 per cent. The rest of the companies reported severe or moderate problems. Clearly corruption is the problem that needs fixing the most.

Such indexes set off competition among states to improve on their positions. Will there be a competition on reducing corruption? The country lives in hope.
Mumbai: The cross-examination of Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist-turned-approver in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks case, Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley, will start before a special court on 22 March for four days, a legal official said in Mumbai on Thursday.

Advocate Abdul Wahab Khan, lawyer of Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari, alias Abu Jundal, one of the prime accused in the 26/11 cases, will cross-examine Headley who had given a week-long deposition via video-conferencing from a US jail in early February.

Earlier, Khan had moved applications seeking certain documents and CDs pertaining to the case and also objected to Headley being made an approver in the 26/11 case.

The cross-examination will be conducted before special TADA court Judge GA Sanap.

On 13 February, Headley's week-long deposition covering a wide range of issues concerning the conspiracy and perpetrators of the 26/11 attacks, was completed by Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam.

IANS
Raj Thackeray has once again demonstrated how proud he is of being a Maharashtrian. Addressing a rally on Wednesday, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief called on his followers to burn those autorickshaws that belong to non-Maharashtrians, even if the licences are in order. This is not the first time he has made a statement against people from outside the state. Here's a list of the things that previously rubbed him the wrong way:

In response to Jaya Bachchan saying, "Hum UP (Uttar Pradesh) ke log hain, isliye Hindi mein baat karenge, Maharashtra ke log maaf kijiye (We are from UP, so we will speak in Hindi; Maharashtrians, please forgive us) at a promotional event for the Abhishek Bachchan-starrer Drona.

In response to news reports in 2012 that a Bihari youth had vandalised the Amar Jawan memorial during the Azad Maidan protests.

On Mumbai being referred to as Bombay multiple times in Wake Up Sid

On finding out that a member of the Jain community had distributed aam ras and puri to several households to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Mahavir's statue being brought to Mumbai

On defeating the influx of North Indians into Mumbai
In the on-going series of teach-in lectures on nationalism at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Makarand Paranjape, professor at the Centre of English Studies (CES) emerged as an alternative voice on the JNU row when he asked if the institution was a 'democratic space' or a 'Left hegemonic space', and why Leftists had trouble accepting the 'legitimacy of the Indian State'. Speaking to Firstpost, he reflected on the challenges that JNU faces today and why he is critical of Left politics on campus.

You have spoken about 'manufactured discontent'. Who is manufacturing this discontent?

One shouldnt pinpoint anyone without concrete evidence. Thats why I don't want to think it as a conspiracy", but it does seems the case that there are sections of our own intelligentsia and academia whom you may call "brokers of backwardness". These people seem to benefit from creating bipolar opposites and divisions in society, then positioning themselves as the vanguard or forefront of such oppositional politics. Surely some are beneficiaries of this strategy. You can hold a system to ransom, then claim your rewards for backing down. In the management school case studies, there are documented cases, I am told, of people with nuisance value getting more from an organisation than those who cooperate or are submissive.

Even in school, you see the bully gets her way till she is beaten back by someone else. So by threatening to leave or break up something, people do extract benefits. Even in family, spoilers who threaten to break the family will draw many efforts from elders to appease their demands, even if these are found to be unjust. So this could be both human psychology or a well thought-out strategy to extract as much as possible from a system by constantly creating disaffection. Of course, this does not mean that some people  some sections of society  do not have genuine grievances. But they often participate in a process to have these demands met, then give up their agitation. But the groups we are speaking of will never be satisfied. Why? But they want an intolerable situation, one in which the pot is always kept on the boil, so to speak.

In your lecture, you said that you want to explore the space between ultra-nationalist and revolutionaries? Do you feel that space being eroded over the years on campus?

Absolutely, I feel it is shrinking in JNU and elsewhere as well. But I called them so-called" revolutionaries. Without casting any aspersions on them and with due respect to their ideologies, I feel that their revolutionary credentials are questionable. They hardly speak about how they plan to bring about this revolution. As to the ultra-Left, they openly advocate armed rebellion and overthrow of the State, which is why they are outlawed. I don't suppose that any legitimate government will tolerate that, which is why they are outlawed. But the establishment Left, which is what mainstream JNU politics represents, on the one hand, swears by the Constitution of India. On the other hand, they talk of revolution. If so, will they bring revolution through the ballot? If so, how are they substantively different from the other parties in the electoral fray?

Like other political actors, they they have to enter the Indian political mainstream, stand for elections, and within the Assembly and within Parliament, they have to create new laws to bring the change they wan. But that is not quite revolutionary in the traditional Marxist sense; it is a democratic and incremental way of bringing about change. But our JNUSU president is fond of making flamboyant and dramatic gestures: Azadi, kranti and so on are often on his lips. He never says how he proposes to accomplish them. In actuality, even some offshoots of the CPI(ML), like the one represented by Kavita Krishnan, have joined the electoral process and have completely entered the mainstream of Indian politics. Thats why I call them so-called revolutionaries; they may offer the Lal Salaams chant, Inquilab Zindabad slogans, but this is performative without much substance.

You talk of middle ground and consensus, which according to a section of students, seems to be missing here in JNU. As a student remarked here, you are Left-way or no-way.

I agree that is not always possible to achieve consensus, but it is definitely possible, even desirable, to have dialogue and discussion. What has distressed me is that in many of our campuses the kind of discourse that dominates completely lacks dialogue or critical introspection. It is all about ever attacking and abusing your opponents, what you may call akramak rawaiya in Hindi. There is hardly any rational dialogue and discourse. Consensus is a far cry; lets at least start with civil dialogue and discourse. We all belong to the same campus, the same society, and the same country; after all, we are not each others' enemies. So lets have that minimum courtesy that stems from what you may call a hermeneutics of generosity, not of hostility.

You remarked that no ideology is complete and you stressed upon acceptance of difficulties and absences and incompletenesses. Do you think the Left in JNU seems to have wilful ignorance of the problems in their ideology?

It is a very important question. Whether it is willful or not, it seems to have its share of inadequacies and incompletenesses. I cannot ascribe motives to people but, but it does appear as if they are not interested in admitting that their position is in any way lacking. Instead, they deploy emotional appeal, distortion of facts, and mind-numbing sloganeering. We should be responsible, should debate on the merit of a particular issue. But instead, there seems to be a great deal of ignorance, and not enough research. What worries me is that these people are not even interested in discussion or debate, only in enforcing their points of view and ideologies. Walk around the campus; you will find that many of the slogans are struck in the Cold War era. They have not got out of it. This is like a land of lotus-eaters, where we are in time warp. It is like living in a bubble. The slogans are lacking in intellectual content. They seemed to be trapped in the mindset that has been long abandoned in the rest of the world in the evolutionary process of the history.

But JNU seems to be struck in some other world altogether.

You criticised part of Kanhaiya speech on some very rational grounds like when you said Hum unko batayenge... humko kuchh sunna nahi hai kya?.. humne kya sab samajh liya hai Does this reflect a bigger problem than youthful arrogance?

Let make it clear that I have nothing against Kanhiaya personally. It was reported in the press as if I was correcting Kanhaiya. I have no intention to do so. I am nobody to correct anyone. But yes, I feel that it is my duty to raise questions. When you are part of a university, it is incumbent upon you to check your facts and make your case in such a manner that it is held up against scrutiny. There is no point making wild allegations. Yes, there are times when I felt that some of the speechifying showed tremendous arrogance. Statements like eet se eet baja denge, unko nahi pata woh kis se takkar le rahe hai were not required at all.

This sort of inflammatory rhetoric that emanates from JNU might be entertaining to some, but will prove counter-productive because it is the same government from which they are constantly looking for handouts. They are asking for a raise in scholarships and other benefits, while fees have been static for so long. On the one hand, you are taking from a particular system and on the other hand, you are abusing the same system. This is a strange kind of polemic where there is no acknowledgment of what the system is giving, there is no appreciation, only endless abuse. It baffles me completely.

You said that discourse which goes out from here is very anti this or that and does not look positive, which many people feel but to which hardly any JNU faculty admits.

I meant the political and polemical sloganeering and shouting. Somehow the politically-oriented on campus consider themselves as something like self-appointed watchdogs of the nation. Many people outside are also concerned about what is happening in India. It is not the JNU student leaders alone that are holding the flag of critique. I find the political culture in JNU extremely, sometimes needlessly, anti-establishment and anti-State. Are we living under a state of occupation or imperialism? Is this a war zone in which we are under attack? This is our own State, our own campus, and we are free to open channels of communication to improve a system. Instead, the revolutionary rhetoric suggests as if we are the last hope for democracy against an encroaching Fascist state. I think this position is clearly untenable.

You said that there is a need for deep introspection about who is democratic and who is not. Do you feel that this whole debate of intolerance and the current government being undemocratic is too far-fetched?

I thought that there was something really unfair and malafide about some of these campaigns. Many writers were marshaled to join in these protests and you will see that after the Bihar elections, everything died out. It is precisely the instrumental use of civil society for power politics, vote bank politics, which really distresses me.

You asked, why is it difficult for the Left to accept the legitimacy of elected government in India and where do people who say that they will overthrow the elected government derive their legitimacy from. I want to know, according to you, where do they derive this legitimacy?

That is the point. You can question the polices and even the actions of the elected government, but to question its legitimacy implies that you do not believe in the democracy. It implies that you only believe in that form of government or ideology that meets with your approval. Now that is not how the democratic process works. But this is the peculiar problem with the Left, going back to its DNA, so to speak. The Left seizes power, then turns totalitarian. This has been the case in many countries. Or it becomes a dictatorship centred around one figure. In China, I am told, you cannot unionise workers, cannot take out rally against wrong policies of the company hiring you if you are a labourer or worker. Does this signify workers rights? Of course, I am not suggesting authoritarian traits do not run in other ideologies too. But, when it comes to India, we should celebrate despite all our drawbacks; we are possibly the most vibrant democracy in the world.

You remarked during your lecture about debating how many people support separatism in Kashmir. Do you feel a majority of students would favour this or are even concerned about this?

No, I don't think Kashmiri separatism has widespread appeal or base on the JNU campus. They get half-hearted support from some of the Left. The fact is that those who make 'minor-atarian' claims will be judged by how they treat their own minorities. How did the Muslim majority in the Valley treat their own minority of Kashmiri Pandits? But I did not see protest rallies by JANUTA or JNUSU against their dislocation and human right violations.

The burning of Manusmriti is a symbolic act. But dont you think attacking age-old symbols of oppression only confirms a view that JNU is trapped in a time warp?

Manusmriti is a much-maligned text. which is easier to burn than read. There are many texts which have comparable or even worse views on social hierarchy or the ill-treatment of women. Of course you cannot burn them, because their adherents will really strike back. So Manusmriti is very safe, even a comfortable text to burn as it is not really sacred to anyone. But, as I said, burning is easy, but reading, especially reading with critical understanding, textual rigour, and methodological responsibility is much, much harder.

Because if you read the Manavadharmashastra in this fashion, you would also find many worthwhile things in it, including statements supporting the equality, respect, protection, and satisfaction of women. But, then, your whole case would collapse; the text would be cease to wholly evil. Much easier simply to brand it and burn it, than really to read it carefully or engage with it or critique it. No one is supporting the social order that it propounds; likewise, some great Greek philosophers were themselves slave owners as were the founders of the American republic, including Thomas Jefferson who famously said, We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. Many holy books also endorse slavery, including the taking of women and children of defeated enemies as chattel. Do we burn these books?

Sloganeering and politicking are easy; producing good academic work much harder. Similar, a beef festival is relatively easy to organise in India, but try to organise a pork festival let alone in a a Muslim-majority country, but even right here, whether in Srinigar, Hyderabad, Kolkata, or even JNU. So you see much of this progressive rabble-rousing is meant to attack, offend, even divide one section of society, even one religious community, while looking the other way at the faults of others. Remember how the Left Front government in West Bengal drove out Taslima Nasrin at the behest of the Mullahs? Where was their secularism" then? Come on, isnt a selective and partial advocacy of for or against a particular religious community how communalism is defined in the first place?
New Delhi: A 26-year-old PhD scholar from JNU on Thursday allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan of his room at his rented accommodation in south Delhi's Ber Sarai area.

The deceased, Dushyant, a native of Bareily in UP, left a suicide note in which he mentioned about some personal problems, including family issues and his relationship with a woman, police said.

Dushyant, who was pursuing PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, lived in the first floor of a building in Ber Sarai which had around nine single rooms, all rented to students and working men. He allegedly hanged himself from the ceiling fan, the official said.

"We received the call in the morning and rushed a team. A suicide note was found in the room. We have informed his family and initiated an inquest into the matter," DCP (South) Prem Nath said.

PTI
Dhar, Madhya Pradesh: A 13-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped two times in as many days here by separate groups of youths, some of them known to her, police said on Thursday. Police have taken one youth into custody and are hopeful of nabbing others.

The girl alleged that a youth, known to her, convinced her into accompanying him to industrial area here when she was returning from a temple on 7 March on 'Maha Shivratri' day, police said. The youth, identified as Aakash alias Golu, and his friend allegedly raped her in the area and confined her there for the day.

Police said the girl managed to escape the next day, (March 8) and went to her grandparents' place, also in the city, but did not reveal the incident to them. "While she was on her way home, two persons, who are known to her, offered her lift and took her to Sanjay Colony area where she was raped by six persons," police said.

Meanwhile, her parents lodged a missing person's report with Dhar Kotwali police station as the girl did not return home on Monday, 7 March. Police said the girl herself approached the police station and narrated the incidents, following which she was sent for a medical examination.

"Police have registered a case against Santosh (24), Subhash Singh (20), Akash alias Golu (19), Ravi (25), Bharat (18), and three others (age not known), under various sections of IPC including gang-rape and under section 3/4 of the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act (POCSO)," Kotwali police station's sub-inspector Anjana Dhurve said.

PTI
By N R Mohanty

The Nationalism Class that has been going on in JNU campus since some students  including the president of JNUSU  were arrested on sedition charges last month has been a big draw. The leading left-leaning intellectuals of the country have been addressing the students every afternoon. These lectures have found a much larger audience because they have been uploaded on the YouTube and the links are everywhere on the social media. Leading newspapers of the national capital have been covering the speeches in their columns regularly.

On 8 March (Tuesday) morning, however, the newspaper headlines about the Nationalism Class in JNU made for a strange reading. The Times of Indias headline said: Did You Check Facts: Prof to JNUSU Prez. The headline in the Indian Express was more specific: Is JNU a Democratic or Left Hegemonic Space: Prof Paranjape. The Hindu, which had religiously covered all Nationalism Lectures at JNU so far, surprisingly, did not mention this lecture at all in its columns (or was it not very surprising given The Hindus ideological stance?).

I said that the headlines made for a strange reading because hitherto all the speakers  eminent academics and activists  had spoken what the audience wanted to hear; while critiquing the Sangh Parivar, they had presented an unconditional defence of the Left. At least no ones analytical frame of Nationalism in India had a word critical of the Left movement. Prof Makarand Paranjape, professor of English at JNU, who delivered the 15th Nationalism Lecture, clearly struck a discordant note when he referred to the diabolical practices of the communist regimes of the Soviet Union and China and the Communist party of Indias flip-flop during the nationalist freedom struggle in India. Prof Paranjape did not spare even the Left in JNU.

Referring to the JNU campus of which he is a part for the last 16 years, he asked: When we consider ourselves to be a democratic space, we should ask ourselves if this is entirely true. Isnt it that it is a Left hegemonic space where if you disagree you are silenced, you are boycotted, you are browbeaten or, sometimes you are brainwashed.

Well, it was a very sweeping statement. And, to me, an incorrect one. Students of JNU are a band of intelligent boys and girls and it is difficult to accept that any hegemonic apparatus in JNU can coerce them to fall in prescribed line. If the Left student groups are winning the students union elections in JNU frequently, it is because these groups have an ideological and organisational appeal that is better than the alternatives on offer. When any non-Left (I mean, traditional Left) leader has presented an alternative vision that has appealed to students, students of JNU have voted for them. That is why JNUSU presidents have been elected on diverse non-communist platforms: Free Thinkers, Students for Democratic Socialism, even NSUI and ABVP. If JNU was a Left hegemonic space, then how was an ABVP candidate elected for the top post of the students union a few years ago?

Even take the case of Kanhaiya Kumar. He belongs to the AISF. In the traditional Left space, AISF had never won the post of the President of the JNUSU. AISF has traditionally been a junior partner of SFI in the JNU campus; SFI in JNU is the larger left group which has thrown up leaders like Prakash Karat, D P Tripathi and Sitaram Yechury. In the last several years, a radical left group, AISA, has upstaged the dominance of the SFI. But this year, Kanhaiya Kumar was able to push both SFI and AISA to the sidelines because of his oratorical skills as well as his personality traits. Next year, if the ABVP can present a leader who can spit fire on a public platform and make powerful arguments in informal conversations, it will not be a surprise if he or she wins the JNU students mandate. But this victory will not happen because of Narendra Modi or the Sangh Parivar or a vice chancellor nominated by them, it will happen because students of JNU have the innate ability to discriminate between the good and the better and they would elect someone who has the best potential to represent them.

So I disagree with Prof Paranjape when he talks about the stifling democratic space in JNU. Prof Paranjape pointed out a factual mistake in Kanhaiya Kumars post-jail address to the nation: You said M S Golwalker met Mussolini; but did you check facts? It was B S Moonje who met Mussolini. I would say it was a small detail and anyway, this mistake made by Kanhaiya did not change the crux of his basic argument  that the Sangh was influenced by the Nazi forces.

I can also point out a small factual mistake that Prof Paranjape made in his speech  that Jairus Banaji, a Trotskeyite, had exposed the totalitarianism of the Stalinist Left and had challenged Prakash Karat when he was the president of the JNUSU which resulted in Karat getting defeated the next year by Anand Kumar. The fact is that Jairus Banaji came to JNU when both Prakash Karat and Anand Kumar had left the campus. It was left to D P Tripathi and Sitaram Yechury to face the ideological fury of Banaji.

Nevertheless Prof Paranjape made certain seminal points that need to be debated, not pushed under the carpet. Totalitarianism of the Stalinist Russia and Maoist China  which sacrificed millions of lives to build an egalitarian social and economic order that never came  is an established fact corroborated by their respective political successors in their own country. Fascist leaders also sold a dream and sent millions to the gas chambers. In that respect, communism and fascism were akin in practice, if not in theory.

It is also important to remember that at some point of history of India, communists and RSS were on the same side  on the side of the British imperialism and against Mahatma Gandhi-led Indias freedom struggle. So communists and Sanghis taking pride in their Nationalist credentials has a indeed a touch of irony!

When intellectuals are taking classes on Nationalism and they steer clear of such self-evident issues, it is because they wrap themselves in an ideological cocoon from which the world seems garbed in absolute categories  Sangh Vs Left, Them Vs Us. There are many intellectuals who are acutely aware of the inadequacies and inconsistencies of the Indian Communist movement, but they keep their misgivings private because they want to be politically correct before a left-leaning audience. Prof Paranjape deserves the credit for expanding the contours of the Nationalism Debate in JNU.
Ever since Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley made the startling claim on 11 February this year about the 2004 Gujarat encounter, the already murky Ishrat Jahan case has become even murkier.

The controversy over the case hit the Parliament as the issue was raised by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey in Lok Sabha.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh also spoke on the issue. "The effect of terrorism is not just limited to India but also the world. Politics should not be played over the issue," he said.

"There should not be any flip-flop over the Ishrat Jahan case. The previous government has engaged in flip-flop over the issue," he said, after which Opposition members created an uproar in the Lok Sabha.

"It seems that everything that was said in the second affidavit was to weaken the claim in the first affidavit that Ishrat Jahan was a terrorist," said the Home Minister. "It seems this was a conspiracy against the then Gujarat government. A terrorist is a terrorist. He or she does not have any religion or caste," he further said.

"Headley re-affirmed everything that was said in the first affidavit by UPA...We will never play politics over terrorism," said Rajnath.

"Who talked about saffron terror? These talks about religion, colour, creed should not be done when it comes to terrorism. The previous government was involved in giving terrorism a colour," he further said.

Rajnath also said that even when Headley was interrogated in US in 2013, he said that Ishrat Jahan was a terrorist.

Dubey, who had raised the issue in the Lok Sabha, accused the Congress of conspiring against Narendra Modi and Amit Shah by changing an affidavit in the case. "Is this the way to get rid of Opposition leaders? People should not play politics over terrorism and the unity of this country," he thundered.

"If a terrorist comes to kill us, we will be forced to kill that terrorist," he further said. "Maut ka saudagar kehne waali Congress kya maut ka sauda karna chahti thi?" he added.

Dubey further said that in 2010, Headley was interrogated by NIA. He said that Headley had claimed in 2010 also that Ishrat Jahan was an LeT terrorists. He also pointed out that NIA was made by the Congress.

"IB and NIA belonged to them (the then UPA government). They all said Ishrat Jahan was a terrorist," Dubey said, after which there was uproar in the Parliament.

In response, a BJD MP said, "Politics around the Ishrat Jahan case has exemplified the deep-rooted rot in our system. Both UPA and NDA have attempted to play politics over Ishrat Jahan case. This case destroyed the credibility of the IB and CBI."

The BJD MP also said that both the affidavits in the case were not in the chargesheet. "Would the second affidavit affect the investigation in any case?" he said.

Moreover, according to a report in The Times of India, a draft note which recorded changes in the affidavit filed in the case during former Home Minister P Chidambaram's tenure have suddenly gone missing.

Ishrat Jahan, a 19-year-old woman, along with three other men, was shot dead by the Gujarat Police on 15 June, 2004 in an encounter which was later alleged to be fake.

After the probe into the case began, the then UPA government submitted two affidavits  one that the four, who were killed in the alleged fake encounter, were terrorists and the second saying there was no conclusive evidence  within two months in 2009.

Here's how the fresh controversy over the case unfolded:

David Headley's deposition

The fresh row over the case began when Headley in February told a special court in Mumbai that Ishrat Jahan was an operative of terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba(LeT).

Testifying via video-link from the US, Headley picked up the name of the 19-year-old Mumbra girl from three names when quizzed by Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam about a "botched-up operation" mentioned to him (Headley) by LeT commander Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi.

Headley told the court that Lakhvi had mentioned to him about a "botched-up operation" conducted in India by another LeT operative Muzammil Butt where a female member of the terror outfit was killed.

Prodded by Nikam for details about the operation, Headley said, "There was a female wing in LeT which was headed by one Abu Aiman's mother. Zaki sahab(Zaki-Ur-Rehman) told me about Butt's botched up operation in India. It was some shootout with the police.

"I don't know which part in India. But there was one female who was killed in the shootout. I think she was an Indian national and not a Pakistani but was a LeT operative."

Nikam later told the media he named in the court three "women suicide bombers" of the LeT for Headley to pick.

"I named three women suicide bombers associated with the LeT--Noor Jahan Begum, Ishrat Jahan, Mumtaz Begum. When he heard the three, he said that he had heard the name of Ishrat Jahan and that she was killed in a police encounter."

Headley's deposition began a war of words between Congress and BJP, in which BJP demanded an apology from Congress for making allegations against Narendra Modi, and the Congress, in turn, dismissing BJP's demand for an apology, insisting that the "fundamental question" was whether Ishrat and her accomplices were killed in a "fake" encounter.

GK Pillai's allegations

On 25 February, Former Union home secretary GK Pillai had said the affidavit submitted to the Gujarat High Court in 2009 about LeT links of Ishrat Jahan and her accomplices was changed at a "political level".

The former Home Secretary had said there was no doubt that those killed in the alleged fake encounter in Gujarat had links with LeT.

"They were LeT activists. She (Ishrat) knew that something was wrong. Otherwise an unmarried young Muslim woman would not have gone with some other men," he had told reporters.

Congress leader P Chidambaram faced heavy criticism after Pillai's statements as he was the Home Minister in 2009, when the first and second affidavits had been filed.

However, according to PTI, Pillai had said in 2013 that Ishrat Jahan had to be given the benefit of doubt on the issue whether she was an LeT operative. "I don't think there is any conclusive evidence against Ishrat Jahan. Unless any proper investigation is carried out, we will have to give her the benefit of doubt," he had said in 2013.

Chidambaram's response

Despite facing severe criticism, Chidambaram stood by the second affidavit in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, insisting it was "absolutely correct". He had also said that the second affidavit in the case was filed as the first was "ambiguous".

Chidambaram had said that it was his "duty" to correct the affidavit which was drafted without his approval and was being misinterpreted.

"The primary concern of the central government was input gathered by central agencies. Such inputs do not constitute a conclusive proof. It is for the state government to act. Central government does not condone nor endorse any unjustified action," he had said.

Chidambaram had said he wondered as to "which part of the second affidavit is wrong? It is an absolutely correct affidavit. As the minister, I accept the responsibility."

RVS Mani backs Pillai, claims SIT officer burnt him with cigarettes

RVS Mani, former under secretary in the home ministry, had told Times Now on 2 March that he was coerced to file the second affidavit in the Ishrat Jahan case.

Mani had also hinted that the second affidavit had actually been filed on the directions of Chidambaram.

"It was not drafted at my level," he had said. "If the home secretary did not file the affidavit, it is clear who filed it. The home secretary is the senior-most bureaucrat in the MHA. The conclusion is easily drawn," he had added.

An even more disturbing claim which Mani had made was that he was tortured by Satish Verma, the Indian Police Service officer who served as lead investigator in the Ishrat Jahan case. "What Satish Verma did to me was unprecedented...On 21 June 2013, Satish Verma burnt me with cigarettes," he had said. He had also alleged in 2013 that Verma sought to coerce him into signing a statement unsupported by evidence, according to this Firstpost report.

SIT officer Satish Verma insists the encounter was fake

Verma denied the allegations against him and maintained that the 2004 encounter was fake. "National security cannot become a defence for the pre-medidated murder of a 19-year-old girl and be branded it as collateral damage," he had told India Today TV.

"You would know how much time you take to train a LeT terrorist and a suicide bomber...this time (that Ishrat Jahan was away from home) was not enough," he had said.

The 1986-batch Gujarat cadre IPS officer had also contradicted Pillai's claim of knowing the exact details of the case, saying he was "no intelligence officer."

He had said that Mani's affidavit filings were "curious" as they did not look like the Home Ministry's version but that of the Gujarat police investigation. "Mr Mani had no direct knowledge of the case...," he had said, adding that the allegations made by Mani against him were "old" and have been made by him earlier too.

With inputs from agencies
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain a plea seeking its direction to stop the three-day mega event, World Culture Festival, at the banks of Yamuna river being organised by the Art Of Living Foundation (AOL) of spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

A bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur asked the petitioner Bhartiya Kishan Majdoor Samiti to approach the National Green Tribunal (NGT) with its plea as the three-day event is all set to begin tomorrow.

"This preparation is going on for a long time. Why have you come now? Why don't you go to the NGT," the bench said.

The bench also raised apprehension on the motive of filing such a petition at the eleventh hour, saying, "So you seek publicity out of it?"

The petition alleged that no requisite permissions have been granted by various authorities concerned to this proposed event.

The NGT on Wednesday expressed its helplessness in banning the event, saying it was "fait accompli".

Nevertheless, it imposed a fine of Rs five crores on AOL as environmental compensation after coming down heavily on the foundation for not disclosing its full plans and also on the DDA and Environment Ministry for their role.

The green tribunal, which found several environmental violations committed by the organisers, blamed the delay on the part of environmental activists in raising the issue before it which compelled it to grant permission for event.

The NGT clearance came on a day the Delhi High Court described the event, from whose valedictory function the President has already pulled out, as a "disaster" from the ecological point of view.

PTI
New Delhi: India has taken up the issue of a medical student who died after being attacked by "local goons" with Russian authorities.

"We have taken this up with Russian authorities and we will take this to the logical conclusion," External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted late Wednesday night.

Yasir, a medical student from Srinagar, died on Wednesday after being comatose following the attack in Kazan city, capital of the Russian province of Tatarstan.

"I have given instructions to our embassy in Russia to send mortal remains of Yasir at the earliest," Sushma Swaraj said.

On Tuesday, the minister tweeted that Yasir, who was in coma, was being treated by an Indian doctor at a trauma centre in Kazan.

This was in response to an SOS tweet to her about the attack which said that Yasir was in a state of coma after the attack by "local goons" and had lost all his money and documents.

Sushma Swaraj also said that she had contacted India's Ambassador to Russia, Pankaj Saran, in this connection.

IANS
New Delhi: Only a day remains for Art of Livings founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to honour the order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to pay a fine of Rs 5 crore for causing ecological damage to Yamuna floodplains for the upcoming World Culture Festival. Will he pay or will he not?

If he does, itll be a victory even though partial for the environment fighters in this country. But, if doesnt, will the godman go to jail?

What the NGT order says

For the damage caused to the environment, ecology, biodiversity and aquatic life of the river, the Foundation should be held liable for its restoration in all respects. In that regard and in exercise of our powers under Section 15 and 17 of the NGT Act 2010 we impose an Environment Compensation, initially of Rs 5 crore. The amount would be paid by the Foundation prior to the commencement of the event. This amount would be adjusted towards the final compensation determined to be paid by the Foundation for restoration work.

The deadline for payment is 5 pm of 11 March.

Will Sri Sri Ravi Shankar go to jail?

By his own admission, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar would prefer to go to jail instead of paying a fine of Rs 5 crore. This is what he had told a news channel after the verdict was passed.

Defying of tribunals order may lead to  cancellation of the three-day World Culture Festival (WCF) scheduled to begin on 11 March and imposition of additional fine of up to Rs 10 crore and imprisonment.

But, actually it wont happen. No way.

There is no chance of Ravi Shankar going to jail because hes nowhere in the picture. He knows it well and thats why he has made this false claim. In our petitions, we made AOL Foundation as the party, but its Vyakti Vikas Kendra Trust  a sister concern of the Foundation, which is communicating with us. Any one from this organisation will be made the fall guy, if something goes wrong, petitioner Manoj Misra, convener, Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan told Firstpost.

The front organisation

According to legal experts and environment activists pursuing this case, it is the Vyakti Vikas Kendra Trusta sister concern of AOL Foundationwhich has been acting as the front organisation in this case. Reportedly, the Union Ministry of Culture gave Rs 2.5 crore grant to the Bengaluru-based trust for this culture event on Yamuna floodplains.

Since its this front organisation dealing with the festival, both in terms of receiving government grant and communicating with the petitioners in a benami way, Ravi Shankar wont be held responsible for anything wrong. He knows it well and thats why this bravado from him. In case the legal axe falls, it wont be his neck on line, but someone elses from this front organisation, remarked legal and social activist, Shehzad Poonawala.

What legal experts say?

Advocate Ritwick Datta, a counsel for the petitioners in this case, told Firstpost, Under Section 26 of the NGT Act, the violation of NGT order can lead to an imposition of fine of up to Rs 10 lakh and imprisonment. The AOL foundation has the right to move Supreme Court and if the apex court doesnt accept their plea and no relief is given to them, NGTs order stands. If the fine isnt paid tomorrow by the deadline mentioned, the court may order the cancellation of the WCF. People like him never go to jail and his organisation will ensure it doesnt happen either. Or else itll make a dent on this mega PR-driven corporate event.

By claiming that he wants to go to jail, Ravi Shankar has used pressure tactic on the court. Its by someone whos known to enjoy patronage of the highest executive authority of the country, which also mobilised the Indian Army for the culture event. His AOL is usually about programmes in humility and conciliation but his challenge to NGT smacks of arrogance of power.

Isnt it contempt of court?

Of course. While, Ravi Shankar has the right to challenge the NGT order, his claim to TV channels that he would rather go to jail than pay the fine is nothing but contempt of court and is no less an affront to the majesty of the judicial system as someone claiming Afzal Gurus hanging was a judicial killing, added Poonawala.

Senior counsel of Supreme Court, Sanjay Parikh added, Its his (Ravi Shankar) wish whether he wants to go to jail or pay the fine. Law will take its course and if they dont pay the fine, itll be contempt.

Ravi Shankar claiming to go to jail on TV channel is nothing but a farce. If he doesnt pay the initial fine of Rs 5 crore by tomorrows deadline, itll be contempt of court. Even Delhi High Court has mentioned WCF as an ecological disaster. Its in connivance with the government that AOL Foundation has been able to do it on such a massive scale. Now, hes trying to communalise the environment issue by juxtaposing the Batla House case. This is ridiculous, remarked Vimalendu Jha, executive director, Swechha, an NGO.

It wont be surprising if they dont pay and carry on with the event. They have blatantly flouted all norms and regulation related to environment, including NGTs order of 2015. Despite having evidences of damaging the floodplains ecosystem, Ravi Shankar openly denying it and instead claiming that they have been doing good job on floodplains. The entire event is being organised keeping eye on Nobel Peace Prize that Ravi Shankar wants to have and getting this WCF on Guinness world record, added environment activist and petitioner Anand Arya.

Despite several calls and messages the AOL Foundations lawyers were not available for a response.
New Delhi: When it comes to being fully engaged at work in the Indian workforce, a survey saw that female workers were significantly more disengaged than their male counterparts.

According to an Employee Engagement Whitepaper released by Dale Carnegie Training India, while just 39 per cent of women were fully engaged, Indian male workers were way ahead with half of them feeling engaged with their work.

"Several HR functions even have gender diversity targets. But the real challenge continues to be high dropout rates and every level of the hierarchy and eventually the glass ceiling," Dale Carnegie Training India Chairperson and MD Pallavi Jha said.

The report highlighted the expectations Indian women have from their workplaces are most often not being met, especially in contrast to their male peers. In some cases, the unmet expectations lead to disillusionment with one's organisation leading to low productivity and lower retention.

"In order to understand how to retain women and grow them it is imperative that organisations look at engagement more holistically," Jha added.

When it came to the various designations, women at the C-suite level were the most motivated with 63 per cent being fully engaged, while 42 per cent of the women at managerial level were fully engaged and for women in professional jobs like attorney, engineer, sales only 18 per cent were fully engaged at work.

Meanwhile, various companies are undertaking measures to ensure there is gender diversity and see that their women staff are fully engaged.

Business process outsourcing (BPO) firm Concentrix's learning strategy has been designed to attract, develop and retain talent as well as deliver exceptional value to clients.

The company has formed strategic partnerships with organisations like Wharton, INSEAD, TUCK, Dale Carnegie, Ken Blanchard, Harvard, Franklin Covey, Thomas, IILM, NASSCOM, ISB, Ontrac and are also leveraging LMS (Learning Management

System) and Analytics for performing learning effectiveness studies.

PTI
Lucknow: BJP on Thursday claimed the Samajwadi Party government has failed to "spend even one percent" of funds under 115 heads as reflected in the latest CAG report tabled in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly.

"Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who claims 'free laptop scheme' to be historic, failed to spend even one per cent of the allocated fund," BJP spokesperson Vijay Bahadur Pathak alleged.

The situation was similar in 'Kanya Vidyadhan' in which the entire amount was surrendered, he claimed.

"The situation of those giving slogan of 'poore hote vaade' is such that they surrender the entire amount allocated for distribution of saris among women of Below Poverty Level (BPL) category and blankets among poor, Pathak said.

The state government, which is celebrating 'kisan diwas', allocates funds for strengthening labs producing organic fertilisers and to promote its use, but fails to complete the bidding process. As a result the entire amount remains unutilised, he alleged.

Pathak also claimed that the fund allocated by the government for Ambedkar birth anniversary celebration has not been utilised.

PTI
New Delhi: Amid reports of Centre asking the Punjab government to pay up Rs 6.35 crore for deployment of paramilitary forces in the state during and after the terror attack in Pathankot air force base, AAP MPs Bhagwant Mann and Sadhu Singh have asked the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to deduct the amount from their MPLAD funds.

In a letter to Singh, Mann, parliamentary party leader of the AAP in Lok Sabha, said Punjab is already reeling under the debt of Rs 1.5 lakh crore.

"Punjab has made maximum sacrifice in country's freedom fight. This year, neither the Sikh Regiment nor the tableau of Punjab found place in the Republic Day Parade.

"If you don't consider Punjab as part of India or if you don't consider the Pathankot terror strike as an attack on country, then as MP from the state I would request you to please deduct Rs 6.35 crore from our MPLAD funds," Mann said on Thursday.

Earlier the Punjab government had refused to pay a bill of Rs 6.35 crore to the Center for deployment of paramilitary forces during and after the terror attack at Pathankot air force base.

In a communication to the Centre, the state government had said that the deployment of these units was in "national interest" and "expenditure thereon should not be billed to the state government", officials said here.

NDA constituents Shiromani Akali Dal and BJP are in power in Punjab.

PTI
New Delhi: Vijay Mallya's escape was a hot topic of discussion early in the morning on Thursday in the Rajya Sabha. Ishrat Jahan, missing affidavits and statements linking her to LeT were brought forth by Nishikanth Dubey.

Here's a recap, the Opposition staged a walk out, soon after the Ishrat Jahan issue was brought up in the Lok Sabha. While the Congress accused the BJP-led government of "criminal consipracy" in allowing businessman Vijay Mallya, facing probe in several loan default cases, to fly out of the country, in Rajya Sabha. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley sought to corner the main opposition party by saying the loans were sanctioned to Mallya during UPA rule.

Jaitley vs Azad

"My charge against this government is that when so many agencies were interrogating him (Mallya), why was he not arrested, why was his passport not confiscated," Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said in Rajya Sabha.

Raising the matter during Zero Hour, Azad said everyone knew Mallya "could flee any day" and the investigating agencies should have seized his passport and taken steps to restrict his movement.

Maintaining that Mallya lived a "luxurious life" and had bases in several countries, the Congress leader said Mallya is not a "needle" and moves around with an entourage and expressed surprise at how he managed to leave the country despite a CBI "look out notice".

"Without the participation and without the active support of this government, he could not have left the country. That is my allegation," Azad said, adding that "one had escaped, the second Lalit Modi (Mallya) should not be allowed to escape".

Countering the charges, Jaitley said that the banks have been asked to recover "every penny that is due", adding that the first banking facility was given to Mallya and his companies in September 2004 which were renewed in February 2008.

The Leader of the House further said the accounts were declared non-performing assets (NPA) on April 30, 2009 and these debts were restructured and more facilites extened in December 2010.

"In what circumstances were the loans given is an issue of investigation and the CBI is investigating," he said.

"How these accounts were running, what facilities were given, the dates tell their own story," Jaitley said, adding "when the loans were given, how they were given... introspection will be required."

Jaitley said the liabilities including interest aggregates to Rs 9,091.4 crore as on November 30, 2015.

He also said there was no order to stop Mallya from leaving the country.

"That day, there was no order of any agency to stop him (from leaving the country)," Jaitley said, adding Mallya had left the country before the banks moved the Supreme Court for seizure of his passport.

Mallya had left the country on 2 March.

On Azad's contention that the present government had failed to bring back Lalit Modi, Jaitley said it was during the UPA rule that the former IPL chief had left the country.

Earlier, Naresh Agrawal (SP) said the matter of Mallya, a Rajya Sabha MP, should be referred to Ethics Committee.

Deputy Chairman P J Kurien said, "I agree with you. This is a matter to be taken up by the Ethics Committee".

Rahul vs Jaitley

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi joined the attack on the government saying the entire country is questioning why this government was "helping" people like Mallya by allowing him to escape and not fulfilling its promises made to people for bringing back black money and "giving Rs 15 lakh into every person's bank account".

He also lashed out at the Modi government for bringing the "fair and lovely" tax amnesty scheme, saying it only helped thieves, black marketeers and drug mafia to convert their black money into white.

Rahul also attacked the Prime Minister over his style of functioning; saying Modi in his long speeches has not answered his queries made to him.

"When a poor man steals, he is beaten up and thrown into jail. Someone who does not have food to eat and steals a roti is beaten up and put behind bars and a big businessmen who steals Rs 9,000 crore from country, you allow him to escape in First Class from the country," said Rahul Gandhi. He then went on to question the government, as to how they could let Mallya escape  "This is the simple question and we neither got a reply to this from Modiji nor from Jaitley ji," he told reporters outside the Parliament.

In response to these comments, Jaitley raked up the Bofors case reminding Rahul Gandhi of Ottavio Quattrocchi's escape.

"But Rahul ji should remember that there is a basic difference in Mallya leaving (the country) and Quattrocchi going out (of India). And let me explain him the difference.

"When the officials of Switzerland informed that Quattrocchi was also among the beneficiaries of Bofors and though the person who was heading the CBI investigation earlier K Madhavan wrote a letter that his passport should be impounded, the then government had not stopped him and within two days he left India. That was a criminal case," the Finance Minister said addressing the Cabinet briefing.

Stressing that there is a difference between the two incidents, Jaitley also said that by the time Mallya left, the banks had not initiated the legal process.

"It would have been better had the banks done it earlier," he, however, acknowledged.

Jaitley emphasised that the loans were given during UPA rule; mockingly, he said that the Congress vice president perhaps "could not understand" his answer and advised Rahul Gandhi to "study Constitution once."

Debunking Gandhi's criticism on why Mallya was not stopped from leaving the country, the Minister said, "There is a legal process to stop anybody. Either your passport has been impounded or there is any court order."

When asked about Congress questioning how Mallya remains a member in Rajya Sabha even after the issuance of a look out notice against him, he said, "There is a constitutional process to suspend the membership. If he (Rahul) studies Constitution once... it can happen only according to that. Membership is not terminated through press conferences."

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said it was shocking that the UB group chairman, owing some Rs 10,000 crore dues to SBI led consortium of banks, fled to London on March two. He claimed that inspite of warning by the SBI law officer, no action was taken against the businessmen.

Congress, NCP and Left parties staged a walkout alleging that the government's response was not satisfactory and does not answer the points raised by them.

Government does not allow us to speak. PM does not like to discuss these issues: Rahul Gandhi on Vijay Mallya issue pic.twitter.com/zEfIbXZQ1G  ANI (@ANI_news) March 10, 2016

On the Ishrat Jahan Case

Home Minister Rajnath Singh said key documents related to the Ishrat Jahan case have gone missing and accused the previous Congress-led government of a flip-flop over the controversial 2004 shootout that killed the alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba woman operative.

"Two letters from the then home secretary to the attorney general in 2009 have gone missing. The then attorney general had vetted two affidavits regarding the case. Those are also not available," Rajnath Singh told the Lok Sabha on Thursday, replying to a brief debate on the controversial 15 June, 2004, shootout.

He said that the government has launched an "internal inquiry" to find the missing documents "which will bring all the facts out" in the open.

Without naming Congress's P Chidambaram, Rajnath Singh alleged that affidavits regarding the case were corrected on the intervention of the then home minister and reaffirmed that an investigation has found that the Thane girl was a terrorist  a claim also seconded by American-Pakistani terrorist David Coleman Headley in his deposition.

"I am pained to say that there was a flip-flop on Ishrat Jahan case during the previous UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government," Rajnath Singh said, amid pandemonium caused by some Opposition members.

"She was described as an LeT terrorist in the first affidavit filed in the Gujarat High Court but unfortunately the facts were given another dimension in an additional affidavit which was filed a month later. It seems an attempt was made to weaken the case."

The minister also accused the previous government of hatching a conspiracy to malign the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and his government.

"The affidavit was changed to malign the Gujarat government, the then chief minister. A conspiracy was hatched to drag him into the case."

with input from agencies
By Suresh Ghattamaneni

Kalvakuntla Chandrasekar Rao, the chief minister of Telangana, along with his cabinet colleagues and bureaucrats was welcomed in Hyderabad by farmers and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) party cadre who flocked to the capital city from the districts. Begumpet Airport, which is otherwise disbanded after the new airport in Shamshabad started operating has witnessed massive crowds which in fact have become a nightmare for the commuters who have taken that route.

It was a historic day for the state of Telangana as the decade-long discord with its neighboring state Maharashtra on river water sharing was put to an end in an amicable way by signing Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) on sharing Godavari river water between the drought prone regions of Telangana and the tribal areas of Maharashtra. As per the MoUs, the two states shall build five barrages on the river Godavari and its tributaries Pranahita and Penganga.

Of the five barrages, Maharashtra will build projects at Rajapet and Penpahad while Telangana will build the remaining three projects Chanakha and Korata, Tummidihatti and Medigadda. The Telangana government has already given administrative sanction for Chanakha-Korata with an estimated cost of over Rs.1,200 crore.

As reported by Hans India, Telangana Minister for Irrigation Harish Rao Thanneeru has said that this development would lead to stabilization of 20 lakh acres and bring another 20 lakh acres under irrigation.

Significance of the pact

Godavari River, dubbed as Dakshina Ganga is the second largest river in the country along with its tributaries, and drains the states of Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. The catchment area under Godavari in Telangana is 61780 sq. kms which is significantly higher than the Andhra region (16420 sq. kms) where as the irrigated area in Telangana has been half that of Andhra. This was always a matter of contention strengthening the demand for a separate state.

In this context, after the formation of Telangana, an attempt to optimally utilize the Godavari water is made and finally operationalised by the present government through its ground-breaking approach to the issue by resolving the protracted inter- state disputes in amicable way.

The agreements signed are believed to be historic as the dispute resolution mechanism adopted by the states- focused on sharing their views, studying the objections of each other and thereafter negotiating based on the principle of give and take. The spirit of accommodation shown by both the states is exemplary considering the fact that Inter State River Water disputes are abounding in our country.

Political will is all thats required

The Congress party, the major opposition in the state of Telangana has alleged that the state has made a compromise to Maharashtra, especially in the case of the Tummidihatti barrage across Pranahita River (largest tributary of Godavari), wherein the height of the barrage has been reduced by 4 metres (from 152 to 148 m). The opposition referred to the earlier agreement made in 2012 by the then chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy with his counterpart in Maharashtra Prithviraj Chavan wherein the barrage height was maintained at 152 m. The Congress was in power in both the states (Maharashtra and erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh) for a long period of time, but did not make any substantial progress and had failed to keep the interests of the people above all the odds in the case of irrigation projects.

One of the noteworthy aspects of the accord is that it enables setting up an inter-state water board that will look into the agreements reached between erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, construction of projects in future ensuring mutual advantage. The accord is considered historic not merely for the resolution of decade-old disputes, but for the methodology adopted to resolve it in a peaceful way without having to wait for long years as the case has been in other states trying to resolve water issues. The government of Telangana has displayed its political will to take forward the irrigation projects that would benefit a large sections of its population in the drought prone districts.

A way forward for warring states

Water, being a state subject, the union government is not supposed to intervene unless the states want it to. The Telangana government has paved a new path for inter-state water dispute resolution for all the warring states who repeatedly knocked on the doors of the union government for resolving their disputes. The gestures shown by the chief ministers of Telangana and Maharashtra are appreciable considering the fact that they do not belong to the same political parties.

With the underground water levels drastically falling, there is an immediate need for the optimal utilization of the river water by the states. In the case of Telangana, Godavari flows at a low level, making lift irrigation mandatory at many places as the possibility for gravity projects is limited. This pressing need for irrigation projects made the state work relentlessly on resolving the issues with the neighbouring states and ensuring that the path gets cleared for its mission to bring around one lakh acres under irrigation each in all the districts of the state.

Both the states have paved a new path of cooperation for their development. The chief ministers of both the states have shown a spirit of accommodation creating a win-win situation for both the states and also illustrating the need for keeping aside politics to harness natural resources for the development of people. The chief minister of Telangana saying that similar initiative will be taken up with Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh is a welcome statement.
Considering the efficiency and accountability with which the Governor, Narinder Nath Vohra, is running the state of affairs in Jammu and Kashmir, people may not miss the civilian government any more. Surprisingly, an impression is gaining the ground, after every passing day, that Vohra has not just improved the governance delivery system but also made the bureaucracy accessible and accountable, like never before.

Vohra, 79, was appointed Governor of the state during the UPA regime, when Kashmir was boiling in the summer unrest of 2008, following the Amarnath land row that left more than 100 people dead. He is considered to be one of the most apolitical governors to have served the state. His no-nonsense attitude earned him the distinction of being the first civilian governor to be appointed in 18 years after Jagmohan.

Following the death of former Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, on 7 January, Vohra become the third-time administrative head of the state. He has held the office of Governor for the last eight years and rumors of his being replaced where rife when Sayeed, passed away in New Delhi, giving Vohra a second chance in a year to rule. This put J&K into its seventh instance of Governor's rule.

But observers and common people say never before has he been so constant and forceful, when it comes to governance delivery system, than this time. Be it compensation for flood effected people, dredging of Jhelum or punctuality of government employees and a host of other issues, Vohra has made a difference in his fresh avatar.

The grocery store of Fareed Lone, a shopkeeper in Jawahar Nagar area of Srinagar, was submerged in the September 2014 floods. His house too was damaged in the devastating floods that marooned most of Srinagar.

After he was denied compensation for months, when the BJP-PDP lead alliance was ruling the state for nine months, Lone was among the 5532 traders who were given compensation recently when Rs 1.99 crores was disbursed among 813 traders, by the state government led by Vohra. The administration granted cheques worth Rs 14.32 crores since the process of disbursal was expedited after 25 February.

We pleaded before ministers in the previous government, but failed to receive any compensation, but last week, we were pleasantly surprised when we were given cheques for the loss. Although it wont compensate for the damage fully, at least it happened without us having to beg before politicians, Lone told Firstpost.

The state administration recently said that at least, 10,000 traders have been provided relief to the tune of over 40 crore, to restart their business.

Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Asghar Hassan Samoon, said that the current administration is working overnight to compensate people who have been effected by the floods and every trader who has suffered losses in the floods would be compensated.

We have already disbursed 40.70 crore among traders and have also sent a proposal for the release of additional Rs 120 crores to the Centre government so that other will also be covered, Samoon said.

Governor Vohra has also requested Uma Bharti, Minister for Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation to urgently release funds for the dredging of the river Jhelum and its outflow channels.

He has requested that Bharti should take personnel interest so that the project would be completed in a time-bound manner before the coming monsoon season.

A statement by the office of Governor last week that he is personally monitoring the implementation of this vital project to ensure that the works are completed as per the envisaged time frame. The dredging would increase the capacity of the Jhelum from 34,000 to 45,000 cusecs.

It is strange that despite having less bureaucracy, Vohra has made bureaucrats deliver in these two months in almost every area where his attention has been drawn. To ensure punctuality in all the government offices, he has ordered the implementation of biometric attendances by March.

Recently, after an intervention by his office, the defense ministry gave a nod to the night landing facility on the Srinagar Airport, flights can land in Srinagar till 10 pm.

This is a good step. It will increase the tourist footfall ten times in the state. We had been demanding this for years now, Manzoor Siddiq, President Travel Agents Association of Kashmir (TAAK), told Firstpost.

There is relief on the administrative side since the Governor took over. Files are not lingering, the bureaucracy is responding and decision are being taken quickly, Mushtaq Wani, Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries (KCCI) President, told Firstpost.

Vohra is not new to Kashmir; he was appointed as interlocutor by the central government to chalk out a road map for Kashmir. He is well known, and has before becoming governor, held talks with separatists and mainstream groups, to chalk out future strategy for Kashmir.

Recently, the state government suspended 100 doctors after finding them unauthorisedly absent from the duty. Without any delay, the government on Wednesday said the vacancies created after terminating services of 100 doctors recently will be referred to the to the recruiting agencies.

This is not possible under any civilian government, Umar Iqbal, a resident of Sonwar area of Srinagar said, That is the beauty of the governors rule, he added.
So finally, the question of what is the fate of Rs 9,000 crore public money that states-run banks lent to Vijay Mallya, has finally reached Parliament  some four years after the loan became an NPA (non-performing asset) and after the man in question has flown away to safe shores.

The silence of political parties  be it the ruling BJP or the principal opposition Congress  on the issue so far, lacked any logic. The money in question ultimately belongs to the public  the depositors. The sad part is that failure to recover loan dues from large defaulters like Mallya, would mean that the same taxpayer will have to bail out the banks for the resultant losses using his tax money.

Hence, the issue warranted political attention, not just in Mallyas case but for the recovery from all large defaulters, especially given that the RBI-ordered clean up exercise is currently on.

The immediate logical question is why it took so much time for the countrys top politicians to realise the gravity of the bad loan problem faced by Indian banks and the tactics played by crony promoters like Mallya, who have taken the banking system for a ride?

After observing silence on this issue until now, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi and Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad have hit out at the Narendra Modi government for letting Mallya escape the country.

My charge against this government is that when so many agencies were interrogating him (Mallya), why was he not arrested, why was his passport not confiscated, Azad said in Rajya Sabha.

This was followed with a series of tweets by Gandhi on the issue asking how the government allowed Vijay Mallya, who owes Rs 9,000 crore to banks, to leave the country". Gandhi also brought in the comparison of what would have happened to a common man who is forced to commit chori (usko aap markar andar kar dete ho) and the big businessman who loots Rs 9,000 crore is sent to Engalnd in first class. What is this happening? Gandhi asks the Modi government why somebody who is under CBIs look out notice is still in Rajya Sabha and wants Mallya to be prevented from going out of the country.

Rahul Gandhis emotional outburst and his willingness to raise questions, at least now, is welcome. But Gandhi should first ask his own party, who was ruling the country for the last one decade that why Mallya, in the first place, was given a soft approach by the government banks (huge amount of loans despite being a loss making airline, restructuring facility and soft approach in recovery process) except in the last few months? Remember the Kingfisher loan became an NPA in 2012.

           Black Money  ,    ,       ,  !  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) March 10, 2016

  businessman 9000     ,          ,     ?  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) March 10, 2016

     -    ,       ,              Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) March 10, 2016

         -      ,  ,      !  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) March 10, 2016

9000        ,      ?  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) March 10, 2016

        ,    look out notice ,        ?  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) March 10, 2016

    clear  ,   ,       ?  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) March 10, 2016

No major steps were taken by any banks all these years against Mallya until recently when the bad loan became a big buzz word in Parliament and banks were almost on the verge of facing an industry crisis. Why the UPA government, both I and II, let the government banks to go ahead with a risky lending to an airline that never made a profit in its eight year-life, take further exposure, even when the company and its promoter were in news mostly for wrong reasons mostly?

Gandhi should also do a self-introspection on why he failed to notice all these while that had a direct implication on public depositors (and taxpayers). What is the rationale for waiting to a point when banks have little chance to recover the money and the man in question is no longer in the country? Didnt Gandhi see that Mallya was present in Parliament on 1 March?

Question to BJP

While Jaitleys retaliation to Azad in Parliament on Tuesday that the loans to Mallya were given during the UPA-rule is true, this is no excuse on the NDA governments oblivious attitude to the issue in the 20 months of its rule. The NPA problem in the banking sector is not a recent phenomenon and has been one of the major challenges of the Modi government ever since it came into rule.

The simple reason: A considerable amount of capital from the state exchequer goes to repair the cracked balance sheets of state-run banks. The government, logically, is answerable to the taxpayer on why efforts were not being made to recover loans from large corporate defaulters, who constitute majority of the Rs lakh crore NPAs in the banking industry and an equal amount of restructured loans.

Had the government wanted, it could have initiated investigations and legal proceedings against Mallya, who has openly challenged the whole system, using the machinery at its disposal. Even the investigation from the Enforcement Directorate came much late giving room for Mallya to plan his future moves. Can Jaitley explain the delay in taking the action on Mallya?

The bottomline is this: The blame game between Congress and BJP in Parliament on who aided Mallya first in securing such large chunks of loans and then escape the country on Thursday is merely the art of passing the buck. The fact is that both are responsible for the problem. What is needed at this stage is strong political will to bring Mallya back to the home soil, make him answer to the law of the land and recover the Rs 9,000 crore public money at stake. The mud-slinging fest can happen later.
New Delhi: Trying to push the government on the backfoot, a combative Rahul Gandhi on Thursday asked how it allowed liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who owes over Rs 9,000 crore to banks, to leave the country and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley have failed to answer this question in their speeches.

The Congress Vice President attacked the government saying the entire country is questioning why this government was "helping" people like Mallya by allowing him to escape and not fulfilling its promises made to people for bringing back black money and giving Rs 15 lakh into every person's bank account.

He also hit out at the Modi government for bringing the "Fair and Lovely" tax amnesty scheme, saying it only helped thieves, black marketeers and drug mafia to convert their black money into white.

Rahul also attacked the Prime Minister over his style of functioning, saying Modi in his long speeches has not answered his queries made to him.

"When a poor man steals, he is beaten up and thrown into jail. Someone who does not have food to eat and steals a roti is beaten up and put behind bars and a big businessmen who steals Rs 9,000 crore from country, you allow him to escape in First Class from the country. What is this happening?

"We simply asked that someone who stole Rs 9,000 crore from the country, how did he run away from the country. How did you allow him to escape? This is the simple question and we neither got a reply to this from Modiji nor from Jaitley ji. The question is why did your government allow him to run away from the country," he told reporters outside Parliament.

Attacking the government for its tax amnesty scheme, Rahul said, "Fair and Lovely scheme is for thieves, black marketeers and drug mafia. Anyone who wants to convert his black money into white can do so through this scheme. The entire country is asking, I am not asking, that why are you helping these people. The question I am asking is if you have promised to give us Rs 15 lakh,then why are you giving him Rs 9,000 crore."

The Congress leader said if Modi government has promised to bring back black money, then it should bring it back and not allow Mallya to escape abroad and should stop him.

"Before he became Prime Minister, Modi had promised that he will put Rs 15 lakh in our bank accounts. We did not get even a single rupee and Vijay Mallya ran away from the country with Rs 9,000 crore. We asked Mr Jaitley to tell us how Mallya ran away from India. If there is action against him and a lookout notice has been issued against him, then what is he doing in Rajya Sabha," he said.

PTI
WASHINGTON Democrat Hillary Clinton's unexpected defeat in Michigan has laid bare growing voter anger over international trade, raising warning flags for her ahead of a possible presidential election showdown against Republican front-runner Donald Trump.

Trump has built his campaign on pledges to scrap international trade deals and do more to protect American workers from foreign competition, tapping the same groundswell of discontent that propelled Clinton's rival Bernie Sanders to victory in the Midwestern state on Tuesday.

Clinton remains heavily favoured to win the Democratic nomination. But the setback in Michigan could signal further troubles in upcoming primaries in other Rust Belt states such as Ohio, forcing her further to the left on economic issues and possibly influencing her choice for an eventual running mate, strategists said.

The backlash against 20 years of trade liberalization has stalled the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), a sweeping Pacific trade deal backed by President Barack Obama and threatens to stymie the trade agenda for years to come.

"It's politically radioactive to support free trade right now," said Greg Valliere, a Washington analyst for Horizon Investments, a financial firm.

Clinton's troubles with her party's left wing -- and with white, working class voters more generally -- may steer her toward a trade sceptic such as Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio as a vice presidential running mate, said Democratic strategist Steve Jarding. Political pundits had expected Clinton to pick someone to increase her appeal to Hispanic or other minority voters, such as U.S. Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro.

Sanders, 74, is unlikely to end up as Clintons running mate, partly due to his age, Democrats said.

Both Sanders, a democratic socialist, and billionaire Trump have harnessed anti-trade sentiment in their insurgent White House bids, criticizing deals like NAFTA as job killers that have depressed the living standards of working Americans.

Exit polls from Michigan, a hub of the U.S. auto industry, show widespread voter scepticism on trade that may have helped Sanders and Trump win their respective party primaries.

"She made a fundamental mistake early on in this campaign to try to stay in the centre," Democratic strategist Steve Jarding said of Clinton. "This cycle, there is no centre."

NUANCED TRADE STANCE

Sanders campaigned heavily against foreign trade in a state that has been hammered by overseas competition since the 1980s. Some 58 percent of his supporters in Michigan exit polls said that trade takes away U.S. jobs, while a slight majority - 53 percent - of Clinton backers said trade creates U.S. jobs.

The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, estimates that Michigan would lose 5 percent of its jobs if TPP were to take effect, the highest proportion of any state.

Gary Hunley, a substitute teacher in Dearborn, Michigan, said he believed Clinton was partially to blame for stagnant wages because NAFTA was enacted under her husband Bill Clinton's presidency in the 1990s.

"She was not a passive first lady," Hunley said.

Clinton's stance on trade is more nuanced than Trump's and Sanders'. After NAFTA was enacted, she voted against a free-trade deal with Central America while serving as a U.S. senator in the following decade.

As Obama's secretary of state, Clinton helped negotiate the TPP with Japan, Vietnam and other Pacific Rim countries.

As a presidential candidate, Clinton has said after reading the final language of the deal she would vote against it because it does not adequately protect U.S. workers.

Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook told reporters Wednesday there were no plans to adjust her stance and that he would "put Secretary Clinton up against any candidate in this race on trade," including Trump.

Despite backing by the Obama administration, Republican lawmakers and many business groups, Republican leaders in Congress have shown no sign that they will bring TPP up for a vote this year.

The Obama administration says the deal has high labour and environmental standards that were not part of NAFTA. "Im not sure that has fully been absorbed in the public mindset," U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice told Reuters. [L1N16H1VJ]

The deal may fare no better under the next president. Sanders and Trump oppose TPP, and Senator Ted Cruz, who is in second place in the Republican contest, has said he would not vote for it this year.

"They've listened to the public and politicians have caught up with the public on this," Brown, the Ohio Democratic senator, told Reuters.

The evidence that the TPP would help the U.S. economy much is less than conclusive.

The Peter G. Peterson Institute, a pro-trade think tank, estimates that it would boost economic growth by just 0.5 percent after 15 years.

The deal would not boost employment overall, but would result in a "churn" of 53,700 jobs lost and created each year, and it would boost incomes by 0.5 percent, the institute found.

Another estimate by the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University found the trade deal would slow growth by 0.54 percent after 10 years and cost 448,000 jobs in the United States.

(Additional reporting by David Lawder, Amanda Becker, Valerie Volcovici, Richard Cowan, Roberta Rampton and John Whitesides; editing by Stuart Grudgings)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Ljubljana, Slovenia: Migrants hoping to trek from Greece towards northern Europe found their path blocked on Wednesday 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 on Wednesday that nearly 36,000 migrants were now stranded there. Police said a further 4,000 were unaccounted for.

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.

AFP
Moscow: Armed men attacked the office of a prominent human rights organisation in the volatile Russian region of Ingushetia, hours after journalists were assaulted in the same area.

Footage of the attack posted on Twitter by Dmitry Utukin, a lawyer for the Committee to Prevent Torture, appeared to show several camouflaged armed men breaking security cameras at the group's office in the Ingush town of Karabulak.

"Armed men came to our office in five cars, one of them broke the security camera at the entrance. Three others came in through the window," Utukin wrote.

Nobody was inside at the time of the break-in, which occurred on late Wednesday, just hours after masked men attacked a group of journalists on a trip organised by the group in the bordering region of Chechnya.

Nine people, including five journalists, were en route to Grozny, Chechnya's main city, when masked assailants stormed their minibus.

Journalists from Norway and Sweden, a lawyer for the NGO and the minibus driver were hospitalised with injuries, the group said on Wednesday.

Utukin said local investigators had opened a probe into the incidents.

The local branch of Russia's Investigative Committee refused comment when contacted by AFP on Thursday.

Founded in 2000, the Committee to Prevent Torture is one of the few NGOs active in Chechnya and offers legal support to torture victims.

A similar attack was carried out against the group's Grozny office last year.

The organisation's office was also torched in December 2014 after it criticised Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov for urging collective punishment of the families of Islamist insurgents.

Rights activists and journalists investigating torture, kidnapping and war crimes in Chechnya are routinely threatened and harassed.

AFP
By Madhav Krishnan V

In the US Democratic presidential primaries so far, 21 out of 50 states have cast their votes to choose their presidential nominee. Hillary Clinton has won 12 states and Bernie Sanders has won nine. Sounds like a close race? Not according the to the US mainstream media.

According to major TV news outlets, the race is over and it is just a question of when Sanders will drop out. News room pundits have followed this up with subtle hints that he should stop hurting the presumptive nominee in the general election by continuing to stay in the race. The claim is that Clinton has such a big lead among delegates that Sanders can never hope to catch up. With super delegates included they say, Clinton leads Sanders 1,217 delegates to 564 delegates, with 2,383 delegates needed to win the nomination.

To undestand the media narrative, one has to first know how the US party nominations work. The candidate is not selected by direct voting. Instead, each state has a certain number of delegates awarded to it by the Democratic party based on the size of the state. These delegates are the ones who will elect a nominee. Delegates are of two types: Pledged delegates who are awarded based on vote share during the primaries and unpledged delegates or the so called super delegates. These delegates are basically party insiders, elected representatives as well as members of the Democratic National Committee. The super delegates are free to vote for anyone they wish regardless of who the public votes for.

The system of super delegates, which has often been criticised as being undemocratic, was set up by the Democratic party in 1984 to give the party more say in who the nominee will be. But here comes the catch, these super delegates only cast their vote at the Democratic convention in July after all the primaries are done.

Right now their support of Clinton is not binding. So, if Sanders does well among the pledged delegates the super delegates can easily change their minds and vote for him instead. In fact, this is precisely what happened to Clinton in 2008 against Obama. She had a big lead over Obama among super delegates, which vanished by the time the primaries were over.

But to be fair, over 450 of the 709 super delegates have publicly declared their support for Clinton in the convention, far more than in 2008, so Sanders will have to convert a significantly larger number.

So will the super delegates want to vote for Sanders in July? Highly unlikely as the democratic party establishment is completely behind Clinton, but they might not have a choice. If Sanders wins the pledged delegate count by any margin that cannot be considered a tie, it will be political suicide for the democratic party to overturn the people's decision and alienate their own base before the general election. They simply cannot do it without risking losing the Presidential race.

So, if we strip away the super delegates who probably won't matter that much, Clinton leads sanders 757 to 543. A significant lead but not an insurmountable one. And while Clinton looks good on paper, her position might not be as strong as these numbers indicate. Look at the trajectory of the contest so far.

When Sanders announced his candidacy, no one outside of Vermont even knew who he was. He was polling at 10 per cent nationally to Clinton's 60 per cent. He was a 74-year-old, self-declared Democratic socialist Jew. The media immediately dismmised him as a threat to Clinton, who looked set to sweep the nomination.

But, the more people are exposed to Bernie Sanders, the better he seems to do. In every demographic he keeps improving his popularity as time passes. His supporters have far more energy that Clinton's and he is winning younger voters overwhelmingly. He has drawn bigger crowds than Obama did in 2008, he has had more campaign contributions at this point than any presidential candidate. He outraised Clinton by 10 million dollars in February and is likely to continue outraising her. Right now, some polls have shown him ahead nationally even though a majority of pollsters still favour Clinton  but by smaller margins than before.

There are two main reasons for Sanders' success. He has better favourability ratings of the two candidates. Polls show Sanders beats Clinton by miles when it comes to being seen as honest and trustworthy and authentic. He is one of the few politicians whose favourability rating is higher than his unfavourability rating.

Secondly, his policy positions have wide public support, be it on public health care, getting money out of politics or a broken criminal justice system. He offers change while Clinton represents the status quo. Clinton has been forced to move to the Left on many issues by Sanders, including having to renouce the TPP, a trade deal which she herself championed at one time. Whether this will help her or not remains to be seen.

But when it comes to electability, even people who vote for Sanders actually believe Clinton will be the nominee. This is her biggest advantage. Many voters like Sanders's positions, but do not believe he can win, so they will vote for Clinton. If she can slow down the votes she is bleeding to Sanders long enough, she will win the nomination. But this is by no means a sure thing. Her strongest ally is the clearly biased media, which is itching to write Sanders off and to project Clinton as the eventual nominee.

A study after four months of Sanders's campaign showed that he got eight minutes of evening news coverage to Clinton's 80. The print media has not been much better. Fair.org, a media watchdog recently reported that the Washington Post ran 16 negative articles about Sanders in 16 hours after his acrimonious debate with Clinton in Flint. The Wall Street Journal ran a piece in September titled 'Price tag of Sanders's proposals: 18 trillion'. The article goes on to say that this will be over a 10 year period with $15 trillion being spent on health care, leaving the majority of of readers who just see the headlines misinformed. The article cited from a study by economist Gerald Friedman, but conveniently left out the conclusion of his study. Friedman concluded that under the current system the spending will be $20 trillion and Sanders's plan will actually save $5 trillion dollars over a decade.

Now, there are economists on both sides of Friedman's study, but the reporting bias is evident.

Despite all this though, Sanders has done remarkably well, mostly owing to social media campaigning, which circumvents mainstream media. But will he be able to make up the advantage Clinton has and in time to win the nomination?

To answer that, one has to look at the states that Clinton has and the demographics in which she is doing well. Her lead comes from the delegate-rich big southern states where she beat Sanders by huge margins largely due to the African-American vote which have voted in her favour at almost 80 per cent. It is no accident that these are the states where primaries are held first. These traditionally conservative states were put early on the calendar to stop insurgent non-establishment candidates from winning the nomination.

But there are not many southern states left. Clinton will not have such a favourable demographic for the rest of the race and many big liberal states such as New York and California offer Sanders a chance to significantly close the gap if he can hang on long enough.

For that to work he has to look like a viable candidate and win a few states and not lose too badly in others. He has to convince people that he is indeed electable, even more electable that Clinton. There is definitely an argument to be made for that. The majority of general election head-to-head polling show Sanders beating Republicans by larger margins than Clinton.

The reason for this is that Sanders does far better than Clinton among independents. A case in point is the stunning upset in Michigan. Polls had Clinton far ahead, some as much as 30 points. The average lead was around 20 points from various polls going in, causing a reputed pollster to claim that Sanders's chances of losing were 99 per cent. He won by two points. Michigan has open primaries where independent voters are allowed to vote, and Sanders won two-thirds of the independent vote.

Moreover, Clinton's big wins are in states where the Democrats will not win the general election, but Sanders is by and large winning the swing states. In some states such as Maine, voter turn out was unprecedented and he won by a huge margin. A high voter turn out will be essential for the Democrats in the general elections and first time voters seem to love Bernie.

The Michigan win comes at just at the right time for Sanders because the next big challange on the calendar is March 15, when five big states are going to the polls: Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Missouri and Illinois, and he is trailing by double digits in the polls. A big loss here could seriously dent his campaign, but he has just demonstrated that he can outperform the polls. Of the five, only Florida is a closed primary where independents cannot vote. If he can survive March 15, the calendar will be filled with states he is expected to do well in and he can begin to seriously chip away at Clinton's lead.

Another area he has to do better in is the African-American vote. There are some positive signs from Michigan, where he won 30 per cent of the African-American vote. This is still losing badly, but it's better than he has done before. Clinton has been heavly propped up by her huge margins in this group. If he manages to make headway here, Clinton will be in serious trouble.
SEOUL North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast city of Wonsan early on Thursday, flying approximately 500 km (300 miles), South Korea's military said.

North Korea has a large stockpile of short-range missiles and is developing long-range and intercontinental missiles.

Reports of the missiles being fired coincide with already heightened tension on the Korean peninsula after the North conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and launched a long-range rocket last month, leading to new U.N. Security Council and bilateral U.S. sanctions.

The North fired six rockets into the sea last week using a multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) from Wonsan, supervised by leader Kim Jong Un who ordered his military to be prepared to launch pre-emptive attacks against enemies.

Kim said on Wednesday his country has miniaturised nuclear warheads to mount on ballistic missiles and ordered improvements in the power and precision of its arsenal in his first direct comment about nuclear warhead miniaturisation.

State Department spokesman John Kirby declined to comment on Kim's claim to have miniaturised nuclear warheads and accused him of "provocative rhetoric."

"I'd say the young man needs to pay more attention to the North Korean people and taking care of them than in pursuing these sorts of reckless capabilities," Kirby said.

The Pentagon said this week it had not seen North Korea demonstrate a capability to miniaturise a nuclear warhead. But Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the department was working on U.S. ballistic missile defences to be prepared.

North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6 but its claim to have set off a miniaturised hydrogen bomb has been disputed by the U.S. and South Korean governments and many experts.

U.S. and South Korean troops began large-scale military drills this week, which the North called "nuclear war moves" and threatened to respond with an all-out offensive.

(Reporting by Jack Kim and Ju-min Park in Seoul and David Brunnstrom and David Alexander in Washington; Editing by Grant McCool)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Islamabad: Pakistan urged the International Court of Justice on Thursday to dismiss a case filed by the Marshall Islands, a tiny South Pacific state, to force India, Britain and Pakistan to pursue nuclear disarmament.

Pakistan's nuclear programme is a "matter of its national defense and security which falls exclusively within its domestic jurisdiction and is therefore not to be called into question by any court, including the ICJ," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

It said Pakistan had submitted a written response to the court, seeking the dismissal of the case.

Initial court proceedings began Monday, when the ICJ began determining whether it can accept the Marshall Islands' case, which aims to breathe new life into disarmament negotiations. The island state is still suffering the after-effects of nuclear testing along its territory in the '40s and '50s.

The Marshall Islands filed a case against nine countries that have declared or are believed to have nuclear weapons, but only the cases against Britain, India and Pakistan reached this preliminary stage.

Pakistan became a declared nuclear power in 1998, when it conducted underground nuclear tests in response to those carried out by its rival and neighbour India.

AP
Kuala Lumpur: Debris found in Mozambique arrived in Malaysia today for initial investigations into whether it came from missing flight MH370 before being taken to Australia for deeper analysis, officials said.

Department of Civil Aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman confirmed to AFP that the one-metre long (three-foot) object was in Malaysia.

He declined to provide further details, but Malaysia's transport minister told local media it would be passed along to Australia, which is leading a huge Indian Ocean search for the missing aircraft.

"We will send it to Australia for further examinations," Liow Tiong Lai was quoted as saying.

Liow has previously said there is a "high probability" the piece of debris came from a Boeing 777. The debris could provide fresh clues into the mystery of the Malaysia Airlines flight, a Boeing 777.

Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester said last week the debris would be analysed there by Malaysian and Australian officials and specialists, including from Boeing, to determine its origin.

Mozambican authorities on Monday had handed over the debris to Malaysian experts after it was found washed up on a sandbar by an American amateur investigator. Tuesday marked the second anniversary of the plane's

disappearance.

MH370 was carrying 239 passengers and crew when it vanished on 8 March, 2014 on an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Last July, a wing fragment was found washed ashore on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion and later confirmed to be from the plane.

More possible MH370 debris in the same area was found on Sunday and authorities are studying it.

But the search has been unable to pinpoint an actual crash site, which could help to solve the baffling

mystery.

AFP
WASHINGTON The White House is eager to turn the page on the years-long fight over a crude oil pipeline with Canada and celebrate its close economic and security ties with its northern neighbour, U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice said on Wednesday.

Trade between the United States and Canada and joint efforts to curb climate change will loom large on the agenda for the meeting between President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Washington on Thursday.

It will be followed by a star-studded state dinner meant to recognise the importance of the bilateral relationship, the first state dinner to honour Canada in 19 years.

Trudeau's Liberals came to power in November by ousting right-wing Conservative leader Stephen Harper, whose ties with Washington deteriorated as he hectored Obama over the Keystone XL pipeline.

President Barack Obama blocked the project last year, a victory for environmentalists who had campaigned against the pipeline.

The spat is in the past, Rice said.

"In any bilateral relationship, there are going to be issues of difference and occasional friction," she told Reuters in an interview.

"The complexity and the breadth and the depth of the U.S-Canada relationship is such that no single issue can overshadow the totality of the relationship," she said.

Obama and Trudeau will discuss the next steps for the "Beyond the Border" initiative, a plan to speed travel and trade, Rice said.

"With the longest peaceful border and $2 billion a day in trade in both directions, we have an enormous shared stake in a border that is open for business and open for travel - and safe," Rice said.

Trudeau campaigned to strengthen ties with the United States, but also promised he would pull out six fighter jets from the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Rice said the White House is satisfied with steps that Trudeau took to beef up training, surveillance and other support to the coalition.

"Taken as a whole, we view the Canadian stepped-up contribution to the counter-ISIL campaign as being very, very valuable and welcome," Rice said, using an acronym for Islamic State.

The White House has also watched closely as Trudeau welcomed 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada in four months.

"We've seen thus far that Canada is taking very seriously its responsibility to its own citizens and to our common security to be vigilant as it welcomes these new refugees," Rice said.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton, editing by Tiffany Wu)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Tony Windsor will go head to head against Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce for the seat of New England.

Ending months of speculation about a political comeback, Mr Windsor announced on Thursday that he will attempt to win back his old seat in Parliament.

The independent, who backed Julia Gillard to govern over Tony Abbott in the 2010 hung Parliament, was the New England MP for 12 years up until his unexpected retirement in 2013.
Luke Nuttall. Credit:Facebook: SavingLuke She pricked her son's finger and got a blood sugar level that was almost half as high as the one on the monitor - much too low, and falling fast. Mrs Nuttall quickly gave her sleeping son a glucose tablet and monitored the tense tableau: attentive dog, sleeping boy, a frightening number on a screen. Then she took a photo.

"Luke was laying right next to me, just inches from me, and without Jedi I would have had no idea that he was dropping out of a safe range," she wrote in her post that has since gone viral. "This is a picture of a Jedi saving his boy." Mrs Nuttall said that she posted the photo to expose other people to the daily (and nightly) reality of type 1 diabetes. Her Facebook page and website chronicle countless middle-of-the-night moments such as this one; they're so frequent they might become routine, if it weren't for the fact that in any one of them, Luke could die. But it's also a testament to a scientific fact that is something of a medical marvel: dogs can smell how well a diabetes patient is doing. In some circumstances - like Luke's - a dog is a better judge of a little boy's health than his parents, his myriad high-tech monitoring machinery, even the patient himself.

A dog's nose is an incredibly powerful sensory tool: their sense of smell overpowers our own by a factor of 10,000 to 100,000, James Walker, former director of the Sensory Research Institute at Florida State University, told PBS. Their advantage is so staggering, it's hardly fair. When dogs breathe in through their noses, a fraction of the air they inhale is sent to a special olfactory area, where specialised structures called turbinates sieve through odour molecules based on their chemical properties. By comparison, humans have no designated smell centre - just a swath of cells that incoming air whiffs past on its way to our lungs. Dogs smell in stereo (they can tell which nostril a smell came in through) and they can wiggle their nostrils independently - a feat not even matched by Samantha Stephens from Bewitched. And when dogs exhale, the air goes out through special slits in the sides of their noses, rather than back out via the nostrils through which it came. This means that dogs can be sniffing basically continuously as they breathe, and air they've already smelled doesn't get mixed up with new scents flowing in.

Then there's the vomeronasal organ, a separate olfactory system designed specifically for detecting hormones - from potential mates, incoming predators, vulnerable prey and - luckily for us - emotional or ailing humans. Dogs are thought to be able to sniff out cancer, deadly bacteria and seizures. What exactly dogs are smelling when they sense that a patient's blood sugar has fallen too low is still a mystery to scientists. Is it the scent of sweat, or a smell carried on the breath? Is it a hormone? Are they even "smelling" the diabetic emergency at all? (A 2013 paper in the journal Diabetes Care suggested that they might not be, though the study only tested dogs' ability to detected hypoglycaemic patient's skin.) But anecdotal evidence - along with a small but growing body of research - indicates that whatever sense dogs are relying on to detect low blood sugar, they're incredibly good at it. Diabetes alert dogs are difficult to train and, for some people, prohibitively expensive. According to the website for the non-profit Dogs Assisting Diabetics Foundation, patients must pay a $US15,000 adoption fee and another $US1000 a year for food and other expenses.
Hours after gun-rights advocate Jamie Gilt bragged on Facebook that her four-year-old son "gets jacked up to target shoot," the same child accidentally turned his mother into a target, shooting her in the back.

The 31-year-old Jacksonville woman was driving down a road in Putnam County, Florida, on Tuesday when her son managed to get hold of a gun while he was sitting in the back seat of the vehicle, according to a statement released by the Putnam County Sheriff's Department.

Officials told the Florida Times-Union that the child fired a .45-caliber handgun that he found on the truck's floor into the driver's seat.

"She was shot through the seat and the round went through her back," Sheriff's Captain Joseph Wells told the Times-Union. "There was a booster seat in the back of the vehicle, but, however, the boy was not strapped in when the deputy got to them."
U.S. defense officials say a key Islamic State operative captured by American forces last month has been transferred to Iraqi custody, after providing the U.S.-led coalition with valuable information about the militant group's chemical weapons capabilities.

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook referred to Sleiman Daoud Al-Bakkar, aka Abu Daoud, as Islamic State's "emir of chemical and traditional weapons manufacturing." Cook said the suspect revealed details on IS chemical weapons facilities and production, as well as the people involved.

"The information has resulted in multiple coalition airstrikes that have disrupted and degraded ISIL's ability to produce chemical weapons and will continue to inform our operations in the future," Cook said, using another acronym for Islamic State.

The capture of the IS operative by a U.S. "expeditionary targeting force" was reported earlier this month, but his identity and role in the militant group's chemical weapons program was not disclosed until this week.

Recent attacks reported

New allegations of chemical attacks carried out by IS were reported this week.

Officials in Iraq told VOA on Wednesday that Islamic State fighters fired rockets loaded with mustard gas, also known as sulfur mustard, into a town north of Baghdad late Tuesday and early Wednesday. Iraqi and Kurdish officials said dozens of civilians were injured by the attack on Taza Khurmatu, a town whose residents are mostly Shi'ite Muslim ethnic Turkmen.

"The rockets spread a garlicky smell and caused nausea and vomiting," according to Soran Jalal, head of Taza Khurmatu's civil defense office. He told VOA that investigators confirmed the weapons carried mustard gas.

A commander in Kirkuk, the Kurdish population center north of Turkmen town, estimated about 30 people required hospital treatment. Lieutenant Muhammad Qadir told VOA at least five of the wounded had facial burns caused by chemical agents.

Separately, a police official in Kirkuk, Brigadier General Sarhad Qadir, said it was determined the rockets were fired into Taza Khurmatu from territory controlled by the Islamic State group.
The French government is willing to make some tweaks to its pro-business labor reforms to ease concerns about them, Labor Minister Myriam El Khomri said on Thursday, a day after a series of street protests.

Students and unions staged rallies across the country on Wednesday against the far-reaching labor reform plans, with the official Interior Ministry figure of 224,000 protesters far from a record but still high enough to worry the government.



"People are protesting, it's there, we must listen to the criticism," Labor Minister Myriam El Khomri told France Info radio.



One way to answer those concerns would be to slap higher payroll taxes on short-term contracts to encourage employers to hire workers as permanent staff, El Khomri said.



The government might make a further concession by keeping a rule that requires authorization from work inspectors before apprentices can be made to work longer hours, she said.



"Withdrawing that proposal [to change the rule] is on the table," she said.



These ideas are unlikely to be game-changers though. The short-term contract taxation plan is already on the table in ongoing negotiations between labor unions and employers groups, and the apprentices' issue would be just a minor tweak to the draft law.



But the government is working on more far-reaching changes to the draft law, government and union sources said. These could include raising a planned cap on unfair dismissal compensation and watering down some measures aimed at making it easier for businesses to lay off workers when the business isn't going well.



In another move to prevent youth discontent from boiling over, Prime Minister Manuel Valls will meet with student organizations on Friday morning, an aide to the prime minister

said.



The government's reform plans put almost all aspects of France's strictly codified rules on labor relations up for negotiation. Everything from maximum working hours to holidays and pay on rest breaks would be open to scrutiny in an attempt to free up business, while the main focus is on plans to limit the cost of laying off workers.



Initially due to be adopted in a Cabinet meeting this week, the bill was postponed by two weeks after it triggered harsh criticism from within the ruling Socialist party.



Public opinion appeared divided, with 50 percent of respondents in an Elabe poll supporting the protests, a quarter opposing them and another quarter expressing indifference.
Iran said Thursday its ballistic missile program and the tests it conducted this week do not violate its commitments under a nuclear agreement reached last year with a group of six world powers.

State media quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi-Ansari saying Iran will continue the program and that it is legitimate and defensive in nature.

The U.S. State Department raised concerns about the test launches that Iran said it conducted Tuesday and Wednesday.

"We're going to take a look at it and we'll take whatever appropriate response is necessary, either at the U.N. or unilaterally," said State Department spokesman John Kirby.

Kirby said that Secretary of State John Kerry raised the issue later Wednesday with Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif.

But Iran's Student News Agency said Thursday that Kerry had sent emails to Zarif asking for a telephone consultation, but it did not happen because Zarif is on an official visit.

The nuclear pact, negotiated by the United States and five other world powers, does not prohibit the missile tests. It brought a new U.N. Security Council resolution that 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."

Iran said two missiles launched Wednesday were inscribed with a message in Hebrew that "Israel should be wiped from the pages of history."

The semi-official Fars news agency showed pictures it said were of Qadr H missiles being fired from Iran's eastern Alborz mountain range, their target 1,400 kilometers away off the country's coast into the Sea of Oman.

"The reason we designed our missiles with a range of 2,000 kilometers is to be able to hit our enemy, the Zionist regime, from a safe distance," said Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Hajizadeh stressed Iran would not start a war with Israel, with Tehran describing the tests as a show of its "deterrent power."

"We condemn all threats to Israel and we'll stand with Israel to help it to defend itself against all kinds of threats," Kirby said.

The tests came as U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was in Jerusalem for a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Biden did not acknowledge the missile tests, but he warned Iran against any violations of the internationally negotiated nuclear deal that curbed Iran's nuclear activity in exchange for lifting sanctions that had hobbled its economy.

"A nuclear-armed Iran is an absolutely unacceptable threat to Israel, to the region and the United States," Biden said as he stood next to Netanyahu, who had unsuccessfully opposed the nuclear pact. "And I want to reiterate which I know people still doubt here. If in fact they break the deal, we will act."

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon told Israel Radio the tests showed Iran's hostility toward the Jewish state had not changed since the January implementation of the nuclear pact, even with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's overtures to the West.

Yaalon said, "To my regret there are some in the West who are misled by the honeyed words from part of the Iranian leadership while the other part continues to procure equipment and weaponry, to arm terrorist groups."

The nearest point in Iran is about 1,000 kilometers from the key Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Serbian ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj set fire to European Union and NATO flags outside a Belgrade court Thursday, insisting he would not return to The Hague to hear the verdict in his war crimes trial later this month.

Seselj, 61, who has liver cancer, was allowed to return to Serbia for treatment in November 2014 while awaiting judgment from the U.N. war crimes court.

Four months after Seselj was freed, judges in The Hague ordered him to return March 31 to hear his verdict, saying he had broken terms of his release by telling supporters he would never go back.

Seselj was tried on three counts of crimes against humanity, which included persecution, deportation and forcible transfers, and six other charges that included torture and murder during wars in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbias Vojvodina region, amid the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Seselj surrendered in 2003, and his trial ran from 2007 to 2012.

Seseljs display of defiance came after Serbias High Court canceled a hearing on his extradition to The Hague tribunal on Thursday, citing procedural reasons. The nationalist instead burned the EU flag outside the building, saying, It burns well, before setting fire to the NATO flag as well.

I will not go voluntarily, but I will use every opportunity to inflict expert professional, political and moral damage on The Hague tribunal, Seselj told dozens of cheering supporters.

The extradition could increase political pressure on Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and his Progressive Party just before a parliamentary election on April 24. Vucic, a former protege of Seselj, broke with his party in 2008 to pursue a more pro-Western course.

As leader of the far-right Serbian Radical Party, Seselj plans to run for parliament in the coming election.

His return to The Hague might improve his popularity, helping his party pass the 5 percent threshold of votes required to enter parliament.
When young, charismatic Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives Thursday in Washington for a state visit and meets with President Barack Obama, the two leaders will discuss ways to deepen their bilateral relationship.

While Trudeau's progressive policies are more in line with the Obama administration than those of his conservative predecessor, the two nations have charted different courses on the issue of accepting Syrian refugees.

Under Trudeau, Canada has begun implementing a program to resettle 25,000 refugees. Trudeau says it is important because "it defines us as a nation."

I think he was referring to a very long tradition of values of welcoming people in need around the world," Canadian immigration activist Cathleen Farrell explained. "So the refugee class is an important class of people who Canadians have long received. And I think he was trying to express a lot of what the general public feels.

Obama has proposed admitting 10,000 Syrian refugees this year, a move that has met stiff political resistance. .



Security concerns following the San Bernardino and Paris terrorist attacks have been raised by politicians, especially in the presidential campaign.

Republican presidential candidates like Donald Trump and Senator Ted Cruz have called for restrictions on Syrian refugees.

I am leading the fight in the U.S. Senate to stop President Obama and Hillary Clintons plan to bring to America, tens of thousands of Syrian Muslim refugees. Why, because the administration itself admits it cannot vet these refugees, Cruz said in a November debate.

But refugee advocates like Lavinia Limon with the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants reject that notion.

Refugees are the most vetted people of anyone who is admitted to the United States," she said. "The Paris bombers were Belgian and French citizens. They could take part in a visa waiver program which means they could just buy an airplane ticket.

Cathleen Farrell says there was some anti-immigrant feeling in Canada. But the story of Aylan Kurdi, the three-year-old boy who drowned last year off the Turkish coast as his family was trying to reach relatives in Canada, shocked the country.

I think that hit people very hard in Canada," she said. "They felt sorrow and they felt shame.

As Trudeau and Obama meet in Washington, their talks will focus on trade and climate change. But the refugee issue is likely to come up. The Obama administration has applauded Canada's policy of welcoming Syrian refugees.
March 15 now looms as a critical day in the Republican presidential race. Five states vote on Tuesday: North Carolina, Missouri, Illinois and delegate-rich Ohio and Florida, both of which are winner-take-all contests. A sweep of all five states by front-runner Donald Trump would catapult him toward the party's nomination; but, anti-Trump forces are hoping to defeat him in either Ohio or Florida, and preferably both.

The looming Ides of March dynamic will likely play out in Thursdays Republican debate in Miami where Trump and his remaining three challengers will face off for one last go-round before Tuesdays voting.

Trump reaches out

Trump is coming off victories this week in Michigan, Mississippi and Hawaii, regaining momentum after two national polls suggested his appeal was stalling. In the wake of Tuesdays victories, Trump reached out to the Republican establishment, which largely continues to oppose him. I think its time to unify. We have something special going on in the Republican Party and unfortunately the people of the party, they call them the elites or they call them whatever they call them, but those are the people who dont respect it yet, he said.

Trump also added in a CNBC interview, Whatever the establishment is, they should embrace what Ive done.

Trump remains the target of a well-funded ad campaign hoping to slow his roll to the party nomination. One group, Conservative Solutions, is spending millions of dollars running ads in Florida urging voters not to trust Trump, like this one:



Anti-Trump strategy: deny him delegates

The anti-Trump strategy relies not only on trying to degrade the New York billionaire before Tuesday, but also boosting the chances of two favorite sons in the March 15 primaries, Ohio Governor John Kasich and Florida Senator Marco Rubio.

Recent polls show a tight race in Ohio between Kasich and Trump and Kasich told supporters that a victory in Ohio would keep him in the race for some time. And I want you to know that I am going to continue to run a positive campaign and not get down into the gutter and throw mud at anybody, Kasich said.

The other piece in the stop-Trump strategy involves a come-from-behind victory in Florida by Rubio and the odds on that are looking longer by the day. Recent polls show Trump with about a 20 point lead in the Sunshine state, although that is not deterring an energetic Rubio from urging his supporters to get out and vote. We are not going to defeat her (Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton) if we nominate someone that over 60 percent of our party rejects and a third of our party refuses to ever vote for."

Too little, too late

Most experts say they believe Trump remains in the drivers seat for the coming primaries and that the stop-Trump effort, even with party establishment support, is looking like a longshot. Right now, Donald Trump is likely to win a lot of states and the other three will divide the vote and that is a recipe for being the nominee of the Republican Party, said John Fortier of the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Even if Trump continues to prevail in the primaries, the divide within the party over his ascension remains sharp. Absolutely the party is on the verge of tearing itself apart, said Henry Olsen with the Ethics and Public Policy Center. What Trump is doing is basically saying that the questions the party has asked itself over the last 30 years, which is to say, how much do we apply conservative philosophy to public policy, hes saying that that is irrelevant.

Denying Trump: A scenario that could backfire

The anti-Trump strategy involves preventing Trump from securing the commitment of the 1,237 Republican delegates he needs to win the nomination in advance of the national nominating convention in Cleveland in July. That scenario would lead to a contested convention where the outcome would be unpredictable.

Swooping in at the last minute and denying Trump the nomination through a contested or open convention, however, could be damaging in the view of American University presidential historian Allan Lichtman. If the Republicans wrest the nomination away from the clear vote-leader, that would be disaster for them," he said. "They would go into the general election looking like a bunch of oligarchs who are denying the voice of the people.

Most analysts say they agree that Trump victories in both Ohio and Florida on Tuesday would likely remove any doubt that he will be the Republican nominee come July in Cleveland.
U.S. President Barack Obama welcomed fellow progressive leader Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the White House Thursday for the first such state visit in nearly two decades.

"We're woven together so deeply as societies, as economies, that it's sometimes easy to forget how truly remarkable our relationship is,'' Obama said during a joint news conference with Trudeau.

During an arrival ceremony earlier in the day, Obama highlighted shared values noting universal health care, freedom of religion and the diversity in both nations.

"As NATO allies we stand united against terrorism, and for the rights of nations like Ukraine to determine their own destiny. As leaders at the United Nations, we stand up for peace and security and the human rights of all people," the American president said.

On the White House South Lawn, a crowd cheered as Obama and Trudeau shook hands with onlookers, some gushing "oh my gosh."



WATCH: Video clip of Arrival Ceremony at White House

Similar focus

In Canada's new, dynamic prime minister, many see a younger Obama.

Like the U.S. president, 44-year old Trudeau campaigned on a similar message of hope and change. His Liberal Party swept Canada's parliamentary election last October, unseating Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party, who had been in power since 2006.

"Mr. Prime Minister, your election and the first few months in office have brought a new energy and dynamism not only to Canada, but to the relationship between our nations. We have a common outlook on the world. And I have to say, I have never seen so many Americans so excited about the visit of a Canadian prime minister," Obama joked.

Allies amid contentious US election

The two leaders focused on fighting climate change, boosting trade and fighting the Islamic State militant group during talks Thursday in the Oval Office, before holding a news conference in the Rose Garden that centered mostly on the state of U.S. politics in this presidential election year.

When asked about the potential effect on the U.S.-Canada relationship, should Republican candidate Donald Trump be elected American president, the Canadian prime minister, whom some call the "anti-Trump," spoke broadly.

"The friendship between our two countries goes far beyond any two individuals or any ideologies," Trudeau noted. "I have tremendous confidence in the American people and look forward to working with whomever they choose to send to this White House later this year."

As Trump has called for a temporary ban on Muslims from entering the United States, the new Canadian leader was seen personally greeting Syrian refugees at the Toronto airport with the words "Welcome home, you are home." Canada has accepted 25,000 Syrian refugees into the country.

For his part, Obama noted that Trump's positions on immigration and other issues are not much different from other Republican candidates, but the president said Trump is just more provocative in his remarks.

"What you're seeing within the Republican Party is, to some degree, all those efforts, over a course of time, creating an environment where somebody like a Donald Trump can thrive. You know, he's just doing more of what has been done for the last seven and a-half years," Obama noted.

Tackling climate change

Obama and Trudeau also announced greater cooperation on fighting climate change.

The neighboring countries committed to cutting methane gas emissions by 40 percent to 45 percent below 2012 levels over the coming decade, preserving more land and marine areas of the Arctic, and speeding development of green technologies.

"We will take ambitious action to reduce methane emissions nearly by half from the oil and gas sector, reduce use and emissions of hydro fluorocarbon, and implement aligned greenhouse gas emissions standards for heavy duty vehicles amongst other plans to fight climate change," Trudeau told reporters.

Both leaders also vowed to implement last year's international climate control pact that was agreed to in Paris, and to sign it as soon as it is feasible.

"As the first U.S. president to visit the Arctic, I saw how both of our nations are threatened by rising seas, melting permafrost, disappearing glaciers and sea ice, and so we are focusing on making sure the Paris agreement is fully implemented and we are working to double our investments in clean energy research and development," said Obama.

Trudeau's White House visit marks an end to recent, occasionally frosty relations between Washington and Ottawa.

Former Canadian leader Harper fumed over Obama's years-long delay in acting on the Canadian proposal to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canadian oil fields through the central U.S. to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico. Shortly after Trudeau took office, Obama rejected it last November.

The 44-year-old Trudeau's liberal political views, however, are more attuned to Obama's than the conservative Harper. The new Canadian leader, the son of late prime minister Pierre Trudeau, is hoping to strengthen ties with the visit.

Canada is the United States' largest trading partner, with about 75 percent of its exports headed across its southern border to the U.S. More than $2 billion worth of goods from the two countries combined cross their border every day.

Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are hosting the 10th state dinner of his presidency with this one for the Trudeaus - the first for a Canadian head of government since 1997.

VOA's Ken Bredemeier contributed to this report.

In Photos: Canadian PM Visits Washington
Omniscient high-definition views from above have done nothing to penetrate the fog of war in Gavin Hoods drone drama Eye in the Sky.

Its a lean, Lumet-like thriller that puts the moral calculus of drone warfare in its crosshairs. Playing out compellingly in real time, a strike against Somali terrorists in Nairobi is plotted by the hawkish, U.K.-based Col. Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren), whose operation involves pilots, politicians and military command in various digitally linked remote locations, from the boardroom to the toilet.

Drones have begun to reshape the war movie, and will doubtless continue to proliferate on our screens just as they have over Middle Eastern skies. Eye in the Sky follows last years very solid Good Kill, starring Ethan Hawke as a drone pilot based in Las Vegas. Director Andrew Niccols aim was principally about the psychological toll such disconnected battles take on its far-removed soldiers.

Hood more thoroughly utilizes the new perspectives drones afford to filmmakers. While much of the it is composed of faces in front of computer screens, some of the films most remarkable images come from the view of a hovering drone or  most impressively  a remote-controlled beetle that flutters right into the suspects lair, alighting on the rafters to provide a staggering close-up, whether Mr. DeMille is ready or not.

With such supreme powers of surveillance, Powell and her colleagues (including the ever-droll Alan Rickman, in one of his last performances, as a British general) have become accustomed to a previously unmatched level of certainty  or so they would like to think.

The mission is to apprehend a handful of highly ranked terrorists, but when the trio  two radicalized British nationals and an American  are seen preparing vests for a suicide attack, the plan is ratcheted up from capture to kill.

The clash of Eye in the Sky isnt on the battlefield but in the chain-of-command debate over the rules of engagement that pingpongs around politicians and lawyers who are pressured by Powell and Rickmans general to give their OK. The collateral damage calculations and emotional stakes are changed significantly when a young girl sits outside the walls of the target to sell bread.

An American pilot (Aaron Paul), tasked to bring hellfire on the target, lays off the trigger, and numerous levels of nervous government officials refer up the decision to their superiors while an agent on the ground (Barkhad Abdi, of Captain Phillips) attempts to chase the girl away.

The plotting in Guy Hibberts screenplay, along with the quick cutting of Hood (the South African filmmaker of Tsotsi and a X-Men, who previously dove into the subject of CIA interrogation in 2007s Rendition), push the movies intensity, making Eye in the Sky more riveting than preachy.

The film might have hit home more if the tick-tock of its plot allowed us to better know its characters, who sometimes come off as mere mouthpieces of different philosophies of modern warfare. But Eye in the Sky is nevertheless a compelling case of how moral precision doesnt necessarily match technical accuracy.

The debate that rages in Eye in the Sky is perhaps more than is always spent over the fate of a single civilian casualty. But it could hardly seem more topical. On Monday, more than 150 Shabab militants were killed in Somali in a strike partially carried out by drones. Jake Coyle, AP Film Writer

Eye in the Sky, a Bleecker Street release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for some violent images and language. Running time: 102 minutes.
Angry unions and youths joined forces yesterday in a day of protests against French President Francois Hollandes effort to tamper with the countrys 35-hour workweek.

Several union and student organizations called protests in more than 200 cities across France to try to kill the bill which has even divided Hollandes Socialists.

The protests fall on the same day as rail strikes that are delaying some suburban and long-distance trains  but not local transport.

The contested labor reform would amend Frances 35-hour workweek, voted in 2000 by the Socialists and now a cornerstone of the left. The current Socialist government wants adjustments to reduce Frances 10 percent unemployment rate as the shortened workweek was meant to do.

The proposal technically maintains the 35-hour workweek, but allows companies to organize alternative working times without following industry-wide deals, up to a 48-hour workweek and 12 hours per day. In exceptional circumstances, employees could work up to 60 hours a week.

To allow companies to deal with business booms, one measure would allow employees to work more than 35 hours without being paid overtime. In exchange, they would have more days off later on. Other measures would relax rules on layoffs and working from home and at night.

The proposals have turned all major employee unions and youth organizations against the government. With next years presidential election looming and the Hollandes popularity having reached its nadir, legislation to make it easier for companies to end employment deals is fueling discontent in a country badly hit by the economic downturn.

Ahead of a big gathering scheduled for Paris Place de la Republique, several high schools were blocked off by students who set up barricades with garbage cans.

Outside the Helene Boucher high school, students cheered any mention of how the movement would prevent Hollande and the government from passing the bill.

Maryanne Gicquel, a spokesperson for the FIDL student union, described young peoples journey towards a stable job as a succession of internships and poorly paid jobs.

Now were being told that it will be easier for companies to lay off workers, she said.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls government insisted that the bill wont be withdrawn but discussions continue with union representatives. The bill, initially set to be discussed at a Cabinet meeting, has been delayed by two weeks amid growing opposition.

Hollande reiterated his support for the bill after meeting with his ministers at the Elysee Palace yesterday.

France does what has to be done regarding the labor law [] in an effort to preserve its social model while adapting it, Hollande said in comments released by government spokesman Stephane Le Foll.

A recent survey by pollster Oxoda found that 70 percent of French people over the age of 18 opposed the bill. An online petition for its withdrawal has gathered more than one million signatures. AP
Alienated people can become reckless, but addressing their grievances may win them over. Cue pro-Hong Kong localists and their results in the recent LegCo bi-election and student union elections: They will surely form a third force in LegCo general elections, both this year and for years to come. Whether this will play into the establishments hands by significantly weakening the traditional pro-democracy camp remains to be seen. However, with interest in localist groups spreading across campuses and prevalent in the public housing estates during the bi-election, it looks as though a third block, in addition to the pro-establishment and pro-democracy sides, has arrived.

Its encouraging to see the chairman of the National Peoples Congress, Zhang Dejiang, downplaying serious unrest  involving localist groups  as a feature of the economic downturn elsewhere too, and describing it as street violence instead of rioting. That at least was what he told Hong Kong delegates at this years ongoing NPC assembly. The Chinese authorities have been carrying out their own investigation into the riot and it seems, if Zhangs words are to be taken as findings of the enquiry, that a more realistic assessment than prior comments  that they were the work of separatists  has now come to the fore. This more muted response is welcome as it should not add fuel to the localists fire.

The government of Hong Kong, despite the urging of hundreds of academics, has refused to investigate the Mong Kok riot, which is the most violent street disturbance since the infamous Star Ferry riots of the 1960s.

Given that localism emerged from the Occupy Central movement  a protest in response to the NPCs strict ruling on political reform  core issues such as widespread anxiety about growing mainland control, frustration at poor employment and economic prospects and the lack of affordable housing must be addressed. We are not in a politically static situation (despite the seemingly insurmountable impasse and mistrust between the legislature and the executive), we are in state of flux as the ever-more politically astute and demanding youth search for a way beyond the traditional pro-democracy camp to air their grievances.

It is clear that there is a great deal of dynamism among the young to seek change, from both the rise of activism through the Scholarism and Occupy Movements, and now with localism; these murmurs are passing between students, young professionals and through grassroots organizations. At the Occupy protests all ages from teens to late thirties were well represented; a vital segment of society that must be appeased one way or the other or we will face repression and fear.

A conciliatory tone is needed to reach out to the young, not the big stick. They are the future of this city. They have genuine grievances; let them be heard. There should, in corridors of power in Beijing, sooner rather than later, be acceptance that localist support in the by-election and in recent University student elections shows the strength of the sentiment. Likewise, for Chinese officials to warn democrats that the electorate would punish them for their role in Occupy Central was plain wrong. On the contrary it was not taking on board local sentiment and the chorus of reasonable voices in the political reform process that sparked this radicalization. Moderate pan-democrats, including many academics and middle-of-the-road pro-establishment figures, had been flexible in their demands, only to have their voices ignored by the hawks in Beijing. A number of politicians in their midst are facing early retirement in the form of defeat by Occupy veterans and perhaps localists in this years LegCo election.

The gap between Beijing and many local young people may seem impossibly wide; nevertheless, we should take heart from successful resolutions between the most intractable of enemies. Look at The IRA and Britain, the ANC and the Apartheid government in South Africa and the East Timorese ex-resistance figures with Indonesia. All is not yet lost, but it will take a lot of good will on both sides and much bargaining. However, deals must be sought: the alternative, reaching the expiration of one country two systems in 2047 with no agreement, is unthinkable.
Its a source of pride for me to know Chris and what hes accomplished.

It was at UC, where Hersman got his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering, that he would learn the maxim that continues to inform his work: Test as you fly, and fly as you test. In simplest terms, the adage, subscribed to widely by NASA engineers, means ground tests and simulations should accurately reflect the planned mission.



Wavering from a plan can have disastrous effects, as Hersman can attest. Luckily for him, his early misfortunes came with much lower stakes: as a participant in the colleges egg drop contest. From a balcony at Rhodes Hall, students attempted to lower a raw egg to a target 20 feet below. They could employ whatever methods they saw fit to keep the egg intact.



Using fishing line, pulleys and an improvised egg hammock, Hersman figured his own plan was foolproof. Until the day of the competition, when he decided to use thicker fishing line. He assumed the extra tensile strength would improve his chances for success.



My friend who was working with me asked, Are you sure we should change anything? I said Yes, I know what Im doing, Hersman recalls with a now-knowing laugh. I rewired the larger line and, sure enough, when we went to do it, the line was a little bit too big and it jammed in the system of pulleys.



The effort ended with a splat. But it taught Hersman a critical lesson.



Ever since then, I realized you dont change something after you test it, the engineer says. Even though it was a small consequence at the time, it was very important to test as you fly.
TF Senior Center Plans Fundraising Breakfast

TWIN FALLS  The Twin Falls Senior Center will hold its monthly fundraising breakfast from 8 to 10 a.m. Saturday, March 12, at 530 Shoshone St. W.

The all-you-can-eat breakfast will include stuffed French toast, roasted red potatoes, biscuits and gravy, pastry tray, fruit and beverages.

Entertainment will be provided by Marla Garrett during breakfast. The Twin Falls First Baptist youth group will volunteer their time for the event.

Cost is $7 per person. Information: 208-734-5084.

NARFE Meeting March 14

TWIN FALLS  The March 2016 meeting of the Twin Falls National Association of Employed or Retired Federal Employees Group will be held at 11:30 a.m. Monday at the Loong Hing Restaurtant, Kimberly Road. The Speaker will be Tania from the Office of Aging. If you are a currently employed or retired from the Federal Government you are invited to attend this meeting and enjoy visiting with your peers and asking any questions regarding current benefits. If you have any questions please call 208-308-1670.

Blaine School District Presents Lecture on Internet Safety

HAILEY  Blaine County School District technology department is offering a presentation on internet safety at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 17, in the Queen of the Hills room at the Community Campus.

Peter Zimmerman will offer a public presentation discussing common threats and how the public can realistically raise the bar against hackers while enjoying the conveniences of online access. Zimmerman is an engineer with the Department of Defense specializing in security.

The event is free. Information: www.blaineschools.org.

Gooding Duplicate Bridge Results





February 5

1. Lorna Bard and Susan Faulkner; 2. Jodi Faulkner and Claire Major; 3. Bobette Plankey and Beverly Burns. Section B: 1. Kathie Boian and Sharon Peterson.

February 12

1. Susan Faulkner and Lorna Bard; 2. Kathy Rooney and Peter Cobb; 3. Edna Pierson and Joe Blackford. Section B: 1. Lucy Gustafson and Rosalie Eberhard.

February 19

1. Max Thompson and Riley Burton; 2. Sue Skinner and Claire Major; 3. Peter Cobb and Kathy Rooney. Section B: 1. Lucy Gustafson and Rosalie Eberhard.

February 26

1. Kathie Boian and Sharon Peterson; 2. Riley Burton and Edna Pierson.

Duplicate bridge is played every Friday at 1:00 at the Gooding Senior Center. For more information call Kathy Rooney at 934-9732.

The March 2016 meeting of the Twin Falls National Association of Employed or Retired Federal Employees Group will be held Monday March 14, 2016 at 11:30 AM at the Loong Hing Restaurtant, Kinberly Road, Twin Falls, Idaho. The Speaker will be Tania from the Office of Aging. If you are a currently employed or retired from the Federal Government you are invited to attend this meeting and enjoy visiting with your peers and asking any questions regarding current benefits. If you have any questions please call 208-308-1670.

New Materials at Kimberly Public Library





ADULT FICTION

Orphan #8 by Kim van Alkemade

Brotherhood in Death by J. D. Robb

Breakdown by Jonathan Kellerman

NYPD Red 4 by James Patterson

Blue by Daniel Steel

Something Borrowed, Someone Dead by M. C. Beaton

A Separate Country by Robert Hicks

Counterplay by Robert K. Tanenbaum

The Beach House by Mary Alice Monroe

A Devil is Waiting by Jack Higgins

Ice Fire by David Lyons

The Widow Waltz by Sally Koslow

Somerset by Leila Meacham

INSPIRATIONAL FICTION

Rising Darkness by Nancy Mehl

Calico Spy by Margaret Brownley

Amish Sweethearts by Leslie Gould

Cold Shot by Dani Pettrey

Always Watching by Lynette Eason

Tiffany Girl by Deeanne Gist

Jolines Redemption by Vickie McConough

Mermaid Moon by Colleen Coble

I Hope You Dance by Beth Moran

Keeper of the Stars by Robin Lee Hatcher

The Gift by Wanda E. Brunstetter

Youre the One That I Want by Susan May Warren

DVDs

Cheaper by the Dozen & Cheaper by the Dozen 2

Joy Ride

Blade II

Pavement

The Donor Party

The Longest Drive

8 Adventure Movies

Bad Company

The Golden Compass

Horatio Hornblower: The Adventure Continues

Monsters VS Aliens

LDS BOOKS

By the River by Jennie Hansen

Danger Ahead by Betsy Brannon Green

The Storm Descends by Gerald N. Lund

ADULT NON-FICTION

Reflections of the West by C. J. Hadley (Ed.)

Origami: Easy-to-Make Paper Creations by Gay Merrill Gross

Uncommon Valor by Dwight Jon Zimmerman & John D. Gresham

JUVENILE FICTION

The Conjurers Riddle by Andrea Cremer

Alpha Project by D. J. MacHale

Winter Turning by Tui T. Sutherland

Gifted by Stephanie Adams

Froggy Gets a Doggy by Jonathan London

Curious George: Gymnastics Fun edited by Leora Bernstein

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly! by Lucille Colandro

Elmos World: Love by Sesame Street

Eight Silly Monkeys by Steve Haskamp

My First Colors Board Book by DK Pub.

Lets Go to the Zoo! by Ellen Weiss

Shadow of the Shark by Mary Pope Osborne

Stars Above by Merissa Meyer

JUVENILE NON-FICTION

Colonial Times 1600  1700 by Joy Masoff

Destined to Live: A True Story of a Child in the Holocaust by Ruth Gruener

Bears: Monarchs of the Northern Wilderness by Wayne Lynch

CDs

Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham

Evidence by Jonathan Kellerman

The Bootlegger by Clive Cussler

The Girl in the Spiders Web by David Lagercrantz
British TV channel Sky News said it has obtained precious inside data on Isis militants, showing thousands of documents, containing names, addresses, telephone numbers and family contacts of jihadists.

The documents showed personal details of 22,000 nationals from 55 countries around the world including North Africa and the Middle East. The Isis militants had to fill a registration forum giving up personal information before joining the terror extremist organisation.

These details were stolen from the computer of the head of Islamic States internal security police. They were saved in a memory stick and leaked by an ex-Isis member who calls himself Abu Hamed. He is a former Free Syrian Army fighter who joined to Islamic State.

Disillusioned with the Isis leadership, he says the terror organisation has now been taken over by former soldiers from the Iraqi Baath party of Saddam Hussein.

According to some experts, the stolen files are a goldmine for intelligence community, saying the details show the countries visited by the terrorists, their fighting experience, their special skills et their sponsors.

This insider information can also be used to destroy the terror organisation, disrupt its recruiting networks and foil its plans seeking to carry out high-profile attacks in Western countries, according to some security experts.

The territory under the control of Isis militants is shrinking under US-led multinational coalition bombings targeting its positions, first in Iraq and then Syria.

The international pressure is building. It is only a question of time before turning the page of the horror and terror of the Isis to restore peace and order to the region hijacked by the religious fanatics.
Sources under the condition of anonymity have revealed that oil rich kingdom and the worlds biggest oil producer is seeking a bank loan of between $6 and $8 billion as the low oil prices begin to take its toll on the states finances. The loan is expected to curb the budget deficit and sources hinted that the amount could be subjected to an increase. Saudis budget deficit was $98billion in 2015.

Authorities are using the kingdoms foreign assets and domestic bonds as well as halting projects to reduce deficit. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that measures being implemented by Riyadh are not enough and the massive assets piled during the hay days of the oil market could dry up by 2020 if the situation persists. Liquidity in the banking system is already being strained by the issuance of bonds.

The Finance ministry and the central bank have denied commenting on the alleged multibillion dollar loan. London-based boutique advisory firm, Versus Partners, is said to be serving as adviser to the Saudi government on the loan. Last week, Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia asked banks to discuss the idea of an international loan but details such as the size and lifespan were not specified.

The kingdoms credit ratings slipped since the beginning of the year and there are possibilities that it could be downgraded again but that is not expected to deter interest in its bonds and loans because it still has foreign assets totaling to around $600billion and public debts are among the lowest in the world.

Moody stated in its report this month that the structural shock of the oil market is weakening Saudi Arabias government balance sheet, its economy, and therefore also its credit profile.
In what could be a turning point of the war in Yemen, the Houhti Movement and the Saudi-led coalition exchanged prisoners and agreed on a ceasefire along the Yemeni-Saudi border with the mediation of tribal leaders. The development raised hopes and Salehs General Peoples Congress party also supported the move.

The exchange and ceasefire agreement was reached a day after a delegation of the Houthis arrived in Riyadh but the Hadi-led government and Saudi officials denied that the talks held were part of a formal peace talks because that would only be held under the umbrella of the U.N. Seven prisoners held in Saudi were exchanged for a Saudi lieutenant captured by the Houthis.

Regarding the suspension of fighting along the border, Riyadh stated that the leadership of the coalition forces welcomed the continuation of a state of calm along the border which contributes to arriving at a political solution.

Coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed al-Asseri said the calm would enable the passage of humanitarian supplies and said reports should be focused on the result, that there be benefit to our brothers who are affected by what the Houthi militias are carrying out. He said it is too early to concentrate on those who brokered the deal before adding that we do not want to talk about individuals but stressed that there are no negotiations with any party other than the legitimate Yemeni authorities.

The Houthi Movement could be swerving away from Tehrans influence after Yousef al-Feshi, a member of the Revolutionary Committee that administers Houthi-controlled areas and considered a close aide to Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, posted on Facebook that officials in the Islamic Republic of Iran must be silent and leave aside the exploitation of the Yemen file.
New research investigates the ties between certain genetic variants and kidney disease in African Americans. The findings, which appear in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN), suggest that widespread screening for these variants in the black general population is not yet justified.

African Americans have an elevated risk for chronic kidney disease and kidney failure compared with European Americans. Studies have shown that much of this risk is due to genetic variations in a gene called apolipoprotein L1 (APOL1), which creates a protein that is a component of HDL, or good cholesterol. These variants arose tens of thousands of years ago in sub-Saharan Africa, and so are present in individuals who have recent sub-Saharan African ancestry. Approximately 5 million African Americans carry APOL1 risk variants; however, not all persons with such variants develop kidney disease.

To getter a better sense of how APOL1 genetic risk variants affect kidney disease and other aspects of health over the long term, Morgan Grams, MD PhD (Johns Hopkins University) and her colleagues evaluated the prognosis and APOL1 status of participants in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. Among 15,140 ARIC participants followed from 1987-1989 to 2011-2013, 75.3% were white, 21.5% were black/APOL1 low-risk, and 3.2% were black/APOL1 high-risk. "Our study is a population-based cohort following participants over 25 years and thus well suited at assessing a fairly comprehensive set of outcomes among people with the high-risk genotype," said Dr. Grams.

In analyses that adjusted for differences in demographics, blacks had a higher risk for all assessed adverse health events: acute kidney injury, kidney failure, hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hospitalization, and death; however, in analyses that also adjusted for comorbid conditions and socioeconomic status, blacks had a higher risk for hypertension, diabetes, and kidney failure only. When considering only blacks, the APOL1 high-risk variants were linked with a higher risk of kidney failure, but there was high variability in kidney function decline among those with and without the variants.

"We found great variability in kidney function trajectory, such that most African Americans with the high-risk genotype experienced similar decline as African Americans with the low-risk genotype," said Dr. Grams. "We did find pervasive racial disparities in adverse health outcomes not explained by the APOL1 risk variants, which suggests that interventions to improve health and health outcomes in African Americans are needed."

Explore further Rapid testing for gene variants in kidney donors may optimize transplant outcomes
State Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-Azusa, uses a smart phone to record the vote of his measure to raise the smoking age from 18 to 21, at the Capitol, Thursday, March 10, 2016, in Sacramento, Calif. The measure, part of a package of bills aimed at restricting access to tobacco, was approved by the Senate and now goes to Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

California lawmakers voted Thursday to raise the smoking age from 18 to 21, approving a measure that would make the nation's most populous state only the second to put legal tobacco products out of the reach of most teenagers.

Before it can become law, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown must sign the legislation, which has already passed the state Assembly. His spokesman said the governor generally does not comment on pending legislation.

Only Hawaii has adopted the higher age limit statewide, although dozens of cities, including New York and San Francisco, have passed their own laws.

"We can prevent countless California youth from becoming addicted to this deadly drug, save billions of dollars in direct health care costs and, most importantly, save lives," said Democratic Sen. Ed Hernandez, who wrote the bill.

The package of anti-tobacco bills would also restrict electronic cigarettes, which are increasingly popular and not regulated by the federal government.

The higher age limit won approval despite intense lobbying from tobacco interests and fierce opposition from many Republicans, who said the state should butt out of people's personal health decisions, even if they are harmful.

The six bills that passed both houses represented California's most substantial anti-tobacco effort in nearly two decades, according to the American Cancer Society.

State Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-Azusa, urge lawmakers to approve his bill to raise the smoking age from 18 to 21, at the Capitol, Thursday, March 10, 2016, in Sacramento, Calif. The measure, part of a package of bills aimed at restricting access to tobacco, was approved by the Senate and now goes to Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

"With California having such a huge population, it's going to be very impactful nationwide," said Cathy Callaway, associate director of state and local campaigns for the society.

Advocates noted that the vast majority of smokers start before they are 18, according to data from the U.S. surgeon general. Making it illegal for 18-year-old high school students to buy tobacco for their underage friends will make it more difficult for teens to get the products, they said.

Opponents said American law and custom has long accepted that people can make adult decisions on their 18th birthday and live with the consequences. Eighteen-year-olds can register to vote, join the military, sign legally binding contracts, consent to sex and do just about any legal activity besides buying alcohol.

In response, Democrats changed the bill to allow members of the military to continue buying cigarettes at 18.

A woman has a cigarette while using a smart phone, Thursday, March 10, 2016, in Sacramento, Calif. State lawmakers approved a package of laws to restrict the use of tobacco, including one that expands smoke-free areas to include bars, workplace break rooms, small businesses, warehouses, hotel lobbers and meeting rooms. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

"You can commit a felony when you're 18 years old and for the rest of your life, be in prison," Assembly Republican Leader Chad Mayes said. "And yet you can't buy a pack of cigarettes."

Another bill would classify e-cigarettes, or "vaping" devices, as tobacco products subject to the same restrictions on who can purchase them and where they can be used.

The Food and Drug Administration has proposed regulations for e-cigarettes, but none has taken effect.

Anti-tobacco groups fear that vaporizers are enticing to young people and may encourage them to eventually take up smoking.

- In this July 16, 2015 file photo, Bruce Schillin, 32, exhales vapor from an e-cigarette at the Vapor Spot, in Sacramento, Calif. California's Senate is poised to vote Thursday, March 10, 2016, on a package of anti-smoking measures that include raising the smoking age to 21 and to regulate electronic cigarettes as tobacco, setting restrictions on their use. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

"All the progress we've made since 1965 to educate people about the hazards of smoking may be for naught as vaping has started a new generation of nicotine junkies that will be helplessly addicted and will ultimately graduate to smoking cancer sticks," said Sen. Jeff Stone, a Republican.

Others say the devices are a less harmful, tar-free alternative to cigarettes. They have not been extensively studied, and there is no scientific consensus on their risks.

A vaping industry group, the Smoke-Free Alternatives Industry Group, urged Brown to veto the bill, saying in a letter that it could pose problems for vape shops.

"The stigma of being equated with tobacco has many negative consequences," the group wrote.

In this March 1, 2016 file photo, a man smokes a cigarette in San Francisco. California's Senate is poised to vote on Thursday, March 10, 2016, on a sweeping package of anti-smoking measures as lawmakers try to crack down on tobacco use and the health problems that flow from it, which would make California the second state to raise the smoking age to 21. The measures would also regulate electronic cigarettes as tobacco, setting restrictions on their use. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)

The bills would also expand smoke-free areas to include bars, workplace break rooms, small businesses, warehouses and hotel lobbies and meeting rooms. Smoking bans would apply at more schools, including charter schools, and counties would be able to raise their own cigarette taxes beyond the state's levy of $0.87 per pack.

The legislation would take effect 90 days after the governor signs it.

The Senate vote came just over a week after San Francisco officials opted to raise the tobacco buying age to 21, making it the largest city to do so after New York. Nationwide, more than 120 municipalities have raised the smoking age, according to Tobacco 21, a group that advocates the policy shift nationally.

Hawaii was first to adopt the higher age limit statewide. New Jersey's Legislature voted to raise the smoking age from 19 to 21, but the bill died when Republican Gov. Chris Christie decided not to act on it before a January deadline.

Anti-smoking groups are collecting signatures for a November ballot initiative that would raise the cigarette tax to $2 a pack and direct the money to health care, tobacco-use prevention, research and law enforcement.

Explore further California lawmakers near vote on raising smoking age to 21

 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
"Daedalus dilemma" of the immune system refers to Daedalus and Icarus in Greek mythology. Credit: kuco, Fotolia.com

Our immune system constantly fights off bacteria and viruses and while doing so needs to find a critical balance between over- and under-reaction. How this balancing act is regulated at the molecular levels was so far poorly understood. First insights are now provided by a scientific team from the University of Vienna which reports that in the defense against group A Streptococci a perfectly synchronized interplay of two immune substances is the key.

The dilemma of our immune system is comparable to the story of Icarus and Daedalus from Greek mythology. To escape their captivity, Daedalus built wings from feathers and wax for himself and his son. Daedalus warned his son that he must neither fly too high but also not too low, otherwise the sun's heat or the humidity of the sea would destroy his wings and he would crash. After they had successfully escaped, Icarus became boisterous and flew higher and higher until the sun began to melt the wax of his wings and he fell into the sea. Similarly, an over- or under-reaction of our immune system can be life-threatening.

The molecule IL-1 plays a key role in the balanced defense against bacteria

Which are the molecules that ensure a balanced immune response? The research of Pavel Kovarik and his team at the Max F. Perutz Laboratories of the University of Vienna addresses this question. "For our experiments we simulated infections with group A Streptococci, which are best known as the common cause of tonsillitis. However, in some cases, they can also cause serious invasive infections. The related disease - toxic shock syndrome and necrotizing fasciitis - can be fatal," explains PhD student and first author of the study Virginia Castiglia. As part of a project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF project, the young scientist examined what happens at the molecular level in invasive streptococcal infection. Her results show that the molecule IL-1 play a key role in the defense against streptococci: if there is too little, the bacteria gain the upper hand followed by blood poisoning, if there is too much, the result is excessive inflammation. Both can be lethal.

Tipping the scales: type I interferons

But how is the amount of IL-1 regulated? "We could show that type I interferons (IFN-I) are key," says study lead Pavel Kovarik: "We have known for a long time that IFN-I helps in the fight against viruses, but their role in the defense against bacteria was far less clear. For the first time, we could now show in our model system that they also play an important role in bacterial infections too by reducing the amount of IL-1 and so preventing excessive inflammation."

New therapies to treat invasive streptococcal disease

These results should now prompt medical research as it is important to understand, besides the model system, how the amount of IL-1  is balanced in patients and how it is related to the severity of the infection. Virginia Castiglia explains: "In our model we have shown that if IFN-I effects are reduced, treatment with inhibitors of IL-1 synthesis have positive effects and balance is restored. Once we understand the relationship between IFN-I and IL-1 in humans, we can test these and similar therapies." Until now, serious invasive streptococcal infection can only be treated symptomatically. Antibiotics only help in the early stages and anti-inflammatory agents show little effect. Often the only way is the generous removal of the inflamed tissue. So there is still a lot to do for Pavel Kovarik and his team. Virginia Castiglia also continues to address questions related to infection biology. Since mid-February, she is a Postdoc at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, funded by a prestigious Marie Curie grant from the European Union.

Explore further Two competing proteins affect the chronic inflammation of the nervous system following viral infection

More information: Virginia Castiglia et al. Type I Interferon Signaling Prevents IL-1-Driven Lethal Systemic Hyperinflammation during Invasive Bacterial Infection of Soft Tissue, Cell Host & Microbe (2016). Journal information: Cell Host & Microbe Virginia Castiglia et al. Type I Interferon Signaling Prevents IL-1-Driven Lethal Systemic Hyperinflammation during Invasive Bacterial Infection of Soft Tissue,(2016). DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2016.02.003
Exposure to lead during early development can alter the the gut microbiota, increasing the chances for obesity in adulthood, researchers from the University of Michigan School of Public Health have found.

Adult male mice exposed to lead during gestation and lactation were 11 percent larger than those not exposed, due to differences in their gut microbiota, which is the ecological community of microorganisms within the body.

"Early life exposure to lead causes a long lasting impact on gut microbiome, and the change of gut microbiome may partially contribute to the increased body weight in adult life," said lead author Chuanwu Xi, associate professor of environmental health science.

Lead was added to the drinking water of female mice prior to breeding through nursing their young. Once weaned, the offspring were raised to adulthood without additional exposure, and then tested for lead effects acquired from their mothers.

"The lead levels in the mouse mothers were carefully designed to be within human population exposure levels. Our lowest dose is near the current U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's blood lead action level of 5 micrograms per deciliter, while the higher dose mirrors exposure levels during the 1960s and 70s," said Dana Dolinoy, U-M associate professor of environmental health sciences and of nutrition sciences. "Since we are investigating the effects of the developmental origins of disease, it is important to evaluate current and historically relevant lead levels."

Lead is found throughout the environment in natural and man-made settings. For decades, researchers have found many health problems associated with exposure, even at levels lower than the threshold for safety set by the CDC. Most previous studies have dealt with ingestion and inhalation.

"We investigated more specifically the role of gut microbiome in the health impact upon lead exposure in this study," Xi said.

Research has shown that large numbers of bacteria live in animal intestines, and the range of diversity in these microbes, and the balance of various organisms, is increasingly known to be tied to health.

In this study that used deep DNA sequencing of bacterial specific genes, the guts of both males and females exposed to lead had all of the similar complexity in microbiota as those not exposed. The differences were in the balance of the different groups of microorganisms.

For example, both adult males and females exposed to lead during early development had fewer aerobes and significantly more anaerobes, suggesting a changing microenvironment of the gut.

"In both males and females developmental lead impacted the adult microbiome. We only observed adult onset obesity in the males, but females may have shown effects on obesity if we had followed them longer," Dolinoy said.
Bruce Reitz (left) and Norman Shumway (right) perform the first successful heart-lung transplant in 1981 at Stanford Hospital. Credit: Stanford School of Medicine

On March 9, 1981, just minutes past midnight, Mary Gohlke, a 45-year-old Arizona woman dying of primary pulmonary hypertension, was wheeled into a Stanford Hospital operating room for a heart-lung transplant surgery that would become a medical milestone.

For many months, as her health failed, Gohlke had waited, stuck: Lung transplants were technically feasible, but no human lung transplant patient had survived more than 23 days.

The only antirejection drugs then approved for use interfered with the healing of the surgical wounds where new lungs connected to the patient's airway. After Gohlke read a newspaper story about the successful heart-lung transplants Stanford cardiothoracic surgeon Bruce Reitz, MD, had done on rhesus monkeys, she telephoned him. Reitz took the call. She asked him how many heart-lung transplants he planned to do that year on humans. He said 10. She told him she'd like to be the tenth so she "could see how the rest of them turn out," and Reitz responded with a chuckle.

The holdup, however, was the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It had approved a better antirejection drug, cyclosporin A, for heart-transplant patients, but not for other transplant patients. Stanford had asked the FDA to approve cyclosporin A for heart-lung transplant patients, tooand then waited and waited. Gohlke, increasingly desperate, asked her former boss, the executive editor of the Mesa Tribune, to help. He made calls to then-U.S. Sen. Dennis DeConcini, D-Arizona, and about an hour later the FDA approved the drug for use in heart-lung transplantation at all qualified hospitals. Gohlke received her new heart and lungsbecoming the first patient in the world to undergo a successful heart-lung transplantand lived for five years with her new organs.

Reitz, the Norman E. Shumway Professor, Emeritus, talked with writer Sara Wykes, about that first surgeryand the work that came before it.

Q: How did you become involved in doing heart-lung transplants?

Reitz: As an undergraduate physiology major at Stanford, I had done research with a professor studying the immunological reactions of the heart. Then, in 1969, when I was still a medical student, I asked about working in the research lab run by Dr. Norman Shumway, chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery and the father of heart transplantation. Eighteen months earlier, he and his team did the first successful adult heart transplant in the United States. He said yes. After I finished my residency in cardiac surgery, I came back to the lab. I asked Dr. Shumway what needed to be done, and he said he'd like to see if we could make some progress in combining heart transplantation with complete bilateral lung transplantation. There were patients with congenital heart defects and patients with severe lung disease who currently could not be treated by transplantation. Mary Gohlke, whose heart had been damaged by her disease, was exactly that kind of patient. Nor did we have a way to transplant lungs then except as part of a heart-lung package.

Q: What were the first steps?

Reitz: We began by doing auto-transplants: Taking the organs out and replacing them in the same animal. We were using rhesus monkeys. That helped us establish the techniques of the surgery without organ rejection. Then we started looking at the antirejection drugs then in use, but they just didn't work.

Q: How did you solve that problem?

Reitz: A new immunosuppressive drug known as cyclosporin A had been developed in Europe by Sandoz Inc. This compound, after experimental and clinical work by professors Roy Calne and David White at Cambridge University, seemed to provide much better immunosuppression. In the summer of 1978, White visited Stanford and gave a seminar to a small group of the heart transplant team. Sandoz agreed to give the Stanford laboratory some of the drug. We could see that when we used it on our monkey transplants that it was very effective: It prevented rejection but allowed good healing of the transplant connection at the trachea and quick recovery of the animals to apparently normal pulmonary and heart function.

Q: What held you back from its use in heart-lung transplant?

Reitz: By early fall of 1980, we began to think about potential patients. The Food and Drug Administration and the Stanford Institutional Review Board gave approval for a clinical trial with heart transplants. The first heart transplant trial patient to get cyclosporin was operated on in December 1980. He and subsequent patients showed improved postoperative recoveries that were clearly different from those of the previous patients receiving steroids and a different immunosuppressant medication. But the FDA had not approved cyclosporin's use for anything other than heart transplant. Then Mary Gohlke made that phone call to her boss, and the FDA gave a blanket approval for Stanford and other qualified medical centers to use the drug for heart-lung transplant.

Q: What was the surgery like?

Reitz: We had a double-sized team of doctorsone for the donor and one for Mary Gohlke. It included Dr. Shumway; Dr. John Wallwork, then a transplant fellow and now chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, England; Dr. Edward Stinson, who had partnered with Dr. Shumway for the first heart transplant surgery; and Dr. Philip Oyer, who went on to co-develop and implant the first mechanical ventricular assist device. The appearance of Mary Gohlke's totally empty chest was indeed a dramatic moment. I wondered, "Is this really going to work out?" But the implantation went smoothly, the heart resuscitated quickly, and lung function was adequate immediately. We finished up about six hours later. Mary made a steady improvement. It was such a transformation for her! To take someone back from the brink of death and give them healththat's one of the great things about transplant and about being involved in transplant. When she died five years later, she did not have any findings of chronic rejection in either her lungs or heart at the time of death. Her spirit, courage, determination and, ultimately, her willingness to explore the unknown, to be the first, made possible the era of therapeutic lung transplantation.

Explore further Zimbabwe: Doctors to perform first heart surgery since 2003
Health authorities in Norway say two pregnant women have tested positive for the zika virus after traveling in Latin America.

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health on has recently tested dozens of people for the virus, mostly pregnant women.

Jon Arne Roettingen told reporters Thursday that so far three tests came back positive. He said two of them were pregnant women and one was a man. All had visited areas affected by the virus in Latin America.

Roettingen could not say whether the virus had affected the pregnancies of the infected women in any way but said they were being closely monitored by health care personnel.

Health officials are investigating whether the mosquito-borne virus is linked to birth defects in the children of women who caught the virus while pregnant.

Explore further US details cases of nine pregnant women with Zika virus

 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Georgia welcomes 360,402 visitors in February 2016

By Messenger Staff

More international visitors are coming to Georgia, and last month was no exception.February 2016 saw a 23.9 percent increase year-on-year (y/y) in the number of international visitors spending time in Georgia.The Ministry of Internal Affairs has released statistical data showing that 360,402 visitors came to Georgia in February 2016.The type of visitors to Georgia last month were: 120, 215 tourists (33.4 percent of the total number of monthly visitors)  a 19 percent increase y/y. 58,456 transit visitors (16.2 percent of the total number of monthly visitors)  a 1.4 percent increase y/y. 181,731 other visitors (50.4 percent of the total number of monthly visitors)  a 37.4 percent increase y/y.In February the most visitors came from Azerbaijan (a 41.9 percent increase) followed by Turkey (a 12.2 percent increase), Armenia (a 7.5 percent increase), Russia (a 29.2 percent increase) and Ukraine (a 23.5 percent increase).A positive trend was also retained regarding visitors from European Union (EU) countries, where in January and February the most visitors came from Italy (29 percent), France (29 percent), Great Britain(14 percent), Poland (11 percent) and Germany (seven percent).From Eastern European countries the majority of guests to Georgia in the first two months of the year came from Belarus (26 percent) and Moldova (31 percent), while the leader among Asian countries was the United Arab Emirates (48 percent) and from Near East Israeli took the first position (24 percent).Furthermore, the number of visitors from the United States increased by 13 percent.In January and February Georgia welcomed 13.9 percent more visitors compared to the same months of 2015.Specifically, the Ministry said 683,561 visitors had crossed the Georgian border between January 1 and February 29.
Azerbaijani Central Bank's task - to prevent sharp change of manat's exchange rate

By Messenger Staff

The transition to the floating rate of the national currency in Azerbaijan has justified itself, the head of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) Elman Rustamov told reporters on March 2.Given the current conditions, considering the situation in the global economy, this is the right decision, and it corresponds to the strategic interests of Azerbaijan, he said.He went on to add that the Azerbaijani manat will remain floating until its stability is ensured.The CBA switched to the floating rate of manat on Dec.21, as a result of which the exchange rate of dollar and euro increased by 47.6 percent and 47.9 percent and stood at 1.55 and 1.685 manats, respectively.Rustamov further said that Azerbaijani banks receive sufficient foreign currency volume through auctions.Today we are holding auctions, and, as one can see, there are no other parallel processes on the market, he said. We have our own schedule in accordance with which we carry out the auctions.He said that the task of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan as the regulator is not to provide banks with foreign currency, but to prevent sharp fluctuations of the manat exchange rate.A revised state budget for 2016 has already been adopted, and it envisages the transfer program, which is the main channel for providing market with foreign currency, Rustamov said.At a plenary session on February 23 , the Azerbaijani Parliament adopted amendments to the countrys state budget for 2016.In accordance with the amendments, the adjusted state budget revenues are expected at 16.822 billion manats (AZN), which is 15.5 percent more than the approved forecasts. Expenditures of the state budget are projected at 18.495 billion manats. The state budget deficit will amount to 1.673 billion manats.The official exchange rate on March 2 is 1.5764 AZN/USD.Revenues of Azerbaijans adjusted consolidated budget for 2016 are expected at 15.738.6 billion manats, which is 981.5 million manats, or 5.9 percent less compared to the approved budget.Azerbaijans state and consolidated budget parameters were adjusted based on the oil price of $25 per barrel.
Defence Minister will not leave the coalition

By Messenger Staff

Georgias Defence Minister Tinatin Khidasheli told Rustavi 2 that the Industrial Partys attack on the Republican Party was aimed at pushing the Republicans into the opposition.The Minister, who represents the Republican Party, stressed that the same tactic was used against the Free Democrats (FD) party in 2014, when several Defence Ministry employees were charged and detained, after which then-Defence Minister and the head of the FD Irakli Alasania had to quit his post.Alasania stated at the time that the process was staged personally against him as he achieved success in terms of Georgias Euro-Atlantic progress in the defence field ,and emphasized that the negative campaign against him put Georgias foreign course at risk; he was subsequently dismissed for his comments.Since then, Alasania has stated two of the main perpetrators in the developments against him were the founder of the Georgian Dream coalition (GD) Bidzina Ivanishvili and Georgias Chief Prosecutors Office.Khidasheli said Alasania should have controlled his nerves and stayed in the coalition.The only purpose of this campaign was to make us go into opposition. Their tactics were designed to get on our nerves. I believe that Alasania let his nerves get the better of him, and I think that they should not have gone to the opposition.Today it is a very popular question amongst the media and the public  'Who will be next to go from the coalition'? I can say with confidence that I am not going anywhere, said Khidasheli.In response, Alasania said he has strong nerves and high self-esteem, and told Khidasheli that the Republicans only had to cope with the Industrial Party and its leader Gogi Topadze, when he and his party had to contend with Ivanishvili and Garibashvili.Topadze claims that the Republicans are an anti-state force and accuses Khidasheli of rigging the recent by-elections in Sagarejo.The Prosecutors Office has already launched an investigation into the Sagarejo election issue.Khidasheli said it looked to be a personal decision of current Chief Prosecutor Irakli Shotadze and said the Prosecutors office was likely to do the same against her as it did against Alasania, though she said they would find no violations or inappropriate conduct.Meanwhile, the Industrial Party also says they will not leave the coalition.If the situation continues, either the Republicans or the Industrials will have to quit the coalition prior to the parliamentary elections; their individual party ratings are quite low.The statements made by Khidasheli also raise question marks to the Prosecutors Office and the Prosecutor who was approved by Parliament with a majority of votes.
The News in Brief

Georgia is the most successful among the Eastern Partnership countries - Spanish Foreign Minister



Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia is satisfied with his visit to Georgia.



According to the Spanish media, Jose Manuel Garcia said that Georgia can be considered the most successful among the Eastern Partnership countries.



According to him, Georgia is going through a profound reform course, within the framework of which the Association Agreement was signed with the European Union in 2014.



"The main priorities of the country are EU visa liberalization and integration with NATO ... Minister Garcia confirmed that Spain supports Georgia to overcome these challenges", - says the Spanish news agency. (IPN)







Georgian NGO umbrella organization elects new leader



Georgias National Platform, an umbrella organization for more than 100 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), has a new chairman in Kakha Gogolashvili, the director of the European Research Center.



He replaces Lasha Tughushi, who has served the maximum term of two years. Gogolashvilis opponent was Ketevan Chachava, the head of the Development and Democracy Center.



The new chairman was selected at the seventh assembly of the National Platform at Courtyard Marriott Hotel in Tbilisi on Monday. New group coordinators were also selected.



Topics discussed ranged from issues related to the court system, human rights and labor issues to freedom of the media.



Five of the platforms working groups presented their reports on activities in 2015 and future plans. Among the things discussed were challenges faced on the way to integration with Europe and ways in which to overcome them.



Georgias National Platform was created within the EU Eastern Partnership program and is the largest union of NGOs in Georgia, comprising a total of 148 NGOs. It aims to monitor democratic reforms and human rights, as well as the fulfilment of Georgias association agreement with the EU, which was signed in the summer of 2014. (DF watch)







Georgia should trust its friends on the path to Euro-Atlantic integration - Lithuanian Foreign Minister



Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius attended the ceremony of placing a Georgian clay pot at the UN headquarters, the Foreign Ministry told IPN.



According to the Ministry, after the ceremony, Linas Linkevicius wished Georgia every success in achieving its goal "not only for its traditions, but for its highly motivated, consistent efforts and irreversible reforms".



"The strengthening of people to people relations has always been good and symbolic. Time is needed to come closer to our objectives. I hope that Georgia will reach its goal not only for the sake of its Europe traditions, but for its highly motivated, consistent efforts and irreversible reforms," said Linas Linkevicius.



According to the Lithuanian Foreign Minister, on the path of the Euro-Atlantic integration Georgia should trust its friends. (IPN)







Minister says land registration will simplify



Georgia's Minister of Justice Tea Tsulukiani met with the representatives of up to 400 Georgia-based private surveying companies.



The goal of the meeting was to agree on the private companies involvement in the development of surveying activity regulatory rules and new initiatives. According to the Ministry of Justice, the new initiatives will focus on the simplification of procedures for registration of real estate and protection of ownership rights. Their goal is to eradicate problems existing in the registration practices. As Tea Tsulukiani said, working on the development of a package of rules is likely to be completed and it will allow citizens to easily register their land and property. (Pia.ge)




Georgia - NATO say theyre ready to act jointly for Georgias integration into alliance

By Messenger Staff

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow and Georgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mikheil Janelidze met on March 2 in Brussels to discuss the existing relations between Georgia and the alliance, and speak about Georgia's future prospects.At the meeting, Vershbow stressed the need for continued momentum in Georgias reform efforts and thanked Georgia for its contributions to the alliances peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan.These contributions, he noted, have enabled Georgian forces to achieve a high degree of interoperability with NATO forces, NATO official webpage read.Vershbow also highlighted Georgia's progress on the NATO-Georgia Substantial Package.He noted that implementation efforts are on the right track, demonstrating the alliances commitment to Georgias security and progress towards membership in the alliance.He also stressed the importance of continued work on the implementation of the Substantial Package and underscored NATO readiness to explore ways to strengthen cooperation with Georgia.After the meeting, the NATO-Georgia Commission gathering was held with the key issues about Georgias progress to NATO, the progress of the Substantial Package's implementation and discussed ways in which the Alliance and Georgia could politically and practically enhance their relations ahead of this years NATO Warsaw Summit in Poland.NATO praised Georgias democratic reforms that served to strengthen rule of law, democratic institutions and protect human rights in Georgia, Georgias Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote.The Alliance members underlined the progress Georgia achieved through the democratic reforms and in the process of the implementation of the NATO-Georgia Substantial Package.They expressed readiness to continue supporting Georgia in the successful implementation of the Package.Georgias preparation for the Warsaw Summit was also highly discussed. The Alliance and Georgia said they were ready to rake a joint step that would ensure political support for Georgias NATO integration, as well as practical support to upgrade Georgias self-defences.The Alliance members thanked Georgia for its contributions to international peace and security and reiterated their support for Georgias sovereignty and territorial integrity.It should be stressed that the upcoming Warsaw Summit is very important for Georgia, as there are a range of speculations over Georgia's future prospects with NATO.Georgia is in need of the Membership Action Plan (MAP) from the alliance as a signal that Georgia really has a chance to become a member state.Providing support for improving Georgia's defences is, naturally, welcome, but if Russia again decides to make war on Tbilisi, an upgraded infrastructure might not be a big help when one considers Russias military power.Georgia needs an umbrella that will be a guarantee of our security, under which Georgia will feel more secure.Security, for its part, is crucial for any state's development.
The News in Brief

The Wall Street Journal publishes article - 'A Toast to Georgian Wine'



The Wall Street Journal has published an article with the title, 'A Toast to Georgian Wine', which concerns wine advocate Alice Feirings new book titled For the Love of Wine: My Odyssey Through the Worlds Most Ancient Wine Culture.



Alice Feiring has never been one to shy away from a cause or to disguise her emotions. And the native New Yorker found a place for both in Georgia, a republic that was once part of Russia and that has endured many invasions over the years.



Ms. Feirings latest work, For the Love of Wine: My Odyssey Through the Worlds Most Ancient Wine Culture is part handbook on Georgian wine, part winemaking polemic and part guide to Ms. Feirings heart.



I met Ms. Feiring at the Anfora bar for a chat about her book on Monday, the day before it was due to be published by Potomac Books, a division of the University of Nebraska Press. Anfora is one of a handful of Georgian wine strongholds in New York, with a surprisingly large selection. Anforas wine buyer David Foss told us a large group of wine nerds come to the bar just to drink Georgian wines.



Mr. Foss and Ms. Feiring fell to bantering about the Georgian wines. Was that one a skin contact white (aka orange wine)? Was that pinkish 13-year one a rose or a deliberately oxidized white? They readily exchanged unfamiliar grape names like Sapaveri, Chinuri and Ojaleshi, a red one that Ms. Feiring described as Georgias next happening grape.



One that Ms. Feiring described in her book that I wanted to taste was horse breast. Was there a horse breast wine on the Anfora list? There wasnt. In fact, Ms. Feiring knew of only one commercially produced horse breast wine in all of Georgia.



Ms. Feiring has traveled to Georgia seven times in the past five yearsher initial visit was in 2011 to speak at the first International Qvevri Symposium at the Alaverdi Monastery. The qvevri, a large earthenware vessel that is filled with wine and then put into the ground, was an important part of Georgian winemaking culture before a Soviet emphasis on mass-market, commercial wine made chiefly in tanks. There has since been a renaissance of the qvevri, which is now on the Unesco cultural heritage list, according to Ms. Feirings book.



In Georgia, Ms. Feiring often is accompanied by John Wurdeman, a friend and the garrulous owner of the Georgian winery Pheasants Tears. Mr. Wurdeman introduced Ms. Feiring to many memorable wines and winemakers.



On her travels, Ms. Feiring spends a great deal of time enjoying good food and drink. Georgians, it seems, cant welcome a guest without hours of feasts and toasts. Its a very poor country but they eat very well, Ms. Feiring noted.



Recipes for many of the dishes that Ms. Feiring has tasted can be found in the book, including one for Khachapuri, a cheese-filled bread that everyone eats all the time. although a few ingredients, such as blue fenugreek, may be hard to find in New York. You can substitute saffron,' Ms. Feiring advised over a glass of 2013 Pheasants Tears Chinuri. (Anfora offers several of Mr. Wurdemans wines.)







Ms. Feiring was particularly struck by what she called the ego-free way of Georgian winemaking, which she speculated had to do with the fact that Georgia is a deeply religious country. Or perhaps it is the fact that most of the winemakers she met werent looking to get rich but merely hoping to support themselves.



Although Ms. Feirings passion for Georgian wines and winemakers is clearly quite strong, an even deeper bond is revealed late in the book.



As Ms. Feiring was discovering the joy of Georgian wines, her brother, Andrew, was dying of cancer. Ms. Feiring said she had considered taking Andrews story out her book but ultimately decided to keep it, finding a parallel story of her brothers struggle and that of her beloved Georgian winemakers.



Andrew Feiring died before the book was completed, but he would undoubtedly have been proud of his sisters discovery and celebration of the Georgian wine culture and way of life, the article says. (IPN)







Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia Giorgi Mghebrishvili talks with German media on Georgian-German police cooperation



On March 1, 2015 the Huffington Post published an article entitled Why Cooperation Brings More than Closing Borders. Discussing cooperation in the field of security and the fight against crime between Georgia and the Federal Republic of Germany, Giorgi Mgebrishvili, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia, names Germany as one of Georgia's most reliable partners.



Improving safety in today's globalized world depends more on international cooperation than on the closing of borders. In the fight against crime, Georgia is a reliable and competent partner for Germany. The further deepening of our relations promises an increased safety for all said Mr. Giorgi Mghebrishvili.



The Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia explained that the necessity of reforms to reach EU standards resulted in the improvement of Georgian's legal framework on the fight against crime as well as a significant improvement of institutional capacities. AsGiorgi Mgebrishvili notes, in order to prevent illegal cross-border criminal activities, Georgia is actively working with its European partners. Georgia and Germany's international cooperation has been proved by the immediate solution of a large number of crimes committed by citizens of Georgia in Germany.



The Minister of Internal Affairs said that "the legal state is the basis of comprehensive reforms of the Government of Georgia that have contributed to the country's European integration. Integration has also enhanced our legal framework and our institutional capabilities to combat crime. It also improved our capacities for effective cooperation with our European partners in combat and the prevention of illegal cross-border activities. Bilateral cooperation in the field of the police significantly increased the crime detection rate, and more than 90% of readmission requests have been satisfied . In the process of EU visa liberalization, Georgia significantly improved border control and migration management mechanisms; one of the examples being the introduction of biometric passports.



Giorgi Mgebrishvili also talked about the forms of legal cooperation between Georgia and Germany in the article and emphasized that in addition to the multilateral agreements platforms, such as Europol and Interpol, Georgia and Germany are also enhancing bilateral cooperation in terms of security through intensive exchanges of information and the application of preventive measures. According to the Minister of Internal Affairs, Georgian-German cooperation has been elevated to a new level of crime prevention by the creation of a bilateral working group and the designation of a police liaison officer in Berlin.



Georgia and Germany share the same values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law of a legal state. We also share a strong commitment to international cooperation as a basis for long-term peace, security and prosperity. Visa-free travel will strengthen and intensify contacts and cooperation between the countries, and we can all benefit from this, declared Giorgi Mgebrishvili. (Ministry of Internal Affairs)







The number of tourists increased by almost 24% in February compared to the same month last year - Dimitri Kumsishvili



Compared to last year, the number of tourists increased by almost 24% in February, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economics Dimitri Kumsishvili said at a press conference, wherein he presented statistical data of international visitors in February 2016.



This is a record high rate. The positive trend has been maintained with the EU. We have increasing trends with Italy (29%), France (29%), the UK (14%), Poland (12%) and Germany (7%). This is the result of the active efforts of the Georgian government in this direction, said Kumsishvili.



According to the Minister of Economics, in February 2016 most visitors arrived from Azerbaijan (+ 41.9%), Turkey (+ 12.2%), Armenia (+ 7.5%), Russia (+ 29.2%) and Ukraine (+ 23.5%). There was also a significant increase from Iran (80.1%), Belarus (30.3%) and the United States (20.5%).



"In February 2016 alone, compared to the previous year,an additional 70 000 tourists visited Georgia. This means that the country's economy received an additional 42 million last month, said Kumsishvili. (IPN)




@PatriciaMazzei

The Florida Democratic Party and Miami-Dade Democratic Party plan to open a new Little Havana office Monday in an effort to target Hispanic voters, the organizations announced Tuesday. It will be the state party's first office in the Florida's largest county.

"We have an aggressive effort to win South Florida by similar margins as 2012 and having the Florida Democratic Party open an office for the first time in Miami-Dade shows our commitment to growing our opportunities in a key region of the state," Allison Tant, chairwoman of the state party, said in a news release.

Added Miami-Dade Chairwoman Annette Taddeo: "In 2012, we increased our margin of victory in Miami-Dade by 70,000 votes. Now we are building on that momentum by continuing the OFA ground game in order to defeat Rick Scott and take back Tallahassee."

OFA refers to President Obama's campaign machine.

Read the press release below.
@PatriciaMazzei

This time around, U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo didn't even have to ask for an invitation.

The White House invited the Miami Republican to ride Wednesday with President Obama to the Florida Everglades. Curbelo said yes; the congressman, whose district includes the Everglades, will be arriving at Miami International Airport with Obama on Air Force One.

"I appreciate the President taking the time to showcase the Florida Everglades, one of the world's great natural treasures and an important part of the Congressional district I represent," Curbelo said in a text message to the Miami Herald. "Everglades restoration is a worthy bipartisan cause, and I support the Administration's efforts to preserve the Everglades for future generations."

Another South Florida congressman -- Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy of Jupiter, who is running for U.S. Senate in 2016 -- is the only other representative on board.

The trip will be a make-up session of sorts: Curbelo was denied an Air Force One seat in February when Obama attended a town hall-style meeting on immigration at Florida International University, which is also in Curbelo's district. The freshman congressman was invited to the event but not to travel with the president -- even after he asked for a ride -- so he didn't attend.

The dis came after the White House had expressed its interest in bringing more Republicans on presidential trips to foster bipartisanship. As a moderate Republican in a swing district, Curbelo agrees with some of Obama's policies.

After Curbelo revealed that he had been kept off Air Force One for the February trip, the White House reached out to the congressman to mend fences.
@PatriciaMazzei

Donald Trump holds a 33-27 percent lead over Marco Rubio in Florida, according to an Associated Industries of Florida poll, but the gap between the two Republican presidential candidates may be wider.

Ryan Tyson, AIFs political guru, found that the primary is attracting new voters  ones who havent cast ballots in prior GOP elections and may be missed by surveys that identify Republicans based on their voter history. Those polls have generally shown a tighter Trump-Rubio race than the ones that allow respondents to self-identify as Republicans, capturing independents and Democrats prohibited from participating in Floridas closed primary.

Of the 772,000 Republicans who have already voted, 17 percent are new voters, Tyson found. And that likely means Rubio trails Trump by more than the 6 percentage points captured in AIFs poll, which was conducted by Tel Opinion Research.

These voters missed the 2012 Presidential primary, and the regular 2012 & 2014 Republican primaries, but for whatever reason they are casting ballots in this election, Tyson wrote in a memo outlining the poll results, which were first reported by Politico. We can logically conclude these are similar surge voters as [we] have seen in other states this cycle. These voters will likely not be friendly to the establishment-favored candidates.

Ted Cruz drew 16 percent support in the AIF poll, and John Kasich drew 12 percent.

The survey of 631 likely Republican voters was conducted Sunday and Monday, before Rubio came last in four more nominating contests. It was an error margin of 4 percentage points.
The campaigns for Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton criticized their opponents record on immigration the day before the Miami debate.

Immigration has been a divisive topic in the GOP primary. As Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz have argued about the 2013 immigration bill, Donald Trump has drawn attention for his proposal to building a wall between the United States and Mexico -- and make Mexico pay for it.

But the Democrats have also argued about their own records on immigration -- a particularly hot topic in Florida where 15 percent of Democratic voters and 11 percent of Republican voters are Latinos.

Heres a look at an immigration attack line by Clinton and Sanders before the showdown at Miami Dade College.

Sanders on 2007 immigration reform

Clintons campaign has attacked Sanders for voting against a 2007 immigration reform bill which would have allowed illegal immigrants to live and work in the U.S. and create a temporary guest worker program.

I voted for comprehensive immigration reform in 2007, said Clinton, a former New York senator, during the debate in Milwaukee. Senator Sanders voted against it at that time. Because I think we have to get to comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship.

At the time, Sanders said he opposed it because he said it didnt do enough to protect workers.

I voted against it because the Southern Poverty Law Center, among other groups, said that the guest-worker programs that were embedded in this agreement were akin to slavery, he said at the February debate . Akin to slavery, where people came into this country to do guest work were abused, were exploited, and if they stood up for their rights, they'd be thrown out of this country.

The Southern Poverty Law Center issued a report in 2007 "Close to Slavery: Guestworker Programs in the United States."

"Congress should reform our broken immigration system, but reform should not rely on creating a vast new guest worker program," said report author Mary Bauer in 2007. "The current program is shamefully abusive in practice, and there is almost no enforcement of worker rights."

(The center updated the report in 2013.)

Sanders also said that LULAC, one of the largest Latino organizations, and the AFL-CIO, also opposed it.

Frank Sharry, director of Americas Voice which supports immigration reform, said in an interview that the section of the 2007 bill that dealt with temporary workers was written almost exclusively by Republicans. It allowed workers to come in but without family and they had to leave after two years without a path to citizenship.

The critique: it tied workers to employers, gave them no meaningful recourse if they were exploited, and made sure they could never settle here, Sharry said. Bottom line: come here and work hard for an employer you are tied to, and then leave without having the chance to settle.

That was different from the 2013 bill which was negotiated by labor and business and allowed low-skilled workers to come on renewable three year visas without the requirement that they leave after two years, Sharry said. And it had more labor protections in the case of exploitation.

Sanders supported the 2013 immigration bill which passed the Senate but stalled in the House and died.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz defended Democratic turnout and bashed the GOP presidential field shortly before the debate started between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in Miami.

The Democratic National Committee chair from Broward County said that so far Republican turnout has been about 55 percent compared to 45 percent for the Democrats in Florida. The states primary is March 15 but voting by mail and at early voting sites started in February.

The higher GOP turnout isnt a surprise since the Republican primary has had more candidates, she said.

Ours hasnt been a freak show, she said, shortly before the debate at Miami Dade College.

Wasserman Schultz called out U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio who has been trailing Donald Trump in the polls.

Marco Rubio should be doing so much better here..., she said.

Asked about President Barack Obamas upcoming trip to Cuba this month, Wasserman Schultz said she will not join Obama on the trip and has no desire to visit the island.

Not until they make more human rights progress, she said.

In Florida, the Democratic Party sees an opening with the Cuban-American vote which seen for years as a reliable GOP voting bloc but Obama made some headway with them in 2012.

The Democratic Party will try to appeal to Cuban-American voters with messages about jobs, education and health care, she said.

Four and a half million Hispanics in this country have gotten health care that didnt have it before, she said.

At some point after the Miami debate, representatives for the DNC and the campaigns are expected to reach an agreement on the date and locations of the next debates. One debate is expected to be held in April and one in California in May.




Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders attacked each others records on immigration during the Democratic debate in Miami. Clinton bashed Sanders for opposing a 2007 immigration bill. He fired back that she opposed drivers licenses for illegal immigrants.

"Secretary Clinton prevailed upon the governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, who wanted to do right thing and provide driver's licenses to those who are undocumented," Sanders said during the debate at Miami Dade College on March 9. "She said dont do it, and New York state still does not do it."

Did Clinton -- who has sought the Latino vote in Florida and elsewhere -- prevail upon Spitzer to not allow drivers licenses for illegal immigrants in New York?

See what PolitiFact Florida found.




Donald Trump and Marco Rubio will both speak in Palm Beach County on Friday morning, the day after the GOP debate at the University of Miami.

Trump speaks at his posh Mar-A-Lago club in Palm Beach at 9 a.m.

Rubio speaks at 10:30 a.m. at Temple Beth El in West Palm Beach where he will "discuss his commitment to stand with Israel," according to a press release.

Rubio attacked Trump for his statements about Israel.

A PAC supporting Rubio, Conservative Solutions, said in an ad that Trump said "he would be neutral between Israel and its enemies." PolitiFact Florida rated that statement Half True.

Trump has said that in order to negotiate between Israelis and Palestinians he cant take sides.

"Let me be sort of a neutral guy," he said at a town hall.

But the ad omits that Trump has had ties to Israel for years -- he has called himself "pro-Israel" and endorsed Netanyahus re-election in 2013. That is a good indication Trump isnt neutral.


@PatriciaMazzei

It may come as no surprise, but Floridians -- at least the ones posting about politics on Facebook -- care a lot about Cuba and immigration.

Those are the top issues Floridians are talking about on the social-media site ahead of Wednesday's Democratic debate in Miami, according to data Facebook shared with the Miami Herald.

The other three leading topics of conversation? The size of government, government ethics, and homeland security and terrorism. Compare that to the chief issues nationally: religion, the economy, immigration, racial issues and taxes.

Facebook also compiled data on which candidates Facebookers were discussing, and how many "interactions" those candidates generated. Here, Florida mirrored the nation.

Between the Democrats, Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders in Facebook interactions. The Republican lineup, from most to least discussed: Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and John Kasich.
@PatriciaMazzei

To push for a higher minimum wage, a group of Miami fast-food workers plans to walk off the job Thursday and protest outside the Republican presidential debate in Coral Gables.

The workers are part of the Fight for $15 campaign, which among other things advocates for a minimum hourly wage of $15. Fifty-two percent of Florida workers make less than that, which is the highest percentage of any state in the country, according to the campaign. Many of them are Hispanics.

One of the workers who will strike is Westley Williams, a 40-year-old who works at McDonald's and makes $9.25 an hour.

"We're changing the politics of the country because we are a powerful voting bloc that cannot be ignored," he said in a campaign statement. "Candidates for president, if you stand for $15 and union rights, the nearly four million of us in Florida will stand with you. Come get our vote."
@PatriciaMazzei

Florida Republicans agree Marco Rubio must win his home state to remain in the presidential race.

Fifty-nine percent think Rubio should drop out if he loses Tuesday's primary, according to a new Washington Post-Univision poll conducted by Bendixen & Amandi International and the Tarrance Group.

Like other polls released over the past two days, the survey found Rubio lagging behind Donald Trump, 38-31 percent, followed by Ted Cruz (19 percent) and John Kasich (4 percent). The poll of 450 likely Republican voters was conducted in English and Spanish from March 2-5 and has an error margin of 4.6 percentage points.

Rubio fares much better than Trump among Hispanics, the poll found. Compared to Rubio and Cruz, Trump is the only candidate Hispanic Republicans in Florida view more unfavorably (59 percent) than favorably (36 percent). And if were up to Hispanics alone, Rubio would be leading the race with 49 percent support, followed by Cruz with 21 percent and Trump with 19 percent. The Florida senator's support is rooted with Cuban-Americans, according to the poll, which has a larger error margin -- 7.6 percentage points -- for the smaller Hispanic sample.
@PatriciaMazzei

Jeb Bush is ready to inch back into the Republican presidential race.

He will meet with three of his remaining rivals  Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz  ahead of their debate later that evening at the University of Miami. The Bush-Rubio meeting took place Wednesday; the others are scheduled for Thursday.

No surprise as to which man Bush won't sit down with: foe Donald Trump.

Bush has yet to endorse anyone since leaving the race last month after his lackluster showing in the South Carolina primary. Some Bush advisers wanted him to immediately back fellow Miamian Rubio. But Bush went home to Coral Gables instead, and has kept a low profile since.

The meetings could portend an effort to try to stop Trump, which was a Bush priority when he was a candidate.
@ByKristenMClark and @cveiga

A proposed law that cleared the Florida Legislature on Wednesday should give local government entities -- such as Miami-Dade Public Schools -- faster access to their tax revenue and the ability to more accurately plan their annual budgets.

Officials with the Miami-Dade school district have, for years, complained that lengthy delays in tax collection short-change public schools by millions of dollars in funding.

And they finally have a solution that's a step away from becoming law.

HB 499 unanimously passed both the House and Senate on Wednesday and now awaits Republican Gov. Rick Scott's signature.

The measure -- led by Republicans Sen. Anitere Flores, of Miami, and Rep. Bryan Avila, of Hialeah -- reforms statewide the process for resolving property tax disputes, which are heard by county Value Adjustment Boards.

It puts limits on when property owners' appeals need to be resolved, and it requires the boards to complete all appeals and certify property values with the county appraiser no later than June 1.

Flores said the provisions "speed up and modernize that process, so hopefully entities such as our school system and our public school students will receive the money they deserve in a timely matter."

Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho and other district officials traveled to Tallahassee at least twice this session to testify in favor of the bill when it was vetted by legislative committees.

Congratulations Sen. @anitere_flores and Rep. @BryanAvilaFL for successfully passing the VAB bill protecting funding equity. @DadeDelegation  Alberto M. Carvalho (@MiamiSup) March 9, 2016

"We're finally going to have legislative protection that will ensure equity in funding for Miami-Dade's children," Carvalho said Wednesday in Miami.

Carvalho and school board chairwoman Perla Tabares Hantman both said they were "appreciative" of Avila, Flores and the rest of the Miami-Dade delegation for navigating the bill through the legislative process.

"This was a very big priority for the board," Hantman said.

The district's fight over property tax appeals has been years-long and contentious.

The district audited the local value adjustment board, refused to pay a $1.5 million bill to the property appraiser and threatened to sue over the issue. United Teachers of Dade, the local union, did sue -- but a judge dismissed the complaint.

Carvalho said the district will now pay close attention to how the bill is implemented in Miami-Dade.

"Everything is in place to solve the problem. With every law that's passed in Tallahassee, it is about the execution. And fidelity as far as execution will be key," Carvalho said.
Life insurance companies will have to do more to find beneficiaries of those who die under a bill that passed the Florida Legislature on Thursday and now heads for Gov. Rick Scott's desk.

Under Senate Bill 966 insurers would be required to search the Social Security Administration's Death Master File for all of their policyholders retroactively to 1992 and every year going forward. If a beneficiary cannot be found, the insurance company must turn the policy over to the State of Floridas Unclaimed Property Program, currently overseen by Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, where the state will continue to look for rightful beneficiaries.

Atwater has made the issue a top priority this year because he said too many life insurance companies are sitting on billions of dollars in overdue, unpaid life insurance benefits. He said some companies are doing little to track down families whose loved ones paid their premiums for years.

The Senate voted 39-0 for the bill. The same legislation cleared the House on Monday by a 109-0 vote.
@PatriciaMazzei

U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo wanted in on the White House's upcoming Miami meeting with Cuban-American community leaders.

No such luck.

Curbelo says he asked to attend Friday's get-together with Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes. But he was told the meeting will be "private."

"This White House works very hard at excluding Cuban-American representatives -- Republicans and Democrats alike -- from any meetings or discussions having to do with U.S.-Cuba policy," Curbelo said in a statement to the Miami Herald. "I've worked with the Administration on higher education reform, climate change, immigration, and other issues. However, on Cuba they shut out anyone who doesn't fully agree with them -- even those who represent our country's Cuban-American community. It doesn't make sense, and quite frankly, it seems petty."

Pete Boogaard, assistant press secretary for the National Security Council, said Rhodes and other senior administration officials have met "directly with members of Congress from both sides of the aisle."

"We will continue to make outreach to Congress a focus of our engagement, but during the limited time Mr. Rhodes has in Miami, he will meet with human rights and civil society advocates, faith leaders, young emerging leaders, and representatives from the private sector."

Former U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia, the Democrat who lost to Curbelo in 2014 and hopes to challenge him again later this year, issued a campaign statement deriding Curbelo's complaint as "priceless."

"The person who has opposed every single one of this administration's initiatives on Cuba -- from family travel to remittances to normalization of migratory policy -- now wants a photo op. The Obama administration has been in contact with Cubans both on the island and in Miami, as well as with leaders of the civic, business, art and political communities. If there is someone who is out of touch with the people in Cuba and, in particular, South Florida, it is Mr. Curbelo."

Curbelo was snubbed by the White House last year: It denied him an Air Force One seat to a President Barack Obama town hall on immigration at Florida International University, in Curbelo's congressional district. The White House later made nice with Curbelo, and he got to fly with the president a few months later on a trip to the Florida Everglades.

Miami Dade College announced Wednesday that, as part of his visit, Rhodes will attend a town meeting with young Cuban Americans at downtown Miami's Wolfson Campus. The event is co-sponsored by Roots of Hope, a nonprofit network of Cuban-American college students and professionals. Rhodes will hold a news conference afterward.

UPDATE: Rhodes telephoned Curbelo on Wednesday night, according to the congressman. They spoke for about half an hour and had a "very productive conversation."

This post has been updated.
@PatriciaMazzei

Florida Gov. Rick Scott stayed stubbornly on message -- as he usually does -- Thursday morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe.

And that prompted anchors Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinksi shut the interview down.

They asked Scott for his presidential endorsement, which the governor said he wasn't giving. But then Scarborough asked about Donald Trump.

"Would you tell your friend, Donald Trump, that he should walk back his statements that Muslims -- that Islam hates America, that Islam hates us?" Scarborough asked. "Do you think Muslims in the state of Florida hate America?"

"Well, as you know, in Florida we're the best melting pot in the world," Scott said. "We love everybody coming to our state. After the Paris bombings I did ask the federal government to not allow any more Syrian refugees to come into Florida until we vetted them. I'm still concerned that the federal government's not vetting them. But that's what my concern is."

Scarborough and Brzezinksi tried again. Four more times.

"That's not the question," Brzezinksi said at one point. Scarborough:"No, no, I don't want to know what's going on in Florida."

"Rick, Rick, Rick," Brzezinksi said. "I know you and Joe are friends and this is kind of awkward. But can you answer the question or should we scoot?"

They scooted.

One tidbit from Scott: He will attend Thursday night's GOP debate at the University of Miami.
@MichaelAuslen

State Rep. Ed Narain announced Thursday he will run in the Democratic primary for a state Senate seat in Tampa and St. Petersburg.

And he's doing it with a key supporter: the woman who currently holds the seat.

On Thursday, Senate Democratic Leader Arthenia Joyner, who faces term limits this year, confirmed to the Times/Herald that "I'm supporting Narain."

Narain, a freshman Democrat from Tampa, is the chairman of the Florida Legislative Black Caucus.

He is running against two other Democrats in the Aug. 30 primary for the 19th District, term-limited Rep. Darryl Rouson of St. Petersburg and former state Rep. Betty Reed of Tampa.

"We have been able to do some great things the past couple of years to improve our community," Narain said in a statement. "But there are still big issues facing Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties. We need a leader with strong progressive principles to take on those tough fights."

The 19th District is heavily Democrat-leaning and one of the few majority-minority Senate districts in the state.

It's likely to be a hotly contested primary campaign, as the district is heavily Democrat-leaning. As of January, Narain has raised $80,335 for the race, Rouson raised $45,150 and Reed raised $18,396.
In their budget deal crafted more than a week ago, state lawmakers set aside $250,000 for a residency program at the St. Petersburg-based Florida Orchestra.

Five days later, with no discussion or explanation, funding for that program jumped to $500,000.

Similarly, the Senate agreed to a House plan Sunday night to spend $500,000 on roads, sidewalks and utilities around Miami's Design District. But when the budget was printed less than 48 hours later, that number had mushroomed into $750,000 for the once-rundown area of Miami now being transformed by art galleries, design showrooms and artist lofts.

"It's an ol' legislative magic trick," state Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, said of the late money.

That magic trick, part of an age-old political tradition in the Capitol, has led to nearly $100 million in last-minute projects being funded after secret negotiations. Despite long days of public debates and assurances of transparency, it shows that critical spending decisions are still being made out of the public eye.

Often there are no visible fingerprints. Sometimes, lawmakers fess up.

State Rep. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, said he has no qualms about defending $300,000 that emerged late in the budget for the St. Petersburg Warehouse Arts District. When the House and Senate first passed their budgets in mid February, neither included a cent for the project to convert 50,000 square feet of warehouse space to art studios in the Midtown area of St. Petersburg.

"You don't give up," Rouson said. "Therein lies the challenge for members. You have to work it to the sweet end."

Full Story Here
For picture posts from 2010 and earlier, see the Earlier Picture Posts Page
Again from MEMRI, here's an interesting element of the Iran/Arab conflict which doesn't get much attention outside of Arab/Iranian circles, but has the potential to flare up into a major issue. The Ahwazi Arabs live in the oil-rich Khuzestan province, in the south-west of Iran, bordering Iraq. To the Arabs it's known as Ahwaz, formerly Arabistan, and, as with so many ethnic groups living as minorities inside an authoritarian country with a strong cultural tradition, they suffer political marginalisation, economic deprivation and forced cultural assimilation.

There's also the question of Sunni persecution. Though the majority of Ahwazis are Shia, there has been significant conversion to Sunni Islam, as a statement of Arab solidarity. This is illegal in Iran, and has further increased persecution and a perceived crackdown on the Arab identity of the region.

This piece provides some background:

Though nominally part of Persia, an autonomous Arabistan existed until 1924, when the centralising regime of Reza Khan Pahlavi crushed a rebellion. A year later, he abolished the emirate and had himself crowned Shah-an-Shah ('King of Kings'). That didn't prevent repeated revolts in the restive region, throughout the 1920s and 1940s.

After World War II, Arab discontent was channeled into political parties demanding autonomy, or even outright independence: the Al Saada party, founded in 1946, was the first to demand independence for Iranian Arabs. The Arabistan Liberation Front was founded in 1956, the National Front for the Liberation of Arabistan in 1960, and the Ahwaz Liberation Front in 1967. Armed resistance had petered out by the 1970s, however.

Until the chaos that followed the Islamic Revolution of 1979 presented the Ahwazi Arabs (and other non-Persian minorities such as Kurds and Baluchis) with the pretext for yet another stab at freedom. The so-called Khuzestan Revolt left several hundred people dead, and was eventually suppressed by Iranian Revolutionary Guards. The rebellion's collapse led to what probably is Ahwaz's high water mark in world affairs  if you could call it such: the Iranian embassy siege in London in 1980.

On 30 April of that year, six armed members of the Democratic Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Arabistan (DRFLA) took over the Iranian embassy, seizing 26 hostages and demanding the release of 91 comrades in Iranian prisons. After they killed a hostage, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher authorised Operation Nimrod, in which the SAS killed all but one of the hostage takers and managed to rescue all but one of the remaining hostages.

The rescue was broadcast live on British TV, which led to record numbers of applications for the SAS and a first surge in Mrs. Thatcher's popularity. But the Iranian Revolutionary government was suspicious of the whole event. It accused the West of orchestrating the siege, as payback for the ongoing hostage crisis in Teheran, where revolutionary students held 52 US diplomats and citizens.

That is the drama of Ahwaz, that splinter of the Arab world stuck in Iran's body politic: Teheran will always assume foreign interests behind any demand, protest or revolt from its Arab minority. And the Arab world will only support its struggle if and when it serves its own purposes.

And now, the Arab world finds that finds that support for the Ahwazis does indeed suit their purposes. They're trying to promote Ahwaz as an occupied Arab country. Back to that MEMRI piece:

In recent months, some Bahraini and Kuwaiti MPs have called on their governments and the international community to recognize the Iranian province of Ahwaz as an "occupied Arab country," and to provide aid to the Ahwaz Arab minority in its struggle for independence. Some even said that the Gulf countries were remiss in tackling this issue.

Ahwaz (Khuzestan), in southwest Iran near the Iraqi border, is geopolitically important because it is situated between Iran and the Arab world, and because its abundant energy resources are a key part of Iran's exports. The Ahwaz Arab minority groups are taking measures to secede from the central regime in Tehran or at least gain autonomy. These groups argue that the Iranian regime seeks to thwart the national ambitions of the Ahwaz Arab minority by ethnically cleansing the region of Arab residents and settling Persian Shi'ites in their place, arbitrarily arresting and executing Ahwazi activists (dozens have been executed to date); and working to eradicate all traces of Sunni Arab characteristics from the region.

The discussion in the Gulf press about Ahwaz is not new; articles on the issue appear frequently. Some harshly criticize the Iranian regime's oppressive policies there, and others call on the Arab and Gulf countries to support the Ahwaz minority as a way of blocking Iranian interference in their own affairs. Some have even published articles by Ahwaz groups making their case against the Iranian regime. What is new in this discourse is an attempt by MPs in Gulf countries to promote recognition of Ahwaz as an occupied Arab country.

In this context, it should be noted that these initiatives come alongside efforts by Ahwaz activists to promote Arab and international recognition of their province as an Arab country. In January 2016, a delegation of Ahwaz political officials headed by 'Aref Al-Ka'abi, leader of the Democratic Solidarity Party of Ahwaz (DSPA), held a series of meetings with officials from all the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries but Oman. According to Al-Ka'abi, these meetings were aimed at raising awareness of the issue of Ahwaz and the suffering of its people, and at persuading the GCC states to recognize Ahwaz as an Arab country, as a prelude to its recognition by the Arab League. He also expressed hope that the Arab League would grant Ahwaz observer-state status. He also said that efforts will be made in international institutions and in the UN to promote an international resolution recognizing Ahwaz as an Arab country.

This report will review the details of the initiatives in Bahrain and Kuwait, and the responses to them....

A typical response:

Jama'an Al-Ghamdi, a columnist for the Saudi daily Al-Sharq, welcomed the initiative, adding that "the activity of the members of this Arab race, especially together with other races in Iran, will be the most truly effective way to influence Iran and cause it to shrink to its original Persian dimensions and nothing more. In my opinion, this could be the only solution to Iranian violations and the wave of Persian expansionism."
Blog Archive Oct 2022 (45) Sep 2022 (60) Aug 2022 (61) Jul 2022 (55) Jun 2022 (60) May 2022 (73) Apr 2022 (60) Mar 2022 (58) Feb 2022 (65) Jan 2022 (69) Dec 2021 (106) Nov 2021 (84) Oct 2021 (58) Sep 2021 (67) Aug 2021 (62) Jul 2021 (54) Jun 2021 (50) May 2021 (58) Apr 2021 (44) Mar 2021 (57) Feb 2021 (64) Jan 2021 (93) Dec 2020 (82) Nov 2020 (62) Oct 2020 (50) Sep 2020 (45) Aug 2020 (51) Jul 2020 (56) Jun 2020 (53) May 2020 (70) Apr 2020 (66) Mar 2020 (169) Feb 2020 (211) Jan 2020 (184) Dec 2019 (54) Nov 2019 (56) Oct 2019 (55) Sep 2019 (63) Aug 2019 (54) Jul 2019 (69) Jun 2019 (56) May 2019 (65) Apr 2019 (68) Mar 2019 (72) Feb 2019 (76) Jan 2019 (62) Dec 2018 (55) Nov 2018 (69) Oct 2018 (90) Sep 2018 (82) Aug 2018 (58) Jul 2018 (36) Jun 2018 (47) May 2018 (44) Apr 2018 (64) Mar 2018 (63) Feb 2018 (68) Jan 2018 (92) Dec 2017 (85) Nov 2017 (64) Oct 2017 (82) Sep 2017 (54) Aug 2017 (89) Jul 2017 (60) Jun 2017 (86) May 2017 (84) Apr 2017 (62) Mar 2017 (86) Feb 2017 (91) Jan 2017 (113) Dec 2016 (109) Nov 2016 (100) Oct 2016 (82) Sep 2016 (95) Aug 2016 (84) Jul 2016 (84) Jun 2016 (99) May 2016 (93) Apr 2016 (106) Mar 2016 (145) Feb 2016 (125) Jan 2016 (103) Dec 2015 (83) Nov 2015 (80) Oct 2015 (100) Sep 2015 (111) Aug 2015 (94) Jul 2015 (98) Jun 2015 (151) May 2015 (125) Apr 2015 (109) Mar 2015 (122) Feb 2015 (113) Jan 2015 (135) Dec 2014 (131) Nov 2014 (115) Oct 2014 (146) Sep 2014 (112) Aug 2014 (128) Jul 2014 (94) Jun 2014 (104) May 2014 (140) Apr 2014 (132) Mar 2014 (81) Feb 2014 (89) Jan 2014 (141) Dec 2013 (100) Nov 2013 (96) Oct 2013 (99) Sep 2013 (94) Aug 2013 (95) Jul 2013 (95) Jun 2013 (91) May 2013 (139) Apr 2013 (179) Mar 2013 (73) Feb 2013 (76) Jan 2013 (85) Dec 2012 (59) Nov 2012 (71) Oct 2012 (85) Sep 2012 (70) Aug 2012 (71) Jul 2012 (53) Jun 2012 (51) May 2012 (52) Apr 2012 (52) Mar 2012 (69) Feb 2012 (76) Jan 2012 (70) Dec 2011 (60) Nov 2011 (54) Oct 2011 (57) Sep 2011 (75) Aug 2011 (72) Jul 2011 (64) Jun 2011 (76) May 2011 (56) Apr 2011 (73) Mar 2011 (114) Feb 2011 (71) Jan 2011 (80) Dec 2010 (92) Nov 2010 (82) Oct 2010 (73) Sep 2010 (95) Aug 2010 (86) Jul 2010 (81) Jun 2010 (76) May 2010 (71) Apr 2010 (74) Mar 2010 (74) Feb 2010 (82) Jan 2010 (101) Dec 2009 (108) Nov 2009 (182) Oct 2009 (136) Sep 2009 (102) Aug 2009 (120) Jul 2009 (151) Jun 2009 (136) May 2009 (180) Apr 2009 (145) Mar 2009 (113) Feb 2009 (113) Jan 2009 (124) Dec 2008 (108) Nov 2008 (69) Oct 2008 (89) Sep 2008 (76) Aug 2008 (75) Jul 2008 (87) Jun 2008 (80) May 2008 (99) Apr 2008 (93) Mar 2008 (115) Feb 2008 (147) Jan 2008 (162) Dec 2007 (124) Nov 2007 (95) Oct 2007 (67) Sep 2007 (42) Aug 2007 (78) Jul 2007 (75) Jun 2007 (123) May 2007 (110) Apr 2007 (108) Mar 2007 (92) Feb 2007 (136) Jan 2007 (119) Dec 2006 (41) Nov 2006 (34) Oct 2006 (12) Sep 2006 (13) Aug 2006 (13) Jul 2006 (16) Jun 2006 (12) May 2006 (21) Apr 2006 (38) Mar 2006 (27) Feb 2006 (25) Jan 2006 (18)
Meanwhile, in Uruguay:

A Jewish man died Tuesday after being stabbed repeatedly in a suspected anti-Semitic attack in Uruguay.

David Fremd, a 54-year-old local businessman, was attacked in the western Uruguayan city of Paysandu, on the border with neighboring Argentina.

One of his three sons was also injured in the attack, but his wounds are reportedly not life-threatening.

Fremd was a local representative of the Uruguayan Jewish umbrella group. His family suspects that the attack was religiously motivated, according to a report by local news outlet Subraydo.

His suspected assailant, a 35-year-old man with a criminal record, reportedly shouted Allahu Akbar before stabbing him, the local El Pais newspaper said....

Sergio Gorzy, the president of Uruguays Jewish umbrella organization, told Subraydo that Fremd was stabbed 15 times and that the attacker mentioned at one point in the interrogation that his act was targeting the Jewish community.

Uruguay is home to an estimated 20,000 Jews, the vast majority of whom live in the capital, Montevideo.
Blog Archive March (5) January (190) December (300) November (359) October (297) September (270) August (344) July (323) June (336) May (274) April (291) March (268) February (201) January (217) December (243) November (228) October (182) September (174) August (186) July (181) June (174) May (228) April (225) March (290) February (289) January (333) December (252) November (270) October (336) September (349) August (324) July (346) June (385) May (425) April (422) March (354) February (285) January (321) December (364) November (346) October (306) September (291) August (274) July (276) June (275) May (313) April (279) March (277) February (287) January (326) December (293) November (369) October (418) September (397) August (391) July (385) June (224) May (267) April (193) March (190) February (198) January (218) December (235) November (315) October (303) September (254) August (264) July (237) June (253) May (261) April (204) March (325) February (318) January (224) December (188) November (255) October (285) September (428) August (403) July (324) June (163) May (207) April (184) March (155) February (108) January (147) December (243) November (236) October (188) September (73) August (14) July (10) June (3) May (5) April (5) March (8) February (7) January (9) December (21) November (18) October (34) September (11) August (31) July (25) June (34) May (11) April (9) March (29) February (27) January (9) December (23) November (6) October (20) September (13) August (2) July (6) June (3) May (20) April (2) March (4) February (3) January (2) December (2) November (6) October (4) September (11) August (28) July (27) June (32) May (59) April (44) March (47) February (36) January (48) December (41) November (55) October (80) September (50) August (30) July (63) June (46) May (36) April (24) March (46) February (36) January (30)
The Corvallis American Legion Post No. 91 will host a turkey shoot fundraiser on Saturday, March 12, and again March 19 from 1 to 5 p.m just south of Sheafman Creek Road on Highway 93. Watch for the signs. This event is part of the posts celebration of the American Legions birthday and a fundraiser for the Boys and Girls State programs.

Participants can bring their own 12-gauge shotguns or they can use the posts shotgun. Do not bring ammunition; it will be supplied. Practice shots are $2 and each flight shot costs $4. All shotguns will be cleared on and off the range by the safety officers. For more information, call Doug Mason at 546-4244.
Most of us must let go of childhood ambitions to become a firefighter or astronaut. But if scientist was on your grade-school wish list, thats easier now than ever.

So claims Sharman Russell in her new book, Diary of a Citizen Scientist: Chasing Tiger Beetles and Other New Ways of Engaging the World, which the John Burroughs Association just awarded its top prize for distinguished nature writing.

The award puts Russell in a distinguished line of nature writers, including Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, Barry Lopez and John McPhee. And it was announced while she was making a mark on another literary totem pole  serving this semester as the University of Montanas Bill Kittredge Distinguished Visiting Writer in the Environmental Studies Department.

I worked with Bill from 1978 to 1981  he was my writing teacher for fiction, Russell said. But I always gravitated toward writing about science and nature. Now, Im working with students who are taking on really important topics like climate change and the future of agriculture, and they want to get better at explaining it. I believe in the act of writing. Its a natural, creative thing to do and Im glad people are doing it in the service of science.

Montana Natural History Center communications director Allison De Jong said in addition to showcasing some beautiful writing about Russells home landscape of New Mexico, the book makes an appealing pitch for getting involved with research on the volunteer level.

She shows how anyone, anywhere, can be a citizen scientist, De Jong said. All you need is curiosity and a little time and commitment and a desire to know the world a little better, whether youre a 9-year-old or a 90-year-old.

After graduating from the University of Montana, Russell moved to southern New Mexico and took a professorship at Western New Mexico University. She also taught creative nonfiction writing at Antioch University in Los Angeles.

She was contemplating the way scientists and non-scientists interact when she became aware of the growing number of research projects that depend on amateur data-gathering. In Missoula alone, that includes people who record movement of elk on Mount Jumbo all winter and appearance of flower buds on fruit trees along the Clark Fork River every spring. Classrooms of children sift buckets of New Jersey dirt for evidence of fossil mastodon meals while senior citizens log daily weather reports.

***

Russell decided to try her own hand at a specific citizen-science project. She said it really got rolling after she emailed an entomologist for suggestions of what to study.

He plunged me into the world of tiger beetles, Russell said. But more importantly, he told me how if you take an obscure insect and study it for more than a week, you will know more about that insect than anybody else on the planet.

Thats not a reflection of Russells, or anybodys, powers of observation so much as a glimpse of the sheer volume of unanswered questions awaiting someone with the time to seek answers. Roughly 400,000 species of beetles populate the world. British evolutionary biologist J.B.S. Haldane once quipped that one of the few things we can be sure about the Creator was he had an inordinate fondness for beetles.

Spending two seasons concentrating on tiger beetles had unexpected benefits, Russell said. Not only did she learn a lot about all the beetles life stages from egg to adult, but she found her own relationship to the natural world evolving.

It was a great way for me to get outside more, even in my own backyard, she said. And I tend to move quickly through the landscape as a walker or a runner. This made me slow down.

It also exposed her to the multitude of different citizen-science projects seeking citizens. In addition to the well-known efforts like the Audubon Societys Christmas Bird Count, there are astronomy programs recruiting volunteers to identify galaxies in photos of star clusters, and biophysicists seeking help recording the way protein molecules fold into energy-efficient shapes.

Scientists have learned that crowd sourcing their research is like having 10,000 grad students who get out and do stuff, Russell said. We dont have as many ornithologists and lepidopterists working as we used to. There arent that many paying jobs for them any more. But weve got 200,000 people volunteering with the Cornell (University) Laboratory of Ornithology. That lets scientists do landscape-large projects.

***

As complicated as those tasks sound, the sheer size of the citizen-science army makes the process work. For example, at least 30 galaxy-spotting volunteers inspect each sky photo and submit their results. The huge redundancy in the system helps newcomers learn the ropes while weeding out mistakes.

Theres almost 1 million people cataloging galaxies, Russell said. You can go online and be cataloging galaxies in 10 minutes. Darwin did the same thing with volunteers mailing in observations by penny post. Now were using the power of tens of thousands of people making real science.

And its not a one-way deal, where novices feed raw material to eggheads in white lab coats who produce esoteric publications.

Citizen scientists bring things to the table that scientists cant do, like make demands for public policy or add an emotional context to a discovery, she said. They can raise political concerns or illustrate connections to the social world on a spiritual or emotional level that scientists dont like to talk about. It lets you be the things you didnt have a chance to do. Its a way to transform yourself and relive old dreams.
Councilman Harlan Wells wants to place a referendum on the ballot that lets citizens have the final say in the city's bid to buy Mountain Water Co.

On Wednesday, though, the effort didn't get far.

Wells didn't have a draft of the ballot language for review before the meeting, and City Attorney Jim Nugent said council members wouldn't be voting on it Wednesday.

"The public has a right to know what it is in advance so they have a reasonable opportunity to comment on whatever it is. And there's nothing to review," Nugent said.

Plus, the idea didn't appear to gain much traction at the Missoula City Council Committee of the Whole meeting. Councilwoman Gwen Jones said she believes referendums "are a terrible way to make law" and result in the side with the biggest campaign budget winning.

She also said Ward 3 strongly supports public ownership, and the city is 90 percent of the way through the process: "I think it would be ridiculous to back out at this point."

In June 2015, Missoula County District Court ruled the city has the right to buy the local water system, and in November, water commissioners unanimously set a price of $88.6 million in a separate court proceeding. The defendants have appealed the verdict to the Montana Supreme Court.

***

Before the city went to trial, it hired a firm to conduct a poll that found 70 percent of respondents supported municipal ownership of the water system. On Wednesday, though, Wells said the public has much more information now than it did when people answered the polling questions.

A referendum would be a vote of confidence or no confidence in the effort, he said, and the outcome would be a win for both sides.

"When the initial survey went out, we were assuming a $50 million purchase price, (and) we were assuming much smaller legal fees," Wells said.

At the meeting, chief administrative officer Dale Bickell said the most recent estimate of the city's legal fees was $5.4 million. The cost to defendants was some $7 million at last report, and Bickell agreed with Wells' estimate the worst-case scenario to date was the city would pay both sides' expenses at some $12 million.

Wells figured the people should have the last say, and a referendum would allow them to do so.

"If the majority of the people in Missoula say no, then it's a graceful exit for everybody," Wells said.

On the other hand, he said, even he as a skeptic would jump on board if the people said yes: "Opponents wouldn't have a leg to stand on."

Councilman Jon Wilkins said he would remain open-minded to the idea of a referendum and reserve judgement until he reads the ballot language. However, he said the city already had made its way through most of the eminent domain process, it was close to the finish line and he didn't want to waste the money spent on condemnation so far.

"Are we just going to throw that out the window and say no? I don't think that's a good, sound investment," Wilkins said.

Councilman Jordan Hess said he appreciated having the discussion about a referendum, but he believes council members were elected to make those tough decisions. Plus, he said, an election took place in the midst of the condemnation effort, and the people voted into office councilors who backed public ownership.

"That was probably the single-largest issue in that election, and the voters responded to that," Hess said.

The city took global equity firm The Carlyle Group to court over the water company in 2014. Carlyle lost, but in the midst of the appeal, it sold the water system to the subsidiary of a Canadian company, Algonquin Power and Utilities Corp., before state regulators could review the transfer.

In public comment, Jason Wiener, who served on the council the last two terms, said he strongly opposed putting the referendum on the ballot. He imagined the costs would be high considering the new owner "has spared no expense to rape the city of Missoula" and has also demonstrated contempt for Montana law.

If the council does put the measure on the ballot, though, he said it should have a third option for people to check: "I wish you hadn't asked."

Randall Kappes, who lives in Lolo, said he wanted county residents such as himself to be able to vote on a resolution. If Mountain Water becomes a public company, it won't pay taxes  estimated at $1.2 million a year in 2014  and he said that will affect people outside city limits, too.

"If the city is successful in the taking of a private company, Mountain Water, it's going to lose its largest property tax payer," Kappes said.
Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Nick Ut spoke to a University of Montana journalism class Wednesday about his career and his harrowing experiences during the Vietnam war.

Ut is best known for his iconic image that later became known as Napalm Girl, which he shot on June 8, 1972, while working for the Associated Press.

It shows a naked 9-year-old girl, Phan Thi Kim Phuc, running toward the camera with other children after a South Vietnamese napalm attack on North Vietnamese fighters at the Trang Bang village. Ut was standing nearby when the napalm hit the ground, and his series of photographs from the incident called The Terror of War won the 1973 Pulitzer for spot news photography.

The Napalm Girl image ran on the front page of newspapers around the world, and helped turn public sentiment against the war.

Ut gave a presentation to UM School of Journalism T. Anthony Pollner Distinguished Professor Sally Stapletons class, and talked about the day he took the image.

Ut, a Vietnam native, spoke with a thick accent and recalled how he became a war photographer at age 16 after the death of his brother. He carried four cameras, 100 rolls of film and wore body armor.

The media had to dress like soldiers during the Vietnam war, he said. We looked like Army soldiers to the Viet Cong. Thats why we lost about 100 media members during the Vietnam War.

When the napalm hit that day in June 1972, CBS crews got footage of Ut taking pictures as a mountain of flames engulfed part of the village. Then, from a thick black cloud of smoke, children with their clothes blown off and skin melting off their bodies began running toward the group of photographers. Ut kept pressing his shutter button.

My body overheated, so hot napalm, Ut explained. I dont care about dying. I kept shooting. First picture I saw black smoke.

The first pictures he took were of a woman holding a small boy who would later die from his injuries. Ut said he thought the childs clothes were torn and hanging down, but realized later that it was his burnt skin.

Ut then took the famous image of Phan Thi Kim Phuc. He and other photographers poured water on her and gave her clothes, and Ut loaded several of the children into his AP van and drove them to the hospital.

She kept screaming Im dying! Im dying, and I was sure she would die from there to the hospital, Ut said.

Phan Thi Kim Phuc miraculously survived her horrific burns, and she and Ut later reunited for a documentary.

***

Ut shot thousands of indelible images during the war, from farmers who were accidentally killed by American gunships to villagers whose houses were destroyed to Viet Cong captives. He himself was injured several times.

It was his photo Napalm Girl that became a tragic symbol of the war, and it has drawn comparisons to other iconic images that play a major role in public perception of combat.

Mention the Vietnam War and the subsequent thought is a visual  that of photojournalist Nick Uts Napalm Girl Pulitzer Prize-winning image from 1972, said Stapleton, who worked as a deputy executive photo editor for the AP for 13 years and led teams of Pulitzer-winning photographers. Joining us at the School of Journalism, Nick is graciously sharing his time and experiences in this year of milestones: His 50th anniversary of working with the Associated Press and the Pulitzer Prizes 100th anniversary yearlong celebration.

After the war, Ut moved to Los Angeles and took photographs of everyone from O.J. Simpson to Michael Jackson.

His experiences in Vietnam still haunt him though.

I cry sometimes, because sometime my good friends died, he said. I got shot many times, got lucky. My brother, he was a very good photographer. I see a lot of people die.

Ut said that photographers had more freedom to go where they wanted during the Vietnam era.

Today, they control the media in Iraq and Afganistan, he said. If you go to other countries, dont go with American soldiers. Go with local guys, talk with friends.

Ut said he got a lot of questions after the international publication of a photo of a drowned 3-year-old boy, Aylan Kurdi, who died as his family tried to flee from war-torn Syria. Many people drew comparisons to his photo.

Napalm Girl was still alive, but boy in Turkey was already dead, Ut said. People say it can change history. Death is everywhere. But the two pictures, Napalm Girl and this boy, help refugees come to countries.

Ut said he preferred a photo that wasnt widely published of a Turkish soldier carrying the boy before he realized he was dead.

In the end, Ut said photographers must remain emotionally detached from their subjects if they have any hope of remaining composed. He compared his time in Vietnam to when he was shooting pictures of celebrities who didnt want their picture taken.

Like war, same thing, I just shoot the picture, he said.
A coalition of wolf advocates has warned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that they plan to sue if the agency doesnt extend its supervision of wolf populations in Montana and Idaho another five years.

"When the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is offering five tags to every wolf hunter and Idaho Fish and Game is putting sharpshooters in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness and funding aerial gunning in the Lolo Zone, we feel renewing another five years of federal monitoring is warranted, said Matthew Koehler of Missoula-based Wild West Institute, one of five groups putting FWS on notice. Given the situation on the ground and the ways state policy is changing, we think the prudent thing to do is keep monitoring wolf populations so theyre not hunted and trapped back to the brink of extinction.

The Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project, Friends of the Clearwater and Cascadia Wildlands joined Wild West Institute in the notice. By law, groups objecting to a federal agency must give it 60 days advance warning to offer time to craft a solution before going to court.

Gray wolves were extirpated from the continental U.S. in early 20th century. The Fish and Wildlife Service reintroduced wolves in remote areas of Idaho and Yellowstone National Park in 1994 and 1995. The wolves were protected under the federal Endangered Species Act until 2011, when Congress passed a provision removing their listed status in Idaho and Montana. However, FWS personnel were required to monitor wolf populations for five years after giving state wildlife agencies local control of the species.

Wolves remain a federally protected species in Wyoming, Washington, Oregon and the Great Lakes region. Congress is considering several provisions to change or remove those protections this year.

In early January, Idaho Department of Fish and Game workers improperly collared two wolves in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness along the Montana border while carrying out a helicopter-assisted elk-collaring project. The agency reported the incident to the U.S. Forest Service, which suspended Idahos permission for further helicopter work in the wilderness pending a review of the states practices.

Idaho has also maintained a state-sponsored wolf-removal program in addition to a public wolf hunting season.

In Montana, resident hunters may buy up to five wolf licenses a season for $19 each. The state removed its annual quotas on wolf seasons in 2012.
In the Bull Mountains, an hour or so northeast of Billings, two important forces in Montanas historycoal mining and ranchingare butting heads in a way that says a lot about possible paths for the states future.

Montanas Board of Environmental Review recently overturned a permit for the proposed expansion of a coal mine, saying the states Department of Environmental Quality had failed, among other things, to consider the long-term impacts of mining on water.

Coal mining has long been present in eastern and central Montana, though it has been highly controversial for the past half century and has never been sustainable over the long term. Ranching, on the other hand, has been a pillar of Montanas economy since before statehood and has proven sustainable. In our arid state, water is the lifeblood of family ranching operations that have been running cattle for generations. Quite simply, ranching in Montana cannot survive without clean, available watersomething to which mining millions of tons of coal poses a huge risk.

In the case of Signal Peak Energys application to expand its mining by 7,000 acres, the Board of Environmental Review decided in favor of clean water, which may bode well for the future of ranching in the Bull Mountains.

The coal industry is in a death spiral. Most analysts and many coal executives think it will never recover. Coal consumption in the U.S. is projected to drop by 20 percent or more in the coming decades. Leading coal corporations in the U.S. are in financial trouble, as evidenced by Arch Coal going bankrupt and Peabody Energy teetering on the brink of financial ruin.

Of those coal companies going belly-up, many are walking away from their obligations to clean up and reclaim the vast tracts of public and private land they have mined, leaving taxpayers with the tab for reclamation. Bankruptcies also often leave mine workers without the benefits they have worked their lives to earn (while protecting executive bonuses, naturally).

It would be naive to expect out-of-state coal companies on the brink of collapse to be committed to Montanas long-term well-being. This is particularly the case for Signal Peak, which is co-owned by Boich Companies and FirstEnergy (both from Ohio), and the Gunvor Group, a global commodity trader registered in Cyprus and headquartered in Switzerland.

Its hard to imagine Boich, FirstEnergy and Gunvor putting down roots in Montana or cleaning up lost water supplies in 50 years. In fact, Signal Peak has already started to cut production and lay off workers, and First Energy recently told investors that their one-third share in the mine is worth nothing (as in zero).

This is important in the context of the Board of Environmental Review decision because when Signal Peak packs its bags and leaves Montana, which is inevitable, unfortunately, the company wont take its water pollution with it. That will stay with us. DEQ already is looking the other way on repeated violations of the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act at the Signal Peak mine. In the past three years, the agency has sent 15 warning letters and reminder notices of violations to Signal Peak, but it has taken no formal enforcement action.

For ranchers whose families have been in Montana for generations, this kind of irresponsibility is unfathomable, and poses a huge risk to their futures.

The global decline of the coal industry makes it all the more urgent to hold offending companies accountable for damage to Montanas irreplaceable water. We must ensure that the people who live in Montanalike the generations of families that have earned their livelihood ranching in the Bull Mountainsdont have to live with a legacy of pollution while paying to clean up coal companies messes. Montana has seen this countless times before. Lets learn from past mistakes rather than repeat them.

The Board of Environmental Review remanded Signal Peaks expansion permit to DEQ for further review. We will follow this case closely to assure that Montanas water resources are not sacrificed so that out-of-state coal corporations can turn a fast profit before pulling up stakes.
BOZEMAN (AP)  A Montana man gunned down his girlfriend and then sent a text message about the killing to her ex-husband and others, authorities said Wednesday.

Anthony Tobias Fagiano, 35, was charged with deliberate homicide hours after he turned himself in, telling officers he broke into Darcy Buhmann's house and shot her, police in Bozeman said.

Buhmann's ex-husband, Christopher Wood, called 911 to report he received a text from Fagiano that said he had shot Buhmann. The text added: "It's best for you, she'll never be faithful."

Police found Buhmann's body in her bedroom closet. She was shot in the head and stomach.

Public defender Mary Kramer did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Fagiano told investigators that he took Buhmann's car after the shooting and went to the woods, where he sent texts to several family members about the shooting. A relative urged him to report what he had done to law enforcement, so he drove to the court and police facility in Bozeman, charging documents said.

When an officer asked if his girlfriend needed medical attention, he replied, "No man, she's dead. I popped her in the head," court records said.

Fagiano told officers he had been in a relationship with Buhmann for about a year and had been thinking about killing her for several months. He said he recently stole a rifle, intending to use it to kill her. He told officers the gun was in a vehicle in the parking lot.

Fagiano appeared in court via video, and his bail was set at $1 million. He did not enter a plea.
For as long as poverty endures, there will be political candidates working to snag voters attention with vows of a crackdown on welfare abuses supposedly traceable to great throngs of people living high on the hog with taxpayer support. This year, Republicans in the New York State Legislature are proposing tighter controls on what the poor can buy with their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payment cards. Luxury items would be banned, including steak and lobster.

Critics already are asking: What is meant by steak? All manner of beef, including hamburger? And sometimes lobster prices have dipped so low that it might reasonably be a sound and nutritious buy. But the merits arent the point when its get-tough time on the political calendar; the point is to inflame the public with the idea theyre being taxed to support the least deserving among us.

This can backfire. In one welfare backlash during the 1960s, the New York Legislature slashed support across multiple categories of the needy. The legislators, carried away in the conservative obsession of that time, had even cut off dog-food support for the guide dogs of blind, impoverished citizens. An article in The Times reported on some consequences of the cuts  reduced aid for a mother with six children to feed, a crippled drug addict and a destitute old woman abandoned by her family. Also affected was Sheppie, a German shepherd whose dog-food subsidy got the ax. A photograph of Sheppie seized readers attention as he sat attentively next to Harry Taylor, a 72-year-old poor, blind musician in Harlem.

Within days, letters poured in from readers, most of them inspired by Sheppie and directed at the lawmakers who voted to cut his 24-cents-a-day aid for dog food. Cases of dog food began arriving at The Times, along with hundreds of dollars in donations, including checks made out directly to Sheppie. As the welfare reporter, I paid several visits to Mr. Taylor to deliver the food, help him deposit the checks in a bank (signing Sheppie as the endorsement) and write thank-you notes to the donors.
KANSAS CITY, Kan.  A Mexican man who stands accused of murdering five people and was captured Wednesday was in the country illegally and should have been jailed or deported last year, federal immigration officials said, but three times in less than a year, he was arrested and allowed to go free because of procedural errors.

Pablo A. Serrano-Vitorino, 40, who was caught after a manhunt across two states, had a felony conviction on his record, had been deported once before and had returned to the United States illegally.

In November 2014, he was convicted of a misdemeanor drunken driving in Coffey County, Kan., but Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which did not know he was in the country, has no record that the local authorities notified the agency, said Gillian Christensen, the press secretary for the agency. Some law enforcement agencies do not routinely notify the agency of possible undocumented immigrants unless they are charged with felonies.

Last June, Mr. Serrano-Vitorino was arrested here on a domestic battery charge, and the police notified the immigration agency but did not send his fingerprints, Ms. Christensen said. In that situation, she said, the agency first verifies peoples identities in person before asking the police to hold them for possible deportation. But Mr. Serrano-Vitorino was released before that could happen.
But van Dyck had something different: an effortless elegance or at least the appearance of it, both in his art and in his person. Sometimes he seems more proto-Rococo than Baroque. His images are less stylized, more relaxed and naturalistic than the other greats of his time, which can make them feel relatively immediate and even modern.

While Velazquez and especially Rembrandt favored dark backgrounds, van Dyck often placed his subjects out of doors, which would become a hallmark of 18th-century English portraitists like Reynolds, Lawrence and Gainsborough. He also influenced Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun, court portraitist to the last queen of France and currently the subject of her own, first-ever survey at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But it was in England that his portraits became a cultural mainstay, indelibly linked to aristocratic life. Most great houses had a few, which is why they were must-haves in Gilded Age America. Henry Clay Frick acquired a total of eight, five of which are in the show.
TE ATATU, New Zealand  New Zealand is as beautiful as it is isolated. We live a long way from anyone and anything, and we like it that way. We have almost four and a half million people and more than five million dairy cows. We have snow-capped mountains and deep dark woods where hobbits roam, as directed by Peter Jackson in his interminable Lord of the Rings movies. We sing (Lorde) and act (Russell Crowe) and throw stuff (rugby balls).

The rest of the world rarely notices our country, but this month everyone  well, some people  seems to be taking note. Our green and pleasant archipelago is heading to the polls for a national referendum on whether or not to do away with our current flag and replace it with something that kind of looks like a beach towel.

The redesigned flag  a white fern leaf laid over a black-and-blue background  looks happy and foolish, not unlike our prime minister, John Key. The head of New Zealands government likewise has a floppy, casual charm. This is the guy whose biggest scandal came after a waitress told the world about his strange, compulsive habit of pulling her by the ponytail every time he visited her cafe.

Unlike the flag, the prime minister resonates with voters: Hes won the last three elections. Mr. Key has driven the flag-change proposal. Its his passion, his grand project. But many people here loathe the prospect  hes been in office almost eight years, and all we got was this lousy flag?  and wish the whole thing would just go away. It will soon. The referendum, which began March 3, ends March 24.
From the outside at least, the actress MoNique and her husband of 11 years, Sidney Hicks, would seem to be in the middle of a rocky marriage. Both have had sexual relationships with other partners for years  and continue to do so. And each is well aware of the others escapades.

But, the couple insist, the relationship is actually quite stable and they are quite happy. In fact, it has been a decade since MoNique revealed in an Essence magazine article that she and Mr. Hicks, an actor and producer, were in an open marriage.

Now they have begun a podcast that plays on their unusual partnership. In MoNique and Sidneys Open Relationship, which is on Play.It, the CBS podcast network, the couple explains how the so-called polyamorous lifestyle works for them.

The open-marriage concept has been around for a long time, but some marital experts (though not all) say that couples interested in reaching a golden anniversary, or maybe even a first one, should be wary of following the example of MoNique and Mr. Hicks, who are both 48.
THERE they go again. The neocons who led the George W. Bush administration into Iraq are now touting a fresh crusade to save American democracy  and the Republican Party  from an authoritarian foe: Donald J. Trump.

Their campaign began with an impassioned essay in The American Interest last month by Eliot A. Cohen, a former Bush State Department official, who depicted Mr. Trump as symptomatic of the broader moral rot of America. Then, in an open letter, more than 100 Republican foreign policy mavens, including neocons such as Mr. Cohen and Robert Kagan, as well as more traditional Republican foreign policy figures like the former World Bank president Robert B. Zoellick, announced they were united in our opposition to a Donald Trump presidency.

Now, in a last-ditch effort, leading neocon thinkers have established what they call the National Security Advisory Council to support Senator Marco Rubio. And many are announcing that if push comes to shove, they will support Hillary Clinton over Mr. Trump. Indeed, in the magazine Commentary, the neoconservative historian Max Boot wrote, somewhat hyperbolically, that Mr. Trump is the No. 1 threat to American security  bigger than the Islamic State or China.

The neocons are right that a Trump presidency would likely be a foreign policy debacle, not least because of his unpredictable personality and penchant for antagonizing foreign leaders and publics. But they are wrong in asserting that he is somehow a danger to the traditional principles of the Republican Party. On the contrary, Mr. Trump represents a return to the partys roots. Its the neocons who are the interlopers.
Copyright  2022 HT Digital Streams Ltd All Right Reserved
On a bus tour of Arequipa (John and Jack recommend the "queso helado")





Colca Canyon - it's like a golf course in Jurassic Park, or something.

A random woman's finger helpfully pointing to the condor.

Escaped baby alpaca!

A village in Colca - I love the colors!

Due to illness/general tiredness, we missed seeing the Inca Ice Maiden (who, by the way, is not on display from January to April, although a different mummy is apparently displayed). We did go to the Santa Catalina Monastery (what we would call a convent), which was very beautiful and interesting. Definitely a highlight of the trip.

Santa Catalina Monastery

Hello all! Now that I've finished drafting my new novel, I'm taking a couple of weeks off to wait for feedback from critique partners and hoping that means I can catch up a bit on blogging! It's been a hell of a couple of months. In January and February, we had family visiting for four weeks total. It was awesome and kind of exhausting, especially because the plague descended on our house in the form of a stomach...thing. I can't say exactly what happened, because I'm pretty sure the local lab screwed up my results, but John had both a bacterial infection AND a parasite at the same time. I think I had the bacteria. My poor parents were both sick for a couple of days while they were here. My sister, Amy, and her husband both had mild stomach issues (and so did I, even after I thought the plague had left). John and I both lost a significant amount of weight (which was NOT the plan) while we were ill, and now I'm once again struggling to get healthy. It was a very effective reminder that this is still a developing country in many ways, and even though we think we're careful about what we eat, our systems still haven't adjusted to being here. All I can say is I'm going to Vegas for a writers conference in April and I plan on making the most of the all-you-can-eat buffets!But despite all that, we've done some great traveling this year, and I wanted to share some photos and travel tips for other families who might be looking to explore areas outside of Lima.I knew my sister and her husband wanted to go to Cuzco and Machu Picchu when they came, so I researched other trips for my parents' visit. I had heard that Arequipa is a beautiful city with great food, and that Colca Canyon was a side trip not to be missed. One challenging thing about traveling within Peru is that many places are at a high altitude. Arequipa is only around 8,000 feet, but Colca Canyon is at 12,000, and the road there goes over 16,000 feet. Let me tell you, when you live at sea level, that's a BIG change. Huaraz was also tough, going straight to 12,000 feet, and we all felt the altitude there, even though I was on Diamox (a medication that helps prevent altitude sickness). After taking the kids to Cuzco last year and then Huaraz, I was well aware that Will does not like high altitudes, so we decided to leave him in Lima with our nanny. Jack has done great on all our trips within Peru, fortunately.Arequipa has a lovely city center, but I'll say up front it's not as beautiful as Cuzco. The terrain is much drier than in the Sacred Valley, but we were lucky to have great weather while we were there, with only the occasional passing rainstorm. We had a few things working against us on this trip. First, John and I were both still quite sick at that point, and it made it very difficult to appreciate the food and the sightseeing. And then John had to return to Lima for one night and ended up having his return flight canceled, so he missed all of Colca Canyon, which was the real highlight of the trip. I'll tell you one thing, we have NOT been impressed with the Peruvian airlines. Almost all of our flights have been delayed or canceled. Ugh.Colca Canyon is beautiful. We stayed at Colca Lodge, which has wonderful grounds, thermal springs, and the cutest alpaca farm in the world. Jack and I had a blast there, and the trip out to see the Andean condors flying in the canyons was truly special (we were lucky to see any condors, because we went during the rainy season - I'd say to avoid traveling to Arequipa/Colca from January to March because of this, although as I said, we got lucky).On the way back to Arequipa, I did come close to passing out going over the pass. The Med Unit here gives out enough Diamox for four days, the logic being that you should be acclimated at that point, so I hadn't taken it for a day when we hit 16,000 feet. If you go and have any sensitivity to altitude, I'd suggest staying on the meds. But that's just my two cents.Overall, this was a fun trip, though a challenging one. I wouldn't recommend more than two nights in Arequipa, and I wish we'd had three nights in Colca instead of two, just because it was so beautiful and peaceful there. It would be the perfect spot for a writers retreat. Next time, I'll write about my second trip to the Sacred Valley and Cuzco, and my first time to Machu Picchu!
An under-aged girl married off to a man old enough to be her father has passed on due to severe injuries suffered during s*xual intercourse with her husband.An eight-year-old Yemeni girl has died of internal bleeding on her wedding night after marrying a man five times her age, a social activist and two local residents said, in a case that has caused an outcry in the media and revived debate about child brides. Arwa Othman, head of Yemens House of Folklore and a leading rights campaigner, said the girl, identified as Ilham Mahdi al Assi, was married to a 40-year-old late last week in the town of Meedi in Hajjah province, north-western Yemen. Othman said.They took her to a clinic but the medics couldnt save her life. Othman said authorities had not taken any action against the girls family or her husband.// A security official in the provincial town of Haradh denied any such incident had taken place. He did not want to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the press.But two Meedi residents contacted by Reuters confirmed the incident and said tribal chiefs had tried to cover up the incident when the news broke, warning a local journalist against covering the story.Many poor families in Yemen marry off young daughters to save on the costs of bringing up a child and earn extra money from the dowry given to the girl.A United Nations report released in January revealed the extent of the countrys poverty, saying that 10.5 million of Yemens 24 million people lacked sufficient food supplies, and 13 million had no access to safe water and basic sanitation. Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged Yemen in December 2011 to ban marriages of girls under 18, warning it deprived child brides of education and harmed their health.
On the bookshelf to read
A Butte man and woman are each facing several drug and weapons charges after a traffic stop Saturday in southwest Utah yielded $50,000 in methamphetamine.

Brittany White, 26, and Donnie Bumgarner, 29, are being held on $26,000 and $29,000 bond, respectively, at the Washington County Purgatory Correctional Facility in Hurricane, about 18 miles northeast of St. George.

According to the St. George News, Bumgarner and White were passengers is a blue Dodge Avenger driven by Joseph Hoyd, 41, of Winnemucca, Nevada, who was clocked by law enforcement at 65 mph. The police officer noted Hoyds red sores and scabs on his left arm as possible signs of drug use.

A search of the vehicle uncovered substances believed to be cocaine, marijuana and meth. Other items found were a 9-mm 92F semi-automatic handgun with a 30-round magazine, several large knives, glass pipes, a digital scale and bags used in the distribution of narcotics, the article states.

A lock box also found in the Dodge contained about one pound of meth and more than two dozen pills of two different controlled substances.

Hurricane police estimated the street value of the meth at $50,000.

All three were arrested and booked into the county jail.

At an initial appearance in Fifth District Court in St. George on Monday, White was charged with two second-degree felony counts of drug possession with intent to distribute, a third-degree felony for possession of a firearm by a restricted person, and five misdemeanor charges related to unlawful possession of a dangerous weapon and drug possession.

Bumgarner was charged with two second-degree felony counts of drug possession with intent to distribute, a third-degree felony for possession of a firearm by a restricted person, and three misdemeanor charges related to unlawful possession of a dangerous weapon and drug possession.

They each have a hearing in district court slated for Monday.

Bumgarner has a lengthy rap sheet in Butte-Silver Bow County, with 20 arrests between 2009 and 2014 for offenses including assault, criminal mischief and criminal possession of dangerous drugs, Undersheriff George Skuletich said.
In a recent decision the Montana Supreme Court set the stage for a Butte woman to seek a trial against a company she alleges defrauded her with promises of debt relief.

Billings lawyer Clifford Edwards, a lawyer for Susan Ossello, said he salutes the 5-2 decision issued March 2 that allows citizens and consumers a fair shot.

This is one of the most significant decisions for Montana consumers that weve seen from the Montana Supreme Court, he said Wednesday.

The Supreme Court upheld a ruling made by a Butte-Silver Bow district court judge against Global Client Solutions, the company that agreed to provide Ossello with debt relief services.

In his majority opinion, Chief Justice Mike McGrath wrote that Judge Kurt Kruegers finding of unfavorable treatment and unconscionability was correct because the arbitration clause in Globals contract with Ossello lacked mutuality and was therefore unenforceable.

In July 2012, Ossello faced more than $40,000 in unsecured debt to Bank of America, Discover Bank and Citibank. An unsolicited mailing from a company called World Law offered to help her get out of debt and negotiate reduced settlements with creditors.

Ossello signed several agreements, including a client services agreement with Global Client Solutions, and agreed to an automatic monthly withdrawal of $589 from her bank account that was used to pay her debt.

Ossello ceased making payments on her credit card debt due to the agreement made with Global. In September 2013, Discover Bank brought a collection action against her. Global sent her a document to complete saying that she had never applied for or received a credit card from Discover and had never received monthly statements, which she filed in November 2013.

In June 2014, Ossellos attorney filed an amended answer to Discover Banks complaint and a third-party complaint against World Law and Global, alleging they used deceptive and fraudulent representations to solicit her participation in an illegal debt settlement plan.

World Law failed to appear and defaulted in August 2014, but Global filed a motion to compel arbitration and to dismiss the third-party complaint for lack of jurisdiction. Krueger ruled on this motion, which was upheld by the state Supreme Court last week.

Edwards, one of Ossellos attorneys, said Globals counsel can ask the court to reconsider within 30 days, or appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. He added that he expects a trial setting before Krueger later this year or early 2017.
Big Hole River ranchers want to see more of a shared sacrifice to protect the Big Hole River  a blue ribbon fishery that attracts anglers from around the world.

As the ranchers stop irrigating their crops during extremely dry periods, according to a decades-old agreement, they watch outfitters flock to the river when fish are already stressed by low flows and high temperatures.

That discussion arose during a meeting Tuesday to talk about new fishing rules. A state FWP supervisor wants to assemble a group of water users  including ranchers and outfitters  to address the concerns.

Thanks to an agreement worked out by Big Hole ranchers years ago, they voluntarily give up irrigating their crops when water flows drop to 200 cubic feet per second. This mostly happens outside of peak fishing months, which are April through July. Low flows primarily begin to impact Big Hole ranchers in August and September.

Randy Smith, chair of the Big Hole Watershed Committee and a rancher who lives along the river, said the problem really hit home last summer. The Beaverhead River became turbid from July through October in 2015. That drove more fishing outfitters to the Big Hole River.

State biologists believe the likely cause of the cloudiness in the Beaverhead River was due to algae blooms and suspended sediment in Clark Canyon Reservoir. The Beaverhead has experienced cloudy conditions in the past, but not for such a lengthy period.

The effect of that  more outfitters on the Big Hole River  puts more stress on the river and the fish, ranchers say.

Its about the resource, Smith said. Nobody wants to see the resource  the river or the fish  damaged.

Craig Jones, who owns Great Divide Outfitters in Divide, said ranchers receive subsidies and insurance payouts if they have damaged crops or lose livestock due to wildlife depravation. But if outfitters lose business, there is no safety net for them.

If the river is shut down (due to low flows), theres no avenue for me. I feel that there are precautions in their business, Jones said.

Jones, who said hes a second generation outfitter, said he didn't see the issue "as a huge argument."

"All of us need this resource equally," Jones said. "I dont consider my right to use this resource any more important than anyone else."

Sam Sheppard, supervisor of Region 3, Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, is responding to the concern by putting together a group  one that will represent Big Hole ranchers, outfitters and sportsmen and women  to discuss the issue and try to arrive at an agreement.

Sheppard said he is organizing the group rather than opening the Beaverhead and Big Hole River Recreation Rules, which regulate fishing and outfitting on both rivers. The rules were adopted in 1999 and every five years go through a review. The 2015 review process is nearing an end as the FWP commission takes final comment on one amendment. That amendment affects temporary client days to give small and newer outfitters a chance to get time on the rivers. (See breakout.)

Jones said that if the group is made up of locals who really have a stake in the Big Hole River, then he called it a good thing.

Tony Schoonen, of Skyline Sportsmen and an avid fisherman, echoed Jones comment.

If (Sheppard) appoints the right people, thats a good start, Schoonen said. If its a well-balanced group who all have some knowledge of whats going on (it could be a good thing).

But Schoonen cautioned that the group may move too slowly.

We dont want this thing to drag on forever. We want to show the landowners were willing to sacrifice, too, Schoonen said.

Jones expressed concern that it may be hard for the group to reach an agreement.

Theres so many circumstances out there, its really hard to say whats going to be a perfect fix for everyone. To have something really flexible, that might take a lot of talking, Jones said.

Roy Morris, who works as a guide for the outfitter Big Hole Lodge on the Wise River, said he believes the agricultural community has a valid point.

They do so much to protect the resource and to keep the water in the river at critical moments that anybody that uses the resource should respect that. If that means that I, as a guide, have to limit my time on the water, Id be more than willing to do that, Morris said.

Jones said all the groups have a shared goal.

"We're all just trying to make a living, raise our families, and we all love this valley and don't want to leave. There's no way to do that without each other," he said.
The Veterans Choice Act is a poor choice. Montana veterans and others across the nation actually are waiting longer for appointments under Choice Act provisions than they would in the Veterans Affairs clinics.

Recently in Montana, there were 5,000 Veterans Choice appointments requested but unscheduled, and 2,600 of those requests were older than 90 days, according to Sen. Jon Testers office. The private administrators VA selected to operate the program have failed to deliver timely appointments. HealthNet is the contractor hired to serve Montana and some other states.

Veterans issues used to account for 30 percent of Testers constituent services. Since the Choice Act started, the veterans issues have increased to 50 percent of the staffs caseload.

This is an epidemic within the care system, Tester told The Gazette on Monday.

Veterans report generally being pleased with care received at Fort Harrison and in Montana VA outreach clinics, when they have need staff and when they can get into VA care, Tester said. Its the waiting that frustrates patients.

HealthNet is taking four to seven weeks to get an appointment; its not working, Tester said. It just compounded the problem.

How did this company get the contract? They were the only ones that bid.

LEGISLATION LANGUISHES

Complaints also have piled up from private community health care providers who have waited six months for HealthNet to pay them for veterans care. Billings Clinic and at least 20 other Montana providers have dropped out of the Choice program, according to Testers staff.

On a recent visit to Billings, Tester complained that legislation approved by the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee languishes months later because leadership hasnt brought it to the full Senate for a vote. Nevertheless, last week Tester introduced a new bill, one designed to fix the problems with the Choice Act that are denying Montana veterans the care the law was intended to provide.

Tester proposed to allow VA the flexibility to cut out the private Choice Act contractor. He would allow VA clinics and hospitals to refer veterans directly to community care when that care is available quicker and closer to home than what is available in the VA system. Tester would change the Choice Act to allow VA to pay for community fee-for-service referrals from Choice funds.

Tester also proposed consolidating the VAs seven community care programs into one.

Last week, Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee aired complaints about the Choice Act.

The Choice program is not working the way that anyone wanted, Dr. David Shulkin, VA undersecretary for health, told the senators. He acknowledged that the third-party administrators are too slow and said VA is trying to fix the problems.

However, Congress created the Choice program, and thats where most of the fixing needs to be done. Tester said three Democratic senators have signed onto his bill, S.2633. Ultimately, any bill that passes committee will be the work of Chairman Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and ranking member Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Tester said. Getting any veterans legislation passed this year could mean attaching it to a big omnibus bill that combines all sorts of unrelated provisions to draw the support of 60 senators and a majority of House members.

DAINES WEIGHS IN

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., announced this week that he is cosponsoring Veterans Choice improvement legislation introduced by Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and several other GOP senators. That bill, like Testers, seeks to streamline and simplify a system to get veterans care in the community.

It doesnt matter whose bill gets approved, so long as the legislation effectively fixes the problems apparent in the Choice program and doesnt create new barriers for veterans. A supermajority of Senate Republicans and Democrats will be needed to pass anything out of the Senate.

As a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, Tester has extra insight into the Montana-specific problems. As a member of the majority party, Daines should have more pull with Senate leadership, which so far has delayed even bipartisan bills passed by the Veterans Affairs Committee.

We call on Daines and Tester to work together and with their colleagues to get Montana veterans a better deal than the slow, frustration they are now suffering with Veterans Choice. Our American heroes deserve a much better choice.

-- The Billings Gazette
Washington legislators didnt upend the hour glass on Colstrips two oldest generating units, said a lawmaker who authored an exit plan for one of the power plants major shareholders.

What lawmakers did create, said Republican Sen. Doug Ericksen of Ferndale, Wash., is a way for the Colstrip shareholder Puget Sound Energy to raise money to pay for closing Colstrip Units 1 and 2 at an undetermined date.

Puget Sound Energy splits ownership of Colstrips two oldest units 50-50 with Talen Energy of Pennsylvania. Pressure is building for PSE to get out of coal power as concerns over climate change increase.

This bill does not require a shutdown or impose a schedule, Ericksen, said. The bill we ended up passing simply gives PSE a mechanism to use their production tax credits to offset the costs of decommissioning and the remediation if they get to the point of shutting down the facility.

Those production tax credits are part of a federal scheme to promote alternative energy, which Puget Sound Energy has developed. The money would normally flow back to PSE ratepayers, but the Legislature is allowing the utility to keep the money in order to build up a Colstrip retirement account. That account could not be tapped before Dec. 31, 2022, unless an earlier shutdown is forced by regulations or deemed sensible because of costs.

Puget Sound Energy declined to say whether it would crack open the account seven years from now at the earliest possible date. There are supporters of the Washington legislation, which now awaits the signature of Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee, who think the closure of the aging power plants could come sooner rather than later.

We believe economics will continue to drive Talen and Puget Sound Energy to move forward, said Doug Howell of the Sierra Club. Continued reports about Talen raise concern.

Howell cited a recent UBS Securities report suggesting portions of Talens Colstrip holdings have become a money loser for the power company and that Talen would likely sell its interests in 2016 at a loss to PSE.

In the report titled Talen Energy Corp, a Call to Action, UBS suggests that a sale of Talens Colstrip holdings this year would be a positive.

We see management as closely focusing on the developments around a potential sale to Puget as part of an ongoing review in the state of Washington, UBS stated. We emphasize even a shutdown of the unit would force a recognition of a loss on the asset sale.

On the same day last week that Washingtons Legislature finalized its Colstrip bill, the states utility commission was taking testimony from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, which said Colstrip Units 1 and 2 were in worse financial shape than previously thought. Cheaper energy from natural gas, as well as tighter pollution laws, make Colstrips business costs worse, the group said.

Talen Montana will earn relatively small profits on the units, at best, said David Schlissel, IEEFA economist. Whats more likely is that it will lose money. Similarly, Colstrip 1 and 2 stand to make electricity bills for Puget Sound Energy customers higher than they should be.

Talen Dismissed the IEEFA report, saying the group has an anti-coal agenda. It said outside groups, like UBS, were wrong to speculate on the companys future in Colstrip.

As we have previously discussed, the challenges to coal-fired generation across the nation are clear and well documented, said Todd Martin, Talen spokesman. Talen Energy will not comment on rumor and speculation, nor will we discuss our business plan in the press. A number of sources have inaccurately characterized the Washington legislation, which when you review, provides no option for Talen Energy to divest of its interests in Units 1 & 2.

Ericksen said that early on, Puget Sound Energy had talked about buying out Talen and acquiring interest in Colstrip Units 3 and 4, which are newer power generators and considered less likely to be shut down by carbon pollution regulations in the federal Clean Power Plan. However, those discussions have died down.

Ericksen suggested one scenario in which Talen Montana went bankrupt and tossed Puget Sound Energy the keys to Colstrip Units 1 and 2, a situation that might allow Puget to tap its retirement account early.

However, Ericksen said he hadnt seen the business plans for either company.


BLOG Wednesday 9th March 2016 Coastal Kenya Has my Christian mission trip (this time) to Kenya been a success? Yes it has, but less so than previous visits. My nephew, who is currently in Saudi Arabia asked me something like Are you enjoying your holiday Uncle? Well, I never considered it to BE a holiday. But viewed as such.... Yes of course! I LOVE being in the tropics. And I have achieved my main objectives, which were #1) To preach the teachings of Jesus Christ. And #2) to play my music for the glory of God. I have managed to do BOTH having preached more than 14 sermons, and also played my harmonica in Church mostly 3 times every week. After more than 4 years based in, and trying and trying EVERYTHING in Scotland, I have not achieved such things. But I HAVE failed miserably. I came here terribly under-resourced, and have had no financial support for my Christian mission, except from one good friend in Scotland, who gave me a little cash for emergencies which has been entirely spent! I was invited to Churches on the other side of the ferry in Mombasa, in Voi, in Nairobi, in Western as well as in Eastern Kenya, as well as Tanzania and Uganda... Even in Western Africa both Nigeria and Ghana. However, I simply entirely failed to raise the bus fare or the air fare to get to any of them. I have been almost entirely without money here. Well, I guess it simply was not meant to be! I apologize unreservedly to all of the Churches that I failed to get to. But staying with a God fearing family of a mother and three wonderful children made me feel like a human being again. It has been wonderful, but honestly it has not been a holiday. I thank God that I came! Because both my cash and my cell phone were stolen yesterday, first thing this morning today, after the kids went off to school, I traveled to Mombasa City Mall, Nyali, to sort things out with my Kenya cell phone service provider, at their Safaricom shop at the mall. It took more than 90 minutes, but the lady who dealt with me could not have been more helpful. She issued me with a new sim card with my existing number, and sold me their cheapest phone,a Tecno, for just 2,500 Kenya Shillings (about $25 US Dollars) Of course, I lost all the numbers in my old phone, but at least I still have my existing Kenya number! Safaricom are now a part of Vodafone/Vodacom International, and they do seem to be the best provider here in Kenya. After that I had a coffee and then got my hair cut. Then, I did household shopping for the family where I am staying, thank goodness I had just enough money left to pay for the shopping. I returned to the house EXHAUSTED! There was no Church service this evening at KHBC Mtwapa, quite honestly I wasn't up to attending anyway. Next Tuesday I fly away from Kenya, at least for the time being. Photo: the downstairs food court at City Mall. There IS another bigger food court upstairs!


DES MOINES, Iowa  A proposed Muscatine affordable housing project was awarded federal housing tax credits Wednesday by the Iowa Finance Authority Board of Directors.

MV Residential Development LLC and St. Mary Development Corporation and their 52-unit Harrison Street Lofts was one of 11 projects receiving awards totaling more than $68.6 million to build and preserve 549 affordable housing units in seven Iowa counties.

The new construction will be located at 1716 Bandag Ave. providing affordable housing for families.

The developers were awarded a tax credit of $762,022, according to a press release.

I congratulate the developers and organizations awarded tax credits to move their projects forward today and thank them for sharing in the Iowa Finance Authoritys commitment to advancing affordable housing for Iowans, Dave Jamison, Iowa Finance Authority Executive director, stated in the press release. These projects have leveraged an additional $5.3 million in local contributions, and each of these communities will see the far-reaching benefits of these projects for many years to come.

The Internal Revenue Service makes an annual per capita allocation of federal tax credits to each state for the federal Housing Tax Credit program. The Iowa Finance Authority is charged with allocating those credits to affordable housing developers. The developers who receive tax credits sell them to investors to generate equity for the housing developments. The tax credits provide a dollar-for-dollar reduction to the investors federal tax liability on ordinary income.

The Iowa Finance Authority had more than $7.8 million to allocate in the 2016 Tax Credit Round and received 31 applications requesting more than $19.2 million in Housing Tax Credits. The IFA Board of Directors this week awarded more than $6.8 million in Housing Tax Credits to eleven projects. The actual awards exceed $68 million because the credits are committed annually for a 10-year period. The remaining 2016 credits will be used to assist current housing tax credit projects that are under construction and have incurred cost increases.

The Iowa Legislature created The Iowa Finance Authority, the states housing finance agency, in 1975 to undertake programs to assist in the attainment of housing for low and moderate-income Iowans.

In December, the Muscatine City Council approved the allocation of project-based vouchers so that some units in the building could qualify for low-income housing. In that same meeting, the council passed a resolution of support for the project.

Peter Schwiegeraht, senior developer for MV Residential Development LLC (doing business as Miller Valentine Group), told the council in December that there is a need for this project, citing a recent study that showed there are 3,300 rental households in the Muscatine market and of those only one family oriented tax credit development that is at capacity with waiting list.

Schwiegeraht said at the December meeting that he expected construction to start in fall of 2016.
Important stuff you won't get from the liberal media! We do the surfing so you can be informed AND have a life!
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 []
South African mobile operators have a massive challenge when it comes to rolling out LTE  a lack of spectrum.

The challenges in handing out spectrum are caused by slow policy progress at the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services, and the delay in digital TV migration.

These delays mean that valuable spectrum is sitting unused, which costs South Africa billions of rand each year.

Spectrum constraints is the single biggest hurdle to deploying LTE and LTE-Advanced in SA.

Vodacom, MTN, and Cell C are forced to re-farm spectrum to roll out LTE. This is far from ideal, and poses challenges.

LTE coverage in Gauteng

MyBroadband recently tested mobile broadband speeds in Johannesburg, Midrand, and Tshwane, and recorded the bearer across all networks.

The bearer is indicated on the phone by G (GPRS), E (Edge), 3G (UMTS), H (HSPA), H+ (HSPA+), and 4G (LTE).

MyBroadband performed 33 stationary speed tests, and 10 drive tests on the N1 at 120km/h. The results were impressive.

The majority of the tests were performed on an LTE network, which shows that Gauteng has excellent LTE coverage.

Vodacom had the best LTE coverage, with only one test performed on HSPA+. It was followed by MTN, Telkom, and Cell C.

The table below shows the results of MyBroadbands tests, performed using four Huawei Mate S smartphones.

Stationary Tests in Gauteng Location Cell C MTN Telkom Vodacom Midstream Estate LTE LTE LTE LTE Southdowns LTE LTE LTE LTE Centurion LTE LTE LTE LTE Groenkloof H+ H+ LTE LTE Brooklyn LTE LTE LTE LTE University of Pretoria LTE LTE LTE LTE Hatfield H+ LTE LTE LTE Pres. Zumas PTA house H+ LTE LTE LTE Union Buildings LTE LTE LTE LTE Loftus LTE LTE LTE LTE Waterkloof H+ LTE H+ LTE Erasmusrand LTE LTE LTE LTE Valley View Estate H+ LTE LTE LTE Midrand H+ LTE H+ LTE Waterfall Estate LTE LTE LTE LTE Sunninghill H+ LTE H+ LTE Kyalami LTE LTE LTE LTE Montecasino LTE LTE LTE LTE Craigavon A.H. H+ LTE LTE LTE Fourways High School LTE LTE H+ LTE Bryanston LTE LTE LTE LTE 1 Sandton Drive LTE LTE LTE LTE Hyde Park Corner H+ H+ LTE H+ Rosebank LTE LTE LTE LTE Johannesburg Zoo LTE H+ H+ LTE Wits H+ LTE LTE LTE Melville LTE LTE LTE LTE Univeristy of Johannesburg LTE LTE LTE LTE MTN Head Office in 14th Avenue LTE LTE H+ LTE Cell C Head Office in Midrand LTE LTE LTE LTE Vodacom World in Midrand LTE LTE LTE LTE Telkom Head Office in Centurion H+ LTE LTE LTE LTE TOTAL 21 29 26 31 Drive Tests at 120km/h on the N1 Location Cell C MTN Telkom Vodacom N1: Beyers Naude LTE LTE LTE LTE N1: Malibongwe LTE LTE LTE LTE N1: William Nicol LTE LTE LTE LTE N1: Rivonia Road LTE LTE LTE LTE N1: Buccleuch Interchange LTE LTE LTE LTE N1: Allandale LTE LTE LTE LTE N1: New Road LTE LTE LTE LTE N1: Olifantsfontein LTE LTE H+ LTE N1: Samrand LTE LTE LTE LTE N1: Old Johannesburg Road LTE LTE LTE LTE LTE TOTAL 10 10 9 10

A big thanks to Huawei for providing MyBroadband with four Mate S smartphones for the tests.

More on mobile networks

MyBroadband Wardrive  Mobile broadband tested

Best and worst mobile networks in South Africa
Eskom completed the third unit of its Ingula Storage Pump Scheme on March 6 this year, and will rely heavily on the extra generating capacity to help with electricity provision during the winter months.

The R25bn project is situated between Ladysmith and Harrismith in the Little Drakensberg and will be able to provide an additional 333MW capacity once it is fully operational by the end of 2016.

Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown and Eskom CEO Brian Molefe briefed the media on Thursday to give an update on Eskoms build programme and share some of the positive developments at the power utility.

Im pleased to say that Ingula is running ahead of schedule, Molefe said. By end of the year the entire plant will be working. The first machine was supposed to be operational by March 2017  we won one year  and the rest of the scheme will be completed at the end of the year.

Ingula is a peaking hydro power station, which consists of an upper and a lower dam or reservoir and a powerhouse located 116 storeys underground in two excavated underground caverns.

According to Molefe once Eskoms build programme is completed there should be a total of 10 000MW of generating capacity in South Africa. I suspect in the next five years time South Africa should have surplus energy which we could either sell to other African countries or use locally to bolster economic growth.

Brown said she was exceptionally satisfied with the leadership shown at Eskom since Molefes appointment in March last year. There is sound performance and the financial position has improved, despite the unfavourable decision from Nersa (National Energy Regulator of South Africa.

During question time Brown and Molefe were asked why Eskom still needed to apply for tariff increases in light of the fact that the utility had R41bn cash in hand.

Molefe said it was important for Eskom to have liquidity, as it is one of the things ratings agencies take into consideration when they revise a country or an entitys credit rating status. The R41bn is needed for liquidity. We need that money in the bank. For our build and maintenance programmes we need a combination of both tariff increases and access to capital markets.

Asked if South Africa would then still need nuclear energy, given the probability of having surplus energy, Molefe said he did indeed believe so. Nuclear is clean and cheap and well have an opportunity to sell electricity to the rest of Africa and generate income. Having nuclear energy available will also reduce electricity costs to ordinary citizens. But the nuclear programme is a policy-level decision, Molefe said.

As for Eskoms role in the nuclear programme, Molefe said Eskom would be the owner-operator. Cabinet will most likely hand it to us for operation, like with Koeberg.

Fin24

More on Eskom

Eskom retracts load shedding statement

Eskom debt could climb to R350 billion: Minister
The Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge will come with 6-months free access to Googles subscription music service, Samsung South Africa has announced.

Google Play Music launched in South Africa in December 2015, offering the ability to buy songs and albums, as well as a streaming service.

Those who signed up before 26 January 2016 locked in their monthly fee at R49.99.

After the promotion expired, the service was priced at R59.99.

Both the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge will be available from 11 March 2016 through all local mobile operators and selected retailers.

More on Google Play Music and the Samsung Galaxy S7

Google Play Music  hands-on tested in South Africa

Google Play Music launched in South Africa

Samsung Galaxy S7 hands-on tested  it is beautiful
Samsung South Africa guarantees a one-hour turnaround time for Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge repairs under its accidental damage from handling warranty.

This is provided that owners book their repair online through a portal Samsung has created.

If Samsung is unable to hit its target, it will make it up to the customer with a Oculus VR voucher to the value of $20.

Under the terms of the warranty, for 12 months from the day of purchase Galaxy S7 owners will be able to send their device in for a free repair if they crack the glass on the front or the back of the phone.

Both devices go on sale in South Africa from 11 March 2016.

More on the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge

Samsung Galaxy S7  Telkom contract prices

Samsung Galaxy S7  Vodacom contract prices

Samsung Galaxy S7  South African contract and cash prices

Samsung Galaxy S7 hands-on tested  it is beautiful
Samsung South Africa is developing a trade-in and trade-up programme for the Samsung Galaxy S7.

The idea is that owners of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge will be able to trade in their existing devices for some sort of credit towards a Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge.

While such a deal falls within the realm of its operator and retail partners, Samsung said it is working closely with them to put a deal like this together.

It said it had nothing specific to announce at this stage, but promised to reveal more soon.

The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge are set to go on sale in SA from 11 March 2016.

More on the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge

Samsung Galaxy S7  Telkom contract prices

Samsung Galaxy S7  Vodacom contract prices

Samsung Galaxy S7  South African contract and cash prices

Samsung Galaxy S7 hands-on tested  it is beautiful
This site is dedicated to my hobby: collecting written and stamped (from country of origin) postcards! Postcard collecting is a very addictive hobby, but its a lot of fun, and you get in touch with lots of nice people worldwide...
A protocol hitch in Ghana left President Uhuru Kenyatta stranded for nearly 15 minutes last Saturday.

The president was in the West African nation to celebrate its 59th year of independence as a reciprocal gesture following Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahamas visit to Kenya last year.



Upon completion of the ceremony, President Kenyatta and Guinea-Bissaus Jose Mario Vaz were left standing in the scorching sun for 15 minutes as they waited for their vehicles. Host President Mahama had already departed.

Ex-President Jerry John Rawlings noticing the mishap walked to President Kenyatta to keep him company as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Hannah Tetteh, ran around to salvage the situation. Reported Ghanaweb.com



Reportedly, the look on Uhurus face was a clear sign of displeasure until Former President Rawlings walked to him.
Nairobi Senator Mike Mbuvi Sonkos bodyguard, the late Bakari Tsuma was laid to rest in his home in Matunga, Kwale County.

Constable Bakari Joto Tsuma met his death in Mwiki on Saturday night. Tsuma was returning to his residence moments after dropping off his boss in Gigiri estate when he was attacked.

During his send off in Kwale, Sonko eulogised him as a dedicated officer and one of my most trusted bodyguard who performed his duties diligently. He had worked for Sonko for 6 years.

Sonko also took it upon himself to support the family Bakari left behind.

Since he was his familys sole bread winner, I decided to give him a good send off and show him my last respect by catering for all the funeral costs including clearing all the bills at Nairobi Hospital (where he was at the ICU) amounting to Sh1.3m, I paid

school fees up to class 8 and form 4 for all his dependants he left behind i.e his form 3 sister Mwanajuma joto at Waa girls secondary; his daughter Fatuma Joto a Class 7 pupil at St. Joseph

Boarding School, Chuka and his son at Kasarani Academy. I also pledged to pay for their fees at the next level of education once they are through with primary and secondary education

respectively.

I also undertook to surrender to his family a title deed of a half acre plot I bought for each of my staff at Mlolongo in Syokimau once the subdivision process is completed. After the mourning period is over i will donate capital to both his widows so that they start doing income generating businesses, He said.

Sonko concluded by saying, Rest in peace Bakari I shall forever miss your services dearly. I promise to take good care of your children, i will treat them as my own children, they will not suffer when im there. The devil is defeated in the name of Jesus.

Here are photos from the send off






















Advertise Here

Be seen advertise here. Contact us.


AMBON, Indonesia  Five Thai fishing boat captains and three Indonesians were sentenced Thursday to three years in jail for human trafficking in connection with slavery in the seafood industry.

The suspects were arrested in the remote island village of Benjina last May after the abuse was revealed by The Associated Press in a report two months earlier. The men were tried separately in Tual, an island in southeastern Maluku province, about 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) east of Jakarta.

The three-judge panel also ordered the defendants to pay fines of about $12,250 each or serve two more months in jail. In addition, the Thai captains  Youngyut Nitiwongchaeron, Boonsom Jaika, Surachai Maneephong, Hatsaphon Phaetjakreng and Somchit Korraneesuk  have to pay a total of $67,800 in compensation to their crew members.

They all have been proven guilty of violating the anti-human trafficking law, said Edi Toto Purba, who led the panel. They deserve the jail sentences as well as the fine.

He gave one week for the prosecutors, who had sought heavier sentences, as well as the defendants to appeal the verdict. Indonesian prosecutors had demanded prison sentences of up to 4 1/2 years for the five Thais and Indonesian Hermanwir Martino, and 3 1/2-year sentences for two other Indonesians, Yopi Hanorsian and Muklis Ohoitenan. They also demanded compensation ranging from $3,750 to $26,000 for the crew members.

Thirteen fishermen from Myanmar testified under protection of Indonesias Witness and Victim Protection Agency. They told the court they had been tortured, forced to work up to 24 hours a day and not paid. They also said they were locked in a prison-like cell in a compound owned by fishing company Pusaka Benjina Resources, which has since been shut down. Martino and Ohoitenan worked for the company, and Hanorsian was known as the enforcer among the fishermen, who accused him of beating and torturing them in front of an Indonesian flag until they collapsed.

Some workers were angered by the outcome.

They should be sentenced more because they tortured many fishermen for years. Its not fair for us, said Win Ko Naing, 26, who was enslaved in Benjina for almost six years. He has been following the case closely from Myanmar, but did not testify at the trial.

They will never pay us compensation because they know how to get away from punishment, he added. I will never forget what they did to many people over many years. Three years imprisonment is too easy for them. 

The AP investigation found that thousands of poor migrant fishermen, mostly from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, were recruited in Thailand and brought to Indonesia using fake travel documents where they were subjected to brutal labor abuses. Some had been enslaved for years or decades. The AP found some men locked in a cage and saw others calling out for help over the railing of their trawler. A company graveyard with dozens of bodies buried under fake names was also located. The Indonesian government carried out a dramatic rescue in Benjina in April, just over a week after the report ran.

More than 2,000 men were freed and sent home last year as a result of the investigation, which traced slave-caught seafood to some of the most well-known U.S. grocery stores and pet food brands, including Wal-Mart, Sysco, Kroger, Fancy Feast, Meow Mix and Iams. In addition, U.S. congressional hearings have been held, legislation has been changed, more than a dozen people have been arrested and multi-million dollar seafood cargo ships have been seized.
CALISTOGA  Richard and Dina Dwyer have a plan for Francis House  the ancient Second Empire stone relic at the corner of Spring and Myrtle streets  and they came to the Sharpsteen Museum last week to talk about it. For the 70 or more people who crowded in to hear about their plan, it has come none too soon.

The Dwyers bought the property last fall and immediately began a demolition process that has now removed the caving mansard roof, the hospital extension, and gutted the interior.

I tried to save as much of the original building that I could. But there wasnt much to save really, Dwyer said. The third floor had collapsed and the second floor was collapsing, he continued. Normally, I would walk through the building were restoring, but in this case, I couldnt even do that.

Today, nothing is left but the four stone walls of the original mansion.

Francis House was originally built in 1886 as a home for Calistoga businessman James H. Francis. In 1918, the building was converted into a 30-bed hospital known locally as The Old Calistoga Hospital It was closed in 1965 by the State of California for failing to meet health codes. It subsequently gained notoriety on the Internet as a haunted house with a number of sites claiming that it contained paranormal activity.

But to the city of Calistoga, it was merely a dangerous eyesore, condemned, with no prospects for restoration. Many at City Council meetings over the last 46 years called for its demolition.

Yet for many others in Calistoga, the importance of the old building has a deeper personal meaning, and the structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places back in 1979 for the mansions Second Empire architectural style.

How many of you were born in The Old Calistoga Hospital? Dwyer asked the audience, and about seven raised their hands. Its our intention to restore the structure to its original grandeur, he continued. The way James Francis envisioned it ... as a home.

Dwyer said that he had just submitted plans to City Hall to restore the structure as a five-room bed and breakfast with a sixth master suite where he and his wife Dina would live.

Dwyer is a general contractor and real estate broker from San Francisco. Dina is an interior designer and he said they have previous experiences restoring historic houses in San Francisco. Dwyer said he will use local subcontractors and had already chosen several.

He was reluctant to reveal details about cost. Ive just submitted the plans, he said. I dont yet have a budget, but I think it will cost at least a million dollars at minimum.

The structural engineering plan calls for the construction of an earthquake-proof steel cage attached to the four stone walls. The lower floor will be reinforced concrete, with the upper two floors riveted to the cage.

Dwyer said this will meet current seismic standards, though he said that the original foundation was so strong and deep its probably the only reason it survived past earthquakes.

There were already some interesting engineering discoveries that he revealed about the old building. For instance, he said that the original stone walls are actually a set of two walls  an interior and an exterior  with a space separating them.

That space between, he said, would be filled and the interior stone walls  unlike the original plastered walls  would be exposed. The stone is beautiful, he said. I couldnt imagine covering it up.

The plans also call for the installation of an elevator to make it easier to reach the third floor. The mansard-style roof will be reconstructed, though there may be more windows on the third floor. It will be completed as a cute little French manor, he said.

Dwyer said that after completion it is their intention to move to Calistoga. He estimated the project could take about a year and a half to finish. A new website was built to document the progress of the restoration at TheFrancisHouse.com.
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.

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.

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.

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.
Statement by Sen. Shelby on NASA FY 2017 Budget Request

Surprisingly, NASA has not proposed a single dollar for the development of an upper stage engine that is absolutely necessary for a crewed mission that is only seven years away.

Keiths note: Of course Shelby forgets that $1.2 billion NASA spent on the J-2X for use on Ares V and SLS upper stages  much of it was spent in Alabama. That engine was subsequently mothballed because NASA had no idea what it was doing. But Shelby paid their bills anyway.

Overview: J-2X Engine, NASA

J-2X is a highly efficient and versatile advanced rocket engine with the ideal thrust and performance characteristics to power the upper stage of NASAs Space Launch System, a new heavy-lift launch vehicle capable of missions beyond low-Earth orbit. Fueled by liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, the J-2X builds on heritage designs but relies on nearly a half-century of NASA spaceflight experience and technological and manufacturing advances to deliver up to 294,000 pounds of thrust, powering exploration to new destinations in our solar system.

NASA Has No Clear Use for the J-2X That It Once Needed, earlier post
Saturday, March 19, 2016

2 PM

Lecture by Brock Jobe, Professor Emeritus of American Decorative Arts, Winterthur Museum



In this lecture at the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library, noted decorative arts historian Brock Jobe will recount the little-known story of the transformation of the furniture making trade in federal period Massachusetts. In Colonial America, furniture makers were craftsmen who utilized the apprentice system to fill specific orders from their customers. After the Revolution these craftsmen began to develop business strategies that promoted their products to a range of customers. This led to standardized production of furniture.



Using the example of a cabinetmaker in Sutton, Massachusetts, who was working during the early 1800s, Professor Jobe will discuss how these changes in business strategies altered the face of furniture making in Massachusetts. Eventually these changes led to a furniture making industry that ranked among the largest in the country.



Professor Jobe has authored multiple books on furniture making in New England. He has worked as a museum curator, administrator and professor at Winterthur Museum in Delaware. Professor Jobe has received the Presidents Award from Old Sturbridge Village and the Award of Merit from the Antiques Dealers Association of America.



This lecture is made possible by the generous support of the Ruby W. and LaVon P. Linn Foundation and is the third of five talks in the 2016 lecture series, "Enterprise and Craft in the Young Nation".
(As delivered)

Good afternoon.

President Juncker, Jean-Claude, its great to see you again.

And as you just said we had an excellent meeting and we also have an excellent cooperation you and I and we are also now in the process of developing a better and more close cooperation between NATO and the European Union.

And I very much welcome your strong personal commitment to strengthening the cooperation between NATO and the EU.

That is something we need more than ever because we face a more challenging security environment.

And as you said we have just discussed the migrant and the refugee crisis and the EU is responding, NATO is responding and by doing that we are now working more closely together than we have done before and we are also proving to the world that we are able to work together, address together and cooperate in addressing the biggest migrant and refugee crisis Europe has seen since the end of the Second World War.

And as you all know NATO decided at our Defence Ministerial meeting the 11th February to support the efforts of the EU, of European NATO Allies to manage and to handle the migrant and refugee crisis. And 24 hours after we made the decision, we deployed the first ship in the Aegean Sea.

Then just before your Summit last weekend we decided to expand our support for the EU and we have decided to expand our support in three ways.

We have increased the area of operation. We have now moved into Greek and Turkish territorial waters and we have started to focus on the area around the Greek island of Lesbos. And we are planning to move further South in the coming days and weeks and this is an important part of what we are doing. Its to then have naval presence in the Aegean Sea both in Greek and Turkish territorial waters.

The other thing we did during the weekend was that we decided to increase our cooperation with the EU and Frontex. And Im very grateful that we have been able to really establish a very practical cooperation with Frontex. We have an exchange of liaison officers and we also agreed on the procedures on how to share real time information between the NATO vessels and the activities of Frontex. And this is important because the NATO ships are gathering information doing surveillance, reconnaissance, monitoring the situation and this is something which is important for both the Greek coast guard, the Turkish coast guard and for Frontex.

And the third thing we did was that we decided to increase the number of ships. There are now five ships in the area, there will be more ships in the coming days and we also have helicopters on most of the ships so we are increasing the presence of NATO vessels with modern equipment, advanced capabilities, which are then providing the support for the EU efforts to cut the lines of the illegal networks and the illegal trafficking of people across the Aegean Sea.

We will continue to support you, we will continue to work closely with you, but as you also mentioned we are also expanding our cooperation in another area and that is the challenges related to hybrid warfare. These kind of threats which are a combination of military and non-military means, covert and overt operations, and there, there is really a need for close cooperation between the EU and NATO. Related to issues as early warning, as supporting and defending critical infrastructure as energy infrastructure. And of course when it comes to cyber. And in all these areas we are now stepping up our cooperation and we believe very much that both the EU Summit in June and the NATO Summit in July will be important milestones where we have a unique opportunity to further expand our cooperation.

And I believe that a strong Europe is good for NATO and that a strong NATO is good for Europe and based on that common understanding we very much welcome that we are expanding our cooperation.

MODERATOR: Thank you we have time for one or two questions if there are any? Please if you, if you take the microphone.

Q: Hi, Julian Barnes, Wall Street Journal. For Secretary General how can the NATO mission re-enforce the new EU migrant proposal and where does the Turkish the monitoring mission on the Turkish Syrian border stand that you talked about last month? Have you gotten assets for that and when will that start? And Mr President, what does Turkey need to do, what does Turkey need to change for refugees to be returned from Greece? What does Turkey need to do in line with the Geneva Convention and when would the first Syrians return to Turkey from Greece?

JENS STOLTENBERG (NATO Secretary General): So what we are doing is that we are helping, supporting the local, the countries in the region, meaning Turkey and Greek, supporting the Turkish Coast Guard, the Greek Coast Guard and the efforts of Frontex. And the main way we are doing that is by providing critical information. As I said we are conducting surveillance, reconnaissance, gathering information and sharing real time information with the Greek and Turkish authorities and Frontex. They requested this because the whole reason why we are in the Aegean Sea was a proposal, a request from Turkey from Greece and Germany at our Defence Ministerial meeting in the beginning of February.

So it was a response from NATO to a request from Turkey and Greece supported by Germany that is the reason why we are there because they saw and we agreed that NATO has some capabilities which are of value for the efforts they are, they are doing in the Aegean Sea to manage and to control the situation there in a better way than theyve been able to do so far. When it comes to the Turkish Syrian border we already have what we call assurance measures, NATO assurance measures in Turkey meaning AWACS planes meaning some naval presence and other capabilities which delivers assurance to Turkey for instance we have Patriot Batteries augmenting the Turkish Air Defenses.

This of course also gives us some information some ability to monitor the situation in the area and now we have agreed with Turkey we did that at our Defence Ministerial meeting the 11th of February to intensify, to increase our surveillance of the border between Turkey and Syria and we are in the process of establishing and agreeing with Turkey on how to do that in the best possible way. I think the important thing is that the situation of course is still very fragile, Turkey is the ally most affected by the crisis in Syria hosting more than two and a half million refugees.

At the same time I very much welcome that the cease fire or the cessation of hostilities is largely holding and this is the best possible basis for renewed efforts to find a political negotiated solution to the crisis in Syria and NATO strongly support both the full implementation of the cessation of hostilities but also of course all efforts to try to have talks, negotiations to find a political peaceful solution to the crisis in Syria.

JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKER (European Commission President): As concerns your questions, I have to say that we are in contact with the Turkish government because Article 38 of the Asylum Procedures Directive is requesting from  in this case - Turkey to prove by all means that they are complying with the basic requirements of the Geneva Convention. And so it could easily be that both in Greece and in Turkey some pieces of legislation would have to be brought through Parliaments, but this has to be seen in the course of this week.

MODERATOR: Thank you we have time for one more question. Nicola.

Q: I have a question for both. The problem between NATO and the European Union, we know it is a problem named Cyprus. Do you have the hope that this problem could be resolved before the two summits in June and in July? And what could change the agreement on Cyprus? Could it be, at the end, a new agreement, a formal agreement between the European Union and NATO? Just one question of Mr. Stoltenberg on the problem of the right of sailing for the, for frigates they are in the Aegean Sea what about the right to the persons they are rescue in sea to have asylum in Iraq (sic) (inaudible) the European warship?

JENS STOLTENBERG: I can take the last question first and that is what we agreed with Turkey was that people who are rescued at sea and that are coming from Turkey can be returned to Turkey at the same time we stated clearly that what we are going to do is has to be of course in accordance with international law and national regulations and at the end this is a responsibility of the nations, national responsibility for those nations who provide ships to our military presence in the Aegean Sea. I also see that Turkey and EU are discussing different ways to also have a more common approach and I welcome those efforts.

When it comes to Cyprus I think that it will be wrong if I announced or started to speculate on when they when it will be possible to have an agreement but I think its right to say that there are some encouraging signs and there are some progress has taken place. And I welcome very much the progress that has been made and also the efforts of the U.N. to facilitate talks and to support the efforts to find an agreement related to the challenges and the disagreements in the conflict we have seen in Cyprus over several decades. So we support those efforts and we welcome the progress we have seen.

JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKER: In fact I have nothing to add. As far as I know  and I know  that the talks on the ground are progressing. The two communities are in permanent contact. I have received the two negotiation Chiefs of the two communities a month ago here in Brussels; I am quite optimistic that a deal will be found in Cyprus. And if this deal will have been found, the whole atmosphere will have changed and it will ease the problems we can face inside.

MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Thats all the time for today.

JENS STOLTENBERG: Okay bye.

JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKER: Bye.
Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. Through promotion of free debate on our website, New Age Islam encourages people to rethink Islam.
Explosion at Uzbek Defense Ministry depot injures 16 people

Armenian NA Speaker receives Iranian FM: Tehran opposes obstacles on border with friendly Armenia

President Harutyunyan receives group of members of Union of Artsakh Reserve Officers NGO

Newspaper: Armenia restores diplomatic ties with Hungary?

China hit by 5.5 magnitude earthquake

Armenian Defense Ministry denies Azerbaijani report on shelling, calling it disinformation

Blinken: Moscow is not interested in stopping aggression against Ukraine

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
A Fendi billboard on 57th Street, New York City. Fendi covers fur, leather goods, shoes, fragrances, eyewear, timepieces and accessories. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Despite the global economic slowdown, Italian luxury fashion house Fendi SRL is strengthening its presence in China's watch market and plans to open more stores in second- and third-tier cities across the country.

Domenico Oliveri, CEO of Fendi Timepieces, said the watch brand is bullish about the prospects for the luxury market in China, and believes there is huge potential for growth as consumers' spending power is growing.

"The Chinese market is very important for the luxury business and I hope the success of Fendi in China could expand to Fendi Timepieces," said Oliveri, adding that Chinese customers are very mature, conscious of trends and willing to spend money buying luxury goods worldwide.

However, sales of luxury goods in China have declined, falling from 115 billion yuan ($17.7 billion) in 2014 to 113 billion yuan last year, consulting firm Bain & Co said. The decline was seen in sales of menswear and watches, which were down by 12 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

Despite these tough conditions, Oliveri remains optimistic about the Chinese luxury market, saying that there is a lot of room for further development.

Oliveri said Fendi Timepieces will increase its investment in China and open more stores in second- and third-tier cities or provincial capitals.

Founded in 1925 in Rome, LVMH-owned Fendi now covers fur, leather goods, shoes, fragrances, eyewear, timepieces and accessories.

It entered the watch business in 1988. In 2014, it acquired Swiss watchmaker Taramax SA, which has produced the luxury accessory house's watches under license. All of Fendi's watches are manufactured in Switzerland.

With the rapid growth of the Chinese economy and its expanding middle class, Swiss luxury watches are gaining popularity in China. At present, China is the third-largest market for the Swiss watch industry.

According to statistics from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, the value of Swiss watch exports to the world dropped 3.3 percent in 2015 to 21.5 billion Swiss francs ($21.6 billion), the worst performance in the past six years.
Project Manager of KfW bank, Andreas Weitzel, today visited Armenias Zangezour Biospheric Complex to get familiar with the current state of the support program implemented in the specially protected areas of Armenia, Armenias Nature Protection Ministry reports.

During his visit, Weitzel also met with the countrys Syunik province administration officials, representatives of the Program Implementation Office at the Armenian Nature Protection Ministry and other parties concerned to assess the results and prospects for the jointly implemented projects.

In the framework of his visit, A. Weitzel also had a meeting with Armenias Nature Protection Deputy Minister Kh. Hakobyan.

Welcoming the guest, the Deputy Minister said: The Nature Protection Ministry of Armenia highly appreciates the support of KfW bank to the funding of different nature protection projects implemented in Armenia. The cooperation during many years has yielded positive results, ensuring dynamic progress in the efficient preservation, management and capacity development of Armenias specially protected areas. One of the vivid proofs of this is the creation of Arpi Lake National Park. As to Zangezour Biospheric Complex, we are sure that this project will yield have the expected results in near future.

Mr Weitzel presented his positive impressions on his visit to Zangezour Biospheric Complex, expressing hope that the measures implemented and the resources invested will yield tangible results shortly.

During the meeting, the sides also discussed certain issues on the activity of the funds financed by KfW bank.
Fast facts Stephanie Day-Goodman School: Oxford College Year: Sophomore Major: Art history/history and English/creative writing Hometown: Eugene, Oregon

Maybe Oxford should thank the Girls Scouts for helping attract Stephanie Day-Goodman. The summer following her high school graduation, Day-Goodman, now a sophomore at Oxford College, worked as a counselor in a Girl Scout camp and was set to head that fall to a women's college on the West Coast.

But the experience of working in an almost exclusively female environment made her rethink the decision to pursue college in a single-gender school. "I decided to take a gap year," she says, "and I started the college application process all over again. I did research and came up with seven new schools to apply to."

One of those schools was Emory, though Day-Goodman says she really didn't know anything about it prior to her second search. But she liked Emory's academic standing and the fact that it was in the South.

Although she grew up in Eugene, Oregon, her family's roots are Southern. Starting her Emory undergraduate degree at Oxford appealed to her because she could study the liberal arts intensively in small classes and engage in undergraduate research as a freshman or sophomore.

She arrived at Oxford with an interest in pursuing a major in public health, but that idea started to fade in her first semester when she took an art history course.

"The mathematics course I was taking as a prerequisite for a health major was fantastic, but my art history course excited something in me," she says.

As a result, Day-Goodman already has three semesters of study in art history under her belt, and her interest in Oxford's student-research opportunities has come to fruition. With the direction of Camille Cottrell, associate professor of art, she is studying Icelandic painter Johannes Sveinsson Kjarval this semester.

"His image is on the 2000-krona bill," she says  a fact she had already learned as an exchange student in eastern Iceland during her sophomore year of high school. "I'm intrigued by Kjarval's paintings, especially his landscapes, which he painted on Cubist principles," Day-Goodman explains. "I love the way he captures the land visually."

Next year at Emory College she will pursue a double, joint major in art history/history and English/creative writing. "I will always be interested in public health," she says, "but Oxford gave me a new perspective."

Leadership and service

That interest in health and wellbeing has seemed to manifest itself in Day-Goodman's deep involvement in leadership and service at Oxford, for which she was recently selected as one of the nine student leaders who are spotlighted throughout the academic year.

"When she sets a goal, she works extremely hard to reach  and oftentimes, exceed that goal," Rhiannon Hubert, assistant dean for campus life, wrote when announcing Day-Goodman as February's selection. "Stephanie does a great job building relationships, and has aided our campus in creating a respectful environment for her and her peers to learn and develop."

She is an Oxford campus educator for Sexual Assault Awareness Advocates and treasurer of the Black Student Alliance (BSA). Through BSA she has been involved in activism and gave "The Challenge," the closing remarks, at Oxford's Martin Luther King Jr. celebration in January.

She also serves as a resident adviser in Elizer residence hall, a role that she finds gratifying. "It's an opportunity to help keep people safe and whole," she says.

Helping shape the future

It's difficult to imagine how Day-Goodman squeezes out time for anything else, but through a theory-practice/serving learning course in education, she works weekly at a local elementary school, helping teach art.

Day-Goodman's impressive combination of scholarship and leadership resulted in her being named as one of the two students asked to serve on the steering committee for the Oxford College Strategic Plan. Composed of faculty, administrative leaders, staff, and students, the committee has worked since last fall to create a plan that will guide Oxford from 2016 to 2021.

"I am so excited to be part of this committee," she says. "I believe this is a good blueprint for the future." Seeming to consider that future, she pauses and says with a smile, "My Oxford experience has been amazing. Maybe I'll re-enroll."

If only, those at Oxford who know her would say. Instead, she can move on in her Emory undergraduate career with the satisfaction of knowing that she has helped to shape what will come after.
Update: The ECS (Engineering and Computer Science) Center for Cyber Security will host its second Firewallside Chat from 10-11 a.m. Friday, March 25, focusing on using penetration testing to beat hackers who are at work breaching systems around the world. CSUF alumnus Reza Nikoopour 15 (B.S. computer science) of Cigital Inc. is the featured speaker. The free event is open to the public and will be held in the Cypress Multipurpose Room of the Cobb Residence Halls. To RSVP visit online.

Cal State Fullertons Mikhail Gofman, assistant professor of computer science and director of the ECS Center for Cyber Security, discusses the issue of computer security and the vulnerability of hackers using malware to take control of computer systems  crippling businesses and accessing sensitive data.

These threats target companies, such as the recent attack on a Los Angeles hospital, and government institutions around the world, and steal sensitive and private data and sabotage critical infrastructure, such as power plants, said Gofman, an expert in Web security, virtualization and cloud security, and biometric authentication.

Why is ransomware a growing problem?

Ransomware, like many varieties of malware today, is distributed by the pay-per-install networks (PPIs), which are black markets specializing in malware distribution for profit. Back in the old days, hacker enthusiasts spread malware to get a feeling of accomplishment for having successfully infected the system. Today, the majority of malware spreading is done for profit.

How are systems breached?

The attackers develop malware, such as ransomware, trojans, fake antiviruses and worms that are designed to help them achieve monetary gain. Attackers then hand their creations to PPI networks, which for a fee, plant the attackers malware in many systems. Everybody wins, except the victims, and the attackers malware extracts money from the infected systems and users, and PPIs make money from the attackers who pay them for their distribution services.

Many of the vulnerabilities that allow attackers to successfully plant malware, such as ransomware, are not new. They are a result of insecure system implementations and configurations, most of which are avoidable. For example, a company not forcing all email attachments to be scanned for infections prior to opening them.

What can be done to prevent ransomware?

First and foremost, company employees must be trained to make security-conscious decisions. One employee opening an infected attachment can result in the ransomware spreading throughout the company network.

Employees should not: open attachments in unsolicited/suspicious emails, insert personal USB drives to their work computers, connect personal computers or phones to their work computer through Bluetooth, or visit shady sites from work computers. Companies should also ensure that their network is firewalled, in order to prevent infections from entering the network, force email attachments and USB sticks to be scanned for infections, and when it comes specifically to ransomware, maintain redundant backups of all important data. On the broader scale, law enforcement needs to crack down on the people who develop ransomware. Its important that we pursue not just the creation, but also the creators.

What is the center doing in the fight against cyberthreats?

Our strongest weapons in the fight against malware are education and research. We must prepare a generation of security experts and security-conscious users, as well as research solutions to the new problems that arise. Through the center, weve revised courses in computer security and cryptography, and created courses in network security and cloud computing. Were working to develop more courses, including a course in malware analysis.

Through faculty-student collaboration, the center also has produced a number of publications, including three publications presented at conferences in Italy and Spain last year. An article in the Communications of the Association of Computing Machinery is due out in in April. Through faculty-student research, we are working with industry to help research solutions for their security problems and to address pressing issues in cyber security.
WASHINGTON: To slow down a spacecraft as it descends and lands on a distant planet on deeper space mission including Mars, NASA engineers are testing inflatable heat shield technology at the US space agencys Langley Research Centre in Hampton, Virginia.

Engineers recently put the technology to the test by packing a nine-foot diameter donut-shaped test article  also known as a torus  to simulate what would happen before a space mission.

Called the Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD), it works like a parachute, using the drag of a planets atmosphere to slow the space vehicle as it descends toward the surface.

Slowing the spacecraft protects it from the intense heat of atmospheric entry and allows it to land more softly.

The technology will enable the delivery of heavy cargo, science instruments and people to other worlds.

It could also be used to retrieve cargo from the International Space Station (ISS) and return it to Earth.

During testing, we used a vacuum pump to compress the test article into a small space, said Keith Johnson, a lead engineer for the project in a statement.

We packed and unpacked it and did thorough inspections to check for leaks and damage to the Zylon and Teflon materials. We repeated this three times, he added.

According to test engineer Sean Hancock, HIAD was packed the same way each time to see how the material would handle folding, packing, and compressing.

Doing so helps engineers understand how it would perform after exposure to handling, storage and deployment during a space flight mission.

The test included all the components for the latest inflatable torus design, so it was a good final check to prove that the materials can tolerate packing, Johnson added.

After the successful testing, NASA engineers can move forward in the development of creating a larger HIAD that can withstand the stress of being tightly packed in a rocket and the high temperatures experienced when it descends through the atmosphere of a planet such as Mars.

In the end, well have a complete system that will be tested to show that it can meet the requirements for a space flight mission whether its going to be returning a vehicle to Earth or future Mars missions, Johnson noted.

Read Also:

Twitter Activism Can Help Fight for Racial Justice

Top 7 Safety Apps for the Security of Women
Stanford expert says brokered Republican convention could be 'gigantic mess,' but not a bad idea

Stanford political scientist Morris Fiorina says the current party nominee process system puts a premium on campaign skills and fund-raising, not a demonstrated capacity to govern. A brokered convention would give the party a chance to consider alternative candidates.

Frontpage / Shutterstock Delegates to the 2016 Republican convention could find their roles are very different from these delegates to the 2008 convention in St. Paul, when John McCain had a clear path to the nomination.

While a brokered party convention might seem problematic, it could result in a candidate better able to govern rather than one simply adept at political campaigning, a Stanford expert said.

Primary season is accelerating, and many say the Republican establishment does not want Donald Trump to win the party's nomination. Trump currently has 458 delegates compared with 359 for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, his closest rival. A candidate needs 1,237 delegates to avoid a contested convention.

The Stanford News Service spoke with Stanford political science Professor Morris Fiorina about what a brokered political party convention might look like. Fiorina is also a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Wendt Family Professor of Political Science at Stanford. Here are excerpts from the interview.





What is a brokered convention?

There is some terminological confusion about this subject. When people use terms like "open" or "brokered" conventions, they usually have in mind a convention where no candidate wins on the first ballot, thus opening up the process as delegates are released from their commitments. In this sense, the last brokered convention was on the Republican side in 1948. Prior to 1972 (the beginning of the modern primary process), one couldn't win a majority of delegates in primaries and caucuses. In 1968, Hubert Humphrey didn't enter a single primary but the bosses who controlled delegates were behind him, so his nomination was never in question. In 1976, neither Gerald Ford nor Ronald Reagan had won a majority of delegates, but there were more uncommitted delegates in those days and Ford corralled enough to win on the first ballot.

If no candidate wins a majority of the delegates chosen in caucuses and primaries (plus votes from super-delegates), it falls to the national convention to choose a nominee.







What is the procedure for picking a nominee at such a convention?

The Republican National Committee undoubtedly has people working on exactly that question right now. The last contested convention was in 1948 so they won't find much useful in the archives, given how different conditions are now. Back then there were "brokers," a term given to governors, mayors and other party bosses who controlled blocs of delegates. These brokers could retire to the "smoke-filled rooms" and make deals. Today, there is no one who controls large blocs of delegates. An open convention would likely be chaotic. When we figure in mundane details like the availability of thousands of hotel rooms, airline reservations, and more, the party could be looking at a gigantic mess.







Do you think a delegate split will happen this year in the Republican race?

After Trump's wins in Michigan and Mississippi on March 8 and some big winner-take-all primaries coming up shortly, that prospect is becoming less likely.







Is there a better way to allocate delegates for the political parties and avoid brokered conventions?

Why assume that we want to avoid brokered conventions? There's a lot of research that points to the low turnout in primaries and especially caucuses, and the frequently unrepresentative nature of the people who do turn out. If no candidate emerges as clearly dominant, it might be better for the delegates to look at others who were not in the field. The current system puts a premium on campaign skills and fund-raising, not on a demonstrated capacity to govern. Maybe the latter would figure more prominently if the convention were to decide. That might be wishful thinking, of course.





What would be the impact of a brokered convention on that party's nominee in the general election?

It depends, so consider two scenarios:

One candidate  let's just say Trump  is very near a majority and no one else is very close. If the convention denies him the nomination, some of his supporters might not vote or vote for a Democrat, or conceivably he could run as a third party candidate despite his earlier pledge. Of course, these are potential problems even when there is a clear majority winner at the convention.

Republican officials were worried that Ron Paul might run on the Libertarian ticket in 2012. Many supporters of Sen. Eugene McCarthy were angry when the Democratic nomination went to Hubert Humphrey in 1968, and some polls suggested that 40 percent of those who supported Sen. Gary Hart in the 1984 Democratic primary contests defected to Ronald Reagan in the general election. But all things considered, under this scenario the Republican Party is badly split.

The second scenario is that Trump fizzles and no candidate is close to a majority at the convention. In that event the Republican Party may be better off turning to a non-candidate who has not antagonized any of the factions supporting the declared candidates. It might be the only way to paper over the party splits and present a united front for the election. This is the best case scenario for Republicans  but it looks increasingly unlikely.

Media Contact

Morris Fiorina, Political Science: (650) 723-0254, mfiorina@stanford.edu

Clifton B. Parker, Stanford News Service: (650) 725-0224, cbparker@stanford.edu
The Rev. Jane Shaw, dean for religious life and professor of religious studies, right, moderates Stanford's inaugural Sally Dickson Annual Lecture on Diversity, Inclusion and Reflection. Speakers, from left, are Aimee Allison, Raymond Braun, Rick Lowe and Bree Newsome. (McKenzie Lynch / Stanford Daily)

Social justice and activism integral to American experience, speakers tell Stanford audience

The inaugural Sally Dickson Annual Lecture on Diversity, Inclusion and Reflection explored how individual people pursued social activism and justice to make a difference in contemporary society.

Life as an activist can take on many forms, as panelists at this week's campus discussion on social justice affirmed.

The four speakers at Stanford's inaugural Sally Dickson Annual Lecture on Diversity, Inclusion and Reflection told stories of everyday heroism on behalf of their fellow community members. Titled "In Pursuit of Social Justice," the March 7 event was sponsored by the OpenXChange campus initiative, the Office of the Vice Provost for Student Affairs, and Residential Education.



Bree Newsome, a filmmaker and activist, is known for being the woman who scaled a 30-foot flagpole to remove the Confederate flag at the South Carolina state capitol in July 2015. She knew the bold action of climbing the flagpole would lead to an arrest, but was inspired to take the extreme measure as she saw how others around her were already regularly "volunteering" to get arrested during other protests.

'Heavy lifting'

"There were all these people who were doing this heavy lifting, and I thought, 'Who am I not to contribute what I can?' That's how I got into it," Newsome said, reflecting on her activism efforts over the past few years.

Rick Lowe is an artist best known for his work behind Project Row Houses, a community-based art project that he started in 1993 by converting 22 shotgun houses in one of Houston's oldest neighborhoods into an arts venue and community center. He is also this year's Mimi and Peter E. Haas Distinguished Visitor at Stanford.

Lowe has spearheaded community projects in other cities, building arts and education programs as well as transitional housing for low-income families. He was appointed by President Obama to the National Council on the Arts in 2013 and named a MacArthur Fellow in 2014.

Lowe's advocacy work straddles two worlds. "I'll drive 2.5 miles to a board meeting where they're talking about how to spend $1.3 million on something, and then I'll drive 2.5 miles back to where they're struggling to raise $1,200 so a group of kids can take their first journey out of state," he said.

"It's a hard thing, and I'll question sometimes if I should resign," he continued. "But that's why I go to mentors  to help me center myself and figure out how to make it work."

Storytelling and lifelines



Raymond Braun created the #ProudToLove campaign in 2013  the first LGBT-themed marketing campaign on YouTube  while he was working at Google. Braun has since left his marketing job at Google to devote himself to his nonprofit YouTube channel that promotes the stories and rights of the LGBT community.

He grew up gay in a small rural town in Ohio, and one day discovered how gay youths were using the world of social media and how YouTube was a "lifeline" for such support. It all resonated with him.

Braun said he did not think of his storytelling work as activism, but that's what it became.

For Aimee Allison, senior vice president of PowerPAC+, a political organization that works on electing social justice champions to public office, it took years before she realized that leading the life of an activist did not necessarily mean not getting paid.

Allison, a combat medic with the U.S. Army, successfully fought to be a conscientious objector during the Persian Gulf War. Later, to pay the bills, she got a job in the corporate world, only to find herself sneaking out to the parking lot to use her company cell phone to counsel other military officers and organize legal support for them.

She has since learned, however, that activism does not have to be done on the side.

"You can actually pay your bills and be fully expressed as a complete person and as an activist," Allison said, explaining how activists can draw financial support from networks of sponsors who believe in the same cause.

"There are ways you can operate within an existing infrastructure and still put some activism in there," said Braun, who has found support for his LGBT work through grants and foundations.

None of the panelists considered themselves "activists" per se when they embarked on their varied pathways pursuing social justice.

Know the history

But, they stressed, it is important to understand the issues you're fighting for, and to know the historical context behind them. Black Lives Matter, for instance, is rooted in a struggle that is more than 100 years old, Newsome said.

"There are people who lay down their lives for their causes; it's not a cool thing to be an activist. It's not trendy," Newsome said. "So, if you're doing this just so you can wear a T-shirt, I'm sure we won't be seeing you 10 years from now."

The Sally Dickson Annual Lecture on Diversity, Inclusion and Reflection was created in 2015 to honor the contributions of Dickson, Stanford's former associate vice provost for student affairs and dean of educational resources.

Dickson, who retired last year after 23 years of service, was dedicated to community-building and engagement between students, faculty and staff. She also worked to create a more diverse faculty at the university.

Greg Boardman, the vice provost of student affairs, said the legacy of Dickson's work will continue through the annual lecture.

There is much that needs to get done in this world, Dickson said at the event.

"Activism is about being concerned about the world, and it needs fixing, y'all  desperately, " Dickson said. "Whatever path you take, it's the right one so long as you are doing it out of a sense of responsibility."

Dickson, who received a standing ovation, vowed to keep pushing for diversity and inclusion. "I will continue to fight, " she said, "and I want to make sure that everyone else in this audience does, too."

The Student Affairs Intergroup Dialogue Team assisted with the event.
Stanford scientists make renewable plastic from carbon dioxide and plants

The new technology could provide a green alternative to petroleum-based plastic bottles and other polyester products.

Mark Shwartz/Precourt Institute for Energy Chemistry graduate student Aanindeeta Banerjee and Assistant Professor Matthew Kanan have developed a novel way to make renewable plastic from carbon dioxide and ordinary plants

Stanford scientists have discovered a novel way to make plastic from carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and inedible plant material, such as agricultural waste and grasses. Researchers say the new technology could provide a low-carbon alternative to plastic bottles and other items currently made from petroleum.

"Our goal is to replace petroleum-derived products with plastic made from CO 2 ," said Matthew Kanan, an assistant professor of chemistry at Stanford. "If you could do that without using a lot of non-renewable energy, you could dramatically lower the carbon footprint of the plastics industry."

Kanan and his Stanford colleagues described their results in the March 9 online edition of the journal Nature.

Changing the plastic formula



Many plastic products today are made from a polymer called polyethylene terephthalate (PET), also known as polyester. Worldwide, about 50 million tons of PET are produced each year for items such as fabrics, electronics, recyclable beverage containers and personal-care products.

PET is made from two components, terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol, which are derived from refined petroleum and natural gas. Manufacturing PET produces significant amounts of CO 2 , a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.

"The use of fossil-fuel feedstocks, combined with the energy required to manufacture PET, generates more than four tons of CO 2 for every ton of PET that's produced," Kanan said.

For the Nature study, he and his collaborators focused on a promising alternative to PET called polyethylene furandicarboxylate (PEF). PEF is made from ethylene glycol and a compound called 2-5-Furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA).

"PEF is an attractive replacement for PET, because FDCA can be sourced from biomass instead of petroleum," Kanan said. "PEF is also superior to PET at sealing out oxygen, which is useful for bottling applications."

Despite the many desirable attributes of PEF, the plastics industry has yet to find a low-cost way to manufacture it at scale. The bottleneck has been figuring out a commercially viable way to produce FDCA sustainably.

One approach is to convert fructose from corn syrup into FDCA. The Dutch firm Avantium has been developing that technology in partnership with Coca-Cola and other companies. But growing crops for industry requires lots of land, energy, fertilizer and water.

"Using fructose is problematic, because fructose production has a substantial carbon footprint, and, ultimately, you'll be competing with food production," Kanan said. "It would be much better to make FDCA from inedible biomass, like grasses or waste material left over after harvest."

Turning plant waste into plastic



Instead of using sugar from corn to make FDCA, the Stanford team has been experimenting with furfural, a compound made from agricultural waste that has been widely used for decades. About 400,000 tons are produced annually for use in resins, solvents and other products.

But making FDCA from furfural and CO 2 typically requires hazardous chemicals that are expensive and energy-intensive to make. "That really defeats the purpose of what we're trying to do," Kanan said.



The Stanford team solved the problem using a far more benign compound: carbonate. Graduate student Aanindeeta Banerjee, lead author of the Nature study, combined carbonate with CO 2 and furoic acid, a derivative of furfural. She then heated the mixture to about 290 degrees Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius) to form a molten salt.

The results were dramatic. After five hours, 89 percent of the molten-salt mixture had been converted to FDCA. The next step, transforming FDCA into PEF plastic, is a straightforward process that has been worked out by other researchers, Kanan said.

Recycled carbon



The Stanford team's approach has the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse emissions, Kanan said, because the CO 2 required to make PEF could be obtained from fossil-fuel power plant emissions or other industrial sites.

Products made of PEF can also be recycled or converted back to atmospheric CO 2 by incineration. Eventually, that CO 2 will be taken up by grass, weeds and other plants, which can then be used to make more PEF.

"We believe that our chemistry can unlock the promise of PEF that has yet to be realized," Kanan said. "This is just the first step. We need to do a lot of work to see if it's viable at scale and to quantify the carbon footprint."

Kanan and colleagues have also begun to apply their new chemistry to the production of renewable fuels and other compounds from hydrogen and CO 2 . "That's the most exciting new application that we're working on now," he said.

The other Stanford coauthors of the Nature study are graduate student Graham Dick and former postdoctoral scholar Tatsuhiko Yoshino, now at Hokkaido University in Japan.

Support for the research was provided by Stanford University through the Center for Molecular Analysis and Design, the Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

Media Contact

Matt Kanan, Chemistry: (650) 725-3451, mkanan@stanford.edu

Mark Shwartz, Precourt Institute for Energy: (650) 723-9296, mshwartz@stanford.edu

Bjorn Carey, Stanford News Service: (650) 725-1944, bccarey@stanford.edu
The kind of intelligence Pakistan shared with India is precisely what the relationship needs more of, said an influential Pakistani daily which observed that the Mumbai terror attack "poisoned the bilateral relationship far more than Pakistan acknowledged or even appears to have realised". An editorial "Cooperation with India" in the Dawn said that the interior minister and the prime ministers adviser on foreign affairs have acknowledged that Pakistan did warn Indian authorities of a possible terrorist strike on Indian soil following an illegal border crossing by militants from Pakistan. "The kind of intelligence sharing that was revealed last week and that led to a state of high alert in Gujarat, India, is precisely what the Pakistan-India relationship needs more of," it said. Describing it as "timely, relevant and cooperative", the editorial said: "Important too is the militant identity of the men who are believed to have crossed the border illegally - not just the out-of-favour Jaish-e-Mohammad, but the hitherto sacrosanct Laskhar-e-Taiba as well." "Perhaps the distance between all anti-India non-state actors and the state itself is set to grow. "If that is indeed the case - that the Lashkar and its affiliates forays against India will henceforth be discouraged and anti-India groups will face closer scrutiny - then perhaps it is also time for the prosecution to resume proceedings against those linked to the Mumbai attacks." The editorial said that what happened in November 2008 "poisoned the bilateral relationship far more than Pakistan acknowledged or even appears to have realised". It observed that not just the bilateral relationship, "but Pakistans international standing was in jeopardy. When cities are attacked like Paris was last November, the memory of Mumbai is still invoked in many parts of the world, including among many allies of Pakistan". "The reluctance to prosecute the Mumbai suspects has also undeniably boosted the resistance of Indias hawks to engaging Pakistan. While India can and should help Pakistan where necessary - the imminent trip of Pakistani investigators to India to probe the Pathankot incident will be an important precedent - Pakistan too must be resourceful and inventive in its prosecution of anti-India militants." It went on to say that timely sharing of intelligence with India, investigating and prosecuting any Pakistani militants involved in staging the Pathankot attack, and resuming and rapidly concluding the Mumbai-related trials would send a powerful message on the anti-terror front. "Not only would Pakistans seriousness of purpose in an across-the-board fight against terrorism be communicated, it would also clear the path for a full-fledged re-engagement with India," the daily said and added: "India should help rather than impede that possibility." --Indo-Asian News Service rd ( 446 Words) 2016-03-10-11:09:31 (IANS)
We have been discussing for the past few months a trilateral transport and transit agreement between India, Iran and Afghanistan utilising the Chabahar port (in Iran) and the onward connection to west and southwest Afghanistan through Zahedan, external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said at a media briefing here.

The first meeting of the expert group was held in Tehran last year. Only a few points of the draft are left to be finalised, he said.

In the second meeting in India, sometime in April, the remaining points are expected to be tied up, Swarup added.

--Indo-Asian News Service ab/dg

( 145 Words)

2016-03-10-21:29:33 (IANS)
Naqvi told ANI, "We will get hold of Vijay Mallya, we will not let him escape like this. Anyone who has siphoned nation's money illicitly we will not let them live in peace."

Mallya has been in the UK since March 2. The amount owed by his company is around 9,000 crores.

The Supreme Court has issued a notice to Mallya on a plea filed by a consortium of 13 PSU banks headed by State Bank of India. The lenders had moved the apex court to prevent Mallya from leaving the country and impounding his passport even as the loan recovery procedure for Kingfisher Airlines is still on.

The Supreme Court has sought Mallya's response to the banks' plea by 30 March which is the next date of hearing. (ANI)
In a rare guesture, city Mayor Snehal Ambekar honoured a senior Congress leader and social worker hailing from this district for her exemplary contribution towards uplift of women. Summan Agrawal, the secretary of the MPCC, has been working for welfare of women since long. In the recent past she took up the issue of acid attack victims in the country and ensured that the government acts on it. Agrawal was honoured by city mayor in a funtion on the International Womens' Day. In a statement issued last night here, Agrawal, stated, I feel honoured to receive the Mayor's Award presented to me on Women's day in appreciation of my efforts for Acid attack victims, which had lead to the creation of new IPC sections 326A and 326B which punishes the culprits with an imprisonment ranging from 5 to 10 years and the victims gets a compensations of Rs. 2 to 3 lakhs. She said that my demands for including acid attack victims in the handicapped category has been accepted by the Supreme Court she added.UNI XR NV SB VN1237 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0171-629692.Xml
Police today said an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) exploded near the iron shutter of the outlet last night.

The shop was already shut and splinters hit a staff member of the outlet identified as Ibomcha (35) . He was discharged after getting treatment from a nearby hospital.

The impact of the blast damaged glass panes and other objects at the outlet. A police team rushed in to investigate. It was not yet known who were responsible for the blast. UNI NS KK SB VN1232

-- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0212-629695.Xml
Unidentified criminals have shot dead the guard of a power sub station at Gordhoba village under Mufassil police station area in the district. Police said here today that miscreants raided the power sub station past midnight and shot dead its guard on the spot. The deceased was identified as Kapil Choudhary (45), a resident of Oraina village in the district. The reason behind the killing was not immediately known. The body had been sent to Nawada Sadar Hospital for the post-mortem examination. A massive manhunt has been launched to nab culprits.UNI XC DH KK SB VN1255 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0212-629720.Xml
"There is no system in world where there is zero call drop. Upto two percent call drop is acceptable under TRAI regulator," Sibal told the apex court.

He also informed that Columbia is the only country which imposes a penalty on call drops.

The apex court had earlier issued notices to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Centre to give their responses to the plea forwarded by telecom companies on call drops.

The move came after the apex court heard a petition filed by two cellular operator associations, challenging the Delhi High Court's order which upheld the TRAI's mandatory decision to make cellular operators pay consumers Re. one per call drop experienced on their networks.

The Supreme Court has so far not offered any relief to the telecoms in the call drop case as it strictly refused to grant an interim stay on the TRAI notification.

Earlier, the Delhi High Court had said the TRAI's regulation mandated only compensating the calling consumer not the receiver.

The TRAI had told the high court that consumers have a right to get compensated for call drops. They said this was different from the quality of service guidelines that cellular service providers have to follow under the licence conditions. (ANI)
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday lashed out at Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for not telling the Parliament as to how liquor baron Vijay Mallya managed to flee the country and questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's commitment to bring back black money stashed in safe havens abroad. Gandhi said that the Finance Minister spoke at length over this issue in Parliament, but failed to answer the basic question as to how Mallya left the country. "Before becoming the PM, he (Narendra Modi) said that he would get back black money and deposit Rs. 15 lakh in bank accounts. Not even a rupee was paid. And now Mallya has run away with Rs. 9000 crores. We asked Jaitley ji, how Mallya ji left the nation," Gandhi told the media here. "He left the nation, but Jaitley ji did not answer that. He gave a lengthy speech, but the question was how this government allowed him to escape, there was no answer on that," he added. The Parliament today witnessed a major uproar following Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi's statement that Mallya left the country on March 2 and could be in the UK. The Congress MPs led by party president Sonia Gandhi staged a walkout of the Lok Sabha soon after Jaitley's address. Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, said Mallya is not a small instrument like a needle, which cannot be seen from a far distance. However, Jaitley led a counterattack against the grand old party, saying that it was under the UPA regime when Mallya went abroad and a case was registered under Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). The Supreme Court has issued a notice to Mallya on a plea filed by a consortium of 13 PSU banks headed by the State Bank of India. The lenders had moved the apex court to prevent Mallya from leaving the country and impounding his passport even as the loan recovery procedure for Kingfisher Airlines is still on. The notice will be served through the Indian High Commission in London. Based on CBI inputs, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the banks, informed the Supreme Court that Mallya left India on March 2 and could be in the UK. The apex court has sought Mallya's response to the banks' plea by March 30, which is the next date of hearing. (ANI)
"It was a minor heart attack. Thank god, he is stable," spokesman Ayaz Akbar told IANS.

Akbar said Geelani, 86, was admitted to the Max Hospital in Saket in south Delhi where he was "recuperating fast". Geelani has been in Delhi for the past few weeks.

A senior doctor at the hospital told IANS that Geelani also compained of brethelessness and high blood pressure.

Geelani heads the hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference and is a vocal supporter of Jammu and Kashmir's merger with Pakistan.

--Indo-Asian News Service sar-rup/mr

( 125 Words)

2016-03-10-15:21:34 (IANS)
The Union Cabinet today gave its ex-post approval for the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Technical Cooperation in Cyber Space and Combating Cyber-Crime signed last month. The Cabinet meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This agreement would provide help in handling of the issues related to the cyber-crime between the two countries. They will cooperate in cyber space and combating cyber-crime in all forms, particularly through coordination and exchange of information, cooperation and training in cyber-crime investigation. The Ministry of Home Affairs will be the nodal agency on the Indian side responsible for the implementation of this agreement. Similarly, the nodal agency of the UAE side will be the Directorate General of Criminal Security, Ministry of Interior and the State Security Department with regards to matters pertaining to State security, terrorism and crimes related to unconventional weapons. UNI NAZ AE 1515 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0091-630044.Xml
Ambassador of Kingdom of Belgium Jan Luykx who is on visit to India is scheduled to meet Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar along with his team today to explore the possibility of investment and business in the state.He will be accompanied by the counsellor of economic affairs Antoine Delcourt, trade counselor for Flanders investment and trade Alexis Bossuyt and trade counsellor for the Wallonia export and investment agency Christophe Van Overstraeten. "The foreign delegates are expected to reach Agartala in the afternoon and hold meeting with the Chief Minister in the civil Secretariat. Later, they will attend a dinner party hosted by the Governor," officials said here today. Before leaving the state, they will visit some potential areas of investment like bamboo and rubber tomorrow, the officials added.UNI BB KK PS GC1458 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0212-629686.Xml
The Department of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of Nagaland under the aegis of Central Zoo Authority, Wildlife Trust of India and the Kiphire District Administration has conducted "An awareness programme on Blyth's Tragopan conservation" at Pungro under the theme "Save Tragopan, Save Pride".According to a release from Forest Department, yesterday the programme was chaired by Chonpenthung Ezung, EAC of Pungro, who welcomed all and highlighted that Tragopan is a protected species under Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and violation may lead to imprisonment and fine. He appealed to people to be responsible and protect forest and wildlife.Speaking as the Chief Guest Satya Praksh Tripathi, Chief Wildlife Warden of Nagaland, highlighted about protection of wildlife for survival of human beings. He emphasized on creation of community reserves and eco sensitive zone in fringe areas of Fakim Wildlife Sanctuary.Mr Adrish Poddar, Project Officer from Wildlife Trust of India, Delhi spoke on the topic "Know the Bird". WTI is doing scoping exercise and planning to launch community conservation programme with Forest Department, he stated. Ms Atuo, Forester, Biologist from Tragopan Breeding Centre, Kohima shared the experience of working with bird in captivity. "I appreciate the way Thanamir, Fakim and Vontsuvong village are unitedly striving for conservation and request them to continue co-operation with the department", said Forest Ranger Mr Kiusang.Mr Tsilie Sakhrie, Advisor, Khrokhotuo Mor, Chairman and Kuolhulie Kuotsu, Co-Chairman from Khonoma Nature Conservation and Tragopan Sanctuary Trust, were main speakers. In all 120 people participated in the programme from fringe villages of Saramati-Fakim, NGOs, students unions, tribal union, town council, public forum and church bodies.UNI AS KK ADG GC1434 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0212-629761.Xml
A legal awareness programme on 'Gender Sensitive Legal Measures for Students' was held at Pfutsero Government College at Pfutsero under Phek district, organised by Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development (RGNYID) in collaboration with the National Service Scheme (NSS) Nagaland. According to a release today, Mr. Neite-o Koza, Lawyer, spoke on 'Gender Equality' and 'Basic Legal rights' and Akumla Longchari, Lawyer spoke on 'Online violence and exploitation of women and girls' and 'Human trafficking & immoral trafficking and prevention Act.' The programme was held yesterday and was chaired by Vetanule Demo, Assistant Professor, PGCP. An introduction to the legal awareness programme was introduced by Ms. Zukhovelu, Para Legal Volunteer (PLV). Welcome address was delivered by T.L. Singsit, Vice-Principal of PGCP. After the programme there was an interaction session where students actively participated, giving their opinion and clearing their doubts from the resource persons followed by feedbacks were from the students, the release said. UNI AS KK PS AE VN1431 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0212-629813.Xml
Unidentified dacoits injured six people and looted properties worth lakhs of rupees from a house at Mahadipur village under Doriganj police station area in Saran district. Police said here today. More than 10 miscreants raided the house of Sahdeo Sah, relative of Ditrict Board chairman Chhoti Kumari and injured him and his five other family members by thrashing them with bamboo sticks last night. Later, criminals decamped with jewellery, cash and other costly items valued atmore than Rs six lakh from the house. The injured were rushed to Patna Medical College and Hospital in a critical condition. A search operation has been launched to nab the culprits. In another incident of dacoity in the district, unidentified dacoits shot dead an elderly person and his daughter-in-law and looted properties worth lakhs of rupees at Bakarpur village under Sonpur police station area in Saran district on Tuesday night. The House owner`s wife and son were also critically injured in the assault.Later, criminals managed to escape after looting properties includingjewellery, cash and other costly items worth lakhs of rupees from the house.UNI XC DH KK SB GC1401 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0212-629820.Xml
More than 200 school students fell ill in four West Bengal districts after consuming government-provideddeworming tablets, official sources said. State health director Biswaranjan Satpathy confirmed the news today,saying the incidents took place in sourth 24 parganas, north 24parganas, Hooghly and east Midnapore districts yesterday.Dr.Satpathy put the figure of the affected children at "less than200", though unconfirmed reports claim that about 500 school kids fell ill. A day prior to the National Deworming Day (NDD), the West Bengal government held an event on Wednesday in 11 districts of the state, to provide deworming medicines to school children. After taking Albendazole, many children complained of vomiting and complaining pain in abdomen. They are now being treated in several state-run hospitals. Guardians of the students alleged that the government had provided outdated medicines to their children. They also vandalised few schools. However, denying the allegation, Dr. Satpathy said the medicines were manufactured September 2015 and will expire in September 2018. He said alll sick students are recoverey and there is nothing to worry. The state health directorat has ordered a probe into the incident, he said.UNI.KDG KK SB GC1515 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0212-629850.Xml
According to police, businessman, Raviraj alias Deepak Patil, a resident of Vadnage village of this district had taken a loan of Rs Two lakhs with ten percent interest from money lender Virkumar and his brother, city shiv Sena deputy president Vishal Devkule at Takala area.

He had given his plot as a guarantee and made a contract with Devkule brothers. After paying Rs 20, 000, remaining amount of the loan he was not paying, so money lender's brother was harassing him. They had threatened Mr Patil and his family members including his parents.

On March 8, Devkule brothers along with three others, barged into their home and beaten up the father and mother in absence of Mr Patil and abducted his mother Kalpana Patil and detained her in a room.

Later, Mr Patil registered a complaint against Devkule brothers, Police swung into action and raided a room near Devkule's office in Takala and released Ms Patil and arrested five persons including Devkule brothers.

Police registered a complaint under IPC section 385,452, 323,504,506,34 and under state money-lender act 2014 section 39 and 45.

Those who were arrested identified as Onkar Ashok Survase (22), Suresh Deelip Kamble (22) and Deepak Belunke (29), all resident at Temblaiwadi near Railway Phatak in the city.UNI SSS NV ADG VP1548

-- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0171-629897.Xml
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has ordered a high level probe into the meeting between state Minority Welfare Minister Abdul Ghafoor and incarcerated former RJD MP MohammedShahabuddin in high security Siwan Jail, but Mr. Ghafoor refused to stepdown.The Chief Minister has asked the IG (Prisons) to inquire into the minister`s controversial meeting with Mr Shahabuddin as the issue emerged as a major cause of embarrassment to his government. Both Houses of the state legislature were rocked yesterday on the meeting, with BJP members demanding immediate resignation of the minister for meeting the RJD MP in Siwan Jail where Mr Ghafoor and Shahabuddin were accorded reception by the jail administration. BJP members demanded that Mr Kumar sack his colleague if he did not relinquish the post.Unfazed by the raging controversy, the minister contended that he had not done anything wrong and he would meet him in the jail again if he got an another opportunity. Mr Shahabuddin, who is serving life sentence in Siwan Jail after he was convicted in a murder case, still holds sway in his nativedistrict. He was shifted to Bhagalpur Jail during the last assembly election after complaints that he was threatening political rivals by using mobile phone from his cell.The grand alliance government is already under fire after the Opposition stepped up its attack on the government for the brutal killing of LJP leader Brijnathi Singh and BJP leader Visheshwar Ojha in Patna district and Bhojpur district respectively. RJD MLA from Nawada Raj Ballabh Yadav, facing charges of raping a minor, is still out of the grip of police even after over one month. UNI DH PL RSA GC1624 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0211-630048.Xml
Wide-spread protests broke out in Tamil Nadu today after a farmer was severely beaten up with the help of local police by loan recovery agents after he failed to pay his loan instalment for the purchase a tractor, in Thanjavur delta district. The 41-year old Balan, the farmer hailed from Pappanad taluk in Thanjavur district, He had purchased the tractor by availing a loan of Rs 3.80 lakh from a private financial institution. He repaid Rs 4.11 lakh, but two instalments were still pending. As he could not pay the amount for the last two months, about 20 persons from the institution came to his place and allegedly beat him up. They also recovered the tractor with the help of local police. A video clip which went viral, and was also flashed in private channels showed Balan being assaulted in front of all the village folk in the presence of local police personnel, who came along with the loan recovery agents. Police and local authorities were not bothered to even give First Aid to the farmer, who was injured in the attack. "I could not continue to pay the amount as I incurred huge loss after my crops washed away in heavy rains and floods", the farmer said. He had to pay a balance amount of Rs 1.30 lakh to the bank. Thanjavur district police sources said they acted as per a court order. But Balan claimed that no one had served notice to him before the recovery of his tractor. "I did not get any intimation about the court order either from the bank or from the police", he claimed. Meanwhile, various farmers organisations, including Federation of All Farmers Association, led by its President P R Pandian, staged state-wide protests against the attack on the farmer and demanded action against the authorities of the financial institution and the police. MDMK leader Vaiko and Tamil Maanila Congress's G K Vasan also condemned the attack and demanded action against the agents and the police personnel who were responsible for it. UNI VV-GV RSS1727 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0414-630198.Xml
Yadav, who represents Nawada constituency in the Bihar assembly, turned up at the court in Biharsharief in Nalanda district, about 100 km from here, and surrendered, a police official said.

"After Yadav surrendered, the court sent him to judicial custody for 14 days," the official said.

Yadav is charged with raping a school-going minor girl in Biharsharief on February 6.

Yadav was absconding for many days after the victim filed a police complaint accusing him of raping her. While on the run, he was petitioning courts to try to get anticipatory bail.

Last week, a lower court rejected his anticipatory bail plea. Four of his accomplices have been arrested.

Earlier, the legislator's two houses, one each in Nawada and Patna, were attached in compliance with an order of the court.

Yadav's 13 bank accounts have been sealed. The police also said it has started the process of auctioning his plots at different places.

The authorities also suspended the licences of three firearms Yadav possessed.

According to the police complaint, a woman, Sulekha Devi, took the girl to an undisclosed location in Nalanda and forced her to have liquor, after which she was raped by a man, later identified as Yadav.

After she was raped, the girl said the woman gave her Rs.30,000.

--Indo-Asian News Service ik/kb/mr

( 258 Words)

2016-03-10-17:49:32 (IANS)
Amid speculation of poll strategist Prashant Kishor being projected as super hero for the party in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections 2017, Congress leaders today tried to scuttle the issue, saying that Kishor is among the several ones who has announced to serve the party to gain power in the state. " Kishor is one among the several who would contribute to plan strategy for the success of the Congress in UP assembly polls," said AICC general secretary and in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Madhusudan Mistry said here. Mr Mistry said that Kishor is like the doctors, professors and others who contribute to the party and denied that he has joined the party. He also claimed that the party was yet to decide on whether to project any leader as the chief ministerial candidate in the UP polls. But the AICC general secretary, who chaired a meeting of the senior party leaders here at the state party headquarters where Kishor was also present, did not elaborate the 'financial package' been given to the poll strategist and his team for the work. "We don't want to disclose anything about the financial package of Kishor," he stated. "We always take the help of the people so that the party can win in the elections and it is nothing new," he told reporters here. Mr Mistry further clarified that Kishor will have no say in the selection of the party candidates for the UP polls and the other methods of screening by a committee of central leaders would have the final say." We are in the final stages of selection candidates for the UP polls and very soon when the candidates of all the five poll bound states are completed , the screening committee would take up the UP issue," he stated. The press conference in which revolved around Kishor, UP Congress president Nirmal Khatri said ''Kishor is a part of the big army of the Congress, who will assist us to repair our lapses and our weakness in the UP polls.'' Earlier during the meeting held in different phases,Kishor addressed the district and city Congress presidents along with the state vice-presidents and general secretaries separately, saying that he has not brought any magic to bring Congress in power in UP. "You will have to work hard and help the party to gain power," he said while seeking details from the leaders, mostly about the caste factors in their respective districts. Kishor also asked the leaders to select 20 dedicated Congress workers in every district and assembly segments, who were neither the office bearer of any frontal or other organisation of the party, and would be trained in New Delhi to work efficiently during the assembly polls. He also gave a lengthy questionnaire to all the leaders who attended the meeting, seeking all details about the caste factor in their area including their nitty-gritties. " Kishor in the questionnaire also sought the caste combination and which party they are supporting and which castes are likely to support the Congress in the coming elections,", a senior leader, who attended the meeting, confirmed. The leaders were told to send their replies fully filled within a months time. Already, there is annoyance among the senior party leaders, who have expressed their reservation in appointment of a ' manager' like Kishor for the UP polls while ignoring their capabilities.UNI MB RSA AE 1808 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0196-630569.Xml
Vice Chief of Indian Air Force Air Marshal BS Dhanoa, who is tipped to become the next Air Chief, today said there were not enough fighters in the inventory to handle the two front war situation. Addressing a press conference in the run-up to the mammoth exercise, being conducted on March 18 in Thar desert, Air Vice Marshal Dhanoa said the number of aircraft available with the IAF at present were not enough to cope up with the two front war scenario. "Our numbers are not adequate to execute an air campaign in two front scenario...Are the number adequate, no," he said, when asked if the IAF was capable of accepting the challenge of two front conflict, both from the Pakistani and the Chinese side. To a question, he said the Defence Attaches of neighbouring Pakistan and China have not been invited for the exercise, codenamed Iron Fist. On plugging the number gap, he clarified that the Government was seized of the problem and the decision to buy 36 Rafale fighters from France off the shelf was taken to fulfill the operational needs of the IAF. The Vice Chief said at present, IAF was operating 33 squadrons of the fighter jets, while the new squadron of the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft Tejas will be inducted by the end of this year. More UNI MK RJ AE 1944 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0090-630849.Xml
The Maharashtra Assembly was adjourned thrice as the opposition demanded action against state Education Minister Vinod Tawde over the issue of violation of Model Code of Conduct by ministers.The Assembly had to adjourn the proceedings for three times due to ruckus in the House. Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil raised the issue and said as Mr Tawde continued to be a director of a media company and is violating the Code. Mr Patil was supported by ex-CM Prithviraj Chavan and NCP leader Jayant Patil. Revenue minister Eknath Khadse and CM Devendra Fadnavis opposed this demand and said the Question hour should not be disturbed. The CM commented that if LoP says Mr Tawde had violated the code; then many ministers in earlier (Congress-NCP) ministry should have resigned. Then they would have to give back-dated resignations, said Mr Fadnavis.The Speaker adjourned the proceedings for 10 minutes at first and subsequently for five and 15 minutes. The CM, meanwhile, had assured the House that he would make a statement on the issue itself. UNI XR NP DJK AE 1902 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0171-630566.Xml
According to a release today the meeting is convened to discuss business matters relating to the Eleventh Session of the Twelfth Nagaland Legislative Assembly which will be held from March 15 to 19.

All the members are requested to attend the meeting, the release said. UNI AS AKM CJ AS1846

-- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0213-630679.Xml
The Gujarat Police have filed a chargesheet against Patel community leader Hardik Patel in a case of rioting and assault registered against him and 16 others at Visnagar town in July last year. According to official sources, the chargesheet was submitted before a judicial magistrate, A. Rana, in Visnagar in the presence of Hardik Patel, who was taken there from Lajpore jail in Surat. They are accused of being part of a group of around 500 people from the Patel community who allegedly vandalised the office of BJP legislator Rishikesh Patel in the town, attacked journalists and went berserk on the streets on July 23 when the job quota agitation was at its peak. "The group attacked a journalist who was recording the incident, broke his video camera and injured him. They also looted a mobile phone worth Rs.10,000 and set a car on fire," the chargesheet says. Police have pressed the charges under sections 337 (causing hurt by endangering life or personal safety), 394 (causing hurt while committing robbery), 427 (causing damage to property) and 435 (using fire or explosives to cause damage) of Indian Penal Code and also under Gujarat Police Act against him and others. Patel's lawyers said they would file a bail application in the court in a few days. Patel is also facing sedition cases in Surat and Ahmedabad. --Indo-Asian News Service desai/mr ( 237 Words) 2016-03-10-20:53:32 (IANS)
The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain a plea seeking to block the holding of the three-day World Cultural Festival by the Sri Sri Ravishankar's Art of Living Foundation on the banks of River Yamuna commencing from Friday. Asking PIL petitioner Anil Kumar to approach the NGT as it was a specialised forum to address the issue, the apex court bench, comprising Chief Justice T.S. Thakur, Justice Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, refused to hear the plea mentioned by a counsel in the post-lunch sitting of the court. Contending that there was violation of rules and regulations in the grant of permission, the PIL petitioner assailed the NGT for not restraining the Art of Living Foundation from holding the three-day mega event thereby "endangering the life of people and cultivators". The petitioner sought direction to the Centre to restrain the Art of Living International from going ahead with the holding of the World Cultural Festival on the banks of river Yamuna citing environmental concerns. The petitioner sought direction to the Centre, DDA, Ministry of Environment and Forests and other agencies, including Delhi Police, to be held accountable for the heavy loss to the public at large and damage to the natural ecological system and impose heavy penalty on them. The PIL pointed out that the organisers of the mega show have raised "illegal construction without permission and thereby damaged the sensitive ecological system". It said the government agencies have failed to take any coercive action against the organisers of the events. Referring to the NGT order which said that the river's flood plain has been drastically tampered with while destroying natural flow of the river, reeds, grasses, and natural vegetation on the river bed, the PIL said that Art of Living Foundation has for its vested interests "destroyed the ecological system of Delhi". --Indo-Asian News Service pk/sd/dg ( 328 Words) 2016-03-10-20:57:31 (IANS)
India has sought a probe into the death of an Indian medical student after he was attacked by unidentified people in a Russian city while on a business trip, a senior government official said on Thursday. Yaasir Javed, hailing from Srinagar, died on March 8 after being comatose following the attack earlier this month in Kazan city of the Tatarstan republic. The Indian embassy has sought an investigation into the circumstances leading to the death of an innocent person and the filing of a criminal case, external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said at a media briefing here. Giving details of the incident, Swarup said that Javed was on a business trip for participation in a local trade exhibition in Kazan. Javed reached Russia on February 26 and was allegedly attacked by some unknown people on March 3. A team from the embassy of India was immediately sent to Kazan. They are presently there assisting in expediting the documentation formalities for transfer of the mortal remains to India as soon as possible, Swarup said. The embassy team met officials at the hospital, the investigator of the case and the police department to facilitate the early release of the body and to ensure proper investigation of the case, he said, adding that the Russian foreign ministry has also been approached to help release the body. The victim's brother has gone to Kazan and the body is expected to be brought to India by Friday, the spokesman said. --Indo-Asian News Service ab/dg ( 262 Words) 2016-03-10-21:17:34 (IANS)
The seat-adjustment talks between the Left Front and the Congress hit a major roadblock on Thursday with the former coming out with its second list of 88 candidates that included a number of seats which the Congress has earmarked for itself in the upcoming West Bengal assembly polls. An angry state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said his party could not be taken for granted, and threatened to put up candidates on all seats. The 88 seats announced by LF chairman Biman Bose during the day contained 84 where its partners would be contesting. The LF also left two seats each for its associates Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal (United). The LF had on March 7 announced its first list of 116 candidates for the 294-member assembly, which goes to the hustings in seven phases from April 4 to May 5. While Chowdhury had on March 7 itself sounded miffed over the LF announcing three candidates in his pocket-borough Murshidabad district, he was left fuming on Thursday after Bose declared candidates for nine other seats in the district which elects altogether 22 seats. With the Congress having named the 75 seats which it has earmarked for contesting -- though it is yet to announces names of candidates for these constituencies -- there are now 16 seats where both the LF and the Congress have declared nominees. The biggest hurdle seems to be Murshidabad where LF and the Congress candidates overlap in eight seats. In Birbhum district, candidates of both LF and the Congress are in fray in four seats. Bose, however, said there could be discussions on some of the seats which were disputed. "Discussions may be needed for some of the seats. Then we may announce a small third list." Bose, who gave the call for a people's grand alliance, stressed on the need to prevent any division of anti-Trinamool votes. But soon after Bose's press meet, Chowdhury went all guns blazing. "In deference to the peoples' wishes, and taking a pragmatic view, we had shown all sincerity in arriving at an understanding after prolonged talks. We don't know what are their compulsions. "We had prepared a list of constituencies after the discussions. But now if they feel they will contest more seats, no one should assume that the Congess will accept that." "Congress will fight where it is organisationally strong." "Chowdhury said his party had "no problems with triangular fights". "There can be triangular fights. We have no objection to that. I had persuaded our high command to agree to the understanding, in respect to the people's sentiments. But now if they feel they can take the Congress for granted, they have made a mistake," he said. Asked whether the eat-adjustment talks would continue, Chowdhury said: "May be, otherwise we will fight all the seats." The latest LF list included a number of heavyweights. Asim Dasgupta, who holds a record of having been the state finance minister for 24 years till 2011, would take on incumbent finance minister Amit Mitra in his old constituency of Khardah of North 24 Parganas district. Other former ministers named as candidates are Abdus Sattar (Amdanga), and Debesh Das (Entally) of the CPI-m, and Revlutionary Socialist Party's Biswanath Chowdhury (Balurghat) and Subhas Naska (Basanti). CPI-M state secretariat member Sujon Chakraborty is joined the fight in South 24 Parganas district's Jadavpur, from where former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was humbled in 2011. Of the 84 candidates, 42 are from the CPI-M, 17 from the All India Froward Bloc and 16 from RSP. The Communist Party of India is fighting in half a dozen seats, Revolutionary Communist Party fo India in two, and forward Bloc (Marxist) in one seat. RJD nominees would contest from Kolkata's Jorasanko and Bhatpara of North 24 Parganas district. The JD(U) would fight from Howrah Central in Howrah district and Islampur of North Dinajpur. --Indo-Asian News Service ssp/sd/dg ( 656 Words) 2016-03-10-21:21:33 (IANS)
Japan still has a problem in viewing China's development, and it should "tweak its thinking", Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua said in an interview with China Daily.

Serving as China's top envoy to Japan since 2010, Cheng said China-Japan ties are undergoing improvement, "but the momentum is still fragile" due to Japan's negativity, in word and deed, to China.

The reason behind this is Japan's problem in "how to view China's development," he said.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi summarized Japan's official attitude toward China, during a Tuesday press conference in Beijing, as "double dealing", and he urged Tokyo to think about "taking China as a friend or foe".

Cheng said Tokyo should reflect on its positions, basic ideas and policy measures on improving ties with China and check "if there are good follow-ups, and consistency".

"China attaches great importance to improving and developing China-Japan ties  it is hoped that both countries will work on improving ties on a consistent and stable basis. "

"However, messages delivered by Tokyo are blurred and unclear," Cheng added.
The All Nagaland College Students' Union (ANCSU) has rejected the state government's March 7 letters in response to the ultimatum issued against irregularity in the functioning of the department of higher and technical education. In a reply to the state government's response, ANCSU reiterated its earlier demand based on their earlier ultimatum while expressing disappointment that the "letter was very vague and eye washing the entire issue where our genuine grievances were not attended." The state government had maintained in its response that the "vigilance commission in its investigation report, had not pointed out any specific wrong doing on the part of any particular official in connection with the conduct of AIPMT and NSPMT 2014 and other connected issues in the management of technical education department, nor has it recommended punitive action against any specific officer." It also said the demand for amalgamation of the technical education department and higher education would be examined and studied in depth by the government and "appropriate decision taken in public interest, and without any prejudice to anyone." The state government also maintained that it is the existing policy to allow only indigenous tribes of Nagaland to appear for entrance test for technical and allied courses under the state reserved quota, which it said will be implemented more strictly and more effectively with effect from the next entrance test. The ANCSU responded that based on the finding of the vigilance commission report, the whole imbroglio which dragged for more than two years was created by the concerned responsible officer or official. It therefore reiterated its demand for punitive action instead of conveying regret and tendering an apology. On the issue of amalgamation, the college students' union said the "government need not have any prejudicial apprehension in the interest of student welfare in particular and public interest at large since it (the amalgamation) is quite viable for Nagaland at large." On the issue of entrance test meant specifically for indigenous tribes, ANCSU said it was beyond their understanding why, despite an existing policy, "every year and then, the non-indigenous tribes of Nagaland get a berth in the state reserved quota." In light of the above reasons, ANCSU asserted that it reaffirm its stance to seek justice in the interest of students' welfare and continue with own course of action till justice is delivered. UNI AS AKM DJK AS2003 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0213-630829.Xml
In a statement here, party's media general secretary Jaangsillung Gonmei informed that the BJP central leaders have endorsed the Naga Peoples Front (NPF) selected candidature of K G Kenye for the lone Rajya Sabha seat from the state.

He said the BJP Nagaland wishes the candidate all success and looks forward to a phase of all round development and strengthening of the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) government and partners under his leadership.

The BJP Nagaland is a pre-poll alliance partners of the NPF-led DAN government and all the BJP MLAs are holding DAN government posts, including minister Paiwang Konyak. UNI AS AKM DJK RJ AS2009

-- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0213-630874.Xml
The ATS team had submitted a special request petition before the SDJM here, sent by the Second Additional District Sessions Court, Bhopal to take Mohammad Salek further investigation. The SJM court accepted the request and allowed the ATS team to take the SIMI operative on a 15-day remand.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has already taken three other SIMI terroristsAmjad Khan, Zakir Hussein and Sheikh Mehmoob on a 15-day remand to Bhopal for further interrogation.

Five SIMI ultras, including a woman, mother of one of the operatives,all residents of Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh were arrested by the police from the steel city last month.

All of them were considered as most-wanted terrorists in the country and the NIA had announced Rs 10 lakh reward on each of their heads.UNI XC DP BM RJ AN2108

-- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0214-631129.Xml
''Massive participation is imperative in the ensuing elections to Urban Local Bodies to seek involvement of people in decision making at local levels,'' Dr Abdullah said while addressing workers at Udhampur, Talwada, Pouni Bharak of Reasi district.

''National Conference believes in people being the real fountain head of power and success of the party in the upcoming elections will go a long way in realizing this cherished agenda'', he added.

He hoped that young people and women will come forward in a big way and take upon themselves the responsibility of serving the people in their respective areas as per vision and commitment of National Conference.

''Basic level democratic institutions can prove as useful engines of change, if the elected representatives work with a sense of devotion and missionary zeal,'' he added and said that National Conference has a proven record in this regard.

While referring to enviable development undertaken in the three regions of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, whenever it was bestowed with the responsibility to govern. UNI VBH CJ AS2239

-- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0400-631234.Xml
Replying to a discussion on budgetary demands for her departments, she said, "Rules have been simplified but attention has been paid to the aspect that major investors keep time limits in mind else land allotted to them is taken back. In excess of 5,000 proposals involving investment of approximately Rs 45,000 crore are operational."

Following the Minister's reply, demands exceeding Rs 2,800 crore were passed by voice vote.

The government has a target of laying a total 60,000 km of cement concrete roads, Public Works Minister Sartaj Singh informed the Assembly.

Replying to a discussion on budgetary demands for his Department, Mr Singh said, "The state has 4,771 km of national highways of which 2,203 km are the state's responsibility. However, the Centre has approved taking over 706 km thereby providing relief to Madhya Pradesh."

Following the Minister's reply, demands exceeding Rs 5,000 cr were passed by voice vote.

The House also witnessed Energy Minister Rajendra Shukla making a statement that tariff was reduced to 12 per cent from 15 per cent on domestic electricity consumption exceeding 200 units.

During the Question Hour, Mr Sanjay Shah Makdai (ruling Bharatiya Janata Party) and Dr Govind Singh (principal opposition Congress) urged Revenue Minister Rampal Singh to annul two leases of government land.

In the matter pertaining to the Bhopal District Cooperative Bank auctioning at throwaway prices land mortgaged by peasants, Cooperatives Minister Gopal Bhargawa said, "In the event of the farmers repaying the principal amount to the bank, their land shall be returned."UNI Team-AC RJ AN2313

-- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0044-631267.Xml
The White House has ruled out an encounter between President Barack Obama and revolutionary leader Fidel Castro in Cuba this month and is confident the Cuban government will not create obstacles to a meeting between Obama and dissidents in Havana, a top adviser said.Despite the goal of improving ties between former Cold War foes, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said Obama would not use his trip to meet Cuba's demands that he shutter Radio and TV Marti, US broadcasters created to transmit anti-communist programming to the island nation.Obama plans to hold talks with Cuban President Raul Castro during his historic March 20-22 visit but will not meet with Castro's brother, a legendary figure who took power in a 1959 revolution and led Cuba for 49 years."We've had no discussion about that meeting taking place, and we certainly wouldn't seek it," Rhodes, who was one of the negotiators in secret talks that led to a thaw in US-Cuba relations, told Reuters in an interview.Asked if a meeting was ruled out, Rhodes said: "Yes."A meeting with the elder Castro could overshadow a trip that is meant to focus on the future of the US-Cuba relationship rather than its troubled past. Castro, 89, stepped down from power after a series of health problems and rarely leaves his Havana home, though he occasionally meets visiting dignitaries.The White House has said previously it did not expect a Fidel Castro meeting to occur but did not say it was ruled out.The administration made clear when it set up Obama's trip that he would meet with anti-government dissidents in Havana despite the Cuban leadership's objections to what it sees as meddling in the country's internal affairs.Rhodes said the list of participants had not been finalized and the meeting would take place in a US facility, which suggests the US embassy or ambassador's residence.That meeting would take place after official events with Raul Castro.Cuban dissidents in the past have reported being detained in their homes or picked up by police en route to major international events such as summits or papal visits, but Rhodes said he did not anticipate that happening for Obama's trip."We haven't worked out the logistics, but ... they have not suggested that they will throw up those types of obstacles," he said, adding the United States would be watching whether Cuba detained or harassed activists in connection with the visit.Two of Cuba's most prominent dissidents, Berta Soler and Jose Daniel Ferrer, were detained on Tuesday, according to dissident groups.Susan Rice, Obama's national security adviser, on Wednesday met with Cuban-American activists and US human rights advocates and told them Obama would meet Cuban "independent civil society" representatives chosen by his aides, the White House said.OUTSTANDING DIFFERENCESObama's Republican critics have accused him of playing down human rights concerns in order to pursue rapprochement with Cuba, which began in December 2014 and is now seen as a major piece of his foreign policy legacy.The Cuban government has done little to reciprocate for a series of US measures that eased restrictions on US-Cuba travel and trade. It is unclear whether it will make any large gestures during Obama's visit, the first by a sitting US president since 1928.Rhodes countered that the outreach to Cuba was aimed at helping the local population while opening up commercial opportunities for Americans.The administration plans to roll out further measures next week to chip away at decades-old restrictions to commerce.Obama also wants to lift the embargo on Cuba, which is only possible through congressional action. Republican leaders in Congress oppose such a move.Other differences remain. The Obama administration is not considering returning the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay to the Cuban government, and Rhodes said it would not make changes to the Radio and TV Marti broadcasters at this time.Both issues are irritants that the Cubans consider obstacles to full normalization with Washington."The Cubans don't like Radio Marti and TV Marti for sure," Rhodes said. "There's only so much you can get to."The US government launched Radio Marti in 1983 and later added TV Marti to transmit anti-communist news and information into Cuba, where the government has a monopoly on the media.A decision on whether to put an end to a US program that encourages Cuban doctors and nurses on overseas assignments to defect was not tied to the trip either, Rhodes said.REUTERS DS PM0601 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0139-629487.Xml
Myanmar's National League for Democracy (NLD) proposed Htin Kyaw, a close friend of party leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, as its presidential candidate for the lower house of parliament today.Suu Kyi is barred from holding the presidency under a junta-drafted 2008 constitution because her children are not Myanmar citizens. She has said she would run the country anyway through a proxy.The NLD won a huge parliamentary majority in elections in November, so the candidate it backs for the presidency is likely to take the top job.The country's upper house, lower house and the military will each nominate a candidate. The joint parliament will then vote, with the winner elected president and the two losing candidates becoming vice presidents.REUTERS PS VN0950 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-629553.Xml
The siege at a rural house in the Bay of Plenty, on the east of the North Island, began on Wednesday, involved light armoured vehicles and a helicopter from the New Zealand Defence Force, Xinhua news agency reported.

The police commissioner said the operation ended safely after the man surrendered near the town of Kawerau.

"Our priority was always to resolve this without further risk to police staff or the public. This development follows lengthy contact throughou the night with the individual by police the negotiator," he stated.

"A major police investigation has commenced, which will build a full picture of what led to yesterday's shootings which led to four police staff being injured," he said.

Two of the injured police officers were discharged from hospital.

Another officer was in a serious but stable condition, and a fourth officer who was shot in the hand would undergo further treatment.

Police was in the area on Wednesday morning to seize illegal cannabis when the first shots were fired.

--Indo-Asian News Service mg/ksk

( 206 Words)

2016-03-10-11:29:35 (IANS)
In a bid to tackle the growing terrorist networks, India and the United States have decided to deepen their counter-terrorism, particularly the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM). India's Foreign Secretary S.Jaishankar and American National Security Adviser Susan Rice held a meeting at the White House in Washington. D.C. on Tuesday, where the two also affirmed their commitment in deepening bilateral cooperation on climate change, trade, and defense. The White House, after the meeting, issued a press release where it said that both officials discussed US-India collaboration against LeT, JeM, and other terrorist threats. India has blamed the two terrorist groups orchestrating a number of attacks on Indian soil. In the recent one, India accused the JeM of carrying out the attack on air force base in Pathankot on January 2, which at least eight people dead. New Delhi has also pressed about the role of LeT for orchestrating the Mumbai attacks in November 2008 which over 150 dead. In a related development, the United States State Department has rejected the view that ties with India have hit a roadblock in the wake of Washington deciding to go ahead with the sale of eight F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, besides other bilateral differences. "I think we have had and we look forward to continuing to have a good, strong relationship with India writ large and with the Modi government specifically," State Department spokesman John Kirby was quoted, as saying after Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar's meetings with Deputy Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and other government officials. Kirby said, "There are a lot of common issues, common challenges, common threats, quite frankly, that we and the Indian people face. I think we have got a good, honest, candid, productive relationship with the Modi government, and we look forward to that continuing. In fact, we look forward to deepening it." The meeting between Jaishankar and Rice was held to review preparations for the upcoming 50-nation Nuclear Security Summit, due to be held in Washington from March 31-April 1. Both, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif are due to attend the summit. (ANI)
"Three power import deals are expected to be inked by the two countries including supply of 100MW, 75MW and 1,000MW," The Express Tribune quoted a diplomatic source as saying.

Reportedly, Pakistan is already importing 73MW to meet the requirement of Gwadar but payments could not be made since 2011.

The Pakistani officials believe that banking channels will be opened paving the way for payment of outstanding bills following removal of sanctions from Iran.

Rouhani's two-day visit to Islamabad was disclosed during a meeting between Water and Power Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif and Iranian Ambassador Mehdi Honardoost.

According to reports, during the visit, Pakistan will formally offer Iran during Rouhani's visit to participate in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) programme, which would bring peace and ensure vital connections among regional states.

Officials of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources said the Iranian president would push Pakistan to implement the IP pipeline project, which had earlier been stalled by the sanctions on Tehran, reports The Express Tribune. (ANI)
Taiwan president-elect Tsai Ing-wen must "prove" her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is not pro-independence before Beijing will deal with her, a senior member of China's largely rubber stamp parliament said today.China considers self-ruled Taiwan a wayward province, to be brought under its control by force if necessary. Defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan in 1949 after the Chinese civil war.Beijing has repeatedly warned against any moves towards independence since January's landslide win by Tsai and her DPP in presidential and parliamentary elections. Tsai assumes office in May.While the DPP's charter calls for the island's formal independence, senior DPP leaders have not publicly stated that clause of late and Tsai has said she wishes to have peace with China and to maintain the status quo.Speaking on the sidelines of China's annual parliamentary session, Wang Yifu, who leads the Chinese-appointed Taiwan delegation to parliament, said the DPP's independence platform "makes the world feel uneasy".Wang had been asked by a reporter to comment on Tsai's pledge to develop bilateral relations under the framework of Taiwan's constitution which stipulates that Taiwan and the Chinese mainland are part of "one China".Tsai's pledge "contradicts" the independence clause in the DPP's own charter, Wang said, adding that she and the DPP would have to "prove (the DPP) is not a Taiwan independence party"."This is the basis for cross-Strait exchanges," said Wang, who is also president of the All-China Federation of Taiwan Compatriots - a Chinese government group composed of Taiwanese exiles, defectors and their descendants.The DPP did not respond to a request for comment.China appoints a Taiwan delegation to parliament every year to back up its sovereignty claims over the island, even though nobody in proudly democratic Taiwan votes for them.Wang stopped short of spelling out whether China wants the DPP to drop, revise or freeze the independence clause in its charter.Wang urged DPP leaders to "appreciate and reciprocate the mainland's goodwill".Chinese President Xi Jinping said last week China would never allow the historical tragedy of Taiwan being "split" off from the rest of the country to happen again, warning the island against any moves towards formal independence.Japan ruled Taiwan as a colony for about five decades until the end of World War Two. China's last dynasty, the Qing, had ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895 after losing the first Sino-Japanese war.REUTERS JW VN1603 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0364-630245.Xml
"Premier and army chief with Saudi leadership and other dignitaries on site of the North Thunder final manoeuvres," the Director General of military's media wing, ISPR, tweeted.

Sharif arrived on a three-day visit to Riyadh yesterday to witness the military exercises as well as hold regional and bilateral talks of mutual interest.

Sharif was accompanied General Sharif and Special Assistant to the premier on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi.

Upon their arrival, Sharif and his officials were received by Prince Muhammad bin Salman and other high-ranking officials.

A dinner was also hosted by King Salman bin Abdul Aziz al Saud last night.

Meanwhile, a number of other leaders also witnessed the ongoing military exercise and its closing ceremony.

Troops from 21 countries, including Pakistan, participated in the exercise.

The main aim of the exercise is to improve training to counter- threats posed by terrorist groups.

During the visit, Pakistan will offer to expand its cooperation with Saudis and its support for the for the 34-nation coalition of Islamic countries cobbled together by Saudi Arabia to fight terrorism, reports The Express Tribune. (ANI)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today condemned the attacks on Russia's diplomatic missions in Ukraine. In an interview to Russia's REN TV channel, Lavrov said these attacks on Russian diplomatic missions in Ukraine are "outrageous" and urged the international community to "respond" to the alarming situation."We regularly monitor the situation, get in touch with the ambassador and his staff. They hold on, the way people who feel their Motherland is behind them, their home country, which will stand up for them," he said."The actions of the thugs who attacked the embassy and the consulates general, burst into the territory and ripped off flags, these actions are outrageous," Lavrov said, adding that "We see no reaction whatsoever from the international community.""When Iranian citizens broke into the Consulate General of Saudi Arabia, a serious uproar began. We joined the process, which was aimed at unconditional protection of diplomatic missions, as required by conventions signed by all countries," Lavrov said. Lavrov made the remarks before discussing with the US Secretary of State John Kerry the situation in Ukraine in connection with attacks on Russian diplomatic missions."Of course, the main thing is suppression of such actions by curators of Ukrainian authorities. We will discuss this topic again with US State Secretary John Kerry today. Of course, we sent similar signals to European capitals as well," he said.UNI XC JW AE 1721 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0364-630444.Xml
The convicted killer of South African anti-apartheid leader Chris Hani will be freed on parole in two weeks after more than 20 years in prison, a Pretoria court ruled today.Janusz Walus was serving a life sentence for the 1993 murder of Hani, a charismatic activist and politician who was both a senior member of the African National Congress (ANC) and the head of the South African Communist Party (SACP) when he was gunned down.The decision to free him is likely to be contentious in a country still dealing with the legacy of the brutality meted out by the white-minority regime that prevailed from 1948 to 1994.Hani's murder threatened to derail South Africa's transition to multi-racial democracy, leading to nationwide riots and triggering fears of a civil war.Walus, a Polish immigrant, shot Hani dead outside his Johannesburg home."Yes, he got parole," his lawyer, Roelof du Plessis, told online service News24.Walus was sentenced alongside Clive Derby-Lewis, a right-wing politician who provided the murder weapon.Both men were originally sentenced to death, but that was commuted to life in prison after South Africa abolished the death penalty in 1995. Derby-Lewis was freed on medical parole last year.Hani's wife, Limpho, criticised the decision to free Walus."It's very, very sad for South Africa. It's a very sad day," she told Talk Radio 702.Justice Minister Michael Masutha had blocked a parole board decision to release Walus, leading to his legal challenge in the Pretoria court."We received the judgment with great disappointment," SACP spokesman Alex Mashilo said.Apartheid death-squad leader Eugene de Kock, dubbed 'Prime Evil' for his role in the torture and murder of scores of black activists in the 1980s and early 1990s, was freed on parole last year after serving more than 20 years in prison.His current whereabouts are unknown. REUTERS JW AS1804 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0364-630643.Xml
For a month, more than 25,000 teachers in the West Bank have been on strike over pay and benefits, causing chaos for schools, pupils and parents, and prompting the Palestinian Authority to deploy military police on the streets of Ramallah.And yet, if Palestinian officials have any doubts about the quality of some of the teachers they employ, they need look no further than Hanan al-Hroub of Bethlehem, who is in the running to win 1 million this week for being the world's best teacher.With the West Bank economy struggling, the Palestinian Authority in debt and Israel's occupation causing constant pressure, there are few funds available to raise teachers' salaries, unless international donors provide direct support.In Ramallah, where the Palestinian administration is based, thousands of teachers have thronged the downtown area since February 10, protesting against low pay and the fact they receive far fewer benefits than other government employees.It marks one of the most serious and extended strikes in the Palestinian territories and has resulted in more than 540,000 students sitting at home or roaming the streets, their initial enjoyment of a few days off school now turning to frustration.The teachers are angry and frustrated, too. Naeem Bozeyah, who has a master's degree in mathematics and has taught the subject for 20 years, says his basic salary is frozen at 2,660 shekels a month ( 680 dollars ), barely enough to provide for his wife and family, including three children at university.What's more, while in other ministries government employees receive a "bonus" each month of 105 shekels if they are married and 60 shekels for each child, for teachers it is only 60 shekels once you are married and 20 shekels per child."Our demands are clear," Bozeyah told Reuters. "We want our salaries to be improved and we want the government to pay our dues and equate us with employees in other ministries."Ministers gathered for a cabinet meeting this week expressed regret about the time the strike has dragged on and the disruption to the school year. They accused teachers of rejecting efforts to resolve the dispute.In an open letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the former chairman of the Independent Commission for Human Rights criticised the heavy security crackdown against the strikers, including checkpoints and several arrests of teachers, and said it was up to Abbas to take decisive action."Only you, Mr President, can get the government out of its state of denial and return it to its senses," said the letter. "Isn't it time that teachers had justice?"While teachers' representatives say they will continue the strike as long as necessary - and say 90 per cent of teachers are taking part - students in the 1,700 schools affected are becoming annoyed, as are their parents."The strike is wrong and right at the same time," said Mohammad Abu Hwaij, a 10th grade student. "It's right because the government must give teachers their rights and wrong because we have not been studying for a month."He and his friends have mostly been wandering the streets looking for things to do, and are beginning to worry that they will have to repeat a year of school.It's all a far cry from the future that may await Hanan al-Hroub, a primary school teacher who grew up in a refugee camp near Bethlehem. She has gained acclaim for her focus on teaching non-violence, ethics and respect, with remarkable results.This week, she travelled from the West Bank to Dubai, where on Sunday the Varkey Foundation, an educational charity, will announce the winner of its second annual Million Dollar Teacher award, which has been dubbed the Nobel prize for teaching.Hroub is one of 10 finalists, having been whittled down from 8,000 nominations from 148 countries."I tell all teachers, whether Palestinian or from around the world: our job is humane, its goals are noble," Hroub said in a film made about her work. "We must teach our children that our only weapon is knowledge and education."It may not put an end to the strike, but it could earn her a small fortune.REUTERS JW AS1844 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0364-630757.Xml
Twelve countries criticised China's human rights crackdown in a joint statement delivered at the UN Human Rights Council today and called on Beijing to release detained Chinese and foreign activists."These actions are in contravention of China's own laws and international commitments," said US Ambassador Keith Harper, who read out the statement backed by Australia, Japan and nine European countries."These extra-territorial actions are unacceptable, out of step with the expectations of the international community, and a challenge to the rule-based international order."REUTERS JW BL1924 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0364-630902.Xml
Need remote control for your Mac? You found it  Remote is Swiss Army knife of remote apps.

FEATURES:

 Control volume while playing music or mute it entirely

 Launch or quit any app installed on your Mac  Kodi, Plex and etc.

 Use your iPhone or iPad as trackpad and keyboard

 View documents or photos from any disc on your Mac

 Stream videos to any device from your Mac

COMING SOON:

 Upload photos, videos and other files to your Mac

 Download music, videos and other files to your iPhone/iPad

SECURITY:

 File access is password protected so you dont have to worry

REQUIREMENTS:

OS X 10.7 or newer

iOS 8.0 or newer

SELECTED REVIEWS:

Perfect functionality by My nickname is Yochi

I use it mostly for Spotify, which I play through my stereo connected to my computer. Sometimes my computer volume is set low, so that supersedes and limits any Spotify volume adjustments. This remote app lets me raise volume (and launch Spotify if it wasnt running!) from anywhere in my house. Perfect!

Fantastic with a Mac, could be upgraded by Ozzkid5

Dudes, this app works great and even allows smooth remote trackpad movements, while doing well with single, double, and two-fingered taps. Hasnt crashed yet. Could be better if Siri (or equivalent) voice recognition typed words into things, or if there was a keyboard

Works fine! by Mrs. Mary Francis

I got this just for volume control and it does that just fine. The best part is that it seems to stay linked to my Mac even in the background. Wonder if that effects my iPads battery life? Well see I guess! I would definitely like a larger volume control slider  like, the full width of the interface maybe? That would give me finer control.

Awesome app by Sheths2001

Best for Mac users.
It's tax-filing season, and if you haven't filed your income tax return yet, you will need to soon. Tax returns are due April 18 this year, though you can get an extension until Oct. 15.

You could pay someone hundreds of dollars to file your tax return, but don't shell out for a tax preparer until you understand your options and make sure you're making the right choice for you.

The first question to answer is whether you need a certified public account, enrolled agent or other tax preparer. Experts advise consulting an accountant at least periodically, even if you do your own tax returns, to make sure you're sending the right information.

"At one point, everybody should get an accountant," says Jeff Schnepper, a tax attorney in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and the author of "How to Pay Zero Taxes 2016: Your Guide to Every Tax Break the IRS Allows," which is the 33rd edition of his book. "What you want from the accountant is, you want guidance, you want suggestions."

You may still choose to prepare your own returns, but consulting with an accountant every few years helps you keep up with both changes in the tax law and changes in your life that affect your tax situation. Tax preparation software is only as good as the information you input. "It's good for preparing your return," Schnepper says. "It's not good for planning your life."

If you own a business or otherwise have a complicated tax situation -- you have income from multiple sources, lost your home to foreclosure or frequently buy and sell stocks -- you would be smart to consult an accountant throughout the year as well as at tax time.

"When you're preparing, you really should be preparing toward the end of the year," says Steven Goldburd, a partner at Goldburd McCone tax law firm in New York.

Free tax-filing options mostly are for people whose financial lives are less complicated. "If you're not plain Jane, you want to have professional help," Goldburd says. "If someone's sick, you want to go to a doctor. You don't want to go online to medicalpro.com."

Story continues

If you choose to use a tax professional, seek recommendations from friends and family, and ask questions about qualifications before you commit to someone.

Tax software is one way to do your own taxes with some online guidance, even if you are self-employed or itemize deductions. But many Americans can get help with their tax returns and file electronically without spending a penny.

The Free File Alliance, a coalition of 13 tax software companies, partners with the Internal Revenue Service to provide free tax-filing software options for individuals. It provides free access to versions of the same commercial programs people pay for, and taxpayers can use the service if their incomes go up to $62,000, though some participating companies set lower limits.

"It's free, it's simple and it's fast," says Tim Hugo, executive director of the Free File Alliance. "It's kind of a hidden gem."

Those who make more than $62,000 can use free fillable forms, the online equivalent of paper forms, with features that do the math for you, though you have to know what information to fill in where.

You can also get free help preparing your return and filing from volunteers certified by the IRS who set up shop at libraries and community centers during tax season. In most cases, you're better off dealing with the volunteer programs than walking into a storefront for help. Steer clear of refund anticipation loans, where a company offers to advance your income tax return, because they often come with high fees.

Here are five free -- or nearly free -- ways to get help filing your taxes:

Use paper forms and mail them in. You can download all the forms you need from the IRS website or order them via mail. You can then mail the completed forms back to the IRS.

Get free in-person help. The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program offers free help with tax returns to taxpayers who make $54,000 a year or less, those who don't speak English well or people with disabilities. The volunteers are certified by the IRS, and they can provide help with basic returns and file returns electronically. The Tax Counseling for the Elderly program specializes in issues common to taxpayers 60 or older, but in some communities they will help people of any age. The volunteers are provided through AARP's Tax Aide program. You can usually find these volunteer programs at libraries and community centers or via the IRS locator tool.

Use free online software via the Free File Alliance. Taxpayers whose incomes are $62,000 or less are eligible to use the free online software, but not everyone qualifies to use all the options. Some programs provide free state returns, and others offer state returns for a fee. To get access to these programs, you must enter via the IRS website.

File online free with fillable forms. The Free File Alliance offers the online equivalent of paper forms (but these do the math for you) for those who make more than $62,000 a year and can do their own taxes. You can fill the forms out online and then file electronically.

Use free versions of commercial software for simple returns. TurboTax and TaxACT both offer a federal free edition for taxpayers with simple returns. Those programs include free state returns. United Way and H&R Block have partnered to offer free tax returns via a program called MyFreeTaxes, which offers free federal and state returns to filers who earn less than $62,000 a year, and Liberty Tax offers free federal filing via eSmart Tax to filers who earn $62,000 a year or less. State returns are $19.95.

Teresa Mears writes about personal finance, real estate and retirement for U.S. News and other publications. She's also written for MSN Money, The Miami Herald, The New York Times and The Boston Globe. She publishes Living on the Cheap and Miami on the Cheap. Follow her on Twitter @TeresaMears.
Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Thursday said he opposed all forms of violence but ignored a call from US Vice President Joe Biden to explicitly condemn attacks on Israelis.

"Our hand is outstretched in peace founded on justice and respect for the rights of everyone," Abbas told a joint press conference in Ramallah with visiting Romanian President Klaus Iohannis.

"We are against violence, extremism and terrorism, wherever it comes from."

Israel and the Palestinian territories are experiencing a wave of violence that has killed 188 Palestinians, 28 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese since October 1, according to an AFP count.

Most of the dead Palestinians are perpetrators or alleged perpetrators of attacks, which have taken place more or less daily over the past five months.

Biden criticised Palestinian leaders for not condemning attacks against Israelis, after several occurred during his visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories this week.

"The United States of America condemns these acts and condemns the failure to condemn these acts," he said while meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Wednesday.

Six separate attacks took place shortly before and after Biden's arrival Tuesday, including a stabbing spree on Tel Aviv's waterfront by a Palestinian who killed an American tourist and wounded 12 other people.

Seven Palestinian perpetrators were killed, police said.

Biden met Abbas in Ramallah on Wednesday but neither made any comments to reporters after the meeting.

Abbas's office later published a statement blaming Israel's settlement building for the violence.

Abbas expressed his condolences for the killing of the American tourist in Tel Aviv but added that "the occupation forces (of Israel) killed 200 Palestinians in the past five months."

"The current situation is intolerable," Abbas said Thursday, adding that peace "requires crucial decisions by the Israeli government, through an immediate settlement freeze, stopping settler attacks and respecting Palestinian sovereignty on Palestinian lands according to agreements."
Cairo (AFP) - Ahmed Abul Gheit, who was elected secretary general of the Arab League on Thursday, served as Egypt's last foreign minister under Hosni Mubarak until the longtime autocrat's overthrow in 2011.

The veteran diplomat is still mocked for saying "Egypt is not Tunisia," just days before the anti-Mubarak revolt erupted on January 25, 2011 after the fall of Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali at the start of the Arab Spring uprising.

But a day before Mubarak stepped down on February 11 that year amid mass protests in Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square, Abul Gheit came back on that remark in a television interview.

He acknowledged there were "tensions" in the country, mainly because of then 82-year-old Mubarak's "advanced age... and over the issue of succession concerning his son Gamal", who was long tipped to succeed Mubarak.

An impeccable English speaker who always dressed in business suits, Abul Gheit was often criticised for being mild and discreet.

Since Mubarak's fall, Abul Gheit, 73, a tough critic of Iran, had stayed away from politics and devoted his time to writing. He published his memoirs in 2013.

"While I started working with him, I was surprised to find an ageing man whose determination and concentration were eroding," he wrote about Mubarak in his memoirs.

Unlike the charismatic ex-chief of the Arab League, Egyptian Amr Moussa, who was known for his tough positions on Israel, Abul Gheit adopted a relatively softer policy towards the Jewish state.

He said he was merely implementing Mubarak's policies.

"I have always rejected claims by some of Egypt's foreign ministers that the policies they implemented accomplished this or that," he wrote.

"All ministers were only implementing foreign policies dictated by their presidents."

In 2008, he even accused Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, of being responsible for the Israeli war on the coastal enclave that year.

Story continues

Abul Gheit participated in the Camp David negotiations that led to the 1979 signing of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty when president Anwar al-Sadat ruled Egypt.

Born in Cairo's upscale district of Heliopolis, Abul Gheit joined the Egyptian foreign service in 1965, and held several diplomatic posts, including in Rome, Moscow and New York.

In 1999 he was appointed as Egypt's permanent representative to the United Nations, but was recalled in 2004 to head the foreign ministry under Mubarak.

Abul Gheit succeeds fellow Egyptian diplomat Nabil al-Arabi, 80, as chief of the Arab League after Arabi declined a second term.

Traditionally, the secretary general of the Arab League has held the post for two terms, and Cairo has always insisted that it be held by an Egyptian diplomat.

Arabi, also a veteran Egyptian diplomat, had taken over as the bloc's chief from fellow diplomat Moussa in 2011.

Abul Gheit is married and has two sons.
Goma (DR Congo) (AFP) - Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo jailed two young activists Thursday for three months amid a growing crackdown on dissent in the country.

The sentences follow the arrest of at least a dozen other members of a peaceful protest group seeking an end to violent conflict in the central African nation in the past year.

Juvin Kombi and Pascal Byumanine were arrested along with seven others following a demonstration against extra-judicial killings by armed militias in the north of the Nord-Kivu region in November 2015, according to their lawyer Georges Kapiamba.

The pair were convicted of "inciting revolt" and fined 100,000 Congolese francs (100 euros), a significant sum in the impoverished country.

They were then released, having spent more than the length of their sentences on while remand, awaiting trial. The seven others arrested with them were, who had no known affiliation, were acquitted and released following the trial.

Kapiamba criticised their conviction, saying it was "not based in fact" and was an "attack on the right to protest".

The Lucha movement is a non-partisan peaceful protest group founded in Goma in the country's east to lobby for change in the violence-hit region and has drawn the ire of the country's rulers.

Two of the group's members currently in detention will go on trial in Kinshasa on Friday.

One of the group's highest profile detainees is Fred Bauma who was arrested at a good governance conference in the capital in March 2015 and has been held since.

The country's Supreme Court is expected to determine his fate on March 16.

Tensions are running high in the country amid opposition fears that President Joseph Kabila, in power since 2001, may refuse to leave office at the end of his term this December.

The UN has criticised the recent wave of arbitrary arrests of opposition activists and protesters in the country.
Cape Town (AFP) - A South African woman was convicted Thursday of kidnapping a newborn baby and raising her for 17 years before an astonishing coincidence reunited the girl with her biological family.

"You must have been the person who removed the child from hospital," High Court judge John Hlophe told the woman, who claimed to have been handed the baby at a train station after entering into a private "adoption" programme.

"Your story, if anything, is a fairy tale and the court rejects it with the contempt it deserves."

The 50-year-old kidnapper, who cannot be named to protect the new identity of the girl she stole, remained grim-faced, staring at the judge.

The girl's biological mother, Celeste Nurse, 36, sobbed loudly as the guilty verdict was handed down while chants of "Yes! Yes!" were heard from the public gallery.

The kidnapper was denied bail and taken into custody ahead of sentencing on May 30. Onlookers clapped as she was taken down to the cells.

She was also convicted of fraud and offences under the country's Children's Act for registering the girl as her biological child.

The judge said she could face a sentence of up to 10 years in jail.

The girl's real identity came to light in February last year, when her younger biological sister began attending high school and pupils pointed out her remarkable likeness to a final-year student.

The younger girl told her parents, who met the older girl and immediately believed she was their long-lost baby.

They called the police, and DNA tests confirmed that the girl was indeed their child, whom they had named Zephany Joy Nurse.

Without knowing it, the Nurse family had been living within a couple of kilometres (miles) of their kidnapped daughter, while celebrating her birthday every year and never giving up hope of finding her.

- 'We were like family' -

During the trial, Celeste Nurse wept as she described how at the age of 18 she woke up in the maternity ward of a Cape Town hospital to find her three-day-old baby had vanished from her cot on March 30, 1997.

Story continues

Witnesses said they had seen an unknown woman in a nurse's uniform at the hospital around the time and one of them picked out the accused at an identity parade.

The judge said he accepted the evidence of nine state witnesses as "trustworthy".

Turning to the accused, he said: "Your evidence totally disintegrated in cross examination."

The kidnapper had also sobbed in court during the emotionally-charged case, as she told of being barred from seeing the girl after her arrest in February last year.

Ahead of the verdict her husband told reporters that "we were like father and daughter and family together. I never knew it wasn't my daughter".

The kidnapper told the court during the trial that after a miscarriage in December 1996 she paid a woman who promised to find her a child to adopt.

In April 1997 she was handed a baby wrapped in a blanket at a train station in Cape Town, she said.

Delivering his verdict, Judge Hlophe remarked: "One doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to know you don't buy babies in South Africa."

The woman said she had not told her husband of her miscarriage, so presented the baby to him as their own child.

Zephany's whereabouts are uncertain, after the trauma of the case reportedly caused the 18-year-old to drop out of her final year of school.

Some reports say she is back living with the kidnapper's husband, the man she believed for 18 years to be her father.

Zephany issued a statement through her lawyer at the weekend condemning media coverage of the case.

"Don't you think for once that that is my mother? Whether it is true or not is not for you to toy with," she said in an apparent reference to the kidnapper.

"How would your daughter or son feel when their skin feels ripped off their face?"

Zephany said she was writing supplementary exams and asked for privacy.

Her biological father, Morne Nurse, told AFP outside the court last week that her biological parents had "a bit of contact still" with Zephany, but would not comment further.

After the verdict Thursday, Celeste and Morne Nurse were mobbed by journalists but would not comment beyond saying: "Thank you, thank you."

It is believed that they have contracted to sell their story.
One of France's earliest-known Roman taverns is still littered with drinking bowls and animal bones, even though more than 2,000 years have passed since it served patrons, a new archaeological study finds.

An excavation uncovered dozens of other artifacts, including plates and bowls, three ovens, and the base of a millstone that was likely used for grinding flour, the researchers said.

The finding is a valuable one, said study co-researcher Benjamin Luley, a visiting assistant professor of anthropology and classics at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. Before the Romans invaded the south of France, in 125 B.C., a culture speaking the Celtic language lived there and practiced its own customs. [See Photos of the Ancient Roman Tavern Discovered in France]

These Celtic people lived in densely settled, fortified sites during the Iron Age (750 B.C. to 125 B.C.), trading with cultures near and far, the researchers said. But after the Roman invasion, the Celtic culture at this location changed socially and economically, Luley said.

For instance, the new findings suggest that some people under the Romans stopped preparing their own meals and began eating at communal places, such as taverns.

"Rome had a big impact on southern France," Luley told Live Science. "We don't see taverns before the Romans arrive."

Tavern clues

The newly excavated tavern is located at Lattara, an archaeological site that's been known to modern researchers since the early 1980s. But Luley and his colleague Gae?l Pique?s, a researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research, were specifically looking for artifacts dating to the end of the Iron Age, when the Romans arrived, the archaeologists said.

The researchers were in luck: The site they uncovered dates to about 125 B.C. to 75 B.C., spanning the period following the Roman conquest, and was located at the intersection of two important streets, the scientists said.

Story continues

At first, the researchers weren't sure what to make of it. But a number of clues suggested the site was once a bustling tavern, one that likely served fish, flatbread, and choice cuts of cows and sheep, Luley said.

The excavated area includes a courtyard and two large rooms; one was dedicated to cooking and making flour, and the other was likely reserved for serving patrons, the researchers said.

There are three large bread ovens on one end of the kitchen, which indicates that "this isn't just for one family," but likely an establishment for serving many people, Luley said. On the other side of the kitchen, the researchers found a row of three stone piles, likely bases for a millstone that helped people grind flour, Luley said.

"One side, they're making flour. On the other side, they're making flatbread," Luley said. "And they're also probably using the ovens for other things as well." For example, the archaeologists found lots of fish bones and scales that someone had cut off during food preparation, Luley added. [Photos: Mosaic Glass Dishes and Bronze Jugs from Roman England]

The other room was likely a dining room, the researchers said. The archaeologists uncovered a large fireplace and a bench along three of the walls that would have accommodated Romans, who reclined when they ate, Luley said. Moreover, the researchers found different kinds of animal bones, such as wishbones and fish vertebra, which people simply threw on the floor. (At that time, people didn't have the same level of cleanliness as some do now, Luley noted.)

The dining room also had "an overrepresentation of drinking bowls," used for serving wine  more than would typically be seen in a regular house, he said.

Next to the two rooms was a courtyard filled with more animal bones and an offering: a buried stone millstone, a drinking bowl and a plate that likely held cuts of meat.

"Based upon the evidence presented here, it appears that the courtyard complex  functioned as a space for feeding large numbers of people, well beyond the needs of a single domestic unit or nuclear family," the researchers wrote in the study. "This is unusual, as large, 'public' communal spaces for preparing large amounts of food and eating together are essentially nonexistent in Iron Age Mediterranean France."

Perhaps some of the people of Lattara needed places like the tavern to provide meals for them after the Romans arrived, Luley said.

"If they might be, say, working in the fields, they might not be growing their own food themselves," he said. And though the researchers haven't found any coins at the tavern yet, "We think that this is a beginning of the monetary economy" at Lattera, Luley said.

The study was published in the February issue of the journal Antiquity.

Follow Laura Geggel on Twitter @LauraGeggel. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Johannesburg (AFP) - A South African court ruled Thursday that a Polish immigrant who shot dead the anti-apartheid hero Chris Hani in 1993 should be released on parole after 23 years behind bars.

Janusz Walus, 63, is serving a life sentence for the murder, which took the country to the brink of a race war and sent shockwaves across the world.

"The court has ordered (Walus) be released within 14 days and the matter be referred back to the parole board to set his parole conditions," Walus's lawyer Julian Knight told AFP.

But the ruling African National Congress, in power since the end of apartheid in 1994, called the judgement a "travesty of justice" and said Walus should be sent back to Poland.

"(Hani's) death robbed our nation of a committed revolutionary who embodied the undying resolve to freedom and liberation," the party said in a statement.

"The African National Congress demands that Janusz Walus is immediately deported to his country of origin on his release, never to return to South Africa."

A supporter of the extreme right-wing movement, Walus immigrated to South Africa from then-communist Poland in 1981.

According to Knight, he is now a South African citizen.

- 'A watershed moment' -

Hani was the general secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and chief of staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

He was shot dead in the driveway of his house on April 10, 1993 in a suburb east of Johannesburg, one year before South Africa's first multi-racial elections. The incident sparked protests in black townships.

Still in negotiations with the apartheid government over an election date, then-ANC president Nelson Mandela appeared on national television to appeal for calm.

"Now is the time for all South Africans to stand together against those who, from any quarter, wish to destroy what Chris Hani gave his life for -- the freedom of all of us," he said.

Story continues

"This is a watershed moment for all of us."

The SACP said in a statement Walus was unrepentant and that it would not leave the court's decision unchallenged: "We are studying the judgement and will decide on the next course of action."

Walus's lawyer said his client was remorseful, adding: "He qualifies for release in terms of the department of correctional services' own policy guidelines."

Last year, the man who provided Walus with the gun he used to kill Hani was released on medical grounds.

Clive Derby-Lewis, 79, who is suffering from lung cancer went to court after several unsuccessful applications to the parole board.

Hani's family has repeatedly opposed the bail applications of both Derby-Lewis and Walus, arguing neither had shown no remorse since they were jailed in 1993.

One of South Africa's most notorious murderers, Eugene de Kock, was granted parole in January 2015 after 20 years in jail.

De Kock, dubbed "Prime Evil", was sentenced in 1996 to two life terms plus 212 years in prison for his activities as head of a police death squad targeting anti-apartheid activists.
There are plenty of misconceptions about Frances infamous 35-hour workweek, which perhaps go uncorrected because they limit opportunities to make jokes about the French. As one French economist explained in 2014, the 35-hour standard isn't the law of the land, but simply a threshold above which overtime or rest days start to kick in.

For example, Frances white-collar employees typically work far above and well beyond that threshold and, unlike their masochistic American compatriots, they are compensated for it. Meanwhile, those workers whose hours are capped at 35, including many blue-collar workers, only constitute about one-third of the French workforce.

Nevertheless, the symbolic value of the work-life balance in France still has its passionate defenders. Tens of thousands of demonstrators in Paris and across the country protested Wednesday against a bill by the ruling Socialist Party that would alter the countrys labor laws, including the 35-hour arrangement that the Socialists themselves first introduced in 2000. At the time, the measure happened to result in a major drop in unemployment as jobs were shared more evenly. However, many credit that to an expanding French economy.

Recommended: Obama: A Spock Governing a Nation of Kirks

Now, many in the government argue that the reforms are needed to fix the countrys double-digit unemployment rate and that the bill would bring France in step with the rest of Europes labor practices, where unions and employers negotiate the length of the workweek. Others have argued that Frances standards are outdated given how interconnected Europes economies have become.

The collection of students, union workers, and leftist activists at the heart of the demonstrations argue that the new measures would give companies the power to conduct more lay-offs and cut worker pay and hours.

This bill is supposed to help hiring but all I see is that it helps dismissal, one student protester told Reuters.

Story continues

According to the AP, police said the protests in Paris alone drew nearly 30,000 participants while unions put the figure closer to 80,000 to 100,000.

Banking his political future on a drop in unemployment is President Francois Hollande, whose personal popularity may have surged in the wake of Novembers attacks in Paris, but whose partys prospects continue to dim as the French economyEuropes second-largest stagnates. Hollande and others within the Socialist Party are facing dissent within their own ranks over the bill.

Should France ultimately change its labor code, which is infamously longer than the Bible, there would (hopefully) be some comfort in the fact that France still gets the fifth-highest number of vacation days in the developed world.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
San Francisco del Rincon (Mexico) (AFP) - With an F-bomb against Donald Trump that made global headlines, Mexico's former president Vicente Fox expressed the anger felt by his compatriots against the equally potty-mouthed White House hopeful.

While Fox has had choice words for the Republican front-runner, the two men actually share some things in common.

They are both grandsons of immigrants. They are both successful businessmen -- one a former Coca-Cola executive in Mexico, the other a New York real estate mogul. And they both tapped discontent among voters to challenge the political establishment in their countries.

But there is no love lost between the Mexican politician with the famous mustache and the fellow conservative from the United States with the famous hairdo.

In an interview with AFP at his ranch in San Francisco del Rinco, central Guanajuato state, Fox had more tough words for the real estate mogul: "Ignorant ... crazy ... egocentric ... nasty ... false prophet."

He then looked at the AFP camera and pleaded, in English: "Wake up, America, from this nightmare!"

But it was an F-word heard around the world that got attention last month, when Fox, furious about Trump's vow to make Mexico foot the bill for a huge border barrier, told the US channel Fusion that he would not pay for Trump's "fucking wall."

Trump, who has not been shy about using expletives during the campaign, expressed shock on Twitter and demanded an apology from Fox, who was president from 2000 to 2006.

President Enrique Pena Nieto chimed in this week, telling the newspaper Excelsior that Trump's "strident tone" was reminiscent of the rhetoric that led to the rise of Hitler and Mussolini.

But it was the 73-year-old former president's expletive that resonated in Mexico, where people have designed T-shirts with insults against Trump or created pinatas of his likeness.

"Don't make me talk about Trump," Fox quipped to AFP journalists as he showed up at the interview wearing a cowboy hat in his Fox Center think tank, which shares space at his country estate where he also raises cattle.

Story continues

But he takes a possible Trump presidency seriously.

"We have to act now, not wait until he is sitting in the president's chair," said Fox, who ended 71 years of uninterrupted rule by Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party in 2000.

- Hitler, Chavez and Trump -

Fox is the descendant of an Irish family that migrated to the United States. His grandfather, who was born in the US state of Ohio, ended up seeking his fortune in Mexico.

Trump's grandfather, meanwhile, immigrated to the United States from Germany.

This is why Fox has a hard time understanding why Trump, 69, has taken a harsh stance on immigration -- calling Mexican migrants rapists and drug traffickers -- when he has migrant roots.

"A discriminator who thinks that the white race is the supreme race makes me think of Hitler. ... He initially made proposals in a democratic environment, but once he was in power he turned into a dictator, like Hugo Chavez," Fox said, referring to the late socialist Venezuelan leader.

The former Mexican leader, who himself drew controversy in 2002 when he said that Mexicans in the United States did the "jobs that not even the blacks want to do," got really riled up when discussing Trump's plan to deport millions of undocumented migrants.

"That damn guy, let's see if we don't start with (deporting) him first," he said.

- 'God save us' -

Fox is also disappointed with Trump's top Republican rivals, senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, who are both sons of Cuban migrants but also have called for mass deportations.

"God save us from them because the Republicans weren't like that before. ... Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio reject their own roots," he said.

"They can put up a big wall, they can abuse us. We are small here but we are spicy, like chili peppers. We, Mexicans, don't let anyone offend us," Fox said.

While Trump is favored to win the Republican nomination, Fox has his own prediction: "This character will die politically for being a liar, for being a false prophet."
News Story not available

This story has been published on: 2022-10-22. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.

This story is no longer available on our site.
Dorian Murray and his family on Facebook. [Photo/Asianewsphoto.com]

He captured the hearts of people in the country that he wanted to be famous in, China, and many there and around the globe on Wednesday expressed their sadness that 8-year-old Dorian Murray had succumbed to long battle against terminal cancer.

Dorian, of Westerly, Rhode Island, was diagnosed with a rare and untreatable form of pediatric cancer when he was 4. After cancer cells spread to his spine and brain a few months ago, he and his family decided to stop his chemotherapy treatment so he could enjoy the time he had left.

His death was announced late Tuesday night on the Praying for Dorian Facebook page, which had documented his struggle with cancer with the hashtag "#dstrong".

"I'm not ready," his mother Melissa Murray posted on Tuesday morning before he died. "But, I never will be."

Kathryn Thomas, a close friend of the Murray family posted the announcement on Facebook just after 11 pm. "It is with a very heavy heart that I share this news. Dorian J. Murray (#DStrong) has gained his beautiful angel wings tonight and is now pain free. He was surrounded by people who love him and his transition to heaven was very peaceful. He was embraced by both mom and dad."

Thomas wrote that the family is asking for "privacy and respect" as they grieve.

Dorian had told his father he wanted to be famous in China before he went to heaven. "Because they have that bridge," Dorian said, meaning the Great Wall. In early January 2016, his mother posted the wish on Dorian's Facebook page, looking for someone in China to send a picture to Dorian with the #D-Strong sign.

The boy's wish spread in China and across the globe. Tens of thousands of Chinese posted the story on Chinese social media, and many went to the Great Wall holding signs saying, "You are very famous in China".

On a recent day, a woman was still sharing photos on China's Weibo online site of herself on the Great Wall holding a sign: "Dorian STRONG. You are famous in here. Welcome to China!"

"Though it's been two months since he had the dream, I'm here. I'm at the top of the Great Wall to make his dream come true," she wrote.

Thousands reacted to the posting of his death.

"Tonight I shed tears for a boy I didn't even know, yet I'll never forget," wrote Jessica Tulli on Facebook. "Thanks Dorian, Chris, and Melissa, you have all showed the world what really matters."

"We are thankful for your life and the strength you brought to us. You earned everyone's respect. Wish you have a long and beautiful dream, so long and beautiful that you don't want to wake up," a woman posted on Weibo.

In the past two months, Dorian and his family had also received invitations to travel to China, but declined due to his health.

The Dorian J. Murray Foundation was set up by the family as Dorian legacy, "keeping his name and the #dstrong movement alive forever." The fund's mission is to bring a level of awareness to pediatric cancer and support the families of diagnosed children.

hezijiang@chinadailyusa.com
Candidates in the 2016 presidential elections need to understand the power of the black vote.

DeRay Mckesson, well-known black rights activist and Baltimore Mayoral candidate, has been watching the Democratic race for president closely. Ive met with Bernie, and Ive met with Hillary, he tells Yahoo Finance. I think that Bernie is growing in his understanding of race.

Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have both been vocal on issues that impact the black community. Clinton recently spoke about systemic racism in the United States in front of a mostly black crowd in Harlem. In Chicago, she told crowds that each year the Windy Citys schools suspend, on average, 32 out of 100 black children and only five out of every 100 white children.

In a memorable debate moment that was shared many times over, Sanders boomed, We need to combat institutional racism from top to bottom, and we need major, major reforms in a broken criminal justice system.

But the candidates have also made missteps. When asked to explain his racial blind spots during a recent debate on CNN, Sanders said, When youre white, you dont know what its like to be living in a ghetto  you dont know what its like to be poor. The backlash was immediate, with online commenters pointing out that the term ghetto has an offensive connotation in the black community. Both Sybrina Fulton and Lucia McBath, the mothers of slain black teenagers Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis, respectively, cited the comment in their endorsements of Clinton.

I think [Bernie Sanders] has a firm understanding of economic inequity [but]  with his understanding of racial inequity, he is still learning, and that statement made it clear that he has more to learn, says Mckesson.

Mckesson believes Clinton is slow to cover black-rights topics and has some questions about her authenticity. Theres a question with her about the sincerity with which shes putting forth these plans. But, he says, she has actually proposed an impressive plan around closing the racial wealth gap.

One thing is for sure, Mckesson will not be endorsing Donald Trump for president. Donald Trump is a bigot who does not appreciate different cultures in America, he tells Yahoo.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met on Wednesday night in Ramallah and discussed the ongoing violence between Israelis and Palestinians, the White House said. During the visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, Biden strongly condemned an attack on Tuesday in Jaffa, in which U.S. tourist Taylor Force was killed, the White House statement said. Biden also reiterated continuing U.S. support for "a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and urged all parties to take steps to de-escalate tensions, uphold obligations, and prevent inflammatory rhetoric," the statement said. (Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Amman (AFP) - US Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday during a visit to American troops training Jordan's military that it will take a "long time" to defeat the Islamic State jihadist group.

"We are going to defeat ISIL (IS). They are already on their heels. Its going to take a long time, going to take a long time," he told the troops at a training centre outside the city of Zarqa, northeast of Jordan's capital Amman.

"They are no existential threat to the United States. Weve got you and the people you are training, the finest military tactics in the world," Biden said on a joint visit with King Abdullah II.

Biden earlier held talks at the royal palace with the king, whose country has been a member of a US-led coalition fighting IS in Syria and Iraq since 2014.

The king stressed the need to "support the Iraqi government's efforts in fighting against Daesh", using an Arabic acronym for IS, the palace said in a statement.

It said Biden and King Abdullah also held talks on the conflict in neighbouring Syria and the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Biden, winding up a regional tour which has also taken him to Israel, the Palestinian territories and the United Arab Emirates, discussed "efforts for peace between Palestinians and Israelis based on a two-state solution".

The king called for an end to "Israeli violations" of Christian and Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, the palace said.

Biden's wife, Jill, on Thursday visited the Zaatari refugee camp that is home to some 80,000 Syrian refugees in northern Jordan.

The kingdom says it is hosting 1.4 million Syrian refugees -- equal to 20 percent of its population and more than twice as many as the 600,000 figure given by the UN refugee agency UNHCR.

Syria's five-year conflict has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced millions.
By Alonso Soto and Silvio Cascione BRASILIA (Reuters) - The Brazilian government will monitor political tensions before deciding whether to move ahead with a controversial bill to reform Brazil's pension system in April, Pension and Labor Minister Miguel Rossetto told Reuters. Rossetto, a senior Workers' Party member, said the reform agenda was important but could be delayed by the political crisis following Friday's detention of the party's founder and former president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in a corruption investigation. Lula's brief detention for police questioning has emboldened opposition calls for the ouster of his handpicked successor, Dilma Rousseff, who is scrambling to pull Brazil out of its worst recession in decades. "We will evaluate. It is obvious we have to assess the political dynamics after what happened on Friday," Rossetto said. "The government is not interested in a conflictive agenda." A day earlier, Finance Minister Nelson Barbosa told Reuters the government would stick with plans to submit the pension overhaul in April despite the political crisis. Barbosa said he disagreed with a proposal to charge social security benefits on commodity exporters, but Rossetto said that option could not be ruled out yet. The disagreements highlight a lack of consensus within the administration to put together a pension reform that has been opposed by powerful pro-Rousseff unions. Rousseff has been torn between market demands for further austerity and political allies who favor additional public spending to rescue the economy. Union leaders, business groups and government officials started talks last week to draft the pension reform bill, which the administration promised to deliver in April. It remains uncertain whether it will include a minimum retirement age, Rossetto said. Many Workers' Party lawmakers have publicly criticized Rousseff for her plans to reform Brazil's costly pension system, fearing a reduction in the benefits of future retirees. However, Rossetto said the party was united in helping Rousseff weather attacks by coup-mongers in the opposition that have paralyzed Congress. "She is one of the biggest leaders of our party," the minister said. He said the government was concerned with the prospect of violence during anti-government rallies across the country called by the opposition for Sunday. He also said a recent market rally on hopes Rousseff will be ousted is likely to be temporary. "Speculators will lose money," he said. (Additional reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu and Daniel Flynn; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
By Laura Zuckerman

(Reuters) - An executive with a Beverly Hills gallery and auction house has pleaded guilty of conspiring to smuggling at least $1 million in animal products that included rhino horn and elephant ivory, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Joseph Chait, 38, a senior auction administrator with I.M. Chait Gallery/Auctioneers, could be sentenced to up to five years in prison on the wildlife smuggling charge, the U.S. Justice Department said.

He also faces a maximum prison term of five years after pleading guilty to violating a federal law that bans trade involving illegally gained wildlife, they said.

Chait falsified customs forms by stating ivory and rhino horn were made of bone, wood or plastic. After a rhino carving sold at auction for $230,000, Chait made false documents putting the value at $108.75, and saying the object was made of plastic, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Lawyers for Chait were not immediately available for comment.

The case comes as conservationists and law enforcement officials in the United States and globally have been trying to crack down on the illegal trade in products from the two threatened species.

Rhino horn sells at prices higher than gold in places such as Vietnam, where a belief with no basis in science has emerged in the past few years that it can be used to cure cancer.

South Africa, which has more rhinos than any other country in Africa, saw nearly 1,200 of the animals killed by poachers in 2015, its environment ministry said.

From South Sudan, where conservationists say elephants are being slain by both government forces and rebels, to South Africa, there is an arc of illegal animal slaughter in the continent.

Global trade in rhino horn is banned under the terms of U.N. convention CITES. Elsewhere in Africa, elephant poaching for ivory has been rampant, with Asia also the main market for the illicit commodity.

Hollywood actor Nicholas Cage in December agreed to turn over a rare stolen dinosaur skull he bought from I.M. Chait after U.S. authorities in New York filed a civil forfeiture complaint seeking to take possession of the item so it could be repatriated to Mongolia.

Neither Cage nor the gallery was accused of wrongdoing in the affair.

(Reporting by Laura Zuckerman in Salmon, Idaho; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Sandra Maler)
An Iraqi Christian woman holds a cross during Mass at the Church of the Virgin of Nasiriyah in Amman, Jordan, in 2014. (Photo: Muhammad Hamed/Reuters)

The Knights of Columbus, one of the largest Catholic fraternal organizations in the world, is calling on President Obama to declare that the Islamic State is guilty of genocide against Christians.

The group is releasing on Thursday a nearly 300-page report on an ISIS campaign of torture, murder, rape and enslavement in the areas it controls in Iraq and Syria.

The Obama administration has come under increasing pressure to formally invoke the genocide label against ISIS, as the Islamic State is also known, a dramatic step with uncertain political, legal and even military consequences. Congress last year set a March 17 deadline for the State Department to announce its determination of whether or not the Islamic State meets the relevant legal definitions.

The Knights of Columbus report, which was obtained by Yahoo News, urges Obama to include Christians in any genocide determination affecting the Islamic State.

The report includes a legal brief making the case that actions by ISIS meet the definition of genocide as laid out in a 1948 treaty. That agreement requires signatories, including the United States, to take steps to prevent and to punish genocide, which it defines as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical [sic], racial or religious group.

The Knights of Columbus report includes extensive witness statements collected from people who fled areas overrun by the Islamic State, with stories of violence against the elderly and children, extortion, beheadings, crucifixions, rapes and more. And it contains lists of Christians killed and churches ransacked, and what appears to be an ISIS price list for sex slaves.

ISIS is committing genocide  the crime of crimes  against Christians and other religious groups in Syria, Iraq and Libya, the report says. It is time for the United States to join the rest of the world by naming it and by taking action against it as required by law.

Story continues

The Thursday press conference will include remarks by Father Douglas al-Bazi, a priest at Mar Elia Refugee Camp in Erbil, Iraq.

I am personally begging the people of America to recognize a genocide, al-Bazi told Yahoo News by telephone on Wednesday. The priest despaired for the Christian community in Iraq and Syria. Its enough: We were two million, now we are 300,000, and I know that in another five years we will disappear.

Slideshow: Christians flee the Islamic State >>>

A displaced Iraqi Christian woman holds a picture of her 4-year-old relative, David, who was killed by militants, at St. Joseph Church in Irbil, Iraq, in 2014. (Photo: Khalid Mohammed/AP)

Yahoo News was first to report last November that the administration was looking to invoke the genocide label. The plan drew controversy from the outset. The State Department at the time was considering a declaration covering only the Yazidis, an ethnic/religious minority of about 500,000 in northern Iraq, whom ISIS had openly declared its intention to exterminate.

Christian groups and members of Congress quickly insisted that the Islamic States atrocities against Christians in Iraq and Syria amounted to genocide as well.

In December, the Knights of Columbus wrote a letter requesting a meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry to make their case for why the atrocities against Christians amounted to genocide. The meeting never happened, but State Department officials asked the organization to put together a dossier of evidence they could review. That led to the creation of the report.

Kerry said in late February that he would decide soon on whether to make a genocide declaration. In August 2014, the senator-turned-top-diplomat had said the Islamic States actions against Yazidis and Christians bear all the warning sings and hallmarks of genocide.

The House of Representatives is expected to approve a nonbinding resolution next week declaring that the Islamic State is guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against the Yazidis, Christians and other ethnic and religious minorities. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, has declared that there is enough evidence to make the declaration. The Knights of Columbus have also secured some 60,000 signatures on an online petition pressing Kerry not to exclude Christians from the designation. Signatories include Republican presidential candidate John Kasich.

Displaced Iraqi Christians take refuge at the St. Joseph Church in Irbil, Iraq, in 2014. (Photo: Khalid Mohammed/AP)

And Yahoo News recently reported that the issue has become the subject of an intense debate inside the administration.

Sources told Yahoo News that questions remain about whether the Islamic States actions rise to the level of genocide. Some officials argue that, while the group has openly declared it aims to wipe out the Yazidis, its leaders have not said the same about Christians  although it has targeted them with killings, kidnappings, the destruction of churches and other violence.

The report aims to rebut that argument, noting that the treaty definition covers actions against a group in whole or in part and citing ISIS rhetoric about wiping out Christians, notably in its official Dabiq magazine.

We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women, by the permission of Allah, the Exalted. This is His promise to us. He is glorified and He does not fail in His promise. If we do not reach that time, then our children and grandchildren will reach it, and they will sell your sons as slaves at the slave market, one such passage reads.

The practical impact of the genocide designation is unclear. Sources recently told Yahoo News that Pentagon officials worry that it would impose a moral obligation on the United States to take military steps to protect the afflicted populations, potentially taking resources away from the efforts to degrade and destroy ISIS.

Either way, top Obama aides underline that the United States has hardly been idle when it comes to protecting those targeted by ISIS, with or without the genocide designation.

It has significant consequences, and it matters for a whole variety of reasons, both legal and moral, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said early last month. But it doesnt change our response. And the fact is that this administration has been aggressive, even though that term has not been applied, in trying to protect religious minorities who are victims or potential victims of violence.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China expressed alarm on Thursday about an agreement in which the Philippines will lease five aircraft from Japan to help patrol the disputed South China Sea. Philippine President Benigno Aquino said the five TC-90 training aircraft would help the navy in patrolling what the Philippines views as its territory. The Philippines has made the modernization of its air and naval forces a priority as China deploys missiles and fighters on a number of artificial islands in the South China Sea. China claims almost the entire South China Sea, where about $5 trillion worth of ship-borne trade passes annually. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims to parts of the sea. "If the Philippines' actions are to challenge China's sovereignty and security interests, China is resolutely opposed," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a daily news briefing. "I also want to point out that Japan is not a party to the South China Sea issue and we are on high guard against its moves. We demand that Japan speak and act cautiously and not do anything to harm regional peace and stability." 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. The Philippine military, for decades preoccupied with domestic insurgencies, has been shifting its focus to territorial defense, allocating 83 billion pesos ($1.77 billion) until 2017 to upgrade and modernize its air force and navy. Allies the United States and South Korea have already offered help to bolter air capabilities and Aquino announced the arrival this year of two refurbished C130 transport planes from the United States. Already in the Philippines military's plans is the acquisition of a squadron of multi-role fighters, air-to-ground missile batteries, early warning aircraft and drones. Last week, the Philippines and Japan signed a deal on the transfer of military equipment and technology, a document Japan needs to allow it to export weapons and guarantee they will not be transferred to a third party. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard)
Sri Lanka on Thursday granted permission for China to build a vast "port city" in the island's capital, despite concerns the ambitious project could be an environmental disaster.

President Maithripala Sirisena had suspended the contentious $1.4 billion plan to build on reclaimed land next to Colombo's main harbour, shortly after taking power in January last year.

But the port city, initiated by Chinese President Xi Jinping in September 2014 and expected to include real estate, a marina and a Formula One racetrack, has again been given the green light.

"The Cabinet Committee on Economic Management has recommended allowing resumption of the project subject to limitations and conditions stipulated in the EIA (environmental impact assessment)," the government said in a statement.

It did not say what the conditions were, but official sources told AFP that Chinese investors were given permission to resume work on the project without any major modifications.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has said reclaiming land next to the harbour could trigger erosion along the island's western coastline and threaten its vital tourist industry.

The project, funded by Chinese state-owned company China Communications Construction, represents the biggest single foreign investment ever received by Sri Lanka.

It will add 233 hectares (575 acres) of new real estate in the congested capital.

Sirisena's government had ordered a review of all big-ticket construction projects signed by his predecessor Mahinda Rajapakse, who is under investigation over allegations of corruption during his decade in power.

Rajapakse relied heavily on China to rebuild the country's infrastructure after the end of the island's decades-long ethnic war in May 2009.

China, the largest single lender to Sri Lanka, secured contracts to build roads, railways and ports under the Rajapakse regime.

However, the present administration has accused the previous government of agreeing to unfavourable terms for the Chinese loans.

Sirisena's government is seeking an International Monetary Fund bail out of an unspecified amount of money to bolster the island's foreign reserves.

Beijing has been accused of seeking to develop facilities around the Indian Ocean in a "string of pearls" strategy to counter the rise of rival India and secure its own economic interests.
(This version of the story corrects paragraph 20 to data instead of Eikon and adds the dropped word "there") 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 Reuters' data and the Equasis shipping database, although there was 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 toward 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)
Wellington (AFP) - The tiny Pacific nation of Kiribati has elected a new president, ending the 12-year rule of veteran climate campaigner Anote Tong, his office said Thursday.

The low-lying island nation's new leader is Taneti Maamau, who won a national vote held on Wednesday, the presidential office told AFP.

Unconfirmed figures gave Maamau, from the opposition Tobwaan Kiribati Party, 60 percent of the vote in the three-candidate field, with nearest rival Rimeta Beniamina on 38.5 percent and newcomer Tianeti Ioane trailing on 1.5 percent.

Maamau's predecessor Tong had to step down after completing the maximum of three presidential terms.

In that time he put Kiribati, a grouping of about 30 islands with a population of 100,000, at the centre of the global climate change debate.

He travelled the world pointing out that his homeland lies barely two metres (6.5 feet) above sea level and is in danger of being submerged by rising tides.

As recently as December, Tong was at a UN conference in Paris, lobbying world leaders charged with forging a breakthrough climate pact.

"We must never ever allow ourselves as a species, to leave anyone behind," he told AFP at the time.

Tong also developed a string of radical schemes designed to help his people cope if their homeland was swamped.

Some -- such as housing them on giant artificial floating islands with skyscrapers and resort complexes -- were attention-grabbing notions designed to stir debate on a difficult topic.

But he also pioneered the concept of "migration with dignity" -- training islanders mostly used to a fishing lifestyle to give them useful skills if they were forced to become climate change refugees.

He will retire from politics and is expected to continue his climate advocacy after stepping down.
This election cycle keeps demolishing expectations on both sides of the aisle. In Tuesdays contests, Donald Trump defied analysts who predicted a decline in his support after the Republican field narrowed and Trump finally came under heavy fire from negative ads and debate attacks.

Those predictions turned out to be as accurate as earlier ones that shrugged off Trump as a flash-in-the-pan, a momentary vicarious release of populist anger. Trump easily won primaries in Michigan and Mississippi, as well as the GOP caucuses in Hawaii. Marco Rubio, who led the negative attacks on Trump, was shut out of the delegate allocation in all four contests.

Related: No, Closed Primaries Are Not Donald Trumps Kryptonite

Democrats offered a big surprise of their own on Tuesday. Hillary Clinton expected to roll over Bernie Sanders in Tuesdays two Democratic contests after losing both Maine and Nebraska to the progressive upstart over the weekend. Clinton won Mississippi easily as expected, but Michigan refused to play to the script. She had a commanding polling lead in the key Rust Belt state; not one poll listed by Real Clear Politics for the entire 2016 cycle put Sanders on top, and only one taken in September put her lead at less than double digits. The polling average over the last month had Clinton ahead by 21 points in the primary state. And yet Sanders pulled off a stunning upset, edging Clinton 49.8/48.3 in the popular vote.

What happened? Clinton had hardly neglected Michigan. She made the water crisis in Flint a particular focus of her attention, sending daughter Chelsea to head up relief efforts in the beleaguered city. At the same time, Clinton dropped what she must have expected to be a devastating blow on Sanders  his vote against the automaker bailouts during the financial crisis. In Michigan, where the automobile industry has dominated state politics for decades, that attack could easily have been considered fatal to even the thin hope Sanders had of gaining delegates in the proportional-allocation primary.

Story continues

Sanders fought back nonetheless. He rebuked the attack as a cheap shot, noting that he had voted for a stand-alone automaker bailout package earlier. His objection, Sanders explained, was in rolling the automaker assistance into the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which bailed out Wall Street with inadequate government oversight. Hillary Clinton, Sanders pointed out, supported the Wall Street bailout package.

Related: How Sanders Defied the Odds to Beat Clinton in Michigan

That may have had a significant role in yesterdays upset. Esquires Charles Pierce spent a few days in Flint and discovered the depth of Clintons miscalculation. Calling it one of the more interesting examples of unintended consequences that I'd heard in a while, Pierce reported that Flint voters found Clintons attack offensive and cynical.

Exit polls showed that the problems ran deeper than just the question of bailouts. Clintons accusation opened her up not just on the bailout issue but also on her support for free trade agreements that autoworkers believe left them unfairly vulnerable to foreign competitors. The Detroit Free Press quotes pollster Bernie Porn as saying that Clintons connections to Wall Street corporations and her support for free-trade deals  such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Barack Obama wants Congress to sign  caused the political earthquake in Michigan. "The trade issue was a late-breaking issue that not only affected the whole discourse of the campaign, Porn said. I think it turned a lot of voters away from Hillary Clinton.

This corresponds with the remarks made by an exultant Trump after being declared the Republican primary winner in Michigan, touching on a major theme of his campaign since it launched nearly a year ago  trade. During his rambling, stream-of-consciousness remarks after the win, Trump repeatedly emphasized that our trading partners and allies take advantage of the American worker, and blamed it on the babies doing the negotiations for the US. They have no fear of our government, Trump declared. Theyre dealing with babies.  They are grandmaster players and we have people that shouldnt be negotiating for us.

Related: Even Bad-Boy Trump Can't Seem to Stop Trump

This gets to the heart of the populist moment in the US. It goes beyond disappointment and frustration with the political institutions of our country, although it certainly includes that. Voters are not turning to Trump and Sanders only because Congress job approval ratings remain mired in single digits. The problem is less that of a failed system than of a rigged system, where corporations have pushed a free-trade agenda that has stalled American wage growth, led to uncontrolled immigration, and two parties who have more interest in the status quo than in the welfare of ordinary Americans. That system has set the wolves on American workers, many voters feel, and left their fate in the hands of babies, or worse.

That appears to be true even in the Republican Party, which has long stood for open markets and free trade as a philosophical touchstone. Trump may not do quite as well in closed primaries as he does in those contests where non-Republicans can vote, but its clear that most of his support comes from Republican voters, a conclusion reached by The Washington Posts Philip Bump as well. The GOP has always had a minority contingent preaching protectionism, but in this cycle, it may have become a plurality on its way to a majority.

It may seem ironic that Trump, of all people, has captured that impulse and helped transform it into a movement. As Marco Rubio and others have pointed out, most of Trumps products are manufactured abroad  in China and Mexico particularly. However, Trump argues that hes only living in the environment created by decades of failed American leadership, and that  in some sense  it takes a globalist to arrest globalization.

The lesson this week is that voters want not just a fight, but potentially a trade war. If they cant get that from the so-called establishment, then theyll look to outsider populists like Trump and Sandershoping they can deliver on their promises. We may have reached the limits of American engagement in globalized markets, and a new era of incremental protectionism, mandated by voters who are determined to overturn all of the apple carts. Free-market conservatives may find themselves searching in vain for a chair when the music stops in a Trump-led GOP.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Geneva (AFP) - The mass expulsion of migrants from Greece to Turkey under a draft EU-Ankara deal to ease the migrant crisis would be "illegal," the UN warned Thursday, as some of the bloc's own ministers also criticised the plan.

While EU countries squabbled over how to cope with the continent's worst migration crisis since World War II, UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said the proposed deal with Turkey raised "a number of very serious concerns".

"Among my concerns is the potential for collective and arbitrary expulsions, which are illegal," he told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

EU leaders had hoped the mooted deal with Turkey -- due to be finalised at an EU summit on March 17-18 -- could stem the flood of migrants streaming through the bloc in search of a better life, many fleeing the war in Syria.

Underscoring yet again the human tragedy of the crisis, a fresh shipwreck off the Turkish coast claimed five lives including a baby as a boat full of migrants heading for Greece capsized.

The EU-Turkey plan drawn up on Monday would see Ankara take back all migrants landing in Greece, in a bid to reduce their incentive to get to Europe.

In return for every Syrian expelled from Greece, the EU would resettle one Syrian refugee from camps in Turkey -- which is hosting about 2.7 million people who have fled the conflict across the border.

In exchange for its cooperation, 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 its efforts to join the EU.

But some EU ministers have voiced opposition to the plan.

"I am extremely critical," said Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting in Brussels.

"I am seriously wondering whether we are taking ourselves and our values seriously or if we are throwing them overboard," she said, in a reference to concerns over human rights violations in Turkey.

Story continues

- 'No future' for EU -

The migrant crisis has exposed sharp divisions in the 28-member bloc and the leaders of Greece and Germany blasted Balkan countries for slamming shut their borders.

The EU "has no future if it goes on like that," warned Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the closures were "neither sustainable nor lasting."

Their reactions flew in the face of the response of EU President Donald Tusk, who welcomed the Balkan route closure as part of a collective response from the bloc.

The strong words came after Slovenia and Croatia barred entry to transiting migrants from Wednesday and Serbia indicated it would follow suit.

EU member Slovenia said it would allow in only migrants wishing to claim asylum there or those seeking entry "on humanitarian grounds" and in accordance with Schengen rules.

The border closures have created a huge bottleneck on the Greece-Macedonia border.

European Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos on Thursday urged member states to speed up efforts to help relieve the burden, urging them to admit "at least 6,000" refugees a month from overstretched Greece and Italy.

Under a controversial scheme adopted in September, some 160,000 refugees are to be shared out across the bloc, but only 885 people have been relocated so far.

Slovenia on Thursday announced that it would begin accepting refugees from the scheme in April.

- Alternative routes -

Under pressure at home to reduce the influx, Merkel acknowledged that the western Balkan states' border actions "will obviously bring us fewer refugees, but they put Greece in a very difficult situation".

"If we do not manage to reach a deal with Turkey, then Greece cannot bear the burden for long," she told public radio MDR.

Her Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel noted that while some at home are "secretly pleased that the Balkan states... are doing Germany's dirty work", their actions would not help in the long term.

Merkel is battling to avoid leaving Greece in the lurch as the number of migrants stranded there is still steadily growing.

Meanwhile, Italy's interior minister Angelino Alfano voiced concern that migrants trapped in Greece would seek out alternative routes, such as travelling by sea to Albania and then to southern Italy.

But he added: "For now, there is no sign of such an enormous influx."

Spain's interior minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz worried that migrants might head to north Africa in order to reach Europe through Spain.

"We must not lower our guard," he warned.

Greek authorities said Thursday there were 41,973 asylum seekers in the country, including some 12,000 stuck at Idomeni on the closed Macedonian border.

Zeid said more than 400 people had died trying to reach Europe in the first two months of the year alone.
Havana (AFP) - Colombia will miss a March 23 deadline for a peace accord between the government and FARC rebels, after the guerrillas agreed Thursday with the president that more time is needed.

Speaking a day after Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said he would not sign a "bad deal" just to meet the self-imposed deadline, FARC peace negotiator Joaquin Gomez said the rebels agreed an extension was needed to end the half-century conflict.

"We agree with what (the president) said, that conditions aren't in place for the 23rd," Gomez said. "We agree that we should set another date by consensus."

The government and the FARC have been holding talks in the Cuban capital Havana since November 2012, seeking to end a grinding, complex conflict that has killed more than 260,000 people and uprooted 6.6 million.

Santos and FARC leader Timoleon Jimenez announced the deadline with much fanfare on September 23, when they met for the first time for the signing of a landmark deal on post-conflict justice, part of the hoped-for overall peace accord.

But as the date approaches the two sides have increasingly raised doubts about the feasibility of signing a final accord on schedule.

Expectations about the date had intensified after US President Barack Obama announced plans to travel to Cuba from March 20-22.

Peace negotiators have made several key advances in recent months, and have now reached deals on four of their six agenda items: justice for victims, land reform, political participation for ex-rebels and fighting the drug trafficking that has fueled the conflict in the world's largest cocaine-producing country.

The unsettled issues are disarmament and how to ratify the final accord.

The United Nations has agreed to monitor the end of the conflict once a final deal is in place.

- No decrease in violence -

Santos, who has staked his presidency on the peace process, has worked hard to shed the country's image of drugs and violence and recast it as a Latin American success story.

Story continues

He trumpeted the latest economic growth figure Thursday -- 3.1 percent for 2015.

"More reasons to keep up the optimism," he wrote on Twitter. "#IBelieveInColombia."

But the figure was the second consecutive year of slowdown from the 4.9-percent growth registered in 2013.

On the ground in Colombia, hostilities have almost entirely halted under a unilateral ceasefire observed by the FARC since July -- although a smaller rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), has not joined the peace process and continues periodic attacks.

The Red Cross warned that violence continues unabated in Colombia despite recent advances in the peace process.

"As they await the end of the armed conflict, many Colombians still don't feel the impact of the progress at the negotiations in Havana. They continue suffering multiple forms of violence," said Christoph Harnisch, the aid group's director in Colombia.

The Red Cross said that although massacres and battles have subsided, it registered the same level of violence in 2015 as in previous years, including kidnappings, murders, death threats, rapes and landmine explosions.

The organization urged Colombia to make a priority of finding the tens of thousands of people who have disappeared in the conflict -- a "humanitarian tragedy," said Red Cross official Deborah Schibler.

Colombia has 45,000 unsolved missing persons cases directly attributed to the war -- and the real figure could be even higher, she said, since families sometimes fear reprisals from guerrilla or paramilitary forces if they report their loved ones missing.

The Colombian conflict has drawn in multiple leftist rebel groups, right-wing death squads and drug traffickers over the years, with devastating spillover effects that have made the country among the most violent in the world.
KINSHASA (Reuters) - Activist groups in Democratic Republic of Congo urged the government on Thursday to revive plans for a new mining code, saying the higher revenues it would generate were vital to supporting a young democracy. The government of Africa's leading copper producer started a review of the 2002 mining code in 2012, aiming to increase state revenues and tighten environmental and social regulations. However, an official at the prime minister's office told Reuters last month the government had decided to freeze consideration of a draft code submitted to parliament last March until metal markets had recovered from their recent weakness. Benchmark copper prices fell 25 percent last year and several mines in Congo's copper-producing southeast have cut their workforces. A group of 42 Congolese non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that have participated in talks with the government and mining sector over the new code said on Thursday that difficult market conditions did not justify further delays. "Not doing it now is prolonging the bleeding of revenues in the sector which are needed to support our young democracy," they said in a statement that urged the government to clarify its position. Congo held its first free election in 2006. It is set to hold another election in November when President Joseph Kabila is due to step down. The country has never had a peaceful transition of power. Mining companies, which have lobbied hard against the new code, say more onerous taxes and royalties would drive away investment. However, the NGOs called the recent decline in minerals prices "a temporary and random event" and noted the existing code was passed when the average price of copper was about $1,500 per ton in 2002. Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange was trading at $4,915 a ton at 1215 GMT . Congo produced 995,805 tonnes of copper in 2015, down slightly from 2014. It also mines significant quantities of gold, tin and cobalt. (Reporting By Aaron Ross; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Mark Potter)
By Magdalena Mis LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is stepping up efforts to combat rape in a bid to shake off the label of being the "rape capital of the world", the presidential adviser on sexual violence said on Thursday. Sexual violence in Congo is often regarded as a by-product of years of fighting in the east of the country, where atrocities were blamed on soldiers and rebels - but rape is also rife beyond the conflict zones. President Joseph Kabila set up the office of presidential adviser on sexual violence and child recruitment in July 2014, and adviser Jeanine Mabunda Lioko says that while battling rape she is also trying to change the world's negative perception of the central African country. "This tag is making the work difficult. It's vested in the mentality of people," Mabunda Lioko said, speaking at an event organized by the London think tank Chatham House. "DRC does not only have this legacy of rape, there are also other stories which are not rape or politics." She said her main task was the fight against impunity, which meant improving the civilian and military justice systems and providing better services for rape victims. "There was a time when rapists were not held accountable for their crime and ... public officials were perceived as complacent about rape cases," said Mabunda Lioko, whose appointment the United Nations hailed as "a new dawn" in the fight against sexual violence in the DRC. "But we are trying to change this and move forward ... to inspire a culture of zero tolerance for sexual violence. We have tried to set up ... standards and precedents so that everybody can know that we are not joking any more about that issue." Between 2013 and 2015 there was a 50 percent reduction in cases of sexual violence in the DRC, Mabunda Lioko said, citing United Nations figures. "Now with the return of peace we have the opportunity to change the story, to change the narrative, to change the critical issue once and for all, we have no more excuse." In November, Congolese army general Jerome Kakwavu became the highest ranking official to be convicted of rape by a military tribunal in Congo, for a crime carried out while he was a rebel commander in northeastern Congo from 2003-2005. "You start at the top because day-to-day people need to get an example from the top, and they have to know that everybody is held accountable, no matter what (their rank or position)", Mabunda Lioko said. Her partners in the drive to reduce sexual violence include the Congolese army, which initially found her annoying and intrusive and considered excluding her, she said. One of the difficulties she faces is customs such as marrying off young girls, because people often do not understand that having sex with under-age girls amounts to rape, she said. "Some issues are taboos, (yet you have to) make them understand that you cannot build society by marrying 12-year-old girls." As part of the "Break the silence" campaign aimed at informing people about the laws governing these issues, Mabunda Lioko's office has set up a helpline for victims, offering to refer them to medical and legal experts. Millions died in a war in eastern Congo between 1998 and 2003, mostly from hunger and disease. The region has since been plagued by instability, as the government has struggled to stop dozens of armed groups competing for its vast natural resources. (Reporting by Magdalena Mis, editing by Tim Pearce. Please credit Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, womens rights, corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org)
Lyle Denniston looks at the debate over the next Supreme Court nominee and how the upcoming November presidential and congressional elections may have different impacts on that process.

THE STATEMENTS AT ISSUE:

The Senate purports to be acting in the public interest by waiting until the next president is elected, on the theory that the next presidents nominee may better reflect a changing will of the people. But this argument rings hollow because the public has already cast its vote in electing our current president to serve a (second) term  not just three years and two months of it.

 Excerpt from a letter sent to Republican leaders of the Senate on March 1 by Debra L. Raskin, president of the New York City Bar Association, urging them to reconsider their plan to take no action on any Supreme Court nominee proposed by President Obama until this falls election has been held.

The American people deserve the right to be heard. Its the fair and reasonable approach. They made their voices heard in 2014 when they signaled they wanted a departure from President Obamas policies by revoking the Democrats Senate majority and expanding Republican ranks in the House of Representatives. Now, with the stakes as high as ever and the political season underway, we should hear from them again.

 Excerpt from a statement by Iowa Republican Senator Charles Grassley, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on March 1 after a White House meeting with President Obama, at which the GOP leaders repeated their plans to resist acting on an Obama nominee to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

WE CHECKED THE CONSTITUTION, AND

If the American government were organized to fit the British model of the Parliament, with the head of what serves as the executive branch actually serving personally in Parliament and remaining always dependent upon the continuing support of a majority there, it might be that the most recent election could be understood as a direct expression of the will of the American people.

Story continues

But, under the U.S. Constitution, the president operates independently of Congress, and has a constituency that stretches from coast to coast  the people who voted to put that person in the White House for a set term of four years (and, with reelection, eight years). While not everybody who votes in a presidential election casts their ballot for the winner, those who do and create a majority for the candidate in the Electoral College have expressed a distinct will about what they want.

Congress, too, operates independently. But senators represent a single state, and members of the House of Represents represent a single district in a single state. Their electoral constituencies, then, are more localized, and that is precisely what the Founders wanted  that is, diversity to represent a diverse people. With all of the winners of those constituencies support gathered in the Senate or the House, the chance of any one faction gaining too much power will be remote, or so the Founders believed. In fact, the Founders thought that the very diversity om the halls of Congress would be a good check on the concentrated power they were placing in the presidency.

Moreover, although one can add up the numbers of winners and losers in any congressional election in any given year, and find out from that calculation who will be the dominant party in the two congressional chambers, it is very hard to argue that such election outcomes constitute an expression of the will of the whole people, as one could, indeed, argue persuasively after an election for the British Parliament: the voters creation of a majority creates the executive arm of government in the leader chosen by the Parliament.

Serious students of American federal elections generally talk about how, for members of Congress, all politics is local. The representatives who are chosen to occupy a majority of the 435 seats in the House represent the views of constituent majorities in how many diverse districts they are chosen to represent; so do those elected to each years contingent of members of the 100-seat Senate, with each representing a single state. May a Democrat elected from Massachusetts claim a greater share of the will of all of those who voted in an election, than a Republican from North Dakota? Aggregating the total of the winners in the House or the Senate in any given year simply does not yield a realistic or reliable expression of the peoples collective will.

With the American system of electing a president keyed to winning a majority not of the national popular vote, but of the electors who will make up the Electoral College and cast the final votes, one might quibble and argue that a president also does not have an unqualified claim to represent the will of the people as a whole. But it is certainly a less debatable claim than a group of successful candidates for House or Senate might try to make.

There is thus good reason to doubt that President Obama actually lost some of the powers of his office because majorities in the Senate and the House changed as a result of the 2014 elections One might say that the congressional elections that year were a plebiscite on the presidents policies, but that would be a serious exaggeration. He was not on the ballot anywhere, and congressional candidates presented to their constituencies a wide variety of views about the president and his policies.

There is some appeal, though it perhaps does not go deeper than the superficial, to suggest that filling a government post as important as a seat on the Supreme Court should await another presidential election, based on the point that the balloting then would  as has been said above  be a new and fresh expression of the whole of the national will. But would it represent what the people want for only the next three years and a few months of the next presidents term in the White House, or only the next seven years and a few months of the winner of the White House?

Under the constitutional order as it has always existed, the people do not elect a partial president: they elect a president to serve, during good behavior, a full term (and, with reelection, two full terms). The last preceding congressional elections results do not have the constitutional capacity to shorten the presidents term or to pare down the authority of the office for the final months of White House service.

That is not to say, however, that the Senate has a binding constitutional duty to act on a Supreme Court nominee by a sitting president (remember, the House has no role in the nomination process). A failure to act, though, does deny a president the opportunity to make a second selection if the first one is acted upon and voted down. In that sense, doing nothing does have the practical effect of diminishing presidential authority.

Recent Stories on Constitution Daily

Super Fortnight? Next two weeks could shape election

Constitution Check: Does Apple have a right to resist the FBIs phone search demand?

Podcast: The Texas abortion case at the Supreme Court
Just three days after their last round, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders got together Wednesday night for yet another one. If they keep meeting like this, people may start talking.

The event was held in Miami, in advance of next week's primaries in Florida and other states with high delegate counts. It began at 9 p.m. ET, which seems kind of late for South Florida. If they really wanted to attract an audience, they should have held it at 4:30 in the afternoon and billed it as the "Early Bird Special Debate."

The meet-up took on a new importance after Sanders' surprise victory in Michigan the previous day. It's easy to imagine that Clinton, who had clearly expected to wrap up things by now, must be thinking, "When is this old guy going down for the count?"

Those watching on CNN might have been a little perplexed at the beginning, as the intros for "El debate democrata" co-sponsored by Univision were delivered in Spanish, with many viewers no doubt muttering, "Wait, I pressed 1 for English." Fortunately, the National Anthem was sung in English, preventing mass heart attacks among Republicans. Meanwhile, Marco Rubio was probably asking himself, "Why aren't I in this? I would kill."

Read More: Inside Giant GOP Ratings: Donald Trump Debates Topping Last Election by Threefold

Not surprisingly given the locale, a large portion of the debate was consumed by immigration, with both candidates uncomfortably backing off from their past support of bills containing restrictive policies (no wonder Rubio skips so many votes). Here they fought hard to get to the left of each other on the issue, promising everything to new immigrants except personally greeting them at the border with cold milk and warm chocolate-chip cookies.

The moderators  Jorge Ramos, Maria Elena Salinas and Karen Tumulty  pushed hard on the candidates, pressing them when they were evasive and delivering hard-edged follow-up questions. They were particularly tough on Clinton for her past refusal to rule out deporting children.

Story continues

"Are you flip-flopping on this issue or are you pandering to Hispanics, which some would call Hispandering?" asked Salnas (and yes, the word has entered the lexicon, sadly). It was followed by a clip of Clinton repeatedly using the phrase "due process," which by sheer dint of repetition began to sound as ominous as "forced sterilization." She went on to explain that she was not in agreement with the deportation policies of the "current administration," which is the term she uses only when she's running away from Obama.

Read More: What Color Is Bernie Sanders' Suit? Twitter Debates During #DemDebate

Clinton gave tough defenses against queries into such oft-discussed topics as her e-mails and Benghazi. About the former, she complained that 104 of them were subject to "retroactive classification," a fancy phrase for "they're trying to screw me." And she shut Ramos down entirely when he asked about her possibly being indicted.

"Oh, my goodness, that's not gonna happen," she declared with righteous indignation. "I'm not answering that question," she huffed, possibly giving a preview of a whole new debate strategy. Later, Ramos was loudly booed by the crowd when he asked her about Benghazi, indicating that Democrats, at least, were tired of the issue.

Sanders' stunning success in Michigan emboldened him to double-down on his newfound aggressiveness, which didn't work so well for him in terms of optics. While Clinton was frequently smiling and laughing  she practically dissolved into giggles when one question began by noting how long she's known Donald Trump  Sanders scowled and fumed throughout the evening, at times barely managing to contain his outrage. Long gone were the days when he prefaced every comment about her with the phrase, "With all due respect."

At one point, when Sanders was getting all Rick Lazio on her, Clinton deftly turned the tables by borrowing from her opponent's playbook from their previous debate.

"Excuse me, excuse me!" she bellowed.

When the issue of Clinton releasing the transcripts of her paid speeches to Wall Street banks came up, Sanders noted that she had been paid as much as $225,000.

Read More: How Darrell Hammond Channels His Inner Donald Trump on 'SNL'

"That must have been an extraordinarily wonderful speech," he declared, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "It should be shared with the American people." Clinton, who's clearly got cojones (to use the proper term under the circumstances), simply laughed at him.

She also got props from the crowd for the way she called Trump out for his attacks on Mexicans and other immigrants.

"I said basta!" she proclaimed, careful to hide the glossary of Spanish words written on her palms.

The evening's most powerful moment came with a question from a Guatemalan immigrant who tearfully described how her husband had been deported, with their five children not having seen their father in three years. Clinton, the wife of the former Empathizer-in-Chief, expertly showed her compassion.

"Please know how brave I think you are for coming here with your children to tell this story," she said sympathetically as Sanders looked on with jealousy. It made it all the more difficult for her a few minutes later when she was asked why only 37% of Americans consider her honest and trustworthy.

"I am not a natural politician like my husband and President Obama," she answered wanly.

Sanders took some heat over his proposal for free tuition in public colleges and universities. Asked if that policy would apply to Trump's grandchildren, or Clinton's, if they chose to go to a public university, he made a good point.

"Of course," he said, before adding, "I don't think they will."

When Ramos ominously announced "Welcome to Miami" late in the evening, you knew that things were about to get rough. And indeed they did, with Sanders being presented with a 1985 video clip of him making pro-Castro comments, remarkably looking as disheveled as a middle-aged man as he does today. But he parried the thrust nicely, launching into a denunciation of past U.S. regime change in Latin America that seemed to satiate the crowd that might otherwise have been screaming for his head.

Perhaps the most radical statement of the evening came from Clinton when she was asked about her criteria for a Supreme Court nominee. After thundering, "We have a Republican Congress trying to take away the Constitution," she said that she would look for judges who "have a heart." The originalists were no doubt frantically checking to see if that was mentioned in the Constitution.
One of the downsides of having Donald Trump dominate the political landscape is the proliferation of debates. The ratings have been so good for presidential debates in both parties that theyre now an almost constant presence, and at a certain point, the more you see the less you know.

The Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders debates have, of course, been models of civility and erudition compared with the mines-bigger fest going on in the Republican contest. Its Downton Abbey versus UFC cage fighting. But just because its more highbrow doesnt necessarily mean its more enlightening.

On Wednesday night, Sanders and Clinton faced off at the forum sponsored by The Washington Post, Univision and, of course, Facebookbecause why would you even bother to assemble without a big social media company? (I still dream of an Etsy Democratic debate and a FarmersOnly.com for the GOP.) The debate was a perfectly fine exchange of views, but just because there were no Trump-like theatrics doesnt mean that it was particularly informative.

Much of the debate revolved around Clintons charges that Sanders failed to back two important pieces of legislationthe first was a 2007 immigration bill that she favored and Sanders opposed, and the other was a 2009 Wall Street bailout that included monies for the auto industry. The former secretary of state has used the immigration vote to portray Sanders as troglodyte who stood on the wrong side of Ted Kennedy and many Hispanic leaders. She used his failure to support the Wall Street bailout as proof he didnt care about auto workers even though Sanders voted for a free standing bill that would have helped Detroit.

The votes are perfectly fair game, but using them as part of a narrative that suggests Sanders opposes immigration reform or helping carmakers is not only not enlightening but also misleading. It may not have the brawler quality of a GOP debate, but its really no more illustrative of what the candidate belies or how they might behave in office that shouting Little Marco.

Story continues

Conversely, Sanders tried to make Clinton seem cold-hearted when it comes to the young, often parentless Central American children fleeing violence in countries like Honduras. Clinton has spent her entire life working for children, including chairing the Childrens Defense Fund. Her efforts as secretary of state to try to quell the violence in the region and her fight to provide much more legal aid to those seeking asylum, are part of that. But the highbrow debate allows candidates to dissemble without seeming like theyre crude.

Its not that the Democratic debates have been a waste of time. Weve seen Clintons moderate sensibilities onstage like, um, when she questions whether passing single-payer health care is realistic when it exhausted progressives just to get Obamacare. Sanders's curmudgeonly demeanor and passive-aggressive turns of phraseyou may not think the American people are prepared to stand up to the insurance and drug companies, but I believe they aregives you a good sense of his worldview.

The information gleaned from debates isnt always intellectual anyway. If you had questions about Sanders age at 74, they seem more than answered by his vigor. If you think Clintons an awful corporate hack, youve gotten to see a mind at work thats always calculating how to move progressive causes forward in the real world. (This is the difference between coming of political age in the Reagan '80s in Arkansas instead of Vermont.)

But if youve seen three debates, by the 13th you not only have reached the point of diminishing returns but also are watching them as sportor, as in the case of some of us, because youre getting paid to. Its probably fitting that these things are now opened with a big rendition of the national anthem, something previously reserved for ball games. At a certain point, they ought to sell beer.

Related Articles
By Elias Biryabarema KAMPALA (Reuters) - A call for an economic boycott by Uganda's opposition to protest last month's re-election of long-serving President Yoweri Museveni was mostly ignored on Thursday, despite widespread anger over allegations of vote rigging. The protest's flop was widely expected in a country where grinding poverty is pervasive, though it also underscored the tough choices facing Museveni's opponents as they seek to thwart an election victory they say was secured fraudulently. "Museveni is my worst enemy," Herbert Tumusiime, a porter at a construction site in Kampala told Reuters. "I am ready to help whoever is fighting him. But if I don't turn up for work even one day, I will be fired." Uganda's electoral commission declared Museveni - in power since 1986 - the winner of the Feb. 18 poll after taking 60 percent of the votes. The integrity of the election, however, was heavily criticized by monitors from the European Union (EU) who pointed to an "intimidating atmosphere" orchestrated by state actors. They cited other irregularities including voter bribery and delayed voting and also criticized the electoral body which they said lacked transparency and independence. Early this week Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) the party of Museveni's main opposition rival, Kizza Besigye, asked its supporters to stay at home every Thursday to undermine Museveni's government. Besigye came second with 35 percent of the vote but he rejected the results and described the election as a sham. He has been under virtual house arrest since polling day and has been detained each time he has attempted to leave. "We're calling on Ugandans to stay home every Thursday," FDC spokesperson Semujju Nganda said. "It's to show solidarity with our leader but also non-cooperation and boycott of the regime." In Kampala, there was little sign of a positive response to that entreaty, with most businesses running normally. Heavy security deployments have also been maintained in parts of Kampala since election day. Protests in Uganda are rarely permitted, most of them dispersed with teargas, gunfire, beatings and arrests. Gerald Karuhanga, an independent legislator and Museveni critic told Reuters a stay-at-home economic boycott was an inappropriate and ineffective protest tool in a country where most youths already are unemployed and stay home. "People live on the edge. An economic boycott? They have no economic means to boycott with." (Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; editing by Edith Honan and Dominic Evans)
BRUSSELS - French power company EDF and Chinese nuclear firm CGN won regulatory approval from the EU's competition authority on Thursday to build and operate nuclear power plants at Hinkley Point in Britain. Britain said the Hinkley Point project, one of the world's costliest, is needed to replace ageing reactors and polluting coal plants. The European Commission said it did not see any serious competition issues. "The Commission's investigation found that competition in the wholesale supply of electricity in the UK will not be hindered by the transaction given the moderate market share of EDF, the very limited market shares of CGN in this market and the presence of other competitors," it said in a statement. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by David Clarke)
London (AFP) - The former manager of EDF's planned Hinkley Point nuclear power plant on Thursday defended the French energy giant's plans that remain mired in uncertainty.

This week's resignation of EDF finance chief Thomas Piquemal sparked heightened concerns over the future of the A18-billion (23.2-billion-euro, $25.5 billion) Hinkley Point C project in Somerset, southwest England.

Hinkley Point, which EDF will build in partnership with China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN), will be Britain's first nuclear power plant in decades and is to provide seven percent of its energy needs by 2025.

Chris Bakken, who left EDF's British subsidiary for a new role at US firm Entergy in early February, wrote to The Times newspaper after it said in a leader column that the departures indicated both men lacked "full faith" in the project.

EDF has yet to give its final investment decision to green-light the enormous project.

"Your leader suggests that I left EDF Energy because it I did not appear to have full faith in the Hinkley Point C project. Far from it," Bakken wrote in a letter published Thursday.

"The reason for my departure was that I was born and brought up in the US and decided to move back to the US so that my wife and I could return to our family."

The former manager argued that the project stood up to scrutiny, adding that it would safeguard thousands of jobs in Britain.

"The economics of the project have stood up to repeated scrutiny," Bakken wrote.

"EDF and its Chinese partner are shouldering the construction risks and consumers will not pay a penny until the plant generates its reliable low carbon electricity."

He added: "Abandoning this would not only deny the UK seven percent of potential power supply at a time when it will be most needed but also jeopardises jobs for the 25,000 people who will work on its construction."

EDF had agreed in October 2015 to construct two European Pressurised Reactors (EPRs), a third-generation nuclear reactor design, at Hinkley Point.
Cairo (AFP) - Veteran Egyptian diplomat Ahmed Abul Gheit was named Thursday as the Arab League's new secretary general, at a time when the regional body faces multiple wars and a widening jihadist threat.

In a sign of divisions within the pan-Arab body, however, Qatar voiced reservations over Abul Gheit's candidacy due to his "hostile positions" towards Doha, Arab diplomats said.

"The consultations resulted in the nomination of Ahmed Abul Gheit to the post of secretary general," Bahraini Foreign Minister Khaled bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa announced in televised remarks at the end of a ministerial meeting.

Abul Gheit, who served as foreign minister under Egypt's ousted president Hosni Mubarak, takes office at a time when the Cairo-based Arab League is facing several tests of its unity.

At the top of the list is the war in Syria that has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced millions since it erupted in 2011.

The more than five-year-old conflict has seen regional heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Iran backing opposite sides.

In addition, relations between Qatar and Egypt, which traditionally chooses candidates for the post of secretary general, have soured.

Cairo accuses Doha of supporting its outlawed Muslim Brotherhood movement of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, who was toppled by the army in 2013.

The Brotherhood has been the target of a brutal crackdown since then, and Doha has regularly denounced the operations that left hundreds dead and thousands in jail.

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani expressed Doha's "reservations" over Abul Gheit but voiced hope the next secretary general "will maintain contact between all Arab countries in the interest of joint Arab action."

Several diplomats told AFP that Qatar had accused Abul Gheit of pushing Egypt to boycott a Qatari-proposed Arab summit in 2009 to discuss an Israeli assault on Gaza.

Unlike the charismatic ex-chief of the Arab League, fellow Egyptian Amr Mussa, who was known for taking a tough stand on Israel, Abul Gheit has often faced criticism for adopting a softer approach towards the Jewish state.

Story continues

Abul Gheit had accused the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas which rules Gaza of being responsible for the Israeli assault.

Cairo proposed Abul Gheit, 73, for the post after the incumbent, Nabil al-Arabi, another Egyptian, declined a second five-year term as secretary general. His term ends in July.

Traditionally, the secretary general has held the position for two terms and the post has gone to an Egyptian, with Tunisia's Chedli Klibi the sole exception.

- Wider disunity -

Differences within the 22-member organisation, in which Syria's membership was suspended in 2011 because of its conflict, hint at a wider disunity between Arab states.

While Iran has sent thousands of "military advisers" into Syria in support of the Damascus regime, Saudi Arabia supports Islamist rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

Saudi Arabia and several Gulf states have since made diplomatic moves against Lebanon, whose Shiite Hezbollah movement is fighting in support of Assad.

Sectarian rivalry is also evident in Yemen, where Iran-backed Shiite rebels are fighting a Saudi-led military campaign.

The United Nations says that more than 6,000 people have been killed in Yemen since the Saudi campaign against the rebels was launched a year ago.

The rise of the jihadist Islamic State group, which has swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria under its control and is rapidly expanding its foothold in Libya, has emerged as the biggest threat to the region's stability.

To combat IS, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi proposed setting up a joint Arab military force, but the plan has faced resistance from within the League after it was initially adopted.

Abul Gheit will be the eighth secretary general of the League since it was founded in 1945.
Miami (AFP) - A 78-year-old white man punched a black protester in the face at a Donald Trump rally and was charged with assault, media said Thursday, in chaotic scenes on the presidential campaign trail.

John McGraw -- who later said that next time "we might have to kill him" -- was also charged with battery and disorderly conduct after the event Wednesday night in North Carolina, the Cumberland County sheriff's office told the local TV station WRAL.

The incident was condemned by Bernie Sanders, who is vying with Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for the White House.

"No one in America should ever fear for their safety at a political rally. This ugly incident confirms that the politics of division has no place in our country. Mr. Trump should take responsibility for addressing his supporters' violent actions," Sanders said.

Multiple videos of the assault show McGraw abruptly punching the young black man in the face as he was walking up a stairway with other protesters being escorted out by police, amid cries of "USA! USA!"

McGraw was not arrested until Thursday morning, as video of the assault gained widespread attention. He was released after posting a $2,500 bond, CNN reported.

The Cumberland County sheriff's office did not immediately return phone calls from AFP.

Rakeem Jones, the man who was punched, told The Washington Post that the sharp blow to the right side of his face caught him by surprise.

"After I get it, before I could even gain my thoughts, I'm on the ground getting escorted out. Now I'm waking up this morning looking at the news and seeing me getting hit again," Jones said.

Jones, 26, said he went to the Trump rally as a "social experiment."

A woman who was part of his group started to yell out against Trump when he began his speech, Jones said.

As he walked up the stairs, right before reaching McGraw's row, Jones is seen in the video turning to his right, smiling as he raises his arms and says something to the crowd. McGraw then sucker-punched him.

Story continues

McGraw defended his behavior in comments to the program Inside Edition during the Trump rally.

"We don't know who he is but we know he's not acting like an American," McGraw said.

"Yes, he deserved it. The next time we see him, we might have to kill him."

Trump's rallies tend to draw large crowds, and some have been interrupted by protesters critical of the Republican frontrunner's policy positions on immigration and other sensitive issues.

Critics say he is stirring hatred among angry American voters with his inflammatory comments against Muslims and Mexicans.

Trump usually asks his security people to eject protesters from his campaign events.
BRUSSELS - European Union regulators will release data from its year-long inquiry into barriers to cross-border e-commerce next week, the 28-nation bloc's antitrust chief said on Thursday, potentially laying the groundwork for cases against some companies. The investigation has focused on trade in electronics, clothing, shoes and digital content, examining whether companies have engaged in anti-competitive practices, such as agreements to prevent the sale of products or services in certain countries, or to sell at higher prices. A paper on the data collected will be released on March 18, European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager told reporters on the sidelines of a conference organized by German law group Studienvereinigung Kartellrecht. "This is the first analysis and then maybe we will look into opening cases," she said. While about half of EU consumers shopped online in 2014, only 15 percent bought a product online in another EU country because of language barriers, different laws and anti-competitive behavior, data from the European Commission shows. Vestager said that an interim report would be issued towards the end of the summer or the beginning of autumn. The final report is scheduled for the first quarter of 2017. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by David Goodman)
Strasbourg (France) (AFP) - The European Parliament on Thursday called on Egyptian authorities to cooperate in probing the "torture and assassination" of an Italian student in Cairo, while lamenting that it was "not an isolated case" in Egypt.

saying it came within a context of deaths in custody in Egypt.

Giulio Regeni, a Cambridge University PhD student who was researching Egyptian labour movements, disappeared on January 25 and his badly mutilated body was found a week later.

MEPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of a resolution saying that the parliament in Strasbourg, France, "strongly condemns the torture and assassination under suspicious circumstances of EU citizen Giulio Regeni."

There were 588 votes for the resolution, 10 against and 59 abstentions.

The resolution "calls on the Egyptian authorities to provide the Italian authorities with all the documents and information necessary to enable a swift, transparent and impartial joint investigation into the case of Mr Regeni".

It urged Egyptian authorities to make "every effort" to bring Regeni's killers to justice.

But MEPs also noted "with grave concern that the case of Giulio Regeni is not an isolated incident, but that it occurred within a context of torture, death in custody and enforced disappearances across Egypt in recent years."

The European Parliament further urged the EU's 28 member states to stick to the bloc's rules on the export of military technology and surveillance equipment to Egypt.

The rules were adopted in 2013 after the ousting of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi by then-army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Regeni went missing on the fifth anniversary of the start of the uprising which overthrew longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 201. Police had been deployed across the city to prevent demonstrations.

His death has chilled relations between Rome and Cairo, with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi last month warning Egypt its friendship was on the line over the investigation.

Regeni's slaying while he was in Cairo doing research for his doctoral thesis has also become a cause celebre amongst academics around the world and has turned the spotlight on what rights and opposition groups say are increasing abuses by security services under the military-backed government in Cairo
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union governments extended on Thursday sanctions on Russians and Ukrainians targeted in 2014 over the conflict in eastern Ukraine, keeping asset freezes and travel bans in place until mid-September. The 28-member bloc said in a statement that 146 people, including Russian-backed former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich, and 37 companies would remain under sanctions. The European Union's main economic sanctions against Russia, targeting its energy, banking and defense sectors, expire in July this year and many EU governments want to renew them until Russia upholds its part of a peace settlement in Ukraine. However, a decision needs consensus and some countries closer to Russia, including Hungary and Greece, have yet to decide whether they will support a sanctions extension. (Reporting by Robin Emmott; Editing by Alissa de Carbonnel)
By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - China has written to diplomats and U.N. officials urging them not to attend a Geneva event on Friday where the Dalai Lama will speak, reasserting that it opposes his appearance at all venues due to his "separatist activities". Reuters reported in October that China is waging a campaign of intimidation, obstruction and harassment that Western diplomats and activists say is aimed at silencing criticism of its human rights record at the United Nations. The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Price in 1989, fled to India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Communist rule. China views him as a separatist, but Tibet's spiritual leader says he only wants genuine autonomy for his homeland. In a letter seen by Reuters on Thursday, China's diplomatic mission in Geneva raised objections about the presence of Tibet's spiritual leader on the panel of Nobel laureates, being held at the Geneva Graduate Institute. "Inviting the 14th Dalai Lama to the aforementioned event violates the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China, in contravention of the purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter. China resolutely opposes the 14th Dalai Lama's separatist activities in whatever capacity and in whatever name in any country, organization or event," it said. The letter was dated March 8, the day that the event - being sponsored by the United States and Canada - was announced. "The Permanent Mission of China kindly requests the Permanent Missions of all Member States, U.N. agencies and relevant International Organizations not to attend the above-mentioned event, nor meet the 14th Dalai Lama and his clique." U.N. spokesman in Geneva Ahmad Fawzi confirmed that U.N. agencies and offices in the Swiss city had received China's letter. "We take note but of course we are not bound by instructions from member states," he said. A U.S. spokesman declined to comment on the letter saying: "I refer you to Chinese authorities for their views. We do not comment on the substance of our diplomatic exchanges." Philippe Burrin, director of the Geneva institute, said that "pressures are being applied from various sides" but the event would not be canceled. "This is a question of freedom of expression and academic freedom to organize an event," he told Reuters. "It is not an event on Tibet, it is not on a politically sensitive subject, i.e. territorial issues, but on the role of civil society in promoting human rights," he said. At the U.N. Human Rights Council's main annual four-week session no delegation is expected to make a formal complaint about China but there has been criticism recently of its mass arrests of lawyers, including from the United States. A rare joint statement criticizing that crackdown, sponsored by a dozen countries, was read out by U.S. ambassador Keith Harper to the forum on Thursday. China's envoy strongly rejected the censure and said the United States was hypocritical and guilty of crimes including the rape and murder of civilians. Friday's event, also featuring Nobel laureates from Iran and Yemen, will take place on the sidelines of the U.N. session. U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Kate Gilmore, the panel's moderator, is believed to be one of the first senior U.N. officials to meet the Dalai Lama. Thursday is the fifty-seventh anniversary of the beginning of the Tibetan peoples peaceful uprising against Chinas invasion and occupation of Tibet. (Editing by Louise Ireland)
By Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House Speaker Paul Ryan's political operation sent a cease-and-desist letter on Thursday to a group that is trying to draft him as a Republican presidential candidate, urging it to halt its activities and warning of legal risk. With establishment Republicans desperately searching for a way to stop real estate businessman and former reality TV personality Donald Trump's march toward the party's nomination for the Nov. 8 presidential election, Ryan's name has been mentioned often as an alternative. But he has said he does not want to run for president this year and has disavowed the Committee to Draft Speaker Ryan group. The organization has continued attempts to collect 1 million signatures on an online petition to draft Ryan, arguing that the very definition of a draft movement is to encourage a reluctant participant to join. The Draft Ryan group was another indication of Ryan's rise to the Republican Party's top ranks since he became speaker last year. Ryan was Mitt Romney's vice presidential running mate on the Republicans' 2012 ticket. A spokesman for the group, David Catalfamo, said the letter was "a sad commentary on the state of our politics today." He said, "The Committee to Draft Speaker Ryan is simply a patriotic effort to save our party and save our country. The group had registered with the U.S. Federal Election Commission as a Super PAC, an independent political action committee that may raise unlimited sums of money. Timothy Kronquist, an attorney for Ryan's political operation, addressed the letter to the group's treasurer, David Satterfield. It urged the group to immediately cease and desist from any representations that it is acting on Ryan's behalf or raising funds that would assist Ryan's campaign activities. "We believe the actions of your organization are not in compliance with federal law and may constitute fraudulent solicitation of funds," the letter said. "Speaker Ryan has repeatedly announced publicly that he is not running for president in 2016 ... It is in the public interest for your organization to cease potentially confusing and misleading people into supporting your organization." A copy of the letter, which was dated Thursday, was seen by Reuters. A person close to the Draft Ryan group said it had removed the "donate" button from its website to clarify that the effort is not a fundraising exercise, and that the site would be changed so people can sign the petition without leaving their email addresses. He said the effort so far had been funded by Earle Mack, a former U.S. ambassador to Finland. Mack has told The New York Times that he would spend up to $1 million on the Draft Ryan committee. Dividing the party, Trump has racked up primary wins and expanded his lead this week despite attacks from the party's establishment, which is trying to stop him from claiming the nomination at the Republican convention in July. Ryan has abstained from endorsing any presidential candidate in the 2016 race. (Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh, Bill Trott, Grant McCool)
New York (AFP) - The FBI eavesdropped on the activities of Russian spies in New York for months with the help of tiny recorders planted in binders purportedly containing trade secrets, US court documents show.

The revelations were made in papers filed by prosecutors on Tuesday in the case of an alleged Russian spy, Evgeny Buryakov, who goes on trial April 4 accused of working undercover for Moscow while masquerading as a New York banker.

Buryakov, who was arrested in January 2015, is accused of working with two other spies, who were attached to the Russian trade and UN missions in New York and have since left the country. He has pleaded not guilty.

From January to May 2013, an undercover FBI agent brought binders of purported oil and gas analysis that also contained "covertly placed recording devices" to meetings with one of the Russian spies.

The US agent told the Russian the files were confidential and claimed he would be sacked if anyone found out he had disclosed the information, so asked for them to be returned promptly, the court document said.

The technique allowed the FBI to listen for hours to Russian spies as they received tasks from Moscow, gathered responses and fed information back to Russia's SVR foreign intelligence agency from January to May 2013.

It was thanks to these tiny bugs that they heard them complain that the humdrum nature of their work was removed from the adventure of James Bond films.

One was heard saying he thought it "would be just slightly more down to earth than in the movies about James Bond." He hoped to have been "at least" operating under a false identity, the court papers show.

The FBI agent was approached by one of the Russians for information about the oil and gas industry in 2012. The Russian gave him cash or gifts in exchange.

Officials said the net closed in on Buryakov after he met numerous times in 2014 with an FBI source posing as the representative of a wealthy investor looking to develop casinos in Russia.

The other two spies, Igor Sporyshev and Victor Podobnyy, were protected by diplomatic immunity and have left the United States.

Buryakov's arrest was the first such case since 10 deep-cover agents including Anna Chapman, were arrested in the New York area in 2010. They pled guilty and were part of a prisoner swap with Moscow.
HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland's parliament will debate in the coming weeks whether the country should quit the euro, an official said on Thursday, following a petition on the issue signed by more than the required 50,000 citizens. The debate is very unlikely to lead to Finland's exit from the common currency but the decision to hold such a debate demonstrates a high level of dissatisfaction among Finns with their country's economic performance. The petition, signed by more than 53,000 people, demands a referendum on leaving the euro. "We haven't decided the date yet but a preliminary debate will likely be held during a plenary session (of the parliament) in the coming weeks," said Johanna Sarhimaa, parliamentary secretary. The Finnish economy grew by just 0.4 percent last year after three years of contraction, hit by high labor costs, the decline of Nokia's former phone business and a recession in neighboring Russia. The center-right government is struggling to balance public finances and improve export competitiveness through 'internal devaluation', including cuts to workers' benefits, amid opposition from unions. Paavo Vayrynen, a Finnish member of the European Parliament who launched the anti-euro initiative, compared the country's performance to that of Finland's non-euro neighbor Sweden, which has grown much faster in recent years. "We should revive our economy by leaving the euro zone and reinstating our own currency (with a floating exchange rate). This will restore our competitiveness," he said as he handed the petition to Maria Lohela, the speaker of parliament. "If the parliament supports the petition, it would urge the government to prepare a law for arranging a referendum." Despite the initiative, a Eurobarometer poll from November showed 64 percent of Finns backed the euro. The coalition government remains officially committed to eurozone membership. (Reporting by Jussi Rosendahl and Tuomas Forsell; Editing by Gareth Jones)
By Jim Finkle and Serajul Quadir (Reuters) - FireEye Inc's Mandiant forensics division is helping investigate a cyber heist at Bangladesh's central bank last month that netted more than $80 million, people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. The two sources said Silicon Valley-based FireEye, which has investigated some of the biggest cyber thefts on record, was brought in by World Informatix, a smaller firm that is advising Bangladesh Bank on the investigation. World Informatix's website says it was founded by its chief executive, Rakesh Asthana, a former World Bank deputy chief information officer. Asthana recruited Mandiant to help with the probe, according to sources who asked not be identified due to the sensitive nature of the matter. One of those sources, a senior official with the central bank, said the U.S. government has offered to help investigate how hackers stole funds from a Bangladesh Bank account at the New York Fed. The source said that officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Department of Justice had held informal conversations with Bangladesh Bank about the case, one of the largest bank thefts in history. Representatives with the FBI, U.S. Secret Service, Department of Justice and U.S. Treasury's Crimes Enforcement Network declined comment on the case, which became public this week, about a month after the funds were stolen. The New York Fed has said little about what happened, except that its systems were not breached and that it has been working with the Bangladesh central bank on the investigation. Any investigation by U.S. authorities is likely to focus on learning how cyber criminals penetrated the central bank's network, the flow of the looted funds around the world and whether any money can be recovered. The hackers breached Bangladesh Bank's systems and stole its credentials for payment transfers, according to an account by two senior officials at the bank. The attackers then bombarded the New York Fed with nearly three dozen money-transfer requests over a weekend in early February.[L4N16I4A8] The Fed processed four of the requests, sending a total of $81 million to accounts in the Philippines. A fifth transfer of $20 million, to a non-profit in Sri Lanka, was stopped after a typo in the routing instructions raised suspicions, according to bank sources. Bangladesh Bank has said it has recovered some of the stolen money, and is working with anti-money laundering authorities in the Philippines to try to recover the rest. (Reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston and Serajul Quadir in Dhaka; additional reporting by Jeremy Wagstaff in Singapore, Brett Wolf in St. Louis and Jonathan Spicer in New York; editing by Jonathan Weber and Chizu Nomiyama)
(Reuters) - A slow-moving storm is expected to dump more rain on the waterlogged U.S. South, forecasters said on Thursday, after heavy rains killed several people and prompted evacuations and rescues from inundated areas. Three people died in northern Louisiana, deluged with some of the heaviest rainfall. Two men and a 6-year-old child were killed after either ignoring flood warnings or entering treacherous areas without signs, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals said. Forecasters at the National Weather Service received reports of 10 to 15 inches of rain falling in northeastern Texas, parts of Arkansas and Louisiana over a day and a half. Particularly hard hit was Monroe, Louisiana, with more than 17 inches, said Bob Oravec, lead forecaster with the the NWS Weather Prediction Center. As the system moves east, flooding is a concern in areas of Mississippi, western Tennessee and Alabama, along with Louisiana, he said. "It's going to continue to be a pretty high impact storm," Oravec said, noting that rains could linger into Saturday. People in as many as 3,500 homes in Bossier City, Louisiana were told to evacuate, the Shreveport Times reported. Louisiana National Guard soldiers and law enforcement helped to rescue people stranded in their homes and on roads by high waters, authorities said. Louisiana's governor has declared a state of emergency in affected regions, and many schools were closed. State government offices in three dozen parishes were shuttered through Friday. The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch stretching from the Gulf of Mexico coast of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi north into the southern parts of Illinois. A 30-year-old man drowned on Tuesday as he tried to drive across a flooded area in southeastern Oklahoma, according to the National Weather Service. (Reporting by Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, N.C., Jim Forsyth in San Antonio, Letitia Stein in Tampa, Fla. and Jon Herskovitz in Austin, TX; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Alistair Bell)
Rick Scott

Gov. Rick Scott of Florida was kicked off of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Thursday after he refused to directly answer a question about GOP frontrunner Donald Trump.

After the governor said he would not endorse any candidate before Tuesday's Florida primary, host Joe Scarborough asked Scott about Trump's comment the day before that "Islam hates us."

"Do you think that Muslims in the state of Florida hate America?" Scarborough said.

Scott dodged the question.

"Well, as you know in Florida we're the best melting pot in the world," he said.

"After the Paris bombings I did ask the federal government to not allow any more Syrian refugees to come into Florida until we vetted them," he continued. "I'm still concerned that the federal government is not vetting them, but that's what my concern is."

Scarborough cut Scott off at the end of his answer.

"Just asking generally, do you think that Muslims hate Americans, that Islam hates America as Donald Trump said last night?" he asked.

Scott then went into another answer that began in a similar way as his previous one, talking about his home state. But then Scarborough and cohost Mika Brzezinski cut him off.

"We're friends  I want you to answer the question," Scarborough said. "Do you personally think that Islam is a religion that hates America?"

"We have a lot of Muslims that live in our state, we have a lot of Latin Americans that live in our state, we all get along," Scott responded as Brzezinski called for the show's producer to cut the segment.

Scott then added that Trump and his fellow candidates could "talk about the things" they "want to talk about."

Brzezinski, increasingly annoyed with Scott's deflections, gave the governor one final chance to give a direct answer.

"Rick, Rick, Rick, I know you and Joe are friends, and this is kind of awkward," she said. "Can you answer the question, or should we scoot?"

Screen Shot 2016 03 10 at 11.21.05 AM

Scott didn't, and then the segment ended.

Story continues

Scott has been rumored to be considered as a potential running mate for Trump since Scott wrote a gushing op-ed article in USA Today in January.

Trump sparked a national firestorm in December when, after the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, he proposed that the US temporarily bar all Muslims tourists and immigrants from entering the US.

A month earlier, Trump seemed open to some kind of database for Muslim Americans, but he later distanced himself from the idea.

"We have to be very careful," he said on CNN Wednesday. "And we can't allow people coming into this country who have this hatred of the United States and of people that are not Muslim."

Watch the uncomfortable exchange below:

NOW WATCH: 'Youre the basket case  here is the moment things spiraled out of control at the GOP debate





More From Business Insider


By Lisa Maria Garza

DALLAS (Reuters) - A former Catholic priest charged in a 55-year-old murder case in which he is suspected of beating and raping a beauty queen in south Texas was extradited on Wednesday to face justice in the state where the crime occurred, authorities said.

John Feit, 83, was arrested last month in Arizona in connection with the 1960 slaying of Irene Garza, 25, in McAllen, Texas. He was transferred to Hidalgo County, Texas, the Texas sheriff's office said.

The Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office said he was booked into jail on a murder charge.

Hidalgo County District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez said on Wednesday authorities discovered new facts and evidence while reviewing the cold case but declined to provide details. There is no statute of limitations on murder cases in Texas.

"We are one step closer in seeking justice," he told a news conference in Texas.

Feit initially vowed to fight extradition but waived his right at a Feb. 24 hearing, according to court records.

Garza, a former Miss South Texas and second-grade school teacher, was last seen giving confession during Holy Week at Sacred Heart Catholic Church on April 16, 1960, according to the Texas Rangers cold case website.

Her body was found five days later in a nearby canal. An autopsy showed that Garza had been raped while comatose and died of suffocation.

Feit later left the priesthood and moved to Arizona, where he started a family.

He was long considered by authorities to be a suspect in the case but was not indicted. Feit denied any involvement in Garzas death during a 2013 interview with CNN.

Weve always believed that there was probable cause for John Feit to face charges in the death of Irene Garza, said McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez.

(Reporting by Lisa Maria Garza; Editing by Ben Klayman and Tom Brown)
London (AFP) - Former Sunderland and England winger Adam Johnson faces a substantial prison term after it was confirmed on Thursday that he will be sentenced on March 24 for sexual activity with a 15-year-old girl.

Johnson admitted grooming and sexual activity with the girl, who is a Sunderland fan, and was convicted of a charge of sexual touching.

The 28-year-old, who also played for Manchester City and Middlesbrough, was found guilty of sexual activity with the teenager and a judge told him he should expect to receive a lengthy prison sentence.

Johnson was given bail at Bradford Crown Court by Judge Jonathan Rose, who warned him: "You must understand that when you return here at the end of March you will receive a substantial prison sentence."

The judge said his preliminary view was that the offences fall into the category of a five-year prison sentence with a possible range of four to 10 years.

Johnson was found not guilty of a third charge of sexual activity with a child, relating to the same girl.

All the charges relate to an incident in Johnson's Range Rover when he met up with the girl in County Durham on January 30 last year.
Copenhagen (AFP) - A Danish court watched dramatic footage Thursday showing the gunman behind a double shooting in Copenhagen joking in a cafe with his alleged accomplices and pretending to pull a trigger after the attacks that left two people dead.

The court was also shown a grisly video of the gunman, 22-year-old Danish-born Palestinian Omar El-Hussein, shooting a security guard at a synagogue in one of the two attacks in February last year.

The footage was part of the prosecution's evidence at the opening of the trial of four men accused of helping El-Hussein after the shootings.

The Copenhagen courthouse was guarded by about a dozen heavily armed police, with Europe still on high alert over fears of jihadist violence following bloody attacks in Paris in 2015.

Prosecutor Bo Bjerregaard accused the four defendants of trying to "destabilise or destroy Denmark's basic political, constitutional, economic or societal structures".

Defence lawyers said their clients were innocent of the terror charges against them.

El-Hussein opened fire on February 14, 2015 outside a cultural centre where the speakers included Swedish artist Lars Vilks, a target of Islamic extremists since he portrayed the Prophet Mohammed as a dog in 2007.

Filmmaker Finn Norgaard, 55, died and four police officers were injured.

Later that night, El-Hussein fired six shots outside the city's main synagogue, killing security guard Dan Uzan, 37, and injuring two more policemen.

The assailant was shot dead by police hours later.

- Known gunman since childhood -

Bjerregaard said the four men had to have been aware of the intentions of the gunman, whom some had known since childhood.

The court named the four as Liban Ahmed Saleban Elmi, 20, Ibrahim Khalil Abbas, 23, Bhostan Khan Hussein, 26 and Mahmoud Rabea, 31, after lifting a ban on their identities.

The prosecution says they committed a "terror offence" by providing El-Hussein with support in the form of ammunition, a hoodie and a bag used in the second attack, and by paying for his time in an Internet cafe where he located the synagogue.

Story continues

Abbas and Elmi are also charged with helping him dispose of the weapon used at the cultural centre.

The footage of Uzan's killing was shown only to the judges at the request of his family.

But the full court viewed the images of El-Hussein, Elmi and Abbas in the cafe after the synagogue shooting.

They are seen talking jokingly, and El-Hussein appears to act out pulling the trigger of a weapon.

The prosecution also showed the court the two guns found on El-Hussein's body after he was killed, and three bullets he was allegedly given from a box of ammunition found at Rabea's home.

If found guilty, the four risk life imprisonment, which in Denmark means they would be entitled to a pardoning hearing after 12 years.

- Didn't want to scare anyone' -

They did not testify in court Thursday, but when Bjerregaard cited Denmark's terrorism law, which refers to "he who intends to scare a population," Rabea interrupted, shouting "I did not want to scare any people."

To secure a conviction, the prosecution has to prove "intent", meaning they knew about his plans to commit an act of terror.

The trial is expected to run for up to 30 court days through September.

Elmi's lawyer told AFP that while her client had been friends with El-Hussein since childhood, he knew nothing of his plans.

"He doesn't deny" meeting up with the gunman on the afternoon of the attacks, "but he denies he knew anything about terror and he didn't participate in anything concerning terror," Mette Grith Stage said.

Released from prison just two weeks before the attacks after serving time for a stabbing, El-Hussein was known for his violent temper and for having ties to a criminal gang.

The prosecution said he pledged allegiance to Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Facebook on the day of the shootings, but investigators believe he was not part of a jihadist network.

Danish intelligence agency PET has however been criticised for failing to act on information from prison services that he was at risk of radicalisation.

Little is known about the four suspects, although media reports say they all have criminal records for offences ranging from break-ins to possession of automatic weapons.
Paris (AFP) - France will on Monday propose imposing European Union sanctions on any Libyan official obstructing the formation of a UN-backed unity government, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said.

"I do not exclude threatening them with sanctions. In any case, that is what I will propose to my foreign affairs colleagues on Monday in Brussels," Ayrault told the iTELE news channel.

"Now, we can wait no longer," he added, denouncing those who "put themselves in the way out of self-interest".

The sanctions would likely consist of travel bans to the EU and asset freezes, and target the speaker of Libya's internationally recognised parliament, Aguila Saleh, as well as Nuri Abu Sahmein of the Tripoli-based General National Congress and its head Khalifa Ghweil, a European diplomatic source said.

Libya has had rival parliaments and governments since 2014, after an Islamist-led militia alliance overran Tripoli and forced the internationally recognised administration to flee to the remote east of the oil-rich nation.

Extremists including the Islamic State group have exploited the chaos, raising fears of jihadists using the Libyan coast as a launch pad to infiltrate Europe and launch attacks.

Western countries have agreed that military action is needed to dislodge IS in Libya, but world powers want a national unity government installed to request help before formally intervening.

"It would not make sense to impose travel bans and asset freezes on more than two or three people, because you would end up with no one to negotiate with," added the Brussels-based source.

"But what is being proposed will be effective because Libyan politicians like to travel to Malta and Italy for shopping and medical treatment," the source added.

A UN-backed national unity government, headed by Fayez al-Sarraj, was proposed in January but rejected by the internationally recognised parliament.

The parliament, located in the remote eastern town of Tobruk, has since said it does support the unity government but was unable to hold a confidence vote on the line-up of a new administration because it lacked a quorum.

Story continues

"There is a prime minister, Mr Sarraj, who is capable of directing (a unity government). A majority of MPs say they are in favour but the parliament cannot find a consensus because of barriers," said Ayrault.

"We cannot continue with this situation that is a danger for Libyans, for the whole region... and for Europe," he added.

"We must fight Islamic State where it is trying to establish a foothold in Libya but before that a national unity government needs to be established."

France, backed by Britain, needs to build support for the sanctions amongst other EU members. Many countries are reticent to vote on sanctions that have not been proposed by the United Nations.

Ayrault is expected to bring up the sanctions during a meeting of foreign ministers in Paris, to be attended by the United States, Britain, Italy, Germany and the EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
PARIS (Reuters) - The French government is willing to make some tweaks to its pro-business labor reforms to ease concerns about them, Labour Minister Myriam El Khomri said on Thursday, a day after a series of street protests. Students and unions staged rallies across the country on Wednesday against the far-reaching labor reform plans, with the official interior ministry figure of 224,000 protesters far from a record but still high enough to worry the government. "People are protesting, it's there, we must listen to the criticism," Labour Minister Myriam El Khomri told France Info radio. One way to answer those concerns would be to slap higher payroll taxes on short-term contracts to encourage employers to hire workers as permanent staff, El Khomri said. The government might make a further concession by keeping a rule that requires authorization from work inspectors before apprentices can be made to work longer hours, she said. "Withdrawing that proposal (to change the rule) is on the table," she said. These ideas are unlikely to be game-changers though. The short-term contract taxation plan is already on the table in ongoing negotiations between labor unions and employers groups, and the apprentices' issue would be just a minor tweak to the draft law. But the government is working on more far-reaching changes to the draft law, government and union sources said. These could include raising a planned cap on unfair dismissal compensation and watering down some measures aimed at making it easier for businesses to lay off workers when the business isn't going well. In another move to prevent youth discontent from boiling over, Prime Minister Manuel Valls will meet with student organizations on Friday morning, an aide to the prime minister said. The government's reform plans put almost all aspects of France's strictly codified rules on labor relations up for negotiation. Everything from maximum working hours to holidays and pay on rest breaks would be open to scrutiny in an attempt to free up business, while the main focus is on plans to limit the cost of laying off workers. Initially due to be adopted in a cabinet meeting this week, the bill was postponed by two weeks after it triggered harsh criticism from within the ruling Socialist party. Public opinion appeared divided, with 50 percent of respondents in an Elabe poll supporting the protests, a quarter opposing them and another quarter expressing indifference. (Reporting by Ingrid Melander; Additional reporting by Emmanuel Jarry and Elizabeth Pineau; Editing by Andrew Callus and Hugh Lawson)
Frankfurt (AFP) - Germany's trade surplus contracted slightly in January, dragged down by falling exports, official data showed on Thursday.

The trade surplus is a key gauge of an economy's comparative strength and in recent months has highlighted the robustness of Europe's biggest economy amid the current global economic uncertainties.

German exports declined by 0.5 percent to 98.2 billion euros ($108 billion) in seasonally-adjusted terms in January, the federal statistics office calculated.

At the same time, imports -- a measure of domestic demand -- increased by 1.2 percent to 79.4 billion euros.

That meant that the trade surplus -- the balance between exports and imports -- shrank slightly to 18.8 billion euros in January from 20.3 billion euros in December, the statisticians said.

A similar trend was seen on a 12-month basis, with exports falling by 1.4 percent in January compared with a year earlier, while imports grew by 1.5 percent.

In raw or unadjusted terms, the trade surplus contracted to 13.6 billion euros in January, compared with a surplus of 19 billion euros in December and a surplus of 15.9 billion euros in January 2015.

Exports to the European Union expanded by 1.0 percent on a 12-month basis, Destatis calculated.

But exports to the eurozone slipped fractionally by 0.1 percent and exports to countries outside Europe were down by 5.0 percent year-on-year, Destatis said.
Unidentified gunmen on Thursday kidnapped eight government employees in Pakistan's troubled northwest while they were heading to inspect an under construction dam, officials said.

The incident took place in Toi Khula area of the South Waziristan tribal district along the Afghan border where unidentified gunmen intercepted their vehicle and took them to an unknown location.

Zafrul Islam, the top government official in South Waziristan, said project director of Chao Tangi small dam, two geologists and other technical staff of the dam were among those kidnapped at gunpoint.

"Gunmen kidnapped these eight government employees when they were heading to the dam site," Islam told AFP.

A second senior government official confirmed the abduction and told AFP that a search operation had been launched to locate the abductors.

No group has yet claimed responsibility.

South Waziristan is one of Pakistan's seven tribal districts which border Afghanistan and have been home to Al-Qaeda and Taliban led militants.

The Taliban blew up a girls' school in South Waziristan in February saying the school had been targeted because it was run by the military and the group was opposed to female education.

Pakistan's army stepped up its offensive in the region after the Taliban's massacre of 153 people, mostly children, at an army-run school in Peshawar in December 2014, and has killed or pushed hundreds of militants to Afghanistan.
Weve often heard about hackers stealing personal data from millions of users by attacking retail stores, banks and even the U.S. government. But weve never heard about hackers trying to steal $1 billion. And whats more, they were thwarted because of a simple typo that alerted banks to the fraudulent money transfers.

DONT MISS: I really want to, but Ill never ditch my iPhone for the Galaxy S7

Rather than targeting ATMs or phishing for banking information from unsuspecting customers, clever hackers managed to penetrate the security of the Bangladesh central bank last month. According to Reuters, the unknown criminals obtained credentials for payment transfers and then they hit the Federal Reserve Bank of New York with nearly three dozen requests to transfer money from the Bangladesh Bank to various entities in the Philippines and Sri Lanka.

The trick almost worked, as four requests to transfer a total of $81 million to the Philippines went through, making the bank heist one of the largest known thefts in history.

But the fifth transfer, amounting to $20 million intended for a Sri Lankan non-profit organization was held up. The hackers misspelled the name of the NGO Foundation, calling it the Shalika Fandation. The routing bank, Deutsche Bank, wanted clarification from the Bangladesh central bank, which then stopped the transaction.

On top of that, the high number of transactions and the transfer requests to private entities prompted the Fed to alert the Bangladesh Bank. This helped the bank put a stop to all the other transactions initiated by hackers, which totaled between $850 million and $870 million. Had they been successful, the hackers would have pulled off the biggest bank heist in history.

The Bangladesh Bank further confirmed that it recovered some of the stolen money, and its working with anti-money laundering authorities in the Philippines to retrieve the rest. Casinos in the country are believed to have received some of the money.

Story continues

The attack happened at some point between February 4-5 and originated from outside the country. Its not clear who the hackers are and officials said theres not much hope of catching them. Security experts say that the hackers had deep knowledge of the security protecting the banks system, and that they had likely spied on bank workers for some time ahead of the heist.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh government officials say that its the Fed who should have stopped the transactions, and its considering a lawsuit.

Related stories

From high seas to high tech: Pirates hack shipping company

Why protecting critical infrastructure from cyberattacks is a global emergency

16-year-old British boy suspected to have hacked CIA director and the FBI arrested

More from BGR: A few seconds is all it takes to make your iPhone much faster

This article was originally published on BGR.com
Returning to the White House, where he first performed the opening number from Hamilton for the First Family and friends, Lin-Manuel Miranda will try out his latest show for the Obamas next week. Its also called Hamilton, but this time, rather than flying solo, Miranda  who wrote the book and score for the Foundling Father musical and plays the title role  is bringing the entire cast to perform a concert version of the show thats so hard to get a ticket to the only way to see it is to pay for a command performance.

Screen Shot 2016-03-09 at 5.22.29 PM

Actually, the March 14 event is to promote a series of spring matinee performances at the Richard Rodgers Theatre to which New York City public school students have been invited. Its part of an American history curriculum that includes the show. Hamilton is based on Ron Chernows acclaimed biography of the first U.S. Treasury secretary and George Washingtons aide-de-camp, an immigrant who died in a duel with his political and personal rival, Aaron Burr.

First Lady Michelle Obama will welcome the Broadway cast to the White House and introduce a student workshop, Q&A and a performance of selections from the show. In May 2009, the Obamas hosted an event celebrating poetry, music and the spoken word, where Miranda (check out his Top Gun haircut!) performed The Hamilton Mixtape, which was later renamed Alexander Hamilton and became the opening number of the show.

Miranda teased the upcoming show here:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNFf7nMIGnE&w=970&h=546]

Related stories

SXSW: Obamas Set For Keynotes At Austin Fest

Broadway's Fatter Roster Spikes $20M Box Office To 7% Over 2015

Lin-Manuel Miranda Likely To Join Disney's 'Mary Poppins' Sequel
Hillary Clinton has taken pains to describe the lead-contaminated drinking water of Flint, Michigan, not only as a public-health and environmental crisis, but also as a crisis of poverty and racism. Along the way, the Democratic presidential contender has invoked the idea of intersectionality, the concept that different forms of inequality and discrimination overlap and compound one another.

Clintons use of the term, which was at one time largely confined to academia, signals that it is now a common way of thinking about inequality for a younger generation. Her decision to employ it may also elevate the concept in American politics, and alter the terms of a national debate over poverty, racism and other forms of inequity.

In recent weeks, Clinton has increasingly made reference to the concept on the campaign trail. We face a complex set of economic, social, and political challenges. They are intersectional, they are reinforcing, and we have got to take them all on, Clinton declared during a February speech in Harlem. Over the weekend, her campaign tweeted that Flint's water crisis is an example of the combined effects of intersecting issues that impact communities of color. An appended graphic draws literal lines between poverty, systemic racism, underfunded school systems, and crumbling infrastructure.

Intersectionality was coined in the late 1980s to explain how different markers of identity coalesce to yield unique forms of discrimination. A black woman, for example, might experience not only racism and sexism in her daily life, but could also confront additional barriers that white women and black men do not. It became a way of making visible the experience of individuals that had previously been caught between the feminist and civil-rights movements.

Today, the term has been embraced by many of the younger voters flocking to Bernie Sanders, whom Clinton has so far struggled to win over. Deploying the concept could help Clinton appeal to a younger generation. An intersectional agenda also lends itself to a set of talking points that dovetails with the central argument Clinton has been making all along: That she is better qualified than Sanders, with his focus on tackling economic inequality, to confront the wide array of challenges facing our country. The campaign subtly leveled that critique when it tweeted: It's not enough to talk only about economics. We have to tackle racial, economic, & environmental justicetogether.

Story continues

Recommended: The Obama Doctrine

Still, Clinton isnt the only Democratic presidential candidate advocating the approach. Sanders has also invoked intersectionality, even if he may not be talking about the concept quite as explicitly. Sanders has outlined the argument that minorities are uniquely vulnerable to multiple forms of violence, including physical, economic, and environmental violence. His recognition that communities of color are not only subject to overt and physical acts of racism, but also disproportionately suffer from economic deprivation and environmental pollution, likewise stands as an implicit acknowledgement of intersectionality.

Clinton has been winning over black voters by a wide margin, but faces lingering distrust over tough-on-crime policies signed into law by former President Bill Clinton, a legacy that she has worked to distance herself from. Talking up intersectionality on the campaign trail could help, though its hard to say how far that will take her. Clinton narrowly edged out Sanders in Genesee County, home to the city of Flint, but lost the Michigan primary on Tuesday despite her effort to shine a spotlight on the water crisis. She is also sure to face charges of opportunism as she advocates intersectionality, and has already been accused of politicizing the Flint water crisis.

Its tremendously important for new frames to enter our political lexicon to deal with old problems.

At a certain point, though, it doesnt matter whether Clintons motives in talking about intersectionality are cynical or pure. Her public advocacy of an intersectional approach to politics brings the concept further into the political mainstream. It could introduce the term to new audiences, and shape the way politicians, particularly on the political Left, think and talk about, as well as offer solutions to, inequality and discrimination.

A lot of times we approach politics from the standpoint that every issue we encounter should be thought of and dealt with separately, said Leslie McCall, a professor of sociology and political science at Northwestern University. If we have someone who starts to use the term intersectional and who is willing to draw connections between things previously thought of as independent from one another, I think that is a more accurate representation of how the world actually works and would be progress.

Recommended: The Violent Undertones of a Trump Rally

Clintons invocation of intersectionality may also broaden popular understanding of the concept. In popular culture, it has been variously deployed. Intersectionality has been denounced by conservatives as a form of identity politics. Progressives, meanwhile, have used the term both to conceptualize identity and as a framework to broadly explain how different structural barriers operate simultaneously. Clinton is using the concept to denote an integrated approach to dealing with deeply-intertwined environmental, economic, and social problems.

Its tremendously important for new frames to enter our political lexicon to deal with old problems. They mark a space and set of realities that might otherwise slip through the cracks, said Kimberle Crenshaw, a law professor at Columbia University and the University of California-Los Angeles who originally coined the term. Its refreshing that people are starting to talk about intersectionality in ways that are far more inclusive of the variety of challenges we face as a society, and understanding that this isnt just about an identity politics.

Of course, acknowledging the complexity of problems isnt the same as offering concrete solutions. As Clinton helps popularize the term, theres risk of it becoming a meaningless buzzword, or being dismissed as an exclusively liberal concern. When Clinton, Sanders, and their supporters talk about intersectionality, theyre simultaneously offering a framework for tying together disparate concerns, and shifting the boundaries of public debate. As progressives contest the specific meaning and implications of the way the candidates deploy the idea, those boundaries will surely continue to shift.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
By Maher Chmaytelli BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's powerful Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr wants Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to stay in power but replace his cabinet with professionals with no party affiliation so he can fight corruption, the head of the Sadrist bloc in parliament said. Corruption is eating away at Baghdad's resources even as it struggles with falling revenue due to rock-bottom oil prices and high spending due to the costs of the war on Islamic State. A year and a half into his four-year term, Abadi said last month that he wanted to replace his ministers with technocrats to weaken the system of patronage that distributing posts along political, ethnic and sectarian lines creates. Sadr, heir to a Shi'ite clerical dynasty persecuted under Saddam Hussein, on Feb. 12 gave Abadi 45 days to deliver on this pledge or face a no-confidence vote in parliament. Dhiaa al-Asadi, head of the parliamentary bloc that supports Sadr, said the drive for a change of cabinet was what hundreds of thousands of Sadrs followers have held protests in the capital for on the last two Fridays. They plan to demonstrate this Friday as well, he said. "Doctor Haider (Abadi) is saying 'You havent tried me working with a professional cabinet. You gave me dysfunctional tools, knowing that I cannot perform with these tools since each one of them is tied to his own party'," Asadi told Reuters on Wednesday. In a speech on Wednesday evening, Abadi said that he would announce ministerial changes soon and that the cabinet would be made of "competent professionals" who reflect the nations ethnic and sectarian makeup. But while all political parties publicly support reform and are against corruption, they have yet to respond to Abadis request that they refrain from having representatives in the cabinet, contrary to the practice put in place after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that ended Saddam's regime. Asadi said his group supports the move, however. "We told him (Abadi) 'We will form a bloc in parliament that will transcend the sectarian and ethnic groups that will form a majority and that will be ready to vote for you'," he said. The Sadrist bloc, called al-Ahrar, accounts for only 34 of parliaments 328 members. But Asadi said more than 30 representatives of other blocs have already agreed to join the initiative to form a parliamentary coalition including Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. Keeping up the pressure for change on the streets, the cleric al-Sadr has asked his followers to demonstrate again this Friday in Baghdads central Tahrir Square. Last week's protest was held at the gates of the Green Zone, a heavily fortified district of Baghdad that houses government offices, raising concern of clashes with security forces. (Editing by Hugh Lawson)
Dublin (AFP) - Ireland's outgoing prime minister Enda Kenny resigned Thursday after losing a parliamentary vote to be renamed to his post, following an inconclusive general election in the eurozone nation last month.

After the vote Kenny formally submitted his resignation to the Irish president, but will remain in a caretaker role until the political deadlock is resolved and either he or a new Taoiseach, or prime minister, can be appointed.

"In accordance with the constitution, the government and the Taoiseach will continue to carry on their duties until successors have been appointed," a government statement read.

The February 26 election produced no clear winner but stripped his outgoing coalition of its majority, as voters expressed anger over continued austerity policies despite a return to economic growth.

Kenny's Fine Gael party won 50 seats and nearest rivals Fianna Fail have 44, while anti-austerity Sinn Fein -- long associated with the sectarian conflict in neighbouring Northern Ireland -- got 23.

In his bid to be re-appointed prime minister Kenny won the support of 57 deputies -- far short of the required majority of 80 in the 158-seat chamber. He got 94 votes against and five abstentions.

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin's nomination for prime minister was also defeated, as was that of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.

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 centre-right parties they have deep divisions dating back to the 1920s civil war and any agreement between them would be politically difficult.

Ireland's economy surged by 7.8 percent last year -- by far the biggest growth in the European Union and higher than the 6.9-percent expansion seen in China, official data released earlier on Thursday showed.

"There appears to be no let-up in the Irish economic growth story, with all the signs that the 'Celtic Tiger' has been re-born," said Merrion stockbrokers analyst Alan McQuaid, in reference to Ireland's economic boom preceeding the financial crisis.
More than 200 civilians in Iraq have been killed in bombings carried out by the Islamic State (ISIS) militant group in the past two weeks, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch. The killing of civilians constitutes crimes against humanity and could amount to war crimes, according to the New Yorkbased human rights monitor.

The most recent attack that ISIS claimed responsibility for took place on Sunday, when more than 60 people were killed and at least 70 were injured after a fuel tanker rigged with explosives was detonated near a checkpoint south of Baghdad.

This latest string of mass killings demonstrates the utter contempt of ISIS for civilian lives, Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement on Thursday. The military victories seem to have increased the danger to civilians throughout the country.

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said 410 Iraqi civilians were killed in February 2016, in addition to the 1,450 who were injured.

Human Rights Watch says attacks against civilians were stepped up following the retaking of a number of ISIS-controlled cities by Iraqi security forces and the Kurdish peshmerga between October and December 2015. ISIS has targeted markets and sites of worship and mourning over the past two weeks.

Deliberately targeting civilians is a war crime, and anyone involved in preparing, ordering, or carrying out such a crime could be held accountable, including in countries outside Iraq, Human Rights Watch said in its report. Certain crimes, such as murder, that are committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack on a civilian populationmeaning the crimes are committed as the policy of the state, or of an organization such as a militiaare considered crimes against humanity.

The Human Rights Watch report was published on Thursday, one day after Iraqi intelligence officials said U.S. special operations forces captured the head of ISISs chemical weapons unit during a raid in Iraq last month. A report published earlier this week by the U.K.-based counter-extremism think tank Quilliam Foundation said more than 31,000 pregnant women currently live under ISIS rule in Syria and Iraq.

Related Articles
Name, education, references, and a preference of fighting over suicide operations are some of the 23 questions being asked of ISIS recruits, according to news reports.

German news organizations, including the Munich-based Suddeutsche Zeitung and NDR and WDR, the public broadcasters, said they obtained thousands of documents that include a list of 22,000 names of potential ISIS recruits.

NBC News and Britains Sky News also said they received similar lists, secreted to them on a USB drive by a former ISIS recruit named Abu Hamed who said he stole it from the head of ISISs internal security police.

The documents, if authenticated, are likely to provide Western intelligence agencies the closest look at Western recruits to the terrorist organization, their motivations, their connection to others in the group, and ISISs sympathizers. News of the documents also comes a week after The New York Times reported that U.S. Special Operations forces had captured a significant ISIS operative in Iraq and were interrogating him at a temporary detention facility in the city of Erbil.

Recommended: The Disappointment of Barack Obama

German authorities have looked at the list and, Suddeutsche Zeitung reported, called it very likely to be real documents. Thomas de Maiziere, the German interior minister, confirmed the authenticity of the documents, The Guardian reported, and said the list would help explain the underlying structures of this terrorist organization. All the documents have been turned over to authorities.

The BBC reported the documents seem to have come from late 2013 or early 2014. They look like initial recruitment forms, and show not only names of recruits, but ask 23 questions that cover things like who recommended them, if they have any previous combat experience, how they traveled out of their home countries, and their mothers maiden name, as well as their blood type. Sky News also reported that many of the telephone numbers listed still worked, some of them belonging to family, but also a significant number  used by the jihadis themselves.

Story continues

Some of the names on the list, like that of Abdel Bary, a young British rapper turned jihadist, shows up on the list. Bary is presumed alive, but authorities dont know where he is. Others are fighters known already to be dead, or who are standing trial, like Kermin Marc B and Abdelkarim B, who are standing trial in Germany, the BBC reported.

Among the names on the list were at least 16 Britons, six Canadians, and four Americans. German authorities say that, in all, more than 800 of its citizens have left to fight for ISIS. Part of the difficulty of prosecuting these people though, is that once they return, its hard to prove they fought for the organization. The list will likely help with that.

Recommended: How Russia Saw the Red Line Crisis

An independent Syrian website called Zaman al-Wasl published copies of the questionnaires Tuesday. It also said it had exclusively received the personal information of 1,736 ISIS fighters.

These recruits came from 40 countries: A quarter were Saudi, and the list also included Tunisians, Moroccans, and Egyptians. When a potential recruit crosses into ISIS territory, Zaman al-Wasl reported, the border administration wants to know everything about that person, even what he wants to be in ISIS, a fighter or a suicide bomber.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
Tel Aviv (AFP) - An Israeli busker has become a local celebrity after smashing his guitar over the head of a Palestinian on a fatal stabbing rampage along the Tel Aviv seafront.

Yishai Montgomery, 26, has been dubbed the "guitar hero" by Israeli media and on social networks for his attempt to stop the attack, which killed an American tourist and wounded 12 people, before a policeman shot the assailant dead.

Stunned by his overnight fame, he has been swamped with media interview requests and has received several replacement guitars, including one from Israeli star Aviv Geffen.

Well-wishers have set up a $5,000 crowdfunding campaign for him.

Montgomery was playing on the beachside promenade in Jaffa, a picturesque Tel Aviv neighbourhood popular with tourists, when he saw a knife-wielding man attacking passers-by.

"For I moment I didn't understand that what I was seeing was real," he told AFP on Thursday.

He was quickly jerked to reality when the man, 21-year-old Bashar Masalha, ran toward him.

Montgomery lashed out with his guitar, briefly stunning Masalha, then followed him as he ran off, shouting "terrorist" to warn others, until police shot him dead.

Since then, "I go from one interview to another," he said. "My phone doesn't stop ringing."

There are moments, Montgomery said, when he misses the calm of his home village in southern Israel.

But those thoughts are soon swept aside by the recording offers he has received and the promise of a boost to his musical career, which has been stalled since he returned to Israel in January from a three-year stay in Canada.

"I have no definite plans. I am open to any changes and to all proposals," he said.

But Montgomery has no illusions about the fleeting nature of fame.

"Tomorrow, everyone will have forgotten me," he said.

"But I don't care. I love guitars, and people have already given me four new ones."
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A hold-up over a new U.S. defense package for Israel was behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to forgo a meeting with President Barack Obama in Washington this month, a senior Israeli official said on Thursday. Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely's remarks contrasted with a statement by Netanyahu that cited his reluctance to risk being drawn into the U.S. presidential campaign as the reason for declining a White House offer to host him on March 18. Current U.S. military grants to Israel, worth about $3 billion annually, expire in 2018. Israel, which last year requested $5 billion in future annual aid but whose officials have since set their sights on $4 billion to $4.5 billion, says it needs to expand its military, rather than just upgrade technologies, given spiraling arms procurement it anticipates by arch-foe Iran and Arab states. U.S. officials have given lower target figures of around $3.7 billion. The dispute prompted Israeli officials to hint that Netanyahu may bank on Obama's successor for a better deal. "There was a decision not to go to the president as long the agreement over the compensation package is not concluded," Hotovely told Israel Radio, using a term linking the future U.S. aid to last year's international nuclear deal with Iran, which brought sanctions relief that Tehran may use for arms purchases. "The prime minister wants to honor the U.S. president by going when there is a basis, good news on the matter of the U.S. aid package," she said. "This really has to be taken seriously." U.S. officials say they still hope for an agreement before Obama leaves office next January. FRAUGHT RELATIONSHIP The White House's announcement on Monday that Netanyahu had turned down the meeting with Obama was seen as the latest episode in a fraught relationship that has yet to recover from deep differences over the Iran nuclear deal. Some U.S. sources assessed that Netanyahu wanted the MOU concluded before meeting Obama and that the lag was among the reasons for not coming to Washington, where he was to have addressed the annual conference of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC. Vice President Joe Biden, in Jerusalem on Wednesday for discussions with Netanyahu that included the "Memorandum of Understanding" (MOU) on defense aid between 2018 and 2028, appeared to acknowledge Israel's terms. "We're committed to making sure that Israel can defend itself against all serious threats, maintain its qualitative edge with a quantity sufficient to maintain that," Biden said. It was not clear if that signaled a deal was close. U.S. negotiators have made clear that, while they want Israel to maintain a technological advantage over its neighbors, they differ over the level of risk of increased quantities of less-advanced arms in the hands of Washington's Arab allies who seek to counter Iran. (Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Gareth Jones)
ROME (Reuters) - Italian prosecutors investigating the torture and killing of an Italian student in Cairo will travel there to meet Egyptian magistrates, Rome's chief prosecutor said on Thursday. The announcement came as the European Parliament backed a resolution saying disappearances and torture have become increasingly common in Egypt, calling on Cairo to cooperate fully with Italy. Chief prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone met Egypt's ambassador to Italy, Amr Helmy, and accepted an invitation to meet soon with Cairo magistrates investigating the killing, Pignatone said in a statement. Cambridge University student Giulio Regeni, 28, disappeared in January and his bruised and broken body was found in a ditch on the outskirts of Cairo on Feb. 3. He had been studying Egypt's independent labor unions and had written critical articles about the government. Rome prosecutors suspect he was murdered by Egyptian security services who considered him a spy, according to judicial sources. Egypt has denied this, suggesting common criminals or Islamist militants were involved. Italy sent a seven-person team to investigate but after a month they have not received all the evidence they say is needed to properly conduct the investigation. The European Parliament "strongly condemns the torture and assassination under suspicious circumstances of EU citizen Giulio Regeni," read the resolution. Egypt must give Italy "all the information and documentation necessary to conduct a rapid, transparent and impartial investigation into the Regeni case," it said. It called on European Union diplomats to pressure Egypt to improve its human rights record, saying Regeni's killing occurred "within a context of torture, death in custody and enforced disappearances across Egypt in recent years." Egypt has denied human rights abuses. (Reporting by Massimiliano Di Giorgio, writing by Steve Scherer; Editing by Dominic Evans)
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's top government spokesman said on Thursday the nation continues to closely cooperate with countries such as the United States and South Korea and is urging North Korea to refrain from taking proactive action. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference the government remains vigilant and is prepared for all circumstances. North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast city of Wonsan early on Thursday, flying approximately 500 km (300 miles), South Korea's military said. (Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)
The Islamic State jihadist group is unable to make significant inroads in Afghanistan and its fighters are contained in a small part of the country, a US general said Thursday.

The Islamic State in Afghanistan and Pakistan -- named a year ago by the group's leadership -- has stepped up its offensive in the east of the country in recent months.

However, the group, which is also called ISL or Daesh, "is primarily contained to one district out of 404 district within the entire country," said Brigadier General Wilson Shoffner, spokesman for the US-led military operations in Afghanistan.

That district is in the eastern province of Nangarhar, on the border with Pakistan, Shoffner told reporters in Washington via telephone.

Last year, the military officials estimated that there were between 1,000 and 3,000 IS fighters operating in six or seven districts of Nangarhar.

But now the number of fighters is "probably on the lower end of that," he said.

Many of them are former Pakistani Taliban fighters "that have changed allegiance to Daesh," Shoffner said.

Those fighters were pushed into Afghanistan by a crackdown on militants in Pakistan, Shoffner said.

"Daesh does not have a fundamental ideological appeal" among the Taliban, he said.

"Pretty horrific facts committed by Daesh in Nangarhar province that really were unpopular with the population" have helped undermine their support in Afghanistan, he said.

Nevertheless, the IS group remains a "strategic threat" in Afghanistan, Shoffner said.

In recent months Afghan forces backed by US drones launched a scorched earth offensive to beat back IS in Nangarhar, where the group's rein of terror has displaced thousands of people.

The White House in January gave the US military legal authority to target the group's fighters in Afghanistan, the first such authorization for military action against the IS group outside Iraq and Syria

The general said that the US military has substantially increased its attacks on the IS group.

The US and NATO combat mission in Afghanistan ended in December 2014, and the remaining forces focus on training and support of the Afghan military missions, as well as counterterrorism missions against the IS group and remnants of Al-Qaeda.
Production designer Ken Adam, the two-time Oscar winner who created the Pentagon war room for Dr. Strangelove and the inside of Fort Knox for Goldfinger, has died. He was 95.

Adam, who earned his Academy Awards for his work on Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1976) and Nicholas Hytners The Madness of King George (1994), died Thursday at his home in London, his biographer, Christopher Frayling, told the BBC.

He was a brilliant visualizer of worlds we will never be able to visit ourselves  the war room under the Pentagon in Dr. Strangelove, the interior of Fort Knox in Goldfinger  all sorts of interiors which, as members of the public, we are never going to get to see, but he created an image of them that was more real than real itself, said Frayling.

In a 2003 interview, Adam recalled a conversation he had with director Steven Spielberg about the massive set he designed for Kubricks Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).

I was in the States giving a lecture to the Directors Guild when Steven Spielberg came up to me, he recalled. He said, &lsquoKen, that war room set for Strangelove is the best set you ever designed. Five minutes later he came back and said, &lsquoNo, it's the best set that's ever been designed.

In 2003, Adam became the first film production designer to be knighted. As a production designer, you offer a form of escapism that is more often more exciting that reality, he once said.

A native of Berlin whose family fled the Nazis for London, Adam also received Oscar nominations for Around the World in Eighty Days (1956), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Addams Family Values (1993).

In addition to Goldfinger (1964) and The Spy Who Loved Me, he did the production design on the James Bond films Dr. No (1962), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967)  famous for its villains lair embedded in a volcano  Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and Moonraker (1979), and he worked on another great British spy tale, the Michael Caine-starring The Ipcress File (1965).

Story continues

His impressive resume also includes Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)  he designed the iconic car  Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), Sleuth (1972), The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976), Agnes of God (1985), Crimes of the Heart (1986), Dead Bang (1989), The Freshman (1990), Boys on the Side (1995) and the remake of The Out-of-Towners (1999).

After settling in London, Adam studied architecture and eventually became one of the few Germans to fly missions for England's Royal Air Force during World War II.

Famed Gone With the Wind production designer William Cameron Menzies hired him to help on Around the World in 80 Days, launching his career.

A stint working for Albert Cubby Broccoli on The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960) led to the Bond producer tapping him for Dr. No. The film introduced 007s Aston Martin with gadgets that included an ejector seat, an idea that came from my days as a pilot," Adam told the Los Angeles Times last year.

See More: Hollywood's Notable Deaths of 2016
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The convicted killer of South African anti-apartheid leader Chris Hani will be freed on parole in two weeks after more than 20 years in prison, a Pretoria court ruled on Thursday. Janusz Walus was serving a life sentence for the 1993 murder of Hani, a charismatic activist and politician who was both a senior member of the African National Congress (ANC) and the head of the South African Communist Party (SACP) when he was gunned down. The decision to free him is likely to be contentious in a country still dealing with the legacy of the brutality meted out by the white-minority regime that prevailed from 1948 to 1994. Hani's murder threatened to derail South Africa's transition to multi-racial democracy, leading to nationwide riots and triggering fears of a civil war. Walus, a Polish immigrant, shot Hani dead outside his Johannesburg home. "Yes, he got parole," his lawyer, Roelof du Plessis, told online service News24. Walus was sentenced alongside Clive Derby-Lewis, a right-wing politician who provided the murder weapon. Both men were originally sentenced to death, but that was commuted to life in prison after South Africa abolished the death penalty in 1995. Derby-Lewis was freed on medical parole last year. Hani's wife, Limpho, criticized the decision to free Walus. "It's very, very sad for South Africa. It's a very sad day," she told Talk Radio 702. Justice Minister Michael Masutha had blocked a parole board decision to release Walus, leading to his legal challenge in the Pretoria court. "We received the judgment with great disappointment," SACP spokesman Alex Mashilo said. Apartheid death-squad leader Eugene de Kock, dubbed 'Prime Evil' for his role in the torture and murder of scores of black activists in the 1980s and early 1990s, was freed on parole last year after serving more than 20 years in prison. His current whereabouts are unknown. (Writing by James Macharia; Editing by Ed Cropley)
By Dan Freed

(Reuters) - John Gutfreund, legendary bond trader and former Chief Executive of Salomon Brothers, has died at the age of 86, an associate of the banker said on Wednesday.

Gutfreund was dubbed the "King of Wall Street" by Business Week in 1985, as Salomon revolutionized bond trading. The firm played a critical role in creating mortgage-backed securities, among other innovations.

The cigar-smoking financier was immortalized in Michael Lewis's "Liar's Poker," one of the seminal books about Wall Street, written in 1989.

"At any given moment on the trading floor billions of dollars were being risked by bond traders," Lewis wrote. "Gutfreund took the pulse of the place by simply wandering around it and asking questions of the traders. An eerie sixth sense guided him to wherever a crisis was unfolding. Gutfreund seemed able to smell money being lost."

After joining Salomon Brothers as a trainee in the statistical department earning $45 per week in the 1950s, Gutfreund rose to head the firm in 1978.

Gutfreund took Salomon Brothers public and earned $40 million personally, according to Liar's Poker. He was forced out in 1991 due to a Treasury bond trading scandal. Gutfreund earned $3.1 million in 1986, more than any other Wall Street CEO at the time.

The Wall Street Journal first reported Gutfreund's death earlier on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Dan Freed in New York; additional reporting by Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, Lauren Tara LaCapra and Diane Craft)
LAGOS (Reuters) - At least 30 people were killed when a five-storey building still under construction collapsed in Nigeria's megacity and commercial capital Lagos, officials said on Wednesday. The Lagos state government said the house collapsed on Tuesday after the owners had added floors despite lacking a permit from authorities, which had sealed off the site -- a common problem in the West African nation where law enforcement is weak. Aid officials had initially put the death toll at four but relief workers pulled out more bodies from the rubble by Wednesday afternoon. Thirteen people were rescued, officials said. The building site located in the popular Lekki district on the Lagos peninsula had been inhabited by workers and their families. "After they (the owners) finished building the house, rain fell and the house shifted a bit. They put iron in front of the house (but) the iron couldn't hold the house," said Victor Suru, a brick layer working on the site. "They left it like that and continued building." The Lagos state government told the management of the builder to report to police or face arrest. "It has also been discovered that in a brazen act of defiance and impunity, the owners of the building ... criminally unsealed the property and continued building beyond the approved floors," the state government said in a statement. (Reporting by Sharon Ogunleye; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Alison Williams)
By Sabina Zawadzki BILLUND, Denmark (Reuters) - In a low-rise factory on the outskirts of Billund, a small town in western Denmark, robots stand holding trays at the ready as pistons spit out hundreds of pieces of Lego every few seconds. The plant churns out 100 million of the brightly colored plastic bricks every day and is set to increase output this year, in line with Lego's ambitions to dominate the global toy market. The Danish company could overtake Barbie doll maker Mattel as the world's biggest toymaker in 2016, analysts say, helped by its push into movie franchises, video games and smartphone applications. Most of its 25 box-set themes now have some digital content: Nexo Knights, introduced last year for example, comes with an app game. Yet, while Lego has embraced the digital age as more kids play games on iPads and smartphones, parents who fret their children spend too much time staring at screens shouldn't worry: online is not the toymaker's ultimate destination. Rather, its digital push is aimed at bringing children back to its core product: the Lego brick, first produced in its current form in 1958. The driving force is extrovert, quirky CEO Jorgen Vig Knudstorp, appointed in 2004, a year after the company flirted with bankruptcy, and the first chief executive from outside the Kristiansen clan, Denmark's richest family. He set about reviving Lego's core business, by firing consultants and hiring new designers to come up with higher-margin products that were up to date but still looked like Lego, an abbreviation of the Danish "leg godt", meaning "play well". The company now has 250 designers and launched 350 products last year. They included the Lego Dimensions box set, which puts together characters from "Lord of the Rings", "Batman" and the Lego movie, allowing kids to build portals and vehicles which are transferred to an online game by placing the pieces on an electronic "toy pad". Announcing another year of record results last month, Knudstorp, 47, made a celebratory star-jump after Lego overtook My Little Pony producer Hasbro to become the world's second-largest toy company, with revenues of 36 billion Danish crowns ($5.3 bln). If the company's projections for high single-digit revenue growth this year prove correct, it will beat Mattel to take the No. 1 spot, analysts say. "If you look at the toy market through 50 years, you'll find there's always Lego ... At the same time we recognize, to stay at the top of the wishlist, we need to do something new and exciting," Knudstorp said. "I think that's how we can continue to, not go fully digital, but leverage the digital technology as a way of making the physical play even more exciting," he told Reuters from his office packed with box sets and a large model of Darth Vadar's Lambada spaceship. NOT CONSTRAINED BY REALITY Lego argues that some of its digital content is free and can be enjoyed without buying a box set, and so is not even a marketing tool. Rather, children are simply attracted to the "seamless play" between the physical and digital worlds. "The vast majority (of sales), with a capital 'V', comes from bricks," Chief Financial Officer John Goodwin said. Stephanie Wissink, a U.S.-based analyst at Pipe Jaffray & Co covering Mattel and Hasbro, said toy companies have had to shift their attitudes to digital play given that many children these days own several digital devices. "Initially companies went down the path of almost trying to convey to the parents that you're a bad parent if you let your kid play on a digital device," she said. Although that stigma has disappeared, the digitalization is "not replacing a physical play opportunity, it's complementing it", she said. Ricco Rejnholdt Krog, a design director at Lego, says children are brought in weekly to test drive products and twice a year the designers travel around the world testing themes and changes. "We're really listening, we're paying attention to what they say," he said. Designers made changes to a police station box set after a Chinese child complained there weren't enough get-away possibilities to make for exciting "cops and robbers" play, he said. The company is due to start production in China next year, another step in its global expansion. When asked how big Lego could get, CFO Goodwin said: "We don't want to be inhibited by realism." ($1 = 6.8392 Danish crowns) (Reporting by Sabina Zawadzki; Editing by Susan Fenton)
World number one Chen Long became the victim of a second seismic shock in less than 24 hours at the All-England Open when his title defence was upended in the second round.

Chen was beaten 21-19, 21-17 by Xue Song, a Chinese compatriot who played tenaciously and thoughtfully but whose modest world ranking of 30 now makes it impossible, he believes, to qualify for the Olympics.

On Wednesday night, Lee Chong Wei, the world number two from Malaysia, had also been beaten by an unseeded player, falling in the first round to B. Sai Praneeth of India.

The curiosity of Thursday's upset was that Chen, usually such a consistent player, was uncertain and error-prone at the most important moments -- from 19-18 up in the first game and from 17-17 in the second.

He was a little too inconsistent at the net and in mid-court - usually an area of great strength for him - and he was also often unable to force attacks home, perhaps because of the cool conditions.

Chen also tried to claim the result was not so surprising.

It can happen because the competition is so fierce, he said. Its normal, it can happen.

Attempts to find out how long it had been since the top two seeds were beaten so early suggested that this was not so.

Even more disorienting was the low key reaction from the winner.

Its no secret that our relationship is so close, Xue said. It is closer than with my parents -- and I think that impacted on our performances.

I think it impacted him as well as me, and I am not feeling great about winning this. Although he is the top seed I was not desperately wanting to win.

Chens position as world number one is not immediately under threat after a superb 2015 in which he won seven major titles, but the surprise result does appear to open a path for another compatriot, Lin Dan, to regain the All-England title and win it for a sixth time.

Lin reacted to danger quite differently, switching to the overdrive gear to accelerate into the quarter-finals.

Story continues

The outcome was impressive as the two-time Olympic champion utterly transformed his match against Sho Sasaki, the world number 20 from Japan, finishing a calm 20-22, 21-6, 21-8 winner.

He played at a higher speed, he sliced and disguised smashes into difficult areas, and he gave Sasaki far fewer opportunities to win points at the net, where the Japanese player had done well.

Asked how the Lin Dan of today compared with the Lin Dan who won the gold medals in Beijing and London, he replied: There are more and more challenges. Its important to keep on training to get the best out of myself.

Women's top seed Carolina Marin suggested she had recovered from her narrow first round escape against Bae Yeon Ju of Korea by outplaying Maria Kusumastute, the world number 20 from Indonesia by 21-17, 21-7.

Yesterday I just wanted to get confident. Today was a very different match. Today I was happy with my performance and how I could cope, the Spaniard said.

Marins success will bring what may be another emotionally uncertain match between friends, for she next plays Ratchanok Intanon, the former world champion from Thailand.

Carolina is a close friend -- we used to train together, Intanon said after trouncing Akane Yamaguchi, the teenaged world number 11 from Japan, by 21-9, 21-13.

It will be a difficult match but if I just focus I think everything will be okay.
By Andrew Osborn MOSCOW (Reuters) - Economic crises convulsing Russia, Ukraine and Belarus mean testing in areas contaminated by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster has been cut or restricted, Greenpeace said, and people continue to eat and drink foods with dangerously high radiation levels. According to scientific tests conducted on behalf of the environmental campaigning group, overall contamination from key isotopes such as cesium-137 and strontium-90 has fallen somewhat, but lingers, especially in places such as forests. People in affected areas are still coming into daily contact with dangerously high levels of radiation from the April, 1986 explosion at the nuclear plant that sent a plume of radioactive fallout across large swathes of Europe. "It is in what they eat and what they drink. It is in the wood they use for construction and burn to keep warm," the Greenpeace report, entitled "Nuclear Scars: The Lasting legacies of Chernobyl and Fukushima" says. The research report seen by Reuters ahead of publication on Wednesday said Ukraine "no longer has sufficient funds to finance the programmes needed to properly protect the public... this means the radiation exposure of people still living in the contaminated areas is likely increasing." Ukraine is suffering economic hardship, worsened by a pro-Russian insurgency in its eastern territories, while Russia and Belarus are also experiencing financial pressures. The report found that in some cases, such as in grain, radiation levels in the contaminated areas - where an estimated 5 million people live - had actually increased. "And just as this contamination will be with them for decades to come, so will the related impacts on their health. Thousands of children, even those born 30 years after Chernobyl, still have to drink radioactively contaminated milk." Russia's ministries of health and natural resources did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the report. In Ukraine, the health, agriculture and ecology ministries did not immediately respond. DANGER IN THE FORESTS Greenpeace said it had also conducted tests in areas contaminated by the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan where an earthquake and tsunami damaged a nuclear plant and caused a substantial radiation leak. As with Chernobyl, forests around the accident site were found to have become repositories of radioactive contamination that could not be cleaned up. "They will pose a risk to the population for decades or even centuries to come," the report said. Greenpeace said the Japanese government's decontamination efforts had so far been inadequate and left the door open to recontamination of areas deemed to have been cleaned. Long-term exposure to radiation can lead to severe illnesses. Doctors in the areas worst affected by Chernobyl have long reported a sharp rise in certain cancer rates. Halina Chmulevych, a single mother of two living in a village in Ukraine's Rivne region, was cited in the report as saying she sometimes had little choice but to feed her children contaminated food. "We have milk and bake bread ourselves that yes is with radiation," she was quoted as saying. "Everything here is with radiation. Of course it worries me, but what can I do?" SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1U3S5zj Greenpeace.org, March 9, 2016.
Love the article on Gaddaf

i

Samosa Iyoha



Hello from Johannesburg

I was amazed to find a website for Africans in Hungary .

Looks like you have quite a community there. Here in SA we have some three million Zimbabweans living in exile and not much sign of going home ... but in Hungary??? Hope to meet you on one of my trips to Europe; was in Steirmark Austria near the Hungarian border earlier this month. Every good wish for 2011. Geoff in Jo'burg



I'm impressed by

ANH

work but...



Interesting interview...



My comment to the interview with his excellency Mr. Adedotun Adenrele Adepoju CDA a.i--

B.Ayo Adams

click to read editor's mail

We must rise above tribalism & divide & rule of the colonialist who stole & looted our treasure & planted their puppets to lord it over us..they alone can decide on whosoever is performing & the one that is corrupt..but the most corrupt nations are the western countries that plunder the resources of other nations & make them poorer & aid the rulers to steal & keep such ill gotten wealth in their country..yemen,syria etc have killed more than gadhafi but its not A good investment for the west(this is laughable)because oil is not in these countries..when obasanjo annihilated the odi people in rivers state, they looked away because its in their favour & interest..one day!I think from what have been said, the Nigerian embassy here seem to be more concern about its nationals than we are for ourselves. Our complete disregard for the laws of Hungary isn't going to help Nigeria's image or going to promote what the Embassy is trying to showcase. So if the journalists could zoom-in more focus on Nigerians living, working and studying here in Hungary than scrutinizing the embassy and its every move, i think it would be of tremendous help to the embassy serving its nationals better and create more awareness about where we live . Taking the issues of illicit drugs and forged documents as typical examples.. there are so many cases of Nigerians been involved. But i am yet to read of it in e.news. So i think if only you and your journalists could write more about it and follow up on the stories i think it will make our nationals more aware of what to expect. I wouldn't say i am not impressed with your work but you need to be more of a two way street rather than a one way street . Keep up the good work... SylviaHe is an intelligent man. He spoke well on the issues! Thanks to Mr Hakeem Babalola for the interview it contains some expedient information..
Hundreds of Bangladeshis began a four-day march Thursday from the capital to the Sundarbans in a last-ditch protest against plans to build a coal-fired power plant near the World Heritage-listed forest.

Preliminary work has already begun under an Indian-Bangladesh joint venture on the massive plant which will provide much needed electricity to the impoverished country when it becomes operational in 2018.

But organisers hope the 250-kilometre (155-mile) long march will force the Bangladesh government to scrap the plant which they say will harm endangered Bengal tigers and other animals living in the mangroves.

"It's now or never. We can't allow this power plant to destroy the world's largest mangrove forest," march organiser Ruhin Hossain told AFP.

Nearly 1,000 students, green activists and others rallied in Dhaka, shouting slogans and carrying flags of left-wing political and labour groups before starting the march which they hope will draw thousands of others along the route.

"The Sundarbans is one of the pristine beauties of the world," Hossain told AFP.

"In the past it has saved us from cyclones, flash floods and it's our biggest protection against tsunamis," he said of the ecologically fragile forest which acts as a natural buffer against extreme weather.

Experts said the 1,320-megawatt plant is being built just four kilometres from the UNESCO-declared World Heritage section of the vast forest which straddles Bangladesh and India.

India and Bangladesh signed a deal in 2010 to jointly develop the $1.7-billion power plant.

Bangladesh's forestry chief has said authorities have "adopted an environment management plan to mitigate any possible negative impact on the forest".

But some experts fear the plant will dump tonnes of coal waste into the 10,000-square kilometre (3,800-square mile) forest, already suffering from over population and pollution.

"Coal-based power plants have the most emissions and we shouldn't forget incidents like the oil spill in a Sundarbans river," Nurul Amin, an environmental science professor at Bangladesh's North-South University, told AFP.

In 2014 a boat carrying oil spilled thousands of gallons into the forest, with a lack of formal relief efforts forcing locals to use spoons, pots and sponges to clean up the sludge.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Louisiana black bear, inspiration for the teddy bear, will be taken off the U.S. list of threatened species, the Interior Department said on Thursday. The bear's population has rebounded from as few as 150 in part of Louisiana in 1992 when it was put on the list of endangered and threatened species, to an estimated 500 to 750 across their current range, the department said in a statement. The resurgence means the bear is unlikely to be in danger of extinction in the foreseeable future. "As I said last spring when the delisting proposal was announced, the Louisiana black bear is another success story for the Endangered Species Act, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said. The revival of the Louisiana black bear was spurred by the protection or restoration of more than 750,000 acres (304,000 hectares) of bottomland hardwood forests, much of it through private landowners' efforts. At the time of the listing, the three known breeding populations were limited to the Tensas and Upper and Lower Atchafalaya river basins in Louisiana. Those groups have stabilized, and more breeding populations are forming in Mississippi and elsewhere in Louisiana. The bear entered American popular culture in 1902, when President Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear that was trapped and tied to a tree by his hunting party. The incident was featured in a cartoon in the Washington Post, sparking the idea for a Brooklyn candy-store owner to create the Teddy bear. The bear is one of 16 subspecies of the American black bear and is the Louisiana state mammal. (Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
Miami (AFP) - The Louisiana black bear, which inspired the popular stuffed animal "teddy bears" in the early 1900s, was taken off the Endangered Species List on Thursday after 24 years of conservation efforts, US officials said.

The Louisiana black bear (Ursus americanus lutelous) was listed as endangered in 1992, when only about 150 existed in the wild. Their population had declined drastically due to habitat loss and overhunting.

Today, the US Fish and Wildlife Service says between 500 and 750 bears live in the species' currently range, which includes the forests of Louisiana and Mississippi.

"Successful recovery efforts are allowing breeding populations to expand," said the US Fish and Wildlife Service in a statement.

"As such, the bear is not likely to become in danger of extinction now or within the foreseeable future."

The FWS proposed delisting the Louisiana black bear in May 2015, and accepted public comments for a period of time before issuing the final decision.

"As I said last spring when the delisting proposal was announced, the Louisiana black bear is another success story for the Endangered Species Act," said US Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell.

The Louisiana black bear rose to fame in the early 20th century after one bear's encounter with the president.

In 1902, president Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was on a hunting trip in Mississippi. He was unable to find any bears to shoot until the third day, when aides found a black bear that had been chased and attacked by dogs and tied it to a tree for Roosevelt to shoot.

The US leader decided he could not shoot the bear, but ordered that it be put down to end its suffering. The story spread in US newspapers and editorial cartoons, and inspired the creation of stuffed animals named "teddy bears" by a Brooklyn candy store owner.
(Reuters) - Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp's affection for his players pushes them to put every last drop of effort into their performances, past the point where fatigue has taken its toll, midfielder Adam Lallana has said. One of the most iconic images of the German's first game in charge in October is of an exhausted Lallana being enveloped in a warm hug by his manager having harried and chased Tottenham Hotspur all over the pitch in a 0-0 draw at White Hart Lane. "I didn't know what to expect coming off the pitch," Lallana told the Liverpool Echo. "He went for a big hug and I just fell into his arms, looking exhausted. "It means a lot as a player if your manager is genuinely showing some affection to you. It makes you feel good, makes you want to do it again and keep going, work when you're tired and give it your best." Lallana has embraced Klopp's high-energy, counter-pressing style that has seen Liverpool win their last three Premier League games to climb to seventh in the table, six points behind fourth-placed Manchester City with 10 matches to play. "I'm a player that loves to press, likes to be on the front foot and have the licence to not worry about what is behind me," Lallana added. "It is not just as simple as running ridiculously to the ball, there are elements of tactics behind it. "We haven't found consistency this season but his style is gradually coming into the team. Personally, I will keep fighting as I always have and hopefully I will be in his long-term plans." (Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru; Editing by John O'Brien)
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A low-cost urine test that detects tuberculosis in people living with HIV can save thousands of lives, many of them in sub-Saharan Africa, a Cape Town University researcher said on Wednesday. Nearly 40 percent of adults with HIV/AIDS in Africa die of TB as almost half of TB cases remain undiagnosed and untreated, according to researcher Keertan Dheda, whose study was published in The Lancet medical journal. "For patients with advanced HIV, it's hard to diagnose what infection they have and it's particularly hard to diagnose TB," Dheda told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. TB is the leading cause of death in people with HIV in low- and middle-income countries, Dheda wrote in The Lancet. The World Health Organisation has said TB now rivals HIV/AIDS as a leading cause of death from infectious diseases. Diagnosing TB in patients with HIV is difficult because conventional tests require taking an X-ray of the chest and a mucus sample, though for severely ill patients it can be hard to produce mucus, Dheda said. The new urine test, which costs $2.66, provides results in 25 minutes and does not require a mucus sample. "What we showed in the study is that if you use this new test and a guided treatment based on this test you can actually save lives," Dheda said by phone from South Africa. The test was particularly effective in identifying TB among patients with advanced HIV infection who were most vulnerable to TB, the study said. "The absolute reduction in mortality was small at 4 percent, but with 300,000 patients with HIV dying from TB in Africa every year, implementing this low-cost, rapid, bedside test could potentially save thousands of lives annually," Dheda said in a statement. "The reduction in mortality is likely to be because urine testing, in conjunction with routine testing, resulted in a greater proportion of patients starting tuberculosis treatment early." He said the test can be used to diagnose TB in patients with HIV anywhere in the world. The research was carried out on 2,500 patients in 10 hospitals across four countries in sub-Saharan Africa. (Reporting by Magdalena Mis, editing by Tim Pearce. Please credit Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, womens rights, corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org)
Kyle Odom, the 30-year-old man police say shot Pastor Tim Remington outside an Idaho church on Sunday, was arrested Tuesday evening in Washington D.C., after Secret Service agents allegedly throwing items over the White House fence.



A statement from the Secret Service obtained by PEOPLE confirms Odom has been charged with one count of attempted murder.



Officials say Odom tossed several items  including some flash drives  onto the White House lawn. None of the items were found to be hazardous, according to the statement.



Remington, 55, was shot six times during Sunday's shooting. He has regained consciousness, according to news reports.





Man Who Allegedly Shot Idaho Pastor Who Stumped for Ted Cruz Arrested Outside of White House| Crime & Courts, Murder, True Crime

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.



Investigators say Odom was in the Marines between 2000 and 2006, and that the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, man pre-planned the shooting. Police say he has a history of mental illness, but that he had no criminal history prior to Sunday.



Remington was shot a day after leading the invocation at a campaign event for Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz, according to authorities. Detectives do not believe Remington's support of Cruz prompted Sunday's violence.



Odom attended services at the church before allegedly shooting Remington. Police claim he had not prior affiliation with the church before Sunday's incident.



Odom is being held without bail. It is unclear if he has an attorney who could comment on his behalf.
By Kole Casule TABANOVCE, Macedonia (Reuters) - The closure of the Balkan route to migrants has left about 430 desperate people, mainly Syrians and Iraqis, trapped in a muddy no mans land between Macedonia and Serbia, unwilling to go back to Macedonia but barred from heading to Serbia or further north. The migrants, camped within sight of Serbian border guards, were angered and confused by news that Serbia, Slovenia and Croatia had closed their borders to migrants in transit, effectively blocking the Balkan route taken by more than 1 million migrants to the European Union over the past year. Persistent heavy rain has turned their makeshift camp of around 50 small tents provided by aid agencies into a quagmire and daytime temperatures are only around 5 degrees centigrade. "Our children are dying. There is water all over, even under the tents ... Now it seems that the bombs in Syria look better than this misery. We are not animals," said Ibrahim Mardini, a 23-year-old student from Aleppo in Syria. The migrants' long journeys from Iraq or Syria ended with a train ride through Macedonia and finally a walk to the Serbian border, where they have been stranded for three or four days. Blocked from entering Serbia, they refuse to give up on their dream of reaching the European Union. Macedonian authorities say they could go back to an established migrant camp less than 1 mile (1 km) away in Macedonia, but they refuse. "I want to go to any country, just not here. My baby is very tired. I cannot take it any more. I don't want to go back. I walked too long," said 25-year-old Weaam Fattal, also from Aleppo. "I don't have any other plan, I don't know where to go," said Fattal, who said she left Syria about two months ago. Dhomo Shevan, a 45-year-old farmer from Iraq, was defiant. "If they don't let us pass, we will just go. Let us see if they stop us. This is unbearable," he said. Aid workers were distributing food and water and have set up portable toilets for the migrants. A Red Cross vehicle arrived and delivered blankets and warm hats for the children. Close by, about 1,000 more migrants are crammed into the Macedonian transit camp, designed for 700 people. Their future is equally uncertain. Ivo Kunovski, an aid worker with U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, said: "We dont know what is next. We are waiting to see what will they (the authorities) decide. "There is enough food and clothes. Everyone has a roof over their head, but the situation with the people in no man's land is worse. There are women, children and elderly people there. We are trying to help them," he said. The closure of the Balkan route could lead to migrants taking new routes to try to reach Europe, the deputy executive director of EU border agency Frontex said on Thursday. (Additional reporting by Ivana Sekularac; Writing by Adrian Croft; Editing by Alison Williams)
By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has reacted to Iran's recent ballistic missile tests by urging Tehran to act with moderation and restraint and to avoid increasing regional tensions, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Thursday. "In the current political atmosphere in the Middle East region, and so soon after the positive news of the lifting of sanctions against Iran, the secretary-general calls ... Iran to act with moderation, caution and the good sense not to increase tensions through hasty actions," Dujarric told reporters. A series of ballistic missile tests this week conducted by Iran's Revolutionary Guard units drew international concern. The United States, France and other countries said that if confirmed, of launches nuclear-capable ballistic missiles would be a violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution. Dujarric noted that it is up to the 15-nation council to examine issues related to resolution 2231, which calls upon Iran "not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology." The United States has said Iran's missile tests do not violate the terms of an historic nuclear deal between Tehran and six major powers, which resolution 2231, adopted in July 2015, endorsed. The U.N. missile restrictions and an arms embargo on Iran are not technically part of the nuclear agreement. Council diplomats say they will first await confirmation from national intelligence agencies about whether the missiles Iran has fired were nuclear-capable. They also say that Russia and China, which opposed the continuation of restrictions on Iran's missile program, would likely block council action. Iran's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that the tests were not in violation of the nuclear agreement, which led to lifting of sanctions in January. Western diplomats say resolution 2231, which "calls upon" Iran to refrain from certain ballistic missile activity, offers no green light for nuclear-capable missile launches by Tehran and is therefore a clear ban. However, they acknowledge that Russia, China and Iran likely interpret that language as an appeal to Iran to voluntarily refrain from missile activity. Tehran has also said that none of its missiles are designed to carry nuclear weapons. While no new U.N. sanctions may be imminent, Western diplomats say that the United States and some of its allies could take additional punitive action in the form of unilateral national sanctions against Iran over the latest missile launches, something Washington has done previously. When U.N. sanctions on Iran were lifted in January, the Security Council's Iran sanctions committee was shut down. But council diplomats said they expect the former chair of that now-defunct committee, Spain, will take on the task of overseeing the monitoring of Tehran's compliance with resolution 2231. (Reporting by Louis Charbonneau, editing by Michelle Nichols and Alan Crosby)
By Aziz El Yaakoubi and Louis Charbonneau RABAT/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Morocco's government has accused U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of dropping his neutrality in the Western Sahara conflict by using the word "occupation" to describe Morocco's presence in the region. The United Nations responded by dismissing the suggestion that Ban was anything but neutral in the long-running dispute over the desert region in the northwest corner of Africa that has festered since Morocco took control over most of it in 1975 following former colonial power Spain's withdrawal. "The kingdom of Morocco has noticed ... the Secretary General has dropped his neutrality and impartiality and has showed a guilty indulgence with a puppet state without attributes, territory, population, nor a recognized flag," said a Moroccan government statement carried by state news agency MAP late on Tuesday. The Polisario Front, which has said the territory belongs to ethnic Sahrawis, waged a guerrilla war until a U.N.-brokered ceasefire in 1991. But the two sides have been deadlocked since, particularly over a referendum on the region's future. Ban said last week he would restart U.N. efforts to reach a solution after visiting camps in southern Algeria for the Polisario Front leadership and refugees who fled the conflict. The Moroccan government said Ban had used the word "occupation" to describe Moroccan annexation of Western Sahara in 1975. "The use of such terminology has no legal nor political basis and it is an insult to the Moroccan government and people," the government statement said. U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq, responding to a question about Morocco's criticism, told reporters in New York that the U.N. stance had not changed. "The secretary-general believes that he and the United Nations are neutral parties," Haq said, adding that Ban wants to make sure in his final year as U.N. chief that the Western Sahara issue was "firmly on the international agenda." Haq said Ban was still planning to visit Morocco later this year and his office remained in contact with the Moroccan government. The U.N. press office issued a further statement that said Ban had "referred to 'occupation' as related to the inability of Sahrawi refugees to return home under conditions that include satisfactory governance arrangements under which all Sahrawis can freely express their desires." Polisario, backed by Morocco's regional rival and neighbor Algeria and a number of other African states, wants to hold the vote promised in the ceasefire deal on the region's fate. Morocco says it will not offer more than autonomy for the region, rich in phosphates and possibly offshore oil and gas. Polisario's self-declared Arab Sahrawi Republic (SADR) has been recognized by some countries, mainly from the African Union. None of the Western powers recognize it. (Reporting By Aziz El Yaakoubi in Rabat and Louis Charbonneau in New York; Editing by Will Dunham and Lisa Shumaker)
London (AFP) - Western intelligence services examined Thursday a potential treasure trove of leaked IS files, some of which were deemed likely to be authentic by German officials despite the doubts of many experts.

The documents contain details including the names, dates of birth and phone numbers of Islamic State group recruits, according to British and German media.

Copies of the documents broadcast by Sky News showed that recruits had to answer 23 questions including on their blood type, mother's maiden name, "level of sharia understanding" and previous experience.

Sky said the documents contained the identities of some 22,000 IS group members from 51 countries, including from northern Europe, the Middle East, north Africa, the United States and Canada.

Richard Barrett, formerly a senior figure in Britain's MI6 overseas intelligence service, said the leak would be "an absolute gold mine of information of enormous significance and interest" if genuine.

The information could help Western security agencies trying to track down returning jihadists by bringing to light the connections between them.

Tens of thousands of foreign jihadists -- mostly from north Africa and the Middle East -- have joined the ranks of the IS group in Iraq and Syria.

The group has suffered setbacks on the ground following a US-led campaign for its eradication but it still controls large swathes of territory and has a supply of new recruits, experts said.

Britain's interior ministry said it did not comment on national security matters but Prime Minister David Cameron's spokeswoman said the government would "look at how this information can be used in the fight against Daesh," another term for Islamic State.

"If it can, then we would welcome that," she said, adding that the government had not been aware of the story before it was reported although Sky said it had shared its findings with the authorities.

Story continues

- 'Big alarm bells' -

German federal police spokesman Markus Koths said there was "a very high probability" that documents concerning German jihadists that were reported by media were genuine.

"We are therefore taking them into account as part of our law enforcement and security measures," he added.

Fredrik Milder, a spokesman for Sweden's Sapo intelligence service, meanwhile told TT news agency: "We are aware of the existence of this list."

"Our security services have received such information," he said.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere earlier this week said they would help "a better understanding of the structures" of IS and pave the way for "faster, clearer investigations and higher prison sentences".

Experts said the documents would be valuable if authentic, although they pointed out mistakes and uncharacteristic language in the forms.

Charlie Winter, a researcher at Georgia State University, said: "There would be big alarm bells for me, because when I've seen inconsistencies like that in the past they've been on really shoddily-made forgeries."

The Arabic name for "The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria," IS's previous nomenclature, is written in two different ways, including one that is not consistent with past practice.

Files documenting the deaths of IS militants use the words "date of killing" instead of the typical jihadist term "martyrdom."

Romain Caillet, an independent jihadism expert, also noted that some documents feature a second, circular logo not previously used on IS files.

The biggest concerns, Winter said, were the different names, logo, and grammatical mistakes that he described as "very much out of character" for IS documents.

"With something as important as this, it's important to look at it with as suspicious, discerning, and cynical an eye as possible," Winter said.

- Only 1,700 people? -

Syrian opposition news website Zaman al-Wasl said there were thousands of repetitions in the leaked documents and the names of only 1,700 people could be identified in the 22,000 documents.

Sky reported that a disillusioned former member had handed over the documents on a memory stick that had been stolen from the head of the group's internal security police.

Names on the list include Reyaad Khan, a 21-year-old British jihadist who Britain's government said was planning attacks on Britain before being killed by a British drone in Syria last year.

Another on the list was Junaid Hussain, a British computer hacker described by British authorities as a key IS operative, who died in a 2015 US air strike.

The alleged leak comes with Western security services on high alert against the possibility of fresh jihadist massacre following the Paris attacks spree last November.
WINDHOEK (Reuters) - Namibia's trade deficit widened to N$39.2 billion ($2.6 billion) in 2015, the biggest shortfall in a decade, due to a sharp slide in exports to key trading partners, official data showed on Thursday. Exports slumped 9.8 percent to N$58.4 billion as sales of commodities such as copper and zinc shrunk, with demand from major trading partners South Africa and Angola faltering, data from the Namibian Statistics Agency showed. Imports accelerated by 19.8 percent to N$62 billion in 2015 compared to a year earlier, the agency said. Diamonds, copper cathodes, fish, copper ores and zinc are the southern African nation's top exports, but a slowing global and regional economy has seen commodity demand taper off. Namibia's economy is due to slow to 4.3 percent in 2016 after a 4.5 percent expansion in 2015, its finance ministry said last month. ($1 = 15.2015 Namibian dollars) (Writing by Mfuneko Toyana; Editing by Tiisetso Motsoeneng)
From Popular Mechanics

NASA's Mars Insight mission should've been heading for Mars around now. But instead, it was grounded by an air leak that proved difficult to repair, time after time. That indefinitely pushed off the launch date until the vacuum tank issues could be repaired. But NASA says it'll have an all-new instrument by next year, finally putting it back on track for a May 2018 launch.

The lander is meant to study seismic activity on the red planet by digging under the surface. The vacuum tank was integral in keeping the seismic monitors steady. The French space agency, CNES, was tasked with building the tank, but ran into repeated problems. The mission is a Discovery-class mission, one of a series of low-cost missions created in the 1990s to allow smaller-scale exploration.

CNES is expected to deliver a "thoroughly tested" instrument in 2017, one that completely overhauls the previous instrument. If this one works, the mission won't be grounded-and can instead dig under the surface of Mars for the first time, and find out what's happening underground.
Beirut (AFP) - Lebanese army troops clashed with jihadists in the country's northeast near the Syrian border Thursday, leaving one soldier and eight gunmen dead, a security official said.

Lebanon has been the scene of frequent violence, including deadly bombings and fighting between jihadists and the army, since war erupted in neighbouring Syria in 2011.

Clashes broke out "between terrorists and the Lebanese army" at around 3:00 am (0100 GMT) Thursday near the flashpoint town of Ras Baalbek, the official, who did not want to be named, told AFP.

It was unclear which group the jihadists were fighting for.

The area was now "calm" and eight wounded soldiers were receiving treatment in nearby hospitals, the official said.

The army has regularly fought extremists near Ras Baalbek. Last year, at least five troops were killed in clashes with gunmen there.

In August 2014, the army clashed with the Islamic State (IS) group and Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, in the border town of Arsal, near Ras Baalbek.

IS and Al-Nusra kidnapped 30 Lebanese soldiers and policemen as they withdrew.

After long negotiations, 16 of the kidnapped men were released at the start of December in exchange for Islamist prisoners jailed in Lebanon.
Everyones heard the stories about legendary martial artist and (somewhat less legendary) action movie hero Chuck Norris. When the boogeyman goes to sleep at night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris. Superman wears Chuck Norris pajamas. The list goes on.

But maybe even Chuck Norris gets nervous about endorsing Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

Related: Trump Will Try to Be Presidential Tonight  Good Luck with That

Norris had been expected to appear at a Cruz campaign rally over the weekend, alongside retired Lt. General Jerry Boykin and radio host Glen Beck. However, according to Becks website The Blaze on Thursday morning, the man famous for dispatching bad guys with a roundhouse kick to the face either got cold feet or never intended to endorse Cruz in the first place.

The Cruz-backing Keep the Promise PAC had announced that Norris would be appearing with Cruz, suggesting that the film star would be endorsing the Texas senator. But on Thursday, the group backed down, saying that it had been informed Norris would not attend.

Norris himself, in a Facebook post and at the conservative World Net Daily website, where he writes a column, debunked the false information himself.

I would like to clarify for the record that I have NOT officially endorsed any candidate for president, contrary to what has been widely reported in the media, Norris said.

Related: No, Closed Primaries Are Not Donald Trumps Kryptonite

His announcement came the same day that Cruz actually did receive one relatively high-profile endorsement. Former Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, the one-time CEO of Hewlett-Packard, appeared at a Cruz rally Wednesday to give his campaign her blessing.

The confusion over the Norris non-endorsement marked the second time this week that premature reports of Cruz endorsement had to be pulled back. Earlier this week, when a source close to the campaign told National Review that the endorsements of four senators were about to be announced, the publication was forced to walk its report back after it became clear that the supposed supporters werent going to materialize.

Story continues

Months into his presidential run, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has still been unable to secure the endorsement of a single fellow senator. That may finally change today, with reports that Utah Sen. Mike Lee plans to announce that he is backing Cruz. But given the campaigns recent track record on endorsement, its probably wise to wait and see.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Seoul (AFP) - North Korea looked to ratchet up already elevated tensions on the Korean peninsula still further Thursday, firing a pair of short-range missiles and announcing the liquidation of all remaining South Korean assets on its territory.

The moves were a direct response to unilateral sanctions announced by South Korea on Tuesday to punish the North for its January nuclear test and last month's long-range rocket launch.

Military tensions have been on the rise ever since the January test -- the fourth nuclear device North Korea has detonated in defiance of UN resolutions.

The UN Security Council responded with tough, new sanctions, which Pyongyang condemned as a "gangster-like" provocation orchestrated by the United States.

The North also reacted furiously to the start earlier this week of large-scale South Korea-US military drills, threatening pre-emptive nuclear strikes against both Seoul and the US mainland.

The asset seizure announced on Thursday referred to two now-shuttered joint projects, the Mount Kumgang tourism resort and the Kaesong joint industrial complex.

"We will completely liquidate all assets of South Korean firms and related institutions left behind in our region," the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in statement carried by the North's official KCNA news agency.

- 'Nullify all agreements' -

"From this time on, we nullify all agreements adopted by North and South Korea on economic cooperation and exchange programmes," the committee said.

It also warned of other unspecified "special measures" -- political, military and economic -- it would take against the South in the future.

South Korea announced the suspension of operations at the Seoul-funded Kaesong industrial complex last month, saying that money Pyongyang made from the venture was going towards its nuclear weapons programme.

The shock announcement prompted the North to expel all South Koreans from the estate and freeze all assets there, shutting down the last symbol of cross-border economic cooperation.

Story continues

An association representing the 120 firms operating factories in Kaesong, which lies just across the North Korean border, estimated the value of the assets left behind at 820 billion won ($663 million).

The head of the association, Jeong Gi-Seob, described the liquidation order as "outrageous".

"No one can liquidate private assets unilaterally. I appeal to both the South and the North to consider the companies' interests and allow us to come to the North and wrap things up," Jeong told AFP.

The Kaesong estate employed more than 53,000 North Koreans making items such as textiles, footwear and cheap electronics.

Mount Kumgang was the first major inter-Korean cooperation project, and thousands of South Koreans visited the Seoul-funded resort between 1998 and 2008.

The South suspended the tours in 2008 after a North Korean soldier shot dead a female tourist from the South who strayed into a restricted zone.

In response, the North scrapped a deal with the resort's developer -- Seoul's Hyundai Asan company -- and seized its properties there.

- Flatlined economic ties -

With the exception of Kaesong, economic cooperation between North and South effectively ended in 2010 after a South Korean naval corvette was sunk by what Seoul said was a North Korean submarine.

Consequently, any economic "sanctions" imposed by either side on the other are more symbolic than damaging.

The unilateral measures announced by Seoul on Tuesday included urging South Korean citizens to boycott North Korean restaurants operating overseas.

Earlier Thursday, the North fired a pair of short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its eastern coast.

Short-range missile launches are a regular and relatively low-level item on North Korea's long list of provocative gestures, and one it often employs to register annoyance.

It fired six high-calibre rockets into the sea a week ago just hours after the UN Security Council adopted its new sanctions package, which included the toughest measures imposed on Pyongyang to date over its nuclear weapons programme.

The package broke new ground by sanctioning specific sectors key to the North Korean economy -- such as mineral exports -- and seeking to undermine the North's use of, and access to, international transport systems.
By Julia Harte and Jeff Mason WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he hoped "cooler heads will prevail" and that the Republican-led Senate will act on his U.S. Supreme Court nominee but top Republicans dug in their heels, defending their refusal to consider anyone Obama picks. Obama has narrowed to five his list of candidates to replace conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who died on Feb. 13. Obama's nominee could tip the nine-member court to the left for the first time in decades. The Republicans who control the Senate have vowed not to hold confirmation hearings or an up-or-down vote on anyone Obama picks, saying the choice should belong to the next president who takes office in January after the Nov. 8 presidential election. "My hope is that cooler heads will prevail and people will reflect on what's at stake here once a nomination is made," Obama said at a news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The White House is interviewing five candidates, federal judges Sri Srinivasan, Jane Kelly, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Paul Watford and Merrick Garland, according to a source familiar with the process. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, whose panel handles Supreme Court nominations, offered a lengthy defense of the Senate Republicans' stance. Grassley accused Democrats of a "charade" with feigned outrage over the Republican refusal to consider Obama's nominee simply to "score as many political points as possible." "Regardless of what some are willing to admit publicly, everybody knows any nominee submitted in the middle of this presidential campaign isn't getting confirmed. Everybody. The White House knows it. Senate Democrats know it. Republicans know it. Even the press knows it," Grassley told a committee hearing. Under the U.S. Constitution, the president selects a Supreme Court nominee and the Senate confirms or rejects the nominee. "I'm going to do my job," Obama said, promising an "eminently qualified" nominee. "And it will then be up to Senate Republicans to decide whether they want to follow the Constitution and abide by the rules of fair play that ultimately undergird our democracy and that ensure that the Supreme Court does not just become one more extension of our polarized politics," Obama said. 'SEE THE LIGHT' Denis McDonough, Obama's chief of staff, and other presidential aides met with Judiciary Committee Democrats at the White House on the nomination. Afterward, the Democratic senators predicted Republicans would buckle under public pressure and drop their "obstruction" once Obama names his nominee. "We are optimistic that, soon enough, not only will the president nominate, but our Republican colleagues will see the light," said U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, forecasting that Obama's nominee will be confirmed with bipartisan support. Separately, one Republican senator indicated Senate Republicans would act on a nominee if they had a Republican president. "If a conservative president's replacing a conservative justice, there's a little more accommodation to it," Wisconsin's Ron Johnson told a radio interviewer. "President Obama's nominee would flip the court from a 5-4 conservative to a 5-4 liberal-controlled court. And thats the concern," Johnson added. THE GRASSLEY-KELLY CONNECTION Grassley in 2013 spoke in favor of Kelly's nomination to the St. Louis-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit. She was confirmed by a 96-0 Senate vote. Kelly, an Obama classmate at Harvard Law School, is based in Iowa and previously served as a federal public defender there. The Iowa senator rejected any notion he could be persuaded to drop his opposition if Obama were to nominate a candidate previously confirmed by him and other Republicans. He denounced the idea that the White House selection process was "guided by the raw political calculation of what they think will exert the most political pressure on me." Choosing someone like Kelly from Iowa would be an "obvious political ploy" that would fail, Grassley added. Senator Orrin Hatch, another Judiciary Committee Republican, said in an interview that Garland, whose previous nomination to the appellate court he backed, is "a fine man" who would be "a moderate choice" for the high court. But Hatch said he opposed acting even on Garland. "It isn't a question about the person in my opinion. It's a question about the timing ... and the atmosphere that we have around here, which is poisonous," Hatch said. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid delivered his latest attack on Grassley, saying on the Senate floor that it was "a little strange, a little odd" that Grassley would not hold hearings even for Kelly, considering his past support. Iowa's Tom Miller, a Democrat, was among a group of attorneys general from 19 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico who sent a letter to Grassley and other Senate leaders urging them to act promptly on Obama's nominee. (Additional reporting by Jeff Mason, Richard Cowan, Julia Edwards, Doina Chiacu, David Morgan, Lawrence Hurley and Julia Harte; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Howard Goller)
Oculus Social is a new option on the Oculus VR platform that will let users create online profiles, share videos with friends and game together.

Launching on Thursday for anyone who has a Samsung Gear VR, the new features will include a host of what Oculus describes as social games designed specifically to make the VR experience inclusive rather than isolating.

Oculus VR, the company behind the Oculus Rfit headset and Samsung's technology partner in its own virtual reality endeavors, is now part of Facebook. Therefore, if users link their accounts, they can also share 360-degree videos and other immersive content with other VR users via the social media platform. However, connecting the two accounts is optional.

However, this is just the start. With the social element of the Oculus platform now official, the company is going to open it up to other developers in the hopes that even more connected ideas and activates are created.

"Virtual reality will continue to drive deeper social connections, and we can't wait to bring it to more people around the world," said the Oculus team in a blogpost.
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.

Brownincoming ly.

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.

Story continues

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.

Copyright 2016 SPACE.com, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Al-Shishani isis chechen

On Tuesday, the US military cautiously celebrated what has the potential, if confirmed, of being a major victory in the fight against ISIS.

A US airstrike on Tuesday was believed to have killed ISIS's "minister of war," Abu Omar al-Shishani, also called Omar the Chechen.

If true, such a strike will seriously hinder ISIS's tactical abilities on the ground as well as the group's ability to recruit foreign fighters from the Caucasus region.

Aside from ISIS's "caliph," Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Georgian ex-commando Omar al-Shishani was the most recognizable and popular of the powerful terrorist group's leaders.

Sporting a recognizable red beard and happy to pose for photos, Shishani has acted as a very public face for some of ISIS's most notorious successes.

It was Shishani who posed with the stolen US Humvees that ISIS had seized from Mosul and brought back into Syria.

And it was Shishani who led successful ISIS military campaigns throughout Syria as well as a blitz through western Iraq that put the group within 100 miles of Baghdad.

These military successes are not simply the result of any innate military capabilities. Instead, Shishani spent years conducting military campaigns against the Russians, first as a Chechen rebel and then as a soldier in the Georgian military. During Shishani's four years in the military, from 2006 to 2010, his unit received some degree of training from American special-forces units.

"He was a perfect soldier from his first days, and everyone knew he was a star," an unnamed former comrade still active in the Georgian military told McClatchy DC. "We were well trained by American special forces units, and he was the star pupil."

"We trained him well, and we had lots of help from America," another anonymous Georgian defense official told McClatchy about Shishani. "In fact, the only reason he didn't go to Iraq to fight alongside America was that we needed his skills here in Georgia."

Story continues

In 2008, when Russia and Georgia briefly went to war over the Georgian breakaway province of South Ossetia, Shishani reportedly was a star soldier. Although Russia quickly won the war, Shishani and his special-forces unit caused asymmetrical damage to the invading Russian forces, including the wounding of the Russian commander of the 58th army.

ISIS Commander Omar Al Shishani Chechen

Shishani ultimately fell out of favor with the Georgian military and was arrested for 15 months for illegally harboring weapons. In 2012, after serving his sentence, Shishani fled Georgia and went to Syria from Turkey.

But his history of asymmetrical fighting against the Russians in the Caucasus, before and after having received American training, has played a key role in defining Shishani's military and command style.

"Shishani is somewhat unique among ISIS's commanders. Shishani is fighting like an insurgent," Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Musings on Iraq. "He's using a complex style in Anbar [a province in western Iraq], relying on a very small force ... Shishani's forces emphasize speed and agility.

"They'll hit multiple targets on the same day, and engage in harassing attacks to try to draw out the enemy, the Iraqi Security Forces or the Sahwa [Sunni tribes aligned against ISIS in Iraq]. Then he loves trapping the people he's able to draw out that are in pursuit of him."

This map shows ISIS's extent at the height of Shishani's push into Anbar:

September 15 ISIS Syria Iraq map

These tactics have worked extremely well for Shishani throughout Iraq. Despite US-led coalition airstrikes and the combined forces of the Iraqi Security Forces and Iranian-backed militias, ISIS has continued to seize territory and embed itself deeper into Anbar Province.

And more concerning is that even if ISIS were to lose ground, there is no clear indication that it would make Shishani any less dangerous. Having trained and specialized in insurgent-like asymmetrical warfare, Shishani would be just as much of a danger to Iraq even should ISIS begin to lose territory.

It was ultimately that training and specialization in insurgent warfare that likely led to Shishani's death in the airstrike. According to Reuters, the Pentagon thinks that ISIS sent Shishani to the town of Al-Shadadi in Syria in order to recapture a town that had been taken by the US-backed Syrian Arab Coalition.

While in the town, the US launched a strike against Shishani using waves of manned and unmanned airframes. Shishani's death has still not been completely confirmed, but Reuters reports that chatter on the ground seems to indicate that Shishani was killed.

NOW WATCH: The US Navy's last line of defense is this ultimate gun





More From Business Insider


United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Egypt and Russia led a charge at the UN Security Council on Thursday against plans to send peacekeeping contingents home if their soldiers are accused of sexual abuse while serving under the UN flag.

Facing a surge in the number of allegations of sex abuse by peacekeepers, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he will order troops who face repeated allegations to be repatriated, amid warnings the misconduct is damaging the reputation of the whole UN.

The new policy is a key part of a US-drafted resolution under negotiation for nearly a week, the first by the Security Council aimed at addressing the scandal.

During a council meeting, Egyptian Ambassador Amr Abdellatif Aboulatta said his country "strongly opposes collective punishment against forces making the ultimate sacrifice in very difficult conditions."

"We are talking about several dozen cases, a handful of cases among hundreds of thousands of troops," said Aboulatta.

"Accountability must be confined to those involved in the crimes, and not others."

Russian Deputy Ambassador Petr Iliichev also said entire contingents from a given country should not shoulder the blame and argued that the UN General Assembly, and not the Security Council, was the forum to address peacekeeping misconduct.

"The collective responsibility for such actions proposed by the secretary-general and a number of states raises questions," Iliichev said.

Senegal, one of the few Security Council members that contributes troops and police to peacekeeping, also opposed wholesale repatriation because of the misconduct of a few soldiers.

Last week, Ban released a report that showed a hike in the number of allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers, from 52 in 2014 to 69 last year.

Two missions accounted for over half of the cases: MINUSCA in the Central African Republic and MONUSCO in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Story continues

There have been 26 allegations of sexual abuse by peacekeepers already this year.

- Letting it happen -

Under UN rules, it is up to the country that contributes the peacekeepers to investigate and prosecute any soldier accused of misconduct while serving under the UN flag.

But US Ambassador Samantha Power, whose country funds 28 percent of the UN's $8.3 billion budget for peacekeeping, said the allegations "too often are allowed to remain in the darkness."

Power said the United Nations should have acted more quickly to repatriate troops from the Democratic Republic of Congo who faced seven allegations of sex abuse while serving in the Central African Republic.

The DR Congo troops finally left in late February, but by then eight more allegations of sexual abuse had surfaced, seven of which involved children.

"How could we let that happen?" asked Power.

France, whose troops face accusations of raping children in the Central African Republic, said it strongly backs the US-drafted resolution to push peacekeeping countries to take allegations more seriously.

"It will help break the silence and reverse the stigma from victims towards the perpetrators," said French Deputy Ambassador Alexis Lamek. "That's a very important moment."

British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft also called for measures to confront the rise in allegations of sexual abuse by peacekeepers.

"The sickening actions of a small number of individuals now threaten the reputation of the entire United Nations," he said.

A total of 122 countries contribute 125,000 troops and police to the UN's peacekeeping missions worldwide.
The next U.S. commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the International Space Station will fly with the name of the late NASA astronaut who commanded the final, ill-fated mission of the space shuttle Columbia.

Orbital ATK on Tuesday (March 8) announced that its next Cygnus spaceship is christened the "S.S. Rick Husband."

"We're proud to unveil the name of our Cygnus spacecraft  the S.S. Rick Husband, in honor of the late astronaut," the Dulles, Virginia-based company wrote on Twitter. [Images: Orbital Sciences' Cygnus Spaceship & Antares Rocket]

The announcement coincided with a media tour at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the supply ship is being readied for its launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on March 22. The Cygnus, which will arrive at the station three days later, will deliver about 63,000 lbs. (28,700 kg) of crew supplies and hardware to support the orbiting outpost's Expedition 47 and 48 crews.

The S.S. Rick Husband will also have on board Saffire, an experiment that will light a large-scale fire inside the spent, uncrewed Cygnus to study combustion in the microgravity environment. The first-of-its-type Saffire experiment will be conducted after the ship leaves the station, approximately two months after its arrival.

'A wonderful man'

Selected as a NASA astronaut in 1994, Rick Husband died on Feb. 1, 2003 while serving as commander of the space shuttle Columbia. He and his six STS-107 crewmates were lost in flight when the orbiter  damaged during its launch 16 days earlier  broke apart upon re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere over the skies of Texas.

"Rick was a very accomplished astronaut [and] a devoted husband and father," said Daniel Tani, the vice president of mission and cargo operations at Orbital ATK and a former NASA astronaut. "He was really a wonderful man."

STS-107 was Husband's second launch into space. On his first, STS-96, in 1999, he flew as pilot of the space shuttle Discovery.

Story continues

"STS-96 was the first space shuttle to dock with the space station," explained Tani. "So Rick was the first pilot to ever dock a shuttle to the space station."

Husband's commander on Discovery was Kent Rominger, who now serves as vice president of strategy and business development at Orbital ATK.

"Orbital ATK is proud to add Rick's name to our legacy of cargo delivery to this outpost in space, and to honor the memory of this brave and dedicated crew," company officials said in a statement.

Fifth namesake, first station builder

The S.S. Rick Husband is Orbital ATK's sixth Cygnus ship to be prepared for launch to the space station and the fifth that will fly under a commercial resupply services contract with NASA.

This mission is the first one to be named after an astronaut who participated in building the space station.

Since its first launch in 2013, Orbital ATK has christened its Cygnus spacecraft for late NASA astronauts who either worked for the company or made contributions to its goals and missions.

Previous ships were named for astronauts G. David Low, C. Gordon Fullerton, Janice Voss and Deke Slayton.

The most recent Cygnus, the "S.S. Deke Slayton II," was the second to fly under the name of the original Mercury 7 astronaut who went on to lead the first commercial space launch company, Space Services, Inc. The first S.S. Deke Slayton was lost in a 2014 launch failure of Orbital ATK's Antares booster from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility.

The next Cygnus to launch after the S.S. Rick Husband is set to mark the company's return to the Virginia spaceport and the return to flight for the Antares rocket. That mission, OA-5, is currently targeted for late May.

Watch an overview of Orbital ATK's OA-6 "S.S. Rick Husband" mission at collectSPACE.

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.
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Participants in a six-week armed occupation at a U.S. wildlife refuge in Oregon have been indicted on fresh charges, including that they carried firearms in federal facilities and stole and damaged government property.

The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury on March 8 and unsealed on Wednesday as the anti-government protesters appeared in a federal court in Portland, supersedes an earlier indictment in the case.

It adds new charges against protest leader Ammon Bundy and other sympathizers who were indicted last month of conspiring to impede federal officers policing the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge during a long-simmering fight over land rights.

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.

On Tuesday, a county prosecutor said protest leader Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, who was fatally shot by Oregon State Police in late January during a traffic stop, was struck three times in the back during the incident. The prosecutor deemed the slaying "justified and necessary."

The superseding indictment lists 26 defendants. Each is charged with the initial charge of conspiring to impede federal agents. It newly accuses some of the protesters of: possession of firearms and dangerous weapons in federal facilities, use and carry of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, and depredation of government property.

That last charge was leveled against protester Sean Anderson and another sympathizer, whose name has been redacted from court documents. It alleges the pair damaged an archeological site considered sacred to the Burns Paiute Tribe through the use of excavation and heavy equipment.

Story continues

The FBI has said it was working with the Tribe to identify damage to the tribe's artifacts and sacred burial grounds during the 41-day occupation.

Three armed occupiers were also indicted on charges of theft of government property, including a 2012 Ford F-350 Truck and cameras and related equipment.

A lawyer for Ammon Bundy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle)
Panama City (AFP) - Panama is aiming to inaugurate its newly expanded canal at the end of June, the head of the state canal authority said Wednesday, nearly two years behind schedule and $2 billion over budget.

Completion of the massive, multibillion-dollar project had originally been set for October 2014 but has been successively pushed back because of construction and labor problems, legal issues and the discovery last year of fissures in one of the widened locks.

Authorities had said most recently that they were looking to May or June to declare the work on the century-old canal finished.

"In around 10 days at most we should be well-placed to effectively say that we will be able to let through commercial traffic at the end of June," the Canal Authority's CEO, Jorge Quijano, told reporters.

"At this stage I don't see why that wouldn't happen."

Quijano said the Spanish-led GUPC consortium leading the expansion work is in a "most critical" phase of testing the reinforced canal. If those tests are deemed successful in around 10 days, the end-June date for the inauguration could be confirmed.

Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela is to visit the work in progress next week and may declare the exact date, Quijano said.

Work to enlarge the 80-kilometer (50-mile) long waterway so that it can handle more traffic and bigger cargo ships started in 2007.

The cost of the project has ballooned from an initially budgeted $5.3 billion to around $7 billion.

Around five percent of the world's commercial shipping passes through the Panama Canal.

The Central American country earns $1 billion a year in revenue from shipping fees for using the canal. With the expansion, it hopes to triple that within a decade.
Islamic militants holding two Canadians and a Norwegian in the southern Philippine jungles have set a one-month deadline for millions of dollars in ransom to be paid, according to a video released Thursday.

In the video posted on a local jihadist group's Facebook page, the emaciated victims said they would be killed if the ransom was not paid.

Canadian tourists John Ridsdel and Robert Hall, Norwegian resort manager Kjartan Sekkingstad and Filipina Marites Flor were seized from yachts at a marina in the southern Philippines in September.

While the ransom amount was not specified, the militants in an earlier video demanded one billion pesos ($21 million) for each of the three foreigners, without mentioning the conditions for Flor's release.

Hall identified their captors as members of the Abu Sayyaf, a local group notorious for bombings and kidnappings that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State jihadists in Iraq and Syria.

He said they were being held on Sulu, a remote island in the country's southwestern tip that is a known Abu Sayyaf hideout.

A spokesman for the Norwegian foreign ministry in Oslo, Rune Bjastad, declined to comment when contacted by AFP.

The Canadian embassy in Manila was not immediately available for comment, while a spokeswoman for the government in Ottawa declined to speak on the matter.

A Philippine military spokesman, Brigadier-General Restituto Padilla, told AFP he could not comment on the video until he saw it in full.

The Philippine government has repeatedly said it has a "no-ransom policy". But parties linked to foreigners held hostage by the Abu Sayyaf often pay to win their release.

In October 2014, the Abu Sayyaf claimed it received 250 million pesos ($5.3 million) in exchange for two German hostages they held captive for six months. Security analysts said a large ransom was paid.

The group is also believed to be holding a retired Italian missionary whom they seized from his pizzeria in the southern port city of Dipolog in October.

The Abu Sayyaf killed a Malaysian hostage last year, according to authorities.
By Suzannah Gonzales (Reuters) - Pennsylvania police on Thursday were seeking two men suspected of ambushing partygoers at a backyard barbecue near Pittsburgh the previous night, killing five people, including a pregnant woman, and wounding three others in a hail of gunfire. One suspect, armed with a 40-caliber handgun, shepherded victims from behind the house toward an alleyway where a second suspect armed with "an AK-47 type" rifle shot them in the head, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. said. Police recovered 49 bullet casings from two different guns at the crime scene. "The murders were planned, calculated, brutal," Zappala said. The motive for the fatal shooting of four women and one man in the residential neighborhood of Wilkinsburg, about 8 miles (13 km) east of the city of Pittsburgh, was still unknown, but authorities were exploring whether it might be drug-related, Zappala said. "Everybody is a person of interest. There are some we are more interested in than others," Allegheny County Police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said at a news conference, noting that the suspects fled on foot. The police did not have enough evidence to make arrests, he said. The massacre in Wilkinsburg, a borough of about 15,000 mostly lower and middle-income residents, is the latest in a series of mass shootings that have heightened the controversy surrounding gun control and made it a prominent campaign issue in the U.S. presidential race. The shooting generated more than 10,000 Twitter posts, with many expressing outrage over gun violence. The woman killed was eight months pregnant, and the death of her fetus was ruled a sixth homicide under Pennsylvania law, Moffatt said. Among those wounded, the most seriously hurt were two men who remained hospitalized in critical condition, but were apparently improving, Moffatt said. The dead ranged from 25 to 37 years old, officials said, but family members of a 38-year-old woman said she was the oldest. Three of the five who died belonged to the same extended family, Moffatt said. One of those killed, Tina Shelton, was a mother of five who held down three jobs and was encouraged by family members to attend the barbecue as a way to relax after work, her father Vernes Pugh and other relatives told local station WPXI-TV. Four victims died on the back porch next to the alley, while another woman died at a hospital, police said. (Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales, Barbara Goldberg and Amy Tennery; Editing by Bill Rigby and Richard Chang)
Why cant most people in prison vote? Although states display considerable range of policies on the issue of howif at allpeople can vote after being released from institutions or onto parole or probation, the general idea is that the ballot box stops where the bars begin.

But on Tuesday, 6,195 inmates voted in Puerto Ricos Republican primarywhere they comprised one-sixth of the voters who cast their ballots. Their example challenges many of the premises of felon disenfranchisement, and suggests that fears of what would happen if it were repealed are overblown.

The logic behind felony disenfranchisement within prisons and without is so deeply rooted in American ideas of crime and punishment it can seem tautological: Of course prisoners cant vote; theyre prisoners! However, recent primary elections in Vermont, Maine, and Puerto Rico challenge that common knowledge and provide a glimpse of what the countrys voting process might look like if the franchise was extended to those serving time.

The origins of disenfranchisement as a vehicle of American punishment are likely traceable to some form of the classical notion of a civil death. For the Greeks, the punishment of civil death was akin to capital punishmenta complete extinguishing of the civil rights that Greeks believed constituted personhood, including suffrage, landownership, and the right to file lawsuits. English common law borrowed the Greek concept, and civil death was long viewed as a suitable punishment for felony offenses.

But civil death as a formal punishment in the American colonies differed from the English system on which it was based, and from the punishments that would later evolve. Civil death was initially only adopted in America for a very small number of felonies, the most common of which were violations directly connected to votingfor example, fraud or bribery. This paralleled both an expansion of crimes considered felonies and a decoupling of felony punishment from capital punishment. The use of long-term imprisonment, instead of corporal or capital punishment, only came about in fits and starts.

Story continues

Recommended: The Obama Doctrine

Jeff Manza and Christopher Uggens Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy details how early incarcerations link to indebtedness and poverty dovetailed with widespread property and tax suffrage requirements to create a de facto system of disenfranchisement. Paupers or debtors were often denied the vote through their lack of property or their inability to pay poll taxes, and both were likely to face prison time for felonies, especially if they could not afford fines. Both incarceration and civil death were largely threats faced only by the lower classes, a correlation that turned causal as the prison system was codified and American mass incarceration was born.

The modernization of that mass-incarceration system came, perhaps unsurprisingly, with the entrance of former slaves into the electorate during Reconstruction. After the Fifteenth Amendment, civil death and incarceration became used as formal punishments for a staggeringly broad set of infractions. They were key tools for the suppression of black voters and the gradual erosion of landholding and civil rights in southern states, tools that helped maintain racial power structures in states that had seen strong black-voter turnout immediately after the franchise was granted. This felon disenfranchisement extended broadly in many states, applying not just during incarceration, but extending into parole and probation in some states and indefinitely into post-incarceration life in others.

Recommended: The Violent Undertones of a Trump Rally

The sweeping course of felon disenfranchisement was so absolute even outside of the South that only four statesVermont, Maine, Massachusetts, and Utahkept the franchise for incarcerated people until recent years. A constitutional amendment in Utah ended that practice in 1998. Massachusetts followed in 2000, in a decision that sparked key debates over the legality of civil death. Today, about 5.85 million incarcerated and nonincarcerated people with felonies are banned from casting ballots. And for the incarcerated portion of that number, the logic of civil death is rarely questioned.

Both incarceration and civil death largely threatened only the lower classes, a correlation that turned causal as the prison system was codified and American mass incarceration was born.

Even several arguments in favor of re-enfranchising nonincarcerated people with felonies implicitly defend civil death as a suitable punishment for the incarcerated. As Marylands General Assembly overrode a veto by Governor Larry Hogan to extend voting rights to people serving parole or probation, many of its members cited either a desire to better fold nonincarcerated people back into their communities, or a belief that nonincarcerated people were due certain rights. Even these reformers largely did not question prisons status as an automatic no-vote zone. Although several states have loosened disenfranchisement for nonincarcerated people with felonies over the past two decades, only one, New Hampshire, has granted voting rights to those in prisons. That decision was overturned by the state supreme court in a matter of months.

Puerto Rico, which has a larger population than several states and more incarcerated people than 15 states, provides a contrary example. Turnout in the March 6 Republican Primary plummeted from 2012s 129,000 Republican votes to just over 40,000 this year, a party spokesperson in the territory confirmed. A number of factors, including last-minute changes and funding cuts driven by Puerto Ricos financial crisis, likely reduced turnout. But of those who did vote, the Republican Party of Puerto Rico confirmed that 6,195 were actually inmates in the islands 24 correctional facilities.

Recommended: The Convention the GOP Doesn't Want

That turnout represents over half of all of Puerto Ricos incarcerated people. In a primary that combined unusual national importance and a lack of local participation, inmates provided the most engaged voting group. Republican Party of Puerto Rico spokesperson Kevin Romero-Diaz indicated to me that voting patterns within prisons were similar to those of nonincarcerated people on the island, discounting one major defense of civil deaththat prisoners are deficient in responsibility or decision-making as compared to other citizens.

Puerto Ricos refusal to impose civil death has limited national consequences, because all of its voters are broadly disenfranchised, and unable to vote in federal elections. But Vermont and Maine offer similar examples. A key legal factor in defense of civil death has been the idea that felons have broken the social contract and have forfeited their rights in participating in it. Thus, civil death is considered a reflexive defense of the social contract and a fitting punishment.

However, that reasoning falls doubly short. Even death-row inmates retain a broad array of constitutional rights, including access to due process, the right to sue, and the right to appeal. Why is the right to vote excluded? Also, the social contract may not need civil death to defend it. The social fabric of Vermont and Maine, where felons have and will vote in general elections, can hardly be considered to have been irreparably damaged by their participation.

Perhaps its not coincidence that Vermont and Maine are the two whitest states in the country. Theyre comparatively immune to the racialization of crime policy and rhetoric that dominates conversations elsewhere. In states where the social contract has always been interpreted through a lens of racial tension and where criminalization and race have often been intertwined, it may be harder to challenge policies that have been accepted as deeply as self-evident truths. Or, in plainer language, some people are less enthusiastic about the idea of minority inmates having meaningful participation in elections than they might be if most inmates were white.

International comparative analyses simply reinforce the lessons of Vermont, Maine, and Puerto Rico. Prisoners in dozens of countries, including Canada, Germany, South Africa, and Israel, are allowed to vote in all electionswithout significant problems.

The sky hasnt fallen in Vermont or Maine either. Inmates in Puerto Rico may be playing a serious role in advocating for national assistance for the islands troubles, voting at a time when it has become more difficult for everyone else. Perhaps the idea of prisoners as stable voting populations, or prisons as reliable polling centers, could provide an example for states on the mainland struggling with declining turnout. At the very least, Vermont, Maine, and Puerto Rico should alleviate some fears about a possible post-disenfranchisement future in the United States. The death of civil death doesnt kill democracy.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
By Devidutta Tripathy

MUMBAI (Reuters) - A group of Indian banks, seeking to recover more than $1 billion in loans from Kingfisher Airlines has taken possession of nine trademarks related to the defunct carrier as the mystery over the whereabouts of its chief, Vijay Mallya, deepens.

Mallya, who built his fortune with Kingfisher Beer and is a guarantor to the debt, left the country last week, a lawyer for the lenders told the Indian Supreme Court on Wednesday. The banks have asked the court to demand his return and to impound his passport.

The latest twist in Mallya's fortunes come as authorities are looking to make good on a pledge to clean up bank balance sheets, with the industry saddled by an estimated $120 billion in bad and troubled loans.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told parliament on Thursday that the lenders will take every possible action to recover the debt from Mallya and other defaulters.

"As far as the government is concerned, the clear instructions are that the banks must go all out to take every possible action," he said, adding that there were some cases of "wilful default even bordering (on) fraud".

Kingfisher stopped flying in October 2012, leaving creditors, suppliers and employees unpaid. It owed banks 90.91 billion rupees ($1.4 billion) at the end of November, Jaitley said.

Indian media believe that Mallya is in Britain and have reported that he could be staying in a luxury residence in Hertfordshire, north of London.

A spokesman for UB Group, Mallya's conglomerate, declined to comment on his whereabouts and the trademark seizure.

CREDITORS' ACTION

Separately, State Bank of India (SBI)<SBI.NS>, the leader of Kingfisher's creditor banks, said in a statement that it had moved "very promptly on taking the appropriate legal steps required to protect banks' interest and public money".

SBI denied accusations in media reports that laxity on the part of the banks had helped Mallya to leave the country.

Story continues

Mallya, who had billed himself as the "King of Good Times" living an extravagant life, has been called a wilful defaulter by some banks. He said over the weekend that the he had no intention of running away from Kingfisher's creditors and was in talks with them over a one-time settlement.

The trademarks seized include the "Kingfisher" label, "Flying Models" and "Fly the Good Times", according to a notice in newspapers by the banks' trustee, SBICAP Trustee Co.

Harish Bijoor, a brand consultant, described the banks' move as a knee-jerk reaction and said there might not be many takers for the trademarks.

"Who would ever want to run with a label called Kingfisher Airlines?" Bijoor said, adding that he does not expect the move to affect India's best-selling beer, Kingfisher.

Kingfisher beer is made by United Breweries <UBBW.NS>, which is part of Mallya's UB Group but now counts Heineken <HEIN.AS> as its biggest shareholder.

($1 = 67.0900 Indian rupees)

(Additional reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh in New Delhi; Editing by Douglas Busvine, Edwina Gibbs and David Goodman)
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- Racehorses can come and go at Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino now that New Mexico livestock officials lifted a quarantine Wednesday that had been in place for weeks due to an equine herpes outbreak that infected dozens of horses.

The New Mexico Livestock Board said the quarantine was lifted since no new cases of the fast-spreading virus were reported in the past 14 days.

Board officials said they've been working closely with veterinarians at the track, monitoring the animals and taking twice-daily temperature readings as the first step in checking for infection.

While the board declared containment of the virus, officials still urged people working at the track to clean and disinfect anything the horses had touched or could touch and to limit foot and vehicle traffic at the track.

The Livestock Board was distributing reference sheets in both English and Spanish to workers at the track along the Texas-New Mexico border.

''I think the biggest takeaway from this ordeal will be the need for biosecurity - not just in times of crisis, but all the time,'' Bill Bunce, the board's executive director, said in a statement.

Sunland Park had been on lockdown since Jan. 21, when the first case was confirmed. More than 70 horses were infected and several had to be euthanized.

Two cases were also reported in neighboring El Paso County, Texas, and the Turf Paradise track outside of Phoenix had to impose a brief quarantine since three horses from Sunland Park had been shipped to the track before the outbreak was reported.

''A tough few weeks'' is how Sunland Park general manager Rick Baugh described the situation.

'''This virus is very serious, and all our focus and resources have been dedicated to reducing its impact,'' he said.

Under the quarantine, no horses were allowed on or off Sunland Park property and the nearby Frontera Training Center was also part of the quarantine.

Story continues

The virus has been documented on farms and at private stables from California to Illinois, Georgia, Pennsylvania, New York and most recently Florida. But the outbreak at Sunland Park sparked concern because there were between 2,500 and 3,000 horses boarded at the track and nearby barns and millions of dollars in purse money was at stake.

The average purse payout per racing day at Sunland Park ranges from $200,000 to $250,000, and horsemen say they lost 180 races because of the outbreak.

The track also was forced to cancel the annual Sunland Derby and Sunland Park Oaks, which are among the races where horses can earn qualifying points if they want a chance to compete in the Kentucky Derby or Kentucky Oaks.

There has been reluctance from some horse owners to ship their animals to New Mexico for fear of another positive case derailing the track's recovery and prompting another quarantine. Some tracks have banned the import of horses that have been in New Mexico due to virus concerns and others have adopted stringent requirements for isolation and testing to keep the virus from spreading.

The EHV-1 virus is highly contagious among horses, but it poses no threat to humans. Symptoms include a fever, nasal discharge and a wobbly gait. In severe cases, it can cause neurological problems and result in death.

It can spread through the air as well as contaminated equipment, clothing and hands.

According to researchers, the virus' ability to reside as a silent and persistent infection provides for continual transmission. The incubation period can last anywhere from a day to 10 days. In some cases it has taken nearly a month for infected animals to shed the virus.

New Mexico regulators now require a horse entering a licensed racetrack or training center in the state to be accompanied by copies of its registration certificate and a current health certificate from a veterinarian attesting to the horse's health and temperature.
A little more than a decade ago the border patrol started using surveillance drones. The technology and the mission were a perfect match, and few did any worryingalmost no one objects to closely monitoring Americas southern border.

The belief that the federal government was using drones to conduct domestic surveillance inside the United States, though, could get a person labeled a paranoid lunatic as recently as 2012. Yet by then, the border patrol had lent its drones to other agencies 700 times. And the Department of Homeland Security was actively developing a domestic drone fleet, egged on by at least 60 members of Congress. This bipartisan caucus, together with its allies in the drone industry, has been promoting UAV use at home and abroad through drone fairs on Capitol Hill, new legislation and drone-favored budgets, the Center for International Policy reported.

Recommended: The Obama Doctrine

In 2013, Senator Dianne Feinstein, a staunch defender of NSA surveillance, declared that drones are the biggest threat to privacy in society today. Under her questioning, the FBI admitted to using surveillance drones in a very minimal way.

What did Feinstein know that the FBI wasnt telling us? Perhaps that the federal government gave local police departments $1.2 million to spend on drones that year.

In 2015, NBC News reported that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms spent $600,000 on six drones, then never flew them because of technical problems with flight time, maneuverability and more. Has ATF figured them out yet?

AP reported that the DEA was using drones domestically, too.

That brings us to 2016.

On Wednesday, USA Today reported that the Pentagon has deployed drones to spy over U.S. territory for non-military missions over the past decade, citing a report by a Pentagon inspector general who declared that the flights are rare and lawful.

Story continues

Thats the narrative that officials speaking on behalf of the federal government keep conveyingthat the instances of aerial surveillance over U.S. soil are safe, legal, and rare.

But it isnt so.

There are too many federal, state, and local agencies with too many surveillance aircraft to pretend any longer that aerial spying is rare. There is too little oversight to presume all these government entities are acting legally. As for safety, Americans know neither what sort of aerial-surveillance data has been archived nor how secure it is. And security researcher Nils Rodday learned that he could successfully hack into professional drones and take over their operations on a $40 budget.

Recommended: The Violent Undertones of a Trump Rally

The ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation are trying to draw attention to these issues; the Department of Justice has issued its own guidelines on domestic drone use. But theres still not much public discussion, debate, or oversight of domestic drone surveillance.

My sense of public opinion is that Americans dont particularly want to be spied on from above. By keeping various aerial-surveillance programs hidden or very quiet, the government will continue to achieve a rapid fait accompli unless it is stopped.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) governor Graeme Wheeler said on Thursday he could not rule out the possibility of more than one further rate cut, and said further cuts will depend on economic circumstances.

His comments came after the RBNZ cut rates to a record low of 2.25 percent on Thursday morning, suprising the market which had expected the central bank to keep rates on hold.

"It could be that we don't need another cut or it could be that we need more," Wheeler told a parliamentary committee.

(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield and Rebecca Howard; Editing by Richard Pullin)
Doha (AFP) - The number of religious television broadcasters across the Middle East has risen by 50 percent, reflecting a rise in sectarianism in the region, according to a study published Thursday.

The Northwestern University in Qatar in its study of the media industry found that the number of religious free-to-air channels had jumped to 75 in 2014, from 50 three years earlier.

Sunni television channels remain by far the highest in number and increased to 55 from 43, three years previously, the research found.

But the rate of growth in the Middle East and North Africa region where Sunni Islam is the dominant religion has been higher for Shiite and Christian broadcasters.

Eleven Shiite channels are now broadcasting in the region, up from five in 2011, while the number of Christian stations has risen to nine from two over the same period, according to the report.

A Northwestern academic, Khaled Hroub, professor of Middle East politics and Arab media, attributed the increase to "bad politics".

"Such increase reflects the volatile sectarian politics that has been engulfing the region for the past decade or so, since the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the sectarianisation of Iraqi politics," said Hroub.

"The root cause of the rise is bad politics and the use of religious discourses in political rivalry...

"With the intensification of Saudi-Iranian rivalry in recent years many ... channels started to slip into political discourses that would mix with religious claims.

"All have fallen in a vicious spiral and vicious circle of tit-for-tat broadcasting where vilifying the other is the norm."

He said Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Egypt hosted most of the religious channels, which are "covertly or overtly controlled by states or semi-states outfits".

Ibrahim Al-Naimi, chairman of the Doha International Centre for Interfaith Dialogue, said he was more concerned by the messages carried by some of the channels.

"Some of these religious channels are misused, sometimes calling for division more than dialogue and peaceful coexistence," said Naimi.
Miami (AFP) - Republican White House hopefuls ditched the insults and heated rhetoric that have come to define the 2016 race, talking policy and substance on the debate stage in a stunning show of civility.

Donald Trump and his challengers for the party's nomination have traded weeks of often below-the-belt barbs, and the anticipation for the debate in Miami had felt more like the run up to a heavyweight championship bout.

Four men took to the stage in Miami: Trump, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Ohio Governor John Kasich and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who needs to pull off an upset win when his home state votes next Tuesday if he is to salvage his struggling campaign.

Not a voice was raised in anger as the candidates sparred in measured tones, without interrupting, on immigration and visas, trade tariffs, Cuba policy, climate change and what to do to reduce the terror threat.

"We're all in this together. We're going to come up with solutions. We're going to find the answers to things," said Trump at one point, as he tackled immigration and security challenges.

"And so far I cannot believe how civil it's been up here," marvelled the billionaire frontrunner, who has been working hard to appear more presidential looking ahead to a possible general election showdown with Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

Floridians vote on March 15 along with residents of Ohio and Illinois. All three big states are winner-take-all in the Republican delegate race, the first such contests in the 2016 cycle.

- Rubio on the ropes -

Many in the party see next Tuesday's votes as the last best chance to derail the billionaire real estate mogul's insurgent candidacy.

Trump is by all accounts the man to beat. He emerged strengthened by victories Tuesday in Michigan, Mississippi and Hawaii, and has now won 15 of 24 races.

And he has boldly predicted he will win Rubio's Florida and Kasich's Ohio, which would in all likelihood put the final nail in the coffin for their campaigns.

Story continues

Trump leads Rubio in Florida by a dramatic 43 to 20 percent among likely Republican primary voters, according to a Fox News poll released Wednesday, while Kasich leads in his own state with 34 percent support.

Trump caused a global firestorm in December when he called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, and on the eve of the debate he unleashed a stunning new provocation, telling CNN: "I think Islam hates us."

Despite the debate's civility, Trump doubled down on the sentiment Thursday.

"I will stick with exactly what I said."

Rubio leaned in for criticism. "I know that a lot of people find appeal in the things Donald says. The problem is presidents can't just say anything they want," he said.

Rubio denied Trump's suggestion he was afraid of speaking tough truths for fear of causing offense. "I'm not interested in being politically correct. I'm interested in being correct," he shot back.

Rubio was championed by party luminaries as the best mainstream hope of derailing Trump, but he has performed dreadfully in several recent primary contests, including those on Tuesday.

With his campaign on the verge of fizzling, Rubio has stressed it is crucial to gang up on the frontrunner and has called on all Republicans to get behind him as the only candidate with a chance to beat him in Florida.

Rubio was far more polished and serious on stage Thursday than in recent weeks and debates, when his strategy appeared to be to deliver Trump a dose of his own belligerent medicine.

- 'Bad dudes' -

He had ripped into Trump's looks, belittled his small hands, even suggested Trump had wet his pants. But the strategy backfired: after votes were counted in Michigan, Mississippi, Idaho and Hawaii on Tuesday, Rubio walked away with zero delegates.

Instead, Rubio offered coherent policy platforms, including on Social Security, saying changes would have to be made including raising the retirement age or risk a US "debt crisis."

Cruz, who has emerged as the most viable anti-Trump candidate, is aiming to spoil any Rubio resurgence, campaigning heavily in Florida in the run up to the primary.

Cruz did clash with Trump several times, notably over his incendiary call for the US military to target the families of terror suspects and trade tariffs.

"We've never targeted innocent civilians and we're not going to start now," Cruz said.

The real estate mogul has said he would threaten countries like China and Mexico with import tariffs as high as 45 percent if they did not play by international trade rules, but Cruz said that would only hurt the pocketbooks of hard-working Americans.

"We've got to get beyond the rhetoric of 'China bad' and actually get to how do you solve the problem."

Trump also addressed the issue of violence at his rallies, following the arrest of a man who punched a protester in the face in a chaotic scene at one of his campaign events.

"I certainly do not condone that at all," Trump said.

But he added: "We have some protesters who are bad dudes, they have done bad things."
Moscow (AFP) - Armed men raided the office of a prominent human rights group in Russia's volatile North Caucasus hours after an attack on journalists visiting the group sparked international outrage, activists said Thursday.

Video footage posted online by Dmitry Utukin, a lawyer for the Committee to Prevent Torture rights group, showed several camouflaged armed men breaking security cameras at the group's office in the town of Karabulak in the Ingushetia region.

"Armed men came to our office in five cars. One of them broke the security camera at the entrance. Three others came in through the window," Utukin wrote.

Nobody was inside at the time of the break-in late Wednesday and the rights group told AFP none of the staff had yet visited the office since the attack.

The assault came just hours after masked men attacked a group of journalists en route to the neighbouring region of Chechnya on a press trip organised by the group.

Nine people, including five journalists, were driving to Grozny, Chechnya's main city, when masked assailants stormed their minibus and later torched it with their belongings inside.

Journalists from Norway and Sweden, a lawyer for the NGO and the minibus driver were hospitalised with injuries, the group said.

Swedish radio correspondent Maria Persson Lofgren and Norwegian journalist Oystein Windstad were still being treated at a local hospital on Thursday morning.

A representative of the Norwegian embassy in Moscow, Olav-Nils Thue, told AFP that Windstad had been "severely beaten" and one of his legs was now in a cast.

"It was absolutely horrible," Norwegian newspaper Ny Tid quoted Windstad as saying. "I thought I was going to die."

Persson Lofgren said she sustained several large bruises and a gash on her thigh after being beaten and thrown onto an iron girder.

Some of the journalists' personal belongings, including their mobile phones and passports, were stolen during the attack.

Story continues

- 'Absolutely disgraceful' -

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday condemned the attack on journalists as "absolutely disgraceful."

"We expect regional law enforcement bodies will take the most effective measures to search for and find the perpetrators of the attack and adequately ensure the safety of human rights workers and members of the media."

Peskov later told Russian news agencies that President Vladimir Putin had ordered the interior ministry to seek to shed light on the circumstances of the incident.

Human Rights Watch and other advocacy groups urged authorities to bring the attackers to justice promptly.

"Any delay in investigating this attack and prosecuting those responsible risks creating carte blanche for more violence against reporters and human rights activists in an already volatile region," Human Rights Watch researcher Tanya Cooper said in a statement.

Some 20 people, including journalists and political activists, gathered Thursday in front of the offices of Putin's chief of staff in Moscow to support a series of lone picketers condemning the attack.

A spokesman for police in Ingushetia, Dzhabrail Shaukhalov, told AFP that the authorities had not been notified of the attack on the NGO's office.

Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, refused comment when contacted on Thursday.

Founded in 2000, the Committee to Prevent Torture offers legal support to torture victims and is one of the few NGOs still active in Chechnya under strongman Ramzan Kadyrov.

A similar attack was carried out against the group's Grozny office last year when masked men stormed the building and ransacked the NGO's office, forcing employees to flee through a window.

Attackers also torched the group's office in December 2014 after it criticised Kadyrov for urging collective punishment of the families of Islamist insurgents.

Rights activists and journalists investigating torture, kidnapping and war crimes in Chechnya are routinely threatened and harassed.
Kirov class battlecruiser russia navy

Developed in the late 1970s, Russia's Kirov-class battle cruisers are the largest and heaviest surface-combat ships in the world  and they're coming back with advanced weaponry, according to Russia's Tass news agency.

At more than 800 feet long, with a displacement of around 25,000 tons, the Kirov dwarfs any navy ship short of an amphibious assault ship or aircraft carriers. But only one, the Pyotr Veliky, is still in service.

Russian media says that another aging Kirov-class hull, the Admiral Nakhimov, is being fitted with Russia's newest antiship, antiair, and surface-to-surface missiles.

Russia intends to return the Admiral Nakhimov to its fleet in 2019, at which time the Pyotr Veliky will be docked to undergo the same upgrades.

These include missiles of the Kalibr variety that recently hit targets in Syria from the Caspian Sea, Zircon hypersonic missiles, which are slated to be ready by 2020, and a "navalized" version of Russia's S-400 missile-defense system, according to Foxtrot Alpha.

To accommodate these missiles, Russia plans to overhaul the ship's vertical-launch systems. That contract alone is worth 2.56 billion rubles, or $33.5 million, NavyRecognition.com notes.

Image Kirov_forward_launchers_highlighted

As with all Russian military expenditures, outsiders have trouble imagining how the struggling petro-state will pay for them.

Though the Russian navy has hit several setbacks before, the Kremlin seems hell-bent on revitalizing its navy.

Story continues

NOW WATCH: Russia's military is more advanced than people thought





More From Business Insider


Emotions ran deep as a clearly nervous mother, Lucia Quiej, stood in the audience and told both candidates her story: Her husband had been deported back to Guatemala three years ago, leaving her in the United States to care for their five children.



What would you do to stop deportations and unite families? Quiej, a resident of Homestead, 30 miles south of Miami, asked, in Spanish. Her husband, Andres Jimenez, also a Guatemalan immigrant, was deported because he was stopped for a traffic violation and did not have a drivers license.

The candidates onstage at the Univision/Washington Post Democratic presidential primary debate at Miami Dade College in Miami were moved to promise their help.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who got the womans plight a little backward (the translation seemed difficult to hear) and thought the mother had been separated from her children, said: At the heart of my immigration policy, the essence of what we are trying to do is to unite families, not to divide families. The idea that a mother is living here and her children are on the other side of the border is wrong and immoral.

Sanders told the story of a soldier he met on the campaign trail whose wife had been deported while he was serving in the military, then looked at the questioner directly and promised: I will do everything I can to unite your family.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responded with praise and promises too. Please know how brave I think you are, coming here with your children to tell your story, she said, summing up the situation correctly. Ive heard stories like yours where your husband is deported, your childrens father is gone, you are doing your very best.  But it is time to bring families together.

She then shifted into a little bureaucrat-speak for a moment, saying she hoped the children were American citizens by birth or eligible to remain in the United States under immigration programs put into place by the Obama administration. But Clinton matched Sanders resounding crescendo in the end, saying: I will absolutely protect your children, yourself, and try to bring your family back together.

(Cover tile photo: Wilfredo Lee)
By Susan Heavey WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Wars and chaos in the Middle East will not end until Saudi Arabia and Iran can find a way to "share the neighborhood" and make some kind of peace, U.S. President Barack Obama said in a magazine interview released on Thursday. "The competition between the Saudis and the Iranians, which has helped to feed proxy wars and chaos in Syria and Iraq and Yemen, requires us to say to our friends, as well as to the Iranians, that they need to find an effective way to share the neighborhood and institute some sort of cold peace," Obama told The Atlantic. In a wide ranging interview on foreign policy, Obama also put a share of the blame for the crisis in Libya on Washington's European allies. Libya is embroiled in political chaos after its 2011 uprising and facing a security vacuum and a growing threat from Islamic State. "When I go back and I ask myself what went wrong, there's room for criticism, because I had more faith in the Europeans, given Libya's proximity, being invested in the follow-up," Obama said. The Obama administration withdrew U.S. troops from Iraq but has grappled with years of Middle East turmoil since the Arab Spring uprising. Obama, in his final year in the White House, said there were limits on how far the United States could police the region. "You have countries that are failing to provide prosperity and opportunity for their people. You've got a violent, extremist ideology, or ideologies, that are turbocharged through social media," he said. "You've got countries that have very few civic traditions, so that as autocratic regimes start fraying, the only organizing principles are sectarian." On Syria, now in its fifth year of civil war, Obama defended his decision not to launch strikes there in 2013, despite concerns over President Bashar al-Assad's use of chemical weapons. Critics have seen that as a missed opportunity that might have helped bring an end to the war. "For me to push the pause button at that moment, I knew, would cost me politically," he said. "I believe ultimately it was the right decision to make." He also discussed Russia, which has increased its role in the Middle East by staking out a role in Syria and infuriating Washington with its support of Assad, who the United States and other Western nations have said must leave power. On Russian President Vladimir Putin, Obama said the two have "very businesslike" meetings, adding: "He understands that Russia's overall position in the world is significantly diminished." The Atlantic article is at http://theatln.tc/1QJNBM0 (Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Frances Kerry)
Otjiwarongo (Namibia) (AFP) - Laurie Marker has no doubts about the future of the big cat with the black spots. "Cheetahs are vulnerable, and their survival is in our hands."

The 62-year-old American living in Namibia since 1991 has devoted her life to saving the fastest land animal on earth, with a top speed of 70 miles (110 kilometres) per hour.

Marker has been compared to Jane Goodall and the late Dian Fossey -- defenders of chimpanzees and gorillas -- who were the first generation of iconic female pioneers of wildlife conservation in Africa.

When Marker first visited Namibia on the southwest coast of Africa nearly 40 years ago, she was shocked to discover farmers were mercilessly killing the graceful sprinter of the plains.

A century ago, there were 100,000 cheetahs across Africa, the Middle East and into India.

Now, less then 12,000 remain in the wild, all in Africa, except for a tiny population of less than 100 in Iran.

The rapid decline of the cheetahs could have been sharper without Marker's high-profile tireless efforts.

A formidable campaigner and acknowledged world expert, she founded the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) in 1990.

She saw her first when she was 20 and went to work at a wildlife park in the US state of Oregon.

"It was one of the few places in the world that had cheetahs. They had come from Namibia and they fascinated me," she recalled.

"I wanted to know everything about them, but the more questions I asked people would say 'Hmm, we don't know much about them, if you find out something, let us know'."

- 'Killed like flies' -

Marker raised an orphaned female cheetah cub named Khayam in Oregon and, in 1977, took Khayam to Namibia, then known as South-West Africa.

She planned to see if the young cheetah could be taught to hunt for prey as part of research into whether captive cheetahs could be re-introduced into the wild.

But soon after her arrival, she learnt about a more immediate emergency -- farmers were poisoning, trapping and shooting huge numbers of cheetahs.

Story continues

"What I found out is that farmers were killing cheetahs like flies," she said, estimating that 800 or 900 were killed each year at the time.

"Farmers would tell me 'We hate cheetahs. What are you doing with these animals?' They told me to take them all and go away!"

Namibian farmers continue to kill cheetahs because they threaten valuable livestock, while poachers steal cheetah cubs from their mothers to sell as pets to wealthy clients, particularly in the Middle East.

The threat has driven Marker on a decades-long effort to halt poaching and persuade farmers that a balance can be struck between raising livestock and protecting wildlife.

She has led academic study into the cheetah since the 1970s, and completed a zoology doctorate at Cambridge University in 2002.

Even now she spends much of the time travelling the world, giving lectures and raising funds for her cheetah conservation work.

"The thing about Laurie is she doesn't know the meaning of the word 'no'," said Anne Schmidt-Kuntzel, a geneticist who works for CCF.

- Letting dogs guard cattle -

Marker says she has slowly managed to change attitudes through a mixture of knowledge, charm and determination.

"At first I was kind of a problem, (but) I started bringing different solutions like dogs that guard livestock, good herd management, and training programmes," she said.

"The more I told them about cheetahs, the more they were listening.

"I'd tell them they're lucky to have cheetahs in their backyard, and I would acknowledge it can be a problem due to human-wildlife conflict."

The most effective tactic for protecting livestock has proven to be introducing large Anatolian shepherd dogs that live permanently with the cattle.

Wild predators like cheetahs are reluctant to take on the fierce canines, and so they return to hunting antelope in the bush.

But Marker knows that the cheetahs are still under severe threat and will always be a difficult animal to save because they struggle even in the biggest reserves.

A cheetah lacks the power of a lion, hyena or leopard and, where animal densities are higher and competition is tough, cub mortality can be as high as 90 percent.

"Namibia and the farming community here has become a model," said Marker.

"Now young farmers want training about how to live with cheetahs.

"Most of our wildlife is outside protected areas, so it is the farmers who are the stewards.

"I don't just say 'Love cheetahs'. I say 'Let's learn to live together'."
Belgrade (AFP) - Serb ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj set fire to EU and NATO flags in Belgrade on Thursday as he insisted he would not attend the verdict in his war crimes trial at The Hague later this month.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) allowed Seselj to return to Serbia in 2014 for cancer treatment pending its judgement over charges of crimes against humanity, but he has since vowed not to return.

The 61-year-old is accused of leading Serb volunteers to "cleanse" large parts of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia's northern Vojvodina region during the Balkans wars which erupted amid the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Judges at the ICTY have ordered that Seselj should appear before them on March 31 to hear its judgement in person, and he was due to appear at Serbia's war crimes court in Belgrade on Thursday over the request.

But the session was postponed for procedural reasons, and Seselj instead burnt the EU and NATO flags outside the building in front of around 100 supporters.

Seselj surrendered to the ICTY in 2003, and his trial ran from 2007 to 2012.

Since his release for medical treatment, he has resumed his fiery nationalist rhetoric and repeatedly lashed out at the tribunal, vowing neither to return for his sentencing nor to serve any time.

Leader of the far-right Serbian Radical Party, he intends to run for parliament in the country's election in April.

He faces three counts of crimes against humanity, including persecution, deportation and forcible transfers, and six other charges including murder and torture.

ICTY presiding judge Jean-Claude Antonetti last month ordered the Serbian authorities "to make every provision needed to ensure that the accused appears on the day that the verdict is pronounced".

War crimes judges have also accused Belgrade of failing to cooperate with the tribunal by not arresting three suspects in a separate contempt case arising out of Seselj's trial.

More than 130,000 people died and millions of others were left homeless during the Balkans wars.
By Ju-min Park and James Pearson SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea is considering allowing a shipment tuberculosis medication to North Korea, a government official said on Thursday, despite newly imposed sanctions against the reclusive state for its recent nuclear test and rocket launch. The World Health Organization says 20 in every 100,000 North Koreans died of tuberculosis in 2014, more than five times the rate of South Korea. The Eugene Bell Foundation, a non-profit group, said its shipment of medicine intended for the North has been held back at a South Korean port for a month. "Our government is reviewing the foundation's request," said an official at the South Korean unification ministry, adding that its position of allowing humanitarian assistance to reach the underprivileged in North Korea remained unchanged. South Korea earlier this week announced it would impose new sanctions against individuals and companies linked to Pyongyang's weapons program and ban vessels that had stopped at North Korean ports in the past 180 days. It has not formally banned humanitarian aid to the North that is intended for young children and pregnant women but has scrutinized and granted approvals on an individual basis, slowing the process. Other forms of shipments and aid have been suspended under sanctions imposed after the sinking of a South Korean navy ship in 2010 that Seoul blames on the North, although Pyongyang denies any role. (Editing by Jack Kim and Nick Macfie)
By M.B. Pell and Joshua Schneyer

ORLEANS, N.Y. (Reuters) - In this town of 2,800 just south of the Canadian border, residents have long worried about the water flowing from their taps.

The water in one household is so corrosive it gutted three dishwashers and two washing machines. Another couples water is so salty the homeowners tape the taps when guests visit. Even the communitys welcome center warns travelers, Do Not Drink The Water.

So, when the water crisis in Flint, Michigan happened, Stephanie Weiss and husband Andy Greene feared that, as in Flint, their corrosive water was also unleashing lead into their tap water. Weiss scoured water-testing reports in Orleans and discovered the truth: Lead levels in her water  fed by a private well  exceed the threshold set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for public water systems and utilities.

The communitys experience is not unique. Across the country, millions of Americans served by private wells drink, bathe and cook with water containing potentially dangerous amounts of lead, Reuters reporting and recent university studies show.

Researchers from Penn State Extension and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, or Virginia Tech, tested private well systems in their states and found that 12 percent of wells in Pennsylvania and 19 percent in Virginia had lead levels exceeding the maximum EPA threshold for public water systems. Lead poisoning can lead to heart disease, kidney disease and brain damage. It is especially dangerous to children, as small amounts of exposure can cause irreversible developmental delays.

Though most Americans are served by public water utilities, private wells are the main source of drinking water for 15 percent of U.S. households, or 47.8 million people. Typically located in rural areas, private wells serve residents not connected to municipal water lines. Though many wells are found in impoverished communities, some serve wealthy homeowners and those living in urban environments.

Story continues

Little research has examined the lead risk in private well water on a national scale. But if the researchers rate played out nationally, more than 9 million Americans served by private wells would have unsafe levels of lead in their water, according to a paper published in October by some of the same Virginia Tech researchers who found lead in Flints water.

For a map, click http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/1/982/1446/WATER.jpg

TESTING GAP

Yet these private wells always fall outside EPA testing regulations, and only a few states require that wells be tested for lead. Unless residents pay for tests, they may not know what lurks in their water.

The community in Orleans, in Jefferson County dotting the northernmost tip of New York State, is one case study. Weiss and Greene found that the water they use to cook for their two children, ages eight and 10, measured lead levels more than double the EPA threshold, town records show.

When I realized that my water had the equivalent of Flint levels of lead, I got chills, said Weiss, assistant director of Save the River, an environmental advocacy organization. I felt sick thinking of all the things I had tried to get right as a mother for my kids to grow up happy and healthy, when all the while they were living with lead contaminated water.

I was also angry thinking that the state government had likely caused this situation.

The aquifer feeding their well is polluted with salt from a nearby barn used by the New York State Department of Transportation to store salt spread on roads during snowstorms, according to an analysis by Alpha Geoscience, a Clifton Park, New York, consulting firm that specializes in hydrogeologic studies. The study was commissioned by Stephen Conaway, a local winery owner who sued the state for allegedly polluting his water in 2011.

As far back as 2004, a DOT official told Conaway it was not unreasonable to assume the salt barn was the source of contamination, according to a letter sent to Conaway and reviewed by Reuters.

Flint is not served by private wells, but its battle to get the lead out of the water has triggered alarms in other communities  including those served by private wells, which can draw in corrosive water that leaches lead, copper and other heavy metals from well components, water pipes and plumbing fixtures.

NO STANDARDS

The EPA has no standards for private wells, even as the National Ground Water Association recommends testing. Asked about the standards gap, an EPA spokesman said that the Safe Drinking Water Act, as written by Congress in 1974, makes the EPA responsible for regulating only public water systems.

Under the EPA Lead and Copper Rule, published in 1991, if 10 percent of samples taken by a water utility contain a lead level of 15 parts per billion or higher, the utility must improve corrosion control and inform the public of the lead risk. The utility may have to replace lead water lines.

The university researchers used this standard to assess potential harm in communities served by private wells.

Water from one Virginia home had lead levels 1,600 times the EPA maximum threshold, concluded Virginia Tech researcher Kelsey J. Pieper, lead author of a study published in the Journal of Water and Health last September that examined lead levels in tap water from houses in Virginia using wells. Piepers research, along with a 2013 Journal of Environmental Health study by Penn State Extension researchers, point to a problem governments have largely failed to address.

Lead exposures decreased after 1980s legislation banned lead in paint and gasoline. But private wells remain a potential source of exposure. If lead exposure from private wells is not addressed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be challenged to meet its goal of eliminating elevated levels of lead in children by 2020, Pieper found.

Pieper said many private wells across the country have clean water, but she recommends testing.

Looking at lead concentration in Flints water and our results in private wells in Virginia, they were similar, Pieper said. One of the biggest differences is its solely the responsibility of the homeowner to identify and correct the problem for private water systems.

To be sure, private homeowners are responsible for testing and maintaining their wells.

Yet many have no idea they should test for lead. Some who do test find troubling answers.

LEAD AND CHILDREN IN PENNSYLVANIA

In central Pennsylvania, Jeremiah Underhill and his wife took their one-year-old son Dalton to the family doctor for his checkup in April 2014. Knowing the family was renovating their 76-year-old house, and concerned paint in the house may contain lead, their doctor suggested testing Dalton for lead.

The results showed elevated lead levels in his system.

I was devastated, said Jeremiah Underhill, an attorney in Harrisburg, whose family home is surrounded by 30 acres of corn and soybean fields.

The Underhills immediately began a battery of tests searching for the leads source. For years, public health experts have cited paint as the most dangerous source of poisoning for children, who may ingest paint chips and dust in older housing.

But it was a water sample, not paint, which tested positive for lead. The lead level in the water was at the maximum threshold set by the EPA, though Penn State analysts warned that the levels could fluctuate and may well exceed the maximum if tested more regularly. The Underhills found that, as in Flint, their well water was corrosive and leaching lead from plumbing in their house.

The family installed a treatment system to make the water less acidic. Their soda-ash injection system cost about $400, though if a family member had not helped install it, the cost would have been far higher. Today, their water has no lead and Daltons blood work is clear. The couple feels fortunate to have caught it early, knowing lead exposure can trigger brain damage.

The only reason we caught this was because our doctor was smart enough to say, Lets test this, Underhill said. I mean, it was the water we used to mix Daltons formula.

Most children are never tested, and rules on testing children for lead exposure are inconsistent and often ignored across the country, Reuters found.

Many physicians, wrongly, dont believe that lead poisoning is still a problem, said Dr. Jennifer Lowry, a toxicologist and pediatrician at Childrens Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. They may not be seeing it because they are not testing for it. I think every kid should be tested.

SURPRISING SOURCES

Many people believe if they have a new home or well, their plumbing does not contain lead. Yet virtually all plumbing before 2014 has some lead in its components, and older homes tend to have more leaded plumbing. Until January 2014, lead free meant the plumbing component contained less than 8 percent lead.

In Highlands, North Carolina, Robert and Suzanne Gregory discovered lead in their water after drilling a well for their home last August.

Macon County required they test the new well for bacteria. Robert, an engineer, wanted to know more and paid for an in-depth test that found the water corrosive and contaminated with lead. He believed the source was the galvanized steel pipe that ran down his well. The couple had the galvanized pipe, whose coating may have contained lead, replaced with lead-free stainless steel. They tested again and the lead was gone.

The combination of acidic water and galvanized steel is a problem, and I think its bigger than most people understand because most people dont even know they have galvanized, Robert said.

Even if a homeowner conducts a lead test, the solutions can be too expensive for families with limited means. Some water treatment systems cost more than $10,000.

Only a few states, including New Jersey and Rhode Island, require wells be tested for lead  a test required when the property and well are transferred to a new owner. Though many states require tests for e coli and other bacteria, lead tests are seldom required, said John Hudson, vice president at Mortgage Financial Services in San Antonio, Texas.

For a graphic, click http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/1/982/1445/WATERPUMP.jpg

A PLEA FOR CLEAN WATER

Some residents know they have contaminated wells and want municipal water, but cant get it.

In Orleans, New York, residents live in a region known for its boating, fishing and outdoor activities but also its doggedly high unemployment rate. The town began petitioning the state for municipal water four years ago. Since then, residents have made flyers and set up a Facebook page, but theres still no plan in place for public water.

State officials say they aim to obtain $13 million to extend municipal water service to homes in Orleans with contaminated water, but Kevin Rarick, the Orleans town supervisor, calls the plan smoke and mirrors. Almost all of the money would come from a loan that would cost each water user $500 a year to pay off, and the state has not announced a plan to change the way it stores salt at the barn.

Homeowner Greene, whose family has had to replace salt-tainted appliances, views the equation as unfair: The state polluted the aquifer feeding his well, and now wants his community to bankroll the solution.

New York State's Department of Environmental Conservation said the source of the salt is inconclusive, and that the salt has been stored safely. An official noted that the state has given residents bottled water.

If I had a salt pile that leached salt into my neighbors well, the state would be here the next day fining me and making me clean it up and making me be a good neighbor, said Greene. Thats all we want from them, to be a good neighbor.

(Edited by Ronnie Greene)
Stocks slipping to the downside after Draghi's big moves failed to calm a volatile market. We break down the wild trading day. Yahoo Finance markets correspondent Nicole Sinclair and Jen Rogers discuss today's market action.

Winners and losers

Stocks on the move lower today include Vail Resorts as investors sell the good earnings news, Canadian Solar after earnings, and Williams Companiesthe energy infrastructure firm tanking after Reuters reported Energy Transfer Equity made a private offering to select investors to help fund the two merger of the companies. Shareholders are concerned over their combined debt load.



Stocks trading on the upside include Party City on earnings, Dollar General on strong revenue growth, and Plug Powerthe alternative energy tech provider surging after beating on revenue, as the company saw strong sales for its fuel cell products.

Peter Schiff

Janet Yellen and the FOMC step up to the plate next week, following Mario Draghi's big move today. For more on the central banks and markets, Peter Schiff, CEO and chief global strategist at Euro Pacific Capital, joined The Final Round.

Looking ahead
By Alexis Akwagyiram LAGOS (Reuters) - A strike at Nigeria's state oil producer has been suspended after talks between trade unions and the company's head, who is also the minister of state for petroleum, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp (NNPC) and union leaders said on Thursday. The strike began on Wednesday in reaction to an announcement a day earlier that the West African country's president had approved splitting NNPC into upstream, downstream, gas power marketing, refinery groups, and ventures divisions. President Muhammadu Buhari has prioritised reforming the oil sector in Africa's biggest crude-producing country in an effort to rid it of the corruption and mismanagement that have stunted development in what is also the continent's biggest economy. The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) said 7,000 of its members, including refinery workers and maintenance staff, had walked out due to what it called a lack of consultation and were joined by Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) members. Following exhaustive deliberations, "the corporate-wide strike has been suspended", a tweet on NNPC's Twitter account said. "The Group Executive Councils of PENGASSAN and NUPENG (have) resolved to support the restructuring and change process," it added in a second message. PENGASSAN's acting general secretary, Lumumba Okugbawa, confirmed the strike had been suspended. He said the decision was taken after 10 hours of talks, ending at 0300 GMT between minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, NNPC executives and union officials. "Management agreed that there would be further collaboration ... with a view to considering any suggested amendments. Our input would be taken into consideration," he told Reuters. (Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Susan Thomas and Dale Hudson)
Ahead of its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival, Hush, the latest horror-thriller from Mike Flanagan, has been acquired by Netflix.

The microbudgeted film stars his co-writer Kate Siegel as a recluse author who lives alone since losing her hearing as a teen. But she's forced to fight for her survival after the masked face of a psychotic killer appears in the window of her secluded home.

Hush, which also stars John Gallagher Jr., Michael Trucco and Samantha Sloyan, was first shown to buyers at the Toronto International Film Festival. Intrepid Pictures Trevor Macy and Blumhouse Productions Jason Blum produced the film, with Michael J. Fourticq, Sr., Jeanette Brill, Kate Lumpkin and Couper Samuelson executive producing.

Read More: 'Ouija 2' Lands Director and a Leading Actress (Exclusive)

Hush will have its world premiere on Saturday, March 12, during SXSW, which runs March 11-19 in Austin, Texas. Netflix will release the film on April 8.

Hush is a great example of what happens when you give an incredible filmmaker like Mike Flanagan creative freedom to tell a fun and original scary story. We had a great time continuing our relationship with Mike and Intrepid and are psyched to share Mikes movie with genre lovers all over the world on Netflix," said Blumhouse Productions Jason Blum.

Flanagan is known for directing Intrepid's Oculus and the upcoming Universal sequel Ouija 2, both of which were also made with Blumhouse.

WME handled domestic rights for the film.
Abuja (AFP) - Telecom giant MTN has offered to pay 300 billion naira ($1.5 billion) to settle a record fine levelled by Nigeria for failing to disconnect unregistered subscribers, according to a letter from the company's lawyer released on Thursday.

Africa's biggest wireless operator was fined $3.9 billion in October after failing to disconnect 5.1 million subscribers amid concerns the lines were being used by Boko Haram insurgents.

In the letter dated February 24, MTN proposed paying 100 billion naira in five annual instalments, buying 80 billion naira of Nigerian sovereign debt, and offering 70 billion naira worth of access to its fibre network.

Last month, the Johannesburg-based company paid 50 billion naira to kick off settlement negotiations.

The offer is in the "shared interest in the development of the country's telecommunications sector and economy more generally," according to the letter to the Nigerian government from MTN's lawyer, former United States Attorney General Eric Holder.

Nigeria's Senate Committee on Communications met on Thursday to discuss the fine, saying that negotiations with MTN are expected to continue for two more weeks.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the country's telecoms regulator, handed down the penalty last year citing security concerns over the inability to trace users in a country plagued by frequent kidnappings and Boko Haram.

"You know how the unregistered GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) are being used by terrorists," Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said earlier this week.

"That was why NCC (Nigerian Communications Commission) asked the MTN, Glo and the rest of them to register GSM," Buhari said.

"Unfortunately MTN was very slow and contributed to the casualties."

Boko Haram has killed over 17,000 people since embarking on a bloody quest to create an independent state in 2009.
By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Texas executed a man on Wednesday who fatally shot his ex-wife and four others in 1997 with a hunting rifle in a killing spree launched when he found her having sex with another man.

Coy Wesbrook, 58, was pronounced dead at 8:04 p.m. after receiving a lethal injection at the state's death chamber in Huntsville. His execution had been delayed by about two hours because of a last-minute appeal.

The execution was the 535th in Texas since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, the most of any state.

Wesbrook told a court he went to the Houston-area home of his former wife, Gloria Coons, seeking to reconcile. When he arrived, he found other people in the residence and began drinking with them, court documents showed.

Two men slipped into his wife's bedroom and when he went in, he found her having sex with one of them. He then went to his truck to fetch his gun.

He went back and fatally shot anyone still on the premises, killing his ex-wife, Antonio Cruz, Ruth Money, Anthony Rogers and Kelly Hazlip.

He then walked to his truck and waited.

Wesbrook, a former security guard, could be overheard saying: "I did it. I did it. I did what I had to do," neighbors testified.

One man he shot to death was in the yard and the other victims were found inside. All had been shot at close range and his ex-wife was shot last, court documents showed.

It took a jury about 90 minutes to sentence him to death.

Lawyers for Wesbrook tried to have the execution halted, arguing his rights had been denied and he was mentally impaired.

"I am sorry that I cannot bring everybody back. I wish it could be different," Wesbrook was quoted as saying in his final statement by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

"I have no bad sentiment towards anyone. I can understand your outrage and why you are mad at me. God be with all of us," he was quoted as saying.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Bernard Orr, Sandra Maler and Peter Cooney)
Tunis (AFP) - Three jihadists were killed Thursday in security operations in Tunisia's border area of Ben Guerdane, where militants launched a full-blown attack this week, the authorities said.

The latest deaths raised to 49 the tally of jihadists killed since Monday's assault in Ben Guerdane, near Libya's border, on an army barracks and police and National Guard posts.

One of the jihadists was killed in Zokra district after he shot at an army and police patrol, the interior and defence ministries said in a joint statement.

The two others were killed in Hassi al-Nour district, where another man was also detained and four Kalashnikov rifles were seized, it said.

In total, eight militants have been detained since Monday, according to an AFP tally.

Thirteen members of the security forces and seven civilians were killed in Monday's attacks, according to official figures.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the attacks, but the authorities have blamed them on the Islamic State jihadist group present in neighbouring Libya.

IS has 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 close to the Tunisian border.

A nighttime curfew and tight security remain in place in Ben Guerdane, a city of around 60,000 inhabitants.

A local official has been dismissed, the authorities said Thursday, without giving any reason for the decision.

Tunisia has built a 200-kilometre (125-mile) barrier that stretches about half the length of its border in an attempt to stop militant incursions from Libya.

Last year IS -- which has seized large parts of Syria and Iraq and is also active in Egypt -- claimed three attacks in Tunisia, killing dozens of foreign tourists and presidential guards.
By Steve Quinn JUNEAU, Alaska (Reuters) - Three-time Iditarod sled-dog racing champion Dallas Seavey became the first to reach the halfway point of the near 1,000-mile race on Wednesday. Seavey, winner in three of the last four years and looking for his third successive title, pulled in as the leader into the old mining town of Cripple, considered by race organizers to be the official midway checkpoint. "He is working really hard out there," said Mitch Seavey, the father of Dallas and winner in 2004 and 2013. "Dallas is sick and he is not his usual happy self, instead he has this grim determination. He is dangerous." Noah Burmeister, racing for the first time since 2008, has been challenging perennial favorites and trailed Dallas Seavey by 20 miles heading into Cripple. Former champions Robert Sorlie, John Baker, Lance Mackey and Jeff King were among six others trailing Seavey. The race commemorates a 1925 rescue mission that carried diphtheria serum by sled-dog relay to the coastal community of Nome, which is also Burmeister's hometown Some 85 mushers and their dogs set off on Sunday from the town of Willow, about a 90-mile drive from Anchorage, on a journey northwest across the Alaskan tundra that the fastest team will likely complete in under 10 days. Only four have withdrawn from the race. While most of competitors are from Alaska, this year's race drew entrants from as far away as Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. This year's winner will receive $70,000 and a new truck, while other top finishers will take home cash prizes from a race purse that exceeds $725,000. Many mushers including the leaders have not completed a mandatory 24-hour rest coming into Cripple, so the leaderboard will be in flux until all contenders have completed this stop, plus two other mandatory rests that cannot be combined. Even if Seavey does not record his third successive victory, he will still pocket $3,000 worth of gold nuggets for being the first to arrive in Cripple. (Reporting by Steve Quinn; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Greg Stutchbury)
King Khalid Military City (Saudi Arabia) (AFP) - Warplanes roared overhead, tanks rumbled across the desert and smoke filled the sky Thursday for the final day of what Saudi Arabia billed as the region's biggest-ever military exercises.

The 12-day "Northern Thunder" manoeuvres in the kingdom's northeast included 20 nations from the Middle East, Africa and Asia, Saudi officials said.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman was joined by several foreign leaders for the final day of the exercise, which came as Riyadh vies to assert its leadership in the region.

Among them were Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Sudan's Omar al-Bashir, Yemen's Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

As the dignitaries watched from a pavilion, Apache gunships fired rockets with a bone-shaking blast. Smoke rose from targets on the ground and commandos rappelled from helicopters.

Fighter jets streaked through the sky releasing orange flares, artillery shells whistled through the air and heavy machinegun fire boomed from across the drill site, which stretched for dozens of kilometres (miles).

The exercises took place near Hafr al-Batin city, close to the Kuwaiti and Iraq borders.

Saudi Arabia's chief of staff, General Abdulrahman al-Bunyan, commanded the exercise and called it "the largest Arab and Islamic military gathering" in the region.

Riyadh has adopted a more assertive foreign policy since Salman took the throne early last year following the death of his half-brother king Abdullah.

It leads a coalition fighting rebels in Yemen, participates in US-led air strikes against the Islamic State group and has offered to send special forces to fight IS in Syria.

"Northern Thunder" also took place after tensions escalated between Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia and its regional Shiite rival Iran, which back opposing sides in Syria and Yemen.

Riyadh cut diplomatic ties with Tehran earlier this year after mobs ransacked Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran following the execution of a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric.

Story continues

Saudi Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri told reporters this week the exercises were preparation to tackle the region's "terrorist menace" and were not directed against Iran.

Assiri said the manoeuvres are distinct from a 35-nation coalition to fight "terrorism" which Saudi Arabia announced in December.

Officials have said the new coalition would gather in the kingdom this month for its first publicly announced meeting.

Authorities released no figures for the number of troops taking part from each country in Northern Thunder.

An AFP reporter saw Pakistani, Egyptian, Kuwaiti and Sudanese troops alongside Saudis.

A foreign military source told AFP he did not think Northern Thunder was directed at Syria "or anything else" but was a chance to practise working together.

The source said Saudi troops were "honing their skills and their operability with other nations."

Northern Thunder's official Twitter account said the exercises aimed to "confront all the threat scenarios in the region".

According to the International Institute of Strategic Studies, Saudi Arabia has the best equipped military of Gulf countries, with an army of 75,000 troops and 313 combat-capable aircraft.
LONDON (Reuters) - Countries with tough environmental policies such as carbon levies and air pollution rules are not at a big disadvantage when trading globally compared with countries that have looser regulations, a study by the OECD said on Thursday. The report comes at a time when lawmakers in Europe are thrashing out details of how to compensate energy-intensive industries for costs associated with the blocs Emissions Trading System (ETS) which charges polluters for each tonne of carbon dioxide they emit. "Environmental policies are simply not the major driver of international trade patterns," Catherine L. Mann, chief economist for the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said in a statement with the report. "Governments should stop working on the assumption that tighter regulations will hurt their export share and focus on the edge they can get from innovation." The study found exports from Denmark, Germany and Switzerland -- countries deemed to have the most stringent environmental policies -- to major emerging economies with weaker regulations, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) rose by $11.2 billion from 1995-2008. That export figure would have been 3 percent higher from heavy polluting industries such as chemicals and metals without the tough regulation but this was offset by a 3 percent rise in exports of cleaner industries such as electronics, the report said. Under Europes ETS the European Commission awards free carbon permits to guard against the relocation of EU firms to places with less-stringent emission limits, amid fierce lobbying from industries fearful of meeting the cost. Around 180 sectors are currently on the so-called "carbon leakage" list but this will be scaled back to around 50 sectors with the final list to be decided in 2019. "These companies that are protected from the environmental policy signal have much less incentive to innovate and become cleaner," the OECDs Tomasz Kozluk and co-author of the report told journalists at a briefing on Thursday. The Commission estimates the permits will be worth 160 billion euros ($174 billion) from 2021-2030. For the full report: http://www.oecd.org/economy/greeneco/do-stricter-environmental-policies-hurt-export-competitiveness.htm ($1 = 0.9210 euros) (Reporting By Susanna Twidale; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
Montreal (AFP) - TransCanada, the Canadian pipeline builder behind the failed Keystone XL project, is in talks to buy US rival Columbia Pipeline in a deal valued at more than US$10 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Citing unnamed sources close to the negotiations, the newspaper said an agreement could be reached within weeks.

People cited in the news story, however, also cautioned that the talks could still break down.

TransCanada declined to comment on the report. A spokesman told AFP, "TransCanada remains focused on opportunities that would be in line with our strategy and grow shareholder value."

Columbia Pipeline's share price, meanwhile, jumped more than 15 percent in morning trading in New York to US$22.85.

Based in Texas, Columbia Pipeline operates 24,000 kilometers of pipelines from the US Gulf Coast to the country's northeast.

TransCanada announced in January it would seek US$15 billion from the American government for blocking construction of its Keystone XL pipeline that would have connected Canada's landlocked oil sands to US Gulf Coast refineries.

The Obama administration decided in October to deny the Canadian company a permit to construct a key section of the pipeline across the US-Canada border, ruling it would harm the fight against climate change.

TransCanada said in its complaint that a seven-year delay and ultimate decision to deny a permit were "politically driven."

Since the rejection, the company has focused on building a new pan-Canadian pipeline to the Atlantic coast.

But it is also facing opposition from environmental activists and the Quebec government.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The ongoing U.S.-Canadian trade "irritant" over softwood lumber is expected to be resolved soon, both countries leaders said on Thursday regarding the years-long fight over pine and other such soft wood. U.S. President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, speaking at a joint press conference, said the issue came up at their meeting at the White House but that negotiations were ongoing. "I'm confident that we are on a track towards resolving this irritant in the coming weeks and month," Trudeau said of the trade dispute, which stems from an expired 2006 softwood lumber export agreement. Obama added: "This issue of softwood lumber will get resolved in some fashion ... It's been a longstanding, bipartisan irritant," although neither side is likely to get everything they are seeking in the final deal. (Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by James Dalgleish)
Stocks (^DJI, ^GSPC, ^IXIC, ^RUT) are sinking as crude oil (CLJ16.NYM) drops and the European Central Bank announces more efforts to boost the economy on the continent. Stephen Guilfoyle, managing director of floor operations for Deep Value Execution Services, joins us from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to discuss the markets.

To discuss some of the other big stories of the day are Yahoo Finance columnist Rick Newman and Alexis Christoferous, joined by Mark Martiak, senior wealth strategist at Premier Wealth First Allied Securities.

Capitalism and the election

In his successful 1992 presidential campaign, Bill Clinton's team famously came up with the phrase, "It's the economy, Stupid" as a reminder for the key to victory. It appears that's also the case in this year's race for both Republicans and Democratsbut perhaps not in the way you might think.

Americans not so tech savvy

New research from the National Center for Education Statistics finds U.S. adults rank dead last among 18 industrialized countries in problem-solving in technology-rich environments. Japan ranked first, followed by three Nordic nations and the Netherlands.

Hacker messes up $1B bank theft

A group of hackers broke into the Bangladesh central bank and attempted to direct nearly one billion dollars from the New York Federal Reserve to a number of entities, including casinos, in the Philippines and Sri Lanka. They got away with about $80 million, making it one of the largest bank heists in history, that is until they botched a wire transfer and the operation got shut down.
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkish police detained 10 suspected members of Islamic State in raids in the mainly Kurdish city of Bingol in southeastern Turkey, and accused them of recruiting and preparing an attack, security sources said on Thursday. Islamic State, the militant organization which controls large areas of neighboring Syria and Iraq, has been blamed by the Turkish authorities for carrying out four bomb attacks in the NATO member state since June. In the most recent on Jan. 12, a suicide bomber killed 12 German tourists visiting Istanbul's Sultanahmet historical area. This week Turkey blamed Islamic State in Syria for cross-border artillery fire that killed two people. Officials have estimated that up to 2,000 Turkish nationals went to Syria and Iraq to fight for Islamic State. Turkish courts have arrested more than 800 people for Islamic State links, they said. (Reporting by Seyhmus Cakan; Writing by Ayla Jean Yackley; Editing by Jon Boyle)
Ankara (AFP) - Turkey will not take back migrants already on Greek islands under a deal proposed to European Union leaders at a crunch summit this week, Ankara's EU affairs minister said Thursday.

Volkan Bozkir was quoted by the Anatolia news agency as saying Turkey would take back "tens of thousands" of migrants, "not hundreds of thousands or millions", and they would "not include the existing refugees on the Greek islands".

At talks in Brussels this week, Turkey surprised EU leaders by presenting a set of proposals to help solve the migrant crisis -- the continent's worst since World War II.

Under Monday's tentative deal, Ankara offered to take back all illegal migrants landing in Greece and to set up an arrangement to exchange Syrians in Greece for Syrian refugees in Turkey.

But the deal still has to be confirmed by another summit next week and has already come under fire from the UN refugee chief and rights groups, who questioned whether it was legal, and even some EU members.

Bozkir said the offer did not include migrants already on the Greek islands and sounded a note of caution about how many people Turkey, which already hosts 2.7 million Syrian refugees, would take back.

"It would be more accurate to say the number of migrants to be returned to Turkey in the event of a readmission agreement with the EU will be thousands or tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands or millions," he told Anatolia.

In November, the EU agreed to deliver three billion euros ($3.3 billion) in funds for refugees in return for Ankara's cooperation in tackling the migrant crisis.

At the Brussels summit, Turkey also asked for an extra three billion euros in aid, along with visa-free travel to the bloc for Turkish citizens.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has rejected the idea Ankara was "begging" the EU for money.

Europe is desperate to find a way to stem the flow of migrants, many of them fleeing Syria's five-year civil war, arriving on its southern shores, and hopes the Turkey deal will be decisive.

In the latest tragedy, at least five migrants, including a baby, died as they made the perilous sea crossing from Turkey to the Greek island of Lesbos.
(Reuters) - Two law enforcement officials in Louisiana have been indicted on federal civil rights charges stemming from the assaults of five jail inmates, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal and Lieutenant Colonel Gerald Savoy are accused of conspiring with each other and with other officers to assault inmates in April 2011, the justice department said in a statement on Wednesday.

Ackal and Savoy face conspiracy against rights and deprivation of rights under color of law charges in U.S. District Court of the Western District of Louisiana, the department said.

According to the indictment, Ackal and Savoy conspired with jail staff to retaliate against five inmates by assaulting them in the jail chapel, where there were no video surveillance cameras.

Eight former Iberia Parish Sheriff Office employees previously entered guilty pleas in related cases involving the incident, the justice department said.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee)
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Two Hong Kong booksellers released from mainland Chinese custody after going missing went straight back to China after returning home to ask police to drop their missing persons cases, a Hong Kong newspaper reported. The two, Cheung Chi Ping and Lui Por, were among five Hong Kong booksellers who disappeared over the past six months and re-surfaced in mainland Chinese police custody. The five were from Causeway Bay Books, a shop that specializes in gossipy political books about Chinese leaders. Many people in Hong Kong believe the booksellers, who have appeared in a series of confessions and interviews on Chinese television, were abducted by mainland agents. Their cases have raised concern in Hong Kong that Chinese authorities are overriding a "one country, two systems" formula protecting Hong Kong's freedoms since its return to mainland China from British rule in 1997. Cheung and Lui were released on separate days last week and traveled to Hong Kong to ask police to drop their cases. Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper, citing unidentified sources, said both then crossed back into mainland China on the same days. A spokeswoman for the Hong Kong police declined to comment. Telephone calls seeking comment from the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, the Chinese government agency that oversees issues regarding the two former European outposts, went unanswered. China has denied wrongdoing. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, asked about the case at a daily news briefing in Beijing, said he did not have a "grasp" of the situation and declined further comment. Lui did not answer his telephone and the other booksellers could not immediately be reached. The reported swift return of the two to mainland China after asking Hong Kong police to drop their cases is likely to fuel speculation about whether they are acting freely or not. Mainland Chinese police said in a statement last week that Cheung, Lui and colleague Lam Wing Kee were being investigated but would be released on bail. It was not clear what would happen to their two other colleagues, Gui Minhai, who is a Swedish national and went missing while in Thailand, and Lee Bo, who is a British national and went missing from Hong Kong. The South China Morning Post said Cheung had told immigration officers at the border checkpoint that he was in a hurry. He declined to give police a formal interview or to give an official statement, the newspaper said. This week, a series of at least 10 emails reviewed by Reuters showed that Lee had expressed fears that Gui had been taken by Chinese agents for "political reasons" before he, himself, went missing. (Reporting by Donny Kwok; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Clare Baldwin and Nick Macfie)
By Dustin Volz and Nate Raymond WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration is planning to publicly blame Iranian hackers for a 2013 cyber attack against a small dam in New York state, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The Justice Department has prepared an indictment against the hackers, two of the sources said, and a public announcement could come as soon as next week. U.S. officials believe the hackers gained access only to some back office systems, not the operational system of the Bowman Avenue Dam, a flood control system around 30 miles (50 km) north of New York City. The attack was not considered sophisticated, the sources said. A Justice Department spokesman said he had no comment. CNN first reported news of the planned indictment. Asked about the report at a news briefing, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said: "We obviously take seriously all such malicious activity in cyberspace. We are going to continue to use all the tools at our disposal to prevent, deter, detect, counter, and mitigate that kind of activity." The Obama administration has grown increasingly concerned about the threat of foreign nation-state hacks on U.S. infrastructure - a worry that has grown since U.S. officials said a cyber attack was the cause of a December blackout in the Ukraine that affected nearly a quarter-million customers. The Justice Department similarly charged five Chinese military hackers in 2014 for hacking into the networks of several U.S. businesses in order to steal trade secrets. Larger facilities also the same types of vulnerabilities that could be exploited in similar ways by hackers using tools that can easily be obtained on either the open Internet or closed underground criminal forums, said Steve Grobman, chief technology officer of Intel Corps security division. We shouldnt look at the size of the particular body of water, dam or power distribution facility, Grobman said. This is as a good example of how critical infrastructure is vulnerable to various actors. (Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball and Jim Finkle; Editing by Alistair Bell)
By Arshad Mohammed and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Having twice failed to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace, the Obama administration is discussing ways to help preserve the prospect of an increasingly threatened two-state solution, U.S. officials said. One possibility under discussion is to issue an outline of a deal to end the nearly 70-year-old conflict on such matters as borders, security, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees. Such an outline could range from a brief description of core tradeoffs the two sides might need to make to a detailed set of "parameters" like those that former U.S. President Bill Clinton laid out for the parties in late 2000. Under one scenario, the outline could be enshrined in a U.N. Security Council resolution to give it greater international standing for a future U.S. president or the parties whenever they might resume peace talks that collapsed in April 2014. "It's one of the ideas that they are talking about," said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Resorting to a U.N. resolution would require a major shift in long-standing U.S. policy, which has mostly opposed use of the United Nations as a forum for pressuring Israel. The United States has repeatedly insisted it is up to the two sides to directly negotiate over their differences. Another possibility would be for U.S. President Barack Obama to make a speech laying out his principles for a settlement. U.S. officials have no expectation peace talks will resume before the end of Obama's term in January 2017 and they played down the odds of any quick decision on how the White House might help preserve a two-state solution. "People in the government are asking the question what can we do to keep the two-state solution alive, and theyre generating ideas," said a senior U.S. official. The ideas had not yet risen to senior White House staff and Obama is focused on other issues including Islamic State, Iran and Cuba, the officials said. Two separate peace efforts, by George Mitchell and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, have failed during Obama's seven years in office. TWO-STATE SOLUTION DYING ON OBAMA'S WATCH? A two-state solution long seen as the most internationally acceptable outcome envisages a Palestinian state on most of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, lands Israel captured in a 1967 war, and an Israeli state that absorbs some of the settlements Israel built on occupied land in return for mutually agreed land swaps. Such a solution appears remote because of ongoing Jewish settlement building; a split between the Palestinian Fatah and Hamas factions; preoccupation within the Palestinian Authority about who may succeed 81-year-old President Mahmoud Abbas; and a wave of Palestinian stabbings, shootings and car rammings of Israelis. The Palestinian attacks have killed 28 Israelis and two U.S. citizens since October, while Israeli forces have killed at least 179 Palestinians, 121 of whom Israel says were assailants. Current and former U.S. officials have warned that a failure to break the impasse could lead to greater conflict and that continued occupation of Palestinian land puts at risk Israels character as a Jewish and democratic state. Former officials also cite a deepening cynicism on both sides regarding peace, making it ever harder to achieve. "In the absence of negotiations, actions on the ground are making it more and more difficult to see how a two-state solution could be achieved," said Martin Indyk, Obama's former special envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. "I think there is a real concern on the part of the president and the secretary of state," said Indyk, who is now executive vice president of the Brookings Institution think tank, "that instead of achieving a breakthrough to a two-state solution, the two-state solution will die on their watch." (Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Howard Goller)
GENEVA (Reuters) - Twelve countries criticized China's human rights crackdown in a joint statement delivered at the U.N. Human Rights Council on Thursday and called on Beijing to release detained Chinese and foreign activists. "These actions are in contravention of China's own laws and international commitments," said U.S. Ambassador Keith Harper, who read out the statement backed by Australia, Japan and nine European countries. "These extra-territorial actions are unacceptable, out of step with the expectations of the international community, and a challenge to the rule-based international order." (Reporting by Tom Miles and Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
By James Pearson CHEORWON, South Korea (Reuters) - There's more to do in South Korea's heavily forested Rocket Valley, just a few miles from the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, than fire rockets. In quieter times, people tend vegetable patches along ice-cold streams. But on Wednesday, a U.S. artillery brigade based in the South heated things up, launching a barrage of rockets close to the border town of Cheorwon. The live-fire drills came hours after a report by reclusive North Korea that it had miniaturized nuclear warheads to be mounted on ballistic missiles and leader Kim Jong Un had ordered further improvements to its arsenal. Tension in the region was already high as South Korean and U.S. troops began large-scale military exercises on Monday in a test of their defenses against North Korea, which called the drills "nuclear war moves" and threatened to respond with an all-out offensive. The U.N. Security Council imposed harsh new sanctions on North Korea last week for its Jan. 6 nuclear test. The North launched a long-range rocket a month later, drawing international criticism and sanctions from South Korea. The drills in Rocket Valley were separate to the annual joint U.S.-South Korean maneuvers which involve about 17,000 U.S. troops and more than 300,000 South Koreans. They were a test of the U.S. Army M270A1 system, a multiple-launch rocket system (MLRS) built by Lockheed Martin that can fire 12 rounds and re-load and move at 64 km (40 miles) per hour. One unit was dug in at the foot of Rocket Valley, under the swaying firs. A sonic boom followed the rockets as they screamed over the tree line followed by trails of flame towards targets eight km (five miles) away, invisible over the ridge lines. "If North Korea decides to use their long-range artillery, which they have so many pieces of, Seoul would be in direct range," Captain Harry Lu of the U.S. Army's 37th Field Artillery Regiment said. "So our mission here is to make sure we destroy that artillery before they can cause any more damage to the greater Seoul metropolitan area." SHRILL THREATS OF WAR In bellicose rhetoric, North Korea routinely threatens to turn Seoul into a "sea of flames" and the city was reduced to rubble in the 1950-53 Korean conflict, which ended in a truce, not a treaty, meaning the two sides are technically still at war. Kim Jong Un's announcement of advances in North Korea's nuclear program followed his order last week for the country to be prepared to mount pre-emptive attacks against the United States and South Korea and stand ready to use nuclear weapons. He issued the command as the North showcased its own MLRS which is carried by a Chinese-made truck and may be able to operate outside the range of similar U.S. and South Korean weapons, according to an expert. South Korea's defense ministry said the North's rockets flew up to 150 km (90 miles) off the east coast and into the sea, a display of power seen as a response to the U.N. sanctions. The U.S. 210th Field Artillery Brigade, based in Dongducheon, north of Seoul, is one of the only U.S. battalions that will not move to a newly expanded military base south of the capital under an agreement between South Korean and U.S. defense chiefs. That is because it is considered part of South Korea's "counter-fire plan" and contains MLRS, capable of firing a barrage of rockets at a target beyond the range of conventional artillery. It is one of South Korea's first lines of defense in the event of war. "Unless using guided munitions, (multiple-launch rockets) are less accurate than tube artillery but can put a lot of steel downrange with devastating effect," said Bruce Klinger, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former Korea specialist at the CIA. On Wednesday, the devastating effect was being unleashed over an idyllic landscape which belies its name. In just a few weeks, holiday makers will return to the private cottages, camp sites and vegetable plots that dot the hills to get away from the summer heat of the city. (Story refiles to change headline.) (Editing by Jack Kim and Nick Macfie)
Moscow (AFP) - A hunger-striking Ukrainian military pilot on trial in Russia resumed drinking water Thursday after receiving a prank letter claiming to be from Ukraine's president, asking her to end her action, her defence team said.

Nadiya Savchenko will continue a week-long hunger strike until the verdict later this month, said her lawyer Mark Feigin.

Her lawyers said she acted on a written request from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, but it emerged later that the letter came from a celebrity prankster accused of having ties to the Russian security services.

"Nadezhda halted only a 'dry' hunger strike," Feigin told AFP. "She will be fasting until the verdict is announced," he said, using the Russian version of her name.

- 'Ending farce'-

Her lawyers said Wednesday that the health of the 34-year-old aviator had deteriorated significantly, she was feverish and her temperature had spiked.

The verdict in her case is due on March 21 and 22.

Savchenko's defence team said she had decided to start drinking water following a letter from Poroshenko in which he asked her to stay healthy.

The lawyers later said the missive was fake and accused Moscow of seeking to discredit the pilot and her team.

"It was obviously a well-planned operation by the security services," said Feigin.

A prominent Russian prankster known as "Vovan" -- whose last name is Vladimir Kuznetsov -- said he and his colleague had sent a letter on behalf of Poroshenko.

"We wanted to put an end to this farce," he told AFP.

He denied he was in the employ of the Russian security services. "This is a favourite version of the Russian opposition. If I say no, no one will believe me anyway."

Last year, Vovan called Elton John, making him believe he was discussing gay rights with President Vladimir Putin.

In her reply to the "Poroshenko" letter, Savchenko said she would start drinking water following an outpouring of support from Ukrainians.

Story continues

- Western concern -

"I have felt your pain, people," she said in a handwritten letter.

Rejecting both food and water is called a "dry hunger strike" in Russia and was a method of last resort for some Soviet dissidents.

Savchenko launched her dry hunger strike last Thursday in protest at delays in her controversial trial. Her defence team says she now demands to be returned to Ukraine.

Savchenko is seen by her compatriots as a symbol of resistance against the Kremlin, accused of fuelling the conflict in eastern Ukraine which has claimed more than 9,000 lives since April 2014.

The prosecution wants a 23-year jail sentence for Savchenko over the killing of two journalists from Russian state broadcaster VGTRK in shelling in Ukraine's eastern Lugansk region in June 2014, two months after the pro-Russia uprising began.

Prosecutors say she was involved in her capacity as a volunteer in a Ukrainian battalion.

She says she was kidnapped even before the attack and smuggled across the border into Russia.

Her case has caused deep concern in the West, with both the EU and the United States saying she must be released immediately.

Hundreds of angry Ukrainians picketed the Russian embassy in Kiev and pelted it with eggs and stones over the weekend.

Police in Ukraine said on Thursday several people had thrown Molotov cocktails at the Russian mission overnight, adding they opened a criminal probe.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said embassy officials had limited their movements outside the mission and accused the West of turning a blind eye to the violence.

"We are not seeing any reaction from our Western colleagues," he said in an interview with REN TV, adding he would discuss the issue with US Secretary of State John Kerry.
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday urged Iran to act with caution and moderation after Tehran carried out missile tests over two days this week.

"In the current political atmosphere in the Middle East region, and so soon after the positive news of the lifting of sanctions against Iran, the secretary-general calls on the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to act with moderation, caution and the good sense not to increase tensions through any hasty actions," said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

Iran fired two more long-range ballistic missiles on Wednesday, a day after similar tests that came fewer than two months after the Iran nuclear deal was implemented.

Ban said it was up to the UN Security Council to determine whether this was in violation of resolutions banning the development of ballistic missile technology capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.

Iran has maintained that its missile program is not aimed at developing a nuclear capability.

The United States, Britain and France have said they are still examining the latest tests to determine whether the Security Council should respond.

UN diplomats have said it remains unclear when and if action will be taken at the Security Council over the latest tests.

In January, the US administration announced new sanctions on Iran over the test-launch of a medium-range missile in October that a UN panel of experts said was capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

Under the historic nuclear deal reached with Iran, most UN sanctions resolutions against Tehran were lifted, but an arms embargo and restrictions on ballistic missile technology remain in force.

On Wednesday, Iran fired two Qadr-H and Qadr-F precision missiles fired from launcher trucks tucked in a mountain range in northern Iran, hitting targets about 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) away in the southeastern Makran area, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said.

A day earlier, state media announced that short-, medium- and long-range precision guided missiles were fired from several sites to show the country's "all-out readiness to confront threats".
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - A US push for action over a surge in troubling allegations of sex abuse by UN peacekeepers has run into resistance from Russia, Egypt and some African countries at the UN Security Council, diplomats said.

The United States presented a draft resolution on Friday that backs a new UN policy of repatriating peacekeepers if no move is made by their country to investigate the serious allegations.

The move followed a report by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that showed a hike in the number of allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers, from 52 in 2014 to 69 last year.

US diplomats were hoping for a vote on the measure on Thursday, but after a five-hour meeting to discuss the draft this week, differences remained.

A revised draft seen by AFP on Wednesday "endorses the decision of the secretary-general to repatriate a particular military unit or formed police unit of a contingent when there is credible evidence of widespread or systemic sexual exploitation and abuse by that unit."

The resolution would request that Ban "replace all military units and/or formed police units" from a peacekeeping country when no steps are taken to hold the perpetrators accountable.

Under UN rules, it is up to the country that contributes the peacekeepers to investigate and prosecute any soldier accused of misconduct while serving under the UN flag.

British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said his government "strongly supports" the draft resolution "to improve UN peacekeeping and crack down on troop-contributing countries whose military or police units have committed a pattern of sexual exploitation and abuse."

Rycroft said he hoped the measure will be adopted "without delay."

But Russia and Egypt raised concerns, saying that misconduct by peacekeepers should be dealt with by the UN General Assembly rather than the Security Council, several diplomats said.

Story continues

But one diplomat suggested that may have been a tactic to block the measures altogether because they would impose new obligations on peacekeeping countries.

"It will make a difference. It will change the culture" of inaction within the United Nations, said a Security Council diplomat.

"With this resolution, we'll have a tough policy document from the council which will be a reference for all TCCs (troop-contributing countries)," he added.

A total of 122 countries contribute 125,000 troops and police to the UN's peacekeeping missions worldwide.

US Ambassador Samantha Power has said the council measure will add weight to UN efforts to respond to "this horrific, recurrent problem in peacekeeping missions."

Ban will report to the Security Council on Thursday on his efforts to address the crisis, including his controversial move to identify the nationalities of troops and police who face sex abuse allegations.

Last year, the 69 allegations were against peacekeepers mostly in Africa.

Two missions accounted for over half of the cases: MINUSCA in the Central African Republic and MONUSCO in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) - The fatal stabbing of a Jewish man in Uruguay was religiously motivated and carried out by a man who said Allah was responsible for his actions, a local newspaper cited the case judge as saying on Thursday. Judge Fabricio Cidade on Thursday found 36-year-old Carlos Peralta guilty of knifing businessman David Fremd late Tuesday in Paysandu, near the border with Argentina. He told the El Telegrafo newspaper that Peralta would be sent to a psychiatric hospital for tests ahead of sentencing and that there would also be an investigation into whether an outside group was linked to the attack. "He consistently talked about the religious motivations but did not once recognize committing the crime," the judge told the local paper. "He said his actions were in the hands of Allah." Fremd, 54, was head of the Jewish Community of Paysandu. The judge said an investigation would examine whether Peralta, who had converted to Islam, had been in contact with foreign groups. Peralta's computer had been seized and it appeared he had acted alone, Cidade told El Telegrafo. "Now it passes into the hands of the intelligence services to investigate any eventual link with some foreign organization," he told the paper. Juan Roballo, a senior official in the presidency, told a local TV channel that he did not want to sound alarm bells but the government had to "consider all possibilities." In the Uruguayan capital Montevideo, the Egyptian Center for Islamic Culture and Israeli Embassy condemned the attack. Stabbings have been on the rise in Israel, where violence escalated during a visit by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian who tried to stab them on Wednesday, the military said. The attacks came a day after an American tourist was killed in Tel Aviv by a Palestinian who went on a stabbing spree while Biden held meetings just blocks away. (Reporting by Malena Castaldi; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
New York (AFP) - A US Air Force veteran who tried to travel to Syria to fight for the Islamic State group was found guilty Wednesday of trying to provide it with material support.

Tairod Pugh, 48, was the first person in America convicted after a jury trial of attempting to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State group, Assistant US Attorney General John Carlin said.

Pugh, who was arrested in January 2015 in New Jersey, could get up to 35 years in prison.

No sentencing date was announced but it is expected to be later this year.

Prosecutors said Pugh tried to join the Islamic State group by traveling from Egypt to Turkey in early 2015 with the intent of entering Syria.

But Turkish authorities denied him entry and sent him back to Egypt.

The Egyptians deported him to the United States.

US authorities then monitored Pugh and when he was finally arrested he was found to be in possession of a computer with 180 jihadist videos and information on borders between Turkey and Syria.

Pugh, who converted to Islam in 1998, served in the Air Force as an avionics instrument system specialist and received training in the installation and maintenance of aircraft engines, navigation and weapons systems, the Justice Department said in a statement.

During the trial prosectors presented evidence obtained from Pugh's laptop and social media posts. The computer showed he had searched the Internet for "borders controlled by Islamic State" and downloaded terror-related videos.

The government also introduced a letter that Pugh wrote shortly before leaving Egypt for Turkey en route to Syria.

It said: "I will use the talents and skills given to me by Allah to establish and defend the Islamic State. There is only 2 possible outcomes for me. Victory or Martyr."
Washington (AFP) - The US-led coalition has carried out the first air strikes on Islamic State chemical weapons sites, the Pentagon said Thursday, acting on information from a senior operative described as the extremists' top chemical expert.

The successful "multiple" bombings came as a result of detailed intelligence from Sulayman Dawud al-Bakkar, also known as Abu Dawud, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said, confirming Dawud's capture by US special forces in Iraq last month.

The snaring of Dawud, who was transferred Thursday into Iraqi custody after interrogation, appears to be a major boon in the fight against the IS group in Iraq and Syria, and Cook said it had yielded almost immediate results as well as critical information for the future.

Cook described Dawud as "ISIL's emir of chemical and traditional weapons manufacturing."

"His capture removed a key ISIL leader from the battlefield and provided the coalition with important information about ISIL's chemical weapons capabilities," Cook said, using an alternative acronym for the IS extremists.

"Through Dawud, the coalition learned details about ISIL's chemical weapon facilities and production, as well as the people involved.

"The information has resulted in multiple coalition air strikes that have disrupted and degraded ISIL's ability to produce chemical weapons and will continue to inform our operations in the future."

US media said that Dawud formerly worked for Saddam Hussein's regime.

The chemical weapons expert was picked up by US forces that the Pentagon only recently deployed to Iraq to conduct raids against the Islamic State group.

The strikes on the chemical facilities -- it was not immediately known exactly where and when the raids took place -- had carefully "factored in" the risk to the civilian population, Cook added.

The New York Times, citing officials, said that the US-led air campaign targeted a weapons production plant in Mosul, Iraq and another against a "tactical unit" near Mosul believed to be linked to the program.

Story continues

In February, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and CIA Director John Brennan for the first time openly accused the Islamic State group of using chemical weapons, including mustard gas, in Iraq and Syria.

- 'Gross violations' -

The US military Central Command Thursday provided the most specific details so far of the chemical attacks it attributes to the group.

"We believe that Islamic State for Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) was responsible for the sulfur mustard attack in Marea, Syria on August 21, 2015, largely based on photographic evidence and the Syrian opposition's description of the event," said a CENTCOM statement.

"Based on the available information, we also believe that ISIL was likely responsible for some of the alleged attacks using sulfur mustard in Iraq."

Mustard gas -- also known as "sulfur mustard" -- can cause respiratory distress, momentary blindness and painful blisters.

"Any use by ISIL of CW is a continuation of its extensive record of gross violations of human rights, as well as its blatant disregard for international laws and norms," CENTCOM said.

According to CNN, the US intelligence community has confirmed 12 cases of the use of mustard agent, with three other cases suspected. They include locations in Syria and Iraq.

However, CNN said that US officials have been at pains to play down the attacks saying they believe any deaths were from being hit by artillery, not the agent.

Dawud's capture and the subsequent raids mark the second major blow against the extremists announced this week, in the US-led attempt to wipe out the IS group and its self-declared caliphate across parts of Syria and Iraq where the extremists implement an ultra-conservative interpretation of Islamic law.

Top Islamic State commander leader Omar al-Shishani, known as Omar the Chechen, was badly wounded in a recent US strike in northeastern Syria, though not killed as first believed, according to a monitoring group.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday that according to its sources the March 4 strike targeted the jihadist's convoy, killing his bodyguards, while Shishani himself "was seriously injured."

A US official had initially said Shishani "likely died" in the assault by waves of US warplanes and drones -- but the United States had stopped short of announcing his death, which had been erroneously reported several times before.

The US official branded Shishani "the ISIL equivalent of the secretary of defense."

Shishani was one of the IS leaders most wanted by Washington, which put a $5 million bounty on his head.
Washington (AFP) - An Islamic State operative captured by US special forces in Iraq last week is a chemical weapons expert for the extremist group, two US military officials said Wednesday.

The operative's capture was confirmed last week by an American official, who said the interrogation had yielded "good things."

The IS leader was captured by special forces that the Pentagon recently deployed to conduct raids against the Islamic State group. He is currently detained in Iraq, one of the officials said.

According to CNN, the US military has conducted airstrikes against "targets it believes are crucial to ISIS' chemical weapons program."

NBC identified the prisoner as Sleiman Daoud al-Afari, an expert in chemical and biological weapons who formerly worked for Saddam Hussein's regime.

On Wednesday, Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis declined to confirm that US forces had captured an IS chemical weapons expert.

But he added, "We know that ISIL has used chemical weapons on multiple occasions in Iraq and Syria."

In February, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and CIA Director John Brennan for the first time openly accused the Islamic State group of using chemical weapons, including mustard gas, in Iraq and Syria.

Sources close to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons confirmed last month that mustard gas was used in fighting in August in northern Iraq, without specifically blaming IS for the attack.

The group also confirmed mustard gas was used on August 21 in Marea in Syria, again without naming the perpetrator of the attack.

Mustard gas -- also known as "sulfur mustard" -- can cause respiratory distress, momentary blindness and painful blisters.

It was first used by Germany in Belgium in 1917 and was banned by the UN in 1993.
Caracas (AFP) - President Nicolas Maduro recalled Venezuela's top diplomat from the United States in protest against the renewal of a year-old US decree calling his country a security threat.

"Enough arrogance, double standards, condescension and intrigue," the leftist leader said as he announced he was summoning charge d'affaires Maximilien Arvelaiz back to Caracas. "Bolivar's Venezuela deserves respect."

The United States and Venezuela have been without ambassadors in each other's capitals since 2010.

Relations between the two countries are typically tense, with Caracas often accusing Washington of imperialist meddling in Latin America.

Venezuela had proposed Arvelaiz as ambassador to the United States a year and a half ago, but the State Department has not approved him.

Maduro said he is acting in response to President Barack Obama's announcement last week that he would renew a decree that classifies Venezuela as an "unusual and extraordinary threat" to US national security.

Maduro also criticized Obama for not approving Arvelaiz.

"Don't they want good relations with us? I think not," Maduro said at a ceremony organized to condemn the US decree renewal.

Obama last week cited the grounds for the US decision as rampant corruption in Venezuela and the government's ongoing violation of human rights and persecution of opposition leaders.

The US move came amid high tensions in Venezuela. The opposition announced Tuesday it will try to force Maduro from power with a recall referendum, a constitutional amendment shortening the presidential term and vigorous street protests.

Maduro has said the opposition wants to oust him with help from the United States.
(Reuters) - Vericel Corp said its experimental drug reduced death, hospitalizations and emergency visits in patients, who are at risk of a heart failure, in a mid-stage study, sending its shares up 80 percent in premarket trading. The drug, ixmyelocel-T, was studied in patients with ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart becomes enlarged and cannot pump blood efficiently, Vericel said in a statement on Thursday. The study involved about 114 patients, who had no reasonable options to restore proper blood circulation due to their weak and enlarged hearts. Ixmyelocel-T, which has an orphan drug status in the United States, is derived from the patient's bone marrow using the company's cell therapy. Orphan status is granted to drugs aimed at treating rare diseases, giving the developer incentives such as a seven-year marketing exclusivity in the United States. Vericel said it expects to report full data from the trial in American College of Cardiology's 65th Annual Scientific Session & Expo on April 4. The company's shares were trading at $3.83 premarket and are set to record their best day in seven years. (Reporting by Rosmi Shaji in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Anil D'Silva)
By Luke Baker and Ali Sawafta RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - For a month, more than 25,000 teachers in the West Bank have been on strike over pay and benefits, causing chaos for schools, pupils and parents, and prompting the Palestinian Authority to deploy military police on the streets of Ramallah. And yet, if Palestinian officials have any doubts about the quality of some of the teachers they employ, they need look no further than Hanan al-Hroub of Bethlehem, who is in the running to win $1 million this week for being the world's best teacher. With the West Bank economy struggling, the Palestinian Authority in debt and Israel's occupation causing constant pressure, there are few funds available to raise teachers' salaries, unless international donors provide direct support. In Ramallah, where the Palestinian administration is based, thousands of teachers have thronged the downtown area since Feb. 10, protesting against low pay and the fact they receive far fewer benefits than other government employees. It marks one of the most serious and extended strikes in the Palestinian territories and has resulted in more than 540,000 students sitting at home or roaming the streets, their initial enjoyment of a few days off school now turning to frustration. The teachers are angry and frustrated, too. Naeem Bozeyah, who has a master's degree in mathematics and has taught the subject for 20 years, says his basic salary is frozen at 2,660 shekels a month ($680), barely enough to provide for his wife and family, including three children at university. What's more, while in other ministries government employees receive a "bonus" each month of 105 shekels if they are married and 60 shekels for each child, for teachers it is only 60 shekels once you are married and 20 shekels per child. "Our demands are clear," Bozeyah told Reuters. "We want our salaries to be improved and we want the government to pay our dues and equate us with employees in other ministries." Ministers gathered for a cabinet meeting this week expressed regret about the time the strike has dragged on and the disruption to the school year. They accused teachers of rejecting efforts to resolve the dispute. In an open letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the former chairman of the Independent Commission for Human Rights criticized the heavy security crackdown against the strikers, including checkpoints and several arrests of teachers, and said it was up to Abbas to take decisive action. "Only you, Mr President, can get the government out of its state of denial and return it to its senses," said the letter. "Isn't it time that teachers had justice?" While teachers' representatives say they will continue the strike as long as necessary - and say 90 percent of teachers are taking part - students in the 1,700 schools affected are becoming annoyed, as are their parents. "The strike is wrong and right at the same time," said Mohammad Abu Hwaij, a 10th grade student. "It's right because the government must give teachers their rights and wrong because we have not been studying for a month." He and his friends have mostly been wandering the streets looking for things to do, and are beginning to worry that they will have to repeat a year of school. It's all a far cry from the future that may await Hanan al-Hroub, a primary school teacher who grew up in a refugee camp near Bethlehem. She has gained acclaim for her focus on teaching non-violence, ethics and respect, with remarkable results. This week, she traveled from the West Bank to Dubai, where on Sunday the Varkey Foundation, an educational charity, will announce the winner of its second annual Million Dollar Teacher award, which has been dubbed the Nobel prize for teaching. Hroub is one of 10 finalists, having been whittled down from 8,000 nominations from 148 countries. "I tell all teachers, whether Palestinian or from around the world: our job is humane, its goals are noble," Hroub said in a film made about her work. "We must teach our children that our only weapon is knowledge and education." It may not put an end to the strike, but it could earn her a small fortune. (Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Writing by Luke Baker; Editing by Louise Ireland)
Many long-term care insurance customers in Pennsylvania got a shock when their renewal notices arrived this year. Premiums were increasing by as much as 130 percent, and annual rates are on track to reportedly exceed $8,000 for some policies.

The increases have spurred outrage from policyholders and an inquiry by the Pennsylvania Insurance Department. Those familiar with the long-term care industry say the problem isn't isolated to Pennsylvania and dramatically increasing rates may be expected nationwide in the years to come.

Factors pushing insurance rates higher.

There are a number of factors contributing to the explosive growth in long-term care insurance premiums. "When [long-term care insurance] came out in the 80s and 90s, it was priced wrong," says Larry Rosenthal, a certified financial planner and president of Rosenthal Wealth Management Group in Manassas, Virginia. Carriers assumed people would drop policies as they got older. However, that didn't happen in many cases. What's more, people are living longer and aren't necessarily living healthier. As a result, Rosenthal says many insurance companies have fled the market and those that remain have increased premiums significantly to keep up with costs.

Compounding the problem is the fact that many people wait too long before buying a policy. "No one buys it at a young enough age for it to be inexpensive," says Kevin Boyles, vice president of retirement and college-savings-services provider Ascensus. The ideal time to start planning is between 52 and 64, according to the American Association of Long-Term Care Insurance. Those who wait longer face higher premiums and an increased possibility of being denied coverage.

7 Alternate Ways to Pay for Long-Term Care

People are often confused about how to pay for long-term care. "Resources they think exist don't exist," says Laura Troyani who founded the website PlanBeyond.com. Most notably, many seniors expect Medicare will cover costs when, in fact, the program does not pay for ongoing long-term care. While Medicare isn't an option, here are seven alternatives that are.

Story continues

Short-term care insurance. These plans are similar to long-term care insurance policies, but benefits are typically capped at one year. Not only are they less expensive, but they may also be available to older seniors or those who aren't otherwise eligible for long-term coverage.

Life/long-term care insurance. Rosenthal is a fan of combining long-term care coverage with life insurance. Specialty policies, often known as life-LTC hybrids, feature fixed premiums that help consumers avoid the type of rate increases currently being experienced in Pennsylvania.

Long-term care annuities. Troyani says long-term care annuities are a frequently overlooked option for covering home health, assisted living and nursing home care costs. These annuities require a hefty upfront payment, but if you need long-term care, your overall cost may be lower than what you'd spend on insurance premiums. However, don't expect much in the way of interest. "If you're looking at it from an investment standpoint, it's not so awesome," Troyani says.

Health savings accounts. For those who have an eligible high-deductible health insurance plan, a health savings account offers a way to put money aside tax-free for medical costs, such as long-term care. Boyles calls them health IRAs and notes that those who have long-term care insurance can pay their premiums with money from a HSA.

Home equity. Retirees without significant investments may still own a valuable asset: their house. Tapping into home equity through a line of credit, taking out a reverse mortgage or selling a house outright are some of the ways people can use their property to pay for long-term care.

Pensions or Social Security. Depending on the size of your monthly payments and the amount of care you need, paying for services monthly out of a pension or Social Security benefit may be option.

Medicaid. When all other options have been exhausted and a person's income and assets have been depleted, the government will step in to pay for care. Medicaid won't pay for assisted living, but it will cover nursing home care and many states also pay for home health care services for eligible people. However, states are required by the federal government to recover the cost of long-term care from estates whenever possible. That means, for example, if a parent's home is sold after his or her death, the proceeds could go to the state instead of heirs.

Relying on family for long-term care is the one option most experts don't recommend. "It looks free, but there are huge, huge tolls," Troyani says. Caregiving can be physically and financially draining, and it may lead to resentment and broken relationships within a family.

Long-term care insurance is expensive, but it's not the only way to pay for elder care services. Weigh your options to find the right solution for your family, but don't wait too long. The earlier you start saving, the more secure you'll be later in life.
AUSTIN, Tex.The underlying theme connecting much of Donald Trumps message is that demographic, economic, and cultural change is erasing the America that his supporters remember and revere.

Usually implicitly, at other times more overtly, Trump posits a zero-sum world in which gains for minority groups threaten both the physical security and economic opportunity of native-born whites. Trumps core promise is that he will make America great again by combating the changes that his supporters believe are endangering themwhether by deporting millions of undocumented immigrants, imposing a pause on legal immigration, temporarily banning all Muslim immigrants, or standing up to black protests against the police.

Its a vision that has clearly energized many Republican votersas Trump demonstrated again with his convincing victories in Michigan and Mississippi on Tuesday. In the latest national ABC/Washington Post poll, Trump led Ted Cruz, his closest competitor, by about two-to-one among the nearly half of Republicans who believe that whites are losing out because of preferences for African Americans and Hispanics; he slightly trailed Cruz among those who dont.

Recommended: The Obama Doctrine

But it doesnt take much time in Texas to recognize that Trumps zero-sum equation is misguided, even inverted. For that matter, so is much of the dialogue from the Democratic presidential candidates that frames the goal of increasing opportunity for communities of color primarily as an imperative of social fairness.

In fact, as Texas demonstrates, equipping more families of color to reach the middle-class is neither a threat to whites nor primarily a moral obligation for them. Its become a matter of self-interest. Whether you cheer the trends or decry them, the inescapable reality is that kids of color represent a growing share of the nations future students, workers, and taxpayers. If more of them dont succeed, not only will their communities suffer, so will the overall society.

Story continues

Awareness of that risk is growing in Texaseven if the state isnt yet advancing a commensurate response. In its demographic transition, Texas is America on fast forward. Demographers project that kids of color will become a majority of Americas under-18 population later this decade; they already represent two-thirds of Texass young people. And while the minority share of the national public-school student body has just crossed the historic 50 percent marker, students of color already constitute over 70 percent of Texass public school students; Latinos alone represent 52 percent.

Yet from birth to adulthood, these young Hispanic and African American Texans face gaping opportunity gaps. About one-third of both black and Hispanic kids in Texas live in poverty, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundations encyclopedic Kids Count project. Thats triple the share for Texas whites. In every major Texas city, minority kids are vastly more likely than whites to attend schools where most of their classmates qualify as low-income. Fewer than one-in-five Texan African American and Hispanic students score as proficient in 8th grade reading on national testsless than half the level for whites. In a long-term study of the 8th grade class of 2004, only 13 percent of blacks or Hispanics, compared to 29 percent of whites, had obtained any post-secondary credential 11 years later.

Recommended: The Violent Undertones of a Trump Rally

None of these problems are unique to Texas. But the stakes in solving them are especially high herein ways that will become increasingly relevant to other states. The Rice University sociologist Steve Murdock, who directed the U.S. Census Bureau for George W. Bush, has projected that non-whites will provide all of the growth in the Texas work force through 2050. Latinos alone will contribute nearly three-fourths of the increase, while whites will plummet from about half of workers now to about one-fifth then.

If the state cant raise the educational achievement of its diverse workers, Murdock has written, the Texas labor force  will be less well-educated, work in lower-status occupations, and have lower incomes in 2050 than 2010. The states official higher education strategic plan last year similarly warned that without substantial minority post-secondary gains, the result will be a poorer and significantly less competitive state.

Over time, the nation faces the same equation. As in Texas, demographers forecast that workers of color will provide all of the national work-force growth in the coming decades. And as the demographer William Frey has projected, if college-completion rates dont rise for African Americans and Hispanics, the share of all adults with a college degree will start shrinking by 2020.

Such a decline, which is probably unprecedented in American history, would ultimately threaten the financially strained and culturally aggrieved white voters cheering Trumps insular message. If the workforce regresses in skills as it diversifies, the resulting decline in competitiveness and growth would hurt not only minorities but also the shrinking white majority.

Recommended: The Convention the GOP Doesn't Want

Likewise, even as the predominantly white baby boom moves into retirement, Social Security and Medicare will be strained if earningsand thus payroll tax obligationslag for the increasingly diverse younger workforce. As Ive written before, there is no financial security for the gray without economic opportunity for the brown.

In the clamorous campaign dialogue, America faces a bitter racial battle for influence and opportunity. In reality, as usual, Americans are more interdependent than their politics allowsas more leaders in even this most conservative of states are coming to recognize.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
London (AFP) - A 16-year-old Iraqi Yazidi girl kidnapped by the Islamic State group, Nihad was raped by jihadists and then forced to abandon her baby to flee in a 14-month ordeal that has left her struggling to cope.

Speaking in London after having escaped her captors, she appealed for help for those who remained trapped and for her Yazidi community, a minority which IS has targeted for massacres, enslavement and rape in northern Iraq.

"It's not a life. We are not living until the rest of our people are saved from Daesh," Nihad Bakarat Alawsi told AFP, using an Arabic name for IS.

The teenager was kidnapped with 28 members of her family in Sinjar in northern Iraq in August 2014 during a persecution campaign by IS jihadists, who consider the Yazidis heretical.

Two of her six sisters and two of her 12 brothers are still in the hands of the jihadists, she said in an emotional hour-long account of her trauma, nervously clasping her knees and shedding discrete tears.

Alawsi was speaking on the sidelines of a conference by the British charity Amar on the "urgent need" to address mental health issues amongst refugees and internally displaced people in the Middle East.

Baroness Emma Nicholson, the charity's chairman, spoke of the "great, great need of psycho-social help as well as physical help" for the displaced.

Thousands of Yazidis like Alawsi were killed or kidnapped by IS jihadists and many are still missing.

She said some of her family managed to escape when their two cars were stopped at a checkpoint as they tried to flee to the mountains for safety.

The jihadists took her and around 300 Yazidi families were taken to a school in Hassake in Syria, a town close to the Iraqi border.

"During the night, they separated the men from the rest of the families," she said, speaking in Arabic through an interpreter.

"They came and said: 'Either you become Muslims or we will assassinate the men'," she said.

Story continues

After being taken back to Iraq "they separated the girls" and took them to a gym in Mosul to "marry" them.

But they refused to submit and were beaten for two weeks.

Then a local emir -- or leader -- and his men arrived.

"They chose 21 girls. They put them in a room and the rapes started," she said.

- Her rapist's child -

She was "chosen" by Salam, a 25-year-old jihadist.

After raping her, he took her to his family home where he lived with his pregnant wife and their son, and the sexual violence continued.

"His wife wasn't very nice. She said I invaded her and her home," she said.

A month and a half later, Salam was killed in Syria.

Alawsi managed to escape but was captured again in Kirkuk and taken to IS-held Mosul.

She was handed over to an emir's brother -- a father of four daughters who also raped her.

He told her if she became Muslim he would take her back to her family.

She accepted and later found out she was pregnant, avoiding more rapes, and tried in vain to terminate her pregnancy.

She refused her abusers' proposal of marriage despite his insistence, and gave birth to a baby boy.

"I wanted him to have a Yazidi name but his father named him Essa. It means Jesus."

Three months after the birth she managed to call one of her brothers through her neighbour to arrange an escape.

"Without Essa" she said, tearfully. "I couldn't bring him to my family."

On October 15, 2015 a smuggler took her into Iraqi Kurdistan where she was reunited with members of her family in a refugee camp.

Despite the haunting memories, she is looking to the future: "I would like to finish an education. I want to study English and I want to get married and have a family."
LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambia is likely to produce 2.4 million tonnes of maize in the current 2015/2016 crop season, down from 2.6 million tonnes the previous season due to drought, its minister of agriculture said on Thursday. Given Lubinda said poor rainfall in some parts of the southern African nation at the start of the 2015/2016 season had led to poor crop. "This year we anticipate to produce slightly above 2.4 million tonnes of maize. This maize should be ready in about one and half months," Lubinda told a media briefing. Zambia had more than 590,000 tonnes of maize available for domestic consumption, which was sufficient to take the country until August, he said. Lubinda said grain traders were holding 227,245 tonnes of maize which they would be allowed to export because Zambia expected this years harvest in slightly over one month. "Traders will be allowed to export but they need to seek our authority before exporting the maize," Lubinda said. The government sold 750,368 tonnes of maize to selected millers at a subsidised price of about $170 per tonne to keep local maize meal prices affordable, he said. (Reporting by Chris Mfula; Editing by James Macharia)
Caribbean coverage

. CCIs Managing Director and CEO, Andre Goindoo, explained that there are a number of players in the insurance space and while CCI has a large regional footprint, with offices in 11 territories, many people were not aware of this primarily because we had different operating entities.

CCI has offices in Antigua, Barbados, Cura?ao, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts, St Lucia, St Vincent and TT.

The changes go far beyond bringing all of the companys operating businesses under one legal structure and one name, as Business Day learned during a sit down interview with Goindoo earlier this week at the companys TT head office on Gray Street, St Clair.

One of our objectives is to ensure that we are closer to the markets that we serve, so we can truly be responsive to their needs, passionate about the products and services that they require to make their lives better.

We are the number one group life insurer in TT. In that particular segment, we have more than 41 percent of the market. Because our products are all structured around the group, it makes them affordable. We distribute our products through the credit unions, credit unions are actually our primary policy owners. We are actually one of the few insurance companies that has that particular Caribbean footprint across so many jurisdictions, Goindoo said.

A big part of CCIs significant investment in re-branding concerned how we serve our policyholders. Thats why we re-vamped our website (www. cunacaribbean.com) to improve how we communicate with stakeholders and how clients/potential clients find out about our products and services.

I think the most innovative thing about our new website is that someone can use our calculator option to find what kind of FIP (Family Indemnity Plan) coverage they can get for say, $50 a month, $100 a month. The calculator was built to make everyone feel welcome because some people dont feel comfortable going into an insurance office or their credit union and asking, You have anything that I can afford at $50 or $100?.

CCIs FIP is a Final Expenses plan associated with funeral expenses which covers the policyholder and five of his/her family members; parents, spouse/significant other and children.

Keeping with its mandate of affordable insurance options, CCI has a broad scale of FIP plans, from the FIP Plan A which starts at just over $52 per month, to another FIP plan that costs more than $300 per month.

Our FIP business continues to do extremely well, Goindoo replied in answer to Business Days question about any slowdown in the number of persons seeking insurance since the start of TTs economic downturn last year.

Weve been able to achieve double-digit growth. Regarding the economy, I havent seen a decline. So the rate of growth continues, which suggests, in my view, that the product continues to meet a very significant need. The highest plan we have now is $65,000 per person.

A person getting that lump sum payment would obviously use a portion of it for funeral expenses but can also use another portion to ease the transition of no longer having that family member there, particularly if he/she was an income earner. We settle that particular claim in two working days (Monday to Friday) because we know how important it is; you cant have someone waiting a week or a month to get that cheque to cover funeral and other expenses.

Scheduled to be launched yesterday (March 9), CCIs new website also includes a special section for credit unions, the companys primary partners, through which they can access insurance forms and other relevant material needed to facilitate enrolment of their members in insurance policies.

The site also offer a separate mortgage cover calculator. Another new feature provides visitors with a detailed breakdown of the type of coverage they would get from each product/service.

Goindoo said this would allow persons to understand the benefits of our products right away and if they have more questions, use the link to our (affiliated) credit unions to get more information. So calling someone or visiting an office would be a second step, rather than their first point of contact about insurance with CCI.

He told Business Day the re-vamped website was part of a larger programme of giving customers more options for dealing with insurance matters at their convenience.

People tend to live on the web and we felt that a big part of the re-branding had to involve how people see us, how they interact with us, all in a very user-friendly way.

The companys new tag line is For All People because its products and services allow everyone to access financial security.

Anyone in the Caribbean can get insurance, from the guy with the humblest of means to the guy with the most extravagant of means. That is our mantra; we believe everyone should feel the comfort of financial security and we want to ensure that our products are those that anyone can access, Goindoo stated
Victor Hart appointed to international EITI Board

Hart told Business Day the appointment means that after serving the EITI in Trinidad and Tobago he now has the opportunity to serve the EITI worldwide by being on the international board. So a lot of the innovations that we have developed for Trinidad and Tobago, I could now put on the table for consideration at board level and if some of these innovations are adopted it could be spread across the EITI world of 51 countries and they could help some of those countries to implement the EITI more efficiently than they have been doing so far. So its really a great opportunity to promote what we call the TT brand of EITI implementation and put it on a world footing.

Hart will represent EITI Region Six, a newly created grouping including Norway, where the EITI is based, Albania, the UK and Germany. Other members are: Peru; Colombia; Guatemala; Honduras; Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago. Hart said the new position makes him the spokesperson for this wide range of countries. Therefore I have to get to know them very well and see how I could help them progress in the EITI implementation because every country that joins the EITI joins with the purpose of becoming a compliant country, which Trinidad and Tobago became in January last year.

Hart said this would entail a lot of work in terms of putting in checks and balances, sometimes legal and administrative requirements to bring greater transparency and accountability to the extractive sectors, meaning oil and gas and mining.

He said the EITI had become so well established that it was like a gold standard for natural resource revenue management, so much so that some countries without any oil or gas are implementing the EITI only in respect of forestry because it is a non-renewable resource just like oil and gas.

He said others are implementing it just for fisheries, which was a very interesting phenomenon since the EITI started as an oil and gas initiative, (but) now it has expanded to minerals like gold, diamonds, bauxite and now its getting into fisheries, forestry and so on. So Id like to say that the EITI is an idea whose time has come. It was launched in 2003 and took into membership 15 countries in 2007. So we are looking at only nine years of active EITI implementation. Its come a long way and you have got some really big countries now participating like Norway, which is a compliant country, USA, the UK and Germany, France is knocking on the door. In our region, Mexico and Guyana are knocking on the door to come in so its really an idea whose time has come and a lot of countries are saying that benefits do accrue to the country by membership of the EITI, not only to the Government but to the companies that do the extraction and more particularly to the people.

A statement announcing Harts appointment said the EITI standard promotes the making of recommendations leading to reforms and the strengthening of government systems. This allows the EITI to become an integral part of how governments manage the extractive sectors and how companies ensure accountability to their shareholders and host communities, the statement said. There will be greater disclosure of company payments broken down by projects/contracts, disclosure of the beneficial owners of companies, contract and license transparency and revenue payments from commodity trading. These changes are timely because of falling commodity prices and reduced revenues and the need to use EITI data to inform the debate on how expenditures must be adjusted, and how industry planned projects will be affected.

Hart stressed that the EITI is based on the premise that the natural resources of a country belong to the people and not to the Government who manages it or the companies which extract and monetise it..

He said the EITI reports contain so much detail which people never had access to. Hart said that future reports produced by the local EITI Secretariat will be broken down to show how much money the respective companies paid for the extraction in different areas and the residents of those areas could with confidence go to the Government or the company and say Look, we see from the EITI Report that you are generating a lot of income from our area, why are our roads not better and look how many billions you have generated from our area and look at our health centres or our schools. It is a really empowering initiative for the people through civil society.

He said while the reports are detailed and some people may find them intimidating, the TTEITI Secretariat uses colourful and simple infographics to try to break down the information to the level where even a lay person can understand.

The 18-member TTEITI steering committee has six Government representatives, six company people and representatives of 6 civil society groups including organisations like the Oilfield Workers Trade Union; Fishermen and Friends of the Sea and the Transparency Institute.

In addition, the TTEITI Administrator is hired through a tendering process and sends out a checklist to the extractive companies and the Government itemising the information he wants from them. And if the Government said it received $100 million from Company B for royalties, corporation tax, whatever and all the payments are broken down under 23 different headings, he then gets comparable figures from the Government, The Board of Inland Revenue, Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs and so on and he is able to compare the two. If there is a discrepancy - and there always is some - he would then investigate why there is a discrepancy and he reconciles the figures.

However, Hart says that the biggest of discrepancies have always turned out to revolve around the end of the fiscal year and when a payment is made and when it is deposited.

He said other issues have been the rate of exchange. With the rate fluctuating daily and many of the companies paying in US dollars, rate fluctuations could throw up a discrepancy which is explainable especially when the sums involved are in the billions of dollars. It means that its a major disincentive to corruption because if somebody knows that within a matter of months of the end of a fiscal year this audit is going to be done on an annual basis, hed think a couple times well before trying something. So far we have seen no signs of corruption in the reconciling of payments from the companies to the Government and the Government-declared receipts but in some other countries big, big differences have arisen that have led to police investigations, prosecutions, jail time and so on but thankfully we have not come across anything like that in Trinidad and Tobago to date and we have done three reports.

He said although it only recently attained country compliant status in the EITI, Trinidad and Tobagos experience in the field of energy gives it something special to share with other countries which are trying to achieve tighter accounting for their energy resources.
Protecting the peoples patrimony

He said the passion began during his days serving on the Piarco Commission of Enquiry into allegations of corruption in the construction of the airport terminal. He said he spent 16 months on the commission and it gave me an opportunity to look corruption in the eye and I didnt like what I saw and I vowed during the inquiry that after that was over I would spend the remainder of my life promoting anti-corruption activities, transparency, accountability and that is why I got involved with the Joint Consultative Council of the Construction Industry (JCC) and the Procurement Bill and the Public Sector Procurement Reform and thats why I got into EITI.

Reflecting on his previous service as Chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago Transparency Institute; Chairman of the Quantity Surveyors Society; and one of the founders of the JCC, Hart said his work on the TTEITI has been the most exciting and the most satisfying because youre really talking about peoples livelihoods, the country, the peoples patrimony. The money that is going to pay for the education of our children; agriculture; infrastructure and so on. So this has given me the greatest satisfaction and I think I will go to my grave smiling.

Hart, a quantity surveyor and project manager, retired at 55 at the height of his career because, he said, while he was successful and a partner in firm Hart & Leonard, he did not feel the deep-seated satisfaction that he was really doing anything useful. After spending four years in Grenada without finding an answer to that longing, he received a telephone call from then attorney general, Glenda Morean, inviting him to sit on the Piarco Commission of Enquiry. He was initially asked to give three months of national service but the commission lasted 16 months.

After the completion of the enquiry Hart joined the TT Transparency Institute in 2005, seeing that as a vehicle to support his desire to battle corruption. Within one year he was on the board of the institute and was then promoted to Chairman, a position he held for three years. It was during that period that he learnt about EITI, which is part promoted by Transparency International.

The TTEITI Secretariat was launched in December 2010. In February, Trinidad and Tobago applied for membership in the EITI and in March the country was accepted as members at the EITI meeting in Paris. Hart said it was a record for admission to membership.

Hart, who is now preparing to commute globally, said he will shortly give up his chairmanship of the Trinidad and Tobago Steering Committee acknowledging that to hold onto it with the workload at international level will be too demanding.
Domestic violence deserves more than a token glance

These numbers clearly demonstrate that both men and women are vulnerable to violence in domestic situations. However, it remained a greater risk for women for the same period.

The reasons why people are violated and yet stay in abusive situations can be complex. In some cases there might be financial dependence or considerations for children, though this is not always the case. Many professional, wellremunerated women continue to secretly live in fear of abusive partners, simply lacking the courage and willpower to leave.

Domestic violence has far-reaching societal consequences. Research has shown that children in abusive situations, or those who have witnessed it, all too often grow up to become abusers themselves, or seek partners who are abusive. Abusers may follow their partners into workplaces, causing embarrassment and disruption. Men who are abused may be mocked or humiliated by friends, colleagues and family. The abused in turn very frequently find it difficult to concentrate on school, work and other productive endeavours, often leading to loss of earnings or of career-advancing opportunities.

Communities can play a valuable role if neighbours and family were to look out for one another. The use of social media as an intervention strategy has been interesting in this context, because while it has served to highlight a number of cases that might otherwise have remained hidden, it has also created scenarios with the potential to expose the victim to further trauma, should the matter become the subject of national gossip. With this in mind, the exposure needs to be approached with sensitivity.

We also need to further strengthen our laws to protect victims. For example, can the police proceed to prosecute if there is sufficient evidence and the victim is unwilling to press charges? Abusers may be anyone - our colleague at work or a friend with whom we socialise. They may be people who are hardworking, personable, thoughtful, religious  until they retreat behind closed doors and give vent to rage. Do they want to be abusers? Quite often they do not; and just like the victim, they may suffer from shame, regret and helplessness. Could some intervention at an early stage be directed towards the abuser as well the abused, and be geared towards reform, while ensuring that the victim is protected? Campaigns targeting the abuser who consciously wishes to seek help might be worth exploring.

There is no easy solution to the problem of domestic violence, and it is unlikely that it can be eliminated completely from society. However, it is not impossible to build a healthier society and provide care and support for the abused, the abuser, and others who may have been affected by their actions.

The Childrens Authority must be congratulated for taking the initiative in some recent cases, and for their sensitive handling of issues. But we need more than the Authority if we are to deal with the bruised underbelly of our society that is being increasingly exposed from within the deep pool of crime in Trinidad and Tobago.
Young goat thief bonded

Yesterday, Williams who was in the caged dock of the First Police court before Deputy Magistrate Mark Wellington, pleaded guilty to the charge that on February, 28, he stole the goat while it was grazing at a pasture in Diamond Village on the outskirts of San Fernando.

The court police prosecutor, Police Constable Cleyon Seedan, told Wellington that it was at about 8.30 am when Boodram tied the goat to graze in the pasture.

He returned at about 1.30 pm that same day, but it was missing.

PC Franklin Blackwell of the San Fernando CID investigated the matter and arrested Williams.

The prosecutor said when asked why he stole the animal, a male, the colour of which was black and white and which was valued at $2,500, Williams replied, Boss, ah really take the goat and carry it to get it sell.

Then, I hear police looking for me, so I went and give back the man the goat. The magistrate ordered him to sign a bond of $5,000 for one year to keep the peace and be of good behaviour.
Lost in the woods

Sometimes they are found before the hiking group leaves the forest and the general public hears nothing of it. When we do hear about them, as was the case these past few days in TT, they had been lost for days and were only found because a search party had been combing the woods, day and night, looking for them.

Even while efforts continued here to find local hiker Kevin Arthur, in the Mendocino County of California, USA, officials were searching for a 46-year-old man who went missing after setting off on March 5 for a hike with his friend. Every year in practically every country where hiking takes place, some hikers get lost. Many peoples who venture into the wilderness (especially those for whom such activity is something unfamiliar) tend to overlook the fact that the wilderness is a very challenging environment. Some also overestimate their own ability and take unnecessary risks.

Often those who end up lost usually arrived at that state because they failed to heed one important piece of advice  stay on the marked trail. No matter how experienced a hiker you are, venturing off the marked trail or leaving the rest of the group to follow your own path can lead to disaster. Trails are routes that have been laid out and travelled by many who have gone before and found such a route to be the safest or best way to make your way through the forest or to a particular natural formation.

In 2013 two teenagers were lost while hiking in the forests of California, USA. Their safe recovery received both national and international coverage with televised footage of the rescue of the two teens.

In commenting on the incident for the Daily Mail, then president of the Angeles chapter of the Sierra Club in California, Ron Silverman, warned of going off the marked trail seeking adventure.

This adventurous feeling, he says, can lead to trouble when out in the woods, especially if you are miles away from civilisation.

Silverman added, If you want adventure, ride a roller coaster. Be outside to enjoy the beauty of nature. In Arthurs case it was his reported trepidation at having to cross a river that led him to follow a path different from the rest of the group.

In 2010, Paul Dudchenko, a psychologist at the University of Sterling published a book entitled Why People Get Lost: the Psychology and Neuroscience of Spatial Cognition.

Dudchenko and others had conducted research that aimed at understanding and explaining brain and mental functions in people who get lost, whether in the woods, at a mall or in their neighbourhood.

He wrote about a,mental compass or sense of direction that humans have.

It is this compass that becomes skewed when we are lost.

In an article published by the United Academics magazine, Dudchenko stated that this mental compass is usually very good because we walk around familiar landmarks by which we can orient ourselves, but if we are some place where there is no ability to correct it, our compass starts to drift. A place like the dense forests of mountain ranges is one environment where we can lose this ability to identify landmarks that can help us orient ourselves in relation to our surroundings.

Experts have noted that people who become lost generally go through several phases of behavioural change, eventually reaching a point of sheer panic, exhibiting many of the symptoms associated with anxiety disorder or a panic attack  increased heart rate, nausea and an overall feeling of doom.

Most, however, settle themselves and try to develop some plan to help them find their way back to safety or familiar territory.

However, survival experts say that when lost the best thing to do is  stay put and wait for rescue.

By doing so you save energy and make it easier for rescuers to find you
Cumaca Cave tragedy revisited

On March 22, 1964, I was concerned with the cave dive made by the Trinidad branch of the British Sub Aqua Club which resulted in the sad death of two young members of the club. I have a scrapbook of newspaper cuttings and other documentation about this event and have often wondered whether the brass plaque which I erected at the cave was still in place. My occasional emails to hiking groups inquiring whether the plaque was still in place were only once responded to.

On March 28, 2014, my wife found a reference in the Newsday newspaper on line to The Cumaca Cave tragedy of 1964 and drew my attention to it. I was most interested to find a full account of the event from the point of view of a non-diver and I made contact with the author - Hans Boos of the Trinidad and Tobago Field Naturalists Club (TT FNC). He directed me to the website, where I was able to locate his article Retrospective on Cumaca Cave which he published in March 2011. Clearly this was the foundation for the Newsday article and it is accompanied by a few rather blurred black and white photographs, which evoke strong memories, especially as the first picture includes my car, a Sunbeam-Talbot 90 Mk.III! Hans Boos was kind enough to suggest that I should write more about this sad event, but to do so in detail or to reproduce the official report which I made to the British Sub Aqua club would really add little to the facts which were explained so well. Perhaps my own reactions to the events as they unfolded may be of interest.

Diving challenge While it is true that the Sub Aqua club had been diving on the Spanish galleons at Gasparee (and I had found a cask of Stockholm tar which must have sunk before it burnt) there was no question of diving in the confined space of a wreck  something which I have always been disinclined to attempt. So the attempt to dive in the Cumaca cave was something new for the club and presented a challenge we thought we could deal with.

We hoped that we should find a further, unexplored, open cave through which this underground river ran.

We had heard that a Royal Navy team had dived there some years before, although this was never substantiated, and so we planned our expedition carefully.

We anticipated that divers passing through this narrow channel would stir up silt and make visibility difficult and felt that to drag a rope behind the divers would exacerbate the disturbance.

We therefore decided that the divers should pay out a line as they went down so the line would lie on the floor of the cave. This had the disadvantage in that as the line would not be held taut between diver and handler on the surface, it could not be used for exchanging signals.

But we did not expect that this would be a problem.

Cave obstacles The line that was used was provided by Adam Richards and I remember examining it with him. It was a reel of half-inch nylon tape and I still have a sample which was tested to a bursting strain of 550 pounds. What I did not know was that there was a joint in the tape, which was not in fact a measuring tape but had been intended to be used for making wristwatch straps, and this joint was merely strong enough to allow the tape to pass through the machine making the straps so that when stress was put on it, it gave way.

We devised a reel which the divers would carry between them and the tape would pay off as they went down, letting the reel rotate, so there should be a minimum disturbance to the silt. In the event, we found the track from where we had parked our cars to the cave to be quite a task, burdened as we were with aqualung cylinders, weight belts and so on, but we succeeded in reaching the mouth of the cave and then we had to find our way through a quarter mile of cave, through which the river flowed, with Guacharo birds and bats flying overhead in the cave, and cockroaches and droppings all over the floor, which was far from even, so that we stumbled our way through to where the roof came down to within about six inches of the water surface.

We had not expected to find this obstacle, but found that by ducking under the obstruction, we could emerge into a final chamber which was full of air but had a pool at its end from which the river flowed. This was where our dive took place. We had the usual setup of surface cover, in this case a diver standing over the pool and holding the tape, as well as a standby diver suited up and ready to put on his aqualung and go to the divers assistance in case of need.

I was the surface cover holding the tape.

End of the line I have a clear visual memory of Victor Abraham shortly before he dived, holding a plastic bag in which he had caught a couple of the blind fish which lived in this river. I did not know that he was a member of the Field Naturalists Club, about which I knew very little, but it seems likely that he intended to take them home and try to keep them in an aquarium. But both he and Adam Richards put on their gear, took the reel between them and went down in the water.

Everything seemed to be going as planned but of course there was no communication between the divers and the surface. We were not even seeing bubbles from their aqualung exhaust, and no doubt these were accumulating under the roof of the underground river.

We had planned on a half hour dive, at the most, with sufficient air in the divers tanks for this and a safety margin. We all stood there watching the pool waiting to see them come back up, but time went by and after 20 minutes I was starting to feel some concern that they were staying so long. I thought I would see if I could feel any movement on the line so I pulled gently on it. There was some resistance but the line started to come to me and I remember turning to the others and saying, they must be coming up! and I continued to pull the line gently towards me, thinking that I was taking up the slack.

I was absolutely horrified when instead of the divers, the end of the line appeared with just a piece of white adhesive tape stuck on the end. Clearly it had come apart and we were seeing no sign of the divers.

I immediately told the standby diver to go down and see if he could find them and he did, using a rope which we held and which was securely tied to his equipment.

By this time the turbidity of the water had increased with the movement of the divers going down and the standby diver going down, and after a quite a short time the standby diver came up and told us that he could see nothing down there. I immediately took over, put on the aqualung, weight belt, mask and with a rope tied to my equipment and handheld on the surface I went down.

No alternative We had equipped ourselves with underwater flashlights, which worked reasonably well. But the silt had been disturbed to such an extent that it was like swimming in milk; the flashlight illuminated a cloud of water and it wasnt until you came up against an obstacle that, when it was quite close, you could see what it was.

I have another strong visual recollection of a tooth of rock emerging through the milky haze and of trying to swim around it, but encountering it whichever way I turned. Then I found that I was being held back and could go no further, so that I was left with no alternative but to return to the surface.

It seemed that I had reached the end of the rope which we had, and of course the people on the surface were not prepared to let me go.

It was now clear that our divers were about to run out of air and we had no further air supply with us, so two of our members set off in search of further aqualungs from our cars. There was nothing further that we could do at that time, except perhaps search the mountain above the cave to see whether there was any opening which might disclose a pool into which the divers could have surfaced, and some of our members did this.

Blur of horror The rest of that day is a blur of horror at what had happened and at the need to go into the cave and bring out the bodies. As Hans Boos says, only one could be recovered, that of Victor Abraham. We had then to set about the sad things which one must do after a death.

We attended the inquest, we called on the families of the two boys to express our condolences and share their grief. We had a plaque made and I found a place on the rock flat enough to accept it, and secured it in place with square copper nails hammered into holes drilled in the rock. Adam Richards father, a consulting engineer, wrote to me at length to explain just what must have happened, showing me how the bubbles from the aqualung exhaust collecting in the roof of the tunnel displaced the water and took away support from the mountain which fell in on them.

It was only in reading Hans Boos account that I realised that it was he who made the connection with Malcolm Browne, the professional diver who brought out Victors body. I had thought that our members who went out to the police station had made the contact, but we shall always be grateful that he was able to bring in Malcolm Browne, who we knew of as a competent professional diver.

Two days later, back at work I sat in my office, tried to work but found it impossible to concentrate.

The loss of these two strong, active young men was something I could not accept. I lived with the memory, which brings back the events of that day, for many years and even today, 50 years later, the reactions are perhaps muted, but the story arouses the same feelings.

I did not stop diving and I later lost another friend, who drowned in Staubles Bay while diving on a mooring. But I would never again dive in a confined space, not even in a shipwreck. Even though a shipwreck can be one of the most fascinating things to dive on, it can also be full of dangers not all of which can be anticipated.

Todays feature was originally published in our Quarterly Bulletin (1) of 2014. For more info on our natural environment, contact the Trinidad and Tobago Field Naturalists Club at admin@ttfnc.org or visit www.ttfnc.org and our Facebook or YouTube pages. The clubs next monthly meeting will be today at St Marys College, Port-of-Spain.

Lecture: Amphibians of the Aripo Savanna by Renoir Auguste.
Paria Bay and Waterfall a must-see

Apart from its magnificent seascape, Paria has a number of other attractions to fascinate the nature lover. The beach with its silky smooth sand is 1.5 km long, and every year from February to July the leatherback turtles come ashore nightly to nest.

The crashing waves of the Caribbean Sea are quite inviting. On the eastern end of the beach, a lovely spot to bathe and relax is at the rivers mouth where the soothing waters are as calm as a lagoon. The riverbed accumulates sand by the backlash of seawater and during high tide it contains a variety of small marine fish. The vegetation consists primarily of red mangrove and an abundance of coconut trees.

At the western end of the bay, the sea eroded the landscape to create a spectacular arch called Cathedral Rock.

The rocks surrounding the bay provide suitable areas to relax and fish.

A 15-minute walk alongside the river will lead to one of the countrys most spectacular waterfalls  Paria Waterfall  with its fresh, clean water coming from remote areas of the Northern Range and a large plunge pool for bathing and swimming.

The adventurous can climb on the rocks and jump ten feet into deep areas of the pool.

One can even test their skills by swimming against the current to reach behind the cascade, where there is an overhang. Some noticeable vegetation growing alongside the river bank are the Maraval Lily (spathiphyllum cannifolium), Cannonball (couroupita guianensis) and Chaconia (warszewiczia coccinea).

The coastal walk from the Blanchisseuse Spring Bridge to Paria Beach one way will take one hour and thirty minutes to two hours. The trail is wide and clear and has moderate inclines. Along the way, an attractive spot to take pictures is Turtle Rock, where there are beautiful sceneries of the coast.

On March 13 Island Hikers will visit Paria Bay and Waterfall.

Assembly: 7 am at the entrance to Central Bank Auditorium or 7.30 am opposite Sams Bar, Maracas Bay.

Rating 4-5  moderately challenging Depart beach by 2pm (return by 4pm) Bring a hat for shade, light refreshments and a litre of drinking water.

This hike is recommended for children ages seven and up.

Registration on the morning of the hike.

Security for parked vehicles at Laguna Mar Hotel.

Maxi Taxi Transportation provided from Central Bank Auditorium.

Only if needed, call to book on Saturday before the hike.

For more info: visit www.islandhikers.com
Haunted by deadly mauling

She keeps telling us that whenever she closes her eyes, she keeps seeing this vision of her babys head inside that dogs mouth...his teeth digging into his tiny head, cried a female relative of Bissoon.

The woman insisted that the dog be put to sleep. At the time Newsday visited the family home at Jameel Street in Charlieville, Bissoon, 23, and her husband Shayas Khan, 30 were at the Forensic Science Centre in St James.

The autopsy was rescheduled for today. According to police reports at about 3.30 pm on Tuesday, Bissoon was cleaning the yard cleaning while baby Maleek lay in a pram. A short distance away, the Rottweiler was tied to a chain. People are saying the mother left the baby unattended, but that is not true. Everywhere she (Bissoon) goes, she carried her son with her. She never left him alone, the relative said.

The woman told Newsday that Bissoon turned her head for one second when she heard baby Maleek cry out. She told me that when she turned around she saw her babys head in the dogs mouth. That dog was biting him as if Maleek was a piece of meat.

The pram was turned over on the ground, the woman said.

She did not care about herself, all she wanted to do was save her baby. She tried to pull the baby away from the dog, but the animal just would not let go of Maleek. The woman said that when Bissoon reached for a cutlass and began chopping the dog, it attacked her and bit her on the leg, feet and knee.

Using a piece of brick, neighbours hit the dog repeatedly on its head until it released the motionless child and staggered off. The baby was covered in blood and white stuff was oozing from the bite holes that covered his head, the relative sad.

She is four months pregnant and in so much pain. Her baby was killed by that dog. Why is this dog still alive? Why did the police not kill that animal on the spot? Why? That dog is a killer and should not live to harm someone else again, the female relative cried. The dog had been with the family for nearly a year. This is not a normal dog. It is a killer, the woman insisted.

Baby Maleek would have turned seven months on Saturday, Newsday was told. Up to late yesterday arrangements were being made to have the dog removed from the familys home. Chaguanas Police officers are continuing investigations.

Meanwhile, the TT Police Service is advising dog owners to take all precautionary measures to secure their dogs.

Speaking at yesterdays weekly press briefing at the Police Administration Building in Edward Street, Port-of-Spain, Public Information Officer ASP Michael Pierre said parents must know the temperament of their pet dogs and consider getting training for the animal. For those who cannot afford training, get a poodle, get a pup... dont get a ferocious dog, he advised
$32B overdraft by PP

The concerns were raised by Independent Senator Dr Dhanayshar Mahabir and Trade and Industry Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon during a public meeting between members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and officials from the Auditor Generals Office on the public accounts for the financial year 2014.

Mahabir expressed concern that during this period, the Exchequer Account was overdrawn by some $32 billion. He told officials of the Auditor Generals Office, what I would like to know is this, is this overdrawn amount included in the public debt of TT? The senator asked which State agency, authorised this overdraft, which is about half the national budget, and, what law was imperiled by this huge significant overdraft? Responding to Mahabir, Assistant Auditor General Gaitrie Maharaj said, The Exchequer Account is not shown in the statement of public debt but it is shown at the consolidated statement of assets and liabilities in the Treasury statements which gives the financial assets and liabilities. As to whether any laws were breached, Maharaj replied, As far as we know, no law was violated. On which agency authorised this overdraft, Maharaj advised Mahabir, You may want to address that question to the Ministry of Finance. The Auditor General Office officials told PAC members that the Exchequer Account can go into overdraft and there is no limit to such an overdraft under the Exchequer and Audit Act.

Mahabir was also advised by Maharaj to consult with the Finance Ministry on whether the Ministry was, required to replenish the amount that was overdrawn by some $32 billion. Maharaj confirmed to Mahabir that this account is administered by the Central Bank. PAC chairman, Caroni Central MP Dr Bhoe Tewarie observed, From my information, the Central Bank does have limits which you can overdraw. Gopee-Scoon told the Auditor General officials she was concerned about the absence of a contract totalling $51 million for construction of the National Oncology Centre in Mt Hope; contracts to support expenditure of $2 million on the refurbishment of Queens Hall; contracts amounting to payments of $5 million in the Tourism Ministry; $2.37 million for the Police Service; no documents to support a payment of $5 million pertaining to COSTAATs campus in Chaguanas and no documents to verify payment of $17 million for projects under the now defunct Environment and Water Resources Ministry.

What are we doing about that? Its just seems to be a consistent and pervasive issue now, Gopee-Scoon remarked.

In response, Maharaj said it was difficult to impute error or fraud in the cases mentioned, but agreed with Gopee- Scoon that, it does deserve some further investigation by the persons responsible. Maharaj said the Auditor Generals Office has been raising this issue with relevant government ministries, year after year. She added all the Auditor Generals Office could do was, encourage ministries to perform monitoring role over the projects. So we would like to see some evidence that they have been looking at the projects that are being done and ensure they are being done to standard and quality and time and all of that. Gopee-Scoon acknowledged Maharajs comments but reiterated that this state of affairs was alarming. The Minister observed, It just seems to be an string running through the document. Auditor General Majeed Ali told PAC members, It is of grave concern that as of December 31, 2015, 51 entities have not submitted their financial statements for a total of 181 years.
I only deal in guns

The trial of the 17-year-old student of a secondary school located in San Fernando, began before Magistrate Margaret Alert in the San Fernando Magistrates court, on a charge of assault by using threatening language to the guard.

Maintenance Training Security (MTS) officer Jennifer Williams, began her testimony yesterday, as the Form Five student, who has pleaded not guilty, sat on the defendants bench in his school uniform. His father was seated on the bench behind and listened to the proceedings in which Williams gave an account about the threat the student allegedly made.

Williams testified that it was at about 8.30 am on January 1, 2015, when she was searching the bags of students at the entrance gate to the school. Students were in a line, walking into the compound. Students were going in and coming out, Williams said. And I was the one searching bags. Williams added that when she was about to search the defendants schoolbag, he said that he dont carry knives or cutlass, but only deals in gun.

Williams, an estate constable who is precepted, said that she walked toward the student and told him that if he has a gun, he could, shoot me one time. The officer went on to tell the magistratre that the student then told her that, he has a gun and that he would deal with her. Court prosecutor Sgt Krishna Beedasie, who is prosecuting the case, asked several questions of the officer, who was afterwards cross-examined by attorney Martin Jadoonanan, who is defending the student.

Beedasie called the next witness, MTS security guard Keshia Drayton, who testified that when she confronted the student about what he had allegedly told Williams, he replied, I did not tell her that. He then proceeded to his class. Drayton said that two police officers arrived at the school and together with the students and a safety officer, they proceeded to the office of the schools vice principal who, at the time, was acting for the principal.

Drayton said that the student was then taken to the Mon Repos Police Station, where she laid the charge against him. Magistrate Alert pointed out after Drayton gave evidence, that she would like to hear legal submissions from both Beedasie and Jadoonanan, on how the court should treat with that aspect of Williams evidence, in which the court must be satisfied that it was tantamount to the guard being put in fear, by the utterances of the student.

The magistrate pointed out that Williams did not quote the exact words of the student, but gave it in reported speech. The charge of assault by using threatening language, cannot be proven unless the person to whom the words are directed to, feels fearful for his/her life. The exact words used by the person making the threat, is to be measured by the court in order to determine the impact it had on the person to whom the threat was allegedly made. Alert requested legal authoritiies to support the submissions, and adjourned the case to May, 13.
US expert: Beware social media pitfalls

Hayes offered a host of measures which he said employers should use to check up on their staff, including setting up fake profiles online to secretly befriend employees so as to spy on them. To do this, he gave a list of websites that let an employer create a fake profile and then mask their real IP address and their identity.

Devices exist to track the physical movements of employees, he said, including a US$10 pen he displayed that secretly takes photos and makes sound recordings.

Hayes named websites that are able to analyse an employees Twitter activity, such as to see what are the most common words used in his tweets and what was his emotional state at a given time. In the United States its the Wild West with regards to privacy, he said, saying online access exists to a persons banking info, speeding tickets and marriage/divorce status.

Hayes noted that details on employees can be gleaned from named dating sites, he said, while noting some had been comprised, famously including one for cheating spouses. He cited some benefits of using these means to collect human intelligence (humint) on their staff, such as the risk management of good employees who might turn bad due to, for example a gambling addiction and who might sell out company secrets for an estimated $10,000.

However Hayes urged listeners to not use social media sites and particularly not to post their childrens photos online, the latter presumably for safety reasons.

He said the Internet can be used genuinely to find out who a given person is linked to, but also warned that several apps are actually secretly connected to agencies of the United States government, to Russian organised crime and/or to Chinese shell/ bogus companies. Hayes urged that TT nationals be trained in cyber security, rather than having to import costly foreign experts periodically.
Union boss tells PM, treat all fairly

He explained that each individual is owed between $25,000 to $31,000 which is outstanding monies for the reimbursement that they are supposed to get for the monies they had paid for their residential leases. It is illogical in law for a man to pay for his own severance, he noted. Maharaj, who is an attorney-at-law, made the statements during a press conference held at the unions office at Rienzi Complex in Couva, where he emphasised that the 116 ex-Caroni workers fall under the ambit of the Sugar Welfare Committee.

 Thousands were already repaid to ex- Caroni workers. We were informed under the previous administration that monies were allocated to pay these workers.

We were assured that before the next general election (the last general election) that monies will be paid. Unfortunately under the Peoples Partnership government, the UNC failed the workers miserably, Maharaj charged.

He bashed the former government which was led by Kamla Persad-Bissessar, now Opposition Leader, saying that based on information received it is alleged that the allocated monies were actually spent out.

Persad-Bissessar has publicly pledged her support to former workers of the now defunct Caroni (1975) Limited. Only on Saturday last at a meeting in Barrackpore, the Opposition Leader vowed that if she has to put on her court clothes she will do it, to represent the workers.

However yesterday Maharaj described her gesture as shameless, obscene and vulgar and accused Persad-Bissessar and UNC MPs of turning their backs on the ex-Caroni workers and cane farmers.

The UNC failed these people as they would have failed thousands of ex Caroni workers and cane farmers. I am calling on the PNM to do what the UNC did not do, and not only give out leases and land, but deal with infrastructural development and surveys of the lands. Please be fair and pay these people, Maharaj explained. He further accused the Opposition Leader of jumping on a bandwagon again for mere political expediency.
TT looking for 2 Appeal justices

The JLSC has invited applications from people between the ages of 45 and 60 years. They must be suitably qualified nationals of the Commonwealth who are either sitting judges of the High Court with three years experience or people who have been admitted to practise as attorneys and who have 15 years standing.
UWI sets up regional Zika task force

Deputy principal of the UWI Cave Hill campus and medical researcher, Professor Clive Landis, told a two-day symposium in Bridgetown, Barbados, on March 4 and 5, that the task force will hammer out new ways to harmonise the Caribbeans response to Zika and other public health emergencies.

A release from the office of the UWI vice chancellor quoted Landis as saying that one of the task forces immediate scope of works is to establish a laboratory for molecular testing of the virus at the UWI and other related activities.

The Zika virus is carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito which also carries the virus for the dengue and Chikungunya diseases.

Landis said the task force will assist Caribbean nations to coalesce their separate national health emergency response plans into a more collaborative, regional, interdisciplinary and sustained approach.

It was intended, he said, that the task force will consider the Zika disease not in isolation but as one of several present and future high-level health threats confronting the region. It was noted that a Chikungunya outbreak swept through the Caribbean in 2014, and the 2009 variant of the H1N1 virus, known as swine flu, was now endemic in the region.

The members of the task force were among 70 delegates who met at the symposium organised by the UWI vice-chancellor.

Among those attending were government ministers, regional academics and researchers from various disciplines, high-level public sector officials, leading healthcare professionals, and regional intergovernmental agency representatives. The task force was appointed by UWI Vice-Chancellor Sir Hilary Beckles to harness the universitys extensive knowledge base and multidisciplinary research capacity as powerful tools in the fight against the growing threat, on February 10, days after the World Health Organisation declared Zika a public health emergency of international significance. The creation of the task force, he said, was a step towards improved information- sharing among countries, which could play a major role in reducing duplicated efforts and misallocated resources.

The task force members are economist Professor Winston Moore, medical researcher Professor Surujpal Teelucksingh, infectious disease epidemiologist Angela Mc Rose, environmental health researcher Professor Dave Chadee, medical researcher Professor John Lindo, infectious disease pediatrician Celia Christie-Samuels, social policy analyst Dr Glenford Howe, Head of the UWI Open Campus, St Lucia, Dr Veronica Simon; UWI Pro Vice-Chancellor for Graduate Studies and Research Professor Dale Webber, a virologist at Erasmus Medical Centre, Holland, Eric van Gorp, and UWI Director of Marketing and Communications Dr Dawn-Marie De Four Gill.
Corruption must be tackled globally

In an address on Tuesday at the Transparency International anti- corruption conference at the Trinidad Hilton in St Anns, High Commissioner Stew said, he does not subscribe to the view that nothing could be done to end corruption.

Apart from legislation, enforcement and preventive measures to tackle corruption, he said there is need to strengthen institutions like Transparency International through legislation, adopt a zero tolerance approach to corruption, and empower citizens to change the culture of complacency and acceptance of corruption as the norm.

He noted also the need to act on a range of specific issues, such as transparency of beneficial ownership, tackling enablers of corruption, strengthening the key sectors, and strengthening the reporting mechanism.

Also needed, he said, was improving law enforcement cooperation, ending impunity for the corrupt, improving asset recovery, and empowering those affected by corruption, the use new technologies in fighting corruption, and strengthening international systems. Describing corruption as one of the greatest enemies of progress at present, he said. It is a cancer at the heart of many of the worlds problems, not just Trinidad and Tobago.

So we cannot afford to sidestep it, or make excuses for it. We need to step on it, and tackle it. Britain sees the need, he said, for an integrated and comprehensive approach to tackling corruption, and as such the British Government, will host in May, a global anti-corruption summit in London. The summit, he said, will bring together a coalition of leaders of international institutions, and leaders of countries willing to confront the issue.

We do need strong leadership and concerted action across the international community to realise this commitment, and meet the demands of the billions whose lives are blighted by the cancer of corruption, he said. Stew was delighted, he said, that Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has accepted Britains Prime Minister, Dave Camerons invitation to attend. He welcomed Rowleys words that it was not business as usual anymore, in the fight against corruption.

The summit intends to, he said, Put the world to work together to strengthen the tools we have to challenge corruption. This includes, he said, to put measures in place to fight corruption at the heart of international institution, support investigators and prosecutors to bring perpetrators to justice, reduce illicit financial flows, and strengthen the recovery, and return of stolen assets.

It also include making the rules and practices that govern global commerce even more resilient to threats from corruption, and giving more support to businesses, civil society, and the media, he said
Dillon calls in security heads  vague answers to union leaders

But Prison Commissioner Sterling Stewart gave a public assurance to prison officers that the Ministry was, working assiduously, toward treating with prison officers safety as he encouraged officers to continue to work in a professional manner. This comes after prison officer Fitzalbert Victor Jr was gunned down several days ago outside his Laventille home.

It was a lengthy meeting, but by and large I am not pleased. I am not pleased at all, said Richards as he stood outside the office of the Ministry of National Security in Portof- Spain. I really thought I was going to hear whether time frames were allotted to the demands we made and whether or not these demands will be in fact in effect. I dont know what to tell my officers who reside in high risk areas as to when they would be treated with.

I thought that this meeting would have treated with that, Richards said.

From as early as 10 am yesterday, senior members of the associations of the Prison, Police and Fire Services were called in for a meeting by Minister Dillon. Also attending the meeting was Acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams at the ministry office on Henry Street. Newsday understands that they were gathered to discuss a number of security initiatives. With regard to the police service, president of the Police Social Welfare Association Anand Ramesar said government has indicated its willingness to look at the issue of absorption of SRPs into the police service. He added that ministry officials told him they did not have any money to pay backpay but will raise funds and begin payments in June.

However, Ramesar expressed concern with the vague responses being given to the PSWAs concerns.

He added that he would hold the ministry to their promise that back payments will be made in June. Ramesar added that his association raised the issue of protection for off-duty police officers, but ministry officials were vague in their responses. Fire Service Association President Leo Ramkissoon said his association brought similar security concerns to the table.

We have one particular example which happened last week, where officers were returning from a fire call in the Point Fortin area. A private vehicle blocked the appliance and the occupants of that vehicle attempted to accost fire officers in the appliance. The officers had to take evasive action.

Given the nature of criminal elements in this country, some members of the public view fire officers as just another arm of the protective services...which we are and they would see us as targets in the same light as police officers and prison officers, Ramkissoon said.

Concerns raised by the Fire Association was met with no concrete response in terms of dealing with these concerns. Efforts to reach Minister Dillon for a comment on the meeting proved futile.
AG: PCA Act engaging my attention

Weve drafted amendments already which will give certain prosecutorial powers and investigative powers to the PCA.

It will be for Trinidad and Tobago to encourage the Opposition to vote for it, because that languished on the last governments desk for five years, but we are adamant that if you want to have a check and balance with the Police Service, you have to have a properly functioning PCA, as happens in Jamaica for instance. This would form part of Al-Rawis legislative agenda, which he said was about to be put into the public domain. He then urged the Opposition members of Parliament to emulate the example set by the Peoples National Movement (PNM) while it was in Opposition during the last five years. Step up to the plate, and do as we did, when we were in Opposition; we supported 97 percent nearly of the Governments work in Parliament. I wait on the Leader of the Opposition (Kamla Persad-Bissessar SC) to match that pace which the last Opposition did. We did that in circumstances where Independents, for instance, did not support the Governments position, where it was a Kamla Persad-Bissessar government supported by a (Dr) Keith Rowley Opposition, passing laws together.

So I make that call again for a responsible Opposition approach to the laws for the benefit of TTs citizens.

The PCA is just one of them.
Camille ponders $103M to ex-cane farmers

We want we money now! they chanted.

Speaking with reporters, Caroni Central MP Dr Bhoe Tewarie said the question of the Governments agreement with the workers fell to the Ministry of Planning, the portfolio he previously occupied.

Robinson-Regis yesterday confirmed her ministry is in charge of the matter but said the issue was currently before Cabinet. That matter is before the Cabinet at this time, Robinson-Regis told Newsday.

As soon as we finalise that issue we will get in touch with the cane farmers. She said former Attorney General Anand Ramlogan gave legal advice which, at this time, we are examining in relation to the current situation. We are looking at it.

No decision has been taken. Once it goes through the process and also once we get advice from the current Attorney General, Faris Al-Rawi, we will be in touch with the farmers. Asked what the legal issue was, she said, I would not be able to say. It is a very serious matter. I would not want to prejudice the Cabinet deliberation. Asked for the details of the legal advice she referred to, she said, I dont have it in front of me and I would prefer not to say without it in front of me. In dispute is a $130 million grant agreed to between Government and cane farmers involving 97 million euros in funds from the European Union. A total of $27 million has been paid to date and $103 million is due.

Attorney Gerald Ramdeen, who represents an association which claims to represent 2,300 cane farmers, yesterday delivered a pre-action protocol letter on the issue to the Office of the Prime Minister. He said he would do the same in relation to the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Planning. Ramdeen said, We do not accept that there is any legal impediment. He said Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat was reviewing documents in relation to the matter.

We cannot even get a proper response from this Government, Ramdeen said. If they do not respond, we will respond. Let him continue reviewing. While he is reviewing we will be in court. Tewarie said the funds for the final payment had been allocated in Budget documents. He said while he received acknowledgement of receipt of correspondence in relation to the matter, there has been no substantive response. Ramdeen said some members of the TT Automobile Association were among those protesting yesterday.
Govt revisits lease agreements

Mitchell gave this assurance after concerns were raised on this issue during a public meeting between members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), of which he is a member, and officials from the Office of the Auditor General at Tower D of the Port-of-Spain International Waterfront on the public accounts for the financial year 2014.

Independent Senator Dr Dhanayshar Mahabir, another PAC member, said he was concerned when he read in these accounts that, lease agreements were not produced regarding certain properties. Saying he read this to mean these agreements were not produced because they do not exist, Mahabir said this was highly unsatisfactory from my angle, for you to ask for an agreement and it is not produced. He queried whether due process was not followed in executing lease agreements.

Assistant Auditor General Gaitrie Maharaj assured Mahabir there was no malfeasance involved in this matter.

She explained the process is good but very bureaucratic. Later in the meeting, Mitchell said, We are looking at the process of lease agreements in the Ministry. He explained the reason for the backlog and no lease agreements being seen,  is because the office charged with executing these leases is the Commissioner of State Lands. Mitchell added, For the past year or more, there has not been a Commissioner of State Lands in office. Trade and Industry Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon expressed concern about the regularity with which audits were done on this countrys overseas missions. In response, Auditor General Majeed Ali said his Office normally receives funds on an annual basis to do these audits. However, Ali said these funds are limited and results in audits of overseas missions being done on a three to five year rotation, based on the priority attached to the specific mission. He indicated the next such audit should take place in July
Garcia: There is still good in schools

Some students have even been removed from their specific school and placed in a separate environment to rid the school from their deviant behaviour.

However, Education Minister Anthony Garcia believes that not all is lost and there are schools that have been performing well, and where students were given alternatives to choose from.

There have been a lot of negative news coming out of the press about the countrys schools, but I want to say that there were many schools that were doing exceptionally well. Today we are here to highlight the positives of this school. Our schools have been in the media...

the press that the schools have been receiving has not been a good one, and it is not the fault of the media, let me point that out.

We are besieged with calls by various arms of the national community to do something about it. At the Ministry of Education we are trying our best. There are schools in our system that are doing excessively well. There are schools who have challenges and they are putting programmes in place to ensure that we deal with these challenges at the level of the school, Garcia said.

Garcia was speaking at the Arima North Secondary School, one of three schools he visited yesterday.

He also paid a visit to St Josephs Convent, Port-of-Spain and Eastern Boys Government Primary School, George Street, Port-of- Spain.

The minister said Arima Secondary was one of the schools that had faced several challenges over the years, but had faced and overcame the challenges faced.

I must say they have been doing a remarkable job. We at the ministry thought it was important, it was necessary, to allow the national community to know what is going on in this school and other schools. I live in Arima and therefore I have an intimate knowledge of what goes on in this school, and I am very much impressed with the efforts being made by the principal and staff to assess the students who sometimes exhibit some deviant behaviour, he said.

Garcia said efforts were being made to ensure at the level of the school that rehabilitative measures were put in place. The minister said as was being done at other schools, he had requested a list of the names of problem students. I do not list have the list as yet.

However, the principal has indicated that there is one student who is causing some problems, so I dont expect the list to be long.

This student has made threats against teachers, has problems with indiscipline, problems that would compromise the safety of those within the compound.
The PM has spoken

The PM has spoken to this issue.

The PM is known for decisiveness...

The PM certainly ascribed to, publicly yesterday (Tuesday), a process which he has indicated he is involved in now and I expect that the PM will speak to the issue himself further. Al Rawi added, The issues are out in the public domain, they are receiving attention. We are told by the Opposition, though we have no confirmation otherwise, that they have written certain complaints and I have confidence that matters will be dealt with. I am equally confident that the PM doesnt need any external pressure to cause him to do the right thing and I will leave that matter in the PMs hands. Rowley was present at the same function where Ugaz made his remarks.

Responding to the TI chairmans call for an inquiry, the PM on Tuesday pointed out that both matters were being investigated by the Integrity Commission (IC) and he would defer to the Commission.

At the same time however, Rowley said he had no confidence in the ICs ability to complete its probes speedily.

Asked what he thought of Rowleys comments about the IC, the AG told reporters, The efficiency of the IC has been a subject that TT has grappled with for years. I am sure that the persons in the IC are working at their very best, Al Rawi continued, but...the budget of the IC, year on year for the last five years, was $20 million.

Thats the full budget. The Attorney Generals past; Mr Ramlogan and Mr Nicholas, spent $1.2 billion in legal fees. Thats the comparison. The AG said the issue is one of capacity, both from a human resource (HR) and financial perspective, hence there is legitimacy in what the PM has said. Al Rawi was speaking with reporters yesterday (Wednesday) following a workshop on Branding and Intellectual Property, hosted by the Intellectual Property Office of the Ministry of the AG and Legal Affairs at the Caribbean Industrial Research Institutes (CARIRI) Centre for Enterprise Development in Freeport.
Dont quiz Rowley

THE LOCAL chapter of Transparency International  the global anti-corruption body that calls on governments to be accountable  on Tuesday told members of the media to not converge to question Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley.

At an anti-corruption conference, held at the Hilton Trinidad, Maria Rivas-McMillan of the Trinidad and Tobago Transparency Institute told the representatives of several media houses that a request has been received from an unnamed press secretary of the Office of the Prime Minister to not converge at the end of the event to question the Prime Minister.

Speaking at the event, chairman of the local chapter, Deryck Murray, said, We must demand integrity and accountability from political leaders. A large poster in the front of the room where the conference took place called for, Transparency, Accountability, Integrity. Rowley attended the event alongside Attorney General Faris Al Rawi, Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General Stuart Young. On seats to the side of the Prime Minister were: Police Complaints Authority Director, David West, President of the Caribbean Court of Justice, Sir Dennis Byron, former diplomat Reginald Dumas, and former Scotiabank manager, Richard Young.

While the chairman of the global Transparency Institute, Jos? Carlos Ugaz, called on Rowley to take action in relation to current questions faced by two Cabinet ministers, no local speaker did the same. In an address, Rowley said the new whistle-blower legislation would be ready, before the end of the year. He said procurement law regulations and campaign finance legislation were being prepared, as was legislation to plug gaps in relation to the system administered by the Board of Inland Revenue and company law. He gave no specific time-line for implementation.

The Prime Minister spoke for half-hour and began his speech with a series of anecdotal remarks.

Nothing much has changed since I was a child, Rowley said.

Or is it that it has got so much worse that we cant discern the change? When I was a child, I was taught that there was a place called heaven, and I assumed that everything was going well there, but there was a fella called Lucifer, who acted in a corrupt manner and had to be expelled from Heaven.

And I was told he was living here amongst us. The Prime Minister said when he later attended university at the University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica, a certain event occurred when he was living in halls.

Next door to us was a seminary where they trained priests, Rowley said. There was an instance where a pair of sneakers was stolen in the seminary, a place occupied only by training priests, and I could not figure out who would have done that.

And then the calypsoes in Trinidad and Tobago describe us. I remember a calypso called Jonathan. The first two lines were: Smart man Jonathan, making five million, take out an insurance policy to fool an insurance company.

This was glorifying a smart man. In fact, it was fraud that was being spoken about in a situation where there was humour. But today the situation is very serious.
Oil production in Russia will inevitably decline by 2035 according to an Energy Ministry report seen by the Vedomosti business daily. The different scenarios predict an output drop from 1.2 percent up to 46 percent two decades from now.

The document, obtained by the newspaper and confirmed by a source in the ministry, says by 2035 existing oil fields will be able to provide Russia with less than half of todays production of about 10.1 million barrels per day.

The shortfall should be met by increased production from proven reserves, according to projections by the Energy Ministry.

Read more

In the best case for oil producers, short-term growth remains possible only until 2020, according to the report. After that, production will contract. The figures vary from 1.2 percent to 46 percent, depending on prices, taxation and whether or not anti-Russian sanctions will be in force.

A slight increase in production is possible only for smaller companies like Slavneft and Russneft, while the market leaders are facing the depletion of existing deposits. Added to an unfavorable tax environment, their production is set to fall by 39-61 percent.

To counter the decline in oil production, the Energy Ministry proposes giving private companies access to the Arctic shelf, to soften the tax regime and support for small and medium-sized independent companies.

The Ministry also suggests promoting the processing of high-sulfur and super viscous heavy oil with the introduction of preferential rates of excise duties on fuel produced from such oil.

At the same time, the production of gas condensate is projected to increase dramatically in 20 years from 37 to 74 percent.

On Wednesday, Brent benchmark was trading at $40.11 per barrel, slightly off this year's maximum of more than $41; US WTI crude was S36.81 per barrel.
At the ornate arrival ceremony on the South Lawn, Obama and first lady Michelle Obama welcomed Trudeau, the 44-year-old son of the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and his wife, Sophie Gregoire.

Supporters of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), which was headed by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, are much less anxious about the consequences of climate change, as are Republicans in the U.S. Meanwhile, followers of Trudeau's Liberal Party in Canada and members of the New Democratic Party (a social-democratic party led by Tom Mulcair), are more concerned about climate change, much like political independents and Democrats in the U.S. But Freeland said Canada needs "Americans to take the relationship seriously", and Trudeau helps put Canada on the radar.

Trudeau is in Washington for the first official visit by a Canadian prime minister in almost two decades. The two leaders will then hold a meeting.

Stephen Curry, Iguodala expected to play

Tuesday was Curry's third missed game this season; he also sat out December 30-31 with a bruised lower left leg. Dirk Nowitzki added 16 points. "You can't even dream this stuff up, but it's been that kind of season for us ".

The pecan cake is one in a host of elements meant to celebrate the resolute - if sometimes overlooked - partnership between the US and Canada.

While the Obama administration issued a methane rule for new oil and gas sources past year, experts and administration officials alike argue that a regulation for existing sources is all but necessary for the president to follow through on his pledge of slashing methane emissions 40 to 45 percent by 2025 from levels measured in 2005.

Trudeau's father swept into power in 1968 and, with a short interruption, served until 1984.

Trump, Kasich battle for Ohio

The governor maintains he would not change strategy and that what matters most is that his daughters and wife are proud of him. Kasich had been counting on the state up north serving as the first brick in a Midwest-Rust Belt firewall against Mr.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (troo-DOH') says he's looking forward to working with the next US president - whoever it is. He was often compared to John F. Kennedy and remains one of the few Canadian politicians known in America.

Denison Offut, director for North American affairs at the National Security Council, said he didn't know whether the occasion would be Obama's last state dinner.

U.S. President Barack Obama says the United States and Canada will proceed with full implementation of long-planned systems to track border entry and exit information from travellers.

'Batman vs. Superman' Almost Had a Role for Former Batman Christian Bale

Bale played the superhero in Christopher Nolan's trilogy of Batman movies. Christian could play, like, Alfred with age makeup. We did talk about that briefly.

While the two leaders stressed how closely their nations are aligned, it was also clear they see similarities in each other.
EU's Tusk to economic migrants: Don't even think of coming

There were an estimated 8,000 people gathered at Idomeni, the small frontier community on Greece's border with Macedonia. Some of those, however, were then turned back by Macedonian authorities who said their papers were not in order.

Lions agree to 5-year deal with WR Jones

Johnson, 30, ends a nine-year career with the Lions and leaves as Detroit's most productive receiver in franchise history. In 2014, the Lions went 11-5 and made the playoffs while Johnson turned in a 71-catch, 1077-yard season.

Cent arrives in court to explain cash piles

Judge Ann Nevins ordered two quarters to appear in bankruptcy court to explain the Instagram photos. Jackson, who wore a dark gray suit and didn't speak at the hearing, declined to comment afterward.

Blue Origin Wants To Kick Off Commercial Space Tourism By 2018

If all goes well, the company could start selling tickets for short suborbital trips as soon as 2018, reports The New York Times . Blue Origin , a space company owned by the Amazon CEO, has been working on how to send people into orbit for the past decade.

Cruz And Sanders Win Big On Super Saturday

Republicans are also holding caucuses in ME and Kentucky , while Democrats are caucusing in Nebraska as well as Kansas. Texas Senator Ted Cruz , 45, follows Trump with 300 delegates and Florida Senator Marco Rubio , 44, with 151 delegates.

Trump wins Miss. and Mich., Cruz takes Idaho in GOP race

Numerous group's members had been Jeb Bush backers, but shifted to Rubio when Bush ended his campaign. GOP Chair Rick Bennett says thousands of people have registered to vote in the last few months alone.

Donald Trump Closes In on the GOP Nomination After Mississippi and MI

On the Democratic side , that polling average has Hillary Clinton at 58.7 percent of the vote and Bernie Sanders at 37.3 percent. On Super Saturday, Trump won two states - Kentucky and Louisiana - while Cruzalso won two states - Kansas and Maine.

New Ghostbusters Movie will be Big as First Trailer Goes Viral

However, now the first proper trailer is here, which gives us our first proper look at the movie. He added: "Slimer makes an appearance - you can't do Ghostbusters without Slimer".

Amazon leases 20 jets to build out logistics network

And it has started to roll out thousands of trucks to speed up package delivery from its warehouses to the sorting centers. Glenn Zaccara, director of corporate public relations at UPS , said the company has a "good relationship" with Amazon .

Trump, Cruz in a 'head-to-head' match up? Candidates say bring it on

The poll, by contrast, found 27 of American voters said the billionaire businessman represents something positive for the GOP. CNN's Florida poll was conducted among 1,014 adults, including 313 likely Republican voters and 264 likely Democratic voters.

Oculus adds social features and Facebook integration to Samsung Gear VR experience

They're the first of the Samsung devices to be able to work with Gear VR, of course, and will therefore have first access. According to Oculus, Users will soon be able to like, share, and react to Facebook 360 videos from within VR, as well.

Valspar Championship set to tee off at Innisbrook

The putter is what has held Spieth back since his eight-shot win at Kapalua. "They haven't quite gone in yet - but they will". It's a good week to take a break, yet it still attracts a strong field because of the Copperhead course at Innisbrook.

Iran threatens Israel with new missile tests

Security Council adopted a resolution last July which among other measures "calls on" Iran not to carry out such tests. Washington imposed sanctions against businesses and individuals in January over another missile test in October 2015.

World Health Organization advises pregnant women to avoid travel to Zika-affected areas

There's also evidence that sexual transmission of the virus is more common than anyone thought, WHO's director-general Dr. The WHO had previously suggested women should avoid traveling to places where Zika is spreading if they could.

Trump calls on Rubio to drop out of presidential race

It's part of an escalating effort by Romney to block Donald Trump from securing the Republican presidential nomination. This group appears to prefer Rubio over Trump, but the sample size is too small to report exact percentages.
Trump has energized infrequent or first-time voters in other states, while Sanders hasn't yet made good on his promise to bring new voters to the polls.

"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 I'm convinced Donald Trump would lose to Hillary Clinton", Romney reportedly says. In Maine and Louisiana he failed to even clear the threshold to get any delegates, and in Maine he finished fourth behind Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

A recent poll shows that Donald Trump is ahead of Sen.

Before yesterday's primaries, Trump was leading with 384 delegates.

"The Wall Street Journal/NBC poll was the phoniest, most disgusting poll I've ever seen, OK?" he said.

Miesha Tate Claims UFC Bantamweight Title After Defeating Holly Holm

Ronda Rousey sits in the audience as Drew Galloway and Trevor Lee battle at the Pro Wrestling Guerilla show last night. That's what I said before this fight even happened: "whoever wins tonight will fight Ronda for the title".

John Kasich and Donald Trump at a Republican presidential debeate in Greenville, South Carolina on February 13, 2016.

"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 and not just the few".

In addition to Mississippi, Republicans also vote on Tuesday in Hawaii, Idaho and MI vote Tuesday.

A March 7 poll from Monmouth University shows Rubio catching up to Trump in Florida.

Trump is perceived to be reeling from an onslaught of negative ads from establishment Republicans and a disappointing weekend when he finished second in delegates to Ted Cruz.

Pro-Ted Cruz super PAC hits Marco Rubio in new TV ads

The Mitchell Research/Fox 2 Detroit poll has Trump at 42 percent, Kasich 20 percent, Cruz 19 percent, and Rubio 9 percent. Trump has said he can afford to finance his own campaign, though he has received contributions.

Clinton slammed what she said was the "bigotry, bullying and bluster" of the Republican front-runner, while her rival pointed to polls indicating he was more likely to beat the billionaire. If he does not win his home state, he will either be forced to drop out or stay in the race only with the hope that his delegates combined with the other Trump opponents' would be enough to stop Trump at the Republican National Convention.

Two of the five major states that vote on Tuesday.

On the one hand, it provides the GOP with an opportunity to push the party to a different candidate and avoid the catastrophe for down-ballot races that many worry a Trump nomination will provoke. Also making analysis hard is the fact most of the contests Saturday are closed caucuses, which Trump, and Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, tend to do less well in.

While Clinton is now heavily favored to be the Democratic nominee, the party's primary calendar still features a series of contests that seem ripe for Bernie Sanders.

Puerto Rico Republicans will add their voices to the conversation on Sunday, as will Maine Democrats. To win the party's presidential nomination, she needs 2384 delegates of the total 4765.
Kelly has set records for both consecutive days and cumulative time in space for a United State astronaut.

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko headed back toward Earth on Tuesday after almost a year aboard the International Space Station, ending a record-long USA spaceflight meant to pave the way for human travel to Mars.

"They did it, they're back from a year in space, and they stuck the landing", said Rob Gutro, a public affairs officer for NASA who rode out to the Soyuz capsule's landing site on a remote plain in Kazakhstan with search and rescue teams sent to recover the astronauts. Kelly pumped his fist after emerging from the capsule and then gave a thumbs up. During his final news conference from space last week, Kelly said NASA will put him through a battery of tests as soon as he returns to measure any changes in his health. "I am bringing home today two wonderful crew members, Scott and Mikhail, so thank you so much to everyone for your support". Russian cosmonaut Sergey Volkov, who piloted the craft, landed along with the Kelly and Kornienko after completing six months in space. They circled the world 5,440 times and travelled 144 million miles through space and experienced 10,880 orbital sunrises and sunsets during the longest single spaceflight by an American. However aside from minor issues, Kelly explained his concern about the possible effects of space radiation on his body.

During the record-setting One-Year mission, the station crew conducted nearly 400 investigations to advance NASA's mission and benefit all of humanity.

Trump Urges Republicans To Unite Behind Him

But Clinton downplayed the loss and pointed out the positives from the evening, including her big win in Mississippi . Florida is home to almost 1.8 million Hispanics, including about 15 percent of the state's Democrats .

In the case of Kelly and Kornienko, coming back home represents a journey of nearly a year of staying in gravity-free environment.

Scott Kelly touched on this during a live link-up with reporters before landing, saying: "Physically I feel pretty good. but the hardest part is being isolated in the physical sense from people on the ground who are important to you".

"Scott has become the first American astronaut to spend a year in space, and in so doing, helped us take one giant leap toward putting boots on Mars". Kelly tweeted more than 1000 times from space, usually of attractive, out-of-this world images, but also of his everyday life.

The tests on Kelly and Kornienko should provide some answers.

Indian cultural festival fined for building at Yamuna River

The tribunal , however, allowed Art of Living Foundation leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to hold the festival on payment of fine. In its reply, the Delhi government said the onus is on the Union Water Resources Ministry to grant permission for the same.

"My brother.is back home on our planet!" It can take the better part of a year just to get there, not to mention the mission and the return journey.

While in orbit, Kelly posted hundreds of photos, and we've got a selection here.

Kelly will now be flown to Houston for a NASA medical examination.
The New Mexico Spaceport Authority will be able to apply for a liquor license under legislation signed into law by Gov. Susana Martinez.

The Republican governor signed the measure during a ceremony at Sunport International Airport in Albuquerque and announced that state residents won't need a USA passport to board a commercial flight as initially feared.

Uber and Lyft use smartphone apps to connect their drivers with people seeking rides.

India's environmental court allows private event on Yamuna riverbed with conditions

While the Centre came in for criticism over extending support to the Art of Living's World Culture Festival , the Delhi government was not far behind.

 Click the Icon below to share this post.

In a statement, Lyft praised the passage of the bill but did not say if it would return to New Mexico. Since 2003, New Mexico has issued driver's licenses without requiring proof of lawful status, a key component of the REAL ID standards.

The New Mexico bill orders some patients to participate in assisted outpatient treatment if the court finds that the patients are a danger to themselves and others.

Reid pounds GOP united against Obama Supreme Court choice

Senate do not want to see the court shift ideologically to the left and have said they will not hold a vote on Obama's nominee. The Iowa Republican said Thursday that efforts to change his mind are futile.

The new regulations include background checks for drivers against criminal and sexual offender databases.

The group had originally opposed any legislation that created separate "driver's permit cards" or required fingerprints but reversed after Senate Democrats agreed to those provisions.

She said Uber already is active in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos and Las Cruces.
USA officials say American special operations forces partnered with Somali soldiers in a ground raid against al-Shabab militants in southern Somalia.

But the Islamist extremist group hasn't confined its terror or ambitions to Somalia, as evidenced by other horrific attacks like last year's massacre at Kenya's Garissa University College and a 2013 siege of Nairobi's upscale Westgate Mall.

US air strikes targeted an al Shabaab facility on Saturday and USA officials said more than 150 fighters were killed.

Be Civil - It's OK to have a difference in opinion but there's no need to be a jerk.

Donald Trump Closes In on the GOP Nomination After Mississippi and MI

On the Democratic side , that polling average has Hillary Clinton at 58.7 percent of the vote and Bernie Sanders at 37.3 percent. On Super Saturday, Trump won two states - Kentucky and Louisiana - while Cruzalso won two states - Kansas and Maine.

The aircraft attacked al-Shabaab camps on the outskirts of the town of Awdhegle late Tuesday, with explosions and gunfire lasting about an hour, resident Hassan Bin Hussein said by phone. The exact target of the raid, if any, remains unclear. He said there were no known civilian casualties.

There was no claim of responsibility for the blast, but it appeared to be part of attacks waged by al-Shabab, which was ousted from Mogadishu by African Union peacekeepers in 2011.

Sheikh Abdiaziz Abu Musab, a spokesman for al-Shabab, told a militant-run online radio that unidentified foreign forces with two helicopters tried to launch a ground attack on a military station in Awdhegle town in Lower Shabelle region before they were repulsed.

No country has so far said it carried out the attack alleged by al-Shabab.

Amazon leases 20 jets to build out logistics network

And it has started to roll out thousands of trucks to speed up package delivery from its warehouses to the sorting centers. Glenn Zaccara, director of corporate public relations at UPS , said the company has a "good relationship" with Amazon .

He said the US forces did not fire their weapons during the mission.

Peter Cook, a Pentagon spokesman, said that attack Saturday was carried out to safeguard "our African Union Mission" in Somalia and that "the fighters who were scheduled to depart the camp posed an imminent threat" to the mission.

"That al-Shabaab had that many recruits in training at just one location.is a worrying indicator of the group's continued relevance and its power to attract", Pham said.
Never send a cop to do a man's job
Only two minutes after I had listed a dresser online for sale, someone was interested. I was ecstatic that the dresser would not only be off our hands, but wed get a little cash besides and in such short time. The buyer must have been searching for dressers for months, I thought, judging by
We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription.
Sky News Wednesday announced it got hold of an enormous and significant cache of intelligence made of tens of thousands of documents containing the names and details of 22,000 IS fighters.

The haul of the documents according to the British media was handed over by a disillusioned former member who had stolen the documents on a flash disk from the head of the groups internal security police.

The database details the required conditions and documents the recruits have to fill in and the personal information needed by the group before new members are allowed in.

Sky new published a set of documents containing a questionnaire including their blood type, mothers maiden name, level of sharia understanding and previous experience.

The secret documents also reportedly include phone numbers which according to analysts could be those of relatives or numbers used by the jihadists themselves. Some of the phone numbers are reportedly still operative.

The documents also revealed that the group has recruits from more than 51 countries including UK, the United States, Northern Europe, Canada, North Africa and the Middle East.

Some of the documents also revealed the names of some already known British IS fighters such as Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, a former rapper from west London who once posted an image of himself on Twitter holding a severed head.

Junaid Hussain, from Birmingham who joined the terrorist group and became the groups IS cyber-operative has been identified in the documents. Reyaad Khan, another British citizen from Cardiff who featured in an IS recruiting video has been also detailed. Both Khan and Bary were reportedly killed last year.

Sky News also explained that the documents were obtained from a former Free Syrian Army convert to Islamic State who calls himself Abu Hamed. He handed the flash disk to a journalist in Turkey.

Abu Hamed also told the British media that he quitted because the group has stepped away from Islamic rules and has abandoned its Syrian headquarters of Raqqa and is now moving into the desert. Abu Hamed also indicated that the group has completely changed its leadership and is now manned by former soldiers from the Iraqi Baath party of Saddam Hussein.

British authorities have been informed about the cache of documents but no official comment has been made yet.

However analysts say this is the most relevant haul of information ever obtained about the group and this could lead to better anti-terror fight.

Its a fantastic coup, said Richard Barrett, former global terrorism operations director at MI6.

And it will be an absolute goldmine of information of enormous significance and interest to very many people, particularly the security and intelligence services.
A roadside bomb explosion in a populated neighborhood of Cairo late Wednesday injured three people and damaged police cars, reports say.

State-run news agency Mena explained that the explosion emanated from an explosive device which was placed in the street of in the Feisal neighborhood. The agency added that device was detonated as police convoy was passing by.

The explosion injured three civilians and damaged two police cars. One suspect was arrested by authorities, reports add.

Egyptian authorities have been at loggerheads with Islamist militants who have been waging war against security and military forces following the overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in 2013 in a military coup led by current President al-Sisi.

Though most of fights take place in the countrys restive Sinai Peninsula, attacks have spilled over to the capital Cairo.

Also according to related reports relaying an anonymous security source national army fighter jets killed 17 jihadists at a training camp in the Sinai near the border town of Rafah.

In addition five days ago, on March 05, Egypts commando forces swooped on a militant base situated in the town of Sheikh Zuweid, 334 kilometers northeast of Cairo. The raid left five jihadists killed

Egyptian authorities have declared state of emergency in the Sinai since October 2014 after the militants attacked military and police position killing 33 soldiers according to official figures.
Foreign Ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) including Jordan on Wednesday in Saudi capital Riyadh threw their support behind Moroccos laudable and ambitious autonomy plan for the Moroccan Sahara, few days after UN Secretary General angered Morocco calling the territory under Morocco occupied territory.

The Foreign Ministers of the six Sunni Gulf States at end of ministerial summit which also included the Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs issued a joint statement underlining their support to Morocco and its generally accepted plan seeking to end the Sahara crisis by granting an autonomous status to the territory known as Moroccan Sahara.

The move came after Rabat denounced Wednesday UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moons inappropriate comments during his recent tour in the region.

Rabat in a strong statement denounced Ban Ki-Moons failure to adopt a neutral position on the crisis but let himself be manipulated by other parties.

In a separate report, the Moroccan online media le360 indicates that Surinam has withdrawn its recognition for the so called Democratic Arabic Sahara Republic which it recognized back in 1982.

The MAP, state-run news agency explained that the Surinamese government decision is result of its desire to adopt a neutral stance which aims at supporting the efforts of the United Nations and those of the international community to find a political, fair solution that is acceptable by all.

Moroccan Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar reportedly phoned his Surinamese counterpart, Niermala Badrising to thank him for cutting ties with the so called state.
Confira o preco do seguro para o Chevrolet Onix

Saiba quando voce gastaria com o seguro do carro mais vendido do Brasil
By Steve Holland

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidates may find themselves in a more subdued debate than usual on Thursday night in Miami, since nothing Donald Trump's rivals have thrown at him has made a major dent in his front-running campaign.

After the histrionics of last week's gathering in Detroit, the four remaining candidates are likely to search for higher ground as they offer closing arguments to Republican voters, particularly those in Florida and Ohio, who vote next Tuesday in nominating contests for the Nov. 8 election.

The burden is particularly heavy on U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Ohio Governor John Kasich, who must do well in their home states or face pressure to exit the race.

While Kasich is holding his own against Trump in Ohio opinion polls, Rubio has lagged far behind Trump in Florida.

Trump's victories in Michigan, Mississippi and Hawaii on Tuesday added to his momentum after a week of attacks by mainstream Republicans who are offended by his statements on Muslims, women and illegal immigrants and alarmed by his threats to international trade deals.

Trump defended his calls for a tougher U.S. stance on free trade on Thursday, saying the United States has been taken advantage of in negotiations with other countries. He also cited currency devaluations as a particular problem.

"I like free trade but you have to be represented by very, very good and smart and cunning people and we are not," Trump said in an interview on CNBC. "Other countries are and that's why they're all taking advantage."

The tough-talking billionaire businessman told CNN on Wednesday he expected the debate to be a "nicer, softer, lighter debate, I hope." But he added: "I'll be ready. I'm the only one who can beat Hillary," a reference to Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton.

The tone could be set by Trump, 69, who forecast before several previous debates that he would take a more measured approach, only to quickly get into a verbal brawl with his rivals.

The CNN-hosted debate will be held at the University of Miami at 8:30 p.m. (0130 GMT on Friday).

"I would focus on a positive uplifting message that takes us back to why they're running for president and what's at stake in this election," said Eric Fehrnstrom, a senior adviser to 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

In Detroit last Thursday, Trump came under sustained fire from Rubio, 44, over parts of his business empire such as Trump University, a now-defunct venture that critics said offered a flimsy education. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas piled on Trump over his past support for Democratic causes.

Trump blasted Rubio throughout the debate as a lightweight and Cruz as a liar.

'KIDS EMBARRASSED'

The Trump-Rubio debate clash in Detroit followed an abrupt change in Rubio's campaign to begin raising personal questions about Trump, such as saying he had small hands, a statement Trump saw as a reference to his penis size.

Rubio said he now regretted the personal insults.

"In terms of things that have to do with personal stuff, yeah, at the end of the day, it's not something I'm entirely proud of. My kids were embarrassed by it, and if I had to do it again, I wouldn't," Rubio told MSNBC on Wednesday.

Cruz, 45, who would like to knock Rubio and Kasich out of the race so he could draw more support from anti-Trump Republican voters, will seek to use the debate to position himself as the best Trump alternative.

"Trump is clearly trying to reach out and be a little more statesmanlike," said Cruz backer Saul Anuzis, a former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party. "Cruz is going to make the case as to why he can beat Trump and be the viable alternative. From our perspective, we think it's a two-man race, we're the only one with a path."

Rubio is fighting for survival and is facing something of a last stand in Florida. Rival campaigns said Rubio may feel a need to return to the optimistic message he stuck to for months before getting sidetracked by Trump.

Rubio told Fox News on Wednesday the campaign was always going to come down to who wins Florida.

"The nominee has to win Florida. You cant be the Republican nominee if you dont win Florida," he said.

Kasich, Rubio and Cruz have one shot at denying Trump the nomination - preventing him from assembling the required 1,237 delegates to win the nomination outright, which would mean delegates would have to choose the nominee at their July 18-21 convention in Cleveland.

Trump said on CNN on Wednesday that 1,237 was an "artificial number" and that if he entered the convention with more delegates than his rivals, he should be the nominee.

While he has vowed to wage war against the party if he is denied the nomination at the convention, Kasich, 63, said it was possible for Republicans to have a contested convention and emerge united.

"Can you go to a convention and come out united? Absolutely," he told a Fox News town hall on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Additional reporting by Megan Cassella; Editing by Peter Cooney and Bill Trott)

This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production.
By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio voiced regret on Wednesday about making personal attacks against front-runner Donald Trump, a strategy that has failed to slow the New York billionaire's momentum.Rubio, Trump, Ohio Governor John Kasich and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, the four remaining Republican presidential candidates, participated in a round of Fox News-sponsored town hall events a day before they meet for another debate on Thursday in Miami.

Rubio, whose campaign is fighting for survival after a series of disappointing performances in nominating contests for the Nov. 8 election, has drawn fire for a line of attack in recent weeks in which he got personal with Trump.

He called him a con artist and said among other things that he had small hands, a charge that Trump took to mean as questioning the size of his manhood.

Until Rubio got personal, the U.S. senator from Florida had largely stayed above the fray and had focused his assault on Trump from a policy standpoint.

He told Fox News' "The Kelly File" that if he had to do it over again, he would handle the issue differently.

"My kids were embarrassed by it. My wife didnt like it. I dont think it reflects good. Thats not who I am. Thats not what my campaign is going to be about or will ever be about again," Rubio said.

"Id do it differently  on the personal stuff. Im not telling you he didnt deserve it, but thats not who I am and thats not what I want to be," he added.

Rubio, 44, fared poorly when Michigan, Mississippi, Idaho and Hawaii voted on Tuesday. He needs to win his home state of Florida next Tuesday or face calls for him to exit the race.

He said opinion polls showing him lagging far behind Trump in Florida were not accurate.

"The fact of the matter is the only poll that counts is the one theyll take on Tuesday when they count the votes that these people are going to cast and were going to win in Florida, he said.

Cruz, 45, looking to emerge as the main Trump alternative should Rubio and Kasich falter, said he would keep the focus of the campaign on substantive issues.

"I don't have any views on Donald Trump's anatomy," Cruz said at his Fox News town hall.

BROKERED CONVENTION?

Kasich, at his Fox News town hall, said he believed he had a path forward if he wins his home state of Ohio on Tuesday, but that it involved a convention fight when Republicans gather to officially pick their nominee in Cleveland in July.

A contested convention would result if Trump, 69, does not win the required 1,237 delegates, forcing delegates to decide whether to back him at the convention or find a consensus candidate such as Kasich, 63.

President Gerald Ford and challenger Ronald Reagan staged a spirited nomination fight at the 1976 Republican National Convention, but no Republican convention has gone beyond a single ballot since Thomas Dewey's third-ballot win in 1948.

Trump, who has come under withering attack by mainstream Republicans for his statements on Muslims, illegal immigrants and trade policy, said at his Fox News town hall he had attracted many new voters to the Republican Party with his crossover appeal.

He said establishment Republicans would be risking the energy he had brought to the race by trying to prevent him from winning.

"They would be so foolish to throw it away," he told host Sean Hannity.

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Peter Cooney)

This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production.
Name, Age, Occupation, Level of Obedience? Photo: AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/Getty Images

Thousands of ISIS documents have been obtained by media organizations and security services via an apparent defector from the terrorist organization. The paperwork, according to NBC News, identifies 22,000 members of the group, from 51 countries, and its being reviewed by investigators in Germany. A handful of these newly revealed ISIS supporters are from the U.S., including a 20-year-old from Minnesota. The documents also show several recruits from Europe, Canada, North Africa, and the Middle East.

The bulk of the material  reportedly collected in 2013  is made up of recruiting questionnaires, essentially job applications that request the usual name, age, date of birth, and education history but then turn to fighting experience, special skills, and level of obedience. The questionnaire also asks the recruit to check off whether he prefers fighting or suicide bombing.

According to Sky News, which has also obtained the documents, many of the names are of well-known jihadis, dead and alive. They include Adel Barry, the 26-year-old from London who joined ISIS in 2013, as well as Junaid Hussain and Reyaad Khan, both British ISIS recruits who were killed in Royal Air Force drone strikes in Syria.
Notice the carefully displayed chains.

After 20 months of investigative work, officers in the NYPDs narcotics unit arrested 22 members of a drug ring operating in New York. On Wednesday morning, police conducted simultaneous raids in the Bronx, upper Manhattan, and the Lower East Side according to NYPD deputy chief Lori Pollock, who called those apprehended people sleeping with guns under their pillows. Police found 14 kilos of heroin, a gallon of liquid PCP, 14 guns, and $200,000 in cash along with eight pricey watches, an unspecified number of gold chains, and eight nice rides, which included BMWs and Nissan Maximas, in the raids, the New York Daily News reports.

An even safer NYC because of the hard work & dedication of Manhattan North Narcotics cops. Keep up the great work! pic.twitter.com/sUZ9Xv4wTd  Commissioner Bratton (@CommissBratton) March 9, 2016

According to the Daily News, the drug ring was a delivery-by-phone operation that sold to other drug dealers. It sold heroin under brands such as Thriller, Crush, OMG and Pepsi. Following the arrest, officers got to do that thing where they stand behind large piles of cash and look very serious.
Promise keepers. Photo: Patrick Farrell/Miami Herald/TNS via Getty Images

Jorge Ramos just gave advocates for the undocumented (and, probably, some GOP ad-makers) reason to celebrate. At Wednesday nights Democratic debate in Miami, the Walter Cronkite of Latino America demanded Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton answer yes or no: Would they deport undocumented children and/or adults without criminal histories if elected president? Standing before a crowd of the Sunshine States Democratic primary voters, neither candidate could say no.

Although, Hillary Clinton sort of tried to  and she may have bought herself some wiggle room in doing so.

Ramos sometimes refers to President Obama as the deporter in chief, in reference to the aggressive deportation policy he pursued early in his administration. Back in Iowa, Clinton had promised Ramos that she would not be the next deporter in chief, but still refused to promise that she would spare every undocumented child in the United States from deportation. On Wednesday night, Ramos asked Clinton: If you really dont want to be the next deporter in chief, can you promise tonight that you wont deport children and that you wont deport immigrants who dont have a criminal record, and this time, could I get a yes or no answer?

Clinton initially promised to do everything possible to provide due process. She then noted that, with regard to the wave of Honduran children seeking asylum, current law limits her ability to make such a blanket promise. But if you are asking about everyone who is already here, undocumented immigrants, the 11-12 million who are living here, my priorities are to deport violent criminals, terrorists, and anyone who threatens our safety.

Ramos followed up multiple times, seeking the firm yes or no he requested:

RAMOS: OK. So I want to be very specific. So you are telling us tonight that if you become president you wont deport children who are already here? CLINTON: I will not. RAMOS: And that you wont deport immigrants who dont have a criminal record? CLINTON: Thats what Im telling you.

Sanders displayed far less anxiety about committing himself to a hard-line stance on the issue. When asked Ramoss yes or no, he began by pointing out that Clinton hadnt actually promised to grant asylum to every Honduran child currently seeking it. He then took Ramoss oath.
Traidores? Photo: Joe Raedle/2016 Getty Images

Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton both want comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship for all 11 million undocumented immigrants. Both support President Obamas executive orders exempting certain undocumented populations from deportation. On immigration policy, their platforms are virtually identical. But Latino liberals in Florida will only be allowed to vote for one of them next Tuesday, and so the Democrats spent much of Wednesday nights Univision debate highlighting their respective betrayals of the immigrant community.

The frenzy of past position-shaming started at the moderators table, when Univisions Maria Elena Salinas confronted Hillary Clinton with a radio interview she gave in 2003, in which she said she was adamantly against illegal immigrants and that people have to stop employing them.

Clinton responded by noting that she cast a vote for the DREAM Act that same year and also, by the way, a certain Vermont senator voted against comprehensive immigration reform in 2007. Imagine where we would be today if we had achieved comprehensive immigration reform nine years ago, Clinton lamented.

Sanderss oft-recited defense of that vote is that the 2007 bill contained a provision that would have allowed guest workers to be treated as pseudo-slaves, and thus, he joined the Southern Poverty Law Center and LULAC in opposing the legislation. However, in a 2007 interview with Lou Dobbs, Sanders said he opposed the bill because guest workers drive down the wages of American workers. These two positions arent really in tension  semi-slaves are certainly cheaper to employ than American workers. But blaming Americans economic woes on immigrants isnt a great look for a Democrat this cycle.

Sanders responded by noting his support for the 2013 comprehensive immigration bill  and also, by the way, Clinton opposed New York governor Eliot Spitzers efforts to provide undocumented immigrants with drivers licenses. Oh, and she wants to deport migrant children back to Honduras, where theres probably more violence than almost any place in this country.

Clinton replied by reiterating her support for honoring the due process rights of every asylum seeker (rights that many are currently being denied). And also, in case you were wondering, Bernie Sanders voted with Republicans in 2006 for the indefinite detention of undocumented immigrants. And, also, he sided with those Republicans to stand with vigilantes known as Minute Men who were taking up outposts along the border to hunt down immigrants.

So what will it be Florida liberals? Do you want the illegal immigrant opposing, child-deporting, drivers-license-denying, supporter of a pathway to citizenship for all 11 million undocumented immigrants? Or the xenophobia-stoking, immigrant-detaining, right-wing vigilante-loving, supporter of a pathway to citizenship for all 11 million undocumented immigrants?
Barbara McClintock, one of Temple-Woods entries. Photo: Universal History Archive/Getty Images

Maybe success is the best revenge  what if the rest of the world fails to acknowledge your success the way that they should? Is there a way to go back and correct history? Emily Temple-Wood, a biology undergrad student at Loyola University, has some ideas on the matter.

As geobiology professor A. Hope Jahren wrote in the New York Times last week, female scientists often receive emails from male colleagues that are leering, lascivious, and unwarranted: all examples of sexual harassment in the workplace. In an effort to make the best of this crappy situation, Temple-Wood decided that for every harassing email she receives  ones that include date requests, talk of her body, and inappropriate sexual implications  shell write a Wikipedia entry for a woman scientist.

A former Wikimedia Foundation staff member, Siko Bouterse, told the Wikimedia Blog that Temple-Woods project has been a huge success so far. Shes created hundreds of articles about women scientists, including articles that address multiple gaps in Wikipedia  its really important that shes not just writing about white women scientists, shes also working to address underrepresentation of women of color in Wikipedia and looking at other points of intersectionality as well.

Temple-Wood has been adding new entries to the WikiProject Women Scientists since 2012 (and has taught others how to do so as well). So far shes featured everyone from Nobel Prize winner Barbara McClintock (above), experimental physicist Chien-Shiung Wu, and neuroscientist Liliana Lubinska.
Frances Total SA is searching for an elephant oil field off the coast of Uruguay.

Uruguay does not have much of an offshore oil industry. But the Pelotas Basin, where Total is focusing, is starting to garner more interest. It borders Brazil and there is speculation that both countries have large oil fields sitting off of their coasts. A group of international oil companies including BP, Tullow Oil, Total, and BG Group have collectively invested over $1 billion in exploration in Uruguay since 2012.

The original interest in Uruguay came when oil prices were near or above $100 per barrel. That brought international companies to a country without an oil and gas track record. The collapse in oil prices put a damper on the excitement. Related: Why Saudi Arabia Has No Intention To End The Oil Glut

But Total thinks that it could not only find some oil worth producing, but that it could discover a huge oilfield. "There could be an elephant out there. This is what were chasing," Christian Tichatschke, head of exploration for Totals Uruguay unit, told Bloomberg. "Its a very risky project but we believe we can find something."

Total is only a few weeks away from drilling a well that could not only put Uruguay on the map, but also open up a play that it shares with Brazil, a play that most oil companies shunned last year when Brazil tried to auction off tracts. "We actually dont have any discoveries in this area and this could be a play opener. This means it could be a first discovery that leads to a lot more discovers," Tichatschke said. The project will be Uruguays first offshore well drilled in over 40 years. Related: Exposing The Oil Glut: Where Are The 550 Million Missing Barrels?!

Even if Total is successful, it will be years before oil will begin flowing. The company says that first oil wont come before 2021.

A discovery that leads to production would be a boon for Uruguay, a country that imports all of its oil and gas supplies.

By Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
If any of you have seen my early writings on OilPrice.com, you would know I have been steadfast in my criticism of the media exaggerating the extent of the oil glut. Furthermore, I have also documented the pattern of exaggeration from both the EIA/IEA with their statistics.

I realize that no one is perfect, forecasting the future is notoriously difficult, and these entities have their difficulties in obtaining reliable and timely data to make accurate predictions. However, the IEA in particular has a track record of overstating oil supplies  even back in 1999 the agency was questioned for exaggerating a supply glut, and now it seems to have occurred again. Related: Chevron Protects Dividend, Cuts Another 36 Percent Off Spending

(Click to enlarge)

The chart above shows the missing barrels, unexplained oil volumes that have shown up in IEA data over time. John Kemp from Reuters, who has done some of the best coverage of the market, put together this data to illustrate the problem with the reported data. He recently wrote this piece, confirming all my suspicions of the past. In it he states the following:

"Of the 1 billion barrels reportedly produced but not consumed, roughly 420 million are being stored on land in member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Another 75 million barrels are thought to be stored at sea or in transit by tanker somewhere from the oil fields to the refineries. That leaves 550 million "missing barrels" unaccounted for, apparently produced but not consumed and not visible in the inventory statistics..."

Related: Six Reasons The Current Oil Short Covering May Have Legs

So, in other words, OVER HALF of the supposed glut that the IEA has reported is unaccounted for. Not 5 or 10 percent, but greater than a whopping 50 percent. Does anyone believe that half of the glut is just missing?

In the article John explains that it could be in hidden or unaccountable locations. But that doesnt seem credible. It is hard to believe that HALF of the entire worlds excess supply cannot be justified with the data? At $40 oil, that is some $22 billion in oil that is squirreled away somewhere that millions of people simply dont know where it is? Related: How Algorithmic Trading Makes Money On Energy

Yet does anyone care to even question such non-sense? No, of course not, just like every other government statistic that is taken at face value and traded on by headline-driven algorithms. There used to be a time when Wall Street did real research, but that appears to be gone now. Either demand has been understated by the IEA, or supply has been vastly overstated...any rational person would conclude the same.

Please view my video channel for further insight on this topic: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkA46F9sbOLfDVM0V17sZcw

By Leonard Brecken for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
On February 23, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev visited Tehran, where he met with his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani. Notably, the two presidents signed 11 memoranda of understanding (MoU) across several areas of cooperation, including energy, the economy and transport (IRNA, February 23). But the timing of the visit seems to hold particular importance as well: following the lifting of international sanctions on Iran, all three South Caucasus countries want to benefit from this new regional economic environment through intensive cooperation. And this is clearly also true for Azerbaijan. So although few details are publicly available regarding the newly signed MoUs between Iran and Azerbaijan, reports of these agreements nevertheless reveal the contours of Bakus cooperation with Tehran, as well as how regional competition is playing out in this regard.

One key bilateral accord signed by Aliyev and Rouhani was the framework agreement on coordination of railway networks, which deals with the completion of the NorthSouth transport corridor linking Astara (Azerbaijan) with Rasht and Qazvin (Iran). This railway will ultimately connect Iran and Azerbaijan with Russia. For Azerbaijan, the economic benefits are one key factor. According to estimates, the transit distance and delivery times of goods will be three times lower, and the price of delivery through this corridor will become more competitive (Trend, February 29). But it is also important to note the geopolitical significance of this agreement; the NorthSouth transport corridor essentially undermines any possible economic argument for building railway links between Iran and Armenia. The overall cost of the proposed Iranian-Armenian railroad project is close to Armenias entire annual state budget (see EDM, February 2, 2015). The NorthSouth transport corridor not only bypasses Armenia but also connects with Russia, thereby eliminating the possibility of reopening the Russian-Georgian railway though Abkhazia, which Moscow has pushed for. The latter route would create competition for the new eastwest railway line from Baku to the Turkish city of Kars, running through Tbilisi (the BTK railroad).



Related: An Energy Pair Trade To Take Advantage Of Current Turmoil

During President Aliyevs visit to Tehran, another important agreement was signed on the construction and operation of hydroelectric power plants. However, in public, the emphasis was placed on the other aspect of energy cooperation, namely the agreement to develop a bilateral oil swap mechanism (Presstv.ir, February 27). In fact, this type of oil swap between Iran and Azerbaijan has only worked once, during the 2008 Russian-Georgian war. When Bakus westward export route (the BakuTbilisiCeyhan oil pipelineBTC) was temporarily closed, Azerbaijan exported crude oil through Irans port in Neka, on the Caspian Sea; in exchange Iran supplied oil to Azerbaijans foreign customers via the Persian Gulf. However, setting up a new oil swap mechanism offers little benefit to Baku in the longer term, given there are currently no obstacles to Azerbaijans exports to the West. Nevertheless, one Azerbaijani official has suggested that one possible oil swap agreement could involve supplying Iran with gasoline and, in exchange, buying naphtha and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from the Islamic Republic (Reuters, February 23).

However, beyond the oil swap deal, there are a number of more promising aspects. The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) reached several MoUs with the National Iranian Oil Company and the Tehran-based Ghadir Investment Company, outlining the scope of joint exploration in the Caspian. The Iranian North Drilling Company (NDC), which specializes in the implementation of projects in the Caspian Sea, subsequently declared its interest as well (Azernews.az, February 25). This is important because the NDC is conducting drilling activities in the offshore Sardar-e Jangal oil and gas field. Discovered in 2012, the Sardar-e Jangal field is situated between Azerbaijani and Turkmenistani territorial waters, not in the Iranian zone (IranOilGas Network, January 27, 2015; Eurasianet.org, June 19, 2012). Regardless, Iran has been using its political and military muscle to explore this new oil and gas field, which might contain 10 billion barrels of crude oil potential.



Related: Is This The Next Offshore Sweet Spot For Big Oil?

Along with Sardar-e Jangal, Iran and Azerbaijan are also in dispute over ownership of the Araz-Alov-Sharg fields, following a confrontation in 2001. Since then, there have been several unsuccessful attempts to reach a solution. Tehran sees those fields as disputed and closed for exploration pending the resolution on the legal status of the Caspian Sea. Therefore, the ball is in Irans court; it needs to redraw its red line on linking the exploration of disputed oil and gas fields and reaching an ownership agreement with Azerbaijan. Without such an agreement on ownership, it suits Tehran to agree to a joint venture, which will effectively help legalize Irans claims to these two fields. For Azerbaijan, given its current economic struggles and its need for additional gas supplies (see EDM, January 22, February 1, March 4), this kind of cooperation offers substantial benefits.

Looking at the broader regional context of the Azerbaijani presidents visit to Iran, two important developments play to Russian interests even more than Irans. On the one hand, Russia is using the Azerbaijani-Iranian transport talks as a pretext to propose a trilateral meeting of their foreign ministers (APA, February 29). This type of trilateral ministerial-level format is something of a Turkish foreign policy trademark in the region. Thus given the current standoff in Russian-Turkish relations, coupled with Tehrans own anxiety toward Ankara, this development appears to be a joint initiative by Moscow and Tehran, potentially aimed at weakening Turkeys active diplomacy in the South Caucasus. Baku has little room for maneuver in this respect.



Related: Exposing The Oil Glut: Where Are The 550 Million Missing Barrels?!

On the other hand, Azerbaijans position on the Syrian intervention is becoming an important question. Until now, Baku showed no urgency to join any of the antiterrorist coalitions operating in the regionincluding those headed by Saudi Arabia and supported by Turkey. During President Aliyevs visit to Iran, the Syrian question was also discussed. A day later, Putin and Aliyev talked about the Syrian issue by telephone (News.az, February 25). All this suggests that Tehran and Moscow are both hoping that Baku will not align itself with the Saudi-Turkish position or, at worst, will take a position of non-interference.

The Azerbaijani head of states recent visit to Iran and the resulting new MoUs promise to bring economic benefits in the near future. However, the developments before and after the visit demonstrate that wider state interests are in play. Clearly, both Tehran and Moscow are seeking to use economic projects to strengthen their political ambitions in the region.

By Zaur Shiriyev via Jamestown.org

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
About Give - Aways

All Give-Aways posted on the Oklahoma Transient Blog are sponsored and purchased by me, Sandy, as a special gift to say Thank You.




Operation Inherent Resolve

could have either acquired from someone else or developed it on its own.

Prohibition of Chemical Weapons

They have gotten a lot of information from this guy, a third defense official explained. A lot.It was based on his information that the coalition conducted at least two strikes this week in Iraq, which targeted ISISs chemical program, according to one defense official.According to a March 5, press release from, the American-led coalition struck an [] weapons production facility near Mosul, which was suspected to be part of ISISs chemical weapons program. And in a March 7, press statement, the coalition said it struck antactical unit near Mosul, which also was believed to be related to the program.Since the Syrian civil war began in 2011,has deployed two kinds of chemical weaponscrude chlorine and mustard agent. The group is believed to have acquired crude chlorine when the group was known as Al Qaeda in Iraq. How it acquired the mustard agent is unclear, as itThe ISIS terror group is suspected of launching as many as 20 chemical weapons attacks across Syria. Independent organizations that have researched such claims have only confirmed ISISs use of such weapons in a few of those cases. The Organization for theconcludedused mustard gas in three instances in August 2015in an attack on the city of Marea in Aleppo province and in two attacks in Iraq near the Kurdish capital of Irbil.The organization concluded that in the Marea attack, a non-state actor had allegedly used a chemical weapon. The Syrian regime also is suspected of using chlorine in attacks against opposition forces.There are growing concerns thatwould like to launch similar attacks on the United States.Just last month, James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, said at a security conference in Munich thatwould like to use chemical weapons in an attack on America.It is very clear aspirationally they would like to do more and it is a concern to us in the United States because the indications are that they would like to use chemical weapons against us, Clapper told attendees of the 52nd Munich Security Conference.The Daily Beast has known about the mans cooperation with U.S. officials since last week. But the U.S. military asked the Beast to withhold that information, sayingwas not aware that the man was in U.S. custodyeven weeks after his detentionand that publishing details of his detention would endanger the destruction of the facilities and the U.S. troops that captured him.The officials would not elaborate on the mans role in, the depth of his knowledge of ISISs chemical weapons program, or where he was captured in Iraq.However, the International Committee for the Red Cross has been able to visit the detainee but in accordance with our confidential approach, we are not in a position to comment on the individuals identity, location, or conditions of detention, Trevor Keck, the deputy spokesperson of the Washington Delegation of the ICRC, told The Daily Beast.The Red Cross visits people held in detention facilities run by various authorities in Iraq, Keck said, in order to monitor their treatment and conditions of detention.


Michigan governor requests millions in tax dollars for legal defense

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (a Republican) requested $1.2 million to pay for his defense attorneys in lawsuits against the state government for mishandling and failing to prevent the Flint water crisis.

By Cathaleen Chen





Michigan's Republican Governor Rick Snyder has admitted letting the people of Flint down, when his appointed city fiscal manager negotiated a change in the city's water source for the purpose of saving municipal money. But, now the decision he made to save tax money is costing Michigan taxpayers millions now and for an untold future of court challenges for reparations. Now, Governor Snyder is even asking for Michigan taxpayers to help pay his legal fees resulting from his mismanagement. In a "political slight of hand", Snyder has asked the state's legislature to approve money to help resolve the Flint water problem, that he helped to create, while, at the same time, allocate funds to deflect his legal fees.

Michigan Taxpayers Face Paying Millions In Legal Fees Over Flint Crisis- Critics called the proposals a "kick in the teeth" to those who suffered from lead-tainted water.





Michigan Governor Rick Snyder (R) made a decision to support a municipal manager who is now responsible for costing the state's taxpayers millions! Republican policies are failing the American people and Flint Michigan is a morbid sympton of their public mismanagement.




"Bar Month" at OnMilwaukee is back for another round, brought to you by Great Northern Distilling: grain to glass spirits, handmade in Wisconsin. The whole month of March, we're serving up intoxicatingly fun articles on bars and clubs  including guides, the latest trends, bar reviews, the results of our Best of Bars readers poll and more. Grab a designated driver and dive in!

For Austin Foster, every cocktail has a story. Every Tuesday night, while bartending at Lucky Joes Alchemy and Eatery, 1427 Underwood Ave., in Wauwatosa, Foster is ready to share these stories while mixing some of the citys most innovative cocktails.

Hes also ready to listen, high-five and turn customers on to new beverages  or reintroduce them to libations they thought they had sworn off years ago. Too bad such a Milwaukee service industry gem is moving to Iowa this summer.

OnMilwaukee: How long have you worked at Lucky Joes?

Austin Foster: Ive been here since we opened, last July. I built the cocktail menu with great help from Chad and Lee and Olivia. We rock the drinks.

Where did you bartend before?

I picked up a few shifts at Tiki (Lucky Joes Tiki Room in Walkers Point) and I bartended on and off when I was in the service. I was in the Air Force for many years.

Where were you stationed?

Everywhere from Biloxi, Miss., to Omaha, Neb., to Turkey. My parents were both in the Air Force, too. I went to seven schools by seventh grade.

Are you married? Kids?

My wife and I have been married for 18 years. We have four knucklehead kids ages 16, 13, 7 and 4  two thorns and two roses  and I know almost all their names. We live in the Brookfield / Waukesha area, in the little purgatory that is the town of Brookfield.

What do you like about bartending?

This is the best kind of therapy. It gives me the chance to talk to people, to hang out. In a lot of jobs you don't have the chance to fix problems as readily as when youre bartending. Thats really rewarding for me. If someone is in front of me, and they are not enjoying their drink or the atmosphere, we can change that. I can say to them, what else can I do for you? Can we take this in a different direction?

What is challenging about bartending?

When people have had bad cocktail experiences, and I try to change that if I can. For example, if someone had a bad experience with gin  "vomiting pine trees" they might say  and I have the special opportunity to reintroduce someone to a cocktail they thought they couldnt drink.

In general, its a great time to be a drinker. Theres great booze and beer everywhere. Wine is monstrously huge. Actually, its a great time to be a drinker and a bartender.

What nights do you tend bar?

I usually just work Tuesdays for Tiki Tuesday, which is an homage to Tiki Joes. Sometimes I pick up a shift on the weekends.

What else do you do for work?

I manage all of Dells federal consulting business. Bartending is my therapy; it makes me not want to kill people.

When did you move to Milwaukee and why?

We came here almost six years ago, for my wifes work. She is a pediatric radiologist. She is from northern Iowa, our parents are there, so we were hip to the Midwest weather patterns. We like Milwaukee, or I should say, I like it now that I figured it out. Festivals all summer; sleep and drink all winter.

What is your favorite drink to make? Or cant you have a favorite?

I can pick a favorite child, easy, but a favorite cocktail? Thats harder for me. I dig putting drinks in front of people that they can connect with. Something with a story that goes beyond the drink. Cocktails are more than liquid in a cup to me.

What is the story behind Grandads Cabin? Which is delicious, by the way.

That drink is all the stuff I dug about my grandpas place and when I would spend time there. What I remember most is the smell of pipe tobacco and how it permeated the room in the most delicious way. So I made a tincture  a pipe tobacco tincture  that I add to the cocktail that gives it that similar smell. The drink is also a little sweet and a little bitter. For me, thats the embodiment of a person and a place; its not just a drink.

How did you learn so much about craft cocktails?

I read a lot. I also get the chance to travel with my other job, so I get to hang out in really sweet bars and make a lot of connections around the country. Everywhere I go, I get to taste drinks and get ideas. I like that about this industry: people love to share their drinks and their recipes. If I use one, I always give full credit to the person on the menu.

How often does the cocktail menu switch at Lucky Joes?

Quite often, about every three months.

Have you gone on the brewery tours in Milwaukee?

I have done all of them and I do them regularly when we have people in town. Theyre all good, in different ways.

What are some of your favorite Milwaukee bars and restaurants?

Oh, wow, so many. We like to try any new place we can, but some of our favorites are Goodkind, La Merenda, Pastiche is a new find for us. If Im drinking in the city, I really like the Palm Tavern. If Im in Waukesha, I like Nice Ash Cigar Bar.

What do you like to drink when you are on the other side of the bar?

Im a whiskey drinker. Im in a couple of whiskey clubs in town. I also like to crack a beer. Im all over the map about what I like. You cant even chart it. My wife and I like to travel and drink, too. For our 17th anniversary, we flew to Portland and we destroyed Portland. Last week we celebrated our 18th anniversary in New Orleans.

How did you like New Orleans?

We had a blast. We did everything from Cafe du Monde to walking around cemeteries to going to some fantastic bars. And we met some of the greatest people. It was my first time there since I went while I was in the service. That was a very different trip: Bourbon Street and more Bourbon Street. On the way back to base, we stopped at a Waffle House, and I ate all of the contents of the Waffle House menu and then proceeded to deposit all of the contents of the Waffle House menu in the parking lot. This last trip was a lot different. Much better. My wife and I have a great time. We date each other when we are alone and we also do a lot of things with the kids, as a family.

I'm going to Mexico next week. Patron is flying me down to watch them make tequila in Jalisco. Im going to smoke all the cigars and drink all the tequila.

Do you speak any Spanish?

I am certain by the time I leave there I will be fluent in something. Actually, Im hoping I still speak English.

Are you a cigar smoker?

I enjoy an occasional cigar.

Do you have interest in traveling to Cuba, now that its going to be accessible to Americans?

I am so on board to go to Cuba. Lets go. Lets go tomorrow.

What is in the near future for you?

My family and I are moving to Sioux City, Iowa, this summer. My wife got a job there. She is going to be a pediatric radiologist at a private practice. She followed me in the service for the first 10 years of our marriage and so now its my turn to follow her. I am hoping to open my own bar there.

What kind of bar do you plan or hope to open?

Im not exactly sure. Something similar to this, maybe. It will depend on what the market is like. I have to go there and drink a lot first.
As we close out 2020, we wanted to share some of our favorite stories from the last decade. We hope you enjoy reading these stories as much as we enjoyed telling them. Click here to see the rest of our picks of must-reads and happy new year, Milwaukee!

A few weeks ago, we introduced you to the great photographic work of the late Ray Szopieray, thanks to Adam Levin, who purchased many of the photographer's slides at an antiques store. Last week, Karl Bandow, who also nabbed some of Szopieray's Kodachrome treasure, shared some great photos of the city as it appeared in the 1960s.

Next, Bandow shared 10 photos of Milwaukee as it appeared in the 1980s, and here he offers up a series of images  some are a little spotty, I know  showing Brew City in the era of The Fonz.

1. Wisconsin Avenue at night

Can you imagine when Wisconsin Avenue looked like Times Square? Me neither.

2. Downtown skyline

The top of The Pabst Building was lopped off, and Milwaukee was about to undergo drastic changes thanks to urban renewal and freeway construction.

3. Milwaukee River

Hey, there's City Center, the Wisconsin Telephone Building and the Wells Street Bridge house. Click the links to read more.

4. Third Ward Italian procession

These Italian religious society processions were the precursors of Festa Italiana and they wound their way through the streets of the Third Ward, which was a residential neighborhood. In this photo, you can see the Holiday House, on the corner of Clybourn and Van Buren.

5. Third Ward Italian procession

Another shot of the procession, with the Wisconsin Gas Light Building in the background. Note that the flame hadn't yet been installed on the roof.

6. St. Stanislaus

St. Stanislaus on Mitchell Street, when it faced a neighborhood instead of a freeway.

7. Mitchell Street

Mitchell Street, Milwaukee's other main street, looking east from South 8th Street.

8. Streetcar

It's coming back.

9. Union Depot

Located on the site of the We Energies building on Everett Street, the Union Depot had trains rolling in and out of Downtown all the time. See below, too...

10. The Milwaukee Road

Many of the images first appeared on Levin's Old Milwaukee group on Facebook.
Although rumors of suitless swimmers still surface, Milwaukee's Paradise Beach -- AKA "Bare-Ass Beach" -- was closed in 1993.

Originally located on the public lakeshore property in the 3300-3500 blocks of North Lake Drive, the beach was popular with bare bathers, called naturists, for decades.

In 1991, the naturists moved to a larger beachfront just south of the UWM alumni house. During this time, au naturel activists Mike Froemming and the late Dick Bacon -- who once did the New Year's Day Polar Bear dip in the raw -- stepped forward in defense of the controversial strip of land.

"There was a three-sided concrete wall (on the beach) and originally we were on the north side of it," says Froemming, who was often called "The Mayor of Paradise Beach." "But we started to notice shadows in the wooded area, so we migrated south of the wall, which was larger, sunnier and sandier."

"We thought we had a right to it because it was public land," he says. But public or not, Froemming received a $210 ticket in 1991 for disturbing the peace -- even though he says nude bathers were not visible from the street.

"The Naturist Society (in Oshkosh) hired me a lawyer," says Froemming. "And the judge dismissed the case, saying it was not a disturbance of the peace."

Froemming says the demographic of Paradise Beach was about two-thirds men to one-third women, and it was a mix of gay and straight.

He and Bacon handed out literature defining the rules for the beach (no sex, gawking, drinking or drugs) and they often acted as "police" for the occasional woman who felt threatened.

"We ran a pretty tight ship down there," he says. "But we occasionally had to tell a man to back off because he didn't understand a woman was just being socially friendly."

Froemming says the core of naturism is body acceptance, not sexuality.

"At the most, it's sensual, but really, it's about body acceptance and exploring that side of yourself," he says.

For the past 11 years, Froemming has relocated to Mazo Beach, Wisconsin's only official clothing-optional beach that's 30 minutes west of Madison near Mazomanie. He says the Mazo group also has indoor activities during the winter months, attracting between 75 and 125 people.

Paradise Beach had similar numbers. He said on warm weekend days the beach had up to 150 nude or semi-nude (topless) bathers and anywhere from a dozen to 75 during the week.

Naturalist resorts -- once called "nudist colonies" -- are now a $300 million-a-year industry and popping up all over the country. Nude family recreation, previously a European concept, is also gaining popularity in the United States.

"Children are natural nudists. They love running around without clothing," says Nicky Hoffman, the administrative director of The Naturist Society in Oshkosh. "There have been studies done relating to children and nudity and they show that children raised in a nude environment have better body images."

The Naturist Society is 20,000 members strong and claims to have initiated a celebration of the buff called "Nude Recreation Week" that's now celebrated all over North America. This year, the event is July 5-11 and the theme is "See the Light, Discover Naturism."

"Resorts across the country will be offering many different types of events. Some hold art shows featuring the artist and model, both nude. Some host open houses inviting everyone in the community to attend and see what the resort has to offer," says Hoffman, 55. "Our non-landed groups will have beach parties with Olympic type games, sand castle building contests and perhaps a parade or two."

The Naturist Society's Web site is naturistsociety.com.
Reprinted from Consortium News

An apparent resurgence of death-squad violence in Honduras, including the March 3 murder of prominent Honduran indigenous rights activist Berta Caceres, is a harsh reminder of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's role in defending a 2009 coup that ousted leftist President Manuel Zelaya and cleared the way for the restoration of right-wing rule in the impoverished Central American nation.

Caceres, the recent winner of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, was murdered in her hometown of La Esperenza, Intibuca, in the highlands near the Salvadoran border. Her good friend and close associate, Gustavo Castro, was shot twice but survived the assassination and is now being held against his will by the Honduran Government.

Castro held Caceres in his arms as she lay dying and played dead to avoid his own execution. He has since been forcibly stopped from leaving Honduras.

The Honduran Government has characterized the killing of Caceres as a common burglary gone bad, but her friends and close associates reject the government claims as preposterous and part of an emerging cover-up.

In a statement, COPINH, the indigenous rights group that Caceres was closely associated with, characterized her close-range murder as an assassination. In a press release the day after the murder, the group talked about the multiple death threats that Caceres faced prior to her slaying.

"In the last few weeks, violence and repression towards Berta, COPINH, and the communities they support, had escalated," COPINH stated. "In Rio Blanco on February 20th, Berta, COPINH, and the community of Rio Blanco faced threats and repression as they carried out a peaceful action to protect the River Gualcarque against the construction of a hydroelectric dam by the internationally-financed Honduran company DESA.

"As a result of COPINH's work supporting the Rio Blanco struggle... Berta had received countless threats against her life and was granted precautionary measures by the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights. On February 25th, another Lenca community supported by COPINH in Guise, Intibuca was violently evicted and destroyed."

Caceres received the Goldman Environmental Prize after she led a high-profile, peaceful campaign to stop one of the world's largest dam builders from pursuing the Agua Zarca Dam, which would have effectively cut off the ethnic Lenca people from water, food and medicine. When Caceres won the Goldman Prize last year, she accepted in the name of "the martyrs who gave their lives in the struggle to defend our natural resources."

Friends, co-workers, intellectuals and activists are outraged by the killing and many track this and many other murders of activists in Honduras back to the tenure of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. They say Clinton's lead role in supporting the 2009 oligarch-backed coup that drove the elected progressive President Zelaya from power. Zelaya's ouster opened the door to a restoration of right-wing rule and out-of-control "free trade." Honduras soon became the murder capital of the world.

When the Honduran military removed Zelaya from power, the international community -- including the United Nations, the Organization of American States and the European Union -- condemned the coup and sought Zelaya's restoration. But Secretary of State Clinton allied herself with right-wing Republicans in Congress who justified Zelaya's removal because of his cordial relations with Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez.

In her memoir, Hard Choices, Clinton took credit for preventing Zelaya from returning to Honduras, as if it were a major victory for democracy instead the beginning of a new era of death-squad violence and repression in Honduras.

"We strategized on a plan to restore order in Honduras," Clinton wrote, "and ensure that free and fair elections could be held quickly and legitimately, which would render the question of Zelaya moot." In other words, rather than support the right of the elected president to serve out his term, Clinton allowed his illegal ouster to lead to an interim right-wing regime followed by elections that the Honduran oligarchs could again dominate.

Since then, the violence in Honduras has spiraled out of control driving tens of thousands of desperate Hondurans, including unaccompanied children, to flee north to the United States where Clinton later supported their prompt deportation back to Honduras.

On Tuesday, I spoke with Beverly Bell from Other Worlds who worked closely with Berta Caceres and Gustavo Castro. She was deeply concerned about the safety of Castro and other close associates of Caceres. She described the situation as follows:

"One person saw the assassination, Gustavo Castro Soto, coordinator of Otros Mundos Chiapas/Friends of the Earth Mexico. A Mexican, Gustavo had come to Berta's town of La Esperanza to provide her with peace accompaniment, and spent the night at her house on her last night of life. Gustavo himself was shot twice and survived by feigning death. Berta died in his arms.
In the Massachusetts March 1, 2016 primary Democratic Party race, the computerized vote count declared candidate Clinton the winner but the exit polls indicated candidate Sanders to be the winner by a margin of 6.6%. These same exit polls accurately predicted the results of each and all of the Republican candidates. Until the US joins a long list of many other countries that protect the integrity of their elections through publicly observed hand counting of paper ballots, our elections are liable to be suspect.

Exit polling has been performed in the US and other countries for decades and the science and proper methodology is well established to obtain an accurate prediction of the final vote. For years, many researchers have pointed to the discrepancies between exit poll results and the unverified computer counts in US elections. The main response by the defenders of computerized voting, while expressing blind faith in the unverified computer counting, has been to claim that the exit polls may go wrong because respondents, more enthusiastic for a particular candidate, would be more likely to agree to be polled. The recent Massachusetts Super Tuesday primaries did not support this theory.

[1] Exit polls published by CNN immediately after close of polls.

[2] Reported computer vote count from www.nytimes.com/elections/ results. 100% vote count. Exit poll projected winner is highlighted in green. Reported winner for the state is highlighted in yellow.

[3] Discrepancies are the reported vote count percentage less exit poll percentage. Negative result indicates lower vote count than predicted by the exit polls. Positive result indicates higher vote count than predicted by the exit polls. In contrast to the low discrepancy in the Republican Party race, the discrepancy for the Democratic Party race is much greater than the exit poll margin of error of 5.4% (95% confidence level) for the difference between the two candidates.

[4] Margin of error for differences (at 95% CI) calculated according to: Franklin, C . The 'Margin of Error' for Differences in Polls . University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin. October 2002, revised February 2007.

The Republican Party primary race has been widely acknowledged as more polarized and contentious than the Democratic Party primary race. In the current election cycle, many Republican Party voters demonstrate enthusiasm for candidate Trump as many Democratic Party voters demonstrate enthusiasm for candidate Sanders. Yet, the exit poll results for the Republican Party closely matched the final computer vote count for every candidate. This accuracy was obtained with about 500 fewer respondents than for the Democratic Party. The higher number of respondents in the Democratic race should lead to a smaller margin of error. The same exit poll for the Democratic race, however, conducted at the same time and the same places, differed widely from the final computer count and the margin of error for the exit poll. This difference turned a Sanders' victory into a defeat.

In US elections, very few precincts conduct verified hand counts of paper ballots. Almost all ballots are counted by computer software hidden from human eyes. In this Massachusetts primary, according to the 68 out of 351 towns that hand counted their ballots, Sanders won overwhelmingly by 17.9% over Clinton (calculated from article's spreadsheet). Although the demographics of these small, mostly rural areas, may have affected these results, the large discrepancy between the hand counted ballots and the unverified computer count certainly raises, in addition to the exit poll discrepancy, further concern and questions.*

A few years ago, MIT Technology Review published the article How to Hack an Election in One Minute reporting on Princeton University's research project Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting Machine finding how easy it was to hack into a computer voting system to change the results of an election while remaining totally undetectable. The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law in their report The Machinery of Democracy: Protecting Elections in an Electronic World found "more than 120 potential threats to [computerized] voting systems."

Due to such concerns, to insure the integrity of public elections, Germany reverted to publicly observed hand counting of paper ballots for all their elections. In 2006 the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany determined that while vote fraud with hand-counted ballots would be easy to detect, "programming errors in the software or deliberate electoral fraud committed by manipulating the software of electronic voting machines can be recognized only with difficulty. The very wide-reaching effect of possible errors of the voting machines or of deliberate electoral fraud make special precautions necessary in order to safeguard the principle of the public nature of elections."

No amount of testing and certifying procedures for the machine counting of votes or the availability of paper trails, post election audits, or recounts could satisfy Germany's constitutional requirement that all important aspects of the electoral process be publicly observable and that "[t]he voters themselves must be able to understand without detailed knowledge of computer technology whether their votes cast are recorded in an unadulterated manner."

Germany is not alone among technologically advanced nations that reject computerized counting in their elections. Countries such as Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, Denmark, Finland and 53 other countries protect the integrity of their elections with hand-counted paper ballots.

As the Massachusetts primaries indicate, the integrity of our elections will be always questionable and suspect until we join the many other countries that safeguard their elections with publicly observed hand counting of paper ballots.

Next Page 1 | 2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
Reprinted from Consortium News

The United States is led by two corrupt establishments, one Democratic and one Republican, both deeply dependent on special-interest money, both sharing a similar perspective on world affairs, and both disdainful toward the American people who are treated as objects to be manipulated, not citizens to be respected.

There are, of course, differences. The Democrats are more liberal on social policy and favor a somewhat larger role of government in addressing the nation's domestic problems. The Republicans embrace Ronald Reagan's motto, "government is the problem," except when they want the government to intervene on "moral" issues such as gay marriage and abortion.

But these two corrupt establishments are intertwined when it comes to important issues of trade, economics and foreign policy. Both are true believers in neo-liberal "free trade"; both coddle Wall Street (albeit seeking slightly different levels of regulation); and both favor interventionist foreign policies (only varying modestly in how the wars are sold to the public).



Because the two establishments have a chokehold on the mainstream media, they escape any meaningful accountability when they are wrong. Thus, their corruption is not just defined by the billions of special-interest dollars that they take in but in their deviations from the real world. The two establishments have created a fantasyland that all the Important People treat as real.

Which is why it has been somewhat amusing to watch establishment pundits pontificate about what must be done in their make-believe world -- stopping "Russian aggression," establishing "safe zones" in Syria, and fawning over noble "allies" like Saudi Arabia and Turkey -- while growing legions of Americans have begun to see through these transparent fictions.

Though the candidacies of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have many flaws, there is still something encouraging about Americans listening to some of straight talk from both Trump and Sanders -- and to watch the flailing reactions of their establishment rivals.

While it's true Trump has made comments that are offensive and stupid, he also has dished out some truths that the GOP establishment simply won't abide, such as noting President George W. Bush's failure to protect the country from the 9/11 attacks and Bush's deceptive case for invading Iraq. Trump's rivals were flummoxed by his audacity, sputtering about his apostasy, but rank-and-file Republicans were up to handling the truth.

Trump violated another Republican taboo when he advocated that the U.S. government take an evenhanded position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and even told pro-Israeli donors that they could not buy his support with donations. By contrast, other Republicans, such as Sen. Marco Rubio, were groveling for the handouts and advocating a U.S. foreign policy that could have been written by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump's Israel heresy brought the Republican foreign-policy elite, the likes of William Kristol and other neoconservatives, to full battle stations. Kristol's fellow co-founder of the neocon Project for the New American Century, Robert Kagan, was so apoplectic over Trump's progress toward the GOP nomination that he announced that he would vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Clinton's Struggles

Clinton, however, has had her own struggles toward the nomination. Though her imposing war chest and machine-driven sense of inevitability scared off several potential big-name rivals, she has had her hands full with Sen. Bernie Sanders, a 74-year-old "democratic socialist" from Vermont. Sanders pulled off a stunning upset on Tuesday by narrowly winning Michigan.

While Sanders has largely finessed foreign policy issues -- beyond noting that he opposed the Iraq War and Clinton voted for it -- Sanders apparently found a winning issue in Michigan when he emphasized his rejection of trade deals while Clinton has mostly supported them. The same issue has worked well for Trump as he lambastes U.S. establishment leaders for negotiating bad deals.

What is notable about the "free trade" issue is that it has long been a consensus position of both the Republican and Democratic establishments. For years, anyone who questioned these deals was mocked as a know-nothing or a protectionist. All the smart money was on "free trade," a signature issue of both the Bushes and the Clintons, praised by editorialists from The Wall Street Journal through The New York Times.

The fact that "free trade" -- over the past two decades -- has become a major factor in hollowing out of the middle class, especially across the industrial heartland of Middle America, was of little concern to the financial and other elites concentrated on the coasts. At election time, those "loser" Americans could be kept in line with appeals to social issues and patriotism, even as many faced borderline poverty, growing heroin addiction rates and shorter life spans.

Despite that suffering, the twin Republican/Democratic establishments romped merrily along. The GOP elite called for evermore tax cuts to benefit the rich; demanded "reform" of Social Security and Medicare, meaning reductions in benefits; and proposed more military spending on more interventions overseas. The Democrats were only slightly less unrealistic, negotiating a new trade deal with Asia and seeking a new Cold War with Russia.


Frank Hammer

(Image by Frank Hammer) Details DMCA



My guest today is Frank Hammer, a retired General Motors employee of 32 years and former president of United Auto Workers Local 909 in Warren, Michigan. Welcome to OpEdNews, Frank.

JB: You're a Michigander and your state is currently in the news. Did the primary results last night surprise you?

FH: I live in Detroit, which supported Clinton in large numbers. I didn't have much of a sense of How rural Michigan was going to vote, so I had to rely on the polls. The polls got it wrong so, yes, I was surprised.

JB: You're not the only one! How do you explain it, Frank? Have you got any theories for us?

FH: NAFTA is a dirty word in Michigan, and the name Bill Clinton is a synonym. Sanders has been on message and consistent. I saw reports of a poll just a few minutes ago, giving Sanders an 80% trust rating vs. Clinton's 19%. Clinton's lie about Sanders voting against the auto bailout in the end may not have helped her, either.

JB: Now we're getting somewhere. Let's look at what you just said. I always assumed that her husband's coattails would be a big, positive factor for Hillary. You say no. Or at least, not in Michigan. And for many who did not see the Democratic debate in Flint [MI] a few days before the primary, they may not know about Hillary's auto bailout slur. Can you please give us both background and context here?

FH: It's true that autoworkers have a positive association with Bill Clinton because the late nineties was a period of relative prosperity. Bill Clinton was also dubbed the first "black president" due to his charisma. But he also had strikes against him, including championing NAFTA with congressional Republicans in 1993. The general view is that the massive industrial job losses have been linked to NAFTA and the trade agreements made since, many of which had Hillary's support. This is what she had going against her, especially among white autoworkers. It's something that may also explain why the United Auto Workers didn't issue an endorsement which may also have been a factor in her defeat. This less-than-enthusiastic support from auto workers may explain why she brazenly accused Sanders in the March 6th debate in Flint of voting against the auto bailout of 2008-'09. That bailout has of course been a HUGE (to borrow from Sanders) political issue in our state. Mainstream media reported the following day that Clinton was stretching the truth at best. People don't trust her, and I don't think her charge had the desired effect.

JB: You may be right. The debate was held in Flint, which has been plagued by lead in their water supply. That's pretty scary and has a political element as well. How did lead get in the water in the first place and who's doing anything about it? And was it helpful that the debate took place there, in terms of raising awareness and getting some action?

FH: Republican Governor Rick Snyder, via his personally appointed "Emergency Manager" (EM), directed the city of Flint to change its water source from its supplier of 50 years - Detroit - to the Flint River. The change was viewed as temporary in anticipation of changing Flint's water source to a new Karegnondi Water Authority in Genesee County. The temporary switch was supposed to be a cost-saver ($5 million/year). To save an additional $100/day, the EM decided against a federally required additive that would have made the Flint River water safe. The caustic water caused the city's older pipes to leach lead. Snyder's Dept. of Environmental Quality, enabled by the EPA, covered up the contamination for two years, in spite of swelling protests by Flint residents, buttressed by expert documentation. The EM allowed GM to change its water source back to Detroit four months into the change, after GM complained that the Flint water was rusting engine parts on the assembly line.

Emergency measures have been slow and are a story all of their own. Grassroots community and local union rank and file support has been solid. Unlike the Republicans, Sanders and Clinton have both helped to illuminate the crisis - visiting Flint, holding their debate there, and debating it at length. Sanders called for Snyder's resignation early on. Clinton tried to upstage him on March 6th by also supporting his recall.



General-Motors-Logo.jpg.html

(Image by opensourcepm) Details DMCA



JB: The water was rusting GM's engine parts? Yikes! That's pretty conclusive vindication of Flint's concerns. Let me make sure that I understand this correctly: GM took a pass while Flint families took a hit. Did GM do or say anything on behalf of Flint residents or were they mostly just looking after themselves? Should we have expected anything more/better from GM?

FH: According to a recent interview with a worker from the GM Flint engine plant (Democracy Now!), GM shut down the water fountains in the factory and replaced them with water coolers. No more than that. To make matters worse, though the story appeared in local media, there was no response from my union. The UAW didn't speak out or act on behalf of Flint's residents. The UAW has remained mum to this day.

JB: How do you explain that disturbing union silence, Frank?

FH: The UAW embarked on a "partnership" with the domestic auto companies dating back to the 1980s. That partnership was elevated to a new level after the bankruptcy bailout of GM (and Chrysler) in 2009. At its 2010 Convention, the UAW conceded to be a provider of skilled labor, more like a labor contractor than a union organization. It has a material incentive: retirees healthcare benefits are partly under union administratorship, but tied to company profits. Thus, it has a conflict of interest, and has been protective of GM ever since.

Next Page 1 | 2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
Reprinted from To The Point Analyses



Israeli Legislators Sign Petition To Ban .Neo-Nazi. Trump.

(Image by The Young Turks, Channel: TheYoungTurks) Details DMCA



>Part I -- Trump and Israel

On 3 March 2016 Chemi Shaley, the U.S. correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, wrote an interesting piece on what the Donald Trump phenomenon means for U.S.-Israeli relations. Here are some of his points:

1. Trump's insistence on staying "neutral" when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian problem has not cost him any popular support. Both Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have "sneeringly lambasted" Trump for not supporting Israel, but to no avail. Trump just "laughed all the way to the top of the Republican presidential field."

2. Republican evangelicals are paying no mind to Trump's equivocations about Israel. They vote for Trump despite this. "Evangelical leaders " are heartbroken that so many Believers are flocking after the thrice married, dirty-talking reality star. They are less perturbed by his deviation from the strict pro-Israel party line, however, and more by the sinful ways for which he has not asked forgiveness."

3. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policy decision to "put all of Israel's eggs in the GOP basket" -- a decision confirmed when he appeared before Congress in 2015 to denounce the Iran nuclear agreement -- has turned into a political disaster.

Part II -- Waning Interest in Israel (U.S. Gentiles)

The rise of Donald Trump certainly suggests that the right-wing Israeli politicians badly misread the Republican political scene. Trump has tapped into a large and growing stratum of citizens who never cared very much about foreign policy, much less Israel-Palestine specifically. And, now that that indifference has been plainly revealed on the Republican side of the ledger, it may not be long before Democratic voters also start to say, loud enough for their leaders to hear, that Israel isn't important to them either. As Shaley suggests, what is happening here is the exposure of Israel's weakness in the United States.

Thus, for the first time it is becoming publicly noticeable that a lot of voters don't regard Israel as a linchpin ally upholding democracy in the Middle East. In fact, Israel simply is not a priority as far as they are concerned. However, start emphasizing to this largely isolationist-minded crowd the huge amount of their tax money that goes to Israel, and not caring might quickly turn to hostility. Mr. Trump is certainly not above providing the little push necessary for this to happen. How might this scenario play itself out?

If Trump becomes president and, like most of his predecessors, tries to settle the Israel-Palestine problem, he will no doubt be met with not only the usual Israeli stonewalling, but outright hostility. After all, Trump as president will have to deal with Netanyahu as prime minister and they are alike in that both tend to "shoot from the lip."

As Shaley points out, "Trump refuses to acknowledge United Jerusalem [and] wants to remain neutral so that he can broker a peace deal with the Palestinians, which is a challenge worthy of a master dealmaker like him." Netanyahu will loudly express his opposition. Perhaps he will refuse to deal with Trump at all. But Trump, unlike Obama, will not respond to Netanyahu's insults with discretion. He will readily blame Israel for any failure and do it loudly and disparagingly. Then he might start to publicly question why the U.S. should be wasting vast amounts of treasure on such an unthankful nation as Israel. This could be a public relations disaster from which the Israelis will not be able to recover.

Part III -- Waning Interest in Israel (U.S. Jews)

As an Israeli born and bred to the perennial fear of anti-Semitism, Shaley senses a danger in Trump not only to Israel but to Jews in general. "The Jews will run away from Trump because he scares them. Because his demagoguery is ominous, his willingness to slash and burn anyone standing in his way is disturbing, his tendency to incite his supporters against other ethnic groups " is a source of deep anxiety."

All of this may be true, but so is the important point Shaley makes that "the Jews won't be fleeing Trump because of his policies toward Israel." In other words, increasing numbers of U.S. Jews are losing patience in the ever stubborn shenanigans of the Zionist state. And as they do so, Israel loses their support.

Part IV -- Conclusion

The truth is that today's Zionists have bought a political elite and not much more. Right now they can rely on a thin veneer of politicos who are in the process of losing influence with an alienated citizenry. When the politicians make their adjustments to this new environment, one of the casualties may well be the U.S. alliance with Israel. Hillary, Bernie, Ted and Marco may be the last generation of American politicians who will give Benjamin Netanyahu and his ilk the time of day.
In 2012, Democrat Barack Obama won reelection with 51 percent of the vote compared to Republican Mitt Romney's 47 percent. Obama's victory was the result of a formidable coalition of racial minorities and progressive Whites, particularly single women. In 2016, if Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders is to prevail, they must recreate the same coalition. And, White men will be the smallest faction.



As reported by Ruy Teixeira and John Halpin in "The Obama Coalition in the 2012 Election," Obama achieved victory, "by carrying 93 percent of African American voters, 71 percent of Latino voters, 73 percent of Asian American voters, and only 39 percent of white voters."

In his recent book, "Brown is the New White," Steve Phillipsclaimed Obama's victory symbolizes a new American majority: "Progressive people of color now comprise 23 percent of all the eligible voters in America, and progressive Whites account for 28 percent of all eligible voters."

The 2016 Democratic presidential candidate must mobilize the new American majority. If they do, they won't need to carry blue-collar white men to win. In 2012, Obama got the votes of only 35 percent of white men.

The groups Clinton or Sanders needs to carry are African American voters, Latino voters, Asian American voters, and progressive White voters -- particularly single women.

African American Voters: In 2012, 13 percent of voters were African American. Teixeira and Halpin noted, "[Obama's] support among African Americans was" overwhelming this year (93 percent")." Steve Phillips observed, "African Americans are the most loyal and consistent Democratic voters in the country." They are 23 percent of the Democratic vote.

Latino voters: In 2012, 10 percent of voters were Latinos. Teixeira and Halpin reported, "Hispanics increased their share in line with their growing share of the eligible electorate." Steve Phillips noted, "Latinos are now the largest group of color in the country, "making up 17 percent of the total U.S. population and 46 percent of all people of color in America." Phillips predicted more Latinos will vote in 2016; he estimated that if they have the same participation rate as in 2012 (less than 50 percent) they will be 14 percent of the Democratic vote.

Asian American voters: In 2012, 3 percent of voters were Asian American. (2 percent were of "other" race: Native American, Pacific Islanders, Arab Americans, Iranian Americans, or mixed.) Steve Phillips forecast that if, in 2016, they have the same participation rate as in 2012 (greater than 50 percent) they will be about 8 percent of the Democratic vote.

Progressive White voters: In 2012, non-Hispanic White voters were 71 percent of the electorate. In 2016, because of differential growth rates that share will decrease to 68 percent.

Of particular interest are the unmarried White women. Teixeira and Halpin reported, "President Obama did especially well among unmarried women in 2012, carrying them by 36 points (67 percent to 31 percent)... Unmarried women also made up a larger share of voters in this election--23 percent."

Extrapolating from 2012 numbers, in 2016, White non-Hispanic voters will constitute approximately 56 percent of the Democratic base. 17 percent will be unmarried White women. 16 percent will be married White women. 12 percent will be unmarried White men. And, 10 percent will be married White men.

Ranking Democratic segments. In 2016 the key Democratic voting groups will be:

Next Page 1 | 2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
Bringing hope, healing, and joy to the multitudes and searching for "the one"
by Sen. Doug Whitsett

The Oregon Legislative Assembly adjourned last Thursday afternoon, ending what was arguably the most destructive month in Oregon legislative history. Some of the most damaging new laws were supposedly aimed at compromising with the provisions of even more destructive initiative petitions.

Public employee unions, environmental advocacy organizations and purveyors of renewable energy represent much of the core of the political support for Oregon majority Democrats. Political divisions, for those support groups, have been actively engaged in signature gathering for several of those initiative petitions.

The organizations are employing a great deal of effort, expense and publicity to ensure their success. Some of those initiative petitions seem likely to appear on the November ballot.

In response to the impending threat of these initiative petitions, majority Democrats introduced several bills that they claim were aimed at finding common ground to compromise and defuse the threat of the ballot measures. They passed the bills on party-line votes in order to save the people from the even more destructive ballot measures.

Senate Bill 1574 was supposedly enacted in order to save us all from the ravages of Initiative Petition 63. In my opinion, the provisions of the new law are significantly worse than the potential ballot measure.

The new law doubles the renewable portfolio standard by eliminating the use of all coal-generated electricity in Oregon. Both Legislative Counsel and the Public Utility Commission (PUC) are on record stating it will not cause the closure of a single coal fired power plant anywhere, and will not measurably reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

The act contains two provisions that functionally prohibit the formation of a municipal utility district (MUD) or public utility district (PUD) in PacifiCorps monopoly protected service area. These poison pills serve to eliminate the financial feasibility for any Klamath County MUD or PUD.

Incredibly, no one has performed a meaningful, in-depth cost analysis for this scheme. The utilities admit the new law will cause at least an average one and one half percent annual rate increase. At minimum, it will result in at a 40 percent increase in power costs to all PacifiCorp customers.

That enormous rate hike will be above and beyond the usual PacifiCorp rate increases allowed by the PUC. PacifiCorp power rates have already nearly doubled since 2005.

The new law was heavily supported and relentlessly lobbied by PacifiCorp and PGE operatives. In fact, it is generally understood that many of the provisions of the bill were largely drafted by the utility companies.

In my opinion, this bill represents crony corporatism at its worst. One and a half million Oregon PacifiCorp and PGE customers, who had no representation in the closed door and confidential negotiations, will be forced to pay the enormous costs while the companies reap immense new profits that are guaranteed under the new law.

SB 1532 was also enacted by the Democrat majority, supposedly to save us from the effects of minimum wage initiatives 57, 58 and 59. The bill has already been signed into law by Governor Kate Brown.

This new law creates three regional minimum wage rates. The new mandated minimum wage will sequentially increase, at different rates, in each region. Compliance with the law, as well as with the plethora of administrative rules it will require, will be nearly as difficult as finding the money to pay the increased wages.

In my opinion, this new law will result in wholesale destruction of Oregon small businesses and kill many private sector jobs that those businesses provide. Klamath and Lake Counties have some of the highest percentages of minimum wage jobs in Oregon. For that reason, the new law is expected to hit rural southern Oregon among the hardest.

Thousands of Oregon community college and university students help pay their college costs by working at university and college provided minimum wage jobs. Much of that student employment is now at significant risk, because no funding is made available for the tens of millions of dollar increase in labor costs directly caused by the new law.

SB 5701 increases Oregons current spending by more than $300 million. The preponderance of the increase is due to collective bargained increases in public employee pay. Most of the rest of the $300 million will be spent for projects that too often look like ornaments on an election year Christmas tree.

According to the Department of Administrative Services, the average state employee earned more than $89,000 in 2015. The median compensation earned by state employees was more than $85,000.

Last years labor contract will increase public employee compensation by at least another 30 percent over the next three and one half years. The new contracts will serve to increase state employee compensation by more than half a billion dollars for the budget period starting July 1, 2017.

Finally, Initiative Petition 28 would levy a two and one half percent tax on Oregon corporations that have more than $25 million in Oregon gross sales. That includes most grocers, convenience stores, clothing retailers, fuel distributors, auto sales and utilities such as PacifiCorp.

Virtually all affected Oregon corporations will pass their increased cost on to their customers and ratepayers. The new levy will function as a two and one half percent sales tax on most services and commodities purchased in Oregon. It is expected to raise at least $2.6 billion in new taxes each year.

Some Democrat legislative leaders have called for a special legislative session to enact a compromise law to save the people from part of the enormous tax increase. One proposal would only raise taxes by about a half billion dollars each year.

Governor Brown seems to believe state government must continue to tax and spend. She appears to be in strong support of the enactment of the new tax by the people.

Perhaps our Governor is aware of the several billion dollar budget shortfalls that yawn, like a fiscal abyss, for the 2017 budgets. The Public Employee Retirement System, Oregon Health Authority, Department of Human Services and Department of Transportation each have impending budget deficits in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

The majority party has summarily vetoed any and all efforts to reduce government spending. Raising taxes continues to be their only viable response to the enormous impending budget deficits.

Senate Republicans were able to delay, and thereby prevent passage, of a number of other really bad bills during the short session. Unfortunately, we no longer had enough bipartisan coalition votes to stem the tide of bad legislation, when the majority Democrats were united in their purpose.

The question that begs an answer: At what point in time do astute businessmen start to develop their strategies for leaving Oregon?

Senator Doug Whitsett is the Republican state senator representing Senate District 28  Klamath Falls
Pakistan sent draft to India relating to release of fishermen: Sartaj Aziz

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to Prime Minister (PM) on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz on Wednesday informed the Upper House of parliament that Pakistan has sent a draft to India relating to release of fishermen within two weeks after confirmation of their nationalities. The agreement over quick release of fishermen was decided during a meeting of prime ministers of both India and Pakistan in Ufa. I



n this regard the adviser said Pakistan has sent a draft proposal to India for consideration. After approval from Indian side, the arrested fishermen of each other country would be released within two weeks. Currently, both the countries release each others arrested fishermen on the basis of mutual understanding. Aziz said during the question hour that the neighbouring countries had agreed recently to release fishermen sooner than before.



According to the ministry, Pakistani prisoners in India now have access to consuls in respect of the agreement signed by Pakistan and India in March 2015. He informed the legislators that India released 329 Pakistani nationals, which include 217 fishermen and 112 civilians, during the last three years. At least 460 Pakistani citizens in total are imprisoned in India, which include 113 fishermen and 347 others. Different cases have been registered against them, including of drugs smuggling, spying, illegal migration and terrorism.
Shahbaz Taseer reunited with his family

LAHORE: Shahbaz Taseer, a son of slain Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer who was recovered after being held by kidnappers for over four years, arrived here on Wednesday to unite with his family.



Taseer was flown to Lahore in a special aircraft by intelligence officials, said the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).



In the photographs shared by DG ISPR Asim Bajwa Wednesday morning, Shahbaz has changed from the previous nights shalwar kameez into jeans and a polo shirt. In the second photo, Shahbaz smiles as he points towards the camera and his beard appears to have been trimmed.



Balochistan Inspector General Ahsan Mehboob said Tuesday that Shahbaz was recovered from a hotel on the outskirts of Kuchlak town.



Security personnel found a man with overgrown beard and long hair, who identified himself as Shahbaz, son of Salmaan Taseer, a senior security official, who was part of the team that recovered the missing Taseer, told reporters. After his recovery, Shahbaz was shifted to Quetta.



Anwar Kakar, a spokesperson for the Balochistan government, told media men that Shahbaz was found to be in good health, physically and mentally.



Shahbaz was kidnapped from Lahore on Aug 26, 2011, near his companys head office in Gulberg area. He was driving towards the offices of the First Capital Group off M.M. Alam Road in Gulberg when he was intercepted by the kidnappers.



His was recovered just a week after Salman Taseers assassin Mumtaz Qadri was executed at Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail.



A large number of Shahbaz Taseers friends, supporters and relatives gathered at the Taseer residence in Cavalry Grounds, Lahore on Wednesday to prepare for his homecoming.



Sweets were distributed and people waited for Taseer's arrival with rose petals at the residence, which is being protected by a contingent of police.



Shahbaz Taseer was recovered from Kuchlak, a suburb of Quetta, which connects Quetta and Balochistans Pishin district up till the Afghan border at Chaman.



Taseer had walked into Al-Saleem Hotel in Kuchlak, where he had roast for lunch and asked the manager for a phone, to inform his family of his release after almost five years of captivity.



Failing to acquire a phone, he paid his bill of Rs350 and went outside the hotel to find a phone. He eventually got in touch with the relevant people, and was soon after whisked away from the site under heavy escort.



Located at a distance of 25 kilometres from Quetta, Kuchlak witnessed a heavy influx of Afghan refugees after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the population blossomed to half a million people.
We are leading company specializing in manufacturing and exporting high quality wood chips and other heating energy. Our products have been exporting to Korea, Japan, USA, Portugal, Australia, Slovakia, UAE and our customers totally satisfy with our sevices and quality.

SPECIFICATION:

Moisture content 4.11%

Ash content 1.27%

Sufur content 0.023%

Nitrogen content 0.15%

Calorific value 4605 Kcal/kg

Packing 650kg, 700kg/ Jumboo bag, 2 Jumboo bags /wood pallet

Wood pellet is briquetted from chips and sawdust of rubber and pine wood. And packing as per industrial requirement Or other package for houshold use.

Wood pellets and briquettes charcoalvegetable oilswood chipswood pellet
Phuket, 9 March 2016  April is summer season in Thailand, the time to celebrate Songkran Festival, which is the Thai New Year on 13 April 2016. Amari Phuket launches a super-hot Songkran Splash Festival package to invite guests to join a day of water splashing. Package price starts at 16,830 THB+++, for a four-day and three-night stay with many value-added benefits, which include a round-trip airport transfer and special Thai set dinner at Rim Talay Restaurant. Whilst being entertained by the beautiful city lights of Patong, guests can truly relax with a guaranteed late checkout until 16:00. Also, Breeze Spa offers a special discount of up to 20%, and on 13 April 2016, guests will receive a complimentary water pistol to be used to play during Songkran, as they enjoy getting wet with the crowd attending the event in Patong Beach until midnight.

The Songkran Splash Festival package is now available to book and valid for stays from 11 to 16 April 2016.

For more information and/or reservations, please contact +66 (0) 7634 0106-14 extension 8033 or 8034, email reservations.phuket@amari.com or visit www.amari.com/phuket.

Address: Amari Phuket, 2 Muen-ngern Road, Patong Beach, Kathu, Phuket 83150
Of one mind. Credit: Shutterstock

We use our smartphones so much these days, it almost feels like they have become extensions of ourselves, boosting our capacity to calculate and remember. What might come of this closer union of human and technological device? If police can serve a warrant to search your phone, and we see these devices as extensions of ourselves, how long until investigators one day serve a warrant to search your mind?

This line of thinking was roused by the FBI's legal efforts to force Apple to help them access an iPhone that belonged to a suspected terrorist  something Apple says would undermine the security of its products. This is one of several similar cases, and part of a larger effort by the FBI and intelligence agencies, to ensure they can access a variety of now common devices.

An extended mind?

Philosopher Matthew Noah Smith recently argued that the way we use smartphones to store information such as photos, shopping lists, passwords and messages can be seen as an expansion of our own memory, allowing us to improve our storage and recall. Further still, he argues that they could be considered as extending our minds, drawing on the extended mind thesis first put forward by Andy Clarke and David Chalmers.

Like the abacus 2,500 years ago or the pilot's flight deck controls and gauges today, smartphones allow us to think in ways that we could not otherwise manage. Not only are such technologies integral to maintaining our digital online identity and life offline, they are central to the emergence of "the networked self"  the idea that by simultaneously connecting to many online resources, which in turn enable use to connect to others, we are no longer restricted to the "here and now". This means we can augment our thinking by calling upon collective intelligence: what is often flippantly, but perhaps presciently called the "hive mind".

Through smartphones our cognitive processes become enmeshed in the network  and so by extension, Smith argues, do our minds. On this basis, Smith considers the FBI's legal efforts to unlock a phone as literally a demand to access our minds.

Cultural networked necessity

However, as we tolerate comparable invasive measures for the purposes of law enforcement - such as searching homes, reading diaries or forensically examining computers - perhaps this isn't really about the "extended mind". Perhaps instead the demands of the modern world mean that relying upon these devices to create a "networked self" is no longer optional, but a socio-cultural necessity. It's conceivable that our culture may develop in such a way that in the future it will become impossible to fully realise one's self without being in some way "plugged in".

If we think about it in this way, the smartphone is not simply the equivalent of a home, diary or safe to be cracked open and investigated, but an extension of the self. In the near future technology is likely to blur the boundary between the mind/brain and technology  wearable technologies and augmented reality, for example, will become a significant part of society. And if this is so, we need to give serious thought to how much we are prepared to allow these technologies to be designed by the corporate sector and compromised by the state.

Reading the mind with science

It's clear that Americans are prepared to tolerate significant compromises with regards to what is considered invasive. For example, companies routinely subject individuals to pre-employment, and even ongoing, blood tests. And regardless of their accuracy, there is a cultural acceptance of lie detector tests and even a professional association for lie-detector specialists. Both drug testing and lie detectors are invasive, and the latter can clearly be considered an attempt to peer into the mind. Court cases are also now increasingly presenting brain scans as legal evidence.

This might make us think that there are bigger concerns than smartphones. Virtually everything today that might be considered distinctly human is being subject to neurological analysis. So neuroethics, neuroesthetics, and neurotheology are considered insightful new fields of enquiry. Even the experience of love is framed as a neurochemical phenomenon that, alongside other emotions, feelings and beliefs, is something to be investigated and manipulated.

It's likely that practices in which the mind and the self are in some way invaded will increase. Those who wish to protect the boundaries of the self should be most concerned about the capabilities of the field of neurosciences.

Where to draw the line?

Even if Apple wins this case, there are many others situations in which a court can order you to unlock you smartphone or decrypt a computer, particularly if doing so involves biometrics such as a fingerprint or retina scan. Even with the idea of the "extended mind" it's unlikely that smartphones will be afforded any legal protection. But if we argue that smartphones are part of our minds, then the fact that under some circumstances they can be legally accessed would seem to add legitimacy to idea that neurotechnologies could, and perhaps should, provide police or state security services with access to the mind, via the brain.

If we worry that the state might win the right to access the smartphones that make up our "extended mind", then our first step should be to ensure there are ethical, political and legal protections that will protect our biological, non-extended minds from the potential powers of investigation that the neurosciences may soon make possible.

Explore further Forcing Apple to open doors to our digital homes would set a worrying precedent

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.


I see environmental issues as the largest existential threat to aviation; however I also see aviation as a critical link in solving worldwide environmental challenges, John Hansman says.

Last month, the United States and 22 other countries agreed to the first-ever global carbon emissions standards for commercial aircraft. The standards, set by the United Nations' International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), are estimated to reduce carbon emissions by more than 650 million tons between 2020 and 2040roughly equal to the emissions produced by 140 million cars in a single year.

The standards will apply to all new aircraft designs launched after 2020 and will be phased in for existing aircraft models launched after 2023.

John Hansman, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, led the MIT technical analysis that contributed to setting the standard. MIT News spoke with Hansman about MIT's role in the international negotiations and whether a less polluting fleet will look much different from today's aircraft designs.

Q: What technological and regulatory changes will have to be made in order to meet these aircraft emissions standards?

A: If (the standard) is adapted, basically new airplanes in the future will have to be at the state of the art of fuel efficiency. What that means is, the engines and the aerodynamics of the airplanes will have to be efficient, and the targets for efficiency will vary depending on the size or weight of the airplane: more aggressive for larger airplanes that fly longer distancesthose would be Boeings, Airbus, et ceteranot as tight for small corporate jet airplanes.

Because fuel, particularly in the past few years, has been expensive, aircraft manufacturers have already been trying to make their planes as efficient as possible. This means the current airplanes that are the most efficient, like the Boeing 787 and the Airbus A350, will not changethey already meet the standard. But airplanes we've been producing for a long time, that are older designs, would have to be upgraded. So [the standard] puts a limit on how long those airplanes will be able to be produced before you have to modernize the design.

The airplanes will not look that different from the outside. Most of the changes are subtle and have to do with the engines, like the size of the fan in the engines, internal parts of the engine, the weight of the components, and the aerodynamics. You might see some external shape changes such as winglets, but many aircraft have already incorporated them for efficiency improvements.

Q: Does the technology exist today to meet these standards?

A: Yes. When you determine standards like this, there's always a tension, which is, you'd like to make them as aggressive as possible. But if you make them unrealistically tough, people can't [meet the standard]. So part of the analysis is to determine what's feasible. When the standards were being evaluated, you couldn't assume magic changes in technology. You tend to use the best demonstrated or available technology and aircraft as the existence proof for what you can get.

It's possible that 10 or 20 years from now there will be new technologies. In fact we're working on some, like the D8, Double Bubble [aircraft], which would be an improvement in efficiency well past what this standard would require. But at this point, the D8 is considered an unproven technology.

What we're really doing is bringing everybody up to the level of technology that we know we can meet. There's sort of a sweet spot of pushing the technology enough, but not pushing it so far that people are disincentivized to actually create new designs.

Q: What was MIT's role within this international process?

A: About eight years ago, there was a subcommittee set up within the ICAO's Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection to look at this with members from around the world. We were asked as part of the FAA's Center of Excellence to come on this team to help do technical analysis and modeling of how good the technologies could be, how much improvement you could get, and what the impact would be on certain aircraft designs.

The first phase was to come up with the right metric. We were interested in CO2, but the amount of CO2 you generate is proportional to the amount of fuel you burn. So the ultimate metric became an equivalent to the miles per gallon you'd have for a car, and it's called the Specific Air Range, versus the takeoff weight of the airplane. It was recognized that for higher takeoff weights, you'd have higher performance requirements.

Once the metric was agreed upon, it was then necessary to determine what the target levels would bebasically, what mile-per-gallon performance would be required to certify an aircraft. This will force some aircraft to have to be redesigned. As you can imagine, your view of where to draw the line depends on what country you are and what manufacturers are within your country.

Within MIT, we had worked on developing tools that could model both environmental and cost impacts of policy changes. One is the Aircraft Environmental Design Tool. What it does is to model all the aircraft flights around the world. We can input the performance of each aircraft including its environmental performance. As the aircraft fly, we track the amount and location of emissions of CO2 and other effluents like sulfur dioxide. We can also look at noise impacts. Using the tool, we modeled the impact of the current fleet and then the impact of potential levels of the new standard. For a given level, of the airplanes that didn't meet the standard, we created new designs for those airplane types, and flew the new designs, and modeled what the changed standard's overall environmental impact would be. At the same time we modeled how much it would cost the industry to do this.

Q: This whole process sounds very similar to the wider climate talks that happened in Paris, which did not address aircraft emissions. What do these new standards say about the aviation industry's contribution to and potential mitigation of global CO2?

A: Part of the reason aircraft were not specifically addressed [in Paris] is because they're addressed within the ICAO process. Aviation is one of the few areas for which there is a well-established international process for a common set of operational rules and standards, because airplanes commonly fly around the world. So a system already exists; however, even with our current international aviation processes, agreeing on a CO2 standard was a major challenge.

I also want to say, aviation represents about 2 percent of man-made or anthropogenic CO2 emissions. However, aviation does not have the alternatives (e.g. solar, nuclear, wind) that other emitters such as electrical power generation have. Aircraft have to lift their fuel source, so high energy-density fuels are important. Fossil fuels are currently the most practical. There is much work going on to develop biofuels, but aviation will be just one of the interested users if biofuels can be produced at scale.

I see environmental issues as the largest existential threat to aviation; however I also see aviation as a critical link in solving worldwide environmental challenges. Aviation allows and enables the connections between people around the world, which we need to agree to and implement worldwide solutions to these global challenges.

Explore further UN agency proposes greenhouse gas emissions rules for planes

This story is republished courtesy of MIT News (web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular site that covers news about MIT research, innovation and teaching.
Rumors have been circulating for weeks that Apple is poised to introduce upgraded versions of its small-screen iPhone and of the iPad

Apple on Thursday sent out invitations to a press event at which it is expected to unveil new iPhone and iPad models.

In keeping with its practice, Apple revealed little about the event other than it will take place on March 21 at the company's campus in the Silicon Valley city of Cupertino in California.

A message on copies of the invitations posted online simply states "Let us loop you in."

Rumors have been circulating for weeks that Apple is poised to introduce upgraded versions of its small-screen iPhone and of the iPad, with the new tablet perhaps tailored for use by businesses.

A four-inch screen iPhone that looks similar to the iPhone 5s on the outside by boasts improvements under the hood is expected to get the spotlight at the event, along with an iPad with a screen slightly less than 10 inches diagonally.

The iPad may have keyboard and stylus features aimed at making it more attractive for getting work done. Apple has been trying to ignite sales of its tablets, which declined in the final quarter or last year.

Apple has partnered with IBM on iPad applications for use on the job, and Microsoft has tailored versions of its productivity software for the tablet.

The press event later this month is also expected to feature fashionable new bands for Apple Watch.

Apple has not publicly released sales figures for its Apple Watch, but IDC estimated the company sold 11.6 million of the wearable computing devices last year.

That gave the California giant a market share of around 15 percent, even though its smartwatch sales began in June of last year.

The media event will come a day before Apple faces off with the FBI in federal court in Southern California over whether the company can be compelled to help break into a locked iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers.

Digital rights activists warn that the issue provides little middle groundthat once law enforcement gains a "back door," there would be no way to close it.

But FBI Director James Comey told a congressional panel that some answers are needed because "there are times when law enforcement saves our lives, rescues our children."

Explore further Apple plans iPad event on Oct. 16

 2016 AFP
Beyond the breakers, the ocean is like the Wild West. While not completely lawless, its vastness and remoteness make it hard to observe and more difficult to manage human activity.

Recently developed technology may change that. A navigational safety aid called AIS (Automatic Ship Identification Systems)which transmits publically accessible data on the exact position of ocean-going vessels via satelliteis not only useful for collision avoidance, but also has potential as a means of protecting ocean health. An international group of scientists explored exactly how the power of this information could be harnessed to intelligently manage sustainable futures for fish and fishermen across global oceans.

UC Santa Barbara's Douglas McCauley led the team that analyzed billions of vessel data points to answer two important questions: Is a new cohort of massive marine parks doing its job to stop illegal fishing? And can this data help back a planned United Nations treaty to better manage high seas biodiversity? Their results appear in the journal Science.

"The oceans are home to our planet's most spectacular wildlife, healthiest food and treasured ecosystems," said McCauley, an assistant professor in UCSB's Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology. "We need a new generation of smart observation tools to carefully manage the future of the ocean."

In the past five years, recognition of the diverse values of the ocean has fueled explosive global interest in setting up gigantic ocean parks, but little attention has been paid to how to protect them. In 2015, more of the ocean was protected in these massive parks than ever before.

"These new parks will be a game-changer for the oceans," McCauley said, "but only if they do what they promise." He contends that the new mega-park boundaries are too big to be enforced by boat or plane, but suggests that satellite observation could provide a solution.

So the researchers took satellite-sourced AIS data for a test drive. They watched from thousands of miles away as Kiribati, one of the world's poorest countries, closed the waters around the Phoenix Islands to fishing on Jan. 1, 2015. Almost all fishing boats vacated this California-sized protected area right before it closed. One exception was reported to Kiribati, and officials interdicted and fined the vessel.

Last year, the United Nations committed to drawing up a new treaty to manage biodiversity in the 64 percent of global oceans in international waters. McCauley's team mapped out human use of the high seas in marine areas that lie beyond national boundaries, creating the world's first view of satellite-tracked fishing activity in the Pacific.

According to McCauley, the value of AIS data extends well beyond keeping track of where fishing takes place. He noted that this same data can be used to reduce collisions between whales and ships, to intelligently zone the ocean to keep wildlife safe and marine commerce flourishing, and to monitor the launch of seabed mining operations.

"Determining what is going on out there has previously been like assembling a puzzle in the dark," McCauley said. "But with this new data, it's like someone suddenly turned on the lights."

Nonetheless, the vessel-tracking data has its weaknesses. "The data is only as strong as the policy that backs it up," McCauley said. "Not enough vessels are using AIS transponders and nobody observes whether they are kept on and used properly."

The investigators argue that this poses a double threat to public safety and the environment. "We wouldn't allow airplane pilots to decide whether or not they keep their tracking systems on when landing at busy airports," said McCauley, who pointed out that most of the loopholes in this system could be closed with policy reform.

"For decades, we have been tracking other speciesfrom seabirds to sharksbut now for the first time, we can understand our own ecology, and how and where we impact the oceans on a global scale," said co-author Boris Worm of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. "This is revolutionary information, both from a scientific and policy perspective."

The authors of the paper want to put the power of this new data in everyone's hands. To make that happen, a group called Global Fishing Watch aims to launch a tool that will allow anyone to make free use of AIS data on fishing.

McCauley suggests that in an increasingly crowded world, it is healthy and necessary to embrace smart tech like AIS. "With tools such as this, we stand a real chance of stopping activities that steal food and biodiversity from poor nations, of curbing social injustice at sea and of cooperatively managing a healthy future for our oceans," he said.

Explore further Wildlife loss in the global ocean

More information: "Ending hide and seek at sea," Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.aad5686 Journal information: Science "Ending hide and seek at sea,"
Female Metaseiulus occidentalis, Credit: Aaron Pomerantz

Sequencing and comparative analysis of the genome of the Western Orchard predatory mite has revealed intriguingly-extreme genomic evolutionary dynamics through an international research effort co-led by scientists from the University of Geneva and the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics. In a study published in the journal Genome Biology and Evolution, the researchers detail the initial insights into several remarkable features of the genome of this agriculturally important mite that is widely employed to control plant pests, with thousands shipped to fruit growers every day.

As a major natural enemy of several damaging agricultural pests, the predatory mite Metaseiulus occidentalis is used in many agricultural settings as an effective biological control agent. Some of its favourite prey include spider mites that feed on and destroy various fruits including strawberries, apples, peaches and grapes. "I have been studying the behaviour, ecology, and molecular biology of these mites for more than 40 years," said Prof. Marjorie Hoy lead author from the University of Florida USA, "so I was very keen to sequence the entire genome to reveal the full catalogue of genes." To explore the unique biology of this agriculturally important predator the researchers focused their studies on genes putatively involved in processes linked to paralysis and pre-oral digestion of prey species and its rather rare parahaploid sex determination system, as well as how it senses chemical cues from its surroundings and defends itself from infections.

Compared with other arthropod species, the evolutionary history of this mite's genome has been particularly dynamic. For example, the team's analyses revealed remarkably more intron gains and losses than in other arthropods. "The dynamic gains and losses of introns in the genes of this mite are in stark contrast to its closest relative with a draft genome assembly, the Ixodes tick" described Dr Robert Waterhouse, lead author from the University of Geneva and the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics. They identified five copies of Dicer-2, a gene found almost exclusively in single-copy in other arthropods, suggesting a possible rewiring of RNA processing pathways. The Hox genes, which are important for determining animal body plans and are located in a cluster of neighbouring genes in almost all species examined to date, were found to be completely dispersed across the mite's genome. "This raises questions about how regulatory programmes that turn Hox genes on and off during the coordinated development of complex body plans can be achieved even when the genes are no longer physically close to each other in the genome" explained Dr Waterhouse.

"These resources greatly improve the genomic sampling of chelicerates, a group of arthropods that has so far been poorly represented mainly due to challenges associated with their often very large genomes" said Prof. Stephen Richards from the Baylor College of Medicine USA, where the genome sequencing was performed. Indeed, results from the study's phylogenomic analyses question the relationships amongst some of the major chelicerate groups of mites, ticks, and spiders, further emphasising the need for improved genomic sampling in this clade. This reference genome assembly therefore provides valuable new high-quality resources for future functional genomic and taxonomic analyses of this family of predatory mites and other arachnids.

Explore further Raw material for new genes

More information: Marjorie A. Hoy et al. Genome sequencing of the phytoseiid predatory mite reveals completely atomised genes and super-dynamic intron evolution , Genome Biology and Evolution (2016). Marjorie A. Hoy et al. Genome sequencing of the phytoseiid predatory mite reveals completely atomised genes and super-dynamic intron evolution ,(2016). DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evw048
Lawrence National Centre for Policy and Management Director Paul Boothe is somewhat optimistic the federal and provincial governments can agree on how to share the burden when it comes meeting Canadas lofty 2030 greenhouse gas emissions target. Credit: Paul Mayne // Western News

If any real progress is to be made in meeting the country's ambitious 2030 greenhouse gas emissions target, Canadian policy-makers need to tackle immediately the sensitive question of how to share the burden, according to an Ivey Business School professor.

Set at the UN Paris Climate Conference in December, the Canadian government pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. That is a lofty goal given the fact Canada is not on track to meet its 2020 target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 17 per cent.

In fact, the country's greenhouse gas emissions have risen between 2009 and 2013.

"I wouldn't say I'm optimistic; I'm realistic about this," said Ivey professor Paul Boothe, Director of the Lawrence National Centre for Policy and Management and former Deputy Minister of the Environment.

There is actually a lot of consensus among policy-makers on a number of critical issues related to climate change and greenhouse gas reductions. Where the consensus breaks down, however, is over how to share the burden of the reduction, Boothe stressed. This has been the main point of failure on the issue for the last few decades.

Under the Canadian Constitution, environmental stewardship is a shared responsibility of the federal and provincial governments.

In a recent paper, Sharing the Burden: Canadian GHG Emissions, Boothe and Felix Boudreault, a Lawrence Centre fellow, used Canada's 2020 emissions target to show three alternative approaches to burden sharing:

Egalitarian  reductions based on equal per capita shares of national emissions among the provinces;

Historical  reductions based on historical provincial/territorial shares of national emissions; and

Efficiency  reductions based on shares of emissions reductions implied by the application of a national carbon price sufficient to achieve a given target.

Boothe's research found no clear path to success. No single approach of sharing the burden to reduce greenhouse gases dominated the other as the go-to solution. Each were flawed; each had advantages. The report called a hybrid of two approaches  Historical and Efficiency  "both interesting and promising."

However, while the approaches differ, the implications do not, Boothe noted. We must cut  quickly and seriously. And compromise, he said, will be key.

"It's easy to talk about it in terms of cutting our emissions, but what we really have to do is transform our economies and transform our societies to become low carbon," he said. "If you think the answer is we all go to bed and when the sun goes down we only ride bikes, that's not the answer.

"Our view was there was really no kind of unambiguous way to say one view is better than the other. Having been involved in these kind of discussions on a practical basis, you can either say let's give up because we just can't agree, or you can say the philosophical underpinnings of these things are quite different, but are they really different in practice?"

The hard work of negotiating a federal-provincial collaboration is just beginning.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne recently announced a Cap and Trade Program, providing a range of options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as a 4.3 cent increase in gasoline prices and $5 per month increase in home heating costs.

Prime Minster Justin Trudeau announced last week a pair of initiatives to reduce emissions, with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities receiving $75 million to help local governments reduce emissions and build climate resiliency at the municipal-level, along with $50 million to improve building and infrastructures codes across Canada.

"Even if we have different views about what's the best way to do this, in practice we're not very far apart and, if that's the case, then the likelihood of being able to reach some consensus on how to do this is improved," he said. "You don't have to agree with my philosophy, I don't have to agree with yours, but if we're willing to make a relatively small compromise, then we have something to work with."

Boothe added there are already examples of federal and provincial collaborations on environmental issues, such as air pollution, wastewater pollution and coal-fired electricity regulations. The idea both governments could collaborate on carbon pricing is not far fetched.

Despite Canada most like failing to meet its 2020 greenhouse gas emission goals, Boothe feels confident in the possibility of meeting 2030 goals.

"We have 15 years. Can we meet 2030? Yes. But we need to get going right now and we need to be ambitious in the kind of things we do to transform our economies," he said. "You have to persuade the public, as well, that they need to take some action. It's not an easy road. But is it doable? Absolutely, it's doable."

Explore further Climate policy expert and former government advisor gives Canada a failing grade

More information: Sharing the Burden: Canadian GHG Emissions: Sharing the Burden: Canadian GHG Emissions: www.ivey.uwo.ca/cmsmedia/21696  aring-the-burden.pdf
A guy in late middle age with many interests.
HUDSON FALLS | Malaya Reese Webson, 11 weeks, 6 days young, of Hudson Falls,

New York passed away Saturday, March 5, 2016, in the loving arms of her parents at Morgan Stanley Childrens Hospital, New York City. Malaya fought against Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) as long as her little body could withstand.

She was born Dec. 13, 2015, Sweet Malaya was the daughter of Zsaunelle Dawn Webb and Enock David Webson of Hudson Falls, New York.

Before Malaya was even born, her parents knew of her heart defect, which was closely monitored throughout pregnancy. Its not easy hearing your baby will be subjected to open heart surgery soon after birth (and multiple surgeries after that), but it was said to be something she would overcome. Once born, Malaya spent 9 wonderful days at home with her parents, family and friends. Everything seemed to be okay and she would continue to be monitored until surgery. As first time parents, Nellie and Enock were on cloud 9 with their precious bundle. Their fur baby, Blaze, loved having his new sister around and continued to be very protective of her, as he did when she was still in mommys belly. Mom loved dressing her in the most stylish outfits with matching hair pieces  she was going to be a sweet diva, for sure. Daddys little girl had him wrapped around her little finger from the second he laid eyes on her. Then, on the 10th day home, her difficulties started and she was admitted to Albany Medical Center. She was later transferred to Morgan Stanley Childrens Hospital, where she stayed the remainder of her time with us. Malaya will be missed by far more people than she ever met. She was an angel far too beautiful for Earth.

The depth of the love of parents for their children cannot be measured. It is like no other relationship. It exceeds concern for life itself. The love of a parent for a child is continuous and transcends heartbreak and disappointment. In the short time you were with us, sweet Malaya, you changed our lives forever. We are so grateful for the time we had with you and are only comforted by the fact you are no longer in any pain. May you always be with us and we love you for always. Soar high, our gorgeous little heart warrior.

A funeral service will be held at 2:30 p.m. Friday, March 11, at Flynn Bros. Inc. Funeral Home, 13 Gates Ave. Schuylerville, with the Rev. Martin Fisher, officiating. Calling hours will be from

1 to 2:30 p.m. Burial will follow at Notre Dame Cemetery, 115 Burgoyne Road, Schuylerville, NY.

Malaya is survived by her mother, Zsaunelle Webb and her father, Enock Webson of Hudson Falls; her grandmother, Pamela Webb and her grandfather, George Webb of Ticonderoga; her grandmother, Jennifer Webson of St. Thomas US Virgin Islands; seven aunts including, Angelique Engels of Tampa, Florida, Michelle Webb of

Ticonderoga, Eva Webson of St. Thomas US Virgin Islands, Abigail Webson of Anchorage, Alaska, Ruth Webson of Boston, Massachusetts, Sarah Webson of Springfield, Tennessee, and Hadassah Webson of St. Thomas US Virgin Islands; seven uncles including, Justyn Webb of Hudson Falls, Nick Webb of Pawcatuck, Connecticut, Jared Webb of Ticonderoga, Maher Webson of Salt Lake City, Utah, Solomon Webson of Hanahan, South Carolina, Abraham Webson of Fort Edward, and Phinehas Webson of Hanahan, South Carolina.

She was preceded in death by her grandfather, Derrek Webson.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations to: The Childrens Heart Foundation, P.O. Box 244, Lincolnshire, IL 60069 or by going online to www.childrensheartfoundation.org

The family wishes to extend their gratitude to all the nurses and doctors at Morgan Stanley Childrens Hospital. They are a team of the most caring individuals, who made Malayas

2 month stay as comfortable as they could. Seeing their raw emotion when nothing else could be done for our little girl, was something we will never forget. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.
Inventory needs to be managed and managed well, or you are going to get in recurring trouble, and lose your credibility and hard-earned conversions, whether 

Read more
The minister was speaking at the Tropical Forest Alliance 2020 (TFA 2020) Action Plan on Oil Palm Development in Africa Initiative Regional Workshop organised by Proforest and in collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in Accra.

It is important that palm oil refiners, manufacturers and other actors who influence the sector directly and indirectly come together to find ways of reducing the likely negative impacts and increase its benefits, he said.

We believe this can be done by joining forces with allies who share the same vision and who are ready to forge strategic, mutually beneficial partnerships to work towards set goals, Dr. Alhassan said.

Oil palm development is about our people, our livelihood, heritage, our economy and ultimately our legacy.

"We dont owe its sustainable growth only to the over six million people whose livelihood depend on it, or the consumers all over the world whose lives are better because of the oil palm, but to posterity, he added.

Closing the gaps in this sector and producing oil palm sustainably will require concerted efforts from governments, regional bodies, research institutions, private financiers, investors, technocrats, you and I, to ensure the proper understanding and utilisation of oil palm.

The TFA 2020 is a publicprivate partnership that brings together companies, governments and civil society to reduce deforestation across the globe.
The teenager sustained more than 90 percent burns over her body in Monday's attack and died in hospital early Wednesday, the investigating officer told AFP.

According to the Indian police, the investigation is ongoing and the accused, a 19-year-old, has being arrested.

The accused has been charged with a slew of offences including rape and murder.

"The body has been sent for postmortem. We are waiting for the report,", a police officer told AFP.

Read more: Journalist brutalised by VIO officials for recording fight

Media reports quoted the girl's father as saying the suspect lived nearby in their village in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and that he had been harassing his daughter for a year despite several warnings.
The Minister was addressing a sensitization workshop on cervical and breast cancers organised by the Ministry of Health for women in the health sector to mark this years International Womens Day in Accra.

The day was set aside to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played extraordinary roles in the history of their countries and communities.

Mr Sergbefia said cervical cancer was the leading cause of cancer-related morbidity and deaths among females in Ghana as well as other developing countries.

He said there were over 153,000 types of cancers with more than 11 million people being diagnosed every year and causing seven million deaths annually.

Cervical cancer, he said, often affected women at the end of their reproductive years from 40 to 50 years, though changes in the body that lead to the cancers could start early from the adolescent age.

He asked women to get themselves tested and treated when diagnosed and also to always report to the health facility when they detected any unusual changes on their skin.

Mrs Doris Adjei, the Principal Nursing Officer in charge of Family Planning and Cenicare at the Ridge Hospital who made a presentation on Cervical Cancer, expressed concern that Ghanaian women do not seek early diagnosis.

She urged them to always seek early treatment and ensure that they demanded early testing as a right to prevent the spread of the disease and to be managed when detected.

Other cancers affecting women include Breast Cancer which also has a huge toll on their lives.
A statement signed by the Chief of Staff, Mr Julius Debrah, indicated that the Ministry of Communications would assumed responsibility for the Communications Bureau.

Mr Francis Kwarteng Arthur has also been relieved of his duties as Acting Director of the Information Services Department (ISD).

This was made known in a statement issued and signed by the Communications Minister, Dr Edward Omane Boamah.

The changes follows concerns by workers of the Information Service Department (ISD) who have accused the presidential staffer of taking over their jobs.

The error-prone brochure, authored by the Information Services Department (ISD), referred to Kenya leader Uhuru Kenyatta as the President of Ghana, while describing the 59-year-old country as a low income country among other misrepresentations.
The error-prone brochure, authored by the Information Services Department (ISD), referred to Kenya leader Uhuru Kenyatta as the President of Ghana, while describing the 59-year-old country as a low income country among other misrepresentations.

The Acting Director has taken responsibility for the Anniversary brochure which in many ways has made Ghana a laughing stock among her peers.

"Mr Francis Kwarteng Arthur has been relieved of his duties as Acting Director of the Information Services Department," a statement from the Communications Ministry said.

See also: ISD apologises for errors in Independence brochure

The statement said "the Ministry of Communications assumes responsibility for the Flagstaff House Communications Bureau."
The message recounted a brief comment that South Africa's high commissioner to New Zealand, Zodwa Lallie had made to another domestic worker that same day.

It said: "hi sis how u? I help her and on our way she stop by the kitchen as usual not knowing am waiting just close by and all the things were said and the other lady said she shld have a good day and she responded thanks and that she don't have many pple in this HSE who say those things to her bcos she might have a bad smell! I was like woaw amazing u can say things like this to yr employee? Anyway hope u doing well".

Lallie found out about the message, and confronted Komla over it, telling her she wanted her out of her house immediately, booked her a hotel room, gave her $50, and had a driver take her away.

Komla told stuff.co.nz Lallie wanted her out of the residence immediately.

Komla has worked for South African high commissions in various parts of the world for the past 15 years, and previously worked for Lallie at the High Commission in Ghana.

Komla's contract states she must not "discuss or communicate any information about your employment, your employer or events which come to you [sic] attention through your employment at the official residence".

A breach of that clause entitles the employer to terminate the contract with 24 hours notice.

Komla told the website she apologised and apologised.

I was on my knees crying. I offered to show her the message but she did not want to see it. She said if I did not go she would call police."

She was also told her work visa would be cancelled, and her passport was taken from her. Her passport was later returned to her, but she does not know what will happen to her.
This comes at the back of an appeal by the Attorney General when an Accra High Court. acquitted and discharged Mr Woyome.

Woyome is facing an charge of defrauding by false pretences and has maintained that the judgment debt he obtained was in relation to financial engineering role he played for the Government of Ghana through Bank of Austria, which government failed to approve, even though no money was paid by the Austrian bank.

The judge is expected to, among other issues, decide whether or not the act of going through a bidding process being approved by the Central Tender Review Board without being given a letter to that effect amounts to a breach of which would warrant payment of the gargantuan GH51.28 million.

See also:

Woyome was arrested on February 3, 2012 after the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), which had been commissioned by President John Evans Atta Mills to investigate the payment to him, had implicated him for wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, Alfred Woyome has requested the Supreme Court to allow him additional three years to refund the GHS51.2 million he fraudulently got from the state.

He made the request on Tuesday, March 1, 2016.

See also: Woyome to refund GHC51m in three years
Mr Woyome who spoke to the media briefly after he was acquitted and discharged by an Appeal Court on Thursday, March 10, 2016, said "Today all those who have insulted me because of false information, I have forgiven them."

Read related: Woyome freed again

He said "I have only one thing to say. I believe in Lord God almightyI am encouraging you to believe in your God first and also believe in the court system".

A Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal seeking to overturn the discharge and acquittal of businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome, by a high court in the GH51.28 million judgment debt saga.

Woyome was acquitted and discharged by a high court on charges of defrauding by false pretences and has maintained that the judgment debt he obtained was in relation to financial engineering role he played for the Government of Ghana through Bank of Austria, which government failed to approve, even though no money was paid by the Austrian bank.
Woyome was acquitted and discharged by a high court on charges of defrauding by false pretences and has maintained that the judgment debt he obtained was in relation to financial engineering role he played for the Government of Ghana through Bank of Austria, which government failed to approve, even though no money was paid by the Austrian bank.

According to the Court of Appeal, the appeal did not have any merit due to the fact that the AG could not provide sufficient evidence to have the initial ruling dismissed.

See also: Group sues AG over Woyome money

The controversial payment was made under the tenure of Mrs. Mould Iddrisu as Attorney General.
The gory accident occurred on February 17, 2016 when a Metro Mass Transit vehicle carrying 80 passengers had a head-on collision with a truck loaded with tomatoes which had five people on board.

Below are details of the suit:

THE SUPERIOR COURT OF JUDICATURE

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE

ACCRA AD 2016

SUIT NO.

OSMAN ALHASSAN PLAINTIFF

HOUSE NO. PLOT 5 BLOCK G

MEDUMA KUMASI VRS

METRO MASS TRANSIT COMPANY LTD DEFENDANT

ACCRA

(PLAINTIFF TO DIRECT SERVICE)

STATEMENT OF CLAIM

1. The Plaintiff is a transporter and a resident of Meduma, a suburb of Kumasi.

2. The Defendant is a company registered under the laws of Ghana in the business of operating mass transportation services.

3. The Plaintiff says he is the owner of DAF truck with registration number AS 1544-16.4. The Plaintiff avers that on the 17th day of February, 2016, the said truck began a journey from Burkina Faso with one hundred and forty four [144] cartons of fresh tomatoes on board and heading to Accra.

On reaching Babatokuma in the Kintampo North District in the Brong Ahafo Region, the Defendants bus with registration number AS 7131Y travelling from Kumasi to Bolgatanga negligently run down the Plaintiffs vehicle with the resultant death to the Plaintiffs driver, one of the driver-mates, one of the lady owners of the cargo and very serious injury to one of the driver-mates.

PARTICULARS OF NEGLIGENCE

a) The Defendants driver now deceased was travelling on excessive speed and beyond the speed limit imposed by law.

b) The Defendants driver failed to slow down while negotiating a sharp curve.

c) The Defendants vehicle without due care and attention entered into the lane of the Plaintiffs vehicle in an attempt to overtake a vehicle ahead of the Defendants bus.

d) The Defendants bus whilst still on top speed collided head-on into the Plaintiffs truck resulting in the damage to the Plaintiffs truck, the loss of the cargo it carried and the loss of life of the Plaintiffs driver, one of his driver-mates, one of the lady owners of the cargo and very serious injury to one of the driver-mates.

5. The Plaintiff says in alternative to the above particulars of negligence, that he will rely on the principles of res ipsa loquitur.

6. The Plaintiff says that as a result of the impact of the collision his vehicle was damaged beyond salvage.

PARTICULARS OF DAMAGE

a) Truck with registration number AS 1544-16 is now torn to pieces of scrap. .

b) The 144 cartons of tomatoes and other goods aboard the truck were all destroyed.

7. The Plaintiff says the police visited the scene of the accident.

8. The bus with registration number AS 7131 Y was at the time of the accident owned by the Defendant and thus Defendant is vicariously liable for the negligent conduct of its driver who died along with about sixty one other persons.

9. The Plaintiff says that he purchased the said vehicle and caused it to be redesigned by welders and associate artisans at the total cost of Three hundred and thirteen thousand one hundred and seventy seven Ghana cedis [GHC 313, 177.00).

10. The Plaintiff says that he is left with a balance of Fifty Thousand Ghana cedis (GHC 50,000.00) to be paid to Kwabena Owusu Ansah ,the person from whom the Plaintiff bought the truck, hence, the truck is still in the name of Kwabena Owusu Ansah.

11. The Plaintiff says that the day of the accident was the fourth week of the operation of the truck.

12. The Plaintiff says that the truck brings him weekly income of Nine Thousand Five Hundred Ghana cedis (GHC 9, 500.00) which has now been curtailed as a result of the negligent conduct of the Defendants driver.

13. The Plaintiff says that his driver was carrying with him a cash amount of Fifteen Thousand CFA [CFA 15, 000.00] and Two Thousand Five Hundred Ghana cedis [GHC 2, 500.00] which were lost as a result of the accident caused by the Defendants driver

14. The Plaintiff says that the conduct of the Defendants driver has occasioned him a gargantuan/monumental loss which the Defendant is vicariously liable for.WHEREFORE the Plaintiff claims against the defendant as per the endorsement on the Writ:

i. General Damages for the negligence driving of the Defendants employee resulting in the Plaintiff incurring a lossii. Special Damages as follows:

a. Recovery of the amount of GHC 313,177.00 representing the total cost of the truck no. AS 1544-16

b. Interest on the said amount from the 17th day of February, 2016 to date of final payment.

c. Recovery of the cedi equivalent of the amount of CFA 15, 000.00 and GHC 2,500.00 which were cash sums lost as result of the accident.

d. Weekly income of GHC 9,500.00 representing lost income from the 17th day of February, 2016 till date of final payment.

e. Interest on the said amount from the 17th day of February, 2016 to date of final payment.

iii. Cost including legal fees

iv. Any other reliefs the Honourable Court may deem fit.

DATED AT LEGAL RELIEF TRUST, 22 OROKO ST KOKOMLEMLE, ACCRA THIS 2ND DAY OF MARCH, 2016.

SEIDU H. NASIGRI ESQ.(Licence N0. GAR 11469/16)

SOLICITOR FOR THE PLAINTIFF

REGISTRAR

HIGH COURT,

ACCRA
According to the herdsmen, the joint military and police task force deployed to the area are killing their animals indiscriminately.

120 security Personnel made up of the Military, Police and Immigration were in February this year charged to shoot and kill stubborn cows belonging to Fulani herdsmen in the region.

The Eastern Regional Police Commander, DCOP Awuntubuge Awuni gave the directive during the re-launch of 'operation cow leg meant to drive out Fulanis who are suspected to be causing mayhem in the region.

But spokesperson of the Fulani herdsmen, Alhaji Amadou has complained that the security agencies are harassing them in the process.

"The joint military and police taskforce were in this area accusing us of destroying farmlands and harming the local people here. They brutalised us and arrested us, even though we have not committed any crime. We have lost lot of cattle which were killed," he told Accra-based Joy FM.

But the Police in the area have insisted that they only killed the animals in self-defence.
At it's core it means equality - women are equal to men. This should be reflected at work, in the home and through society.

Women and men should be afforded the same rights and opportunities, but the word and the movement exist because across the world things are not equal between the sexes.

While International Women's Day has passed us for another year, at Pulse.com.gh we are dedicating March to Pulse Women's Month so I asked Afua (last name withheld) a young, Ghanaian feminist for her take on where a woman stands in society here.

She tells me being a feminist means no man will want you, you're a loud difficult woman who'll bring her husband problems, or you want to sleep around and cannot even do the most basic of household chores.

At 22-years-old, Afua's insight is deep, and her anger at how women are treated is relatable. She is one of the most active people in my Twitter feed, using social media to discuss feminism and gender inequality here.

She operates in a space where women are severely under-represented in leadership roles, churches preach women should be subservient and girls on average receive two years less schooling than boys.

Afua is dedicated to fighting for women to be treated fairly in society: "Not being treated like some pinnacles of virtue torn down at one small mishap that a blind eye would have be turned to if it were a man."

She rallies against the expectation women should be submissive to men, where society ensures the man is unquestionably right and a woman is second to him.

Women's bodies are highly policed and being considered a "good girl" is paramount. She says religion is the base of these beliefs and people hide behind religion to get away with harming women and girls.

The ingrained rules Afua grew up with, demand a woman never raise her voice to a man, but when she needs to convince him to do something "stroke his ego and speak in a soft voice".

There are unspoken rules to put women below men, "you just know them. See and learn," she says.

A man has to be richer and smarter, and a woman can not withhold sex, ever speak about menstruation or ask her partner to get sanitary items for her or "you'll turn him into a barima kotobenku [an emasculated man/a manwoman]," Afua says.

Afua says there's pressure to choose a career that will allow you to pack up and follow your husband wherever his takes him.

However, Afua says there is hope.

Gradually, the younger generation of men are seeing how important gender equality is.

Afua says she use social media as a form of rebellion to speak out against societal norms.

"[That] women should not be too outspoken, shouldn't talk about sexual activities, they should focus on making themselves good women for their future husbands' and then we have this girl, not a Ghanaian living abroad, no. A Ghanaian, living in Ghana, saying all these things."

Afua says it's impossible to note her views were formed from foreign exposure because she was born and raised here. She expects this makes people uncomfortable, but in the future she wants to provide women with the resources they need to live lives on their own terms.

Until then she is using her writing to "raise awareness and encourage people to think about all we've accepted and then ask 'why?'."

And it's not only in Ghana where the gender balance is severely lacking.

In December, the United Nations released its Human Development Report, which showed that women earn an average of 24 percent less than men and occupy less than a quarter of senior business positions worldwide.

Women carry out 52 percent of all global work, and are less likely to be paid for their work than men, with three out of every four hours of unpaid work carried out by women.

The report included 2009 figures from Ghana that found total unpaid work per day for women was 220 minutes and 68 for men, while social and leisure minutes was 169 for women and 254 for men.

And, when they are working, women are earning less. Figures for estimated gross national income per capita for women in Ghana in 2011 was $3,200, and for men, $4,515.

The gap in education is also striking, 2014 figures found the mean years a girl will be at school is 5.6 and for a boy, 7.9 years.

And while my country New Zealand will proudly boast we were first to give women the vote, as the report shows, New Zealand isn't exactly winning when it comes to gender equality.

Looking at 2014 figures for estimated gross national income per capita, women earned $24,309 to men's $41,372.

Statistics from 2009 -2010 show New Zealand women undertook 247 minutes of unpaid work a day, while men were at 141 minutes. Paid work for women was 143 minutes and for men 254 minutes, however, the leisure minutes were the same.

While International Women's Day was just March 8, we should be mindful of these huge gaps between the genders everyday, and work to lift women up, and close that gap of inequality, whether that means taking shared responsibility in household chores, fighting to get more women into parliament, or stopping the judgement and policing over what a woman chooses to wear.
The RTI Bill, when passed into Law, would facilitate citizens access to information on how public funds are being disbursed and what government plans to do in their name and on their behalf.

The Law would also hold public office holders accountable for the management of public resources and ensure judicious use of public funds.

The bill, which has undergone several amendments since 2013 finally found space on the floor of parliament on Wednesday.

But the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Edward Doe Adjaho, had to refer the Bill to the Legal and Constitutional Committee of the house following concerns raised over definitions given to some aspects of the Bill in its introductory clause.

Ranking Member on the Legal and Constitutional Committee of Parliament, Joe Osei-Owusu has said it will be difficult to predict how soon the bill will be passed considering how the debate on the bill is ongoing on the floor of the House.

"If you look at the amount of work in the document, If I had my own way, I would have returned the document to the Attorney General to redraft it and incorporate all the amendments," he told Accra-based Joy FM.
The call comes on the heels of the 2014 Auditor General's reported that accused the corporation of financial irregularities.

The auditor general report that:

But ACEP in a press release signed by the Executive Director, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam said "We therefore call for a special probe into GNPCs finances to establish the corporations financial requirements, its capacity to manage oil revenue allocated to it, as well as other commercial loans it may contract; and how such financial decisions that depart from the corporations functions were arrived at."

ACEP also wants parliament to amend the GNPC law 64 to bring the corporations activities under parliamentary scrutiny.

"Parliament should amend the GNPC Law 64 to bring the corporations activities under parliamentary scrutiny, including approvals of loans, budgets, and use of resources."
He further questioned whether the EC has began processes to fully implement the recommendations of the Justice VCRAC Crabbe panel, which accepted submissions and proposals on the subject of a new voters register.

There was a national debate over whether or not the EC should compile a new voters' register or just clean and maintain the current one.

A five member panel was put together by the Electoral Commission to consider all proposals regarding the debate on the voters' register.

But the EC subsequently indicated that the panel set up to look into concerns surrounding the call for a new voter register "finds the arguments for a new register unconvincing and therefore does not recommend the replacement of the current voters register."

However, Mr. Arhin believes the EC must prioritise the concerns raised by stakeholders about the voters register ahead of the November polls.

If the register is being disputed by stakeholders would it qualify to be used for elections as we have in Ghana at the moment? Our register is being highly disputed by the stakeholders especially by the political parties and what efforts are being made by our commission to clean, to update to make it ready for the election that we are about to conduct in November 2016? he asked.

He added that issues of the credibility of the voters' register in Uganda which affected the outcome of elections in that country should be a wakeup call for Ghana's EC to take appropriate steps to deal with concerns about the register.
Nortey, a former constituency chairman, won the initial primary organized by the NPP in August 2015.

His main contender and a member of the NPP legal team, Philip Addison managed to get the results annulled by an Accra High Court.

Addison polled 396 out of the 765 votes cast to beat Nii Noi Nortey, who polled 367 votes.

There are already concerns that Nii Nortey's decision to contest as an independent candidate will destroy the fortunes of the NPP in this years parliamentary elections.

Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the NPP, Ishmael Ashietey has subsequently told Radio Ghana of the party's intentions to ensure Nii Nortey rescinds his decision.

"Everybody should remain calm and I believe Nii Noi believes in the NPP as the party that can bring progress to this country. And he wouldn't do anything to jeopardise our chances of winning power in 2016.
About halfway through the flight, a passenger across the aisle noticed something was moving inside the woman's bag. He alerted the crew who opened the bag and discovered a young girl.

Read more: 6 breathtaking places in Africa every adventurous Nigerian should visit before they die

The woman, who is a French resident, had started an adoption process for the four-year-old Haitian girl. Air France confirmed the incident to Mashable.

The woman was taking the child back to France, but was not allowed to board the second leg of her journey in Istanbul.

The woman then decided to buy another ticket and hide the child in her bag. After boarding, she placed the bag at her feet underneath a blanket. Halfway through the flight, the girl started complaining that she needed to go to the bathroom, and she was discovered.

Read more: 7 popular tourist attractions everyone who visits England must check out

Air France said it "requested the presence of the French authorities on the flight's arrival." The carrier also added it "will fully cooperate with the ongoing investigation being conducted by the competent authorities."
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!
Following the release of Kristina's cause of death which had shown drugs and drowning, Gordon's lawyers have now released a statement that suggests that the late star had committed suicide.

The statement which had been released yesterday, proclaiming Gordon's innocence, especially after he had been a suspect in his lover's death, reveals that he had tried to save Kristina the night she had been found face down in her bathtub.

Read the statement below:

Nick Gordons life has been tumultuous since January of 2015 when he lost the love of his life. On top of being prohibited from visiting Bobbi Kristina at the hospital for the last six months of her life, Nick has been publicly humiliated for more than a year.

"Throughout that time, the Fulton County District Attorneys office has tried to make Nick a murderer despite having clear and convincing evidence that Bobbi Kristinas death was nothing more than a tragic accident, evidence that the District Attorneys office fought to seal and conceal from the public rather than allowing her fans to know the truth.

"The truth is that Nick tried to save Bobbi Kristinas life. The truth is that Nick cooperated with law enforcement since day one. The truth is that no one loved Bobbi Kristina more than Nick and no one has suffered more as a result of her death than Nick.

"The Fulton County District attorneys office even now continues to suggest that there is an ongoing investigation. However, at the recent hearing regarding unsealing the autopsy report, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Henry Newkirk repeatedly reiterated that the Fulton County District Attorneys Office has had 13 months to investigate. By failing to acknowledge that there is simply no evidence of any wrongdoing, they have in essence helped feed the slanderous media frenzy regarding Nick Gordon.

"Frankly, the right thing for the District Attorneys office to do right now is to tell the public the truth that this was an accident or even a suicide, but not a murder. And the right thing for everyone to do is let Nick live his life now and let Bobbi Kristina rest in peace.
Vanguard reports that the pastor identified as Prophet Benjamin Bernard had defiled his 3rd daughter on January 26, 2016 with the minor led as evidence in the case against him.

The minor whose identity has been withheld, was led in evidence by Ugiagbe, who revealed to the court that after defiling her, Bernard had reportedly used a white handkerchief to clean her private part.

The 7-yr-old revealed that her father warned her not to mention the to anyone else, threatening to kill her if she crossed him.
Ibrahim, who says he specialises in stealing phones, told the police he has been stealing since his childhood, and confessed that he had stolen over 100 phones since he started.

It was gathered that Ibrahim was arrested by operatives of Rapid Response Squad of State Police Command, at the Ikeja Along end of the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway while he was returning from a burglary in the Ilupeju area of the state on Sunday, March 6.

Ibrahim also told the police that he usually sold the stolen items to one Sanni Azeez and Hakeem Kamoru, who were also arrested following his confession.

Read his confession here:

I derive pleasure in taking what does not belong to me. The act of stealing has become part of me. I am a specialist in burgling peoples houses. I used to gain entrance into any house by breaking the door or cutting window net with a razor blade.

Apart from burglary, I also operate during traffic jams, especially on Ikorodu Road, Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway and Apapa-Oshodi Expressway.

The last operation I went for was at Ilupeju where luck ran out on me. I stole two Nokia phones, one BlackBerry and other valuables. The receivers of the phones I stole are Sanni (Azeez) and Hakeem (Kamoru). They live on Akala Street, Mushin.

The Commander, RRS, Olatunji Disu, narrated how his men were able to arrest Ibrahim after he was given a chase on noticing that his movement was suspicious, adding that he was arrested when he could not give satisfactory answers to questions they asked him.

We noticed his suspicious movement. He wanted to drop his bag in one corner, but when he found out that we had seen him, he bolted.
According to the report, Muhoozi attempted killing himself in his Top View Hostel dormitory room at about 4pm on Tuesday, March 8.

The report reads:

"His friends reported that the boy was unhappy with the state of things with his girlfriend identified only as and after attempts to stop her from cheating, he tried to kill himself.

The friends revealed that Muhoozi, a first year student of Social Work and Social Administration, had called Nahabwe, his girlfriend and also a student of the campus, who had promised earlier to spend Womens Day with him but her phone was instead picked up by another male.

Distraught and emotionally unbalanced, Muhoozi grabbed a knife and slit his own throat. His friends however managed to sabotage his plan as they rushed him to the hospital where he currently is fighting for survival.
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.
The EFCC made the fresh claim on Thursday, March 10, 2016, before the Federal High Court in Abuja, Punch reports.

The anti-corruption agency further said that the mansion in question was bought with the sum of N1.1 billion which was allegedly laundered from the accounts of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF).

The EFCC also urged the court not to grant Badeh bail as he might try to escape in order not face the shame the trial would cause.

The claim of $1 million being found in Badehs home had earlier been made by the EFCC but was denied by the ex-CDSthrough his lawyer, Samuel Zibri.

A statement released by Zibri read:

Our attention has been drawn to the publication by Punch Newspaper of March 7th 2016 to the effect that the sum of $1,000,000(One Million US Dollars) cash was recovered in the house of Air Chief Marshal A.S Badeh(Rtd).

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.

The ten (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 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.
Kachikwu made the announcement on Tuesday, March 8, and the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) decided on the strike the same day.

According to the unions, they were upset because the minister didnt carry them along in making the decision.

We do not accept any unilateral and arbitrary restructuring. The minister cannot restructure NNPC without carrying all stakeholders along. The minister cannot run the industry as a private estate. He must carry all Nigerians along, a spokesman for PENGASSAN, Lumumba Okugbawa told Premium Times.

With such a massive decision-making, a lot of things would be affected, particularly its implication on workers interest. We are unaware of what is happening. It is not fair that the workers are hearing about the restructuring in the media just like every other person. He is just creating unnecessary confusion in the polity, he added.

However, despite the fact that Mr Okugbawa claims to be acting in the interest of all Nigerians, the strike was in fact a selfish act meant to secure the unions interests and no one elses.

This is because the action has worsened the fuel shortage in the country and thrown Nigerians into even more misery.

Did NUPENG and PENGASSAN hold a meeting with Kachikwu and get rebuffed before going on strike? No. Did they ask the minister for an explanation before taking matters into their own hands? No.

The unions saw an opportunity to hold the government, and all Nigerians, to ransom and they took it without asking thereby worsening an already terrible situation.

After the shutdown of NNPC facilities, Kachikwu told Reuters that he would meet with the workers immediately to resolve the issues and explain that the split was just an attempt to reorganize the company and nothing more.

We are going to have a meeting with them right now. I don't want the industry shut down - I am going now to resolve the issues very soon, he said.

The oil workers couldve gotten this explanation before going on strike and saved the country all the hassle that the shutdown has caused.

The NNPC crisis is also a sign of a much deeper problem thats plaguing Nigeria; a resistance to change.

Nigerians keep reminding President Muhammadu Buhari that he promised them change, Wheres the change? they keep asking. Yet every time the president or any member of his administration tries to do something different, they scream No! Goodluck Jonathan did it better!

The entire situation is reminiscent of the Bible story of Moses and the Israelites, who, despite being freed from slavery, could only think of the Egyptian onions they could no longer have.

No change worth making is easy, none whatsoever. According to bestselling author, Robin Sharma, All change is hard at first, messy in the middle and so gorgeous at the end.

James Belasco and Ralph Stayer also said in their book Flight of the Buffalo that Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they haveand underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up.

This is not an attempt to absolve the Buhari government of blame, but if Nigerians want change, they must give it a real chance. If we keep resisting every slight modification to the status quo and bringing up the past, we are unlikely to move forward as a country.

As John F. Kennedy said, Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
The Chairman of the committee, Senator Tayo Alasoadura, said the minister's decision is in the best interest of the country.

Speaking to newsmen after after a closed-door meeting with Kachikwu at the National Assembly in Abuja on Thursday, March 10, Alasoadura stressed that the reorganization at the NNPC to reposition it for optimal performance.

The senate had yesterday, March 9, indicated that it would probe the NNPC 'unbundling' after workers of the corporation shut down operations, leading to a nationwide fuel scarcity.

Kachikwu had clarified that what is going on at the NNPC is not unbundling but just reorganization.

He is working in the best interest of Nigeria. Now that the price of oil is going down, if we do not restructure, we might run into more problems as a country," Alasoadura said.

Why we invited him was to be sure that the law was not contravened and we are convinced.

From figures made available to us, NNPC in recent times lost about N30 billion monthly, but because of the restructuring, it lost only N3 billion, last month.

The minister assured that the restructuring when completed, will help to end any form of loss.

The only problem we had was that we were not consulted and the Minister of State adequately apologised, he added.

In his earlier comment, Kachikwu stressed that NNPC is not being unbundled, assuring that it would no longer be business as usual at the Corporation.

He said: I may have been misunderstood, but I want to assure you that it would no longer be business as usual; we will run a profitable entity.

I want to assure you that we will create new ideas that we will create new challenges for people who are in the system, that we will create new career part for people, that we will create accountability.

Every publication we have done since September, if you take time to read the numbers, you will see how they are moving very positively, both in terms of volume, in terms of reduced loss position.

It is also in terms of massive reduction in the cost environment rate.

So, I think we are going into a threshold where the measures are going to be the major focus for us because we have to deal with outstanding debts.

Others are new funding for them to do a hundred per cent production platform and that is the only way you can increase incremental barrels."
Sources close to the South African embassy in Nigeria told Pulse that President Jacob Zumas visit was principally meant to divert attention of his countrymen from the critical governance issue like corruption that has characterized his government.

The sources said further that, having suffered thorough humiliation during his state of Union Address and narrowly survived a no-confidence vote in South African parliament in the past week, Zuma decided to cash-in on the Nigeria-MTN face-off to shore-up his domestic rating, which is at its all-time low.

Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) had fined MTN, a South African company over SIM card registration but in its proposal for settlement of the face-off with the Nigeria government, MTN planned to pay N300 billion only out of the N1.04 trillion that was later reduced to N780 billion.

Why now? Why is it now, after nearly 8 years in power that Zuma chose to acknowledge Nigerias anti-apartheid efforts? After humiliating Nigeria and her people during the death and burial of the anti-apartheid icon, Nelson Mandela an influential Nigeria politician asked.

He queried further why president Zuma kept quiet since the face-off began and chose to intervene in the MTN dilemma now. He said Zumas sudden overture to Nigeria on the seized arms funds may have been a face-saving measure, havent kept mum since the money was seized in 2014.

The South African left-wing opposition party, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), led by the radical Julius Malema, had dragged the countrys president, Jacob Zuma to Court for ignoring a 2014 report by the anti-corruption watchdog, known as Public Protector, in which Zuma was indicted for illegally using $23 million of public funds to upgrade his residence in his home village of Nkandla.

The protest by thousands of men and women in red dress, the trademark of the Economic Freedom Fighter Party, is in reaction to what they perceived as an attempt by Zumas administration to cover-up the 2014 report in which he was said to have unduly benefitted. The aim of EFFs litigation was for the Constitutional Court to rule that Mr. Zuma flouted the constitution of South Africa by the way he ignored the report. This would have paved the way for president Zumas impeachment.

An influential politician in Nigeria, Umar Duhu, told pulse that Zumas visit might not be unconnected with the influence of the present Nigeria government in the African politics.
The burial date was disclosed by Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal during a meeting of the Federal Executive Council on Wednesday, March 9.

The Service of songs will hold on March 17 at the International Conference Centre, ICC, Abuja by 7 pm, Lawal said.

The bodies of James Ocholi, his wife, Blessing, and son, Joshua, will depart the National Hospital Abuja same day (March 17) for his home town, Dekina, in Kogi state where a wake-keep will take place. Internment will take place on March 18 by 12 pm in Dekina, he added.

Meanwhile, the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has said that the minister and his family died due to over speeding.

-----------------------------------------------
Vanguard reports that they were arraigned on a two count charge before Magistrate (Mrs) B.O. Osunsanmi.

The charge sheet obtained from Vanguard reads: on the 3rd day of March, 2016, at Agiliti. Mile 12, Ikorodu road, Lagos, in the Lagos Magisterial district, did conspire amongst yourself to commit felony to with: riot and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 409 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

The Magistrate granted them bail, despite objections by the Prosecutor, Osuyi Goddy, of the police legal department.

The suspects also pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.

To secure their bail, they are expected to present the sum of N200,000 each with two sureties in like sum.

The Magistrate also ordered that the sureties must be blood relatives. She also adjourned the case to April 7, 2016.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Communications, Gilbert Nnaji, made the demand at a meeting with MTN, Accountant General of the Federation and other stakeholders in Abuja on Thursday, March 10.

He also frowned at the "recovery account" opened for the N50 billion part-payment of the fine.

"If MTN actually paid, why did it disregard payment into NCCs coffers as statutorily obliged?

"If MTN paid into CBNs Recovery Account, on whose directive did the network do so and what legal backing does CBN have to lodge the money in a recovery account."

The committee expressed concern over the role played by Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami, in the out of court settlement between Federal Government and MTN.It decried the exclusion of Ministry of Communications and the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), from the out of court settlement.

Nnaji contended that the proposal by MTN for reduction of the fine to N300 billion was accepted by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation.

Nnaji said the Attorney General agreed to the reduction without recourse to the Ministry of Justice and the NCC.

"As a committee, we find it worrisome that the issue of compliance on the part of MTN can linger till now.

"On the other hand, N50 billion was claimed to have been paid by MTN out of the reduced fine of N780 billion.

"We gathered from the regulator, NCC, that the commission neither received the N50 billion nor was it notified of such payment.

"There were claims and counterclaims on the pages of newspapers that the Minister of Communications Technology acknowledged the payment.

"Other sources claimed that MTN paid the money into the Central Bank of Nigerias Recovery Account.

Reacting, the Accountant General of the Federation, Mr Ahmed Idris, said he acted on the demand of the Attorney General, adding that he was never aware of what money was going to be put in that account.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the destruction took place at a dump site at Otta, Ogun. A NAFDAC staff on site, who preferred anonymity, said, "this is a case which has been concluded."Guinness has been given permission to destroy the expired raw materials belonging to them while we supervise.

"We have two products, the malt extracts in drums and glucose in packs. We have worked for three days and I still see us working till the next one week On the first day, we had a simulation test with a truck of each of the materials to see how the process would go.

On the quantity of raw materials to be destroyed, the staff said "each truck has 18 bags for the glucose and another truck of 72 drums of malt extract. We destroyed five trucks of malt extract yesterday, with each containing 72 drums of malt extract and 10 trailers of glucose with each containing 18 bags.

Today, we are here with five trucks of the drums of malt extract and 10 trailers of the bags of glucose and we have about 2,600 of the drums. Mr Ernest Abu, Manager at Guinness said "the exercise is based on a resolution between NAFDAC and Guinness. I am only on ground to ensure that the destruction goes according to acceptable safety standards.

NAFDAC had on Nov. 9, 2015, written a letter on 'Payment of Administrative Charges for Various Clandestine Violations to the Managing Director of Guinness Nigeria Plc.

The fine was for administrative charges for all the destruction carried out by the company without authorization and supervision of NAFDAC. The letter said some of the regulatory infractions included, "All the revalidation of expired products without authorisation and supervision of the agency.

It also included the "failure to secure the gates of the warehouse as it is permanently opened to intrusion and exposure to the elements and rodents which invariably affect the integrity of Guinness raw materials.

Others were the poor documentation record and noncompliance with conditions contained in the certificate of the re-validated malt extract. This required the storage of the items in cool and dry place and elimination of exposure to sunlight.In view of the above, NAFDAC mandated Guinness to disclose all warehouses in the country and submit inventory level of the stock.

Other included the submission of a written voluntary consent of forfeiture for destruction of the expired and re-validated raw materials discovered in the warehouse. Also, the submission of a notarised undertaking to comply with all the guidelines, rules, regulations and enactments of the agency and to refrain from any future violations was required.

A source at NAFDAC had told NAN that the Investigation and Enforcement Directorate of NAFDAC had gone on site to inspect the warehouse in question and discovered acts that violated NAFDACs mandate.

The company was subsequently fined and told to comply within two weeks of receipt of the letter sent to them.However, an investigation by NAN had revealed that the packs of most of the raw material in the warehouse inspected by NAFDAC were covered by dust and some of the packs of sugar were torn and open.

Some blue barrels of the malt extract had expired best before/due dates of 04/2015 and 06/2015 while some barrels had white papers on them with an `extend to dates that were not approved by NAFDAC. In reaction, management of Guinness Nigeria had issued a release saying that they were not aware of their infringements.

"The management of Guinness Nigeria does not fully understand the basis for the computation of the administrative charges or the particular regulations alleged to have been infringed.
Sequel to exhaustive deliberations between our GMD and GEC of PENGASSAN and NUPENG, the corporate-wide strike has been suspended, the oil corporation said via its Twitter handle today, March 10.

Kachikwu had announced the splitting of the NNPC on Tuesday, March 9 and the strike was decided upon by the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) the same day.

According to the unions, they were opposed to the splitting of the company because they were not carried along in the decision making process.
Osinbajo clocked 59 on Tuesday, March 8, 2016.

According to Leadership, the items donated by the VP include: cartons of milk, noodles, vegetable oil, antiseptic soap, spaghetti, sausage rolls, mosquito nets, water, tomatoes, detergents and toothpastes.

Reports say the donation was made by Pastor Seyi Malomo, the Chaplain of the Aso Villa Chapel, on behalf of Osinbajo.

The Vice President also made a call for a new calibre of Nigerians to dislodge corruption.

He also added that corruption has penetrated every sector of the Nigerian economy.

The VP also came under fire from Dr. Doyin Okupe for saying that that the Federal Government did not constructed a single road in the last 10 years.

Nigerians also wished the Vice President a happy birthday on various social media platforms.

Yemi Osinbajo was born on March 8, 1957.
The drop is shown in data sourced from the Nigerian Systems Operations Department of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).

The data shows that on Wednesday, March 9, 2016, power generation was 1,580.6MW, with the Ikeja Electric getting 237.09MW; Abuja, 181.77MW; Eko, 173.87MW; Benin, 142.25MW; Enugu, 142.25MW, Ibadan, 205.48MW; Jos, 86.93MW; Kano, 126.45MW; Kaduna, 126.45MW; Port Harcourt, 102.74MW; and Yola, 55.32MW.

The decline was also confirmed to Punch by officials of the different electricity distribution companies.

Officials in the power sector also blamed the development on gas pipeline vandalism.

Gas is vital for power generation and most of the electricity being generated in Nigeria is produced by gas-fired power plants. Both the ministers of power and petroleum have often called on Nigerians to help safeguard these infrastructure, but we keep recording explosions of gas pipelines, an official told Punch.

Currently, repairs are ongoing on some of the ruptured pipelines and once they are completed, we believe generation will pick up again, the official added.

Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu also told journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, March 8 that vandalism had become a serious problem for the power and oil and gas sectors.

----------------------------------------------
Sun News reports that as the Governor got up to speak, an IPOB member stood up and started talking about the groups agenda.

Reports say the government officials with the Imo Governor made an effort to stop him from disrupting the meeting.

While they were trying to stop the young man from disrupting the Governors speech, another young man mounted the podium with the Biafran flag.

He was however stopped by some Nigerian officials who were with the Governor.

They IPOB members later left, after they were persuaded by Governor Okorochas aides.
It's been a hot minute since Olivia Pope and Associates helped out the White House. This week the group is called to get the secret service out of a sticky situation, but are they up for the challenge?

ALSO READ: undefined

The Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, recently set while fund-raising in Los Angeles.

The ABC political drama "Scandal" features Goldwyn as Fitzgerald Grant, the President of the United States of America, who was married to Mellie Grant and having an affair with the White House aide, Olivia Pope.

ALSO READ: undefined

The show returned for the second half of it's fifth season with Mellie campaigning for president. On March 3, 2016, ABC renewed all Shonda Rhimes' Thursday dramas; from "
Fayose gave his response on Wednesday, March 9, 2016, via a statement released by his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi.

It reads in part:

I am just coming from Abuja and I know that our lawmakers are solid guys and their future and mine are tied together. When the APC was at its peak in the state and they wanted to use 19 lawmakers to impeach me, they failed woefully and they will still fail again.

This is a storm in a tea cup. They are not just starting I defeated them in all courts in the land. I wont deter from saying the truth about the federal government. 

We are in the morning we have not seen what the night is going to be. If it is me that brought myself here they will succeed, but if it is God, they will have to first overcome God before overcoming me.

The bribe allegation was made by the Chairman, House Committee on Information, Hon. Gboyega Aribisogan during a press conference on Tuesday, March 8.

In the last four days, eight of our members 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, Aribisogan said.

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.

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.

The last Friday 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.

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," he added.
The Chairman of the Ekiti House Committee on Information, Honorable Gboyega Aribisogan, who alleged that the DSS carried out the President's order, said Buhari should tell his 'boys' to free the detained legislators.

While briefing journalists at the National Assembly complex, Aribisogan said: Like we have maintained, plotters of evil against the government of Ayodele Fayose and by extension the people of Ekiti State will not get our support.

We, members of the State House of Assembly are prepared to spend the rest of our tenure in DSS cell, instead of plotting against our leader and mentor, Governor Ayodele Fayose.

He continued: Gone are those days in Nigeria when impeachment notices against governors were signed on the table of the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and this time around, if the DSS is programmed to play the role played by the EFCC under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, it will fail.

Also, if this harassment and intimidation is about 2018, we wish to state unequivocally that we in the PDP are fully on ground in Ekiti. We are not playing diaspora politics as being done by the APC and Nigerians should be rest assured that the APC will be defeated once again.

We wont be intimidated by any agency of the Federal Government, the DSS inclusive.

We have also been told that some of us have been slated for arrest and detention and it is on this note that we have come to inquire from the DSS those of us they still want to arrest so that we can turn ourselves in without giving them the stress of coming down to Ekiti.

The DSS can also go ahead and publish the names of our members that they want to arrest so that we will know who among us to bring to Abuja.

Alternatively, the DSS can keep the entire 26 members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly in their custody for as long as they desire so that it will be easy for them to call anyone of us for questioning at any time of the day.
Kwankwaso was said to have paid a condolence visit to Governor Abdullahi Ganduje over the death of his mother with an entourage of supporter who became violent.

The ex-governor was alleged to have deliberately turned the rally into violence.

Speaking to newsmen in Kano on Thursday, March 10, APC chairman in the state, Umar Doguwa, condemned Kwankwaso's action, stressing that he must face disciplinary action.

The party and its leadership hierarchy, as enshrined in APC constitution, must be respected at all times by party members in respective of their position," Doguwa said.

The party leader today in Kano is nobody but Governor Umar Abdullahi Ganduje, who also must be respected by every person.

The party would leave no stone unturned in ensuring discipline, orderliness and loyalty as prescribed by the constitution of the APC.

Such case of party indiscipline committed by Senator Kwankwaso will be thoroughly investigated and dealt with in accordance with the constitution of the party, he said.

Kwankwaso allegedly hired a crowd that crossed over the perimeter fence of the Kano airport and damaged some installations.

When the hired crowd was denied access to the airport premises, they climbed over fences, breaking the iron barriers and destroying the Security scanners. All the pictures are available for confirmation.

Also, the hired thugs were busy distributing presidential campaign posters, car stickers reading Kwankwassiya 2019, Engr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso for President, among others, Doguwa said.

The APC chairman said when other dignitaries from all walks of life  including those from the opposition party  came to condole with the governor, none of them made their visits violent.

During the senators visit, there was a violent rally and open show of thuggery as his supporters were seen openly wielding machetes, swords and other dangerous weapons, he said.
The resolution followed the adoption of a motion by the Majority Leader, Friday Sani (PDP-Igalamela-Odolu) at plenary.

Sani said that he agreed with the position of the House of Representatives on the provision of Section 11(4) of the Constitution.

The section empowers the National Assembly to make laws for a state when the state House of Assembly is unable to perform its functions.

He, however, contended that the House of Representatives was hasty in its decision to seal up and take over the functions of the Assembly without considering sub-section 5 of the section.

The Section 11(5) according to him, states: For the purpose of Section 4 of this section, a House of Assembly shall not be deemed to be unable to perform its function so long as the House of Assembly can hold meeting and transact the Assembly business.

The legislators held that the House had been performing its functions, having sat on Dec. 16 and 29, 2015 as well as March 2 and 11.

It may interest this House to note that State Assembly does not fall into the category of either Section 11(1), (2), (3) and (4) as anticipated by the House of Representatives.

This is in addition to the matter filed by the leadership of this House at the Federal High Court, Lokoja, which the hearing notice was granted by the court dated March 1st, to April 6th, he said.

Adoke Bello (PDP-Adavi) seconded the motion which was supported by all the members at plenary.

In his contribution, Bello Hassan (APC-Ajaokuta) said the action of the National Assembly to seal up and take over the state assembly was ill-motivated, bias and unconstitutional.
According to facebook user, Eric Gaines, who posted the picture online said it was a powerful moment.

Gaines narrated that the teen while walking by the homeless man stopped to pray him.

"I watched as this young kid was walking pass, stopped and walked over to this sleeping homeless man; touched him and began praying over him... This was an amazing sight! I pray this kid becomes a leader amongst his peers, and continues on this path!! Not all Baltimore youth are lost," the post says

Speaking to ABC News, Gaines said Everyone who saw him in the area was moved.

He almost missed his bus because he stopped to pray for the homeless man, Gaines added.
It has also been revealed that four students were allegedly injured as the protest became more violent.

Yesterday, March 9, four freshmen were injured when students, 3,500 of them, were gathered for an orientation programme and the workers from three non academic unions emerged to disrupt proceedings.

Vice Chancellor of the institution, Professor Idowu Olayinka said of the incident, "while trying to run for safety, about four students were seriously injured and they have been taken to the school clinic.It is so unfortunate that the freshers were exposed to vigorous union protest, it could have been your daughter or my own son."

He added it was better to have students over 3,500 safe and sound than going ahead with the matriculation and risking their lives.
This comes after the house invited the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, and the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, to appear before it next week to explain and justify their roles in the negotiation process.

According to Nigeria CommunicationsWeek, reports surfaced yesterday suggesting that MTN had, in its proposal for a settlement with the Federal Government, had only planned to pay N300 billion out of the N780 billion fine.

MTN's plan reportedly involved a N50 billion 'goodwill' payment, another N100 billion cash payment, and the balance sorted out via 'complimentary services'.

The report also stated that the South Africa-based telecom company proposed being listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as part of the settlement negotiation.

In response, the lawmakers reportedly said that since MTN had indeed breached Sections 19 and 20 of the NCC Act, the telecom company was in no position to lay terms as it was doing.

When the investigative hearing on the matter resumed, EVC of the NCC, Prof Umar Danbatta, reiterated that the position of the regulator was that MTN paid the N780 billion fine even if it was in installments, according to the Nigeria CommmunicationsWeek report.

The Saheed Fijabi-led committee also said it couldn't understand why the NCC had been relegated to the background in the negotiation proceedings which had since been allegedly taken over by the Minister of Justice and AGF, Abubakar Malami, and the President's Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari.

We believe that NCC has not been allowed to take charge of the negotiation because it has been reduced to the background. NCC did the fines, it should be allowed to take charge but that is not the case here, someone is even doing the reduction without your (NCC) input.

"At the court, wasnt the case between MTN and NCC? So, NCC ought to take the lead while others can provide support and advise. It is not a hidden fact that MTN is fond of finding ways to circumvent our laws. MTN must pay because we all remember the Gulf of Mexico spill and how those found culpable paid fully for it.

"It is even insulting that MTN is using listing on the Stock exchange as part of the negotiation. We must state it clearly that MTN is in no position to dictate the terms of negotiation in this case, the committee said.
The President of NATCOMS, Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, said the association supported it because the telecommunications operators did not take the number portability serious.

"NATCOMS is in total support of the fine in view of the fact that the telecommunications operators are not taking the Mobile Number Portability seriously.

"The lack of seriousness of the operators to porting service is a choice deprivation to subscribers.

"The sanctioning will make the service providers now take MNP more seriously, he told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

NAN reports that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) fined MTN Nigeria and Globacom Ltd N34 million for non-compliance to MNP business rules and regulations.

The regulatory body made the disclosure in its 2015 Q4 Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Reports.

NCC said that out of the N34 million sanction, Globacom was fined N22 million, while MTN was fined N12 million.

In the 2015 Q3 Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Reports, NCC said it had resolved to monitor and sanction violations with MNP process time obligations to address the increasing cases of porting request rejections.

It said that consequent upon the above, series of compliance checks were carried out regarding timer violations by Donor Operators with respect to "validation and deactivation responses which had timelines of 2 hours and 1 hour respectively.

"After investigations by the regulatory body, MTN and Globacom were found wanting, hence, they were fined N34 million in the Q4 2015.

The telecoms umpire said in its 2015 Q4 Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Reports that the two telecommunications companies had paid the fine.

It also said that the commissions activities were consistent with Section 89 of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003.

The commission noted that the section mandated NCC to monitor all significant matters relating to the performance of all licensed telecoms service providers and publish annual reports at the end of each financial year.

NCC said it had developed Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement strategies to prosecute the above mandate.
A Putnam County Sheriff's Office news release says a deputy saw Gilt behaving frantically inside the truck Tuesday afternoon and quickly realized she'd been shot.

Once she pulled her car over, she told deputies her 4-year-old son, who was sitting in the back of the truck, shot her in the back while she was driving.

According to Mashable, the bullet went through the seat and entered her back, before exiting her stomach. Her son wasn't harmed and was reunited with family members. He will remain with family while the Department of Children and Families investigates.

This incident came just a day after she said her son would get 'jacked up' before a shooting practice on a page dedicated to her musings on Second Amendment rights.

On the profile Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense she wrote: 'Even my 4 year old gets jacked up to target shoot with the .22'.

She reportedly believes she has the right to shoot anyone who threatens her family - and plans to teach her offspring the same mentality.

Many of her photos show her holding rifles. The image above shows Gilt holding her son on her lap with a rifle in the other hand.

Gilt runs a Facebook page called Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense whose goal "is to protect and expand our 2nd Ammendment [sic] rights."

Gilt was taken to a Gainesville hospital, where she was in stable condition but police have not yet been able to interview her.

It is a misdemeanor in Florida to leave a loaded firearm where a child might access it.
A supporter of the separatist faction, Biafra confronted him as he was addressing the audience from the podium, clearly agitated by the state of affairs in his homeland.

The angry man was calmed down by other participants, which became quite an ordeal for them due to the level of anger he was experiencing.
Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's military operations spokesman, did not identify the nationality of the troops who launched the assault at about 1 a.m. in the Awdigle district of Lower Shabelle area, about 50 km (30 miles) south of Mogadishu.

The AMISOM peacekeeping force is made up of troops from several African nations which has been fighting alongside the Somali army. An AMISOM spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.

U.S. officials said in 2014 that U.S. military advisers had secretly operated in Somalia since around 2007.They also said at that time that Washington planned to deepen its security assistance to help Somalia fend off the Islamist threat.

Washington said it launched air strikes on another al Shabaab base on Saturday killing more than 150 Islamist fighters. Al Shabaab said the number was exaggerated.

It was not immediately possible to obtain any U.S. comment.

Al Shabaab's military operations spokesman told Reuters the two helicopters landed on the banks of the River Shabelle and commandos from the aircraft advanced on the base.

"They were masked and spoke foreign languages which our fighters could not understand," Abu Musab told Reuters. "We do not know who they were but we foiled them."

He said the commandos carried rocket launchers and M16 rifles - referring to a weapon used by U.S. forces although Abu Musab did not mention any nationality.

Residents in the area confirmed there had been a gun battle and said they saw helicopters in the area. They said the mobile phone network did not work during fighting.

"We were awoken by exchange of heavy guns," said resident Ahmed Farah speaking by phone later on Wednesday. "We could see the helicopters land and fly."

He said al Shabaab later sealed the area so it was not possible to know if there were any casualties.
Witnesses and security sources said clashes were continuing on Wednesday between the armed forces and militants just outside Ben Guerdan in another operation to clear the area of fighters who appear to be seeking a territorial foothold inside Tunisia.

Military raids late on Tuesday and into Wednesday morning in Ben Guerdan also recovered weapons and at least ten other people have been arrested, a security source said.

Tunisia's government said around 50 militants launched a dawn attack on army and police posts in Ben Guerdan on Monday, in one of their largest assaults on Tunisia. The army killed 36 attackers and 12 troops and 7 civilians also died.

Prime Minister Habib Essid blamed the attack on Islamic State, which has grown in strength just over the border in Libya, taking advantage of the security chaos there to expand its presence and draw foreign recruits.

Since its 2011 uprising against autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia has moved towards democracy. But it has also 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.
Joseph Chait, 38, a senior auction administrator with I.M. Chait Gallery/Auctioneers, could be sentenced to up to five years in prison on the wildlife smuggling charge, the U.S. Justice Department said.

He also faces a maximum prison term of five years after pleading guilty to violating a federal law that bans trade involving illegally gained wildlife, they said.

Chait falsified customs forms by stating ivory and rhino horn were made of bone, wood or plastic. After a rhino carving sold at auction for $230,000, Chait made false documents putting the value at $108.75, and saying the object was made of plastic, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Lawyers for Chait were not immediately available for comment.

The case comes as conservationists and law enforcement officials in the United States and globally have been trying to crack down on the illegal trade in products from the two threatened species.

Rhino horn sells at prices higher than gold in places such as Vietnam, where a belief with no basis in science has emerged in the past few years that it can be used to cure cancer.

South Africa, which has more rhinos than any other country in Africa, saw nearly 1,200 of the animals killed by poachers in 2015, its environment ministry said.

From South Sudan, where conservationists say elephants are being slain by both government forces and rebels, to South Africa, there is an arc of illegal animal slaughter in the continent.

Global trade in rhino horn is banned under the terms of U.N. convention CITES. Elsewhere in Africa, elephant poaching for ivory has been rampant, with Asia also the main market for the illicit commodity.

Hollywood actor Nicholas Cage in December agreed to turn over a rare stolen dinosaur skull he bought from I.M. Chait after U.S. authorities in New York filed a civil forfeiture complaint seeking to take possession of the item so it could be repatriated to Mongolia.
Geoffrey Mwamba, vice-president of the United Party for National Development (UPND), who was arrested on March 3, appeared in court together with 21 party members alleged to have been undergoing militia training.

"My lady, I deny the charge," Mwamba told the magistrate after being asked to plead. The trial is due to start on May 3.

Mwamba was last week arrested on separate charges of inciting violence against President Edgar Lungu, after threatening to "go for his throat".
Scythian gold hearing set for October 5

MOSCOW, March 10 (RAPSI) - The Amsterdam District Court has set October 5 as the date of a hearing of a case over Scythian gold from Crimea, RIA Novosti reported.

In November 2014, four Crimean museums filed a lawsuit with a court in Amsterdam seeking to return the Scythian gold that was exhibited in the Netherlands to Crimea.

Kiev is demanding that the exhibit items be returned to Ukraine.

The exhibition The Crimea: Gold and Secrets of the Black Sea opened in Germany in mid-2013 and then moved to the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam in early February 2014. The artifacts from five Crimean museums include a ceremonial gold helmet and jewels.

In March, Kiev demanded the gold be returned to Ukraine, not Crimea, since the latter had voted for independence and later joined Russia. Crimea, however, dismissed the demands as groundless.

The Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam decided to keep the disputed collection of Scythian Gold items until the ownership dispute is resolved either amicably or in court.

The exhibition closed in late August 2014, but the collection has not been sent back to the Crimean museums because of disputes between Ukraine and Crimea.
Criminal case launched after attack against journalists in Ingushetia

MOSCOW, March 10 (RAPSI)  Investigators from the Interior Ministry have launched a criminal case after an attack against human rights activists and journalists at the border between the Russian republics of Ingushetia and Chechnya, RIA Novosti reported on Thursday.

Igor Kalyapin, Chairman of the Committee on Prevention of Torture said that a group of unknown people, travelling on three automobiles, attacked activists and journalists around 7 p.m. on Wednesday. Several people were beaten, two had their mobile phones taken from them. Autobus of the activists was broken and set on fire.

According to authorities of Ingushetia, nine people were inside the autobus on the moment of attack. Four people, including journalists from Norway and Sweden, were transferred to a local hospital; there is no immediate danger to their health.
March 15, 2016 is National Agriculture Day. Across the country and at home here in Montana, many growers, organizations, government agencies, universities and families are joining together to celebrate the abundance provided by American agriculture. We have much to be thankful for. Montana agriculture remains the cornerstone of the states economy. It continues to shape us in a state blessed with diverse and vibrant landscapes, dedicated people and rich natural resources.We salute and honor the people across the state who are leading and delivering agriculture in Montana: from certified seed growers and sellers, large acreage and small acreage production, family businesses and those who continually endure the risk, challenge and uncertainties of the climate and markets. Thank you for your commitment to an industry and economy that demands an investment and dedication thats only second nature to most Montanans. Perhaps thats why Montana is comprised of 27,800 farms and ranches (65 percent of our land base), contributing $4.4 billion dollars a year to the United States economy.Montana State University and its College of Agriculture will celebrate their 125th anniversary in 2018. We continue to see students from all walks of life enroll in our many programs, and were proud of our enrollment growth for the 8th straight year. We think the strong student interest in agricultural-related careers reflects the many ways in which agriculture is changing: young people are increasingly concerned with food production and safety, healthy economies, access to nutritional foods, environmental quality and public healthall of which stem from the products we produce and consume.MSUs College of Agriculture continues to be recognized nationally for its curriculum, research, fields, farms and faculty. They are a force of people and programs committed to strengthening Montanas highest grossing industry, and they possess the ability to respond to world challenges. In addition to the college, faculty and staff at the eight research centers under MSUs Montana Agricultural Experiment Station are able to deliver agricultural solutions through relationships and support from many of you. Because of our sound partnerships with growers and production groups across Montana, we are able to focus on the most critical needs of the industry.Of course, we in agriculture continue to face major challenges. Water remains a competitive commodity, new invasive pests and plants are making their presence known, and volatile markets and policies create pressure on those working their hardest. On a global scale, the world continues to face food insecurity while Americans at home are hungry even as vast amounts of food are wasted each year. The pressure on our communities and landscapes to meet the challenges and demands of 21st century agriculture is real.Agriculturetoday on this national day of recognition and everydayis something that touches all of us. I challenge you to reflect on the role agriculture plays in your life. You shouldnt have to look far to do so. Perhaps this might be buying a Montana-made product, visiting a local market, asking a farmer or rancher about their successes and challenges, or thinking about the important role of food banks in feeding your community. Or, talk to an MSU agriculture student about their own vision for the future. You might be surprised and renewed with optimism.The beauty of an agriculture community is that it takes everyone to ensure success -- whether thats your own hands in soil or learning more about the sources of your food and products.Join me as we steward agriculture at MSU and across Montana, today and into the next 125 years.Charles Boyer is the Vice President of Agriculture, Dean and Director of the College of Agriculture and Montana Agricultural Experiment Station at Montana State University. Boyer has a bachelors degree in biology from Eastern Oregon State College, and a masters and doctorate in genetics, both from The Pennsylvania State University. MSUs College of Agriculture has approximately 1,028 students with 11 bachelor degree programs, nine master degree programs and four doctoral degree programs from five departments and one division.
HELENA  A former top administrator with the Montana Department of Labor and Industry will not serve jail time for the more than $18,000 in bogus travel, training and work purchases she racked up on state-issued credit cards and expense accounts.

Tiffany David, the states former Job Service Operations Bureau chief, was sentenced Wednesday to three years of probation for more than a dozen counts of theft alleged in charging documents filed in February.

David pleaded guilty to each of those counts and agreed to pay full restitution at a hearing last month, where District Court Judge Mike Menahan warned she could face a 10-year jail sentence, despite officials praise for her full cooperation during a departmental investigation into the theft.

Menahan softened that point Wednesday, explaining he was impressed David had already managed to pay back what she stole.

He even left the door open for Davids early release from her three-year suspended sentence.

I think in all the years Ive been here Ive never seen that, the judge said of restitution checks the ex-administrator has already handed over to the state. It speaks very well of you.

Court documents say David, who resigned from her post in November, was placed on administrative leave the day after she emailed departmental investigators a fake receipt for $1,800 in airline tickets she never purchased.

The former bureaucrat has since admitted to submitting false expense reports and reimbursement claims for everything from books and gift cards to plane tickets and hotel reservations.

She would often cancel those transactions before they could be completed, reaping refunds that should have been credited back to a state credit card.

Thats how David managed to rake in more than half of the five-figure total pilfered from state coffers  via just 13 Amazon.com book purchases charged to a personal credit card and later reimbursed by department officials.

Tiffany David is a good person who made a series of bad mistakes and exercised poor judgment, said Carlo Canty, Davids attorney. Shes taken it upon herself to try and understand why she did what she did.

Canty said David is living with her brother and seeing a psychiatrist as part of that effort.

He said she was able to pay back restitution owed under her guilty plea largely by forfeiting her final paycheck  including holiday and sick pay  back to the state.

Canty called Wednesdays sentence a very fortunate outcome for his client.

Assistant Attorney General Bryan Light said he too was pleased with the ruling, but added he wouldnt hesitate to revoke Davids probation if she failed to comply with the terms of the sentence.

David sought to reassure the court that would not be a problem.

Im very embarrassed and ashamed of what Ive put my family, friends and coworkers through, she said. I assure you this will never happen again.
The Stevensville Playhouse will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a celebration of working folk.

Working is a musical based on occupations and how people feel about the work they do.

The Stevensville Playhouse production opened last week. It is directed by Gretchen Spiess.

We have 14 actors and the reason I picked it is 25 years ago when we opened, it was the second show we did, Spiess said. I saw it years ago in Los Angles and I went crazy over this show. It is so perfect that I always wanted to do it. We sold out last time. This year when we were thinking what we would do I suggested doing Working because we wanted to do something from the first year.

Spiess said that in 1967 and 1968 Studs Terkel toured the country interviewing working class people and wrote a book that became a best-seller.

A couple of years later Stephen Schwartz, who also did Wicked, changed it into a musical and there is great music with it, Spiess said. There is a good range of music from rock to folk to blues. It is not your typical sappy musical. Theres a little bit of sap in it, but we try to keep it to a minimum.

The Stevensville Playhouse cast for Working is Ann Marie Carbin, Roland Dimmitt, Julie Emnett, Brian Jackson, Daphne Jackson, Oscar Macz, Jim McCauley, Maxx Porter, Carrie Storrow, Lindsay Stover, Audrey Sturgill, Jalin Sturgill, Lillian Rose Sturgill, and Malorie Robbins.

Spiess said people should come see the show because it is about them. It features a receptionist, a sales clerk, a steel worker, a hospital aide, a firefighter and more.

Its about the search for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying, Spiess said. Its the glorification of the American worker and it celebrates regular people. The last song leaves you with such an amazing feeling.

Spiess said the first time the cast read the script they had chills and that is how the audience should feel when the show is over.

They should feel proud of what they do and paying more attention to the waitress and newspaper distributors, Spiess said. There are a lot of unseen jobs that somebody has to do.

The costumes are easy for this show because the characters are schoolteachers, checkers in a super market and firefighters.

It is easy to pull together normal, everyday clothes, Spiess said. There are no rabbits or weird creatures  nothing like that.

According to Spiess, Working has a great deal of humor.

There is a gas man scene that is hilarious, Spiess said. There is fun stuff and there is touching stuff and it is just great. A song about fathers and sons leaves you in tears because it is so touching. People have stopped by to ask what its about but everyone coming to watch some of the rehearsals has said Great show. It is a great show with amazing writing and amazing music.

Celebrate 25 years of performances at The Stevensville Playhouse with their production Working.

It is a musical for anyone who has ever punched a cow, a clock or a boss, Spiess said.

Working productions are at 7:30 p.m. on March 11, 12, 18 and 19 and at 2 p.m. on March 13 and 20. Tickets are available at Valley Drug in Stevensville, through the website stevensvilleplayhouse.org or by calling 406-777-2722. The theatre is located at 319 Main St. in Stevensville.
Revenue declines, the pandemic, and rising competition create new realities in higher education.
Hi, I'm Joyce! Welcome to my blog! Stay as long as you'd like.
Blog Archive October 2022 (42) September 2022 (60) August 2022 (63) July 2022 (65) June 2022 (68) May 2022 (67) April 2022 (62) March 2022 (68) February 2022 (54) January 2022 (61) December 2021 (70) November 2021 (72) October 2021 (67) September 2021 (59) August 2021 (56) July 2021 (57) June 2021 (66) May 2021 (63) April 2021 (75) March 2021 (73) February 2021 (61) January 2021 (69) December 2020 (62) November 2020 (62) October 2020 (70) September 2020 (51) August 2020 (52) July 2020 (60) June 2020 (57) May 2020 (79) April 2020 (56) March 2020 (52) February 2020 (50) January 2020 (69) December 2019 (58) November 2019 (64) October 2019 (44) September 2019 (49) August 2019 (71) July 2019 (71) June 2019 (71) May 2019 (67) April 2019 (74) March 2019 (85) February 2019 (64) January 2019 (73) December 2018 (66) November 2018 (81) October 2018 (87) September 2018 (66) August 2018 (76) July 2018 (84) June 2018 (86) May 2018 (64) April 2018 (83) March 2018 (78) February 2018 (69) January 2018 (69) December 2017 (82) November 2017 (87) October 2017 (89) September 2017 (77) August 2017 (75) July 2017 (76) June 2017 (90) May 2017 (86) April 2017 (59) March 2017 (61) February 2017 (82) January 2017 (91) December 2016 (90) November 2016 (80) October 2016 (75) September 2016 (95) August 2016 (104) July 2016 (93) June 2016 (96) May 2016 (98) April 2016 (99) March 2016 (113) February 2016 (82) January 2016 (98) December 2015 (113) November 2015 (94) October 2015 (93) September 2015 (98) August 2015 (97) July 2015 (105) June 2015 (103) May 2015 (95) April 2015 (100) March 2015 (102) February 2015 (93) January 2015 (114) December 2014 (110) November 2014 (103) October 2014 (105) September 2014 (96) August 2014 (96) July 2014 (112) June 2014 (119) May 2014 (109) April 2014 (116) March 2014 (117) February 2014 (109) January 2014 (116) December 2013 (117) November 2013 (121) October 2013 (125) September 2013 (93) August 2013 (115) July 2013 (110) June 2013 (102) May 2013 (115) April 2013 (113) March 2013 (119) February 2013 (108) January 2013 (119) December 2012 (132) November 2012 (115) October 2012 (121) September 2012 (115) August 2012 (124) July 2012 (102) June 2012 (121) May 2012 (121) April 2012 (127) March 2012 (130) February 2012 (112) January 2012 (131) December 2011 (129) November 2011 (118) October 2011 (118) September 2011 (110) August 2011 (138) July 2011 (146) June 2011 (139) May 2011 (144) April 2011 (127) March 2011 (140) February 2011 (116) January 2011 (134) December 2010 (133) November 2010 (136) October 2010 (148) September 2010 (128) August 2010 (155) July 2010 (129) June 2010 (138) May 2010 (152) April 2010 (161) March 2010 (119) February 2010 (149) January 2010 (155) December 2009 (177) November 2009 (171) October 2009 (176) September 2009 (159) August 2009 (156) July 2009 (170) June 2009 (157) May 2009 (185) April 2009 (179) March 2009 (183) February 2009 (170) January 2009 (181) December 2008 (189) November 2008 (183) October 2008 (164) September 2008 (164) August 2008 (177) July 2008 (179) June 2008 (170) May 2008 (191) April 2008 (175) March 2008 (195) February 2008 (162) January 2008 (188) December 2007 (187) November 2007 (189) October 2007 (194) September 2007 (156) August 2007 (194) July 2007 (163) June 2007 (176) May 2007 (190) April 2007 (177) March 2007 (192) February 2007 (165) January 2007 (170) December 2006 (182) November 2006 (177) October 2006 (185) September 2006 (180) August 2006 (156) July 2006 (160) June 2006 (177) May 2006 (173) April 2006 (157) March 2006 (158) February 2006 (146) January 2006 (144) December 2005 (135) November 2005 (138) October 2005 (128) September 2005 (141) August 2005 (136) July 2005 (133) June 2005 (119) May 2005 (143) April 2005 (52)
Sagarmatha Network Pvt. Ltd. is the organization dedicated in the field of printing, publishing service since 2001. As part of media, we've been publishing Review Nepal, an English medium weekly registered at District Administration Office (DAO) Kathmandu with registration number 130-162-163 and reviewnepal.com as an online digital newspaper, with registration number 849-075-076 at Department of Informational and Broadcasting (DIB) from Kathmandu, Nepal since 2003.
LANGE SAYS

Parliamentary dialog important for Montenegrin future

Parliamentary dialogue is important for Montenegro and its future, said an official of the European Commission (EC), Dirk Lange, stating that the electoral legislation should be applied adequately.

Lange, who is Head of Unit for Montenegro in the Directorate General for Enlargement of the European Commission, said, after the meeting of Subcommittee on Justice, Freedom and Security, that Montenegro is now at the phase when the implementation of action plans is shifted towards concrete results.

"This is the stage when we have to see how from this period of establishing the institutions, we would get to getting results of their work," he said at a press conference.

According to him, parliamentary dialogue is important for Montenegro and its future.

"Our position in the past five or six months when it comes to the development of the situation is to encourage all political parties to participate in political dialogue and to work on it in order to see whether it is possible to reach some compromises and common solutions for the benefit of the whole country" said Lange.

He also said that at the Sub-Committee meetings was discussed new electoral legislation, whose application should be provided in an appropriate manner.

"Institutions such as the Agency for Prevention of Corruption (ASK) will play a key role in controlling the financing of political parties and these are all goals all political parties should aspire to, in order to ensure that future elections are conducted in a proper manner," said Lange.

Asked why the work of ASK did not give results, he said that this body should work for the benefit of Montenegro.

"ASK exists for two months only and I think it would be too much to expect that in two months such agency produces hundred percent results," said Lange.

Commenting on charges of high corruption, Lange noted the positive steps that have been made in this area, stating that it must now go a step further.

"We do not want to see only the well-equipped offices, but also to see that the results are achieved, to have a criminal prosecution. This is what should come out of the story of the founding and equipping, " said Lange.
Musings

This blog contains observations on life and nature written by Sage, satire and parody written by Nevada Jack, and an occasional book review or poem. As a general rule, the author of the blog doesn't write about his work or his family. Email at sagecoveredhills [at] gmail.com


Morocco has vehemently criticized the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon for his aberrant missteps and blatant bias in the Western Sahara issue, as evidenced in the statements he made during his visit in the Tindouf camps and in Algiers over the past weekend.

In a statement released Tuesday evening, the Moroccan Government noted with great amazement Ban Ki-moons verbal blunder, fait accompli and unjustified complacent gestures during his recent visit to the region.

The statement decried the juxtaposition of the UN banner and the banner of the ghostly Sahrawi republic SADR on the table that gathered Ban Ki-moon and Polisario leaders in Tindouf and the use by the UN chief of the phraseology occupied Western Sahara in his statements to the media in Tindouf and Algiers.

For the Moroccan Government, through such behavior, the UN General Secretariat has abandoned its neutrality, objectivity and impartiality, and openly displayed a shameful indulgence towards a puppet state, which does not fulfil the characteristics of a State, has no territory, no population and no recognized flag, at a time it knows that the so-called SADR has never, ever been recognized by the United Nations as a state.

Ban Ki-Moons wording is drastically contrary to the terminology traditionally used by the United Nations in the Moroccan Sahara dossier, the statement said adding that the Moroccan government protests in the strongest terms such statements and deems that the use of such terminology has no political or legal basis and is an insult to the Moroccan Government and people.

For Rabat, Ban Ki-Moons statements are politically inappropriate, unprecedented in the annals of his predecessors and contrary to the resolutions of the Security Council.

These outrageous phrases hurt the feelings of the whole Moroccan people, the statement said, adding that the UN Secretary General has unfortunately accepted to be manipulated to give credit to spurious claims.

This kind of semantic misstep undermines, in a dangerous way, the credibility of the United Nations General SecretariatBut lets hope, in the interest of the UN facilitation process, that it was just a slip of the tongue, the Moroccan Government statement said.

Thus, Ban Ki-Moon has not only done nothing to revive the settlement process of the Sahara issue, but has demonstrated a flagrant bias in the territorial dispute between Morocco and Algeria, a fact that can only worsen the situation in the whole region.
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?
Hello beauties, welcome to Asoebi fashion Friday!! We refuse to let you go into this weekend without looking glamorous and fabulous in your...
Senate Education Committee Votes to Advance Education Secretary Nominee PK12: Acting U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. is one step closer to being a full-fledged cabinet official with Wednesday's 16-6 vote by the Senate education committee. See also Washington Post.

Merryl Tisch, Board of Regents Chief Who Set Off Testing Backlash, Reflects on Her Tenure NYT: Dr. Tisch, who is stepping down this month, said she tried to do too much, too fast during her time as chancellor, but justified her sense of urgency.

Educators on front line of desegregation debate say city must take the lead Chalkbeat: "The segregation wasnt organic, and the integration is not going to be organic either, said Jill Bloomberg, the principal of Park Slope Collegiate, a grade 6-12 school in a gentrifying part of Brooklyn where many schools remain racially isolated.

2 Baltimore School Officers Arrested in Assault on Teenager NYT: A video shows one of the officers slapping and kicking a young man at a school as the other officer stands by. L.A. County report on special education sees 'crisis' LA Times: Some students with disabilities in Los Angeles County are getting shortchanged by the bureaucracy that is supposed to ensure they receive a good education, according to a consultants report discussed on Tuesday. Arizona Set to Provide Districts a 'Menu' of Standardized Tests State EdWatch: The Every Student Succeeds Act requires states to provide all students in grades 3-8 just the same exam.

Lead fear forces water ban in 30 New Jersey school buildings AP: Elevated levels of lead caused officials in New Jersey's largest school district on Wednesday to shut off water fountains at 30 school buildings until more tests are conducted, but officials said they don't believe the contamination poses any serious health risks....

This Kansas high school student must pay back $3,000 after smugglers helped him leave Guatemala WNYC: This sophomore in Kansas from Guatemala juggles algebra  and the reality that he must soon pay the smuggling fee he owes from coming to the United States.
If you are currently a print subscriber but don't have an online account, select this option. You will need to use your 7 digit subscriber account number (with leading zeros) and your last name (in UPPERCASE).
 Rep Lamar Smith makes case against federal sentencing reform by questioning success of Texas reforms | Main | "Make No Mistake: Hillary Clinton is a Drug Warrior" 

March 10, 2016

Are Senators Mike Lee and Ted Cruz now back on the same page with respect to sentencing reform?

The question in the title of this post is prompted by this GOP Prez race news today via Politico: "Cruz to land first Senate endorsement: Mike Lee." Beyond the obvious political significance of this (e.g., another body blow to Senator Rubio), I cannot resist thinking about this in federal sentencing reform terms because Senator Mike Lee has been one of the most vocal GOP advocates for federal sentencing reform.

Of course, as noted in this prior post from last year, Senator Ted Cruz was himself a vocal sentencing reform supported when only drug sentencing reform was the focal point on Senate reform effort. But, as this press article from a few months ago highlights, the two had a vocal and visible parting of ways when sentencing reform started including violent offenders. I doubt sentencing reform was the first concern when Senator Lee was thinking about who to endorse, but this interesting history still has me pondering the question in the title of this post.

March 10, 2016 at 02:02 PM | Permalink

Comments

Post a comment
 US Sentencing Commission released big new and timely report on "Recidivism Among Federal Offenders" | Main | Notable headlines concerning diverse death penalty developments nationwide 

The question in the title of this post is the sub-headline of this notable new piece by Vann Newkirk at The Atlantic. The piece's main headline is just "Polls for Prisons," and here are excerpts:

Why cant most people in prison vote? Although states display considerable range of policies on the issue of how  if at all  people can vote after being released from institutions or onto parole or probation, the general idea is that the ballot box stops where the bars begin. But on Tuesday, 6,195 inmates voted in Puerto Ricos Republican primary  where they comprised one-sixth of the voters who cast their ballots. Their example challenges many of the premises of felon disenfranchisement, and suggests that fears of what would happen if it were repealed are overblown.

The logic behind felony disenfranchisement within prisons and without is so deeply rooted in American ideas of crime and punishment it can seem tautological: Of course prisoners cant vote; theyre prisoners! However, recent primary elections in Vermont, Maine, and Puerto Rico challenge that common knowledge and provide a glimpse of what the countrys voting process might look like if the franchise was extended to those serving time.

The origins of disenfranchisement as a vehicle of American punishment are likely traceable to some form of the classical notion of a civil death. For the Greeks, the punishment of civil death was akin to capital punishment  a complete extinguishing of the civil rights that Greeks believed constituted personhood, including suffrage, landownership, and the right to file lawsuits. English common law borrowed the Greek concept, and civil death was long viewed as a suitable punishment for felony offenses.

But civil death as a formal punishment in the American colonies differed from the English system on which it was based, and from the punishments that would later evolve. Civil death was initially only adopted in America for a very small number of felonies, the most common of which were violations directly connected to voting  for example, fraud or bribery. This paralleled both an expansion of crimes considered felonies and a decoupling of felony punishment from capital punishment. The use of long-term imprisonment, instead of corporal or capital punishment, only came about in fits and starts.

Jeff Manza and Christopher Uggens Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy details how early incarcerations link to indebtedness and poverty dovetailed with widespread property and tax suffrage requirements to create a de facto system of disenfranchisement. Paupers or debtors were often denied the vote through their lack of property or their inability to pay poll taxes, and both were likely to face prison time for felonies, especially if they could not afford fines. Both incarceration and civil death were largely threats faced only by the lower classes, a correlation that turned causal as the prison system was codified and American mass incarceration was born....

A key legal factor in defense of civil death has been the idea that felons have broken the social contract and have forfeited their rights in participating in it. Thus, civil death is considered a reflexive defense of the social contract and a fitting punishment. However, that reasoning falls doubly short. Even death-row inmates retain a broad array of constitutional rights, including access to due process, the right to sue, and the right to appeal. Why is the right to vote excluded? Also, the social contract may not need civil death to defend it. The social fabric of Vermont and Maine, where felons have and will vote in general elections, can hardly be considered to have been irreparably damaged by their participation.

Perhaps its not coincidence that Vermont and Maine are the two whitest states in the country. Theyre comparatively immune to the racialization of crime policy and rhetoric that dominates conversations elsewhere. In states where the social contract has always been interpreted through a lens of racial tension and where criminalization and race have often been intertwined, it may be harder to challenge policies that have been accepted as deeply as self-evident truths. Or, in plainer language, some people are less enthusiastic about the idea of minority inmates having meaningful participation in elections than they might be if most inmates were white.

International comparative analyses simply reinforce the lessons of Vermont, Maine, and Puerto Rico. Prisoners in dozens of countries, including Canada, Germany, South Africa, and Israel, are allowed to vote in all elections  without significant problems.

The sky hasnt fallen in Vermont or Maine either. Inmates in Puerto Rico may be playing a serious role in advocating for national assistance for the islands troubles, voting at a time when it has become more difficult for everyone else. Perhaps the idea of prisoners as stable voting populations, or prisons as reliable polling centers, could provide an example for states on the mainland struggling with declining turnout. At the very least, Vermont, Maine, and Puerto Rico should alleviate some fears about a possible post-disenfranchisement future in the United States. The death of civil death doesnt kill democracy.
 Notable headlines concerning diverse death penalty developments nationwide | Main | Are Senators Mike Lee and Ted Cruz now back on the same page with respect to sentencing reform? 

March 10, 2016

Rep Lamar Smith makes case against federal sentencing reform by questioning success of Texas reforms

One recurring theme of many advocates for federal sentencing reform is that state-level reforms, lead notably by Texas, have been successful at reducing incarceration levels without seeing an increase in crime. But at the end of this new Washington Times commentary, headlined "How weak prison terms endanger the innocent: Mandatory minimums keep the guilty behind bars to pay their debt to society," US House Representative Lamar Smith from Texas questions whether Texas reforms have truly been effective. Here are some notable excerpts from the piece:

Congress should be wary of reducing federal prison sentences. Unfortunately, much of the discussion on sentencing laws has focused on the criminals. What about the victims of their crimes? What about the dangers of putting these offenders back out on the streets where many prey again on law-abiding citizens? The lives and property of innocent Americans are at stake. Past experience should persuade us not to weaken penalties, which could lead to thousands of dangerous criminals being released into our communities.... Supporters of lower prison sentences also argue that judges need more discretion. They say that a one-size-fits-all penalty does not allow for consideration of mitigating factors, which might be necessary to determine a fair sentence. But prior experience with judicial discretion in sentencing counters this claim. It is exactly the problem of too much discretion in the hands of activist judges that fueled the decades-long crime wave that preceded mandatory minimum sentences. Furthermore, judicial discretion led to widespread discrepancies in sentences, even when the circumstances were similar. The minimum sentencing structure ensures that judges apply a uniform penalty based on the crime, not on the judges subjective opinion. Criminals receive equal punishment for equal crimes. And the removal of hardened criminals from our streets for longer periods of time helps make our neighborhoods safer.... In my home state of Texas, new policies sought to reduce incarceration time and focus resources on treatment and post-release supervision. Yet almost one-quarter of inmates released have been rearrested and sent back to prison within three years. Early release programs dont appear to be working. Mandatory minimums help keep these individuals behind bars where they belong. Thats one explanation for why crime rates remain down. The purpose of criminal law is to punish bad behavior, deter criminal acts and protect the American people. Releasing prisoners too soon could condemn many Americans to becoming victims of violence. This can be avoided if prisoners are not released before their sentences have been served.

March 10, 2016 at 08:35 AM | Permalink

Comments

Lamar Smith is unhappy because "almost one-quarter of inmates released have been rearrested and sent back to prison within three years." That is on par with what is reported federally. See, Recidivism Among Federal Offenders: A Comprehensive Review. Parenthetically, since we are dealing with individuals and not mass produced widgets what would be an acceptable recidivism rate? If one follows Representative Smith's logic that means the other 3 out 4 released inmates that don't screw up should suffer the same fate as those who do reoffend. That type of logic is expensive -- it would mean that for each re-offender the government would not only have to pay incarceration costs for the reoffender, but also for the three inmates that did not reoffend until full-term expiration of all of their sentences. Seems to me that we know the recidivism rate so we now need to know why released offenders recidivate and work on eliminating those forces to lower the recidivism rates. Incapacitation alone does not reduce the recidivism rate.

Posted by: ? | Mar 10, 2016 10:09:53 AM

Some are going to learn better crime behaviors in prison. The longer they are in the more they learn. So lets stop at every meal. Second time offenders are the ones who need longer sentences. First time offenders need a pistol whipping. All offenders need jobs. The koch head brothers sent all the jobs to China. Second time offenders need to be sent to China. We need a penal colony to send inmates to from whence they can not return to the U.S. In days of old the Brits had Georgia which is now a state in the U.S. I suggest that we take over Somalia. It is already a pirate territory. Send the inmates there with a caveat that if they come back to our shore they get shot on sight.

Posted by: BarkinDog | Mar 10, 2016 10:35:03 AM

Georgia was a debtor's colony, not generally criminal. Lamar Smith is a clod. I say this as a Texan and a Republican, sorta.

Posted by: Fat Bastard | Mar 10, 2016 1:26:09 PM

Post a comment
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.




Lost Weekend Video has played host to inventory from Oakland's 1-2-3-4 Go! Records since last year when the two announced a partnership. However, things changed when the DVD palace decided to shack up with Alamo Drafthouse at the New Mission Theater. That means winding down Lost Weekend's operations on Valencia, leaving behind the beloved comedy cellar the Cinecave and the new records stockpile, too. Or, on that last count, it could have.

Fortunately, as owner Steve Stevenson explains to the Bay Bridged, the boutique clothier DEMA located right next to Lost Weekend on Valencia decided to give up their space. You see where this is going  Stevenson and 1-2-3-4 Go! Records nabbed the space at 1038 Valencia. As of yesterday, they're open for business on their own.

"Finding a space with decent rent in that area was very, very fortunate," Stevenson confides in the Bay Bridged, "Im very thankful that came into place and they took a chance on me and I took a chance on them."

Now out from under Lost Weekend's wing, the record store can fly free  and the best part was they didn't even have to close for a second in between.

1-2-3-4 Go! Records, 1038 Valencia Street

Previously: Lost Weekend Video Actually Closing On Valencia, Moving In With Alamo Drafthouse
According to an eight person federal jury who deliberated for roughly a day following eight days of testimony, four San Francisco police officers did not use excessive force when they killed Alex Nieto, the Examiner and others in the courtroom have word.

On March 21st, Lt. Jason Sawyer and Officers Roger Morse, Richard Schiff, and Nathan Chew shot the 28-year-old City College student who carried with him a Taser for his job as a security guard, a weapon which they say they mistook for a gun. Closing arguments in the wrongful death case were made yesterday.

As the Chronicle notes, Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins instructed the jury to decide whether it was more probably true than not true, that the plaintiffs' claims of acting rationally and not with an excess of force were accurate rather than determining the claims to be accurate "beyond a reasonable doubt." That's because the proceedings represented a constitutional rights case rather than a criminal trial. A prior investigation by the District Attorney's office absolved the officers of criminal wrongdoing.

Previously: Closing Arguments Heard In Nieto Trial, Jury Deliberates
The Dean of UC Berkeley Law School sexually harassed his employees, but was allowed to keep his job out of concern for his future career prospects, a suit brought by a former employee alleges. The suit, filed Tuesday by Dean Sujit Choudhry's former assistant Tyann Sorrell, claims that even though an internal UC Berkeley investigation proved her allegations to be accurate, the Dean received merely a slap on the wrist and was allowed to keep his job.

Sorrell says she first complained to her superiors about Choudhry hugging and kissing her daily, reports the New York Times, and then after her reports went unheeded she contacted the human resources department. Court papers note that in July 2015 an internal UC Berkeley investigation determined that Choudhry had indeed violated the school's sexual harassment policy.

"A zero-tolerance policy means youre fired," the Times reports Sorrell's lawyer, John D. Winer, as observing.

But Choudhry was not fired. Instead, the Chronicle reports, Provost Claude Steele decided to dock the Dean's pay by 10 percent for one year, require him to undergo counseling, make him apologize, and allow Sorrell to go on paid leave.

When pressed, the Times reports Sorrell alleges in the suit that Steele told her he did not terminate or further discipline Choudhry for fear it would ruin the deans career, that is, destroy his future chances for higher appointment. This despite the fact that, according to Steele, an internal investigation confirmed that Choudhry violated policy, and that he demonstrated a failure to understand the power dynamic and the effect of his actions on the plaintiff personally and in her employment.

This calls to mind the case of prominent UC Berkeley astronomy professor Geoff Marcy who last year was found by an internal investigation to have repeatedly sexually harassed numerous students over the course of years. In that case, before the news garnered national attention, the University thought the best way to censure Marcy was a stern request for him to never do it again.

Following the announcement of the suit, Choudhry said yesterday in a statement that he would take a leave.

"While I disagree with the plaintiffs claims and allegations, and will defend against them, I am unfortunately unable to comment on the substance of the lawsuit," Choudhry wrote in a Facebook post. "However, I can say that I cooperated fully with, and take extremely seriously, the Universitys confidential investigation into this matter and ensuing sanction."

Sorrell, allegedly, was not the only target of Choudhry's unwanted attention. Two other UC Berkeley employees, reports the Daily Californian, are also named as having been harassed by Choudhry.

Sorrell is suing, notes the Californian, for "sexual harassment, retaliation, failure to take reasonable steps to prevent harassment and retaliation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault, battery, failure to discharge a mandatory statutory duty and violation of business and professions code."

This news, perhaps, casts the below March 8 tweet from the UC Berkeley School of Law in an entirely new light. We here at SFist can only hope that Sorrell's suit will help to make a difference and advance justice in the world of UC Berkeley.

Very proud of the many #BerkeleyLaw women making a difference in the law and advancing justice around the world https://t.co/lCYfCdZm0v  UC Berkeley Law (@BerkeleyLawNews) March 8, 2016

Related: Notable UC Berkeley Professor Resigns Amid Sexual Harassment Claims
When Fresno police pulled 33-year-old Khamprasong Thammavong over at 5:40 p.m. Monday, they say they were just performing a routine traffic stop. But what followed was anything but routine, from Thammavong's proud advertisement for a Italian luxury goods company to the contents of his home.

ABC 7 reports that Thammavong was already on probation when he was pulled over, and is a documented member of the Laos Bloods, a gang that made headlines last year when they were engaged in a bloody dispute with the Pinedale Bulldogs (what is this, 1860s New York?) over the Fresno-area weed trade.

When the officer realized who Thammavong was, he called the Southeast Violent Crime Impact Team (for more on VCITs, go here) and they searched his home  as a condition of Thammavong's probation, they apparently had that legal right. When they did they found "a semi-automatic rifle and a semi-automatic handgun, which were not registered to Thammavong," as well as "tactical gear similar to law enforcement equipment, numerous items linking him with gang activity, 38 marijuana plants and narcotics paraphernalia."

Thammavong did not have a license to possess or grow weed, ABC 7 reports. He "was arrested for numerous felony charges, including felon in possession of a firearm and cultivation of marijuana."

Thammavong was booked into Fresno County Jail, and remains in custody today. So, Gucci, you know where to find him to offer him a contract for your next big campaign!

Previously: Woman Found In Stolen Vehicle Poses For Mona Lisa Mugshot

Hot Convict Jeremy Meeks Walked Out Of Prison Today, Will Presumably Begin Modeling
OMAHA | A Macy, Nebraska, man was sentenced to 34 months in prison Thursday for fatally stabbing his brother.

Daniel Webster III, 23, pleaded guilty in December in U.S. District Court in Omaha to voluntary manslaughter. The charge had been reduced from second-degree murder as part of a plea agreement.

According to court documents, Webster stabbed Kristin Cayou, 32, on Aug. 28, 2014, after the two began to argue while drinking alcohol at a home on the Omaha Indian Reservation.

An autopsy showed that Cayou was stabbed in the left side of his neck, severing the carotid artery and puncturing his trachea. Court documents also said Webster pushed Cayou out of a kitchen window after stabbing him.
Because jail population numbers are near the threshold capacity of 234, there is cause for concern at our Law Enforcement Center in Woodbury County. Some violent inmates have assaulted the police, some are entangled in substance abuse, others are in need of mental health treatment. The correctional officers and nurses who work in the facility are behind the scenes and on the front line. Like our police officers, they play an integral and often heroic role in keeping us safe.

Understandably, taxpayers have no desire to pay for a new jail. For elected officials it is important to consider how to not only cost-effectively expand facilities we have, but also how to minimize the jail population when programs are more effective.

Support exists from the Board of Supervisors, the sheriffs office and from many in the court system here in Woodbury County for a program known as 24/7. This innovative criminal-justice concept is based on a program that began in South Dakota in 2004.

It works like this: Instead of creating overcrowding through incarceration, under 24/7 a non-violent, alcohol-related offender (OWI) reports twice a day, separated by 12 hours, and actually pays $4 per day to cover the costs of taking a breathalyzer test and proving sobriety. Alcohol testing is always required and random tests for other drugs are administered. Failure results in immediate sanctions from the court.

According to the Woodbury County sheriff's office and jail staff, 25 to 35 such alcohol-related offenders are housed at the county jail on any given day.

The results of 24/7 in other states are clear. A RAND study conducted on South Dakotas 24/7 Sobriety Program showed over 99 percent of tests administered were clean and evidenced a 12 percent reduction in long-term recidivism. Reduced recidivism ranged between 40 and 70 percent in Montana and 60 percent in South Dakota. The end to the revolving door makes sense. If one is able to prove sobriety week after week, especially if coupled with substance treatment help, the offender proves that a life of sobriety is possible.

Sheriff Dave Drew has long been an advocate after having read peer-reviewed studies and visiting Sioux Falls where the recidivism rate drastically fell through this personal responsibility approach. This is not a mandatory program because the judge must approve who participates and would likely be a best fit for the program.

A bill under consideration in the Legislature, Senate File 2190, would create a pilot program in the state of Iowa that would allow counties to request to participate in 24/7. Each county's participation would allow for the sentencing option to include this condition of probation. Participation in the pilot is determined by the Department of Public Safety in collaboration with the Governors Traffic Safety Bureau.

Last night, the Woodbury County board took action to move the clerk of courts from the Law Enforcement Center to the courthouse in the current treasurers office (the treasurers office will go to Trosper Hoyt). All of this is after months of study and conversation about consolidating more efficiently. After these moves are complete, 24/7 could be housed in the former clerk of courts space in the LEC. Then, if someone in Woodbury County failed a 24/7 test, instead of having to call transport at an off-site location, that individual would go directly up to the jail facility in the same building where the testing is taking place.

Creative approaches like 24/7 save money for taxpayers. We have taken steps to stop throwing money away at a dilapidated Prairie Hills where work release and weekend programs are currently housed. We are studying whether for just under $1.2 million (ironically, the same cost in utilities and maintenance that Prairie Hills will take in the next decade) we can expand the LEC and move such diversionary programs from Prairie Hills to there.

The final tool Woodbury County stands to be greatly benefited by is SF 2190 to allow us to move forward with 24/7.

On Tuesday, the Iowa Senate passed SF 2190 on a 36-12 vote; the bill now rests in the House. Woodbury County leaders urge the House to pass the bill because we believe it integral to accomplishing several goals: a personal responsibility based model for sobriety which can transform lives; a cost-effective way to continue dealing with the jail population; and the ultimate goal of making our community safer from alcohol- and drug-related abuse.

Jeremy Taylor is chairman of the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors.
If you buy something through our links, we may earn money from our affiliate partners. Learn more.

As you may know, .com domain names are becoming harder and harder to find. A search for a .com name on domain registration sites like GoDaddy can often lead to frustration. And for most businesses, name extensions such as .org or .net just wont work.

To make matters worse, domain squatters purchase thousands of names, holding them for ransom, often at exorbitant prices far more than a typical small business can afford.

Alternatives to .com

New Domain Name Category Offers Alternatives, Relevance

The good news is that a new category of domains and alternatives to .com now exists that includes everything from .accountant to .boutique, to .menu to .services, and even alphabetized extensions like .xyz  a range of options that numbers into the hundreds.

Why so many, you may ask? Small Business Trends interviewed Mike McLaughlin, senior vice-present of domains at GoDaddy for more.

The number of domain names being registered is running into the 100s of millions, McLaughlin said. As such, it has become harder to find a name that works for individuals and businesses using the .com extension. The rollout of these new namespaces means that many more names are available.

According to McLaughlin, not only do these new domains and alternatives to .com mean greater availability, but they also carry semantic significance.

The new domain names provide semantically meaningful choice, McLauglin said. If your business serves a particular geographic area, for example, you can get a domain that reflects that, such as .london or .miami. You can also find those that reflect your type of business: .photography, .attorney or .pharmacy. The new names provide more choice and greater relevance.

Mens Apparel Site .Club Domain Creates Brand Awareness

One small business that has taken advantage of the new name structure is ManBrands.club, an ecommerce and online subscription service selling mens apparel.

Small Business Rends spoke with the founder, Ry Russell, to get his take on why he opted for the new extension.

We started the company two years ago, to sell mens branded products, Russell said. We registered ManBrands.com, but when I saw that the .club extension was available, something clicked. I felt it added a level of sophistication and exclusivity that would appeal to our customers.

Russell also noted that .club caught peoples attention, which resulted in an unexpected branding advantage.

Since the .club domain is relatively new, it caught peoples attention and started a conversation, Russell said. It really sticks with people and adds value from a marketing and branding standpoint. Its not something they quickly forget. As competition increases, finding ways to differentiate yourself is important, and thats what .club has done for us.

New Domain Name Drawbacks

Despite the advantages, there are some drawbacks associated with the use of the new names, according to McLaughlin. One, in particular, is that people, when searching for a particular company by typing in what they presume is the domain name, will default to .com.

There is a certain ubiquity associated with .com, McLaughlin said. It is well known and has a high amount of social proof. Everyone uses it, and it is still the preferred choice.

McLaughlin went on to explain, however, that there is precident for names other than .com, particularly in countries outside the U.S. Overseas markets, for instance, use domains that, in addition to .com, incorporate country codes such as .uk (United Kingdom), .lt (Lithuania) or .ru (Russia).

These carry meaning for local populations, McLaughlin said, and with more than 100 million country code-related domain names, it is not just a .com Internet, and hasnt been for years.

Ethics of Registering Similar Names

And what is the ethics of registering a domain using one of these extensions when an existing business has the same name but with a .com.

First, you have to consider whether a company has a legal trademark on their name, McLaughlin said. If so, doing something that is similar could be questionable. Second, it could create customer confusion, particularly if it represents a brand, product or service with which people are already familiar.

McLaughlin stresses that if a business offers products and services that are entirely different, he believes there is no ethical violation. However, a company offering something substantially similar may present problems.

Domain Name Registration Tips

McLaughlin offered these tips when it comes to registering a new domain name:

If youre just starting your business, select a name that perfectly represents what youre trying to do, McLaughlin said. The new domains can help you accomplish that. If you can get the .com, of course, thats a good thing. If not, find an alternative that is semantically meaningful. If you can get both the .com and alternative name, thats best. Use one as your primary name and point the other to it.

For existing businesses that already have brand equity, the issue is different, McLaughlin said. You should pick a name by which everyone knows you. If youre in a financial position to do so, look at aftermarket names, those you could purchase at a reasonable price.

New Domain Names Signal Small Business Growth

According to McLaughlin, the domain name expansion represents a good sign that more and more small businesses are coming online, both in the U.S. and around the globe.

As more and more people shop online, small businesses are following suit, McLaughlin said. To be successful in 2016, its a necessary step. Yet, of the 28 million small businesses in the U.S., nearly half still do not have a website, so there is plenty of room for growth.
Did you see the pictures of Ris Low in The New Paper on Wednesday? Those legs! That hair! The peek-a-boo panties! If the pictures wer...
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.
Col. Robert "Bob" A. Smoak, USAF, Retired of Solomons, MD, formerly of Camp Springs, MD, passed away on Wednesday, March 9, 2016, at the age of 91. Bob was born in Tampa, FL on September 29, 1924 to Mary (Harp) and Robert M. Smoak.



At the age of 18, he entered the Army Air Corps (which later became the U. S. Air Force) as a private. Upon his retirement from the Air Force 29 years later, he retired a full Colonel. His military career spanned many locations and positions. It began with WWII, then on to China, Burma and India. He also served in Japan, Thailand, Germany and Viet Nam. He held the position of Assistant Provost Marshall in Shanghi and Provost Marshall in Tokyo, Japan. Upon returning to the United States, he became Provost Marshall for Air Force Command in the Pentagon.



There were many highlights during his career. Some that really stand out were the writing of the AF Manual, section 25-4 and the development of the security procedures for Atomic and Nuclear missile sites in the US. He also commanded the Armed Forces Police Department from 1967 to 1971. He coordinated with the D. C. Metropolitan Police to gain control of the riots in Washington, DC after Martin Luther King's assassination. He also played a big part in the planning and implementation of President Richard Nixon's Inauguration, a joint venture that he commanded all stages of. More information on Col. Smoak's military career can be found at the Air Force Museum in Texas.



After his military career, Bob went to work for the Federal Government at the Department of the Interior as Chief of Police. This position included the Park Police, Fish and Wildlife enforcement and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, not only in the USA, but all of the US territories as well. At that time, he had 6500 personnel under his command. He held this position from 1971 to 1989.



Bob was a proud member of the Masonic Lodge and ranked as Masonic Templer, Scottish/York for 65 years.



He was the beloved husband of Betty Smoak and the late Jewel Smoak. Bob was the devoted father of Brenda Kaye Smoak and Cynthia Smoak Jester and husband Bobby. He was the step-father of Wanda Osburn and her husband Joe, Nancy Long and her husband Tony, Linda Bejarano, and Jerry Rizer and his wife Meda. He is also survived by son-in-law Mitch Fanning, numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren and other family members.



Interment at Arlington National Cemetery will take place at a later date. You may contact his daughter, Cynthia Smoak Jester for more information on his interment service by emailing her at cynthiajester(at)comcast.net. Memorial contributions may be made in Bob's memory to the Fisher House Foundation, Inc., 111 Rockville Pike, Suite 420, Rockville, MD 20850 or on line at www.fisherhouse.org. Arrangements provided by Lee Funeral Home.
Eilleen Estelle Fisher, 62, of Lexington Park, MD passed away on March 8, 2016 at MedStar St. Mary's Hospital in Leonardtown, MD surrounded by her loving family. She was born on October 10, 1953 in Washington, D.C. to the late Mary Sullivan Wheeler and Theodore Nelson Wheeler of Florida.



In 1986, Eilleen married her beloved husband, Kenneth Scott Fisher in Prince Fredrick, MD. Together they celebrated over 29 wonderful years of marriage.



She enjoyed camping at Point Lookout State Park where she volunteered many hours with her family. She also enjoyed trips to Ocean City especially over the Thanksgiving holiday. Her greatest love was for her family whom she enjoyed spending as much time as possible.



In addition to her father and husband, she is also survived by her daughters, Jamie Smith and Alexis Smith, both of Lexington Park, MD. She is preceded in death by her mother. All services will be private. Arrangements by the Brinsfield Funeral Home, P.A., Leonardtown, MD.
Over the First 45 Days of the 2016 Legislative Session, the General Assembly Has Introduced $3.7 Billion in New Mandated Spending, Equivalent to $80 Million Per Day. Sources: Department of Legislative Services, December 2014 and 2015 Spending Affordability Committee Reports; Department of Legislative Services, 2016 Legislative Session Fiscal Notes. Chart by Governor's Office.

ANNAPOLIS

Budget Secretary David Brinkley sparred with Democratic legislators Tuesday over the Hogan administration's proposal to gain relief from legislative spending mandates that exceed projected revenues.Prior to Brinkley's testimony before the House Appropriations Committee, he joined Gov. Larry Hogan at a press conference in which the governor defended the initiative."Our proposal will ensure that future budgets continue to prioritize key expenditures like education and healthcare, but it also makes sure that leaders will have the flexibility to trim excessive cost increases in tough times," Hogan said."They don't seem to be taking reducing mandated spending increases very seriously," Hogan said. "It appears that some members of the General Assembly are choosing to ignore fiscal responsibility altogether."Brinkley told the committee that HB449, the Relief From Budget Mandates, would protect existing education mandates and promote fiscal responsibility."HB449 allows for limits in mandating spending beginning in FY 2019 to FY 2018's levels, with four exceptions: state aid to K-12 public education, the state's pension contribution, appropriations to the rainy day fund, and debt service payments," Brinkley said. Mandated spending would increase only in those fiscal years in which revenue growth as measured by the Board of Revenue Estimates each December, is 2% percent greater than the prior December revenue estimates, Brinkley said.Brinkley also criticized Democrats for proposing new mandates, as the governor had at a news conference just an hour before."Over the first 45 days of session, 85 new mandates have been proposed, totaling $3.7 billion, over the next four years," Brinkley said. "That lack of fiscal restraint is not what people are expecting."According to the bill's fiscal note, beginning in FY 2019, the governor would have the authority to significantly reduce existing mandate expenditures that are not exempted by the proposed statute. Future mandated appropriations could also be affected, as their funding may be reduced by the General Assembly to offset payments allocated to newly proposed mandates.Local governments would also be affected, as the governor would be authorized to significantly reduce funds that state gives to municipalities.Committee chair Del. Maggie McIntosh D-Baltimore City inquired about provisions related to what is commonly referred to as the "BRFA" (Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act), a commonly used budgetary tool that adjusts spending mandates and formulas to match revenues for the fiscal year.This is the first year in at least a decade that a governor has not used a BRFA bill (pronounced burfa), reducing spending mandates to balance the budget, since Hogan has completely funded all mandated spending programs.McIntosh expressed concerns that the executive branch was indirectly trying to override legislative input over mandates."That BRFA can change policy, it can override many of the formulas that we have put in place and without a hearing," McIntosh said. " It changes policy, it changes the budget, and it brings the budget into balance."McIntosh asked Brinkley if any other states grant the governor such extensive budgetary powers and was told none did.Del. Keith Haynes, D-Baltimore City, asked, "If this bill would pass, would the funding that's currently allocated to Baltimore City Community College be affected and also, would disparity grants for Baltimore City and other counties which are lower income jurisdictions be affected by this piece of legislation?"Brinkley said that was a possibility because those funds do not fall into the four categories exempted by the proposed mandate.Del. Marc Korman, D-Montgomery, was also concerned about community colleges and suggested reimbursement rates might be affected.Bernie Sadusky, executive director of the Maryland Association of Community Colleges, testified against the bill, and suggested that higher education mandates are partially responsible for facilitating Maryland's upwardly mobile population."What's been the return on our investment? We have an outstanding higher education system, we have one of the most highly educated adult populations in the United States and when we look at our per capita we income we certainly can link that to higher education," Sadusky said.Tina Bjarekull, president of the Maryland Independent College and University Association, worried that the proposed bill would jeopardize the Sellinger program, which partially allocates state revenues to independent colleges."We believe this bill would have a devastating impact on funding for higher education and really sever a long standing commitment to a broad and diverse system of higher education, Bjarekull, said.Dr. Sandra Kurtinitis, president of the Community College of Baltimore County, also testified against the bill, as did representatives of other educational institutions.Roy Meyers, a political science professor at UMBC and an expert on state budgeting, was the only proponent who testified besides Secretary Brinkley. He spoke in favor of the bill and increasing flexibility, and said the committee should not dismiss the idea simply because it wasn't perfect.Instead, he said they should consider the benefits of flexibility, such as avoiding long-term structural deficits and promoting "greater countercyclical flexibility."Among his suggestions was to "undergo a sunset review schedule where you actually look at individual mandates year after year after year, rather than just giving the governor power to limit them in years when this trigger would be carried out."
The number of expungements has more than doubled over the last 12 years, because of new laws that expanded eligibility. The figures shown here do not include expungements of people who were held and released without being charged. (It's unclear why the number of expungements dropped between 2010 and 2011). (Chart: Marissa Laliberte and Jason Dobkin)

ANNAPOLIS

Stephanie Good, 28, of Baltimore, said she served time in prison because she could not find and keep a job.Now, Good says she can't find a job because she served time in prison.In 2015, Good was released from the Baltimore County Detention Center after serving eight months for a violationfailure to maintain a full-time jobof probation for a felony theft from five and a half years ago, she said.Good said employers recently rescinded two job offers because of her criminal background."A lot of people make one mistake and it causes a downward spiral," Good said.Tuesday, Good and other advocates rallied in support of bills they say would remove barriers to employment for ex-offenders by expanding expungement policies.The General Assembly last year passed legislation that allowed for the shielding of certain nonviolent misdemeanor convictions from public view, as well as the expungement of "non-convictions,"cases that are acquitted, dismissed or droppedand convictions for acts that are no longer a crime, according to Caryn York, senior policy advocate with Maryland's Job Opportunities Task Force.After expungement legislation took effect on Oct. 1, 2015, the number of petitions for expungement filed in District Court through December 2015 increased by 50.55 percent compared to the number of petitions filed during the same period of 2014, according to a legislative analysis.But some lawmakers say more should be done to help offenders re-enter society."We have to be honest with ourselves that only allowing the shielding or expungement of misdemeanor crimes is simply not enough," said Delegate Jill Carter, D-Baltimore.Supporters at the rally said the legislation could help reduce recidivism, bolster the state's economy and reform a system of mass incarceration that disproportionately affects poor people and minorities.One proposal would allow for the partial expungement of acquitted or dropped charges when they are attached to related convictions. If an individual is charged with a number of offenses relating to the same incident, and found guilty of only one or some of them, he or she cannot expunge those other charges, leaving some people with "very scary looking" criminal records, York said."When employers see this record they're not necessarily looking at guilty versus not guilty, they're seeing that whole list of charges and they're judging individuals on that," York said. "And that's just not fair."A different bill would make the expungement of non-convictions automatic, and another, Carter explained, would allow individuals to petition for hearings for expungement of nonviolent felony convictions.In a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Delegate Curt Anderson, D-Baltimore, testified that expungement legislation would give individuals in the city and around the state the opportunity to "get on with your life.""What we're looking to do is to give that second chance to every single person who's had a problem at an earlier age," Anderson said. "Having a criminal recordalmost anything on your criminal recordis an obstacle to getting a job. It's an obstacle to getting a loan for school or even getting into college. It's an obstacle to housing. There are so many barriers artificially it throws up."But some of these proposals may be difficult to implement, said John Morrissey, chief judge of the District Court of Maryland. Morrissey testified that the expungement process is labor-intensive and consists of multiple steps, including the physical destruction of entire files. Partial expungement, of just some of the charges in one case, would require "extensive decision-making" that could not be delegated to a clerk, he said.Morrissey said partial expungement would result in "an extraordinary increase in the number of petitions for expungement," and would create the need for at least 16 new staff members for handling petitions.The bill's supporters have introduced an amendment that would apply partial expungement only to electronic records, York said.The state's judicial branch also opposed a bill relating to expungement of "invalidated" arrests because its language is somewhat unclear and overly broad, Morrissey said. He also said Carter's bill authorizing a person convicted of a nonviolent crime to file a petition for expungement is unnecessary because current law allows the court to grant a petition at any time, on good cause.U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat, said at the rally that she supports the legislation because she believes in "second chances.""I'm here for all those young men and women who just want to be productive, go to a job, meet their responsibilities without the stigma because they messed up. And that's all that any of us want," Edwards said. "Anybody that wants an education and a job should not be held back because they made a mistake."
NEW YORK (AP) -- Gay-rights and HIV/AIDS activists remain bitter at Ronald Reagan for a slow response to the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. Views are more mixed about his wife, Nancy, but there's deep regret that she didn't push sooner and more forcefully for stepped-up government action.

The first news reports about AIDS surfaced in 1981 _ just months into the Reagan presidency _ and within a few years, thousands of gay men had died of the disease. Yet Reagan didn't make an early push to fund expanded medical research and didn't make his first public comments about AIDS until 1987, at which time more than 20,000 Americans had died of its complications.

Nancy Reagan, who died on Sunday at the age of 94, had substantial influence on her husband in several areas, and she also had gay friends. But she neither spoke out publicly about AIDS nor left a documented record of pressing her husband on the issue early on in the crisis.

``On a personal level, she was someone who was not against gay people,'' said Richard Socarides, a former Clinton White House adviser on gay issues. ``But when the country needed leadership, President Reagan was not there, and his wife _ who was able to do more _ was not willing to step up. It reflects rather harshly on both of them.''

Peter Staley, a longtime HIV/AIDS activist based in New York, said Ronald Reagan virtually ignored the AIDS crisis in an era where the federal government had responded swiftly to less deadly outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease and other ailments.

As for Nancy Reagan, Staley said, ``I don't know her heart'' _ but he expressed disdain that she failed to persuade her husband to speak out about AIDS sooner.

Among those praising Nancy Reagan was Gregory Angelo of Log Cabin Republicans _ a pro-gay-rights GOP group. He credited Mrs. Reagan for arranging the first overnight stay at the White House by an openly gay couple, and for encouraging her husband to engage in the fight against AIDS.

``RIP Nancy Reagan,'' Angelo said on Facebook. ``A total class act.''

In 2011, PBS aired a documentary that addressed Nancy Reagan's role in the AIDS crisis. Among those interviewed was historian Allida Black, who said Mrs. Reagan's friendship with two AIDS victims _ movie star Rock Hudson and prominent attorney Roy Cohn _ prompted her to encourage her husband to seek more funding for AIDS research.

``I think she deserves credit for opening up the AIDS money,'' Black told PBS. ``But I could never say that without saying they never would have waited this long if it was redheaded sixth graders.''

Also appearing in the documentary was the Reagans' son, Ron Reagan, who credited his mother with using Rock Hudson's plight to put a face on the crisis and get the president to consider taking action.

``If you can personalize an issue _ that was the way you got to him, and she was well aware of that,'' Ron Reagan said.

Kevin Cathcart, longtime executive director of the LGBT rights group Lambda Legal, says he's cynical about such accounts of Nancy Reagan's influence.

``I'll leave it to others to decide if she was good, bad or indifferent,'' Cathcart said. ``But shameful is not even strong enough a word for the record of the Reagan administration on this.''

``Did she try and fail, or not try very hard? I really don't know,'' he said.

Many gay activists, reflecting on Nancy Reagan's legacy on AIDS, cite a BuzzFeed report last year about the final months of Rock Hudson's life in 1985. According to BuzzFeed, Mrs. Reagan decided the White House should not intervene on Hudson's behalf after his publicist requested help in getting Hudson transferred from the American Hospital in Paris to a French military hospital where more advanced treatment was available.

The White House aide involved in the exchange of messages told BuzzFeed that Mrs. Reagan ``did not feel this was something the White House should get into'' on behalf of a particular American citizen and suggested the publicist approach the U.S. Embassy instead.

Hudson did eventually enter the French military hospital _ and also received a call from President Reagan wishing him well.

But the reported response by Nancy Reagan has been widely evoked by gay-rights and HIV/AIDS activists as they reacted to her death.

``When people try to crown Nancy Reagan as some champion of the AIDS epidemic, I always say, `Tell her friend Rock Hudson that,''' activist and TV host Scott Nevins said in an email.

``If my friend came down with a devastating and unknown disease, and I had every resource at my disposal, I would do everything in my power to get them the help they needed,'' Nevins wrote. ``Nancy Reagan, ironically, just said no.''
Nicht Ihr Computer? Dann konnen Sie fur die Anmeldung ein Fenster zum privaten Surfen offnen. Weitere Informationen
AN AVERAGE politician campaigning in the regions comes to a village, gives presents, smiles and then departs after 30 minutes. Marian Kotlebas loyalists were ready to leave their job, roll up their sleeves and help repair a flooded cellar.

Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled

Radovan Branik, the founder of crisis team Modry anjel (Blue Angel) which assists during accidents, has been observing the Slovak far-right scene for a long time and met Marian Kotlebas people several times removing debris after an accident.

Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement

I must admit that no other political party or any organisation has been able to persuade voters in such effective way, Branik told The Slovak Spectator. You can never persuade a person  whose damaged house was under restoration for three days by those guys  that Kotleba is bad.

Branik comments come amid the surprising general election results for the far-right Peoples Party  Our Slovakia (LSNS) reaching 8.04 percent of votes which is enough to get 14 seats in Slovak parliament. February 2016 polls showed support for Kotleba, who is now serving as Banska Bystrica regional governor, reaching about 2 percent support.

Available data shows that many of voters of Kotlebas party are young people who have never exercised their right to vote before, manual labourers and former voters of Smer party which have been at the helm of government for eight of ten past years. Just 8 percent of Kotlebas voters said they backed the LSNS because of the migration crisis.

Kotlebas party in parliament is result of chronic social and economic insecurity, lack of perspectives and chronic lack of integrating values in our society, Zuzana Kusa, a sociologist with the Slovak Academy of Sciences told The Slovak Spectator. This situation has no simple or quick solution.

Gathering support everywhere

Data of Statistic Office shows that Kotleba received support in almost all districts in Slovakia reaching between 6 to 13 percent of voters which is enough to move into parliament.

This reveal can reflect the fact that party got support of first-time voters, protest voters or former non-voters who are relatively equally present in most of regions, Tibor Madlenak told The Slovak Spectator.

The most of LSNS voters have not voted in recent elections or voted small parties (34 percent). Many of them voted Smer (18.5 percent) four years ago.

Kotleba has been communicating with people in simple and populist way, according to social psychologist Alena Chudzikova of Centre for Ethnic and Culture Research (CVEK).

Even Smer tries to use similar communication Kotleba is closer to people and he does not have corruption scandals, Chudzikova told The Slovak Spectator.

First time voters

During election night Focus polling agency published exit poll showing that 17.3 percent of LSNS voters have never voted before. If this percentage is applied to official election results where LSNS received around 209,000 votes it means that approximately 36,000 of votes Kotlebas party received comes from first-voters. To compare, following Freedom and Solidarity party received around 21,000 votes from people who have never voted before. Such votes usually come from people between aged 18-21.

The young people see the massive leaving of their friends and relatives abroad for study or work as well as problems with leaving their parents household due to insufficient finances, Kusa said.

Besides frustration at the lack of opportunity the reason behind such votes is also poor education system and its ability to teach young people about human ideals such as respecting every human being, solidarity or helping the weak.

Demand for right-wing extremism

Kotleba has pushed the boundaries of the law with anti-minority rhetoric. He has organised marches of people wearing uniforms resembling the uniform of the Hlinka Guard, a wartime Fascist organization in Slovakia. His previous party was disbanded after Counstitutional Court found that partys program is violating the constitution. Even it is hard to admit for Kotlebas voters, they had to know that they are supporting extremism, according to Grigorij Meseznikov, the head of the Institute for Public Affairs think tank.

He refers on the study named Demand for Right-Wing Extremism Index (DEREX) which checks prejudice and welfare chauvinism, anti-establishment attitudes, right-wing value orientation and fear, distrust and pessimism among surveyed people. It showed that almost 11 percent of Slovak citizens are potential supporters of right-wing extremist groups in 2013.

Exactly those people are among Kotlebas voters, Meseznikov told The Slovak Spectator.

Kusa, however, disagrees that Slovaks inherited fascist attitudes from the past. The tolerance towards disrespect of some ethnic groups or religions and tendency of people to cast out some minorities from society is result of poverty, insecurity and lack of values, according to her.

Kotleba is currently not representing real anti-democratic extremists but rather frustrated protest voters who have no one else to vote for. He lost support of Neo-Nazis and anti-democratic people in 2015 after he tricked and humiliated their leaders who are not well-known in public but have big respect in Slovak far-right groups. They will try to unite in next elections, according to Branik.

The number of voters which Kotleba gained is high but the real capacity of this group is two times higher, Branik said. We would talk about him as the head of second strongest party.

Campaigning among people

Peter Brocka is an activist who ran for mayor in Trnava in 2014. He had a minimalist campaign running mostly among common people and on social networks. Despite such approach he was more successful than any other regular and presumably stronger candidates with more expensive campaign and won the election. Together with other activists he was cleaning parks, cutting the grass, repairing benches or reconstructing playgrounds.

Kotleba uses similar tactics in even more successful way, according to Branik.

He is visiting common people, shaking their hands asking how they are doing; it is like following textbook for US politicians, Branik said.

He added that there is paradoxical situation in Slovakia because the ecological agenda usually embraced by left-wing and liberal groups is most effectively used by extremists.

Only those guys are doing honest ecological activism without European funds or support from any embassy, Branik said. "There is perhaps no politician who has shaken hands with more common people than Kotleba.

Political reasons

Kotlebas success is probably the result of several trends in Slovak politics and society. The main pre-election issue was for a long time migrant crisis and parties who emphasised anti-migration rhetoric now comprise 60 percent of parliament. Another issue is strong anti-establishment feelings among people and parties such as LS-NS, OLaNO a Sme Rodina (We are familly) which reached 25 percent of seats in parliament, according to Tomas Nociar, a political scientist focusing on far-right parties.

The cross connection of those two issues namely anti-migrants and anti-establishment  which seems like winning combination in recent elections  can be seen as primary reason of success of LS-NS, Nociar told The Slovak Spectator.

Another reason is that ruling Smer has not clearly cast LS-NS out of political mainstream and responded only on most excessive situations such as possible pogrom or at least an ethnic clash between Kotlebas supporters and Roma in Saririssske Michalany village in 2009.

Dealing with scandals

After Kotleba became head of Banska Bystrica region many were forecasting that he will loose his support due to scandals.

Most of them were related to nepotism which ultimately resulted in National Labour Inspectorate stating that his region (BBSK) has become an illegal employer not eligible for money from European-Union (EU) funds.

Despite these scandals Kotleba received above-average support in the region reaching 9.3 percent in Banska Bystrica city and 14.5 percent in neighbouring town of Brezno.

Kotleba was able to explain such scandals as and attempt by the government to discredit him, according to Chudzikova.

Whether someone cooperated with him or not Kotleba was able to turn the situation in a way that people were impressed, she said.

Far-right parties in EU parliaments

After the March 5 elections Slovakia became third EU country with and extreme far-right party in parliament together with Greece and Hungary.

There are however other soft far-right parties present in EU parliaments and in some cases they have support from 20 to 30 percent of voters. Slovak National Party (SNS) which returned to parliament could be example of such a party, according to Nociar.

He went on that there other countries such as Portugal, Spain or Ireland where far-right groups are totally marginal.

It is specific for Slovakia that two far right parties will be in parliament - softer SNS and more extreme LSNS, Nociar told The Slovak Spectator.
Smers leader continues to hold official talks about a future government, but centre-right representatives meet too.

Font size: A - | A +

THE BASIC prerequisite for creating a stable government in Slovakia following the March 5 general election is cooperation between Smer and the Slovak National Party (SNS).

We concur on this, Prime Minister and Smers chair Robert Fico said, after meeting with SNS leader Andrej Danko on March 9, as quoted by the TASR newswire.

Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement

Earlier that day Fico was officially appointed by President Andrej Kiska to negotiate the creation of a new government as leader of the winning party. A deadline of March 18 for the conclusion of this process was set. Representatives of Siet and Most-Hid have already declined an invitation to the talks.

Fico continued that both parties have a positive view of a strong role of the state and they also agree on defending the national interests.

Read also:

Read also: Smer leader has 1.5 weeks to form government Read more

At the same time I respect all existing differences between us, Fico said, as quoted by TASR, adding that he sees scope for further talks with SNS. This was a basic meeting, further ones must be based on this.

Following the meeting with Fico, Danko pointed out that there is a real possibility that no functioning government will be set up due to the election results.

The election has shown that its possible to gain votes pretty easily using media politics, Danko said, as quoted by TASR. Its easy to deceive voters, it can take just a few months.

In the election Smer won 49 seats in parliament, while SNS secured 15, so this is a far cry from reaching a majority of 76 in the 150-member house.

Meanwhile, the chair of the Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party Richard Sulik continued to hold unofficial talks with leaders of other parliamentary parties, meeting with Siets Radoslav Prochazka. Sulik called the meeting constructive, the Sme daily reported on its website.

Prochazka responded that the unofficial talks are going well, Sme wrote.
Chair of Sme Rodina (We Are Family) considers the documents received by the Sme daily, which allege his links to gangland figures, to be an attempt to discredit him.

Font size: A - | A +

BORIS Kollar, leader of the Sme Rodina party which will hold 11 seats in the new parliament, was probably monitored by the intelligence service in the past for his alleged contacts with gangland figures. This stems from the documents Sme obtained.

Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement

Two documents, marked as reports of the former Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Democracy, are dated September and October 1990. They have the same structure as reports made by the communist-era secret police StB before 1989. After the Velvet Revolution the Office was responsible for counter-intelligence tasks and operated under the federal Interior Ministry, Sme reported in its March 9 issue.

Read also:

Read also: Our Family and the skeletons in its closet Read more

The report from October 1990 relates to the activities of then illicit money-changer Peter Steinhubel, who later became one of the bosses of organised crime in Bratislava. He was murdered in August 1999. Three months later, another organised crime figure, Roman Deak, who is also mentioned in the documents, was killed. According to the documents, Steinhubel was involved in drug trafficking. To organise transport, he appointed his flunkeys Roman Deak, Boris Kolar and Jan Danis who, according to the documents, deal with the illegal exchange of money, Sme reports.

The authenticity or veracity of the documents cannot be proved. Though the name Kolar is spelled with only one l (unlike the name of Sme Rodinas chair), this may have been an error on the part of the person who prepared the documents. The residence of the man mentioned in documents was in Palisady in Bratislava, where Sme Rodinas Kollar lived at the time, according to Sme.

The documents are lies, Kollar says

Kollar told Sme that he was seeing the documents for the first time and called the suspicions of drug trafficking nonsense. When asked about his relationship to Deak and Steinhubel, he told the daily that he knew them when they were children. Kollar has already confirmed that they were doing business together after the fall of the communist regime, but they allegedly stopped this in 1991, Sme wrote.

Meanwhile Kollar held a press conference on March 9, where he described the allegations as lies.

I was never involved in that and have never touched it, Kollar said, as quoted by the TASR newswire.

He expects attacks on him to continue in order to cause a split in the movements caucus. His Sme Rodina party thinks that oligarchs behind the Smer party are behind the attacks. The movement is ready to endure them, said Kollar, insisting on his support for a rightist government and his rejection of Smer.

The members of Sme Rodina also expressed their support for Kollar at the press conference, Sme wrote.
Slovaks needed to work three days longer to fulfil their tax duties than last year.

Font size: A - | A +

Tax Freedom Day, the first day in a given year on which people have earned enough to fund the states annual tax demands, will fall on May 28 this year in Slovakia, according to Deloitte in Slovakia. While this is by three days later than last year, the approximately same period of time taxpayers will work to pay their taxes and levies also in Great Britain and Cyprus.

Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement

The least days required for taxpayers to meet their tax obligations this year are in Lithuania (April 29) and Bulgaria (May 2). On the other end of the ranking is Denmark (August 5) and Luxembourg (September 23).

One of the important advantages of Slovakias economy is a lower tax burden as in most countries of the EU, David Marek, Deloittes chief economist, as cited in the press release, adding that a taxpayer has to work 148 days on average to pay taxes in Slovakia, while the average in the EU is 176 which is coincidentally the same in the Czech Republic. This means that the tax freedom day in Slovakia will be by almost one month earlier than in the Czech Republic, where it will fall on June 20.

The historically shortest period during which taxpayers worked for the state was in 2008, when the Day of Tax Freedom in Slovakia took place on May 22.

The tax freedom day is a simple and easily comprehensible demonstration of tax burden in the economy. The method used for calculating its date divides the year into two parts, in a ratio corresponding to the proportion of total taxable income to net national income, according to Deloitte.
ONE of the most recognised Siet party politicians Miroslav Beblavy who has recently pointed out several sandals concerning the health care sector resigned from his post as the partys vice-chairman on February 9.

Font size: A - | A +

His statement came only a few days after Siet earned surprisingly poor results in the March 5 general elections, receiving only 5.6 percent and barely making it to the parliament.

The reason for this move is the serious damage to my trust in party chairman Radoslav Prochazka over certain information recently released in the media and at the party presidium session on Monday (February 7), Beblavy wrote on Facebook.

Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement

The tabloid daily Novy Cas reported that Prochazka, along with party vice-chairman Andrej Hrnciar met Prime Minister Robert Fico at the Government Office on Sunday February 6. Before and after the elections, Prochazka declared that he does not want create a government with Smer.

Precitajte si tiez:

Precitajte si tiez: Smer leader has 1.5 weeks to form government Read more

In a reaction to the media, Prochazka said that he was not at the Government Office at all. Later he conceded that on Sunday he had a chat with Interior Minister and Smer vice-chairman Robert Kalinak.

When asked by journalists on Monday whether he met Fico a day before, Prochazka responded affirmatively. Almost immediately he added that it was not apart from TV debates, however. Nonetheless, the only TV debate attended by Fico on Sunday was on TA3, but Prochazka was not present there.

Prochazka at the presidium session on Monday allegedly attempted to persuade its members to launch talks on entering into a Government with Smer, according to Novy Cas.

Beblavy on Wednesday further stated that he feels a commitment towards more than 36,000 people who gave him their preferential ballots in Saturdays general elections and more than 146,000 people who cast their votes for Siet, so he will remain an MP for the party.

However, if Siet enters into a coalition with Smer  despite its public promises concerning Slovakias needs and the peoples will  he will also consider leaving Siet altogether.

Those who were seeking quick success are disappointed, but the core of Siet are and will be people who will create from it (Siet) a long and good story, Prochazka told the press in his response.



Precitajte si tiez:

Precitajte si tiez: Successful masseurs story reveals scandals Read more

Beblavy was elected to the 2012-16 Parliament as a member Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKU), but left the party in late 2013, serving afterwards as an independent MP. Later he joined Siet.

Over recent months Beblavy has pointed out several scandals such as the successful business story of Pavol Kostka and his ties with top officials. He also shed light on Health Ministry State Secretary Mario Miklosi signing contracts for his firm with state-run health insurer Vseobecna Zdravotna Poistovna (VsZP) even as he was already a top official at the ministry.
The calculator may be used for raising real estate taxes in Slovakia.

Font size: A - | A +

Compared with other countries of the OECD, real estate taxes in Slovakia are low. Slovakias revenues from this tax made up only 0.4 percent of GDP in 2014, while, for example in Hungary it was 0.6 percent and in Poland 1.2 percent. In western countries these numbers are even higher.

Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement

Finance Minister Peter Kazimir indicated already in 2012 when he was taking up his post that real estate tax rates may increase and that luxury housing would be taxed more. But for doing so he needed price maps to find out which residential properties are luxurious and which are not. In Slovakia real estate tax is calculated based on the area of a given real estate, the Hospodarske Noviny economic daily wrote.

Finally, the Institute of Financial Policy (IFP), a governmental think tank at the Finance Ministry, has designed a calculator to calculate prices of residential real estate. It revealed it on March 9.

Th results of the calculator are rather informative given that the scheme uses old data and limited inputs. The data used are advertised offer prices of residential real estate in 2011 and 2012, but the IFP plans to update them. In calculating values, the IFP utilised the database of reality.sk, that also the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) uses for its calculations.

When interpreting a property value that the calculator generates it is necessary to take into consideration that the model does not reflect the development between 2013-2015, does not contain all characteristics affecting the price of the residence, and except for Bratislava and Kosice, it estimates the value of a square metre for the whole town or municipality.

The calculator also takes into consideration only materials from which a house is built, but not the extent of renovations, as buyers look into this as well, given the price may change when there will be a need to take a loan for reconstruction.

We did not have this information at disposal, said Rastislav Gabik of IFP as cited in the online edition of the Sme daily. As we write in the manual, there are a lot of variables affecting the price of apartments. Alas, we did not have access to all of them in order for us to include them into the model.

For now tax rates on real estate remain unchanged.

There is room for higher real estate taxes, but this should be compensated by reduction of income taxes in order it pays for people to work more and use assets actively, Peter Golias, director of the INEKO think tank told Hospodarske Noviny.

How to use the calculator

Here are the instructions and vocabulary for better use of the calculator at www.institutfinancnejpolitiky.sk:

Zadajte nazov obce  Insert the name of the municipality, in case of Bratislava and Kosice it is necessary to insert also the name of the borough and the street

After selecting the municipality, fill in the following fields

Obytna plocha  Floorage, in m2

Balkon  Balcony, in m2

Lodzia  Loggia, in m2

Terasa  Terrace, in m2

Vytah  Lift, ano/nie  yes/no

Poschodie  Storey

 here you can choose from three possibilities: prizemie - ground floor, medziposchodie  each storey between the ground floor and top floor, podstresie  top floor

Stav bytu  Condition of the apartment

 here you can choose from four possibilities: novostavba  new construction, ciastocna rekonstrukcia  partial reconstruction, kompletna rekonstrukcia  complete reconstruction, povodny stav  original condition

Konstrukcia domu  construction of the house:

 here you can choose from three possibilities: tehlova konstrukcia  brick construction, zmiesana konstrukcia  mixed construction, panelova konstrukcia  panel construction

After filling in all fields, click on the Vypocitat  Calculate button. The calculator will give you cena/m2  the price per square metre and celkova cena bytu  total price of the flat
The Christian Democrats have a chance to return to the top tier of parties, but need changes.

Font size: A - | A +

ROUGHLY 1,600 more votes is all the Christian Democrats needed to make it to the national parliament. If they do not want to sink into oblivion and return to the house in the future, they need to think about several changes, either to their image or their agenda, political analysts agree.

Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement

The Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) took just 4.96 percent of the vote in the March 5 general election. As a result, they did not win any seats in the parliament for the first time since they were established in 1990.

Christian democracy in Slovakia is in ruins, political analyst Jan Baranek told the public-service broadcaster Radio and Television of Slovakia (RTVS).

While support for the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKU) evaporated (it received only 0.26 percent of the vote), Siet only barely made it into the house (winning the support of 5.6 percent) and KDH failed to reach parliament, he noted.

Following the KDHs poor result, Jan Figel announced on March 15 that he would resign as leader. However, his decision came more than a week after the election, for which slowness he was criticised by political analysts.

Not typical Christian democracy

KDH originated among politically engaged Catholics, especially thanks to its first leader, Jan Carnogursky, explains political scientist Miroslav Kusy.

It supported democratic principles, had predictable behaviour and a clearly defined ideology, as well as a certain place in society, says political scientist Juraj Marusiak of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.

The stability of its voter-base even allowed the KDH to nurture sub-groups, Marusiak told The Slovak Spectator, as it had strong positions in families, there is also a youth organisation running alongside it.

Though KDH tried to establish itself on the Christian-democratic principles known in western Europe, there were certain differences. For example, it had stronger links to the Catholic church.

The party promoted principles which seemed to belong to the past, Kusy said, listing as an example the partys opposition to same-sex marriage. Moreover, it was rather careful in its opinions on disputes concerning the Catholic church in Slovakia.

Also, Marusiak said, western European Christian democratic movements are more liberal in several aspects.

The western Christian democratic parties are more focused on people living in the countryside and small towns and they support the model of a social market economy, Marusiak added.

KDH lost its identity

The KDH and its representatives played an important role in the 1990s when they were part of the opposition to then-prime minister Vladimir Meciar. Back in 1998, the KDH leader even withdrew in favour of Mikulas Dzurinda, who later became prime minister, Marusiak pointed out.

On the other hand, KDH disagreed with any alternative personalities or programmes. This spurred a mass of defections in recent years as well blocking changes to its programme or image.

KDH has lost its identity, Marusiak said. Its liberal economic and social programme was far from the problems of its electorate.

After losing economic experts, the party took up other agendas. Moreover, the party lost its political initiative in recent years and only responded to Christian activities in the third sector.

They were emptied from the point of values, programme and personalities, Marusiak said, adding that none of KDHs attempts to attract voters had worked.

One of the last controversies connected with the party was a proposal to punish abortion with a prison sentence. This was too strong for the stable voters of the party, according to Marusiak.

Moreover, KDH was not the only party promoting a pro-life agenda. It also has supporters in Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OLaNO) and the far-right Peoples Party  Our Slovakia (LSNS), he added.

Pavel Haulik of the MVK polling agency opined that many KDH voters picked OLaNO or LSNS in the recent vote, but also the newly-established Sme Rodina (We Are Family) of Boris Kollar.

Figel is a weak leader

KDH has also struggled to introduce new personalities. Due to the partys internal problems, several of its members have left over time. These included Dzurinda, Vladimir Palko, Frantisek Miklosko, as well as Daniel Lipsic and Radoslav Prochazka, Marusiak continued.

All these personalities have left as they perceived its policies to be too conservative, static and maladjusted, Kusy told The Slovak Spectator.

Most of them established their own political parties.

Not even KDH chair Figel was strong enough to attract voters. Due to his political pedigree and the previous functions he had held (as Slovakias main negotiator with the European Union, and then as European Commissioner), he was expected to have a good position in the KDH.

However, he lost many supporters after he failed to manage his personal and absolutely unnecessary scandals, Marusiak said.

He referred to cases in which Figel, despite being a former European Commissioner, obtained a flat under very favourable conditions, or when he was granted a PhD title under dubious circumstances.

Kusy says that Figel was not a charismatic personality or the type of leader who would come up with new ideas.

Baranek sees another problem in the decline of Christian democracy in Slovakia. In the past four years, two new parties have been established by people who have left the KDH: NOVA (led by Lipsic) and Siet (led by Prochazka). OLaNO also has members promoting the same principles as KDH.

I consider this a cardinal mistake, Baranek told RTVS.

Changes are necessary

Political analysts agree that it is necessary to have a party presenting Christian democratic values. The KDH still has supporters, but it will have to adopt several changes to make it back into parliament. One of these is to focus more on social policy, Marusiak said.

This, however, cannot be done under the current leadership. The party needs new faces with more modern Christian democratic thinking, added Kusy.

Most of the current leadership will offer to resign their positions at an assembly summoned for March 19. Analysts were surprised by this decision.

Such lack of self-reflection is not extraordinary in Slovak politics, but this extent is unbelievable, Marusiak said, adding that both KDH leaders and the partys supporters blame everybody but themselves for the election failure.

Analysts agree that the leaders must admit responsibility for the current state and draw consequences.

KDH will need a good airing, Haulik said. He does not believe the party will end  it will be back in the next elections, but its definitely going to be a different KDH  it will have to be.

Marusiak, however, says that the party has been ransacked both personally and ideologically, so it is not clear whether there will be anybody left to revitalise it.
In two decades watching Slovak elections, analyst says he has never seen a party's results take as big a leap over pre-election data

Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled

KEVIN Deegan-Krause, who has been researching behaviour of Slovakias voters and the electoral trends in the country practically ever since Slovakia started running its own elections after 1993, says he has never seen a party take such a big leap as the far right party of Marian Kotleba did in the March 5 election. In an e-mail interview with The Slovak Spectator, Kevin Deegan-Krause responds to questions not only about the results of the parliamentary election but also about the electoral system in Slovakia as such.

Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement

The Slovak Spectator (TSS): Surprise is a word that we have used quite a lot on the election night. What was the biggest surprise for you?

Kevin Deegan-Krause (KDK): As an outside observer without daily contact with Slovakias politics, there is a lot I do not know and a lot I can be surprised about, and my degree of surprise is almost perfectly related to the difference between the final polls and the actual results. For the sake of clarity, Ive gone and arrayed the differences between the final polls and the predictions in the attached table. The least surprising results were for parties that only slightly underperformed: SNS and Most-Hid. Smers underperformance was actually no more significant than for SNS and Most-Hid, but the raw difference in percentage points  an average of 5.8 percentage points across all four major polls  makes it seem more significant. Underperformance by KDH was not much greater than for Smer, and not much more unexpected (both were on a declining trend in the period before the election), but it ended having the more significant (and surprising) outcome of KDHs exclusion from parliament (an outcome that was in doubt until late into election night as the party dropped below 5.00 hovered around 4.90 but never rose above 4.95).

TSS: The main story of the elections clearly is the 8 percent for Kotleba. Should we have seen this coming? Apparently few people did.

KDK: I always think that I should have seen this kind of thing but frankly in two decades of looking at Slovakias elections, Ive never seen party take this big a leap: over three times greater than the average polls and without any kind of trend. Weve seen parties below the threshold jump above, but in nearly every case, such parties have shown a positive trend prior to the election. Not so for LSNS which had showed little growth and no inclination toward a jump. Of course in perfect hindsight the partys votes may have been a bit reticent about declaring themselves (we saw the same with Kotlebas voters in the regional governors race, but weve also seen times where LSNS did not exceed the polls) and the inflamation of the migration issue probably helped the party a great deal, but clearly the partys rise did not trigger the normal indicators. Its a pretty safe bet that in future elections, observers will try to find some other ways of tracking the partys underlying support levels.

TSS: What are the peculiarities of election system in Slovakia, when viewed from abroad, maybe in comparison with other election systems?

KDK: Slovakia is in many ways the most normal of electoral systems. It is, at least, one of the most straightforward, with a standard 5-percent threshold, a standard quota method for translating votes into seats (so simple that any voter can do it) and a single district, and thus a common ballot across the country. That single district does make Slovakia a bit unusual (since most countries with proportional representation do include regional subsections).

TSS: Do you consider the system just? The 5-percent threshold has been questioned repeatedly, for instance.

KDK: Since thresholds have traditionally been proposed as ways of reducing extremism and fragmentation, the current results in Slovakia do not exactly justify their use. Still, it is possible that without a threshold, the fragmentation (if not the extremism) would be worse. A 4-percent threshold would have put ten parties in parliament and added parties with distinct profiles (though not necessarily extreme). This year, the absence of parties between 4 percent and 1 percent means that even elimination of the threshold altogether would not have added any other parties to parliament.

The bigger question is how thresholds affect voting behavior, particularly as it interacts with the two-week polling blackout. In normal circumstances, the threshold forces voters to make a strategic decision between the party a voter prefers and the party a voter thinks may exceed the threshold. The shorter the poll blackout period, the better chance voters have to make a correct assessment. The two-week blackout makes it virtually impossible in the case of many parties for voters to make a strategic decision, though it may, ironically, increase the likelihood that voters vote their conscience.
The business sector has been calling for reforms.

Font size: A - | A +

Slovakia reported a strong economic growth of 3.6 percent in 2015 but it is not expected that it would repeat such sound results this year. External factors and the stalemate situation after the March 5 parliamentary elections will likely slow growth, some say. While the ruling Smer party that has lost its majority and have problems to find coalition partners, right-leaning parties also are not strong enough to form a solid government.

Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement

Economic analysts and experts reiterate that the Slovakias economy needs a stable government to maintain growth. But they are sceptical do not believe that either a leftist or rightist government of more than three parties would be able to agree upon necessary reforms.

Processes are set, economist Vladimir Balaz from the Institute for Forecasting of the Slovak Academy of Sciences told the Sme daily. For approximately one or two years our economy manages to operate by gravity.

This means that problems could arise after two years as the national economy cannot grow markedly anymore without structural reforms, especially in education and research.

The problem is, that from the spectrum that has made it to parliament I cannot imagine a government that would be able to agree on these important questions without problems, said Balaz.

Radovan Durana, an analyst at the Institute for Economic and Social Studies (INESS), pointed out that for Slovakias economy depending on export, the political stability that affects trust of foreign investors is very important, the TASR newswire wrote. He added that even though exports grew during the previous government, just a few foreign investors arrived in Slovakia and these came mostly thanks to generous stimuli.

The analysts do not think that the arrival of the fourth carmaker Jaguar Land Rover agreed upon during final months of 2015 would be affected by the elections, but Slovakia will have to wait to see new investors coming.

Investors will want to wait for the new government and its concrete steps, said Andrej Arady, economist with VUB bank.

Martin Reguli, an analyst from the F. A. Hayek Foundation, expects that in case Smer manages to form the government, it would want to continue launching so-called social packages. But it is questionable whether the possible coalition would allow it, the TASR wrote. Reguli estimates that for a coalition formed by Richard Sulik, the head of the Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) that ended second behind Smer, a flag ship might be re-introduction of the flat tax while a reform of the old-age pension scheme and improvement of the business environment might be its other aims high on the agenda.

The economic analysts also do not exclude early elections or a caretaker government to be formed from apolitical experts.

Peter Kremsky, executive director of the Business Alliance of Slovakia, believes that the election result is a great opportunity for a government of national responsibility that would not consist from politicians but experts in given fields respected in the whole society.

A cabinet of experts with support of as many parties as possible would have clear reform tasks, strong supervision from the side of parliament and president and should operate in a very transparent way, said Kremsky as cited by TASR.

Among needed reforms Kremsky listed a reform of judiciary as well as addressing issues of corruption, bureaucracy, taxes and levies.

While Kremsky believes that quickly passed reforms may help the economy, lengthy negotiations about the new government accompanied by political uncertainty may harm the economy.
Back in the mid 90s, long before anything called Third Wave coffee had arrived in Russia, one coffee drinkers casual whim gave birth to one of Russias most popular drinks.

A regular at Coffee Bean, a shop which would later expand across several regions within Russia, Rafael Timerbaev preferred his coffee with milk. So, on one of his visitsnot realizing the glory this moment would portendhe simply asked for a good cup of coffee with milk. The barista, rising to the occasion of this open-ended request, mixed a shot of espresso with cream and sugar, and steamed it all together. What would follow is now the stuff of Russian coffee legend.

The drink became a habit for Timerbaev, and soon his friends flocked to the same Coffee Bean to try the famous drink, asking the baristas, Make that very drink you made for Rafael! Or just Raf. One by one, they fell in love with it at first sip. Or maybe second. Rather than continue to offer the off-the-list concoction at a random price every timeall that cream and sugar adds upthe managers simply added it to the real menu, where it became known as the Raf.

Timberbaev is modest about the tribute. As its widely known, I wasnt in any way involved in creating the drink. Neither do I remember the author of the recipe. There are several widespread versions, but I wont be able to confirm any of them.

A story well worth a detective plot. Well, let us leave the mystery unraveledit only lends the drink the added glimmer of legend. Today, any coffee geek will expect to see a Raf (or Raf-Coffee as its also called) in any specialty coffee shop around Russia.

The cradle of this fame, the very first Coffee Bean location to make a Raf, unfortunately, closed a couple of years ago, so I went to a less historic spot, with quite a historic person working therebarista trainer Tatyana Gulyaeva, a part of the Coffee Bean team for 15 years.

According to Gulyaeva, the original recipe was a shot of espresso, two tablespoons of sugar, and a splash of cream, all steamed in a cup. But it didnt stay the same for long: Coffee Bean baristas, seduced by a vanilla sugar jar at the bar, dared to add it to the drink along with the regular sugar. This drink was overwhelmingly sweetthree tablespoons of sugar were simply too many. However, everybody agreed on the vanilla twist, and eventually the now-classic formula was born: one shot of espresso, cream, one tablespoon of plain sugar, and one tablespoon of vanilla sugar. Its prepared nowadays by either steaming in a cup or a pitcherI found the cup-steamed Raf lacked the intricate, fine-structured, glossy foam of its pitcher-prepared counterpart.

The surface is so silky that it seems a feather dropped atop it would simply glide away. But even though its now-canonical recipe is such a hit, its also become a basis for Russian coffee inspiration. The Rafs neutral formula is a springboard to creativity. Syrups, spices, herbsthe alchemy of a Raf tolerates just about everything.

Sme of the raf twists have an army of fans. One of them is a Lavender Raf, which owes its popularity to a Russian coffee chain Double B, which boasts locations all over Russia and even in the Czech Republic and Kazakhstan. Double B followers know that not only a woman is worth a romance-filled rhyme. Whenever someone posts a photo of a Lavender Raf to social media, someone will immediately respond with: Lavender Raf, One Love (dont worry, this rhymes in Russian). Its a saying first slipped from under the pen of Sergey Mitrofanov, a Double B barista and coffee hashtag trendsetter.

Sweet and glossy, different and comforting, whether you like it or not, the Raf is a drink with a story. And where theres a history, theres a future. Stay tuned to these pages for more on the Raf, the unofficial and mysterious national coffee drink of Russia.

Darya Afanasyeva is a coffee professional based in Moscow, where she blogs at Zerno.me. Read more Darya Afanasyeva on Sprudge.

With additional photos by Ksenia Zudinova.
"In fact, Ukraine is becoming or maybe has already become a failed state. It is an impoverished kleptocracy ruined by corrupted bureaucrats and oligarchs," he added.

Back in the day when Jose Manuel Barroso was President of the European Commission and George Bush W. Bush was President of the US, Ukrainians were forced to choose between Russia and the West. Thus the country was split, Sommer noted.

Instead of letting Ukraine remain "neutral" both "the West and Moscow tried to gain it over," the article read.

"Junckers 'revelation' is an out-of-date acknowledgment that such an approach was a big mistake," the author wrote. "Economic benefits forced Ukraine to make strategic choice. What is more, Russias interests were not taken into account. This was the root of the crisis."

According to the journalist, the West should listen to Junckers "wise words" and agree on a compromise over Ukraine, including its integration to the EU and at the same the restoration of its "historic relations" with Russia.
To solve all these problems the EU should reconsider its anti-crisis policy and redistribute powers within the alliance with emphasis on the Swiss principle of close interaction between the authorities and the people.

This would finally help make Europe a project of its citizens, not the political elites, Jurgen Stark emphasized.

The Eurozone has been in crisis since the 2010 financial meltdown in Greece, which then started to spill over to the rest of Europe with many EU countries faced with sovereign debt backlogs compounded by growing budget deficits. Greece, Ireland and Portugal were forced to take loans of billions from the EU and the International Monetary Fund in exchange for a pledge to implement a series of unpopular austerity programs.

The huge influx of migrants from North Africa and the Middle East added to the EUs woes. According to the latest Frontex data, about 1.8 million refugees entered the European Union in 2015.

The European Commission described the current migrant crisis as the worst since World War Two.
Furthermore, public confidence in the government has also been undermined by the fact that Ukraines foreign partners are criticizing the government.

"I intentionally use the word 'authorities' because the current crisis is not just the fault of the government or the parliament. Ukraine still has a systemic problem of misuse of power by different state institutions," the journalist pointed out.

According to her, corruption was one of the reasons for the Euromaidan protests, and Ukrainians were struggling to live in a free society ruled by a fair government.

"The current authorities have failed to acknowledge this most basic and most important Euromaidan demand. The culmination of this failure was the sabotage of the no-confidence vote in parliament against Yatsenyuk last month, carried out by groups of deputies close to him, the president and the oligarchs. [] Instead of risking a new election, in which both Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk stood to lose their seats, they kept the status quo and pulled political life in Ukraine back into the Yanukovych era," she concluded.

In February 2014, as a result of a coup Viktor Yanukovych was toppled as Ukrainian president. The new cabinet led by Yatsenyuk declared its course on integration with the European Union and NATO. In April 2014, Kiev launched a military operation in the Donbass and Luhansk Regions where residents refused to recognize the coup-installed government.
The EU should not forget about its own interests in order to please Turkey, the politician said in an interview with Deutschlandfunk.

For European countries, particularly Germany, it is unacceptable to be led by Ankara and let the Turkish authorities blackmail the EU, Niebler argued.

"We can't trade our interests and we shouldn't get into a situation in which Turkey will blackmail us," the politician said.
She is backing the plan to relocate 160,000 migrants from Greece and Italy across the member states under a mandatory quota system that is opposed by many states  especially in central Europe.

However, according to the latest European Commission report, in February:

"The relocation of 66,400 people in need of international protection from Greece, as agreed by the Member States, has started very slowly with only 218 relocations so far. Only 15 Member States have offered places to Greece for relocations.

"Despite the fact that relocation from Italy started a few weeks earlier than from Greece, it is still far behind the rate necessary to achieve the overall target to relocate 39,600 people in need of international protection in two years. In total, 279 applicants have been relocated to date," the Commission report states.

Blackmail Claims

Meanwhile, the numbers streaming across the West Balkan route to reach western Europe exploded in recent months, prompting the Balkan States  along with Austria  to impose border controls.

Viable & realistic solution to #RefugeeCrisis can only result from coordinated action, esp between EU & Turkey 4/4 pic.twitter.com/qys5ST0Ovt  Alexis Tsipras (@tsipras_eu) March 3, 2016

Merkel is also under fire after pushing through an EU deal with Turkey under which the EU would pay another tranche of money to help Turkey deal with its refugee crisis in return for a series of measures that includes the EU sending "irregular migrants" from Greece back to Turkey, and which means the EU will take in Syrian refugees in Turkey on a one-for-one basis, which many believe goes against international law.
The whole poem translated from Turkish is presented below.

I, the Turkish poet Huseyin Haydar,

I have witnessed dark and shameful acts,

However, I am sure that they will judge all of the damned villains.

It is unthinkable, but this crime

Happened in front of everyone, and my fault is,

I could have tried; I could try to stop him,

But, unfortunately, I realized it late.

I, the Turkish revolutionary Huseyin Haydar,

To every Russian, to all the people: I'm sorry.

Courage of the Russian mountains, plains and steppes

Forgive me, the land of the great Lenin.

Before our eyes were torn fraternal bonds,

All this happened in front of me.

I might, I could have prevented it,

Reckless we were not, that is only our fault,

That we are not masters of our own country,

That the fatherland torch shines so little.

And so I turn to Eurasia and Turkey,

In songs and in prayers forgiveness I ask

From Mayakovsky and Gorky,

From Ivan soviet who protected

From Nazis his land.

I ask for Pardon from country heroes

Women, men, children and the elderly,

Of 23 million people who died

And Gagarin who accomplished his feat,

And the Soviet brother that gave us his hand

In our great national war.

Of Simona Aralova (authorized representative of the RSFSR in Turkey RT) I ask forgiveness

And Russian women, who lasted through the war,

All those who have generosity of their soul

Showered blessings in a difficult moment.

I ask forgiveness of the Russian peasants,

Of the Russian revolutionary.

In the presence of all those who died in the war,

In the presence of thousands of rifles and shotguns

I state boldly:

I, the Turkish poet Huseyin Haydar,

I admit I'm guilty, turning my head to the light.

I could not from shame save my country

Great Russian people, forgive me for it.

And bowing my knees, I beg forgiveness from the mother of Oleg Peshkov.

Huseyin Haydar is a famous Turkish poet and laureate of national awards; his work is printed in a variety of literary magazines across the country.

In 1983, the publishing house Yazko published his second collection of poems Black songs. In 1987, the publishing house Jam released a collection of The Star eclipse and a collection of poems, The body of water by the publishing house Adam which was published in 1992.

After he released his poem, students of Istanbul University and Istanbul Technical University organized a protest, during which they read aloud poems by the poet. The students of the two universities read verses by Haydar on Taksim Square in central Istanbul and around the Bosporus; they made a video and posted it on YouTube expressing their solidarity with the poet.
Britain's security agencies are examining the leaked documents to verify their authenticity.

If found to be authentic, "the potential for security services identifying unknown terrorists is greatly enhanced," according to Chris Phillips, head of counterterrorism consultancy firm, International Protect and Prepare Security, who told AFP it was a "massive development" and "shows how ISIS [Daesh] is vulnerable to its own people turning against them."

Doubts have been raised over the authenticity of the documents. Wassim Nasr, FRANCE 24 expert on jihadists said on Twitter:

"Perhaps certain information is authentic but the layout of the documents has been altered in order to sell them at a high cost to different buyers."

According to London newspaper the Guardian, German intelligence officials have also obtained the same documents. A spokesperson for the BKA, the German federal police, confirmed the agency had the documents and experts had determined their authenticity.
Experts found little support for the UK having special privileges within the EU. A majority in every country said any changes negotiated by the UK should apply to all EU member states.

The opt-out for the UK from the EU's commitment to "ever closer union"  one of UK Prime Minister David Cameron's amendments  puts the UK at odds with attitudes across the continent, according to the survey. Only five per cent of Spanish respondents disagree with this principle. France displays the weakest support for it at 41 percent, but even there only 17 per cent oppose it.

Report author Dr Jan Eichhorn of the University of Edinburgh's School of Social and Political Science said:

"The upcoming EU referendum provides an opportunity to engage with people's views on the UK and their involvement in the EU across the whole continent. Our survey shows a willingness to reform the EU, but less so for an individual country to gain exceptional treatment."

French socialist lawmaker Virginie Roziere recently wrote an opinion column for Euractiv.com in which she hit out at "blackmail by the United Kingdom," saying the country had "taken 60 years of European construction hostage for the benefit of a short-term domestic electoral agenda.

"In exposing a view of Europe that is so at odds with the aims of the European project, the United Kingdom has made its eventual separation from continental Europe inevitable, albeit long and slow."

Another French lawmaker, Dominique Riquet, who is leading a campaign to let the British go, told the newspaper La Voix du Nord:

"I hope the English leave! I have always thought they would be better off outside than inside, so I completely disapprove of the concessions won by Cameron. We need to progress [] and the United Kingdom will do all it can to make sure this doesn't happen."
The trays were the answer  and allowed the crops to "flourish."

The crops were cultivated in greenhouses in an "under earth atmosphere" to make conditions as space-like as possible. Temperature, humidity and light conditions for the crops were monitored constantly by the scientists.

The plants may have grown and sound fit for a super-food salad, however they are poisonous.

"The soils contain heavy metals like lead, arsenic and mercury and also a lot of iron," said Wamelink.

"If the components become available for the plants, they may be taken up and find their way into the fruits, making them poisonous."

The next challenge is for the scientists is to make the plants edible for human life on Mars.
Despite a European Court of Justice in 2014 ruling that the existing EU Directive on data retention was invalid because it was so sweeping in its interference with individual privacy rights, the British Government is keen to pass a surveillance law that allows for communications data  such as user email usage and internet browsing  can be stored by intelligence services and the police. May claims the proposed legislation contains checks and balances that ensure requests from ministers of state for Communication Services Providers (CSPs) to collect data will be given judicial oversight and will not be all-embracing.

Catch-All Claim

However, Eric King  a privacy campaigner  has said the draft code of practice for National Security Notices states that:

"as communications technology changes the Secretary of State will need to retain flexibility to respond. However, a notice may typically require a CSP to provide services to support secure communications by the agencies, for example by arranging for a communication to travel via a particular route in order to improve security."

King tweeted: "National Security Notices = IPBill catch all forcing companies to do whatever Home Sec wants." And " Huh. National Security Notices may be used to force re-direction of traffic"

Although neither the draft code of practice for National Security Notices nor the draft Investigatory Powers Bill have been enacted, King believes the wording may lead to a "catch-all" option allowing for the government to gather more information than privacy groups would allow.

ORG's response to UN Special Rapporteur on privacy report  it's more "damning criticism" of the #IPBill https://t.co/gWkrikv2Tv  Open Rights Group (@OpenRightsGroup) March 9, 2016

Echoing his concerns, Jim Killock, Executive Director of Open Rights Group said Thursday:

"The Special Rapporteur's report is yet another damning criticism of the Investigatory Powers Bill. Not only does it call for the disproportionate powers in the Bill to be 'outlawed rather than legitimized', it points out that the Bill does not comply with recent human rights rulings, which means it could be open to legal challenges.

"The report also voices another serious concern  that the impact of this extreme legislation will be felt around the world, and copied by other countries. The Government cannot continue to ignore the overwhelming evidence that the IPB is a deeply flawed piece of legislation," Killock said.
EDINBURGH (Sputnik)  On Wednesday, the DSMA committee issued a notice to editors to "remind" them not to reveal any information that would identify former or current members of the UK intelligence community or special forces.

"Infringements of the DSMA code, and before that the DA (Defense Advisory) Notice and D Notice codes, are rare but do happen, albeit in the main inadvertently. It is part of the DSMA compact between Government and the [UK] national media that DSMA advice should be sought on issues which fall within the guidelines of one or more of the DSMA Notices," Air Vice Marshall Andrew Vallance said. "Only then will an editor be aware of where the true and complete public interest lies."

The DSMA committee is chaired by Peter Watkins, the Director General of Security Policy at the Ministry of Defense. The committee routinely issues "advice" to all UK media, including book publishers, on content that may be regarded by the Committee as a potential threat to UK national security interests. The Secretariat of the DSMA are comprised entirely of senior military officers.
Throughout its history, the Kurds are constantly facing infringement on their rights. According to the Treaty of Lausanne, Kurdish territory was divided into four parts, with the result of which for the past century they have been forced to live without their own state, waging a constant struggle to defend their national identity, defending the right to speak in their mother tongue.

This difficult period of struggle for survival lasted for a long time but it is coming to an end now. The Kurds will no longer allow anyone to trample on their rights. They no longer want to live under the sovereignty of other countries and other peoples, the politician explained.

There are forces that do not want the formation of an independent Kurdistan to happen. These countries are Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. The Kurds have never attacked any country or infringed upon the rights of anyone.
ANKARA (Sputnik)  On Wednesday, Turkish media reported that Ankara declared an end to its months-long counter-terrorism operation in the Kurdish-populated Diyarbakir, particularly in the Sur district  the historic heart of the province.

"The anti-terrorist operation in Sur is completed. In the course of it, 279 members of the terrorist organization have been killed, 206 barricades have been dismantled, 365 improvised explosive devices have been defused, and 504 weapons, along with more than 48,000 rounds of ammunition, 10 radios and 3.47 kilograms [6.61 pounds] of explosives have been confiscated," the statement read.

Severe clashes between the Turkish Armed Forces and PKK have been arising sporadically in Turkey since a July terror attack in the city of Suruc, which killed over 30 people, most of them Kurds. As Kurds killed two Turkish policemen soon after the attack, Ankara declared a military campaign against the PKK.
Earlier on Wednesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un claimed that Pyongyang is in possession of miniaturized nuclear warheads.

However, Macgregor said there was almost no danger of North Korea being able to target the United States with any nuclear weapon.

"North Koreas threat to the US mainland is negligible, if that. North Korea is a dead man walking," he maintained.

Macgregor, who holds a Ph.D. in international relations from the US Military Academy at West Point and, said North Koreas scientists and engineers have been crippled in their efforts to develop long-range ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons by obsolete and extremely limited resources.

"[The countrys] rocket scientists have performed miracles given the terrible working conditions and paucity of resources to support the North Korean missile development program, but the outcome is pathetic," he noted.

Macgregor cautioned that many US analysts took North Korean boasts and threats at face value, and failed to realize that the Pyongyang regime lacked the infrastructure and resources to actually make good on them.

"Its a mistake to impute too much capability to North Korea. North Korea is weaker now than at any time since US forces approached the Yalu River [in December 1950]," Macgregor added.

The most prudent course of action for the United States should be to work in close cooperation with North Koreas other neighbours to ensure that Kim was replaced by a more predictable and responsible leader in Pyongyang, Macgregor suggested.
It was expected because this launch reflects the very limited nature of the nuclear deal. It was only an agreement on the Iranian nuclear program and the other areas which are causes for disputes between Iran and its regional neighbors were not resolved.

He discussed the reasons behind Irans ballistic capabilities saying that, One of the reasons is the need for self-defense. Their perception is that they are facing enemies or adversaries that have much better air power capabilities such as the US and Israel. Hence, their response is the ballistic missiles.

The analyst also looked at other reasons that according to him have contributed to Irans test-firing of the missiles.

Talking about how long it would be before the US would implement new sanctions against Iran, Brom said that, I assume Iran will continue the development of missiles and that will be of great concern to the US as longer range ballistic missiles will be produced, some of them may even be able to reach Europe.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Caracas is recalling the charge d'affaires of the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington following the US decision to extend sanctions against the countrys officials, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced.

"I have made the decision to withdraw the ambassador of Venezuela in Washington, Maximilien Sanchez Arvelaiz," Maduro said on Wednesday, as quoted by Globovision TV.

In March 2015, US President Barack Obama issued an executive order imposing new sanctions against seven Venezuelan officials, freezing their assets and banning them from entering the United States. Obama described the "erosion" of human rights guarantees in Venezuela as an "unusual and extraordinary threat" to US security.
The US vice president said that "the United States stands firmly behind Israels right to defend itself."

Biden also warned against steps both on the part of Israel and Palestine to undermine trust.

"Even though it may be hard to see the way ahead, we continue to encourage all sides to take steps to move back toward the path to peace  not easy  and for the sake of Israel, and I might add, for the sake of the Palestinians," Biden said as quoted by The Jerusalem Post.

The US vice president is currently visiting Israel where he also met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the countrys President Reuven Rivlin.

The decades-long conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis has recently seen increased tensions. On Tuesday, a series of knife and gun attacks by Palestinians took place in three Israeli cities, namely Jaffa, Petah Tikva and Jerusalem. The assailant, a Palestinian man, was shot and killed after he stabbed 11 people in the Jaffa port area of Tel Aviv. A US tourist was later confirmed to have died in the attack.

Palestinians seek diplomatic and economic recognition for their independent state on the territories of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, partially occupied by Israel, and the Gaza Strip. Israel has been building settlements on the occupied territories, despite objections from the United Nations.
This power balance has given Erdogan a free hand in the talks. The Turkish president is apparently quite capable of getting anything he wants from the EU short of joining the bloc, Germany's N-TV television news channel asserted. He has already asked for an additional $3.3 billion in aid, as well as the facilitation of trade and visa requirements with the EU.

Akarcesme believes that any discussion of Turkey's greater integration into the EU is an exercise in smoke and mirrors. Ankara has been an associate member of the union since 1963 and was officially recognized as a candidate for accession almost four decades later, in 1999. Its chances to join the bloc have mostly been seen as slim.

"Both parties pretend otherwise, but deep inside everybody knows that neither the visa requirements will be removed for Turks, nor Turkey will enter the European Union any time soon. All Europe cares about is one way or another stopping the refugees to Europe," Akarcesme noted.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russian President Vladimir Putin and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras discussed the Syrian crisis during a telephone conversation with the focus on the necessity to observe the truce that was implemented in the country, the Kremlins press service said Thursday.

While discussing international issues, special attention was given to the Syrian crisis with the focus on the necessity to observe the ceasefire in the country. The Russian president noted that providing the truce is a key factor in normalizing the domestic situation and for improving the humanitarian situation in the region, as well as being an important step in the intra-Syrian political settlement, the Kremlin said in a statement.

The ceasefire between Syrian government rebel forces, negotiated between Russia and the United States, took effect on February 27. It does not affect designated terrorist groups active in the Arab republic.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed the importance of the Syrian secular democratic oppositions participation in the political process in the country, Syrian moderate opposition figure Randa Kassis told Sputnik Thursday after a meeting with the diplomat in Moscow.

"During the meeting, [Lavrov] said that the delegation of the democratic secular opposition at the talks in Geneva is a delegation which takes part in negotiations on equal conditions as delegations of the regime and Riyadh, its participation in the political process and development of the constitution is essential," Kassis, a member of the Syrian opposition delegation formed after consultations in Moscow and Cairo, said.

The opposition figure added that she had informed Lavrov of the delegations intentions to "continue participation in the political process, despite the fact that many want it to fail."
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  District of Colombia Office of Medical Examiner and Metropolitan Police Department announced in a joint statement on Thursday that Lesins death was caused by blunt force injuries to the head. The manner of death was listed as "undetermined."

"The Russian embassy in the US has repeatedly sent requests through diplomatic channels regarding the investigation into the death of the Russian citizen. The American side has not provided us with any substantive information. We are waiting for relevant clarifications from Washington and official data on the progress of the investigation," Zakharova wrote on Facebook.

Lesin died in Washington, DC on November 5, 2015. Following his death, Lesin's family told RIA Novosti that the former head of Gazprom-Media died from heart attack.
 . If you do not agree with the blocking, please use the Access to the chat has been blocked for violating the rules . You will be able to participate again through:. If you do not agree with the blocking, please use the feedback form

The discussion is closed. You can participate in the discussion within 24 hours after the publication of the article.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  On Wednesday, a group of assailants attacked a bus with nine activists and journalists on board on the border between Russia's Chechnya and Ingushetia regions. Four people were hospitalized, including one Norwegian and one Swedish reporters. Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the ministry to find out all the circumstances of the incident and give it a legal assessment.

According to the statement, Russia's Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev instructed head of the Russian Interior Ministry department in the North Caucasian Federal District Sergei Chenchik and the minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Ingushetia, Alexander Trofimov, "to take comprehensive measures to identify and apprehend those involved in the attack."

"Work on the detection of the crime will be overseen by the top officials of Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs," the statement reads.
But how about the innocent until proven guilty principle? Moreover, Iran never participated in any court hearings regarding the tragic events of that fateful day in September 2001.

Hossein Sheikholeslam, a senior aide to Irans parliamentary speaker outlined Tehrans position on the issue in an interview with Sputnik Persian.

I never heard about this ruling and Im very much surprised because the judge had no reason whatsoever to issue such a ruling Iran never took part in any court hearings related to the events of September 11, 2001. Even if such an absurd and ridiculous decision has been made, the charges simply hold no water because Iran has never been mentioned at any stage of the investigation and the trials that followed, Hossein Sheikholeslam said.

The investigation was partly secret but, judging by what was made public, the main suspect was Saudi Arabia, not Iran since all the masterminds were either Saudi nationals or lived and studied in Saudi Arabia, he added.

All this looks like another evil joke by the Americans, Hossein Sheikholeslam said in conclusion.

Iran Press Editor-in-Chief Emad Abshenas, dismissed the ruling as arguably the most stupid and ludicrous in the history of US courts.

The people who committed those terrorist attacks were neither friends nor allies of Iran. They were our sworn enemies, members of al-Qaeda, which considers Iran as their enemy. Fifteen out of the 19 terrorists were Saudi citizens, which happens to be Americas best friend. The remaining four terrorists lived in Saudi Arabia and enjoyed Saudi support. Therefore the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks had nothing to do with Iran, Emad Abshenas emphasized.
Black asserts that, despite common sentiment, the Canadian media functions as a propaganda arm, masking the populations dissent to US-led foreign policy.

"The media puts out the image that the United States is our ally, should be our ally, and will always be our ally. When people protest, it isn't covered by the media at all."

Still, Black says that the Canadian people understand their parallels to Americans and do not harbor resentment against citizens, just against the leadership. "It is actually like the United States in a lot of ways, where the people think one way and the financial, military elites think another way. So, Canadians like the American people."

He went on to say that the struggling economy is stripping away the kind of independent political thought that Canadians are known for. "Also like the United States, the economy is suffering, people are working longer hours and struggling, and they don't really have a lot of time to pay attention so they go along with what they see on TV, unfortunately."

Is Justin Trudeau just Canada's Obama  high hopes giving way to more of the same?

"[The comparison] doesn't hold in Canada because, while Trudeau comes across as a nice guy, nobody is under the illusion that they are going to get something different from him as opposed to the former Liberal governments or the Conservative governments that came after," comments Black.
In the state of Pennsylvania, for example, nearly 46,000 people have switched from blue to red in 2016. In Massachusetts, as many as 20,000 have switched to the Republican party.

Ditch and Switch has its own website, launched by two sisters from North Carolina, the Stump for Trump ladies who are outspoken in their support of Trump. The site lists which states have closed primaries and which are open to vote for either party, and encourages Democrats to switch to support the former reality television star.

"For many years the Democratic Party has promoted agendas that most Americans did not agree with. Our country is deeply divided, and the silent majority has been bullied into silence by political posturing and underhanded agendas that favor the few while excluding the majority, the website states.
The experts noted that many people don't realize they have the herpes virus, a virus that the World Health Organization states infects some two-thirds of the world's population, because transmission of one of its forms doesn't require a person to have symptoms. Meanwhile, those people who do not display herpes symptoms have double the risk of developing Alzheimer's.

The virus is notorious for leading to personality change and mental decline as it damages the central nervous system and the limbic system in the brain, the network that regulates mood and instinct.

This doesn't mean, though, that people carrying the virus are doomed to lose their memory. Scientists are not unanimous in their views on the editorial's suggestions.

"This is a minority view in Alzheimer research," said John Hardy, professor of Neuroscience at University College London. "There had been no convincing proof of infections causing Alzheimer disease. We need always to keep an open mind but this editorial does not reflect what most researchers think about Alzheimer disease."

The authors of the editorial ask for further inquiry into the possibility that the new findings could also have implications for future treatment of Parkinson's Disease, and other progressive neurological diseases.
MOSCOW (Sputnik), Alexander Mosesov  On Monday, Turkey and the European Union reached an agreement to put an end to the so-called Balkan route, used by migrants to travel through Greece and Macedonia to wealthier EU states. Under the deal, Turkey pledges to take back all illegal migrants that arrive to the European Union through its border and send in their place legal Syrian refugees to the bloc on one-for-one basis.

"When such decisions are made, we have deal with the consequences of such decisions, we have to save childrens lives. They [the children] dont know at the moment whether they can go forward or go back so their lives are on hold. And its simply not fair to have an approach to children that changes so rapidly all the time," Crowe said.

The spokesperson also added that 40 percent of the refugees and migrants were children, saying that "this is really a childrens crisis."
Harness Horsemen Internationals annual meetings concluded on Wednesday, March 9 at the Embassy Suites Deerfield Beach Resort & Spa, Deerfield Beach, Fla.

The Wednesday session included a presentation from Joe Pennacchio, the president and executive director of Floridas SBOA, who discussed de-coupling, an issue which recently threatened the existence of harness racing in the Sunshine State.

Later that morning, HHI members voted to meet in Las Vegas in 2017, along with the USTA and United States Harness Writers Association's annual meetings. HHI elections then ensued.

Re-elected to serve new three-year terms to the HHI board are president Tom Luchento (SBOANJ); Kim Hankins (Meadows HHA) as first vice president; Tony Somone (Illinois HHA) as second vice president; Mike Izzo (PHHA) as treasurer; and Sal DiMario (DSOA) as secretary.

Tim Powers (Maine HHA) and Gabe Prewitt (Kentucky HHA) were both re-elected to one-year terms as at-large directors, as were Peter Maranari (PHHA) and Andrew Markano (DSOA), who replace retiring directors Ron Battoni (PHHA) and Jerry Knappenberger (OHHA). Both Battoni and Knappenberger were honoured as HHI directors emeritus via unanimous vote for their many years of service to the organization.

USTA Executive Vice President Mike Tanner, PHHAs retiring executive director Ron Battoni and Harness Racing Communications' Ken Weingartner were honoured at HHIs annual awards luncheon that afternoon. Tanner was presented with the Dominic Frinzi Person of the Year Award; Battoni with the HHI Appreciation Award; and Weingartner with the Clyde Hirt Media Award.

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)
The Alberta Standardbred Horse Association (ASHA) will be hosting its annual awards banquet honouring the champions of 2015 on Friday, April 8 at the Radisson Hotel (Calgary Airport).

The Radisson is located at 6620 36th Street NE in Calgary. Cocktails will be served at 6 p.m., with dinner to follow at 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased from ASHA for $50 each.

The nominees are listed below.

Two-Year-Old AB Stakes Filly

- Divas Dragonfly

- Jet Blue Burner

- Monstrous

Two-Year-Old Filly

- Credit The Shark

- Divas Dragonfly

- Jet Blue Burner

Two-Year-Old AB Stakes Colt/Gelding

- Blue Star Jet

- Outlaw Gettinrdone

- Wrangler Cash

Two-Year-Old Colt/Gelding

- Blue Star Jet

- Outlaw Turn N Burn

- Wrangler Cash

Three-Year-Old AB Stakes Filly

- Blue Star Texas

- Fire Watch

- Take On Da Boys

Three-Year-Old Filly

- Blue Star Texas

- Fire Watch

- Thats Extra

Three-Year-Old AB Stakes Colt/Gelding

- Cool Cowboy

- Johnny Gun

- Pablos First

Three-Year-Old Colt/Gelding

- First Class Horse

- Have Not Read It

- Mysharona Bluechip

Champion Aged Mare

- Rummys Command

- Sing Like An Angel

- Tajmeallover

Champion Aged Horse

- Get Thereovernight

- Ghost Pine

- Who Doesnt

Claimer, Fillies/Mares

- Gottaluckydeal

- Phoenician Gal

- Runway Model

Claimer, Colts/Geldings

- Camblazer

- Make It So

- Raging Fingers

Rising Star

- Devann Crick

- David Kelly

- Preston Shaw

Groom of the Year

- Nominees to follow

Trainer, under 200 starts

- Brandon Campbell

- Majorie Dumont

- Ryan Grundy

Trainer of the Year

- Keith Clark

- Travis Cullen

- Kelly Hoerdt

Driver, under 200 starts

- Paul Davies

- J.F. Gagne

- David Kelly

Driver of the Year

- Brandon Campbell

- Travis Cullen

- Kelly Hoerdt

- Bill Tainsh Jr.

Horseperson of the Year

- Keith Clark

- Travis Cullen

- Kelly Hoerdt

Owner of the Year

- Gary Clark

- Kelly Hoerdt/Blair Corbeil

- Robert Jones/Doris McDougall

Breeder of the Year

- Meadowlark Farms

- Meridian Farms/Bill Andrew

- Outlaw Stable

Fastest Girl

- Feelin Flush

Fastest Boy

- Ghost Pine

Breeders Award of Recognition

- Pieter Besselink

Ron McLeod Award

- Nominee to follow

Horse of the Year

- To be announced

(Photos clockwise from top left: Alberta Super Final winners Divas Dragonfly, Wrangler Cash, Fire Watch and Cool Cowboy. Courtesy of Carys Richards/Coady Photo.)
Russia is developing and testing military grade Cyber War weapons on real targets, and finding out what works and what needs improvement. The problems with this is that most of the testing is conducted on weaker neighbors Russia is not getting along with. For example in late 2015 a large part of western Ukraine suffered a power blackout. Some 1.4 million homes and businesses went dark for several hours because of a computer virus (BlackEnergy) believed to be Russian and deliberately deployed against Ukraine to disrupt a power plants and the electrical distribution system. From the beginning Ukraine suspected that this was a Cyber War attack that was carried out by Russia as it was the kind of attack that had no monetary reward but was the sort of thing one nation would use on an enemy in wartime. Russia denied any involvement but the Russians always say that even when there is a pile of evidence proving otherwise.

NATO Cyber War advisers immediately went to work helping Ukraine sort out how the attack was carried out and how to protect against future attacks. The investigation concluded that the attacker had first got access to the networks of three small energy companies using spear-fishing attacks (official looking emails that had an attachment which, when opened, secretly installed software that gave the attackers access to the company network.) After that several other specialized bits of malware (hacker software) were used to map the compromised networks and then carry out crippling attacks. NATO Cyber War investigators found clear evidence of a professional style attack on the energy company networks including careful reconnaissance of the target network to see what items had to be disabled to cause the most damage. The NATO experts gave Ukraine a long list of changes that would have to be made to government and corporate networks associated with all utility (power, water, and so on) and industrial networks.

The forerunner of this Ukraine attacks hit tiny Estonia (population 1.3 million) as early as 2007. In response Estonia, a member of NATO, made a lot of changes and in 2015 formed a Cyber War militia. All this because Russia keeps threatening another major Cyber War offensive. Despite its small size Estonia is the most technically advanced (on a per-capita basis) nation in East Europe and was able to recruit several hundred skilled volunteers who are hard at work pooling their knowledge and skills to better handle more Cyber War aggression from Russia. Ukraine, despite being the largest East European nation is much less well prepared form another Russian Cyber War attack.

Estonia borders Russia and is a member of NATO. That last bit makes Russia reluctant to come in with tanks to take over like they did twice in the 1940s. Instead Russia made a major effort to crush Estonia via major Internet based attacks in 2007. Estonia survived that invasion but admitted that this sort of Russian aggression caused great financial damage. In the wake of these Russian Cyber War attacks Estonia demanded that the UN and NATO declare this sort of thing terrorism and dealt with accordingly. NATO tried to be helpful, but that wasnt enough. The UN was even less helpful as the UN has a hard time getting anything done when Russia is involved because Russia is one of the handful of founding members that has a veto over such decisions.

NATO did make an effort and in 2008 established a Cyber Defense Center in Estonia. This was the most tangible NATO response to Estonian calls for NATO to declare Cyber War on Russia. NATO agreed to discuss the issue but never took any action against Russia. The Cyber Defense Center was a consolation prize and studies Cyber War techniques and incidents and attempts to coordinate efforts by other NATO members to create Cyber War defenses and offensive weapons. NATO say that this appears to have deterred Russia from making another Cyber War attack. The Estonians are not so sure as Russia went ahead and invaded Georgia (a nation of four million in the Caucasus) in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014 and still makes very public threats against Estonia. But the Cyber Defense Center in Estonia has proved to be a valuable resource for other nations looking to improve their Cyber War defenses, especially against Russia.

Cyber Wars have actually been going on since the late 1990s and they are getting worse. It started in the 1990s as individuals attacked the web sites in other nations because of diplomatic disputes. This was usually stirred up by some international incident. India and Pakistan went at it several times, and Arabs and Israelis have been trashing each others web sites for years. The Arabs backed off at first, mainly because the Israeli hackers are much more effective. But in the last few years the Arabs have acquired more skills and are back at it. Chinese and Taiwanese hackers go at each other periodically, and in 2001, Chinese and American hackers clashed because of a collision off the Chinese coast between an American reconnaissance aircraft and a Chinese fighter. That was just the beginning for China, which now regularly makes major hacking attacks on the U.S. and other NATO members.

Since 2005 these Cyber Wars have escalated from web site defacing and shutting down sites with massive amounts of junk traffic (DDOS attacks), to elaborate espionage efforts against American military networks. The attackers are believed to be Chinese, and some American military commanders are calling for a more active defense (namely, a counterattack) to deal with the matter.

The Russian attacks against Estonia were the result of Estonia moving a statue, honoring Russian World War II soldiers, from the center of the capital, to a military cemetery in the countryside. The Estonians always saw the statue as a reminder of half a century of Russian occupation and oppression. Russia saw the statue move as an insult to the efforts of Russian soldiers to liberate Estonia and enable the Russians to occupy the place for half a century. The basic problem here is that most Russians don't see their Soviet era ancestors as evil people, despite the millions of Russians and non-Russians killed by the Soviet secret police. The Russians are very proud of their defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, ignoring the fact that the Soviet government was just biding its time before it launched its own invasion of Germany and Europe in general. All this means little to anyone from outside East Europe, but for any nations neighboring Russia these Russian resentments have to be carefully monitored.

While many Russians would have backed a military attack on Estonia to retaliate for the insult by an ungrateful neighbor, this approach was seen as imprudent. Estonia is part of NATO and an attack on one NATO member is considered an attack on all. It's because of this Russian threat that Estonia was so eager to get into NATO. The Russians, however, believe that massive Cyber War attacks will not trigger a NATO response. They were so sure of this that some of the early DDOS attacks were easily traced back to computers owned by the Russian government. When that got out, the attacks stopped for a few days, and then resumed from what appear to be illegal botnets. Maybe some legal botnets as well. Russian language message boards were full of useful information on how to join the holy war against evil Estonia. There's no indication that any Russians are afraid of a visit from the Russian cyber-police for any damage they might do to Estonia. And the damage has been significant, amounting to millions of dollars. While no one has been injured, Estonia is insisting that this attack, by Russia, should trigger the mutual defense provisions of the NATO treaty. It didn't, but it was a reminder to all that Cyber War is very real except when it comes time to fight back.
The UN has announced that joint operations with the Congo army in North and South Kivu provinces will resume. However, the joint operations disagreement is still a source of political friction. For the government, the suspension was a political affront. For UN peacekeepers it was a difficult decision to make but one that had to be made. There is solid evidence that two key Congolese generals commanding forces and operations in the region either participated in, encouraged or condoned war crimes. However, in January the UN decided that protecting civilians in eastern Congo took precedence over putting pressure on the government to reform the military. There is also a possibility that the two generals are not involved in joint operations. If true, then the UN made its point to the government. UN forces in eastern Congo are currently supporting the army operations against the Ugandan ADF rebels and the Rwandan FDLR.

March 8, 2016: The U.S. announced more sanctions against the LRA (Lords Resistance Army) and its leader Joseph Kony. Since early January 2016, the Ugandan LRA rebels have kidnapped 217 people in the CAR (Central African Republic). That is almost twice as many kidnappings and abductions attributed to the LRA in the whole of 2015. It is assumed that many of the abductees have been forced to serve as rebel fighters. The women become supply bearers and sex slaves.

March 7, 2016: Diplomats are trying to help Uganda resolve its post-election impasse. President Museveni claimed he won the February 18 election with over 60 percent of the vote. The opposition (FDC) contends the election was unfair and rigged. The FDC has made four demands. It wants an independent (preferably international) audit and examination of the presidential election ballot count. It wants its leaders to be able to travel around the country without the restrictions currently imposed by Museveni. Currently, FDC presidential candidate Kizza Besigye is being denied freedom of movement. He is essentially under house arrest. The FDC also wants the government to remove all security forces from its party headquarters in Kampala. Finally, it wants the government to release all members of the FDC who have been detained by security forces. The last demand is for release of approximately 300 FDC supporters who were arrested nation-wide.

In CAR fighting over the weekend left at least a dozen people dead. This was mostly about Christian and Moslem groups feuding with each other over past disputes.

March 6, 2016: Over 250,000 Burundians have fled their country since trouble began in April 2015. That was the month Perre Nkurunziza decided to run for a prohibited third term as president. He subsequently passed amendments and legislation to permit him to seek a third term and won it in Burundis July 2015 election. However, since then the country has teetered on the brink of civil war.

March 5, 2016: According to the UN since 2002 approximately 30,600 foreign fighters who were operating in Congo have been repatriated to their countries of origin. Most (25,623, of the 30,600) were members of the radical Rwandan Hutu rebel FDLR. The UN estimates FDLR has about 2,000 fighters still in Congo. Former members of the FDLR tell media the figure is more like 4,500.

March 4, 2016: The Congo government conviction of six political activists on charges of attempting to incite revolt has been upheld by an appeals court. However, the activists, who were originally sentenced to two years in jail, will now only serve six months in prison. All of the activists belong to the Struggle for Change (Lucha) coalition.

March 1, 2016: Burundian opposition groups are renewing efforts to pressure the African Union (AU) into deploying a peacekeeping force to Burundi. In December 3015 the AU Peace and Security Council decided to create the African Prevention and Protection Mission in Burundi (MAPROBU). However, president Nkurunzizas government announced that it would militarily resist the peacekeepers and the AU decided it would not deploy force. Meanwhile, a UN team is in Burundi investigating allegations of arbitrary murders and extra-judicial executions.

February 29, 2016: Rebels believed to belong to the Ugandan ADF murdered at least 12 people in the village of Mamabio (Congo, North Kivu province). The attackers also plundered a health clinic.

February 26, 2016: Rwandan security forces have arrested Seraphin Mirindi on the Rwanda-Congo border. Mirindi is a former senior commander of the Congolese rebel M23 group.

February 23, 2016: Burundian president Nkurunziza announced that his government will hold new talks with the opposition. His statement came after a meeting with UN officials. The talks will be part of an effort to peacefully resolve Burundis continuing crisis. Nkurunziza reportedly told the UN that he will end press restrictions. He will also begin freeing some 2,000 political prisoners. Opposition leaders have made freeing political prisoners a key demand.

February 22, 2016: The European Union announced that it will not send election observers to monitor election in the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville). The election is scheduled to be held March 20. The EU stated that the governments election commission is not prepared to conduct a transparent (ie, legitimate) vote. The EU decision is a political slap at President Denis Sassou Nguesso.
One incumbent is running in the five-candidate race for two open seats.
Every year, about 60 people are killed in U.S. churches, according to Dave Grossman, an expert on the subject who is speaking in Longview Saturday. That toll is even higher than the number of students killed in schools, he says.

And research shows that most violence in churches occurs between people who knew each other  not by strangers who wander in.

Those are some of the topics to be discussed during the Sheepdog Seminar, a training session Saturday for church employees and members about how to deal with violence and crime. Subjects include how to deal with shooters at churches and sex crimes that occur there.

Cowlitz County Sheriff Mark Nelson and the Cowlitz Chaplaincy are sponsoring the event.

The Sheepdog analogy refers to a well-trained helper who can be violent if needed to defend a gentle flock. Nelson said one example is people on United Airlinces Flight 93 the one that crashed near Shanksville, Pa.  who fought back when hijackers took over on Sept. 11, 2001.

Are you one of those people who goes after the hijackers? Nelson asked. If so, youre a sheepdog.

Nelson said most of the larger churches in the area have security teams already, for a variety of reasons.

Its not only because of some of the violence that has occurred across the country on church properties, but there are people who come to churches looking for help through faith and maybe they have some pretty serious struggles in the back.

Bigger churches in Portland and Seattle hire uniformed officers, said Jeff McCracken, the senior pastor at Rainier Assembly of God and another organizer of this weekends seminar.

Most local churches have had some sort of disturbance or crime, which may not be reported to police, Nelson said.

McCracken said security has become an often-discussed topic at churches.

There are people who are hurting who are in churches already when they snap, McCracken said. Also, people might come in off the street.

Church leaders can learn how to prevent tragedies such as sexual misconduct, McCracken said.

We want places of worship to be safe places, McCracken said.

Grossman, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, founded a field of study called killology, which delves into our understanding of killing in war, the psychological costs of war, the root causes of violent crime and the process of healing the victims of violence, both in war and civilian society. Grossman has also come out against violence in some video games, saying its similar to the techniques used to train soldiers to kill in battle.

Also speaking at the seminar will be Jimmy Meeks, a retired police officer and minister from Texas. Meeks and his wife, Julie, were married at the First Baptist Church of Daingerfield, Texas, the site of a 1980 massacre that killed five and injured 10.

The seminar also includes Carl Chinn, another church security expert who responded to the 2007 New Life Church shooting in Colorado, during which a 24-year-old man killed four people.

Chinn has tracked killings at churches, with a total of 474 deaths and 694 injured in churches nationally from 1999 through 2015. Robbery, domestic violence, disputes between people who knew each other and mental illness were the most common triggers of an attack, he found. Only 8 percent of attacks were because of religious bias. Baptist and non-denominational churches experienced the most violence, with Unitarian and Buddhist places of worship among the safest places.
Its still unclear whether federal disaster assistance will help the city of Rainier deal with its aging Fox Creek culvert, which was overwhelmed and badly damaged in Decembers floods.

Kari Olsen-Hollander, district manager for Columbia Soil and Water Conservation District, said Wednesday that the district is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency on an emergency fix, which includes stabilizing a sinkhole and replacing the entire 750-foot culvert with a temporary one at an estimated cost of $250,000 to $350,000.

The sinkhole opened up near the Earth N Sun when water blew out a section of the culvert, which carries Fox Creek through downtown before it empties into the Columbia River.

Eventually, the conservation district would like to daylight the creek to its natural condition and move it away from buildings located close to the existing culvert. Returning the creek to its natural condition would help beautify the area. It would also allow room for more water to pass, preventing future flooding, Olsen-Hollander said.

Not only will it prevent flooding to the businesss directly near the sinkhole area, but it will prevent flooding for the homes upstream ... because there will be more space for that creek to follow versus a four-foot culvert, Olsen-Hollander said.

She said the district is talking with FEMA in hopes that the agency will cover the cost of the daylighting the creek. Itll be at least five years until the project comes to fruition. Theres no cost estimate and no guarantee that FEMA will pay for the project. The damaged culvert is 60 years old and could have failed because of its age.

In the meantime, Olsen-Hollander said about $35,000  which has yet to be paid  has been spent stabilizing the sinkhole. Money has been spent on water diversion, debris and tree removal and renting shoring boxes, which prevent erosion. The boxes cost about $3,000 per month. Eventually, the city will have to purchase four of its own boxes, which cost $10,000 each.

Olsen-Hollander predicts it will cost an additional $35,000 to stabilize the sinkhole. A temporary culvert  which will be a short-term solution until the area is daylighted  will cost between $250,000 and $350,000, she said.

Theres an agreement among the district, the city and the owners of the property affected by the culvert to cover the costs. However, Olsen-Hollander said officials hope FEMA will reimburse the parties.

While this has been a challenging project, the (conservation district) feels this is a very important project for our office, because it will benefit the landowners and natural resources, she said.
CHICAGO  Last month, my son brought home a note from the Sociedad de Latinos  the Hispanic student organization at his high school  asking if hed like to attend an upcoming informational meeting.

He gave me the slip of paper and told me, in no uncertain terms, that he did not want to (and he did the air quotes thing with his fingers) get in touch with his Latino roots.

I was 100 percent OK with that. Hes as in touch with his roots as any kid with a Hispanic mom, two grandparents from Latin America, and several trips south of the border can be.

I didnt grow up stuck on ethnicity labels  evidenced by the fact that I married a white guy and no one in my family even batted an eye  and dont have an ounce of wistfulness that both my sons see themselves as more white than Hispanic.

And Im not an anomaly. In my reporting life, I come across a whole lot of Hispanic people and, when it comes to labels and identity, Ive spoken to way more who believe in the melting pot than those who think that melting pot is a loaded political term synonymous with cultural genocide.

The same goes for the issue of whiteness. There are some Latinos who have no problem noting their race as white  unless, of course, they are black, Asian or consider themselves Native American  and others who are averse, disgusted by or fearful of being mistaken for, or in any way, classified as white.

And yet, America is called a melting pot for a reason: Once you get here, youre boiled down into many things and can essentially define yourself in any way you please. Lots of people take that concept and run with it.

The National Bureau of Economic Research recently published a working paper, The Complexity of Immigrant Generations: Implications for assessing the socioeconomic integration of Hispanics and Asians that underscores how fluid identity can be.

Authors Brian Duncan and Stephen J. Trejo found that Latinos may be better educated and wealthier than is commonly thought due to a phenomenon called ethnic attrition.

According to Duncan and Trejo, assimilation and intermarriage can cause ethnic attachments to fade across generations, making accurate measurement of education and income difficult for a significant portion of the later-generation descendants of immigrants.

By the researchers estimates, 98.6 percent of first-generation adult Hispanics identify as such, whereas only 93.1 of the second generation identify as Hispanic. The percentage drops to 81.7 percent by the third generation.

Interestingly, this phenomenon isnt limited solely to Hispanics or Asians (only 57.5 percent of whom identify as such by the third generation).

A recent report from the Pew Research Center noted that when asked directly about their race, 24 percent of U.S.-based Latinos identified as Afro-Latino but just 18 percent of this group reported its race as black, while 39 percent reported it as white. (Twenty-four percent reported it as Hispanic, though this category is not a race  descendants of Latin America can be of any race.)

The dynamic comments that people have made on the Pew post explaining these statistics illustrate how fraught and contentious the issue of race and ethnicity can be even among those who make up a particular ethnic or racial category.

And questions about whether either of these phenomena is good or bad are beside the point.

Last summer, Daniel J. Sharfstein, a legal historian who focuses on race, wrote about heated discussions over who can rightfully claim any racial designation in The New York Times Magazine. He said, The history of people breaching social divides and fashioning identities for themselves is as old as America.

And the very promise of America is that anyone can be whatever, or whomever, he or she wants. Is it any wonder that each successive generation chooses differently than what might be expected?

People scoff  or just plain get angry  at the notion that someday Hispanics will melt into the American pot just like the Germans, Irish and Italians before them. But like it or not, that day is undoubtedly coming.
Editors note: Todays editorial originally appeared in The Columbian. 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.

We would think, after nearly three years of vociferous public debate, that Port of Vancouver Commissioner Brian Wolfe would had formed an opinion on a proposed oil terminal at the port.

In 2013, Wolfe was part of a 3-0 vote from port commissioners to approve the terminal. The deal would allow Tesoro Corp. and Savage Cos. to build and operate the nations largest rail-to-marine oil facility  one that would bring about 360,000 barrels of crude oil per day into Vancouver by train for transfer to vessels that would ship it down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean.

Since then, the proposal has been the subject of much scrutiny. The state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council is examining the plan and eventually will make a recommendation to Gov. Jay Inslee, who will have the final say on whether or not the terminal is approved. Throughout the process, the public has weighed in on an unprecedented scale, with some 250,000 comments being sent to state regulators.

In spite of that, Wolfe said last week, Am I prepared to make a decision on it? No. I honestly dont know; there are so many variables to consider. It was and will remain a really hard decision between economic development and the environment, in my mind. Those are, indeed, valid questions. But if Wolfe has not yet made up his mind, he is part of a small minority in Clark County.

While Wolfe originally voted in favor of the terminal, he might have to weigh in once again. The lease states that the deadline for terminal operators to secure all necessary licenses, permits and approvals is Aug. 1. But state regulatory hearings on the project are scheduled to last until July 29, meaning the Aug. 1 deadline is unrealistic. While the language of the lease is unclear on the matter, that might require port commissioners to approve an extension in order for the project to move forward.

Board member Jerry Oliver, who also approved the initial proposal, is considered likely to vote in favor of an extension. Eric LaBrant, who joined the commission in January after running for office on an anti-terminal platform, is certain to vote against it. That would leave Wolfe as the swing vote if the issue is placed before commissioners. And that makes his noncommittal statement difficult to fathom.

Therefore, allow us to remind commissioner Wolfe why the oil terminal would be a bad idea for Vancouver and for Clark County and for the Columbia River Gorge. Bringing a seemingly endless string of unit trains containing more than 100 crude-filled tanks through town would present an untenable danger to citizens and to the environment, generating a risk for derailments, explosions and spills.

Equally important is the damage that would be caused by turning Vancouver into an oil town. While jobs and industrial development are essential to the future of the city, the proposed oil terminal is anathema to an appropriate vision for a thriving city. Would citizens or city leaders trumpet the greatness of the area by saying, We have a behemoth oil terminal? Would they urge friends to visit by saying, We have oil trains coming through town at all hours of the day? Would they urge businesses to relocate near the Columbia River by saying, And youll be in the blast zone should something go wrong?

Those are the questions Wolfe should have asked himself long ago. Odds are that, deep down, he knows the answers.




You can fund my journalism blog by making a donation via this link:

www.gofundme.com/team-uzunov-blog







Help fund the TEAM UZUNOV war chest to keep on fighting to provide top investigative reports and videos. Any donation is welcome.
hidden

A German court has ruled against an online shopping site's use of Facebook's "like" button on Wednesday, dealing a further legal blow to the world's biggest social network in Germany.

The Duesseldorf district court said that retailer Peek & Cloppenburg failed to obtain proper consent before transmitting its users' computer identities to Facebook, violating Germany's data protection law and giving the retailer a commercial advantage.

The court found in favor of the North Rhine-Westphalia Consumer Association, which had complained that Peek & Cloppenburg's Fashion ID website had grabbed user data and sent it to Facebook before shoppers had decided whether to click on the "like" button or not.

"A mere link to a data protection statement at the foot of the website does not constitute an indication that data are being or are about to be processed," the court said.

Peek & Cloppenburg faces a penalty of up to 250,000 euros ($275,400) or six months' detention for a manager.

The case comes on the heels of a January ruling by Germany's highest court against Facebook's "friend finder" feature and an announcement last week by Germany's competition regulator that it was investigating Facebook for suspected abuse of market power with regard to data protection laws.

Facebook's ability to target advertising, helped by features such as its "like" button, drove a 52 percent revenue jump in the final quarter of 2015. Germany, Europe's biggest economy, is one of the world's strictest enforcers of data protection laws and its citizens have a high sensibility to privacy issues.

"The ruling has fundamental significance for the assessment of the legality of the 'like' function with respect to data protection," said lawyer Sebastian Meyer, who represented the consumer group in the case.

"Companies should put pressure on the social network to adapt the 'like' function to the prevailing law." The association has also warned hotel portal HRS, Nivea maker Beiersdorf, shopping loyalty program Payback, ticketing company Eventim and fashion retailer KiK about similar use of the "like" button.

It said that four of those had since changed their practices. A first hearing in a case it has brought against Payback is due in a Munich court in May.

Peek & Cloppenburg said that it had changed its deployment of the "like" button last year and now required users to activate social media before sharing data with Facebook. It said it would wait for the court's written reasons for its judgment before deciding whether to appeal.

A Facebook spokesman said: "This case is specific to a particular website and the way they have sought consent from their users in the past. "The Like button, like many other features that are used to enhance websites, is an accepted, legal and important part of the Internet, and this ruling does not change that."

Reuters
tech2 News Staff

As internet accessibility in India continues to expand throughout the country and seamlessly across technology devices and daily life, so too do internet scams inventive ways in infiltrating consumers personal information. In an effort to educate people on the most notorious scams, Telenor Group, Telenor Indias major shareholder, has released the results of an Internet Scams study showing that the top three scams in India are the (1) work from home fraud,(2) lottery scams and (3) fake bank email scam.

The multi-market survey assessed the impact of scams on 400 internet users aged 18  65+ in India Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia and was conducted to provide better understanding of the common methods in which people are scammed online. The results additionally glean the best internet scam prevention methods from experienced users, in order for netizens in India to gain more insight and education on the subject. And while many net consumers are now aware of e-mail frauds such as "official representatives from a foreign government offering millions of dollars in return for an upfront fee, new scams are born every day and its important to assess the landscape of todays online deceptions.

The study revealed that 85% of Indias internet users are familiar with the term Internet Scam and feel open to online threats, with 63% saying theyre very concerned about online scamsa third more than those who say theyre concerned with muggings. Online security is extremely relevant in India where over one third of internet users surveyed have been victim to an internet scam and a further 57% know a friend or family member who has been scammed online.

Further, for those surveyed who indeed have been subject to an online scam in India, 90% have lost money and compared to neighbors, the amount of money stolen is the highest. Regionally the average financial loss per person is Rs. 681,070 ($9900 USD), but alarmingly in India the average loss was Rs. 819,000 ($12,000 USD).

As Indian netizens, we all know that scams exist but to see that the highest amount of money stolen via scams is in India shows this is an area we communally need to address. As a leader in telecommunications, Telenor India is dedicated to enhancing internet safety, says Sharad Mehrotra, CEO Telenor India, We hope that the findings from this digital consumer study will encourage all of us to take preventative measures to stay safe online.

Most Notorious Online Scams

Of all the internet scams, below are the top three scams most frequently encountered in India:

1. Work from home fraud - 39%

2. Lottery scams  25%

3. Fake bank email scam  17%

The Work from home is a scam whereby users are either fooled into paying someone online to help them start a business, only for nothing to materialize, or users are tricked into completing work on their computer but never receive payment. One quarter of the participants had been victim of lottery scam emails, where the user is prompted to pay a processing fee in order to win a large sum of money, and a further 17% had been victim to fraud from scammers pretending to be their bank to acquire personal information and funds.

Preventing Online Scams

While online scams are real, they are equally preventable. Half of internet users surveyed in India feel that responsibility to protect people online is with the government while nearly 60% feel the responsibility the website itself and equally feel a jail term for scammers is the best preventative measure to avoid an increasing online threat.

However, overall more than 80% of respondents feel it is the responsibility of each individual to ensure theyre safe online. As such knowledge and resources, helplines for victims, are key for reducing scam success.

Of the methods currently available, below are the top five most frequently used in India to help prevent personal risk of online scams:

1. Delete suspicious and untrustworthy emails

2. Update your anti-malware software

3. Do online research about scams

4. Ignore advertisements or offers that appear too good to be true

5.Share knowledge and preventative tips with friends and family through social media.



India and Asia are dynamic regions with growing online populations. Alongside Telenors Internet for All strategy and the 2017 goal of achieving 200 million active internet users, there will be many more people online in the near future. With so many new users, we are committed to the safety of our internet users. We encourage our netizens to be aware of potential threats and to openly talk with friends and family about online welfare. In the digital world we mustnt forget our real world principles, such as, if something looks too good, it probably is, added Ola Jo Tandre, Head of Social Responsibility at Telenor Group.
hidden

When it comes to vulnerability to cyber attacks, India along with China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and South Korea is most vulnerable, says research led by an Indian-American scientist.

While the US is ranked 11th safest of 44 nations studied, several Scandinavian countries like Denmark, Norway and Finland were ranked the safest in the book authored by V.S. Subrahmanian, professor of computer science at the University of Maryland.

"Our goal was to characterise how vulnerable different countries were, identify their current cyber security policies and determine how those policies might need to change in response to this new information," said Subrahmanian, with the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS).

Damaging cyber attacks on a global scale continue to surface every day. Some nations are better prepared than others to deal with online threats from criminals, terrorists and rogue nations.

Subrahmanian discussed the findings at a panel discussion hosted by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington on Wednesday.

The authors conducted a two-year study that analysed more than 20 billion automatically generated reports, collected from four million machines per year worldwide.

The researchers based their rankings, in part, on the number of machines attacked in a given country and the number of times each machine was attacked.

Machines using Symantec anti-virus software automatically generated these reports, but only when a machine's user opted in to provide the data.

Trojans, followed by viruses and worms, posed the principal threats to machines in the US.

However, misleading software (fake anti-virus programmes and disk cleanup utilities) was far more prevalent in the US compared with other nations that have a similar gross domestic product, the authors noted.

The results suggest that US efforts to reduce cyber threats should focus on education to recognise and avoid misleading software.

People - even experts - often have gross misconceptions about the relative vulnerability (to cyber attack) of certain countries. The authors of this book succeed in empirically refuting many of those wrong beliefs, said Isaac Ben-Israel, chair of the Israeli Space Agency and former head of that nation's National Cyber Bureau, in a foreword to the book.

The co-authors on the book are Michael Ovelgonne, a former UMIACS postdoctoral researcher; Tudor Dumitras, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering in the Maryland Cybersecurity Centre; and B. Aditya Prakash, assistant professor of computer science at Virginia Tech.

A related research paper was presented at the 9th ACM International Conference of Web Search and Data Mining in February this year.

IANS
tech2 News Staff

Panasonic has introduced a new smartphone for the Indian market called the T50 based on the company's SAIL interface. It will be available at a price of Rs 4,900 in Midnight Blue, Rose Gold, Champagne Gold colour variants.

In terms of specifications, the device features a 4.5-inch FWVGA display with 480 x 854 pixels resolution. It is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core processor paired with 1GB RAM. Running Android 5.1 Lollipop, it includes an internal storage of 8GB which can be further expanded up to 32GB via microSD card.

The smartphone comes equipped with a 5MP rear camera with LED flash and a 2MP front facing camera. Some of the features include Pose mode, Child mode, and Watermark. Connectivity features include 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. A 1,600mAh battery completes the package.

Commenting on the launch, Pankaj Rana, Business Head, Mobility Division, Panasonic India, said, Our latest introduction in the Indian market is a novelty because it arrives with the launch of Panasonics in-house software, the SAIL user interface. The UI is even integrated into a specialized SAIL camera. It is an app-driven smartphone which combines 3G connectivity and multi-app smoothness for a flawless user experience in a handheld device..
The Embrace of the Serpent: a song, a prayer, a symphony

Colombias majestic entry in the Oscars does not let us forget the scars of Latin Americas colonial past



The Embrace of the Serpent

Directed by Ciro Guerra

Starring Jan Bijvoet, Brionne Davis, Antonio Bolivar Salvado Yangiama, Nilbio Torres, and Miguel Dionisio Ramos

Not Rated

Opens March 11 at the Kendall Square Cinema

Deep in the Amazonian rainforest, we embark on a journey with Karamakate (Nilbio Torres), a shaman who is one of the only survivors of his tribe. Colombia is being torn apart and pillaged by the rubber plantation barons who control the country during the colonial era. Director Ciro Guerras The Embrace of the Serpent is an intricate and mournful examination of the ravages that this period in history wrought upon the indigenous peoples of Colombia. It is based on the travelogues of two explorers, German ethnologist Theodor Koch-Grunberg (Jan Bijvoet) and American biologist Richard Evans Schultes (Brionne Davis), who wrote some of the only existing accounts of many of these indigenous tribes.

We are presented with the bizarre quasi-mythical world of the deep Amazonian rainforest through the parallel journeys of two explorers and their guide, Karamakate, on their quest to find the sacred healing plant, yakruna. We first encounter Karamakate as a confident and muscular young man with anger burning in his eyes, and amidst that anger, we see a tiny glimmer of hope that he is not truly alone.

Through him, we see the nature of civilized man through a different lens. Why do you whites love your things so much? Karamakate asks scornfully as he sees both of his travelling companions unable to part with their luggage. He remarks that we, the civilized people, devour everything. We do not listen to nature, and if its there, we take it.

One begins to wonder who the savage really is. When watching this immensely complex character unfurl on the screen, one realizes how far we have come in equating technological prowess with advancement and intelligence, and how wrong we are to make such assumptions.

In the second storyline, we see an old man  weary, alone, and full of regret and suppressed memories, and we realize that he, too, is Karamakate. On these two paths, we pass the same landmarks: the territory of other indigenous peoples, a rubber plantation, and a Roman Catholic mission. The changes that develop between the first and second journey reveal Guerra as a master of metaphor. The young indigenous boys at the mission first appeared to us, in Karamakates youth, on the banks of the Amazon in white robes, almost like little angels. On the first pass through, we see the priest viciously whipping these boys. On the second pass, these boys are whipping themselves, under the crazed gaze of a self-proclaimed white Messiah of the Indians.

This film is as visually striking as it is thematically rich  beautiful doesnt cover it. The frames are works of art in their own right. It is shot in black and white  an interesting choice given the subject matter. Many of us have grown up seeing footage of the luscious, vibrant green banks of the Amazon with a British voice outlining the immensity and diversity of this vast region. But Guerra does not want us to be fooled or distracted by appearances, by the colors, or by the beauty. He wants us to see it objectively for what it is, not what we have always imagined it to be.

The monochromatic color scheme imbues the film with a somber and foreboding tone. I cant describe the feeling, but in some scenes, I felt a visceral sort of fear build up even though the action taking place did not yet warrant it. There are images that you will not forget. Youll see the toll that cruelty, exploitation, and greed take on the innocent. Youll see it in the remaining eye of a one-armed, hobbling plantation slave, as he begs the travelers for the rapid release of death. Youll feel Karamakates despair when he finally finds the remnants of his long-lost people, only to discover that they have coped with the wretchedness of their existence by perpetual inebriation.

To my surprise, the film does not sink under its own weight and manages to end on a vibrant note of wonder. One does not feel burdened with guilt or hopelessness; one feels that one has been enlightened.

The Embrace of the Serpent defies genre. It is a song in honor of the beauty that lies in mans connection with nature  a song that is increasingly being deafened by the march of progress and civilization as we learn to live apart from nature. It is a prayer for us not to forget the past and a prayer for us to re-examine our relationship with this Earth and all people who inhabit it. Lastly, it is a majestic, sweeping symphony  a feast not only for our senses, but for our sensibilities.
Protesters seek release of Aafia Siddiqui

Protesters seek release of Aafia Siddiqui

A small crowd of protesters gathered at the bottom of the steps of Lobby 7 Tuesday afternoon. They called on the U.S. government to release and repatriate Aafia Siddiqui 95, a Pakistani neuroscientist who is currently serving an 86-year sentence in a prison in Fort Worth, Texas.

Siddiqui is a graduate of MIT, class of 1995, and received her PhD in neuroscience at Brandeis University. She had been wanted for questioning by the FBI in relation to ties to Al-Qaeda and terrorist bomb plots, and in 2010 was convicted of assault against American army personnel after she was questioned in Afghanistan. Siddiqui, her family, Pakistani news media, and many activists in both the U.S. and the Middle East have denied the charges against her and have accused American authorities of subjecting her to torture.

A diverse group of people, young and old, Muslim and non-Muslim, joined in the protest. Signs proclaiming their demands waved in the air and hung down their backs as they listened to a succession of speeches about Siddiqui and broader concerns with U.S. government actions. Chants of Free Dr. Aafia! Send her home now! and USA, CIA, Free Dr. Siddiqui! punctuated the speeches.

One speaker was Abdullah Faaruuq, the imam at the Mosque for the Praising of Allah in Roxbury, MA. According the organizer who introduced him, Faaruuq knew Aafia when she was a student at MIT and that he had a pretty close relationship with Aafia and her family.

Speaking on more general issues was PF Soto, an activist based in Cambridge. In her speech, she condemned so-called activist groups who are infiltrated, tamp down on peoples outrage  [and] condescend to the average person who [she] believe[s] can handle the truth. These groups, Soto said, should be educating the people, and, like her, holding documentary film screenings on everything that MSM, or mass mainstream media, doesnt want us to know about.

Perhaps referring to Siddiquis case, Soto called the American election system complicit [with] a rotten system that is leveling the earth and torturing and killing a massive portion of the human beings that we share the planet with. She hopes that things will change with awareness.

A little off to the side, a group of smiling children posed for a picture. In their hands were hand-made, heart-shaped posters proclaiming in Sharpie, I love Aafia.

Vivian Zhong
Ex-evangelical Christian feminist. White American living in China. I believe in resurrection.
Introduction & Background

Iraq's Mosul Dam faces "unprecedented" risk of a "catastrophic failure" that would unleash a wave of water which could flatten cities and kill hundreds of thousands within hours, the US has said. The American government issued an unusually stark warning of the horrors that face Iraq if the dam gives way, describing a "tsunami-like wave" that would crush nearly a third of the country.

Iraq's power grid could be entirely knocked out and parts of major cities would be underwater for weeks like areas of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, the US said. The Iraqi government would be unable to direct an evacuation because Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) still controls much of the territory near the dam and so people need to prepare to evacuate on their own, the US said.

Instrument of war

However, since its completion in the 1980s, the dam has required regular maintenance involving injections of cement on areas of leakage. The US government has invested more than $30m (17.9m) on monitoring and repairs, working together with Iraqi teams. The black flags of jihadist group Islamic State flew over the Mosul dam for 10 days before it was recaptured by Kurdish and Iraqi ground forces. In 2007, the then commanding general of US forces in Iraq, David Petraeus, and the then US ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, warned Iraq's PM Nouri Maliki that the structure was highly dangerous because it was built on unstable soil foundation.

"A catastrophic failure of Mosul dam would result in flooding along the Tigris river all the way to Baghdad," [200 miles away] they said in a letter. "Assuming a worst-case scenario, an instantaneous failure of Mosul dam filled to its maximum operating level could result in a flood wave 20 metres (65.5ft) deep at the city of Mosul," it said.

The situation worsened when ISIS terrorists overran the dam and held it for several weeks in 2014. Since then, efforts to reinforce the dam's foundations have not been adequate, partly because ISIS still controls the factory that produces concrete for the dam. (source)

Catastrophic Effects of Dam Busting This situation brings to mind two items, First is Dam Busters and the Geneva Convention, and second is the Great Tribulation.

Prior to World War II, the British Air Ministry had identified Germany's heavily industrialised Ruhr Valley, and especially its dams, as important strategic targets: in addition to providing hydro-electric power and pure water for steel-making, they also supplied drinking water and water for the canal transport system. The methods used to attack the dams had been carefully worked out. Calculations indicated that repeated air strikes with large bombs could be effective, but required a degree of accuracy which Bomber Command had been unable to attain in the face of enemy defences.

The Mohne dam the day following the attacks.

1617 May 1943. Wikipedia

When I was about 150 miles from the Mohne Dam, I could see the industrial haze over the Ruhr area and what appeared to be a cloud to the east. On flying closer, I saw that what had seemed to be cloud was the sun shining on the floodwaters. I looked down into the deep valley which had seemed so peaceful three days before [on an earlier reconnaissance mission] but now it was a wide torrent. The whole valley of the river was inundated with only patches of high ground and the tops of trees and church steeples showing above the flood. I was overcome by the immensity of it.

ISIS, Infrastructure, and the Great Tribulation

Here, the breach in the Mohne Dams massive wall gives way to a scene

of utter devastation as millions of gallons of water flooded into the valley

Schalber, cc- Image:, cc- sa-3.0 DE

A news headline caught my eye last week. It is from the UK Telegraph, and consists of a dire warning from US officials regarding the Mosul Dam.The 2014 article from the BBC recounts the reasons why the dam is so unstable-So the dam itself is faulty and now that the terror group ISIS has captured so much land in the surrounding area fears are they will use the dam as an instrument of war. The situation has not improved much since ISIS took over surrounding area and even had taken over the dam briefly in 2014, because, as this CNS News article from yesterday states,Familiar to many people are the battles of WWII. We all know the names of battles such as The battle of the Bulge, Bombing of Berlin, The London Blitz, and D-Day. Less familiar is Operation Chastise.The movie "The Dam Busters" is the story of one scientist who developed a special bomb that could skip over water, avoid the torpedo nets, and then sink against the bottom of the dam in order to explode it at a sensitive point. The concept is of an earthquake bomb. Once the bomb was developed, the Operation was a success but there was heavy loss of Allied life due to the pilots having to fly so low to drop the bombs. The Operation was successful for the British both in its short-term and its long-term effects. But at what cost?Flying Officer Frank "Jerry" Fray wrote of the experience of seeing the Valley after the dam breach-This is the same level of damage the opening articles were mentioning if the Mosul Dam in Iraq collapsed.The destruction was so cataclysmic that it prompted a new resolution to the Geneva Convention. In 1977, Article 56 of the Protocol I amendment to the Geneva Conventions, outlawed attacks on dams "if such attack may cause the release of dangerous forces from the works or installations and consequent severe losses among the civilian population."Recently, people have been making date predictions about the start of the Great Tribulation. Some have said it will begin in March 2016, which is now. FYI, it is not going on now. The Tribulation has not begun. We know this because the church has not been removed from the earth yet, which will happen prior to the beginning of the Tribulation wrath being poured out.Setting a specific date for the start of this worst event to ever happen on the face of the earth (Matthew 24:21) is forbidden by scripture, (Matthew 24:36, Acts 1:7), but people do it anyway. Sigh. One reason we are not to date set is that continual date setting with failure to fulfill destroys the confidence in weak Christians. That is sad. It also tarnishes the study of prophecy in general, and prophecy is extremely important.What I find troublesome is the people who make fun of this date setting. Christian mockers mocking the event's non-event. The Great Tribulation is no laughing matter. Jesus warned that it will be the WORST time on earth, ever. This means worse than the Flood of Genesis when every person on earth save 8 drowned. Every animal died (except on the ark). The Great Tribulation will be. It will be blood and anger and horror and demons abounding. It will be destruction and war and hate and brutality. It is not something to be taken lightly and certainly not to be made fun of.One reason I mention prophecy quite often is because I want people to understand that the way things are will end. We are living on borrowed time, nationally speaking. What we see in our countries will exist no more. Infrastructure will crumble. Bridges, dams, walls, towers, will come down. Governments will l dissolve and reform to form a global tyranny. People will kill for no reason, or just because. The world's most vulnerable - widows, children, poor, pets/animals - will be at most risk. People will simply not care one bit for their neighbor. People will be killed for a sip of water, or because they wore blue that day or they didn't walk fast enough. The Great Tribulation literally will be hell on earth.The dams in WWII that were busted caused so much havoc and death that the World decided not to use them as targets ever again. When the dams were busted in WWII 1,600 civilians were killed.Prophecy authenticates the speaker, so this means ultimately God's word is authenticated as He speaks and His prophecies come true. (Deuteronomy 13:1-3). Prophecy is supposed to quicken us and enliven us as we are ever-aware that this is not our world. We are not citizens of earth. We are citizens of heaven.During the time of the Tribulation, do we think for one moment that some terror group won't hesitate to destroy any dam? Any bridge? ISIS already destroys for the sake of destroying. What do we think will happen when the Restrainer has left the earth and allows man his full range of sinful impulses?The devastation upon earth during the Tribulation will be uncountable. If the Mosul Dam is teetering on the brink of failure now, just imagine the horror of that and other catastrophic failures during the time of greatest woes ever occurring on the earth. Don't take the Tribulation lightly and certainly, please, don't mock even those who set dates about it. It is the second heaviest subject in the Bible, permanent wrath in hell being the worst. The Tribulation will be hell on earth and hell will have to enlarge its mouth for it to accept the many thousands at a time to enter it as will happen during the Tribulation.Pray for souls to be saved now, during the age of grace. Be a living witness of the cause of Christ, warning of the wrath to come, in all due gravity and urgent pleading. If the Mosul Dam fails it will be like a mosquito bite compared to the devastation daily occurring during the Time of Jacob's Trouble.
Dedicated to the Restoration of Progressive Democracy
Balkan route `permanently` shut

Children walk in the makeshift migrant camp at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the Greek village of Idomeni where thousands of people are stranded

Al Jazeera News :Austria's interior minister says the Balkan refugee route will remain closed permanently and that refugees should not be given false hope for passage.Johanna Mikl-Leitner told reporters in Brussels on Thursday that "the most honest thing is to tell the refugees: it's impossible to get through the Balkan route anymore. The Balkan route is closed."She said: "The biggest problem is that these refugees still have hopes and expectations, and these hopes are being constantly fed."Mikl-Leitner said it is important to warn that the Balkan refugee route into Europe is closed because, she said, "that way you do not feed any hopes and expectations".In recent months hundreds of thousands of people have travelled the route north from Greece hoping to settle in places like Germany or Scandinavia.Austria's introduction of a refugee cap last month set off a chain reaction of border restrictions that has shut down the route.Mikl-Leitner told German daily Die Welt ahead of a meeting on Thursday with her European Union counterparts: "The closure of the Balkan route is going to plan and this clock will not be turned back."Thousands of refugees are stranded in Greece as Macedonia is only allowing those in "proved need of protection" to cross the border.In the border area of Idomeni, people are stuck in squalid conditions. Aid workers are warning that infectious disease could soon spread due to the unsanitary conditions in the makeshift camp.People are huddling inside tents to get away from the rain as the ground has turned into mud.To keep warm, the refugees are burning what they can find, from wood to plastic bottles - sometimes releasing toxic fumes.Lazmiya, a Syrian refugee who has been stuck at Idomeni for 15 days, said that when she set off from Damascus with her daughter, she thought that by now she would have reunited with her husband and two sons."I want to get out from here," she told Al Jazeera. "I have not had a shower since I arrived. There is little assistance. All my clothes are soaked. look at the weather. We are dying here." Last year, nearly 1.3 million people applied for asylum in the European Union. That is more than double the number from 2014.Most made the perilous crossing across the Aegean Sea from Turkey into Greece. More than 3,700 people died trying.Leaders from Turkey and the European Union have now come up with a controversial new plan to try and stop the flow of refugees attempting to reach Europe.
4 held with opium

Chittagong Bureau :

A vigilance team of Narcotics Control Department, chittagong rounded up four drug peddlers alongwith one kg. opium from Chowkbazar area in city on Tuesday night.

These drug peddlers were held after raiding the Hotel Zaman of Chowkbazar, sources said.

The detained identified as Zillul Karim(49) of chokoria, MokbulAhmed of Idgaon, Coxsbazar, Mahbul Alam of Comilla and Md. Sohel(28) of Chandgaon in city . Deputy director of NCD, chittagong metro zone Aslam Khan told that acting on secret information, they conducted raid in the hotel . A case in connection under Narcotics Act lodged with the Chowkbazar thana, sources said.
2-day morality workshop begins at DU



A two-day morality workshop on "Inter-relationship of Philosophy and human welfare" organised by Centre for Moral Development of Dhaka University (DU) began on Thursday at R C Majumdar Arts Auditorium of the university.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr AAMS Arefin Siddique inaugurated the workshop as the chief guest.

DU Criminology Department Chairman Dr M Ziaur Rahman and DU Philosophy Department Professor Dr Jashim Uddin, among others, addressed the inaugural session.

Director of the Centre for Moral Development and Professor of Philosophy Department of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Dr Galib Ahsan Khan delivered welcome speech.

In his speech, Prof Arefin urged the young generation to equip themselves

with moral values to build a healthy nation.

He said the main objective of education is to serve the people, it is not

just attaining a certificate or becoming a professional.

He said, adding "We need to develop morally enriched citizens instead of

meritorious ones."
Relocate Rampal Power Plant

DEMONSTRATORS are on a 'four-day long march' from Dhaka to Khulna to protest the construction of Rampal Power Plant, which people believe to be a big threat to the world's largest mangrove forest in the Sundarbans. Environmentalists, cultural and political activists, and professionals from many other fields started the march from Jatiya Press Club last morning towards Rampal Power Plants. Located in the Bagerhat district, it is only 14 km away from the Sundarbans forest its very closer proximity poising threat to the forest's existence is what is the main point that gathered the country's environmentalists to demand the relocation of 1320 MW power plant to a safe distance. The power plant is being built now under an India-Bangladesh joint venture despite severe opposition by environmentalists basically to save the Sundarbans and its ecosystem. But the most disappointing fact is that Bangladesh government is not responding to people's concerns despite local and international opposition to the present location of the plant. Sundarbans is a UNESCO heritage and the Paris based UN body has even threatened to delist the Sundarbans to 'endangered heritage' along with the calls from other international organizations, human rights bodies and environmental groups to relocate the plant. Indian environmentalists are equally vocal about it. Many wonder why the Bangladesh government is not taking the people's concerns seriously and moreover why the Indian government is equally uncompromising. India is preserving the Sundarbans on its part under protective lows but it is not agreeable to similar concerns raised by people in Bangladesh.The land acquisition and development of the project is complete and now search for international financiers of the project is at work prior to calling for international tender for project builders. Such move is however facing setback at international level but the two governments are braving all such opposition to set up the project at its disputed site. What concerns the environmentalists the most is the fact that between 400 and 500 vassals would use the river route through Sundarbans forest to carry coal to the plant site, as it is a coal fired plant. All impact assessment studies show that it would destroy habitat for fish and animals and polluting of air and water would cause severe damage to the ecosystem. The destruction of the forest would destroy the livelihood of thousands of people from around the region. So the people's opposition to the plant continues despite the fact that the government is giving a damn to the people's concerns. The long march, which takes place every year and joined by people on the way is a reminder once again to the government that we can build so many power plants but the Sundarbans is irreplaceable. The government must pay heed to the people's demand and it must agree relocate the plant.
Cargo security is not a matter of police show

WITH the concern about the security requirements in Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, the UK government has banned air cargoes originating directly from Dhaka until further notice. The UK is a very big market of the EU for Bangladeshi apparel sectors as it is the second biggest garment export destination for Bangladesh after Germany. Vegetables are also airlifted regularly from Dhaka for consumption of the British citizens of Bangladesh origin. Report shows that an average of 25 tonnes of cargo-mostly apparels, vegetables and agricultural products-is flown to the UK in each flight.

Only the Biman Bangladesh Airlines carries cargo directly to the UK in its four weekly passenger flights but it would not be able now to do so due to the ban. Together with garments, vegetables and agricultural products, Biman Bangladesh Airlines will incur huge losses for halting its scheduled flights which are also used as cargo carriers.

The embargo over the air cargo by UK will not be lifted easily as Biman for the time being is unable to employ trained personnel at the cargo complex to handle the shipment. Shortage of manpower and space is forcing users to keep their cargo waiting for shipment over days. It also entails security risks. To close this loophole of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, government especially Civil Aviation Department needs to take immediate measures to train up employees and arrange space for cargo shipment. Such embargo over air cargo by external countries is not new; Australia on December 19 last year banned air cargo from Bangladesh similarly citing security concerns. So, government must do anything to retain security for the sake of country's image and especially for the garment sector, the most currency-earning sectors of the country. Apparel exporters are very much concerned over the ban and they fear it might have adverse effect on Bangladesh's garment exports worth $3 billion to the UK annually. It is an urgent matter and the government should take immediate initiative to lift the ban.

Bangladesh Biman needs good management. Setting up of police camp will not improve the situation. Showing of police power is not security system.
BD nurse missing for 3 months in NY

bdnews24.com :A Bangladeshi nurse has been reportedly missing in New York for over three months.Mahfuza Rahman, 30, was last seen at her workplace, the Bellevue Hospital, on Dec 8 last year, media reports, citing her colleagues, say. The next day her husband Mohammad Chowdhury, 38, had told hospital authorities, when they called to inquire about her after seeing her absent, that she had returned to Bangladesh because a close relative was injured in an accident.He also said his wife would return to New York by the first week of March, the reports say. However, Mahfuza did not return and Chowdhury, meanwhile, left the house with his 9-year-old daughter, telling the neighbours that they were returning to Dhaka.Bellevue Hospital authorities on Friday last informed the local police who then went to the couple's Kingsbridge Heights home in Bronx. The neighbours told police that the house had been locked since Chowdhury 'left for Bangladesh' with his daughter on Dec 15. Before leaving, he had requested the neighbours to keep an eye on the house.Fearing that Rahman might have been killed, police on Monday raided the family's home on East 198th Street, dug up the patio and had a cadaver dog search for any scent.
Skill agenda tremendously important for BD

UNB, Dhaka :British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Alison Blake on Thursday said the skill agenda is tremendously important for Bangladesh, as it seeks to keep pace with countries like China and India in the global garment trade and construction industry."With a growing, young population, the country has a great opportunity to drive up productivity and improve the skills of its workforce," she said. The British High Commissioner was addressing the launching ceremony of a project titled 'Sudokkho'.The project designs and facilitates private-sector led training for more than 110,000 people from poor and marginalised groups across Bangladesh. "That's why Sudokkho is a crucial project and why the British government, through UK aid, is very proud to be its lead funder," said the High Commissioner.Sudokkho, previously known as the Skills and Employment Programme in Bangladesh, is a five-year programme co-financed by UK aid through the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).Palladium International is implementing Sudokkho in partnership with Swisscontact and the British Council. The total implementation budget is 21.63 million (approx. US $32 million). Charge d' Affaires, Switzerland Embassy in Dhaka, Beate K Elsaesser said every year around 2.5 million people enter the labour market in Bangladesh, most of whom get no opportunity to acquire skills required for productive and decent work either in Bangladesh or abroad.Switzerland provides a substantial contribution to skill development in Bangladesh to help those people, Elsaesser said.
ACC files case against Moosa

Staff Reporter :

The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) on Thursday filed a case against DATCO Group Chairman and controversial businessman Moosa Bin Shamsher for allegedly acquiring illegal wealth and giving false and baseless information on his wealth to the ACC.

Deputy Director of ACC Meer Joynul Abedin Shibli filed the case with the Ramna Police Station in the afternoon.

The case was lodged against Moosa under Section 26 (1) and (2) and Section 27 (1) of the ACC Act 2004, Meer Joynul Abedin Shibli said.

Earlier in the morning, the Commission at its regular meeting approved a proposal to file a case against Moosa.

On June 7, 2015, Moosa told the ACC that he possesses around 12 hundred bighas of land in Savar and Gazipur, and there is around US $12 billion (Tk 93,000 crore) in his Swiss Bank account, the ACC official said.

Moosa, however, failed to provide any valid documents in support of his claim, which is a punishable offense, the ACC sources said. On January 28, 2016, the ACC interrogated him but Moosa could not provide all the detailed information about his bank account at the Swiss Bank and his land.

Talking to reporters in front of the ACC office after facing grilling on January 28 last, the DATCO Group Chairman hoped that he will get back his money seized in the Swiss Bank.

On December 14, 2014, the national anti-graft body also interrogated Moosa.

Moosa featured in cover stories of The Sunday Telegraph Magazine (London) and many other business magazines, including Business Asia, revealing that he has accumulated wealth worth about US$ 7 billion.

Considering the reports published in international media about his lifestyle, income and income sources, the ACC on November 3, 2014, decided to launch a probe against him who is believed to have made his fortune selling arms during the Iran-Iraq war.

Moosa, a pioneer of manpower export from Bangladesh, has drawn flak for purportedly being a prominent name in the international arms industry during the 1970s and 1980s.

It is alleged that Moosa has a Swiss Bank account with US$ 7 billion frozen in it because of 'irregular' transactions.
Hillary and Sanders spar in Florida debate

Democratic Party presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have sparred over immigration and other issues during a debate in Florida.The televised event in Miami took place just days before the next round of primaries, including Florida.With 246 delegates at stake, the southern state is the biggest prize. Mr Sanders had a surprise victory in Michigan on Tuesday, but Hillary Clinton increased her overall lead with a big win in Mississippi.In the Republican race on the same day, Donald Trump won three more states (Michigan, Mississippi and Hawaii) in his bid to win the Republican nomination. Ted Cruz won a Republican-only race in Idaho.The states were the latest to choose candidates to compete in November's presidential election.During the Miami debate, former Secretary of State Mrs Clinton criticised Vermont Senator Mr Sanders for voting against an immigration reform back in 2007."Just think, imagine where we would be today if we had achieved comprehensive immigration reform nine years ago," she said.Mr Sanders responded by saying he had concerns about the treatment of guest workers. The proposed programme was "akin to slavery", he said. He also said that Mrs Clinton was against allowing illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licences.It's been only three days since their last debate, but all it took for the political fortunes in the Democratic presidential race to change dramatically was one day of voting in Michigan. Thanks to Bernie Sanders' shocking - albeit narrow - upset win in that state's primary on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton went from exuding confidence on Sunday night in Flint to acknowledging on Wednesday evening in Miami that she's "not a natural politician".Mr Sanders, with a new lease on political life, went on the attack early against the former secretary of state. He implied that she had something to hide by not releasing transcripts of paid speeches to Wall Street firms and that she is in the pocket of big business. The Vermont senator did find himself on the defensive when the topic turned to his past praise for communist governments in Cuba and Nicaragua, but the story of the night was how Mrs Clinton handled her recent adversity. Often she has seemed most sympathetic when showing vulnerability.Now the waiting game begins. Can Mr Sanders build on his Michigan win next Tuesday when Florida, Ohio and several other states vote? Those results will go a long way in determining whether Michigan was a blip or the start of a prolonged Sanders surge.Nearly two million Hispanics live in Florida, and their support will play a big role in the 15 March primary.Florida is home to nearly 1.8 million Hispanics, including about 15% of the state's Democrats.The two rivals also discussed job creation, education and climate change.And they both attacked Mr Trump, with Mrs Clinton saying that his "trafficking in prejudice and paranoia has no place in our political system". She said Mr Trump could not even decide "whether to disavow Ku Klux Klan". Meanwhile, Mr Sanders said: "I think that the American people are never going to elect a president who insults Mexicans, who insults Muslims, who insults women, who insults African-Americans."
BGMEA concerns over ban of cargo flights to UK

We are working to ensure security at HSIA: Menon

Anisul Islam Noor :The apparel exporters are concerned over the United Kingdom's ban on direct cargo flights from Dhaka and said it might have adverse effect on the country's export.Bangladesh exports apparel worth $3 billion to the UK annually of which about 15 per cent are delivered through air cargo, said Siddiqur Rahman, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA).The BGMEA president said this at an emergency press briefing held at its Karwan Bazar's headquarters in the city on Thursday after the UK's ban on direct cargo flight from Dhaka.The United Kingdom has suspended direct cargo flights from Dhaka citing inadequate security measures at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA)."We are worried as we will incur a huge loss due to the ban," added Siddiqur Rahman. He said UK is the second largest destination for apparel items after Germany in the European Countries. "The government should take immediate measures to lift the ban," he added.Only the Biman Bangladesh Airlines carries cargo directly to the UK in its four weekly passenger flights but it now would not be able to do so due for the ban, according to Biman officials.An average of 25 tonnes of cargo, mostly apparels, vegetables and agricultural products, is flown to the UK in each flight."The ban will have a disastrous impact on our exports as the UK is a very big market of the EU. The UK is the second biggest garment export destination for Bangladesh after Germany," said Siddiqur Rahman.A web post on the UK government's website on March 8 says, "As part of a set of interim measures, cargo will not be allowed on direct flights from Dhaka to the UK until further notice."Their recent assessments of the Shahjalal airport found that some international security requirements were not being met, it says."Airlines carrying cargo between Bangladesh and the UK on indirect routes are being asked to ensure it is re-screened before its final leg into the UK," reads the post.On December 19 last year, Australia banned air cargo from Bangladesh, citing security concerns."We have been working to ensure foolproof security, but according to their [UK government's] view, we could not meet some security requirements and that is why they have imposed the temporary ban," Civil Aviation Minister Rashed Khan Menon told The New Nation on Thursday."We have been purchasing necessary equipment, recruiting manpower and providing them with training. But if all those steps do not satisfy them, what else could we do?" he said.Chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (Caab) Air-Vice Marshal M Sanaul Haque said they, in association with a UK aviation security team, were working to ensure security at the airport."The UK team members often expressed satisfaction over our work." But some of the requirements could not be met due to time constraint, he said."We asked them to give us some more time so that we can comply with their requirements, but they slapped the ban."Asked when the ban could probably be lifted, Sanaul said an UK team was due to inspect the Biman on March 13."We are working with the Biman. If the Biman can meet the team's requirements, the ban could be lifted then," he said, adding that the government was taking diplomatic steps as well to this end.Following the bombing and crash of a Russian jet over Egypt's Sinai desert in October, the UK Department for Transport made a list of 38 airports of 20 countries, including the Shahjalal airport in Dhaka, that have security concerns.Experts from the UK and the US inspected the Dhaka airport twice in November and December last year and found "serious security lapses and risks," sources said.The teams were concerned about cargo screening and management at the airport, which is handled by the Biman. Since then, the UK has been pushing for better security arrangements.A top official of the civil aviation ministry said the UK team, after the assessments, suggested that trained personnel be engaged for operation of the scanning machines at the airport's cargo complex and that no cargo be left out in the open.Due to shortage of manpower, the Biman would not be able to employ trained personnel at the cargo complex and for the shortage of space, it would not be possible to keep all cargo awaiting shipment at a safer place, he said, wishing anonymity.Acting Managing Director MM Asaduzzaman of the Biman claimed that the national airlines had complied with the recommendations by the UK team, like access control and training personnel."I am not sure as to why the UK still imposed the ban. They did not show us any reason," he said.Sources claimed that cargo handling at the airport is largely done by hired help, not by regular employees of the Biman.
Long march starts towards Sundarbans

Stop implementation of Rampal plant

Staff Reporter :

To register protest against the implementation of Rampal Power Plant, the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports, and other green groups on Thursday started a 'long march' towards the Sundarbans.

The protesters demanded to the government to scrap the power projects immediately, which may appear as a threat to the Sundarbans-- the world's largest mangrove forest.

The four-day-long "long march" began from the premises of the National Press Club at 10am yesterday. President of the national committee Engineer Sheikh Muhammad Shahidullah inaugurated the long march. Several thousand activists of different left leaning parties, mainly from Workers Party, Communist Party of Bangladesh [CPB], BSD, and Ganosanghati Andolon joined the long march with a motorcade of buses. The long march will reach Faridpur on Thursday afternoon and reach Khulna on Friday and finally reach Rampal area in the Sundarbans on March 13.

The protesters will hold rallies at Jahangirnagar University, Manikganj, Faridpur, Magura, Jhenidah, Jessore, Noapara, Daulatpur and Khulna during the long march, apparently to create awareness among the public against the projects. Member Secretary of the National Committee Professor Anu Mohammad said, "Rampal project is a project of betrayal. It's a destructive project. We will resist implementation of the project through a united movement."

"The government is implementing the Rampal power project to serve the interest of Indian profit-monger businessmen. Not only that, the project is going to be implemented ignoring all opinions of the international experts," he said. The coal-fired power plant will be constructed 14 kilometres upstream of the Sundarbans Reserve Forest, a world heritage site declared by UNESCO. Pointing the issue, Prof Anu further said, "Like the BNP, some Awami League leaders are also against the project but they could not say this in public as it would go against the party's stance. We think, the mass procession will create awareness among the people about the significance of the Sundarbans."

Earlier, in September 2013, the same committee had observed a long march from Dhaka to Rampal. It was just a month before the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated construction of the 1320MW power plant.

Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Ltd [BIFPCL], a joint venture of Power Development Board [PDB] and NTPC of India, is developing the Maitree Super Thermal Power Project at Rampal which will use imported coal. India's state-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd or BHEL has won the deal to build the plant where they would adopt super critical technology in the plant.

Besides, a local firm Orion Group is building a 566MW power plant in Rampal area.

Meanwhile, the environmentalists have been opposing the coal plants for long time. They have been apprehending that the projects would pose major threat on the biodiversity of the forest, water species and livelihood of the people who depend on the forest's resources. In this backdrop, the national committee demanded an environmental impact assessment for the Rampal plant by international independent experts under the supervision of the United Nations.

Several organization, including international rights bodies and environment groups, have urged the Bangladesh government for relocation of the plant to save the ecosystem of the Sundabans. But all went in vain.
Million dollar fraud

Six identified in Philippines: Confusion over BB's authorization for payment

Staff Reporter :It is clear that around a billion US dollar has been targeted from Bangladesh Bank account held with Federal Reserve Bank of New York and all fingers are pointed at Bangladesh Bank officials at head office in Dhaka as to how the authorization of the transfer was made to Federal Reserves to make payments. Bangladesh Bank officials now claim it was based on mis-instructions but how around 35 such instructions were messaged by responsible official at central bank is the biggest question. Initially Bangladesh Bank officials held the Federal Reserves responsible for the payment but the Reserves immediately declined to accept the blame saying they made the transfer with due authorization from Bangladesh Bank.It was about US$ 100 million at first blamed on hackers but subsequent disclosure said additional US$ 870 million were on curd to transfer to some banks in the Philippines, which were however blocked now by that country's central bank.A spokeswoman for the New York Fed reiterated on Tuesday that the bank had no evidence of a breach of its systems related to an account held there by Bangladesh's central bank. She said Fed officials were in touch with Bangladesh Bank."The payment instructions in question were fully authenticated by the Swift messaging system in accordance with standard authentication protocols," the New York Fed spokeswoman said. "There is no indication that our network has been compromised." Swift uses a multilayered process to authenticate the financial institutions that are sending and receiving millions of messages each day between one another," Fed's spokesper son Natasha de Teran said. Ekattor TV channel said that the money was hacked from Bangladesh Bank. Subhankar Saha, an executive director of Bangladesh Bank said when his attention was drawn as to how hackers removed another $870 million after the first theft of $101 million, he said US$ 101 million was transferred from Federal Reserves following a number of mis-instructions. But when the Federal Reserves received the security and anti-money laundering alerts, it immediately stopped transferring money against the remaining mis-instructions. "So, there's no confusion in this regard." But who made the mis-instructions. Meanwhile, news report quoting Bangladesh Bank sources said Thursday that primary investigations found no involvement of Bangladesh Bank officials in stealing $101 million from a BB foreign currency account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Investigators, however, are yet to rule out the possibility of involvement of any "internal forces". "We are still in the middle of the investigations and are looking at both internal and external engagements. So, it is hard to rule out anything," said Rakesh Asthana, a cyber security expert working for the BB. Asthana, who is leading the BB probe talked to reporters after a meeting with the chief executives and IT heads of all commercial banks at the office of the central bank.Signs so far show that the hacking was done from abroad, Asthana said. On how the payment advice from the BB went to the US bank, Abu Hena Mohammad Razi Hassan, a deputy governor of the BB, said, "It is under investigation." On the other hand, Muhammad Asaduzzaman, a spokesman for Bangladesh Bank, said there was "sufficient proof" that money from the account had been electronically diverted to banks in the Philippines. So it makes clear that Federal Reserves made the payment but on authentication of Bangladesh Bank and the question is now who made the authentication and how the messages were sent for payment from Dhaka to New York. The onus is on Bangladesh Bank now to identify the culprits. Asaduzzaman said he couldn't disclose the amount of money stolen or the proportion that had been recovered because that might jeopardize the investigation. He also declined to comment on the nationality of the hackers. The central bank of Bangladesh has around $28 billion in foreign currency reserves. Nearly one-third of the reserves are in the form of liquid assets with different foreign banks including the central banks of the US and the UK. The rest are invested in bonds and gold. A statement posted on Bangladesh Bank's website Monday night said Bangladesh's Financial Intelligence Unit was cooperating with anti-money-laundering agencies in the Philippines to trace "funds hacked from a reserve held in the U.S." Meanwhile news from Manila said the Philippines authorities have identified six persons who were engaged in the hacking and taking payments in their bank accounts in Manila. The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) of Philippines is reportedly investigating six persons for their possible involvement in cross-border electronic fraud and money-laundering.Based on official documents obtained by a Philippines based newspaper the Inquirer, the AMLC identified six persons involved in the scam. Five of them own bank accounts in Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), which were the ones used by what is believed to be an international syndicate to move money-stolen by computer hackers from the US account of Bank of Bangladesh-to the local financial system. The money found its way into local casinos.On March 1, the Court of Appeals (CA) ordered four banks-RCBC, East West Bank, Banco de Oro and Philippine National Bank-to freeze for the next six months the bank accounts and all related accounts of the six individuals. Former bank owner accused the RCBC branch manager for opening fictitious bank accounts for his company. This was the account used to facilitate the deposit of the large amount of remittance and its conversion into pesos. Based on documents, RCBC officials had no reason to doubt the validity of the remittance from Bangladesh. The branch manager also cited several superiors attesting to the validity of the transactions, which-on paper-were backed by underlying infrastructure projects in Bangladesh. A $25-million transaction was supposedly ordered by BB for payment against Kanchur, Meghna and Gumti 2nd Bridges Construction project. The amount was remitted to the account of Vasquez purportedly for the payment of a "loan" from Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica). A payment for $30 million to Lagrosas, an IT professional, likewise under a Jica "loan," was supposedly ordered on behalf of Dhaka Mass Rapid Trans. Dev. project A $6-million payment order on behalf of an IPFF project cell was supposedly to pay for Cruz's consultancy fees. Another payment worth $19 million was supposedly from Bheramara Combined Cycle Power Plan Development Project with Vergara as beneficiary, citing "engineering consulting fees."
Money was not hacked but outright stolen

Bangladesh has become a country too easy for plundering money from banks. The planners were trying to heist about one billion US dollars from the Central Bank of Bangladesh. Bangladesh Bank sources claim that transfer of $870 could not be executed from New York Federal Reserve Bank.

A spokes-woman for the New York Federal Reserve Bank reiterated on Tuesday that the bank had no evidence of breach of its system. The payment instructions were fully authenticated by SWIFT messaging system in accordance with the standard authentication protocols (by Bangladesh Bank). She said further that the Fed has been working with the central bank to provide assistance as appropriate. This makes it clear that the standard instruction was sent from Bangladesh Bank. It was not a case of hacking but outright stealing.

The episode of theft from the central bank's deposits with the US Federal Reserve Bank is turning out to be a murky, intricate story, one that traversed at least four countries and involved a host of people -- from higher-ups of a bank to casino officials. The $81 million in inward remittance was deposited with five bank accounts of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC), which were found to have been opened against documentation belonging to fictitious identities, as per the report.

It is difficult to comprehend how the hackers could have transmitted such a huge amount of money from Bangladesh in the first place. It is not possible to simply google up the commands which are needed to transfer funds from one central bank to the other  so inside knowledge of the command codes are needed. It is common sense to realize that since only the computers from inside the Bangladesh Bank could actually authorize the commands even if one hacked into the system and stole the passwords it would not be possible as three different officials of the Bangladesh Bank are needed to complete any such transfer of funds.

The problem, it seems, is the way Bangladesh's banking sector is organized. There are broadly two types of banks: private banks, which are overseen by the central bank, and state-run commercial banks, which fall directly under the aegis of the Finance Ministry. While private banks have had their share of loan defaulters (sometimes those who sit on the boards of these banks), it is overwhelmingly the state-run banks that have allowed bad loans to multiply to an unsustainable degree. The international standard for loan defaults is currently at about 2 to 3 percent. In Bangladesh, it is over 12 percent. In a recent study conducted by the Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management, the percentage of nonperforming loans in state-run banks is as high as 29 percent. While this is a much better situation compared to 1994 when the rates of repayment were as low as 16-30 percent, by international standards it still remains abysmal.

The situation is only getting worse. The Governor of Bangladesh Bank Dr Atiur Rahman has no reputation as a competent banker. Not only that he remains busy with political propaganda of success. We have a Finance Minister who is too happy to be in position and plundering of money does not bother him. When thousand of crores taka were plundered from nationalised banks, his reaction was nothing to worry. The government should be awarded for choosing incompetent persons for high positions of responsibility. Nobody feels any accountability.

The World Bank's 2013 Bangladesh Development Update states that "weak internal controls, poor corporate governance, and slackening of credit standards resulted in irregularities in loan approvals," which caused state-run commercial banks to classify more than half a billion dollars' worth of loans as "nonperforming." In the past six years, the four major state-run banks have seen sharp spikes in defaulted loans; the total amount of credit in default held by these four banks is about $2.45 billion (not including nearly $2 billion already written off).

But we see no concrete action being taken against the authorities who were in charge of the major default banks in Bangladesh  BASIC Bank and Sonali Bank, or indeed even any steps to recover the money stolen, even though Bangladesh Bank found the then Chairman of BASIC Bank complicit in the embezzlement. In the case of Sonali Bank it failed to recover even one penny out of the Tk 3600 crore given to the Hallmark group  even though its CEO remains behind bars  hardly a severe punishment. Rather the government paid the state-owned banks about Tk 5000 crore taken from the hard earned tax-payers money to these banks to make them solvent  a colossal wastage of public funds.

Punishing junior officials will be a bluff and that is the reason why all sorts of stealing of public money have been carrying on. The real culprits are politically protected and enjoy impunity. So we do not expect the government is in a position to improve the corruption situation that is going on in public life or punish the real ones involved in stealing. If one is politically loyal he has nothing to fear.

We need sensible people in important positions to do the sensible things. But sycophants have all the impunity and they are everywhere. We can only pray.


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.
Sheriff Louis Ackal is accused of conspiring with others in the department to assault five inmates in 2011.

Ackal

The U.S. Attorneys Office in Lafayette announced late Tuesday afternoon that Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal was indicted and charged with federal civil rights violations stemming from a 2011 incident at the Iberia Parish Jail in which five inmates were beaten by deputies. Also indicted Tuesday is the Gerald Savoy, the departments lieutenant colonel.

According the feds, Ackal is facing one count of conspiracy against rights and two counts of deprivation of rights under color of law, and Savoy is charged with one count of conspiracy against rights and one count of deprivation of rights under color of law.

The Associated Press is reporting that Ackal is accused of directing deputies to assault the inmates in the jail's chapel where there are no video surveillance cameras, and that Ackal and Savoy watched as the assaults took place.

Eight former Iberia Sheriffs Office employees have already pleaded guilty to charges related to the case including the jails warden and assistant warden.
KSN&C is intended to be a place for well-reasoned civil discourse...not to suggest that we dont appreciate the witty retort or pithy observation. Have at it. But we do not invite the anonymous flaming too often found in social media these days. This is a destination for folks to state your name and speak your piece.

It is important to note that, while the Moderator serves as Faculty Regent for Eastern Kentucky University, all comments offered by the Moderator on KSN&C are his own opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of the Board of Regents, the university administration, faculty, or any members of the university community.

On KSN&C, all authors are responsible for their own comments. See full disclaimer at the bottom of the page.
TheRepLawyer Blog Has Moved! TheRepLawyer blog has moved to the RNLA's new website: http://www.rnla.org/blog . This site will remain active as an archive of the RN...

Apparently it Doesn't Matter in Florida if Non-Citizens Register A recent article by Floridian Tom Jackson details something we have been saying for a long time, vote fraud is hard to prosecute. As Jacks...

Write-in Democratic Candidate Wins in Philadelphia Special Election? On March 21st, Philadelphia held a special municipal election to fill one State Legislature seat for the 197th District in North Philadelphi...

Editorial Boards Praise Gorsuch Nomination Local editorial boards across the country, including liberal ones that vehemently disapprove of President Trump, have praised President Trum...
Rent To Own Homes San Antonio Single family home rent to own. Search for san antonio rent to own, rent to own homes property valuations & rent to own foreclosure home property listings and rent to own foreclosed & foreclosure homes in san. How does a rent to own home agreement work? 12,245 likes  1 talking about this. credit score of 620+ on transunion & household income of $60,000+.

Old Dell Computers This is a how to hook it up.sorry about the focus problem the light i. Look for a white sticker with a bar code on the bottom of your computer.

Instacart Coupon Codes 33% off instacart products at amazon. Terms for promo codes spanning multiple orders. Save an average of $23.62 at instacart.com. All active instacart coupon codes & offers in august 2022..

Townhomes For Rent Riverview Fl Check out the townhome rentals currently on the market in riverview fl. Find the best townhomes for rent in riverview for rent with apartmentguide. 20 townhouses available for rent in.

Apartments For Rent In Millbury Ma Cobblestone village apartments is located at 7 cobblestone village way, millbury,. Make cobblestone village apartments your new home. Mcdonald chevrolet is a millington car dealer serving vassar and davison chevy customers! Despite its small size, millbury is home to eight parks and recreational areas, showing its commitment to conservation and the environment. If youre looking for apartments in millbury, ma.

Rent A Birthday Party Room For really luxurious event spaces or one that can. If youre tasked with planning a party but are daunted by the very first step of finding a party venue rental,.

Fort Wayne Craigslsit Favorite this post oct 10. Choose the site nearest you: Ironrite 85 vintage ironing machine (white) with bonus roller covers. $250 (fwa > northwest fort wayne indiana) $299. All about.

Craigslist Inland Empire Car Palm springs > > for sale by owner > post; $98,500 (inland empire) pic hide this posting restore restore this posting. Vw bug license light bulb holder volkswagen. Fatal car.

Houses For Rent In Pasadena Md 8 houses, townhomes and mobile homes for rent in pasadena, md , md priced from $1,542 to $3,274. Available now prices updated september 2022 100% verified listings. Superior apartment home living can be discovered at the ashberry in stunning pasadena, maryland. Find & rent the best studio, 1, 2 & 3+ bedroom houses. Apartments with under $1000 in pasadena.

Rent A Bike In Denver The most expensive bicycle available for rent is $30.00. $30 / day $105 / week $240 / month denver, co. Welcome to wheel fun rentals, denvers premiere bike rental destination.

Ideas For Christmas Gift Exchange A christian gift exchange can, and should, include a spiritual message. Make a tradition of exchanging christmas tree ornaments. To keep the gift passing moving, its probably best to start.

Houses For Rent In Lafayette In Valley tower prospect hill apartments. Apartments under $800 for rent in lafayette; Lafayette student houses for rent; Find your next cheap houses in west lafayette, indiana. View photos, videos, and.

Craigslist In Hickory North Carolina $800 (north wilkesboro, nc) pic hide this posting restore restore this posting. (hickory nc) pic hide this posting restore restore this posting. Favorite this post oct 8 1995 mobile home 2. Favorite this post oct 3 1995 geo tracker 2 wheel drive $4,000 hide. Craigslist ads are advertisements that are published in the written press (newspapers, periodicals or magazines) and in digital media to offer and demand.

Hollywood Hills Homes For Rent You found 59 houses for rent. Homes for rent in hollywood hills neighborhood of los angeles, ca (113 rentals) your message has been sent! 3 homes for sale in hollywood.

Apartments For Rent Stuart Florida Best diecast military aircraft models; Forrent.com helps guide you to the perfect apartment with cheap for rent in stuart, florida. This sailfish capital of the world and martin. Stuart fl.

Fpl Payment Extention Ie 9+, firefox 31+, chrome 37+, safari 6.1+, apple ios 7+ and android 4+. Ie 11+, firefox 55+, chrome 70+, safari 9+, apple ios 10+ and android 6+. Report an.

Condos For Rent Indianapolis 6010 w 25th st , indianapolis, in 46224. We found 116 condos for rent in indianapolis, in. Explore rentals by neighborhoods, schools, local guides and more on trulia! Browse photos, get pricing and find the most affordable condos. 5360 julian ave unit 60b furnished.

For Rent St Johns Explore rentals by neighborhoods, schools, local guides and more on trulia! Zillow has 345 single family rental listings in saint johns county fl. Or, post your property rental with us..

Table And Chair For Rent Near Me All table hire trestle tables poseur tables bistro tables coffee tables desks. Table and chair hire from furniture hire uk. How to find rent tables and chairs for cheap near.
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.
There reaches a time in every campaign in which the only people who are convinced that the candidate has a legitimate chance to win is the candidate himself and the most loyal (or ambitious) aides. The polls look rotten. Every argument against other candidates has been tried and lost. It's time to pack it in -- especially if continued participation in the race involves a dangerous outcome to the party and the country -- but no one, not even those with his interests at heart, has the nerve to tell the candidate. Here is what someone should be telling Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.):

"With each round of voting, with the exception of Puerto Rico, your vote total has gone down. Your percentage is now down to single digits in some states, ones in which you were previously competitive (e.g. Michigan). You are trailing by double digits in your home state -- before the poor showing on Tuesday. Florida insiders friendly to your cause do not think you can win."

You see big crowds, I know, and you think you are gaining traction. But you have said that again and again, only to come in third or fourth in multiple states. The percentage of people you see at rallies in Florida is minuscule compared with the number (probably close to 2 million) who will vote.

Stay in and you risk losing your state, ending your career on a terrible note and getting blamed for taking just enough away in states such as Ohio and Illinois to give Donald Trump, a man you have all but said is unfit for office, the nomination.

Right now - until March 15 - you have remarkable leverage. You can endorse Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), asking that your roughly 150 delegates (more than enough to put him in the lead) vote for him, and likely get the vice presidential spot. Such a move would be an act of true statesmanship, forever banishing the image of a callow young man. It would dominate the news for days. Cruz would be seen in a whole new light - someone who can unite the party and who understands that politics involves winning people over. Your supporters and staff would see their efforts have not been wasted; you would be on a presidential ticket. (Once March 15 comes and goes, you've likely lost leverage to snag VP after losing more states.)

Please don't do the "I don't want to be VP" routine. Of course you do, if it means in four or eight years you'd be next in line for the GOP nomination. Besides, like Vice President Biden, you could get plenty to do and be, as he is, "the last one in the room" on big decisions.

You say, why doesn't Ohio Gov. John Kasich get out? He should, but if he does get out first and makes a deal with Cruz, you'd get no VP slot and would still come up short on March 15. Moreover, sorry to be blunt, but Kasich has a better chance of winning his state than you have of winning yours. (You are back in double digits, while Kasich trails Trump by single digits.)

And one last thing: Understand that if Trump gets the nomination, the party shatters and Hillary Clinton gets the White House, the Senate flips to Democratic control and Clinton picks the late Antonin Scalia's successor.[END ITAL]

That's the spiel. Rubio should take it to heart and move promptly. Carly Fiorina's endorsement of Cruz may be a sign that more support is on the way. What if Florida Gov. Rick Scott changes his mind and endorses Cruz? What if Mitt Romney or Jeb Bush do? Those endorsements would likely be enough to push Rubio's chances to zero in Florida; if he exited after that, he would not have much leverage to make it onto the ticket and would be seen as leaving under duress.

We say this with no joy, having credited Rubio with courage on immigration reform and creativity in advancing a credible domestic agenda. He is by far the most electable of the remaining candidates, but to get to the general election one must win the primary. Blame the times in which we live. Blame the media obsession with Trump. Blame the voters who avert their eyes from ominous signs that Trump is a danger to the republic. Still, the choice for Rubio remains what to do now. The answer to many, many Republicans seems obvious.
Everyone in the modern conservative era knows the earth-changing significance of Ronald Wilson Reagan: his foreign policy triumphs, victory in the Cold War and promoting peace through strength and his domestic policy initiatives, cutting taxes, and creating jobs with opportunities.

I had the privilege serving in the Reagan administration as a deputy counsel at the Department of Energy and was honored to meet President and Mrs. Reagan during my service in Washington.

Behind every great man is a great woman, and that is no truer than in the case of Nancy Davis Reagan  a tenacious woman whose contributions to the American people may never be fully known.

In her gentle, unassuming fashion, Nancy Reagan showed American families the importance of service and principled advocacy.

Nancy Reagan showed us that service didnt have to be grandiose  rather that small acts could make a world of difference. Nancys fierce love for her husband and her country was her service. She was a support for the Commander in Chief  an understated role whose value cannot be overstated. Whether it was hosting the leader of the Soviet Union or caring for her husband after his assassination attempt, Nancy was the definition of grace under pressure.

A passionate advocate, Nancy Reagan served others in the same quiet, humble way she supported her husband. As first lady of California, Nancy welcomed Vietnam veterans and helped them adjust to returning home. As first lady of the United States, she helped educate an entire generation of young Americans about the dangers of drug abuse and addiction. After her husbands diagnosis, we recall her steadfast devotion to the president and her advocacy for new Alzheimers treatments and research. Nancy reminded us how hard the long goodbye can be on caregivers and gave comfort and reassurance to families facing their own struggles with Alzheimers.

Mrs. Reagan showed that no act of kindness, no act of love is too small to be meaningful. She practiced what she preached, living every day to the fullest. In every sense of the word, she was the very model of a first lady, wife and mother.

Just two days after what would have been their 64th wedding anniversary, Nancy Reagan went to join her beloved husband, Ronnie, with God. The Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, is an inspiring tribute to two great Americans. May God bless their memories.
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 armpit  so 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.

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 partner  a woman who now at last is reunited with her Ronnie.
Reflections about Life, Love, Light, and Liberty (the 4-Ls) by Leroy Seat.
TWO OF ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES foremost and adventurous artists, caroline booops sardine , who prefers to have her named represented in small-cased letters, and Jeremy Enigmatic Payne, collaborated to deliver an art expos, not far removed from the the epitome of excellence.

This different expos, was staged last Friday, 4th March, and entitled INside OUT Art Show. It was curated by Alexandra Grant and was held at a place with a difference, the old Empire Cigarette Factory in Arnos Vale, a fitting location for the exhibition of such an extraordinary display.

The display featured a number of paintings, several mounted and of almost ceiling-to-floor proportions, and others un-mounted on canvas and other everyday fabric.

There was also a collection of assemblages  three dimensional elements affixed on a defined underlying substance.

The artists boasted neither realism nor the form of art accustomed to be put on show here. Their paintings leaned more into contemporary styles, with daring detours into the realm of modernism, expressionism and surrealism. Each artist called the day a very sensitive one, as their inner emotions were being shown to the world through their work.

Caroline Sardine

caroline booops sardine is a painter and sculptor whose work pays heavy homage to her culture, through story-telling on canvas and in assemblages. The un-indoctrinated onlooker could easily be left gasping at the boldness with which she expresses her emotions. She told THE VINCENTIAN, "I call myself an arts-alive artist, explaining that she simply represents art and life, "(and) never wants to exist in a box or to be categorized particularly.

Special among her exhibits was a series of assemblages that was her way of dealing with troublesome, painful issues. "My art is personal, she expounded. "It uses imagery to investigate certain issues, and portrays somewhat of an incomplete solution to which the onlooker is welcome to speculate. I am motivated by my emotions and my feelings. Some of these pieces are like literally hauling out the heart, as she referred to a piece in which she said the heart is tired of being broken so it is ripped out, so that its owner could no longer feel its pain. Then, it is sutured to effect a form of proper functioning.

Jeremy Payne

Jeremy Payne prefers to be called a multi-disciplinary artist. "I do different forms of art, but for the art show, Im exhibiting predominantly paintings. My work is strictly mixed media and paint on canvas.

He explained that, caroline is his mentor and greatest influence in terms of art. "She acts like my advisor when it comes to my work: whenever I stumble on a hiccough, I consult with her just to get her feedback, he was grateful to express.

Jeremy described his pieces as modern and contemporary but influenced sometime by a lot of different styles of art. "I like working with figures because they are figurative on one hand and manifest themselves as somewhat self-portraits. I also like surrealism and just working with a lot of the same elements like patterns, colours, shapes and textures, he acknowledged. He felt that these elements stuck and are easily portrayed in different ways in different paintings.

He explained one of his pieces. "Downtown is the example of a piece which I fought to do, just getting it to a point where I felt comfortable without giving away too much of the down time I was experiencing, although its healthy to put those feelings out, he stated, and ended with, "But (I) used a lot of colour to lighten the seriousness of the subject.

The Curator

Alexandra Grant was ecstatic with what she had put on show. Firstly, she felt the venue, a building over 200 years, set the pace for the activity, with its interior actually complementing the display. The lighting was perfect.

Secondly, she was happy that the presenters were brave enough to represent their emotions in such a profound manner, regardless of how critics may interpret them.

"How many times would an artist paint a hibiscus or Young Island for that matter, she speculated. "These artists approach their pieces with all their emotions, packing them with personal life experiences, some of them very difficult to communicate.

She looks forward to other such collaborations.

INside OUT pledges to donate 15% of revenue from sales to the SVG National Trust.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
/By Azernews/

By Aynur Karimova

The Coordinating Council for cargo transportation has submitted a project of regulations to the government of Azerbaijan for determining tariffs for providing transit cargo transportation services.

This was announced by Sahil Babayev, Deputy Economy and Industry Minister during the presentation of the electronic portal of the Coordinating Council.

He said that the project of regulations for determining the tariffs for providing transit cargo transportation services and discounts to these tariffs is under the consideration of the government and it is expected that it will be approved soon.

"These regulations will ensure transparency and creation of profitable opportunities for cargo transportation," Babayev added.

Last year, the Coordinating Council adopted the upper limit of tariffs for the services of oil and petroleum products transit by railway and handling via sea terminals.

Under the decision of the Coordinating Council, expenditures for services on transit and transshipment of oil and petroleum products are calculated by two percent surcharge to the approved tariffs.

The cost of contracts should not exceed the approved tariffs and transit and transshipment expenditures. New tariffs entered into force since December 3, 2015.

Babayev noted that as a result of setting upper limit of tariffs for transportation of oil and oil products, the effectiveness of cargo transportation through Azerbaijan has increased and the transportation of these products in the country has grown.

He said over 1,500 trucks were sent to Central Asia from Turkey through Azerbaijan in January-February 2016, or 7.3 times more than in the same period of 2015.

He also said that 215 freight wagons were sent via the Baku-Aktau-Baku route in January-February 2015.

It became possible as a result of simplifying the rules of cargo transportation through Azerbaijan, in particular, reducing the transportation costs by 40 percent, the deputy minister said adding that the basic agreement with Georgia on single tariffs also increases the attractiveness and competitiveness of the corridor and the work in this field will continue.

Single tariffs for cargo transportation via Trans-Caspian route

Touching upon the Trans-Caspian international route, Babayev said that Azerbaijan intends to set single tariffs for cargo transportation with the countries through which the Trans-Caspian route runs.

The country has already reached a preliminary agreement with Georgia on this issue.

"Negotiations on the single tariff are underway with Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Turkey. If these plans are realized, the competitiveness of the Trans-Caspian corridor will increase significantly," Babayev believes.

The Trans-Caspian route connects China with Europe via the territory of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia. This is a multimodal corridor which uses railway, maritime and road transport for transportation of goods.

The Trans-Caspian route enjoys an opportunity to become attractive and profitable for consignors from European countries. This route will transport approximately 300,000-400,000 containers by 2020.

Three test container trains have already been sent from China to Europe via this corridor. This project, being very profitable, has involved even Ukraine, the territory of which will make the delivery of goods to customers even faster.

Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Ukraine have signed a protocol on setting preferential tariffs for cargo transportation via this route. Signing of this document will likely lead to full commercial operation of the Trans-Caspian route in the near future.

Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Ukraine have agreed to establish an international railway consortium to organize and develop regular container traffic through the Trans-Caspian route. This consortium will include KTZ Express (a subsidiary of Kazakhstan Railways), the Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company, Azerbaijani Karvan Logistics and Trans Caucasus Terminals (a subsidiary of Georgian Railway).

USAID to help expand functionality of Coordinating Council e-portal

Later, Babayev told journalists that the U.S. Agency for International Development will provide expert assistance to the Coordinating Council on Transit Freight of Azerbaijan in expanding the functionality of the e-portal of the council.

He said that the expansion of the functionality of the electronic portal (transit.az) is included in the plans of the Coordinating Council.

"We held discussions with the USAID on this issue, and it will provide expert assistance in expanding the functionality of the web site. The web site can turn into a single large portal with the participation of all the countries participating in the Trans-Caspian corridor," he added.
BP Azerbaijan company remains committed to its plan on transportation of the first gas from the second phase of Azerbaijans Shah Deniz gas fields operation to Turkey in 2018, to Europe  in 2020, said Gordon Birrell, BP's Regional President for Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia.

All work on the Shah Deniz-2 project has been done by approximately two thirds to date, according to him.

Shah Deniz field remains stable and reliable, said Birrell adding that it was produced about 10 billion cubic meters of gas and 2.3 million tons of condensate in this field in 2015.

These volumes were produced in just six wells, according to him.

As part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz development, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline.

The contract for development of the Shah Deniz offshore field was signed on June 4, 1996.

The fields reserve is estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas. The shareholders in the contract are: BP, operator (28.8 percent), AzSD (10 percent), SGC Upstream (6.7 percent), Petronas (15.5 percent), Lukoil (10 percent), NIOC (10 percent) and TPAO (19 percent).
/By Azernews/

By Aynur Karimova

BP-Azerbaijan Company, which is the operator of Azerbaijan's huge oil and gas projects, remains committed to its plan on transportation of natural gas as part of the second stage of development of Azerbaijan's giant Shah Deniz field.

Gordon Birrell, BP' Regional President on Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, told journalists on March 10 that the first gas from the Shah Deniz field will be delivered to Turkey in 2018, and to Europe - in 2020.

He said that as of today, approximately two thirds of works on the Shah Deniz-2 project has been completed.

"The Shah Deniz field remains stable and reliable. Last year, around 10 trillion cubic meters of gas and 2.3 million tons of condensate were extracted from this field. These volumes were produced at only six wells," Birrell stated.

Azerbaijan, located within the South Caspian Sea Basin, is among the oldest oil producers in the world. The country is one of the Caspian region's most important strategic oil and gas export routes to the West. Azerbaijan's proven natural gas reserves are estimated at approximately 35 trillion cubic feet, the U.S. Energy Information Administration has reported.

With its huge natural gas resources, Azerbaijan has initiated the multi-billion Southern Gas Corridor project, which envisages the transportation of the gas extracted at the giant Shah Deniz field in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian Sea to Europe.

Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Natig Aliyev believes that Azerbaijans gas reserves are quite enough to fill the Southern Gas Corridor project.

"During the next decade, the Absheron gas field is expected to be started and other fields also developed. Azerbaijans gas reserves are quite enough to fill the Southern Gas Corridor, but it is open to other states reserves as well," he told in an interview with the Natural Gas Europe on March 10.

"We have good experience in this sphere. We started the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline to transit Azerbaijani oil, but within a few years of the projects start-up in 2006, it began shipping oil from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. We should adopt that approach for the Southern Gas Corridor," he added.

The Shah Deniz Stage 2 gas will make a 3,500 kilometer journey from the Caspian Sea into Europe. The first gas supplies through the corridor to Georgia and Turkey are given a target date of late 2018. Gas deliveries to Europe are expected just over a year after the first gas is produced offshore in Azerbaijan.

Aliyev believes revenues from the Shah Deniz 2 and Southern Gas Corridor projects would exceed the expenditures by 2028-2030, noting that while SGC is projected to remain active for 50-60 years."

"Azerbaijan eyes Shah Deniz, TANAP and TAP as a united project, because subtracting one of them nullifies the whole. Shah Deniz 2s capital expenditures are estimated at $20 billion and Southern Gas Corridors at $25 billion," he noted.

"Notice that the revenues of Shah Deniz 2 begin before gas flows to the EU from Shah Deniz 2. Based on the production-sharing contract, some of the costs will be clawed back annually from the produced gas until 2020. On the other hand, alongside the 16 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year, there are more than 29 million barrels/year of gas condensate from Shah Deniz 2. This will be shipped through BTC. The natural gas and gas condensate production level of Shah Deniz 1 is about 10 billion cubic meters and 16.4 million barrels annually," he stated.

TANAP

Commenting on the expenditures on the TANAP project, Aliyev said that capital expenditures on the construction of the pipeline have decreased by $2.5 billion for 3 years.

He noted that on 2013, when the construction of TANAP was contracted, capital expenditures were estimated to stand at $11.7 billion, but currently the figure is $9.2 billion.

This is due to declining the materials and service costs, Aliyev believes.

"For now, about 938 kilometers pipes have been produced, of which 720 kilometers have been delivered to be construction area and 281 kilometers have been welded," the minister said adding that currently, 66 percent of Shah Deniz 2 and 33 percent of expansion of the South Caucasus Pipeline is completed.

TANAPs initial capacity is expected to reach 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Some six billion cubic meters of this gas will be delivered to Turkey and the rest will go to Europe. The capital costs of the TANAP project are expected to stand at $9.5 billion.
/By Azernews/

By Aynur Karimova

Azerbaijan has invited Swiss companies to take an active part in the privatization of state enterprises in the country.

Addressing the 7th meeting of the Azerbaijani-Swiss intergovernmental commission in Baku on March 10, Shahin Mustafayev, Azerbaijan's Economy and Industry Minister said that trade cooperation between the two countries is developing successfully.

Mustafayev believes that that there is a potential to increase Swiss investments in Azerbaijan.

Switzerland is one of the largest investors in the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan's fast-growing economy. Currently, some 65 companies with Swiss capital are operating in the country. They have invested $220 million in the country's economy. One of them is Holcim Azerbaijan, which is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan.

Mustafayev also highlighted the activity of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, which has successfully implemented 30 projects worth $90 million in Azerbaijan. The secretariat itself has allocated $25 million of this amount.

Currently, SECO is implementing eight projects worth $15.7 million in the country, including the infrastructure projects and the projects on improving the business field.

Today, Azerbaijan and Switzerland are also successfully cooperating in the fields of transport and tourism. Mustafayev believes that the two countries should increase the tourist flow between each other.

The minister further added that Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR has invested 400 million francs in Switzerlands energy sector.

To date, SOCAR has bought 148 filling stations in the country. Seven percent of the retail market and eight percent of the wholesale market of oil products, as well as 25 percent of the LPG market of Switzerland account for SOCAR.

Also, large Swiss companies are considering the possibility of producing their products in Azerbaijan.

In particular, SIKA Company is interested in receiving a status of resident of the Sumgayit chemical-industrial park.

During the meeting of the commission, it was noted that the company plans to invest $5.3 million in the creation of production of construction mixes in the Park.

Meanwhile, Swiss multinational ABB Global Marketing FZ Company intends to open production sites in Azerbaijan. The company is mainly engaged in the production of energy equipment.

N?varitus Pharma Services and Roche companies, in turn, study the possibility of cooperation with Azerbaijan in the production of medicines.

During the meeting, the two countries also discussed the possibility of cooperation in the field of production of medical equipment.

Protocol signed

Azerbaijan and Switzerland agreed to expand cooperation in the industry, trade, investment, agriculture, energy and tourism sectors.

The relevant protocol was signed at the end of the 7th meeting of the intergovernmental commission by Mustafayev and Livia Leu, a representative of SEKO.

The document says that physical end legal entities of Azerbaijan and Switzerland should respect territorial integrity sovereignty of the two countries, fundamental norms and principles of international law.








President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has met with President of Bulgaria Rosen Plevneliev, who is attending the 4th Global Baku Forum.





The sides hailed the current level of the bilateral relations and their rapid development in recent years. They emphasized the fact that the bilateral ties reached the level of strategic partnership. Opportunities for cooperation in investment making, energy, pharmaceutics and other areas were discussed at the meeting. The development of Azerbaijan-European Union relations was hailed, and the Bulgarian President expressed his country`s readiness to make its contribution to the expansion of these ties.





The importance of the 4th Global Baku Forum was underlined, and the presidents said the event created a good opportunity for conducting fruitful discussion. It was noted that the issues on the agenda of the forum were topical and important in terms of the expansion of international cooperation.




The Fourth Global Baku Forum is going to be something like political, geopolitical Davos, former prime minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zlatko Lagumdzija, told reporters in Baku on the sidelines of the forum March 10.

If Davos is about economy, then the Baku Forum is slowly and slightly becoming a geopolitical Davos, he added.

Every year, I have been coming here from the very beginning and it is incredible that this forum is becoming a place with not only more people, [but] more relevant people, said Lagumdzija.

The 4th Global Baku Forum titled Towards a Multipolar World kicked off March 10.

The Forum has been organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center in partnership with the Interaction Council, the Club of Madrid, Library of Alexandria, the Club of Rome and World Academy of Science and Culture.

Over 300 delegates from 53 countries attend the forum.

The two-day forum will focus on topical issues such as the role of interreligious dialogue in conflict prevention, migration, multiculturalism, integration and global security. The forum's agenda also includes prospects for energy and global management issues.
/By Azernews/

By Nazrin Gadimova

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian has once again distorted the content and essence of the settlement process over the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.

Hikmet Hajiyev, spokesperson for Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry made the remark while commenting on the interview that Nalbandian gave to Russian media on the eve of his visit to Moscow to discuss the key points of the conflict with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In his interview, the Armenian minister once again made a number of provocative statements on the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as tried to shift the responsibility for the lack of progress in the negotiation process onto Azerbaijan.

Hajiyev, commenting on the issue, said it seems like Nalbandian has no idea about what is being discussed in the negotiation process.

The Armenian foreign minister, who states that Yerevan is allegedly committed to the conflicts settlement with the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, in fact, never finds the courage to refer to the updated Madrid principles, and it is no coincidence, said the spokesperson.

Hajiyev is sure that one needs to remind Nalbandian that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs have presented the updated Madrid principles consisting of six paragraphs.

He noted that the first paragraph of the updated Madrid principles, which is considered a "road map" for the staged settlement of the conflict, envisages the withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from the occupied Azerbaijani territories.

Instead of making expressions and statements on minor technical issues, Armenias foreign minister should clarify the issue of withdrawal of his countrys armed forces from Azerbaijans occupied lands as required by the corresponding resolutions of the UN Security Council and Madrid principles, said Hajiyev.

However, Armenia by keeping Azerbaijani lands under occupation, maintaining the status quo, carrying out illegal settlement, economic and other activities on the occupied territories, aims to continue the occupation of these territories by imitating the peace process, he added.

The spokesperson noted that in accordance with the updated Madrid principles, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs should demand Armenia to withdraw its forces from Azerbaijans occupied lands.

Only in this case, it is possible to achieve progress in the conflicts settlement, Hajiyev concluded.

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict evolved in 1988 after Armenia territorial claims to neighboring Azerbaijan, whose 20 percent of lands it occupied in an unneighborly way.

The OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, proceeding talks based on the renewed Madrid principles. The statements promising a sincere contribution to the peaceful resolution of the conflict have become frequent, but declarative in essence. That, unfortunately, ruined confidence in success of the mediators representing the U.S., Russia and France.
/By Azernews/

By Nazrin Gadimova

Yerevan has taken the next provocative attempt towards Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijans western neighbor, Armenia presented an unrecognized state created in the occupied Azerbaijani territories at the International Tourism Exhibition, which is underway in Berlin.

Spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry, Hikmet Hajiyev said Azerbaijans embassy in Germany together with the exhibitions organizers is taking measures to remove this stand exposition.

This is not the first time when Armenia is trying to represent the self-proclaimed state at the international events.

Hajiyev added that in 2009, Yerevan also attempted to represent unrecognized regime established in the occupied Nagorno Karabakh region at the ITB Berlin, but this attempt failed.

This year, participation of the separatist regime with an individual pavilion at the ITB exhibition is being effectively suppressed thanks to the proactive measures taken by the Azerbaijani Embassy in Germany, he emphasized.

Hajiyev said that this time, a certain organization deceived the organizing committee of the exhibition by registering under a different name. At the opening day of the event, a poster with the Karabakh inscription appeared in the pavilion of this organization. Thus, the unrecognized regime once again demonstrated its criminal nature.

In close contact with the organizers of the exhibition, Azerbaijans embassy in Germany is taking measures on removing this stand at the moment, he added.

Hajiyev believes that Armenia is trying to maintain an unrecognized regime and to strengthen consequences of the occupation through abusing the opportunities of tourism sphere.

Following the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, structures functioning in the sphere of tourism, as well as tourists themselves should respect the laws of the country they are visiting. Moreover, they should not be engaged in any activity that could be considered a crime under the laws of this country, the official said.

Hajiyev noted that Azerbaijan urges all countries, businesses and individuals operating in the tourism sector to prevent attempts of promoting unrecognized regime created that Armenia created in the Azerbaijani lands through aggression and bloody ethnic cleansing.

As a result of conflict that evolved in 1988, Armenia created an unrecognized regime at the occupied territory of neighboring Azerbaijan. Armenia controls over Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions that make up 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory for over 24 years, using the resources of these rich lands.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly accused Armenia of carrying out illegal economic and other activities in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, counteracting the international law. Armenia uses the Nagorno-Karabakh as a testing ground for terrorist activities, as well as for drug trafficking. Moreover, companies from more than 20 countries illegally operate in Azerbaijans occupied territories.
/By Azernews/

By Amina Nazarli

The most revered holiday of Azerbaijani people -- Novruz Bayram, celebrating arrival of spring and new year is just around the corner.

Azerbaijan, also known as the Land of Fire, will welcome this spring holiday on March 21. The joyful, merry holiday of Novruz, having a lot of customs, ceremonies, performances, games and songs, also traditionally mark a large tourist flow to the country from the neighboring countries.

Chairman of the Azerbaijan Tourism Association (AzTA) Nahid Bagirov expects the country to host many foreign guests, especially from Iran during Novruz.

Bagirov, talking to Trend, said Iranian tourists have already booked rooms in the countrys hotels, adding that the Guide Bureau, established under the AzTA, has started trainings of Persian language for guides.



Recalling that the Azerbaijani Culture and Tourism Ministry has opened representative offices in Moscow and Istanbul to popularize and promote the country's tourism opportunities, Bagirov said that interest of Russian tourists to Azerbaijan has grown since then.

We also began to receive appeals from Kazakh and Uzbek travel companies over tours to Azerbaijan during the holidays, he emphasized.

Bagirov went on saying that with growing demand for the national tourism market, competition among local tourism companies is also increasing. "Now companies prefer to offer not standard, but differing tour packages," he added.

Bagirov noted that tourists arriving in Azerbaijan primarily prefer to visit the capital Baku and then go mainly to the northern regions of the country.

Meanwhile, Advisor to the AzTA Chairman Muzaffar Agakerimov told CBC that tourists visiting Azerbaijan on Novruz are primarily compatriots living in Iran, Northern Caucasus and Russia, who want to spend this spring holiday in their homeland, among family and friends.

As for the tourists coming from far abroad, Agakerimov said most of them want to experience how local people celebrate this holiday.

He noted that local travel companies prepared interesting holiday routes for foreigners, which includes the national cuisine, architectural monuments and historical sites.



Agakerimov said the most tourist routes in the country cover tours to Sheki, Masali, Lerik, Lankaran and northwest regions including Gabala, Gusar and Ismayilli.

Loved by many people, Novruz is celebrated by millions of people thought the world including Azerbaijan, Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and other eastern countries.

Azerbaijan marks this holiday with the annual festival, Maidan Bazaar traditionally set up near the Gosha Gala Gates for several days. Here, Baku residents and guests enjoy many interesting events, including the performance of wrestlers - Pehlevans , rope-walkers and magicians, as well as artists of the children's theater.

The main heroes of Novruz, Kosa and Kechel entertain not only children, bur also adults with their jokes.

Novruz is also a feast for sweet tooth, as many delicious national sweets including pakhlava, shakarbura, gogal and badambura are cooked and served at the festive table.
Our Name's Origin

The name Josiah Venture comes from 2 Chronicles 34. "Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem" (vs. 1). Josiah began to seek the Lord at age sixteen. He instructed his people to clear the land of false idols and to repair the Temple of the Lord. It was then that they rediscovered "the book of the Law in the house of the LORD" (vs. 15). Josiah was cut to the heart when he found out what was written in the Law. He realized that his people were not living how God had instructed them to live, so Josiah set out to make a radical change. "Josiah removed all the abominations from all the lands belonging to the sons of Israel, and made all who were present in Israel to serve the LORD their God. Throughout his lifetime they did not turn from following the LORD God of their fathers" (vs. 33). By the time he was 26, God had used Josiah to bring revival to the land, rebuild the house of God, and restore the Word of God to its central place. (taken from missionary Joe Brooks in Latvia) ----------------------------------- We want to see God raise up young leaders like Josiah all over Eastern Europe; young people who love the Lord and who will lead their nations back to Him! In Serbia, we are seeking to train and equip young leaders who will be the ones to lead their country back to Him as young Josiah did!
Oman Rail is on track with its rail project, although it could take another four years before the first line is operational, a top official said.



The company was refocusing its priorities on using rail in non-coastal areas to transport tonnes of materials such as dolomite, gypsum and marble to its three major ports at Sohar, Duqm and Salalah, Oman Rails chief commercial officer John Lesniewski was quoted as saying by Oman Observer, which cited The National.



Oman Rail had already significantly advanced plans for its $11-billion rail network, which was due to be built in four segments, the report said.



The first of these phases was meant to comprise 207 kilometres of track running from the sultanates border with the UAE at Buraimi to Sohar Industrial Port. Tenders were floated in September 2014 and an award was expected to be made last year.



He added that lines could be run from mineral areas in the north and south through existing oil and gas fields in Omans central spine so that the railway can also be used to deliver pipelines, equipment, food and other supplies.



Were looking at this year where we do the reassessment and initial early planning. Then next year we will do the tendering, and then probably two-and-a-half years after that will be actual construction, he added.
Saudi Real Estate Company (Sreco) has awarded a 10-month contract to KEO International Consultant for designing and supervising the construction of a mixed-use hotel complex in the Al Aqiq district of capital Riyadh.

The SR26-million ($7 million) deal allows KEO nine months for design and 30 months from the start of construction to manage and supervise the project, said Sreco in a statement to the Saudi stock exchange.

The agreement has no related parties and will have no effect on the companys short-term finances, it stated.

As per the deal, KEO will be responsible for construction management and supervision of the mixed-use Al Akaria project located adjacent to northen ring road at Al Aqeeq.

Earlier, the real estate company inked a five-month contract worth SR6.45 million ($1.7 million) with Al Assasat Al Watania for constructing a mixed-use building in Riyadh, it added.

KEO International, which has locations across the Arab Gulf region, provides consulting solutions for the construction industry.-TradeArabia News Service
GP Investments, Latin America's largest private equity firm, has reached a deal with a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi's sovereign fund to secure funding for the purchase of about 70 per cent of Brazilian real estate company BR Properties.



GP said in a securities filing on Thursday that THB JV, an indirect subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), has signed a binding subscription agreement with GP Investments unit GPIC as part of the offer to buy a controlling stake in BR Properties, in which Brazilian bank BTG Patcual is a leading shareholder.



GP Investments made a 1.87 billion-real ($470 million) offer for a controlling stake in BR Properties on December 11. Before the offer, BTG Pactual owned 35 per cent of Brazil Properties.



BTG Pactual has been selling assets to raise cash and restore investor confidence since the arrest last November of its former chairman and principal shareholder Andre Esteves. The arrest led some depositors and investors to pull their money from the bank.-Reuters
The participation of women in the regional workforce remains one of the lowest globally, with the GCC falling behind other countries in capitalizing on the investment in education, a report said.



The female labor participation ratio (FLPR) in two of the largest countries, Saudi Arabia and Oman, is below 30 per cent, added the report entitled Power Women in Arabia: Shaping the Path for Regional Gender Equality from A T Kearney, a global management consulting firm.



Furthermore, in the best-positioned countryQatar, with a 51 per cent FLPRonly half of the female population over 15 years of age is economically active.



There is no single factor that explains this lower participation; it is, instead, a combination of multiple elements. Forty-four per cent of respondents identified "cultural barriers" and "lack of support" as the top challenges women face. However, responses were widely distributed, for example, "lack of opportunities," the factor considered the least relevant, was still highlighted as a key reason by 17 per cent of the participants.



Many GCC policy makers are actively addressing the existing challenges. They have recently introduced a range of empowerment measures across the political, business, and educational arenas to level the playing field for women in the workforce.



These measures range from creating the necessary regulatory environment (such as the 60-day maternity leave introduced by the Qatar government) to strengthening the existence of role models in society (for example, Saudi Arabia appointed 30 women to the countrys top advisory Shura Council in 2013 and, in 2015, Saudi women stood as candidates and cast their votes in municipal elections for the first time).



The private sector is following through, with several companies offering incentives to attract and retain women in the workplace (for example, free nursery services and flexible work schedules). Gender diversity is now part of the strategic agenda at more than half of the private companies in the GCC, and 56 per cent of respondents working for such companies say that female employment has grown over the past five years.



Women in leadership: From myth to reality



Twenty years ago, there was not a single female CEO at a Fortune 500 company, and the share of female board members was below 9 per cent. The share of female CEOs and board members at Fortune 500 companies now reaches more than 20 per cent which is still far from equal representation, but it means that women head 26 major global firms.



The ratio of women in senior positions varies across regions, from 35 per cent in the Americas, Africa (29 per cent), Asia (26 per cent), Europe (21 per cent) to meagre 9 per cent in the GCC.

Within the GCC region, the ratio varies from 7 per cent in Saudi Arabia and Qatar to highest levels of 14 per cent in Kuwait. Despite these regional differences, the challenge remains  what is required to close one of the largest gender gaps globally?



At board level, the contrast between the GCC and the rest of the world is even more striking. In 2014, 17 per cent of board members at Fortune 500 companies were female. Shares of board seats held by females in the GCC countries in the same year ranged from 0.01 per cent in Saudi Arabia to 1.7 per cent in Kuwait.



The study shows the majority (80 per cent) of respondents believe that women and men are equally capable leaders. Interestingly, the study also reveals that majority of women (55 per cent) believe they have the same career opportunities as men. Men are more optimistic, with 85 per cent believing that men and women have the same opportunities.



To get more GCC women in leadership it is important to overcome the barriers and impediments to female career progression. The key areas explored in A.T. Kearney's research were (1) will and ambition to pursue a career, (2) skill set necessary to succeed, (3) presence of opportunities to advance in the business place, and (4) the influence of society and culture.



The A T Kearney study highlights that women in the GCC are ambitious and value their careers.



They are confident in their contribution to the workplace, and they do not believe having a family should be an impediment. Eight out of 10 women surveyed attach a high importance to their career, and only 7 per cent are working exclusively for financial gains. Women in the GCC are also ambitious, with 62 per cent aspiring to a management role within the next seven years, and more than 50 per cent aiming at a senior or board-level position.



In addition, the increasing amount of highly educated and qualified women in society offers an untapped pool of talent. It is not lack of will or skills that rests behind the leadership gender gap in the GCC workplaces.  TradeArabia News Service
Abu Dhabi Air Expo 2016, held at Al Bateen Executive Airport, will reopen as planned at 10 am today (March 10), a statement said.

Bad weather conditions across the UAE affected the expo yesterday and it had to be closed earlier.

Some damage was aslo reported at the exhibition site in Al Bateen Executive Airport, said a statement.

The expo began on March 8 in spectacular fashion with two Etihad Airways Extra EA 330 LT Trainer aircraft conducting an aerial ribbon-cutting during an acrobatic display at Al Bateen Airport, Abu Dhabi.



The Abu Dhabi Air Expo is just one event that is taking place during Abu Dhabi Aviation Week 2016, which runs from March 6 to 12.
Visitors to ITB Berlin's 11th hotel conference today had the opportunity to meet Mario, a robot who works in a hotel, as part of the show's Hospitality Day.



Mario is the youngest employee at the Ghent Marriott Hotel in Belgium. Standing 57 cm tall and weighing only six kg, he speaks 19 languages.



Mario was showcased as part of the convention's key topic, digitalisation, with leading hotel experts discussing robots, hi-tech innovations and innovation labs.



This year's show will see Stephan Demmerle, director of the Business Unit Central Europe of the NH Hotel Group and Roland Schwecke of the marketing consultancy DICON Marketing- und Beratungsgesellschaft Berlin closely examine the impact of technology and its effect in the hospitality industry.



Chinas largest hotel chain comprising 3,000 hotels is expanding rapidly and exploiting the Chinese fascination with the internet. Starting at 1.30 p.m., Eric Wu, chief financial officer and executive director from Guangzhou, will be talking to Maria Putz-Willems, editor-in-chief of hospitalityInside.com and organiser of the ITB Hospitality Day, about digital life in the Far East, and how and why the Plateno Hotels Group, part of the hospitality giant Jin Jiang, intends to take on the European market.



There will also be a futurist describing digital natives and three other experts who will be discussing investment in hotel guests.



OTA giants are inseparable from the hotel industry. How are distribution giants changing this sector and how is competition among OTAs changing? Terri Scriven, industry head of Hospitality, Google, London, and Peter Verhoeven, managing director, Europe/Middle East/Africa, Booking.com, Amsterdam, will be facing up to critical questions at 2.45 pm.



With a host of events lined up, The ITB Hospitality Day will take place at the ITB Berlin Convention on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds in Hall 7.1b, the London Room from 10.30 a.m. to 5.40 p.m today (March 10). A live stream will also be available (www.itb-convention.com/livestream). - TradeArabia News Service
Senior dance at Eagles

Senior Dance Saturday at the Eagles Hall, 306 N. Durbin St. Dance to western swing, true country, pop, oldies and jazz. Music provided by the SwingSounds Band from 7 to 10 p.m., with potluck snacks at 8 p.m., and door prize drawings at 9 p.m. Admission $5 per person. Come on down and dance, listen and just enjoy a great evening. Senior dance dates for March are the 12 and 26, mark your calendars.

Robbie Daniels  235-5130

Veteran Cigar Night

Every Wednesday from 5:30 to 7 p.m., all veterans are invited to Veteran Cigar Night at the Casper Cigar Company, 4717 W. Yellowstone Highway, sponsored by Casper Cigar Company. There is no cost to attend.

This is a time and place for our communitys combat veterans to relax and share their stories with other combat veterans while enjoying a good cigar. Veterans receive 20 percent off cigars. For more information, call Josh Cruse at 307-337-4400 or josh@caspercigar.com.

Indie film series

The Natrona County Librarys Independent Film Series will feature Gods Slave at 6:30 p.m., on Tuesday, March 15, in the Crawford Room. Call 577-READ ext. 2 or email reference@natronacountylibrary.org for more information. Synopsis: Based on the actual events of a 1994 bombing in Buenos Aires, Gods Slave, the acclaimed debut from Joel Novoa Schneider, is a suspenseful cat-and-mouse game that leads to a deadly showdown. Ahmed, trained since childhood as an Islamic terrorist, is assigned to execute a suicide bombing at a synagogue. David, a cold-blooded Israeli special agent, will stop at nothing to prevent the attack. And yet, neither man is defined solely by their extremist views.

Adult Coloring Club

Drop by the Natrona County Library anytime between 2 and 5 p.m. on Friday, March 18 for our Adult Coloring Club. Coloring isnt just for kids anymore  its a way for anyone to overcome stress and get back to their creative side. The Adult Coloring Club meets the first and third Friday of every month from 2 to 5 p.m. in the Librarys Crawford Room for a time of relaxation, conversation, and creativity. Coloring books and pages will be available for you to turn into works of art. Colored pencils, crayons, and markers will be provided. Just bring yourself and enjoy the afternoon. Call 577-READ ext. 2 or email reference@natronacountylibrary.org for more information.

Out of the box at

Art 321

The Out of the Box exhibition and auction event will be a fundraiser for ART 321, much like the Pallet Project Event last year. These works of art will be judged by a prominent Portland museum curator. The deadline for submission is Saturday, April 2, 2016 by 4 p.m.

All works in any media are welcome. Be creative; think out of the box. Pizza boxes, shadow box, jewelry box, photo on a box, sculpture box, repurposed box. Do your creative thing!

The exhibit opens April 7 at the first Art Walk of the year.

Art 321 auction event April 22

From 4 to 8 p.m., on Friday, April 22, 2016, the Casper Artist Guild is hosting Out of the Box, our annual gala and fundraising event in the Art 321 space at 321 W. Midwest Ave. It will be an evening of art, music, food, fun and auctions.

We have secured many outstanding live auction packages, including private parties, a guided fly fishing trip, and dining out for a year. Our most exciting package is a week for eight in Cabo San Lucas at the private home of one of our most generous donors, as well as a day of deep sea fishing on a private yacht.

Get your tickets soon as we are limiting ticket sales to the first 200 attendees.

Hogs and Hops

Do you enjoy a nice craft beer? Do you enjoy bacon? So come down to the Yellowstone Garage and enjoy both at the same time. Yes, that is correct, beer and bacon. The Harley Owners Group (HOGS) is proud to host Caspers first beer and bacon festival on April 16. Early bird tickets purchased by March 20 are $35 each or two for $65. Sampling is 4 to 7 p.m., with live music after 7 p.m. Tickets are available online at eventbrite, and at the Oil City Harley Davidson dealership, where only cash or check will be accepted.

Harley Ownership Group (HOGS) is a group of Harley Davidson owners who have come together in the area to help the community in which they live.

Mexican border exhibit opens

Saturday, March 12, 2016, is the opening reception for the Centennial of the Mexican Border Deployment, at the Wyoming Veterans Memorial Museum. 10:00 a.m. The Curators Lecture on the Deployment of the National Guard to the Mexican Border in 1916 begins at 10 a.m., with a public information meeting on the new museum concept to follow at noon. Join the staff at 2 p.m., for the updated Porch Gallery exhibit on Casper Army Air Base during World War II. Free to the public, open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Senior enrichment

Free to men and women 60 or older. Join the tap dancing group of Joyces Senior Stompers. It is moderate, easy, balanced clogging keeping us seniors young. It is great exercise for developing flexibility, helps coordination, increases endurance and strength and helps stimulate our brain in learning different dance routines. Exercise is important to increase lung capacity, burn calories, relieve stress, and it is fun. We meet on Monday mornings at 10:50 a.m. Call Joyce Sisk, 237-4908, for more information.

Long Island Medium coming to Casper

Theresa Caputo, from TLCs hit show, Long Island Medium, will be appearing live at the Casper Events Center at 7:30 p.m., on Wednesday, April 6. Theresa will share personal stories about her life and explain how her gift works. She will deliver healing messages to audience members and give people comfort knowing that their loved ones who passed are still with them, just in a different way.

Tickets go on sale at 11:30 a.m., this Friday and can be purchased at caspereventscenter.com, 800.442.2256, or the Casper Events Center Box Office. Tickets start at $39.75 (plus applicable service charges) and are subject to change. Purchasing a ticket does not guarantee a reading.

The Experience brings Theresa face-to-face with her fans, as she lets spirit guide her through the audience. A video display ensures everyone in the venue has an up-close-hands-on experience regardless of seat location. The experience isnt about believing in mediums. Its about witnessing something life-changing, says Theresa Caputo. Its like Long Island Medium live, witnessing first-hand spirit communication.

Doll collection on display

Please come and see a fabulous doll collection of Lisa Esterlines at the Senior Center, 1831 E. 4th St. She belongs to the Casper Doll Club and the Casper Needle Guild. Some of her doll costumes have won prizes in competition.

Advanced Facebook for business

The Center for Training and Development at Casper College is offering a short class for owners and operators of a business Facebook page on Thursday, April 28 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Facebook for Your Business: Advanced (CEU 1077) will be taught by Dana Volney. Those attending the class will learn how to use Facebook to build successful and engaging campaigns for their business, she said. In addition to campaigns, students will learn Facebook marketing fundamentals including how to grow the fan base and drive topical and useful engagement with the business.

The class is designed for those who have a current Facebook page that they have used before. The cost per person is $45 and those successfully completing the class will earn .2 continuing education units. All students are asked to bring a tablet or laptop to class.

To register or for more information, contact Ann Dalton, workforce training specialist, at 268-2085 or adalton@caspercollege.edu.
Evan Drachman might be a shirttail cousin to Tucsons Roy Drachman.

Were probably related but we couldnt make the connection, he said last week during a phone call from home in Baltimore.

But he is related to the famous Russian-born American cellist Gregor Piatigorsky  his grandfather.

And on Saturday, March 12, he will join the Civic Orchestra of Tucson to perform Dvoraks Cello Concerto, a work that Drachman credits for leading him to follow in his famous grandfathers footsteps.

The Dvorak, I think, is one of the most important concertos written for cello and orchestra. It might be one of his greatest works, said the cellist, who, at the age of 13 while he was away at music camp, discovered a recording of his grandfather performing the Dvorak with the Boston Symphony.

Until that discovery, Drachman had been finding his footing in the cello after years of exploring everything from guitar to drums. He had been studying cello for a year, but was not quite comfortable on the instrument.

The Dvorak recording and his music camp experience changed that.

I just completely fell in love with music there. After that it was all I wanted to do, he said, recounting how he would wake up in the morning and play before school and come back to the cello after school to get in practice before doing his homework.

Saturdays Civic Orchestra concert will be his third with the volunteer ensemble, under the baton of music director Herschel Krelof, who has led the orchestra since 1980

It is massive in scope, Drachman said of the concerto. It contains everything: It has virtuosity, pathos, humor, incredibly gorgeous melodies. It just feels from beginning to end that youre taking this incredible journey.

Drachman never got to study with his grandfather. He was just getting interested in the cello when Piatigorsky died in Los Angeles in 1976. But Drachman is carrying on his grandfathers legacy in not only his performances but with his non-profit Piatigorsky Foundation, which sponsors concerts in areas where classical music is not readily accessible. Drachman said they perform in schools, nursing homes, on Native American reservations and in rural areas, promoting his grandfathers philosophy that classical music in not meant for the elite but should be a required experience for all.

Classical music has the reputation for being high-browed and snooty, but its powerful stuff and its for everybody, he said.

Civic Orchestra of Tucson is in the homestretch of its 40th anniversary season. Founded in 1975, the 60-piece ensemble performs mostly free concerts including its annual Pops in the Parks concert in May at Reid Parks DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center.

In addition to the Dvorak concerto, the orchestra will perform Mozarts Symphony No. 40 to mark the anniversary, said General Manager Bob Kovitz.

I think 40 years is extraordinary, said Kovitz. We rent the halls, we dont charge admission. Its not a business school model you would recommend. I think theres such a love of classical music by the musicians themselves and by the community that the organization has kept going.
If you go

What: 23rd annual Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival.

Presented by: Arizona Friends of Chamber Music.

When: Sunday, March 13, through March 20.

Where: Leo Rich Theatre, 260 S. Church Ave.

Tickets: $30 adults, $10 students. $120 for all five festival concerts, $160 for the Gala dinner only; $280 for the five concerts and the gala dinner. Tickets available at arizonachambermusic.org

Details: 577-3769 or arizonachambermusic.org

Schedule:

 3 p.m. Sunday, March 13: Dvorak's Terzetto for two violins and viola; Britten's Cello Sonata No. 2 in C major; Barriere's Sonata for Cello and Bass in G major; Beethoven's String Quartet, Op. 59 No. 1.

 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 15: Schumann's Andante and Variations for two pianos, two cellos and horn in B flat major; Eugene Ysaye's Trio for two violins and viola "Le Londres; Puts' Ritual Protocol for Piano and Marimba; Schubert's String Quintet in C major.

 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 16: Rossini's String Quartet No. 6; Bartok's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion; Schmidt's Cello Sonata (world premiere, AFCM commission); Brahms' Horn Trio in E Flat major.

 Thursday March 17, Youth Concert: Open to school groups only.

 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 18: Puts' Piano Quintet; Dresher's Double Ikat; Wieniaski's Reverie for viola and piano; Ornstein's Piano Quintet.

 6 p.m. Saturday, March 19: Gala dinner and concert at the Arizona Inn, 2200 E. Elm St. Dinner reservations required.

 3 p.m. Sunday, March 20: G. Schurmann's "Romancing the Strings" for string nonet (premiere); Dvorak's String Quintet No. 2 in G major; Harbison's "Twilight Music"; Ravel's "La Valse," arranged for two pianos.
Taped to the door of House of Egg Roll in Chandler, there's a paper sign with the apology, "Notice: We sold out orange chicken, General Tso's chicken, sweet and sour chicken, sesame chicken."

I remember that sign from a few weeks ago ... And when I drove back up from Tucson to relive one of the most epic and tantalizing Chinese feasts of my life, it was still there. It could be that the spot's owner  Changhai Huang from the Shaanxi province of China  is simply a very polite person.

But just a few months ago, this mind-blowing restaurant was an average Chinese takeout place with the same name. (I actually grew up in Chandler a couple miles from the restaurant at 961 W. Ray Road, and don't have the foggiest memory of it.)

When Huang and chef Lin Zhao took it over, they ditched the General Tso's and revamped the whole menu with obscure recipes you'd be hard-pressed to find in even America's biggest cities ... dishes like a sweet fermented soup of glutinous rice balls, and cumin lamb stuffed into mini Shaanxi sandwiches that look like English muffins.

Despite the name on the sign, House of Egg Roll is actually no House of Egg Roll at all. (Although they do still serve egg rolls.) The restaurant's real name is a Mandarin expression that translates into Home in Shaanxi, but Zhao said they kept the previous owner's name House of Egg Roll out of convenience.

It seems to have worked out. House of Egg Roll was just listed as one of the best Chinese restaurants in America by the national publication Time Out Magazine. Among the 17 "stand-out" picks there's one clear theme: terroir.

The United States is just beginning to freak out over the wild wonders of regional Chinese restaurants. Thanks in part to hipster ambassadors like Danny Bowien of Mission Chinese Food in San Francisco, we're starting to see the world's most populous country for what it really is ... not just the land of fried rice and sesame chicken.

Phoenix's suburban East Valley is now home to Beijing dumpling places, ballroom-style dim sum restaurants, tongue tingling Szechwan soups and even a restaurant across the street from House of Egg Roll that specializes in the fried meat pies of Northeastern China. (While Tucson hasn't gotten this far, we do have a hot pot restaurant and two awesome Szechwan places Jun Dynasty and China Szechwan.) But even to Chinese food trailblazers, the Shaanxi is new territory ...

Well in fact, it's very old. This northwestern Chinese province sits at the beginning of the ancient Silk Road trade route and is home to a dizzying array of dishes that draw from all parts of the world. Its capital Xi'an (home of the Terra Cotta Warriors) has been under 13 separate feudal dynasties in the past thousand years, and also draws a huge influence from its Muslim population.

You see this in the restaurant's Shaanxi barbecue, skewered kebabs of cumin-laced meats typically eaten as street snacks in Xi'an's Muslim Quarter. There's also the Shaanxi sandwiches, spicy meats stuffed into disks of puffy pita-like bread that House of Egg Roll bakes fresh every morning. Looking around the room at House of Egg Roll, every table seemed to have one.

#63: Shaanxi sandwich with cumin lamb, $4.95

But the true iconic dish from this wheat producing area is actually a noodle, just one, to be exact. It goes by the name "Shaanxi noodle" on the menu, and it looks like chow fun on steroids. The puffy wheat noodle is so fat and long that it fills up the entire bowl. They bring it out to the table curled up like belt in a drawer, with just a smidgen of bean sprouts, dried chiles and Chinese greens that you're supposed to mix all together, if you can. The noodle is actually pretty hard to eat without a knife, but it's so freakin' good ...

There's a Chinese expression out there that says one noodle can make a bowlful of soup. People eat these noodles on their birthdays, because they symbolize long life. At House of Egg Roll they prepare them fresh every morning using ingredients imported from Los Angeles. The process involves a good deal of intricate knife cuts, and can only be done by a true master.

But alas ... One cannot live on noodles alone. So here are four other dishes we recommend

#12: Sweet Fermented Glutinous Rice Ball Soup, $7.75

The clear favorite of my dining partner, this otherdimensional soup is a synthesis of sweetness and funk. The broth is fermented, for the one thing, and tastes like sugary warmed sake with dried flowers floating on top. Then there's the spheres of glutinous rice that pop in your mouth like giant boba balls. Freaktastic.

#18: Shrimp with spicy hot chili sauce, $16.95

This one's for fans of exoskeletons. As far as I know you're supposed to eat the shrimps whole, shell and all. (God help me if I'm wrong, 'cause I ate a lot of them!) The creaminess of the shrimp flesh offsets the fragrant chile spice for a well-balanced snack. Best for sharing.

#16: Eight Precious Rice Pudding, $9.95

According to our host PingPing Xiao, China does "dessert" in a really different way than America. Basically they can eat the sweets at the same time as the savories, and not feel bad about it. This strange vessel is a great example: It's a stately dome of sticky rice pudding, with rich plum fruits laced on the top. On the sides, you've got fresh sliced tomatoes, which work in a way I never thought they would.

#59: Small handmade noodles nuggets, $8.25
The oldest priest in the Diocese of Tucson who ministered to thousands of Catholics, passed away Monday, March 7, 2016. He was 92. Arriving in the Diocese of Tucson following his ordination on Decemeber 9, 1947 and continuing on through his retirement on January 31, 1994, Msgr. Carscallen served at 14 parishes throughout the Diocese, in locations ranging from central Tucson to Hayden, Miami, Bisbee, Douglas, Tolleson, Green Valley and even in Yuma. He served twice at Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in Tucson, at one time serving as pastor and administrator for ten years. In addition to parish assignments, he served in other capacities including: Assistant Procurator for Salpointe High School from August 1950 to September 1953; San Carlos Mission Administrator Pro tem; Associate Director for the Cursillo Movement in 1978; Vicar of the Gila Vicariate 1976 - 1979; Vicar for Pima Central 1990 - 1994; Chairman of the Clergy Health Panel in 1982; Spiritual Director in Ministry to Diocesan Priests in 1995; and Catholic Chaplain for Holy Hope Cemetery. He received the Papal Honor of Chaplain to His Holiness on August 9, 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI, and was able to use the title of Monsignor. Visitation will take place Thursday, March 10, 2016 at Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church, 505 N. La Canada Drive, from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., with a Rosary taking place at 6:00 p.m. A second Rosary will take place on Friday, March 11, 2016 at Sts. Peter and Paul Parish, 1946 E. Lee St., in Tucson at 1:00 p.m., followed by a Funeral Mass at 1:30 p.m. Interment will follow at Holy Hope Cemetery, 3555 N. Oracle Road, Tucson.
Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus said he was hired to make tough decisions about the department, both in its size and how it operates, and he believes his planned reorganization should make the force better trained and more efficient.

He said the department will be leaner but it will be stronger as it moves more officers into patrol, which is the backbone of the department in responding to emergencies and serving neighborhoods.

Magnus said the proposal, which will be reviewed by city council, should be completed by the end of June. I.

In a news conference Wednesday at police headquarters, Magnus spoke about his plan to save the city $14.5 million by mid-2017. He said it has the support of City Manager Michael Ortega, who asked all city departments for plans to cut costs.

The budget cuts will be fulfilled through attrition in sworn officers, not filling the vacancies of the authorized positions and a reduction in special assignment pay.

However, Magnus said he has asked Ortega for $7 million from the savings for department needs, including new uniforms, patrol cars, cell phones and training for officers. Magnus said Ortega was supportive of the rebate.

The citys deficit for fiscal year 2017 is expected to be $25.6 million.

Under the plan, Magnus sees officers working in four divisions across the city. He proposes to eliminate the downtown division. The area it covered would be absorbed by Operations Division West.

If this plan is finalized, the boundaries for Operations Division West would be from River Road to roughly 22nd Street, and from Campbell to Starr Pass and Anklam Road. The boundaries to the remaining three divisions should remain the same.

Sgt. Roland Gutierrez, president of the Tucson Police Officers Association, said the reorganization will create an atmosphere where it will be difficult to retain officers because of its cuts in special assignments, which offer higher pay. He also worries about the safety of police with trimming the department to 830 officers.

The union said the department cannot cut another single dollar and city management must rebuild the department as soon as possible.

Magnus said the decisions to reduce personnel and reorganize were not easy for any of us to make. He said the reorganization will make the department better and more effective.

Magnus said the department has not been fully staffed at its authorized level of 992 sworn officers for many years. He said the city cant afford to properly equip, train and supervise that level of officers. He proposes the department be staffed at 830 sworn officers, which is a level the city can support.

Currently, the department has 880 officers, and there are about 373 on patrol, according to department data.

He said once the city gets into a solid, economic situation he plans on rebuilding the department and eventually bring it to levels of more than 900 sworn officers.

The proposal has some officers in special assignments returning to patrol.

Officers and detectives in certain units would return to the divisions and work closely with patrol squads to solve cases and also work crime prevention measures.

About 70 officers would return to the divisions, some going back to patrol.
As Davis-Monthan Air Force Base faces dual threats of cuts to its primary mission  its fleet of A-10 close-air support jets  and the specter of base closures nationally, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said its future is bright.

I couldnt be more impressed with what I have seen so far, she told local reporters on Wednesday, during her first visit to D-M. This is a very, very busy base.

James praised the A-10 mission here and said proposals to retire the fleet nationally were rooted in budget constraints. She pointed to D-Ms new drone unit, which remotely flies MQ-1 Predator drones, and nearby training areas as platforms for expansion.

I think theres room for growth, in terms of missions at D-M, she said.

James whirlwind visit to Tucson comes as D-M supporters tout a new survey showing strong local support for the base and for the controversial prospect of high-decibel F-35s flying more frequently in Southern Arizona.

Meanwhile, opponents of increasingly loud jets passing through Tucson airspace have become more vocal.

In January, the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest and three neighbors of the base filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court of Arizona against the Air Force. The suit challenges an environmental assessment that concluded there would be no significant impact from a dramatic expansion planned for D-Ms pilot training programs.

The suit seeks to compel the Air Force to do a more thorough environmental study, in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act, to realistically gauge the noise and health impacts of the program on D-Ms neighbors.

James said Wednesday she was aware of the lawsuit but hadnt studied it in detail.

The Air Force is working with the Department of Justice to determine the legal approach going forward, she said.

The secretarys visit, which also included Deputy Secretary of Energy Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, took place at one of D-Ms two massive solar-array sites, which boast 57,000 solar panels.

Built in 2013, the solar installation now provides 38 percent of D-Ms power and saves the base about $500,000 each year in energy costs.

HERITAGE FLIGHT

Amid the criticism and celebration of D-M, classic World War II warbirds, Korean War-era fighters and modern attack jets danced across the sky last weekend, to the delight of spectators who glimpsed the private training event held at the base.

D-Ms annual Heritage Flight trains and certifies pilots to fly alongside vintage airplanes in air shows. The event gave Tucsonans their first extended exposure to the F-35, the militarys newest fighter jet.

The Air Force has said it would replace A-10s nationally with F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters and will decide squadron by squadron who gets them. So far, D-M has been passed over. The Air Forces most recent plan shows D-M acquiring 21 F-16 Fighting Falcon jet fighters in fiscal year 2020.

D-M got a handful of complaints related to noise or aircraft flying too low but otherwise, the response was overwhelmingly positive, said Capt. Casey Osborne, chief of public affairs for the 355th Fighter Wing at D-M.

Tucson native Lisa Downey, a project manager for a construction company, spent her Saturday with a group of spectators gathered on a dirt lot south of the base. Armed with a cooler and a radio scanner, they watched the aircraft take off and listened in on chatter from the D-M control tower.

Downey said she got chills watching  and feeling  the F-35s.

When they take off and they shoot straight up, its like a shockwave, said Downey, 42, whose cousin does munitions work on A-10s at D-M. You can feel that thunder.

The thrill remained after the aircraft landed.

I had the best dreams Saturday night. It was all jets, all night, Downey said. I didnt want to wake up.

OPPOSITION TO F-35

For others, the thunderous attack jets are more like a nightmare.

The possibility that an F-35 squadron could one day replace Tucsons A-10 Thunderbolt II jets  which are quiet in comparison  has dismayed Tucsonans concerned about noise and safety. At takeoff, the F-35 is about nine decibels louder than the most powerful version of the F-16, Air Force data show. Ten decibels equates to about a doubling in perceived noise.

Even strong military supporters have qualms with the F-35, which has been riddled with design problems and criticized for its exorbitant cost. Sens. John McCain and Martha McSally say its an inadequate replacement for the steadfast A-10, known as the Warthog, which can fly low and slow, providing critical close-air support to ground troops.

The Air Force has agreed to delay the phase-out of the A-10, but the Warthog is on borrowed time.

In February the Air Force said it would begin the phase-out in fall of 2018, as part of a plan to completely mothball the fleet by 2022. Also in fiscal year 2019, Davis-Monthan is expected to lose six of its 14 EC-130H Compass Call electronic-warfare planes.

LAWSUIT

F-35s arent the only loud jets garnering controversy.

The continual expansion of D-Ms visiting-pilot training program  known as Total Force Training  has brought louder planes to Tucson, including the F-15 and F-18, and will dramatically increase the number of sorties flying out of Davis-Monthan, according to the lawsuit contesting the finding of no significant impact from the expansion.

Julia Keen Neighborhood resident Rita Ornelas is one of the plaintiffs in the suit. She says the increasingly louder jets are damaging her health and her home, where fly-overs have resulted in cracked windows.

An F-22 flew directly over her home during an air show a few years ago and Ornelas felt the vibrations from her head to her toes. Heart racing, Ornelas said she felt she was having a nervous breakdown.

I was paralyzed in my tracks just seeing it, the noise of it and the feeling of it, she said.

With limited finances, Ornelas said she wishes she could relocate but she cant afford to move from her home of 30 years. She feels that D-M isnt hearing the concerns of its closest neighbors.

We support the base, but we support them with responsible missions, she said. Nobody wants to see the base closed.

PRESSURE ON D-M

The impending cuts have heightened pressure on D-M to secure a new mission independent of the A-10 and prove its worth to the Air Force, which is looking for bases to close in the next few years.

The Air Force now has more capacity than it needs and could conduct another Base Realignment and Closure process, known as BRAC, as early as 2017.

The reality is, the Air Force has 90,000 less airmen than it did 20 years ago and it has too much infrastructure, said Brian Harpel, president of the nonprofit DM50, a Tucson-based advocacy group for D-M. Thats a potential threat somewhere over the horizon and we need to be prepared for that.

Davis-Monthan has a lot going for it, in addition to its sheer breadth of airspace and predictable weather, supporters say. D-Ms proximity to the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range makes it an ideal spot for training operations. The base is also home to the Boneyard, the Air Forces primary storage, maintenance and parts facility with an inventory of more than 4,200 aircraft and 40 aerospace vehicles.

Supporters must rally around the base, which generates $1 billion per year for Tucsons economy, Harpel said.

D-M has best weather, range and airspace of any Air Force base in the United States, he said. Thats an important message to get out to the Air Force and Congress on why D-M is so important, not only to our national security but also our local economy.

LOCAL SUPPORT STRONG

DM50 and another pro-military group, Southern Arizona Defense Alliance, just released their latest survey showing robust support locally both for the base and the proposal to bring F-35 fighter jets here. The results show the base is central to the fabric of Tucson, Harpel said.

D-M has more threats than ever before, Harpel said. Its incumbent upon the community to be as vigilant as they can to protect it.

The results, based on 603 responses, showed 90 percent of respondents were aware of and supported D-M and 76 percent of respondents were somewhat or very much in favor of bringing the F-35 to Southern Arizona.

The results were similar to an earlier version commissioned by DM50 and SADA two years ago. But critics say both surveys paint a too-rosy picture.

In 2014, Tucson Forward  a nonprofit formed primarily to advocate against the F-35s coming to Tucson  undertook a survey it said more accurately reflects the sentiments of those most affected by the base: its neighbors.

The group sent questionnaires to 4,000 residents in 17 ZIP codes near the base and got 571 responses.

Eighty-three percent strongly supported keeping D-M open with current jet and operation levels, but only 59 percent approved of louder planes flying out of D-M, the survey found.

Lee Stanfield, a Tucson Forward board member, called the DM50 survey propaganda and questioned its massive survey area, which covered Pima, Yuma, Cochise and Santa Cruz counties, as well as some ZIP codes in Pinal County. Comparatively fewer respondents lived near the base, she said.

They watered down any negative responses they might get from people who do live close because they included them in this huge target area, she said. Its not an unbiased, objective study.

Both competing surveys have their biases, said City Councilman Steve Kozachik, who represents Ward 6, just north of Davis-Monthan.

But he said more importantly, all parties should be focused on identifying a diverse set of missions for D-M, instead of remaining laser-focused on the prospect of a flying mission to replace the A-10s.

Supporters should look at options such as increased drone operations or building an air operation center  the types of missions more likely to ensure D-Ms survival, he said.

If youre putting all your chips in the table in hopes of getting the F-35, you may likely lose the base because you bet all your assets on that one hope, Kozachik said.

Luke Air Force Base outside of Phoenix is already an F-35 training site, making it even less likely Tucson will get an F-35 unit.

Lets focus on the missions we are more qualified for, given our location, Kozachik said. I think we have enough strengths to preserve D-M.
The Tucson Unified School District has failed again in its effort to expand grade levels at Sabino High School.

In a strongly worded, 18-page order, U.S. District Judge David Bury echoed sentiments voiced earlier by the plaintiffs in TUSDs decades-old desegregation case: The plan would likely facilitate so-called white flight.

Bury not only denied TUSD permission to create an honor-student pipeline from two northeast-side elementary schools to feed directly into Sabino High, but also prohibited the district from reconfiguring grade levels at another school  Borman Elementary.

While Bury went to great lengths to explain why he denied the districts request, the resounding message was that the proposals did nothing to improve racial integration. Instead, the judge said, the plan likely would provide more opportunities to Anglo students in predominantly Anglo schools.

Bury went on to say that with one exception, TUSD has not considered taking Anglo students out of their north-side neighborhoods. Nor has it considered whether centrally located schools or those on the south side could be improved to make them more attractive to Anglo students.

A bus traveling south travels the same distance as a bus traveling north: a mile is a mile, Bury wrote.

The exception noted by Bury is an effort to expand Drachman Montessori K-6 Magnet School, south of downtown near West 22nd Street and South 10th Avenue, to a K-8 campus. Bury approved that plan. It calls for using express busing for students from the north and east sides of TUSD to Drachman.

Drachman is 75 percent Hispanic. An infusion of Anglo students would make the school more racially integrated while providing the students the opportunity to attend an A-rated, nationally recognized school, Bury said.

In denying the honor-student pipeline proposal to Sabino for students from Collier and Fruchthendler, Bury said he also considered the impact on the nearby Magee Middle School. Few Fruchthendler or Collier families currently choose Magee, which is their designated receiver school, saying it is not sufficient and it is too far. They generally leave TUSD for competing districts or charter schools.

If TUSD added sixth grade to both elementary campuses and seventh and eighth grades to Sabino, families would be more likely to stay in the district, the district has said.

REJECTION NOT NEW

Because this is not the first time the Sabino pipeline proposal has been rejected by the court, TUSD looked to appease concerns about white flight by offering to bus students from racially concentrated schools to the A-rated Sabino.

It also surveyed families across town to gauge their interest in being bused to Magee as a way to make up for the students Magee would lose.

But Bury noted that families were pitched a school with strong academics and an outstanding Odyssey of the Mind group, not a C-rated campus that also houses the districts alternative to long-term suspension program.

The fact that TUSD was proposing to accommodate mostly Anglo parents who complained about traffic on a 7.5-mile drive to Magee while proposing to bus minority students about 45 minutes each way also was not lost on Bury.

TUSD Superintendent H.T. Sanchez disagrees with the idea that the Sabino proposal facilitates white flight, saying Arizona is a school-choice state, but added that no amount of dissertating on my end will change the judges perspective.

Sanchez said he is glad to have the opportunity to open up Drachman to more families and is hopeful TUSD will be able to prove to the court that it can convince families to take advantage of programming across town, making for a better argument in the future that express bus arrangements might also be successful at integrating other schools like Sabino.

He added that TUSD will work to make Magee a destination families want to head to despite having closer options in competing districts.

QUALITY MATTERS

In terms of Borman, which is located on Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, TUSD sought to change the school from a K-5 to a K-8. It argued that after fifth grade, its students dont stay in the district. Rather, they are lost to the on-base Sonoran Science Academy charter school, which serves middle- and high-schoolers.

Because Borman caters to children of military personnel and civil servants living and working on base, there is little that could be done to diversify the population.

Bury, however, argues that rather than adding middle school grades to Borman, TUSD should focus on making Roberts-Naylor K-8  just 3.5 miles from the front gate of DM  a viable competitor to the on-base charter school.

Bury ordered a detailed report on what has been done or could be done to make Roberts-Naylor more attractive to families likely to look for alternative schools.

Doing so would be an opportunity to make the racially-concentrated Roberts-Naylor, which is 80 percent minority, more racially integrated using students from Borman, which Bury described as a source of Anglo students.

Until the court is certain that Roberts-Naylor cannot be a viable program for Borman students, Bury said he will not approve a plan that ensures Roberts-Naylor can never be such an alternative.

In explaining his thought process, Bury reminded TUSD that the court order it is operating under requires more than just doing no harm.

It requires TUSD to take affirmative action to do good in the context of improving integration and the quality of education for minority students, if it can.
PHOENIX  Saying it will maintain election integrity, Gov. Doug Ducey on Wednesday signed legislation to make felons out of those who collect the ballots of others to bring them to the polls.

HB 2023, which takes effect later this year, will allow judges to impose a presumptive one-year prison term and potential $150,000 fine for the practice by civic and political groups of going out to see if people remembered to return the early ballots they had requested by mail.

Duceys signature came just hours after the measure gained final Senate approval on a party-line vote. And it came moments after the state Republican Party chairman issued a statement saying the change restores the publics respect for a process that had potentially dangerous implications and provided too much opportunity for fraud and tampering with an election.

The governors prepared comments echoed that sentiment.

This bill ensures a secure chain of custody between the voter and the ballot box, Ducey said. We join 18 other states in this common-sense approach to maintaining the integrity of our elections.

The partisan nature of the measure did not go unnoticed .

Sen. Steve Farley, D-Tucson, said there has never been a documented case of anyone picking up someone elses ballot and then failing to deliver it.

The problem were solving is that one party is better at collecting ballots than the other one, he said. The other one tried and they failed. And, therefore, its time to change the rules.

The legislation is based on claims of fraud  or potential fraud.

A lot of shenanigans happen down in my neck of the woods, said Sen. Don Shooter, R-Yuma, referring to the area south of his home city.

Shooter said he got another email Wednesday from someone claiming to have evidence and witnesses of fraud.

Ive been told the way they do it is they collect the ballots early, they put them in a microwave with a bowl of water, steam them open, take the ballots, he explained.

If they like the way its voted they put them back in, Shooter continued. If they dont like the way its voted, they lose that ballot.

Sen. Martin Quezada, D-Phoenix, questioned Shooter about what happened.

We did in fact report it to law enforcement, Shooter responded.

They reported it to the Secretary of States Office, he continued, resulting in an inquiry more than a month later. Nothing really happened other than the fact that they did a press release, I think, or something to that effect.

That lack of actual evidence also came up when the measure was first debated in the House. But here, too, it was brushed aside, with Rep. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler.

What is indisputable is that many people believe its happening, he said in voting for the measure. And I think that matters.

Thats also the assessment of Tim Sifert, spokesman for the state GOP.

Its about the potential for fraud creating a lack of trust in the system, he said. And its not a good idea to simply trust people handling thousands of ballots without credentials, oversight, identification.

The penalties in HB 2023 would not apply to family members, those living in the same household or certain caregivers who provide assistance to voters in various institutions.
If you go

Tucson Festival of Books

What: Two days of exhibits, presentations, panel discussions and hands-on activities with about 400 authors that attract more than 100,000 book-lovers.

When: 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, March 12 and March 13.

Where: University of Arizona Mall and adjacent buildings.

Cost: Admission is free.

Parking: $5 in the Cherry Avenue, Sixth Street, Tyndall Avenue and Main Gate garages. Free in the Park Avenue and Highland Avenue garage and surface lots.

Sponsors: The UA and the Arizona Daily Star. Net proceeds will promote literacy in Southern Arizona through the Tucson Festival of Books, a nonprofit organization.

Social media: Follow the festival on Facebook at facebook.com/tucsonfestivalofbooks. On Twitter: @TFOB.

Mobile: Apps are also available for iPhone and Android devices.

Bookmark it: Go to tucsonfestivalofbooks.org for more information.
Help India!

Ludhiana (Punjab), Dec 10 (IANS) The chief cleric of Ludhianas main mosque has issued a fatwa (religious edict) against former Haryana deputy chief minister Chander Mohan for embracing Islam to illegally marry for the second time and said he should be jailed.

The fatwa has been issued against Chand Mohammed, the new name that Chander Mohan acquired after converting to Islam, Muslim religious leaders said here Wednesday.

Support TwoCircles



Habib-ur-Rehman, shahi imam of the Jama Masjid at Fieldganj here, said the marriage of Chand Mohammed to Fiza (earlier Anuradha Bali) was a fraud.

He has done a wrong thing and this will not be accepted in Islam. No one can convert to Islam just to get married. The fatwa has been issued to caution Muslims against having anything to do with him. He should be socially boycotted, Rehman said here.

Rehman said Chander Mohan should be booked by the Haryana government for his illegal marriage and put behind bars.

The couple, missing for nearly 45 days, were secretly married in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh last month after converting to Islam.

Chander Mohan was sacked as deputy chief minister of Haryana Sunday, hours after he publicly announced his second marriage to Bali. The Haryana government maintained that he was dropped from the Bhupinder Singh Hooda ministry because he was absent from office for about 50 days and was neglecting work.

Bali, a lawyer, was removed as Haryanas assistant advocate general earlier this month after her relationship with the deputy chief minister became open in political circles here.

Chander Mohan was Monday publicly disowned by his father and former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal, who said it was a shameful act. Lal also asked his son not to enter the family house.

Chander Mohan was earlier married to Seema Bishnoi and has two children from his first mariage. His teenaged son died in March this year.


Help India!

By IANS,

Panaji : Hindu or saffron terrorism was a figment of imagination and a phrase coined by vested interests who were working against the nation, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) said here Friday.

Support TwoCircles



VHPs all-India vice president Ashok Chowgule said the parishad will discuss the issue of saffron terrorism at its international conference in Goa Jan 4-9.

The whole idea of saffron terrorism is a figment of imagination which has been phrased to indulge in votebank politics. These type of accusations are made by vested interests and it is not done in the interests of the nation. There is unjustified propaganda against Hindu organisations by vested and so-called secular interests, Chowgule said.

He added that the media and so-called secular intellectuals were silent spectators to the nefarious efforts of anti-national elements who were carrying out a sustained campaign to paint Hindu organisations and saints as terrorists.

Elaborating on acts of terrorism involving members of Hindu right wing groups, he said: As VHP we do not believe in violence If you do not look into the sequence which leads to the violence, then you cannot address the issue.

The senior VHP functionary also said like the origins of Islamic terror were also rooted in the hostilities of the West, if concerns of the Hindu community are not addressed, unfortunate incidents do take place.

The concept of saffron terror came to the fore after investigators tracked the Malegaon blast in Maharashtra some years back to a right wing Hindu organisation called Abhinav Bharat.

In recent time, another right wing Hindu outfit Sanatan Sanstha with a large presence in Maharashtra and Goa was accused by the police of triggering improvised explosive device (IED) blasts in both the states.

Chowgule said that top leaders of the VHP would be discussing issues of violence and Hindu or saffron terror, the Jammu and Kashmir issue and the construction of the Ramjanmabhoomi temple at Ayodhya at the Goa meeting which will be held at temple complex in Ramnathi, 35 km from here.

VHP leaders like its international president Ashok Singhal, international working president Shreenivas Vedamanti and international general secretaries Pravin Togadia and Swami Vigyanand would attend the meeting.


Help India!

Lucknow: A Samajwadi Party legislator, Mohammad Irfan, was killed on Thursday along with his driver and a party leader when their car met with an accident in Uttar Pradesh, police said.

Irfan, who represents Billari constituency in Moradabad, was on his way to attend the wedding of cabinet minister Shivpal Yadavs son in Saifai when the accident took place in Budayun.

Support TwoCircles



Police said his driver lost control of the vehicle near Kachla Ghat in Budayun. The car turtled before hitting a tree.

A Samajwadi Party leader, K.P. Yadav, and the driver, whose name was not known, also died in the crash.

The legislators son Faheem and a police guard were critically wounded and were rushed to a nearby medical facility. Faheem was later shifted to Delhi for further treatment.
Help India!

By Shafeeq Hudawi, TwoCircles.net

Kozhikode: Malayalam Daily Mathrubhumis reproduction of a comment which insulted Prophet Mohammed sparked wide protests of Muslim organisations in Kerala. Accusing the leading Malayalam newspaper of encouraging blasphemy and caused distress to the community various Muslim organisations have come down against the news paper.

Support TwoCircles



On Wednesday, the newspaper reproduced a Facebook post, which came in response to High Court Justice B Kemal Pashas recent statement about polygamy. The post, which criticised the Prophet in derogatory language, appeared in the Apps Talk column of the paper in its Kozhikode edition.



Alleging the newspaper was targeting and defaming the Muslim community, leaders of Muslim organisations harshly criticised the news papers. Various organisations including Samastha Kerala Sunni Students Federation (SKSSF), Sunni Students Federation, Sunni Students Federation (SSF), Popular Front of India (PFI) and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) hold protest marches in various parts of the state.



The leaders have exhorted to protest peacefully. The newspaper has committed a heinous crime. Believers should vent ire against it in peaceful way, said SKSSF state president Syed Abbas Ali Shihab Thangal.



Meanwhile, there were numerous posts on social media against the newspaper calling for social boycott. Muslims should stop buying and subscribing Mathrubhumi, some of the posts said.

However, following wide outrages Mathrubhumi apologised for the post and removed the post from its online and epaper editions.

Few months back, noted Malayalam literacy critic Dr. M M Basheer had stopped his column about Ramayana in Mathrubhumi following threats from a Hindu extreme group called Hanuman Sena.
Help India!

By TCN News

Delhi: About 250 academics have appealed to the Press Council of India and the Broadcast Association to take necessary action against Zee News for carrying a negative campaign against well-known academicians.

Support TwoCircles



Over the past week, Nivedita Menon  a feminist political scientist, writer, and translator  and most recently, Gauhar Raza  scientist, poet, film maker have been labeled as desh drohi anti-national by the channel. Gauhar Raza, was portrayed as part of what it terms in derogatory and unethical language the Afzal-loving poets gang.

The statement, which also asked Zee News to apologise over the matter, said, In both cases, decontextualised video clippings of these individuals appearances in public events have been aired and their names repeatedly flashed through evening bulletins.

Singling out of individuals and creating a mass-frenzy against them, using the medium of TV is a dangerous trend. Zee TV initiated this defamatory exercise in the case of the students of the JNU also, and these doctored videos have become the basis of arrest and harassment of Kanhaiya, Umar and Anirban, the statement said.

We call upon the Press Council of India and the Broadcast Association to take note of this criminality and initiate necessary action against the channel. We also appeal to the governments of Delhi and the centre to initiate criminal proceeding against the channel for putting a citizens life under threat, the statemtnt added.
A good strategy to lose weightand lose belly is to eat fruit daily to lose weight, such as strawberry, pear and watermelon because these fruits contain fewer calories than the body needs to spend on your digestion and also contains fiber and other properties that help the body lose weight.

Check out the list with various fruits that can help:

1. Strawberry (45 calories per 100 g)

Strawberry aid slimming since it contains negative calories and moreover is rich in iron and vitamin C, and a good natural anti-inflammatory.

2. Banana (between 87 and 120 calories)

Rich in tryptophan, takes away the desire to eat sweets, satiates hunger.

The number of calories depends on the type and size of the bananas. The banana, when consumed prior to strike, yet reduces the risk of cramps, being rich in potassium. It is also great for breakfast, because it reduces hunger throughout the day. The roasted banana in the oven or microwave with a few cloves is a great dessert.

3. Pear (on average 85 calories per unit)

Pear helps you lose weight because it is rich in fiber, which helps improve intestinal transit and take hunger. It also helps regulate cholesterol levels in the blood. baked pears with cinnamon are also a great dessert, and delicious, helps you lose weight.

4. Watermelon (24 calories per 100 g)

It contains negative calories and is a diuretic, helping to combat swelling.

It also helps regulate sugar levels in the blood. It lowers the pressure and is considered an aphrodisiac Food.

5. Kiwi (46 calories per 100 g)

Among the benefits of Kiwi are combating constipation and the ability to satiate the appetite, it is also rich in vitamin C, and is diuretic.

6. Apple (81 calories in 170 g)

The apple helps you lose weight because it is rich in antioxidants, regulates cholesterol levels and triglycerides and helps in digestion.

The baked apple with cinnamon or clove contains few calories, it is delicious and is a very nutritious dessert.

7. Papaya (85 calories in 100 g)

Diuretic and rich in fiber, facilitates the elimination of feces and fighting swollen belly. Papaya is good to help control diabetes and alleviate the symptoms of gastritis. A chopped papaya slice with 1 small pot of natural yoghurt is a great option for morning snack.

8. Lemon (22 calories per unit)

It is diuretic, rich in vitamin C and a powerful antioxidant, which removes toxins and leaves the fresher skin. Take a cup of lemon peel tea daily is a great way to consume lemon sugar free and enjoy all its benefits.Lemon also helps to reduce cholesterol and blood sugar.

9. Tangerine (38 calories per 100 g)

Tangerine helps you lose weight because it is rich in water and fiber, and is low in calories. This fruit is rich in vitamin C, which aids in iron absorption in the intestine and strengthen the immune system, and its fibers improve intestinal transit, reduce the absorption of fat and help control blood glucose.

10. Pineapple (52 calories in 100 g)

Pineapple helps you lose weight because it is rich in water and vitamin C.

The pineapple combat fluid retention and makes the waist thinner. Who does not like pineapple sour taste can try the roasted pineapple in the oven with cinnamon sticks.

It is recommended to eat one fruit every meal, or at least two different fruits per day.
Never Knowingly Misleading - all relevant comments uncensored! Follow me on Twitter @NortonSubHamdon
New engines to lift super-heavy rocket Updated: 2016-03-10 02:12 By Zhao Lei(China Daily)

Chinese rocket engine designers have started to develop next-generation engines that will propel the nation's future super-heavy rocket, which is tentatively called Long March 9, according to a senior rocket scientist.

"Engineers at my academy are researching and developing a 500-ton-thrust liquid oxygen/kerosene engine and a 200-ton-thrust liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen engine that will be used on the future heavy-lift rocket," Tan Yonghua, president of the Academy of Aerospace Propulsion Technology and a national lawmaker, told China Daily on the sidelines of the annual session of the top legislature.

The engines will together give the Long March 9 a launch weight of 3,000 tons and a maximum payload of 130 tons to the low Earth orbit, which is powerful enough to fulfill a manned mission to the moon, he said.

Success of the country's Mars exploration programs, which have been approved by the government, and other deep-space projects will also depend on the new rocket because existing ones, including the Long March 5, are not powerful enough, according to Tan.

Long March 9 is set to be as technologically advanced as the United States' Space Launch System, which is being designed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and it will be pollution-free, the scientist added.

Tan said the new engines will be based on those used on the Long March 5, which will be launched for the first time in the fall, and that their development will take about 10 years.

Liang Xiaohong, former deputy head of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology and a political adviser, told China Daily that the Long March 9's core body will have a diameter of nearly 10 meters and a height of more than 100 m. The rocket's development is expected to take 15 years, he added.

Liang's academy recently developed a super-large interstage ring that will be used to connect stages of the Long March 9.

In another development, Tan said the Academy of Aerospace Propulsion Technology will soon deliver engines to be installed on the Chang'e 5 probe, the third step of China's unmanned lunar exploration effort to land on the moon and bring back soil in about 2017.

China is even eyeing the possibility of operating a space solar power station between Earth and the moon. Lieutenant General Zhang Yulin, deputy head of the Central Military Commission's Equipment Development Department, told Xinhua News Agency on Monday that China is making a blueprint for the construction of a solar power station.
Cross-Straits rail still on the table Updated: 2016-03-10 08:07 By Xu Wei(China Daily USA)

The response from Taiwan will be a key factor in the implementation of infrastructure projects across the Taiwan Straits proposed in the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), a top cross-Straits negotiator has said.

Chen Deming, president of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, said on Tuesday that the infrastructure projects proposed in the new five-year plan, including a high-speed railway linking Beijing and Taipei, are only some of the ideas from the mainland, and the implementation would require cooperation across the Straits.

"We have done some research, which shows the ideas are technically feasible and practical. It remains to be seen whether there are common aspirations and actions across the Straits," said Chen, who is also a member of the CPPCC National Committee. He was speaking from the sidelines of the political consultative session.

Chen said the mainland has taken into account how to benefit the people and economy in Taiwan during the process of drafting the new five-year plan.

Zhang Zhaomin, director of the administrative committee of the free trade zone in Pingtan county, Fujian province, said on Wednesday that the technical factors of the high-speed railway across the Straits is no longer a problem, after four consecutive years of technical seminars between scholars across the Straits.

Zhang, who is also a deputy to the National People's Congress, said the preferred route right now is an undersea tunnel as long as 126 kilometers starting from Pingtan.

"Now the decisive factor lies in Taiwan," he said.

Chen confirmed that there has been a decline in the number of tourists traveling on tour groups from the mainland to Taiwan recently.

He said the fall in the number of tour group travelers could have been caused by multiple factors. However, how the change in the island leadership could affect tourism can only be evaluated after May 20, when the new leadership takes office.

Chen said the interaction between the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and the Straits Exchange Foundation in the future would also be decided after it is seen whether there is common political ground across the Straits after May 20.

"I am waiting for good news. I will base my understanding on facts, on words and actions," he said.

Li Xiaokun contributed to this story.

xuwei@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 03/10/2016 page5)
Amber shines again Updated: 2016-03-10 15:35 By Mike Peters(China Daily USA)

China leads Asia's 50 Best Restaurants awards with 13 eateries in the 2016 list announced this week, Mike Peters reports.

Amber restaurant in Hong Kong added a bit of extra luster to the two Michelin stars it holds this week, reclaiming the title "Best Restaurant in China" and No 4 in Asia at the 2016 awards for Asia's 50 Best Restaurants.

Gaggan in Bangkok, where chef Gaggan Anand uses modern cooking techniques to reinterpret traditional Indian cuisine, claimed the No 1 ranking for all of Asia for the second year running.

Last year's top-rated restaurant in China, Ultraviolet in Shanghai, slipped to No 7 in the newest Asia rankings, though chef Paul Pairet took home the chef's choice award voted by his peers. Pairet's other restaurant, Mr & Mrs Bund, ranked 28th.

"Amber has been around for 10 years, going on 11 and it's still prominent," says culinary director Richard Ekkebus, who directs the kitchen at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong. "We are reaping the rewards of hard and consistent work, and of never being complacent. I can only do it with the help and support of a great team, especially Maxime Gilbert, Amber's chef de cuisine."

The 2016 list boasts a total of nine Hong Kong restaurants, including longtime favorites Lung King Heen (10th), 8? Otto E Mezzo Bombana (13th) and The Chairman (27th) as well as first-time entry Ta Vie (48th). Lung King Heen, a Cantonese standout located in the Four Seasons hotel, was the world's first Chinese restaurant to be awarded the coveted Michelin three-star rating.

Taiwan is represented by Le Mout (30th) and Raw (46th), while Macao earned a place with Robuchon Au Dome (35th).

No Beijing restaurant made the list, now in its fourth year. Following China's 13 restaurants are Singapore and Japan with 10 each, on a list that includes representatives from 13 nations and regions.

Thailand, which hosted the awards ceremony on Monday at the W Hotel in Bangkok, is represented not only by No 1 Gaggan but by Nahm (eighth), Issaya Siamese Club (19th) and Eat Me (23rd). Nahm's founder-chef David Thompson, an Australian with a passion for Thailand's street food, was honored with the lifetime achievement award. Nahm snared the No 1 ranking for all of Asia in 2014, the first of three consecutive wins for Bangkok restaurants.

Anand opened his eponymous restaurant in 2010, eager to "reinvigorate" Indian cuisine by exploiting contemporary techniques and adding molecular twists to traditional Indian dishes.

"It is different, because it doesn't look the same, it doesn't feel the same, it doesn't smell the same," Anand told CNN after the award ceremony. "But if you are from Kolkata, and you put it in your mouth and close your eyes, it is a short flight to the street there, and you are getting the same flavor that you were raised on."

"That has been my foundation of cooking: eating in the streets and celebrating life in India."

The ranking for Asia is described by the organizers as "an annual snapshot of the opinions and experiences of over 300 restaurant industry experts in Asia". Similar jury panels compile lists for other regions of the world for the sponsors, S. Pellegrino & Acqua Panna and Diners Club.

Contact the writer at michaelpeters@chinadaily.com.cn

From top: Veal cooked in clay and gazpacho at Amber; chef Gaggan Anand prepares colorful dishes in Bangkok.Photos Provided To China Daily

(China Daily USA 03/10/2016 page10)
Make China's a single malt.

The supply of coveted single malt Scotch whisky can't keep up with the world's demand, and it is countries such as China that are driving a lot of that thirst.

The Hong Kong-based Platinum Whisky Investment Fund, which holds a collection of single malts valued at $5.65 million, saw a 26 percent increase in the value of its top-shelf stash over last year.

The fund, which premiered in 2014, has a portfolio of more than 7,500 bottles of single malts. With a minimum investment of $250,000, the fund has raised $9 million of a $10 million target from 37 private investors, mostly in Hong Kong with some in Taiwan.

"In the worst case, if we can't sell some of the whisky, then the 37 of us are going to have a damn good party," investor Ted Hodgkinson, a Hong Kong businessman, told Bloomberg.

And this week, Platinum announced it would pay its first dividend.

"We hope to announce the dividend in the next three months; we're looking at 5 to 10 percent," CEO Rickesh Kishnani told Bloomberg. "Our target return for our investors is 15 percent to 17 percent net per year."

According to the fund's prospectus, the price of investment-grade whisky rose 292 percent from 2008 to 2012. The Investment Grade Scotch Whisky Index, which follows auction prices, rose 14 percent last year, outperforming gold, which fell more than 10 percent, and the S&P 500, which was largely flat.

Global single malt exports jumped almost 160 percent between 2004 and 2014, according to the Scotch Whisky Association.

"Whisky production in (the) 1980s did not scale up enough to meet the current demand for aged single malt whiskies globally (particularly in Asia)," the prospectus says.

Asia now receives one-fifth of all Scotch exports, buying about 250 million bottles a year.

"In China, everybody is talking about it (single malt Scotch)," said Stephen Notman of the Whisky Corporation, a whisky investment firm with offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai. "Nobody thought in a million years that there would be a market there for 30-, 40-year-old whisky."

"The Whisky Corp specialise in creating bespoke single malt whisky portfolios and exclusive private releases from Scotland's most famous distilleries," its website says. "We utilise the knowledge of the most respected authorities and were the first to identify the rapidly emerging and highly lucrative single malt investment market here in Hong Kong.

Interest in the smooth spirit in China is not new.

"  These new whisky drinkers  mostly affluent, self-made men  are shelling out big money for single malts, skipping the blended Scotches, which are typically a starter for new drinkers of this liquor in the West," The Wall Street Journal wrote in 2010.

Even with a slower economy the past year, China is not seeing a letup in demand for single malt.

The world's most expensive Scotch  a Macallan "M" sold for more than $628,000 at a Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong in 2014.

The single malt, "contained within a beautifully designed and meticulously crafted crystal decanter  boasts a rich natural color, complexity and sumptuous intensity never before seen in a single malt. Every drop is laden with character absorbed from the sherry seasoned Spanish oak casks that nurture it through its maturation process, a Macallan press release said.

Macallan, based in Moray, Scotland, plans to open a second distillery by 2018. All Scotch whisky has to be aged for at least three years, a situation that keeps a bid under prices.

Kishnani's whisky fund also includes older Japanese whiskies, which also are soaring in value. "Silent stills," whiskies from shuttered distilleries, also are part of the fund's stock.

Contact the writer at williamhennelly@chinadailyusa.com
Dorian Murray and his parents in a photograph posted months ago on Facebook.

He captured the hearts of people in the country that he wanted to be famous in, China, and many there and around the globe on Wednesday expressed their sadness that 8-year-old Dorian Murray had succumbed to long battle against terminal cancer.

Dorian, of Westerly, Rhode Island, was diagnosed with a rare and untreatable form of pediatric cancer when he was 4. After cancer cells spread to his spine and brain a few months ago, he and his family decided to stop his chemotherapy treatment so he could enjoy the time he had left.

His death was announced late Tuesday night on the Praying for Dorian Facebook page, which had documented his struggle with cancer with the hashtag "#dstrong".

"I'm not ready," his mother Melissa Murray posted on Tuesday morning before he died. "But, I never will be."

Kathryn Thomas, a close friend of the Murray family posted the announcement on Facebook just after 11 pm. "It is with a very heavy heart that I share this news. Dorian J. Murray (#dstrong) has gained his beautiful angel wings tonight and is now pain free. He was surrounded by people who love him and his transition to heaven was very peaceful. He was embraced by both mom and dad."

Thomas wrote that the family is asking for "privacy and respect" as they grieve.

Dorian had told his father he wanted to be famous in China before he went to heaven. "Because they have that bridge," Dorian said, meaning the Great Wall. In early January 2016, his mother posted the wish on Dorian's Facebook page, looking for someone in China to send a picture to Dorian with the #D-Strong sign.

The boy's wish spread in China and across the globe. Tens of thousands of Chinese posted the story on Chinese social media, and many went to the Great Wall holding signs saying, "You are very famous in China".

On a recent day, a woman was still sharing photos on China's Weibo online site of herself on the Great Wall holding a sign: "Dorian STRONG. You are famous in here. Welcome to China!"

"Though it's been two months since he had the dream, I'm here. I'm at the top of the Great Wall to make his dream come true," she wrote.

Thousands reacted to the posting of his death.

"Tonight I shed tears for a boy I didn't even know, yet I'll never forget," wrote Jessica Tulli on Facebook. "Thanks Dorian, Chris, and Melissa, you have all showed the world what really matters."

"We are thankful for your life and the strength you brought to us. You earned everyone's respect. Wish you have a long and beautiful dream, so long and beautiful that you don't want to wake up," a woman posted on Weibo.

In the past two months, Dorian and his family had also received invitations to travel to China, but declined due to his health.

The Dorian J. Murray Foundation was set up by the family as Dorian legacy, "keeping his name and the #dstrong movement alive forever." The fund's mission is to bring a level of awareness to pediatric cancer and support the families of diagnosed children.

hezijiang@chinadailyusa.com
Chinese to set NY tour record Updated: 2016-03-10 11:50 By Amy He in New York(China Daily USA)

New York City is set to receive another record-breaking number of Chinese visitors in 2016.

The Big Apple is expected to see 921,000 tourists from China this year, up 8 percent from the preliminary estimates of 852,000 visitors in 2015, according to NYC & Company, the city's official tourism office.

China is the fourth-largest international source of visitors, behind the UK, Canada, and Brazil, and the tourism office said it expects the number of Chinese tourists to break one million by 2018.

"NYC has seen a dramatic growth from the China market over the last several years, and with the expansion of the visa validity from one to ten years, the potential to see continued growth is extraordinary," said Fred Dixon, president and CEO of NYC & Company, in a statement to China Daily.

"As tourism increases from China to New York City, we look forward to welcoming one million Chinese visitors by the end of 2018," he said.

The Chinese travel market is in a transition phase, the office said, changing from business and group tourists to fully independent travelers coming from a younger and more affluent generation.

The Chinese are also amongst the highest spenders in the city, spending an average of $3,940 per trip, where they stay an average of 11 nights. The average household income of the Chinese traveler is $78,000 and the predominant activities they engage in during their stay are shopping and sightseeing, according to statistics provided by NYC & Company.

amyhe@chinadailyusa.com

People are seen bundled up from the cold in Times Square, New York on Feb 12. New York City is set to receive another record-breaking number of Chinese visitors in 2016. Eduardo Munoz / Reuters

(China Daily USA 03/10/2016 page2)
New rule to extend stay for some foreign grads Updated: 2016-03-10 11:50 By Hezi Jiang in New York(China Daily USA)

Allan Zhang, CEO of a Silicon Valley-based startup, had to open a branch in Hangzhou in Southeast China's Zhejiang province, to keep several of his best team members who worked for his company in California.

Those Chinese workers were not lucky enough to win a work visa lottery in the US during their Optional Practical Training (OPT) program, which allowed them to work in the US under their student status until it ended.

Only 85,000 work visas, known as H-1B, are available in the annual lottery for international workers. In 2015, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) received nearly 233,000 applications for the visa

Though the number of H-1B visas has not been increased, a new rule to the OPT program to be published on Friday will give some international students in the US a better chance of obtaining a work visa.

Beginning on May 10, international students with degrees earned in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) will be eligible to work in the country for 36 months without a work visa instead of the current 29 months upon graduation. The additional seven months will give many a chance to participate in another lottery.

"If you get three chances in the lottery, it's almost certain you will be picked," said Zhang, who founded Trustlook Mobile Security in January 2013. Its Mobile security app is now used by 16 million people.

"This is great news for startups. The first several years for a startup is so important that nobody could afford losing a core engineer," he said in an interview. "We had some of them work in China because there is no other choice. It's very inefficient."

"It's also good news for large tech companies, because they are always looking for talent that fits their needs. Many of them would be international students," Zhang said.

John Miano, a lawyer for the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers union in Washington State, said in a New York Times story on Wednesday that the new rule is "an ongoing assault on American workers". "They are just trying to double down on what they're doing before," he said of the government. "OK, you didn't like 29 months? We'll make it 36 months."

Miano's lawsuit last summer forced the government to vacate the previous rule and create a new one, this time for public comment. He said his group is still arguing the legality of the program in an appeal. The next hearing will be in May at the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

According to the Times, the new rule states that "a STEM OPT student would not replace a full- or part-time, temporary or permanent US worker," and that the salary offered would "be commensurate" to American workers.

"In our mind, it enhances training and puts safeguards in to make sure that if you are an employer that you are not unfairly disadvantaging US workers," Rachel Canty, deputy director for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency's Student and Exchange Visitor Program, told the newspaper.

Gan Quan, who is from China and recently graduated from Columbia University with a master's degree in statistics, said the extension gives her more time to build a stronger resume and find a sponsor.

hezijiang@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily USA 03/10/2016 page2)
Tokyo urged not to stir tension in the South China Sea Updated: 2016-03-10 08:39 By Zhang Yunbi(chinadaily.com.cn)

This satellite image shows the Yongshu Jiao of China's Nansha Islands. [Photo/Xinhua]

Tokyo must not "flare up tension in the South China Sea" or try to contain China by aligning with other parties involved in disputes there, the Chinese Ambassador to Japan told China Daily.

Veteran diplomat and political advisor Cheng Yonghua, 62, made the comments when asked about Japan's recent high-profile stance on maritime issues and its calling for joint sea patrols.

"Japan is unilaterally standing against China on a basis of partiality, and it addresses any country having disputes with China as its 'pal' or 'brother' in an attempt to encircle China. This is utterly wrong from the outset," Cheng said.

Some observers have attributed Japan's stance to the ongoing US pivot to Asia strategy. Cheng responded that "Japan is not even a contracting party in the relevant disputes".

"Freedom of navigation is also a false issue, and what the US is doing in the sea is leading the situation to one of further tension. Both Tokyo and Washington should clearly bear in mind the status quo and not produce tension," he said.

"Japan has turned a blind eye" to a slew of key historical facts, he said, including China retaking islands illegally occupied by Japan during World War II, and countries such as the Philippines illegally occupying some islands and boosting military buildup on them since the 1970s.
EU gives regulatory approval to CGN, EDF for Hinkley Point Updated: 2016-03-11 01:49 By Cecily Liu(chinadaily.com.cn)

Chinese nuclear firm CGN and French power company EDF won regulatory approval from the European Union's competition authority on Thursday to form a joint venture to build and operate nuclear power plants at Hinkley Point in Britain.

The joint venture plans to construct and operate the first new-build nuclear power stations in the UK for a generation at Hinkley C in Somerset.

Currently CGN and EDF are still to make their final investment decision about Hinkley. If they decide to invest, Hinkley will become the first nuclear power station involving a Chinese company in a developed market.

The clearance from the EU follows the Strategic Investment Agreement signed in London in the presence of UK Prime Minister David Cameron and visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping in October last year. Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant alone is projected to supply around 7 percent of the UKs electricity needs.

Under the Strategic Investment Agreement, EDFs share in Hinkley Point C will be 66.5% and CGNs will be 33.5%. Without reducing this initial stake below 50%, EDF intends in due course to bring other investors into the project.

Last week both the British and French governments renewed their backing for the project.

The European Commission said it did not see any serious competition issues.

"The Commission's investigation found that competition in the wholesale supply of electricity in the UK will not be hindered by the transaction given the moderate market share of EDF, the very limited market shares of CGN in this market and the presence of other competitors," it said in a statement.

To contact the reporter: cecily.liu@mail.chinadailyuk.com
Please turn JavaScript on and reload the page.

Loading...

Checking your browser before accessing the website.

This process is automatic. Your browser will redirect to your requested content shortly.

Please wait a few seconds.
"The opening of the insurance market will create a fiercer competition for Vietnamese insurance firms as they are facing shortages in high-quality workforce, capital, administrative ability, and the limited ability of developing new products and seeking new growth momentum" Nguyen Quang Phi, director general of Bao Viet Insurance Group said.  Photo tinnhanhchungkhoan

HA NOI (VNS)  Vietnamese insurers have been offered great opportunities to expand their market share in the regional market thanks to the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).

With total gross domestic product of US$2.6 trillion, ASEAN will represent a large market for insurance products to a population of 625 million.

According to Milliman  a US-based multinational consultancy provider, life insurance penetration rates in ASEAN markets are still at very low levels relative to those in more developed economies.

In 2013, Singapore is the most developed country in the ASEAN bloc and only reached premium revenue of 4.8 per cent of its GDP, which was much lower than that of Hong Kong at 12.1 per cent and 8 per cent in Japan.

Most of the ASEAN countries have a ratio of less than 2 per cent and this will be a great opportunity for life insurers to expand their market share.

Nguyen Viet Loi, director of Institute of Strategic and Financial Policies (Ministry of Finance), said the development of sea transport, road and air routes within ASEAN will be a pre-requisite for the development of new insurance products.

Besides, Vietnamese insurers will have more opportunities for investment abroad, while the local insurance industry will also enjoy significant benefits from the labour force thus helping to address the problem of senior-level personnel in the insurance industry.

Loi said the removal of barriers and differences among AEC member nations will create a fair market for Vietnamese and foreign insurance companies.

Currently, foreign investors are now allowed to own a maximum of 49 percent of stake at local insurance firms, Loi said, highlighting the importance of foreign investors participation in bettering the administration of Vietnamese insurance service suppliers, as well as in developing new products and improving service quality.

Pressure ahead

Besides opportunities, Viet Nam will have to face many challenges when joining AEC, Loii noted.

This will put high pressure on Vieat Nam in reforming its policies in the field as other regional nations are quick to improve their liberalization policies, Loi said.

According to the Milliman ASEAN liberation index (MALI), which is to measure the openness of life insurance regulatory regimes in ASEAN countries, having regard to their alignment with international standards, Viet Nam ranked seventh among ASEAN countries with a score of 40.

Under the commitments on FTA to liberalise trade in services in 2015, countries have to open up their finance services to enhance the participation of foreign investors. Thus, investors from the AEC members can participate in-depth in the Vietnamese insurance market or vice versa.



Nguyen Quang Phi, director general of Bao Viet Insurance Group said the opening of the insurance market will create a fiercer competition for Vietnamese insurance firms as they are facing shortages in high-quality workforce, capital, administrative ability, and the limited ability of developing new products and seeking new growth momentum.

A strengthened effort from insurance firms is needed to increase their competitiveness, he noted.

Tran Duc Trung Deputy head of Insurance Market Development Division, Insurance Supervisory Authority said it is necessary for both Vietnamese State management agencies and insurance firms to take synchronous measures in order to take advantage of opportunities brought by AEC and realize targets of market development in the field.

The Ministry of Finance should continue to reform the insurance-related legal system, meanwhile insurance firms need to devise more solutions to increase the efficiency of their operations and better the quality of services, he said.  VNS
Workers at the Thai Nguyen Iron and Steel Joint Stock Corporations Thai Trung Rolling Steel Joint Stock Company. The Viet Nam Competition Authority (VCA) said on its website that measures would be enacted to prevent products imported from China, Hong Kong and South Korea from being dumped in the Vietnamese market.  VNA/VNS Photo Hoang Nguyen

HA NOI (VNS)  The Ministry of Industry and Trade on Tuesday announced additional tariffs on imported steel products as a temporary safeguard against inexpensive imports that were allegedly threatening the domestic industry.

As per the Decision No 862/Q-BCT issued by the ministry, it will impose temporary safeguard duties of 23.3 per cent on steel billets and 14.2 per cent on long steel products for a maximum of 200 days.

However, these safeguards will not be applicable on products from developing countries such as Cambodia and Indonesia, whose steel exports to Viet Nam account for less than 3 per cent of the countrys total imports.

On December 25, 2015, the MoIT issued Decision No 14296/Q-BCT on a safeguard investigation into imports of steel billets and long steel products, on a complaint lodged by local producers Hoa Phat Steel Joint Stock Company (JSC), Southern Steel Co Ltd, Thai Nguyen Iron and Steel JSC and Viet Nam-Italy Steel JSC.

The four companies said the proposal for investigations came from a surge of imported steel billets and long steel products.

Specifically, the amount of imported steel billets rose from more than 466,000 tonnes in 2012 to 1.5 million tonnes in 2015. The amount of imported long steel products also rose from more than 387,000 tonnes in 2012 to 1.2 million tonnes in 2015.

Many others, however, called for a halt to the investigation as unlike big companies they depended on imported steel billets for production, and high duties would increase their input costs and lowering profit margin.

Investigated steel products are classified under Harmonization System Codes or HS 7207.11.00; 7207.19.00; 7207.20.29; and 7207.20.99; in addition to 7224.90.00; 7213.10.00; 7213.91.20; and 7214.20.31. More classifications are 7214.20.41; 7227.90.00; 7228.30.10; and 9811.00.00.

Viet Nam has been already imposing trade tariffs of up to 20 per cent on these products.

The ministry said it will continue with an investigation launched at the end of last year into possible damage caused by steel imports.

Initial findings suggested that the recent surge of imports has caused serious damage to local production of steel billets and long steel products, the ministry said.

Last year, steel imports surged 218 per cent to nearly 1.89 million tonnes, compared to an increase of between 5 per cent and 10 per cent on the sales of domestic products.

More than 1.28 million tonnes of long steel products were brought into Viet Nam last year, up 47 per cent from 2014, while local producers posted increases between 15 per cent and 25 per cent in sales.

VN investigates coated steel from China, S Korea

The Ministry of Industry and Trade last week decided to carry out an anti-dumping investigation into coated steel sheets imported from China and South Korea.

The Viet Nam Competition Authority (VCA) said on its website that measures would be enacted to prevent such products imported from China, including Hong Kong, and South Korea, from being dumped in the Vietnamese market, the VCA added.

The final conclusion would be announced within 12 months since the beginning of the investigation or extended more six months in special situation.

The VCA would provide questions on quantity and prices to the producers and exporters in the markets which have been blamed for dumping in Viet Nam, as well as producers and importers in the country.

Investigated steel products are classified under Harmonization System Codes or HS 7210.41.11; 7210.41.12; and 7210.41.19 from October 1, 2014 to September 30, 2015.

On December 24, 2015, the VCA received appeals from four steel firms, including China Steel Sumikin Viet Nam JSC, Phuong Nam Co Ltd., Nam Kim Steel JSC, and ong A Steel JSC, demanding the implementation of measures to prevent coated steel sheets shipped from these markets from being sold at cheap prices in Viet Nam.

The four firms have accused companies from the markets of dumping their products in the Southeast Asian country, which seriously affects local businesses.

In 2015, China exported between 1.6 million metric tonnes and 1.8 million metric tonnes to Viet Nam, covering nearly a half of the total products currently manufactured by local enterprises.

This is the second time Viet Nam has officially started an investigation into anti-dumping issues.

In October, 2014, Viet Nam started to prevent dumping of stainless steel imported from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Taiwan by applying tariffs of 3.41 per cent to 37.29 per cent, depending on the manufacturing nations, for a five-year period.  VNS
Containers are loaded onto a vessel at the nothern Hai Phong Port. The government has asked Vinalines to reduce its stake in this port to 20 per cent. -- Photo vinalines.com.vn

HA NOI (VNS ) Viet Nam National Shipping Lines will make an initial public offering (IPO) in Q1 of 2016, said Vu Anh Minh, director of the Ministry of Transports enterprise management department.

The State-run company, better known as Vinalines, built an equitisation plan last year, under which the State will retain a stake of 36 per cent.

Minh said that before the company becomes a joint stock firm, its debts will be reduced to VN3.2 trillion (US$142.2 million). This value is expected to be further lowered to VN1.8 trillion by the end of 2016.

Vinalines Chairman Le Anh Son said the companys debt is currently about VN6.2 trillion, down 46 per cent from the VN11.4 trillion recorded on December 31, 2013, before the restructuring began.

Vinalines faced an extremely tough time from 2010 to 2015, witnessing serious business declines in the face of economic turmoil. Its investment mistakes and mismanagement of funds even led to a debt value that more than quadrupled its charter capital in late 2010.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung issued a decision in February 2013 adopting comprehensive reorganisation of the company to help it cope with the situation. The restructuring activities have focussed on marine transport, seaport exploitation and maritime services for the last three years.

We defined that debt settlement is not only a goal of the restructuring scheme, but also a matter that will determine the survival of our company, Son said.

Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Cong said the company has overcome hard times, but it must seek solutions to reach production and business targets, as the marine transport sector is expected to continue to face difficulties this year before a possible rally next year.

Vinalines Acting General Director Nguyen Canh Tinh said last year was the first year the company saw profits during the restructuring period, and this was meaningful to a firm facing financial problems and an ailing marine transport market.

Son last month told Giao thong, a newspaper published by the transport ministry, that the company earned a profit of about VN40 billion, with total revenue of more than VN18.4 trillion in 2015.

Biz Hub reported last month that the company planned to obtain profit of at least VN126 billion, with a revenue growing by 3 per cent year-on-year at VN19 trillion in 2016.

Member enterprises

Vinalines officials said the company has completed equitising 12 member enterprises following the restructuring scheme. Its ports in Nghe Tinh, Can Tho, Nam Can, and Cam Ranh and Sai Gon were privatised last year.

Cam Ranhs shares started trading on the stock market last year, along with shares in Hai Phong and Nha Trang, two previously privatised ports of Vinalines.

Son said that contrary to the marine transport situation in the country, port operations brought about the highest business results ever for Vinalines in 2015. Its ports obtained a combined profit of VN800 billion, with Hai Phong and Sai Gon alone earning VN600 billion last year.

He said that as the government has asked Vinalines to reduce its stakes in Hai Phong and Sai Gon ports to 20 per cent and continue to divest from smaller ports, Vinalines will have to change its business structure.

This means that the company must understand how to improve the marine transport business, keeping in mind that oceangoing freights have sharply declined and competition is getting stiffer following Viet Nams integration into the global economy.

This is a very big issue that will fundamentally change the development strategies of Vinalines, and we must be prepared for that now, Son said.

I suppose that in the near future, the company will concentrate on building plans to develop a new fleet of vessels so that we can enhance our competition capacity while transportation service supplies exceed demand, he said.

According to Son, as of the end of last year, Vinalines divested from 37 enterprises, dissolved seven businesses and let three companies fail. It gained more than VN551 billion from these activities.

Vinalines will continue to divest from 15 other businesses this year, Minh from the transport ministry said without naming them.  VNS
Probe ends: A mobile store of Viettel on Ngoc Khanh Street, Ha Noi. The Turkish government on Friday terminated investigations into mobile phones imported from Viet Nam without safeguard measures.  VNS Photo Truong Vi

HA NOI  The Turkish government on March 4 terminated investigations into mobile phones imported from Viet Nam without safeguard measures, according to the Viet Nam Competition Authority (VCA).

On December 5, 2014, an investigation into mobile phones imported from Viet Nam was launched by the Turkish government on the request of Turkeys Vestel Elektronik Sanayi Company Ve Ticaret A.S. The company claimed that the increasing number of mobile phones being imported from Viet Nam had hurt domestic producers profits, sales revenues and shares.

The value of Vietnamese mobile phones exported to Turkey was US$418 million in 2013 and $643 million in the first 11 months of 2014.

On March 3, 2015, a Turkish investigation agency held a public hearing with concerned parties. Viet Nam Trade Office in Turkey partnered with related Vietnamese enterprises to participate in the hearing.

VCA said the case showed it ensured the rights and legitimate interests of Vietnamese enterprises and created a positive precedent for cases of trade remedy investigations against export products from Viet Nam.

According to statistics from the Viet Nam Department of Customs, the country exported $30.2 billion worth of mobile phones in 2015. The countrys main markets included EU with $10.1 billion, the US with $2.77 billion and the United Arab Emirates with $4.48 billion.  VNS
Ha Noi authorities carry out measures to improve the Nhue Rivers water quality. -- VNA/VNS Photo Trong at

HA NOI(VNS) Ha Noi authorities have sped up the construction of waste treatment projects as well as preparing to put new plants into operation.

The 15,000sq.m capacity-per day waste treatment plant in Ho Tay and 13,300sq.m plant near Bay Mau lake are going to open soon, according to Ha Noi Peoples Committee chairman Nguyen uc Chung.

He also said that the construction of waste treatment stations at handicraft villages of Yen Xa, Phu o, Duong Lieu, Van Canh and Son ong had been hastened.

The construction progress of large-scale waste treatment plants that have treated waste discharged from To Lich, Nhue and Day rivers has also been sped up.

The city is upping the dredging of the Nhue river bed to improve inner-citys drainage system.

The Nhue River crosses several districts including Bac Tu Liem, Nam Tu Liem, Ha ong, Thuong Tin, Thanh Oai and Phu Xuyen where there has been fast socio-economic development.

Local residents complained of increasing pollution in the Nhue River, particularly the section crossing Thanh Oai District, to the city Peoples Committee. They asked local authorities to improve the quality of the water.

In dry-season months, city authorities focused on supplementing water from the Hong (Red) River to the Nhue River, aiming at improving quality of water resource.

The chairman of Ha Noi Peoples Committee said besides measures from authorities, local peoples awareness must be raised and punishment is needed for those who pollute the river.

A scheme to protect the environment of the Nhue and Day rivers valley approved by the Prime Minister in 2008 has been implemented under city authorities guidance.

The operation of the 200,000sq.m capacity-per day Yen So waste treatment plant and two other plants near Kim Lien and Truc Bach rivers has ensured waste treatment has met regulated standards.-- VNS
Experts at the conference rejected study results that claimed the 11 hydropower dams in the Mekong River had little impact on Viet Nam and millions of people downstream.  VNA/VNS Photo Duy Khuong

CAN THO (VNS)  Aside from natural forces like climate change, countries actions have worsened the drought and salinity in Viet Nams Mekong Delta.

Six hydropower dams built in Chinas territory stop a large amount of water from entering the Mekong River during the dry season, Duong Van Ni of the Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources at Can Tho University said during a conference on hydropower dams held recently in Can Tho.

This water is used to generate electricity and run irrigation systems in the Mekong Delta. But it stops the flow of water to Viet Nam, which has contributed to the serious drought southern Viet Nam is facing. It could last until 2017.

The Manwan and Nuozhadu hydropower dams began stopping the water flow in 2012. The two dams hold in billions of cubic metres of water, meaning the volume of water upstream is exceptionally high.

If countries along the Mekong River regulated the water in their dams more effectively, the Mekong Delta in southern Viet Nam would not be facing such serious drought and saline intrusion. Ni said the dams caused a sharp fall in silt, which in turn reduced rice output in the delta by around 500,000 tonnes per year.

However, a solution wont be found any time soon, as China has developed a US$62 billion project to draw in more water from the mainstream Mekong River to Beijing.

Ky Quang Vinh, director of the climate change office in Can Tho Citys Peoples Committee, said China had commandeered water sources from countries located downstream. Thus China had to spend much less money treating the land for saline intrusion than others.

Thailand has also begun a huge water transportation project to take water from the Mekong River to irrigate its land and prevent drought, affecting countries downstream like Viet Nam. It will operate three water pumps with a capacity of 36,000 cu.m per second. The country also built a dyke to take water from the river to its Northeastern region.

With water shortages in the Mekong River and climate change, the rate of salinity has increased sharply. According to the Climate Change Office, the salinity rate has increased greatly in Can Tho. Ground depression and rising sea levels have also contributed. While sea levels rise 4mm per year, the ground depresses 1 to 2cm annually. This is a result of excessive ground water exploitation.

Study results

Experts at the conference rejected study results that claimed the 11 hydropower dams in the Mekong River had little impact on Viet Nam and millions of people downstream.

The Mekong Delta Study project was funded by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and managed by the Viet Nam National Mekong Committee with advice from the Danish Hydraulic Institute (DHI).

According to Duong Van Ni of Can Tho University, the Danish data was inconsistent. The Danish data found that the Chinese dams hadnt had much impact, while local scientists had found a large range of negative impacts in their own research.

Regarding biodiversity, the Danish study only mentioned a few species or nutrient sources affected by dam construction.

Experts at the conference said the results of the study were unreliable and did not take into account the full impact of hydropower dams on the main Mekong River and the Mekong Delta.

The study showed that the 11 dams in the Mekong River mainstream collect water over 16 hours and discharge water eight hours a day. Vietnamese experts said this could not be true, considering the large, devastating impacts from the dams.

Dr. Nguyen Huu Thien, an expert in ecology, told the conference that the study had simplified research issues and underestimated the impact of the dams on the Mekong Delta. He said the study only assesses the impact of damming on white-skinned fish and ignores that on black-skinned fish. The Danish experts chose to evaluate only low-value fish, ignoring those of high value, Thien said.VNS
TRA VINH  More than 13,000 farming households in the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh are suffering damage from the prolonged drought and saltwater infiltration, said an official from the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

More than 11,000ha of winter-spring rice crops have been affected, mostly in the districts of Tra Cu, Tieu Can, Chau Thanh, Duyen Hai and Tra Vinh City, causing losses of more than VN5 billion (US$225,000).

According to the department director, Tran Trung Hien, saltwater has penetrated over 60km inland. The salinity concentrations recorded in the Cai Hop culvert of the Co Chien River was as high as 13.6 parts per thousand (ppt), up from 7.2ppt recorded during the same period last year.

The figures were 7.2 and 4.8ppt in the Rach Rum culvert and the Tan inh canal, respectively. The acceptable concentration limit is 2ppt.

The agricultural sector has accelerated the dredging of canals while pumping water into key irrigational systems.

Technical assistance and consultation services have been provided for local farmers to help them cultivate and use irrigation water effectively during these tough conditions.

The restructuring of crops is one of the measures being adopted to cope with the severe weather and salt influx. The winter-spring rice crop will be replaced with other crops in the districts of Tra Cu, Chau Thanh, Cau Ngang and Duyen Hai. Local farmers are also encouraged to use salt-tolerant rice varieties.

A mere 5,800ha out of a total of 76,000ha winter-spring rice fields have been harvested. The remaining are in a critical period of development. -- VNS
Dramatic: Russian novel The Dawn Here Are Quiet is staged by Military Theatre in Ha Noi. -- Photo zing.vn

HA NOI(VNS)  The Military Theatre will debut a new stage production based on a beloved Russian novel entitled The Dawns Here Are Quiet by Boris Lvovich Vasilyev.

This is the first time the Russian work is to be staged in Viet Nam, thanks to Doctor of Art Nguyen Thi Minh Thai.

Thai had been in touch with the Russians who own the copyright of the play and sought permission for its staging in Viet Nam.

Due to my love of drama theatre I tried to contact the Russians, asking them for permission to stage the play, said Thai. I believe in high-profile director Le Hung and artists of the Military Theatre, as well.

Thai is also literature advisor for the stage production.

The Dawns Here Are Quiet by Vasilyev was published in 1969. It was a Soviet bestseller, with 1.8 million copies sold within one year of its publication. It has been adapted for the stage and the screen in Russia, Britain and China.

The work was the first of Vasilyevs sentimental patriotic tales of female heroism in World War II.

Its being filmed by director Renat Davletyarov last year and was the latest production based on The Dawns Here Are Quiet novel.

The story follows male Russian officer Senior Sergeant Vaskov who is stationed at a remote artillery base during WWII with five female anti-aircraft gunners. Their story focused on how they were conducting themselves during a battle for survival against 16 German soldiers.

The conflicts they were facing were intertwined with their personal individual accounts from before they entered the Soviet Army.

Also, the Ha Noi-based theatres director, Nguyen Ngoc Thu, spoke of her wish to stage a meaningful drama.

Political situations are very complicated in the world and in the region, as well. I think the drama will have significance not only for Military Theatre, but also contemporary theatre in Viet Nam, said Thu.

Famed artist Le Hung is the dramas director. He is one of the veteran stage directors in Viet Nam. He made his name by directing many stage works, including those by the worlds masters, such as Macbeth and A Dolls House.

The script for The Dawns Here Are Quiet is coming along well. I will include in the play many similar events that occurred during war time in Viet Nam, said director Le Hung.

Artist Minh Tuan will act as the male character in the drama, while female roles will be played by young artists.

The Dawns Here Are Quiet will open in April and be staged as part of Russian Culture Year being held among ASEAN member countries in 2016.  VNS
Party time: An event hosted by SaiGon Outcast.  Photo justgola.com

A festival celebrating St Patricks Day will be held on March 19 at Saigon Outcast.

The Saigon St Patricks Day Festival will include traditional Irish food and drinks, face paintings, raffle prizes, a bouncy castle, and best-dressed in green competition.

There will be traditional music by Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann, an international organisation founded in Ireland in 1951 to preserve traditional Irish music and culture, and a performance of Irish dancers.

Proceeds from the event will go to the Christina Nobles Children Foundation and Irish cultural events in Viet Nam .
Say cheese: Hidden Smile photo by Rehahn Croquevielle

HA NOI  Popular French photographer Rehahn Croquevielle on Tuesday donated his famous photo of an elderly woman in the central city of Hoi An to the Vietnamese Women Museum.

He took the portrait of Bui Thi Xong during one of his visits to the ancient city in 2011, when he was taking photos for his Hidden Smiles collection.

The photograph features the 73-year-old boat woman on the Hoi An River, focusing on her wrinkled skin, bright eyes and her hands covering her mouth and forehead.

Of the 50,000 photos he took in Viet Nam, this photo ranks among his favourites.

She was 73 then, Croquevielle told Viet Nam News. I saw many young and old ladies on the boat in Bach ang Street (Hoi An) inviting tourists to take a cruise. I saw one lady with a special, glowing face and very kind, beautiful eyes.

Croquevielle took the boat tour with Xong and took many photos of her.

When she smiles, she covers her mouth with her hand as she is shy about her front teeth, he said. She looks so beautiful in the picture, and I feel she is like a child.

The iconic photo was published in the Los Angeles Times on December 1, 2014, and was used on the cover of his photo book Vietnam, Mosaic of Contrasts, which was published in the same year. The book is a collection of nearly 150 photos by Croquevielle, featuring the people and landscape of Viet Nam.

Xongs portrait has also been published in various newspapers, international magazines and online exhibitions.

To share his success, Croquevielle gave Xong a new boat she had wanted, as a gift.





Xong said she was happy to make friends with Croquevielle and was moved by his concern for her and her family.

I can feel his love for the Vietnamese people and our country, she said.

I saw the picture for the first time at Rehahns shop here, Pierre Jean Hatier, a French tourist, said. Its the same as almost every other picture by Rehahn, very simple yet very artistic. She is shy, but she is smiling with complete joy. It makes me feel joyful too."

According to Director of the Vietnamese Women Museum Nguyen Thi Bich Van, the museum has received many donations from agencies and individuals.

Such a photo is best showcased here in our museum, she said. I can think of several exhibitions that have featured only a single object in noted museums around the world. This Hidden Smile photo could be the centerpiece of such an exhibition.

The photo will be permanently displayed at the museum on 36 Ly Thuong Kiet Street, Ha Noi.

Croquevielle has sold his photos to various noteworthy magazines, such as the Los Angeles Times, Conde Nast Travellers and Daily Mail. He also has a large number of followers and fans on his personal Facebook page.

He said one of his philosophies was to take great care of the model.

The model is the most important, he said. Think of the model first. When you meet someone and you respect them, you can sit on the floor and speak a little with them, and they will feel comfortable enough to act naturally in your photo. -- VNS

Proud: Nguyen Thi Bich Van, director of Vietnamese Womens Museum (second from right) gives flowers to Bui Thi Xong, an elder from Hoi An at a ceremony of handing her portrait by French photographer Rehahn Croqueville (second from left) to the museum held in Ha Noi on March 8. VNS Photo Le Huong


Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien spoke with Tuoi tre (Youth) newspaper about the shortcomings of implementing the family medical practice model in Viet Nam and its development plan by 2020.

Are you satisfied with the results of the implementation of family medical practice in Viet Nam after three years of operating on a trial basis?

It is difficult to say whether or not Im satisfied with the results because the health sector is still trying to find a practical model.

The implementation process has brought with it both advantages and disadvantages. Most health experts worldwide agree with the family doctor model proposed by the Ministry of Health after they took field trips in many localities. And so do domestic health experts.

Based on that, the Ministry has built and implemented the plan of family medical practice for the period of 2016-20, which meets the demand for global integration.

Some say that private health clinics could be the key force to develop the family medical practice. Do you agree with this point of view?

Its not totally right. The family doctor model is set up by health clinics, private family doctor clinics and family doctor clinics at public general hospitals. In HCM City and provinces in the south, many private health clinics stay open extra hours. Thus, it is easy to apply the model.

In order to turn a private health clinic into a family doctor clinic, it must meet some requirements. Firstly, doctors must be given additional training on family medicine knowledge. Secondly, the service is not only about health check-ups and treatment, but also health monitoring, nutrition and lifestyle counseling, disease prevention and primary healthcare. Thirdly, the private health clinic must be attached to the national health management system, such as being covered by the health insurance system and being able to transfer patients to central hospitals following professional requirements.

This was the plan that the ministry intended to enact. However, it has shown that it is not easy to do so.

Personally, I think that health clinics at the grassroots level are the best suited for the family doctor model, which can be applied in an easy and feasible way. There are more than 10,000 ward- and commune-level health clinics with health staff and medical equipment available for the model.

We should do things that bring benefits to people no matter how hard they are. All new things require much effort. Most health experts in the world agree that it would be more convenient to apply the model at grassroots level clinics.

Many have said that family doctor clinics at commune- and ward-level health clinics are not a breakthrough method, and they still found it to be untrustworthy. Do you have any comment on that?

In the early stage, there was a shortage of doctors who were trained on family medicine knowledge, proper policies and the dissemination of patient benefits. Thus, it is easy to understand their criticism.

Currently, the main health workers at grassroots health clinics are general doctors. In the first stage, we must count on them. They will be trained on required knowledge to do the job. Health facilities are available.

Grassroots health clinics can offer health services such as immunisations, maternal and newborn health care and disease prevention. Other tasks include health monitoring for local people and collecting samples and sending them to district hospitals.

There have been many complaints about complicated procedures for health insurance and the transferring of patients to central hospitals. What measures can be taken to simplify that?

The Ministry will work with Vietnam Social Insurance and the Ministry of Finance to chalk out decisions on paying health insurance at family doctor clinics.

In the future, the family doctor clinics will launch basic health service packages, which will be paid in full by health insurance. There will be high-quality packages, and patients will pay more for additional health services.

The family doctor model will be able to transfer patients to any hospital. However, patients should be consulted on their health conditions to cut down on time and costs.

There must be a connection between the family doctor model and central hospitals to assure the expansion of the model. What will the Ministry do to boost the connection?

It is compulsory to utilise information technology during health check-ups, the treatment process and health insurance payments. The Ministry has prepared a project to connect data at hospitals nationwide, but it has required a roadmap to connect the commune- and ward-level health clinics with district and central hospitals.

Many countries with high incomes have spent between 10 and 15 years to develop this model. We are in the very early stages, and this job cannot be done in a day.  VNS
NA Office Chairman Nguyen Hanh Phuc speaks at the session.  VNA/VNS Photo Pham Kien

HA NOI (VNS)  The National Assembly (NA) will spend 12 days discussing the new Governments personnel in its upcoming session, NA Office Chairman Nguyen Hanh Phuc said yesterday.

The topic will be on the table from April 4 to 16 during the 13th NA tenure scheduled to open on March 21. Other topics under discussion include amendments to the law on the press, and care and education of children.

The controversial Law on Demonstration, however, didnt make the cut. NA Deputy Chairman Uong Chu Luu said the Government needed time to carefully prepare the law before it was presented to the NA for approval.

The general election will be held in May to select a new NA, which will then cast their votes to decide the top leaders of a new Government, including the President, the NA Chairman, the Prime Minister and cabinet ministers.

In its next meeting, the NA is expected to review and pass four new draft laws, including the Law on Information Access, and a law on amendments and supplements to articles in the laws on value-added taxes, excise taxes and tax management.

The NA will also look into amendments made to five laws regulating the conclusion, accession and implementation of treaties; the press; the protection, care and education of children; and pharmaceutical, import and export duties.

New NA deputies

In terms of the 14th National Assemblys personnel structure, Nguyen Tuc, a member of the presidium of the Viet Nam Fatherland Front Central Committee (VFFCC), said some changes should be made to promote the Partys leadership and peoples right to ownership of the State.

In the first consultative conference, which was held last month by the VFFCC, delegates discussed the percentage of ethnic minority people, non-Party candidates and candidates under the age of 40 included in the deputy pool.

The VFFCC proposed to change the rate of NA deputies introduced in Resolution 1135/2016 by the NA Standing Committee.

Tuc said the expected number of NA deputies in the 14th NA under 40 should be at least equal to that of the previous term. The resolution proposed including 50 people under 40, but the actual number may differ depending on voters decisions.

He said young people who believe they are qualified should nominate themselves. In recent NA elections, many candidates who nominated themselves were elected.

Tuc also said that the proposed number of between 25 and 50 non-Party deputies, which accounts for only 10 per cent of the total NA, was a modest figure.

There were more than 4.5 million Party members in the country, half of whom were retired, he said, adding that this figure should be 100.

Recent NA elections have showed that non-Party deputies make impressive speeches and ask sharp questions. They dare to speak out honestly on peoples thoughts and criticisms. The increase in the number of deputies from this group would help NA activities become more dynamic while assuring the Party leadership and promoting the peoples right to ownership.

The results of the 11th, 12th and 13th National Assembly elections have showed that many self-nominated candidates were elected, and candidates introduced by State agencies or organisations failed. This shows that the elections have become more realistic as peoples knowledge and awareness have increased.  VNS
Foreign Ministry Deputy Spokesperson Pham Thu Hang.  Photo VNA

HA NOI (VNS)  Angolan relevant agencies are investigating the killing of two Vietnamese nationals in the country, Foreign Ministry Deputy Spokesperson Pham Thu Hang said yesterday.



According to the hosts relevant agencies, ang Quoc Nghia was robbed and killed by two native employees in Luanda capital on March 3, while Nguyen Viet Hau was murdered in Ugie province on March 5.

Both were killed at their places of work, Hang said.

After that, the Vietnamese Embassy in Angola immediately made contact with Angolan authorities and urged them to investigate the case, she said, adding that the suspects are being traced.

The Embassy has also closely worked with the Vietnamese community in the host society to support the bereaved families, she noted.

Rescuing fishermen in distress

Viet Nams authorised agencies have informed the Chinese side about reports that a Vietnamese fishing boat sank in the Hoang Sa archipelago area and seek coordination to verify information and to search for the five fishermen on board.

Responding to reporters question on the same day, a representative of the Vietnamese Foreign Ministrys Consular Department said according to Vietnamese agencies, on the morning of March 8, a fishing boat coded KH 96440 TS of central Khanh Hoa Province with five fishermen on board sank 41 nautical miles southeast of Linh Con Island in Viet Nams Hoang Sa archipelago.

Shortly after being notified of the incident, the Consular Department sent a diplomatic note to the Chinese Embassy in Ha Noi, and ordered the Vietnamese Embassy in China to immediately inform and coordinate with Chinese relevant agencies to verify the information and search for the fishermen.

Vietnamese agencies are also working closely on the incident and take urgent measures to save the five fishermen, the representative added.  VNS
President Truong Tan Sang (left) holds talks with his Tanzanian counterpart John Magufuli during his State visit to the East African country on March 9. VNA/VNS Photo Nguyen Khang

DODOMA  President Truong Tan Sang held talks with his Tanzanian counterpart John Magufuli during his State visit to the East African country yesterday.

Both leaders showed their belief that the visit was an important milestone, creating a driving force to develop the two countries traditional friendship and co-operation.

They said they were satisfied with positive progresses in Viet Nam-Tanzania relations since the two nations established their diplomatic ties on February 14, 1965.

President Sang affirmed that Viet Nam wishes to expand its cooperation with African nations, especially Tanzania, which supported Viet Nam during its struggle for liberation, and its current development.

He congratulated Tanzania on achievements in its economic development and reform while appreciating the countrys contributions to peace, stability and connectivity in the Southern African Development Community, the East African Community and the continent.

The presidents agreed to enhance bilateral political ties through delegation exchanges, intensifying co-ordination and support at the UN, the Non-Aligned Movement and other international forums.

They shared opinions on regional and international situations, as well as common principles to address disputes and differences.

Both agreed that territorial disputes and conflicts must be settled by peaceful means on the basis of international law.

The sides discussed numerous measures to promote bilateral trade in conformity with their countries potential.

Along with their strengths, like Tanzanias cashews and Viet Nams rice, they agreed to expand import and export in garments and agricultural machinery.

Viet Nam was willing to act as a bridge for Tanzanias goods to approach the markets of ASEAN and members of free trade agreements to which Vietnam is a member, President Sang said. He added that he hoped Tanzania would create favourable conditions for Vietnamese commodities to enter Tanzania, other East African countries and the Southern African Development Community, aiming to hit a target of US$1 billion in two-way trade by 2020.

The two leaders also expressed their delight at the initial success of the Halotel telecoms network of the Viettel Tanzania joint venture, which developed telecommunications, creating jobs for Tanzanians and developing Tanzanias economic regions.

President John Magufuli said he hoped other Vietnamese enterprises would invest in or share experience and technologies with Tanzania in the fields of agriculture, aquaculture, garments, textiles and footwear, and invest in Tanzanias industrial zones.

The leaders agreed to make agriculture and telecoms top priorities in bilateral co-operation. They were unanimous in implementing two agricultural co-operation projects in Tanzania.

They vowed to encourage the two countries localities to co-operate directly, giving the example of Tanzanias Zanzibar and Vietnams Quang Ninh province.

They also reached a consensus to speed up the signing of agreements on the avoidance of double taxation, and investment encouragement and protection.

Sang took the occasion to invite his Tanzanian counterpart to visit Viet Nam. The latter accepted the invitation. The date of the visit will be reached through diplomatic channels.

Business forum

On the same day, Sang and Tanzanian Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa attended the Tanzania-Vietnam Business Forum, which aims to share information and unlock trade opportunities, especially in the manufacturing, agriculture and communication sectors.

Speaking at the event, Tanzanian businesses expressed their admiration for Vieat Nams remarkable growth, including in the agriculture sector. They also said they wished to expand co-operation with Vieat Nam in rice production, coffee and cashew plantation, as well as in new areas like telecommunications. Viettel, Viet Nams telecommunication corporation, has invested US$700 million dollars in a project in Tanzania.

Although trade turnover between Viet Nam and Tanzania increased from US$100 million in 2010 to US$105 million in 2013, both sides said the results were not compatible with their potential for co-operation.

Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said that in Tanzania, Vietnamese businesses can lock onto a vast market of 300 million people in the South Africa region, which will also open the door to other countries in the area.

He said the country is now priotising investment in infrastructure, mining, seafood processing and tourism.

For his part, Sang agreed that there is still much potential for two sides to work together. He asked businesses on both sides to look for more co-operation opportunities while consulting the two governments on effective policies for business promotion.--VNS
HA NOI (VNS) Some 702 solar lanterns have been provided to the northern Yen Bai Province by Panasonic in an integrated environmental event jointly organised by Vietnam Environment Administration and World Vision International Vietnam.

Panasonics global 100 Thousand Solar Lanterns project reached Viet Nam for the first time in 2015, with 630 solar lanterns donated to ien Bien Province. Similar devices will also be given to Thanh Hoa Province this year, bringing the total number of lanterns donated to the country to 1,632.

Over 50,000 r lanterns have been donated to 14 countries including Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and the Philippines. By 2018, the corporation will bring light to more people in non-electrified areas, especially in Asia and Africa.

We have received positive feedback from last years donation. In donating solar lanterns to Viet Nam, Panasonic wants to promote the use of renewable energy and eco-friendly products by society for a better life and a better world, Panasonic Vietnam General Director Eiji Fukumori said.  VNS
A NANG(VNS)  The a Nang City Association for Victims of Agent Orange (DAVA) inaugurated a house for Agent Orange (AO) victims with polio in Hoa Nhon Commune in Hoa Vang District yesterday.



The house, which was built with a donation from Singaporean Harold Chan Soo York, will help 20 children born with polio.



Children will receive treatment and rehabilitation at the centre from the centres staff and doctors from Da Nangs General Hospital.

According to DAVA, Harold Chan has donated VNN1.2 billion (US$53,000) and $36,000 to DAVA to help AO victims in the city.

The centre is home to 90 AO-affected children.

a Nang is home to more than 5,000 AO victims, of which 1,400 are children.

Over VND44 billion ($1.95 million) was raised from domestic and foreign donors in supporting for AO victims in the city.  VNS


HA NOI (VNS) Ha Noi City police are coordinating with Customs to escalate the fight against drug smuggling, especially aboard flights. International drug trafficking rings are becoming increasingly sophisticated at this.

the citys Drug Crime Investigation Police Department discovered and stopped 2,502 drug transporting and smuggling cases IN 2015, confiscating 3,210 objects as evidence. Several large-scale drug smuggling rings were razed by the citys police.

Police experts predict that increasing drug-related crime and social evils this year are likely to occur mainly in the city. Key areas transporting drugs to Ha Noi are still the Northwest, Northeast, the northern part of the central region, and the South. Drugs are transported by air, sea, railway, and road.

Transporting and smuggling large quantities of drugs, especially synthetic drugs, is likely to continue to increase.

Methods of transporting illegal drugs and drug-related crimes are becoming more sophisticated. Smugglers cooperate with other types of criminals to set up large-scale international and interprovincial drug trafficking rings.

Of special concern is the increase in transporting drugs illegally by air, postal services and courier. Narcotics from online sources are transported into Viet Nam and other countries for consumption, including mainly synthetic drugs such as Methaphetamin from the Middle East and drug precursors from China and Australia.

Since the beginning of the year, Ha Nois drug crime police have cooperated with other police forces to launch offensives against drug-related crimes in all key areas of the country. Police forces have been investigating many drug crime groups and arresting ringleaders, when possible.

Ha Nois drug crime police work closely with the Ministry of Public Security and other drug-related agencies and departments under the citys Customs. All those involved aim to share information and support each other, for the purpose of preventing international drug rings from transporting drugs through the city.

Cononel Nguyen Hong Ky, head of the citys Drug Crime Investigation Police Department, said they plan to launch at least three offensives against drug-related crime this year. The department will join with post offices, customs, sea police and airport security to escalate the fight against drug drime. Ha Noi police will co-ordinate with international police - especially those nations sharing borders with Viet Nam, including China, Lao and Cambodia - to wipe out large drug trafficking rings.  VNS
Illegal traffic signaling affects road users everyday.  VNA/VNS Photo Huy Hung

HA NOI  Slack regulation of the use of priority traffic horns and lights recently in Ha Noi is giving residents a headache.

Numerous kinds of lights and horns are being sold widely in markets, many of which imitate emergency vehicles. People can buy these lights or horns from VN500,000 to VN3 million (US$22.4-$134.6).

People are using these illegal devices to take priority in traffic at intersections and during rush hour.

On narrow roads or areas with construction work, citizen vehicles with these priority lights and horns are using them to get ahead of the normal traffic.

Often road users let vehicles using such emergency devices pass, thinking they are an ambulance, fire-engine or police vehicle.

Many taxis and motor tricycles are illegally equipped with illegal horns to allow them to drive faster through busy traffic.

Some cars have been equipped with light signals and horns that emulate police cars.

Road users are getting very annoyed, but dont know who to complaint to.

I always let vehicles with priority lights and horns pass, but sometimes I do not recognise which are legal vehicles because they are always behind me, said Nguyen Hai Anh, a road user.

Sometimes, the horn makes me start and quickly move out of the way. It risks causing a traffic accident, he added.

It is easy to buy these priority traffic devices in Ha Nois Hoang Hoa Tham, Thinh Yen, and Hue streets, or at gioi (open air) markets.

Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reported that an online trader living in the northern province of Bac Ninh has sold these products for many years and supplies Ha Noi and other northern provinces.

He has set up a webpage to advertise his goods to customers, the newspaper said.

He told the newspaper that he has three sets of emergency-type lights that sell best, costing from VN400,000-VN1.2 million each (US$17.9-$53.8).

All of the products are imported from China. The customer can get a discount for bulk orders, and each product is guaranteed for at least three months after purchase, he said.

Le Manh Dung, a taxi driver, said that authorities should strictly punish those caught using these priority vehicle equipment illegally.

Nguyen Xuan Ngoc, an official from the Ha Noi Market Management Department, told the newspaper that these products are managed by the police.

While lawyer, Phan Thi Lam Hong, head of ong Ha Noi Law Ltd, said the Market Management Department is responsible for the management of these products.

Col ao Vinh Thang, head of the Traffic Police Office under Ha Noi Police, said the police have seized many such illegal devices and dealt with violators strictly.

The relevant agencies should join hands with the police to tackle the use of illegal priority vehicle devices and manage the import, production and sale of these products, Thang said.

According to road traffic law, each illegal use of emergency vehicle equipment can be fined VND600,000-800,000 (US$26.6-35.5).  VNS
The unreliable diaries and occasional observations of an old git
Being middle aged isn't easy. It's not that hard either.
















Canada's institutional fund manager Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CDPQ) on Wednesday said that it has committed an investment of $150 million in the Indian renewable energy sector.

CDPQ, which currently manages $248 billion in net assets, invests globally in major financial markets, private equity, infrastructure and real estate.

"CDPQ plans to commit $150 million to renewable energy investments in India," the company said in a statement.

Over the next 3-4 years, CDPQ will use its commitment to target hydro, solar, wind and geothermal power assets with investments likely to take the form of select partnerships with leading Indian renewable energy companies, it added.

"We believe that India stands out as an exceptional country to invest in, given the scope and quality of investment opportunities, the potential for strategic partnerships with leading Indian entrepreneurs and the current government's intention to pursue essential economic reforms," CDPQ President and CEO Michael Sabia said.

CDPQ, which deals primarily in public and parapublic pension and insurance plans, also announced the establishment of its Indian office in New Delhi. It appointed Anita Marangoly George managing director of its South Asia operations.

George, who joins the company from the World Bank where she was working on the global practice on energy, had helped finance the first commercial solar project in the country, the statement said.

She will be taking up the new assignment from April 1 this year, it added.
Terming Haqqani network as the greatest threat to the US forces in Afghanistan, a top American general has said it is time for to "take decisive action" against this Pakistan-based terror group.

"We need to take decisive actions against the Haqqani Network (HQN). The Pakistanis are uniquely positioned to counter the HQN, which remains the greatest threat to our forces and to stability in Afghanistan long-term," Commander of US Central Command General Lloyd J Austin told members of the Senate Armed Service Committee at a Congressional hearing.

The US is encouraged by some signs from Kabul and Islamabad that point towards a renewed effort at improving Afghanistan- relations, and Pakistani support for the reconciliation process in Afghanistan, Austin said yesterday.

"The Pakistan military continues to play a visible role in efforts to reduce safe havens in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, while at the same time actively countering VEOs, including AQ, Tehrik- e-Taliban Pakistan, and the newly-emerged ISIL-KP," he said.

"During the most recent fighting season, we saw increased collaboration among Afghan and Pakistani military leadership. Commanders at the corps level have met multiple times and continue their efforts to increase interoperability between the forces.

"Both countries' military leaders are working to secure a bilateral border standard operating procedure," Austin said.

Noting that US-Pakistan military-to-military relationship remains stable, he said key contributing factors are the American security assistance and the Coalition Support Fund.

"In December 2015, we participated in the Defence Consultative Group, a component of the US-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue, which focused on future initiatives that will help sustain US-Pakistan bilateral defence cooperation on shared security interests," Austin added.
Zelenskys diplomacy masterclass outpacing dour, grey Putin in battle for hearts and minds When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 this year, there was no room for jokes or play acting, and Zelensky needed to step up. He did.

Megyn Kelly fires up at Meghan Markle over her deceptive nature Sky News Australia contributor Megyn Kelly has slammed Meghan Markle over her "abject dishonesty" after the Duchess of Sussex took a swipe at Deal or No Deal in her latest podcast episode which featured Paris Hilton.

Boris Johnsons dad tight-lipped on sons potential return Speculation has begun on who could replace Liz Truss in the wake of her resignation, with her predecessor Boris Johnson expected to stand for the Conservative leadership again.
Southern dinner is set for Sunday

WATERLOO  Jubilee UMC Resource Center, located at the corner of East Fourth and Newell streets, will host a LeChristophers Southern cuisine dinner Sunday, beginning at noon.

This months menu will feature meatloaf, baked chicken, fried chicken, sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, salmon patties, collard greens, okra and butter beans, along with salad, dessert and beverages.

Cost is $10 for adults and $5 for children. For additional information or take-out dinners, call 234-5307.

Fundraiser set for Saturday

WATERLOO  Iowa Empire will sponsor a Flapjack Fundraiser from 8 to 11 a.m. Saturday at Mount Carmel Missionary Baptist Church.

The menu includes all-you-can-eat pancakes, sausage and beverage for $5. Proceeds will sponsor neighborhood youth programming.

Decorah man

writes books

INDEPENDENCE  Former Decorah resident David Rosheim has written The Four Sisters, a three-volume history of Iowas mental health institutes.

The project covers the history from their founding to the present day. Rosheim a Luther College graduate, used both primary and secondary source material: magazines, newsletters newspaper files, microfilms, state reports and interviews.

The project took three years to complete for Rosheim, who now lives in Maquoketa.

For questions or information concerning the book, he can be contacted at tcbooks@q.com.

Good Timers to

hold music jam

CEDAR FALLS  The Country Good Timers will host a Country Music Jam session from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

The program will include some Irish songs, as well as an Easter Bonnet Parade.

The group meets on the second Sunday of each month at the Cedar Falls Senior Center on Main Street. The public is welcome.

Cooking class set for Monday

CEDAR FALLS  Spoon it with Luann  Healthy Holiday Cooking Courses is planned for 5:45 to 7:45 p.m. Monday at First United Methodist Church.

Influences of India, Healthy Cooking Courses with Blue Zones inspired menus, will be offered by Luann Alemao of Luann Alemao and Associates. Diksha Ojha, University of Northern Iowa international student from India will be the featured speaker. There will be a spice taste fest provided by Frontier Co-op.

Cost is $30 per participant and prior registration must be mailed by Sunday with cash or check to Luann Alemao and Associates LLC , 2317 Coventry Lane, Cedar Falls 50613. For more information, call 266-8021 or e-mail l.alemaoassoc@cfu.net.

After the class, a wine tasting will be offered at Luna in downtown Cedar Falls. The cost is $10 per person.

Author to hold book signing

WATERLOO  Kay Jordan will host a book signing and launch celebration for her memoir, Uncommon Destiny, from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday.

The book tells how she was led to her lifes assignment.

The launch will take place at Union Missionary Baptist Church, where the Rev. Marvin Jenkins is pastor.

Free concert

set for Sunday

WAVERLY  Music for violin and piano will be featured at the next Castle Chamber Series: Music in the Afternoon concert Sunday at Wartburg College.

Daniel Kaplunas, former conductor of the Wartburg Community Symphony, and Sean Botkin, associate professor of piano at the University of Northern Iowa, will perform works by Massenet, Balsys, Bloch, Chopin and Grieg. The hour-long concert starts at 2 p.m. in the Hagemann Castle Room.

The free concert is sponsored by the Wartburg Community Symphony Association.

The series allows for audience discussions with the musicians during and after the performances.

Genealogical

Society to meet

WATERLOO  The Northeast Iowa Genealogical Society will meet at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Allen College.

Ray Burfeind will be talking about Health Care in the Cedar Valley, Part 2.

People are welcome to come for a meeting, then are asked to join. Members meet most months on the third Tuesday of the month; there also are regularly scheduled work times in the training lab at the Waterloo Public Library, a quarterly newsletter and a Friday afternoon helping session in the Genealogy/History room at the library.

Water quality topic of meeting

WATERLOO  The American Association of University Women 6038 will meet Monday at Bridges.

Improving Water Quality will be presented by Jeri Thornsberry. Dinner is at 5:30 p.m., followed by the program at 6 p.m.

Group to discuss Kurds support

CEDAR FALLS  The Great Decisions discussion group will meet from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday in the conference room at the Cedar Falls Public Library.

The discussion topic will be The Future of Kurdistan. Kurdistan is a mountainous area made up of parts of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria and is home to one of the largest ethnic groups in the region, the Kurds.

Participants will first view a 30-minute DVD on this subject and then discuss the Kurds, their history and how the Iraqi Kurds might help Americans in this troubled area of the world.

The group is open to anyone in the community and is sponsored by the American Association of University Women and the United Nations Association of the Cedar Valley.
WATERLOO  Mayor Quentin Hart is floating a plan to cut the city tax rate next year.

Hart unveiled a proposal Wednesday to lower Waterloos property tax rate from $17.76 to $17.57 per $1,000 of taxable value.

It would have been $17.30 without factoring in a new 27-cent tax levy voters approved in November to support the Grout Museum District.

I took all of the council and community suggestions and think I came up with a pretty decent opportunity to move Waterloo forward, Hart said. But there were several tough decisions.

Council members will be asked to approve the fiscal year 2016-17 budget and property tax rate at a public hearing slated for 5:30 p.m. today in City Hall.

Hart said he would wait until the hearing to release details of how he managed to cut some $1.9 million from the originally published budget.

But he said the proposal involves using some of the citys cash reserves to lower the tax asking, restructuring certain jobs to be funded with non-property tax revenues and eliminating a number of currently vacant positions.

Were not going to lay anybody off, Hart said. Were not filling positions.

The budget would bump the citys overall property tax collection next year by less than a half percent to $40.3 million, about $200,000 more than the current budget. Without the Grout levy, overall taxation would have fallen $410,000.

Based on Harts proposed property tax rate, the owner of a home that saw no change in their assessed value would see the citys share of their overall tax bill fall 1.3 percent in September. Thats a $12.71 reduction in city taxes on a $100,000 home.

But the average residential property in Waterloo saw a 2.88 percent increase in assessed value this year, although some went up more while others saw values drop. The owner of the average home would see a 1.6 percent jump in their city tax bill.

Commercial, industrial and multi-residential property owners would enjoy lower city tax bills based on the proposal.
its a blog about my life. I can tell whatever I want to
By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 09, 2016 | 02:32 PM | PADUCAH, KY

A Calvert City man was arrested Wednesday morning after police say he fired a gun in the restroom of a local restaurant.

Paducah police were contacted March 2 by an employee at Waffle House restaurant on Lone Oak Road, and told that a man had fired a gun into the wall of a restroom the previous night. The employee said there were four customers in the restaurant at the time, but none of them were injured.

Detectives said they arrested 24-year-old Travis Shrum of Calvert City Wednesday morning at the Greyhound bus station in Paducah. Shrum reportedly admitted that he had taken a friends gun into the restroom to look at it, and that it accidentally discharged. He told police he had been drinking at the time.

Police said that during a search prior to booking Shrum into jail, they found prescription drugs and a marijuana pipe in Shrums possession.

Shrum is charged with wanton endangerment, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, criminal mischief, illegal possession of a legend drug and possession of a controlled substance.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 09, 2016 | 12:21 PM | REIDLAND, KY

The McCracken County Sheriffs Department is requesting the public's assistance identifying those responsible for the vandalism of the Confederate monument located at 6900 Benton Road near Traders Mall.

Deputies said sometime late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning, the Confederate soldier statue was broken loose from its base and overturned, causing about $1800 in damage.

The property and display is owned by The Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the McCracken County Sheriffs Department at 270-444-4719.
past daily news Sep 13 (1) Sep 09 (15) Sep 06 (12) Sep 04 (10) Sep 03 (10) Aug 31 (17) Aug 29 (14) Aug 26 (13) Aug 22 (11) Aug 21 (12) Aug 19 (21) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (10) Aug 10 (10) Aug 08 (9) Aug 07 (10) Aug 06 (10) Aug 05 (8) Aug 03 (8) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (7) Jul 31 (14) Jul 29 (1) Jul 27 (7) Jul 25 (5) Jul 24 (10) Jul 22 (11) Jul 19 (16) Jul 17 (6) Jul 16 (10) Jul 15 (13) Jul 12 (7) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (8) Jul 08 (8) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (5) Jul 05 (8) Jul 04 (11) Jul 03 (8) Jul 02 (7) Jul 01 (5) Jun 30 (8) Jun 28 (7) Jun 27 (8) Jun 26 (7) Jun 25 (8) Jun 24 (6) Jun 23 (6) Jun 22 (9) Jun 20 (5) Jun 19 (9) Jun 18 (8) Jun 15 (9) Jun 13 (13) Jun 11 (11) Jun 09 (19) Jun 06 (10) Jun 04 (10) Jun 03 (8) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (5) May 30 (5) May 29 (6) May 28 (7) May 27 (7) May 26 (6) May 25 (4) May 23 (6) May 22 (6) May 21 (4) May 20 (7) May 19 (9) May 18 (4) May 17 (6) May 16 (5) May 15 (7) May 14 (3) May 13 (3) May 12 (9) May 10 (3) May 09 (7) May 08 (4) May 07 (3) May 06 (5) May 05 (8) May 03 (9) May 02 (1) May 01 (5) Apr 30 (8) Apr 29 (5) Apr 28 (4) Apr 27 (7) Apr 26 (12) Apr 25 (4) Apr 24 (8) Apr 23 (7) Apr 22 (5) Apr 21 (3) Apr 20 (1) Apr 19 (5) Apr 18 (3) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (6) Apr 15 (5) Apr 14 (2) Apr 13 (4) Apr 12 (2) Apr 11 (4) Apr 10 (3) Apr 09 (3) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (5) Apr 06 (3) Apr 05 (10) Apr 04 (2) Apr 03 (3) Apr 02 (9) Apr 01 (7) Mar 31 (10) Mar 30 (6) Mar 29 (7) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (10) Mar 25 (4) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (10) Mar 22 (6) Mar 21 (5) Mar 20 (11) Mar 19 (8) Mar 18 (5) Mar 17 (4) Mar 16 (11) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (7) Mar 13 (7) Mar 12 (5) Mar 11 (3) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (5) Mar 08 (6) Mar 07 (8) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (12) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (8) Mar 02 (6) Mar 01 (8) Feb 28 (7) Feb 27 (5) Feb 26 (6) Feb 25 (7) Feb 24 (3) Feb 23 (6) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (3) Feb 20 (1) Feb 19 (6) Feb 18 (4) Feb 17 (4) Feb 16 (2) Feb 15 (5) Feb 14 (3) Feb 13 (6) Feb 12 (6) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (6) Feb 09 (6) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (6) Feb 06 (4) Feb 05 (2) Feb 04 (3) Feb 03 (5) Feb 02 (1) Feb 01 (4) Jan 31 (8) Jan 30 (2) Jan 29 (4) Jan 28 (1) Jan 27 (4) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (4) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (2) Jan 20 (2) Jan 19 (3) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (2) Jan 16 (7) Jan 15 (6) Jan 14 (4) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (5) Jan 09 (4) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (4) Jan 05 (5) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (2) Jan 01 (1) Dec 31 (5) Dec 29 (4) Dec 28 (5) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (4) Dec 21 (4) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (2) Dec 17 (1) Dec 16 (4) Dec 15 (2) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (7) Dec 12 (5) Dec 11 (4) Dec 10 (3) Dec 09 (2) Dec 08 (2) Dec 07 (4) Dec 06 (4) Dec 05 (1) Dec 04 (5) Dec 03 (3) Dec 02 (5) Dec 01 (6) Nov 30 (5) Nov 29 (10) Nov 28 (6) Nov 27 (2) Nov 26 (3) Nov 24 (2) Nov 23 (5) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (6) Nov 19 (2) Nov 18 (5) Nov 17 (5) Nov 16 (3) Nov 15 (2) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (2) Nov 11 (4) Nov 10 (5) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (5) Nov 07 (5) Nov 06 (5) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (5) Nov 02 (4) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (9) Oct 30 (9) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (2) Oct 27 (6) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (6) Oct 24 (3) Oct 23 (6) Oct 22 (4) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (5) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (4) Oct 15 (5) Oct 14 (2) Oct 13 (4) Oct 12 (7) Oct 11 (5) Oct 10 (4) Oct 09 (5) Oct 08 (10) Oct 07 (1) Oct 06 (10) Oct 05 (6) Oct 04 (8) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (6) Sep 30 (5) Sep 29 (1) Sep 28 (6) Sep 27 (6) Sep 26 (5) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (6) Sep 23 (5) Sep 22 (7) Sep 21 (6) Sep 20 (6) Sep 19 (5) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (5) Sep 16 (5) Sep 15 (5) Sep 14 (6) Sep 13 (4) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (7) Sep 10 (6) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (3) Sep 07 (4) Sep 06 (8) Sep 05 (6) Sep 04 (7) Sep 03 (3) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (5) Aug 31 (8) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (6) Aug 28 (6) Aug 27 (1) Aug 26 (4) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (7) Aug 23 (4) Aug 22 (4) Aug 21 (4) Aug 20 (7) Aug 18 (5) Aug 17 (8) Aug 16 (8) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (5) Aug 12 (4) Aug 11 (2) Aug 10 (5) Aug 09 (4) Aug 08 (8) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (3) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (4) Aug 03 (10) Aug 02 (9) Aug 01 (8) Jul 31 (1) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (2) Jul 28 (11) Jul 27 (10) Jul 26 (10) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (5) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (2) Jul 21 (7) Jul 20 (10) Jul 19 (8) Jul 18 (7) Jul 17 (1) Jul 16 (10) Jul 14 (7) Jul 13 (6) Jul 12 (11) Jul 11 (7) Jul 10 (5) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (8) Jul 06 (4) Jul 05 (6) Jul 04 (6) Jul 03 (7) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (2) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (7) Jun 28 (5) Jun 27 (8) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (6) Jun 23 (4) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (8) Jun 18 (2) Jun 17 (3) Jun 16 (4) Jun 15 (3) Jun 14 (7) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (7) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (2) Jun 09 (8) Jun 08 (8) Jun 07 (8) Jun 06 (10) Jun 05 (14) Jun 04 (6) Jun 03 (6) Jun 02 (8) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (7) May 30 (2) May 29 (7) May 28 (7) May 27 (2) May 26 (4) May 25 (5) May 24 (4) May 23 (5) May 22 (5) May 21 (5) May 20 (3) May 19 (10) May 18 (6) May 17 (3) May 16 (6) May 15 (2) May 14 (3) May 13 (5) May 11 (1) May 10 (5) May 09 (3) May 08 (4) May 07 (2) May 06 (4) May 05 (6) May 04 (5) May 03 (5) May 02 (1) May 01 (6) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (7) Apr 28 (8) Apr 27 (9) Apr 26 (14) Apr 25 (6) Apr 24 (6) Apr 23 (7) Apr 22 (1) Apr 21 (8) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (6) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (7) Apr 16 (1) Apr 15 (8) Apr 14 (1) Apr 13 (7) Apr 12 (10) Apr 11 (7) Apr 10 (2) Apr 09 (2) Apr 08 (4) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (6) Apr 05 (6) Apr 04 (9) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (2) Mar 31 (5) Mar 30 (4) Mar 29 (8) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (9) Mar 26 (4) Mar 25 (5) Mar 24 (11) Mar 23 (10) Mar 22 (9) Mar 21 (10) Mar 20 (11) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (7) Mar 17 (3) Mar 16 (7) Mar 15 (6) Mar 14 (6) Mar 13 (9) Mar 12 (6) Mar 11 (3) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (5) Mar 08 (6) Mar 07 (13) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (7) Mar 03 (4) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (6) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (4) Feb 26 (5) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (6) Feb 23 (9) Feb 22 (6) Feb 21 (7) Feb 20 (8) Feb 19 (6) Feb 18 (3) Feb 17 (4) Feb 16 (6) Feb 15 (5) Feb 14 (7) Feb 13 (5) Feb 12 (3) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (5) Feb 09 (9) Feb 08 (8) Feb 07 (7) Feb 06 (10) Feb 05 (7) Feb 04 (2) Feb 03 (8) Feb 02 (7) Feb 01 (5) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (7) Jan 28 (3) Jan 27 (7) Jan 26 (8) Jan 25 (6) Jan 24 (6) Jan 23 (5) Jan 22 (4) Jan 21 (6) Jan 20 (8) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (8) Jan 17 (12) Jan 16 (5) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (8) Jan 12 (6) Jan 11 (6) Jan 10 (7) Jan 09 (4) Jan 08 (6) Jan 07 (4) Jan 06 (6) Jan 05 (9) Jan 04 (9) Jan 03 (4) Jan 02 (6) Jan 01 (8) Dec 31 (2) Dec 30 (1) Dec 29 (5) Dec 28 (4) Dec 27 (8) Dec 26 (4) Dec 24 (5) Dec 23 (7) Dec 22 (12) Dec 21 (4) Dec 20 (7) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (5) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (1) Dec 15 (7) Dec 14 (10) Dec 13 (7) Dec 12 (12) Dec 10 (3) Dec 09 (6) Dec 08 (7) Dec 07 (12) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (13) Dec 04 (6) Dec 02 (8) Dec 01 (8) Nov 30 (6) Nov 29 (7) Nov 28 (7) Nov 27 (4) Nov 26 (8) Nov 24 (2) Nov 23 (5) Nov 22 (11) Nov 21 (7) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (10) Nov 18 (7) Nov 17 (6) Nov 16 (11) Nov 15 (10) Nov 14 (7) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (5) Nov 11 (12) Nov 10 (4) Nov 09 (14) Nov 08 (10) Nov 07 (11) Nov 06 (8) Nov 05 (5) Nov 04 (11) Nov 03 (9) Nov 02 (10) Nov 01 (8) Oct 31 (12) Oct 30 (5) Oct 29 (5) Oct 28 (5) Oct 27 (11) Oct 26 (13) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (10) Oct 23 (8) Oct 22 (5) Oct 21 (11) Oct 20 (8) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (5) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (6) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (9) Oct 13 (10) Oct 12 (11) Oct 11 (9) Oct 10 (10) Oct 09 (7) Oct 08 (5) Oct 07 (10) Oct 06 (9) Oct 05 (14) Oct 04 (9) Oct 03 (12) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (9) Sep 30 (5) Sep 29 (7) Sep 28 (13) Sep 27 (10) Sep 26 (11) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (9) Sep 23 (7) Sep 22 (10) Sep 21 (12) Sep 20 (12) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (5) Sep 17 (7) Sep 16 (11) Sep 15 (8) Sep 14 (5) Sep 13 (8) Sep 12 (8) Sep 11 (6) Sep 10 (10) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (9) Sep 07 (8) Sep 06 (11) Sep 05 (2) Sep 04 (8) Sep 03 (2) Sep 02 (6) Sep 01 (9) Aug 31 (9) Aug 30 (7) Aug 29 (9) Aug 28 (4) Aug 27 (8) Aug 26 (6) Aug 25 (5) Aug 24 (8) Aug 23 (4) Aug 22 (5) Aug 21 (2) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (6) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (4) Aug 16 (6) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (4) Aug 13 (7) Aug 12 (6) Aug 11 (3) Aug 10 (5) Aug 09 (8) Aug 08 (9) Aug 07 (7) Aug 06 (7) Aug 05 (7) Aug 04 (7) Aug 03 (11) Aug 02 (6) Aug 01 (9) Jul 31 (11) Jul 28 (7) Jul 27 (11) Jul 26 (5) Jul 25 (5) Jul 24 (1) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (2) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (8) Jul 18 (6) Jul 17 (7) Jul 15 (4) Jul 14 (2) Jul 13 (6) Jul 12 (10) Jul 11 (11) Jul 10 (2) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (5) Jul 06 (6) Jul 05 (3) Jul 04 (6) Jul 03 (5) Jul 02 (3) Jun 30 (8) Jun 29 (5) Jun 28 (6) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (4) Jun 25 (1) Jun 24 (5) Jun 23 (11) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (5) Jun 19 (7) Jun 17 (4) Jun 16 (7) Jun 15 (4) Jun 14 (6) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (6) Jun 09 (8) Jun 08 (6) Jun 07 (8) Jun 06 (7) Jun 05 (5) Jun 04 (7) Jun 03 (1) Jun 02 (9) Jun 01 (5) May 31 (8) May 30 (7) May 29 (5) May 28 (5) May 27 (4) May 26 (4) May 25 (4) May 24 (3) May 23 (5) May 22 (2) May 21 (3) May 20 (7) May 19 (11) May 18 (1) May 17 (7) May 16 (3) May 15 (4) May 14 (3) May 13 (4) May 12 (4) May 11 (11) May 10 (2) May 09 (6) May 08 (6) May 07 (2) May 06 (3) May 05 (4) May 04 (5) May 03 (8) May 02 (4) May 01 (4) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (13) Apr 28 (5) Apr 27 (7) Apr 26 (5) Apr 25 (5) Apr 24 (2) Apr 23 (7) Apr 22 (9) Apr 21 (11) Apr 20 (2) Apr 19 (2) Apr 18 (5) Apr 17 (5) Apr 16 (6) Apr 14 (5) Apr 13 (2) Apr 12 (9) Apr 11 (10) Apr 10 (6) Apr 09 (5) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (10) Apr 06 (7) Apr 05 (7) Apr 04 (7) Apr 03 (9) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (9) Mar 29 (7) Mar 28 (4) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (6) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (8) Mar 23 (7) Mar 22 (4) Mar 21 (10) Mar 20 (6) Mar 19 (6) Mar 17 (7) Mar 16 (11) Mar 15 (6) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (4) Mar 12 (6) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (9) Mar 08 (10) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (5) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (2) Mar 03 (4) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (5) Feb 28 (3) Feb 27 (8) Feb 26 (9) Feb 24 (11) Feb 23 (8) Feb 22 (9) Feb 21 (8) Feb 20 (7) Feb 19 (4) Feb 18 (9) Feb 17 (6) Feb 16 (5) Feb 15 (7) Feb 14 (11) Feb 13 (2) Feb 12 (5) Feb 11 (5) Feb 10 (3) Feb 09 (10) Feb 08 (9) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (2) Feb 05 (9) Feb 03 (7) Feb 02 (5) Feb 01 (7) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (5) Jan 29 (6) Jan 28 (5) Jan 27 (2) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (7) Jan 24 (8) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (14) Jan 20 (8) Jan 19 (10) Jan 18 (11) Jan 17 (9) Jan 16 (5) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (9) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (7) Jan 11 (7) Jan 10 (2) Jan 09 (7) Jan 08 (6) Jan 07 (10) Jan 06 (8) Jan 05 (7) Jan 04 (9) Jan 03 (8) Jan 02 (5) Jan 01 (14) Dec 30 (13) Dec 29 (13) Dec 28 (9) Dec 27 (5) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (7) Dec 24 (4) Dec 23 (5) Dec 22 (4) Dec 21 (8) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (8) Dec 18 (9) Dec 16 (8) Dec 15 (5) Dec 14 (5) Dec 13 (8) Dec 12 (4) Dec 11 (17) Dec 09 (8) Dec 08 (5) Dec 07 (10) Dec 06 (12) Dec 05 (6) Dec 04 (8) Dec 02 (6) Dec 01 (7) Nov 30 (9) Nov 29 (6) Nov 28 (11) Nov 27 (6) Nov 26 (15) Nov 24 (7) Nov 23 (15) Nov 22 (9) Nov 21 (6) Nov 20 (11) Nov 18 (11) Nov 17 (13) Nov 16 (8) Nov 15 (13) Nov 14 (7) Nov 13 (7) Nov 12 (3) Nov 11 (13) Nov 10 (13) Nov 09 (6) Nov 08 (9) Nov 07 (6) Nov 06 (4) Nov 05 (12) Nov 04 (8) Nov 03 (9) Nov 02 (8) Nov 01 (6) Oct 31 (10) Oct 30 (8) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (8) Oct 27 (15) Oct 26 (10) Oct 25 (10) Oct 24 (13) Oct 23 (9) Oct 21 (8) Oct 20 (13) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (11) Oct 17 (8) Oct 16 (14) Oct 14 (9) Oct 13 (11) Oct 12 (9) Oct 11 (13) Oct 10 (7) Oct 09 (15) Oct 07 (7) Oct 06 (11) Oct 05 (18) Oct 04 (14) Oct 03 (1) Oct 02 (10) Sep 30 (11) Sep 29 (11) Sep 28 (11) Sep 27 (15) Sep 26 (7) Sep 24 (9) Sep 23 (11) Sep 22 (7) Sep 21 (17) Sep 20 (20) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (11) Sep 16 (10) Sep 15 (12) Sep 14 (9) Sep 13 (12) Sep 12 (14) Sep 11 (4) Sep 10 (8) Sep 09 (9) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (13) Sep 06 (15) Sep 05 (8) Sep 04 (11) Sep 03 (10) Sep 02 (12) Sep 01 (12) Aug 31 (14) Aug 30 (14) Aug 29 (8) Aug 28 (8) Aug 27 (9) Aug 26 (12) Aug 25 (6) Aug 24 (8) Aug 23 (12) Aug 22 (6) Aug 21 (5) Aug 20 (6) Aug 19 (9) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (7) Aug 16 (11) Aug 15 (2) Aug 14 (12) Aug 12 (15) Aug 11 (11) Aug 10 (6) Aug 09 (7) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (5) Aug 05 (7) Aug 04 (7) Aug 03 (4) Aug 02 (5) Aug 01 (5) Jul 31 (7) Jul 30 (5) Jul 29 (9) Jul 28 (8) Jul 27 (8) Jul 26 (7) Jul 25 (6) Jul 23 (8) Jul 22 (6) Jul 21 (5) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (5) Jul 18 (15) Jul 15 (14) Jul 14 (5) Jul 13 (6) Jul 12 (12) Jul 11 (8) Jul 10 (3) Jul 09 (11) Jul 08 (8) Jul 07 (7) Jul 06 (10) Jul 05 (4) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (5) Jul 02 (7) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (10) Jun 28 (8) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (2) Jun 23 (11) Jun 22 (5) Jun 21 (7) Jun 20 (3) Jun 19 (7) Jun 18 (10) Jun 17 (11) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (7) Jun 13 (14) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (8) Jun 09 (9) Jun 08 (11) Jun 07 (14) Jun 06 (16) Jun 03 (8) Jun 02 (12) Jun 01 (5) May 31 (7) May 30 (15) May 28 (7) May 27 (5) May 26 (21) May 25 (14) May 24 (10) May 23 (7) May 22 (8) May 21 (11) May 20 (5) May 19 (4) May 18 (10) May 17 (11) May 16 (5) May 15 (6) May 14 (7) May 13 (12) May 12 (10) May 11 (7) May 10 (13) May 09 (4) May 08 (7) May 07 (3) May 06 (6) May 05 (9) May 04 (14) May 03 (7) May 02 (10) May 01 (10) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (9) Apr 28 (5) Apr 27 (9) Apr 26 (8) Apr 25 (8) Apr 24 (6) Apr 23 (14) Apr 22 (16) Apr 21 (11) Apr 20 (7) Apr 19 (16) Apr 18 (8) Apr 17 (7) Apr 16 (10) Apr 15 (8) Apr 14 (5) Apr 13 (11) Apr 12 (10) Apr 11 (8) Apr 10 (12) Apr 09 (5) Apr 08 (13) Apr 07 (9) Apr 06 (11) Apr 05 (15) Apr 04 (7) Apr 03 (15) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (11) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (10) Mar 29 (8) Mar 28 (7) Mar 27 (12) Mar 26 (8) Mar 25 (8) Mar 24 (7) Mar 23 (15) Mar 22 (17) Mar 21 (9) Mar 20 (8) Mar 19 (4) Mar 18 (16) Mar 17 (8) Mar 16 (19) Mar 15 (13) Mar 14 (7) Mar 13 (20) Mar 11 (5) Mar 10 (11) Mar 09 (13) Mar 08 (13) Mar 07 (7) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (9) Mar 04 (10) Mar 03 (16) Mar 02 (16) Mar 01 (13) Feb 29 (8) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (16) Feb 26 (10) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (12) Feb 23 (14) Feb 22 (9) Feb 21 (11) Feb 20 (8) Feb 19 (12) Feb 18 (12) Feb 17 (11) Feb 16 (8) Feb 15 (9) Feb 14 (7) Feb 13 (10) Feb 12 (11) Feb 11 (13) Feb 10 (5) Feb 09 (6) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (13) Feb 05 (10) Feb 04 (11) Feb 03 (7) Feb 02 (19) Jan 31 (21) Jan 29 (11) Jan 28 (10) Jan 27 (13) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (5) Jan 24 (2) Jan 23 (8) Jan 22 (13) Jan 21 (11) Jan 20 (9) Jan 19 (13) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (11) Jan 15 (7) Jan 14 (13) Jan 13 (9) Jan 12 (9) Jan 11 (5) Jan 10 (8) Jan 09 (7) Jan 08 (7) Jan 07 (6) Jan 06 (11) Jan 05 (7) Jan 04 (7) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (8) Jan 01 (5) Dec 31 (10) Dec 30 (9) Dec 29 (7) Dec 28 (9) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (1) Dec 25 (5) Dec 24 (6) Dec 23 (6) Dec 22 (7) Dec 21 (6) Dec 20 (7) Dec 19 (13) Dec 18 (16) Dec 17 (10) Dec 16 (13) Dec 15 (11) Dec 14 (8) Dec 13 (4) Dec 12 (9) Dec 11 (10) Dec 10 (12) Dec 09 (10) Dec 08 (13) Dec 07 (7) Dec 06 (12) Dec 05 (8) Dec 04 (11) Dec 03 (12) Dec 02 (16) Dec 01 (14) Nov 30 (10) Nov 29 (11) Nov 28 (15) Nov 27 (16) Nov 26 (11) Nov 25 (9) Nov 24 (13) Nov 23 (10) Nov 22 (1) Nov 21 (7) Nov 20 (12) Nov 19 (10) Nov 18 (11) Nov 17 (11) Nov 16 (10) Nov 15 (3) Nov 14 (10) Nov 13 (14) Nov 12 (8) Nov 11 (13) Nov 10 (10) Nov 09 (6) Nov 08 (9) Nov 07 (11) Nov 06 (12) Nov 05 (17) Nov 04 (12) Nov 03 (11) Nov 02 (5) Nov 01 (12) Oct 31 (11) Oct 30 (11) Oct 29 (10) Oct 28 (18) Oct 27 (16) Oct 26 (11) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (12) Oct 23 (11) Oct 22 (14) Oct 21 (12) Oct 20 (17) Oct 19 (12) Oct 18 (13) Oct 17 (15) Oct 16 (14) Oct 15 (10) Oct 14 (16) Oct 13 (12) Oct 12 (13) Oct 11 (8) Oct 10 (12) Oct 09 (21) Oct 08 (22) Oct 07 (19) Oct 06 (18) Oct 05 (6) Oct 04 (17) Oct 03 (13) Oct 02 (14) Oct 01 (13) Sep 30 (14) Sep 29 (15) Sep 28 (12) Sep 27 (11) Sep 26 (15) Sep 25 (13) Sep 24 (9) Sep 23 (10) Sep 22 (12) Sep 21 (8) Sep 20 (4) Sep 19 (12) Sep 18 (12) Sep 17 (16) Sep 16 (21) Sep 15 (14) Sep 14 (7) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (10) Sep 11 (16) Sep 10 (7) Sep 09 (8) Sep 08 (10) Sep 07 (7) Sep 06 (5) Sep 05 (8) Sep 04 (9) Sep 03 (8) Sep 02 (11) Sep 01 (10) Aug 31 (4) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (1) Aug 28 (10) Aug 27 (8) Aug 26 (8) Aug 25 (14) Aug 24 (4) Aug 23 (3) Aug 22 (5) Aug 21 (13) Aug 20 (9) Aug 19 (13) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (6) Aug 14 (8) Aug 13 (7) Aug 12 (12) Aug 11 (9) Aug 10 (8) Aug 09 (14) Aug 08 (6) Aug 07 (1) Aug 06 (4) Aug 05 (8) Aug 04 (6) Aug 03 (6) Aug 02 (2) Aug 01 (6) Jul 31 (6) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (6) Jul 28 (8) Jul 27 (7) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (6) Jul 23 (5) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (7) Jul 20 (5) Jul 18 (6) Jul 17 (5) Jul 16 (4) Jul 15 (9) Jul 14 (2) Jul 13 (8) Jul 12 (1) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (8) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (3) Jul 07 (13) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (5) Jul 03 (6) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (7) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (3) Jun 28 (1) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (7) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (6) Jun 23 (9) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (3) Jun 19 (4) Jun 18 (7) Jun 17 (7) Jun 16 (7) Jun 15 (11) Jun 12 (6) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (10) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (3) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (2) Jun 05 (9) Jun 04 (8) Jun 03 (9) Jun 02 (6) Jun 01 (4) May 30 (7) May 29 (9) May 28 (13) May 26 (8) May 25 (5) May 24 (2) May 23 (8) May 22 (9) May 21 (7) May 20 (4) May 19 (6) May 18 (7) May 17 (8) May 15 (9) May 14 (5) May 13 (8) May 12 (6) May 11 (6) May 09 (7) May 08 (6) May 07 (11) May 06 (7) May 05 (4) May 04 (11) May 03 (5) May 02 (4) May 01 (9) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (4) Apr 28 (9) Apr 27 (4) Apr 26 (3) Apr 25 (5) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (10) Apr 22 (8) Apr 21 (9) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (4) Apr 18 (8) Apr 17 (7) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (6) Apr 14 (8) Apr 13 (3) Apr 12 (6) Apr 10 (2) Apr 09 (4) Apr 08 (5) Apr 07 (5) Apr 06 (2) Apr 05 (2) Apr 04 (5) Apr 03 (7) Apr 02 (7) Apr 01 (12) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (3) Mar 29 (1) Mar 28 (2) Mar 27 (6) Mar 26 (2) Mar 25 (5) Mar 24 (4) Mar 23 (7) Mar 22 (4) Mar 21 (6) Mar 20 (9) Mar 19 (9) Mar 18 (8) Mar 17 (9) Mar 16 (7) Mar 15 (11) Mar 13 (5) Mar 12 (12) Mar 11 (9) Mar 10 (12) Mar 09 (4) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (5) Mar 05 (5) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (11) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (8) Feb 27 (9) Feb 26 (9) Feb 25 (8) Feb 24 (6) Feb 23 (4) Feb 22 (3) Feb 21 (6) Feb 20 (3) Feb 19 (10) Feb 18 (9) Feb 17 (7) Feb 16 (5) Feb 15 (2) Feb 14 (8) Feb 13 (12) Feb 12 (8) Feb 11 (10) Feb 10 (7) Feb 09 (6) Feb 08 (3) Feb 07 (2) Feb 06 (7) Feb 05 (4) Feb 04 (11) Feb 03 (5) Feb 02 (7) Feb 01 (4) Jan 31 (5) Jan 30 (8) Jan 29 (12) Jan 28 (6) Jan 27 (8) Jan 26 (13) Jan 24 (8) Jan 23 (12) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (10) Jan 20 (8) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (9) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (11) Jan 14 (4) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (7) Jan 11 (6) Jan 10 (2) Jan 09 (6) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (6) Jan 06 (4) Jan 05 (4) Jan 04 (3) Jan 03 (6) Jan 02 (2) Jan 01 (3) Dec 31 (6) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (6) Dec 28 (4) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (3) Dec 24 (5) Dec 23 (7) Dec 22 (5) Dec 21 (4) Dec 20 (4) Dec 19 (5) Dec 18 (8) Dec 17 (5) Dec 16 (9) Dec 15 (7) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (10) Dec 12 (10) Dec 11 (9) Dec 10 (10) Dec 09 (11) Dec 08 (5) Dec 07 (5) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (9) Dec 04 (3) Dec 03 (8) Dec 02 (10) Dec 01 (6) Nov 30 (1) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (9) Nov 27 (3) Nov 26 (7) Nov 25 (12) Nov 24 (3) Nov 23 (8) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (12) Nov 19 (6) Nov 18 (10) Nov 17 (12) Nov 16 (5) Nov 15 (5) Nov 14 (12) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (7) Nov 11 (8) Nov 10 (7) Nov 09 (6) Nov 08 (5) Nov 07 (5) Nov 06 (6) Nov 05 (12) Nov 04 (9) Nov 03 (6) Nov 02 (14) Nov 01 (3) Oct 31 (6) Oct 30 (7) Oct 29 (9) Oct 28 (9) Oct 27 (3) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (8) Oct 23 (4) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (4) Oct 20 (2) Oct 19 (11) Oct 17 (6) Oct 16 (7) Oct 15 (7) Oct 14 (8) Oct 13 (5) Oct 12 (8) Oct 11 (6) Oct 10 (5) Oct 09 (11) Oct 08 (10) Oct 07 (8) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (7) Oct 04 (8) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (10) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (7) Sep 29 (6) Sep 28 (5) Sep 27 (8) Sep 26 (11) Sep 25 (11) Sep 24 (15) Sep 23 (8) Sep 22 (9) Sep 21 (4) Sep 20 (8) Sep 19 (9) Sep 18 (10) Sep 17 (10) Sep 16 (5) Sep 15 (5) Sep 14 (7) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (8) Sep 10 (6) Sep 09 (7) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (2) Sep 06 (4) Sep 05 (7) Sep 04 (11) Sep 03 (7) Sep 02 (7) Sep 01 (2) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (1) Aug 29 (10) Aug 28 (5) Aug 27 (4) Aug 26 (10) Aug 25 (6) Aug 24 (9) Aug 22 (11) Aug 21 (8) Aug 20 (12) Aug 19 (8) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (4) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (6) Aug 14 (4) Aug 13 (7) Aug 12 (8) Aug 11 (7) Aug 10 (12) Aug 08 (5) Aug 07 (6) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (8) Aug 04 (5) Aug 03 (4) Aug 01 (7) Jul 31 (6) Jul 30 (12) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (5) Jul 27 (7) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (8) Jul 23 (8) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (8) Jul 20 (6) Jul 19 (3) Jul 18 (8) Jul 17 (2) Jul 16 (7) Jul 15 (6) Jul 14 (9) Jul 13 (10) Jul 11 (9) Jul 10 (8) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (7) Jul 07 (7) Jul 06 (7) Jul 05 (10) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (6) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (5) Jun 29 (6) Jun 28 (1) Jun 27 (15) Jun 26 (10) Jun 25 (9) Jun 24 (16) Jun 23 (6) Jun 22 (12) Jun 20 (6) Jun 19 (8) Jun 18 (10) Jun 17 (6) Jun 16 (7) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (5) Jun 13 (13) Jun 12 (7) Jun 11 (14) Jun 10 (3) Jun 09 (2) Jun 08 (2) Jun 07 (7) Jun 06 (16) Jun 05 (7) Jun 04 (18) Jun 03 (12) Jun 02 (8) May 31 (3) May 30 (6) May 29 (6) May 28 (7) May 27 (4) May 26 (4) May 25 (6) May 23 (4) May 22 (8) May 21 (5) May 20 (6) May 19 (2) May 18 (9) May 17 (1) May 16 (5) May 15 (5) May 14 (7) May 13 (7) May 12 (7) May 11 (4) May 10 (4) May 09 (5) May 08 (10) May 07 (4) May 06 (13) May 05 (4) May 04 (10) May 02 (2) May 01 (5) Apr 30 (9) Apr 29 (6) Apr 28 (3) Apr 27 (4) Apr 26 (9) Apr 25 (9) Apr 24 (7) Apr 23 (11) Apr 22 (7) Apr 21 (3) Apr 20 (10) Apr 19 (6) Apr 18 (5) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (6) Apr 15 (7) Apr 14 (11) Apr 13 (4) Apr 12 (5) Apr 11 (9) Apr 10 (4) Apr 09 (6) Apr 08 (6) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (6) Apr 05 (10) Apr 03 (9) Apr 02 (9) Apr 01 (12) Mar 31 (4) Mar 30 (9) Mar 29 (10) Mar 28 (7) Mar 27 (8) Mar 26 (8) Mar 25 (15) Mar 24 (11) Mar 23 (8) Mar 22 (7) Mar 21 (14) Mar 20 (6) Mar 19 (11) Mar 18 (11) Mar 17 (12) Mar 16 (8) Mar 15 (8) Mar 14 (13) Mar 13 (8) Mar 12 (10) Mar 11 (8) Mar 10 (7) Mar 09 (3) Mar 08 (12) Mar 07 (15) Mar 06 (16) Mar 05 (9) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (12) Mar 02 (20) Feb 28 (11) Feb 27 (8) Feb 26 (11) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (14) Feb 23 (5) Feb 22 (6) Feb 21 (8) Feb 20 (11) Feb 19 (7) Feb 18 (4) Feb 17 (8) Feb 16 (11) Feb 15 (3) Feb 14 (10) Feb 13 (4) Feb 12 (10) Feb 11 (7) Feb 10 (7) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (6) Feb 07 (5) Feb 06 (4) Feb 05 (10) Feb 04 (5) Feb 03 (4) Feb 02 (4) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (3) Jan 30 (5) Jan 29 (2) Jan 28 (6) Jan 27 (3) Jan 26 (2) Jan 25 (5) Jan 24 (7) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (4) Jan 21 (5) Jan 20 (5) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (7) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (5) Jan 13 (4) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (3) Jan 10 (5) Jan 09 (6) Jan 08 (6) Jan 07 (3) Jan 06 (1) Jan 05 (4) Jan 04 (5) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (6) Jan 01 (2) Dec 31 (6) Dec 30 (1) Dec 29 (5) Dec 27 (1) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (4) Dec 24 (8) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (1) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (8) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (4) Dec 16 (3) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (4) Dec 11 (4) Dec 10 (7) Dec 09 (5) Dec 08 (2) Dec 07 (5) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (10) Dec 04 (9) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (2) Dec 01 (8) Nov 29 (5) Nov 28 (7) Nov 27 (5) Nov 26 (9) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (5) Nov 23 (6) Nov 22 (5) Nov 21 (12) Nov 20 (12) Nov 19 (10) Nov 18 (4) Nov 17 (3) Nov 16 (8) Nov 15 (7) Nov 14 (7) Nov 13 (6) Nov 12 (12) Nov 11 (6) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (10) Nov 07 (5) Nov 06 (5) Nov 05 (9) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (4) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (3) Oct 31 (10) Oct 30 (4) Oct 29 (11) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (7) Oct 26 (7) Oct 25 (6) Oct 24 (7) Oct 23 (11) Oct 22 (2) Oct 21 (7) Oct 20 (4) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (7) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (8) Oct 15 (5) Oct 14 (5) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (7) Oct 11 (20) Oct 10 (2) Oct 09 (4) Oct 08 (21) Oct 07 (20) Oct 06 (34) Oct 04 (24) Oct 03 (21) Oct 02 (3) Oct 01 (7) Sep 30 (3) Sep 29 (5) Sep 28 (6) Sep 27 (5) Sep 26 (6) Sep 25 (5) Sep 24 (2) Sep 23 (8) Sep 22 (4) Sep 21 (3) Sep 20 (9) Sep 19 (11) Sep 18 (5) Sep 17 (7) Sep 16 (6) Sep 15 (3) Sep 14 (7) Sep 13 (8) Sep 12 (11) Sep 11 (7) Sep 10 (6) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (3) Sep 07 (6) Sep 06 (10) Sep 05 (7) Sep 04 (7) Sep 03 (5) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (8) Aug 31 (5) Aug 30 (7) Aug 29 (10) Aug 28 (7) Aug 27 (6) Aug 26 (6) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (8) Aug 23 (6) Aug 22 (6) Aug 21 (8) Aug 20 (8) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (2) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (7) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (4) Aug 12 (6) Aug 11 (6) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (8) Aug 08 (6) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (12) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (4) Aug 01 (10) Jul 31 (3) Jul 30 (7) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (6) Jul 27 (4) Jul 26 (5) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (7) Jul 23 (10) Jul 22 (8) Jul 21 (5) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (7) Jul 18 (9) Jul 17 (10) Jul 16 (11) Jul 15 (5) Jul 13 (5) Jul 12 (9) Jul 11 (11) Jul 10 (12) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (8) Jul 06 (9) Jul 05 (10) Jul 04 (8) Jul 03 (10) Jul 02 (12) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (5) Jun 29 (6) Jun 28 (23) Jun 27 (18) Jun 26 (12) Jun 25 (14) Jun 24 (15) Jun 23 (11) Jun 22 (11) Jun 21 (15) Jun 20 (9) Jun 19 (8) Jun 18 (11) Jun 17 (7) Jun 16 (6) Jun 15 (6) Jun 14 (6) Jun 13 (5) Jun 12 (6) Jun 11 (9) Jun 10 (10) Jun 09 (9) Jun 08 (6) Jun 07 (2) Jun 06 (6) Jun 05 (4) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (4) Jun 02 (3) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (3) May 30 (5) May 29 (8) May 28 (7) May 27 (2) May 26 (2) May 25 (8) May 24 (7) May 23 (6) May 22 (9) May 21 (6) May 20 (5) May 19 (6) May 18 (9) May 17 (10) May 16 (11) May 15 (5) May 14 (11) May 13 (6) May 12 (7) May 11 (7) May 10 (5) May 09 (3) May 08 (10) May 07 (8) May 06 (11) May 05 (5) May 04 (9) May 03 (3) May 02 (2) May 01 (5) Apr 30 (5) Apr 29 (8) Apr 28 (6) Apr 27 (4) Apr 26 (9) Apr 25 (11) Apr 24 (4) Apr 23 (11) Apr 22 (7) Apr 21 (5) Apr 20 (7) Apr 19 (10) Apr 18 (8) Apr 17 (10) Apr 16 (8) Apr 15 (4) Apr 14 (5) Apr 13 (7) Apr 12 (11) Apr 11 (6) Apr 10 (7) Apr 09 (6) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (9) Apr 05 (10) Apr 04 (7) Apr 03 (2) Apr 02 (6) Apr 01 (4) Mar 31 (3) Mar 30 (4) Mar 29 (3) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (10) Mar 26 (5) Mar 25 (4) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (7) Mar 22 (6) Mar 21 (9) Mar 20 (5) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (9) Mar 17 (2) Mar 16 (8) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (10) Mar 12 (10) Mar 11 (2) Mar 10 (1) Mar 09 (6) Mar 08 (4) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (3) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (7) Mar 03 (6) Mar 02 (8) Mar 01 (9) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (3) Feb 26 (8) Feb 25 (7) Feb 24 (3) Feb 23 (4) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (7) Feb 20 (4) Feb 19 (4) Feb 18 (2) Feb 17 (1) Feb 16 (6) Feb 15 (6) Feb 14 (5) Feb 13 (4) Feb 12 (7) Feb 11 (2) Feb 10 (2) Feb 09 (5) Feb 08 (5) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (4) Feb 05 (9) Feb 04 (3) Feb 03 (3) Feb 02 (10) Feb 01 (9) Jan 31 (5) Jan 30 (8) Jan 29 (5) Jan 28 (3) Jan 27 (4) Jan 26 (5) Jan 25 (6) Jan 24 (5) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (3) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (7) Jan 18 (3) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (8) Jan 15 (7) Jan 14 (9) Jan 13 (1) Jan 12 (7) Jan 11 (1) Jan 10 (3) Jan 09 (3) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (4) Jan 06 (2) Jan 05 (3) Jan 04 (5) Jan 03 (4) Jan 02 (4) Jan 01 (4) Dec 31 (3) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (5) Dec 28 (8) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (4) Dec 23 (4) Dec 22 (7) Dec 21 (5) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (6) Dec 17 (4) Dec 16 (5) Dec 15 (5) Dec 14 (8) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (6) Dec 11 (8) Dec 10 (5) Dec 09 (4) Dec 08 (4) Dec 07 (7) Dec 06 (7) Dec 05 (6) Dec 04 (6) Dec 03 (7) Dec 02 (1) Dec 01 (6) Nov 30 (2) Nov 29 (8) Nov 28 (16) Nov 27 (7) Nov 26 (5) Nov 25 (2) Nov 24 (6) Nov 23 (5) Nov 22 (5) Nov 21 (5) Nov 20 (15) Nov 19 (8) Nov 18 (2) Nov 17 (3) Nov 16 (5) Nov 15 (7) Nov 14 (6) Nov 13 (9) Nov 12 (7) Nov 11 (8) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (5) Nov 08 (8) Nov 07 (9) Nov 06 (9) Nov 05 (1) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (8) Nov 02 (6) Nov 01 (3) Oct 31 (6) Oct 30 (7) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (4) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (8) Oct 24 (4) Oct 23 (1) Oct 22 (6) Oct 21 (1) Oct 20 (8) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (10) Oct 17 (6) Oct 16 (15) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (5) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (9) Oct 11 (7) Oct 10 (1) Oct 09 (5) Oct 08 (7) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (8) Oct 05 (5) Oct 04 (3) Oct 03 (7) Oct 02 (6) Oct 01 (6) Sep 30 (8) Sep 29 (6) Sep 28 (13) Sep 27 (10) Sep 26 (8) Sep 25 (8) Sep 24 (8) Sep 23 (3) Sep 22 (7) Sep 21 (9) Sep 20 (7) Sep 19 (8) Sep 18 (4) Sep 17 (3) Sep 16 (4) Sep 15 (8) Sep 14 (5) Sep 13 (7) Sep 12 (7) Sep 11 (9) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (10) Sep 08 (4) Sep 07 (12) Sep 06 (13) Sep 05 (15) Sep 04 (5) Sep 03 (4) Sep 02 (6) Sep 01 (9) Aug 31 (7) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (8) Aug 28 (11) Aug 27 (2) Aug 26 (6) Aug 25 (15) Aug 24 (6) Aug 23 (8) Aug 22 (5) Aug 21 (6) Aug 20 (7) Aug 19 (2) Aug 18 (5) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (11) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (9) Aug 12 (4) Aug 11 (5) Aug 10 (6) Aug 09 (5) Aug 08 (7) Aug 07 (9) Aug 06 (4) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (4) Aug 03 (8) Aug 02 (9) Aug 01 (10) Jul 31 (11) Jul 30 (4) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (11) Jul 27 (4) Jul 26 (7) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (8) Jul 22 (5) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (10) Jul 19 (6) Jul 18 (9) Jul 17 (6) Jul 16 (7) Jul 15 (6) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (7) Jul 12 (8) Jul 11 (6) Jul 10 (14) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (4) Jul 06 (9) Jul 05 (8) Jul 04 (5) Jul 03 (8) Jul 02 (5) Jul 01 (5) Jun 30 (6) Jun 29 (3) Jun 28 (3) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (8) Jun 25 (3) Jun 24 (5) Jun 23 (14) Jun 22 (11) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (8) Jun 19 (7) Jun 18 (4) Jun 17 (3) Jun 16 (12) Jun 15 (12) Jun 14 (10) Jun 13 (10) Jun 12 (9) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (12) Jun 09 (4) Jun 08 (3) Jun 07 (12) Jun 06 (6) Jun 05 (7) Jun 04 (6) Jun 03 (3) Jun 02 (4) Jun 01 (8) May 31 (4) May 30 (3) May 29 (8) May 28 (7) May 27 (4) May 26 (3) May 25 (5) May 24 (9) May 23 (16) May 22 (12) May 21 (11) May 20 (7) May 19 (10) May 18 (8) May 17 (8) May 16 (10) May 15 (8) May 14 (5) May 13 (1) May 12 (6) May 11 (9) May 10 (9) May 09 (10) May 08 (9) May 07 (6) May 06 (5) May 05 (7) May 04 (10) May 03 (7) May 02 (9) May 01 (10) Apr 30 (4) Apr 29 (9) Apr 28 (12) Apr 27 (9) Apr 26 (4) Apr 25 (5) Apr 24 (9) Apr 23 (4) Apr 22 (7) Apr 21 (8) Apr 20 (9) Apr 19 (6) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (2) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (10) Apr 14 (7) Apr 13 (5) Apr 12 (7) Apr 11 (7) Apr 10 (7) Apr 09 (6) Apr 08 (7) Apr 07 (10) Apr 06 (8) Apr 05 (8) Apr 04 (9) Apr 03 (6) Apr 02 (4) Apr 01 (4) Mar 31 (11) Mar 30 (12) Mar 29 (16) Mar 28 (8) Mar 27 (10) Mar 26 (12) Mar 25 (6) Mar 24 (9) Mar 23 (3) Mar 22 (12) Mar 21 (12) Mar 20 (14) Mar 19 (8) Mar 18 (7) Mar 17 (8) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (9) Mar 12 (6) Mar 11 (5) Mar 10 (13) Mar 09 (8) Mar 08 (10) Mar 07 (12) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (2) Mar 03 (3) Mar 02 (12) Mar 01 (8) Feb 29 (11) Feb 28 (5) Feb 27 (3) Feb 26 (13) Feb 25 (10) Feb 24 (13) Feb 23 (10) Feb 22 (9) Feb 21 (18) Feb 20 (6) Feb 19 (7) Feb 18 (9) Feb 17 (5) Feb 16 (9) Feb 15 (7) Feb 14 (6) Feb 13 (5) Feb 12 (6) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (8) Feb 09 (5) Feb 08 (8) Feb 07 (10) Feb 06 (7) Feb 05 (7) Feb 04 (5) Feb 03 (11) Feb 02 (4) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (12) Jan 30 (7) Jan 29 (7) Jan 28 (7) Jan 27 (12) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (11) Jan 24 (4) Jan 23 (6) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (12) Jan 20 (11) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (6) Jan 17 (11) Jan 16 (9) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (9) Jan 11 (9) Jan 10 (10) Jan 09 (5) Jan 08 (10) Jan 07 (5) Jan 06 (6) Jan 05 (8) Jan 04 (5) Jan 03 (8) Jan 02 (7) Jan 01 (7) Dec 31 (10) Dec 30 (11) Dec 29 (6) Dec 28 (5) Dec 27 (10) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (5) Dec 24 (7) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (9) Dec 21 (8) Dec 20 (8) Dec 19 (5) Dec 18 (1) Dec 17 (5) Dec 16 (6) Dec 15 (5) Dec 14 (13) Dec 13 (8) Dec 12 (7) Dec 11 (9) Dec 10 (12) Dec 09 (7) Dec 08 (11) Dec 07 (9) Dec 06 (11) Dec 05 (10) Dec 04 (6) Dec 03 (8) Dec 02 (6) Dec 01 (14) Nov 30 (7) Nov 29 (8) Nov 28 (8) Nov 27 (6) Nov 26 (9) Nov 25 (10) Nov 24 (12) Nov 23 (10) Nov 22 (10) Nov 21 (10) Nov 20 (4) Nov 19 (4) Nov 18 (8) Nov 17 (9) Nov 16 (9) Nov 15 (12) Nov 14 (6) Nov 13 (9) Nov 12 (3) Nov 11 (9) Nov 10 (10) Nov 09 (10) Nov 08 (7) Nov 07 (8) Nov 06 (10) Nov 05 (8) Nov 04 (7) Nov 03 (10) Nov 02 (11) Nov 01 (10) Oct 31 (5) Oct 30 (8) Oct 29 (8) Oct 28 (8) Oct 27 (11) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (10) Oct 23 (5) Oct 22 (14) Oct 21 (10) Oct 20 (8) Oct 19 (11) Oct 18 (13) Oct 17 (7) Oct 16 (6) Oct 15 (9) Oct 14 (7) Oct 13 (12) Oct 12 (13) Oct 11 (9) Oct 10 (8) Oct 09 (9) Oct 08 (7) Oct 07 (12) Oct 06 (8) Oct 05 (13) Oct 04 (11) Oct 03 (7) Oct 02 (5) Oct 01 (14) Sep 30 (12) Sep 29 (12) Sep 28 (11) Sep 27 (11) Sep 26 (7) Sep 25 (10) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (7) Sep 22 (8) Sep 21 (8) Sep 20 (8) Sep 19 (7) Sep 18 (5) Sep 17 (14) Sep 16 (7) Sep 15 (11) Sep 14 (13) Sep 13 (11) Sep 12 (9) Sep 11 (5) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (13) Sep 08 (11) Sep 07 (11) Sep 06 (16) Sep 05 (1) Sep 04 (10) Sep 03 (8) Sep 02 (8) Sep 01 (7) Aug 31 (1) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (2) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (6) Aug 26 (8) Aug 25 (5) Aug 24 (5) Aug 23 (6) Aug 22 (7) Aug 21 (6) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (9) Aug 18 (7) Aug 17 (7) Aug 16 (10) Aug 15 (2) Aug 14 (5) Aug 13 (5) Aug 12 (10) Aug 11 (5) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (8) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (5) Aug 06 (12) Aug 05 (5) Aug 04 (7) Aug 03 (6) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (14) Jul 31 (7) Jul 30 (7) Jul 29 (13) Jul 28 (10) Jul 27 (6) Jul 26 (7) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (12) Jul 22 (14) Jul 21 (6) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (12) Jul 18 (9) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (6) Jul 15 (8) Jul 14 (15) Jul 13 (8) Jul 12 (10) Jul 11 (6) Jul 10 (6) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (6) Jul 07 (9) Jul 06 (15) Jul 05 (6) Jul 04 (10) Jul 03 (6) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (11) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (8) Jun 27 (8) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (11) Jun 24 (9) Jun 23 (10) Jun 22 (8) Jun 21 (8) Jun 20 (6) Jun 19 (5) Jun 18 (15) Jun 17 (8) Jun 16 (13) Jun 15 (15) Jun 14 (11) Jun 13 (6) Jun 12 (15) Jun 11 (7) Jun 10 (7) Jun 09 (18) Jun 08 (20) Jun 07 (17) Jun 06 (9) Jun 05 (9) Jun 04 (12) Jun 03 (13) Jun 02 (14) Jun 01 (8) May 31 (13) May 30 (8) May 29 (6) May 28 (8) May 27 (17) May 26 (8) May 25 (13) May 24 (12) May 23 (9) May 22 (4) May 21 (4) May 20 (11) May 19 (14) May 18 (6) May 17 (10) May 16 (4) May 15 (5) May 14 (28) May 12 (9) May 11 (17) May 10 (15) May 09 (12) May 08 (5) May 07 (4) May 06 (10) May 05 (8) May 04 (10) May 03 (5) May 02 (6) May 01 (8) Apr 30 (8) Apr 29 (12) Apr 28 (6) Apr 27 (11) Apr 26 (12) Apr 25 (6) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (5) Apr 22 (10) Apr 21 (19) Apr 20 (13) Apr 19 (11) Apr 18 (11) Apr 17 (5) Apr 16 (12) Apr 15 (11) Apr 14 (17) Apr 13 (6) Apr 12 (16) Apr 11 (10) Apr 10 (1) Apr 09 (18) Apr 08 (14) Apr 07 (6) Apr 06 (10) Apr 05 (21) Apr 04 (12) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (13) Apr 01 (8) Mar 31 (10) Mar 30 (11) Mar 29 (10) Mar 28 (8) Mar 27 (6) Mar 26 (12) Mar 25 (15) Mar 24 (10) Mar 23 (12) Mar 22 (12) Mar 21 (8) Mar 20 (4) Mar 19 (11) Mar 18 (7) Mar 17 (7) Mar 16 (9) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (4) Mar 13 (2) Mar 12 (14) Mar 11 (13) Mar 10 (7) Mar 09 (9) Mar 08 (17) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (7) Mar 05 (13) Mar 04 (10) Mar 03 (14) Mar 02 (12) Mar 01 (18) Feb 28 (8) Feb 27 (2) Feb 26 (9) Feb 25 (13) Feb 24 (17) Feb 23 (13) Feb 22 (12) Feb 21 (11) Feb 20 (11) Feb 19 (16) Feb 18 (17) Feb 17 (15) Feb 16 (15) Feb 15 (15) Feb 14 (10) Feb 13 (8) Feb 12 (10) Feb 11 (15) Feb 10 (11) Feb 09 (13) Feb 08 (10) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (6) Feb 05 (15) Feb 04 (15) Feb 03 (11) Feb 02 (14) Feb 01 (15) Jan 31 (11) Jan 30 (9) Jan 29 (19) Jan 28 (9) Jan 27 (9) Jan 26 (16) Jan 25 (19) Jan 24 (17) Jan 23 (8) Jan 22 (15) Jan 21 (9) Jan 20 (11) Jan 19 (7) Jan 18 (9) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (7) Jan 15 (12) Jan 14 (9) Jan 13 (14) Jan 12 (11) Jan 11 (13) Jan 10 (8) Jan 09 (8) Jan 08 (20) Jan 07 (11) Jan 06 (11) Jan 05 (8) Jan 04 (14) Jan 03 (6) Jan 02 (7) Jan 01 (7) Dec 31 (14) Dec 30 (15) Dec 29 (7) Dec 28 (10) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (11) Dec 24 (9) Dec 23 (9) Dec 22 (15) Dec 21 (12) Dec 20 (11) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (16) Dec 17 (6) Dec 16 (12) Dec 15 (14) Dec 14 (11) Dec 13 (10) Dec 12 (6) Dec 11 (10) Dec 10 (17) Dec 09 (11) Dec 08 (12) Dec 07 (16) Dec 06 (11) Dec 05 (5) Dec 04 (12) Dec 03 (15) Dec 02 (15) Dec 01 (12) Nov 30 (16) Nov 29 (7) Nov 28 (11) Nov 27 (13) Nov 26 (13) Nov 25 (16) Nov 24 (15) Nov 23 (10) Nov 22 (10) Nov 21 (4) Nov 20 (8) Nov 19 (9) Nov 18 (16) Nov 17 (11) Nov 16 (11) Nov 15 (10) Nov 14 (9) Nov 13 (6) Nov 12 (10) Nov 11 (12) Nov 10 (15) Nov 09 (9) Nov 08 (10) Nov 07 (6) Nov 06 (7) Nov 05 (12) Nov 04 (14) Nov 03 (10) Nov 02 (13) Nov 01 (9) Oct 31 (9) Oct 30 (11) Oct 29 (18) Oct 28 (13) Oct 27 (23) Oct 26 (12) Oct 25 (14) Oct 24 (20) Oct 22 (18) Oct 21 (18) Oct 20 (19) Oct 19 (12) Oct 18 (11) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (18) Oct 15 (8) Oct 14 (11) Oct 13 (9) Oct 12 (13) Oct 11 (6) Oct 10 (7) Oct 09 (27) Oct 08 (14) Oct 07 (10) Oct 06 (9) Oct 05 (7) Oct 04 (10) Oct 03 (6) Oct 02 (9) Oct 01 (13) Sep 30 (12) Sep 29 (13) Sep 28 (8) Sep 27 (9) Sep 26 (8) Sep 25 (14) Sep 24 (4) Sep 23 (14) Sep 22 (20) Sep 21 (11) Sep 20 (6) Sep 19 (9) Sep 18 (14) Sep 17 (8) Sep 16 (17) Sep 15 (6) Sep 14 (11) Sep 13 (9) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (7) Sep 10 (14) Sep 09 (12) Sep 08 (17) Sep 07 (12) Sep 06 (13) Sep 05 (9) Sep 04 (20) Sep 03 (16) Sep 02 (16) Sep 01 (10) Aug 31 (13) Aug 30 (4) Aug 29 (9) Aug 28 (6) Aug 27 (8) Aug 26 (11) Aug 25 (10) Aug 24 (14) Aug 23 (12) Aug 22 (13) Aug 21 (10) Aug 20 (13) Aug 19 (15) Aug 18 (8) Aug 17 (10) Aug 16 (8) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (11) Aug 13 (12) Aug 12 (15) Aug 11 (10) Aug 10 (17) Aug 09 (6) Aug 08 (13) Aug 07 (11) Aug 06 (13) Aug 05 (11) Aug 04 (11) Aug 03 (10) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (6) Jul 31 (10) Jul 30 (21) Jul 29 (14) Jul 28 (13) Jul 27 (16) Jul 26 (10) Jul 25 (15) Jul 24 (17) Jul 23 (15) Jul 22 (15) Jul 21 (19) Jul 20 (17) Jul 19 (9) Jul 18 (7) Jul 17 (26) Jul 16 (18) Jul 15 (20) Jul 14 (16) Jul 13 (19) Jul 12 (11) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (13) Jul 09 (11) Jul 08 (8) Jul 07 (12) Jul 06 (16) Jul 05 (9) Jul 04 (5) Jul 03 (15) Jul 02 (11) Jul 01 (14) Jun 30 (13) Jun 29 (19) Jun 28 (8) Jun 27 (9) Jun 26 (16) Jun 25 (22) Jun 24 (17) Jun 23 (11) Jun 22 (15) Jun 21 (14) Jun 20 (8) Jun 19 (17) Jun 18 (10) Jun 17 (10) Jun 16 (17) Jun 15 (13) Jun 14 (14) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (13) Jun 11 (15) Jun 10 (25) Jun 09 (10) Jun 08 (23) Jun 07 (14) Jun 06 (20) Jun 05 (10) Jun 04 (11) Jun 03 (12) Jun 02 (21) Jun 01 (14) May 31 (10) May 30 (14) May 29 (8) May 28 (23) May 27 (20) May 26 (16) May 25 (13) May 24 (12) May 23 (10) May 22 (18) May 21 (14) May 20 (12) May 19 (18) May 18 (14) May 17 (13) May 16 (4) May 15 (7) May 14 (16) May 13 (13) May 12 (8) May 11 (18) May 10 (8) May 09 (7) May 08 (13) May 07 (11) May 06 (15) May 05 (18) May 04 (17) May 03 (7) May 02 (5) May 01 (11) Apr 30 (19) Apr 29 (21) Apr 28 (18) Apr 27 (16) Apr 26 (8) Apr 25 (11) Apr 24 (9) Apr 23 (20) Apr 22 (23) Apr 21 (5) Apr 20 (16) Apr 19 (13) Apr 18 (6) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (16) Apr 15 (18) Apr 14 (13) Apr 13 (14) Apr 12 (9) Apr 11 (3) Apr 10 (16) Apr 09 (14) Apr 08 (12) Apr 07 (18) Apr 06 (7) Apr 05 (11) Apr 04 (9) Apr 03 (19) Apr 02 (17) Apr 01 (16) Mar 31 (16) Mar 30 (22) Mar 29 (16) Mar 28 (16) Mar 27 (19) Mar 26 (31) Mar 25 (25) Mar 24 (26) Mar 23 (27) Mar 22 (22) Mar 21 (22) Mar 20 (13) Mar 19 (21) Mar 18 (20) Mar 17 (24) Mar 16 (18) Mar 15 (9) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (29) Mar 12 (15) Mar 11 (11) Mar 10 (11) Mar 09 (20) Mar 08 (12) Mar 07 (6) Mar 06 (21) Mar 05 (22) Mar 04 (19) Mar 03 (9) Mar 02 (20) Mar 01 (11) Feb 28 (11) Feb 27 (27) Feb 26 (15) Feb 25 (18) Feb 24 (17) Feb 23 (19) Feb 22 (24) Feb 21 (10) Feb 20 (14) Feb 19 (25) Feb 18 (16) Feb 17 (19) Feb 16 (23) Feb 15 (8) Feb 14 (11) Feb 13 (25) Feb 12 (16) Feb 11 (12) Feb 10 (18) Feb 09 (12) Feb 08 (14) Feb 07 (8) Feb 06 (27) Feb 05 (28) Feb 04 (24) Feb 03 (17) Feb 02 (20) Feb 01 (23) Jan 31 (16) Jan 30 (20) Jan 29 (26) Jan 28 (17) Jan 27 (21) Jan 26 (24) Jan 25 (16) Jan 24 (14) Jan 23 (16) Jan 22 (17) Jan 21 (19) Jan 20 (21) Jan 19 (17) Jan 18 (13) Jan 17 (14) Jan 16 (10) Jan 15 (21) Jan 14 (16) Jan 13 (19) Jan 12 (30) Jan 11 (14) Jan 10 (11) Jan 09 (8) Jan 08 (23) Jan 07 (13) Jan 06 (21) Jan 05 (15) Jan 04 (18) Jan 03 (9) Jan 02 (12) Jan 01 (15) Dec 31 (18) Dec 30 (7) Dec 29 (13) Dec 28 (11) Dec 27 (8) Dec 26 (6) Dec 25 (8) Dec 24 (28) Dec 23 (12) Dec 22 (12) Dec 21 (17) Dec 20 (19) Dec 19 (19) Dec 18 (22) Dec 17 (24) Dec 16 (17) Dec 15 (29) Dec 14 (22) Dec 13 (12) Dec 12 (22) Dec 11 (24) Dec 10 (25) Dec 09 (18) Dec 08 (15) Dec 07 (21) Dec 06 (24) Dec 05 (30) Dec 04 (28) Dec 03 (26) Dec 02 (22) Dec 01 (33) Nov 30 (23) Nov 29 (9) Nov 28 (18) Nov 27 (25) Nov 26 (17) Nov 25 (23) Nov 24 (27) Nov 23 (12) Nov 22 (10) Nov 21 (15) Nov 20 (23) Nov 19 (23) Nov 18 (24) Nov 17 (21) Nov 16 (20) Nov 15 (13) Nov 14 (15) Nov 13 (27) Nov 12 (23) Nov 11 (19) Nov 10 (21) Nov 09 (13) Nov 08 (16) Nov 07 (16) Nov 06 (32) Nov 05 (24) Nov 04 (20) Nov 03 (29) Nov 02 (12) Nov 01 (15) Oct 31 (20) Oct 30 (22) Oct 29 (27) Oct 28 (20) Oct 27 (23) Oct 26 (21) Oct 25 (15) Oct 24 (23) Oct 23 (26) Oct 22 (27) Oct 21 (28) Oct 20 (24) Oct 19 (13) Oct 18 (9) Oct 17 (30) Oct 16 (8) Oct 15 (20) Oct 14 (14) Oct 13 (17) Oct 12 (16) Oct 11 (8) Oct 10 (19) Oct 09 (22) Oct 08 (16) Oct 07 (18) Oct 06 (23) Oct 05 (7) Oct 04 (15) Oct 03 (21) Oct 02 (17) Oct 01 (22) Sep 30 (25) Sep 29 (20) Sep 28 (17) Sep 27 (13) Sep 26 (20) Sep 25 (15) Sep 24 (24) Sep 23 (23) Sep 22 (18) Sep 21 (20) Sep 20 (11) Sep 19 (24) Sep 18 (25) Sep 17 (25) Sep 16 (19) Sep 15 (21) Sep 14 (15) Sep 13 (10) Sep 12 (23) Sep 11 (23) Sep 10 (25) Sep 09 (25) Sep 08 (17) Sep 07 (3) Sep 06 (17) Sep 05 (14) Sep 04 (24) Sep 03 (16) Sep 02 (11) Sep 01 (19) Aug 31 (20) Aug 30 (11) Aug 29 (24) Aug 28 (24) Aug 27 (16) Aug 26 (26) Aug 25 (21) Aug 24 (15) Aug 23 (19) Aug 22 (15) Aug 21 (25) Aug 20 (27) Aug 19 (19) Aug 18 (24) Aug 17 (14) Aug 16 (10) Aug 15 (15) Aug 14 (16) Aug 13 (21) Aug 12 (30) Aug 11 (19) Aug 10 (8) Aug 09 (12) Aug 08 (17) Aug 07 (21) Aug 06 (26) Aug 05 (23) Aug 04 (21) Aug 03 (12) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (19) Jul 31 (21) Jul 30 (25) Jul 29 (29) Jul 28 (23) Jul 27 (17) Jul 26 (11) Jul 25 (21) Jul 24 (14) Jul 23 (15) Jul 22 (19) Jul 21 (15) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (10) Jul 18 (15) Jul 17 (22) Jul 16 (18) Jul 15 (21) Jul 14 (20) Jul 13 (7) Jul 12 (9) Jul 11 (29) Jul 10 (19) Jul 09 (17) Jul 08 (26) Jul 07 (21) Jul 06 (18) Jul 05 (14) Jul 04 (20) Jul 03 (17) Jul 02 (24) Jul 01 (23) Jun 30 (23) Jun 29 (18) Jun 28 (16) Jun 27 (16) Jun 26 (17) Jun 25 (23) Jun 24 (32) Jun 23 (29) Jun 22 (8) Jun 21 (17) Jun 20 (25) Jun 19 (28) Jun 18 (19) Jun 17 (25) Jun 16 (23) Jun 15 (9) Jun 14 (11) Jun 13 (14) Jun 12 (22) Jun 11 (19) Jun 10 (17) Jun 09 (15) Jun 08 (16) Jun 07 (7) Jun 06 (29) Jun 05 (27) Jun 04 (24) Jun 03 (22) Jun 02 (22) Jun 01 (13) May 31 (9) May 30 (26) May 29 (19) May 28 (15) May 27 (15) May 26 (23) May 25 (13) May 24 (12) May 23 (24) May 22 (13) May 21 (21) May 20 (18) May 19 (16) May 18 (7) May 17 (12) May 16 (25) May 15 (24) May 14 (23) May 13 (19) May 12 (17) May 11 (8) May 10 (6) May 09 (14) May 08 (21) May 07 (26) May 06 (14) May 05 (14) May 04 (3) May 03 (3) May 02 (24) May 01 (13) Apr 30 (15) Apr 29 (24) Apr 28 (24) Apr 27 (11) Apr 26 (8) Apr 25 (13) Apr 24 (27) Apr 23 (15) Apr 22 (21) Apr 21 (19) Apr 20 (17) Apr 19 (8) Apr 18 (20) Apr 17 (27) Apr 16 (27) Apr 15 (21) Apr 14 (8) Apr 13 (8) Apr 12 (7) Apr 11 (7) Apr 10 (22) Apr 09 (15) Apr 08 (15) Apr 07 (17) Apr 06 (14) Apr 05 (5) Apr 04 (12) Apr 03 (19) Apr 02 (17) Apr 01 (19) Mar 31 (25) Mar 30 (13) Mar 29 (9) Mar 28 (16) Mar 27 (23) Mar 26 (22) Mar 25 (17) Mar 24 (25) Mar 23 (16) Mar 22 (13) Mar 21 (24) Mar 20 (27) Mar 19 (20) Mar 18 (24) Mar 17 (17) Mar 16 (11) Mar 15 (6) Mar 14 (20) Mar 13 (28) Mar 12 (30) Mar 11 (20) Mar 10 (21) Mar 09 (12) Mar 08 (8) Mar 07 (17) Mar 06 (20) Mar 05 (19) Mar 04 (15) Mar 03 (17) Mar 02 (8) Mar 01 (12) Feb 28 (16) Feb 27 (17) Feb 26 (8) Feb 25 (23) Feb 24 (15) Feb 23 (8) Feb 22 (10) Feb 21 (24) Feb 20 (14) Feb 19 (24) Feb 18 (19) Feb 17 (27) Feb 16 (13) Feb 15 (11) Feb 14 (15) Feb 13 (13) Feb 12 (13) Feb 11 (21) Feb 10 (16) Feb 09 (15) Feb 08 (10) Feb 07 (17) Feb 06 (21) Feb 05 (17) Feb 04 (14) Feb 03 (23) Feb 02 (5) Feb 01 (8) Jan 31 (17) Jan 30 (22) Jan 29 (23) Jan 28 (10) Jan 27 (24) Jan 26 (12) Jan 25 (9) Jan 24 (12) Jan 23 (19) Jan 22 (19) Jan 21 (14) Jan 20 (21) Jan 19 (12) Jan 18 (8) Jan 17 (20) Jan 16 (14) Jan 15 (23) Jan 14 (8) Jan 13 (20) Jan 12 (9) Jan 11 (7) Jan 10 (18) Jan 09 (11) Jan 08 (18) Jan 07 (13) Jan 06 (12) Jan 05 (12) Jan 04 (11) Jan 03 (10) Jan 02 (9) Jan 01 (9) Dec 31 (12) Dec 30 (11) Dec 29 (6) Dec 28 (9) Dec 27 (13) Dec 26 (15) Dec 25 (8) Dec 24 (6) Dec 23 (8) Dec 22 (5) Dec 21 (6) Dec 20 (14) Dec 19 (17) Dec 18 (14) Dec 17 (14) Dec 16 (13) Dec 15 (9) Dec 14 (9) Dec 13 (11) Dec 12 (16) Dec 11 (18) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (24) Dec 08 (11) Dec 07 (19) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (26) Dec 04 (15) Dec 03 (20) Dec 02 (17) Dec 01 (11) Nov 30 (10) Nov 29 (18) Nov 28 (21) Nov 27 (10) Nov 26 (22) Nov 25 (16) Nov 24 (12) Nov 23 (8) Nov 22 (18) Nov 21 (9) Nov 20 (17) Nov 19 (16) Nov 18 (16) Nov 17 (5) Nov 16 (9) Nov 15 (21) Nov 14 (17) Nov 13 (20) Nov 12 (16) Nov 11 (13) Nov 10 (9) Nov 09 (10) Nov 08 (16) Nov 07 (15) Nov 06 (18) Nov 05 (19) Nov 04 (16) Nov 03 (11) Nov 02 (5) Nov 01 (17) Oct 31 (17) Oct 30 (21) Oct 29 (9) Oct 28 (16) Oct 27 (6) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (16) Oct 24 (18) Oct 23 (14) Oct 22 (17) Oct 21 (10) Oct 20 (6) Oct 19 (8) Oct 18 (11) Oct 17 (12) Oct 16 (14) Oct 15 (19) Oct 14 (15) Oct 13 (11) Oct 12 (9) Oct 11 (10) Oct 10 (23) Oct 09 (13) Oct 08 (15) Oct 07 (20) Oct 06 (13) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (16) Oct 03 (17) Oct 02 (17) Oct 01 (20) Sep 30 (17) Sep 29 (9) Sep 28 (8) Sep 27 (14) Sep 26 (20) Sep 25 (19) Sep 24 (13) Sep 23 (11) Sep 22 (9) Sep 21 (5) Sep 20 (8) Sep 19 (21) Sep 18 (12) Sep 17 (20) Sep 16 (16) Sep 15 (10) Sep 14 (6) Sep 13 (18) Sep 12 (14) Sep 11 (24) Sep 10 (17) Sep 09 (16) Sep 08 (16) Sep 07 (10) Sep 06 (20) Sep 05 (13) Sep 04 (23) Sep 03 (14) Sep 02 (12) Sep 01 (11) Aug 31 (11) Aug 30 (13) Aug 29 (18) Aug 28 (14) Aug 27 (21) Aug 26 (10) Aug 25 (8) Aug 24 (10) Aug 23 (17) Aug 22 (15) Aug 21 (14) Aug 20 (20) Aug 19 (20) Aug 18 (7) Aug 17 (9) Aug 16 (11) Aug 15 (12) Aug 14 (14) Aug 13 (19) Aug 12 (14) Aug 11 (6) Aug 10 (12) Aug 09 (7) Aug 08 (18) Aug 07 (16) Aug 06 (16) Aug 05 (20) Aug 04 (12) Aug 03 (8) Aug 02 (12) Aug 01 (14) Jul 31 (16) Jul 30 (16) Jul 29 (11) Jul 28 (8) Jul 27 (9) Jul 26 (17) Jul 25 (20) Jul 24 (17) Jul 23 (11) Jul 22 (18) Jul 21 (7) Jul 20 (10) Jul 19 (14) Jul 18 (11) Jul 17 (15) Jul 16 (12) Jul 15 (10) Jul 14 (8) Jul 13 (8) Jul 12 (17) Jul 11 (18) Jul 10 (16) Jul 09 (13) Jul 08 (10) Jul 07 (12) Jul 06 (8) Jul 05 (16) Jul 04 (14) Jul 03 (17) Jul 02 (13) Jul 01 (16) Jun 30 (19) Jun 29 (7) Jun 28 (19) Jun 27 (21) Jun 26 (27) Jun 25 (23) Jun 24 (23) Jun 23 (12) Jun 22 (9) Jun 21 (18) Jun 20 (15) Jun 19 (24) Jun 18 (21) Jun 17 (13) Jun 16 (9) Jun 15 (9) Jun 14 (18) Jun 13 (24) Jun 12 (18) Jun 11 (23) Jun 10 (25) Jun 09 (24) Jun 08 (27) Jun 07 (5) Jun 06 (25) Jun 05 (30) Jun 04 (23) Jun 03 (22) Jun 02 (16) Jun 01 (17) May 31 (18) May 30 (19) May 29 (17) May 28 (23) May 27 (15) May 26 (10) May 25 (19) May 24 (16) May 23 (16) May 22 (27) May 21 (20) May 20 (26) May 19 (6) May 18 (8) May 17 (20) May 16 (8) May 15 (18) May 14 (5) May 13 (21) May 12 (9) May 11 (8) May 10 (12) May 09 (18) May 08 (11) May 07 (27) May 06 (12) May 05 (16) May 04 (19) May 03 (14) May 02 (18) May 01 (18) Apr 30 (25) Apr 29 (27) Apr 28 (11) Apr 27 (10) Apr 26 (18) Apr 25 (10) Apr 24 (29) Apr 23 (29) Apr 22 (14) Apr 21 (15) Apr 20 (20) Apr 19 (22) Apr 18 (16) Apr 17 (32) Apr 16 (12) Apr 15 (21) Apr 14 (21) Apr 13 (15) Apr 12 (13) Apr 11 (14) Apr 10 (16) Apr 09 (20) Apr 08 (36) Apr 07 (22) Apr 06 (11) Apr 05 (28) Apr 04 (20) Apr 03 (29) Apr 02 (32) Apr 01 (18) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (9) Mar 29 (15) Mar 28 (22) Mar 27 (24) Mar 26 (17) Mar 25 (17) Mar 24 (13) Mar 23 (5) Mar 22 (12) Mar 21 (15) Mar 20 (18) Mar 19 (19) Mar 18 (16) Mar 17 (10) Mar 16 (6) Mar 15 (18) Mar 14 (24) Mar 13 (18) Mar 12 (18) Mar 11 (17) Mar 10 (13) Mar 09 (12) Mar 08 (18) Mar 07 (25) Mar 06 (16) Mar 05 (16) Mar 04 (22) Mar 03 (17) Mar 02 (6) Mar 01 (23) Feb 29 (19) Feb 28 (25) Feb 27 (26) Feb 26 (23) Feb 25 (12) Feb 24 (13) Feb 23 (15) Feb 22 (26) Feb 21 (31) Feb 20 (12) Feb 19 (21) Feb 18 (15) Feb 17 (10) Feb 16 (15) Feb 15 (19) Feb 14 (15) Feb 13 (25) Feb 12 (20) Feb 11 (9) Feb 10 (7) Feb 09 (28) Feb 08 (20) Feb 07 (22) Feb 06 (20) Feb 05 (19) Feb 04 (14) Feb 03 (16) Feb 02 (28) Feb 01 (37) Jan 31 (27) Jan 30 (31) Jan 29 (18) Jan 28 (14) Jan 27 (10) Jan 26 (18) Jan 25 (26) Jan 24 (34) Jan 23 (21) Jan 22 (21) Jan 21 (18) Jan 20 (18) Jan 19 (18) Jan 18 (26) Jan 17 (24) Jan 16 (23) Jan 15 (30) Jan 14 (20) Jan 13 (18) Jan 12 (24) Jan 11 (11) Jan 10 (23) Jan 09 (22) Jan 08 (17) Jan 07 (17) Jan 06 (9) Jan 05 (18) Jan 04 (15) Jan 03 (19) Jan 02 (14) Jan 01 (6) Dec 31 (12) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (15) Dec 28 (11) Dec 27 (7) Dec 26 (10) Dec 25 (16) Dec 24 (13) Dec 23 (16) Dec 22 (11) Dec 21 (26) Dec 20 (28) Dec 19 (14) Dec 18 (25) Dec 17 (23) Dec 16 (19) Dec 15 (22) Dec 14 (38) Dec 13 (26) Dec 12 (25) Dec 11 (27) Dec 10 (31) Dec 09 (15) Dec 08 (30) Dec 07 (31) Dec 06 (27) Dec 05 (38) Dec 04 (25) Dec 03 (27) Dec 02 (15) Dec 01 (36) Nov 30 (23) Nov 29 (17) Nov 28 (23) Nov 27 (13) Nov 26 (16) Nov 25 (14) Nov 24 (18) Nov 23 (21) Nov 22 (21) Nov 21 (24) Nov 20 (20) Nov 19 (23) Nov 18 (17) Nov 17 (17) Nov 16 (34) Nov 15 (25) Nov 14 (17) Nov 13 (21) Nov 12 (18) Nov 11 (9) Nov 10 (15) Nov 09 (9) Nov 08 (9) Nov 07 (12) Nov 06 (8) Nov 05 (4) Oct 29 (1) Oct 01 (1) Jul 29 (1) May 11 (1) Jul 11 (1)
I sat up in bed and felt like a brick wall had hit me last night. I over did it yesterday, but it is time to get things done. The weather was perfect and I spent the day, dragging logs, fixing the fence, walking for four hours total, rebuilt a sled I borrowed, writing a couple of posts, working on the internet store and dancing a jig  Plus a few more things The dancing jig part maybe stretching it a little bit

Thus, today I have already walked Boza and he is sleeping again, while I write this article. The coffee is talking to me, as the steam wafts to my nose and the nutty smell of the odor is so enticing

First thing I did when I sat up this morning is take a sugar reading and my blood pressure. Sugar was 4.9mmo/l (88mg/dl) and BP was 100 / 55 I consider that pretty good, but I seem to have a sinus infection and that made me grouchy. But how can you stay grouchy with vital readings like that. On the same line as vitals, Svetochka has found a oxymeter that goes on the finger tip, to tell me what my oxygen readings are. My last doctor in America was concerned about that situation and he was going to run a bunch of tests. I think he may have been on to something and I will start the process of elimination to determine if I have a low oxygen issue. There is medicine to help me if I do and I will be watching that closely. As soon as she gets back to our village home

Oh for those who wonder about sugar stuff tidbits; for a diabetic, hypoglycemia worry point is 4 or below, hence the phrase 4 is the floor

For a diabetic, the first time that you actually get blood sugar under control, is sometimes a scary thing. Your body has no idea what correct levels are and it takes time to allow the body and your mind to gather and assimilate the data to understand what is happening. I have seen people go into hypoglycemia at 6mmo/l, just because they have never been near that low before or at least for so many years the body forgot what it is like

One thing that I have found is that newer doctors seem to not be inducing hypoglycemia in a patient to allow the person to feel what it is about. My doctor did this while I was in his office and could control the situation. It is important that before you start taking medicine, you know what to expect. I watch people freak out at 6mmo/l to 7mmo/l because they have never had readings that low and some think they will die or something. The body does react strange at first and the mind definitely reacts strange

* * * * * * * * * *

The day started out great and then Mother Nature decided that we did not deserve more sun and sent the sun away. Then she added insult to injury and start it to rain

Oh well, you take what you can get

WtR
If youre looking to try out an online casino, there are several things that will help you make a decision. Heres what you should look for when choosing an online casino

 Are they regulated? A lot of the larger ones have licenses issued by the authorities in their respective regions, so its worth checking this first.

 Do they offer games from different software providers? Some casinos just use one software provider and limit your selection. This is fine if you like playing those types of games but you may want to check other casinos as well.

 What does their payout percentage look like? The payout rate refers to how much money you can expect to win after every bet. A high payout rate means youll be able to play more often without having to worry about losing all your money. Its also important to know the minimum and maximum bets allowed on each game. If youre going to play roulette, for example, then you probably dont want a casino with a minimum bet of less than $2.50 or even lower than that.

The players used to play the game slot online in the land based casinos in the past time. But now with time after the invention of the online casinos players play the game slot online. Online platform provide the players with the convenience in playing and even better winning. Even after keeping a good percentage of the profits, they distribute good funds to players.

 How many games do they offer? There are lots of different types of games to choose from. Roulette, blackjack and poker are some of the most popular options, but you might find slots, video pokers, video bingo and others as well. You can usually filter these games down to only show the ones that interest you best, so make sure that your list isnt too long!

 Is there a bonus offer? Many online casinos offer free bonuses as part of their welcome package  which includes new players being awarded 100% up to $10 instantly, for example. These offers are great but not everyone has access to them all the time (and some require you to deposit real money). If youd prefer to avoid paying a fee, some casinos offer no-deposit bonuses where you can get a certain amount of funds before you need to put any actual money into the account. These are usually offered alongside welcome bonuses, so make sure you read both parts of the terms and conditions carefully before signing up.

 Does it offer live dealer games? Live dealers are much preferred by many over regular virtual versions, so it pays to check this option out too. Most online casinos now offer live dealer games in addition to their regular offerings, allowing you to experience the thrill of the real thing without needing to leave home.

Now that youve got an idea of what to look for when choosing an online casino, heres some tips for making the right choice

It really comes down to personal preference. No two people are exactly alike, so everyone has an opinion on what they like and dislike about each casino. That said, here are some things to consider in order to narrow down your choices

 Popularity. Check out reviews, forums and Facebook pages to see what other people think of the casino. Also, ask around at work or friends houses who they would recommend to you. You could always take a look at the casinos website too, to see what kind of information they provide about themselves.

 Reputation. Find out what the general public thinks about the casino. Check out any customer reviews on sites like Trustpilot, Amazon and Google Play to find out more. As far as gaming goes, you can also check out the Better Business Bureau to see whether there have been any complaints against the casino.

 Security. Make sure the casino uses SSL encryption to secure its transactions, meaning that your private data stays safe during transactions. Other than that, look for security seals on the site itself and verify that theyre legitimate. You can also check out the casinos privacy policy to see how they handle confidential information.

 Payment methods. Its good to have multiple payment options available, especially if you plan to play frequently. Its also nice to find a casino that accepts cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. If youre worried about safety, you can always opt for a credit card or PayPal instead.

With all those criteria in mind, heres our top picks

Betway:

Betway is a relatively new UK casino offering online gambling to residents of the United Kingdom and European Union. They offer hundreds of games across both land based and digital platforms, with plenty of top software providers like Net Entertainment, Microgaming and Yggdrasil Gaming Network. With a generous welcome offer that gives players 100% up to 100, you really cant go wrong with Betway.

Coral Casino:

Coral Casino is operated by the same company that runs the famous Caribbean casino, Grand Reef. Like many casinos, Coral Casino offers a wide variety of games, including plenty of video slots and table games. New players can benefit from a huge 100% match bonus up to 1000, while existing customers enjoy 25% cash back on deposits made within 48 hours of opening an account.

Ladbrokes Casino:

Ladbrokes Casino is owned by the same company as the famous bookmaker that started life in 1921. With more than 500 games from leading software providers such as Amaya, NetEnt and Microgaming, you wont be disappointed by the quality of the games here. New players get a 200% match bonus up to 500, while existing customers can claim 35% cashback on their first three deposits.

Paddy Power Casino:

Paddy Power is another Irish-owned casino that operates throughout Europe. Not only does Paddy Power Casino offer traditional casino games like blackjack, roulette and slots, but it also provides a full range of sports betting, including football, tennis, boxing and horse racing. New players can receive a massive 100% match bonus up to 200, while existing customers can claim 35% cashback on their first three deposits.

William Hill Casino:

William Hill Casino is one of the biggest names in the industry, operating in Europe, Asia and North America. Founded in 1984, this online casino has more than 400 games to choose from, including slots and table games, with a wide array of software providers like WagerLogic, Big Time Gaming and Rival.

Bonus: 100% Match Bonus up to 100  Register Now

Betway: 100% Match Bonus up to 100  Claim Now

Coral Casino: 25% Cash Back on Deposits  Claim Now

Ladbrokes Casino: 35% Cash Back on First 3 Deposits  Claim Now

Paddy Power Casino: 100% Match Bonus up to 200  Claim Now

William Hill Casino: 100% Match Bonus up to 200  Claim Now

If youre interested in trying out an online casino but arent quite ready to commit to one, why not try out one of the many no deposit casinos weve reviewed? You can test drive various casinos completely risk-free, so you can feel confident about your choice before you make a single penny deposit.
Mar 10, 2016 | By Alec

Its an age-old battle when it comes to resin 3D printing. Do you go for the often more expensive SLA 3D printer, or for the cheaper DLP 3D printer  which features a light source that needs to be replaced after several thousand hours? When the other stats are almost exactly the same, it can be a hard choice to make. But that might not be an issue any more in the near future, as South Korean 3D printer developer Carima has just unveiled the im-j DLP 3D printer, featuring an LED UV light source that can last 20,000 hours  about four to seven times longer than other DLP light sources.

Carima is a South Korean 3D printer manufacturer. Founded way back in 1983 as a photo-conducting business with a focus on optic machinery, their focus has shifted to 3D printers a few years ago. They developed their first industrial 3D printer (Master) in 2009, by relying on their own optic technologies. Last year, they unveiled the very interesting C-CAT 3D printing technology at Euromold 2015, which is also part of the im-j DLP 3D printer. In a nutshell, it combines high speed 3D printing with DLPs excellent detail level. Depending on who you compare it with, C-CAT (Carima-Continuous Additive 3D Printing Technology) is theoretically capable of being up to 400 times faster than existing DLP 3D printers.

While they are not specifying the speed of the im-j DLP 3D printer, the combination of C-CAT with a long-life light source makes it a very interesting 3D printer indeed. As they explain to 3ders.org, Carima purposefully unveiled the 3D printer at the Hong Kong Jewelry Show 2016, as the machine has been specifically designed for jewelry design. They are therefore pushing to enter Hong Kongs considerable jewelry market. For that purpose, the Hong Kong event was obviously the right place to be. Held throughout last week, it is the largest jewelry event in the world and attracted more than 2,500 companies from all over the world, as well as 320,000 visitors from Asia, Europe and the US.

And it certainly seems to be a good option for jewelry design. Combine the theoretical top speed of C-CAT technology (up to 1 cm/minute) with a good resolution of 50 microns, a touch panel, and user-friendly operation system that accommodates inexperienced users, what more do you need? And with a 20,000 hour life span for its LED UV light source, it definitely wont need maintenance frequently. The company further revealed that the machine can also be used with wax resin for direct casting, making it easy to create metal jewelry as well.

According to Carima, the crowds in Hong Kong were quite impressed with the machine, which they will initially bring to the Asian market. But as the company already exports to more than 25 countries throughout the world, they are also looking at international export. Lee Byung Geuk, the companys CEO is confident that the im-j DLP 3D printer will be a huge hit. Carima expects that a turning point will be reached once the im-j model hits the worldwide market. It will enable us to export high-end Korean technology worldwide.

Posted in 3D Printer

Maybe you also like:









Pritpal Singh wrote at 9/17/2017 10:57:23 AM:I am interested in buying . Send detail of product Ppbangles25273@gmail.comJohn wrote at 3/10/2016 10:19:09 PM:50um wont cut the mustard for jewelry prints. Shame as this looks interesting




Mar 10, 2016 | By Alec

Its no secret that the 3D printing market is steadily expanding, but it can sometimes be a bit challenging to pinpoint exactly how big it is and where we are collectively heading. Fortunately, market experts from International Data Corporation (IDC) have repeatedly proven themselves to make very accurate analyses and precise predictions, which makes their latest report on the Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APeJ) market very interesting. One of the fastest growing tech markets in the world, 3D printing is a huge hit there already and spending in that market is set to grow considerably over the coming years, IDC predicts. By 2019, they say, spending in that market will have nearly tripled to $4.3 billion.

The International Data Corporation (IDC), of course, is the world leading provider of market intelligence, advisory services and data for a number of fields, information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology markets. With a presence in more than 100 countries throughout the world, they typically know what theyre talking about. Their new Semiannual 3D Printing Spending Guide predicts quite some remarkable growth in developing regions, though it is actually part of a huge report on the 3D printing industry that covers all markets, hardware and 3D printing opportunities for 20 industries. The company previously predicted that the spending on 3D printing in the Middle East and Africa market will more than double over the coming years, growing to $1.3 billion by 2019.

But it looks like the APeJ market will eclipse that. IDC is predicting a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23% for the Asia Pacific excluding Japan market, which will see spending grow from $1.5 billion to $4.3 billion by 2019. In fact, the APeJ market holds the majority share of hardware spending in the international 3D printing market, being considerably larger than that in the Americas. However, more 3D printers are being used in North and South America than in Asia.

According to Rachel Selvaranee, Market Analyst of IDCs Imaging, Printing and Document Solutions research, they do expect 3D printers to be more commonly used in the APeJ market over the coming years. Companies in this region have the capital to invest in 3D printers but have yet to fully utilize the printers to the point of continuous use for production indicating a relatively lower print volume. IDC expect to see stronger growth in the coming years as organizations explore the use of 3D printers unique to their markets, she says.

In the spending guide, several sectors of the 3D printing industry are also separately explored. According to IDC, the discrete manufacturing sector is currently the leading vertical market for 3D printing in APeJ, accounting for more than 605 of the total market. That sector is expected to grow with an CAGR of 15% over the coming years. At the same time, the aerospace and defense sector leads in terms of 3D IT spending right now (20% of total spending), but that sector is expected to become more important for spending on 3D printing. That growth is being boosted by a blooming aviation market in the region, and IDC goes as far as predicting that sector will spend as much as $550 million on 3D printing by 2019.

Remarkably, IDC further singled out the dental sector as one of the key growers in the APeJ 3D printing market  with an expected CAGR growth rate of 25% by 2019. We are witnessing the growth of commercial 3D printing facilities catered to dental and medical sectors in Asia to cater to the demands of the overseas markets, said Selvaranee. Especially new medical solutions, such as implants, 3D bioprinting and surgical tools will push that growth.

But the positive effects of government support for 3D printing innovation also cannot be ignored. Of course the Chinese governments Made in China 2025 initiative to promote high-tech manufacturing in aerospace, aviation and automotive industries and 3D printing education makes it the frontrunner in this respect, but other governments are implementing similar policies. Supportive government policies and research funding from countries like Singapore, China, Korea, Taiwan and Australia are the backbone of the exploration 3D printing in Asia. With this support, 3D printing will fuel growth for innovation in steering the region to increased efficiency and productivity gains, said Selvaranee.

On the whole, it seems that 3D printing is becoming a very viable manufacturing tool in the Asia Pacific region, and one that will affect numerous industries. From aerospace manufacturing mainstream to the unprecedented presence in almost all industries, 3D printing is shaping up as smart solution to improve production quality, accuracy and speed. Our research suggests the 3D printing technology foot prints are now perceptible in retail and food processing industries, said Rubal Sabharwal, the Manager of IDCs Consumer Insights and Analysis Group.

Posted in 3D Printing Application

Maybe you also like:












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.
For some Airmen, being called a weather geek is a term of endearment.

Two Airmen from the 557th Weather Wing recently embraced their inner geek and will share their passion and expertise on an upcoming episode of Weather Geeks on the Weather Channel.

Lt. Col. James Weaver, deputy commander of the 2nd Weather Group, and Staff Sgt. Trevor Reiss, a weather forecaster assigned to the 21st Operational Weather Squadron, will be featured on the weather-driven talk show airing this Sunday, March 13 at noon, EDT.

The show broadcasts weekly and is hosted by Dr. Marshall Shepherd, a University of Georgia professor and 2013 president of the American Meteorological Society.

Weaver and Reiss traveled to the Weather Channels production studio in Atlanta, on Feb. 25 to answer questions about the unique mission of the 557th WW and the roles and responsibilities of an Air Force meteorologist.

As a weather officer with 19 years experience, in addition to bachelors and masters degrees in meteorology, Weaver was fielded to answer questions and discuss the career field from a leadership perspective. Weather officers provide critical oversight and expertise across the range of Air Force weather operations, all while leading flights and squadrons of weather personnel.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Weaver said. This was my first experience being interviewed for a television show and was made all the more unique and special because it's a show I currently watch and enjoy. The interview provided an outstanding platform to inform the American public about the 557th Weather Wing, its mission and people. I'm honored to represent the more than 1500 active duty, reservists, and civilians who work so hard to accomplish the mission every day.

Reiss, who has been in the Air Force since September 2010 and graduated from the Weather Apprentice Course at Keesler Air Force Base in Miss., offered a junior enlisted perspective. The enlisted force within the 557th WW directly supports their customers needs by analyzing data, drawing hazards charts, briefing pilots, creating forecasts and more.

I was excited to just have a chance to tell our story, said Reiss. A lot of people dont know that the Air Force has a weather department. The Air Force takes citizens and transforms them into operational forecasters. Not only are we looking at the weather and putting together all the scientific processes, but were then transforming this information to relevant products for our customers.

When the show producers reached out to the Air Force with an invitation to showcase weather Airmen, leadership from the 557th WW selected Weaver and Reiss to participate, and they both jumped at the opportunity.

We wanted to shed light on the importance and often overlooked role of the military weather forecasters, said Mike Chesterfield, Weather Geeks executive producer. The professionalism and the enthusiasm the Airmen have for their jobs was on full display. We were thrilled to host the team and we are certain that the perspective that they provided will not only be informative but will be fascinating for our audience.

After a tour of the Weather Channel facility, weather lab and production studio, Weaver and Reiss sat down with Sheppard and discussed what exactly an Air Force weather forecaster does.

The 557th is the Air Force's only weather wing, and we provide specialized airpower on behalf of the American people for the Air Force, Department of Defense, joint warfighters and our coalition partners and allies, Weaver said. You won't find a more dedicated and professional group of Airmen in the Air Force.

Reiss explained that the underlying meaning of being a weather geek is having a passion for meteorology and learning the science of Mother Nature.

Although the fundamentals of being a meteorologist are fairly standard, Air Force meteorologists and weather technicians are quite different than what the general public typically expects from meteorologists on television; the biggest difference being the customers they support.

Missions can fail and lives may be lost if commanders are not provided with timely and accurate forecasts and overall weather situational awareness, according to Weaver. Members of the 557th WW, headquartered at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., provide aircrews with very detailed aviation forecasts, issue watches and warnings and produce airfield forecasts for more than 534 locations, protecting over a million Airmen, Soldiers, family members and $1 trillion in Department of Defense assets around the world.

For more information about the 557th WW, formerly known as the Air Force Weather Agency, visit their webpage at http://www.557weatherwing.af.mil/.
The Internal Revenue Service will be making some changes in the due dates next year for several types of business tax returns, which should give accountants a little extra breathing room.

In general I think most CPAs are looking forward to the changes, said Texas Society of CPAs chair Allyson Baumeister, who is also a principal in charge of the Forth Worth office at CliftonLarsonAllen. The purpose of them is to spread out the workload a little bit, particularly as it pertains to flow-through entities, so that the flow of K-1s works better. Entities that generate K-1 flow-through activity will be due before C corps and 1040s that receive that K-1 information. I think were all looking forward to seeing how it works, and were very hopeful it will help with the compression issues.

Partnership tax returns will be due March 15 instead of April 15. If the partnership isnt on a calendar year basis, the return is due on the 15th day of the third month following the end of the tax year.

C corporation tax returns will be due April 15 instead of March 15. For non-calendar year corporations, the tax return will be due on the 15th day of the fourth month following the close of the tax year. C corporations with tax years ending on June 30 will continue to have a due date of September 15 until 2025. After Dec. 31, 2025, the due date for these returns will be October 15.

Partnerships and C corporations are basically switching places, said Baumeister. The partnership returns will be due first and then extended so that partnership K-1s can flow into C corporation returns and into individual returns, and theres more time in between those partnership returns being filed and the C corp and 1040s being filed. For this filing season that were in, on extension partnership returns will be due September 15 and calendar year C corporation returns are due September 15 as well. Sometimes that makes it impossible for the C corporations to file with correct data if they dont receive that K-1 until their own due date. So now the C corporation returns will be due in October, and that gives those entities a month after receiving those K-1s to be able to finish their returns and have all of the data needed.

Some individual tax filers will also be affected by the new due dates, particularly those who need to file foreign bank account reports. The due date for FBARs will move from June 30 to April 15. FBAR filers will now also get a six-month extension, just as they do for a tax return. The extension dates for trust returns are also changing.

Trust returns are still going to be due in April, but theyre going to be extended, Baumeister explained. Instead of September 15, theyll be extended to September 30, so that allows those trusts to receive partnership K-1s September 15 and to be able to give them a couple of weeks to file. Then when they file the K-1s that flow into 1040s, theres a couple of weeks before 1040s have to file. Its still pretty compressed, but it requires the K-1 flowon extension in particularto work a little bit better.

Baumeister predicts most accounting firms will be able to adjust easily to the changes next year.

This came out in the summer, and we will have had a year and a half to prepare for it, she said. That will give us a lot of time. The IRS usually gets the forms out in time, by the end of January at the latest. It should work well, I think, for everyone.

Congress changed the due dates in a highway funding bill last July (see Congress Changes Business Tax-Filing Due Dates). The American Institute of CPAs had lobbied Congress for the changes and enlisted the help of several state CPA societies, including the TSCPA, to press for the new due dates.

We as a group have been working on this for quite a while, and were very happy that it actually passed, said Baumeister.

Still, there have been a few complaints about the new due dates from tax preparers. After all, while the changes may mean less compression during busy season, there may instead be more compression of vacation season.

Some people just dont like change at all, said Baumeister. For some, it extends the extension deadlines a little bit. For trusts, its two extra weeks, and for C corps its an extra month. Some preparers think that just means theyll stay busier longer, but I think most preparers will like the spreading out of it a little bit more. Right now entities, except 1040s, are due September 15 on extension, and thats really difficult when youve got S corps and C corps and partnerships and trusts all due on the same day. The due dates make the extension season pretty compressed, so I think for the most part most CPAs will like the spreading out of those due dates a little bit more.
The Internal Revenue Service plans to strengthen its controls over the accounting for the Premium Tax Credit, which helps subsidize health insurance premiums under the Affordable Care Act, after a government watchdog found discrepancies of $447 million.

A report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that controls over the financial accounting for fund outlays and disbursements associated with the PTC should be improved. Specifically, TIGTA found errors in the IRS financial accounting and reporting of PTC-related fund outlays.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act created the Premium Tax Credit to help eligible individuals pay for their health insurance premiums. Rather than wait to claim the credit on their federal tax returns, individuals can elect to have the PTC paid directly to their health insurance issuers as a partial payment for their monthly premiums, referred to as the Advance Premium Tax Credit or APTC. In addition, as a refundable credit, the PTC is fully payable to the taxpayer even if the tax credit exceeds the tax liability.

To reconcile the PTC, the IRS needs to adjust the amounts initially recorded for Advanced Premium Tax Credit payments based on taxpayer estimated income and family size to the actual PTC amount based on income and number of dependent deductions reported on the taxpayers federal tax return. The errors identified by TIGTA were due to a programming miscalculation. But the miscalculation was not caught due to insufficient testing of the financial system programming developed to account for the impact of the reconciliation of PTC fund outlays (disbursements).

Due to this programing error, the IRS understated the amount of PTC disbursements and overstated the balance in the IRS PTC account by $447 million. The error that TIGTA identified in the financial accounting records, if left uncorrected, would have resulted in a misstatement of the fiscal year 2015 IRS financial statements refundable credits in excess of the tax liability account.

TIGTA determined that the key controls established over PTC accounting do not include the requirement for the periodic performance of a financial reconciliation of the IRSs records and the APTC payment information (by the taxpayer) prepared and reported by the health insurance marketplaces.

TIGTA recommended the IRSs chief financial officer, in coordination with the agencys chief technology officer, develop procedures requiring the timely and comprehensive review and testing of any changes to the financial system programming used to report outlays related to the PTC. The report also suggested the CFO, in coordination with the IRSs Affordable Care Act Office, should work with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to jointly develop procedures for the periodic financial reconciliation of APTC information.

In response to the report, IRS management agreed with TIGTAs recommendations. The IRS plans to ensure that established test standards and guidelines are adhered to during financial systems testing. In addition, the IRS plans to perform periodic reconciliations of APTC payment information provided by the health insurance marketplaces to its financial records.
(Bloomberg) Florida Senator Marco Rubio notched a personal best for earnings in 2012 as he and his wife, Jeanette, recorded almost $930,000 in taxable incomehelped by $800,000 that a publisher paid for his best-selling autobiography.

The Rubios set another personal record that year; they incurred more than $11,000 in penalties and interest charges from the Internal Revenue Service, mostly because they paid no taxes on Marco Rubios publishing earnings until Oct. 15, 2013, according to documents that Rubios presidential campaign provided to Bloomberg News.

Voters wouldnt necessarily be able to know that from the partial 2012 tax return that Rubio has released, one of 15 years worth of partial returns his campaign posted online last month. The 2012 return is undated, and it says the couple made $200,000 in estimated tax payments that were due that year. Actually, though, the Rubios filed for a six-month extension on their 2012 tax return, and they paid that $200,000 on the last day of the extension in 2013, according to a pair of tax statements that Rubios campaign hadnt released previously.

Seeking Extensions

Its not unusual for people to get extensions on filing their federal income taxes; millions do it each year. Yet the IRS requires that they pay their annual taxesor a reasonable estimate of themby the normal deadline in mid-April or face penalties and interest on any overdue amounts. Rubio has paid such penalties in six of the last seven years, totaling more than $23,000, according to his partial tax returns. The penalty and interest for 2012 represent almost half that total.

Alex Conant, a spokesman for Rubios campaign, said in e-mails that the couple has filed for extensions on their taxes, including for 2012. In response to questions, he initially said the couple paid their entire 2012 tax billa balance of $248,171 before penalties and intereston Oct. 15, 2013. Later, asked why the return had characterized $200,000 of that amount as estimated payments, he said instead that the $200,000 was paid before Oct. 15, 2013, but didnt specify when. Conant didnt respond to requests to reconcile his statements.

Rubio, once thought to be the candidate moderate Republicans and the partys establishment would rally around, has struggled to make inroads in a nominating contest that has been dominated by Donald Trump amid a populist insurgency.

The Florida senator once again performed poorly in key races in Michigan and Mississippi on Tuesday, finishing fourth in both states behind Trump, Texas senator Ted Cruz and Ohio governor John Kasich and picking up zero delegates. So far, he has won only two Republican primaries, in Minnesota and Puerto Rico, and is limping into the make-or-break contest in his home state of Florida on March 15, where Trump holds a large lead in the most recent polling.

In releasing partial tax returns for 2000 through 2014 last month, Rubio became the first of the leading Republican candidates to give voters at least some tax disclosures. Cruz and Kasich followed, but Trump has refused, saying hell wait until the IRS finishes an audit thats under way. The IRS has said taxpayers are free to make their tax returns public, even when theyre under audit.

Limited Picture

Rubio, Cruz and Kasich didnt disclose documents that would provide a fuller picture of their finances, including schedules listing itemized deductions and detailing business income or statements providing supplementary information. By contrast, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton released returns for several years that included schedules and statements.

In Rubios case, the 2012 return demonstrates how partial disclosurewithout schedules or statementsmight give voters an inaccurate impression. Thats because the return says the Rubios made $200,000 in 2012 estimated tax payments a line on the 1040 income-tax form that indicates the payments were made sometime in 2012. Under IRS rules, people with significant earnings that arent subject to wage withholdingsay, business income from publishing a bookare expected to make estimated tax payments during the year. However, regardless of what the return indicates, the Rubios didnt pay estimated taxes in 2012 because he didnt know how much hed get paid until the end of the year, said Conant, the campaign spokesman.

While Conant said subsequently that an estimated payment of $200,000 was paid before October 15 in 2013, two accountants who examined the Rubios tax returns for Bloomberg News concluded otherwise, based on the amount of the penalty and interest the couple paid.

Charles Sarowitz, the founder of Sarowitz Milito & Co., a tax-preparation and accounting firm in Brooklyn, New York, and Cherry Hill, New Jersey, used industry software to conclude that the amount, $11,733, was too high for the $200,000 to have been paid any time before Oct. 15, 2013. Sarowitzs findings were confirmed independently by William C. Lankford Jr., a CPA with Moore Stephens Tiller LLC in Atlanta.

On the return, after deductions and exemptions, the Rubios reported their tax for the year was $279,827. Then they reported almost $32,000 in federal withholding and the $200,000 in estimated tax payments, the return showsbringing the tax bill reflected on their return down to $48,171 before penalties and interest.

Screen Shot

However, a screen shot of unreleased tax documents that Conant provided to Bloomberg News shows that the Rubios penalty and interest were actually calculated on Oct. 15, 2013 on the full amount, $248,171. The documents, which are labeled as statements of the interest and late-payment penalty, also record a $200,000 estimate payment against that amount on Oct. 15, 2013, leaving a balance of $48,171 before the penalty and interest are added. The document doesnt say when the balance was paid; Conant said it was on the same day.

While the 2012 penalty and interest charges were the largest, the Rubios returns indicate that they paid penalties and interest in six of the last seven years. The 2014 return includes a note that says, SEE STATEMENT FOR INTEREST AND PENALTIES NOT INCLUDED, but the statement wasnt released. Conant said in an e-mail that the couple paid $522 that year.

In general, the Rubios returns show simply that hes not paying on time, Sarowitz said.

The IRS brings three types of penalties for late tax payments or late returns: An estimated tax penalty applies when taxpayers dont make timely payments during the tax year through withholding or quarterly pre-payments. A failure to pay penalty is assessed at 0.5 percent for each month that a tax bill is overdue, plus interest. A failure to file penalty, levied when taxpayers miss the mid-April deadline and fail to seek extensions, is 5 percent each month, or 10 times the failure to pay penalty. Its capped at 25 percent, plus interest.

The Rubios returns indicate theyve incurred all three types of penalties over the past decade, including one for not filing by April 15. Their return for 2008 includes a note that says: LATE FILING PENALTY NOT INCLUDED: $170. That amount suggests the return was no more than a month late. In all, the Rubios penalties and interest amounted to $380 in 2008, a year in which they reported more than $399,000 in adjusted gross income and owed federal taxes of more than $3,700 when they filed.

Personal Finances

For Rubio, who has been dogged by questions about his personal finances, the tax penalties may reinforce a narrative his chief nemesis, Trump, has sought to exploit. The billionaire real estate mogul this week began airing television ads saying, among other things, that Rubio used a credit card owned by the Republican Party of Florida for personal expenses, such as to pave his driveway. Rubio has said he mistakenly used the card on some occasions for personal items; he eventually paid for those expenses himself.

News accounts have shown that Rubio accidentally mingled personal funds and campaign funds as a Florida state lawmaker; in 2010, a bank sought to foreclose on a home he purchased in Tallahassee with another state lawmaker after the pair stopped making payments; and in 2014, he withdrew $68,000 from a retirement fund. Such cash-outs before the age of 59 1/2 incur heavy tax penalties. (He made a similar early withdrawal in 2001, for about $3,800, according to that years return.)

Asked about those incidents during a Republican debate last October, Rubio called them discredited attacks from Democrats and my political opponents. But Politifact Florida, a fact-checking website produced by Florida newspapers, determined that all of these events happened and have been well-documented.
Continuing with the mission to protect Consumers interest, the Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) is embracing technology to connect with the consumers and curb misleading advertisements. Consumers can now WhatsApp the objectionable advertisement to +91 77-100-12345. It is yet another first revolutionary initiative by ASCI, after a successful launch of a Mobile App ASCIonline last year, keeping its flag flying high internationally. The number went live on March 10, 2016 with the ASCI Board of Governors lodging Suo Moto complaints using this number.



Mr. Benoy Roychowdhury, ASCI Chairman said at this event, We are happy to launch the WhatsApp number, close to the World Consumer Rights Day (15th March). ASCI is truly empowering consumers by making it more accessible. Today almost every person with a smartphone is using messaging services such as WhatsApp. Technology makes it possible for them to flag false, misleading or offensive ads instantaneously and anytime anywhere while on the go - be it while reading newspapers at home, on their way to office, listening to radio or watching TV in the evening.



WhatsApp will serve as only the first touch point for consumers to reach ASCI with their main objections and images of the objectionable advertisement. Consumers can send pictures of print ads, hoardings, packaging or Screen shots of websites, Links of YouTube videos etc. ASCI team would be scrutinizing these complaints and take it further if found valid as well as having complete details such as name and e:mail ID. The complainant would receive status updates on the complaint by SMS /and e:mail. The WhatsApp number is not meant for commercial purpose. The complaint processing is free for consumers, in line with the ASCIs mission of promoting self-regulation of advertising content and protecting Consumers interest.



The launch would be followed by awareness campaigns by means of print advertisement and radio spots with tagline of Spot Bad Ad? Snap and WhatsApp +91 77100 12345
The Goafest Creative Abbys, the highly coveted advertising awards that recognize the best in advertising and marketing has announced the second set of jury for the coveted awards. The Awards Governing Council of Goafest 2016 has declared the Jury Chairs for Print, Radio/Radio Craft Advertising and Brand Activation Verticals. Bobby Pawar, Managing Director & Chief Creative Officer, Publicis Communications will chair the print Communication Jury of Creative Abby, Ashish Chakravarty, National Creative Director, Contract Advertising will chair the Radio/ Radio Craft jury and Manish Bhatt, Founder & Director of Scarecrow Communications of will chair the jury for Brand Activation vertical.

Jury Chair of the Print Category Bobby Pawar, Managing Director & Chief Creative Officer, Publicis Communications is reckoned amongst peers as one of the most influential professsionals in advertising. Before joining Publicis, he was the Chief Creative Officer at JWT, where he curated some iconic campaigns. Prior to that he spent 4 years as the Chief Creative Officer of the DDB Mudra Group. He was instrumental in transforming the agency into a top rated creative solution destinations in the country. Bobby was earlier Creative Director at Ogilvy, New York and Group Creative Director at BBDO, Chicago.

Ashish Chakravarty, National Creative Director, Contract Advertising with over 2 decades of experience has created some of the biggest brands in the country and is recognized as amongst the top 10 Creative Directors in India and amongst t top 50 Creative Directors in the world, according to a latest global ranking. Ashishs work has won him several metals across the biggest creative fests across the world including Cannes and D&AD. He is credited with winning more than 200 national and international awards across categories and brands.

Manish Bhatt, Founder & Director of Scarecrow Communications started his career as a Civil Engineer at Gujarat State Fertilizer Corporation. But, soon he decided to enter the world of advertising and went on create one of Indias most sought after independent ad agencies Scarecrow. He has worked in Ad World for more than 15 years and has been associated with agencies like Contract, Ogilvy & Mather (Delhi, Mumbai & Malaysia), Ambience Publicis and McCann Erickson. Bhatt has received recognition for his creative work across platforms like Cannes Lions, D&AD London, The One Show, Clios and the Abbys.

The Jury Chairs for the remaining Creative Abby verticals will be announced shortly.

Presented by the Advertising Club and AAAI the Goafest ABBYs 2016 will once again see the entire advertising and marketing fraternity come together in Goa from 7th April, 2016 to 9th April 2016 at The Grand Hyatt, Bambolim, North Goa.


NDTV Good Times, Indias youngest lifestyle channel from NDTV Group has announced the launch of Tamil audio feed for the channel and thereby expanding its reach to Tamil speaking viewers in Tamil Nadu and rest of the country. With the launch, the channel is now planning to expand its footprints in regional markets, starting with Tamil Nadu.

The channel will initially focus on delivering content from its existing extensive library across Food, Travel, Wellness, Weddings, Style and Reality, showcasing all popular properties like Band Baajaa Bride, Highway On My Plate, Chakh le India, Vicky Goes Veg , Bachelors Kitchen, Luxe Interiors, Get The Look, No Big Deal, Heavy Petting, Yogasutra to name a few.

Commenting on the launch, Arati Singh, Channel Head, NDTV Good Times said, We are pleased to announce launch of NDTV Good Times in regional language with Tamil audio feed. The channel with its focus on food, travel and fashion understands that the content is relevant to the Tamil audience. The launch of Tamil feed is in line with our expansion strategy, as we wanted more and more viewers to access and consume our content in their native language.

She further added, We hope the viewers will appreciate our lifestyle programming that advocates living large and celebrating life in young Indian style.

To watch your favorite anchors speak in Tamil, you can choose the Tamil audio option for a bigger, better and brand new television experience right in your homes. Promo link
For the first time, the new Wildcats of the Commando Helicopter Force have tested their ability to fly  and fight  in the harshest climatic conditions on the planet.





For the first time, the new Wildcats of the Commando Helicopter Force have tested their ability to fly  and fight  in the harshest climatic conditions on the planet.

Four Wildcats from 847 Naval Air Squadron have spent six weeks contending with temperatures down to 30 below zero, snow storms and high winds.

Each winter the Commando Helicopter Force takes some of its aircraft, air and ground crew to Bardufoss  roughly half way between Troms and Narvik, and a good 170 miles inside the Arctic Circle.

The training  Exercise Clockwork (because its regular as)  is intended to ensure sailors and Royal Marines on the force can survive in such an unforgiving environment (living in tents or snow holes, if necessary, clambering out of holes in the ice if it breaks, cooking the local wildlife if you run out of rations) as well as maintain their helicopters and, in the case of the aircrew, fly them.

The latter saw the fliers run through the gamut of military operations from the basics of landing in snow  the down-draught from the rotor blades throws up a swirling wall of fine snow  to ferrying loads, scouting for the troops on the ground, a spot of shooting practice for the aircrewman with the machine-gun and using the Wildcat to direct Allied jets on to targets.

The Norwegian experience saw the Wildcats packed into the cavernous cargo holds of RAF C-17 transporters for the first time and demonstrated that the helicopters mottled grey paint scheme is a highly-effective camouflage in the snow.

Ive been to Norway before but this is my first time flying here, explained pilot Lieutenant Alex Lovell-Smith. The challenges are unique: the weather can change in an instant, so our captaincy and flying skills are always tested.

I certainly feel that my aviation skills have improved in a way that only Norway can provide. Everyone on 847 agrees that Norway has given us an excellent opportunity to bond as a squadron  and push the Wildcat to its limits in this new environment.

When 847 arrived in northern Norway, they faced just three hours of daylight. By the time they left that had risen to nine, allowing for plenty of flying.

The guys have pushed hard to learn the lessons and keep the aircraft on the line. Serviceability has been good  thats supported a high rate of flying and meant we successfully completed our training, said air engineer technician PO John Julie Andrews.

For many of our more junior engineers, this has been their first time in Norway and they are all relishing the chance to come back again.

The squadron made use of the facilities at the Norwegian Air Force Base in Bardufoss, working side-by-side with NH-90 and Bell 412 helicopters, while the Brits showed off their helicopter to their hosts.

We came to Norway with definite objectives  weve not just hit them, weve surpassed them, said Commander Graeme Spence, 847s Commanding Officer.

Wildcat has met the challenge head-on, as have our people. Our flying rate has been high and weve achieved a lot more than just qualifying to operate in the Arctic environment.

Norways always been a special place for the Commando Helicopter Force  and weve made the most of the opportunities to test ourselves and our aircraft.

Now back at base in Somerset, the squadron is preparing for the large-scale Anglo-French amphibious exercise in the Bristol Channel and Irish Sea next month, Griffin Strike, followed by desert warfare training in El Centro in southern California.
B-2s conduct deployment to Indo-Asia-Pacific

Three B-2 Spirits deployed from Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, to the U.S. Pacific Command area of operations March 8.



While in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, the B-2s will integrate and conduct training with ally and partner air forces, and conduct a radio communications check with a U.S. air operations center.



This deployment will ensure bomber crews maintain a high state of readiness and crew proficiency, and will provide opportunities to integrate capabilities with key regional partners.



These flights ensure we remain ready to deter strategic attack, now and into the future, and are one of the many ways the U.S. demonstrates its commitment to security and stability across the globe, said Adm. Cecil D. Haney, U.S. Strategic Command commander. Additionally, these efforts provide invaluable opportunities to build relationships and interoperability between the U.S. and ally and partner forces.



Strategic bomber deployments ensure our ability to project power at a time and place of our choosing and develop strong interoperability with our regional allies and partners, said Gen. Lori J. Robinson, Pacific Air Forces commander. Recent events demonstrate the continued need to provide consistent and credible air power throughout the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. Our ability to demonstrate credible combat power while training and interoperating with our network of like-minded partner nations is vitally important.



U.S. Strategic Command routinely demonstrates its capability to command, control and conduct global bomber missions, most recently by deploying B-52 Stratofortresses into the U.S. European Command area of responsibility earlier this month.



USSTRATCOM bombers regularly rotate through the Indo-Asia-Pacific to conduct USPACOM-led air operations, providing leaders with deterrent options to maintain regional stability.



One of nine Defense Department unified combatant commands, USSTRATCOM has global strategic missions, assigned through the Unified Command Plan, which include strategic deterrence; space operations; cyberspace operations; joint electronic warfare; global strike; missile defense; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; combating weapons of mass destruction; and analysis and targeting.
Fairchild Airman named Red Cross Hometown Hero

Master Sgt. Stephanie Horn, the health services manager for the 92nd Medical Group, was recognized as an American Red Cross Hometown Hero Feb. 26 by the American Red Cross Association for her lifesaving actions in January 2015 in Spokane, Washington.



Horn was with her husband and two children at a recreational vehicle show when her husband saw a woman collapse. After hearing anxious shouts for medical personnel and emergency services, Horn, along with a few other bystanders, ran to the woman's aid and conducted chest compressions for 25 continuous minutes until emergency medical technicians arrived.



"As members of the military, one of the things we are prepared for is to serve our country, potentially in places without access to medical aid," said Lt. Col. James Stryd, chief nurse for the 92nd Medical Group. "It doesn't matter if you're medical personnel or not. We're all trained how to take care of ourselves and our buddies."



Horn conducted chest compressions on the woman, rotating with three other individuals. Without access to an automated defibrillator, they relied on the skills they learned from training.



"The importance of paying attention to the training cannot be emphasized enough," she said. "Everyone has busy lives, but you never know when you're going to have to use the training to make a difference."



For her efforts, Horn received the Air Force Achievement medal and was selected as a Greater Inland Northwest Hometown Hero by the Northwest Region Red Cross. She will be recognized at the American Red Cross Hometown Heroes luncheon April 28 in Spokane.



Each year, the luncheon recognizes individuals and organizations from the northwest region that have made a positive impact on the lives of others, whether through a lifesaving action or tireless work to benefit the community.



Horn said she recertifies every two years, but before this incident she hadnt used her lifesaving skills outside training.



"It's a natural human response to think someone else will step up," Horn said. "The military trains us to be the person who steps up. Someone else is not going to do something, we have to -- doing nothing is never an option."
Airmen help Soldiers, South Korea military in joint training

Osan Air Base was tested March 10, when South Korea and U.S. military branches banded together in a multi-service, multi-cultural, chemical detection and decontamination exercise scenario here during Beverly Midnight 16-01.



In the scenario, a Humvee and a Patriot missile launcher from the 5th Air Defense Artillery Brigade were in transit and suspected of being contaminated.



Weve been setting up this scenario for about two months now, said Tech. Sgt. Emily Martin, the 51st Civil Engineer Squadron readiness and emergency manager and lead inspection team member for the scenario. The teams responded well and aided in the detection and quick decontamination of the equipment.



After sweeping affected vehicles for chemical contamination, South Korea military chemical management teams guided the vehicles to mobile decontamination pressure washers.



We had bioenvironmental, medical, emergency management and (South Korea) forces out to make this event happen, Martin said. Everyone worked so well together; it appeared seamless. Im definitely proud to see how well it all was handled.



This marked a first time the specific scenario was evaluated at Osan AB. The assets had never been used in conjunction with the personnel involved.



Scenarios like this help us work better together, said Senior Master Sgt. Frank Roman, a 51st CES readiness and emergency management flight chief. Its important for us to have a strong relationship with our Korean and sister service partners. Nothing but good can come from the results of this scenario and Im very excited our team was able to facilitate and contribute to this occasion.



The scenario ended after South Korean members, who sprayed down the vehicles, processed through a contamination control point.



(Chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear defense) is a unique specialty that can be overlooked, however, these warriors relish the opportunity to sharpen their skillset and test their abilities, said Master Sgt. Angel Peraza, the 51st CES readiness and emergency management superintendent.
This Account has been suspended.

Contact your hosting provider for more information.
By Katie Wright



Here we go again, the NIH takes one step forward and then, immediately, one step backwards.

The majority of researchers serving on the NIH Regressive Autism Workshop Panel were remarkably unacquainted with regressive autism. Most participants seemed to be only tangentially engaged in this subject. Instead of parents with regressive ASD kids and clinicians like Herbert, Frye, Jyonouchi, professionals who successfully treat kids with regressive autism everyday, the NIH regression panel was stacked with experts in Retts, eye gazing diagnostics, animal models, social psychology and of course (!) genetics. None of the participants seemed familiar with recent very promising autism immunology research. So much time was wasted time asking questions that have already been answered. Even worse so much time was wasted on the extensive discussion of irrelevant scientific issues and conditions.

I am baffled by NIH panelist choices. NO stakeholders involved in any way. No toxicologists, no cliniciansBut let me tell you what the NIH Regressive Autism Workshop did offer: an expert in ferret biology! Seriously, a ferret scientist was given a starring role at the regressive autism workshop. I couldnt make up something so preposterous if I tried.

But listen, I dont want to blame the ferret scientist. She has never done any autism research but was invited so she showed. Ferrets arent the enemy! I like ferrets, I had one as a pet. But why go there when so many incredible scientists who already have great animal models? I bet no one on that panel has even seen Dr. Derrick MacFabes ASD/GI rat films. His autism animal models are terrific. Rats are a comedown from ferrets, I get it, but MacFabes animal models are the best around.

NIH leaders take an almost psychodynamic perspective to autism. Half of the panel discussion revolved around endless learn the signs, eye gazing, face processing, social psychology and other minimally valuable autism research. The NIH must make the connection that recognizing signs of autism does not = treatment, causation information or prevention. It is step 1 out 100. We know the signs, we know the signs, we know the signs and we know what poor eye contact means. We also know it is 2016. The NIH must stop pouring millions upon millions of our research money into face gazing. It is horrendously wasteful.

As part of the psychodynamic/ genetics only paradigm, conference organizers excluded all experts in environmental science and ASD. Incredibly the NIH did not ask one ASD environmental scientist, not a Dr. Van Der Water, not a Dr. Hertz-Picciotto to attend. SO much exciting new regressive autism revolves around the immunology of autism, yet no sign of that on the NIH panel. Forget it, they needed those seats for face gazers and ferret specialists!

Not content to parade their lack of understanding of regressive autism, the NIH panelists insulted affected families in the process. When Dr. Jason Wolff, the only lecturer who shared novel data, spoke repeatedly about something happening in the brains of toddlers who would go on to develop autism. Dr. Wolff stated something happens between 12 and 18 months. Some conference attendees attributed the loss of skills to deprived environments. It is one thing to be ignorant of regressive autism, yet another to blame parents. I remember thinking to myself at the time, people blurt out stupid things in a moment, things which they might not mean. Others on the panel will correct this person now. Nope, no correction to this absurd conjecture, just a lot of vigorous nodding in approval!

Great going NIH- bad parenting = autism. Nice way to bring Bettelheim back from the dead. I love how speaking about vaccine injury is forbidden at the NIH, but blaming parents as the cause of their childs autism is just fine. So much of the discussion was crazy making.








Web Toolbar by Wibiya













Web Toolbar by Wibiya

Date: January, 2016.

Place: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

The Australian city of Sydney is considered as one of the most developed metropolis in the world. Its astonishing Opera House and its elegant Harbour Bridge are two displays of the citys thriving economy. However, besides being a wealthy, modern urban centre, in the narrow streets of its suburbia an unnatural event took place on 16 January, 2016.

According to an anonymous report published on UFO specialised website MUFON.com, a Sydney resident affirmed having seen, at around 5:16 pm, an entity dressed in blue.

The entity was dressed in a dark blue skin tight type suit, the unnamed source stated. Materials are unknown, the report says, but the entity was also wearing a dark red cape on its back with an insignia.

In reference to the physical appearance of this entity, the Australian witness affirmed that its features seemed human but had red glowing eyes, like the thing was about to shoot beams.

The encounter did not last too much, because after a quick sighting, it [the entity] heard a noise, presumably from me hiding in the bushes, and then it looked my way and flew off.

Draw your own conclusions

For further information: http://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/report_handler.pl?req=view_long_desc&id=74938&rnd=

Long Description of Sighting Report

On the night of January 16th at around 5:16 pm an entity dressed in blue (The items the entity was dressed in was a dark blue skin tight type suit materials are unknown with a dark red cape on its back with an insignia) flew down from a height of 18-20 meters into Carss Park (a park located near my address shown above) it's features seemed human but had red glowing eyes like the thing was about to shoot beams but then it heard a noise presumably from me hiding in the bushes it looked my way and flew off which when it did sounded like a sonic boom jet-like noise.








Web Toolbar by Wibiya

Date: March, 2016.

Place: Red River, State of New Mexico, United States.

A few days ago, in the New Mexico small village of Las Vegas, several people affirmed having observed what they thought was a saucer-shaped cloud hovering above the town. Some UFO researchers like Scott C. Waring, from UFO Sightings Daily, were of the opinion that this phenomenon consisted in a UFO cloaked in a cloud.

Now, on 7 March, another unusual event took place in the southern state. According to an anonymous report published on UFO specialised website MUFON.com, a Red River resident allegedly saw what he claims it was a strange object behind me while he was trying to get out of his car. The man affirms that the unidentified entity was just moving back and forth slowly.

During this encounter, I was paralysed, unable to move, run or scream, said the unnamed source. Soon after, I called a cousin and she couldn't understand me not a word. She said it was as if I had water in my mouth, states the report, but that phone call I don't remember at all, the witness continues.

Finally, the only thing the testifier managed to do was to sit in the car trying to pray and breathing slow, until I called family to help me, said the New Mexico state citizen.

Draw your own conclusions

For further information: http://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/report_handler.pl?req=view_long_desc&id=75012&rnd=

Long Description of Sighting Report

My car was high centered in a place where I could not have drove to! As I tried to get out I noticed a strange object behind me what it was I don't know! I was paralyzed unable to move run scream etc. As I slowly got back in the car I still seen it in the mirror just moveing back n forth slowly. As I was told I called a cousin an she couldn't understand me not a word. she said it was as if I had water in my mouth. But that phone call I don't remember at all.as I sat in the car trying to pray an breathing slow I thought that the object would take me I called family to help me out it took a long time but when thay arrived thay couldn't believe just I got there.

Tell u the truth I'm scared.
WASHINGTON, March 9, 2016  Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack promised today that government lawyers will involve pork industry leaders in discussions that could lead to settlement of a suit by the Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS) that could negate an agreement between two pork producer groups over the use of assessments for promotion and research.

Speaking at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) in Washington Wednesday, Vilsacks remarks amended his testimony to the House Agriculture Committee last week that the industry had been involved in getting to settlement negotiations. The testimony drew criticism from industry leaders.

I may have gotten a little ahead of my skis here and may have mischaracterized the conversations, he said. The conversations have been about what is consequence of losing and what could be worked out that would be both beneficial to the industry and also would prevent us from an adverse court decision. He said discussion of a potential settlement arose from preliminary motions within the case which suggest that the courts may have some serious concerns about this.

Saying that USDA has been directed by the court to see if there is any common ground, Vilsack added, The pork industry we probably need to get more involved in these conversations than we have. I have directed our team to make sure they are fully briefed on whats going on.

HSUS sued in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2012, alleging that USDAs Agricultural Marketing Service unlawfully approved the Pork Boards agreement to pay the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) $60 million over 20 years for its trademarked Pork: The Other White Meat slogan. Vilsack said the suit raises the question about whether its appropriate for checkoff dollar to be used for something no longer in public use. The Pork Boards delegate body Saturday urged Vilsack to exhaust his legal options rather than settling.

His comments came in response to a question from BPC Senior Vice President G. William Hoagland, who moderated A Conversation on Food and Nutrition among Vilsack and former Secretaries of Agriculture Dan Glickman and Ann M. Veneman.

If we did a better job reaching out to these groups [and] if we had that kind of communication we probably would have less conflict in agriculture, Vilsack said. Conversely, Glickman said, agriculture needs to recognize that saying If we grow it, they will buy it is no longer valid.

Vilsack also reiterated his opposition to mandatory package labeling of genetically engineered ingredients in food but said some requirement for disclosure apart from package labels was needed to pass the Senate. The solution, he said, is a uniform set of standards where the consumers know where to look for the information they want but doesnt act like a warning label. Thats the issue. To be much more helpful to the marketplace and to consumers, national policy should not require moving away from current labeling philosophy. We label for two reasons: one for nutrition, with calories, and so forth, and the other for known hazards. If you start labeling for a process by which products are produced, theres an endless stream.

Veneman and Glickman endorsed Vilsacks position, with Veneman complimenting Vilsack for the process you have been going through to bring people together on biotech food labeling. There is a lot of diversity of ideas about how to get this done -- is it mandatory? is it not? how to get it through the Congress. We need a compromise on this that will create the kind of information consumers say they want.

Read about other USDA news such as this. Sign up for a four-week free trial Agri-Pulse subscription for the latest ag and rural policy news.





The three agreed also that Congress should move quickly on reauthorization of school lunch and other child nutrition programs, with Vilsack saying that controversial new standards for nutrition content in USDA-financed school feeding programs have been an extraordinary success. Students now are eating more fruits and vegetables as a result of the standards, he said.

Glickman said he is optimistic that child nutrition legislation can be completed before Congress adjourns for the political conventions as long as it stays out of the presidential debates.

Veneman said she regretted that, following enactment of the more restrictive lunch standards, feeding children has become a partisan, divisive issue. We need to reverse that.

It would be a tragic mistake to separate food stamps  the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP  from commodity programs in congressional consideration of farm bills, Vilsack said. If you separate the two you, would not have the capacity to get a bill through. Despite all the argumentation and hyperventilation and vitriol in politics today, Glickman added, recognition of the link between farmers and people who need food assistance persists.
Support Assyrians in the Middle East

No one can have failed to notice the recent diplomatic crisis that emerged between Israel and Sweden after Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom described Israel's self-defense against terrorist attacks as extrajudicial executions. The statement stems from the Swedish lack of understanding of the needs of vulnerable peoples to protect themselves and reveals the gap between threatened peoples in the Middle East and European communities at a time we should instead be emphasizing the need for Western support for both Israel and those threatened peoples. The so-called Arab or Muslim world is a remarkably complex region, which has in the past century unfortunately lost much of its diversity following the Assyrian genocide, the Armenian genocide, the expulsion of Jews from Arab countries and Iran and the broader and constant decline of Christian and other minority populations. Especially since 2003, Assyrians, Mandaeans and Yazidis in particular have faced the threat of total annihilation. The Western world lacks sufficient understanding of this tragedy; we in our time have not had the experience of a comparable threat. It would be a mistake to assume that the same worldview which informs Western policies towards their own vulnerable populations, founded on generosity and equality, can provide recourse to vulnerable peoples elsewhere. If this stance is applied to the Middle East without regard to the current reality there, it risks leading to the betrayal of peoples facing an existential threat. The universal principles that are a prerequisite for human rights  for fundamental equality in society  do not yet exist in the Middle East. The lack of understanding in the Western world of the existential threats and challenges that the region's indigenous and minority peoples face is fertile ground for the emergence of disproportionate criticism of Israel. The unwillingness to understand Israel's plight is reflected in an equally clear indifference to the rights of indigenous peoples who have not yet attained self-governance. The motives are of the same nature in both cases. Given the prevalence of oppressive majoritarian politics in the region, Western support of powerful actors in the Middle East has constantly come at the expense of the region's smaller peoples. Conversely, oppressed and marginalized nations, namely the Assyrians, see Israel as a triumph of survival against all odds for the Jewish people, and in addition as an important democratic role model marked by true pluralism and diversity. Due to the fact that Israel has from its inception been surrounded by hostile forces, it has unfortunately not had the possibility to develop ties with other indigenous and threatened people in the region  something that is very much in Israel's interest. Jewish representatives and organizations in many Western countries  including Sweden  have been at the forefront of support for Assyrians and other minorities in the Middle East. We have seen growing cooperation between the Jewish community and Assyrian organizations in Sweden reflected in the visit of the Israeli ambassador to the Assyrian New Year celebration Akitu, Israeli aid organizations working among our refugees in northern Iraq and many key individual initiatives for refugees by prominent Jewish representatives around the world. The strongest appeal published in Sweden demanding action to combat the Islamic State genocide and support Assyrians was signed by the Central Jewish Council chairman Lena Posner as the representative of Sweden's Jewish communities. The world's leading Jewish organization, the World Jewish Congress, has expressed that support for the Middle Eastern minorities is one of the organization's top priorities in our time. There is no more appropriate time than now for Israeli political representatives to clearly speak out against the same terrible forces that led to the expulsion of Jews from Arab countries, which are again at work today targeting Assyrians, and to provide support to the Assyrian people who are facing an existential threat. We now hope that ever-increasing interest in the Israeli media for the Assyrian people and the fate of other minorities in the region should also result in more clearly pronounced support from senior Israeli officials and Knesset for genocide victims. The Jewish and Assyrian communities have much to gain from mutual cooperation in light of their shared history, the affinity of their struggle and national projects, and their common experience of majoritarian oppression. Hopefully, the cooperation of the Diaspora can form the basis of a collaboration that finds its way back to the Middle East, where until recent memory, Jews and Assyrians lived side by side for 3,000 years.
March 9, 2016

RAMALLAH, West Bank  Ties between the Palestinian Authority and Iran have entered a new crisis, initiated by Iran's parliament speaker announcing his countrys intention to provide financial aid to the families of every Palestinian killed in the intifada.

The announcement from Ali Larijani came during a Feb. 13 meeting with delegations from Palestinian factions (Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and al-Saiqa) in Tehran, on the sidelines of the celebrations highlighting the 37th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

The PA expressed its displeasure after Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mohammad Fathali explained at a press conference Feb. 24 that Iran will pay an amount worth $7,000 to every family of a martyr of the intifada in Jerusalem, and $30,000 to every family whose house is demolished during the intifada by the occupation.

Fathali also spoke of communicating with these families through the websites of the Committee for the Support of the Resistance in Palestine and the Iran-affiliated Shahid Palestine foundation, where the families will be able to fill out forms.

The spokesman for the Palestinian presidency, Nabil Abu Rudeina, said Feb. 27, It would have been better that Iran transfer the funds through official channels to the PLO Martyrs and Prisoners Foundation, rather than resorting to informal and circuitous routes. This is a violation of the law and unacceptable interference in internal Palestinian affairs.

PLO Executive Committee member Ahmed Majdalani, who was tasked by President Mahmoud Abbas with the Palestinian-Iranian ties dossier, told Al-Monitor, The Palestinian resentment emanates from the fact that Iran gave no attention to the PLO, with which it refused direct cooperation, and from Irans reliance on individual mechanisms in the provision of support, which is unacceptable.

Majdalani explained that the PLO consulted with the Iranian side about the financial aid payment mechanisms, but Hussein Sheikholeslam, an adviser to Larijani, gave us an answer saying, We do not trust the PA. He said he rejected "any doubt in our integrity and national credibility.

Majdalani added, The Iranian stance is unacceptable, and we consider it interference in Palestinian internal affairs. Yet we are keen to ensure that things do not get to the point of a rupture in Palestinian-Iranian ties.

Abbas Zaki, a member of Fatah's Central Committee, told Al-Monitor, The Palestinian people are in need of any help from any state to endorse the intifada. Iran had already supported the Palestinian people in Gaza in the face of Israel. He added, Iran has strategic ties and coordinates with some factions, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The PA cannot receive funds from Iran, in light of the agreements concluded with Israel, and [the PAs] inability to end the Oslo Accord.

Zaki explained, Iran is a powerful country in the region, and we cannot be hostile to it in light of its support for the Palestinian cause. Normal ties, but not strategic ties, can be established with it.

The PA fears that Iran delivering the aid through Hamas, in light of the recent improvement in the ties between the two parties, will have an impact on the PA's own popularity.

Irans support for and alliance with Hamas have always angered the PA and Fatah. Fatah views this support as harmful to the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian peoples interests, and as a direct contributor to the current division. In March 2015, Fatahs spokesman Osama al-Qawasmi accused Iran of asking Hamas and Islamic Jihad to hold marches in Gaza against Abbas, who supported Operation Decisive Storm in Yemen led by Saudi Arabia against the Iran-affiliated Houthis.

Mahmoud al-Zahar, a member of Hamas' political bureau, told Al-Monitor, The PA does not want the martyrs houses to be renovated, so as not to be accused by Israel of receiving funds to support the intifada in light of the ongoing security coordination with Israel. He added, Iran said that it does not trust the PA, and many countries share the same opinion.

Zahar noted, The donors are the ones that decide which is the right party to receive the funds to support the resistance and martyrs families. Therefore, we respect and appreciate every bit of support for the resistance, be it through weapons, funds or renovation of the martyrs houses.

For his part, political writer and analyst Talal Okal told Al-Monitor that there are several reasons behind the PAs resentment of Iran, including Iran joining the Palestinian arena directly, bypassing the PLO to fuel the Palestinian intifada through the provision of financial support to the martyrs families, which the PA rejects. There is also the worsening rift between Iran and Saudi Arabia, which is the main financier for the PA treasury, according to Okal.

This crisis follows the PA's attempts to improve ties with Iran after the nuclear deal was concluded in July. In this context, Majdalani visited Tehran on Aug. 9 to start managing a political dialogue with Tehran and promote bilateral ties between the two parties.

On the impact of the Saudi support for the PA treasury on the PA position toward Iran, Majdalani said, Palestine is not part of any of the regional axes, and the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Iran has been tense for a long time. We did not say that we are in favor of one country at the expense of the other, because we are keen to have balanced ties with all parties.

He added, Our resentment toward Iran stems from its bypassing the PLO and [impairing] our internal security and national dignity. The attempt to portray Palestine as having a bias in favor of Saudi Arabia is unjust and unacceptable, he added.

Zahar denied any conditional Iranian support, saying, The Iranians have never set any conditions on supporting Palestine, and we reject any conditional support and refuse to engage in a game of alliances that would weaken our strength in the face of the occupation.

On the impact of regional developments on the decision-making within the PA  which receives monthly sums from Saudi Arabia for a total of $242 million in 2015  and especially Saudi Arabias decision to halt its funds for Lebanon, Okal said, The Palestinian cause has nothing to do with bickering like that in Lebanon. This is why the PA is seeking to establish good relations with everyone, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, provided that it would be the concerned party, rather than Hamas.

Despite the PAs declared resentment of Iran, the PA does not aspire to any escalation in the standoff with Tehran, nor a rupture of bilateral ties, which the PA has been keen to promote since the nuclear deal was signed.
March 9, 2016

Since the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) issued its first report on Iranian compliance with the landmark nuclear deal, some US nuclear experts, including a former IAEA deputy director, have chafed at the minimal level of detail provided about Irans nuclear program.

Where in the past IAEA quarterly communications to its Board of Governors often contained a litany of questions about Irans activities, including statistics on every gram of enriched uranium and centrifuge rotor in Irans possession, the new report offers much less information and is a largely upbeat assessment of Irans compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which went into full implementation on Jan. 16.

The minimal level of detail contained in the document, which was leaked on the day it was issued by Washington-based think tank the Institute for Science and International Security, does not mean that the signatories to the JCPOA are kept in the dark about any potential violation. Indeed, members of a joint commission set up to ensure proper implementation of the deal have timely access to information about any potential violations on either side.

Asked by Al-Monitor whether the US government gets all the information it needs, a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, replied, Do we get what we need is a very emphatic yes.

Under the agreement, the IAEA monitors all declared Iranian nuclear sites 24/7 through onsite cameras and/or inspectors. The IAEA has estimated that it will spend an additional $10 million a year to implement the JCPOA and Iranian compliance with the Additional Protocol of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The US government has asked Congress to appropriate more than $190 million in the 2017 fiscal year for the IAEA, which has safeguards agreements with scores of other countries beyond its Iran work.

In addition to the IAEA quarterly reports on Iran, interested governments also have access to their own intelligence agency reports.

Outside analysts, however, must largely make do with what the IAEA tells its 35-member Board of Governors.

Under an IAEA resolution adopted on Dec. 15, 2015, Director General Yukiya Amano is obliged to provide written reports before each regular quarterly board meeting on Irans implementation of its commitments under the JCPOA and on matters relating to the verification and monitoring in Iran under UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which codified the JCPOA for the full duration of those commitments, unless the Board decides otherwise.

In the latest report, the IAEA notes that, in one instance, Iran went above an agreed stockpile for so-called heavy water, an essential component for a type of reactor that can produce plutonium. Iran has removed the core of its heavy water reactor, however, and the excess heavy water was shipped out of Iran to the United States, according to the nuclear watchdog agency.

Otherwise, the IAEA said, Iran kept to its pledge to have on hand no more than 300 kilograms of uranium enriched to 3.67% and no more than 5,060 centrifuges producing that uranium at a facility at Natanz. Iran has 1044 rudimentary centrifuges at an underground site called Fordow but they are not enriching uranium, the IAEA said.

Olli Heinonen, a former deputy director of the IAEA who has been critical of the agency for closing an investigation into past nuclear weapons work by Iran, criticized the new report for failing to provide figures for the amount of excess enriched uranium Iran sent to Russia. The IAEA report, Heinonen added, also did not give numbers for centrifuge parts in Irans inventory.

These components are essential in assessing breakout times, and reinstallation of previously removed advanced centrifuges or installation of new ones can directly affect the one-year breakout time that proponents of the JCPOA maintain it enforces, Heinonen wrote. An accounting of this inventory is also important as a baseline for further monitoring.

David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, which publicizes the quarterly IAEA reports, said that by failing to provide more information about the status of key technical aspects of Irans nuclear program and the implementation of its JCPOA commitments to date, the IAEA is withholding vital data about the status of Irans nuclear program. It risks undermining public transparency and confidence in the agreement.

As an analyst, I always want more detail and information, but I think the IAEA provides enough to demonstrate Irans compliance, Kelsey Davenport, director of nonproliferation programs for the Arms Control Association, told Al-Monitor. Given the skepticism about past noncompliance, more detail would be helpful.

Amano, queried about the low level of detail in the report at a press conference in Vienna on March 7, said, Our role is to provide factual, objective reports including the details the agency considers necessary.

Experts acknowledge that the tone as well as the length of the reports has changed as the IAEA has moved from a position of questioning what amounted to a suspected criminal  the agencys attitude toward Iran since undeclared nuclear facilities were discovered in 2002  to monitoring what amounts to that countrys nuclear probation.

Amano is correct that the standards for reporting are different under the new UNSC resolution, but I believe he has more discretion about what they decide to put in the quarterly reports, Daryl Kimball, who directs the Arms Control Association, told Al-Monitor.

Kimball said, In general, the more detail there is, the less likely it is that questions arise about the IAEA's thoroughness.  There is nothing in the deal or in the UNSCR that limits public reporting on possible violations, but rather the current form of reporting may simply make it more difficult than before for outsiders to develop their own assessments.
March 9, 2016

BAGHDAD  Oil revenues accruing from oil field development and production in Iraq no longer match the revenues made before the licensing contracts the Ministry of Oil signed in 2009-2010. The Iraqi government will be unable to reimburse the foreign oil companies dues, which amounted to $20 billion in 2015, if global oil prices continue to decline.

The financial crisis in Iraq, in addition to the cost of the war against the Islamic State and the increased accusations of corruption, drew attention to Iraqi oil field development contracts with foreign companies that were made when Nouri al-Maliki was still prime minister. Political parties and blocs are demanding to have these contracts reviewed or annulled under the pretext that they are costing Iraq major financial losses.

Oil reserves in Iraq amount to 143 billion barrels, accounting for about 10% of the total of reserves globally. To increase Iraqs revenues, the Ministry of Oil put forward a plan in February to increase oil production by up to 9 million barrels a day by 2020. However, the revenues generated by this increased amount will have to be paid to the foreign companies as part of the licensing rounds dues. Based on the 2016 budget, $11 billion have been allocated this year alone as dues to these companies.

According to the Oil Ministrys estimates, the increase in oil production for 2016 will be worth $17 billion, which means that two-thirds of the production revenues goes to the companies dues and one-third to Iraq. The budget had estimated that the price of a barrel would reach $45 at the end of 2015, whereas oil prices have declined to less than $30 since the beginning of 2016, which leaves Iraq with less than $6 billion from the increased oil production.

Assem Jihad, a spokesman for the Iraqi Oil Ministry, told Al-Monitor, The Oil Ministry began new talks with foreign oil companies in an attempt to make adjustments to the contracts wording to match the dramatic decline in the global oil prices and the decline of Iraqs revenues, while the [foreign] oil companies are receiving their dues as before.

The finalized contracts do not include any provisions on the possible drop in oil prices, and therefore the companies charge the Iraqi government a fixed price for their work in developing oil fields and increasing oil production.

Jihad explained that oil companies seek to increase the duration of their contracts to 50 additional years instead of 20 years in return for agreeing to change the wording. He rejected the idea that the oil licensing has become useless or that there is any suspicion of corruption. The ministry does not get involved in accusations and political tugging. It is enough to just look at the figures achieved by the development of oil field production for the period 2011-2015, he said.

He said that the total production in the period between 2011 and 2015 is 4.66 billion barrels and 2.34 billion barrels for basic production. This means that the increase in production over the basic production is 2.32 billion barrels, and the financial returns of the total production amounts are over $395 billion.

Jihad also tackled the foreign companies operations for the last five years, noting that over $46 billion has been paid to the companies by the Iraqi government, the profitability of contracting companies is $2.25 billion and the tax paid to the Iraqi Treasury was $1.21 billion, bringing the states net gross revenues to more than $348 billion.

The Oil Ministry referred to the figures of licensing contracts in response to accusations of corruption and claims that these contracts were unfair to Iraq. Former Deputy Prime Minister Bahaa al-Araji announced at a press conference in Baghdad Feb. 21 that a lawsuit in regard to the foreign contracts was being prepared because they harm Iraq.

As a result, the parliamentary Finance Committee announced that a fact-finding committee was formed to investigate corruption in licensing rounds. Haitham al-Jubouri, a member of the [Finance] Committee, said Feb. 21, We have formed a fact-finding subcommittee for the oil licensing rounds, the cost of production and the authenticity of contracts and procedures.

Meanwhile, Ahmed Hama, a member of the fact-finding committee, told Al-Monitor that his committee began its work and it has so far held three meetings to review the licensing rounds, which gave foreign oil companies a concession to develop Iraqi oil fields. The committee has several questions to ask the Ministry of Oil and officials in the previous government, such as why the contracts did not take into account the possibility of a decline in oil prices and how the contracts can be amended in order to serve Iraq in the current financial crisis.

He also pointed out that the fact-finding committee is waiting for the Board of Supreme Audit reports to reveal the funds being transferred between oil companies and the Iraqi government, as well as reports from the Commission on Public Integrity [CPI] about the complaint made by Araji regarding corruption in licensing contracts.

The Federal Board of Supreme Audit provides clear statements and reports on the fees the government pays to the oil companies and the profits it makes as a result of the work of such companies. The office also determines the feasibility and viability of such contracts and whether or not they remain profitable for the government.

Meanwhile, the CPI is in charge of investigating corruption charges in the oil contracts made by Araji. Thus, the report by the parliamentary fact-checking committee would include all information stated in the reports of the board and the CPI.

In this regard, Hama said, The final report of the fact-finding committee will be submitted  following the investigation with the minister of oil and after collecting the necessary information and data from the CPI and the board  to the parliament that will take the appropriate decisions and recommendations to address the damage resulting from the decline in oil prices in light of the work of foreign oil companies in the country.

The Iraqi Oil Ministry regards the contracts reached with international companies to develop oil fields in Iraq for a period of 20 years as a service, meaning that companies get remuneration for their services, up to $6 for every barrel. However, these contracts were concluded when the oil prices exceeded $60 per barrel.

The damage does not only result from the decline in oil prices; the Iraqi government had already paid $270 million as compensation to foreign companies for the government's inability to export the oil produced from the development of oil fields because of the weak export system, which led Iraq to lose about $14 billion between 2011 and 2014.

The oil licensing contracts have raised a lot of controversy, as some consider them a new form of foreign tutelage on oil wealth, while others believe they are not economically beneficial and cause losses for Iraq. Thus, these licensing contracts need to be reviewed, especially in light of the financial crisis in Iraq. The review should be made public to avoid any suspicions of corruption and to establish contracts that are in line with the current economic situation.
March 9, 2016

Ali Muasi, a literature teacher at a high school in Baqa al-Gharbiyye, a large Arab city in northern Israel, was dismissed in February by city authorities after screening the Palestinian movie Omar, which was on the 2014 shortlist of Oscar nominees for best foreign language film.

The movie, by Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad, relates the story of Omar, a Palestinian baker who falls in love with Nadia, his best friends sister. Omar and Tarek, his loves brother, carry out a terror attack, murdering an Israeli soldier. When Omar is captured by the Shin Bet, he becomes a collaborator and is forced to choose between betraying his people and his homeland and his love for Nadia. The movie features some scenes with partial nudity.

Salafist figures in town labeled the movie as pornographic despite the fact that it deals with the oppression of the Israeli occupation while also being critical of social oppression within Palestinian society, Muasi told Al-Monitor in a special interview.

According to him, his dismissal is part of a political deal between Mursi Abu Moch, Baqa al-Gharbiyyes mayor and the Salafist movement Hedaya. Its members demanded that the teacher be fired, claiming he had shown an inappropriate film that was not in keeping with the values of a Muslim society. According to Muasi, several nude scenes were cut out from the movie before being shown to the students, but not a brief romantic kiss between the two protagonists that lasts barely several seconds.

Two weeks after the movie was screened, Muasi related, he was attacked by two men who roughed him up and cursed him on the school grounds. He filed a complaint with the police, but instead of help and support from the municipality  his direct employer  he was given a suspension notice that cited showing inappropriate material to students. Their decision to dismiss me was posted on the Internet and published in the media well before I was officially notified, Muasi said. The mayor himself had a screening of the film at a youth community center as well as at other venues in the town, including the school where I was teaching.

When word of his termination came out, the films director called Muasi to express shock at the movie resulting in a teachers dismissal. Arab Knesset members from the Joint List also stood by Muasi, demanding that he be allowed to resume his work immediately. Yet despite the criticism and public support for Muasi, the citys mayor would not budge an inch. Everything thats done at school must have an educational message, the mayor told the press. In the movie, Nadia skips school to meet with her lover. What kind of an educational message does this send?

Asked by Al-Monitor for comment, the municipality declined to react any further.

This was not the first time that Muasi has incurred the wrath of radical religious circles in the city. In November 2014, he wanted to teach his students Au revoir Akka, a novel by Arab-Israeli author Ala Hlehel. That move also sparked a major outcry. Muslim Salafist figures claimed that the book contained sexual expressions, arguing that by exposing that content to his students, the rogue teacher had become an apostate.

Muasis dismissal is indicative of radicalization in Arab society in Israel. We are seeing the rise of Salafist groups adopting an extreme worldview that they think represents true Islam. According to Muasi, as far as they are concerned, even Sheikh Raed Salahs Islamic Movement, which was outlawed this year in a controversial move, fails to represent Islam correctly. Nevertheless, Muasi argues that the main problem is not the rise of such groups within Arab-Israeli society, as he believes these groups are small and marginal. Rather, he points the finger at the mayor for trying to please them.

The mayor faces many problems with the opposition in Baqa al-Gharbiyye, Muasi said. Despite being secular himself, he needs the support of this Salafist group to bolster his coalition. And this is done at my expense. He simply sacrificed me as a teacher to serve his own political interests.

Despite having negligible political weight, radical Islamic groups like the Hedaya movement in Baqa al-Gharbiyye are central to the current political struggles within Arab society. Local leaders keep them politically on their side, apparently because they dont know when and if they might need their support.

In the past three years we have seen at least 20 cases whereby artists or institutions came under attack by groups alleging to be Islams bona fide representatives, Muasi said. These are groups from Salafist Islam, far removed from the mainstream. Their people are trying to impose their worldview on an entire society and even on other Islamic movements that are more moderate than they are.

The Ministry of Education, it seems, is viewing the affair as a private Arab matter and, according to Muasi, doesnt have his back. The Ministry of Education is supposed to protect my rights as a teacher and as a man of letters, he said angrily. It must protect our rights and space even if someone claims the film is inappropriate for high school. Do we let anyone from the outside intervene in cultural and educational content at school? Why is the Ministry of Education silent when a teacher is assaulted?

Muasi remains adamant in his desire to return to school and has filed a petition with the court. Despite having received a number of other job offers, he wants to be reunited with his students. I left my students midyear, he said. Their exams are coming up, and I have to be there for them and make sure they succeed. I wont give up my right to be their teacher.
March 9, 2016

On March 8, on Jaffa beach, two people convened: Israels ninth President Shimon Peres and US Vice President Joe Biden. They sat together in the Peres Center for Peace, an impressive building situated on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, in a city in which Jews and Arabs live together, in the very heart of Israel.

Biden came to see Peres directly from the airport. In the middle of the meeting, a female member of Peres small staff entered with a note in her hand. She updated the two leaders that not far from where they were, a few hundred meters to the north, a terrorist attack was taking place. A Palestinian from near the West Bank town of Qalqilya embarked on a killing spree, on the promenade connecting Jaffa beach to Tel Aviv beach. Armed with a knife, the 22-year-old ran amok on the promenade for several minutes, stabbing anyone who got in his way. An American tourist was stabbed to death, another 11 were wounded, including two Russian tourists and two Palestinians. One of the Palestinians who was attacked, an illegal resident in Israel, tried to fight the terrorist tooth and nail. The attacker hadnt bothered to ascertain the identities of his victims, which included two members of his own people. A young musician who sat on one of the promenade stools with a guitar had used his musical instrument to protect himself and strike the stabber. But the attacker continued his stabbing spree until he was shot and killed.

The meeting between Biden and Peres continued. The vice president was driven to Jaffa in a convoy protected by an especially heavy presence of secret service agents and Shin Bets VIP security unit. At no point in time did Biden face any danger at the hands of the lone Palestinian attacker. (Biden later revealed that his wife and grandchildren were having dinner on the beach in Jaffa not far from where the attack took place.)

The event reflects the complexity of the current situation: On the one hand, Israel is a secured, well-trained country with expertise in fighting terror. Its security organizations are among the best and most experienced in the world and enjoy a world-wide reputation regarding everything connected to breaching terror cells and locating and dismantling terror infrastructure. On the other, it is evident that the kind of terror that Israel is trying to fight now (such as these recent attacks) is impossible to vanquish.

March 13 will mark six months since the start of the current eruption of Palestinian terror  counting from Sept. 13, when Alexander Levlovich was killed after terrorists threw rocks at his car. It still has no name, but its effect reverberates. Thirty-four people have been killed so far, including one Eritrean citizen and a Palestinian from Hebron, and almost 200 Palestinian assailants were shot and killed by the security forces or civilians. No solution is seen on the horizon.

The terrorist attack on the Jaffa promenade on the evening of March 8 was one of three attacks that took place within two hours. In East Jerusalem, a terrorist opened fire on policemen and wounded two of them severely. In Petach Tikva, another terrorist who entered a store and stabbed an ultra-Orthodox Israeli there was neutralized by his victim. The ultra-Orthodox man pulled the knife out of his own neck and stabbed his attacker. It was just another ordinary day in Israel.

The escalation came after weeks of relative calm. At the beginning of the terror wave there were two to four attacks a day by Palestinian assailants, most of them very young, who simply fell upon Israelis with anything that came to hand: knives, axes, vegetable peelers, Molotov cocktails and sometimes improvised weapons. The attacks then began to wind down to an average of one a day. Then along came Biden and with him a renewed deterioration of the situation.

On the afternoon of March 9, three attempted attacks were counted. No one sees the end, just as no one predicted the beginning. Israel is at a loss and Mr. Security (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) is being severely criticized by the right for being unable to provide solutions.

This game has numerous players: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority, who at first viewed the grass-roots uprising as a positive development that could help break the diplomatic stalemate and return the Palestinian cause to the global agenda; Hamas, which is trying with all its might to set the West Bank on fire and to create an intifada by remote-control; and Iran, which is considering whether to invest billions in Hamas and Islamic Jihad in order to help these terror organizations replace the PA and flood Israel with terror.

Several changes have taken place in recent weeks: Abbas came to understand that he might have let the genie out of the bottle. This is exactly what happened to PLO leader Yasser Arafat during the second intifada (2000-2005). According to Israeli intelligence sources, in January, the Palestinian security apparatuses underwent a strategic change when they began to fight this popular individual terror in earnest. Simultaneously, incitement on the PA's official media outlets came down a notch or two.

Not that it changes anything. In our great new world, official media outlets are no longer influential nor relevant. Incitement runs wild on the social networks, where violent messages thrive and go viral. Every youth who goes out to commit a suicide attack with a knife, prints an emotional post on his Facebook page that, with the speed of lightning, is disseminated to hundreds and thousands of other youths. Some of these decide to follow in his footsteps, and the pattern repeats itself over and over.

Israeli Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan tried to get hold of the management of Facebook in Israel, to convince them to remove anything that could be viewed as incitement to terror from the site. His plea was ignored and instead he was directed to the Facebook headquarters in Ireland.

This is a new world, with completely different rules. Israel has not yet cracked the code behind this lone attackers' terror operating system. It is possible to pursue the engineers who prepare demolition charges. It is possible to arrest the heads of cells that launch suicide bombers. It is possible to unfurl effective intelligence networks through the length and breadth of the state, which will be able to identify any potential terror cell and nip it in the bud. But it is impossible to trace virtual/spiritual terror floating on the Internet; it is impossible to track terror that sees without being seen, that is incorporeal and formless.

Peres has long been talking about the collapse of the traditional state model in todays world. According to him, governments are no longer relevant. Instead, he says, this world is being run by global companies. Peres is spot on, just as he has been correct regarding many other prophesies he made over the years. To defeat terror, Israel needs the cooperation of Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat and the like. The problem is that in these virtual worlds, no one really takes Israel into account.
March 9, 2016

Jordanians are still reeling from the shock of a dramatic security operation undertaken March 2 in the northern city of Irbid. The predawn, hourslong raid on a cell linked to the Islamic State (IS) resulted in special forces killing seven extremists wearing explosive belts. The government's action followed the arrest of 13 suspects earlier in the day. One Jordanian security officer was killed and five others were injured in the operation.

This was the first confrontation in the kingdom with an armed group associated with IS since Jordan joined the international coalition fighting the Salafist jihadist organization in September 2014. In a March 2 statement, the General Intelligence Department said that the seven men killed in Irbid were planning to carry out attacks on military and civil targets in the kingdom.

The government has released very little information on the incident, leaving many questions unanswered. On March 3, government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani told the official Jordan Radio and Television Corporation, Initial information indicates that all the slain cell members were Jordanian nationals. Those arrested were being interrogated and will be tried before the State Security Court, official sources said.

The incident has shifted the public's attention to the threat that IS and other such extremist groups pose on the domestic front. Since IS emerged in 2013 in Iraq and Syria, two countries with long borders with Jordan, fears have focused on the possibility of militants crossing into the kingdom to carry out attacks.

According to political commentator Fahd al-Khitan, at least one of the dead militants had recently returned from Syria. In his March 5 column for the daily Al-Ghad, Khitan pondered whether the Irbid operation indicates that IS has established a Jordanian branch or whether the cell members were unaffiliated people sympathetic to the groups ideology.

According to experts on Islamist movements, local jihadist leaders view Jordan as a route into Syria, not a final destination for fighters and operatives. Commentator Hussein al-Rawashdeh told Al-Monitor that given the details involving the Irbid raid, We are facing a dangerous development that goes beyond dealing with sleeper cells. We dont know if this cell was independent from the group in Raqqa [IS proclaimed capital in Syria] or if IS has infiltrated our society and has organized sympathizers to carry out orders.

According to Rawashdeh, there are some 7,000 Salafist jihadis in Jordan, of which 2,000 are sympathetic to IS and at least 1,300 are fighting with Jabhat al-Nusra or IS. He added, The dogma is more dangerous than the actual [IS] organization, and that is why I ask again: What have we done to confront this menace? In conclusion, Rawashdeh said that there is a need to form a national coalition to defeat IS' ideology and prevent it from spreading.

An investigative report published March 2 by the Jordanian website 7iber.com found that jihadis backing IS have been active for years in the Palestinian refugee camp in Irbid. According to the report, one of IS' staunchest supporters, Abu Mohammed al-Tahawi, an Irbid resident, is in administrative custody. He had been arrested in 2015 after pledging allegiance to IS' leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. In October 2014, one of Tahawi's lieutenants, Omar Mahdi Zaidan, crossed the border from Irbid into Syria, where he is now a cleric, in Raqqa, the report said.

The thought of IS sleeper cells is troubling to Jordanians. Over the past five years, authorities have stepped up border security as hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees crossed into Jordan. Recently, Amman has been preventing an estimated 27,000 refugees from northern Syria from entering the kingdom on security grounds. Today, there are about 1.5 million Syrians in Jordan, 600,000, of whom are registered as refugees, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Amid the local debate on the danger of the Salafist jihadis' dogma, Mohammad Abu Rumman, an expert on Islamist organizations, told Al-Monitor that he had previously warned of the growing influence of pro-IS jihadis, especially in Irbid and the refugee camps close to it.

Divisions among leaders of Salafist jihadist groups in Jordan mean nothing, said Abu Rumman. Those who are against IS, like Abu Mohammad al-Maqdisi and Abu Qatada, have less influence today than Tahawi and Zaidan. The latter was able to recruit young Jordanians into the militant group, and what is dangerous is that many of these recruits are university graduates while others belong to the middle class. Abu Rumman added, In the past, recruits traveled to IS-controlled areas [in Syria], but what we are seeing now [following the Irbid incident] is that they are becoming active locally.

Indeed, Salafist jihadist groups have been active in Jordan for years, and some experts believe they were tolerated by the government. Rawashdeh said that previous governments looked the other way and even supported these groups to stem the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in the political arena. He believes that as a result, IS' ideology has spread within society to point that it is too late to confront it.

There is now consensus among commentators and government officials that in addition to dealing with Salafist jihadis with an iron fist, a new strategy is needed to combat their dogma in schools, universities, mosques and other parts of society. Commenting on the need for new strategies, columnist Musa Keilani wrote March 5 in the Jordan Times that the government has neglected the cyber warfare that is used to recruit through what is called online indoctrination, [whereby] more Jordanians are converted into jihadist Salafists, capitalizing on their unemployment, frustration and despair. Talking to editors of local newspapers on March 3, King Abdullah highlighted the importance of the media's help in countering radical ideology to safeguard present and future generations.

Following the Irbid operation, one expert on Islamist groups, Marwan Shihadah, believes that IS has set its sights on destabilizing Jordan. They have changed their strategy and made use of the fact that the government was focusing on weakening the Muslim Brotherhood, Shihadah told Al-Monitor. They also benefitted from the fact that young Jordanians are battling unemployment and bad economic conditions, which allowed them to infiltrate our society.

The Irbid raid has raised anxiety over the danger that Salafist jihadis present to national security, but the success of the security forces in exposing the cell and preventing it from carrying out terrorist activities has also reassured the public that when it comes to safeguarding Jordan, the intelligence apparatus is vigilant and capable of acting. The big question now is what strategy the government will adopt to confront the Salafist jihadist dogma in the long run.
March 9, 2016

WASHINGTON  With an 11-day-old partial truce having dramatically reduced if not ended violence in Syria, UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said he planned to resume proximity talks between the Syrian government and the opposition on a political transition process starting March 14. The intra-Syrian talks, to be held at the UN Palais des Nations in Geneva, could last up to 10 days, he said.

When we start having the talks on Monday, God willing, the focus will be on substance, on the agendas  in other words, on new governance, constitution and elections, the future elections in 18 months time, both presidential and parliamentarian, de Mistura told journalists March 9 in Geneva.

At the end of the day, the cease-fire and humanitarian aid alone are not a solution, de Mistura said. The solution is a political transition in Syria, facilitated, made credible to the Syrian people by incremental humanitarian assistance, and an incremental, more or less sustainable  and  quite unbelievable after five years of war  cessation of hostilities or reduction of hostilities. Thats basically the plan.

While the Syrian opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) had not yet formally replied if it will attend, there were signs March 9 that it probably would. The fact that the agenda for the intra-Syrian talks that de Mistura outlined would start with discussion of the matter of political transition is positive, HNC spokesman Salem al-Muslat told Reuters.

The State Department also encouraged the opposition to attend, to negotiate on the form and composition of a transitional governing body that would preserve Syrias government institutions and avoid state collapse.

We want the parties to work this out, US State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters at a press briefing March 9. We always recognized that there would be some transitional structures in place as [we] go from the regime to post-regime government. What it looks like  whether you call it a unity government or transition government  we the US have not laid out a policy on that.

We want to make sure that the key institutions, the key functions of a government are at least preserved in some form or fashion, Kirby said. You need to have some security forces in place. That is obviously critical to an increased sense of stability. What other institutions look like  all that has to be ironed out. That is why it is so important the talks in Geneva get started.

US Syria envoy Michael Ratney will lead the US delegation in the intra-Syrian talks, though the United States is not a direct participant.

As of March 8, 10 UN convoys comprising nearly 300 trucks in total had provided emergency humanitarian assistance to about 225,000 people, Ratney said in a statement March 9. But there is still much work to be done and more priority locations to access.

De Mistura, noting that he had to suspend the first round of intra-Syrian talks he attempted early last month only days after they began, said that in the intervening five weeks that the United States, Russia and other international players had increased their cooperation on humanitarian aid deliveries and in trying to implement the Syria cease-fire.

Were having a whole surge of UN colleagues who are actually helping us to make sure that we are going to be able to handle  simultaneously  the proximity talks  two task forces  one humanitarian and one on the cessation of hostilities  [the] cease-fire and, as you know very well, a never-seen-before operations center, where we have Russians, Americans and the UN monitoring, observing and trying to check and keep track of the cease-fire.

The various delegations to the Geneva talks will arrive staggered over the next few days, the UN envoy said.

We have people coming tomorrow [March 10]. We have people coming on Sunday [March 13]. There will be anyway on Saturday quite a few too, but then we plan to start having informal talks already in hotels or here, with whoever is arriving, he said. But the substantive, deeper part of it, after the first preparation, will be on Monday, God willing, the 14th. They will last not beyond the 24th. We believe that having a timetable and a time limit is healthy for everyone, so we dont think that we can go on [with] procedural discussions for two weeks hoping to get into substance  we go seriously into substance as soon as we can.

Bassam Barabandi, a former Syrian diplomat in Washington who supports the opposition, said while the opposition appreciated the reduction in violence, it wanted the United States to be far more active in pressing Russia and the regime on alleged violations of the truce, including an alleged airstrike on a market in Idlib on March 7 that killed over two dozen people.

The Syrian opposition really needs the Americans to have something to give them credibility, Barabandi told Al-Monitor on March 9. We would like them to be very aggressive.
March 9, 2016

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is stepping up his rhetoric to convince his Justice and Development Party (AKP) voters that their leader is closer to God than they are.

During his term as prime minister, Erdogan used to make long speeches at weekly AKP parliamentary meetings, which most television channels broadcast live. After he ascended to the presidency, his audience of AKP lawmakers was replaced by mukhtars, elected leaders of villages and neighborhoods, of which there are 53,000 in Turkey. At certain intervals now, he invites several hundred selected mukhtars to the presidential palace for his speeches, again, broadcast live by almost all television channels.

In one of these speeches earlier this year, Erdogan defied his state of besiegement, the result of his own dead-end foreign policy, assuring the mukhtars that help would come from above. "This or that country may be against us, opposing us  none of this matters, he said.

"What does the commandment say? Allah is sufficient for us, and he is the best disposer of affairs. Without this faith of ours, we could have never confronted the Byzantine army, the worlds greatest military power at the time, in the Battle of Manzikert with a force of 20,000 or 30,000 people. Without this faith of ours, we could have never established the most powerful state in history and kept it alive for 600 years.

Erdogan seems to have developed an urgency to take his personality cult to new, more "celestial heights, a drive that goes far beyond the "Allah is with us rhetoric Erdogan deploys in the face of challenges.

Even a documentary that aired a month ago on the pro-government A Haber channel about the anniversary of the so-called Feb. 7 crisis of 2012 brought to light the brewing conflict between Erdogan and the Gulen movement. The tense episode saw Gulenist prosecutors make an unsuccessful attempt to arrest Hakan Fidan, Turkeys intelligence chief, who was then Erdogans closest confidant in the echelons of the state. According to the documentary, a celestial intervention foiled the attempt.

Since then, statements and behaviors adding transcendent and holy dimensions to the Erdogan cult have become more and more frequent. Take, for instance, the stunning remarks AKP lawmaker Yasin Aktay made during a parliamentary debate last week. Erdogan is one of the best things, one of the best people this country has seen, Aktay said, adding, We say Salli Ala Muhammed when we see him. He was reciting an Islamic phrase, known as salavat, used to salute and praise the Prophet Muhammad or to express allegiance to him.

In another recent incident, the head of an AKP youth branch in Istanbul posted on Twitter a picture of a water glass Erdogan had used, as if presenting a fetish object. This is the glass from which our president drank water while making his speech, he wrote.

In desperate situations, Turks say, Its now up to Allah. One could say Erdogans foreign policy, too, is now up to Allah. It does seem Turkey will need a miracle to break free from the isolation induced by its foreign policy  unless the right players change the prevailing conditions.

With Russia, Turkey has been in a state of cold war, prone to hot confrontation, ever since it downed a Russian jet Nov. 24. With the United States and other Western allies, relations have plunged into a deep confidence crisis over Turkeys shelling of Syrian Kurdish forces and its failure to provide expected support against the Islamic State.

As the external risks increase, strain is also building up on the domestic scene. Bent on controlling the governments strings with no tolerance of any in-house criticism, Erdogan is causing the AKP to creak and possibly crack. His disagreements with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu are said to be growing. A group of former AKP heavyweights led by ex-Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc has formed a dissident faction, enlisting support from former President Abdullah Gul.

In the predominantly Kurdish southeast, Erdogan's battle against the Kurdistan Workers Party  afoot since July  rages on in cities and towns with dramatic consequences remindful of the destruction and humanitarian disaster in Syria. As the death toll keeps rising on both sides, fears are rife that the conflict, affecting mostly urban areas at present, will escalate and expand in the spring. No prospect for an end to the bloodshed is currently in sight.

In this menacing atmosphere of stalemate, Erdogan has shown no sign of giving up his dream to install a system of executive presidency, which would confirm him constitutionally as the one man. To overcome internal and external obstacles and advance his goal, he is, as always, trying to generate support from his Sunni conservative base, which he sees as loyal backers and admirers.

While Erdogans supporters are busy exalting him, the major topics of his Islamic agenda have become more prominent in his speeches lately. On March 5, while addressing the members of an association fighting addictions and harmful habits, he spoke of how the new Turkey under his leadership was rejecting alcohol.

The Jacobins of the one-party era [after modern Turkeys creation in 1923] encouraged alcohol consumption in the name of Westernization and modernization," Erdogan said. "Alcohol was used as a tool to forcefully transform society, strip its identity from it and tear it apart from its values, he said. Today, as country and nation, we are in the process of building a new Turkey. Thankfully, that dark mentality has been largely disabled despite occasional resurrections.

On Feb. 27, in a speech at the congress of a religious foundation, Erdogan underscored the importance of imam-hatip schools, which provide Quranic education, stressing, Our target is a devout generation.

So while doing politics in the holy realm, does Turkeys Islamist president truly believe he has a divine mission? What he believes, in fact, is not very important at present. The critical question is whether his supporters believe it.
March 9, 2016

For the first time in Turkey, a pink taxi  catering only to female passengers and driven by a female driver  hit the roads in February. The single cab, operating in the central city of Sivas, has been met with great interest by local women, while sending womens rights groups up in arms.

The pink taxi is owned by local operator Gokhan Simsek, who obtained a license for his venture last month. The municipality not only gave it the go-ahead but got involved in its promotion with a grand inauguration ceremony. The new service, however, stirred passions in a society where the gruesome murder of a university student in a public transportation vehicle last year has left a lasting scar.

The public outcry against rising violence against women in Turkey boiled over in February last year after the charred and mutilated body of Ozgecan Aslan was found outside the southern city of Tarsus. Aslan, 17, was the only passenger on a privately operated minibus, whose driver attempted to rape her and, when she resisted, stabbed and battered her to death before cutting her hands and burning her body with the help of accomplices. The incident triggered a wave of demonstrations across the country and national mourning. While raising awareness of sexual harassment, Aslans murder also sparked fear and anxiety among women about using public transportation. The public debate at the time was marked by the narratives of women who either feared to board empty buses or hurried to get off early to avoid traveling alone with the driver.

A year later, the issue of safety on public transportation remains under the spotlight. Service providers have moved to step up controls, but the success of their measures is questionable. A few months ago, for instance, the Minibus Drivers Chamber in the Mediterranean city of Antalya tested hundreds of male members for drug abuse. The urine tests established that 40 drivers were drug abusers, while one was found to be pregnant. This surprise discovery showed that at least one driver  and probably others  had managed to submit urine samples from their wives, casting doubt on the efficiency of controls.

It was against this backdrop that the pink taxi hit the roads. No wonder it sparked indignation, as many women saw it as a sign that efforts were focusing on protecting  and isolating  women rather than fighting harassment and rape.

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Simsek insisted his venture had nothing to do with Aslans murder. My female clients go to hammams or swimming pools. They come out sunburned and sweaty, and dont want to be seen like this by male drivers, he argued. Thats how I came up with the pink taxi idea. Similar examples exist in other countries as well. Simsek said the cab is off limits to men because of the possibility they might harass the female driver. I believe pink taxis will become widespread across Turkey within a year, he said, adding that he's had numerous calls from others keen to follow his example.

The Sivas Womens Solidarity Group held a demonstration in the city to protest the new service. The groups spokeswoman, university student Derya Ulucan, told Al-Monitor, This taxi will be out of service after 8 p.m., which is equivalent to telling women not to go out after 8 p.m. Simsek, however, argued that the limitation stemmed from his failure to find a female driver willing to work after 8 p.m.

For Ulucan, the pink taxi service promotes segregation and encourages the stigmatizing of women in social life. Sexual harassment and assault against women who take yellow cabs will gain legitimacy, she said. Once in court, the perpetrators will argue the victim chose a yellow cab instead of a pink one, leading them to think she was asking for it. Havent we witnessed similar cases in the past?

Asked about how women in Sivas received the pink taxi, Ulucan said, They are actually happy with it, but when we talk to them their awareness increases. This is a profit-oriented commercial project, targeting the whole country. Sivas was chosen as a pilot region because it is a conservative province. I dont think this practice can be adopted in big cities, but in conservative places it will go ahead.

Ulucans main concern is the dangerous trend she believes the pink taxi represents. In the name of protecting women, we have a women-only taxi today. Tomorrow, they will use the same argument to launch women-only buses. And after a while there will be women-only schools. This is a dangerous trend, she said.

To counter the activists arguments, Simsek asked, So why are there separate toilets for men and women? Why are there separate hammams? He further argued that women were free to take a cab with a female driver, and thats what real freedom is.

The debate goes on, but its essence remains unchanged: Male-sponsored services with the stated aim of protecting women are increasingly fueling womens concerns of discrimination. Even if one accepts that the pink taxis inauguration amid rising fears of sexual harassment was just a coincidence, womens interest in the new service cannot be explained outside this context. That Turkish women, fearful of harassment and rape, have come to avoid public transportation and welcome women-only services is an indication of how unsafe their environment has become.

The pink taxi led to a protest campaign on social media, with one slogan amply summarizing the sentiment: We are not going to use pink taxis, men are going to learn to be human. This statement clearly shows that what women want is not special services, but the freedom to benefit from existing ones without fear for their safety, just as men do.
March 10, 2016

A new directive from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) came into effect this month, banning soldiers from growing beards unless they are granted permission to do so by their military rabbi, unit commander and the commander's adjutant. The decision was prompted by concerns that beard-growing was getting out of control and thus undermining military discipline and uniformity. The news of the directive sparked quite an uproar in Israel, giving rise to allegations of discrimination on the part of virtually every sector in the country. Hipsters, religious Zionists and the ultra-Orthodox have all rallied under a common banner, if only for the moment.

Members of the national religious sector, many of whom sport beards, protested that they were being discriminated against. They argue that the ultra-Orthodox are readily given permission to grow a beard, while they are required to obtain all sorts of approvals. Secular soldiers who grow a beard for personal reasons formed a Facebook group called "Free Will" just before the directive came into force, and went so far as to appeal to the Supreme Court Feb. 25, claiming that they were being discriminated against in favor of religious and ultra-Orthodox soldiers.

The ultra-Orthodox, who seem to fare better than the others as far as the ban goes, see the new directive from their own point of view. They argue that the ban on beard-growing in the military is further evidence that the IDF is not really interested in integrating them into the system. Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel, a religious Zionist member of HaBayit HaYehudi, has even appealed to Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, warning that the directive could undermine the recruitment of the ultra-Orthodox.

Why has beard-growing become such an emotionally charged issue in Israeli society?

Bearded men have always been a common sight in Israel. While once they were for the most part religious Jews or Muslims, beards have become a fashion trend among secular young men as well. Indeed, growing a beard these days in the Western world is hip. Of course, here in the Middle East, one need not be a music fan or aficionado of eclectic art to cultivate facial hair.

According to Tomer Persico, a researcher and lecturer on world religions, research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, and the academic director of the Alma cultural and intellectual center, beard-growing in Israel is a matter of identity. "A beard identifies a man as belonging not just to the religious community, but to the strictly observant sector in this community," Persico told Al-Monitor. "The beard has long played a significant role in Judaism. Until the 18th century, European Jews were identified by their beards, and those who shaved were disapproved of for straying from religion."

Rabbi Jacob Laufer explained to Al-Monitor, "Basically, beard-growing originates in the Jewish prohibition of shaving the beard with a razor, which is based on the Torah commandment 'You shall not round the corners of your heads; neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.'" The Torah scholar continued, "The invention of the electric shaver has offered a way around the prohibition. However, there are those who find it more convenient to grow a beard and spare the trouble." And according to the Kabbalah, shaving or even plucking the beard is problematic. "The greatest Kabbalist [of modern times], commonly known as Ha'ARI, was careful not to pluck the beard hair, saying that it is sacred, as it bestows spiritual abundance upon a man. In keeping with his teachings, his devotees used to grow their beards, never shaving," Laufer recounted.

"It is also a socio-cultural matter," he added. "Thus, for instance, young men in the Lithuanian [ultra-Orthodox] community are not in the habit of growing a beard. However, around the age of 30, the vast majority starts growing a beard. It is seen as imparting respectability, and in older ages, it would be deemed very unusual not to grow a beard."

Popular as beard-growing may be among the various religious communities in the country, there are quite a few Israelis who grow them for entirely different reasons. "I actually started to grow a beard during my military service, and I find the beard ban outrageous," 31-year-old Tel Aviv resident Bar Weiser told Al-Monitor. "It's a sort of a statement in protest against the rules dictated by society that stipulate how I should look. For me, growing a beard was my way of saying to myself, and perhaps also to those around me: That's me; that's what I am. There is no doubt narcissism in it, but conformity is even worse. A beard has other advantages as well. As a rather short person, it seems to me that people perceive me more seriously because of the beard."

Asking that his name be withheld, a military official explained to Al-Monitor the rationale for the new directive. "The goal was to regulate beard-growing in the army as it got out of control," he said. "A situation was created where any lazy soldier who wanted a few more minutes of sleep in the morning started going around unshaved. Many declared that they were growing a beard for religious reasons, but we knew that they were [lying]. We say it clearly and there is no need for anyone to be concerned: Each soldier capable of demonstrating that beard-growing is an inherent part of his life, for religious or other reasons, will be granted permission to grow a beard."

However, in recent weeks, a number of reports have emerged of religious soldiers forced by the military to shave their beards. Many soldiers claim that their applications to grow a beard, whether for religious or personal reasons, have been repeatedly rejected and that quotas have been set for exemptions.

The beard, so it seems, is a unique means of self-expression for men. For the ultra-Orthodox or otherwise religious, the beard is a statement of social affiliation. For some of the nonreligious, it can be an anti-social statement. For others, it is just a matter of being trendy. While exceptional permits are granted to religious and other soldiers, to a large extent, the IDF's attempt to enforce uniform disciplinary rules on everyone in military service reflects the organization's objective of serving as a social melting pot. It turns out, however, that not all Israeli soldiers are willing to conform.
March 10, 2016

Saudi Arabia appears to be looking for a way to end the nearly year-old war in Yemen. Riyadh seems to recognize it needs to find a compromise with the Shiite Houthi rebels, but the road to a lasting peace will be very difficult.

After quiet mediation by Oman, Saudi Arabia agreed to a visit to Riyadh by two senior Houthi representatives this week, according to press reports. Mohammad Abdul Salem, a Houthi spokesman, is leading the delegation.

The talks come as the war seems to be de-escalating. Airstrikes by the Royal Saudi Air Force seem much less frequent and clashes along the Yemeni-Saudi border less intense. A limited prisoner swap has taken place. The Houthis say they are still confronting "the Saudi-American aggression," but the fighting seems to be slowed. There is no broad cease-fire but there are fewer provocations, at least for the moment.

A lull is desperately needed. The Saudi border provinces along the North Yemen frontier have suffered badly from Houthi mortar and rocket fire. The rebels have taken the war across the border into the kingdom.

The United Nations estimates that 2.4 million Yemenis have been forcibly displaced from their homes. A half million internally displaced people are from the city of Taez, which has been under siege by the Houthis for months. Another quarter million have lost homes in Sanaa due to the bombing there. The Houthi stronghold at Saada has lost another quarter million. Food, water and medicine are in short supply, and things are only getting worse.

The gap between the two sides is wide. No mention has been made about the future of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his family. They have been crucial allies for the Houthis, providing sophisticated weapons like Scud missiles. The conventional wisdom has long held that Saleh needs to go into exile for any peace deal to work, but he has not shown any interest in such an outcome.

Another question is whether Saleh's successor President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi will be reinstalled in Sanaa, the original objective of Operation Decisive Storm a year ago. Hadi has tenuous control of Aden, where assassinations and bombings are frequent. He has little popular support, however, and has proven to be a weak leader.

Some kind of national unity government may be a solution, but the devil will be in the details. A prolonged pause in the fighting may be a more realistic next step, but it would be much better to have it enshrined in a formal truce agreement than just a vague understanding. A cease-fire would be essential to getting the blockade lifted and relief supplies into the country.

The Saudi interest in talks with the Houthis and de-escalating the war is a step in the right direction. It coincides with an increase in the visibility of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef. The crown prince spent much of January and February out of the kingdom, in Algeria at his father's residence. The prince met with Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Feb. 5 in Algiers.

Since returning to the kingdom, bin Nayef has attended a summit of Arab interior ministers in Tunis and held high-profile talks in Paris with President Francois Hollande. He was awarded the Legion d'Honneur for his part in fighting al-Qaeda by the French. He also agreed that Saudi Arabia would receive $4 billion in arms originally planned for Lebanon but suspended during Riyadh's quarrel with Beirut over Hezbollah. This was good news to the French arms industry.

The crown prince is said to be more cautious and risk averse than the king's favorite son, Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is visiting Riyadh this week. Another skeptic of the Yemen war, Sharif rebuffed Saudi requests to join the war a year ago. His visit this week is said to be intended to reboot the Saudi-Pakistan relationship. He will argue for cooling temperatures between Riyadh and Tehran.

There are plenty of spoilers eager to block any move toward ratcheting down the war. Both the Islamic State and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula have the capacity to cause mayhem. AQAP has never been stronger. There are doubtless some on both sides in Riyadh and Sanaa who are not eager to stop the violence. Iran has enjoyed watching Saudi Arabia get bogged down in Yemen, and some in Tehran doubtless want the kingdom's quagmire to deepen.

The United States has every reason to want to end this war. It distracts resources from the fight with IS in Syria and Iraq, and fuels sectarian tensions and the proxy regional conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran. It embitters a generation of Yemenis to hate the Americans for arming the Saudi bombing campaign. The chances of a settlement in Yemen are still slim, but Washington should put some muscle behind the effort.
City officials ordered the owners of the controversial Pepsi sign last week to cease and desist work on the sign until it got approval from the Birmingham Design Review Committee.

But the legal status of the project is unclear. At a DRC meeting Wednesday morning, city representatives said the owners of the sign were there as a courtesy.

Harbert Realty put up the original Pepsi sign in 2014 on top of the 17-story Two North Twentieth building without approval from the committee after multiple submissions the committee ultimately rejected. Usually, the city does not give permits for projects until they get DRC approval.

At the time, Harbert said it didn't need a permit for a vinyl covering because the dimensions of the sign did not change. At least one leader in the Department of Planning, Engineering and Permitting disagreed, saying that a permit was not required but DRC approval is.

Around the beginning of 2015, Harbert sold the sign to 84 Outdoor, according to 84 Outdoor Corporate Counsel Cheri Bomar.

84 Outdoor, a Pennsylvania billboard company, is taking a similar position - that a permit is not required.

UAB announced it would be putting up a new sign in Pepsi's place on Wednesday, March 2. The next day, the city sent a cease and desist order to 84 Outdoor.

"Any physical and/or material alterations to the building, including signage, must comply with the Birmingham Green Design Guidelines and be approved by the Birmingham Design Review Committee before a sign permit is issued," Andre Bittas, Director of the Department of Planning, Engineering and Permitting, wrote in the letter. "In order for the work to replace the sign to continue the following actions must be taken ... Obtain approval from the Birmingham Design Review Committee."

Bittas declined to speak with AL.com, saying he did not have the permission of the mayor's office to speak to the media.

Bomar said 84 Outdoor met with the city on Tuesday, the day before they presented plans to the DRC that were ultimately tabled.

"I think they were unsure of exactly what we were attempting to do with the sign, if we were attempting to modify the structure of the sign or things like that," Bomar said. "Once we clarified that we were truly just seeking to change out the vinyl, then you heard [at the DRC meeting] there was no permit required."

The DRC was not made aware plans would be submitted until Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday morning, several DRC members said they believe the committee does have jurisdiction over the sign, and asked why they should vote if it's the city's position that they don't need to give approval. The DRC moved to table the discussion so they can digest and find more information.

84 Outdoor will return for the next meeting on March 23, Bomar said.

Bomar said the city asked 84 Outdoor to present to the DRC as a courtesy.

"We are trying to be cooperative, and we think the design is in the spirit of that," Bomar said. "We understand that it's not exactly what they would like to see, but we think it's in the spirit of cooperation."

Birmingham advertising agency Cayenne Creative designed the sign. UAB is spending $300,000 on the sign for one year.
Pilgrim's Pride in Russellville faces two Occupational Safety and Health Administration citations after a machine operator was injured at work.

The U.S. Department of Labor's OSHA division said it began an investigation into the plant after the 53-year-old worker's middle finger on his left hand was amputated. The accident happened while he was working to reassemble a chicken-part separating machine and the equipment unexpectedly turned on.

"This worker's unfortunate injury at Pilgrim's Pride could have been easily prevented," said Ramona Morris, OSHA's area director in Birmingham, in a statement. "Management knew that employees were exposed to amputation hazards from machinery that could startup unexpectedly, yet they did nothing to fix the problem."

The plant on 2045 Highway 244 was notified Monday of one repeat and one serious safety violation by OSHA. The repeat violation includes "failing to develop, document and train workers on the specific procedures to prevent machinery from starting up during maintenance and servicing."

OSHA said the Russellville facility was previously cited for this violation in 2010. The serious citation refers to improperly splicing electrical cords.

"Pilgrim's is aware of the citation from OSHA at our Russellville, Alabama, poultry processing facility," Pilgrim's Pride said in a statement. "We take these allegations seriously and are in the process of reviewing the citations internally. Our priority remains a safe work environment for our team members."

The agency has proposed penalties of $77,000 against Pilgrim's Pride.

In October, the labor department's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs filed two lawsuits accusing the company of discriminatory hiring practices at poultry plants in North Carolina and Athens, which closed in 2009.
Advocates say they're happy with a decision by Pell City to rescind a request for a proposed increase in allowable E.coli limits for the city's wastewater permit for its treatment plant.

The city this week decided to withdraw a proposed change to the discharge permit of its Dye Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. Instead, the city will continue to operate at its currently permitted levels.

Frank Chitwood with Coosa Riverkeeper, a citizen's river conservation group, said the decision was "a major win" for several entities who "fought vigorously to block the increase."

According to The Daily Home, the permit changes would have allowed discharge limits for E.coli bacteria to change from "swimming and other whole body contact sports" to the "fish and wildlife" level, allowing a higher concentration of the bacteria.

Chitwood said advocates discovered the requested changes about a month ago, but were unable to get requests granted for extra time for public comment through the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. He said he felt Pell City leaders "realized it was in the best interest of the city and the Logan Martin community to set a good example."

"The needs of that community and the city are very intertwined," he said. "That area depends on the lake not just for drinking water but also for its economy. I think they realize it is the right thing to do, and not to degrade the quality of the lake. They chose to hold themselves to a high standard."

The changes, advocates said, would have allowed four times the monthly average of E.coli in the water.
An 18-year-old student has been arrested after a fight at Tuscaloosa County High School which was caught on cell phone video.

Tuscaloosa County Sheriff Ron Abernathy said the student was charged with third-degree assault. "Due to the fact that these are high school students, we will not be releasing any identifying information,'' the sheriff said in a prepared statement. He referred further questions to the Tuscaloosa County Board of Education.

The school system released this statement: "The Office of the Superintendent has received several inquiries regarding a specific student incident that occurred at one of our schools. Please be advised that all incidents are investigated and responded to according to the Tuscaloosa County School System Student Code of Conduct and we do not discuss student incidents publicly."
Todd and Strange.jpg

Jeffco Circuit Judge Tracie Todd, left, and A.G. Luther Strange, right

Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange announced Thursday that his office has filed a petition for a writ of mandamus asking the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to order a Jefferson County judge to vacate her March 3 order declaring Alabama's "capital sentencing scheme" to be facially unconstitutional.

Strange's motion asserts the lower trial court has no power to prevent the state from seeking the death penalty in capital murder cases.

"The trial court's order ignores on-point precedent from the Supreme Court of the United States and the Supreme Court of Alabama," according to Strange's statement. The trial court does not have the power to prevent the State of Alabama from seeking the death penalty when and if the defendant is convicted of capital murder."



Strange also states that although recent legal developments may call into question the imposition of the death penalty under certain circumstances, Jefferson County Circuit Judge Tracie Todd's order is "indefensible."

"It eliminates the State's ability to seek the death penalty for four offenders. And it does so as a facial matter before they have even been found guilty," Strange says. "To ensure that these and other prosecutions can move forward in an orderly and equitable manner, the (appeals) court should grant the petition for writ of mandamus and direct the trial court to vacate its order declaring Alabama's 'capital sentencing scheme' to be facially unconstitutional."

In making her ruling after a hearing, Todd barred the death penalty in the capital murder cases of four men charged in three murders - Benjamin Acton, Terrell McMullin, Stanley Chatman, and Kenneth Billups. McMullin and Chatman are charged in slayings of two twin teenage brothers in Wylam in 2013 and the wounding of the teens mother.

"The Alabama capital sentencing scheme fails to provide special procedural safeguards to minimize the obvious influence of partisan politics or the potential for unlawful bias in the judiciary," Todd wrote in her 28-page ruling. "As a result, the death penalty in Alabama is being imposed in a "wholly arbitrary and capricious" manner."

Todd's order only affected the cases before her, the judge and defense attorneys hoped it would be used as a precedent by other judges.

The attorneys for the four men had all filed "Hurst" motions seeking to bar the death penalty because Alabama's death penalty sentencing law is similar to one struck down recently by the U.S. Supreme Court in Florida in the case known as Hurst.

Florida and Alabama, along with Delaware are the only three states that have judicial override - where over the wishes of juries that recommend life without parole sentences in capital murder cases judges can instead impose a death sentence.

Alabama is the only one of the three states in the past 16 years where judges have used their judicial override authority to imposed death.

A number of defense attorneys around the state have filed "Hurst" motions to bar the death penalty on behalf of their clients since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling nearly two months ago. But so far Todd is the only judge in Alabama who has granted the motion.

Strange and prosecutors in Jefferson County argued against Todd's ruling, which criticized the state's judicial system of partisan elections and the judge's authority to override jury recommendations in death penalty cases.

"The trial court's (Todd's) 28-page order is a jumble. It begins with an indictment of the Alabama Judiciary for supposedly succumbing to the "cancer of politics," Strange's motion to the appeals court states. "It then attacks the Legislature for inadequately funding the Judiciary. But it appears that the central holding of the order turns on the Sixth Amendment."

Todd's ruling is "a manifestly incorrect reading of Hurst" and none of her other findings about politics or funding support for courts support her finding that Alabama's capital murder sentencing scheme is facially unconstitutional, according to Strange's own 28-page petition to the appeals court. "The State has a clear legal right to prosecute these four defendants for capital murder and to seek the death penalty if they are convicted."

"Had the trial court continued reading Hurst past the unofficial syllabus and headnotes, the court would have realized that there is no legitimate argument that Hurst rendered Alabama's capital sentencing statute to be facially unconstitutional," the AG's petition to the appeals court states. "Instead, under established U.S. Supreme Court and Alabama Supreme Court precedents, Alabama's capital sentencing statute can be applied consistent with the Sixth Amendment as long as the jury makes critical factfindings in the guilt or penalty phase."

One state group that protects the rights of crime victims also issued a statement over the weekend opposing Todd's ruling.

The board of directors of the group Victims of Crime and Leniency - VOCAL - issued a statement that says Todd's order is the "definition of activist jurisprudence."

That statement reads:

"In the last few years victims of crime and leniency, not the organization but the actual victims, have been subjected to mounting obstacles in the pursuit of justice in this State and Country. It does not matter the side of the political spectrum. On one side justice is a money issue. If it costs too much then let's legislate it away. The other side, victims are merely a hindrance and are of no concern because we have criminals to protect. Those two activist sides of the same coin often join hands and can be observed in various branches of government acting in concert to the detriment of victims and true justice. However, recently the definition of agenda driven jurisprudence was on display. In a long and disturbingly worded order an Alabama Judge illustrated true activism while accusing fellow judges of political pandering.

The order, short on legal reasoning, and full of quotes from agenda driven anti-victim and anti-death penalty advocates, voided Alabama's death penalty statute. Not only will this order adversely affect that case it could potentially have an adverse effect on all pending capital cases in Alabama. That was the agenda and the mission was accomplished.

In the judge's order there was no mention of the plight of victims or their families. One hopes that victims are given more consideration while in the judge's courtroom than in the judge's diatribe. There are inflammatory accusations made about other Alabama trial judges and the Alabama appellate courts without a shred of truthful evidence. One hopes the judge bases decisions in the actual case on the truthful facts and not on anti-victim and anti-death penalty activist's rhetoric. The judge spends much energy lamenting and repeating the misconception most criminal defendants are allegedly indigent and don't have the financial resources to adequately defend themselves.

Nevertheless, the judge then admits that capital defendants and their attorneys (plural intended) have court ordered and taxpayer financed UNLIMITED defense funding. One hopes the judge knows the true facts: that of the over 15,000 lawyers in the State of Alabama, approximately 400 are prosecutors and that the money appropriated for attorneys to defend criminal defendants in the State of Alabama dwarfs the funding for prosecutors. (The State of Alabama funds the District Attorneys 28 million; Indigent Defense 45 million). In fact the annual funding for indigent defense in Alabama is MORE than the funding for both prosecutors and forensic sciences combined. (The State of Alabama funds forensic science 10 mil).

The authorities cited by the judge are very telling as the majority of them are directly from advocates for anti-victim and anti-death penalty causes. The most troubling aspect of the judge's order is that it not only relies on these biased activist groups for its conclusions but the order repeats similar phrases and rhetoric that these anti-death penalty anti-victim groups use routinely. There is nothing hidden here, it is activism from the bench.

The judge offers little legal reasoning and what is offered is blatantly biased, limited and is terribly flawed. VOCAL agrees and supports the efforts of District Attorney Brandon Falls and the capital division of the Attorney General in appealing this order. VOCAL will continue its fight for victims and will continue its fight against leniency by actively speaking out on this type of anti-victim judicial activism."

This story will be updated
Living close to the United States is like sleeping with an elephant, said a famous Canadian politician.

No matter how friendly and even tempered is the beast, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.

That pithy metaphor is typical of Canada-US relations in so many ways. Almost every Canadian has probably heard it, and probably quoted it to someone. Americans? Some might take offence, some might laugh, but very, very few will have heard it before.

Thats despite the fact it was said in 1969 in Washington DC. To the US National Press Club no less.

And the speaker, none other than Prime Minister Pierre Eliot Trudeau, father of the current head of government in Canada Justin Trudeau.

Its beyond doubt that phrase and other advice on how to handle the sleeping elephant is very much on the mind of Trudeau fils during the pomp, ceremony and backroom talks of his state visit to the US capital, the first by a Canadian prime minister in nearly 20 years.

For Justin Trudeau has not shied away from the pachyderm in his particular room. And Im not talking about the US here. Its that hes officially part of a dynasty in Canada. His much-heralded surname helped propel him into politics. And hes unabashed when he talks about the years of advice and counsel from his father, arguably Canadas most transformative leader of contemporary times.

No doubt Trudeau pere would have told his son about the importance of personal relations between Canadian prime ministers and US presidents, as a way of mitigating those elephantine twitches and grunts he referred back in 1969.

When the two have friendly, personal ties, their countries seem more able to resolve problems and expand areas of mutual interest. When they dont, things tend to fester and two nations that are quite literally closer and more integrated than any others can seem like petulant siblings at the breakfast table.

Just ask Harper

Just ask Stephen Harper, Justin Trudeaus predecessor in Ottawa. He was quite close to former President George W Bush, who apparently called him Harper by way of an affectionate nickname. The two men both loved the oil industry and Harper pushed hard for Canada to get more access for tar sands crude oil to US refineries and markets.

But under Barack Obama, the mood was sour from the start. For one thing, Harpers staff was accused of leaking information about the Obama campaign to the US media during the Democratic presidential primaries in 2008. For another, Harper was a right-winger, much closer in spirit to Republican challenger John McCain than Obama.

For nearly seven years, Harpers government tried to convince Obama to approve the Keystone XL pipeline from those northern tar sands to the US Gulf Coast. He failed, and many believe it was the disdain in the relationship between the two men that tipped the balance against a pipeline that might otherwise have had a fighting chance of approval. It didnt help that Harper at times sounded like a climate-change denier, while Obama saw greenhouse gas reductions as a legacy issue for his presidency. But close friends can disagree on many things, while working together to each others benefit. That didnt happen.

Yet hard economic reality can overcome frosty personal ties. As each others largest trading partners, Canada and the US arent about to diminish the $760bn that they do in business each year because two leaders dislike each other. Thats more than $1.4m dollars a minute in goods, services and investment. The two countries enjoy free trade and visa free personal travel for citizens. They work closely together on national security, air defence of the North American continent, protection of the Great Lakes freshwater supplies, international diplomacy, air pollution and dozens of other files.

Feel the love

Canada famously played host to tens of thousands of stranded airline passengers when commercial jet traffic to the US was grounded for several days after the attacks after the attacks of September 11, 2001. We even share humanitarian workers and snow plough crews when were hit with nasty weather or catastrophic storms.

All those sweet spots are very much to the fore now that Justin Trudeau is in charge in Ottawa and Barack Obama spends his last months in Washington DC. The elephant is awake and hes smiling at us. And were smiling back, beaming, happy to be noticed and comforted by the benevolence in its gaze.

Never mind that Canada just pulled its fighter jets out of the anti-ISIL coalition in Iraq and Syria. Or that our lumberjacks have looming trade disputes with the US that could get nasty. Or even that (as we see it) overly-strict US border security costs our exporters $20bn a year. Were working such issues.

Feel the love and bask in its glow. Because you never know when its going to change. And Justin Trudeau hasnt exactly been nice about a man whos looking increasingly likely to have a shot at replacing Obama in the White House.

His name is Donald J Trump.

But hes not invited to the current festivities in Washington. As far as Canada is concerned, well live with the elephant we have. For now. And get ready for some more twitching and grunting after the US elections, just in case.
Five women describe how their lives were changed in an instant when they were attacked with acid.

Some of the images below are graphic and show the consequences of acid attacks.



On the morning of December 23, 2014, as a 30-year-old doctor was riding to work in New Delhi, two men on a motorcycle intercepted her scooter. While one grabbed her handbag, another sprayed the contents of a syringe at her face. It was filled with acid. The liquid quickly ate through her skin and facial tissue. She is currently undergoing treatment and may lose the sight in one eye.

Only five days earlier, a small group of people had gathered outside Indias parliament bearing a list of demands. They were survivors of acid attacks and volunteers with the Stop Acid Attacks awareness campaign. Some were detained by the police and allegedly beaten for not obtaining the proper permissions to protest. Topmost among the changes they were calling for was stricter regulation of the availability of acid.

While instances of acid attacks have been reported in nearly all parts of the world, they are particularly endemic to South Asia, with Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Cambodia having the dubious distinction of the highest number of cases. With harsh punishments and strict guidelines controlling the sale of acid, Bangladesh is viewed as a success story in the making, having seen a steady decline of 20 percent to 30 percent in the past few years. In India, however, the number of reported cases has been increasing despite the existence of laws and directives to curb the horrors of acid violence.

Effective from February 2013, with the insertion of Section 326A into the Indian penal code, acid attacks have been classified as a distinct, specific offence, carrying a penalty of imprisonment for a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life.

Reliable statistics for the crime are difficult to ascertain. The Indian government confirmed the number of female acid attack victims as 98 in 2011, 85 in 2012 and 80 in 2013. But acid survivor support groups say these figures are misleading and do not account for the many cases that go unreported, as well as those involving male victims.

The Acid Survivors Foundation India (ASFI) has collated data from newspaper reports that indicates a clear growth in the number of cases  with 80 victims in 2010, 106 in 2011 as well as 2012, 122 in 2013 and 130 up until November of 2014. The Stop Acid Attacks campaign claims there have been 386 cases in the period 2013 to 2014.

Historically, acid attacks have been acts of revenge over perceived rejection by a woman. While such cases still form the largest single reason for acid violence, Alok Dixit of the Stop Acid Attacks campaign says cases of professional jealousy and family squabbles have also become motivators, and there has been a rapid rise in cases of men attacking other men. It remains a highly gendered form of violence, however, with perpetrators almost always male, and victims primarily female.

The Supreme Court of India passed a ruling in July 2013, which among other provisions, regulates the sale of concentrated acid in shops, mandates the maintenance of a register recording details of purchasers, and prohibits the sale of acid to minors. But implementation remains a distant reality and numerous investigations have shown that acid is easily purchased in shops, with no questions asked, for as little as Rs 20 (3 cents) a bottle. For hundreds of people across the country, thats all it takes for their lives to be changed irrevocably in a second.

Before this I was extremely shy, but I dont have that luxury anymore

Twenty-three-year-old Lalita Benbansi sits in the waiting room of a dimly lit doctors clinic in Grant Road, one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Mumbai. She wears an indigo-dyed hospital gown and a thin shawl that does little to conceal her injuries. She is scheduled to undergo surgery on her nose the next day, scarred and swollen to twice its original size by an acid attack over two years ago.

With approximately 25 medical procedures behind her, Lalita is approaching the midway point of her treatment plan. Her doctor says she will need about 30 more to repair the damage, including recreating her ears, which the acid melted off. These are aimed only at restoring functionality and preventing infection; the question of cosmetic procedures remains a far-off uncertainty.

Lalitas quick grin and ebullience dim as she describes the series of events that led to her attack.

In 2012, she and her mother travelled to her maternal village in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh to attend the wedding of a relative. After a rowdy bout of drinking, a quarrel broke out within the family, particularly enraging an 18-year-old cousin of Lalitas. A small disagreement quickly took on a much darker hue.

I pushed a girl who my cousin had brought along to the wedding, and was refusing to pay a token auspicious amount at the altar. He took this as the final insult from my family and swore revenge, she explains. Taunting her for the pride she took in her appearance, he threatened to throw acid on her. At the time I thought it was just something said in the heat of the moment, but he actually made good on his threat, she says, her voice still heavy with disbelief.

Five months later, on November 11, 2012, as Lalita and her mother were walking out to the fields to relieve themselves after dark, two men wearing masks approached her, tackled her to the ground and poured acid on her face while her mother watched, horrified. Lalita says she was able to recognise her cousins voice and his eyes when she shone a torch in his face.

Lalita was admitted to a local hospital for two months to treat her burns, but the family quickly ran out of savings. Lalitas father Anand, who works as a petrol pump attendant in Mumbai, says with an air of defeat: I make Rs 4,500 ($69) a month, out of which Rs 1,500 ($22) just goes on rent. How was I supposed to pay for such a long stay in hospital?

After spending many months in despair at her grandmothers house, without receiving any treatment for her grievous injuries, a relative convinced Lalita to return to Mumbai, where the acid survivors NGO Make Love Not Scars raised funds for further medical care.

On average, a survivor of a medium intensity attack requires at least 15 to 20 surgeries explains Dr Ashok Gupta, who has operated on more than 150 victims of acid violence over his 35 years as a plastic surgeon.

With the cost of each surgery averaging Rs 2-4 lakhs (about $3,000 to $6,000), treatments can be prohibitively expensive. Ive heard of some hospitals charging as much as Rs 6 lakhs ($9,000) for a minor procedure, says Gupta indignantly. Against these daunting expenses, the apex courts order to the government to provide a compensation amount of Rs 3 lakhs ($4,500) per victim is woefully insufficient.

Government hospitals and emergency rooms are also ill-equipped to deal with acid attacks. Special neutralising agents that can be applied immediately to limit the damage are scarcely stocked in most emergency rooms and ambulances. It all ties into the absence of a basic national advisory body of experts to suggest guidelines for actions in case of an attack, says Gupta.

When acid is thrown on a persons face, the eyelids and lips may burn off completely. The nose may melt, closing the nostrils, and the ears shrivel up. Skin and bone on the skull, forehead, cheeks and chin may dissolve. When the acid splashes or drips over the neck, chest, back, arms or legs, it burns every inch of the skin it touches.

When the wounds from an acid burn heal, they form thick scars that pull the skin tight and cause disfigurement. In 90 percent of cases, the eyesight of the victim is adversely affected, causing blindness. And then there is the psychological trauma. With a high survival rate among victims, acid attacks are rarely carried out with murder in mind. They are intended to disfigure and mutilate  to condemn the victim to a lifetime of suffering.

Lately Lalita has been arguing with her parents about getting a job as soon as her surgeries are completed.

They arent going to be around forever and I need to fend for myself, she says. Before this, I was extremely shy and barely spoke a word to anyone. I dont have that luxury anymore.

I could feel the liquid seeping into my skin, causing it to melt off

When Aarti Thakur saw a man approaching her at the Goregaon train station in Mumbai, she immediately knew something was wrong. She had learned to recognise the signs of danger after being attacked twice by a knife-wielding stranger in only two months. The first time she had been stabbed in the face, and had required 16 stitches. But what happened this time was worse than she could have imagined.

I could barely breathe. Everything turned silver black. I could feel the liquid seeping into my skin, causing it to melt off. I ran to a police officer and screamed that I had been attacked again, recalls Aarti in a calm, measured voice. The damage to her face was minimised because she was wearing a scarf wrapped around it. But the acid did burn through her forearms, neck, and parts of her cheeks and eyebrows.

Three years on, Aarti, who is now 25, is fighting a legal battle against the people behind the assault, while trying to raise funds for the surgery she requires. After a year-and-a-half of seclusion in her house, she started working again and is beginning to regain confidence in her skills as well as her appearance. But she remains understandably furious about how the acid attack on her could have been prevented.

Her ordeal began in 2011, when the son of her landlady professed his love for her. The landlady would insist that Aarti should marry him. Initially laughing it off as a joke, Aarti finally clarified that she was already engaged and turned down his marriage proposal for the third and final time.

The first attack took place shortly after, when she was returning home from her job at an IT company. But she didnt recognise the attacker and the police wrote it off as a simple case of attempted robbery.

Terrified that she had been intentionally targeted, Aarti decided to move to another suburb of Mumbai with her single mother and younger sister, who were dependent upon her. A second attempted attack took place a little over a month later. This time there was no officer at the station to take her complaint.

Aarti grew suspicious; only a few people knew where she had moved to and her former landlady was one of them. On January 30, 2012, she was shocked to spot her son standing outside her office building. The very next day, a man carrying acid worth Rs 5 (8 cents) in a bottle changed her life forever.

This time the police finally swung into action, arresting the son, his mother, and two accomplices. Offended by the perceived slight to his dignity, and jealous of her impending marriage, the son allegedly hired two men to procure and splash acid on her as a final act of revenge.

Subscribing to a patriarchal mindset where women are expected to smile demurely and quietly acquiesce to declarations of love, some men become enraged over such unrequited love. Nishita Jha, a writer researching gender violence in India, says: It comes from an innate belief that you can possess the other person. The idea that the woman has agency or autonomy is inconceivable to them. Such as in a rape case, the question of seeking consent doesnt even cross the mind.

Alok Dixit from the Stop Acid Attacks campaign says that often the perpetrators arent hardened criminals or serial offenders. There is a sense of impunity involved in acid attacks. Despite the new laws, the attackers have no real fear of punishment, such as in the case of a shooting. Unless its a high-profile urban case, these attacks are often relegated to the inside pages of a newspaper.

Despite their relative rarity in proportion to other forms of violence against women, the fear of an acid attack looms large. Jha reveals that shes come across numerous women during the course of her research who dont speak out against street harassment or stalking because they fear reprisal through acid.

She adds: An acid attack is not something you can physically move on from or effectively hide. Its not just a question of these men being unable to handle rejection, its meant to teach a lesson  to mark someone for life.

The burns hospital was like hell on Earth. Charred bodies would be rolled in

In May 2014, Reshma Qureshi took a train from her home in Mumbai to Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh, accompanied by her sister, Gulshan. Only 17 years old at the time, she had gone to take her Alim examination, a course based on comprehensive study of the Quran.

It had been a trying few months for the family. About a year before, Gulshan had left her abusive husband, with their two-year-old daughter in tow. But her husband had refused to relinquish custody of their older son and Gulshan had filed a case against him for kidnapping the child.

On the morning of May 19, as the sisters were on their way to the examination centre, they were accosted by Gulshans estranged husband and three other men. Wielding an open bottle with a clear liquid inside, she says he immediately darted towards Reshma. Recognising what was about to happen, Gulshan attempted to wrestle the bottle away from him, spilling some of the acid on her arms and back. But the men chased after Reshma and poured the remaining contents on her face.

Their mother Khusnoma recalls the next month they spent in Allahabad with despair. The burns hospital was like hell on Earth. Charred bodies would be rolled in next to her. It was no place for a young girl.

After receiving next to no treatment other than some dressing of her wounds, Reshma was taken back to their home in Mumbai  a two-room apartment that houses all 10 members of the family. She has lost the sight in one eye and the other is barely functional and covered with scar tissue. Doctors are unsure whether it can be saved.

With close to Rs 5 lakhs ($7,500) spent on surgeries already, the family anticipates another Rs 10-12 lakhs ($15,000-$18,000) in future medical expenses.

Reshmas brother, Aizaz, describes how the process of claiming compensation from the government has been like hammering at a solid titanium wall. In July 2013, the Supreme Court directed state governments to provide Rs 3 lakhs ($4,500) in compensation to victims of acid attacks, a third of which is to be payable within 15 days of the incident and the remainder within two months. But, after seven months of navigating bureaucracy, the Qureshi family have just a small slip of paper bearing a case number to show for it.

The Stop Acid Attacks campaign claims that most states dont have a payment policy in place and that some have no provision for the compensation fund. Out of the dozens of survivors theyve helped apply, only four have received any payment to date.

The family has grown exhausted fighting a seemingly losing battle in the face of police apathy. Two of the culprits are still on the loose and the case will remain pending in civil court until they are apprehended. The whereabouts of Gulshans son remain unknown.

That man lived with us for many years and knew Reshma was the darling of the family, the youngest and the prettiest. He realised that attacking her like this would break the spirit of the family, says Aizaz. Its a familiar narrative across the country. From family rivalries to caste-based and communal clashes, womens bodies often bear the brunt of the violence.

In the midst of a family dealing with their collective pain, a now 18-year-old Reshma sits quietly as they share her story. She barely speaks to anyone who is not from the family or a friend from before the attack. Nor does she leave the house other than for treatment. She often has trouble sleeping. The family had to pool their money to purchase an air-conditioning unit for the house because of the burning sensation she still experiences.

Reshmas mother wistfully recalls two weddings that have recently taken place in their neighbourhood. A year ago, she would have been the first one to convince us to buy new outfits, but this time she refused to even attend, she says.

Beyond their physical scars, survivors of acid attacks often suffer from depression, insomnia, nightmares and anxiety about another attack. Feelings of weakness and tiredness, along with difficulties concentrating and memory loss are other side effects. Often, there is a fear of ridicule from the outside world and a sense of shame and loneliness.

Almost all acid attacks focus on the face. Theres no return from the scars that result from that. A face may not be critical to survival, but it is essential to social survival and thats what attackers prey on, says gender violence researcher Nishita Jha.

Yet psychological counselling for the trauma and depression faced by survivors factors is low on the list of priorities, for the government as well as for NGOs. While informal survivor support groups have sprung up in the past, for many there is little respite from their private hells.

Daulat Khan and Saira Bani: It felt like someone had stripped off my skin and sprinkled chili powder inside

The aroma of frying fish fills Daulat Khans one-room home in Bandra, Mumbai. It is Saturday lunchtime and she is preparing food for her four children, and her visiting sister Saira Bani, and her five-year-old daughter, Alima Begh. Their sister Reshma couldnt make it but her daughter is staying with them for a few days. Missing from this family meal is any sign of their fourth sister  the only indicator of her existence indelibly marked on their skin.

On October 4, 2010, Najma Jagirdar invited Daulat to her home to call a truce on a disagreement that had been brewing for months. Their mothers property had just been sold and their sister wanted an extra Rs 50,000 ($808) from the proceeds. Wary of their oldest sister, who had a history of behaving violently, the three sisters decided to go together. But after enjoying a home-cooked meal together, the trio began to think theyd judged their sister too harshly.

Then, they say, their sister and her husband Iqbal whipped out a bottle of acid and splashed it on them. Just a year old at the time, Alima, who was sleeping in her mothers lap, was also injured.

At first we thought it was just cold water, thrown as a silly game, remembers Saira. But then the ice-cold liquid became unbearably hot. It felt like someone had stripped off my skin and sprinkled chili powder inside.

Daulat recalls a sense of complete confusion; the room was full of smoke and the sisters were unable to comprehend what had just happened.

While the involvement of a female attacker made this a rare case, the aftermath has followed a more familiar path. Their sister spent three months in jail before being released on bail. Her husband wasnt imprisoned. The trial is still ongoing.

Daulat says the family had faced a long history of abuse from their sister and her husband, even before the attack. She says the latter had repeatedly threatened her with dire consequences for refusing to marry him, after her first husband abandoned her. The sisters claim they have also received threats since the attack. Theyve filed 11 complaints with the police over the years.

While engaged in a protracted and muddled legal struggle, the sisters main concern is money. Shorn of their savings by the cost of their treatments, they also now struggle to find employment. After two years of being unable to leave the house, Daulat has been looking for jobs since. While she used to work as a make-up artist in malls and for television shows before the attack, she now barely earns Rs 8,000 ($130) a month cooking in peoples houses. With an additional Rs 3,000 ($48) a month donated from a charitable trust, Daulat struggles to run a household of five people. The irony of her name isnt lost on her  Daulat means wealth in Hindi.

Scoffing at the idea of re-entering the make-up industry, she says: Who will hire me to make others look beautiful when Im so scarred myself. I cant even apply make-up on my own skin, let alone anybody else.

Gainful employment is the most crucial step of the rehabilitation process, explains Dr Ashok Gupta. Its a not just a means of becoming self-sufficient, but also of regaining confidence. Advocating for job reservations for acid attack survivors in the government sector, he states that the odds are too heavily stacked against them finding employment elsewhere, especially considering the high rates of blindness in the aftermath of an attack.

While Daulat and Saira have retained most of their vision, the job market hasnt exactly been welcoming. Daulat has had many doors slammed in her face while looking for domestic work. Employers are impatient with court appointments that require a days absence from work. She explains how the heat from kitchen stoves aggravates her burned skin. They obviously dont appreciate it if Im scratching at my wounds while cooking. I try my best to hold off on touching my skin for as long as I can bear it, she says.

While Daulat rarely leaves her neighbourhood other than to make court visits, Saira endures discrimination while commuting on the local train. A few weeks ago, a woman seated next to her told her to use the compartment reserved for disabled passengers, saying she didnt want to catch whatever disease Saira was carrying.

I told her shes the one with a disease, not me. [Our sister] used to try and tell us what to do as well. She said we were too vain and thought too highly of ourselves in our Western clothes. I know thats why she chose acid to hurt us. Yet I refuse to stop living my life, she says.

Outside the house, Alima plays with a brightly-coloured bucket, oblivious to the scars she bears  just another victim of this corrosive form of violence.

This article first appeared in the February 2015 issue of the Al Jazeera Magazine.
Asylum seekers say conditions are poor while the closures of Balkans borders exacerbate overcrowding.

Bicske, Hungary  An Afghan family walked along the sidewalk leading to the entrance, flashed their ID cards and passed through the rotating steel gate into the Bicske camp.

Home to hundreds of refugees and migrants who stopped over in Hungary on their way to Western Europe, Bicske is one of three refugee camps providing temporary residence across Hungary.

Hundreds of other refugees and migrants are locked up in three closed detention centres.

A few men stood outside Bicskes main gate, smoking cigarettes and passing the time. One walked back and forth as he spoke on the phone, updating the person on the other end that he made it this far.

Standing outside the camps entrance, Davod, a 31-year-old asylum seeker who did not provide his last name, recalled leaving Iran two months ago. After travelling through Turkey, Bulgaria and Serbia, he eventually arrived at Hungarys border fence last week.

He shares a room with 14 others inside Bicske. The conditions are very bad inside, he said.

Stuck in limbo

With between 100 and 200 people caught by police each day while they breach the 175-kilometre fence spanning the border with Serbia, rights groups say these facilities are overflowing.

More than 1,000 people have been arrested for entering Hungary through the fence since March 1, according to Hungarian police.

The number of refugees and migrants in open camps and detention centres has tripled since mid-February, said Andras Kovats, director of the Hungarian Association for Migrants.

READ MORE: Balkan route for refugees permanently shut

These people are put into detention  but Serbia doesnt take back anyone, he told Al Jazeera. The problem is that Hungary considers Serbia a safe country. Thats why Hungary doesnt give asylum to these people. They end up stuck in limbo.

Only 146 of the 177,135 applicants were granted asylum in Hungary in 2015, according to the government statistics. Many of those started the asylum process and continued to Western Europe.

Another 362 refugees were not given asylum, but were provided with residency and permitted to stay. Unlike those who were granted asylum, they do not receive state subsidies.

Mumins story

In December, Human Rights Watch (HRW) criticised the detention of asylum seekers in Hungary, and called for their immediate release  including those awaiting deportation who cant be removed within a reasonable time-frame.

Mumin, a 19-year-old refugee from Somalia, was arrested just seconds after he crawled under the fence and entered the country on January 6.

The smuggler [in Serbia] cut the fence and told me that it was Germany, he said. It was raining so much. A police car [came] and told me this is Hungary.

Mumin was taken to a closed detention centre, where he was held for nearly two months before being transferred to Bicske.

Having taken the teenagers fingerprints, police told Mumin that he would be deported back to Serbia and that he was banned from the European Unions Schengen zone for at least one year.

Im a young boy. I want a future, he said, explaining that he left behind his mother and two sisters in Somalia.

Asked why he left, he said he was shot by fighters from the al-Shabab armed group on his way home from school one day in January 2015. He lost a kidney in the attack.

There were eight of us. Two of them died  I cannot go back. They already said they will kill me. They can do it, he said, shaking his head.

Unsure where to go next, he said: Pray for me.

Fears of violence

For its part, the Hungarian government has defended its policies towards refugees and migrants.

After Slovenia and Croatia closed their borders to those without valid European Union visas, the Interior Ministry announced on Wednesday a nationwide state of emergency and deployed an additional 1,500 soldiers and police officers to the Serbian border.

Interior Minister Sandor Pinter defended the move at a press conference on Wednesday, arguing that it remains unclear what impact the spate of border closures will have on Hungarys border.

The office of Prime Minister Viktor Orban was unavailable for comment.

READ MORE: Crisis looms as a new wave of refugees reaches Europe

In addition to Slovenia and Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia have also sealed their borders, triggering a build-up of an estimated 13,000 people at the Idomeni crossing between Greece and Macedonia.

Rights groups, including the Hungarian Association for Migrants, fear that border closures across the Balkans will see people take riskier routes to reach Western Europe. More would also attempt to breach Hungarys border fence.

We are prepared for people to come in large numbers, the associations Kovats said. The only question is whether the government will step back and let it flow, or if they will try to play the tough guy  Im afraid that if they do that it will turn violent.

Follow Patrick Strickland on Twitter: @P_Strickland_

Follow Sorin Furcoi on Twitter: @furcoisorin
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia  After Syrians and Afghans, Eritreans comprise the third largest group to cross the Mediterranean Sea.

They are aware that their lives are at great risk during the journey, but they would rather take their chances. Back in Eritrea, they say the situation has reached the bottom. They are fleeing from a country where, according to Amnesty International, arbitrary detention without charge or trial and torture is the norm for thousands of prisoners of conscience, the rule of law remains sparse, political opposition is banned, and there is no freedom of religion or movement.

Ethiopia is the starting point for Eritrean refugees making their way to Europe. This neighbouring country has the highest number of refugees in Africa  more than 700,000 people according to international monitors, of whom more than 100,000 are Eritrean.

Most refugees are placed in camps by the government, where they say life is not acceptable because of the heat, the small amount of food and because there is nothing to do all day.

Many refugees eventually move to Addis Ababa, Ethiopias capital.

Once there, they discover a city with one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, and with a population of 4.5 million which is expected to double by 2040.

Some decide to stay because life in Addis is not so bad, even if it is quite difficult to earn good money. They say they scrape enough together through informal jobs or have relatives or friends abroad send them money.

*Some names were changed at the request of the refugees.
If true, Omar the Chechens death would be a significant, but not fatal, blow to ISIL.

Luke Coffey is a research fellow specialising in transatlantic and Eurasian security at a Washington DC based think tank. He previously served as a special adviser to the British defence secretary and was a commissioned officer in the United States army.

If media reports are to be believed, Tarkhan Batirashvili, who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Omar al-Shishani  Omar the Chechen  has been killed by a United States air strike in Syria. He is one of the most well-known foreign fighters in ranks of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Originally from the Republic of Georgia in the South Caucasus, his fair skin and red beard have become a regular feature in ISIL propaganda.

If true, his death would be a significant, but not fatal, blow to ISIL, which is also known as ISIS. It would also mark the death of the most senior ISIL commander by the US-led anti-ISIL coalition to date.





Do not let his nom de guerre fool you. Batirashvili is not a Chechen, but a Georgian citizen. Batirashvilis father was Christian and his mother, a Kist (an ethnically Chechen and predominately Sunni Muslim people).

From foot soldier to commander

Batirashvili was raised as a Christian but later converted to Islam.

He was born and grew up in Georgias Pankisi Gorge, considered the epicentre of the countrys fundamentalist problem.

This tiny, remote valley, about 13km long and 3km wide, lies near the Chechen-Georgian border about 160km from the capital Tbilisi. The region is home to more than 100 Georgians who have joined ISILs ranks.

ALSO READ: Recruiting Georgia in the fight against ISIL

Batirashvili served as a non-commissioned officer in the Georgian armed forces and was deployed as a forward observer calling in artillery strikes against Russian soldiers during the Battle of Tskhinvali in the opening days of the 2008 Russo-Georgian War.

If the US follows up Batirashvili's death by taking advantage of the situation before someone replaces him, then his demise can have an impact on the organisation. by

In 2010, Batirashvili was diagnosed with tuberculosis, discharged from the army, and later jailed on illegal gun charges.

After leaving prison, Batirashvili made his way to Syria.

At the time of his alleged death, he served as a senior ISIL commander with authority over Aleppo, Raqqa, Latakia, and northern Idlib provinces in Syria. One US official described him as ISILs minister of war.

Decapitation strategies

If he is dead, does it matter?

There is a lot of debate as to whether or not decapitation strategies  that is, taking out senior leaders  work against groups like ISIL.

The answer to his question depends on the kind of groups targeted.

Against insurgent groups such as the Taliban, decapitation strategies have had some success. One recent report looking at 90 counterinsurgencies since the 1970s found that taking out the senior leadership of insurgent groups actually increases the chances of a rapid end to conflict. The report also found that killing senior leaders even reduces the level of violence in the fighting.

But ISIL is not an insurgency group, it is a terrorist organisation. Due to the leadership structure and ideologically driven goals of terror groups such as ISIL, decapitation strategies have not had as much success.

One only has to look at al-Qaeda. Five years after the death of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda is more active and has more franchises around the world than at any time before.

Last May, US special forces killed Abu Sayyaf, a senior ISIL commander described as the groups minister for oil. His death had no notable impact on ISIL or its ability to export oil.

Batirashvilis death, if true, will leave a gap in ISILs military planning, or at least in the organisations strategic thinking and will offer the anti-ISIL coalition an opportunity to exploit the situation.

If the US follows up by taking advantage of the situation before someone replaces him, then Batirashvilis demise can have an impact on the organisation.

But the US will have to act quickly. Dead terrorist leaders are quickly replaced by someone just as committed to the cause. There is no reason to assume that Batirashvilis death will be any different.

A broader strategy needed

It remains to be seen if Batirashvili really is dead. A quick search of the internet shows at least 10 old news stories saying that he had been killed, only later to be proved false.

ALSO READ: ISIL and the poor mans nuke

While many foreign fighters are skilled at evading US drones and air strikes  they have learned the hard way over the course of a decade in Iraq and Afghanistan  it can also be said that US forces are getting increasingly better at identifying high value targets and taking them out.

If he is dead, the anti-ISIL coalition will get a short-term propaganda boost and a small tactical victory.

But until the US incorporates its targeting of ISILs leadership into a broader strategy aimed at defeating the terror group, and then acts quickly to exploit the gap left when leaders are killed, situations such as Batirashvilis death are unlikely to have a long-term affect on the campaign.

Luke Coffey is a research fellow specialising in transatlantic and Eurasian security at a Washington DC based think-tank. He previously served as a special adviser to the British defence secretary and was a commissioned officer in the United States army.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
The sudden interest of both parties in each other is entirely due to the refugee crisis.

Cengiz Aktar is a senior scholar at Istanbul Policy Center. As a former director at the United Nations where he spent 22 years of his professional life, Aktar is one of the leading advocates of Turkey's integration into the EU.

On March 7, the European Union held yet another summit with Turkey on the topic of refugees flooding Europe. The meeting was a follow-up to the first summit of November 29, 2015, as well as countless bilateral and multilateral meetings on the same topic between Turkish, European and EU officials.

Last autumn, Europeans reached the following hypothesis: Refugees and asylum-seekers of Syrian and other origin are entering the EU territory from Turkey. This large-scale human displacement  which proved to be unmanageable for EU countries  can only be prevented by Turkey. Everything should be done to make this goal happen.

To this extent, the EU came up with a consolidated package. The Europeans agreed to give $3.3bn to Turkey and in return asked the Turks to take back and resettle refugees coming from Turkey, and prevent more refugees from entering the EU via Turkey. Additionally they pretended to revitalise Turkeys EU membership bid, and promised Turkish citizens visa-free travel within the Schengen area in the unspecified future.

The strategy, which has been in place since last autumn, has had the following results.

Of $3.3bn promised, only $105m has been transferred to Turkey so far. According to UNHCR, only 7,500 Syrian refugees were resettled from Turkey to Western European countries in 2015. Now, Germany will try to magnify this operation together with a few other Western European states.

To make it harder for Syrians and others to seek asylum in Turkey, the EU has tried to force Turkey to impose visa requirements for certain countries. However, there have been no tangible results. It should be noted that refugees do not care about visas  visas only make it harder for them to enter a country, but they always manage to get in.

Turkeys EU accession

Of the 33 chapters of the EU acquis  the accumulated legislation passed by the EU  which are negotiated for membership, a 15th chapter was opened following the November deal. Entitled Economic and Monetary Policy, this chapter concerns the euro system, in other words the common monetary system of which Turkey is not likely to be a part in the foreseeable future.

By turning a blind eye to increased human rights violations in Turkey, the EU not only supports the regime, but clearly indicates that it isn't taking Turkey's membership into consideration in the foreseeable future. by

Regarding other chapters which are rumoured to be opened, there is fierce opposition, particularly from German Chancellor Angela Merkels coalition partner Christian Social Union party. Yet, opening chapters is only part of the business. Turkey is sorely lagging behind in terms of harmonising its legislation with the EU acquis.

Visa exemption was also discussed within the context of the refugee deal. There are 72 conditions that require compliance by Turkey. A second monitoring report into how far these conditions have been implemented was announced on March 4 in Brussels (PDF).

Just like any text written in diplomatic language, the report welcomes the steps taken so far, but implies that there is a long road ahead before all the requirements are met. In other words, visa exemption is pie in the sky.

Even if Turkey fulfils all 72 requirements, the prospect of Turkish citizens feeling persecution, millions of unemployed Turks, and of Turkish members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), would be enough for the EU to keep visas in place.

At the end and despite all these good intentions, 122,637 asylum seekers have crossed to Greece from Turkey in the first two months of 2016 with the ultimate aim of reaching Western Europe, according to UNHCR.

Futile attempts

So now, Europeans and Turks have gathered once again in Brussels to practically reaffirm the same issues on the basis of the same assumptions.

The sudden interest of both parties in each other is entirely due to the refugee crisis. Hence, one should temper hopes for a warming of relations.

By turning a blind eye to increased human rights violations in Turkey, the EU not only supports the regime, but clearly indicates that it isnt taking Turkeys membership into consideration in the foreseeable future.

For example when asked about recent domestic developments in Turkey, the German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said bluntly: We should not be referee when it comes to human rights.

No negotiating country could overtly disregard the Copenhagen criteria  the set of guiding political and economic principles of the EU  but Ankara has been doing it for the past two years. To wit, there is no single mention of Turkey in the enlargement paragraph in the EU 18-month workplan for the period between January 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017 (PDF).

OPINION: The dark side of the EU-Turkey refugee deal

Overall, EU member states have never liked the idea of a member Turkey. Since 1999 when Turkey became an official EU candidate state, and in particular since 2005 when the membership negotiations started, the EU has openly or covertly shown its displeasure with Turkey.

Today, through the refugee deal, the EU has an opportunity to sever this prospect. This is why its members are so grateful to Recep Tayyip Erdogans regime, which offers them the Turkish demise on a golden plate by disconnecting Turkey from all accepted norms, principles and standards the EU is built upon.

Today and for the foreseeable future, Turkey is no more than a third party for the EU to deal with on project by project basis  as we see in this dubious refugee deal. Alas, there will be no winner in this new design, only losers, and refugees will be the first.

Cengiz Aktar is senior scholar at Istanbul Policy Center. A former director at the United Nations, he is one of the leading advocates of Turkeys integration into the EU.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
New Delhi will have to stay the course in Afghanistan in the light of its long-term interests.

As the snow melts in Afghanistan, it is not only the temperatures that rise. So too does the number of attacks as terrorists sneak in through the rugged Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. The recent attack of March 2 on the Indian consulate in the Afghan city of Jalalabad bears all the hallmarks of similar attacks carried out earlier on Indian missions in Afghanistan.

New Delhi is one of the biggest international donors in Afghanistan and has committed development assistance to the tune of $2bn to Kabul. This, among other things, has raised the hackles of anti-India elements in Afghanistan and beyond, and led to repeated attacks on Indians and Indian interests in Afghanistan.

On the eve of the inauguration of the current Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May 2014, the Indian consulate in Herat was attacked. The Indian consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif was hit earlier this year in January. And the Indian Embassy in Kabul had been attacked in 2008 and 2009 with many casualties (including Indian Embassy staffers)  while its consulate in Jalalabad had been targeted earlier too, this being the fourth attack since 2007.

However, all these attacks have not prevented India from continuing to press forward in Afghanistan.

Critical conduit for India

Afghanistan is Indias gateway to energy-rich Central Asia. For the continued growth of the Indian economy, a constant supply of energy is essential, and since Pakistan does not allow overland access to Indian goods destined for Central Asia, Afghanistan is a crucial conduit for India.

Moreover, last December, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan signed an agreement that will see natural gas being pumped from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India through the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline, scheduled to go into operation by December 2019.

On one hand, India faces regular attacks on its interests, while on the other hand it cannot afford to pull out of Afghanistan. by

India has deep economic interests in Afghanistan too. A consortium of Indian companies won the rights to three iron ore mines in the Hajigak region of Afghanistan back in 2011.

Indias influence in Afghanistan has been on the wane, especially after the former president, the India-educated Hamid Karzai left office. It now faces a Hobsons choice in Afghanistan. On one hand, it can expect regular attacks on Indian interests, while on the other hand it cannot afford to pull out of that country. In such a quagmire, what can New Delhi do?

One thing that will not harm New Delhis interests is to keep talking with Pakistan, as Islamabad retains a huge degree of influence in Afghanistan. Many of the terror outfits that operate in Afghanistan find shelter in Pakistan and in return, Pakistan gains a so-called strategic depth in Afghanistan.

New Delhi will have to step up security cooperation with the United States and other countries, which have also borne the brunt of terrorist attacks in Afghanistan. In addition, intelligence gathering and sharing will be key if India is to take on the monster of terrorism in Afghanistan.

Opportunities and threats

In a sign of Indias continuing commitment to Afghanistan, Modi paid a visit to Afghanistan on December 25 of the last year where he inaugurated the new Afghan parliament built by India.

In addition, New Delhi has constructed a 218km road in Afghanistan from Delaram to Zaranj on the Iranian border, which will help in transporting Afghan exports to various countries via the sea route. India has been involved in the development of the Chabahar port in Iran, and Indian goods can be transported to Afghanistan via Iran.

OPINION: Has India lost Afghanistan to Pakistan?

India would also do well to keep a channel of communication open with the Taliban. When other countries have shown a willingness to talk to the so-called good Taliban, realpolitik dictates that India should also keep its mind  and options  open. Keeping a channel of communication open with the so-called good Taliban is a low-hanging fruit that India should immediately pluck.

New Delhi will also have to do some out-of-the-box thinking, and it may be worth sounding out Beijing for possible opportunities for cooperation in Afghanistan.

Beijings outlying border province of Xinjiang and Indias border province of Jammu and Kashmir could suffer in any further deterioration of the security situation in Afghanistan because these provinces abut Afghanistan.

India will also need to beef up its security presence in Afghanistan and bolster the Afghan armed forces. For the first time in December last year, India gifted Mi-25 attack helicopters to the Afghan forces.

New Delhi is caught between a rock and a hard place in Afghanistan. Since, reducing its footprint in Afghanistan is not an option for New Delhi, India and Indians will have to be prepared for more such terror attacks and be ready to brazen them out  while strengthening security at its missions, and its intelligence gathering and sharing mechanism.

In this regard, New Delhi could learn from former Chinese leader Deng Xiaopings maxim: Hide your strengths, bide your time.

Rupakjyoti Borah is currently a research fellow with the Tokyo-based Japan Forum for Strategic Studies.
Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has decried Europes treatment of refugees, as he continues to document the crisis faced by millions of people fleeing war and persecution.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Idomeni near the Greek-Macedonian border, where some 13,000 people remain stuck in squalid conditions, Ai Weiwei said European politicians response to the crisis is stripping refugees of their very basic human rights.

The makeshift camp at Idomeni has become massively overcrowded in the past few weeks as border restrictions prevent refugees from continuing their journeys from Greece to northern Europe. Conditions there are poor, amid wet, cold weather and a lack of essential supplies such as food, nappies and waterproof clothing.

READ MORE: Ai Weiweis photos from Lesbos capture refugee life

Ai Weiwei, who often uses his social media accounts to highlight social issues, has repeatedly visited the Greek island of Lesbos since the beginning of the refugee crisis.

He spoke to Al Jazeeras Hoda Abdel-Hamid.

Al Jazeera: What is your impression of what refugees are going through at the moment?

Ai Weiwei: My impression is that they are completely being neglected and their very basic rights are being neglected. Refugees are not slaves  they have dignity, they are just like you and me. They come from the war, a war caused by many, many politicians for all kinds of reasons. But they are the victimised by this war. They come to Europe just for a moment of peace. I talked to many of them  they never really want to stay here [Idomeni].

READ MORE: Ai Weiwei closes Denmark exhibition over refugee laws

They have to bring their children to a safe place. There are so many children running around  you understand that those people are very brave. They give up everything, they come to this land. Now in this land, every door is shut.

Politicians use them as bargaining chips; they never really see them as human beings. Their very essential rights are being neglected, its such a shame.

Al Jazeera: Is this one of the worst refugee camps you have seen?

Ai Weiwei: I think they are equally bad. I should say from Lesbos to here, they are bad not because of the conditions, but because the hearts of the Europeans. [They are] not giving them at least a little bit of dignity and love. This is a very sad situation.

Al Jazeera: From your conversations with refugees, what are they telling you they will do next?

Ai Weiwei: Basically they are very naive. They have to escape, they think there is some kind of future waiting for them. [From] my observation of the European talks, I think they are the ones being left out. There is no conversation to consider them as human beings. Their human rights are being so badly put down.

READ MORE: Ai Weiwei covers Berlin venue with 14,000 life jackets

If we see the situation like today, their future is really dark. I cant even tell them the door is not going to open for them. People still believe the door will open one day, the border will open one day .

Al Jazeera: The plight of refugees has inspired you in the past. What does this camp bring to you?

Ai Weiwei: I think nobody should see this situation. Its so sad. Once you see this situation, you will never look at the field or the beach the same again.

If you think [about the children who] drowned  the past year, you just dont understand what happened.

What happened to our humanity? What happened to our 21st century? We are living in such a privileged condition.

As an artist, I dont know what to do. I just try to be there, document the situation. We are doing documentary films. We are trying to first study the situation and be involved, and give the world a full picture of whatever we have seen.
Senior commander makes public appearance to deny claims he and another leader were killed in raids in southern Somalia.

Mogadishu, Somalia  A senior al-Shabab commander has made a public appearance to deny claims that he and another group leader were killed in US air strikes last week at a training camp in southern Somalia.

Washington said on Monday it had carried out several strikes in Somalias Hiiraan region, in which it claimed more than 150 of the al-Qaeda-linked groups fighters had been killed.

READ MORE: Toll of US air strikes exaggerated, says al-Shabab

Somali officials said later on Monday that five al-Shabab commanders had been killed in Saturdays attack, including Mohamed Mire, the groups Hiiraan governor, and Yusuf Ali Ugas, al-Shababs former Hiiraan chief.

But Mire appeared on Thursday in the village of Buqa Qabe  in the same province the air strikes took place  to dismiss the claims.

It is all lies. They said I was among those killed. But Im here and doing well as you can see, he told a crowd that had gathered to see the public execution of a man the group accused of being a Somali government soldier.

Air strikes

Al-Shabab, 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.

The al-Shabab fighters were training for a large-scale attack and posed an imminent threat to US and African Union forces in Somalia, according to the Pentagon.

READ MORE: What does al-Shabab want?

It is all propaganda. America is losing this war and that is why they now have to resort to guerrilla tactic, Mire added, in reference to a Wednesday morning raid on the town of Awdhegle  50km south of the capital Mogadishu  by joint US and Somali special forces.

Somali officials said more than a dozen al-Shabab fighters were killed in the raid which involved two helicopters. Al-Shabab said only one of its fighters was killed.

There was no way of independently verifying both claims.
Hundreds of protesters have embarked on a march from the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka to the worlds largest mangrove forest region in the south, to demonstrate against government plans to build huge coal power plants near the forests.

Activists taking part in the 400km march, taking off on a bus convoy on Thursday, fear that pollution from the two proposed coal plants will lead to the destruction of the heavily biodiverse Sundarbans that is both a UNESCO World Heritage site and Samarco-protected wetland.

The 10,000 sq km forest region, most of which is situated in Bangladesh with a small part in neighbouring India, is home to numerous endangered species, including the Royal Bengal tigers, the estuarine crocodile, and the South Asian river dolphin.

Al Jazeeras Tanvir Chowdhury, boarding a bus with activists in Dhaka, said that protesters are trying to spread awareness of the environmental threat and persuade the government to stop the construction of the plants.

Protesters want to pick up more demonstrators in towns and cities across the country, he said.

Dhaka says a 1,320-megawatt plant built by the Indian and Bangladeshi governments and a 545-megawatt plant by the private company Orion are necessary to provide power to around a third of the population who lack electricity.

It says that the country also needs more power urgently because of its rapid industrialisation.

The government has denounced the protests and claimed that the plants will not have any negative environmental impact on the forests.

Anwar Hossain Manju, the minister for environment and forests in Bangladesh, told Al Jazeera that the government has done all the required environmental impact assessments and will maintain the highest environmental standard possible.

He said the type of coal that will be used is of the highest quality with low sulphur content.

However, Manju said he shared the concern of the environmentalist and the protesters.

Its a Catch-22 situation. On one hand we are badly in need of energy for growth and development and at the same time we have to be concerned about the impact it may have on the environment.
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been charged in a money-laundering investigation led by Sao Paulo state prosecutors.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for the state prosecutors declined to specify the charges, but state investigators said they suspect Lulas family owned an undeclared luxury beachfront apartment in the city of Guaruja.

Federal investigators echoed those allegations after they detained Lula for questioning in police custody on Friday, fanning a political crisis that has rattled his successor, President Dilma Rousseff.

Lula has denied any wrongdoing and rejected the idea that he owned the luxury condo in Guaruja built by engineering group OAS, one of the conglomerates snared in a vast corruption scandal tied to state-run oil company Petrobras.

Lulas lawyer called the charges an attempt by prosecutor Cassio Roberto Conserino to smear the former president.

Conserino turned two visits to an apartment in Guaruja into concealed ownership, defence lawyer Cristiano Zanin Martins said in a statement calling on the Supreme Court to decide if state or federal prosecutors had jurisdiction.

The charges may make it more urgent for Lula to accept, if offered, a post in Rousseffs government.

Brazilian media reported on Wednesday that Workers Party members were pressing Rousseff to offer its founder Lula a ministerial portfolio that would shield him from possible detention.

If appointed, Lula could only be tried in the Supreme Court, placing him out of the reach of the federal judge investigating kickbacks at Petrobras.

Rousseffs minister in charge of legislative affairs, Ricardo Berzoini, said on Wednesday that Lula could join Brazils government if he wishes.

The ball is in his court, Berzoini told Reuters news agency. The government is good with it, he said.

According to two sources close to Lula, he was reluctant to join the government but pressure from his party has had some effect.

The best chance that he has is to accept a ministry and for the trial to go to the Supreme Court so he receives a fair hearing, said one of the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss Lulas legal strategy.

The snowballing scandal puts Rousseff in a tough spot as she promises independence for investigators while trying to contain the political fallout in her Workers Party.
EU calls states to take 6,000 refugees a month as thousands endure harsh conditions in camp on Greeces northern border.

The European Union has urged member states to dramatically step up efforts and admit thousands of refugees in the coming months, as scores of people remained stuck in a sprawling camp on Greeces northern border in deplorable conditions.

At least 13,000 people  many fleeing war-torn countries in the Middle East and Africa  have been braving rain, wind and cold temperatures for days at the makeshift camp in Idomeni, hoping border closures throughout the Balkans will be lifted.

OPINION: The EU can learn from Turkeys refugee experience

Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European migration commissioner, told reporters on Thursday that at least 6,000 people a month should be relocated to other EU member states in order to help solve the worsening crisis.





The EU adopted a scheme in September to relocate 160,000 Syrian, Iraqi and Eritrean refugees from Greece and Italy  but only 885 people have been moved to other member states since then.

If relocation does not work, then the whole system will collapse, Avramopoulos warned.

He added that several member states have not yet offered to take a single asylum seeker.

His comments came after Austrias interior minister said on Thursday that the Balkan refugee route will remain closed permanently and that people should not be given false hope for passage.

Johanna Mikl-Leitner told reporters in Brussels on Thursday that the most honest thing is to tell the refugees: Its impossible to get through the Balkan route anymore. The Balkan route is closed.

Stranded refugees

Some 35,000 people have been stranded in Greece since Austria and several Balkan states began closing borders, barring access to thousands of refugees hoping to settle in places in northern Europe.

In Idomeni, near the Greek-Macedonian border, scores of refugees scuffled for free food and water on Thursday, struggling to seize eggs and bread thrown from a truck at the tent city which has become their temporary home.

Aid workers are warning that infectious diseases could soon spread due to the unsanitary conditions in the makeshift camp.

People are huddling inside tents to get away from the rain as the ground has turned into mud.

Its very difficult; it is very cold for us and we dont have clothes or food, Imran, a young Afghan refugee boy stranded in Idomeni told Al Jazeeras Hoda Abdel-Hamid.

We are in here too  we have to [be] in here because of the Afghan war, [we] cant go back. [We] want borders open  because of [the] cold [we] cant live here.

Ai Weiwei at Idomeni: What happened to our humanity?

More than 40 percent of those at the camp are children, according to estimations by aid groups on the ground.

Babies, some just weeks old, lie down on cardboard boxes. Scores suffer from respiratory conditions.

My daughter and my wife are crying all the time for two days, Magir Asfour, 42, who fled fighting in the Syrian city of Aleppo, told Reuters news agency.

Our tent is wet. We didnt sleep last night. It flooded.

More than 130,000 people have reached Europe from Turkey this year.

In 2015, nearly 1.3 million people applied for asylum in the EU  that is more than double the number from 2014.

More than 3,700 people died trying to make the perilous crossing across the Aegean Sea from Turkey into Greece.
The current textbook depicts Arabs as immigrants in their own land.

Nazareth  Leaders of Israels large Palestinian minority have begun creating an alternative syllabus for Arab schools, in what they are terming a revolutionary step towards educational autonomy.

It will be the first time in Israels history that the Palestinian minority has tried to wrest control of the curriculum taught in Arab schools from the Israeli education ministry.

The move follows the Israeli education ministrys decision to revise the civics textbook, a central part of Israels matriculation exam.

Traditionally, civics has been the only subject that uses the same textbook in both Jewish and Arab schools.

The changes have triggered a wave of protest from Israeli civic teachers associations. They have urged members to boycott the new textbook, due to be published in the next few weeks.

The move is likely to face stiff resistance from Israeli officials. Successive governments have refused to countenance educational autonomy for Israels Palestinian citizens.

Israels 1.6 million Palestinian citizens are a fifth of the population.

READ MORE: How Israel is turning Palestinians into zionists

Education officials have been accused of downgrading democratic values to place a much greater emphasis on Israels Jewish character.

Our teachers are now being required to present us as immigrants in our own country. And our students are being taught that the Jewish identity of the state is far more important than its democratic identity. by Mohammed Barakeh, head of the High Follow-Up Committee

He said the ministrys new textbook had pushed the Arab education system to crisis point.

Our teachers are now being required to present us as immigrants in our own country. And our students are being taught that the Jewish identity of the state is far more important than its democratic identity, he said. It is time for us to take the initiative and teach our children the true meaning of democratic values.

Although Palestinian and Jewish students are segregated in Israel, the curriculum in Arab schools has always been strictly controlled by Jewish officials, Asad Ghanem, a politics professor at Haifa University, told Al-Jazeera.

The Follow-Up Committee has given Ghanem responsibility for overseeing the development of an alternative civics curriculum in time for the next academic year, in September.

READ MORE: Israel is a terrorist state

The Palestinian leadership in Israel has grown increasingly concerned about the direction taken by the education system since Naftali Bennett, leader of the far-right settler party Jewish Home, took over the education ministry last spring.

Dirasat, a legal and social policy think-tank based in Nazareth, will take charge of writing the new curriculum sent to Arab schools. Dalia Halabi, its director, said a survey of the existing curriculum by Dirasat and ACRI, an Israeli civil rights group, found that it had become increasingly right-wing and nationalist.

It does not encourage critical thinking or questioning from students, she told Al-Jazeera. It aims at indoctrination. Ghanem said control over civics was vitally important because it determined the values of the next generation.

Since [Benjamin] Netanyahu came to power in 2009, efforts have intensified to delegitimise the Palestinian minoritys standing in every field  politics, education and culture, he said.

The textbook produced by the Follow-Up Committee would present the Palestinian minoritys perspectives on major historical and political issues that had always been excluded from the Israeli curriculum, Ghanem added.

Among them would be discussions of the Nakba, the mass dispossession of the Palestinians during the 1948 war that created Israel, and a critical analysis of Israels definition as a Jewish state.

At the moment the curriculum relates to us in terms of our sectarian identities  as Muslims, Christians, Druze  rather than recognising our Palestinian identity, he said. That has to change. He said he hoped other parts of the ministrys curriculum, especially history and religious studies, would also be rewritten in the future.

The Follow-Up Committee also intends to make the new civics material available online for parents.

Halabi said some teachers were very afraid of retaliation by the education ministry if they adopted the alternative curriculum. We cant put them in the front line alone, she said. We have to support them.

Ghanem said the break with the official curriculum became inevitable after work by the education ministry on the new civics textbook  which has not been updated since 2000  accelerated rapidly under Bennett.

WATCH: Israeli lawyer: Palestinians have the right to fight





Israeli education officials have conceded that no member of the Palestinian minority was involved in drafting the text. Ghanem said he had been contacted for his comments on an early draft two years ago, before Bennetts tenure, and had sharply criticised it. He never heard back from the ministry.

It is simply anti-democratic not to have a single Arab representative involved in writing a book dealing with such sensitive topics, he said. He added: The book isnt just bad for Arab students, it is imparting values that are bad for the Jewish pupils too.

It teaches them only the formal aspects of democracy  elections, majority rule, separation of powers  while denying its substantive meaning: Equality before the law and minority rights.

Amru Aghbaria, the only Palestinian on the ministrys professional committee advising on the civics curriculum, resigned last December. In his resignation letter, he said he was being used as a fig leaf for an improper process.

He also noted that the most recent government figures, for 2014, showed half of Palestinian students failed the civics matriculation exam, up from 37 percent two years earlier. The failure for Jewish pupils was just 21 percent. Ghanem said the high numbers of students failing the exam reflected the difficulties for Palestinian students of relating to the existing curriculum.

Sadly, that wont end just because we produce an alternative textbook. We can teach students democratic values but they still have to try to pass an exam set according to the education ministrys agenda.

Palestinian leaders in Israel have long complained about massively discriminatory budgets favouring Jewish schools, and a shortage of thousands of classrooms and teachers in Arab schools.

As a result, Palestinian students in Israel have on average much lower scores in exams than their Jewish peers, with the gap growing in recent years.

OPINION: In Israel, racism is the law

Fears that the situation will deteriorate further with the introduction of the ministrys new civics course were heightened in January when Bennett defended the changes. Are we ashamed of the fact that the state of Israel is a Jewish state? he said on Army Radio.





Last month he was also reported to have ousted the ministrys chief scientist, Ami Volansky, over his efforts to tackle racism in Israeli schools towards ethnic minorities. The index was intended as a response to the murder of the Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir by Israeli youths in July 2014.

Although the ministry produced the new civics textbook amid great secrecy, leading Jewish educators who have seen the final text to complain that it is riddled with factual inaccuracies, maligns the Palestinian minority, and discounts democratic values.

Revital Amiram, who recently demanded that her name be removed from the final textbook, told Al-Jazeera that she was deeply unhappy about the revisions made to her chapters.

They included a highly misleading quote from a Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament in 1949, praising Israeli democracy. She noted that the Palestinian minority was living under military rule at the time and such quotes did not reflect wider opinion. She said: We are being denied the right to see the completed textbook. If it was balanced and fair, then why all this secrecy?

The Education Ministry was unavailable for comment.

Controversies have beset the Education Ministry since Bennett took over. A novel about a romance between a Jew and Palestinian was banned from schools because it encouraged intermarriage. Funds on pluralism education have been frozen, and left-wing groups like Breaking the Silence barred from entering schools.

Last month six members of the Council for Higher Education resigned, accusing Bennett of abusing his powers over appointments. Some 1,500 academics have expressed no confidence in Bennett.
Pyongyang to cash in assets at closed Kaesong industrial complex and tourism resort in response to fresh sanctions.

The North Korean government has announced plans to liquidate all remaining South Korean assets at former joint projects in its territory in response to sanctions imposed by Seoul.

The move came amid an escalating standoff that began in January between the two sides.

The Norths Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a statement on Thursday that Pyongyang will seize its neighbours assets at the closed Kaesong industrial complex and the scrapped tourism resort at Diamond Mountain.

It said it will also take a series of unspecified steps to impose lethal military, political and economic blows on the South Korean government to accelerate what Pyongyang called its pitiable demise.

In another show of defiance on Thursday, North Korea also fired short-range ballistic missiles that fell into waters off South Koreas east coast, according to the South Korean defence ministry. They are believed to be Scud-type missiles, said ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun.

READ MORE: Now North Korea has nothing to lose

Such missile firings by the North are not uncommon as a way of protesting annual military drills carried out by Seoul and Washington. The drills, which this year are described as the biggest ever, are expected to take place this month.

Pyongyang is also angry over tough United Nations sanctions following its recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.

Nuclear warhead model

The latest firings come a day after North Korea caused a new stir by publicising a purported mock-up of a key part of a nuclear warhead, with leader Kim Jong-un repeating a claim that his country has developed miniaturised atomic bombs that can be placed on missiles.

READ MORE: North Korea threatens nuclear strike

The moves are the latest in an increasing standoff between the Koreas that began in January when North Korea detonated what it said was an H-bomb of justice, its fourth nuclear test.

Since then, Seoul has shut down the last remaining cooperative project between the rivals, a jointly run factory park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, and slapped sanctions on the North over its recent nuclear test and rocket launch.

The UN has imposed sanctions, and the North has threatened nuclear strikes on Seoul and the US mainland.

The Norths statement called South Koreas unilateral sanctions laughable, unsightly behaviour, and referred to South Koreas female president, Park Geun-hye, as an American prostitute, the latest in a series of crude derogatory attacks on her.
On March 4, Turkish police stormed the Istanbul headquarters of Turkeys highest circulation newspaper, Zaman, to make way for its takeover by a panel of court-appointed trustees.

The police officers were acting on a local court ruling, which accused the newspaper of supporting the Gulenist Terror Organisation, headed by Fethullah Gulen, a former Turkish imam now based in the United States.

While the majority of the Turkish opposition, international media and European leaders were quick to point out that they view the seizure of Zaman as an attack on press freedom in Turkey, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that a legal process was under way to investigate illicit financing of a terrorist organisation and that there has been no political interference.

Zaman is not the only newspaper in Turkey opposing our government. Other newspapers are freely expressing their opinions, Davutoglu said.

A Turkish state official talking to Al Jazeera accused Europe and the Western media of being hypocritical in their representation of media freedoms in Turkey.

The coverage of the press freedom issue in Turkey has been biased, said the official, who requested that his name be withheld. France, which is currently prosecuting Le Monde newspaper for publishing secret government documents, faces no criticism, he added.

READ MORE: Turkeys Zaman: Editorial tone changes after takeover

The coverage of the press freedom issue in Turkey has been biased. by A Turkish state official

Pro-government media outlets in Turkey were also eager to support the prime ministers interpretation of events. They denied that the seizure of Zaman was a political move or an attack on the freedom of the press.

Instead, they focused on the legal accusations that the media group is facing. For example, in his commentary for the Daily Sabah newspaper, Ilnur Cevik argued that Zaman was seized not because of its journalism, but because they used charity money, collected by unsuspecting supporters, for gain.

The organisation, which claimed to promote Islamic values, was in fact committing a great sin, using charity money for its own economic purposes, he said.

Gulen, 74, had been a strong ally of the Turkish president in the past, but this alliance came to a swift end when prosecutors seen as sympathetic to Gulen opened a corruption investigation into Erdogans inner circle in late 2013.

After surviving the corruption allegations with little damage, Erdogan said that Gulen had been running a parallel state by getting his followers into key positions in state institutions.

The Turkish government labelled the Gulen movement a terrorist organisation and in February 2016. Gulen was charged in absentia with not only attempting to overthrow the Turkish republic through the use of violence, but leading a terrorist organisation and political espionage too.

Meanwhile, some journalists, who pointed out Zamans hostile attitude towards their colleagues who have been critical of the Gulen movement, were also unsure about how much sympathy to have for the newspaper and its staff, albeit for entirely different reasons.

I am finding it hard to process that Gulenists suddenly became the symbol of press freedom in Turkey, the journalist, working for a prominent independent news organisation in Turkey, told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity.

While emphasising that he does not in any way approve of the government crackdown on the pro-Gulen media, the journalist said: When reporters who unearthed the dark reality of the Gulen movement were facing long prison sentences, the only thing Zaman journalists did was to publish unsupported allegations about them. Zaman was not only supporting their arrest, but it was complicit in everything the government was doing.

WATCH: Independent Turkish journalist discusses Turkey raids

In 2011, Ahmet Sik, a prominent investigative journalist, was accused of being a member of the ultra-nationalist underground organisation Ergenekon. During the time of his arrest he was writing a book on the Gulen movement, entitled The army of the Imam, in which he explained how Gulen supporters had infiltrated the Turkish security forces.

The public prosecutor in charge of the trial claimed that the book was commissioned by the Ergenekon network and consequently the court made possession of the unpublished manuscript a punishable crime.





Siks imprisonment lasted for more than a year and Zaman newspaper, which still sided with the government at the time, made no effort to contest his conviction or support him through this ordeal.

But, after the seizure of the Zaman newspaper, Sik was one of the first Turkish journalists to condemn the incident and classify it as an attack on the press freedom in Turkey. I am always on democracys side, he said, so I cant be happy about what happened.

The head of the Journalists Union of Turkey, Ugur Guc also condemned the seizure of the newspaper unreservedly and pointed out that assigning trustees to a media organisation is categorically illegal under any circumstances.

Article 30 of the Turkish constitution clearly states that a press enterprise, and press equipment shall not be seized, confiscated, or barred from operation under any circumstances, he said. Assigning trustees to a newspaper is against the constitution.

Guc also contested the prime ministers claim that journalists opposing the government are working freely and expressing their views without the threat of prosecution.

He emphasised the hardship, intimidation and violence inflicted upon journalists covering the Kurdish conflict recently. Journalists who have tried to report on the abuse in eastern Turkey faced threats, insults and even torture in custody, he said.

The seizure of Zaman by court-appointed trustees came a week after the Turkish constitutional court freed two other opposition journalists, Can Dundar and Erdem Gul, who were jailed over the publication of video footage purporting to show the state intelligence agency helping to send weapons to Syria.

The court ruled that their detention violated their human rights. But, despite their release, both Gul and Dundar still face possible life sentences at a trial on espionage and terrorism charges due to start on March 25.

Guc explained that Turkey jailed 18 journalists for being members of a terrorist organisation and was ranked 149 out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom index. Now you tell me, can we say that the press is free in Turkey? he asked.
Minister says refugees should not be fed false expectations, as thousands are stuck in squalid conditions in Greek camp.

Austrias interior minister says the Balkan refugee route will remain closed permanently and that refugees should not be given false hope for passage.

Johanna Mikl-Leitner told reporters in Brussels on Thursday that the most honest thing is to tell the refugees: its impossible to get through the Balkan route anymore. The Balkan route is closed.

She said: The biggest problem is that these refugees still have hopes and expectations, and these hopes are being constantly fed.

Mikl-Leitner said it is important to warn that the Balkan refugee route into Europe is closed because, she added, that way you do not feed any hopes and expectations.

In recent months hundreds of thousands of people have travelled the route north from Greece hoping to settle in places like Germany or Scandinavia.

The booming fake passport market for refugees in Athens

Austrias introduction of a refugee cap last month set off a chain reaction of border restrictions that has shut down the route.

Mikl-Leitner told German daily Die Welt ahead of a meeting on Thursday with her European Union counterparts: The closure of the Balkan route is going to plan and this clock will not be turned back.

Thousands of refugees are stranded in Greece as Macedonia is only allowing those in proved need of protection to cross the border.

Squalid conditions in Idomeni

In Idomeni, near the Greek-Macedonia border, people are stuck in squalid conditions. Aid workers are warning that infectious diseases could soon spread due to the unsanitary conditions in the makeshift camp.

People are huddling inside tents to get away from the rain as the ground has turned into mud.

To keep warm, refugees are burning what they can find, from wood to plastic bottles  sometimes releasing toxic fumes.

OPINION: The EU can learn from Turkeys refugee experience

Lazmiya, a Syrian refugee who has been stuck at Idomeni for 15 days, said that when she set off from Damascus with her daughter, she thought that by now she would have reunited with her husband and two sons.

I want to get out from here, she told Al Jazeera. I have not had a shower since I arrived. There is little assistance. All my clothes are soaked. look at the weather. We are dying here.

Last year, nearly 1.3 million people applied for asylum in the European Union. That is more than double the number from 2014.

Most made the perilous crossing across the Aegean Sea from Turkey into Greece. More than 3,700 people died trying.

Leaders from Turkey and the European Union have now come up with a controversial new plan to try and stop the flow of refugees attempting to reach Europe.

Under the plan, refugees and migrants arriving illegally in Greece would be forced to return to Turkey. And for every person returned, an EU country would resettle a Syrian living in a camp there.

About 2.7 million refugees are living in camps in Turkey, and Ankara has spent $9bn to cope with the crisis.

The EU-Turkey deal has been widely condemned by rights groups and UN agencies, which say it would violate international law.

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, Vincent Cochetel, UNHCRs Europe regional director, said.

The deal would not apply to refugees already on Greek islands but to those who arrive once the agreement is in effect, Anadolu Agency quoted EU Affairs Minister Volkan Bozkir as saying on Thursday.

The number of people Turkey will take back will be in the thousands or tens of thousands, not in the millions, Bozkir also told Anadolu, according to its Twitter account.
Police investigate gruesome discovery linked to a drug war between mainly Dutch-Moroccan gangs in the Netherlands.

Dutch police are investigating a murder case in which a severed human head was discovered at the entrance of a shisha bar in Amsterdam.

Eberhard van der Laan, mayor of the Dutch capital, ordered the notorious Fayrouz Lounge to close after the gruesome find on Wednesday, which was linked to a drug war between rival gangs.

A passer-by reported the scene to police, who linked it to the discovery of a decapitated body in a burned-out car elsewhere in the city on Monday.

Police said the body belonged to 23-year-old Amsterdam resident Nabil Amzieb, who was known to the authorities.

A police probe later confirmed the head belonged to the body, they said in a statement.

Police arriving at Wednesdays crime scene reportedly ordered witnesses to delete photos of the head which they took with their phones.

It seemed as if the head was placed in a way that made it look like it was staring through the front window of the lounge, as some sort of warning, a witness told Dutch daily Het Parool.

The shisha bar is said to be a gathering spot for criminals involved in the so-called Mocro-war, a power struggle mainly between Dutch-Moroccan gangs in the city.

The severed head most likely represented a new phase in the gang war, which has seen several others murdered in Amsterdam, including one man who was killed after visiting the same bar, Dutch media reports said.

Moroccans are the third largest group of non-western immigrants in the Netherlands, after people from the former Dutch colony of Indonesia and Turks.
Women and children in rebel-held town outside Damascus stage rare protest, urging the UN to deliver humanitarian aid.

Dozens of residents in a besieged town outside the Syrian capital have staged a demonstration urging the United Nations to allow humanitarian aid into the area.

The protesters, mostly women and children, took to the streets on Wednesday in rebel-held Darayya, which has been encircled by President Bashar al-Assads troops for more than three years.

The children in the protest lined-up to form the letters SOS, while banners called on UN officials to help.





[UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria] Mr Yacoub El Hillo, what are you doing to help us, one banner read.

If you can stop the shelling, you can break the siege, another read.

No aid has entered Darayya since the beginning of its siege.

The town continued to witness heavy bombardment until a US-Russia brokered ceasefire came into force on February 27.

The opposition Media Centre in Darayya said that the reason the protest was attended mainly by women and children was to dispel the regimes claims that the town is only inhabited by combatants.

Syrian civil war: Running from a nightmare

Darayya borders a military airport used by Russian planes  which started conducting air strikes in support of Assad in late September  and the Syrian government is keen to wrest back control of the area.

Relief efforts

The UN has said that humanitarian aid efforts in Syria have made great progress since the ceasefire went into effect.

In recent weeks, the UN and its partners have sent 536 trucks filled with aid to nearly 240,000 people, and the relief supplies have reached 18 besieged areas in the war-torn country.

READ MORE: Civilians die in Aleppo rocket attack

El Hillo said on Wednesday that humanitarian aid will reach more besieged and hard-to-reach areas in Syria by the end of April  but made no mention of Darayya..

We are aiming to reach 870,000 people in hard-to-reach areas, but also the specific locations in besieged areas that we have so far not been able to reach: Douma, Zamalka, Arbin, East Harasta  this is in East Ghouta  and also in Deir az Zor, he said.

The hope is that in the next few days, with the help of members of the task force, we will be able to complete deliveries and reach the thousands of people trapped in these places, added El Hillo.

In addition, UN humanitarian aid is expected to reach rural areas in western Homs and the northeastern part of Aleppo.

If it saves more lives, let it continue

The two-week ceasefire agreed upon by the government and opposition was expected to end on Friday.

But Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy for Syria, said on Wednesday that he expected the truce to continue past that date.

From the UN point of view  there was an open-ended concept regarding the cessation of the hostilities, de Mistura told reporters in Geneva, where UN-mediated peace talks aimed at ending the five-year-long conflict were set to resume later this week.

The High Negotiations Committee, which represents the opposition in the UN-mediated peace process, agreed to the ceasefire, but unlike other parties to the deal it consented only to a two-week pause, which ends midnight on Friday Damascus time.

On Wednesday, however, a spokesman for the committee said it would probably support a longer halt in fighting.

If it saves more lives, let it continue, Salem al-Meslet said.

Since the ceasefire went into effect, the Assad government and its opposition have traded accusations of violating the truce.

Rebel groups have said regime forces and their Russian allies have targeted areas where the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front and fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group are not present.

ISIL and al-Nusra were not included in the ceasefire, and military operations against them have continued.

The areas where attacks are allowed against the two groups have not been publicly disclosed.
In 2015, two devastating attacks, claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) killed 147 people in Paris. Nine of the 13 perpetrators were born in France, prompting the government to launch a national de-radicalisation programme and introduce a series of extra-judiciary measures against those considered a threat to national security.

A state of emergency has been declared until May of this year, handing the police a raft of new powers allowing for raids and arrests without judicial oversight. In the two months following last Novembers attacks, police searched 4,000 houses, opened more than 500 criminal cases and placed 382 people under house arrest.

These new measures are currently being written into the countrys constitution, affording them a permanent place in the legal framework of the French state.

Opinion polls show that the public is largely in favour of this approach, but with only five court proceedings directly linked to terrorism resulting from the thousands of raids carried out since November, the efficiency of the governments approach has been contested by critics. Human rights groups too have warned that police raids and house arrests have been both abusive and discriminatory against Muslims, threatening to undermine the principles of equality and liberty upon which the French Republic was built.

In this weeks People and Power, filmmakers Charles Emptaz and Victoria Baux investigate whether the French government is sacrificing basic human rights in the name of security. They then travel to Denmark to examine an alternative, more moderate model of de-radicalisation and ask whether this might offer the French government an effective approach which is more in keeping with the countrys core values.

FILMMAKERS VIEW

By Victoria Baux and Charles Emptaz

Look at what France has become, Halim Abdelmalek said, after showing our camera a police warrant he had received explaining the reasons for his being placed under house arrest.

The letter arrived a few days after the ISIL attacks of November 13, revealing that Halim has been on the French intelligence services radar since May 2015. A policeman had spotted the bearded young Muslim entrepreneur walking through a neighbourhood which is home to an employee of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, the target of ISILs first attack in France. But Halim, who grew up in this neighbourhood, says he was just visiting his mother that day and had no ill intentions.

The letter from the police also states that Halim was seen taking a photo of a building close to the Charlie Hebdo offices, an accusation that he denies, and this resulted in his arrest. From November 2015 to February 2016, Halim was forced to stay within the borders of the small suburban town, on the outskirts of Paris, where he currently lives. We filmed him as he was checking in at the local police station, something he was forced to do three times a day, every day, for the duration of his period of house arrest.

Like 10,500 other French Muslims, Halim has a Fiche S, or S-Card, attached to his police record. This designates him as a person representing a threat to the security of the state. Halims file also says that he was seen praying at a Salafist mosque in Paris a few years ago, and as a result he is now categorised as a radicalised Muslim. For his part, Salim says finding faith has had exactly the opposite effect on him and the threat he poses to society. I did some bad things in the past, but religion saved me, he said.

And it is not just members of the Muslim community who believe the measures implemented by the state of emergency have stigmatised them.

Since the attacks, the population has felt deeply worried and anxious, and this can lead to stigmatisation  I worry about religious stigmatisation, socialist MP Francoise Descamps-Crosnier told us, as we accompanied her on a visit to Fresnes prison, where a controversial programme is under way to isolate radicalised Muslim prisoners from the general jail population.

Prominent human rights lawyer William Bourdon has also been campaigning against another new law which allows the state to revoke the French nationality of citizens holding dual citizenship if they are suspected of involvement in terrorism.

He says that extending the powers of the French police and intelligence services can criminalise and demonise a group of people who havent done anything wrong. And even some of those at the top of government appear uneasy with the governments methods to combat radicalisation. In January, Justice Minister Christiane Taubira resigned in protest at the new raft of security measures, citing a major political disagreement and her desire to be faithful to myself, to my commitments and to my convictions.

While making this film, we approached a number of representatives from different government ministries, security experts and the French intelligence services. We wanted to understand why a supposedly left-wing government had opted for such an unexpectedly repressive approach to the question of radicalisation. The unease felt by officials when addressing this issue was palpable and it was difficult to get any clear or coherent explanation from them.

Travelling through the French cities of Toulouse, St Etienne and the Parisian suburb of St Denis, we also encountered compelling evidence that some of the most effective work currently being undertaken to prevent radicalisation is carried out by volunteers, without support or an official stamp of approval from the authorities. We met well-connected individuals who appeared knowledgeable about the areas where alleged ISIL recruiters currently operate in France and the methods they employ. These individuals claimed that they had identified and helped a number of young Muslims at risk of being recruited and travelling to Syria. But, they said, their work is being ignored by the government.

We then travelled to Denmarks second biggest city, Aarhus, to look into an integration model set up there, by the local police department and municipality, to prevent Danish citizens from travelling to Syria to fight with rebel groups, and to reintegrate those who have already gone and now returned. The programme appears to have enjoyed some success  only three locals have travelled from Aarhus to Syria since its implementation in 2014, whereas 29 made the journey the previous year.

MORE TO THIS STORY: French prisons trial programme to de-radicalise inmates

Police Superintendent Allan Aarslev, the man in charge of the programme, best summarised the stark contrast we witnessed between the French and Danish approaches: We would have more problems if we didnt help them. So we help these people, first of all because it makes society more secure, and secondly, of course, because it is the humane thing to do.

While in Aarhus, we learned that the Conseil dEtat, Frances highest administrative court, had suspended Halims house arrest, due to a lack of evidence. We also discovered that a French delegation had visited Aarhus to take a closer look at the model being employed there.

But it remains to be seen whether President Francois Hollande, who faces a general election in 2017, will be willing to make meaningful changes to his governments strategy for dealing with this threat in the near future. His situation is made only more complicated by the resurgence of the far-right National Front party during last years regional elections. Amid a growing climate of fear and resentment in French society, his socialist coalition appears unlikely to abandon its firm stance on terrorism and risk falling victim to yet another attack. Still, finding better ways to engage with and integrate young French Muslims may in the end prove a more effective rejoinder to the threat posed by ISIL than the current apparent abandonment of the key French principles of fairness and liberty.

Editors note: Since this film was first shown, People & Power was sad to learn of the death of its director of photography, Pierre Creisson, who was killed in an air accident on March 14 while on location in Kenya. For over 20 years, Pierre was a well-respected reporter, cameraman and filmmaker. He covered conflicts in Darfur, Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan and particularly enjoyed filming the daily lives of remote indigenous communities  the focus of recent projects in Madagascar and Kenya. Our thoughts are with his family and colleagues.
Scholars spoke about the history of Jewish-Muslim relations at UF on Wednesday.

UF and international researchers came together at Smathers Library to discuss the two religions mutual influences, culture, language, philosophy and rituals. The event, attended by about 25 people, took less than a year to plan and cost about $15,000.

The Center for Global Islamic Studies and the Center for Jewish Studies organized the event.

Jack Kugelmass, the director of the Center for Jewish Studies, said he wanted the Gainesville community to learn about Jewish-Muslim history.

He said people might not be aware of the depth of the current Jewish-Muslim conflicts, which are influenced by history.

Terje Ostebo, the director of the Center for Global Islamic Studies, said scholars shared research findings they have been working on for years.

The first panel discussed the locations where Muslims and Jews live in the Middle East. In history, there have been tensions over Jewish settlement in the predominantly Muslim Middle Eastern cities.

Michelle Campos, an associate professor of Middle Eastern history at UF, said its important to understand the history each Middle Eastern city has.

In order to understand what happened to these imperial spaces, we must better understand those places on their own terms, Campos said.

Campos said her interest in the history of the two faiths came from her doctoral project about Palestines political history. The project entailed Muslims, Christians and Jews demanding equality and the right to vote in Israels parliament, the Knesset, in the early 1900s.

After the project, she said she still had unanswered questions about how Jerusalem could be shared between the cultures. Her current project seeks to answer those questions.

This project is really trying to give more of a social historian look at things I earlier asked, Campos said.

Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now

Campos said Jerusalem is the most studied Middle Eastern city and there are huge areas of it in which nothing is known about the citys history. Her current project, which she presented, attempts to fill in gaps about day-to-day life in the Middle East.

Sherman Wilhelm, a UF economics and statistics junior, said he attended the event as part of a diversity project. He said he was surprised by the amount of information he learned.

I thought it would be cool to learn how Jewish and Muslim cultures interact, especially now with everything going on in the Middle East, the 21-year-old said.

Wilhelm said he did not expect the conference to be as intellectually in-depth as it was.

It was a very different perspective, he said. It was good to hear from someone who knows about it and not just regular students.

Mark Wagner, an associate professor of foreign language and literature at Louisiana State University, answers a question in the Judaica Suite of the Smathers Library on Wednesday during the Q&A portion of his talk, Sexual liaisons between Muslims and Jews in 20th century Yemen. Wagner was one of several scholars invited by the Center for Global Islamic Studies and the Center for Jewish Studies for a conference discussing the history of Muslim-Jewish relationships.
UF staff, faculty and students are being asked their opinions on guns.

James Shepperd, a UF psychology professor, and a group of graduate students designed a survey asking the UF community what they think about guns on campus. They sent out 60,000 emails for the survey, which will run for two weeks, Shepperd said.

We are interested in people who live and work on campus every day, he said. When guns are around, do people feel less safe?

Shepperd said the idea for this survey came from the recent debate about gun laws in Florida.

This wasnt a response to legislation, he said. This was a response to the discussion that emerged in response to legislation. I am not trying to influence legislation here.

Florida Senate Bill 68: Licenses to Carry Concealed Weapons or Firearms would allow those with a Florida concealed carry license to carry guns on Florida public colleges and universities campuses. Florida Senate Bill 300: Weapons and Firearms would allow permit-holders to openly carry handguns. Both bills are currently in the judiciary committee.

The group worked with police, gun shop owners and other members of the community to create the questions for the survey.

We got people on both extreme sides to comment on it, he said. We spent a tremendous amount of time vetting the survey.

Brandon Woolf, the president of Students for Concealed Carry at UF, said he didnt think the questions on the survey captured the true issues of the debate. He said that statistics are better than feelings when it comes to understanding open carry laws.

Most of the questions were pretty biased, the UF architecture junior said. I thought the survey was tuned towards the population that is against gun rights.

People shouldnt be afraid of having students, like him, carry guns on campus, the 23-year-old said.

Im the same person no matter where I go, he said.

Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now

Jesse Fallen, the president of UF College Democrats, said he took the survey. He said he was pleased that the research was being done.

I was happy to see a university department is asking students how they feel about this issue, the UF economics senior said.

Fallen, 21, said he hopes the bills in the Florida Legislature fail.

Im against guns on campus, he said. It something that interrupts the educational experience.

Shepperd said he hopes he sees participation in the survey from those who support and oppose the legislation.

We want everyone to participate, he said. We know its a very diverse community.
A Kissimmee, Florida, woman and two Lake Worth, Florida, men were arrested Tuesday after police said they used fake credit cards to purchase about $1,200 worth of gift cards.

At about 11:30 a.m., deputies with the Alachua County Sheriffs Office pulled over a white SUV for slowing down traffic. Inside, deputies found eight fake credit cards and 27 gift cards, according to a police report.

Authorities arrested Tammy Valdes Horta, 43; Manuel Leiva Orozco, 42; and Carlos Miguel Plasencia, 25, on nine charges of fraud for possessing the counterfeit credit cards.

During police questioning, Orozco said he bought the cards in Miami for $400 before driving to Kissimmee, Florida, with Plasencia, according to the report.

The plan, Orozco said, was to meet Horta and take a road trip to Arkansas, according to the report.

Horta said buying gift cards was the trips sole purpose. They stopped at several Wal-Mart locations and other stores as they traveled through Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi before reaching Arkansas, she said.

Twenty-three of the gift cards were Vanilla MasterCards. The other four gift cards were from Home Depot, J.C. Penney and Macys, according to the report.

Authorities took the three suspects to the Alachua County Jail where, as of press time, Horta and Plasencia remain in lieu of $65,000 bonds, and Orozco remains in lieu of a $90,000 bond.

Contact Martin Vassolo at mvassolo@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @martindvassolo.

Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now
Lauren Book is walking to help 42 million children.

About 30 volunteers joined her; a police car led the group while a large pink and blue tour bus followed behind.

Shes walking 4.2 miles every day from Monday to Friday, starting and ending at the Child Advocacy Center each afternoon, to raise awareness for childhood sexual abuse.

Her organization, Laurens Kids, started the Walk in My Shoes movement.

For the past seven years, Book has walked the state of Florida to educate people and prevent children from being sexually abused.

She walks 4.2 miles every day to symbolize the 42 million American children who are survivors of the abuse.

This year, she is traveling from Panama City, Florida, to Key West; Melbourne, Florida, is her next stop after Gainesville, Florida.

Book said she founded the organization after being sexually abused from the age of 10 to 16 by her familys live-in nanny.

My family and I decided that we needed to turn a horrific, harrowing experience into something positive where we can create change, she said. It shouldnt hurt to be a child and all too often it does.

She said her mission is to support survivors of childhood sexual abuse and let them know its OK to speak up. This week, she will visit schools in Gainesville and Alachua County.

Its all about educating communities, she said.

Lexi Sidle, a 19-year-old UF finance sophomore, said she heard about the walk from her sorority, Kappa Delta.

Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now

She said advocating for child abuse victims has always been a passion of hers.

In high school, she would help fundraise for child abuse advocacy programs.

Sidle joined the walk Wednesday.

I just wanted to come out and support, Sidle said. I hope it spreads awareness.

Sidle said it was her first time participating in the event.

Im definitely coming back Friday, Sidle said.
Since Donald Trump has been ever-present in the headlines lately, and because most Republicans dont know whether to endorse him or run in the opposite direction, it is clearly time to discuss Trumps greatest weakness: his inability to answer questions in a way that shows he has a firm grasp of the issues at hand.

One of the main arguments against Trump is his lack of self-control, which we see manifested in his personal attacks against other candidates and his brazenness whenever he speaks. But this route of attack against him has time and again failed because Trump is, well, Trump. His entire past can show a clear line of behavior or opinion on an issue, but then his opinions change within a millisecond when hes challenged. In this situation he usually counters with how he works well with people, but he ends up insulting the very people he may eventually have to work with.

What Trump really needs to be challenged on is his understanding of the issues. This is difficult to do, because for decades moderators and audiences alike have worked under the basic assumption that the candidates onstage have an understanding of what they are talking about. However, this assumption can no longer be held true, especially in elections with candidates who have never held public office looking to hold the most powerful office in the world.

What separates Trump from other outsiders is his ability to sell himself to voters by answering questions. If you pay attention, Trump never actually answers questions within most of his ramblings on an issue. Rather, he creates a vague picture on the canvas of policy, resembling an almost childlike understanding of politics.

Lets take up the issue of the border wall, something Trump has given very few details about. With what he has given us, we know it will span the entire southern border, it will have a big beautiful door and it gets larger and larger with each Mexican politician who says they wont pay for it. Excluding the complexity of constructing a more than 1000-mile border wall  and never mind the geographical barriers, towns and cities in the way  lets assume Trump can actually build it. How will he get the Mexican government to pay for it? A wonderful trade war, of course!

How can a businessman who has products made in Mexico and probably has undocumented immigrants working for him claim he will be tough on Mexico? Starting a trade war of that kind, coupled with deportations of cheap labor that the U.S. thrives on, would jeopardize our economy just as much, if not more than Mexicos.

But Trumps main goal is not to offer actual solutions for issues; its to be controversial. The idea of a border wall is not new in conservative America, but the rhetoric accompanying the idea has become demagogic in nature. Just like many other policies, Trump stokes the flames of anger among Americans who are disenfranchised but couples that with unrealistic policy expectations.

This lack of policy insight has become a central point during the debates, and even with nearly a dozen of them, there still is not a lot of solid policy in Trumps answers. If his supporters enjoy him because he is not a politician, then why do they not address the fact that he dodges questions even more than his fellow candidates do? Trump isnt speaking cold, hard truth; hes usually just talking for the sake of talking. By no means should these be the qualities that describe the frontrunner of the Republican Party.

Kevin Foster is a UF political science senior. His column appears on Thursdays.

Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now
On paper, there was no reason to expect Okeechobee Music Festival would be the resounding success it turned out to be: Although Florida has long played host to music festivals catering to niche markets, such as the electronic hedonists of Miamis Ultra Music Festival or the crusty punks of Gainesvilles very own The Fest, Florida had yet to host an outdoor festival of the size, scale and broad appeal of Okeechobee. Would Floridians who were accustomed to the pulsating synths, lights and overpriced hotels of Ultra warm up to more esoteric musical ventures like the psychedelic jazz offered by Kamasi Washington, or even sleeping in a sticky, sweaty tent for four nights? Was there a possibility that acts not named RL Grime or Bassnectar would actually draw large, substantial crowds? The answer to all of the aforementioned questions was a firm yes.

Following in the footsteps of beloved camping festivals like Camp Bisco and Bonnaroo, Okeechobee Music Festival offered four nights and three full days of incredible music, stunning sights and eccentric characters. Even those who may have missed Okeechobee but have been to similar festivals no doubt have an inkling of the insanity and beauty last weekend held: Until youve been to an outdoor festival, you really have no idea what youre in for.

Although there had been some grumblings that the Okeechobee lineup was little more than a Bonnaroo 2015-lite (see: Robert Plant, Kendrick Lamar, Mumford & Sons, Bassnectar you get the idea) that didnt stop the attendees  or the performers, for that matter  from having the time of their lives. The positivity permeating the festival was embodied by sets such as that of former Led Zeppelin frontman and Friday night headliner Robert Plant. With triumphant, rousing renditions of both solo material and Led Zeppelin classics such as Trampled Under Foot, Plants performance with backing band the Sensational Space Shifters served as a gripping reminder to attendees of how lucky they were to be in the presence of a living legend. Even acts that may not have possessed the sheer star power of Robert Plant, such as synth-pop star duo Classixx, the alt-rock tricksters of Ween and Gainesville-based act Flat Land shone brightly over the course of the weekend.

Like all great festivals, Okeechobee didnt rely solely on its musical acts to do the heavy lifting. The myriad installations, ranging from the inflated white domes of the yoga tent (appropriately titled Yogachobee) to the Jurassic Park meets Close Encounters of the Third Kind meets illegal English rave aesthetic of Jungle 51, were not only great in their own right, but proved to be refreshing alternatives to conventional music festival fare. It certainly helped that drinks were in no short supply, with many an $11, 24-ounce Corona can littering the festival grounds in the wee hours.

For a festival only in its infancy, Okeechobee was remarkably well thought-out and notable. As of writing, were far from the only publication to think so: From Florida-based publications like the Tampa Bay Times to popular music journalism outfits like Pitchfork and Consequence of Sound, Okeechobee was on the tips of many music nerds tongues Monday morning. Having been lucky enough to be a part of Okeechobees first year, we cant wait to see what the future holds.
           2005     ..        
When I completed After the Parade, I had a notion of who I would meet when I rode my bike to Zendo to interview its author. If first impressions speak at all, I was right. Lori Ostlund was insightful and inquisitiveher expressions were serious, her words kind. Many of my students think of writing as an opportunity to exact a little revenge  [but] the writing process should transform that. When you sit down to write you have to consider why that character does the things they do. I've realized how important and overlooked kindness is, Ostlund said at one point in our conversation when I asked her if it was exhausting to write her overwhelmingly lonely cast of characters with such empathy.

After the Parade is populated with outsiders. And they never triumph, at least not explicitly. There's Bernice, whose size prohibits her from achieving her full intellectual potential, Clarence, a dwarf with so-called tusks who is sequestered away in a rural farmhouse, an alcoholic fishermen, a detective with a poorly attended funeral and there's Aaron Englund, our main character. At the beginning of the novel, Aaron is leaving Albuquerque and with it, his partner of more than 20 years. Aaron always lived with people who assert a certain influence [over him], Ostlund explained. His father who was cruel, his mother who was unhappyand any time you live with someone unhappy it controls both of your livesand then he goes immediately to Walter [his partner]. She begs the question, what would it be like to reach the age of 41 without knowing who you are, alone?

The book is about loneliness, but  there are good ways to be lonely, she continued. Ostlund, who received a graduate degree from UNM but left Albuquerque in 2005 for San Francisco, has returned as a visiting writer in the university's MFA program. The trajectory of her life, in many ways, is reflected in After the Parade. Like the book's main character, Ostlund left a small, Midwestern town for Albuquerque and later, moved even farther west, and like Aaron, she, too, was quiet. I was really shy as a kid, so people always told me stories. I was a really good listener, I just didn't know how to talk  What's shaped me as a person are the stories that people have told me all my life. They changed who I was. And like Aaron, Ostlund has found a voice.

I give [my] characters some of myself, Ostlund explained, so I have that way in. [Aaron] has my birthday. Yet, it is apparent that Aaron's heart-wrenching attention to detail, his collection of stories, and portions of his history, are Ostlund's too. What makes people leave a small town and what makes other people stay? she asked. Why do some people crave the familiar even if it might be getting in their way? Of course, I was thinking about myself. Leaving for me was pretty easy, I was gay, and that helped push me on my way. And so is Aaron. Almost out of obligation, though, I asked Ostlund about the how's and why's of writing a male characterwhat seemed to me a striking difference between the two. She answered by describing trying to write an essay about women who have written male characters. I began to wrack my mind for a few titles and came up with only one. Men do it all the time, but it is so rare for a woman to write a male character  you can't think of him first as male, you have to think of him first as your character  if you write only the experience that you know, that's limiting. Yet, it's clear that Ostlund knows her character intimately. She's written thousands of pages about him, only a small portion of which comprise the whole of After the Parade.

Ostlund has just as intimate a relationship with her prose. The words are strikingly deft and the metaphors are clean. Aaron, an ESL teacher, moves through tenses and hopeful clauses just as the book cycles through the past and present with agility. The revelations here are slow and require the perspective of age, like watching a movie as an adult and suddenly understanding all the jokes you didn't get as a child. Language is of a high priority and it is apparent that each sentence is constructed with care. I just like sentences, Ostlund explained, I write slowly. If I don't like the sentence, I don't feel compelled to go on to the next one. Every sentence has been worked on hundreds of times. Perhaps it is a product of Ostlund's love of poetry. More than once, her characters recite the opening lines of Richard Hugo's Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg, (You might come here Sunday on a whim./ Say your life broke down.) They disparage Walt Whitman. So much [of writing this] was trying to remember how I felt about things when I was young  the sense of wonder at seeing a set of twins, maybe  As an adult that feeling of wonder isn't something you move through your day with. I can remember the moment I discovered poetry. I remember those moments when I was a kid and I realized [that] the world is big. For Aaron, and perhaps for Ostlund, too, the well crafted phrase, the beauty of a line or a sentence, is a doorway back to that feeling. For readers too, After the Parade provides ample poetry and an avenue back to wonder.
#TheNew10, Canada Edition: The Bank of Canada will soon begin accepting nominations for an "iconic" woman to feature on a new bank note to be distributed in 2018. "With this new note, we can honor the achievements of Canadian women and inspire future generations to learn more about the significant contributions women have made to our country," the central bank governor, Stephen Poloz, said. Nominees must be Canadian by birth or naturalization, deceased for at least 25 years and not fictional. The nomination process will launch April 15.

C-U-Later: Debbie Matz, who has chaired the board of the National Credit Union Administration since August 2009, will step down at the end of April. She served 11 years at the NCUA, which is the regulatory agency overseeing credit unions.

Higher R-O-ETF: State Street Global Advisors has launched an exchange-traded fund that tracks companies with high levels of women in senior leadership positions. The ETF began trading this week under the ticker "SHE." It is the latest example of a trend in which asset managers are seeking to bring social causes to their U.S. investment strategies. "SHE seeks to help address gender inequality in corporate America by offering investors an opportunity to create change with capital and seek a return on gender diversity," says Kristi Mitchem, head of the Americas Institutional Client Group for State Street Global Advisors. (You may recall that Barbara Byrne worked on the launch of a similar investment option at Barclays.)

No More Arguments: More women-owned businesses mean more board opportunities are coming for women, argues Carla Harris, vice chairman of global wealth management at Morgan Stanley. Data from the National Women's Business Council  an organization Harris chairs  shows there are now 10 million U.S. women-owned businesses generating a total of $1.4 trillion in revenue and employing 8 million people. This is "a clear tipping point," Harris said in a Bloomberg video interview that partly focused on the gender gap on corporate boards. Harris said boards will find it harder to overlook female candidates with so many coming to the table as experienced business owners. Arguments that women lack the operational expertise boards seek will become "defunct." Finally, "those who don't get it will hug the data," which shows that companies with diverse boards outperform their peers.

Rising Through the Ranks?: Mercer research shows women make up 76% of support staff in the financial services industry. That figure shrinks to 44% of mid-level managers, 30% of senior managers and 21% of executives. Mercer surveyed 583 companies, with a total of 3.2 million employees across 42 countries.

Don't Wait: Some say women's lesser status on Wall Street has improved since the pre-crisis dark days, but not Sallie Krawcheck. Is it worth waiting for, though? The CEO of the forthcoming women's investment platform Ellevest said that the industry pipeline of women at junior levels now is the same as when she started working a couple decades ago  and the lack of women at higher levels is about the same too. She said one problem is that inherent biases (like managers wanting to promote someone similar to themselves) still exist, despite research showing gender-diverse teams outperform others. Krawcheck pointed out that it's less costly than ever to be an entrepreneur (try crowdfunding!) and that women have greater opportunities to make change instead of waiting for it.

Change Will Take a Generation: Asia is witnessing the rise of women in corporations and in politics, Jing Ulrich, JPMorgan Chase managing director and vice chairman of Asia Pacific, said in a video interview. But cultural biases in China and Japan continue to be a limiting factor, whether in keeping women out of the workforce entirely or in lower positions when they do opt to work. "I think this will take a generation for young women to come up and be more educated and really come into the world and be leaders rather than very junior support staff," she said.

Where Credit Is Due: Data from a Biz2Credit survey of 35,000 U.S. small-business loan applications submitted last year shows a gender gap in credit scores.The average credit score of women-owned businesses was 600  which is 15 points lower than the average for companies owned by men. Both average scores were the same as in 2014. On average, the men's businesses generated about 60% more revenue, at $229,1115, than the women's businesses, at $142,804. Still, trendlines are on the rise for the women, with average annual revenue for their businesses up 12% from 2014. The number of women who applied for business funding in 2015 soared more than 130% from the year earlier.

Role Call

Pamela Joseph is coming out of retirement (after a mere 10 months) to become president and chief operating officer of the payments giant Total System Services. She will start May 1 and immediately join the board of directors. Joseph was the vice chair of U.S. Bancorp's payments division and the chair and CEO of Elavon, its processing arm, before she retired. While in that role, she ranked as one our Most Powerful Women in Banking numerous times.

Tri-State Bank of Memphis, Tenn., has hired Christine Munson as its CEO. Munson formerly worked for First Tennessee Bank.

Carver Bancorp in New York has named Christina Maier its chief financial officer. Maier had been the CFO at Patriot National Bancorp in Stamford, Conn., since 2013.

Penns Woods Bancorp in Williamsport, Pa., has promoted Michelle Karas to chief operating officer. Karas oversees deposit operations, digital banking, IT, imaging, marketing, sales and training functions in her new role.

Beyond Banking

Activist Investors and the Gender Gap: In the last five years, the five biggest activist investors have sought 174 board seats and filled 108 of them  but only seven of their nominees were women. Five of those women got seats, representing 5% of the total wins for the activists. By contrast, the S&P filled 446 seats in the same period, with 26% of those seats going to women. "If you believe that diversity on boards is critical for long-term sustainable growth, then you have to wonder whether activists care about this  or simply want to get the company's stock price up quickly," said Douglas Chia, executive director of the Conference Board's Governance Center. "It's a serious issue at a time when most executives and directors believe you need boardroom diversity to avoid getting stuck in blind spots."

Celebrate Women by Taking Action: To celebrate International Women's Day this week, why not bring up the topic of equal pay at your workplace? Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is the under-secretary-general of the United Nations and executive director of UN Women. When asked in an interview what people can do to celebrate women, her two suggestions were to force the conversation in your workplace about whether men and women are being paid equally, and to talk with girls about rejecting violence aimed at them. The day is meant to be one of action and she urged companies to take some action on the pay gap in particular. "If you don't do anything else, pay women the same amount as their male counterparts," she said.
James Hackett, chairman of the board of directors at Fifth Third Bancorp, is stepping down.

Hackett will retire April 19 at the Cincinnati company's annual shareholders meeting, it said in a March 6 regulatory filing.

Hackett has chaired the board of the $142 billion-asset company since April 2014. He had been a member of the board since 2001.

Hackett, the former president and chief executive of Steelcase, a furniture maker in Grand Rapids, Mich., is retiring "to pursue other full-time employment opportunities," the filing said.

Larry Magnesen, a spokesman for Fifth Third, told American Banker, "At some point in time in the future they may name someone new to the board, but for the time being they are going to decrease the size of the board."


The spread of bigoted racism and displays of abysmal ignorance at what are supposed to be centers of learning in the United States and Britain is saddening and appears to be out of control. In recent days, displays of that inverted racism and bigotry, including outbreaks of anti-Semitism and animosity toward the memory of Cecil Rhodes, the wealthy mining magnate who initiated Rhodes Scholarships, have been exhibited at Oxford University and Oberlin College. Now the bigotry is being inflated in nonsensical fashion again at Oxford, joined by absurd protestors from Royal Holloway College*, London in March madness.

A group at Oxford called Rhodes Must Fall (RMF), stemming from the original group at the University of Cape Town (UCT), is organizing that march. The RMF campaign began on March 9, 2015, when a student at UCT threw human feces at the statue of Cecil Rhodes. This was followed by demonstrations and demands that the statue be removed. After the senate of the university voted in favor, the Rhodes statue was removed a month later, on April 9, 2015.

Even the Senate meeting to discuss the removal was disrupted by student protesters with alarming cries of "One Settler, One Bullet," a slogan that had been used during the old apartheid regime by the armed wing of the Pan Africanist Congress.

The ludicrous behavior by supposed students continued in other South African universities as other statues were defaced and calls were made for the "decolonization of education" in South Africa. But bigotry had only just started. Two weeks later, on April 25, 2015, the president, a man named Mcebo Dlamini, of the Students' Representative Council of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (Wits University), a South African research university where Nelson Mandela had studied, told us in his Facebook post that he loved Adolf Hitler and admired the Nazi leader for his "charisma and organizational skills."

Dlamini was following a graphic comparing the State of Israel to Nazi Germany. A few days later, he informed the world, "Jews are devils." Though his mastery of the subject was previously unknown to the wide world, Dlamini told us he had researched and read books about "President Hitler," though Hitler was never "President" of anything. He also told us that every white person has "an element of Adolf Hitler." He blamed Jews who have not forgotten Hitler "even after they were paid," though it was unmentioned by whom and how. Moreover, he wanted to know why there were no statues of Hitler in Poland, Germany, or Austria, while elsewhere there were statues of Rhodes and Jan van Riebeeck, the colonial administrator. In a mystifying statement, this brilliant scholar informed us that those two were worse than Hitler because "Hitler only killed bodies."

Dlamini was not examined by a psychiatrist, but he was dismissed as president of the student body on charges of "misconduct." His criticism of Jewish South African entrepreneurs Barney Barnato and Harry Oppenheimer were not mentioned. Not surprisingly, the dismissal was opposed by the Rhodes Must Fall movement.

Interestingly, the bigots, becoming more physically militant and destroying property, buses and cars, and the office of the vice chancellor of the university, also vandalized the statue of Jan Smuts, who was British-educated, was twice prime minister of South Africa, and took part in the founding of the United Nations. In Britain, a group at Christ's College, Cambridge, where Smuts was educated, has called for severing a memorial fund left by him.

The Rhodes Must Fall movement spread to the 690-year-old Oriel College, where Rhodes had studied and which he funded. It demanded that the statue of Rhodes at Oriel, high above a doorway, be removed. The Oxford Student Union in January 2016 voted, 245-212, to remove the statue, but the College has not done so. It was immediately aware that potential donors were threatening to withdraw funds worth more than 100 million. It was forced to postpone or abandon a fundraising campaign, while saying euphemistically that the Rhodes situation was a reminder of the complexity of history and the legacies of colonialism.

As always in the case of bigots, hypocrisy was not absent from the RMF movement that argued, at best, that the Rhodes statue was at odds with "inclusive culture" at Oxford and that there should be "decolonization" of the curriculum. The case is clear. The RMF leader, a man named Ntokozo Qwabe, was himself a beneficiary of the Rhodes bequest and had been funded by the Rhodes scholarship during his time as an undergraduate law student at Keble College, Oxford.

The National Union of Students' black students campaign addressed Oxford as "one of the most male, pale, and stale places of learning in Britain." It dignified the RMF movement as protest against the philosophy of racial violence and apartheid. It applauded the march organized by RMF to take place in March 2016 that was to be an "imperial tour of racist Oxford."

That march for "decolonization" will be joined by a group from the Royal Holloway College, London calling for the large statue of Queen Victoria to be removed from its site at Egham, Surrey. Their excuse is that Victoria was responsible for sanctioning colonial exploits and upholding the image of white supremacy and racism. This group links up with RMF because Rhodes was given a Royal Charter in October 1889 to establish the British South African Company. Rhodes's company maintained law and order, but Britain reserved supreme control, and no slave trade was allowed. The ignorant students did not understand that in the British constitutional monarchy, the Queen reigned but did not rule, since the government made decisions. Those students maligned the innocent Victoria.

It is sad that this nonsense in Britain is taking place at a time and place, when the British head of counterintelligence, the Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner, Mark Rowley, has informed the country that ISIS is planning a "spectacular" attack on British soil. Ten years after 7/7 (July 7, 2005, when terrorist attacks in Central London killed 52 and injured hundreds), an increasing number of suspects are being held. It is disconcerting that three quarters of those arrested are British nationals, 14 per cent are female, and 13 percent are under 20.

The answer to bigots is obvious and can be simply stated. It might take three forms. First, since they find Oxford so undesirable, why not go elsewhere to be educated? There are universities in Iran, Syria, Yemen, and Libya.

Secondly, those students who go farther and are more aggressive than mere verbal dissent and who engage in violent activity and unacceptable racist remarks should be prosecuted or expelled from college. Quiet, lonely study is not for them.

Thirdly, those who, like Qwabe, have accepted generous funding, originating from Rhodes or elsewhere, should give the money back. That would be a real rejection of "colonialism" and an indication of real moral principle.

Correction: a spokesman from Royal Holloway College assures us that this report, from the Times of London, was incorrect, and that the Times has issued a correction. No such campaign took place, according to the the Times.
I am a conservative, a Republican, a Tea Partier, and a political commentator who has fought in the trenches with the GOP and on the streets of San Francisco with the Tea Party. Like many of you, I have been furious with the GOP and the politicians we elected. Long before this primary, I wrote about the dangers to the GOP and this country if party elites continue to ignore the base. Clearly such pleas have fallen on deaf ears, and we are now paying for it with a brouhaha of a primary process, a "known unknown" stealing the show, and the devastating prospects of another progressive Democrat victory.

I have been disgusted with the entire process, and judging from the chatter, I am in good company with many of the 60-70% of potential voters in the Republican primary not supporting The Donald  whose numbers have dawdled in the 30+% range with the exception of outliers Massachusetts at 50%, Louisiana at 41%, Alabama at 43%, and Nevada at 46%. His acolytes may be enthralled, but the bulk of voters do not share in that enthusiasm, as evidenced by the failure of votes to shift to Trump as his competitors have dropped out.

I know this is a delegate game, but thus far, Trump's popular vote average has been 34.8%. While he is admittedly the frontrunner, this hardly reflects the will of Republican primary voters. If anything, that will is splattered all over the conservative spectrum while consensus remains elusive.

Even though conservatives of all stripes are dismayed by the debates and the discourse, the Democrat-Media Complex claims we are all in the tank for Trump  we are racist idiots, thrashing at the red meat tossed our way by our racist-idiot-red-meat-eater-in-chief Donald Trump. And the only Republicans not supporting The Don are members of the "establishment."

Yet primary results tell us that 60-70% of Republican primary voters are supporting Anyone but Donald, and those voters are not all "establishment." The recent victories of Ted Cruz (40%) and Marco Rubio (30%) at CPAC  the go-to place for Tea Party conservatives and the strong conservative Republican base  further solidify that point.

The conservative press and punditry aren't much better, with Ed Rollins recently telling Fox's Uma Pemmaraju that the Tea Party is throwing in with Trump because of its anti-establishment leanings. This is just ivory-tower don't-wanna-get-too-close-to-Tea-Party-types claptrap. Party elites, pundits, and journalists have no idea what the average Tea Partier is thinking, let alone what he or she has been doing for the last eight years  one reason we are in this mess. The Tea Party message was anti-big government, Ed, not anti-establishment  a world of difference.

While some Tea Partiers might support Trump, the ones I have been in touch with mostly favor Cruz. If given no other choice, they will vote for a Trump nominee  at a minimum, they see an alignment on the broad issues of making American great again, rebuilding our economic and foreign policy might, securing our borders, and creating jobs. But they do not care for his demeanor or nastiness and fully acknowledge that he is pretty much Pablum Don  all fluff, no stuff. While his conservative street cred is at best dubious, they are willing to risk the future of this country on the devil they don't know (the "known unknown" of Trump) vs. the devil they know (the "known known" of HRC). They understand that his will be a shoot-from-the-hip presidency  not quite what Tea Partiers have been fighting for the last eight years, but marginally better than Hill or Bern.

What is really going on with Trump's ascendancy? First, his voters aren't all conservatives and Republicans  he has attracted libertarians, the birther and 911 conspiracy crowds, Reagan Democrats who have all but been forgotten by the "greening and browning of America" crowds, independents, and disgruntled Rs and Ds. That core 30+% will not likely stray from the Trump camp.

Could it be that the 30+% of primary voters supporting Mr. Trump are so blinded by their affection for him that they cannot see the hypocrisies and inconsistencies he lays out right before their very eyes?

They are in such a state of denial  justifiably  because they are hungry for a hero, starving for a savior, itching for inspiration. They see the culture disintegrating and America in a death spiral with a floundering economy, weak foreign policy, and a constitution being ravaged from within  with no one stepping up and doing what has to be done. With the Supreme Court in the balance, they stand before a precipice even more death-defying than the one in 2012.

They are looking for a leader willing to stake out his conservative claim and fight for the little guy, who has been marginalized for far too long. They want someone to defend the Republic, the Constitution, and liberty, and to do so without getting cowed by Candy Crowley, bullied by Chris Matthews, mocked by Rachel Maddow, or degraded by Matt Lauer. (Actually, conservatives are looking for this as well, not just Trump supporters.)

Cruz appears to be that guy, but few believe he can win the general; Rubio claims to be that guy, but he lost the trust of voters with his immigration stance; and Kasich insists he's that guy, but you can't be that guy and run to the left of Hillary.

So along comes Trump, who says he is that guy, and, in some respects, he is. Except he also says he will make deals  huge deals, deals great for America, only deals we would all like, deals that will benefit everyone and make a huge difference  until he decides that the deals have to be modified in such a way he thinks will be best for us, wielding his pen and phone (and after the last debate, possibly something else) supposedly to our benefit. This sounds paternalistic to me.

Then he actually brags about changing what he says and how he acts  being one way during the primary, putting on a different face in the general election, and then being altogether different as president. Wasn't this our problem with Al Gore? This sounds politician-like to me.

Sometimes in the same interview or debate he changes his views on policies  the flip-flopping problem that afflicted John Kerry and disturbed some with Mitt Romney. This sounds opportunistic to me.

Is there any difference between a powerful, paternalistic narcissist wearing a blue tie and one wearing red? Ironically, Trump exhibits many of the same characteristics for which he criticizes most politicians. And as for deals, the only deal a leftist wants is one strictly on his terms  and right-wingers are so tired of getting the short end of the stick every time they make a deal, being a deal broker is not a net positive in this election.

Yet loyal Trump supporters are so incensed, they don't even bat an eye about his inconsistencies on policies, past dalliances with liberalism and Democrats, and crude remarks  behavior and history they wouldn't tolerate in any other candidate. They can't forgive Rubio for his immigration transgression, but they turn a blind eye to Trump's employment of illegal aliens. They won't support Cruz because he is perceived as difficult to work with, nasty and disingenuous, yet they applaud every insult and bit of invective hurled by the Don. They revile Kasich for being more liberal than Hillary, yet they look the other way regarding Trump's support for Democrats and Democrat policies (like single-payer health care) and his liberal views on guns, Planned Parenthood, and taxes.

I'm not one of those critics who will pooh-pooh the anger. Anger has fueled some of the greatest movements and episodes in history. But it can also backfire. Anger fueled the abolitionists but also the Civil War. It fueled the Civil Rights movement but also #BlackLivesMatter. It fueled peaceful Tea Party protests but also the anarchy produced by Occupy Wall Street. Either we use our rage constructively and strategically to achieve a goal, or we are just an angry mob that will self-immolate in the end. Bully for the indignant masses! They unleashed their wrath and used it vanquish whatever beast stirred their ire and then destroyed damn near everything else in the process!

Given all of the above, I'm not sure why so many argue that an open convention would thwart the will of the people. As it currently stands (and things can change), Trump is winning only because 60-70% of the vote is split among the three remaining candidates. Are we truly comfortable nominating someone with that little support? If Trump's victories continue to dawdle in the 30-40% range, then I'd like to see a rowdy convention where the people get to decide whether he is the right candidate or not and consider other candidates around whom the party can coalesce.

If our goal is to have a nominee buttressed by an enthusiastic majority who can get out the vote and beat the Dems, then an open convention might be the only path. If The Donald emerges from such a convention intact, then all Republicans and conservatives should rally around him.

But before we get to that point, there are a few things to think about. Remember how critical we were of the cult of personality that catapulted Obama to victory? How the irrational mobs supporting him  so desperate for an antidote to the Bush years  had elevated him on a pedestal he hadn't yet earned? How people turned a blind eye to his lack of experience and divisiveness? How too few heeded warnings about his unfettered arrogance and insatiable need to combat every criticism?

On the right, we knew that Obama was only about the packaging  a finely marketed illusion. And yet people were apoplectic in their mania for his candidacy and presidency. It was an irrational and unstoppable force. But they were in love with Obama, just like the zeal and affection exhibited for Pablum Don. And that love can be blind for politicians, just as it is for paramours.
When a ship goes down, it is rarely all at once. We are all familiar with the story of the Titanic. Or, more recently, the capsizing of the Costa Concordia which played out over a timeframe of multiple hours. Large vessels take some time to go down, and a presidential campaign is, if anything, a large vessel.

Obviously, that brings us to Marco Rubio and a presidential campaign that, as a matter of hyperbole, has been taking on water for some time. It seems that the campaign may insist on continuing because, often, continuing is easier than quitting. Denial is a powerful ally.

Setting aside a strong showing in Puerto Rico, the story of Rubios candidacy can be seen in the results of the last three major days of voting.

On Super Tuesday, March 1st, Rubio received a simple average of 23.04% of votes cast (blending together his final vote percentage received in each state). On March 5th -- remembering that this is still in the same week -- this fell to 13.07%. Rubio argued in a very labored speech that night that these states were never suited for him and that better nights were ahead. A few days later, on March 8th, Rubio received a simple average of 10.85% of voting.

Four states voted and awarded delegates to the Republican race for president on Tuesday, March 8th. Senator Rubio received 178,467 votes (as of the tally available the next morning). Again, this is his total across four states. If the ramifications of this number arent self-evident, the necessary context is that nearly two million people voted.

The Florida senator has been on a sharp recent decline following a consolidation of support which was always more hype than fact. Regardless how past election cycles have felt, the powerbrokers in Washington cant simply will someone to victory; a lesson we have had a chance to learn multiple times this year.

Much will be written in the next four years about the campaigns belief that ground game politics is outdated, and those writings will note that the candidate only crested above 30% of support in three of twenty-two contests. Across all states he has averaged around 19% of the vote. It is not a new and bold position to those outside of his bubble to suggest that Marco has never had a clear path to the White House, even before Super Tuesday.

So what set the S.S. Marco on its ill-fated trajectory? In the end, there are two primary explanations. The first is simply that the field was -- and still is -- too crowded. That is certainly not Marcos fault, per se, except in his insistence on remaining around. A lot of good men -- and Marco is certainly one -- found themselves this year to be presidential material in the wrong place and time. The other concern is that Marco really seemed to capsize (might as well put forward the nautical imagery thick now) when he tried to be something which he is not. That something resembled the heyday of Andrew Dice Clay more than anything. It was only after we saw the "new" Marco that the support which he did have started to drop dramatically. His campaign message of the last two weeks was upsettingly different relative to his "New American Century" pitch.

Much has been written over the last six months about Senator Rubio potentially being too conservative for the so-called establishment to support. While there may be a kernel of truth in this, it is largely unrelated to what torpedoed (ahem) Marco.

The politician-ranking website Conservative Review assigns Marco a Liberty Score of 79%. The correct context to digest this number in is that it makes him the 7th most conservative member of the Senate (out of 54). Its a funny curve, however, as this puts him only 3% away from four-term establishment Idaho senator Michael Crapo. The Republican Senate, as a whole, is not a conservative body.

I would argue, however, that the establishment doesnt have a strict litmus test to say that someone is or is not too conservative. John Kasich was considered to be fairly conservative in his day. What makes someone part of the establishment is a willingness to compromise.

In this regard, Marco Rubio certainly found his own.

To paraphrase Gorgeous George, a famed professional wrestler of a bygone era, Win if you can, lose if you must, but always compromise.

To defend Marco in a backhanded manner, he was only in Washington long enough to contract stage one of the establishment disease. As he progressed, compromise would have become the goal in itself (instead of just a means to the end) and success would be measured by the ability to pass a sheer volume of legislation; the words therein being largely academic.

At any rate, before too much longer Marco Rubio will be neither senator nor president. And perhaps that is why he insists on continuing down this road, at least until Florida; his metaphorical vessel not just taking on water but going down fast.

It doesnt make it any less sad to observe. Marco clearly insists on continuing to go down with the ship, even though most of his voters are watching from afar, having safely made it to shore.
The necessity to ramp up long overdue modernization of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, combined with an escalating disarmament policy shift under the Obama administration, has once again brought the discussion of deterrence to the forefront of military strategy debates.

In the recent spring edition of Air and Space Power Journal, three articles describe the challenges to and outline solutions for the U.S. nuclear posture.

Dr. Keith B. Payne, professor and head of the Graduate Department of Defense and Strategic Studies at Missouri State University, describes how nuclear disarmament, or the delay or abandonment of triad modernization, expressed by reductionists and abolitionists does not hold up to scrutiny.

The nuclear reduction advocates' main claim is that a unilateral arms reduction by the U.S. will lead to other nations following suit. Contrary to these predictions, U.S. reduction in nuclear capacity by over 80% since the end of the Cold War, with further reductions to occur under the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), has not been reflected in the disarmament of any other nuclear power save Russia.

Some have argued that the U.S. and Russia had such large numbers of nuclear weapons to begin with that even a significant reduction still leaves the two powers with overwhelming destructive force, hence deterrence. But since Russia continues to violate the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, even that example of the U.S. leading by example fails to survive a cursory examination.

As Payne points out, the "perceived requirements of national security ultimately trump the constraining effect of international opinion, norms, and law." Consequently, other countries will assess their nuclear posture based not on the American lead, but rather on their own strategic needs. The raison d'etat  the primacy of a state's interest over opinions regarding cooperation, morality, or international law  will supersede international peaceful disarmament arguments.

A second major counterargument is that the reduction in U.S. nuclear capacity could very well lead to increased proliferation. As countries whose defense was assured by the extended U.S. nuclear deterrent are forced to live without the American nuclear umbrella, many may chose to acquire nuclear weapons for their own self-defense.

Payne goes on to explain how deterrence is based on the functioning of human perceptions and calculations and as such is affected by factors beyond our ability to predict:

[Deterrence] must be made as effective as possible to prevent war and the escalation of hostilities. This goal likely requires (1) as complete an understanding as is possible of opponents' perceptions and values so as to tailor US deterrence strategies appropriately to the opponent and deterrent goal and (2) a broad spectrum of flexible and resilient US conventional and nuclear capabilities to help the United States deter as effectively as possible across a broad spectrum of contingencies and potential opponents with varying goals, values, perceptions, and modes of decision making.

These objectives are picked up by Major Joshua D. Wiitala, USAF, a staff officer in the United States Strategic Command's J873 section. Wiitala argues that minimal deterrence is insufficient to protect U.S. interests, and instead he introduces the idea of "dual deterrence" as a better framework for understanding the relevance of U.S. nuclear strategy.

Minimal deterrence is one proportional to the threat  forces are scaled to inflict costs on an opponent that exceed any possible gains involved in a first strike. A position of minimum deterrence allows states to use nuclear weapons by deterring a large-scale nuclear attack and to provide for a deterrent against other existential threats. It also sees nuclear weapons as a way to balance the conventional superiority of adversaries.

Wiitala notes, however, that such an approach is insufficient for the needs and geopolitical position of the United States. A more useful position is one of "dual deterrence" involving both existential and escalation deterrence. Existential deterrence involves "a force exclusively postured to deter threats to the sovereignty and survival of the United States through the credible threat of a large-scale counterforce retaliatory capability" and would be reserved for the most extreme scenarios. Escalation deterrence seeks to prevent the limited use of nuclear weapons in otherwise conventional wars  a possibility inadequately addressed by minimal deterrence  and by providing extended deterrence to U.S. allies. The former would consist mainly of the ICBM and SLBM components of the nuclear triad, while the latter would be undertaken by dual-capable bombers and fighters.

The second goal described by Payne above  namely, flexibility in force structure to deal with the varied psychology of adversary states  is further addressed by Jennifer Bradley, an analyst with the National Institute for Public Policy providing support to the United States Strategic Command.

According to Bradley, the U.S. in the twenty-first century faces deterrence challenges with multiple states. Nuclear strategy needs to consider a particular adversary's perception of the costs and benefits from both a course of action as well as that of restraint, the balance of which may lead to deterrence failure if the state believes that the cost of restraint is higher than that incurred through action. This requires understanding "the leadership characteristics, historical and cultural influences, decision-making structures and processes, and national security strategy and doctrine" of an adversary.

The Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) presented by the Department of Defense in 2010 asserted that the changing strategic environment created by an improved relationship with Russia and the interdependence with China reduced the necessity of American reliance on nuclear weapons. With the increased precision of advanced conventional weapons, said the NPR, the U.S. could target an adversary's strategic locations that were previously susceptible only to nuclear weapons. What the report did not assess, however, was how Russia or China would interpret this change in U.S. deterrence strategy.

The disparity between the conventional military power of the U.S. and Russia has increasingly led Russia to depend on its nuclear forces to deter not only nuclear attack, but also conventional conflict with the U.S, to such a degree that Russia has made modernizing its strategic forces one of the country's highest priorities. With the recent shift in relations between the two countries, Cold War-era rhetoric has resurfaced.

Bradley postulates that the Chinese believe that a lower threshold of "usability of advanced conventional weapons designed to perform a deterrence role actually undermines nuclear deterrence and causes other nations to rely more on their nuclear weapons arsenals," since they are unable to compete with the U.S. conventionally.

Overall, she describes the following problem with the current position:

The US decision to rely less on nuclear weapons to meet its national security needs, instead bridging the gap with advanced conventional capabilities, did not have the desired effect on our adversaries. Instead of inspiring confidence, it reinforced some of their worst fears.

Consequently, the U.S. must reassess the role its nuclear weapons arsenal plays in assuring geopolitical stability among the major powers. It is clear that to meet this goal, the American nuclear arsenal must be modernized and expanded rather than contracted.
Carly Fiorina quizzed her fellow candidates during the first under card presidential debate. She asked if any of them had received a phone call from Bill Clinton prior to announcing their entry into the race. None had. And if youd asked that question of any of those in the Prime Time debate, only one would have answered yes: Trump.

So its worth considering what Bill Clinton may have had in mind in talking with Trump.

Bill knows that despite Barack Obama saying in 2008 that youre likable enough, Hillary, Hillary is really not likable enough. It is a serious problem. Real liberals -- who constitute the base of the Democratic Party -- do not like her. Or him.

This would be an insurmountable problem in the general election -- unless something dramatic happened to assure that her Republican opponent was even less likable. Bingo!

What could better guarantee that happy outcome for Bill and Hillary than to sow hatred and division among the resurgent Republicans? What could better assure a scorched earth Nixon-style victory in November than the surety of a split opposition?

Now, dear reader, before you dismiss this as conspiracy theory Moonbattery, lets consider some realities. Liberal journalists and Democratic activists have been laboring to hang the racist label on Republicans for a generation. They have, unfortunately, largely succeeded in the black community. But their real goal is to create a similar aversion for Republicans among Hispanics, the fastest-growing minority group.

How better to do that than to have someone like that Trump running around yelling about categorically rounding up and deporting millions of Hispanics who have entered the country illegally? Bill and Hillary Clinton know what that deportation would look like. They did it on a micro scale when they seized little Elian Gonzalez on Easter Sunday morning in 2000. The photograph of that capture of a terrified six-year old won the Pulitzer Prize.

Bill and Hillary would like to see ads -- not featuring their snatching the child, of course -- but ads showing how Trumps Roundup would look. We know that it would look like the grab of Elian -- millions of times over.

This specter would be presented in Spanish-language media thousands of times in ads, videos, and columns. The Democratic Party would spare no effort to spread fear and hatred throughout barrios in our country.

We know they will do this because they have done it. Joe Biden infamously claimed to a black audience that Republicans would put yall back in chains. He ignored the simple fact that no Republican had ever done this and that from 1791 to 1865, it was the Democratic Party that assured black people would remain in chains.

With Trump calling Hillary a liar and Bill a sexual predator, some may find it hard to credit that he was egged on by Bill and Hillary. Still, Bill Clinton is a genius, an evil genius. Bill Clinton knows that some stories cannot be spiked. Newsweek had decided not to run the story of his affair with young Monica Lewinsky. Matt Drudge decided otherwise. The Drudge Report of 1998 proved that weve entered a new era in media coverage. The old gatekeepers have been consigned to the Sunday TV talk shows. The Internet rules now.

So if he knows coverage of his philandering cannot be suppressed, whats the next best thing? Let those stories be peddled by Trump. Trump the Birther. Trump the Truther. Trump the peddler of all notions wild and weird.

We have a perfect example of this phenomenon in one of Hillarys former rivals. There was good reason to suspect that Sen. John Edwards was having an affair with one of his campaign film crew. But since the story had first surfaced in the National Enquirer, serious journalists avoided writing about it. Until, that is, they could no longer avoid it.

Bill Clinton knows that if Hillary wins, it will only be through Americans mental exhaustion and moral disgust with the entire political system. He is willing to stink up the process so long as he gets the power he craves.

Henry Clay famously said hed rather be right than be president. Bill Clinton would rather be president and leave aside the question right and wrong. After all, what is right?

It all depends on what your definition of is is.

George Stephanopoulos gave us the key to the character of Bill and Hillary. The Clintons have no shame and thats a great advantage in politics. So, might Bill have urged Trump to enter the fray? Why not? Shameful is as shameful does.

Ken Blackwell and Bob Morrison are veteran political commentators in Washington, D.C.
Hillary Clinton is claiming that the mother of Benghazi victim Sean Smith is "wrong" when she says that the then-secretary of state lied about the attack on American facilities being the result of an anti-Muslim video and not a terrorist attack.

Politico:

You know, look, I feel a great deal of sympathy for the families of the four brave Americans that we lost at Benghazi," Clinton said. "And I certainly cant even imagine the grief that she has for losing her son. But shes wrong. Shes absolutely wrong. I and everybody in the administration, all the people she named  the president, the vice president, [then-United Nations Ambassador] Susan Rice  we were scrambling to get information that was changing literally by the hour." Co-moderator Jorge Ramos' question circled around October 2015 comments from Benghazi victim Sean Smith's mother, who accused Clinton of lying about the genesis of the attacks to the American people while telling her daughter via email that a terrorist group was behind the attack. "Well, Jorge, that makes my point," Clinton said, adding that at the time she emailed her daughter, a terrorist group had just claimed credit for executing the attack. The YouTube video titled Innocence of Muslims, which was perceived as an offensive portrayal of the prophet Muhammad and his life, "did play a role" in the attacks, Clinton added, saying that a captured terrorist involved in plotting the attack confirmed this.

The narrative dies hard, even with plenty of evidence that the CIA knew it was a terrorist attack within hours of the assault that killed Ambassador Stevens and informed Clinton that it was.

And the captured terrorist says he wasn't the mastermind of the attack despite overwhelming evidence he was. So we're supposed to believe an al-Qaeda-inspired terrorist who has lied about his role in the attack who claims he was "directing traffic" during the demonstration against the film?

Clinton claimed it was the "fog of war" that led to the mistaken belief that the video was the cause of the attacks. If there was fog, it was created by Hillary Clinton and the Obama presidential campaign who sought to downplay their failure to secure the facilities and protect our people.
Univision may be in the bag for Democrats, but credit where it is due: in last nights debate, they asked tougher questions than any other debate moderators have broached, as Patricia McCarthy reported this morning. Jorge Ramos, after sitting through Hillarys usual lawyerly evasions on her violations of classified information laws, asked her straight on if she would leave the race if indicted. She responded by denying that such a thing could happen.

Of course, if she acknowledged the possibility of an indictment, she would open the door to a conversation she does not want to have. And if and when the grand jury that likely is underway now does issue indictments, she will take the position that it is unthinkable, and an abuse. You know the drill.

Nevertheless, it would not surprise me if a team of top criminal defense lawyers is at work now, strategizing what should be done. A better question to ask Hillary would be whether or not she is employing criminal defense lawyers.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power warned that the dam in Mosul is critically unstable and could collapse, sending a 45-foot wall of water coursing through some of the biggest cities in Iraq, including the capital, Baghdad.

AFP:

"It is crucial that all UN member states quickly get informed about the magnitude of the problem and the importance of readiness to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions," said Power. The ambassador described briefings by technical experts, engineers and representatives from UN aid and development agencies as "chilling." The dam in northern Iraq was built on an unstable foundation that continuously erodes, and a lapse in required maintenance after the Islamic State jihadist group briefly seized it in 2014 weakened the already flawed structure. "In the event of a breach, there is the potential in some places for a flood wave up to 14 meters high that could sweep up everything in its path, including people, cars, unexploded ordnance, waste and other hazardous material, further endangering massive population centers that lie in the flood path," said Power in a statement released by the US mission. Power said repair work must be undertaken as soon as possible and Iraqis must be well informed about the best evacuation routes. Italian firm Trevi has been selected to carry out crucial repair work on the dam, which is currently protected by Kurdish peshmerga forces. A UN aid appeal for Iraq has received only eight percent of the $861 million requested, compounding concerns about badly needed assistance.

The warning follows testimony by CENTCOM commander Gen. Lloyd Austin, who told the Senate Armed Services Committee that a catastrophe with much loss of life is possible:

"If the dam fails, it will be catastrophic," Gen. Lloyd Austin III told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "There will be thousands of people donwstream that will either be injured or killed, certainly displaced. And the damage could extend all the way down to -- close to Baghdad, or into Baghdad," which is more than 200 miles downstream. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said as many as 500,000 to 1.47 million Iraqis living along the Tigris River "probably would not survive" the impact of floodwaters that could reach depths greater than 45 feet in some parts of Mosul.



Gen. Austin told Congress, "We have worked with the Iraqis to be sure that they are doing the right things to warn people about this, and in the event that it does fail, what actions they should take to get to safety. And we certainly have measures in place to ensure that U.S. citizens are -- or U.S. personnel -- are accounted for and able to be evacuated in case of the dam's failure."



Austin said when Islamic State terrorists captured the dam for a few months in 2014, the maintenance workers fled, and the work to shore up the dam stopped.



"We have encouraged the Iraqi government, since the dam's been back in the hands of the Iraqis, to make sure that they're doing the right things to go about repairing the dam. They have most recently hired an Italian company to perform maintenance on the dam, but it may be several weeks or months before that company is up and running, so there is a time period that we are concerned about (when) there will be limited to no maintenance performed on the dam," he said.



As the Associated Press reported, the dam on the Tigris River was built in the early 1980s on unstable ground where the earth underneath it is constantly eroded by water. Maintenance crews have continuously poured cement under its foundation in a process known as "grouting."



The situation worsened when ISIS terrorists overran the dam and held it for several weeks in 2014. Since then, efforts to reinforce the dam's foundations have not been adequate, partly because ISIS still controls the factory that produces concrete for the dam.

In 2006, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a report calling the Mosul Dam "the most dangerous dam in the world." The situation has only gotten worse over the years.

The U.S. embassy in Iraq issued a warning on February 29 calling the risk of collapse "serious and unprecedented." And yet the world  and especially the U.S.  have dilly-dallied for months while the possibility of disaster increased.

Evacuation plans are useless when the water is going to be 50 feet high. Escaping catastrophe in this case will be a matter of luck. And Iraq hasn't had much of that lately.
How messed up (keeping it clean here) is Obama/Clinton foreign policy? In Syria, the U.S. has been fighting a proxy war withitself. And were not talking metaphorically. Were talking a real shooting war, at least according to recent reporting.

Buzzfeeds Mike Giglio reports that Syrian rebel troops, armed and supported by one branch of the U.S. government, are now fighting a different rebel army backed by another branch of the government.

The infighting between American proxies is the latest setback for the Obama administrations Syria policy and lays bare its contradictions as violence in the country gets worse. The confusion is playing out on the battlefield -- with the U.S. effectively engaged in a proxy war with itself. Its very strange, and I cannot understand it, said Ahmed Othman, the commander of the U.S.-backed rebel battalion Furqa al-Sultan Murad, who said he had come under attack from U.S.-backed Kurdish militants in Aleppo this week.

(It should be noted that the report was published shortly before the cessation of hostilities effectively froze recent territorial gains.)

According to the report, Othmans Furqa al-Sultan Murad receives weapons through the CIA in its fight against the Assad regime and ISIS. The Kurdish rebels, often referred to by their YPG acronym, are armed by the Pentagon as part of its efforts against ISIS. But shortly before the cessation of hostilities, the YPG overran key rebel villages in northern Syria, which the U.S. failed to stop.

An official with the Turkish government criticized the U.S. for what he described as a Syria policy gone awry. The YPG is taking land and villages from groups that are getting American aid, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the subject. These are groups that are not only getting American aid. Some of them also got training from the Americans. That is a major problem, said Andrew Tabler, a Syria specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Its not just that its a nonsense policy. Its that were losing influence so rapidly to the Russians that people just arent listening to us anymore.

Perhaps the administrations Syrian policy, and the overall failed policies of the Obama-Clinton regime in all areas, is best summarized by the Furqa al-Sultan Murad commander quoted in the article:
While it is fair to say that the Republican debates have devolved into shouting matches of name-calling and vitriol, mostly thanks to Donald Trump's abominable manners, thin, skin and braggadocio, watching a Democrat debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders is sheer torture.

The two Democrat hopefuls' agendas are based entirely on resentment and envy. Despite Clinton's massive and ill-gotten wealth, she, like Obama, hates America as founded. Both candidtaes seem to hate the people who built the nation and achieved some manner of financial independence out of a sense of personal responsibility to their families and the nation. And yes, they did build it. Once the backbone of the nation, these are the people the left despises. Those of us who revere the Constitution and its amendments, Judeo-Christian values, and the capitalist economy that enabled the U.S. to become the wealthiest nation on the planet are the people the Progressives like Hillary and the Socialist Sanders loathe. We are too independent and too happy. We need to be punished.

For the left, being part of a family is no longer politically correct (unless you are part of an illegal immigrant family that must be kept together). Believing that the definition of marriage is the union of a man and a woman now requires a trigger warning and, on a college campus, may start a riot, as will any student's support of Israel. On the left, according to Sanders, taxpayer dollars, monies earned by working Americans, should fund the educations of all students who wish to go to college, no matter how qualified or academically inclined. This would, of course, lead to the increased dumbing down of American education and further bankrupt our already bankrupt country.

It would enable private universities to hike tuition rates to even more impossibly affordable rates than they already are because those public universities would no longer be in any way prestigious. It is a ridiculous idea. Students will never appreciate what they do not pay for and do not earn. There are too many examples that prove this to list. Just one? Los Angeles schools spent $1.3 billion to provide iPads uploaded with curricula to every student. It was a colossal failure. Free college would be a similar but bigger boondoggle.

The moderators of the Univision debate must be commended. They asked more hard-hitting questions than even Fox News has in past debates. I doubt that Hillary expected Jorge Ramos to press her so hard on the investigation into her email scandal. I doubt she expected to be asked if she would drop out of the race if indicted. She was visibly angry and of course denied any wrongdoing. (It is a scandal, and she is obviously guilty of many crimes  crimes for which other people with far lesser violations of the law are in prison.)

On immigration, both Clinton and Sanders are for open borders no matter how they try to evade admitting this. They both want to insure an underclass dependent on the Democratic Party for food, shelter, medical care, Obamaphones, and the right to vote. Both promise to tax the rich at a much higher rate. Both believe that health care is a right, no matter how a person's health or that care may be abused. Both want to repeal Citizens United, of course. Both are pro-choice without restrictions; babies aborted the day before a natural delivery should be killed if the mother wishes. Both seem to think that income inequality can be legislated out of existence by fiat; that every human is born with identical abilities, talents, ambition, health, and parentage; that the government must legislate the equality of outcome. Hillary believes that equality in all things must be imposed, except for her and her establishment friends who depend on their power and influence to remain wealthy and thoroughly isolated from the consequences of the policies they impose on the lesser beings of the country.

As horrific a candidate as Donald Trump truly is, Clinton and Sanders are a greater threat to the survival of America as founded. Like Obama, they mean to further transform our country into something it was never meant to be. Thanks to the Democratic Party's rigged system of superdelegates, Clinton is a glimpse into the heart of darkness.

Let us hope for an informed electorate in November.
About 40 km west of Bangkok lies the district of Samphran, where there is a rather odd-looking Wat or Buddhist temple. The temple complex has a giant golden Buddha statue and several shrines and smaller statues within, but the one that draws the eyes of tourists is a 17-storey pink tower with an enormous dragon wrapped around it. The dragon is hollow and is possible to climb through its body all the way to the top, but the stairs are in such poor condition that only a few isolated sections of the dragon are safe to climb. Some parts of the temple are also closed to the public or to foreigners.
The Novaya Zemlya Effect is a curious optical phenomenon named after an archipelago located north of Russia, in the Arctic Ocean. It was here in January 1597 this phenomenon was first observed and documented by the crew of a ship lead by the Dutch navigator Willem Barents, who was on his third expedition to the Arctic in search for the elusive Northeast passage connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific ocean. Unfortunately, Barents ship got no farther than this island when it got stuck in ice, forcing the crew to overwinter on the island. On November 3 they saw the sun for the last time as it set below the horizon. They didnt expect to see the sun again until February 8.

But on January 24, 1597, three of the crew caught a glimpse of the sun a good two weeks before its predicted return. Captain Barents did not believe them since he knew that the sun was well below the horizon. Three days later, the sun made another appearance, and Barents himself witnessed it along with many crew members. Once the explorers returned to the Netherlands, Gerrit de Veer, one of the crew, published an account of their observation. Barents, unfortunately, had died during the return journey.

Photo credit: Mila Zinkova

News of the Novaya Zemlya Effect spread throughout the scientific community. Almost everywhere it was met with disbelief and skepticism. Many scientists dismissed the observation, attributing it to an error in date-keeping, and the incident was largely forgotten. Only Kepler accepted the possibility of such sightings and even made a surprisingly good attempt at scientific explanation.

Nearly 300 years later, in 1894, Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen made another observation of the fabled Novaya Zemlya Effect during his North Pole expedition. He described this in his book 'Farthest North':

The mirage was at first like a flattened-out glowing red streak of fire on the horizon; later there were two streaks, one above the other, with a dark space between; and from the main-top I could see four, or even five such horizontal lines directly over one another, and all of equal length; as if one could only imagine a square dull-red sun with horizontal dark streaks across it. An astronomical observation we took in the afternoon showed that the sun must in reality have been 2 22' below the horizon at noon; we cannot expect to see its disk above the ice before Tuesday at the earliest; it depends on the refraction, which is very strong in this cold air.

The Novaya Zemlya Effect was observed again, this time by the famous Ernest Shackleton, during his last expedition to Antarctica in 1914-17. Shackleton saw the sun seven days after it had set below the horizon, and then again two months later, five days before it was scheduled to return. But it wasnt until 1956, five years after yet another observation of the effect from Antarctica, that it was demonstrated that the Novaya Zemlya Effect is indeed genuine.

The Novaya Zemlya Effect. Video credit: Mila Zinkova

So what exactly is the Novaya Zemlya Effect? As explained by Wikipedia, the Novaya Zemlya effect will give the impression that the sun is rising earlier than it actually should (astronomically speaking), and depending on the meteorological situation, the effect will present the sun as a line or a square (which is sometimes referred to as the "rectangular sun"), made up of flattened hourglass shapes.

The Novaya Zemlya Effect occurs when the conditions that require a mirage to occur are inverted. A mirage occurs when air near the ground gets heated, while the Novaya Zemlya Effect occurs when air above the ice surface gets cooled so that a strong temperature inversion layer is formed. Rays of sunlight enters the colder layer and gets channeled around the curvature of the earth by total internal reflection for distance up to few hundred kilometers. The effect can only be observed near the poles where conditions are frigid, but occasional sightings have been made as far away as the Californian coast where strong inversions result from the combination of cold offshore sea currents and warm air from the land. Even in such warm locations the sun can be visible for several minutes after it had set.

Bonus Fact: The island of Novaya Zemlya is known for another reason  as the site for the most power nuclear weapon ever detonated, the 50 Megaton Tsar bomb.

Image credit: W. H. Lehn

A complex mock mirage sunset sequence photographed in mid January (2009) from near San Francisco, California. Photo credit: Mila Zinkova

Photo credit: www.atoptics.co.uk

Photo credit: Mila Zinkova

Photo credit: www-rohan.sdsu.edu

Superior mirage and Green flash in San Francisco. Photo credit: Broken Inglori/Wikimedia

Sources: Wikipedia / Atmospheric Optics / W.H.Lehn (1978) / Waldemar Lehn (2011)
When Google launched Google+ back in 2011, the company hoped to build an vast social network that could compete with massively popular social sites like Facebook and Twitter. The company made a huge investment in their new platform, and then-CEO Larry Page did everything within his power to promote the network and boost user-adoption in its early years. Sadly, the platform never quite achieved the status and user-base of Googles largest competitors, and claims about the social networks demise became a regular topic online. Despite all of their setbacks, Google hasnt given up on Google+, and the company continues to support the platform by continually tweaking the interface and adding fresh new features to keep users engaged (such as Collections). Moreover, with the launch of the new Google+ Create program, the company plans to give even greater exposure to some of the platforms most active and creative users.

According to Google, the Create program will assist eligible participants in generating greater exposure for their content throughout the Google+ community. Some of the programs perks include prime placement in the new Featured Collections section, a verification of the members profile (so that users know theyre a real person), early access to upcoming Google+ features, and even some involvement with Googles own marketing efforts. Ultimately, these benefits will help prospective members in building up their audiences while also helping Google to create more engaging and targeted content for the Google+ community. Its a win-win for both sides, and it might just be what Google needs to help jump-start the platforms popularity.

Advertisement

So, how do you get involved if youre interested? Well, the process isnt as simple as filling in an opt-in form. Google lays out very specific requirements for Create users before they can even be considered for membership. They require all participants to have themed Collections, and members must demonstrate an ability to produce quality content on a regular basis. Furthermore, Google wants applicants to be active users who post new content on the network at least once a week. If the user meets those qualifications, they have to fill out a short web application in order to submit their name for consideration. The program is definitely worth checking out If youre an active Google+ user and youre looking to gain a little more exposure for your content.
Poll, poll, everywhere a poll  it seems as though during the Presidential elections there are more polls taken than at any other time. The news media has a field day, especially when there is at least one or more candidates that skew just a little off center. This year the media and poll takers are blessed with an abundance of potential targets  on the right we have Trump, Cruz and Marco Rubio and on the left we have Hillary and Bernie. Daily polls are taken to determine the most viable candidates  their popularity, their trustworthiness and their popularityin other words, which one is most electable, comes November. Thank heavens this only happens every four years.

While corporations arent candidates, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and NBC News had a survey done to see just how Google and Apple would stack up if they were running against the candidates for president and the findings may surprise you. They surveyed 1200 registered voters  48-percent male and 52-percent female  and asked the question do you have a positive or negative opinion about both the candidates and the companies, Google and Apple. The pollsters then took the positive results, subtracted the negative results to arrive at our net feelings. It turns out that Google received the highest net rating of 63  much higher than second place Apple at 40 and triple the rating of the highest rated candidate, John Kasich at only 19.

Advertisement

The net ratings quickly go downhill from there  Bernie Sanders follows Kasich with only a 7 rating, followed by President Obama at 4. The reason they are so low is that while they have 43 and 47 positive ratings respectively, they also had almost as many distracters. The following negative ratings mean that more people had a negative view than positive view of the candidate. Marco Rubio comes in a -11 rating, Hillary Clinton is -13, Ted Cruz comes in at -18, Mitt Romney (not sure why he is there) is at -22 and good old Donald Trump comes in at a whopping -39. Trump had a 25-percent positive rating and a 64-percent negative rating  the highest negative rating of any candidate, with Hillary next at 51-percent negative rating. Of the negative votes cast for the companies, Apple had a 14-percent negative rating while Google only received a 4-percent negative rating. Google could possibly use its newfound popularity to help structure bills or laws regarding their self-driving cars or other projects they are working on. Could this mean an upswing in the popularity of Android devices, specifically their Google Nexus devices? Whatever they do, one thing is for certain  if the Presidential election was a popularity contestit looks like Google would be the winner.
Madeleine McCann: unrewarding work in Paraguay

Madeleine McCann: a look at reporting on the missing child.

Daily Star (front page): Maddie is potted in Paraguay

A massive police hunt is underway in Paraguay, says the Star, which adds that this is Paraguay, South America, and must not to be confused with any other Paraguay.

Page 9: Copes Probing Maddie Sighting in Paraguay

Is the missing child living in custody of a woman in the city of Aregua? Was British private eye Miraz Ullah Ali, who praised the alarm, right to believe sources who told him the child arrived in Paraguay a month or two ago as sources told his team?

The paper adds: He says wealthy well-wishers were offering a 2million euro reward for information leading to the youngsters safe return.

Daily Mirror (Page 9): I saw Maddie claim denied

Claims made by Briton Miraz Ullah Ali Isa (his name keeps on growing) have been dismissed.

So much for the massive police search, then.

Not other news in the British Press, os we go to AS Color in Paraguay (South America), where this story first aired.

We learn that many locals have now claimed the juicy reward  part of that reward was posted by English magnate Richard Branson. That reward still stands? In 2007, the BBC reported:

Rewards totalling 2.5m have been offered to anyone who can help with information leading to the safe return of Madeleine McCann. The News of the World and businessmen including Sir Richard Branson have jointly pledged 1.5m. Scottish tycoon Stephen Winyard has offered 1m.

The NoTW is no more.

The News of the World has promised 250,000  matching the contribution of Top Shop owner Sir Philip Green.

Such are the facts.

Anorak

Posted: 10th, March 2016 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
(ANSA) - Brussels, March 10 - Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said Thursday he had asked his EU counterparts to put Albania on the European agenda as a possible strategic partner to stop migrants coming across the Balkans. "I asked that the issue of Albania not be only an Italian issue. We can't only deal with it on our own, bilaterally with Albania," he said after the EU meeting, which was largely devoted to the migrants crisis. "Albania can be a strategic partner of Europe in addressing the Balkans question". With the so-called Balkan route shut because of border closures, migrants and refugees are expected to turn southwestwards and try and get across the Adriatic to Italy via Albania.


(ANSA) - Strasbourg, March 10 - The European Parliament in Strasbourg on Thursday approved a resolution demanding that Cairo help Italy establish the trust about the death in Egypt of Italian researcher Giulio Regeni. The resolution "condemns the torture and murder of European citizen Giulio Regeni". In it, the parliament called on Cairo to "provide the Italian authorities with all the documents and information necessary".

It also expressed "serious concern" that the Regeni case "is not an isolated incident".


(ANSA) - Rome, March 10 - Former Camorra mafia boss and hitman Pasquale Scotti was arrested in Italy on Thursday after being extradited from Brazil. Scotti, a key figure in the New Organised Camorra crime syndicate established by Raffaele Cutolo in the late 1970s, arrived at Rome's Fiumicino airport on an Alitalia flight from Rio de Janeiro on Thursday morning.

He was initially arrested in 1983 and briefly collaborated with the judicial authorities before going underground after an escape from a Caserta hospital where he was receiving treatment for a hand injury sustained during a shoot-out.

An international arrest warrant was issued against him in 1990.

Police eventually caught up with him last May in the north-eastern Brazilian coastal city of Recife, where he was in possession of a false identity document attributed to an Italo-Brazilian restaurant owner.

He faces 30 years in jail.


(ANSA) - Valletta, March 10 - The foreign ministers of Italy, the United States, Germany, Britain and France will meet in Paris Sunday to discuss the latest developments in the Libyan crisis, Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni announced in Malta Thursday.

The meeting will be dedicated, among other things, to finding ways to enable the Tobruk parliament to overcome an impasse on a confidence vote for a new national-unity government, Gentiloni said after talks on Libya and the migrant emergency in Valletta.


(ANSA) - Rome, March 10 - In a year immigration has become the principal challenge facing the EU, followed by terrorism, which has surpassed in less than a year the problems linked to the economic crisis, a poll confirmed Thursday.

In all 69 % of Italians favour the EU dealing with the migrant crisis through a common policy, but nearly a half (46%) believe that Italy shouldn't help refugees and 49% also view with suspicion foreign citizens who move into Italy.

This is the picture snapped by Eurobarometro, the European poll on citizens' opinions carried out in November 2015 (after the climax in the summer of the migrants' crisis on the Balkan route but before the Paris attacks) that was presented today by the European Commission in Rome.

Some 50% of Italians, in addition, don't feel themselves European citizens and 63% are convinced that Italy's interests are not taken into consideration in Brussels.

Europeans as a whole acknowledge that the EU has made achievements with 49% saying the most important is free movement of labour, the possibility to travel study or work anywhere in the EU - an advantage that Italians say is second most important (36%) after the primacy of the euro (41%).

European Commission Representation in Italy director Emilio Dalmonte says the fact that half of Italians feel they don't have to help migrants is a figure that "maes one reflect".

"The images that arrive from Idomeni are no different to those of the homeless 70 years ago in our country," he said, underlining that the figures are comparable to those in eastern Europe where people traditionally are more skeptical toward refugees, such as Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

According to Mario Morcellini, lecturer at the La Sapienza university in Rome, the media are largely to blame "and especially talk shows responsible for anti-politics and the worsening" of public opinion aggravating Italians' perceptions on immigration well beyond the real entity of the phenomenon.


(ANSA) - Valletta, March 10 - Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Thursday during a visit to Malta that the government is maintaining "maximum discretion" on reports Italian officials turned over for autopsy the bodies of two slain hostages under threat in Libya. "The judiciary is dealing with the matter," Gentiloni said. "(This) does not cancel out our sympathies with the families for the pain they have suffered and which unfortunately was accentuated by the frankly incomprehensible manner in which the return of the remains has been prolonged".

An Air Force plane brought the bodies of Salvatore Failla and Fausto Piano, two Italian oil-sector workers who were killed in Libya last week after being taken hostage in July, back to Italy early on Thursday.

The bodies arrived at Rome's Ciampino airport shortly after midnight and the Forensic Medicine Institute of the Gemelli hospital in the capital will carry out autopsies.

On Wednesday Failla's wife said she felt let down by the Italian authorities and was refusing a State funeral. Failla and Piano were part of a group of four Italian employees of the Parma-based Bonatti firm to be kidnapped. The circumstances of their deaths have not yet been fully established. The other two members of the group are back in Italy after freeing themselves. Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni told parliament Wednesday that no ransom was paid for the hostages.

In related news, Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Thursday he will meet with the foreign ministers of theUnited States, Germany, Britain and France in Paris Sunday to discuss the latest developments in the Libyan crisis. The meeting will be dedicated, among other things, to finding ways to enable the Tobruk parliament to overcome an impasse on a confidence vote for a new national-unity government, Gentiloni said after talks on Libya and the migrant emergency in Valletta.
(ANSA) - Rome, March 10 - A bill designed to speed up Italy's notoriously slow civil trial process moved from the Lower House House to the Senate Thursday.

The House passed several to the reform bill to simplify Italian civil trial procedure.

An amendment by Premier Matteo Renzi's Democratic Party (PD) stipulates a maximum three-month wait for first hearings in the "simplified trial" format.

The bill aims to speed up the snail-paced system by offering more recourse to arbitration than trial and limiting the number of trials that will have more than one sitting judge.

Meanwhile the Senate passed a bill reforming honorary magistrates and justices of the peace.

The bill moves to the House.


(ANSA) - Rome, March 10 - The reported new Islamic State (ISIS) leader in Libya, Abdel Qader Al-Najdi, has invoked the conquest of Rome in an interview with jihadist weekly Al-Naba. "We pray to God that we might be pious faithful and those that conquer Rome," Al-Najdi said in the interview published Wednesday.

"We pray that the Caliphate's vanguard in Libya might be the ones to conquer Rome," he added.

"Preparations are underway for the creation of a new coalition of crusaders aiming to wage war against the Islamic State," Al-Najdi continued.

Its principal members are "France, Great Britain and Italy, supported by local combatant factions that will strengthen the coalition", he added. Thought to be of Saudi origin, Al-Najdi replaces Iraqi Abu-al-Maghirah al-Qahtani, who was reportedly killed in an American air strike last November.


(ANSA) - Catania, March 10 - Farmers' association Coldiretti on Thursday denounced the global proliferation of food and drink labels and restaurant chains recalling Sicily's Cosa Nostra mafia at the expense of authentic Made in Italy products.

The 'Mafia' brand is "used widely in international food services to attract business," Coldiretti said, citing Spain's 'La Mafia' restaurant chain where eateries are decorated with murals depicting famous mobsters and the 'Cosa Nostra' pizzerias found in countries all over the globe. The association also flagged up Mafiozzo coffee from Bulgaria, Chilli Mafia snacks from Britain, The Godfather wine from Napa Valley in California, and spicy red Wicked Cosa Nostra sauce from Missouri, among other Mafia-branded products.


(ANSA) - Rome, March 10 - Italian Justice Minister Andrea Orlando Thursday hailed the approval by the Lower House of parliament of legislation reforming civil judicial procedure and by the Senate of reform of the magistrate system.

"Today is overall an important day for judicial reform," Orlando told reporters, "these are two fundamental strands so as to have a more efficient and speedier judicial system that is more specialized and better qualified." "These raise the prospect of protecting citizens better and also providing a judicial system that helps the country's competitiveness".

Commenting on remarks by the president of the Court of Cassation, Giovanni Canzio, raising the alarm over the heavy workload facing the supreme court, Orlando said the burden facing the Cassation "is a specific chapter that is partly dealt with by the reform of the civil code and in part will have to be dealt with by the definitive reform of the penal code, and in part will have still to be dealt with by an overall review of court justice," Orlando added.

"I want to underline that we have now got beyond 30 measures concerning the judicial system and mosaic is beginning to take shape. We have passed from 6 million civil cases in 2010 to 4.2 million currently, and the timeframe also has improved - these are elements that tell us that civil justice in Italy is changing".


(ANSA) - Campobasso, March 10 - A 22-year-old Somali asylum seeker who was arrested at a reception centre on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack in Rome is bemused by his detention, his lawyer said Thursday.

"Why have they arrested me? I haven't done anything," lawyer Antonio Di Renzo quoted the suspect as saying during a meeting. The man, who was considered an imam by other members of the reception centre at Campomarino, near the southern city of Campobasso, had been under observation for two months and is suspected of instigating others to commit acts of terror.

"The arrest is incredible for him," the lawyer told ANSA.

"I tried to explain to him that in Italy the justice system goes down a different track and you don't necessarily have to have killed someone to be arrested.

"My main job at the moment is to make him understand the stages of the judicial process. "The first impression is that he is very sure of himself.

He betrays no emotion and I don't know whether this is a front or whether he doesn't realise what has happened". The Somali, who was not named, was recorded saying, according to court documents, "let's start from Italy, let's go to Rome and start with the station". "The war is still continuing, Charlie Hebdo was just the beginning of what is happening now," he went on. "There's a simpler road, that of equipping oneself and blowing oneself up, that's the simplest way".

Di Renzo said the suspect's Italian is poor and he is requesting the help of an interpreter. "The scraps of recordings that I've seen so far don't say anything," the lawyer said. "There are probably others that I have't been able to see yet".


(ANSA) - Rome, March 10 - Autopsies in Rome of the bodies of two Italian hostages slain in March 2 in Libya revealed Salvatore Failla and Fausto Piano died of multiple gunshot wounds, coroners said Thursday.

Failla was killed by shots to the sternum and the lumbar region. Coroners found six entry wounds caused by gunfire, none of them to the head. They said it was impossible to say what weapon had been used. Piano died of several bullet wounds to the upper body. This appears to contradict early reports that the two had been executed, and supports the theory that they were killed in a battle with opposing militia while being moved.

Also on Thursday, a lawyer for the Failla family said an autopsy carried out in Libya before the bodies were returned to Italy was "a butchery". "The cutting out of a section of bodily tissue has made identifying the murder weapon and working out the distance and trajectory impossible," Francesco Caroleo Grimaldi said. "It was not an autopsy - it was a butchery". Early on Thursday, an Air Force plane brought the bodies of the two Italian oil-sector workers who were killed in Libya last week after being taken hostage in July, back to Italy. The remains arrived at Rome's Ciampino airport shortly after midnight. On Wednesday Failla's widow said she felt let down by Italian authorities and was refusing a State funeral. Failla and Piano were part of a group of four Italian employees of the Parma-based Bonatti oil construction firm who were kidnapped on their way to work. The other two hostages are back in Italy after freeing themselves. Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni told parliament Wednesday that no ransom was paid for the hostages.

On Thursday, Gentiloni said the government is maintaining "maximum discretion" on reports Italian officials were coerced under threat to turn the bodies of Failla and Piano over to Libya officials for autopsy. "The judiciary is dealing with the matter," Gentiloni said.

"(This) does not cancel out our sympathies with the families for the pain they have suffered, and which unfortunately was accentuated by the frankly incomprehensible manner in which the return of the remains has been prolonged". Filippo Calcagno, one of the two survivors, said Thursday that his captors did not speak Italian. However, he also said that the group was told to be careful of what they said in recorded messages because these would be heard by someone who could understand. Failla's widow has stated a kidnapper had called her and spoken in Italian. Calcagno said he also had the impression that negotiations were taking place for the hostages' release before two were killed last week.

He said earlier this week that "I don't know if (our captors) were men from ISIS. It'll be up to them to say if they were ISIS or criminals. For me they are criminals because what they do is awful". Calcagno told journalists that he and his three co-workers were held by "a family of criminals - there were women and a child" and that they "suffered hunger, thirst, beatings, punches, blows with rifle butts and we had to do our business inside a plastic thing".


(ANSA) - Strasbourg, March 10 - The European Parliament in Strasbourg on Thursday approved a resolution demanding that Cairo help Italy establish the trust about the death in Egypt of Italian researcher Giulio Regeni. The resolution "condemns the torture and murder of European citizen Giulio Regeni". In it, the parliament called on Cairo to "provide the Italian authorities with all the documents and information necessary".

It also expressed "serious concern" that the Regeni case "is not an isolated incident". The Cambridge University PhD student, who was in Egypt investigating trade unions there, went missing on January 25 - the fifth anniversary of the uprising that ousted former strongman Hosni Mubarak. His body was discovered nine days later in Cairo displaying signs of torture. Cairo has denied speculation that Egyptian security forces may have been involved. Several accounts by Egyptian officials of Regeni's death have been greeted with incredulity in Italy.


(ANSA) - Rome, March 10 - The European Parliament in Strasbourg on Thursday approved a resolution demanding that Cairo help Italy establish the trust about the death in Egypt of Italian researcher Giulio Regeni. The resolution "condemns the torture and murder of European citizen Giulio Regeni". The parliament called on Cairo to "provide the Italian authorities with all the documents and information necessary". It also expressed "serious concern" that the Regeni case "is not an isolated incident". The Cambridge University PhD student, who was in Egypt investigating trade unions there, went missing on January 25 - the fifth anniversary of the uprising that ousted former strongman Hosni Mubarak. His body was discovered nine days later in Cairo displaying signs of torture. Cairo has denied speculation that Egyptian security forces may have been involved. Several accounts by Egyptian officials of Regeni's death have been greeted with incredulity in Italy and Premier Matteo Renzi's government has said that it will not accept a "convenient truth" from Cairo. The Giza prosecutor leading the probe for Egypt, Hassam Nassar, raised eyebrows this week when he played down reports of torture and said that Regeni was killed the day before his body was found on February 3 after being subjected to one single bout of violence. Nassar added that there had been a "misunderstanding" about Regeni's clipped ears and torn-out nails, saying Egyptian doctors had taken off parts of the ears, as well as a fingernail and toenail, to "carry out more thorough analyses".

Egyptian officials have also suggested the death could have been a road accident or been caused by Islamist extremists.

There is speculation Regeni could have fallen foul of the security forces after writing articles about Egypt under a pseudonym.

Italian investigators probing the death of Regeni have been invited to Cairo to be informed of "the latest developments (in Egypt) regarding the death" of the researcher, Rome Chief Prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone said Thursday. He added that the meeting "will be organised shortly". The invitation was made by the Egyptian Ambassador to Rome Amr Helmy in the name of Egypt's General Prosecutor Nabil Ahmed Sadek. The aim of the trip is to "identify further methods of cooperation between the two judicial authorities in the interests of both countries," Pignatone said.


(ANSA) - Washington, March 10 - US president Barack Obama on Thursday criticized British Prime Minister David Cameron and former French president Nicolas Sarkozy for the 2011 operation in Libya against Muammar Gaddafi's regime.

He included UK and France among US allies that "freeride". The White House chief spoke about the North African country's "chaos" and acknowledged that his support for NATO intervention was a "mistake", in part due to his conviction that the UK and France would have taken on a greater share of the burden in the period following the dictator's ouster.


Greece guest of honor at Riyadh book fair Over 500 local and foreign exhibitors until 19/3

(ANSAmed) - ROME, MARCH 10 - The International Book Fair of Riyadh opened on Thursday in the Saudi capital. Inaugurating the event - which until March 19 will be hosting about 500 Saudi and foreign publishers - was Culture Minister Adel Al-Toraifi. Country guest of honor this year is Greece. Science, tecnology, history, literature, politics, religion, geography and medicine are all areas covered in the books on display. The Arabnews website reported that the books presented at the exhibition have to pass an assessment by the Saudi culture ministry. (ANSAmed).




Migrants: Greece irritated by President Tusk's Tweet Mouzalas, we'll fight for Europe of solidarity,responsibility

(ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, MARCH 10 - "Greece comes to this Council to ask for a united Europe in which decisions seek to find solutions in a united way, without unilateral actions. There is no need to thank Member States who violated EU decisions proceeding with unilateral actions which have failed to provide solutions and that have worsened problems'' said Greek Immigration Minister Ioannis Mouzalas commenting on the Tweets by EU President Tusk, according to which a decision was reached by the 28 to halt to the Balkanic route.



"Today - he said - we will fight for a Europe of solidarity and responsibility''.



"We demand the immediate application of the joint EU-Turkey re-admission plan, as well as a commitment by Member States on relocations. We believe in a united Europe and we demand common action'' added Mouzalas arriving at the Internal Affairs council. (ANSAmed).




Food4MED showcases Sardinian cuisine in Lebanon From Beirut to Bekaa Valley; EU program to foster dialogue

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, MARCH 10 - Sardinian food will be showcased in Lebanon starting from today at the 'Culinary Art and Tradition in Sardinia and Lebanon' festival.



The Associazione Assadakah Sardegna and Beirut's Saint Joseph University are holding the events as part of the 'FOOD4MED Food for Mediterranean Exchange' funded by the European Commission and the EuropeAid program in Lebanon. The festival will last two days. The first will be at the Saint Joseph University in Beirut, where the recipe book 'FOOD4MED Cibo e Tradizione in Sardegna e Libano' will be presented and a photographic exhibition will be held. Food tastings will accompany the events.



On March 11 at the Arcenciel NGO offices in Taanayel, in the Bekaa Valley, there will also be a photographic exhibition and food from Lebanese, Palestinian and Italian chiefs. FOOD4MED is a cooperation project between Sardinia and Lebanon to promote tolerance through cultural exchange in the culinary sector, contributing to the creation and promotion of the best conditions for inter-cultural exchange between Mediterranean cultures. (ANSAmed).




(ANSAmed) - WASHINGTON, MARCH 10 - US president Barack Obama on Thursday criticized British prime minister David Cameron and former French president Nicolas Sarkozy for the 2011 operation in Libya against Muammar Gaddafi's regime.



He included UK and France among US allies that ''freeride''. The White House chief spoke about the North African country's ''chaos'' and acknowledged that his support for NATO intervention was a ''mistake'', in part due to his conviction that the UK and France would have take on a greater share of the burden in the period following the dictator's ouster. (ANSAmed).


ANSAmed - Today's events in the Mediterranean

(ANSAmed) - ROMA, MARCH 10 - The following are the main events scheduled in the Euro-Mediterranean area for today: TUNIS - Sousse international book fair (to March 20).



BEIRUT - Festival 'Culinary art and tradition in Sardinia and Lebanon' within the FOOD4MEDFood project for Mediterranean Exchange (the festival ends on March 11 in the Beqaa Valley).



BRUSSELS - EU, visit by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.



ROME - Presentation of catalogue of 140 works by contemporary Syrian artists collected by Imago Mundi.



ROME - Festival of Francophone cinema 'Francofilm' continues (to March 16). (ANSAmed).




Thousands of farmers in Catania defend Made in Italy Coldiretti demonstration against agricoltural mafia

(ANSAmed) - CATANIA, MARCH 10 - Thousands of farmers from the south of Italy have reached Catania to defend 'Made in Italy' agricolture from the risk of losing symblic products such as oranges, mandarins, tomatoes, wheat and olive oil under attack from EU distorted policies and agricoltural mafias.



The mobilisation is taking place on the day the European Union approved an accord allowing the entry of 35,000 tons of Tunisian olive oil.



The measure is considered of no help to Tunisian producers and has the consequence of hitting hard on Italian ones, increasing the risk of frauds and therefore also damaging consumers.



There are several trucks and plackards demading ''the immediate labelling of origin of foodstuffs'', while others warn ''those who attack Made in Italy attack Italy".



There are also stands set up to prove the deceit of fake Made in Italy. These stands shine a light on the products necessary to make true freshly squeezed Italian orange juice and warn against the massacre of oranges.



The farmers also denounce a scandalous ''collection'' of products that evoke episodes, places and personalites linked to the Mafia and which are employed as business tools from Bulgarian caffe mafiozzo to Belgian maffiasauce. (ANSAmed).




Isis: Tunisia, 46 jihadists killed in fighting with army More arrests, ammunition depot found

(ANSAmed) - TUNIS, MARCH 10 - The deathtoll of Isis militants killed in fighting with the Tunisian army, close to the town of Ben Guerdane, on the border with Libya, since Monday, has risen to 46.



"The militants who were caught or died were all of Tunisian nationality", said government spokesman Khaled Chouket.



Yesterday night two militants surrendered to the police after they had been surrounded and a fourth amminution depot had been discovered.



There were other terrorism-related arrests in the town of Kairouan following the dismantlement of a 14 member sleeper cell in Gafsa, where the flight of one of the militants of the Ben Guerdane group was halted.



Monday's attack against Ben Guerdane was actually a failed attempt to conquer the town and establish a foothold for the caliphate by affiliates of the Islamic State.(ANSAmed).




VALLETTA - The migrant crisis, the fight against terrorism in Libya and bilateral relations between Italy and Malta will be at the forefront of talks taking place today in Valletta between Italian Foreign Minister, Paolo Gentiloni, his Maltese colleague, George Vella, Maltese President, Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Economy and Investments Minister, Christian Cardona and the President of the Parliamentary Comission on Foreign and European Affais, Luciano Busuttil. The Libyan crisis is very worrying for Malta due to its geographical proximity and the financial and economic interests involved. The terrorist threat is perceived as equally significant. The meetings will stress the need to dedicate the utmost attention to the southern flank of the Mediterranean also with regard to the Maltese presidency of the EU Council in the first semester of 2017.

Minister Gentiloni is expected to stress and reiterate the inclusivity of the Initiative of the Founding Countries and the commitment to celebrate the anniversary of the Treaty of Rome which will fall during the Maltese Presidency of the EU Council.


Libyan 'political dialogue' for unity gov't begins in Tunis Serray to arrive tomorrow. Neighboring countries to meet 21-22/3

(ANSAmed) - CAIRO/TUNIS, MARCH 10 - A meeting of a UN-backed committee for political dialogue began in Tunis on Thursday.



The stated aims are to strengthen the government and support the signing by about one hundred MPs from the Tobruk-based House of Representatives (HoR) of a confidence motion for the Libyan national unity government, according to a tweet by the news site Libya Alaan. The reference is to an attempt by UN special envoy to Libya Martin Kobler to get around the obstacle posed by the HoR, which for weeks has not managed to reach a quorum to pass a confidence vote on the government under prime minister-designate Fayez Al-Sarraj due to internal resistance. It is necessary to bring in a government for the international community to have a counterpart with which to agree on intervention against a growing Islamic State (ISIS) presence in Libya.



The prime minister of the UN-backed Libyan national unity government, Fayez Serraj, will be in the Tunisian capital on Friday for talks with Prime Minister Habib Essid and President, announced government spokesman Khaled Chouket. Libya's neighboring countries will be meeting on March 21-22 in Tunis. ''The resolution of the Libyan crisis, the security situation and the securing of the border between Tunisia and Libya, faced with a resurgence of terrorist operation and infiltration into Tunisian territory,'' were the focus of talks between Tunisian foreign minister Khemaies Khinauoi and Libyan prime minister-designate Serraj at the fifth Extraordinary Jakarta Islamic Summit in Indonesia on March 6-7, reported a foreign ministry statement. The statement added that Tunisia would actively support the Libyan national unity government deal with the situation in Libya if an agreement were reached between the parties involved in conflict in the country. (ANSAmed).




Migrants: Ankara, 'we'll take back thousands, not millions' 'Dozens of thousands at the most will be sent back to Turkey'

(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, MARCH 10 - The re-admission accord under discussion with the EU provides that the "number of migrants that will be sent back to Turkey will not be of millions'' but at the most "dozens of thousands", Ankara Minister Of Foreign and European Affairs Volkan Bozkir told Anadolu.



The Turkish minister clairified that Ankara will start to welcome back the refugees only when the ones already on European soil will have been relocated to the various countries.



The EU - he added - will not be able to "selectively choose" the refugees to welcome giving preference to skilled workers such as doctors or engineers.



"We will fulfil our obligations by May 10'' assured Bozkir, in order to obtain the liberalisation of visas for Turks in the Schengen area as of June.(ANSAmed).




Brussels - EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said Thursday the objective is to relocate 6,000 asylum seekers from Greece and Italy every month. The commissioner said he is "optimistic" the relocation programme can reach that rate although just 885 asylum seekers have been relocated since September. "If the relocation mechanism fails the entire system will collapse," Avramopoulos warned.

Migrants: key to humanitarian corridor in EU visa rules

A little-known article in 2009 EU visa regulations makes it possible to bring a thousand people fleeing war and desperation to Europe without letting them die at sea or having to make recourse to human traffickers. Article 25 is the basis for Italian project for humanitarian corridors, which has enabled 93 Syrians to be brought to Rome and will bring others. The case is unique in Europe. The article sets down how and when visas with a limited territorial validity can be granted for humanitarian reasons.

Since late 2014, the legal staff at the Federation of Evangelical Churches and the Comunita di Sant'Egidio have been working together on an idea to reduce migrant deaths at sea that came into being after 366 lost their lives on October 3, 2013. After many meetings, the regulation was found and an idea of linking it to the concept of vulnerability was born: to grant humanitarian visas to those fleeing conflict, unaccompanied minors, single women, victims of human trafficking and the disabled.

The proposal was approved by the Italian foreign and interior ministries, which deal with visa and asylum requests. A protocol was signed in December 2015. The migrants are selected on the basis of need and personal histories and identified through ID documents and fingerprints. A form of civil society sponsorship has also been created as part of the project, leading to travel and accommodation costs being covered by the Federation of Evangelical Churches and the Tavola Valdese thanks to the '8 per Mille' initiative for tax payers to donate a certain portion of their taxes to specific organizations (2.5 million euros have been earmarked in two years) and from the Comunita di Sant'Egidio through fund-raising and the '5 per Mille' initiative. A precedent for humanitarian corridors was the Arcobaleno mission in 1999, when the d'Alema government brought 5,000 refugees from Kosovo. (ANSAmed).
Announcing new routes for the Doha-based airline at the ITB show in Berlin, Al Baker said he was launching a daily flight to Atlanta  the home base of rivals Delta - in order to rub salt into the wounds of Delta.

Delta had joined airline giants American and United in calling for an investigation into Qatar, Emirates and Etihad over unfair subsidies.

But Al Bakers joke comment fell on stony ground in the States

The Partnership for Open and Fair Skies spokesperson Jill Zuckman said; Mr. Al Baker has made it crystal clear that the subsidies his airline receives from the government of Qatar allow him to fly routes for the sake of petty peevishness rather than rational, market-based reasoning. Of course, with $17.5 billion in subsidies, Mr. Al Baker can choose to fly anywhere, anytime  even if his flights lose money and make no economic sense.

The truth is, Qatar Airways is expanding at an inordinate rate because of the market-distorting buckets of cash it receives each year.



Al Baker on a previous US launch - Atlanta is June may be more challenging for the Qatar airline
The Finmeccanica Security and Information Systems Division will now provide Air Traffic Management/Air Traffic Control (ATM/ATC) systems for Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Malaysia. These three customers will join the list of more than 150 countries already using Finmeccanicas innovative, proprietary technological solutions based on efficiency, safety, performance and environmental sustainability.

Finmeccanica Security and Information Systems Division will provide the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) with a total of six ATC radar systems, control centres and communications, to be delivered by the end of 2017. In particular, three transportable ATC systems comprising primary and secondary radar subsystems, control and communication subsystem, and three fixed ATC systems including primary radar, secondary radar, and a control and communication centre will be supplied to the RSAF.

The Moroccan Airports Authority (ONDA) selected Finmeccanica to improve the countrys national air traffic control radar system. The contract will see the company supply six co-mounted Perimeter Surveillance Radars (PSR) and Monopulse Secondary Surveillance Radars (MSSR) in the South of the country and one additional PSR for the Oriental regions main hub. This deal makes Finmeccanica the largest supplier of radar sensors to Morocco, the African country with the largest number of ATC radars.
Spread across four continents, the new routes will further expand the reach of the airlines network, and will include the worlds longest flight, between Doha and Auckland, New Zealand.

Al Baker said: Qatar Airways prides itself on being a global connector, and most importantly, providing seamless and convenient connections for our customers, so that we remain their airline of choice. These new destinations are where our customers want to go, and where we see the most opportunity to provide a best-in-class experience at great value. We look forward to growing our network and welcoming new passengers to Qatar Airways.

Five new European destinations for Qatar Airways include:

The Italian city of Pisa, starting on 2 August with daily non-stop A320-family service from Doha, will be the fourth Italian destination for Qatar Airways, joining Venice, Rome and Milan.

Service to Sarajevo (Bosnia) will start on 7 September, with three flights per week on A320-family aircraft.

Daily non-stop flights from Doha to Helsinki (Finland) will start on 10 October, offering new connections between oneworld hubs. Three times weekly service between Doha and Skopje (Macedonia) in November. Both new cities will be served with A320-family aircraft.

Qatar Airways will return to Nice (France) by summer 2017, with five flights per week with wide-body aircraft.

Qatar Airways will begin services to six new destinations in Africa:

Marrakech (Morocco) will begin in July, three times per week, from Doha on the airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

Four flights per week between Doha and Windhoek (Namibia) will begin on 28 September.

Daily scheduled service to the Seychelles will resume on 12 December.

In January, Qatar Airways will offer three flights per week from Doha to Douala (Cameroon) and Libreville (Gabon) utilising one aircraft. Non-stop service, three times weekly from Doha to Lusaka (Zambia) will begin by summer 2017.

New Qatar Airways destinations in South West Pacific / Southeast Asia are:

Daily service to Auckland  Qatar Airways first route to New Zealand, and what will be the worlds longest flight  will begin on 3 December. Qatar Airways will use the Boeing 777 aircraft for this route.

Qatar Airways will begin four flights per week to Krabi (Thailand) on 6 December and three flights per week to Chiang Mai (Thailand) also in December, enhancing overall connectivity to Thailand through four gateways. Qatar Airways currently flies to Bangkok and Phuket.
Le CBD, cette molecule active du cannabis a aujourdhui le vent en poupe. Et cela est en grande partie du au fait quil permet...
2016 AFR/ANG Teen Summits Now Open

Air Force Services Activity Child and Youth Programs (AFSVA CYP) is pleased to announce the 2016 Air Force Reserve (AFR) and Air National Guard (ANG) Teen Leadership Summits! Each summit will allow teens the opportunity to explore and develop their leadership skills, build self-confidence and form lasting friendships.



The Classic Teen Leadership Summit is scheduled for Jul 17 - 22 in Dahlonega, Georgia. The Adventure Teen Leadership Summit is scheduled for Aug 9 - 14 in Estes Park, Colorado. Eligible applicants include teen dependents, 14-18 years old, of AFR and ANG members.



Interested teens must complete the electronic application form at http://georgia4h.org/AFRANGTeenSummit/

Completed forms are due no later than May 1. A panel of judges representing members of the AFR, ANG and AFSVA CYP staff will review the applications and make selections for these camps. Final selections will be announced no later than Jun 1.



AFSVA CYP is also accepting applications for adult chaperones with military affiliation to perform leadership duties and assist with camp oversight. AFSVA/SVPY will fund the adult chaperones' TDY costs. Interested adult chaperons must complete the Adult Leader Application Package located at http://georgia4h.org/AFRANGTeenSummit/

Adult chaperone packages are due no later than May 2.



If you have any questions, please contact my POCs, Ms. Payal Mehta @ DSN 969-7517, payal.mehta@us.af.mil or Ms. Penny Dale @ DSN 969 7251, penny.dale.1.ctr@us.af.mil.


Best Business Products and Services

Would you like to submit an article in the Business category or any of the sub-category below? Click here to submit your article.

Would you like to have your product or service listed on this page? Contact us.
Best Travel Products and Services

Would you like to submit an article in the Travel category or any of the sub-category below? Click here to submit your article.

Would you like to have your product or service listed on this page? Contact us.
Tom Schuch

On Saturday, March 12, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Albuquerque presents Einstein: A Stage Portrait, a one-man play that features the great scientisthere portrayed by local actor Tom Schuchbreaking the fourth wall to interact with a curious audience about his life and work.

The production celebrates Einstein's March 14 birthday as well as the 101st anniversary of his elucidation of the General Theory of Relativity. By turns humorous, introspective, informative and musical, the production focuses on Einstein's impact on culture by bringing an evocative semblance of the man's accomplishments to the fore through dramatic monologue and historically accurate, engaging demonstrations.

JCC Director Dave Simon said the play "brings Einstein to life and can also encourage young New Mexicans to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics." Advance tickets to this relatively enchanting evening range from $10-20; they'll cost between $12-25 the day of the show. In addition, at intermission, pieces of pie will be available for purchase in honor of Pi Day and a heady discussion featuring members of the local scientific community will follow the performance. Jewish Community Center  Sat Mar 12  7:30pm  $18-$20  13+  View on Alibi calendar
by Melani Manel Perera

A petition is circulating destined for President Sirisena. So far, some 50,000 people have signed on. For business executive, "Every Buddhist celebration is a holiday. Why shouldnt we participate in the Passion of the Lord? At present, Good Friday is a holiday only for banks and government offices.

Colombo (AsiaNews)  Many Sri Lankan Catholics want the Sri Lankan government to make Good Friday a statutory holiday so that anyone who wants can share in the activities organised by the Church to mark the Passion of Christ.

A lay association, the Divine Group of the Mystical Rose, is leading the way with a petition for Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena. So far, 50,000 people have signed it.

For some Catholics working in the private sector, Good Friday is a holy day for us and should also be a holiday; otherwise, we are busy the whole day and miss out on the celebrations.

Suranjith Fernando, a Colombo executive, agrees. "The government was quick to honour the memory of Mahanayake Thero, a high-ranking Buddhist monk, with a day of mourning.

The authorities also declared next Sunday another public day of mourning for the passing of the Venerable Galagama Sri Aththadassi Thero. For this reason, the government should make Good Friday a public holiday, and allow everyone to participate."

"Sure, we can ask for a day off, said Nuwanthi says Anne, a mother who works for a delivery company, but that's not the point. This day should be a holiday like the Poya* for Buddhists. The difference is that we are not asking for one day once a month, but once a year."

Catholics are not the only ones interested in celebration the Passion of Christ. Some Buddhists would like to take part as well.

Chathurika Gunasena, a young Buddhist woman who works as a secretary, said that many of her co-religionists like the representation of the Lords last hours. "For this reason, we agree with the request to have Good Friday set aside as a statutory holiday."

In Sri Lanka, Good Friday is a holiday only for banks and government offices.

* Poya is the Sri Lankan name for the Buddhist holiday of Uposatha, which occurs every full moon.
The central government asks for "no restrictions" to registration of citizens, but 13 million people live without documents and without access to public services. Greed of bureaucrats to blame, who have built up extortion system around family planning that nobody wants to do without. Lawyers critical: "A massive failure for the law."

Beijing (AsiaNews) - Seven-year-old Miao Miao has grown up invisible in her own country.

The second child of her family, her birth broke family planning rules that used to limit most families in China's cities to one baby. Youngsters in those cases are deprived of hukou, a government "household registration" document that allows people to receive public services, such as schooling and health care.

Even after the Communist Party declared an end to the one-child policy in October, families who broke the rules before the change still need to pay a hefty fine to register their children for hukou.

The fine, which the government calls a "social maintenance fee," is stout: three to six times a household's annual per capita income. The government has updated the name of the fee through the years. First it was called the "extra birth fee" when it was introduced in the 1980s. In 1994, the name was changed to the "unplanned birth fee." The current terminology was adopted in 2001.

The fine is so onerous that most families chose to never register their second children. A national census in 2010 showed that China had at least 13 million people without a hukou, like Miao Miao.

For a short while, families with unregistered children hoped things were changing for the better when on January 14 the State Council ordered local governments to register everyone.

The cabinet said that registering for a hukou is "a basic right of citizens" and said local governments are prohibited from imposing any conditions that would prevent households from registering.

But that actually changed very little. A proposed amendment to the Population and Family Planning Law that was released in December retained the fine for families who are "not in compliance with the law."

Yang Wenzhuang, a deputy-director at the National Health and Family Planning Commission, said during a State Council news conference on January 11 that the rules cannot just be dropped. The fine, as he put it, cannot be "flipped like a pancake."

The government should keep fine money that was collected before the one-child policy was abandoned, he said, and governments should continue to punish households in which more than the allowed number of children are born. (The limit for most families is two children.)

The amount of the fine varies in different places because local governments can set the amount. For example, a migrant worker from the southwestern city of Chongqing who asked that his name not be used said he would have to pay 40,000 yuan if he wanted to get a hukou for his second child. Five years ago, the figure was 20,000 yuan, he added.

However, he said that that in the southern province of Guangdong where he works parents pay only a small fraction of the fee: about 2 percent of the official amount.

Getting a hukou in the country's megacities is difficult. In December, the capital introduced plans for a scoring system that allows people lacking a hukou to get permanent resident status, but the system makes "complying with the city's family planning policies" a precondition for applicants.

A 38-year-old accountant said she and her oldest son got Beijing hukou as dependents of her husband in 2013, but the application for her younger son was rejected, meaning his hukou is valid only in the central province of Hunan, where he was born.

When the accountant heard the government was ending the one-child policy, she said she asked police in Beijing several times about switching her son's hukou to Beijing, but "the answer has always been 'no way,'" she said.

This is a problem because the day when the boy needs to enroll in elementary school is fast approaching. Beijing's education officials say youngsters like the accountant's young son can still go to school in the city, but the rules for how this is done are fuzzy.

The woman said colleagues told her that several schools will only enroll children without a local hukou if parents can show documents proving the child is theirs and that the social maintenance fee has been paid.

The accountant said she has neither of these papers. The family actually paid the social maintenance fee for the youngest boy in Hunan Province, but agreed not to take a receipt so the government would let them pay less.

Yang, the health commission official, once said at a press conference that the situation in the capital is "special" so the rules for getting a hukou are "slightly stricter" than elsewhere.

This view has been criticized by experts. Zhan Zhongle, a law professor at Peking University, said that opinion reflected "departmental protectionism and regional protectionism."

"This problem is rooted in a mindset that values bureaucracy and officialdom," he said. "There is no legal basis for such an argument."

Wu Youshui, a lawyer from the eastern province of Zhejiang who has voiced opposition to the one-child policy, said Beijing should not enjoy any special privileges and that the rules should be the same in every province.

Money Spinner

The social maintenance fee has become an important source of revenue for local family planning commissions, said a source who has worked in the government of the northwestern province of Gansu for more than three decades.

"If there were no barriers to obtain a hukou, then we'd have no way to collect money," the official said.

To encourage families to pay the fines, the family planning commission he works for has cut the penalty by up to one-fourth or even one-fifth, a discount that is common in many places.

Scholars and experts have criticized the legality of the social maintenance fee. Huang Wenzheng, a demographer at Johns Hopkins University in the United States, and Liang Jianzhang, an adjunct professor at Peking University's Guanghua School of Management, said keeping the fine in place even after the one-child policy was abandoned is a "gross failure" of the law.

"The only motivation for the family planning commission to carry on this policy is to protect its interests and maintain its existence," Huang and Liang wrote in an opinion piece published on Caixin's Chinese website.

But canceling the fee is "unfair to people who answered the country's call and obeyed the family planning policies," Song Shuli, spokesman for the national family planning commission, told The Beijing News in 2014.

Huang and Liang disagree, and point out that the fine hurts poor people more than the wealthy.

"Rich people can have more than one child as long as they pay the fine, but poor people have to lose their reproductive rights," they said. "How can we talk about fairness if families with different backgrounds are treated so differently?"

(This article appeared in Caixin, on February 22, 2016. Written by Sheng Menglu and Luo Ruiyao)
Indirect dialogue through mediation of UN envoy. The truce has enabled the delivery of humanitarian aid in many areas that were under siege. Still no help in Daraya and Douma, besieged by government forces, and Deir Ezzor, besieged by ISIS.

Geneva (AsiaNews) - A new series of peace talks for Syria will take place in Geneva from March 14 and will last no more than 10 days, until 24 March.

UN special envoy to Syria, Staffan De Mistura, said yesterday that the delegates will arrive in the coming days, in time for the opening of the session on the 14th. The UN envoy plans and hopes that, after March 24 there will be a pause before talks recommence.

The previous talks failed last month. On the other hand, a truce - agreed between the US and Russia and approved by the Security Council - seems to be holding in the country destroyed by a war that has lasted for nearly five years. The ceasefire does not include groups such as the Al Nusra Front, linked to al Qaeda and the militias of the Islamic State.

The next dialogue, as the previous ones, will be direct: each party will speak always and only with De Mistura, who will be the only mediator.

The Syrian government has already expressed its openness to dialogue; the opposition forces instead are take time, hoping to win the exclusion of Bashar Assad from any transition to peace.

Meanwhile, the ceasefire has enabled the delivery of humanitarian aid to residents and displaced persons in besieged or inaccessible areas. De Mistura said that in recent weeks 536 trucks have reached nearly 250 thousand people, of which 150 thousand in besieged areas.

But only 10 out of 18 areas under siege were reached. Those still unreachable include Daraya and Douma, besieged by government forces, and Deir Ezzor, besieged by ISIS. If the truce holds, by the end of April, it is hoped that aid will have reached other 870 thousand people in inaccessible areas.



The war in Syria, born in the wake of the Arab Spring, with the demand for democracy, has gradually inflated turning into civil war, on both regional and international levels, with the presence of jihadist militants for more than 80 Islamic countries and the massive participation of an international coalition led by the United States  formed to combat Isis, but in reality holding Assad in check- and the Russian air force that also fights Isis, but it is suspected of also targeting groups opposed to Assad.

In five years the war has cost more than 270 thousand lives, mostly civilians; nearly half of the Syrian population - 11 million - have fled abroad or are internally displaced.
by Jibran Khan

The woman, in prison on charges of blasphemy, is a target for Islamic radicals, who are clamoring for her death. The threats have increased since the hanging of Qadri, who murdered Bibis defender. Priest: "Let us pray and fast for her safety and that of all the other prisoners."

Rawalpindi (AsiaNews) - The Christian faithful have responded en mass to the call made yesterday by the Catholic Church, for prayers for Asia Bibi - a Christian woman in jail on charges of blasphemy - after renewed threats to her safety.

The prayers were held in Rawalpindi, but also in Jhelum, Lahore and Sialkot. Pakistans Supreme Court decision to execute Mumtaz Qadri  who murdered the Punjab governor, Salman Taseer,, who had defended Asia Bibi  has sparked massive protests by Muslim radicals demanding the hanging of Christian women.



Arrested June 19, 2009 and sentenced to death at first instance in November 2010, Asia Bibi has since been subjected to solitary confinement for security reasons. Supporters of Qadri, who meanwhile are building a monument in his memory, have put pressure on the government to carry out the womans death sentence.

Jhelum priest, Fr. Arshed John, took part in the time of prayer, "We fast and pray for Asia Bibi  he says - and for all others who are imprisoned, let us pray for their safety and for their release. Now our concern for her has increased, but we pray that tolerance and peace prevail in our country. "

The day of prayer called by the Church, said Fr. John, also has another reason: "Yesterday we commemorated the third anniversary of the brutal attack in which a crowd targeted at least 70 houses [of Christians], and the perpetrators of this act are still at large." The reference is to an accident that took place on March 9, 2013 in the Christian Joseph Colony, near Bah Badami (Lahore). Following accusations against a young Christian man of blasphemy, a group of Muslims set fire to the settlement, destroying houses and injuring 35 people.

Yesterday brought news of the release of Shahbaz Taseer, son of the assassinated governor, kidnapped in August 2011. The youth had been held at a hotel north of Quetta and was freed by the anti-terrorism squad thanks to a tip.

Rahim Ullah Yousaf Zai, journalist and expert on terrorism, provided further details on the release of Shahbaz. According Zai, Taseer was in the hands of the Islamic State, in a field near the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. After a Taliban attack, Taseer was taken by militiamen to Kuchlak, area near Quetta, where he was later released.
The arson attack took place early yesterday morning. The Grotto of Our Lady is part of the St Sebastian Church, but is located on a private property outside the building. The owner of the land, a Christian activist, filed a complaint. Since no valuables had been stolen, said the owner, we realised that the act was done only to offend our religious feelings. Meanwhile, parishioners set up private security.

Pune (AsiaNews)  Unknown thugs broke into the St Sebastian Church at dawn yesterday in Daund, a town some 80 km from Pune (Maharashtra), and set fire to the Bible, sacred books and religious sheet music in front of the Grotto of Our Lady Fatima.

Although police are on the case, the authorities have downplayed the seriousness of the incident; yet, the way the attack was carried out suggests a premeditated act against the towns Christian minority.

Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), spoke to AsiaNews about the attack. "The GCIC strongly condemns the desecration and burning of the Bible and other books, Mr George said.

Arson in front of the grotto is deplorable and is an act of sacrilege dictated by hatred. We ask the government to arrest the culprits immediately."

What is more, "Such incidents in the period of Lent create tensions and disturb the solemnity of the religious celebration, the Christian leader said.

Raymond Dias, a Christian activist, filed a complaint. The grotto is located on his property and was built by his father.

"My father installed a statue of the Virgin Mary, which is open to everyone, Mr Dias explained. It is located in a shed three-metre high. A plastic box that contains texts in different languages is in front of it."

When police came to investigate, he told them that he woke up early, "as he does every day," and saw smoke "coming from the grotto."

When he approached it, he noted that "someone had put some old clothes on the plastic box and set them the fire. There was a tulsi*plant in a clay pot and a bindi** on the glass container that holds the statue.

I went to call other people, he said, and we found that no valuables had been stolen. So we realised that the act was done only to offend our religious feelings. The statue has a silver crown and several other valuable items, but nothing was touched."

Police Superintendent Tanaji Chikhale registered a First Information Report (FIR) against person or persons unknown. Prime facie, we suspect mischief, he said. So far, we have no clues, but our team is analysing the CCTV cameras installed on adjacent buildings."

The superintendent also said that a committee of parishioners from Daunds 25 churches plans to adopt security measures to protect the grottos located in open spaces outside their churches.

Sajan K George fears that such a private initiative by the faithful might not be sufficient to curb the violence. For him, what happened in August of last year in Pimpri-Kalewadi, also in Maharashtra, illustrates the situation.

"Some right-wing elements disrupted a Pentecostal prayer gathering, beat up Christians and cut the churchs electrical wires, he said.

The next day, the pastor installed safety locks on the door, but an even larger group forced its way into the building and beat up the Christians present. The pastor filed a complaint and the third day police provided protection for the gathering." (NC)

*Tulsi is an aromatic basil that is used in Hindu rituals.

** A bindi is a red dot Hindu women wear in the centre of their forehead.
by Kamran Chaudhry

The provincial assembly is cracking down on violence against women. Under new legislation, husbands can be punished for their violence. However, the law has not yet been enacted. For a Catholic mother, husbands will have to be more careful because neighbours can call the police. For a Muslim widow, the law can only make matters worse. Our in-laws never forget.

Lahore (AsiaNews)  Pakistans main womens groups have expressed concern with the delay in the enactment of the Protection of Women against Violence Act passed by the Punjab Provincial Assembly last month.

"Domestic violence targets women of all faiths. But the problems of marginalised women from religious minorities are usually neglected, said lawyer and human rights activist Hina Jilani, a Muslim. Their situation is very worrisome," she added.

Ms Jilani spoke yesterday on the sidelines of a conference held at the Lahore Press Club for International Women's Day.

The Women Action Forum, the conference main organiser, as well as a number of Church-based women organisations have welcomed the new law.

The new legislation declares domestic violence an offence for the first time in Punjab, Pakistans most populous province, but it also criminalises abusive language, stalking and cybercrimes against women.

However, the Act has been with criticism from prominent religious leaders, who object to the punishment provisions, which involve installing a GPS tracker on violent husbands and even banishing them from home for 48 hours.

The Council of Islamic Ideology, a religious body that advises the government on the compatibility of laws with Islam, has already declared the women's protection bill as un-Islamic.

"Instead of being troubled by the new bill, both conservative politicians and clerics should avoid an insulting attitude and poking fun, Jilani said.

The Council members should also think of issues like poverty and stop deciding about the length of veils for women or approving child marriages. Besides, two provinces, led by Muslim legislators, have already passed better laws for women", she explained.

AsiaNews asked two women, one Catholic and one Muslim, to give their views about the law.

Based on their observations, they conclude that violence against women is not a problem that affects only husbands, but touches the whole of society.

Iram Sardar, a Catholic mother of two, said International Womens Day is necessary for women empowerment. Married ten years ago, she views the celebration as an event that makes us feel we exist. Now women can file a complaint, and husbands will have to be more careful because neighbours can call the police.

Conversely, Nargis Shabir, a Muslim widow, is more critical of the new law. Speaking to AsiaNews, she said that from what she read on posters, the law can harm our established family system. Going to police or to court can only make matters worse. Our in-laws never forget.
The Kerala-born priest served as chaplain to the Sisters of Mother Teresa, four of whom were killed in their convent. He was in mission to Yemen for four years. His uncle Matthew, a Salesian as well, founded the mission. Fr Tom chose to stay in the country, even though he had the opportunity to leave. Salesians have been present in Yemen since 1987 to provide outreach for the few local Catholics and the many migrant workers.

Rome (AsiaNews)  After nearly a week, there is still no news about the fate of Fr Tom Uzhunnalil (pictured). The Salesian priest was abducted by probable terrorists after the massacre of four sisters of Mother Teresa and 12 other people in Aden on 4 March.

Fr Francesco Cereda, Vicar of the Rector Major, spoke to AsiaNews about what is being done by the authorities of India and the clergymans home State of Kerala, as well as the Vatican, the Vicar of southern Arabia and the Indian Bishops' Conference to gather information and open negotiations with the kidnappers.

At the same time, Fr Cereda mentioned the flow of prayers from the Salesian community at large, because "everything is possible with God."

The Vicar of the Rector Major said that Fr Tom  who had to endure some violence recently (his church was torched)  chose to stay in the war-torn country to support the Missionaries of Charity and Catholic believers present in Yemen, mostly migrant workers from India, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia.

Fr. Tom, 56, was born in Ramapuram, near Pala (Kottayam, Kerala) into a deeply Catholic family. His uncle Matthew, who passed away last year, also a Salesian, is the founder of the mission in Yemen. Fr Tom has been in Yemen for the past four years.

Here is the interview the Vicar of the Rector Major gave us. (BC)

Fr Cereda, do you have any news about Fr Tom Uzhunnalil and his possible release?

So far, we have no news about Fr Toms fate. The Indian Foreign Minister, Sushma Swaraj, said that the government will do everything in its power to find Fr Tom, secure his release, and bring him back safe and sound.

Even the Chief Minister of the State of Kerala, Oommen Chandy, has offered every possible assistance. He is in frequent contact with the central government and the provincial of Bangalores Salesian community, which is Fr Toms own province. This is due to the fact that Fr Tom hails from Kerala.

The Indian Bishops' Conference, and Mgr Paul Hinder, the apostolic vicar of southern Arabia, are doing everything possible. They are in contact with the Vatican Secretariat of State, the Nunciature in Kuwait, and the government of the United Arab Emirates.

In addition to keeping all channels for possible negotiations open, there is also a movement of prayer among Salesians, the people of Aden, and all of you who show us solidarity. Our action is backed by the effectiveness of prayer because "everything is possible with God."

What do the Salesians do in Yemen?

We have been in that country since 1987. We have been present to provide sacramental and spiritual outreach to a large number of Catholic immigrants from India, the Philippines, and elsewhere who work in hospitals, hospices, and businesses.

In Sana'a, the capital, the Salesians also offer pastoral services to Catholic diplomats. We are the only priests in Yemen and have become a great support for the Missionary Sisters of Charity, who take care of the sick, senior citizens, and needy children in the cities of Sana'a, Aden, Al Hudaydah and Taiz.

The country's situation is not conducive to dialogue [with Muslims]. Thus, the Salesians stuck initially to offering their services to facilities run by nuns and to Catholic migrants, as well as to helping the locals in need. There are very few Yemeni Catholics: many have left the country or the faith.

Over the past year, the situation in Yemen has worsened because of the war. Why did you stay?

We were aware that the situation was getting worse by the day. The government of India called on its citizens to leave Yemen, closed its embassy in 2014 and brought home thousands of Indians.

The superior of the Salesian Province of Bangalore, which is entrusted with the mission in Yemen, discussed what to do with Mgr Hinder.

We understood that if everyone left, we would have been deprived of the only organised Catholic presence in Yemen. At the same time, we could not force anyone to stay. Thus, each individual was allowed to decide.

Out of five Salesians in the country, three decided to return to India. Two decided to remain to help in particular the Missionaries of Charity. The latter decided to remain, along with the few Catholics who work in their facilities.

The two priests who stayed, one of whom is Fr Tom, offered their pastoral service putting their own safety on the line, going from one community of the Sisters of Mother Teresa to the other.

What prospects do you see for the future?

Right now, we are concerned about solving the emergency situation and the fate of our brother, Fr Tom. We have not yet considered the prospects for the future.
A German court has ruled that the Facebook Like button infringes German and EU privacy laws by transferring data without the knowledge of consumers.



The Consumer Advice Organisation sued two e-commerce websites saying they had transferred data to Facebook without consent but using the Like buttons on their websites. Talks with two other companies still using the function are ongoing.



The group originally sent cease-and-desist orders over the data collection to six companies, two of which agreed to stop using it.



Now, the Dusseldorf court has ruled that companies will have to inform consumers that clicking the Like button may cause the IP address of the clicker to be transferred to Facebook, Sky News reported.



No one knows what Facebook does with the data, said Sabine Petri, lawyer for the consumer watchdog.



The Consumer Advice Organisation said Facebook installs bits of software on peoples computers that can be used to compile a profile of interests even if they dont have a Facebook account.



The verdict could have repercussions for companies across Germany, where Facebook is already facing a probe by the Federal Cartel Office, looking into possible abuse of user data and violation of data protection laws.


A Spanish judge is under fire after she asked a rape victim if she tried closing her legs to prevent an attack.



Now, she is the subject of a campaign to have her removed from the courts.



A feminist group supporting victims of gender crime, the Clara Campoamor Association, is calling for a full investigation into the judge after what they called offensive questioning.



The victim, who is four months pregnant, came before the court to request a restraining order against her alleged aggressor.



Did you close your legs and all your female organs? Judge Maria del Carmen Molina Mansilla, a magistrate in northern Spain asked.



A spokesperson from the association told reporters that after a horrible ordeal, the victim was forced to make a statement before a judge who showed disbelief in her testimony.



A clear example of this attitude is the judges repeated questions to the victim on whether she made any attempt to resist aggression including asking her 'did she close her legs firmly?' and 'did she close all of her female organs?', the association president told Europa Press.



According to The Local, the association said this is not the first time the judges behaviour has been called offensive.



Other women have lodged complaints about the re-victimization they experienced in this court...women are scared as to what might happen to them as victims in this court and it is de-incentivising them to report such crimes, the association said.



The Association is calling for an investigation into the judge.
Lawyers for Eminem and the NZ National Party were in court this week over an alleged copyright breach during the 2014 election, an allegation National has denied.



Eminem is suing the National Party for allegedly using his track Lose Yourself in its election campaign ads without permission, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.



The Party said it bought the track from an Australian music distributor Labrador.

National Party is seeking to have the dispute heard in two trials: the first to establish liability and, if Eminem wins, a second to determine damages.



On Wednesday, lawyer Greg Arthur representing National Party told the High Court in Wellington that he estimated the first trial could last two weeks.



But Eminems lawyers for company Eight Mile Style say that having two trials would go against the importance of having finality of litigation at trial, according to The Herald.



It doesn't involve complex calculation, it just involves an assessment of the relevant evidence, lawyer Garry Williams said.



Justice Brendan Brown didnt make a decision on proceedings in court this week, instead giving the two parties to March 23 to come up with a better resolution.



Campaign manager Steven Joyce told reporters he thought the song was pretty legal.



Eminem launched legal action against Apple back in 2004 for using one of his songs in a television commercial without his permission.


Eligibility requirements

Hi Markosoft,I am in a similar position to your, I submitted my PMV 300 application last week.If you read the Partner Migration booklet it states on page 31To be eligible for a Prospective Marriage visa, you must: be sponsored (see 'Sponsorship eligibility' on page 15); be aged 18 years or over when the application is lodged; be of the opposite sex to your intended spouse; have met your intended spouse in person since you both turned 18 years of age and know eachother personally. This must be the case even if:- it is an arranged marriage;- you and your sponsor met as children and the marriage was arranged; or- you met on the internet (exchanging photographs is not evidence of having met in person); have no impediment to marrying your intended spouse, that is:- you are both free to marry;- you are both of marriageable age; and- the intended marriage is able to be recognised under Australian law; genuinely intend to marry your intended spouse; genuinely intend to live with your intended spouse as husband and wife; and meet health and character requirements."so as long as you can provide evidence of the above I guess you should be ok.Photos of you together and proof of ongoing contact whilst apart, in the form of messenger screen prints, any emails, screen prints of conversation and video time logs of various dates over the last seven months I imagine should be ok. I hope so as that is what I provided.Page 32 states " evidence that you and your fiance(e) genuinely intend to live in a spouse relationship. The departmentknows that it is often difficult to provide evidence of your intention in the future to live with your fiance(e) in a spouse relationship. "So any evidence no mater how trivial will help to prove you intentions.
Hello,



I am hoping for some advice. Ive recently been made redundant at work but am looking to still sponsor my husband to move out here to Australia. Im currently in the US with him so once we return to Perth later in the year I will be "unemployed" but not receiving benefits.





Do you think I should secure a new job before applying for his visa or will it still be ok? My employment history is very good and I am confident I would get another job easily upon my return.



Your thoughts are appreciated.
Can I travel to Australia while waiting for Case# and Case Officer?



I'm in the US now looking at Partner (309) visa app online. Thinking I should do the offshore app because I want to get process started. But I currently have plan to travel to Australia on tourist visa May 5 -- that's 8 weeks from now. And plan to stay the 3 months in Australia.



Can I start the app offshore in USA, then continue with case#/case officer process when in Australia? Have any of you done this?



Or, is there part of the initial app questions where you tell them you plan to travel in the initial weeks while waiting for case# / officer?



I see tons of answers about travel and informing case officer while having an open case. I see no answers about traveling during the time period of after initial app is started and before a case# and case officer is given to someone.



Thanks so much.
Land Rover will reboot the Defender with a new, wide range, from a stripped-down variant to a premium off-roader.

For 68 years, the Defender held on to its working roots, becoming a British, and off-road icon. Finally, on January 29, 2016, the last Land Rover Defender, in its original form, rolled off the production line at the carmaker's Solihull plant in the UK.

However, the Defender badge has not been buried with the original iconic design. Land Rover announced that a new Defender family will be made available in 2019, and Defender concepts like the DC100 Concept were shown soon after. The radical difference between the original and the concept prompted us to ask Gerry McGovern, design director and chief creative officer at Land Rover about how the new Defender will be positioned.

The new Defender family, it seems, could have the widest span of all Land Rover families (the others being the Discovery and the Range Rover). It will retain its stripped-down and working class roots at the bottom of the spectrum, but will also transition to premium at the top. The design of the new range will continue to be iconic, but with a modern twist, while the wide span will ensure that the Defender, at least at the bottom end of the spectrum, will be affordable.

The looming question now is whether Land Rover will succeed in creating a new Defender family that retains its iconic design and charm, while simultaneously managing to provide contemporary comforts, reliability, performance and convenience.
CVT

Slated to go on sale on March 15, the more stylish counterpart of the 2016 Civic sedan is available in three powertrain configurations. The entry-level LX model comes with a 6-speed manual connected to a 2.0-liter i-VTEC four-cylinder with 158 horsepower and 138 lb-ft (187 Nm) of torque. Go for the $800 more costly LXand the fuel economy improves to 34 mpg (6.9 l/100 km) combined.LX-P, EX, EX-L, and Touring models come as standard with a turbocharged 1.5-liter engine mated to a continuously variable transmission. This combo fares better than the 2.0 i-VTEC with the CVT. Concretely, it does 35 mpg (6.7 l/100 km) on the combined cycle. Alloy wheels and automatic climate control are no-cost options regardless of model, which is a nice touch in the compact car segment.As the second model in our sportiest and most ambitious Civic lineup ever, the coupe sets the bar for performance, refinement and connectivity in the compact coupe segment, declared Jeff Conrad, the senior vice president and general manager of Honda North America. Both members of the 2016 model year Civic family are built for the U.S. market at the manufacturers plant in Ontario, Canada. The 2.0-liter naturally aspirated engine is also built in Ontario, Canada, while the 1.5 turbo mill and the CVT transmission are made in Ohio.Honda North America will add a third model to the lineup in calendar year 2017 after the Civic Hatchback launches in Europe. Previewed by a jaw-dropping concept car at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show, the all-new Honda Civic Hatchback will be built by Honda UK in Swindon.
kW

Youve heard that right. The pick of the bunch will be out of most peoples reach, but look at the size of the rear doors. Our spy photographers caught the 2018 Mercedes-Maybach E-Class testing in snowy Sweden and the dominant characteristic comes in the form of a longer wheelbase compared to the regular E-Class That said, the Maybach treatment has two more tricks up its sleeve. The first comes in the form of an ultra-luxurious cabin. A lot of money can be spent on the standard E-Class to turn the interior into an office on wheels, but the Maybach will bring more exclusive goodies. These include added sound deadening for a serene rear seat experience, high-quality wood and metal trim, as well as soft Nappa leather with Maybach crests embossed on the headrests.As for the second trick, the 2018 Mercedes-Maybach E-Class will get an array of gadgets tailored for the jet set. Look forward to a superior air filtration system, cup holders with Peltier technology for cooling or warming drinks, and a high-fidelity Burmester 3D surround sound system with tweeters that can twirl out from the rear door panels toward the passengers in a graceful spiral motion.On the powertrain front, the 2018 Mercedes-Maybach E-Class is expected to come with the engine from the range-topping E 400 4Matic. More specifically, a 6-cylinder twin-turbo with either 333 horsepower (245) and 480 Nm (354 lb-ft) or 367 horsepower (270 kW) and 520 Nm (383 lb-ft) of get-up-and-go to all four wheels. Either that or the 4.0-liter V8 in the upcoming E 500 model. Sorry, folks, but a 4-cylinder or a turbo diesel are not on this Maybach's agenda.
kW

We cannot help but reflect on the old Betamax-VHS war, and the HD DVD/BluRay war that followed. Eventually, one technology won, but the tech world still has a major format battle in the form of the charging ports used by the leading smartphone and tablet manufacturers.We started this story after we wrote about Volvos latest request aimed at competing carmakers . The Swedish brand wants all carmakers to agree upon a standard for charging battery-powered vehicles that would be used on the Globe in the same form.While researching for that story, we found out that there were four types of chargers as standard for battery-powered vehicles.This reminded us of the late 1990s and early 2000s, when each cell phone manufacturer had their charging ports, and almost each major manufacturer often changed the charger, voltage, and port standard.Thankfully, in the case of phones, USB became the norm as the output of the charger adaptor, while the cable that links the charger to the smartphone is still the subject of a cold war between Apple and the companies that sell smartphones with MicroUSB adapters.Returning to the matter at hand, the success or failure of battery-powered vehicles relies on the charging solutions developed and employed worldwide. However, how can someone operate a standard in a world thats so divided?As we wrote in the article concerning Volvos request on a standard for plug-in vehicles, we asked ourselves how could this be possible in our everybody has to be right, or he or she will be offended world.The two competing video recording and playback systems were not the first to market, but U-matic was. It rapidly died off because the U-matic was not user-friendly and wasnt affordable either. Sony invented this format, but the first consumer-grade video cassette recorder was a Philips VCR. Unfortunately, the VCR format also died because of reliability issues and the introduction of the VHS standard.Back in the mid-1970s, Sony presented the Beta format as its new proposition in the world of video cassette recorders. In spite of a later meeting in which they were introduced to the VHS format formed by JVC, they insisted on the Beta format, eventually marketed as Betamax, because of serious investments the Sony corporation made to develop it.Furthermore, Sony executives were advised to embrace VHS for the good of the industry, reports say, but the company decided against this. Sounds familiar? Well, this is happening today in the world of charging plugs for electric vehicles.In short, Betamax was not better than VHS, but Sonys excellent marketing made people think it provided superior quality. In the technologys defense, it did have lower video noise, a slightly higher horizontal resolution, and less luma/chroma crosstalk than VHS.Unfortunately for Sony and its Betamax, quality was not the only problem, as its cassette technology did not feature a recording time as long as the one VHS technology provided. The difference was enormous, as the first Betamax offered 60 minutes of recording time, while VHS could manage 120 minutes of recording.Eventually, Sony had to introduce a two-hour mode on its Beta tapes to compete with the VHS technology, and ended up reducing the horizontal resolution by ten lines to 240 (horizontal NTSC). At about the same time, VHS managed to raise the apparent resolution to 250 horizontal lines. Eventually, the user experience was virtually identical, and the difference was imperceptible on the common televisions of the time.Why are we mentioning this? Because user experience is often a more important factor in the success of a product, standard, or technology than performance, quality, or even price.VHS players were more affordable than their equivalent Betamax units, and users did not see the price difference between them as justified by the claimed superior quality. Betamaxs shorter recording time did factor in, so the video tape equivalent of range and charge time (to bring an analogy with electric vehicles) mattered more than their performance.So, the great VHS versus Betamax battle of the mid-1970s and late 1980s was eventually won by price, as customers chose the more affordable units and this forced Sony to build VHS devices. Sony finally won the video recording and playback war in the 1990s, when the Blu-Ray DVD was chosen over the HD DVD solution of their rivals.First of all, they could finally agree on a standard plug. It should feature both DC and AC, as well as a heavy-duty cable and ports to allow quick-charge capabilities. So, instead of developing advanced chargers that only work on their products, like Tesla and CHAdeMO currently do, it is in the automotive industrys best interest to agree on a single connector for electric vehicles that will be used on the entire Globe.Sure, a few egos will be hurt, but it is in the best interest of the customers, the electric car in general, and for the OEMs eventually, as they will be spared of the costs of developing and manufacturing dedicated charging ports for electric and plug-in vehicles.We can only hope that a solution to this problem will come shortly, and that it will be retrofittable to current charging networks. We are speaking of a universal charging plug that will be suitable for various quick-charge stations, and compatible with the existing and future plug-in cars.Is there a standard for this in the automotive industry? Yes, there is, and you use it every time you refuel your vehicle. So it is possible for automakers to settle on an issue like this, but they need help from the people in charge of infrastructure development.As we explained at the beginning of this story, four types of plugs for charging electric vehicles are currently on the mass-market today. There have been attempts to standardize this field from the beginning, but the Society of Automotive Engineers has managed to provide two separate standard plugs.We will start with the SAE J1772 connector, also called a Type 1 connector. This connector is standard for electric vehicles in the United States of America. It can be used with both 120V AC power and 240V AC power. The connector only goes into the car in one way, and has several safeguards to avoid electric shock in wet conditions. Most electric vehicle manufacturers initially adopted this connector, and it is still in use.However, the Society of Automotive Engineers has developed an alternative connector, called an SAE Combo. The new charger is supported by Volvo and seven other carmakers, including Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler, GM, and Volkswagen. Unlike the Type 1 connector, the SAE Combo has extra pins inside to support quick-charge functions. It can work with up to 450 volts, 200Amps, and up to 90. That would be enough even for a Tesla.Meanwhile, Tesla Motors has its proprietary connectors. The plug on the vehicle has a design that supports an adaptor, so the cars made by Tesla can be charged by a regular charging station for electric vehicles, but Teslas proprietary plug only works with the Tesla Supercharger.Tesla did not develop their Supercharger system from scratch, as they modified a Type 2 plug to have longer conductor pins and to support a deeper insertion, which allows greater current to enable quick-charging. Teslas charger works with AC and DC, but its plug does not have extra DC pins, because the direct current can flow through the alternative current pins.Tesla does sell an adaptor that works with Type 1 systems in the US, but most customers tend to use the Supercharger network instead. Other adaptors for Tesla models are in discussion, so that the clients can charge their vehicles from different systems, depending on the market.The Type 2 plug for electric cars was developed by Mennekes with Germanys VDE, and became the standard for the latter. The ACEA (European Association of Automobile Manufacturers) decided to use the Type 2 connector in the European Union.However, this specification will not be the norm for long, as carmakers and various industry bodies want to develop a charging network based on an evolution of the Type 2 socket, which will support a joint output of three-phase 400V at 16 Amps.Another solution, called the Type 3 was proposed by electrical companies in France and Italy. The proposed system is a three-phase setup that works at 32 Amps and has its own connector. Authorities in Europe want to phase out the Type 1 connector because it does not support three-phase charging, but they are still considering between the Type 2 and the Type 3 connector.The fourth connector is the CHAdeMO solution, developed for quick charging stations and made by the association with the same name. It includes several Japanese carmakers, like Nissan, Mitsubishi, Fuji Heavy Industries (Subaru), and Toyota.The CHAdeMO chargers have been installed in Japan, Europe, and the USA, but not all plug-in vehicles have adapters that work with this solution. Cars fitted with this plug are sold with adapters to match other systems.Well, while the Type 1 connector is widespread, and the Type 2 is popular in Europe right now, the SAE Combo seems to bring the best compromise, as it features AC and DC pins inside. The latter is a request of the Chinese automotive industry, whose electric vehicles get quick-charge capabilities using DC power.In the end, the auto business will find a way to make adaptors which will give electric car users more charging options, but not all systems are compatible. However, it will not be practical for a user to have several adaptors in their vehicle, so a common standard will be required shortly to enable more charging options and a shared infrastructure for battery-powered cars.
EV

Moto Corsa Limited will be the official Energica importer in the UK. The Italian manufacturer doesn't specify which bikes will be sold in the UK, but we suspect that both Ego and its naked version Energica Eva will be crossing the English Channel.We also took a peek at Moto Corsa's website and saw that they also sell MV Agusta, Norton and, believe it or not, Hesketh. No sign of any Energica at the time of writing, but we reckon it won't take long until such info arrives.Likewise, there's no word on the price of the Energica bikes in the UK. In Europe, the Ego retails for 25,000 Euro + taxes, whereas getting one in the US is a $34,000 + taxes affair. A quick google search yielded that the Energica Ego might sell for just north of 19,000 GBP plus on-the-road taxes, but the final figure is yet to be found out.Seeing Energica making a move in the UK is not a surprise, considering that the country has a plan for major investments in reducing the emissions by 2020.No less than 600 million GBP (773 mil or $853 mil) are to be invested in sustainability by 2020, with the cities of Bristol, London, Milton Keynes and Nottingham being only the first four to be included in the Go Ultra Low Cities project that is parts of the long-term economic plan. Important sums will be directed to promoting electric mobility, and this means there is money to be made there.Even more, themarket in the UK is on the rise, with the number of electric vehicles registered per month jumping from 500 in 2014 to 2,500 in 2015, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). The number of charging stations is also expected to grow continuously, "from a few hundred in 2011 to more than 9,500 in December 2015," as Energica says.After Energica made a successful IPO earlier this year and the company moved their headquarters in the Modena region. Grouping the R&D department and the manufacturing and distribution under the same roof, Energica aims to raise production to 244 units this year and to double it in 2017.
Some, though, have invested more than just a thought in this idea, with two companies currently making all the headlines, while SpaceX is also doing its best to support the project. One of these two enterprises is called Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) and, unlike its main competitor, Hyperloop Technologies Inc. (HTI), it is crowdsourcing all of its labor and physical resources.Traveling all over the world in search of governments willing to support its project has been part of HTT's plan to gain the upper hand, and it may have found the perfect partner in one of the ex-communist central-European countries.Slovakia is trying to build a new image for its nation, and it has chosen technology as its means of doing it. The local government is willing to invest in projects that will put Slovakia on the world's technological map, and being the first country to host a Hyperloop track would do just that.HTT CEO, Dirk Alhborn, is understandably happy about the deal, even though it is yet unclear exactly what has been agreed upon. In any case, two routes have been nominated for now that would link Slovakia's capital, Bratislava, to its counterparts from two of the neighboring countries: Vienna in Austria and Budapest in Hungary.Given the shorter distances in Europe, the trip from Bratislava to Vienna would take just 8 minutes, and provided the whole procedure of embarking would be considerably less tedious than at an airport, the Hyperloop could prove to be the closest thing to teleportation we have right now.The day Hyperloop becomes a reality is still a distant one, though. The companies involved are all planning to begin testing this year, but that doesn't give any kind of assurances. It could still prove to be too cost-ineffective or too unsafe for public usage. On the other hand, even if Hyperloop were to become nothing more than a modern, gigantic version of the pneumatic tube, transporting only goods from one place to another at great speeds, it could provide a pretty significant change in the way the world goes.Whatever will happen, the fact that European countries are joining in on the Hyperloop craze can only be a positive sign. This thing can only work if everybody's on board. But rest assured, if it proves to be successful, once the first segment is done and people start popping up from one place to another, all countries will jump in. The important thing now are this year's tests, and we're pretty excited to see how that goes.
However, since both are labeled as hypercars, an mph battle between the two was inevitable. In fact, we've previously shown you what happens when an Agera R and a Porsche 918 Spyder are set free on the German Autobahn's no-speed-limit zones.The time has now come to take the fight to the track. Under the two machines, we find Germany's Papenburg Oval, one of the top test tracks the auto industry has ever seen. We're dealing with 75 miles (121 km) of asphalt dedicated to putting cars through their paces, whether we're talking about velocity behemoths such as the ones we have here or your average family car.The duel (helmet tip to GTBoard for the clip) sees the pair of hypercars engaging in multiple rolling start battles, with the races kicking off at 31 mph (50 km/h) and ending north of 200 mph (320 km/h).We'll remind you the Agera R's twin-turbo V8 delivers 1,140 hp and 800 lb-ft (1,200 Nm), while having 3,164 lbs (1,435 kg) to carry around. As for the 918 Spyder, its 3,602 lbs (1,634 kg) are handled by a mix comprised of a naturally aspirated 4.6-liter V8 and a pair of electric motors, with the combined output sitting at 887 hp and lb-ft 885 (1,085 Nm).Nowadays, you can't just throw a 12-minute video at the audience and expect everybody to have the time for it. So, those of you who are in a hurry should check out the "schedule" of the races included in the footage: First Race: 2:00 5:30 (Head Cam) 7:58 8:36 (From Agera R) Second Race: 3:35 7:08 (Head Cam) 9:40 10:36 (From Agera R).
The last Ken Block movie was pretty cool, as the maestro took his supped-up Fiesta to Dubai and raced some supercars. He also danced in a circle of absurdly cool police cars. However, us regular folks know that stopping entire neighborhoods and asking the sheikhs to lend us their tigers is not something we should aspire to. But we can dream of one day owning an excellent example of the Ferrari 488 GTB with tires that deserve to be destroyed.The clip's title, "Joyride Circuit," hints that the Ferrari gets driven like it's been stolen. Our mystery driver gets the red key in an envelope slipped under the door together with access keys to the garage. As the violin music kicks in yo', the bright yellow 488 GTB finds its way on sideways on the track, flies past the guard's post and runs rampant on the empty city streets.Even simple things like blipping the throttle on the upshift and shooting some exhaust flames are about as exciting as a Star Wars dogfight.The clip was shot in Barcelona, Spain, where performance driver Rhys Millen pushed it to 160 mph through the tunnels. "My first experience behind the wheel of this car is just like "wow," this car has so much power; so much torque; pushing 670 horsepower out of this twin-turbo V8," says Millen, a well-known drifter.Pennzoil Platinum Euro with PurePlus Technology is the only motor oil recommended by Ferrari North America to provide complete protection and excellent performance for their high-tech, cutting-edge racing and street engines. If it's good enough for Ferrari, it's good enough for anybody!
EV

The Swedish manufacturer is a member of the Charging Interface Initiative and proposed the Combined Charging System as the norm for plug-in vehicles.The CCI is a consortium of stakeholders that includes several car brands and specialized suppliers and which has introduced a combo plug for electric vehicles in 2012. The Combined Charging System supported by Volvo includes both DC wires and AC connectors, so the electric car and its charging plug would work across the Globe without any issue.The CC System was first unveiled in October 2011 in Baden-Baden, at the 15th International Congress of the Association of German Engineers. Seven car makers had agreed to the proposed system by the middle of 2012, with the brands that decided to use the new connector being Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Porsche, and Volkswagen.Furthermore, the same seven carmakers have agreed upon the HomePlug GreenPHY communication protocol for the plug designed for battery-powered vehicles. The standard is intended for use in the smart electric grid, and was initially designed for smart home appliances, but was deemed appropriate for use in plug-in vehicles.However, this communication protocol and the plug proposition contradict proposals from Japan and China, which suggested a CAN Bus solution, and a separate DC connector, respectively. More importantly, none of the carmakers in the two countries agreed upon the Combined Charging System at the time.As Volvo points out, the proliferation of electric vehicles and the elimination of range anxiety will only happen when Governments, carmakers, and suppliers arrange adequatecharging networks across all markets.So far, four types of connectors have been used for charging plug-in vehicles sold to the public. Without any particular order, we will start with the IEC 62196 Type 2, which is used on the European Tesla Model S. The second charger is the SAE J1772 connector, used in North America and Japan, and found on Nissan Leaf and other models like the defunct GM EV1. The third system is the CHAdeMO JARI Level 3 DC charger, developed in cooperation with Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Subaru. Last but not least is the Combined Charging System suggested by Volvo for use as an international standard.In case you have hoped for a revolution of the electric vehicle, or, at least, an extensive introduction of plug-in hybrids, we have bad news for you.Smartphone makers still haven't agreed upon the same type of charger, and it gets even worse, as electric appliances themselves do not have the same kind of plug because of different standards of electrical networks.This incompatibility should not come as a surprise to anyone, as the world still has not agreed upon measuring units for temperature, distance, and mass. We are thankful that humans have the same standard for the measurement of time, though. Unfortunately, that does not go for calendars, as some countries rely on other systems.
TDI

Horn joined the German manufacturer in 1990 and held positions such as head of sales for Europe and global head of sales at Volkswagen. Upon his departure, the 54-year-old auto exec has been praised by Herbert Dies, the CEO of the Volkswagen brand.During his time in the U.S., Michael Horn built up a strong relationship with our national dealer body and showed exemplary leadership during difficult times for the brand, declared Dies.It isnt known where Horn will go now, though the company says he will pursue other opportunities. My opinion is that Michael Horn called it quits because the Dieselgate scandal continues to burden Volkswagen in North America. Volkswagen has yet to come to an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department on repairs or buybacks for the 580,000 affected diesel vehicles.Truth be told, theres no such thing as an immediate resolution to the Dieselgate fiasco. Its mismanaged in Germany, the home of Volkswagen, and it is even more mismanaged in the United States. A change in upper management spells more mismanagement in my book. As if the situation werent gloomy enough for the German company, the California Air Resources Board believes Volkswagen might not be able to offer a compliant fix for its 2.0turbo diesel engines.District Court Judge Charles Breyer has given Volkswagen Group of America until March 24 to propose a fix. Theres no information on what is going to happen if Volkswagen misses the deadline. For the similarly faulty 3.0 TDI V6 engines, the company is working closely with U.S. regulators to evaluate a possible repair.
The FAA cant mandate lower safety criteria for cargo operators than for passenger airlines based solely on cost, representatives for UPS pilots argued in court this week. Lawyers for the Independent Pilots Association told the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., that the FAAs rule governing flight crew duty and rest requirements, finalized in December 2011, should not have excluded all-cargo operations. The FAAs decision to exclude all-cargo operators  represents a significant departure from more than seven decades of agency practice, the lawyers argue in their brief. Historically, flightcrew member duty and rest rules did not distinguish between cargo and passenger operations.

The FAA said in its final rule it had removed all-cargo operations from the [rule] because their compliance costs significantly exceed the quantified societal benefits.The IPA also argued that the FAA should not be allowed to use its cost-benefit analysis as grounds to exclude cargo operations from the safety mandates ordered by Congress. In issuing the duty and rest rules, the agency found that the cost to cargo carriers would amount to about $452 million with about $10 million in benefits. In 2014, pilots groups including the Air Line Pilots Association questioned the FAAs decision to use this analysis in excluding cargo operations, but the agency affirmed its decision to let its final rule stand.
Armenia firmly supports the position of Russia on the Syrian issue, the countrys President Serzh Sarkisian stated at talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday.

During their meeting the two leaders reportedly discussed key issues of Russian-Armenian cooperation, prospects of integration processes in the Eurasian space and the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement.

Both expressed satisfaction with the successful development of Armenian-Russian relations, with Putin defining them as strategic partnership.

Armenia is a key military and political ally of Russia in the South Caucasus. It hosts a Russian military base and is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Moscow-led defense pact of six post-Soviet nations.

In early 2015 Armenia also joined the Eurasian Economic Union, which besides Russia also includes Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

Putin and Sarkisian dwelled on the fact that Armenia currently holds the rotating presidency in the CSTO. It is this organization that is responsible for security issues, for fighting terrorism and organized crime and for calm on our borders, Putin emphasized in remarks reported by the Kremlin press service as well as Sarkisians official website.

Sarkisian, for his part, said that Armenia, as the currently presiding country, pays great attention to the implementation of the decisions made at the September and December summits of the CSTO.

We are, of course, concerned over the situation in the regions adjacent to the zone of CSTO responsibility. Like I said during the December session [of the CSTO] and in my other speeches, I once again openly declare that we firmly support Russia in the Syrian issue. And, of course, we welcome the agreement that you have reached with the United States on the cessation of hostilities [in Syria], which may become a key to the political solution to the problem, the Armenian president stated.

Sarkisian also thanked Putin for Russian efforts on finding a solution to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. We remain committed to a peaceful resolution of this conflict, he emphasized.

Along with the United States and France, Russia is a key international peace broker in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in which the settlement process has stalled recently, with both sides accusing each other of hampering progress.

Despite its mediatory role, Russia has supplied both Armenia and Azerbaijan with weapons. In late February, a Russian Foreign Ministry representative said that in doing so Russia, however, was careful to maintain a balance of forces in the region.

During todays meeting with Putin, Sarkisian spoke about full mutual understanding in the political, economic, military-technical and humanitarian spheres. These relations are developing very well, he said.

Putin, on his part, said: Of course, there are also problems of objective nature, I mean first of all our economic cooperation, even though here we understand that on the whole we can be satisfied with how we have built the basis of our relations. I have no doubts that basing on our joint decisions of previous years we will be developing [our relations] also in this direction.

The price of natural gas that Armenia receives from Russia is one of the issues on the economic agenda of the two countries. In January, Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian said Armenia had asked Russia to cut the price of natural gas delivered to the country and hoped for a positive response.

Gazprom, which supplies at least 80 percent of Armenias gas, already lowered the price from $190 to $165 per thousand cubic meters for Yerevan in 2015.

In February, Abrahamian publicly pressed Armenias Russian-owned gas distribution network to help his government convince Russia to further cut the gas price, but Armenian officials did not report any progress on the matter since.

At todays session the Armenian government, however, gave its consent to the price of gas at $165 for the first quarter of 2016. The short-term agreement on this account was also expected to be approved by Putin and Sarkisian during their meeting in Moscow. But neither the press office of the Armenian president or the press office of the Russian head of state specifically reported on discussions regarding the gas price issue.

Earlier on Thursday, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, who was on the delegation headed by President Sarkisian, held a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov to discuss cooperation between the two countries foreign policy departments.

According to the Armenian Foreign Ministrys press service, the two diplomats exchanged views on current international and regional issues.

At the end of the meeting, Nalbandian and Lavrov signed a plan of consultations between their ministries for 2016-2017. The plan envisages about three dozen consultations in the next couple of years on international and regional issues, issues of information provision, consular and other matters.
10 March 2016 17:51 (UTC+04:00)

By Nazrin Gadimova

Yerevan has taken the next provocative attempt towards Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijans western neighbor, Armenia presented an unrecognized state created in the occupied Azerbaijani territories at the International Tourism Exhibition, which is underway in Berlin.

Spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry, Hikmet Hajiyev said Azerbaijans embassy in Germany together with the exhibitions organizers is taking measures to remove this stand exposition.

This is not the first time when Armenia is trying to represent the self-proclaimed state at the international events.

Hajiyev added that in 2009, Yerevan also attempted to represent unrecognized regime established in the occupied Nagorno Karabakh region at the ITB Berlin, but this attempt failed.

This year, participation of the separatist regime with an individual pavilion at the ITB exhibition is being effectively suppressed thanks to the proactive measures taken by the Azerbaijani Embassy in Germany, he emphasized.

Hajiyev said that this time, a certain organization deceived the organizing committee of the exhibition by registering under a different name. At the opening day of the event, a poster with the Karabakh inscription appeared in the pavilion of this organization. Thus, the unrecognized regime once again demonstrated its criminal nature.

In close contact with the organizers of the exhibition, Azerbaijans embassy in Germany is taking measures on removing this stand at the moment, he added.

Hajiyev believes that Armenia is trying to maintain an unrecognized regime and to strengthen consequences of the occupation through abusing the opportunities of tourism sphere.

Following the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, structures functioning in the sphere of tourism, as well as tourists themselves should respect the laws of the country they are visiting. Moreover, they should not be engaged in any activity that could be considered a crime under the laws of this country, the official said.

Hajiyev noted that Azerbaijan urges all countries, businesses and individuals operating in the tourism sector to prevent attempts of promoting unrecognized regime created that Armenia created in the Azerbaijani lands through aggression and bloody ethnic cleansing.

As a result of conflict that evolved in 1988, Armenia created an unrecognized regime at the occupied territory of neighboring Azerbaijan. Armenia controls over Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions that make up 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory for over 24 years, using the resources of these rich lands.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly accused Armenia of carrying out illegal economic and other activities in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, counteracting the international law. Armenia uses the Nagorno-Karabakh as a testing ground for terrorist activities, as well as for drug trafficking. Moreover, companies from more than 20 countries illegally operate in Azerbaijans occupied territories.

--

Nazrin Gadimova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @NazrinGadimova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
10 March 2016 09:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Gulgiz Dadashova

Most economies response to challenges they are facing  low oil prices, economic slowdown and currency depreciation  leaves the impression that many have no way-out rather than sit and wait for better days.

Fortunately, Azerbaijan has the means to address this economic problem, if it is able to summon local entrepreneurs and state support to non-oil sector.

Like most oil exporting states, this Caspian state was not shielded from the impact of low oil prices, but this could be a boom in diversifying the countrys economy and reforming its public finances.

When the country is focused on the development of non-oil economy, the power generation remains the very field of industry prioritized by the state. Amid the forecast on increasing demand for energy, Azerbaijan is keen to boost its energy exports to regional states targeting mostly European consumers.

The country enjoys a strong power generation capacity, but renewable energy might become a plausible solution to increase the generation capacity.

Currently, Azerbaijan uses hydroelectric, wind and solar power plants, as well as biogas installations. The country only needs to increase renewable energy production from solar, wind, etc, which depends on many factors, including financing.

Azerbaijan is an attractive country for foreign investors due to its positive rating, a continuous supply of foreign currency from its energy resources, as well as for its infrastructure and export potential.

But the main point for investors to come and incest in the country is the commercial feasibility, i.e. the fact whether the invested money will generate income or be unprofitable.

The volatility in crude markets has underlined the need for assessing the risks of fossil fuel-based projects against the risks of renewable energy-based projects (raw material costs are essentially zero, but unpredictability of weather can pose a long-term risk).

Deputy Head of the State Agency on Alternative and Renewable Energy Sources Jamil Malikov believes profitability in the field of electricity and thermal energy can be ensured only through the tariffs, which will be profitable.

Today energy production in Azerbaijan is carried out mainly by state-owned enterprises. Fees, which are now formed in this area, need to be attractive for private capital to engage in production and sale of electricity, Malikov said.

Everything must be done to ensure that alternative energy has developed rapidly. Because, on the one hand, this will solve environmental problems, on the other hand, it will allow to save hydrocarbon resources - oil, gas, etc, he told Day.Az.

Azerbaijan is a sunny country and enjoys 250-300 sunny days a year. So the development of solar technology, the use of solar energy for its conversion into heat and electricity is the priority in this area.

To this end, the state launched appropriate technological institutes, factories that produce the necessary number of solar panels and collectors.

Wind occupies the second for its generation capacity due to its territorial limitations. If the sun energy can be used throughout the country, the wind as a renewable energy source is available only near the Absheron peninsula and the Caspian Sea (mainly in the northern part).

The country currently is working on development of an offshore wind farm, taking into account the fact that the northern part of Azerbaijan's Caspian Sea is shallower and of little use for navigation.

Having built overpass in the area, we could actually increase the capacity of wind turbines in the sea, and the generated electricity could be exported to Iran, Turkey, Russia, Georgia, Malikov said, noting that offshore wind can bring more profits than on land.

The third option for increasing the countrys power generation volumes is, of course, hydropower.

Today, the main power generation capacities are involved in the Kura and Araz rivers. However, Malikov believes, there is still possibility of using small hydropower plants on mountain rivers.

Construction of hydroelectric power is a costly project, since it is necessary to build them up in the mountains. It is necessary to create the appropriate conditions - construction of roads and communication lines, providing the station with the necessary equipment, transmission and distribution of electricity. This option is a kind of reserve and forward-looking, he said.

The agency also eyes development of bioenergy, mainly building of small biogas plants near the farms.

First of all, we receive energy, and secondly we will resolve the issue of utilization of animal waste that disrupt the environment, spoil ground water and the atmosphere. Slush and biomass left after the process of manufacturing biogas are also a good fertilizer, which can be used in agriculture, he said.

As for the prospects for developing geothermal energy in the country, Malikov pointed to tremendous resources to use the heat of the earth.

But this energy is more needed to produce heat rather than to produce electricity. We believe that it is better to use geothermal energy for heating residential buildings, greenhouses and hothouses, he added.

To date, the countrys generating capacity is assessed at the level of 7,635 MW, of which the used capacity is about 5,000 MW. Of these, 1,255 MW accounts for hydroelectric, wind, solar and bio-energy plants, that is, their share is currently about 25 percent.

In 2015, Azerbaijan produced some 24.7 million kilowatt / hours of electricity, while the country's electricity consumption amounted to 19.7 million kilowatt / hours. The country exported some 260.6 million kilowatt / hours of electricity, while imported some 107.4 million kilowatt / hours in 2015.

The Energy Ministry plans to commission new facilities with a capacity of 2,800 MW by 2020.

Currently, the State Agency on Alternative and Renewable Energy Sources is engaged in the development of appropriate legislative and regulatory framework, tariff policy and drawing financial support from the budget and international development banks, such as KFW, EBRD and ADB.

In late 2015, Paris hosted a conference on climate change, which ended with signing of a historic deal. The agreement commits countries to try to keep global temperature rises well below 2C, the level that is likely to herald the worst effects of climate change, and requires developed countries to continue a goal of mobilising $100 billion finance for developing countries each year after 2020.

Now energy-rich Azerbaijan has a unique chance to draw cheap long-term loans and grants from international financial institutions to develop renewable energy in the country.

--

Follow Gulgiz Dadashova on Twitter: @GulgizD

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
10 March 2016 10:32 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijan`s First Lady, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva met with Italian Ambassador to the country Giampaolo Cutillo on March 9, Azertac state news agency reported.

Mehriban Aliyeva praised successful cooperation between Azerbaijan and Italy in all fields, particularly in political, economic and energy areas.

I am happy that humanitarian relations between the two countries develop as well, Mehriban Aliyeva added.

The first lady highlighted a series of events held in Italy on the initiative and with support of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation.

The president of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation said the aim of these events was to promote the Italian public`s awareness of Azerbaijan`s realities.

Mehriban Aliyeva said the Italian society praised such events, adding that the work would be continued on this front.

Later, Mehriban Aliyeva met with Bulgarian Ambassador Maya Hristova.

Mehriban Aliyeva applauded the current level of cooperation between Azerbaijan and Bulgaria, and highlighted the projects aimed at deepening this collaboration.

She said Azerbaijan and Bulgaria have historically been close to each other.

The first lady praised relations between the heads of state and government and also between the two nations.

Mehriban Aliyeva hailed the ambassador`s role in this cooperation, saying that in partnership with the embassy, the Heydar Aliyev Foundation carried out the reconstruction work in Trapezitsa Architectural Museum Reserve in the city of Veliko-Tyrnovo, Bulgaria.

Mehriban Aliyeva highlighted the agreement on the conservation and restoration of Trapezitsa Architectural Museum Reserve and construction and repair of its technical infrastructure.

The ambassador thanked for the project implemented by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation in Bulgaria. She hailed relations between the two countries.

The Heydar Aliyev Foundation chaired by Mehriban Aliyeva aims to support socio-economic and humanitarian development within the country and abroad. Charity is one of the key priorities in the activities of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation. The Heydar Aliyev Foundation also places special emphasis on the mutual enrichment of various cultures and civilizations, the expansion of dialogue among nations, and the preservation of the traditions of tolerance.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
10 March 2016 16:25 (UTC+04:00)

By Nazrin Gadimova

The 4th Global Baku Forum titled Towards a Multipolar World has started its work on March 10.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva and Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Leyla Aliyeva are taking part in the forum.

Addressing the event, President Aliyev congratulated and welcomed the guests of the forum.

"First of all, I'd like to welcome you all to Azerbaijan, I am very glad that Baku Global Forum becomes a good tradition," the head of the state said.

He further thanked Nizami Ganjavi International Centers board and co-chairs, including Vaira Vike-Freiberga and Ismail Serageldin for transforming the center into a world-scale international institution in a very short period.

Ilham Aliyev noted that the forum will discuss broad issues of international agenda.

"The topics of discussions are very important to all of us, the whole mankind," the president added. "I am sure that the guests at the forum will contribute valuable thoughts to the cause of peace, security, predictability in the world."

President Aliyev believes that every international forum and its level mainly depend on the list of its participants, heads of states and governments, prominent politicians, public figures and experts.

"Therefore, this shows the level of discussions that we will have today and tomorrow," he said.

"Since we met last spring, the situation in the world has changed, unfortunately not in positive direction," the president said.

He added that the world didn't become safer and more secure, while the conflicts remain unresolved.

"Our main role is to play our part as countries, governments, politicians, to try to reduce tensions, create grounds for cooperation, mutual understanding, mutual respect," he said. "Otherwise, the situation in the future will continue to deteriorate."

Among the troubling issues, President Aliyev named the situation in the Middle East, situation in parts of Europe, refugee crisis - all the realities of the recent years.

The president said that one of the main objectives of the Fourth Global Baku Forum is to address these issues, especially taking into account the level of participants and their contribution to the world affairs, their experience, and knowledge, and that may help to find a way out of the existing situation.

"We are all united in one objective - to promote mutual cooperation, mutual understanding," said the president."We are all interrelated."

"Sometimes it may seem that what we see on TV, the dangerous events happening in different parts of the world, one may think this is happening on another planet, but it is just the next door. The refugee crisis showed that we're all interrelated."

Azerbaijani president said that every action, every step, every interference in other countries' affairs may result in difficulties for those, who interfere.

"That, I think, is the main lesson of today's reality. We all need to respect each other, respect our choice, territorial integrity, our plans for the future, we all need to interact, because the main goal is to reduce tensions and diminish the existing threats."

Independence and Nagorno Karabakh conflict

The president further said that this year Azerbaijan will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its independence.

"During the early years of independence, we've suffered from civil war, humanitarian crisis, occupation, aggression, economic difficulties, actually an economic collapse," he said. "Azerbaijan became a target of terrorist attacks. Armenian terrorist organizations committed numerous acts of terror in the 1990s against civilians. And the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan unfortunately is not resolved."

He went on to add that though Azerbaijan achieved some success during the early years of independence, and today is developing as a modern, stable, predictable, self-sufficient country, the conflict still needs to be resolved.

"The conflict needs to be resolved in order to allow a million of Azerbaijani refugees to return to their homeland, stop violence and establish peace in our region, because without it, all the countries will suffer," Ilham Aliyev said.

The president noted that Armenia, which continues to illegally occupy historic and legal part of Azerbaijan, didn't benefit from the occupation as the country continues to suffer from economic difficulties, isolation, migration, poverty - all of that is because of aggression and occupation of Azerbaijan's lands.

"Nagorno Karabakh is a historic, legal part of Azerbaijan," said President Aliyev. "The international community recognizes Nagorno Karabakh as Azerbaijan's integral part. As a result of the conflict, one million of Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced persons, became subjected to ethnic cleansing. The occupation of almost 20 percent of our territory continues."

The president reminded that International organizations, in particular the UN and its Security Council, adopted numerous resolutions, demanding unconditional and immediate withdrawal of Armenian troops from the territory of Azerbaijan, however these resolutions are not implemented.

Ilham Aliyev further suggested that the mechanism of implementation of these resolutions should be a topic of discussions.

"In some cases, the resolutions of the UN Security Council are implemented within hours or days, in our case - it's more than 20 years," he said. "That shows the lack of political will, especially of those countries that have adopted these resolutions."

Ilham Aliyev said today the negotiating process continues without any success and the main reason for that is because Armenia doesn't want peace.

"They want to keep the occupied territories under illegal control, they want to keep the status quo unchanged, but this cannot remain this way," he said. "The countries chairing the negotiation process, the three permanent members of the UN Security Council, in numerous occasions, publicly spoke about that."

"They said that status quo is unacceptable, and must be changed," he said. "To change the status quo, Armenia needs to leave the occupied territories, and stop occupation."

The president said that in the 21st century it is absolutely abnormal from all points of view, political, legal, humanitarian, to illegally occupy the territory of a neighboring country and block the negotiation process.

"I think that to resolve the conflict, first, Azerbaijan needs to become stronger and this is already happening and second, the international community, especially those who are obliged to have a mandate to deal with this conflict, must show political will and force the aggressor to stop the occupation, like we see in many other places around the world where the aggressor is stopped, punished, sanctioned and forced to stop the aggression."

Azerbaijani president reminded that Azerbaijan's historic heritage has been destroyed on the occupied territories.

"The OSCE twice sent the fact-finding and field assessment missions to the occupied territories and they reflected the real situation there. All our historic monuments, mosques are destroyed," he said.

"Today we see TV reports on destruction of historic monuments in the Middle East. Twenty years ago the same was happening on the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, but at that time the international community and media didn't pay attention, or didn't have access to that information, but it is the same story, the same approach," Ilham Aliyev said.

The president added that the existing situation is dangerous for the future, peace and security in the region, since if the aggressor is not punished, it will plan something else.

The development of Azerbaijan

Despite difficulties, which included the humanitarian crisis that Azerbaijan has faced in the early 1990s, the country is successfully developing, said Ilham Aliyev.

"We had the highest figure of refugees per capita at the time," he said. "One million of people became refugees and internally displaced on their own land -- at that time the population of Azerbaijan was something more than 8 million. So we know how to deal with the humanitarian crisis."

He recalled that at the time Azerbaijan was different from today's Azerbaijan, it was a very poor country, a newly independent state, the economy was ruined, the industry was collapsed, and there were no prospects for the future.

"Our main goal was to establish the state, to create strong economy, to open the country for foreign investments, and to become part of the world market economy," he said. "And that happened."

"Today the country is stable. We continue our political and economic reforms that go in the country in parallel. All the fundamental freedoms are provided, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, religious freedom, media freedom, we have free internet, and more than 70 percent of our people are internet users."

The president noted that in Azerbaijan political freedom is supported by economic reforms.

"Since 2004 and up to 2014, Azerbaijan's economy was the fastest growing in the world," he said. "We managed to dramatically reduce poverty and unemployment down to 5 percent. Economy became competitive, and according to the Davos Economic Forum, Azerbaijan's economy ranks 40th in terms of competitiveness."

President Aliyev said that Azerbaijan implemented many infrastructure projects, including social infrastructure projects to improve the living standards of people and at the same time create better conditions for investments.

"We were among the countries that received, per capita, one of the biggest direct foreign investments, primarily in the oil and gas sector," he said. "Now our goal is to attract investors in the non-oil sector."

"Reduction of dependence on oil and gas was part of our reforms. And today as a result of our reforms, oil and gas sector makes up for something more than 30 percent of our GDP and about a half of our budget revenues. So the target is to completely reduce the dependence on oil and gas."

The president went on to add that for Azerbaijan, the post-oil period has already started, and not because of reduction of production, but due to the collapse of the oil price.

"This is an absolutely new situation, no country in the world was prepared for that, no one could imagine the fall of oil price would be so dramatic. And it happened within one year," he said. "So we had to work very actively, very efficiently, to reduce negative impacts of this, and now our financial situation is again stable, predictable, and our budget is based on the price of oil of $25 per barrel - a kind of guarantee from any kind of economic complications."

President Ilham Aliyev noted that Azerbaijan has substantial amount of reserves in the Sovereign Wealth Fund and that allows the country to get of the situation with minimum risk.

"At the same time, this situation forces us to be more efficient with our reforms. The big package of reforms, which has already been introduced, by the way, is supported by the International Monetary Fund. So we are on the right track," Ilham Aliyev said.

Diversifying economy, building transportation networks

President Aliyev further said that today Azerbaijan is mainly dealing with diversification of economy, finding new areas of economic development.

"One of them, which we've worked on for many years, is new for international community -- it is transportation infrastructure. We are building transportation network, which will allow Azerbaijan in the future to have a strong position in the region. Geographic position is very preferable, so investments in transportation infrastructure, including railroads, airports, a seaport, allow us to be a crossroad transportation infrastructure," the president said.

He added that the East-West transportation corridor has already started to work.

"Hopefully this year we will finalize the connection of railroads between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, thus Europe and Asia will have new, shortest transportation route," he said.

President Aliyev further said that the first container train from China to Europe already passed through Azerbaijan, so this is a new Silk Road with a modern infrastructure.

"We made a proposal to our partners to have single transportation tariffs to make this route attractive," he said.

The president added that another transportation route, on which Azerbaijan has been actively working with neighbors and partners, is the North-South transportation route.

"It will allow cargoes to be transported from Pakistan, India, Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia to Northern Europe. Azerbaijan is investing in the modern infrastructure and hopefully soon this route will be in operation," President Aliyev said. "So, all these routes cross our territory, and this increases geopolitical importance of our country, generates additional revenue that we will use for development in the future."

The two-day event brought together seven incumbent presidents, 27 former presidents, one vice-president, 23 former prime ministers, a lot of incumbent and former officials, heads of authoritative international organizations, famous politicians and experts.

Heads of states and governments, prominent public and political figures, authoritative experts will hold discussions and exchange of views on various topics, including international security; regional threats; serious consequences of global economic challenges; climate change and energy policy: role of oil-producing countries; multiculturalism; interreligious dialogue and mutual integration.

The conflicts on ethnic, religious and political grounds, global challenges in the democratic development, education, and environment will also be the topics of the upcoming forum.

Moreover, heads of state and governments will participate and deliver speech in the opening of session Global challenges of modern world.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
9 March 2016 23:02 (UTC+04:00)

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has met with President of the Republic of Montenegro Filip Vujanovic.

Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic expressed his satisfaction with the development of strong and high-level friendly relations between the two countries, and thanked President Aliyev for supporting the development of the bilateral ties.

Recalling President Aliyevs and his own visits, as well as their meetings, Filip Vujanovic noted that these trips created the basis for the future development of the bilateral relations.

Noting that there are good opportunities for expanding the economic cooperation, Filip Vujanovic stressed the importance of many agreements signed between the two countries. President Filip Vujanovic hailed Azerbaijani State Oil Companys investment in his country, adding that Montenegro is interested in cooperation with SOCAR.

Saying his country attaches great importance to participation in the Southern Gas Corridor project, the Montenegrin president noted the significance of this project in developing cooperation among continents and regions. Filip Vujanovic added that this project is the project of the century in the true sense of the word.

The head of state expressed satisfaction with the establishment of friendly ties between the two countries, and stressed the importance of high-level reciprocal visits in terms of strengthening these relations.

The president said the decisions, which were adopted as part of the trips, were successfully executed. President Ilham Aliyev noted that the work continues to expand the bilateral cooperation in a variety of fields, including investment making.

Noting that the Southern Gas Corridor project has already become a reality, the head of state lauded the active participation of the Montenegrin delegation in the second meeting of the projects Advisory Council, recently held in Baku, and underlined the significance of the Joint Declaration signed by delegations of 11 countries, as well as the European Commission as part of the meeting.

The parties noted that the 4th Global Baku Forum turned into an international discussion place, adding that the interest in the event has increased.

The presidents expressed confidence that the forum will create good opportunities for discussing ongoing developments in the world and the region.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
10 March 2016 10:23 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijan and Iran have explored ways of developing the bilateral cooperation between law enforcement bodies as Interior Minister Ramil Usubov met with commander of the Iranian Border Guard Qasem Rezaee.

Usubov underlined that after the restoration of Azerbaijan`s independence national leader Heydar Aliyev laid the foundations of fraternal relations between the two countries. These ties are today being expanded thanks to the heads of state.

He recalled President Ilham Aliyev`s recent visit to Iran, and added that the negotiations and the documents signed renewed the relations, bringing them to a level of strategic partnership.

The Minister stressed that such meetings opened ample opportunities for combining efforts towards fighting against transnational organized crime and international terrorism.

Rezaee hailed stability in Azerbaijan. He said high-level reciprocal visits and bilateral documents were in the best interests of the two fraternal countries and their nations, which share similar culture and historic roots.

Iranian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Mohsun Pakayin was also present at the meeting, Azertac state news agency reported.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
10 March 2016 11:30 (UTC+04:00)

Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Transformation of NATO, general Mirco Zuliani has visited the base of Azerbaijani Naval Forces, Azerbaijans Defense Ministry reported on March 9.

The general was informed about the history, structure, activity of the base, and functions of warships.

He also visited a camp of the peacekeeping forces of the Azerbaijani armed forces.

Azerbaijan is a very important and highly valued partner of the North-Atlantic Alliance. NATO and Azerbaijan actively cooperate on democratic, institutional and defense reforms, and have developed practical cooperation in many other areas.

Azerbaijan aspires to achieve Euro-Atlantic standards and get closer to Euro-Atlantic institutions. In this regard, supporting the security sector reform and establishing democratic institutions are the key elements of the NATO-Azerbaijan cooperation.

The Azerbaijan-NATO cooperation is carried out within the "Partnership for Peace" program. Earlier, NATO adopted a document of the fourth stage of the Individual Partnership Action Plan for 2015-2016.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
10 March 2016 13:54 (UTC+04:00)

By Nazrin Gadimova

Peace and freedom face serious challenges today.

Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev made this statement at the 4th Global Baku Forum that is underway in Baku.

We witness the worst security situations since the Second World War, he said.

Plevneliev further emphasized the importance of the issue of national borders and the principles of international law.

We witness much more complicated international systems where world and international institutions and powers are not available to prevent and solve conflicts in a sustainable way. We in Europe understand what happens in Syria, Iran and Afghanistan. This directly affects our lives, he added.

"The world is out of balance today, and a new balance has to be found," the Bulgarian president concluded.

The two-day forum titled Towards a Multipolar World started its work on March 10 and brought together seven incumbent presidents, 27 former presidents, one vice-president, 23 former prime ministers, a lot of incumbent and former officials, heads of authoritative international organizations, famous politicians and experts.

The IV Global Baku Forum is a great initiative to bring together the international community, share expertise and build consensus on how best to respond to the major challenges facing the world today, UK Prime Minister David Cameron said in his letter sent to the Forum participants.

Over the last 24 years the UK and Azerbaijan have established close friendly and mutually beneficial relations on a broad range of issues, he said. In addition to a long standing energy ties and flourishing trade relationship we worked together closely on security issues. We hope to continue to deepen and strengthen our cooperation in all of these areas and all of these global challenges require global responses, the congratulatory letter reads.

Intercultural dialogue has never been so vital, than in this time of turbulence, a message by UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova read March 10 at the opening session of the IV Global Baku Forum titled Towards a Multipolar World.

I would like to thank President Aliyev for his long commitment to promoting cultural dialogue, the message read. We see this involved in the Baku process launched in 2011.

Opportunities are vast for exchange but a need for dialogue has never been so high, read the message. Today, as never, we must strengthen the values that humanity holds in common, and recognize the destiny we all share.

Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili, who addressed the event, also believes that the IV Global Baku Forum is a very important forum.

I strongly believe that the values and the issues that we discussed here should be discussed exactly in the spirit of great poets, like Nizami Ganjavi, he said.

This is the spirit and the environment that we have to establish and we have to improve and have to increase in our countries and the world around us, he said.

The world faces more than ever the need for a dialogue, understanding and cooperation in order to face and overcome the common challenges and threats, Albanian President Bujar Nishani said in Baku March 10.

Therefore I appreciate the holding and organizing this forum, he said. I would like to express gratitude for the warm and friendly hospitality that is being offered to us by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

He said that the topics of the forum are being elaborated and discussed in a timely manner and at the crucial moment for regional and global developments.

Addressing the event, Latvias former president Vaira Vike-Freiberga said the world is changing demanding to find new original and creative ways of applying the difficulties of today and Baku seems an appropriate place to do this.

Viktor Zubkov, Chair of the Russian Gazproms Board of Directors and the former prime minister of Russia said it is necessary to increase the efficiency of the international organizations activity in the settlement of conflicts in the world.

He made the statement in the interview in the sidelines of the forum.



Of course, this should be done at such forums as the Global Baku Forum, Zubkov said, adding that experts must work out specific suggestions by further submitting them to the international organizations.

He further highlighted the good organizing level and compositions of the delegations taking part in the Global Baku Forum.

Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau said that the Global Baku Forum is a very good opportunity to create a dialogue between nations and peoples.

Trudeau made the remark in a video message at the opening session of the forum.

International cooperation certainly needs to be promoted, Trudeau added.

Seven incumbent presidents, 27 former presidents, one vice-president, 23 former prime ministers, a lot of incumbent and former officials, heads of authoritative international organizations, famous politicians and experts take part in the forum.

--

Nazrin Gadimova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @NazrinGadimova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
10 March 2016 14:35 (UTC+04:00)

Fighting terrorism was discussed during the panel on The State of the World Today and what we need for tomorrow to tackle most pressing issues held as part of the 4th Global Baku Forum on March 10.

Georgias President Giorgi Margvelashvili, Albanias President Bujar Nishani, Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov, Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic and Israels former prime minister Ehud Barak participated in the discussions.

Addressing the event, Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic said that all challenges of the modern world require a global response.

All necessary measures should be taken to ensure peace and stability, said Vujanovic.

He noted that such energy projects as the Southern Gas Corridor, TANAP and TAP will contribute to stability in the region.

They can be rightfully called the projects of the century, Montenegros president added.

The panel discussions focused on fighting terrorism, especially the threat posed by the Islamic State (IS aka ISIS, ISIL or Daesh) terrorist group and counteracting this threat.

The 4th Global Baku Forum titled Towards a Multipolar World kicked off March 10.

The Forum has been organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center in partnership with the Interaction Council, the Club of Madrid, Library of Alexandria, the Club of Rome and World Academy of Science and Culture.

Over 300 delegates from 53 countries attend the forum.

The two-day forum will focus on topical issues such as the role of interreligious dialogue in conflict prevention, migration, multiculturalism, integration and global security. The forum's agenda also includes prospects for energy and global management issues.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
10 March 2016 19:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Nazrin Gadimova

Azerbaijan, the largest nation of the South Caucasus, has been recognized as the most secure and stable country among Eastern Europe and the CIS countries for the number of committed crimes.

The Cabinet of Ministers made the statement in its report on activities in 2015.

Following the document, Azerbaijan ranked first among secure and stable countries given the fact that only 277 crimes fall on every 100,000 people in the country.

The country has achieved positive results in the fight against crime within the last year, as well as has made concrete steps in ensuring the rights and freedoms of citizens and protection of their interests, the report noted.

In recent years, the Azerbaijani government has adopted a range of measures in its legislation to eliminate violence against women in the country, including a law to combat domestic violence.

Moreover, the strategical situation in the country was under control, the Cabinet of Ministers reported.

During the last year, different internal affairs agencies and internal troops ensured public safety, while country carried out 585 events, including 517 international activities.

According to the statistics, the number of crimes committed by juveniles reduced by 2.4 percent, while the number of road accidents dropped by 15.7 percent, deaths rate in the road accidents by 20.5 and injured by 15.4 percent.

The number of solved crimes also grew as a result of the investigative and operational activities. The number of targeted killings, for example, rose by 9 percent, and targeted killing attempts by 7.5 percent.

A total of 344 crimes were revealed as a result of collaboration with prosecutor offices in 2015.

Over the past ten years, Azerbaijan's average number of crimes per 100.000 people was 231, which is one of the lowest rates compared with other countries. This makes Azerbaijan one of the most stable countries, where public safety is ensured at a high level.

--

Nazrin Gadimova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @NazrinGadimova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
11 March 2016 10:02 (UTC+04:00)

The 4th Global Baku Forum entitled "Towards a Multipolar World" kicked off in Baku on March 10, with participation of President Ilham Aliyev and his spouse Mehriban Aliyeva.

The two-day forum with an important international topics on agenda brought together seven incumbent presidents, 27 former presidents, one vice-president, 23 former prime ministers, a lot of incumbent and former officials, heads of authoritative international organizations, famous politicians and experts.

Following the Forum, President Ilham Aliyev held several meetings with the high-level guests of the event.

The President first received former President of Poland Bronisaw Komorowski. The importance of the Global Baku Forum organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center was emphasized at the meeting.

The sides noted that the excellently organized event was playing a growing role in expanding cooperation between countries. They described the forum as a very good opportunity for world-renowned politicians and influential experts to discuss latest international developments.

President Aliyev also met with President of Bulgaria Rosen Plevneliev, who is attending the 4th Global Baku Forum.

The sides hailed the current level of the bilateral relations and their rapid development in recent years. They emphasized the fact that the bilateral ties reached the level of strategic partnership.

Opportunities for cooperation in investment making, energy, pharmaceutics and other areas were discussed at the meeting. The development of Azerbaijan-European Union relations was hailed, and the Bulgarian president expressed his country`s readiness to make its contribution to the expansion of these ties.

The importance of the 4th Global Baku Forum was underlined, and the presidents said the event created a good opportunity for conducting fruitful discussion. It was noted that the issues on the agenda of the forum were topical and important in terms of the expansion of international cooperation.

Later, President Aliyev received former Foreign Minister of Israel Tzipi Livni.

The sides stressed the excellent organization of the 4th Global Baku Forum held by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center. They noted that the forum has already become traditional and that the international interest in the event increases year by year.

During the conversation, the sides underlined that the holding of such forums was of great importance in discussing international issues.

President Aliyev also met with President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili on the sidelines of the Forum.

The successful development of the relations between the two countries in different areas was stressed at the meeting.

They said the execution of the agreements reached and decisions adopted during high-level meetings contributed to the strengthening of the bilateral ties. The presidents emphasized the significance of global projects implemented by the two countries in terms of the expansion of the regional cooperation. They said friendship and good neighborly relations between Azerbaijan and Georgia had ancient history and traditions. The sides pointed to good opportunities for further enhancing strategic friendly ties.

President Margvelashvili said he was impressed by development processes in Azerbaijan.

The sides noted the excellent organization of the Global Baku Forum held by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center. It was noted that the forum created a good opportunity for discussing international and regional issues.

The sides also stressed the importance of the event in terms of the development of cooperation between countries.

On the same day, President Aliyev received member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mladen Ivanic.

Ivanic recalled his previous visits to Azerbaijan, participation in the opening ceremony of the first European Games in Baku and meetings with President Aliyev. Expressing his satisfaction with the participation in the 4th Global Baku Forum, he said currently all world countries face completely new challenges, adding the event created a good opportunity for discussing these issues.

Recalling his meetings with Mladen Ivanic, the head of state described these visits as a good sign of the bilateral cooperation. Saying the international importance of the 4th Global Baku Forum increases every year, President Aliyev stressed the significance of the event in terms of discussing a number of issues of common interest.

The sides exchanged views over the issues related to the cooperation between the two countries in a number of fields.

Further, President Aliyev has met with President of the Republic of Macedonia Gjorge Ivanov.

It was noted that President Ivanov`s visit to Azerbaijan created a good opportunity for discussing the bilateral ties between the two countries.

The sides hailed an important role of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, and noted that the 4th Global Baku Forum has already become a globally important event. The presidents underlined that the program of the forum covers a wide range of areas, adding it was important in terms of discussing political, economic, energy, security and other issues in the forefront of global attention.

They also exchanged views over the current state and prospects of friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries in variety of fields, including energy sector.

President Aliyev also met with President of the Republic of Albania Bujar Nishani.

Saying the 4th Global Baku Forum has already become a big international event, the head of state expressed his satisfaction with the fact that the number of influential guests participating in the event increases.

Expressing his gratitude to President Aliyev for inviting him to the 4th Global Baku Forum, the Albanian President stressed that the event, where representatives of various countries came together, created a good opportunity for discussing a number of important issues facing the world countries. Touching upon the close friendly and partnership relations between the two countries, Bujar Nishani said there were good opportunities for strengthening the cooperation in all areas. Bujar Nishani personally thanked President Aliyev for supporting the development of the bilateral relations and for his friendly attitude to his country. He noted that Albania was interested in developing ties with Azerbaijan.

Noting there are similarities in the history of Albania and Azerbaijan, Bujar Nishani underlined the significance of the two countries` joint activity towards addressing a number of important issues.

Emphasizing that Azerbaijan achieved rapid growth within a short space of time, the Albanian President said it could be an example for the region and other countries. Bujar Nishani hailed President Ilham Aliyev`s supporting a number of important projects, including TAP. The Albanian leader said this project was of vital importance not only for participating countries, but also for entire Europe, Azertac state news agency reported

President Aliyev was interviewed by Euronews channel following the official opening of the fourth Global Baku Forum.

On the same day, a dinner reception was hosted on behalf of President Aliyev in honor of participants of the 4th Global Baku Forum.

The reception was attended by President Aliyev, his wife Mehriban Aliyeva and daughter Leyla Aliyeva, as well as presidents of Bulgaria, Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, former heads of state and government of several countries, world-renowned public and political figures, experts and specialists.

Addressing the event, former President of Latvia, co-chair of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center Vaira Vike-Freiberga thanked President Aliyev for creating excellent conditions to discuss current global issues and for his strong support for international dialogue.

She pointed to the fact that First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva supported the activities of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center. Hailing the importance of the forum, which is held for the fourth time, the former Latvian President expressed her hope that it would continue to be held.

Expressing his gratitude for the warm words about Azerbaijan, President Aliyev recalled his visits to Latvia during Vaira Vike-Freiberga's years of presidency, and her visits to Azerbaijan.

The head of state noted that the Global Baku Forum was attended by representatives of a number of countries, prominent figures, current and former presidents, people who played and continue to play an important role in international relations. Aliyev said the Nizami Ganjavi International Center has become one of the world`s most respected international organizations, which engages in addressing the issues of global importance.

"We are delighted that the center is named after Azerbaijan's great son Nizami Ganjavi. Every Azerbaijani is proud of him," said President Ilham Aliyev. The head of state added that the center fulfills an important mission of conveying Nizami Ganjavi's views to the people in different parts of the world.

Hailing the discussions held as part of the forum as fruitful, the President noted that only through joint efforts we can eliminate the threats existing in the world.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
10 March 2016 15:30 (UTC+04:00)

Creating relations and cooperation between countries and cultures is of great importance, Norways former prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland told Trend on the sidelines of the 4th Global Baku Forum on March 10.

Brundtland expressed satisfaction that Baku has become a center for creating such cooperation.

She noted that the 4th Global Baku Forum is global cooperation that covers the whole world.

Declaring 2016 the Year of Multiculturalism in Azerbaijan is of great importance, said Norways former prime minister.

The multicultural world creates great opportunities for the future generations, she said.

Brundtland congratulated Azerbaijan with putting forward such an initiative that will contribute to promoting such multicultural world which is very important.

The 4th Global Baku Forum titled Towards a Multipolar World kicked off March 10.

The Forum has been organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center in partnership with the Interaction Council, the Club of Madrid, Library of Alexandria, the Club of Rome and World Academy of Science and Culture.

Over 300 delegates from 53 countries attend the forum.

The two-day forum will focus on topical issues such as the role of interreligious dialogue in conflict prevention, migration, multiculturalism, integration and global security. The forum's agenda also includes prospects for energy and global management issues.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
10 March 2016 17:14 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijan, which is currently a developed country integrating into the world, has one problem  the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Turkeys former foreign minister Hikmet Cetin told reporters in Baku, March 10.

Settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will benefit not only Azerbaijan, but the entire region, according to Cetin.

I believe that this conflict can be resolved through peaceful means, said Turkeys former minister, adding that Azerbaijan also wants to resolve the conflict peacefully.

I hope that the major world powers, the UN will make necessary efforts to resolve this conflict, Cetin said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
10 March 2016 18:05 (UTC+04:00)

The IV Global Baku Forum is an important international event, which brought together a lot of representatives of governments and international institutions, Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri, director general of the Islamic Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), told reporters in Baku on March 10.

They all have gathered in the beautiful Baku to discuss cooperation on the most important issues, said Altwaijri adding, I am glad to be a part of this society, whose main objective is becoming a dialogue on joint efforts to ensure security.

International community should pay more attention to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the withdrawal of Armenian occupation troops from Azerbaijans territories, to facilitate the return of refugees to their lands, he added.

ISESCOs position remains unchanged: the organization will support justice and call for immediately withdrawing Armenian occupation troops from Azerbaijans territories and end the occupation, noted Altwaijri.

The IV Global Baku Forum, organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, is held in cooperation with InterAction Council, Club of Madrid, Library of Alexandria, Club of Rome, and World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS).

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.



The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
10 March 2016 12:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Nazrin Gadimova

Azerbaijans low-orbit satellite Azersky will bring more than $200 million in revenue within the next 12 years.

The Cabinet of Ministers noted this in a report to be discussed by the Azerbaijani Parliament on March 15.

Azersky was transferred to Azerbaijan based on an agreement signed between Azerbaijan's satellite operator Azercosmos and the French Airbus Defence and Space.

The satellite allows to survey the 6-million square kilometers of Earth's surface daily. In fact, it means that Azerbaijans territory is being monitored every day.

The report also noted that Azercosmos signed a loan agreement worth 132 million euros with the Japanese Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Mizuho Bank in 2015 get funds for the purchase of a terrestrial station to control AzerSky.

Meanwhile, the launch of Azerspace-2, the countrys second telecommunication satellite will cost $63 million, which is cheaper by $30 million, the report reads.

Designed to provide digital broadcasting, Internet access, data transmission and creation of VSAT multi-service networks, Azerspace-2 is scheduled to be launched in 2017.

In 2015, Azercosmos and the French Arianespace company signed a contract worth $63 million on launching of the satellite, while launching of Azerspace-1 amounted to $93 million.

The second satellite program will be financed by the Export Development Canada export credit agency, the Cabinet of Ministers reported.

Azercosmos is the first satellite operator in the Caucasus. The company's strategic development plans include the launch of a second telecommunications satellite Earth observation services in the coming years.

Today, Azercosmos provides telecommunication services through the Azerspace-1.

Service area of this satellite includes Europe, Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East. Such countries as Malaysia, Russia, Germany, Ukraine, Egypt, Georgia, UAE, Lebanon, Cameroon, the United Kingdom, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Estonia and Belarus use Azerspace-1s services.

--

Nazrin Gadimova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @NazrinGadimova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
10 March 2016 17:48 (UTC+04:00)

By Aynur Karimova

Azerbaijan has invited Swiss companies to take an active part in the privatization of state enterprises in the country.

Addressing the 7th meeting of the Azerbaijani-Swiss intergovernmental commission in Baku on March 10, Shahin Mustafayev, Azerbaijan's Economy and Industry Minister said that trade cooperation between the two countries is developing successfully.

Mustafayev believes that that there is a potential to increase Swiss investments in Azerbaijan.

Switzerland is one of the largest investors in the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan's fast-growing economy. Currently, some 65 companies with Swiss capital are operating in the country. They have invested $220 million in the country's economy. One of them is Holcim Azerbaijan, which is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan.

Mustafayev also highlighted the activity of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, which has successfully implemented 30 projects worth $90 million in Azerbaijan. The secretariat itself has allocated $25 million of this amount.

Currently, SECO is implementing eight projects worth $15.7 million in the country, including the infrastructure projects and the projects on improving the business field.

Today, Azerbaijan and Switzerland are also successfully cooperating in the fields of transport and tourism. Mustafayev believes that the two countries should increase the tourist flow between each other.

The minister further added that Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR has invested 400 million francs in Switzerlands energy sector.

To date, SOCAR has bought 148 filling stations in the country. Seven percent of the retail market and eight percent of the wholesale market of oil products, as well as 25 percent of the LPG market of Switzerland account for SOCAR.

Also, large Swiss companies are considering the possibility of producing their products in Azerbaijan.

In particular, SIKA Company is interested in receiving a status of resident of the Sumgayit chemical-industrial park.

During the meeting of the commission, it was noted that the company plans to invest $5.3 million in the creation of production of construction mixes in the Park.

Meanwhile, Swiss multinational ABB Global Marketing FZ Company intends to open production sites in Azerbaijan. The company is mainly engaged in the production of energy equipment.

Nvaritus Pharma Services and Roche companies, in turn, study the possibility of cooperation with Azerbaijan in the production of medicines.

During the meeting, the two countries also discussed the possibility of cooperation in the field of production of medical equipment.

Protocol signed

Azerbaijan and Switzerland agreed to expand cooperation in the industry, trade, investment, agriculture, energy and tourism sectors.

The relevant protocol was signed at the end of the 7th meeting of the intergovernmental commission by Mustafayev and Livia Leu, a representative of SEKO.

The document says that physical end legal entities of Azerbaijan and Switzerland should respect territorial integrity sovereignty of the two countries, fundamental norms and principles of international law.

--

Aynur Karimova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
10 March 2016 17:34 (UTC+04:00)

This year, AITF 2016, the regions leading travel and tourism exhibition will mark its 15th anniversary.

Over many years, AITF has established itself as a key event and a hub for the Caspian regions tourism industry, where important meetings are held, partnership agreements are made, and new programmes and destinations are launched.

The tourism industry is one of the countrys promising non-oil sectors. Azerbaijans government has always shown support for AITF. In the last few years Ilham Aliyev, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, has toured the exhibition and met with exhibitors. Such attention to the industry and to the exhibition itself from the countrys government gives additional impetus to the development of business relations in the tourism sphere.

Since its inception AITF is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The exhibition is also supported by the regular participant Azerbaijan Tourism Association (AZTA) and receives endorsement from international bodies such as the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) and the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA). The organisers of the exhibition are Iteca Caspian and its UK partner ITE Group.

The exhibitions development and its role in Azerbaijans tourism sector are attested to by its growth in both exhibition area and exhibitors. This anniversary year will be no exception; more than 200 companies from 40 countries are planning to present diversity of tourism destinations. Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Georgia, the Dominican Republic, India, Indonesia, Iran, Montenegro, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, and Ukraine will showcase tourism potential of their countries at national stands, whilst the Stavropol Krai and Jurmala will hold regional stands. Tourism companies and hotels from Greece, Jordan, Latvia, the Maldives, Russia, Slovenia, Switzerland the USA, etc. are also expected. Numerous embassies accredited in Azerbaijan and chambers of commerce are among the participants of this year. Traditionally Azerbaijan Tourism Association (AZTA) will demonstrate Azerbaijans tourism companies, hotels, and sanatoriums at its stand. Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the countrys regional stands will present Azerbaijans rich potential for domestic tourism.

As the first exhibition of the spring season, AITF will be a central platform for discussions, meetings, sharing opinions and proposals in the tourism sector. Exhibiting companies will present exclusive offers for various tourism destinations. Exhibitors will include tour companies, airlines, national and regional tourism organisation, hotel chains, real estate agencies, sanatoriums, health resorts and spa centres, sport and eco-tourism facilities. The Medical and Health Tourism sector continues to grow offering local and international medical and health centres. In recent years, AITF has also been developing its Real Estate Abroad sector, reflecting the growing demand for property in popular resorts outside Azerbaijan.

In order to help exhibitors to take advantage of travel professionals and suppliers being in one convenient location, AITF 2016 have launched workshop, a dedicated area where participants can hold direct negotiations without intermediaries and initiate contact with leading local travel agencies of their choice through preplanned meetings.

As a platform for discussion, the exhibitions will help professionals to share experience and make useful contacts. To mark the anniversary of the exhibition, the organisers have planned an interesting programme of additional events to leave positive lasting impressions of Baku. AITF exhibition will be open to only professionals from 7-9 April and welcome all visitors on 9th of April.

-

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
10 March 2016 10:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

The National Theater, which is perceived as a temple of art, is a source of proud of every Azerbaijani.

Founded as the first European-style theater in the the Muslim East in 1873, the National Theater has passed a long way of development to confirm itself on the scene of art. It has to defeat obstacles, difficulties, artificial barriers to exist in the most complicated period of history.

National Azerbaijani theater originated in the second half of the 19th century, and Vizier of Lankaran Khan by Mirza Fatali Akhundov, the first Azerbaijani playwright, prominent thinker and philosopher, was the first play staged on the grand temple.

One of the initiators of creating the national theater was educator Hasan bey Zardabi, the publicist and founder of the first Azerbaijani language newspaper Akinchi (The Ploughman"). He believed that the theater will educate people with great benefit alongside the opening of schools and the printed word.

Many of his articles targeted raising public interest to theaters, which he regarded as a true source of education and culture. This appeal was welcomed by progressive intellectuals of the time, who started to think about the establishment of the national theater in Baku.

The process of foundation of the National Theatre, new arts school based on national language and culture, could found many supporters among intellectuals. The process got a real contribution from prominent Azerbaijani educators and writers such as Ahmad bay Agayev, Suleyman Sani Akhundov, Najaf bay Vezirov, Sultan Mejid Hasanzade, Alibay Huseynzade, and Asad bay Hagverdiyev.

From the very day of its establishment the Azerbaijani theater became the center to spread the ideas of enlightenment and democracy. Many literary works staged at the theater could gain sympathy among people, exposing customs of feudal society, oppression and despotism of the red-tape, obscurantism and religious fanaticism.

The plays such as "Woe Fakhraddin", "Because of the rain, but in the rain" N. Vezirov, "Devastated Nest", "The unfortunate young man", "Agha Mohammad Shah Qajar," "Sorceress peri" by Ahverdiev, "Ignorance" and "Nadir Shah" by Narimanov were really a success.

This sympathy and love to theater encouraged the famous oil magnate and philanthropist Zeynalabdin Tagiyev to build in 1883 a European style building with beautiful architecture and a spacious hall for the national theater. Further it will be called the National Academic Drama Theatre, which is the most favorite attraction both young and old generation of the country.

After some time, theatre appeared in a number of cities, including Shusha, Nakhchivan, and Ganja.

Later, Baku became a venue for another magnificent cultural temple -- Azerbaijans professional Musical Theatre established on January 12, 1908, which opened with the performance of the first national opera "Leyli and Majnun", the first ever Muslim opera in the Islamic world composed by maestro Uzeyir Hajibeyli.



Currently the capital has about 11 theatres and there are a couple dozen in the countrys regions. The national stage puts on plays by both domestic and many foreign playwrights.

Today Azerbaijan marks the 143rd Day of the National Theatre and Azerbaijani theatre continues to be one of the main centers of culture, visiting by people of all ages.



Theaters are now in their progressive period of development. Husniyye Mursaguliyeva, spokesperson of the Azerbaijan State Youth Theatre, assures that there is not only stable, but increased interest in theaters the country.

The State Youth Theater use all the opportunities to make this beautiful art continue living and developing in Azerbaijan.

Mursaguliyeva stressed that the Theater cooperate with many influential foreign theaters and hosts tours of several significant troupes from Turkey and Russia.

Last year the actor of theater Honored Artist Nofel Valiyev was invited to the Antalya Metropolitan Municipality Theater in Turkey to stage a play, which was subsequently awarded with prizes of some prestigious theatre festivals, she told Azernews.

Moreover to attract the foreign audience, the State Youth Theatre uses state-of-the-art equipment, projecting subtitles above a stage. This method was also used during the first European Games held in Baku last summer, where the theatre presented several performances based on plays of famous foreign and national compositions.

Mursaguliyeva said that they pay special importance to the preference of audience. For instance, visitors. as well as teachers, students, and foreign spectators, wrote their preferences in special Review Book.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli



Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
10 March 2016 17:10 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

Bakus Heydar Aliyev Palace will host a concert of local jazz performers on April 16, Trend life reports.

The group "Rast" under the leadership of honored artist Rashad Gashimov, as well as Elchin Shirinov (piano), Vlada Akhundova, Rilaya, Leyla Kafari, Aysel Mamedova (piano) and Jazzer Band (Jazz Orchestra) will participate at the event entitled "jAzzeri Bands".

The concert program includes Azerbaijani and foreign jazz compositions. Tickets for concert which will begin at 19:00 cost 10-30manats ( $6-18)

For more info please call: (012) 441-21-31 (012)598-17-72/73/74

Media partners of the event are Trend, Day.az and Milli.az

Azerbaijani jazz is a unique music, combining classical and Azerbaijani folklore genre. The foundation of Azerbaijani jazz was laid by the State Pop Orchestra known as "State jazz" at the end of the 30-es by Niyazi and T. Guliyev.

The love for vocal singing and jazz brought together four young talents including Teymur Mirzoyev, Arif Hajiyev, Rauf Babayev and Lev Elisvetskiy in 1961 to create famous national quartet Gaya, whose records were popular in more than 40 countries around the world including Soviet Union, Europe, America and Africa.

Azerbaijani jazz is very rich with such prominent and talented musicians as Rain Sultanov, Jamil Amirov, Salman Gambarov, as well as young genius conquering worldwide fame Isfar Sarabski, Nurlan Novrasli, Emil Afrasiab, Elchin Shirinov and more.

Since 2002 the Caspian Jazz international festival is held in Baku, attracting many famous foreign musicians to the City of Winds.

Currently "Baku Jazz Center" operating in Baku is making its contribution to the development of jazz in Azerbaijan.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
10 March 2016 17:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Aynur Karimova

BP-Azerbaijan Company, which is the operator of Azerbaijan's huge oil and gas projects, remains committed to its plan on transportation of natural gas as part of the second stage of development of Azerbaijan's giant Shah Deniz field.

Gordon Birrell, BP' Regional President on Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, told journalists on March 10 that the first gas from the Shah Deniz field will be delivered to Turkey in 2018, and to Europe - in 2020.

He said that as of today, approximately two thirds of works on the Shah Deniz-2 project has been completed.

"The Shah Deniz field remains stable and reliable. Last year, around 10 trillion cubic meters of gas and 2.3 million tons of condensate were extracted from this field. These volumes were produced at only six wells," Birrell stated.

Azerbaijan, located within the South Caspian Sea Basin, is among the oldest oil producers in the world. The country is one of the Caspian region's most important strategic oil and gas export routes to the West. Azerbaijan's proven natural gas reserves are estimated at approximately 35 trillion cubic feet, the U.S. Energy Information Administration has reported.

With its huge natural gas resources, Azerbaijan has initiated the multi-billion Southern Gas Corridor project, which envisages the transportation of the gas extracted at the giant Shah Deniz field in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian Sea to Europe.

Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Natig Aliyev believes that Azerbaijans gas reserves are quite enough to fill the Southern Gas Corridor project.

"During the next decade, the Absheron gas field is expected to be started and other fields also developed. Azerbaijans gas reserves are quite enough to fill the Southern Gas Corridor, but it is open to other states reserves as well," he told in an interview with the Natural Gas Europe on March 10.

"We have good experience in this sphere. We started the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline to transit Azerbaijani oil, but within a few years of the projects start-up in 2006, it began shipping oil from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. We should adopt that approach for the Southern Gas Corridor," he added.

The Shah Deniz Stage 2 gas will make a 3,500 kilometer journey from the Caspian Sea into Europe. The first gas supplies through the corridor to Georgia and Turkey are given a target date of late 2018. Gas deliveries to Europe are expected just over a year after the first gas is produced offshore in Azerbaijan.

Aliyev believes revenues from the Shah Deniz 2 and Southern Gas Corridor projects would exceed the expenditures by 2028-2030, noting that while SGC is projected to remain active for 50-60 years."

"Azerbaijan eyes Shah Deniz, TANAP and TAP as a united project, because subtracting one of them nullifies the whole. Shah Deniz 2s capital expenditures are estimated at $20 billion and Southern Gas Corridors at $25 billion," he noted.

"Notice that the revenues of Shah Deniz 2 begin before gas flows to the EU from Shah Deniz 2. Based on the production-sharing contract, some of the costs will be clawed back annually from the produced gas until 2020. On the other hand, alongside the 16 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year, there are more than 29 million barrels/year of gas condensate from Shah Deniz 2. This will be shipped through BTC. The natural gas and gas condensate production level of Shah Deniz 1 is about 10 billion cubic meters and 16.4 million barrels annually," he stated.

TANAP

Commenting on the expenditures on the TANAP project, Aliyev said that capital expenditures on the construction of the pipeline have decreased by $2.5 billion for 3 years.

He noted that on 2013, when the construction of TANAP was contracted, capital expenditures were estimated to stand at $11.7 billion, but currently the figure is $9.2 billion.

This is due to declining the materials and service costs, Aliyev believes.

"For now, about 938 kilometers pipes have been produced, of which 720 kilometers have been delivered to be construction area and 281 kilometers have been welded," the minister said adding that currently, 66 percent of Shah Deniz 2 and 33 percent of expansion of the South Caucasus Pipeline is completed.

TANAPs initial capacity is expected to reach 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Some six billion cubic meters of this gas will be delivered to Turkey and the rest will go to Europe. The capital costs of the TANAP project are expected to stand at $9.5 billion.

--

Aynur Karimova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
10 March 2016 17:41 (UTC+04:00)

Serbia has great potential for cooperation with Azerbaijan in the energy sphere, Serbias ex-president Boris Tadic told reporters March 10 in Baku.

During his presidency he contributed to the establishing of close relationship between Azerbaijan and Serbia, according to Tadic.

Now we have a new government, the new president, who successfully continue the work initiated by me, he said.

Azerbaijan and Serbia have similar geostrategic positions, according to Tadic.

Serbia faced the Kosovo problem, which is similar to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, he added.

The ex-president also touched upon Azerbaijans important role in the energy sphere.

We signed an agreement with Azerbaijan on strategic partnership last year. A number of Azerbaijans construction companies operate in Serbia, said Tadic adding that he would like Serbia to join the Southern Gas Corridor.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
10 March 2016 15:18 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

The most revered holiday of Azerbaijani people -- Novruz Bayram, celebrating arrival of spring and new year is just around the corner.

Azerbaijan, also known as the Land of Fire, will welcome this spring holiday on March 21. The joyful, merry holiday of Novruz, having a lot of customs, ceremonies, performances, games and songs, also traditionally mark a large tourist flow to the country from the neighboring countries.

Chairman of the Azerbaijan Tourism Association (AzTA) Nahid Bagirov expects the country to host many foreign guests, especially from Iran during Novruz.

Bagirov, talking to Trend, said Iranian tourists have already booked rooms in the countrys hotels, adding that the Guide Bureau, established under the AzTA, has started trainings of Persian language for guides.



Recalling that the Azerbaijani Culture and Tourism Ministry has opened representative offices in Moscow and Istanbul to popularize and promote the country's tourism opportunities, Bagirov said that interest of Russian tourists to Azerbaijan has grown since then.

We also began to receive appeals from Kazakh and Uzbek travel companies over tours to Azerbaijan during the holidays, he emphasized.

Bagirov went on saying that with growing demand for the national tourism market, competition among local tourism companies is also increasing. "Now companies prefer to offer not standard, but differing tour packages," he added.

Bagirov noted that tourists arriving in Azerbaijan primarily prefer to visit the capital Baku and then go mainly to the northern regions of the country.

Meanwhile, Advisor to the AzTA Chairman Muzaffar Agakerimov told CBC that tourists visiting Azerbaijan on Novruz are primarily compatriots living in Iran, Northern Caucasus and Russia, who want to spend this spring holiday in their homeland, among family and friends.

As for the tourists coming from far abroad, Agakerimov said most of them want to experience how local people celebrate this holiday.

He noted that local travel companies prepared interesting holiday routes for foreigners, which includes the national cuisine, architectural monuments and historical sites.



Agakerimov said the most tourist routes in the country cover tours to Sheki, Masali, Lerik, Lankaran and northwest regions including Gabala, Gusar and Ismayilli.

Loved by many people, Novruz is celebrated by millions of people thought the world including Azerbaijan, Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and other eastern countries.

Azerbaijan marks this holiday with the annual festival, Maidan Bazaar traditionally set up near the Gosha Gala Gates for several days. Here, Baku residents and guests enjoy many interesting events, including the performance of wrestlers - Pehlevans , rope-walkers and magicians, as well as artists of the children's theater.

The main heroes of Novruz, Kosa and Kechel entertain not only children, bur also adults with their jokes.

Novruz is also a feast for sweet tooth, as many delicious national sweets including pakhlava, shakarbura, gogal and badambura are cooked and served at the festive table.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli



Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
 

       3.0 (      -       -         ): editor [at] bahrainmirror.com
Thank you for reading!

Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.
Hyatt Ziva Puerto Vallarta a AAA Four-Diamond Resort

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - The management team and hospitality staff at Hyatt Ziva Puerto Vallarta are excited to share that the American Automobile Association (AAA) has awarded the resort Four Diamond status for the second year in a row.





After the in-depth evaluation by AAA inspectors, who represent the finest of the hospitality industry, Hyatt Ziva Puerto Vallarta was honored with the distinction. Every year, only 5.7 percent of about 28,000 hotels approved by AAA make the Four Diamond list.

The AAA Diamond hotel ratings are based on the range of facilities, level of service, and overall quality of the property. According to AAA, Hyatt Ziva Puerto Vallarta delivers premier experiences, offers superior personal service and overall, offers superior personal service and, overall, encompasses the characteristics of high quality.

"We want our guests to love the Hyatt Ziva experience and to leave already planning their next trip to Puerto Vallarta. Our group of associates strive to make magic happen," General Manager Antonio Machain said.

"In addition to our beautiful property and facilities, our high service standards make the distinction. What our people do is special and unique. We are proud of their work and passion to serve. Our guests can feel their care and warm hospitality, and I want to thank them all for truly delivering service from the heart," said Daniel Reyna, Vice President of Operations, Mexico, Playa Resorts Management.

AAA Director Tony Perrone added: "The hotel's visual appeal is extraordinary, the service is highly personalized and their standards of quality impeccable."
El Fortin de San Sebastian at Vallarta's OTFM-TC

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - Get ready for a cultural extravaganza at the OTFM-TC! Bring your loved ones - and a few eco-friendly bags - to scoop up a wide assortment of "make it, bake it, grow it" goodies. Select from farm-to-table ingredients, ready-to-eat foods, artwork, tropical flowers, apparel/accessories, traditional Mexican handicrafts, artisan chocolates, handmade body products, and the fresh flavors of locally roasted coffee, marmalades, dressings, chutney and salsas from El Fortin de San Sebastian.

Locally Grown Coffee

Seventeen years ago, Gabriel Cardenas landed in the charming community of San Sebastian del Oeste (over an hour east of Puerto Vallarta). He opened a restaurant, and set out to serve the area's freshest coffee. Cardenas bought a roaster as well as green beans that had been harvested around San Sebastian. He then devoted himself to the art of roasting. His beans were a hit, and Cardenas began selling his coffee to hotels and restaurants. Now in his sixth season at the Old Town Farmers Market-Tianguis Cultural, Cardenas continues to impress coffee lovers with what many claim is "the best coffee they've had in Mexico!"





You, too, can enjoy El Fortin de San Sebastian coffee. Choose from ground or whole coffee beans in three tones: medium, medium dark or dark. Then be sure to try his version of Cafe de Olla, an old-world style of coffee preparation using cinnamon and chocolate. Cardenas also sells coffee by the cup, including:

 Americano

 Capuchino (Cappuccino)

 Moka (mocha)

 Latte

 Espresso

But That's Not All!

Cardenas also sells his savory marmalades, dressings, chutneys and salsas. Each is made from organic or wild-grown fruit trees in the San Sebastian community. The fruit is carefully collected, prepared on site, and then brought to the market for artisan food lovers just like you! His product line makes the perfect addition to breads, bagels, salad fixings, deli meats and traditional Mexican foods - all sold here at the OTFM-TC!

Stop by this Saturday to meet Gabriel Cardenas. You can also connect with him at three El Fortin de San Sebastian locations: Sayulita, Basilio Badillo, and Avenida Mexico Col. 5 de Diciembre, Puerto Vallarta. For more information, visit Facebook or TripAdvisor. Cardenas' highly-reviewed restaurant, El Fortin de San Sebastian, is located at Amado Aguirre 14, Col. Centro San Sebastian del Oeste. +52 (322) 297-2856

Love Yoga?

While at the market, join us for yoga classes (9:30-10:30 am) taught by instructors from Yoga Collective. We meet in the kiosk every Saturday morning through April 30th. Participation is by donation.

Meet the Market

The OTFM-TC is a North American style market that celebrates the tradition and culture of Mexico's outdoor Tianguis markets. It is also a registered non-profit/association civil organization that focuses on nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit of Puerto Vallartans. All OTFM-TC products are either locally grown or handmade within 75 kilometers of the city.

You're Invited!





The OTFM-TC will be open 9:30-2 every Saturday, from November 7, 2015, to April 30, 2016. You'll find us in Lazaro Cardenas Park, located in Vallarta's Emiliano Zapata neighborhood. For only 12 pesos an hour, you can park in the garage directly beneath park. Public buses and taxis also come this way with a Pino Suarez Street drop off.

Get Involved

Interested in becoming a new OTFM-TC vendor or volunteer? Stop by the information booth to pick up an application.
Let me tell you, as someone who tried to just live innot even immigrate toanother country, that shit is hard. Being displaced from your home and everything you're familiar with is difficult and life-changing. Immigrant and refugee artists that have found their home in Albuquerque are telling their stories this Sunday at the Outpost Performance Center . The artists that will perform for Storie Space: Immigrant and Refugee Artists are Rahim AlHaj , Nada Kherbik , Rujeko Dumbutshena , and Chuy Martinez and hosted by folklorist Wade Patterson . (Megan Reneau)

A performative talk with artists and cultural workers who have made their home in Albuquerque.

516 ARTS and the Outpost Performance Space present Stories & Songs: Immigrant & Refugee Artists, a performative talk with immigrant and refugee artists and cultural workers who have made their home in Albuquerque. Everyone is invited to this discussion around the role of the arts in cultural retention through migration, which will include short performances by some of the cultural treasures of the Albuquerque arts community. Moderated by folklorist Wade Patterson, artists include: Rahim AlHaj, a virtuoso oud musician and composer from Iraq; Nada Kherbik, a journalist and teacher from Syria; Rujeko Dumbutshena, a dancer from Zimbabwe; and Chuy Martinez, a musician from Mexico.

Questions to be explored include: What is the role performance/cultural expression plays in the migration experience Do they take on new meanings? How do the traditions change when people move away from their homeland? How does one balance integration into a new society with maintaining the cultural identity of the old and what role can/does art/performance play in this?

This event is in conjunction with At Home in the World, an exhibition at 516 ARTS and series of public programs which explore belonging and place, examining how we relate to each other, ourselves and our countries as globalization forces us to rethink issues of nationalities, citizenship and migration.
Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton brought her "Get Out the Vote" rally to Tampa today.

She told an enthusiastic audience at the Ritz Theater in Ybor City about her "commitment to break down the barriers that hold too many Florida families back."



The former first lady, senator from New York and secretary of state took the stage just before 1 p.m., about an hour and a half late. That did little to dull the energy of the crowd, which shouted "Hil - lary, Hil - lary, Hil - lary" at various times during her speech.



ELECTION 2016: Florida Decides Voting Guide



Clinton, fresh off Wednesday night's debate in Miami against primary opponent Bernie Sanders, gave several of her key talking points to the Tampa crowd. Sanders is holding his own rally in Tampa at 7 p.m. at the Florida State Fairgrounds.



"More good jobs with rising incomes is one of the fastest ways we can knock down barriers," Clinton told the crowd as she talked about the need for better jobs in Florida and the U.S.



Clinton then spoke about opportunities, health care, infrastructure, climate change, Social Security, mass incarceration, supporting the military and education costs.



"I look at these young people here," she said. "(And I think) every election is about the future. If we don't do what we need to do, we won't be able to deal with a lot of the challenges we are going to have to confront."

Clinton may have a major lead in the polls in Florida, but she isn't taking much for granted after a surprising loss in Michigan, so on Thursday, she urged the Tampa crowd to get out and vote.

"I want to be a really strong candidate to take my vision and our views into a general election against whoever the Republicans nominate," she said.

So far, about 642,000 Democrats have cast a ballot in the state. Clinton hopes the visit inspires more to come out and vote for her.


A young girl and a man were injured Thursday in what St. Petersburg Police are calling a drive-by shooting.

The shooting happened in the area of 1200 10th Avenue S.

Police say a white car, possibly a Dodge Challenger, drove past the home, and someone inside fired several shots. Several people were on the porch at the time.

Jayla Mack, 3, was hit by gunfire, as was Terrell Holliman, 23. Police say both suffered injuries described as not life-threatening.

Mack was taken to a hospital and is recovering.

Holliman was shot in the leg. We've learned he was also shot in the back last year in a drive-by.

Mayor Rick Kriseman and Police Chief Anthony Holloway went to the scene of the shooting shortly after it was reported.

"This has to stop. Too many guns, much violence, too much retribution, taking it out on each other," Kriseman said. "If something happens, let us solve the problem. Let us solve the crime, let us take care of it. Let us put the people who do bad things away. Dont do it yourself."

Thats why police are trying to find the person or people responsible. Theyre looking for a white Dodge Challenger that was seen in the area at the time. If you have any information youre asked to contact police.

Mayor Rick Kriseman and Police Chief Anthony Holloway went to the scene of the shooting shortly after it was reported. (David Turner, staff)


Polk County investigators have arrested five people in connection to a murder that took place in mid-January in Lakeland.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd held a news conference Wednesday, along with Lakeland Police Capt. Rick Taylor and the sheriff of Sumter County, to provide details of the case.

Judd said the case began when a woman told some men she knew that she had been sexually assaulted by the victim, Robert Banks. Judd said the men invited Banks to their home on Vousden Lane under the pretext of buying drugs from him. But when Banks got to the home, Judd said the men attacked him.

They strangled him with an electrical cord. They beat him with a pipe," Judd said. "They beat him with their fists. They beat him with sticks." Judd said one of the suspects sodomized Banks with a flashlight.

Judd identified the murder suspects as Brian Johnson Jr., Anthony Johnson, Michael Gunn and a juvenile. We are not naming the juvenile due to our crime guidelines.



Judd said the suspects called Brian Johnson Sr. He allegedly came to the home and helped the suspects dispose of the body. Judd said they took the body to a wildlife management area in Sumter County and set it on fire. It was later discovered by a couple traveling in the area.



Detectives said the suspects took pictures of Banks' dead body with their cell phones.

They were telling people, which we always like, Judd said. That helps a lot when you go around showing pictures and saying, 'Dont worry about Robert anymore. Weve taken care of him. Hes dead.' 



Judd said the suspects have been cooperating and may be providing investigators with the codes to get to the pictures on the phones. But if that doesn't happen, Judd threatened to take Apple to court to get codes to access the images on the phones if Apple didn't cooperate.



But I can tell you the first time we have trouble getting into a cell phone, we are going to seek a court order from Apple. When they deny us, Im going to go lock the CEO of Apple up," Judd said.



Most devices have some sort of password to unlock it. The key is that its the individuals password that unlocks it, not anyone else.

Defense attorney Kevin Hayslett said law enforcement will have a hard time convincing a judge to force Apple or any phone company to force open a cell phone.



The business model is not to create a phone that only they have the key for, Hayslett said. The business model is to create a phone to protect your banking account, my personal information, documents that I dont want anybody to see, including the government, and whether or not the government has the right to invade our privacy.

You cant have a business plan that violates the law," Judd said. "And when a court orders you in the state of Florida to provide information and you dont, we're going to see how good their lawyers are."



Apple has been in the news for not helping investigators open a locked cell phone owned by a suspect in the San Bernardino terrorist attack. Hayslett said comparing that federal terrorist case to this one is like comparing apples to kumquats. He said it will take years for a case like this to see any results.



Judd says he doesnt anticipate hell have to go to higher courts in this case, but if it comes to that, he has a plan and that includes locking up Apple's CEO.



Believe you me, if I get a toehold in this county and I can get the state Attorneys Office to agree to prosecute and a judge to back us up, Ill lock the rascal up. Thats a guarantee, Judd said.



We tried reaching out to Apple but havent heard back.


A Pinellas County fitness instructor battling cancer got a sweet surprise Wednesday afternoon.

About 60 friends surprised Shawn Becklund with a lunch at the Oldsmar Tijuana Flats to celebrate her final round of chemotherapy.

"She has always kept the momentum, friend Melinda Hipley said. And Shawns super power is she wears her heart out there, its always out there. Her kindness is contagious."

Becklund, 45, was diagnosed with breast cancer last August. She underwent a double mastectomy and 16 rounds of chemotherapy.

"The cancer and the whole process...I would be lying if I didnt say it was awful, but the blessing thats come out of it, is this," she said. "Its amazing."

Tijuana Flats donated the food and use of the restaurant for the party.

"When I walked in and recognized several people and I realized it was the entire restaurant and it was a surprise and oh! Its one of those moments I will never forget, Becklund said.

Friends and family followed Becklunds journey through Facebook and started a Strong Like Shawn campaign.

"I know they say raising a child takes a village, so my saying now is 'Cancer makes a village,'  Becklund said.




For the first time the jury heard from the men at Gawker Media who are responsible for publishing the Hulk Hogan sex video: former editor AJ Daulerio and President Nick Denton.

Daulerio says the video was mailed to his P.O. Box anonymously and he felt it was newsworthy because it proves Hogan did have sex with Heather Clem.

Daulerio wrote the headline: "Even for a minute watching Hulk Hogan have sex in a canopy bed is not safe for work but watch it anyway."

"The news hook was essentially what I stated in the headline itself, which was my own personal commentary about the Hulk Hogan sex tape that was in existence and me watching it, said Daulerio.

Denton said Gawker is less sensitive to issues than other media.

"We'll be better off if we can talk freely about everything. So, that's, I'm an extremist. That's why I love the U.S.," he said.

Denton said he did not know Hogan's sex video was secretly recorded by Bubba the Love Sponge. He says the story got a lot of hits and he liked it.

"It was almost perfectly judged. It was humor and humanizing, he said. "I'm proud of the piece."

Hogan is suing Gawker for $100 million for violating his privacy. Its a lawsuit Hogan's attorney, David Houston, told jurors could've been avoided if Gawker would've disclosed their source and taken the video down immediately.

"We wanted to walk away. We wanted to put this behind us. We wanted the sex video down. We wanted an agreement it would not be shown, he said.

Gawker refused that request, saying Hogan did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the bedroom of his best friend's wife and that they obtained the video legally.

Wednesday was day three of the trial. The trial is expected to last three weeks.
A bill requiring controversial new abortion restrictions is going to Gov. Rick Scott.

So is a bill that finally repeals Florida's cohabitation ban.

Termination of pregnancies

The legislature passed HB 1411 Wednesday 15-24, largely along party lines.

The bill requires doctors who perform abortions to have hospital admitting privileges, or that the clinic can has an agreement to take a patient to the hospital. It also redefines pregnancy trimesters, which affects when abortions can be performed.

It also bans state money for any service from going to any organization, like Planned Parenthood, that provides abortions.

Similar laws in Louisiana and Texas have been put on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court considers challenges.

Cohabitation

Florida has a law on the books that fines a man and woman for living together unmarried. Its days may finally be numbered.

Lawmakers sent SB 498 to Gov. Rick Scott.

The now-largely unenforced bill has been on the books since 1868. A man and woman living together could be fined $500 and put in jail for 60 days.

Bill inspired by South Florida teens lost at sea

Lawmakers also sent HB 427 to Gov. Scott Wednesday.

The bill was passed in memory of Austin Stephanos and Perry Cohen, two South Florida teens who disappeared while boating last July.

The bill encourages boaters to buy an emergency position indicator radio beacon for their boats.

The boys sailed out of Jupiter Inlet and were never seen again. The U.S. Coast Guard searched far up the southern coast with no luck.



Holocaust Memorial

A bill to build a Holocaust Memorial on the grounds of the Florida Capitol heads to Gov. Scott on an almost unanimous vote.

The bill passed unanimously last month in the Florida Senate, but on Wednesday State Rep. John Tobia, R-Melbourne, voted against the bill. He was the only "No" vote in the Florida House.

SB 716 sets aside $100,000 for the memorial, which lawmakers say is needed because Holocaust survivors are dying, and people need the reminder of the millions who died because of the Nazis.

Scott Pine Bill

Tobia was also the only "No" vote on a bill to revise the retirement plan for families of slain law enforcement officers.

SB 7012 passed the Florida House Wednesday and is headed to Scott's desk.

Deputy Scott Pine was an Orange County sheriff's deputy who was killed in the line of duty in 2013. However, his family was locked out of the survivor benefits program because Pine had chosen an investment plan for his retirement. This bill allows families to opt-in if they wish. It also increases the monthly survivor benefits for the families of officers killed in the line of duty.

The bill passed unanimously in the Florida Senate.

Red light cameras repeal

The Florida House approved a bill to ban the use of red light cameras throughout the state. But the bill is not likely to pass the Florida Senate.

The bill would ban the cameras starting July of 2019. Legislators first authorized the cameras in 2010.

A bill in the Florida Senate is currently stuck in committee.

Less than 200 bills so far have passed the Florida Legislative Session, out of over 1,800.

The legislative session ends Friday.

Information from the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Oregon Coast Storm Aftermath: Peak Gusts, Fatality, Video, Pics

Published 03/10/2016 at 4:51 AM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff





(Oregon Coast)  One of the heaviest windstorms of the past few years was over within the day Wednesday, but it left a trail of striking stats and sights: downed trees, gusts as high as 92 mph, power problems, and tragically, even one death. (Photo: a very manic Spouting Horn in Depoe Bay Wednesday, courtesy Rock Your World: Pacific NW Gem & Jewelry Gallery').

Highest of the day appears to be Cape Meares at 92 mph, while Mt. Hebo was close behind at 90 mph. Astoria had a series of gusts over 60 mph after 8 p.m., with the peak at 72 mph. Garibaldi had one register at 79 mph. Other biggies were Oceanside, 56 mph; Pacific City 78; Yachats at 47 mph. Another peak gust of 79 mph happened just inland from Newport.

Lincoln City had two wind gauges that saw highest gusts just over 50 mph. Cape Foulweather only hit 41 mph.

Power outages affected some 20,000 people throughout much of Tillamook County.

Above: Cannon Beach early Wednesday, courtesy Tolovana Inn.

Trees blocked traffic along Highway 18 outside of Grand Ronde and just south of Cannon Beach, A deadly incident on Highway 26 near the Highway 101 junction saw a driver get killed by a tree.

Photos and video from the day were dramatic, to say the least, including one from Cape Kiwanda RV Resort in Pacific City that showed gargantuan waves coming over the cape.

Seaside Aquarium's Tiffany Boothe grabbed an impressive scene where wind howled through the facility like a Halloween sound effect, and the sand was whipped around violently by those winds.

At Depoe Bay, Laura Joki  owner of Lincoln City agate shop Rock Your World: Pacific NW Gem & Jewelry Gallery  caught not just one spouting horn but two. Conditions were so wild there the sky-rocketing, more well-known Spouting Horn had a little competition. At other moments, the chaos of the ocean was evident with what looked like walls of waves coming in.

At least two beaches were closed because of raging surf. Heceta Head Lighthouse's parking lot (near Florence) was shut down because of storm surges and all lighthouse tours were canceled. Even the broad, normally safe D River access in Lincoln City was closed because of hazardous conditions.

The good news is that these large waves will continue through the weekend, but with less blustery winds. Friday through Monday will still have waves often as high as 20 feet, making for good stormwatching at rocky places like Yachats, Depoe Bay, the parking lot at Oceanside, the jetty viewing platform at Warrenton or the overlooks just of Cannon Beach or north of Manzanita. Make sure you stay well away from these breakers at viewing areas or parking lots. Oregon Coast Lodgings for this event - Where to eat - Map and Virtual Tour.

Just another exciting day on the Oregon Coast! Posted by Seaside Aquarium on Wednesday, March 9, 2016

More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging.....

More About Oregon Coast Restaurants, Dining.....

Coastal Spotlight



LATEST Related Oregon Coast Articles

Back to Oregon Coast

Contact Advertise on BeachConnection.net

All Content, unless otherwise attributed, copyright BeachConnection.net Unauthorized use or publication is not permitted
Beale Airmen had the opportunity to meet with Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force James Cody during his visit March 7 - 9, 2016, at Beale Air Force Base, California.

Cody immersed himself within the Beale community visiting an array of work centers, speaking in small group settings with Airmen and holding two all calls allowing Airmen the opportunity to ask questions about issues or concerns in todays Air Force.

A key topic of discussion was the recent decision to integrate enlisted remotely piloted aircraft operators into the RQ-4 community.

We clearly know our enlisted force can perform this mission if they are trained appropriately and meet the requirements and qualifications, Cody said. This is a priority for us, its a stable environment, and it makes sense to look at this as a way forward to increase capacity for the Air Force.

Cody added Air Combat Command is the lead command for the integration, along with the experts here at Beale, which are addressing items such as career path development, training plans and an appropriate force structure.

In addition, Airmen voiced their concerns about the challenges Airmen face with the ever-changing Air Force.

The most important thing we ask of Airmen is to be really good at their job, Cody said. Its a challenge because they are seeing things change and that creates anxiety and uncertainty. I ask Airmen to stay focused on the task and to continue to be innovated and find better ways to improve the way we do business.

Codys last stop was to the 548th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group, during their night shift operations, to receive a first-hand view of the challenges they overcome regularly. These Airmen meet the demand of distributing ISR data to combatant commanders globally to assist with mission success.

We are the most educated, the most experienced, the most battle-tested force the world has ever known, Cody said. Our Airmen have that advantage over any adversary and nothing will change that. We will continually develop our Airmen giving them the resources to perform at the best of their ability to accomplish what we ask of them.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Pearland's first microbrewery will open March 14.

BAKFISH Brewing Co. owners Brian Allen and Kris Szecsy will debut on Monday with five flagship brews. A smaller brewing system will allow for experimentation with specialty beers in the future.

RELATED: Pearland brewery set to expand Houston-area beer selection

More than a year in the making, the brewery's lineup, according to its site, will include a Belgian wit, Belgian-inspired Texas blonde ale, brown porter, India Pale Ale (IPA) and a double IPA.

More Information BAKFISH Brewing Company Location: 1231 Broadway Street in More info: bakfishbrewing.com Opening date: March 14 Hours: 3 p.m.-9 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays; 3 p.m.-10 p.m. Fridays; noon-9 p.m. Saturdays; noon-10 p.m. Sundays. See More Collapse

"We are awaiting TABC (Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission) label approval to sell our beers to outside accounts, Allen says. "That said, we have verbal commitments from a number of local dining establishments such as Center Court Pizza."

SEE ALSO: Houston vodka micro-distillery opening east of downtown

The duo left their full-time careers to pursue their passion for brewing.

They will debut in an 8,000-square-foot space, which includes a 1,200-square-foot and a 2,000-square-foot tap room.

"We are excited to be a part of the Pearland and surrounding communities and look forward to sharing our beer with them," Allen says.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A kayak launch into Willow Marsh Bayou might seem like a straightforward and not terribly expensive project to build, but it's been about six months since a donor put up $50,000 to pay for it and still no ramp.

"I feel embarrassed for the donor," said Mike Getz, a city councilman who with kayak enthusiast Chad Myzell advocated for the structure.

It could be built next to the Ben J. Rogers Visitors Center near Ford Park, which has high visibility and easy access, a parking area and is just yards from the bayou.

The latest movement on the project came in January when Getz met with County Judge Jeff Branick, Drainage District 6 chief engineer Doug Canant and Branick's administrative assistant Fred Jackson.

Jackson said building a kayak launch isn't as easy as it might seem.

The county engineer's office must complete a design that includes parking, a walkway and the launch that must take into account varying water levels in the bayou that could rise or fall depending on rainfall and drainage.

The launch also must conform to the Americans with Disabilities Act for access, Jackson said.

All of those specifications must come in before the project goes to the county purchasing department to prepare bids for contractors.

"We need the design first to get an idea of the cost," said Jackson, adding the project could come in over the $50,000 budget.

Getz and Myzell first pitched the idea of a kayak launch a year ago. In July, a county application for a state grant was rejected. In the fall, a donor wrote the check to pay for it.

DWallach@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/dwallach
The Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee in Connecticut is examining legislation to repeal a 6 percent tax on ambulatory surgery centers in the state.

The statewide tax on ASCs went into effect on Oct. 1, 2015. The Connecticut Citizens for Affordable Health Care has been fighting against the tax since implementation and report some of the 47 ASCs in the state would be forced to close because of the tax, and patients may see higher deductibles, co-payments and insurance as a result.

Here are five things to know about the legislation:

1. If ASCs close because of the tax, patients will seek care at the available hospitals, which are higher-cost options  and in some cases lower quality  than the inpatient setting.

2. Around 90 percent of ASC patients report high satisfaction rates with their experience.

3. Eighty-one percent of taxpayers polled in October 2015 disapproved of the tax.

4. The Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee examination of repeal legislation could be the next step toward repeal.

"This bill is an opportunity to ensure patients have access to a comprehensive range of safe, clinically-advanced services in the community-based setting," said Cathy Bartell, administrator of Connecticut Surgery Center. "I strongly urge our state lawmakers to advance this legislation in order to protect lower healthcare costs for patients, their families, their employers and state taxpayers."
Medicare proposed an alternative payment method for Medicare B drugs, inciting many providers and drug manufacturers to critique the proposal, according to The New York Times.

Here are six things to know:

1. Many cancer providers and drug manufacturers claim the proposal prioritizes savings over patients' access to treatment.

2. Through the proposal, Medicare is comparing drugs' effectiveness to the cost of comparable medications, which could have a substantial financial impact on the pharmaceutical industry.

https://www.beckersasc.com/asc-coding-billing-and-collections/medicare-to-test-alternative-payment-methods-for-prescription-drugs-6-insights.html

3. Various legislators say Medicare's proposal could restrict some of the sickest Medicare beneficiaries' access to care and refer to the proposal as "another troubling example of unelected bureaucrats making decisions behind closed doors."

4. The Obama administration claimed the proposal would not interfere with physicians' medical judgment or their ability to prescribe Part B drugs when appropriate.

5. On March 4, the Federal Register published a notice saying the Obama administration wants to require physicians and hospitals to participate in providing Part B drugs to Medicare beneficiaries in geographic areas selected for the proposal.

6. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, as well as Allen Lichter, MD, chief of the American Society of Clinical Oncology have criticized the proposal. Dr. Lichter said while drug prices are escalating, "Doctors did not create this problem, and it will not be solved by putting pressure on physicians."

More articles on coding & billing:

Connecticut lawmakers examine 6% ASC tax repeal legislation: 4 things to know

Medicare to test alternative payment methods for prescription drugs  6 insights

How ASCs can demonstrate value to payers: 4 key concepts
ICOMPARE is conducting a study allowing medical students to work 28-hour shifts, which the American Medical Student Association and Public Citizen, a watchdog group, say put the residents at risk, according to Motherboard.

Here are five key takeaways:

1. The AMSA and Public Citizen report the "unethical" trial puts medical students at risk of car accidents, needle-stick injuries and depression.

2. The ongoing study is testing whether working 28-hour shifts impacts a medical student's ability to care for patients. First-year medical U.S. residents are allowed to work 16-hour shifts.

3. While the AMSA and Public Citizen are imploring ICOMPARE to suspend the trial, researchers claim longer shifts improve resident training and ultimately, patient care.

4. A similar study, FIRST, found surgical residents who worked longer hours did not pose a greater risk to patients.

5. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Human Research Protections is reviewing the allegations.

More healthcare news:

7 things for ASC leaders to know for Thursday  March 10, 20

7 key concepts from the CMS value-based payment modifier program for 2016

Connecticut lawmakers examine 6% ASC tax repeal legislation: 4 things to know
Here are 14 recent news updates on key health IT companies.

1. Health IT company McKesson plans to sell some of its ambulatory software technology assets to e-MDs, an ambulatory software services provider.

2. As the world's athletes prepare for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, GE Healthcare is preparing for its role as the official EMR provider for the event.

3. MedPower, a cloud-hosted, software-as-a-service solution company, partnered with McKesson to launch eLearning services.

4. IBM Watson partnered with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City on a project to analyze oncology-related patient medical records to glean insights for cancer treatment.

5. A new partnership between Allscripts and Garmin will integrate Garmin's wearable devices with Allscripts' population health platforms to address population health management concerns.

6. Through a new partnership with AssistRx, providers using Allscripts' EHR can speed up the process of enrolling patients in specialty drug therapy programs.

7. Dr. John Warner Hospital in Clinton, Ill., will implement MEDITECH's Medical and Practice Management solution.

8. 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.

9. University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, based in Houston, rolled out the Epic EHR on March 4.

10. McKesson has agreed to acquire Canadian pharmacy chain Rexall Health from Katz Group for approximately $2.2 billion USD.

11. Catholic Health Initiatives, headquartered in Englewood, Colo., plans to expand its use of Allscripts' patient engagement solutions from the ambulatory setting to its acute care settings.

12. Marlton, N.J.-based Virtua Health System plans to go live on the Epic EHR in two phases over the next two years.

13. Madison Memorial Hospital in Rexburg, Idaho, considered Cerner, Epic and MEDITECH when on the hunt for a new EHR, but ultimately chose Cerner's system.

14. Dignity Health, based in San Francisco, is expanding its agreement with Cerner to implement the company's ambulatory EHR.

More articles on health IT:

Mayo to spend $1B on Epic; Allscripts, athenahealth, Cerner, Epic, McKesson, MEDITECH sign Interoperability Pledge & more  8 health IT key notes

5 Epic contracts  and their costs  so far in 2016

'Innovate or die': HIMSS observations from Dr. John Halamka
The chief experience officer is a critical leadership role in healthcare as hospitals and health systems strive to improve the patient experience while lowering costs.

Paul Bohne, senior partner and vice chairman of the healthcare practice with executive search firm Witt/Kieffer, sees this role gaining traction, particularly at the system level.

"I think that it seems like a legitimization of this role in the executive suite. Because of how critical it is for organizations to be moving the needle on HCAHPS and differentiating themselves by their patient experience, I'm clearly seeing a trend in organizations that are putting more resources around this function than they used to," he says.

Mr. Bohne says he's also seeing organizations be much more intentional about how they're engaging clinical leadership around the patient experience, as well as a bit of a rise in these roles having clinically trained leaders.

Still, these chief experience officers also come from other disciplines and backgrounds.

Here are eight CXOs to know who serve hospitals and health systems throughout the United States, presented alphabetically.

Note: Chief experience officers were selected based on editorial judgment and discretion. Individuals did not pay for inclusion on this list.

Adrienne Boissy, MD. CXO of Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Boissy serves as CXO of Cleveland Clinic. In addition to that role, she is a staff physician at the Cleveland Clinic Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis and has a secondary appointment in bioethics. Cleveland Clinic has seen various accomplishments during her tenure, such as recently making patient satisfaction ratings for individual physicians available to the public. Prior to becoming Cleveland Clinic's CXO, Dr. Boissy was medical director of Cleveland Clinic's Center of Excellence in Healthcare Communication. Dr. Boissy attended Boston University and worked in neurobiological research at Brigham and Women's Hospital, also in Boston. She completed her medical school training at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in Hershey and finished her neurology residency and neuroimmunology fellowship at Cleveland Clinic. She earned a master's degree in bioethics from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

Connie Bonebrake. Senior Vice President and Chief Patient Experience Officer of Carolinas HealthCare System (Charlotte, N.C.). Appointed to the role in 2012, Ms. Bonebrake serves as Carolinas HealthCare System's first chief patient experience officer. Prior to her current role, she was senior vice president of Carolinas HealthCare System's post-acute care services with responsibility for home health, hospice and skilled nursing facility operations. Under her leadership, the system was an early adopter of person-centered care and opened a Huntersville (N.C.) Oaks, a facility that provides short-term nursing and therapy for those recovering from surgery, illness or an accident. Ms. Bonebrake is a licensed nursing home administrator. She earned a master's degree in social work from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Rick Evans. Senior Vice President and CXO of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (New York City). Mr. Evans serves as CXO of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. He returned to the organization after serving as CXO of Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital and Massachusetts General Physicians Organization. Previously, he had served as vice president of support services and patient-centered care for NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and as vice president of mission services for the Bon Secours and Canterbury Partnership for Care in Hudson County, N.J., and also as director of the St. Francis Hospital Foundation in Wilmington, Del. Mr. Evans earned a master's degree in theology from Christ the King Seminary in East Aurora, N.Y.

Sven Gierlinger. Vice President and CXO of Northwell Health (Great Neck, N.Y.). Mr. Gierlinger has served as CXO of Northwell Health, formerly North Shore-LIJ Health System, since 2014. He is the first to hold the position. Prior to joining Northwell Health, Mr. Gierlinger was vice president of hospitality and service culture at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit. He also played a key role in the start-up and success of Henry Ford West Bloomfield (Mich.) Hospital. Before entering the healthcare industry, Mr. Gierlinger was in the luxury hotel business, holding several positions with the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. Mr. Gierlinger earned a bachelor's degree in hospitality management from the Bavaria Hotel Management School in Altoetting, Germany.

Pam Guler. Vice President and Chief Patient Experience Officer of Adventist Health System (Altamonte Springs, Fla.).Ms. Guler serves as chief patient experience officer of Adventist, a faith-based healthcare organization with nearly 77,000 employees. Last year, during her tenure, 18 Adventist campuses received top honors in patient experience during the system's Patient Experience Summit in Orlando, Fla., and many more received recognition for performing in the top quartile of the nation across four major services areas: inpatient, emergency department, ambulatory surgery and outpatient services.Ms. Guler earned a master's degree in healthcare administration from the University of South Florida in Tampa.

Sandra Myerson, BSN, RN. Chief Patient Experience Officer of Mount Sinai Health System (New York). Ms. Myerson serves as Mount Sinai Health System's first chief patient experience officer, as well as chief patient experience officer of The Joseph F. Cullman Jr. Institute for Patient Care at The Mount Sinai Hospital. Prior to joining Mount Sinai Health System in 2014, Ms. Myerson was managing consultant and director of clinical and operational consulting at Press Ganey. She also previously served as vice president of patient care services and CNO of Aria Health in Philadelphia. Her clinical background is in the areas of emergency, trauma, critical care and flight nursing; home health; and vascular/transplant/general surgery. Ms. Myerson earned an MBA in healthcare administration and a master's degree in healthcare finance from the Fox School of Business Management at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Terri Nuss. CXO of WellSpan Health (York, Pa.). Ms. Nuss has served as CXO of WellSpan Health, a five-hospital system based in central Pennsylvania, since 2015. Prior to joining WellSpan Health, she was vice president of patient centeredness with Dallas-based Baylor Scott & White Health's North Division. She also has served in cardiology at Houston-based St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Ms. Nuss earned a master's degree in exercise and sport science from Pennsylvania State University, based in State College, and an MBA from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Tony Padilla. Chief Patient Experience Officer of UCLA Health (Los Angeles). As chief patient experience officer of UCLA Health, Mr. Padilla played a key in the implementation of CICARE, a set of six communication behaviors to guide the best possible interactions with patients, families and colleagues. He has also played a key role in raising UCLA Health's HCAHPS scores. In a 2015 interview with Becker's Hospital Review, Mr. Padilla said, "The best organizations are differentiating themselves by engaging patients, physicians and staff to improve clinical processes; and, as a result, improving quality, experience and cost outcomes."Mr. Padilla earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and an MBA from Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif.
In New Jersey, Bernard Greenspan, DO, a family physician practicing in Bergen County, has been charged with accepting bribes in exchange for test referrals as part of a long-running scheme operated by Parsippany, N.J.-based Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services, according to the Department of Justice.

Between March 2006 and April 2013, Dr. Greenspan allegedly received about $200,000 in bribes from Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services. Dr. Greenspan's referrals generated approximately $3 million in lab business for BLS, according to the DOJ.

A 10-count indictment charges Dr. Greenspan with violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Federal Travel Act.

To date, 39 people, including 26 physicians, have pleaded guilty in connection with the bribery scheme. Organizers of the scheme have admitted it resulted in more than $100 million in payments to BLS from Medicare and various private insurance companies.

More articles on healthcare industry lawsuits:



Ex-CEO allegedly bilked $1M from troubled Florida hospital

Florida physician faces 10 years in prison for fraud

5 latest healthcare industry lawsuits
In April 2015, parents claim their 14-year-old son was involuntarily committed to the psychiatric inpatient program at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. There the boy was sexually assaulted by a 16-year-old fellow patient, according to the lawsuit filed by the boy's parents.

According to a local FOX affiliate, the suit names the hospital and several of its employees as defendants. The parents argue that the MUSC staff failed to follow safety protocols that could have protected their son from the attack. They assert the staff were required to check on their son every 15 minutes, but failed to do so during a three-hour span on the evening of the alleged assault.

MUSC's public safety department delivered a statement Wednesday regarding the incident, saying, "After investigating and receiving guidance from CPD [Charleston Police Department] and the solicitor's office, MUSC Public Safety did not file any charges regarding this incident citing the lack of probable cause."

Detectives interviewed staff after the incident and determined sexual intercourse had occurred, but it was not clear if it was consensual or forced.

The teen's parents are seeking damages in an amount to be determined by a jury.
Two medical engineering professors at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, have applied their knowledge of engineering and origami to developing surgical tools that can reduce the size of incisions and eliminate the need for sutures.

To that end, BYU has licensed several origami-inspired technologies to Intuitive Surgical, a leader in robotic surgery and the manufacturer of the da Vinci Surgical System.

The technologies licensed to Intuitive Surgical are not only smaller than tools traditionally used during surgery, they use fewer parts. Both the size and simplicity of the new BYU-designed technology may make surgery more precise and less invasive, according to mechanical engineering professor Spencer Magleby, PhD.

"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," said Dr. Magleby. "There's a similar idea here: We'd like something to get quite small to go through the incision, but once it's inside, we'd like it to get much larger."

To learn more about this technology and how the engineers were inspired by the ancient Japanese art of folding paper, watch the video below.

More articles on surgical procedures:

Patients undergoing bladder cancer surgery are at major risk for blood clots, study finds

Time out: Health system in Iowa has 4 wrong-site surgeries in 40 days

Hypothermia during surgery associated with greater infection risk
Lord Rana says he cant understand the anti-EU stance of First Minister Arlene Foster

Leaving the European Union would have a "disastrous impact" on Northern Ireland's tourism industry and could lead to job losses, a hotel boss has warned.

Lord Rana (77) said his plans to build more hotels here could be put on hold if the UK voted for a Brexit.

His company Andras House owns five hotels in Belfast - Holiday Inn Express, Ramada Plaza, two Ibis hotels, and the Holiday Inn.

Indian-born Lord Rana fears the province would be hit especially hard by a Brexit.

"It will be the worst thing to happen for the Northern Ireland economy especially," he said.

"I am very, very concerned. Our tourism industry has been doing well despite the downturn.

"Leaving the Common Market would be very bad for our industry.

"Europeans come to Northern Ireland for their holiday. Out of the EU, there would be travel restrictions and all sorts of issues that would not be helpful in our industry.

"I am really concerned that leaving the EU would be very detrimental to Northern Ireland."

Lord Rana is one of our best-known businessmen and during the 1980s and 1990s he was heavily involved in bringing politicians and business groups together.

His properties were bombed 26 times during the Troubles, including one that was attacked twice in the same day.

His comments came as the latest figures showed Northern Ireland welcomed 1.5 million overseas visitors between January and September last year.

Lord Rana warned that jobs in the industry could be lost and he reiterated that his own company's plans for further expansion may have to be reconsidered in the event of a Brexit.

"Jobs here could be lost," he insisted.

"My company has plans to build at least three hotels over the next three years.

"If the UK was to leave, you have to sit back and reconsider whether it is viable.

"It's good quality hotels, at an acceptable price, and a lower cost of travel, which are keys to developing tourism.

"If there were difficulties in travelling, higher costs and Customs duties for example, that would be detrimental to us."

Lord Rana was awarded an MBE in 1996 and was elevated to the House of Lords in 2004.

He said he failed to understand the attitudes of some of our politicians, including First Minister Arlene Foster and her DUP.

"Northern Ireland has done well," he said.

"European funds have helped Northern Ireland.

"I don't understand why politicians are in favour of opting out of the EU.

It doesn't make economic sense.

"Tourism is doing well, so I hope it doesn't happen.

"If we were to opt out, it would be really disastrous for tourism, particularly in Northern Ireland."
A county Tyrone insurance broker has acquired a third-generation Newry company as part of a 1.2m investment.

Dickson of Omagh said its purchase of Sam McCullough Insurance Services was part of "ambitious expansion plans", which would help create 30 new jobs.

The insurance broker also announced its was opening a new head office and call centre in Omagh, moving from the centre of the town to larger premises on Dromore Road.

The business's five branches are in Cookstown, Dungannon and Newtownstewart, as well as Omagh and Newry.

The firm is spending a total of 1.2m on its head office expansion and its acquisition of Sam McCullough Insurance Services.

Managing director Ashley Dickson said his company's reputation had grown in recent years. "This reputation for personal care and looking after clients' interests has created a loyal customer base confident they're in good hands," he added.

And he insisted the new headquarters and the Newry acquisition demonstrated Dickson's commitment to the economy and the insurance profession in Northern Ireland.

"I am delighted that the growth of Dickson Insurance will create new career opportunities for insurance professionals in the Omagh and Newry areas," he said.

Dickson also upgraded its computer systems.

The firm, which now employs 50 people, was founded in 1992 and is 100% family-owned.

Dickson operates in a wide range of insurance sectors including private, motor, household, investment, property and in agricultural vehicles.

It has clients across Ireland, Great Britain and even as far away as Hong Kong .

Dickson's purchase of Sam McCullough in Newry is the third major corporate transaction in the sector in Northern Ireland so far this year. Last month, Abbey announced it was acquiring Open + Direct from Swinton Insurance Group in a multi-million pound deal. The transaction returned Open + Direct to Northern Ireland ownership for the first time in nearly 10 years. The move also created a new top insurance player in Northern Ireland with a total of 200,000 customers and 420 staff.

And in January, Ryan Speciality Group subsidiary Ryan Direct Group, which is based in Chicago, paid an undisclosed sum for Midas Underwriting in Newtownards. Midas Underwriting employs 51 people.

That transaction was the first big insurance deal for Northern Ireland in two years, since Liberty Insurance in Boston bought Hughes Insurance, also in Newtownards.

50

Number of staff that Dickson employs across Northern Ireland
Stormont ministers and senior civil servants were out of their depth and had "insufficient" advice to deal with the sale of Northern Ireland's biggest loan portfolio, a major parliamentary probe has revealed.

The damning report by the Stormont finance committee was set up following allegations of impropriety behind the scenes of Nama's sale of more than 1bn of Northern Ireland loans.

In Northern Ireland's biggest ever property deal, the Republic's bad bank sold the loans to US vulture fund Cerberus.

Issues were first raised amid a BBC Spotlight television documentary, which highlighted concerns that an advisor on Nama's Northern Ireland Advisory Committee was to receive a multi-million pound 'fixer's fee' for setting up the deal, known as Project Eagle.

The committee report says evidence suggests that "Executive ministers and senior departmental officials had insufficient professional advice to fully assess the strategic considerations" in relation to Nama's operations in Northern Ireland.

That includes the Project Eagle bidding process and "the interests of the various parties involved". It also said Nama's refusal to give oral evidence to the committee was "particularly unhelpful".

"Nama needed to be more open and accessible given the importance of the Project Eagle portfolio to the Northern Ireland economy".

It says there are "lessons to be learned" by the Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP).

The report said "different aspects of the Project Eagle controversy could be seen as having caused reputational damage to DFP, the Northern Ireland Executive, the Irish Government and Nama".

It also says it requires oral evidence from a number of well-known business and political figures.

That includes Health Minister Simon Hamilton, former Nama advisor Frank Cushnahan, vulture fund Cerberus, along with property developers such as John Miskelly, Andrew Creighton and construction firm, the Lagan Group.

It also wants to hear from Gareth Robinson, the son of former First Minister Peter Robinson.

The probe is trying to establish the facts over a number of areas, including the Department of Finance and Personnel's relationship with Nama and the reasons for and rationale for the loan sale. The committee said it faced a number of challenges in its evidence gathering, including a "reticence on the part of some witnesses" to provide oral or written evidence.

It says it has now received more than two thousand pages of documents from "a range of sources".

Last month, a second BBC investigation accused businessman and former Nama advisor Frank Cushnahan of seeking corrupt payments in relation to the loan sale.

All parties involved in the 1.2bn transaction in 2014 have denied wrongdoing.
Former chancellor Kenneth Clarke has said Brexit could pose enormous problems for Ireland

Former chancellor Kenneth Clarke has said Brexit could pose enormous problems for Ireland.

The pro-European Tory joined business leaders in Dublin, warning that British withdrawal from the EU would represent a huge risk to the Republic.

The cost of buying Irish goods in Britain has already started to rise because of currency changes.

Mr Clarke said: "The risk of a possible Brexit could pose enormous problems for the UK. I think it would pose enormous problems for the Republic of Ireland as well, and so far most electors in Britain have not been made aware of that."

One of Ireland's main banks reiterated its concerns. Allied Irish Bank chairman Richard Pym, who hosted the debate, said: "Brexit represents a huge risk for Ireland."
Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall with former Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson at Clarence House

Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall and president of WOW, with Jude Kelly (left), founder of WOW and presenter Clare Balding (right)

The Duchess of Cornwall was dubbed a 'feminist' as she hosted a reception for a global festival championing gender equality.

Author Kathy Lette described Camilla as a supporter of women's rights during the event which celebrated the annual Women Of The World (WOW) Festival yesterday.

The Duchess, who is president of WOW, welcomed a host of famous faces to Clarence House, her official London residence, including Clare Balding, Dame Jenni Murray, Amanda Wakeley and Theresa May.

Ms Lette, speaking about Camilla, said: "I would say she's a feminist for sure, just look at this event for a group of diverse, outspoken women."

The Duchess has been a long-term supporter of Wow, now in its sixth year, and has also worked for a number of years to raise awareness about the devastating effects of rape.

Southbank Centre's Women Of The World festival has grown to become a global network of festivals which champion gender equality, celebrating the achievements of women and girls everywhere and examining the obstacles which stop them from fulfilling their potential.

Wow is the largest women's festival in the world with events involving one million people across five continents. The festival began yesterday and runs until Sunday.

In London, it features talks and debates on a range of gender-related issues, led by speakers such as Sandi Toksvig, Baroness Lawrence and Charlotte Church.
Ian Paisley was given six penalty points

North Antrim MP Ian Paisley has been fined 250 by a court for driving without insurance.

The Democratic Unionist, 49, pleaded guilty to driving his car without insurance in Northern Ireland on February 18 last year.

He was stopped on the Laganbank Road, Lisburn, near Belfast.

The senior unionist was given six penalty points during a hearing at Lisburn Magistrates' Court, according to a courts statement.

A spokesman for Mr Paisley said: "Ian has been driving since he was 17 and has always had car insurance until a completely accidental oversight on his part at the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015.

"He was changing cars and hadn't realised his insurance had expired. Some may appreciate that his mind was elsewhere at the time, given family circumstances."

Mr Paisley's father Ian, DUP founder and his predecessor as MP, died in September 2014.

The spokesman added: "Ian never disputed this was a mistake on his part and accepted without question the points on his licence."

He is an active member of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee at Westminster.

The former junior minister in the Stormont powersharing Executive has been a member of the Policing Board which scrutinises police in Northern Ireland.

He was first elected to Parliament in 2010.

The MP's House of Commons credit card was blocked recently after he ran up expenses debts.

He was 27,766 in the red when his card was stopped last November, and the deficit was 20,337 by last month, a Press Association Freedom of Information request revealed.
Ian Paisley has been handed a 250 fine and six penalty points for driving without insurance.

The 49-year-old DUP MP for North Antrim did not attend Lisburn Magistrates' Court on Thursday where he was formally accused of driving a Saab car on 18 February last year on the Laganbank Road in the city "without there being in force in relation to the user of the said motor vehicle by you such a Policy of Insurance or such a Security in respect of third-party risks as complied with the requirements of Part V111 of the Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1981, contrary to Article 90(4) of the Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1981".

Defence barrister Steven Molloy told the court he had been instructed "to enter a plea" to the offence.

Mr Paisley has been the MP for North Antrim office since 2010 and previously, he was a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for the same constituency from 1998 to 2010. Mr Paisley, who is a member of the DUP, is the son of the DUP's founder, the late Lord Bannside.

In court on Thursday, a prosecuting lawyer described how Mr Paisley was stopped by police as he drove along the Governor's Road in the city at 8.15pm on 18 February when a "check on the insurance database revealed there was no insurance policy" on the car.

The politician attended for police interview six days later and the lawyer said Mr Paisley has no previous criminal convictions.

Making his plea in mitigation, Mr Molloy said his client had been "oblivious that he had no insurance" as he believed the policy would have been automatically renewed when it expired a few weeks beforehand and the fact that it had lapsed was "an oversight on his part."

"He insured the car the very next day," said the lawyer adding that Mr Paisley should be given "maximum credit" for his early plea and previous "very good character."

Although he said he was not formally applying for reporting restrictions on Mr Paisley's Co Down address, he asked the media not to report it "for security reasons".

As well as the fine and penalty points, District Judge Rosie Watters ordered the MP to pay a 15 "offenders' levy".

A spokesman for Mr Paisley said in a statement: "Ian has been driving since he was 17 and has always had car insurance until a completely accidental oversight on his part at the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015.

"He was changing cars and hadn't realised his insurance had expired. Some may appreciate that his mind was elsewhere at the time given family circumstances.

"Ian never disputed this was a mistake on his part and accepted without question the points on his licence."
There was a "question mark" over whether Martin McGuinness was still linked to the IRA Army Council, the UUP's Tom Elliott said

A "crucial step" on the journey towards ridding Northern Ireland of paramilitary activity has been taken, Theresa Villiers has said, as MPs backed a key piece of legislation.

The Northern Ireland (Stormont Agreement and Implementation Plan) Bill seeks to implement parts of two political deals aimed at protecting the country's faltering power-sharing administration and it includes plans to establish a commission on paramilitary activity.

It also proposes making Assembly members commit to challenging paramilitary activity.

The Bill today cleared the Commons and Ms Villiers praised it as an "important step towards a more peaceful, prosperous and stable Northern Ireland".

During an earlier committee stage debate of the Bill, concerns were raised about allowing Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness to play a role in appointing members to the commission because of his IRA past.

Speaking during the Bill's third reading, Ms Villiers said the commission would help confine paramilitarism to the past.

The Northern Ireland Secretary said: "A crucial part of the Bill is to put into effect a treaty to be agreed between the UK and Irish governments that will establish the independent reporting commission which we see as a crucial step on the road to the day when paramilitarism in Northern Ireland is entirely something of the past rather than the present.

"The commission will both promote and report on progress towards ending paramilitary activity connected with Northern Ireland and all the pain and distress that it has caused in the past and sadly sometimes continues to do today."

Ms Villiers said that plans to make Assembly members promise to challenge paramilitary activity "take Northern Ireland's political parties further than ever before in their determination to see a complete end to paramilitary activity".

But she said it was a "matter of regret" that the setting up of organisations to deal with the legacy of violence in the country could not be included in the Bill.

Shadow Northern Ireland minister Stephen Pound said: "This is legislation moving forward, this is serious and sober legislation cementing the bricks in the architecture in a terrorist free Northern Ireland, a paramilitary free Northern Ireland, a Northern Ireland which will allow the innate genius of the people of Northern Ireland to flourish in a way they have too often in the past been denied to do so."

During committee stage, the Ulster Unionist Party's Tom Elliott (Fermanagh and South Tyrone) had warned against allowing Mr McGuinness to play a role in appointing members to the commission.

Mr Elliott added there was a "question mark" over whether Mr McGuinness was still linked to the IRA Army Council.

He suggested the Northern Ireland Policing Board would be a more independent body to decide two members of the Independent Reporting Commission, rather than allowing the First Minister and Deputy First Minister to make a joint decision.

But Northern Ireland Minister Ben Wallace said giving the power to the Police Board would not be consistent with the Fresh Start Agreement.

The Bill contains an amended pledge of office designed to tackle paramilitarism which all ministers in the executive will have to take before they are allowed to take up their position and something similar for members of the Assembly.

Concerns were expressed by a number of MPs about how the undertaking would be enforced.

Lady Hermon, the independent MP for North Down, moved an amendment to require the Assembly to implement an enforcement scheme but it was defeated by 201 votes to nine, a majority of 192, after Mr Wallace said the Assembly would be responsible for how any breaches were dealt with.

The Bill will now go to the House of Lords for consideration.
Myleene Klass at the site of the new Radiotherapy unit at Altnagelvin Hospital

Myleene Klass with some of the nurses from ward 4A at the Royal Victoria Hospital

Myleene Klass posts a selfie as she films a new show in Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital

Singer and TV presenter Myleene Klass has donned her scrubs and praised the work of Belfast nurses as she filmed a new programme in Northern Ireland.

The former Hear'say star tweeted pictures of her with some of the amazing nurses from ward 4A of the Royal Victoria Hospital.

Some of the patients got a bit of a surprise on Wednesday when the 37-year-old served up their dinner and helped staff with their ward rounds as she filmed the new show.

The show will focus on the work of nurses and medics who have come from abroad to work in the NHS and the scenes shot in Northern Ireland will focus on the Filipino nurses working for the Belfast Trust.

Actual squad goals. Thanks to the amazing nurses I worked with today, those around the UK and my own mama. #BBC #NHS #belfasttrust #ward4a A photo posted by myleeneklass (@myleeneklass) on Mar 9, 2016 at 11:39am PST

Myleenes mother Magdalena is originally from the Philippines and she worked as a nurse in England for many years.

Posting a picture with some of the nurses from the fractures ward, Myleene said: Actual squad goals. Thanks to the amazing nurses I worked with today, those around the UK and my own mama.

She also posted a picture of her with medical equipment in a hospital corridor and called herself nurse Myleene and added a selfie with the comment Where does it hurt? Working on the wards today.

In another photo, posed in a high-vis jacket and hard hat as she visited the site of the new 50 million radiotherapy unit at Altnagelvin Hospital in Londonderry.

Myleene got a glimpse of the new state-of the-art unit, which is expected to cater for over half a million people when it opens later this year.

The one-off segment, which will feature Myleenes interviews with some of Belfasts nurses, is expected to air in the summer.
Seven people in Northern Ireland were killed in house fires caused by smoking last year, the Fire Service has said

Seven people in Northern Ireland were killed in house fires caused by smoking last year, the Fire Service has said.

Firefighters also attended 69 fires caused by smoking materials.

Speaking on No Smoking Day yesterday, Fire and Rescue Service Commander Kevin O'Neill said that while people knew smoking damaged health, they should also consider the fire risk.

"It is vital that smokers understand how dangerous smoking at home can be," he added.

"Unfortunately, our firefighters witness first-hand the damage caused by fires in the home started because of smoking materials.

"These types of fires can spread rapidly through a house. Property can be replaced, but a life cannot.

"Giving up is obviously the best way to reduce the risk of a smoking-related fire, however, we appreciate for some smokers kicking the habit can be tough.

"Therefore, I would remind them to be extra careful if they are smoking or disposing of smoking materials in their home."
An Orangeman has been ordered to stand trial accused of grievously injuring a teenage girl hit by a car at a north Belfast flashpoint

An Orangeman has been ordered to stand trial accused of grievously injuring a teenage girl hit by a car at a north Belfast flashpoint.

John Aughey is also alleged to have carried out assaults on other men and women in the Ardoyne area on July 13 last year.

The 62-year-old was arrested following the incident on the Crumlin Road, close to the scene of disorder over a banned Orange parade.

Aughey, with an address at Mullan Road in Ballymoney, appeared before Belfast Magistrates Court yesterday for a preliminary enquiry hearing. He is charged with causing grievous bodily injury to the girl by dangerous driving.

She suffered multiple broken bones in the collision, including a shattered pelvis, after being trapped under a vehicle.

Aughey also faces counts of inflicting grievous bodily harm to her, assault occasioning actual bodily harm to two other people, and three common assaults. Defence counsel Richard McConkey did not challenge prosecution submissions that his client had a prima facie case to answer.

Aughey was released on continuing bail to return on the date of his arraignment.
Mark H Durkan (back) at the launch of the Womens Manifesto for the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly elections

Stormont minister Mark H Durkan has apologised for making a crass remark on the controversial subject of abortion at an event aimed at female voters.

Environment Minister and Foyle MLA Mark H Durkan was on a panel at a women's event when he stunned his audience into silence after being asked a question about abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormality (FFA).

According to witnesses, Mr Durkan opened his response with the comment: "Now to talk about the elephant in the room - or, the elephant in the womb."

Speaking on BBC Radio on Thursday morning, he apologised.

He said: "I made a clumsily attempt to bring a bit of levity to a very serious discussion that was ill-judged and I apologise for any upset caused."

He also said he was sorry that the comments had "overshadowed" the event.

Other panellists at the launch of the Women's Manifesto for the 2016 Assembly elections in Londonderry's Holywell Trust conceded he intended his remark to be humorous.

Earlier this week, Mr Durkan was officially crowned Stormont's biggest joker - but last night's remark during a serious debate appears to have gone down like a lead balloon.

An audience of up to 80 women were present, as well as a group of young teenage girls from a local secondary school.

DUP councillor Hilary McClintock last night said she had heard the gaffe.

She said Mr Durkan had been taking his turn to address the subject of FFA - which campaigners believe warrants new abortion legislation for Northern Ireland - when he began with an opening gambit branded "disrespectful" on social media last night.

"He thought he was being funny - but it wasn't funny," Mrs McClintock said.

"It was totally out of order and very inappropriate."

She said it wasn't uttered in a private aside to one person but was addressed before the whole audience. "It was very loud," she added. "He said it to the whole room and it didn't go down particularly well.

"There was a moment of shocked silence and a few comments from the other people.

"It was rather a crass remark."

Mrs McClintock said Derry City mayor, Sinn Fein's Elisha McCallion, chastised Mr Durkan, but declined to repeat what she said.

UUP Foyle candidate Julia Kee described the remark as "disgusting". "It was probably the most heinous comment I've heard," she said.

The Belfast Telegraph made several attempts to contact Mr Durkan and the SDLP for comment last night. No statement was issued.
Brendan McGuigan criticised the use of police custody for children and young people

Too many children are being held for too long in police custody in Northern Ireland, criminal justice inspectors said.

The Criminal Justice Inspectorate Northern Ireland (CJINI) called for new bail legislation.

More than 2,400 children and young people aged 17 or under were detained in PSNI accommodation during 2014-15.

Because of the lack of alternatives and their inability to seek their own arrangements in the way adults do, children and young people are more likely to be held in police cells than adults are once bail is denied, a report by the watchdog said.

Chief inspector Brendan McGuigan said: " While this may sometimes be necessary, it should be possible for custody officers to release young people to other suitable accommodation so that they are not held in police custody after being charged with an offence.

"This is particularly relevant for 'looked after' children or young people and we have recommended legislative reform be taken forward, during the next Northern Ireland Assembly mandate, to bring forward a Bail Act in respect of the right to bail for children and young people."

In 2014, there were 245 admissions to Woodlands Juvenile Justice Centre using the most common police powers, of which 95 were relating to children from care homes. Of these 245 admissions, 110 were released at court the following day.

The Criminal Justice Inspectorate Northern Ireland said the use of the centre was not considered a suitable alternative to police custody, given the long travel distances.

It noted official guidance that children are not to be held in police custody other than in "exceptional cases" and a court finding that health trusts should provide accommodation.

Custody officers did engage social workers in seeking alternatives.

In July 2013 the Justice Minister announced a consultation on proposed changes to bail legislation and it was intended that a Bail Act would be brought before the Assembly in 2015. It was decided that further discussions were required on the issues around bail for children and young people prior to legislation being progressed.

The report said: "To date, and at the time of writing however, due to other legislative priorities, a Bail Act for Northern Ireland has not been brought before the Committee for Justice.

"Inspectors believe that a Bail Act is necessary to resolve the difficulties with the existing legislation to reduce the numbers of children and young people held in police custody after charge."

Assistant Chief Constable Stephen Martin said it was encouraging that inspectors noted progress on custody arrangements and reforms that are now in place.

He said collaboration and connected support services were essential to meet complex needs and said they were working with Stormont's health authorities on future healthcare in custody.

"PSNI has also been proactive in engaging with the Health and Social Care Board to address the management of medication in PSNI custody.

"Similarly, the PSNI has been working extensively with Department of Justice on legislative reforms in relation to dealing with children and young people in police custody."
The van, centre top, under which the device exploded in east Belfast

A 35-year-old woman has been arrested by police investigating a dissident republican bomb attack on a prison officer in Belfast.

The suspect was detained in the city earlier and is being held at Musgrave serious crime suite, according to a Police Service of Northern Ireland spokesman.

Officers have also been granted an extra 24 hours to continue to question three men aged 34, 39 and 45 who were arrested on Sunday evening.

The prison officer, a 52-year-old married father-of-three, required surgery after an explosive device detonated under the van he was driving on Friday March 4.

It is understood he is now out of hospital.

A group calling itself the New IRA claimed to have carried out the attack.

In a statement to the BBC they said the officer was targeted because he was involved in training other guards at Maghaberry high security jail, near Lisburn in Co Antrim.

The terror group said he was one of a number on a list of potential targets and the attack arose from a dispute over the treatment of dissident Republican inmates.

They also claimed to have used the plastic explosive Semtex and a commercial detonator.

Following the blast, police commanders expressed fears that dissidents planned to step up the number of attacks to mark the centenary of the Easter Rising.
The scene at Woodburn forest on March 10, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

The scene at Woodburn forest on March 10, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

The scene at Woodburn forest on March 10, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

The scene at Woodburn forest on March 10, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

The scene at Woodburn forest on March 10, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

The scene at Woodburn forest on March 10, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Picture - Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Belfast , UK - March 10, Pictured is the scene at Woodburn forest on March 10, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

The scene at Woodburn forest on March 10, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

The scene at Woodburn forest on March 10, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Pictured is the scene at Woodburn forest on March 10, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Pictured is the scene at Woodburn forest on March 10, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Belfast , UK - March 10, Pictured is the scene at Woodburn forest on March 10, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Belfast , UK - March 10, Pictured is the scene at Woodburn forest on March 10, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

he scene at Woodburn forest on March 10, 2016 Belfast, Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Anti-drilling protesters have avoided a High Court ban on going near an exploratory oil well site in Co Antrim.

A judge had warned campaigners he would grant an injunction to the company behind the project at Woodburn Forest near Carrickfergus if they blocked work getting underway.

But it was confirmed to Lord Justice Girvan on Thursday that contractors were able to get onto the site without obstruction.

On that basis he adjourned the case for a week, when a further update on the situation is to be given.

Lawyers for InfraStrata commenced action over alleged trespassing and interference with its work.

Proceedings were issued against 10 people named on legal papers after a notice was issued for protesters to vacate the site on Tuesday.

The Stop the Drill campaign group is opposed to a controversial borehole to search for oil and gas in the area, saying it is part of the catchment for a reservoir supplying water to homes in Belfast and Carrick.

They claim chemicals used in the drill process could leach into the water table.

But Northern Ireland Water, which leased the site to InfraStrata, insists the project will not compromise the water supply.

Read More

Groundwater will also be protected by measures including the drill shaft being encased in steel and concrete, according to the firm.

Earlier this week Mid and East Antrim Council approved a waste management plan - effectively paving the way for four months of work on the site to begin.

Counsel for InfraStrata said a protest camp has been in operation since last month.

He claimed groups of up to 25 people gathered during earlier, preliminary stages in the project.

At one stage cars were used to block off the entrance to the site, he claimed.

Any further disruption will have financial consequences for a project costing 8,000 a day, the court heard.

It was argued that the company has a right of way on private land and was only taking the minimal step of seeking an injunction at this stage.

A barrister representing some of the 10 defendants insisted his clients had neither trespassed nor caused obstruction.

Michael Lavery also stressed the international concern at what he described as a world-first attempt to drill in a water catchment area.

Following confirmation that contractors were able to begin work, Mr Lavery said there had been a heavy police presence and some exchanges with protestors about their rights.

"There's some concern among local residents about whether they should have access up and down that laneway," he told the court.

"This was always a dignified, peaceful protest and there was never any suggestion access was going to be blocked or obstructed."

The case was adjourned until March 18.
Praveen Halappanavar, husband of Savita Halappanavar, arrives for the inquest into her death at Galway Coroners Court in 2013.

People attend a Candlelit vigil at St Stephens green in Dublin to mark one year since the death of Savita Halappanavar.

A medical negligence case being taken by the widower of Savita Halappanavar has been settled out of court.

The case, which was being taken by Praveen Halappanavar against the Republic's health service - the HSE - and obstetrician Katherine Astbury, was due to begin on Thursday in the High Court.

It was expected to take two to three days to hear all the facts.

However, a source has told the Irish Independent the case was settled late last week.

While details of the agreement have not been made public it is understood the settlement is significant.

Mr Halappanavar has been living in the US for the past number of years while he carries out a mid-term project for his employers Boston Scientific. He was expected to return and give evidence in the case. However, it's understood he did not return home from the US for the talks last week.

A source said: "Praveen is relieved it is finally over."

Papers for the personal injury summons, lodged with the High Court in September 2013, stated that Ms Halappanavar's constitutional right to life was breached.

The civil suit included over 30 claims of alleged negligence in the case, including failures in the treatment given to Ms Halappanavar during her time at University Hospital Galway and a failure to terminate the pregnancy when it became clear that Ms Halappanavar's life was at risk.

Ms Halappanavar (31) was 17 weeks' pregnant and miscarrying when she was admitted to University Hospital Galway on October 21, 2012. She died seven days later on October 28 as a result of septicaemia caused by E coli ESBL.

Her husband Praveen consistently claimed she had asked on several occasions for a termination but was refused. His claims were later borne out by the inquest into her death.

Three separate investigations were carried out into the young woman's death.

An inquest returned a verdict of medical misadventure making nine recommendations including that the Medical Council lay out exactly when a doctor can intervene to save the life of a mother in similar circumstances.

A HSE clinical review into her treatment found there had been inadequate assessment and monitoring of the patient.

It added there had been "a lack of recognition of the gravity of the situation and the increasing risk to the life of the mother" among staff at the Galway hospital.

A Hiqa report into Ms Halappanavar's death identified 13 "missed opportunities" which, if acted upon, "may potentially have resulted in a different outcome for her".

In total 33 recommendations were made in three separate reviews into Ms Halappanavar's death by the HSE, the Health Information and Quality Authority and the inquest into Ms Halappanavar's death.

The HSE promised to fully implement all the recommendations included in the review into her death. Following the investigations into her death, the hospital group ordered a review of the actions of all staff members involved in her care.

The independent review was compiled by Ernst and Young for the Saolta Group, which runs Galway University Hospital.

A total of 30 staff were involved in Ms Halappanavar's care and it found 21 had no case to answer. The other nine staff received either written warnings or were given more training.

None were suspended or dismissed and the disciplinary process is now deemed to be concluded. A number of staff involved in the care of Ms Halappanavar remained on sick leave two years after her death.

The settlement brings to a close the legal proceedings against hospital staff and management following the death of Ms Halappanavar.

Irish Independent Caroline Crawford
Words on the memorial to murdered Fusiliers Dougald McCaughey and brothers Joseph and John McCaig

Some of the main suspects in the killing of three Scottish soldiers in a 1971 IRA gun attack are believed to be still on the run in the Republic.

One of the men suspected of killing Dougald McCaughey (23), Joseph (18) and John (17) McCaig, is understood to be a former paratrooper who had settled in Ardoyne in Belfast.

The three soldiers were murdered by the IRA 45 years ago this evening. Simultaneous acts of remembrance will be held for the trio tonight at 7pm - the time they are believed to have died at the hands of gunmen.

The Belfast Telegraph can today reveal that despite previous claims they were lured to their deaths by republican women, a report by the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) found they were "befriended" by IRA men in a bar.

The HET said it believed the soldiers became acquainted with the terrorists over the course of an afternoon of drinking in Belfast city centre, after which they were lured into a car on the false promise of meeting up with women.

The report said a barman recalled seeing the soldiers with two men, adding that the group of five left when a sixth man arrived, presumably to collect them. The soldiers were killed a short time later.

The report also revealed that while the RUC started the murder investigation, it was taken over by a team from the Metropolitan Police, and that officers interviewed some 341 witnesses in their probe.

It further detailed how police suspected north Belfast IRA man Patrick McAdorey and Anthony 'Dutch' Doherty of being involved in the deaths.

McAdorey was shot dead by the security forces before he could be charged with the murders. Doherty, meanwhile, escaped from Crumlin Road Gaol, where he had been interned, in December 1971 and went on the run in the Republic before he could be charged.

The HET noted that while Martin Meehan's name had been linked to the killings, there was no intelligence or evidence to formally connect him.

The other two suspects, who have not been named, are believed to be still on the run.

Police were said to have recovered 15 shells from the scene of the shootings, but no records have been found.

No one was ever charged over the murders, and the HET report found no new lines of inquiry in its review of the case.

"Murder investigations are never officially closed, but with the passage of time since 1971, it is unlikely that new investigative opportunities will arise," the review said.

Mr McCaughey's cousin, who first saw the HET's report in 2012, has consistently called for an investigation into the three murders.

"I want a public inquiry," David McCaughey previously told this newspaper. "A lot of the things I've already seen in the report, you wouldn't believe."
The target of 85% of cancer patients to be seen within two months of urgent referral has been missed for almost two years

The NHS is now on track for a record number of cancer patients not receiving treatment on time - described as a "depressing milestone" by charities.

One in five patients wait too long for cancer treatment, with more than 73,000 waiting more than two months in the last four years, new data shows.

Some 20,137 patients in England have had to wait longer than two months to start treatment following an urgent referral to hospital by their GP, figures for 2015/16 to date show.

In the whole of the previous year, 21,407 patients were not treated within the two-month target, while more than 55,000 have not been treated on time since 2012.

Experts said huge financial pressures were to blame for the rising numbers.

The target is for 85% of patients to be seen within two months of urgent referral.

This has now been missed for almost two years and was last hit annually in 2013/14.

The latest data, published by NHS England, shows 82.3% of patients were seen within the target for 2015/16 to date, while 83.4% were seen in the previous year.

Figures for 2015/16 to date show that 113,901 patients have been referred, with 93,764 treated on time and 20,137 waiting longer.

In 2014/15, 128,642 were referred, of whom 107,235 received a first treatment on time and 21,407 waited longer.

In 2013/14, 123,543 were referred under the target, with 106,104 treated within the target and 17,439 waiting longer, while in 2012/13, 116,528 patients were referred, with 101,632 treated within the target and 14,896 waiting longer.

While the number of patients needing urgent referrals for cancer treatment has risen steadily in recent years, experts said this was not the reason why patients were forced to wait.

John Appleby, from the King's Fund think tank, said: "Whilst there is a weak association between increased hospital activity (ie, more patients being treated) and longer waiting times, it is more likely this deteriorating performance is symptomatic of the huge financial pressures on NHS trusts."

Emlyn Samuel, Cancer Research UK's senior policy manager, said: "Failure to meet this target means that in recent years tens of thousands of patients have had to wait longer than two months to start cancer treatment.

"These targets exist to ensure swift diagnosis and access to cancer treatment, which is vital if we're to give patients the best chance of a cure and are serious about having survival rates as good as anywhere in the world.

"The recent cancer strategy sets out the ambition to diagnose and treat cancer at an earlier stage while improving patient experience, so action is needed now to turn around this unacceptable situation for patients."

Dr Fran Woodard, executive director of policy and impact at Macmillan Cancer Support, said the charity was "bitterly disappointed" the cancer target was being missed.

"More than half of trusts (58%) are currently failing people - clearly not enough has been done to make sure that cancer patients across the country experience swift referrals for treatments.

"Last year, the cancer strategy for England was published, which was an acknowledgement that more needs to be done to support people affected by cancer.

"Yet here we are at this depressing milestone for waiting times, without a firm commitment to implementing what was recommended.

"Waiting a long time to be diagnosed and to start treatment is the last thing people need at what is already an incredibly tough time.

"We must see urgent improvements if the NHS has any hope of handling increasing pressures and giving people affected by cancer the best support possible to cope with this debilitating disease."

Nigel Edwards, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust, said: "Today's drop in performance is yet another example of the great pressure the entire health service is facing."

An NHS England spokesman said: "The NHS is helping more people survive cancer than ever before and we've met and exceeded seven of the eight cancer waiting time standards.

"Swift diagnosis is key and these figures show that more people than ever are seeing a specialist within two weeks of visiting their GP.

"The Independent Cancer Taskforce has made a number of recommendations to support earlier diagnosis and better treatment, and we are working with partners across the health system to take these forward as quickly as possible."
David Cameron has accused Brexit campaigners of promoting a vision of life outside the EU that was "too good to be true", and warned that a vote for withdrawal would instead endanger trade and jobs.

The Prime Minister's warning came as Boris Johnson appealed to voters to ignore the "pessimists" and "gloomadon-poppers" and opt to quit the EU in the referendum on June 23.

Making his first speech on a Vote Leave platform since declaring for Brexit, the London Mayor said withdrawal from the EU could usher in a new era of prosperity for the UK.

"I think it is time to ignore the pessimists and the merchants of gloom and to do a new deal that would be good for Britain and good for Europe too," he said in a speech to workers at a transport depot in Dartford, Kent.

"It is time to burst loose of all those regulations and get out into a world that is changing and growing and becoming more exciting the whole time.

"If we hold our nerve and we are not timid and we are not cowed by the gloomadon-poppers on the Remain campaign and we vote for freedom and for the restoration of democracy, then I believe that this country will continue to grow and prosper and thrive as never before."

His comments appeared to be a direct rebuff to Mr Cameron, who warned on Thursday of potential large-scale job losses if Britain left the EU and accused the Out campaign of treating it as a "price worth paying".

But the Prime Minister stuck to his guns in a speech just hours later to the Welsh Conservative conference in Llangollen, telling delegates that the Leave camp were behaving as if EU withdrawal was an "abstract question" rather than something with direct and concrete consequences for ordinary families.

"They are asking us to trust that leaving would somehow be worth the profound economic shock and the years of uncertainty that would follow," said Mr Cameron.

"They say we would have more control. How exactly? Leaving the EU but remaining in the single market doesn't give us more control, it just stops us from having any say over the rules of trade. Relying on World Trade Organisation rules doesn't give us more control, it just hurts industry, it hits jobs and hikes up prices. Trying for a free trade deal doesn't give us more control, it just means years of painful negotiations and a poorer deal than we have today.

"In the end those who want us to leave are telling you that you can have all the benefits of EU membership but none of the trade-offs. But as everyone knows, if it sounds too good to be true, that's normally because it is.

"And let us remember, this isn't some abstract question. These are actually people's jobs, people's livelihoods, people's life chances, people's families we are talking about. I say `Don't put them at risk, don't take this leap in the dark'."

Mr Johnson appeared to endorse Canada's arrangements with the EU as a potential model for Britain in the future.

Asked whether the UK would have to accept free movement of labour as part of a post-exit deal, he said: "I don't think that is necessary. I think we can strike a deal as the Canadians have done based on trade and getting rid of tariffs."

Mr Cameron's warning of the risks of withdrawal came hot on the heels of a call from former prime minister Tony Blair for the Remain campaign to start making the positive case for EU membership.

"I would like to see the pro-European side get out there with a bit of passion and vigour and determination and stand up for what we believe," Mr Blair told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"And what we believe not just as a matter of economic realism, but as a matter of political idealism."

Mr Blair signalled that he would not play a central role in the campaign, acknowledging that his participation " carries with it negatives as well as positives".

Strains within the Cabinet were again highlighted as the pro-Brexit Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith poured scorn on the warnings of the In campaign.

"They are almost panicky really, I listen to these endless comments and speeches about the dire warnings, they are almost biblical, you are expecting a plague of frogs and the death of the first-born," Mr Duncan Smith told the Today programme.

Downing Street, however, insisted that Mr Cameron was right to underline the economic risks involved in leaving.

"He thinks that it is important that the Government puts out the facts and the case to the British people," the Prime Minister's official spokeswoman said.

"When the Government has been so focused on making sure that we deliver economic and financial security for people up and down the country, it is important that we highlight the risks of leaving."
The party of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has officially confirmed that she will not become Burma's next president.

Unofficially, she has vowed to be the de-facto leader by calling the shots from behind the scenes, and party members said that is how things will work in Burma's first democratically elected government in more than half a century.

The party nominated two Suu Kyi loyalists for the post including front-runner Htin Kyaw, a 70-year-old Oxford graduate.

The nomination will be followed by a vote among legislators later this month before the new president is installed on April 1.

"I'm very happy and very pleased and I believe he (Htin Kyaw) will work together with Aung San Suu Kyi for the benefit of the people," said Khin Su Su Kyi, an NLD politician.

For the past several weeks Ms Suu Kyi is believed to have held closed-door talks with the powerful military generals to suspend a constitutional clause that bars her from the presidency.

The outcome of the negotiations was not known until Thursday when the names of the loyalists were announced, signalling the end, at least for now, of Ms Suu Kyi's long-time ambition to be Burma's leader.

Ms Suu Kyi did not attend the high-profile nomination session but posted a letter on Facebook to her legions of supporters. She called it a "first step toward realising the expectations and desires of the people who overwhelmingly supported the National League for Democracy in the elections".

The long-time former political prisoner led her National League for Democracy to a landslide victory in November general elections, paving the way for the country's first democratically elected government since the military took power in 1962.

Despite her massive popular support, the 70-year-old is blocked from the presidency because the constitution bars anyone with a foreign spouse or children from holding the executive office. Ms Suu Kyi's two sons are British, as was her late husband. The clause is widely seen as having been written by the military with her in mind.

During the parliament session, the NLD nominated, from the lower house, Htin Kyaw, a long-time confidante and associate of Ms Suu Kyi. He is widely respected and seen as a front-runner.

"I think he is the best one for the country. He has experience, he's fair and he's a real gentleman so our country's future will be very good," said Kyaw Win Maung, an NLD politician.

From the upper house, the NLD nominated Henry Van Hti Yu of the ethnic Chin minority.

The outgoing ruling party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party, also nominated two candidates - Sai Mauk Kham, currently a vice president, and former upper house speaker Khin Aung Myint.

The military bloc, which holds a constitutionally mandated 25% of seats, is also allowed to nominate one candidate. His name has not yet been announced. But he will likely become the country's other vice president.

A vote will be held later this month to elect the president and two vice presidents.

The NLD candidates are assured of a victory given the party's control of both chambers. One of them will become the president and the other will become a vice president.

Ms Suu Kyi fought for decades to end dictatorship in Burma, and remains her party's unquestioned leader. She was awarded the 1991 Nobel prize while under house arrest, where she spent 15 years locked away by a junta that feared her political popularity.
Germany's interior minister said the material would give authorities a better chance to track down and prosecute people who had fought with IS

Police in Germany are in possession of files containing personal data on members of the extremist Islamic State group and believe them to be authentic.

The announcement by federal criminal police came after Sky News in Britain reported it had obtained 22,000 Islamic State files on the border with Turkey and Syria.

The files detailed IS fighters' real names, where they were from, telephone numbers, and even names of those who sponsored and recruited the militants.

The broadcaster said the files were passed on to them on a memory stick stolen from the head of Islamic State's internal security police by a former fighter who had grown disillusioned with the group.

Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported it had also obtained "dozens" of similar files on the Turkey-Syria border, where it said Islamic State files and videos were widely available from anti-IS Kurdish fighters and also members of the Islamic State group itself.

A spokeswoman for Germany's Bundeskriminalamt said her agency is currently evaluating the files.

She declined to say where the agency obtained the files, how many documents are involved and how long it has had them.

Sky reported that the documents are a collection of forms filled out by recruits when they were inducted into IS. The forms have 23 questions and include nationals from at least 51 countries, it is reported.

Germany's interior minister, Thomas de Maiziere, said that the material would give authorities a better chance to track down and prosecute people who had fought with IS.

The material also seems to have the potential to help authorities crack recruitment networks in Europe and elsewhere that have been sending fighters to join IS, which has seized large areas of land in Syria and Iraq and declared a self-styled caliphate on the territory under its control.

US army colonel Steve Warren, spokesman for the US-led coalition against IS, said the information could help the coalition fight the Islamic State group by aiding in a crackdown on its foreign fighter networks.

He said that while he was not able to verify the documents, he hoped that "if there is a media outlet that has these names and numbers, I hope they publish them".

This would help bring attention to the problem of foreign fighters joining IS, and would help law enforcement crack down on the problem, he said.

"This would allow the law enforcement apparatus across the world to become much more engaged and begin to help do what we can to stem this flow of foreign fighters - so we're hopeful that its accurate and if so we certainly plan to do everything we can to help," he said.

There are no clear estimates of how many IS fighters are in Iraq and Syria, but the numbers range between 30,000 and 100,000. A CIA assessment in late 2014 put the number of IS fighters at around 31,500.
Nancy Reagan has begun her final journey to her husband's side as a police motorcade carried her coffin down an empty freeway lined with saluting firefighters and mourners holding hands over their hearts in tribute to America's former first lady.

The roadside reverence reflected her late husband's touch with the common man and followed some of the route his own funeral procession took in 2004, eventually winding its way up to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, where volunteers in blue jackets stood behind a guardrail festooned with small American flags.

The day began with a private ceremony for family and close friends at a funeral home in Santa Monica, followed by a public viewing at the library.

People came from near and far to pay tribute to the 94-year-old widow of the 40th president, who was respected for her grace, strength and unfailing loyalty to her husband during this two terms in office and his final struggles with Alzheimer's disease.

Retired teacher Mary Ellen Gruendyke, who arose early so she could drive nearly 100 miles from her Riverside home, said she admired Mrs Reagan for her "Just Say No" campaign against drugs and the president for infusing a sense of patriotism in the country.

"Ronald Reagan was one of the best presidents we've ever had and I admired them both as a couple for their love story and the support they showed to each other," said Ms Gruendyke, who wore a Ronald Reagan souvenir scarf around her neck.

Shuttles bused groups of mourners to take turns walking quietly in a circle around the coffin covered in white roses and peonies - Mrs Reagan's favourite flower.

The mood was sombre and many wiped away tears. More than 1,000 people paid their respects in the first two hours, according to the library.

The public viewing came hours after the small motorcade traveled 45 miles from the coast to the hills above Simi Valley, north west of Los Angeles. The public viewing will continue up to the funeral on Friday.

Mrs Reagan, who died on Sunday, planned the smallest details of her funeral. She selected the funeral's flower arrangements, the music to be played by a Marine Corps band and the list of guests invited to the private memorial.

Just as she was always by her husband's side in life, she will be laid to rest inches from the president on a hillside tomb facing west towards the Pacific Ocean.

As a heavy flow of traffic moved in the other direction, the normally-congested highway lanes were kept open for the hearse as it drove beneath a massive flag hung by firefighters from a flyover.

After turning on to the Ronald Reagan Freeway, the vehicle passed under the firefighters, who wore dress blues and saluted atop their trucks. Building workers in hard hats, riders on horseback, parents holding children and other observers lined the roadside to watch and take photos.

When the hearse arrived at the library, a military honour guard carried the coffin between two identical towering portraits of the diminutive Mrs Reagan wearing a long, red dress and then past a gurgling courtyard fountain. The coffin was placed in a lobby behind a bronze statue of a smiling Ronald Reagan holding a cowboy hat.

The Reagan's daughter Patti Davis, dressed in black, was among about 20 family members and close friends who attended a short prayer service beside the closed casket.

"May angels surround her and saints release her to Jesus," the Rev Stuart Kenworthy, vicar at the Washington National Cathedral, said during a short eulogy.

The Rev Donn Moomaw, the Reagan family's pastor, read from the 23rd Psalm, which begins: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want."

Attendees included the children of Ronald Reagan's son Michael and Dennis Revell, the widower of the president's late daughter Maureen. Michael Reagan and the president's other son, Ron Prescott Reagan, are expected at Friday's funeral.

After the prayers, Ms Davis led mourners in taking turns to pay their respects, standing quietly by her mother's coffin. The final one was Mrs Reagan's spokeswoman, Joanne Drake, who fought back tears.

When the private service ended, House of Representatives speaker Paul Ryan bowed his head to the coffin, made the sign of the cross and clasped his hands in prayer for about a minute.

Those who came to pay their respects tended to be older, many with memories of Ronald Reagan as both president and governor of California.

Roy Dillard, 80, drove more than 100 miles from Bakersfield with several generations of his family. He called Mr Reagan the greatest president in his lifetime. His daughter, Tina Choate, added: "And he was a wonderful governor too."

"And a great movie star in westerns," daughter Bobbie Eldridge chipped in.

Ms Eldridge said she most admired how Mrs Reagan "stood by her man" and the "beautiful love that they had".
Embrace of the Serpent, the Colombian film nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at this years Oscars, takes viewers on a mythopoetic historical trip up the mysterious Amazon river. Of course, any time you depict the clash of European and native cultures along that particular waterway, youre pretty much playing in Werner Herzogs sandbox. The famed German director created the ultimate statement on the subject with his indelible 1972 film Aguirre, The Wrath of God. Embrace of the Serpent tackles the subject with slightly less angst, but with an increasing amount of metaphysical weight.

The film, written and directed by Ciro Guerra (The Wind Journeys, La Sombra del Caminante), is loosely inspired by the journals of European explorers Theodor Koch-Grunberg and Richard Evans Schultes. The two were ethnologists and ethnobotanists who wrote extensively about the native peoples of the Amazon river basin. In many cases, the writings of these two men are the only records we have of long-lost tribes and long-forgotten plants.

Shot in luminous black-and-white, the film takes us first back to 1909 when the fictionalized Theodor (Jan Bijvoet) and his loyal native guide (Yauenku Migue) stumble into the isolated camp of legendary, hermit-like shaman Karamakate (Nilbio Torres). Theodor, a gentleman explorer, has contracted some unknown tropical illness and is on deaths door. The locals have informed him that only the ministrations of Karamakate can save him. But the bitter young shaman is the last of his people and his mistrust of white men is strong. Eventually, however, hes convinced to help Theodor, leading the scientist on a punishing quest along the river to find a rare flower, the yakruna, with allegedly miraculous healing powers.

In a parallel storyline, set decades later, a German ethnobotanist named Evan (Brionne Davis) shows up looking for Karamakate. Theodor, it seems, never made it out of the jungle, but his journals were published and have been the last word on Amazonian culture and medicine for the last 30 years. Evan wants to confirm the writings and asks a now aged Karamakate (Antonio Bolivar) to take him on the same journey upriver. Unfortunately, the shaman is a senile shell of his former self. The formulas for his miraculous cures are now lost to time. But he flips the script on the German and asks the European to serve as guide back to the Workshop of the Gods where the last surviving yakruna flowers might be found.

By paging back and forth in time, the film contemplates how modern civilization has impacted this delicate biological region. Successive generations of colonists, conquerers, rubber barons and religious missionaries have all but wiped out native traditionstaking countless medicinal mysteries with them. Although, for the majority of its run time, Embrace of the Serpent sticks to its ethnographic vibe, it becomes increasingly dark, tense and spiritual the farther up the river its two sets of characters journey.

The two tales eventually overlap in a vivid set piece reminiscent of Apocalypse Nows darkest moments. Back in 1909, Theo and Karamakate arrive at an isolated Catholic mission serving as a de facto orphanage for children who have escaped the cruelties of the rubber trade. In the 1940s Evan and Karamakate come to the same mission, now crumbling into the jungle and home to a particularly twisted religious cult. Although much of the film explores the destruction of native culture by European colonists, this section gets at the heart of the matter. On his second visit to the mission, Karamakate realizes that the two cultures have failed to share their beneficial knowledge with one another and have merely melded the worst of two worlds.

In following its two symmetrical storylines, Embrace of the Serpent does run a tad long. Its just over two hours, and theres a lot of paddling in the middle. But its such an absorbing, vividly told, luminously photographed narrative that viewer interest rarely flags. The visceral centerpiece at the mission and an appropriately mystical coda are among the hypnotic highlights. Like the various backwoods drugs Karamakate pumps his charges full of to keep them moving, Embrace of the Serpent will mesmerize you, make you woozy, jack you up, enlighten you and leave you somewhat worse for wear.
House Speaker Paul Ryan stands near the casket of Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California yesterday

Three days of formal mourning for former First Lady Nancy Reagan have begun across the United States.

It got under way with a private service before her casket was taken in a police-escorted motorcade up an empty road for a public viewing at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

Daughter Patti Davis, dressed in black, greeted about 20 family members and close friends on arrival at a Santa Monica mortuary where a 20-minute service was presided over by the Rev Stuart Kenworth. The children of Ronald Reagan's son Michael and Dennis Revell, the widower of the former president's late daughter Maureen were among those attending.

Mrs Reagan's casket was then carried by pallbearers, that included members of her Secret Service detail, to a hearse to begin her final journey, a 45-mile drive to the hill country of Simi Valley, north-west of Los Angeles, where two days of public viewing will precede the funeral.

Members of the armed services carried Mrs Reagan's casket into the presidential library in Simi Valley.

Spectators lined the road leading to the library. Some held up flags or stood with hands over their hearts in tribute to Mrs Reagan who died on Sunday at her Los Angeles home. She was 94.

House Speaker Paul Ryan paid his respects at the library. Ryan approached the casket, bowed his head in prayer and made the sign of the cross before leaving.
Never, in my 80 years on this earth, have I witnessed such a collective, diabolical, shambolic charade of governing as that which is going on between the prima donna political members of the European Union.

Each one of them, staggering about in a drunken fashion, hopping from one failed snap decision to another, with humanity being the greatest loser.

Come to Europe was their cry, with no expense spared from the coffers of the tax-paying public, to encourage not thousands, but millions, of people of differing race, religion and ethnic group - all, without exception, given an open invitation to come to Europe.

No qualifications nor skills were required; you can even bring your aged and infirm relations, or whoever else you can think of - they will all be entitled to every social facility that is available. Needless to say, no other enticement was necessary.

The people arrived in their millions, skilled and unskilled, qualified and unqualified, as well as the criminal elements - drug dealers, pimps, brothel keepers.

They all flocked overnight to their utopian dream. Today? Well, the welcome cup of Europe has overflowed and now, not only is there a logjam of humanity in Greece, Turkey and Syria, there are those caught in the middle, where the only thing they can see now is barriers of razor wire, armed guards and tear gas canisters, preventing them access to their promised land.

Bad as their situation is now, the refugee/migrant situation has deteriorated further.

Turkey, which has been trying to gain entry to the European Union for years, is now in the process,(metaphorically speaking) of blackmailing the Union to pay it billions of taxpayers' euros to assist in solving the present migrant crisis.

Ironically, this debacle of EU government is what Messrs Cameron & Co want the people of Britain to vote to remain in.

It displays an arrogance beyond belief and incredulity if they think the people of Britain are that stupid.

HARRY STEPHENSON

Kircubbin, Co Down
Last week's dissident attack highlighted the dangers prison officers work and live under.

They serve and protect our community and when they are attacked it is an attack on all of us.

Working in the Prison Service is no ordinary job, but it is carried out by extraordinary people. Every day they deal with people who challenge authority, and they are constantly on your guard.

Failure by management and the Department of Justice to recruit sufficient personnel has left the organisation stretched, placing pressure on front line officers.

The use of violence by terrorists against prison officers is a tried and tested technique that has yielded results from a weak and capitulating leadership. It is little wonder, then, that this tactic has once again been used in Roe House at HMP Maghaberry.

The sacrifices made by prison officers and their families may not be fully understood and appreciated by the public. I know from personal experience what it is like growing up as a son of a now-retired prison officer.

Thankfully, no one in my family who served in the Prison Service lost their lives during the terrorist campaign, but I know the pressures faced by all who have worked and who continue to work in the service today.

My father sheltered us from much of the reality of what it was like working in the Maze during periods such as the hunger strikes, and the pressure he faced during the dirty protests.

He and another officer were targeted on the same day with letter bombs. My father's was a hoax, but the other seriously injured his colleague.

He lived with the knowledge that the IRA knew his address. However, when prisoners threatened to kill him and our family, dad kept it from us.

We had a wonderful home life, but we knew our dad had a very different job to many others.

Prison officers deserve much better from the Department of Justice for the price being paid for their service.

Every member of the public can show their support and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the men and women who put on the Prison Service uniform to defend and protect us all.
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge: the most anticipated phone of the year is here so is it any good?

Samsungs big design leap forward last year, with the launch of the Galaxy S6 edge smartphone, was remarkable.

At a stroke, the accusation that Samsung only made plasticky handsets that werent as high-end as the tech they housed, was kicked into touch. Samsungs class was undeniable.

The sloping edges on each side of the screen made the phone strikingly different from anything else on the market. So no surprise that this years S7 edge looks almost the same.

Actually, look closer, feel the new phone in your hand, and youll see its subtly different. Chiefly, the back of the phone is gently curved now, as well as the front. The result is that thanks to critical manufacturing details, the phone is spectacularly different in your grip. Suddenly its smooth enough to roll around like a worry stone.

And the curved edges make this phone, with its whopping 5.5-inch display, feels entirely manageable in the hand, comfortable and appealingly tactile. These are all very good things in something youre likely to be handling all day.

Although you may not find yourself turning it on as compulsively as before. Apparently we click the screen on well over 100 times a day, to check the time, notifications and so on.

A brilliant new feature on the S7 and S7 edge is an always-on screen that shows you the time while your phone slumbers. Its extremely useful.

Samsung wasnt the first to have this feature  Nokia got there a few years back  but it looks brilliant with the white-lit time and date screaming out of the pitch-black display. Not least thats down to the AMOLED screen, an area where Samsung is a master. And Samsung promises that it uses less than 1 per cent of battery life per hour which in my testing seems to be the case, so no worries there.

The curves, incidentally, also mean that this handset is substantially smaller than that other beauty with a 5.5-inch display, the Apple iPhone 6s Plus. Well, its a little thicker than the iPhone, but the other dimensions are smaller. And even there its still only 7.7mm thick. One of the best things about the S7 edge, and there are many great things about this phone, is that it manages the trick of seeming small enough to fit easily in the hand while having a screen thats pretty darn big.

Last years S6 edge introduced us to the idea that the edge of the screen could work separately to the main part. So that you could set it to notify you when a favourite contact was messaging or call you, and you could see they were calling even if the phone was face down, in an important meeting, say.

This time around, the edge screen does more, with extra apps functions on the side and a welcome return to the edge ruler which appeared first on the Samsung Galaxy Note edge. The sloping side means you can get a measurement more conveniently than on a regular phone.

Swipe from the side (left or right, you choose which is the active edge) and two columns of apps appear, with a range of options now and more apps to follow. Its a very handy way to get to favourite items.

The camera on the S7 edge is 12 megapixels. This is actually a drop from last years 16-megapixel resolution, but its not all about pixel count, as you know. These pixels are bigger, so better at sucking in light which is especially handy if available light is low. The result is a fast, impressive snapper that launches quickly just by double-pressing the home button.

And its autofocus is very nippy, so youre unlikely to miss that shot. Selfies are helped along, as they are on the iPhone 6s, by using the display as a flash, with reasonably good results. If you like selfies.

This is a very proficient camera  Samsung has even flattened the components so they don't poke out like they did last year. The lens isnt quite flush to the case, but its a big improvement.

Gaming is also a priority on the phone with special settings to gather games together so theyre easy to find and even the capability to turn notifications and certain button responses off so you dont interrupt your playing.

And among the improvements in the S7 edge is the return of decent waterproofing, last seen on the S5. This is a useful benefit that most of the time you wont need but youll be enormously grateful for in that moment when you drop it in the bath, or worse.

Also missing from the S6 was expandable storage. This time the sim card tray handily has room for a microSD card as well.

Battery life is excellent, way better than on the admittedly disappointing S6. Itll get you through a full day with ease, though as usual the caveat that nightly charges are needed still applies.

There are so many advances on the S7 and so few downsides  one of which is cost, this is not a cheap phone  that its easy to recommend it. Its easily the most powerful and good-looking Android phone on the market, and may even have Apple fanatics wondering about switching.

David Phelan

Independent
Bangladeshi police display explosives recovered in Dhaka less than a month after Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh members set off more than 600 explosives across the country, Sept. 9, 2005.

A Dhaka court on Thursday sentenced four members of a banned radical outfit to life in prison for carrying out one of 600 bomb blasts that rocked the nation more than a decade ago.

But the court acquitted Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) military wing chief Salauddin (alias Salehin) and seven other JMB activists because the prosecution failed to present enough evidence against them, Dhaka special public prosecutor Syed Shamsul Haque Badal told BenarNews.

The four who were convicted and sentenced Thursday were JMB activists Kawser Ali Sumon, Yunus Ali Mia (alias Kawser), Mehdi Habib (alias Rafiq), and Asharful Islam (alias Sharif). Two of these men, Yunus Ali Mia and Asharful Islam, were sentenced in absentia and remain at-large, Badal said.

The Bangladeshi authorities have been cracking down on the JMB, which has been resurgent in recent years and which police blame for a series of attacks on foreigners and members of religious minorities since September 2015.

The JMB burst onto the national scene 11 years ago, when its operatives set off 600 bombs and other explosives in 63 of Bangladeshs 64 districts.

Only two people died in the blasts, which all took place on a single day  Aug. 17, 2005  but the coordinated attacks forced the government to admit the presence of militants in Bangladesh.

Up to that point, the government of then-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia blamed media for publishing cooked and fabricated stories about militant activities in Bangladesh. The government went on to ban the JMB and other militant groups that sought to replace democratic and secular government with a system based on Sharia law.



On Thursday, Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal Judge Momtaz Begum sentenced the four defendants for a bombing that rocked Mymensingh town, on charges brought under the nations Explosives Act. Because of the sheer number of blasts, police throughout the country have filed cases that are still working their way through the justice system 11 years on.

Masterminds executed

Police identified Shaikh Abdur Rahman and Siddiqul Islam (alias Bangla Bhai) as the masterminds of those attacks back in August 2005. Both men were arrested in 2006 and executed in 2007.

After years of dormancy following the loss of its leaders, the JMB in recent years started regrouping in different parts of the country.

In late February, police arrested three suspected JMB members in connection with the murder of a Hindu priest in the northern district of Panchagarh on Feb. 21. Two days after those arrests, police on Feb. 28 raided a suspected JMB den in Dhaka, where they uncovered explosives and bomb-making materials, according to reports.

In addition to being suspected of attacking foreigners and religious minorities, the JMB has been tied to an accidental explosion in Burdwan, a town in the neighboring Indian state of West Bengal, in October 2014.

A transnational JMB network was exposed then, when a bomb exploded in a rented house in Burdwan, killing two suspected Indian Mujahideen members. A year ago, Indian and Bangladeshi investigators reported finding a JMB link to the blast.
ein Google-Unternehmen

Google-Dienste anzubieten und zu betreiben

Ausfalle zu prufen und Manahmen gegen Spam, Betrug und Missbrauch zu ergreifen

Daten zu Zielgruppeninteraktionen und Websitestatistiken zu erheben. Mit den gewonnenen Informationen mochten wir verstehen, wie unsere Dienste verwendet werden, und die Qualitat dieser Dienste verbessern.

neue Dienste zu entwickeln und zu verbessern

Werbung auszuliefern und ihre Wirkung zu messen

personalisierte Inhalte anzuzeigen, abhangig von Ihren Einstellungen

personalisierte Werbung anzuzeigen, abhangig von Ihren Einstellungen

Wenn Sie Alle ablehnen auswahlen, verwenden wir Cookies nicht fur diese zusatzlichen Zwecke.

Nicht personalisierte Inhalte und Werbung werden u. a. von Inhalten, die Sie sich gerade ansehen, und Ihrem Standort beeinflusst (welche Werbung Sie sehen, basiert auf Ihrem ungefahren Standort). Personalisierte Inhalte und Werbung konnen auch Videoempfehlungen, eine individuelle YouTube-Startseite und individuelle Werbung enthalten, die auf fruheren Aktivitaten wie auf YouTube angesehenen Videos und Suchanfragen auf YouTube beruhen. Sofern relevant, verwenden wir Cookies und Daten auerdem, um Inhalte und Werbung altersgerecht zu gestalten.

Wir verwenden Cookies und Daten, umWenn Sie Alle akzeptieren auswahlen, verwenden wir Cookies und Daten auch, umWahlen Sie Weitere Optionen aus, um sich zusatzliche Informationen anzusehen, einschlielich Details zum Verwalten Ihrer Datenschutzeinstellungen. Sie konnen auch jederzeit g.co/privacytools besuchen.


For Immediate Release, March 9, 2016 Contact: Michael Connor, Western Watersheds Project, (818) 345-0425, mjconnor@westernwatersheds.org

Erik Molvar, WildEarth Guardians, (307) 399-7910. emolvar@wildearthguardians.org

Ileene Anderson, Center for Biological Diversity, (323) 490-0223, ianderson@biologicaldiversity.org Lawsuit Seeks Endangered Species Act Protections for Imperiled Bi-state Sage Grouse Tiny Mono Basin Populations in California, Nevada Face Imminent Threats SAN FRANCISCO  A coalition of conservation groups filed a lawsuit today in federal court challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services failure to protect the imperiled bi-state sage grouse population under the Endangered Species Act. These genetically unique and isolated sage grouse inhabit the Mono Basin on the California-Nevada border and face multiple threats to their survival. In 2013, the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the bi-state sage grouse Distinct Population Segment as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, citing multiple significant threats to the grouse and their habitats, including infrastructure, livestock grazing, that spread of invasive species (particularly cheatgrass), range fires, urban sprawl, mining, energy development, recreation and climate change. But the agency reversed course in 2015 without adequate justification or explanation and found that the bird does not warrant federal protection. The service claims its reversal is based on a collection of voluntary conservation measures restricted to private lands in the Bi-state Action Plan, which has been in place for more than a decade while the sage grouse continued to decline. In 2013 the Fish and Wildlife Service deemed 1.8 million acres of habitat necessary for the survival and recovery of the bi-state sage grouse population and proposed it be protected as critical habitat. But in refusing to protect the bi-state sage grouse the service instead relied on measures under the Bi-state Action Plan in which a mere 40,000 acres of private lands will receive any kind of conservation attention. Not only is the Bi-state Action Plan inadequate but federal plans to improve bi-state sage grouse protections on public lands in Nevada remain unfinished, and in California federal planning to address sage grouse conservation has not even begun. This is an example of politics trumping science while the extinction of a unique population of sage grouse hangs in the balance, said Ileene Anderson, senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity. As we have seen for more than a decade, these voluntary measures are not enough; without the legal protections of the Endangered Species Act, the sage grouse in Mono Basin have continued to decline, sliding toward extinction. Livestock grazing is one of the primary threats to the survival of bi-state sage grouse populations, especially in the drier eastern deserts where the native birds populations are doing particularly poorly, said Mike Connor, California director for Western Watersheds Project. By ignoring the serious threats posed by grazing, the Service is utterly failing in its duty to preserve and protect sage grouse. Sage grouse populations in the bi-state area are isolated from each other by unsuitable habitats and now heavily developed basins. Overall, not one of the bi-state sage grouse populations is estimated to exceed 2,400 birds, far below the 5,000-bird threshold scientists consider the minimum viable population for this distinct population of sage grouse. Estimates also overstate populations based on limited data. For example, in the Pine Nut Mountains, the spring counts of strutting males ranged from zero to 38 birds between 2004 and 2014, yet the service claimed as many as 608 birds occur in this population. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service both exaggerated sage grouse population estimates and ignored major threats facing these rare birds, said Erik Molvar, wildlife biologist with WildEarth Guardians. The surviving Mono Basin sage grouse subpopulations are tiny, isolated and face imminent threats. There is no credible excuse for denying the protections of the Endangered Species Act. Plaintiff groups include Desert Survivors, WildEarth Guardians, the Center for Biological Diversity and Western Watersheds Project and are represented by attorneys from the Center for Biological Diversity and the Stanford Law Clinic.


For Immediate Release, March 10, 2016 Contact: George Kimbrell, Center for Food Safety, (971) 271-7372, GKimbrell@CenterforFoodSafety.org

Tierra Curry, Center for Biological Diversity, (928) 522-3681, tcurry@biologicaldiversity.org Obama Administration Sued Over Failure to Protect Monarch Butterflies WASHINGTON Two conservation groups filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today over its failure to protect the monarch butterfly under the Endangered Species Act. Center for Food Safety, the Center for Biological Diversity and allies formally petitioned the Service in August 2014 to protect the monarch as a threatened species following a 90 percent population decline over the preceding two decades. In December 2014 the Service determined that protection may be warranted, triggering an official review of the butterflys status that, by law, must be completed within 12 months. More than a year later, however, the Service has failed to issue a final decision on whether to protect the charismatic orange and black butterfly under the Act. Todays lawsuit requests that the court set a deadline for that decision. Photo by Collette Adkins, Center for Biological Diversity. Photos are available for media use. Protecting monarch butterflies under the Endangered Species Act is essential to their survival, and further agency delay is unlawful and irresponsible, said George Kimbrell, Center for Food Safety senior attorney and counsel in the case. The threats the monarch is facing are so large in scale that the butterfly needs the effective protection of the Endangered Species Act if were really serious about saving this amazing migratory wonder for future generations, said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at Center for Biological Diversity. While monarch numbers increased this past year due to favorable weather conditions, the long-term outlook remains bleak. Analysis of the past 22 years of population data shows a statistically significant trend: Monarchs are declining by 9 percent per year on average, and the four years with the fewest monarchs ever recorded have all come since 2010. While this years winter count is better than the record lows of the previous three years, it still represents a decline of 78 percent from the known population highs of the mid-1990s and is well below the population size needed for recovery. Monarchs require a much larger population to be resilient to severe weather events and other threats. A single winter storm in 2002 killed an estimated 500 million monarchs  more than three times the size of the entire current population.



The butterflys dramatic decline has been driven in large part by the widespread planting of genetically engineered crops in the Midwest, where most monarchs are born. The vast majority of genetically engineered crops are made to be resistant to Monsantos Roundup herbicide, which is a potent killer of milkweed, the monarch caterpillars only food source. The dramatic surge in Roundup use and Roundup Ready crops has virtually wiped out milkweed plants in midwestern corn and soybean fields. It is estimated that in the past 20 years these once-common butterflies may have lost more than 165 million acres of habitat  an area about the size of Texas  including nearly a third of their summer breeding grounds. Monarchs are also threatened by global climate change, drought and heat waves, other pesticides, disease and predation, urban sprawl and logging on their Mexican wintering grounds. In response to the initial positive finding the Service issued on the groups petition, more than half a million comments have been submitted to the agency in support of Endangered Species Act protection for the butterfly. In the past year, more than 50 members of Congress, 40 leading monarch scientists and ecologists, and more than 200 organizations and businesses have sent letters to the agency urging federal protection for the monarch. ### Center for Food Safety is a nonprofit, public interest organization with over 750,000 members nationwide dedicated to protecting our food, farms, and environment. 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.


For Immediate Release, March 9, 2016 Contacts: Patrick Sullivan, Center for Biological Diversity, (415) 517-9364, psullivan@biologicaldiversity.org

Alicia Rivera, Communities for a Better Environment, (310) 634-7839, Alicia@cbecal.org

Kimiko Martinez, Natural Resources Defense Council, (310) 434-2344, kmartinez@nrdc.org

Danielle Kelton, Earthjustice, (310) 422-9855, danielle@insightcampaigns.com Lawsuit Challenges Air Board's Failure to Protect Southern California From Oil Refinery Pollution LOS ANGELES Community and conservation groups today sued the South Coast Air Quality Management District for allowing L.A.-area oil refineries and power plants to continue spewing massive amounts of smog-forming pollutants, threatening the health of millions of people already breathing the nations dirtiest air. The lawsuit  filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court by Earthjustice on behalf of Communities for a Better Environment, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club and by the Natural Resources Defense Council  challenges the air district governing boards decision in December to adopt an oil industry-developed smog-prevention measure. Todays suit says the air board violated California law by rejecting staff-proposed reforms to the NOx RECLAIM program, instead approving an oil-industry-backed measure that allows refineries and other major polluters to delay installing equipment to reduce dangerous particulate matter and smog-forming nitrogen oxide, or NOx. The suit says the program violates Californias Health and Safety Code, which requires that market-based cap and trade programs, like NOx RECLAIM, achieve the same pollution reductions as direct pollution controls. Southern California refineries have already saved approximately $205 million since 2007 by delaying installation of pollution-control equipment. The air board approved the weak smog measure hours after it was made public by an oil-industry trade group, despite warnings from air district executive officer Barry Wallerstein that the new plan was legally indefensible. The board fired Wallerstein last week. This weak smog rule lets polluters off the hook and especially endangers people of color living near oil refineries in L.A.s Wilmington neighborhood and around Southern California, said Alicia Rivera, a community organizer with Communities for a Better Environment. The air board should be protecting our air, not allowing huge industrial facilities to delay pollution controls that could save the lives of children with asthma. Air pollution kills, and the air board violated California law by bowing to the oil industry and failing to protect us from smog, said Maya Golden-Krasner, an L.A.-based attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. The air districts own experts opposed this weak measure for good reason. This smog rule is scientifically unsound, legally indefensible and dangerous to the well-being of every person who breathes. Community and environmental groups are concerned this business-friendly decision marks a new direction for the air board. One new board member recently said that protecting businesses is just as important to him as preventing air pollution. Its unacceptable that the air board is helping oil refineries save millions of dollars by delaying critically important pollution controls that would protect the health of millions of Californians, said Adrian Martinez, an Earthjustice staff attorney. This dangerous decision will make it that much harder for the air district to adopt a credible plan later this year to meet federal smog standards. This lawsuit is a warning to the air board that Californians wont stand by when vital emissions rules are weakened to benefit polluters, said David Pettit, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. If board members continue to water down regulations that should protect our air, they can expect a fight every step of the way. The ouster of Dr. Wallerstein, and the Board's sustained failure to adopt reasonably strong pollution measures show that the District has ceased looking out for the health and safety of kids and is more concerned about the shareholders of fossil fuel companies, said Evan Gillespie, campaign director for the Sierra Clubs My Generation campaign. The out-of-control air board seems bent on returning Southern California to a time when pollution made it hard to breathe, and when profits trumped people. Background

Every year more people die in Southern California from air-pollution-related diseases than from all traffic accidents and crime-related deaths combined, according to the air districts own educational material. The South Coast air basin is classified as extreme for all ozone standards under California and federal clean-air laws. There is no classification more polluted than extreme. Breathing ozone can trigger a variety of health problems in children and adults, including chest pain, coughing and congestion. Smog can worsen bronchitis, emphysema and asthma. Repeated exposure may permanently scar lung tissue, aggravate lung diseases such as asthma, emphysema and chronic bronchitis, lead to hospital admissions and emergency room visits, and impair the bodys immune system defenses. Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) is one of the preeminent environmental justice organizations in the nation. The mission of CBE is to build peoples power in Californias communities of color and low income communities to achieve environmental health and justice by preventing and reducing pollution and building green, healthy and sustainable communities and environments. 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. The Sierra Clubs My Generation Campaign is working to power California with 100% clean energy. We organize communities across the state to demand local clean energy as a way to improve air quality, create jobs, and take action against climate change. Together, we can help build a stronger and more equitable California, in which all people can breathe healthy air, all energy is clean and renewable, and everyone benefits from a successful economy and a sustainable environment. Earthjustice is a nonprofit law firm which uses the power of law and the strength of partnership to make sure that those we entrust with budgetary, enforcement and oversight decisions abide by the law. Learn more at earthjustice.org The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 2 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world's natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Bozeman, MT, and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC.


This graphic depicts a new inhibitor, 6S, locking up an enzyme (red) to block the production of hydrogen sulfide (yellow and white). Research teams separated by 14 hours and 9,000 miles have collaborated to advance prospective treatment for the world's second-leading cause of death.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln chemists partnered with medical researchers from the National University of Singapore to develop a molecule that can inhibit an enzyme linked with the onset of stroke.

Most strokes occur when a disruption of blood flow prevents oxygen and glucose from reaching brain tissue, ultimately killing neurons and other cells. The team found that its molecule, known as 6S, reduced the death of brain tissue by as much as 66 percent when administered to the cerebrum of a rat that had recently suffered a stroke.

It also appeared to reduce the inflammation that typically accompanies stroke, which the World Health Organization has estimated kills more than 6 million people annually.

"The fact that this inhibitor remained effective when given as post-stroke treatment ... is encouraging, as this is the norm in the treatment of acute stroke," the researchers reported in a March 9 study published by the journal ACS Central Science.

The inhibitor works by binding to cystathionine beta-synthase, or CBS - an enzyme that normally helps regulate cellular function but can also trigger production of toxic levels of hydrogen sulfide in the brain. Though hydrogen sulfide is an important signaling molecule at normal concentrations, stroke patients exhibit elevated concentrations believed to initiate the brain damage they often suffer.

Chemist David Berkowitz and his UNL colleagues modeled their inhibitor on a naturally occurring molecule produced by the CBS enzyme, tailoring the molecule's structure to improve its performance. By swapping out functional groups of atoms known as amines with hydrazines, the team ultimately increased the inhibitor's binding time from less than a second to hours.

"We wanted a compound that would bind well, specifically to this enzyme," said Berkowitz, a Willa Cather Professor of chemistry. "But we also wanted one that could be synthesized easily. Those are two very different considerations."

Berkowitz and his colleagues achieved the latter goal, in part, by plucking out the molecule's carbon-sulfur bond and replacing it with a double bond. Slicing that double bond gave the researchers two identical halves of the molecule. With the assistance of a Nobel Prize-winning technique called cross-metathesis, the team was then able to "synthesize two halves of the molecule for the price of one," Berkowitz said.

To test the effectiveness of the 6S molecule in treating stroke, Berkowitz and fellow UNL chemist Christopher McCune reached out to Peter Wong, professor of pharmacology at the National University of Singapore.

"We started researching this and came upon Peter's work pretty quickly," Berkowitz said. "We saw that he was one of the protagonists, one of the guys who is on the leading edge of understanding how (hydrogen sulfide) signaling works."

Though the research teams have never actually met in person, Berkowitz said videoconferencing and a steady stream of emails have helped overcome the barriers of time and distance. In the process, he said, each team has developed a profound appreciation for the other's work.

"Peter ended up latching onto the chemistry more than we did, and we ended up latching onto the biology," Berkowitz said. "It's actually been really fun. These are two kinds of science that are pretty far apart, and that's probably the most exciting thing about this: the interdisciplinary nature."

Because the 6S inhibitor has demonstrated its effects in cell cultures and the brain tissue of rats, Berkowitz cautioned that it represents just an initial step toward developing a stroke-treating drug for humans. However, he said the proof-of-principle experiments effectively illustrate the concept's promise.

Berkowitz also expressed optimism that the synthesis method detailed in the study could streamline the more general production of enzyme-targeting inhibitors.

"We started out with a very fundamental-science perspective on understanding the chemistry of this whole class of vitamin B6-dependent enzymes," he said. "We're in a good place now, because that science has allowed us to make these inhibitors and many others. We're now working on several enzymes that may represent important targets for translation of the basic inhibitor chemistry into truly therapeutic goals."

Source: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Professor Catherine Mitchell is one of the those public funded political activists who masquerades as an academic researcher. She has come to the attention of this blog from time to time over the years.

Today's Telegraph carries a letter from the good professor, responding to a Rupert Darwall article about the UK's energy crisis. Here it is:

SIR  Rupert Darwalls polemic on our energy crunch makes three major mistakes. First, Britain is not going to see a US-style shale revolution; the economics dont stack up, and British people dont want fracking. Secondly, wind and solar do not impose significant hidden costs on consumers. The Committee on Climate Change, which advises the Government, calculates the cost at about 10 per year per household. Thirdly, Mr Darwall assumes that climate change is not a serious issue. It is serious, so a fossil-fuels-as-usual electricity system will not do. Renewable energy can deliver the market-based electricity system that Mr Darwall wants, but getting there entails some years of transitional support. Renewables will not need the endless subsidies associated with nuclear power and fossil fuels. Catherine Mitchell

Professor of Energy Policy, University of Exeter

Penryn, Cornwall

Of course, the Committee on Climate Change's estimate on the cost of renewables policies are based on a comparison of renewables against a theoretical world in which fossil fuel prices start high and then get even higher. It's hard to imagine that a "Professor of Energy Policy" is unaware of this.

File under "barefaced".
Late last week, the local retail and marketing industry was abuzz with news that The Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town had won the local integrated account for Burger King...

Obviously, more goes into the communication for a global brand finding its feet on local shores than simply promoting what helps it sell across the globe. You also need to pay attention to the local market  and micro-markets  and those consumers specific needs, hopes, dreams and emotions. Without tapping into that youll probably still get product off the fast-moving shelf, but not necessarily build a strong brand connection in an often fickle consumer market.

Kevan Aspoas

Kevan Aspoas, CEO of The Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town, shares exclusive insight into the agencys Goldilocks new account win with specific focus on what it means both for the agency and the local advertising industry as a whole, especially as we step ever closer to the dreaded recession...

1. Whats the overall impact of the Burger King account win on Jupiter?

Aspoas: Were thrilled with it as its an account well suited to our agency. Its a nice-size piece of business, neither so large as to be overwhelming nor too small for us not being able to do what we really want with it. Its perfectly balanced for us to apply our minds to it and get it to grow  because while Burger King is an internationally respected brand, its only been in South Africa for a short time, yet already has a sound footing with the branches it has opened in Cape Town, Durban and especially Gauteng. We want to accelerate this growth and luckily we already have lots of experience to apply to the brand, such as with the Woolworths account which we managed for eight years until they took their advertising in-house. Woolworths is now an established brand known for producing fantastic food shots in its communications. Thats just one aspect well carry through to our relationship with Burger King.

As a retail brand, Burger King will be judged by its growth and how many feet it gets through the door. As an agency, we truly get this specific retail industry pressure. Its a subtle area not many agencies understand. To grow Burger King as a challenger brand, well look to our other retail success case studies of taking brands from nothing to something to outmanoeuvre and emulate  like Hyundai, which was ranked 28th car brand when we first landed the account and is now third passenger car brand.

It helps that Burger King is already seen in a positive light locally by consumers, who independently vote it tops for best burger in the country. This challenger brand advantage is an excellent starting point.

2. Explain the importance of creating an emotional connection with todays screen-distracted audience.

Aspoas: Its all about finding the emotional connection thats best for your brand. Well establish what ignites the brand for consumers, then each message around the brand must push that. In our Hyundai work, the emotional connection was all about establishing a sense of pride and confidence in consumers who own the vehicle  so much so that now they even ask for it when renting a car while on vacation. Once weve identified that emotional trigger for Burger King, well be able to build the rationale around it.

3. What does it take to localise a global brand like Burger King to SA consumers?

Aspoas: Whats important with this client is that its not a South African brand, but its popular with the South African market so needs a specific South African appeal. Burger King has adjusted its menu for the South African palate. Our job now is to tailor Burger King South Africas communications around this, and to further localise the brand not just to South Africans but to appeal to local communities in the country.

4. Let us in on your agency strategy for 2016.

Aspoas: This year, our focus is on our present client base and their sales/market share. Many business owners lose sight of the fact that you can gain market share easier in a recession than during a booming economic period. Those who are smart and work hard now can come out of these tough times with a pleasing amount of growth.

So, while weve had a number of account wins recently, like Foschini, were not going to be chasing business  weve been there and seen that the bigger accounts tend to distract and eventually own you. It puts the agency into a factory mindset, and the last thing we want to do is start churning out sub-par work. Instead, were focused on producing innovative, high-quality work set to surprise consumers, even if its seen globally. If we achieve 15% to 19% growth this year, well be happy.

5. Talk us through where theres room for improvement in the local ad industry, and where you think we shine.

Aspoas: Sadly, its only really our radio work in South Africa thats getting international accolades, and thats because the rest of the world has already moved on from radio and isnt really competing on that platform. When it comes to future-focused work like digital, were not yet doing well. We need to ask ourselves what world-class work truly looks like and start creating that work locally, instead of dumbing down global trends for our market.

Also keep in mind that the industrys facing a bit of a crisis: everything weve built up will challenge soon, much as media platforms have completely changed in the past few years to meet the needs of todays digital consumer. Business in general is in for a shake-up no matter the industry. Just look at how tech-first models like Uber and the rise of self-driving cars are revolutionising the automotive industry at a global scale. That level of disruption is lurking everywhere.

As a result, in the next five years I predict the downfall of industry award shows  instead, people will value the recognition of their peers more than the awards economy were currently pandering to. That, coupled with the recession, and the fact that were not hiring enough youth, not hiring enough black talent, not properly training anyone in digital skills at schools and illogically keeping the focus on traditional thinking and methods means everythings due for a drastic shake-up.

Seems The Jupiter Drawing Rooms one of few agencys ready to batten down the hatches and successfully weather the economic storm. Click through to their press office and Twitter feed for more.
The Lions Health Festival, part of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, taking place 18-25 June 2016 is essential for creatives working in the health, wellness or pharma communications.

With over 1000 delegates, made up of over 60 nationalities and from over 400 different companies, Lions Health looks at the meaning, function and value of creativity in a fiercely innovative but highly regulated sector and shines a light on the people and work advancing a more enlightened approach.

Marketing manager and account executive for Cinemark, Yvonne Diogo, says, It is important for South African creatives in the industry to attend the international festival, not only to learn and grow by networking and experiencing global innovations, but to also showcase what our country has to offer. Lions Health is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to grapple with this field of communications with some of the best minds in the world.

2015 Lions Health judge and MD of Boomtown, Andrew MacKenzie, says that the Lions Health Festival is a unique platform in the global advertising healthcare arena. This is where the worlds best come together to celebrate their craft. A challenge facing the industry, particularly in the healthcare sector, is the retention of talent. There is an assumption that healthcare advertising does not afford creatives the same opportunities that mainstream agencies offer, but I would argue that the opportunities are more in the healthcare sector.

MacKenzie explains that in the healthcare industry, not only do you have the opportunity to work on challenging brands but also the majority of these brands facilitate the betterment of society. This sector of advertising gives us the ability to make a marked difference in the lives of those who need it.

He adds that the Festival is not only a showcase of this talent, but also an opportunity to listen and learn from the best in the industry.

A few of the Lions Health speakers have been announced for 2016 and include Jack Kreindler from Sentrian Remote Patient Intelligence, entrepreneur Yossi Vardi, Mark Lightowler from Novartis, Matt Lowe from Health Unlimited and Jeremy Perrott from McCann Health. Register now at www.canneslions.com/lions_health.
Today, 10 March, marks National Kidney Day, the perfect time for renal expert, Professor Rafique Moosa, to reflect on the challenges that renal patients face in South Africa, and provide possible corrective measures to improve the lives of thousands of renal patients in the country.

Preventable deaths

Each week, the equivalent of two planeloads of South African lives are lost because of lack of access to renal replacement treatment, says Prof. Moosa, who heads the Department of Medicine at Stellenbosch Universitys Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS), in an editorial published in a recent issue of the "South African Medical Journal" (SAMJ).

The SAMJ article summarises the discussions between the National Department of Health (NDoH) and other stakeholders at a national summit on renal health in South Africa.

Challenges facing renal patients

In the article, Prof.Moosa, a member of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Transplantation, and his co-authors, discuss the challenges faced by renal patients in South Africa. These include:

A shortage of trained health professionals  South Africa currently has 1.1 kidney specialists (nephrologists) for every million people.

Inequities in the provision of renal services between rich and poor, and people living in urban and rural areas.

A shortage of funds and the high price of dialysis  treatment costs approximately R200,000 per patient per year.

The small number of organ donors in South Africa  only 4.7 out of every million South Africans are organ donors.

Lifestyle conditions exacerbate CKD

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is often the end-result of any number of lifestyle related diseases such as hypertension and type 2 diabetes, with the former predicted to increase by 70% by 2025, and the latter by 88% by 2030.

The diabetes epidemic is driven by our sedentary lifestyle and poor nutritional choices that contribute to a much larger challenge facing our society  obesity. Almost 70% of SA women are overweight or obese; of even greater concern is that over 25% of girls are also overweight or obese, he says.

Prof. Moosa believes that if the government sticks to one of the National Development Plan  2030 objectives, namely managing preventable diseases, it will ultimately have a beneficial effect on CKD.

Community-based screening for CKD is not cost-effective, but hig-risk patients  mainly those with diabetes and hypertension  would benefit from strategies that reduce the risk of developing, and retard progression to, end-stage kidney disease (ESKD). Such an initiative could be driven by health workers in primary care, Prof Moosa explains.

In conclusion

Appeals from clinicians to health authorities for greater access to treatment have been met with the usual refrain that resources are insufficient  an explanation that is particularly disappointing in face of funds being diverted from the national fiscus to a range of expenditures that benefit the citizenry not at all..

We are presenting the National Department of Health with a well-considered and workable blueprint for addressing the crisis of CKD and its treatment. As patient advocates who have to manage the crisis, we challenge the government to work with us to improve care for patients with CKD. Every time one of our patients dies, it is an indictment on us all, he concludes.
In the future, media will be traded more and more programmatically and to make that efficient you will need data around audiences and audience behaviour.

Geoff Cohen

There has been a lot of talk around big data, but data in itself is useless unless commercially useful data points are defined, uncovered and then turned into something that leads to an action. You have to create the marketplace where people can find that information and then target accordingly.

This is according to Geoff Cohen, who adds that most big data is largely of low value, with only a small part of it giving you the signal that is valuable We need to crank up the signal and turn down the noise.

Cohen has built many market-leading media, classifieds and e-commerce businesses across Africa and was a speaker and panel member at the recent IAB Summit held at The Forum, in Johannesburg.

Until late last year he was the CEO of 24.com, one of Africas leading digital success stories, where he ran the continents largest digital media (News24.com) and vertical classifieds operations. He is now investing in new ventures that combine mobile, data and advertising technology on emerging social media platforms.

Having left 24.com in October last year, Cohen has been looking at opportunities to start or build digital start-ups in South Africa. Now is the right time for this focus, he says. A key focus is Delv Media, a partnership with Ole Media Group, which creates marketplaces for audience data. Using our proprietary technology we take first party data and enrich it with third party data and so create avenues for brands to use this to acquire new clients. Broadly it is a data management platform that helps both the sell and the buy side in how they connect with audiences.

In a global first we have secured a partnership agreement with Oracle to deploy their Blue Kai Data Management suite into the local market for advertisers, brands and media owners



When asked about the local digital market and technological disruption he said that he didnt think there were many local players that truly fit the bill. The reality is that apart from being a small market in internet terms we also do not have as many engineers coming out of universities that are as super technically literate and keen on changing the numbers as in other markets like China. This substantially reduces our chance as a country of launching a truly disruptive technology that is adopted at scale by the global market.

This said we do have very smart people who are able to look at international models and underlying technology and adopt them to local conditions and needs and in this way are able to service consumers. ShowMax is an example of a disruptor that realised the power of the international player, Netflix, and then disrupted its own brand, DStv, before it was disrupted by an external force."

Ultimately, he says, we need to play to our strengths. So while the next Uber might not come out of the country, we can use available technology and engineering talent to reduce complexity, increase efficiency and build iterative opportunity in existing businesses.

In essence, how we can leverage the drastically reduced cost of technology and global knowledge base of solutions to build products and services that help our customers.
Entrepreneurial development is a priority for South Africa; however the country still faces many challenges in creating an environment for entrepreneurs to flourish. It is becoming increasingly essential for corporates to get involved and start investing in entrepreneurs for the country to develop and grow sustainably.

Women, in particular, have become a focus for entrepreneurial growth. This is not only to support womens economic goals, but also to combat both inequality and poverty, and acknowledge the fact that women are the life force of every community because they reinvest most of their earnings back into their communities.

For Coca-Cola, a healthy, growing economic environment in the communities where it operates is the key to achieving business success. It is, therefore, in its interest to invest in local economies, use small enterprises to supply and distribute its products, develop entrepreneurship skills and, ultimately, create jobs for people at a local level.

It also recognises that its impact and accountability extends beyond its own immediate operations to include those of its value chain partners, such as suppliers of raw materials, distributors and the retailers of its products.

As previously mentioned, Coca-Cola believes that women are the backbone of families and communities and are an emerging global force. International Womens Day is a celebration of what women have already achieved, but also serves as a reminder that there is still much to do around womens' empowerment and equality.

Positive impact on local economies

A growing body of evidence demonstrates that investments in womens economic empowerment has a positive impact on local economies, child survival, welfare and education. Women are estimated to perform over half of the worlds work, yet earn only 10% of the worlds income.

Women play a significant role in Coca-Colas value chain with up to 60% of small shops being owned or managed by women.

Retail development gives Coca-Cola the greatest opportunity to empower women entrepreneurs in this sector, by providing them with retail assets and installing enabling technology.

Many small businesses, however, fail. Coca-Cola has come to understand that this is because many entrepreneurs lack basic business skills and support structures. In 2010, the Coca-Cola Company launched a global initiative called 5by20, which seeks to empower five million women within our value chain by 2020.

5by20 aims to remove some of these barriers, such as access to business skills training and access to peer networks, that women entrepreneurs face in running a business.

Contributing to the growth of female business owners lies at the core of the company's resolve to empower women in order to raise their communities' living standards. Coca-Cola also does this because there is greater potential for growth in an economic environment where small and medium enterprises flourish and where disadvantaged individuals have opportunities to earn more.

Strategic partnerships

Forging strategic partnerships is also crucial for the success of addressing critical development challenges. Coca-Cola works, where possible, in partnership with government, civil society and other businesses to find appropriate and realistic solutions to issues faced in many countries  this is called the Golden Triangle Approach.

The implementation of the partnership with UN Women is part of a broader partnership announced by The Coca-Cola Company and UN Women in 2011. The two organisations have pledged to reach more than 40,000 women in South Africa, Egypt and Brazil. As part of this partnership in South Africa, implementing partner Hand in Hand came on board in 2013 in order to facilitate on-the-ground training.

The company's partnerships have enabled it to share skills, expertise and experience to reach its aligned strategic goals. It continues to play an active role in seeing this partnership through. With the help of its bottling partners, it identifies the women who participate in the training. UN Women focusses on programme planning, management and technical support, while Hand in Hand provides the physical support to participants. Through these golden triangle partnerships, it has reached over 22,000 participants to date with these skills and support training.

Business management skills, like record keeping, inventory management, separation of business and personal income are also crucial for the success and growth of any business. Coca-Cola's 5by20 programme addresses the need for these skills by hosting workshops in various communities for women. In running and managing these workshops within communities and ensuring that the training is sustainable, it leverages on the significant experience of Hand in Hand. The initiative has proven to be a success, which can be seen through tangible examples of women who have had business success following their training.

Post-training support

The key to the success of developing female entrepreneurs is post-training support and follow up.

The most important part of its engagements with the women entrepreneurs is connecting the participants with their peers to ensure that they feel supported and understood.

One of the participants, Noko Makganyele, has been part of the 5by20 training programme and through her participation, has succeeded in growing her small business called Barolong African Food. As a single mother to five children, she relies on the income of her business, which sells hot meals and refreshments, serving the community of Diepsloot. Makganyele has seen the tangible results of the skills training she has received by the growth of her business, but, more importantly, her self-confidence has grown and she is proud of her progress.

There are many more stories just like Makganyeles. Since the initial inception of the 5by20 programme in 2010, Coca-Cola has empowered over 865,000 women globally. The programme has reached over 45,000 women in South Africa.

Businesses should also realise that the entrepreneurship journey can be a lonely one as many of the women are entrepreneurs out of necessity, due to the lack of other career prospects. Thus, it is advisable that such programmes look to incorporate peer support sessions and networking sessions where women can encourage each other, share their learning and experience and build business relationships.

Through 5by20, Coca-Cola has the opportunity to transform the lives of many women and communities by using our core business model to grow and sustain small businesses. This has resulted in increased economic value and business capabilities for women, communities and our business systems as a whole. With the celebration of International Womens Day, businesses should be reminded of the importance of investing in women to spearhead the sustainable growth of our country.
NEW YORK, USA: Online retail titan Amazon is starting up its own air cargo service, laying down a challenge to companies like Fedex and UPS, which deliver much of its goods.

Aircraft leasing firm Air Transport Services Group said Amazon's Fulfillment Services unit will lease 20 Boeing 767 freighters, to be operated by ATSG, to serve Amazon customers in the United States.

"A dedicated, fully customized air cargo network can be a strong supplement to existing transportation and distribution resources," said ATSG chief executive Joe Hete in a statement.

"We are excited to serve Amazon customers by providing additional air cargo capacity and logistics support to ensure great shipping speeds for customers."

Dave Clark, Amazon senior vice president of worldwide operations and customer service, said the move was to "ensure air cargo capacity to support one and two-day delivery for customers."

It could boost Amazon's standing with customers, especially during the heavy shopping of the end-of-the-year Christmas period.

Over the past two years both UPS and Fedex struggled with the high volume of goods ordered online to meet delivery commitments.

Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge
Nigeria is "at the forefront" of the push for a global agreement to freeze the level of oil production, energy minister, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu says.

 Evgenii Bashta 123rf

Discussions on freezing production levels were ongoing ahead of an extraordinary summit of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to be held later this month, he told reporters in Abuja.

Crude prices fallen 60%

"I have been in the forefront of driving that change and I'm glad that we are making progress," Kachikwu said in response to a question on what he thinks of the call for a production freeze by OPEC to drive up crude prices. If we do get a consensus ... I think it will be very dramatic in terms of its impact on the price of crude," he says.

Crude prices, which have fallen more than 60% since June 2014 because of a large supply surplus, have picked up since mid-February over a proposal by leading producers Saudi Arabia and Russia, as well as Qatar and Venezuela, to agree to freeze their output at January levels to stem falling prices.

Speculation on oil-producers' meeting

Since then speculation has also emerged over a meeting between OPEC and non-OPEC producers at the end of March.

OPEC member Kuwait says it would freeze its crude production levels if all the big producers, including Iran, did the same. Kachikwu says there were ongoing moves to build consensus on the production freeze ahead of the OPEC meeting despite the reluctance of Iraq and Iran to commit themselves to specific volumes.

"I wouldn't worry about that if two out of about 40 which includes non-OPEC members decides to scale out, perhaps we can still achieve the effect that we want," Kachikwu says.

Nigeria is suffering from the fall in oil prices, which have taken a considerable hit on government revenues and weakened the naira currency.
PRETORIA: South Africa has the potential to turn talent in Africa into new technologies, and science into life-saving and enhancing innovations, says Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor.

Minister Pandor was addressing delegates in Dakar, Senegal, who are gathered for the Next Einstein Forum (NEF) Global Gathering (GG2016) - Africa's premier global science and technology forum.

In a panel discussion called Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Development Challenges and Opportunities, Pandor said South Africa was investing heavily in initiatives to promote STEM, citing among others the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI), which is now a R470m a year project.

SARChI began with 21 chairs in 2006 and is now a strategic intervention with 200 chairs in diverse disciplines across the natural sciences, engineering, humanities and social sciences. Last year, 42 new chairs were established, all of which are headed by female researchers.

The initiative supports frontier research and innovation, while strengthening human capital development in research. The total cumulative public investment in this project between 2006 and 2014 amounted to R1.5bn.

"The SARChI programme is a truly beneficial partnership between government, universities and industry.

"Addressing gender and racial imbalances in the make-up of our science and technology workforce is also a major priority. More than ever, international fellowships and bursaries are important in achieving our target of producing 5,000 doctorates a year," the minister said.

NEF chairperson Thierry Zomahoun said increased investment in research and development in STEM fields is crucial for meeting Africa's development trajectory.

"We firmly believe the world's next Einsteins will come from Africa," he said.

NEF is global platform that brings together leaders in industry, policy, science and technology. The gathering is expected to issue a strong call to action for increased investment, representing a turning point in Africa's contribution to scientific research, which today accounts for only 1% of global output.
After being out of fashion for a long period, agriculture has been coming back into the spotlight again as part of development policy. Amid rising concerns about food insecurity and high expectations from agribusiness, policymakers have started to emphasise the importance of agriculture as a source of employment

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 ESRC suggests 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:

 the scale and ownership of agriculture itself;

 the pattern and design of upstream and downstream linkages between farmers and the rest of the economy; and

 the nature of local social dynamics and power relations.

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.

Finally, local planning, land use, zoning and anti-trust law and policy should be geared to protecting small informal growers, markets and retailers from being swamped by large-scale agriculture and the intrusion of powerful corporate retailers into rural markets.

The study, done by PLAAS, on which this article is based was part of the Growth Research Programme funded by the British Department for International Development and Economic and Social Research Council.

Disclosure statement: Andries du Toit received funding from the UK Department for International Development and the Economic and Social Research Council to conduct this research.

Read the original article on The Conversation Africa.
In the midst of a volatile operating and economic landscape, South Africa's major banking groups - Barclays Africa Group Limited, FirstRand, Nedbank and Standard Bank - produced a credible set of results for the year ended 31 December 2015.

Growth in headline earnings

Johannes Grosskopf, banking and capital markets leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Africa, says: Overall, the major banks reported combined growth in headline earnings of 12.5% against the comparable period to December 2014 to reach R33.8bn. This is a credit to the strength of the major banks franchises and the resilience and diversity within their income streams to withstand economic headwinds while delivering growth at the group level.

The growth in headline earnings remains underpinned by solid operating drivers, with net income growth of 8.4% and non-interest revenue growth of 5.2% against the comparable period.

These are some of the highlights from PwCs South Africa Major Banks Analysis report entitled Growing in turbulent times. The report analyses the results of South Africas major banking groups for the year ended 31 December 2015 and identifies common trends and issues currently shaping the financial services industry.

Challenges of a changing world

While the macroeconomic landscape remains highly volatile and subject to a range of persistent challenges at the global and domestic level, the banking industry finds itself in the grasp of an increasingly changing world.

The combination of technological change, regulatory challenges, and customer and social expectations is daunting, while the stakes are enormous. In addition, criminality and technology risk are increasingly becoming concerns of banks given the rise in new competitors who are challenging traditional ways of doing things and operate using more nimble systems and lower overheads, says Grosskopf.

Focus on debt restructuring

From a lending perspective, the major banks reported combined gross loans and advances growth of 4.8% against the first half of 2015. Growth in gross loans and advances continues to be stronger in the corporate and investment banking sector than the retail sector.

At the same time, an ongoing focus on debt restructuring and tighter collection strategies, has resulted in combined credit impairment charges marginally declining by 1.9% compared against the period to June 2014, but the increased risk in the system is evidenced by the increase of 10.8% against the comparable period.

Human capital and IT investment

Cost containment continues to be an important focus for the banks, while they continue to invest in human capital and enhance their IT capabilities to respond to customer demand, mounting concern over cybercrime, and regulatory requirements.

The major banks continue with plans to invest in the rest of Africa, where significant investment is being made in infrastructure/IT systems. Salary costs remain the most significant contributor to the cost line at 56% of total costs.

We expect this increasing staff cost to continue as specialist and skilled resources are employed to assist the banks with the IT transformation and to help meet the heightened levels of regulatory compliance required, says Grosskopf.

Cautiously optimistic

In spite of difficult economic conditions, South Africas major banks continue to produce laudable financial results. Looking ahead, the outlook remains cautiously optimistic given the level of uncertainty and challenges facing the domestic and global economy."

Balance sheet resilience, a sustained focus on proactive risk management and overall bank strategy, including diversification in earnings profiles and income streams will all continue to be key for the major banks to ensure that they can navigate the heightened levels of forecast risk and map their paths through the headwinds that are likely to persist throughout the rest of 2016, Grosskopf concludes.
Meet Maxine Case, award-winning author, digital editor and brand ambassador of Cape Town Partnership , a non-profit organisation that brings people together with the transformation of Cape Town as the goal. She shares her passion for Cape Town and its history through her writing. We wanted to know more about Case's journey with the Cape Town Partnership brand.

Maxine Case

What does brand management mean to you?

Maxine Case: Effective brand management is about making sure that your audiences truly understands your brand  its essence, its point of view. Its about nurturing and developing your brand and ensuring that it surprises and delights its audiences in each interaction or touch point, so that you build trust and loyalty. The brand has to remain relevant to the consumer and the changing environment. If you do all of these well, your consumers will continue to choose your brand over the competition.

Tell us about a day in your work life.

Case: One of the things I really enjoy about my role is that it is so varied. While we invest a lot of time and energy in planning, we also have to be flexible in our approach, to pick up on new leads for stories or to react to urgent issues or requests that arise during the day. A large part of my job is to support my CEO, Bulelwa Makalima-Ngewana.

My day often starts with a meeting on the go  my team and I walk to our favourite coffee place and talk about our priorities and progress. Strategic concerns with a broader timeframe occupy a large part of my day, but my best-laid plans may be diverted by a story lead that suddenly arises or a brewing media issue that requires my attention. In addition, I also have to edit and sign off on all website content and outward facing communication.

Whats on your wishlist for your brand objectives for 2016?

Case: For the coming year, much of our brand and communications objectives will be geared to support our Placemaking for Equity campaign, which entails management of underutilised space in communities throughout Cape Town to repurpose these into safer, more attractive public spaces that are vibrant and active.

Weve already begun communicating this, but my wish is that all stakeholders understand and support what were trying to achieve: stimulated economic development and job creation through the provision of mixed-use spaces that provide opportunities for economic activities, recreation and play and serve as meeting places in an attempt to bridge the real divides that persist in our society.

CT at sunset_Lisa-Burnell

Is your brand using content as part of your marketing strategy?

Case: Content forms a large part of our brand strategy. We have a hungry website and we are often asked by stakeholders in Cape Towns creative industries to amplify their events. I draw up a monthly content schedule and try to cajole many of my colleagues into writing for our site  not only the communications team. We have high social media metrics and this is largely due to sharing our own content via our social media platforms. With a small team and a non-profits budget, the challenge is to produce sufficient high-quality content that will engage our readers.

What do you see currently as the main challenges and/or opportunities for your brand sector?

Case: Funding remains the greatest challenge for the non-profit sector. This is true whether yours is a large organisation in Geneva or a small operation in Addis Ababa. Non-profits are forced to diversify their funding models and social enterprise is a buzzword many of us are embracing. What excites me personally, is the idea suggested by our CEO, Makalima-Ngewana, that our communications team begins to see itself as a start-up. This same thinking can apply to any non-profit, at whatever stage of its lifecycle.

What do you love most about your brand?

Case: My brand is Cape Town. Whats not to love about this vibrant, exciting city, so steeped in history and culture? But more than the physical beauty, its the people who make the city so unique. The Mother City is my hometown and having lived in world capitals, New York and Hong Kong, one I remain very proud to call home.

What do you love most about the South African consumer?

Case: South African consumers are incredibly brand loyal. Many of us still buy the brands our mothers did, provided these brands continue to perform as expected. This doesnt mean that the South African consumer is not adventurous though  he or she is still very willing to try new innovations and experiences, but my point is that once we are hooked, we tend to stick with the brands we trust and love.

What are your own personal favourite brands?

Case: I love the trailblazer brands  the ones that are brave enough to do things that no one else had done before. For example, I love The Body Shop. Anita Roddick started it in her Brighton kitchen, mixing potions and lotions in the seventies. Everyone talks about sustainability and clean, ethical supply chains now. But back then, it was the first personal care brand to engage the consumer in conversations about ethical supply and helping to empower women and marginalised communities in the developing world by sourcing ingredients from them.

What brand marketing campaign have you noticed and been impressed by recently or ever?

Case: I think that the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty was a game changer and it resonated with me as a woman. The power of the campaign is that it really gets women to ask themselves difficult questions about how they perceive themselves and to question their notions of what beauty means. P&Gs Always has followed this line of thinking more recently with its Like a Girl campaign, highlighting how girls are socialised over time into conforming to outdated stereotypes.

What inspires you, personally?

Case: I am inspired by the energy, attitude and conviction of the young people I mentor in my professional or personal capacity. Im a published author, so often young people looking to break into the industry approach me for help. What Ive seen is that South Africa really has so much talent and many stories to share.
Can a transport authority transform the notorious minibus taxi industry in Gauteng? That is the hope of the Gauteng government as it begins its consultative process for the formation of an authority that would integrate the province's transport system.

@Glyn Spencer via 123RF

Transport industry guests gathered yesterday to map a way for the formation of an authority that would eliminate fragmentation in the province's system.

One major agreement among delegates was that the minibus taxi industry should play a significant role in the new entity. Premier David Makhura said the new authority would help redefine the role of the taxi industry and enable the sector to provide a more business-oriented service. "Bringing the industry into the mainstream is going to require them to rethink their model. They have to rethink what it means to operate a transport business."

At present taxis transport over 60% of people using public transport in the province.

Transport MEC Ismail Vadi wants a minibus taxi industry that can provide a measurable service. "The taxi industry can professionalise operations by changing driver behaviour. Once the transport authority has been established we will have more coordinated enforcement," Vadi said.

Source: The Times
Editor of Destiny Man, Thabiso 'TT' Tema, took up the reigns of his new position in February. With two decades in broadcast media, this is his first foray into print and digital journalism.

Tema presents the drive-time current affairs show on Power FM talk station and is an anchor on Supersport. He was part of the team that launched eNCA in 2008 and Power FM in 2013. This versatile and respected media practitioner has worked across SAfm, Metro FM, Classic FM and BBC Radio and TV.



He has won two SAB Journalist of the Year Awards in the past for his work. Khanyi Dhlomo, CEO of Ndalo Media, said Temas diverse journalistic experience and his understanding of who the modern, black, bold and distinguished man is, made a dynamic new voice for the publication.

Q: What is at the top of your to do list?

A: On my first day in the office I was immediately handed copy to read, so I had to hit the ground running. For the moment though, Im taking time to familiarise myself with my new environment and getting to know the team, and generally just settling.

Q: What is your core strategy as editor?

A: As digital space continues to grow, competition has become ever more intense. The challenge to keep ourselves relevant and upper-most in the minds of readers has become greater. To this end we need to continue to build on our already considerable presence in order to complement and enhance our print offering. My priority is to stay true to the ideals and values of the Destiny Man brand, and needless to say the battle for eyeballs continues. Ultimately, well be judged on how much of our target audience we reach.

Q: Describe the ideal Destiny Man?

A: We describe the Destiny Man as bold and distinguished. He is well educated and informed, upwardly mobile, self-aware and conscientious and a passionately African man.

Q: As someone from a broadcast media background, how do you feel about print?

A: I am passionate about news, current affairs and telling stories. Through the various platforms Ive worked on, the main task has been to produce compelling and engaging content irrespective of whether its for print, broadcast or digital media. While most of my experience has been in broadcasting, I contributed to a few print publications on a freelance basis in the past, so the terrain is not completely alien to me. I am, however, really excited by the opportunity to fully immerse myself in the end-to-end process of putting a magazine together.

Q: What important attribute is needed to do your job?

A: The ability to connect with readers, to grasp and understand their needs and aspirations. As a leader one must also be a team player and have the ability to inspire and support your team to create and produce the best content.

Q: The biggest trend to note in your industry?

A: Many commentators have been quick to write the obituary of print media, but I believe talk of the demise of print is premature. On the contrary, I believe print has improved because of the advancement in technology and the boom of social media. For example, Destiny Man is no longer just a print publication; we are a truly a multi-platform title, with interactive content on varied platforms. This trend has to continue because our readers now have access to multiple sources of information, all of which work together.

Q: How will you make an impact?

A: I hope that my nearly two decades of experience in radio and television and the network established in that time will be a major asset in my new role.

Q: What inspires you?

A: Im inspired by people who have overcome great personal obstacles to achieve greatness.

Q: Your life philosophy?

A: Live and let live.

Q: At the top of my bucket list is...

A: I havent really compiled a bucket list yet. I do have a number of things Id like to achieve, but in no particular order.
On Thursday, 10 March 2016, Biz Takeouts Marketing and Media Radio show host Warren Harding ( @bizwazza ) chatted to Ogilvy & Mather Cape Town executive creative director, Tseliso Rangaka, and Metropolitan's head of brand, Llewellyn Allen, to find out more about the new Metropolitan TVC and what makes the campaign so special.

Metropolitan has headed into a completely new direction for a South African financial services provider. The campaign breaks ground in several ways. It is shot in isiXhosa and colloquial Afrikaans (as shown in the second ad which will be revealed later this year).

It prescribes no resolution to the personal financial questions of life. It creates no dogmatic brand assertion, and it is purposefully subtle, rather than brazen.

Check out Metropolitan here.

Episode 165: IT Leaders Africa Summit and the new Metropolitan TVC with Ogilvy & Mather.







Date: 10 March 2016 Length: 17:19min File size: 7.8MB Host: Warren Harding





Then later in the show we looked at the IT Leaders Africa Summit, South Africas most respected CIO event, which takes place on 15 and 16 March at Vodacom World in Johannesburg. We spoke to Shannon Mackrill, joint managing director, of event organisers, Kinetic.

The IT Leaders Africa Summit, now in its 7th year, is a meeting place for IT and business leaders across the IT industry. We looked at why this is the not-to-be-missed event for the industry.

Check out IT Leaders Africa Summit here.

Episode 165: IT Leaders Africa Summit and the new Metropolitan TVC with Ogilvy & Mather.







Date: 10 March 2016 Length: 17:36min File size: 8.1MB Host: Warren Harding





The news roundup from Bizcommunity:

If you are interested in getting interviewed on Biz Takeouts, or want to suggest a show topic, email Warren Harding (@bizwazza) on moc.ytinummoczib@stuoekatzib.

Bizcommunity.com's Biz Takeouts Marketing & Media Show takes South Africa's biggest online marketing, media and ad industry platform to the airwaves and gives relevant, useful and interesting insights into all aspects of marketing in SA, Africa and beyond. Each week, the show features the movers and the shakers of the industry, current media trends, upcoming events and brand activities.

For more:
Entrepreneur investors in South Africa's petroleum sector have successfully managed to overcome what can be high barriers to entry through a partnership with Chevron South Africa.

Value chain integration

Chevron South Africas Caltex Branded Marketer programme was developed to help integrate new entrants into the value chain of the petroleum retail market.

This partnership has reached a strategic 10-year milestone with 11 black empowered companies, which together account for 53% of Caltexs retail volume (South Africa and Botswana), across 432 Branded Marketer supplied service stations in South Africa and another 32 in Botswana.

Enhanced transformation

According to Pat Mdoda, branded marketer in Mpumalanga South, the partnership has allowed them to introduce black entrepreneurs wherever possible in the supply of petroleum services.

This has enhanced transformation in the petroleum sector and removed barriers to entry for black entrepreneurs, he says.

KwaZulu-Natal branded marketer Ahmed Patel managing director of AllFuels, comments, Chevrons Branded Marketer concept has opened up the fuel retail industry to B-BBEE players, which was once the domain of oil majors.

It has removed the perception that B-BBEE entities are not geared to meet the specific challenges or lack the skill and knowledge to tackle this sector. This has allowed us to grow market share and create more employment within the region that we operate in, he adds.

Branded Marketer model

"In the last 10 years, Chevron South Africa has played a significant role in transforming the fuel industry in South Africa with the introduction of the Branded Marketer business model."

"The model has proved to be a huge success with an aggregate of 73% black ownership. In the Eastern Cape alone, the acquisition deal by the Branded Marketer model makes it the largest Caltex fuel marketer in Chevron South Africas Africa region, totalling 101 outlets, says Price Njokweni, general manager: sales and marketing support - Chevron South Africa.

Njokweni adds that the partnership has allowed the company to increase its retail presence in historically disadvantaged communities that were underrepresented to begin with. These outlets have served as the centre for economic activity in some rural communities and have contributed significantly to the creation of direct and indirect jobs.

Leveraging Chevrons global experience, while adapting to local operating conditions, has provided a framework for the company to introduce equity into the hands of local businesses. These entities are fully authorised to conduct business under the Caltex brand including product supply and entering into contract with retailers in their designated territories.

Creating employment

Njokweni remarks that the partnership has been mutually beneficial and the branded marketers have grown their clusters by raising the levels of service and capability, while making investments in their own businesses.

Over the past few years, we have been able to grow our business and create employment for many South Africans, Mdoda remarks.

These new entrants to the petroleum sector have transitioned from being just new entrants into formidable businesses fully supporting the countrys socio-economic transformation and contributing to Chevron South Africas growth, says Njokweni.
The 2016 SAFTAs has added three new Special Recognition awards to individuals, groups or initiatives that have contributed to the growth and development of the film and television industry in the underserviced areas and for the benefit of people with disabilities.

This is to ensure that the SAFTAs are aligned to the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) mandate of growing and developing the industry through highlighting and celebrating of the countrys diversity (languages, and regional representation).

Furthermore, special Disability Recognition Award will go to individuals, groups or a particular initiative that have contributed significantly towards making the film and television industry accessible to people living with disabilities.

The Lifetime Achievement Award will this year go to a legendary woman who has contributed immensely to the industry. This is in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Womens March and to recognise the indelible contribution the women of 1956 have made to advance the status of women in general. This year also marks the 40th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising and the Best Student Film category will be used to mark this turning point in the history of South Africa.

Audiences will also get an opportunity to vote for their favourite soapie following the introduction of Most Popular Soap category, which is different from the Best TV Soap Award where judges do the voting.

The SAFTAs 2016 award ceremonies will take place on 18 and 20 March 2016 at Gallagher Convention Centre.
#BrandManagerMonth: Sithembile Ntombela from Brand SA

What kind of brand strategy do you need to market a country? Sithembile Ntombela is the general manager of marketing at Brand SA, an organisation committed to promoting patriotism and the beauty of South Africa to the rest of the world.

Ntombela lets us into her business world. Explain your specific management strategy. How does it tie into your companys overall marketing/corporate communications? Explain your specific management strategy. How does it tie into your companys overall marketing/corporate communications?

Ntombela: Our strategy seeks to deliver on a two-prong mandate 1) to market SA internationally as an investment destination 2) to contribute to social cohesion by promoting pride and patriotism. Both these strategic imperatives highly depend on telling an integrated brand story that will build brand image and reputation. In fulfilling this mandate Brand SA has to work with and through various stakeholders across business, government, civil society, general public and media. Our strategy focuses on the 20% scope of messaging that will deliver 80% perceptual impact taking into account the broad mandate that is supported by limited resources.

The need to craft a clear domestic programme that builds the characteristics and virtues of the South African country brand solidly at home in order to export it successfully internationally. Our strategy has to be responsive to changes in the environment, and to adapt rapidly to new realities with innovative solutions. In implementing the strategy we foster relationships with a range of stakeholders in order to identify synergies, coordinate the efforts of all and get the most impact from them.

Unlike entities making capital investments, for which detailed long-term plans can be made, Brand South Africa functions in a dynamic context and must deal with a continuous flow of novel demands.

Is your brand using content as part of your marketing strategy? Is your brand using content as part of your marketing strategy?

Ntombela: Marketing a country is quite complex as its intangible, so yes content is king. I believe in an integrated approach when it comes to effective and efficient marketing strategies. Reputation is a component that one shapes to positively influence perceptions about our country. It makes it important that we educate stakeholders on brand reputation and competitiveness so they understand the road ahead as far as strategic positioning of South Africa is concerned.

Our messages are often delivered through dialogues rather than monologues, in smaller group sessions where stakeholders can play a part and contribute towards a positive narrative of our country and feel ownership in understanding that their little bit of good they do eventually impacts positively in building a competent and competitive South Africa.

What do you see currently as the main challenges and or opportunities for your brand sector? What do you see currently as the main challenges and or opportunities for your brand sector?

Ntombela: I guess an unstable political environment will always affect the nation brand reputation. The rand being weak also affects the competitiveness of this country. If one looks locally, we cannot be oblivious of brand disablers that are a challenge e.g. youth unemployment, crime, human rights, I could go on, we're not making an awful lot of progress against an awful lot of those challenges. So in a nutshell, that's the challenge that we all face today at this interesting point in history. What weve got to do next is to get our act together and figure out how to reduce the disabling factors and do more constructive things, as from this will be born a country that is sustainable in terms of economic performance.

Does your brand still see the value of TV, print and other mainstream media, explain. Does your brand still see the value of TV, print and other mainstream media, explain.

Ntombela: Marketing a country is slightly different to marketing a tangible product. If one considers that a nation brand is the sum total of a countrys level of investment, tourism, governance, people, exports, culture and heritage one realises that one medium is not enough. Through television one is able to reach masses and arguably so is digital. Most countries promote their infrastructure, favourable tax structures, or other incentives in an effort to lure foreign investment. Some countries also promote their financial markets in an effort to increase their standing as a financial hub. We market brand programmes in targeted channels like CNN, CNBC and this allows our messages to reach potential investors.

In communicating to local audience, radio and social media becomes so relevant particularly when one considers that people spend hours and hours driving in traffic. Without a doubt print is still relevant, and often we pitch our stories to newspapers particularly when driving thought leadership agenda.

Word of mouth is also an influential medium. Ultimately its all about creating a positive image for the country and an integrated approach goes a long way.

In summary: I am a firm believer in keeping the message simple, but deep in meaning. Messages that inspire are particularly important when you are sharing a significant accomplishment or introducing a new initiative that relates to your strategy. Whether youre looking to build optimism, change focus, instill curiosity, or prepare them for future decisions, youll have more impact if you stir some emotion and create a lasting memory. Our people are doing this be it in sports, arts, fashion, music etc. Our role is to craft inspiring narrative that we disseminate to international markets in attempt to build a positive image for this country. Collectively these stories and conversations will be a strong influence on positive culture-building behaviour that relates to our core purpose and strategic goals.

What are the biggest obstacles to take up and planning of "new media" campaigns? What are the biggest obstacles to take up and planning of "new media" campaigns?

Ntombela: Innovation as far as identifying relevant and influential channels to enable us to tell a South African story. Nation brand requires a different, strategic approach. There is a saying that says "facts and figures wont be remembered. Stories and experiences will. New media campaigns should be about telling a story and experience for it to be relevant. Stats (which are often overly used are not so much a driving force) they are simply reasons to believe. Communicate the essence and back it up with reasons to believe.

What do you love most about the South African consumer? What do you love most about the South African consumer?

Ntombela: South Africans are courageous, have the ability to somersault from a bad to a good motion, they are forgiving and most importantly they continue to inspire the world and this is true when one looks at the strides that have been accomplished by South Africans in movies, music, fashion and innovative solutions in the medical field.

What inspires you, personally? What inspires you, personally?

Ntombela: Over and above my family. It is really seeing ordinary people doing great things.

Find out more about Brand South Africa by visiting the website: www.brandsouthafrica.com/. You can also follow them on Twitter: @Brand_SA and like their page on Facebook.

Read more about #BrandManagerMonth in our special section
Following on from the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to end poverty, combat inequalities and promote prosperity while protecting the environment by 2030, Speak Up Africa has launched Yena2030 to spur concrete commitments and position African women at the centre of the continental global agenda.

The long awaited SDGs do not approach solutions from the African perspective: for instance, the agriculture sector is still mostly treated through the lens of hunger and malnutrition, rather than through agribusiness and job opportunities for the youth. To maximise the growth opportunities facing Africa today, both men and women in Africa need to be able to reach their full potential. We need to consider how we enable the story of African growth through its people. The vital role of women in developing our economies and African societies cannot be overlooked if we want to take advantage of the prospects facing us today.

The Yena2030 campaign will strive to remind the world constantly that it is not African women's contributions and leadership that are central to finding a solution; they are the solution to the continent's development.

Speak - Act - Rise

Women and girls make up more than half the world's population - and they are on the frontlines - often more deeply impacted than men and boys by poverty, climate change, food insecurity, lack of healthcare, and global economic crises. This is why it is important for the continent to leverage all possible human energy - maximising the growth opportunities that are presented through people - particularly, its women. Whether they are raising children, supporting families, running businesses, selling in markets, leading communities or promoting peace, women are critical catalysts for meaningful change for the African continent.

The campaign, through the new global 2030 roadmap and SDGs, will examine how women are pushing forward the 17 SDGs, and further reinforce how women and girls are essential to achieving each of these goals. Yena2030 will highlight data, stories, videos and publications to stimulate debate and discussion among African populations, from policy-makers and private and public sector leaders to the most remote communities. For affirmative action strategies and SDGs to be effective, reach their objectives and have an impact on people's lives, women themselves need to speak and voice their opinions around the appropriate mechanisms necessary to reach their full potential.

Educate - Advocate - Engage

Aiming to give a voice to African women and girls, Yena2030 will showcase extraordinary women and girls that are making a difference in their everyday lives and raise awareness of the SDG's in Africa. By informing and engaging citizens, they will be empowered to act on and hold their governments accountable to their development commitments. Speak Up Africa will work with civil society organisations, NGOs and media companies, including African Media Agency, as strategic and distribution partners in this campaign.

Each of these partners will support Speak Up Africa with its strong networks, technical expertise and national knowledge. In addition to providing an outlet for African women and girl's voices and ideas, Yena2030 will act as a powerful accountability mechanism for the African government SDG commitments.

For more information, go to www.facebook/SpeakUpAfrica/Yena2030.
The first large scale South African sexual health campaign to specifically address gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM) has encountered resistance to its advertisements. Although reports that ad networks in South Africa have banned the advertisements are false, there has been opposition to the printing of the advertisements in some newspapers and magazines, their flighting on certain television and radio stations, as well as the hosting of them on the web.

The wethebrave.co.za campaign, spearheaded by the Anova Health Institute and funded by the Elton John AIDS Foundation, developed a number of risque print and video advertisements.

For more information, go to www.wethebrave.co.za.
Put that in your article, Dee said, leaning across the small window table at An Hy Quan as she lauded the presence of peas (the peas really make it) in the steamed buns that sat between us. An Hy Quan is housed in an easy-to-miss, unassuming building on Juan Tabo, a street I don't have much occasion to travel unless I'm visiting my dear friends, Dee and Alex. When we weren't coming up with adjectives to describe our food (piquant, pillowy, delicate) we discussed the supposedly poor conditions at the neon work farm of trapper keeper artist Lisa Frank in Arizona (as posited by Jezebel in an article coolly titled Inside the Rainbow Gulag) and rehashed some jokes that were made in poor taste while stranded at a gas station. Visiting these two is enough of a reason to soldier to the Northeast Heights, but An Hy Quan's menu of creative vegetarian Vietnamese food is another.

Despite knowing of its existence for some time, this was my first visit to An Hy Quan. After some pleasant banter with our waiter, who was, incidentally, also the owner, we ordered deep fried egg rolls and steamed buns with vegetable filling for starters, and because someone else was picking up the ticket, I ordered coconut water to drink. The coconut water was served in glassware reminiscent of a milkshake, with a spoon resting gently against the rim; thick spirals of coconut flesh floated in it. This beverage-come-appetizer was amazingly brightlighter and not quite as sweet as the tall aluminum cans of coconut water I'm used to. The steamed buns and egg rolls arrived shortly thereafter. The buns were doughy and stuffed with Chinese black mushrooms, cooked greens and wheat gluten seasoned like pork. Say that we loved them, Dee told me before the topic of conversation veered in the direction of grant writing. The egg rolls were less impressive, though, truthfully, I've never had a bad egg roll. There were no surprises with thesejust straightforward vegetable stuffed egg rolls served with a sweet chili sauce. I ate them happily.

Despite being tempted by specials that reflected the French influence on Vietnamese food such as a French onion soup, I asked the waiter for his suggestion and without hesitation, he pointed to the cashew mock pork with rice. Equally decisive, I ordered it. It was a safe suggestion, because I can't imagine any omnivore not enjoying the chewy hunks of protein bathed in a thick, salty gravy, crushed cashews on top and a heaping portion of rice on the side. Dee and Alex were equally pleased with their selections, crispy chow mein and vegetarian pho, respectively. An Hy Quan was particularly successful in creating a flavorful vegetarian pho broth with high notes of anise, a quality Dee had been hunting for for some time.

It was my second visit to An Hy Quan that confirmed my devotion, however. It was a Tuesday night, and a small group was leaving as I walked in, leaving me the restaurant to myself. A child sat near the kitchen doing homework; it was very quiet. I ordered a papaya salad to start. In my notes about this dish, I simply wrote, crazy good. Comprised of firm slivers of papaya in a light chili sauce, topped with fresh basil and crushed peanuts, this is something that I would literally eat everyday. I at least got to eat it two days in a row, because the servings at An Hy Quan are sizable. Delivered with the salad was a plate of fried potato starch chips with a bowl of chili saucechips and salsa, the owner remarked as he set them down. It was kind of difficult to set them aside to leave room for the main course.

When my clay pot bean curd with pineapple arrived I was already a little full. I ordered it because it sounded interesting, not because it appealed to what I think of as my usual tastes. After tasting the sweet fruit in its thick, savory sauce, however, I think I'll find it difficult to order anything else on my next, of hopefully many, visits to An Hy Quan. Cabbage, rice and carrots were served on the side and added a nice variety of textures to the dish.

By the time I was preparing to leave, others were filing in. I paid the $14.47 billa price tag that afforded me multiple mealsand headed for the door. As I made my way out, I heard other patrons telling the waiter how incredible their food was, so I can only imagine that I'm not the only one to have this experience; in fact, I'm certain this reaction is commonplace at An Hy Quan.
Professor Sai Aung Tun was one of 2 exceptional luminaries to receive the honor in 2016. The prize is awarded to individuals who spend their careers promoting peace and justice to the world.

The ceremony took place at Yangons M3 restaurant where the peace prize was presented by Professor Dr. Ravindra Kumar, the founder and Secretary General of the World Peace Movement Trust.

At the ceremony Dr Sai Aung Tun said: I grew up in a normal family. While I was a student, I attended school with a 20 kyats allowance provided by the Saopha and a 60 kyats allowance from the Shan State government. I worked hard, I chose this path even though there were many paths and opportunities to choose from.

Over 100 professors, peace educators and activists attended the ceremony. They included: Dr Sai Sarm Tun, Dr Sai Sarng Ai, Dr Sai Sarng Pe, Khuensai Jaiyen, Maj. Gen. Khai Fa, and Sai La.

Khuensai Jaiyen, a director of the Pyidaungsu Institute for Peace and Dialogue and a former student of Professor Sai Aung Tun said that the professor was a perfect candidate to receive the prize.

He said: I was his pupil from 1966 to 1969. During that time I got to learn the Shan language and Shan literature He taught us to be proud of our nationality and love our religion. I am proud of him.

Dr Sai Aung Tun was born in Hsipaw, Shan State in 1932. He received a BA honors in history and an MA from the University of Denver in Colorado, USA. He has also received many local and international awards.

He taught at Yangon University, Taunggyi University, Magwe University, Mandalay University and was the principal of Myitchina College in Kachin State. He has also served as a vice-chairman of the Myanmar Historical Commission since 1992.

WPMT is an organisation founded in India in 2001 committed to leading literary luminaries and lovers of peace all over the world. Since it was founded the WPMT has made continuous efforts to inspire people all over the world to make commitments to peace by signing pledges of non-violence.

BY SAI AW / Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN)

Translated by Thida Linn

Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI
It looks like you have reached this page in error ...

The content you are looking for has either moved, or if you typed in the address there might have been a mistake.

If you believe there has been a technical error  please let us know.

Most Popular Destinations
(Cartoonist - Jimmy Margulies)

In other news, the GOP-controlled Kentucky state Senate has passed a slew of nonsensical anti-abortion measures. The bill will now head to the Kentucky House.

Meanwhile, President Obama has reportedly interviewed several potential Supreme Court nominees.

Sources close to the process say that among those being interviewed are Chief Judge Merrick Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia; Judge Sri Srinivasan, of the same court; Judge Paul Watford, of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco; Judge Jane Kelly, of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals based in St. Louis; and U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who serves in Washington, D.C.

And finally, infamous thug Carl Paladino, the anti-gay developer and GOP gubernatorial candidate who actually owned several gay clubs, is whipping support for Donald Trump in New York.
The leader of the occupation of the wildlife refuge in Oregon, Ammon Bundy, along with a dozen other militia cosplayers have been hit with more charges.

Bundy and his cohorts pleaded not guilty yesterday after a federal grand jury handed down more weapons charges.

In a packed courtroom in Portland, the younger Bundy and others pleaded not guilty to the new allegations Wednesday. All 26 defendants were previously charged with conspiracy to impede officers of the United States. Ammon Bundy's attorneys told the judge that he wanted to be advised of his rights. U.S. District Court Judge Anna Brown denied the request, noting that they were read at three prior court appearances. "I know I have no rights, so thank you," Bundy said.

Sad face.

The good news for Mister Bundy is that, as an American citizen, he has many rights. If he and his henchmen truly had no rights; if they had occupied a federal facility in a country like Russia; they'd probably be dead. They certainly wouldn't have access to competent counsel or a right to a fair trial.

It may not be the outcome everyone wanted, but their thorough prosecution will clearly demonstrate that they're wrong about the government they sought to overthrow.

Ironically, their apprehension and treatment from the beginning of their crusade demonstrates that they've actually been afforded more leeway than minority Americans who've been shot on sight without even having an opportunity to surrender.

Bundy benefited from bias and The System whether he realizes it or not.




DUBAI (PTI): Mahindra Aerospace aims to set up operations in the UAE in the near future, Chairman of the company S P Shukla has said.



Speaking at the Global Aerospace Summit in Abu Dhabi, Shukla said Mahindra is currently the only Indian company that produces aircraft and sells them in 30 countries including in the US and in parts of Africa and Asia.



He said Mahindra Aerospace aims to set up operations in Abu Dhabi in the near future.



Mahindra Aerospace currently produces the Airvan 8, a rugged and versatile utility aircraft in its class. It is also developing a 10-seat turboprop, the Airvan 10, which is on schedule for certification, the company had said last year.



Shukla said India, currently the world's largest importer of defence equipment, will become the third largest aerospace market by 2020.



He identified key investment areas as design, component manufacturing, aircraft assembly and Indian Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO).



"Within the MRO sector the bottlenecks are being sorted out little by little. It's now a matter of time before we see MRO hubs emerging in India," he said.



At the summit, aviation and space leaders from India and Saudi Arabia have expressed their willingness to partner on FDI projects within their own market and said that time is right to collaborate as their industries are on an upswing.



Abdulrahman Altayeb, Advisor to the Director General on Privatisation and VP Fleet Management and Agreements, Saudi Arabian Airlines, said that the Saudi aviation landscape, which is currently undergoing increased liberalisation, privatisation and expansion, will see its fleet and passenger numbers double within a few years.



Predicting the country's aviation landscape over the next 15 years, Abdulmohsen O, Aynousah, Director Technical Sales & Marketing, Saudi Aerospace Engineering Industries (SAEI), said that within the space of one and a half decades, the Kingdom would be self-sufficient in assembly and maintenance within the components sector.



"For those people who have cash in their pockets, this is the time to move into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," he said.



Altayeb believes that the sector will contribute between 10-15 per cent of the country's non-oil GDP within the 15 years - up from its current level of 2 per cent.


Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/03/2016 (2417 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Unseasonably warm temperatures this winter meant countless freeze-thaw cycles, resulting in pothole-ridden city streets.

To combat the problem, the city has deployed its pothole patrol  two crews patching holes daily.

With the freeze-thaw cycle comes water and at night we have below zero temperatures and it freezes, so any little crack or any little surface deterioration in the road, starts to create a pothole, said Rod Sage, general manager of city operations. The more we get the water running on the streets, the more we get traffic on the streets  the deeper the hole gets.

Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun Vehicles pass by a pothole on Rosser Avenue on Wednesday afternoon. Two crews are busy patching potholes on streets throughout the city.

At the city council meeting on Monday, Sage explained the situation, referring to Environment Canada data from December until March.

Weve had 25 days this winter above zero, so that is 25 days that weve had where the snow can be melting and we get the freeze-thaw cycles, he said.

Crews are patching holes with a temporary winter mix, which Sage explained is asphalt mixed with oil. This will be used until a commercial supply of hot mix asphalt is brought in later in the spring. The asphalt reclaimer will also be used, which takes old asphalt millings from summer construction and turns it into a hot asphalt mix.

A third tool, approved in the 2016 budget, is the hot box, which Sage said allows crews to transport asphalt while maintaining it at a certain temperature.

That will allow you to patch the pothole and gives you a  more durable product, Sage said.

Motorists are encouraged to report problem potholes by calling the citys 24-hour Pothole Hotline at 204-729-2200 or by submitting an online report at brandon.ca/report-an-issue.

A number of roads within city limits are under the provinces jurisdiction, including Victoria Avenue, Richmond Avenue, First Street and 18th Street, therefore do not fall within the citys pothole patching program. Provincial roadway potholes can be reported by calling 1-866-MANITOBA (1-866-626-4862). The pothole program also does not apply to the sloped approaches leading into private driveways.

Sage reminds motorists to drive to the condition of the road.

We typically know where those bad streets are. Slow down if you see water, he said. Dont travel too close to vehicles in front of you, allowing you time to break. Dont swerve around potholes, thats very important.

Mayor Rick Chrest asks Brandon residents to bear with them as pothole crews respond to problem areas.

The favourable winter was enjoyed by residents, but is going to certainly pop up more potholes for us, he said.

 jaustin@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @jillianaustin
Already have an account? Log in here 

EDMONTON - Alberta is using money from large industrial greenhouse gas producers to help finance a green energy project.

We need your support!

Local journalism needs your support!

As we navigate through unprecedented times, our journalists are working harder than ever to bring you the latest local updates to keep you safe and informed.

Now, more than ever, we need your support.

Starting at $4.99/month you can access your Brandon Sun online and full access to all content as it appears on our website.

or call circulation directly at (204) 727-0527.

Your pledge helps to ensure we provide the news that matters most to your community!
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/03/2016 (2417 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO  As lights dim before the start of each runway show, attendees scramble to ready their smartphones and tablets.

Long gone are the days when fashion week spectators relied solely on notepad scribbles to document the finer points of new designs. But even as tech tools help streamline the way in which images from runway shows are captured and distributed, one fashion label recently opted to dial back the digital clock.

MSGM streamed its recent fall-winter collection on its website, but reportedly asked press and buyers attending the womens runway show not to post images on social media, according to Womens Wear Daily.

Toronto fashion designer James Yunker walks down the runway accompanied by models in an undated file photo. Long gone are the days when fashion week attendees relied solely on notepad scribbles to document the finer points of new designs. But even as tech tools help streamline the way in which images from runway shows are captured and distributed, one fashion label recently opted to dial back the digital clock. THE CANADIAN PRESS

On the Italian brands official Instagram account, images of icons for Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Periscope and Instagram were posted with red slashes through each one, accompanied by the message: Disconnect to reconnect. #FW16 is the time to take a step back from overexposure. MSGM representatives did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

I think the reality is social media is part of the fashion industry, and certainly part of the fashion presentation and show experience, said Ben Barry, associate professor of equity, diversity and inclusion in the school of fashion at Ryerson University in Toronto.

The question really for designers and brands is: how do you effectively integrate it? My thought is getting rid of social media or banning social media really would show a brand is out of touch with the reality of the fashion industry, and also consumers.

Given that fashion shows are more and more targeted to consumers as much as they are towards industry, restricting social media access alienates your consumer, tells your consumer you dont want them to participate in your show, you dont want them to be a part of your brand.

Canadian designers participating in Toronto Fashion Week say they recognize the benefits of social media for their labels, but also lamented how the platforms have changed the lens through which shows are seen.

Its amazing in terms of the reach. I just wonder if theres so much communication, so many visuals out there, will it resonate? asked David Dixon.

Dixon has been at the helm of his label for more than two decades, and can still recall a time when designers would have to wait to see a published photo of their creations in print.

If you see something that interests you, by all means, take the picture. Or if youre doing selfies before the show. whatever enhances the presentation or your feeling being there, said Dixon.

But I think sometimes that little bit of lens youre seeing through  doesnt capture the music, it doesnt capture the environment, whether theres a tension to the room or the calmness to the room, and that all plays in part of the presentation.

Ellie Mae will be making her Toronto Fashion Week debut, and the newcomer admits shes on the fence about the use of social media during shows.

It would be nice to know that people are loving it and posting about it and talking about it, said the Toronto-based womenswear designer.

I would also love for the eight minutes of the fashion show for people to be there and be consumed by what was going on  so consumed that they couldnt pick up their phone.

Calgary-based Becky Kung recently attended New York Fashion Week where she said she netted many views of Snapchat posts, and shared images during shows.

As a fashion blogger, Im a consumer myself, and also Im really connected with other consumers. All my followers are obviously interested in what Im wearing and whats trending, and so they are consumers as well, said Kung, fashion blogger at Velvet and Vino.

I do feel like Im able to enjoy it, plus capture it, because its such an exciting experience to be there.

The benefit of snapping images during shows is that it also gives her the chance to review them in greater detail later on, she noted.

My brain can only take in so much, Kung said. Theres so many different looks that theyre presenting in their collection that even if youre just sitting there enjoying it youre not going to remember it all.

 Follow @lauren_larose on twitter
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/03/2016 (2417 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SASKATOON  The ease with which young people can buy electronic cigarettes is firing up the Saskatchewan Medical Association.

Association president, Dr. Mark Brown, says there are no Saskatchewan regulations around buying e-cigarettes, even though the products contain nicotine.

And so there would be nothing to stop your five-year-old child from walking into a store and purchasing e-cigarettes, said Brown.

The doctor says hes concerned that products, such as flavoured tobacco and e-cigarettes, could appeal to young people who may become addicted and start using other tobacco products.

The association is calling for legislation around e-cigarettes and a ban on all flavoured tobacco to discourage smoking among youth.

Saskatchewan Health Minister Dustin Duncan said last month that there are no imminent plans to change provincial smoking laws to cover electronic cigarettes.

Duncan said the issue should be approached with caution because using e-cigarettes, also known as vaping, could possibly be used to help people stop smoking.

The health minister cited a report last August by Public Health England, which says almost all of 2.6 million adults using e-cigarettes in Great Britain are current or ex-smokers. The report said most of the ex-smokers are using the devices to help them quit smoking, or to prevent them from going back to cigarettes.

Brown says hes heard that argument and is respectful of it.

Thats why were not calling for a ban on them. Were just calling for regulation around them because nicotine is still addictive, said Brown.

And secondly, there is research now emerging that is showing harmful effects of vaping and e-cigarettes. So if you think that its just a way of getting nicotine replacement therapy and that there are no harmful effects, then youre wrong.

Brown says recent research out of the Harvard Medical School shows that one of the chemicals used in electronic cigarettes can cause bronchiolitis obliterans, also known as popcorn lung.

That is basically damaging the lung, he said.

Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador are the only provinces that have not banned the sale of electronic cigarettes to minors, according to the Non-Smokers Rights Association. Alberta leaves the decision to municipalities.

Brown says he hopes this call generates talk as political leaders debate health issues during the Saskatchewan election campaign.

_ By Jennifer Graham in Regina
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/03/2016 (2417 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Who was fooling who?

Its a question a judge is asked to consider in deciding if shell convict a man accused of being the brains behind the theft of handguns from a Brandon store.

Did the accused, Andrew Patrick Wigman, use tales of his connections to organized crime to bully and fool his friend into doing the break-in, as the burglar has testified?

Or, did the burglar, William Charles Trask, set up Wigman and try to play the justice system, as Wigmans lawyer suggests?

You think that youve manipulated the whole justice system, dont you? defence lawyer Philip Sieklicki asked Trask during cross-examination.

No, I dont, Trask replied.

Trask is the key Crown witness at the trial of Wigman, who is accused of 13 offences that stem from a break-in to Jo-Brook Firearms in July of 2012, and from an attempted break and enter to the Sobeys Cash and Carry about a year later.

It was the cash and carry case that led to the discovery of one of the stolen handguns, and to charges against Wigman.

As the trial began on Tuesday, Trask, who is much smaller than Wigman, testified that Wigman claimed to have gang ties and bullied and threatened him into committing crimes that included the Jo-Brook heist.

Trask said it was Wigman who told him to steal guns from the store. Once Trask completed the task, Wigman told him where to hide the guns and was the one to later sell them, Trask said.

Tired of being told to commit crimes he didnt want to, Trask testified, on July 22, 2012 he went to police, implicated Wigman in the Jo-Brook crime and warned officers that the pair planned to break into the Sobeys Cash and Carry.

Two days later, in the early morning, 2012 police had Trask and Wigman under surveillance.

An officer testified to seeing Wigman boost Trask onto a canopy above the cash and carry door, and Trask climbing onto the roof.

Trask said he cut a power line to disable the alarm before he climbed down, but the break-in didnt happen in the end, in part because Wigman had spotted a police officer hiding nearby.

Still, police had seen enough to get a search warrant and found one of the missing handguns at the home of Wigmans parents, who didnt know it was there.

During Trasks cross-examination on Wednesday, Sieklicki suggested that Trask had made up a story to cast Wigman in a bad light so he could claim he committed crimes under duress.

Hed used Wigmans caring nature against him and enticed him to go with him to the cash and carry, Sieklicki suggested.

Trask believed police were coming for him for the Jo-Brook burglary, Sieklicki continued. So Trask went to police, implicated Wigman in the Jo-Brook heist and told them where to find a gun, and warned them of the impending burglary to the cash and carry.

Sieklicki also suggested that Trask then had Wigman boost him onto the roof of the business so police could see, lending credibility to his claim of duress.

The claims that Trask attributed to Wigman about the latters gang connections were outlandish,Sieklicki said in questioning Trask.

Trask said hed seen corrections paperwork that indicated Wigman had ties to numerous gangs, and Wigman himself told him he was  including the Independent Soldiers, the Triads, The Red Scorpions and the Russian mafia.

Wigman had said the pair were going to set up a marijuana grow-op in Russia.

In addition, Trask told Brandon police that he owed Wigman $20 million for some fake ID, for times Wigman had to call off his friends from harming Trask or his loved ones, and for supervising jobs.

Trask did claim the duress defence at his recent trial, but it failed and he was sentenced to seven years for the break-in to Jo-Brook.

But during cross-examination at Wigmans trial, he denied each of Sieklickis suggestions that hed fabricated his story.

He maintained that Wigman made claims of being tied to organized crime which  while he later debunked them  he believed to be true at the time.

He also maintained that Wigman ordered him to steal guns from Jo-Brook and break into the cash and carry.

Wednesdays proceedings finished with Crown attorney Grant Hughes entering an exhibit which Trask described as Facebook messages in which Wigman was pressuring him to do the cash and carry break and enter.

Wigman, who has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against him, is expected to take the stand today.

 ihitchen@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @IanHitchen
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/03/2016 (2417 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO  A man found guilty in the death of his horrifically abused teenage daughter, whose charred remains were found in a burning suitcase two decades ago, plans to appeal his conviction at Ontarios highest court.

Everton Biddersingh argues there is still evidence in his case which has not been submitted to court.

The 60-year-old also argues the judge who presided over his trial made an error in allowing the jury that decided the case to consider a suggestion that he starved his daughter.

Biddersingh was found guilty in January of first-degree murder in the death of his 17-year-old daughter Melonie, whose emaciated body was found burned beyond recognition 21 years ago.

He was sentenced in February to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

In handing down his sentence, Superior Court Justice Al OMarra called Melonies life with her father an unspeakable horror.

In a notice of appeal submitted to the Ontario Court of Appeal, Biddersingh sought to challenge both his conviction and his sentence.

His trial involved weeks of graphic evidence and emotional testimony about the abuse Melonie suffered before she died in Sept. 1994.

The case took years to get to trial because police werent initially able to identify Melonies remains until they received a tip that eventually led to Biddersinghs arrest in March 2012.

The trial heard that Melonie and two brothers came to Canada from Jamaica in 1991 to live with their father, hoping for a life that would offer them more opportunities for the future.

Jurors heard that Melonie  who dreamt of becoming a nurse  was not sent to school and was treated like a slave.

Court heard the girl suffered brutal beatings, food deprivation and gut-wrenching abuse at the hands of her father, which included being chained to furniture and having her head held down in a flushing toilet.

The Crown maintained Biddersingh drowned or starved his daughter after a period of prolonged abuse, or that the teen died while her father unlawfully confined her in his small Toronto apartment.

After she died, the Crown alleged Biddersingh crammed his daughter into a suitcase, drove her body to a remote area north of Toronto and set it on fire.

Biddersingh then told Melonies mother, who lived in Jamaica, and other family and friends that the teen had run away from home, the trial heard. He didnt file a missing persons report.

Biddersinghs defence lawyers argued at trial that experts had concluded the teen drowned but no evidence showed it was her father who actually did it.

Expert evidence indicated Melonie had 21 healing fractures in her ribs, spine, pelvis, right knee and left ankle that were caused three weeks to six months before her death.

It also indicated that Melonie had inhaled water shortly before her death.

The jury heard the girl weighed only about 50 pounds when she died.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/03/2016 (2417 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CALGARY  Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus promise to reduce methane emissions in the oil and gas industry is being welcomed by environmentalists and, with some reservations, by industry players, as a key step in fighting climate change.

Trudeau, in a joint statement with U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday, committed to reduce methane emissions by 40 to 45 per cent below 2012 levels by 2025.

Chris Severson-Baker, Alberta director of the Pembina Institute, said reducing methane emissions is critical because the gas is 25 times more potent as a climate warming agent than carbon dioxide.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau looks over at U.S. President Barack Obama during a joint news conference in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, March 10, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

Its really quite important, said Severson-Baker.

He said the new targets are similar to what Alberta committed to last November, but having that target adopted more widely will help with industry acceptance.

If you dont have similar rules for other parts of Canada you create a competitiveness concern for operators, he said.

Environmental Defense Fund president Fred Krupp said the agreement is important because methane is responsible for about a quarter of todays warming, and the U.S. and Canada are the worlds second- and fourth-largest emitters of oil and gas methane respectively.

Todays announcement of a joint climate strategy between the U.S. and Canada moves the world a step closer to a future safe from climate change, said Krupp.

In Edmonton, Premier Rachel Notley said she was pleased to see the template for reducing methane emissions introduced by her government last November used on a larger stage.

She noted it received a buy-in from both industry and environmental leaders and was later brought up in discussions with officials in the Canadian and U.S. governments.

We were able to come up with a road map to achieving this and because it was so thoughtfully done, it was then very easy for other governments to look at it, study it, and say, Wow, everyone can work with this? Great. Lets replicate it,' said Notley.

Alex Ferguson, vice-president of policy and performance at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said industry supports ongoing efforts to reduce methane emissions, but that they will take a lot of hard work to accomplish.

Its achievable, its not going to be easy, said Ferguson.

He said a healthy respect for the economic conditions by policy-makers will be key in making the proposed reductions a success.

Severson-Baker said reducing methane emissions and can be done effectively using current technology.

An Environmental Defense Fund-commissioned study by consultancy ICF International found that Canadas oil and gas industry could achieve a 45 per cent methane emission reduction at an average cost of $2.76 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent.

CAPP has said there is still a lot of uncertainties about the proposed policies, but it estimates the cost to be much higher, at somewhere between $8 and $25 a tonne.

Estimates vary widely on just how much methane is leaked from the vast network of oil and gas wells, pipelines and processing plants, but the problem has cast doubt on how much better natural gas is than coal for the environment.

Canada and the U.S. have also committed to work together to improve methane data collection and reporting, and collaborate on ways to reduce methane emissions.

Follow @ibickis on Twitter.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/03/2016 (2417 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  One of the leading contenders to replace Canadas aging fleet of fighter jets says it believes the Trudeau governments emphasis on North American air defence will stand it in good stead once the competition is launched.

Senior executives at Boeing say their Super Hornet aircrafts rugged design and twin engines make it the most appropriate jet for operations in the Arctic.

The air force is working on a revised list of requirements for a new fighter jet, something that could come as early as next week, and officials with the Chicago, Ill company, which has in the past shied away from the spotlight, agreed to a rare interview.

The Liberals promised last October to scuttle plans to buy Lockheed Martins F-35 fighter and hold an open, transparent competition to replace the existing fleet.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also promised the new jets would be cheaper than the stealth fighter and that the savings would be spent rebuilding the navy.

But other aspects of the governments defence agenda caught Boeings attention  including language that suggests homeland defence, as opposed to overseas warfighting operations, is where the government sees its priorities.

Roberto Valla, vice president of global sales for Boeing in Canada, says the Super Hornet is outfitted for war but its sturdy design  meant for aircraft carrier landings  gives it a unique advantage, and its cheaper to operate and maintain.

As proof of the lower cost, he pointed to annual Pentagon reports that show a lower maintenance bill for the Super Hornets already in service. But it was the durability of the aircraft that Valla was most eager to tout.

Canada is a very large country, Valla told The Canadian Press.

He says he believes Canadian officials will be interested in an aircraft that has long range and significant endurance and able to operate in a very, very difficult environment in terms of temperatures; in terms of Arctic conditions; in terms of high gusts conditions.

Critics have said the F-35 is unsuitable for Far North operations because the stealth fighter has only one engine  as opposed two in the Super Hornet and the existing CF-18s.

While Valla did not make that argument directly in the interview, he did say the Boeing fighters engines are designed for the harsh conditions found at sea on carriers.

Billie Flynn, a senior F-35 test pilot for Lockheed Martin, was quick to respond Thursday, saying the duel engine debate was a fear factor argument based upon crashes of 1950s, 60s and 70s vintage jets.

He pointed to the fact the U.S. Air Force has been flying single-engine F-16s out of Alaska for years with no accidents.

The F-35 and its older F-22 Raptor cousin both contain highly-advanced engines that are meant to operate in extreme conditions, Flynn added.

In addition, he questioned the notion that long-term maintenance costs would be cheaper on the Super Hornet, saying that F-35 assembly line will be open years after Boeing stops production on its jets, and spares will become increasingly hard to get in later years.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/03/2016 (2417 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Four stories in the news today, March 10, from The Canadian Press:



PM TRUDEAU FACES FULL DAY IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, holding his son Hadrian, waves as he steps off the plane with his wife Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau during a welcome ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Wednesday, March 9, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will meet with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House this morning, followed by a press conference where they plan announce closer co-operation on climate change, border security and in the Arctic. Trudeau will then meet with members of Congress the day ends with the first White House State dinner for a Canadian leader in 19 years.



GROUPS SEEK TO SAVE 21 ONTARIO PIT BULLS

The owners of 21 alleged fighting dogs believe they have found a solution to save the animals from a potential death sentence. Ken Marley, who represents three people accused of running a dogfighting ring near Chatham, Ont., said his clients have agreed in principle to transfer ownership of the dogs to a rescue organization north of Toronto.



GROUPS WANT EQUAL DRESS CODES FOR ALL WORKERS

Labour groups and some restaurant owners say the Ontario Human Rights Commissions recent report on sexualized dress codes is not entirely in touch with the realities of life in the industry. They agree with the commissions assertion that restaurants and bars should never force female staff to wear skimpy clothing as part of a work uniform.



HOMELESS SASK. MEN ARRIVE IN B.C.

Two homeless Saskatchewan men who say they were given one-way bus tickets to British Columbia have arrived in Vancouver. Charles Neil-Curly, 23, has been homeless for about five months and living in a North Battleford, Sask. shelter, but he says the province cut his funding, forcing him to find somewhere else to go. Neil-Curly says he asked for a ticket to B.C. and was on a bus later that night with his friend from the shelter, 21-year-old Jeremy Roy.


Dateline: Canada

A much-loved Canadian biker evidently doesnt want to go out to sea. A bottle containing the ashes of Hugh Robert Nisbet, known as Biker Bob, washed up on the shore of Clayoquot Island earlier this month, marking its third landfall. I was coming down the beach on the ATV ... noticed a bottle with a message in it, picked it up and realized it was Biker Bob, Dave Watson told the CBC. I heard the story of him and just put two and two together. I thought it was pretty neat. Nisbets widow, Maudine Previl, tried to honor her husband, who died in a motorcycle accident at age 71, by sending his ashes out to sea in November 2015 near Nanaimo, British Columbia. That attempt ran into trouble as Nisbets dog repeatedly brought the bottle back to shore. A few days later, 29-year-old Justin Bevis found the bottle washed up near Victoria, some 68 miles south. Inside was a note reading If you find me turn me loose. Bevis shared a beer with the ashes before consigning them to the ocean again. In late February, Caleb Harding and his girlfriend Bethany James discovered the ash-filled bottle on China Beach, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, and posted about the find on Facebook. Watson, the most recent recipient of Biker Bobs remains, has pledged to take the bottle out for a ride on his Harley Davidson before sending him back to the ocean. Well take him a mile offshore so hell be good and free then, Watson said. Maybe next time hes found in Alaska.

Dateline: New Mexico

Police in Las Cruces have arrested a man suspected of breaking into a convenience store in the early morning hours of Sunday, Feb. 28so he could buy some cigarettes. Ellis C. Battista, 24, reportedly went to purchase a pack of cigarettes at Bradleys convenience store at around 3:30am. The store normally operates 24 hours a day, but the clerk was not on duty at that time and the store was locked. Store surveillance cameras captured Battista pounding on the stores front door several times. Battista then allegedly kicked the doors lower glass panel, which broke. Battista entered the store and selected a pack of his favorite smokes. According to the Las Cruces Sun-News, he then ensured that cameras captured images of him leaving $6 for the merchandise. A witness called 911 to report the break-in, and police officers located Battista nearby. Damage to the stores front door was estimated at $800. Battista, who is believed to have been intoxicated at the time, was charged with one count of breaking and enteringbut not for theft, since he actually paid for his pack of cigarettes. Battista was booked into the Dona Ana County Detention Center and was released on bond.

Dateline: South Carolina

A sheriffs deputy responded after a 2-year-old called 911 with an emergencyshe needed help putting on her pants. The Greenville County Sheriffs office says Deputy Martha Lohnes was dispatched on Wednesday, March 2, to investigate a 911 call that sounded like a baby had accidentally dialed the emergency number. In a post on the departments Facebook page, Lohnes wrote, I show up and she comes to the door with her pants half on, saying she cant get them on. So I sit down on the stairs and help her put pants on. And then she proceeds to ask me to pick her up and hug her.....and that would be the best part of my shift today. Deputy Lohnes praised the toddler, named Aaliyah, for knowing how to call 911. Pebbles Ryan, the girls mother, said she was surprised to learn of the incident from her father, who was home watching Aaliyah while Ryan was at work. I came home to Oh, the police helped your daughter put pants on. I was like, Oh! OK? Then she wouldnt let the police leave because she wanted hugs, Ryan told local reporters.

Dateline: Ohio

In this weeks least shocking news, an Ohio man who ate his roommate's brain has been denied parole for a sixth time. David Allen Chapin, 60, was deemed unsuitable for release by the Ohio Parole Board earlier this month. Chapin shot his roommate Donald Liming in the eye in their apartment in Milford, Ohio, during an argument over religion on Oct. 3, 1978. Chapin was Baptist while Liming claimed to be a Catholic, a Buddhist and a pagan. At the time of the shooting both men were 23 and longtime friends. During the subsequent murder trial, Chapin pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. He told a court-ordered psychiatrist that he ate part of Limings brain as part of a mutual agreement between the roommates. Chapin is currently serving a life sentence at the Allen Correctional facility in Lima, Ohio. He will be eligible again for parole in December 2018.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/03/2016 (2417 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VANCOUVER  Jason Stennes says he knows what its like to be down on his luck with nowhere to turn, so he wants to offer jobs to a pair of newly arrived homeless men who say they were given one-way bus tickets to B.C. from Saskatchewan.

Weve got to take care of each other  and if Im able to help out I will, Stennes, a 43-year-old high school dropout who is now owner and CEO of 360 Cranes Services, said Thursday.

Ive been offered chances in my life and I just feel its important to pass it on.

Saskatchewan men Charles Neil-Curley, left, and Jeremy Roy walk together as they arrive in Vancouver, B.C., Wednesday, March. 9, 2016. Neil-Curley and Roy both, homeless, were apparently given a one way bus ticket by the government of Saskatchewan. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

Charles Neil-Curly, 23, and Jeremy Roy, 21, had been living at a homeless shelter in North Battleford, Sask., but Neil-Curly said a funding cut meant he had to find somewhere else to go.

Neil-Curly said he asked for a ticket to B.C. and was later on a bus with Roy, his friend from the shelter.

Workers from a local shelter were on hand to welcome Neil-Curly and Roy at the Vancouver bus station when they arrived Wednesday, offering them food, a shower and a warm bed.

Jeremy Hunka from the Union Gospel Mission said Thursday the men were in good spirits after staying overnight at the shelter and that the next step was to connect the two with caseworkers to develop a care plan.

We want to make sure that they have a vision of where they want to go and we want to help them achieve their goals and get them out of being homeless, Hunka said.

Theyre in the drivers seat.

Neil-Curly had expressed an interest in heading to Vancouver Island to be with his best friend, which is something Hunka said his organization could help facilitate.

If thats the case, we will do the best we can to make sure theyre connected before they arrive so that we dont have another situation where somebodys going to arrive in a new city with nowhere to go and with a really difficult situation in terms of finding shelter, he said.

Saskatchewans Social Services Minister Donna Harpauer said Thursday the province would look into revising its policies around sending homeless people out of province if the Saskatchewan Party is re-elected next month. Harpauer had already ordered a review to see if the policy was followed correctly in this particular case.

Like other provinces, she said Saskatchewan has a long-standing policy to buy bus tickets, but that is normally done when someone needs to return to their home province or needs to reunite with family.

B.C. Housing Minister Rich Coleman said the two men were welcome in the province and would be taken care of.

People who arrive in British Columbia can apply for social assistance as soon as they arrive, but must meet the same eligibility requirements as anyone else. People who are in immediate need can apply for hardship assistance if they have no other way of providing for their basic needs.

This is about people in need, Coleman told reporters in Victoria.

We shouldnt decide to judge people who  move across this country. The minute we do that, frankly, I think we lose our humanity.

 Follow @gwomand on Twitter

Note to readers: This story clarifies British Columbias policy on social assistance for new arrivals to the province. A previous version based on comments made by B.C.s housing minister said the province requires that someone live in the province for three months before qualifying for social assistance.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/03/2016 (2417 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

HALIFAX  Nova Scotias premier waded into the looming battle over the future of the national shipbuilding program on Thursday, saying he expects Ottawa to honour its multi-billion dollar commitments to his province.

Stephen McNeil reacted to news that Chantier Davie Canada Inc. had last month submitted an unsolicited bid to the Trudeau government, offering to deliver six icebreakers and support ships to the coast guard faster and cheaper than whats already planned under existing federal strategy.

Details were contained in a series of documents leaked to The Canadian Press on Wednesday.

Halifax Shipyard in Halifax as seen in this May 2010 file photo. Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil says he expects Ottawa to honour its commitment to the Irving shipyard under the national shipbuilding strategy THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

The Quebec-based yard also kicked it up a notch when it was revealed on Thursday that Davie also dropped a second unsolicited bid on the federal government to build a heavy icebreaker from scratch.

Both proposals undercut Vancouver-based Seaspan shipyards, which won the right to construct all federal civilian ships five years ago. Nova Scotia-based Irving Shipbuilding was the winner for the exclusive right to build warships for the navy.

McNeil was startled to hear about the developments following Thursdays provincial cabinet meeting, and launched into a defence of the program.

It seems odd to me, said McNeil. That work has been committed to other yards  and I as the premier of Nova Scotia expect the national government to keep its commitment made to the shipyard here in Nova Scotia.

Although the report appears to be of immediate concern to the Vancouver yard, McNeil warned against any moves that would jeopardize the work given to Halifax-based Irving.

McNeil was asked whether Ottawa should make it clear that there are existing commitments to two yards under the strategy.

I would say they should, but we will see what they do, he said.

McNeil said he would seek clarification from the federal government on what the Davie bid means.

A spokesman for the federal procurement department wouldnt confirm receipt of the Davie proposal on Wednesday, but said no request for proposals for additional ships had been issued.

Kevin McCoy, the head of Irving Shipbuilding issued a statement Thursday night re-iterating that his company earned merit-based contracts following a fair and transparent competition that Davie was a part of.

On Wednesday, documents leaked to The Canadian Press outlined details of an unsolicited proposal  delivered late last month to Public Services and Procurement Minister Judy Foote  for the construction, or conversion, of six light and medium icebreakers.

Details of a separate, second unsolicited proposal, were leaked on Thursday, saying the Levis, Que., yard is offering to built a brand new $794 million heavy icebreaker  known as a Polar Class 2.

The proposal, which was rejected in 2013 by the former Conservative government, is in direct competition to Seaspans existing plan to build a massive icebreaker, already named after former prime minister John Diefenbaker, to replace the coast guards five-decade-old Louis St. Laurent, which is currently undergoing a life-extension refit.

The pitch contained a shot at the Harper government.

Please note that had the Davie proposal received proper attention we believe it merited, we would be delivering a Polar Class 2 icebreaker to the Canadian coast guard by the end of 2017, said a March 7, 2016 letter to Foote, obtained by The Canadian Press. Instead, we are once again repairing and refitting Canadas 1966-built polar icebreaker and the delivery of the CCGS Diefenbaker is at least 10-15 years away.

Davie said its icebreaker would be privately financed and ready for service in four years, as long the federal government agreed to go with an existing design.

With files from Murray Brewster in Ottawa.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/03/2016 (2417 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  The Correctional Service should prohibit the use of solitary confinement for mentally ill inmates, the prison watchdog said Thursday, as his office released its annual report.

Segregation should also be limited to no more than 30 days and should not be used as an alternative to the disciplinary process, Correctional Investigator Howard Sapers said.

In the last year, there has been some progress, Sapers noted.

Correctional Investigator of Canada, Howard Sapers holds a news conference to discuss his 2014-15 Annual Report of the Office of the Correctional Investigator, in Ottawa Thursday, March 10 , 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand

There has been a dramatic reduction in the number of segregation placements and repeat placements because the policy is being better administered, he said.

The average daily count in segregation cells across the country used to be around 800, Sapers said. Today it is around 500 and thats without legislation change.

Though the number of people put in solitary has been reduced as a result of recent action by the Correctional Service of Canada, segregation is still often used to manage the mentally ill, the self-injurious and suicidal inmates, Sapers added.

As my offices recent review of prison suicides documented, segregation was found to be an independent factor that elevated the risk of inmate suicide, he said.

In fact, 14 of 30 prison suicides between 2011-2014 took place in a segregation cell. Nearly all of these inmates had known mental-health issues.

The fact that these inmates found the means and opportunity to end their lives in what is supposed to be one of the most closely watched and most secure parts of a prison represents a serious operational risk, Sapers added.

He said the law is clear that segregation should be used sparingly and only when alternatives have been exhausted, noting the framework needs to be significantly reformed and not just tweaked.

Segregation has become so overused in our penitentiaries that during the last reporting period, 27 per cent of the inmate population experienced at least one placement in administrative segregation, he said.

In its response to the investigators recommendations on segregation, the Correctional Service noted it will propose amendments to the Corrections and Conditional Release Act for the governments consideration.

The investigator also flagged the issue of the disproportionate rates of incarceration for aboriginal people on Thursday.

The report outlined how aboriginal inmates are more likely to be classified as maximum security, to spend more time in segregation and serve more of their sentence behind bars compared with non-aboriginals.

First Nations, Inuit and Metis offenders currently make up just over 25 per cent of the federal prison population, even though they represent just 4.3 per cent of the population, the study noted.

The overall aboriginal population in prison has ballooned by 50 per cent in the last decade, the report added.

The growing disparity in correctional outcomes for indigenous offenders will need to be significantly narrowed, Sapers said.

We know that a history of disadvantage follows indigenous people of Canada into prison and often defines their outcomes and their experiences.

The reports findings on aboriginal inmates were raised in the Commons.

Michel Picard, parliamentary secretary to Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, said the government welcomes the recommendations and intends to work on the situation.

Follow @kkirkup on Twitter
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/03/2016 (2417 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

He tried to put the lipstick on the pig. But Premier Greg Selingers mini-budget for 2016-17 was a fruitless attempt at dressing up really ugly numbers on the provinces finances. This year, the core deficit will hit $646 million, some $225 million more than planned.

Why? Well, without a natural disaster (flooding) to blame, the premier resorted to blaming the rising deficits on the fact the Canadian economy is hurting and Manitobas feeling the pinch. The Manitoba government got less from personal and corporate income taxes in 2015-16. That implies Manitobans are earning less than expected, and that cant be good.

The mini-budget only gave the broad strokes of where the money would be spent, however. And thats why the Tories dragged out question period with a long lineup of petitions, calling upon the NDP to table the real thing before the election, as Finance Minister Greg Dewar promised would happen last year.

With the election coming, the NDP couldnt stop its reflex of giving people money. If re-elected, Mr. Selinger would improve tax breaks to low- and middle-income earners. Yet it is spread across so many small credits, most will be hard-pressed to feel a real difference to their pockets.

To pay for it, the NDP would raise taxes, introducing a new tax rate of 20.9 per cent for those earning more than $170,000.

The approximately $50 million that will raise, Mr. Selinger noted, would be equal to the cost of the relief to 320,000 low- and middle-income families. Because this is revenue-neutral, the premier says there is no need to put the tax hike to a referendum, as required within the balanced-budget legislation.

But there are changes coming to that law, the NDP is just not prepared to say where. Presumably it has to do with how many consecutive deficits it can run. Thats necessary now because Mr. Selinger has moved the target again for getting back to balance. Now its early 2020.

He said that is falling in step with the federal government, which has opted to run deficits to put big money into infrastructure deals with the provinces. Yet the premier neglected to mention, in extolling the NDPs fiscal management, his government would actually spend $17 million less on infrastructure in 2016-17.

So what is the pig here? All departments would get more; in total dollars, health and education remain the big eaters. But the cost of servicing the debt from core spending will rise by nearly five per cent, far faster than the rate of spending hikes for core programs. That says a lot. Some $215 million is projected to be spent to pay the interest on the core debt; $859 million will be spent to service the summary debt (which includes Crown agencies).

Thats money that cannot be spent on critical services. Still, the NDP would fund 2,000 new daycare spaces, boost services for children at risk of starting school behind their peers and raise the rent allowance to the poorest Manitobans. All features of a budget few taxpayers would begrudge.

However, in a cash-strapped province, a prudent government would at least hold off on luxury items. To that end, the NDP cannot defend its decision to follow through on a promise to lift education taxes off the properties of senior citizens. Regardless of who is elected April 19, this will see rebates of $2,300 to all property owners 65 years of age or older this year. That makes no sense as public policy. At a cost of almost $50 million to the treasury, it is especially egregious in a province where students academic achievement is below that in almost all other provinces.

What the NDP has done is raised expectations, and its pre-election spending spree will make it tough for any government to rein in the cost of that. The NDP may not be in power after April 19, but its fiscal legacy will be around for a long time.

 Winnipeg Free Press
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/03/2016 (2417 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Might have to head to B.C.

Im just wondering why people seem to forget about Filmon Fridays or privatization of MTS. Previous PC party mistakes years ago cost this province dearly in the past, so I will say this now. If the PC party wins again, you can guarantee Im going to head west to B.C. where things are a lot better than in Manitoba  boring Brandon. Lots of the younger people I know have already headed to B.C. and they love it better than this ghost town/province.

Hey, I am trying to sleep here!

Why does the city have to do snow clearing on a Sunday night from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m. Monday, disturbing peoples sleep who get up early for work? Can it not be done Friday night or Saturday? Just a big thanks as I will not be getting any sleep tonight and working early this morning.

Time for school board to make Canada-wide comparisons

I am an ardent reader of the Brandon Sun and I love reading the Sound Off section. Some of these firefighters and paramedics in Brandon and police department included always making comparisons to other cities for wages, benefits, etc., but I dont see the school board or teachers or whoever is responsible for our childrens education in Brandon ever make comparisons with other provinces in Canada. I think we should be looking into that.

Hear this loud and clear BSD  we have no money left!

Reading your article of March 5 about the city planning. This all worked in print, but how about fixing exiting problems first? I have come to dread the weekly city council meetings. Examples: Eighth Street bridge  no decision; water rates  another increase. Consultants run this city. Unions are out of control. To the Brandon School Division: we have no money left. I am a taxed-out senior citizen. By the way, my old age pension increase for 2016 was 46 cents. Thanks!

Success comes from hard work

To the class warfare advocate in the recent Sound Off attacking Brian Pallister about his multimillion-dollar home on Wellington Crescent. I have two words for you  loser talk. That is what losers do. If you want a nice home on Wellington Crescent, a multimillion-dollar house, you either work really hard or you come up with an idea that can make you that kind of money. If that is not what you want, dont sit there and bemoan other people who have actually worked really hard or done what they have had to, to actually achieve some success. Your success is not measured by other peoples success  yours is measured by what you do in life. Only a loser sits and attacks people for their success. We need more success in our society and we need more successful people in Manitoba and I can not wait to vote these losers out of office.
Bangladesh says it may sue America's Federal Reserve Bank after losing $100m dollars from an account in New York.

Few details were revealed about how the money disappeared, but finance minister AMA Muhith said authorities were considering suing the Fed over the money's apparent transfer to accounts in the Philippines.

Mr Muhith said the US bank had "no way to avoid their responsibility", but in a statement, the New York Fed said it had not detected any hacking attempts and there was "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 had 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 was also working with World Bank cyber and forensic experts, the bank said.

The Philippine Anti-Money Laundering Council said it was investigating and was committed to "combating money laundering and helping preserve the integrity of the financial system".

The country's leading Bengali-language Prothom Alo newspaper said at least 30 transfer requests were made on February 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 had been a threat for years, he said clients should not suffer if they were depositing with large banks.

"A client's right must be protected," he added.
Update 2pm:

Tests are being carried out on weapons - seized yesterday - to establish if they were used in the murder of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel.

Three AK47 - assault riffles - were found in a car on the N2 in Slane.

Detectives also arrested a 39-year-old man at the scene and are continuing to question him today.

It is not known if the weapons seizure was linked to yesterday's 18 property searches by the Criminal Assets Bureau in Dublin

Update 8am:

A man has been arrested and three assault rifles have been seized in Slane, Co Meath during a car search carried out by gardai yesterday.

The car was being driven by a man in his 30's, thought to be from Donegal.

He is being held at Drogheda Garda Station for questioning under section 30 of the Offences Against the State act 1939.

The man can be held for up to three days.

It is understood the weapons, three AK-47 assault rifles, were used in the attack on the Regency Hotel that claimed the life of David Byrne.

The Irish Independent reports that gardai are investigating the possibility that the weapons used in the attack were borrowed from dissident republicans in the North of Ireland.

The development comes just hours after a number of raids carried out by gardai and Criminal Assets Bureau seized 29 cars, 6 motorbikes, 10 Rolex watches, a 38,000 betting slip and 300,000 from a number of residential and commercial properties in Dublin.
The 32nd Dail will meet for the first time this morning.

But it is likely to be adjourned for up to a month later today as no-one will be elected Taoiseach as none of the contenders will command a majority.

At 10.30am this morning the 158 elected members of the 32nd Dail will take their seats.

The first business is the election of a Ceann Comhairle which will for the first time be done by secret ballot.

Five candidates have been nominated - the favourites to get the support are Independent Maureen O'Sullivan and Fianna Fail's Sean O'Fhearghail.

Once that is done then nominations for Taoiseach will be voted on.

But as neither Enda Kenny, Micheal Martin, Gerry Adams or an as yet unannounced nominee for the Independent Alliance will have the support of a majority the Dail will have to adjourn for up to 4 weeks.

Enda Kenny will have to resign as Taoiseach but the Cabinet will continue in a caretaker capacity.

Then all eyes will turn to see if Fine Gael and Fianna Fail can in the coming weeks hammer out a deal and enter a grand coalition.

Meanwhile, an anti-water charges protest will take place outside the Dail this afternoon at 1pm.

Protesters will gather calling for the scrapping of water charges and abolition of Irish Water.

As well as that, Oxfam Ireland will park a mobile billboard outside the Dail today.

The billboard will call on the new Government to prioritise inequality issues - specifically tax dodging, women's rights and access to quality public services.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has officially resigned the office of Taoiseach tonight.

Mr Kenny travelled to Aras an Uachtarain to officially tender his resignation to President Michael D Higgins and the news of his resignation was confirmed in a Government statement tonight.

His outgoing Fine Gael/Labour coalition government will remain on in a caretaker capacity as political parties remain in deadlock about the way forward after the most divisive General Election in recent times.

Speaking in the Dail earlier today Mr Kenny promised the Irish people that a Government remains in place

Let me assure the Irish people that a Government remains in place, said Kenny.

I and my Cabinet colleagues will continue to work hard in the best interests of the country and all the people.

As Taoiseach, and leader of the largest party in the house, I am fully committed to working over the coming weeks to ensure that the people get the government that they need and that they deserve and that they have given their verdict on.

Amid the uncertainty about a future administration, Mr Kenny will continue with official duties representing the country at a meeting with US President Barack Obama in Washington on St Patrick's Day and at the European Council meeting in Brussels next week.

The Dail has now been adjourned until March 22, when there will be an update on talks to form a Government and statements on a number of issues.

TDs are due to meet again in Leinster House on April 6.
A Tipperary farmer who has been targeted by burglars for a sixth time has appealed to all the newly elected TDs to help fight rural crime.

Almost 13,000 euro worth of goods has been stolen from Clive Clarke's property in Barna near Moneygall so far.
By Daniel McConnell, Political Editor

Fianna Fail TD Sean O Fearghail has been elected to become the new Ceann Comhairle of the Dail.

He is the first Ceann Comhairle to be elected by secret ballot.

The Kildare South TD was successful in overcoming the challenge of fellow TDs Andrew Doyle, Wicklow; Bernard J Durkan, Kildare North; Caoimhghin O Caolain, Cavan-Monaghan and Maureen O'Sullivan, Dublin Central.

He was elected on the fourth count and secured 74 votes in total, and finished 16 votes ahead of Fine Gael's Andrew Doyle. The Fianna Fail party whip in the last Dail, Mr O Fearghail is a popular politician.

Married with one son and three daughters, Mr O Fearghail was first elected to the Dail in 2002 having contested four previous elections unsuccessfully between 1987 and 1997.

There is some suspicion that he secured the support of a number of Fine Gael TDs which helped him secure the position.

As the Fianna Fail whip, it was his responsibility to ensure TDs turned up to vote. He also served on the Committee for Procedure and Privileges (CPP) which has the powers to sanction deputies who step out of line.

His election means that the three seat Kildare South constituency is reduced to a two seater.

Early favourite, Independent TD Maureen OSullivan, was eliminated from the race after the third count this afternoon.

After the third count, Sean OFearghail was on 61 votes, while Fine Gaels Andrew Doyle was trailing behind with 48 votes.

Earlier, Fine Gael's Bernard Durkan was eliminated after the first count and his 21 votes were distributed. While Sinn Fein's Caoimhghin O Caolain was eliminated after the second count having received just 24 votes and no transfers. Mr O Fearghail's election will mean he will be automatically re-elected as TD to the 33rd Dail.

The result will be formally ratified by the Dail this afternoon.
Freight companies fear they would face higher costs and decreased mobility, if Britain votes to leave the EU.

The referendum on whether the UK will stay in, or leave, the European Union will take place in June.
The mother of an infant who died in tragic circumstances in Kerry last weekend has thanked people of the community for their support.

Anna Rozycka will return to Poland this weekend for their burial of her 11-month-old baby boy Karol.
Sergio Aguero has reaffirmed his intention to rejoin boyhood club Independiente when he leaves Manchester City.

The prolific striker has told a radio station in his native Argentina that he will not join another club in Europe after his contract at City ends.

Aguero, 27, signed for a club-record 38million from Atletico Madrid in 2011, agreed a new five-year deal at the Etihad Stadium in 2014.

The club were understood to be keen to discuss a new deal but Aguero's declaration suggests he may not stay beyond his existing arrangement.

Aguero told radio station Independiente en la Uno: "It's clear that I'm going to return to Independiente and retire there. My family know that... I'm going to go there when my contract with Manchester City finishes in 2018.

"Here (at City) they know what I want to do, they know I want to return to Argentina.

"I'm giving you my word that I want to return to Avellaneda when I leave England.

"I dream of playing alongside my brothers."

It is not clear why Aguero referred to his contract ending in 2018, as the club have confirmed he is contracted until 2019. However, Aguero's remarks would appear to rule out the possibility of City losing the player to one of their major European rivals, with the striker having been linked with Barcelona and Real Madrid in recent times.

Aguero has spoken previously about returning to Independiente. He first joined the club, based in Avellaneda in the province of Buenos Aires, at the age of nine and broke into the first team at 15. He moved to Atletico in 2006.

Since joining City five years ago he has scored 128 goals, 50 behind club record-holder Eric Brook.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has renewed her criticism of moves by other European countries to shut borders to migrants, which she said will not create a sustainable solution.

Austria's decision to impose a cap on refugee numbers set off a chain of border closures that shut the Balkan route used by migrants to trek to central Europe.

Mrs Merkel said: "This unilateral decision by Austria and subsequently by the Balkan countries on one hand brings us fewer refugees, but on the other hand puts Greece in a very difficult situation. And this situation is not durable and sustainable."

She added: "The problem is not solved by one (country) making a decision; it must be a decision that is right for all 28."

Her criticism came as the European Union said 23 of its member countries must start taking 6,000 refugees each month from Greece and Italy to ease Europe's migrant burden.

A man covered with thermal blanket walks along railway tracks beside an improvised refugee camp on the border line between Macedonia and Serbia near the northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce today. Pic: AP

EU nations committed in September to relocate 160,000 refugees from Greece and Italy over two years to ease their burden, but seven months on fewer than 900 people have actually been shared.

The scheme is key to managing the migrant influx, and the EU's top migration official, Dmitris Avramopoulos, said that "if relocation does not work then the whole system will collapse".

Meanwhile, authorities in Macedonia said 472 people, mostly from Syria, remain stranded in no-man's land on the border with Serbia for a third day as a dispute between the two countries continued over which side should provide shelter for them.

The United Nations refugee agency said more than half of those stranded are children and described the conditions they are living under as "alarming", with migrants sleeping in small tents in a muddy field between the two countries.

Austria and Balkan countries on the route from Greece to northern Europe began imposing border restrictions for migrants last month and halted crossings completely this week, following a meeting of leaders from the European Union and Turkey.

The UN human rights chief has denounced the growing "race to repel" migrants and refugees by some European governments, and said he plans to raise his concerns in Brussels before an EU summit next week.

In his annual report to the Human Rights Council, Zeid Raad al-Hussein said a draft EU-Turkey agreement on handling the migration crisis announced this week raises serious concerns, including "the potential for collective and arbitrary expulsions" from the bloc.
A woman in South Africa has been convicted of kidnapping a baby from a hospital ward 18 years ago.

The story came to global attention last year - after she was recognised by her sibling - when moved to a new school.

Her biological parents had been searching for their child for over a decade - she had been apparently unaware that she was a kidnap victim.

The woman whose identity can not be revealed to protect the teenager now - faces a number of weeks in jail before she is sentenced in May.

The 50-year-old - who can't be named for legal reasons - said she was given the girl at a Cape Town railway station after entering into a private "adoption" programme.

But a judge ruled she'd taken the child from hospital, and described her version of events as 'a fairy tale'.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures on Wednesday rose to their highest level in nearly seven weeks, as fears of...
SINGAPORE: US oil may test a support at $83.78 per barrel, a break below which could open the way towards...
MOSCOW: The rouble traded near 61 to the dollar on Friday and strengthened against the euro and yuan, supported by a...
BRUSSELS: EU leaders will debate how to handle Europes energy shock Thursday, with capitals at loggerheads over...
Is there any food that doesn't taste better when it's served on a stick?

It's a question to ponder when wandering around Canberra's Night Noodle Markets where punters can dine on a stick for entree, main and dessert.

Jasper Dixon, 14- months-old, enjoys corn on the stick with his grandfather Clinton Dixon at the Night Noodle Markets. Credit:Melissa Adams

In the first six nights of the markets 70,000 people streamed through the gates, and although numbers may be slightly down on last year the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, Fairfax Events' head of food James Laing said.

"All the things we wanted to fix were fixed," Mr Laing said, after complaints about lengthy queues marred the experience for some noodle-lovers at last year's event.
As skirt lengths go up and down according to the state of the economy, so too does the popularity of neon.

That's according to two artists working at the Canberra Glassworks as part of its Neon Residency.

Neon glass being created at the Canberra Glassworks. Resident glass artist Brian Corr, right and visiting artist from the UK, Richard Wheater. Credit: Graham Tidy

British artist Richard Wheater runs a neon workshop in the UK, and travels the world presenting Mobile Neon Workshops, while Sydney-based Brendan van Hek creates multi-media works using neon, mirror, glass, metal and disco balls.

Van Hek has never tried to create neon himself, and the two artists will be taking the opportunity to crack open the Glassworks' as-yet-unused neon equipment and bring the brilliant art form to the world.
Would you bother going to the circus if it could travel to you - and over you?

If you're planning to attend Enlighten this weekend, you might find yourself in between and underneath a strolling portable circus watching contortion artists and trapezists perform above.

Anna Batchuluun Brown during the Cirque Mechanics technical rehearsal at Parkes in Canberra as part of Enlighten. Credit:Melissa Adams

Las Vegas circus act, Cirque Mechanics, packed up their 6-metre high Gantry Bike into 100 pieces and travelled half the world to make their Australian debut in an illuminated capital city.

Pedallers will drive the Gantry Bike along King Edward Terrace while aerialists perform on its high platforms.
The Heart Foundation has welcomed planned restrictions on vaporisers and ACT chief executive Tony Stubbs says while he would have preferred an outright ban, the ACT's strict controls were an important first step.

Assistant Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris introduced a Bill on Thursday to treat vaporises as though they are cigarettes, whether or not they contain nicotine. Selling or supplying vaporisers to under-18s will be banned, as will using a vaporiser in a car where a child under 16 is present. Advertising and promotion of vaporisers will be banned, and only licensed tobacco sellers will be able to sell them, in the same way tobacco products are sold. Vaporisers will be banned from public buildings and outdoor places where smoking is banned, including restaurants and bars.

An e-cigarette: Strict controls are expected to come into effect in Canberra later in 2016. Credit:AP

Ms Fitzharris expects the Bill to become law later this year.

Mr Stubbs said the Bill got rid of "the absurd situation" where people could potentially use vaporisers in schools, on buses and in workplaces, with no evidence about whether they were safe.
The father of Richmond star Dustin Martin reportedly faces deportation over his alleged links to outlaw motorcycle gang, the Rebels.

Shane Martin was in Sydney when he was locked up on Thursday morning, according to News Ltd reports.

Dustin Martin's father Shane has been detained. Credit:Michael Dodge

It has been reported that his residency visa was cancelled because officials decided he did not meet minimum character requirements.

Dustin Martin was born in Victoria but Shane is a citizen of New Zealand.
Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp chief executive, Robert Thomson, are so close they even share a birthday this Friday. Murdoch turns 85, Thomson 55.

But given Thomson's close involvement with the family, as well as the family firm, it is interesting to see that the documents detailing his $2.3 million pay rise on Thursday also includes some very personal confidentiality clauses.

Keeping it confidential: News Corp's Rupert Murdoch (left) and chief executive Robert Thomson (right). Credit:Simon O'Dwyer

"Any and all confidential knowledge or information concerning the company and its subsidiaries and affiliates, their respective affairs, and members of the family of K. Rupert Murdoch obtained by the executive in the course of his employment will be held inviolate by him and he will conceal the same from any and all other persons, including, but not limited to, competitors of the company and its affiliates and will not impart any such knowledge acquired by him as an officer or employee of the company to anyone," the clause from the document.

In other words, he is legally prevented from peddling the sort of kiss-and-tell gossip that Murdoch's tabloids thrive on.
Mr Palmer needs Queensland Nickel's operating licences, including its environmental authority, for the new managers to be able to continue work at the refinery. Queensland's Environment Minister, Steven Miles, said his department had contacted Queensland Nickel earlier this week regarding "its legal responsibility to operate under a current environmental authority" as well as advising Queensland Nickel Sales "that if it wished to hold its own EA, it needed to be a registered suitable operator to undertake the activity". He said Mr Palmer only began to make the necessary applications after he had put the new management in place. "I am advised that it was only yesterday that Queensland Nickel Sales made the necessary applications for registration as a suitable operator, and to transfer the existing EA held by Queensland Nickel, a company which is currently in administration," Dr Miles said in a statement. "The application to transfer the existing EA has been endorsed by the administrators for Queensland Nickel and I've asked EHP to ensure the application assessment for Queensland Nickel Sales is done as swiftly as possible with the appropriate checks and balances in place.

"Mr Palmer has chosen to kick the company that operates the refinery out, and put in a new company to run it for him. "He did this without even bothering to apply for environmental authorities for his new company. "He's only made those applications on Wednesday. That's after he'd dismissed the refinery operator. "It is astonishing that Clive Palmer, an experienced businessman, only chose to act on this yesterday." The State Government had been prepared to send a rapid response team to the region, if Mr Palmer pulled the pin on the refinery. It had been approached to provide a guarantee for a $10 million loan to keep the refinery open beyond this week, which the government said it would consider, if the money was secured, it could have access to Queensland Nickel's books and Mr Palmer, the sole share holder, exited the company.

When Mr Palmer came forward with his new management plan, it removed the voluntary administrators as day-to-day operators of the refinery. Prior to this announcement, the refinery had already sacked 237 workers, who were still waiting to hear if they would receive entitlements. It is not yet known how many of the 550 remaining workers remain at the refinery. Queensland Treasurer Curtis Pitt said the Federal Government's Fair Entitlements Guarantee (FEG), required businesses to be in liquidation for employees to be eligible for payments. Queensland Nickel does not qualify. "He changed the corporate structure because he said he wanted to keep the refinery going, which means keeping people in jobs to run the refinery," Mr Pitt said in a statement.

"But today's events mean there are now more questions for him to answer. Workers and creditors need to know where they stand." Earlier this week, Mr Palmer took back control of the refinery from the voluntary administrator, FTI Consulting after raising $23 million in conditional funding. The move by Palmer came as the administrator was in the final stages of deciding to shutter the refinery due to its continuing losses with little prospect of a turnaround. Even after Mr Palmer regained control of the refinery, the administrator is believed to have advised Mr Palmer and Mr Mensink of the need to rehire the employees otherwise they would be out of a job at the end of the week. "This is outrageous," Australian Workers union Queensland branch secretary Ben Swan said of the looming job losses. "Palmer and Mensink have a lot to answer for. Their conduct has been abysmal."

Mr Swan was also highly critical of the Queensland government for its tardy response to the unfolding crisis at the refinery, with heavy job losses in the Townsville area. "In total, 800 working families are out on their arse, ain an area with 11 per cent unemployment - and youth unemployment double that. If we want a manufacturing industry in this country this is not the way to go about it." Last month, FTI Consulting was appointed administrator of Queensland Nickel Pty Ltd. However earlier this week, the administrator was told its role as manager of the Yabulu refinery has been replaced by Queensland Nickel Sales Pty Ltd. "Queensland Nickel Sales Pty Ltd, the newly appointed manager of the Refinery, may offer current employees of Queensland Nickel Pty Ltd employment but the Administrators are currently unaware of the terms or timing of those offers," FTI said in a statement.
SurfStitch co-founder Justin Cameron and his private equity backers will have to offer at least $550 million to convince the board and shareholders to accept a privatisation bid for the online retailer just 15 months after its $214 million float.

The fast-growing action sports e-tailer stunned investors on Thursday by revealing that Mr Cameron, who co-founded the company in 2007, had resigned unexpectedly as chief executive and was considering a potential privatisation bid, backed by as-yet unnamed private equity investors.

Mr Cameron's resignation came just two weeks after SurfStitch backed away from its full-year earnings forecasts  sending the share price plunging 40 per cent  saying it wanted to have the flexibility to invest in content such as surf documentaries and music videos to boost sales of board shorts, rashies, surfboards and skateboards.

SurfStitch chairman Howard McDonald agreed with shareholders that the timing of Mr Cameron's resignation was unfortunate.
Volkswagen AG's top US executive is stepping down nearly six months after the German automaker admitted to installing software to allow 580,000 diesel US vehicles to emit excess emissions, the company said on Wednesday.

Michael Horn, who has been president and chief executive officer of Volkswagen of America since 2014, is leaving by mutual agreement "to pursue other opportunities effective immediately", VW said.

Mr Horn could not immediately be reached. A lawyer for Mr Horn did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The German automaker said on an interim basis, Hinrich J. Woebcken, who was recently named the new head of the North American Region and chairman of Volkswagen Group of America, will assume Mr Horn's role.
Another iteration of NAPLAN figures emerged this week and the regular arguments ensued. How important is school funding versus quality of teaching when improving basic skills, or are both crucial? Are test results from the National Assessment Program  Literacy and Numeracy anything other than a blurry snap-shot in time? Are general comparisons between schools misleading because the tests are meant only to help teachers diagnose weaknesses in individual student learning?

While the Herald shares concerns about how the data is used and believes more education funding is critical for a smarter nation, on this occasion the NAPLAN figures circulated among the education community offer a better than usual insight.

NAPLAN figures circulated among the education community offer a better than usual insight.

The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority circulated a list of 79 schools in NSW whose gain in student results was well above the average of other schools over a two-year period. Those other schools had similar students based on the Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage and other students with similar NAPLAN average score starting points. The 79 schools were among 300-plus nationwide which improved by similar proportions.

By measuring the change in standardised basic skills tests results over time, parents, policy-makers and especially school teachers can see where students are improving and examine what in addition to funding is helping that boost.
Robert Maestas

College security as well as individual students' rights to self-protection, defense and respect became issues at Santa Fe University of Art and Design recently. SFUAD Director of Facilities and Security Peter Romero held meetings with students dwelling on campus last month to discuss changes in security protocols at the private institution that serves nearly 800 students; around 70 percent SFUAD students live on campus.

Ostensibly, Romero held the meetings to engender and encourage mutual accountability among security staff and students, but one of the big issues that manifested itself during the course of the dialogues involved the use of pepper spray and consequently, Romero's attitude to those on-campus who might possess or use the substance as a way to defend themselves.

While the spray was banned for on-campus use at the time of the meetings in February, Romero told students that a change of policy was in the works; enrollees at the Santa Fe campus were told to keeprather than turn inpepper spray in their possession until the update in protocols was announced. Further, the head of security at the school indicated he was speaking with a local vendor to offer SFUAD students a discount on the self-defense weapon.

Those demonstrations of concern didn't stop Romero from speaking in what some students consider a disrespectful tone during the course of the discussions.

In the SFUAD online newspaper, The Jackalope, Film major Ashley Crandall said she asked Romero during one of the campus meetings why she couldn't use the pepper spray she carries on her keychain. Romero responded speculatively and allegedly said, What if you decide to be a bitch and pepper spray your boyfriend in the face? Other students interviewed for the article in the student-run online newspaper also indicated they had reservations about the level of respect shown by campus security when dealing with undergraduates attending the school.

The head of school security was later quoted in SFUAD's student publication as having regretted the comment. Meanwhile officials at the university say the pepper spray policy has now been revised. SFUAD Public Relations Manager Loren McDaniel told Weekly Alibi, We take student concerns seriously and thoughtfully reviewed the pepper spray policy during the past few weeks. The administration has decided to allow small containers of pepper spray (3 ounces or smaller) on campus.

So far there is no word on whether Romero will face disciplinary action for his alleged transgression, although the website of the Center for Online Reporting Accountability notes that the author of the Jackalope article, Charlotte Renken contends Romero has a reputation on campus for not respecting students. The same article also reports that while the reaction to Romero's words has been incendiary and a student group, ColleXion, has been formed to deal with the situation, Renken tempered her remarks by telling CORA, ... we can work to fix the problems on campus, further stating that progress will happen when administrators realize this isn't just a bunch of students complaining  this is more than young adult angst.

Finally, the Interim President of SFUAD, Dr. Maria Puzzierro also sought to ameliorate the current situation, telling Weekly Alibi, The safety and security of our students is a top priority. We encourage open dialogue with our students, faculty and staff on ways we can continue to ensure we share a safe and thriving campus community.
Andrew Barr's impassioned defence of the so-called Safe Schools program in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday did not go into the concerns many parents have with their kids being inducted into contested gender theory. No one, especially people of faith, want to see children bullied at school for any reason. Full stop.

But missing from the Chief Minister's defence was a rationale as to why an anti-bullying program urges schools to change their policies so boys identifying as girls should be allowed in the girls toilets and to share school camp accommodation. It is not clear why school teachers should cease using gender specific terms such as "boys and girls" when referring to children.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr. Credit:Jeffrey Chan

No one has explained why four year olds should be encouraged to read the Safe Schools resource book Gender Fairy which tells them no one can tell you what gender you are. Safe Schools heavily promotes the Minus 18 organisation and its website which gives instruction in chest binding to girls and penis tucking for boys.

How is this instruction relevant to anti-bullying? Leading feminists rightly contest gender theory  the idea that gender is a social construct with nothing to do with a person's biological make-up. Johns Hopkins hospital in the United States ceased gender reassignment surgery in the 1970s because it was found to not make trans people happier.
What do we learn from this show of studio costumes and ephemera, personal effects and film clips? Certainly, typewritten studio memos and other documents foreshadow a career that turned toxic.

Apparent in this footage are Marilyn's celebrity status and her neediness, reminding us that playwright Clifford Odets considered her death, eight years later, the result of "a wasting grief, of a slow bleeding at the soul".

We enter the Marilyn Monroe story at a suspenseful point. The 27-year-old actress is seen in a flimsy cocktail dress on an outdoor stage on a raw day in Korea singing Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend to US troops.

Born in Los Angeles in 1926, Norma Jeane Baker's childhood was one of foster homes and institutional care before marrying when she turned 16 as a solution to impending homelessness.

See her high-school yearbook of 1942 and note the same smile as she stands by the groom in their wedding photo wearing what might have been, if fate had been kinder, a white prom dress. She didn't graduate.

Photographed as part of the female factory workforce during World War II, Norma Jeane began to pose for pin-ups and magazine covers. And, like so many others with looks and few options, she aspired to be a film star.

In 1946, still a minor, she secured a beginner's contract with Twentieth Century Fox and, at the studio's behest, changed her name.

In 1949, divorced, with still only bit parts to her credit, Marilyn posed nude for ready cash. See Tom Kelley's image, all pearly flesh on red velvet, on a 1954 calendar, borrowed from an Australian collection. (There's one available on eBay. This is a show of collectables.)
The first album I can remember changing the way I thought about popular music was Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

In this revelatory moment, I no doubt join innumerable Beatles fans around the globe. But the brilliant song craft of John, Paul, George and Ringo aside, what Sgt. Pepper's did for me was for the first time to spotlight the critical role of The Producer.

How else to explain the way in which that seminal album's cheering crowds, barking dogs and merry-go-round trills seamlessly meshed with the Fab Four's melodic brilliance? Surely, with an unsteady hand at the control room fader board, Sgt. Pepper's could have plummeted from groundbreaking concept album to muddled mess.

All this is prelude to explaining the almost childlike nerves I felt some years ago as I walked through the narrow halls of London's AIR Studios on a hunt for a small office occupied by a tall man named George Martin, the glue behind that fabulous Beatles collage. Or as Paul McCartney has put it, the "fifth Beatle".

Martin, who died on Tuesday aged 90, was still a lithe septuagenarian on that September day in 1997. He was putting together a concert called Music for Montserrat at the Royal Albert Hall in a few days' time. The goal was to raise money for the inhabitants of that Caribbean island  where Martin often went on holiday and had a recording studio  which had felt the brunt of Mother Nature in the former of a devastating volcanic eruption that spring.
The new stuff came first and Price Tag, from 2015's No Cities to Love comeback album, was the song to mark their return to Melbourne after 10 years. Led by Janet Weiss' rolling drums and Corin Tucker's vocal siren, it seemed as good as any place to start, coming from the album which the band said they'd wanted to make to avoid relying on the nostalgia of the past.

Corin's howl, Carrie's thrash, Janet's thunder. There are so many parts to Sleater-Kinney  each band member a distinctive element, each with their own history  that any part of their set at Thornbury's Croxton could be a reflection of the individual. But it's not about that. Sleater-Kinney is about how all those forces come together in one pulsating core of sound.

But then came songs from 2002's One Beat, from 2005's The Woods, 2000's All Hands On The Bad One and 1997's Dig Me Out and suddenly the more than two-decade history of the American rock trio was playing out on stage in a stunningly cohesive, serious display. They gave little away to their audience, just song after song of blistering vocal, jagged guitar and the occasional leg kick, so lucky was the fan in the front row who won praise and a rare bit of banter from Carrie Brownstein for wearing "the best Drake T-shirt ever".

In her memoir of last year, Brownstein writes of the 2006 demise of Sleater-Kinney as the end of the longest relationship she's ever had. It's impossible to forget that history seeing them on stage again a decade later, to not think about all they've been through even as their diverse body of work somehow knits itself into a long cohesive thread.

The creative connection between Brownstein and Tucker is clear, rarely does a song begin or end without one looking at the other, but Weiss' presence seems even more important as the furious calm between those two storms, driving the rhythm that propels so much of their music. Always a trio, on this tour Sleater-Kinney have brought an honorary fourth band member, British multi-instrumentalist Katie Harkin, to play on stage with them and her drums, guitar and fuzzed out keys are welcome, seamless additions.

Although the eponymous single from No Cities to Love was missing on Wednesday, the relevancy of their music was not. Tucker's incendiary plea for grace after the premature birth of her son, Sympathy, remains tapped from some kind of primal source even 15 years after its release. Modern Girl was an encore highlight, turning the sold-out house into an all-singing mass of ironic delight while the finale, Dig Me Out, reaffirmed that Sleater-Kinney was and still is, a potent force of indie rock.
The festival was due to celebrate its 10th birthday this weekend but was denied permits by Buloke Shire Council in February for reasons including failure to submit a cultural heritage plan, produce public liability insurance certificates or a waste management plan.

The organisers of the Maitreya Festival, a four-day electronic music and lifestyle gathering due to be held near Charlton in central Victoria, have cancelled the event a day before it was due to begin.

"To the dear people of our tribe, we are having to call off the event due to the weather that has occurred up on site the past 24 hours," the post reads. "There is no safe way into and out of the site. We urge you not to come as it is not safe onsite. Thank you for all your support and we will be in touch soon. X Maitreya team."

The Bureau of Meteorology forecast rain throughout Thursday and possible showers on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Up to 7.8mm of rain have fallen in the past 24 hours.

That message followed an earlier post announcing the cancellation, which was mysteriously removed 35 minutes later.

"We are really sorry but Maitreya 2016 has been cancelled," the previous post read. "Due to circumstances beyond our control it is with a heavy heart that I now come to inform you that the Festival will not proceed as planned.

"We've tried every possible avenue of keeping our beautiful festival afloat, but unfortunately as of early this morning that is no longer possible. We will provide you a full update as soon as we can. We're so sorry for this and are beyond devastated ourselves."
The last time Simon Gallaher spoke to his long time collaborator and friend Jon English, it was typical of his engagement with the fun larrikin.

The pair starred together in the long-running smash The Pirates of Penzance, Gallaher as Frederick and English as the Pirate King.

Jon English with Simon Gallaher in the background in a performance of The Pirates of Penzance. Credit:Simone de Peak

"It was February 29, which is Frederick's birthday in Pirates and when I answered the phone, he said 'happy birthday Freddy' which I didn't get at first... then I realised, it was quite funny," he said.

Gallaher was aware of his friend's fall in Adelaide which left him with broken ribs and a punctured lung and was concerned for his friend.
A severe thunderstorm warning has been issued for the ACT with the Bureau of Meteorology predicting large hail, heavy rain, and damaging winds

The warning, issued just after 5 pm, also covers the Snowy Mountains, parts of the Hunter, Illawarra, Central Tablelands, and Southern Tablelands.

A severe thunderstorm warning has been issued for ACT region. Credit:Glenn Campbell

The BOM said severe thunderstorms were likely to produce heavy rainfall which may lead to flash flooding, large hailstones and damaging winds over the next several hours in the ACT, Snowy Mountains and parts of the Southern Tablelands.

Locations which may be affected include Cooma, Bombala, Captains Flat, Jindabyne, Bredbo and Nimmitabel.
In between playing doctor "Hawkeye" Pierce in the beloved war comedy M*A*S*H and presidential candidate Arnold Vinick in the equally beloved political drama The West Wing, Alan Alda has interviewed more than 700 scientists.

"I'm telling you it's contagious," he said. "It's a great thing to see a really good brain at work solving problems. It's one of the wonders of nature to me."

The same could be said for listening to Mr Alda, 80, talk about his passion for science on Thursday at the National Press Club in Canberra.

Understanding science, much less explaining it to others, isn't always easy. But it's worth the effort. The actor, writer and director is so convinced of that, he's devoted much of the rest of his life to promoting science communication.
Victorian Liberal president Michael Kroger has indicated the Liberals would be prepared to enter a "loose arrangement" with the Greens ahead of the forthcoming federal election, saying the minor party are "not the nutters they used to be".

Under a supposed "deal" touted by Labor's Anthony Albanese this week, Victorian Liberals would preference the Greens ahead of Labor in some inner-city seats in return for the Greens running open tickets (without directing preferences) in some outer suburban seats in Victoria.

But the potential arrangement has irked senior figures in the Greens, as well as conservative Liberals, who see it as anathema to their parties' core interests.

Describing the Greens as more moderate under Richard Di Natale, Mr Kroger left the door open for Liberals to direct preferences to certain Greens.
After two-and-a-half years in power, much of the government's policy agenda remains compromised as the Prime Minister edges towards an early double-dissolution election, the first in 30 years.

Legislation across education, welfare, environment, health and industrial relations has been routinely shot down by Labor, the Greens and the crossbench in the Senate.

If both houses of Parliament are dissolved and Australians sent to the polls early, the Coalition's signature reforms could be revived or killed off pending the election result.
Hospitals are limiting surgery hours and forcing patients to wait longer for elective procedures as an "economic disaster" looms for them, doctors have warned.

The Australian Medical Association is calling for an urgent injection of funds for public hospitals, which will come under increased pressure from next year when annual funding increases that had been promised are severed.

AMA president Brian Owler says longer emergency waiting times lead to poorer outcomes. Credit:Andrew Meares

The call comes as hospitals in western Sydney and rural NSW claim they are at breaking point.

Nurses at Wagga Wagga Hospital have said they will have to suspend elective surgery unless the state government closes beds that have not been funded.
NSW Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian has nominated the Coalition's controversial policy to cap public servant wage rises as a key factor in driving down the number of days lost to industrial disputes in NSW.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released on Thursday show that in 2015 the number of days lost to industrial disputes in NSW was 4.3 per 1000 workers.

NSW Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian. Credit:Daniel Munoz

This compared with 15.9 days in Queensland and 10.8 days in Victoria. The figures related to both the private and public sectors.

Ms Berejiklian said the result "shows that NSW is the place to work and do business".
When they unzipped the silver Ocean & Earth surfboard bag Jamie Gao was hidden in, he was wearing a watch and a clear, latex glove on his right hand.

Forensic pathologists later peeled off his black Jay Jays T-shirt and found two bullet wounds on the right hand side of his chest and a tattoo that read "Every saint has a past every sinner has a future".

Jamie Gao may have been sitting when he was shot, court hears. Credit:Facebook

And it is a possibility Mr Gao's future ended sitting down, according to the evidence given by a forensic pathologist in the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday.

The prosecution will allege Mr Gao was shot dead in a southern Sydney storage shed and later dumped at sea by former policemen Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara.
Two staff members from RG Dance warned child protection authorities about paedophile teacher Grant Davies six years before his arrest but were told no action could be taken, a royal commission has heard.

Former RG Dance company secretary John Barnier told the royal commission he informed the then Department of Community Services in 2007 that Davies had sent sexually explicit messages to a young dance student.

Grant Davies is awaiting sentencing for multiple child sex offences.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard that the department could not act against Davies, who was later charged with multiple child sex offences in 2013.

"I recall telling them what I knew and DoCS  responding that because I didn't have any first-hand knowledge of the incidents I was raising with them that they couldn't take it as a formal report to take action," he said.
The two leading contenders to be Brisbane's lord mayor after March 19 go head-to-head in public next week at a ticketed Engineers Australia debate at a CBD hotel.

Liberal National Party Lord Mayor Graham Quirk and Labor candidate Rod Harding have agreed to a lunchtime debate on Tuesday at a $110-a-head lunch.

Greens candidate Ben Pennings is furious he's been excluded from an Engineers Australia lord mayoral debate. Credit:Michelle Smith

But the Greens, which along with Labor and the LNP have candidates in every ward, cried foul, saying they have been cut out of the process.

Greens lord mayoral candidate Ben Pennings said the party had spoken with Engineers Australia, which he said thought it was "too hard to put an extra chair and mic on the stage".
Will he or won't he?

It's the question that has Brisbane abuzz on Thursday, as speculation continues to build that one of the state's most divisive political figures, former premier Campbell Newman, will nominate for LNP pre-selection in the federal seat of Brisbane.

Despite being hosed down by senior party figures, the prospect is a very real one according to Mr Newman's biographer and former Cairns MP Gavin King.

"He said he is indeed weighing it up," Mr King told 612 ABC Brisbane breakfast host Spencer Howson.
Police have confirmed missing Gold Coast boy Koby Chandler has been found safe and well on Friday morning.

The seven-year-old was reported missing from his Southport home at 4pm Thursday.

A wide-scale air and land search that continued late into the night on Thursday resumed on Friday morning and the young boy was located just after 7am.
Notorious bank robber and prison escapee Brenden Abbott has paid dearly for his crimes and shouldn't be pursued by interstate police after being granted parole in Queensland, his lawyers say.

The so-called Postcard Bandit was granted parole by the Queensland Parole Board on Wednesday but a statement issued shortly after by Western Australian police noted he had outstanding criminal matters in the state.

"It would be difficult to comprehend why Western Australian authorities would now seek Mr Abbott's extradition, after having spent almost 20 years in a Queensland goal," solicitor Brendan Nyst said on Thursday.

"Mr Abbott has paid dearly for his crimes and hopefully now he will be able to get on with his life. Enough is enough."
Of those who responded with "over six months" one small business still hasn't been paid after 20 years while another four small businesses surveyed were still waiting five and six years after issuing an invoice.

The telephone survey of 900 small and 100 medium business proprietors or managers conducted in January and February found 24 per cent say they have been forced to wait more than six months for an invoice to be paid.

Stephen Kerdel, owner of Sunrise Carpet Cleaning, has waited up to six months to get paid for invoices. Credit:Simon Schluter

Of those surveyed, 63 per cent say their invoices are paid late. The manufacturing, construction and wholesale industries are the worst late payers.

On average, 31 per cent of those surveyed had to wait 15-30 days to be paid, 29 per cent had to wait 31- 60 days to be paid and 11 per cent waited more than 60 days.

Of the small businesses surveyed, 66 per cent say a quarter of their invoices are paid late, 18 per cent say up to a half of invoices are paid late, 5 per cent say up to three-quarters of their invoices are paid late, 6 per cent say more than three-quarters of their invoices are paid late and 5 per cent were unsure.

Steven Kerdel and Julie Kerdel, the owners of Melbourne business Sunrise Carpet Cleaning, say in the past they have had invoices unpaid for up to six months.

"It was just a whole mess," Julie Kerdel says. "It broke up the relationship with that contractor, some people just let you down."
In light of the government decision to take GST reform off the table, now is the time to consider other options to reduce red tape for small businesses, and help this vital part of the economy succeed.

Unfortunately, the recent GST debate was focused on the wrong point. With politicians fixated on rates of GST and its carve-up, the burden the tax places on SMEs was largely ignored.

MYOB chief executive Tim Reed says small businesses need GST reform. Credit:Jessica Hromas

The SME sector is Australia's largest private sector employer and the heartbeat of innovation and needs to be supported.

MYOB commissioned research with Australian and New Zealand small businesses to find out the cost of administering GST.
Well that's us just about all scienced out for the day. We hope you've enjoyed it and learnt as much as we have.

Keep on scrolling for everything from cute turtles to quantum physics, barrier reef preservation to decomposing body examination and lots more in between.

Tonight's program features signature events direct from New York such as Dawn of the Human Age, where experts will discuss whether humanity is bringing on its own doom and Cosmic Nomad, a Mars One astronauts hilarious take on the selection process to be one of a lucky few to colonise (and die on) Mars.

And of course, the real reason you should know who Heisenberg is.

Be sure to check back tomorrow as we do it all again but with even more science, we assume.
An embattled former Education Department official will face an open anti-corruption commission hearing despite his lawyers arguing that his public testimony could prejudice a possible criminal trial.

Darrell Fraser is at the centre of a scandal that has cost Victorian taxpayers up to an estimated $240 million.

Jeff Rosewarne and Darrell Fraser at the Melbourne Cup. Credit:The Independent Broad-Based Commission

The Independent Broad-Based Anti-Corruption Commission is investigating how contracts were awarded and tendered for a botched IT project called Ultranet, and whether the project led to department officials' overseas trips, promotions, and insider trading.

Mr Fraser has been accused of funnelling $1 million of department funds to the company that won the Ultranet contract, and taking a senior job at the the same company after he left the department.
Driverless vehicles could cause extreme congestion on Melbourne's roads, as empty cars shuttle back to their owner's suburban homes after dropping them off at their destination.

The Victorian government is concerned private car ownership will continue to dominate even with the advent of new car technology, according to a new report commission by Melbourne City Council.

Driverless cars could make Melbourne congestion worse. Credit:Daimler AG - Global Communication

Dr Elliot Fishman from the Institute for Sensible Transport said it was almost inevitable that "road user pricing" would be introduced as revenue from car parking and the fuel excise tax is chipped away by electric cars that do not need fuel and autonomous vehicles that do not need parking.

"Whether governments wait until congestion cripples the economic productivity of our cities or act pre-emptively to manage congestion remains unclear," Dr Fishman's report said.
In an escalating stoush, Ms Hennessy said on Thursday that thousands of elective surgery procedures would soon be cut at major Melbourne hospitals because of a $73 million shortfall in federal funding.

But federal health minister Sussan Ley says there is no reason why Victorian patients should have to suffer in coming months and that the Victorian Government could easily fix a $73 million problem of its own making.

Waiting lists for elective surgery in Victorian public hospitals will blow out because of a fight over $73 million between the federal and state governments, Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy has warned.

In a press release, she said Victoria was losing the money because the administrator of the National Health Funding Pool had "backflipped" on a method Victoria had been using to calculate its health funding activity in recent years. She said since the method began under the former liberal state government, staff had sought and received "numerous assurances" that it was within the rules of the funding agreement.

Health Minister Sussan Ley says Victoria artificially inflated its state hospital activity to receive more funding. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

However, the change means Victoria has, in effect, been ordered to repay money it gained because of the accounting method.

But Ms Ley said Victoria had been caught "cooking the books" to gain more money than it deserved and that the error was "incompetent at best and deceitful at worst". She said no other state or territory had done the same thing.

"We have offered the Victorian government an opportunity to reconcile that funding discrepancy gradually so as not to affect hospitals ... I'm calling on the Victorian minister to make sure that that offer does get taken up," she said after opening the new $84 million Translational Research Facility at Monash Health in Melbourne.
Marissa Calligeros reports: a 17-year-old girl has managed to fight off a would-be abductor who stopped to ask her for directions in the Gippsland town of Tynong.



The man tried to grab the girl on the afternoon of January 27. The girl fought back, kicking the man in the leg, before breaking free of his grip and running home. Police were only told of the incident this week because the girl was so distraught. They have released a computer-generated image of a man they wish to speak to.

The man was driving a dark grey Holden sedan. Credit:Victoria Police
It is still illegal to sell e-cigarettes in Western Australia after a conviction in a landmark case on the matter was upheld in WA's Supreme Court on Thursday morning.

Judge Michael Buss heard the appeal brought forward by Vincent van Heerden, who was was first acquitted of selling e-cigarettes, then convicted after an appeal by the Health Department but this latest appeal has now failed.

Vincent van Heerden with one of his personal e-cigarettes. Credit:Aleisha Orr

The landmark case has been playing out in the West Australian court system for the past five years.

Van Heerden was found guilty of breaching the Tobacco Products Control Act in April 2014, which made WA the first jurisdiction in the world to outlaw the sale of e-cigarettes.
A badly decomposed body was found in the backyard of a South Guildford home on Wednesday after one of the residents went to investigate a smell.

Police say the deceased, whose body was found "partially buried or hidden", may have died weeks ago.

Detective Inspector Mark Fyfe said a 76-year-old grandmother, her 55-year-old daughter and 21-year-old granddaughter live at the home in Nyinda Entrance and while police know the whereabouts of the daughter and granddaughter, the police had not located the grandmother.

He said detectives were trying to establish the last known sighting of the grandmother.
One of Australia's most respected road safety experts has urged WA to reduce speed limits and place more cameras along freeways to combat the death toll.

Following a horror Labour Day long weekend, in which 12 people died on WA roads in just four days, Professor Max Cameron called on the government to bring the limit down to 90km/h.

The Monash University academic said the move would have an immediate impact on road fatalities, which are running at double what they were in 2015.

"I believe the speed limits in Western Australia are much too high, especially on low quality roads," he told Nine News Perth.
Dr Lutton also criticised the development on the corner of Cambridge and Jersey streets in Wembley, which the council had envisioned as a "landmark" site to anchor town centre revitalisation. Dr Lutton says urban design that does not allow for tree canopy cover and landscaping can worsen the urban heat island effect. Credit:Emma Young He said comparing Perth to other Australian cities showed it might not be as low-density as was commonly thought, and that "arbitrary" infill targets in already-full inner suburbs were causing overdevelopment on tiny land pockets. He said the government's removal of density limits for apartments in areas zoned above R30, as long as they met basic criteria such as car bays and setbacks, had led to developments with higher density than that seen in central London. One Mount Lawley site zoned R60 had been approved for a development equivalent to about 300 dwellings per hectare.

Dr Lutton said all this was being achieved without quality controls such as those used in Sydney to protect amenity. "You can take a single block and it doesn't have to respond to its neighbours in any way," he said. "Take an area like the Mill Point Peninsula, one of the most attractive residential areas in Perth, beautifully landscaped, set back well from the streets. For many years this set a benchmark for producing high-density environments that were very liveable. "Now that has gone out the door." He said while the zero-setback policy that caused such distress in South Perth was all right for buildings up to a certain height, it should not be imposed as a blanket rule without the possibility for exceptions to optimise relationships to the street, landscaping and neighbours.

The City of South Perth has retorted that it consulted neighbours and none chose to comment when developers sought to increase the building's size. Dr Lutton said if numerous developments in an area defied good planning principles the cumulative impact could be immense and include such problems as the worsening of the urban heat island effect. "Councils are trying to do the right thing and implement their planning schemes, properly developed," he said. "Overriding them is the state government saying 'get stuffed, we are going for high density' and grabbing it wherever they can." Planning Commission chairman Eric Lumsden said by 2050, Perth and Peel would be home to some 3.5 million people, placing unsustainable pressure on the environment, economy and way of life.

More than 800,000 new homes would be needed and nearly half had to come through infill. He said the draft Perth and Peel@3.5million suite of land use planning frameworks identified employment-generating industrial, residential and commercial land for infill to make best use of existing and potential infrastructure and to protect environmental assets. "Housing diversity and choice, serviced by public transport and close to amenities such as shops, cafes, restaurants and public open spaces are key considerations for both government and homebuyers when identifying appropriate locations," he said. He said council infill targets were based on local land area, population projections, historic settlement behaviour and local planning documents. He said the changes to the R-Codes took effect in October that would provide councils with greater control on the location of apartments in areas zoned R30 and R35.
Sao Paulo: Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been formally charged in a money-laundering investigation led by Sao Paulo state prosecutors, intensifying scrutiny of the popular politician questioned in a separate federal graft probe last week.

A spokesman for the state prosecutors declined to specify the charges, but state investigators have said they suspect Mr Lula's family owned an undeclared beachfront apartment in the city of Guaruja.

Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, right, and Senate President Renan Calheiros, chat at the end of a breakfast with senators of the government's allied base, in Brasilia, on Wednesday, before charges were laid. Credit:AP

Federal investigators echoed those allegations after they detained Mr Lula for questioning on Friday, fanning a political crisis that has rattled his successor and protege President Dilma Rousseff.

Brazilian newspaper O Globo reported the charges were for money laundering and hiding assets. It said prosecutors will hold a news conference on Thursday (local time) to explain the accusations. According to Brazilian law, a judge would have to accept the charges against Mr Lula for the former president to be formally indicted.
Paris: French students and trade unions have staged protest marches across the country to rally against far-reaching labour reforms, testing President Francois Hollande's mettle as he tries to lower an unemployment rate still stuck above 10 per cent.

Organisers said hundreds of thousands of people took part in the protests and the interior ministry put the figure at 224,000, though that is less than in some previous nationwide demonstrations in France - a possible sign that unions are struggling to mobilise public anger against Mr Hollande's unpopular Socialist government.

Angry unions and young people take part in a day of protests in France. Credit:AP

Unions said the protests were just "a warm-up" ahead of further planned rallies and the government will be keen to prevent the simmering discontent among students, traditionally at the forefront of France's largest protest movements, from boiling over in coming weeks.
Bangkok: Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has selected one of her close aides to be Myanmar's next president amid signs of a deepening rift between her National League for Democracy and the country's powerful military.

The NLD on Thursday nominated Oxford-educated Htin Kyaw to be its candidate for the presidency, opening the way for his election at a joint sitting of Myanmar's upper and lower houses of parliament in the next few days.

Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Credit:AP

Larry Jagan, a prominent Yangon-based commentator, said Mr Htin Kyaw has the credentials to be Ms Suu Kyi's "puppet president" as she has described the role.
Latest News NAB reveals six market megatrends for brokers More opportunities for investors, first home buyers

Firstmac shifts up a gear on auto loans National sales manager appointed to pursue growing market

Non-bank lender Pepper has announced a fee promotion which could save broker clients thousands of dollars in upfront fees.Pepper will be waiving establishment fee, legal fees and title protection fee on Pepper Easy and Pepper Advantage home loans between 1 March and 30 April 2016. According to the non-bank, this will save consumers over $1,800.Peppers director of sales and distribution, Mario Rehayem, says this offer reflects Peppers commitment to provide brokers with flexible and competitive home loan products.Pepper continues to deliver on its title of top-ranked non-bank specialist lender by combining a compelling service offering of innovative products, competitive rates and market-leading turnaround times for our clients, with very competitive offers across our range of full doc and alt doc home loans, he said.Rehayem also revealed that for a limited time, brokers will be able to access Peppers suite of non-conforming home loans including unlimited debt consolidation, unlimited credit impairment and the ability to payout ATO debts without the need to pay the usual upfront fees.We pride ourselves on catering to segments of the market that are under-serviced, by providing first-class service, flexible products and a common sense approach to individually assessing loans, Rehayem said.
Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams

St. Paddys Day partiers are not seeing double  there are two parades on the same day!

Both of Brooklyns Saint Patricks Day parades will march on the same day this year, on Sunday, March 20 at 1 pm. So Irish ramblers will have to choose between the boroughs oldest parade in Park Slope  or its biggest parade, in Bay Ridge.

The latter, which has steadily grown over the years, is the culmination of years of work and is not to be missed, said its lead organizer.

I had two goals when I took over five years ago  to make it the biggest possible and to incorporate a scholarship for Catholic school students and weve done both, parade committee president Frankie Marra said. If its a nice sunny day, you dont get a better atmosphere.

Grand Marshal James B. McHugh, a senior vice-president of Signature Bank, will lead the Bay Ridge parade along 30 blocks of Third Avenue, from Marine Avenue at the southern tip of the neighborhoood to 67th Street, with a review stand on 77th Street.

Over a dozen marching bands, including the fire and police departments pipe and drum bands, will march in the parade alongside floats from local businesses and organizations.

Fifteen bars along the route will serve as official headquarters, where Paddys partiers can get information about the bands and floats in the parade and buy raffle tickets, which fund tuition scholarships for 10 incoming local Catholic high school students.

In Park Slope, organizers of the 41-year-old Brooklyn St. Patricks Day Parade parade will hold a re-dedication ceremony for the heroes and victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, shortly before the march sets off from Bartel-Pritchard Square. The Square, at the corner of Prospect Park West and 15th Street, is the start and end point of the parade, and the location of its reviewing stand.

Parade Grand Marshal Mary Hogan, the national president of the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians, will lead the parade in a large loop from the BartelPritchard Square to Seventh Avenue, north to Garfield Place, and then back down Prospect Park West to the square.

Bay Ridge Saint Patricks Day Parade [Starts at Marine and Third avenues in Bay Ridge, www.bayri dgest patri cksda y.com , (917) 9755691]. March 20 at 1 pm.

Brooklyn Saint Patricks Day Parade (Starts at Prospect Park West and 15th Street in Park Slope, www.brook lynst patri ckspa rade.com ). March 20 at 1 pm.
Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams

An eco-savvy Prospect Heights resident who claims she only creates enough trash to fill one garbage can a month is on a mission to help Brooklynites lighten their loads by opening a store where customers use their own containers to get groceries home.

Sarah Metz recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $15,000 for a brick-and-mortar store called the Fillery that will sell foods in a way rarely seen since the days of Little House on the Prairie, when quality packaging consisted of a burlap sack, and oats didnt come in a fancy disposable tube with a handsome Quaker on it.

Package-free shopping is such an easy way for an individual to help address a huge problem, she said. By reducing packaging waste youre also making the effort to reduce food waste.

Items for sale will include nuts, grains, dry fruits, olive oil, chocolates, and household cleaners, all stored in huge containers that customers will scoop out into their own jugs, crocks, jars, or sacks  just like they did in the halcyon days of yesteryear. Patrons can also pick up fresh fruits and vegetables from regional farms  also just like they did in the halcyon days of yesteryear.

But how will it keep shoppers from throwing stuff away?

Giving patrons the ability to take just what they need will save on wasted food  unlike the Costco-sized packages of produce that end up in a landfill, like 40 percent of food sold in the United States, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

For those who wander into the store empty handed, the Fillery will sell reusable containers such as spice and mason jars, and will have free paper bags so people can start their collection of Earth-friendly packaging.

But convincing people to buy food without the flashy packaging that is designed to lure in customers and help them make decisions is challenging, says the manager of the countrys first package-free store  which had to eventually introduce packaged foods to its aisles to keep itself afloat.

When you take away a few key things that help hone in on those decisions, youre making it harder for the customer to make choices, said Joshua Blaine, who manages eco-conscious grocer In.gredients in Austin, Texas.

He said the package-free philosophy is big in Europe, where people are more interested in cooking with whole ingredients instead of throwing ready-made fixings into their recipes.

In.gredients still offers bulk foods and Blaine said he dreams of stocking package-free aisles someday, but it wasnt a sustainable model for the Texas store since it is located in an area where people have to drive to get their groceries, instead of picking them up quickly and frequently on the way home  something folks would be able to do in Brooklyn.

Thinking about being in Brooklyn, if its in a high-density neighborhood that could work, he said.

High-density, and forward thinking  Councilman Brad Lander (DPark Slope) is trying to pass a bill that would charge 10 cents for every plastic bag needed to get your groceries home.

Metz, who also has grants from a business competition and an investor to help fund the store, has to raise $12,000 by April 1 to meet her Kickstarter goal. And she is optimistic the crowdfunding campaign will get Brooklynites talking about going waste-free.

Its about getting the conversation going, she said, I really do hope a wide range of people embrace it.

It wouldnt be the first store in Brooklyn to offer food and other goodies by the pound. Sahadis on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn Heights, as well as Perelandra on Remsen Street, have been successfully serving it up that way for years.

And Metz  who was mentored by one of the Sahadis owners  has noticed.

Sahadis has been a very successful business for decades, especially in bulk foods, said Metz.
Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris hosts a live, weekly talk show, Counterpoint , from which some of Between The Lines' interviews are excerpted. Listen every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT at www.WPKN.org (Follows the 5-7 minute White Rose Calendar.) Counterpoint in its entirety is archived after midnight ET Monday nights, and is available for at least a year following broadcast in WPKN Radio's Archives . You can also listen to full unedited interview segments from Counterpoint, which are generally available some time the day following broadcast.

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com , Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Indigenous Activist Berta Caceres Slain Amid Honduras' Rising Political Violence Posted March 9, 2016 Interview with Dana Frank, professor of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz, conducted by Scott Harris The Central American nation of Honduras is well known for having one of the highest murder rates in the world that includes violence attributed to narco-trafficking, gang conflicts and street crime. But Honduras is also the most dangerous country for environmentalists, where 116 eco-activists were killed in 2014, many of them defending indigenous communities and lands. The March 3 murder of Berta Caceres, winner of the 2015 Goldman environmental prize, is the latest tragic news from Honduras. Caceres, who was shot by two unknown assailants who broke into her home, led the Council of Popular and Indigenous People's Organizations of Honduras, or COPINH, that actively opposed the construction of a proposed dam on the Gualcarque river, an area considered sacred by the Lenca people. She had previously reported receiving numerous death threats from police, soldiers and local landowners because of her work. The escalating violence in the country is linked by many observers to the 2009 coup that ousted the democratically-elected president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya. The government which came to power after Zelayas overthrow  with U.S. support, has since pushed to build a controversial network of dams and mining projects on indigenous land. Between The Lines Scott Harris spoke with Dana Frank, professor of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who talks about the environmental conflicts in Honduras that likely led to the assassination of Berta Caceres and the U.S. role in the 2009 Honduras coup which likely occurred when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state.

DANA FRANK: This is the single most important political assassination since the coup, and the fact that they've killed Berta Caceres is a sign that that now anyone could be killed. They have not gone for the top leadership of the social movements up till now. Berta was this amazing activist, one of the most alive and loving and fun people I've ever met in my life. And there's been this long, long struggle to try to stop this dam, which is going forward even though the rights of indigenous people to be consulted have been violated. There's been tremendous protests against the dam, peaceful protest and tremendous repression of the Lenca people and other activists who are trying to stop it, and Berta has been in the forefront of that. She was threatened for many years; there's been security forces that have threatened and repressed the Lenca people, another Lenca activist, Tomas Garcia, was shot dead by the military in the summer of 2013 and his son, also shot. And Berta had been receiving death threats and threats for years but especially in the last two weeks. On Feb. 20, there was a peaceful march to the site of the dam, and there was repression including by U.S.-funded special forces Tigres, very close to the U.S. embassy, and people were forced to walk back in the dark seven hours to get to their bus. Very, very dangerous situation.

But the Honduran government itself attacks Berta verbally and her activism for many years. So we all knew was going to happen. She knew it was going to happen, and this is a message to the social movements of the indigenous people and environmental movement, of the opposition. Berta is what I think of as one of the seven or eight "goddesses" of the Honduran resistance, who were so important to the resistance to the 2009 military coup that deposed democratically-elected President Manuel Zelaya.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Dana Frank, do we know who is responsible for Berta's murder?

DANA FRANK: Well, there's "who actually shot the gun" vs. "who's responsible for it" at the broad level. We don't know who the two gunmen were. There is an eyewitness who was also shot and wounded, Gustavo Castro Soto, who is being held against his will by the Honduran government. He was also shot. He was held and is still being detained within the country and he was held without food and water even though he was covered by his bloody clothes and had been wounded.

And he has already testified to outsiders through a letter that he saw evidence being destroyed. So, first of all, you have to understand that to even find out what happened, there's already a cover-up and destruction of evidence going on. So we don't know who actually fired the shots, we do know that the Honduran government wasn't providing adequate protection as mandated by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. We know that this is a government that ignored threats. We know that the U.S. embassy didn't stop or do things that they should have to stop the threats. We know that this is a government that has repeatedly attacked her and COPINH, that this is a government that's now trying to criminalize the members of COPINH, her organization, and act like they committed the crime. They have a cover-up all ready and are even saying things like it was a crime of passion, which is of course preposterous in this context.

So who's responsible? How about the top of the Honduran government which has been attacking these folks, been attacking them with state security forces; and the U.S. government for funding those security forces over and over again and increasing it in recent years, despite all this documented evidence. So who's responsible? It goes way back and it goes way high.

BETWEEN THE LINES: As many of our listeners are aware, there was a military coup in Honduras in 2009 in the first year of the Obama administration. Hillary Clinton was secretary of state of the time. And Dana, I would ask you to tell our listeners what's important for Americans to know about the role of the United States in our policies towards Honduras during the time of the coup and after the coup?

DANA FRANK: Well, first of all, I think people need to know that the U.S.  while we don't have the smoking gun showing that they prompted the coup  immediately treated the post-coup, de facto dictator President Roberto Micheletti as a legitimate president. They equated him with the deposed president and established negotiations where they treated them as equals. They never denounced the spectacular post-coup repression of the huge opposition that rose up. Now Hillary Clinton was the secretary of state during that period and you can read her emails, you can see her statements on the public record of how she treated Zelaya like a bad child for trying to return his own country, of which he was the democratically-elected president.

And so, I think people need to know this about Hillary Clinton, and they also need to understand that it was Obama who allowed her to do that. And it's Obama who's in charge right now, whose budget request for 2016, which much of it was passed was hundreds of millions of dollars for the Honduran government, including its "state security forces" and is now just out putting his budget request for 2017 increasing that even more, despite the spectacular corruption of the police and military. And you know, we're not hearing demands to suspend aid, although there have been letters from up to 90 members of Congress in the last few years saying that all police and military aid should be suspended, which is what we should be asking for right now.

Related Links:
If you treat a parents depression, will their childs asthma improve?

200 families are being recruited in Texas and New York to find out

BUFFALO, N.Y.  Studies have shown that children with asthma are at higher risk for depression. Research also has shown an association between a parent or caregivers depression and worsening symptoms in an asthmatic child.

Now researchers at the University at Buffalo and the University of Texas, Dallas are exploring this connection further: They are beginning a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study to determine whether treating a depressed caregiver will improve the childs asthma.

The findings could have major implications for the way children with asthma are treated. The researchers say the findings also eventually may reduce health disparities in child asthma because there is a higher percentage of depressed caregivers among children with asthma from minority and socio-economically disadvantaged groups.

The researchers are recruiting 200 families for the study through Women & Childrens Hospital of Buffalo (WCHOB) and UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. The study will involve screening caregivers of children with asthma for depression and offering treatment for those who are depressed. It builds on a previous pilot study that suggested a connection between caregiver depression and worsening asthma in children.

We are hypothesizing that an improvement in the caregivers depression will lead to a subsequent improvement in the childs asthma, said Bruce Miller, MD and Beatrice Wood, PhD, both professors of psychiatry and pediatrics in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB, co-founders and directors of the Center for Child and Family Asthma Studies at WCHOB, and principal investigators on the grant. Miller sees patients through UBMD Psychiatry.

Heather K. Lehman, MD, associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB, is a co-investigator. She has been working with Miller and Wood for several years and is developing a collaborative research program to continue studies examining the interplay between depression and child asthma. She sees patients through UBMD Pediatrics. E. Sherwood Brown, MD PhD, professor of psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center, is also principal investigator on this study.

Family stress and asthma

Miller and Wood have been working together on factors that affect asthma in children for more than 20 years. We have continuously found associations between emotional stress and worsening asthma, and that family relational stress plays a key role, said Wood.

Early in his career, Miller developed a model for how depression affects the autonomic nervous system, which is responsible for involuntary neural processes affecting the airways. He found that depression in asthmatic children alters their autonomic nervous system function, causing their already reactive airways to become even more dysregulated, resulting in worse airway function under stressful conditions. These seminal findings were published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in 2009.

Woods research has demonstrated how family relationship patterns impact physical and emotional illness in children. A 2011 research paper co-authored by Wood and Miller showed that depression among parents of children with asthma was associated with negative parenting and also predicted child depression and worsening asthma.

Studies also have shown that in stressed families, childrens asthma gets worse. We have specifically shown that a negative family emotional climate predicts worse asthma disease activity, said Wood.

The current study will involve screening caregivers of children with asthma for depression. Those who meet criteria for clinical depression will be offered antidepressant medication. The childs asthma treatment plan will not be altered in order to determine the effect of treating caregiver depression to benefit the childs asthma.

Both caregiver and child will be followed monthly for a year to see if improvements in the caregivers depression are followed by improvement in the childs asthma.

Treating the caregiver

A previous pilot study conducted by Brown at UT Southwestern Medical Center saw encouraging results. In that study, children who had been hospitalized with asthma improved when their parents, who screened positive for depression, were treated with antidepressants, even though the childs asthma treatment was not changed.

When the parents depression got better, the childrens asthma got better, said Miller.

The purpose of the current study is to confirm these findings and better understand the mechanisms underlying the effect. If a caregiver is depressed he or she may be less able to carry out the care of a child, especially a fragile child who is vulnerable with illness, Miller explained. They may not be able to manage the childs medications or get the child to the doctor when necessary.

At the same time, said Wood, our previous studies have shown that depression in the parent cascades into negative parent-child relationships, child depression and worse asthma. She noted that Millers 2009 study showed that depression in the child has a direct physiological effect on the childs asthma.

The current study is funded with a $3.1 million NIH grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
Putting ethical trading at the centre of all it does, Natural Paving Products (UK) has partnered with Kailash Satyarthi, Nobel Peace Prize winner 2014, to improve the lives of Indian children near its quarries and new factory.

Mr Satyarthi is a child rights activist and founder of New Delhi-based NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), which works to eradicate child exploitation. Many rural communities in India, like the ones surrounding the natural stone regions, witness widespread child labour and underage marriage due to impoverished circumstances. The United Nations Development Programmes Human Development Report puts the number of child labourers in India at approximately 10% of the total labour force.

Natural Paving Products is proud to support the work of BBA and has committed to funding 10 new child friendly villages as part of its Bal Mitra Gram programme over the next three years. These child friendly villages, set up by BBA, ensure every child up to the age of 14 gets a quality education and there is a community ban on all child labour and child marriage.

Mr Satyarthi said: Its great to be working with a company that takes its ethical responsibilities so seriously. Child exploitation is a massive problem in rural India and Im keen to work with more companies to see an end to this injustice. Natural Paving Products is already doing so much to support rural communities with its investment into a new factory, but now with its further support of the child friendly village programme, it is also part of the solution to our child labour problem.

As well as supporting Kailash and his work in the region, Natural Paving Products has recently opened a new state-of-the-art factory, which will provide further job opportunities to local people. In January this year, the new factory played host to the BBAs launch of the Bal Mitra Gram programme, which was attended by over 2,000 people including key members of the stone industry, dignitaries and both the local and national media.

Mark Wall, managing director at Natural Paving Products, said: Our commitment to providing a quality product and service to our customers must be measurable at all stages of the supply chain and so we believe that it is our duty to ensure our Indian operations are run with the highest regard for ethical trading. While we employ local people, pay fare wages and are members of the Ethical Trading Initiative, we wanted to do more to make a lasting positive impact in the areas we operate  Kailashs work was the perfect opportunity to be part of a bigger initiative that is transforming the lives of rural Indian communities.
From the Pine Barrens and beyond, check out these haunted hikes
Taking a major step towards self-sufficiency in product development, countrys largest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp, on Thursday inaugurated an Rs 850 crore research and development facility. The company is banking on the facility to get a strong foothold in the premium motorcycle category.

An in-house R&D set-up became critical for Hero after it parted ways with Honda in December 2010. The Japanese auto major is now a competitor to Hero and also dominates the fast-growing domestic scooter market.

In 2013, the company decided to set up its own R&D centre. The sprawling 247-acre facility at the outskirts of Jaipur (in Rajasthan) claims to house the best global technologies in product design, development, testing and validation within a single campus.

Named as the Centre of Innovation and Technology (CIT), the facility also boasts of a 16-kilometre track with 45 different surfaces to simulate real world road conditions, Indian and global. The centre will have a team of 500 engineers and aims to scale it to 600 in a year. Prior to the new facility, Hero had a three acre R&D centre at its Dharuhera plant in Haryana.

We have so far been importing technology for new products at a cost. Now, it is going to be much more economical. We will continue to focus on the current segments, which is our bread and butter. There will also be a focus on getting into the premium segment (200-250cc bikes and beyond), said Pawan Munjal, chairman, managing director and chief executive officer.

After the split with Honda, Hero took baby steps towards R&D and succeeded in launching two scooters , Maestro Edge and Duet, last year.

Hero, which also happens to be the worlds largest two wheeler maker by volumes, said it is no longer contented with remaining just a volume leader. The dream is to make Hero number one in every dimension. We will strive to make this a reality, said Munjal, who is the promoter of the company.CIT will be led by Heros chief technology officer Markus Braunsperger, who joined the company from BMW in 2014 after a 25 year long stint in roles in R&D, production and strategy. He also headed the R&D function for BMW motorcycles for several years.

Markus, who has relocated to the new facility said, We will be able to launch many new products in a parallel manner. We will have to look at the premium segment where we are far away from what Hero is capable of. The company has shifted all underdevelopment projects from Dharuhera to CIT and said that going ahead all new products will have a stamp of the new facility. However, a completely new product (from scratch) will take three-four years.

Heros plan of expanding presence in high-end bikes received a temporary setback last year when Eric Buell Racing (EBR), an American motorcycle sport company declared bankruptcy last year.

The two were working together to develop new products. In 2013, the Delhi-based company had picked up a 49.2 per cent stake in EBR for $25 million.

After EBR declared bankruptcy, Hero decided to buy certain tangible and intangible assets of the company for $2.8 million.
The central governments announcement on providing liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) connections to 50 million households below the poverty line (BPL) in three years would mean a lot of challenge, say the three state-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs).The scheme would provide financial support of Rs 1,600 for each LPG connection. The identification of eligible families, as proposed in the Budget for 2016-17, will be in consultation with states.The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the scheme  Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana  on Thursday. It has been allocated Rs 8,000 crore.Investments would be required on various fronts  LPG import facilities, logistics and additional bottling. OMCs will have to make additional investments to ensure we meet the targets in three years, said the director of one.Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPC), sources said, would be spending around Rs 2,000 crore in setting up an LPG import facility (Rs 500 crore) and seven to 10 more bottling units for Rs 700-1,000 crore.An import facility is required at the east coast. If the infrastructure is well placed, the investment required could be less, said an official. HPC, sources said, is looking for land to build a new LPG bottling plant of 60 million tonnes (mt) per annum. Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPC) plans to build an LPG import terminal at West Bengals Haldia, for Rs 800 crore. The company has acquired 35 acres for the purpose and plans to complete the project in three years.We have infrastructure in the western and southern regions but there is a problem in the eastern region.

The next market for us is Bihar, the Northeast, Jharkhand, eastern UP and West Bengal. So, our import terminal will come up at Haldia, said a BPC official. The capacity of the planned terminal would be two 15,000-tonne tanks, capable of handling VLCC (very large crude carrier) vessels. We will be looking at an expansion later, the official added. The company expects cooking gas demand to grow six to seven per cent this financial year, with lower prices and increasing focus on rural reach. Indian Oil Corporation, the nations largest OMC, is constructing an LPG import facility of 600,000 tonnes per annum at Paradip, Odisha, for Rs 690 crore. In January 2015, it had decided to invest Rs 5,300 crore for this and to lay pipelines. In 2014-15, the country imported 8.33 mt of LPG, while total consumption was 18.2 mt. In 2013-14, imports were 6.61 mt and total demand 16.29 mt. OMC officials said they need clarity on the capacity of the LPG cylinders the government plans to allot to rural areas. The consumption pattern of rural households is different. They use four to five LPG cylinders a year, while urban households use nine to 12 or more, said a BPC official.
HDFC Bank has chosen five start-ups it will work with to strengthen their web, mobile and payment offerings.

The company shortlisted these five from 30 applications at its maiden Digital Innovation Summit, it said on Thursday.

The final five are Senseforth Technologies, into AI customer response; Tagnpin, a marketing and customer engagement company; Safe 2 Pay, a point of sale-free payment system; Bugclipper, an in-app feedback tool, and Taptis Technology, a biometric payment company.

The bank had previously tied up with Chillr, which had raised $6 million from Sequoia Capital, where it developed a system which helped customers pay without a wallet. Nitin Chugh, country head, digital banking, said the bank wanted to break out from these one-off ties and open themselves to new and innovative ideas.

Currently, investment is not on the agenda and we are working out with the companies if we want an exclusive deal with them or use as white-label products, said Chugh. Some of these companies are in the process of securing Series- A funding.

Senseforth, based in Bengaluru, has developed a machine learning tool to help chat with customers to resolve their queries. The platform has been developed for the web, Android and iOS. The company said they were having experimental projects with other banks as well.

It took us a few years to develop this platform and we have started approaching investors to help us take off, said Shridhar Marri, chief executive and co-founder. Banks will save costs by enabling this tool and not need human intervention at the most basic level, he said. Senseforth is also working on speech recognition.

Tagnpin, a start-up from Gurgaon, is a marketing and customer engagement tool, meant to help banks use customised marketing campaigns. The tool will analyse customer data and then push products according to the profile, which the bank hopes will increase its below-the-line sales, be it a credit card upgrade or loan.

Mumbai-based Safe 2 Pay has developed an app which allows offline payments. The tool will possibly sit inside the existing HDFC bank app. The company, which has a history in mobile security, developed the app which allows users to key in the amount, enter a PIN and the app then generates a QR code. The code can be scanned by the merchant entity, connected to the internet, and the payment is credited immediately. It is a replacement for cash or an electronic cheque. The app is your cheque, the pin is your signature and validation is done by the bank. The only difference here is the money is debited immediately, said Aditya Agarwal, director.

Bugclipper, also from Mumbai, has developed an in-house tool, which sends back reports to the development team about why an app crashed and describes customer behaviour on it.

Taptis Technology, from Indore, has developed a biometric point of sale machine which is synced with Aadhaar and helps customers pay without a credit card by using their fingerprint, a camera and PIN-based system. The company argued that for a small production cost, the bank could eliminate verification and fraud. The entire transaction takes seven seconds over a 2G network, compared to 30 seconds at a regular point of sale machine.

I understand that some of the solutions might not work. But, this helps in demystifying banking and whatever is picked up by customers will be kept on, said Chugh.
Jewellers protest against the governments proposed one per cent excise duty levy has taken a turn for the worse with ornaments manufacturers and retailers retrenching daily wage earners, ie, artisans.

Amid hopes of a rollback in excise duty, jewellers intensified protests with around 150,000 people gathered in Pune on Thursday, a day after around 25,000 jewellers and bullion dealers organised a mass rally at Azaad Maidan here. In a couple days, jewellers plan to organise a large rally in New Delhi, the date for which date is yet to be finalised.

Retrenchment of artisans assumes significance in terms of investment made and time spent on their training.

We have started retrenching workers, including artisans gradually as our shops were closed for the past 10 days. Providing them basic facilities in manufacturing premises with minimum considerable amount of daily wages adds costs to us. So, when the entire business is at standstill, it is advisable to save whatever the amount we can. Going forward, we would prefer to shut shops rather than face the excise department's wrath, said a senior official of India Bullion and Jewellers Association (IBJA).

IBJA has approached several ministers and bureaucrats to include excise duty in the agenda of the meeting of industry leaders convened on March 18 on the assessment of the gold monetisation scheme (GMS).

Meanwhile, jewellers estimate the industry has incurred a loss of around Rs 60,000 crore over the past 10 days.

Craftsmen are the backbone of the entire jewellery industry. The excise duty levy would require lots of changes in the functioning of the industry. All players, including raw material suppliers, craftsmen are interconnected. So, complete compliance of the guidelines would be challenging. There will be some gaps in terms of interpretation which would invite actions from the excise department. Especially when implementations of the goods and services tax (GST) is under advanced stage of discussion, the government should not levy any additional duty, said Vinod Hayagriv, managing director, C Krishna Chetty & Sons.

Industry estimates that there are around 3.5 million workers, including skilled craftsmen and unskilled workers. "Retrenchment has started at a lower scale now. If excise duty is not rolled back we would retrench more workers," said an industry official.

Meanwhile, Ashok Minawala, has urged the government to convene a meeting with jewellers to understand their problems.

We have already asked the government to increase import duty by one per cent to the existing 10 per cent instead of excise duty, said Minawala.
With an eye towards the commodity cycle outlook and its own a heavy balance sheet, Naveen Jindal-led Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL) is in the process of rescheduling its debt with foreign lenders.

It is expected to get a new repayment reschedule in the next four to six weeks.

"We have amicably rescheduled our 30 per cent loan (on the steel business) with these (foreign) banks and are in the process of rescheduling the remaining 70 per cent debt in the next one or a month-and-a-half," Ravi Uppal, the chief executive officer of the company told Business Standard on Thursday. "We have also already rescheduled our $25-million loan with the Japanese bank," he added. With this, the debt-laden company has put to rest the possibility of a recall of loan by these lenders. On March 31 last year, had a consolidated net debt of Rs 45,500 crore. Of the total debt, the company's steel business has a Rs 28,313-crore loan.

The remaining loan has been incurred by the power business of the company.

"There is just no question of recall of loans by foreign lenders. Banks are co-operating with us for rescheduling of loans," said Uppal.

According to reports, a group of foreign lenders were evaluating possibilities to recall loans adding to $550 million from Jindal Steel after it failed to comply with loan terms ahead of the repayment schedule starting in April. The move it seems was triggered after the company failed to service the $25 million unsecured loan from a large Japanese bank.

"Majority of the company's steel business loan has been taken from domestic lenders and the amount from foreign lenders is not too high," informed Uppal without divulging absolute figures.

For the loan extended by domestic banks, Jindal Steel is looking to get its repayment tenure extended through the "5/25" route.

"Considering negative financial results in the last 12 months, the company has been working with all banks and institutions towards various options including the "5/25" scheme to meet all obligations," said an exchange notification on Thursday.

While Jindal Steel remains engaged in buying more time to service its huge debt, it has simultaneously chalked out a roadmap to improve the topline and get access to funds as it aims to pare the consolidated debt by Rs 15,000-20,000 crore.

"We are examining our domestic steel assets worth Rs 25,000 crore for full as well as part divestment in order to improve our cash flows," said Uppal.

Under the part divestment plan, Jindal Steel is in advance talks with foreign to sell stake in two of its steel projects in order to raise funds. The company is also looking for investors for its captive power assets (part of steel business).

"We will have a controlling stake in all the joint ventures we are planning to have but with stake sale capital will be available for us. All deals put together, we intend to complete our divestment plan within next two to six months," said Uppal.

For its power business, Jindal Steel has planned to sell it off and has received five bids which is combination of domestic as well as overseas entities.

"We are still evaluating and have not zeroed down any company as yet," he said.

Jindal Steel's captive power plants are located in Raigarh (Chhattisgarh) and Angul (Odisha) where its houses most of its steel facility.

On the operational front, post imposition of the minimum import price (MIP) on several steel products, Jindal Steel sees a good opportunity for improving its topline. Alongside, the company plans to continue efforts to lower its expenses in order to maintain margins that could help service the debt.

"We are aiming for an Ebitda margin of 25 per cent in the long-term as the domestic steel business is now looking positive after the MIP," said Uppal.

Jindal Steel's standalone topline, which is mainly the steel business, has been declining for the last three years with bottomline getting weaker as most portion of the operating profits is getting eaten up by the interest. The company's (standalone) debt equity has only been on the rising side as it stood at 2.06 as on March 31, 2015. The picture is no better on a consolidated basis either. Though the topline has remained stagnant past three years, operating margins have dropped significantly, taking the company into a loss in the year gone by.

Meanwhile, analysts are of the view that the company's plan to power assets can fetch a replacement amount of Rs 18,000-20,000 crore and should be able to help lighten the balance sheet.

"For its power plant, Jindal Steel already has the coal sourcing (through linkages and e-auctions) and is also a running (generating) power asset," said Giriraj Daga, portfolio manager with SKS Capital & Research. "The company's steel business also has the scope to get on to its feet from first quarter of next fiscal as the MIP benefit will begin to show in the earnings," he added.
Global technology giant is betting big on India's 40 million strong small and medium business (SMB) base for the next level of growth in the country, with its 'mobile first' solutions.With the country moving ahead with 3G and 4G technology and most small businesses taking a smartphone first approach, believes that it is in a much better position to cater to these SMBs in different parts of the country.

It has a huge variety of services available on cloud which includes Office 365, Azure and CRM Online for different sectors including government, education, banking, financial services and insurance, utility and enterprise.

"Under our mobile first approach, we provide SMBs various efficient and low cost tools. Our target is to reach out to the maximum number of the 40 million SMB base in the country. Therefore we are raising awareness via various industry bodies, government agencies, academia, NGOs," said Meetul Patel, General Manager - SMS&P (Small and Midmarket Solutions & Partners), Microsoft India.

Traditionally, Microsoft is known to be an enterprise focused company.

According to Patel, cloud gives SMBs access to cutting-edge tools and technology that, earlier, only a large enterprise could afford, and helps them reach to serve global markets without having to contend with big investments upfront.

"SMB organisations are adopting the cloud more quickly than larger enterprises, which gives them a distinct advantage to adapt faster, quickly and enable employees to work anywhere at any time.

All this has led to a growing demand of customised and/or tailor-made solution from different industry sectors," he added.

Microsoft offers its customers a suite of on-premises and cloud solutions in both public and private cloud environments with the help of its huge partner ecosystem. By offering a hybrid approach, it better addresses the evolving needs of SMBs.

Last year, the software giant launched a cloud adoption programme for SMBs in India called 'Cloud Solution Provider' (CSP). SMBs can adopt value-added solutions and offerings supporting their specific requirements on the cloud through Microsoft CSP.

Microsoft's productivity offerings on cloud has been further integrated and strengthened with Windows 10 and Office 2016 features that boosts collaboration and efficiency of the workforce.

According to the company, its cloud service business has posted a healthy double-digit growth in the country. The company recently collaborated with Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) to assist around 200,000 SMBs across Karnataka to adopt technology with cloud computing.

While, the company does not give country specific investment numbers, it has spent $15 billion on cloud computing over the last five years.
Tourist traffic is set to be hit in the summer as airlines begin to reschedule or suspend flights from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport (SVPIA) as its runway will undergo repairs, overdue for two years.

SVPIA has undertaken partial re-carpeting and repair of its 3.5-km-long runway, and this will be extended fully from April 16. As a result, flights will not operate between 10 am to 6 pm. According to A K Sharma, director, Airports Authority of India (AAI) at the Ahmedabad airport, the re-carpeting is likely to get over by March 2017.

While IndiGo has announced suspension of flights that run between 10 am and 6 pm connecting Ahmedabad to Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Goa, Pune, and Indore, Jet Airways will be suspending services for the Mumbai, Delhi, Bhopal and Indore routes. Announcements from other airlines are awaited. SpiceJet has rescheduled six domestic and two international flights to Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, and Dubai, while it has cancelled flights between Goa and Ahmedabad.

SpiceJet operates eight domestic and two international flights per day in the current schedule. It has been operating at an average PLF (passenger load factor) of 90 per cent for nine months. The flights have been rescheduled, a SpiceJet spokesperson said, adding the airline would not raise rate as a result.

We have not yet heard from any airlines on rescheduling or suspension of flights. Currently, re-carpeting work is on for a small portion of the runway, said Sharma. Repair work on the entire runway would begin from April 16, he added.

When compared with international airports like Dubai which completed re-carpeting of one of its runways in 2014 in 80 days, the 12 months duration at Ahmedabad airport seems unprecedented. On the other hand, this year other domestic airports that will see runway repair include Amritsar, where work is expected to be completed in 10 months; Indore (six months); and Thiruvananthapuram (three months).

AAI officials at Ahmedabad airport stated on condition of anonymity that as against 40 flights being affected by the repair work, a night time repair work similar to that in Amritsar, would have resulted in about 15 flights being affected.

The seventh-largest airport in the country in terms of passenger handling, Ahmedabad airport is connected to 11 domestic and nine international destinations by 14 airlines, while Amritsar is connected to three domestic and seven international destinations.

The renovation is not likely to hit international traffic as 90 per cent of these operate in the night.

While IndiGo will suspend seven flights from April 16 onwards, Jet Airways will suspend four.

The move is likely to benefit Vadodara's Civil Airport Harni, which could see flight services being re-directed.

Admitting that the re-carpeting was slightly overdue, Sharma said re-carpeting at Ahmedabad took place eight years ago. The work is estimated to cost Rs 27 crore, and is set to impact summer tourist inflow and outflow, which had seen a 30 per cent jump last year for the period April to June 2015.

During the period, around 1.5 million passengers flew in and out of Ahmedabad, of which about 355,000 were international passengers.

Overall, with more than 160 flights operating daily, the average passenger traffic at SVPIA is estimated at 18,000. In 2014-15, the airport handled 5.05 million passengers, 3.83 million domestic and 1.22 million international travellers.

As against this, the Ahmedabad airport handled 4.56 million passengers in 2013-14. AAI estimates the annual passenger handling by Ahmedabad airport to rise up to 6.77 million passengers by 2023-24.

The re-carpeting work is also likely to impact the SVPIA's revenues, which have been growing steadily for the past few years. Apparently, while Gujarat's nine airports including Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot are incurring losses, the Ahmedabad airport has been earning profits of around Rs 30 crore.

Revenue of SVPIA grew by 10 per cent and five per cent in 2013-14 and 2014-15, respectively. From Rs 196 crore in 2012-13, the Ahmedabad airport's revenue, which comes from airport development fee, user development fee and parking charges paid by airlines, grew to Rs 217 crore in 2013-14 and Rs 229 crore in 2014-15.
San Francisco-based ride hailing company Uber was forced to develop a mechanism for accepting cash payments from customers in India, given the extremely low penetration of credit cards in the country. Seen as an inconvenience at first, the company has exported the solution to other emerging markets such as Vietnam and Indonesia.

To mine the country for more such innovations to grow both locally and globally, Uber has picked Bengaluru to open its first engineering centre in Asia.

The city is home to Indias largest pool of tech talent and also to rival taxi-hailing service Ola.

For us to dream of providing transportation which is as reliable as running water for everyone in India, we have reached a point where we have to setup an engineering centre here, said Thuan Pham, chief technology officer at Uber. If we all sit in the ivory tower in San Francisco, we cannot imagine how challenging the local conditions are.



Some of the challenges Ubers local engineering team will look to solve include building a solution that can function in areas of poor mobile connectivity, innovations in payment methods and solving variations in estimated time of arrival (ETA), given the massive congestion on roads in Indian cities. All this will also help Uber better its services at a global scale.

Pham says India is unique since it offers a massive scale while serving several problems to developers. Moreover, while China is a larger market for Uber, the company chose to setup its centre in the continent in India as the technology world is familiar with the talent India offers.

Uber has pledged to invest Rs 99 crore in Karnataka for the setting up of its centre which will hire 200 people and employ a further 100,000 driver partners. Currently, the company claims to have more than 250,000 cabs on its platform operating across 26 cities, making the country its third largest market after the US and China.

Ola, the companys local rival, shifted its headquarters from Mumbai to Bengaluru last year due to the non-availability of high-quality tech workers outside the city. The Softbank-funded company has now become part of a global consortium of taxi-hailing services in a bid to take on Uber which includes Chinas Didi Kuaidi, Southeast Asias GrabTaxi and US-based Lyft.

While both firms are engaged in a battle to dominate Indias market, they have a common enemy  archaic regulations. The business models of both have recently come under attack from the state governments of Karnataka and Maharashtra (two of their largest markets) which plan to impose extremely restrictive regulations such as sticking to state mandated fares.

Ola and Uber are also looking to reduce the entry price barrier for using their services by introducing services such as bike taxis, auto rickshaws, shared taxis and even shuttle bus services on their platforms.
Five serving and former executives of the IDBI Bank, mentioned in a probe report by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will be questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) over a Rs 950-crore loan sanctioned to Kingfisher Airlines in 2009.

Yogesh Agarwal, the then chairman and managing director of IDBI Bank, and four other executives who were members of the credit committee, B K Batra, O V Bundellu, R Bansal and S K V Srinivasan, have been named by the CBI.

The report points out the loan was misused by Vijay Mallya and was diverted abroad on false claims. It also says there was a slew of meetings between Mallya and key bank executives as the Kingfisher Airlines was going under.

The CBI has shared its findings with the ED, which recently filed a case against Mallya, Kingfisher Airlines and IDBI Bank executives.

"The Enforcement Directorate is examining the information provided by the CBI and will soon question the respective entities and their roles in the matter," a source close to the development told Business Standard.

The report states that loans were sanctioned and disbursed by IDBI Bank to Kingfisher Airlines at various times in 2009.

The proposal for the sanction of a corporate loan of Rs 950 crore was submitted by A Raghunathan, CFO, Kingfisher Airlines, and was marked for the attention of Batra, said the CBI report.

Raghunathan referred to a meeting between Mallya and Agarwal in a letter dated October 6, 2009, and requested the bank to lend the airline Rs 150 crore for six months to pay overseas vendors.

A memorandum was put up to the credit committee and the loan was sanctioned, despite the company having a negative net worth and not satisfying the corporate loan policy of the bank, said the report. The credit committee comprising Batra, Bundellu and Bansal sanctioned the loan on October 7, 2009.

Raghunathan, again referring to Mallya's meeting with Agarwal, also sought an ad hoc release of Rs 200 crore. The proposal was put up to the corporate banking head, Batra, who recommended that the bank's chairman and managing director could approve it.

A few days later, on November 4, IDBI Bank sanctioned a short-term loan of Rs 200 crore, subsumed in the total loan. The sanction came from Yogesh Agarwal.

These loans were disbursed while the original proposal for a corporate loan of Rs 950 crore was pending. This proposal was put up again before the credit committee on November 19, 2009.

On November 27, IDBI Bank released a corporate loan of Rs 750 crore, which was sanctioned by Bundellu, Batra and Srinivasan.

Pointing to Agarwal's role the CBI said, "He approved the proposal while instructing for expediting the ratings though the auditors of the company had observed that funds aggregating to Rs 4,630 crore raised on short-term basis were used for long-term purposes. Undisputed TDS amount of Rs 100 crore plus was not deposited for over six months and the ratings were not available."



The CBI observed that the loans were approved by accepting as security the hypothecation and assignment of the Kingfisher brand, finance lease aircraft, a corporate guarantee from United Breweries Holdings and a personal guarantee from Mallya.

Responding to an email query, the IDBI Bank spokesperson said, "IDBI Bank has sanctioned loans to Kingfisher Airlines after following guidelines. The bank is cooperating with the CBI and has provided all information sought."



The CBI also said Rs 263.48 crore of the loan disbursed by IDBI Bank was transferred to Kingfisher Airlines' accounts in Axis Bank (Rs 169.62 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 39 crore) and Bank of Baroda (Rs 54 crore), from where funds were transferred to other Kingfisher Airlines accounts.

This Rs 263 crore was never used for the purpose it was sanctioned by IDBI Bank: to meet obligations to overseas vendors. The report also provides a break-up of amounts used for other purposes.

Another Rs 200 crore was used to repay the Rs 200 crore loan sanctioned by IDBI Bank.

"A major chunk of the funds transferred to Axis Bank were used for foreign remittances towards lease rentals, purchase of aircraft parts, etc. Since these remittance have gone outside the country, further inquiry can only be made by sending Letters Rogatory for foreign investigation," The CBI report said.

"We are probing the larger aspect of the loan scam," a source in the Enforcement Directorate said. "Apart from IDBI Bank, the Rs 336 crore sanctioned by Union Bank of India (UBI) was withdrawn and deposited in another account with a private bank. This was also against the rules," he added.

"We are in the process of listing Mallya's properties in India and overseas to initiate legal procedures for attachment," the source said.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has successfully launched Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C32), which was carrying India's sixth navigation satellite IRNSS-1F with its own rocket.

As scheduled at 16:00 hours the PSLV rocket standing 44.4 metres tall and weighing 320 tonne lifted off from the Sriharikota space port.

With this success, India has now moved closer towards joining a select group of countries, which have their own satellite navigation system. The IRNSS will provide two types of services -- standard positioning service and restricted service. The former is provided to all users and the latter is an encrypted service for authorised users.

Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) system consist of a constellation of seven satellites of which five were already put into orbit. On Thursday the sixth satellite was launched. Once all the seven satellites are in the orbit it will provide accurate position information service to users across the country and the region, extending up to an area of 1,500 kms.

The rocket, which launched today, was carrying 1,425 kg IRNSS-1F satellite.

In around 20 minutes into the flight, the PSLV rocket will eject its sole passenger IRNSS-1F at an altitude of 488.9 kms.

The satellites control will be taken over by the Mission Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka. It will manage the satellites orbit raising operations firing the on-board motors till it is placed in its slotted orbit.

According to Isro, the navigation payload of IRNSS-1F will transmit navigation service signals to the users. This payload will be operating in L5-band and S-band. A highly accurate rubidium atomic clock is part of the navigation payload of the satellite.

The ranging payload of IRNSS-1F consists of a C-band transponder (automatic receivers and transmitters of radio signals) which facilitates accurate determination of the range of the satellite.

IRNSS-1F also carries Corner Cube Retro Reflectors for laser ranging.

Till date, India has launched six regional navigational satellites (IRNSS-1A, 1B, 1C, ID, 1E and 1F) as part of a constellation of seven satellites. The last one is expected to be launched before the end of 2016.

Indian Space Research Organisation's sixth navigation satellite IRNSS-1F, on-board PSLV-C32 before its launch from the spaceport of Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh

Each satellite costs about Rs 150 crore and the PSLV-XL version rocket costs about Rs 130 crore. The seven rockets would entail an outlay of about Rs 910 crore.

The first satellite IRNSS-1A was launched in July 2013, the second IRNSS-1B in April 2014, the third on October 2014, the fourth in March 2015, and the fifth in January this year.

Once all the satellites are in place, India need not be dependent on other platforms.

Vice President, M Hamid Ansari congratulated ISRO, "I offer my congratulations to the Scientists, Engineers and Technicians of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) for the successful launch of the of PSLV-C32 carrying IRNSS-1F satellite, the sixth in the seven satellite IRNSS constellation. The flawless launch has again demonstrated Indias capabilities in the space sector. I wish all the very best for the future."



The Prime Minister Narendra Modi also congratulated scientists on the successful launch of IRNSS1F into the orbit.

"Successful launch of IRNSS-1F is an accomplishment we all take immense pride in. I salute the hardwork of our scientists & ISRO," the Prime Minister said.

Sources said that IRNSS will also be used for defence purposes as well. The IRNSS is similar to the global positioning system (GPS) of the US (24 satellites), Glonass of Russia, and Galileo of Europe, Chinas Beidou.

While GPS and Glonass are fully functional global systems, the Chinese and the Japanese systems are offering regional coverage and Europes Galileo is yet to be operational.

Experts also said IRNSS system consist only seven satellites while other systems in the world have more than 20 satellites.
Lucknow would be hosting the 3rd edition of the from tomorrow.

The event being organised by Indian Industries Association (IIA) would highlight the emerging business and trade opportunities in the solar and renewable energy segments in Uttar Pradesh.

About 50 companies are participating in the three-day summit, which would discuss the large untapped potential in the sector, both domestic and commercial.

The Akhilesh Yadav government has already announced UP solar energy policy and rooftop solar power plant policy to boost the use of renewable energy to partly tide over rising energy demand and support green energy resources.

The summit would witness the participation of equipment suppliers, distributors, advisory groups, support agencies, apart from related government departments and agencies.
is believed to be at his country home in an English village, about an hour's drive north of London. He is thought to have driven to his 'Ladywalk' estate in the village of Tiwen near St Albans in Hertfordshire from his London home near the Baker Street area earlier this week.

Mallya, 60, is facing legal proceedings in India for allegedly defaulting on loans worth over Rs 9,000 crores from various banks. A Supreme Court notice for him to return to India is expected to be served to him via the Indian high commission in London this week, sources said. The Indian mission has so far issued no statement on the timeline of the notice.

"My statement as to my personal future after quitting Diageo/USL - that I want to spend more time in England closer to my children - has been grossly distorted and mis-portrayed. I wish to reduce my business commitments gradually and devote more time to my family, and that my resignation from United Spirits was a step in this direction," he had said.

Mallya, who owns plush properties in California and the UK, has one of the biggest country homes on Queen Hoo Lane in the village of Tewin.

He likes to drop in at the local pubs during his visits there but has not been spotted around the village so far this week, choosing to stay inside his 30-acre estate guarded by customary iron gates that mark most sprawling country estates in English villages.
The developers of a Genetically modified (GM) Mustard variety, which is up for approval, have falsely claimed high yields based on rigged tests, the Coalition for a GM free India alleged on Thursday.

The variety has been developed by the Centre for Genetic Modification of Crop Plants (CGMCP) at Delhi University. The centre claims their transgenic seed, Dhara Mustard Hybrid (DMH-11), increases yields by nearly 25-30 per cent over existing varieties.

The developers, after conducting field trials had recently applied to the environment ministry for commercial release of the variety. When the news leaked of its being appraised secretively without the bio safety data being made public many environmental groups and RSS-affiliated Swadeshi Jagran Manch opposed the move. Consequently the ministry put the decision on hold. The group, Coalition for GM free India, on Thursday disclosed that it had access to data from independent tests done by ICAR which support their claim. Sharad Pawar, a researcher who had been involved with the testing of DMH varieties under the Dairy Development Board, was present at the group's media release and said the data was not in the public domain.

He added that being part of the same research administration at Nagpur University helped him gain access to the data.

The NGO claimed that the variety had been intentionally tested against old low productivity varieties in an unscientific fashion.

Between 2005 and 2010, the DMH-11 variety was tested against older varieties of mustard crop - Varuna, developed in 1975 and Kranti (1982). However, the NGO says it should have been tested against the superior variety of RL-1359, which was the benchmark variety of seeds mandated for all trials.

After 2010, the trials started using the RL-1359 variety for comparison but by then a newer variety called NRCDR-2 had been designated as the benchmark.

Deepak Pental, genetics professor and head of CGMCP, when contacted, told Business Standard that efforts were ongoing to defeat the introduction of GM crops in the country. On whether DMH-11 generated higher yields, he said yield growth was an ongoing process and seeds bearing greater yield has been developed by him since.

However, in its release the NGO said, "There are no results presented to claim that transgenic mustard hybrid is superior in seed yield against best available mustard hybrids and varieties used as and zonal checks currently, and DMH-11 is shown superior only against old checks/comparators." Checks refer to benchmark seed varieties used for testing new ones.

Presenting data, the group said the developers had suppressed unfavourable data and findings besides not following statutory conditions and laid down scientific protocols.

The data shared by the coalition came from tests conducted by ICAR. The trials, held at eight locations across the country over four years, did not check the performance of DMH-11 against other mustard hybrids as is mandated but consistently against older varieties of the crops, said Kavita Kuruganti, Co-Convenor for the Coalition, presenting data from ICAR.

"Even then it was proved to have had only 9 per cent higher yield, on an average than one of the varieties. Compared with other extensively tested cultivars, actually produces 10.4% to 27.5% lesser yields," Kuruganti added.

She also mentioned that under current guidelines from ICAR itself, no GM variety can be considered for further trials and promotion if it does not produce at least 10 per cent higher yield.

The fact that funds used for developing the mustard came from the NDDB and the Department of Biotechnology was reason enough to bring the issue to a public eye, said Pawar.
The Crime Branch Control and the officers of Pydhonie Police Station seized over 1,000 school bags, stationery sets and party goods from three stores  Parth Collection, Swastik Collection and Tip Top Plastic  operating out of Abdul Rehman Street in Mumbai during a raid on Thursday. The proprietors of the shops have been arrested for selling fake branded goods. The media house, which operates a robust licensing and merchandising division in the country, co-operated with the authorities during the exercise.

A total of 1,313 units of goods were seized at Parth Collection, 138 units of goods were seized at Swastik Collection and 596 units of goods were seized at Tip Top Plastic respectively. Investigations are on to identify the source and/ or locations of the manufacturers of these seized goods, who will also be prosecuted as appropriate.

We see this as a good first step to protect the integrity of the products that consumers buy from a trusted brand. Disney's consumer products in India spans across multiple lines including, fashion apparel, home, toys, consumer electronics, stationery, food, health and beauty and publishing. We applaud the efforts of the Crime Branch Control in not only protecting the rights of trusted brand owners, but also protecting Indian consumers from purchasing falsely branded and inferior products," said Abhishek Maheshwari, VP and Head, Consumer Products, India.
One more chapter was added on Thursday to the unfolding story regarding defunct Kingfisher Airlines, once owned by businessman Vijay Mallya, and its lenders.

The airline brand has been seized by SBICAP Trustee Company, acting on behalf of the consortium of lenders to the airline, as part of loan recovery. In a notice issued on Thursday, SBICAP said it had seized all elements of the brand  flying models, Fly the Good Times word mark, funliner and flying bird device, effective Tuesday.

For, it said, dues worth Rs 6,963 crore were not paid by the airline or its guarantors, United Breweries Holdings and Mallya.

While the Kingfisher label mark is part of the seizure list mentioned in the notice, executives from SBICAP have clarified that it does not pertain to the Kingfisher trademark in the beer category. An executive in the know said, Our charge is restricted to the activities of the airline and its brand. We have taken possession of the intangible assets (trademark) for auctioning in the future.



In the past, the consortium of lenders had seized tangible assets such as the headquarters of the airline, 'Kingfisher House', as part of loan recovery. The building has been valued at Rs 150 crore and put for sale. The price tag to be attached to the airline trademark is not clear though.

Shekhar Ramamurthy, managing director, United Breweries, said: UB Ltd has the sole right to the Kingfisher mark in the beer category and no other entity has any lien on it.



What prevents seizure of the beer trademark, which contains the critical bird logo, similar to the one in the airline trademark, is that it was registered separately. Also, the beer trademark was never pledged to get loans; it was the airline brand that was pledged, prompting its seizure now.

I am not sure how fruitful the auction process will be post the seizure, says Harish Bijoor, brand expert & chief executive officer (CEO), Harish Bijoor Consults. Who will want to buy a brand that carries such a heavy baggage of the past? A defunct airline, debt pile, dues, I don't think anybody would want to associate with it in any way, leave aside buy it.



N Chandramouli, CEO, TRA, a city-based firm that releases the annual Brand Trust Report, says, The airline brand has negative value today because of all that it has been through. Though successful earlier, all of that has been wiped off its slate because of its travails in the recent past. It is unlikely to find takers.



The seizure, comes nearly two years after had first invited Expressions of Interest from external parties keen to acquire the trademark.

This did not meet with success, as the value of the airline brand had become zero after it was grounded in 2012. Prior to that, the lenders had valued the Kingfisher airline brand at more than Rs 4,000 crore.
The central government has approved a proposed change in shareholding at the Container Terminal Projects of (DPW) Ltd in major ports.

It allows creation of an Indian holding company of DPW to operate and manage terminal operations at major ports, with some safeguards.

DPW plans to consolidate the ownership of its port infrastructure in India into a single holding company, Hindustan Ports Pvt Ltd (HPPL). The new company will take over all liabilities of the existing subsidiaries of DP World in concession agreements. The ultimate legal ownership will continue to be DP World.

The Government has agreed to DPW's proposal for restructuring, subject to the condition that the net worth of the holding company, HPPL, after acquisition of the shares of project Special Purpose Vehicles shall be higher than $80 million.

Dubai Port has six container terminals in India, including Vallarpadam in Kerala. Restructuring of the assets will help in better coordination and control, as the port authorities would deal with a single company registered in India, it stated. The approval is also expected to promote foreign investment in the sector.
The Rajya Sabha on Thursday passed by voice vote a real estate regulation Bill, aiming to protect homebuyers from erring developers besides bringing transparency in the sector.

Except All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), all Opposition parties, including the Congress, voted for the Bill in a rare display of bonhomie. This is the first key Bill that the Rajya Sabha, where the government is in a minority, has passed in the last two sessions. The government is keen to ensure the passage of the Bill in the Lok Sabha before the Budget session goes into a 40-day recess from March 17. The government hopes to find similar support from the Opposition for the Aadhaar Bill, which has been listed for discussion and passage for Friday in the revised list of business of the Lok Sabha.

Former urban development minister and Congress MP Kumari Selja told the House that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi supported the Bill.

Last week, Congress vice-president had met consumers to understand their problems. Selja said that the UPA had initiated the efforts to bring the Bill. But take all the credit (for ensuring the passage of the Bill). We stand by this Bill, Selja said looking at treasury benches. She lauded the government for incorporating the suggestions by her party and rest of the Opposition in the new Bill. The Bill was referred to a Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha, headed by BJPs Anil Dave, in May 2015. The committee submitted its report in end July. Congress Jairam Ramesh suggested that all Bills should be referred to parliamentary standing or select committees.

Dave said the committee members resisted enormous pressure from builders lobbies to come up with a Bill that protects consumers interests. Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said the consumer, after the passage of the Bill, would be the king. When there is a king, there got to be a queen also. The queen obviously is the developer. And there shall be a happy marriage between the king and the queen, for both to live happily ever after, he said. Naidu also sought the support of AIADMK members who had opposed the Bill arguing that land was a state subject. Later in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the Bill was great news for aspiring homebuyers. The PM said the Bill envisages effective regulatory mechanism that will lead to orderly growth of the sector and give a strong impetus to his governments vision of Housing for All.

Over the last few years, several developers have gone back on their commitment of delivering projects on time because of various reasons ranging from economic slowdown to delay in project approvals. So far, homebuyers had no forum to approach except consumer courts as the sector was devoid of regulation. According to Real Estate Regulator Bill, developers will now have to deposit 70 per cent of the sale proceeds including the land cost in a separate escrow account, which was earlier brought down to 50 per cent by the NDA government. They would also need consent of two-third buyers for changing project plans.

The Bill also provides for imprisonment of up to three years in case of promoters and up to one year in case of real estate agents and buyers for any violation of orders of Appellate Tribunals or monetary penalties or both. In case of structural defects, promoters could face imprisonment up to five years.

Also, an equal rate of interest has to be paid by promoters and buyers in case of default or delays. This will clear the anomaly between the two parties and put them on a level-playing field. Developers have been framing biased buyer-seller agreements where they pay only 2-3 per cent interest in case of default while a buyer has to pay 16-18 per cent interest for a default. This Bill is need of the hour. It will prohibit unaccounted money from being pumped into the sector, Naidu said while moving the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2015. He added: It brings in only a regulation and not strangulation. This Bill is not against anyone Real Estate Bill will renew investors confidence and ensure timely completion of projects and create more opportunities.



Once the Bill becomes a law, a Real Estate Regulatory Authority will have to be set up in each state. Both commercial and residential segments will come under its purview.

The Bill will place Indian real estate market, which currently is fragmented and unorganised, at par with that of other developed countries with clear accountability of developers through the establishment of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA). Additionally, buyers and developers will now finally be on a level-playing field with respect to penalties on delays, said Sanjay Dutt, managing director, India, Cushman & Wakefield.

In December last year, the Cabinet had approved 20 major amendments to the Bill based on the recommendations of the Rajya Sabha Select Committee. Under the Bill, developers will have to register projects with 500 sqmt area or eight flats with the regulatory authority instead of 1,000 sqmt and 12 flats earlier. A minimum of 70 per cent of sale proceeds will have to be kept in a separate bank account and used for construction of the project. In April 2015, the government had also cleared a few amendments to the Bill. The Bill was tabled in the Rajya Sabha but was referred to the Select Committee after the Opposition called the Bill pro-developers.

About 10 lakh people buy houses every year with an investment of about Rs 3.5 lakh crore. As per available information for 27 major cities including 15 state capitals, 2,349 to 4,488 new housing projects were launched every year between 2011 and 2015. In these 27 cities, during these last five years, a total of 17,526 projects were launched with a total investment value of Rs 13,69,820 crore, Naidu said in the Rajya Sabha.

Delay in implementation of housing projects due to lack of transparency and accountability has been the bane of real estate sector in our country. This results in huge cost and time overruns, resulting in increased cost of houses. This is a matter of serious concern in the context of every citizen aspiring to own a house of his or her own, Naidu said.

A total of 76,044 companies were involved in realty sector. Real estate is the second largest employer in the country, next only to agriculture and accounts for about nine per cent of GDP and the construction sector supports 250 ancillary industries.
Next week, at the Pokhran firing ranges in Rajasthan, the (IAF) will let Pakistan and China know it is ready for war at short notice. In a massive firepower display, some two hundred IAF fighters will rain bombs and missiles on targets spread across the desert. Watching this will be a flock of defence and air attaches, flown down from Delhi for the spectacle.

This is Exercise Iron Fist 2016, a once-in-three-years firepower demonstration that is part of what strategists term "deterrence signalling". It is a shot across the bows of potential adversaries, to dissuade them from harming Indian national interests.

IT WILL RAIN BOMBS Next week, IAF will let Pakistan, China know it is ready for war at short notice

It will be a massive firepower display at Pokhran in Rajasthan

Two hundred IAF fighters will rain bombs and missiles on targets

Briefing the media in New Delhi on Thursday, IAF vice-chief, Air Marshal Birender Dhanoa, cited former US president Theodore Roosevelt's famous exhortation, "Speak softly and carry a big stick".

Said Dhanoa: "Exercise Iron Fist 2016 demonstrates the business-end of the IAF; the Big Stick; our capability to deter."



The same message is sent out by the Iron Fist 2016 logo, which is: "Demonstrating the capability to punish. WeaponsOn TargetOn Time".

The IAF says Iron Fist 2016 will involve 181 aircraft demonstrating 69 missions. There will be 103 fighters, including the Tejas, Mirage 2000, Sukhoi-30, Jaguar, MiG-29, MiG-27, MiG-21 and the Hawk advanced jet trainer. Also on display will be 59 helicopters including the Mi-17V-5 transport helicopter, Mi-35 attack helicopter, and the Dhruv and Light Combat Helicopter.

Synchronised waves of fighters will fly in from different IAF bases across the western sector. This involves close coordination by the Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS), which would similarly direct fighters into various combat theatres during wartime.

Says Dhanoa: "The IAF will demonstrate in Exercise Iron Fist, its capability to fight an adversary's army, navy and air force and to win a war both during day and night. [This] capability [has been] demonstrated only by our air force in the sub-continent. This is a major change that has taken place in the last 10 years."



Curiously, given the exercise's aim of deterrence signalling, the Pakistani and Chinese defence attaches to India will not have front row seats for Exercise Iron Fist 2016. In fact, the IAF confirms that neither country's representatives will even attend.

Defence ministry officials explain that Pakistani and Chinese attaches were not invited because those countries did not invite Indian defence attaches for their air exercises, even after New Delhi expressly conveyed interest in having them attend.

IAF sources confirm that, in December, the Indian air attache in Islamabad was kept away from the Pakistan Air Force's firepower display at the Sonmiani ranges, near Karachi. Similarly, the Indian air attache in Beijing was not invited to the Chinese air force's elite Golden Helmet exercise. Unusually, the IAF is playing the international spotlight over indigenous platforms. The Tejas light combat aircraft will display its excellent "swing role capability" by, in a single pass, delivering a laser-guided bomb to a ground target and firing an air-to-air missile at a simulated enemy fighter.

The Defence Research and Development Organization's (DRDO's) Akash surface-to-air missile, being deployed to defend IAF bases from enemy fighters, will demonstrate firing. So too will the DRDO's Astra air-to-air missile, which a Sukhoi-30MKI will fire at a simulated enemy that is "beyond visual range" (BVR).

The indigenous Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) will fire rockets at tank targets. The airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) system, which the DRDO unveiled at the Bahrain Air Show last month, will also be on display. This features Indian radar and command software, mounted on a Brazilian Embraer aircraft.

Dhanoa, walking the "Make in India" line, stated: "The IAF, contrary to popular belief has achieved significant indigenization. If you take an IAF base as a platform to project air power, akin to a naval ship, its total indigenous content is 52%. This includes all its aircraft, its missile systems, radar, communications network, infrastructure, and the IACCS that is indigenous developed, right from the design stage. This compares reasonably with a (war)ship having about 55% indigenous content."



While demonstrations like Iron Fist serve a deterrence purpose, the real training takes place in internal exercises like the IAF's recently concluded "Live Wire" exercise; or next summer's Red Flag exercise in the US, a major international event for which the IAF will be flying across four Su-30MKIs, four Jaguars, two C-17 Globemaster IIIs and two air-to-air refuellers.
The Supreme Court on Thursday asked telecom operators to give an assurance that they had not exceeded the two per cent threshold limit of as mandated in the regulations.

A bench headed by Kurian Joseph also asked the cellular operator associations to inform the court whether any penalty was ever levied on them for . The bench also had Rohinton F Nariman said.

Telcos said mobile phones bought in the grey market were largely responsible for .

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for cellular operators, said there cannot be a perfect world in the world of radio waves and call drops will happen as they have no technology to control it.

"There are conditions which are beyond our control like storm, humidity, set-up boxes, phones available in grey markets and many other things. We do not have technologies to prevent it," Sibal said.

Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), Unified Telecom Service Providers of India, and 21 telecom operators, including Vodafone and Bharti Airtel, have challenged the Delhi High Court order upholding Trai (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India)'s decision making it mandatory for them to compensate subscribers for call drops from January 1, 2016.

Sibal said telecom operators have never crossed the two per cent limit of call drops as mandated in the regulations and in their licence conditions but now the Trai wants us to pay for every call drop.

If the Trai's recomendation is implemented, the telecom operators will end up paying around Rs 50,000 crore to the consumers in a year. "If this recomendation is implemented, then this will finish the entire telecom sector in one year as call drops can't be controlled and no country in the world has zero percentage of call drops," he said.

In October last year, Trai had come out with the regulation which was to come into effect from January 1, mandating operators to give one rupee for every call drop to the user, with a maximum of three per day. Telcos had challenged this in the Delhi High Court which dismissed their petition.

Operators then went to the Supreme Court which did not give any interim relief and fixed the hearing for today.

The arguments wereinconclusive on Thursday. The AttorneyGeneral who defended the TRAI order is yet to reply to the telco's arguments. The hearing will continue on Tuesday.
Having launched the first phase of the Highway Advisory Services (HAS), a radio channel to give real-time updates of traffic movement on the Delhi-Jaipur highway ( 8) on a pilot basis, the ministry of road, transport and highways is planning to introduce a single frequency for the whole country.

HAS is a free-to-air information distribution system that uses radio to make the travelling experience on national highways safer, faster and hassle-free. The services will be launched in three phases on NH8. In phase I, existing All India Rainbow stations located at Delhi, Alwar and Jaipur will broadcast live traffic updates.

THE PROPOSALS HAS uses radio to make travel safer, faster and hassle-free

Information will be gathered from concessionaires, patrol vehicles, toll plazas and traffic marshals

A control centre will collect data, analyse it, generate alerts and send it to be broadcast by AIR

In phase-I, 22 bulletins will be issued every day for three months

"We are working on the modalities to introduce a single frequency for entire nation, subject to regulatory clearances. In Phase II, we are planning to launch broadcast in both Analog & Digital (Simulcast) Radio mode. For the services we have to seek clearance from the information and broadcasting ministry and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) which is currently being examined. So, very soon we are planning to present our case to the ministry for its approval as the services will ensure safer travel. The services would act as a pivot in reducing number of accidents," said Rohit Singh, joint secretary, Road Transport and Highways.

By phase III, HAS services will be in only digital broadcasting mode and there will be monitoring and third-party audit.

Information will be gathered from concessionaires, patrol vehicles, toll plazas and traffic marshals. This information will be transmitted to a HAS control centre using mobile applications, telephones and sensors. The control centre will collect data, process and analyse it , generate alerts and send it to be broadcast by AIR.

Contract has been signed with AIR to buy air-time for phase I, in which 22 bulletins will be issued every day for three months.

In India, every year 500,000 accident are reported. As many as 150,000 persons are killed and 350,000 people injured every year. Union minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari, said the government was committed to reducing fatality in road accidents by 50 per cent. He said HAS would aid this. The radio broadcasts will also raise people's awareness about road safety, which is very necessary for making our highways safe, he added.
Memorandum of Understanding between India and Bahrain on Cooperation for Prevention of Human Trafficking especially trafficking in Women and Children . .

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval for a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Bahrain on cooperation for prevention of human trafficking especially trafficking in women and children; rescue, recovery, repatriation and re-integration of victims of trafficking. .

.

This MoU will strengthen the bonds of friendship between the two countries and increase the bilateral cooperation on the issues of prevention, rescue, recovery and repatriation related to human trafficking especially women and children expeditiously. .

.

The MoU is expected to be signed during the Home Ministers upcoming visit to Bahrain in the first week of April 2016. .

.

The following are the salient features of the Memorandum of Understanding between India and Kingdom of Bahrain: .

.

i. To strengthen cooperation to prevent to all forms of humantrafficking, especially that of women and children and ensurespeedy investigation and prosecution of traffickers and organizedcrime syndicates in either country. .

.

ii. Taking preventive measures that would eliminate humantrafficking in women and children and in protecting the rights off victims of trafficking. .

.

iii. Anti-trafficking Cells and Task Force will work on both sides toprevent human trafficking. .

.

iv. Police and other concerned authorities will work in closecooperation and exchange information which can be used to interdict human traffickers, .

.

v. The repatriation of victims would be done as expeditiously aspossible and home country will undertake the safe and effective re-integration of the victims, .

.

vi. A Joint Task Force with representatives from both sides would beconstituted to monitor the working of the MoU. .

.

Background: .

.

As a destination of trafficking, South Asian countries are mainly affected by domestic trafficking, or trafficking from the neighboring countries. However, South Asian victims are also increasingly detected in the Middle East. .

.

India is a source and transit country as far as trafficking to Bahrain is concerned. On the other hand, Bahrain is a destination country for men and women subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labour and forced prostitution. Men and women from South Asia migrate voluntarily to Bahrain to work as domestic workers or as unskilled laborers in theconstruction and service industries. However, some face conditions of forced labour after arriving in Bahrain, through use of such practices as unlawful withholding of passport, restrictions on movement, contract substitution, non?payment of wages, threats, and physical or sexual abuse. .

.

The reinforcement of anti-trafficking efforts at all levels between the Kingdom of Bahrain and India is essential for prevention and protection of victims. This requires mutual cooperation among both the countries for intelligence sharing, joint investigation and a coordinated response to the challenges of human trafficking. For this purpose, it is proposed to sign an MoU with the Kingdom of Bahrain. India has already signed one MoU to prevent trafficking with Bangladesh. .

.
No objection to the proposed change in shareholding in the Container Terminal Projects of M/s. Dubai Port World Limited in major Ports . .

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval for grant of no objection to the proposed change in shareholding in the Container Terminal Projects of M/s. Dubai Port World (DPW) Limited in major Ports. It allows for the creation of an Indian holding company of DPW with unique asset portfolio to operate and manage the terminal operations at the existing major ports subject to certain safeguards. .

.

The decision will promote Foreign Direct Investment and private sector participation in the port sector. .

.

DPW Limited is contemplating restructuring of its assets in India with the objective of consolidating the ownership of its port infrastructure in India into a single holding company namely, Hindustan Ports Private Limited (HPPL). The New Company will take over all liabilities of the existing subsidiaries of DP World in relation to the Concession Agreements. here would not be any change of ultimate beneficiary and the ultimate legal and beneficial ownership which will continue to remain with M/s. D.P. World. It is noteworthy that FIPB has given its clearance to D.P. World. The proposal of DPW is intended to help them to expand the capital base and enable fresh investments in Ports and logistics infrastructure in India. This will enable efficient access of finance and introduce latest technology in port operation. .

.

The Government has agreed to the proposal for restructuring by DPW subject to the condition that the net worth of the holding company HPPL after acquisition of the shares of the project SPVs shall be higher than US $ 80 million. .

.

The restructuring of its assets of DPW in India will help in better coordination and control as the Port Authorities have to deal with a single company registered in India. The approval of consolidation proposal of DPW will also facilitate promoting foreign direct investment in the country and signal the investor friendly ambience in the port sector. This may also lead to greater transparency and better compliance to Indian laws and regulations. .

.
Signing and Ratification of the BIMSTEC Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters . .

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval for signing and ratification of the Bay of Bengal Initiative on Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters. The Ministry of Home Affairs has been designated as the Central Authority under Article 15 of the Convention. The BIMSTEC comprises of seven countries viz., Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. .

.

The establishment of regional arrangements for mutual assistance in criminal matters will greatly contribute to more effective cooperation in the control of criminal activities. The Convention aims to extend widest measures of assistance to each other through mutual cooperation for enhancing capability and effectiveness of the Member States in investigation and prosecution of crimes, including crimes related to terrorism, transnational organized crime, drug trafficking, money laundering and cyber-crimes. After signing as well as ratification of the Convention from the Indian side, the Instrument of Ratification will be deposited to the Secretary-General of. BIMSTEC and the Convention shall enter into force on 30th day of the deposit of last instrument of ratification. .

.
Union Home Ministers Statement In Ishrat Jahan Case . .

The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh made a Statement under Rule 197 of the Rules of Procedure in Lok Sabha today regarding alleged alteration on affidavit in Ishrat Jahan case. The following is the text of the Home Ministers Statement: .

.

In a police action with the Ahmedabad police on 15.6.2004, four persons namely Javed Sheikh, Jishan Johar, Amjad Ali and Ishrat Jahan were killed. .

.

2. Ms. Shamima Kausar, mother of Ishrat Jahan, filed a Special Criminal Application no.822 of 2004 in Gujarat High Court requesting inter-alia, that the Central Bureau of Investigation may be directed to carry out investigation of FIR No.8 of 2004 dated 15.6.2004 relating to the said incident registered with DCB Ahmedabad City and to direct the Union of India to provide compensation to the petitioner. The Respondent to the Petition were the Union of India, the State of Gujarat and others. .

.

3. The first affidavit on behalf of Union of India was filed in the Honble Gujarat High Court on 6.8.2009 by the then Under Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, after it was approved by the then Union Home Minister. In the said affidavit it was submitted that Union of India had received specific inputs to suggest that Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) had been planning to carry out the terrorist activities in various parts of the country, including the state of Gujarat. It was also submitted that the Union of India was aware of the inputs that the LeT was planning to carry out assassination of some top-level national and state leaders and LeT in this regard had tasked its India based cadres to monitor their movements. It was further stated that Union of India had learnt that LeT had inducted its cadres including Pakistani LeT terrorists in Gujarat for specific terrorist action and that UoI and its agencies were and are regularly sharing such inputs with the state Governments concerned. The affidavit also provided the background and linkages of Javed Sheikh, Amjad Ali, Jishan Johar and Ishrat Jahan and the contradictions in the averments of the petitioner and that of Mr. M.R.Gopinath Pillai, father of Javed Sheikh, in his Writ Petition (CR) No. 63/2007 filed in the Honble Supreme Court, which was not entertained by the Honble Supreme Court but Mr. Pillai was given liberty to approach the Honble Gujarat High Court. In so far as Petitioners prayer for investigation by the CBI was concerned, it was submitted that no proposal for CBI investigation into the case is under consideration of the Central Government nor does it consider the present case fit for investigation by the CBI. .

.

4. Thereafter, on 29/9/2009, a Further Affidavit on behalf of UoI was also filed by the then Under Secretary, MHA, in SCA no.822/2004 before the Gujarat High Court, after it was apparently vetted by the learned Attorney General and approved by the Union Home Minister. The notings on the concerned file do not provide any reason for filing of the affidavit dated 29.9.2009. It has been mentioned in the affidavit that the further affidavit was being made in view of subsequent developments in relation to the issues connected with the Petition and to clarify apprehensions expressed in regard to the affidavit filed by UoI (dated 6.8.2009) as well as to refute attempts to misinterpret portions of the affidavit. .

.

5. In the further affidavit, it was stated that all intelligence inputs do not constitute conclusive proof and it is for the State Government and the State Police to act on such inputs. It was further submitted that the central Government is in no way concerned with such action nor does it condone or endorse any unjustified or excessive action. It was also mentioned that the main purpose of the First Affidavit was to highlight the contradiction in the pleadings averred in the Petition filed by Mrs. Shamima Kausar and the Petition which had been filed by Mr. Pillai. It was also submitted that at the time the First Affidavit was filed, the Central Government was not aware of the fact that a judicial enquiry under Section 176 in relation to the deaths was underway. As such and otherwise, the Central Government was not concerned with the merits of the action taken by the Gujarat Police and anything stated in the first affidavit was not intended to support or justify the action of the State Police. It was also submitted that the Union of India would have no objection, if on proper consideration of facts it is found that an independent inquiry and investigation has to be carried out by the CBI or otherwise. .

.

6. Thereafter, the Honble Gujarat High Court ordered an investigation into the incident, first, by a Court appointed SIT and thereafter by the CBI vide Judgement dated 01.12.2011. The CBI, after investigation, filed the first chargesheet on 03.07.2013 u/s 302,364,368, 346, 120-B, 201, 203, 204, 217, 218 of IPC and Sections 25, 27 of Arms Act, against 7 Gujarat Police officials . Subsequently, the CBI filed a Supplementary chargesheet against 4 IB officials on 06.02.2014 u/s 120B r/w 302, 346, 364, 365 and 368 of IPC and various Sections of the Arms Act. However, the MHA upon consideration of facts and circumstances of the case did not find it a fit case for grant of prosecution sanction against IB officials. The case is presently sub-judice in the Court of Special Judge, CBI, Ahmedabad. .

.

7. Further, David Coleman Headley, an accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, had expressed a desire to become approver in sessions case no. 198/2013, provided he is granted pardon by the Court. The Court of competent jurisdiction in Mumbai had tendered pardon under Section 307 of the Criminal Procedure Code 1973 to David Coleman Headley. Thereafter, Headley was examined by the prosecution as a witness in the trial case relating to 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. During his testimony in the Mumbai Court through video conferencing, David Coleman Headley mentioned that he had learnt from his accomplices that there was a botched up operation in India in which one female terrorist was killed in a shootout with the police. The Public Prosecutor gave the option of three names to identify the said female terrorist, whereupon Headley identified Ishrat Jahan as the terrorist concerned." .

.
Volkswagen's straight-talking US chief Michael Horn has quit the automaker as it struggles with the fallout of a massive pollution cheating scandal, a decision that caught the industry by surprise.

The departure of Horn, the 54-year-old car executive who made headlines worldwide in September 2015 with his frank admission that VW had "totally screwed up", is effective immediately, said in a statement yesterday.

He left by mutual consent "to pursue other opportunities", the company said without further explanation.

"During his time in the US, Michael Horn built up a strong relationship with our national dealer body and showed exemplary leadership during difficult times for the brand," said Herbert Diess, chief executive of the passenger cars brand.

Horn, the highest ranking US executive to quit the firm since the emissions scandal broke, became the public face of the German carmaker during the crisis.

He is to be replaced on an interim basis by Hinrich Woebcken, the North American regional chief and chairman of Group of America, Volkswagen said.

"People know this scandal was rooted in Germany, which is why this is so surprising," Rebecca Lindland, senior analyst for auto researcher Kelley Blue Book, told Bloomberg News.

"In terms of scapegoats, there are other goats out there who would have been better."



VW, which until recently had ambitions to become the world's biggest carmaker, is battling to resolve its deepest-ever crisis sparked by revelations that it installed emissions-cheating software into 11 million diesel engines worldwide.

The software, known as a "defeat device", limits the output of toxic nitrogen oxides to US legal limits during emissions test by regulators.

But when the vehicles are in actual use, the software allows them to spew poisonous gases at up to 40 times the permitted levels, giving the vehicle better acceleration and fuel economy.

Nitrogen oxide is a pollutant associated with respiratory problems and defeat devices are prohibited in the United States, where the VW scam was originally exposed, as well as in other countries.

On top of still unquantifiable regulatory fines in a range of countries, VW is facing a slew of legal suits, notably in the United States and Germany, from angry car owners, as well as from shareholders seeking damages for the massive loss in the value of their shares since September.
The Union textiles ministry is looking at Australia, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Africa to boost exports through bilateral agreements as free trade agreements (FTAs) with the European Union and the US are delayed.

The ministry is chasing a target of doubling exports in 10 years and is working on a new textiles policy to promote value-addition.

Guidelines had been finalised for a revised Upgradation Fund Scheme and these would be placed before the Cabinet, Textiles Secretary Rashmi Verma said on the sidelines of the India International Handwoven Fair in Chennai.

exports are unlikely to reach their 2015-16 target of $47.5 billion (Rs 3.17 lakh crore) because the figure was $32 billion (Rs 2.14 lakh crore) till December. Last year, Indias textile exports were $42 billion (Rs 2.81 lakh crore), which was in large part cotton and yarn.

We might be a little short of target, but by and large we will achieve it, Verma said and added since India did not have FTAs with the US and the EU, the sector was at a big disadvantage compared to Bangladesh and Vietnam. These countries export textiles to the West at zero duty while Indian exporters face duties of 10-14 per cent.

The ministry has proposed relaxation in labour laws to allow women to work at night.

The simplified textile policy is also ready. We are in the process of sending it to Cabinet. We should be able to bring it out in two months time, Verma said. The policy focuses on increasing the contribution of value-added products from the current 25 per cent.

We are trying to balance the value chain so that value addition can take place within the country. The share of raw material will come down when the overall exports grow, she added.

Verma said most incentives or subsidies offered by the ministry were related to production. Those related to processing and skilling would be continued, she added.

A meeting of all stakeholders would be held next month to take stock of Indias commitments to the World Trade Organization, Verma said. It will review the subsidies that can be phased out.
The oil and gas sector has been buzzing with news flow. In the latest one, the government on Thursday cleared a changed exploration and licensing policy.

It has introduced a uniform licence for all fuels (natural gas, crude oil or shale gas). Explorers (upstream entities in sector jargon) get the freedom to price petroleum products procured from hard-to-explore deep waters at market rates. Some licences for small and medium size fields have been extended and production sharing contracts for many have been extended till the economic life of such assets.

This is positive for the sector, as it removes anomalies and will accrue benefits in exploration activities but in the long run.

In the near term, it will not have much impact on companies earnings, say analysts.

Thus, the scrip of government-owned upstream entities such as Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India did not react much, closing at Rs 205.70 (up 0.3 per cent) and Rs 309.55 (up 0.06 per cent), respectively, on Thursday.

The bigger news has been the sharp rise in oil prices, from $33 levels at end-February to $40 a barrel. The stocks have gained significantly, with ONGC up six per cent and Cairn India by 21 per cent from their lows on Budget Day. Oil India has not seen much rise, due to concerns on production from maturing fields. Nevertheless, higher crude oil prices are always beneficial for producers.

Analysts do not see oil prices rising significantly in the near to medium term. They see it averaging $45-50 in FY17, similar to the levels in FY16. It is only from FY18 that analysts expect a recovery in crude oil prices. For instance, analysts at HSBC estimate $45/60/75 a barrel in FY17/18/19, respectively. With revised cess rates, they see a three per cent rise in FY17 earnings for Cairn India, a one per cent negative impact on earnings for ONGC and the earnings estimate remaining unchanged for Oil India.

But, even with higher crude prices during FY18, the research house has lowered its earnings per share estimate by nine per cent each for Cairn India, Oil India and ONGC. They arrive at a target price of Rs 134 for Cairn, Rs 446 for Oil India and Rs 233 for ONGC. The consensus target price as per analysts polled in March for ONGC, Oil India and Cairn stands at Rs 230, Rs 388 and Rs 153, respectively.
continue their southward journey bogged down by the pressure in bluechips such as Reliance Industries, TCS, and Infosys.

By 11:15 am, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading 223 points down at 24,566 and the Nifty50 dipped 57 points up at 7,474.

However, the broader are outperforming their larger peers with BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices up by 0.1% each.

Oil prices held most of the previous day's strong gains on Thursday, but while a dive in US gasoline stockpiles fuelled hopes for a pick-up in demand, traders remain on edge over the long-running supply glut.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) eased 5 cents to $38.24 and Brent crude dipped 14 cents to $40.93.

The rupee edged higher by 12 paise to 67.08 against the American dollar today at the Inter-bank Foreign Exchange market on increased selling of the US currency by exporters and banks.

Infosys has dipped nearly 3% to Rs 1,146 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in early morning trade after a huge block deal. At 09:15 am, around 8.2 million equity shares representing 0.36% of total equity of Infosys changed hands, the NSE data shows.

The top losers on the Sensex are ITC, TCS, Reliance Industries, BHEL, and Infosys dropped down between 1.5% and 3% each.

--------------------------------------

(updated 10:15am)



have extended losses and are trading near days low weighed down by IT, FMCG and financial shares.

By 10:12 am, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading 172 points down at 24,623 and the Nifty50 dipped 46 points up at 7,486. Top losers from the Sensex pack are Infosys, TCS, HUL, Sun Pharma and BHEL.

Infosys has dipped nearly 3% to Rs 1,146 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in early morning trade after a huge block deal. At 09:15 am, around 8.2 million equity shares representing 0.36% of total equity of Infosys changed hands, the NSE data shows.

ALSO READ: Infosys dips after block deals

***************************************Markets are trading weak in early trades weighed down by information technology shares.

By 9:32 am, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading 65 points down at 24729 and the Nifty50 dipped 12 points up at 7,520. The broader markets are, however, outperforming the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up between 0.4%-1%.

In the overseas markets, Asian stocks edged up today after New Zealand surprised markets with a rate cut, keeping investors primed for more stimulus from the European Central Bank later in the day as global policy makers step up efforts to support their wobbly economies.

A rebound in the price of oil, a source of recent anxiety, also calmed investor nerves. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan nudged up 0.1%. Japan's Nikkei climbed 1% and Australian shares added 0.2%. South Korea's KOSPI rose 0.3%.

US stocks closed modestly higher yesterday as a rally in oil prices and sharp advances in energy and tech stocks kept the main indexes buoyant.

Back home, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 462.86 crore yesterday, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.

ALSO READ: Trading strategies from Chandan Taparia of Anand Rathi

Further, the government will announce Index of Industrial Production data for January tomorrow.

In the currency front, the rupee opened marginally lower at 67.24 per dollar against previous close of 67.21.

Among stocks, shares of information technology companies are trading lower. Infosys and TCS are down between 1%-2.3%. Infosys is the top Sensex loser after 78 lakh equity shares changed hands in multiple block deals on BSE and NSE at around Rs 1,150 a piece.

Credit rating agency CRISIL on Wednesday lowered its rating of long-term bank facilities of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited ( BHEL) citing constrained business risk profile of the capital goods player. BHEL is down 1%.

Hindustan Unilever (HUL) and the Ponds HLL ex-Mercury Employees Welfare Association, representing workers at the multinationals now-closed thermometer factory in Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, both announced the signing of a agreement to settle a long-running dispute on the unions demand for compensation and rehabilitation. Shares of HUL are down around 1%.

To promote gender diversity across all management levels, top telecom operator Bharti Airtel has increased maternity leave for its women employees to 22 weeks from 12 weeks. Bharti Airtel has slipped almost 1%.

ICICI Bank is trading higher by 1%. Moody's on Wednesday said asset quality for ICICI Bank's corporate loans would remain under pressure even beyond March 2016 due to exposure to some big-ticket accounts with weak debt servicing ability.

With Reuters input
Crude oil prices could fall by $10 per barrel, erasing recent gains, if OPEC and non-OPEC countries fail to finalise a plan to freeze output levels, Norwegian brokerage DNB Markets predicted on Thursday.

North Sea crude currently trades at just over $40 per barrel, a rise of almost 50 percent from a 12-year-low seen in January but still far below a mid-2014 peak of around $115.

An Iraqi oil official told state newspaper Al-Sabah on Wednesday that the world's biggest oil exporters both in and outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries plan to meet in Moscow on March 20 to discuss an output freeze.

The report was later denied by Russia's energy ministry, which said no date or place had been set for a possible meeting.

"If they can agree on a production freeze I think we have seen a bottom. If they fail, I think the oil price will drop $10 per barrel again," DNB Markets analyst Torbjoern Kjus told an energy conference in Oslo.

OPEC members Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela, along with non-OPEC exporter Russia, pledged earlier this year to leave supply at January's levels if others cooperated.

DNB Markets predicted last week that the price of North Sea Brent crude would reach $45 in three months and $55 in six months.
The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court will today hear the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging Justice Vishnu Sahai Commission's report on the Muzaffarnagar riots.

The PIL has been filed by Allama Zafar Naqvi.

The 775-page 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.

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.
Salman Khan, whose legal trouble is not yet over, has left from his Mumbai residence to appear before Jodhpur court to record his statement today in the Arms Act case.

On March 3, the court of chief judicial magistrate (CJM) Jodhpur district had set March 10 as the date for recording the statement.

The incident took place 18 years ago near Jodhpur, while shooting for Sooraj Barjatya's 'Hum Saath Saath Hain.'

The Arms Act case was registered after the weapons, allegedly used by the 50-year-old actor in a poaching case at Kankani village, where he had allegedly hunted down two black bucks on October 1 and 2, 1998, had their licences expired.

The District and Session Court gave the order to record the statement after rejecting an application of the defence seeking recalling of a prosecution witness for his examination.

Last year, in a major relief to the actor, the Jodhpur court had accepted his plea to produce four witnesses in the case.

The Rajasthan High Court had ordered for the submission of files related to the sanction procedure for prosecution by district collector to the court.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) unit in Tripura organised a protest in state capital Agatala against the state government's recent decision of hiking price by Rs. 6 for kilogram of sugar distributed through public distribution system (PDS).

Protestors gathered in front of the head office of food department and raised slogans against the Left Front government demanding immediate rollback of the sugar price.

They viewed that the state government is anti-poor and the hike in sugar price is totally unjustified since there has been no increase in sugar price in the market.

Later, a team of BJP state leaders met the state's Special Secretary and Director of food and civil supply Soumitra Bandopadhyoy to press their demand.

Former MLA and BJP leader Subal Bowmik said, "All of a sudden the state government has hike the price of sugar by six rupees (per kilogram) which is an extra burden on the people of the state. In no other Indian state the price of sugar has been hiked but here the state government is blackmailing the people, telling lie and cheating them."

"They have hiked the price in order to divert the money to party fund keeping in view the 2018 assembly election. They (CPIM) are scared as the BJP is gradually growing and so they want to keep the people in hunger and create such a situation that the poor section of people lives half fed and claim themselves as government of the poor people. We strongly protest against this, he added.

The BJP also gave 48 hours ultimatum to the state government for the rollback or they shall go for state-wide protest against this.

"This is not the end of this issue and BJP is giving 48 hours time for rollback of the sugar price and if it is not resolved within 48 hours time then we shall go for bigger protest," said Bhowmik.

Only four days back the state government had declared the hike in the price of sugar distributed through PDS by rupees six for every kilogram.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, a scheme for providing free LPG connections to women from BPL households.

Under the scheme, Rs. 8000 crore has been earmarked for providing five crore LPG connections to BPL households. The scheme provides a financial support of Rs. 1600 for each LPG connection to the BPL households.

The identification of eligible BPL families will be made in consultation with the state governments and the Union Territories. This scheme would be implemented over three years, namely, the FY 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19.

This is the first time in the history of the country that the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas would implement a welfare scheme benefitting crores of women belonging to the poorest households.

In our country, the poor have limited access to cooking gas (LPG). The spread of LPG cylinders has been predominantly in the urban and semi-urban areas with the coverage mostly in middle class and affluent households. But there are serious health hazards associated with cooking based on fossil fuels.

According to WHO estimates, about five lakh deaths take place in India alone due to unclean cooking fuels. Most of these premature deaths were due to non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer. Indoor air pollution is also responsible for a significant number of acute respiratory illnesses in young children.

According to experts, having an open fire in the kitchen is like burning 400 cigarettes an hour.

Providing LPG connections to BPL households will ensure universal coverage of cooking gas in the country. This measure will empower women and protect their health. It will reduce drudgery and the time spent on cooking. It will also provide employment for rural youth in the supply chain of cooking gas.

In this direction, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech on February 29 had announced a budgetary provision of Rs. 2000 crore for 2016-17 to provide deposit free LPG connections to 1.5 crore women belonging to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families.

Further, the Budget announced that the scheme will be continued for two more years to cover five crore households.
In order to push major policy reforms in the fertilizer sector, the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, today approved the proposal for removing the minimum capacity utilization criteria for the Single Super Phosphate (SSP) units to be eligible for the subsidy under the Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) scheme with immediate effect.

This is in continuation of other policy reforms made recently which include New Urea Policy, 2015 and Gas Pooling for urea production. Due to the emphasis on promoting energy efficiency and rationalisation of gas pricing mechanism, highest ever urea production in the period so far has been achieved this year.

It is expected that there will be an additional production of 17 lakh MT of urea this year as compared to last year. Moreover, to prevent diversion to non-agricultural use and to enhance productivity, 100 percent of urea is now neem coated.

Further, policy on promotion of City Compost is a major initiative which aims at the twin objectives of making cities cleaner and utilizing the city garbage as compost for improving soil health. Under this policy, for the first time market development assistance of Rs. 1500 per MT will be provided to scale up production and consumption of the product.

SSP is a phosphatic multi-nutrient fertilizer, which contains 16 percent phosphate, 11 percent sulphur, 16 percent calcium and some other essential micro-nutrients. Because of the simple production technique, it is one of the cheapest chemical fertilizer available. It is more suited for crops like oilseeds, pulses, horticulture, vegetables, sugarcane, etc.

From 01.10.2009, it was made mandatory for the SSP units to utilize minimum 50 percent of their recognised production capacity or to produce 40000 MT, whichever is less, per year to become eligible for subsidy. There was some capacity addition in the beginning, but for the last four years the production and consumption of SSP in the country has remained more or less stagnant.

Due to this minimum capacity utilization criteria, a large number of small SSP units which failed to reach this level were not able to avail of subsidy, in spite of having passed the subsidy benefit to the farmer in the form of lower MRP. Many units because of this apprehension did not commence production. Non eligibility to receive subsidy created financial problems including working capital issues for the SSP units, which also resulted in loss of capacity.

The new units were also finding it difficult to achieve this production criteria as reasonable time is required to establish their brand name and to increase the market share due to inadequate availability of dealers' network. Further, this minimum production criteria was applicable only to SSP and not to other P&K fertilizers.

This new policy to remove the minimum capacity utilization criterion would put the SSP units on the same footing as other fertilizers and they would be eligible for subsidy irrespective of quantity of SSP produced and sold for agriculture purposes.

This new policy will help revive smaller SSP units and encourage new SSP units to come up in the country to further boost indigenous production of SSP. It would also provide freedom to the SSP manufacturers to plan their production as per the market dynamics. SSP is also considered as a substitute to DAP, which is largely import based.

Growth of SSP industry will not only increase domestic production of phosphatic fertilizers in the country but also its consumption and partly act as a substitute for more costly DAP.

This would also encourage the evolution of a robust mixed fertilizer market with diversified micro-nutrients to promote balanced fertilization of the soil.

This new policy would be uniformly applicable to all fertilizers and provide a level playing field.
Senator Bernie Sanders engaged in a strong debate with Democratic Party presidential rival Hillary Clinton over migration reform and deportations in Miami, Florida last night.

While both the democrats made strong appeal before the Hispanic voters, they also pressed that each would be strongest candidate against Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump in the crucial general election this November.

The former secretary of state in a bid to lure the Hispanic audience portrayed herself as the defender of immigrant parents and children argued that Sanders was not a fighter in the issue and criticised him for opposing a 2007 bill that would have created a path to citizenship for millions of immigrants in the country.

"We had Republican support. We had a president willing to sign it. I voted for that bill. Senator Sanders voted against it," New York Times quoted Clinton as saying.

While Sanders explained that he thought the guest worker provisions in the bill were akin to slavery, Clinton refused to let him up. Instead she accused him of supporting vigilantes known as Minutemen who were taking up outposts along the border to hunt down immigrants.

Sanders reiterated, "No, I do not support vigilantes - that is a horrific statement, an unfair statement to make. Madam Secretary, I will match my record against yours any day of the week."

Clinton stuck to her promise to knock down barriers in employment and housing and to champion criminal justice reform and Social Security in a hope to inspire Hispanics, African-Americans and the elderly which could deliver her victories in Florida and North Carolina.

Meanwhile, Sanders' rallied cried against the rigged economy and establishment politics mainly aiming at the liberals, young people, working-class white voters who could be decisive for him in Ohio, Illinois and Missouri.

Sanders' win in Michigan is too early decide if the similar win is achieved in Ohio and Illinois, where Clinton has had double-digit leads in polls.

"Secretary Clinton prevailed upon the governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, who wanted to do the right thing and provide driver's licenses to those who were undocumented, She said, 'Don't do it,' and New York State still does not do it," New York Times quoted sanders' as saying.

Sanders also noted that he supported children from war-torn Central American countries to enter the United States.

While both the Democrats consistently praised President Barrack Obama, both vowed to end mass deportations of his administration.

Clinton and Sanders also sought to be perceived as the more formidable challenger to New York billionaire Trump.

Clinton argued that Trump was promoting 'un-American views' and promised to take every opportunity to criticize him, Sanders mentioned polls that showed him beating Mr. Trump in theoretical matchups for the general election.

He also argued that he could convince Democratic Party leaders and elected officials that he is the strongest candidate to defeat Trump.

Meanwhile, on being asked by the debate moderator, Jorge Ramos, if Clinton would drop out of the presidential race if she were indicted on charges related to her use of a private email server as secretary of state.

Clinton at first ignored the question, but when followed by the moderators, she abruptly dismissed the question saying I am not even answering that question.
The Congress Party on Thursday criticised the BJP-led NDA Government for not arresting liquor baron and allowing him to leave the country freely.

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad said Mallya is not a small instrument like a needle, which cannot be seen from a far distance.

He can be seen from a distance of one km. I accuse this government as to why was not arrested? Why was his passport not seized?" he asked.

Another Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also targeted the government on the issue.

"The question is not about who gave loans to Mallya, the question is why was he allowed to leave India. Why was allowed to leave the country?" he asked in the Rajya Sabha.

However, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley led a counter attack against the grand old party, saying that it was under the UPA regime when Mallya went abroad and a case was registered under Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

Speaking in the upper house, he said that the CBI is looking into the matter.

The Supreme Court has issued a notice to Mallya on a plea filed by a consortium of 13 PSU banks headed by the State Bank of India. The lenders had moved the apex court to prevent Mallya from leaving the country and impounding his passport even as the loan recovery procedure for Kingfisher Airlines is still on.

The notice will be served through the Indian High Commission in London. Based on CBI inputs, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the banks, informed the Supreme Court that Mallya left India on March 2 and could be in the UK.

The apex court has sought Mallya's response to the banks' plea by March 30 which is the next date of hearing.
The Congress Party on Thursday slammed Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray over his recent remarks urging his party workers to burn newly-registered auto rickshaws driven by non-Maharashtrians, saying that there is a competition among leaders in the state to portray themselves as true representatives of Marathas.

Congress leader PL Punia dubbed Thackeray's remarks as 'irresponsible' and criticised him for speaking ill against his fellow Indians.

"MNS chief Raj Thackeray keeps giving such statements. Now he has said that if non Marathis register an autorickshaw, then the rickshaw should be burnt. This is an irresponsible statement. On one hand he talks of nationalism and on the other he speaks against his fellow Indians. There is a competition to portray themselves as a big Maratha leader, it is all political, it should be condemned," Punia told ANI.

According to reports, Thackeray urged party workers to take to the streets, burn auto-rickshaws and keep pursuing the 'Marathi' agenda.

Speaking at an event to mark 10 years of MNS on Wednesday, he alleged corruption in the purchase of 70,000 new auto-rickshaws in Mumbai for which the BJP-led state government is issuing permits.

MNS chief also accused the BJP government in Maharashtra of showing favours to Bajaj Auto in the matter.

The MNS president's highly provocative speech was aimed at safeguarding the party's vote-bank ahead of the 2017 BMC elections.
Selena Gomez recently got stuck in an elevator in Paris, but she came out of it without panicking.

The 23-year-old songstress, who visited the town for the Paris Fashion Week, posted a 19-second clip of the emergency on social media, reports TMZ.com.

In the video, the 'Same Old Love' hit-maker was heard telling everyone in the elevator that the talking will deplete them of oxygen while she appeared to be totally calm.
Bradley Cooper, who was all set to make a directorial debut with the remake of 'A Star Is Born,' has put his dreams on hold after his rumoured co-star Beyonce asked too much money for the role.

Warner Bros. was negotiating with the 41-year-old actor to direct and star in the remake of the 1950s musical and the 'Halo' hit-maker was being lined up to play the lead, reports News.com.au.

But, the sources are now claimed that the 34-year-old songstress wanted too much money and Warner Bros. baulked at her price.

The production budget was also said to be an issue with the studio, so the project has fallen apart.

However, a different source claimed that Cooper has started reading scripts for his next acting project, but the 'Star Is Born' project remains in development and he is still involved.

On personal front, Cooper recently made his relationship with Irina Shayk official as they made their first red carpet debut as a couple at the L'Oreal Red Obsession Party in Paris.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center (TEDAC) conducted a joint training exercise in Advanced Post-Blast Investigations with the Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Security Guard (NSG) during the week.

The exercises and exchange were held at the NSG training facility in Manesar, India.

For the purposes of training, the teams detonated improvised explosive devices in a controlled environment.

This allowed them to train on detecting and combating the techniques terrorists use, and to sharpen their methods for identifying and tracing materials after a blast.

"The purpose of the exchange is to provide Indian law enforcement with state-of-the-art training and lessons learned from current FBI post-blast investigations around the world," said FBI Legal Attache Ashish L. Sawkar.

"It is also an opportunity for FBI TEDAC personnel to better understand the improvised explosive device landscape and threats facing our Indian counterparts throughout the sub-continent," he added.

The training and exercises also built upon the excellent law enforcement relations between the United States and India, in their joint commitment to prevent terrorist attacks against their citizens.

The training was organized through collaboration between the FBI Office of the Legal Attache in the United States Embassy in New Delhi, and the NIA and NSG.
Union Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday downplayed the Opposition's criticism over deployment of army for Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's event and said this was not for the first time that the Indian soldiers were deployed in a cultural event.

"Allegations have been levelled that the Home Ministry is giving special assistance in organising Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Cultural event, but I would like to say this is not the first time Army is being deployed in a cultural event," Prasad told ANI.

"We deploy army at the time of Kumbh mela, Moreover, the army was deployed when Yanni, a famous musician, held a concert at the Taj Mahal when Mulayam Singh was the Chief Minister. We do it for people's welfare and if the Congress is making an issue out of this it is highly unfortunate," he added.

The Opposition yesterday raised the issue of the Indian Army's involvement in the construction of pontoon bridges for the World Culture Festival, creating uproar in the Rajya Sabha.

CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury hit out at the Centre, asking why was the army being roped in for a private event following which the Opposition MPs raised slogans of 'Army ka galat istemaal mat karo, raksha karo'.
The 20th Biennale of Sydney, titled The future is already here - it's just not evenly distributed and presented free to the public from 18 March until 5 June 2016, is featuring the work of Indian artists Dayanita Singh and Sudarshan Shetty, as well as artists based in India, Neha Choksi and Bharti Kher.

At the Museum of Contemporary Art: Embassy of Translation, Dayanita Singh presents two photo series. Suitcase Museum, 2015 is a travelling photographic installation that observes the fluid, ever-changing nature of life and her practice.

Contained in weathered leather trunks, Suitcase Museum comprises a series of book objects featuring photographic sequences that have been woven together to create a novel of life. Images can be swapped out for others; the structures themselves are adaptable and movable.

Her second series, Kitchen Museum, leads the audience only lightly through the work, leaving much of it a mystery without labelling or anything indicating what the audience is seeing. This leaves the work up to their interpretation, as there are no captions, no names, no places and no clues other than those the audience might find.

The form of Singh's work is symbolic of the metaphor of photography and its connection to life: photography is the act of capturing a single moment in a lifetime, while life is a collection of moments over time.

At the Embassy of Spirits within the Art Gallery of NSW, Sudarshan Shetty presents Shoonya Ghar, 2015, a new film work that continues his exploration of the cycles of life and death and investigates the symbolism and theatricality inherent in ritual. The title, Shoonya Ghar, translates to 'empty is this house', referencing a twelfth-century poem by Gorakhnath, a guru associated with the traditions of Nirgun poetry and ideas of emptiness, formlessness and the void.

The setting of the film is an abandoned quarry near Loavala, in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra, a surreal, empty landscape. The sequence of vignettes, disjointed fragments of performance, ritual, and moments of domesticity, are played out by a series of characters that fade in and out of existence, leaving the viewer unsure if they are real or imaginary; ancestors, memories, or ghostly remnants from past lives.

At Carriageworks: The Embassy of Disappearance, Neha Choksi presents The Sun's Rehearsal, 2016, a billboard-sized installation that has been constructed from scaffold and a wall layered with seven photographs of sunsets, and overlaid with a digitally rendered depiction of a setting sun. The sun is a motif in Choksi's work, a powerful symbol linked to cosmography, and to her Jain heritage, where the universe is considered an ongoing and eternal creation. Over the course of the exhibition, the sunsets are peeled away from the wall, leaving the traces and remnants of what had once existed and suggesting the passing of time - one day, one week, one year, one lifetime.

This idea is enhance by the work of Australian dance artists and choreographer Alice Cummins performing Memory of the Last Sunset, 2016, to prompt questions about the life of a continuously warming planet and of an aging body, with the audience setting the tempo with an Indian temple bell. The life-giving power of the sun is further evoked by a curtain, which covers a gaping hole where the suns have been torn away.

On Cockatoo Island: Embassy of the Real, Bharti Kher presents a series of life-sized, seated female forms that were cast from real women in her New Delhi studio. Kher sees the body as a literal and metaphorical site for the construction of ideas around gender, mythology and narrative.

Critically, the vulnerability of the women stems only in part from their nakedness; Kher's sitters were sex workers, paid by the artist to sit for her, in a self-conscious transaction of money and bodily experience. Throughout the process, Kher asked herself: 'If the body can carry the memory of other bodies as well, what does this mean? Can a body carry narratives that don't belong to it?' Kher's sculptures address the physicality and inherent vulnerability of the body and quietly challenge our perceptions of the body in contemporary culture.
Police in Malaysia's Penang state have confirmed reports of rescuing 27 Bangladeshis from what they called was an attempted human trafficking operation.

Police said that the rescued Bangladeshis were in the country without work permits and had photostatted copies of their passports.

They informed that each of the Bangladeshis had forked out RM 15,000 each to work in Malaysia, but were left jobless and in a state of starvation.

Police said that the Bangladeshis had arrived in the country through the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on February 2 and had been ferried first to Shah Alam and then to Johor Baru and finally to Penang.

All of the rescued are said to be aged between 20 and 40 years.

According to the state-run Bernama news agency, police have arrested three persons involved in the human trafficking operation.

The raid was conducted on two houses in the Taman Sungai Puyu area of Penang state.

The skinny and listless Bangladeshis had been padlocked for almost two months, police said.
A man allegedly tried to attack JNU Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar on Thursday evening.

"I told him that I want to talk to him and in the meantime his bouncers came. He has abused the nation. He wants to become a leader by staying in jail. He raised slogans against India. He has tarnished the image of Indian Army and the country," the man who attacked Kanhaiya told the media.

Meanwhile, a case has been registered against Kanhaiya in the Kanpur civil court for giving objectionable statement against Army personnel.

Speaking at a student's gathering on International Women's Day, Kanhaiya alleged that the Indian Army personnel have committed atrocities against women in Jammu and Kashmir.

"No matter how much you try to stop us, we will speak up against human rights violations. We will raise our voice against AFSPA. While we have a lot of respect for our soldiers, we will still talk about the fact that in Kashmir women are raped by security personnel," Kanhaiya said on Tuesday.

The Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha had yesterday filed a complaint in the Vasant Vihar Police Station against Kanhaiya and JNU professor Nivedita Menon, saying they have made 'anti-national' statements in the aftermath of February 9 event in the JNU campus.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif along with the top Saudi leadership witnessed the concluding ceremony of the 'North Thunder' military exercise in the northern region of Saudi Arabia on Thursday.

"Premier and army chief with Saudi leadership and other dignitaries on site of the North Thunder final manoeuvres," the Director General of military's media wing, ISPR, tweeted.

Sharif arrived on a three-day visit to Riyadh yesterday to witness the military exercises as well as hold regional and bilateral talks of mutual interest.

Sharif was accompanied General Sharif and Special Assistant to the premier on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi.

Upon their arrival, Sharif and his officials were received by Prince Muhammad bin Salman and other high-ranking officials.

A dinner was also hosted by King Salman bin Abdul Aziz al Saud last night.

Meanwhile, a number of other leaders also witnessed the ongoing military exercise and its closing ceremony.

Troops from 21 countries, including Pakistan, participated in the exercise.

The main aim of the exercise is to improve training to counter- threats posed by terrorist groups.

During the visit, Pakistan will offer to expand its cooperation with Saudis and its support for the for the 34-nation coalition of Islamic countries cobbled together by Saudi Arabia to fight terrorism, reports The Express Tribune.
Pakistan is all set to sign deals for supply of over 3,000 megawatts of electricity to meet energy needs with Iran during the visit of Iranian President Hasan Rouhani to Islamabad, which begins on March 25.

"Three power import deals are expected to be inked by the two countries including supply of 100MW, 75MW and 1,000MW," The Express Tribune quoted a diplomatic source as saying.

Reportedly, Pakistan is already importing 73MW to meet the requirement of Gwadar but payments could not be made since 2011.

The Pakistani officials believe that banking channels will be opened paving the way for payment of outstanding bills following removal of sanctions from Iran.

Rouhani's two-day visit to Islamabad was disclosed during a meeting between Water and Power Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif and Iranian Ambassador Mehdi Honardoost.

According to reports, during the visit, Pakistan will formally offer Iran during Rouhani's visit to participate in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) programme, which would bring peace and ensure vital connections among regional states.

Officials of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources said the Iranian president would push Pakistan to implement the IP pipeline project, which had earlier been stalled by the sanctions on Tehran, reports The Express Tribune.
The government will not take any decision on drug price control without holding discussions with the pharmaceutical industry and other stakeholders, Union Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers, Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said at an ASSOCHAM event in Delhi.

"We take every step very carefully when it comes to the issue of drug price control as we do not want to take even a single step without holding discussions with the industry," said Ahir while inaugurating 'MEDCON 2016,' organized by ASSOCHAM.

He said that government wants the prices of medicines to be affordable for general public, but at the same it wants the industry to flourish. "We need to promote the industry for sure, this is certain."

The minister also said that the government will soon come out with a policy on medical devices.

Terming India as the 'medical store of the world,' the minister said that there are over 10,000 big and small drug manufacturing industries across the country. "We are exporting drugs into over 200 countries, it is a big achievement."

However, he said that it is concerning to note that over 5,000 industries engaged in drug manufacturing do not carry out research and development process, which is the need of the hour.

In his address at the ASSOCHAM event, Jagdish Prasad, Director General of Health Services said that with a view to perk up drug manufacturing standards in India, the government has asked drug manufacturers to set up research and development (Research and Development) system to ensure they follow quality standards.

"Drug manufacturers should either have a Research and Development system of their own or they should be attached to Research and Development, which is available in other industries, without Research and Development they should not manufacture drugs, we are trying to put this to drug manufacturers across the country to have high quality drugs available with them," said Prasad.

He also said that India has the potential to produce much better medical devices compared to those being manufactured in China.

"Most of the Chinese equipment used in medical system, be it monitors, ventilators and others, we can produce much better medical equipments compared to China," said Prasad.

"Today, India is totally dependent on medical devices imported either from China or from European countries, hardly any medical device is made for diagnostics set up which we can produce and export in the country," he added.
Law enforcement agencies have confirmed the arrest of 14 Afghan Taliban members during a raid in the Pashtoonabad area of Quetta on Thursday.

The militants were arrested during a search operation, reports the Dawn.

Security forces have shifted the militants to an undisclosed location for interrogation.

"It is premature to say something about the arrest of any high profile leader among them", dawn quoted an official as saying.

The official also said that further information would be shared with the media only after interrogation.

The security forces have also recovered sleeping bags, boots and administrative objects from militant's possession.

Pashtoonabad area houses a large number of Afghan refugees, who have been living there for ages.

In the past too, security forces have arrested alleged members of the Taliban from Pashtoonabad.
The Shiv Sena on Thursday confirmed that they would be contesting the upcoming assembly polls in West Bengal.

"Shiv Sena will fight the upcoming elections in West Bengal," Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut told ANI.

"Shiv Sena will fight elections in Uttar Pradesh and in all those states where it has presence. We are full prepared," he added.

The Election Commission had last week announced the dates for the West Bengal assembly elections. The first phase of the six-phase voting will take place on 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 and 30 April and May5, whereas the votes will be counted and results will be declared on May 19.
Samajwadi Party (SP) legislator Irfan Ali was critically injured after his car overturned near Kachhla Ghat in Uttar Pradesh's Budaun region on Thursday morning.

The mishap took place when the Bilari MLA was on his way to Saifai.

Two people have lost their lives in the ill fated accident.

Further details are awaited.
Hitting back at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for his criticism of the government over liquor baron Vijay Mallya fleeing the country, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday reminded the former of Bofors scandal accused Ottavio Quattrocchi, who escaped from India in 1993 during the grand old party's regime.

Jaitley said that Mallya had already left the nation by the time banks approached the Supreme Court over the money they owe to the liquor baron.

"There is a legal process to stop any person (from leaving the country). Either your passport should be impounded or there should be a court order. The immigration cannot stop you besides these. The banks went to the Supreme Court, but he (Mallya) probably anticipating the same left the country," Jaitley told the media here.

Recalling the Bofors scandal and the role of Quattrocchi, Jaitley said that the former was allowed to leave the country during the Congress regime despite a CBI request to impound his passport.

"Rahul ji should know that there was difference in Mallya leaving the country and Quattrocchi leaving. When the Swiss authorities informed that Quattrocchi is one of the Bofors beneficiaries and CBI wrote to the government asking them to impound his (Quattrocchi) passport, the then government did not stop him and he left. That was a criminal case. In this case, the banks had not started the procedure when he (Mallya) left. So, the banks should have started it earlier," he said.

Gandhi earlier in the day lashed out at Jaitley for not telling the Parliament as to how Mallya managed to flee the country and questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's commitment to bring back black money stashed in safe havens abroad.

Gandhi said that the Finance Minister spoke at length over this issue in Parliament, but failed to answer the basic question as to how Mallya left the country.

Reacting to this, Jaitley took a jibe at Gandhi, urging the media to explain his address made in Parliament to the Congress vice-president.

"I have given dates in the Parliament that loans were sanctioned in 2004 and 2007, then in 2009 it became NPA and thereafter it was restructured in 2010. If Rahul Gandhi does not understand these dates then you people should help him understand," he said.

The Parliament today witnessed a major uproar following Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi's statement that Mallya left the country on March 2 and could be in the UK.

The Supreme Court has issued a notice to Mallya on a plea filed by a consortium of 13 PSU banks headed by the State Bank of India. The lenders had moved the apex court to prevent Mallya from leaving the country and impounding his passport even as the loan recovery procedure for Kingfisher Airlines is still on.

The notice will be served through the Indian High Commission in London. Based on CBI inputs, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the banks, informed the Supreme Court that Mallya left India on March 2 and could be in the UK.

The apex court has sought Mallya's response to the banks' plea by March 30, which is the next date of hearing.
India's leading marketplace for trusted services, UrbanClap has launched a new initiative, 'Serve a Uniform' to enable its users to give back a service to the nation's security forces. The company has partnered with the Indian Navy in Delhi and Bangalore for the cause.

UrbanClap has pledged to provide home care services to personnel from the respective security forces. However, it is also leveraging the technology of its platform by inviting users to contribute. Those who wish to contribute can accompany UrbanClap's professionals and help them give the houses a makeover.

Speaking on the initiative, Abhiraj Bhal, Co-founder UrbanClap, said, "We stand for delivering high quality, reliable services. We thought, why not reverse the roles, and help our customers serve the men in uniform. While we will forever be indebted to the men in uniform for their service, here is a small way for us to say thank you."

UrbanClap app users can select the 'Serve a Uniform' category and place a request on the app, after which the UrbanClap professionals will co-ordinate with the respective security forces to arrange the delivery of the services.
In a bid to tackle the growing terrorist networks, India and the United States have decided to deepen their counter-terrorism, particularly the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM).

India's Foreign Secretary S.Jaishankar and American National Security Adviser Susan Rice held a meeting at the White House in Washington. D.C. on Tuesday, where the two also affirmed their commitment in deepening bilateral cooperation on climate change, trade, and defense.

The White House, after the meeting, issued a press release where it said that both officials discussed US-India collaboration against LeT, JeM, and other terrorist threats.

India has blamed the two terrorist groups orchestrating a number of attacks on Indian soil.

In the recent one, India accused the JeM of carrying out the attack on air force base in Pathankot on January 2, which at least eight people dead.

New Delhi has also pressed about the role of LeT for orchestrating the Mumbai attacks in November 2008 which over 150 dead.

In a related development, the United States State Department has rejected the view that ties with India have hit a roadblock in the wake of Washington deciding to go ahead with the sale of eight F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, besides other bilateral differences.

"I think we have had and we look forward to continuing to have a good, strong relationship with India writ large and with the Modi government specifically," State Department spokesman John Kirby was quoted, as saying after Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar's meetings with Deputy Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and other government officials.

Kirby said, "There are a lot of common issues, common challenges, common threats, quite frankly, that we and the Indian people face. I think we have got a good, honest, candid, productive relationship with the Modi government, and we look forward to that continuing. In fact, we look forward to deepening it."

The meeting between Jaishankar and Rice was held to review preparations for the upcoming 50-nation Nuclear Security Summit, due to be held in Washington from March 31-April 1.

Both, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif are due to attend the summit.
Shane Watson and Steve Smith produced a brilliant batting display as Australia subdued South Africa by six wickets in the third and the final T20 to seal the three-match series 2-1 at PPC Newlands in Capetown.

Chasing a target of 179, Australian openers Usman Khawaja (32 off just 25 balls) and Watson (42 off just 27 balls) shared a brisk 76-run partnership and put the home side under pressure.

After their fallout, Smith and Warner steadied the innings by smashing 44 and 33 respectively before the former got dismissed while attempting a suicidal second run, Sport24 reported.

Glenn Maxwell (unbeaten at 19) and Mitchell Marsh (unbeaten at 4) also provided substantial support to power their side to 181-4 with four balls to spare.

For South Africa, Imran Tahir was the lone bowler to give his side with some hope as he grabbed two wickets.

Earlier, former skipper Hashim Amla thumbed a quick-fire 97 runs to help his side reach 178 runs in their full quota of 20 overs.

Amla and Quinton de Kock were quick to take the attack to the visitors as they stitched 47-run partnership for the first wicket in just 4.1 overs.

Australia will now head into their World T20 campaign where they will play their opening match against New Zealand in Nagpur on March 18.
The Maruti Baleno has been well accepted by the Indian customers. Over 38,000 units of the premium have been sold in the Indian market and it will be exported to over 100 countries. Adding another feather to its cap, the Made in India Baleno has been launched by Suzuki in Japan. The exported models are manufactured exclusively in India at Maruti Suzukis Manesar facility in Haryana. The Baleno gets a 1.2-litre Dualjet naturally-aspirated engine for the Japanese market. The 1.0-litre Boosterjet variant is expected to be launched on May 13, 2016.

Unlike its sedan predecessor, the hatchback has definitely earned Maruti the premium tag. First showcased at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2015 and launched in India on October 26, 2015, the car has been a runaway sales hit for Maruti Suzuki India.

The 1.2-litre VVT petrol and the DDiS190 diesel are very well suited for city driving and do not disappoint on the highways either. Like all Maruti cars, the Baleno claims stellar fuel economy figures of 21.4kmpl and 27.39kmpl for petrol and diesel variants respectively.

Also, for people who enjoy occasional street light drag races, Maruti will soon be launching an RS variant of its civilized hatch. The RS will feature a 1.0-litre, 3-cylinder turbocharged engine with the 'Boosterjet' moniker. Output is rated at 110bhp and 170Nm. With those kind of numbers, the Baleno RS will compete against the Volkswagen Polo GT TSi.

During the occasion of launch held in Tokyo, Mr. Sujan R. Chinoy, Ambassador of India to Japan said, Maruti Suzuki exports to over 125 countries including those in Europe, which is proof of their quality. The model being launched today, the Baleno is a state-of-the-art car developed and manufactured in India through Suzukis excellence. It will be exported to 100 global markets including Japan. I am confident that the Baleno will prove to be a huge success in Japan. I wish the launch complete success.

Mr. Kenichi Ayukawa, MD & CEO of Maruti Suzuki India Limited said, A landmark moment like this is a true testimony to the success of Indian Governments Make in India campaign. Launch of Made in India Baleno in Japan is a proud moment for all of us. This reaffirms Maruti Suzukis manufacturing potential and growing importance of Maruti Suzuki India Limited in Suzuki Motor Corporations global business strategies. I am confident our Baleno would be well accepted by Japanese customers as well.

Also Read: Maruti Vitara Brezza: Key Features & Highlights

Read More on : Maruti Baleno 2016

Source : CarDekho
Shares of Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) will be in focus after ratings agency CRISIL in a report dated 9 March 2016, downgraded its rating on the long-term bank facilities of Bhel to CRISIL AA+/Negative from CRISIL AAA/Negative. CRISIL has reaffirmed its ratings on the company's short-term bank facilities at CRISIL A1+. The downgrade reflects CRISIL's belief that Bhel's business risk profile will remain constrained over the medium term by continued weak profitability and stretch in working capital cycle. CRISIL expects Bhel's profitability to remain under pressure, and its working capital stretched over the medium term on account of the challenging operating environment in the power sector. The rating may be further downgraded if project execution is slower than expected and costs remain high, leading to continued losses and a high receivable position, CRISIL said. Conversely, the outlook may be revised to stable if profitability improves, backed by a structural revival in the power sector, translating into faster project execution, and improvement in working capital position, CRISIL said.

HDFC announced after market hours yesterday, 9 March 2016, that it intends to raise Rs 525 crore through private placement of senior secured redeemable non-convertible debentures. The coupon rate of debentures is 8.72% per annum with a tenor of 3 years 35 days. The issue opens and closes on the same day on 11 March 2016. The object of the issue is to augment the long-term resources of the company. The proceeds of the issue would be utilized for financing/refinancing the housing finance business requirements of the company.

Bajaj Auto said that the board of directors of the company at its meeting held yesterday, 9 March 2016, has considered and declared an interim dividend of Rs 50 per share for the year ending 31 March 2016. The announcement was made after trading hours yesterday, 9 March 2016.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced removal of restrictions placed on the purchase of shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank by foreign investors. The RBI said that the aggregate share holdings by foreign investors in the private sector bank has gone below the prescribed limit stipulated under the prevailing foreign direct investment (FDI) policy and hence the restrictions are removed. The RBI made the announcement after trading hours yesterday, 9 March 2016.

Corporation Bank announced that its board of directors at a meeting held on 8 March 2016, approved raising of capital of the bank to the extent of Rs 1000 crore in one or more tranches with Green Shoe option if any by way of either issue and allotment of equity shares on preferential basis or by way of additional Tier I bonds or through various other means subject to necessary approvals. This is exclusive of earlier approval of the board on 6 November 2014 where in Rs 500 crore by way of additional Tier I bonds and Rs 500 crore by way of Tier II bonds is yet to be raised, Corporation Bank said. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 9 March 2016.

Greenply Industries said it has received permission from the Excise Authorities to avail the benefit of exemption and consequential refund of excise duty under Notification dated 25 April 2007 for a period of 10 years from July 2015, in respect of the company's plywood unit situated at Tizit (Nagaland). The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 9 March 2016.

IVRCL after market hours yesterday, 9 March 2016 said it has made an allotment of 18.19 crore equity shares at a price of Rs 8.765 per share to the banks/lenders as part of strategic debt restructuring (SDR).

PTC India after market hours yesterday, 9 March 2016, announced that PTC Energy has achieved successful commissioning of its 30 megawatts (MW) wind power project at Jaora, Ratlam district in Madhya Pradesh.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News
Ready with the backup infrastructure for roll out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Economic Affairs Secretary, Mr Shaktikanta Das said at an ASSOCHAM meeting he is hopeful that the Constitutional amendment bill for the most important tax reform would be passed by Parliament in the current session.

Addressing the Managing Committee meeting of the ASSOCHAM in New Delhi, the Economic Affairs Secretary said I am sure Parliament will appreciate the advantages of GST...we hope it will be passed in the current session.

He said on its part the Government is ready with all the backup to roll out the new tax regime but it could be done not only after its passage by Parliament but also its ratification by at least half the number of the State Assemblies.

Briefing the ASSOCHAM Members about the salient features of the Union Budget for 2016-17, the Economic Affairs Secretary said a number of game changing structural reforms have been unveiled by the Finance Minister. These include dismantling the permit raj in the passenger transport sector, easing the renegotiations of the Public Private Partnership business agreements, giving a legal backing to the Aadhar Id. Cards and initiating several dispute resolution mechanisms in taxation.

Mr Das said the Government stuck to the path of financial discipline, pegging the fiscal deficit for 2016-17 at 3.5 per cent of the GDP Why fiscal deficit target is important because it is about credibility of the Government, especially when it had benefitted from low crude oil prices.

He said the committee on review of the FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) Act would be constituted in a month or so for giving a road map to fix the deficit target in a band rather than to the last decimal figure.

He said the budget has dealt with several critical sectors giving the first charge to the Agriculture and Rural Economy as people in the rural landscape are in a state of distress because of failure of monsoon for two consecutive years. He said a quantum jump allocation has been given for the rural infrastructure including roads, electricity and irrigation.

Investment in infrastructure would also be revived with the budget announcing a number of initiatives for easing rules in the case of highways and other projects in the PPP model.

For instance the budget talks about a system of credit rating wherein the rating would be with reference to particular projects rather than companies. A window has been provided for long term contract renegotiations.

Referring to the problem of non-performing assets in the banking sector he said several sectoral initiatives have been taken. For instance the steel sector which has been in financial stress has been given protection against imports by way of 32 per cent import duty and other measures like fixation of minimum import price.

In his address ASSOCHAM President Mr Sunil Kanoria said the Government has come out with one of the most forward looking budgets. However he suggested fiscal incentives in areas like setting up of agri equipment banks which will operate on the leasing model.

Mr Kanoria also lauded efforts to revive business sentiments through investment in infrastructure.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News
Market is seen opening higher in the early trade, taking cues from positive Asian stocks and overnight gains in the US market. Trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could rise 17.50 points at the opening bell.

In overseas markets, most Asian stocks edged higher today, 10 March 2016, after New Zealand surprised markets with a rate cut, keeping investors primed for more stimulus from the European Central Bank (ECB) later today, 10 March 2016, as global policy makers step up efforts to support their wobbly economies. A rebound in the price of oil, a source of recent anxiety, also calmed investor nerves. In mainland China, Shanghai Composite was down 1.08%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up 0.59%. US stocks closed modestly higher yesterday, 9 March 2016, as a rally in oil prices and sharp advances in energy and tech stocks kept the main indexes buoyant.

Closer home, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 462.86 crore yesterday, 9 March 2016, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 823.56 crore yesterday, 9 March 2016, as per provisional data.

Among corporate news, shares of Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) will be in focus after ratings agency CRISIL in a report dated 9 March 2016, downgraded its rating on the long-term bank facilities of Bhel to CRISIL AA+/Negative from CRISIL AAA/Negative. CRISIL has reaffirmed its ratings on the company's short-term bank facilities at CRISIL A1+. The downgrade reflects CRISIL's belief that Bhel's business risk profile will remain constrained over the medium term by continued weak profitability and stretch in working capital cycle. CRISIL expects Bhel's profitability to remain under pressure, and its working capital stretched over the medium term on account of the challenging operating environment in the power sector. The rating may be further downgraded if project execution is slower than expected and costs remain high, leading to continued losses and a high receivable position, CRISIL said. Conversely, the outlook may be revised to stable if profitability improves, backed by a structural revival in the power sector, translating into faster project execution, and improvement in working capital position, CRISIL said.

HDFC announced after market hours yesterday, 9 March 2016, that it intends to raise Rs 525 crore through private placement of senior secured redeemable non-convertible debentures. The coupon rate of debentures is 8.72% per annum with a tenor of 3 years 35 days. The issue opens and closes on the same day on 11 March 2016. The object of the issue is to augment the long-term resources of the company. The proceeds of the issue would be utilized for financing/refinancing the housing finance business requirements of the company.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced removal of restrictions placed on the purchase of shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank by foreign investors. The RBI said that the aggregate share holdings by foreign investors in the private sector bank has gone below the prescribed limit stipulated under the prevailing foreign direct investment (FDI) policy and hence the restrictions are removed. The RBI made the announcement after trading hours yesterday, 9 March 2016.

Corporation Bank announced that its board of directors at a meeting held on 8 March 2016, approved raising of capital of the bank to the extent of Rs 1000 crore in one or more tranches with Green Shoe option if any by way of either issue and allotment of equity shares on preferential basis or by way of additional Tier I bonds or through various other means subject to necessary approvals. This is exclusive of earlier approval of the board on 6 November 2014 where in Rs 500 crore by way of additional Tier I bonds and Rs 500 crore by way of Tier II bonds is yet to be raised, Corporation Bank said. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 9 March 2016.

Gains in stocks of private sector banks, cement firms and index heavyweights Infosys and Reliance Industries (RIL) led upmove for key benchmark indices yesterday, 9 March 2016. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rose 134.73 points or 0.55% to settle at 24,793.96. The gains for the 50-unit Nifty 50 index were higher in percentage terms than those for the Sensex. The Nifty rose 46.50 points or 0.62% to settle at 7,531.80. After hovering in negative zone until afternoon trade, the two key benchmark indices reversed direction later, taking cues from gains in European stocks. The Sensex and Nifty, both, hit their highest closing level in more than five weeks.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News
At least 11 Islamic State (IS) militants, including a group leader, were killed in air strikes on positions of the extremist militant group in Iraq's western province of Anbar, a security source said on Thursday.

At least six IS militants were killed and 14 others wounded in an air strike by US-led coalition warplanes on an IS position in the IS-held town of Heet, some 160 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, a provincial security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In a separate air strike, the international warplanes late on Wednesday night bombarded an IS headquarters in Heet, leaving an IS leader and four of his aides killed and destroying large part of the building, the source said.

Government troops and allied militias have been fighting for months to retake control of key cities and towns in Anbar, Iraq's largest province, from IS militants, who previously seized most of Anbar and tried to advance toward Baghdad.

In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, an intelligence officer was killed and three soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb struck their patrol in Mansoriyah area, some 110 km northeast of Baghdad, a provincial security source said.

Earlier in the month, a report by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) estimated a total of 670 Iraqis were killed and 1,290 others wounded in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in February across Iraq.

A previous UNAMI figures estimated more than 22,300 people were killed or injured in armed conflicts in Iraq in 2015.
Belgian police have discovered 25 Sikhs in a secret compartment of a Romanian truck, the media reported on Thursday.

The police made the discovery in the Belgian town of Essen close to the border with the Netherlands.

The migrants were aged between 2 and 88 and were said to be Sikhs, the media said.

Police stopped the Romanian truck following a tip off.

An official was quoted as saying: "Behind a whole load of onions in the hold we discovered a self-made cage. The cage was no bigger than 4 square metres but contained 25 people of Sikh origin, all squashed together.

"The people could be freed from this hazardous condition and were taken care of by civil protection officers."

The two Romanian drivers were detained.
At least eight Islamic State militants were killed in clashes with Lebanese military on Thursday, media reports said.

One government soldier was killed and eight others were injured on the outskirts of Ras Baalbek village in Lebanon, Xinhua quoted the National News Agency (NNA) as saying.

Lebanon has been facing rising threat from the IS and Al-Qaeda linked al-Nusra Front since 2014, when the two groups briefly overran the border town of Arsal.
Hundreds of Bangladeshi activists set off on a 200 km march from Dhaka to the Sundarbans on Thursday to protest against the $1.5 billion power plant near the world's largest mangrove forests which straddle both Bangladesh and India.

The four-day march of environmentalists, and cultural and political activists started at Dhaka's National Press Club and was being led by a platform of left-leaning political parties, social and cultural activists, experts and professionals -- named the National Committee on Protection of Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports, Xinhua reported.

Anu Muhammad, member secretary of the group, urged the government not to go ahead with the proposed 1,320-MGW plant, to be built in the area of Rampal in Bangladesh's Bagerhat district.

According to the activists, discharge from the plant like fly ash and sulphur dioxide will have disastrous consequences for the fauna and flora of the mangrove forests -- a UNESCO World Heritage site.

They also demanded that the Rampal Thermal Power Plant project in Bagerhat be shelved forever.

Amid severe criticism from many power experts and green activists, Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) and Indian National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) in April 2013 signed three major agreements heading towards implementation of the plant.

Under the deals, the Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company, a joint venture between the PDB and the NTPC with 50:50 share, will implement the project in which officials claim that super critical technology would be used to curb the much talked about carbon emission.

The plant was initially put into motion in a bilateral agreement between Dhaka and Delhi during Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to India in 2011 reportedly without proper environmental impact assessment.

The Bangladeshi government later released an environmental impact assessment on the power plant but was rejected by the environmentalists who argued that the report did not take into consideration most of the important environmental aspects of the Sundarbans.

The National Committee on Protection of Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports also staged similar protest march toward Sundarbans in September 2013.
Andhra Pradesh's Finance Minister Y. Ramakrishnudu on Thursday presented Rs.1.35 lakh crore budget for 2016-17 in the state assembly.

He proposed an overall expenditure of Rs.1,35,688 crore, comprising non-plan expenditure of Rs.86,554.55 crore and the plan expenditure of around Rs.49,134.44 crore.

The 2016-17 budget estimates entail an overall increase of around 20.03 percent over the 2015-16 budget estimates.

The estimated revenue deficit is around Rs.4,868.26 crore and the fiscal deficit is estimated at around Rs.20,497.15 crore. The fiscal deficit will be around 2.99 percent of the GSDP, whereas the revenue deficit would be around 0.71 per cent of the GSDP.

The finance minister exuded confidence that the budget will contribute to the growth momentum and ensure sustained double-digit growth for many years to come.

The finance minister said the budget will fuel construction boom, especially housing for the economically and socially weaker sections of the society, infrastructure development across the state, and launch of the construction of state capital Amaravati.

Later, Agriculture Minister P. Pulla Rao tabled a separate budget of Rs.16,250 crore for agriculture. He vowed to make agriculture profitable and free the state from drought. It has made a provision of Rs.3,000 crore for free electricity supply to farmers.

In the main budget, Rs.1,500 crore have been allocated for the development of the capital city.

He said the state registered 10.9 percent growth despite adverse legacies of the past that continue to haunt the present. The per capita income crossed Rs.1 lakh threshold to reach Rs.1.07 lakhs in 2015.

The finance minister, however, said the state continues to carry the revenue deficit of Rs.13,897 crore inherited from 2014-15, as a consequence of "irrational bifurcation of the state".

He said construction of the new capital would require Rs.15,000 crore to Rs.18,000 crore in the next three to four years. Massive investment is also required in infrastructure, provision of essential public services and successful execution of all development and welfare programmes.

The finance minister told the assembly that unscientific bifurcation of the state resulted in the residuary Andhra Pradesh receiving 46 percent of the revenues of the combined state while having 58.32 percent of its population.

"This resulted in a revenue deficit of Rs.16,200 crore in the first 10 months of the new state's existence. Thus far, the Government of India has released only Rs.2,303 crore to bridge the resource gap, leaving the state with a huge revenue deficit overhang of Rs.13,897 crore," he said.

Ramakrishnudu pointed out that tax incentives for industrial development of the state, the grants for construction of the capital city, reimbursement of expenditure incurred on Polavaram project since, and conferring special category status, all of which are integral components of the AP Reorganisation Act 2014 and the assurances in Parliament, have remained unfulfilled.

He said he expected the state's own revenues to grow by 16 percent, from Rs.49,764 crore in 2015-16 to Rs.57,813 crore in 2016-17. However, the legacy of huge revenue deficit, an overhang from 2014-15, will continue to haunt the state in 2016-17.

"We expect the central government to step-up its support to the State Development Plan (SDP) in the form of increased central assistance and special grants, apart from Rs.3,000 crore to partially offset the revenue deficit of 2014-15 financial year," he said.
Actress Anna Faris took her son to visit a penguin they named Eagle.

The 38-year-old actress and her husband Chris Pratt were asked by Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle to choose a moniker for the new addition to the facility last October and on Tuesday, their three-year-old son, Jack got to meet Eagle the penguin.

Alongside a photograph of her son and the flightless bird, Faris tweeted: "Jack got to meet Eagle the penguin! Thank you so much woodlandparkzoo! prattprattpratt (sic)."

However, it seems the youngster wasn't particularly impressed by the penguin, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

Anna wrote alongside another photograph: "This was also a less-adorable expression upon introduction - turns out sometimes penguins smell (sic)."

The "Mom" actress shared why they had named the bird Eagle.

"Eagle, Chris and I grew up in Washington State, we love bald eagles, and we thought a penguin with an aspiration to fly might be really fun and we can't wait to meet you," she said.
Designer duo Ashima-Leena will celebrate the affluent soul of Persian culture in an Indian form with diverse motifs at the forthcoming edition of Amazon India Fashion Week (AIFW), starting here on March 16.

Influenced by the rich divine motifs of Persian carpets, the luxurious pret collection titled "Fragrance of Persia" is a complete range of cascading prints, applique and playful tassels originating from an analysis on Persian culture peppered with authentic elements of Persia.

The silhouettes are layered and flowing, capturing a balance of vogue for the modern fall-winter twist and simultaneously relishing the rich fantasy of the Persian beauty.

"This year's Amazon collection has been inspired from the rich persian culture. The element and the motifs of persian carpets have been my main source of inspiration behind this collection. Our entire collection is a unique combination of prints, applique and specially developed embellishments reflecting the true Persian soul and theme of the show," Leena told IANS.

Leena said that the collection is all about "asymmetrical silhouettes, sheered square tops, flowy skirts, short kaftans and different styles of cowl pants".

"Colours like olive, antique gold, copper tones, merlot-wine, black, navy blue and mustard will be witnessed in our collection with an amalgamation of different fabrics like twill silk, organza, flat chiffon, crepe and felt," Leena added.
A Somali asylum seeker was arrested in Italy on Wednesday on suspicion that he was planning an attack at the railway station of capital Rome, media reports said.

The 22-year-old asylum seeker, also reportedly a spiritual guide or an imam, was being hosted at a migrant reception facility near Campobasso, the capital of Molise region in central Italy, Xinhua reported.

"We have precise technical evidence about the possibility that he was organizing an attack in Rome," Campobasso chief prosecutor Armando D'Alterio was quoted as saying by Rome-based la Repubblica newspaper.

Prosecutors said the Somali was planning to run away from the facility, named "Happy Family", on Wednesday and then probably head for Rome.

"Let's start with Italy, let's go to Rome and let's start with the railway station," he said according to transcripts.

Police investigated the young man for two months through phone tapping, hidden cameras and bugs, finding out that he was trying to convince the other migrants at the facility to carry out "jihad".

The Somali was also filmed by police while he watched a number of videos showing terrorist attacks in what D'Alterio called an "intense and vehement proselytism" against the West.

The suspected terrorist reportedly praised last year's attacks that killed 130 people in Paris as well as martyrdom, calling on the other migrants at the facility to "fight against the enemies of God."

Prosecutors underlined, however, that many migrants at the facility collaborated with police after distancing themselves from the ideas promoted by their spiritual guide.

Interior Minister Angelino Alfano hailed the arrest saying that Italy has activities of intelligence gathering and prevention that work, although it must be stressed that zero risk does not exist.

A total of 259 extremists were arrested, 74,177 checked and 489 investigated last year, according to the 2015 report of the interior ministry, while several new arrests and investigations have been carried out in 2016 so far.

Italy in recent months has strengthened security measures in the wake of the attacks in Paris and following a warning from American intelligence services that iconic venues of the Mediterranean country could be the targets of terrorists.
Australia is placing China high on its innovation agenda, as part of its plans to boost innovation, the media reported on Thursday.

The Australian government announced plans in February to establish an innovation hub for entrepreneurs in Shanghai, Xinhua news agency reported.

China was always going to be a logical place to create one and it's great to see the government thinking beyond mining, energy, agriculture and education, which have formed the basis of the trade relationship between China and Australia, said Australia Chamber of Commerce chair Tracy Colgan.

"Some have questioned what Australia has to add to this highly innovative and competitive marketplace in China," Colgan said.

"It's a good point, and anyone who has spent time in China will notice how far ahead in adopting technology this market is when compared to Australia," she said.

Australian Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science Christopher Pyne said that entrepreneurs accessing the landing pads will be assisted to commercialise their products and services through access to the expertise, infrastructure and innovation and marketing networks of partners.

At a Committee for Economic Development (CEDA) event in Sydney, Australian Assistant Minister for Innovation Wyatt Roy said China should be looked on both as a source of customers and investment.
The inventor of the drug Meldonium has warned that the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) decision to outlaw the formula may soon contribute to a higher death rate among professional athletes.

Ivars Kalnins, of the Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis, invented Meldonium (also known as mildronate) back in the Soviet era. Since January 1, 2016, the drug has featured on WADA's blacklist. Several Russian athletes have proven to have used it lately, reports Tass.

"The ban on the drug is a crime," said Kalvins. "We are surely to see the rate of deaths of professional athletes after competitions climb. Who will be responsible for that? Certainly, not WADA people. They will be throwing hands up in confusion."

"The blame will be placed squarely on the athletes for breaking the limits. Their decision strips the athletes of a chance to protect themselves and stay alive."

"The formula has been on the market for 32 years. And all of a sudden it is blacklisted. Fine, just fine. The athletes have been punished for their wish to go on living," said Kalvins.

Meldonium is used to treat ischaemia: a lack of blood flow to parts of the body, particularly in cases of angina or heart failure. It is manufactured in Latvia and only distributed in Baltic countries and Russia.

It is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in the United States and is not authorised in the rest of Europe. It increases blood flow, which improves exercise capacity in athletes, and is particularly helpful in treating heart ailments.

WDA found "evidence of its use by athletes with the intention of enhancing performance" by virtue of carrying more oxygen to muscle tissue" and has hence banned it.

The presence of this substance identified in the athlete's blood during or between competitions is a violation of the current anti-doping rules. It belongs with the S4 class on WADA's blacklist (hormones and metabolic modulators).

According to the drug's inventor, no scientist in the world still has clear statistics that might confirm how long it takes Meldonium to leave the human body.

"WADA has blacklisted it as a prohibited formula, but nobody knows for how long it may stay in the human body. Nobody has ever conducted research into this matter yet," Kalvins said.

"There had been no need for such research. Clearly, it may be not hours, but days, or possibly weeks. It all depends on the accuracy of the method of testing. You may identify the traces of medications you took three months ago, provided you have the equipment that is sensitive enough."

Kalvins explained that from the medical point of view it is important to know the period over which 50 percent of the drug in question leaves the human body, and not the entire amount.

"For medical purposes it is essential to know the period of half-dissimilation. In other words, the period of time when half of the drug is out," he said.

"In some cases this may happen over 18 hours, and in others, over eight hours. But nobody cares how much time will be necessary for the 'tailing' to disappear without a trace. Will the drug begin to be accumulated in the human body if you start taking it again? No statistics are available at this point."
Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza is relieved to have opened their World Twenty20 campaign with a win against the Netherlands, after getting a scare.

Mashrafe, who believes there would have been no excuses had they lost the match, is keen to carry their confidence into the next match, reports bdnews24.com.

Bangadesh beat the Dutchmen by 8 wickets in their first round opener of the World T20 in Dharmasala on Wednesday.

"The win was definitely important. No excuses would have been good enough if we had lost. We have won, that's what's important. Winning a match is always comforting, regardless of the opposition," Mashrafe said after the match on Wednesday.

Opener Tamim Iqbal played a brilliant knock before the bowlers helped Bangladesh to defend 153. Mashrafe was very pleased with their efforts.

"Tamim and the bowlers performed really well. The way Tamim batted was outstanding."

It has been almost a year since Bangladesh had last played in conditions outside their home turf.

Reaching Dharamsala two days before the opener, Bangladesh had only a day to prepare while injury concerns, difficulty in coping with the conditions and reading the wicket compounded their woes.

But Mashrafe and his men overcame all odds to prevail over the Netherlands.

"The situation today was much different from what we had thought it would be. We have been able to overcome that.

"We thought the wicket will be fast and bouncy. But it was slow. It was very difficult to play shots. I hope we will be able to play the next match with more confidence."

Bangladesh will take on Ireland on Friday.
A Bangladeshi nurse has been reportedly missing in New York for over three months, a media report said on Thursday.

Mahfuza Rahman, 30, was last seen at her workplace, the Bellevue Hospital, on December 8, 2015, bdnews24 reported.

The next day her husband Mohammad Chowdhury, 38, informed the hospital authorities, when they called to inquire about her, that she had returned to Bangladesh because a close relative was injured in an accident. He also said his wife would return to New York by the first week of March 2016.

However, Mahfuza did not return and Chowdhury, meanwhile, left the house with their 9-year-old daughter, telling the neighbours that they were returning to Dhaka.

Last week, Bellevue Hospital authorities informed local police who then went to the couple's Kingsbridge Heights home in Bronx.

The neighbours told police that the house had been locked since Chowdhury "left for Bangladesh" with his daughter on December 15, 2015. Before leaving, he had requested the neighbours to keep an eye on the house.

Fearing that Mahfuza might have been killed, police on Monday searched the family's home on East 198th Street, dug up the patio and had a cadaver dog search for any scent. Police now have sought permission from a local court to inquire about Rahman's bank accounts.

The couple's friend Mohammad N. Majumder, a Bangldeshi lawyer living in Bronx, said they too were trying to track the couple.

"We are trying to establish contact with their relatives in Bangladesh as well," he said.
Global credit rating agency Fitch Ratings on Thursday said a consolidated Indian banking structure would be a positive development in the long term.

"We believe that consolidation coupled with higher capital requirements and governance reforms would position the banking system better in support of a more open and higher-growth economy," Fitch Ratings said in a statement.

According to the agency, more stable banking systems tend to be structured around a number of large "pillar" banking groups.

"These large banks in a consolidated banking system enjoy scale benefits leading to better diversification of risks and stronger overall profitability contributing to higher credit ratings," the statement added.

The agency said the financial systems would benefit from more banks of a similar size to State Bank of India (SBI).

"The system is quite fragmented at present, with around 50 domestic banks - with PSB's (public sector bank) accounting for around a 70 percent asset share," Fitch Ratings said.

According to Fitch Ratings, SBI has performed much better than its PSB peers through this credit cycle, thanks in part to greater scale benefits which enhance pricing power from a funding perspective and diversification.

SBI has stronger capital ratios and is better positioned to absorb the asset-quality issues that have plagued the sector.

Agreeing on implementation challenges during the consolidation process, Fitch Ratings said the long-term benefits far outweigh short-term challenges that tend to be associated with a consolidation process that is forced on the sector.

However, notwithstanding the talk about potential consolidation, the need to address the PSB's asset quality and potential capital shortfalls are the more immediate issues that need to be addressed.
Bollywood actor Salman Khan on Thursday insisted that he had been wrongly accused of having illegal weapons and killing two blackbucks here in 1998.

"Main nirdosh hoon. Mujhe jhootha fasaya gaya hai. (I am not guilty. I have been falsely implicated)," the actor told Chief Judicial Magistrate Dalpat Singh Rajpurohit.

Asked about the allegations by the prosecution, Salman pleaded that he was "not guilty".

Salman has been accused of using illegal arms to kill the protected animals and carrying weapons with expired licence. He has been charged with violating the Arms Act.

Thursday was the third time Salman came to the Jodhpur court in connection with the case.

Khan's counsel Hastimal Sarswat told IANS: "The court has fixed April 4 as the next date of hearing." He said witnesses will be produced in Salman's defence.

During the hearing, Salman replied questions regarding his name, father's name, his age and residential address.

Asked about his caste, the actor was silent for a while before replying that he was an Indian.

Salman's sister Alvira was present in the court, where the actor spent less than half an hour.

Salman and a few Bollywood actors have been accused of poaching the blackbucks on the night of October 1-2, 1998 when he was here to shoot the Hindi movie "Hum Saath Saath Hain".

Two blackbucks, a protected animal under the Wildlife Protection Act, were killed on the outskirts of Kankani village near Jodhpur. The killings triggered outrage.

The court asked several questions regarding the allegations made by the prosecution's witnesses. Salman denied all the charges.

Khan said he was neither with Shivcharan Bohra, the then forest officer, nor did he sign any document.

Asked about the statement of Uday Raghavan, who allegedly brought weapons for Salman from the actor's Mumbai residence, Khan said although the letter authorizing Raghavan to collect the weapons bears his signature, he was forced to sign it.

Chief Judicial Magistrate Rajpurohit had on March 3 asked Salman to appear before the court to record his statement on Thursday.

The magistrate had dismissed an application from Salman's counsel to re-examine then collector Rajat Mishra.

The court was to pronounce its judgment on February 25 last year but this was deferred when a few applications for examination of four witnesses were allowed.

After examination of four witnesses, Salman appeared before the court on April 29 last year.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The union cabinet on Thursday gave its approval to an MoU between India and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to set up South Asia Regional Training and Technical Assistance Centre (SARTTAC), a collaborative venture to support the capacity development of the member-nations.

The cabinet also authorised the finance minister to approve related decisions in respect of India's contribution for setting up of the centre, including Letter of Understanding for financial contribution by India, site of the SARTTAC and representative of India on the Steering Committee on SARTTAC.

The members of the collaborative venture are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Additional member countries could join SARTTAC at a later stage.

SARTTAC will also selectively cater to the capacity building needs at the state level, especially in India.

"The MoU will help in capacity building of government officials including at the state level in macro, fiscal, monetary policies by the IMF and greater coordination between the six member countries of South Asia," said an official statement.

"Capacity development at central and state level in fiscal and financial policies will enhance revenue mobilization and development of policies aimed at more effective public and financial management. This will result in economic development and inclusive growth in the country," added the statement.
The union Cabinet on Thursday approved ratification of the Bay of Bengal Initiative on Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) convention on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters.

The convention aims to extend widest measures of assistance to each other through mutual cooperation for enhancing capability and effectiveness of the member states in investigation and prosecution of crimes, including crimes related to terrorism, transnational organised crime, drug-trafficking, money laundering and cyber-crimes.

The Bay of Bengal Initiative on Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) comprises seven countries -- India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

An official statement here said the ministry of home affairs has been designated as the central authority.

The establishment of regional arrangements for mutual assistance in criminal matters will greatly contribute to more effective cooperation in the control of criminal activities, the government said in a statement.

The statement added after signing as well as ratification of the Convention from the Indian side, the Instrument of Ratification will be deposited to the Secretary-General of BIMSTEC and the Convention shall enter into force on 30th day of the deposit of last instrument of ratification.
The Gujarat Police have filed a chargesheet against Patel community leader Hardik Patel in a case of rioting and assault registered against him and 16 others at Visnagar town in July last year.

According to official sources, the chargesheet was submitted before a judicial magistrate, A. Rana, in Visnagar in the presence of Hardik Patel, who was taken there from Lajpore jail in Surat.

They are accused of being part of a group of around 500 people from the Patel community who allegedly vandalised the office of BJP legislator Rishikesh Patel in the town, attacked journalists and went berserk on the streets on July 23 when the job quota agitation was at its peak.

"The group attacked a journalist who was recording the incident, broke his video camera and injured him. They also looted a mobile phone worth Rs.10,000 and set a car on fire," the chargesheet says.

Police have pressed the charges under sections 337 (causing hurt by endangering life or personal safety), 394 (causing hurt while committing robbery), 427 (causing damage to property) and 435 (using fire or explosives to cause damage) of Indian Penal Code and also under Gujarat Police Act against him and others.

Patel's lawyers said they would file a bail application in the court in a few days. Patel is also facing sedition cases in Surat and Ahmedabad.
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who underwent prostrate surgery in the US, will return to Dharamsala soon, Tibetan Prime Minister-in-exile Lobsang Sangay said on Thursday.

"His Holiness will return to Dharamsala in the next few days after having successfully completed medical treatment in the US," Sangay said here on the 57th anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising Day.

Reiterating the commitment to the "middle way approach" of not seeking separation from China but genuine autonomy for the people in Tibet, he said: "We firmly believe that the longstanding issue of Tibet can be resolved through dialogue between the envoys of His Holiness and representatives of the Chinese government."

He clarified that the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) remained fully committed to the "middle way approach" that clearly seeks genuine autonomy for the Tibetan people within China.

"It is hoped the leaders in Beijing will see reason with the middle way approach, instead of distorting it, and step forward to engage in dialogue with the Dalai Lama's envoys."

The Dalai Lama along with his followers has lived in India since fleeing his homeland in 1959. The Tibetan administration in exile is based in this northern Indian hill town.

The recent self-immolation by two youths in addition to 142 self-immolations in the past is evidence of the lack of freedom in Tibet, said Sangay, the first elected "prime minister" whose first term is nearing completion.

On China's stand to right to decide reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, he said: "The power and authority to decide the reincarnation rests solely with the Dalai Lama. Nobody else has the right to do so."

The Tibetan administration-in-exile observes March 10 as the day Chinese troops suppressed the Tibetan uprising in Lhasa in 1959, forcing the Dalai Lama and over 80,000 Tibetans into exile in India and other countries.
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.
Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai on Thursday flagged off a pollution free electric bus here.

"It is the first such bus in India which is 100 percent pollution free and operates completely on electricity. It is a pilot project. The bus will run on trial basis for six months in Delhi," Rai told the media.

The bus will make 10 round trips connecting Delhi Secretariat to Central Secretariat every day.

"If we get positive results after six month, we will like to add more such buses in our fleet," the minister said after flagging off the bus from Delhi Secretariat.

The initiative to run 100 electric bus, developed by a China-based automobile firm, was taken by the Delhi Dialogue Commission (DDC) after its vice chairperson Ashish Khetan visited China last year.

"The Delhi government has not paid a single penny for the bus. The bus takes four hours to charge completely and runs 280 km in one full charge," Khetan said.

"The Delhi government has provided basic facilities like parking space and charging point at the Millennium Depot. We have also provided a driver and a conductor of DTC for the bus," Rai added.
The national capital got its first battery operated "zero-emission" electric bus on Thursday and Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai said more such buses may follow if the six-month trial of this bus was a success.

"It is the first such bus in India which is 100 percent pollution-free, operates completely on electricity and used for public transport. The bus will run on trial basis for six months in Delhi and we will assess if more such buses could be added to our next fleet of 1,000 buses," Rai said after flagging off the bus.

This single bus will run between Delhi Secretariat to Central Secretariat from 6.30 a.m. to 9.20 p.m. and minimum fare would be Rs.10. The bus takes four hours to charge completely and runs 280 km in one full charge

This "Made in China" bus is fully air conditioned and has seating capacity of 31 passengers against 41 of the DTC's low-floor CNG buses.

But its lower operational cost which was estimated around Rs.12.06 per KM, adjustable hydraulic suspension makes it more passenger friendly especially for the differently-abled people.

The initiative to run this electric bus was taken by the Delhi Dialogue Commission after its vice chairperson Ashish Khetan visited China last year.

"The Delhi government has not paid a single penny for the bus," Khetan said.

The bus was being run on promotional basis by its Chinese manufacturers BYD Auto Industry Company Ltd. and introduced in India by their technology partner, the Smart Group.

"We have only provided basic support like parking space and charging point at the Millennium Depot. We have also provided a driver and a conductor of DTC for the bus," Rai added.

The unit cost of the bus to the Indian company was around Rs.3 crore, the Smart Group said.

The bus was exported by China to Gujarat.

"The cost is being evaluated and it will be almost same as that of a fully AC bus. It had costed around Rs.3 crore to the company. We are looking forward to manufacture it in India under Make in India programme," said Sunil Sharma of Smart Group.
Despite a flap over sale of F-16 aircraft to Pakistan and India's denial of visas to a US commission on religious freedom, the US says it has a strong relationship with India, specifically with the Narendra Modi government.

"No, I would actually disagree with that," State Department spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Wednesday when asked if the US was not having a smooth ride with India in view of such issues.

"I think we have had and we look forward to continuing to have a good, strong relationship with India writ large and with the Modi government specifically," he said.

"And there are a lot of common issues, common challenges, common threats, quite frankly, that we and the Indian people face," Kirby said.

"So no, I would absolutely not characterize that at all," he said. "I think we've got a good, honest, candid, productive relationship with the Modi government, and we look forward to that continuing. In fact, we look forward to it deepening."

Asked whether issues surrounding the landmark India-US civil nuclear deal would be resolved during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Washington for the nuclear security summit later this month, Kirby said he didn't have "anything specific" on the issue.

"Obviously, we're very much looking forward to that and to our ability to participate in it. But I don't have anything specific with the Indian civil nuclear programme to discuss today," he said.

The Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar's who Wednesday concluded a four day visit to Washington to review India-US bilateral relations ahead of Modi's visit "talked about a wide range of bilateral and regional issues" with US officials.

Jaishankar met with Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken and many other officials, and discussed "the full range of issues in the US-India relationship were discussed - economic, political, security," Kirby said.

Asked whether counter-terrorism and the sale of F-16 aircraft to Pakistan in the face of India's strong objections was discussed, the official repeated that "they discussed a wide range to include security issues" but declined to give a detailed readout.

"I can scarcely think of a time when we haven't sat down with our Indian friends that we didn't talk about counterterrorism," Kirby added.

He again declined "to get into great detail" whether India's denial of visas to the US Commission On International Religious Freedom was discussed.

"We had good, productive talks about a wide range of issues facing both our countries as we continue to try to deepen this relationship and deal with very common challenges," Kirby said.

"As for the commission and the visas, we've made our concerns known at various levels," he said. "So we've not been bashful or shy about stating our disappointment.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
DMDK chief Captain Vijayakant on Thursday declared that he will contest the Tamil Nadu assembly elections on his own strength because his supporters wanted to see him as the "king".

The Captain, as he is popularly known, made the announcement at a public meeting here.

"I will contest alone. In my previous meeting at Kancheepuram I asked the people if they wanted to see me as the king or the kingmaker. You all have wanted me to be the king. So the DMDK will go it alone in the polls," the actor-turned-politician said to loud cheers from his supporters.

After thanking political leaders who wanted to tie up with him, the DMDK chief said people wanted to see him as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu.

Before the announcement, his wife Premalata denounced both the DMK and the ruling AIADMK, accusing them of corruption.

Tamil Nadu, she said, deserved a party which would provide it a corruption free administration.

Both the Dravidian parties "needed to be thrown out", she thundered.

"If the DMK was involved in 2G and Spectrum scams, Jayalalithaa is responsible for everything that is going wrong in Tamil Nadu," she added.

"Please vote her out from power," she said.

AIADMK spokesperson C.R. Sarswathi made light of the DMDK's claims, saying Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa remained a mass leader and would win the May assembly elections.

"Personalised attacks on Jayalalitaa will not go down well with people," she said.

The DMK had been desperately trying to woo the DMDK in a bid to put up an effective challenge to the AIADMK.

But with Thursday's announcement, Tamil Nadu may see multi-party contests involving the AIADMK, a DMK-led front, the MDMK, the Peoples Welfare Front of Vaiko and the Left as well as the BJP-led alliance.
Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on Thursday said he does not mind going to jail if the court wants him to.

Asked during an interview by a TV channel if he would go to jail having refused to pay the fine for the three-day International Culture Festival proposed to be held in the Yamuna floodplains here, Ravi Shankar said: "Yes, I will".

He also said that he would not pay the fine of Rs.5 crore slapped by the National Green Tribunal.

The green court on Wednesday gave a go-ahead to the World Culture Festival, organised by Art of Living Foundation, on the condition that it pay an advance fine of Rs.5 crore.

The spiritual guru also said that the structure being made for the event was temporary and will be dismantaled after the event.

"The structure created for the event is temporary and will be dismantled after the event. We wanted to create awareness about Yamuna through this event," said Shankar.
Four days after booking Kingfisher Airlines founder Vijay Mallya in a money-laundering case, the Enforcement Directorate served summons here on Thursday to KFA staffers and officials of the state-owned IDBI bank which he has defaulted of around Rs.900 crore.

Among the top bank officials issued summons are former chairman-cum-managing director Yogesh Aggarwal, chief financial officer A. Raghunathan of the now defunct KFA and other top executives.

Issued summons under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, these officials have been directed to provide details of their personal finances and ITRs of the past years, pointing to suspected cloudy dealings or kickbacks.

These would serve as a prelude to summoning the flamboyant former KFA boss and liquor baron Mallya, who is now said to be abroad even as cases against him pile up in different courts and agencies.

Last Monday (March 7), in a double whammy for the beleaguered Mallya, ED Mumbai lodged a case under PMLA while the Debt Recovery Tribunal in Bengaluru barred British alcoholic beverages giant Diageo from paying him a $75 million settlement till the pending case against him was disposed off.

Two days later on Wednesday, the Maharashtra Service Tax Department moved Bombay High Court to recover Service Tax dues worth several crores of rupees collected from the KFA passengers but not deposited with the department. The case is likely to be heard on Friday.
Ashi, born only five days ago in Bihar, has become the youngest PAN card holder in the country, her father said on Thursday.

Born on February 21, Ashi was allotted the PAN card on February 26.

"My daughter has become the youngest PAN card holder (in the country)," her father Kumar Sajal told the media here.

He said the record was previously held by seven-day-old Aryan Choudhary of Jaipur in Rajasthan.

Kumar Sajal, a businessman in Munger, said he applied for a PAN card for his daughter the day she was born.
Cairo, March 10 (IANS/EFE) French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Wednesday that his country will not "automatically" recognise the state of Palestine if Paris' initiative to host an international summit to revive the peace process with Israel, fails.

"There is never anything automatic," Ayrault said at a joint press conference with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukri in Cairo, adding that "France will present its initiative to its partners. It will be the first step, there is no pre-requisite."

"What we want, and that is our commitment, is to resume the negotiation process," the French minister noted, indicating that Paris will do its best to provide a favorable climate to revive the Palestine-Israel peace talks.

"France wants to re-launch the peace initiative in the Middle East with the aim of hosting an international conference by this summer... if conditions are met," Ayrault explained.

Shoukri supported France's initiative, which "guarantees the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people," noting that the "two-state solution is the way to end this crisis."

The Egyptian minister also added that Egypt and France agreed on the need to fight terrorism in Libya, whose instability threatens Egyptian borders.

--IANS/EFE

vr/
The Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) is making concerted efforts to attract Indian diaspora entrepreneurs and businessmen to take more interest in investing in India in all spheres ranging from business, to education, healthcare and socia causes.

With India at the threshold of adopting new technologies and business investment, the newly elected executive council has a fresh motto "GOPIO Means Business," the diaspora organisation said.

"With an investment and business friendly government in India, we see a lot of opportunity for the Indian diaspora to invest and actively participate in India's development," Gopio president Niraj Baxi.

GOPIO executive vice president Noel Lal said that GOPIO would reach out to all countries where the Indian diaspora has a presence.

Vice president Ram Gadhavi who had brought together the Gujarati Diaspora writers on to a common platform in the US, plans to expand it to include all Indian writers at a global GOPIO forum.

GOPIO founder president Thomas Abraham, who also serves as the executive trustee of the GOPIO Foundation, said that GOPIO will increase its social and philanthropic activities in India as well as in countries with a large Indian diaspora population.

For the first time an electronic voting system was used for the election with 93 percent participation. The process was supervised by the GOPIO chairman Inder Singh who will continue in that position.

The New team: Niraj Baxi (US) president; Noel Lal (Australia) executive vice president; Ram Gadhavi (USA) vice president; and Rajeev Mehta (US), Pradip Sewoke (France), Suman Kapoor (New Zealand), and Rajidre Tiwari (Netherland) coordinators.

Formed in 1989 to promote the interests of people of Indian origin worldwide, GOPIO today has 65 chapters and over 200 life members in over 24 countries.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain a plea seeking to block the holding of the three-day World Cultural Festival by the Sri Sri Ravishankar's Art of Living Foundation on the banks of River Yamuna commencing from Friday.

Asking PIL petitioner Anil Kumar to approach the NGT as it was a specialised forum to address the issue, the apex court bench, comprising Chief Justice T.S. Thakur, Justice Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, refused to hear the plea mentioned by a counsel in the post-lunch sitting of the court.

Contending that there was violation of rules and regulations in the grant of permission, the PIL petitioner assailed the NGT for not restraining the Art of Living Foundation from holding the three-day mega event thereby "endangering the life of people and cultivators".

The petitioner sought direction to the Centre to restrain the Art of Living International from going ahead with the holding of the World Cultural Festival on the banks of river Yamuna citing environmental concerns.

The petitioner sought direction to the Centre, DDA, Ministry of Environment and Forests and other agencies, including Delhi Police, to be held accountable for the heavy loss to the public at large and damage to the natural ecological system and impose heavy penalty on them.

The PIL pointed out that the organisers of the mega show have raised "illegal construction without permission and thereby damaged the sensitive ecological system". It said the government agencies have failed to take any coercive action against the organisers of the events.

Referring to the NGT order which said that the river's flood plain has been drastically tampered with while destroying natural flow of the river, reeds, grasses, and natural vegetation on the river bed, the PIL said that Art of Living Foundation has for its vested interests "destroyed the ecological system of Delhi".
The union agriculture ministry headed by Radha Mohan Singh has notified a sharp, 70 percent reduction in fees payable to Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech (MMBL) for its patented cottonseed technology, disregarding the company's threat that it would have "no choice but to re-evaluate every aspect of our position in India", if this were to happen.

The issue has acquired nationalist vs multinational overtones and might deter investors from coming to 'make in India'.

The ministry has set the maximum selling price for a 450-gram pack of the genetically-modified seeds known by the trade name Bollgard II or BG-II at Rs.800 for the whole of India. This includes a technology fee of Rs.9 and seed value of Rs.751.

The maximum selling price of the previous version called BG-I has been fixed at Rs.635. The ministry has said no technology fee is payable for it, as it is off patent. BG-I was the first genetically-modified cottonseed which India approved for cultivation in 2002.

MMBL was charging Rs.163 per pack as technology (trait) fees for BG-II, which has two insecticidal genes obtained from agro-bacteria for greater resistance to a deadly pest called bollworm. It has been asserting that trait fees are governed by private agreements and cannot be decided by the government. Trait fees are different from royalty for which MMBL charges a lumpsum when licensing the technology.

The agriculture ministry brought Bt cottonseeds under price control last December. MMBL has moved the Delhi High Court against the order, and specifically against government regulation of trait fees. But it failed to obtain relief at a hearing on March 9. The next hearing has been fixed for March 23.

Currently, various states have price control orders. Maharashtra had fixed the price of BG-II at Rs.830 for the 2015 sowing season, ahead of the monsoon. The rate in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka is Rs.930. In Punjab and Haryana it is Rs.1,000. The central government order supersedes them all. It introduces a single price for the whole country.

Earlier attempts by states to fix trait fees were quashed by courts, though they have upheld their authority to fix prices.

The nine-member price committee set up by the agriculture ministry did not have a representative of MMBL though BG-II covers nearly all of India's cotton acreage.

"We are in the process of examining the notification in detail and will be able to comment only after we study the document in its entirety," MMBL's spokesman said.

Kalyan Goswami, the rxecutive director of the National Seeds Association of India (NSAI), said it was "pleased to note that the farmers' voice had been heard by the Ministry of Agriculture". NSAI had asked the ministry to lower the trait fee because BG-II technology was facing "redundancy". NSAI is a party to the dispute in the high court.

There have been reports of pink bollworm developing resistance to the technology in parts of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Telangana. The state-owned Central Institute of Cotton Research said that about ten percent of the crop had been affected. But the resistance can be managed. The technology is still effective against other varieties like the American bollworm and the spotted bollworm.

"We strongly oppose the decision... as it violates the principles of free market economics," Shivendra Bajaj, executive director of the Association of Biotech-led Enterprises-Agriculture Focus Group (ABLE-AG) said in a statement. ABLE-AG is a grouping of 13 agri-biotech companies.

"By slashing trait fees, the government has clearly shown that it is going for short-term populist measures rather than supporting innovation... The decision will be detrimental in the long run as companies may have to reconsider their investments in seed-based R&D... due to the current uncertain environment," Bajaj added.

In this battle of between nationalists and a multinational who will come on top?

The president of NSAI is Prabhakar Rao, the founder and managing director of Hyderabad-based Nuziveedu Seeds Limited (NSL). MMBL has terminated the licenses of NSL and its two subsidiaries, which were its largest franchisees. MMBL says the three companies have not paid it about Rs.165 crore in trait fee dues collected from farmers. Rao is said to be close to the agriculture minister.

The ministry has also made a reference to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to investigate MMBL for abuse of dominance. The CCI will look into the issue.

There has been a virtual, though not formal, split in the NSAI, with multinational members of the association opposing the NSAI's official stance in favour of price control and reduction of trait fees.

Some commentators have warned the agriculture ministry against sending a message that would unnerve investors. The government has been urged to try competition, not price controls as means to reduce prices. Encouraging technologies rival to BG-II should be the route to take, it was suggested.

Several business newspapers have said the government should not be disincentivising innovation and firms like Monsanto.

But while the government is talking about "Make in India", its ministers seem to be unmaking the effort.

(Vivian Fernandes is editor of www.smartindianagriculture.in. He can be reached at vivianfernandesonly@gmail.com)

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The cross-examination of Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist-turned-approver David Coleman Headley in the Mumbai terror attack case will start before a Special Court here from March 22 for four days, a legal official said on Thursday.

Advocate Abdul Wahab Khan, lawyer of Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, one of the prime accused in the 26/11 cases, will cross-examine Pakistani-American Headley who had given a weeklong deposition via video-conferencing from a US jail in early February.

Earlier, Wahab Khan had moved applications seeking certain documents and CDs pertaining to the case and also objected to Headley being made an approver in the 26/11 case.

The cross-examination will be conducted before Special TADA Court Judge G.A. Sanap through video-conferencing.

On February 13, Headley's weeklong examination-in-chief covering a wide-range of issues concerning the conspiracy and perpetrators of the 26/11 attacks, was completed by Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam.

In December 2015, Headley agreed to turn an approver and in return was pardoned for his role in the terror strikes in Mumbai which left 166 dead.

Advocate Khan added that, if required, Headley could also be re-examined by the prosecution later on after the cross-examination was completed.

Headley, 56, has been sentenced to and is currently serving a 35-year jail term for the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case and the Denmark terror strikes.

During his deposition in the Special TADA Court last month, Headley revealed his association with the LeT and Pakistan's spy agency ISI, his links with Al-Qaeda, the role of various players including Pakistan army officials in the 26/11 attack.

He also unravelled details of his multiple spying missions undertaken in Mumbai prior to the terror attack and other targeted locations like Pune army headquarters and personalities like the late Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, how the 26/11 conspiracy was hatched, the failure of two earlier attempts and other crucial revelations.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday questioned the government as to how it allowed liquor baron Vijay Mallya to leave the country.

"I asked a clear question to Jaitley-ji, How did Mallya-ji escape from India? Someone who has stolen Rs.9,000 crore from the government, how did you allow him to leave the country," Gandhi asked.

"If a poor person steals something due to hunger, you send him to jail. But if a businessman runs away with Rs.9,000 crore, you send him to England in first class," he added.

Mallya was on Wednesday issued notice by the Supreme Court on a plea by a consortium of 17 banks, led by the State Bank of India, which sought his personal appearance before the court along with his passport.

The Bengaluru-based liquor tycoon is facing legal proceedings for allegedly defaulting loans of over Rs.9,000 crore from various banks.
Britain's Sky News on Wednesday reported that it had obtained tens of thousands of documents, containing 22,000 names, addresses, telephone numbers and family contacts of Islamic State (IS) militants.

Nationals from at least 51 countries, including Britain, had to give up their most personal information as they joined the organisation, according to the media report by Sky News.

The documents reveal the identities of a number of previously unknown jihadists in Britain, across northern Europe, much of the Middle East and North Africa, as well as in the US and Canada, according to the report.

One of the files marked "Martyrs" detailed a brigade manned entirely by fighters who wanted to carry out suicide attacks and were trained to do so, the report said, according to Xinhua.

Some of the telephone numbers on the list are still active and it is believed that although many will be family members, a significant number of them are used by the jihadis themselves, according to the report.

Sky News said the files were passed to it on a memory stick stolen from the head of IS internal security police.
The first broad gauge passenger train from Arunachal Pradesh to Manipur arrived on Thursday afternoon at the Jiribam railway station.

The train carrying mostly railway officials left the station at 4 p.m.

"Efforts are being made to connect Jiribam with other important stations in the country and it will be of great help to the people of the region," said an official.

Over ten days ago, one goods broad gauge train transporting Food Corporation of India items reached Jiribam from Silchar.

There will be no shortage of food grains now that there will be regular train service, the official told IANS.

The NH37 which connects Jiribam with Imphal was in a bad shape. Now the Manipur government has banned trucks from carrying goods more than 28 tonnes on the ground that the bridge over Barak river was shaky.

Officials told IANS that Manipur was in a position to store food grains in warehouses in Imphal to last several months.
Long before some Indian banks termed Vijay Mallya, the promoter of Kingfisher Airlines, a "wilful defaulter", workers of the city based Best and Crompton Engineering had publicly called him an "NPA" -- non-performing asset.

They also urged Mallya to quit the company.

Normally, company annual general meetings (AGMs) are boring affairs with some shareholders demanding sweet packets.

But once in a decade or more, one will be fortunate enough to witness an interesting shareholders meeting where individual shareholders pose strong questions to the corporate emperors.

And one such AGM this city saw was that of Best and Crompton's held in 1990s.

At that time the company was part of Mallya's UB Group and was not doing well.

Disillusioned workers and shareholders of Best and Crompton dubbed their chairman Mallya an NPA and also asked him to resign from the board.

Placards with slogans against Mallya added more colours to the scene.

However, due credit has to be given to Mallya at the way he conducted the meeting.

At one point, a smiling Mallya even told the shareholders to speak one-by-one so that he can hear them all!

The historic AGM was adjourned as no business was transacted due to the noisy scenes.

Mallya later sold Best and Crompton to an Indonesian group.

Prior to that, he had sold Best and Crompton's stake in the elevator joint venture company Beacon Kone to the other joint venture partner Kone Group of Finland.

"The mood of the shareholders was aggressive. Many workers complained that the company did not remit the provident fund (PF) directions to the PF office. One shareholder pointedly told Mallya 'You have closed several group - (Best and Crompton). You did not open anything new'," said M. Ramesh, senior deputy editor, The Hindu Business Line, recalling the AGM meeting.

"At one point," Ramesh said, "Mallya was talking to a fellow board member, at which a shareholder angrily told him to listen to him rather than talking to others. Mallya coolly replied, 'I'm listening to you' and reeled out the points that the shareholders raised in their speech."
When it comes to vulnerability to cyber attacks, India along with China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and South Korea is most vulnerable, says research led by an Indian-American scientist.

While the US is ranked 11th safest of 44 nations studied, several Scandinavian countries like Denmark, Norway and Finland were ranked the safest in the book authored by V S Subrahmanian, professor of computer science at the University of Maryland.

"Our goal was to characterise how vulnerable different countries were, identify their current cyber security policies and determine how those policies might need to change in response to this new information," said Subrahmanian, with the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS).

Damaging on a global scale continue to surface every day. Some nations are better prepared than others to deal with online threats from criminals, terrorists and rogue nations.

Subrahmanian discussed the findings at a panel discussion hosted by the Foundation for Defence of Democracies in Washington on Wednesday.

The authors conducted a two-year study that analysed more than 20 billion automatically generated reports, collected from four million machines per year worldwide.

The researchers based their rankings, in part, on the number of machines attacked in a given country and the number of times each machine was attacked.

Machines using Symantec anti-virus software automatically generated these reports, but only when a machine's user opted in to provide the data.

Trojans, followed by viruses and worms, posed the principal threats to machines in the US.

However, misleading software (fake anti-virus programmes and disk cleanup utilities) was far more prevalent in the US compared with other nations that have a similar gross domestic product, the authors noted.

The results suggest that US efforts to reduce cyber threats should focus on education to recognise and avoid misleading software.

"People - even experts - often have gross misconceptions about the relative vulnerability (to cyber attack) of certain countries. The authors of this book succeed in empirically refuting many of those wrong beliefs," said Isaac Ben-Israel, chair of the Israeli Space Agency and former head of that nation's Cyber Bureau, in a foreword to the book.

The co-authors on the book are Michael Ovelgonne, a former UMIACS postdoctoral researcher; Tudor Dumitras, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering in the Maryland Cybersecurity Centre; and B. Aditya Prakash, assistant professor of computer science at Virginia Tech.

A related research paper was presented at the 9th ACM International Conference of Web Search and Data Mining in February this year.
India may soon sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bahrain to prevent human trafficking. The cabinet on Thursday gave its go ahead for the MoU.

Apart from preventing human trafficking, especially of women and children, the pact would aid in the rescue, recovery, repatriation and re-integration of victims of trafficking, officials said.

The MoU is expected to be signed when Home Minister Rajnath Singh visits Bahrain in the first week of April.

The pact aims to strengthen cooperation to prevent all forms of human trafficking and ensure speedy investigation and prosecution of traffickers and organised crime syndicates in either country.

"Anti-trafficking cells and task force will work on both sides to prevent human trafficking," an official statement said.

"Police and other concerned authorities will work in close cooperation and exchange information which can be used to interdict human traffickers.

"A joint task force with representatives from both sides would be constituted to monitor the working of the MoU," it added.

While many people from India voluntarily migrate to Bahrain to work as domestic workers or as unskilled labourers, some face conditions of forced labour after reaching Bahrain.

"It requires mutual cooperation for intelligence sharing, joint investigation and a coordinated response to the challenges of human trafficking. The MoU will help tackle all such issues," an official said.
India and Bangladesh have signed a memorandum of understanding to construct a pipeline for supply of high speed diesel, it was announced on Thursday.

"Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) and Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) are working on details for the envisaged project of supply of high speed diesel (HSD) from Numaligarh (in Assam) to Parbatipur in Bangladesh for a period of 20 years under a JV project between NRL and BPC," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said at a media briefing here.

"The product will be transported through a pipeline of approximately 135 km of which 130 km will be in Bangladesh and five km in India," he said.

The pipeline will run from Siliguri in West Bengal to Parbatipur in Bangladesh.

Swarup said, as a goodwill gesture, an initial consignment of 2,200 tonnes of diesel would be transported from Siliguri to Parbatipur by 50 wagons of the Indian Railways.

"This train will be flagged off from Siliguri on March 17 by Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan," he said.

The decision to construct the pipeline was taken during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Dhaka in June 2015.
India will extend a $2-billion line of credit (LoC) to Bangladesh, the largest ever to any country, the government said on Thursday.

This will be in addition to the $1-billion LoC extended to the neighbouring country in 2010.

"The credit line agreement for $2 billion was signed in Dhaka on March 9, 2016, by the chairman and managing director of Exim Bank of India and the secretary, economic relations department of the ministry of finance, Bangladesh," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said at a media briefing here.

The decision to extend this fresh tranche of LoC was taken during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Dhaka in June 2015.

Swarup said the signing of the agreement paved the way for initiation of projects in various identified sectors.

"Apart from infrastructural projects, there is a special focus on social sector cooperation pertaining to health, which involved establishment of medical colleges and hospitals, education, under which there will be modernisation of two teacher training institutes and vocational training involving modernisation of 49 polytechnic institutes," he said.

He said this would further integrate the economies of India and Bangladesh and "strengthen our practical cooperation in these fields".

"This LoC is the biggest credit line India has ever extended to any country," he added.
India will start supplying 100 MW of power from the northeastern state of Tripura to eastern Bangladesh as well as lease internet bandwidth from the neighbouring country, it was announced on Thursday.

"We will shortly be inaugurating the power connectivity between Palatana (in Tripura) and Bangladesh as well as leasing by BSNL of the 10 GB bandwidth of BSCCL (Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited) from its Cox's Bazar internet port," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said at a media briefing here.

"The power connectivity will take our already substantial cooperation in this sector with Bangladesh to a new level as it will allow Bangladesh to address severe power shortages in its southeastern parts," he said.

Pointing out that India was already supplying 500 MW across the Behrampur-Behramara transmission link on the border between West Bengal and Bangladesh, he said India hoped to enhance this further.

As for the leasing of the internet bandwidth from Akhaura in Bangladesh to Agartala, he said due to this new telecom initiative the people of Tripura can avail more reliable internet connectivity and added that this would improve internet speed available in the entire northeastern region.

Bangladesh telecom operators would also be enabled to effectively monetise their already existing infrastructure.

"Currently Tripura is connected solely through the Siliguri corridor," Swarup said.

The decisions in this respect were taken during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Dhaka in June, 2015.
New permanent members of the Security Council too must get the veto power, India has said, adding it is ready to "compromise" for a temporary period.

India's Permanent Representative Syed Akbaruddin told a negotiating session on Council reforms on Wednesday: "Our own national position has been and remains that the veto should, as long as it exists, be extended to new permanent members."

But he added: "As a measure of flexibility and willingness for compromise, the use of the veto can be deferred till the Review Conference."

The UN Charter provides for a conference to review and amend the veto rights but such a meeting has never taken place. If such a conference takes place, it would decide whether to retain, amend or abolish the veto provisions taking into account the contemporary situation.

Executing a delicate manoeuvre to straddle seemingly contradictory positions, Akbaruddin joined the wave of opposition to anyone on the Council having veto powers. He marshalled historical facts on its abuse by the permanent members.

He pointed out that vetoes had been invoked 317 times, affecting 230 or 10 percent of all Council resolutions.

Cataloguing what he said was a shameful record of veto use, he said it was invoked 56 times to support the apartheid regimes in South Africa and Southern Rhodesia, and 130 times over proxy wars in developing countries, 22 of them in Namibia.

Membership of several countries including Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Jordan and even Italy and Austria had at one time been blocked by vetoes.

"We cannot also allow the veto to have a veto over the process of Council reform itself," he added.

Akbaruddin said veto powers were now also creeping into other bodies like the terrorism sanctions committee.

Last year China blocked action against Pakistan for releasing Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.

Non-permanent members overwhelmingly supported abolishing the veto power of the permanent members, even as four of the five veto-wielding powers stood firm on maintaining their privilege.

France called for placing limits on veto rights in cases of genocide, crimes against humanity and serious war crimes.

Most of the countries favouring expansion of the Council's permanent membership insisted that if the the veto powers were retained, the new permanent members should also have them.

Menissa Rambally, the Permanent Representative of St. Lucia, said: "We note that a majority of members states, including two largest groups, Africa and L.69, together with several CARICOM (Caribbean Community) countries and Cuba are of the view that the veto should be abolished, but so long as it exists, it should be extended to all the members of the permanent category."

She was speaking on behalf of a group of 42 countries including India that is known as L.69 that advocates Council reform and expansion.

This was the third session of the Intergovernmental Negotiations on Security Council Reforms (IGN) after the General Assembly overcame stiff opposition last year to adopt a text to base the discussions.

IANS put together this account of the closed door meeting from conversations with sources who attended the meeting and speeches released by some countries.

Of the permanent members, the US and Russia put aside their other differences to present the stiffest opposition to abolishing or limiting their veto rights.

The US also opposed giving veto power to any new permanent member.

China wanted the veto right preserved, while Britain said that it wanted to retain it to be used in instances of utmost importance, but opposed giving it to new permanent members.

Five other countries, including Australia and Singapore, also have opposed extending veto right to new permanent members.

France, however, said it had no problem with new permanent members having veto power.

United for Consens (UfC), a 13-member group headed by Italy and to which Pakistan belongs, used the opportunity to air its primary objective of opposing adding permanent members to the Council.

Italy's Deputy Permanent Representative, Inigo Lambertini, said: "The UfC supports expanding the Council only in the non-permanent category, which makes the question of extension of veto to additional members irrelevant."

UfC appeared on Wednesday to water down its earlier unequivocal stand against veto powers.

"So strong has been the sentiment against the existing veto mechanism that some have advocated its outright abolition," Lambertini said. "While this is a legitimate aspiration, we recognize the need to take a gradual and pragmatic approach, including exploring intermediate steps."

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)
India and the US discussed cooperation in the areas of defence, trade and investment, and civil nuclear energy among others during a visit of Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar to Washington, a senior government official said on Thursday.

Jaishankar met a host of senior officials, including National Security Advisor Suzanne Rice, Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, US Trade Representative Mike Froman and Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

"The meetings focused on further consolidating bilateral relations in key areas of cooperation, including defence, trade and investment, and civil nuclear energy and enhancing convergence on regional and global issues," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup.

"In the US Congress, the foreign secretary held meetings with Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Bob Corker, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator John McCaine, and Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Richard Burr to exchange views on bilateral, regional and international issues," he added.

Jaishankar's visit comes ahead of Narendra Modi's visit to Washington at the end of this month to attend the Nuclear Security Summit.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is scheduled to visit Pakistan at the end of this month in a bid to re-establish bilateral economic ties, the media reported on Thursday.

According to sources, the two-day visit is scheduled from March 25-26, Dawn online reported.

This would be the first visit by an Iranian president to Pakistan after four years. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last visited Islamabad in February 2012 to attend a trilateral summit with Afghan and Pakistani leaders.

Rouhani's visit comes at a time when curbs on Iran have been lifted following a nuclear deal that came into effect in January.

The Iranian president has made a number of overseas trips since the lifting of sanctions to revive his country's trade ties.

Pakistan de-notified the UN sanctions at the end of February paving the way for the re-establishment of trade and business relations.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif last visited Tehran in January looking to mediate between Tehran and Riyadh when tensions between the two countries spiked in the aftermath of the execution of activist and Shia cleric, Sheikh Nimr, by Saudi authorities.

The prime minister had earlier paid a bilateral visit to Tehran in May 2014.
The Israeli government does not intend to engage in peace talks with the Palestinians in the near future, the country's Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said on Thursday.

"Negotiations with the Palestinians are currently not on the government's agenda," Hotovely told Israel Radio.

She said Israel's top concern is to halt a six-month wave of violent Palestinian uprising, suggesting that peace talks could only start after the violence abates, Xinhua reported.

Her remarks came as US Vice President Joe Biden was leaving Israel after a two-day visit that triggered a spate of attacks, claiming the lives of a US tourist and at least six Palestinian assailants, who were shot dead by security forces.

The last round of talks between Israel and the Palestinians was brokered by the US and ended in April 2014 after reaching an impasse.

In January, France announced a bid to convene an international conference aiming at bringing about a two-state solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that if the efforts to kick-start the negotiations reached a deadlock, Paris would recognise a Palestinian state.

Israel slammed the initiative, with its hardliner Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying it "gives incentive for the Palestinians not compromise".

Meanwhile, Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Secretary General Saeb Erekat blamed Israel on Thursday for "loss of hope and political horizon" to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Erekat said in an emailed press statement that Israel is following the "policy of dictations, settlements, imposition of new realities, collective punishment, house demolitions, ethnic cleansing, field executions, siege and closure to destroy the two- state solution, which lead to loss of hope and political horizon."

The PLO secretary general also called for the release of Palestinian parliamentarians from Israeli jails, including Fatah party's Marwan Barghouti.

Since the Palestinian unrest began in mid-September, at least 175 Palestinians have been killed, mainly amid attacks or attempted attacks, and 28 Israelis have also been killed.

Israeli leaders say the Palestinian National Authority is "inciting" the violence, while the Palestinians say it is the result of 49 years of Israeli occupation of their lands and deplore excessive use of Israeli force against Palestinians in protests and after alleged attacks.
A team of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will visit Kanpur on Thursday to asses the proposed Kanpur Metro Rail route, an official said.

Town planner of the Kanpur Development Authority (KDA) said after seeing the proposed rail route, the team will hold discussions with district officials and inspect the detailed project report (DPR), through a multi-media presentation.

The Japanese agency has shown keen interest in the Rs. 13,000 crore Kanpur Metro Rail project and is visiting the city to "asses on ground the feasibility of their association" with the project.

The Uttar Pradesh government has already made a provision of Rs. 50 crore for the project.

The DPR, prepared by engineering consultancy company, Rites was handed over to the state government in November 2015 after which Rs. 50 crore was provided.

Sources told IANS, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's team wants the project to take off before the 2017 state assembly polls. Work on Lucknow Metro is already in full swing and the first phase is likely to be in operation from December.

-- Indo-Asian News Service

md/ksk
A 28-year-old doctoral scholar of the Jawaharlal Nehru University committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan in his rented accommodation here, police said on Thursday.

The student identified as Dushyant Dixit was found hanging from the fan inside his room No.602 at a private paying guest accommodation named Guardian Hostel in south Delhi's Ber Sarai area on Thursday morning. Dixit was residing on the fourth floor of the building.

The incident was reported to Police Control Room (PCR) at around 9.43 a.m.

Police after preliminary investigation found that Dixit, who hailed from Dhaneta village in Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh, was disturbed over some family problems.

A suicide note was also recovered.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Prem Nath told IANS that Dixit was residing alone in the room.

"One of his friends knocked at his door at around 9 a.m. on Thursday but did not get any response from inside. He took a table and climbed on it and peeped inside the room from a window meant for ventilation. He then raised an alarm after finding Dixit hanging from the ceiling fan," Prem Nath told IANS.

Asked if Dixit's extreme step has any relation with the JNU controversy or with any problem in his studies, the DCP said, "The reason behind Dixit's suicide has no links with JNU row or problem in his studies."
Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) President Kanhaiya Kumar was on Thursday roughed up by a man on the university campus who allegedly wanted to teach him a lesson for raising "anti-india slogans".

The person, identified as Vikas Chaudhury, tried to attack Kumar at 6.30 p.m. in front of the university administrative block where an open lecture was going on by Supreme Court advocate Nandita Haksar.

Chaudhury grabbed Kumar's T-shirt and tried to hit him but security personnel intervened in time, a witnesses said. The man was later escorted off the campus by the security personnel.

Kanhaiya Kumar later said that the attack on him cannot intimidate him.

"You can hurt me, you can silence me but you cannot scare me... If you will try to hurt me then remember Rohith Vemula. You killed one Rohith and so many have stood up, now if you will hurt someone else then imagine how many will stand up (against you)," Kumar said while addressing the students.

Kumar, who was also attacked on February 15 by a group lawyers in Patiala House Court, told students that such attacks were pre-planned.

"It is not important what you write against me. It is not important that today you slapped me tomorrow you may stab me with knife. For us, the people of JNU, our own lives have never been important. We always think of nation and its future," Kumar said.

"They are doing such activities very cleverly and carefully. First they priced my tongue and tried to provoke me so that I can retaliate. But I didn't say anything... Then they priced my neck for Rs.11 lakh, I didn't say anything then also... But now you've attacked our home (JNU). It's an attack on university, its tradition and what it stands for," Kumar said.

The man, while being escorted out, said he wanted to teach Kanhaiya a lesson for insulting the nation and for raising anti-India slogans.

Bharatiya Janata Party youth wing leader Kuldeep Varshney on March 5 had announced a reward of Rs.5 lakh for cutting off Kumar's tongue. He was later expelled from the primary membership of the party for six years.

Kanhaiya, who is facing sedition charges for participating in a JNU event held to commemorate the death anniversary of terrorist Afzal Guru, was recently released on six-month interim bail.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said that key documents related to the Ishrat Jahan case have gone missing from his ministry as he blamed the previous Congress-led government of a flip-flop over the controversial 2004 shootout that killed the alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba woman operative.

"Two letters from the then home secretary to the attorney general in 2009 have gone missing. The then attorney general had vetted two affidavits regarding the case. Those are also not available," Rajnath Singh told the Lok Sabha replying to a brief debate on the controversial June 15, 2004 shootout.

He said that the ministry has launched an internal investigation to find the missing documents "which will bring out all the facts" in the open.

Without naming Congress' P. Chidambaram, Rajnath Singh alleged that affidavits were corrected on the intervention of the then home minister and reaffirmed that an investigation has found that the Thane girl was a terrorist - a claim also seconded by American-Pakistani terrorist David Coleman Headley.

"I am pained to say that there was a flip-flop on Ishrat Jahan case during the previous UPA (United Progressive Alliance) regime. She was described as an LeT terrorist in the first affidavit filed in the Gujarat High Court but unfortunately the facts were given another dimension in an additional affidavit which was filed a month later" Rajnath Singh said, amid pandemonium by the opposition.

"The second affidavit seems to be weakening the fact that Ishrat Jahan was an LeT operative which was clearly stated in the first based on an IB input. It seems the entire episode was a conspiracy to trouble the then chief minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi."

Rajnath Singh alleged that the previous government had tried to give a political and communal colour to terrorism and reminded the Congress of the "saffron terror" label given to describe acts of violence allegedly motivated by Hindu nationalists.

"Saffron terror was the previous government's term. Colour, creed and religion are not linked to terrorism. They gave a communal colour to terrorism. This is opportunistic secularism."

The controversy over the case flared up again after Headley made the startling claim on February 11 this year about the 2004 Gujarat encounter - the already murky Ishrat Jahan case has become even murkier.--Indo-Asian NEws Service

bns-vin/sar/bg
The number of Indians suffering from kidney failures has doubled in the last 15 years with a rise of 10 percent in the number of citizens undergoing dialysis due to chronic kidney diseases (CKD), health experts have said.

According to them, several Indian population-based studies in the past estimated the incidence of End-Stage Kidney Disease (ESKD) is 150-230 per million and about 220,000-275,000 new patients need Renal Replacement Therapy (RRT) every year.

"It is estimated that approximately 75,000 patients are on dialysis which is growing at the rate of 10-20 percent annually. The question is whether India has the resources and skill to handle this ever-increasing population of ESKD in India," said Dr Rajesh Kumar, consultant nephrologist at Mumbai-based SRV Hospital.

Stating that the exact burden of chronic kidney diseases in India is still undefined, the approximate prevalence of CKD is 800 per million populations (pmp).

Accoring to the experts, one percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in India is spent on the health sector while the figure in China is three percent and 8.3 percent in the US.

Earlier figures have shown that 65 percent diagnosed patients do not receive dialysis and medical treatment on time.

"Looking at these facts, it is a challenge to cope up with an ever-increasing ESKD population who require Renal Replacement therapy (RRT) in the form of Hemodialysis, Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis or Kidney Transplantation. Hence a sincere and serious attempt is necessary to bring down the cost of dialysis treatment," Dr Kumar told IANS.

According to Dr Pradeep Gadge, a diabeteologist with Seven Hills and Breach Candy Hospitals in Mumbai, diabetes is considered as the most common causes for kidney failures and it is estimated that over one million patients worldwide are alive on dialysis.

"With this exponential increase in diabetic patients in India, the number of patients with kidney ailments is likely to rise high," he noted, adding that every year, an estimated 3.5-4 lakh new cases are likely to be diagnosed with kidney ailments.

"Diabetes and blood pressure are most common cause of kidney disease in adults but in children, Chronic glomerulonephritis and Recurrent UTI (Reflux) are the most important causes apart from congenital anomalies of urinary system," Dr Gadge said.

Throwing light on the facilities for dialysis, Dr M.M. Bahadur, nephrologist at Wockhardt Hospital, said: "Two lakh patients in a year reach the CAPD (Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis) stage 5 where they need dialysis of which less than 10 percent actually get treated due to non-availability of facility, cost factor and proximity."

Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis means diaysis throughout the day, at home or at work. During CAPD, a bag of dialysis fluid is drained into the peritoneal cavity through a Tenckhoff Catheter.

"With only 300-400 dialysis centres available in India and with 1,500 nephrologist in metro cities who treat kidney patients, more than 60 percent of the patients do not receive medical attention on time. Only four percent of the patients get donors," noted Dr Bahadur.

According to the health ministry, 2,000 new dialysis centres will be set up at district-level hospitals in the country within the next two years to tackle the problem.
Assassinating former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was the Tamil Tigers' biggest mistake, a new book quotes the late LTTE ideologue Anton Balasingham as saying.

Balasingham told Norway's former Special Envoy to Sri Lanka Erik Solheim that LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and his feared intelligence chief Pottu Amman initially denied their involvement in the killing.

But they admitted the truth to Balasingham "a few weeks" after the May 21, 1991 assassination, says Mark Salter's book "To End A Civil War" (Hurst & Company, London).

The just released 549-page book is the most exhaustive account of the Norwegian-led peace process that sought to end three decades of conflict in Sri Lanka.

The conflict finally ended when the Sri Lankan military crushed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May 2009, wiping out its entire leadership including Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman.

"Perhaps most controversially, in terms of official LTTE policies, Balasingham conceded that the killing of Rajiv Gandhi was the biggest mistake the LTTE had ever made," says the book.

The LTTE has never officially admitted to killing Gandhi, who was blown up by a Sri Lankan Tamil woman suicide bomber at an election rally near Chennai.

Privately, Balasingham told the Norwegians that Gandhi's killing "was a complete disaster".

According to Solheim, Balasingham put the decision to kill Gandhi to Prabhakaran's desire for revenge for Tamils killed by Indian troops when they were deployed in Sri Lanka in 1987-90, and a belief that Gandhi may again send the troops to Sri Lanka if he returned to power.

Solheim also says that although Balasingham, who in his final year was based in London and died of cancer in December 2006, wanted to reach out to the US and Europe, his real affinity was with India.

"Thus at the end of his life in 2006, Balasingham went so far as to try and 'apologize' to India for this misdeed (assassination)."

After Gandhi's killing, India outlawed the LTTE - which was earlier based in Tamil Nadu and enjoyed New Delhi's blessings - and declared Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman proclaimed offenders.

In contrast, Balasingham had no hesitation in admitting that the LTTE assassinated moderate Tamil leader and academic Neelan Tiruchelvam - who was critical of the Tamil Tigers -- in July 1999 on a Colombo street.

When the Norwegians, Solheim included, confronted Balasingham on the killing, the book quotes the latter as saying point-blank: "Yes, we killed him and if you listen to me I will tell you why."

The book quotes Solheim as saying that Balasingham once referred to Prabhakaran as a "warlord" and said the LTTE needed to transform into a political entity.

Balasingham also told Solheim, who is now based in Paris: "You must never underestimate the capacity for violence of these guys (LTTE)."

According to Solheim, Balasingham "was very frank with us, including admitting to the LTTE's mistakes.

"Over time I came to regard Bala highly and to consider him as a great human being as well as a good friend."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday condemned the continued attacks on his nation's diplomatic missions in Ukraine by protesters demanding the release of a Ukrainian pilot by Russian authorities.

"The actions of thugs, who attacked the Russian embassy and our consulates general, broke into our territories and tore flags, are outrageous," Lavrov said in an interview with Russia's REN TV channel, Xinhua reported.

Lavrov said the attacks could not be performed without "a blessing of tutors of Ukrainian authorities".

According to the Russian media, the attacks against Russia's diplomatic missions started on Wednesday in several Ukrainian cities including Kiev, Odessa and Lvov.

Ukrainians rallied to support Nadezhda Savchenko, a 34-year-old Ukrainian female pilot captured in June, 2014 by insurgents in eastern Ukraine near the town of Shchastye, north of Lugansk city.

"I will speak once again today on this issue with the US Secretary of State John Kerry. We have also sent corresponding signals to European capitals," Lavrov said.

Lavrov also expressed disappointment that the international community had not reacted.

Western countries are more concerned with Ukraine's demands -- releasing Savchenko without completing the trial, Lavrov said.

"This is a separate issue, but hypocrisy and double-dealing are obvious here," he said.

Savchenko has been tried in Russia after being accused of directing artillery fire and conspiring the killing of two Russian journalists during fighting between government troops and separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014. She denied any wrongdoing.

Savchenko will face up to 25 years in prison if convicted. The sentencing has been scheduled between March 21 and 22.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Wednesday that he was ready to perform a prisoner exchange to secure Savchenko's return to Ukraine.

The Kremlin said on Thursday that it took notice of Poroshenko's statement, but did not elaborate on its possible consequences.

"We would like to remind once again that the trial is still underway," the Kremlin spokesman told reporters.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said earlier in the day that no talks on Savchenko's swap had been held yet, and that there could not be any until the court gave the verdict.
The seat-adjustment talks between the Left Front and the Congress hit a major roadblock on Thursday with the former coming out with its second list of 88 candidates that included a number of seats which the Congress has earmarked for itself in the upcoming West Bengal assembly polls.

An angry state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said his party could not be taken for granted, and threatened to put up candidates on all seats.

The 88 seats announced by LF chairman Biman Bose during the day contained 84 where its partners would be contesting. The LF also left two seats each for its associates Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal (United).

The LF had on March 7 announced its first list of 116 candidates for the 294-member assembly, which goes to the hustings in seven phases from April 4 to May 5.

While Chowdhury had on March 7 itself sounded miffed over the LF announcing three candidates in his pocket-borough Murshidabad district, he was left fuming on Thursday after Bose declared candidates for nine other seats in the district which elects altogether 22 seats.

With the Congress having named the 75 seats which it has earmarked for contesting -- though it is yet to announces names of candidates for these constituencies -- there are now 16 seats where both the LF and the Congress have declared nominees.

The biggest hurdle seems to be Murshidabad where LF and the Congress candidates overlap in eight seats. In Birbhum district, candidates of both LF and the Congress are in fray in four seats.

Bose, however, said there could be discussions on some of the seats which were disputed.

"Discussions may be needed for some of the seats. Then we may announce a small third list."

Bose, who gave the call for a people's grand alliance, stressed on the need to prevent any division of anti-Trinamool votes.

But soon after Bose's press meet, Chowdhury went all guns blazing.

"In deference to the peoples' wishes, and taking a pragmatic view, we had shown all sincerity in arriving at an understanding after prolonged talks. We don't know what are their compulsions.

"We had prepared a list of constituencies after the discussions. But now if they feel they will contest more seats, no one should assume that the Congess will accept that."

"Congress will fight where it is organisationally strong."

"Chowdhury said his party had "no problems with triangular fights".

"There can be triangular fights. We have no objection to that. I had persuaded our high command to agree to the understanding, in respect to the people's sentiments. But now if they feel they can take the Congress for granted, they have made a mistake," he said.

Asked whether the eat-adjustment talks would continue, Chowdhury said: "May be, otherwise we will fight all the seats."

The latest LF list included a number of heavyweights. Asim Dasgupta, who holds a record of having been the state finance minister for 24 years till 2011, would take on incumbent finance minister Amit Mitra in his old constituency of Khardah of North 24 Parganas district.

Other former ministers named as candidates are Abdus Sattar (Amdanga), and Debesh Das (Entally) of the CPI-m, and Revlutionary Socialist Party's Biswanath Chowdhury (Balurghat) and Subhas Naska (Basanti).

CPI-M state secretariat member Sujon Chakraborty is joined the fight in South 24 Parganas district's Jadavpur, from where former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was humbled in 2011.

Of the 84 candidates, 42 are from the CPI-M, 17 from the All India Froward Bloc and 16 from RSP. The Communist Party of India is fighting in half a dozen seats, Revolutionary Communist Party fo India in two, and forward Bloc (Marxist) in one seat.

RJD nominees would contest from Kolkata's Jorasanko and Bhatpara of North 24 Parganas district. The JD(U) would fight from Howrah Central in Howrah district and Islampur of North Dinajpur.
No more struggling on various browser tabs on your smartphone to plan a trip as search engine giant Google has rolled out a new tool to do an online recce and schedule your holidays without any hassle.

Earlier, people tended to use multiple tabs and apps on their smartphones to search about places and cost of travel, only to get lost between the choices.

"Google Destinations", with certain search terms, returns the summaries of different trips a user can take, including flight costs, hotel rates, places to see and things to do.

"Instead of jumping between a dozen links or tabs to get the information you need, you can sit back and scroll-and leave the heavy lifting to us," pcworld.com quoted Google as saying.

For example, a search for "India destinations" brings up trip details for Goa, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru and more.

On this page, user can filter by interests (such as art, architecture or culture) and price, and specify exact travel dates.

All of this information comes from Google's "Flights and Hotel" search engines, along with its massive directory of local business listings and attractions.

Tapping on any of these places leads to a page with greater detail, including itineraries, top sights, an estimated total trip price, and the climate of the place.

There's also a "Plan a Trip on Google" tab where user can flights, hotels and restaurants related to that place.
Mexican Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz-Massieu Salinas will arrive on a two-day visit to India on Friday during the course of which she will hold bilateral talks with her Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj.

"Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, Claudia Ruiz-Massieu Salinas, will visit India on March 11 and 12," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said at a media briefing here on Thursday.

"She will meet our external affairs minister (Sushma Swaraj). We expect that this meeting will result in a comprehensive review of the entire gamut of bilateral relations, including political ties, commercial and trade relations, and cooperation in financial, technical and other areas," he said.

According to Swarup, India and Mexico share historical links and strong cultural and people-to-people ties.

"Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi and the president of Mexico (Enrique Pena Nieto) had met on September 28, 2015, in New York on the sidelines of the UNGA," he said.

Mexico is Latin America's second largest economy and its largest trading nation. It is also the world's 14th largest economy.

"It is therefore natural trade and commerce are one of the main drivers in our bilateral relationship," Swarup said.

"Our current trade is approximately $6.25 billion. Mexico also has one of the world's largest hydrocarbon reserves, ranking among the top 10 oil-producing countries."

Mexico also has the world's fourth largest shale oil reserves.

"India is the third largest importer of crude oil from Mexico. Hence, energy ties are also expected to be discussed during this visit," the spokesman said.
The Iranian foreign ministry said on Thursday that the country's recent missile launches did not violate a UN resolution.

"The recent (missile) drills and the weapons used in the missile launch neither violate the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nor the UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution," said Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hossein Jaber Ansari.

JCPOA, is the formal title of a deal reached with major world powers on Iran's nuclear programme, under which sanctions against Tehran were lifted, Xinhua news agency reported.

Under UNSC resolution 1929, Iran is prohibited from working on ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads.

"All Iranian short, medium and long range missiles and those of ballistic, some of which were test-fired in the recent military drills, are conventional and legitimate defensive tools and are not developed for carrying nuclear warheads," Ansari said.

On Tuesday, Iran fired several ballistic missiles at the start of major missile drills by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

On Wednesday, the IRGC fired Qadr-H and Qadr-F missiles, with a range of 1,700 km and 2,000 km respectively.

The US said on Tuesday that although Iran's recent ballistic missile tests did not violate JCPOA, the issue could be the source of concern for the West and it might be raised at the UNSC.

White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said that if it was determined that Iran's ballistic missile tests were in violation of the UNSC resolutions, Tehran could face "some consequences".
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif here on Thursday prayed for the "speedy recovery" of senior Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and termed his leadership as "a beacon of freedom for the people of Jammu and Kashmir".

"On behalf of the people of Pakistan, I wish for full and speedy recovery of Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani who suffered a heart attack in New Delhi this morning," a statement from Ministry of Foreign Affairs quoted Sharif as saying.

The prime minister said: "Syed Geelani's indefatigable leadership is a beacon of freedom for the people of Jammu and . We pray for his quick recovery and good health".

Geelani was admitted to Max hospital in south Delhi on Thursday morning after he complained of chest pain and breathlessness.

"In the morning, Geelani sb complained of chest pain and was admitted at Max hospital new delhi. He is stable and under treatment, prayers are needed," wrote Geelani's son, Syed Naseem.
Nepal has officially become a member of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD), a senior official said here on Thursday.

The 14th Ministerial Meeting of Asia Cooperation Dialogue held in Thailand unanimously endorsed Nepal as the 34th member of Asia Cooperation Dialogue on Wednesday, said a senior official at the Nepal's ministry of foreign affairs.

Nepal's Deputy Prime Minister Kamal Thapa thanked the ACD for accepting Nepal as a new member, Xinhua news agency reported.

While delivering a speech in the meeting, Thapa reiterated full commitment to the principles, values and objectives of the ACD.

He said that Nepal will continue to engage in its activities and programmes with sincerity and dedication.

Established in June 2002, the ACD is the only official dialogue and cooperation mechanism in Asia at a continental level.

The Nepalese government has expressed hope that the country's association with the ACD will help Nepal expand relations in the international arena, a ministry spokesman said.

Nepal's engagement with the ACD will help enhance its cooperation with ACD members on various fields such as economy, tourism, commerce, foreign direct investment and foreign employment, the spokesman added.
Pakistan on Thursday affirmed there was no change in its stance on the Kashmir issue and stressed upon the need to address it as it was the oldest issue on the United Nations' agenda.

Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria said Kashmiris were "struggling for their right to self-determination" and Pakistan would continue to extend moral, political and diplomatic support to them till the implementation of the UN resolutions.

The Kashmir issue would be taken up whenever India and Pakistan hold talks, Zakaria told a weekly press briefing here.

The spokesman said initiatives have been taken for Confidence Building at the top leadership-level in the two countries, and added that levelling of allegations were of no help in lowering tensions between the two neighbours, reports the News International.

The remarks came days after British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the Kashmir issue should not be a pre-condition for resumption of the India-Pakistan dialogue.
North Korea on Thursday launched two short-range missiles from its east coast, the South Korean defence ministry announced.

The North Korean People's Army fired two missiles into the East Sea, at 5.20 a.m. from the town of Wonson, in the southeast of the country, the South Korean Joint Chief of Staff said.

The missiles flew for around 500 km, EFE news reported.

"The military is keeping close tabs on the situation and is prepared to deal with any North Korean provocations," defence officials said.

The action comes after North Korea launched six short-range missiles which flew between 100 and 150 km into the East Sea on March 3.

On Monday, the US and South Korea began their annual joint exercises, the largest to date, which will last until late April involving about 315,000 troops from both the countries.

The Korean Peninsula is experiencing another period of high tension after Pyongyang conducted their fourth underground nuclear test on January 6 and launched a satellite aboard a rocket on February 7, after which the UN Security Council responded with tough new sanctions.
North Korea on Thursday nullified all agreements on economic cooperation and exchanges with South Korea.

All assets belonging to South Korean enterprises in North Korea will be liquidated, Xinhua reported citing the KCNA news agency.

The statement by a spokesman for the Committee for Peaceful Reunification of Korea said the plan was made in response to a series of unilateral sanctions by Seoul on North Korea after the UN Security Council voted to adopt a tough resolution against Pyongyang.

According to the statement, North Korea vows to take steps to "launch lethal political, military and economic strikes on the President Park Geun-hye administration" of South Korea.

North Korea will immediately launch attacks "in pre-emptive manners" once the enemies take action, the military is only waiting for an order, the statement stressed.

South Korea on Tuesday unveiled a package of new unilateral sanctions on North Korea over its latest nuclear test and rocket launch.

The stand-alone sanctions include a ban on the third-country ships that had stopped in North Korea within the past 180 days from entering South Korean ports.

Seoul added 30 North Korean entities and 40 North Korean individuals to the blacklist of those suspected in the involvement of Pyongyang's development of weapons of mass destruction.
The number of fighter aircraft squadrons with the Indian Air Force (IAF) is not enough to fight a war on two fronts, Vice Chief of IAF Air Marshal B.S. Dhanoa said on Thursday.

"Our numbers are not adequate to execute an air campaign in a two-front scenario... Probability of a two front scenario is an appreciation which you need to do. But are the numbers adequate? No," Air Marshal Dhanoa said.

He said the government was seized of the problem, and that was the reason why India went for government-to-government deal for Rafale fighter aircraft "because of the urgency".

The Air Marshal was addressing a press conference on the upcoming Iron Fist exercise of the IAF.

He said the IAF at present had 33 operational squadrons. When a new squadron of Light Combat Aircraft Tejas would be inducted later this year, the number will rise to 34.

The sanctioned strength for the IAF at present is 39.5, which is sought to be raised to 42. A parliamentary panel report last year had said that by 2022, the IAF will have just 25 squadrons, losing "even the slight edge over a rival neighbouring nation".

IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha has said in the past that at least six squadrons of medium multi-role combat aircraft are required.

Air Marshal Dhanoa agreed that more Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) will be needed.

"There are various avenues that are being explored. There is a requirement for us to buy a MMRCA class aircraft more than the 36 numbers that we have signed. Which platform may come in, that is something between us and the government. We (both) will have to take a call," he said.

Deputy Chief of the IAF Air Marshal R K S Bhadauria said that a decision on more aircraft will be take only after the conclusion of the contract for 36 Rafale fighter jets.

He also admitted that the delay in procurement of Rafale has upset the plans of IAF.A

"The acquisition of MMRCA has taken really long. It has affected our plans," he said.

Air Marshal Dhanoa also said that increasing serviceability of the existing fighters can help.

"If we have 35 squadrons and 90 percent serviceability, it will be as good as having 42 squadrons," he said.

He refused to reveal the present level of serviceability of aircraft, and said the target for now was to reach 75 percent.
A novel product developed by Nualgi Nano Biotech (NNB), a low-profile biotech company here, is helping clean up sewage-polluted Ulsoor Lake where thousands of fish were found dead last week owing to depletion of dissolved oxygen.

Ulsoor Lake, famous for army rowing competitions as well as for boating among tourists, was seen covered with thousands of dead fish that left people here stunned.

"Called Nualgi, it is a mixture of micro-nutrients in the form of nano-particles including silica, iron and manganese," said Thothathri Sampathkumar, who founded the company which patented the product in India in 2008.

"'Nualgi' triggers the rapid growth of a type of algae called 'diatoms' and the oxygen released by the diatoms through photosynthesis quickly increases the dissolved oxygen level of water and thus keeps the pond clean," Sampathkumar told IANS.

According to Sampathkumar, one kg of Nualgi can treat four million litres of water, adding that the affected fishermen -- who have the contract for fishing in Ulsoor lake - have purchased 40 litres of "Nualgi" from his company on March 6 to increase the dissolved oxygen level and stop further fish death.

"We can see the results very soon," added Sampathkumar.

"Nualgi can be used to grow "diatom" algae in any water including sewage polluted water. The growing "diatoms" absorb carbon dioxide from the air and, by photosynthesis, release oxygen at the micro plant level. The oxygen released helps aerobic bacteria breakdown organics in the water into base constituents, thereby eliminating the stinking odour from the water.

The growing "diatoms" are eaten by zooplankton that, in turn, is consumed by fish. "The fish clean up the lakes of all 'diatoms', zooplankton and organics, thus restoring the polluted lakes and water bodies to its original glory," said Sampathkumar.

According to him, the mass fish death in Ulsoor lake took place perhaps because the fishermen ran out of their stock of Nualgi or missed its timely application.

The tragedy could have been averted had the authorities installed monitors to continuously record the level of dissolved oxygen (DO) in the lake water and alert them when DO falls below critical level. These DO monitors, he said, are now commercially available.

"Nualgi has been patented also in the US, Britain, Germany and South Africa. Five years ago, the three-acre "Duck Pond" in New York state in the US that "was in a highly impaired state with a variety of water quality issues" was restored to normal health thanks to "Nualgi."

Lake Savers, the US company that tried it out, had acknowledged in an email to Sampathkumar that the water quality of "Duck Pond" showed a "remarkable and sustained improvement" after a single dose of Nualgi application and that "fish productivity and health improved dramatically."

Encouraged by its successful experiment in New York's "Duck Pond", Lake Savers had obtained clearance from the US Environmental Protection Agency for using Nualgi on a large scale in the country.

Nualgi, that requires no skilled labour, is an economical alternative to treat sewage and organic wastes in "eutrophic" lakes and ponds contaminated by nitrogen or phosphorus compounds, such as by laundry detergents, untreated sewage and fertiliser run-off from agricultural lands.

"Nualgi is being used in many lakes in southern India for the past several years and fishermen are buying the product to increase fish catch in water bodies.

Sampathkumar is hopeful of promoting its use worldwide to revive fresh water "eutrophic lakes" and "dead zones" in coastal regions that are so much deprived of oxygen that they can't support aquatic life.

(K.S. Jayaraman can be contacted at killugudi@gmail.com)

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday prayed for the "speedy recovery" of senior Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani shortly after he was admitted in a Delhi hospital.

"Just heard about SAS Geelani having taken ill, admitted to the ICU in a Delhi hospital. Prayers for his speedy recovery," Omar posted on Twitter.

Geelani was admitted to Max hospital in south Delhi on Thursday morning after he complained of chest pain and breathlessness.

"In the morning Geelani sb complained of chest pain and was admitted at Max hospital new delhi. He is stable and under treatment, prayers are needed," wrote Geelani's son, Syed Naseem.
The surge in foreign patients seeking Indian health facilities for specialised and cost-effective medical care has resulted in the mushrooming of online start-ups that help foreign nationals find the best treatment in the country.

One such medical tourism start-up, PlanMyMedicalTrip.com, which was started nine years back, is now serving as a one-stop solution provider for foreign medical tourists.

"We have patients coming in from all over the world. However, Africa, GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) regions contribute towards the sector by as much as 30 percent of the total inflow," said Anurav Rane, CEO, PlanMyMedicalTrip.com.

"There are a lot of different medical and surgical options for medical tourists coming to India. Primarily, medical tourists get elective procedures done such as cosmetic surgery, hip and knee replacements, dental procedures and infertility treatments," he told IANS.

According to a white paper by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Grant Thornton, the Indian medical tourism market is set to touch $8 billion by 2020, up from the current $3 billion.

Saed Saber from Egypt recently came to India for knee replacement. "I wanted to get my knee replacement done but was confused as to how I should go about it. Since options in my country are limited with a high price tag for treatment, I started exploring for options, that is when I came to know about PlanMyMedicalTrip.com," he said.

Saber visited PlanMyMedicalTrip.com to get his queries answered. "I got to know several options for hospitals across India and also got all the necessary procedures sorted for me in no time," he told IANS.

IndiaHealthCareTourism.com, inaugurated recently by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is an initiative by the government to boost healthcare tourism. It is a web portal that helps and guides the patients who are looking for treatment options in India. It lists 93 topmost medical centres, 30 ayurveda and wellness centres and one special category centre.

Another online venture, Medi Connect India, deals with the latest technologies like IVF (infertility), robotics surgeries, stem cell therapies, etc.

"The main reason behind India becoming a hub for medical tourism for foreigners is cost-effectiveness. Here in metro cities you would get world-class treatment under the best doctors in a much cheaper way than what they would end up paying in their respective countries," Shalini, assistant team lead, Medi Connect India, told IANS.

"In countries like Africa, a lot of modern treatments and good doctors are not available and hence they find India a good destination for medical reasons. Here, the best treatments are available with no waiting time in the company of highly-qualified doctors," she added.

Medi Connect India has won the "National Tourism Award" for two consecutive years for excellence in medical tourism.

To serve foreign nationals better, most of the top-rated hospitals in India have also hired language translators to make patients, especially from Balkan and African countries, feel comfortable and help facilitate their treatment.

According to the CII-Grant Thornton white paper, Chennai, Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi-NCR are the most favoured medical tourism destinations for foreigners who avail treatments in India.

Cost is a major driver for nearly 80 percent of medical tourists across the globe, it added.

The cost factor and availability of accredited facilities have led to the emergence of several global medical tourism corridors like Singapore, Thailand, India, Malaysia, Taiwan, Mexico and Costa Rica -- and India appears to have taken a lead.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress party on Thursday demanded that Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar must apologise to the armed forces for making them build infrastructure for the Art of Living event in the national capital.

The Congress party in Goa claimed that the Indian Army's soldiers were reduced to "corporate slaves".

"Indian Army soldiers are our pride, they are not slaves of a government or a corporation," Goa Congress spokesperson Sunil Kawthankar said in a statement issued here.

"Their services for disaster management, humanitarian relief work or for any national event organised by government is understood, but using services of military personnel to build infrastructure for a private event has set a very bad precedent," he added.

Kawthankar said that Parrikar, former Goa chief minister, "must apologise to the nation and the Indian Army" for lowering the latter's stature and dignity.

A mega structure built for spiritual Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living Foundation in the Yamuna floodplains in Delhi has attracted controversy over irregularities committed during the construction of the infrastructure for the event, which around two million people are expected to attend.
A public interest litigation (PIL) has urged the Delhi High Court that the families and kin of the paramilitary personnel who sacrifice their lives in the line of duty should be given parity with defence personnel in entitlements.

The PIL sought direction to the government to issue the honourific of "martyr" or "shaheed" to paramilitary or police personnel also.

In his plea, Advocate Abhishek Choudhary said: "The personnel of the three armed forces are called 'martyrs' when they are killed on duty".

Not giving parity to paramilitary personnel with defence personnel is "serious injustice" to them and "miscarriage of law", the advocate said.

The central government had earlier informed the court that it was considering to accord "martyr" status on paramilitary personnel who die in the line of duty.

Filing an affidavit, Choudhary said: "Parity has to be maintained by the government in granting benefits since the cost of life of the Central Paramilitary Force Personnel (CPMF) personnel cannot be assessed less in making the supreme sacrifice for the country."

"In fact, the 'shaheed' of the defence forces gets more than Rs.10-15 lakh in comparison to CPMF personnel since they are declared shaheed or martyr."

"There are various additional benefits which are given to defence force personnel 'martyr' or 'shaheed' in comparison to the CPMFs personnel," it added.

"The 'martyr' or 'shaheed' status is a recognition which adds pride to the family, community, society and location and is not a mere question of financial benefits. This also inculcates a sense of pride among youth to join uniformed forces to protect the country even if they have to make supreme sacrifice of life. It is an overall question of inspiration and pride," the petitioner's affidavit said.

The case would be heard on May 2.

The plea said 31,895 paramilitary personnel have laid down their lives in past 53 years in the line of duty but the honour of being called a "martyr" still eludes the personnel of paramilitary and police forces.

In many places, like along the Pakistan border, paramilitary personnel work along with army men and in Maoist-affected states, they work with air force officials. But in case of death in action, the Central Armed Police Personnel (CAPF) are not accorded 'martyr' status, the plea said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday will attend inaugural function of the three-day World Culture Festival being organised by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art Of Living (AoL) foundation.

AOL foundation has time till Friday to give initial environmental compensation of Rs.5 crore for holding its World Culture Festival on Yamuna flood plains, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) said on Thursday.

The organisation appeared to be softening its stance after initially saying that it will not pay the fine.

Spiritual Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's comments in the morning that he would not pay Rs.5 crore fine slapped by the NGT and was prepared to go jail if the court wanted him to, triggered speculation about the course likely to be adopted by AoL.

However, after a hearing at NGT during the day (Thursday), AoL said that things were changing every moment and they have time to comply with the tribunal's order.

"We have lot of time as the event is beginning tomorrow (Friday) evening. Things are changing every moment. We are focusing on things to make the event successful," Akshama Nath, counsel for Art of Living (AoL) told IANS when asked if the foundation was willing to pay the fine.

In a related development, the Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain a plea seeking to block the holding of three-day event which will have performances from artists of different countries.

The apex court also asked PIL petitioner Anil Kumar to approach the NGT as it was a specialised forum to address the issue and refused to hear the plea mentioned by a counsel in the post lunch sitting of the court.

The weather office's prediction of heavy rains for Saturday gave anxious moments to the organisers who were giving final touches to their preparation for the event that will conclude on Sunday.

"Heavy rain very likely at isolated places over Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi," said an official announcement for March 12 (Saturday) by the India Meteorological Department.

The NGT had on Wednesday imposed an initial fine of Rs.5 crore on AoL headed by spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and said it should be held liable for restoration of "damage caused to environment, ecology, biodiversity and aquatic life of the river".

A day later, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said in a TV interview that he will not mind going to jail if the court wants him to.

Asked if he would go to jail for refusing to pay the fine for the three-day World Culture Festival here, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said: "Yes, I will."

"The structure created for the event is temporary and will be dismantled after the event. We wanted to create awareness about Yamuna through this event," he added.

During its brief hearing on Thursday, the NGT asked the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) if they had issued directions to AoL for the event in accordance with its Wednesday's order.

DPCC said in its reply that "directions will be issued soon after the expert committee completes the inspection of the site".

The expert committee comprising senior officials from Central Pollution Control Board, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Ministry of Water Resources and DPCC inspected the Yamuna flood plains on Thursday.

"The Art of Living has not got the permission from the department of Water resources, Delhi Police, department of fire control and safety for the event. We will move the application in the tribunal regarding the safety of the stage and the venue tomorrow (Friday) morning if required," Sanjay Parikh told reporters after the hearing.

Parikh is counsel of Manoj Misra of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan which filed a petition with the NGT against holding of the festival.

In Goa, Congress demanded an apology from Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar for use of army in making pontoon bridges on Yamuna.

In its order on Wednesday, the NGT had also imposed a fine of Rs.5 lakh on Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and Rs.1 lakh on the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) for failing to discharge their duties.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said key documents related to the Ishrat Jahan case have gone missing and accused the previous Congress-led government of a flip-flop over the controversial 2004 shootout that killed the alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba woman operative.

"Two letters from the then home secretary to the attorney general in 2009 have gone missing. The then attorney general had vetted two affidavits regarding the case. Those are also not available," Rajnath Singh told the Lok Sabha on Thursday, replying to a brief debate on the controversial June 15, 2004, shootout.

He said that the government has launched an "internal inquiry" to find the missing documents "which will bring all the facts out" in the open.

Without naming Congress's P. Chidambaram, Rajnath Singh alleged that affidavits regarding the case were corrected on the intervention of the then home minister and reaffirmed that an investigation has found that the Thane girl was a terrorist -- a claim also seconded by American-Pakistani terrorist David Coleman Headley in his deposition.

"I am pained to say that there was a flip-flop on Ishrat Jahan case during the previous UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government," Rajnath Singh said, amid a pandemonium by some opposition members.

"She was described as an LeT terrorist in the first affidavit filed in the Gujarat High Court but unfortunately the facts were given another dimension in an additional affidavit which was filed a month later. It seems an attempt was made to weaken the case."

The minister also accused the previous government of hatching a conspiracy to malign the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and his government.

"The affidavit was changed to malign the Gujarat government, the then chief minister. A conspiracy was hatched to drag him into the case."

Rajnath Singh said that government was not relying solely on the testimony of Headley - a Lashkar operative who scouted terror targets before the 2008 Mumbai terror attack. Headley is currently in a US jail from where he was questioned by an Indian magistrate last month through videoconferencing. The Pakistani-American terrorist said he had heard his LeT handlers talk about a girl in India named Ishrat.

The controversy over the case flared up again after Headley made the startling claim on February 11 this year about the 2004 Gujarat encounter -- the already murky Ishrat Jahan case has become even murkier.

Rajnath Singh alleged that the previous government had tried to give a political and communal colour to terrorism in India and reminded the Congress of the "saffron terror" label given to describe acts of violence allegedly committed by Hindu nationalists.

"Saffron terror was the previous government's term. Colour, creed and religion are not linked to terrorism. They gave a communal colour to terrorism. This is opportunistic secularism."

He said that the whole world was battling "the menace of terrorism" and "there should not be over it".

--Indo-Asian News Servcie

bns/sar/vt
Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said key documents related to the Ishrat Jahan case have gone missing and the government is holding an internal inquiry over the change of affidavit and missing of letters and documents in connection with it.

He also accused the previous Congress-led government of a flip-flop over the controversial 2004 shootout that killed the alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba woman operative.

"Two letters from the then home secretary to the attorney general in 2009 have gone missing. The then attorney general had vetted two affidavits regarding the case. Those are also not available," Rajnath Singh told the Lok Sabha on Thursday, replying to a brief debate on the controversial June 15, 2004, shootout.

He said that the government has launched an "internal inquiry" to find the missing documents "which will bring all the facts out" in the open.

Without naming Congress leader P. Chidambaram, Rajnath Singh alleged that affidavits regarding the case were corrected on the intervention of the then home minister and reaffirmed that an investigation has found that the Thane girl was a terrorist -- a claim also seconded by American-Pakistani terrorist David Coleman Headley in his deposition.

"I am pained to say that there was a flip-flop on Ishrat Jahan case during the previous UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government," Rajnath Singh said, amid a pandemonium by some opposition members.

"She was described as an LeT terrorist in the first affidavit filed in the Gujarat High Court but unfortunately the facts were given another dimension in an additional affidavit which was filed a month later. It seems an attempt was made to weaken the case."

The minister also accused the previous government of hatching a conspiracy to malign the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and his government.

"The affidavit was changed to malign the Gujarat government, the then chief minister. A conspiracy was hatched to drag him into the case."

Rajnath Singh said that government was not relying solely on the testimony of Headley - a Lashkar operative who scouted terror targets before the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.

Headley is currently in a US jail from where he was questioned by an Indian magistrate last month through videoconferencing. The Pakistani-American terrorist said he had heard his LeT handlers talk about a girl in India named Ishrat.

He also accused the opposition party of playing cheap over Ishrat Jahan case.

"Headley's deposition proved that Jahan was a terrorist and this fact was also mentioned in the first affidavit filed in Gujarat High Court," he said.

The controversy over the case flared up again after Headley made the startling claim on February 11 this year about the 2004 Gujarat shootout -- the already murky Ishrat Jahan case has become even murkier.

Rajnath Singh alleged that the previous government had tried to give a political and communal colour to terrorism in India and reminded the Congress of the "saffron terror" label given to describe acts of violence allegedly committed by Hindu nationalists.

"Saffron terror was the previous government's term. Colour, creed and religion are not linked to terrorism. They gave a communal colour to terrorism. This is opportunistic secularism."

He said the whole world was battling "the menace of terrorism" and "there should not be over it".

Earlier, Rajnath Singh said in his statement that the then union government in its seceond affidavit to the High Court did not mention the reason.

"The notings on the concerned file do not provide any reason for filing of the affidavit on September 29, 2009. It has been mentioned in the affidavit that the further affidavit was being made in view of subsequent developments in relation to the issues connected with the petition and to clarify apprehensions expressed in regard to the affidavit filed by government on August 6, 2009, as well as to refute attempts to misinterpret portions of the affidavit."

Participating in the discussion, BJP member Satyapal Singh, who had once headed the Special Investigation Team, alleged that one of the senior Congress leaders called him and allured if he does as per the desire of then Home Minister.

"I got a call from one of the top Congress leaders, who said that home minister has selected you especially for a mission and that mission is to prove the entire case a lie and have to reach up to Gujrat chief minister," he said.

"I was allured. I told this to then Chief Minister of Maharashtra and his secretary," he said.

Satyapal Singh also clarified why he left to continue as the chairman of the SIT.

"Neither Congress nor BJP can pressurise me. I thought, whatever report I will submit, I will be targeted. So I made excuses of not knowing Gujrati and left," he said.

"I even told the home minister that I can't work under such circumstances," he added.

Biju Janata Dal (BJD) member Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo accused both the BJP and the Congress of doing vote bank over the case.

"The UPA did vote bank politics and now the present government is doing the same. In all these credibility of IB and CBI was destroyed," he said.

Terming the Ishrat Jahan shootout as extra judicial killing, the BJD leader said that she was killed in a fake encounter.
Hardening its stand on the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue, the Punjab government on Thursday said it will bring in a legislation to de-acquire the land acquired from farmers and give it back to them to ensure the state does not have to share more water with other states.

The state government and leading political parties made it clear that Punjab will block any move by the central government to force the state to share more water with other states, especially Haryana.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said a Bill would be introduced in the current budget session of the state assembly for de-acquisition of land acquired for the canal and handing it back to farmers after nearly four decades.

"We will not allow a drop of water to flow out of Punjab. I will protect state's natural resources and uphold its riparian right till the last drop of water is left in my body," Badal told the assembly.

Badal moved a resolution in the assembly on Thursday which said that "Punjab will not accept any unjust decision on SYL and river waters".

Stating that "Punjab has not a single drop of water to spare", the resolution said that "violation of Riparian principle is unconstitutional and therefore unacceptable".

The resolution said that Punjab had always been discriminated against by the central government on various issues, especially water sharing.

Describing the situation as "extremely grave and dangerous", Badal made it clear that "Punjab is not to tolerate nor allow any unjust decision on SYL and river waters to be forcibly imposed on Punjab".

All Congress legislators present in the assembly were earlier suspended from the assembly for one day as they wanted more points in the resolution moved by the chief minister and protested in the well of the house.

The Supreme Court had accepted a petition filed by the Haryana government for early hearing on the issue of the SYL canal, on which a presidential reference was pending.

Both Punjab and Haryana have been locked in a bitter war of words over sharing of river waters. The apex court is hearing the matter when Punjab is less than a year away from 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, which 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.
After the Patna High Court refused to hear his anticipatory bail plea, RJD legislator Raj Ballabh Yadav, accused of raping a schoolgirl, surrendered on Thursday in a court in Bihar, police said.

Yadav, who represents Nawada constituency in the Bihar assembly, turned up at the court in Biharsharief in Nalanda district, about 100 km from here, and surrendered, a police official said.

"After Yadav surrendered, the court sent him to judicial custody for 14 days," the official said.

Yadav is charged with raping a school-going minor girl in Biharsharief on February 6.

Yadav was absconding for many days after the victim filed a police complaint accusing him of raping her. While on the run, he was petitioning courts to try to get anticipatory bail.

Last week, a lower court rejected his anticipatory bail plea. Four of his accomplices have been arrested.

Earlier, the legislator's two houses, one each in Nawada and Patna, were attached in compliance with an order of the court.

Yadav's 13 bank accounts have been sealed. The police also said it has started the process of auctioning his plots at different places.

The authorities also suspended the licences of three firearms Yadav possessed.

According to the police complaint, a woman, Sulekha Devi, took the girl to an undisclosed location in Nalanda and forced her to have liquor, after which she was raped by a man, later identified as Yadav.

After she was raped, the girl said the woman gave her Rs.30,000.
Sheela Sinha, a former sister-in-law of BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha, was on Thursday found hanging at her house in an upscale Gurgaon area, police said.

The 60-year-old was found hanging from a ceiling fan in her house in Sector 51. Police said they came in after neighbours complained about foul smell.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Hawa Singh told IANS that the main door of the woman's house was broken to enter the premises.

The woman's daughter Bharti lives in Ahmadabad while businessman-son Bharti Hindu is based in Bangalore, Hawa Singh said.

A source said Sinha may have died nearly a week ago. Police said she lived alone and had no domestic help.

Sheela's former husband Bharat Sinha is based in London. The couple separated around 25-years ago.
German engineering giant announced that it plans to cut 2,500 jobs worldwide in order to improve competitiveness, the media reported on Thursday.

A total of about 2,500 jobs worldwide, of which 2,000 are in Germany, primarily in Bavaria, will be affected by the realignment, Xinhua reported citing a statement released on the company's official website on Wednesday.

stated that current locations will be retained, repeating that the main goal of the planned measures is to consolidate the activities and optimise the size of manufacturing locations in Europe in order to improve competitiveness in a market environment that continues to be difficult.

"Plunging demand in raw materials markets has led to a significant intensification of competition, particularly in Asia. To guarantee our competitiveness, we've got to adapt to these conditions," said Juergen Brandes, chief executive of Siemens' process industries and drives division.
A Samajwadi Party legislator, Mohammad Irfan, was killed on Thursday along with his driver and a party leader when their car met with an accident in Uttar Pradesh, police said.

Irfan, who represents Billari constituency in Moradabad, was on his way to attend the wedding of cabinet minister Shivpal Yadav's son in Saifai when the accident took place in Budayun.

Police said his driver lost control of the vehicle near Kachla Ghat in Budayun. The car turtled before hitting a tree.

A Samajwadi Party leader, K.P. Yadav, and the driver, whose name was not known, also died in the crash.

The legislator's son Faheem and a police guard were critically wounded and were rushed to a nearby medical facility. Faheem was later shifted to Delhi for further treatment.
The upcoming assembly elections in five states will "have a bearing on the future course of national politics", the CPI-M said on Thursday.

An editorial in the CPI-M journal "People's Democracy" said it would be "a tough proposition" for the BJP to do well in Assam and show that it was a growing force in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.

Staggered elections in the five states will begin on April 4 and end on May 16. The vote count will take place on May 19.

"These elections are important not only because it will determine who will form the state governments there, but it will also have a bearing on the future course of national politics," it said.

"The BJP alliance, which has a comfortable majority in the Lok Sabha, has not been able to maintain the momentum.

"After the initial victories in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Haryana assembly elections, the BJP began to lose ground," it said, referring to the defeats in Delhi and Bihar last year.

"This time around, the BJP is not a major force in these states, except for Assam.

"But apart from doing well in Assam, it has to show that it is a growing force in the other states. This is going to be a tough proposition."

For the Left, including the Communist Party of India-Marxist, these elections were crucial because of West Bengal and Kerala, the editorial said.

It said the Left was "poised to deal a terminal blow" to the Congress-led government in Kerala "and to set the state on a fresh path".

In West Bengal, it said, the Left was "fighting an arduous struggle in defence of democracy and against hoodlum terror".
A 28-year-old student from Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh committed suicide here on Thursday, police said, clarifying he was not a JNU student.

The police had earlier described Dushyant Dixit as a doctoral scholar of the Jawaharlal Nehru University. They later said he was a student of M.Sc in a private university in Bareilly.

Dixit was found hanging on Thursday morning from a ceiling fan at his paying guest accommodation in Ber Sarai in south Delhi.

The police said Dixit, who hailed from Dhaneta village in Bareilly, was disturbed over some family problems. A suicide note was recovered.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Prem Nath told IANS that Dixit lived alone in the room.

A friend came to meet him at around 9 a.m. When there was no response to his knocking, he peeped in through a window, only to see Dixit hanging, Prem Nath said.

Police said they were mistakenly led to believe that he was a student of JNU by another student who lived nearby.

"The reason behind Dixit's suicide has no links with JNU or his studies," the officer said. He reportedly came to Delhi to take the help of a JNU professor to complete his project.

The JNU too denied that Dixit was its student.

"The JNU administration expresses deep condolences to the family members of Dushyant. It is clarified that the deceased is not a student of JNU," a statement from the university said.

Ber Sarai, located close to the JNU campus, has a significant population of JNU students.
India has sought a probe into the death of an Indian medical student after he was attacked by unidentified people in a Russian city while on a business trip, a senior government official said on Thursday.

Yaasir Javed, hailing from Srinagar, died on March 8 after being comatose following the attack earlier this month in Kazan city of the Tatarstan republic.

"The Indian embassy has sought an investigation into the circumstances leading to the death of an innocent person and the filing of a criminal case," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said at a media briefing here.

Giving details of the incident, Swarup said that Javed was on a business trip for participation in a local trade exhibition in Kazan.

Javed reached Russia on February 26 and was allegedly attacked by some unknown people on March 3.

"A team from the embassy of India was immediately sent to Kazan. They are presently there assisting in expediting the documentation formalities for transfer of the mortal remains to India as soon as possible," Swarup said.

"The embassy team met officials at the hospital, the investigator of the case and the police department to facilitate the early release of the body and to ensure proper investigation of the case," he said, adding that the Russian foreign ministry has also been approached to help release the body.

The victim's brother has gone to Kazan and the body is expected to be brought to India by Friday, the spokesman said.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar will attend Saarc meetings scheduled to be held at Pokhara in Nepal later this month.

"Joint secretary (Saarc), Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will be proceeding to Nepal for Saarc-related meetings in Pokhara between March 14 and 17," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said at a media briefing here on Thursday.

While the 52nd session of the programming committee of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc), which is a director general or joint secretary-level forum, will be held on March 14-15, the 42nd session of the standing committee, which is a foreign secretaries-level forum, will be held on March 16.

"These meetings will prepare the ground for the 37th session of the council of ministers on March 17 which will be attended by the foreign ministers of Saarc," Swarup said.

"The last round of meetings was held in Kathmandu in November 2014 prior to the 18th Saarc summit."

The spokesman said that these meetings would offer an opportunity for a comprehensive review of the decisions that have been taken across all Saarc forums over the last one-and-a-half years.

"Our focus would be not only to take stock of these decisions but also work out a way forward on priority issues where a coordinated approach was necessary," he said.

The status of the agreements that were close to finalisation at the last summit but could not be concluded will also come up for review.

According to Swarup, India is going to seek the views of the other Saarc members on key initiatives mooted by New Delhi in the last summit like the Saarc satellite and the e-knowledge network project.

"As is customary, the working of various Saarc specialised bodies and regional centres will be scrutinised during the meetings and directions given for their work over the coming year," he said.
Suspected debris of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, found in Mozambique, was brought in Malaysia for analysis, officials said on Thursday.

The debris would be analysed by experts to determine if it came from the missing flight, Xinhua quoted Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai as saying.

He said initial analysis of the debris would be done in Malaysia before it is sent to Australia for further verification.

Flight disappeared on March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, most of them were Chinese nationals.

A search in South Indian Ocean, where the flight presumably ended its journey, was yet to find the flight's wreckage.

A wing part called flaperon was discovered in the French overseas territory of re-union Island in the Indian Ocean in July 2015 and was determined to have been a part of the Boeing 777.
Geneva, March 10 (IANS/EFE) The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, confirmed on Wednesday that substantive talks will start on March 14 with the delegations from the Syrian government and opposition.

De Mistura noted the talks will focus on forming a transitional government formation, drafting a new constitution and holding general elections within 18 months.

The special envoy denied that the ceasefire in force in Syria will end on March 18 midnight, stressing that it is an indefinite cessation of hostilities "from the point of view" of the United Nations.

He pointed out that negotiations will focus on finding "a political solution" to the Syrian conflict, rather that concentrating on issues relating to the cessation of hostilities or access of humanitarian aid.

De Mistura said that the talks will not last "beyond March 24."

The negotiations will be resumed seven or 10 days after March 24, so that each delegation can hold internal consultations, especially for the groups representing the opposition.

--IANS/EFE

vr
Indigenous Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, which won appreciation at the Bahrain Air Show putting India on the global map for aircraft manufacturing, will now be showcasing its firepower at the Indian Air Force's Firepower Demonstration - Iron Fist.

Tejas, a single-jet engine, multi-role light fighter developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, will be seen firing Russian R-73 missiles and Laser Guided Bombs at the exercise which will be held at Pokhran in the Thar desert on March 18.

The exercise will be attended by President Pranab Mukherjee and, according to sources, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also be present.

One squadron of the fighter, which the IAF expects will get operational clearance soon, is expected to be inducted in the force later this year.

Also on public display for the first time will be the Astra air-to-air missile, being developed by DRDO, and the Akash missile system which will fire the Akash missile in public view for the first time.

Iron Fist 2016 will see the participation of 181 aircraft, 103 of which are fighter planes.

The demonstrations include firing of lethal ordnance, combat and combat support demonstrations.

"This will be a display of the day-and-night capabilities of the Indian Air Force. We did not have this in the last decade. During the Kargil war, we did not have it," Vice Chief of Indian Air Force Air Marshal B.S. Dhanoa said at a press conference here.

"It will showcase our ability to deter aggression," he said.

The IAF also highlighted that the exercise, that was being held after three years, was being held within the annual training budget of the force.

Meanwhile, even as the event is set to see presence of several dignitaries, including defence attaches from various countries, the IAF confirmed that Pakistan and China have not been invited.

The defence attaches of Pakistan and China have not been invited to the Indian Air Force's power demonstration exercise Iron Fist, the IAF said on Thursday.

"We have invited defence attaches but not those of Pakistan and China," Dhanoa said.

He said this was a "collective decision of MEA (ministry of external affairs) and MOD (ministry of defence)" to leave out the defence attaches of the two countries from the mega exercise.

The last Iron Fist held in 2013 was the Indian Air Force's first day-night exercise, and more than 100 aircraft and 30 different weapon platforms were showcased.

The exercise is aimed at displaying network-centric operations capabilities of the Indian Air Force.
Telangana, India's youngest state, is targeting to achieve 15 percent growth rate in 2016-17 to emerge as the number one state in the country.

Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan stated this in his address to the joint session of the assembly on the first day of the budget session on Thursday.

Listing out programmes and schemes launched by the government in the last 22 months, he said it was trying hard to usher in an era of unprecedented prosperity for all and "targeting to achieve a growth of 15 percent in GSDP in 2016-17 to make Telangana the number one state in the country".

He said the economy of the state was expected to grow at 11.7 percent in 2015-16 as per the advanced estimates of the state's gross domestic product as against the projected national growth of 8.6 percent.

"Telangana's GSDP is estimated to be Rs.5.83 lakh crore in 2015-16 at current prices which marks an important milestone in the growth of state economy," he said.

"In the second financial year, my government created a record by endorsing an annual budget of more than Rs.1.15 lakh crore for fiscal 2015-16 with plan allocation of more than Rs.52,000 crore.

"Under this the per capita plan allocation has almost doubled compared to financial year 2013-14 in the combined state. This is by itself testimony of commitment of my government to significantly improve public spending for development of the state," he said.

Narasimhan said the state recorded commendable progress in all sectors.

He said although the primary sector involving agriculture and allied activities was likely to register a meager growth of 0.8 percent due to adverse seasonal conditions in 2015-16, the secondary sector involving industries and manufacturing was likely grow at 8.3 percent and services sector was likely to grow at 14.9 percent over the previous year.

He noted that as per advance estimates of 2015-16, the per capita income of the state at current prices was likely to increase to Rs.1,43,023 from Rs.1,29,182 in 2014-15 as against the national per capita income of Rs.93,231.

He told the legislature that the industry sector was expected to grow at 11 percent in 2015-16 which will put Telangana in the league of fastest growing industrialised states.

The state also conceived a unique information and communication technology policy to make Telangana most favoured investment destination for technology and electronic manufacturing in the country.

"Very soon four top most IT companies in the world will set up large development centres outside of the US in Hyderabad," he said.

The IT sector, which contributes substantially to GSDP and employment, recorded huge exports of Rs.68,258 crore through 1,300 IT units including 500 global companies, registering an impressive 16 percent growth, the highest in country, he added.
American animated series "The Powerpuff Girls" is all set to return on cable television channel Cartoon Network right across Asia Pacific in an all-new series on April 9, just days after the global premiere in the US.

In addition to the debut in 85 million homes on Cartoon Network, Turner's other kids channels in the region -- Boomerang, Toonami and POGO -- will also air the premiere at the same time as Oh!K, TCM Turner Classic Movies, Warner TV and truTV. Simultaneously, channels operated by affiliate partners, notably Astro Ceria in Malaysia and TV5 in Philippines, will also be a part of the launch.

"'The Powerpuff Girls' will be simply everywhere! Whatever channel you turn to on April 9, and whatever screen you're using, there will be Blossom, Buttercup and Bubbles saving the day before bedtime!

"We've waited a long time to see these super-cute and super-fierce girls return to action, and the all-new series marks the return for one of Cartoon Network's best loved franchises," Mark Eyers, chief content officer-kids, Turner Asia Pacific, said in a statement.

Superhero-sisters Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup are known to their fellow citizens of Townsville as "The Powerpuff Girls". Together, they protect their beautiful, bustling metropolis from sinister evildoers, intent on taking over.

One of Cartoon Network's most enduring original series, the initial run of The Powerpuff Girls, created by Craig McCracken, premiered in 1996 and earned two Emmy Awards along with five nominations and countless animation honours throughout its 78-episodes.

The series also spawned a feature film with Warner Bros. Pictures in 2002.
There was uproar in the Bihar legislative assembly on Thursday as legislators slammed Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray and demanded action over his remarks to burn auto-rickshaws of non-Marathis in Mumbai.

Cutting across party lines, legislators of the ruling Grand Alliance - Janata Dal-United (JD-U), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress - and opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies slammed Raj Thackeray and demanded action against him.

Soon after the assembly began, legislators raised the issue in the house.

Some legislators also raised slogans against Raj Thackeray in and outside the state assembly.

Senior JD-U leader Shayam Rajak said the country will not accept Raj Thackeray's remarks.

"Raj Thackeray is also a champion of Hindutva of RSS and BJP. He has exposed the mindset of Hindutva again," he said.

Congress leader Ajit Sharma said the government should take legal action against him for creating hate against Hindi-speaking people in Mumbai.

BJP leader Vinod Narayan Jha said Raj Thackeray's statement is not in favour of an united country.

Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) spokesperson Danish Rizwan said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should take notice of it.

"Raj Tackeray's statement will only create hate in the country," Rizwan added.
An official of a California-based auction house pleaded guilty of smuggling carvings and other items made from protected wildlife worth $1 million.

Joseph Chait, a senior auction administrator of the I.M. Chait gallery and auction house, pleaded guilty to smuggling elephant ivory, rhinoceros horn and coral in a New York federal court, prosecutors said on Wednesday. He could face up to 10 years in prison under two related charges, Xinhua news agency reported.

Prosecutors said he falsified customs forms to show that items made from protected wildlife were made of bone, wood or plastic.

He also helped overseas clients smuggle such items out of the US.

According to sources, one carving made from rhino horn was auctioned for $230,000.

The announcement came on the same day as the International Union for Conservation of Nature said in a statement that more than 1,300 rhinos were poached in Africa last year, a record since 2008 when trade in rhino horns became banned in South Africa.

The country is reportedly home to 20,000 rhinos, or 80 percent of the world's rhino population.
The US military deployed three B-2 bombers on a training mission in the Asia-Pacific region, the media reported on Thursday.

The B-2s would "integrate and conduct training with ally and partner air forces," US Strategic Command announced on Wednesday.

The US Strategic Command is responsible for US nuclear forces. B-2 bombers are capable of launching nuclear as well as conventional weapons, Xinhua news agency reported.

"These flights ensure that we remain ready to deter strategic attack, now and in the future," the Strategic Command said.

The US move came amid growing tensions in the Korean Peninsula after North Korea's nuclear test on January 6 and long-range rocket launch on February 7.

On March 2, the UN Security Council unanimously approved tougher sanctions on Pyongyang, including a ban on all cargo heading to and from North Korea and its exports of coal and mineral resources.

Council members also called for an early resumption of the Six-Party Talks.
While there are some promising benefits to using yoga, there is not yet enough evidence to support the practice as a standalone solution for improving mental health and well-being, says a study.

"I really wanted to know if yoga is something we should be suggesting to people who have post-traumatic stress disorder, or depression, or anxiety or various traumas. What does the evidence really say?" said one of the researchers Rebecca Macy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the US.

For their study, Macy and her colleagues analysed 13 literature reviews to conduct a meta-review of 185 articles published between 2000 and 2013.

Overall, the researchers found that yoga holds potential promise for helping reduce anxiety, depression, PTSD and/or the psychological consequences of trauma at least in the short term. But yoga alone may not be a solution for mental health problems related to trauma

The study, published recently in the journal Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, also suggested that clinicians and service providers consider recommending yoga as an intervention in addition to other "evidence-based and well-established treatments," including psychotherapy and medication.

"Even though I do think yoga is, in general, incredibly beneficial, I also think there needs to be a whole lot more education about how to use yoga specifically to treat survivors of trauma in order to be the most effective and helpful," said Leslie Roach, a certified yoga instructor and massage therapist who co-authored the study.

"So as a standalone treatment right now, it's just not viable. However, I think with more education, more research, and more experienced instructors, it will be," Roach noted.
Actress Melanie Griffith, daughter of actress Tippi Hedren and former stage actor Peter Griffith, says that once you reach 40, you don't get much work in Hollywood.

"By the time you're 40 in Los Angeles, you're over the hill in the business," Griffith, 58, told people.com. "It takes women that are strong enough to actually change the perception."

Griffith, nominated for an Oscar in 1989 for her performance in the women-in-the-workplace empowerment classic "Working Girl", cites Zoe Cassavetes, the director of her latest film "Day Out of Days", as one example.

"Day Out of Days" sheds light on what it really takes to survive in Tinseltown.

Griffith plays an unstable mother to 40-year-old actress Mia Roarke, essayed by Alexia Landeau. The film shows the less glamorous side of the business.

"People should know it's really f*****g hard. It's tough, it's not glamorous like it's portrayed. Some of it is glamorous, but honestly, unless you can really enjoy your work, it's too tough.

"The payback is being able to play and do your job and have fun with it because otherwise it's just too brutal, there's too much judgment and criticism, opinions, it's just brutal," Griffith said.
Dinesh Thakur, the whistleblower whose intervention led Ranbaxy to admit that it had falsified data while seeking the approval of the United States Food and Drug Administration, and pay penalty of $500 million to close the case, has taken the Indian drug regulators to court, accusing them of failing to enforce drug safety rules.
The cyber attack on the Ukrainian power grid in the recent past has drawn attention to the explosive growth of the Internet of Things, and consequent security questions. About six billion devices are now connected to the internet and many of these work without human supervision. All sorts of things from home appliances like smart fridges and futuristic smart cars to vast global banking networks, national taxation systems, and national power grids are hooked to the internet. But smarter systems are also more vulnerable to cyber assaults. As of now, critical infrastructure such as toll roads, telecom networks, railway and metro networks, power grids, port installations, and civil aviation navigation networks are all vulnerable to cyber attacks.
A day after a consortium of 13 banks approached the Supreme Court to prevent controversial industrialist Vijay Mallya from leaving the country, the court was told on Wednesday that the former chairman of United Spirits Limited had been in London since March 2. While he may not be able to escape the legal process for long, as the Supreme Court has issued notices to him, the entire saga is an example of how crony capitalism has grown deep roots in the country and how banks have dragged their feet when big names are involved. Several of his lenders have a lot to answer for, if they have to counter the growing perception about their cosy relationship with an errant promoter. Why, for example, did they take four years to move the apex court? How could they lend crores of rupees to Kingfisher when pledged assets were only one-tenth of the value of the loan? Or, as the apex court asked, why were loans given to Mr Mallya when he was a defaulter and was facing legal proceedings? It's also not clear how banks attached such a high value to the Kingfisher Airlines brand and used it as collateral for giving huge loans. The government's promises apart, public sector banks still await an institutional mechanism and an operational environment that can insulate their lending from political and other influences.
The suggestions made by Anjuli Bhargava in her column, "How to prevent students from cheating" (March 8), in the wake of mass copying in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar schools sound impulsive.

Not all schools in these states allow cheating nor do all . Barring all students from taking exams or deducting 10 per cent marks from their final result would punish the innocent ones also. Besides, those who pass exams by cheating aim for careers in their home states as they are likely eliminated during interviews in other states.

Cheating in the schools of the two states has grown due to political support as well as academic capriciousness. The head of the school where mass cheating takes place should be jailed or penalised along with the invigilators. Monetary support to the school could be withdrawn depending on the extent of cheating. Students found cheating should be expelled and barred from admission in all schools for at least a year. Flying squads manned by honest professionals should be appointed to detect cases of cheating.

Y G Chouksey Pune

can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar MargNew Delhi 110 002Fax: (011) 23720201E-mail: letters@bsmail.in
One of the more successful initiatives pursued by India in Nepal and then extended to Sri Lanka and Afghanistan has been the Small Development Projects (SDP) programme. This is a local, community-driven, small-budget but quick-yielding project assistance which enables the extension of tangible economic and social benefits to communities which have the greatest need.
If the response to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's excellent idea of employee stock options (Esop) for public sector bank (PSB) employees was muted, the reason isn't difficult to figure out. The present government announced in August last year that it would consider Esops for bank employees; seven months later, all that Jaitley said at the concluding media conference of Gyan Sangam was that his ministry was still "considering" such a move. One hopes the period of consideration will end soon, as there is no reason why the top executives of PSBs should be denied this privilege.
Putting an end to the rumours and speculations about potential alliances, Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) led by actor-turned politician Vijayakanth, has announced its plans to contest on its own in all the 234 seats in Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu, along with Kerala and Puducherry, are scheduled to go for polling on May 16, 2016.

It may be noted that the major parties including Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) were wooing DMDK for a possible alliance against the ruling Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK.

DMDK, which contested in alliance with AIADMK in the previous legislative assembly elections, became the second largest party in the assembly winning around 29 seats. It has also made an alliance with BJP for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

In a public meeting organised in Chennai on Thursday, announced the decision. He said that he is agreeing to the demand of his partymen who want him to be king and not kingmaker anymore.

Premalatha, his wife and a leader of DMDK made a call for a corruption-free government in the state.
Seventeen naxal cadres, including a woman, surrendered before police in Kondagaon district of insurgency-hit Bastar region today.

In a separate incident in the same region, three ultras, carrying reward of Rs 3 lakh each, were arrested by the police from Dantewada district.

"The 17 cadres, all lower-rung members of the outlawed CPI (Maoist), turned themselves in before senior police officials in Kondagaon district," KondagaonSuperintendent of Police JS Watti told PTI.

They were active as naxal jan-militia members in different parts of the district, the SP said.

Theultras confessed they were frustrated with the high-handedness of senior cadres, particularly from Andhra Pradesh, and by exploitation of the women and of those belonging to lower rank, Watti said.

Besides, they were also impressed with the surrender policy of the Chhattisgarh government, he said.

"Theywill berehabilitated as per the policy of state government and necessary assistance will be provided to them," the officer said.

In another incident, three Maoists, carrying a reward of Rs 3 lakh each on their head, were arrested from Dantewada.

The rebels were apprehended by a joint squad of the District Reserve Group (DRG) and local police from Barsoor police station area, a police official said.

They are identified as Baman Podiyami (30), Mani Poyam (27) and Budhu Barsa (25).

The trio was active as military platoon members in Indravati Area Committee of Abhujmad region, he added.
Seventy-one additional judges of seven high courts were today made permanent judges even as Justice C S Karnan, who recently courted controversy by "staying" CJI's transfer order, was shifted to Calcutta High Court.

Justice Ajit Singh of Rajasthan High Court has been elevated as Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court while Justice Satish Kumar Mittal of Punjab and Haryana High Court has been sent as Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court.

The Supreme Court collegium had recommended their elevation last month.

A set of Law Ministry statements said 29 additional judges from the Bombay High Court, 13 from Calcutta, 11 from Andhra Pradesh/Telangana, six each from Kerala and Chhattisgarh, five from Karnataka and one from Patna stand elevated as permanent judges.

Officials of the Department of Justice present at the press conference of Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda earlier this week had told reporters that out of 89 recommendations to elevate additional judges of high courts as permanent judges, 66 files have been cleared by the government.

They had said 115 names for appointments and elevations are in the pipeline at the moment.

Justice Karnan had on February 15 stayed his transfer order from Madras High Court to Calcutta High Court, a development which took place after the apex court had asked the Chief Justice of Madras High Court not to assign any judicial work to him.

The same day the apex court had suspended Justice Karnan's order and made it clear that all administrative and judicial orders passed by him after the issuance of proposal of his transfer from Madras High Court to Calcutta High Court shall remain stayed till further orders.
Major arterial roads in south and east Delhi are expected to witness severe traffic snarls for the next three days in view of the 'World Culture Festival', events hosted by the Radha Soami Satsang Beas, and more than 20,000 weddings scheduled in the city tomorrow.

The roads identified include the Ring Road stretch in south Delhi, Noida Link Road, NH-24, areas near Akshardham, Mayur Vihar, Mehrauli-Badarpur Road, Asfram Chowk, Aurobindo Marg, Mahipalpur Chowk and Mehrauli-Gurgaon road - all considered major arteries and intersections in south and east Delhi.

Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Muktesh Chander, who is charting out the traffic plan for the three-day cultural extravaganza organised by the Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living Foundation, visited the venue today and took stock of the arrangements.

"Organisers have made provisions for parking on the Yamuna Bank. The space is limited and so, parking will be on a first-come-first-served basis," a senior traffic official said.

"People should preferably take public transport to commute and avoid the Noida Link Road, NH-24 and the Ring Road stretch from the point of intersection with Bhairon Marg till the mouth of the DND Flyway," the official said, adding, congestion can be expected on these stretches between 12 noon and 11 PM.

The official further said, those approaching from the trans-Yamuna side towards central Delhi, should use the ITO Road as Akshardham and NH-24 will be congested.

Commuters from Noida heading towards Delhi should take the DND flyover as traffic on the Noida Link Road is expected to be heavy during the event, he said.

Around 1,700 traffic personnel have been deployed for the event.

"For an event by the Radha Soami Satsang Beas, also to be organised from March 11 to 13, at south Delhi's Fatehpur Beri area, traffic will be heavy near Bhati Mines, Andheria More, Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road, Mehrauli-Badarpur Road, especially the stretch between Lado Sarai and Khanpur, and the road near IIT-Delhi," the senior official said.

In view of the large number of marriage programmes scheduled on Friday, special arrangements will be made near Ashram Chowk and other south Delhi areas that include Mehrauli and Chhatarpur, the official said.
Pakistani-American terrorist will be cross-examined by key 26/11 plotter Abu Jundal's lawyer for four days in the 2008 terror attack case here, beginning from March 22.

"We informed the court that Headley will depose from March 22-25 via video link from an undisclosed location in US, and the court passed an order," Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told PTI.

He also said that if needed Headley might also be re-examined by the prosecution later.

Headley, who has turned an approver, concluded his week-long deposition through video-link on February 13 in which he revealed the role and plans of LeT, ISI and Al Qeada to target India.

Last month, on February 22, Judge G A Sanap had directed Nikam to contact US authorities for Headley's second round of deposition and inform the court by February 25, after which the dates of his testification were to be finalised.

Jundal's lawyer Abdul Wahab Khan had then also sought four days to cross-examine Headley besides moving an application objecting to his being made an approver in the terror attack case.

Earlier on February 13, the day on which Headley's week-long deposition ended, the court had adjourned the case for cross-examination by Jundal's lawyer for a future date.

Headley, who is serving a 35-year jail term in the US in connection with the terror attacks case, had made some startling disclosures during his testimony which began on February 8. He spilled beans on how Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI provides "financial, military and moral support" to terror outfits LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen and how LeT had planned and executed the 26/11 attacks and the role played by ISI officials, involving him too.

He also revealed that LeT had planned an attack at a conference of Indian defence scientists at Taj Mahal Hotel a year before the 26/11 strikes and had even prepared its dummy.

Deposing via a video-link from the US, the 55-year-old terrorist had told the court that --Ishrat Jahan--who was killed in an alleged fake encounter in 2004 in Gujarat--was an operative of LeT.

Headley had also revealed that Al-Qaeda was in touch with him to attack Delhi's Defence College and unravelled the plot by LeT and ISI to target Mumbai airport, BARC and the Naval air station here.

He also visited the Indian Army's Southern Command headquarters at Pune in 2009 on the instructions of ISI's Major Iqbal, who wanted him to recruit some military personnel to get "classified" information, the court was told.
A 35-year-old man, who was declared brain dead, gave a fresh lease of life to two patients by donating his heart and liver.

The donor, who was undergoing treatment for serious injuries in road accident at CHL hospital Indore in Madhya Pradesh was declared brain stem death at 11.45 AM on March 9 following which the doctors consulted his family who agreed to donate his organs.

AIIMS Director Dr M C Misra received a call about the patient following which a team of doctors from cardio-thoracic and vascular sciences centre (CTVS), AIIMS lead by Dr Milind Hote flew to Indore to retrieve the heart the same evening.

"On March 10, the live heart was flown to Delhi. It was was brought to AIIMS from the airport for which a 'green corridor' created at around 10 AM.

"It was transplanted in a 52-year-old woman, a resident of Kalkaji who suffered from Dilated Cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart's ability to pump blood is decreased because the heart's main pumping chamber, the left ventricle, is enlarged and weakened along with with severe Left ventricular dysfunction (LVD)," said AIIMS Director M C Mishra.

The liver was transplanted to a adult at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences(ILBS), who is doing well after the surgery.
Five police personnel, including an assistant sub-inspector (ASI), and a detainee were injured when their vehicle collided with a truck in Kupwara district of north Kashmir.

The accident took place at Drugmulla last evening when the police party along with the detainee was on its way to district jail Kupwara from Awantipora in south Kashmir, a police spokesman said.

Those injured were identified as -- ASI Mushtaq Ahmad, constables Nadeem Ahmad, Mubasir Ahmad, Aijaz Ahmad and driver constable Sakeeb Rasool along with the Mudasir Ahmad Rather who has been detained under NDPS act.

The injured were taken to district hospital Kupwara for treatment from where Mubashir, Aijaz, Rasool and the deteainee Ahmed have been referred to Srinagar for specialised treatment, the spokesman said.
Eight private domestic airlines, including most profitable IndiGo and Tata Sons-invested AirAsia India and Vistara, did not pay dues to the tune of Rs 220.16 crore to Airport Authority of India last year, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

Airlines have to pay a fee for using various facilities/ services such as route navigation, landing and parking among others to the national airports operator AAI.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma told the House that "of the eight carriers, SpiceJet had a maximum outstanding amount of Rs 78.87 crore on this account while another low-cost airline GoAir had to pay dues worth Rs 50.89 crore to the AAI by December last year."



Mumbai-based full service carrier Jet Airways along with its subsidiary JetLite also had amassed dues to the tune of Rs 47.90 crore, according to Sharma.

Gurgaon-based no-frills carrier IndiGo, which reported seventh consecutive year of profitability in the fiscal-end March 31 last year, did not pay Rs 34.81 crore to government-run AAI.

Other carriers like AirAsia India and Air Costa also had not paid dues worth Rs 3.31 crore and Rs 3.81 crore, respectively, the minister said.

Besides, Air Vistara and regional carrier Air Pegasus also had dues of Rs 32 lakh and Rs 89 lakh, respectively, to AAI at the end of December 2015, he said.

According to the policy, dues from privately-owned airlines are monitored on a regular basis and in case of delay, AAI issues notices to the airlines to settle the dues, Sharma said.

AAI also charges penal interest at 12 per cent per annum on the delay in the settlement of these bills.

In cases where delay persists, besides encashing the security amount, the defaulting airlines are put on cash and carry basis. Legal course of action is followed in case over-dues persist, he added.

Sharma also informed the House that AAI extends credit facility to airlines on submission of security deposits equivalent to two months airport charges.
Dissatisfied with Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal's assurance that the culprits behind the Abohar incident in which a Dalit man died after his limbs were chopped off, would not be spared, opposition Congress today staged a walkout from Punjab Assembly.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Congress MLA Sunil Kumar Jakhar alleged that atrocities are being committed on Dalits in the state and sought a discussion on the issue in the Assembly.

"Police had not named the prime accused in the case in the FIR," Jakhar, former CLP leader, said without naming the accused and termed the incident a "heinous" crime.

Jakhar said there were photographs of the prime accused standing with Sukhbir at a foundation laying ceremony.

"A senior police officer of the rank of Station House Officer is in collusion with the prime accused in the case," he said asking how then the aggrieved family could get justice.

Sukhbir, who also holds the Home portfolio, said the state government had taken all possible steps in the case.

"The culprits would not be spared at any cost," he said.

The Deputy Chief Minister told the House that after registration of the FIR in the case, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was constituted to investigate the incident.

Assuring all help to the aggrieved and a fair trial, Sukhbir said 24-25 accused were unnamed in the case but police succeeded in nabbing all 26 culprits.

"Polygraph tests have also been conducted on two conspirators on the orders of court and state police would not show any leniency towards any accused and the guilty would be dealt with as per the law of land," he said.

Sukhbir also said Shiv Lal Doda, the prime accused, was never 'halqa' incharge of SAD and he had contested assembly elections against the SAD-BJP coalition in the past.

The Deputy CM said the police had been directed to complete the inquiry at the earliest and file the charge sheet in the court without any delay.

A 27-year-old Dalit man was brutally murdered and another person critically injured at the farm house of Shiv Lal Doda alias Sholly, a liquor contractor who is believed to be a supporter of SAD, in Fazilka's Abohar constituency in December last year.

Attackers chopped both arms and legs of Bheem Tank and one leg and one arm of his friend, Janta Lahoria.

Following the incident, members of Balmiki Samaj set two liquor vends, belonging to the Doda group, on fire, triggering tension in Abohar.
At least 181 aircraft of the Indian Air Force will come together over Thar desert this month in a breathtaking aerial ballet during Exercise Iron Fist-2016 to showcase the force's combat capability across the entire spectrum of aerial operations.

Defence Attaches from various countries, except those of Pakistan and China, are scheduled to attend the event that will project India's deterrence power.

Asked whether the Defence Attaches of Pakistan and China, will also be part of the diplomatic delegation, Air Marshal B S Dhanoa, Vice Chief of the Air Staff, said "No".

He later explained that this was a joint decision of the Ministry of External Affairs and the Defence Ministry.

A attraction at the exercise, to be held in Pokhran on March 18, would be indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas firing US and Russian-origin missiles.

Dhanoa said the mammoth exercise in Thar desert would involve the participation of 181 aircraft from multiple bases across the country.

All the frontline fighters in IAF's inventory, including the Su-30 MKI, will participate in the exercise.

The Air Marshal said the aim of the exercise is to demonstrate a synchronised "aerial ballet" that would showcase IAF's deadly combat capability over the entire spectrum of aerial operations. The exercise will display the 'capability to punish', he said.

The IAF had demonstrated its day-dusk-night operational capabilities during Iron Fist-2013.

He said the exercise holds special significance as it represents the lethal face of the Indian Air Force in its pre-eminent role as the cutting edge of the nation's military capability.

The exercise will showcase the journey of the IAF's transformation over the years and cover its glorious history.

Glimpses of an exponential increase in the operational capabilities of the air force with focus on the concept of all weather, network-centric operations, precision weapon delivery and ability to deliver lethal firepower would also be on display.

The exercise shall also bring to light the multifaceted nature of Indian Air Force through its ability to showcase itself with aerobatic displays by modern combat aircraft like the Su-30 MKI, Sarang and the Surya Kiran Aerobatic team.

Live demonstration by IAF Garuds and special heliborne operations shall be a highlight of the proceedings that would take place both during day and night.

President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have consented to attend the event.
A day before the controversy- ridden World Culture Festival kicks off, Delhi Police today prepared a status report and listed several shortcomings in the arrangements for the mega event that is being organised by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's foundation.

Security arrangements for the event were heightened today with all 11 police districts and several specialised units roped in amidst an uncertainty regarding the total footfall which the three-day event would witness.

Police are also charting out a traffic plan to make sure that arterial roads in the capital are not clogged during the event.

Police today again inspected the venue and prepared a status report that was submitted to a Joint Secretary-rank official in charge of supervising the security arrangements, a senior official said.

A lack of direction boards, no fencing on the path leading to the venue, especially from Gates Nos 10, 11, which are to be opened for general public, and inadequate CCTV cameras are some of the shortcomings listed in the status report, the official said, adding these matters have been communicated to the organisers.

The report contains dozens of photographs of the site for the event on the Yamuna floodplains and also highlights the absence of fencing and barricading on the pontoon bridges (floating bridges) constructed there despite several reminders to the organisers, the senior official said.

A meeting chaired by the Special Commissioner of Police (Law & Order) was held at the venue today and security for the event was further stepped up.

Around 6,000 personnel from all 11 districts of Delhi Police and its specialised units like the the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and Special Cell will be deployed at the World Culture Festival. A special police control room would also be set up to ensure round-the-clock monitoring.

At least 1,500 officials along with a team of Eagle Commandos will be present at the venue. Another 500 will be pressed into service in and outside the hotel where the dignitaries, guests and artistes will stay.

Specialised units like the Crime Branch, which includes the EOW, and the force's counter-terrorism Special Cell unit have been roped in along with the Intelligence Unit and the Special Branch.

Delhi Police's PM Security Unit is also involved in the process as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other VVIPs are scheduled to visit the event tomorrow.

Earlier this week, Delhi Police received inputs about threats to the event, following which it was decided to further step up the security arrangements.

All arrangements are being closely monitored by the 80,000 -strong force's top brass, the senior official said, adding that quick response teams and Special Weapons & Tactic Teams have also been deployed.

Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Muktesh Chander, who is charting out the traffic plan for the event, also visited the venue today to take stock of the arrangements.

"Organisers have made provisions for parking on the Yamuna bank and they have parking labels. The space is limited and, so, parking will be on a first-come-first-served basis," he said.

"People should preferably take public transport to commute and avoid the Noida Link Road, NH-24 and the Ring Road stretch from the point of intersection with Bhairon Marg till the mouth of the DND Flyway," a traffic official said, adding that congestion can be expected on these stretches between 12 noon and 11 PM.

The official further said, those approaching from the trans-Yamuna region towards central Delhi should use the ITO road as Akshardham and NH-24 will be congested.

Commuters from Noida heading towards Delhi should take the DND flyway as traffic on the Noida link road is expected to be heavy during the event, he added.
Shareholders of ArcelorMittal today approved increasing the company's authorised share capital, a step towards launching its proposed rights offering.

The resolution to "increase the company's authorised share capital including the authorisation to limit or cancel the shareholders' preferential subscription rights," has been cleared by the shareholders, the company said in a press release.

The shareholders also approved the resolution "to reduce the share capital of the company without distribution to shareholders, in order to reduce the par value of the shares in the company to an amount of 10 euro cents per share (approved with 98.97 per cent of the vote).

The company further said the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of ArcelorMittal shareholders, held today in Luxembourg, approved both resolutions with a large majority.

ArcelorMittal's USD 3 billion rights issue is expected to open on March 14 as the steel giant tries to reduce debt after its losses widened seven-fold in 2015 to USD 7.9 billion.

Last month, the Luxembourg-headquartered steelmaker had announced plans to reduce its USD 15.7 billion net debt by nearly a quarter.

Steel shipments for Q4 2016 of 20.0 million metric tonnes



were 1.6 per cent higher as compared to 19.7 million metric tonnes for the same quarter in 2015.

"On a comparable basis (considering the sale of long steel producing subsidiaries in the US...And Zaragoza in Spain...Total steel shipments for Q4 2016 were 2.8 per cent higher as compared with 19.5 million metric tonnes for Q4 2015," ArcelorMittal said in a statement.

Sales in the October-December quarter of 2016 were 1.0 per cent higher as compared to corresponding quarter of 2015 primarily due to higher steel shipment volumes, higher average steel selling prices and higher iron ore reference prices offset in part by lower market-priced iron ore shipments, it said.

Depreciation was lower in fourth quarter 2016 as compared to the three-month period in the preceding year primarily due to a decreased asset base following impairments recorded at the end of 2015 and foreign exchange impacts.

Impairment charges for the fourth quarter in 2016 were USD 156 million related to the Vanderbijlpark and Saldanha plants in South Africa.

"Impairment charges for Q4 2015 were USD 4.7 billion including USD 0.9 billion with respect to mining segment goodwill and USD 3.8 billion primarily related to fixed assets," the company said.

On the outlook, the company said the global apparent steel consumption is estimated to have expanded by one per cent in 2016. Based on the current economic outlook, the company said that it expects global apparent steel consumption to grow further in 2017 by 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent.

The capex spend in 2017 is expected to increase to USD 2.9 billion (from USD 2.4 billion in 2016) as the group seeks to capitalise on opportunities to grow value and returns.
Archdiocese of Bhopal today condemned the killing of four nuns in a terrorist attack in Yemen and requested the central government to provide security to Indians working abroad.

The Archdiocese also deplored the vandalisation of a prayer hall serving as church in Raipur on Sunday.

In a statement issued here today, the Archdiocese PRO Fr. Maria Stephen condemned the incident that occurred in Aden city in the strife-torn country, wherein terrorists stormed an care home for elderly run by Kolkata-based Missionaries of Charity on March 4 and shot dead four nuns among others.

One of the nuns hailed from Jharkhand.

Stephen also appealed to the administration to take stern action against the culprits of church vandalisation.
Unidentified armed robbers snatched cash, gold ornaments and a mobile phone from three persons of a family at gunpoint near Lahchora village here, police said today.

The incident occurred yesterday when the three accused stopped the vehicle of Surjeet Kumar of Keltha village while he was going to attend a marriage ceremony with his mother and sister, they said.

Police said the robbers allegedly looted two gold chains, two earrings, two gold rings, a mobile phone and Rs 5,000 at gunpoint.

An FIR has been lodged in this regard and efforts are underway to apprehend the accused, they said.

Meanwhile, BJP District President Dinesh Vashishtha and former Etah MLA Shishu Pal Singh Yadav condemned the incident said that there was complete failure of law and order in the state.

Earlier also an army-man and a businessman were robbed in broad daylight but police failed to arrest the accused, they said.
:Puducherry Assembly adjourned sine die today after transacting scheduled business, including passing of Appropriation (Vote on Account) Bill,earmarking Rs 3,550 crore from the Consolidated Fund for the first six months (April-September) of fiscal 2016-17.

The Bill was tabled earlier by Chief Minister N Rangasamy.

The statement of objects and reasons of the Bill said the sum has been earmarked to enable government meet expenditure for the first six months (April-September) of 2016-17 fiscal.

A full fledged budget could not be presented in view of the model code now in force before the May 16 Assembly polls.

Earlier five of seven Congress legislators, led by leader of the Opposition V Vaithilingam, staged a walkout in protest against denial of permission to discuss the statement showing estimate of supplementary expenditure for fiscal 2015-16, tabled by the Chief Minister.

The two Congress legislators 'Theni C Jayakumar and P N R Tirumurugan remaned in the House till the end of proceedings.

Before the walkout Vaithilingam argued with the Speaker, stating that when the House was seeking permission for expenditure of more than Rs 120 crore already incurred under 'Revenue' for fiscal 2015-16, there should be a detailed discussion to know various aspects of the expenditure.

He also said the expenditure of Rs 100 crore incurred under 'pension scheme' should also be discussed.

The Speaker however reminded Vaithilingam he was a senior member and on most occasions in the past there had been no discussion while seeking permission for approval of the supplementary expenditure.

Though the Speaker asked him to ensure a happy conclusion of the session, Vaithilingam and colleagues K Lakshminarayanan and A Namassivayam insisted on a detailed discussion. Alleging there was no positive response to their pleas for a debate, the five Congress legislators staged a walkout and did not turn up till the session came to a close.

Before adjourning the House sine die, the CM and the Speaker thanked members for their cooperation in conducting proceedings in all the sessions of the house that came into existence in the wake of the polls held in 2011.

The CM listed the government's achievements and claimed that all promises had been fulfilled.
A Bahraini court jailed three people for life and sentenced another to 15 years today for attacking a bus during a protest in a Shiite village.

Sunni-ruled Bahrain has been shaken by unrest since it quelled a month-long Shiite-led uprising demanding reforms five years ago.

Quoted by the official BNA agency, prosecutor Ahmed al-Hammadi said the four had attacked the bus during a protest that blocked a highway near the Shiite village of Sanabis in November 2014.

The four intercepted the approaching bus during the protest, set it alight and opened fire on its driver "in an attempt to kill him and those aboard," Hammadi said.

No casualties were reported in the incident and it was unclear why the protesters may have targeted the bus, which the statement said belonged to a private company in Bahrain.

Tiny but strategic Bahrain, which is 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.
Bangladesh's central bank has confirmed that its account at the US Federal Reserve Bank was hacked and over USD 100 million stolen from foreign reserve.

A Bangladesh Bank spokesman confirmed the theft yesterday amid media uproar after sources in the central bank hinted that unknown hackers had stolen USD 101 million of which USD 81 million entered the Philippines and the rest went to Sri Lanka to be used in casino business.

"They ordered transfers out of a Federal Reserve Bank of New York account held by Bangladesh Bank," said central bank spokesman Subhankar Saha.

He said hackers had breached the security system of the bank in early February and stole credentials for payment transfers, in one of the biggest bank thefts in history.

The hackers had sent 35 advices to the US Federal Bank but only 5 of those were complied with until the theft was unearthed, he added.

Bangladesh Bank officials said while USD 81 million of the stolen amount entered the Philippine banking system on February 5 and several layers of subsequent transactions made their way out into Hong Kong, the rest USD 20 million ended up in Sri Lanka.

They said the thieves thereafter took an attempt to launder a further USD 870 million through the same channel, but their plan was foiled after an American bank recalled the transfer order.

"The American bank contacted us when they got their anti-money laundering alert to confirm if the pay order actually came from us. We straightaway replied in the negative and so the payment was stopped," Saha said.

Cyber security experts said the perpetrators of heist had deep knowledge of the institution's internal workings which they might have gained by spying on bank workers.

The bank said they launched a massive investigation into the theft and expected the amount to be returned while unconfirmed reports said the central bank sent its two officials to the Philippines to demand the return of the funds.

The US Federal Bank responded to the hacking, saying there was no evidence that its systems were compromised in the cyber attack, according to international media reports.

The bank said they followed normal procedures when responding to requests that appeared to be from Bangladesh Bank, which were made and authenticated over Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).

A Chinese-Filipino businessman was the mastermind of the theft who had moved the funds to three casinos, where they were converted into chips for betting at the gaming tables, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

The chips were then converted back into cash and remitted to accounts in Hong Kong soon after by him.
Alleging a nexus between lenders and Vijay Mallya, one of the biggest bank employees unions today demanded a Parliamentary probe into the sanction of loans to the now grounded Kingfisher Airlines and other group companies.

"The whole episode is murky and a thorough Parliamentary probe is essential to make public how the loans were processed and sanctioned by banks, the role of the Reserve Bank and why timely action was not taken to recover the bad loans," All-India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) General Secretary C H Venkatchalam said here today.

He said the government's admission before the Supreme Court about Mallya leaving for Britain on March 2 is "shocking and a matter of dismay".

The government should get Mallya extradited and ensure recovery of dues totalling Rs 9,000 crore from him, he demanded.

"It is not a sudden development that Kingfisher Airlines is a defaulter. For the past few years, the issue was going on. Banks had not even declared him as a wilful defaulter," he said.

Mallya had last month reached a settlement with Diageo, under which he was to receive USD 75 million after stepping down as chairman of India's top spirits company United Spirits Ltd.

While lenders had moved the Debt Recovery Tribunal to bar him from accessing the payment, reports said he has already received the first tranche of USD 40 million.

SBI and PNB have declared Mallya as a wilful defaulter.

The association also wondered how the brand value of Kingfisher was considered as a collateral while sanctioning a loan, and alleged that even when RBI knew that this was a "deliberate default", no action was taken by the banks.

When asked about the recent speech by CBI Director Anil Sinha, where he complained about the banks' reluctance to come forward with complaints against Kingfisher, Venkatachalam said, "This implies nexus in the whole transaction."



Bank loans are given out of people's money and they rightly expect tough action on such corporate delinquents who cheat banks and the country, he said.
With a view to protect patients from infection and to ensure high standard of cleanliness and hygiene in all government hospitals in the state, Haryana Government has decided that bedsheets of different colours would be used for different days of the week.

This was stated by Haryana Health Minister, Anil Vij here today, an official release said.

The Health Minister said that directions to this effect have been issued to all Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) in the State.

He said that Director General, Health Services (DGHS) would decide the colour for each specific day and communicate these to the CMOs.

Notices specifying which colour would be used on a particular day would be displayed in each hospital, he added.

He said that during inspection of different hospitals in the State, complaints were received that bedsheets in government hospitals were not being changed regularly, which led to greater risk of infection.
Raking up a 2011 statement of the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, BJP today said he had "supported" rescuing Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher airline as it hit back at Rahul Gandhi over his barbs at the Modi government over the liquor baron's travel to London as banks moved court to recover their dues.

The party alleged that the government-run SBI had later given a loan of Rs 1500 crore to the then struggling airline, since closed, and called Mallya "a sin of Congress". BJP asked the Congress vice president to explain his party's "deal" with the tycoon who got a "bailout package" of thousands of crores of rupees despite his "dubious" finances.

"Singh had spoken about helping out Kingfisher. Congress is now blaming the (NDA) government for sins committed by its government. Industrialists like Mallya are its sins.

"Rahul Gandhi should rather answer why Mallya was given loans by 17 banks, most of which are run by government, between 2004 and 2009 despite having dubious finances. What was his party's deal with him?" party National Secretary Shrikant Sharma said.

As Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines faced turbulence, Singh was reported to have said steps would have to be taken to help the private sector entities if they get into difficulties.

It was due to the then government's pressure that the public banks gave Mallya loan and unfroze his account which was frozen due to his precarious financial condition, he alleged.

"It is Congress which is the champion of corruption while our government is acting against such people," he said as he made a mention of Ottavio Quattrocchi, an alleged beneficiary in Bofors case whose escape from India was today used by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to attack Congress after Rahul's criticism of the government.

The Congress vice-president should do some homework before he attacks the government and his remarks only prove that he is "part time non-serious" politician, Sharma said.

Earlier in the day, Gandhi asked the government how it allowed liquor baron, who owes over Rs 9,000 crore to banks, to leave the country and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had failed to answer this question in their speeches.

Attacking Gandhi over 'fair and lovely' jibe at a scheme brought out by the government to unearth black money, Sharma said, those coming clean under it will have to pay 15 per cent fine, besides 30 per cent tax.

When the then government had brought out a scheme on similar lines in 1997, it envisaged 30 per cent tax on undisclosed assets at the market price prevailing in 1987 and slapped no fine, he claimed.
A BJP MLA in Himachal Pradesh today accused the Virbhadra Singh government of being biased against her constituency.

BJP MLA from Shahpur Sarveen Chaudhary in the assembly said the government not only "denotified" the civil hospital in the city but "downgraded" the Sub-Divisional Magistrate's office, too.

However, State Health Minister Kaul Singh Thakur countered her charge saying, "The government works on merit basis. The previous BJP government had notified the upgradation of a community health center to civil hospital in Shahpur at the fag end of its tenure on September 22, 2012 without sanctioning any posts.

"Rather, some staff was sent from Dharamshala hospital to Shahpur which was not justified. Hence, the present government denotified it on February 7, 2013.
Australian actress Bindi Irwin says her boyfriend Chandler Powell is part of a family now.

The 17-year-old television presenter said she is blessed to have Powell in her life, reported ET online.

"(Chandler) is a part of the family now. I don't know who loves him more- me or my family. He's such a kind and genuine person that I'm really blessed.

"He's a huge part of my journey in life. At this point in my life, I'm looking forward to a lot of things. I'm going to be 18. There's so much on the horizon," Irwin said.

Her 12-year-old brother Robert has also grown fond of Powell.
Realty developers and consultants today hailed the passage of the regulatory bill in Rajya Sabha, saying the law will bring credibility to property business and protect consumers interest but felt that some of the provisions like imprisonment are harsh.

The developers expressed dissatisfaction over inclusion of the ongoing projects in the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill. They wanted government authorities, which sanctions the project, to be brought under this bill.

The new law would boost home buyer confidence as well as investment in the realty sector, they said, but added the government should ensure the regulator does not become another layer of bureaucracy.

"Everyone welcomes the bill. We respect the wisdom of Parliament. There are some provisions like imprisonment which are harsh and may be passage with the time they will be set right," DLF Chief Executive Rajeev Talwar told PTI.

He also questioned why the government authorities have not been included in the bill.

Realtors' apex body CREDAI President Getamber Anand said the bill would "bring credibility to real estate business and endorse our demand of giving infra status to housing".

He, however, said the bringing ongoing projects under this bill would lead to stoppage of work on the site in order to ensure compliances.

CBRE South Asia CMD Anshuman Magazine said: "The Bill will have a far reaching implication for the sector. It will help regulate the sector and promote transparency. If implemented in the right spirit, it could facilitate greater volumes of domestic and foreign investment flows into the sector. Home buyer confidence in property market is also likely to revive."



Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who was member of the select panel that examined the bill, said "by creating a much needed regulator for the sector... This government has initiated the crucial first step to protect consumers from the prevalent opaque and fraudulent practices that have so far characterized this sector in India."



Godrej Properties MD and CEO Pirojsha Godrej told PTI: "The regulation will be in the interest of all concerned over the medium term, but in the short term could create significant transition issues."



"I hope the government does its best to ensure this transition is handled well and that the regulator doesn't become another layer of bureaucracy. This must also be accompanied by strong measures to improve the ease of doing business in the sector," he added.

JLL Chairman and Country Head Anuj Puri termed the passage of the bill as "unequivocal victory" for Indian realty sector.

"Its enactment as a law will almost single-handedly revamp the way this sector works across the board, from developers to end-users and investors, to lending institutions and government agencies involved in the buying and selling of property," he added.

Cushman & Wakefield India MD Sanjay Dutt said the bill



would place Indian real estate market, which currently is fragmented and unorganised, at par with that of other developed countries with clear accountability of developers through the establishment of the regulatory authority.

Mandatory disclosure of projects, including details of the promoter, project, land status, clearances, approvals, etc. would increase the credibility of developers and would protect consumer rights as well, he added.

"Real estate sector, finally gets a regulator through clearance of much awaited real estate bill in Rajya Sabha. This development will significantly enhance the transparency levels in the sector, apart from creating a level playing field for both the buyers and the developers," said Neeraj Sharma, Director, Grant Thornton Advisory.

To make the Act successful, KPMG India Head, Real Estate and Construction Sector Neeraj Bansal said the government need to ensure that the proposed regulator does not become another approval hurdle for developers.

"Further, the government must expand the scope of the regulator gradually to include various other real estate stakeholders, especially the various regulatory bodies".

HDIL Sr Vice President - Finance Hariprakash Pandey said the Bill would make licensing of developers mandatory and this would help to differentiate between serious players and fly-by-night operators.

Knight Frank India CMD Shishir Baijal said: "Finally the wait is over - an extremely important and timely step taken by the government that could prove to be a game changer for the industry".

CREDAI NCR President Manoj Gaur hailed the passage of the bill said: "It is important to fix the accountability of approving authorities. This is important step towards avoiding delays.

SARE Homes MD David Walker hoped that the new law would give home buyers the confidence to return to the market.

Prashant Tiwari, Chairman, Prateek Group said, "The bill once made a law will not only protect property buyers but will also boost investments in the sector."



"I wish the sanctioning authorities were also included in the bill and most importantly single window online clearance mechanism for time bound clearance of projects should have been implemented," Raheja Developers CMD Navin Raheja said.

ABA Corp Director Amit Modi said the government agencies issuing permits should be brought under the law and made accountable for undue delays. "On an average it takes 2-3 years to start a project after land is acquired".

Silverglade Director Anubhav Jain said: "This is a positive development for the industry and home buyer. We should see more transparency and accountability in the real estate sector.

Commenting on the development, leading buyers association



Noida Estate Flat Owners Main Association (NEFOMA) President Annu Khan said: "Its a big day for home buyers. We have been fighting for this. The new law would protect our interest and put an end to builders' whims and fancies".

PwC India partner Abhishek Goenka said the passage of this Bill "brings yet another sector under a regulator".

Stating that the realty sector in India has always carried a reputation of being fragmented, unorganised and customer unfriendly, he said the new law will protect home buyers against defaulting developers and bring transparency.

EY India Partner & National Leader (Real Estate & Infrastructure) Gaurav Karnik said: "The Real Estate Bill is a welcome move by the government. The same ensures that home buyers interests are protected and litigation reduced through establishment of a Regulator and other measures".

Bharti Realty MD & CEO S K Sayal said the bill addresses some real issues that will bolster the sector like inclusion of escrow mechanism, timely completion of projects and build financial sensitivities.

"It will help the industry to grow in an organized manner and will check entry for the unorganised players. With this bill the long subdued sentiment in the Real-Estate sector is expected to get the much needed boost,"



Sobha Ltd Vice Chairman and MD JC Sharma said: "We believe that the decision to have up to 70 per cent of the funds collected from consumers into an escrow account may not be the best way to make use of the collected funds, especially at a time when liquidity in the sector is not too good".

Sunteck Realty CMD Kamal Khetan said the Bill is in favour of both, consumers as well as developers. The provisions like setting up Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) would make real estate sector more Institutionalised.

(Reopens DCM113)



Welcoming passage of the long-pending Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill in Rajya Sabha, industry body Assocham said it would lead the development of urban infrastructure and help realise the vision of 'Housing for every Indian by 2022'.

It will also play a pivotal role in structural transformation of India's economy, Assocham said.

"Apart from resolving key issues that are hampering the growth of the real estate sector, this bill will lead to institutional reforms in land acquisition, approval processes and taxation that are much needed to expedite development of affordable housing," it said.

Besides, it will also help in facilitating investments through FDI, REITs and other innovative real estate financing models will help attract long term funds from foreign and domestic investors, it added.
The bullion traders' strike over the imposition of 1% excise duty on non-silver jewellery entered its ninth day Thursday.

Jewellers across the country have been in protest mode since March 2 against the proposed levy on non-silver jewellery items announced in the Budget 2016-17 and mandatory quoting of PAN by customers for transactions of Rs 2 lakh and above.

All-India Sarafa Association Vice-President Surinder Kumar Jain said the government should withdraw the Budget proposal to levy 1% excise duty on jewellery items to "save the trade".

Jain said that in 1981 and 2012 too, the Centre had introduced excise duty in the gems and jewellery sector, but had to abandon the plan later.

The Chennai bullion market remained indefinitely closed in response to the call from the Madras Jewellers and Diamond Merchants Association.

Jewellers in Telangana Wednesday launched an indefinite relay hunger strike here to press for their demand.

According to a statement issued by Jeetender Agarwal, spokesperson of the All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (Telangana chapter), members from as many 30 associations based in Hyderabad and Secunderabad joined the indefinite relay hunger strike and many jewellers shut their outlets.

The finance ministry has clarified last week that only jewellers with a turnover of more than Rs 12 crore will be liable to pay 1% excise duty on non-silver jewellery items.

So far, the government has not dropped any indication to meet the demand of bullion traders and merchants.
The Cabinet today decided to revert to the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) the Ratna and R-series oil and gas fields, off the Mumbai coast, which were previously awarded to Essar Oil but the contract could not be signed.

The Ratna and R-series oil fields, 130-km off the Mumbai coast, hold an estimated 87 million barrels of oil and 1.2 billion cubic metres of gas reserves.

The medium-sized Ratna and R-Series (R&RS) fields have been languishing since 1993 when the then P V Narasimha Rao-led Congress government decided to invite bids.

The fields were awarded to a consortium led by Essar Oil in 1996. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in 1999 approved finalising and concluding PSC within six months after negotiations are held by the negotiating team of secretaries (NTS), but the same has not been signed till date over royalty and cess amount to be charged from Essar Oil and partners.

NTS held 20 meetings between November 1999 and June 2013 and kept setting targets for completion of negotiations and signing of production sharing contract (PSC), but it could not stick to its own targets for completion of the negotiations.

CCEA has decided to revert the fields back to ONGC, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told PTI.

ONGC had discovered the fields and created facilities in Ratna R-12, which is part of R&RS, at a cost of Rs 472.55 crore. These facilities were used by the company for production since 1983 before production was stopped in September 1994 after the field was put up for auction.

These facilities have been deteriorating as a result of 'plundering and looting' of platform utilities and equipment. The estimated repair cost for the existing facilities would be Rs 1,085.70 crore.

CCEA had on March 9, 1999 approved freezing of the rates of levy of royalty and cess prevailing at the time of the bidding (Rs 900 per tonne as cess and Rs 528 per tonne as royalty).

NTS in April 2005 wanted payment of statutory levies at current rates rather than those prevailing in 1995. Essar Oil and partners did not agree. The Attorney General concurred that PSC can be signed with old royalty rates.

A note was sent to CCEA in January 2008 and resubmitted in June 2008, but the Cabinet Secretariat returned seeking certain modifications/corrections on some deficiencies.

Another note was sent to CCEA on July 9, 2008, but the matter was re-examined by the Oil Ministry and it was decided that NTS should consider the matter once again with a view to analysing in detail the various alternatives available along with their financial implications. Thereafter, no final decision was taken.
Mumbai police today lodged a case against eight unidentified members of Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) for shouting slogans against BJP MLA Yogesh Sagar.

MNS workers also allegedly burnt an effigy of Sagar outside his office on SV Road in suburban Kandivali before fleeing.

Police have registered a case under the Bombay Police Act for breach of prohibitory orders.
Central Trade Unions of the country today staged dharna in front of the East Singhbhum district headquarter here demanding immediate withdrawal of amendments made in the labor laws.

Led by Rakeshwar Pandey, Jharkhand State unit General Secretary of INTUC, the unions including Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh. All India Trade Union Congress, Centre of Indian Trade Union, HMS, All India Central Council of Trade Union leaders took part in the dharna in front of the office of East Singhbhum Deputy Commissioner Dr. Amitabh Kaushal in support of their 11-point charter of demand, said S R A Rizvi Chabban.

Chabban said the charter of demand included fixation of Rs.18000 as minimum salary per month, scrapping of contract and outsourcing systems and wages and other facilities on par with permanent employees to the contract laborers.

Chabban, who is the Vice-President of Jharkhand State Aasangatith (unorganized) Mazdoor Congress, said the dharna was staged under the banner of Co-ordination Committee of Central Trade Unions.

The co-ordination committee also opposed the Foreign Direct Investment in sectors such as Defence, Insurance, Railways and disinvestment of Public Sector units, Chabban said demanding that the government must make it mandatory to register trade unions within stipulated 45 days.

Besides, he called for waiving of ceiling in Bonus and PF and increase ceiling in Graduity.

Pandey, who is also the Chairman of the Co-ordination Committee of the Trade Unions of Kolhan region here, said the Central leadership of the trade unions had several round of discussions with the Union government but nothing was done except giving assurance so far.

The co-ordination committee decided to stage dharna across the country to mount pressure on the government, Pandey added.

Later, a delegation of the Co-ordination Committee headed by Pandey handed over a memorandum addressed to the President of India in support of its charter of demand was handed over the Deputy Commissioner.
China today said it will not back India's bid alone to join the (NSG) as "other states" are also aspiring to join the elite 48-member club and asserted that any decision on the inclusion of new members will be based on "consensus".

"Besides India, there are other non-NPT states who have expressed similar aspirations," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told PTI, clubbing India along with Pakistan and other states who have not signed the Nuclear Non- proliferation Treaty (NPT).

He was responding to a query on Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz's recent comments in the Senate that China was helping Pakistan to stall India's bid to get (NSG) membership.

"This raises a question to the international community, that is whether or not non-NPT states can join the NSG," Hong said.

India, Pakistan, Israel and South Sudan are among the four UN member states which have not signed the NPT, the international pact aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.

"However, a decision on the inclusion of non-NPT states shall be made based on consensus of all NSG members after thorough discussions in accordance with relevant rules. China's position applies to all non-NPT states instead of targeting any specific country," Hong said.

Describing the NSG as a crucial component of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime, Hong said "it is the long-standing consensus of the international community that the NPT is the cornerstone of the regime".

As US and other influential member states in the NSG have stepped up efforts to admit India into the body, China has called for "through discussions" among the NSG members about entry of non-NPT states amid assertions by Pakistan officials that Beijing has assured to push for Islamabad's membership.

NSG chairman Rafael Grossi had visited India in November last year and held talks with top Indian leaders about New Delhi's admission to the group.

Observers say that unlike 2008 when the NSG has granted a waiver to India during which China was reported to have expressed reservations but not stalled New Delhi's special exemption, this time Beijing reportedly decided to push for Islamabad's membership, linking it with India.

India's case is being pressed by the US and other influential countries based on the India's record in non-proliferation and the India-US civil nuclear accord.
China today said it will go on "high alert" after the Philippines announced plans to acquire five Japanese planes to patrol the disputed South China Sea with Beijing warning Manila not to challenge its sovereignty over the waterway.

The Philippines will lease five aircraft from Japan to help patrol the South China Sea (SCS), President Benigno Aquino said yesterday.

"We have noticed relevant media reports. China resolutely opposes the Philippines' move if it aims to challenge China's sovereignty and security interests," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said at a regular briefing.

"Meanwhile, China will be on high alert for Japan's actions," Hong said asking Japan not to meddle in the South China Sea.

"I want to reiterate that Japan is not a party directly concerned with SCS dispute. We will remain on high alert on its actions and urge Japanese side to mind its words and actions and refrain from undermining peace and stability of the region", he said.

"As Japan is a non-claimant country in the SCS, China demands Japan be prudent in words and deeds and refrain from actions that jeopardise regional peace and stability," he said.

ThePhilippines along with Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan contest China's claims of sovereignty over almost all of the resource-rich South China Sea.

Chinese official media said Chinaand the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have agreed on a dual-track approach to resolve theSouth China Sea disputes.

The directly concerned states, namely China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia, will peacefully negotiate while China and ASEAN countries work together to maintain peace and stability in the region, state-run Xinhua agency said.
Displaying a sense of urgency, Chinese navy has commissioned three new stealth landing ships on a single day for the first time amid escalating tensions with the US in the disputed South China Sea.

The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has commissioned CNS Wuyishan, CNS Culaishan and CNS Wutaishan, having improved amphibious capabilities, official media here quoted PLAN's statement.

They were delivered to the East Sea Fleet at an unidentified naval port on Monday.

The ships have a displacement of 5,008 metric tonnes and a maximum speed of 20 knots (37 km/h).

Compared with predecessors, the new design has a lower radar signature, which makes it harder to detect it at sea, and a streamlined design that helps speed up the loading of amphibious vehicles.

The ships are armed with close-in weapons systems capable of hitting mid- and short-range targets, and include a flight pad that can accommodate a helicopter, state-run China Daily reported.

The ships will strengthen the Navy's capabilities in joint landing operations and transportation, the statement said.

According to IHS Jane's Navy International, the new-type vessel is able to transport 10 armoured vehicles and 250 fully armed troops, which means that three ships can ferry roughly an entire amphibious assault battalion.

This is the first-time the PLAN has commisioned three ships in a single day, the report said.

At least 100 new ships and submarines have joined the Navy since 2012, including an aircraft carrier, three Type-052D guided missile destroyers that have cutting-edge air defence abilities, 13 Type-054A large multi-role frigates and four Type-903A supply ships as China braced for a showdown with the US in the South China Sea to assert its sovereignty in the area.

Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and the Philippines contest China's claims of sovereignty on all most all of the South China Sea.

In February, the Chinese Navy commissioned the CNS Xiangtan, a Type-054A frigate, the CNS Tongren, a Type-056A corvette and the CNS Yimengshan, a Type-071 amphibious transport dock.

However, much of the Navy's new equipment is still not as good as that of their counterparts in the United States Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, the report quoted a PLA officer as saying.

"There are a great number of things that we need to catch up on - for instance, the technological level of ships and submarines as well as our crew's skills and experience," he said.
Accusing the central government of giving "undue benefits" to corporate houses and "crushing" the labour class, the activists of Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU) today held a protest in Jammu.

Led by the President of CITU state unit, M Y Tarigami, the activists took out a protest march from Gandhi Nagar to Divisional Commissioner's office and handed over a memorandum of demands.

"By amending the labour laws, the central government is giving undue benefits to the corporate houses and the mill owners, crushing the labour class.

"The need of the hour is to strengthen the existing labour laws but the government is weakening them by bringing amendments to it," Tarigami said.

We will continue to protest any move which is against the welfare of the labour class, he added.

The CITU also demanded that the honorarium of the need-based workers which has not been paid for the last several months, should be released and a minimum wage of Rs 15,000 be fixed for them.

The CPI-M's labour wing also demanded extension of social security benefits to the construction workers in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Two police constables from the city, representing Tamil Nadu police, have won silver medals and certificates in the Bugle category in the 16th All India Police Band Competition recently held in Jaipur in Rajasthan.

Grade One constable, X Alexander, attached to Law and Order, Kattur Police station and constable in the City Armed Forces, M Velmurugan won the second place in the competition held from February 19 to 23.

City police commissioner, A Amalraj today appreciated the achievement and congratulated them at a function, a release from Police Headquarters here said.
A civilian was shot at by



unidentified gunmen today at Aimol Kombirei village in Manipur's Chandel district, a police official said.

The victim, identified as Rengmei belonging to the Aimol community, was sitting inside his vehicle parked beside the road when the unknown persons open fired at him, the official said.

The 32-year-old man is being treated at a private nursing home in Imphal and is said to be in a critical condition, the sources said.

Today's incident is the second episode this month in the vicinity of Pallel area after the March 1 violence, during which a Kuki school teacher succumbed to injuries after being brutally thrashed by suspected NSCN (IM) cadres, the officer said.
US Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders today shied away from a question whether their Republican rival Donald Trump was a "racist", but they hammered away at his xenophobic rhetoric.

Participating in the last Democratic presidential debate in Miami, Florida, front-runner Clinton avoided giving a direct answer to the question, while Sanders responded by saying that the American people will never elect a president who insults Mexicans, Muslims, women and blacks.

"Senator Sanders, do you think it's fair to call Donald Trump a racist?" the moderator asked.

"This is what I think. I think that the American people are never going to elect a president who insults Mexicans, who insults Muslims, who insults women, who insults African-Americans," Sanders said.

"And let us not forget that several years ago, Trump was in the middle of the so-called birther movement, trying to delegitimise the president of the United States of America," he said.

Clinton on the other hand she would engage Trump without resulting to the kind of language that the Republican front-runner often employs.

"If I'm so fortunate enough to be the Democratic nominee, there will be a lot of time to talk about him. I was the first one to call him out. I called him out when he was calling Mexicans rapists," she said.

"When he was engaging in rhetoric that I found deeply offensive...I am pleased that others are also joining in making clear that his rhetoric, his demagoguery, his trafficking in prejudice and paranoia has no place in our political system," she said.

"You don't make America great by getting rid of everything that made America great," Clinton said.

Not satisfied with the answer, the moderator repeated the question and Clinton responded by saying, "I think it's un-American. I think what he has promoted is not at all in keeping with American values. And I am going to take every opportunity to criticise him, to raise those issues," Clinton said.

"I'm not going to engage in the kind of language that he uses. I think we can make the case against him if he is the nominee, by pointing out what he has said. What he claims to believe in The values he's promoting and I think that's a better way for the American people to draw their conclusions," Clinton said.

Clinton also said that the proposal of building a massive wall across US-Mexico border and having Mexico Government pay for it is a "fantasy" of Trump.

"You know, it's just fantasy," Clinton said in response to a question as she took a dig at Trump's idea of building a wall along the US-Mexico border to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the US.

Trump says that the Mexico Government would pay for building this wall, which according to him is estimated to cost $10 billion.

"As I understand him, he's talking about a very tall wall," she said amidst laughter from the audience.

"Right? A beautiful tall wall. The most beautiful tall wall, better than the Great Wall of China, that would run the entire border. That he would somehow magically get the Mexican government to pay for," she said.

"And, you know, it's just fantasy. And in fact, if he cared to know anything about what members of Congress, like the senator (Sanders) and I have done, where it was necessary, we did support some fencing," Clinton said.
Government today said the concept of marital rape cannot be "suitably applied in the Indian context" due to factors like poverty, illiteracy and religious beliefs.

"It is considered that the concept of marital rape, as understood internationally, cannot be suitably applied in the Indian context due to various factors like level of education/ illiteracy, poverty, myriad social customs and values, religious beliefs, mindset of the society to treat the marriage as a sacrament etc.," Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

She was asked whether government plans to criminalise marital rape.

Replying to another question, Gandhi said the scheme for universalisation of women helpline has been approved for implementation through states/UTs from April 1 last year to provide 24-hour emergency and non-emergency response to women affected by violence both in public and private sphere, including in family, community and workplace.

"All the states/UTs have been requested to submit the proposals in order to release funds. Funds have been sanctioned/released to 33 states/UTs for setting up Women Helpline," she said.

The ministry has also conceptualised an idea of women welfare committee in all districts of the country, however, no such proposal has been formulated so far.
The issue of neglect of Lakshadweep in terms of healthcare and education was raised in Rajya Sabha today, with a CPI(M) member attacking the government for its failure to set up sufficient infrastructure including hospitals in the island territory.

Raising the matter during Zero Hour, K K Ragesh said "Lakshadweep has pathetic living conditions. Even after 60 years of independence, the government has failed to ensure good health and educational institutes."



Observing that there was no referred hospital in the Union Territory, he said only one out of 12 posts in the existing hospitals had been filled up and the rest were lying vacant. "There are no doctors in the hospitals".

For medical emergency, Ragesh said that the people there have to depend on Kerala. "If patients die outside Lakshadweep, their body is not sent back. This issue needs to be addressed immediately," he said.

Ragesh also said the External Affairs Minister has taken measures to help Indians abroad and hoped that the Centre would address the concerns of the Indian island on an urgent basis.

NCP member Praful Patel and others associated with the issue.
A BJP legislator today claimed that his party could not perform well in recently-held Corporation of City of Panaji (CCP) elections as the Congress candidates in the fray queered the pitch for it.

A panel led by expelled Congress MLA, Atanasio Monserratte outsmarted BJP in the polls by winning 17 out of 30 wards including Panaji, while the BJP won the rest. Congress drew a blank.

"Congress, which had fielded its candidates for polls, damaged our prospects in many wards. In few wards, we missed the victory by a margin of few votes," BJP MLA Siddharth Kuncolienkar, who spearheaded the party's campaign, told reporters here.

Kuncolienkar said the party candidates lost at few wards by a whisker as votes got split due to presence of Congress candidates.
Chhattisgarh Government today assured the Assembly that the State's interest would be protected over the construction of Polavaram dam in adjoining Andhra Pradesh after the Opposition said the mega project will displace a large number of people, mostly tribals, and submerge huge swathes of land.

The issue of Indira SagarPolavaram dam - a multi- purpose irrigation project being built on the Godavari River inAndhra -- was vociferously raised by the Congress members, including those from tribal-dominated Bastar region, who grilled the BJP Government on the matter.

Expelled Congress MLA Amit Jogi and Amarjeet Bhagat (Cong) raised the issueby moving a call attention motion and sought reply from Water Resources Minister Brijmohan Agrawal.

Jogi and Bhagatoutlined the decades-long history of the project and said it was an inter-state project of united Andhra Pradesh. In 1980, the Godavari Tribunal gave go-ahead to the dam and said its water was to be shared between AP andMadhya Pradesh(Chhattisgarh was part of the State then).

After the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh (which led to creation of Telangana) in 2014, the dam was classified as national project and the entire cost for its installation was to be borne by the Centre, they said.

They said the work on installation of "diaphragm (water-blocking) walls" under the project would start in the next one week and 30 per cent work of the scheme will be completed within the next six months.

Jogi said, "the construction of Polavaram dam will lead to displacement of over 45,000 tribal and non-tribal people residing in Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh (co-basin states).

In Chhattisgarh, 17 villages and 85 hamlets in Sukma district alone will come under its catchment area. Besides, vast forest and mineral resources will come under the dam's submergence area, he said.

Areas inhabited by Dorla and Koya, both protected tribes, will get submerged, putting their very survival at risk, Jogi maintained.

"Approximately 8,000 hectares of normal land, 40 villages in Konta tehsil (in Sukma) and 7,000 hectares of agricultural land will come under submergence area.

"Ignoring the concerns of Chhattisgarh, the Andhra Pradesh Government has decided to raise the dam height to generate 960 MW power," Jogi said.

As per an agreement signed on August 7, 1978, the maximum submergence level was 150 feet which has been now raised to 177.44 feet, he added.

The Minister Agrawal, in his reply, allayed the fears of Opposition and said the State's interest will be protected.
Shares of Corporation Bank today rose by over 2.5 per cent as the company's board approved raising Rs 1,000 crore capital in multiple tranches.

The stock gained 2.44 per cent to Rs 41.85 on BSE.

On NSE, shares of the company went up by 2.57 per cent to Rs 41.90.

"The Board of Directors...Have approved raising of capital of the bank to the extent of Rs 1,000 crore in one or more tranches with green shoe option if any by way of either issue and allotment of equity shares on preferential basis or by way of additional tier-I bonds or follow on public issue", the company had said in a BSE filing yesterday.

Besides, the bank can also opt the route of a rights issue or a qualified institutions placement or debt issue or any other method as per Basel III requirements, it added.

The bank is yet to determine the issue price for equity allotment.
CPI(M) has defended its "understanding" with Congress in the West Bengal assembly election, saying it is a battle to save the state from "rapacious misrule" of TMC and it can be defeated by gathering all democratic forces.

"For CPI(M) and Left, these elections are crucial because of West Bengal and Kerala. The battle in Bengal is not just about formation of a government but whether democracy which has been battered in the past five years will survive.

"It is also a fight to save Bengal from the rapacious misrule of the Mamata Banerjee government. By gathering all the democratic forces and building people's unity, the TMC can be defeated," former CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said in the editorial of forthcoming issue of party mouthpiece 'People's Democracy'.

He charged the Oommen Chandy government in Kerala stands "totally discredited with its corruption, wheeling-dealing and miserable failure" to tackle economic problems facing the state.

"LDF is well poised to deal a terminal blow to this government and to set the state on a fresh path," he added.

Karat also downplayed prospects of BJP in three of the four poll-bound states, saying the NDA major is "not a major force" in the regions concerned and the Narendra Modi government's 22-month record will "play a role" there.

In the piece, he noted it is going to be a "tough preposition" for BJP to perform well in the polls "except in Assam" scheduled to be held later this year.

"This time around, BJP is not a major force in these states, except for Assam. But apart from doing well in Assam, it has to show that it is a growing force in the other states. This is going to be a tough proposition," he added.

The leader alleged the NDA major has slipped down in popular support in West Bengal despite the hype of it emerging as the alternative to ruling TMC.

In Kerala, he claimed, BJP will not be able to retain the 10.3 per cent votes it mustered during Lok Sabha polls "thanks to the Modi government's policies".

He expressed confidence that efforts put in by Left Democratic Front (LDF) will bear fruits in Kerala and the Congress-headed UDF will be ousted from power.

In Tamil Nadu, Karat said that most of the parties which had joined hands with BJP have deserted it and said to expect the NDA constituent to win in such a situation would be "wishful thinking".

As for Congress, Karat said stakes are high for the party as it has governments in two of the five states. He described Congress government in Assam as "beleaguered" one and observed its allies have defected to join hands with BJP.
A 15-member dacoits gang raided a house situated here in the early hours today and decamped with Rs 15 lakh cash and gold ornaments worth Rs 31 lakh. The dacoits threatened inmates with deadly weapons before looting and tied them with clothes, Superintendent of Police Sidramappa told PTI.

Inmates opened the door thinking that their son has come when dacoits speaking Hindi and Kannada, knocked the door, police said.

A dog squad was pressed into service and finger specialist has taken documents for search. IG Northern range Belgaum Kumar who visited spot said a special squad will be formed to crack case soon.
Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley will be cross-examined by key 26/11 plotter Abu Jundal's lawyer for four days from March 22 in the 2008 terror attack case, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said today.

"We informed the (Mumbai Sessions)court that Headley will depose from March 22-25 via video link from an undisclosed location in US, and the court passed an order," Nikam said.

The questioning will take place after his week-long testimony before a court here last month about the role and plans of LeT, ISI and Al Qaeda to target India.

Nikam said if needed Headley might also be re-examined by the prosecution later.

Headley, who has turned an approver, concluded his deposition through video-link on February 13 in which he spoke about the role and plans of LeT, ISI and Al Qeada to target India.

Notably, Headley's cross examination comes in the backdrop of the controversy over alleged alteration of affidavit relating to the Ishrat Jahan case as he had claimed during the deposition that Jahan had LeT links.

On February 22, Judge G A Sanap had directed Nikam to contact US authorities for Headley's second round of deposition and inform the court by February 25, after which the dates of his testification were to be finalised.

Jundal's lawyer Abdul Wahab Khan had then sought four days to cross-examine Headley besides moving an application objecting to his being made an approver in the terror attack case.

Headley, who is serving a 35-year jail term in the US in connection with the terror attacks case, had made some startling disclosures during his testimony which began on February 8.

He spilled the beans on how Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI provides "financial, military and moral support" to terror outfits LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen and how LeT had planned and executed the 26/11 attacks and the role played by ISI officials, involving him too.

He also claimed that LeT had planned an attack at a conference of Indian defence scientists at Taj Mahal Hotel a year before the 26/11 strikes and had even prepared its dummy.

Deposing via a video-link from the US, the 55-year-old terrorist had told the court that --Ishrat Jahan--who was killed in an alleged fake encounter in 2004 in Gujarat--was an operative of LeT.

He also said that Al-Qaeda was in touch with him to attack Delhi's National Defence College and unravelled the plot by LeT and ISI to target Mumbai airport, BARC and the Naval air station here.

Headley also visited the Indian Army's Southern Command headquarters at Pune in 2009 on the instructions of ISI's Major Iqbal, who wanted him to recruit some military personnel to get "classified" information, the court was told.
Seeking to promote eco-friendly public transport service, Delhi government today launched the city's first air-conditioned electric bus which will ply between Kendriya Terminal and Delhi Secretariat for six months on a pilot basis.

Transport Minister Gopal Rai said the minimum fare is Rs 10 as charged by Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) on its low-floor AC buses.

It will ply between 6.30 am to 9.20 pm and do around 22 trips.

The minister said it is for the "first time" in the country that an electric bus has been inducted for public transport service, a move which is aimed at bringing down the rising pollution level in the city.

An official said a private company has offered its bus for the new service, which would be operated by the DTC. The new bus has a seating capacity for 31. The driver and conductor on it will be deployed by the DTC.

Although the actual cost of the electric bus is around Rs 3 crore if imported, a senior DTC official said that if it is manufactured in India, it will cost around Rs 70-75 lakh, which is equivalent to the cost of DTC's AC low-floor bus.

"This electric bus will run on a trial basis. Thereafter, we will review its results, and if we get a satisfactory response, we will float tenders to induct more e-buses in the fleet of DTC buses.

"Electric bus has been attached with Millennium Bus Depot where a charging point is available. It takes about four hours to fully charge an e-bus which then runs for 280 kms," the transport minister said.

Ashish Khetan, vice-chairman of Delhi Dialogue Commission (DDC) which conceived the project, said the government has not spent money on the introduction of this bus, which has been borne by the company.

The city government also has plans to ply buses on biogas.

A plan was earlier also mooted to reintroduce trams in Old Delhi but the proposal was later rejected.
Delhi government today organised a 'Kisan Panchayat' in south-west Delhi's Najafgarh area, seeking to address the issues of farmers.

Delhi Development Minister Gopal Rai interacted with farmers who shared their problems with him.

Farmers from various villages including Narela, Alipur, Mehrauli and various co-operative societies also participated in the event.

In the panchayat, the minister requested the farmers to provide the details about the cost of cultivation of paddy, wheat and other cash crops.

"Government will examine all suggestions received from the farmers sympathetically before the finalisation of budget of Delhi government," Rai said in a statement.

It said the Swaminathan Committee report relating to providing guaranteed income to the farmers was also discussed in details.
Delhi government's Health Department has issued a strict compliance notice to Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn for appearing in a surrogate advertisement of tobacco products.

All kinds of direct and indirect advertisement of tobacco products has been banned as per section 5 of Cigarette and Other Tobacco Product Act 2003.

"In view of this it is clear the said paan masala is being advertised as brand promotion of gutka/tobacco products which is misleading the consumer, especially the minors, and is a great violation of public health practice as per COTPA 2003.

"Though the onus of this violation of section 5 of COTPA lies upon the said tobacco company but by appearing in the advertisement you also become party to this violation under section 5 of the Act.

"Therefore through this letter you are served strict compliance notice not to appear in such advertisdeement which is not only misleading the consumer but also promoting tobacco products," said S K Arora, Additional Director (Health).

The Health Department had in January written to Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Govinda, Arbaaz Khan and Sunny Leone along with Ajay Devgn, urging them not to endorse pan masala products as they contain areca nuts, a potential cancer causing agent.

Delhi government has also asked actors to join its anti-tobacco campaign to help save lives of lakhs of people who die due to oral cancer every year.

According to experts, areca nuts, the main ingredient in pan masala, is in the league of caffeine, tobacco and alcohol when it comes to addictive properties and also lead to a high number of cases of submucous fibrosis, which can easily turn cancerous.

Government of Delhi has already filed an FIR against three major tobacco companies on the issue of surrogate advertisements and is waiting for the action taken report by Delhi Police.

"Delhi government is repeatedly asking Delhi Police to submit the report but there is no reply from police till date," Arora said.

Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chairperson



Pahlaj Nihalani who took part in the consultation suggested that after the national anthem, anti-smoking films should be shown in film theatres.

Researchers observed and coded over 413 hours of randomly selected television programmes across 45 channels and interviewed 3,080 people to inform the findings in the report.

As per the Global Adult Tobacco Survey - India (GATS) conducted by the Health Ministry, 35 per cent of the adults in the age group of 15 years and above consume tobacco in some form or the other with 48 per cent males and 20 per cent females consuming tobacco in any form. Nearly two in five (38 per cent) adults in rural areas and one in four (25 per cent) adults in urban areas use some form of tobacco.

The depiction of tobacco was greater in non-prime time than prime time programmes (71 per cent vs 29 per cent), when the chance of children and adolescents being exposed to it is more likely while newer than older programmes was 52 per cent vs 48 per cent.

Of the tobacco forms depicted, cigarettes were the most often depicted and they were shown more often in prime time versus non-prime time hours (93 per cent vs 73 per cent).

"99 per cent of films with tobacco scenes implemented at least one of all the three elements of the Film Rules - anti-tobacco health spots, audio-visual disclaimer, and health warning as static message.

"Implementation of each element of the Film Rules was - 97 per cent included anti-tobacco health spots, 79 per cent films incorporated the audio-visual disclaimer and 86 per cent of the films included the health warning as a static message," the study said.

However, only 27 per cent of the films implemented all the key elements of the Film Rules fully and in the approved manner, the study said while asserting that one in two people who recalled any element of the rules said that it increased their concern about tobacco's health harm.

"One in three tobacco users said that viewing any of the elements of the Film Rules made them more likely to quit," the study said adding that 48 per cent of television programmes were found to carry unapproved and non-compliant anti-tobacco health warnings as static message.

"Higher overall implementation of the Film Rules was observed in film theatres than in television programmes. A number of gaps were observed in implementation of the rules in both film theatres and on television programmes, including the incorrect and incomplete use and presentation of the government-approved warnings. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting should put in place a mechanism to monitor television programmes that display tobacco products or their use and ensure compliance," it said.

"The film fraternity has played an extremely positive and a vital role in implementing the tobacco-free film and television policy. India has pioneered this policy and it would not have been possible without the support of the film and television industry. I would request them to join this movement against tobacco and help save precious lives," said Henk Bekedam, WHO Representative to India.
Opposition Congress today created a ruckus in Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly demanding discussion on the issue of the "fraud committed" by chit fund companies in the state.

Congress MLAsraised slogans against the government seeking a debate on the issue and also moved an adjournment motion notice. Amid pandemonium, Speaker Gaurishankar Agrawal adjourned the proceedings for five minutes.

Raising the issue after the Question Hour, Congress legislator and party chief Bhupesh Baghel and another senior party MLA Satyanarayan Sharma alleged that the government was trying to protect the chit fund companies, which had fled with the hard-earned money of common man.

Terming it as a "very serious" issue, Congress MLAs demanded to admit their adjournment motion notice on it.

Leader of Opposition T S Singhdeo said, as per the information, at least one lakh investors had deposited their money in the chit fund companies, which later proved bogus.

"Suppose, at least Rs 10,000 were invested by each investor, then the total embezzlement amount reaches to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore, which is a huge sum. It is the biggest chit fund scam," Singhdeo said demanding admission of their adjournment motion notice.

Congress members also sought to know whether the ruling BJP would take steps to return the money of investors on the lines of West Bengal and Odisha governments.

Countering the charges, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ajay Chandrakar, who also holds the additional charge of Home, said the matter has already been discussed on March 4.

"Enough discussion was held on that day over the issue. The opposition even would get ample time to put all these issue during the discussion on the demands of the concerned department," the minister said.

However, interrupting him, Baghel said some new facts have surfaced regarding the fraud committed by chit fund companies and if the discussion would be allowed over it they will present it in the House.

However, the Speaker rejected Congress' demands saying that the issue had already been discussed in the House.

Dissatisfied with the ruling, Congress members started sloganeering against the state government demanding to discuss the issue in the House and return the money of common man.

Amidchaos, the Speaker adjourned thehouse for five minutes.

When the house reassembled, Congress members reiteratedtheir demand for a discussion on the issue.

Chandrakar said he had already informed the House that



caseshad beenregistered against 79 unauthorised financial institutions.

The action is being taken against the unauthorised financial institutions and the scope of investigation will be further widened, he said.

The minister also assured to recover peoples' money from the bogus chit fund companies and then return it to the investors at any cost.

Amid heated exchange of words between treasury bench and the opposition, Singhdeo demanded a discussion on the issue under section 139 of Chhattisgarh Assembly rules (under which discussion on a matter of urgent public importance takes place).

Chandrakar further said the government is opened to any kind of debate on the issue without affecting the scheduled business of the House in the crucial budget session.

The Speaker later said the House may consider a discussion on the issue further keeping in view the availability of time.

On March 4, Chhattisgarh government had informed the Assembly that chit fund companies in the state have duped more than 46,000 investors to the tune of over Rs 343 crore in last four years.

A total of 159 offences had been registered against 79 unauthorised financial institutions, while 159 agents and 52 company officials/owners have been arrested in connection with the fraud during this period, the government had informed.
Both the Houses of Maharashtra Legislature today witnessed uproarious scene with Opposition Congress and NCP seeking removal of Education Minister Vinod Tawde alleging that he is still a honorary director of a company, which amounted to violation of election laws and model code of conduct.

Amid noisy scenes over the issue, the Speaker adjourned the Assembly twice.

Soon after the Assembly session began, the opposition members raised slogans seeking removal of Tawde, alleging that he had three Director Identification Numbers (DIN) when only one is allowed.

"Tawde did not disclose information about his DIN in his election affidavits. Tawde is a director in Shree Multimedia Vision, a for-profit company, which brings out 'Mumbai Tarun Bharat'. This was not disclosed in his election affidavit," they said.

They alleged that since Tawde held a director's post in the private media company, it amounted to conflict of interest, which calls for his sacking from the Cabinet.

NCP MLA and former minister Jayant Patil sought clarification from Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on the alleged violation of code of conduct (for ministers) by Tawde.

Fadnavis said a clarification will be given "at an appropriate time".

"The point you raised comes under model code. Some former ministers will also come under its purview. Opposition should be ready to face consequences," he said.

Former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said the code of conduct was made by the Centre, and demanded that Fadnavis should make the government's stand clear.

As the noisy scenes continued, Speaker Haribhau Bagade announced suspension of the House for ten minutes. It was again adjourned for five minutes as slogan-shouting continued.

The issue also figured in the Legislative council with Opposition Leader Dhananjay Munde (NCP) holding that the code of conduct for ministers needs to be taken seriously.

The Opposition said that the code of conduct and election laws provide that a minister holding a office of profit has to quit that office within two months after being sworn in after taking oath as minister.

Raising the issue in the Upper House through an



Adjournment Motion, Sharad Ranpise (Congress) held that the rules apply for both Union and Ministers in State. He demanded that the Chief Minister sack such a minister or the minister owning moral responsibility tender his resignation.

Making an intervention, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Girish Bapat assured the legislators that the government shall make a statement before the session gets over.

Janardhan Chandurkar (Congress) wanted to know as to why the House was debating the issue without naming the minister.

"I want to know which minister is being talked about. According to newspaper reports the minister in question is Vinod Tawde. I want to know if this is true. If not, injustice is being done to Tawde. It is thus imperative that we debate on the issue and facts be presented before the House," he said.

Giving his ruling on the proposal, Chairman Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar assured the House that he will, setting aside the rules, allow four Opposition members to raise questions on the government's statement.
Dr Luke has denied reports that he has been dropped from Sony Music amid his legal battle with pop star Kesha.

The top producer has been embroiled in a bitter fracas with the "Tik Tok" star, who was recently denied her bid to terminate her contract with Sony and its subsidiary, Luke's Kemosabe Records, despite accusing the hitmaker of sexual and emotional abuse, reported Rolling Stones magazine.

An attorney for Luke insists the reports of his split from Sony are false, and he is still signed with the top label.

"This is not true. Luke has an excellent relationship with Sony. His representatives are in regular contact with executives at the highest levels at Sony and this has never come up," his lawyer said in a statement.
Ahead of the West Bengal assembly polls, the (EC) is addressing public grievances related to voter lists and voter ID cards in a tech-savvy manner with the help of a mobile app 'Samadhan', officials said.

"It is now very easy for any voter to lodge a complaint with us with the help of this mobile app which is available freely on Android platform. We are getting all kinds of complaints from voters related to voter id cards, mistakes in voter list, etc," an EC official said.

An EC team has been tasked to take note of all the complaints received through the app and process it for redressal.

After lodging a complaint a message is sent to the voter with a complaint ID through SMS service and after the grievance is redressed then also another SMS is sent with all the details.

Officials said in the run-up to the elections they so far have received 1,300 complaints so far.

"The app has made grievance redressal faster and easier. Most of the complaints has been from the districts like Burdwan, South and North 24 Parganas," the official said.

Besides electoral rolls, any other complaint related to violations in campaigning rules or model code of conduct can also be made through the app.

Not just voters but candidates can also lodge complaints through the digital citizen interface.

Two other apps are also being launched by the commission. 'Suvidha' will act as a single-window system to approve all campaign-related applications while 'Sugam' will take care of arrangement of vehicles for poll duty.
The government has urged China to ensure that interests of downstream states are not harmed by any activity in upstream areas of the Brahmaputra river, Lok Sabha was informed today.

Union Minister of State for Water Resources Sanwar Lal Jat made the statement in reply to queries on whether China's dam construction in upper Tibet area is causing a drop in water level in Brahmaputra in Assam and said the government "carefully" monitors all developments on the river.

"India has urged China to ensure the interests of downstream states are not harmed by any activities in upstream areas," Jat said.

The minister said, according to reports, China's Zangmu hydroelectric project was operationalised in October, 2015.

The outline of the 12th Five Year Plan for the People's Republic of China indicates that three more hydropower projects on the mainstream of Brahmaputra river in Tibet Autonomous Region have been approved for implementation, he said.

"These four projects are considered to be run of the river (RoR) hydroelectric projects. As a lower riparian state with considerable established user rights to the waters of the river, India has conveyed its views and concerns to the Chinese authorities, including at the highest levels of the Government of the People's Republic of China," he added.

The minister said in 2006 the two sides established an India-China Expert Level Mechanism (ELM) on trans-border rivers and in October, 2013, the two governments signed a memorandum of understanding on strengthening cooperation on trans-border rivers, he said.

Subsequently, Jat said, a joint statement was issued during the visit of Prime Minister of India to China in May, 2015 which stated, "The two sides will further strengthen cooperation through the expert-level mechanisms, on the provision of flood season hydrological data and emergency management, and exchange views on other issues of mutual interest.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The EU's anti-fraud chief has been stripped of his diplomatic immunity and could face questioning by Belgian investigators in a case linked to the 2012 resignation of a European Commissioner in a lobbying scandal, officials have said.

Giovanni Kessler, a former Italian MP and anti-mafia prosecutor, is suspected by Belgian authorities of illegally listening in to a phone conversation during his effort to unearth evidence in a corruption case involving the EU, known as Dalligate.

EU health commissioner John Dalli of Malta was forced to resign four years ago after a probe led by Kessler linked him to a tobacco lobbyist at a time when the EU was introducing tougher anti-smoking legislation.

Dalli has categorically denied any wrong-doing and filed a complaint in a Belgian court that led to the demand that Kessler's immunity be lifted.

"His immunity was lifted by the European Commission," Eric Van der Sypt, a spokesman for the federal prosecutor's office told AFP.

Many EU civil servants in Belgium are granted diplomatic immunity, in addition to paying no taxes in the country.

The European Anti-Fraud Office, known as OLAF, said with his immunity lifted, Kessler now had the option to bring legal action against the commission before the European Court of Justice "in order to protect OLAF's independence".

"This would be an unprecedented step, but one that is crucial in ensuring the independence and proper functioning of OLAF and, through OLAF's investigative work, the protection of the EU budget," the office said in an email.

Belgian authorities first demanded the Commission lift Kessler's immunity in December 2014, triggering accusations that the commission was trying to delay the case.
Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari today expressed "helplessness" in putting projects pending due to environmental regulations and judicial stay on track in time, but indicated that the number of such projects has declined since the NDA government took over.

Responding to concerns expressed by some members in the Lok Sabha during Question Hour, he urged all political parties to adopt an "integrated approach" and said they should "formulate a resolution" vis-a-vis the 1980 Forest Act.

"Sometimes I am also helpless. Sometimes I am embarassed that I cannot give resolution," he said as Joice George, an independent member from Kerala, Gopal Shetty (BJP) and Kantilal Bhuria (Cong) among others spoke about highway projects related to their states.

Gadkari also said that projects costing Rs 25,000-30,000 crore were stuck now, compared with over Rs 3.8 lakh crore when the BJP-led government took over.

He said pending projects were a major reason for accidents and added that over 5 lakh accidents occur and 1.56 lakh die due to this.

"The situation is very challenging and problematic. We need environment, ecology and also development," he said, adding that the government had set up a committee under him to look into the issue.

Gadkari said a total of 18 projects, including 11 such from NHAI, are delayed now while as many as 120 NHAI projects alone were pending earlier.

Besides 11 NHAI projects, three in Telangana and one each in Assam, Bihar and Sikking besides one of the Border Road Organisation are delayed now.

To speed up these projects, he said the NHAI had held a meeting with wildlife organisations on January 19 to sort out the issue and such meetings will be held once every quarter.

In reply to another question, Gadkari said the government



was planning to hire unemployed engineering graduates and diploma holders for maintenance works of national highways.

"We are going to recruit unemployed engineers and diploma holders for maintenance of national highways in all states," he said during Question Hour.

The functioning of private companies are being reviewed regularly by project director, regional offices and at the headquarters of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).

"The progress of work is being monitored regularly by NHAI by inspecting the project site by PD/IE/ consultant for ensuring timely completion of OMT project as per concession agreement. Damages are levied for delay in completion of works as per provision of contract," he said.

Gadkari said maintenance and repair of road is being done by NHAI through Operation, Maintenance and Transfer concessionaire for long periods, preferably upto 9 years, and through operation and maintenance contracts for shorter period of upto 2 years).
A shooting at a backyard party in the town of Wilkinsburg in the US state of Pennsylvania has left five people dead, and at least two suspects are on the loose, police said today.

Four of the victims, three women and one man, died at the scene while another woman died in hospital, Allegheny County police said in a statement.

Two men are in critical condition and a woman is in stable condition following the incident at a home, they said.

"The ballistic evidence on the scene leads police to believe that ,"two different weapons were discharged from two different people the statement said.

No one has been taken into custody.

Police said shots were fired from an alley and that when partygoers tried to seek cover in the home, someone on the side or backyard adjacent to the residence fired at the back porch.

All four victims who perished at the scene died on the back porch.

Neighbourhood resident Kayla Alexander told local broadcaster WPXI that the street where the shooting occurred is normally quiet and filled with playing children.

The mass shooting is the latest to rock the United States, where such attacks have become commonplace.

Gun violence is responsible for some 30,000 deaths per year in the country, with 330 mass shooting incidents recorded last year.
NATO now has five ships taking part in an unprecedented naval mission in the Aegean Sea to tackle people smugglers taking migrants from Turkey to Greece, the alliance's chief Jens Stoltenberg has said.

Speaking at a conference in Brussels yesterday with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Stoltenberg said NATO was pushing ahead with the deployment since it was approved last month.

"There are now five ships in the area, there will be more ships in the coming days, and we also have helicopters on most of the ships, so we are increasing the presence of NATO vessels with modern equipment," Stoltenberg said.

Stoltenberg said that at the weekend NATO expanded into Turkish and Greek territorial waters, a move that was delayed because of disagreements with Ankara.

The vessels were concentrating on the area around the island of Lesbos and aimed to "cut the lines of the illegal networks and illegal trafficking of people across the Aegean Sea."



Britain announced on Monday, ahead of an EU summit with Turkey on the migration crisis, that it was sending an amphibious landing ship and several other vessels to join ships from Canada, Germany, Greece and Turkey.

NATO launched the deployment, the first civilian operation of its kind for the military alliance, after a request by Greece, Turkey and Germany to help tackle Europe's biggest migration crisis since World War II.

More than one million people have crossed the Mediterranean since the start of 2015 including many refugees fleeing the war in Syria.
Five extra limestone columns hidden way below the water have been discovered in Australia, giving a boost to the iconic tourist attraction Twelve Apostles.

The never-before-seen sea stacks, located six kilometres offshore from the Great Ocean Road and 50 metres beneath the water's surface, were found by researchers during sonar mapping of the seafloor off Victoria's southern coast.

Scientists are dubbing them the "Drowned Apostles."



While they are smaller in both size and number than their more famous cousins, their existence alone is remarkable given their defiance of normal erosion rates, researchers said.

This is the first time such limestone stacks have been found preserved in the ocean.

"Sea stacks are always eroding, as we saw with the one that collapsed in 2005, so it is hugely surprising that any could be preserved at that depth of water," said David Kennedy from University of Melbourne.

"They should have collapsed and eroded as the sea level rose," said Kennedy.

Like the Twelve Apostles, the newest additions were once part of larger limestone sea cliff, researchers said.

Rhiannon Bezore, from University of Melbourne, who made the initial discovery in the sonar data, said they probably date back 60,000 years.

"We had to check what we were seeing because no one has seen stacks submerged at this sea level before," she said.

"Only a very fine balance can create sea stacks, with rock needing to be soft enough to erode quickly from a cliff but hard enough to support a rocky pillar," said Daniel Ierodiaconou from Deakin University in Australia.

The sonar data was collected using the latest advances in multi-beam sonar technology.

The findings were published in the Journal of Coastal Research.
Flying out to Kolkata and Guwahati from the Mizoram capital may get cheaper as the Jet Airways is considering introducing more flights in the region.

Airline officials from the north east region today said the airfares in the Aizawl-Kolkata and Aizawl-Guwahati sectors could come down with the introduction of more flights in the sectors.

The Jet Airways officials made the statement after state chief minister Lal Thanhawla complained to the airlines that airfare between Aizawl and other cities was exorbitant.

The Mizoram Bar Association (MBA) had earlier filed a petition in the Gauhati High Court saying the airfare between Aizawl-Kolkata and Aizawl-Guwahati was too high.

The MBA complained that airfare in the Aizawl sector was higher than other airports from which air distances were much shorter.

The Jet Airways officials told Lal Thanhawla that the airlines would commence Aizawl to Delhi direct flight via Guwahati from March 27 and the flight would take 3 hours and 55 minutes which included 35-minute halt at Guwahati.

This would be the first and only direct flight between Aizawl and the national capital.
In the third such detention with in a week, four Tamil Nadu fishermen were today arrested by Sri Lankan Navy for allegedly fishing in the island nation's waters.

The fishermen from Pudukottai were arrested and their boat impounded while fishing in Karai Nagar sea by Sri Lankan Naval personnel, Pudukottai Joint Director of Fisheries H D Shekar said.

The fishermen were taken to Jaffna and produced before Oorkavalturai court Magistrate M M Riyas who remanded them to judicial custody till March 24, officials said.

Eight fishermen were arrested on March 3 while 29 others on March 6 by the Sri Lankan Navy at different locations in mid sea.

Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has already written two letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking the release of all 64 fishermen, including those detained in the past, in Lankan custody along with their 77 boats.
Four men went on trial today accused of helping the gunman behind twin attacks on a Copenhagen synagogue and a free speech event last year that left two people dead.

The trial, being guarded by about a dozen heavily armed police, comes with Europe still on high alert over fears of jihadist violence following two bloody attacks in Paris in 2015.

Prosecutor Bo Bjerregaard accused the four defendants of trying to "destabilise or destroy Denmark's basic political, constitutional, economic or societal structures".

The killer, 22-year-old Omar El-Hussein, opened fire on February 14 last year outside a cultural centre where the speakers included Swedish artist Lars Vilks, a target of Islamic extremists since he portrayed the Prophet Mohammed as a dog in 2007.

A 55-year-old filmmaker, Finn Norgaard, died and three police officers were injured.

Later that night, the Dane of Palestinian origin fired six shots outside the city's main synagogue, killing security guard Dan Uzan, 37, and injuring two more policemen. The assailant was shot dead by police hours later.

The trial, which is expected to run over 30 court days through September, is to focus on events in the hours between the two attacks, when the four men are accused of having aided the killer.

Bjerregaard said they had to have been aware of the intentions of the gunman, whom some had known since childhood.

After lifting a ban on disclosing their identities, the court named the four as Liban Ahmed Saleban Elmi, 20, Ibrahim Khalil Abbas, 23, Bhostan Khan Hussein, 26 and Mahmoud Rabea, 31.

The prosecution believes they are all guilty of committing a "terror offence" by providing El-Hussein with support in the form of ammunition, a hoodie and a bag used in the second attack, and by paying for his time in an Internet cafe where he located the synagogue.

Abbas and Elmi are also charged with helping him dispose of the weapon he used at the cultural centre.
Commuters on Delhi-Jaipur highway can now plan their journey with live radio updates of traffic condition, a service which is similar to the systems in the US, Canada, Singapore and other advanced nations.

Launching Highways Advisory Service (HAS) pilot project here for National Highways 8, Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said the model would be replicated pan-India soon.

Under the phase 1, existing AIR stations located in Delhi, Alwar and Jaipur will broadcast live traffic updates.

HAS is a free-to-air information distribution system that uses radio to make travelling experience on National Highways safer, faster and hassle-free.

Gadkari said the contract has been signed with AIR to buy time for phase 1 of the pilot project in which 22 bulletins will be issued every day.

He said the government is committed to reduce fatalities due to road accidents by 50 per cent and HAS is an aid that will help to achieve this target.

India accounts for about five lakh road accidents per annum in which 1.5 lakh people are killed while another 3 lakh are crippled for life.

"The radio broadcasts will also raise people's awareness about road safety, which is very necessary for making our highways safe for the commuters," he added.

The government had earlier said the possibility of a single frequency for the whole country is being examined subject to viability and other regulatory clearances.

Under the project, real time highway information will be gathered from concessionaires, patrol vehicles, toll plazas and traffic marshals.

The current project will be implemented in three phases.

By Phase II it is expected to augment the broadcast infrastructure to cover the entire stretch of the highway, install sensors to gather additional real time traffic information, broadcast in both Analog & Digital Radio mode and do impact measurement through an external agency.

By phase III, HAS services will be only in digital broadcasting mode and there will be monitoring and third party audits.

Stating that logistics cost amounts to 18 per cent and



transportation through waterways can cut it down to 12 per cent, Gadkari said high logistics costs impair India's competitive edge in the international market and the country must develop waterways for transportation.

Asserting that the capacity of ports in the country would be enhanced substantially, Gadkari said an amount of Rs 50,000 crore would be invested for development of Paradip port, which occupies an important position.

The target is to increase the capacity of Paradip port threefold to 325 MT by 2025 from 112 MT, he said adding Paradip would be one of the biggest ports in the country.

"Paradip Port is all set to become the growth engine of eastern India," he said.

Gadkari said Paradip port's draft is being increased to 18 metre to enable it to handle huge vessels of 200,000 dwt (dead weight tonnage) and works involving Rs 2,600 crore has already been awarded.

Further, an amount of Rs 8,200 crore would be pumped in to develop a new port at Paradip, which would act as a satellite port adding around 150 MT capacity, he said.

Referring to rail-port connectivity, Gadkari said Rs 7,000 crore is being invested for establishing rail link between the coal belt of Talcher and Paradip port.

Noting that coal production of Mahanadi Coalfields is expected to jump up to 300 MT, the minister said the entire coal from the region can be transported to states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Telangana to cater to needs of power plants by ships.

Transportation through sea route would save around Rs 10,000 crore in a year, he said adding ships after unloading coal can bring back limestone from Rajasthan, which would be used in steel plants.

On projects abroad, he said a port would also be built at Chabahar in Iran in 18 months, which would serve as a gateway for imports and exports.

To a query, Gadkari said there is no illegal toll gates on highways in Odisha and the state's Chief Secretary has also stated this.

To get quality services, one has to pay accordingly, he said adding tolls were collected in advanced countries like Canada.
Sir Ganga Ram Hospital has signed an MoU with Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences for collaborations in clinical care, training and research.

"Sir Ganga Ram Hospital has recently signed an MoU with Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences (under KIIT university) to collaborate in clinical care, training and research. First six areas in clinical care will be mother and child health, nutrition, biochemistry, medicine, orthopaedics and surgery, mainly directed towards tribal children.

"SGRH will also train doctors from KIMS and will collaborate in research projects which are of relevance to the poor in India," said Dr D S Rana, Chairman, SGRH's Board of Management on the fourth anniversary of Ganga Ram Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (GRIPMER).

According to GRIPMER Dean Dr Samiran Nundy, SGRH has been running the country's largest DNB training programme in 17 broad specialities and 14 super specialities.

It also publishes a bimonthly journal 'Current Medicine Research & Practice'.

Meanwhile, Dr Achyuta Samanta, Founder of Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences and Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar, delivered the annual GRIPMER Oration today.

"Education in today's world is the only game changer for the uplift of poor and downtrodden. My aim is to empower as many poor children as possible with free and holistic education for their sustainable development," Dr Samanta said.
Dubai government has sought a more than 75 per cent increase in the seat entitlement from India, over and above the current quota of 65,200 seats per week under the bilateral air service agreement.

"General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) of Dubai has requested for an increase of 50,000 seats in total capacity entitlement between India and Dubai," Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma said in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

The minister said the designated carrier of the two countries are currently entitled to utilise a total of 65,200 seats as per the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between India and UAE (Dubai) in February 2014.

The minister, however, said the two countries have not agreed to offer 63,000 seats per week (over and above the current entitlement) to the airlines of each side.

He also said the capacity entitlements with different countries are enhanced through bilateral talks from time to time for promoting international connectivity.

At present, India has bilateral seat entitlements with 112 countries.
Hardline Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was admitted in a private hospital here after he complained of breathlessness and his condition was tonight described as stable by doctors.

The 86-year-old leader had complained of breathlessness and high blood pressure and was taken to Max Hospital, Saket.

"Syed Ali Shah Geelani was brought into Max Hospital, Saket emergency with an episode of syncope (fainting episode).

He is at present stable and under evaluation by the cardiology and neurology team of the hospital," said a statement issued by the hospital.
Hardline Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was today admitted in a private hospital in South Delhi after he complained of breathlessness.

The 86-year-old leader had complained of breathlessness and high blood pressure and was taken to Max Hospital, Saket.

Sources close to him said doctors are conducting medical tests to ascertain his medical condition.
The government today allowed Dubai-based port operator DP World to create an Indian holding company by change in shareholding in the Container Terminal Projects at major ports provided the net worth of the latter is higher than USD 80 million.

"The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given its approval for grant of 'no objection' to the proposed change in shareholding in the Container Terminal Projects of Dubai Port World (DPW) Limited in major Ports," the Ministry of Shipping said in a statement.

"The government has agreed to the proposal for restructuring by DPW subject to the condition that the net worth of the holding company Hindustan Ports Private Limited (HPPL) after acquisition of the shares of the project SPVs shall be higher than USD 80 million," it said.

The move allows for the creation of an Indian holding company of global operator DPW with unique asset portfolio to operate and manage the terminal operations at the existing major ports subject to certain safeguards.

DPW Ltd is contemplating restructuring of its assets in India with the objective of consolidating the ownership of its port infrastructure in India into a single holding company HPPL.

The new company will take over all liabilities of the existing subsidiaries of DP World in relation to the concession agreements.

"There would not be any change of ultimate beneficiary and the ultimate legal and beneficial ownership which will continue to remain with DP World," it said adding it is noteworthy that FIPB has given its clearance to DP World.

The proposal of DPW is intended to help them to expand the capital base and enable fresh investments in ports and logistics infrastructure in India, the statement said.

This will enable efficient access of finance and introduce latest technology in port operation.

Also, the restructuring of assets of DPW in India will help in better coordination and control as the port authorities have to deal with a single company registered in India.

The approval of consolidation proposal of DPW will also facilitate promoting foreign direct investment in the country and signal the investor friendly ambience in the port sector, the government said.

It added that this may also lead to greater transparency and better compliance to Indian laws and regulations.
Unidentified gunmen today kidnapped eight government employees in Pakistan's troubled northwest while they were heading to inspect an under construction dam, officials said.

The incident took place in Toi Khula area of the South Waziristan tribal district along the Afghan border where unidentified gunmen intercepted their vehicle and took them to an unknown location.

Zafrul Islam, the top government official in South Waziristan, said project director of Chao Tangi small dam, two geologists and other technical staff of the dam were among those kidnapped at gunpoint.

"Gunmen kidnapped these eight government employees when they were heading to the dam site," Islam told AFP.

A second senior government official confirmed the abduction and told AFP that a search operation had been launched to locate the abductors.

No group has yet claimed responsibility.

South Waziristan is one of Pakistan's seven tribal districts which border Afghanistan and have been home to Al-Qaeda and Taliban led militants.

The Taliban blew up a girls' school in South Waziristan in February saying the school had been targeted because it was run by the military and the group was opposed to female education.

Pakistan's army stepped up its offensive in the region after the Taliban's massacre of 153 people, mostly children, at an army-run school in Peshawar in December 2014, and has killed or pushed hundreds of militants to Afghanistan.
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. Armenpress state news agency presents on the air of Lratvakan.am all what you will read, hear and see on todays news.

Regular session of the Government is today, on March 10. One of the issues on the agenda is the discussion of two bills referring to making amendments in the gas contract with Russia. According to another bill, new letters will be used in the license plates of cars.

Recently tendency of anti-Armenian campaign is noted in American media. It is clear that it is the result of Turkish-Azerbaijani lobbying. Political scientist Hrant Melik-Shanazaryan will touch upon new methods of anti-Armenian propaganda by Azerbaijan, as well as border tension.

Expert in Georgian studies Joni Melikyan will continue the discussion of regional topics. He will speak about OSCE Minsk Group American Co-chair James Warlicks visit to Georgia, during which the issue of Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement will be discussed.

Which are the modern greenhouse technologies? How much are they practiced in Armenia? A seminar will be held on March 10 initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture of Armenia, Armenian Harvest Promotion Center and other organizations. World leading companies producing greenhouse technologies, French Richel Group, Finnish Yara Suomi Oy, Dutch Enza Zaden, Israeli Paskal Technologies, will participate in the seminar.

Coalition to Stop Violence Against Women in Armenia invites to participate in the round-table discussion entitled Legislation preventing domestic violence as an important precondition for human rights protection. It is expected that data on domestic violence in Armenia will be presented at the discussion.

Legislative discussions will go on, but focusing on the Electoral Code. Stepan Safaryan, founder and head of the Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs, National Assembly RPA faction members Ruzan Muradyan and Levon Martirosyan, former Supreme Council MP Azat Arshakyan, Prosperous Armenia party member Lyova Khachatryan will introduce their remarks on the expected changes in the Electoral Code.

Adviser to the President of the National Statistical Service of the Republic of Armenia Gurgen Martirosyan will introduce the changes in consumer prices during January, February 2016.

To what extent is the issue of alcohol addiction serious in Armenia? How many alcohol poisoning cases are registered in Armenia annually? Chief toxicologist of Armenia Michael Gabrielyan and head of National Center for dispensary department Artashes Tumanyan will speak about the topic.

Exhibition entitled Iranian culture in Armenia. Cultural Counselor of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran Majid Meshki, director of the National Gallery of Armenia Arman Tsaturyan, Director of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art Majid Mollanoroozi will meet with the journalists on this occasion. A memorandum will be signed between National Gallery of Armenia and Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art.

You can read more about this and other topics at armenpress.am and listen to the news on the radio. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
The doubling of H-1B visa fee would impact India's purchase of defence equipment from the US as the move would affect the country's IT exports that generate money to buy the American military hardware, a top American industry advocacy group has warned.

"If India's export gets impacted because of H-1B issue, then it would have an impact on India's purchase of defence equipment from the US, because India is (one of) the largest buyer (of military hardware in the world)," Mukesh Aghi, president of US India Business Council told PTI.

"For India IT services in the US is slightly over USD 60 billion. It is the largest export of India into the US," he said.

"And if it (India) does not earn foreign exchange then how it will pay. So I think, it does has an impact directly or indirectly on job creation in the US," Aghi said responding to a question on the recent discriminatory policies of US against Indian IT companies.

Indian companies, he said have invested over USD 19 billion in the United States creating large amounts of jobs.

"Secondly the (Indian) IT workers do make US companies much more competitive on a global basis. And classic example is the banking industry in the US after 2008 financial crisis a big chunk of our work is being done by Indian companies and they become world class more stronger," he said.

"We are very much against the imposition of this discriminatory penalty on Indian companies," Aghi said in response to a question.

Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled another hearing on 'Impact of High Levels of Immigrations on US Workers'. This is the second such similar hearing in less than a fortnight.

The hearing has been convened by Senator Jeff Sessions, Chairman of the Senate subcommittee on Immigration and National Interest of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sessions had recently endorsed Donald Trump the Republican presidential front runner.

During a Congressional hearing on February 25, Senator Jeff Sessions and Senator Dick Durbin agreed on need to reform two temporary work visas, the H-1B and L-1, because corporations use them to keep wages low.

Last year, US President Barack Obama had signed into law a USD 1.8 trillion spending package which among other things introduces a hefty USD 4,000 fee for certain categories of H-1B visa and USD 4,500 for L1 visa.

Companies having more than 50 employees and having more than 50 per cent of their US employees on H-1B and L1 visas would have to pay the new fee when the next visa application session kicks off on April 1.

India alleged that the recent US measures "appear to raise the overall barriers for service suppliers from India seeking entry into the United States.
The Himachal Pradesh High Court today granted bail to a Junior Engineer of Irrigation and Public health (I and PH) department arrested in the jaundice outbreak case.

Justice Rajeev Sharma granted bail to Roop Lal Gautam who was booked under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 20,000 and surety of same amount and overruled the objections of the Advocate general opposing the bail.

However, the Court directed him to make himself available for interrogation, if so required, and regularly attend the trial court on each and every date of hearing.

The petitioner was working as Junior Engineer in I and PH Department, Kasumpti, and was also assigned the duties of Ashwani Khad water lifting scheme.

On Janary 5 this year, a complaint was filed by the Deputy Mayor of Shimla Municipal corporation, Tikender Singh Panwar, for registration of FIR against the contractor of sewerage treatment plant, Dhalli and Malyana.

The counsel for the petitioner argued that one of the co-accused, namely, Hem Chand Chauhan, in the same FIR has been released by this Court.

The court observed that the investigations in the case were complete, no recovery was to be effected from the petitioner and no useful purpose would be served by keeping the petitioner behind the bars.

"It was the collective responsibility of all the officers such as Additional Chief Secretary and Engineer-in-Chief and Superintending Engineer of I and PH Department to maintain the treatment plants and to ensure potable water to the citizens," the Court in its order said.

The court pulled up the police and said that "it is also intriguing to note that the police has only registered FIR against the officers/officials of I and PH Department while it is the constitutional/statutory duty of the Municipal Corporation, Shimla, to provide potable water to the inhabitants of the town but no arrest of its technical officers/officials has been made.

"It was expected from the state to apply the law



uniformly and take action against the seniormost officers/officials of the Municipal Corporation, Shimla, taking into consideration the epidemic situation prevailing in the town, which has led to loss of valuable human lives," the court said.

It said that thousands of persons have contacted jaundice due to sheer negligence of the technical officer/officials who were responsible to maintain water supply to the town.

The officers/officials of the H.P. State Pollution Control Board(PCB) are also remiss in the discharge of their duties as it is the prime responsibility of the officers/officials of PCB to ensure strict compliance of the mandatory provisions of Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and Environment Protection Act, 1986, the Court said, adding "iit was also expected from the state to take stern action against the officers/officials of PCB."



The order said that "the court has gathered the impression that lower officials are being booked and made scapegoat under various penal laws but the highest officers are dealt with leniently for the reasons best known to the functionaries of the state."



The court directed that henceforth, the state government would ensure that all the treatment plants throughout Himachal are run by the officers/officials of I and PH Department alone in order to ensure quality/safety of water.

The samples of water supplied to all the towns in the state should be lifted every 48 hours to maintain its quality and inorder to ensure that there is no recurrence of jaundice, the Chief Secretary, Additional Chief Secretary and Engineer-in-Chief (I and PH), all the Superintending Engineers (I and PH), Commissioners of Municipal Corporations, Executive Officers of Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats shall be personally responsible to ensure the potable water supply throughout the state.

Every person has a right to potable water under Article 21 of the Constitution of India and it is expected from the state at least to provide potable water if not other basic amenities to say the least, said the HC.

Since every third person in the family residing in Shimla town is seriously affected with jaundice, it is the prime duty of the state government that the patients are treated free of cost in all state-run district-level hospitals, Community Health Centres/Primary Health Centres and to maintain their records properly.

The figure of jaundice-affected persons given by the state is on the lower side since most of the patients have got their blood samples analyzed from private laboratories.
The Allahabad High Court bench today reserved its order on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on the point of maintainability, seeking directions for quashing the probe report of the one-member judicial commission headed by Vishnu Sahai on 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.

The PIL has been filed by a local journalist as well as the General Secretary of All India Muslim Council Allama Zamir Naqvi.

According to the petitioner's counsel Ashok Pandey, it was alleged that being ex-member of UP state Human Rights Commission, Sahai was not eligible to being appointed on any post by the Centre and the state government as per legal provisions.

Today, the petitioner's counsel submitted that the probe report should be rejected as appointment of Sahai as one- member judicial commission was not correct in the eyes of the law.

On behalf of the state government, the PIL was opposed saying that it was not maintainable and liable to be dismissed.

After hearing the arguments, the court reserved its order on the point of it's maintainability.

The Commission that went into the 2013 Muzaffarnagar communal riots has concluded intelligence failure and laxity on the part of police led to the violence that left 62 people dead but is silent on the role of Akhilesh Yadav government in the conflagration.
The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court today directed Maharashtra government and Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC) not to release an arbitration award sum of Rs 32.55 crore to Jalgaon-based firm MKK Tapi Prestrade Product.

The firm had undertaken a contract for Mokhabardi lift irrigation project, a part of Gosikhurd irrigation project.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has directed the chief secretary to probe why VIDC failed to challenge the arbitration award passed against it on August 17, 2013. The arbitrator had ordered payment of Rs 20.84 crore with 11.45 per cent interest to the company.

A division bench of Justices Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Pradeep Deshmukh, while hearing a PIL filed by NGO Jan Manch, directed the respondent authorities to stop payment of arbitration award to the contractor firm.

Jan Manch had alleged complicity of VIDC officials who did not challenge the award despite favourable legal opinion.

The contractor firm had dragged VIDC to arbitration citing escalation of cost and damages due to delay in release of payment for the work done.

At the last hearing, the High Court had sought a reply from the chief secretary and VIDC.

Jan Manch's lawyer Firdos Mirza claimed that ignoring legal opinion, the VIDC officials deliberately didn't file appeal.

Associate Advocate General Rohit Deo and Government Pleader Bharti Dangre today informed the judges that the Chief Minister had already ordered a probe by the chief secretary.

The court then asked the authorities to put implementation of arbitration award on hold, adjourning the hearing.
Reminding that neglect of parents is punishable under law, the Madras High Court has asked two sons of an octogenarian man to give him Rs 400 each, ordered to be awarded by a lower court, though it is a meagre amount.

A Magistrate Court had in 2008 directed the sons to pay Rs 400 each as maintenance to their father, against which they appealed to a session's court, which upheld the order.

The two sons, both ex-servicemen, then filed an appeal in the High Court against the orders of the lower court.

Justice S Vaidyanathan in a recent order directed them to pay the amount along with all pending arrears within a month to their 86-year-old father.

C Chinnappa and his wife Lakshmi had in 2004 moved a magistrate court in Vellore district seeking maintenance from his two younger sons C Shanmugam and C Mani.

The aged couple were living with their eldest son's family.

The senior citizen couplehad a total of 2.4 acres of land and they gave two acres to their sons and retained 40 cents for own use.

During the pendency of proceedings, Lakshmi died.

The sons argued that their father had his own source of income from the land he possessed.

The Judge, while rejecting the argument, said the maintenance awarded itself was meagre and they should to pay the amount.

Justice Vaidyanathan said that it was keeping in mind the neglect such senior citizens are subjected to at the hands of their own children that Parliament had enacted the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007.

The Act which received the assent of the President on December 29, 2007 provides for the maintenance and welfare of parents and senior citizens, he said.
Country's largest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp today formally inaugurated its R&D centre here, where it will develop future models with an aim to consolidate position in domestic and international markets.

The centre christened as Centre of Innovation and Technology (CIT) is spread across 250 acres and has come up at an investment of Rs 850 crore.

"Our dream is to make the company number one in the world not only in volumes but in every sense. This facility here will contribute to this dream," Hero MotoCorp Chairman, Managing Director and CEO Pawan Munjal told reporters here.

CIT would help in developing bikes and scooters not only for India but for global markets too, he added.

"With this facility, we aim to bring game changing innovations. This is a giant step in our relentless endeavour towards strengthening our in-house technology capabilities," Munjal said.

In order to compete globally, the company has stitched a world class team from all across the world, he added.

The company has hired 500 engineers, including 12 expats, and plans to add 100 more by the end of next fiscal.

Munjal said the centre will help the company to further enhance its capabilities in whichever segment Hero MotoCorp is currently present.

"Besides, we will be focusing on developing premium segment models (200-250 cc) not only for India but also for our international markets," he added.

Two scooter models Duet and Maestro Edge, developed in the facility are already in the market.

When asked if the commissioning of the facility would lead to decline in product development costs for the company, Munjal said: "As we have been importing technology at certain cost, when we produce and develop here it would be much more economical."



He, however, did not share the cost reduction details.

Hero MotoCorp CTO Markus Braunsperger said the facility would explore ways to widen the company's product range in bikes, scooters and new mobility solutions.

All the projects from company's Dharuhera R&D centre would gradually move to the Jaipur facility, he added.

The Jaipur facility houses 14 test tracks covering a distance of 16 km with 45 different testing surfaces.
Country's largest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp plans to enter new markets globally, including Mexico and Nigeria, as it eyes 1 crore unit sales by 2017-18.

"We already are present in a number of countries in Latin America, South East Asia and Africa. I think we are already there in around 26-28 countries and as we speak, this month, we plan to enter the biggest market in Africa, Nigeria," Hero MotoCorp CMD Pawan Munjal told reporters here.

Very soon the company will also be going to Mexico, he added.

"We also expect domestic sales to pick up, especially in the rural areas," Munjal said.

Saying that in India the market is not at its best, he said: "We are hoping that things start getting better specially in rural sector. As far as breaching the 10 million sales mark, I think we have talked about reaching the mark by 2017-18."



Hero MotoCorp separated from Honda Motor Co Ltd in 2011 and since than has augmented its global presence.

In August 2013, it announced plans to enter 50 markets by 2020 with a target of 20 manufacturing facilities across the globe and an overall annual turnover of Rs 60,000 crore.

The company aims at getting 10 per cent of annual sales from export markets, at around 1 million units, by 2017.

Hero MotoCorp has set a cumulative sales target of 100 million units by 2020, having already crossed the 50 million milestone.

During the last fiscal, the company sold 6,631,826 units and said it expects single digit growth during the current fiscal.

In India, the company currently has four plants -- at Gurgaon and Dharuhera (Haryana), Neemrana (Rajasthan) and Haridwar (Uttarakhand).

As of last quarter, the company had an installed capacity to produce 81 lakh units per annum from the four production facilities.
A 20-year-old HIV positive girl, who was ostracised and forced to leave her hostel after she opened up about her condition, is back to her college in north Kerala's Kannur district, thanks to the intervention of District Collector.

The first-year graduation student of a private college in Kannur had decided to leave the management hostel last month, where she had been put up as some of her fellow mates and their parents objected to her stay there after she revealed her HIV positive status.

College principal P A Junaid said the issue became public after the management sought another accommodation for her as some of her fellow hostel mates vacated the rooms.

Hearing the girl's plight, Kannur District Collector, P Balakiran stepped in to help her.

An awareness campaign was carried out among students and parents yesterday after which she was admitted to the hostel today.

The Collector said he had held many rounds of talks with the girl, college management representatives and even organised an awareness class for other students and parents with the support of health officials.

"I am happy that the issue has been solved and she has gone back to the hostel. The college authorities were very supportive throughout. Now other students and their parents are also convinced," Balakiran told PTI.

To clear the doubts of students and parents over HIV, the Collector organised an awareness campaign as part of which district health department officials went to the hostel and took four hours-long class yesterday.

"They (students and parents) asked the doctors many doubts about the disease. The health experts gave them convincing answers. Thus the issue was settled and the student is now back in her hostel and studies," he said.

The Collector also said he planned to extend the drive throughout the district to end the social stigma attached to the disease.

The principal said the student was given all support since the beginning and all efforts were made to convince the students and parents.

"Initially, it was very difficult to convince them as many firmly believed that their children would contract HIV if they stay with her," he told PTI.

The Collector's intervention and the awareness class had helped change their mindset later, he added.
An employee of a two-wheeler retail outlet was injured after unidentified miscreants exploded an IED in the city's commercial hub, a police official said today.

The blast occurred last night at Khoyathong locality here in front of the Honda Scooters outlet, the official said.

Some window panes of the outlet were damaged due to the impact of the blast, the officer added.

The injured was discharged from hospital after first aid, the officer said.

The motive behind the blast could be extortion, source added.
India today said it will consider a formal request, if and when received, from Pakistan conveying details of 24 witnesses they want to examine for the Mumbai terror attack, days after Islamabad maintained it has written regarding the same to New Delhi.

"We have repeatedly stressed that 99 per cent of the evidence regarding the 26/11 Mumbai attacks lie in Pakistan. A Judicial Commission from Pakistan visited India in 2012 and 2013 and recorded statements of 4 prosecution witnesses who were also allowed to be cross examined in 2013.

"The list of the witnesses to be examined by the Judicial Commission had been agreed mutually between the two governments as were the terms of reference of the Judicial Commission," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.

"If and when, we receive a formal request from Pakistan conveying details of these 24 witnesses, we will consider it," the Spokesperson added.

His remarks contradicted Pakistani prosecution chief Chaudhry Azhar statement that his foreign ministry has written to the Indian government asking it to send all 24 Indian witnesses to Pakistan for recording statements in the trial court in the Mumbai attack case.

Azhar said theAnti-Terrorism Court, Islamabad has already completed recording the statements of all Pakistani witnesses in the case which has been underway in the country for more than six years.

"Now the ball is in India's court. The Indian government should send all Indian witnesses of the Mumbai case to Pakistan to record their statements so that the trial could further move ahead," said Azhar, who is also a special prosecutor of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. A protest and commemoration ceremony will be held in the Hague, Netherlands, on April 23, on the eve of the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. "Armenpress" was informed by the president of "Federation of Armenian organizations", president of "Abovyan Cultural Association" Mato Hakhverdyan. He said that commemoration ceremonies and concerts will also be held in other cities of the Netherlands.

"The Dutch parliament has expressed its position on the Armenian Genocide issue, which we do not see in the government's statements. It is important for us that the government also announces its stance on the Armenian Genocide issue. Every time they play with words, not wanting to speak concrete. Our desire is that the executive body continues the policy adopted by the parliament. The authorities always try to apply various diplomatic tricks, speaking of the Armenian tragedy, which does not match the content of the resolution adopted by the Parliament, Mato Hakhverdyan said.

He said that a conference will take place in the Netherlands on April 16 with participation of Armenians, Turks and Kurds. "Of course, those Turks and Kurds will participate who recognize the Armenian Genocide. The goal of the conference is to establish contact and dialogue between the parties, Mato Hakhverdyan said. In addition to the conference, it is planned to implement other similar initiatives. In particular, in collaboration with the Netherlands Ministry of Social Affairs it is planned to organize a conference with the participation of Turkish companies. The purpose is to discuss issues related to the consequences of the Armenian Genocide.

On 21 December 2004 the Netherlands Parliament adopted a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide. In 2015 the House of Representatives of the Dutch Parliament adopted a resolution, which states the importance of a mutual agreement on historical facts between Turkey and Armenia. According to the decision, in 2004, based on the decision adopted by consensus the government was commissioned with urging Turkey to seek ways of reconciliation with the Armenian government, bilaterally and in the context of the EU.
The government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are organising a three-day conference on 'Advancing Asia: Investing for the Future' here which is starting tomorrow.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will deliver the keynote address in the opening session of the conference, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde would also be a keynote speaker at the conference, the statement said.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Lagarde will participate in a 'Ceremony for South Asia Training and Technical Assistance Center', it added.

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan will deliver the keynote address while Gates Foundation's Melinda Gates converse with Lagarde during the three day Conference, it addded.
India, along with China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and South Korea ranked among the nations most vulnerable to damaging cyberattacks, according to scientists, including those of Indian-origin.

The US ranked 11th safest, while several Scandinavian countries including Denmark, Norway and Finland ranked the safest, researchers said.

Data-mining experts from the University of Maryland (UMD) and Virginia Tech in US recently co-authored a book that ranked the vulnerability of 44 nations to cyberattacks.

"Our goal was to characterise how vulnerable different countries were, identify their current cybersecurity policies and determine how those policies might need to change in response to this new information," said lead author V S Subrahmanian, a professor at the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS).

The researchers, including B Aditya Prakash, assistant professor at Virginia Tech in US conducted a two-year study that analysed more than 20 billion automatically generated reports, collected from 4 million machines per year worldwide.

The researchers based their rankings, in part, on the number of machines attacked in a given country and the number of times each machine was attacked.

Machines using Symantec anti-virus software automatically generated these reports, but only when a machine's user opted in to provide the data.

Trojans, followed by viruses and worms, posed the principal threats to machines in the US. However, misleading software (ie fake anti-virus programs and disk cleanup utilities) is far more prevalent in the US compared with other nations that have a similar gross domestic product.

The findings include economic and educational data gathered by UMD's Centre for Digital International Government, for which Subrahmanian serves as director.

The researchers integrated all of the data to help shape specific policy recommendations for each of the countries studied, including strategic investments in education, research and public-private partnerships.
Following a string of bloody assaults by terror groups, India recently carried out a thorough review of security prepardness at all its missions in .

Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh, while replying to a question in Rajya Sabha, said inspection teams headed by senior security experts visited the missions to take stock of the security measures. He said the government kept reviewing and upgrading security arrangements at these diplomatic missions.

"A thorough review of security measures regarding our missions and posts in was undertaken earlier this year through the visits to the Embassy and Consulates General by security and inspection teams headed by senior officers from the headquarters," he said.

Heavily-armed terrorists, including suicide bombers, had attacked the Indian Consulate in Jalalabad city on March 2, killing nine persons, including an Afghan security personnel. It was the fourth attack on the Consulate since 2007.

On January 3, terrorists had carried out an attack on the Indian mission in Mazar-e-Sharif which lasted over 25 hours. All the attackers who attempted to storm the building were killed by the Afghan forces.

The Minister said government remained vigilant to ensure safety and security of Indian diplomats and staff in its missions and posts abroad.

To a separate question, he said a total of 1,575 Indians are lodged in jails in Saudi Arabia. "They are convicted of crimes committed by them in violation of laws and regulation of Saudi Arabia."



Replying to a question on whether Indian firms operating in Nepal were attacked by protesters, Singh said sites and offices of foreign investors were reportedly targeted by miscreants.

He said government of India has taken all necessary measures to safeguard India's economic interests in Nepal.
A pact for ratification of the Bay of Bengal Initiative on Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Convention on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters will soon be signed by India after the Union Cabinet gave its nod for it.

A meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, today gave its approval and designated the Ministry of Home Affairs as the Central Authority of the Convention.

The BIMSTEC comprises seven countries - Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

The establishment of regional arrangements for mutual assistance in criminal matters will greatly contribute to more effective cooperation in the control of criminal activities, an official spokesperson said.

The Convention aims to extend widest measures of assistance to each other through mutual cooperation for enhancing capability and effectiveness of the member states in investigation and prosecution of crimes, including crimes related to terrorism, transnational organised crime, drug trafficking, money laundering and cyber crimes.

After signing and ratification of the Convention by India, the Instrument of Ratification will be submitted to the Secretary-General of BIMSTEC and the Convention shall come into force on the 30th day of the submission of the instrument.
The Indian High Commission in London has contested the "improper" levying of 4.4 million pounds on it as congestion tax by British authorities.

Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said this while replying to a question in Rajya Sabha.

He said the High Commission had received a notification in March 2014 from the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office regarding imposition of 3.3 million pound as congestion charges.

"Subsequently, an amount of 4,477,605 pound is now shown as outstanding against the Office of the High Commissioner for India at serial number 5 in the list published by the Transport for London on its website," he said.

The Minister said the High Commission has been contesting the "improper" levy and that no payment has been made.

The congestion charge, which applies to central London during peak hours from Monday to Friday, was introduced in 2003 to alleviate congestion in the heart of the city. The money collected through the tax is spent on transport improvement projects in London.

The fee currently stands at 11.50 pounds per day when a vehicle enters the designated congestion zone and failure to pay invites a 130 pounds fine.
Renowned cosmologist Stephen Hawking and a number of Indian-origin scientists were among 150 academics who came out in favour of Britain staying within the European Union today.

In a letter to 'The Times' newspaper, a total of 150 fellows of the UK's Royal Society signed up to voice their strong support for Britain staying within the EU in the lead up to an in-out referendum on June 23.

Shankar Balasubramanian from the field of chemistry, Harshad Badeshia representing metallurgy, Partha Dasgupta from economics and K J Patel from molecular biology are the Indian-origin names on the letter, which warns of "disaster for UK science" if Britain were to exit the 28-nation economic bloc or so-called Brexit.

The Royal Society, Britain's premier scientific institution with 1,600 fellows, told PTI that the letter did not reflect the society's official stand and hence its Indian-origin president, Nobel laureate Sir Venki Ramakrishnan, was not among the signatories.

"The Royal Society fellows have signed the letter in their personal capacity," a spokesperson said.

The letter backed by 'A Brief History of Time' author Hawking, reads, "The EU has boosted UK science in two crucial ways. First, increased funding has raised greatly the level of European science as a whole and of the UK in particular because we have a competitive edge."



"Second, we now recruit many of our best researchers from continental Europe, including younger ones who have obtained EU grants and have chosen to move with them here. If the UK leaves the EU and there is a loss of freedom of movement of scientists between the UK and Europe it will be a disaster for UK science and universities," it says.

"Investment in science is as important for the long-term prosperity and security of the UK as investment in infrastructure projects, farming or manufacturing; and the free movement of scientists is as important for science as free trade is for market economics," the letter adds.

The letter was organised by Professor Alan Fersht, a pioneer of protein science, and signed by 70 per cent of Royal Society fellows from the University of Cambridge.
India has sought a thorough probe and filing of a criminal case by Russian authorities into death of an Indian student in Kazan city following an attack on him by a group of local goons.

The Indian Embassy in Moscow has conveyed to Russian Foreign Ministry that death of Yasir Javed, hailing from Srinagar, should be probed to punish the guilty.

Javed was attacked by unknown miscreants in Kazan city on March 3 and he died on Tuesday at a hospital there after remaining in coma for several days.

"The Embassy has sought an investigation into the circumstances leading to the death of an innocent person and filing of a criminal case," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.

He said a team of officials from Indian Embassy in Moscow had gone to Kazan where they met investigators and police officials. The team is currently in Kazan and has been trying to expedite the documentation process to send Yasir's mortal remains to India as soon as possible.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had yesterday said the Indian mission will take up the case with Russian authorities.

Yasir had gone to Russia on February 26 to participate in a local trade exhibition in Kazan.

Swarup said his mortal remains are likely to reach India tomorrow.
Iranian women deputies are suing a conservative male colleague, Nader Ghazipour, after he declared in a video that parliament was no place for "donkeys and women".

Ghazipour's comments during an election campaign meeting last month have gone viral on social media.

"Parliament is not a place for foxes, donkeys and women," he proclaims before a cheering crowd in the video ahead of the February 26 polls.

If you elect women, "they (men colleagues) might do things to them and disgrace you", he said.

Ghazipour was elected in Orumiyeh, a Turkish-speaking province near the border with Turkey.

Women MPs -- along with a number of men -- have filed complaints with Iran's prosecutor general, parliament's supervision committee and house speaker Ali Larijani, a leading woman deputy, Fatemeh Rahbar, told state agency IRNA.

"There has been an accusation against women, and Mr Ghazipour must be held responsible," she said.

Ghazipour had sent an apology through mediators, but the plaintiffs "won't withdraw their lawsuit", Rahbar said.

"His words have gone public through the media and gone viral inside and outside Iran. He should come out" and explain himself.

Ghazipour's comments were "an insult not only to women but to the entire parliament", Rahbar, herself a member of the conservative camp in Iranian politics, told the reformist daily Shargh.

Faced with the threat of lawsuits, Ghazipour has said he was not referring to women in the Islamic republic's parliament or to female candidates in his own constituency.

"I didn't mean all women. There were two ladies running from our city in this election. You can ask them my opinion of women," he told the KhabarOnline website.

"If elections were held again right now, I would win twice as many votes," Ghazipour said on a defiant note.

According to media reports, unknown assailants beat up the journalist who posted the video, Hamed Atayi, on the street last week in front of his wife and child.
Israel said it transeferred an ailing lion from the impoverished and blockaded Gaza Strip to a Palestinian zoo in the West Bank today.

The lion was taken from a zoo in Rafah to the Erez crossing into Israel, said COGAT, a defence ministry body which coordinates Israeli activity in the Palestinian territories.

The lion was then driven to a zoo near Tulkarem in the West Bank, it said in a statement.

A COGAT spokeswoman said a Gaza agriculture ministry official had asked an Israeli counterpart for the transfer, at least on a temporary basis.

The Gaza Strip, run by Islamist movement Hamas and where 80 percent of the population rely on foreign aid, has three zoos which are no longer open to the public because of a severe lack of funding.

In one zoo, in the southern city of Khan Yunis, only a deer, a pelican, an ostrich, two porcupines and a tiger remain of the hundreds of animals bought in for its opening in 2007.

In July 2015, Israel facilitated the transfer to Jordan of two lion cubs taken in by a Gaza refugee camp resident who could no longer afford their high maintenance costs.

The previous year, three lions were also sent from the Gaza Strip to Jordan after the area of their zoo came under heavy Israeli artillery fire.

Between 2008 and 2014, the coastal territory has been devastated by three wars with Israel, which imposes a tight blockade designed to prevent Hamas from rearming.

Gaza's border with Egypt has also remained largely closed since 2013.
All former ministers of the previous BJP-PDP government have been asked by authorities to vacate their official bungalows which they have been occupying even after the imposition of Governor rule in Jammu and Kashmir.

"We have issued notice for the vacation of ministerial bungalows to 13 former ministers, which includes six from BJP, six from PDP and one from Peoples Conference," Deputy Director Estates Jammu, Satish Kumar Sharma told PTI.

The notice issued to former Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh reads that the bungalow was allotted to him in the capacity of the minister, "however after the imposition of Governor rule on January 9, 2016, you ceased to be the minister".

The notice further said that as per the allotment rules of the Estates Department, a person is entitled to hold government accommodation including ministerial bungalows upto one month after relinquishing/ceasing to hold the office, and this one month in the instant case has expired more than a fortnight ago.

"Therefore you are requested to kindly hand over the possession of the ministerial bungalow allotted to you in your capacity as minister to the Estates Department within a period of seven days from the date of issuance of this communication," the notice reads.

Governor rule was imposed in Jammu and Kashmir on January 9 after the demise of the then incumbent Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in a hospital in New Delhi.

Since then there has been a stalemate over the government formation between the two former ruling alliance partners BJP and PDP.
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. The establishment of the University of Technology in Armenia in order to meet the demand for qualified professionals in the field of information technology is the result of solid private sector-state cooperation. As "Armenpress" was informed by Deputy Minister of Economy Emil Tarasyan, it will be a completely new model of education in Armenia. "The management of the Technological University will be carried out through private sector-state cooperation. The private sector should have investments in the educational programs, in order to ensure these students will be able to have a dignified job in the future. This is a mutually beneficial and stimulating mechanism for both students who will be employed after graduation, and for the private sector, who will be motivated by the university graduate professionals ,who will provide profit to organizations, the Deputy Minister said.

According to him, the graduates of the current educational system do not fully meet the requirements of IT firms. According to the Deputy Minister, this was repeatedly stated both by them, and the private sector. "The need for the establishment of a 3rd generation technological university was discussed at the session of the IT Support Council; as a result a working group was created by the assignment of the Prime Minister. It is headed by the Minister of Education and Science, the Ministry of Economy is involved in the work, the private sector, representatives of universities, rectors, "Emil Tarasyan said, adding that with the help of international experts the general structure of the university was made."It was decided to begin on the basis of the Polytechnic University, but with new programs and new structure," Emil Tarasyan said. The Deputy Minister noted that the private sector is contributing to various educational programs. "In this case they will save money because it will be done jointly and with maximum results," he added.

The University of Technology will offer both Bachelors and Masters degrees. According to Emil Tarasyan , the Master's degree here will be in a slightly different format. As Master's assignments the students will be assigned to come up with innovative proposals of solving yet unsolved problems.

As for the teachers, current teaching staff of the universities will be trained and involved, as well as guest lecturers, representatives of Armenian and internationally known companies. "When discussing the university model, salary issues were also at the center of our attention. A good teacher should be paid more. We also plan to hold lectures with representatives of the major organizations that are successful in the IT industry, and by famous teachers. Training of the current teaching staff will be conducted, "Emil Tarasyan said.

In response to a question whether education in the university will be available for potential students, Emil Tarasyan assured that the fee will not be an obstacle for studying at the university. "The university has no plans to recruit a large number of students and the focus will be on the student's knowledge. If a student with knowledge and creativity wishes to study, any assistance or benefits should be provided. In fact, the financial factor will be solved, because the university will be sponsored by large organizations. In this case we are not talking about high fees. Maybe high tuition fees will be considered in case of demand of extra seats after the expiry of preliminary seat numbers, Emil Tarasyan said.

At present, the final phase of the formation of the model is being conducted. A telecommunications sector is being discussed to be included. "The launch, I think will not be very soon, because it is very dangerous to accelerate this process. I think that by the end of the year, the format, and specifications in terms of the involvement of organizations will be concrete, "the Deputy Minister said.
The Japanese coast guard resumed underwater searches this week for some of the more than 2,500 people still missing from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated the country's northeast coast.

Six divers entered Hirota Bay in near-freezing temperatures today at the behest of surviving families in the city of Rikuzentakata.

As reconstruction of the disaster-hit region gains pace, stretches of the bay have been reclaimed for building sea walls. Relatives fear that the remains of their loved ones might be buried forever.

"Some people say to me, do you really want to latch onto this forever?" said 81-year old Chikara Yoshida, who lost his only son, a 43-year-old volunteer firefighter who was trying to help elderly residents escape.

"But for me, as I approach the end of my life, I want to bring him back in any way I can," he said. "It doesn't matter which piece of him comes back. Then I can end my days."



Yoshida and his daughter led a petition drive through Facebook earlier this year to resume underwater searches. The response was overwhelming. In just three weeks, 28,140 signed from Japan and abroad.

The coast guard heard about the petition and asked families in Rikuzentakata what it could do. They asked for searches in areas where divers have told them objects tend to accumulate, thinking these are where they might be fruitful.

The coast guard searched waters off Minamisanriku on Wednesday and plans to search another area off Rikuzentakata on Friday. So far, it hasn't found any remains. Thursday's effort turned up only a bicycle.

Some families rented their own boat to see watch the search, and tossed flowers into the bay.

"I've waited so long for this," said Yoshida's wife, Eiko. "Now to finally be able to get on this boat. The tears won't stop. I felt that I could see my son again."



A total of 2,561 people remain missing, according to the National Police Agency, including more than 200 in Rikuzentakata. Nearly 16,000 have been confirmed dead, bringing the presumed death toll to more than 18,000.

The petition was submitted to Rikuzentakata officials in early March, in hopes that local police would also resume searches. Searches have tapered off in recent years as authorities focus resources on reconstruction.

After the disaster, Yoshida heard that his son Toshiyuki had gone to the municipal office immediately after the magnitude-9.0 earthquake to help carry the elderly to higher ground, one by one, before the tsunami came.
Reminiscing his days as JNU student's union president Amit Sengupta, who had recently resigned from IIMC citing differences with the administration, said "JNU students have never been and never will be violent'.

"We have argument, they have sexism, we have arguments they have xenophobia, we have argument, they have violence. We were non-violent when our student leader Chandu was killed in Bihar in the year 1997, we were non-violent when the government tried to shut the university in 1983 and we are non-violent today when our student's union President Kanhaiya Kumar has been attacked," Sengupta said while addressing the students at JNU.

"This is the tradition of JNU, we fight with ideas not with violence," he added.

Recalling his days in the university, he told students about the movement that students carried out during 1983 when there was an attempt to shut down the university.

"In the year 1983 there was police action in JNU. The VC was under gherao, students went to jail, we were beaten up, lathi-chaged, but we did not retaliate. We only kept fighting our ideas. It is a similar situation today, all kinds of negative things are being spread about the university," he said.

"After the campus was reopened, search lights came, public meeting in girls hostels were stopped. We changed all that and by the year 1989, we had reclaimed our campus back," he added.

Sengupta also spoke about the student's movement that started after former JNUSU president Chandrashekhar's (Chandu) death in the year 1997. Chandu was killed in his hometown in Siwan in Bihar by some goons who were close to the political leaders there.

"We demanded justice for our student's union president and fought for over a month. That time the emotion of the entire country was with us. The media was with us, the public was with us, because they knew that what has happened is wrong," he said.

"JNU has a great tradition, they have a propaganda. We should continue with our movement," he added.

Sengupta had last week resigned from Indian Institute of Mass Communication alleging he was being targeted for his support to the students movement at JNU, FTII and Hyderabad Central University.
Irrigation department's junior engineer Satyendra Kumar was today arrested on graft charge by the Vigilance Investigation Bureau from Bihar's Nawada district, an official release said.

Acting on a complaint, the VIB team headed by the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Vinay Kumar Singh laid a trap and arrested Kumar from his house near Pakriwaram camp office as soon as he took Rs. 30,000 as bribe from one Praveen Kumar Singh, a native of Bihari Village under Jamui police station area in Jamui district, the release said.

The tainted JE had demanded Rs 30,000 as bribe for measurement report of an irrigation project, it said.

Kumar was being brought to the state capital for interrogation before production before a special vigilance court for judicial remand, the release added.

The vigilance department has laid 25 traps against corrupt public servants and arrested 26 persons so far this year.
Kolkata Port Trust chairman R P S Kahlon, a senior IAS officer, was today remanded by a city court to police custody for eight days following his arrest from a five-star hotel here for allegedly taking Rs 20 lakh bribe.

Judge Debabrata Sinha at Bankshall Court rejected the bail plea of Kahlon, a 1984-batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre, and also D D Jagtap Dattaji who was arrested for allegedly paying the bribe.

The judge noted that the investigation was at a nascent stage and said that the material collected by the investigating agency prima facie supported its case.

Both Kahlon and Dattaji were directed to be in police remand till March 17 and be again produced before the court on that date.

Kahlon's counsels, seeking bail, claimed that the question of any gratification did not arise as the money was not recovered from his possession.

The counsel claimed that Kahlon had an unblemished career in the civil service for over three decades.

Opposing the bail prayer, chief public prosecutor Tamal Mukherjee submitted that the investigation was at a preliminary stage and that more documents were likely to be recovered in connection with the case.

He alleged that Kahlon had been given Rs 20 lakh as illegal gratification by Dattaji, who is an advisor/ director of Bharat Calcutta Containers Terminal Limited and a resident of Mumbai.

Mukherjee stated that Rs 11 lakh in cash was recovered from Dattaji's room in the hotel.

He prayed for 14 days' police custody of both the accused, who have been charged under section 120B of IPC (criminal conspiracy) and various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

Kahlon and Dattaji were arrested last night from a five-star hotel at Esplanade in the heart of the city by the sleuths of the Kolkata Police.
JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar, who is facing sedition charges, was allegedly attacked on campus Thursday by a youth believed to be an outsider.

According to students and teachers present there, the attacker called Kanhaiya for an interaction when he was attending the "nationalism" lecture at the varsity's administration block.

"Kanhaiya went to a corner to talk to him where the boy started abusing him and following the argument he slapped him. Seeing this, many students and university's security guards rushed to rescue him," a student said.

The varsity's security got into action and took the accused to the nearest police station where he has been detained for questioning, a police official said, adding his identity is yet to be verified.

Kanhaiya faces sedition charges in connection with an event on campus against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during which anti- slogans were allegedly raised.

He was granted interim bail for six months by the Delhi High Court last week after spending 18 days in jail.

The students and teachers of the varsity had expressed apprehension about Kanhaiya's security after he was attacked by a group of lawyers in Patiala Court premises on February 17. The Delhi police has asked the varsity authorities to intimate them about Kanhaiya's movements outside the campus.

A man who claimed to be the president of "Purvanchal Sena" had last week announced a reward of Rs 11 lakh for anyone who shoots Kanhaiya. He was later arrested.
JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar, who is facing sedition charge, was allegedly attacked on campus today by a youth believed to be an outsider.

According to students and teachers present there, the attacker called Kanhaiya for an interaction when he was attending the "nationalism" lecture at the varsity's administration block.

"Kanhaiya went to a corner to talk to him where the man started abusing him and, following an argument, slapped him. Seeing this, many students and university's security guards rushed to rescue him," a student said.

The varsity's security held the accused man, who identified himself as Vikas Chaudhary, a builder from Ghaziabad, detained him at the administration block and called police.

When police asked for a formal complaint to initiate legal action against the alleged offender, the students refused to do so as of now saying, they have submitted an undertaking to the university's security department that the students would not file a police complaint and that the varsity authorities were free to take a call on the issue.

University authorities, when contacted said, they have got to know about the attack from media reports and whether or not they will approach the police will be decided tomorrow.

Chaudhary told reporters, "Kanhaiya has abused the nation, he has abused our Army by raising allegations against our soldiers. He shouted anti-national slogans and also sided with anti-national people, that is why I attacked him".

Kanhaiya faces sedition charges in connection with an event on campus against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.

He was granted interim bail for six months by the Delhi High Court last week after spending 18 days in jail.

The students and teachers of the varsity had expressed apprehension about Kanhaiya's security after he was attacked by a group of lawyers in Patiala Court premises on February 17. The Delhi police has asked the varsity authorities to intimate them about Kanhaiya's movements outside the campus.

A man who claimed to be the president of "Purvanchal Sena" had last week announced a reward of Rs 11 lakh for anyone who shoots Kanhaiya. He was later arrested.

The students union issued a statement saying, "such attacks do not represent people's sentiments. The people of India stand with JNU. Attacks like these are the handiwork of RSS and its affiliated outfits. These do not represent the general mood of the people. The people have seen through BJP's attempts to undermine democracy and dissent".
In a full-page advertisement in major dailies, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today slammed the Haryana government for its "inaction" in checking violence during the recent Jat stir in that state and also took a dig at the Centre by likening it to a "Dhirtrashtra", the blind king of epic Mahabharata.

The chief minister also appealed to the people to maintain peace and harmony through the advertisement carried by all prominent newspapers in Delhi and Haryana.

Kejriwal says in the ad, he was very upset with whatever happened (Jat quota stir) in Haryana, saying it was like demolishing a new (play) house built by a child.

"At a time when Haryana's Captain Pawan Kumar was fighting against terrorists for safety of the country, we were fighting against each other....We will have to understand politics behind violence. As I requested earlier, we should protect ourselves from their dirty politics," Kejriwal said.

Lashing out at the BJP-led Haryana government, Kejriwal alleged the state government "did nothing" to prevent the Jat agitation from turning violent, and the Centre too also "did nothing" in this regard.

"Haryana sarkar hath pe hath dhare baithi rahi aur dusri taraf kendra sarkar Dhritrashtra ki tarah dekhti rahi (On one hand Haryana government sat idle, while the Centre played a Dhritrashtra," he alleged.

"In this difficult time, I stand with you (Haryana's people). I request the state government to give compensation to families who have suffered loss of life and property without any discrimination...," Kejriwal, who hails from Haryana, said.

During the Jat quota agitations last month, around 30 people had died and several properties including vehicles and shops were vandalised by protesters.

Opposition BJP in Delhi retaliated by accusing the AAP government of spending public money on "politically motivated" advertisement on internal issues of the neighbouring state, saying it will take up the matter with President Pranab Mukherjee.

"BJP will take up the matter of Kejriwal government's advertisement on Haryana issue with the President and demand that its cost be recovered from Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal personally," Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay said.

Spending huge amount of public money on advertisements aimed at "political expansion" of AAP is not only "immoral" but also amounts to "cheating" people of Delhi, he said.

"We have constantly said that the Kejriwal government has been trying to politically expand" itself at the cost of Delhi's exchequer and today's advertisement is a blatant proof of the same," he alleged.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has called his Iranian opposite number to protest Tehran's latest round of ballistic missile tests, a fresh bone of contention between the two sides.

Iran and the US have no formal diplomatic ties, but Kerry and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif built a close working relationship during negotiations for last year's nuclear accord between Tehran and world powers.

The US argues that a series of apparent missile tests breach the terms of a UN Security Council resolution and will result in new economic sanctions - either from Washington or the world body.

"If they are confirmed, if they're true, as I said yesterday, we'll take up the appropriate action inside the UN," State Department spokesman John Kirby warned yesterday.

"But I don't want to convey the impression that we are only looking at multilateral or UN possibilities in terms of measures to deal with it.
The Chairman of Kolkata Port Trust, Raj Pal Singh Kahlon, has been arrested for allegedly accepting illegal gratification of Rs 20 lakh, police said.

He was arrested from a five-star hotel in central Kolkata last night, the police said.

"Last night one businessman and Raj Pal Singh Kahlon, Chairman, Kolkata Port Trust, were arrested for accepting illegal gratification of Rs 20 lakh. A case was filed in New Market Police Station," a senior official of Kolkata police said.
Kolkata Port Trust chairman Raj Pal Singh Kahlon was today remanded to police custody following his arrest from a five-star hotel here for allegedly taking a Rs 20 lakh bribe from the representative of a container terminal firm.

Kolkata Police sleuths arrested Kahlon, a 1984-batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre, alongwith D D Jagtap Dattaji, who allegedly paid Rs 20 lakh to the bureaucrat, from the hotel premises in the heart of the city last night.

"One businessman and Raj Pal Singh Kahlon, Chairman, Kolkata Port Trust, were intercepted and subsequently arrested for accepting illegal gratification of Rs 20 lakh. A case was filed in New Market Police Station," a senior official of the Kolkata police said.

City police sleuths had been keeping a watch on the IAS officer following a tip-off from a source and intercepted Kahlon and Dattaji following the alleged transaction.

They were produced at the Bankshall Court this afternoon and sent to police remand for eight days.

Judge Debabrata Sinha rejected the bail plea of Kahlon and Dattaji who was arrested for allegedly paying the bribe.

The judge noted that the investigation was at a nascent stage and said that the material collected by the investigating agency prima facie supported its case.

Both Kahlon and Dattaji were directed to be in police remand till March 17 and be again produced before the court on that date.

Kahlon's counsels, seeking bail, claimed that the question of any gratification did not arise as the money was not recovered from his possession.

The counsel claimed that Kahlon had an unblemished



career in the civil service for over three decades.

Before becoming an IAS officer of West Bengal cadre, Kahlon as an IPS officer of 1981 batch of Madhya Pradesh Cadre served that state from 1981 to 1984.

Opposing the bail prayer, chief public prosecutor Tamal Mukherjee submitted that the investigation was at a preliminary stage and that more documents were likely to be recovered in connection with the case.

He alleged that Kahlon had been given Rs 20 lakh as illegal gratification by Dattaji, who is an advisor/ director of Bharat Calcutta Containers Terminal Limited and a resident of Mumbai.

Mukherjee submitted before the court that Rs 11 lakh in cash was recovered from Dattaji's room in the hotel, apart from the Rs 20 lakh paid as gratification.

He prayed for 14 days' police custody of both the accused, who have been charged under section 120B of IPC (criminal conspiracy) and various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

Kahlon has been serving as chairman of KoPT on deputation since January, 2013.

He has held the position of principal secretary in the departments of environment, transport, fisheries and fire services among others in the West Bengal government.
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. North Korean military forces fired two short-range ballistic missiles from its eastern coast into the Sea of Japan on early Thursday, Armenpress reports, citing TASS, South Koreas Yonyhap news agency reported. The news agency reported citing the countrys Joint Chief of Staff (JCS) that the two missiles were fired from North Koreas Hwanghae Province and after flying a distance of some 500 kilometers (over 310 miles) fell into the sea to the northeast of the countrys eastern port city of Wonsan.

The short-range ballistic missiles were launched at 5:20 a.m. local time (20:30 GMT Wednesday), according to the agency.

"The military is keeping close tabs on the situation and prepared to deal with any North Korean provocations," Yonhap quoted the JCS as saying.

Tokyo has resolutely condemned North Koreas launches of two short-range ballistic missiles on March 10, morning.

"It is extremely regrettable," Kyodo agency cited Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida as saying. "Japan will continue to coordinate with related countries and take all possible measures to gather information."

Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said that "Further provocative act cannot be ruled out," according to Kyodo.

Last week North Korea also held several launches of short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, shortly after the UN Security Council announced a new set of sanctions against the country.

On March 2, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution, which considerably toughened sanctions against North Korea in response to Pyongyangs continued nuclear tests and the launch of a carrier rocket with a satellite.

The document denounced the acts at the issue, which violated the four previous UN Security Council resolutions Nos. 1718, 1874, 2087 and 2094 passed between 2006 and 2013.
With at least 44 different major projects under different stages of implementation in Odisha the Prime Minister's Office today pointed out land acquisition as a major challange which needs to be fixed as soon as possible.

The issue relating to the implementation of the projects was discussed at a high level meeting here attended by Cabinet Committee Investment (CCI) Project Monitoring Group led by Arun Goel, Additional Secretary Project Monitoring Group (PMG) in the Prime Ministers' Office.

The meeting presided over by Odisha chief secretary A P Padhi discussed on 44 projects under railway, national highway, coal, steel and mines and power sectors.

"Today we discussed on 44 projects. The district collectors view were taken through online. The biggest issue lies with land acquisition and also forest clearance. The collectors have already addressed some of the issues. We have asked them to fix the rest as soon as possible. Overall, the progress has been good and I am very happy about it," said Goel.

Goel also asked the project developers to upload specific problems that they encountered during implementation of the projects on CCI PMG website.

Replying media querries, Chief Secretary Padhi said that the joint exercise has been very fruitful and there has been substantial progress in grounding of the projects. He added that the ground level problems faced in one sector differed from the other. The progress and problems of each individual project was discussed and issues were resolved, he said.

Today's meeting also resolved the problems faced by 12 mega projects including Lingaraj mines, Nuapada-Bangamunda National High way project, Jharsuguda- Barpali-Serdega Rail line project, Garjanbahal coal mine, OPGCL projects, Visa Power Ltd, KVK Nilachal Ltd. NSL Power Ltd and an Ultra mega power project. The concerned agencies were asked to carry on the ground level activities with definite time limits. However, 32 ongoing projects are still facing hurdles before being grounding up in the state.

The NH projects were discussed in detail as all of them in Odisha are running behind schedule. "Land acquisition and environmental clearance are the biggest obstacles in building national highways here. All NHAI projects in the state are behind the schedule," said NHAI CGM & RO, Odisha, Dharmananda Sarangi.

The meeting reviewed the progress of 6 projects in railway sector, 9 in national highway, 2 in petroleum and natural gas sector, 1 in mining sector, 16 in coal sector and 9 in power sector.

Chief Secretary Padhi has set timelines and landmarks for completion of different tasks against each project.

Meanwhile, the e-PMS, an online project monitoring system has been put in place by the central government to monitor the projects involving investment between Rs 100 crore to Rs 1000 crore.
Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena today appointed a committee to probe the harassment of media personnel under the regime of his powerful predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa.

A notice from the President's office said that all journalists who suffered harassment and loss of property under Rajapaksa must report to an Additional Secretary under Sirisena by mid June.

Media freedom in Sri Lanka was rated low when the former president was at the helm for a decade.

The Reporters Without Borders, 2015 world press freedom index ranked Sri Lanka at 165 out of 180 countries, up 2 positions compared to 2013, which was an improvement post-Rajapaksa.

In 2013, Sri Lanka was ranked 162 out of 178 countries.

Sri Lanka was also ranked among the most dangerous countries to practice journalism.

Many journalists reported harassment under Rajapaksa, the most prominent was the broad day-light murder of the editor of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickrematunga, while several other media institutions faced attacks by goon squads.

Rajapaksa, credited with ending the country's nearly three-decades-old civil war with LTTE in 2009, was in power from 2005 to 2015. He was defeated by Sirisena in January last year.
Ahead of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's visit to China next month, Sri Lanka today gave the go-ahead to the country for the controversy-hit USD 1.4 billion Colombo port city project that was suspended by President Maithripala Sirisena over environmental concerns.

The Sri Lankan Cabinet approved the extension of the agreement on the Port City project for six months.

"The Cabinet Committee on Economic Management has recommended allowing resumption of the project subject to limitations and conditions stipulated in the EIA (environmental impact assessment)," the government said in a statement.

The USD 1.4 billion project was suspended in February 2015 by the new government of President Sirisena based on environmental concerns.

The government then sought an environmental impact report.

The Cabinet sub-committee recommended the resumption of the project subject to conditions in the environmental impact report, it was announced today.

Cabinet clearance was granted shortly after International Trade and Strategic Development Minister Malik Samarawickreme visited China and held talks with the Chinese authorities on a host of bilateral matters including the Port City Project.

The much awaited and long over due Colombo Port City project will recommence this month, Samarawickreme said.

He was speaking at the opening session of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce organised business conclave here.

The Minister said they have now received the Environmental Report (EIA) which had made some recommendations to the Port City model plan which was accepted.

Samarawickreme said that land lease for 99 years will stay.

"After the land is filled the Port City project will be operated as a joint venture between the governments of China and Sri Lanka," he was quoted as saying by the Daily .

Samarawickreme said the Chinese government is also looking at allocating 1,000 acres in Hambantota to open a special investment and industrial zone for the Chinese.

The port project was aimed at reclaiming land from the sea and building a city with apartments and leisure facilities adjoining the Colombo sea port.

A pet project of the former president Mahinda Rajapaksa administration, it was dubbed as extravagant and corrupt by the then opposition coalition.

The approval for the project comes ahead of Prime Minister Wickremesinghe's expected visit to China in April.

(REOPENS FES 79)



The Prime Minister said that cash-strapped Sri Lanka will bring legal reforms to encourage foreign investment, as the country seeks to convert the massive USD 8 billion debt it owed to China into equity for infrastructure investment.

Wickremesinghe said streamlined regulations and a free trade agreement would be in place to increase economic ties with China.

He said that he was hoping to unveil an economic master plan with a regulatory framework by June.

He said the Chinese would be offered equity stakes in loss-making projects -- a second international airport and a deep sea port in the island's south -- commissioned by former strongman president Mahinda Rajapakse.

"We are setting aside an area of 1,000 acres as a special investment zone for Chinese companies to set up operations in Hambantota," the prime minister said.
The identities of 22,000 recruits worldwide have been revealed in a massive documents leak that includes questionnaires a would-be jihadist must answer giving details like nationality, blood type and "previous jihad experience", media reports said Thursday.

The top secret cache of files was obtained by German intelligence and is said to have been taken from internal security police by a former Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) member who later became disillusioned with the group.

The information was reportedly included in forms featuring 23 questions which new recruits had to fill out in order to be accepted into the group.

Security services around the world are believed to be examining the files that contains names, addresses and family contacts of the 22,000 fighters, including around 16 British recruits.

German federal police said Thursday they believe the leaked registration files are very likely to be genuine.

"What's important now is that the authorities can look at how this information can be used in the fight against Daesh and if it can then we would welcome that," British Prime Minister David Cameron's spokeswoman told reporters.

Copies of the documents were broadcast by 'Sky News', reportedly obtained from a man who uses the name Abu Hamed, a former Free Syrian Army member who joined ISIS. He stole the memory stick of documents and handed them over in Turkey to a journalist, explaining that he left because Islamic rules had collapsed inside the group.

Hamed claimed the group had given up on its headquarters in the Syrian city of Raqqa and was moving into the desert.

The 1,736 documents, stamped with the black flag of the self-declared ISIS Caliphate, show that ISIS has recruited terrorists from more than 50 countries. It includes names of 16 Britons, four from the US and six from Canada, as well as recruits from France and Germany.

A spokesperson for the UK Home Office said they were "aware" of the apparent leak but said he could not give any further information for security reasons.

"Individuals who take part in the conflict in Syria or travel to ISIS territories are subject to investigation and should expect to be prosecuted on their return. Any evidence will be considered," the spokesperson said.

The leak has been hailed as a severe setback for ISIS, providing vital intelligence on the war effort in Syria and Iraq.

Will Geddes, managing director of Corporate Protection, a threat management company, told 'The Times', "They will be in massive crisis mode, worried about what is in there, who is in there and how it will disrupt their activities."



The documents, thought to be from a border crossing into Syria, are questionnaires that each would-be recruit must answer. There are 23 questions, including names, date and place of birth, hometown, telephone number, education, blood type, any previous experience they had in jihad and whether they were prepared to be suicide bomber.

Richard Barrett, former global terrorism operations director at Britain's MI6 secret service, wrote on Twitter that the records would shed an "invaluable light" on who had joined ISIS.

"This is going to be an invaluable resource for analysts," he tweeted.

According to British police estimates, at least 700 people from the UK have travelled to support or fight for terror groups in Syria and Iraq and about half have since returned.
"Mean Girls" actress Lindsay Lohan is reportedly dating Egor Tarabasov, a Russian heir to a business empire in Yeltsin land.

The actress, 29, and the 22-year-old Russian heir have been seeing each other for four months now, reported TMZ.

Lohan apparently met Egor in London through a mutual friend and they have gotten pretty serious about each other.

Sources said that Egor came to NYC with Lohan over the X'mas holidays to meet her mom Dina Lohan and her family.

The businessman reportedly has the Lohan family stamp of approval as the family thinks he keeps LiLo out of trouble.

Egor lives in London, where he's starting up his own real estate company.

Lohan shared on Instagram some pictures of her and Egor in late February.

"Such a wonderful day," she captioned a picture of them sitting outdoor with a snowy mountain background. In another photo, the pair were cozying up to each other at a party.

Earlier this week, the actress posted a photo of Egor baring his abs along with caption, "I love him.
A registered airport loader was today arrested at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) for allegedly trying to tamper with the baggage of a flier.

Officials said the incident occurred early today when a CISF CCTV surveillance team deployed at the airport detected suspicious activities by a loader behind Terminal-III, just before the bags are put on the conveyor belt.

A Central Industrial Security Force spokesperson identified the loader as one Rajvir Singh working with a private company at the IGIA.

Seeing this, he said, the CCTV observer immediately alerted his colleagues on ground who then nabbed Singh.

"On physical search, nothing was recovered from Singh but during interrogation he confessed to have tried to tamper with the registered baggage of a passenger for his personal gain," the spokesperson said.

He said Singh was later handed over to Delhi Police which arrested him.
A 250km-long protest march against plans to build an Indo-Bangladesh coal-fired power plant near the Sundarbans began today with hundreds of people calling for scrapping the project they believe would harm the ecosystem of the world's largest mangrove forest.

The Rampal power plant, an India-Bangladesh joint venture on which preliminary work has already begun, will provide much needed electricity to the country when it becomes operational in 2018.

India and Bangladesh signed a deal in 2010 to jointly develop the power plant.

Demonstrators began a four-day "long march" from Dhaka to Khulna in protest against the power plant, which they believe is a threat to the world's largest mangrove forest -- the Sundarbans.

Environmentalists, cultural and political activists, and eminent individuals began the march from Jatiya Press Club in a bid to press the government to abandon the project.

The government is bent on establishing the 1,320 MW coal-fired power plant 14 kilometres upstream of the Sundarbans Reserve Forest, a world heritage site declared by UNESCO.

International rights bodies, environment organisations and many others have tried but failed to urge the Bangladesh government for relocation of the plant fearing for the safety of the ecosystem the forest beholds.

"It is a project of mass destruction," Professor Anu Muhammad, member secretary of National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports, was quoted as saying by the Daily Star.

He slammed the government for "dubious approach" to climate change and alleged that it was claiming recognition for contribution to environment on one hand while "trying to destroy the Sundarbans" on the other hand.

Engineer Sheikh Muhammad Shahidullah, president of the national committee, inaugurated the "long march" that will travel through Manikganj, Faridpur, Magura, Jhenaidah and Jessore to eventually reach Rampal in Khulna.

They will hold rallies at different places and raise awareness among the locals.
Hundreds of Bangladeshis began a four-day march today from the capital to the Sundarbans in a last-ditch protest against plans to build a coal-fired power plant near the World Heritage-listed forest.

Preliminary work has already begun under an Indian-Bangladesh joint venture on the massive plant which will provide much needed electricity to the impoverished country when it becomes operational in 2018.

But organisers hope the 250-kilometre (155-mile) long march will force the Bangladesh government to scrap the plant which they say will harm endangered Bengal tigers and other animals living in the mangroves.

"It's now or never. We can't allow this power plant to destroy the world's largest mangrove forest," march organiser Ruhin Hossain told AFP.

Nearly 1,000 students, green activists and others rallied in Dhaka, shouting slogans and carrying flags of left-wing political and labour groups before starting the march which they hope will draw thousands of others along the route.

"The Sundarbans is one of the pristine beauties of the world," Hossain told AFP.

"In the past it has saved us from cyclones, flash floods and it's our biggest protection against tsunamis," he said of the ecologically fragile forest which acts as a natural buffer against extreme weather.

Experts said the 1,320-megawatt plant is being built just four kilometres from the UNESCO-declared World Heritage section of the vast forest which straddles Bangladesh and India.

India and Bangladesh signed a deal in 2010 to jointly develop the USD 1.7-billion power plant.

Bangladesh's forestry chief has said authorities have "adopted an environment management plan to mitigate any possible negative impact on the forest".

But some experts fear the plant will dump tonnes of coal waste into the 10,000-square kilometre (3,800-square mile) forest, already suffering from over population and pollution.
The Louisiana black bear, which inspired the popular stuffed animal "teddy bears" in the early 1900s, was taken off the Endangered Species List today after 24 years of conservation efforts, US officials said.

The Louisiana black bear (Ursus americanus lutelous) was listed as endangered in 1992, when only about 150 existed in the wild. Their population had declined drastically due to habitat loss and overhunting.

Today, the US Fish and Wildlife Service says between 500 and 750 bears live in the species' currently range, which includes the forests of Louisiana and Mississippi.

"Successful recovery efforts are allowing breeding populations to expand," said the US Fish and Wildlife Service in a statement.

"As such, the bear is not likely to become in danger of extinction now or within the foreseeable future."



The FWS proposed delisting the Louisiana black bear in May 2015, and accepted public comments for a period of time before issuing the final decision.

"As I said last spring when the delisting proposal was announced, the Louisiana black bear is another success story for the Endangered Species Act," said US Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell.

The Louisiana black bear rose to fame in the early 20th century after one bear's encounter with the president.

In 1902, president Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was on a hunting trip in Mississippi. He was unable to find any bears to shoot until the third day, when aides found a black bear that had been chased and attacked by dogs and tied it to a tree for Roosevelt to shoot.

The US leader decided he could not shoot the bear, but ordered that it be put down to end its suffering. The story spread in US newspapers and editorial cartoons, and inspired the creation of stuffed animals named "teddy bears" by a Brooklyn candy store owner.
Calling Vijay Mallya "a sin of Congress", BJP today hit back at Rahul Gandhi after he asked the Centre why it allowed the liquor baron to fly to the UK even as the party noted that it was under the UPA government that banks gave him loans despite his "dubious" finances.

When Congress was in power it "looted" public money and gave a free run to some "crook" industrialists to do so as well, BJP alleged.

"Congress is now blaming the government for sins committed by its government. People like Mallya are its sins. Rahul Gandhi should rather answer why Mallya was given loans by 17 banks, most of which are run by government, between 2004 and 2009 despite having dubious finances. What was his party's deal with him?" party National Secretary Shrikant Sharma said.

He alleged Congress had taken no serious action against former IPL boss Lalit Modi, now wanted by ED, and later accused BJP of being soft on him.

"It is Congress which is champion of corruption while our government is acting against such people," he said as he made a mention of Ottavio Quattrocchi, an alleged beneficiary in Bofors case whose escape from India was today used by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to attack Congress after Rahul's criticism of the government.

The Congress vice-president should do some homework before he attacks the government and his remarks only prove that he is "part time non-serious" politician, Sharma said.

Attacking Rahul over 'fair and lovely' jibe at a scheme brought out by the government to unearth black money, he said, those coming clean under it will have to pay 15 per cent fine, besides 30 per cent tax.

When the then government had brought out a scheme on similar lines in 1997, it envisaged 30 per cent tax on undisclosed assets at the market price prevailing in 1987 and slapped no fine, he claimed.
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. Garo Paylan, Armenian member of the Turkish Majlis representing pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party, defended the right to freedom of belief of the religious minorities of the country during the regular session of Majlis. Armenpress reports, citing Demokrathaber.net, Paylan accused the authorities of the country of infringing the right to freedom of belief of Christians and other minorities.

We all, including me, pay taxes, Christians, Muslims, Alevis, everybody professing some religion pay taxes. But the Directorate for Religious Affairs serves only one religion and one sect of it the MP mentioned. Garo referred also to the idea of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has said that he wishes a religious society. The Armenian politician inquired why, in that case, religious schools are not opened. This means Christians have no right to be religious? Why? Why should the religious school of the Armenian Patriarchate be closed?, Paylan asked.

He documented that the Directorate for Religious Affairs uses the budget formed by their taxes, but as a result he does not have a right to freedom of belief.
Liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who is facing legal proceedings for allegedly defaulting on loans of over Rs 9,000 crores from several banks, is believed to be at his country home in an English village about an hour's drive north of London.

The UB Group chairman and Rajya Sabha member is thought to have driven to his 'Ladywalk' estate in the village of Tiwen near St Albans in Hertfordshire from his London home near Baker Street area earlier this week.

Mallya, 60, is facing legal proceedings back in India for allegedly defaulting on loans worth over Rs 9,000 crores from various banks.

A Supreme Court notice for him to return to India is expected to be served to him via the Indian High Commission in London some time this week, sources said.

The Indian mission has so far issued no statement on the timeline of the notice.

Mallya had indicated last month that he wanted to move to the UK to be closer to his children and later denied he had plans to abscond.

"My statement as to my personal future after quitting Diageo/USL - that I want to spend more time in England closer to my children - has been grossly distorted and mis-portrayed. I wish to reduce my business commitments gradually and devote more time to my family, and that my resignation from United Spirits was a step in this direction," he had said in a recent statement.

Mallya, who owns plush properties in California and the UK, has one of the biggest country homeson Queen Hoo Lanein the village of Tewin.

He likes to drop in at the local pubs during his visits there but has not been spotted around the village so far this week, choosing to stay inside his 30-acre estate guarded by customary iron gates that mark most sprawling country estates in English villages.
Cutting across party line, Bihar legislators today assailed MNS chief Raj Thackeray for his remarks on non-Marathis getting autorickshaw permits and sought intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for initiating action against him for hate-mongering.

Deputy leader in the Legislative Assembly and senior JD(U) leader Shyam Rajak raised the issue during Zero hour and demanded from the PM to initiate action against MNS chief.

Rajak urged the House to pass a resolution to assail the statement of the MNS chief. He was supported by RJD leader Lalit Yadav.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was not present in the House at that time.

Claiming that 70 per cent of new autorickshaw permits were given to non-Marathis, Thackeray had yesterday threatened that his party workers will set afire these vehicles if they were seen plying on roads.

Raj Thackeray's controversial remark drew sharp criticism from legislators from all political parties, including BJP.

Deputy Chief Minister and RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav slammed the MNS chief for the hate comment.

Tejaswi, who is the son of RJD President Lalu Prasad, made a scathing attack on the Prime Minister for his party-led government in Maharashtra for not initiating action against Thackeray for regularly indulging in "hate politics".

"PM talks about 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas' but a leader in the Maharashtra government, where BJP is running a coalition government with NDA ally Shiv Sena, makes hate speech and the state government does not initiate any action against him. There seems a gap in PM's words and deeds," Tejaswi Yadav, the RJD legislature, said.

Union minister of state and BJP MP Giriraj Singh also came down heavily on the MNS chief.

"The country would not accept the language spoken by a mad man. He is talking in a language similar to one spoken by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir," Singh said.

His party MLAs Nitin Navin and Sanjay Sarawgi also slammed MNS chief for the hate comment.
Chief Justice of India T S Thakur today said till a few years back there were no women judges in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court but now they were stepping out of their homes and were into the subordinate judiciary in the "conservative state".

He said today Delhi High Court has the distinction of having the largest number of women judges in the country but a few years back, when diamond jubilee function was celebrated at the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, there was not even a single lady judge there.

"Women, especially in Kashmir Valley are in 'purdah' and so on but women in that state, a conservative state, are also now stepping out of the homes and going for education and at least 50 per cent of those in the subordinate judiciary are women. 50 per cent or maybe more then 50 per cent," Thakur, himself from J&K, said while addressing a seminar on 'Women of vision to lead change' organised by Citizen's Rights Trust.

The Chief Justice said problem with all of us is that we always speak about our rights but we should also talk about our duties as well.

He also said, "When you talk of change and you expect women of vision to lead that change, the question is what change are you talking about. What is that change that we intend to bring about."



"Problem with all of us is that we always speak only about rights. I think the first change that we must bring in our approach is that we must not only talk about rights, we must also talk about our duties. When you talk about your duties, how many of you are conscious of duty to keep your environment clean. How many of you really contribute towards that. Just introspect," he said.

The CJI said there are problems in life and its compulsions would continue but the question is do we have the capacity to rise above it.

"I think we are poised for a very great future because women in this country are resurgent. They are leading us in almost every walk of life," he said, adding, "I feel in any society where women get their due, where women are respected, where women are educated, that society and that community has a great future. There is nothing which can stop Indian women from touching greater heights."



He said that in Nepal, which has had its Constitution only last year, the next Chief Justice would be a woman.

"For whatever reasons, Nepal has gone ahead of us (in this respect) because it is going to get a woman Chief Justice," he said.

Besides the CJI, Justice Gita Mittal of Delhi High Court and Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand also addressed the gathering.

(Reopens BOM-11)



Speaking at the workshop, the Chief Minister, in an



apparent reference to Maoists, said, "the destroyers of schools, hospitals and bridges and their supporters can never be the well-wishers of tribal people.

"Bastar is undergoing transformation. I am glad to inform that state government's efforts in the field of education has resulted in children of Bastar making it to institutions of national repute such as IIT, IIM, NIT."



He said Chhattisgarh is the first state to provide Right to Food Security and skill development to its people.

Acknowledging that rules laid by NALSA will play an important role in development of the country, Singh said, "It's a matter of great pride for Chhattisgarh that the CJI is here to deliberate on such an important subject.

"The seven rules of NALSA not only protect the rights of people belonging to weaker and backward sections of society but also ensure implementation of state governments' schemes.
A 13-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped two times in as many days here by separate groups of youths, some of them known to her, police said today.

Police have taken one youth into custody and are hopeful of nabbing others.

The girl alleged that a youth, known to her, convinced her into accompanying him to industrial area here when she was returning from a temple on March 7 on 'Maha Shivratri' day, police said.

The youth, identified as Aakash alias Golu, and his friend allegedly raped her in the area and confined her there for the day.

Police said the girl managed to escape the next day, (March 8) and went to her grandparents' place, also in the city, but did not reveal the incident to them.

"While she was on her way home, two persons, who are known to her, offered her lift and took her to Sanjay Colony area where she was raped by six persons," police said.

Meanwhile, her parents lodged a missing person's report with Dhar Kotwali police station as the girl did not return home on Monday, March 7.

Police said the girl herself approached the police station and narrated the incidents, following which she was sent for a medical examination.

"Police have registered a case against Santosh (24), Subhash Singh (20), Akash alias Golu (19), Ravi (25), Bharat (18), and three others (age not known), under various sections of IPC including gang-rape and under section 3/4 of the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act (POCSO)," Kotwali police station's sub-inspector Anjana Dhurve said.
Already mired in controversy, the Art of Living foundation's culture festival has suffered another blow with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe pulling out of the event due to security and protocol issues.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said,"MEA did not invite the President. The invitation was extended entirely by the Sri Sri Ravishankar Foundation" when asked about whether Zimbabwe President has pulled out from the event due to security and protocol issues.

The Spokesperson also said Mugabe's pullout could have been due to the fact that currently there is no Presidential- level participation at the event but asserted that the MEA had nothing to do with the matter which was between the foundation and the Zimbabwean President.

Zimbabwe State-controlled ZBC TV reported, "President Robert Mugabe has called off his engagement in India where he was scheduled (to be) the guest of honour at the world culture festival.

"In a statement to the ZBC news, presidential spokesperson Cde George Charamba said the cancellation follows communication from the organisers of the festival acknowledging substantial inadequacies in protocol and security arrangements around the event."



The three-day World Culture Festival organised by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's foundation from tomorrow is scheduled to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Foundation been criticised for allegedly damaging the banks of the Yamuna river for building a massive stage for the festival. A case on the issue is before the National Green Tribunal.
Mumbai Mayor Snehal Ambekar honoured a senior Congress leader and social worker from Thane district for her contribution towards the issues of women in society.

MPCC secretary Suman Agrawal, who has been working on several women's issues including those of acid attack victims in the country, was felicitated by Ambekar at an event held in Mumbai on the occasion of International Women's Day on Tuesday.

"I feel honoured to receive the Mayor's Award presented to me on Women's day in appreciation of my efforts for acid attack victims," Agrawal said in a statement.
India has reaffirmed that new permanent members in a reformed Security Council must get veto power but suggested that its use be deferred to a review conference as "a willingness for compromise".

"Our own national position has been and remains that the veto should as long as it exists be extended to new permanent members," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said here yesterday.

"As a measure of flexibility and willingness for compromise, the use of the veto can be deferred till the Review Conference. The African Union (and this is understandable) does not wish to defer use. The difference, we see, as one of a degree than one of a kind," he said.

A review conference is a platform provided by the UN Charter for the member states to discuss changes to any reforms achieved in the near-term, and for revisiting negotiables that cannot be agreed upon. India has in the past also said that it would consider deferring the use of the veto until a future scheduled review conference.

Given the hard lines among member states on the use of the veto and differences among them over the issue, Akbaruddin asserted that the issue of veto cannot be allowed to block the process of Security Council reform itself.

"The issue of veto is important but then we cannot also allow the veto to have a veto over the process of Council reform itself," he said during the informal plenary meeting of the Inter-Governmental Negotiations (IGN) on 'Question of Veto'.

Akbaruddin appealed to the chair of the IGN to consolidate the negotiating text on the basis of convergence reached on issues so far while also delineating the divergence and the contrarian view of some. He stressed that that chair should ask member states to build further on the consolidated and shortened text.

Giving an elaborate historical perspective on the use of the veto in the 70-year history of the UN, Akbaruddin said from the time the Security Council was created in 1946 till today, 317 vetoes have been cast and as result 230 draft resolutions or parts thereof have been vetoed in total. In effect, 10 per cent of the 2271 resolutions adopted till date have been vetoed.

He further underscored that apart from the use of the veto within the Security Council, there have been expansion of the veto to the Council's subsidiary bodies such as the Sanctions Committees.

He said in these bodies, the veto has been extended to all 15 members of the Committees who can block, or object or place on hold any request of a Member State, thereby in effect killing the proposal on grounds that consensus is required.

Akbaruddin remarks come against the backdrop of China, a permanent UNSC member with veto power, blocking India's move last year in the UN for action against Pakistan for the release of 26/11 mastermind Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi from jail.

"As the well-known idiom goes, 'if it walks like a duck



and quacks like a duck it is a duck.' Yes... We have by a procedural stratagem expanded the veto to all members of the subsidiary bodies of the Security Council far from restraining its use," he said.

He stressed that given the history of the use of veto, it is not surprising that a significant number of member states call for abolition of the veto or to limit and curtail its use to the extent possible.

Several other member states also support voluntary restrictions on the use of veto in situations such as genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and gross human rights violations.

While some member states belong to the school of thought that restrictions should be placed on the use of the veto, there are others who want no restrictions to be placed on the veto, Akbaruddin said.

"For them, history stopped in 1945. To them, all subsequent changes: the vast expansion in membership, the anti-colonial and anti-apartheid triumphs, the march of freedom; the growth of equality; all have not happened and should not be taken into account. Multilateralism means nothing; plurilateralism is the order of the day. The majority may not like it; so much the worse for the majority," he said.

Aligning India's position with the L.69 group of developing countries, as well as with the G-4, Akbaruddin said the two largest groups of Africa and L.69 are of the view that the veto should be abolished but as long as it exists, it should be extended to all members of the permanent category of the Security Council, who "must enjoy all prerogatives and privileges of permanent membership in the permanent category including the right of the veto".
The VHP today termed as "jizya", the fine of Rs 5 crore imposed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Art of Living as environmental compensation for holding a cultural extravaganza on Yamuna flood plains, and asked the green body to reconsider the decision.

In a statement, VHP Joint General Secretary Surendra Jain said imposing fine on a religious figure without any offence having been committed was "reminiscent of the Jizya tax that was levied by the Mughals".

Jain asked the NGT to reconsider its decision.

Earlier amid raging controversies, decks were cleared for the three-day cultural extravaganza of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's AOL with the NGT expressing its helplessness in banning the event because of "fait accompli".

Nevertheless, it had imposed a fine of Rs 5 crore on AOL as environmental compensation after coming down heavily on the foundation for not disclosing its full plans and also on the DDA and Environment Ministry for their role.

The AOL had, however, announced that it will appeal against the NGT order.
A video purportedly showing a farmer being allegedly beaten up by cops in Tamil Nadu over non-payment of loans has gone viral, prompting the National Human Rights Commission to take suo motu view of the incident.

The video which was aired by TV channels, shows few policemen allegedly attacking the farmer, identified as Balan of Thanjavur district. The incident also drew sharp reactions from farmers' bodies in the state.

"NHRC has taken suo motu cognisance of media reports that officials of a private bank with the assistance of police came to seize the tractor of a farmer and brutally attacked him and forcibly took him to a police vehicle, as they wanted to recover the money he had borrowed," the Commission said in a statement.

It observed that such a form of "forcible recovery" itself amounts to human rights violation.

NHRC said it approved the realisation of debt through lawful means but "totally disapproves the forcible recovery by torturing farmers."



Accordingly, notices have been issued to the Chief Secretary and DGP, Government of Tamil Nadu seeking reports within two weeks on the matter, NHRC said.

Quoting reports, NHRC said that "at least three police personnel were beating one Balan, a farmer."



He had availed a loan of Rs 3.80 lakh from a private bank in 2011 to buy a tractor. He had paid Rs 4,38,880 so far but the bank demanded a further payment of Rs 1.34 lakh and served a notice to him but Balan could not pay the remaining amount, NHRC said.

Balan was engaged in his farm land on the day of the incident when he was forcibly pulled down from the tractor and brutally beaten by the police, it said.

"It is in the common knowledge that private sector banks and financial institutions, in order to recover the loan advanced to individuals, particularly farmers, use police to brutalise the defaulters," Justice D Murugesan, Member, NHRC said.

"The intemperate attitude of the bank officials and the involvement of the police in such forcible recovery by torturing farmers and their servants is largely prevalent in different states of the country," he said.

Meanwhile, the farmers' bodies protested against the incident and petitioned the district collector seeking action on the matter.

On the first day of the three-day NHRC hearing held



here, the commission considered 107 complaints of which 47 cases were finally disposed.

On the second day, 25 important cases of human rights violation were considered by the full commission. These included alleged violation in KBK region, Posco project, practice of witchcraft, death of infants in hospital, malnutrition, child labourer, death due to electrocution and Japanese encephalitits.

On the last day, the commission took up six cases at the division bench of which two cases were closed upon consideration of the reports.
Global health experts agreed today to prioritise developing vaccines against the Zika virus suspected of causing birth defects, but a Brazilian specialist warned that doing so would take at least three years.

"Perhaps in three years we will have a vaccine," Jorge Kalil, head of the Butantan Institute in Sao Paulo, told reporters in Geneva, acknowledging that even that estimate was "optimistic".

He was among global health experts meeting in Geneva since Monday to determine what research and development should be prioritised in the fight against Zika, which has been spreading most rapidly in the Americas.

Zika was previously only known to cause moderate cold and flu-like symptoms, but increasing evidence indicates the virus may be connected to multiple neurological disorders, as well as microcephaly, a severe birth defect in which babies are born with smaller heads and brains.

Experts have agreed that efforts should focus on developing vaccines particularly for women of child-bearing age, as well as on creating accurate diagnostic tests and innovative vector control tools to reduce mosquito populations, the World Health Organization said today.

WHO's deputy director for health systems and innovation Marie-Paule Kieny told reporters work was under way to develop an emergency vaccine "product profile" to help stake out regulatory requirements and help guide developers.

She said the final profile should be ready in May, but acknowledged that developing a usable vaccine would take much longer.

"Vaccine developement is still at an early stage and the most advanced candidates are still months away from entering early human clinical trials," Kieny said.

"It is therefore possible that vaccines may come (too) late for the current Latin American outbreak," she said, stressing though that "the developement of a vaccine remains an imperative."



WHO said today that 18 companies and research institutes were currently working on Zika vaccines. None have been tested on humans.

Another 31 labs are working on developing diagnostic tests, the global health body said, with a profile on the needed diagnostic tools expected to be ready by mid-April.
YEREVAN, MARCH 9, ARMENPRESS. Allegheny County Police say five people are dead, three others were wounded and police are looking for two gunmen after a shooting spree at a party on March 9 in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. Armenpress reports citing CBS.

The incident happened around 10:55 p.m. in the 1300-block of Franklin Avenue during some sort of party or cookout in the backyard. Police were called to the scene for a report of shots fired.

According to Allegheny County Police Lt. Andrew Schurman, four people were found dead at the scene, four other victims were rushed to local hospitals where one of them was pronounced dead.

The victims have not yet been identified, but police say of the victims who were killed, three were women and the other was a man.

All four were found dead on the back porch.

The victim who died at the hospital was a woman.

Also, of the victims who were wounded, two men are in critical condition and a woman is in stable condition.

According to police, ballistic evidence at the scene indicates that possibly two different weapons were discharged by two different people.

Authorities are looking for two gunmen.

There is ballistic evidence that would lead us to believe there is at least two people that discharged weapons into a backyard party or a cookout of some sort at the residence, said Lt. Schurman. We do not believe, at this point, anybody that was in that backyard or an attendee of the party fired weapons in return.
The 91-year-old Sikh Gurdwaras Act will soon be amended to exclude Sahajdhari Sikhs from voting in the elections to Sikh religious bodies.

A meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, today considered the proposal of the Home Ministry for an amendment to the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925, to remove the exception given to Sahajdhari Sikhs in 1944 to vote in the elections to select the members of the Board and the Committees constituted under the Act.

Accordingly, the Cabinet has approved the proposal of the Home Ministry to amend the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925, with effect from October 8, 2003, an official spokesperson said.

The said amendment was also carried out by a Home Ministry notification dated October 8, 2003, in exercise of the powers conferred by the Parliament under Section 72 of the Punjab Re-organisation Act, 1966.

However, the notification was quashed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana on December 20, 2011, leaving it to the appropriate and competent legislature to decide as to whether or not to amend the Act to that effect.
Members of Thakor community which falls in the OBC category in Gujarat today held a rally in Visnagar town, demanding a separate 20 per cent reservation and a Rs 2,500-crore package for them.

The state witnessed a hugely disruptive agitation of the Patel community for OBC quota last year.

Around 500 persons participated in the 'silent rally' in Visnagar town in Mehsana district under the banner of 'Kshatriya Thakor Samaj Anamat Samiti' today.

In a demand memorandum submitted to Mamlatdar (revenue official), they said the community has remained backward despite the OBC quota granted to it and therefore it needs a "separate 20 per cent reservation" in government jobs and educational institutions.

"More than 95 per cent of community members are landless, have no business or government jobs. We have been included in OBC category but other communities within the category enjoy all benefits, leaving us deprived.

"Government should also declare a Rs 2,500-crore package for the uplift of the community, set up tehsil-level schools exclusively for Kshatriya-Thakor community and provide fee exemption in self-financed colleges," it said.

President of the Samiti, Ajmalji Thakor, said it would intensify the agitation if the demands were not met.

"We will hold similar rallies across the state," he said.

The rally was held despite the police denying permission. The police later lodged an FIR under section 188 of the IPC (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant).

After the pro-quota violent agitation by the Patel community last year, some other communities in Gujarat too are demanding more reservation than the existing quota.
Transportation platform today said it aims to add 50,000 autos over the next few quarters as it expands its operations to 10 more cities.

The Bengaluru-based firm, which allows users to book autorickshaw rides through its app in 12 cities, already has about 80,000 autos on its platform.

"Autos are one of the most ubiquitous modes of transportation in the country. We launched the auto category about a year and a half back and have seen a wonderful response to the service. We already have 80,000 autos on board and we are aggressively expanding the base," Senior Director Operations Nitesh Prakash told PTI.

He added that aims to add about 50,000 autos on its platform as the company expands the category to 10 new cities.

"While I can't disclose the names of the cities, I can tell you that these will mostly be tier II cities," he said.

The SoftBank-backed firm offers Auto service in 12 cities -- Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Chandigarh, Indore, Jaipur, Gurgaon, Noida and Mysore.

Ola competes with local players like Jugnoo (north India) and AutoWale (Pune) in the category.

It also allows users in Mumbai to book Kaali-Peeli taxi rides through its mobile app.

"There is a huge potential in the category, especially when you go towards the tier II cities. There is enough demand but the drivers do not have visibility in terms of where the passengers are. We are connecting them and drivers have seen 40% more bookings when they are on our platform," Prakash said.

He added the company will also help driver partners get financing for buying autos and invest in training them.

Autorickshaws are a popular mode of transportation in India. Last year, Ola's rival Uber had launched 'UberAUTO' but has now suspended the service.
Maharashtra Assembly was today adjourned twice as a vociferous opposition tried to stall the House proceedings, demanding ouster of Education Minister Vinod Tawde on the multiple DIN issue.

Soon after the day's proceedings began, the opposition members raised slogans seeking Tawde's sacking, alleging that he had three Director Identification Numbers (DIN) when only one is allowed.

"Tawde did not disclose information about his DIN in his election affidavits. Tawde is a director in Shree Multimedia Vision, a for-profit company, which brings out 'Mumbai Tarun Bharat'. This was not disclosed in his election affidavit," they said.

They alleged that since Tawde held a director's post in the private media company, it amounted to conflict of interest which calls for his sacking from the Cabinet.

NCP MLA and former minister Jayant Patil sought clarification from Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on the alleged violation of code of conduct (for ministers) by Tawde.

Fadnavis said, a clarification will be given "at an appropriate time".

"The point you raised comes under model code. Some former ministers will also come under purview. Opposition should be ready to face consequences," he said.

Former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said the code of conduct was made by the Central government, and demanded that Fadnavis make the government's stand clear.

As the noisy scenes continued, Speaker Haribhau Bagade announced suspension of the House for 10 minutes. It was again adjourned for five minutes as slogan-shouting continued.
A united Opposition today staged a noisy sit-in protest on the steps of Vidhan Bhawan, against the "failure" of Maharashtra government to tackle severe drought conditions and allegations of irregularities against ministers.

Several prominent opposition leaders, including former Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and many ex-ministers joined in the protest, with some NCP MLAs also holding 'symbolic funeral rites' of the Devendra Fadnavis government.

The protesters held banners seeking total loan waiver for farmers and immediate steps to provide relief to drought-hit regions.

Some banners also sought resignation of state Education Minister Vinod Tawde, alleging that the minister had violated the model code of conduct for ministers set by the government.

Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council, Dhananjay Munde said, "We will continue to press our demands on these issues in the budget session and will also raise drought, law and order situation in the state and failure of 'Make in India' event."



Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, the LoP in the state Assembly, said that the Devendra Fadnavis government has failed to resolve the drought situation.

Farmers need immediate help as unseasonal rains and hailstorms in parts of North Maharashtra, Marathwada and Vidarbha have ruined Rabi crops.

The budget session of state Legislature began here yesterday, with the Governor's address.

The budget will be tabled on March 18.
Centre has received Rs 87.69 crore, including Rs 78.83 crore under the corporate social responsibility (CSR), in form of donations to the Clean Ganga Fund (CGF) till now, Lok Sabha was informed today.

Replying to queries on contributions made to the CGF, Union Minister of State for Water Resources Sanwar Lal Jat said out of the total funds received under the CSR, Rs 71.03 crore came from various corporations, while rest Rs 7.80 was donated by private players.

The major donors include public enterprises and financial bodies like General Insurance Corporation of India (Rs 25 crore), Indian Railways Finance Corporation Ltd (Rs 10 crore), Indian Infrastructure Finance Company Limited (Rs 5 crore), Container Corporation of India (Rs 3.50 crore) and others.

Among private companies, Bank of America is the top contributor with Rs 4.07 crore donation, he said.

To another query, Jat said the government has taken initiatives such as 'Swachh Ganga-Gramin Sahabhagita' and 'Ganga Manthan' to encourage public participation for the success of the 'Namami Gange' programme.

He added the ministry also held consultations with industries located along the Ganga over bringing down pollution level in the river.

Jat said the government has earmarked an amount of Rs 528 crore for public participation under communication and public outreach activities (including raising of the Ganga Task Force) to be undertaken during 2015-2020 under the programme.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had approved establishment of CGF on September 24, 2014.
If Pakistan cannot leverage its influence to stop militants of the Haqqani network from crossing into Afghanistan, it should "take decisive action" against the dreaded terror group which is the greatest threat to US forces in the war-torn nation, two top generals said.

"We need Pakistan to take decisive action against the Haqqani Network (HQN). The Pakistanis are uniquely positioned to counter the HQN, which remains the greatest threat to our forces and to stability in Afghanistan long-term," Commander of US Central Command General Lloyd J Austin told members of the Senate Armed Service Committee at a Congressional hearing.

The US is encouraged by some signs from Kabul and Islamabad that point towards a renewed effort at improving Afghanistan-Pakistan relations, and Pakistani support for the reconciliation process in Afghanistan, Austin said yesterday.

"The Pakistan military continues to play a visible role in efforts to reduce safe havens in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, while at the same time actively countering militant groups, including AQ, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, and the newly-emerged ISIL-KP," he said.

Responding to a series of questions on the continuing threat the Haqqani network poses to US forces and to the stability of Afghanistan, General Joseph L Votel, nominee of the Commander of US Central Command, told the committee that "Pakistan has a way of communicating to the Haqqani, and a way of highlighting to them the disruptive role they are playing in Afghanistan".

"So I think the first thing we need to do is leverage their influence with that particular organisation to prevent them from having those particular facts," Votel said at a confirmation hearing.

"If that does not work they must conduct security operations to contain them and keep them from coming across the border and having an impact in Afghanistan," he said.

He however, defended the US' decision to continue assistance to Pakistan as "risks of ineffective and unclear signals and conditioning may risk us losing our access and frank dialogue to Pakistan and may reduce Pakistan's willingness to continue its counter-terrorism and counter- insurgency operations".
Pakistan today ordered a probe into the circumstances surrounding the release of kidnapped son of the slain governor Salman Taseer after reports of a USD 10 million ransom to militants surfaced.

Interior minister Nisar Ali Khan ordered the probe, saying "the facts are different" after controversy erupted over release of Shahbaz Taseer, 33, who was recovered on Tuesday from Quetta nearly five years after he was kidnapped from Lahore in August, 2011.

Khan was furious over confusion surrounding Shahbaz's release as he was officially informed that Shahbaz's release was secured after a successful intelligence-led operation in Kuchlak area near Quetta.

"We should develop habit of sharing truth with the nation. It will be probed why IG Police Balochistan provided wrong information to the interior minister that he (Taseer) was recovered after operation," Khan's office said in a statement.

The minister set up a committee and asked it to submit its report within two days.

Private media reported, quoting a restaurant owner that a bearded man in dirty clothes walked in, ate at his eatery and asked him for a phone to make a call following which paramilitary forces took the man away - giving rise to speculation that Shahbaz was left at a roadside restaurant by his captors.

There were also reports claiming that nearly USD 10 million had been paid to the militants and that the Pakistani security agencies tried to take credit for freeing him after an operation.

Yesterday amid joyous scenes, Shahbaz was reunited with his family here after nearly five years in captivity. He was flown to Lahore from Quetta in a special aircraft, a day after being recovered from the restive Balochistan province.

He was abducted by gunmen months after his father Salman, known for his liberal views, was killed by his police commando Mumtaz Qadri for opposing the country's controversial blasphemy laws.

Interestingly, the recovery of Shahbaz comes just a week after Qadri was executed in Rawalpindi.
Pakistan has sent a 'memorandum' to India to expedite the release of fishermen held in the two countries as agreed to between prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his counterpart Narendra Modi during their meeting in Ufa last year.

Sharif's Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz told the Senate yesterday that Pakistan has sent the memorandum to India to give a concrete shape to the understanding reached between the two leaders, the Dawn reported.

The two prime ministers had agreed during their meeting in Ufa, Russia, in July, last year, to work out a mechanism for the release of the detained fishermen within two weeks after ascertainment of their nationalities.

Aziz said the release of the detained fishermen would be expedited and expressed hope that India would agree to the draft.

He said Pakistan had released 1,530 Indian fishermen during the past five years whereas India had freed 380 Pakistanis.

Earlier this week, Pakistan has released 87 Indians, mostly fishermen, who had completed their sentences and were freed after verification of their travel documents sent by the Indian authorities.

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.

Responding to another question, Aziz said there were 460 Pakistanis in Indian jails -- 347 "civil prisoners" and 113 fishermen, arrested on a variety of charges, including illegal entry into India, overstay, drug smuggling, espionage and terrorism.

During the past three years, India released 329 Pakistanis, including 217 fishermen, from various jails.

Aziz said that under an agreement signed in 2008, the two countries were providing counsellor access to the prisoners and their lists were also exchanged.
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg expressed gratitude for the support of Armenia to NATO missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo during a meeting with Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian and Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan in Brussels. As "Armenpress" was informed by the press department of NATO, Ministers Nalbandian and Ohanyan also met with Ambassadors of NATO countries, during which they discussed issues related to Armenia's cooperation with NATO and regional security.

NATO Secretary General welcomed Armenia's commitment to implementing the NATO Building Integrity program, as well as the 1325 UN Security Council resolution (Issues related to Women, peace and security).

Jens Stoltenberg also stressed Armenia's continued cooperation with the alliance in terms of defense reform, defense sphere education, as well as emergency response services.

In the frameworks of NATO partnership program Armenia currently implements its 4th Individual Partnership Action Plan. (2014-2016)

Since 2004, Armenia participates in the peacekeeping operations of NATO. Armenia currently has peacekeeping troops in Kosovo / KFOR mission, as well as since January 2015 in Afghanistan, (From 2010 to 2014 Armenia participated in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan).
Pakistan, which has a way of communicating to the Haqqani network, should consider security operations against the insurgent group if it can't leverage its influence to stop them from crossing over to Afghanistan and hit US targets, a top American commander has said.

"I think Pakistan has a way of communicating to the Haqqani, and a way of highlighting to them the disruptive role they are playing in Afghanistan," General Joseph L Votel, nominee of the Commander of US Central Command, told members of Senate Armed Services Committee at a confirmation hearing.

"So I think the first thing we need to do is leverage their influence with that particular organisation to prevent them from having those particular facts," Votel said.

"If that does not work...They need to look at conducting security operations to contain them and keep them from coming across the border and having an impact in Afghanistan," he said.

Votel was responding to a series of questions from Senator Kelly Ayotte after he in his statement expressed concerns about the continuing threat the Haqqani network poses to the US forces and to the stability of Afghanistan.

Senator Ayotte posed several questions to Votel about the role Pakistan can play in containing the insurgent group.

"I would like to ask you, you said in your statement that we need Pakistan to take more decisive actions against the Haqqani Network. Could you describe for us what actions you would like to see Pakistan take to the extent you can in this setting" Ayotte asked.

"Also do you believe that Pakistan has to be much more aggressive that it has been in going after the Haqqani Network? Can you tell us where you think they are vis-a-vis, getting at this very dangerous network that is undermining stability and harming us in Afghanistan" the Senator asked.

Votel began with saying that Pakistan needs to "do more."



"I think we seen some instances lately were Pakistan has been aggressive in some of the things they've been doing along the border. They have been pretty aggressive, they have pushed a lot of fighters into Afghanistan. That's traded additional turbulence, but it's also created opportunities for us that we've been able to capitalise on," he said.

In his prepared statement, General Votel said despite positive momentum against some militants, particularly al-Qaeda and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, the US remain concerned about the continuing threat to US forces in Afghanistan posed by the Haqqani network.

"We continue to urge Pakistan at the highest levels to take deliberate action against this group," he said.

Votel, however, defended Obama administration's decision to continue US assistance to Pakistan.

"The risks of ineffective and unclear signals and conditioning may risk us losing our access and frank dialogue to Pakistan" and may reduce Pakistan's willingness to continue its counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations," he said.
Energy-starved Pakistan may strike multiple commercial deals with Iran on import of 3,000 MW of electricity and construction of a gas pipeline during Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's first official visit here this month.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif met the Iranian ambassador to Pakistan Mehdi Honardoost to discuss Rouhani's visit.

"Pakistan is looking forward to the scheduled visit from March 25 to 26 of President of Iran and hopes that it would further strengthen relations between the two countries," the ministry quoted Asif as saying.

Officials said that Rouhani will have detailed discussion with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to expand economic and commercial ties.

Oil-rich Iran is keen to sell petroleum product, electricity and expediting start of construction of a pipeline bring gas to Pakistan.

"It is hoped that a deal to import 3,000 MW of electricity from Iran will be reached," an official of finance ministry said.

Iran is feeling free to expand commercial ties with other nations after successful implementation of last year's nuclear deal with leading world powers.

Apart for the economic ties, the two sides will also discuss various security issues including tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia and situation in Syria and Iraq.

Sharif last visited Tehran in January to ease tension between Tehran and Riyadhin the aftermath of the execution of activist and Shia cleric, Sheikh Nimr, by Saudi authorities.

It will be first visit by any Iranian president after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to Islamabad in 2012.
The Centre's stand that status of 'martyr' cannot be given to paramilitary force personnel has been opposed in the Delhi High Court in a PIL which has sought they be treated with "equal national pride" like the army, navy and air force "without any distinction of uniform".

The submission was made in a rejoinder filed opposing the Centre's reply to the plea seeking same status to personnel of paramilitary forces as is given to armed forces.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) in its response had said the status of 'martyr' is not accorded to armed forces personnel who sacrifice their lives on the line of duty and hence cannot be given to the paramilitary forces.

The petitioner, however, in the rejoinder said the government is trying to assess cost of lives of soldiers of central paramilitary forces by way of cash amount, whereas their plea was to only accord pride and honour to the force personnel by granting to them, honour of 'martyr' or 'shaheed' status.

"In any case the 'martyr' or 'shaheed' does not personally enjoy any benefits of the cash entitlement but they certainly leaves behind pride, valour, honour and magnanimity for his family, community and society at large. It remains an all time motivating factor for the youth to serve the nation even if it is at the cost of their lives," the petitioner said.

The petitioner, an advocate, was responding to the ministry's reply which stated that "in army/navy/air force, nomenclature for the word 'martyr' is battle casualty and physical casualty. The word 'martyr' is not used in the three services.
Patrolling has started in the four Maoist-affected districts of West Bengal, adjacent to Odisha and Jharkhand, as a precursor to the sealing of the border days ahead of the April 4 Assembly election there, officials said.

A meeting of the magistrates of the Maoist-affected districts of West and East Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura as well as those of the border districts in Jharkhand and Odisha was held at the Midnapore circuit house today to chalk out security details.

West Midnapore DM J C Meena told reporters here at the end of the meeting that the border with East Singhbhum district in Jharkhand and Mayurbhanj and Baleswr districts in Odisha would be sealed once the nomination papers for the election were filed.

Meena said that the officials of the border districts in the three states would review the situation periodically.

The DM said that apart from patrolling, CRPF camps would be set up to sanitize the sensitive areas.

Arrangement was also being made for aerial survey of the districts to prevent anti-socials from outside West Bengal to disturb peace during election, he said.
A 45-year-old Indian-origin dean of a presitigious US law school has been accused of sexually harassing his assistant for over a period of several months.

Sujit Choudhry has taken an indefinite leave of absence after his executive assistant at the Berkeley Law School filed a lawsuit against him for sexually harassing her from September 2014 until March 2015.

A lawsuit was filed this week against him in Alameda County Superior Court in California against Choudhry and the University of California Board of Regents by the assistant, who is suing for sexual harassment, failure to prevent harassment, retaliation, infliction of emotional distress and assault.

The lawsuit alleges that Choudhry hugged and kissed his assistant almost daily over a period of several months.

Choudhry, an expert in comparative constitutional law, was named in 2014 the 12th dean of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, one of the country's top schools.

New Delhi-born Choudhry who holds law degrees from Oxford, Toronto, and Harvard denied the allegations. He said he will continue to cooperate with the university in the probe. He disagreed with the victim's claims and allegations and said he will defend himself against them.

"Choudhry's kissing and hugging Plaintiff was a near daily occurrence," the lawsuit says according to a report in NBC Bay area, making her "feel disgusted, humiliated, exposed and dirty".

Choudhry has been given a 10-per cent, one-year reduction in salary and ordered to apologise to the victim.

"However, I can say that I cooperated fully, and take extremely seriously, the University's confidential investigation into this matter and ensuing sanction, he said.

Berkeley's Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Claude Steele said in a statement that Choudhry would step down to his faculty position and salary.

The school would announce as soon as possible about an interim replacement.

"A thorough investigation of this case found that Dean Choudhry's behaviour in this situation violated policy, and that he demonstrated a failure to understand the power dynamic and the effect of his actions on the plaintiff personally and in her employment," Steele said.

The victim has been granted a fully paid administrative leave and Steele said once she felt ready to return to the workplace, "we supported her search to find a position on campus that meets her interests and needs".

Court documents allege that Choudhry's behavior became more aggressive and "occurred multiple times per day".
A police inspector died today after allegedly consuming adulterated 'bhang' on the occasion of 'Mahashivratri' festival at Budasan village in the district.

Inspector R R Patel, attached to Kadi Police Station in the village, fell ill after consuming 'bhang' brought there by a villager as 'prasad', police sources said.

He died early this morning at a private hospital in Ahmedabad, police said.

Three persons died yesterday and 337 others have been hospitalised after they consumed adulterated 'bhang', that was distributed at a Shiva temple in the village.

"As per our records, Patel had not gone to Budasan village that day. What led to his death is a matter of investigation. We will also probe reports that someone came to the police station to give him that 'bhang' as 'prasad' from the temple," Mehsana Superintendent of Police Chaitanya Mandlik said.

"The Inspector was also suffering from diabetes and was recently operated for mouth cancer. The picture will be clear after autopsy report is out," Mandlik said, adding the body has been sent for post-mortem.

Mehsana Collector Lochan Sehra told PTI yesterday that over 2,000 people had consumed 'bhang' concoction and out of them, 337 showed symptoms of food poisoning and were admitted to different hospitals.

Samples of the 'bhang' have been sent to government laboratory for testing, he had said.
A political slugest erupted today over liquor baron Vijay Mallya leaving India in the middle of a massive loan default probe with Rahul Gandhi accusing the government of "helping" him, a charge rejected by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who raked up the Bofors case to remind him of Ottavio Quattrocchi's escape during Congress rule.

As the controversy surrounding the beleaguered businessman's departure figured both inside and outside Parliament, Congress leader and Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad raised the matter in the Rajya Sabha and accused the NDA government of "criminal consipracy" in allowing him to fly out of the country. Mallya left on March 2.

When the issue was raised in Lok Sabha, junior Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Pratap Rudy asserted Mallya is "no saint for us" and that he has "not been given a single penny" by the NDA Government.

Outside Parliament, a combative Rahul asked how the government allowed Mallya, who owes over Rs 9,000 crore to banks, to leave the country and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Jaitley have failed to answer this question in their speeches.

The Congress Vice President attacked the government, saying the entire country is questioning why it was "helping" people like Mallya by allowing him to escape and not fulfilling its promises made to people for bringing back black money and "giving Rs 15 lakh into every person's bank account".

He also hit out at the Modi government for bringing the "Fair and Lovely" tax amnesty scheme, saying it only helped thieves, black marketeers and drug mafia to convert their black money into white.

"When a poor man steals, he is beaten up and thrown into jail. Someone who does not have food to eat and steals a roti is beaten up and put behind bars and a big businessmen who steals Rs 9,000 crore from country, you allow him to escape in First Class from the country. What is this happening?



"We simply asked that someone who stole Rs 9,000 crore from the country, how did he run away from the country. How did you allow him to escape? This is the simple question and we neither got a reply to this from Modiji nor from Jaitley ji. The question is why did your government allow him to run away from the country," he told reporters.

Jaitley while rejecting Gandhi's charge told reporters that late Quattrocchi, a Bofors case accused, had fled the country under the Congress government watch in 1993.

Raking up the Bofors case that had dogged Rajiv Gandhi government and the Congress for years, Jaitely said, "Rahul ji should remember that there is a basic difference in Mallya leaving (the country) and Quattrochi going out (of India). And let me explain him the difference.

"When the officials of Switzerland informed that Quattrochi was also among the beneficiaries of Bofors and though the person who was heading the CBI investigation earlier K Madhavan wrote a letter that his passport should be impounded, the then government had not stopped him and within two days he left India. That was a criminal case."



Seeking to stress that there is a difference between the two cases, Jaitley also said that by the time he (Mallya left), the banks had not initiated the legal process.

As Congress alleged that Mallya escaped despite 'Look Out Notice" by CBI, Jaitley said: "That day, there was no order of any agency to stop him (from leaving the country)". He said Mallya had left the country before the banks moved the Supreme Court for seizure of his passport.
Former employees of Vijay Mallya's defunct carrier Kingfisher Airlines have expressed pain over politicians "ignoring" their plight amid trading of allegations over Mallya leaving India.

In yet another open letter, this time addressed to the political and intellectual class of the country, the former Kingfisher Airline employees have alleged that Mallya leaving India in the middle of massive loan default probe, exposes the "rotten" system.

"Although it's not common in India to write such letters but we want all of you to know that we are in deep anguish over the rotten system that was exposed while we try to get our dues. It's a matter to bury our head in shame as a country where a sitting MP of Rajya sabha fled the country under the nose of all the agencies," the letter stated.

This is the third time in last one week that the former employees, who remained unpaid for months together before its Chairman Vijay Mallya grounded the airline due to paucity of funds, have shot off an open letter to pull the country's attention towards their issues.

"You people on your own reach the place where you smell political opportunity, no one supported us not even a statement in our favour," the letter said while citing former employees numerous meeting with the then Government Ministers and law makers from both ruling and opposition parties to take up their issues at that time.

The fleeing of Vijay Mallya to London generated storm in Parliament today with Congress alleging "criminal conspiracy" saying the businessman was allowed to escape by the government, which hit back insisting that the loans were given to him during UPA rule and he is "no saint for us".

"We are particularly pained today to observe that like always opposition and government blaming each other in parliament on Vijay Mallya's escape and defaults, while no one uttering even a single word in support of the employees," the employees said in the letter.

"No political party can claim to be holy (on this issue), we all know three parties (BJP/Congress/JD(S)) supported Vijay Mallya's candidature to Rajya Sabha, can you tell our citizens why he was chosen by for this esteemed privilege," the letter questioned.

"Please don't sling further mud on each other rather clean the mud which you already have and please spare a thought why Mallya not only paid but also compensated foreign employees leaving the people who elect you, high and dry. Please don't say it's private company as private company also come under the law of the land," it said.
Pope Francis imposed new financial accountability regulations on the Vatican's multimillion-dollar saint-making machine today after uncovering gross abuses that were subsequently revealed in two books.

The rules require external vigilance over individual Vatican bank accounts created for beatification and canonization causes, as well as regular budgeting and accounting to make sure the donations from the faithful are being used as intended.

The reforms were imposed after Francis tasked a fact-finding commission to investigate Vatican finances, including at the Vatican's saints office. Two books by Italian journalists, based on the commission's confidential findings, revealed that the Vatican's secretive saint-making process brought in hundreds of thousands of euros in donations for each saintly candidate but had virtually no financial oversight as to how the money was spent.

The books estimated the average cost for each beatification at around 500,000 euros, with much of the proceeds going to a few lucky people with contracts to do the often time-consuming investigations into the candidates' lives. The family of one well-known investigator, for example, also had the Vatican monopoly on printing the documentation for each saintly cause, studies that often amount to dozens of volumes.

While candidates who inspire wealthy donors would sprint ahead, those with less wealthy fans would languish. American saints often cost the most precisely because the most money was donated, and the postulator could spend it on the best researchers to get the cause through, according to the book "Avarice" by journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi.

The new rules call for an administrator to be named for each saintly cause who must "scrupulously respect" the intention of each donation. The administrator must keep a running tab on expenditures and donations, prepare an annual budget and be subject to the oversight of the local bishop or religious superior. That person must approve the annual budget and send it to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints the Vatican office responsible for reviewing saintly candidates, investigating miracles and preparing the cases for the pope's ultimate decision.
A piece of debris found in Mozambique arrived in Malaysia today for initial investigations into whether it came from missing flight MH370 before being taken to Australia for deeper analysis, officials said.

Department of Civil Aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman confirmed to AFP that the one-metre long (three-foot) object was in Malaysia.

He declined to provide further details but Malaysia's transport minister told local media it would be passed along to Australia, which is leading a huge Indian Ocean search for the missing aircraft.

"We will send it to Australia for further examinations," Liow Tiong Lai was quoted as saying.

Liow has previously said there is a "high probability" the piece of debris came from a Boeing 777.

The debris could provide fresh clues into the mystery of the Malaysia Airlines flight, a Boeing 777.

Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester said last week the debris would be analysed there by Malaysian and Australian officials and specialists, including from Boeing, to determine its origin.

Mozambican authorities on Monday had handed over the debris to Malaysian experts after it was found washed up on a sandbar by an American amateur investigator.

Tuesday marked the second anniversary of the plane's disappearance.

MH370 was carrying 239 passengers and crew when it vanished on March 8, 2014 on an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Last July, a wing fragment was found washed ashore on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion and later confirmed to be from the plane.

More possible MH370 debris in the same area was found on Sunday and authorities are studying it.

But the search has been unable to pinpoint an actual crash site, which could help to solve the baffling mystery.
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. The Government approved the legislative initiative of RPA faction members Garegin Nushikyan and Vardan Ayvazyan. The proposed bill suggests making amendments in the law of the Republic of Armenia on Value added tax, according to which the VAT on car imports from the EAEU will be abolished for individuals.

Vice Prime Minister, Minister of International Economic Integration and Reforms Vache Gabrielyan mentioned that a similar bill has been prepared by the Government, which was considered urgent. Hence, they support the bill prepared by the MPs.

Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan mentioned that the bills should be discussed together.
President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi today congratulated ISRO scientists for the successful launch of India's sixth navigation satellite.

"Congratulations to ISRO team on successful launch of IRNSS 1F into orbit.#PresidentMukherjee," Mukherjee tweeted soon after ISRO launched the satellite onboard its PSLV C-32 rocket from the spaceport here.

Modi in his tweet said "Successful launch of IRNSS-1F is an accomplishment we all take immense pride in.I salute the hardwork of our scientists & @isro".

IRNSS-1F is part of the Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System under which a total of seven spacecraft are planned to provide navigational services.
A prisoner serving life sentence in Nashik Road Central Jail has been awarded 10 years rigorous imprisonment in connection with the murder of an inmate.

District and Sessions Judge Anil Khadase yesterday awarded 10-year RI to Manoj Kumar Yadav, who is presently serving life imprisonment in a murder case, after convicting him of killing a jail inmate.

The sentence will run con-currently.

According to government prosecutor Sunita Salve, Yadav and the victim, Raju Devasi Revaskar, stayed in the same jail barrack.

On July 17, 2012, Yadav in a fit of rage hit Revaskar on his head with a wooden-plank after the latter provoked him over some issue.

Revaskar was wounded and sent to Mumbai's J J Hospital for treatment where he succumbed his injuries on July 21, 2012.

The jail authorities lodged a complaint with Nashik Road police, which registered an offence against Yadav under IPC section 303 (punishment for murder by life-convict) and filed a case in court.

The district and sessions court examined 10 witnesses, but most of them turned hostile.

However, considering the circumstantial evidence and a witness from the jail staff, the court awarded punishment to Yadav.

According to a senior jail official, Yadav has been in Nashik Road Central Prison since April 2009 after being brought there from Thane with regard to a murder case in Mumbai.
A four-year-old boy accidentally shot his mother in the US state of Florida, leaving the woman known for her strong pro-gun stance seriously wounded and facing possible charges, officials said today.

31-year-old Jamie Gilt was driving down a road in Putnam County on Tuesday when her son managed to get hold of a gun while he was sitting in the back seat of the truck, according to a statement released by the Putnam County Sheriff's Department.

Officials told the Florida Times-Union that the child fired a .45-caliber handgun that he found on the truck's floor into the driver's seat.

"She was shot through the seat and the round went through her back," Sheriff's Captain Joseph Wells said.

"There was a booster seat in the back of the vehicle, but, however, the boy was not strapped in when the deputy got to them," he said.

The deputy noticed that a truck stopped partially in the travel lanes and a woman in the driver's seat motioning for help. The only other occupant in the vehicle was the boy, who was not harmed.

Authorities said the firearm was legally owned by Gilt, who maintained a Facebook page entitled "Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense," where she regularly posted pro-gun positions.

On her personal Facebook page, Gilt once bragged about her son: "Even my 4 year old gets jacked up to target shoot with the .22."



Gilt's social media presence is filled with pro-gun messages, Second Amendment memes and posts supporting the National Rifle Association of America (NRA), as well as photos of her posing with weapons.

She appears to maintain a Facebook page called "Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense," which has since been inundated by people criticizing her passion for weapons in light of being shot by her son, Washington Post reported.

Detectives have not yet been able to interview Gilt because of her medical condition.

Florida law makes it a misdemeanor for a person to store or leave a loaded firearm in such a way that a child could gain access to it.

Authorities said they will not make a decision on charges until they can speak with the woman. Gilt is believed to be in stable condition, CNN reported.

The boy is currently with relatives. The Florida Department of Children and Families also is probing the incident.
Progress in India-Pakistan ties has been hindered by cross-border violence and territorial disputes, but leaders of both the countries have demonstrated commitment to reinitiate the comprehensive dialogue, a top Pentagon commander has said.

"Progress on the India-Pakistan relationship is hindered by cross-border violence and territorial disputes," General Lloyd J Austin, Commander of US Central Command told members of the Senate Armed Service Committee during a Congressional hearing yesterday.

"However, there have been some encouraging signs and lines of communication remain open as demonstrated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's meeting in Pakistan in late December 2015 and the subsequent commitment to reinitiate the Comprehensive Dialogue," Austin said.

"Dialogue between the two countries is critical especially given that they are both nuclear powers," Austin said.

The US Central Command will continue to do its part to help encourage and strengthen the critical relationship between Pakistan and its neighbours, Austin added.
In the backdrop of war of words between Punjab and Haryana over water issue, Punjab Congress President Amarinder Singh today said that his state does not have a single drop of water to spare for others.

"Where is the water?" he said when asked about his opposition to the Sutlej Yamuna link (SYL) canal.

The rivers in Punjab have virtually dried up and the flow of water since the days of Eradi Tribunal had also gone substantially down, the Congress MP from Amritsar said.

The PCC president, after addressing a meeting of the party's block presidents across the state, said, "It is a grave injustice with Punjab that its water was being given to other states when it did not have enough for its own needs."



"Nobody talks about Yamuna's water which Haryana is consuming? Why not include Yamuna water also in the issue?" the former Chief Minister asked.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had yesterday said his state is demanding passage for its own share of water through the SYL and not asking for Punjab's share of water.

"The water belongs to Haryana and the state would get it," Khattar had said here.

Days after the Supreme Court began its hearing on the SYL Canal dispute on Presidential Reference, Khattar expressed hope the verdict would be in favour of Haryana.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has also said the state "does not have a single drop of water to spare" and will ensure there is no compromise on "inalienable" rights under the Riparian Principle.

(Reopens DES67)



Congress General Secretary Incharge Punjab Shakeel Ahmad, Campaign Committee chairperson Ambika Soni, former chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, secretary incharge Punjab Harish Chaudhary and senior vice president of the PCC Lal Singh also addressed the meeting.

Amarinder Singh told the block presidents that they were the real foot soldiers of the party and the representatives of Congress President Sonia Gandhi at the grassroots level.

"You will be given all the powers because the party will be strong only when you will be strong," he told them.

Amarinder said that no MLA will be appointed as chairman of various boards and corporations (if Congress forms government in Punjab after 2017 polls) as these will be "reserved for prominent party leaders including the block presidents."



He announced that the next meeting of the block presidents will be held on May 15.

Speaking on the occasion, Ambika Soni told all the block presidents to devote all their energies on winning the 2017 Assembly election in Punjab.

Shakeel Ahmad took a dig at the "double standards" of the Aam Aadmi Party.

Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal had never bothered to visit the Pathankot martyrs' family in his own state of Haryana, but had visited the two martyrs in Gurdaspur in Punjab "purely with an eye on the elections," he said.
Trying to push the government on the backfoot, a combative Rahul Gandhi today asked how it allowed liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who owes over Rs 9,000 crore to banks, to leave the country and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley have failed to answer this question in their speeches.

The Congress Vice President attacked the government saying the entire country is questioning why this government was "helping" people like Mallya by allowing him to escape and not fulfilling its promises made to people for bringing back black money and "giving Rs 15 lakh into every person's bank account".

He also hit out at the Modi government for bringing the "Fair and Lovely" tax amnesty scheme, saying it only helped thieves, black marketeers and drug mafia to convert their black money into white.

Rahul also attacked the Prime Minister over his style of functioning, saying Modi in his long speeches has not answered his queries made to him.

"When a poor man steals, he is beaten up and thrown into jail. Someone who does not have food to eat and steals a roti is beaten up and put behind bars and a big businessmen who steals Rs 9,000 crore from country, you allow him to escape in First Class from the country. What is this happening?



"We simply asked that someone who stole Rs 9,000 crore from the country, how did he run away from the country. How did you allow him to escape? This is the simple question and we neither got a reply to this from Modiji nor from Jaitley ji. The question is why did your government allow him to run away from the country," he told reporters outside Parliament.

Attacking the government for its tax amnesty scheme, Rahul said, "Fair and Lovely scheme is for thieves, black marketeers and drug mafia. Anyone who wants to convert his black money into white can do so through this scheme. The entire country is asking, I am not asking, that why are you helping these people. The question I am asking is if you have promised to give us Rs 15 lakh,then why are you giving him Rs 9,000 crore"



The Congress leader said if Modi government had promised to bring back black money, then "it should have not allowed Mallya to escape abroad and should have stopped him".

"Before he became Prime Minister, Modi had promised that he will put Rs 15 lakh in our bank accounts. We did not get even a single rupee and ran away from the country with Rs 9,000 crore.

"We asked Mr Jaitley to tell us how Mallya ran away from India. If there is action against him and a lookout notice has been issued against him, then what is he doing in Rajya Sabha," he said.
A rare letter written by the poet Walt Whitman for a wounded Civil War soldier has been found in the National Archives.

The Washington Post reports it was discovered last month by an archives volunteer on a team preparing Civil War widows' pension files to be digitized and placed online.

"It doesn't get much bigger, in my eyes," said Jackie Budell, an archive specialist who oversees the project. "It's just simply stunning. ... We're not going to find another one like this, probably, for a while."



The letter was written for Pvt. Robert N. Jabo of the 8th New Hampshire infantry, who was dying of tuberculosis. Whitman, who regularly visited hospitalized soldiers, offered to write for him.

Whitman, a poet, journalist and essayist, sat with wounded and dying soldiers and wrote letters for them.

"I do a good deal of this, of course, writing all kinds, including love letters," Whitman wrote in a dispatch for The New York Times in 1864.

A century and a half later, few of those letters have surfaced.

Volunteer Catherine Cusack Wilson found the letter Feb. 3. while sorting through pension files at the archives.

David S. Ferriero, who heads the National Archives, sent a scan of the letter to Whitman scholar Kenneth M. Price at the University of Nebraska. Price is co-director of the Walt Whitman Archive and an expert on Whitman's handwriting.

Price noted the unique way Whitman wrote the letters x, d, and I, and how he often used a plus sign instead of the word "and."



Whitman's signature in the letter resembles other Whitman signatures, Price said in an email.

The letter will be housed in a vault at the National Archives with other valuable documents.
Rays Power Infra has partnered with Hilliard Energy to jointly develop 150 MW solar power project, entailing an investment of USD 130 million (about Rs 870 crore).

"The company's subsidiary Shining Sun Power has signed a 150-MW project development term sheet with power producer Hilliard Energy, a company incorporated and registered under the laws of Mauritius. Both partners will jointly develop 150 MW of solar power project with a total investment of USD 130 million," a statement issued here stated.

In the first phase, a 10-MW solar project is expected to be commissioned in April at Kalwakurthy in Telangana and the power generated will be sold to the state's discoms at a fixed tariff of Rs 6.55 per unit for 25 years.

"We are very excited about this new partnership which merges the fund-raising skills of Hilliard Energy with the execution capabilities of our company. We would like to achieve a target of 150 MW in the next 12 months," Rays Power Director Ketan Mehta said.

Hilliard Energy Director Brent Hilliard said, "This is an exciting opportunity to invest in high-quality solar projects that are fully contracted for the next 25 years. These projects have a good solar resource, making these them extremely reliable for many years to come.
A court in Sri Lanka today extended till March 24 the remand of 12 fishermen, arrested off Katchatheevu islet last month by the island nation's naval personnel.

They were arrested by Sri Lankan naval personnel on February 14 while fishing near Katchatheevu. They were later lodged in a prison at Vavuniya, Rameswaram Fishermen's organisation president P Sesuraja said.

All of them were produced today before a court in Mannar, which extended their remand till March 24, he said.
President Barack Obama today dismissed the notion that the meteoric rise of Donald Trump is a result of his policies and said the Republican presidential front-runner's positions on immigration and other issues are not much different from those of the party's other candidates.

"I am not going to do is to validate some notion that the Republican crack-up that's been taking place is a consequence of actions that I've taken. There are thoughtful conservatives, who are troubled by this, who are troubled by the direction of their party," Obama told a White House conference along with the visiting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Obama alleged that the Republican political elites and many of its information outlets -- social media, outlets, talk radio, television stations -- have been feeding its base, for the last seven years, a notion that everything he do is to be opposed that "cooperation or compromise somehow is a betrayal."



"The tone of that politics, which I certainly have not contributed to -- I have not -- you know, I don't think that I was the one to prompt questions about my birth certificate, for example. I don't remember saying, hey, why don't you ask me about that?," he asked.

"Why don't you question whether I'm American or whether I'm loyal or whether I have America's best interests at heart? Those aren't things that were prompted by any actions of mine," he said.

"So what you're seeing within the Republican Party is, to some degree, all those efforts, over a course of time, creating an environment where somebody like a Donald Trump can thrive. You know, he's just doing more of what has been done for the last seven and a half years," he added.

Obama said Trump's positions are not different from those of the other Republican presidential candidates.

"In terms of his positions on a whole range of issues, they're not very different from any of the other candidates. It is not as if there's a massive difference between Trump's position on immigration and Cruz's position on immigration," he noted.

"Trump might just be more provocative in terms of how he says it but the actual positions aren't that different. For that matter, they're not that different from Rubio's positions on immigration, despite the fact that both Cruz and Rubio, their own families, are the products of immigration and the openness of our society," Obama said.

"I am more than happy to own the responsibility as President, as the only officeholder who is elected by all the American people, to continue to make efforts to bridge divides and help us find common ground," he said.

Obama had campaigned vigorously across the country,



making a forceful case in favour of Hillary Clinton.

"He did that right up to the night before Election Day. But on Election Day, the ballots were counted, and the American people decided. The president was never in a position to choose a successor. The American people chose his successor," Earnest said.

Obama vowed to work with whomever the American people chose, he added.

The spokesman said the Obama's expectation is that the incoming president will set his own priorities and pursue them accordingly.

"Our goal is to provide them the kind of advice that would give the president elect and his team the opportunity to succeed in uniting and leading the country. That's what he has indicated that he has made his priority, and we certainly are prepared to do everything we can over the next 71 days to support him in that effort," he said.
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. Further simplification of the visa regime by Russia for Georgia will be among the issues discussed at a meeting between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin and Georgian envoy for relations with Russia Zurab Abashidze in Prague on March 16, Armenpress reports, citing TASS agency, Abashidze told reporters on March 10.

He did not rule out that "during the current year Russia could cancel the visa regime for Georgia," as President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier.

Putin noted during his annual question-and-answer session on December 17, 2015, that Moscow was ready to cancel the visa regime for Georgia. "As for the visa regime, yes, I think we are ready to cancel it," he said.

On December 22, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Russia was easing the visa regime for Georgian citizens and did not rule out the possibility of introducing a reciprocal visa-free regime. The ministry noted that "the Russian side was determined to take steps aimed at easing the communication conditions of the two countries citizens, not ruling out the introduction of a visa-free regime in the future on the basis of reciprocity."

The visa regime between Russia and Georgia was imposed in 2000. In 2004, Georgia unilaterally simplified it for Russian nationals. On March 1, 2012, Tbilisi cancelled the visa regime for all Russian citizens.

Karasin and Abashidze have held 11 meetings since December 2012, 10 of them took place in Prague. The last round of their dialogue was held on November 19, 2015.

On November 20, the press service of Georgias government said that "the latest Prague meeting resulted in concrete agreements, in particular expanding the list of Georgian products presented in the Russian market and increasing haulage capacity
A retired Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force was today arrested on charges of financial bungling in the accounts of a society for jawans and their widows which was spearheading the agitation for 'One Rank One Pension'.

Wing Commander (retd) C K Sharma has been booked under sections 420 (cheating), 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of IPC. He will be produced before a court tomorrow, police said.

An FIR was registered against Sharma on the directions of the magistrate following a complaint by Lt Gen (retd) Raj Kadiyan, the chairman of Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement (IESM), who had alleged the officer siphoned off Rs 14 lakh from the accounts of the organisation.

Police had registered a case against three persons on February 8 after Kadiyan in a complaint alleged that "they had taken a lot of cash from the society funds between January and July 2013".

The three -- Sharma, Maj Gen (retd) Satbir Singh and Group Capt (retd) V K Gandhi -- had recently moved a local court for anticipatory bail, but their plea was rejected.

The trio are the office bearers of IESM, formed in 2008. The society's account is being maintained in a private bank. Sharma held the post of Treasurer.
Armed men have attacked the office of a prominent human rights organisation in the volatile Russian region of Ingushetia, the group said, hours after journalists were assaulted in the same area.

Footage of the attack posted on Twitter by Dmitry Utukin, a lawyer for the Committee to Prevent Torture, appeared to show several camouflaged armed men breaking security cameras at the group's office in the Ingush town of Karabulak.

"Armed men came to our office in five cars, one of them broke the security camera at the entrance. Three others came in through the window," Utukin wrote.

Nobody was inside at the time of the break-in, which occurred late yesterday, just hours after masked men attacked a group of journalists on a trip organised by the group in the bordering region of Chechnya.

Nine people, including five journalists, were en route to Grozny, Chechnya's main city, when masked assailants stormed their minibus.

Journalists from Norway and Sweden, a lawyer for the NGO and the minibus driver were hospitalised with injuries, the group said late yesterday.

Utukin said local investigators had opened a probe into the incidents.

The local branch of Russia's Investigative Committee refused comment when contacted by AFP today.

Founded in 2000, the Committee to Prevent Torture is one of the few NGOs active in Chechnya and offers legal support to torture victims.

A similar attack was carried out against the group's Grozny office last year.

The organisation's office was also torched in December 2014 after it criticised Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov for urging collective punishment of the families of Islamist insurgents.

Rights activists and journalists investigating torture, kidnapping and war crimes in Chechnya are routinely threatened and harassed.
"Harry Potter" author JK Rowling has been accused of appropriating the "living tradition of a marginalised people" by writing about the Navajo legend of the skinwalker in a new story.

Rowling posted the first part of a four-part series, the "History of Magic in North America" on her website Pottermore, on March 8, depicting the magical history of America within her fictional universe of witches and wizards.

The series of stories, titled "A History of Magic in North America", will give fans the historical background to the latest "Harry Potter" film, "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", ahead of its November release, reported Guardian online.

But it has upset a number of Native American writers and activists, who have objected to the new material's depiction of their spiritual beliefs.

In particular, the inclusion of characters based on the Native American concept of 'skinwalkers' - humans who can transform into animals at will - in publicity materials and a video trailer have led to accusations of cultural insensitivity.

Dr Adrienne Keene, a Cherokee scholar, called out the novelist on Twitter, posting, "You can't just claim and take a living tradition of a marginalized people. That's straight up colonialism/appropriation @jk_rowling."



Keene detailed her objections at length on her blog, writing, "Native spirituality and religions are not fantasy on the same level as wizards. These beliefs are alive, practiced, and protected. The fact that the trailer even mentions the Navajo concept of skinwalkers sends red flags all over the place, and that it's mentioned next to the Salem witch trials (in Massachusetts)? Disaster...

Navajo writer Brian Young wrote on Twitter that he was "broken hearted" about the new piece of writing.

"JK Rowling, my beliefs are not fantasy. If ever there was a need for diversity in YA lit it is bullsh!t like this," said Young.

"My ancestors didn't survive colonisation so you could use our culture as a convenient prop."



Rowling's representatives have yet to respond to a request for comment.
Over Rs 1,100 crore has been paid as compensation by various subsidiaries of Coal India Limited (CIL) for acquiring land in different parts of the country in 2014-15, Coal Minister Piyush Goyal said today.

Observing that a total of Rs 1,159.96 crore was paid as compensation by CIL, Goyal told Lok Sabha that Rs 840.68 crore has been paid in 2013-14 by Eastern Coalfields Ltd, Bharat Coking Coal Ltd, Central Coalfields Ltd, Northern Coalfields Ltd, Western Coalfields Ltd, South Eastern Coalfields Ltd and Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd.

"Due to enhanced thrust of the present government on rehabilitation of displaced persons, long pending cases have been cleared and there is 38 per cent increase in payment of compensation against land in 2014-15," he said during Question Hour.

"Physical possession of land as well as payment of compensation is a continuous process. In case of tenancy land acquired under CBA (A&D) Act 1957, payment of compensation is made before taking physical possession of land.

"In case of transfer of government vested land and forest land, compensation is paid during the acquisition process," he said.

Goyal said in all the subsidiaries of CIL, employment against land has been provided as per the R&R policy of CIL 2012, except in Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd where R&R policy of Odisha state government has been considered.

"However, there is no instance of violation of norms with reference to providing compensation/ employment reported during last three years in any of the subsidiaries of CIL.
RSS will pass three resolutions on health, education and untouchability at the annual meeting of the Akhil Bhartiya Pratinidhi Sabha, the highest decision making body of the outfit, beginning here tomorrow.

"Three resolutions will be passed in the three-day ABPS annual meeting beginning tomorrow. The first resolution will be on education sector which needs the attention of both society and the government.

"Education today has become costlier. Quality of education is also suffering due to privatisation. Therefore, combined efforts of the society and governments are needed to ensure quality education for all," Manmohan Vaidya, All India Prachar Pramukh of RSS, said at a press briefing ahead of the annual meet.

The second resolution will be on medical facilities.

Despite many innovations, Vaidya said, the facility was not available to all and again society and governments will have to think over it.

The social evil of untouchability will be taken up in the third resolution.

"Caste-based discrimination present in our country should be abolished. There should be harmony in our social conduct. Our third resolution will highlight this social evil and will call upon people to play a constructive role in curbing it," he said.

RSS representatives from all over the country will be participating in the meeting which will also be attended by BJP Chief Amit Shah.
A South African woman was today convicted of kidnapping a newborn baby and raising her for 17 years before an astonishing coincidence reunited the girl with her biological family.

"You must have been the person who removed the child from hospital," High Court judge John Hlophe told the woman who claimed to have been handed the baby at a train station after entering into a private "adoption" programme.

"Your story, if anything is a fairy tale and the court rejects it with the contempt it deserves."



The 50-year-old accused, who cannot be named to protect the new identity of the kidnapped girl, remained grim-faced staring at the judge.

The girl's biological mother Celeste Nurse, 36, sobbed loudly as the guilty verdict was handed down while chants of "Yes! Yes!" were heard from the public gallery.

The accused was denied bail and ordered to return to court for sentencing on May 30.

The girl's real identity came to light in February last year, when her younger biological sister began attending high school and pupils pointed out her remarkable likeness to a final-year student.

The younger girl told her parents, who met the older girl and immediately believed she was their long-lost baby.

They called the police, and DNA tests confirmed that the girl was indeed their child, whom they had named Zephany Joy Nurse.

Without knowing it, the Nurse family had been living within a couple of kilometres (miles) of their kidnapped daughter, while celebrating her birthday every year and never giving up hope of finding her.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will leave for Nepal on March 14 to attend SAARC ministerial meet even as there was no clarity on whether she will have a bilateral meeting with her Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said Swaraj along with Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar will visit Nepal for SAARC meetings in Pokhra between March 14-17 during which India expects a comprehensive review of decisions that have been taken at SAARC forums over the past year and a half, especially India-initiated proposals like SAARC satellite.

Asked if Swaraj and Jaishankar would meet their Pakistani counterparts respectively, he said no schedule of bilateral meetings have been drawn up whether with Pakistan or any other country.

On SAARC meeting, the Spokesperson said, "Our focus would be to not only take stock of the decisions but also work out the way forward on priority issues where a coordinated approach is necessary.

"We also hope to review the state of play on the pacts that were close to finalisation at the last Summit but could not be concluded. We also plan to seek the views of our partners in SAARC on key initiatives mooted by us at the last Summit, including the satellite for SAARC project, the e-knowledge network project etc."



The 42nd Session of the Standing Committee of SAARC, which is a Foreign Secretaries level forum, will be held on March 16 and will prepare the ground for the 37th Session of the Council of Ministers on March 17, which will be attended by the Foreign Ministers of SAARC.

"As is customary, the working of various SAARC specialised bodies and regional centres will be scrutinised during the meetings and directions given for their work over the coming year," the Spokesperson said.
Ibrahim Moosa Chauhan, jailed for delivering arms to actor Sanjay Dutt at the latter's residence prior to 1993 serial bomb blasts, has withdrawn his plea challenging cancellation of remission in the 10-year sentence awarded to him.

Maharashtra Government told a bench of Justice V K Tahilramani and Anuja Prabhudessai yesterday that Chauhan would be released from prison by March 24.

The Judges then asked Chauhan's lawyer Farhana Shah whether the petitioner wanted to continue with the hearing of his plea.

To this, the lawyer replied that as the petitioner would be released within a few days, he would not like to continue with the hearing and preferred to withdraw his plea.

Accordingly, the bench allowed Chauhan to withdraw the petition.

Dutt, who was also sentenced along with Chauhan to five years jail, was recently released from prison after he was granted remission in the sentence.

Chauhan too filed a petition seeking early release from jail on the same ground and challenged cancellation of remission granted to him.

Chauhan was initially granted remission in his 10-year sentence on account of good conduct and was to be released from prison in November 2015.

However, his remission was cancelled by Inspector General (prisons) recently on an adverse report, says the petition. Aggrieved, he moved the high court.

Dutt was sentenced to five years imprisonment by a TADA court but was released from jail recently. His jail term was reduced by 18 months on account of his good behaviour and work done by him in prison.

Chauhan pleaded he was similarly placed like Dutt and had displayed good behaviour in prison like the actor. He, therefore, should be given the same facility of remission on the lines of the remission granted to Dutt.

Chauhan claimed that the Inspector General (Prisons) had cancelled the remission granted to him "without applying his mind and with a malafide intention."



Chauhan argued that he was pinned down only because he is a bomb blast convict.

Chauhan's petition said that he was assigned the work



of gardening, cleaning toilets and water tanks in Nashik jail.

He accumulated remission on account of good work and behaviour. It was only because of his good conduct that he was granted 80 days special remission.

However, when he returned to jail after his parole expired on November 24, he was informed in a letter that his special remission had been cancelled, said Chauhan's petition.

Chauhan further claimed that this action was taken against him on the basis of a statement made by a prison inmate that he was not doing properly the work assigned to him in prison.

He had pleaded that this order of cancelling his remission be set aside but it was not considered by the authorities.

According to prosecution in 1993 bomb blast case, Chauhan had visited Dutt's house along with gangster Abu Salem and others on January 15, 1993 and informed him that they would deliver weapons the next day. Arms were delivered at Dutt's house and taken away later, except an AK-47 rifle which was found in possession of the actor for which he was convicted.

Arms and ammunitions were used in the serial blasts in which 257 people were killed and over 700 injured.
IPS officer Satish Verma, who probed the 2004 Ishrat Jahan encounter case, today filed an application before a special CBI court here seeking copy of a supplementary charge sheet.

His lawyer Rahul Sharma said he wanted the copy so as to initiate further legal action against the accused named in it.

The second charge sheet in the Ishrat case names four Intelligence Bureau officials including Rajinder Kumar. The proceedings against them are pending before the CBI court for want of sanction for the prosecution by the Centre.

Verma's application says he has reason to believe that denial of prosecution sanction "suffers from illegality".

The interviews by witness R V S Mani and Rajinder Kumar make him believe that "a serious and concerted attempt is being made to cause miscarriage of justice" and "to negate or weaken the evidence... To wrongfully shield the accused."



Mumbra-based Ishrat (19), Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an alleged fake encounter on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.

Gujarat Police had claimed these four had links with Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, and had planned to assassinate the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Recently, former home secretary G K Pillai alleged that references to Ishrat as an LeT operative were removed from an affidavit filed by the Home Ministry when P Chidambaram was the Union Home Minister.

Verma, currently chief vigilance officer of North Eastern Electric Power Corporation, Shillong, was a member of the SIT constituted by the Gujarat High Court to probe Ishrat case.

The SIT concluded that it was a fake encounter, following which the high court handed over the case to CBI. Verma also assisted CBI in the investigation; the then under-secretary in the home ministry Mani recently alleged that Verma tortured him to sign a false statement.
The Supreme Court today gave a ray of hope to 12 unsuccessful candidates of 2014 Delhi Judicial Services examination, who were later declared successful in re-valuation conducted by the court-appointed Justice P V Reddi panel, by asking the Delhi High Court to interview them within four weeks.

"We request the Delhi High Court to hold the interview of 12 candidates within four weeks," a bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and Shiva Kirti Singh said, adding that the selected candidates be informed through all "possible means".

The bench, which had earlier asked former apex court judge Justice Reddi to re-evaluate the answer sheets of nearly 650 unsuccessful candidates of the DJS examination, 2014, considered the interim report of the panel declaring 12 more candidates as successful.

It also said that the 12 candidates will be interviewed by the same board which had interviewed other successful candidates.

The court asked the Delhi High Court Registrar to ensure compliance of its direction and file a report by April 25 and fixed the PIL, filed by the Centre For Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), for further hearing on April 27.

The PIL alleged arbitrary evaluation of answer sheets in the judicial services examinations held in 2014.

Earlier, the court, on December 14, 2015, had asked Justice Reddi to re-evaluate the answer sheets of nearly 650 candidates within six weeks.

It, however, had made it clear that the appointment of already selected 15 candidates as judges would not be "touched".

Out of 659 candidates, who had qualified in preliminary and taken up the mains examination, only 15 persons were selected for the appointment after the interview against nearly 80 advertised vacancies.

The bench, however, had said that the law is well settled that it is the call of the employer to decide as to how many would be selected against the advertised posts.

Earlier, the court had said the selection of 15 successful



candidates of the DJS exam would remain.

On November 2, the bench had suggested to have a former apex court judge for rational re-evaluation of all the answer sheets of the Delhi judicial services examinations held in 2014.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for CPIL, had said that 659 students out of 9,033, who were declared successful in preliminary examination, took the main examination held on October 10 and 11 last year.

The CPIL also said, "The result of this Main Examination was declared on May 1 2015, almost 8 months after the exam was held. Surprisingly, only 15 students (13 from General Category and 2 from reserved category) have been selected for the interview for total 80 vacancies. That means a total of 98 per cent of the students failed and only 2 per cent managed to pass."



Bhushan had said that only 15 students have been called for the interview against 80 vacancies becomes "remarkable" as at least 68 candidates, who were not selected for the interview round, are "those who have already cleared judicial examinations of other States and most of them are sitting judges in their respective states".

CPIL had sought a direction to "quash the result of the Main Exam of the Delhi Judicial Service, 2014 declared on May one.
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. No one has officially offered Armenia gas with lower price than the Russian gas, RPA faction member Vardan AYvazyan told the journalists on March 10. I have never heard of anyone offering Armenia gas with lower price so far. We have received no official offer, Armenpress reports Ayvazyan mentioning, referring to the wide-spread opinion that Armenia can obtain gas with lower price from Iran.

Ayvazyan assured that Armenia purchases Russian gas with very affordable price. As an isslustration Vardan Ayvazyan brought the example of Azerbaijan, selling its gas to Georgia for $250 per 1000 cubic meter on the border.

The MP also added that there are opportunities to deepen Armenian-Iranian relations: negotiations are underway in that regard. He urged to wait for the completion of the negotiations and not to make vain announcements that allegedly Armenia undertakes no steps to deepen cooperation with Iran.
Bollywood Film-maker Subhash Ghai has suggested to the Union HRD ministry to design school curriculum in such a way that it nurtures artistic skill and creativity.

Ghai visited the HRD ministry and met Smriti Irani today and gave his suggestions to officials.

"We feel our education should be skill based and not memory based. For children artistic skill is very important even if they become scientists or engineers," he told reporters emerging from the meeting.

He said that while schools curriculum in western countries are designed in such a way, it is not so in India.

Ghai said that he hoped that the government which is drafting a New Education Policy, will consider his suggestions.
Afzal Guru's lawyer Nandita Haksar today said that the law of sedition is "loosely" defined in the Indian constitution and its interpretation depends on who is in power.

"What is sedition and what is not in law is just the matter of who is the master. We need a much deeper understanding of nationalism, of sedition and their subtleties. Even lawyers only look at individual rights and media sees things in black and white," she said while addressing the students at JNU.

Haksar was speaking on "Sedition and Nationalism" as a part of nearly a month-old speak-in series on 'nationalism' by JNU professors and eminent personalities in the backdrop of arrest of three JNU students in a sedition case over an event against hanging of Afzal Guru during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.

Haksar, the lawyer of both the Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and Ex-DU lecturer SAR Gilani, booked for sedition charges said, "she wanted to prove to the Kashmiris that India had space for dissent".

"When I did the case of Afzal Guru and Gilani that was to prove to the people of Kashmir that there is a space. Do not identify this country with Modi. Please identify this country with all of us Indians who are willing to listen," she said.

Haksar also asserted that questioning the shady acts of Indian Army personnel should not be disallowed under the garb of "nationalism".

"Of course our soldiers are there and they are defending but who are they defending it against? Are they defending it against militants who come inside or are they defending it against our own people who are alienated? The fact is that the only security India can give is that people inside the country are not alienated," she said.

Haksar slammed the government for arresting students and said free thinking should be allowed in campuses.

"Campuses by tradition have been places of thought. Without campuses, you can't have nationalism. JNU is the place where people charged with sedition become nationalists," said Haksar.

"My nationalism is not going to be defined by Modi or state. This is the battle of different visions of nationalism. I believe we are right and they are wrong," she said.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today wished a speedy recovery for Syed Ali Shah Geelani while hailing the hardline Kashmiri separatist's "indefatigable leadership" which he said was a "beacon of freedom" for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

Geelani was admitted in a private hospital in New Delhi after he complained of breathlessness and his condition was tonight described as stable by doctors.

The 86-year-old leader had complained of breathlessness and high blood pressure and was taken to Max Hospital, Saket.

In a message, Sharif on behalf of the people of Pakistan as well as on his own behalf "prayed for full and speedy recovery of Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani."



"The Prime Minister said Syed Geelani's indefatigable leadership is a beacon of freedom for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. We pray for his quick recovery and good health," an official statement said.
A 25-year-old software engineer was found dead in a well near here just two days before his wedding, police said.

Ramkumar, employed in an IT firm in Bengaluru, had left his home at Vadukapatti village yesterday for his farmland nearby after informing his parents, police said.

When he did not return a search was launched to trace him.

The body of Ramkumar, who was to get married tomorrow, was fished out from a well at Hangakri village by fire service personnel, they said.

Police suspect it to be a case of suicide but said they are probing all angles.
Actress Sonakshi Sinha has become a Guinness World Records title-holder as she along with several other women participated in an initiative to set a record for 'most people painting their fingernails simultaneously'.

The 28-year-old actress participated in the event on the occasion of International Women's Day on Tuesday.

She collaborated with Inglot, manufacturers in colour cosmetics, and its Indian franchise partner Major Brands.

"I am extremely thrilled to have been a part of this unique initiative on Women's Day. Achieving a Guinness World Records title is truly commendable and I would like to thank Inglot and Major brands for giving me the opportunity to create history along with thousands of other women," the "Lootera" actress said in a statement.

At the event 1,328 women were seen simultaneously painting their nails with a range of Inglot O2M nail enamels.

The women broke the previous record of 1,156 people painting nails simultaneously which was created by Taiwan Nail Association at Banqiao Stadium, New Taipei City, Taiwan on April 27, 2011.

Jack Brockbank from Guinness World Records was present at the event to validate the record.

Zbigniew Inglot, the company's Chairman of the Board of Directors, said, "It is wonderful to have achieved the Guinness World Records title in India for Inglot and Major Brands India."



"Engaging with thousands of women through this initiative has been exciting for the brand. We look forward to creating new milestones and building a stronger connect with our consumers in India," he said.
Taking a cue from Kerala, West Bengal is now focusing on developing coastal and river tourism circuit by introducing houseboats in Kolkata, Sundarbans and creeks near Digha.

State Tourism department officials said they have recently awarded tender to a Kerala based private company to build seven houseboats for them.

"We want it like Kerala. We will have one houseboat plying along the Ganges in Kolkata, two-three in Sundarbans and three-four in the creeks between Tajpur and Mandarmani near Digha," A R Bardhan, principal secretary, West Bengal Tourism Department, told PTI.

It is for the first time that the tourism department is introducing houseboats in the state.

"We have lot of potential in river-based tourism and in the coastal circuit. We have a budget of about Rs 83 crore for developing the circuit," Bardhan said.

The air-conditioned houseboats, costing Rs 1.2 crore each, will have three rooms with all facilities like a kitchen, a common drawing room, etc.

"It will be like a hotel. The boat will do a cruise in the rivers, but will be anchored in one place. In Kolkata, tourists will get a good view of the city from the banks of the Ganges. You also get very good views of the Howrah Bridge and Vidyasagar Setu from the river," the official said.

It is expected that the houseboats will be ready in the next six months and be made available for tourists by the end of the year.

Private operators already offer houseboats in the



Sundarbans, one of the major attractions in the state famous for its mangrove forests and tiger population.

Although Digha and nearby Mandarmani are popular for their beaches, the creeks along the coastline in East Midnapore district lies unexplored.

Officials said once the houseboats start plying in the creeks, it will give birth to a new tourist destination.

Close to the sea, the creeks have a charm of their own and are located near fishing villages.

In the Maoist-affected Junglemahal area, the department is planning to install three ropeways along the Mukutmanipur Dam in Bankura, Ayodhya Hills in Purulia and across the Subarnarekha river in West Midnapore district.

"We are doing that on a PPP model where the entire construction and maintenance will be done by the private party. We will provide land and bear a part of the construction cost. Revenue will be shared," Bardhan said.

The total construction cost of the three ropeways is expected to be Rs 20 crore.

West Bengal tourism has re-branded itself as 'Experience Bengal - Sweetest Part of India' from this year with superstar Shahrukh Khan as its brand ambassador.
The special Director General (DG) of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) for Jammu and Kashmir today visited the railway station here in the wake of recent terror threats to the area.

"Special DG of the CRPF for Jammu and Kashmir, S K Baghat today visited the Banihal railway station to review the security arrangements in the wake of inputs of a terrorist attack in the area," an official said.

Inspector General CRPF Kuldeep Dhar accompanied the special DG as both the officers held meetings with the officers of the Railway police and the Railway to review the security arrangements.
Sri Lanka police today arrested two men for animal cruelty after pictures emerged on social media showing them torturing and skinning alive an endangered sea eagle.

The pictures, showing a few men gathered around a table when the sea eagle was being skinned alive while its legs had been chopped off, were shared on Facebook and in a local newspaper, causing public outcry.

Two people were arrested from the beach resort town of Habaraduwa, 130 kilometres south of the capital Colombo, police officials said, adding, search is on for the remaining three suspects.

Police said the two men were being charged under flora and fauna Act for killing the sea eagle which is a highly protected species according to the local law.

They could be jailed for upto five years for the offence.

The arrests came a day after a Sri Lankan court ordered the arrest of a popular Buddhist monk for allegedly possessing a two-year-old baby elephant without a license.
Asserting that Sri Lanka has "nothing to fear", the former army chief who led the victorious military campaign against the LTTE today called for an international probe into alleged war crimes committed during the last phase of the country's brutal civil war.

Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka who led the victorious military campaign and is now a minister said international probe into the alleged war crimes was a welcome step.

"As the Commander of the troops then I welcome the call for any international investigation. We have nothing to fear. Let there be international investigators and experts," Fonseka, 65, said while addressing the parliament.

"If one or two had committed crimes, they need to be punished. The overall dignity and honour of the troops must be protected," Fonseka said, adding that he led the war adhering to all internationally accepted conventions.

On the controversial White Flag incident where the government troops were accused of killing the senior LTTE leaders who had come to surrender with white flags, Fonseka said the incident must be investigated and people must be told the truth.

"I was jailed for three years for saying this" said Fonseka who was given the jail term for his comments made to a newspaper on the White Flag during the presidential campaign of 2010 when he challenged incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Rajapaksa later pardoned Fonseka and released him from jail.

He backed the current President Maithripala Sirisena in the presidential election last year when Rajapaksa's 10-year rule came to an end. He was inducted as minister for Regional Development last month.

The UN Human Rights Council has recommended an international investigation into the happenings of the last phase and alleged war crimes blamed both on the government troops and the LTTE.

According to the UN figure, 40,000 people were killed during the final phase of the conflict against Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009.
Sri Lankan Parliament has unanimously approved a resolution for setting up a Constitutional Assembly to formulate a new Constitution for the country.

The assembly will consist of all members of parliament, for the purpose of deliberating, and seeking views and advice of the people on the new Constitution.

The assembly will also be preparing a draft of a Constitution Bill for the consideration of parliament.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had introduced the resolution first in December 2015, and it was to have been debated and passed on January 9, a day after the first anniversary of the victory of Maithripala Sirisena in the Lankan Presidential election.

The Speaker will be the Chairman of the Constitutional Assembly while seven others will be Deputy Chairmen.

The government had already set in motion a process to seek public views on the form of the new Constitution.

The new constitution will replace the current executive president headed constitution adopted in 1978.
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. Iran says its latest launch of ballistic missiles does not violate the nuclear agreement it reached with the P5+1 group of countries and is not in contravention of a United Nations Security Council resolution, Armenpress reports, citing Iranian PressTv.

The missile launch is neither inconsistent with Irans commitments under the JCPOA, nor is it against the Security Council Resolution 2231, Irans Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi-Ansari said on March 10.

He was referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action signed between Tehran and the P5+1 group  Russia, China, France, Britain, the US and Germany  last year.

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) successfully test-fired two more ballistic missiles on Wednesday as part of military drills to assess their capabilities.

The missiles dubbed Qadr-H and Qadr-F were fired during large-scale drills, code-named Eqtedar-e-Velayat.

Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Division Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh said Qadr-H missile has a range of 1,700 kilometers while Qadr-F missile can hit targets some 2,000 kilometers away.

On Tuesday, Iran fired another ballistic missile called Qiam from silo-based launchers in different locations across the country.

Jaberi-Ansari said none of Irans missiles are designed to carry nuclear warheads and thus, their production and test are not in contravention of Resolution 2231 and its appendices.

The resolution, adopted by the Security Council on July 20, 2015, bans Iran from developing missiles designed to carry nuclear warheads.

Iran, he said, "will continue its completely defensive and legitimate missile program with the framework of its legitimate defense requirements."

In developing the program, Iran will observe its "international commitments, without entering the field of nuclear warheads or designing missiles capable of carrying such warheads, the spokesman added.

US State Department spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday the missile launch did not constitute a breach of the JCPOA.

Iran has repeatedly assured other countries that its military might poses no threat to other states, insisting that its defense doctrine is entirely based on deterrence.
The stage is now set for the controversial three-day cultural event opening tomorrow on the Yamuna flood plains even as Art of Living guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar struck a defiant note that he will not pay Rs 5 crore fine imposed by Green Tribunal and would rather go to jail.

Environmental activist Manoj Mishra, who has petitioned the National Green Tribunal (NGT) for a ban on the event, today again approached it complaining that AOL has not taken permissions from agencies like police, fire and CPWD and that the Ravi Shankar has said he would not pay the fine.

The NGT bench, headed by chairperson Swatanter Kumar, said that AOL has time to pay the fine till tomorrow and law will take its course if it fails to do so.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the 'World Culture Festival' that plans to bring together people of talent, eminence and repute in which 3.5 million people are expected to participate.

In the wake of controversies triggered by concerns over environmental violations, President Pranab Mukherjee pulled out of the valedictory function on Saturday and there was no official word on whether Modi will participate.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, who was one of the invitees, has also pulled out of the event.

Yesterday, the NGT expressed helplessness in banning the event after activists petitioned the tribunal seeking a prohibition of the event on the ground that there was large scale violations of environmental norms on account of the event.

However, it imposed a fine of Rs 5 crore on AOL as environmental compensation and asked the organisation to deposit the amount with the Delhi Development Authority today. It found several environmental violations by the organisers of the event.

A last ditch attempt by an NGO to seek the intervention



of the Supreme Court to stop the event also failed with the petitioner asked to go to the NGT with his plea.

A bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur asked the petitioner Bhartiya Kishan Majdoor Samiti to approach the National Green Tribunal (NGT) with its plea as the three-day event is all set to begin tomorrow.

"This preparation is going on for a long time. Why have you come now? Why don't you go to the NGT," the bench said.

The bench also asked the petitioner why he was coming with the petition at the the eleventh hour. "So you seek publicity out of it," it observed.

On his part, Ravi Shankar said he would rather go to jail than paying the fine on his organisation.

"We have not done anything wrong. We have been taintless and will remain so. We we will go to jail but not pay a penny," he said.

When pressed further whether he would defy rules, Ravi Shankar said "I will abide by rules but I have done nothing wrong."



The AOL chief said he was not "satisfied" with the verdict of the NGT and would appeal against it. He urged political parties not to "politicise" the event.

He also denied that any tree at the venue was felled and claimed that the trees had only been pruned and all they had done was level the floodplain.

"Not a single tree was felled. Trees were only pruned and we levelled the floodplain," he said.

Ravi Shankar also expressed confidence that Modi will attend the festival and claimed that people opposing it would "soon see sense".

"This is like a Cultural Olympics. 37,000 artistes from all over the world would come together at one single platform. This is an event to bring people closer to each other. Event of this magnitude should be welcomed," he said.

Meanwhile, Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma said Government has not extended any financial support for the event but Rs 2.25 crore was given to Art of Living Foundation as part of "routine" grant to organisations promoting art and culture.

"Culture Ministry has not given any money for organising this function... Even the Art of Living Foundation never asked for money from the government for organising this particular event," Sharma told

(REOPENS DEL53)



Meanwhile, Congress accused the Centre and Delhi government of "totally ignoring" the damage to environment while allowing World Culture Festival on Yamuna floodplains.

At the Congress briefing, party's senior spokesman Ajay Maken said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is at loggerheads with the Centre at the drop of a hat, has not uttered a word despite being aware of the extent of pollution the event will cause.

Maken, who is also Delhi Congress chief, said BJP and AAP are "two sides of the same coin".

Besides, he claimed, BJP has been helping Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in the event as a "return gift" for his support in the Lok Sabha elections.
Various organisations today staged a demonstration at Jantar Mantar here demanding that Scheduled Caste (SC) status be extended to Dalit Christians and Muslims as well.

"We are seeking the scrapping of Para 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled Caste) Order, 1950, which excludes Dalits among Christians and Muslims from its purview," said Samuel Jeyakumar, executive secretary of the National Council of Churches in India.

The demand for including Christian and Muslim Dalits in the SC category has been earlier endorsed by bodies like National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities as well as the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), but it is yet to be realised due to lack of political will, he claimed.

At the protest organised by the National Coordination Committee for Dalit Christians, Christian religious heads, including Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, president of Catholic Bishops Conference of India, G Dyvasirvadam, Moderator, Churches of South India and Alwyn Messih, general secretary of Churches of North India, appealed to the government to end the discrimination based on religion.
At least 20 Islamic State group fighters have been killed in a wave of strikes by Syrian and Russian warplanes targeting jihadist positions in the city of Palmyra, a monitor said.

The jihadists were killed yesterday and more than 50 injured "in at least 35 air strikes targeting areas of the city of Palmyra by Syrian and Russian warplanes", the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Clashes pitting regime forces against IS jihadists raged nearby, the Britain-based group said.

IS seized Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in eastern Syria known as the "Pearl of the Desert", last May, sending shockwaves across the world.

In September, satellite images confirmed that the Temple of Bel, the main temple at Palmyra, had been targeted by IS as part of a campaign to destroy pre-Islamic monuments, tombs and statues it considers idolatrous.

UN experts said the main building of the temple plus a row of columns had been destroyed.

The Syrian army and its Russian ally are reportedly preparing to launch a major operation to retake Palmyra.

Images distributed by the Observatory, which relies on a broad network on the ground, purported to show residential areas of Palmyra in ruins after months of air strikes.

"Dozens of residents have been killed and hundreds of others wounded" in these strikes, the Observatory said.

Russia launched an air campaign in Syria in September that it says is targeting "terrorists", but it has been accused of hitting non-jihadist rebels and civilians -- claims that Moscow denies.

An unprecedented truce in Syria, which came into force on February 27, does not apply to IS or the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front.

Though the truce has largely held, defying expectations, some violations across frontlines that should have stayed calm have been reported.

Yesterday, an AFP correspondent in an opposition-held area of battered northern city of Aleppo reported air strikes on the Myassar district near Nayrab military airfield, which rebels captured in February 2013.

The Observatory said a child was killed in the Myassar strikes and two civilians died in shelling of the rebel bastion of Douma near Damascus.
A college professor has been arrested along with his student for allegedly offering to sell his wife on Facebook to repay his debts, police said today.

Dilip Mali (30) and his students, Kamlesh Mehra, were arrested last night, Aerodrome police station in-charge Baljeet Singh told PTI.

Mali put up a post in Hindi on March 6 on Facebook offering to 'sell' his wife. He also uploaded her and their two-year-old daughter's photo and provided his mobile number.

"I want to return the money I have borrowed from various persons. Therefore, I'm selling my wife for Rs 1 lakh. Anybody interested can contact me on my mobile number," he wrote.

When his wife learnt about it, she filed a police complaint, following which a case was registered against Mali under IPC section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman).

Police found during the probe that it was Mehra who had actually put up the post at Mali's behest.

Mehra had allegedly loaned Rs 2,500 to Mali about a year ago. Last month Mehra took away Mali's mobile phone, saying he would return it only when he repaid the debt.

When Mali couldn't repay, he gave Mehra his Facebook password and asked him to put up an advertisement for the sale of his wife, so that the couple's relatives and friends might come to know about his financial condition and help him.

According to the complaint filed by Mali's wife they got married three years ago. Fearing various lenders, he fled to his ancestral village while she and daughter moved in with her parents.
Thailand's former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a military coup in 2006, has accused the ruling junta of trying to push through a new constitution designed to limit democracy.

In an interview with The Associated Press yesterday after an event at the World Policy Institute, Thaksin also wished a long life to Thailand's ailing King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

After dismissing Thaksin and seizing power, the military held elections in 2007, which Thaksin's party won easily. But after a series of political upheavels, during which Thaksin fled the country, new elections were held in 2011 that also were won by Thaksin's party led by his sister, who became the prime minister.

But her government was removed in a 2014 coup by the military, which is now drafting a constitution that allows for an unelected prime minister and proposes giving wide powers to the Constitutional Court and appointing an unelected Senate. Coup leader Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha has promised to hold elections by the end of 2017.

Thaksin said any elections held under the new constitution will deny the will of the majority of the people. "That is backward democracy," he said. "Under democracy, you have to give the power to the people."



He said Thais are very patient people, and were willing to believe the military when it said it is taking over power to "reconcile the differences of the people in the country." "But so far, one-and-a-half years (later), they have nothing (to show for) on reconciliation," he said, adding that in fact the opposite is true. The military rulers are "only trying to use the law to benefit their own politics."



Thaksin was convicted of corruption in absentia in 2008 and sentenced to two years in jail. His passport was revoked, and he now travels on passports from Montenegro and Nicaragua.

His sister, former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, has also been charged with alleged mismanagement of a rice subsidy program for which she faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Thaksin, 66, said he speaks to Yingluck "quite often, but everyone knows this is the only case in the world" where a prime minister has been prosecuted over a policy, which has effectively banned her from politics for five years.
Iraqi forces retook a town from the Islamic State jihadist group in Anbar province today and evacuated 10,000 civilians as they advanced up the Euphrates valley, a security spokesman said.

"Counter-terrorism forces and army troops liberated the Zankura area in a swift military operation," Sabah al-Noman, spokesman of the elite Counter-Terrorism Service, told AFP.

"They evacuated 10,000 people who were transferred to a safe area," he said.

An army colonel in the region said they would be offered first aid and then taken to camps for displaced people.

Zankura lies on a bend in the Euphrates river northwest of Ramadi, capital of Anbar province that Iraqi forces brought under full control last month.

The rural area around 125 kilometres (80 miles) west of Baghdad is on the way to Hit, a town which Iraqi forces have declared as their next target.

Noman claimed 80 IS fighters were killed in the operation but gave no figure for casualties in government ranks.

"Our forces also arrested 56 Daesh (IS) members who had shaved their beards and were trying to blend in with the fleeing families," the spokesman said.

Noman said the Iraqi flag was raised on the highest building in Zankura.

The sprawling province of Anbar -- which borders Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia -- was at the heart of the "caliphate" that IS proclaimed in 2014.

The jihadist group still holds most of the province but the noose is tightening around some of its key bastions.

The city of Fallujah, 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad, is almost completely surrounded by a mix of Iraqi forces.

Federal forces are also pushing down from Salaheddin province towards Haditha, a city in western Anbar which IS never took but has attacked relentlessly since 2014.

The US-led coalition, which has played a significant part in enabling the advance of government troops across Anbar, reported four air strikes in the Ramadi area yesterday.

According to the International Organisation for Migration, 44 percent of the more than 3.3 million people displaced in Iraq since the beginning of 2014 are from Anbar.
Hardline Islamist groups in Bangladesh today threatened large-scale protests if a court moves to scrap Islam as the official state religion of the Muslim-majority nation.

Bangladesh is officially secular, but Islam has been the state religion for almost three decades. More than 90 per cent of the population is Muslim, with Hindus and Buddhists the main minorities.

The High Court is considering a petition by secularists who say Islam's status as the state religion conflicts with Bangladesh's secular charter and discriminates against non-Muslims.

Furious Islamist hardliners this week urged the court to dismiss the petition at a hearing on March 27, threatening large-scale protests if it moves to scrap Islam's special status.

"Any move to scrap Islam's status will undermine and defame the religion," Mufti Mohammad Faezullah, secretary general of Islamist political party Islamic Oikya Jote (IOJ) said.

"Obviously the Islamic parties, general people and the clerics will resist the move by holding protests," he said.

The court's move threatens to exacerbate tensions between secularists and hardliners in the conservative nation, which has recently seen a spate of killings of atheist bloggers, religious minorities and foreigners.

"If there is such conspiracy and the government and the judiciary bow their heads to these people (secularists), Muslims of all walks of life will hit the roads; fire of resistance will light up across the country," Hefajat-e-Islam, an Islamist group, said in a statement earlier this week.

Bangladesh was declared officially secular after a deadly liberation struggle against Pakistan in 1971.

But in 1988 the then-military ruler elevated Islam to the state religion of the South Asian country in an effort to consolidate power.

"By making Islam as state religion, the-then military government destroyed the basic character of our secular constitution," Subrata Chowdhury, a lawyer representing the petitioners, told AFP.

"The minorities were relegated to second-class citizens of the republic."



The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina brought back secularism as a pillar of the constitution, but promised it would not ratify any laws that go against the central tenets of the religion.
Three jihadists have been killed in security operations in Tunisia's border area of Ben Guerdane, where militants launched a full-blown attack this week, the authorities said.

The latest deaths raised to 49 the tally of jihadists killed since Monday's assault in Ben Guerdane, near Libya's border, on an army barracks and police and National Guard posts.

One of the jihadists was killed in Zokra district after he shot at an army and police patrol, the interior and defence ministries said in a joint statement yesterday.

The two others were killed in Hassi al-Nour district, where another man was also detained and four Kalashnikov rifles were seized, it said.

In total, eight militants have been detained since Monday, according to an AFP tally.

Thirteen members of the security forces and seven civilians were killed in Monday's attacks, according to official figures.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the attacks, but the authorities have blamed them on the Islamic State jihadist group present in neighbouring Libya.

IS has 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 close to the Tunisian border.

A nighttime curfew and tight security remain in place in Ben Guerdane, a city of around 60,000 inhabitants.

A local official has been dismissed, the authorities said yesterday, without giving any reason for the decision.

Tunisia has built a 200-kilometre barrier that stretches about half the length of its border in an attempt to stop militant incursions from Libya.

Last year IS -- which has seized large parts of Syria and Iraq and is also active in Egypt -- claimed three attacks in Tunisia, killing dozens of foreign tourists and presidential guards.
In a fresh case of man-animal conflict, three farmers were injured following attack by a rogue male wild boar at a village in Odisha's Kendrapara district.

The incident took place in Srichandanpur village yesterday when farmers were engaged in vegetable cultivation activities.

The injured farm labourers - Bichitrananda Barik (49), Sudarshan Pradhan (42), Rankanidhi Das (40)- are undergoing treatment at Kendrapara district headquarters hospital. While condition of one of the injured person is stated to be critical, two others are out of danger, police said.

Mild tension has prevailed in the area following the animals' attack. However, no untoward incident had occurred, they said.

"Such act of trespassing and consequent attack on humans by wild boar was not earlier witnessed in the village. The animal might haves sneaked into the village to eat crops and standing vegetable plants though area is bereft of forest cover", said Divisional Forest Officer, Bimal Prasana Acharya.

The forest department is bearing the cost of treatment of the injured persons. Besides compensation grants will also be disbursed, he said.

"The forest department is aware of animals' intrusion into village areas. Forest personnel have begun night watch and vigil in villages which are marked by straying of animals. Villagers have been advised to avoid movement during night hours when animals mostly make their way to crop fields in village areas. Besides steel-net-barricade is being installed shortly in villager borders to ward off the animals' intrusion into human settlements", added DFO Acharya.
Warplanes roared overhead, tanks rumbled across the desert and smoke filled the sky today for the final day of what Saudi Arabia billed as the region's biggest-ever military exercises.

The 12-day "Northern Thunder" manoeuvres in the kingdom's northeast included 20 nations from the Middle East, Africa and Asia, Saudi officials said.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman was joined by several foreign leaders for the final day of the exercise, which came as Riyadh vies to assert its leadership in the region.

Among them were Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Sudan's Omar al-Bashir, Yemen's Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

As the dignitaries watched from a pavilion, Apache gunships fired rockets with a bone-shaking blast. Smoke rose from targets on the ground and commandos rappelled from helicopters.

Fighter jets streaked through the sky releasing orange flares, artillery shells whistled through the air and heavy machinegun fire boomed from across the drill site, which stretched for dozens of kilometres (miles).

The exercises took place near Hafr al-Batin city, close to the Kuwaiti and Iraq borders.

Saudi Arabia's chief of staff, General Abdulrahman al-Bunyan, commanded the exercise and called it "the largest Arab and Islamic military gathering" in the region.

Riyadh has adopted a more assertive foreign policy since Salman took the throne early last year following the death of his half-brother king Abdullah.

It leads a coalition fighting rebels in Yemen, participates in US-led air strikes against the Islamic State group and has offered to send special forces to fight IS in Syria.

"Northern Thunder" also took place after tensions escalated between Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia and its regional Shiite rival Iran, which back opposing sides in Syria and Yemen.

Riyadh cut diplomatic ties with Tehran earlier this year after mobs ransacked Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran following the execution of a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric.
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. The Government of Armenia allocated $150 thousand to the Ministry of Economy to pay the advance deposit to World Information Technology and Services Alliance for holding the Global IT Forum in Armenia in 2019.

Armenian PM Hovik Abrahamyan mentioned that the Forum will give an opportunity to attract investments in the IT sector, which is the reason it was decided to hold the Forum in Armenia.

This Forum is a key international IT event which brings under one roof major IT specialists, heads of supra-national organizations, universities and research centers. The Forum will foster cooperation with international organizations and leading technological companies, as well as will present Armenias IT capacities and achievements, and will contribute to expanding export market of IT production of local companies, innovations and services and attract foreign investments, Armenpress reports Minister of Economy Artsvik Minasyan saying.

It is expected that 2000-2500 delegates from 80 countries will attend the Forum in 2019.
Activists of Mangaluruunit of Regional Tibetan Youth Congress today staged a protest at the Nehru Maidan here to commemorate the 57th anniversaryof the uprising against the 'invasion' of Tibet by China.

It was on this day in 1959 that Tibetans launched a peaceful uprising against Chinese rule which was crushed by the authorities forcing them to flee to India seeking refuge.

Addressing the gathering, Tibetan Students Association president Tenzin expressed gratitude to the Indian government and the people and said they were enjoying their rights in this country while in China, a citizen could be jailed for carrying a Tibetan flag.

The Communist government in China had carried out a series of "barbaric" policies with the aim ofdestroying the Tibetan people's religious tradition, language, culture and rich natural resources, Tenzin alleged.
Noted historian Professor Surendra Gopal today urged the Centre to set up a committee to authorise translation of a few documents related to the country's historical events available in foreign languages, into English for a better understanding of India's history.

Gopal said this while delivering a '126th Foundation Day Lecture' on 'Some Foreign Archives and India's History'.

Various documents which could throw light on Indian history are available in Dutch, French and Portuguese in their respective countries, the Historian said, adding these countries had historical relations with India.

"I would suggest the government to form a committee which should have experts of different languages. They should recommend publications of Dutch, French and Portuguese documents into English to understand our history," he said.

Citing an example, he said, "The Portuguese government preserved documents are useful for the study of business and diplomatic history and should be translated for wider use."



Gopal also lauded the role of National Archives in understanding Indian history better and said it makes various documents available which help create a clearer picture of Indian history.

"With the establishment of Archives, we have better understanding of our history. As there was no Archives before 19th century, we don't have clear understanding of the history," he said.

Another reason for lack of understanding of history, he said, was that people in ancient times used to write on leaves which could not be stored for future reference.

The lecture is part of 125th foundation year celebrations of National Archives of India, which was established on March 11, 1891 at Calcutta (Kolkata) as the Imperial Record Department.
City-based regional airline TruJet today said it will operate direct flights between Hyderabad and Nagpur from March 20.

According to a statement issued by the carrier, TruJet will be the only airline to operate a direct flight on this route.

TruJet also announced a five-day 'Super Sale', which will offer fares starting from Rs 999 plus taxes/fees on all its routes.

Super Sale bookings can be made during March 10-14 for travel till April 15, 2016, the statement said.

Vankayalapati Umesh, managing director of Turbo Megha Airways (which operates TruJet), said, "Nagpur is a very important business center located in the heart of our country, and it undoubtedly needs connectivity to South India. We are providing not only flights between Nagpur and Hyderabad, but are also connecting Nagpur to Tirupati, Goa, Rajahmundry, Bengaluru and Chennai with convenient connections via Hyderabad."



The airline currently operates two ATR-72 aircraft and has acquired a third plane of the same type. The latest aircraft will operate on the new sector.
Two persons have been arrested in connection with the murder of a journalist in south Delhi's Kishangarh area last month, police said today.

The two persons have been identified as Rakesh Khatri (32), a gym trainer by profession, and Arun Chauhan (22).

On February 21, they had an argument with the Hardeep Singh (the victim), editor of a journal who had earlier worked as a video editor for a Hindi channel, over playing of loud music, following which they allegedly shot Singh dead, police said.

Singh had objected to playing of music loudly.

Based on a tip-off, the duo were arrested yesterday. During interrogation, they confessed to the crime and told police that Khatri had planned to kill his girlfriend for which they had bought a gun, with which they allegedly shot dead Singh after the heated argument on February 21.

One of their associates was arrested within a week after the incident, police said.
Bodies of two persons, including an alleged narcotic smuggler who had jumped into Chenab to evade arrest, were recovered from the river in Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said today.

Some passerby noticed a body floating in the river near the Kanter Nullah in the area yesterday and informed the police.

The deceased has been identified as Mani, a resident of Punjab, who was one amongst the four narcotic smugglers who had jumped into the river on January 19 to evade arrest, a police spokesman said here.

In another incident, body of Partap Singh was also recovered from Chenab near Jhulla bridge in the district, the spokesman said.

Singh along with his father was killed when their vehicle skidded off the road and fell into the river on January 17, police said.

The body of his father Kesar Singh is yet to be recovered, the spokesman added.

After completing all the legal and medical formalities, the bodies were handed over to the kin for last rites.
Shares of many banks, having exposure to the grounded Kingfisher Airlines, today fell by up to 4 per cent amid continuing uncertainty over the recovery of loans following Vijay Mallya leaving the country.

SBI fell by 1.53 per cent and PNB was down 1.21 per cent on the BSE.

Shares of UCO Bank plunged 4.16 per cent, IDBI Bank dipped 3.01 per cent and Bank of Baroda slipped 2.55 per cent.

The Attorney General had yesterday informed the Supreme Court that Vijay Mallya left the country a week ago.

SBI leads the consortium of 17 banks that lent money to the Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines, which was grounded in 2012. SBI had an exposure of over Rs 1,600 crore to the now defunct airline. Since January 2012, the loan was not serviced.

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 among others.

"There have been clear instructions that every possible action should be pursued" to recover the money from Mallya who owes Rs 9,091 crore to a consortium of banks led by SBI as of November 2015, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told the Lok Sabha today.
A Pakistani militant carrying a bounty for his role in the Udhampur attack last year, Abu Okasha, has been killed in an encounter in Pulwama district but a top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander and four other ultras managed to escape the security ring due to alleged connivance of locals.

NIA had announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh on information leading to arrest of Okasha, a resident of Khyber Paktukhwa in Pakistan. It had recovered his photograph during raids at various terror hideouts in the Valley in connection with his involvement in the Udhampur terror attack  in which a Pakistani terrorist Mohammed Naved Yakub was arrested.

Sources said LeT's Kashmir chief Abu Dujana was among those who managed to escape from the encounter site as local residents allegedly diverted the attention of security forces by pelting stones at them.

The encounter broke out as security forces were conducting search operations in Puchal area of Awantipora and shots were heard from nearby Goripora village, an official said.

He said reinforcements were immediately rushed to Goripora and a cordon was laid around the village to prevent the militants from fleeing.

The militants fired towards the security personnel, who retaliated, leading to a fierce exchange of gunfire, the official said.

Two militants were killed in the exchange of firing but five of their accomplices managed to escape, the official said, adding that the bodies of the slain ultras have been recovered.

As the security forces were battling the militants, a group of local residents started pelting stones at the security personnel, the official said.

The incident diverted the attention of security personnel and allowed the other militants to escape from the cordon, the official said.

Dujana took over operational command of following the killing of Abu Qasim in Kulgam area of south Kashmir in October last year.
Britain's Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) has hailed a recent ruling in India against the use of the terms 'Scotch' and 'Scotland' by Indian liquor firms.

The SWA with a base inEdinburgh and London andset up to advance the global interests of Scotch whisky, had filed court proceedings against Oasis Distilleries Ltd, Adie Broswon Distillers & Bottlers Pvt Ltd and Malbros International Pvt Ltd in India last December.

India's Commercial Court granted three permanent injunctions against each company prohibiting them from referencing 'Scotch' or 'Scotland' on any of their products - Royal Arms, Blue Patrol and Malbros.

In a statement, SWA's Kenneth Gray said, "The industry is toasting a number of legal breakthroughs following recent court success in India to protect Scotland's national drink.

"This court decision represents a number of legal firsts that we have welcomed. This was the first action we raised using the Spirit Drinks Verification Scheme. It was also the first action we took under new Commercial Court rules in India," he said.

India is one of the world's largest spirits markets but an extremely high 150 per cent import tariff means Scotch still only comprises less than 1 per cent of the country's total liquor consumption.

The Spirit Drinks Verification Scheme came into effect in January, 2014 to give Scotch whisky consumers around the world assurance of authenticity.

Gray added, "None of the three companies described as the bottlers of these brands were listed under the Verification Scheme. We argued that this indicated that since at least January 10, 2015, the defendants could not have been supplied with bulk Scotch whisky for blending and bottling".

"But by September, 2015 all three products were still advertised on an Oasis Group website with marketing, labelling and packaging referring to Scotch Whisky," he said.

The SWA had argued that the lack of verification suggested there was no Scotch in any of the products and so the companies were in breach of Scotch Whisky's geographical indication (GI) in India.

The association had also claimed that such labelling, packaging and advertising was "misleading" and "infringed" the registered Scotch Whisky GI.

Scotch whisky has "additional protection" under the Indian GI Act, which means even products that do contain some Scotch cannot reference the spirit on labels or in adverts for a whisky made in India.

Scotch is a specific term for whisky made from malted barley by a legally defined process, originating in Scotland.

Any bottlers outside Scotland who want to use Scotch whisky as a constituent in a local spirit must first apply for the verification process.

"Such decisions can only be good for Scotch in India and for consumers. Let's raise a dram to that," Gray concluded.
A hunger-striking Ukrainian military pilot on trial in Russia resumed drinking water today after receiving a prank letter claiming to be from Ukraine's president, asking her to end her action, her defence team said.

Nadiya Savchenko will continue a week-long hunger strike until the verdict later this month, said her lawyer Mark Feigin.

Her lawyers said she acted on a written request from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, but it emerged later that the letter came from a celebrity prankster accused of having ties to the Russian security services.

"Nadezhda halted only a 'dry' hunger strike," Feigin told AFP. "She will be fasting until the verdict is announced," he said, using the Russian version of her name.

Her lawyers said yesterday that the health of the 34-year-old aviator had deteriorated significantly, she was feverish and her temperature had spiked.

The verdict in her case is due on March 21 and 22.

Savchenko's defence team said she had decided to start drinking water following a letter from Poroshenko in which he asked her to stay healthy.

The lawyers later said the missive was fake and accused Moscow of seeking to discredit the pilot and her team.

"It was obviously a well-planned operation by the security services," said Feigin.

A prominent Russian prankster known as "Vovan" -- whose last name is Vladimir Kuznetsov -- said he and his colleague had sent a letter on behalf of Poroshenko.

"We wanted to put an end to this farce," he told AFP.

He denied he was in the employ of the Russian security services. "This is a favourite version of the Russian opposition. If I say no, no one will believe me anyway."



Last year, Vovan called Elton John, making him believe he was discussing gay rights with President Vladimir Putin.

In her reply to the "Poroshenko" letter, Savchenko said she would start drinking water following an outpouring of support from Ukrainians.

"I have felt your pain, people," she said in a handwritten letter.
The UN human rights chief today denounced a growing "race to repel" migrants and refugees by some European governments, and says he plans to raise his concerns in Brussels before a European Union summit next week.

In an annual report to the Human Rights Council, Zeid Raad al-Hussein said a draft EU-Turkey agreement on handling the migration crisis announced this week raises serious concerns, including "the potential for collective and arbitrary expulsions" from the bloc. Zeid said he hadn't received full details of the draft, but urged the EU "to adopt a much more rights-compliant and humane set of measures on migration at next week's summit."



Zeid said he had concerns about the building of fences on European borders, the seizure of personal goods from migrants and refugees, and the arbitrary detention of people based on their nationalities.

"Today, in violation of the fundamental principles of solidarity, human dignity, and human rights, the race to repel these people is picking up momentum," he said.

The broad-ranging speech offered the High Commissioner for Human Rights a chance to chronicle an array of concerns, while acknowledging that the United Nations is not a sovereign body and cannot exercise criminal jurisdiction.

Zeid pointed to issues including some 300 reported police killings of African-Americans in the US last year; "signals" that Russia wants to close the UN human rights office there; ongoing violence in Burundi, Syria, Libya, Yemen and South Sudan; and arrests of lawyers and activists in China. He expressed concerns about Turkey's recent actions against the media, including against the Zaman newspaper.

He said recent attacks against Israeli civilians were "inexcusable" but said the "root causes of this violence also cannot be ignored" the "frustration and despair of Palestinians arises from the prolonged occupation" as well as Israeli settlement expansion and settler violence in Palestinian areas and the blockade of Gaza.

The rights chief also pointed to allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers, especially in the Central African Republic, and noted an "urgent need to stop this appalling abuse by UN and other personnel of victims, some of whom are very young."



However, "only member states can conduct criminal investigations, and prosecute," he said.
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. By amending the protocol of making changes in the gas contract with Russia, Armenia fixed the $165 gas price for a short-term period, in order to hold negotiations for more preferential terms. Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan told the journalist about this after the Cabinet meeting. The $165 price is expected to be maintained and negotiations will go on. Todays decision is intended for a short-term period, so as negotiations go on over more preferential terms, Armenpress reports Kocharyan saying.

Speaking about the scheduled meeting between the Presidents of Armenia and Russia, the Deputy Foreign Minister mentioned that any meeting in that format gives some results.

On March 10, the Government of Armenia approved the two draft bills on making changes in gas contract between Armenia and Russia signed on December 2, 2013.

On January 16 in a meeting with the PM of Armenia, representatives of business community of Armenia asked the PM to apply to the strategic partner of Armenia, Russian Federation, with a request to revise gas price, considering the global dynamics of energy prices.
Miditech's documentary "Undercover Asia: Girls for Sale", which follows an anti-trafficking activist as he searches for two missing minor girls, is a finalist at the New York Festivals World's Best Film & TV Awards.

The New York competition honours programming in all lengths and forms from over 50 countries.

Produced for channel NewsAsia, the documentary is a finalist in the Social Issues category.

The documentary follows anti-trafficking activist, Rishi Kant on a gritty, tension-filled search, from West Bengal and Jharkand through Haryana and Punjab, for two minor girls, a 17-year-old from West Bengal and a 14-year-old from Jharkhand, who have been abducted.

"This is one of India's dirty secrets (as reported in the Verma Commission Report). We wanted to tell this story in a way that it gets under you skin and so decided to meet anguished parents whose daughters have gone missing. We then followed the search for these girls by Rishi Kant founder of Shakti Vahini, a human rights group that works on rescue," said Pria Somiah, executive producer of the film.

"The problem is very rampant and growing. The demand comes from within India, for prostitution, for sex brides, for domestic help. This is currently hugely under-reported."



Rishi Kant knows they are up against a dangerous network. "We always say that trafficking is an organised crime and we have to be organized to fight this problem. We see how partnerships are critical to the fight against trafficking."



"Girls for Sale", directed by Radhika Chandrasekhar, goes undercover into brothels, placement agencies and homes to see the horrors that these young girls are subjected to.

"Making this film was a harsh reality check for the entire crew. We lived through the agonies of each of the children - the sexual abuse most went through, the rescue and escape attempts, the rebuilding of a life," Radhika said.

In 2014, Miditech's Silent Screams won three awards at the New York Festivals.

The winners this year will be announced at a ceremony next month.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has requested Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar for NOC for "re-carpeting" of the airstrip at Lalitpur in Bundelkhand region, expenses for which will be borne by the state.

In a letter sent to Parrikar, Akhilesh said the airstrip was constructed during World War II and the Army had acquired 273.7 acres of land for it.

He said over 64.74 acres was transferred to Director General, Civil Aviation, by the Defence Ministry after the war was over.

The CM said that in the past also efforts were made for reconstruction of the airstrip but objections were raised regarding ownership of the land by the Ministry, due to which the matter was still pending and the airstrip could not be made operational.

Akhilesh added in the letter that the airstrip can be used by the Army and Air Force after its re-carpeting.
Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation has issued an order to reserve nine seats for women passengers in all its buses.

UPSRTC Chief General Manager (Operation) H S Gaba said, Transport Commissioner K Ravindra Naik in an order issued on March 8 has directed the regional officers that three rows of seats behind the driver's be reserved for women.

It would accommodate nine passengers.

The CGM said that currently a provision is there for one reserved seat, just behind the driver's, for women but it is not implemented properly due to absence of clear guidelines.

Now a message would be written asking the male passengers to vacate the seats for women commuters, he said.
Accusing erstwhile UPA government of hatching a "deep conspiracy" to frame Narendra Modi when he was the Gujarat Chief Minister, Home Minister Rajnath Singh today alleged that the previous regime had done a 'flip-flop' on the links of with terror outfit LeT.

Without naming P Chidambaram, he charged the then Home Minister with giving "colour" to terrorism by coining the term 'saffron terror'.

Responding to a calling attention motion on "alleged alteration of affidavit relating to case" in the Lok Sabha, the Home Minister said "unfortunately, I have to say this that there was a flip-flop by UPA government in the case."Amid protests and slogan shouting by Congress members who had trooped into the Well of the House, Singh charged Chidambaram of coining the term "saffron terror" and "Hindu terror".

"Colour, creed and religion should not be associated with terrorism. Terror has no colour. The seculars gave colour to terrorism. Selective secularism cannot be accepted by the country," Singh said.

He said the recent statement made by Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley before a Mumbai court only reaffirmed the first affidavit filed by the UPA government on August 6, 2009 before the Gujarat High Court that Ishrat had links with LeT.

"It (Headley's statement) was the second clear indication that she was a terrorist," he said.

The minister said the second affidavit filed by the government before the High Court on September 29, 2009 "weakened" the fact that she was an LeT operative.

He said the effort seemed to be to "defame the then Gujarat Chief Minister (Narendra Modi), state government, some leaders and those associated with the case. There was a deep conspiracy to frame them," he said.

The Home Minister said a few key documents including two letters written by the then Home Secretary (G K Pillai) to then Attorney General late G E Vahanvati and the copy of the draft affidavit have so far been untracable.

He said the missing documents include the copy of the affidavit vetted by the AG and the draft of the second affidavit vetted by the AG on which changes were made.

"We have ordered an internal enquiry in the Home Ministry in this regard and necesary action will be taken accordingly," he said.

In his written response to the Calling Attention Motion, Singh said the notings on the concerned file do not provide any reason for filing of the second affidavit.

"It has been mentioned in the affidavit that the further affidavit was being made in view of subsequent developments in relation to the issues connected with the petition and to clarify apprehensions expressed in regard to the (first) affidavit filed by Union of India as well as to refute attempts to misinterpret portions of the affidavit."



He said the second affidavit stated that all intelligence inputs "do not constitute conclusive proof" and it is for the state government and the state police to act on such inputs.

"It was further submitted that the central government is in no way concerned with such action nor does it condone or endorse any unjustified or excessive action.

"It was also mentioned that the main purpose of the first affidavit was to highlight the contradiction in the pleadings averred in the petition filed by Shamima Kausar (Ishrat's mother) and the petition which had been filed by M R Gopinath Pillai (Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai's father)," read the statement.

Ishrat was killed in an alleged fake encounter in Gujarat in 2004.

The first affidavit was filed on the basis of inputs from Maharashtra and Gujarat Police besides the Intelligence Bureau where it was said that the 19-year-old girl from Mumbai outskirts was a Lashkar-e-Taiba activist but it was ignored in the second affidavit, Home Ministry officials said.

The second affidavit, claimed to have been drafted by Chidambaram, said there was no conclusive evidence to prove that Ishrat was a terrorist, officials said.

Former Union Home Secretary G K Pillai had claimed that as Home Minister, Chidambaram had recalled the file a month after the original affidavit, which described Ishrat and her slain aides as LeT operatives, was filed in the court.

Ishrat, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an encounter with Gujarat Police on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.

The city crime branch had then said those killed in the encounters were LeT terrorists and had landed in Gujarat to kill then Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
The Obama administration has identified two Afghan militants as specially designated global terrorists, hitting them with sanctions for their roles in deadly attacks in Kabul, including one that killed Americans.

The State and Treasury departments today slapped the designation on Abdullah Nowbahar and Abdul Saboor, a step that freezes any assets they may have in US jurisdictions and bars Americans from any transactions with them.

In February 2015, the State Department offered rewards of up to USD 3 million for information leading to the whereabouts of Saboor and up to USD 2 million for Nowbahar.

The two men are explosives experts for the militant group Hezb-i-Islami.
Top American lawmakers today expressed their strong opposition to the proposed sale of eight F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, as the Senate started a debate on the Obama Administration's move, which has been opposed by India.

The rare such debate was started by Republican Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky, who said the US does not have the money "to give planes free" to Pakistan while the country is crumbling under a foreign debt of USD 19 trillion.

"We do not have the money to give to Pakistan," said Paul starting the debate on the proposed sale of F-16 jets to Pakistan.

The former Republican presidential candidate has introduced a joint resolution in the Congress against the sale of F-16 jets to Pakistan.

While the sale of F-16 planes is likely to be approved by the Senate given that the lawmakers in the past have rarely prevented the US Government from going ahead with an arms sale, the debate reflected the growing anti-Pakistan sentiment in the Congress.

"Should we give planes to a country who prison our heroes," Paul said, referring to the imprisonment of Shakeel Afridi, the Pakistani-African doctor, who is imprisonment on charges of helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden.

Several lawmakers were expected to speak at the debate at the end of which Paul has called for a voting.

The debate and voting comes a day after top Pentagon commanders appealed to lawmakers against restricting or conditioning US aid to Pakistan.

India has opposed the sale of eight F-16 fighter jets worth approximately USD 700 million to Pakistan, saying it disagrees with Washington's rationale that such arms transfers would help combat terrorism.
The US Senate today voted to defeat a bill seeking to block USD 700 million sale of eight F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan even as some top lawmakers called Pakistan an "unreliable" ally and questioned its commitment in fighting terrorist organisations.

The joint resolution, which was introduced in the Senate by Senator Rand Paul, a former Republican presidential candidate, asking the lawmakers to block the sale of F-16 jets to Pakistan was defeated by 71 to 24 votes.

To the surprise of many, such a resolution got the support of 24 Senators which is quite significant given that similar motions of disapprovals in the past normally gets support of a few or a handful of lawmakers.

India has opposed the sale of eight F-16 fighter jets worth approximately USD 700 million to Pakistan, saying it disagrees with Washington's rationale that such arms transfers would help combat terrorism.

Before his resolution was defeated by the Senate, Paul said the US does not have the money to "give planes free" to Pakistan while the country is crumbling under a foreign debt of USD 19 trillion.

"We do not have the money to give to Pakistan," said Paul starting the debate on the sale of F-16 to Pakistan.

"Should we give planes to a country who prison our heroes," Paul said, referring to the imprisonment of Pakistani-African doctor, Shakeel Afridi, who has been jailed on charges of helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden.

Senator Chris Murphy, Ranking Member of Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia and Counter-terrorism, alleged that Pakistan has been an "unreliable partner" over the course of the last ten years in the fight against extremism.

"But what I worry more is that these F-16s will provide cover, will provide substitute for truly meaningful action inside Pakistan to take on the roots of extremism. It is frankly too late in many respects to beat these extremist groups if they are so big, so powerful, so deadly that you have to bomb them from the air," he said.

The debate and voting was held a day after Pentagon commanders appealed to the lawmakers against restricting or conditioning US aid to Pakistan.

The voting came as Paul invoked the Arms Export Control Act of 1976 in a bid to shoot down the sale with a resolution of disapproval.

"The relationship between US and Pakistan has been a troubled one. Though the government of Pakistan is considered America's ally in the fight on terrorism, Pakistan's behaviour would suggest otherwise. While we give them billions of dollars in aid, we are simultaneously aware of their intelligence and military apparatus assisting the Afghan Taliban," Paul said.

"In addition to Pakistan's duplicitous nature, it also has a deplorable human rights record. Pakistan often isolates and unjustly jails religious minorities and Christians like Asia Bibi," he said.

"We have no money in the treasury. We are all out of money. This influences nothing other than to tell the Pakistanis they can continue doing what they want. I urge my colleagues to vote against subsidised sales of fighter jets to Pakistan, and I reserve the remainder of my time," Paul said for which he received support of 24 Senators.
A US teenager, charged with hate crime after he brutally assaulted a Sikh-American man last year and called him a "terrorist" and "bin Laden", has been sentenced to two years' probation and ordered to perform community service for the Sikh community.

The 17-year-old, whose name was not released, had pleaded guilty in December last year to hitting Inderjit Singh Mukker, 53, of Darien, Illinois in a traffic altercation on September 8, just days before the 9/11 anniversary.

DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin announced yesterday that the Willowbrook teen has been sentenced to two years of probation by the juvenile court.

Besides probation, he was also ordered to perform 200 hours of community service, part of which must be serving the Sikh community, pay over USD 4,800 in restitution and undergo counselling as deemed necessary by the Probation Department.

"My office has zero tolerance for crimes based on hatred or prejudices. Not only have the defendant's outrageous actions on September 8, taken an emotional, physical and even financial toll on Mukker that continues to this very day, his actions also have shaken the entire community," Berlin said.

Berlin said the defendant in this case learned that any attack motivated in whole or in part by a pre-conceived bias against another individual is a serious crime that carries serious consequences.

Mukker and the defendant were involved in a "road rage" incident instigated by the defendant yelling racial slurs at Mukker, including "Terrorist, go back to your country, Bin Laden!", a police investigation had found.

The defendant repeatedly punched Mukker in the face as he sat in his vehicle. Mukker lost consciousness, bled profusely and suffered a fractured cheekbone and a laceration to his cheek. Upon their arrival, police had found Mukker in the front driver's seat of his vehicle. He received six stitches.

Police located the defendant, who had fled the scene, at his home. When officers attempted to arrest him, he had resisted and even punched a police officer in the face.

Advocacy group The Sikh Coalition said ever since Mukker was "viciously assaulted", there has been a "meteoric rise" in hate crimes against Sikh-Americans as xenophobic political speech has increased.

"Charging the assailant with a hate crime is an important step towards addressing the broader epidemic. We hope that the 200 hours of community service are spent with the Sikh- American community in an effort to further educate people about the community, Sikh Coalition Legal Director Harsimran Kaur said.
A senior leader from Pakistan's ruling party and Member Assembly (MNA), Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan, today said they do not expect anything from India, lamenting that even "small issues" like Siachen and Sir Creek still remain unresolved.

The Parliamentary Secretary for Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs and leader of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, said, "Pakistan bashing is still going on in India".

"It is not by any design that we don't like . It is the hopelessness of the situation and I think that is the tragedy between our two nations," he told reporters here.

Khan, along with some other delegates from Pakistan, was here today to participate in 'India-Pakistan Legislators and Public Officials Dialogue on Sharing of Experiences on Governance and Democracy'.

When asked if was not on Pakistan's focus any longer, he said, "That's right, it is a hopeless situation, I mean we would not like to continue wasting time. Our politics sustains on the plank that we would like to keep the differences alive, we would not like to give them up.

"But we would not like to waste our time, we have already lost a lot of development indicators and we should try to do economic revival of Pakistan, economic improvement of Pakistan without expecting anything from India," he said.

The participants included practitioners and subject- experts from the two countries, Shiromani Akali Dal MP Prem Singh Chandumajra and Dr G S Kalkat, Chairman of Punjab Farmers Commission.
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. As a result of changes in consumer prices an overall decrease of prices in Armenia was registered. Advisor to the President of the National Statistical Service Gurgen Martirosyan informed journalists how the consumer prices changed during January and February of 2016.

"In February of 2016 a 1.4% decrease in consumer prices was registered in Armenia compared to January, particularly food product prices decreased by 3.2%, non-food products by 0.6% and service tariffs increased by 0.3%," "Armenpress " reports Martirosyan saying.

Last month, price decrease was registered for 9 out of 13 food products 13,4-0,1%, increase of prices was registered for 4 product groups  0.1-1.2%. The most noticeable price decrease was registered in vegetable and potato products, 13.4%, and 3.3% in fruit products. 2.6% price decrease was registered in bakery products, meat - 0.5%, seafood- 1%, dairy products -0.1%, confectionery- 0.2%, other food product prices decreased by 0.1%.
Western intelligence services examined today a potential treasure trove of leaked IS registration documents, some of which were deemed likely to be authentic by the German intelligence service despite the doubts of many experts.

The information, which could help track down current and former Islamic State group jihadists, was included in forms which new recruits had to fill out, British and German media reported.

The documents contain details like names, dates of birth and phone numbers for people from 51 countries including from Britain, northern Europe, the Middle East, north Africa, the United States and Canada.

British broadcaster Sky said it had shared with British security services documents with the identities of some 22,000 IS group members.

While Britain's interior ministry said it would not comment on national security matters in line with normal policy, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister David Cameron said the government would "look at how this information can be used in the fight against Daesh," another term for Islamic State.

"If it can, then we would welcome that," she said, adding that the government had not been aware of the story before it was reported by Sky.

German federal police spokesman Markus Koths said there was "a very high probability" that documents reported by German media as identifying German jihadists were genuine.

"We are therefore taking them into account as part of our law enforcement and security measures," he added.

Fredrik Milder, a spokesman for Sweden's Sapo intelligence service, meanwhile told TT agency: "We are aware of the existence of this list."



"Our security services have received such information," he said.
A female condom jointly produced by a Chinese company and two global NGOs has been prequalified as safe and effective by the World Health Organisation and the UN Population Fund, allowing it to be widely distributed to the public.

The condom was jointly developed by international NGOProgramme for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) and Conrad N Hilton Foundation along with its local research partners who tested the device with people in four countries.

The prequalification of the condom's safety and quality marks a critical step forward in expanding options for women seeking to protect themselves from pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease, including HIV/AIDS, state-run China Daily quoted the condom developer as saying.

The approval of the female condom allows UN agencies and other international purchasers to obtain the device for distribution to the public sector.

Female condoms currently make up only a tiny portion of the global condom market, although demand is growing, it said.

"This milestone is a testament to the power of cross- sector collaboration," Steve Davis, president of PATH.

With funding from the Netherlands' Ministry of Foreign Affairs, PATH established the Protection Options for Women Product Development Partnership, aimed at building a supply-and-demand model for the female condom.

In 2008, it transferred production to the Dahua Medical Apparatus Corp of Shanghai, China.

As the manufacturer, we are honoured that more women and men across the world may get expanded access to this new tool," Chen Hongxuan, the company's vice-president said.

Chen said the African market now provides a major share of its overall sales volume.

In many countries, including China, the female condom is on the government's purchase list and is typically distributed by local family-planning groups.

The recently approved model branded O'lavie in China may provide more protection from skin-to-skin transmitted diseases such as herpes and the human papilloma virus, the report said.

Female condoms account for approximately 0.2 per cent of global condom sales, according to the data from the Reproductive Health Interchange, a reproductive health procurement and information service managed by the UN Population Fund.
Pakistani police today arrested a woman for allegedly facilitating 14 terrorists in a Taliban assault on an air force base near Peshawar last year that killed 29 people, mostly soldiers.

The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Khyber Pakthunkhwa police arrested the woman identified as Zarri Zadgai alias Perveen from Tela Band area of Badaber near here.

According to CTD, Parveen has confessed to providing food, shelter and bottles with chemicals to make improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to the terrorists.

She has been shifted to undisclosed location for further investigation.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorists attacked the Badaber military base in September that killed 29 people, most of them soldiers, and 13 militants.

The terrorists had entered the residential compound at the base near Peshawar dressed in official uniforms.
Swaraj Abhiyan leader Prashant Bhushan today attacked the Centre and Delhi government accusing them of "violating" rule and "destroying" environment by allowing World Culture Festival organised by Sri Sri Ravishankar's Foundation on the flood plains of Yamuna river.

Both the governments have "violated" all norms and there is no fire clearance for the event, he alleged. He asked who will be liable if there is any kind of disaster.

"Modi & Kejriwal govts come together to violate every rule & destroy Env to sponsor SriSri Circus. Both Supremos also agreed not to allow Lokpal! Violation of all Env rules, no fire clearance & corroded pipes used for stage. Will Modi/AK be held liable for disaster?(sic)" Bhushan tweeted.

Taking a jibe at Kejriwal, another Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav said the good news is that the Centre and Delhi government have come together but the bad news is that they have done so for endangering the environment.

"Good news: For once, Central and Delhi Govt come together Bad news: They do so to endanger environment (sic)," Yadav tweeted.

With the Green Tribunal clearing the decks for a three-day cultural extravaganza of Foundation on the flood plains of Yamuna river, the Centre had yesterday said such temporary programmes or structures "do not" require environment clearances.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had also welcomed the NGT verdict and said " and controversies" around the event should be "put to rest".

Bhushan and Yadav formed Swaraj Abhiyan after they were sacked from Aam Aadmi Party for "anti-party activities".
Amid speculations that he might chart his own political course, Congress MLA Malladi Krishna Rao from Yanam today said he would hold a meeting with people of his constituency on March 21 to take a call on contesting the coming assembly elections.

Rao, who has been keeping away from all programmes and meetings organised by the Congress since 2014 parliamentary elections, told reporters here that he would abide by "the sentiments" of the people of his constituency Yanam, an enclave of Puducherry in Andhra Pradesh.

The announcement comes in the backdrop of his meeting with AIADMK Puducherry Unit Secretary P Purushothaman yesterday, triggering speculations in the political circles that he may align with the Dravidian major.

Reacting to speculations doing rounds regarding his political plan, he said, "I will take a decision only after consulting with the people of Yanam on March 21," while adding that he had already held talks with around 20,000 people in the region.

In January last, the Congress MLA openly came out in support of the AINRC and praised Chief Minister N. Rangasamy for all the assistance rendered to the constituency.

Rao, a former Minister of Puducherry, has retained the Yanam constituency since his first election to the Assembly in 1996.
(Reuters) - China's central bank is preparing regulations that would allow commercial lenders to swap non-performing loans of companies for stakes in those firms, two people with direct knowledge of the new policy told .

The new rules would reduce commercial banks' non-performing loan (NPL) ratios, and free up cash for fresh lending for investment in a new wave of infrastructure products and factory upgrades that the government hopes will rejuvenate the world's second-largest economy.

NPLs surged to a decade-high last year as China's economy grew at its slowest pace in a quarter of a century. Official data showed banks held more than 4 trillion yuan ($614 billion) in NPLs and "special mention" loans, or debts that could sour, at the year-end.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the release of a new document explaining the regulatory change was imminent. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

"Such a rule change shows banks' bad loans have risen to such a level that this issue has to be tackled now before it's too late," said Wu Kan, Shanghai-based head of equity trading at investment firm Shanshan Finance.

State banks have extended loans to government financing vehicles and state-owned coal and steel producers, so this policy can help give lenders time to deal with non-performing assets as China pushes supply-side reforms, Wu added.

The quality of assets held by banks is worse than it looks, analysts have said. To avoid stumping up capital and to protect their balance sheets, some banks have under-reported bad loans and under-recognised overdue debt.

The top banking regulator has warned commercial lenders to pay special attention to risks.

Bank shares fell more than 2 percent on Thursday, with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China down 2 percent and Bank of Communications losing 2.7 percent.

"This was mainly due to a technical correction, but there's also investor uncertainty over how those non-performing assets would be valued, and disposed of eventually," said Wu at Shanshan Finance.

CABINET APPROVAL

The sources said the new regulations would get special approval from the State Council, China's cabinet-equivalent body, thus skirting the need to revise commercial bank law, which bars banks from investing in non-financial institutions.

Previously, Chinese commercial banks usually dealt with NPLs by selling them at a discount to state-designated asset management companies which, in turn, would try to recover the debt or re-sell at a profit to distressed debt investors.

The sources had no further detail on how banks would value the new equity stakes, which would represent assets on their balance sheets, or what ratio or amount of NPLs they would be able to convert this way.

On paper, the move would also represent a way for indebted companies to reduce their leverage, cutting the cost of servicing debt and making them more worthy of fresh credit.

Beijing has prioritised the closure of so-called "zombie" firms responsible for much of China's corporate debt overhang, and has taken aim at overcapacity in industries such as steel and coal.

Lai Xiaomin, chairman of China Huarong Asset Management Co, the country's biggest bad debt manager, said he had no direct knowledge of the move, but would welcome such debt-to-equity swaps.

These would help companies "improve their financial situation" and "prevent the spread of financial risk", Lai told . Coal, steel, real estate and machinery were among the sectors he thought most suitable for debt-to-equity swaps.

"(In China) credit to non-financial corporates has risen in the last five years from 120 percent of GDP to more than 160 percent in May 2015," Jose Vinals, director of monetary and capital markets at the International Monetary Fund, said at an event in Mumbai.

"These vulnerabilities ... will need to be addressed strongly as the economy moves towards a more market-based financial system, including for the exchange rate."

($1=6.51 yuan)

(Reporting by Hong Kong Newsroom, Samuel Shen, Pete Sweeney and Matthew Miller in Beijing and Suvashree Choudhury in Mumbai; Writing by Pete Sweeney, Shu Zhang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Sam Holmes, Neil Fullick and Ian Geoghegan)
By Nidhi Verma and Katya Golubkova

NEW DELHI/MOSCOW (Reuters) - India plans to sign energy deals with Russian oil major Rosneft next week to buy stakes in Siberian fields, two sources privy to the deal said, as New Delhi accelerates a push to secure overseas energy assets.

India, the world's third biggest oil importer, has to ship in three quarters of its oil needs and a substantial fall in oil prices has added an extra incentive to seal purchases of assets that are now relatively cheap to limit its reliance on imports.

Rosneft's Chief Executive Igor Sechin will visit Delhi on March 15-16 to stitch together the deals, the sources said.

Rosneft, the world's biggest listed oil company by output, also stands to benefit as it has been scouting for partners as Western sanctions tied to Russia's annexation of Crimea have limited its access to global funds and technology.

Russia is keen to develop and deepen its economic ties with India, one of the world's fastest-growing economies, when its own economy is stagnant, hit by Western sanctions and a plunge in global oil prices.

During Sechin's visit, a sale purchase agreement is likely to be signed with Indian Oil Corp, Oil India Ltd and Bharat PetroResources Ltd (BPRL) for a 29 percent stake in the Taas-Yuriakh oil field, the sources said.

In December, IOC and Oil India signed a memorandum with Rosneft, which paves the way for acquisition of a stake in Taas-Yuriakh oil assets in East Siberia.

Later BPRL, the exploration arm of Bharat Petroleum Corp, joined the negotiations.

Taas-Yuriakh, which operates the Srednebotuobinsk field in east Siberia, is expected to produce more than 5 million tonnes of oil annually in the medium term.

Rosneft last year sold a 20 percent share in Taas-Yuriakh to BP for $750 million, and based on that valuation a 29 percent stake could be worth around $1 billion.

India also wants to raise its overall stake in the Vankor oil field in Siberia to 49.9 percent from the current 15 percent.

ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) is expected to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Rosneft to raise its stake in the Vankor field in Siberia to 26 percent from the current 15 percent, they said.

IOC, Oil India and BPRL may sign an MoU for buying an additional 23.9 percent stake in the Vankor project, they said.

The sources said the sale purchase agreement for raising the stake in Vankor field will be signed in June at International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg.

Oil India chairman and managing directors of ONGC Videsh and BPRL did not respond to Reuters' phone calls seeking comment, while no comment was available from Rosneft.

(Editing by Keith Weir)
By Serajul Quadir

DHAKA (Reuters) - A spelling mistake in an online bank transfer instruction helped prevent a nearly $1 billion heist last month involving the Bangladesh central bank and the New York Federal Reserve, banking officials said.

Unknown hackers still managed to get away with about $80 million, one of the largest known bank thefts in history.

The hackers breached Bangladesh Bank's systems and stole its credentials for payment transfers, two senior officials at the bank said. They then bombarded the Federal Reserve Bank of New York with nearly three dozen requests to move money from the Bangladesh Bank's account there to entities in the Philippines and Sri Lanka, the officials said.

Four requests to transfer a total of about $81 million to the Philippines went through, but a fifth, for $20 million, to a Sri Lankan non-profit organisation was held up because the hackers misspelled the name of the NGO, Shalika Foundation.

Hackers misspelled "foundation" in the NGO's name as "fandation", prompting a routing bank, Deutsche Bank, to seek clarification from the Bangladesh central bank, which stopped the transaction, one of the officials said.

There is no NGO under the name of Shalika Foundation in the list of registered Sri Lankan non-profits. could not immediately find contact information for the organization.

Deutsche Bank declined to comment.

At the same time, the unusually large number of payment instructions and the transfer requests to private entities - as opposed to other banks - raised suspicions at the Fed, which also alerted the Bangladeshis, the officials said.

The details of how the hacking came to light and was stopped before it did more damage have not been previously reported. Bangladesh Bank has billions of dollars in a current account with the Fed, which it uses for international settlements.

The transactions that were stopped totalled $850-$870 million, one of the officials said.

Last year, Russian computer security company Kaspersky Lab said a multinational gang of cyber criminals had stolen as much as $1 billion from as many as 100 financial institutions around the world in about two years.

Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's son Qusay took $1 billion from Iraq's central bank on the orders of his father on the day before coalition forces began bombing the country in 2003, American and Iraqi officials have said. In 2007, guards at the Dar Es Salaam bank in Baghdad made off with $282 million.

MONEY RECOVERED

Bangladesh Bank has said it has recovered some of the money that was stolen, and is working with anti-money laundering authorities in the Philippines to try to recover the rest.

A bank spokesman could not be reached for comment late on Thursday.

The recovered funds refer to the Sri Lanka transfer, which was stopped, one of the officials said.

Initially, the Sri Lankan transaction reached Pan Asia Banking Corp , which went back to Deutsche Bank for more verification because of the unusually large size of the payment, a Pan Asia official said. "The transaction was too large for a country like us," the official said. "Then (Deutsche) came back and said it was a suspect transaction." A Pan Asia spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.

The dizzying, global reach of the heist underscores the growing threat of cyber crime and how hackers can find weak links in even the most secure computer networks.

More than a month after the attack, Bangladeshi officials are scrambling to trace the money, shore up security and identify weaknesses in their systems. They said there is little hope of ever catching the hackers, and it could take months before the money is recovered, if at all.

FireEye Inc's Mandiant forensics division is helping investigate the heist, people familiar with the matter told on Thursday.

The sources said Silicon Valley-based FireEye, which has investigated some of the biggest cyber thefts on record, was brought in by World Informatix, a smaller firm that is advising Bangladesh Bank on the investigation.

Security experts said the perpetrators had deep knowledge of the Bangladeshi institution's internal workings, likely gained by spying on bank workers.

The Bangladesh government, meanwhile, is blaming the Fed for not stopping the transactions earlier. Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith told reporters on Tuesday that the country may resort to suing the Fed to recover the money.

"The Fed must take responsibility," he said.

The New York Fed has said its systems were not breached, and it has been working with the Bangladesh central bank since the incident occurred.

The hacking of Bangladesh Bank happened sometime between Feb. 4-5, over the Bangladeshi weekend, which falls on a Friday, the officials said. The bank's offices were shut.

Initially, the central bank was not sure if its system had been breached, but cyber security experts brought in to investigate found hacker "footprints" that suggested the system had been compromised, the officials said.

These experts could also tell that the attack originated from outside Bangladesh, they said, adding the bank is looking into how they got into the system and an internal investigation is ongoing.

The bank suspects money sent to the Philippines was further diverted to casinos there, the officials said.

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp, which oversees the gaming industry, said it has launched an investigation. The country's anti-money laundering authority is also working on the case.

(Additional reporting by Jim Finkle in BOSTON, Jonathan Spicer in NEW YORK, Farah Master in HONG KONG and Shihar Aneez in COLOMBO; Editing by Paritosh Bansal and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
The departure of Volkswagen's US boss is a blow to the carmaker's attempts to revive sales after its emissions test cheating scandal, but should not disrupt its efforts to strike a deal with US regulators, analysts and sources told Reuters.

Michael Horn, whose surprise departure from the helm of Group of America was announced late on Wednesday, was not on the teams negotiating with US regulators over a fix for almost 600,000 vehicles found to be emitting up for 40 times the legal limit of pollutants, sources close to the matter said.

But he was a popular figure among US dealers, who viewed him as critical to the German company's attempts to win back customers in the world's second-biggest car market.

The US National Automobile Dealers Association on Thursday called Horn's departure "regrettable," and called on Chief Executive Matthias Mueller and VW brand chief Herbert Diess to meet with the brand's US dealers in Las Vegas next month.

"VW has its back to the wall, Horn's departure is happening at the most inconvenient time," said Arndt Ellinghorst, an analyst at banking advisory firm Evercore ISI. "If such a key figure quits, this will inevitably cause more unrest."

Almost six months after it admitted to installing test-rigging software, Europe's largest carmaker has still to reach an agreement with US regulators on how to fix affected cars.

A federal judge has set a March 24 deadline for it to say whether it has found a fix acceptable to the authorities.

VW also faces mounting legal action - the US Justice Department sued the company in January for up to $46 billion for violating environmental laws and this week sent VW a civil subpoena under a bank fraud law.

And its sales in the United States are sliding.

VW said on Wednesday Hinrich Woebcken, a former BMW manager set to take the helm of VW's core brand in North America next month, would assume Horn's responsibilities on an interim basis.

Three sources at VW's Wolfsburg headquarters said Woebcken's appointment to the North American job may have been a factor behind Horn's departure - which VW said was a mutual decision.

Horn's resignation marks the second blow in five months to VW's efforts to assemble a management team for North America after former Skoda boss Winfried Vahland last October rejected an offer to run the VW brand there.

VW is also still looking for a senior figure to help it deal with US authorities after an aborted attempt to hire ex-FBI chief Louis Freeh for that role, one of the sources said.

"VW is in a bind and it's anything but helpful to have a vacuum at the top level" of its US management, said Commerzbank analyst Sascha Gommel, who has his rating on VW shares under review.

VW sources told Reuters on Thursday it planned to cut 3,000 office jobs in Germany by the end of next year.

Horn was criticised by US lawmakers in October for blaming VW's test cheating on "a couple of software engineers."

He said he knew in the spring of 2014 the company might be breaking US emissions rules, but that he did not know about the use of illegal "defeat device" software until about Sept. 3, 2015, when VW admitted cheating to US regulators.
By Rania El Gamal and Alex Lawler

DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) - A meeting between oil producers to discuss a global pact on freezing production is unlikely to take place in Russia on March 20, sources familiar with the matter say, as OPEC member Iran is yet to say whether it would participate in such a deal.

OPEC officials including Nigeria's oil minister have said a meeting would take place in Moscow on that date, potentially as the next step in widening an agreement to freeze output at January levels struck by OPEC members Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Qatar plus non-member Russia last month.

But the biggest roadblock to a wider deal, OPEC delegates say, is Iran. Tehran feels it should be exempt from the agreement as it wants to recover market share it lost under Western sanctions. Kuwait said on Tuesday it will commit to the deal - if all major producers including Iran do so.

"They are not agreeing on the meeting. Why would the ministers meet again now? Iran says they will not do anything," said an OPEC source from a major producer. "Only if Iran agrees, things will change."

The pact on freezing output has helped support oil prices, which started a slide in mid-2014 due to oversupply. Brent crude was trading above $40 a barrel on Thursday, up 50 percent from a 12-year low of $27.10 reached in January.

Some delegates are wary that if many oil producers met too soon before getting the nod from everyone, prices could weaken again if the talks ended in disarray.

"Our view is not to go there with the possibility of no agreement so as not to affect prices negatively," said another source from a major OPEC member, referring to the proposed March 20 meeting.

OPEC's Gulf members favour meeting in the first half of April, in Doha or another Gulf city, a Gulf delegate said last week.

Another OPEC delegate was more pessimistic, saying he expected no major progress until OPEC's next scheduled meeting in June.

IRAN COMPROMISE?

Tehran has rejected freezing its output at January levels, put by OPEC secondary sources at 2.93 million barrels per day (bpd), and wants to return to much higher pre-sanctions production.

"Tehran wanted a freeze ... for them to be based on 4 million barrels per day, their pre-sanctions production figure," said one source familiar with the discussions. A source familiar with Iranian thinking agreed.

The issue is set to be discussed when Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak meets Iranian counterpart Bijan Zanganeh. Novak is visiting Tehran on Monday, RIA agency reported, citing the Russian embassy in Iran.

Some OPEC sources hinted that there could be a workable agreement on the table to get Tehran on board.

"If they are willing to find a solution, they should offer a fair deal to Iran," one said.

There are precedents for OPEC members to be exempt from agreements on output restraint. Iraq, for example, was not included for many years due to sanctions and war.

(Reporting by Rania El Gamal and Alex Lawler; Editing by Dale Hudson and David Evans)
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. Procedural instruments of Hrant Dinks case reveal striking details on the participation of the state, particularly the police and intelligence services, in the murder of the Istanbul-Armenian journalist. The investigation of the case exposed a document which made clear why Hrant Dink was not given a passport for years, Armenpress reports, citing Agos periodical.

For nearly 25 years Dink applied to the Regional Security Office in Istanbul to receive a passport, but his applications were always sent back. In the sidelines of the investigation of the journalists murder, a document dating 1997 was revealed, which is labeled confidential. In addition to Dinks name, the name of the then vicar of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople and the current Patriarch Mesrob Mutafyan was mentioned in the document.

An individual named Frat Dink is among our targets due to his pro-Armenian activities. He is the editor-in-chief of Agos periodical, published in Istanbul by Armenians, and is in close ties with the vicar of the Armenian Patriarchate Mesrob Archbishop Mutafyan, famous for his Armenian nationalist inclinations, reads the document dating 1997.

The court demanded this document within the framework of investigating the complicity of former officials in Dinks case.

Another document exposes that the state had been interested in the ethnic belonging of the murderer of Hrant Dink Ogun Samast and the requester of the murder Yasin Hayal'i. It is mentioned in a justification sent by the Intelligence Department of General Directorate of Security that Yasin Hayal'Is background has been explored until 1904 year. The observation showed that there are no non-Muslims or apostasy cases among the members of his family. The same has been revealed for Ogun Samast.

Hrant Dink, son of the family that was saved from the genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire, was born on September 15, 1954. He founded the only bilingual (Armenian and Turkish) newspaper in the Armenian community  Agos. By that he aimed to introduce the issues of both the community and the minorities of Turkey. He thought that the people in Turkey were prejudiced against the Armenians as they were not well familiar with the Armenians. So he used to say that the Armenians of Istanbul led  very isolated life and that if those in Turkey knew the Armenians better, all the prejudices would vanish.

The Armenian editor of the Istanbul Agos newspaper Hrant Dink was killed on January 19, 2007 as a result of armed attack in front of the editorial.

Dink`s assassination organizer Yasin Hayal was sentenced to life imprisonment and the perpetrator Ogyun Samast was sentenced to imprisonment for 22 years by the decision of the court on January 17. 2012.

In October 2014 Istanbul's 5th High Criminal Court made a decision to start the trial into the murder of Hrant Dink from zero.

Prosecutor Gokalp Kokcu has filed a lawsuit against 26 former and current officials who are belived to have played a role in the assassination.
MUMBAI (Reuters) - The BSE Sensex fell nearly 1 percent on Thursday, snapping a six-day rally as investors booked profits, especially in blue chips such as Reliance Industries .

The drop, in contrast with Asian peers, came after indices posted their best weekly gain since 2011 in the week ended March 4, boosted by a fiscally prudent budget announcement.

"In India, there is a positive feeling after the Budget, but there will always be an overhang of global volatility, which could be coming from Europe, the U.S. or China," said Sadanand Shetty, senior fund manager at Taurus Mutual Fund, which has about 50 billion rupees (around $746 million) in assets under management.

The broader NSE Nifty fell 0.45 percent to 7,499.33 at 0835 GMT, while the benchmark BSE index dropped 0.77 percent to 24,602.10.

Investor sentiment has improved after the government stuck to its fiscal deficit target for the next financial year, raising hopes the central bank would soon cut key policy rates.

Mirroring the optimism, foreign investors net bought $1.11 billion worth of shares this month, but have been net sellers worth $1.77 billion for the year.

Among the losers, power equipment maker Bharat Heavy Electricals fell 3 percent on media reports rating agency CRISIL has lowered the rating of the company's long-term bank facilities citing a constrained business risk profile. (http://bit.ly/221FnWB)

Reliance Industries fell 2.9 percent after gaining 3.5 percent over the past two sessions, amid expectations it would declare a dividend at a board meeting on Thursday.

Software maker Infosys fell 3 percent on reports four shareholders have put up for sale a block of shares to raise up to 8.8 billion rupees (around $131 million).

Miners such as Vedanta Ltd and Hindalco Industries jumped 1 percent and 3 percent, respectively, on reports the government has cleared an amendment to the mining Act.

(Reporting by Aastha Agnihotri; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath)
Mitsui-Behn Meyer venture to set up fertiliser plant in Myanmar

Agri First Co, their Myanmar-based venture along with MAPCO, plans to invest approximately Yen 1.2 bn (about $ 10.50 mn) for setting up a fertiliser plant with capacity of 100,000 tonnes

Agri First Co, their Myanmar-based venture along with MAPCO, plans to invest approximately Yen 1.2 bn (about $ 10.50 mn) for setting up a fertiliser plant with capacity of 100,000 tonnes

Mitsui & Co Ltd has entered into an agreement with the Behn Meyer, a major distributor of chemicals in Southeast Asia, for forming a joint venture company, BMM Venture (S) Pte Ltd (BMM-V), in Singapore. Mitsui, which has business relationship with Behn Meyer spans many years, will acquire a 49 percent equity stake in BMM-V through Mitsui & Co (Asia Pacific) Pte Ltd.



Meanwhile BMM-V has entered into an agreement with Myanmar Agribusiness Public Corporation (MAPCO) to establish Agri First Co Ltd (AFC) for manufacturing and distribution of imported fertilisers in Myanmar. Founded in 2012, MAPCO is a private sector company and it is seen as a key contributor to the development of agriculture in Myanmar.



With a land area about 1.8 times bigger than Japan's, Myanmar has around 2.8 times more farmland. Its climate and water resources are suitable for double-cropping. These factors are expected to drive rapid growth in the agricultural sector. Fertiliser demand in Myanmar is currently just over one million tonnes. This is equivalent to only one-fifth of the level in countries with similar farmland areas and crop types, such as Vietnam and Thailand, and demand is therefore expected to grow rapidly.



Agri First Co plans to invest approximately Yen 1.2 billion (about $ 10.50 million) in the construction of a fertiliser manufacturing plant (including a warehouse and other ancillary facilities) with an annual capacity of 100,000 tonnes in the Thilawa Special Economic Zone. It aims to commence production at the new plant in May 2017.



By combining Behn Meyers expertise and experience relating to the manufacture and distribution of specialty fertiliser, MAPCOs networks with agricultural business operators in Myanmar, and Mitsuis financing, logistics, procurement and marketing capabilities, AFC will contribute to agricultural development in Myanmar.



This initiative will strengthen Mitsui's presence in the food and agriculture key strategic domain by expanding the business base in the area of agricultural materials.



Mitsui regards this joint establishment of the investment company with Behn Meyer as an opportunity to strengthen its business operations in the area of fertilizers and agricultural materials in Myanmar and other Southeast Asian countries, in addition to its business initiatives in Japan, Europe, and North and South America. The specific goals are to accelerate the spread of scientific methods developed by Mitsui and Behn Meyer independently, including guidance on fertiliser optimization based on soil and crop analyses, and to contribute to the development and growth of agriculture in Southeast Asia and the stable supply of food on a global scale, said Mitsui in a press release.

BS B2B Bureau
Medium-sized food and drink companies are being invited to take part in this year's Ascent programme which is sponsored by Bord Bia and PwC.



The programme is aimed at companies with a need for bespoke mentoring and support to identify and overcome obstacles to growth.

Some of this years advice and service offerings include accessing finance, route to market planning, strategy development and business restructuring.



Bord Bia has once again partnered with PwC who will assist in terms of the initial diagnostic, problem solving sessions and the mentoring where appropriate.



Ascent Programme Manager at Bord Bia, Maria Stokes said, "This year marks the second year of the programme and feedback from last years members has been extremely positive. We worked with a wide range of companies in year one, covering all sectors and sizes, and each had a unique challenge to overcome from distribution and logistics to succession planning and export growth strategies. Through one-to-one advice and mentoring from Bord Bia and PwC, the companies were provided with a customised action plan outlining clear workable solutions."

Ballymaloe Foods and Killowen Farm both participated in last years programme.

Speaking at todays launch, Maxine Hyde of Ballymaloe Foods commented, As a result of the programme, we employed a new business development manager and to date we have achieved 12% growth year on year. We also introduced new strategies to help management work together better in addition to new tracking and measurement tools.

Source: www.businessworld.ie

About us
The second meeting of the Dairy Forum with key stakeholders from the Irish dairy sector was hosted by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Simon Coveney yesterday.



The forum discussed ongoing challenges in the sector and focussed on preparations for next weeks key meeting of EU Agriculture Ministers in Brussels.

Key stakeholders attended the forum including farm organisations, processors, State Agencies and the banking sector. The market outlook for 2016 was discussed and an exchange of views was delivered with the banks on access to finance as well as a discussion on preparations for next Mondays Council meeting in Brussels.



Minister Coveney said, "In January we had the confirmation from Bord Bias export figures that Irish dairy exports rose 4% to 3.2bn last year with exports to diverse markets including China and the US continuing their impressive performance in the face of slowing global demand.

"I realise this does not lessen the impact to an individual farmer who has seen reduction in his milk cheque but nonetheless it points towards the long term fundamentals of the Irish dairy sector being sound."

He added, "Our competitiveness by international standards is good and investments at processor level means that added value capacity is there. The priority now has to be on the measures which can help producers out of this current slump as well as on measures which can minimise the effects of such downward volatility in the future."

Source: www.businessworld.ie

About us
The Burren and Cliffs of Moher Geopark was named winner of the Destination Leadership award by The National Geographic in their prestigious international awards programme, the World Legacy Awards.

The annual scheme honours tourism companies, organisations and destinations regarded as leaders in sustainable tourism best practices.



The Geopark, which is managed by Clare County Council and receives support and funding from the Geological Survey of Ireland and Failte Ireland, won the Destination Leadership category of The National Geographic World Legacy Awards for its tourism for conservation project, GeoparkLIFE.



The GeoparkLIFE project works with tourism businesses to develop sustainable ethos, practices and tourism products, to work with government agencies and site owners in developing integrated management practices at popular heritage sites and to enable to communities to lead and participate in active conservation on tourism sites.



Manager of the Burren and Cliffs of Moher Geopark, Carol Gleeson said, "The Destination Leadership Award is a category for destinations demonstrating environmental best practices, protection for cultural and natural heritage, benefits to local people and educating travellers on the principles of sustainable tourism. The recognition received from such a prestigious and well-respected organisation is a ringing endorsement of the work with our partners over a number of years."



Director of Services at Clare County Council, Gerard Dollard added, "Since 2006, Clare County Council has been working in the Burren to develop a truly sustainable tourism destination that gives direct benefits to the local community, promotes and celebrates local culture and produce, preserves the environment and provides a great visitor experience.

He added, "This has been achieved with great support and partnership from local communities and businesses and the agencies responsible for tourism, conservation and local development."

Source: www.businessworld.ie

About us


It was announced today that Nestle will invest over 25 million in a significant expansion of its Research and Development Centre in Askeaton, Ireland.



The enhanced facility will be located at Nestle`s existing plant in Askeaton, which produces a range of high quality premium powdered milk-based products for infants, young children and mothers for export to world markets.



The Director of the Food Division at Enterprise Ireland, Michael Cantwell says, "This is a strategically important investment for Ireland and is a huge vote of confidence in the future of the Irish dairy industry and the research connectedness in Ireland."

He added, "Nestles decision to extend its R&D centre at its manufacturing plant at the Askeaton site is of critical strategic importance and underpins Nestles commitment to its Irish based operations."



The extended R&D Centre, part of Nestle`s global R&D network of close to 5,000 people, will concentrate on developing premium, high quality, innovative, science based products for mothers and infants.

It will incorporate state of the art laboratory facilities as well as a full pilot-scale manufacturing line to facilitate development and testing of new products from initial concept through to finished product development. The project investment is being supported by Enterprise Ireland.



Source: www.businessworld.ie

About us
Irish corporate law firm, William Fry, has won European Corporate Deal of the Year at The Lawyer European Awards 2016.

Now it its 22nd year, The Lawyer European Awards programme was the first initiative of its kind to reward and celebrate excellence across the European legal market.

Each year entries are invited from independent law firms headquartered in Europe and global firms working within the European market.

The ceremony took place last night at the Hilton, Bankside, London, where William Fry was presented with the award for the firms role as lead advisor to International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG) on its acquisition of Aer Lingus Group plc (Aer Lingus) for 1.46bn.



The IAG/Aer Lingus acquisition was a landmark deal for the European aviation industry and of significant strategic importance to the Irish economy. It was one of the most sought after corporate acquisitions in the last number of years, as well as the biggest ever aviation transaction relating to an Irish airline and the largest transaction involving a European carrier in the last decade.



Managing Partner at William Fry, Bryan Bourke said, "We are delighted to win European Corporate Deal of the Year at the Lawyer European Awards 2016. It was very exciting to represent IAG in this landmark and complex deal.

He added, "The award recognises William Frys position at the very top of the European M&A legal market. It is also testament to the depth of experience at the firm and our investment in hiring and retaining the very best people."

Source: www.businessworld.ie
It was announced this week that CBRE Hotels Dublin on behalf of their clients, the P. J. Walls Holdings Group have confirmed that unconditional contracts of sale have now been exchanged for the Hilton Dublin Airport Hotel.

The high quality 4 star Hilton branded hotel asset  in an off market deal to Irish investors including Emerald Investment Partners (EIP) and Windward Management, headed up by Patrick Coyle.



The Hilton Dublin Airport Hotel is a very successful and profitable 4 star hotel property, primarily serving the Dublin Airport hotel, leisure and corporate market and operating successfully under a long term management agreement with the prestigious Hilton brand since it opened.



The hotel is the flagship property in Northern Cross, a mixed use development that includes high end offices, retail and residential apartments.

Developed to a very high standard in 2005, the hotel has 166 spacious and air conditioned en suite bedrooms, a comprehensive food & beverage operation, several function rooms and a selection of boardroom suites and meeting rooms. The property also has extensive and secure underground parking and operates a shuttle bus service between Dublin Airport and the hotel.



CBRE say the instruction was to quickly reach agreement on price, process and certainty of execution  and all on a going concern basis as protecting all of the current employment at the property post any sale was foremost in the minds of the vendors.



Hotels servicing Dublin Airport have enjoyed year on year growth in Occupancy and Average Room Rate over the last number of years, benefitting from both growing demand and lack of capacity in Dublin city and the surge in passenger numbers through the Airport.

Dublin International Airport last year saw passenger numbers grow more than 15% to 25m, making it the busiest year yet for the airport. Last year, 55 international airlines used Dublin Airport and this year, there are plans for 13 new routes out of the Airport including the introduction of 2 long haul destinations. All of this growth has been underpinned by the resurgent economy which has seen the return of the corporate traveler together with record numbers of tourists visiting Ireland  up to 8.6m in 2015.



Director of CBRE Hotels, Dermot Curtin says, "The successful, off market sale of the 4 star Hilton Dublin Airport Hotel confirms that there is a very strong and continuing demand for profitable, modern and well located hotels in Dublin. It also confirms the citys status as an important European hotel market and as a location much sought after by astute investors.

He added, "PwCs latest European Cities Forecast predicts that Dublin will see the highest ADR growth of any major European city for both 2016 & 2017, the second highest occupancy in 2016 and will be the strongest European market for RevPar growth in 2017. With a record 8.6m visitors to Ireland last year  up 13.7% on 2014, most of whom arrive through Dublin Airport - a strengthening economy boosting corporate demand and little new supply, the future is bright for the Dublin Hotel sector."



Source: www.businessworld.ie

About us


YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. MP from "Prosperous Armenia" Party submitted an application of leave. As "Armenpress" reports, the MP informed on his Facebook page.

"Dear compatriots, for a long time the news about me leaving the party is circulating in the media. After lengthy discussions I decided to leave the party. This is purely my personal decision, dictated by my political views, faith and conscience. I will continue to serve my country and the people with all my strength and potential, and I wish luck and success to the PAP, Babayan wrote.
The International Monetary Fund may cut global growth forecasts further in the coming weeks, Financial Counsellor Jose Vinals said on Thursday, calling on policymakers to take comprehensive measures to strengthen their economies.

In January, the Fund projected global growth of 3.4% in 2016 and 3.6% in 2017, having revised down its October forecast for both years by 0.2 percentage point.

"It is very likely that by the time that we arrive at the spring meetings next month there may be a further downward revision in our forecasts," Vinals said during an event organized by the Reserve Bank of India.

His comments echoed a warning last month from IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, who said the global economy could be derailed unless policymakers took collective action.

"The cost of inaction will be costly in terms of global growth," Vinals said. "I will argue that esteemed policymakers need to adopt urgently more comprehensive and concerted policy action to strengthen growth and manage financial vulnerabilities."

Expressing concern over China's slowing growth and highly stressed banks and corprates, Vinals said the deleveraging will be key to global financial stability. But he added that he did not foresee a hard landing for the world's second-largest economy.

Vinals said India needed to prioritize a clean-up of its banks' balance sheets, while tackling the economy's debt overhang. He also said potential capital outflows also posed a risk.

Indian banks' stressed loans are at 13-year high of 8 trillion rupees ($119.12 billion), constraining banks' ability to lend and boost economic growth. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie

About us
Italian coffee maker Lavazza sees revenues reaching as much as 1.7 billion euros this year, up nearly 20% on 2015, after the purchase of French brand Carte Noire, it said on Thursday.

The Turin-based group said it had finalized the acquisition of Carte Noire to become the market leader for coffee in France, confirming what sources told Reuters last month.

The deal values Carte Noire at 700-750 million euros. Of this, 400 million euros will be funded through bank financing, with Lavazza's cash covering the rest.

The acquisition represents another step in the group's long-term strategy to compete in a market led by larger rivals such as Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE).

"Our aim is to reach a dimension that allows us to play a key role in the sector," CEO Antonio Baravalle said at an event in Paris, adding the group wanted to increase its annual revenue to 2 billion euros over the next five years.

Lavazza also wants to raise the portion of its foreign sales to 70% of the total from 55% last year.

The group, which ranks seventh among the world's coffee roasters, will continue to look for attractive companies to buy, the CEO said, adding the perfect targets were "local jewels."

Carte Noire was put up for sale in February 2015 by U.S.-based group Mondelez International to soothe European competition concerns after it combined with D.E Master Blenders 1753 to form JDE, the world's biggest standalone coffee group. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie

About us
Corey Yeates has been a member of the Cache County Council for nearly 20 years but he has decided not to run for another term. On Tuesday, council members were asked to approve tax exemptions for several organizations for their educational work in the county, including Planned Parenthood.

As he has done every year when the issue comes up, Yeates voted against the exemption for Planned Parenthood. He said he could not support them because they perform abortions.

You know, I feel pretty good about most of the clinics here in Utah. I dont know how many are performing abortions, I have no idea, Yeates said after the council meeting Tuesday. But we dont have the same number that are getting into all the garbage going on nationwide.

He also said the time was right for others to step forward and deny Planned Parenthood tax exempt status, especially with the recent support of Governor Gary Herbert.

Now we have a governor who is actually request(ing) that the funding for Planned Parenthood be pulled. I said, now is our time. We can stand forward and say our county does not want them to receive the tax exempt status. And were backing up the governor.

In the past, one other council member has voted with Yeates. On Tuesday two members said no  Kathy Robison and Greg Merrill. With seven members on the council, the vote was still 4 to 3 in favor of granting Planned Parenthood tax exempt status in Cache County.
EU and Turkey: Friends or Foes ?

Published on March 10, 2016

Story by Marta Pacheco

en

fr

es

it

de

pl

Brussels was the stage for yet another Summit with a focus on Turkey and the current refugee crisis. Amongst the outcomes of the controversial deal, the Byzantine country requested an extra 3 billion from the European Union amidst Western criticisms over Turkish authorities seizing an opposition news agency.

Another Summit

Nothing has really evolved since the last Summit, in November 2015, when Turkey agreed to cooperate with the EU in exchange for facilitated mobility within the Union, a pre-requisite for a gradual fully membership. Early in February 2016, the Member States decided on an agreement on how to finance the 3 billion EU refugee facility for Turkey; thereby, the EU is set to disburse 1 billion, and the Member States another 2 billion. The contributions from the Member States are based on their gross national income (GNI) and you can see here how much each Member States will pay out.

At the last EU-Turkey Summit (March 7th), Turkey demanded an extra 3 billion to handle the flux of refugees wedged in the country. Also part of the arguable deal is to withdraw irregular migrants, including Syrians, crossing from Turkey to Greece, and for each Syrian sent back, a Syrian in Turkey would be resettled in the EU, as well as the creation of safety zones in Syria. EU leaders are considering the Turkish proposal amidst a chorus of voices calling on protection and dignity for the migrants. Next week, yet another Summit will decide the fate of the migrants and refugees.

Nonetheless, the relocation plan introduced in May 2015 was originally intended to send 40,000 asylum seekers from Italy and Greece to other Member States. Later on, in September, the number rose to 160,000 relocations. Until the present moment, only 660 migrants have been placed in Italy and Greece. In Portugal, due to receive 2,883 migrants but so far only with 63, many social institutions are fully prepared to receive migrants but they seem not to arrive. Why is the EU being so sluggish rolling on from Summit to Summit?

The Unspoken Voices of Refugees and Migrants

After the plan had been formally announced, a rain of critics fell over the decision-makers. Refugees should not be used as bargaining chips. The integrity of the EUs asylum system, indeed the integrity of European values, is at stake, said Bill Frelick, Refugees Director in Human Rights Watch.

Iverna McGowan, Head of Amnesty International in Europe, claimed  the idea of bartering refugees for refugees is not only dangerously dehumanizing, but also offers no sustainable long term solution to the ongoing humanitarian crisis.

After closing its borders with Syria, Turkish guards are allegedly shooting at Syrian refugees drifting near the borders. This perturbing disclosure was recently announced by RT, where Andrew Gardner, researcher on Turkey for Amnesty International, asserted that Turkish guards regularly shoot refugees stuck at the border with Syria. Now, the information we received via Syria doctors is that there are reports of two or three people being shot every day trying to cross the border irregularly, he said.

Green MEP Ska Keller has not hidden her indignation concerning this delicate situation. Turkey is a country that uses its army against its own people, it is a country where reportedly border guards have shot at refugees, it is a country where press freedom is under attack and the European Commission wants to declare it a safe third country? Does the European Commission really believe this? As for the Parliament President Martin Schulz, for the benefit of refugees, we need to cooperate with Turkey, he said.

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, wrote Paul Mason in The Guardian.

Freedom of Expression in Turkey

The Turks, under Erdogans administration, are suffering a violent curb on their civil liberties and freedom of expression. On March 4th, Zaman, the largest opposition newspaper in Turkey, was seized. While the team was waiting for a police raid on their offices, the network channel CNN Turk was running a story on an earthquake in Japan.

On March 8th, Cihan news agency was yet another victim from the Turkish government, which will now appoint administrators to run the newspaper. Both Cihan and Zaman are part of the Feza Gazetecilik media company.

In late November 2015, Tahir Elci, a Turkish human rights lawyer was killed in cold blood, in the middle of the street in southeast Turkey, while doing declarations to the press. Elsi had faced a criminal charge for supporting Kurdish rebels. Is death remains unclear.

On November 22th 2015, the co-president of left party HDP (Peoples Democratic Party), Selahattin Demirtas, escaped an assassination attempt while he was inside of his armored car. The HDP is a secular opposition party, which supports and defends the existence of the Kurdish people. After the general elections in June 2015, the HDP managed to assemble 13,12% of the electorate, becoming the fourth political force in Turkey. According to Index Censorship, 7 journalists were killed in Turkey since 2014, and 2 were killed so far in 2016.

Conclusions

The EU is between a rock and a hard place. Facing itself with thousands of migrants and refugees at its doors, Europe needs external support to be able to control and manage the process of integration  especially from Turkey, the country with the power to control the flow of migrants into Europe. In turn, Turkey insists in becoming member of the EU, asking for free-visas before the ends of the year. At the same time, Erdogan seeks an ally in the EU, after relations with the US became worse following alleged American support for Syrian Kurds. Nonetheless, the sealed deal between the EU and Turkey seems to go beyond the comprehension of democratic minds.

To begin with, scrutinizing migrants into regular and irregular should be considered a Human Rightsviolation, especially considering that many of them are currently paperless, doomed to become statelessness. Second, the creation of safety zones in Syria? Seriously? Third, according to the Copenhagen criteria defined in 1993 by the Council, any Nation that wish to become a member state must comply with a number of principles, including the guarantee of democracy, the rule of law, the respect for human rights and the protection of minorities. Do I need to wonder whether Turkey fits the criteria? Will the EU close its eyes and continue shaking hands with a non-democratic leader in exchange of facilities?

Proofread by Danica Jorden

Story by Marta Pacheco
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. It has been a decade since former Ney York Mayor Michael Bloomberg decided to ramp up New York Citys efforts to attract more tourists, and city officials say there is no end to the influx on the horizon, Armenpress reports, citing The New York Times.

Fred Dixon, the chief executive of New Yorks tourism-marketing agency, NYC & Company, announced a forecast of 59.7 million visitors this year. That will exceed last years record of 58.3 million visitors by 2.4 percent and keep the city on pace for a goal of drawing 67 million annual visitors by 2021, Mr. Dixon said in an interview.

NYC & Company is projecting about 920,000 visitors from China this year, an increase of 8.2 percent from the preliminary estimate of about 850,000 in 2015. China is the fourth-largest source of foreign visitors to the city, behind England, Canada and Brazil.

Weve already said were expecting Chinese visitors to reach one million by 2018, and this could help us achieve it even sooner, Mr. Dixon said.

Under the leadership of Mr. Dixon, who was chosen to be chief executive by Mayor Bill de Blasio two years ago, NYC & Company has continued to promote the city overseas  not an inexpensive undertaking.

The agencys total budget for this year will be about $35 million, with more than half of it provided by the city government, Mr. Dixon said. The rest comes from hotel operators and other tourism-related businesses that make up its membership.

Tourism is an incredibly important piece of our economy, Ms. Glen said in a phone interview. When we invest in the sector, we get a really high return.
Caller-Times file The Art Museum of South Texas, 1902 N. Shoreline Blvd., is hosting its Moms and Tots (and sometimes Pops!) event at 10 a.m. Thursday.

SHARE

THURSDAY

CLASS: The Art Museum of South Texas, 1902 N. Shoreline Blvd., is hosting its Moms and Tots (and sometimes Pops!) event at 10 a.m. The event will focus on leprechauns, rainbows and gold in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. Event is geared for kids ages 2-5. Cost: $5 members; $10 nonmembers. Information: 361-825-3504.

BOOKS: The American Association University Women will have a book sale from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Neyland Library, 1230 Carmel Parkway The books will represent 35 categories available for purchase during the three-day event. There will also be a silent auction that closes at 3 p.m. Saturday. Cost: Prices vary. Information: 361-991-4612.

PERFORMING ARTS: The Del Mar College Department of Art and Drama will present "Almost, Maine" at 7:30 p.m. at the Sue Sellors Finley Theatre, Fine Arts Center. Cost: Free, students; all others $6. Information: www.delmar.edu/drama.

MEETING: The New Neighbors League of Corpus Christi will host its monthly luncheon at 11 a.m. at Citrus Bistro inside the Art Center of Corpus Christi, 100 N. Shoreline Blvd. The program will be presented by Mia Burbage, manager of outreach services for the Gulf Coast Humane Society. Cost: $23. Information: ccnewneighbors@gmail.com.

CLASS: Wilton Cake Decorating courses are being offered during March at Hobby Lobby, 5425 S. Padre Island Drive. Wray Nell Mosier will teach Flowers and Cake Design from 6-8 p.m. The course consists of four-two hour classes. Cost: $35 each class. Information: 361-991-3641.

PERFORMING ARTS: Texas A&M University-Kingsville students will perform "Boeing Boeing" at 7:30 p.m. at The Little Theatre, 903 W. Engineering Ave. Cost:$5, general admission; free, students with ID. Information: 361-593-3401.

FRIDAY

DRINKS: Railroad Seafood Station Brewing Company will host a brew debut at 4 p.m. at 1214 N. Chaparral St. In addition to the brew debut, there will be a special seafood menu. Cost: Food and drink prices vary. Information: 361-883-6200.

PERFORMING ARTS: The Port Aransas Community Theatre will host the Forever Opry Tribute to Country Women at 7:30 p.m. The performance takes a look at some of the great ladies of country music through photos, videos and live performances of a selection of their greatest hits. Cost: $17. Information: www.portaransascommunitytheatre.com.

BOOKS: The American Association University Women will have a book sale from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., at Neyland Library, 1230 Carmel Parkway The books will represent 35 categories available for purchase during the three-day event. There will also be a silent auction that closes at 3 p.m. Saturday. Cost: Prices vary. Information: 361-991-4612.

PERFORMING ARTS: The Del Mar College Department of Art and Drama will present "Almost, Maine" at 7:30 p.m. at the Sue Sellors Finley Theatre, Fine Arts Center. Cost: $10, adults; $6, student advance, faculty, staff, seniors, military. Information: www.delmar.edu/drama.

PERFORMING ARTS: Harbor Playhouse will perform the Broadway musical "Chicago" at 7:30 p.m. at 1802 N. Chaparral St. The production features dazzling dance numbers and mesmerizing musical performances. Cost: $18, adults; $10, children younger than 13. Information: 361-882-5500, www.harborplayhouse.com.

PERFORMING ARTS: Texas A&M University-Kingsville students will perform "Boeing Boeing" at 7:30 p.m. at The Little Theatre, 903 W. Engineering Ave. Cost:$5, general admission; free, students with ID. Information: 361-593-3401.

PERFORMING ARTS: The Aurora Arts Theatre will host its performance of "West Side Story" at 7:30 p.m. at 5635 Everhart Road. Cost: Tickets range from $10 to $15. Information: 361-851-9700, www.auroraartstheatre.com.

For more events check Caller.com/vivacc
Caller-Times file Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce manager Dan Chamberlin (left) and assistant manager Jack Humphries (right) chat with NAS-CC commanding officer Captain John F. Greensdale (center) while passing out chamber pamphlets promoting Corpus Christi as "The Door to Wonderland." The three were discussing the Navy Relief Festival, an annual event benefiting the Navy Relief Society.

SHARE

By Allison Ehrlich of the Caller-Times

The land was mostly mesquite brush and sand, with some small fishing shacks and a few roads. But when a Naval Affairs subcommittee from the House of Representatives visited in the late 1930s, they envisioned the site of a future Navy air training base.

By June 1940 President Franklin D. Roosevelt was signing appropriation bills funding the base and just days later construction crews began their work. Navy aircraft showed up by the following January and when commissioning ceremonies were held on March 12, 1941 the base was already 70 percent complete. Nine days later flight training began.

In this photo taken in the early 1950s, Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce manager Dan Chamberlin (left) and assistant manager Jack Humphries chat with NAS-CC commanding officer Captain John F. Greensdale (center) while passing out chamber pamphlets promoting Corpus Christi as "The Door to Wonderland." The three were discussing the Navy Relief Festival, an annual event benefiting the Navy Relief Society.

A national organization, the society provides financial assistance, counseling and other needs to Navy personnel. The local auxiliary hosted the festival annually for years to raise funds for loans, layettes and nurse visits for families with newborns and salaries for the few staff members. The festival was a huge draw for locals who came out to support the military. In 1954, about 152,000 people attended the three-day festival, with an estimated 74,000 showing up for the afternoon air show and another 12,000 for the evening carnival.

The face of Corpus Christi and the surrounding area have changed dramatically since the base opened in 1941. But locals' support of the base has endured, and now NAS-Corpus Christi invite citizens to help them celebrate 75 years of partnership starting with an official ceremony at 11 a.m. Saturday. Check out the Caller-Times special section in Friday's newspaper detailing the base's history.

Allison Ehrlich is the archive coordinator for the Caller-Times. Contact her at allison.ehrlich@caller.com and follow her on Twitter @CallerArchives.
SHARE Ray Rosas

By Krista M. Torralva of the Caller-Times

A man accused of shooting three Corpus Christi police officers is scheduled to stand trial June 13.

Ray Rosas, 47, appeared on Thursday before 148th District Judge Guy Williams for a hearing attended by several officers.

Rosas will have another pretrial hearing May 5. He is charged with three counts of attempted capital murder in the Feb. 19, 2015, shooting that injured Officers Steven Ruebelmann, Steven Brown and Andrew Jordan.

Police said the SWAT team went to raid the suspected drug house and arrest Rosas' nephew. Rosas' attorneys have said he believed he was protecting his home from burglars when he fired about 15 rounds at officers. He didn't realize they were police, his attorneys said.

Twitter: @CallerKMT
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Volunteer Breanne Towers distributes school supplies and information at an expo.

SHARE CONTRIBUTED PHOTO The Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society

By Fares Sabawi of the Caller-Times

Jimmie Driver always tries to go the extra mile for anybody she helps.

When a student pilot asked her for help finding a washer and dryer, she made it a personal mission. She immediately sought help through social media and that pilot was soon able to get the appliances he needed.

As the wife of a retired Navy pilot, Driver said she knows how important it is to lend a hand to sailors, marines and their families.

"It's taking care of one of your own," she said. "It's taking care of those that are giving a service to us and protecting our country."

For more than 70 years, that's exactly what the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society in Corpus Christi has done by providing assistance, financial and otherwise, for active-duty and retired service members. Driver is the chairwoman of volunteers for the local society.

The society was first formed in 1904 by Naval officers, their wives and civilians. The Corpus Christi group was established in 1941.

"The initial need was to help widows and orphans," said Melissa Bradley, the director of the local society.

It was not long until the society needed to branch out, Bradley said. The services expanded through the years, and now it helps officers through interest-free loans and grants that can cover anything from basic living expenses to family emergencies.

In 2015, the society helped 144 people in Corpus Christi and dispersed more than $139,000.

But the organization does not limit itself to just financial help. Nurses, traditional and combat casualty, are also employed with the society, making home visits to families across the community. Those services are crucial, said Ruthi Moore, the director of nursing.

"A lot of the combat vets, their families don't know what to expect next," Moore said. "We follow 3,800 families around the country."

The society also has programs that help families budget properly and prepare for a baby. Even if the volunteers can't help someone in need, they'll try and find someone who can.

"A client may not fit into us being able to help them but we'll know of other places," Driver said.

Bradley, who has been the director since 2013, has done case work in other bases for several years now. She said she's never stopped being passionate about the people she helps.

"We're all here because we want to help," she said.

The Caller-Times will have a special edition Friday commemorating the 75th anniversary of the base. A portion of those proceeds will benefit the local society.

Twitter: @Caller_Fares

if you go

What: Naval Air Station Corpus Christi's 75th Anniversary Celebration

When: The anniversary ceremony starts at 11 a.m. Saturday. Bus tours and festivities begin at 1 p.m. Concerts begin at 5 p.m. Fireworks display begins at 7:45 p.m.

Where: Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, 11001 D St. The main gate, off South Padre Island Drive, will open to the public at 10 a.m.

Cost: Free
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic Alexis Tsipras on the initiative of the Greek side, Armenpress reports, Kremlin press service informed.

The exchange of the ideas covered pressing matters of bilateral cooperation with both sides confirming their resolve to strengthen mutually advantageous ties in various fields, primarily trade, investment and energy. It was noted that the events planned for the reciprocal Years of Culture in 2016 between Greece and Russia, as well as celebrations to mark 1000 years since Russian monks settled on Mount Athos would open up new opportunities to bring the two nations closer together.

The discussion of international issues focused mainly on the Syrian crisis, stressing the need to observe the ceasefire in that country. The President of Russia said ensuring the ceasefire was a key factor in normalising the internal situation and alleviating the humanitarian crisis in the region, as well as an important step on the way to a political settlement within Syria. The Greek Prime Minister stated his high assessment of the efforts made and spoke in detail of the measures taken by the European Union to resolve the refugee crisis.

The parties agreed on a plan of future contacts at various levels.
Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times A woman takes a child into school at Dawson Elementary School on Wednesday, March 9, 2016 as a storm rages.

SHARE Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times People run through the rain as they head to Dawson Elementary School on Wednesday. Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times People run through the rain as they head to Dawson Elementary School on Wednesday. COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Crews clear storm drains on Carancahua Street near Trinity Towers after a car stalled out in standing water. COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES A stalled car sits in standing water as crews clear storm drains on Carancahua Street near Trinity Towers on Wednesday.

By Fares Sabawi of the Caller-Times

Rain is still in the forecast for the next few days, but it'll make way for nicer weather this weekend, according to an official from the National Weather Service.

Storms moved through the Coastal Bend in the early hours of Wednesday morning and additional rain continued that night. As of Wednesday evening, the city racked up 4.13 inches of rain, breaking last year's record of 2.15 inches. At least an additional inch was expected overnight, said Observing Program Leader Doug Vogelsang.

Fears of flooding from the rain led the city and county to activate their Emergency Operations Centers on Wednesday to monitor the weather.

The city's EOC sent a reverse alert to residents to warn them rain was expected to increase during the evening rush hour.

"We wanted to proactively plan (the alerts) for our residents," said Kim Womack, the city's Director of Public Communications.

Danielle Hale, Nueces County's Office of Emergency Management liaison, said there was no significant flooding Wednesday.

The weather did affect other areas of daily life, however. Power outages sent Tuloso-Midway Middle School students home Wednesday morning and temporarily affected a portion of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

Other outages affected thousands of customers, including 985 Nueces Electric Cooperative customers and up to 6,300 AEP customers. AEP spokesman Omar Lopez said crews were able to restore power soon after outages were reported.

"(Crews) are always on-call to make sure we can respond quickly, efficiently and safely," Lopez said.

Flights were affected, too. According to Corpus Christi International Airport's website, one flight from Houston was delayed while another was canceled because of weather.

Rain is expected to continue through Friday, Vogelsang said, but Saturday will be clear with a high of 80 degrees.

"The spring breakers should be in a good mood," Vogelsang said.
SHARE CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Dr. Adam Bingaman

By Fares Sabawi of the Caller-Times

Too often, Jettie Powers hears similar stories as the executive director of the Coastal Bend Kidney Foundation.

"I get phone calls of people in panic because they never realized they've had kidney disease," Powers said. "They're having to go on dialysis for the first time."

Powers, whose organization serves 12 South Texas counties, is hoping the community better understands the health issues that plague the Coastal Bend on Thursday night during a fundraiser dinner with Dr. Adam Bingaman, a San Antonio transplant surgeon.

Bingaman is the director of abdominal organ transplantation in the Texas Transplant Institute, which is a part of Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital. He views kidney disease as a burden for the entire country. It affects South Texas more because diabetes is so prevalent in the region.

"(Diabetes is) the biggest cause of kidney failure," he said.

Bingaman said education and awareness are the best ways to combat the rise in kidney failure.

"When you talk to young people that are well, they don't know anything about diabetes," he said. "We need to educate them while they're well so they know that diabetes and kidney failure are linked."

The foundation has been working hard to accomplish that goal here, Powers said. The organization provides free kidney screening to residents in an effort to detect any issues early.

"Some people we have seen have not seen a doctor in 20 years," Powers said. "Because of our health issues in South Texas, it's even more important people here get screened."

The proceeds from Thursday's dinner will help the foundation continue providing free screenings to residents of the Coastal Bend.

how to help

To donate to the Coastal Bend Kidney Foundation, visit www.coastalbend kidneyfoundation.org.
SHARE CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Uber

By Matt Woolbright of the Caller-Times

The City Council chose to fight popular ride-hailing company Uber on background checks, and the company decided to leave.

It's the second time in as many months a council decision may have set up a November political fight.

On Tuesday, six members of the council advocated for requiring fingerprint-based background checks of drivers with companies like Uber and Lyft  a measure Uber officials told the council in a March 4 letter would cause the company to leave.

Less than 24 hours after the ordinance was adopted, Uber notified its area drivers the service will terminate here at 10 p.m. Sunday  two hours before the law goes into effect. Lyft did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

"The decision to cease operations does not come easily, but we know from experience in other markets that these rules can have a devastating impact on our ability to provide the experience that drivers and riders have come to love and expect," states the letter, which is signed by Sarfraz Maredia, the company's general manager for South and East Texas.

Now at least one of those council members  Lucy Rubio of District 3  will have an election challenger because of her vote. Rick Gomez, owner of Gomez Properties, said he will be running for Rubio's council position.

"I don't need the city council to make my safety decisions for me," Gomez wrote on Facebook before announcing his plans.

During discussion on the issue, Rubio said the company should leave if it was unwilling to abide by the city's laws.

After Tuesday's vote several angry Uber supporters and drivers gathered outside the chambers to decide who they'll try to unseat in November. Only City Councilwoman Colleen McIntyre will have their support. Councilman Mark Scott, an advocate for Uber, also would if he weren't term-limited.

"It's time for our young city leaders and professionals to take back our city and complete the mission our current city leaders have failed to do for years," Armando Mendez wrote on Facebook on Wednesday morning.

It was a similar scene about a month before when the council dismissed a cite-and-release ordinance for marijuana offenses without discussion.

Uber's announcement came hours after city officials and police hosted a news conference about how company drivers like Uber's and Lyft's can apply for a city permit. But no permit can be issued unless the company registers with the city.

Opponents to the ordinance said any added safety of requiring a fingerprint-based background check, which is considered more comprehensive than non-biometric methods, would be negated by more drunken drivers without Uber as an option.

"And just like that our fearless city council leaders voted for an ordinance that regulates innovation and modern technology for an alternative use of transportation," Mendez wrote. "Yes, it makes ride sharing legal, but (it) bullies the operators into more regulations against their free enterprise right."

Supporters of the ordinance, including Mayor Nelda Martinez who championed the effort Tuesday, said it was a vital component for public safety.

Adolfo Garcia, an Uber driver who's driven more than 3,200 trips here, said Tuesday he expects citizens will launch a petition to undo the council's action.

Twitter: @reportermatt

Rules of the road

In addition to drivers submitting to fingerprint-based background checks (estimated to cost about $38), transportation network companies and drivers have to meet other requirements.

drivers must:

Pay a $50 application fee after a clean background check,

Pay a $15 vehicle inspection fee,

Not drive more than 12 hours in any 24-hour period,

Drivers may not refuse to transport someone to any destination within the city limits,

Display a company sign on the car that's visible at least 50 feet away,

Drivers may not solicit customers anywhere in the city, and

Drivers may not respond to customers on the street who ask to hire their vehicle.

the company must:

Pay a permit fee equal to 2 percent of the gross revenue for each vehicle in the city quarterly, and

Renew permits annually

Source: City documents
Why is Trump coming to Robstown? Here's what political experts think.

Trump will appear at the Richard M. Borchard Regional Fairgrounds on Saturday to "advance the MAGA agenda," according to his Save America PAC.
CAMEROUN :: Cameroon: Man Arrested with Elephant Parts

A 35-year old man was arrested on March 3, 2016 in Ebolowa for trafficking elephant parts. The man was arrested shortly after he arrived Ebolowa from a small village called Nyabessan in the South Region close to the Campo Maaan National Park. The operation was carried out by the South Regional Delegation of Forestry and Wildlife in collaboration with the Judicial Police. The Last Great Ape Organisation (LAGA) provided technical assistance during the whole process.

According to sources that participated in the operation, when he arrived Ebolowa, he immediately used a bike to seemingly catch up with somebody because he made several calls and rode off. Noticeably, he carried a carried bulging bag and it contained three fresh elephant tails and hoofs, as it was discovered after the arrest.

The same sources say, the investigations were sparked by a recent discovery that the suspect had sold some ivory tusks to one Alhadji who travelled all the way from Yaounde to Ebolowa. Preliminary investigation into his activities revealed that he was a big time poacher who equally doubled as a trafficker, selling ivory to clients most of whom came from Yaounde. The investigations also found out that the frequency of such sales was once every two weeks, meaning the suspect alone could kill about 26 elephants a year.

It is alleged that he works in complicity with one gendarme officer who provides him the necessary cover and inside information on the movement of wildlife officials on control and in return, the trafficker supplies the man with bushmeat and money after every mission into the forests. He equally hires a gun from a relative at 25 000 CFA F per mission which involves searching and killing elephants inside the Campo Maaan National Park. When he cannot easily find elephant herds on the Cameroon side, he crosses the Ntem River into Equatorial Guinea where he would be sure to get them, inside sources said.

The man who is presently behind bars is expected to be charged with illegal killing of a protected wildlife species and possession of its parts. According to the 1994 wildlife law anyone found in possession of parts of a protected wildlife species is considered to have killed the animal and is liable to a maximum prison term of 3 years and or a maximum fine of 10 million CFA F.

It is estimated that 38 000 elephants are killed each year to supply the illegal trade in ivory that is booming in Asia. The rise in the price of ivory with increasing profits is attracting a lot of criminals into the business and the Central African sub region that is home to the forest elephant is feeling the strain. A recent study revealed that over 60% of the population of forest elephants have been decimated in the last couple of years. And if a single poacher can kill up to 26 elephants a year, then situation is approaching

calamity for the African elephant. These are frightening statistics for the conservation world and especially to wildlife officials who have the responsibility to stop the extinction of the elephant. This explains why the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife is providing proper impetus to wildlife law enforcement initiatives, since the beginning of this year.
The victims were carrying out maintenance work on the tank when it exploded.

ADS





September 10 was a sad day at the cloth production company, Cicam, following the explosion of one of its three gas tank that led to the hospitalisation of two workers of another company who were carrying out maintenance work on the tanks. The victims, who are currently responding to treatment in a health establishment in Douala, sustained burns on the back and other parts of the body.



Talking to CT in the Cicam Factory premise on September 10, a senior staff who preferred anonymity said the incident took place at about 12 noon when maintenance work were ongoing. The burns, he said, are not critical as some media houses reported. He later disclosed that according they are responding to treatment according to doctors observation, and would be discharged from the hospital in less than a week.



The fire that started at 12 noon took elements of the Ngodi Fire Fighting Brigade one hour to quench after which work resumed at the factory at 3:00 pm same day. It should be noted that authorities in the Region, including the Senior Divisional Officer, Naseri Paul Bea, called round to assure that the situation was well taken care of.



The fire incident occurred at a time the factory just resumed from their routine one month break observed every year in August.

ADS
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. Turkish law enforcement agencies are searching for 18-year-old Christina Tikhonova on suspicion of terrorism, who arrived to Istanbul from Dagestan. As "Armenpress" reports this was announced by the Turkish "Cumhuriyet" newspaper.

Tikhonova is suspected of joining the extremist Islamic State" terrorist organization. She departed for Turkey from Moscow on February 18, after which she informed her friends in Dagestan that she is going to "blow herself up in Turkey in order to go to heaven."

Turkish intelligence informed all units of power structures about the threat.
Ninety-five sachets of Thai, 74 packets of cannabis, 21 packets of cocaine, five tablets of Tramol and a pair of scissors were on March 8th seized from five individuals in Bonadibong.

ADS

Following a tipoff, the 3rd District Public Security Police Station at Camp Bertaud, and the Central Police Station N1 in Bonanjo stormed the area in Bonadibong known as Ghetto, seized 195 packets of harmful drugs and arrested culprits.

The March 8 police operation led to the highest quantity of drugs snatched in one night of late in the port city. The operation was carried out at 10 pm at the peak of the 31th International Womens Day celebration.

The close to 200 packets of harmful drugs and the five culprits are currently helping the police with investigations at the Central Police Station n1 in Bonanjo. The police operation is in line with the fight against the possession, consumption and sale of harmful drugs in the economic capital.

ADS
Tim Jones becomes regional chief executive for the Americas, Iain Jacob regional CEO for EMEA, and Gerry Boyle regional CEO for APAC, covering 20 top markets between them.

Two longstanding group brands, Starcom Mediavest Group and ZenithOptimedia, "are retired to better enable a flatter organisational structure".

King said the agencies Starcom and Zenith would continue as global media networks. Mediavest Spark will be a newly rebranded third network and Optimedia Blue 449 is to be a fourth "challenger" network.

Each agency will be led by a global brand president. Lisa Donohue was named as global brand president for Starcom, Vittorio Bonori as global brand president for Zenith, Brian Terkelsen as global brand president for Mediavest Spark, and Andras Vigh as global brand president for Optimedia Blue 449.

King said: "We are driven to get to the future first. Publicis Media is a fresh opportunity to simplify our organisation, invent more modern approaches to gain efficiency, introduce structures for greater collaboration and effectiveness, and drive new levels of scale and client value."

Publicis Groupe set up Publicis Media as a division for all its media agencies in December as part of a wider restructuring and promoted Steve King to be its chief executive.

This move provides another piece of the puzzle as it was a major question raised when the Groupe first announced its new structure.

It is thought that Publicis Groupe, the world's third biggest ad group, sees Publicis Media as a way to use its scale to compete with rivals such as WPP's Group M.

King made a series of other appointments as Publicis Media will have seven practices: data, technology and innovation led by Stephan Beringer; content led by Belinda Rowe; trading and buying led by Simon Pardon; performance led by Michael Kahn; business development and communications led by Lauren Hanrahan; business transformation led by Richard Hartell; and analytics, research and insight led by Steve Simpson.

Publicis, which has suffered a tough time in its key North America market where it lost Procter & Gamble and Walmart, confirmed the appointments of its US agency CEOs in the new set-up. Chris Boothe becomes CEO of Mediavest Spark, Dave Ehlers is CEO of Optimedia Blue 449, Lou Rossi continues at Zenith and Lisa Donohue is interim CEO for Starcom until a successor is named. They all report to Tim Jones, CEO of Americas.

Maurice Levy, the chief executive of Publicis Groupe since 1987, plans to step down next year. Arthur Sadoun, who heads Publicis Communications, and King are seen as possible contenders to succeed him.
| BY Ricki Green |

Artificial intelligence and invisible computers, and consumers who want their service personalised right now  these are the trends that will see businesses make it or break it this year, according to Australias leading digital agency, Isobar.

Isobars strategy director Samantha Hardman (left) says things like auto-replenishment of your favourite coffee beans before you realise theyre about to run out, having an ice-cream delivered to your towel at the beach, or even helping farmers to optimise how they go about their work, are just some of the examples of advances in experiences and technology that well be expecting from businesses in 2016.

Says Hardman: No longer is there a significant decision to purchase many things in the connected world. Even substantial purchases can be made almost as a matter of impulse. This is the rise of brand commerce  the closing of the gap between inspiration, or expectation, and the point of transaction so that, what a consumer wants, they get, often within a matter of moments.

In its newly-released Australian edition of the agencys 2016 global trend report, Isobar highlights some of these trends, as well as the opportunities and challenges that exist within each.

Hardman says what weve come to know as the normal way to interact with businesses will change dramatically.

Says Hardman: Artificial intelligence is fast becoming a constant part of our lives and were starting to see the transition of consumers from being surprised by these highly predictive and tailored interactions into something they expect as a minimum service.

Second to this is the way that brands physically interact with their customers. What we commonly understand to be an interface will dramatically shift over the next few years as we experience the rise of the invisible interface. Well see more and more sophisticated interactions, from authentication to completing a transaction, taking place. Things like facial recognition and making a payment with a selfie, for example.

Says Hardman: Speed is also important, and were in the era of me.

Personalisation is the key to businesses engaging with their customers.

Continues Hardman: An on-demand economy is not just your ice-cream delivered to your towel at the beach type of scenario either. This is the Uber model applied across a host of other industries, creating a flexible, on-demand workforce, enabled by mobile and powered by a new currency  trust and reputation.

And while theyre at it, all this juicy data businesses are capturing through online interactions at any point in the day paints a picture about their customers. It presents spectacular opportunities for brands to really connect with their audience in ways never done before. Were talking things like tailor-made advertising, like a banner advert that changes what it says according to the weather, time of day, and even your gender and information stored on your phone.

Hardman says the world is in the process of an economic shift that brands will ignore at their own peril.

Businesses need to be smart about predicting their customers behaviour and tailoring their offering to their every demand. Businesses will be expected to not simply meet but to anticipate needs.

There are so many possibilities on the cards today and one look at a trend report like this illustrates the exponential rate at which theyre being spawned. We can pretend its not happening, we can wait and see where it goes, or we can get in there, get our hands dirty and be part of history.
| BY Ricki Green |

Now in its 34th year, the Australian Marketing Institute has announced nominations are now open for the Awards for Marketing Excellence, with winners to be announced at a gala event in Sydney in October this year. Nominations close on Friday 3 June.

The annual Australian Marketing Institute Awards for Marketing Excellence are presented to organizations and marketers who have achieved extraordinary success from innovative and effective marketing practices.

The Awards are continuously evolving every year in response to new developments in marketing theory and practice, and to reflect the growing appreciation of the critical role of marketing as the vital source of value creation for a business. New awards in 2016 include Public Sector Marketing, Export Marketing, and Tourism Marketing to name a few.

Nominations are open to all marketers, including agencies, B2B, and B2C companies. With 10 new categories introduced in 2016, the 28 categories recognize all industries and sectors within Australia.

The Awards for Marketing Excellence are not just for the bigger players like Coke, who won the Marketing Communications (B2C) award in 2015. Just for Pets won Marketing Program of the year in 2015, proving that sometimes it only takes authenticity and goodwill to inspire and add value to an award winning marketing program.

The four prestigious awards, Certified Practising Marketer of the Year, Campaign of the Year, Future Leader of the Year and Sir Charles McGrath award, once again take pride of place in the awards program, along with new category, Marketing Team of the Year. In 2015, CPM Caroline Fitzpatrick, Just For Pets, and Future Leader Gina Lednyak were respective recipients of these awards alongside Sir Charles McGrath Winner, Launa Inman.
| BY Ricki Green |

T ourism Victoria has released its refreshed online travel hub, Visit Victoria, aimed at boosting tourism and promoting Victoria to travellers via long term digital partner IE.

The exciting update to the digital platform aims to bring more people to Victoria than ever and drive engagement with local businesses. Its now easy for travellers to browse, plan and book their stay through listings on Visit Victoria.

The Visit Victoria site was one of the few agile-run government software development projects

to come out of the state. Increasingly government is looking to agile as a better way of solving technology problems. By using this methodology and practice, Tourism Victoria was able to reach the best outcome possible in the shortest period of time.

IE was co-located on site with the team for six months. This meant that the combined group, of Tourism Victoria and IE, worked in collaboration and truly functioned as an agile team.

IE took Tourism Victoria through an agile plan phase, which consisted of workshops aimed to detail and prioritise requirements, confirm objectives and solidify the project roadmap.

The initial design concepts were created by Clemenger BBDO, and then adapted by Tourism Victoria to suit the responsive design of the site.

The rebuilt site is sitting on the Sitecore CMS, the obvious platform of choice for Tourism Victoria with its complex personalisation and enterprise content management capabilities.

Visit Victoria also now exists in eight different languages for travellers around the globe, they are: French, German, Italian, Korean, Spanish, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese and English.

Features of the new site include a clean user- experience design (UX); visitors can use the advanced filtering system to easily and quickly find their desired attractions, either by location or category.

Says Nick Foa, CEO, Tourism Victoria: Developing the new site, a critical marketing channel for the organisation, has been an incredible project involving a significant team effort. The new site has had major enhancement on the previous version and now offers a best practice customer experience for travellers. For 2015, Visit Victoria attracted 8.8 million visits and we hope this number will only grow.

The site development was run as an agile project, a first for Tourism Victoria. IE and Tourism Victoria staff formed a build team and worked closely on a daily basis to manage the development step by step. The success of the agile team approach was in creating

a close and collaborative working relationship.
| BY Ricki Green |

Xero, the leading cloud accounting software for small businesses, has launched phase one of its widest-reaching advertising campaign to date, in conjunction with APN News & Media (APN) companies including Emotive, Australian Radio Network (ARN) and Adshel.

The campaign addresses the burden that many small businesses have to deal with: the piles of paper receipts and invoices that often fill desks, back offices, and shoeboxes. Just like Xero has made accounting beautiful, the campaign turns paper receipts and invoices into objects of beauty: Xerogami.

Tapping into the combined power of the APNs assets, the Xerogami campaign sees Emotive join forces with Adshel and ARN to create a truly integrated strategy for Xero across online video, radio and OOH that aims to entertain, educate and engage the core Xero audience.

Hero video content created by Emotive speaks directly to the target audience by emphasising the autonomy, power and freedom Xero affords small business owners, leveraging the wide reach of ARN and Adshel to accelerate distribution.

Says Trent Innes, managing director of Xero Australia: Just like an idiom transforms the meaning of words, Xero has transformed the finances of 600,000 small businesses around the world into beautiful accounting. With Emotive, ARN and Adshel we created a campaign that used popular idioms and the concept of receipt origami, to make something beautiful out of the often chaotic paper-based accounting systems that many Australian businesses continue to use today.

Says Simon Joyce, CEO and founder of Emotive: Emotive led the core strategy and hero content creation for this campaign. Our challenge was to create an engaging content idea that would demonstrate how business finances could really be something insightful. Using a simple visual mechanic we were able to craft a content-first strategy that helped land the message and works seamlessly across social video, radio and outdoor.

Says Ciaran Davis, CEO, APN: The audience ARN and Adshel provides advertisers is unrivalled in power, combination and reach. When you overlay this with the content expertise and creativity by Emotive, you can see the sort of effectiveness APN assets can offer. The collaboration between Xero, Emotive, ARN and Adshel has led to this unique and high-impact campaign that delivers ease to business owners nationwide.

The Xerogami campaign is accompanied by a number of activities from Xeros retained PR agency Sling & Stone, to show how they can make their finances more efficient through cloud accounting.

Creative:

Xero

Shane Hurt  Design Lead

Clare Ralston  Producer

David Brand  Copywriter

Steve Benn  Designer

Ben Erskine  Partner Marketing Manager

James OConnell-Cooper  Direct Marketing Manager

Ross Purdy  Project Manager

Emotive

Creative & Production lead

Mark Harris  Agency Creative Director

Hayley-Ritz Pelling  Agency Producer

Simon Robson  Creative Director

Kyra Bartley  Director

Jacqui Hudson  Lead Paper Artist

Outdoor: Adshel

Radio: ARN
Climate change is on the ballot in the midterm elections: What's at stake

Democrats have set up several major climate change initiatives at the national level that Republicans would like to roll back. What to know.
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. NASDAQ OMX Armenia OJSC made no USD sale and purchase deals on March 10. Armenpress was informed about this from NASDAQ OMX Armenia. The Central Bank informs that the dollar appreciated by 0.17 drams on March 10, forming 490.90 drams, the euro rose by 0.19 drams, forming 538.37 drams. The Russian ruble rose by 0.14 drams, forming 6.93 drams.

The currency market has the following average exchange rates.
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. Head of the Armenian Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO PA) Eduard Sharmazanov received the Head of the Permanent Delegation of the Parliament of the Republic of Serbia to CSTO PA Milovan Drecun and the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Serbia Veroljub Arsic who visited the Republic of Armenia within the framework of the outgoing session of the CSTO PA.

As Armenpress was informed from Public Relations and Media Department of the National Assembly, Eduard Sharmazanov noted that the relations of the two countries develop adequately and regularly, but there is potential to furtherdevelop those relations. The Head of the Armenian Delegation stated that the Armenian and Serbian peoples have a series of commonalities: now the two peoples live in independent countries, and the Christian values unite them. Eduard Sharmazanov also underlined that the Armenian people dont forget the Serbian pilots, hurrying to help the Armenian people during the disastrous earthquake that occurred to the Armenians about three decades ago, who died fulfilling their humanitarian mission.

Eduard Sharmazanov considered prior the development and cooperation of the inter-parliamentary relations in different international structures. In this context he considered non-understandable the fact of the Serbian Delegations support to the two anti-Armenian Resolutions in the PACE Session.

The interlocutors also touched upon the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and Kosovo problem and the fight against international terrorism. In terms of the NK conflict settlement issue, Eduard Sharmazanov noted that it differs from Kosovo problem: unlike Kosovo, Nagorno Karabakh has no connection with the principle of territorial integrity, as it has never been part of Azerbaijan. Eduard Sharmazanov reaffirmed that Armenia sees the NK conflict settlement exclusively through peaceful means, within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group: The realization of the Karabakh peoples right to self-determination has no alternative, and Nagorno Karabakh can never have lower status, than it has now, he said. Considering the fight against terrorism a universal goal, Eduard Sharmazanov stated that as a consequence of terrorism, about 20.000 Syrian Armenians has found asylum in Armenia.

The Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Serbia Veroljub Arsic thanked his colleague for the reception and noted that though the relations of the two countries rapidly develop, nonetheless there are spheres which should be activated. Veroljub Arsic has deemed necessary to develop especially the inter-parliamentary ties and the economic field.

Touching upon the issue of the conflict settlement, he noted that Serbia tries to regulate the conflicts through dialogue and peaceful means. The Deputy Speaker of the Serbian Parliament also noticed that the NK conflict and the Kosovo problem are at different planes.

In the course of the meeting the Armenian and Serbian parliamentarians referred to the cooperation in different international organizations and highlighted the constructive work.
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan visited Kotayk region. Head of the government first was in the clinic of Abovyan Medical Center after Rubik Harutyunyan, got introduced with the implemented repair works and the conditions of modern patient services.

As Armenpress was informed from the Information and Public Relations Department of the Armenian government Hovik Abrahamyan then visited Argel" continuous basalt fiber manufacturing plant CJSC. The Prime Minister toured the factory of 150 workers, got acquainted with the manufacturing capacity and the development of future projects.

Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan during the interview with journalists, referring to a balanced territorial development and the creation of new work places, said the government is seriously engaged in the creation of new businesses in all regions of the country.

Touching upon the newly reconstructed clinic at Abovyan Medical Center PM emphasized that public health is apriority for the authorities and the government as well and everything will be done to create possibility for the citizens to get examined at least once a year. Hovik Abrahamyan stressed that the government will take serious institutional reforms in the health sector.

Referring to his visit to Argel plant PM noted that the plant has serious potential for development which production can be used both in Armenia and abroad.

Then, a meeting was held, led by Hovik Abrahamyan, to discuss the government's support to the plant; issues related to existing problems and further development of the plant.
Thursday, March 10, 2016 at 7:06AM

Google' recently launched Destinations which makes planning for a vacation more efficient with Destinations on Google, which helps you discover and plan your next vacation, right from Google Search on your phone.

With more than half of Canadians saying they intend to vacation in 2016, we see many Canadians turning to mobile phones to sneak in vacation dreaming and planning here and therein line at the coffee shop, or on your way to a friend. In fact, Canadians spend an average of 30 days planning their trips, which last 8.6 days on average.

But even as mobile travel planning grows, it can be hard to get all the right information in one place on a small screen. There are a dizzying number of questions to answer when planning a trip: What are the best places to visit? What time of year is good to go? What kind of prices can I expect?

How Destinations work

Search with Google on your mobile phone for the continent, country, or state youd like to travel to and add the word destination to see an easy-to-browse collection of options. Destinations integrates a deep understanding of all the places in the world with Google Flights and Hotel search, so you can see available flight and hotel prices instantly. So instead of jumping between a dozen links or tabs to get the information you need, you can sit back and scroll.

Once you've selected a destination, tap "Plan a trip" to see rates for hotels and flights. We show you highs and lows for the next six months, so you can find the right price tag for you. And as you slide left or right, the results instantly update with real-time fares and rates, pulling from the trillions of flight itineraries and hotels we price every day on Google Flights and Hotel search. You can also tap the pencil icon to customize results further with flight and hotel preferences, including number of stops, hotel class, and number of travelers.

Whether youve got five days or 12, dont fret about figuring out where to go first or which spots you cant miss. Simply search for Spain travel, and click the blue arrow icon to browse the most frequently traveled itineraries. The suggested itineraries are based on historic visits by other travelers to those places, so you can use the wisdom of the crowd and save time researching.
Thursday, March 10, 2016 at 9:32AM





Is a smartphone enough for full online promotion of your website on the Internet? The truth is it's by far easier to write an novel on a phone than to fulfill full-scale SEO project for your website. However, according to WBC company it does not mean that the applications for your smartphone cannot offer anything interesting for SEO professionals.

Take for example the process of attracting new traffic. While some people consider it to be a complex process, which is based on continuous monitoring and analysis of competitors actions, an experienced web marketer will make various decisions in order for the website to take leading positions in search engines and keep them there. A phone is always at hand and, therefore, it is a versatile tool for regular monitoring of your website's performance. Also, you can monitor the actions your competitors take to get ahead of you. You, on the other hand, are enabled to save your time and come up with superior response strategies. In this article, we will offer you short reviews of 30 applications for SEO/PPC for your Android and iPhone.

What can smartphone applications SEO/PPC offer for you?

 Check positions of selected URL according to specified key phrases.

 Conduct a simple SEO audit of the website.

 Check the main indicators of SEO (backlinks, number of indexed pages, the indicators of PageRank, Alexa and Compete Rank).

 Combine SEO news and the latest tips (mostly in German and English).

 Collect and analyse main keywords.

 Check what keywords search engine finds for a given URL.

 Access analytical data from Google Analytics.

 Check positions of selected URL according to specified key phrases.

 Conduct a simple SEO audit of the website. Check the main indicators of SEO (backlinks, number of indexed pages, the indicators of PageRank, Alexa and Compete Rank).

 Combine SEO news and the latest tips (mostly in German and English).

 Collect and analyse main keywords.

 Check what keywords search engine finds for a given URL. Access analytical data from Google Analytics.

SEO Applications Evaluation

For this article post, we have tested 23 apps with positive feedback for Android and 6 interesting applications for iPhone. Let's explore each application and assign the evaluation on a scale of 1 to 3:

(1/3) - this application is doesnt work and is useless;

(2/3) - a well-running application, but it does not offer special additional tools;

(3/3) - this app is worth your attention;

(3 + / 3)  we highly recommend this application.



SEO Tools for Android



A stereotype had received its solid confirmation that the Android Market turned out to be a real trashcan of applications. That is why majority of programs that we have evaluated for Android was (1/3). They are included in this review, to ensure that you do not waste your time on checking if they work. Note that applications, which do not include the price, are free. We tested on Motorola Milestone with Android 2.2.1 Froyo system.

1. 1. PageRank (1/3)

A simple application to check the backlinks and PageRank. It did not work with us whatsoever.



2. SECocpit (1/3)

It requires registration, the app offers keywords, then it filters and sorts them to help you select the appropriate ones for your website. The app is free, but in order to use it you should subscribe and pay for SECockpit service.



3. SEO - Keyword Checker (1/3)

A very simple app that scans any web page on the most frequently used keywords. Phrases are sorted according to the number of their constituent words.



4. SEO Tips and Tricks (1/3)

Appendix - is a strong word for this app. After pressing the button, the app forwards its users to the blog of English author, which is dedicated to the promotion of either his website or knowledge. The blog does not even have a mobile version, so it is quite difficult or close to impossible to read. Man, you have to fix it!



5. SEO Buddy (2/3)

Well-made application that determines PageRank, Alexa Rank, number of indexed pages (in three search engines: Google, Yahoo, and the Bing), the number of backlinks (according to the same search engines), and domain age for a specified URL.



6. SEO Post (1/3)

It collects news from the world on SEO especially in German.



7. SEO Automatic (the phone is called SEO Review Lite) (3/3)



An interesting application for creating simple audit. The URL is evaluated in terms of the TITLE, DESCRIPTION, H1 and H2 tags, a robots.txt file, site maps, images and factors associated with the document loading speed. Where the application can not assess well-performing functions of the website, it redirects you to the recommended settings (for example: cites our TITLE and then gives a list of points what TITLE should be instead).



8. SEO SERP Tracker (3/3)

A simple application to determine the position on given keywords. The app is funny translated into other languages (we guessed it was robot interpretation). It offers an obscure function to choose a specific position in Google.com or Google.com. But the existence of bookmarks itself suggests that the author is planning to introduce a definition of the position and also on other Google domains, not only the .com one.



9. SEO Tip Guide (1/3)

An application showing in random selection SEO Tip of the day". Its sole function is a button next tip.



10. SEO Tips by Brick Marketing (1/3)

Some sort of collector of tips and news in the SEO industry, the app has very limited configuration capabilities that makes users read information from one source only.



11. SEO Tools Morticella (1/3)

A multi-purpose tool for SEO, the app would be interesting if it only worked. The app is capable of determining the position of a website. It is a simple generator meta tag. Unfortunately, all other functions did not work! For example, the definition of backlinks, indexed pages and PageRank. The app shows a lot of advertisement. Some of the functions forwards users to manufacturer's website, where no necessary information is found.



12. SEO-tool (1/3)

It defines PageRank, backlinks, positioning in DMOZ and domains age. We found during our testing that only two indicators were functioning properly. The app does not support horizontal screen orientation.



13. SeoRankPro (1/3)

A tool is designed to determine the websites keyword positioning. We received the same answer over and over again that positions were not found under different defined keywords.



14. SiteRank Lite (2/3)

The app shows PageRank and Alexa ranking for a given URL. It works!



15. WebRankSEO (3/3)

The app has a beautiful graphic design displays, it has key performance indicators for specified URL, such as PageRank, Alexa and Compete Rank. Also, it displays a number of indexed pages, according to the Bing and Google, as well as the number of backlinks on Google, Bing, and Alexa. The menu item Setting, allows you to remove results that does not interest you. In addition, you can save frequently checked websites, which is convenient.



16. Analytix (3+/3)

Beautifully made, a comprehensive client application for the Google Analytics system. It provides access to almost all possible model statistics that are on the Google Analytics website located at a distance of no more than two clicks away from the homepage.



17. Analytics Widget (2/3)

As the name implies, it is a widget, and not an application. For each site, available in Google Analytics account, you can generate onlhy two widgets: 1) will show the daily number of visits; 2) is the number of views.



18. mAnalytics (3/3)

A well done and simple application that shows the most important data from Google Analytics.



19. Pocket SEO Reference Free (2/3)

The application has a list of sites from which we can get a free link to your resource. Sites are divided into categories: bookmarking services, press releases services, forums, directories, catalogues and articles. In each category, distributed sites are listed according to the PageRank. Sites that give no-follow links are marked accordingly. All websites are in English only.



20. SERP Trak (1/3)

A tool being used to determine the PageRank, backlinks and positions. Regardless of the sites that we input, the application has requested to enter the correct information.



21. SEO - SiteRank Pro (3/3)

A well-made application that determines the indicators of entered URL. Check the PageRank, the Alexa ranking, the number of pages indexed in Google and the Bing, and the number of backlinks. It also draws some interesting data from the code. Functions are interesting, but at the time of this writing this post, we found the app to be expensive as it cost $8 USD.



22. SEO Glossary (2/3)

Glossary of SEO terminology. In English only, rich, divided into categories. At the moment, it is a little over a $1.



23. SEMTab SEO Pro (3/3)

The application checks the PageRank, backlinks (in Google, Bing, and Alexa), Alexa ranking, the number of tweets containing the link, the number of likes on Facebook, the number of comments with a link to Facebook, and the number of bookmarks in Delicious. The app costs $2 USD.

Highlights SEO Tools for iPhone

1. Domain Tracker

It allows to find the specified site on PageRank and its fluctuations in the domain history and record the domains for a quick check. The cost is only $0.99.

2. SEO Search Ranking

The app allows you to monitor an unlimited number of domains and keywords. Enter the URL, and click add to it the keyword, and the application displays the position. The cost is $2.99 USD.

3. Analytics App

A client for Google Analytics system, the app allows you to keep track of all most important data. The price is $6.99 USD.

4. LinkJuice

One of the few mobile applications that can take the data from these valuable tools like Open Site Explorer, Majestic SEO or SEMRush. Presents data on backlinks, anchors, site rankings forecast at the domain level and the page number of indexed pages at the domain and sub-domain levels. The cost is $1.99.

5. SpyderMate

It shows the domain authority on the basis of SEOmoz, Alexa ranking, backlinks on Majestic SEO, domain age, expiration date and other related data. The only free for iPhone SEO-targeted application.

6. SEO Pro

The app shows the PageRank, Alexa ranking and Compete, it monitors changes every day in the rankings, showing meta tags, the number of backlinks and indexed pages. The cost is $0.99.
Klobucar was then taken to the ACT Watch House, where he allegedly called police "baby rapers", among other things, and told them he was going to kill them all.
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. Armenia Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, being involved in the delegation headed by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on March 10.

As Armenpress was informed from the Department of Information and Public Relations of the Armenian Foreign Ministry, the sides touched upon the interaction between the foreign ministries of the two states and conducting of periodic consultations.

The Ministers exchanged views on urgent international and regional problems.

At the end of the meeting Edward Nalbandian and Sergey Lavrov signed 2016-2017 program of consultations between the Foreign Ministries of Armenia and the Russian Federation. The program plans to conduct about 30 consultations on international and regional issues, consular issues, and others for the next two years.
[Your Business Name]

<Your business address>

Contact Info

Phone: <Your business phone number>

Fax: <Your business fax number>

Email: <Your business e-mail address>

Web: CAPITOLHILLCUBANS.COM

<Your Business Headline>

Business Overview

<Your business description>

Geographic Area

<Your service area>

Line of Business

<The type of business you are in>

Brands We Carry

<Your list of brands>

Products and Services

<Products and/or services you provide>

Discounts Offered

<Coupons and other discount information you offer>

Additional Information

<Any other information about your business>

Business Hours

<Your hours of operation>

Timezone

<Your timezone>

We Accept

<Methods of payment you accept>
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. Meeting of the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan and Russian President Vladimir Putin launched in Kremlin, the press secretary of Armenian President Vladimir Hakobyan wrote about this in his Twitter micro blog, Armenpress reports.

The meeting of Presidents of Armenia and Russia started in Kremlin at the scheduled time, a few minutes ago, Hakobyan writes.

The President of Armenia left for Moscow on a working visit on 10 March.

Photo from Vladimir Hakobyans Twitter micro blog
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 []
Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact.

Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here.

Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing.

You are our people. You Care. We Care2.
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. On March 4, Permanent Representative of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic to the USA Robert Avetisyan participated in a discussion on Artsakh related issues, which was held in the University of California, Berkeley, Armenpress was informed from the Information and Public Relations Department of NKR MFA.

Artsakh Representative Robert Avetisyan, Director of the Election Administration Research Centerin the University of California, Berkeley, Karin Mac Donald and representative of the Santa Cruz County Administration Gail Pellerin, who participated in the 2015 parliamentary elections in the NKR as observers, delivered speeches at the event.

The NKR Permanent Representative briefed on the process of peaceful settlement of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict, the establishment and formation of Artsakh's statehood, as well as regional developments.

Karin Mac Donald and Gail Pellerin presented their assessments, observations, and recommendations concerning the parliamentary elections in Artsakh.

The speakers also answered the questions of the participants related to the domestic and foreign policy of the NKR, the process of peaceful settlement of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict, as well as the conduct of elections and democratic developments in Artsakh.

The event, which was organized and held by Director of the Armenian Studies Program of the University Dr. Stephan Astourian, was attended by students and professors of the University, as well as members of the Armenian community of America.
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan to discuss issues of economic cooperation between Russia and Armenia.

Armenpress reports citing TASS that during the meeting Putin described the relations between the two countries as "strategic partnership."

"Our relations are developing successfully. Of course, there are problems of an objective nature." the head of the Russian state said.

He added that the economic cooperation is deepening between the 2 states. "Overall, we are satisfied with how we have built a base of our relations. I have no doubt, based on our combined solutions during previous years, we will deepen our collaboration also in this direction", the Russian president said.

Putin recalled that this year Armenia is presiding in the CSTO. "I hope that will be able to talk to you as Chairman of the mentioned international organization, as this organization is responsible for the security, the fight against terrorism and organized crime, in order to make everything quiet on our borders ", Putin said.

He also offered Sargsyan to discuss issues of cooperation in the framework of the EAEU.
As we reported earlier, Ford announced today that it will cease its Australian manufacturing operations on October 16, 2016, leading to the loss of around 1,200 jobs out of a total of 3,500 people it employs at its production plants at Broadmeadows and Geelong that build the Falcon and the related Territory SUV.

During a press conference held in Melbourne today, Bob Graziano, president and CEO of Ford Australia, said that the company could not continue to build cars in the country after reporting a loss of $141 million after tax in the last financial year, and more than $600 million over the past five years.

Like his counterparts over at Holden, which will likely kill the Commodore in 2016 and put the final nail in the coffin of Australias long production-run of rear-wheel drive sedans, utes and estates, Graziano also blamed the rising value of the Australian dollar against other currencies.

Our costs are double that of Europe and nearly four times Ford in Asia, said Graziano. The business case simply did not stack up, leading us to the conclusion that manufacturing is not viable for Ford in Australia in the long-term.

In a press statement, Ford said: Australia has annual sales of approximately 1.1 million new vehicles, and customers have access to more than 65 brands and 365 models available for sale. This makes Australia one of the most competitive and crowded automotive markets in the world.

Given the fragmented marketplace and the low model volumes that result, we decided that manufacturing locally is no longer viable, said Graziano.

Ford vehicles have been part of the automotive landscape in Australia for almost 110 years and we have manufactured here since 1925. We are proud of that history. We are proud of our role in Australia and we havent made this decision lightly, he added.

Overall, we are changing, but our commitment to Australia remains strong. Well move through this transition and continue to be a vibrant and strong part of the Australian driving experience.

Since 2000, Fords Australian division has received some $1.1 billion in state and Federal Government assistance to keep its operations in the country. Just last year, the Victorian government contributed $34 million to a Ford project worth $103 million for the further development of the Falcon and the Territory SUV, with Australias Prime Minister Julia Gillard saying at the time that, the grant would help create 300 jobs. However, in November of the same year, Ford sacked 212 employees from its Geelong and Broadmeadows plants.

Ford, which imported its first car in the country in 1904 and began producing the Model T in 1919, said it will continue in Australia as an import-only brand.

Ford will remain a significant employer in Australia, with more than 1500 team members, as will our network of more than 200 dealers around the country, said Graziano. The Australian teams role as a global centre of excellence for vehicle development also will continue to be an important focus for us.

The Blue Oval said it will proceed with plans to launch updated versions of the Falcon sedan, Falcon Ute and Territory SUV in 2014, while strengthening its product lineup with a 30 per cent increase in the number of new vehicles offered to Australian customers by 2016. Graziano pointed out that Ford plans to put to rest the Falcon nameplate after production of the rear-wheel drive model ceases in 2016.

Fords move to abandon its manufacturing operations in Australia is expected to have a domino effect on the countrys parts industry as well as on the other two brands with local production facilities, GM Holden and Toyota.

Photo Credits: Ford Australia

PHOTO GALLERY
The crimes committed during World War II remain in the memories not only of its victims, but those who cooperated with the Nazi regime, like Germanys industrial complex.



Bayerische Motoren Werke AG was founded in Munich on March 16, 1916, during the First World War and it is celebrating its 100th anniversary, yet it has not shied away from talking about the darkest hour in its history.

The Bavarian automaker expressed its profound regret for the enormous suffering caused during World War II, when it used Nazi slave labor in its factories.

BMWs owner at the time, Gunther Quandt, along with his son, Herbert, manipulated political pathways in the Nazi party and were friendly to Adolf Hitler, taking advantage of the Holocaust and businesses seized from Jews to manufacture weapons, artillery, ammunition and U-boat batteries. The company is responsible for retaining some 50,000 forced laborers and concentration camp prisoners.

Under the National Socialist regime of the 1930s and 40s, BMW AG operated exclusively as a supplier to the German arms industry, wrote BMW, which reminded everyone that it became the first industrial corporation to initiate a public debate about his chapter of its history with the publication of a book entitled BMW  Eine Deutsche Geschichte (BMW  A German History).

Since the 1990s, the BMW Group has been actively engaging in efforts to promote openness, respect and understanding between cultures, the firm explained.

Via NYPost and DailyMail

PHOTO GALLERY
What more can you ask from a 90 kWh battery powered Tesla that can develop 762 HP in Ludicrous Mode and can sprint from standstill to 100 Km/h in 2.8 seconds? More autonomy, obviously, as it already comes with heaps of power.



And it seems that the American car manufacturer is willing to deliver more of everything, along with a Model S sporting the P100D moniker. That translates into an all-wheel-drive car with a 100 kWh battery pack that can represent the step forward towards the 300-mile driving range benchmark.

The information was discovered by a hacker named Jason Hughes  who specializes in testing and improving security systems, and who decoded Teslas firmware updates. To make matters even more interesting, Hughes didnt announce the information, but instead muddled it with a hash and challenged the Tesla Motors Club forum members to decrypt the data.

Moreover, on the forum, Hughes stated that the P100D reference isnt the only thing he found, saying:

There have been references to the P100D in firmwares as early as 2 months ago. They finally added the badges to 2.13.77. I mucked it up a bit by adding a crappy background (its a PNG with transparency in the firmware).

There are quite a few things that are in the firmware that Im not prepared to share publicly. Just like the P100D has been in there for months with my lips mostly sealed. I dont want to spoil all of Teslas surprises.

From an odd tweet exchange between Hughes and Musk, we gather that Tesla tried to intervene and downgrade the mans firmware; Unsuccessfully, as Musk praised him.

H/T to Jalopnik!

You guys are great. Fun to get home and find people have cracked some SHA256 I posted  Nice work. #P100D #Tesla pic.twitter.com/46iqA74ghB

 Jason Hughes (@wk057) March 4, 2016

@wk057 @TeslaMotors Wasnt done at my request. Good hacking is a gift.

 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 5, 2016

PHOTO GALLERY
While the Logan and Sandero are in their second generations, Dacias SUV remains practically the same, except for a few tweaks made with the facelift in 2013.



However, things are about to change in the Romanian manufacturers lineup and in between the introduction of the facelifted Logan and Sandero, scheduled for this fall, a second-generation of the Duster is expected in 2017, as Romanian publication ZF claims quoting the Renault Groups design chief, Laurens van den Acker.

In September, in Paris, we will have the facelifted Sandero and Logan. Its a mid-life restyling. For a big leap, we are waiting for the new Duster. Dacia, however, doesnt have a large enough lineup to come up with something new every year, said the firms official.

Details on how exactly the Romanian SUV will change, compared to the current version, are unknown, but we should see a different exterior design, following the path of the facelifted Logan and Sandero, along with a new cabin. The Easy-R automatic transmission, presented last year and brought to the 2016 Geneva Motor Show, where it was connected to the 1.5-liter dCi diesel engine for the first time, will probably be offered on the second generation of the Duster too.

Note: Dacia Duster Edition 2016 pictured

PHOTO GALLERY
Good news for Honda fans and petrolheads, as it turns out that we are in to see a Type R version of the Japanese supercar.



Nick Robinson, Dynamic Development Leader of the NSX project told Autocar that despite that the NSX Type R project is not officially on, there is a huge will within Honda to make it a reality.

The transition from a regular NSX into a full-blooded NSX Type R could mean that Honda might ditch the front electric motors in pursuit of lightness, as the standard model now tips the scales at 1725kg.

NSXs hybrid powertrain weighs 150kg (330 lbs) all in but not all of it can go away as the rear electric motor acts also as an alternator, starter motor and flywheel. Still though, taking away most of the electric components would make a sizeable difference.

Honda could opt for lightweight materials in order to further reduce the weight. There are places weight could be cut out, says Robinson. We are Honda so cost is a consideration, but for a limited edition? Why not?

Honda has benchmarked the new NSX against a Porsche 911 Turbo, a Ferrari 458 Italia and the Audi R8 V10. A Porsche 991 GT3 was also benchmarked, but just for the steering feel as the normal NSX is not that track-focused.

Robinson also said that there is a maintenance mode buried deep inside the menus of the standard car in which the ABS and all three electric motors are disabled. He also said that the handling and steering are a bit odd in this mode, as the latter is developed to work in conjunction with the front electric motors, admitting though that the car becomes a drift machine.

Additionally, the NSXs Dynamic Development Leader admitted that Honda has worked on active aerodynamics for the NSX, despite the fact that the standard car doesnt feature them which should mean that a future Type R version could use them.

PHOTO GALLERY
For an oil company, Pennzoil sure know their way around a supercar, as demonstrated in this video, along with their last attempt at having fun on city streets.



Initially, they came out with the Airlift Drift video, which was followed later on by a prequel, featuring even more footage and looking like something youd see in a Hollywood movie. This time, were looking at pretty much the same recipe, except that were dealing with a completely different animal.

Though the Challenger Hellcat in the Airlift Drift spot was sufficiently cool, the all-new Ferrari 488 GTB is in a whole different league.

So what were getting here is some serious action with the 488, backed up by a well-edited gear-banging soundtrack that makes it seem like were watching that Aaron Paul Need for Speed flick again. Theres also a behind the scenes video which you can use to see how it all came to be and what the action is actually about.

Spoiler alert: Its an undeground group of joyriders seeking the ultimate performance.

VIDEO




With 78,800 vehicles delivered globally last month, the Czech brand has achieved its best ever February sales, up by 3,6 percent over the second month of 2015.



In Western Europe, Skoda sold 32,500 vehicles, up by 9.8 percent, with Germany remaining the largest market, with 12,100 units sold, 14.7 percent more than last year. Portugal recorded a growth of 69.8%, followed by Netherlands (52.6%), Denmark (41.2%), Norway (26.4%), Sweden (24.4%), Finland (22.6%) and Spain (17.5%).

Eastern Europe saw the delivery of 2,500 vehicles in February 2016, 11.8 percent up, with Romania being the best market (700 cars sold, up 8.8%), while in Central Europe, the firms deliveries increased by 6.3 percent to 15,400 units. In its home market, Skoda delivered 7,500 vehicles, up 13.6%, while in Russia, 27.4% fewer vehicles were sold.

With 18,500 vehicles delivered last month, up 4.6%, China remains Skodas number one sales market globally. A high growth rate was achieved in Israel (53.5%), New Zealand (37.8%), Taiwan (20.5%) and Turkey (37.8%).

The best-selling car in February was the Octavia, 31,300% (-2.1%), followed by Fabia (14,500 units; +42.7%), Rapid (13,400; -17%), Superb (9,300; +65.7%), Yeti (7,400; +7.6%) and Citigo (2,800; +2.2%), which is only offered in Europe.

The companys sales are expected to increase furthermore once the Kodiak SUV will hit the market. Based on the VisionS study, the vehicle will debut, in production form, at the 2016 Paris Motor Show.

PHOTO GALLERY
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. Kirovograd holds events organized by the Union of Armenians of Ukraine and the Union of Armenians of Ukraine in Kirovograd region.

Armenpress reports citing Analitikiua.net, the opening of the exhibition "Armenian Heritage" dedicated to 400th anniversary of Armenian book printing in Ukraine was held on March 10, which was attended by members of the community, representatives of local authorities and national communities.

Head of the Committee on Historical and Cultural Heritage Affairs of the Union of Armenians of Ukraine, David Davtyan held a detailed presentation of the exhibition.

It should be noted that on March 11Kirovograd will hold a conference of the Union of Armenians of Ukraine, where the theme of the 400th anniversary of Armenian book printing in Ukraine will be among the main topics of discussion.

The conference will focus on the development of the Armenian community interaction with local authorities; will discuss actual problems of the Armenian Diaspora, cultural initiatives, history and education.

Ceremony of laying flowers at Taras Shevchenko Memorial and the Armenian cross-stone will also be held in Kirovograd. The conference participants will visit Children's Hospital, where the necessary equipment will be donated to the institution.

As previously reported, the Union of Armenians of Ukraine, under the direction of Vilen Shatvoryan, became the only Ukrainian organization that brings together all the existing Armenian organizations in the country.
Photo: Contributed - Antonio Guillem

Last night I left my phone at my brothers place in Westbank. I live in Kelowna and by the time I realized my blunder, it was too late to go back.

My first issue was trying to remember my brothers cell number, since everything is programmed into my phone. Then I realized the best thing to do was to phone my own phone and hope that hed answer it. Thankfully, two weeks earlier Id signed onto a cheap Shaw deal which required me to get a land line. I would have been hooped without it, for sure.

He answered on the first ring. I was wondering when youd realize youd left it behind, he said. We laughed, then made arrangements for me to pick it up on my way to Vancouver the following morning.

After hanging up I pondered the reality of our so-called smart phones.

Smart phones make us DUMB. I used to know everyones telephone number, their birthdays, and their email addresses. Now I think Ive got two of my three childrens numbers memorized, my Dads land line (not his cell), and my work number. Whats happened?

During my teenage years (the 70s), if someone called and you werent home, they just tried again later.

The 80s ushered in the answering machine. It was pretty exciting to see that blinking light when you got back to your apartment after work.

The 90s was the onset of cell phones. The initial ones were reserved for the wealthy or self-important wannabes. They were big brick-sized monstrosities that had very limited reception, and doubled as doorstops.

Photo: Contributed - John A. Rizzo Mega-size cell phones of the '90s.

As cell phones became smaller, their skill set became that much larger. You could build in contact directories so the need to remember numbers was no longer necessary. Voice mail got rid of the need of cumbersome answering machines.

Then new-fangled texting started. I remember wondering, if it takes that long to type out a message why not just call? Oh, it was a matter of etiquette, I was told. Texting allowed people to check to see if a person was available before they actually called.

Huh? Couldnt they just leave a voice mail?

Then phones stopped being phones. Societys need to be in 24-7 connectivity has mushroomed into a nuclear wasteland of communication.

Ironically, the tool created to allow connection now serves as a distraction from actual face to face interaction. People cant stand in line for a few moments, or enjoy the day or the people around them. Their eyes are glued to their phones for FB posts or Tweets. Dating, break-ups, and make-ups are all done by texting now. No need for those awkward, vulnerable phone calls or, god forbid, conversations.

When I told my teenage nieces that phones were not allowed at my dinner table, there were dumbfounded gasps. They dont come over that much anymore.

How could you possibly have left your phone behind? a friend asked. Well, thankfully its not yet grafted to my hand. Its still just a tool for communicating. I have a three text rule. More than that, call me.

True connection requires eye contact, body language, engaging laughter, and real face to face time. Use your phone to arrange a time for a real world encounter.

Imagine it. Disconnect to truly connect.

Photo: Contributed - Massonstock

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: Twitter - US Air Force

A U.S. Air Force veteran accused of trying to join the Islamic State group and die a martyr was convicted Wednesday of federal charges.

An anonymous jury in Brooklyn had begun deliberations Tuesday in the case against 48-year-old Tairod Pugh, of Neptune, New Jersey. His attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the verdict.

The verdict, coming over a week after testimony began, was the first to result from more than 70 cases the government has brought against U.S. citizens accused of trying to support the militant group. Some defendants across the country have pleaded guilty to charges.

"Today's verdict provides yet another example of a successful outcome in our national security effort, and demonstrates the crucial role that law enforcement action plays in that effort," U.S. Attorney Robert L. Capers said in a statement.

Prosecutors said Pugh flew to Turkey in January 2015 so he could find a route into Syria and join the Islamic State group. He was forced by authorities to turn back and was arrested soon after his return on a flight to New York City. Pugh was in the Air Force from 1986 to 1990, when he was trained to install and maintain aircraft engines and navigation and weapons systems.

During closing arguments Tuesday, defence lawyer Eric Creizman insisted Pugh had no ill intent when he went to Turkey a month after losing his job as an aviation mechanic and telling his supervisor to stop "talking to me like I'm an idiot." He said Pugh had hoped to move to the Middle East with his wife.

He said his client was feeling small and inconsequential when he started researching the rise of the Islamic State group in the summer of 2014, impressed that Muslims somewhere were trying to establish a country and wouldn't "back down from anything."

"This is a fantasy," Creizman told jurors of Pugh's social media posts that seemed supportive of radical Islamists.

He said his client had always talked about Middle East politics and liked to research the subject online, but he noted that many of the articles he read were written by mainstream news organizations, including some critical of the militants.

Still, he acknowledged that Pugh had opinions some might find offensive and Pugh believed some of the Islamic State group's atrocities were a media creation.

In her closing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiana Demas urged jurors to follow the trail of Pugh's Internet research to discover that he went to Turkey to find a way to sneak into Syria and join the Islamic State group.

She showed jurors an image from Pugh's computer that showed areas controlled by the Islamic State group and said: "This map shows a lot about his intent in Turkey."

Prosecutors had told jurors that Pugh destroyed four computer flash drives when he realized he was being scrutinized by authorities.

During the trial, prosecutors showed jurors materials found on Pugh's computer and cited a letter Pugh wrote to his wife saying, in part: "There is only two possible outcomes for me: Victory or martyr."
Photo: Google Maps

UPDATED: 8:21 P.M.

Highway 97C has reopened in both directions following a vehicle crash.

ORIGINAL: 7:05 P.M.

Highway 97C is closed in both directions near Peachland Wednesday night due to a vehicle incident.

The crash occurred just before 6 p.m. at Trepanier Creek Bridge. There is no detour around the crash.

DriveBC estimates the highway will reopen by 8 p.m.

The nature of the crash and condition of those involved is unknown at this time.
Photo: Contributed - CRA

Some of the more significant issues that arise out of Ottawa do not originate from within the House of Commons. This is certainly the case this week, when news reports from CBC regarding a compliance and enforcement decision by the Canadian Revenue Agency created a considerable reaction among Canadians.

If you are unfamiliar with this issue, it was reported by CBC that a major Canadian accounting firm advised affluent Canadians to invest significant amounts of money outside of Canada for the purposes of either tax mitigation or outright tax avoidance.

A further investigation revealed, through internally leaked CRA documentation, that an agreement between CRA and those involved resulted in an agreement to pay back taxes owed without penalty, fines, or prosecution. It has been further reported that the Canadian Revenue Agency insisted on a confidentiality clause so that this deal would not be publicly disclosed.

News of this confidential deal has created considerable reaction, as most Canadians who have encountered similar challenges with the Canadian Revenue Agency have faced fines with interest, prosecution, and even, in extreme cases, garnishment, asset seizure, and foreclosure.

The perception here is that a deal was offered by CRA that would not be available to most Canadians.

This situation raises serious concerns. Although elected officials do not make decisions related to compliance and enforcement by the Canada Revenue Agency, there is an expectation that fairness and consistency be applied equally to all Canadians.

Federally elected officials can also expect accountability from public agencies such as Revenue Canada. In this particular case, there is still missing information. Who ultimately made this decision, and the reasons why, will need to be disclosed in a publicly transparent manner.

It is critically important for taxpayers to have confidence in institutions such as the Canada Revenue Agency, and the decision makers involved in compliance and enforcement actions.

I believe more information will be forthcoming on this subject, and will provide further updates as they become available.

Also occurring this week is a rare State dinner at the White House in Washington DC, where our Prime Minister is a special guest. This dinner has created a significant amount of media interest in Ottawa, as well as rampant speculation from political pundits.

From a British Columbia perspective, I am hoping that our Prime Minister will use this diplomatic opportunity to raise the critically important need for a new Canada - United States softwood lumber deal.

Communities in Central Okanagan Similkameen Nicola, such as Princeton, Merritt and West Kelowna, all have one or more lumber mills that are significant employers. Many surrounding communities, such as Keremeos, Logan Lake and Summerland, also have forestry dependent small business operations.

As forestry is an important industry to our region, I am hopeful that our Prime Minister has success at this rare event in advancing causes important to British Columbia and Canada.

I welcome your comments, questions and concerns and can be reached at [email protected] or toll-free at 1.800.665.8711

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: Instagram - BC Hydro

A powerful windstorm knocked out electricity to tens of thousands of customers across B.C.'s south coast early Thursday morning.

Environment Canada says potentially damaging wind gusts of up to 90 kilometres per hour are sweeping across most of region.

Conditions are expected to improve by the afternoon but wind warnings remain posted for most of Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island, Central Coast, Sunshine Coast and Howe Sound.

B.C. Hydro's power outage website shows more than 90,000 customers were affected Thursday morning.

B.C. Ferries cancelled its early runs from Comox to Powell River, while several other sailings between Tsawwassen and Vancouver Island were running as much as an hour behind schedule.

Richmond RCMP report a tree toppled onto a car in that city, but no one was hurt, and fallen trees also complicated the morning commute in other Metro Vancouver suburbs, and on the Sunshine Coast.
Natural gas customers are enjoying the lowest prices in more than a decade, making the cost of natural gas appear quite low in comparison to the other charges on a customers bill. Recently, FortisBC has been fielding questions about these charges.



We recognize that the cost of natural gas is an important consideration for customers, and to ensure understanding and transparency about the value of providing natural gas to our customers, these charges are broken out into multiple line items.



To understand the charges on your bill, its important to know that FortisBC is a natural gas delivery utility. Charges on your bill cover the cost of buying and transporting natural gas to our system, and for delivering the gas through our system to your home. Other fees are collected on behalf of other organizations, such as taxes levied by the federal and provincial government, and municipalities, for franchise fees that are used by the local community.



You pay what we pay. FortisBC acquires natural gas and propane at market-based prices. Factors like weather, supply and demand and economic conditions affect the market price of natural gas and propane in North America.



In addition to the cost of natural gas customers see on their bill, they will also see what is called the storage and transport charge that reflect the prices we pay to other companies to store and transport gas through their pipelines and infrastructure to our system.



The delivery charge on your bill reflects the costs of safely and reliably delivering gas to customers through our distribution system. It enables us to recover operating costs and make investments in our business that will benefit the evolving needs of customers and their communities.



The basic charge is a flat daily fee that partially recovers the fixed costs of our system as long as a customer is connected to it.



In addition to the items that FortisBC recovers, there are other items on the bill that we collect on behalf of all three levels of government. This includes GST for the federal government, the carbon tax for the provincial government and as of March 1, 2016 customers in municipalities where a franchise fee is collected will see this item listed as a municipal operating fee. This is a wording change to their bills, but in most areas the fee itself is not new. In each of these cases, the money is passed directly to the respective level of government.



FortisBC is regulated by the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC). This means that the line items customers see on their bill were approved through transparent, public proceedings. Information about these proceedings is available online at www.bcuc.com.



The BCUC approves the overall revenue we collect from our customers to cover the cost of providing service. Every three months, FortisBC reviews natural gas and propane rates with the BCUC to make sure rates passed on to customers cover the cost of purchasing the gas on their behalf.



To help customers better understand their bills we have created a video on how we set natural gas rates which is available at fortisbc.com/rates.

Roger DallAntonia

Executive Vice President, Customer Service & Regulatory Affairs at FortisBC
YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. Armenia continues to assist Russia on Syrian issue, Serzh Sarsgyan said during the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Armenpress report citing the official website of Kremlin.

As I noted in my speeches I once again repeat that we support Russias position on Syrian issue, Armenian President said.

Serzh Sargsyan added that the agreement to stop military actions in Syria could become the key to the political settlement of the mentioned issue.
Photo: CTV

One person has been killed as a wind storm blasts across most of B.C.'s south coast.

Coroner Barb McLintock says the victim was hit by a tree that appears to have toppled during the storm in the Port Moody area, just east of Vancouver.

No other details were immediately available.

At the height of the storm, more than 114,000 customers of BC Hydro were without power across Metro Vancouver and the Sunshine Coast as Environment Canada posted warnings of winds gusting to 90 kilometres per hour.

Classes were cancelled at more than a dozen schools in Surrey and the Fraser Valley, while Delta Mayor Lois Jackson launched its flood response plan to deal with localized flooding in Boundary Bay, Beach Grove and downtown Ladner.

B.C. Ferries cancelled its early runs from Comox to Powell River, while several other sailings between Tsawwassen and Vancouver Island were running as much as an hour late.

Richmond RCMP reported a tree fell onto a car but no one was hurt.
Let it be light between us,brothers and sisters from the Earth.Let it be love between all living beings on this

Galaxy.Let it be peace between all various races and species.We love you infinitely.

I am SaLuSa from Sirius

Channel:Laura/Multidimensional Ocean

     ,        .   

      .        -

   .      .

     .

:Laura/Multidimensional Ocean
CDC Telebriefing: Updates on Zika response efforts

Media Advisory For Immediate Release: Thursday, March 10, 2016

Contact: CDC Media Relations

404-639-3286

What

CDC Director Tom Frieden traveled to Puerto Rico March 7-9 to assess firsthand CDCs support for the Zika response. He will provide an assessment of the situation in Puerto Rico and an update on CDCs Zika response efforts. NIAID Director Anthony Fauci will provide an update on NIHs Zika research efforts.

Who

CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.

Anthony Fauci, M.D., Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH

When

Thursday, March 10, 2016; 11:30 AM EST

Dial In

Media: 888-946-3811

Non-Media: 800-369-3122

International: 1- 630-395-0174

Passcode: CDC Media

Important Instructions

Please dial in 10 to 15 minutes before the start of the press conference. If you would like to ask a question during the call, press *1 on your touchtone phone. Press *2 to withdraw your question. You may queue up at any time. You will hear a tone to indicate your question is pending.

Transcript

A transcript of this media availability will be available following the briefing at CDCs web site: www.cdc.gov/media.

###

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICESexternal icon
CDC adds 1 destination to interim travel guidance related to Zika virus

Media Statement For Immediate Release: Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Contact: Media Relations,

(404) 639-3286

CDC is working with other public health officials to monitor for ongoing Zika virus transmission. Today, CDC added the following destination to the Zika virus travel notices: New Caledonia. CDC has issued a travel notice (Level 2-Practice Enhanced Precautions) for people traveling to regions and certain countries where Zika virus transmission is ongoing. For a full list of affected countries/regions: http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/page/zika-travel-information. Specific areas where Zika virus transmission is ongoing are often difficult to determine and are likely to continue to change over time.

As more information becomes available, CDC travel notices will be updated. Travelers to areas where cases of Zika virus infection have been recently confirmed are at risk of being infected with the Zika virus. Mosquitoes that spread Zika are aggressive daytime biters. They also bite at night. There is no vaccine or medicine available for Zika virus. The best way to avoid Zika virus infection is to prevent mosquito bites.

Some travelers to areas with ongoing Zika virus transmission will become infected while traveling but will not become sick until they return home and they might not have any symptoms. To help stop the spread of Zika, travelers may consider using insect repellent for three weeks after travel to prevent mosquito bites.

Some people who are infected do not have any symptoms. People who do have symptoms have reported fever, rash, joint pain, and red eyes. Other commonly reported symptoms include muscle pain and headache. The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting from several days to a week. Severe disease requiring hospitalization is uncommon and the number of deaths is low. Travelers to areas with ongoing Zika virus transmission should monitor for symptoms or illness upon return. If they become sick, they should tell their healthcare professional where they have traveled and when.

CDC has received reports of Zika virus being spread by sexual contact with ill returning travelers. Until more is known, CDC continues to recommend that pregnant women and women trying to become pregnant take the following precautions.

Pregnant women

Consider postponing travel to any area where Zika virus transmission is ongoing.

If you must travel to or live in one of these areas, talk to your healthcare provider first and strictly follow steps to prevent mosquito bites.

If you have a male partner who lives in or has traveled to an area where Zika transmission is ongoing, either use condoms the right way, every time or do not have sex during your pregnancy

Women trying to get pregnant

Before you or your male partner travel, talk to your healthcare provider about your plans to become pregnant and the risk of Zika virus infection.

You and your male partner should strictly follow steps to prevent mosquito bites.

Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) has been reported in patients with probable Zika virus infection in several countries. Research efforts underway will also examine the link between Zika and GBS. For more information on Zika, visit www.cdc.gov/zika.

###

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICESexternal icon
In 2014, CDC published Providing Quality Family Planning Services: Recommendations of CDC and the U.S. Office of Population Affairs (QFP), which describes the scope of services that should be offered in a family planning visit, and how to provide those services (e.g., periodicity of screening, which persons are considered to be at risk, etc.). The sections in QFP include Contraceptive Services, Pregnancy Testing and Counseling, Clients Who Want to Become Pregnant, Basic Infertility Services, Preconception Health Services, Sexually Transmitted Disease Services, Related Preventive Health Services, and Screening Services for Which Evidence Does Not Support Screening.

CDC and the Office of Population Affairs (OPA) developed QFP recommendations by conducting an extensive review of published evidence, seeking expert opinion, and synthesizing existing clinical recommendations from CDC, agencies such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), and professional medical associations such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The scope of preventive services related to reproductive health is constantly evolving as new scientific findings are published, and clinical recommendations are modified accordingly. Being knowledgeable about the most current recommendations is an important step toward providing the highest quality care to patients.

This report summarizes updated recommendations released from the time QFP was issued in April 2014 through the end of 2015. Recommendations are based on newly published findings or revisions in recommended best practices. Updates that have implications for clinical practice are highlighted (Box). In addition, an updated reference list is provided for guidelines published in 2014 and 2015 that did not result in any change in recommended practices for family planning providers.
Claudius Peters' Bolivian order

09 March 2016

The Spanish consortium, UTE ORURO, awarded a contract to Claudius Peters Projects for the delivery of a new packing and palletising plant for a greenfield cement plant in Oruro, Bolivia.

UTE ORURO consists of Sacyr Industrial and Imasa Ingenieria y Proyectos SA, which received the order together with thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions to erect a new cement plant in the Bolivian highlands. The final customer, state-run Empresa Publica Productiva Cementos de Bolivia, plans a works with a clinker capacity of 3000tpd.



The Claudius Peters scope of supply comprises: the packing plant with a 12-spout rotary packer, automatic bag applicator, material supply, bag handling and transport, a palletiser for 3600 bags/h with a palletless slip sheet system and two package removal units, a big bag filling station for one loop big bags with a weight of 500-2000kg per big bag and a Rockwell control system.



The special challenge was the altitude of the plant which is 4000m above mean sea level. This requires special motors and special electrical switching and control elements which are suitable for this altitude.

Delivery is scheduled for 2017.

Published under
Australia's one-term Prime Minister above ... Events of interest from a libertarian/conservative perspective below
ESPNs rising rights fees and falling subscriber numbers have been hurting parent corporation Disney, dropping its stock in February despite the companys greatest single quarter in history, and now Disney seems interested in investigating some more drastic solutions. ESPN has already worked its way into skinny-TV streaming bundles, such as Dishs Sling TV and Sonys PlayStation Vue, which are designed to attract cord-cutters or cord-nevers, but it hasnt taken the next step of offering an over-the-top way to subscribe to ESPN channels alone (which CBS and HBO have done), and some have been skeptical of that idea. Disney CEO Bob Iger, speaking at the Deutsche Bank Media, Internet & Telecom Conference in Palm Beach, Florida on Tuesday, said selling ESPN direct to consumers is on the table, though. As Daniel Miller of The Los Angeles Times writes, those comments were part of Iger saying ESPN needs to improve its overall digital strategy:

I believe in the brand value of ESPN, said Iger, noting that more than 200 million Americans accessed ESPN content via various platforms during a recent month.

Iger said that ESPN must improve its digital products, noting: First of all, we think that weve got to crack mobile even more successfully than we have before.

Among other ventures, ESPN currently offers a website and mobile application that gives subscribers of cable and satellite TV providers the ability to stream live content from the networks stable of channels.

Iger also said that some form of direct-to-consumer offering of ESPN is on the table.

I dont think its one size fits all, he said of appealing to consumers changing television-consumption habits and desires.

Going to an over-the-top service would carry challenges for ESPN, though. Analyst Rich Greenfield said in December that the idea wasnt feasible, as many would only want ESPN during particular sports seasons, and that Igers previous comments on the subject were just him trying to tell the Street that they are capable of doing something they would never do.

It would also be difficult for ESPN to recoup the massive subscriber fees they get (which will pass $7 for just the primary ESPN channel in 2017) in an over-the-top setting, and its notable that while Iger has talked about this idea before, ESPN president John Skipper hasnt seemed too interested in an over-the-top standalone product, focusing more on getting into a variety of streaming bundles. Well see if Iger and Disney are serious about over-the-top ESPN, or if it is just an idea theyre floating.

[The Los Angeles Times]
Flagstaff City Council unanimously tabled a settlement agreement with the Hopi Tribe over the use of reclaimed wastewater for snowmaking at the Arizona Snowbowl ski area after councilmembers raised several concerns about the agreement.

Members wanted to know more about the cost and who would pay for it, the technology proposed in the agreement, and what other tribes thought.

The Hopi Tribe has sued the city for selling a product that it claims creates a public nuisance. All other claims by the Hopis and other tribes, including that snowmaking on the Peaks violated the federal Religious Freedom Act, have been rejected by the courts.

The Hopis and other area tribes consider the San Francisco Peaks sacred and not appropriate for development, including snowmaking with treated effluent.

According to a copy of the draft settlement, the city would have been responsible for building an earthen filtration system behind the pump house at Thorpe Park. The system would have filtered water coming from the citys reclaimed wastewater system through several membranes, sand and gravel before sending it through the pumphouse and uphill to Snowbowl. The agreement did not settle the citys claim for court and attorney costs it filed against Snowbowl in October 2014.

City Utilities Director Brad Hill said the filtration system would cost the city $1.6 million to build and around $181,000 per year to maintain and operate. The system would be buried and would not be noticeable to the public when finished. If the project was approved, the city hoped to have it finished before the 2017/2018 ski season.

Vice Mayor Celia Barotz asked who would be responsible for the maintenance costs of the system.

City Attorney Michelle DAndrea said that under the current agreement, the city would be responsible for the cost to construct and maintain the system.

Barotz also raised concerns that other tribes that have voiced opposition to the city selling reclaimed wastewater to Snowbowl were not notified or included in the settlement agreement. She pointed to a Tuesday press release from the Navajo Nation that voiced their concerns that the Navajo and 12 other tribes were not contacted about the potential agreement.

Lee Storey, from Storey Lawyers, which was hired by the city to help with the settlement negotiations, reminded Council that settlement agreements and negotiations are confidential between the parties of a lawsuit.

This was an opportunity to understand the Hopi Tribes concerns and learn what they thought might be done to remediate the situation, she said.

I understand that there is a lot of anxiety about not including the other tribes, but because the negotiations were part of a litigation we couldnt include the others, Storey said.

Perhaps holding a work session with the other tribes to explain the settlement would help, she said.

Mayor Jerry Nabours asked if there was a chance that another tribe or organization could sue the city even though the city had signed the settlement agreement.

DAndrea said if Council wanted legal advice on that it would have to recess into an executive session. Nabours dropped his question.

Councilmember Eva Putzova asked Norman Honanie, a Hopi councilmember from the Village of Kykotsmovi, how the settlement was vetted by the Hopi Tribe. The Hopi Council unanimously approved the agreement on Feb. 24.

Honanie, who is also the chairman of the tribes Water and Energy Team, said the Hopi Council had not authorized him to speak about the settlement.

Were just here to listen to what is going to happen and what you, the city, are going to do, he said, waving back to the crowd where several other members of the Hopi Council sat.

Barotz asked Honanie about a part of the agreement in which both the city and the tribe agreed to waive their immunity from future lawsuits against each other.

Honanie repeated that the Hopi Council had not authorized him to speak about the settlement.

The Hopi Tribal Chairmans Office said it would release a statement on the matter Thursday.

Council also heard several concerns from members of the public at the meeting.

Robert Vain from the Flagstaff Water Group pointed out that the settlement required the filtration system but didnt set any parameters for measuring how well the system was working. He asked what kind of testing would be done to make sure the system was working.

He also asked where the money to build and maintain the system would come from and if there were other systems that might improve the overall quality of the water for all customers.

Bartoz pointed out that Snowbowl was not a party to this agreement and was not responsible for any of the costs of the filtration system under the agreement.

Deputy City Manager Barbara Goodrich said the construction money would have to come from the citys general fund since the citys reclaimed wastewater account would not have enough to foot the bill. Staff has already identified some ways to use one-time money from the general fund to build the project.

Klee Benally, who has been a vocal opponent of the use of reclaimed wastewater on the San Francisco Peaks, called the settlement agreement paltry. He also accused the city of doing the minimum it possibly could to settle the lawsuit and shutting the other tribes out of discussions of the settlement.

Rudy Preston, who has also objected to the use of reclaimed wastewater at Snowbowl, said it would be more respectful to the tribes and cost-effective for the residents of Flagstaff if the city simply canceled its contract with Snowbowl.

That contract was recently extended and gives Snowbowl the right to purchase hundreds of millions of gallons of reclaimed wastewater each ski season. The ski area uses it for making snow and has constructed a pipeline, storage and distribution system.

After further discussion, Councilmember Scott Overton made a motion to approve the agreement. His motion died for lack of a second.

Nabours then made a motion to postpone a decision on the agreement, which was seconded by Councilmember Karla Brewster. As Council discussed the idea of tabling the agreement, the members of the Hopi Council attending the meeting left.

Barotz said she was uncomfortable that Council had had only four days to get their arms around the agreement. She said she had a lot of unanswered questions and thought that the other organizations and tribes should have been brought into the discussion before Council voted on the agreement.

Putzova also said she was uncomfortable with the short time period Council was given to analyze the agreement. She wasnt sure what would be in the best interests of the city and the tribes. She also wondered if the Hopi people had been included in the tribal councils deliberations.

She also raised questions about the fact that there were no quality standards for the water coming out of the filtration system.

Councilmember Coral Evans said she was concerned that Snowbowl wasnt included in the agreement and wasnt required to help chip in on the cost of the treatment system. She acknowledged that the agreement was legally between the city and the Hopi but she didnt want the agreement to cause further riffs between the city and its Native American neighbors.

Brewster and Nabours both thought there were too many loose ends in the agreement to approve it.

Council then unanimously voted to table the agreement to a date uncertain.
MESA (AP)  A lovestruck man who repeatedly sent cards, poems and gifts to a young woman for more than two years was in jail Friday on suspicion of stalking her and of threatening to kill her family.

Frank Elmer, who was 50 to the woman's 18 when they met in fall of 1998 after she had undergone surgery for a brain tumor, was being held in lieu of $1 million bond.

The East Valley Tribune said a police source reported that Elmer's case had been presented to a grand jury on Thursday with a possible indictment pending.

The woman who had become Elmer's obsession had fled the state in fear for her life, and her father and family repeatedly had been threatened with death, the Tribune said, quoting unidentified police sources. Their names weren't disclosed.

An unemployed plasterer who was in and out of prison over a 13-year period for varied crimes prior to being released in 1996, Elmer had turned his Mesa home into a shrine.

He carved love poems in cement flowerbeds, he cut hearts and her name in the grass of his lawn. He built a large heart-shaped waterfall near the front door. He hung enlarged pictures of her about his home and in his car. He bought a red corvette for her, the newspaper reported.

The Tribune said police investigators who searched Elmer's house found he had converted a middle-class ranch home into a fortress with soundproof walls and reinforced doors.

Windows were blocked and cemented shut, there was no lighting in many of the rooms and vents were blocked, the newspaper said it was told by a police source.

The woman's father, a Mormon bishop, had met Elmer in 1994 while volunteering at Perryville Prison in Goodyear.

"This has been a very traumatic thing," the man told the Tribune. "We're just very anxious that Mr. Elmer gets the help he needs."

Over the months, Elmer professed to love the young woman and proposed marriage, though he had met her on only two occasions.

"I went up to Payson and stood on the rim with a staff like Moses," Elmer said during an interview with police. "I heard her say that she wanted to marry me. I know that she wants to marry me because it aired on the TV and the judge heard it."

Her family got two injunctions against Elmer and each time the letters and poems stopped, the Tribune said. The calls and cards started again when the injunctions expired.

Among the photos he sent to her were pictures of a room he built for her in his home, according to court records the Tribune quoted. The floor had been dug out about six feet and had been carpeted in white. In the room were artificial flowers and a brass bed with a chandelier overhead.

There was also a room he built for a son the woman doesn't have, court records say.

The newspaper said court records say Elmer told a neighbor in December 2000 that "if I can't be with her, I don't care if I die."

The father "will die today, and we will both make headline news," he allegedly said while armed with a large knife. Then he drove away.

 Arizona Daily Sun
Supporters of an Indigenous Peoples Day are one step closer to seeing it become a reality in Flagstaff.

The Flagstaff City Council unanimously directed staff Tuesday to move forward with a plan that could see the city recognize the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples Day. The city would not replace Columbus Day, which falls on the same day, but would encourage people to celebrate their Native American neighbors.

Councilmember Eva Putzova requested the item in October. Her three-step plan first requires staff to examine and report on how well the city is implementing the memorandum of understanding between the city and the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission.

Then the city would hold multiple town hall meetings with the public, the city and the citys Native American neighbors to discuss the citys relationship with the nearby tribes.

Once those two steps were complete, then the city would consider designating an Indigenous Peoples Day.

More than 100 supporters of the holiday packed the Council chambers Tuesday to advocate for the day. Many of them talked about how their family members and friends have experienced racism by law enforcement and business owners in the Flagstaff area. They asked Council to consider moving to the right side of history by endorsing Indigenous Peoples Day.

Daisy Purdy, a Northern Arizona University faculty member and student, read a petition signed by more than 230 residents in support of the day. It called on the city to honor indigenous histories, respect indigenous contemporary holistic wellbeing and work diligently for the benefit of future generations of indigenous peoples.

Joe Washington, a former city councilmember, asked, Why wouldnt Council be for Indigenous Peoples Day or a dialogue on it? I cant imagine why Council would be against it.

One student who is Navajo stood before Council and asked if they had ever been stared at or called names while walking down the halls of their high schools because of the way they dress, their long hair or the jewelry they wear.

He said he was afraid of being stopped by police on the way home from school because of the way he dressed and he felt disgraced because the mountain his people worshipped was covered in yellow snow.

Jamie Yazzi, an NAU grad student, said she constantly has to fight for appropriate representation of her people on the streets and in the classroom.

I often do not feel safe or welcome here in Flagstaff because I am Navajo, she said.

Recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day was a perfect way to recognize the relation between the tribes and the city and was the first step in dismantling the symbols of colonization, she said.

Lyncia Begay said, Indigenous Peoples Day is a step toward acknowledgement, acceptance and healing within our community.

Councilmember Coral Evans compared the city recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day to the removal of the Confederate flag from the state capitol building in South Carolina.

Nikki Haley, the governor of South Carolina, said on June 22, 2015, This is a moment in which we could say that flag, while an integral part of our past, does not represent the future of our great state, she said. I think the same can and should be said of Columbus Day. I think that Columbus, while an integral part of our past, our countrys history that should never be forgotten lest it be repeated. Columbus Day in my mind does not and should not represent the future of this country, much less this city, therefore, I support the establishment of Indigenous Peoples Day here in Flagstaff.

Evans also asked staff to consider seeking out the other local tribes and adding them to the memorandum of understanding.

Conversations about race, racism and traditions are never easy, but that does not mean it should be avoided, she said.

Staff will return to Council in the coming months with a more detailed report on the memorandum with the Navajo Human Rights Committee and dates for the town hall meetings.
The Flagstaff City Clerk has confirmed that all of the signatures on a petition protesting a rezoning for The Hub, a student housing complex, are valid. A supermajority vote of the Flagstaff City Council  6 out of 7 members  will be required to approve the rezoning.

According to state law and the citys zoning code, a three-fourths vote is required if at least 20 percent of the residents living within 150 feet of the rezoning request file a petition opposing it.

The Hub is a 664-bed apartment complex geared toward students that is proposed to be built near Mikes Pike and Phoenix Avenue. The Hubs developer, Core Campus, is asking the city to flip-flop the zoning on the parcel to allow the company to build retail shops on Mikes Pike.

The council approved the rezoning on first reading earlier this month, 4-3. Core Campus has said if the rezoning is rejected, it will refile the project with a similar number of units and stories. Opponents have said the size of the project fails to conform to language in the land use code calling for small-scale development in Southside, and they could appeal the new application, if approved by staff, to the citys Board of Adjustments.

If the rezoning is rejected on a formal vote, Core Campus would be required to wait a year before filing a new application. But if it withdraws its current application before the vote on second reading, as the Standard developers did, there is no waiting period before an amended application can be filed.
This service applies to you if your subscription has not yet expired on our old site. You will have continued access until your subscription expires; then you will need to purchase an ongoing subscription through our new system. Please contact The Chanute Tribune office at 620-431-4100 if you have any questions
FORT WASHINGTON, Md.  Meredith Walker is at the Conservative Political Action Conference here, standing across from a booth with posters proclaiming Big Government Sucks! and chatting with a group of girls in bright pink Republican elephant skirts and bows.

Walker, a Phoenix native, is talking amiably while wearing a shirt with the phrase Two Conservative Lesbians emblazoned on the back and two rainbow female gender symbols decorating the front.

Its a different look for this annual conservative conference that draws thousands and is a must-stop on the itinerary of most conservative politicians. But Walker says its also a different conservative movement than the one that pushed for the Defense of Marriage Act more than two decades ago.

The young vote that is coming in, they are overwhelmingly more pro-gay, more pro-gay marriage, said Walker, the author of A New Breed of Elephant. Or at the least, getting the government out of your personal life.

She was one of a number of Arizona millennials who brought their own brand of conservatism to CPAC at the National Harbor resort just outside Washington.

Josh De Ford, a Kingman native and political analyst for Outset magazine, referred to them as the conservatives who, no doubt that they are conservative young people, but they do have these different views in certain areas.

Students from both Arizona State University and the University of Arizona came for four days of socializing, networking and listening to conservative commentators and elected officials, including Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan, who spoke on voting fraud.

The conference, sponsored by the American Conservative Union, had seven current or former GOP presidential candidates from this election scheduled to speak.

Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Marco Rubio, R-Florida, were scheduled, while surgeon Ben Carson used his speech there Friday to formally announce that he was dropping out of the race.

Republican presidential front-runner, real estate mogul Donald Trump, was scheduled to speak but backed out Friday to campaign instead, according to press accounts.

The star power of the conference is clearly one of the attractions of CPAC.

Marco Rubio is coming. I would love to hear him speak.  The Donald. will be here as well, Parker Dippel, an ASU College Republican, said on Thursday, before Trump backed out.

But just because they were listening does not mean the millennials were agreeing with everything being said.

The millennial brand of conservatism is certainly different than some of the older conservatives who are here, said Zoey Kotzambasis, the Arizona State Chair for the Federation of College Republicans.

There have been some social changes that our generation has certainly embraced, she said, adding that she thinks younger activists are leaning in more of a libertarian direction.

A recent Pew Research Center Study seems to agree. It said 64 percent of millennial Republicans think homosexuality should be accepted by society rather than discouraged, and more than 60 percent of GOP voters between 18 and 31 say marijuana should be legalized.

Given that, Dippel said he thinks the establishment will change their target audience  or at least I hope they would.

But other bedrock tenets of conservatism  low taxes, small government and the free market  are values these students still hold in high regard.

People are going to enter the workforce, especially millennials, and go, You know what? That older generation was right when they were saying that we need smaller government, said Emily Parry, a Flagstaff native and the Arizona field representative for Turning Point USA.
PHOENIX  House Speaker David Gowan is asking Attorney General Mark Brnovich to investigate his travel expenses in a bid to clear his name ahead of his congressional race.

In a letter released Wednesday, Gowan said news report have created the false impression that I knowingly requested some $12,000 in reimbursements to which I was not entitled.

The media continues to portray my actions as improper  even to the point of stating that I have committed a Class 2 misdemeanor, he said. And Gowan said a threat by a private attorney to seek an investigation never materialized.

Meanwhile, the citizens of Arizona are left to wonder what the truth is, Gowan wrote to Brnovich. I urge you to investigate and provide them with an answer.

Mia Garcia, spokeswoman for Brnovich, said the request is being turned over to the agencys criminal division. She said that follows standard procedures when complaints are received.

But Garcia said that everyone  including Gowan  needs to understand that if her agency does delve into the expenses, that wont necessarily lead to a finding that he did nothing wrong. She said what happens will depend on what investigators find.

If thats where it leads us, I think you know that Attorney General Brnovich isnt afraid to take on politically charged investigations, she said.

Tom Ryan, the private attorney who has raised the issue, said hes confident that Brnovich and his staff will do a thorough investigation.

But Ryan said Gowans request does not go far enough.

He said Brnovich also needs to investigate whether Gowan was engaged in his bid to become the Republican nominee for Congressional District 1 while using state vehicles and being driven around by a state employee. Ryan also said that House staff have been on trips where Gowan was seen campaigning.

Lets make it complete, he said.

Stephanie Grisham, Gowans House press aide, said her boss believes that Brnovich should investigate any and all allegations.

Grisham, one of the staffers who Ryan said has been helping Gowans congressional bid, said he did nothing improper. She said he was traveling around the state in his official duties as the speaker.

Ryan called it a frolick and detour.

He wasnt down in Nogales, he wasnt over in Yuma, he wasnt up in Parker, he said. Every city he went to was in CD 1.

Ryan said Gowan, who lives in Sierra Vista  which is not in CD 1  was talking about his congressional campaign.

Thats not state business, he said. If hes out there conducting a campaign (using state resources), hes violating state law.

Grisham did not dispute that her boss might have said something about the race.

You cannot separate the office from the man, she said.

If hes there as speaker and hes speaking on the budget or anything legislative, and they ask him a question (about the race), he can answer it, Grisham said. Its not campaigning.

But the evidence, much of it unearthed by the Arizona Capitol Times, shows its not quite that clear.

For example, Gowan was driven to Flagstaff in a state vehicle last October with the stated purpose of meeting with local leaders.

But Gowan sent out a tweet that day with a picture of him at a table with others, saying he was in Flagstaff listening to voters and talking about my vision to make DC accountable. And it ended with the hashtag #AZ01.

He also was on the radio discussing his congressional campaign.

Gowan, in his letter to Brnovich, said he ordered his own internal review after the Capitol Times first reported on his travels in January.

I was surprised and embarrassed to learn that errors in reporting and lapses of communication resulted in a total of $12,066 in over-reimbursements over the course of the year, Gowan said. I promptly repaid that amount in full with personal funds.

He called them errors and nothing more, saying there was no nefarious intent, despite the cynicism that pervades some of the newspaper accounts.

In his letter to Brovich, Gowan promised unfettered but confidential access to any records, saying he has instructed House members and staffers to cooperate fully and to divulge personal knowledge of relevant facts. But Gowan refused to comment further or explain why he believes the records he will make available are confidential.
Develey Mustard & Condiments Corporation officials announced Thursday the company will locate its first North American production facility in Dyersburg. Develey will invest $20 million in the new operation, creating 150 jobs in Dyer County over the next five years.

We welcome Develey to Dyersburg and thank the company for choosing Tennessee as its first location of operations in North America, Governor Bill Haslam said. Develey joins more than 1,000 registered food and beverage manufacturers operating throughout our state. The new jobs created through this project will have a great impact on our West Tennessee workforce and help support our goal of becoming the No. 1 location in the Southeast for high quality jobs.

Headquartered in Unterhaching, Germany, Develey is one of the leading producers of mustards, dressings and sauces in Europe, exporting to more than 50 countries worldwide. Develey is the exclusive distributor of international brands such as Tabasco, Kikkoman, Pataks, Del Monte and Gatorade in several countries.

In 2015, foreign direct investments in our state totaled $2.25 billion in capital and created more than 7,800 new job commitments. Because of companies like Develey, these figures continue to grow, Economic and Community Development Commissioner Randy Boyd said. We have great partnerships with our communities throughout Tennessee, and I thank everyone from the city, county, chamber, TVA and the state for working together to help bring this project to Dyersburg. We appreciate Develey for its investment and new jobs, and welcome the company to Team Tennessee.

For more than a year we evaluated sites in four states," Develey Mustard & Condiments Corporation Chairman of the Board Michael Durach said. "After several visits, analyzing all numbers and considering the community, we voted for Dyersburg. In the last month, we saw community officials work together to find solutions for our needs and made us feel welcome. We look forward to being an active member of the community and are eager to begin our search to find passionate people to start this adventure with us.

Renovations on the 100,000 square foot Dyersburg facility, at 2630 Ford Hudson Road, will begin in April and are expected to be complete by the end of the year. Develey will build out the interior of the facility according to its manufacturing processes, bring in new equipment and construct a driveway and parking lot for employees and trucking needs.



From this location, Develey will service the North American market in retail and food service. Develey will offer local branded products as well as private label products.

Local leaders and partners expressed gratitude to Develey for choosing Dyersburg, citing the impact the project will have on the community and its workforce.

Thanks to the efforts of those here today and many others, it is with great pride that we make this announcement, Dyersburg Mayor John Holden said. We as a community are very fortunate to be selected as the first U.S. facility for Develey. Their family values, commitment to quality, superior products, and dedicated employees have been instrumental to their success. On behalf of our citizens, we welcome you to Dyersburg and look forward to a long lasting prosperous relationship.

We take tremendous pride in welcoming Develey to our community and thank them for choosing Dyer County as the location of their newest plant, Dyer Couny Mayor Chris Young said. Its always an exciting day when a company such as Develey decides to invest in Dyer County and provide good jobs for our citizens. I look forward to building a long term partnership with them for many years to come. They will be a great asset to our community.

"We are excited to welcome Develey to our community, Dyersburg Chamber of Commerce Chairman Danny Watson said. They have a great history of success in the food industry, and we want to help them continue to be successful in their new North American plant here in Dyersburg. I'm proud of our local team and all the hard work they did to win this project."

TVA and Dyersburg Electric System congratulate Develey on its decision to locate and create new jobs opportunities in Dyersburg, Tennessee, TVA Senior Vice President John Bradley said. Attracting and retaining quality jobs and investments in our region is a fundamental part of TVAs mission of service. We are proud to partner with the city of Dyersburg, Dyer County, Dyersburg Dyer County Chamber of Commerce, and Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development to further that mission and help facilitate Develeys new location decision.
Richard Griffin, the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, stands for a portrait at the National Labor Relations Board on Sept. 18, 2015, in Washington, D.C. (Jahi Chikwendiu / The Washington Post)

Richard Griffin swears he had no agenda when he came to serve as the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board two and a half years ago.

"I didn't come in with the idea that this needs to be addressed or that needs to be addressed, at all," says Griffin, blue eyes gazing out from under bushy eyebrows, his Yale rower's frame slumped in a chair. "Some people may find that hard to believe, but it's true."

Advertisement

As the agency's chief prosecutor, Griffin can only work with the complaints that cross his desk. It was either luck or fate, then, that a series of new cases would give him the opportunity to help fundamentally reshape the rules that govern companies that increasingly rely on subcontractors, temporary workers, franchise employees and the like.

Many of those complaints arose from McDonalds workers who say franchisees retaliated against them for protesting over wages. Griffin, in bringing their case, asserts that McDonalds headquarters has enough control over its franchisees' operations to be equally responsible for their missteps.

Advertisement

A key test of that theory begins Thursday, when McDonald's lawyers will face off against Griffin's in a New York City courtroom. From the workers' perspective, their complaint targets a problem that's gotten much worse in recent years: The company that calls the shots is not actually the one who signs their paycheck.

That case, and another decided last year called Browning Ferris Industries, has alarmed a host of industries that have come to rely on franchising and other arms-length relationships to shed responsibility for the people who do their work. Trade associations say they saw such attacks coming, and that is why they resisted Griffin's appointment from the get-go; they said he would tilt the agency in favor of labor.

"Have I fulfilled their expectations?" Griffin chuckles, wryly, upon being told of such predictions.

From the angry language of industry leaders, the attempts to get the NLRB's actions rolled back legislatively, and pronouncements by politicians -- including Jeb Bush, who had a whole anti-NLRB plank in his now-defunct presidential campaign platform -- of the need to rein in the "unaccountable" agency, it seems the answer is yes.

"If you're a management person, you're going to say Mr. Griffin's term is one of the most dramatic activist terms of any general counsel in history," said Michael Lotito, co-chair of the Workplace Policy Institute at the management-side law firm Littler Mendelson.

--

Griffin is actually one of two Obama appointees who, in their separate legal domains, have taken on the project of helping workers bargain with the companies that ultimately govern the terms and conditions of their employment.

The other is David Weil, a rumpled professor who had spent a career studying the enforcement of labor laws in an outsourced world when Obama plucked him from Boston University three years ago to serve as wage and hour administrator at the Department of Labor.

Advertisement

Weil's confirmation hearing was nearly as rough as Griffin's. The position had been empty for nearly a decade, with two nominations already having been withdrawn in the face of GOP objections. And Weil had just published the most powerful book of his career: "The Fissured Workplace," a tour through the ways in which he argues industries remade themselves for maximum efficiency and minimum responsibility for workers.

Ultimately, in early 2014, he was voted through. With no time to waste, Weil set about remaking the Labor Department's enforcement strategy to reflect his understanding of how businesses had changed.

All too often, Weil says, they have misclassified employees as independent contractors to avoid paying benefits like unemployment insurance and workers compensation, or brought in temporary staffing agencies that can be swapped out as soon as they get too expensive. So with a beefed up inspection staff, the department has done extensive market research to target investigations in industries like construction and light manufacturing, where abuses are most common.

"We're trying to understand the way the world is structured in order to maximize our impact," explained Weil, in a January interview.

Weil's diagnosis of the problem has had far-reaching influence within the administration -- including upon Griffin. The general counsel cited Weil's research in abrief in the Browning-Ferris case that laid out how the labor relations board should expand its definition of an employer to include not just a company that exerted direct control over workers, but also those who simply reserve the right to do so -- reflecting the "economic reality" of their business practices. In its decision, the board adopted Griffin's recommendation nearly in full.

Their harmonious approaches have raised suspicions on Capitol Hill that Griffin and Weil are mounting a coordinated assault on businesses that depend on all forms of subcontracting, a push that has now surfaced at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Republicans on the House Education and Workforce Committee demanded to see any correspondence between the two, which they said would be "inappropriate." And indeed, some evidence of communication between the two agencies was produced, although the Department of Labor says that's entirely above board.

Advertisement

"Federal agencies can foster a more efficient and effective government by working together to learn best practices and to broaden understanding of topical developments in relevant legal issues," said a spokesman for the department.

Nevertheless, Griffin and Weil say they didn't know each other well before going into public service, and have since only seen each other at the occasional event. And Griffin has been around in the labor movement long enough to understand the changing economic realities facing workers himself.

Mike Fanning, who served as general counsel of the union before Griffin took over and calls him "one of the brightest, hardest working, and sweetest guys you'll ever meet," recalls a case before the NLRB that had been appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. In order to write a brief, they needed evidence from their members in large hospitals. Griffin, who grew up in Buffalo as the child of Catholic civil rights activists, was assigned to collect it.

"He basically got on an airplane for six weeks, and was in the basements of hospitals, interviewing engineers, putting together the history," Fanning recalls. "He was the kind of guy who would walk into any boiler room in America and sit down with the guys and say 'I'm sorry I'm interrupting, I know it's your lunchtime, but this is what I've got to do.' He found guys to testify, but they wouldn't trust me, they would only trust Dick."

Although never working directly for a union, Weil hasn't lived his life in an ivory tower either. According to a2014 Boston Globe profile, he dropped out of high school and spent a year doing manual labor in California before going to college. That kind of experience -- along with extensive academic research -- helped him understand something that's been evident to the labor movement for a long time.

"The reason it's important and edifying for advocates who work with low-wage workers is that these people in the administration are starting to call attention to the problem," says Cathy Ruckelshaus, general counsel for the liberal National Employment Law Project. "That makes a huge difference, because they know it in their bones."

Advertisement

--

Weil and Griffin's actions have prompted yelps of protest from a broad range of industries that rely on "fissuring," as a broad range of contracted work has come to be known. But none has resisted as loudly as the franchise industry, through its trade group the International Franchise Association, which sees the action around joint employment as simply an indication that the administration is following organized labor's agenda.

"When you have an administration that is pro-union, and appoints people who are pro-union, and you have unions spending a tremendous amount of money, it provides a fertile environment for unions and employment-related causes to take on high visibility," says Stuart Hershman, a longtime franchise lawyer who advises the IFA.

The problem, Hershman says, is that franchisors don't know what kinds of assistance they can provide to franchisees without becoming a joint employer. Franchisors are already spending more on lawyers to try to adapt to the new rules, he says, but they fear it won't be enough. According to Ruckelshaus, of NELP, the number of cases being filed against companies as joint employers is rising as well.

In response, the association has built a grassroots lobbying network to try to push Congress to stop the Department of Labor and NLRB from pursuing franchisors as joint employers of their franchisees' workers.The trade group has also recently advocated for laws adopted in a handful of states that formally state a franchisor can't be held responsible for the actions of its employees -- that doesn't protect them from federal law enforcement, but it's something.

As a result of the uproar, Griffin and Weil have engaged in an unusual amount of dialogue with trade groups, appearing at conferences and taking private meetings to explain their approach. Just a few weeks ago, Griffin flew down to San Antonio on a Saturday to answer questions at the IFA's board meeting, in hopes of providing more clarity. People in attendance say they appreciated the gesture, but they were not put at ease.

Advertisement

"He said, 'I don't understand why you guys are so upset about this,'" recalls IFA President Robert Cresanti, of Griffin's presentation. "I think when I walked away from this thing, in my head the phrase that kept ringing was, 'this guy is really well intentioned, but we can't afford to live in a world where intentions matter more than results.' And the result here is the destruction of the franchise industry. And it is slow, and it is not seismic, it's just piece by piece by piece."

Weil and Griffin have both said that upstanding employers shouldn't have any issue with the new enforcement regimes -- it's just those who try to exert control without taking responsibility who'll run into problems.
From the beginning, it was clear Wednesday night's www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-democratic-debate-20160309-story.html>Democratic presidential debate was going to be a little bit different.

Broadcast simultaneously on CNN and Univision, the nation's largest Spanish-language network, the debate kicked off with moderator Maria Elena Salinas speaking a few words of rapid-fire Spanish. That set the tone for questioning that focused more on immigration and Latino issues than most debates this election cycle, as did a Republican debate last month hosted by Spanish-language network Telemundo.

The forums have highlighted the growing importance of the Latino vote, which is expected to be 40% larger this year than it was in 2008.

Here are a few moments at the debates hosted by Spanish-language media that might not have happened otherwise:

Immigrants asked questions

Immigration has been at the forefront of the campaign, ever since Donald Trump criticized people arriving illegally from Mexico in his announcement speech.

Since then, candidates have vigorously debated border walls, refugee policies and deportation techniques. But the voices of immigrants have largely been absent.

That changed Wednesday night, when an immigrant audience member asked Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders a question in Spanish about her partner's deportation.

"I have a big pain, my sons and me, because the father of my children was deported for not having a license," the woman said in Spanish. "What will you do to stop the deportations and reunite families?"

In an instant, the debate over deportation was made a little less abstract and a little more human.

'Hispandering' went mainstream

At Wednesday night's debate, Salinas dropped a new phrase when talking about candidates who make promises to the Latino community to win votes: "Hispandering."

The issue first came up at last month's Republican debate on Telemundo, when moderator Maria Celeste Arraras asked Florida Sen. Marco Rubio about his comments to a Spanish-language reporter that he would let President Obama's deportation deferral program run its course. Rubio has told English-language audiences that he would end the program immediately.

"Sen. Rubio, what changed?" she asked him. The candidate explained that he does plan to wind down the program if he is elected president.

We got to watch Bernie Sanders praising Fidel Castro's Cuba

Sanders, the Vermont senator who's running for the Democratic presidential nomination, has been asked repeatedly about his self-described "democratic socialist" beliefs.

But it took a pointed question in front of a largely Cuban American audience Wednesday night to get him to assert a certain admiration of Fidel Castro's communist government.

Sanders was asked about a video interview from the 1980s in which he appeared to be praising aspects of Castro's governance. Sanders explained to the audience in Miami -- home to many Cuban exiles -- that those comments had to do with failed U.S. attempts to intervene in Cuban politics.

But he also refused to apologize for praising Castro, adding that Cuba has made "good advances" in healthcare and education.

Sanders and Clinton pledged to end deportations of children

This was a big moment in Wednesday night's debate. Sanders and Clinton pledged to break with President Obama's policy of deporting young immigrants in the country illegally.

And it wouldn't have happened if Univision anchor Jorge Ramos hadn't questioned the candidates about the issue repeatedly. When Clinton tried to avoid a direct response on what she would do with immigrant children, many of whom are fleeing violence in Central America, Ramos pressed her to answer.

She and Sanders both eventually pledged not to deport any children who are already in the country illegally, although they didn't say what should happen to future young arrivals.

Espanol was spoken

Spanish is the primary language spoken at home by nearly 40 million Americans. Many of those people never get to hear directly from the political candidates seeking their votes, instead relying on dubbed translations on television.

English-speaking CNN viewers got a taste of that experience Wednesday when parts of the broadcast were translated in real time from Spanish into English. The audio, which at times were confusing and timed slightly off, highlighted how much can get lost in translation.

The Telemundo debate also provided a rare instances of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz speaking Spanish on the campaign trail. While Rubio often speaks in Spanish and leans heavily on his story as the son of immigrants, Cruz rarely acknowledges his own Cuban immigrant story and ethnic heritage.

That changed when Rubio criticized him in the Telemundo debate for not being able to understand what was said on Spanish-language news programs. Cruz lashed back -- in Spanish. His accent wasn't perfect, but it wasn't about that.

For more stories on the presidential campaign, follow me on Twitter: @katelinthicum
Today is Thursday, March 10, the 70th day of 2016. There are 296 days left in the year.

Todays Highlight in History:

On March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bells assistant, Thomas Watson, heard Bell say over his experimental telephone: Mr. Watson  come here  I want to see you from the next room of Bells Boston laboratory.

On this date:

In 1785, Thomas Jefferson was appointed Americas minister to France, succeeding Benjamin Franklin.

In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln assigned Ulysses S. Grant, who had just received his commission as lieutenant-general, to the command of the Armies of the United States. The song Beautiful Dreamer by the late Stephen Foster was copyrighted by Wm. A. Pond & Co. of New York.

In 1880, the Salvation Army arrived in the United States from England.

In 1914, the Rokeby Venus, a 17th century painting by Diego Velazquez on display at the National Gallery in London, was slashed multiple times by Mary Richardson, who was protesting the arrest of fellow suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst. (The painting was repaired.)

In 1933, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake centered off Long Beach, California, resulted in 120 deaths.

In 1949, Nazi wartime broadcaster Mildred E. Gillars, also known as Axis Sally, was convicted in Washington D.C., of treason. (She served 12 years in prison.)

In 1952, Fulgencio Batista once again became leader of Cuba in a bloodless coup that deposed President Carlos Piro Socarras.

In 1969, James Earl Ray pleaded guilty in Memphis, Tennessee, to assassinating civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (Ray later repudiated that plea, maintaining his innocence until his death.)

In 1973, the Pink Floyd album The Dark Side of the Moon was first released in the U.S. by Capitol Records (the British release came nearly two weeks later).
"The best thing I think could happen is for the party to unite before Ohio and Florida and make sure that we not only beat him, Trump, in Ohio and Florida, that we have a candidate that can beat him thereafter and right now it seems that Ted Cruz has the best case to be made," Graham said.
Michael Tatera, 54, of West Allis, Wis., was found guilty in McHenry County on Jan. 12, 2016, of his eighth DUI offense. (McHenry County sheriff's office)

A Wisconsin man is headed to prison after he was convicted of driving under the influence for what authorities said was the ninth time.

Michael Tatera, 54, was found guilty of DUI in January in McHenry County and on Thursday was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Advertisement

Prosecutors had asked for a stiff prison term, calling his driving record "absolutely appalling, absolutely deplorable."

"When is he going to get the point that (driving under the influence) endangers not only himself but everyone else? I implore the court to get him off the streets," Assistant State's Attorney John Gibbons said at Tatera's sentencing.

Advertisement

At his trial, authorities had said that Tatera, a resident of West Allis, outside Milwaukee, had seven prior convictions for DUI in Wisconsin, dating to 1987. Since then, prosecutors said they discovered an eighth prior conviction, also from Wisconsin. Gibbons criticized their Wisconsin counterparts for allowing Tatera to retain a legal driver's license with so many alcohol-related offenses on his record.

Tatera's public defender, Angelo Mourelatos, said his client "is a good person" whose "demon is alcohol." Mourelatos also noted Tatera never injured anyone.

Tatera also addressed the court and apologized, telling the judge, "I'm sorry that this case is here." His fiancee, Debra Jones, called him "the best person, best man I have ever known."

Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. >

Judge Sharon Prather asked Tatera: "Do you recognize that you have a very serious problem with alcohol?  Why have you not done something about it?"

Tatera said he was in a recovery program but that work often got in the way of his involvement.

Prather said Tatera was a "threat to everyone" when he drinks and drives.

"You are very fortunate you have not already hurt someone," she told him.

Tatera is required to serve 50 percent of his sentence and is to receive alcohol abuse counseling in prison. He will be on mandatory supervised release for three more years. He also must pay $5,000 in court costs.

Advertisement

The McHenry County conviction stemmed from a 2012 traffic stop in Spring Grove in which officials said Tatera drove around a barricade and onto a road that was closed.

Amanda Marrazzo is a freelance reporter.
Cook County state's attorney candidates Anita Alvarez, Kim Foxx and Donna More meet with the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board on Feb. 4, 2016. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune)

Welcome to Clout Street: Morning Spin, our weekday feature to catch you up with what's going on in government and politics from Chicago to Springfield.

Topspin

The final forum in the high-profile Democratic primary for Cook County state's attorney will take place at 7 o'clock tonight.

Advertisement

All three candidates are scheduled to take part. They are Anita Alvarez, who is running for a third term, Kim Foxx, a former prosecutor and chief of staff to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, and Donna More, a private attorney and former prosecutor.

The forum will air live on WTTW-Ch. 11's "Chicago Tonight" before an audience of Cook County League of Women Voters members and guests. The group is a co-sponsor. Phil Ponce will moderate.

Advertisement

Much of the campaign debate so far has centered on police misconduct, particularly how Alvarez handled the investigation of the fatal shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald by white Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke that was captured on a police dash-cam video.

Other issues have included how to deal with wrongful prosecutions, what the office can do to help reduce Chicago's stubbornly high murder rate and the diversion of low-level, nonviolent drug offenders and the mentally ill into treatment programs.

With this forum coming just five days before Election Day, and the candidates quick to criticize each other, some fireworks would not be surprising. (Hal Dardick)

What's on tap

*Mayor Rahm Emanuel has no public events scheduled.

*Gov. Bruce Rauner will attend the first meeting of his panel on children and youth in Springfield.

*Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will hold an evening early voting rally in Vernon Hills.

*The Chicago City Council Aviation, Budget, and Pedestrian & Traffic Safety committees meet.

What we're writing

*Rauner-Madigan proxy war plays out in Dunkin-Stratton primary.

Advertisement

*Former allies Rush, Brookins scrap in 1st Congressional District primary.

*Kasich stumps in Chicago suburbs.

*CPS tells principals district lacks cash to get through this year.

*City Council panel OKs 50-cent cab ride credit card fee.

*Chicago History Museum admission fee increase approved.

From the notebook

*Tampon tax step closer to elimination: A Senate panel has given initial approval to a plan that would eliminate sales tax levied on the sale of feminine hygiene products and adult diapers, with supporters arguing the levy is unfair to women and seniors.

Advertisement

Under current law, tampons, sanitary napkins and adult diapers are classified as grooming and hygiene products by the Illinois Department of Revenue, and as such are taxed as "luxury items" at 6.25 percent.

Sponsoring Sen. Melinda Bush, D-Grayslake, said that classification is discriminatory for women in particular, who have to buy "a product they are literally biologically incapable of avoiding."

In Chicago, Ald. Edward Burke, 14th, and Ald. Leslie Hairston, 5th, are pushing a similar ordinance that would exempt women from paying the city's 1.25 percent share of the combined state, county and city 10.25 percent sales tax on feminine hygiene products. They've also called on the state to reduce its tax on the products to 1 percent, the rate the state taxes certain drugs and medical equipment, to ease the financial burden for the city's poorer women.

Bush's measure goes further by abolishing the tax altogether, something five other states have done as part of a growing movement nationwide to end the "tampon tax." It passed a Senate committee Wednesday, where Bush argued the tax is also unfair to both women who suffer early incontinence from childbirth and seniors, for whom adult diapers are expensive medical necessities.

Illinoisans spend an estimated $14.7 million annually on the products affected by the proposal, according to the Illinois Committee on Government Forecasting and Accountability. It's unclear how much the state would lose by not taxing such items. (Celeste Bott)

*Automatic voter registration ads: The group iVote, a national voting-rights advocacy organization, is spending $20,000 on digital advertising to promote five state legislative candidates who back a plan to make voter registration automatic when people get or renew a driver's license or a state ID card.



The digital ads back state Sen. Patricia Van Pelt, a Chicago Democrat, who is in a primary contest against former Ald. Bob Fioretti, an unsuccessful mayoral candidate. And they also support Republican legislative hopefuls Christopher Hicks of Sawyerville in Macoupin County, Gary Pierce of Springfield, Jason Kasiar of Eldorado in Saline County, Jonathon Kaye of Toledo in Cumberland County.



There is a pending automatic voter registration measure that has been introduced by state Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill. It would change the current system from an opt-in to register to vote to opt-out if someone doesn't want to register.



Similar legislation has been enacted in Oregon and California, and bills have been introduced in more than 30 states. (Rick Pearson)

Advertisement

Follow the money

*Gov. Rauner's Turnaround Illinois fund gave nearly $523,000 to the Liberty Principles PAC, which is run by conservative radio talk show host Dan Proft. Turnaround Illinois is the independent expenditure fund that Rauner put $250,000 into last year and real estate mogul Sam Zell poured $4 million into. It paid for last summer's attack ads on Speaker Michael Madigan. Liberty Principles has spent money during the primary campaign backing Rauner-allied legislative candidates.

*Wealthy former Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Blair Hull put another $50,000 into Illinois United for Change, an independent expenditure fund that's going after House Speaker Madigan and backing his challenger, Jason Gonzalez. Hull is now in for $370,000 in contributions and loans to the fund.

*Democratic donor Fred Eychaner gave $39,200 to a Personal PAC independent expenditure fund. The group backs candidates who support abortion rights. He also kicked in $10,800 to the group's regular PAC.

*Track campaign contribution reports in real time with this Tribune Twitter account: https://twitter.com/ILCampaignCash

Beyond Chicago

*Presidential race, Republican side: Rubio's rough ride.

*Presidential race, Democratic side: Clinton, Sanders spar on immigration in Florida debate.

Advertisement

*Iran fires two missiles marked with "Israel must be wiped out."

*Baltimore officers charged in recorded assault on teen.
Democrats got a taste Wednesday night of where their nominating contest between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders could be heading - toward a grueling and increasingly contentious battle that could continue until the primaries end in June.



A few days ago, Wednesday's debate here appeared as if it might be an anticlimax as Clinton rolled toward the nomination. Instead, Sanders arrived reenergized and reinvigorated after his surprising victory in Michigan. Rather than questions about Sanders's viability, Clinton faced questions about what had gone wrong with her campaign.



The two squabbled at length over immigration. They traded charges over bailing out the automobile industry. They argued again over health care and about how to combat climate change. A quiet start turned into a spirited and at times tense series of exchanges that highlighted their differences and the state of their competition.



Clinton sought to brush aside her Michigan loss, pointing to a big victory in Mississippi and the fact that she emerged with more total delegates on Tuesday than her opponent. But it was clear that, if she remains the front-runner for the nomination, she has yet to put to rest questions about her candidacy or put away an opponent who has proven to be more resilient and effective than most people imagined.



Tuesday's debate settled little. Both Clinton and Sanders were effective in making their cases. Picking winners and losers seemed beside the point. From here on, the voters will decide winners and losers, week after week, in primaries and caucuses. Clinton may hold a lead in pledged delegates, but that isn't likely to intimidate Sanders after what happened in Michigan.



Clinton should be familiar with what awaits her in the weeks ahead. She went through this in 2008 against then-Sen. Barack Obama, but from the other side, playing the role that Sanders plays today: the dogged challenger hanging in against long odds.



Eight years ago, Obama was on the brink of ending the race for the nomination, having won 11 consecutive victories in February after Super Tuesday. One last obstacle remained: contests in Ohio and Texas in early March.



Then, Bill Clinton set his wife's expectations almost impossibly high. He suggested that a loss in either state would knock her out of the race. The Obama team poured more than $15 million into those contests, determined to bring the race to a close.



Instead, Clinton began to find her voice - with a more populist economic message. Sound familiar? She went on to win Ohio and a popular-vote victory in the Texas primary. A dejected Obama knew instantly what the results meant. Though he had a lead in delegates that would be difficult to surmount, he realized the race would grind on interminably for three more months.



That's the possible impact of what happened in Michigan on Tuesday. A Clinton victory could have effectively ended Sanders's rationale for continuing on, though it was doubtful he would have gotten out of the race soon. Now, though he trails in pledged delegates by a substantial margin, he has been revived, just as Clinton was eight years ago this month. This cannot be a happy moment for Clinton this week as she assesses the cost of her Michigan loss.



Sanders had been told just before Tuesday's vote that he probably would lose narrowly. Clinton's campaign knew it was possible, though not necessarily likely, that she could lose Michigan. The demographics played better to Sanders than other recent states. Ironically it was her ability to win white, working-class Democrats against Obama that kept her 2008 campaign going. Against Sanders on Tuesday, she lost not only whites without college degrees but also whites with college degrees.



Much of this goes to the issue of the continuing weakness in her candidacy, the issues of trust and authenticity. Asked a direct question about this in the debate, Clinton said, "I do take responsibility." She followed that by saying, "I am not a natural politician, in case you haven't noticed, unlike my husband and President Obama . . . I have to do the best I can."



After a year of campaigning, Clinton still seems not to have found a comfortable voice or a message that comes from her heart, unlike eight years ago as she battled to overtake Obama. This came to the fore in Michigan, a trade-sensitive state, where she struggled to demonstrate that she is as resistant to trade agreements as her opponent.



Her attack on Sanders in last Sunday's debate as an opponent of the auto bailout was a stretch at best, a deliberate distortion at worst. On Tuesday she doubled down on the issue, seeking to show that Sanders had opposed a bill early in 2009 that included funds to save the industry.



But almost immediately after she did, David Axelrod, who was senior adviser to Obama in the White House, tweeted this: "She did it again and I'll say it again. It's misleading to imply that TARP II was an auto bailout bill."



The tactic was reminiscent of the campaign's earlier claim that Sanders wanted to dismantle the Affordable Care Act and leave millions of people without health insurance - an argument that, no matter how one feels about his support for a single-payer type system, did not ring true. Sanders's message has defined the contest and she has had to respond to it, just as she has had to adapt to a changing Democratic Party.



Clinton's clear advantage today is the same one Obama enjoyed in 2008 after he lost Ohio and Texas. Thanks to Democratic rules of proportionality, Sanders probably will struggle to make up his deficit in delegates. That hill is even higher when her support from elected officials and party leaders - the superdelegates- is included.



Next week will bring contests in Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina. Florida and North Carolina look good for Clinton; the other three present opportunities for Sanders, though none will be easy for him. By next week at this time, if she runs the table or comes close, the conversation might have shifted again, to the reality of the delegate math.



That, however, will not deter Sanders. He sees the calendar farther ahead as increasingly favorable. He has the money and now the incentive to stay in until the end and already is eyeing big efforts in big states such as New York and California. His advisers believe he can win a series of states later in March and beyond, even if he makes much less progress in cutting down her advantage in delegates.



Whatever transpires from here, this is not the campaign Clinton envisioned. She remains the favorite to win the nomination. Michigan did not change that. But because of that vote, she faces renewed doubts about her effectiveness as a candidate. They are many of the same ones she has been dealing with since the campaign began long ago.
Under the direction of Democratic leaders who control the schedule, the Illinois House adjourned last week until April 4.

Confused about why the House would head home for a month in the midst of a state budget crisis? Well, then, you simply don't appreciate the fact that your state representative must be exhausted. Lawmakers have gathered in Springfield for a handful of days  fewer than a dozen since January  and they need four weeks of spring break to rejuvenate. Keg stand, anyone? Beach volleyball? Probably not, but lawmakers won't exactly be governing while earning their $70,000-and-up salaries.

Advertisement

A few questions: Are social services providers taking a month off? Caregivers who tend to the sick and elderly? How about the social workers who provide counseling and health referrals for the state's most vulnerable citizens? What about college students whose futures are played as pawns in an elaborate chess game between warring political parties?

Are they taking an entire month off?

Advertisement

What about the human services providers who bring meals to senior citizens and check on the blind and disabled? What about the community care centers that serve the homeless? What about the small business owners who rely on state funding and haven't been paid in months? Are they all taking the month off?

Of course not. They're doing their jobs, despite the growing uncertainty about whether or when they'll get paid. They're counting on lawmakers to do their jobs.

(Scott Stantis)

Sure, last week's adjournment had been on the calendar for months. So what? Doesn't the state's fiscal emergency demand a change of plans? The stack of unpaid bills is towering at $7.3 billion. Illinois' credit rating is the worst the nation. The Democrat-led House and Senate and Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner still haven't passed and signed a budget for the fiscal year that started July 1, let alone turned their attention to next year's budget.

The Democrats in Washington, D.C., routinely bash conservative Republicans' efforts to shut down government. Here, the Democrats just schedule it in.

You would think some lawmaker might question the optics of heading home with so much left undone. Actually, a few did. Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, recently called for a special session to force lawmakers to fix the budget. His suggestion was promptly brushed aside. Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, tried to pass a resolution last week keeping lawmakers in Springfield. He was ruled out of order by House Speaker Michael Madigan's parliamentarian. Rep. Scott Drury, D-Highwood, called on his colleagues to get serious about passing a balanced budget instead of going home. He was ridiculed.

Rauner on Tuesday called the House break "outrageous" and a "dereliction of duty."

He held his news conference from an empty state Capitol.

Who's listening anyway? Don't be silly. It's 5 o'clock somewhere.

Advertisement

The Senate has met for a few more days than the House so far this year, but that chamber, too, will enjoy nearly a month away from Springfield because the senators have ... earned it?

Not even close.

Sure, lawmakers work in their districts when they're home. They're especially eager for face time in an election year. But their constituents need them to be in Springfield. When they're in Springfield, they move legislation. They meet in committee. They hear testimony. They lobby each other. They are forced to interact. They are more productive.

Sending them home is like putting a "Gone Fishing" sign on those fancy copper-plated Capitol doors.

Remember this long pause when incumbents show up at your polling place asking for your vote, or when you bump into them at the grocery store. Ask them why they aren't at work.

Follow the Editorial Board on Twitter @Trib_Ed_Board and on Facebook.
Alabama was a battleground late last month for fundamentally opposed political forces. Im not referring to the states presidential primaries, but to the fight between Birmingham, whose city council passed an ordinance establishing a minimum wage of $10.10, and the state Legislature, which responded by enacting a law, signed by the governor, forbidding cities from setting any wage standards at all.

This kind of struggle between cities and states is becoming routine in our politically and geographically polarized times. Arizona passed draconian anti-immigrant laws while Phoenix directed its police not to hand over immigrant detainees to the feds for deportation. Cities in Texas passed prohibitions on the use of plastic bags, which the Legislature endeavored to repeal. Even in liberal California, while Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities have raised their minimum wage to $15, a bill increasing the state minimum to $13 has languished in the Legislature.

Government in all countries is naturally divided among local, state and national jurisdictions, but never before in Americas history have the three levels of government had such distinct political profiles.

Today, 27 of the nations 30 largest cities have Democratic mayors  the greatest partisan imbalance since the advent of the party system in the age of Andrew Jackson. Even cities in rock-solid Republican states have Democratic mayors. In deep red Texas, Democrats govern Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio and El Paso.

States, meanwhile, have seldom been more Republican. The GOP controls the governors office and both houses of the legislature in 23 states, while Democrats can boast the same in just seven.

At the federal level, effective one-party control of the government has become a near-impossibility. Since Lyndon Johnsons presidency, no party has simultaneously held the White House and the House of Representatives while enjoying a filibuster-proof super-majority in the Senate (save in the first few months of Barack Obamas presidency, when the Democrats 60th vote was that of the mortally ill and understandably absent Edward M. Kennedy). So long as both parties were willing to compromise, the divided federal government could still function. Lately, however, lawmaking has been relegated to increasingly conservative states and increasingly liberal cities.

The rightward drift of states is chiefly a consequence of low voter participation by minorities and the young in mid-term elections, and the success of a well-funded conservative movement at winning control of the states. The leftward movement of cities, in contrast, is the result of an epochal influx of minorities and liberal millennials. Just as the great wave of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe transformed early 20th century cities, so the immigrants of recent decades, coming from Latin America, Asia and Africa, have also flocked to cities  and radically altered their politics.

From 1980 to 2010, the white share of the population of Los Angeles dropped from 48 percent to 29 percent; of New York, from 53 percent to 37 percent; of Dallas, from 57 percent to 29 percent; of Columbus, from 76 percent to 59 percent. Nationally, Obamas share of the vote in the 2012 presidential election outpaced Walter Mondales share in 1984 by 10.5 percentage points, but in Los Angeles, he outperformed Mondale by 26 points; in New York, by 20; in Dallas, by 24; in Columbus, by 27. Twenty-five years ago, six of Americas dozen largest cities still had Republican mayors; today, Republicans preside in just one.

Not surprisingly, its only at the city level that many of Obamas and the Democratic Partys signature proposals  raising the minimum wage, mandating paid sick days, requiring utilities to shift to cleaner power sources  have been enacted, and, in places such as San Francisco and Los Angeles, exceeded. Increasingly, however, its only in states where Republicans dont rule that this kind of municipal power exists.

This tripartite division not just of government but also of fundamental ideological orientation is Americas new political reality, and its likely to be with us for some time. Its hard to imagine what could reverse the leftward movement of cities, and unless Democrats can devise ways to get more of their supporters to the polls in midterm elections, Republicans will continue to dominate the states. The war between cities and states may be only just beginning.

Government in all countries is naturally divided among local, state and national jurisdictions, but never before in Americas history have the three levels of government had such distinct political profiles.
A request could soon be made to remove Geneva murder suspect Julia Gutierrez from suicide watch at the Kane County Jail, her attorney told a judge Wednesday.

Gutierrez, 53, has been held without bail since her January arrest in the death of her husband, Eduardo. Geneva police went to the couple's Crissey Avenue home Jan. 28 for a well-being check when they discovered Gutierrez unconscious from an apparent suicide attempt and her husband dead. Gutierrez is accused of giving him a smoothie laced with a lethal dose of sleeping pills, according to prosecutors.

Advertisement

Gutierrez was placed on suicide watch at a bond hearing in February. She has worn a green jail jumpsuit - indicating she has been segregated from the general population - during subsequent court appearances, including Wednesday. Her attorney, public defender Julia Yetter, previously mentioned that Gutierrez's grooming habits were limited because of suicide watch restrictions.

On Wednesday, Yetter told Judge D.J. Tegeler that she is in contact with mental health officials at the jail about a re-evaluation of Gutierrez. That information would be the basis for a request to modify Gutierrez's bond to have her taken off suicide watch. Tegeler scheduled an April 21 preliminary hearing, but Yetter could seek an earlier court date.

Advertisement

Prosecutors have said the murder allegations against Gutierrez bear resemblance to a 2002 uncharged incident in which authorities said she put pills in her husband's milk shake. Geneva police recently described the 2002 case as "currently under investigation" to deny a Freedom of Information request seeking reports from the incident.

Dan Campana is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News
A nod to Clinton: I'm watching all these Republican and Democratic debates, and the one who is really interesting is Hillary Clinton. She bobs her head up and down all the time. If anyone comes out with a Bobblehead doll on her, they will make a fortune.

New Supreme Court justice needed: Folks, if you think the GOP were a bunch of old nasty guys, wait until you see how nasty they will get now. We need a new justice for the Supreme Court. They are going to get nasty, nasty, nasty.

Advertisement

Stop catering to illegal immigrants: I'm calling about the Republican debate. Marco Rubio said Ted Cruz does not speak Spanish. Well, we are in America, and the basic language is English. None of the other immigrants who have come over have been catered to like the ones who speak Spanish. Why is that? They should be speaking English. As far as illegal immigrants staying here, let them stay. They shouldn't become citizens. They can work here and pay taxes, but they should not be allowed to hold public office. They are illegal. They broke the law. Quit giving them everything they want.

Riled about Republicans: I would like to tell the Republicans to stop wasting taxpayer money. We talk about liberals wasting money, but the truth is the Republicans attack the liberals on everything such as Planned Parenthood, which is just what it says. Planned Parenthood gives advice and health care to single moms and couples who need help. Stop the nonsense. I would also like to say that it is President Obama's prerogative to appoint a new Supreme Court justice whether it's an election year or not. The Republicans are afraid and acting like idiots. If a Republican president was in office, they would have the same right to appoint a justice.

Advertisement

Puzzled about pope's popularity: I want to comment on the pope going to Mexico. I'm not quite sure why everyone is so excited about seeing the pope in Mexico. He's just a man like everyone else. He's nothing special. If he was so special, he would help all these people in Mexico get out of poverty.

Keep iPhone information private: I know it's a delicate thing between Apple and the government. I know the government thinks there might be more information on the terrorists' iPhones, but they could be wrong like they were about the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. We're caught between a rock and a hard place. If hackers get one iota of this, they will go after it like the silver dollar and find ways to break into iPhones. It will ruin people's lives. A lot of people run their entire businesses with these iPhones. I have all of my business and my banking information on my iPhone. If they do break into the iPhone, I will destroy my iPhone and get all the information taken off of it. This is not a good thing.

Rooting for Rauner: Hurray for Bruce Rauner, our Republican governor, who is trying to pull Illinois out of the financial mess that past Democratic administrations created. You can't eat filet mignon every night on a peanut butter and jelly budget. Some agencies have to be cut, and there will be some suffering. Blame the Democrats and not our governor, who is doing the right thing.

Sidewalks made for walking: I live on the near east side of Aurora. I'm wondering if I'm the only one who sees all these cars parked across sidewalks instead of on the street or in parking spots. Maybe we need to print some fliers so people will understand that sidewalks are for walking on and not for parking cars.

Cope with pope remarks: I think the Republicans should stick to the point and stop fighting about everything they hear. They are already at odds with one another. They shouldn't worry about what the pope says about the voters. They should just do what they're going to do and not make a big argument about the pope. It will just bring about an argument between the hyper-Christians and the Catholics.

Follow Colorado's example: If Gov. Rauner is serious about welcoming more businesses to Illinois, he needs to expand the list of medical marijuana illnesses. An even bigger revenue source would be legalized marijuana. The state of Colorado has a budget surplus after legalization. When are the citizens of Illinois going to be able to vote for the legalization of marijuana?

Stop mixing religion with politics: It's funny how the Vatican is surrounded by walls and security guards, but the pope thinks our country should not have a wall and we should let in whoever wants to come here. Maybe he should stick to religion and stay out of politics.

Religion is a private matter: I am so sick and tired of hearing religion in every word that people say. Let's do what's right. People in the Middle East kill each other over religion. Is that what we want in the United States? Everybody should practice their religion privately. Don't shove off your religion on someone else. The United States is a good country. If we're going to break it up over religion, that's what the terrorists want us to do. That's not what our forefathers wanted. Let's go with what's good for humanity and stop all this craziness.

Advertisement

Skip the stairs: I'd like to know what builders are thinking when they build these houses with 10-foot tall ceilings that you can't reach in order to clean them. You have to hire someone. Also, why are they building all these stairs? Don't they know the population is getting older? When people get older, they want everything flat. Ranch homes with 8-foot ceilings. Wake up, you builders.

Don't dump on Trump: It really amazes me how people misinterpret everything they hear on the news. Donald Trump never said he hated Mexicans or Muslims. He wants our laws enforced, and he doesn't want more Muslims coming here at this point in time until we can find out more about their backgrounds and whether or not they are terrorists. WGN 9 News said Trump made all this money in Chicago at the taxpayers' expense. Have they forgotten about all these other developers and companies who came here and got tax breaks? How about the Aurora outlet mall that got a TIF district? They all want tax relief, and they all want to put the burden on the taxpayers. Don't beat up on Trump unless you beat up on everyone else. If you want change, get off your blooming butt and vote. And let's have 99 percent or 100 percent of eligible voters voting instead of only 9 or 10 percent.

Tolerance needed: I've been hearing the slogan: "Make our country great again." The only way that will happen is if we stop all of the bigotry, all of the racism and start having some tolerance for our brothers and sisters. If we don't, we will crumble sooner or later. If we are divided, we will not stand. Remember that everyone is watching from the outside.

Illegal immigration situation: I keep reading where people are against Donald Trump because of his stand on illegal immigration. I'm trying to figure this out. On the books we have laws that say illegal immigrants are supposed to be deported. Now when we have someone who wants to be the president and enforce the laws on the books, we're mad at him. I guess that it's OK when we don't enforce the laws on the books because breaking the law is OK. What if they don't want to enforce criminal charges when it comes to murder?

Don't spend what you don't have: I'm calling about your nice article about East Aurora School District 131's curriculum and the $1.7 million program you want. It would probably be very nice, but who is going to pay for it when there is no money to be had and Illinois is so broke? It will be on the backs of the taxpayers once more. Maybe the teachers should give up their cost of living raises and keep their salaries flat for a few years. That would help pay for that.

Keep politics out of article: Denise Crosby's article about Anthony Ferrelli was great until she interjected political stuff about Donald Trump. That had no place in the article.

Advertisement

Recession instigators go unpunished: Maybe I missed it, but did any of the presidential candidates ever mention breaking up the big banks that caused this recession and punishing the people who started it? That would be a good place to start.

Health care reform needed: I see in Speak Out where people are talking about their health care and how they are treated in hospitals. This is a free country. We have a lot of poor, little countries that provide their citizens with some of the best health care. The elderly here can't get health care or medicine. Some people are starving, while politicians are spending millions of dollars in order to ridicule each other every day. All this money is flowing, while our elderly and veterans are suffering. We have people living on the street, and not by choice. We have President Obama and Congress fighting for eight years and not getting anything done because of pure hatred. We need to stand up. We need to say what we want. Everyone in America should have free medical care. We have that 1 percent of the rich backing the politicians and pocketing our money. That's what it's all about. Money is the new face of racism.

Editor's note

Speak Out is a reader-generated column of opinions. If you see something you disagree with or think is incorrect, please tell us. Call us at 312-222-2460 or email couriernews@tribpub.com. Please include "speak out" in the subject line.
Donald Trump was on television comparing himself in presidential terms to Abraham Lincoln. Gee, did I miss something? I thought Lincoln died in 1865. It is easy to compare yourself to someone who has been dead for a long time. Trump wouldn't dare compare himself to a Ronald Reagan because he would fall short. May I repeat  short.

I totally agree with Ted Slowik's article and his position on finding a way to cap public pensions or amend the Illinois Constitution. And, in the interim, Illinois should tax retirement income above $50,000 with comprehensive budget reform. Thumbs up, Ted.

Advertisement

Bernie Sanders wants to expand Social Security benefits. But this is exactly the thing that is bankrupting Social Security. Social Security was intended for pension, survivor and disability benefits. It was never intended for medicine, housing or college education. It was never intended to take the place of savings. It was supposed to be a safety net to protect people from abject poverty. Like most progressives, Bernie wants to buy votes with the taxpayers money. But the result is, he is bankrupting taxpayers.

Tinley Park

Advertisement

Fire departments depend on real estate taxes and are always updating equipment. Living in Marion Village assisted/independent living, I see the Homer Fire Department almost daily. In the event of a heart attack, I have witnessed two large fire trucks, two ambulances and a fire chiefs SUV responding to the same event, placing lots of wear and tear on the equipment not to mention the fuel costs. Why not add a man to the ambulance, saving lots of operating costs without sacrificing safety.

Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

Ralph, Homer Glen

We have heard a lot lately about favorite-son and favorite-daughter public school teachers and administrators getting last-two-year salary bump-ups in order to get a higher tax-paid lifetime pension. These acts are dishonest to begin with. Aren't they ashamed of themselves? No, they are not ashamed of themselves, because they do these actions in stealth. They don't go to their neighbors' doors with an armed guard demanding their neighbor pay up to them out of their neighbors' property taxes.

To the commenter from Homer Glen who says that the Republicans who are running for president seem to want to reinstate the draft: Well, the last time that the draft was in was at the end of the Korean War and the beginning of the Vietnam War. Perhaps you're too young to remember this, but those cowards who were supposed to be drafted went up to Canada. When the Vietnam mission was over with, they came back down to America and they got the jobs that veterans should have had. The draft dodgers got the jobs that perhaps those who died in Vietnam should have had. I'm sorry, but I can't go along with that.

John, Bridgeport

I'm a concerned citizen. I think it's wrong for the Republicans not to even consider President Obama's pick for Supreme Court judge to replace the late Antonin Scalia. He is the standing president. He should be allowed to pick the latest Supreme Court nominee. This just goes to show you the stubbornness of the Republicans, and wanting to go along with their union-busting ways and all for the rich. The Republicans are why the State of Illinois is in such trouble. Do what I say. Vote Democratic and the world will be much better.

What's Speak Out?

Speak Out allows readers to comment on the issues of the day. Email Speak Out at speakout@southtownstar.com or call 312-222-2427. Please limit comments to 30 seconds or about 120 words and give your first name and your hometown.
I am finally getting around to reading "Voter Identification Laws and the Suppression of Minority Votes", the important, as yet unpublished paper that claims voter ID suppresses voting by minority groups as much as 10%.So this entry is for some notes, as I find minor errors or have further comments.That's wrong, the Indiana statute passed in 2005 and was implemented in 2006. So in my amicus to the Supreme Court, I had already had my vote stolen several times. I've emailed the author suggesting a correction. I only found one other minor correction.P.8:Brennan Center.I am not enough of a political scientist to be certain of their methodology, but it looked good to me and the above paragraph is a damning statistic.It's possible that there are methodological flaws with using an internet-based sample. But if anything this probably understates the effects. My guess would be that those who don't or can't use the internet are more likely to have issues with ID.That seems to me to be a dispositive holding. Getting this research admitted as evidence (Daubert problems etc.) would go a long way to making a case for plaintiffs. I am no expert in such matters, but somebody should give it a shot. Less useful, bit still non-trivial, would be a Brandeis-type amicus brief which presented this data.The data on disparate impact held up even in states using nonphoto ID, such as bank statements and utility bills.I agree with this. Voter ID is just the most recent chapter in the White Primary cases, Nixon v Herndon, Nixon v Condon, etc., where Texas tried one trick after another to keep blacks from voting. That's one reason I favor using a 24th Amendment claim. The 24th Amendment was added to the constitution specifically to deal with this kind of race and party discrimination in voting.At the time, it was Republican veterans coming home to the South from WW2 who were offended that after fighting for their county, they were being kept from voting. Today, that has flipped and it is Democrats who are being singled out. I'm a Republican myself, somewhat loosely, because I was Libertarian before that. But voting is too important to sacrifice for partisan advantage.This paper provides strong empirical support for the claims I've been making that voter ID infringes on the state constitutional right to free and equal elections. It deserves to get published, but more importantly it needs to get before judges. I wrote on this blog yesterday about a possible amicus in the 5th circuit Texas voter ID case. This paper could have a role in such a brief. I found two minor errors of the sort that get corrected when a paper goes through the publication process. If there are more serious errors, I'm not the one to spot them.
Michael Szot (inset) was sentenced to 1 year of periodic imprisonment and 4 years of probation for his role in the drownings of two people. A memorial marks the site where a car crashed through a fence and plunged into a water-filled quarry in Naperville in 2014. (Bill Bird, Chicago Tribune)

A Geneva man will serve some jail time but avoided prison after relatives of the two men he killed when he drove his car into a lake asked for leniency during his Thursday sentencing for aggravated DUI.

Michael Szot, 23, of Geneva faced up to 28 years in prison for driving his car through a fence and into a quarry lake in Naperville after a night of drinking on July 19, 2014. The car sunk, drowning his passengers, Sajaad Syed, 21, of Naperville, and Mihirtej Boddupalli, 21, of Lisle.

Advertisement

"Mihir would want his friend to be forgiven," his brother, Druhv Boddupalli, 30, told the court. "He believed we are all better than our worst actions and that everybody deserved a second chance."

Syed's mother, Dilshad Ikramullah, spoke of the difficulty of losing her son  "Our new normal has been a struggle," she said  but asked for compassion for Szot, whom she called "a good young man."

Advertisement

DuPage County Judge Brian Telander sentenced Szot to a year of work-release and four years of probation. Szot also must perform 200 hours of community service, and Telander ordered that it consist of speeches to groups to warn them of the consequences of drinking and driving.

Unless he is speaking, attending college or working, Szot must remain incarcerated. He must report to the jail April 4, after he completes exams at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

The judge remarked at length on the 38 letters in support of Szot that he received, including ones from the mayor of Geneva and the principal at Geneva High School, where Szot graduated ninth in a class of 400.

Szot and Boddupalli were friends and classmates at Northwestern University. The pair, along with Boddupalli's friend, Syed, had attended a party on the night of the accident where Szot smoked marijuana. They then headed to a Naperville bar, where Szot said he drank shots of rum and several beers, according to police

Just before 2 a.m., Szot apparently failed to negotiate a slight curve near the Aurora and Eagle Road intersection. His car went through a chain-link fence and then plunged down a steep embankment and into the lake.

Prosecutors played the recording in court of a woman who witnessed the crash and frantically called 911.

"People are screaming! It's sinking  it's sinking," she tells the emergency operator.

Szot was able to escape the vehicle, but his friends drowned in the car, which police said settled upside down in 40 feet of murky water.

Advertisement

Prosecutors said Szot initially tried to evade culpability for being the driver, and a lengthy sentence was necessary to deter other drunken drivers. Assistant State's Attorney Demetri Demopoulos suggested a 20-year prison sentence.

Szot attorney Jeff Fawell, though, said his client was an "All American kid" who made a tragic decision.

Szot expressed his remorse for the deaths of the Boddupalli and Syed, an Indiana University student who hoped to become a sportscaster.

"I failed them," Szot said. "I made a decision that cost them their lives. Accepting responsibility for the deaths of my friends is the most painful thing in my life."

He declined to comment after the hearing.

Szot met privately with Boddupalli's parents and brother and Syed's mother and sister for about an hour Wednesday night at Fawell's law office, family members confirmed. The families had reached out to Szot to let him know they supported him, Fawell said.

Advertisement

Clifford Ward is a freelance reporter.
You are here: Home

Chinese auto maker Chery Automobile Co. announced on Wednesday that it will launch its latest model, the Arrizo 5, in Santiago, Chile, on Thursday.

Chery is the first Chinese auto-maker to launch a new model overseas ahead of the domestic market.

Jin Yibo, Chery's assistant general manager, said Chile is one of the biggest markets for China's cars in Latin America.

"Chery has bigger share of Chile's passenger car market than other Chinese brands," said Jin. "We value the Chilean and Latin American market, so chose to launch the new car there," he said.

Chery has been China's biggest car exporter for 13 consecutive years, with a total sales of over 1.2 million vehicles.

The model will be launched simultaneously later this month in several countries including China and Iran.
You are here: Home

A new heavy helicopter model is manufactured by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China. [Photo: china.com]

China and Russia have reached consensus on technologies to be used in the joint development of heavy-lift helicopters.

Chairman of the AVIC Helicopter Company, Yu Feng, says the two countries held the seventh round of negotiations to cooperate in developing heavy lift choppers.

The Aviation Industry Corporation of China signed a framework agreement with Russian Helicopters last May.

The project is going forward as planned.

Heavy helicopter refers to those with a take-off weight of over 20 tons.

The cooperation will fill a blank in China's helicopter industry.
You are here: Home

China plans to reform institutional outbound investment program but the annual US$50,000 foreign exchange quota for individuals will remain unchanged.

Pan Gongsheng, head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange and deputy governor of the central bank, said that rules for the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor program will be adjusted to facilitate cross-border investment and fundraising.

The plan for adjustment follows changes made to the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor scheme last year that scraped case-by-case quota approval and relaxed conversion of foreign exchange.

The new QFII rule allows foreign investors to invest a base amount in the domestic market without needing approval and allows them to move funds in and out of China more easily.

Pan said the new rules for the QDII program, which allows domestic investors to participate in the overseas market, is an attempt to facilitate cross-border investment and fundraising.

For individuals, Pan stressed that the current quota of US$50,000 was enough and it was not necessary to increase or cut the quota.

The authorities dont have any plan to make any adjustment, Pan added.

The central bank has been monitoring larger individual transactions while authorities promised normal foreign currency availability for individuals.

Starting this year, a system was launched nationwide to record foreign-exchange transactions of individuals, both online and in bank branches.

The move was intended to curb capital outflow following yuan depreciation. Since last year, monetary authorities have been talking about regulations for mainland residents investing in overseas capital markets and real estate.
China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC), the world's biggest train maker by revenue, announced it won a 1.3-billion-U.S. dollar order to build rail cars for Chicago on Thursday.

A CRH train production site of CRRC's Qingdao Sifang Co Ltd in Qingdao, Shandong province. CSR Sifang America JV, subsidiary of CRRC which makes both high speed trains and railcars, will supply up to 846 railcars to the Chicago Transit Authority. [Photo/Xinhua]

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) awarded the contract to build 846 railcars to CRRC subsidiary CSR Sifang America JV, which submitted the lowest bid, according to a statment posted on the CTA's website.

As part of its wining bid, CRRC will build a new rail car assembly facility in Chicago -- the first of its kind in 35 years, with an aim to see the first cars going into service in 2020.

Brian Steele, a CTA spokesman, said the contract is expected to create around 169 new jobs, including mechanical engineers and electricians.

Chicago boasts the second biggest public transport system in the United States, operating eight subway lines with a total length of 170 km. The 846 new rail cars will replace the old ones currently used in Chicago.

CRRC, formed from the merger of former rivals CNR Corp. and China CSR, has been actively bidding for contracts in overseas markets in recent years and exported its rail transportation equipment to 101 countries and regions.
Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou said Wednesday that the 1992 Consensus is the political foundation for both sides of the Taiwan Strait and helps build a "cross-Strait bridge" for peaceful exchanges.

Any future leader can make use of this bridge, but only by accepting the common political foundation, Ma said at the 25th anniversary of Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation.

The 1992 Consensus is not only a consensus between both sides of the Taiwan Strait, but also accepted by most people in Taiwan, Ma said.

On the basis of the 1992 Consensus, both sides conducted 11 high-level talks and signed 23 agreements on various areas, making the exchanges closer and closer.

In the past eight years, total volume of cross-Strait trade topped 1 trillion U.S. dollars, with Taiwan seeing surplus of nearly 500 billion U.S. dollars. "Without trade with the mainland, Taiwan may see a huge trade deficit," Ma said.

The "infrastructure" for cross-Strait relations is basically in place, but agreements on goods and service trade are yet to be reached. Ma said he hoped the two agreements would be passed soon, or else Taiwan may be marginalized in regional economic integration.

Ma said he hoped future leader could continue to safeguard peaceful cross-Strait relations and maintain the status-quo, but should not take current relations for granted.

An effective path for addressing cross-Strait relations has been explored, and the path should be maintained for the interests of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

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.
A New York student from China has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for trying to acquire ricin so he could sell "simple and easy death pills."

Le Cheng, 22, was sentenced on Tuesday in Manhattan federal court following his conviction in August on charges he tried to acquire ricin as a weapon, postal fraud and identity theft. Ricin is a fatal toxin with no known antidote.

Judge Alison Nathan said the "horrible, serious and quite terrifying offense" required a severe sentence, but added that no one had been harmed by the plot because Le's communications were intercepted online.

Among evidence introduced at his trial were statements Le made in writing about getting ricin from an FBI covert employee, including: "If you can make them into simple and easy death pills, they'd become bestsellers."

Le was arrested in December 2014 after he contacted an FBI covert employee using an encrypted messaging service and asked if he sold ricin. Authorities said Le was wearing latex gloves when he went to a post office to retrieve a fake shipment of pills.

Lawyer Patrick Brackley urged leniency, citing a letter from Le's parents describing his immaturity when he came to the United States to study physics at New York University.

Le said he lives with regrets.

"Not a day goes by where I don't think of all the things I could have done," Le said.

He dabbed his eyes with tissue several times in court before he was led away in shackles.
Southwest China's Tibet will spend 490 million yuan (US$75 million) over the next five years on the repair and protection of sites for the traditional Tibetan funeral practice of sky burial, local authorities said yesterday.

Sky burial is a Tibetan and Mongolian ceremony in which the dead are fed to predatory birds, so that their souls may ascend to heaven.

Funding will be allocated for a total of 156 sky burial sites, and the regional government will spend 165 million yuan this year on 47 sky burial sites close to lamaseries. Each site will be allocated up to 5 million yuan, which will finance preservation work, according to the regional civil affairs department.

Wild dogs, burial waste, bumpy roads and a lack of facilities for mourners are undermining efforts to sustain the practice, said Xu Jiali, deputy head of the regional civil affairs department, who visited 60 sky burial sites during a preliminary investigation.

The funding will cover the construction of roads, fences, reception rooms, mortuaries and furnaces to burn waste, said Xu, adding that the authorities are also mulling legislation on sky burials.

"The government is committed to protecting this tradition," said Dachung, an academic at the Tibet Autonomous Regional Academy of Social Sciences.

Pawo Samtenling Nunnery, built some 400 years ago in Qonggyai County, is one of the first recipients of the new funding and will serve as a model for the project, said Champa Drolkar, a senior nun at the nunnery.

The nunnery has a 1.4 kilometer fence going around the enclosure for some 100 vultures, two dedicated rooms for mourners to rest and for the bodies to await sky burial. In addition, a storage tank has been installed for burial waste.

"A fence alone is not enough to prevent wild dogs from entering the site," said Sonam Rigzin, head of the civil affairs bureau of Shannan City, which administers Qonggyai County.

At least one body is interred every day, sometimes three or four, according to Champa Drolkar.

A dozen nuns help with the ceremony on rotation, with two to a team. They chant sutras for the deceased, summon the vultures and clear the burial waste, said Champa Drolkar.

Namgyal, 68, said he will definitely opt for sky burial.

"The protection of sky burial sites is very important," he said.
You are here: Home

Two pairs of Formosan serows and a male spotted deer, all gifts from Taiwan, will arrive in the Chinese mainland in April, according to a national park in east China's Shandong Province.

An agreement was signed last year between Taipei Zoo, the original home of the animals, and their new home, Liugongdao National Forest Park in Shandong's Weihai City, a spokesman with the park said.

The Formosan serow is a goat-like animal indigenous to Taiwan.

In 2011, Taiwan sent a pair of Formosan serows and a pair of spotted deer to the park as a token of improved cross-Strait relations.

So far, the female deer has delivered her fifth litter since moving to the park.

The new animals are expected to help avoid inbreeding among the Taiwan species and carry on their bloodline in the park, according to the spokesman.
Birthday wishes

Call 281-422-8302 or email sunnews@baytownsun.com to wish someone a happy birthday. We will print your birthday wish on Page 2 of The Sun.

Happy Birthday Wishes
Premier Li Keqiang delivers a government work report during the opening meeting (XINHUA)

China's new five-year plan for development has been unveiled at a crucial stage of national economic progress. The plan's time period of 2016-20 will complete with the government timeline to transform the country into a "moderately prosperous society" by 2020. Launched on March 5 during the annual session of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, in Beijing, where hundreds of delegates from all over the country were present, the13th Five-Year Plan has set the target of over 6.5 percent growth.

One key target of the plan is to increase the share of the service sector from current 50.5 percent to 56 percent of GDP in 2020. The urban residency will be up to 60 percent of the population from 56.1 percent. To improve the fast-track movement of people, there will be 30,000 km of high-speed railways, linking 80 percent of big cities nationwide.

The international obligations like tackling pollution are also part of the new plan. The government has decided to cut carbon dioxide emission by 18 percent and demand of other major pollutants like sulphur dioxide and chemical oxygen will be slashed by 10-15 percent. The five-year development plan aims to create more than 50 million new urban jobs. It will be major stimulus to tackle poverty and increase prosperity.

Another important part of the plan is to increase the spending in the research and development sector to 2.5 percent of GDP in 2020. It will bring China closer to the developed economies, which are spending a lot on research and development. In fact, it is the key sector which spearheads creation of new ideas and development of technologies.

The decision to launch the new five year plan comes when the economy of China is facing considerable pressure. Already the annual growth target has come down and the 6.5 percent growth is lowest in three decades. But it will be sufficient to double the GDP and per capita income to 2020 as compared to 2010. By the time the five year plan is completed, it is expected that China's GDP will exceed 92.7 trillion yuan or 14.2 trillion U.S. dollars from the current 67.7 trillion yuan, while per capita income to reach 12,000 U.S. dollars.

Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation.
Workers produce mobile phone components at a plant in Huaying, southwest Chinas Sichuan Province, on July 22, 2015 (XINHUA)

The draft of China's 13th Five-Year Plan, which is submitted to lawmakers for review and approval during the ongoing two sessions in Beijing, has shown policy-makers' resolve to stick to the path of making the economy more modern and open.

The roadmap for China's economic and social development for the next five years dedicates one separate chapter to elaborate the government's resolve to continuously building a modern market system, which set a strong tone for furthering the Chinese market's connection with the world.

It comes as the European Union (EU) launched an in-depth assessment determining whether to grant China market economy status (MES).

Methods used in the EU's anti-dumping procedures on imported Chinese products are currently based on China not being considered a market economy. Under the rules, China's exports have fallen victim to unfair and discriminatory EU practices.

The legal basis for the rules, however, are set to expire in December this year, under the provisions of the World Trade Organization accession protocol signed by China.

China's national plan to build an open and sharing economy should give EU more confidence to grant an early recognition of China's MES.

With ample well-educated workforce, the 38-percent high rate of abundant household savings and the possession of the world's No. 1 amount of foreign exchange reserve of over 3.33 trillion U.S. dollars, the Chinese government's continuously opening up will not only benefit China's economic stabilization and growth, but also the global economy.

This has been recognized by a growing number of countries. So far, over 80 economies including Russia, New Zealand, Singapore and Australia, have recognized China's MES.

China wishes EU would join the team the soon the better, as it would facilitate a recognition of China's MES in the 162-member World Trade Organization.

In China's 2016-2020 plan draft, the government underlined keywords of "innovation, coordination, the environment, opening up and sharing" as measures to fulfill its economic goals for the coming years.

In particular, the government vows to break up barriers between different administrative and geological interests in order to allow a free-wheeling flow of products and resources on the market.

It is also in the written clauses to continue to mitigate the government interference on pricing to allow competitive pricing in the sectors of power supply, energy, transport and telecom.
You are here: Home

 Flash

The Wuyi Mountain scenic area in Fujian province retains its peace and tranquility in the off-season due to a relatively small number of tourists. (Photo by Yang Enuo/China Daily)

A growing number of Chinese like Liang Jing are discovering the best time to take a holiday is, well, after the holidayat least officially and financially speaking.

And perhaps in other ways.

The Shanghai resident opted to stay put during the Spring Festival early this month but headed for Thailand's Koh Samui with her friend for five days at the end of the weeklong national vacation.

She saved a considerable sum. And enjoyed other boons.

"Scenic spots are less crowded after the festival, and tourism services and experiences are better," she says.

It's worth noting Thailand is among the top three destinations for outbound Chinese. She paid 14,000 yuan ($2,150)roughly half the holiday price.

Retirees, students and office workers are leading the post-holiday charge abroad, tourism experts say.

About 80 percent of Beijing-based Utour International Travel Service's products for late February to mid-March are booked.

"Most of our guests are white-collar workers who've decided to take their annual paid leave after the holiday to enjoy cheaper, cheerful trips," explains Utour's publicity manager, Li Mengran.

Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation.
 Flash

Netanyahu pledged Wednesday to intensify Israel's struggle against "Palestinian terrorism," as a visit by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden coincided with a surge of stabbing and shooting attacks.

The decision on the new measures was taken in an overnight consultation with Israel's top security officials, a few hours after a Palestinian stabbed to death a U.S. tourist and wounded 11 others in Jaffa, outside Tel Aviv. The assailant was shot and killed by the police.

There were, at least, eight more attacks and attempted attacks over the past two days, which saw the death of at least seven Palestinian assailants, according to Israeli security forces. Also, a 50-year-old Israeli man was critically injured as policemen shot at two Palestinian gunmen in Jerusalem. Israeli fire may have injured him, police said.

According to a statement by the Ministry of Defense, Israel will "immediately" start to seal holes in the Separation Wall in Jerusalem, and to complete an unfinished section of the wall in the town of Tarqumiyah, northwest of Hebron.

The panel also decided on a "wide scale" revocation of work permits for Palestinians, which enable them to work in Israel. Additionally, a new law will impose higher penalties to those who assisted them in all manners, including driving illegal Palestinian workers to Israel.

"We have taken many steps in recent months to fight Palestinian terrorism, and we're taking even stronger measures now," Netanyahu told journalists after his meeting with Biden.

Biden arrived on Tuesday for talks over a 10-year multi-billion dollar military aid package to Israel. The last military deal, signed in 2007, provided Israel with about 30 billion dollars by 2017.

The attacks came after a six-month long Palestinian upsurge, with almost daily stabbing, shooting, and car-ramming attacks. It claimed the lives of at least 175 Palestinians and 28 Israelis, and shows no sign of abating.

Israel has been accusing the Palestinian Authority of fueling the violence with "incitement" against Israel while the Palestinians say it is the result of 49 years of Israeli occupation of their lands.
 Flash

Yemen's foreign minister said on Wednesday that the Saudi-led coalition has reached a truce deal with Yemen's Shiite Houthi rebels along borders between the two countries.

A Houthi militia stands guard at a checkpoint in Sanaa, Yemen, March 9, 2016, after the Saudi-led coalition on Wednesday announced a prisoner swap deal with Yemen's Houthi militias. [Photo/Xinhua]

"The Saudi-led coalition has notified the Yemeni government of a truce deal with Houthi group to secure the shared borders between the two countries and to secure delivering aids to the damaged areas near the Yemeni-Saudi border," Foreign Minister Abdulmalik al-Mekhlafi said in a statement.

"The coalition has also exchanged an officer detained by Houthis for seven Yemenis," he said.

On Monday, the Iran-backed Shiite rebels in Yemen sent a delegation to Saudi Arabia to negotiate a truce and exchange of prisoners, sources close to Houthi group said, adding that the move was mediated by Oman.

More than 6,000 Yemenis have been killed in ground battles and airstrikes, half of them civilians since the Saudi-led coalition started daily air bombing on the Shiite Houthi rebels and their allied forces in March 2015.
 Flash

New York billionaire developer Donald Trump continued widened his lead on Tuesday with two big victories in the Mississippi and Michigan Republican primaries, delivering a strong blow to mainstream Republicans who scrambled to derail his campaign.

Trump was declared the winner in Michigan by U.S. major TV networks immediately as polls closed at 9:00 p.m. ET (0200 GMT).

Meanwhile, Trump won about 50 percent support in Mississippi with 25 percent of votes counted, and his commanding victory there reinforced his strength among deeply conservative and evangelical electorates, who historically would vote for his major rival Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

After his limp showing in February contests, Super Tuesday and Super Saturday, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, once regarded by mainstream Republicans as an alternative to Trump after Jeb Bush bowed out, was facing an uphill battle to justify his stay in the race after another round of fiascos on Tuesday.

As of 11:00 p.m. ET (0400 GMT), Rubio was at a distant nine percent in Michigan and five percent in Mississippi. Both Michigan and Mississippi have a 15 percent threshold for presidential candidates to be awarded any delegates both statewide and at the congressional level.

Tuesday's Republican contests, which also included a Republican primary in Idaho and Republican caucuses in Hawaii, came at a time when mainstream Republicans worked overtime to derail Trump's campaign.

According to a new study released on Tuesday, a coalition of mainstream Republicans committed to halting Trump's momentum blanketed the country with 7,000 anti-Trump TV advertisements over the past seven days, taking up 76 percent of all political TV attack ads which were broadcasted over the same period.

Meanwhile, Cruz was declared winner of the Idaho Republican primary, according to local media.

On the Democratic side, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won a landslide victory in the Mississippi Democratic primary earlier Tuesday night.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, however, scored a surprising victory on Tuesday in Michigan, a delegate-rich state where early polls had showed consistently that he trailed Clinton by double digits. Sanders was declared winner with a 2-point lead over Clinton.

Sanders' victory in Michigan was crucial as the senator was in urgent need of building momentum as the Democratic contests were now moving away from the South, where Clinton's popularity among black voters during Super Tuesday on March 1 helped create an almost insurmountable delegate lead.

During the nomination process, Democrats allot their delegates proportionally, and just like the Super Tuesday contests, Clinton's big lead in Mississippi on Tuesday would net her more delegates than a narrow win in Michigan would net Sanders.
 Flash

Chinese netizens believe that the South China Sea issue may become the biggest challenge for Chinese diplomacy in 2016, a survey has found.

An aerial photo taken on Sept. 25, 2015 from a seaplane of Hainan Maritime Safety Administration shows cruise vessel Haixun 1103 heading to the Yacheng 13-1 drilling rig during a patrol in south China Sea. [Photo/Xinhua]

Xinhua International and toutiao.com jointly conducted a survey on Chinese diplomacy among Chinese netizens on Monday and Tuesday.

On the question of "Which issue will most test the wisdom of Chinese diplomacy?" Forty-three percent of the respondents chose the South China Sea issue, 32 percent chose China-U.S. relations, 17 percent chose the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue and 8 percent chose the tracking of corrupt officials overseas.

The Chinese netizens' viewpoint coincides with that of their overseas counterparts.

Xinhua's social media account New China on Monday also carried out a survey about the press conference of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in which overseas netizens said they cared most about the South China Sea issue.

At the press conference held Tuesday on the sidelines of the ongoing session of China's National People's Congress, Wang said that the Nansha Islands have been China's inherent territories and all Chinese descendants have the obligation to defend them.

Any attempts to disturb the South China Sea and destabilize Asia would not be allowed by China and most other countries in the region, he said.

In his speech delivered at the U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies on Feb. 25, Wang said the current situation in the South China Sea remains stable on the whole and navigation safety and freedom of passage in the area has never been affected.

China holds that resolving differences through dialogue and negotiation is the most important factor in ensuring the stability of the South China Sea, he said.

The Xinhua International-toutiao.com survey also asked netizens "What event impressed you most in 2015?" Half of the respondents chose the military parade at Tiananmen Square on Sept. 3 and the V-day diplomacy.

On Sept. 3, 2015, China held a military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. Twenty-three heads of state and government watched the parade.

On the question of "What diplomatic event do you pay most attention to?" Fifty-seven percent chose "promoting major-country diplomacy, safeguarding sovereignty, security and development."
You are here: Home

 Flash

Some 20 Al-Shabaab fighters were killed and scores injured on Tuesday night in a helicopter raid in Awdhiigle town of Lower Shabelle region, southern Somalia.

Awdhiigle mayor Mohamed Aweys said Wednesday the airstrike by foreign forces targeted the Al-Shabaab militants in the area.

"This operation carried out with three warplanes, and infantry also took part the operation which went on for about 30 minutes," Aweys told reporters.

The mayor said 20 Al-Shabaab fighters were killed in the airstrike.

"Eleven of their dead bodies were (found) in an area outside the town, 4 others were in another spot while they (Al-Shabaab) took the rest," Aweys said.

"There were huge explosions on Tuesday night even the land was shaking. It was not only airstrike, but also infantry took part the battle. We could hear as the two sides exchanged heavy gun fire," said a local resident who requested anonymity.

The Al-Qaida allied Al-Shabaab confirmed the air raid by foreign warplanes, but said they "foiled the attack".

This is the second deadliest attack against Al-Shabab in the week.

U.S. Pentagon confirmed early this week that its security forces carried out an airstrike in central Somalia over the weekend, killing more than 150 Al-Shabaab fighters.
 Flash

Iraqi security forces on Wednesday fought fierce battles with Islamic State (IS) militants and recaptured a village near the city of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, a security source said.

The troops and allied paramilitary Sunni tribal fighters carried out an offensive on IS militants at the edges of the areas of Albu Bali and Albu Obeid, just northeast of Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

U.S.-led coalition and Iraqi aircraft carried out air strikes on IS headquarters and their positions in the battleground, the source said.

The source could not give exact figures about casualties among the IS group as heavy battles continued during the day, but said that dozens of extremist militants were killed and wounded in the clashes and air raids, while six security members were killed and 13 others wounded.

Separately, security forces covered by Iraqi aircraft freed al-Asryah Village in northwest of Ramadi after clashes with IS militants who were forced to withdraw from their positions to other IS-held areas closer to the militant-seized town of Heet, some 160 km west of Baghdad, the source said.

The clashes in the village left at least 17 IS militants dead and four of their vehicles destroyed, the source added.

Government troops and allied militias have been fighting for months to retake control of key cities and towns in Anbar, Iraq's largest province, from IS militants, who previously seized most of Anbar and tried to advance toward Baghdad.
 Flash

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea, the South Korean military said Thursday.

South Korean amphibious assault landing vehicles move to a landing ship at the sea near Pohang, South Korea, on March 7, 2016. South Korea and the United States on Monday kicked off their largest-ever annual war games. [Photo/Xinhua]

The latest missile launch by DPRK came days after the South Korea and the United States started their largest ever military exercises

Yonhap news agency quoted the military as reporting that the DPRK fired the two missiles at around 5:20 a.m. local time from its North Hwanghae Province and the missiles hit the waters northeast of the port city of Wonsan off the country' east coast.

The South Korea was following the situation closely and prepared to deal with any DPRK provocations, the military said.

The DPRK launched a rocket on Feb. 7 which outsiders saw as a disguised test of ballistic missile technology.

The DPRK started off a new year with the test of what it claimed was its first hydrogen bomb test on Jan. 6, the fourth of its nuclear detonations.

In response, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted an unprecedentedly strong and comprehensive resolution on the DPRK on March 3 that imposed a raft of sanctions on the country to curb its nuclear and missile programs.

The UN Security Council reiterated its demands that the DPRK abandons all its nuclear weapons and other nuclear programs as well as weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs.
 Flash

Iraqi officials on Wednesday accused the Islamic State (IS) group of using "poisonous substance" in shelling a village in Iraq's northern province of Kirkuk.

"There is a strong possibility that chemical substances have been used" as the IS intensified shelling on Taza, south of Kirkuk, during the past six weeks, Kirkuk governor Najimuddin Kareem said at a joint press conference with Turkoman member of parliament Hassan Touran.

Kareem said hospitals in Kirkuk confirmed that "there were some wounded carrying symptoms of chemical substances, which we are not sure of their kinds."

He also said the chemical substances were only aimed at intimidating the people in Taza to push them to leave their homes. "Daaish (IS) is not capable of using chemical weapons that could harm people," he added.

Touran said during the past few days more than 52 Katyusha rockets hit the village with "poisonous substances, possibly mustard gas with chlorine gas."

The Turkoman lawmaker also said tests are under way on some samples from Taza to identify the poisonous gas, adding that four people are now receiving treatment in Kirkuk's main hospital.

After fighting against the Iraqi army for about two years, the IS has taken control of large swath of territory in western and northern Iraq. The army regained Ramadi, the provincial capital of the country's largest province Anbar in December last year, and is preparing for attacks on IS-held Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq.
 Flash

Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven on Wednesday called for a common asylum system in the European Union (EU).

Addressing the European Parliament (EP) plenary here, Lofven defended his country's reintroduction of passport checks at the border with its Schengen area neighbor Denmark.

He added that the Dublin Regulation, under which asylum seekers must apply in the first EU country they enter, "is not working and must be replaced."

"During a two-month period last autumn, Sweden took in 80,000 people. This brought our reception system to the brink of collapse and, in the absence of working European solutions, it forced us to take unilateral action," said Lofven.

He said the Schengen agreement and the free movement it creates was a mainstay of the EU, and crucial for its economies. However, if EU states did not act fast to manage the migrant crisis, there was a risk of losing the entire system.

"I see a lot of words and plans to move forward, but far too little action," he told members of European Parliament (MEPs). "I urge all member states to take their responsibility. We must move from chaos to control, otherwise we risk the future of European cooperation as we know it."

Lofven added that if the EU could not create a new, common and sustainable asylum system, more countries would be forced to act unilaterally, which would hurt mobility, trade, "and most of all the human beings who are fleeing," he continued.

"Sweden will work for a new asylum system in the EU that is based on equal distribution, and in which asylum is sought in the EU -- not in an individual country. Quite simply, if we are to share an external border and have free movement between our countries, we must also share a system of asylum reception," Lofven said.

"I cannot see how countries that do not participate in the common asylum system can participate in Schengen cooperation," he said.

Lofven called on the EU to build "a social Europe" on the basis of greater equality and better living conditions for all its citizens, "because when people and enterprises are strengthened, economies grow."
 Flash

Militants of the Islamic State (IS) had planned to use mustard gas in Iraq and Syria, U.S. media reported on Wednesday, quoting U.S. defense officials.

Defense officials said that an IS detainee who was captured last month in Iraq by U.S. special operations force, revealed this during interrogation.

The IS operative was identified by U.S. defense officials as Sleiman Daoud al-Afari, a chemical and biological weapons expert who once worked for Iraq's Saddam Hussein government. He is currently held at a temporary detention facility in Erbil, Iraq, The New York Times reported.

Quoting U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, the newspaper said that the mustard gas, weaponized by the IS into powered form, was believed to be not concentrated enough to kill anyone.

The detainee would be handed over to the Iraqi and Kurdish authorities instead of being held indefinitely by the U.S. military, the report said, adding that the Pentagon did not intend to establish a long-term U.S. facility to hold IS detainees.
 Flash

UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said Wednesday that Syria talks scheduled to start today will take place on a staggered basis, with people involved in UN-backed discussions arriving up until the end of the week so as to start substantive talks by March 14.

"The good thing about proximity talks is that I am in a positon of staggering the talks, the dates, the days, the meeting rooms based on where and how they will be most fruitful. Any type of delay that I may decide to take will be based on how to make them more successful," he explained.

"We plan to start having informal talks already in hotels or here with whoever is arriving but the substantive, deeper part of it after the first preparation will be on Monday, god willing, the fourteenth," the special envoy added.

De Mistura also said that the first stage of talks will not last beyond March 24, after which a short recess will take place before discussions aiming to find a political solution to the Syrian crisis resume.

UN-led talks involving Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government and opposition forces came to a premature standstill on Feb. 3 after parties failed to see eye to eye on a number of issues.

Since then, much progress has been made on both the humanitarian and cessation of hostilities front in the country at war since 2011.

Implemented almost two weeks ago pursuant to an agreement adhered to by 97 armed groups and the Syrian government and backed by regional and international powers, the cessation of hostilities has largely held despite a number of incidents.

This in turn has facilitated the delivery of humanitarian assistance to people living in hard-to-reach areas, including besieged towns.

To date, De Mistura reported that 536 trucks have provided 238,485 Syrians with life-saving aid.

These issues are not expected to be addressed during the talks however, as proximity discussions will focus on new governance, constitutional change and presidential and parliamentarian elections.

Though much has been said regarding the looming two-week mark since the cessation of hostilities began, De Mistura maintained that a deadline had never been part of the deal from an international standpoint.

"From the UN point of view, the Geneva taskforce meetings we have been having and certainly the Munich understanding, there was an open-ended concept regarding the cessation of hostilities," he concluded.
 Flash

The border between Macedonia and Greece has been completely closed for any transit of migrants since morning Wednesday.

A refugee woman holds her child as they wait in the Greek village of Eidomeni for the opening of the border between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), in Greece, March 7, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

The new rules affect the migrants that are already traveling along the Balkan route, trying to pass through the Balkans and reach Western Europe.

According to the Macedonian Ministry of Interior, no new migrants have entered in the last hours from Greece in the transition center in Gevgelija in Macedonian territory. But in total over 30,000 migrants remain stranded on the Macedonian and Greek border.

The situation is difficult on the border between Macedonia and Serbia as well. Almost 500 migrants are stuck in between the borders, sleeping out in the open on a rainy weather, without basic sanitary conditions.

The food supplies are sufficient, but the conditions for the migrants are very difficult, warns the Office of the UNHCR in Skopje.

"The weather is cold and rainy, there are children among them. They are all wet and sick, in need for medications for asthma treatment. This situation is unbearable from a humanitarian point of view - the refugees are not accepted both in Macedonia and in Serbia", Ljubinka Brashnarska, spokesperson for the UNHCR Office in Skopje said.

Although the authorities in some European countries such as Slovenia expressed their satisfaction with the closing of the migrant route, experts warn that this might not completely stop the pressure on the Balkan countries from the migrants trying to reach Europe.

"Some of them might decide to return on their own, some of them will be turned back by the Greek police and they will be returned to Turkey. But still there is a number that will continue to push and try to move forward towards Europe, with no intention to turn back since they got here," Trpe Stojanovski, professor at the Faculty for Security in Skopje told Xinhua.

He added that in spite of the rules, migrants often still manage to use illegal routes and move through the Balkans.

Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki agreed that it is too early to expect that the Balkan route will cease to exist completely at once, because the illegal transits still remain.

"On the other hand, there are some positive signals that other countries along this route will take additional measures to control the illegal transit efforts, which will also reduce the pressure on Macedonian-Greek border in the long run. In terms of our policy, a humane treatment of all refugees and migrants, as well as securing a safe transit through Macedonian territory from one EU country to other EU countries, will remain our priorities," Poposki stated in an interview for the Macedonian TV channel Sitel.

Macedonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the country will coordinate its approach towards the migrant wave with the general policy of the European Union, meaning that the number of migrants allowed to enter Macedonian territory will be equal to the number of migrants who are allowed to continue their journey to other countries along the Balkan route.
 Flash

The presidential election process kicked off in Myanmar's parliament Thursday as three parliamentary groups of presidential electoral college submit their candidates.

The three groups represent the House of Representatives (Lower House), House of Nationalities (Upper House) and non-elected military-assigned representatives.

A candidate nomination process is underway in the two houses, while nomination from the military will take place at the army headquarters separately.

In the group of presidential electoral college of the Lower House, U Htin Kyaw was nominated by the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Aung San Suu Kyi, while Dr. Sai Mauk Kham was nominated by the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

In the group of presidential electoral college of the Upper House, U Henry Van Htee Yu of Chin state constituency-3 was nominated by the NLD, while U Khin Aung Myint, former speaker of the House of Nationalities, was nominated by the USDP.

U Htin Kyaw, a non-elected parliament representative,

was born in Kunchangon town as son of noted writer Min Thu Wun, who was elected as a parliament representative of the NLD in the 1990 general election.

A classmate with Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon Methodist High School, U Htin Kyaw attended the Yangon University of Economics in 1962 and graduated with a degree of master of Economics.

As the first scholarship winning student of the Yangon Computer Department, he was sent for further study to Britain.

He resigned as a government employee in 1992 and joined the NLD, continuing writing under his father's pen name.

As the most trusted person by Aung San Suu Kyi, U Htin Kyaw was nominated by the NLD as a candidate to run for the vice president.

Dr. Sai Mauk Kham, currently the vice president, was re-elected as a representative of the USDP to the House of Representative from Lashio constituency in the Nov. 8 general election 2015.

U Henry Van Htee Yu, a Chin national and a Christian, holds a diploma in law.

U Khin Aung Myint, the previous speaker of the House of Nationalities, served as the culture minister.

The parliament set three groups representing the two Houses and military representatives to nominate one candidate in the final for vice president and through voting, the one, who wins the most number of votes, will take the presidency, while the remaining two be vice presidents.

Nominees for vice presidents by the three groups of presidential electoral college are to undergo scrutiny if they are qualified for the posts and the approval of the candidates will be announced and further submitted to the Union Parliament, comprising two Houses, for the presidential election.

Voting for the presidency will be conducted on March 17 or March 18 when the Union Parliament reconvenes.
 Flash

China has expressed concern about a report that the US is in talks to base long-range bombers in Australia.

"Peace, cooperation and development have become a major trend of the region that all people are aspiring for," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told the daily news briefing in Beijing on Wednesday. "Cooperation between relevant countries should focus on safeguarding regional peace, stability and development. Any bilateral cooperation must not jeopardize a third party's interest."

Australia news media on Tuesday quoted US Pacific Air Forces Commander Lori Robinson as saying that B-1B bombers and tanker aircraft would regularly rotate through northern Australia rather than exercise in Australia on an ad hoc basis.

While Robinson did not talk about the motivation, the move is being widely interpreted as relating to the tension in the South China Sea.

On Wednesday morning in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a phone conversation with his US counterpart, Secretary of State John Kerry. While Hong only said that they talked about the bilateral relationship and the current situation on the Korean peninsula, he noted that Wang stressed to Kerry that when dealing with the current situation on the Korean peninsula, China's reasonable and legitimate strategic security concern and interests must not be damaged.

That is a direct indication of China's concern of talks between the US and the Republic of Korea over the possible deployment of a THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) anti-ballistic missile system in the Republic of Korea in response to the recent nuclear and missile test conducted by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

China and Russia protested that the THAAD system could pose a threat to their missile arsenals, which fall into the THAAD's operation radius.

Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation.
 Flash

The "Modern Danish" pavilion Wednesday opened its doors to visitors during the annual Design Shanghai fair, offering them a chance to sneak peek at the modern Danish lifestyle.

Danish Ambassador to China A. Carsten Damsgaard (2nd L) unveils Modern Danish pavilion during the annual Design Shanghai fair, March 9, 2016. [Courtesy of the Embassy of Denmark in Beijing]

The pavilion, inaugurated by Danish Ambassador to China A. Carsten Damsgaard, marks the second consecutive year that Danish design brands have gathered in Shanghai to impress the Chinese public.

The Consulate General of Denmark in Shanghai, in partnership with Chinese firm WoW Design, selected some of Denmark's finest contemporary brands, in an effort to showcase a good balance of hip, urban, upcoming and innovative design products, along with Danish design icons.

Design products, including the furniture for living room, bedroom and children, as well as home decor accessories, from brands such as Aida, Danerka, Flexa, HANDVRK, Jacob Jensen Design, JYSK, Lindberg Eyewear, Louise Roe, Manostiles, Muuto, Room Copenhagen, are presented themselves during the four-day event held at Shanghai Exhibition Center.

"Functionality, attention to details and simplicity are strong elements of Danish design. This philosophy has strongly been reflected in Danish design products," said Ambassador Damsgaard. "Danish design is not only significant to the national identity of Danes, but also part of Danish life. This year, we are planning to hold more events, where the public can experience Danish design in different Chinese cities."

Denmark has in recent decades developed itself into a melting pot of creativity, cutting-edge design, and culture.

An expanding number of middle-class Chinese have shown an increasing appetite for Danish design products and its high quality touch brought to their daily life.
You are here: Home

 Flash

China warned the Philippines not to challenge its sovereignty and security interests on Thursday, after the Philippines' announcement of a plan to lease Japanese planes to patrol the South China Sea.

The Philippines will lease five aircraft from Japan to help patrol the South China Sea, President Benigno Aquino announced on Wednesday.

"We have noticed relevant media reports. China resolutely opposes the Philippines' move if it aims to challenge China's sovereignty and security interests," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said at a regular news briefing.

"Meanwhile, China will be on high alert for Japan's actions."

As Japan is a non-claimant country in the South China Sea dispute, China demands Japan be prudent in words and deeds and refrain from actions that jeopardize regional peace and stability, the spokesperson added.

China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have agreed on a dual-track approach to resolve the South China Sea disputes. The directly concerned states, namely China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia, will peacefully negotiate while China and ASEAN countries work together to maintain peace and stability in the region.
China Aid

By Ava Collins

The two lawyers stand in front of the

Nanming District Detention Center in

Guizhou. (Photo: China Aid)

(Guiyang, GuizhouMarch 9, 2016) Two lawyers for a detained pastor in Chinas inland Guizhou province attempted to meet with their client on Monday.

Lawyers Chen Jiangang and Li Yonglin attempted to meet with Yang Hua, also known as Li Guiozhi, however, authorities denied their request. The lawyers have filed a written application and expect to be denied.

China Aid will continue to update this story as information becomes available.

China Aid reports on instances of rule of law violations, such as the authorities refusal to let the lawyers meet with their client, in order to promote religious freedom and rule of law in China.

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
Religion News Service

By Matt Moir | March 8, 2016

 Beijing (RNS) On a hazy Sunday morning, the fourth floor of a dingy gray office building in a far-flung region of this city is bursting with prayer.

In the Chinese capital, its not uncommon for church services to be held in Soviet-era office buildings. But the poorly lit, cracked-concrete dankness of this particular location cannot dampen the enthusiasm of this evangelical congregation.

Several hundred Chinese Christians pack the cavernous, L-shaped suite, clapping their hands and stomping their feet while a quartet at the front of the room lustily belts out songs praising Yesu (Jesus in Mandarin).

The men and women in attendance at the government-sanctioned Yizhuang Church are young, under 40, though several elderly Chinese women with their grandchildren in tow pack the venue.

Some experts suggest that by 2030, there could be nearly a

quarter-billion Christians in China.

Religion News Service photo by Matt Moir.

When the band is finished, the bespectacled pastor, Du Jian Jun, takes the podium to deliver his sermon and the crowd settles into row upon row of blue, folding chairs.

Du, who speaks in Mandarin only  the only English heard in the service is a smattering of worshippers amens  delivers his message with the soothing cadence of a polished orator.

His sermon is simple: The lives we lead can be difficult, but with the guidance of Yesu we have the tools to carry on.

The pastors message is concise and straightforward; the relationship between Christianity and the Chinese government, however, is more complex.
China Aid

By Brynne Lawrence

(LondonMarch 10, 2016) The United Kingdoms Parliament received a series of questions regarding religious freedom abuse in Chinas coastal Zhejiang province on March 2.

Lord David Alton of Liverpool, a member of the House of Lords and a friend to China Aid, voiced his concern about criminally detained human rights lawyer Zhang Kai and 12 detained Christian leaders when he filed two questions to Parliament, which can be read below.

The answer to the first of Altons questions, addressed by Joyce Anelay, Baroness Anelay of St. Johns, can also be read below.

China Aid will update this story with the response to Altons second question when it becomes available.

Question:



To ask Her Majestys Government what assessment they have made of the televised public confession of Kai Zhang prior to formal arrest, indictment or trial; what assessment they have made of what legal assistance he is receiving and what contact he has been permitted to have with his family; what contact the UK authorities have had with him; and what representations they have made to the government of China on his behalf. (HL6642) To ask Her Majestys Government what assessment they have made of the televised public confession of Kai Zhang prior to formal arrest, indictment or trial; what assessment they have made of what legal assistance he is receiving and what contact he has been permitted to have with his family; what contact the UK authorities have had with him; and what representations they have made to the government of China on his behalf. (HL6642) Tabled on: 02 March 2016 Answered by: Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Answered on: 09 March 2016 We remain concerned that a number of Chinese lawyers and human rights defenders, such as Zhang Kai, have been arrested, detained, or have simply disappeared since last July. We have raised the cases regularly with the Chinese authorities. In January, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), raised our concerns directly with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing. We supported a public statement by the Delegation of the EU in Beijing on 29 January, expressing concerns about the human rights situation in China, which included the detention of lawyers. We urge the Chinese authorities to release the detained lawyers, including Zhang Kai, and ensure all detainees have access to legal counsel of their choice. Question: To ask Her Majestys Government what representations they have made on behalf of the 12 Christian leaders tried in Zhejiang Province of China in February and what assessment they have made of (1) the impact of that trial and the sentences handed down on the right to freedom of religion or belief in China, and (2) how those events have been received in China. Answered by: Baroness Anelay of St. Johns Answered on: 14 March 2016



We pay close attention to the human rights situation in China and regularly raise our concerns about freedom of religion and the restrictions placed on Christianity. We make representations on specific cases during the annual UK-China Human Rights Dialogue. The next Dialogue is scheduled for April 2016. We also raise our public concerns about freedom of religion and belief in China in the Foreign and Commonwealth Offices Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy. We pay close attention to the human rights situation in China and regularly raise our concerns about freedom of religion and the restrictions placed on Christianity. We make representations on specific cases during the annual UK-China Human Rights Dialogue. The next Dialogue is scheduled for April 2016. We also raise our public concerns about freedom of religion and belief in China in the Foreign and Commonwealth Offices Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy. Regarding the recent trial of Christian leaders in Zhejiang, we remain concerned about the application of due legal process and transparency of justice in China. We are particularly concerned that people seeking to peacefully exercise their right to freedom of expression or belief are being prevented from doing so. We urge China to protect civil and political rights in line with its constitution and international human rights commitments.
Workers at a coalmine in Huaibei, Anhui province. [Photo/China Daily] From beef sales to online gaming, troubled companies search for alternative opportunities for investment

Loss-making coal companies are diversifying their business portfolios, some in imaginative ways, as China pushes on toward structural reform aimed at reducing industrial overcapacity.

For instance, some have been looking to tap into the beef retail market, the medical sector or online gaming industry, media reported on Wednesday.

But too many firms remain "on thin ice", said one analyst, because of the industry's excess supplies and insufficient demand.

At least 19 of the country's 37 listed coal miners are now expected to fall into the red in 2015, according to financial statistics provider Wind Information. And it predicts that very few of the other 18 will turn a profit in the foreseeable future.

So far, only Jizhong Energy Group, a State-owned energy company based in Hebei province, has reported growth, according to its latest annual report.

The ongoing global slump in commodity and oil prices weighed heavily on the stock prices of listed resource- and commodity-related companies, including coal and steel producers.

An index that tracks listed coal producers in Shanghai and Shenzhen dropped by 5.39 percent while the index tracks steel producers declined by 5.75 percent.

Xinjiang Baihuacun Co, a coal mining and coking subsidiary of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corp, is now on the brink of being delisted from the stock exchange due to its heavy losses.

But the company has revealed it has set its sites, too, on the healthcare industry after buying Nanjing Huawe Medicine Technology Development Co, a business founded in 2000 which provides research and technical services.

Baihuacun's dramatic shift in direction is being repeated elsewhere in the sector.

Shandong-based Yanzhou Coal Mining Co Ltd has released plans to purchase 400 million shares from the IPO of China Zheshang Bank Co on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Yankuang Group Co Ltd has signed a strategic agreement with meat processor Delisi to build an online platform to sell high-quality meat and dairy products.

While Jinrui Minerals Co, based in Qinghai province, has bought online game developer Chengdu More Fun, in an effort to diversify its revenue resources.

"Excess production capacity is only going to disappear through severe competition," said Jiang Yaodong, vice-president of China University of Mining and Technology.

"Further consolidation of resources and wider merger and acquisition will accelerate the process."

His prediction is, it will take five years for the coal sector to see any significant signs of recovery.

Jing Shuiyu contributed to this story.
Staff from Midea Group show how its smart kitchen works at an international electric home appliance expo in Berlin, Germany. [Photo/Xinhua]

Company focuses on intelligent tech as it transforms business from manufacturing

Smart solutions will be a key factor to drive future growth for China's home appliance makers, amid a market slowdown due to oversupply, said an industry insider.

Fang Hongbo, chairman of the board of Midea Group, said the company has been on a process of transforming its business from intensive manufacturing to the introduction of more smart solutions to home appliance products.

"By focusing on intelligent technologies, we are providing competitive home products with more added-value for our global customers," said Fang.

Midea, based in Guangdong province, has unveiled more than 30 categories of smart products, from electric cookers to air conditioners, since it announced an "M-Smart" strategy, which focused on research and development of smart home appliances, in 2014.

The company's newly introduced refrigerator, being displayed at the Appliance & Electronics World Expo, which opened on Wednesday in Shanghai, integrates solutions for food, health and drug-storing management by being equipped with smart image-recognition and label-scanning technologies.

According to the company, its smart services for home appliances will be put into operation by 2017, after opening a smart service platform to solutions providers.

A number of domestic and international solution providers, including Huawei Technologies Co, Xiaomi Corp and IBM Corp, have signed cooperation agreements with Midea to facilitate the company's smart services.

"The home appliance market has been oversupplied in the past few years, resulting in fierce competition, with many providers cutting their prices to expand their market share," said Fang.

According to Research and Markets, a market research organization, the global smart home appliances and service industry will grow quickly in the five years ahead, with the market value to hit $68 billion by 2018.

Midea's efforts to introduce smart solutions are in line with the China's new reform program, according to Fang.

China has outlined a supply-side structural reform plan, with the Government Work Report, which was delivered by Premier Li Keqiang at the ongoing annual national legislative meeting, emphasizing the country's determination to cut low-end supply while increasing high-end supply and public products and services.

"By boosting production efficiency over the previous years, we are more able to provide high-end products with advanced technologies to meet customers' demand, helping us make a profitable business," said Fang.

According to Fang, Midea has cut its production capacity, without adding any new production lines and factories, while introducing more advanced equipments in its processing facilities over the past four years.

"Cutting overcapacity, de-stocking and reducing labor costs, while increasing production efficiency will become part of the major efforts for the company's future development," said Fang.

The company realized a net profit of more than 10 billion yuan ($1.53 billion) in 2015, exporting its products to more than 200 countries and regions.

Midea, which was established in 1968 in the then-agricultural township of Shunde in Guangdong, secured more than $8 billion in exports in 2015, according to the company.
HARBIN - A Shanghai-listed coal chemical firm based in Northeast China's heavy industry base of Heilongjiang province on Thursday issued an investor alert due to high financial risks.

Heilongjiang Heihua Co Ltd, a subsidiary of ChemChina, is a major coal chemical industry firm in Heilongjiang, where coal mining and the chemical industry once prospered but now face a grim outlook.

Heihua's alert notice suggested its main business had stopped production, and is unlikely to resume in the next three months.

The company started to cut production starting in November last year, when it gave up production of urea. It shut off coke production lines on Monday.

However, the company's financial estimates suggested that if the main business continued, it could only expect a revenue of 50 million yuan ($7.7 million) for this year, while losses would reach up to 133 million yuan.

According to the stock exchange's rule on investor alerts, Heihua's stock will be suspended from trading on Friday. From March 11, the start of its three-month alert period, the stock's daily trading limit will be capped at 5 percent.

Founded in the 1950s, Heihua has been burdened by overstaffing and inefficiency due to aging production equipment and unqualified safety and waste treatment facilities.

It has some 11,000 current and retired workers on its payroll, but the number currently employed is only about 3,000.

Heihua's upstream coal mining firm, the state-owned enterprise Heilongjiang Longmay Mining, has just laid off 22,500 workers, the first of what are expected to be massive redundancies. Its downstream steel industry is also struggling with overcapacity.
Li Yining answers question at the press conference on the supply-side structural reform at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 6, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

China should prioritize the reform of State-owned enterprises (SOE) in the process of pushing forward the supply side reform, a leading Chinese economist said on Thursday.

Li Yining, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee and a renowned economist, said China's supply side reform cannot be conducted with real progress without reforming the State-owned enterprises and tapping into the potential of State-owned capital.

Li said in a plenary session of the CPPCC National Committee on Thursday that the reform of SOEs must be conducted in the direction of "applying new technologies, developing new industries, using new inventions and enabling new efficiency".

"The State assets management authorities should be solely responsible for preserving and evaluating the values of the State-owned assets," he said.

Li added that the reform of the Stated-owned sector must be conducted at two levels, including the State assets management and reform of SOEs.

"The reform of SOEs in the competitive industries must be conducted through allowing mixed ownership, and the management of those companies must be in line with cooperate law, he said. The reform of SOEs in the special sectors must stick to the direction of State ownership," he said.

He also said that the country should implement employees' stock ownership in the process of reforming the SOEs, and encourage more enterprises to enforce a professional manager system.

"There is still a shortage of professional managers in the country, understandably, as we are still in the process of transitioning from the planned economy system to the market economy," he said.
A Chery Arrizo 5 is on display during the 13th China (Guangzhou) International Automobile Exhibition, also known as Auto Guangzhou 2015, in Guangzhou city, South China's Guangdong province, Nov 21, 2015. [Photo/IC]

HEFEI - Chinese auto maker Chery Automobile Co announced on Wednesday that it will launch its latest model, the Arrizo 5, in Santiago, Chile, on Thursday.

Chery is the first Chinese automaker to launch a new model overseas ahead of the domestic market.

Jin Yibo, Chery's assistant general manager, said Chile is one of the biggest markets for China's cars in Latin America.

"Chery has bigger share of Chile's passenger car market than other Chinese brands," said Jin. "We value the Chilean and Latin American market, so chose to launch the new car there," he said.

Chery has been China's biggest car exporter for 13 consecutive years, with a total sales of over 1.2 million vehicles.

The model will be launched simultaneously later this month in several countries including China and Iran.
NPC deputy Dong Mingzhu (left), president of Gree Electric Appliances Inc, attends China's annual legislative and political advisory sessions held in Beijing, March 5, 2016.[Photo/CFP]

Gree's second-generation smartphone will be launched within one or two months, said Shanghai-based online news portal thepaper.cn, quoting Huang Hui, vice-president and chief engineer of Chinese home appliances maker Gree Electric Appliances Inc.

"The new phone is expected to be equipped with US chip maker Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 chip," said Huang on Wednesday during the ongoing Appliance and Electronics World Expo held through March 9-12 in Shanghai.

According to Hua, the beltline of Gree's phone is rebuilt from the company's existing home appliances' production line.

Dong Mingzhu, NPC deputy and president of Gree, told media on March 4 that the brand's next generation smartphone will be more suitable for young users.

Gree launched its first smartphone, part of its strategy to enter the smart home market and the Internet of Things sphere, in June last year.

"Our first phone has gained two key official licenses," Dong said. "Customers can use Gree phones to control wirelessly connected household appliances, such as refrigerators, ovens and televisions, making their lives more convenient."

However, the phone has not been able to make inroads into the market due to insufficient production capacity, according to thepaper.cn.

"The phone is being sold to Gree's employees and distributors and a certain discount will be offered to the buyers," added the news portal.

According to media reports, Dong discussed with Lei Jun, founder and CEO of Xiaomi Corp, about the industry market during the opening ceremony of the 12th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference held on March 3. Both of them are delegates to the 12th National People's Congress. Lei gave his compliments to Gree's smartphone, according to the reports.

According to China Daily, in the first three quarters of 2015, Gree's revenue plunged more than 17 percent year-on-year to 81.5 billion yuan ($12.5 billion) due to overcapacity and weakening demand.

As dwindling air-conditioner sales weigh on revenue and profitability, the company announced on last Sunday to issue new shares to buy Zhuhai Yinlong New Energy Co, a sign of the firm to branch into new-energy vehicles sector.

The company did not disclose what stake it would take in Zhuhai Yinlong or the possible investment value. A spokesman for Gree said details are still under discussions.

Zhuhai Yinlong, controlling shareholder in Altair Nanotechnologies Inc, a Nevada-based lithium battery company, was China's seventh-largest seller of electric buses in 2015, after racking up 7,000 orders and producing more than 3,100 electric vehicles, data from its official website show.


Sir George Martin, known as the "fifth Beatles" for putting the Liverpool group on the world map, has died at 90, his family announced Wednesday.

A statement issued by his manager said Sir George's family "would like to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers and messages of support" after he passed away at home on Tuesday.

The news was confirmed on social media by the Beatles drummer Ringo Starr who wrote: "God bless George Martin peace and love to Judy and his family ... Thank you for all your love and kindness George peace and love xx."

"He was a true gentleman to the end," the statement from his management said.

Sean Ono Lennon, son of slain Beatle John Lennon said on social media: "I'm so gutted I don't have many words. Thinking of Judy and Giles and family. Love Always, Sean."

British Prime Minister David Cameron said: "Sir George Martin was a giant of music - working with the Fab Four (the Beatles) to create the world's most enduring pop music."

Martin's long and successful career in the music industry, during which he produced 700 records, began in 1950 after he concluded his studies at the Guildhall School of Music, and worked as a professional oboist.

He became head of the Parlophone music label in 1955, and went on to sign The Beatles in 1962, enjoying 17 chart-topping hits with the Liverpool band.

When Martin met the "four lads from Liverpool" for the first time he realised their potential, commenting: "I liked them as people apart from anything else, and I was convinced that we had the makings of a hit group."

Martin composed the music scores for the Beatles films A Hard Day's Night - which earned him a Hollywood Oscar nomination, and the film Yellow Submarine, which was nominated for a Grammy.

After the group broke up Martin worked with the other world famous artists, including Bob Dylan, Sting and Sir Elton John. He also recorded solo albums for former Beatle Paul McCartney, Tug Of War and Pipes Of Peace.

He also co-produced Candle In The Wind, the song composed by Elton John to mark the death of Princess Diana in 1997, which sold 37 million copies.

Martin's official website describes him as the world's most successful record producer - racking up 30 number ones across the UK and US singles charts. Sir George won his two most recent Grammys after helping develop the Beatles-inspired Cirque du Soleil show "Love" in Las Vegas in 2006.

Related:

To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee dies at 89
NANNING - A primary teacher has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment by a court in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region for the sexual assault of several girls under his care.

Fangchenggang Intermediate People's Court upheld the verdict of the first trial held last year, sentencing the teacher, Su, to 10 years imprisonment for abusing several girls in his class at a city primary school from October 2014 to January 2015. The defendant had appealed on grounds of lack of intent.

The court rejected his appeal, saying the sentence was fair and based on sufficient evidence.

Cases of child sexual abuse by teachers have become increasingly commonly reported in China. The All-China Women's Federation has called for changes to laws and regulations on child protection help vulnerable minors. The federation also wants educational institutions to teach children to recognize, avoid and report sexual assaults.

According to the Foundation of China Culture and Arts for Children, only 300 cases of child sexual abuse were reported in 2015. Assailants in 70 percent of reported cases were known to their victims, suggesting a strong need to make children aware of the danger and to learn how to protect themselves.
Chengdu, the capital of the Sichuan province, has vowed to increase its innovation-driven development within the next three years.

It aims to create a better environment for innovation and entrepreneurship, invest an increasing amount of money in science and technology and ensure faster commercialization of the fruits of scientific research.

The ambition reinforces a decision made in December 2015 during the sixth plenary session of the Chengdu municipal committee of the Communist Party of China to speed up construction of an internationally influential regional center for innovation and entrepreneurship in Chengdu.

The city also aims, within five years, to become the first in western China to realize innovation-driven development, driving its economic system and development model, and plans to become a State-level innovative city.

The ambitious plans come in the wake of a decision adopted in September by the central government to build a State-level experimental zone for comprehensive innovation and reform.

The zone includes Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province in North China, Shanghai and Anhui province in East China, Guangdong province in South China, Sichuan in Southwest China, Wuhan in Central China's Hubei province, Xi'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi province and Shenyang in Northeast China's Liaoning province.

The central government considers comprehensive innovation and reform key to breaking a bottleneck hindering innovation-driven development and has designated Chengdu to play the most important role in Sichuan's contribution to the construction of the experimental zone.

Chengdu, a center of science and technology in western China, hosted the 2015 Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fair from Nov 9 through 11.

It was China's first global innovation and entrepreneurship fair and drew government officials and representatives from risk investment organizations, scientific research institutes, institutions of higher learning and innovative enterprises in 30 countries and regions, who reached the Chengdu Consensus during the fair.

According to the consensus, innovation and entrepreneurship have been chosen as the means to boost economic development by many nations. They are viewed as eternal themes for the development of human society and a powerful engine for economic development.

Some 150 institutional investors took part in the fair with 2,686 projects, 109 of which changed hands with transactions totaling 5.32 billion yuan (about $817 million).

Participants from home and abroad acclaimed Chengdu as the host city.

Zhang Zhihong is chief of the Torch High Technology Industry Development Center of China's Ministry of Science and Technology.

He considers Chengdu a charming city.

It previously impressed visitors as a city of fine food, long history and a happy lifestyle for locals, he said, but it now may have a new label as a city for enterprising people to realize their dreams.

Carmen Cano de Lasala is the deputy head of the EU delegation to China and has been to Chengdu nine times in the past decade. The city has impressed her as one of the most dynamic and fastest-growing in China.

I am more than happy to find out that Chengdu has become the choicest venue for investment by many European firms, she said. I am also more than happy to find out that the firms are expanding and gaining a big market share there.

EBN is a network of about 150 quality-certified EU business and innovation centers, and organizations backing innovative entrepreneurs, startups, small and medium-sized firms.

Its president Alvaro Simon de Blas said his brief visit to Chengdu during the fair revealed to him a promising city in western China. The vigor and potential of innovative firms there left a deep impression on him.

He said Chengdu is similar to EBN in backing the development of small and medium-sized firms.

Chengdu has a very good environment for being innovative and enterprising and has longstanding friendship and cooperation with the European Union, he said. It also has many opportunities to encourage and attract EBN to develop in the city.

In the wake of its success in 2015, the Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fair will be held in Chengdu again in July.
The Chengdu city government has established a 50 million yuan ($7.7 million) fund to reward winners of major research prizes to start their businesses in the capital of Sichuan province.

Up to 100 million yuan could be granted to a research team, according to the government as it pushes hard to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship.

Chengdu will issue five-year residency certificates and five-year, multi-entry visas for award-winning foreign talent  and their spouses and children  who agree to set up startups in the city, said Jing Bin, head of the city's human resources office.

Researchers whose firms maintain a presence in the city for over five years and contribute to the city's economic and social development are in line to receive a financial reward of 1 million yuan, he said.

The city's new policy stresses that the fund is for international and domestic talents.

Each year, Chengdu will select around 100 talents, such as local university students, who have established innovative startups, and provide each of them up to 200,000 yuan, Jing said.
Graft fight to continue, top lawmaker informs deputies (China Daily) Updated: 2016-03-10 07:18:43

Top legislator Zhang Dejiang delivers the NPC Standing Committee work report at the annual session in Beijing on Wednesday. [Photo by Xu Jingxing/China Daily]

Lawmakers will continue to push forward anti-corruption and related legislation this year, top legislator Zhang Dejiang said on Wednesday.

Zhang, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the top legislative body, said a law will be drawn up on international criminal judicial assistance this year. Possible revisions to the Law on Administrative Supervision would also be explored.

He made the comments as he delivered the committee's work report to the annual session of the NPC.

Top lawmakers will also work on a law on the management of international NGOs in China and a law focusing on cybersecurity, Zhang said.

Huang Feng, a law professor at Beijing Normal University specializing in repatriation and extradition issues, welcomed legislation on international criminal judicial assistance, saying that introducing such a law would contribute more to China's future work in this area.

"I'm glad to hear that our legislature has put this legislation on its agenda. We had a law on extradition in 2000, but that is not enough," Huang said.

He said the upcoming legislation will focus mainly on goods "or the problem of asset recovery, investigation and evidence collection" which will be written into the legislation with the aim of solving related problems.

For example, China has no law on asset recovery, "which makes it hard for us to find solutions to the problems, ... even if we do have some international treaties," he said.

As a drafter, he said considerable research has been carried out on such legislation. "It will be submitted to the committee for discussion soon, and I am looking forward to this."
New law aims to give charity a lift By Luo Wangshu/Cao Yin (China Daily) Updated: 2016-03-10 07:19:07

Ge Yike, one of the initiators for the charity project"One School One Dream", with pupils of Shima primary school in Badong county, Central China's Hubei province, Oct 2015. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Lawmakers are debating new legislation to encourage the development of the charitable sector and repair a tarnished image, as Luo Wangshu and Cao Yin report.

On March 4, the day before the start of the annual session of China's legislature, a reporter asked the country's top legislators why they planned to review the final draft of a new charity law in preference to "more important" legislation.

Given the weighty subjects under discussion at the annual gathering, the question was appropriate, but it also revealed the mainstream Chinese view of philanthropy: For many people, charity is irrelevant to their lives.

However, the draft of a new law that was submitted for review on Wednesday aims to regulate and develop the sector, and is expected to provide a vital shot in the arm for charities.

"What has impressed me most is that the draft aims to create a more supportive environment for charitable activities. It will simplify the registration procedures and allow people, resources and organizations with the desire to undertake charitable acts to enter the field," said Li Jing, secretary-general of the One Foundation, China's first private charitable fundraiser.

"Meanwhile, supervision will be strengthened to regulate and manage social organizations to prevent illegality," he said, adding that the new law will promote competition in the sector.

Wang Ming, president of the NGO Research Institute at Tsinghua University and also a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, called the proposed legislation a "milestone" in Chinese philanthropy.

"In the past decade, the boom in philanthropy has mostly been driven by the market, but it has also been driven by society as a whole, including private companies, enterprises and public enthusiasm. But without laws or regulations, problems may arise," he said.

China has more than 600,000 social organizations and 65 million registered volunteers. In 2014, direct donations totaled more than 100 billion yuan ($15 billion), overshadowing the 10 billion yuan donated in 2004.

In response, the government is aiming to standardize the sector. In October, the first draft of the new law was submitted to the National People's Congress, the nation's top legislative body, and the second draft was open for public consultation until Jan 31. NPC deputies will vote on the final draft on March 16, the last day of this year's two sessions.

"The importance of the charity law cannot be underestimated," said Fu Ying, spokeswoman for the Fourth Session of the 12th National People's Congress, adding that it will be the country's first fundamental and comprehensive law on philanthropy.

With the fast development of philanthropy, China urgently needs a comprehensive charity law that will protect the rights of donors and the needy, and punish fraudulent operators, she said.
Cross-Straits rail still on the table By Xu Wei (China Daily) Updated: 2016-03-10 08:07:32

The response from Taiwan will be a key factor in the implementation of infrastructure projects across the Taiwan Straits proposed in the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), a top cross-Straits negotiator has said.

Chen Deming, president of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, said on Tuesday that the infrastructure projects proposed in the new five-year plan, including a high-speed railway linking Beijing and Taipei, are only some of the ideas from the mainland, and the implementation would require cooperation across the Straits.

"We have done some research, which shows the ideas are technically feasible and practical. It remains to be seen whether there are common aspirations and actions across the Straits," said Chen, who is also a member of the CPPCC National Committee. He was speaking from the sidelines of the political consultative session.

Chen said the mainland has taken into account how to benefit the people and economy in Taiwan during the process of drafting the new five-year plan.

Zhang Zhaomin, director of the administrative committee of the free trade zone in Pingtan county, Fujian province, said on Wednesday that the technical factors of the high-speed railway across the Straits is no longer a problem, after four consecutive years of technical seminars between scholars across the Straits.

Zhang, who is also a deputy to the National People's Congress, said the preferred route right now is an undersea tunnel as long as 126 kilometers starting from Pingtan.

"Now the decisive factor lies in Taiwan," he said.

Chen confirmed that there has been a decline in the number of tourists traveling on tour groups from the mainland to Taiwan recently.

He said the fall in the number of tour group travelers could have been caused by multiple factors. However, how the change in the island leadership could affect tourism can only be evaluated after May 20, when the new leadership takes office.

Chen said the interaction between the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and the Straits Exchange Foundation in the future would also be decided after it is seen whether there is common political ground across the Straits after May 20.

"I am waiting for good news. I will base my understanding on facts, on words and actions," he said.

Li Xiaokun contributed to this story.
Manufacturing hub seeks ways to maintain growth By Yang Ziman (China Daily) Updated: 2016-03-10 08:07:32

Industrial city with long history hoping to develop high-tech as it looks to the future

Li Xiaomin, top leader of Wuxi, raises his point during a panel discussion. Provided to China Daily

Wuxi, a city in Jiangsu province that has thrived on traditional manufacturing industries for decades, is looking to upgrade its industrial structure for more sustainable growth, said the city's top leader.

"In the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), Wuxi's development will focus on the information, environmental, service and high-tech industries," said Li Xiaomin, top leader of Wuxi.

The city, which is located at the point where Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces meet, has been a transportation hub since ancient times. The 2000-year-old Beijing-Hangzhou Canal that connected the north of the country to the food-rich southern regions flowed past the city and it was, in more recent times, home to many of the first modern enterprises in China.

Wuxi has been at the forefront of China's reform and opening-up initiative thanks to the fast growth of its small township enterprises since the 1980s. With a population of 6.47 million, Wuxi ranked 13th in GDP in 2015 among cities on the Chinese mainland. Its GDP was 851.8 billion yuan ($130.8 billion).

But, with the city facing the same challenges that the Chinese economy faces, with rising labor costs, pollution concerns and a desire to see more innovation and high technology, Li said it is time to shift the emphasis.

"Traditional manufacturing industries, such as equipment manufacturing, textiles, electronic products and metallurgy, which have been the backbone of Wuxi's economy, must incorporate intelligent information technology to enhance their competitiveness," said Li.

The city has implemented a campaign to "replace human labor with mechanization" and wants to build intelligent factories, digital workshops and undertake robot research and development.

"In terms of high-end industries, we have prioritized seven industries as key areas for growth and they are information, manufacturing, environmental, biomedicine, new energy, new materials and garment making. Only by moving up along the value chain can we achieve more efficient growth," said Li.

In May, Samsung SDI signed a memorandum with the Wuxi government to invest $180 million in the city and build a diffuser plant covering an area of 30 to 40 million square meters. The plant is expected to be put into operation by the end of this year.

In the first half of 2015, the total output of the electronic products industry in the city stood at 89.9 billion yuan, an increase of 5.4 percent on the first half of 2014.

Wuxi Research Institute, a research center built in collaboration with Huazhong University of Science and Technology, has been doing research in areas such as photoelectricity, new material and new energy. It has more than 50 projects contracted by enterprises, creating total value of more than 500 million yuan.

Li said that service has yet to become an integral part of Wuxi's traditional industries. Therefore, the modern service industry has become another focal point of the city's economic blueprint.

"In the future, we must transform the enterprises from equipment suppliers to complete solution providers. Services for industries, such as third-party logistics, e-commerce and information, should be further developed. Services for people's livelihood, such as leisure and travel, health, culture and education, should target more specific customers," he said.

yangziman@chinadaily.com.cn
PLA Navy buoyed by 3 new landing ships and wave of upgrades By Zhao Lei (China Daily) Updated: 2016-03-10 08:07:57

Three vessels, CNS Wuyishan, CNS Culaishan and CNS Wutaishan, are delivered to the East Sea Fleet at an unidentified naval port on Monday. Zhou Pengcheng / China News Service

The People's Liberation Army Navy has commissioned three new landing ships with designs it said will improve amphibious capabilities.

The three vessels, CNS Wuyishan, CNS Culaishan and CNS Wutaishan, were delivered to the East Sea Fleet at an unidentified naval port on Monday, the Navy said in a news release.

It said the ships have a displacement of 5,008 metric tons and a maximum speed of 20 knots (37 km/h). Compared with predecessors, the new design has a lower radar signature, which makes it harder to detect it at sea, and a streamlined design that helps speed up the loading of amphibious vehicles.

The ships are armed with close-in weapons systems capable of hitting mid- and short-range targets, and include a flight pad that can accommodate a helicopter.

The ships will strengthen the Navy's capabilities in joint landing operations and transportation, the news release said.

According to IHS Jane's Navy International, the new-type vessel is able to transport 10 armored vehicles and 250 fully armed troops, which means that three ships can ferry roughly an entire amphibious assault battalion.

This is the first time the PLA has received three ships in a single day, even at a time of unprecedented upgrades since 2012. At least 100 new ships and submarines have joined the Navy since then, including an aircraft carrier, three Type-052D guided missile destroyers that have cutting-edge air defense abilities, 13 Type-054A large multi-role frigates and four Type-903A supply ships. In February, the Navy commissioned the CNS Xiangtan, a Type-054A frigate, the CNS Tongren, a Type-056A corvette and the CNS Yimengshan, a Type-071 amphibious transport dock.

However, much of the Navy's new equipment is still not as good as that of their counterparts in the United States Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, according to a PLA officer who wished not to be named.

"There are a great number of things that we need to catch up on - for instance, the technological level of ships and submarines as well as our crew's skills and experience," he said.
Menstrual blood cells needed By Shan Juan (China Daily) Updated: 2016-03-10 08:07:57

Project seeks to advance stem science without ethical problems brought by other approaches

A hospital in Zhejiang province is looking for 100 volunteers to donate menstrual blood to a research team studying stem cells, its lead researcher said.

Professor Xiang Chunsheng from Zhejiang University International Hospital in Hangzhou, who heads the project, said stem cells in menstrual blood have similar regenerative properties to those found in umbilical cords and bone marrow, both of which are currently widely studied.

His team is looking for women aged between 18 and 40 who have regular menstrual cycles and who are free from infectious diseases and have not terminated a pregnancy during the past half year.

Hospital workers will collect used sanitary pads from those taking part.

"Eligible women are very welcome to participate in this medical research by making a donation and, ideally, we would like three such donations from each volunteer," he said.

Participants will have the incentive of knowing they are not only helping with the research but that their stem cells will be stored for free for two years. Such "banked" cells will be available to the women should they need them for treatment.

Worldwide, stem cells from menstrual blood have proved effective in treating diseases including hepatocirrhosis (cirrhosis of the liver), diabetes and heart attacks. Xiang said stem cells may also possibly be integrated into the treatment of other conditions, including strokes and Alzheimer's disease.

Currently, stem cells are usually drawn from either embryos or adult tissue, medical experts said.

Embryonic stem cells can give rise to almost any cell type in the human body, but they are controversial ethically because the procedures for obtaining them might involve the destruction of an embryo.

Adult stem cells, such as those in bone marrow, have limited use and their collection usually requires invasive procedures.

By comparison, menstrual stem cells offer several advantages because they are easy to get without ethical considerations and they can be used to treat patients without fear of tissue rejection, according to Xiang.

"But these remain medical research subjects," he said.

In a trial study in 2003, menstrual stem cells were used to repair lung damage in a man infected with the bird flu virus H7N9, Xiang said.

"And it worked well," he said.

Nationwide, China's top health authority last year issued the nation's first regulation concerning stem cell clinical trials, with the aim of ensuring its healthy but cautious development.

All related clinical trials into stem cells require transparency and government supervision, the regulations stipulate.
110-year-old Beijing Zoo may partially relocate: Urban planner By Liang Shuang (chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2016-03-10 12:42:32

Visitors flock to the special enclosure for Giant Pandas in Beijing Zoo, China, in this 2009 file photo. The panda is one of the eight that have been transferred to zoo from Sichuan since the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008.

Parts of the 110-year-old Beijing Zoo may be relocated to improve the living conditions of the animals and ease traffic jams for visitors, an official said on the sidelines of the ongoing legislative sessions."We are indeed working on the possibility of the partial relocation of the Beijing Zoo," Huang Yan, director of Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Planning and a CPPCC member, told the media on Monday.

Built in 1906, the Beijing Zoo is the first public zoo in China and receives 5 million visitors annually.

The zoo's location in the city's core means some animals have suffered from the noise, despite the soundproof facilities, Huang said. The zoo is also packed with tourists on weekends and holidays, resulting in heavy traffic jams and restricted passenger access to the nearby subway station.

A similar proposal, which suggested relocation of the entire zoo, was considered by a small group of experts in 2004, but was sidelined by objections. Earlier in January, the topic was reintroduced by Lian Yuming, dean of the International Institute for Urban Development in Beijing.

In contrast to the previous proposals, this one recommended that animals fit to live under the current conditions should stay, Huang said.

"This would reduce the number of tourists, and would be beneficial to the animals," Huang said. "The remaining animals would still fulfill the basic needs of the tourists, as well as give the native residents some memories to hold on to."

Liu Yuye, a Beijing native who has visited the zoo more than 10 times, said a relocation would reduce her visits.

"I would probably not go as often," she said. "It's such a historical place, and I think the animals would have problems re-adapting. I don't want to see it move."

Others showed more appreciation for the benefits of such a change. "Although I'm not in favor of the move, if the move actually benefits the animals, I think it's understandable," said Wang Yanping, holding her child in her arms after visiting the zoo.

Visitors would likely be keen on the zoo keeping its rare and giant animals at the current location. "I certainly hope that the pandas would stay," Liu said.
Collective expulsion of foreigners is prohibited under international law, official says

The United Nations and human rights groups voiced deep concerns on Tuesday about the legality of the European Union's plans to send 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 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.
The Bodyguard, directed by Hong Kong kung fu star Sammo Hung (above), is set to wow audiences with its fight scenes.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Two kung fu-film directors eagerly await their chances to follow the success of Ip Man 3, Xu Fan reports.

China's big screen, recently rocked by the kung fu epic Ip Man 3, will soon see two more action films aiming to draw big audiences.

Martial arts-movie director Xu Haofeng's Judge Archer opens on Friday, soon to be followed by Hong Kong kung fu giant Sammo Hung's The Bodyguard, which will be released across the Chinese mainland on April 1.

Adapted from Xu's namesake novella, Judge Archer narrates the revenge adventure of an archery master amid the upheavals in 1930s China.

With a more stellar cast led by Hung and Andy Lau, The Bodyguard revolves around a retired Chinese agent's daredevil rescue of a friend from a Russian criminal group.

Although the booming movie industry is increasingly relying on digital cinematography, the two movies still stick to old-school ways. Most of the fights on screen succeed thanks to live action.
During the ongoing annual session of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, former deputy director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council Huang Shuhe told the media that the authorities should establish a "mistake-tolerant mechanism" to promote reform of State-owned enterprises.

Premier Li Keqiang stated in this year's Government Work Report that over the next two years China will promote reform and expedite the restructuring of State-owned enterprises.

To deepen State-owned enterprises' reform, several pilot projects are needed. These pilot projects, even if they fail, will help the authorities accumulate valuable experience for further reform.

But quite a few officials in State-owned enterprises are not fully performing their duties for fear of committing mistakes. This is impeding reform. Huang's proposal of a mistake-tolerant mechanism for reform of State-owned enterprises is aimed at encouraging creativity and innovation in the reform process. While strictly abiding by the law and Party regulations, people who lead the reform process should be allowed a margin for error.

Moreover, as reform of State-owned enterprises is deepened, the authorities and enterprises should work together to achieve the final goal.
Chinese tourists visit Tokyo's Ginza district for shopping in August. Japan is the second-most popular overseas destination. [Photo provided to China Daily]

ACCORDING TO the Ministry of Commerce, Chinese consumption overseas grew by 27.8 percent each year on average between 2005 and 2015. The enthusiasm for shopping overseas will remain high unless there is a decrease in consumption tax, said the Shanghai-based thepaper.cn on Wednesday:

Chinese consumers still have to pay a lot more for certain imported goods at home than they do in other countries, such as Japan, due to the relatively high consumption tax.

For example, high-end watches priced over 10,000 yuan ($1,535), are normally subject to a 20 percent consumption tax. That means Chinese mainland buyers are willing to travel to Hong Kong, a world-renowned tax-free harbor, to buy a 30,000-yuan watch, as it can save them around 6,000 yuan.

Some, who are unable to travel abroad, even use a proxy buyer overseas in order to take advantage of the cheaper prices in other countries.

Levying a consumption tax on certain goods is indeed necessary to curb potential over-consumption. But the high tax rate is unlikely to guarantee decent revenue since the taxation system is already out-dated, if not obsolete, given the fact that more Chinese residents are financially capable of traveling overseas to shop.
Pedestrians cross the road in Zhongguancun, Beijing, during a smoggy day in December.[Photo/China Daily]

Purple haze. For those who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, the words bring back memories of the electrifying Jimi Hedrix and his more electrifying ways with the guitar. For many living in North China today, they may sound more like one of the stanzas in the song: Purple haze all in my eyes/Don't know if it's day or night/You got me blowin', blowin' my mind/Is it tomorrow, or just the end of time?

We are talking about smog. The smog that prompted the world media to pounce on China, blaming it for all that was wrong with emission control.

When Beijing issued two red alerts for smog in succession in December, foreign media outlets made it out as it was the end of the world. Images of people in different types of masks were splashed across the foreign media, some even highlighting people wearing gas masks. Some Chinese media outlets too joined the fray, either enamored by their overseas counterparts or to genuinely portray the serious state of affairs.

Serious the condition was during those few days. There is no denying of it. Or else, the authorities wouldn't have ordered schools closed, construction halted, traffic restricted and production in seriously polluting industries suspended. But instead of appreciating the prompt action of the Chinese authorities, many media outlets focused on the inconvenience caused to the parents of school-going children and residents in general.

Ironically, had the authorities not imposed the emergency measures, the media would have decried its lackadaisical approach to the serious health hazard. A perfect situation of damned if you do, damned if you don't.

This is not to suggest China doesn't face a smog (and carbon emission) problem, or for that matter environmental challenge. It does. And it admits it. We could differ with the way it intends to solve the problem or overcome the challenge. For example, the continued stress on the urbanization could, to some extent, offset the gains of the environmental protection measures. We could even say the pace of implementing the eco-protection measures is not conducive to meeting the challenge.
Wang Qishan (C), a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, attends a meeting on anti-graft inspection in Beijing, capital of China, Feb 23, 2016. [Xinhua/Li Tao]

No one is immune to disciplinary investigation, and that includes the deputies of the people's congresses at all levels, said Fu Ying, spokeswoman for the fourth session of the 12th National People's Congress, China's top legislature, at a news conference on Friday.

Just an hour before the briefing, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China, the country's top anti-graft watchdog, announced the investigation of Wang Min, former Party chief of Northeast China's Liaoning province, for suspected serious violations of Party discipline.

Corruption in local governments has dealt a heavy blow to the image of the Communist Party of China, and also harmed people's legitimate interests. It thus calls for more concerted efforts to prevent abuse of power at all levels.

If they are proved to be corrupt, both senior officials, the so-called "tigers", and lower-level public servants, known as "flies", should be punished according to their misdeeds. While the former are often far removed from the daily lives of most people, lower-level officials can give people a hard time, not only making life miserable but also posing a threat to people's legal interests.

The ongoing nationwide anti-graft campaign is key to ensuring that people from all walks of life are granted access to the dividends of the country's growth, especially when it comes to medical services, education, employment, and food and drug safety.

It is worth noting that there are also loopholes that breed corruption when local authorities have the biggest say in managing collective funds, assets, and resources even in remote villages.

Some have little respect for the rule of law and indulge in a variety of power abuses, such as selling reserved land to property developers and taking bribes from the developers to validate their illegal occupation and construction. Such misappropriation of public resources not only infringes on local residents' legitimate interests but also tarnishes the ruling Party's political image.
Xi reviews a report on poverty alleviation progress in Shibadong village in Southwest Hunan province. [Photo/ Wang Dongjie with cctv.com]

Poverty alleviation has been the most important part of the people's livelihood, and President Xi Jinping is most concerned about it. On March 8 at a meeting with Hunan Province deputies during the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), Xi reviewed a report on poverty alleviation progress in Shibadong village in Southwest Hunan province.

He also discussed precise poverty alleviation plans with them. Three years ago, Xi put forward tasks to reduce poverty in Shibadong village. The task has just entered the essential stage. Xi urged local leaders to raise their workloads and work with the local community to achieve their goals.

Prosperity is earned through hard work. Poverty is not an inevitable destiny. The most difficult task for building a moderately prosperous society is poverty alleviation.

Xi and the Central Government have highlighted current objectives, which require precise applications and a sense of urgency. With great efforts can we pull the roots of poverty and transform barren hills.

Confidence can turn a rock into gold. With determination to tackle problems, we can change the short board, and turn poverty into development for building a moderately prosperous society on schedule.

The author is deputy director of the Department of Political Science of the Chinese Academy of Governance.
Workers at the production line of Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co Ltd in Hefei, capital of Anhui province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

China announced GDP growth target of at least 6.5% during the 13th Five-Year Plan in 2016-2020 and 6.5%-7.0% for 2016 at the National People's Congress. Some Western economists claim such targets cannot be achieved. In fact, analysis of supply-side factors, which will primarily be relied on to achieve this goal, shows clearly why China can achieve its 6.5% minimum growth target.

Current international economic trends, particularly trade, are undoubtedly unfavourable owing to slow growth in the advanced economies. Slow trade growth negatively affects China's supply side by limiting its ability to benefit from international division of labour. In the next period, China will consequently have to rely primarily on domestic supply-side factors to achieve its growth targets. Data on global growth in turn shows clearly which are the most powerful economic supply-side forces and why these can successfully allow China to achieve its targets.

To understand the fundamental reason China can achieve its economic goals the starting point is that an economy's growth rate is strictly determined by the percentage of fixed investment in GDP divided by what is known as the Incremental Capital Output Ratio (ICOR)  the latter being a measure of the efficiency of investment, and equal to the percentage of GDP that has to be invested for the economy to grow by 1%. For China the latest internationally comparable World Bank data for these, for 2014, showed that Chinas percentage of fixed investment in GDP was 44.3% and its incremental capital output ratio was 6.1. China's GDP growth rate was therefore 7.3%.

Since 2014 the percentage of fixed investment in Chinas GDP has fallen, probably to around 42-43% of GDP, which will be assumed to show why China can achieve its 6.5% growth target. Supply-side factors may then be divided into the rate of fixed investment and those which determine the efficiency of that investment (ICOR).

The most powerful supply-side factor for all countries studied is what is known technically as 'intermediate products'  one industry's inputs into another which reflect increasing division of labour throughout the economy's supply chain. In the US, the world's most advanced economy, 52% of economic growth is due to growth in such intermediate products.

Growth of intermediate products is also crucial for understanding the role of innovation. Innovation is not just a few 'big bang' inventions. As an economy is an interconnected network it can only be as strong as its major weakest links. For example, merely installing the most modern machinery in a factory will not yield optimal results if there is not an adequate supply of component parts, if there is not sufficiently skilled labour, if the logistics system does not efficiently take products to and from the factory etc. Given the economy's interconnectedness every part must function efficiently for successful operation. China has therefore stressed applying innovation across the entire economy. Such a supply-side division of labour requires a multitude of factors ranging from infrastructure to product standardisation  all of which China has to develop further for its supply-side to function efficiently.

The second most powerful supply side factor is fixed investment  which is above all required to incorporate technological upgrading. Leaving aside intermediate products, internationally fixed investment accounts for 61% of economic growth.

The third most powerful supply-side factor is growth in quantity and quality of labour  accounting for 29% of GDP growth globally. Given Chinas working age population is not expanding, improvements in education and skill are a decisive factor in this area.

Other inputs (scale of production, individual entrepreneurship etc) account for an average 10 percent of growth globally. These are technically termed Total Factor Productivity (TFP) and contribute to China's supply side development.

Taking these factors together shows why China's 6.5% growth rate is entirely realistic and why the claims of Western critics are erroneous. Given the fundamental ratios already outlined then for Chinas economic growth rate to fall below 6.5%, from its 6.9% level in 2015, one or both of two things would necessarily have to occur. Either Chinas ICOR, its efficiency of investment, would have to deteriorate substantially, or the percentage of fixed investment in Chinas GDP would have to decline in a major way.

Without one or both of these occurring it is simply numerically impossible for China's growth rate to fall significantly. Those critics claiming that China's economy will not meet its 6.5% growth target, and who either do not explain why China's level of investment or its efficiency of investment are going to drastically decline, are engaging in economic 'hot air'  unwarranted claims without any serious factual basis.

Given China's current investment level and the efficiency of that investment there is no reason why it will not achieve its 6.5% growth rate.

The author is a Senior Fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China.
The three-story heritage building is carefully moved for relocation.[Photo/CFP]

Old building to be relocated 90-meters in C China

A three-story heritage building with the history of more than 100 years in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei province, will be horizontally transported 90-meters in a relocation project, CFP reported on Thursday.

The wood and brick structure with mottled red walls in Wuhan's downtown commercial center, was used as a fire station during the Republic of China (1912-49). After 1949, the building was handed over to the local public security bureau. It was listed as a cultural relics protection unit in 2011.

According to the report, six concrete slideways were built to help with moving the building, as its foundation has been hollowed. Li Liangliang, head of the construction team, said the most significant part of the project is the reinforcement of the building, to make sure it does not fall apart.

Structural lifting and moving technologies have been used in China for nearly 20 years and moving a structure has become a regular option to preserve important or historical buildings.

Some examples of successful building moves include the 73-year-old Shanghai Concert Hall, which was moved 66.46 meters to the south and lifted more than 3 meters in 2003. Yuzhen Palace, a 600-year-old Taoist structure on Wudang Mountain, Hubei province, was lifted by 15 meters in 2013.

A heritage building more than 100 years old is wrapped in scaffolding as it is carefully transported 90 meters in Wuhan, Hubei province, March 9, 2016.[Photo/CFP]

In our next story, a group of caciques escape' from a zoo in Southwest China.
Two gunmen ambushed a backyard party near Pittsburgh on Wednesday, killing at least five people and injuring several, media and police said.

Four women and one man were shot and killed, and three moer were wounded in the attack at a residential neighborhood in Wilkinsburg, about 8 miles (13 km) east of the city, news station WPXI said.

"I heard at least 20 shots," a witness, Kayla Alexandra, told WPXI.

The shooters fled after the ambush and were still at large, the news station added.

The attack in Wilkinsburg, a borough of about 16,000 people, is the latest in a series of mass shootings that have elevated gun control as an issue in the US presidential elections.

Four people were declared dead at the scene of Wednesday's attack, said Lieutenant Andrew Schurman of the Allegheny County Police Department.

Four more victims were taken to nearby hospitals, but one died from her wounds. The other three were in critical or stable condition, Schurman said.

Dozens of shell casings littered the pavement of an alleyway near the site, where police were gathering evidence and talking to witnesses, media reports said.

Wilkinsburg has many lower- and middle-income residents, demographic data shows.
Allan Zhang, CEO of a Silicon Valley-based startup, had to open a branch in Hangzhou in Southeast China's Zhejiang province, to keep several of his best team members who worked for his company in California.

Those Chinese workers were not lucky enough to win a work visa lottery in the US during their Optional Practical Training (OPT) program, which allowed them to work in the US under their student status until it ended.

Only 85,000 work visas, known as H-1B, are available in the annual lottery for international workers. In 2015, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) received nearly 233,000 applications for the visa.d

Though the number of H-1B visas has not been increased, a new rule to the OPT program to be published on Friday will give some international students in the US a better chance of obtaining a work visa.

Beginning on May 10, international students with degrees earned in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) will be eligible to work in the country for 36 months without a work visa instead of the current 29 months upon graduation. The additional seven months will give many a chance to participate in another lottery.

"If you get three chances in the lottery, it's almost certain you will be picked," said Zhang, who founded Trustlook Mobile Security in January 2013. Its Mobile security app is now used by 16 million people.

"This is great news for startups. The first several years for a startup is so important that nobody could afford losing a core engineer," he said in an interview. "We had some of them work in China because there is no other choice. It's very inefficient."

"It's also good news for large tech companies, because they are always looking for talent that fits their needs. Many of them would be international students," Zhang said.

John Miano, a lawyer for the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers union in Washington State, said in a New York Times story on Wednesday that the new rule is "an ongoing assault on American workers". "They are just trying to double down on what they're doing before," he said of the government. "OK, you didn't like 29 months? We'll make it 36 months."

Miano's lawsuit last summer forced the government to vacate the previous rule and create a new one, this time for public comment. He said his group is still arguing the legality of the program in an appeal. The next hearing will be in May at the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

According to the Times, the new rule states that "a STEM OPT student would not replace a full- or part-time, temporary or permanent US worker," and that the salary offered would "be commensurate" to American workers.

"In our mind, it enhances training and puts safeguards in to make sure that if you are an employer that you are not unfairly disadvantaging US workers," Rachel Canty, deputy director for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency's Student and Exchange Visitor Program, told the newspaper.

Gan Quan, who is from China and recently graduated from Columbia University with a master's degree in statistics, said the extension gives her more time to build a stronger resume and find a sponsor.

"I'm doing an internship right now that won't sponsor me for a H1B this year. The good thing is that with the extension, I still get two chances," she said. "There have been so many changes and rumors of the new rule. It feels like our fate is the hands of others."

Zhang said he hopes this is the beginning of an immigration reform that will further open up US visas.

"These young people spend their youth to help build this country, they at the very least deserve a work visa," he said. "If they have to constantly worry about their visa status, how can they focus on the important things?"

hezijiang@chinadailyusa.com
To ensure a healthy and sustainable China-Japan relationship, a consensus is needed on major events during the Japanese War of Aggression Against China, veteran scholars from both countries said on Wednesday at a Beijing seminar.

A major hindrance to bilateral ties is the lack of agreement on historical issues, especially the wartime history, said Wang Jisi, a professor of international studies at Peking University.

"Most people, be they Chinese or Japanese, have not experienced the war. That they have a deeper and shared understanding of the historical issues is conducive to improving the bilateral relations," Wang said.

Despite disparities in the war's narrative, including the number of Chinese citizens who lost their lives in the notorious 1937 Nanjing Massacre, both sides have acknowledged some basic facts, such as Japan's more than decade-long invasion of China, said Zhang Baijia, former deputy director of the Party History Research Center of the CPC Central Committee.

Zhang's remark was echoed by Yuji Miyamoto, a former Japanese ambassador to China, who also conceded that it would be difficult to construct a wartime history acceptable to everyone.

Constructive academic exchanges between top historians, diplomats, and scholars of international studies from both countries, however, are likely to push further rapprochement on historical issues, Miyamoto said.

More importantly, their findings should be made public in an efficient manner, in a bid to prevent the bilateral bond from being further strained by the arduous war over seven decades ago, Zhang said.

The seminar included the start of a five-year research project on the war years that aims to additionally consider the countries' international situations and economic transitions. It will be supervised by an expert committee of 20 authoritative researchers from both nations.
All sides must cease provocations to maintain peace and stability in the peninsula, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei told a daily press briefing on Thursday.

Hong made the remarks after Pyongyang fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea and announced it had scrapped all agreements with Seoul on economic cooperation projects and would liquidate all of Seoul's assets in its territory.

The situation on the Korean Peninsula is complex and sensitive, Hong said. The US and the Republic of Korea began large-scale military exercises recently, igniting continued intense responses from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and China remained seriously concerned about the situation, Hong added.

"All sides should stop using provocative words and deeds to avoid a further rise in tension and to maintain peace and stability in the peninsula, which is in the common interests of all parties," Hong said.
Chinese nuclear firm CGN and French power company EDF won regulatory approval from the European Union's competition authority on Thursday to form a joint venture to build and operate nuclear power plants at Hinkley Point in Britain.

The joint venture plans to construct and operate the first new-build nuclear power stations in the UK for a generation at Hinkley C in Somerset.

Currently CGN and EDF are still to make their final investment decision about Hinkley. If they decide to invest, Hinkley will become the first nuclear power station involving a Chinese company in a developed market.

The clearance from the EU follows the Strategic Investment Agreement signed in London in the presence of UK Prime Minister David Cameron and visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping in October last year. Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant alone is projected to supply around 7 percent of the UKs electricity needs.

Under the Strategic Investment Agreement, EDFs share in Hinkley Point C will be 66.5% and CGNs will be 33.5%. Without reducing this initial stake below 50%, EDF intends in due course to bring other investors into the project.

Last week both the British and French governments renewed their backing for the project.

The European Commission said it did not see any serious competition issues.

"The Commission's investigation found that competition in the wholesale supply of electricity in the UK will not be hindered by the transaction given the moderate market share of EDF, the very limited market shares of CGN in this market and the presence of other competitors," it said in a statement.

To contact the reporter: cecily.liu@mail.chinadailyuk.com
Beijing calls for all parties to show restraint after the DPRK fires short-range missiles

The US Navy amphibious assault ships USS Bonhomme Richard, bottom, and USS Boxer, second from top, are underway with the Republic of Korea Navy Dokdo Amphibious Ready Group in the East Sea during exercise Ssang Yong 2016, March 8, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

China has urged all parties to stop "provocative actions" and maintain calm and restraint to prevent tension from escalating on the Korean Peninsula.

Earlier on Thursday, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea launched two short-range missiles and declared it would liquidate all of the Republic of Korea's assets in the DPRK, Xinhua reported.

It said it will also nullify all inter-Korean economic cooperation projects in response to Seoul's unilateral sanctions against Pyongyang, after the UN Security Council voted to adopt a tough resolution against Pyongyang earlier this month.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said on Thursday that "the US and the Republic of Korea have started large-scale joint military drills in the ROK, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has consistently responded fiercely" to what it perceives as threats.

"China expresses serious concern about the situation," he said.

Zhang Liangui, an expert in Korean studies at the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, said this is not the first time that the DPRK has decided to liquidate assets of the ROK, and the capital involved is "limited".

"So the decision is actually a symbolic move, serving as a protest," Zhang said.

He estimated that "it was unlikely that tension on the peninsula would lessen in the short term" because the US and its allies will continue to act in ways that prompt the DPRK to react militarily.

Shi Yongming, an Asia-Pacific studies researcher at the China Institute of International Relations, echoed Zhang, saying that the US and ROK are pressuring the DPRK militarily and politically.

At a time that the US and ROK are conducting drills on the peninsula, they also refuse to enter into negotiations unless the DPRK gives up its nuclear programs first, Shi said.

As a result, Pyongyang has no choice but to react militarily, including its recent short-range missile launches, Shi said.

"As the DPRK has no assurance that its security concerns will be addressed, it feels unsafe to engage in negotiations now about its nuclear programs," Shi added.

On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Wang Yi talked by telephone with US Secretary of State John Kerry about issues including the situation on the peninsula.

Wang said the situation is "highly charged" and China's reasonable and legitimate strategic security concerns and interests must not be damaged.
Dorian Murray, 8, passed away on Tuesday after a long battle with cancer. Provided to China Daily

People in China and around the world have offered condolences online as the news spread that 8-year-old Dorian Murray had died after a long battle with cancer.

"I believe there is a Great Wall in heaven and now he is walking on it happily," wrote a netizen called Sunshine.

Dorian, of Westerly, Rhode Island, in the United States, was diagnosed with a rare form of pediatric cancer when he was 4. After cancer cells spread to his spine and brain a few months ago, he and his family decided to stop his chemotherapy treatment so he could enjoy his remaining time.

He captured the hearts of people in China after he told his parents his wish "before going to heaven" was to be famous in the country "because they have that bridge," which is what he called the Great Wall.

Dorian's wish, which was posted by his parents in early January on Facebook, along with the request that someone in China send a picture to Dorian with the sign "#D-Strong", spread quickly across China and around the world.

Tens of thousands of Chinese posted the story on Chinese social media, and many went to the Great Wall holding signs saying, "You are very famous in China".

Even one day recently, a woman shared photos on her Chinese micro blog of herself on the Great Wall holding a sign: "Dorian STRONG. You are famous here. Welcome to China!"

"Though it's been two months since he had the dream, I'm here. I'm at the top of the Great Wall to make his dream come true," she wrote.

In the past two months, Dorian and his family had also been invited to visit China, but they declined due to the boy's declining health.

Thousands reacted to the news of his death.

"We are thankful for your life and the strength you brought to us. You earned everyone's respect. Wish you have a long and beautiful dream, so long and beautiful that you don't want to wake up," a woman posted on her micro blog.

Dorian's death was announced late on Tuesday night on the Praying for Dorian Facebook page, which had documented his struggle with cancer and used the hashtag "#dstrong".

Kathryn Thomas, a close friend of the Murray family who posted the announcement of Dorian's death on Facebook, also wrote that the family asked for "privacy and respect" as they grieve.

"I'm not ready," his mother, Melissa Murray, posted on Tuesday morning before he died. "But, I never will be."

Contact the writers at linshujuan@chinadaily.com.cn
People walk past Madrid's Town Hall, where a banner welcoming refugees is displayed, in Madrid, Spain, March 10, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

MADRID -- Acting Spanish Minister for the Interior Jorge Fernandez Diaz confirmed on Thursday that the country was willing to take in 450 Syrian and Iraqi refugees from Italy, Greece and Turkey.

"We have told the European Commission of our willingness to proceed with the immediate relocation of over 250 people from Turkey in a first stage and of another 150 refugees from Greece and a further 50 from Italy," said Fernandez Diaz in declarations to the Spanish press in Brussels.

The Minister thanked the Turkish government for its help in dealing with the refugee crisis, saying that without that help, "we would not be in conditions to act efficiently against the criminal organizations which are trafficking in human beings."

Spain's national plan towards housing refugees envisages the country receiving 859 people in 2016, apart from the 450 announced by Fernandez Diaz on Thursday. Meanwhile the Spanish government has also accepted housing 9,400 refugees from among those who have asked for asylum in the European Union and a further 1,400 who are currently being housed in countries neighboring Syria.

Nevertheless, the minister warned Spain could "not drop its guard... We need to be prudent," he said, explaining that closing the route into Europe through the Balkans would see many refugees seek to enter Europe through the southern coast of the Mediterranean.
Got a call the other day from a U.S. law firm that frequently uses our China lawyers to consult on litigation matters involving Chinese companies. The law firm was initially calling to see about our serving a Chinese defendant in a products liability action.

First thing we did was tell them how until recently we had a 100% success rate in serving Chinese companies with process via the Hague Convention, our strong sense was that the rules on that had changed. We explained how China right now is seeking to prevent foreign currency from leaving the country and the possibility of a Chinese company losing a lawsuit outside China meant the possibility of foreign currency needing to leave China. And for that reason, we have over the last few months been encountering China service of process issues where none existed previously.

The above is just one of the many ways the rules for conducting business with China (legal business in the above instance) have changed due to Chinas efforts to block or at least slow down a foreign currency exodus.

We first wrote about Chinas newish foreign currency restrictions in Getting Money out of China: What the Heck is Going on? In that post, we wrote how in the last week or so, our China lawyers have probably received more money problem calls than in the year before that. And unlike most of these sorts of calls, the problems are brand new to us. It has reached the point that yesterday I told an American company (waiting for a large sum in investment funds to arrive from China) that two weeks ago I would have quickly told him that the Chinese companys excuse for being unable to send the money was a ruse, but with all that has been going on lately, I have no idea whether that is the case or not.

We then said that the common theme we were detecting was that China banks seem to be doing whatever they can to avoid paying anyone in dollars. We then listed how the following examples we were seeing and hearing about:

1. Chinese investors that have secured all necessary approvals to invest in American companies are not being allowed to actually make that investment. I mentioned this to a China attorney friend who says he has been hearing the same thing. Never heard this one until this month.

2. Chinese citizens who are supposed to be allowed to send up to $50,000 a year out of China, pretty much on questions asked, are not getting that money sent. I feel like every realtor in the United States has called us on this one. The Wall Street Journal wrote on this yesterday. Never heard this one until this month.

3. Money will not be sent to certain countries deemed at high risk for fake transactions unless there is conclusive proof that the transaction is real  in other words a lot more proof than required months ago. We heard this one last week regarding transactions with Indonesia, from a client with a subsidiary there. Never heard this one until this month.

4. Money will not be sent for certain types of transactions, especially services, which are often used to disguise moving money out of China illegally. This is not exactly new, but it appears China is cracking down on this. For what is ordinarily necessary to get money out of China for a services transaction, check out Want to Get Paid by a Chinese Company? Do These Three Things.

5. Get this one: Money will not be sent to any company on a services transaction unless that company can show that it does not have any Chinese owners. The alleged purpose behind this rule is again to prevent the sort of transactions ordinarily used to illegally move money out of China. Never heard this one until this month.

Then again exactly a month later, we wrote Getting Money out of China by Losing in Arbitration about a company that wanted to use our law firm to plot out a fake U.S. arbitration that it would lose so it could then get a large sum of money out of China as payment on the arbitration award. The Wall Street Journal then interviewed me on this incident for its own story, China Capital Flight 2.0: Lose A Lawsuit On Purpose, which in turn was picked up by the Chinese media and Internet and pretty much went viral from there.

Not much has changed.

Earlier this week, Canadas National Post did a story, Crackdown on Chinese capital flight will impact local real estate, quoting me on how Chinas crackdown on foreign currency outflows would necessarily impact the influx of Chinese real estate buyers in Vancouver:

Much of that money was destined for hot West Coast real estate markets from Vancouver to Los Angeles. In Vancouver its debated whether President Xi Jinpings government can stop the flood. Seattle lawyer Dan Harris  an expert on facilitating trade with Chinese businesses  said that since January, China has aggressively clamped down on capital flight. Harris said U.S. realtors are calling his firm more and more often for help in getting cash out of China for luxury home sales that were easily completed in the past. That will impact real estate in Vancouver and Seattle, Harris said in an interview. If anyone thinks the Chinese government will not stop people from sending $3 million out to buy a house in Vancouver? Wow. I dont know what they know that I dont. Harris said Chinese companies seeking to invest in North American real estate started having trouble about three months ago as business transfers were examined more closely.

Yesterday, in Chinese Consumers Race to Buy Dollars as Yuan Slides, the Wall Street Journal wrote again on how Chinas crackdown on foreign currency flows is impacting international business transactions. The article starts out by affirming exactly what our China lawyers have been hearing and been saying: that Beijing is telling Chinas banks and others to slow down the foreign currency outflow. In other words, Chinas laws on the books have not changed, but its on the ground reality has:

Chinese officials are trying anew to slow an unprecedented money exodus from the country, clamping down on individuals seeking to flee the yuan and making life tougher for companies that need to trade the currency for US dollars to do business. Chinas foreign-exchange regulator in recent months has deployed a new system to monitor individual purchases of foreign funds and has asked banks to reduce foreign-currency transactions. It has summoned bankers to its offices to give guidance and has grilled them when foreign-exchange activity spikes, according to executives at Chinese and foreign lenders. Banks, in turn, have increased scrutiny of foreign-currency transactions by businesses ranging from Chinese entrepreneurs investing abroad to companies paying overseas bills.

The article then provides the following examples of companies having trouble due to Chinas foreign currency clampdown:

A European chemicals manufacturer (presumably its China WFOE) was delayed in obtaining US dollars in Shanghai, threatening its deadline for an overseas licensing payment.

The Bank of Tianjin is having trouble getting funds from mainland investors for a planned Hong Kong public stock offering.

A water-treatment company struggled to withdraw $US2000 ($2690) for an engineer to travel to the US.

A Chinese company was having problems wiring $US15 million to a Hong Kong company that for two years has been helping the Chinese company buy equipment for a South American factory.

This foreign currency clampdown is apparently working as economists say tightened capital controls are one reason Chinas foreign reserves fell only $US28.6 billion in February, less than a third the drops of the two previous months.

The WSJ article ended with this fascinating/scary statistic: If 5 per cent of Chinas 1.4 billion people used their full quotas [USD$50,000 in funds allowed to leave China each year], the $US3.5 trillion in foreign-currency demand would drain its [Chinas] reserves.

Chinas new restrictions on foreign currency outflows are literally changing the way our China attorneys practice law in the sense that we now account for this on any transaction that will involve money flowing from China to some other country. I do not want to get specific on what we are doing but I can say that we are now always looking at whether the money can come from somewhere other than China and, equally importantly, we are also always looking to write our contracts so as to minimize China currency blocking triggers.

What are you seeing out there?
In December of 2013, a woman named Kari Hunt was attacked in her Texas hotel room. Her 9-year-old daughter tried desperately to call 911. Like millions of American children, Karis brave daughter was taught to dial 911 for emergency assistance. Since they were in a hotel room, however, the call did not go through. Hotel phones, like those in offices, often require people to dial 9, followed by 911.

A few precious seconds can mean everything in an emergency. Unfortunately, this tragedy is not isolated to one brave little girl in a hotel room.

As of March 2014, 44.5 percent of hotel franchises and 32 percent of independent hotels did not have direct dial capabilities. Over the past two years, the hotel industry and phone manufacturers have undertaken voluntary steps to address this problem and update their systems. But, we do not have time to wait.

While no one can prevent tragic events from taking place, we do have the ability to make it easier to get help. Thats why I have teamed up with a bipartisan group of senators to introduce a new bill named in honor of Kari Hunt. This legislation, known as Karis Law, would make sure that everyone has the ability to call 911 in an emergency.

Karis Law would require multi-line telephone systems, such as those used in hotels, schools and office buildings, to have a default setting that allows people to directly call 911 without first dialing an access code like 9 or 1. The bill also requires that these phone systems be programmed to allow a central location (such as a hotel front desk) to be notified if a 911 call is made.

If one person is unable to call 911 in a life or death situation, that is one person too many. We owe it to Kari Hunt, her family and every American to fix this simple problem and save lives.

Common-sense solutions to problems like this are possible with teamwork and determination. As a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, Ive worked with my colleagues to find additional ways to improve lives by updating our telecommunication laws.

In recent years, loopholes in our laws have allowed predators to harass many Americans. For example, there is a practice referred to as caller ID spoofing, which occurs when scammers deliberately falsify their identification through texting and phone calls. Senior citizens and veterans are often their prime targets.

Spoofing has become a major problem for Nebraskans and law enforcement. In September of 2013, Marian Kerr, a retired hospital nursing administrator from Hastings, was tricked into giving out her bank account information to scammers who claimed to work for the federal government. Just last fall, the FBI issued a warning about the danger posed by scammers who used the Bureaus identification to target Nebraskans. The callers said they were offering a grant from the federal government, and they proceeded to solicit credit card and banking information.

This practice is happening across the country, and it needs to stop. That is why I joined Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida last month to introduce the bipartisan Spoofing Prevention Act. Our bill would crack down on spoofing by prohibiting the practice on all voice calls including calls made using IP-enabled voice services. It would also prohibit caller ID spoofing done via text messaging, which is now a common practice. Lastly, the bill directs the Government Accountability Office to report on what the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission have done to combat spoofing.

Karis Law and the Spoofing Prevention Act are just two examples of common-sense legislation that can make our country a safer place. I will continue to urge my colleagues to support these important proposals. I also encourage you to reach out to my office with your own ideas to improve our laws. Together, we can make a difference one idea at a time.

Thank you for participating in the democratic process. I look forward to visiting with you again next week.
(Photo : Getty Images) It is unclear when Samsung will release the Galaxy Note 6. However, there are rumors that the device will hit the market sometime later this year.

Advertisement

The Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge handsets were recently launched, now Samsung is expected to debut the Galaxy Note 6 soon.



Samsung is expected to pack the upcoming Galaxy Note device with high-end features and specs. The Galaxy Note 6 release date could arrive in August of this year. Below are some of the expected features and specs of the Galaxy Note 6.



Like Us on Facebook

Advertisement

Experts say this could be Samsung's first 4K-enabled handset. The South Korean tech giant is expected to add a fingerprint sensor along with its usual S-Pen stylus to the Galaxy Note 6.



There are speculations that Samsung is manufacturing a 256 GB UFS 2.0 memory chip which will be installed on its upcoming device. The chips are rumored to be a game changer, packed with a large memory storage space.



The Galaxy Note 6 is expected to be powered by the Snapdragon 820 and Exynos 8890, depending on regions, along with 6 GB of RAM. It will come with a 5.8-inch Slim RGB AMOLED screen with a Quad HD resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels and a microSD card slot with 64 GB, 128 GB and 256 GB in-built storage.



Like its competitors, the new Samsung device is anticipated to sport a pressure-sensitive screen with 1024 pressure points. The Samsung Galaxy Note 6 is speculated to feature an improved 12 MP camera with a super optical image stabilization system that results in a 20 percent improvement in camera stabilization as well as high resolution photos and videos in low light environments.



Advertisement

TagsSamsung Galaxy Note 6, Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, Samsung Galaxy S7
Infrastructure is one of the key ways state government helps facilitate life for Nebraskans. Over the past few years, I have traveled a lot of our highways and roadways. From these travels, I can attest that Nebraska has great roads. The numbers confirm my experience. The Reason Foundations Highway Report ranks Nebraska second out of all states for highway performance and cost-effectiveness.

Theres no doubt we have great roads, but there are still important challenges our state must address to ensure we build the 21st-century infrastructure Nebraska families need to get to work, take their kids to school, travel for business, and grow Nebraska.

To address some of our infrastructure needs this legislative session, I have partnered with senators to create the Transportation Innovation Act (TIA). This act will create a fund which has three components:

First, it designates resources to accelerate the completion of our states expressway system, a system of roads first envisioned in 1988 to connect our states communities. Second, it targets funding to help Nebraska counties address necessary bridge repairs. Third, it launches a new and innovative program to help facilitate infrastructure projects that spur economic growth in our communities.

The fund will initially be started by utilizing money from the states cash reserve. This infrastructure fund will then be replenished with unprogrammed dollars from the Nebraska Department of Roads. This initiative will be launched utilizing existing sources of revenue.

The TIA does not only target resources for completing Nebraskas expressway system, but also creates new tools to make road construction more effective. Right now, Nebraska utilizes a design-bid-build process that takes 7-12 years to complete projects from start to finish. By moving toward a design-build process for expressway construction, we will be able to cut out steps which take years to complete, and reduce the amount of time it takes to complete roads by 2-4 years. Building infrastructure in a timely manner is critical to growing our largest industries and encouraging businesses to create good-paying jobs for hard-working Nebraskans like you.

Recently, the Appropriations Committee held a hearing on the TIA, which was introduced as LB960 by Sen. Jim Smith at my request and prioritized by Sen. Lydia Brasch. At the hearing, numerous Nebraskans ranging from local elected officials to industry partners expressed support for this proposal.

Nebraskans from across the state supported the legislations goal to complete the states expressway system by 2033. Local county government representatives testified about the importance of making progress in repairing our states bridges. Economic development leaders described the importance of having targeted programming for attracting and retaining new businesses.

The Transportation Innovation Act still has several steps in the legislative process before it can reach my desk for approval. My administration needs your help contacting your senator to encourage them to support this initiative. This week, the Appropriations Committee voted to approve a compromise agreement that increases the amount of funding for this program. Very shortly, we hope the proposal will be considered by the entire Legislature.

If you want to see additional resources dedicated to expressway construction, bridge repair, and infrastructure for economic development, please consider contacting your senator. You can find their contact information by visiting www.NebraskaLegislature.gov.
(Photo : Getty Images) China is trying to develop a software that will prevent terrorist attacks and crime by compiling data about citizens. Although "far fetched", the success of this project will help resolve China's terrorist problems.

Advertisement

The Communist Party commissioned China Electronics Technology Group late last year to develop a terrorism prevention software that will collate data about the people's general activities like hobbies, work and internet usage.







According to Bloomberg, "a top Chinese military contractor is building a data analytics platform" in order to aid the identification of terrorists before they attack. China Electronics Technology Group develops, manufactures and sells components and software usually for security systems.



Like Us on Facebook

Advertisement

This move to develop a crime prevention software is in line with President Xi Jinping's effort to eliminate corruption and promote discipline in the communist party and the government. Numbeo.com reports that the crime index in China went from 41.75 percent in 2015 to 32.08 percent in 2016 - showing that these efforts are paying off. Despite the decrease in percentage, China's ranking in the world crime index, according to Numbeo, went up from 91 to 88.



According to the Atlantic, security is very much needed in China today because of its shrinking economy.



Bloomberg claims the move to develop a terrorism prevention software is far fetched. Some professionals have questioned the feasibility of the plan.



Lokman Tsui, the assistant professor of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, says that the program is relatively new since there are no previous cases or laws about privacy protection. Some security experts have argued that the amount of data gathered will not be significant enough to create a pattern of terrorist activities.



Wu Manqing from China Electronics Technology Group says in defense that the software is not a platform with large amounts of data, but an environment with interconnected information.



Advertisement

TagsChina Electronics Technology Group, terrorism, SOFTWARE
Kurdish peshmerga fighters are seen during a Bundeswehr training session on March 1, 2016 in Munster, Germany. The Bundeswehr is supporting Kurdish peshmerga as well as Iraqi security forces with military training and weaponry to help them fight against the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq. (Photo by Alexander Koerner/Getty Images)

Advertisement

A British news organization claimed to have obtained documents that contain at least 22,000 identities of Islamic State (IS) militants.



Britain's Sky News has reported that the tens of thousands of documents that contain the identities of the IS militants were passed to it on a memory stick.



Like Us on Facebook

Advertisement

The said memory stick was reportedly stolen from the head of IS internal security police. It was not revealed who passed the memory stick and if Sky News had already sent a copy to authorities.



According to the British news organization, the documents it obtained contained real names, addresses, telephone numbers and family contacts of at least 22,000 IS militants.



The list include nationalities from at least 51 countries who had to reveal their most personal information as a requirement in joining the IS organization, Sky News added.



The documents also revealed the identities of previously unknown jihadists in the United States, Canada, North Africa, Middle East, Europe, and the United Kingdom.



It was not revealed if the list included IS militants coming from China.



Documents Include Names of IS Martyrs

Among the documents was a file that contains the names of so called "martyrs" who are ready to carry out suicide attacks after being trained to do so.



Sky News has confirmed that some of the telephone numbers found in the documents are still active.



As this developed, United States defense officials said US special forces captured Sleiman Daoud al-Afari, the head of the IS group's unit that develops chemical weapons.



Al-Afari was arrested in a raid in February in northern Iraq. The arrest was announced just the other day.



According to a New York Times report, Al-Afari admitted heading the IS unit, adding that the group had develop chemical weapons out of banned mustard gas. The gas had been converted into powdered form so that it can be launched using artillery shells.



Advertisement

TagsIS, Islamic State, IS Militants, islamic state militants, Sky News, IS Sky News
Workers at a car factory in Chongqing, China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

Advertisement

Canada-headquartered global automotive supplier Magna International is opening a new factory in Taizhou, China to supply seating systems to a Chinese car manufacturer.



Magna said its 5,200-square-meter facility in Taizhou will produce complete seating systems that it will supply to Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co's Volvo car group.



Like Us on Facebook

Advertisement

Zhejiang Geely is a Chinese multinational automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Hangzhou.



The seat-making facility is scheduled to be completed in the middle of this year, churning out seating systems for crossover utility vehicle, Magna said in Toronto.



Magna, which has a customer list that includes General Motors Co, Volkswagen and Ford Motor, revealed its China expansion during an investor day in Toronto.



The Ontario-based company, however, did not disclose how much is being invested into its new car seat factory in China and how many people will be employed in the facility.



Even with its new facility in China, Magna stays committed to expand around its Ontario home based. Magna chief executive Don Walker said he still sees opportunity for the company in Canada despite strong growth opportunities around the country.



"In my opinion, the governments should be focused on keeping the assembly plants here. A lot of jobs are tied to a geographic region around the assembly plants, so if the assembly plants are kept here, then hopefully the employment in the auto sector will stay," Walker said in an interview in Toronto.



Magna has about 140,000 employees, with 20,000 of them based in Ontario. It was forced to trim its workforce during the global financial crisis in 2009 but has since restored employment to pre crisis-level, according to Walker.



Magna's stock was up 1.67 percent at the Toronto Stock Exchange, gaining 0.89 to $54.06 a share. Over the last five days, shares of Magna gained 1.52 percent on average but are down 3.67 percent for the last year to date.



Advertisement

TagsMagna International, Canada, Canada Factory, China Car Factory, China Factory, Magna China
(Photo : Getty Images/Kent Horner) The US plans to expand its rotation of bombers and refueling aircraft in Australia into a more frequent presence, according to US Air Force officials.

Advertisement

The US plans to expand its rotation of bombers and refueling aircraft in Australia, the commander of the US Air Force in the Pacific said on Tuesday, as Washington seeks to enhance its presence in the region.





Speaking to reporters in Canberra, General Lori Robinson said US and Australian officials are discussing an expanded rotation of US bomber aircraft through bases in Darwin and Tindal, in northern Australia.



Like Us on Facebook

Advertisement

This develops as the US moves to bring a larger military force within striking distance of the South China Sea. "It would be useful to train across the spectrum of capability," Robinson said of the US proposal.



The deployments could include American B-1 bombers and more B-52 missions, according to US Air Force spokesman Lt. Colonel Damien Pickart, who emphasized that the US and Australia have yet to reach an accord on the proposal.



"Carefully Determined"



"These bomber rotations provide opportunities for our airmen to advance and strengthen our regional alliances and provide [US air forces] and US Pacific Command leaders with a credible global strike and deterrence capability to help maintain peace and security in the Indo-Asia- Pacific region," Pickart told Reuters.



Currently, the US does not fly B-1 bombers from Australia. However, the US military conducts periodic B-52 missions in the region.



"I can just assure you that everything we do in this area is very carefully determined to ensure that our military forces work together as closely as possible in our mutual national interests," Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said of the discussions with the US on Wednesday.



When asked to comment on the issue during a press briefing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said "Cooperation among relevant countries should protect regional peace and stability, and not target the interests of third parties."



The US proposal comes in the wake of the publication of Australia's Defense White Paper, which urges Beijing to be more forthcoming about its security intentions and policies in the South China Sea.



Diplomatic Stalemate



China's buildup across the disputed Asian waterway has proceeded in swift increments, alarming countries like Australia even as its neighbors are locked in a diplomatic stalemate over the artificial islands.



In a letter to the US Senate Armed Services Committee, the Obama administration's top intelligence adviser James Clapper warned last month that China can quickly deploy fighter aircraft, surface-to-air missiles, sizable coast guard vessels and warships to its man-made islands in the Spratly archipelago.



Security experts say the new fortifications pose little threat to the US military, which could easily destroy them in the event of a conflict. But US officials have expressed concern that the buildup of Chinese facilities atop reefs and small islets across the contested territory will make it more difficult for the US to defend allies with weaker military capabilities, such as the Philippines.



Meanwhile, Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop said the Turnbull government is transparent about its arrangements with partners and allies in the region. "We have on-going discussions with China and other countries in our region," Bishop told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday.



Advertisement

TagsUS-China relations, China-Australia relations, Territorial disputes in the South China Sea, US General Lori Robinson, Julie Bishop, Malcolm Turnbull, Australia Defense White Paper, US Air Force
(Photo : Getty Images) Hong Kong Executive Leung Chun-ying has suggested swimming in the Central waterfront as a recreational activity for worker their lunch breaks.

Advertisement

Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying has suggested a new recreational activity for workers. Writing on his blog, he proposed that workers go swimming in the Central waterfront.



According to ocal newspaper The Standard, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying explained the idea of swimming in the Central waterfront as a recreational activity for workers during their lunch or free time. On his blog, he claims that the waters have leisure and aesthetic values.



Like Us on Facebook

Advertisement

Apart from swimming, Leung also suggested workers could go fishing - taking inspiration from the three angling zones idea he mentioned during this year's policy address.



Leung stated during the address that the Leisure and Cultural Services Department will set up the angling zones as early as next year in the following areas: Tsing Yi, Tai Pao and the Central waterfront. The waterfront near the International Finance Centre in Central is a perfect venue for swimming or fishing after lunch, Leung said. He noted that these activities are good a substitute for going to the gym.



While they sound good, the Hong Kong leader's ideas have not not welcomed by some.



According to the BBC, Victoria Harbour is so polluted that it could take 20 years to make it safe for swimming. At the moment, anyone who dares to jump into the water will face high chances of getting infected with E. coli and salmonella.



These sentiments were echoed by Harbourfront Commission member Paul Zimmerman. He noted that although the suggestion is good, it is not feasible. According to Zimmerman, the harbor traffic and water quality will make it entirely unsafe.



Critics say there is also a health risk in swimming with a full stomach. More so, anglers are not so keen with the idea as well. According to one bait shop owner, fish are hard to catch at noontime because of heat and noise. He added that fishing takes more time than the 45 minutes left for lunch breaks.



What do you think of Leung's ideas? Share us your thoughts by leaving your comments below.



Advertisement

TagsHong Kong, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, Central waterfront, Victoria Harbour
(Photo : Getty Images) Pakistan Prime Ministers Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz Informed the Pakistani Senate on Tuesday that China helped Islamabad in blocking Indias bid to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

Advertisement

China helped Pakistan in blocking India's bid to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), Pakistan Prime Minister's Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz Informed the Pakistani Senate on Tuesday.



India has been desperately seeking to become a member of Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). This would allow the country to export nuclear technology to other countries.



Like Us on Facebook

Advertisement

India can currently only import nuclear technology from NSG member countries, owing to special NSG waiver that it got in 2008.



While several big powers including U.S. has backed India's membership in the NSG, China has been hesitant and has only offered conditional support to New Delhi.



Speaking to the press, China's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying called for a cautious approach over expansion of NSG membership.



"As for the expansion of the group, the members should make the decision on consensus after thorough discussions. India's inclusion into this group is an internal matter of the group. It needs prudence and caution and thorough discussions among all members," Hua said. "We support such discussion and we also support India's inclusion into this group if it meets all the requirements."



Pakistan, which considers India its ideological rival, claims New Delhi's inclusion in the NSG could cause a regional imbalance and raise security threats in the South Asia. India and Pakistan have fought four wars over disputed territory of Kashmir, which experts refer as nuclear a 'flash point' in South Asia.



Islamabad has always been dependent on its ally China to deal with possible military and political threat from India.



China also has a border dispute with India. Both countries have fought a war in 1962. Historically, the relationship between both countries has been marked by constant tension and mistrust.



Although the relationship between New Delhi and Beijing has witnessed some improvement in recent years, but both emerging powers are involved in a sort of 'cold war' in the Indian Ocean and disputed South China Sea region.



Advertisement

TagsIndia, Pakistan, china, Nuclear Suppliers Group, India and Pakistan, India and China
(Photo : Getty Images) China and South Korea have stepped up the enforcement of harsh sanctions against Pyongyang as embodied in a recent UN Security Council resolution.

Advertisement

China and South Korea have intensified their efforts to enforce the sanctions against North Korea with the mainland recently barring a North Korean freighter from one of its ports and Seoul stepping up its crackdown on individuals and business entities believed to have contributed to Pyongyang's development of its nuclear programme.



Like Us on Facebook

Advertisement

Beijing reportedly barred a freighter from North Korea, which arrived last week at the Rizhao port in northeastern China. An employee at the Rizhao Maritime Authority said the North Korean general cargo ship Grand Karo was not allowed to berth when it reached the Chinese port.



The ship is one of the 31 vessels blacklisted by China's Transport Ministry as part of the United Nations-backed harsh sanctions against Pyongyang.



Blacklisted vessels



Reports indicate that two more North Korean ships blacklisted by China were anchored off Chinese ports and sailed away after being denied entry.



The 6,593 deadweight tonne (dwt) Grand Karo is reported to be anchored about 35 km (22 miles) from Rizhao.



"If non-sanctioned North Korean ships enter the port, officials will ask senior authorities for instructions on how to deal with them," an official from Rizhao Maritime Authority said.



Financial entities



Meanwhile, the Seoul announced on Tuesday that it was imposing harsh sanctions on 40 individuals and 31 financial entities, who are believed to have aided and continue to aid North Korea in its development of nuclear program.



"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," said a statement issued by the South Korean foreign ministry.



Reports indicate that at least two businessmen from Singapore and Taiwan, who head a trading firm and shipping company, which are part of Seoul's blacklisted companies, will be slapped with financial sanctions after they were found to have funded North Korea's development of its missile and nuclear programs.



The business entities blacklisted by South Korea include Mariner's Shipping and Trading, a Thailand shipping firm and Taiwan's Royal Team Corporation.



Seoul said the entities on the blacklist will be banned from transacting business with Pyongyang and will be punished by freezing their assets should they defy the UN sanctions.



Advertisement

TagsSouth Korea, blacklisted vessels, Nuclear program, Pyongyang, china, Grand Karo
Dorian Murray (Photo courtesy of Facebook)

Advertisement

Eight-year-old American boy Dorian Murray wanted to be famous in China. He dreamed of touring the Great Wall and visit some of China's globally renown tourist spots.



Murray, however, will no longer be able to do those things as he lost his battle with cancer last Tuesday.



Murray was diagnosed with alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare and untreatable form of pediatric cancer, when he was 4.



Like Us on Facebook

Advertisement

The boy underwent several treatments but when the cancer cells spread to his spinal fluid, his family decided to stop the chemotherapy.



When asked about his wish before he goes to heaven, eight-year-old Murray told his father he wanted to be famous in China.



It was not clear why Murray wanted to be famous in China and what triggered his interest in the country but his father immediately posted his wish on Facebook using the hashtag #DStrong.



While Murray will not be able to visit China anymore, his wish to become famous in the country came true. In fact, he became popular not just in China but across the globe.



People from around the world sent Murray well wishes, other sent photos carrying paper with the hashtag #Dstrong.



Murray actually received invitation to visit China, tour the Great Wall and check out some of the country's popular tourist destinations but his family declined because of the state of the boy's health.



Murray died on Tuesday, surrounded by people who love him. He was embraced by both his mom and dad, a family friend said.



"That little boy inspired us, and our heart and thoughts and prayers go out to his family." said Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo.



Raimondo called Murray a hero.



Advertisement

TagsDorian Murray
Military planes fly in formation during a military parade marking the 70th Anniversary of the 'Victory of Chinese People's Resistance against Japanese Aggression and World Anti-Fascist War' at Tiananmen Square on September 3, 2015 in Beijing, China. China is marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II and its role in defeating Japan with a new national holiday and a military parade in Beijing. (Photo by Rolex Dela Pena - Pool/Getty Images)

Advertisement

China has issued a stern warning to the Philippines after the Southeast Asian country announced that it will lease Japanese planes to patrol the South China Sea.



China said the Philippines should not challenge the country's sovereignty and security interests as the Chinese government expressed opposition to the Philippines' plan to patrol the South China Sea.



Like Us on Facebook

Advertisement

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III announced on Wednesday that the government will leave five Japanese aircraft to patrol the disputed South China Sea.



"We have noticed relevant media reports. China resolutely opposes the Philippines' move if it aims to challenge China's sovereignty and security interests," said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei at a regular news briefing.



China is also on high alert for Japan's actions, especially in leasing Japanese planes to the Philippines, considering that Japan is a non-claimant country in the South China Sea dispute.



Hong demanded that Jaapn be prudent in word and deeds and not meddle in issues involving the South China Sea. He added that China wants Japan to refrain from doing actions that will affect regional peace and stability.



The official Xinhua news agency has reported that China and other claimant countries have already agreed on win-win approach to resolve the disputes.



The report said China, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, and the Philippines have agreed to peacefully negotiate while the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China continue to work together to ensure the region's stability and peace are maintained.



Japan and the Philippines recently signed an agreement that would allow the Japanese government to sell military equipment to the Philippines, becoming the first of its kind between the two nations.



Philippine Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin clarified that the agreement with Japan has nothing to do with the South China Sea dispute and is not directed against any country.



Advertisement

Tagschina, South China Sea, Philippines, Japan, south china sea disputes
A China Railway High-speed (CRH) bullet train designed to run at a speed of 200 km (about 124 miles) per hour, leaves the Nanjing Railway Station in Nanjing of Jiangsu Province, China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

Advertisement

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) has awarded China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) a US$1.3-billion contract to build rail cars for Chicago in the United States



CRRC, the world's biggest train maker by revenue, will be building 846 railcars through its subsidiary, CSR Sifang America JV.



Like Us on Facebook

Advertisement

In a statement posted on hits website, the CTA said CRRC's subsidiary won the contract after it submitted the lowest bid.



"This rail car purchase - the largest in CTA history - will give the CTA one of the newest fleets in the United States and provide our customers with state-of-the-art trains providing comfortable, reliable rides," said CTA president Dorval Carter Jr.



With the US$1.3-billion contract, the CRRC will build a new rail car assembly facility in Chicago. The facility is expected to provide 170 jobs for Chicago residents.



"The announcement is the culmination of nearly two years of collaboration with Mayor (Rahm) Emanuel to bring rail car manufacturing back to Chicago where it belongs," said Chicago Federation of Labor president Jorge Ramirez, who was among those praising the deal with CRRC.



The said factory, the first of its kind in Chicago in 35 years, is expected to produce its first cars in 2020.



The 846 new rail cars that the CRRC will build for Chicago will replace the old ones currently used.



Chicago operates eight subway lines with a length of 170 kilometers. Chicago has the second biggest public transport system in the United States, according to the official Xinhua news agency.



The deal is China's second in the US, following the one China CNR Corp. won in October 2014 worth USD$567 million to supply trains for Boston's subway system.



Advertisement

TagsChicago Train, Chicago Transit Authority, CRRC, China Train
Tri County Public Schools is closed Thursday due to a virus that caused 57 students and eight staff members to stay home or go home sick on Wednesday.

In assessing the situation at the school on Wednesday, a nurse from Public Health Solutions and the school nurse suspect Norovirus to be the culprit.

You and I would call it the flu because you are nauseated and you have diarrhea, said Tri County Public Schools Superintendent Randy Schlueter.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Norovirus is a very contagious virus that can spread through infected people, contaminated food and water or by touching contaminated surfaces. The virus causes stomach or intestinal inflammation, leading to stomach pain, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting.

Schlueter said some students were ill on Friday of last week and on Monday and Tuesday of this week, but Wednesday saw a big spike in absences.

We started the morning with approximately 30 students absent before the day began, which raises your level of concern right away, Schlueter said.

The school had its usual 10 a.m. late start on Wednesday.

At that point, we had a couple of staff members who called in ill. As the day progressed, we had more and more, Schlueter said.

A total of 47 elementary students, 10 high school students and eight staff members on Wednesday were either absent or went home sick due to symptoms that match those of Norovirus.

Schlueter and his team decided to cancel school on Thursday in order to disinfect the building, to keep the virus from spreading and because the district does not have enough substitutes for the amount of staff expected to be out ill, he said.

The eight staff members out ill on Wednesday were all paraeducators  five in the elementary school and three in the high school, Schlueter said.

We have eight (additional) staff members in the elementary we felt would not be here tomorrow and four high school staff members who would potentially not be here due to either themselves or their children being sick, Schlueter said. Thats 20 adults youre trying to find substitutes for and thats an impossible task.

The district had not yet decided on Wednesday evening whether to close school on Friday.

Well have to wait until (Thursday), Schlueter said. Ill meet with my administration team. We wont have hard numbers, just predictions and whatever data we get on students and staff.

The custodial team started disinfecting the school on Wednesday once the building was cleared and will continue to do so all of Thursday, focusing extra attention on high contact areas, such as bathrooms, door handles, desks, computers, lockers and cafeteria tables, Schlueter said.

No antibiotics are available for those affected with Norovirus.

Once the symptoms are gone, this particular virus needs 24 to 48 hours before the person is not contagious, Schlueter said.

A brief letter announcing and explaining the school closure was sent home with students on Wednesday. Schlueter said he also sent out emergency phone calls and emails and posted information on the school website.

The district isnt sure where the illness began. The elementary area has a separate entrance from the junior and senior high areas of the school, but all classrooms and facilities are under one roof.

Schools are required to report such outbreaks to the Nebraska Department of Education, with which the nurse from Public Health Solutions communicates.

According to the CDC, Norovirus is the most common cause of acute gastroenteritis in the United States. Each year, it causes 19 million to 21 million illnesses and contributes to 56,000 to 71,000 hospitalizations and 570 to 800 deaths. Norovirus is also the most common cause of foodborne-disease outbreaks in the United States.
(Photo : Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images) Lou Jiwei, China's finance minister, speaks during a news conference on the sidelines of the fourth session of the 12th National People's Congress (NPC) on March 7, 2016 in Beijing,

Advertisement

China's economy has found itself in the eye of the storm, as its prospects for global expansion have reportedly become dim.



As the country's domestic markets continues to experience severe fluctuations, naysayers have been quick to identify possible reasons for this worrisome development: local credit splurge, overcapacity, factory activity contraction, foreign trade dive, and money outflow.



Like Us on Facebook

Advertisement

However, it is worthy to note that although the Chinese economy has been under the microscope for its perceived underperformance, no economic crash has happened, as the nation has continued to pursue its development agenda, albeit at a slower pace.



By and large, critics just can not seem to avoid glossing over China's so-called economic slowdown, as the nation's economy was once considered as the bellwether for global growth.



But all of these negative perceptions will have to be carefully considered, as China's legislature is set to craft a five-year plan for the nation's social and economic development.



The plan will surely get a much-needed boost from the country's top leaders who have remained optimistic that the economic hiccups China is experiencing will soon come to pass.



In his government work report given last Saturday, Premier Li Keqiang described China's economy as flexible and resilient.



Li pointed out that the country has huge foreign exchange reserves, a low budget deficit, and holds huge potential of urbanization.



For his part, China's Finance Minister Lou Jiwei voiced confidence that the country has "enough policy tools and huge space for reform" to sustain the nation's medium-high expansion and achieve over 6.5 percent growth this year.



To achieve these goals, China must be able to make use of the tools at its disposal to boost its economy and overcome challenges to growth.



This will help overcome the biased view of skeptics who believe that China is not capable of addressing the purported economic malaise which has gripped the nation.



For instance, there were speculations that the anti-corruption drive launched by President Xi Jinping three years ago would undermine economic growth as there was a belief that the secret to doing business in China was implementing "preferential policies."



By carrying out this measure, the Xi government will be able to demonstrate its strong and earnest desire to stamp out corruption in the bureaucracy, clearly define the roles of the market and the government, and sustain the growth of China's economy.



Advertisement

Tagschina, China economy, Chinese Economy
(Photo : Paul Walsh/Flickr/CC) Franklin Graham (left) pictured with his father, Billy Graham (right). Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Russian Orthodox Church are holding an international summit to pray for persecuted Christians in Moscow.

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is hosting an international summit on religious persecution in Moscow in collaboration with the Russian Orthodox Church. The summit, called 'The World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians,' will be taking place from October 28-30, 2016.

Franklin Graham announced on his Facebook page on Wednesday morning that 'The World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians' is called in view of rapidly increasing persecution of Christians around the world in recent years, as also documented by last year's study on persecution by Open Doors, which found that 2015 was the worst year of Christian persecution.

Graham met the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, in Moscow last October, and explained why Russia was chosen as a host for the summit.

"No church in modern history has suffered more than the church in Russia. In the years under Communist rule, virtually all of the priests, pastors, and church leaders in Russia were imprisoned or executed by the Communists, and their graves are on the outskirts of Moscow and throughout the country serving as a reminder. So Moscow will be a fitting and meaningful location for this much-needed summit," he said.

The summit is expected to be held towards the end of this year, when delegates from around the world from different denominations will come together to pray for persecuted Christians.

Patriarch Kirill said in an interview to RT, "I strongly believe that we should work together in order to save our society from de-Christianization-because, facing increasing atheistic pressure, which has become quite aggressive in some countries, Christians are being squeezed out of public life."

"Christians are under pressure. Specifically, attempts are made to limit religious manifestations in public space. All this indicates that we are dealing with a dangerous, critical situation here, as regards Christian reality, Christian presence," he continued.

Most of the recent persecution was driven by Islamic extremism and authoritarianism in Middle Eastern and African countries, which perpetrated imprisonments, beheadings, and forced evacuations.

A report by Open Doors said that an estimated 7,000 Christians died for their faith in 2015, which is double the number of killings and executions from the year before. According to the report, the countries which registered the sharpest surge in persecution were Eritrea, Pakistan, and Nigeria.

    press@cdaily.co.kr



- Copyright ,    

#
Georgetown blasted for Planned Parenthood president invite; church leader calls students 'self-centered' 10 March, 2016 by Gregory Tomlin , |

WASHINGTON (Christian Examiner)  The archdiocese of Washington has issued a scathing rebuke of Georgetown University for inviting Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards to speak at the campus.

Richards, at the center of national controversy over the abortion provider's reported sale of aborted fetal body parts, was invited by The Lecture Fund, a campus organization which hosts politicians, actors, scientists, and religious leaders  many of them controversial. The Lecture Fund is operated exclusively by students.

Richards will speak to the group in April, but according to the announcement from The Lecture Fund, the event is "not open to the public and only those with a Georgetown University ID will be allowed to attend."

The apparent unawareness of those pushing the violence of abortion and the denigration of human dignity that there are other human values and issues being challenged in the world lends credence to the perception of the 'ivory tower' life of some on campus. This unfortunately does not speak well for the future.

In the statement from the archdiocese, which was not signed directly by Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the church did not claim the students had no right to invite whatever speaker they wished. "Student autonomy," the statement said, "is not our issue here."

"What we lament and find sadly lacking in this choice by the student group is any reflection of what should be an environment of morality, ethics and human decency that one expects on a campus that asserts its Jesuit and Catholic history and identity," the statement said.

"One would prefer to see some recognition by this student group of the lives and ministry, focus and values of people like Blessed Oscar Romero, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta and Pope Francis in place of that group's seemingly constant preoccupation with sexual activity, contraception and abortion."

The statement also claimed that, while the church is prepared to dialogue with students, faculty and administrators on important issues, the university appeared to have forgotten the benefits of Catholic morality.

"The apparent unawareness of those pushing the violence of abortion and the denigration of human dignity that there are other human values and issues being challenged in the world lends credence to the perception of the 'ivory tower' life of some on campus. This unfortunately does not speak well for the future," the statement said.

The archdiocese also chided the "this generation of Georgetown graduates" for being self-centered and failing to fight for the most vulnerable in society. Instead, it said, the students should consider inviting a speaker who could address the rising tide of persecution against Christians worldwide.

"It would be beneficial for these Georgetown University students to learn more about these serious problems in the world. The contribution to a better world today can take inspiration from the Gospel and its proponents such as Pope Francis and from the Jubilee Year of Mercy rather than from the organized efforts to facilitate the violent destruction of unborn children," the statement said.
Christ as a 'loser' billboard mocks front runner Trump 10 March, 2016 by Gregory Tomlin , |

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (Christian Examiner)  A church billboard 8,000 miles away from the United States hits close to home for Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.

The billboard, sponsored by St. Luke's Presbyterian in the Auckland suburb of Remuera, mocks the New York billionaire for his claim that he hates "losers."

Jesus was killed  violently, publicly and shamefully  because he spoke truth to power and confronted the leaders of his day about their treatment of the outcasts. ... I hope that voters in the US will see Trump's message for what it is, and not make him a nominee for their highest office.

The cartoon on the billboard shows Jesus Christ nailed to a cross and the golden-haired Trump holding the hammer. The comment bubble above Trump's head features the phrase, "I don't like losers."

Glynn Cardy, pastor of the church, has a history of posting provocative billboards. He said he is mocking Trump because of the contradiction between his claim to be a Christian and his position on immigrants, Muslims and women. Cardy said Jesus was considered a "loser" by "the Trumps of his day."

"To the Trumps of his day, and to those who see winners as having money and power, the Jesus of the Bible was a loser who associated with those rejected by society. And he died broke," Cardy said.

"Jesus had an alternative vision of reality, however. He was a person who sided with minorities and those who were most vulnerable, and it was this that got him killed," the pastor said.

Cardy, offering a progressive version of theology, said St. Luke's is a politically active church because "the cross is about politics."

"Jesus was killed  violently, publicly and shamefully  because he spoke truth to power and confronted the leaders of his day about their treatment of the outcasts," he said. "I hope that voters in the US will see Trump's message for what it is, and not make him a nominee for their highest office."

Cardy said the billboard will remain up through the Lenten and Easter Season, but he hoped it could be removed once American voters decide against Trump. He may have to wait awhile. Even though Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has gained traction against Trump, he remains atop most national polls.

Cardy is well-known in Auckland for his provocative church billboards. As newshub reports, while serving at a different Auckland church, he posted a billboard of the Virgin Mary looking gobsmacked over a positive pregnancy test.
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is hosting an international summit on religious persecution in Moscow in collaboration with the Russian Orthodox Church. The summit, called 'The World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians,' will be taking place from October 28-30, 2016.

Franklin Graham announced on his Facebook page on Wednesday morning that 'The World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians' is called in view of rapidly increasing persecution of Christians around the world in recent years, as also documented by last year's study on persecution by Open Doors, which found that 2015 was the worst year of Christian persecution.

Graham met the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, in Moscow last October, and explained why Russia was chosen as a host for the summit.

"No church in modern history has suffered more than the church in Russia. In the years under Communist rule, virtually all of the priests, pastors, and church leaders in Russia were imprisoned or executed by the Communists, and their graves are on the outskirts of Moscow and throughout the country serving as a reminder. So Moscow will be a fitting and meaningful location for this much-needed summit," he said.

The summit is expected to be held towards the end of this year, when delegates from around the world from different denominations will come together to pray for persecuted Christians.

Patriarch Kirill said in an interview to RT, "I strongly believe that we should work together in order to save our society from de-Christianization-because, facing increasing atheistic pressure, which has become quite aggressive in some countries, Christians are being squeezed out of public life."

"Christians are under pressure. Specifically, attempts are made to limit religious manifestations in public space. All this indicates that we are dealing with a dangerous, critical situation here, as regards Christian reality, Christian presence," he continued.

Most of the recent persecution was driven by Islamic extremism and authoritarianism in Middle Eastern and African countries, which perpetrated imprisonments, beheadings, and forced evacuations.

A report by Open Doors said that an estimated 7,000 Christians died for their faith in 2015, which is double the number of killings and executions from the year before. According to the report, the countries which registered the sharpest surge in persecution were Eritrea, Pakistan, and Nigeria.
RALEIGH The topsy-turvy campaign of 2016 is going to do wonders for many journalists, political practitioners, and scholars. They will produce a steady stream of essays, studies, books, and business plans designed to explain what happened, why others failed to predict it ahead of time, and how their insights can be used to predict or shape future elections.Their work will get a lot of attention. Each widely read argument will provoke a counterargument. Magazines and books will sell. Shows will draw audiences. Candidates, activists, consultants, and donors will mix and match into new political organizations. By then, the next set of elections will present themselves - and start the process all over again, probably by invalidating whatever hard-and-fast "rules" are gleaned from 2016.See what I did there? I issued a prediction of my own about how people will talk about and react to the lack of success in predicting past political outcomes. I think I'll be proven right. Isn't that what we always think?Whomever you're backing for president this year, I think you'll agree with me that many predictions, issued by careful analysts using the best-available information, have turned out to be mistaken. In some cases, candidates who trailed in the polls just before Election Day have actually triumphed, such as Ted Cruz in Kansas and Bernie Sanders in Michigan. In many other cases - think of Cruz in Louisiana, Marco Rubio in Virginia, and Sanders in Iowa - a challenger has dramatically closed the difference with the frontrunner at the end, producing delegate counts so close that "winning the state" didn't end up meaning much.Although some pollsters have better track records or sounder methodologies than others, even the best ones produce bad samples and poor predictions at least some of the time. The truth is, elections are complex events with lots of moving parts. Predicting them is inherently difficult, particularly when the election in question is a primary or caucus featuring multiple candidates, sparse polling, and lots of undecided voters.If elections are hard to predict, just imagine how hard it is to make accurate predictions about systems that are even more complicated, such as an economy. There is no single "election day" or "early voting period" when it comes to the continuous votes that consumers, workers, investors, and entrepreneurs cast virtually every waking hour of every day.The broader the scale, the less predictable these economic elections will be. Centuries ago, when most production and exchange occurred within small communities, the potential for surprising outcomes was lower. In today's regional, national, and international economies, all bets are off - and some bets turn out to be way, way off.Products get hot, then are not. People choose occupations, then change them. Companies seem to be at the top of their game, then suddenly collapse due to changes in leadership, technology, or consumer preferences.To say that predictions are often wrong is not to say that prediction is pointless. As a matter of fact, it is inevitable. Unless we have at least some sense of where things may be going, we can't act. Planning for the future is a basic, inescapable task. So is adjusting your plan as the facts change.The larger problem comes when a small number of "experts" gain the power to make predictions and issue plans on behalf of everyone else. These experts don't necessarily understand the system they purport to manage any better than the rest of us do. More to the point, they can't possibly possess all or even most of the relevant information, as it is widely dispersed among a population where individual preferences, predictions, and plans keep changing. It's what the economist Friedrich Hayek called "the fatal conceit" - the hubris that leads to disaster in centrally planned economies. This insight leads me to favor smaller government and greater individual freedom, here in North Carolina and beyond.By the way, I know some readers expected from the start of this column that I'd make a political point by the end of it. Congratulations - you predicted well.
It's been a long, rocky road to the big screen for The Young Messiah, but at last, it's here.

The film is based on a 2005 novel called Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, which takes place when Jesus is seven years old and his family is returning to Nazareth from Egypt. It was written by Anne Ricebest known for her vampire novelsafter she returned to the Catholic church. An early attempt to make a film based on the novel fell apart in 2007, and Rice herself publicly quit Christianity in 2010, though she said she still follows Christ.

The books film prospects turned a corner when Rice wrote a glowing review of The Stoning of Soraya M., a 2009 movie about the treatment of women in Iran that was directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh, an American of Persian descent. Nowrasteh acquired the rights to Rices book, wrote a script with his wife Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh, and got Harry Potter director Chris Columbus to come on board as a producer. The film comes out March 11.

CT spoke to Cyrus Nowrasteh about creating new characters for the film, the tricky nature of movie ratings, the role the film played in his own journey towards Christian faith, and the possibility of a sequel. The interview below has been edited for length and clarity.

How involved was Anne Rice beyond letting you have the rights to the property? Did she have any input after that?

Contractually, no. We acquired the book and ran with it, and we were going to do it the way we wanted. However, we felt that Anne had a lot to contribute, because she had done a lot of the research. Also, we wanted to make changes, and I just felt that, as the original author, she was entitled to be at least consulted and informed. I would do that with any author, whether ...

1
Editors note: Earlier this year, David Vanderpool, a Christian doctor who lives and works in Haiti, told NPRs All Things Considered he believes birth control and vaccinesnot abortionwill be the best responses to the spread of Zika. The mosquito-borne virus appears linked to birth defects, so some countries have recommended women delay pregnancy for up to two years. The Zika outbreak has drawn attention to efforts to improve birth control accessespecially in areas where vulnerable women are forced into sex.  Kate Shellnutt, CT associate editor

Our hospital, located along a rough dusty street on the outskirts of Thomazeau, Haiti, serves as the only source of medical care for the 150,000 impoverished residents of this area. The combination of chronic malnutrition fostered by a three-year-old draught, endemic malaria, and the new threat of the Zika virus, drives thousands of the starving sick to our doorstep each week. One such frequent visitor, though, comes for a different reason.

Magdalene lives in a 20-year-old womans body with a 4-year-olds mind. Emotionally and mentally challenged, she drifts along the fringes of Haitian culture sleeping on porches and eating what she can find. Without family or emotional boundaries to protect her, she is constantly harassed and raped by the men of the village.

Having lost count of the forced births she has endured, Magdalene comes to our door knowing she is welcome to sleep in the quiet refuge of our hospital, enjoy a nutritious meal, and get a warm bath. Recently, as our nurses helped bathe her and get her new clothes, they noticed the telltale swelling of a pregnant belly.

Magdalene, like many women in the developing world, has little ...

1
Several faith leaders were asked to write brief comments about the future of Roe. I was glad to see that I was not the only person asked who sees life as beginning at conception and who is ready to see Roe overturned.
Update (Mar. 17): Secretary of State John Kerry has declared that ISIS is committing genocide against Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities in the Middle East.

Speaking from the State Department on Thursday morning, the day of the deadline for his decision, Kerry said:

My purpose in appearing before you to today is to assert that, in my judgment, Daesh [ISIS] is responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control, including Yazidis, Christians, and Shia Muslims. [ISIS] is genocidal by self-proclamation, by ideology, and by actionsin what it says, what it believes, and what it does. Daesh is also responsible for crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing directed at these same groups, and in some cases also against Sunni Muslims, Kurds, and other minorities.

He cited the examples of ISIS killing Christians in Mosul and Qaraqosh solely because of their faith, as well as forcing Christian and Yazidi women into sexual slavery.

We know ...

1
New 911 Documents Show Injured Patient Carried Out of Ohio Abortion Facility After Botched Late-term Abortion New documentation adds urgency to calls for Gov. Kasich to order a new investigation of Preterm



Contact: Troy Newman , President, 316-841-1700; Cheryl Sullenger, Senior Vice President, 316-516-3034, both with Operation Rescue, info.operationrescue@gmail.com



CLEVELAND, Ohio, March 10, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- Just hours after a coalition of Pro-Life leaders issued a press release announcing the filing of a major complaint against a Cleveland abortion facility, Preterm, the Cleveland Public Records Administrator finally released the 911 Computer Aided Dispatch transcripts from a late-term abortion medical emergency that took place on February 13, 2016.



However, the records, which the city took nearly a month to produce, were so heavily redacted that little could be gleaned from them. Yet, some useful information managed to slip through the censors.



"Over the course of the past few years, I have obtained numerous CAD transcripts from the City of Cleveland involving abortion-related medical emergencies. They were always supplied within days and were never redacted until now," said Cheryl Sullenger, Senior Vice President of Operation Rescue. "No laws have changed, so there is no reason for the sudden change in redaction policy - unless it is to cover up wrongdoing at Cleveland area abortion facilities."



Initially the call was classified as "21-D-1," which means the patient was hemorrhaging, unconscious or in arrest, and required Advanced Life Support assistance. That designation was later changed, but information about the patient's condition was so heavily redacted, the new designation could not be determined.



The records show that a 23-year old female weighing 220 pounds had to be carried out of Preterm to the awaiting ambulance where she was transported to the Cleveland Clinic for emergency care.



At least two members of the Cleveland Fire Department assisted EMS paramedics in carrying the patient, presumably down two flights of stairs at the rear of the building from the third-floor procedure rooms.



A frequently broken elevator, which is the only gurney access to the third floor abortion rooms, does not appear to have been used since the elevator cannot be accessed from the rear stairwell.



This conclusion is based on eyewitness accounts, video footage, the audio file of the 911 call, newly obtained written transcripts, and a floor plan of the building that houses Preterm.



The woman was loaded onto a gurney, covered tightly about the head with a blanket, and wheeled lying completely flat to the ambulance for transport.



Operation Rescue has documented through public records and leaked Ohio Department of Health investigatory files that the malfunctioning elevator was responsible for delay in emergency medical treatment for two other patients.



Lakisha Wilson died after emergency responders were delayed in reaching her due to an elevator malfunction on March 21, 2014. Another woman, who weighed approximately 300 pounds and was seriously hemorrhaging after her March 31, 2012, abortion had to also be carried down the stairs with the aid of additional emergency personnel due to the disabled elevator.



This new information adds urgency to the calls of pro-life leaders for Gov. John Kasich to order a new investigation of patient care practices and facility safety at Preterm.



"What more will it take to get Gov. Kasich's attention? Right now Kasich is crisscrossing Ohio in full campaign mode. I suggest he makes it a priority to stop in at Preterm to check out the conditions of the supposed medical facility which are, from eyewitness accounts, atrocious. And all this has happened on his watch," said Molly Smith, President of Cleveland Right to Life Education, Inc., who joined 11 other pro-life leaders in calling for a new investigation of Preterm in light of 11 documented patient injuries, including the death of Lakisha Wilson in 2014.



Please call Gov. John Kasich and request that he order the Ohio Department of Health to conduct a thorough investigation into Preterm that this time takes into consideration the long pattern of patient injuries and unsuitable facility conditions that are endangering the lives of women.



Contact Gov. John Kaisch

Phone: 614-466-3555

E-mail web form: www.governor.ohio.gov/Contact/ContacttheGovernor.aspx



View Supporting Documents



Operation Rescue is one of the leading pro-life Christian activist organizations in the nation and has become a strong voice for the pro-life movement in America. Click here to support Operation Rescue.

Share Tweet
26th Annual Worldwide Weekend of Prayer for the Addicted Contact: Steven L. Sherman, Just Pray NO!, 727-647-6467, justprayno@aol.com



CLEARWATER, Fla., March 10, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- The weekend of April 2 - 3, 2016 has been designated as the 26th Annual "Just Pray NO!" to drugs Worldwide Weekend of Prayer and Fasting. Since April 7th, 1991 "Just Pray NO!" has united Christians from around the world in intercessory prayer on behalf of the addicted and their families.



"Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." James 5:16



Not only is substance abuse America's number one health problem, the devastation of alcoholism and other drug addiction has impacted families and communities worldwide. Substance abuse has been directly linked to violence and sexual immorality and is a major source of income for organized crime and terrorist activities.



"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:12



Make a formal commitment to join with believers in Christ from around the globe this coming April. Put on the full armor of God and fervently pray in spirit and in truth. We are seeking to enlist millions of prayer warriors from around the world to join us in battle!



We are not only praying for the release of those bound by substance abuse but also for people to be delivered from pornography, gambling, obesity and smoking. We are seeking individuals and groups which are willing to commit to pray weekly on behalf of the addicted and their families, and then join with multitudes of other committed Christians from around the world in prayer and fasting during weekend of April 2 - 3, 2016.



If you believe that God is calling you to intercede for the addicted please contact us. To find help for addiction through prayer and Christian ministries log on to our web site: justprayno.org. To learn how groups can participate in our annual prayer event, click on "Information on the Annual Worldwide Weekend of Prayer" or email: justprayno@aol.com.



For a personal interview with "Just Pray NO!" Founder and Author Steven L. Sherman, in the U.S.A. call: (727) 647-6467 or email: justprayno@aol.com.

Share Tweet
Millions Being Exposed to Divine Mercy as 'Divine Mercy Matters' Miniseries Goes Viral Summary

The Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception has teamed up with an independent Hollywood producer to create Divine Mercy Matters, a 14-part miniseries launched last month across all media platforms. The series covers a variety of topics, including the life of St. Faustina, the essential elements of the Divine Mercy devotion (feast, image, novena, chaplet, and hour of mercy), and the tremendous promises given by God to those who ask for His mercy. Please go to divinemercymatters.org to view the episodes, sign up for webinars, and access other resources on living the Divine Mercy message and devotion.



www.DivineMercyMatters.org



Contact: Peter Markavage, Association of Marian Helpers, 413-298-1303, pmarkavage@marian.org



STOCKBRIDGE, Mass., March 10, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- Initiating a bold outreach for the New Evangelization in the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, the Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception has teamed up with Oscar Delgado, an independent Hollywood producer, to create Divine Mercy Matters, a 14-part miniseries launched three weeks ago across all media platforms. It has blown apart expectations for viewership.



"Millions are being exposed to this incredible Divine Mercy Matter miniseries moving hearts and minds" said Producer Oscar Delgado. "It is a sign for our times the amount of interest being generated."



Father Chris Alar, MIC, the director of the Association of Marian Helpers and host of the Divine Mercy series, said: "We are throwing open our archives in order to bring to the Church and the world the very best teaching about the Divine Mercy message and devotion as given through St. Faustina Kowalska, the Secretary of Divine Mercy. As Pope Francis has said repeatedly, now is the time for mercy, and the legacy of St. Faustina is a providential gift for this moment of mercy."



The series covers a variety of topics, including the life of St. Faustina, the essential elements of the Divine Mercy devotion (feast, image, novena, chaplet, and hour of mercy), and the tremendous promises given by God to those who ask for His mercy.



Please go to divinemercymatters.org to view the episodes, sign up for webinars, and access other resources on living Divine Mercy.



Part of the legacy of St. Faustina is the revelation of how deeply necessary Divine Mercy is for the Church and the world today. Jesus told St. Faustina, "Souls perish in spite of My bitter Passion. I am giving them the last hope of salvation, that is, the Feast of My Mercy. If they will not adore My mercy, they will perish for all eternity. Secretary of My mercy, write, tell all souls about this great mercy of mine, because the awful day, the day of My justice is near."



Jesus told Faustina that she was to spread this message of mercy to the whole world as His messenger of mercy. He also seemed to refer to St. John Paul II and Divine Mercy when He revealed to St. Faustina, "From her [Poland] will come forth the spark that will prepare the world for My final coming."



That spark has ignited what some have called the greatest grassroots movement in the history of the Church, with ordinary Catholics helping to spread Divine Mercy across the world. The Marian Fathers have been one of the main sources of publications and resources for that movement since its inception. Divine Mercy Matters continues that tradition of sharing the Divine Mercy with the world.



The 14 episodes of the Divine Mercy Matters miniseries draws upon the teachings of some of the greatest experts on Divine Mercy, including Fr. Seraphim Michalenko, MIC, vice-postulator emeritus for the cause of canonization of St. Faustina Kowalska.



After the Vatican permitted the spread of the message and devotion in 1978, Fr. Seraphim successfully smuggled a copy of the manuscript of the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul out of Communist Poland, thus enabling it to be published and spread across the world. He was present for St. Faustina's approved beatification miracle, and successfully documented both the beatification and the canonization miracles attributed to the intercession of St. Faustina, helping make her the first saint canonized in the new millennium.



"The Divine Mercy message is in the DNA of our congregation," said the Very Rev. Fr. Kazimierz Chwalek, MIC, the Marians' provincial superior for the United States and Argentina. Before he'd even become a Marian, a young Kazimierz Chwalek assisted with the initial translation and publication of the Diary of St. Faustina. "It is critical in this time to amplify the Holy Father's message of mercy."



Former NBC News Senior War Coverage Producer Oscar Delgado, a Marian Helper for nearly 20 years, said, "Jesus repeatedly warns us when he said, 'Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My mercy.'" The purpose of this initiative, said Delgado, is to help the world turn to Divine Mercy and thereby bring about peace.



If you would like to schedule an interview with Fr. Chris or Fr. Kaz, please contact Peter Markavage at (413) 298-1303.



Who we are

The Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception have been promoters of the authentic Divine Mercy message and devotion since 1941. Their apostolic center is located at the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. In 1993, Pope John Paul II gave the Marian Congregation a special mandate: "Be Apostles of Divine Mercy under the maternal and loving guidance of Mary."



Contact

Peter Markavage

Association of Marian Helpers

Stockbridge, Massachusetts

(413) 298-1303

pmarkavage@marian.org

Share Tweet
UNC excavation crew in Galilee region of Israel uncover first known depictions of biblical heroines An excavation team in Israel has discovered the first known depiction of two biblical heroines from the Old Testament.

World to reach 8 billion people in November, India to unseat China as most populous in 2023: UN By Nov. 15, the worlds population is projected to reach 8 billion, and by 2023, India is projected to surpass China as the worlds most populous country, according to a new report from the United Nations.

Single, non-religious young adults are most unhappy Americans post-COVID-19: report Young adults under 35 who are single and non-religious report the highest levels of unhappiness since the COVID-19 pandemic began and since 1972, when the General Social Survey began measuring levels of happiness among Americans, a new analysis from the Institute of Family Studies suggests.
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.
BBC focus on Amenian church destroyed by Islamic State

Its architecture speaks of Christian history going back many centuries.

The church, in Aleppo, Syria, was built to commemorate those martyred in the 1915 Armenian genocide. It contained a shrine made of the bones of some of the slaughtered. The church was only consecrated in 1991.

Just 23 years later, in 2014, it was blown up by Islamic State.

Now it features on the BBC's Museum of Lost Objects series that traces stories of sites looted or destroyed in Iraq and Syria.

British-Armenian writer Nouritza Matossian, whose family was caught up in the persecution of the Armenians, told the BBC how she felt on seeing the desert shrine for the first time when she visited the church in 2001.

"I was so shocked. I just stood and looked at the bones. Everybody was hushed, it was silent in there. We were all lost in our thoughts. It was really quite an isolated moment. It wasn't pulling at you to cry or weep. It was just very simple and dignified and noble."

She said her people had been driven across the deserts starving, without water, stripped naked, their clothes torn off their backs.

Heghnar Watenpaugh, Lebanese-Armenian historian at the University of California, said: "Deir al-Zour was the end of the road, it was the last Ottoman outpost into the desert in the eastern part of Syria. Beyond that there's really nothing, no settlements. Very few people made it there, and once they made it they were killed outright, or just succumbed to disease and starvation."

Turkey has always denied that the massacre of the Armenians was genocide.

Matossian was shocked that it had been destroyed so soon in its life.

"It's a very dark moment in our life, in our history. I never thought this could be repeated," she said.

She still owns a small box containing a tiny cross she bought at the shrine.

"The priest told me that that is the earth of Deir al-Zour. Some people take earth from where they're born and they spread it on their grave when they die. This soil has that significance. I always keep this box within eyesight, on my desk. I never expected that one day I would be looking at this box and that church would be gone, destroyed. It's very hard to accept."
Burned at the stake, racked and drowned: Why did everyone hate the Anabaptists?

The Anabaptist Balthasar Hubmaier died today in 1528, burned at the stake in Vienna for his views on baptism. Three days later his wife was thrown into the Danube with a stone tied around her neck to drown.

Those were particularly brutal times, to be sure. The early continental Reformers  people like Martin Luther, John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli  were breaking free from what they believed were the Roman Catholic Church's unscriptural additions to the Church's teaching and its widespread corruption. Their teachings had sparked off not just theological turmoil but political too; there were revolts against feudal oppression like the German Peasants' War of 1525 and political rulers took sides for and against the Reformation.

One thing everyone had in common, though, was that they hated the Anabaptists. But why?

Their name comes from two Greek words meaning 're-baptism' and key to their theology is the belief that the Church is to be made up of people who have chosen to be disciples of Christ, rather than those who are born in a particular country or grow up in a particular family. Baptism is the rite of initiation into the Church and everyone was baptized when they were a baby. For Anabaptists, that rite was meaningless. They didn't baptize babies and they would 're-baptize' those who had already been baptized as infants.

Some of them were pacifists, whose spiritual descendents are the Amish and the Mennonites. They refused to take any part in government, including serving as magistrates. Others  including Balthasar Hubmaier  were more open to believers taking part in warfare in a just cause if ordered by the state.

They suffered a crushing blow to their reputation with the terrible events of the Munster Rebellion of 1534-35. A group of radical Anabaptists under Jan Matthys and Jan Bockelson, also called Jan of Leiden, took control of the city in Westphalia. However, the city was besieged by its exiled Catholic bishop, Franz von Waldeck. Believing himself to be a new Gideon, Matthys led a sortie against him with only 30 followers; they were cut off and all killed. Matthys' head was placed on a pole and his genitals nailed to the city gate.

Jan of Leiden's behaviour became increasingly bizarre. He proclaimed himself the new King David and took 16 wives; he is said to have beheaded one woman for refusing to marry him.

The siege ended with the storming of the city and the massacre of its inhabitants. Both Protestant and Catholic leaders had turned against the Anabaptists, and Munster marked their end as a mass movement.

But Hubmaier died before Munster. Seeking safety in Zurich, he was tortured by Zwingli's men into renouncing his Anabaptist views, though he later recanted and wrote: "I may err  I am a man  but a heretic I cannot be, because I ask constantly for instruction in the word of God... O God, pardon me my weakness." While some Anabaptists were radical revolutionaries, others were saintly people who didn't believe in violence. But they were persecuted by Roman Catholics and Protestants who both resorted to torture and execution to curb their growth.

The Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand, was particularly vigorous; he unleashed a wave of burnings and drownings (drowning was the "third baptism" and "the best antidote to Anabaptism", he thought). In England, the Tudors persecuted Anabaptists too.

So why were they feared and hated so much? Granted that some of them, like Jan of Leiden and Jan Matthys, seem to have had seriously questionable characters, still: all they wanted to do was go back to the Bible. Their understanding of baptism is one that's shared not just by Baptist churches in the historic tradition but by growing evangelical and charismatic churches all over the world.

But it's this understanding that's so very radical. In those days, when Europe's identity was totally Christian, infant baptism was the way in which someone became part of the community. It made you a Christian, and it made you a citizen too; and the two things were very much the same.

When the Anabaptists denied that, they were striking at the roots of Europe's civilization. They were saying that the state had no authority over the Church and that the Church was made up of believers, not of citizens. They were declaring their loyalty to Christ first, just as in the early days of the Church believers had been forced to choose between Christ and Caesar. They were saying their first loyalty was to him, not to their prince or their governor.

It's this that both the Protestants and Catholics found so unacceptable and that led to such terrible persecution.

Churches that practise believers' baptism today can fail to appreciate the significance of what they do. It's seen as a testimony, or simply as obeying the Lord's command, and of course it's both those things. But baptism is also the rite of initiation into the Church. Believers' baptism says something about what we believe the Church really is; and while Christians today might peacefully disagree about this, we ought to remember that it was once important enough to die for.

Follow Mark Woods on Twitter: @RevMarkWoods
CeeLo Green says 'God is a woman', but is it the feminist statement we think?

"God is a woman, although this idea's untraditional, I think God is a woman making each one of her children original. I stare at the sky until the stars start to fall; if there's a God at all, it's a woman," CeeLo Green sings in his latest track, appropriately titled 'God is a woman'.

Released to coincide with International Woman's Day on March 8, Green  who shot to fame in 2006 when his collaboration with Danger Mouse, Gnarls Barkley's 'Crazy', topped the charts around the world  posted the song to his SoundCloud. A caption reads: "A song of praise to echo forevermore / And always. From my own mothers womb here I stand as a witness that.. / GOD IS A WOMAN."

Other lyrics from the song include: "God's still a woman. She has made everything including history, so exalt her high above you, beyond the brightest star."

Honoring The Women In My Life And Yours. I love & Appreciate You All! #InternationalWomensDay #GodIsAWoman pic.twitter.com/UlGqMYtIwW  CeeLo Green (@CeeLoGreen) March 9, 2016

Raised a Baptist in Atlanta  his parents were ordained ministers  Green first began singing in church as a boy. He's spoken publicly about religion a number of times, though he's clearly moved away from the conservative Southern Baptist tradition he was raised in. In 2012, he changed a line in John Lennon's 'Imagine' to "and all religion's true", and a year earlier told US Magazine: "I don't have an opinion on people with different religious, sexual or political preferences. I'm one of the most liberal artists that I think you will ever meet, and I pride myself on that."

So what's his latest foray into theology about? Is Green making some grand feminist statement?

It seems unlikely. He's been roundly criticised regarding his attitude to women in the past following some controversial tweets regarding rape and consensual sex.

Green pleaded no contest in August 2014 to supplying ecstasy to a woman. She had claimed that she woke up naked in Green's bed in 2012 following an evening with him at a sushi restaurant the night before, and had no memory of what had happened. Green's lawyer argued that the two had "consensual relations", and no rape charges were filed due to lack of evidence.

Two days after his sentencing (three years probation and 360 hours of community service), Green reportedly posted a number of tweets including one that read: "People who have really been raped REMEMBER!!!"

He also wrote: "When someone brakes on a home there is broken glass where is your plausible proof that anyone was raped," and "If someone is passed out they're not even WITH you consciously, so WITH implies consent."

He later deleted the tweets and apologised, saying they had been "highly irresponsible". "I'd never condone the harm of any women," he added.

The message of Green's latest song might therefore come as a surprise. But he does, at least, highlight an interesting point.

There are countless think pieces discussing whether or not God could be referred to as female. Though it's a practice that has been denounced as heresy by some, others believe it helps us to widen our understanding of God's nature. The Bible explicitly refers to God as both father and mother, and most would agree that God is neither male nor female; using exclusively male pronouns runs the risk of creating God in the image of man, rather than the other way round.

As US blogger Rachel Held Evans writes: "On the very rare occasion that I refer to God as She, I do it with a lot of intentionality and with the goal of reminding myself and my readers that God is not merely some elevated, deified version of ourselves. God is not a man. God is not white. God is not American."

Rev Kate Bottley made a similar point in a Guardian article last year: "God is not a woman. And God is not a man. God is God," she said. "But we can only describe God in the terms we can easily comprehend, comparing God to something we know better."

Theologian Elaine Storkey, co-author of Conversations of Christian Feminism, previously told Christian Today that "God is always bigger than our language, and the Bible itself gives us permission to address God using many metaphors".

In fact, said Storkey, insisting on male-only metaphors "repudiates biblical practice".

"Some of the metaphors are inevitably gendered, but any single one only ever gives us a glimpse of the breadth and majesty of God," she said.
How a revolution that killed 20 million people is still shaping China's view of Christianity

The growth of Chinese Christianity is one of the most remarkable gospel stories of the 20th and 21st centuries.

After the victory of the communists, all foreign missionaries were expelled from the country by 1953 and the future for Christianity looked bleak. However, far from it leading to the demise of the faith there, the freedom from foreign influence may have helped kick-start a massive expansion. In spite of rigorous government oversight and waves of persecution, there are now an estimated 100 million Christians in China. It's even been suggested that 40 per cent of members of the Communist Party are Christians  an astonishing statistic.

Most recently, repression has hit in the form of a campaign against many churches in Zhejiang province. Crosses  as the visible sign of Christianity  have been torn down and churches have been demolished. Pastors have been imprisoned on what appear to be trumped-up charges and lawyers who dare to represent them have also been detained.

The repression is fiercest in Zhejiang for a reason. It's Zhejiang that saw the bloodiest fighting in the worst civil war in history  and one of the armies that fought was 'Christian', in the loosest sense of the word. The memory of the Taiping Rebellion (1850-64) against the ruling Qing dynasty has cast a long shadow over the image of Christianity in China.

The leader of the Taipings was Hung Hsiu-Ch'uan, a clerk who failed his civil service examinations in Canton. He made the acquaintance of a Protestant missionary who taught him the Bible. Back home in his village he was struck by sickness and was in a coma for four days; when he recovered he said he had had a vision in which he was shown he was the younger brother of Jesus and had been taken to meet him in heaven.

He was a street preacher for 10 years, but became unorthodox in his teaching. He denied the divinity of Christ and borrowed many ideas from Confucianism. Hung's sect, the 'God Worshipping Society' was attacked by local officials, touching off a war that was to leave millions dead. Estimates vary, but 20 million is regarded as a minimum, with up to 70 million as an upper figure. Millions more were displaced, the fertile Yangtse valley was turned into a desert and the Qing dynasty was fatally weakened.

Zhejiang saw some of the worst of the fighting. One writer, Wen-hsin Yeh (in Provincial Passages: Culture, Space, and the Origins of Chinese Communism), says that a decade after the uprising, Zhejiang's population was only 40 per cent of what it was before. In the city of Hangzhou the population was reduced from 810,000 to only 50,000. In the hotly-contested area of Xiaofeng, only one in 30 people remained. The death toll was staggering.

The rebellion was brought under control with the help of a British officer, Charles Gordon, seconded to the Imperial forces; 'Chinese Gordon' was to win immortality as Gordon of Khartoum. But the damage to Christianity had been done. As Dyron Daughrity writes in The Changing World of Christianity: "The Chinese people made a link between Christianity and this event. It was the most severe blow to Christianity in Chinese history; the residual effects are incalculable."

The Taiping Rebellion was driven as much by despair at poverty and oppression as by religious fanaticism. However, it planted a deep suspicion of Western religion  which was in any case associated with Western colonialism  in the minds of many Chinese. The increasing influence of foreign powers resulted in a backlash in the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, in which hundreds of missionaries were murdered and thousands of Chinese Christians  and again, Zhejiang was at the heart of the violence. It was put down by foreign military force, foreigners were allowed to station troops in Beijing and China had to pay more than $330 million in reparations (most of which was later remitted). Not long after that, the Qing dynasty fell.

In a Radio 4 interview on Sunday, Martin Palmer, Secretary General of the Alliance of Religions and Conservation and a frequent traveller to China, suggested Zhejiang's long anti-Christian tradition was not representative of the country as a whole.

"The vast majority of Christians aren't being persecuted," he said. "On the whole, they have a fairly easy life."

Palmer noted that China is very aware that the vast majority of palliative care for people with HIV/Aids is done by churches and that most orphanages are run by churches. But, he said: "They know religion can also be deeply dangerous."

Is the current backlash against Christians in Zhejiang a reflection of its historical hostility? Perhaps: but according to China Aid's Bob Fu, the campaign is "absolutely authorised by the central government, most likely approved by President Xi himself. It is already beyond a reasonable doubt."

Fu says the targets this time are official Catholic and Protestant Churches and their "disobedient leaders", not just the more vulnerable underground churches.

"The central ethos is to 'contain the over heated growth of Christianity' in the name of sinosization of Christianity in China so that Christianity would not pose a potential threat to the Chinese Communiist Party's rule like the Taiping or Yellow Lotus did to the dynasties," he says.

He's clear, too, that the crackdown against lawyer Zhang Kai, pastor Gu Yuese and the heavy sentence imposed on pastor Bao Huohua, his wife and son as well as 10 others leaders are "absolutely political revenge due to their work in defending the cross in one way or the other".

With all its astonishing growth, the Church in China is still labouring under the burden of history. It's still seen as dangerous, potentially destabilising and unpatriotic. The state wants to use it, but it wants to control it. It cannot allow freedom of religion, but religion naturally wants to be free. And the Church is being caught up in the huge social changes that are affecting China, with the country's massive industrialisation and huge increases in personal wealth.

Everything is changing. But China's treatment of its pastors and churches in Zhejiang reflects the fears of a previous age. Threats to the state don't come from Christianity, which is an influence for stability rather than chaos. It surely would be far wiser  as well as more just  for China to make friends with the Church and see it as a partner rather than see it as an alien enemy.

Follow Mark Woods on Twitter: @RevMarkWoods
David Cameron needs to stop his bigoted intrusions into religion

David Cameron fell into a trap yesterday.

It is an easy mistake to make, and one he has made several times before. It is the trap of politicians dictating how religious communities should and should not behave.

In response to a question on cuts to benefits for women yesterday in PMQs Cameron said: "Let me say this to the Labour party, one thing you could help with: no more segregated political meetings.

"Let us end the process of having people with bigoted religious views treating women as second-class citizens. I think you should all take a pledge: no more segregated meetings."

He was supported by the Welsh secretary, Stephen Crabb, who is a Christian. "Requiring men and women to sit apart is an affront to British values," he said.

First things first, Cameron needs get a grasp of the English language. According to the Oxford dictionary a bigot is someone who is "intolerant towards those holding different opinions". Gender segregated meetings are not bigoted. They may be uncomfortable but they are not bigoted.

In fact the label "bigot", which seems to have become fashionable in political discourse about religion, is more applicable to the Prime Minister than the meetings he is describing, thanks to his blatant lack of tolerance and understanding.

Beyond semantics there is a more important point. Obviously segregated meetings where women are not permitted to mingle with men might raise questions. They instinctively make us squirm and think there is something not quite right here.

However it is also deeply entrenched in some people's faiths and worldviews. However bizarre it may seem, some religious people believe that it is better for men and women not to mingle in public and choose to act in that way. That includes many women. It is crucial to recognise that for many this is a choice and not an imposition.

It is not the Prime Minister's role to dictate what is and is not acceptable for religious communities. The government's primary duty is to protect the people. So when a religious community incites or enacts violence, by all means intervene for the safety of society.

Segregated meetings however are not a matter of public safety. The government has no role interfering.

It was disappointing that Christian groups, so quick to jump into action at the sign of any government interference on Sunday schools or free speech, did not lift a finger to call out this interference indirectly aimed at Muslim communities. Would there have been the same silence had Cameron made the comments about Jewish synagogues?

Cameron's comment is part of a worrying trend of the government's growing belief it has the final word on what religions can and cannot believe. Extremist Disruption Orders (EDOs) and possible Ofsted inspections of churches have riled the Christian lobby groups quite rightly but they mustn't go quiet when the same happens to Muslims.

If Cameron wants to appeal to Muslim communities in particular but faith groups as a whole, he needs to learn his place. By all means step in when people's safety is threatened and hatred is promoted. But beyond that, however much you disagree with someone's worldview or however distasteful you find it, you must learn to respect it. Tolerance to all faiths must be the starting point.
Egypt may ban women from wearing Islamic face veils

Egypt could ban women from wearing the Muslim face veil in public places under draft legislation currently being written in the Muslim-majority country.

Many Egyptian Muslim women choose to wear the veil, or niqab, in public or in front of men. The proposed ban would be upheld in public places and government institutions, according to the Independent.

MP Amna Nosseir, professor of comparative jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, announced that the Egyptian Parliament was drafting the law on Monday. She said the niqab is non-Islamic in origin, instead claiming it has Jewish roots. It is not required by Sharia law, she added.

In an interview with satellite channel ONtv, she cited the Qur'an: "Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty: that will make for greater purity for them: And Allah is well acquainted with all that they do."

This shows that women are not required to wear the burqa, Nosseir said. "How did Islam impose the niqab if Muslims are asked in the Quran to lower their gaze?"

She told Gulf News that she had been saying the niqab is not an obligation for Muslim women for more than two decades, and said had been "harshly criticised" for her views.

"The niqab is not an Islamic duty," she insisted. "We seek to spread moderate Islam. Wearing the niqab in public has raised concerns in the Egyptian streets in view of the hard circumstances the country is undergoing."

However, Nosseir's colleague at Al-Azhar University, professor of religion and philosophy Fouad Abdel-Moneim, has condemned the government's plans.

"Communities are destroyed wherever immorailty spreads," he said. "Ban nudity instead of banning the niqab".

Monday's announcement follows restrictions placed on doctors and nurses studying at Cairo University from wearing the niqab in teaching hospitals and medical schools. Academic staff at the university are no longer allowed to wear the niqab in classrooms over fears it was leading to "poor communication" with students.
Ex-missionary sentenced to 40 years in prison for abusing kids in Kenya, says he doesn't 'fear God's judgment'

A former missionary will serve up to 40 years in prison after he was found guilty by a U.S. federal court of sexually abusing children at an orphanage in Kenya.

Matthew Lane Durham, 21, was charged with molesting eight kids at the Upendo Children's in Nairobi in 2014, according to Reuters.

During the sentencing, Durham said he does not fear God's judgment.

"Judgment from God is central, not the judgment of man. I do not fear God's judgment," he said.

Durham, who is from Edmond, Oklahoma, denied molesting the children but at the preliminary hearing, he told Upendo personnel that he thought he had been possessed by evil spirit and he did not remember molesting the children.

Young victims said Durham touched them sexually or told them to touch themselves while he watched.

Durham allegedly confessed to the founder of Upendo and church members that he raped and sexually abused the children.

In June last year, a federal jury found him guilty on seven counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with the children. But last January, U.S. District Judge David Russell acquitted him on three of the seven counts as the judge felt the prosecutors failed to establish that the suspect engaged in sexual act with the victim in the counts.

Durham had previously pleaded not guilty to 17 charges.

Prosecutors said Durham used his position as a missionary to prey upon the victims but his lawyer said his handwritten and taped confessions were coerced.

Russell said Durham is a serial rapist and "kids' worst nightmare."

According to the U.S. Justice Department, Duham was a volunteer at the orphanage, which specialises in assisting neglected Kenyan children by providing them food, housing, clothes, school and religion.

Evidence showed that between April 30, 2014 and June 17, 2014, Durham travelled from Oklahoma City to Nairobi and while at the orphanage, he engaged in illicit sexual conduct with seven children.
Huge asteroid safely passes by Earth, proving latest doomsday predictions false

Here's another reason to be thankful to God: a 100-foot-wide asteroid capable of killing thousands of people and inflicting serious damage on Earth just flew past our planet on Monday night, proving wrong the doomsday predictions of some pastors.

In a report by NBC News, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) spokesman Laurie Cantillo said asteroid 2013 TX68which is reportedly as big as a yachtcame closest to Earth at about 7 p.m. ET Monday. The space agency, however, could not yet say exactly how close the space rock was to our planet during its safe fly-by.

NASA earlier said the massive asteroid could come as close as 15,000 miles to Earth, but could also fly as far as 3 million miles away from our planet.

There was also a little bit of confusion as to when the asteroid will fly by Earth. Initially, NASA thought the space rock would whizz by our planet on March 5, but it later revised the predicted date of the fly-by to March 8 after the space agency was "able to get a better handle of its orbital path."

Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies Propulsion Laboratory (CNEOS), nevertheless gave an assurance that this space rock is not something that the human race should be worried about.

"There is no concern whatsoever regarding this asteroid  unless you were interested in seeing it with a telescope," Chodas said in an earlier interview.

Some Evangelical pastors, however, had dire warnings about how the Earth might be destroyed by the asteroid. End Times pastor Anita Fuentes and her husband Ignacio, for instance, said the combination of the asteroid and the solar eclipse in parts of Asia on Wednesday was ominous.

"This is a big deal," Anita Fuentes told RawStory.com. "This is three biblical events that are going to be taking place in one day... There will be a freak super moon, an eclipse and an asteroid, which covers the sun, moon and the stars."

"This is crazy stuff," she added.

The prediction of doom obviously never materialised. Asteroid 2013 TX68 is now moving away from Earth, according to NASA.
Is the Pope infallible? What Catholics believe and why

Not for the first time the doctrine of papal infallibility has been called into question by a Catholic theologian.

Hans Kung, a Catholic priest and Swiss theologian, has challenged the teaching of papal and bishops' infallibility numerous times. Eventually he was punished for his insubordination by having his his licence to teach withdrawn in 1979-80. His latest book, Infallibility, has been published alongside a call for Pope Francis to permit "an open and impartial discussion on infallibility of Pope and bishops".

The full text of his "urgent appeal" is published in the National Catholic Recorder and The Tablet, where Kung says his request is "not in order to destroy but to build up the Church".

Protestants, and in particular evangelicals, have long regarded papal infallibility as being the ultimate sign of Church corruption. The bestowal of such authority onto one man is, in their eyes, not only heretical but dangerous.

Some of the criticism is based upon a misunderstanding of the Catholics' teaching but there is one crucial difference: authority.

As much as evangelicals like to ridicule papal infallibility, they believe in infallibility too. The difference is that evangelicals place the burden of infallibility on the Bible, not on Church teaching or a church leader.

There is much debate and difference among evangelicals over their doctrine of infallibility but in most "orthodox" evangelical circles it is taken for granted  though there are many definitions of "infallibility" and it's worth bearing that in mind before evangelicals launch into a tirade against what they believe are the failings of Catholic doctrine.

What is the Catholic doctrine of infallibility?

Official Catholic teaching is that when the Pope makes an official statement, or speaks 'ex cathedra', his words are infallible. This means they are without error and cannot be challenged or contradicted.

The Second Vatican Council in the 1960s reviewed a host of Church teaching and decided to extend infallibility to all bishops across the world when they proclaimed a united statement. Since 1870, infallibility had been a luxury reserved for the pope.

The common confusion for evangelicals is between infallibility and impeccability. Just because Catholics believe the Pope is infallible, it does not mean they think he can't sin. Papal history would render this doctrine farcical if infallibility meant "without sin".

It does not even relate to the Pope's day-to-day proceedings. Pope John XXIII once perplexed students by saying: "I am not infallible". At the look of consternation on their faces he explained: "I am only infallible when I speak ex cathedra, but that is something I will never do."

To put it in context, the last time a Pope spoke ex cathedra was on November 1, 1950 and this was to affirm Mary's assumption into heaven after living a perfect life as Church dogma.

There are also a numbers of caveats and qualifications to the Pope's infallibility. He cannot contradict a previous infallible announcement as this would render the previous Pope fallible. He also is only infallible on matters of "faith and morals". Many Catholic theologians have also argued that the Pope is only infallible with the consent of the whole Church, so not independently from the bishops but only when he speaks with one voice for them all.

Has the Catholic Church always believed in papal infallibilty?

No. The definition of papal infallibility was first formalised in 1870 at the First Vatican Council which is relatively recent in terms of Church history and tradition.

However Catholics will argue it has always been a part of Church teaching, even when it wasn't formalised. They point to Christ's mandate to the Church and the promise of the Holy Spirit to "guide you into all the truth" (John 16:13) as a sign of ecclesiological infallibility.

Is there likely to be a change in doctrine?

Kung himself recognises change is not imminent. "I would not like to raise the hopes of many in our church unrealistically," he wrote in his appeal. "The question of infallibility cannot be solved overnight in our church."

Outright change of doctrine seems unlikely. What is far more probable is Catholic seminaries and theologians will gradually start debating and questioning the doctrine with more freedom and not have their licences withdrawn.

There is also the question of whether we will ever see an ex cathedra papal pronouncement again. Given that it has been 66 years since the last one and with no sign Pope Francis' approach is one of authoritarian pronouncements, it may be the doctrine of infallibility will lessen in influence.

In the same way the Queen is head of the state in the UK and can veto laws but never does, I expect infallibility to become a part of Catholic doctrine that has minimal practical implications. It will occasionally rouse criticism without ever actually needing to be disavowed and will quietly be ignored until it is nothing but a quaint remnant of history.
New York City mayor signs order allowing transgenders to use city-owned facilities

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has signed an executive order that allows transgenders to use city-owned facilities that correspond to their gender identity.

The order requires city agencies to allow employees and the public to use city single-sex facilities without being required to show ID, medical documentation or any proof or verification of gender.

It covers city-owned buildings including city agency offices, public parks, pools, playgrounds, certain museums and recreation centres for the NYC's estimated 25,000 transgenders and gender non-conforming individuals.

"Every New Yorker should feel safe and welcome in our city  and this starts with our city buildings. Access to bathrooms and other single-sex facilities is a fundamental human right that should not be restricted or denied to anyone," he said in a statement.

The order, he said, "makes it clear that New York City fully supports the right of every New Yorker to use the single-sex facility consistent with their gender identity."

The executive order follows a recent legal enforcement guidance issued by the NYC Commission on Human Rights that says any employer, housing provider or public accommodation that denies access to bathroom or single sex facilities based on gender identity can be prosecuted for violating the NYC Human Rights Law.

Gender identity has been a protected class under the law since 2002, when it was added to the NYC Human Rights Law following an amendment sponsored by then Council Member Bill de Blasio.

De Blasio's order requires city agencies to post the single-sex facility policy in conspicuous locations within three months and make an update that they have already complied with the new rule.

City agencies may seek exemption from certain provisions of the executive order by sending a request to the Commission on Human Rights.

Bathroom bills are being debated across the U.S. as parents and elected officials express their opposition because of privacy and security concerns, including men using the rule to access bathrooms to attack women.

De Blasio's press statement noted that Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia, Oklahoma and Washington are considering or have pending bills to prevent transgenders from using bathrooms that conform to their gender identity.

South Dakota Republican Gov. Dennis Daugaard recently vetoed a bill that would have prevented transgender students from using bathrooms that correlate to their gender identity.

However, former transgender Walt Heyer, 75, said, "Nobody's ever born a transgender. They're manufactured as a result of something, a developmental childhood issue that has yet to be determined for many people," according to the Daily Mail and Christian News Network.

Heyer underwent sex change operation in the 1980s to become a woman before going back to being a man. He said Christ redeemed his life.

"God designed man; He designed women. God will redeem the lives of people who struggle with gender identity issues just like I did. He redeemed my life, and I've been free from it as a result of that," he said.
Tom Campbell

If there is one conclusion to be reached from this year's reality TV presidential circus it's that we must change the way we select nominees. Big money, television and consultants have hijacked what is a most important and serious decision-making process.What we've evolved into is made-for-television debates, nauseous interviews with political operatives and incessant analysis, all hyped as "breaking news." This might serve network ratings but certainly doesn't serve the electorate, leaving us to question where the candidates stand on important issues like education, healthcare, infrastructure, defense, jobs and commerce, and what candidates hope to do if elected. Instead we get posturing, bragging and framing opponents, but little specificity. We've created television personalities, not statesmanlike leaders.We don't advocate yesterday's backroom bosses deciding who becomes the party standard-bearer but, come to think about it, that couldn't be much worse than what we've experienced this year.Maybe the national parties are irrelevant and unnecessary. In recent years, the nominee has been determined before the national party conventions, leaving them as yet another rubber-stamp TV event. Many remember the days when the party convention was exciting, must-see TV and we hung on state-by-state roll calls to determine the nominee.Today states line up to be first, or at least early, in holding primaries. Serious candidates with value to add to the discussions are effectively winnowed out before the rest of the states have a chance to vote. Candidates that are the most bombastic, spew the most vitriol or repeat carefully rehearsed, focus-group tested sound bytes get the most TV coverage and those not winning these early beauty pageants are forced to drop out when donor money dries up. What we've ended up viewing is more like American Idol, The Amazing Race, Survivor or The Biggest Loser, where winners move to the next round, instead of a thoughtful, deliberative selection process.Let's consider some options to reform this process to serve voters instead of serving the candidates and networks. Why must we be limited to only two national political parties where candidates to pretend to cling to one or the other party? Those parties have become little more than money laundering machines fed by lobbyists, wealthy individuals and special interests, but seldom representing mainstream America.We've enjoyed this year's Town Hall format, where one candidate at a time submits to vetted questions from journalists, then takes questions from the audience. Town Halls help us learn more about the candidate, what he or she believes, how they respond in unrehearsed settings and what each hopes to accomplish. Regional or state-by-state Town Halls could be aired on networks and online, helping voters make better-informed decisions in lieu of the constant inane debates.Why shouldn't all states have the same date for presidential primaries? Candidates would be forced to go to all states, then the top two or three vote getters go to the national conventions, make their cases and let the all the states select the nominee. Or perhaps we do away with the conventions altogether, allowing the General Election to be the opportunity for voters to choose the next president. Maybe there are other, better solutions.We vote to change the process. It can't be any worse than the disgusting and disgraceful performances we've endured in 2016.
Pope tightens up rules around cash and canonisation

The Vatican has announced new rules to manage the 400,000 cost of making saints.

The announcement came shortly before Pope Francis reveals the date for the canonisation of Mother Teresa later this year.

The new norms govern the way funds for the Causes of Saints are established and managed.

They are especially relevant for the "Roman phase" of the process and the preparation of a position paper, often thousands of pages long, about the life of the candidate.

The norms demand regular and detailed accounting and disciplinary procedures in case of misuse, and ensure that spending limits are set.

Three years ago Pope Francis set up an investigation into Catholic Church finances. Among other things, the inquiry disclosed problems in the saint-making process.

Two Italian journalists subsequently published books revealing problems in the auditing process due to lack of documents. They also disclosed the vast quantities spent by people attempting to expedite a canonisation. The journalists, Emanuele Fittipaldi and Gianluigi Nuzzi, are due to stand trial on Saturday for publishing leaked information.

The canonisation process is long and complex. Witnesses have to attest to the candidate's holiness and venerability and there are several stages, which require at least two miracles. The miracles have to be attested by doctors as genuine, and not assisted by secular medecine.
The Church in the West is sick... What is the cure?

The church in the West is sick but soldiering on.

But for how long? We can pretend all we like that our creative courses exploring the faith, our fresh expressions of church, or our hearty summer festivals are making a significant difference and impacting the nations, but the best of it is too little too late and much of it is just shuffling seats. For all our prayer labyrinths, candles, pebbles and wigwams, I am not aware of a wave of church renewal. Changing wallpaper in a house with rising damp isn't much of a solution. We generate more heat than light. For all our enthusiasms, why so few true conversions? I'm not talking about those who breeze in, join our church for a while and then move on. I'm talking radical conversion to Christ that issues in infectious and radical transformation. Statistics aren't always reliable in compilation or interpretation, yet the most optimistic statistics lead to the most pessimistic conclusions.

The aggressive tide of secularism has eroded much of what former church generations have built. Since the 1960s the number of people in the UK who declare themselves as having no religion has grown from 3 per cent to almost 50 per cent of the population. Recently, Professor Linda Woodhead stated that the Church of England and Methodist Church are 'in a state of collapse'. Every town has its former church buildings, once pulsating with Christian vitality but now turned into carpet warehouses or cocktail bars, studio flats or yoga centers. How did we lose such ground?

Charisms without Character bring Chaos

John Wimber, after seeing several of his close friends and colleagues in ministry crash and burn over moral issues said, "I have seen for years where some people who experience the grace and charisma of God deceive themselves that they don't have to work on their character because God is self-evidently with them and working through them. Gifts are given to the Church because of our generous God, but gifts without character can do much damage. Therefore I've learned to look for people with character rather than people with gifting."

 We are to most people as relevant as a gargoyle on a church roof cornice. 

In recent years I have watched painfully as several friends, all church leaders and ministers, all 'charismatic', all supposedly 'Spirit filled', all 'tongues speaking', all 'evangelical' in doctrine, have traded their wives, to have affairs. One admitted to me "it's all about the sex". It seems easily done and done all too easily. And the world sees and hears it all and she looks at the church, sees a mirror image of herself with a religious veneer, and a claim to moral superiority and divine agency, and generally dismisses our invitation to explore Christianity. The perceived credibility gap between what we profess to represent and what we live out is a key factor I think in the failure of our mission. The man is the message. Too little about the Christian makes the non-Christian think being a Christian is worthwhile. The Catholic priest, writer and spiritual director, Brennan Manning, is often credited with saying, "The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. This is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."

There is too little of God and his Gospel about us Christians. We are to most people as relevant as a gargoyle on a church roof cornice  an amusing, archaic statue that might once have served a purpose, but now it is just a quaint relic on an old building.

Return to the Deep

So what's to be done? In 1952 Oxford Don and Christian apologist CS Lewis wrote to the Times calling for a 'Deep Church'  a rediscovery and return to the historic foundations laid by Christ and the Apostles, rather than the somewhat superficial religion he observed was characteristic of much modern Christianity. Two generations on, we still need to heed this prophetic call and return to the deep things of God.

We cannot soothe ourselves in misty-eyed nostalgia of former golden eras of revival and evangelical advance neither can we sit in self pity like Job scraping our wounds in the rubble of what once was, battening down the hatches and hanging on in there awaiting Jesus to rapture out the few elect that remain. There's work to be done; we need to return to first principles. We need to remember who we are and who God is. We need to put the Lord back at the centre. We need to learn to pray again, and witness to the cross and resurrection, and love one another and imitate Christ and drink deeply of the life giving, life transforming Spirit. It is time for Christians to believe and behave Christian again.

Simon Ponsonby is pastor of theology at St Aldate's Oxford. His book Different: Living the Holy Life is out today and published by Hodder and Stoughton.
U.S. drones rain bombs on Islamist training camp in Somalia, killing over 150 militants in surprise attack

A surprise attack by U.S. drones on an Islamist training camp in Somalia Sunday killed more than 150 members of the al-Shabaab militant group, including five alleged top commanders, according to various reports.

The al-Qaeda linked group reportedly confirmed the airstrike but instantly rejected the death toll as exaggerated, saying the U.S. usually "exaggerate when they do something against us.''

Senior defence officials told NBC News that the fatalities were among the 200 or so fighters at the training camp, some 120 miles north of Mogadishu who were "preparing for an imminent large-scale attack against U.S. and regional governmental forces.''

"It appeared the group was in formation and conducting some kind of ceremony when American drones dropped bombs and launched Hellfire missiles at the militants,'' the officials said, according to NBC News.

Abdiasis Mohamed Durow, district commissioner in Buloburte said the death toll could even be higher and that some top commanders of the group were killed.

"I have confirmed that this was a heavy and deadly bombardment. This time al-Shabaab lost about 200 fighters, among them five top commanders who were at the training camp to witness the closing of the training of the newly recruited militants,'' he said, the Guardian reported.

Two of the commanders who were killed at the camp, he added, were Yusuf Al Ugaas, an influential preacher, recruiter and regional head; and Mohamed Mire, a leading member of the group's finance wing.

The airstrike was like "a burnt house,'' according to Bashir Dhure, a cattle herder who lives near the training facility and witnessed the attack.

He told the Guardian in a telephone interview that he also saw three vehicles that went down while members of the group were collecting dead bodies, loading them on the trucks before leaving the village.

After the bomb attack, Dhure said the group started to search for alleged "spies" and detained about a dozen people, mostly young camel herders living in two nearby villages, Eel Dibi and Raso, about 125 miles north of the capital, Mogadishu.

He said he was lucky to have fled the area before the militants began search operation.

Gen. David Rodriguez of the U.S Africa Command, said they had been monitoring the camp for several weeks before the strike and had gathered intelligence, including about an imminent threat to U.S. forces and African Union peacekeepers. He added that the Raso training camp was one of several that al-Shabaab maintains in Somalia.

The Somali government welcomed the killing of the militants, said Ali Abduraham, a senior Somali intelligence officer in Hiiraan region.

"The attack on Al-Shabaab was a very important operation because we knew the militants were in their latest stage of attacking key places in Somalia.''

He added the group planned to wage deadly attacks on Mogadishu and Kismayo where the U.S. has set up a drone base.

Al-Shabaab has been responsible for terrorist attacks throughout East Africa, including the massacre of 67 civilians during a four-day siege at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, in September 2013, NBC News said.
Note: "Abroad in Houston" is a series where you can travel the world without leaving town. I'll be exploring the unique cultural and ethnic festivals, restaurants, districts and traditions that make up Houston.

You don't need the luck of the Irish to find a good party to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Houston.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

When Gabriel Silva came home from his small Catholic school in Houston one day complaining of being picked on for his short stature, his mother began exploring options to raise his self-esteem.

"For me as a parent, to watch your kid be bullied, it's terrible," Tiffany Silva said.

She decided to enroll her son in acting classes. Three years later, Gabriel, now 10, has just finished shooting his first movie, "Live By Night." He plays the son of actors Ben Affleck and Zoe Saldana.

"It was a small role, but it will be a big movie," Gabriel said from Los Angeles, where he and his mother recently moved. They're looking for other roles to fill Gabriel's resume before "Live By Night" is released in late 2017.

"He's definitely not your average little boy," said Kerri Glenn, Gabriel's agent at Page Parkes Houston. "He has this kind of funky, unique personality of an old man stuck inside a little boy's body."

One of his strengths is his ability to shift from life as a normal boy to whatever character is thrown at him, Glenn said.

SEE ALSO: Movies filmed or set in Houston

Gabriel attributes this to "a big imagination." His mom didn't know quite how big it was until she saw him in action.

"I had no idea that he was this talented," she said. "And when I first saw an audition tape, I was floored. He can turn it on and off. He gets into character and stays focused with it. It's amazing."

But that doesn't ease her worries. At 4-foot-7, Gabriel is still small for his age.

"It's kind of scary," she said. "Your protective instincts kick in. I had to explain that you're going to be told you're too short, that you're not a blond, that you don't have blue eyes. And I told him all these negatives and he said he knew but that he still wants to do it. So we'll do it."

Take a look at the slideshow above to see which famous people are from Houston. Perhaps Gabriel will soon be among them.
Famed music producer George Martin may have died Tuesday, March 8, but his contributions to the works of his most famous collaborators  The Beatles  will no doubt be heard for many years to come.

See how Martin, often called "The Fifth Beatle," affected 10 musical works by the Beatles in the photos above.
A worker was reportedly wounded Tuesday morning in a shooting during a robbery at a discount store in south Houston.

The gunfire erupted about 10 a.m. at A-1 Dollar Store in the 6100 block of Scott near Tristan, according to the Houston Police Department.

Police said a woman called 911 to report the store had been robbed and her co-worker had been shot. The wounded person's condition was not known.

The male suspect left after the gunfire, police said. One person was detained at the scene, but that person's connection to the shooting was unclear.

More details will be reported when they are released.
We all remember how nice it was to get an allowance, especially those weeks when our parents were feeling unusually generous so we got a few extra dollars.

The "royal allowance" given to William, Kate and Harry by Prince Charles is beyond anything any person could dream of.
Easter Seals of Greater Houston saluted spring's pending arrival with the 17th annual "Hats Off to Mothers" luncheon. While the weather outside of the River Oaks Country Club was mostly doom and gloom, bright colors and floral prints shone under the sparkle of chandeliers inside the main ballroom.

A dozen models dressed the part of high-end "ladies who luncheon" in ensembles from Neiman Marcus Galleria; crowd favorites included a tweed Tory Burch sheath, bejeweled Fendi wristlet, and extravagantly floppy straw hats by Eugenia Kim inscribed with cheeky phrases such as "Currently Offline" onto an over-sized brim in black script.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A sea of red took over South Shore Harbour Resort and Conference Center Feb. 19 as more than 450 survivors, volunteers, advocates and business leaders donned red dresses and red ties for the American Heart Association's Bay Area Go Red for Women Luncheon.

The event, sponsored by Bay Area Regional Medical Center, generated more than $160,000 to fund research necessary to fight the No. 1 and No. 5 killers of women-heart disease and stroke.

Sprinklers save apartment building

Pearland firefighters responded to a report of a grease fire at a three-story apartment complex in the 2200 block of Business Center Drive Feb. 17 only to discover the fire had been extinguished by a sprinkler system.

Pearland Fire Department encourages the installation of fire sprinklers in all structures. For information, visit www.pearlandtx.gov/firesprinklers or contact the Pearland fire marshal's office, 281-997-4650.

Sweet Angels serving up sweet treats

Forgotten Angels Foundation has teamed up with chef Doug Atkinson to create a training and work site for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Sweet Angels Cafe-Bakery, 1330 Broadway in Pearland, serves a variety of baked goods, coffee and juice. Recipes feature organic herbs and vegetables grown by participants in the Green Angels Horticulture program.

Visit www.sweetangelscafe.com for a menu.

Volunteers kick butts out of Pearland

Thirty volunteers participated in Keep Pearland Beautiful's annual Cigarette Litter Awareness Day Feb. 20.

The volunteers picked up 20,251 cigarette butts at 20 spots around Pearland, surpassing last year's 16,197 butts from the same areas.

According to Keep America Beautiful, in the past decade, cigarette smoking has decreased 28 percent nationwide, yet cigarette butts remain the most littered item in the United States and across the globe. Tobacco products comprise 38 percent of all U.S. roadway litter.

To learn more, call 281-652-1659 or visit www.mykpb.org.

Deer Park, Baytown mayors discuss CAA

Deer Park Mayor Jerry Mouton and Baytown Mayor Stephen DonCarlos recently shared their views at the 19th annual Hot Air Topics conference of the Air & Waste Management AssociationGulf Coast Chapter.

As part of a Clean Air Act policy issues panel, Mouton and DonCarlos discussed potential negative impacts of the act, a new 70-parts-per-billion ozone standard established by the Environmental Protection Agency and greenhouse gas emission controls.

"With more than 50 monitors, the Houston area has the most extensive air monitoring network in the U.S. These monitors show that our air has never been cleaner; EPA's new ozone standard is simply unnecessary," Mouton said.

The mayors, representing the Economic Alliance Houston Port Region, also provided suggestions for policies that allow background and mobile source contributions to ozone without penalizing local governments and communities.

"Seventy-two percent of air emissions are from mobile sources," DonCarlos said. "With the current growth rate in the Houston area, mobile sources will continue to be a major problem. My suggestion would be to concentrate on incentivizing mass transit in nonattainment areas like Houston."

Putt-Putt Funhouse welcomes Easter Bunny

Houston-area families are invited to Breakfast with the Easter Bunny, 10-11:30 a.m. March 19 at Putt-Putt Funhouse, 806 E. NASA Parkway.

Tickets, $9.95, include breakfast, crafts and more. Call 281-333-0579 for details.

Crawfish boil benefits Kemah police

The 14th annual Kemah Cops & Crawfish event-11 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 16 at the Kemah Community Center, 800 Harris Ave.-generates funds for the Kemah Police Department.

Tickets are available at Sylvia's Cozy Corner, 601 Kipp Ave., or through any member of the Kemah Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association. Email kemahcpaaa@gmail.org for information.

Bay Area youth head to convention in Austin

Teens and preteens from Congregation Shaar Hashalom in Clear Lake will participate in Southwest United Synagogue Youth's Kadima annual convention April 1-3 at the Dell's Jewish Community Center, 7300 Hart Lane in Austin.

The weekend will include activities, games, Shabbat meals and more. Visit www.shaarhashalom.org/clusy-kadima for information.

Synagogue hosts Israeli folk dancing

Israeli folk dances are open to the public from 7:30-9:30 p.m. Mondays through April 25 at Congregation Shaar Hashalom, 16020 El Camino Real.

Tickets are $4 per session for members, and $5 for nonmembers. Call 281-488-5861 or email csh@shaarhashalom.org for details.

BayTran welcomes Port's Longoria

Port of Houston Authority chairman Janiece Longoria will speak at the BayTran March luncheon, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 10 at Cullen's American Grille, 11500 Space Center Blvd.

For information, contact Barbara Koslov, president@baytran.org or 832-771-0773.

Nassau Bay receives Best, Brightest award

For the fifth consecutive year, the National Association for Business Resources has ranked Nassau Bay among Houston's Best and Brightest Companies to Work For.

The competition identifies organizations that display a commitment to excellence in human resource practices and employee enrichment. For information about employment opportunities, visit www.nassaubay.com/jobs.
Your RSS feed from RSSFWD.com. Update your RSS ...
The service organization Suburban Sugar Land Women recently presented the 27th annual African-American History Program at Sugar Land Branch Library, 550 Eldridge.

Offering a "Salute to African-American Artists," the event featured a live art museum format. William B. Travis High School students Christine Ayorinde and Ugochi Chuka-Ipere presented live artwork using digital graphic sketching.

Elise Leaks Harmon, immediate past chair of the African-American History Program, displayed historical and unusual dolls, books and fabrics.

Visit www.sslw.org for information.

Richmond K9 receives body armor

Richmond Police Department's K9 Jackie has received a protective vest from Vested Interest in K9s Inc.

The vest, sponsored by an anonymous donor, is embroidered with, "Bless and protect this K9. Thank you for your service."

For information, call 508-824-6978 or visit www.vik9s.org.

Rosenberg mayor reviews growth, future

Rosenberg Mayor Cynthia A. McConathy outlined the city's growth for a crowd of more than 300 on Feb. 23 at the Rosenberg Civic Center.

McConathy pointed to Texas State Technical College's new campus, the Rosenberg Business Park breaking ground this summer, Aldi's distribution center and the proposed Paragon Outlet Mall as signs of growth. She added the Rosenberg Police Department has seen a decrease in crime, and the fire department is looking to expand to a fourth station.

"We have much to look forward to," McConathy said. "No longer is Rosenberg a pass-through on the way to another destination. Rosenberg has become the destination."
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Towering sets of water slides rise from each corner of the 25-acre Katy tract, overlooking the raucous construction scene.

On a sunny March 2 morning, construction workers hammer, shovel dirt and melt plastic coating onto a 1,300-foot-long "Lazy T" river ride. A mixing truck's beeps drown out every other noise. "We're hiring" banners flap on the surrounding fence.

This is the future home for Typhoon Texas, the state's next large waterpark. Since the groundbreaking in August, founders Keith Dalton, Terry Hlavinka and Ray DeLaughter have slaved over construction details almost daily.

They've spent more than three years discretely planning what the park could become for Katy and surrounding communities. The process hasn't been simple.

"We went into this blind and tapping into lot of resources we knew," Dalton said. "The hardest thing was getting this thing off the ground. We're still working hard every day."

The three talk routinely about the park, calling each other at 10 p.m. and sending 4 a.m. emails. Each Wednesday, the group meets with every other leader of the development, pouring over information in a white trailer where the walls are plastered with blueprints, a whiteboard scribbled with plans and a dangling 2016 calendar counting down each day until May 28.

Site tours with vendors and other personnel occur frequently. On this day, between meetings, Dalton escorted another group clockwise around the park.

Slide tubes in rainbow colors, awaiting placement in what will be a children's "Gully Washer" play structure, remained scattered outside the park's entrance. Workers examined the "River Grille and Smokin' BBQ," a restaurant situated near the park's center promising rich Texas brisket inspired by a local grill master.

Dug into the near left corner of the park upon entrance was a 25,000-square-foot crater where the wave pool is to be located.

Dalton, Hlavinka and DeLaughter are eager to discuss the rides and planned park features. But they rave about Typhoon Texas' technology - a wristband paying system, filters that will pump 70,000 gallons of water per minute and attractions such as "slide boarding," which glides riders down a darkened slide while lighting up targets they can shoot at from inner tubes in videogame fashion.

The three founders all graduated from Texas A&M years ago. Hours spent together, along with the other project managers, has gelled a bond. Hlavinka owns his own company, Hlavinka Equipment for farming and construction, and DeLaughter founded finance consulting firm Vantage VFO. Dalton is president/CEO at Kingham Dalton Wilson Ltd., which is designing and constructing Typhoon Texas.

The park, though, has become a full-time job of its own.

"We work seven days a week," Hlavinka said.

"So much of what we're doing is in developing - all three of us - what the culture will be of our park," DeLaughter added.

Years ago, when the founders first tossed the idea around of building something together, the talks focused on designing a structure that would pull communities together, Dalton said. They also wanted it to be fun.

A waterpark seemed perfect in an area starved for a large family-oriented development. Funds came from private investors, as well as an undisclosed loan from Texas Capitol Bank.

"The way Typhoon Texas will differentiate itself from other waterparks, whether it's local or statewide, is through a better customer experience," DeLaughter said. "We want people to leave this park and not just have enjoyed the wave pool, or the rides, but to really feel like they stepped into our living room and we welcomed them. There's some waterparks - I won't name them - that there's just trash everywhere you go, beer bottles everywhere. That's not what you're going to get when you come to Typhoon Texas."

To ensure that culture, workers will be vetted through a strict interview process, DeLaughter said. The park has drawn 2,000 applicants so far, with 900 expected as seasonal hires. Prime operation time will span the summer months.

Strategies are emerging on how 18 additional acres the group bought on site will be developed.

Media hype has engulfed the project since its announcement, some hoping the park will ease the void left when Houston's Six Flags AstroWorld closed in 2005.

But the founders remain close-lipped on some details of the park, such as expected attendance and cost of the development, though previous reports indicate an investment of more than $50 million.

Net sales are expected to reach $5.9 million during the next decade.

By this day, 75 percent of work had been completed, Hlavinka said.

Soon, grass will replace the acres of dirt. The water-pumping system will flow through underground piping miles long. A Texas emblem will be stained onto the concrete at the park's entrance. And pedestrians from all stretches of Houston will stroll through the gates.

For now, the meetings, site tours and late phone calls will continue to fill days.

"Early on, when none of us were confident that this thing would ever take off, to spend the amount of time we did in the first couple of years, took a real commitment and discipline on all our parts," Hlavinka said. "We have been very dedicated to this project. We all have leaned on each other."
Montgomery County Judge Craig Doyal says that it's too late for The Woodlands Township to weigh in on the county thoroughfare plan, a map designed as a guide for development over the next 50 years, after it was unanimously approved by the Commissioners Court in January.

Ed Robb, chairman of the Township, went before the commissioners March 8 to relay the concerns that the board unanimously voted to present in a resolution opposing five of the dozens of county projects included in the road plan: the extension of Branch Crossing Drive from Research Forest Drive to north of FM 1488, the extension of Gosling Road north from Texas 242 toward Conroe, the extension of Grogan's Mill Road north of Vision Park Boulevard to Texas 242, the widening of Grogan's Mill Road south of Woodlands Parkway and the extension of Woodlands Parkway to Texas 249, the "poison pill" project that doomed the county's May 2015 road bond election.

The plan has drawn criticism from The Woodlands, the county's largest urbanized area, for including these recommendations to extend and widen roads within the community that board members say would bring additional traffic and spoil the hometown feel they say residents have paid a premium to enjoy.

The resolution alleged that the planners, the Houston-Galveston Area Council, did not hold a public meeting in The Woodlands, thus precluding its residents from providing their input prior to the finalization of the plan.

But Doyal says they had their chance to speak up. H-GAC held four public meetings last fall - one in each county precinct. The meeting in Precinct 3 - which encompasses most of The Woodlands - was held at the Shenandoah Municipal Complex, just north of The Woodlands.

"We gave everyone an opportunity," Doyal said. "They opted not to appear."

Woodlands board member Gordy Bunch said the fact that The Woodlands has a population of 110,000 people, compared to Shenandoah's less than 3,000, should have made it the obvious place to hold the public meeting.

As for the objections to the potential road projects, Doyal sees a need to keep them on the plan as a guide.

"Most of them have been on the plan for decades," Doyal said. "I'd be real leery of removing any of those projects on the plan. They were recommended by professionals who know what they're doing."

Woodlands board member Mike Bass, however, believes that H-GAC put too much emphasis on creating thoroughfares through communities as an alternative to increasing congestion on Interstate 45, rather than coming up with a solution to fix the freeway itself.

"Whenever you try to put something that is designed to bring cars through an area - when it goes through the heart of a community - you have to give deference to the community," Bunch said. "This community has spoken and it doesn't want these roads."

But, as the county is projected to double in population - to a million people - by 2030, Doyal says it's the county's responsibility to consider every possible project that could help ease strain on mobility.

"I've been in this county my whole life. I've watched it grow," Doyal said. "We need to be looking at every road project possible."

Furthermore, he says that the roads that The Woodlands opposes are not currently funded and may not be built for a long time.

"Some of these roads, it may be 30 years before we build them," Doyal said. "These are lines on a map."

Doyal said that the Woodlands Parkway extension, which has been the topic of heated debate in the county over the past year, is more imminent than some of the other projects, but still lacks funding and won't be built for at least two years.

But, as Charlie Riley, the commissioner for Precinct 2 - which includes part of The Woodlands and the land to its west - has spoken of advancing the timeline of the Woodlands Parkway extension, Bunch believes it may be time for The Woodlands to look at another way to gain control of which road projects are done.

Currently an unincorporated special improvement district, The Woodlands has little say over its roads, which all belong to the county. But if the community were to incorporate and become a city, its local elected officials would have jurisdiction over roads within the city limits.

"I believe that our community is united against these major thoroughfare plans, and if incorporating would give us an opportunity to protect us, I believe our community would want to go forward with it," Bunch said. "We need to start looking at it sooner rather than later."

Road projects opposed:

- The extension of Branch Crossing Drive from Research Forest Drive to north of FM 1488

- The extension of Gosling Road north from Texas 242 toward Conroe

- The extension of Grogan's Mill Road north of Vision Park Boulevard to Texas 242

- The widening of Grogan's Mill Road south of Woodlands Parkway

- The extension of Woodlands Parkway to Texas 249
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A gunman opened fire on the Heights office of one of the state's most powerful lawmakers early Thursday, spraying the stately wood structure with bullets but not injuring anyone.

Whitmire said his staff noticed the Yale Street office had been damaged when they arrived Thursday morning and first blamed the overnight storms. When a maintenance worker tried to stop a leak on the side of the house, they realized it was a bullet hole, then discovered several others.

"When you look at the damage, and start tracing it, there are bullet holes here in the office, and at least four slugs... a couple of them ricocheted around," Whitmire said, adding that police told they believe the bullets had been shot from an AR-15 rifle. "There are bullet slugs everywhere. One lodged in a framed picture. It's pretty amazing."

The Houston Police Department and the Texas Rangers are investigating the incident.

"No one was injured and the building was unoccupied," HPD Spokesman Kese Smith said.

Police are trying to determine whether any surveillance cameras recorded the incident, Smith said, adding that 9-1-1 call logs show a neighbor reported hearing a "loud banging sound or possible gun shots" at around 12:30 a.m.

"This is alarming - because of the the unknowns,"" Whitmire said, adding that police were investigating recent interactions he'd had with the public that might have been out of the ordinary, including an exchange he'd had with a man at a restaurant in Montrose the night before. "I guess have to assume intended for my office until you know for certain... but what do you different?"

Throughout the day, small clusters of curious neighbors gathered outside the office, a two-story house with white wood siding, watching watch police and Texas Rangers comb the scene.

One bullet had torn through a transom supporting the structure's wrap-around porch, ricocheting into the front of the structure. Bullets had also smashed through a window above the front door, a shutter, and through the side wall of the house.

Several onlookers said they'd been startled or woken by the early-morning gunfire.

Amy Crouser was asleep her apartment in a gated-apartment complex across the street when the shots jolted her awake.

"I was startled. It takes a second to figure where you are, let alone what you are hearing," said Crouser, whose 6-year-old and mother were asleep in the apartment with her. At first, the noise sounded like thunder, or someone banging on her garage door, she said. It took her several moments before she realized the sounds were gunfire.

"My heart was pounding," she said. "It sounded like it was in our community, like it was someone in there, banging on our garage."

Other neighbors reported hearing a second spate of shots minutes later, but police were unable to confirm those details.

Rick Edwards, another neighbor, said that when he heard the shots, he ran into his bathroom and called 911.

"It scared my dog and it scared me," he recalled, describing sounds like "someone had a baseball bat and they were hitting a metal garbage pail."

Whitmire, the "Dean" of the Texas Senate, has served as a state senator for more than 30 years, and is one of the state's most powerful legislators.

News of the shooting spread quickly across the state, alarming legislators and political groups.

"Praying for safety of my friend ... and his staff," tweeted State Rep. Armando Walle, D-Houston. "And all staff who work in our offices across TX."

The incident highlighted concerns legislators face keeping their staffers safe, and the risks they have working in high-profile jobs, said Walle, recalling his days as a legislative staffer working for Congressman Gene Green (D-Houston) during the anthrax scare of 2001 and the highly publicized confrontations between open carry advocates who filmed legislators during the last legislative session.

"I've never feared for my safety personally," he said. "But I've never had my office get shot up.

Chronicle staff photographer Mark Mulligan contributed to this report.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

HUNTSVILLE  Coy Wayne Wesbrook, a five-time Harris County killer who said he welcomed death rather than spend more time in solitary on Texas' death row, was executed Wednesday night.

Wesbrook, 58, had spent 17 years on the row for a 1997 Channelview shooting rampage that left his ex-wife and four other people dead. He was pronounced dead at 8:04 p.m.

A series of state and federal courts rejected the killer's appeals, in which he argued that he was mentally retarded, had received poor legal representation at his original trial and that his violence had been committed in the "heat of passion." On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously rejected the one-time security guard's petition for commutation of his death sentence to life in prison.

In his last weeks on death row at Livingston's Allan B. Polunsky Unit, Wesbrook read his Bible, studied religious books and listened to gospel radio broadcasts. He rarely took advantage of his daily recreation period, a one-hour respite from the captivity of his cell. "These people are bad," he said of other condemned inmates in a recent interview. "I consider myself a little better  I never had a criminal record."

Wesbrook, a one-time security guard and courier truck driver, said he was "looking forward" to his execution.

Wesbrook said he had hoped to reconcile with his ex-wife, Gloria Jean Coons, when he drove to the woman's Channelview apartment on Nov. 12, 1997. But when he got to the residence, he found a party in full swing. Wesbrook said he felt uncomfortable, but nontheless drank four beers in half an hour.

Webrook's discomfiture grew when Coons went into a bedroom with two male guests. Wesbrook's lawyer, Don Vernay, described Coons as a former prostitute in his petition to the pardons board. Wesbrook said he attempted to leave, but another guest grabbed his truck keys.

Wesbrook then retrieved a hunting rifle from his vehicle, returned to the apartment and, over the course of the next few minutes, fatally shot everyone present.

Killed in addition to Coons were Diana Ruth Money, 43; Anthony Ray Rogers, 41; Antonio Cruz, 35; and Kelly Hazlip, 32.

Wesbook said he had been "bewitched," by Coons.

"As I saw her collapse and die, the spell was broken," he said. "I could see her for what she was. I no longer found her attractive."
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said Tuesday in an interview with Fox News, which aired Wednesday evening, that he would be OK with a "contested convention," but not a "brokered convention."

The two terms have become prominent in political buzz as it grows increasingly likely that no candidate will claim an outright majority of delegates before the GOP convention in July. In that case, delegates would re-vote to pick a winner.

Cruz previously has asserted that a brokered convention would prompt a voter "revolt," but he told Fox's Megyn Kelly at a town hall interview in Raleigh, North Carolina that, "a contested convention is a different thing."

RELATED: Ted Cruz predicts 'revolt' if GOP convention is brokered

So, what's the difference? According to Jeff Engle, director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University, "In a contested convention, no one shows up with all the delegates they need (to win the nomination). In a brokered convention, people begin cutting deals."

In other words, the delegates supporting third- and fourth-place candidates would have to choose which of the top two candidates to support in a contested convention.

"All of these definitions are kind of squishy," said Aaron Crawford, a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Presidential History. "I'm pretty sure that no one knows exactly what they mean yet. They're going to have to figure out the rules."

A brokered convention implies that a backroom meeting of party bosses would make arrangements to pick a candidate  plausibly one that wasn't even on the primary ballot. That hasn't happened in modern political history, and it's hard to imagine how it would work.

"I think it would be absolutely catastrophic to have a brokered convention where they try to parachute in some D.C. establishment candidate. You would see an open revolt," Cruz said to cheers Tuesday, before saying that a contested convention, with an open vote on the floor, would be acceptable.

RELATED: Anti-Trump Republicans see delegate math leaving one option: Cruz

"Reagan and Ford battled it out at a contested convention," he said in reference to the 1976 GOP convention. "That's what conventions are for. If you're fighting between the candidates who have earned the votes of the people, and it's the delegates at the convention who've been elected to do that, that's the way the system works and that's perfectly appropriate."

Late last month, Cruz told reporters in Texas that a contested convention was "not going to happen," Politico reported.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that GOP presidential contender Donald Trump would need 54 percent of the remaining delegates to win the nomination, while Cruz would need 62 percent. If both candidates fall below that mark, the convention will be contested.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz will get his first endorsement Thursday from a Congressional colleague, NBC News reported. That's a major milestone in Cruz's initiative to unify GOP forces in search of an alternative to Donald Trump.

Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who Cruz long has called his best friend in the Senate, is expected to give his blessing to the Cruz campaign as it seeks to unify the Party amid a primary race that has splintered the GOP.
AUSTIN  The resignation of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's first assistant this week marked the fourth key staffer to leave the office in recent months.

The departures started with Paxton's former chief of staff Bernard McNamee, who announced late last year that he would return to private legal practice in Virginia. On Wednesday, it accelerated when Paxton's top aide, First Assistant Attorney General Chip Roy, resigned to join a super PAC promoting U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz for president, it turned out.

Roy was replaced by Jeff Mateer, who previously worked as general counsel for the First Liberty Institute, a Plano-based religious liberty law firm.

Two other resignations of key staff have not been publicly announced: Allison Castle, the office's communications director, has left and been replaced by Marc Rylander, and Teresa Spears, the office's director of external affairs, also has stepped down.

"We're grateful for their contributions through the first year of General Paxton's administration and the important arguments supporting HB2 before the Supreme Court," spokesman Katherine Wise said. "With the addition of new team members, we will continue to work to defend state law and protect the rights and liberties of Texans."

Paxton, a first-term Republican, was indicted last summer on felony charges that he violated state securities laws by referring legal clients to invest in a friend's firm without being registered with the state and that he committed fraud by encouraging two people to buy stock in a technology start-up without disclosing that he was being compensated by the company.

The attorney general is trying to get the indictments dismissed.

The departures come as the attorney general's office is embroiled in several high-profile cases, including an ongoing battle over Texas' voter ID law, which a federal appeals court on Wednesday said it would hear again. A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last summer that the 2011 law requiring voters to show a picture identification card had a discriminatory effect on minorities and violated parts of the federal Voting Rights Act. Paxton's office asked for the full court to hear the case, and it has agreed.

Other key cases include a series of lawsuits over environment regulations, a challenge to President Obama's executive action on immigration and a historic abortion battle based on the 2013 law known as House Bill 2.

Paxton's predecessor, now-Gov. Greg Abbott, famously kept his key staff in place for a long time and took many of them with him to the governor's office.
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.
Peste 300 de liceene s-au inscris in Startup School si sunt gata sa invete bazele antreprenoriatului tehnologic. Vezi cum a fost la evenimentul de lansare a programului national de educatie antreprenoriala
There arent many reporters on the poverty beat these days, or even journalists who look with any regularity at how those on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder live. Eduardo Porters weekly New York Times column, Economic Scene, is one space where poverty continues to receive regular, thoughtful consideration. Porters columnwhich explores the worlds most urgent economic challenges, per its tag linestands out for its smart blending of wonky data, academic research, and insights into how real people live and respond to the remedies intended to improve their lot. His work, which often challenges conventional wisdom about the poor, is a model for how to make these subjects interesting and relevant to large audiences.

I recently sat down with Porter to talk about his work. What follows is a lightly edited version of our conversation.

How did you come to do the kind of journalism you do now?

I came to journalism in an odd way. I studied physics and worked for a Mexican wire service owned by the government and then edited a Brazilian magazine that was equivalent of Fortune. Then The Wall Street Journal hired me [in 2000] to write about Latinos in the US. The Wall Street Journal saw this as mostly a business beatstories about how, say, Proctor and Gamble could sell its wares to this untapped population, how it could enter this new market. I was more interested in immigration, and I pushed stories about the cultural interaction between Anglo America and the new population of Spanish-speaking, brown Catholics who often had fairly low incomes.

How did you change the direction of what you were writing?

I was hired by the Times in 2004 to write more broadly about the economy. I was drawn to write on issues like inequality, demographic change, the increasing female labor supply, work-family balanceall that was really interesting to me.

Sign up for CJR 's daily email

Was there any one thing that gave you the empathy to write about these topics?

I grew up in Mexico City with a very un-American view of the role of government. I was educated in the western European tradition, which believes in the state as a legitimate instrument to make things better for its citizens, a state that has power to check excesses and the externalities in the market economy. That has always been very close to my thinking.

Why arent more reporters writing about poverty?

Journalists dont write about it to a large extent because the general population, politicians, and policy makers dont really care enough about it. The poor are disenfranchised. They hold no political power and so the political system sees little political gain in addressing their plight, which to be fair has been proven to be very difficult to solve.

How often do you write about it?

I wrote four stories about poverty since November. Why did I start and keep going? I had a wonderful conversation with Abhijit Banerjee at Poverty Action Lab at MIT. It looks at government interventionswhat works and what doesnt work. They do very high quality studies with randomized testing. He was working on research that found the conventional wisdom about poverty interventionsgiving poor people help led to bad behaviorwas false. I decided to pay more attention, which drew me to the welfare reform law, which is premised on that conventional wisdom.

What were the stories you wrote?

One looked at why welfare does not corrupt the poor as commonly believed. Another discussed a Republican summit in North Carolina early this year to talk about poverty. A third showed why its easy to ignore the poor, and the fourth was about a report from the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute, Washington think tanks that tried to find common ground between the left and the right on poverty solutions.

Whats an example of a column that really popped and got a lot of attention?

One in which I was positing that the profit motive may not work in healthcare. I was comparing care provided at for-profit versus not-for-profit hospitals. It really pissed off Rush Limbough. I also got some pushback on the ground because the research I used was old. I thought it was in line with what I was arguing. It was a good study by top-of-the-line researchers. The point I was making was behavior is affected by financial incentives and the relationship between behavior and incentives is unaffected by the age of the study. When the right wing grabs you, your pieces do well.

What was your takeaway from this?

When people dont like what you are saying, you get pushback. They push back. So what? I was making an argument that was quite solid.

How do our beliefs inform our reporting?

I respect the American tradition of keeping our priors in check and giving readers an honest assessment of what something is about. But the idea journalists are a clean slate is stupid and is a disservice to readers.

How so?

Journalists are people. We all have beliefs. Journalism is an act of editing and curating reality. What you put in first, the sentence selection, who you call and who you dont callall that affects the story youre telling.

Given how we all approach stories bringing our own underlying beliefs, how should we help readers?

Readers need transparency. The best you can do is help them understand the reality that youre rendering, give them a sense of why you are talking to this person and not another, or why this fact is further down in a story. This also includes sharing what you know about the person youre quoting and his or her motivations. I dont give equal time to climate change deniers because from my reading of the science, Ive concluded they are absolutely wrong.

To what extent do you let your feelings show?

It depends on what you are covering. Are you writing something more like Paul Krugmans critique of austerity or reporting on the Feds Open Market Committee meeting? When I am assessing a Republican attempt to develop an anti-poverty strategy, I think my analysis must include my thoughts about how this fits within their general policy framework, which includes a lot of tax cuts for the rich. Is it consistent? It is legitimate, I believe, to critically assess their motivations.

Would the public be better served if journalists writing about healthcare, poverty, climate change or any other tough subject loosened up from journalistic convention

Yes. Strive to offer analysis and understanding. I have an overriding concern about what the hell happened in the United States over these 40 years. I try to answer that question. I remember when I was a kid I sensed the US was exceptional. Everyone had strong water pressure in the faucet and grass well mowed. Now the US looks more like Mexico when I was a kid. The US seemed to be a much more egalitarian place, at least if you were white.

How do numbers and data fit into your reporting?

Numbers are my first port of call. Im not very people-y. Im very number-y. I would like to see journalists use more data to supplement the people part. It is not a deep tradition in journalism to bring numbers to bear. Your nut graph is more powerful if you have numbers to support your thesis. They make your story more solid and protect you from criticism.

Can you give an example of a piece that took off because numbers were used effectively?

The income inequality story acquired salience because of the work of Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty. The entire line of reporting about income concentration started with data that Saez and Piketty drew from historical tax returns in the US showing that the accumulation of income at the top was higher than at any time since the Gilded Age.

Many stories about poverty and healthcare start with a brief, predictable anecdote. How do we move beyond this approach?

One of the nice things about being a columnist is that Im not shackled to that format. In starting a story you want to slap readers as fast as possible, draw them to the proposition you are writing about. For example, a paradox you are going to pull apart or a proposition about something thats new or crazy. In one piece I asked about why Republicans hate Obamacare and got to my thesis quicklywhat explains this hatred.

Would you abandon anecdotes?

No. Theres a place for narrative in journalism. The Wall Street Journal was really good at it. A few years ago Rick Wartzman found a woman on the minimum wage for 30 years. He weaved her story together with the political history of the minimum wage. His story was not a vignette or a one sentence lede. It presented the life of someone on the minimum wage. It was super compelling.

Where do anecdotes go wrong in covering poverty or healthcare?

They dont work well when one anecdote is brought in as an emblem of an issue or problem but doesnt add to our understanding. It is brought in as a little snapshot; its schematic, no nuance, no further truth than the person or family is poor and has budget constraints. Whats the point if you dont render their lives more completely with subtlety and nuance that might not fit your thesis?

If not anecdotes, what do you use?

In my case what draws readers in is a really compelling idea. For instance, Republicans oppose Obamacare because they fear it might work, or to take another example, one column started with this: Theres clearly something wrong with pharmaceutical innovation. I sweat every column intensely every week. I sit before a blank screen and I suffer, so I dont have a good rule. I go into a story because I have an idea and have talked to people and have had a lot of conversations. I ask myself whats the story about in 10 words. Sometimes I draw from history or use a question.

How do you keep the Medicaid expansion story fresh?

You keep writing about it. Just keep hammering at the consequences of not doing expansion. Compare states where expansion has happened and where it has not. What happens when states dont expand? Keep thinking about new angles. Look at the new data. That would be my M.O. Does it say something interesting or revisit an old issue? Are there hard-to-see consequences we are not thinking about that might affect maternity care, or bring about educational problems for children? Keep an open mind about where to look.

What is an example of a healthcare story that is undercovered?

Consolidations in healthcare. Its going on, its continuing, important, and problematic. Government policy is pushing the wrong way. The FTC is becoming more aggressive, and thats a good thing, but theres a tension in the policy because the Affordable Care Act actually encourages consolidation by promoting ACOs [Accountable Care Organizations] that are meant to take charge of a patients entire medical life. The ACA, which is meant to control costs may fail at this task because of the increasing power of healthcare institutions.

How should reporters be covering this topic?

Follow the mergers. Hospitals are swallowing up medical practices, buying technology, bringing diagnostic testing in-house. Essentially they are trying to become one-stop healthcare Goliaths

What other healthcare stories should reporters be following?

They should keep a critical eye on Obamacare. Its super-important to keep a very, very close watch. We really have no idea how it will work in the long run. Will it control prices or not control them? Will adverse selection in insurance policies kick in with younger healthier people opting out? Its a big, complicated, Rube Goldberg device.

What do you want readers to take away from your stories?

I want to draw attention to what I know. One important part of this is to build awareness about how we live in a society where theres a lot of unacknowledged dysfunction. We should understand this dysfunction, or otherwise I fear society collapses. When I write, I try to bring these defects to the fore. I see this approach as not undermining capitalism but as a way to save it from itself.

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Trudy Lieberman is a longtime contributing editor to the Columbia Journalism Review. She is the lead writer for CJR's Covering the Health Care Fight. She also blogs for Health News Review and the Center for Health Journalism. Follow her on Twitter @Trudy_Lieberman.
Nick Gordon Tried to Save Bobbi Kristina Brown, Lawyers Say

Bobbi Kristina Brown remained in a coma for months until she died on July 26, 2015. Her family believes that her boyfriend, Nick Gordon, is the prime suspect in Whitney Houston's daughter's untimely death, but the lawyers of the accused are now revealing that Gordon actually tried to save Brown.

The truth is that Nick tried to save Bobbi Kristinas life, Gordon's lawyers, Jose Baez and Joe S. Habachy, said in a statement given to PEOPLE magazine. The truth is that Nick cooperated with law enforcement since day one. The truth is that no one loved Bobbi Kristina more than Nick and no one has suffered more as a result of her death than Nick.

Gordon, through his lawyers, says that he has been "humiliated" and that the Fulton County District Attorneys office has tried to make [him] a murderer despite having clear and convincing evidence that Bobbi Kristinas death was nothing more than a tragic accident.

His lawyers then ended their statement saying that there is no evidence to tie Gordon to Brown's death. Despite his denial, Browns family is continuing with their civil lawsuit against him.

Nick Gordon's lawyers attest he "tried to save Bobbi Kristina's life." https://t.co/JfJSyclBkG pic.twitter.com/hkzoW0GDE1  E! Online (@eonline) March 8, 2016

The Fulton County Medical Examiner's office recently released the autopsy report on Bobby Brown's daughter. Following an order from the judge, the autopsy revealed that Bobbi Kristina died as a result of immersion in water associated with drug use.

Brown was found unresponsive last January in her home and she was rushed to the hospital. She spent six months in the rehab center and hospice care until she died on July 26.

 2016 The Classical Art, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

TagsBobbi Kristina Brown, Nick Gordon, Bobby Brown
Hedwig Tony Winner Lena Hall Cast in Reading of Citizen Ruth Musical

Tony Award winner Lena Hall (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) has been cast to lead an invite only reading of the upcoming of the new musical adaptation of Citizen Ruth. The new musical is based on the 1996 Miramax film of the same name, starring Laura Dern and Burt Reynolds. The plot centers around a young drug addicted woman who finds herself arrested and pregnant. Ruth is than ordered to have an abortion or face serious jail time. Check out the report below for more details.

Press notes for Citizen Ruth offer details about the plot, reading (via Playbill):

 Ruth Stoops, a homeless huffer, lands in jail (again), where she learns she is pregnant (again). After the judge offers to go easy on her if she will get an abortion, Ruth finds herself in a pickle. A desperate jail-cell prayer is apparently answered when she's taken in by Norm and Gail Stoney, pro-life Christians with the local Babysavers chapter. Things go swimmingly until Ruth gets high and hits their young son. Another Babysaver, Diane, comes to the rescue, agreeing to take Ruth for a while. Turns out though, that Diane is a radical feminist lesbian in disguise, and she and her lover, Rachel, have their own agenda. Events soon spiral out of control, and the debate over Ruth and her pregnancy becomes national. Our heroine, meanwhilecrass, addicted, unloved and (almost) unlovablegets lost in the shuffle. But Ruth has the last laugh....

The rest of the cast for the reading includes Janet Dickinson, Laurie Wells, Julia Murney, Pearl Sun, Emily Walton, Duke Lafoon, Jason ST Williams, Dennis Stowe, Kevin Zak, Alex Wyse and Kevin Ligon.

The reading will take place on March 10 in Manhattan and is expected to be followed by an Off-Broadway production.

Citizen Ruth the musical is written by Mark Leydorf (book/lyrics) and Michael Brennan (music) and is based on the film by Alexander Payne (writer/director) and Jim Taylor (co-writer).

 2016 The Classical Art, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

TagsHedwig and the Angry Inch, Tony Winner, Lena Hall, Cast, Reading, Citizen Ruth, Musical
Daredevil Season 2s Charlie Cox Cast in Constellations Nick Paynes Incognito

Marvels Daredevil Season 2 is about to stream on Netflix, but that isnt the only place you will be able to see Charlie Cox (Boardwalk Empire). Cox has been cast in Nick Paynes (Constellations) new Off-Broadway play Incognito. Cox will be joined by Heather Lind (Demolition), Incognito will be directed by Drama Desk and Tony winner Doug Hughes (Doubt: A Parable).

The official NY City Center website is reporting on the upcoming play:

Nick Payne, the acclaimed writer who brought you the sold-out Broadway sensation Constellations, returns to Manhattan Theatre Club with Incognito, an 'astonishing and original'(The Telegraph, UK) play making its American premiere.

A pathologist steals the brain of Albert Einstein; a neuropsychologist embarks on her first romance with another woman; a seizure patient forgets everything but how much he loves his girlfriend. Incognito braids these mysterious stories into one breathtaking whole that asks whether memory and identity are nothing but illusions. Directed by Tony Award winner Doug Hughes (Doubt, Outside Mullingar, The City of Conversation), Incognito takes us into the last uncharted realm--the mind.

Incognito will open on May 24 at The New York City Center  Stage I.

All 13 episodes of Daredevil Season 2 will stream Netflix on starting March 18, 2016.

Are you excited to see Charlie Cox in Incognito? Are you dying to see Daredevil Season 2? Let us know your thoughts on the subjects in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

 2016 The Classical Art, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

TagsDaredevil, Season 2, Charlie Cox, Cast, Constellations, Nick Payne, Incognito
Akron Municipal Building

Akron may have run afoul of campaign law by issuing a news release promoting upcoming ballot issues.

(John Harper, cleveland.com)

AKRON, Ohio -- Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan wants voters to support two ballot measures in next week's election, but a press release sent from City Hall has raised ethical questions.

The city has proposed two ballot initiatives in the upcoming election, one that would allow the city to negotiate natural gas rates for all residents and another that would create a department of human resources inside City Hall.

Both measures, under the city's charter and state law, require voter approval. Horrigan's spokeswoman on Wednesday sent out a news release titled 'Vote Yes on Issue 1 and Issue 2'

Under Ohio law, political subdivisions are not allowed to use its own money to promote election issues. Philip Richter, executive director at the Ohio Elections Commission, said there is a general understanding across the state that municipalities shouldn't spend public money on election issues or candidates.

"There are general prohibitions that would prevent that," Richter said.

Akron spokeswoman Christine Curry disputed whether the state law applies, saying it doesn't apply to municipalities with a charter government and also doesn't specify the type of issues being addressed in the news release.

Ohio Revised Code Section 9.03, the law prohibiting cities from promoting election issues, says that corporations with a charter government do not count as "political subdivisions."

However, Richter said that unless a charter has a specifically contradictory law on the subject, state law generally prohibits public dollars spent on influencing an election.

"If they want to interpret it that way, I can't say about that," Richter said. The Ohio Legislature has yet to enact laws that would allow the elections commission to enforce that law, Richter said.

Catherine Turcer, a policy analyst at good government group Common Cause Ohio, explains that cities in Ohio aren't allowed to spend taxpayers' money to pitch election causes to taxpayers.

"It seems trivial, but its very important because taxpayers need space so they can figure it out for themselves," Turcer said. "When it comes to elections there needs to be a separation between taxpayer dollars and campaign dollars."

In responding to an email about the press release, Summit County Board of Elections Director Joe Masich referenced state elections statute, Ohio Revised Code Section 9.03, but didn't comment specifically on Akron's press release.

Voters or taxpayers could file an elections complaint against the city, Turcer said, but there is no automatic enforcement mechanism that would otherwise sanction the city.

Richter said its up to the city's law department to ensure that the city's procedures are within the law.

This article has been updated to include responses from Akron City Spokeswoman Christine Curry and Ohio Elections Commission Director Philip Richter, as well as to clarify specific language in Ohio Revised Code Section 9.03.
AKRON, Ohio -- A convicted Akron gang member is accused of hiding a gun from homicide detectives after removing it from the car of a man killed in a shooting.

Martino Mitchell, 29, is charged with tampering with evidence and obstructing a homicide investigation. Mitchell was arrested about 2 p.m. Wednesday in the 1300 block of Nome Avenue.

He is expected to make his first court appearance Thursday.

Mitchell went into Recardo Travis' 1999 Chevrolet Malibu shortly after Travis was killed in the car about 11:30 p.m.

Mitchell took a gun and a cellphone from the car and hid them under the porch of the home in the 1200 block of Onondago Street before police arrived.

Akron police found Travis dead in the car with several gunshot wounds to his right eye, behind his right ear and in both hands. Travis was accused of being part of the V-Not street gang in Akron in 2007.

After Akron police finished their investigation at the home, Mitchell went under the porch and got the items, according to court records.

Four adults and 11 children lived in the home where the shooting happened. No other arrests have been made.

Mitchell's criminal history includes a conviction for being part of the Bloodlines street gang in 2009. He was sentenced to one year in prison.

He also has convictions for trafficking cocaine, assault and possessing cocaine.
Classic Cuts Barber Shop (real)

Akron police are investigating a fatal shooting on Copley Road in Akron.

(Adam Ferrise, cleveland.com)

AKRON, Ohio -- The Akron man found dead in the parking lot of a barbershop Tuesday afternoon likely died from a shotgun blast, officials said.

Damon Harris, 24, died from the gunshot wound to his back. His death was ruled a homicide.

A witness who spoke to cleveland.com heard two or three gunshots about 2 p.m. Tuesday in the 800 block of Copley Road. Two men ran from the area after the gunshots, the Summit County Medical Examiner said. One ran across Copley Road.

Harris crawled until he collapsed in the parking lot of Classic Cuts Barber and Beauty World. An employee of the barbershop called 911. Another checked on the man and said he was still alive when firefighters loaded him into an ambulance.

Harris was taken to Akron City Hospital, where he died.

The stretch of Copley Road where the shooting occurred is lined with businesses.

The shooting marks the seventh homicide this year in Akron. It's the second in four days.

Recardo Travis, 26, died about 11 p.m. Friday after being shot several times outside his home in the 1200 block of Onondago Street.
Visit our resource centre giving you access to our toolkits, publications, alerters and crossborder guides all in one place
Scott Institute Hosts Energy Week, March 14-18

March 09, 2016





By Leigh Kish / 412-268-2902 / lkish@andrew.cmu.edu





With great power comes great responsibility.

No one knows that better than the 100+ renowned experts in Carnegie Mellon University's Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation who are working to tackle one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century: making more efficient, affordable and sustainable energy.

To that end, they research and develop new products in energy storage and distribution, nuclear and shale gas development, smart buildings and cities, electric energy systems, and systems design optimization and technology and policy assessment.

"Energy is such a big problem, and really a problem for the century, both because we're dependent on it, and because energy is inseparable from climate change," said Jared L. Cohon, president emeritus and director of the Scott Institute, during an appearance on WPXI-TV's "Our Region's Business."

Perhaps, then, it is better said: "With great power  to heat our homes, fuel our cars, and charge our smart phones  comes great responsibility."

The Scott Institute was launched in 2012 as a university-wide research initiative, pulling together faculty and their projects across technology, policy, integrated systems and behavioral science. The institute works with faculty and through departments and the colleges to identify new opportunities for collaborative research that build on the university's current strengths.

The Scott Institute's holistic approach to research and development, along with connections and resources from external partners, facilitates real-world solutions for energy problems.

One such solution is the non-toxic saltwater battery. Engineering Professor Jay Whitacre founded Aquion, a Pittsburgh area startup that manufactures his invention, the Aqueous Hybrid Ion (AHITM). The AHI is an environmentally friendly, sustainable and inexpensive battery that stores solar and wind energy. Residential customers and utility companies can use this non-toxic energy storage system to store wind and solar power for future use. Whitacre received the prestigious Lemelson-MIT prize for this invention.

"That's the whole idea of the Scott Institute. We support deep research that leads to new products and new ways of doing things to improve energy and help Pittsburgh and the nation," said Andy Gellman, professor of Chemical Engineering and co-director of the Scott Institute. Gellman created and leads the institute's seed grant program, now in its fourth year of providing some $500,000 per year to collaborative faculty groups to produce preliminary results before seeking major external support.

Location, Location, Location

A reality facing the Scott researchers is that energy issues tend to be complex without a simple solution that can be generally applied in all contexts.

For example: An electric car is not always better for the environment than a hybrid.

Ines Azevedo, an associate professor of Engineering and Public Policy, Jeremy Michalek, professor of Engineering and Public Policy and Mechanical Engineering, and Chris Hendrickson, University Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, together with Mili-Ann Tamayao, who earned her Ph.D. in engineering at CMU, looked critically at the carbon footprints of electric and hybrid vehicles, specifically the Leaf and Prius, across the U.S.

The study showed that these cars, though more emissions-friendly than their gasoline counterparts, can still result in significant emissions.

"Electricity is produced from different sources in different regions of the U.S. and at different times of day," Michalek said. "Different emissions are produced depending on where and when an electric vehicle is charged."

In some areas like the Midwest, coal-fired power plants, heavy on emissions, supply most of the power. In other parts of the country, the grid could be supplied by wind, solar, natural gas or coal-fired power depending on supply and demand.

As a result, a Midwestern hybrid can be a better choice than an electric car, and the reverse can be true in California.

For those not ready to move to a hybrid just yet, Stefan Bernhard, a professor of Chemistry and another Scott faculty member, might suggest a different type of solar power, this time using sunlight and a catalyst that speeds chemical processes to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can then be used to fuel a vehicle, and it has less of an environmental impact than gasoline.

Location is not only important when charging an electric car; it also is important when considering where to put solar plants and wind farms. The greatest environmental benefits can be realized when this infrastructure is built in unexpected places.

"If our goal is to save the environment by reducing air pollution and carbon emissions, where you build those plants makes a difference," explains Azevedo in a Scott educational video. "While investing in wind farms and solar plants in California is helpful, the environmental benefits are substantially greater if you invest in those same plants in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. That is because electricity used in these regions is based on coal, while in California it is based on energy sources with less air pollution emissions, like natural gas."

This research is a start for informing consumers, policymakers and manufacturers in the U.S., but carbon emissions do not acknowledge borders. That is why it is essential to work toward global solutions, and Scott Institute faculty members are plugged into what's happening.

Climate on the World's Stage

This past December delegates from the world's 196 countries met in France for the United Nations Conference on Climate Change where they negotiated a pact limiting the increase in global temperature to two degrees Celsius from now until 2100.

Azevedo was one of the whopping 45,000 attendees who had the privilege of observing the open presentations and discussions.

"I thought it was very positive to see the resulting agreement include language that set a limit at 2 degrees Celsius," Azevedo said. "It is no small achievement to get all those parties together and for them to develop common language."

While the climate agreement sets the global limit of two degrees by 2100 - which is about 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit  the plan for doing so isn't specific. In fact, one of the focus areas for the Scott Institute is the development of methods to help policy makers identify specific pathways to a low-carbon energy future. Those pathways are likely to include the use of fossil fuels, especially natural gas, for many decades to come. The decisions we made today are likely to have long-lasting consequences.

"The infrastructure for natural gas that we are building today is the stuff that will be on the ground for the next 45 or 50 years. We're locked into that infrastructure," Azevedo said. "I would like to develop new frameworks that consider different circumstances, and that better track the consequences of today's decisions. We can make tools to help decision makers make wiser decisions before we're stuck."

What decision makers choose do is important for the climate and the economy. But what to do can be a moving target.

"In the 2000s, the U.S. was talking about installing natural gas import terminals. That's a multibillion dollar investment," Azevedo said. "Now, just 10 years later, we're talking about building export terminals, which is an equally large investment."

Power Play at Energy Week

With all that's going on in energy at CMU and in the world, the Scott Institute decided that the time is right to hold Carnegie Mellon's first Energy Week, March 14-18, open to everyone.

Each day has a theme: Monday's focus is research, Tuesday's focus is policy, Wednesday's focus is innovation, Thursday's focus is on education and Friday's is on field trip and energy workforce.

Participants can not only hear from top CMU researchers on the latest topics, but also participate in discussion on critical topics such as from what 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 region's 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, Pittsburgh's mayor, leadership from Barefoot College, which works with women in disadvantaged communities in India and Africa to build and maintain solar collectors, and a top energy storage expert from the Electric Power Research Institute.

Participants also will be able to visit CMU labs and research centers that focus on a wide variety of topics such as CMU's self-driving car, solar fuels and surface science to get a more in-depth look at what CMU's researchers are doing in energy. Other Energy Week activities focus on what CMU's students are doing in energy.

"We are hosting student competitions in research, technical innovation, policy, and even the arts for what we hope will be a lively event," said Deborah Stine, associate director of the Scott Institute and organizer of Energy Week.

Energy Week activities are not limited to those at CMU, but include the region as a whole.

"In the Pittsburgh area, energy is often assumed by outsiders to be limited to coal and shale gas. In reality, there are all sorts of exciting things going on in energy regionally," Stine said.

In addition, students from universities and colleges in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland will compete in the Allegheny CleanTech Competition for a $50,000 prize. CMU is the host for one of eight regional competitions. The three winners from the Allegheny competition will compete for an additional $50,000 prize at the national level. Last year's national winner, Hyliion, was from CMU.

More information on Energy Week is at http://www.cmuenergyweek.org. Registration for the entire slate events or daily passes are available.

By Friday of Energy Week, participants will have learned something new; students might have ideas for new career paths; and investors may have new technology to fund.

And CMU students and the Scott Institute experts? They'll be ready, and inspired, to continue their work on the next big thing.

Related links:

Energy Week

Scott Institute Video Series

Jay Whitacre awarded the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize

The Energy Bite Radio Program
watch now

The Twelve Apostles on the coast of Victoria have long been a gem of Australia's tourism industry, with visitors flocking to catch a glimpse of the majestic limestone pillars jutting out of the waves.

Now, scientists from two Australian universities have reported the discovery of the Twelve Apostles' "cousins," dubbed the Drowned Apostles: five underwater limestone sea stacks that are estimated to be about 60,000 years old. The sea stacks, hidden 50 meters (164 feet) beneath the water and 12 kilometers (7.46 miles) away from the Twelve Apostles, were discovered by sonar technology as part of a project to map the reef habitats along Australia's south coast and survey sea life such as rock lobster and abalone.

watch now

Limestone sea stack formations are found on coastlines around the world, formed when cliffs are eroded by harsh winds,rain and waves. The elements first carve caves into the cliffs, which are then worn away to leave just columns of limestone. However, the scientists say this is the first time limestone stacks have been found preserved underwater and in the ocean. "Sea stacks are usually very temporary features, with life spans only in the order of centuries, so the fact that there are these seas stacks at that depth is very remarkable," said Rhiannon Bezore, a University of Melbourne PhD student who discovered the Drowned Apostles with two others. The Twelve Apostles are famously visible to road-trippers traveling the Great Ocean Road through the Port Campbell National Park. Sadly, there are only eight of the Twelve Apostles left to admire, with the rest worn away by the elements since they were first charted (the most recent collapse was in 2005).
The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday announced a $125,000 settlement with California's largest agricultural water district, which the federal agency accused of misleading investors at the time of a 2012 bond offering. An enforcement case against two officials of the district also was settled by the SEC, which said one of them had openly joked about Enron-like accounting. The issuer, Westlands Water District, allegedly falsified the true nature of its debt service reserve funds and financial condition at the time of the $77 million bond offering. Also, the two officials, Westlands General Manager Thomas Birmingham and former Assistant General Manager Louie David Ciapponi, were accused of misleading investors.

This marks the second time a municipal issuer has paid a financial penalty in an SEC enforcement action, the agency said. The previous case was back in 2013 and involved a municipal issuer in Washingtion state.



The Los Angeles Aqueduct carries water from the snowcapped Sierra Nevada Mountains David McNew | Getty Images

Westlands Water District serves the western San Joaquin Valley and is one the largest agricultural water districts in the nation. The Fresno, California-based district, which provides water for farming in the western Fresno and King counties of California, has federal contracts to provide water to farms in the Central Valley. "The undisclosed accounting transactions, which a manager referred to as 'a little Enron accounting,' benefited customers but left investors in the dark about Westlands Water District's true financial condition," said Andrew J. Ceresney, director of the SEC's enforcement division, in a press release. "Issuers must be truthful with investors and we will seek to deter such misconduct through sanctions, including penalties against municipal issuers in appropriate circumstances."

In a statement, Westlands Water District said: "The Commission did not allege, and the order approving the settlement did not find, that Westlands, Birmingham, or Ciapponi intended to mislead potential purchasers of the 2012 bonds. Westlands has not missed any payment required to repay the 2012 bonds and other bonds issued by Westlands."

"Under the terms of the settlement, Westlands, Birmingham, and Ciapponi neither admit nor deny Commission's allegations or the findings contained in the order approving the settlement," said Johnny Amaral, the district's spokesman, in an email declining further comment.

In announcing the enforcement action, the government said Birmingham and Ciapponi "improperly certified the accuracy of the bond offering documents." To settle the charges, the SEC said Birmingham settled for $50,000 and Ciapponi for $20,000.


RonBailey | Getty Images

It's getting easier to shop prices on the one big expense many people put off planning  their own funeral. Costs for those final arrangements can vary widely. An October survey from the Funeral Consumers Alliance and the Consumer Federation of America found full-service funeral prices ranging from $2,580 to $13,800. Even within the same city, the groups said, highs and lows often had variances of more than 200 percent. (See chart below for pricing.) Although the Federal Trade Commission's Funeral Rule requires funeral homes to give pricing information by telephone, 24 of the 150 businesses in the survey did not provide that information after a phone and email request. And only a quarter had price information listed on their website. "The funeral industry certainly makes it more difficult than it needs to be," said Joshua Slocum, executive director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance. "Unfortunately, consumers have to do a lot more work to get an apples-to-apples comparison than they do in almost any other industry."

Or at least, they did. New comparison-shopping site Parting.com details the price lists of every funeral home in the United States, site co-founder Tyler Yamasaki said. Users can enter their ZIP code and type of funeral  traditional, cremation memorial, immediate burial and direct cremation  into the free site to see estimated prices from local businesses.

Low and high prices for funeral services Click to edit Direct Cremation Click to edit Immediate Burial Click to edit Full-Service Funeral Click to edit Low High Low High Low High Atlanta $850 $3,640 $1,195 $5,200 $3,370 $11,050 Denver $1,055 $2,840 $1,260 $2,945 $2,600 $7,855 Indianapolis $895 $3,295 $1,295 $4,365 $2,700 $6,415 Minneapolis $760 $3,000 $650 $3,395 $2,580 $7,855 Philadelphia $1,365 $3,345 $1,080 $3,600 $4,135 $7,990 Seattle $495 $3,390 $690 $3,395 $2,805 $5,515 Tucson $649 $2,440 $640 $3,140 $2,630 $8,140 Washington, D.C. $1,295 $7,595 $1,410 $6,800 $3,770 $13,800

Source: SOURCE: Funeral Consumers Alliance and Consumer Federation of America

"It's something consumers need and want," he said. "So you're not at the mercy of time, and having to make hasty, uninformed decisions."

Yamasaki embarked on the months-long endeavor of building a price database after planning his grandmother's funeral last spring. "I quickly realized that finding prices online was difficult," he said. many homes were unwilling to give detailed pricing over the phone  they wanted him to visit. (Several other sites offer comparison pricing reports, for a fee. Many local Funeral Consumers Alliance groups also release regular local pricing reports.) To build Parting.com, Yamasaki and his business partner Will Chang cold-called funeral homes around the country. While many voluntarily sent over their price lists, for those that wouldn't, the two "mystery shopped" as potential customers. As a last resort they said they cited the FTC Funeral Rule to secure pricing. Easier cost comparisons could make a big difference in how consumers plan. "Most people go to the same funeral home their family has always used, and just say 'yes' to everything," said Cheryl Reed, a spokeswoman for review site Angie's List.

That's a bad idea  and it's unusual for such a big purchase, Slocum said. "You don't make that decision when you buy a car, you don't do that when you decide on a Realtor to sell your home, and you don't do that when you're buying $6,000 worth of new kitchen appliances," he said. Whether you're planning for your own funeral or arranging one for a loved one who died, before you start comparing local funeral homes, think about what kind of funeral you'd like, said Bob Arrington, president of the National Funeral Directors Association. The FTC's Funeral Rule requires funeral homes to allow consumers to choose and pay for only those services they want, so knowing that you want a memorial service versus a viewing can yield more accurate quotes.
It's that time again! Jim Cramer rang the lightning round bell, which means he gave his take on caller favorite stocks at rapid speed:



Blackstone Group : "I think it's fine. It's not going to run away because there is no IPO market, but I'll bless it."

Allegheny Technologies : "No, the only steel company I am recommending right now is Nucor. I do like Alcoa, by the way, it just got hit."

Apache : "Look, they need to raise capital. I'm only recommending Occidental, Exxon, Chevron and Schlumberger in that group. Occidental and Schlumberger are two that my charitable trust owns."

Read more from Mad Money with Jim Cramer

Cramer Remix: These stocks are in a bull market

Cramer: Stop missing gains & start to nail it

Cramer: Cord-cutting fears could be exaggerated

Two Harbors Investment : "That is such a hard one. I see that 13 percent yield, and all I can say is red flag. You shouldn't be able to earn that much."

Cheesecake Factory : "I happen to like Cheesecake Factory. Did you see Darden's numbers today? I think that restaurant segment is on fire."

Frontier Communications : "I never like to reach to get yield. When there are fine companies like Verizon that give you a better one."
Lisa Kivirist owns Inn Serendipity Farm and B&B in Browntown, Wisconsin, where she serves cookies, muffins and breads that she takes pride in making for guests. But selling the baked goods under certain circumstances could potentially land her in jail for up to six months. Kivirist, as a B&B operator, can share baked goods with her guests, as the food is considered part of the B&B service. But state law does not allow her to sell the same baked treats to customers in or outside her establishment. It's a nuance in the state law that hits Kivirist because she doesn't make the treats in a licensed commercial kitchen, which she estimates would cost her about $50,000 to install. Chalk it up to yet another example of strict government regulations. "People have been baking in their homes and selling to neighbors for centuries," Kivirist said. "You can get these businesses up and running without a lot of investment."

Lisa Kivirist is fighting back against business baking regulations in Wisconsin. Photo: Joe Hoffman

Regulation and government red tape have long plagued Main Street. Regulations historically have ranked as among the top three issues for , according to the National Federation of Independent Business, the D.C.-based lobbying group.

But in recent years, red tape faced by small businesses in various states has intensified, according to the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit public interest law firm that fights to limit the size of government. That's why they are taking on small business regulations like Wisconsin's "cookie ban," as well as a seemingly labyrinth of licensing laws for a variety of occupations. Examples include a written test for tour guides that can test knowledge of celebrities like Darius Rucker from Hootie and the Blowfish. Another law requires more than 2,000 hours of costly training as a condition of a cosmetology license. "In the 1950s about 5 percent of the workforce needed a license to work, and they were doctors, lawyers  the people you would expect. Today, that number is over 20 percent  they're florists, interior designers and hair braiders," said Robert McNamara, senior attorney at the Institute for Justice. "We are in the midst of an explosion of occupational licensing laws in this country." Read MoreIRS to return seized cash to small-business owner The Washington-based institute filed a lawsuit challenging portions of Wisconsin's food regulation in January 2016 in state court. The suit is against the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection.

A spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Department of Justice told CNBC by email that it is representing the agency and is reviewing the complaint.

While parts of Wisconsin's food regulations were updated in 2010, the change did not cover home-baked goods.

And to unpack the maze of food laws further, Kivirist can produce and sell cider, maple syrup and other nonbaked goods without a commercial kitchen because those specific items are exempt. That's why she sells canned items including pickles and sauerkraut locally without violating regulations. The Wisconsin Bakers Association, a trade group, supports the regulation. "We welcome anyone that wants to get into the business on a level playing field," said executive director Dave Schmidt.

Hootie and the Blowfish knowledge preferred

Main Street businesses are seeing a rise in the number and complexity of occupational licensing laws. Even the White House has stepped into the fray. "Often the requirements for obtaining a license are not in sync with the skills needed for the job," according to a July 2015 White House report on occupational licensing. Just ask Kimberly Billups, who is trying to open a tour business in Charleston, South Carolina. Billups failed the city's 200-question tour guide exam, which draws on questions from a 490-page book Billups says she was told to "memorize." There is also an oral exam. She's a former tour guide at a historical house in Savannah, Georgia, and hopes to open a business that would allow her to showcase Charleston's historical sights. The entrepreneur wants to lead historical tours in the area, and says celebrity knowledge shouldn't be a high priority for her kind of business. "Hootie from Hootie and the Blowfish was born in Charleston  there were questions like that" on the exam, she said. The Institute of Justice filed a federal lawsuit in January challenging the city's tour guide license regulations.

The city defends the requirement. In an email to CNBC, spokesman Jack O'Toole said the regulation helps protect "the City's tourism economy and its residents and visitors from false or misleading offers of service for compensation, such as a tour guide for hire who has insufficient knowledge to actually guide anyone through the city."

'They're hindering their citizens here'

Aicheria Bell is taking on hair-braiding licensing laws in Iowa. Source: Mark Mostad
If the U.K. decides to leave the European Union (EU), it would have serious ramifications for British science, Stephen Hawking and fellow academics have warned. Along with Hawking, over 150 fellows of the Royal Society, including three Nobel laureates, have signed a letter sent to U.K. newspaper, The Times, coming out in favor of staying in the EU.

Professor Stephen Hawking Bruno Vincent | Getty Images News | Getty Images

"If the UK leaves the EU and there is a loss of freedom of movement of scientists between the UK and Europe, it will be a disaster for UK science and universities," the letter to The Times reads. In the letter, academics outline that increased funding has greatly benefited U.K. and European scientific research, adding that Europe remains a fundamental asset as the science industry recruits "many of (its) best researchers from continental Europe." "Being able to attract and fund the most talented Europeans assures the future of British science and also encourages the best scientists elsewhere to come here."

Following years of debate, U.K. citizens will get a chance to decide whether they want to stay in the European Union on June 23, 2016. The argument centers on a number of key subjects, including sovereignty, economic governance, competitiveness and immigration. Several leading figures and organizations have come out with their own opinion on a "Brexit", while others insist they remain neutral on the matter, including the Bank of England.

In the letter, the academics used Switzerland as an example of a country going it alone in Europe, saying despite the country paying into the EU, it is currently struggling to attract young talent, because of its limited access to EU funds. This was due to a vote to restrict the free movement of workers. "Investment in science is as important for the long-term prosperity and security of the UK as investment in infrastructure projects, farming or manufacturing; and the free movement of scientists is as important for science as free trade is for market economics." To read more of The Times' report, click here.
Carrefour , the world's second-largest retailer, said on Thursday it would boost investments to renovate and open stores this year as it cements its turnaround.

The company said it was also waiting for the right time to float its Carmila property unit on the stock exchange.

Europe's biggest retailer proposed raising its 2015 dividend by 2.9 percent to 0.70 euros a share after operating profit rose 2.4 percent to 2.445 billion euros ($2.68 billion), in line with a Thomson Reuters poll average of 2.45 billion euros.
China's central bank is preparing regulations that would allow commercial lenders to swap non-performing loans of companies for stakes in those firms, two people with direct knowledge of the new policy told Reuters. The new rules would reduce commercial banks' non-performing loan (NPL) ratios, and free up cash for fresh lending for investment in a new wave of infrastructure products and factory upgrades that the government hopes will rejuvenate the world's second-largest economy. NPLs surged to a decade-high last year as China's economy grew at its slowest pace in a quarter of a century. Official data showed banks held more than 4 trillion yuan ($614 billion) in NPLs and "special mention" loans, or debts that could sour, at the year-end.

A worker at a branch of ICBC counts money as she serves a customer. Johannes Eisele | AFP | Getty Images

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the release of a new document explaining the regulatory change was imminent. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) did not immediately respond to requests for comment. "Such a rule change shows banks' bad loans have risen to such a level that this issue has to be tackled now before it's too late," said Wu Kan, Shanghai-based head of equity trading at investment firm Shanshan Finance. State banks have extended loans to government financing vehicles and state-owned coal and steel producers, so this policy can help give lenders time to deal with non-performing assets as China pushes supply-side reforms, Wu added. The quality of assets held by banks is worse than it looks, analysts have said. To avoid stumping up capital and to protect their balance sheets, some banks have under-reported bad loans and under-recognized overdue debt. The top banking regulator has warned commercial lenders to pay special attention to risks.

Bank shares fell more than 2 percent on Thursday, with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China down 2 percent and Bank of Communications losing 2.7 percent. "This was mainly due to a technical correction, but there's also investor uncertainty over how those non-performing assets would be valued, and disposed of eventually," said Wu at Shanshan Finance. Cabinet approval The sources said the new regulations would get special approval from the State Council, China's cabinet-equivalent body, thus skirting the need to revise commercial bank law, which bars banks from investing in non-financial institutions. Previously, Chinese commercial banks usually dealt with NPLs by selling them at a discount to state-designated asset management companies which, in turn, would try to recover the debt or re-sell at a profit to distressed debt investors. The sources had no further detail on how banks would value the new equity stakes, which would represent assets on their balance sheets, or what ratio or amount of NPLs they would be able to convert this way. On paper, the move would also represent a way for indebted companies to reduce their leverage, cutting the cost of servicing debt and making them more worthy of fresh credit. Beijing has prioritized the closure of so-called "zombie" firms responsible for much of China's corporate debt overhang, and has taken aim at overcapacity in industries such as steel and coal. Lai Xiaomin, chairman of China Huarong Asset Management, the country's biggest bad debt manager, said he had no direct knowledge of the move, but would welcome such debt-to-equity swaps.
Cyprus's bailout came with "harsh" terms but enabled the country to make much-needed reforms, its president told CNBC on Thursday.

This week, the Mediterranean island exited its three-year 10 billion euro ($11 billion) bailout to acclaim, after posting its best year of economic growth in seven years.

Nicos Anastasiades, the Cypriot president, said that the strict conditionality of the bailout package meant that necessary reforms to the banking sector, fiscal policy and state-run enterprises were made, rather than being blocked in parliament.

"Cyprus needed drastic reforms . It was our obligation to face the crisis," the 69-year-old leader told CNBC via a translator.

Anastasiades came to power in March 2013 as the Cypriot banking system was collapsing and a bailout funded by the European Stability Mechanism and the International Monetary Fund was about to be announced.


According to the Vera Institute of Justice, 40 percent of Central American children would likely be eligible for relief from deportation, however these children are not entitled to legal counsel and in many cases are forced to represent themselves during their asylum hearings. Recently, a federal immigration judge, who is responsible for training other judges, said in sworn testimony that a 3-year old child can be taught enough immigration law to represent himself or herself in court. In a nation like ours, where children are guarded at every corner and our courts are guided by what is 'in the best interest of the child," to leave a 3-year-old to defend himself or herself in a court of law  especially when it could be a matter of life or death  is beyond reason and humanity.

This is in addition to the increase in raids across the country that continue to divide families, leaving children without their parents, with no path toward reunification any time soon. These raids have caused widespread fear among the Hispanic community, driving thousands further into the shadows for fear of being deported back to countries that, in many cases, have war-zone dangers at every turn.
Higher education can be a costly business, with graduates leaving college with huge debts that can take decades to pay off. But a new study ranking the top 200 institutions in Europe reveals which colleges  or universities - offer students both the best tuition as well as the best deals.

The rankings data, compiled by Times Higher Education (THE) and published Thursday, showed that over a quarter of the best universities in Europe are based in the U.K.. Oxford University ranked as the best institution in Europe to study, based on factors such as the quality of teaching, research and international outlook.



Students walk past the Radcliffe Camera building in Oxford city centre as Oxford University commences its academic year on October 8, 2009 in Oxford, England. Oli Scarff | Getty Images News | Getty Images

But with annual fees in the U.K. coming to around 11,612 euros ($12,750) if you are in the European Union or as much as 18,320 euros if you are from overseas, this is certainly not the most affordable place to get a degree. Outside of the U.K., colleges in Switzerland, Sweden and Germany are the only institutions listed in the top 10, with ETH Zurich, the Swedish Karolinska Institute and LMU Munich ranked the fourth, the ninth and the tenth best in Europe, respectively. Germany is the second most-represented nation in the list, with 36 institutions, almost a third of which (11) are in the top 50, according to the THE study.

For cost efficiency for a top 10 university, Germany wins hands down with annual fees for both EU and non-EU students costing absolutely nothing.

Norway also offers free tuition fees for all students, but its highest ranking institution is the University of Oslo, coming in sixty-third place. Sweden is free for EU students, but charges 9,700 EUROS? for overseas fees, while Switzerland charges between 1,500 and 6,000 euros for all students. The Republic of Ireland is one of the costliest places to study for students outside of the EU, with fees ranging from 10,000 euros for arts and humanities subjects to a whopping 52,000 euros ($57,026) for medicine.

Tuition fees for EU and non-EU students

Tuition fees for EU and non-EU students, Times Higher Education World University Rankings
Foreign investors are rushing to cash in on a bonanza in Iran since UN economic sanctions from the West were lifted in January. That's because the country's $400 billion economy  the second largest in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia  may surge in the months ahead as President Hassan Rouhani works to diversify the oil-based economy. So far, investor enthusiasm for the frontier market has not waned, despite ballistic missile tests conducted over the last two days by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. The actions defy U.S. sanctions and may be in violation of the UN resolution.

Customers browse Apple Inc. computer products in the window of a retail outlet inside an electronics superstore in Tehran, Iran. Simon Dawson | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Iran's GDP is expected to grow 6 percent this year and almost 7 percent next year, according to the World Bank. The country has three great strengths: natural resources, including oil, gas and minerals; a huge population of nearly 80 million; and manufacturing capacity unrivaled in the Middle East. Oil and gas account for only 10 percent of the GDP. Investors worldwide have a myriad and growing number of options to invest in Iran, probably the world's hottest geographic investment opportunity in the last 20 years  all except for Americans. Though they have been eyeing the Iranian market, U.S. institutional and individual investors are hitting some brick walls because of the still-in-place U.S. sanctions that make it nearly impossible for U.S. companies to set up a physical presence in Iran, partner with an Iranian company or even sell most goods there. U.S. bilateral sanctions remain in place, President Barack Obama has said, over Iran's violations of human rights, support for terrorism and its ballistic missile program. Yesterday's missile tests make an early removal of U.S. sanction less likely. Vice President Joe Biden condemned the action, and noted there could be U.S. retaliation. There are a few exceptions, though, including food, medical equipment, transportation and some IT products. And some U.S. companies may be able to get licenses through the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) to work in sectors defined as aligning with U.S. policy interests, including oil and gas and aviation. Companies, such as Honeywell International, General Electric and Boeing , are expected to get to trade with Iran, said Cyrus Razzaghi, CEO of Ara Enterprise, a consultancy in Tehran working to help foreign companies and investors navigate Iranian laws and find business partners.

"We get a lot of calls from American investors," said Dominic Bokor-Ingram, portfolio advisor to the Turquoise Variable Capital Investment Fund, established in December with 50 million euros to invest in public companies in Iran. His London-based firm tells them: No, sorry, you can't invest. Meanwhile, European and Asian companies are moving in to get early footholds. Airbus has a $27 billion deal to provide 118 jetliners to Iran's state airline company; Peugeot returned with a 400 million euro ($435 million) deal to update its factory and begin manufacturing cars; the Renault -Nissan alliance is in aggressive talks with local partners Saipa and Iran Khodro to expand car manufacturing; and Italian and French mining companies, including Persiana Metalica and Fiault, are in talks to invest more than 5 billion euros in aluminum and steel projects, according to Iranian news sources, which also reported that Chinese firms are negotiating to finance coal production.

Getting a piece of the action

For now, individual U.S. investors and institutions are exploring ways to invest in Iran through offshore entitles, foreign subsidiaries or funds based in Europe, said sources. But "it's like speeding down the Dulles toll road at 90 mph," said Farhad Alavi, managing partner of the Akrivis law firm, naming a highway near Washington, D.C. "You can do it 50 times and be fine, but the 51st, you might not be." In other words, no one knows how the U.S. Department of Justice will interpret the U.S. sanctions in the new environment, especially against individual and institutional investors. In the past, it has prosecuted many companies, large and small, for breaking the embargo, including a 2014 $8.9 billion fine against Paris-based financial services giant BNP Paribas. The risks for investors are undeniable. The biggest is the geopolitical risk and the possibility of the U.S. reimposing sanctions if Iran violates the terms of the nuclear agreement down the road. In addition, the country has infrastructure problems, an unfamiliar legal and regulatory regime that lacks transparency, complex regulations, and all the usual challenges of finding good business partners. Another wild card is how soon global banks will reengage in Iranian business. Many are sitting on the sidelines to see how events unfold.

watch now

watch now

watch now

For those looking for a frontier investment play, here are four options open to investors worldwide.  Private equity funds are opening, often headquartered in London or Geneva, many with sector-specific approaches. They offer assurances of compliance with the still-evolving legal picture. For instance, Griffon Capital is a private equity firm focused on Iran, aiming to capture institutional funds, according to its website. Its also has an asset management arm to invest in Iranian securities, headquartered in the Cayman Islands. Another fund is Iratel Ventures. Mohsen Khalkhali, managing partner at the fund, which is the investing arm of Iranian telecom company Pars Iratel, is raising a $10 million to invest $50,000 to $100,000 in start-ups in or related to Iran, especially in the mobile arena, he said.  The Turquoise Variable Capital Investment Fund, a joint venture between London-based Charlemagne Capital and Tehran-based Turquoise Capital Partners, opened in December with a minimum of 125,000 euros to invest. It's investing in 20 to 25 companies trading on the Tehran stock exchange, which, according to Charlemagne, has a market capitalization of $100 billion and daily trading volume of about $2 billion, making it the second-largest exchange in the emerging markets. Turquoise Capital also announced separately that it was launching an ETF mirroring an index tracking Iran's biggest public companies.

 Investors with enough knowledge can also invest directly in companies in Iran. The country's laws allow foreign direct investment, said Razzaghi. Foreigners are allowed to own 100 percent of a venture, and there are laws to protect them, he said. And its tax rates are attractive. Iran has a 25 percent corporate tax rate, and there is a 9 percent value-added tax.  Angel investors are beginning to explore the tech market in Iran, which many expect to grow exponentially. Iran is home to Sharif University of Technology, known as the MIT of Iran, which has a student body of 12,000 studying engineering, economics and science. More of the country's tech talent  which had been emigrating to the United States and Europe  may now remain at home. "In the last three years, more than 200 start-ups have formed in Iran. A movement has begun. It's accelerating," said Nasser Ghanemzadeh, who founded Opatan, an Iranian cloud start-up. He was in San Francisco for the past several weeks, attending a workshop organized in part by the venture capital firm 500 Startups, so that he could learn to be a venture capitalist himself.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at the White House on Thursday he has great faith in the American electoral process.



"The relationship, the friendship between our two countries goes far beyond any two individuals or any ideologies," he said during a news conference with President Barack Obama. "I have tremendous confidence in the American people and I look forward to working with whomever they choose to send to this White House later this year."



Obama said the turmoil in the Republican Party, with anti-establishment candidates leading the party's presidential nomination race, is not the result of actions he has taken as president.

"I have been blamed by Republicans for a lot of things, but being blamed for their primaries and who they're selecting for their party is novel," Obama said. "What I'm not going to do is to validate some notion that the Republican crackup that's been taking place is a consequence of actions that I've taken."

"There are thoughtful conservatives who are troubled by this, who are troubled by the direction of their party," he added.
watch now

A ferocious line of thunderstorms responsible for three deaths and that left 25 million Americans facing the threat of floods was set to wreak more misery across the Gulf Coast and South on Thursday. Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas have been hammered all week with downpours, large hail, and at least two tornadoes  and forecasters warned there was more to come. Some areas have seen a foot of rain since Tuesday, with more than 16 inches falling near the northern Louisiana city of Monroe. While severe thunderstorms were less likely Thursday, the rain was forecast to continue and shift eastward. Parts of Tennessee and Mississippi were also set to get soaked  with up to a foot of rain possible in New Orleans through Saturday.

NWS Charleston tweet "Unfortunately, the heavy rain will continue over this hard-hit part of the South for another 24-48 hours before slowly shifting east," The Weather Channel reported late Wednesday. The National Weather Service warned that the extra rain "will add to an already historic flash flooding event." Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency on Wednesday. Meteorologist Michael Berry in Shreveport told The Associated Press that 7 to 10 more inches of rain will fall in the next 24 to 36 hours. The storm has been responsible for countless flooded roadways and water rescues across the region. By 4:30 a.m. ET, more than 20 flights had been canceled at Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport. Residents were being actively warned to avoided submerged areas, with an 800-mile wedge of flood and flash-flood warnings and watches was in effect from southern Texas to Illinois. The storm has already been responsible for at least three deaths. A 64-year-old man died outside Lucky, Louisiana, after driving through floodwaters on a road, the Bienville Parish Sheriff's Office said. His 70-year-old passenger was found clinging to a tree and was rescued. The road was not barricaded, the sheriff's office said. Two others died in separate accidents across the region since the storms began sweeping through Monday, officials said.
The recent developments in the European Union show that discord over the migrant crisis could end up fragmenting the EU, threatening to cut off their political oxygen to deal with other challenges, like Brexit or the Greek debt crisis.

A boy plays in a mud puddle at a makeshift camp of the Greek-Macedonian border near the Greek village of Idomeni, on March 8, 2016, where thousands of refugees and migrants are trapped by the Balkans border blockade. Dimitar Dilkoff | AFP | Getty Images

EU interior ministers are set to meet in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the migrant crisis after western Balkan nations slammed shut their borders (the Balkan route used by hundreds of thousands of people in recent months), exacerbating a dire humanitarian situation on the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia frontier. The talks come after Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia barred entry to transiting migrants from midnight Wednesday.

On Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel blamed European nations for "unilaterally" shutting the Balkan route for migrants, criticizing the de facto closure. "This is not the solution to the overall problem," she said at a meeting of her own party CDU in Bad Neuenahr, in the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Mentioning the plight of refugees stranded in Greece, she said this will not go well in the long run and stressed: "We can not make nice in 27 countries and have a country dealing alone with the problem." It is important to find a European balance, she said, adding, "This will be a big task."

Merkel's comments clashed with EU President Donald Tusk, who earlier had welcomed the change, saying the Balkan states were simply implementing an important part of the EU plan to tackle the refugee crisis. Alexis Tsipras, the Greek Prime Minister, came to the defense of Angela Merkel. He responded to Donald Tusk through Twitter , saying: "The Western Balkans route has come to an end due to unilateral actions by certain countries. EU has no future if it goes on like that."

The refugees throughout Greece are currently estimated at 41,973, according to data released Thursday by the Special Management Coordinating Body for Refugee Crisis, a special department set up by the Greek government.



watch now

In the last 24 hours, an additional 2,373 migrants reached the Greek islands, bringing the total number of refugees in the islands in 9,428. On Thursday morning in Idomeni camp, on the border of Macedonia, stranded refugees were estimated at 12,000.

The Greek government, aiming to persuade refugees to move to accommodation structures rather than living in tents on the mud and dirt near the border, is handing out brochures to inform refugees about the available accommodation facilities. This situation constantly worsens financial conditions of Greece. OECD's Economic Survey of Greece published on Thursday said that if the refugee crisis further intensifies, the broader regional economy of Greece would suffer, with severe implications for growth and fiscal balances.

Presenting a report in Athens on Thursday, in a meeting with the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria said that the refugee crisis is posing major problems for the Greek economy and its recovery. "Greece needs to receive significant help to address this new challenge," he said.

According to the OECD report, the preliminary cost is around 0.35 percent of GDP in 2015 ($446 million). "If the foreseen contribution of the European Union turns out to be insufficient, it would result in added pressure on the Greek budget," the report said. The OECD pointed out the issue of continuous health monitoring for the 1.35 million immigrants and refugees that have already entered the country in the last months. Over the next three years, the EU will be preparing to allocate 700 million euros ($765 million) for humanitarian aid in countries that receive refugees, primarily for Greece. But finding the money is not easy.


Up to 40 percent of Cypriot bank deposits were estimated to belong to Russian businesses and individuals worth around $32 billion, according to analysis by Moody's ratings agency at the time.

That unprecedented measure saw many foreigners hit and many of the accounts with larger deposits were Russian owned. The island's financial system had been particularly popular with Russian investors and businesses, prompting accusations that it was a place for money laundering at worst and tax avoidance at best.

As well as imposing strict capital controls on account holders, the Cyprus government had to wind down the Cyprus Popular Bank and recapitalize another  the Bank of Cyprus  with measures including the seizing of depositors' uninsured savings above 100,000 euros ($120,000).

You could forgive wealthy Russians for steering clear of Cypriot banks given that many Russians with large deposits in the country were hit hard by a "bail-in" of bank deposits when the financial crisis hit in 2013.

But John Hourican, the chief executive of the Bank of Cyprus, told CNBC on Thursday that following an economic recovery in Cyprus (it has just exited its bailout early and with money to spare) Russians and Ukrainians were still depositing money in the country's financial system.

"It's a country in transition, the business services and wealth preservation engines that exist in Cyprus are still there," he told CNBC in Nicosia. Although the level of Russian money in the country had "gone down significantly", he said.

"If we look at international business about a third of those who are with us are Ukrainian and Russian in terms of genesis but if you look at those businesses they are real trading businesses. The wealth preservation angle is a lot less of an issue today than it was in the past."

Hourican said that Cyprus' banking system was well on its way to recovery although there were still issues to iron out.

"We have to work our way through some of the issues that still exist; non-performing loans are high in the economy but starting to come down. We've been reducing our level of delinquency by about 700 million euros a quarter -- which to put into context is close to 4 percent of GDP per quarter. We are seeing construction startingWe're seeing consumer spending and new car registrations and property prices stabilize."

"I think there are enough positives that are real for us to believe the recovery is underway," he said.

Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook.


The Republican leadership seems unable to close the deal. Trump didn't create the GOP's disconnect with the votershe illuminated and exploited it. No matter the outcome in 2016, the intellectual and political leadership of the conservative movement should be undertaking a serious round of soul-searching.

Instead, the old guard has regrouped as the Nevertrumps. Having despaired of uniting behind a candidate capable of outpolling Trumpand still wary of Ted Cruz, who seems best positioned to finish a close secondthe Nevertrumps seek creative ways to impose their wisdom on a foolish nation.

Their proposals are more likely to further the divide between America's masses and its elite than to defeat the Democratic candidate. While some Nevertrumps advocate strategic voting to wrest the nomination away from primary voters and return it to party elders, others hope that a third party will throw the election to the House of Representatives.
If you're sick of paying extra fees during your night flight, there may be relief in sight.

Senators Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Ed Markey of Massachusetts introduced a bill this week that would curb the fees that can be charged. "Forbidding Airlines from Imposing Ridiculous (FAIR) Fees Act," would allow the Department of Transportation to have greater power to limit airline fee increases.

"With the dramatic reduction in competition in the airline industry, it's left airlines more free to dramatically increase the fees," Markey told CNBC's "Power Lunch". "The airlines have more freedom to engage in price increases that don't reflect market forces," he added.



The bill, if signed into law, would stop airlines from charging fees that are considered "unreasonable or disproportional to the costs."


Editor's note: TipRanks is a tech company that ranks analysts and financial bloggers based on their picks' performance. The goal of this piece is to highlight an analyst who has a great track record, rather than the ones from the biggest firms.

One of Wall Street's best analysts says investors should buy Intel as it potentially diversifies into being a larger supplier for Apple's iPhone and as it grows its data center business.



John Pitzer of Credit Suisse has a 14.7 percent one-year average return on his stock recommendations with a 63 percent success rate, according to TipRanks. He is ranked in the top 3 percent of all Wall Street analysts for his stock-picking acumen.



The downfall of the PC is a hurdle for semiconductor companies. Recent data highlighting weak PC sales are a source of worry for many, but Pitzer reiterates a "buy" rating on Intel with a $40 price target as he points to catalysts that could drive shares higher.

Here's why:
watch now

watch now

watch now

When Mitt Romney unleashed a barrage of criticism against his party's front-runner, he began with the economic argument against Donald Trump. He's not alone in these claims: Many economists are also expressing their concern that the real estate magnate's policies could lead to a global recession. Romney charged that Trump "would be very bad for American workers and for American families." But Trump's tax plan bears many similarities with other GOP hopefuls in that it would reduce the marginal rates for many individuals and businesses. Instead, it's his propositions for America's place in the global economy that are raising eyebrows. "We have so much power and we don't use it," Trump told CNBC's "Squawk Box" in an interview Thursday. "We can't let the world take advantage of us from an economic standpoint, and that's what they're doing."

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump Win McNamee | Getty Images

Trump argued that other countries are unfairly taking advantage of the U.S. through a combination of high taxes on American products and devaluing their own currencies. While using the American economy as "the money supply," these countries are bleeding high-paying jobs  and whole companies  out of the U.S., Trump contended. The solution, Trump has said, is to levy high tariffs on the goods of any country he feels treats America unfairly. "There's only one thing you can really do  I mean you can devalue, but you can do something else which I think is probably much better than devaluing  you can charge surtax or you can charge a tax for products that they sell in the United States," Trump said. "I have great relationships and business relationships with China, and even those people say they can't believe what they're getting away with." But many experts interviewed by CNBC dismissed Trump's calls for extreme tariffs  35 percent on Ford vehicles from Mexico and 45 percent on Chinese goods  saying they strained credulity, even by campaign-promise standards. "I think in order to qualify as a coherent set of policies, the policies have to not be cartoonish and the policies have to stand some chance of being actually enacted, and I just don't think Mr. Trump's trade policies meet either of those criteria," said Michael Strain, resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. A spokeswoman for Trump's campaign did not immediately return a request for comment on this article.

Congress would never assent to such extreme measures, Strain said, because international trading partners and domestic businesses would immediately apply "enormous pressure." But beyond the political possibility of such a proposal, massive tariffs would also have significantly deleterious effects for the U.S. and world economy, several economists said.

Even if the welfare of the rest of the globe is excepted, such a tax on goods imported from China would "tremendously" hurt the poor by jacking up the prices on many of the products they most frequently use, said Caroline Freund, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

But extreme tariffs would also hurt American manufacturing  the very sector that Trump says he seeks to bolster  by raising the prices on production inputs sourced from abroad. Steel from China, for example, would become significantly more expensive for more U.S. firms, Freund said. "So many U.S. companies are deeply involved in global supply chains: I can't even imagine what that would look like with high tariffs," she said. Expanding the economic view to the global level, experts said Trump's strong measures would likely start an international trade war that cripples everyone involved. One argument economists make is that high tariffs on goods from a country like China will lead to an oversupply of products unable to be sold in the U.S., so those goods will go for even cheaper than normal in other countries, and those countries will then respond with tariffs of their own. The end result is high prices around the world, and a slowdown in international growth  or even an outright recession. Some countries might raise taxes on American goods just as a reaction to a more isolationist economic policy, experts said. "If you take (Trump's) position as real, that we would do this, then it would take the world down the road that we saw in the 1930s that we saw with the SmootHawley Tariff," Freund said. "The world would definitely fall into a recession."

That 1930 act significantly raised tariffs on goods coming into the United States, and "economists still agree that Smoot-Hawley and the ensuing tariff wars were highly counterproductive and contributed to the depth and length of the global Depression," then-Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in 2013. Although most economists present a united front on the benefits of free trade, many argue against completely unfettered global capitalism. The usual form of that criticism emanating from both sides of the debate is that free trade deals between the U.S. and poorer countries hurt the American middle class while contributing to worker exploitation abroad. Trump insisted on CNBC that he believes in free trade, but "to be a good free trader you have to have smart people on our side also, and we are being out negotiated on every corner." And Trump isn't the only candidate this year who has expressed doubt about America's global trade position. "These treaties have forced American workers to compete against desperate and low-wage labor around the world. The result has been massive job losses in the United States and the shutting down of tens of thousands of factories," a statement on Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders' Senate webpage said. "These corporately backed trade agreements have significantly contributed to the race to the bottom, the collapse of the American middle class and increased wealth and income inequality." But many of those who say Trump has rightly diagnosed a problem are wary of his prescriptions. Thea Lee, deputy chief of staff at the AFL-CIO, told CNBC's "Power Lunch" last week that "there's no question" recent trade policies have failed American workers, but she said she worries Trump doesn't have "very many solutions about where we need to go."



watch now

"His proposals aren't viable, they're not practical, and they're hypocritical  to be honest," she said, referring to his call for Nabisco to bring Oreo production back from Mexico, while many of his own clothing lines are produced offshore. "There's no question that we have a terrible disadvantage right now because our trade policies have failed, but obviously he's talking about policies that would be outside of all our current trade agreements and trade rules."

For Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, Trump has rightly identified the problematic imbalance of trade between the U.S. and countries like China  but the real estate magnate's tariff proposals are just treating symptoms, not the real problem of big government, over-regulation and the lack of savings spurred by Fed policy. Schiff said he agreed with others that Trump's tariffs would hurt many Americans in the short term, spiking prices, squeezing companies, increasing layoffs and deepening recession. But just as critically, that near-term pain would not be sufficient to renew America's manufacturing base. "Protectionism works when you have an industry to protect, but when industry is gone, it's just higher prices," Schiff said, explaining that there are few U.S. firms ready to supply Americans with the goods they've come to expect from Chinese sources. Even CNBC contributor Larry Kudlow, who has endorsed Trump's tax plan, warned last year that the candidate's "protectionist" trade proposals could backfire. But some have cheered Trump's proposals. In a note Thursday, Peter Morici, an economist and business professor at the University of Maryland, said the candidate's tariff suggestion "makes sense." "Trump's proposed tariff on imports to force China to revalue its currency and renegotiate its trade practices is hardly reckless," he said, citing a similar prescription from liberal quarters.
Five years after an accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, some scientists continue to find found small amounts of radioactive material along the West Coast of North America. And some of them say we should expect to see this in the ocean for decades to come. Elevated levels found off the coast of Japan show that the situation is not yet under control, and that the facility is still leaking radiation. But the levels observed near the United States are below  very far below  those set by health and safety standards, and are also far outstripped by naturally occurring radiation.



A lone tree sits on the tsunami-scarred landscape in the exclusion zone, close to the devastated Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on Feb. 26, 2016, in Namie, Fukushima, Japan. Getty Images

On March 12, 2011, an earthquake triggered a tsunami that struck 700 miles of coastline and caused a disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant. It was considered the worst such disaster since the meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Russia in 1986.

Much of the radiation from the disaster leaked into the sea, leading to fears in other countries that the toxins would poison marine ecosystems and fisheries, and cause cancer or other health problems for humans. U.S. scientists began receiving phone calls from concerned citizens asking them if it was safe to eat fish or swim in the ocean. While government agencies looked for radiation in soil, air, drinking water and the food supply, oceanographer Ken Buesseler said a "traditional gap" in government agency responsibility leaves ocean radiation unstudied. But the public was concerned  Buesseler was getting phone calls from worried citizens. There had also been a series of massive die-offs of marine life, especially sea lions, and some of the people Buesseler talked to feared the die-offs resulted from radiation, he said. He and a team secured a grant from the Moore Foundation and ran a crowdfunding campaign to pay for a vessel, researchers, and the equipment needed to take seawater samples near Japan and North America.

watch now

His team looked for a particular radioactive isotope called cesium-134. That isotope is particularly useful because it has a very short, two-year half-life. If there was cesium-134 somewhere in the ocean, it almost certainly would have to come from Fukushima. Other isotopes  such as cesium-137  have far longer half-lives. There still is some cesium-137 in the ocean from nuclear tests conducted in the middle of the 20th Century, for example. Cesium is soluble in seawater, so it is easily taken up and dispersed by ocean currents. This may partly be a good thing: The ocean is vast, and it has quickly diluted concentrations in the most affected area around Japan. But it does mean radiation can spread out across the Pacific and around the planet. Last December, Buesseler and his team said they had found a spike of cesium-134 off the coast of California  about 11 becquerels per cubic meter of water. Becquerels are a unit measuring radiation. Buesseler and his team reported finding about 10 becquerels per cubic meter of water 1,500 miles north of Hawaii. That was a level around twice as high as levels they had found on previous missions. Five years later, scientists have reason to assume radiation from the Fukushima disaster is still showing up on U.S. shores. And they will likely continue to leak and drift for decades to come. Then again, these levels are extremely small. To put 11 becquerels in perspective, a single dental X-ray would expose a person to 1,000 times more radiation than swimming in that water for an entire year, according to Buesseler. It is about 500 times lower than the U.S. government standard for safe drinking water.

watch now

Manley, who studies kelp and seaweed, was also receiving phone calls from people worried about radiation in the ocean shortly after the accident. He contacted Kai Vetter, a researcher and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who had already started a project monitoring the air for radiation after the accident. They formed a group called Kelp Watch in the wake of the accident. The group involved 52 marine scientists taking kelp samples at sites ranging from Kodiak Island off the coast of Alaska, to Baja California, in Mexico, and as far east as Hawaii. To date, they have found no detectable levels of radioactive isotopes in kelp or seaweed tissue. Vetter told CNBC that they are certain there is some radiation from Fukushima in the kelp, but the levels are so low their equipment has not been able to detect it. The radiation Buesseler was measuring in the Pacific was orders of magnitude smaller than what would be required to cause the aforementioned sea life die-offs in the Pacific. Separate research from NOAA and other groups has tentatively connected some of these deaths to toxins released by plankton blooms  products likely of unusually warm ocean water common during El Nino. In any event, Buesseler said, if the levels were high enough to lead to die-offs around the Pacific, there would have to be greater marine life losses close to Japan, and there haven't been.

Radioactivity is everywhere, and most of it is naturally occurring. "We are living in a radioactive world, and we are exposed to it all the time," Vetter told CNBC. And to a certain extent, humans can handle it. However, radiation can be carcinogenic  sun exposure can cause skin cancer, for example. But small amounts of sun exposure are not necessarily harmful, and the body has repair mechanisms to handle damage. It is also important to keep radiation from specific sources in perspective.

Workers outside Reactor 4 work to decontaminate the Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Feb. 25, 2016, in Okuma, Japan. Getty Images

A study commissioned by Congress in 1999 estimated that the air in the U.S. averages about 15 becquerels of radon per cubic meter. Kelp has naturally occurring potassium-40, another radioactive isotope and "the potassium-40 levels in kelp are extremely high compared to the very small amount of cesium that has been detected in seawater," Manley said. That said, it is still necessary to keep a close watch over radioactivity levels from the accident. "We are not completely out of the woods," Buesseler said. The Fukushima site is still full of radioactive material, and there have been some leaks since the accident that have released more material into the environment. He said there about a thousand tanks full of "something on the order of 750 million tons of water that are far more radioactive than anything in the ocean." There is also radioactive material in the groundwater, soil and in the buildings. "I expect to see small leaks for decades to come," he said. "It is a difficult thing to have soil and groundwater and buildings contaminated to this extent and not have that leaking out."
Last week, news that 30 employees were unexpectedly terminated from Philadelphia's Vetri Family Restaurants chain shook the city's restaurant world. Unlike most employees, who are generally fired for not showing up to work on time or doing a bad job, these longtime Vetri staffers inadvertently found themselves in the middle of the highly political immigration debate raging outside the kitchen.

When Vetri's restaurants were acquired by Urban Outfitters , its employees were required to re-submit to background checks that included a little-known screening process called E-Verify, which allows employers to determine a potential employee's legal status to work in the United States once they've extended them an offer of employment. As a result, the 30 employees who didn't pass those screenings were abruptly terminated.

Chef preparing food in restaurant kitchen West End61 | Getty Images

"It just sucks. But this is what America is. My grandfather left Italy when he was 17 years old, stowed away on a ship. He got here illegally," Vetri told Philly Magazine. "But now you have a different circumstance. You have second- and third-generation immigrants who have raised families here, and there's still no real road for them to get legal, even though they are the fabric of our society."

Read more from Eater:

Escaping the restaurant industry's motherhood trap

Five cooking techniques from Gordon Ramsay

Massachusetts Chipotle fet to reopen after norovirus scare



watch now

It isn't just employees, though, who would be adversely impacted by tougher immigration screening practices  restaurants are also at risk. In response to Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump's plan to deport undocumented immigrants, Anthony Bourdain alleged that "every restaurant in America would shut down" if that plan came to fruition. As Vetri notes, the firing of these 30 employees is indicative of a much broader problem with the restaurant industry's labor force. As an industry heavily staffed by immigrants  roughly 10 percent of the overall workforce, many of whom are undocumented  the cloudy political climate surrounding immigration reform makes this issue incredibly important for restaurateurs. But how will the restaurant industry fare if E-Verify becomes mandatory? To get a clear picture of this intensely partisan and convoluted issue, it's important to examine the history of E-Verify and what it actually means for employers and employees in the restaurant industry, its potential benefits and drawbacks, and the impact that stricter screening practices could have on both the future of the industry and the people who work in food service.

What Is E-Verify? The road to E-Verify as it is exists today starts in 1986, when President Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act. This comprehensive approach to immigration reform, the first ever of its kind, provided a pathway to citizenship for more than three million undocumented immigrants in the United States. Also tucked into the bill was a provision that required job-seekers to certify their eligibility to work in the United States by filling out the Employment Eligibility Form, or Form I-9, now a common part of the hiring process for virtually all American employers. Once they have received the I-9, employers who are enrolled in E-Verify take the information provided by the potential employee and enter it into the online database. After the information has been submitted, E-Verify determines whether or not the employee is legally authorized to work in the United States and provides that information to the employer. The system can also produce what is called an "interim case result," which requires the employee to provide additional information to determine their work status before the system makes a final determination. The first prototype of E-Verify, known originally as the Basic Pilot Program, was introduced as part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. The rudimentary database originally only collected data from the Social Security Administration, which allowed employers to verify that a person's Social Security number, date of birth, and name matched government records. The E-Verify database technology has improved in the following two decades, and has since expanded to include information provided by the Department of Homeland Security.

E-Verify has always been a voluntary program, but a number of states have taken matters into their own legislative hands to require its implementation. At present, seven states (including Georgia, Arizona, and South Carolina) require that all employers use E-Verify, and 17 others require that at least some employees (generally those working in or with government agencies) are screened. In contrast, California legislators voted last year to limit the use of E-Verify for employers in the state, going so far as to impose a $10,000 fine on employers who "misuse" the system. E-Verify and the restaurant industry Marc Vetri isn't the only restaurateur who's had to contend with E-Verify. Restaurants are, not surprisingly, disproportionately impacted by enhanced screening procedures for immigrant workers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, of the 12.7 million employees in the U.S. restaurant workforce, 1.4 million are immigrants. But how many of those workers are undocumented? The data on undocumented workers is nigh impossible to track due to the off-the-books nature of their employment, but a 2008 analysis from the Pew Hispanic Center found that at least 20 percent of all cooks in American restaurants were undocumented employees. For dishwashers, generally the lowest-paid employees in a restaurant, that proportion increases to nearly one-third. Considering the sheer number of undocumented workers in the restaurant business, it's no surprise that restaurateurs have largely avoided implementation of E-Verify. A 2013 study conducted by the National Restaurant Association in conjunction with Immigration Works USA found that just over 20 percent of restaurant operators were using the system. Restaurants that have opted in tend to be larger, chain operations with more than 1,000 employees. For restaurants with 50 employees or fewer, the adoption rate drops to about 15 percent.

A number of prominent chefs and restaurateurs have been vocal in their support for a path to citizenship for undocumented employees, including Jose Andres and Hugh Acheson. Bourdain may think that restaurants are "up a creek," but at least a few prominent restaurateurs have embraced E-Verify. Danny Meyer's Shake Shack burger chain is listed as an E-Verify employer by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, as is Wolfgang Puck's Los Angeles-based catering company. The National Restaurant Association also endorses E-Verify as a "key element of immigration reform." E-Verify's proponents Though the restaurant industry may not vocally support E-Verify, the program has a number of proponents outside of the industry. The most vocal of these proponents envision a federal law that mandates universal adoption. The Center for Immigration Studies, a self-described "low immigration, pro-immigrant" organization that has been associated with the anti-immigrant nativist movement, sees it as a foregone conclusion. "I have no crystal ball, but it's coming at some point, in the next two, three, or five years," says Steven Camarota, lead demographer for the Center for Immigration Studies. "There's a pretty strong national consensus on that. Of anything in the immigration debate, everyone agrees that we have to have some kind of employer verification system." Whether or not that's true, there does seem to be a great deal of mounting support for the implementation of E-Verify on a national scale, especially from the candidates seeking to replace President Barack Obama this November. Donald Trump's immigration platform includes support for a mandatory nationwide E-Verify roll-out, as does his closest challenger, Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Marco Rubio, an original sponsor of the 2013 bi-partisan "Gang of Eight" immigration reform bill that ultimately was not passed, has also emphatically touted his support for the program. On the Democratic side of the field, frontrunner Hillary Clinton has not announced an official policy position on the program, leading some immigration rights activists to criticize Clinton for her silence.

The concerns Outside of the idea that E-Verify has the potential to put people who are willing to work out of a job, there are a number of concerns that surround its implementation. Jessie Hahn, a labor and policy attorney at the National Immigrant Justice Fund, is perhaps most concerned about E-Verify's potential to erroneously declare someone ineligible (or eligible) to work. "We don't have super-recent data on the error rates of E-Verify because the most recent data was released in 2009, but based on that data, we were able to see the error rates in three categories," says Hahn. "The overall error rate for a false negative, which would mean that a person was not authorized to work, was 0.3 percent. When we ran that against the number of new hires across the country in 2014, that 0.3 percent amounted to 170,000 people who wouldn't be able to take a job offered to them because they're erroneously showing up in the database."

For immigrants, though, those error rates increase dramatically. According to Hahn, naturalized citizens (or Green Card holders) are four times more likely to be falsely identified as unauthorized to work. For work-authorized non-citizens, the error rate spikes more than 27 times. "Proponents will defend the program by saying that the error rate is really low, but that's too many people that have a job offer and aren't able to take it," says Hahn. "That's not a partisan issue  everyone wants to create more jobs." The implications and likely outcomes The affects that nationwide E-Verify roll-out could have on the restaurant industry are wide-ranging. "The agriculture industry is most frequently cited as the industry that would be devastated by a standalone E-Verify mandate," says Hahn. "But the restaurant industry is probably the other that has the highest proportion of immigrant workers." In her view, restaurants would likely not comply with E-Verify, choosing instead to simply take their workers off the book. As evidence, Hahn points to Arizona, which enacted mandatory eVerify use for all employers in 2008. "Essentially what happened was that payroll tax revenues went down, but sales tax revenues went down very little," says Hahn. "What analysts concluded was that workers weren't paying income taxes, but they were still earning money to spend. The cash economy was growing because, obviously, people were still working, but they were being taken off the books and outside of the tax system." She also notes that restaurants in Arizona simply chose not to comply, largely because there is no real enforcement of the law or harsh penalty for not following it. "There's already a big problem of off-the-books employment in the restaurant industry, so employers simply were not complying even though they were required to," says Hahn. "In that first year in Arizona, only one-third of the state's employers signed up. Plenty of unauthorized workers are still making it through the system, such that it's not effective at deterring its stated goal, which is to bring down unauthorized employment." But in Caramota's view, E-Verify could spur restaurants to innovate their labor practices in some pretty fundamental ways. "You'll start to see employers implementing labor-saving techniques. They may buy bigger dishwashers to eliminate some positions and streamline their kitchen practices," he says. "You might also see a change in that you may have more quick-serve style restaurants where you don't need the same amount of bussers and waiters as you would in a traditional restaurant."
New York has awarded millions in grant funding for Upstate University Hospital and St. Josephs Hospital Health Center in Syracuse, and for Rome Memorial Hospital (RMH) in Rome.

Upstate University Hospital will use more than $70 million in funding to integrate ambulatory care, while St. Josephs will allocate its $20 million award for debt restructuring and program reinvestment.

Thats according to a news release that Assemblymen William Magnarelli (DSyracuse) and Al Stirpe (DCicero) and Assembly member Pamela J. Hunter (DSyracuse) issued.

New York is also awarding Rome Memorial Hospital a grant of $16.5 million to retire debt incurred for necessary capital investments in the emergency department, diagnostic center, and information technology, RMH said in a release.

The funding is part of a total of $1.55 billion that New York has allocated to two capital programs that seek to improve health-care facilities statewide.

The funding includes $1.2 billion for the capital-restructuring financing program (CRFP) and $355 million for the essential health-care provider support program (EHCPSP). Together, the programs help strengthen and promote access to vital health services by improving infrastructure and supporting financially sustainable systems of care, according to the lawmakers release.

The St. Josephs EHCPSP grant is the largest grant that St. Josephs has ever received, the organization said.

RMHs grant is also from the EHCPSP, David Lundquist, president and CEO of RMH, said.

The funding will facilitate the hospitals transformation plan to strengthen financial, clinical and operational performance by providing $16.5 million in debt relief. As a result, we will be a stronger partner in a collaborative affiliation, Lundquist said.

In addition to Upstate University Hospital and St. Josephs Hospital, the lawmakers release also indicated that Liberty Resources in Syracuse will use $625,000 to expand its integrated services

In addition, St. Camillus Residential Health Care Facility in Geddes will use more than $342,000 to improve its information-technology infrastructure, the lawmakers said.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
CORTLAND, N.Y.  Cortlandbased Yaman Real Estate will merge with Cinquanti Real Estate of Homer in a deal that takes effect March 20.

The new company will operate under the name Yaman Real Estate, the Yaman firm announced in a news release. It didnt release any terms of its merger agreement with the Cinquanti firm.

Combined, the two firms have more than 100 years of residential and commercial real-estate experience.

Yaman Real Estate, which is headquartered at 185 Clinton Ave. in Cortland, has two divisions, including Yaman Real Estate and Yaman Commercial Industrial, the company said.

Jim Yaman, founder and principal broker of Yaman Real Estate and Yaman Commercial Industrial, cited a long-standing relationship going back over 40 years, as the primary factor in the decision of Yaman Real Estate and Cinquanti Real Estate to combine.

Yaman says he had developed a close professional and personal friendship with the late Bill Cinquanti through the years.

Elements of that relationship, including their work on the Cortland County Board of Realtors and other community initiatives, were instrumental in the firms decision to merge, according to the Yaman news release.

It is as much cultural as it is business. We have always had the same business philosophy towards customer service, business integrity, and commitment to the community. Its a seamless effort in many ways, Yaman noted in the news release.

Steve Cinquanti (Bill Cinquantis son) will assume the role of associate broker and managing director for Yaman Commercial Industrial.

Hell also work closely with Jim Yamans son, David, who recently merged the sales division of David Yaman Realty Services with Yaman Commercial Industrial.

The merger "will allow us to expand opportunities for staff and associates and provide greater resources and capabilities for all of our customers, Steve Cinquanti said in the release.

The firms combined resources will also allow it to expand its marketing efforts for commercial and industrial properties to better match buyers and sellers locally, regionally, and nationally, David Yaman added.

The new firm will have 16 associate brokers and sales agents and serve the Central New York residential and commercial real estate market, according to the Yaman news release.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
Laura Dore is one of the most sought after video vixens in the world.And with a body like this,i dont think anyone should find it dif...
Three men wounded in Friday night shooting near Hitt Street

Three people were wounded Friday night in a downtown shooting near Hitt and Locust streets, the Columbia Police Department reported.
FILE - In this April 23, 2015 file photo, a woman tours an Elvis exhibition on the first day of "Graceland Presents Elvis: The Exhibition - The Show - The Experience" at the Westgate Las Vegas hotel in Las Vegas. The Elvis Presley exhibit that opened with great fanfare last year has abruptly closed amid a leasing dispute that involves hundreds of the King's artifacts. The Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino said it's holding the valuables from its Elvis attraction because the operators, Exhibit A Circle LLC, have defaulted in its 10-year contract with the off-Strip property. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

By Sally Ho, Associated Press

LAS VEGAS  The Elvis Presley estate has filed a lawsuit against the Las Vegas casino-hotel that is holding artifacts and memorabilia involving the King as part of a leasing dispute.

Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. filed the lawsuit Monday in Clark County District Court seeking to retrieve stage outfits, jewelry, letters and a high school yearbook, among other artifacts from the career, home and wedding of Elvis.

EPE is trying to get back hundreds of items it loaned to the much-hyped "Graceland Presents Elvis" attraction at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino.

The off-Strip property took control of the items last month when it shut down the attraction that includes a museum exhibit, wedding chapel and theater. The move came after the third-party operator, Exhibit A Circle, said it was quitting.

The lawsuit accused the casino of holding the valuables hostage for leverage in its leasing dispute with Exhibit A Circle, noting the estate has been cut off from a security camera that allowed it to monitor the items. It's asking the court to order the items be returned and seeks punitive damages.

Elvis Presley Enterprises declined to comment further on its lawsuit but previously said Westgate aggressively seized the valuables without a legitimate legal basis.

Westgate's chief operating officer Mark Waltrip declined to discuss the case.

The latest lawsuit is separate from the legal dispute between the casino and Exhibit A Circle that is being reviewed by an independent arbitrator. The Elvis estate group says it's not involved but Exhibit A Circle's manager is also the managing partner of the company that owns a majority of Elvis Presley Enterprises.

Westgate maintains that Exhibit A Circle defaulted on its 10-year lease with the casino. Waltrip suggested the closure was caused by poor attendance but he said the casino spent millions of dollars outfitting the space and wants to recoup money owed as part of that leasing agreement. He said the company hopes to reach an amicable solution with all parties.

Exhibit A Circle previously said the casino violated the contract first but declined to elaborate.
March 7, 2016 - Rondell Trevino, leader of Memphis Immigration Project in the podcast studio at The Commercial Appeal. (Nikki Boertman/The Commercial Appeal)

Undocumented immigrants can attend the University of Memphis, but they must pay out-of-state tuition, even if they grew up and live here.

Rondell Trevino, a native Texan and first generation American, thinks thats not only counterproductive, its unfair.

These kids have dreams, they have aspirations, said Trevino, lead organizer of the Memphis Immigration Project. It wasnt their decision to come here. How can we help them and not blame them?

One way, Trevino says, is with the Tuition Equality Bill that has been introduced by state Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis).

Trevinos faith-based organization is working for the bill, which would allow undocumented immigrants to pay much lower in-state tuition at Tennessees public colleges.

The organization is hosting a community discussion on the bill, and other related immigration issues, from 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday (today) at White State Church of Christ, 1106 Colonial.

Panelists include Dr. Stacy Spencer, pastor of New Direction Christian Church; Dr. Larry Lloyd, founder of the Memphis Leadership Foundation; and two local high school students.

In this edition of the Talk, Memphis podcast, Trevino discusses the tuition bill, the rough rhetoric around immigration in the 2016 presidential campaign, and the biblical perspective on immigration.

Yeah, we need secure borders, but at the same time we cant give amnesty to every single undocumented immigrant, he said. How to we meet in the middle?

Feel free to talk back in the comments section.


JoEllyn Sullivan is the owner of Silky O'Sullivan's on Beale Street, and the widow of Silky Sullivan, the titular founder of the Silky Sullivan's St. Patrick's Parade. (Nikki Boertman/The Commercial Appeal)

SHARE Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal files Phillis Lewis marches in front of a giant pride rainbow down the middle of Beale Street, tossing beads to thousands of parade watchers, during the 2015 St Patrick's Day parade. The 43rd annual parade will begin at 3 p.m. Saturday March 14, 2015  Tanier Massey (center) and Sydney Burns (right) scrap for beads Saturday afternoon on Beale St. during Memphis' annual St Patrick's Day parade. (Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal) March 14, 2015  Transformed into a leprechaun right down to his corn cob pipe, Gerry Ward marches down Beale Street Saturday afternoon during Memphis' annual St Patrick's Day parade. (Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal) The Commercial Appeal files Silky Sullivan (seen in 2013) founded the pub crawl that developed into the annual parade.

By Michael Donahue of The Commercial Appeal

Ed Galfsky ordered 14,400 Mardi Gras beads for the 43rd Silky Sullivan's St. Patrick's Parade, which takes place at 3 p.m. Saturday on Beale Street.

"I bought 20 cases of beads," said Galfsky, Carnival Memphis executive director. "There's a lot of green beads."

How many beads will be left after members of Carnival's 10 grand krewes throw them from their floats? "By the end of Saturday night? Not many."

Plastic beads are synonymous with the parade, which is put on by the Beale Street Merchants Association in partnership with Carnival Memphis. Krewe members won't be the only ones tossing colorful necklaces to eager parade watchers. "We have a total of near 60 participants, which include floats, dance groups," said Vickie Redd, Beale Street Merchants Association office administrator. "We don't have that many bands. Most of the music will come from the dance groups and the floats, bagpipe players, things of that sort."

George Klein, a radio and TV personality and a close friend of Elvis Presley, will be parade king. "I think it's great because I've never been the king of a parade before," Klein said. "I'm thrilled and honored because I've known Silky and Joellyn, his wife. I've always thought it was a cool deal to have that event. So, she asked me, and I said, 'I'll be glad to do it.' I can say I was a king for at least once in my life."

The name of the late Silky Sullivan, owner of Silky O'Sullivan's on Beale Street, was added to the 41st parade, Redd said. "That was the first one we had after he passed."

The St. Patrick's Day Parade originally was part of the Irish Eyes of Memphis pub crawl, which began 43 years ago, said Joellyn Sullivan. Silky, the late restaurateur Thomas Boggs and Mark Flanagan "founded the original pub crawl," she said. "It started Downtown and would go down Madison Avenue. Every single place  every bar  from Downtown to Overton Square was included as a stop in the pub crawl."

The parade, which was held on St. Patrick's Day, originally began at Murphy's at 1589 Madison and ended in Overton Square, Sullivan said. When Silky opened Silky O'Sullivan's in 1992 on Beale Street, St. Patrick's celebrations were held at Silky Sullivan's  Silky's Overton Square bar  as well as the Downtown location, Sullivan said. "Once we closed in Overton Square in '98, the parade moved completely down here."

"They started this whole idea of a St. Paddy's celebration in Memphis not just as a party, but as a way to draw attention to the conflict that was going on in Northern Ireland," said Pat Mitchell Worley, public relations representative with the Beale Street Merchants Association.

The Blessing of the Kegs, which dates to the first pub crawl, will be held at 2 p.m. on St. Patrick's Day at Murphy's, Sullivan said. "It's an opportunity to have toasts for good luck and goodwill for the year. And the baptism of a keg to commemorate the event."

The parade originally included a queen, Sullivan said. "I can remember dukes and duchesses. Silky loved titles. One of my favorite stories from one of those parades was when Silky decided we should crown a pig king of St. Patrick's Day and it would be called 'King Muck.' 'Muck' is Gaelic for 'pig.' He went and got a little pig from the slaughterhouse and rescued it."

The pig was dyed green for the occasion, Sullivan said. "People got upset. Turns out there's a city ordinance against the dyeing of farm animals. Silky said, 'OK. Fine.' We washed him off, and he was not green anymore. He drafted the animal rights people to be the honor guard for the pig, and he put a Silky Sullivan T-shirt on (the pig), and the pig proceeded in fine form."

In 2014, the year after Silky died, former Memphis Mayor A C Wharton was named parade king. "Silky had been serving as the king," Sullivan said. "We didn't need a king when we had Silky."

This year, Katherine Piston, an Atlanta accountant, will be queen. "She has the personality  the love of life, the love of people and the gift of blarney," Sullivan said. "If you can be an accountant and have all those qualities, you need some special recognition. And there's no better special recognition than to make her queen of the St. Patrick's parade."

Wight Boggs Laminack, who was married to Thomas Boggs, will be grand marshal. Les McCurdy will be "Irishman of the Year," Sullivan said. "He's clearly of Irish heritage. He was in Memphis at some time in the early days of the founding of the St. Patrick's pub crawl. He was the original leprechaun. He worked in Overton Square, including Friday's. Now he is in Florida and owns a comedy club."

Pianist Gerald McLaughlan from County Mayo will be another honored guest. "He plays all over Ireland," Sullivan said. "And he actually played at our wedding reception in 1992."

The 2016 Carnival Memphis king Jay Keras, queen Sarah Williamson and president Jim Taylor also will participate in the parade, Galfsky said.

"This (parade) is on our schedule," he said. "It's almost always at the end of spring break. I make sure every one of them knows, 'You need to come back Friday so you can be there.' That's what they look forward to. It's a big deal."

Carnival Memphis got heavily involved in the parade about 15 years ago, Galfsky said. "I said, 'Let's get all the krewes to focus in on this event. There's this great parade we can make even greater if we participate.'"

Parades are a big part of Carnival Memphis history; the Cotton Carnival parade was a tradition for years on Main Street. "Today's focus is on raising funds for local children's charities," Galfsky said. "The St. Patrick's parade is one of the signature events of our year. It's a great way to engage and give back to the community.

"Carnival started 85 years ago to promote commerce in this city. We're going to do a heck of a lot of that Saturday night, I can guarantee you."

The Boll Weevils, wearing their green costumes that include masks with snouts, also will be taking part and will bring their green Weevil bus, said Todd Brown, Evil Eminence of the Secret Order of Boll Weevils. The group, an integral part of Carnival, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

"For many years, it's been a tradition of our organization as the first outing where we actually spend time with the king, queen and president of Carnival," Brown said. "Silky, back in his day, was a huge supporter of the Weevils. And that's why at the end of the parade, we end up in front of Silky's to celebrate the evening."

Silky Sullivans St. Patricks Parade 3 p.m. Saturday at Fourth and Beale Street.

The parade, which is free, will feature 60 participants, including floats, marching bands, dancers and community groups.

The parade is produced by the Beale Street Merchants Association in partnership with Carnival Memphis.
SHARE Moussaka at Casablanca in Midtown is layered eggplant and pasta with potatoes and spiced meat topped off with a bechamel sauce. (Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal) February 21, 2016  Saeed Shtaya cooks up classic Mediterranean cuisine at the new Casablanca location on Madison Ave. (Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal) February 21, 2016  The Small Mezza Combo at Casablanca consists of Hummus, baba ghanoush & falafel served with pita. (Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal) February 21, 2016  Ali Zahir serves coffee at the new Casablanca location on Madison Ave. which serves Mediterranean classics in a warm colorful atmosphere. (Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal)

By Jennifer Biggs of The Commercial Appeal

Casablanca Midtown opened in the fall on Madison, situated in the middle of a peninsula across the street from Zinnie's. It's a great location, cozy and charming inside, with plenty of parking and patio seating outside. But the story goes back more than 15 years.

Around 2000, Aimer Shtaya from Jerusalem opened Moroccan Cafe on Echles near the University of Memphis. Folks who have been around town a while might enjoy a trip down Memory Lane: The building was the former Handy Stop, which sold overstuffed sandwiches by day and served hearty and downright delicious Russian fare by night; it'll make many short lists of lost and lamented Memphis restaurants.

Around 2005, Shtaya opened Casablanca Cafe in Cooper-Young (Moroccan Cafe was closed by then), and in 2010, he opened a location on Poplar in East Memphis. There was a little name switching as locations changed owners; for a bit it was called Casa Grill, but it soon changed back to Casablanca. In 2012, he opened on Germantown Parkway with partners, but he's no longer affiliated with that location, which is now called Casbah.

After an attempt to open a place on Central, Shtaya found the spot on Madison and is now serving lunch and dinner daily. As best I can tell, the menu is the same at both places.

Drinking

First: No wine, and you can't take your own. If this is a must for you, no need to read further. Shtaya has allowed folks to bring wine for dinner in the past, but his friend, server Ali Zahar, explained:

"The idea is that people will just come in to a peaceful place and enjoy a relaxing meal, no loud people."

And it is relaxing, painted in bright and warm colors and decorated with soothing low light from ornate Moroccan lanterns. While a little wine would be nice, the sweet herbaceous tea, served hot or cold, will have to do (you can buy it brewed by the gallon or the dry leaves and herbs in quart jars).

Noshing

Much of the food is made to be eaten by hand and to be shared. We started lunch with the small mezze combo  hummus, baba ghanoush, pita and four excellent pieces falafel (you can add six more for $2). All are excellent. The baba ghanoush  roasted eggplant pureed with tahini, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil  is a bit smoky and silky smooth. It's top notch. The hummus is good, tart with lemon and a dusting of bright sumac, topped with olive oil (which is also on the table, so add at your pleasure). And the falafel is green, positively full of herbs, fried crisp but very tender inside. My next lunch will be this combo, and I'll add the extra falafel; leftovers will not go to waste.

At dinner, we ate Casablanca chips, something I would file as worthy of a "100 Things" list were there ever to be another written by me. How simple can you make it? Cut pita bread in strips, fry them, season them and serve a huge portion of them with a "house sauce dip," a hybrid hummus/yogurt dip that is creamy and tangy. Just get it. Carbo load.

Also from the appetizer menu: the spanakopita, which was fine but not exceptional, and the "simple favorite," a spicy feta cheese sauce served with pita bread. The dip was a bit much  too heavy with feta, too spicy, too rich, and I like strong flavors.

The mains

Here's a trend that needs to end: No lunch menu. At Casablanca, the silver lining is that you can order sandwiches at night if you want a light or less expensive meal. But if you want an entree at lunch, you pay dinner prices. It's not overpriced as about half the items are $12.95  but the rest creep up to $18. More of a problem for me is that the full-size portions are too large to eat for lunch, and it's often impractical to take leftovers with you in the middle of the day. (And keep in mind that a $13 meal becomes about $15 if you add tea, and that adds up to more than $19 with tax and a 20 percent tip.)

The sandwiches range from about $7 to $12 and are generous. We tried the beef and lamb shawarma and the grilled chicken, both stuffed in a split pita and topped with lettuce, onion and tomato. The flavor was good and the meat tender, both fine. At dinner, I ordered 5030 Poplar, a dish of hummus topped with chopped kifta kabob. The kifta, ground beef blended with spices, then grilled on a skewer, was very good, but it was served cold, and I expected it to be warm and think it should be  it seemed like eating a cold hamburger. My dining companion ordered pastitsio and pronounced it different from any he'd tasted. And correct he was, as it was moussaka. I called the server over and was very politely told not to worry, that it was the same price.

And we shrugged our shoulders and said OK, that it was fine. But of course it's not fine to get a different dish than you order. It makes me wonder if the calm atmosphere Shtaya has envisioned for his Midtown restaurant is paying off.

Or maybe there's something in that tea.

CASABLANCA  Food: 

Atmosphere: 

Service: 

Address: 1707 Madison

Telephone: 901-421-6949

Hours: Open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily.

Menu: Appetizers are about $5 to $20 (for a large mezze combo); sandwiches are $7-$12; salads start at $5 for small and go to $12, plus you can add meat to basic salads for $5-$8; entrees are $12-$18.

Alcohol: Not served or allowed.
Courtesy of SundanceTV Memphis actor Jeff Pope is "Chub" in the new television drama "Hap and Leonard" on SundanceTV.

SHARE

By John Beifuss of The Commercial Appeal

Born and raised in Memphis, Jeff Pope has spent much of the first decade of his professional acting career in small parts pegged to his non-leading- man looks. He's heavyset, which, in the shorthand of film and television drama, means he often has been cast as someone who is desperate or clueless or not quite right.

A survey of his Internet Movie Database credits is revealing. In Craig Brewer's "Hustle & Flow," he is listed as "Trick #1." In "99 Homes," with Michael Shannon, he is "Angry Evicted Man." In "Prisoners," with Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman, his credit reads "Sex Offender #1"  a designation that particularly galls.

"I played a great character named Elliott, brother of a kid who was kidnapped," Pope said. "I did three days of work with Jake Gyllenhaal, all this work I was so proud of." But when he saw the film, "I'd been completely cut out except for about one second."

Pope, 39, hasn't been cut from his latest project, "Hap and Leonard," a new crime series that debuted March 2 on SundanceTV. An integral member of the first season's ensemble, Pope plays the big-hearted (and just plain big) "Chub," a member of what the cable network's website describes as a "hippie gang" searching for lost bank loot in an East Texas tributary.

Chub is a "shaggy-haired former rich kid from Houston whose parents disowned him," the website continues. "With his liberal outlook and recklessly big heart, Chub often rubs people the wrong way."

He's also an Elvis fan. "Aah, I love Elvis," Chub reveals, during his first scene in the program's first episode. "Did you know that Elvis had Oedipal issues?" The Presley reference isn't surprising: "Hap and Leonard" is adapted from the first book in a series of novels by Joseph R. Lansdale, a Texas writer whose credits include "Bubba Ho-tep," a comic fantasy story in which an aging Elvis battles a resurrected mummy.

"It seems like all the good stuff that I do has some sort of Memphis connection," Pope said. For example, "99 Homes" was directed by Ramin Bahrani, whose 2008 film "Goodbye Solo" gave a leading role to longtime Elvis associate Red West, "so we spent a lot of time talking about Red West," Pope said. (Incidentally, Red's Memphis-born son, John Boyd West, is a recurring character on SundanceTV's first original series, "Rectify," created by Southern actor Ray McKinnon, whose Memphis connections include a role in Brewer's "Footloose" remake.)

A graduate of Kirby High School, Pope lived in various neighborhoods and attended various schools in Memphis. "Like families did back in the day, you start in Midtown and migrate east," he explained.

He acted on stage in high school and beyond, winning a local theater award (now known as the Ostrander Theatre Awards) for his late '90s role in "Talk Radio." He also played in bands, and his music and theater connections brought him to the attention of Memphis-based filmmaker Craig Brewer, who cast Pope in such locally shot projects as "Hustle & Flow," "Black Snake Moan," MTV's "$5 Cover" and the Brewer-produced horror thriller "Savage County," in which Pope played the mumbling, mentally challenged man-child member of a clan of homicidal hillbillies.

Encouraged by his acting experiences, Pope relocated to Los Angeles for two years, but "I was pretty much working just to able to afford to stay there." In 2010, he moved again, to New Orleans, which had become a sort of "Hollywood of the South," thanks to the many studio projects based in Louisiana to take advantage of the state's generous filmmaking incentives. He got married, acquired an agent, and began to work steadily. "I live three blocks from John Goodman," Pope said. "What better role model for a large character actor is there?"

Pope appears briefly as country music legend Red Foley in the upcoming Hank Williams biopic "I Saw the Light" (set for release this spring), but the six-episode first season of "Hap and Leonard"  set in 1988 Texas but shot in Louisiana  gives the actor his most high-profile role to date.

Described by SundanceTV as "a darkly comic swamp noir," "Hap and Leonard" was developed for television by writer/actor Nick Damici and writer/director Jim Mickle, longtime collaborators whose previous credits include another Lansdale adaptation, the 2014 crime film "Cold in July." Based on its early action (new episodes premiere at 9 p.m. Wednesdays), the show aspires to hit the sweet spot between such recent cable programs as "Justified" or Season 1 of "True Detective" and the classic era of network crime television, as represented by the likes of "The Rockford Files." It's part dark caper thriller and part mixed-race odd-couple buddy comedy.

The title characters are a pair of longtime best friends and rural underachievers. Hap Collins (James Purefoy) is a luckless ex-con former draft dodger; his pal Leonard Pine (Michael Kenneth Williams) is a hot-tempered gay Vietnam vet with a yen for country music. In the first season's story arc, the duo are recruited by Hap's ex-wife (Christina Hendricks, the formidable Joan of "Mad Men") to help Chub and the other members of an eccentric gang of former hippies recover some stolen bank money, supposedly to help fund a revival of their radical causes. Said Pope: "Over the six episodes, it gets crazy, as '60s idealism crashes into '80s chaos."

Another culture clash occurred during the program's premiere party in New York, Pope said. "Believe it or not, it was at this place called Hill Country Barbecue," he said. For the party, the restaurant had been decorated with pictures of Chub and other characters from the series. "I told my wife, 'I feel like I've walked into my own Po' Folks.'"
By Katie Fretland of The Commercial Appeal

A man charged nearly 14 years after a woman reported she was raped has failed to prove that a delay in testing evidence harmed his right to a fair trial, Assistant District Attorney Abby Wallace argued Thursday.

Wallace challenged a motion to dismiss the charge against 44-year-old Maurice Summerall, writing that he would have to prove the state purposely delayed his indictment to gain an advantage or to harass him.

"It is uncontroverted that the State caused the delay in testing of the rape kit and latent fingerprints," Wallace wrote in court documents. "The reason for the delay, however, was systematic bureaucratic indifference and incompetence."

Evidence was collected March 17, 2001, after a woman reported she was raped and robbed at the American Inn in the 3200 block of Elvis Presley Boulevard. She told police that two men, one who had a rifle, entered the motel room and one of the men raped her.

Memphis police took six cards containing fingerprints from the bathroom sink and the woman was examined at the Memphis Sexual Assault Resource Center. Her rape kit was not sent to Cellmark Forensics for testing until 12 years and eight months later, according to a motion filed by attorney Charles Mitchell.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation reported on Jan. 26, 2015, that a match was made to convicted felon Maurice Summerall. Then, after a request to MPD for the examination of the fingerprints, an examiner reported the prints from the sink matched Summerall.

Summerall, who has prior convictions of aggravated rape, especially aggravated kidnapping, especially aggravated robbery, attempted first-degree murder and sale of cocaine, was indicted March 12, 2015.

Wallace wrote that Summerall argues the evidence was "recklessly, 'ignored or forgotten,' by the state but offers no proof of an intentional act by the State to gain a tactical advantage or to harass the defendant."

The statute of limitation for aggravated rape in Tennessee is 15 years. The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that "delay between the commission of an offense and the commencement of prosecution may violate the constitutional right to due process."

Mitchell argued that the delay has harmed Summerall's ability to defend himself at a trial, because witnesses have not been located and memories fade. He called the delay in testing the fingerprints "indefensible" and the delay in DNA testing "equally inexcusable."

"The State's utter lack of interest in prosecuting this case, given the information obtained in the initial investigation and the availability of the fingerprint and sexual assault kit evidence for testing for over thirteen years, too well illustrates the state's 'reckless disregard of circumstances' known to them," Mitchell wrote. "Until forced by a community's righteous indignation that this and thousands of similar cases are held in bureaucratic limbo, the state continued to 'ignore and forget' the powerful evidence at its fingertips in favor of not proceeding with the prosecution of Defendant."

Wallace wrote that Summerall presented "no actual evidence showing that his right to a fair trial has been prejudiced.

"(Summerall's) argument focuses on general assertions such as witnesses becoming unavailable or dying, faded memories, potential loss of evidence, and the general inability to present a defense," Wallace said. "The defendant has failed to support these allegations with any evidence in the record."

The city has been grappling with more than 12,000 untested sexual assault kits that accumulated since the 1980s.

In February, the most recent numbers on the efforts to ship and test the kits showed that 5,555 or 45 percent had completed analysis; 3,557 or 29 percent were at laboratory awaiting analysis, and 3,262 or 26 percent needed additional analysis.
SHARE

By Katie Fretland of The Commercial Appeal

Two Memphis men who prepared tax returns for Mo Money Taxes pleaded guilty this week in Virginia to fraud charges.

Jeremy Blanchard and Erik Pittman, both 35, prepared false tax returns for the 2011 tax year, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

"Blanchard and Pittman admitted that they created and inflated fictitious and fraudulent tax credits, including the Earned Income Credit and the American Opportunity credit, to claim tax refunds that customers were not entitled to receive," according to the news release. "As part of their guilty pleas, Blanchard and Pittman admitted that their conduct caused a loss to the Internal Revenue Service of more than $250,000, but less than $550,000.

They pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to defraud the United States and one count of aiding and assisting in preparing a false tax return.

The case was transferred from Tennessee to East Virginia in August, said Louis Goggans, spokesman for U.S. Attorney Edward Stanton III. Mo Money Taxes had three locations in Richmond, Virginia.

Sentencing is scheduled for June 8.
By Richard Locker of The Commercial Appeal

NASHVILLE  Gov. Bill Haslam said Wednesday that crime isn't a problem confined to Memphis, but that he has frequent discussions with Memphis officials about what the state can do to help.

He also said he probably spends more time on job creation and economic development efforts for Memphis than anywhere else in the state.

"We are constantly in conversations. One of the challenges you have as governor is (that) it is a varied state. Obviously Nashville right now and the market around here is growing really well. But some deep rural areas are seeing challenges. Memphis has felt some of those. But I probably spend more time in economic development efforts in Memphis than anywhere else," the governor told reporters after a statewide tourism conference here.

A Memphis TV reporter asked the governor a series of questions about crime in Memphis and the state's role in helping curb it. Haslam said he was regularly in talks with former Memphis mayor A C Wharton and now talks regularly with Mayor Jim Strickland and County Mayor Mark Luttrell about it. He said a package of crime bills that emerged from his task force on crime and recidivism is partly a response to those discussions.

"Part of the things we're doing in our new public safety plan is in reaction to that as well as some crime issues around the state  making certain, particularly for our punishment in prisons, that we're putting the right people in the right prison beds; trying to pull back on some of the less onerous violations to make certain that if you're someone like a repeat domestic-violence offender or a repeat drug trafficker that you know you're going to serve a certain amount of time," the governor said.

But he said crime isn't solely Memphis' challenge. "If you're in East Tennessee, you'd see a big issue with prescription drug abuse and a growing problem with heroin that hasn't been as big in Memphis. Unfortunately we have issues around the state. That's why we're making such big efforts to attack that.

"Memphis I think has really been up front with saying here's what the challenge is. I think the leadership there is very aware of that, very up-front about saying we realize it's a problem and we're going to do everything we can to attack that, from (District Attorney) Gen. (Amy) Weirich to the elected leaders and law enforcement," the governor said.
St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital campus is located east of the Pinch Street District. Nikki Boertman The Commercial Appeal

By Richard Locker of The Commercial Appeal

NASHVILLE  Mayor Jim Strickland said Wednesday he's still in talks with Gov. Bill Haslam about potential state aid for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's expansion plans.

The mayor said he has a good line of communications with the governor. "I've talked to him a couple of times on it and they are analyzing the situation and their budget situation and I'm waiting to hear back from the state on what role they are willing to play," Strickland said.

He also confirmed he has written the state Department of Economic and Community Development "encouraging the state to be involved" in the St. Jude project.

"It would be a huge benefit to Memphis," Strickland said.

St. Jude officials have unveiled broad plans for a $1 billion expansion of their campus in the Pinch District, but not the details. Haslam told The Commercial Appeal editorial board last month that state money eventually will be allocated for part of the project after St. Jude executives submit their detailed expansion plans and likely will be used for infrastructure improvements in the rundown streets of the Pinch. "We have a great appreciation for how important St. Jude is to Memphis," Haslam said at the time.

A first installment could be included in his administration's customary amendment to the state budget to be filed in late March or early April, before final state legislative action on the budget in late April.

Jim Henry, deputy to the governor and chief of staff, said Wednesday no decisions have been made on the St. Jude funding. A spokesman for ALSAC, the hospital's fundraising arm, said last month executives are still working on details of the expansion and what role they will ask the state to play.
SHARE The Commercial Appeal files Ed Xiques, assistant shop foreman, sets off the steam whistle of the E.H. Crump steam pumper on March 10, 1976. It was one of the last two horse-drawn steam engines purchased by the city of Memphis. It was delivered on July 4, 1910, from the Ahrens Fire Engine Company of Cincinnati for $11,500. The steamer was named the E.H. Crump in honor of the newly elected mayor who took office on Jan. 1, 1910. The steamer was assigned to Engine Co. No. 5 at Fire Department headquarters.

March 10

25 years ago: 1991

The people looking for Memphis State University's next president credit Chancellor Otis Floyd with keeping politics out of the search. Members of the chancellor's advisory committee say Floyd's handling of the search has produced four finalists for the MSU presidency who are highly qualified and perfectly acceptable. They think each could help MSU raise funds, improve its image and fulfill its ambitious mission of becoming a nationally ranked research university.

50 years ago: 1966

WASHINGTON  Future Memphis, Inc., will be host at a luncheon for Vice President Hubert Humphrey at the Holiday Inn Rivermont at 1 p.m. on April 1, Representative George Grider (D, Tenn.) announced Wednesday. Grider said Humphrey had requested an opportunity to meet with businessmen of the area during his brief visit to Memphis. Future Memphis is an organization dedicated to the economic, cultural and spiritual development of Memphis and the Mid-South.

75 years ago: 1941

WASHINGTON  The British government, declaring it would be "false humanitarianism" to admit foodstuffs into any German-occupied territory, announced rejection of Herbert Hoover's new proposal to establish soup kitchens in Belgium.

100 years ago: 1916

Mrs. M.W. King, woman champion pocket billiards player of the world, will give an exhibition for ladies at the Tex Billiard Parlor this afternoon.

125 years ago: 1891

Yesterday morning the two-story brick building at 428 Shelby Street, owned and occupied by Jacob Levy, tumbled down. Mrs. Levy walked forth unhurt, though badly frightened.
A northbound portion of Riverside Drive is closed because of a mudslide. (Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal)

SHARE Eastbound drivers on Farmington Road near Cordes sprayed while navigating through deep water. (Phil Stukenborg/The Commercial Appeal) Parts of the Greenway off Humphreys Boulevard have flooded. (Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal) Photos by Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal March 10, 2016 - A northbound portion of Riverside Drive is closed because of a mudslide. Heavy rain in the Memphis area has caused some flooding, downed trees and car crashes. Rain is expected to continue in the area for the next few days. March 10, 2016 - Floodwater covered a section of the greenbelt trail along the Wolf River. Heavy rain in the Memphis area has caused some flooding, downed trees and car crashes. Rain is expected to continue in the area for the next few days. Related Coverage Bluff Walk, once controversial, protected homes during slide

By Kayleigh Skinner and Jody Callahan of The Commercial Appeal

The record-setting rain that pounded Memphis for two straight days triggered mudslides and flooding and knocked about trees and cars while generally causing havoc around the area on Thursday.

In all, more than eight inches of rain fell on the Memphis area over those two days, likely contributing to at least one fatal traffic accident as well as possibly sweeping a man away down a swollen creek in DeSoto County.

"It's very dangerous," National Weather Service meteorologist John Moore said.

The traffic fatality occurred a little before 3:30 p.m. Thursday when three vehicles  including a tractor-trailer  collided on eastbound Interstate 40 near mile marker 30, just into Fayette County. It was unclear how much of a factor weather played in that death.

Also, emergency officials in DeSoto County were looking for a man who reportedly fell into a creek near Odom Road and got swept away. No one was found Thursday night, but Sheriff Bill Rasco said officials expect to resume the search Friday morning.

"(A caller) said he saw someone in the water having problems. He saw him go under then his jacket came up," Rasco said.

According to the NWS, both Wednesday and Thursday set rainfall records for the area. On Wednesday, 4.53 inches fell at Memphis International Airport, breaking the old record for the date of 3.84 inches in 1992. So much rain fell Wednesday, in fact, that it ranks as the 17th wettest day on record in Memphis. On Thursday, the total was at least 3.43 inches, breaking the record of 2 inches set on that date in 1902.

According to the NWS, 8.41 inches of rain had fallen at the Agricenter from Wednesday through Thursday afternoon; at the airport, that total was 7.96 inches.

"It's a lot of rain," NWS meteorologist Andy Chiuppi said, in something of an understatement.

It's not over yet, either. Shelby County remains under a flash flood watch until 6 p.m. Saturday. More rain is coming Friday as well, possibly adding another inch or so. The heavy rainfall is caused by a stationary system near Texas that keeps feeding moisture our way, NWS meteorologist Taylor Trogdon said.

"The rain will not move out for good for a few days," Trogdon said.

The rain also caused a large mudslide in Downtown Memphis. Shortly before noon, police closed the northbound lanes of Riverside Drive due to the mud, which slid down the bluffs onto the road. Around 2 p.m., a "minor" mudslide happened at Kirby Parkway at Tenn. 385.

The rain also caused several other road closures that hampered traffic. It also covered the greenbelt trails along the Wolf River in the eastern parts of the county with the rising waters. Wolf River, in fact, is in minor flood stage, Chiuppi said.

The weather caused DeSoto County Schools to close two hours early while Millington schools also dismissed early. Arlington and Collierville officials canceled all after-school events for Thursday.

Still, the area coped fairly well with the deluge, said Dale Lane, director of the Shelby County Office of Preparedness, particularly pointing to the low stage of the Mississippi River.

"The good news in this whole thing was that we had the Mississippi River almost 10 feet below flood stage, so the tributaries that are getting all this water can flow into the river," Lane said. "But so far we haven't had major disruptions. Our power system has stayed up.

"We'd have roads close and they'd open back up. ... Our systems did well. No one got overwhelmed."

Memphis Light, Gas and Water division reported a few hundred customers without power at any point in time, but spokesman Richard Thompson said the utility has crews on standby in case that changes.

Although Memphis and Shelby County got drenched, some parts of the Mid-South had it even worse.

Storms had dropped more than 14 inches of rain on some parts of Arkansas as of late Thursday, flooding roads, closing some schools and businesses, causing water rescues and evacuations and wreaking havoc in the southeastern corner of the state.

In Mississippi, flooding caused the evacuation of about 100 people in the Delta, including a nursing home in Clarksdale. Gov. Phil Bryant declared a state of emergency for portions of Mississippi and mobilized National Guard troops to help with high-water rescues around the state.

Staff reporter Yolanda Jones and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
April 25, 2014 - Crittenden Regional Hospital is having financial troubles, Arkansas is voting on a sales tax as a possible cure in light of the difficult times facing many small, rural hospitals.

(Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal)

SHARE

By Associated Press

The Crittenden County Quorum Court will decide whether to allow a women's Arkansas Community Correction facility to lease a former county hospital in West Memphis.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that the Quorum Court will decide Tuesday whether to allow Southeast Arkansas Community Correction Center in Pine Bluff to lease the Crittenden County Hospital.

The hospital has been closed but maintained by the county since going bankrupt in August 2014.

Arkansas Community Correction deputy director Dina Tyler said the facility is in dire condition. She estimates Arkansas would have to spend $10 million to $12 million to improve the grounds and 30-plus cottage-style buildings.

"We've had it now for 20 years and we've never had the funding to bring all the buildings up to where they need to be," Tyler said. "We've patched and put Band-Aids on, hoping it would get us through."

Arkansas Community Correction has budgeted $650,000 that Tyler says could be spent to repair a leaky gym roof at their current facility or go toward covering repairs and remodeling to house the 350 inmates at the hospital.

Pine Bluff Mayor Debe Hollingsworth started a petition drive Wednesday, hoping Gov. Asa Hutchinson would address the issue.

"The potential for relocation of the women's unit is driven by the large amount of money that would be needed to maintain the current facility, and for that reason, the Board of Corrections is reviewing this potential relocation," Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a statement Wednesday.

He said more feedback is needed regarding the potential move and trusts that the final decision will keep taxpayers in mind.
SHARE

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

This is how John Ward described killing his first wife.

"I wanted her to give me my divorce and custody of my daughter," he told Geraldo Rivera. "And she told me she'd see me in hell first. And I told her to save me a seat. And then I shot her."

"... I shot her three times in the upper left shoulder," he said. "She told me not to kill her, she would give me the baby and a divorce. I fired three times point blank into the heart. ... And I reloaded and I shot her six more times, point blank."

Ward did eight years in prison for second-degree murder. But there is more. One of his daughters has said that when she was a child, he tried to molest her and other children. A stepdaughter has said that when she was a teenager, "I brought a friend of mine over, a black girl. He was like, 'Get that damn n----r out of my yard.'"

The point being, that Ward was hardly an exemplary human being.

Yet when a Pensacola, Florida, judge had to choose between this steaming-hot pile of humanity and his estranged second wife in deciding custody of their adolescent daughter, Cassey, the judge sided with him. Given what a piece of work this guy was, you might wonder: What was it about Mary Ward that was so objectionable a court would choose him over her?

Simple. Mary was gay. Cassey, said the judge, should grow up in "a non-lesbian world."

That appalling 1996 ruling is brought to mind by news of a new Supreme Court decision. Monday, the top court unanimously sided with a gay adoptive mother fighting her former partner for access to their children. The unnamed plaintiff filed suit after the couple split up and the ex-partner, who is the children's biological mother, refused to let her see them. The adoption had originally been processed in Georgia, but the Supreme Court of Alabama, where the two women now reside, refused to recognize its legitimacy.

In striking down the lower-court ruling, the Supreme Court offers an important affirmation of the parental rights of gay men and women. But even as you laud it, even as you welcome it, your thoughts turn to Mary Ward. And not just to her, but all the other men and women who lost their children because some judge deemed their sexuality more important than their personhood or parental fitness.

Sadly, we'll never know what Mary's take on this might have been. She died of a sudden heart attack the year after she lost her child. It's hard not to suspect grief played some part in that.

Four years ago, a pair of Miami Beach filmmakers released "Unfit," a documentary on the case. In writing about the film, The Miami Herald's Steve Rothaus reported that Cassey ended up bouncing in and out of her father's house for a few years before finally moving in for good with her older sister, Carla, who is a lesbian.

Cassey herself told filmmakers she regrets being taken from her mom. "I look at my brother and my sisters, and how they're, you know, doing good and have all their friends and great jobs and homes, and I think if Mom would have got to raise me it would be the same because they had the love and support from Mom. But my dad was country and kind of narrow-minded."

This week, the nation's highest tribunal figured out what Cassey's narrow-minded dad never could  that "lesbian mother" is just another word for "mother." One is pleased to see it, but one's pleasure is shadowed by morbid ruminations on the hardiness of ignorance, the intransigence of fear and the way people's lives get ground to pieces on the gears in between. Twenty years after the fact, Mary Ward finally finds a rough and imperfect vindication. This is a good thing, yes.

But you know what they say about justice too long delayed.

Leonard Pitts is a columnist for The Miami Herald. Contact him at lpitts@miamiherald.com.
Select Commodity All Ajwan Alasande Gram Almond(Badam) Alsandikai Amaranthus Ambada Seed Amla(Nelli Kai) Amphophalus Antawala Anthorium Apple Apricot(Jardalu/Khumani) Arecanut(Betelnut/Supari) Arecanut(Betelnut/Supari) Arhar (Tur/Red Gram)(Whole) Arhar (Tur/Red Gram)(Whole) Arhar Dal(Tur Dal) Ashgourd Astera Avare Dal Bajra(Pearl Millet/Cumbu) Bajra(Pearl Millet/Cumbu) Balekai Bamboo Banana Banana - Green Barley (Jau) Bay leaf (Tejpatta) Beans Beaten Rice Beetroot Bengal Gram Dal (Chana Dal) Bengal Gram(Gram)(Whole) Ber(Zizyphus/Borehannu) Ber(Zizyphus/Borehannu) Betal Leaves Bhindi(Ladies Finger) Bitter gourd Black Gram (Urd Beans)(Whole) Black Gram Dal (Urd Dal) Black pepper BOP Bottle gourd Bran Brinjal Broken Rice Broomstick(Flower Broom) Bull Bunch Beans Cabbage Calf Capsicum Cardamoms Carnation Carrot Cashewnuts Castor Seed Cauliflower Chapparad Avare Chennangi Dal Cherry Chikoos(Sapota) Chili Red Chilly Capsicum Chow Chow Chrysanthemum Chrysanthemum(Loose) Cinamon(Dalchini) Cloves Cluster beans Cock Cocoa Coconut Coconut Oil Coconut Seed Coffee Colacasia Copra Coriander(Leaves) Corriander seed Cotton Cotton Seed Cow Cowpea (Lobia/Karamani) Cowpea (Lobia/Karamani) Cowpea(Veg) Cucumbar(Kheera) Cummin Seed(Jeera) Custard Apple (Sharifa) Dalda Dhaincha Drumstick Dry Chillies Dry Fodder Dry Grapes Duck Duster Beans Egg Elephant Yam (Suran) Field Pea Firewood Fish Foxtail Millet(Navane) French Beans (Frasbean) Galgal(Lemon) Garlic Ghee Gingelly Oil Ginger(Dry) Ginger(Green) Gladiolus Cut Flower Goat Gram Raw(Chholia) Gramflour Grapes Green Avare (W) Green Chilli Green Fodder Green Gram (Moong)(Whole) Green Gram Dal (Moong Dal) Green Peas Ground Nut Oil Ground Nut Seed Groundnut Groundnut (Split) Groundnut pods (raw) Guar Guar Seed(Cluster Beans Seed) Guava Gur(Jaggery) He Buffalo Hen Hippe Seed Honge seed Hybrid Cumbu Indian Beans (Seam) Indian Colza(Sarson) Isabgul (Psyllium) Jack Fruit Jaffri Jamun(Narale Hannu) Jarbara Jasmine Jowar(Sorghum) Jute Kabuli Chana(Chickpeas-White) Kacholam Kakada Kankambra Karamani Karbuja(Musk Melon) Kartali (Kantola) Khoya Kinnow Knool Khol Kodo Millet(Varagu) Kulthi(Horse Gram) Lak(Teora) Leafy Vegetable Lemon Lentil (Masur)(Whole) Lilly Lime Linseed Lint Litchi Little gourd (Kundru) Long Melon(Kakri) Lotus Lotus Sticks Lukad Mahedi Mahua Mahua Seed(Hippe seed) Maida Atta Maize Mango Mango (Raw-Ripe) Marasebu Marget Marigold(Calcutta) Marigold(loose) Mashrooms Masur Dal Mataki Methi Seeds Methi(Leaves) Millets Mint(Pudina) Moath Dal Mousambi(Sweet Lime) Mustard Mustard Oil Myrobolan(Harad) Neem Seed Niger Seed (Ramtil) Nutmeg Onion Onion Green Orange Orchid Ox Paddy(Dhan)(Basmati) Paddy(Dhan)(Common) Papaya Papaya (Raw) Patti Calcutta Peach Pear(Marasebu) Peas cod Peas Wet Peas(Dry) Pegeon Pea (Arhar Fali) Pepper garbled Pepper ungarbled Persimon(Japani Fal) Pigs Pineapple Plum Pointed gourd (Parval) Pomegranate Potato Pumpkin Raddish Ragi (Finger Millet) Raibel Rajgir Ram Rat Tail Radish (Mogari) Raya Resinwood Rice Ridge gourd(Tori) Ridgeguard(Tori) Rose(Local) Rose(Loose) Rose(Loose)) Round gourd Rubber Sabu Dan Sabu Dana Safflower Sajje Same/Savi Season Leaves Seemebadnekai Seetafal Seetapal Sesamum(Sesame,Gingelly,Til) Sesamum(Sesame,Gingelly,Til) She Buffalo She Goat Sheep Snake gourd Snakeguard Soanf Soapnut(Antawala/Retha) Soapnut(Antawala/Retha) Soji Soyabean Spinach Sponge gourd Squash(Chappal Kadoo) Sugar Sugarcane Sunflower Sunhemp Suram Surat Beans (Papadi) Suva (Dill Seed) Suvarna Gadde Sweet Potato Sweet Pumpkin T.V. Cumbu T.V. Cumbu Tamarind Fruit Tamarind Seed Tapioca Taramira Tender Coconut Thinai (Italian Millet) Thogrikai Thondekai Tinda Tobacco Tomato Toria Tube Rose(Double) Tube Rose(Loose) Tube Rose(Single) Turmeric Turmeric (raw) Turnip Walnut Water Melon Wheat Wheat Atta White Peas White Pumpkin Wood Yam Yam (Ratalu)

Select State

Select Market
The iPhone 5c at the center of the legal battle between Apple and the FBI might be accessible through a delicate hardware technique, but experts warn it would be difficult.

In recent days, the American Civil Liberties Union's technology fellow and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden have suggested a method that would let investigators repeatedly guess the iPhone's password.

Federal investigators fear San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook may have configured his work phone to use an Apple security feature that erases a key for decrypting data after 10 incorrect guesses of the phone's password.

The forensic technique for getting at the data, known as "chip off," involves removing a NAND flash memory chip from a device and copying its data, yielding a decryption key that can be restored if it is erased after incorrect guesses.

Instead of trying that procedure, the U.S. Justice Department has asked a federal court to order Apple to give the FBI custom software for iOS 9 that can be loaded onto the phone. The software would either disable the auto-erase feature or allow law enforcement to rapidly try different password guesses.

Apple is fighting the order, saying the creation of such software -- essentially a backdoor -- would put millions of iPhones at risk.

Investigators already have a lot of data from Farook's online accounts, including backups of the phone stored in Apple's iCloud servers, which the company has turned over.

But the last iCloud backup investigators have is from Oct. 19, about six weeks before the Dec. 2 shootings that killed 14 people and injured 22 others. The government contends that the six weeks' worth of data stored solely on the phone could contain crucial evidence.

Daniel Kahn Gillmor, a technology fellow with the ACLU's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, described the technical details involved in a chip-off operation in a Monday blog post.

Snowden cited Gillmor's Wednesday post on Twitter and contested the FBI's position via a video link from Moscow at Common Cause's Blueprint for Democracy conference.

"There are hardware attacks that have existed since the '90s," he said.

The key that is used to encrypt the iPhone's user data is stored in a section of the phone's NAND flash chip that Apple calls "effaceable storage," Gillmor wrote.

To perform a chip-off operation, the Flash chip is de-soldered from the circuit board and then connected it to a NAND flash reader in order to copy its contents.

ACOS Electronics The iPhone 5c's NAND Flash chip is outlined in red.

The chip is then reconnected to the board. If the key is erased after 10 wrong guesses, the backup data can be used to restore it for more attempts.

"If the FBI doesn't have the equipment or expertise to do this, they can hire any one of dozens of data recovery firms that specialize in information extraction from digital devices," wrote Gillmor, who couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

But computer forensics experts, including one who has performed the procedure, say it is slow and delicate with no guarantee of success.

Most chip-off extractions result in the device being destroyed, said Heather Mahalik, principal forensic scientist and team lead for Oceans Edge, a mobile security and development firm. She teaches an advanced smartphone forensics course at the SANS Institute.

"I have done chip off in the past, and getting the phone to work again after is very difficult, so the chances of this working are low," Mahalik said via email.

Cindy Murphy, a computer forensics expert with the Madison, Wisconsin, police department, said it's neither easy nor simple to remove and replace flash memory.

"To do this once, let alone as many times as would be necessary to brute-force the passcode, would be a feat of patience and perseverance and likely wouldnt be successful," she wrote via email.

If auto-erase is enabled, investigators would have to remove and replace the chip for every 10 wrong guesses. Apple also enforces a delay in between wrong guesses, increasing the amount of time it would take to guess the passcode through brute force.

"This would also be an extremely slow and manual process," said Sarah Edwards, a digital forensics analyst who also teaches a SANS course.

And if the procedure goes poorly, "then you get zero chances to get the data," she said.
If you read some recent tech news reports, youd think wireless carriers have committed an act of sedition. The overblown debate about sponsored data, or zero-rating, as its otherwise known, reached fever pitch with the finding that T-Mobile provides less than high-definition video to its customers through its Binge On service. Gasp! How will we live?

The entire episode reignited a debate about whether wireless carriers can and should be providing their consumers with sponsored data services. In theory and in practice, sponsored data benefits consumers. Not only do consumers benefit from being able to enjoy their favorite sites, music, videos, app downloads and even Web searches without it counting toward their data plans, but it also leaves them with additional data to get more use out of their monthly plans. I dont see whats not to like about this.

The concept of sponsoring data or defraying some of a consumers cost to enjoy a particular product or service is an old one. Its the same idea behind toll-free numbers, prepaid return labels and even practices like Zipcar providing gas cards for its rentals. They are benefits paid for by companies with the aim of making things easier for their customers. The concept has merely progressed to meet the reality of our digital era.

T-Mobile is not the only one moving in this direction. AT&T has a similar sponsored data program, and Verizon recently unveiled its own sponsored data offering, FreeBee. If three of the four largest wireless carriers in the country are coalescing around this idea, its a good sign that this is a worthwhile pursuit to better serve their customers. Wireless carriers are under tremendous pressure to innovate in ways to attract new customers and retain their existing ones. This flurry of sponsored data offerings is further evidence that the wireless marketplace is ferociously competitive.

Yes, wireless carriers can reach mutually beneficial arrangements with content providers to offer the sponsored content, but is that so surprising or life altering? Critics who argue against these types of business arrangements are sometimes so suspicious that they lose sight of the fact that consumers come out as winners here too. After all, companies are footing the bill for consumers data usage  whats not to like?

Yet some detractors have gone as far as to call on regulators to pre-emptively investigate and put an end to sponsored data offerings. Critics argue that it may go against the spirit of open Internet rules. I couldnt disagree more. Regulators must be cautious not to enforce rules so rigidly that they deprive consumers of the services that expand their choices.

Certainly, we may not always see eye to eye with wireless carriers, or other businesses for that matter, that provide the services we depend on, but we must not let that prejudice color our impression of a natural evolution in wireless services as Americans use their smartphones for everything these days. And for the many Americans who use smartphones as their primary means to access the Web or those with more modest means, sponsored data offerings mean they can use more data on whatever they choose at lower prices.

These types of sponsored data plans only provide consumers with the flexibility of making the choices they want. It helps free them from data limitations and allows them to enjoy the content they love or explore new content channels with that newfound freedom. Sponsored data should be allowed to flourish without being mired in regulatory strife.

John Celock is the executive director of 21st Century Consumers, an advocacy organization focused on the interests of consumers using emerging technologies for goods and services.
Sen. Bernie Sanders' surprise victory over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Tuesday's Michigan Democratic presidential primary came after many pollsters predicted she would win handily.

The average of 18 major polls prior to Tuesday's primary indicated Clinton would win by 21.4%, according to an analysis by RealClear Politics.

"We all blew it," said Steve Mitchell, CEO of Mitchell Research & Communications of East Lansing, Mich., in an interview Wednesday. Mitchell's firm showed a separation of 28 percentage points several days before the primary, based on an automated land line phone survey of 427 likely Democratic voters.

Instead, Sanders got 50% to Clinton's 48%.

Chris Usher/CBS Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the CBS News Democratic Presidential Debate at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, on Nov. 14, 2015.

Why were so many pollsters so wrong?

Here's part of the reason: Polling technology still relies heavily on surveys of voters that use landline phones, instead of voters -- primarily younger -- who rely entirely on smartphones and other cell phones. Based on exit polls, younger voters widely favored Sanders in Michigan -- as many 81% of those under age 30 supported the independent Vermont senator.

More than 90% of that age group use smartphones and cell phones instead of land line phones, according to various estimates, including U.S. Census data.

It is harder and twice as expensive to reach voters who use mobile phones to ask about their political views, Mitchell said. As a result, younger voters on smartphones are likely under-represented in many polls.

"Millennials use cell phones," Mitchell noted. "In Michigan, clearly the voter turnout was much higher than predicted -- by half a million. That included more millennials" who backed Sanders.

Other factors obviously came into play. After a contentious debate between Clinton and Sanders on Saturday in Flint, Mich., African-Americans only turned out 2-to-1 for Clinton, instead of the predicted 3-to-1 ratio, Mitchell said. "Everything went wrong for Clinton and everything that could go right went right for Sanders."

Mitchell said his firm's polling prior to the Michigan primary did include plenty of millennials, or at least a group including millennials that ranged from age 18 to 39. That group made up nearly 9% of those surveyed. "We were getting them using land lines," he said.

In a statement issued by Mitchell's firm on March 2, Clinton was leading Sanders by 28 points, with Clinton taking 61% and Sanders 33%.

That release also describes the Mitchell methodology used in reaching voters, noting that it only included land line phone respondents. Because the calls were made with an automated system, Mitchell could not by federal law reach out to cell phone users. The statement also notes that primary voters are typically older, adding, "We believe there are sufficient land line voters to get an accurate sample."

The Mitchell poll results did show Sanders leading Clinton, 58% to 39%, with 18- to 39-year-olds.

Mitchell said Tuesday results will make his firm reevaluate its methods and use some form of digital polling to reach more young voters who use cell phones before a slew of primaries arrive next Tuesday.

"I'm not going to go into the method we'll use next week, but we will use digital and phone polling and try to pick it right, especially for the Dems," Mitchell said. "We have to capture millennials better that we did yesterday. Being wrong is unacceptable."

Mitchell said his firm will use a technique it has relied on with commercial clients, possibly one that allows a voting survey to reach a mobile device that involves geo-fencing. With geo-fencing, a pollster can know if the device is actually located within the voting district. That would protect from situations where a phone has an area code in a voting state, but is being used elsewhere.

The well-regarded Monmouth University poll in the Michigan primary found on Monday that Clinton had a 13-point advantage over Sanders. That poll actually relied on reaching out to 704 likely voters from both major parties, including 260 who had cell phones as well as 444 who used land line phones. But only 302 of that 704 were likely Democratic voters, and it isn't clear how many of them were using cell phones.

Patrick Murray, the pollster behind the Monmouth polls, could not be reached for comment.

After at least 13 pollsters in January predicted Donald Trump would top the Iowa Republican caucuses, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won instead.

As with Michigan, the question of voters with cell phones was raised by experts in Iowa for what happened.

"Polling as a whole is becoming more challenging as it gets more difficult to reach voters in a random manner and keep them engaged for a full survey," GOP media consultant Brad Todd told USA Today in early February. "Most media and university surveys are cheap and use methodological shortcuts that make them even more error-prone."
Students awarded grant from World Jewish Congress

Daniel Kramer '18 (left), Connor Wolfe '17 (center) and Simon Luxemburg '18 (right) present during the live pitch competition at Manhattans WeWork Bryant Park.

Three Connecticut College students have been awarded a $2,500 grant after taking part in the first Campus Pitch Competition, a joint initiative of the World Jewish Congress and the Israeli Consulate in New York.

Simon Luxemburg 18, Daniel Kramer 18 and Connor Wolfe 17 were finalists in the competition, the culminating event of a semester-long campaign in which student groups from the Tristate region submitted proposals for events, initiatives and ideas to broaden the conversation about Jewish issues on college campuses.

After submitting their initial proposal for campus programmingto bring in speakers to discuss Israeli economics and cultureLuxemburg, Kramer and Wolfe traveled to New York in December for an interview with the World Jewish Congress. They were then selected as finalists to pitch their ideas to the judging panel at an official event at Manhattans WeWork Bryant Park in February.

The live pitch competition was attended by more than 100 young professionals and included opening remarks by the Consul General of Israel in New York, Ambassador Ido Aharoni.

None of us had ever done anything like it before, said Luxemburg, an international relations major and president of Connecticut College Hillel. There were a lot of prominent people from the greater New York Jewish community, and they came up to us afterward and were asking lots of great questions. We were even invited back to the consulate afterward.

The contestants ideas were judged on innovation, feasibility, potential impact and relevancy to current Jewish issues.

"These three students showed exceptional initiative and independence in designing their proposal and in following the process through to its end over the course of several months," said Rabbi Susan Schein, director of the Zachs Hillel House and College chaplain.

They were so committed that they traveled through a snowstorm to get to the final pitch presentation in New York City."

Each of the four finalistsConnecticut College, New York University Law School, Stony Brook College and Binghamton Universitywas awarded $2,500. The winning group, from Baruch College, received $5,000.

With the grant, the students have invited Bassem Eid, a Palestinian human rights activist and NGO director, and Erez Zadok, an Israeli-Jewish fund manager for Aviv Peace-Impact to campus to speak. The event, Palestinians & Israelis: Building Economic Pathways to Peace, is planned for 5 p.m. on March 30 in Blaustein Humanities Center Room 210. A small dinner after the event will give students an opportunity for more informal conversation with invited speakers.

Economic interdependence and global trade creates unique opportunities for cooperation, said Luxemburg. By looking at this issue through an economic lens, we hope people will leave the event with hope for what can be achieved in the region.

March 10, 2016
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.
There have been Eurosceptic Shadow Ministers for Europe, such as Graham Brady. There have even been Eurosceptic Ministers for Europe: consider the case of David Heathcoat-Amory, who wrote a book called Confessions of a Eurosceptic (just in case you were wondering where he stands). But there has only ever been one Party Europe spokesman who is now for Brexit and sat around David Camerons top table  Mark Francois, who was Shadow Minister for Europe from 2007 until 2010, during those early years of Camerons party leadership, and was a Shadow Cabinet member. Why will he vote for Leave?

I meet him in his Parliament Street office where  purposefully and deliberately  he takes me through his reasoning. He was out on a date when the call came from Cameron asking if he would take the Shadow Europe Minister post. I had told her earlier: just to warn you, if youre going to go out with me youll find that things can change at short notice. Then she went to bar to buy a drink, and David Cameron rang me. He made the offer and I accepted it. Then she returned, and I said: just to let you know  things have just changed at short notice.

Short notice indeed: Francoiss appointment was made under pressure. Brady had just resigned over a row about grammar school policy, Cameron was near the nadir of his fortunes in opposition, and he needed a replacement who was unambiguously from the partys centre-right. Francois was then part of George Osbornes team (as was I) and shadowing Red Dawn, as he puts it  a reference to Dawn Primarolo, then Gordon Browns representative-on-earth over tax credits and formerly a left-wing firebrand, later a deputy speaker and now a member of the House of Lords.

He had long been something of a Eurosceptic by instinct, having made his maiden speech against the Nice Treaty, but had not been following the EU issue closely. Then suddenly he was plunged into it, dealing first with the movement of the Partys MEPs from the European Peoples Party to the fledgling European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Group, and later with the European Constitution and the Lisbon Treaty. I remember him from those early years as seldom in the Commons because he was so often on a plane.

The ECR experience turns out to be important to his reasoning, because it turned out to part of a pattern, as he sees it. There was a lot of opposition to the Conservative MEPs aligning themselves with the ECR, not least from among some Tory MEPs and MPS themselves. I remember being told endlessly that the move would never work, and that even if it happened the new group would collapse within a few months  yet now its the third largest group in the European Parliament. We were told that we would be taking  and he smiles ruefully  a leap into the dark.

So it was, he says, with leaving the ERM. We were told that if we left the ERM that economic disaster would follow, but actually the economy began to recover rapidly. And then theres the Euro. Many in the establishment told us that the train was leaving the station  left behind, on our own, isolated: all sorts of scare stuff that turned out to be completely untrue. Thank goodness we kept the pound. One is living in heady days when a Tory MP who is, by instinct, a loyalist speaks of the establishment like that.

Indeed, Francois is still a Minister  having served in Government first as a whip, then at Defence and now at Communities and Local Government: one of the diminishing band of members of the 2001 intake who have served continuously in office under Cameron both in opposition and government. But now, with 30 or so of his front bench colleagues, he is breaking with the Governments position to back Brexit. Near the heart of his case is the thought that if so many supporters of Remain were wrong about the ERM, the ECR and the Euro, why should they be right now?

But it was the experience of dealing with the Lisbon Treaty in the Commons that helped to make up his mind. One of the things that really did it for me was the treaty. I spent 14 nights in parliament debating this 300 page treaty and we couldnt change a single word: Parliament had effectively been neutered. The more he saw of the way in which the EU institutions worked, the more I thought privately that we need to get out of this. Not, he insists, that this was ever the position of his boss at the time, William Hague.

Francois defends Hague against the claim that the latter has U-turned on Europe. I worked for William for three years, and dont remember him saying, even in private, that he thought we should leavethe famous Sun article which spoke of a cast iron guarantee did go on to say providing the treaty hasnt been ratified, but most people forget that. However, it turns out that there was discussion in opposition about a referendum: after some debate, we didnt offer a referendum as part of a package.

The famous Sun article which spoke of a cast-iron guarantee of one on the Lisbon Treaty did go on to say providing it hasnt been ratified, but most people forget that. Instead, there was the referendum lock that was enshrined in legislation after 2010  by which time Camerons priorities had changed. In 2007, he needed Francois badly; in 2010, he needed the Liberal Democrats. David Lidington became Minister for Europe and Francois went to the Whips Office. Whatever side people take, David Cameron deserves credit for delivering a referendum, he says stoutly.

But now he is taking a different path from his leader. I give the PM credit for having had a crack at it, but I really dont think the deal is sufficient, he says, before zooming in on immigration  an important issue to his constituents in Rayleigh and Wickford, Essex. The emergency brake wont make very much difference, he says. If were going to reduce immigration materially, we simply cant do it from inside the EU. This former whip feels that it is sometimes necessary to take against the party line, and even cites Cameron as a precedent  and on Europe, too.

The Prime Minister has said that, at the end of the day, Conservative MPs should follow their hearts. I think thats a very intelligent way of dealing with this issue. When it comes to this referendum, I have absolutely followed my heart and Im sure other colleagues have done the same  but its worth noticing that he may have said what he said because he did something very similar back in 1997 during the general election of that year, when he was parliamentary candidate for Stafford.

The Partys position then on joining the Euro, under John Majors leadership, was wait and see. But a lot of parliamentary candidates  I was one then in Brent East, up against Ken Livingstone, and David Cameron was standing in Stafford  declared in their personal election addresses that they would never vote to give up the pound (or similar wording). Indeed, I think that we were all featured in a double page spread in the Daily Mail as Heroes of Britain, or words to that effect. So I was one of those who broke with the line and so was he. So theres an example of where he followed his heart, and perhaps this explains why he thinks its acceptable for others to do something similar.
This week, Jeremy Hunt announced a wholesale change in the way the NHS will approach the investigation of mistakes and preventable deaths.

The Health Secretary plans to shift to the no blame model adopted by the airline industry, which is intended to make it easier to learn from mistakes by encouraging pilots and other staff to report them.

Instead of trying to apportion blame and punish the guilty in the event of a preventable death, investigations will now proceed on a no blame basis, with obvious exemptions for gross negligence or malice.

A court order required to force the publication of something the investigators felt was best kept private. This is because, as Hunt puts it, bad mistakes can be made by good people.

Such practices have made air travel a lot safer  fatality figures have fallen even as many times more people than previously are flying. Indeed experts credit the shift to the no-blame investigatory culture with saving thousands of lives.

Obviously there may be difficulties translating it to suit the medical world. But combined with other measures announced yesterday  including a tightening of the law to protect whistleblowers and a new honesty league table of how NHS Trusts approach errors  mark a decisive step in a new direction.

This should give pause to those who have allowed themselves to buy into the BMA caricature of the Health Secretary as a cold-hearted persecutor of doctors, and may be part of a deliberate effort to consolidate his relationship with the profession after a strained few months.

Had he that cast of mind, Hunt might instead have sought to use avoidable deaths as a cudgel against them, and made it easier for the victims of medical mistakes, or their families, to prosecute. There are always good headlines in that sort of justice.

That Hunt has instead decided to shield doctors from the consequences of their mistakes, in the best long-term interests of patients, demonstrates a sincere commitment to the duties of his office for which he deserves credit.

Ministers taking the lead in driving reforms at the departmental level has been the hallmark of David Camerons Government. Just as Michael Gove is modernising prisons and Iain Duncan Smith continues to press ahead with Universal Credit, so would this sea change in NHS attitudes to blame represent an important example of minister-led Conservative reform.

Unfortunately, Hunt is unlikely to receive the sort of direct support that other reforming ministers have enjoyed from Number Ten, in the form of set-piece speeches and the like. Downing Street thinks Health is too risky to get the Prime Minister personally involved.

But this remains an important and worthwhile cause and for that reason, as well as the power struggle with the BMA, that must stand by the Health Secretary and resist any urge to move him in the next reshuffle.
Kashmirs Missing Kings And Queens!

By M.Ashraf

10 March, 2016

Countercurrents.org

(Kashmir in ancient times was ruled by Kings and Queens who were born to be so and in the recent times we have had democratically elected Kings but right now we have none!)

Traditionally, Kashmir from the earliest times has been ruled by Kings and Queens. The most authentic and interesting historical account of the Kings and Queens of Kashmir from the ancient times till twelfth century is the Rajatarangani written by Pandit Kalhan. It means in English the River of Kings. It truly is a descriptive River of the Kings and Queens who have ruled Kashmir in the earliest of times. There have been all types of Kings. Some were great builders while some were great conquerors. Avantivarman was a builder while as Laltaditya Muktapid was a great conqueror. Avantivarmans period is remembered because of his illustrious minister Hakeem Suya who saved Kashmir of those times from devastating floods. After the devastation of the last flood one intensely wishes we had someone like Hakeem Suya in the present times! Laltaditya can be truly called the Alexander of Kashmir because of his conquests and forays into lands all around Kashmir. He even tried to conquer Tibet but his entire army perished in the freezing snows of Ladakh on their way to Tibet. Then we had Kanishka during whose reign the Fourth Buddhist Council which changed Buddhism from the strict HinayanaSchool to more moderate Mahayana School was held in Kashmir. The famous Chinese Traveller Huien Sang visited Kashmir during his time.

Among the Queens, there are two famous ones, Queen Didda and Kota Rani. Queen Didda is supposed to have been very ruthless and vicious. She ruled with a strong hand. According to a historian friend, Indira Gandhi was supposed to have been her re-incarnation! Kota Rani was the last Hindu ruler and she committed suicide after a forced marriage to Rin Chen Shah, a Ladakhi prince who had usurped the thrown of Kashmir. In fact, after being refused entry into Hinduism by the local Brahmins, he converted to Islam and became the first Muslim ruler of Kashmir as Sultan Sadru-ud-Din.

In the recent past, Kashmir has had two very illustrious and intelligent rulers. Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin popularly known as Budshah and Queen Habba Khatoon. In fact, the latter was a de-facto ruler. She was the wife of the last rulerof the sovereign and independent Kashmir, Yusuf Shah Chak. One need not recount the story of Budshah. Even a child is familiar with the name. As regards Habba Khatoon apart from being an intelligent companion and advisor to her husband, she was a famous poetess. She in fact started the romantic school of poetry in Kashmir which till her time had mostly the Sufi or the spiritual poetry. Her songs still reverberate in the valleys of Kashmir. Apart from being a de-facto ruler, she had rendered timely advice to her husband asking him not to trust Akbar but he disregarded it and ended up in exile and loss of Kashmirs sovereignty!

The departure of the British in 1947 from the sub-continent brought freedom to many oppressed people. However, Kashmiris due to their ill luck failed to get back their sovereign status even after four centuries of external rule.When the whole sub-continent was witnessing the rise of the new Sun of freedom and emancipation, Kashmiris were getting entangled in the worst possible political mess in the history. A special King arose who got them entangled in such a knot which appears to be impossible to disentangle! These were now new type of Kings who were installed by outside powers to keep the people under a new kind of imperialism. One could call these so called democratically selected Kings. Even though they fought so called elections yet their installation was by the will of the outside powers. In spite of the end of the monarchical system of heredity Kings and Queens, the new line also tried to follow the hereditary process in a so called democratic way.

The present situation when Kashmir is without a King or a Queen reminds one of a similar episode described by Kalhana. It is said that at one time due to continuous internecine warfare, the people could not get a King to rule over them. The courtiers ultimately decided that any person who is first to enter the Kingdom from outside on a particular day would be crowned as a King. So on the chosen day the courtiers waited at the entry gate of the valley and as soon as a person came in, they pounced upon him and told him that he was the King of Kashmir! Well, seeing the present state of affairs we may have to resort to a similar practice and get a King or a Queen to rule over us! Anyhow, sometimes it is better to be without a King or a Queen. The state runs on its own in a much better way!

Mohammad Ashraf, I.A.S. (Retired), Former Director General Tourism, Jammu & Kashmir),

ashrafmjk@gmail.com




The War Of The Sexes: The Origins Of Gender Inequality

By Ugo Bardi

10 March, 2016

Chimeras

The story of Scheherazade of the 1001 Arabian Nights is the quintessence of the "war of the sexes" and of how women tend to lose it. It is said that King Shahryar would have a new lover every night and every morning he would have her killed. He stopped only when Scheherazade started telling him stories. It shows, among other things, that males behave much better when they listen to females. Picture: Scheherazade and Shahryar by Ferdinand Keller, 1880

Some time ago, I was chatting at home with a friend who is a researcher specialized in "gender inequality". I asked her what were the ultimate origins of this inequality but we couldn't arrive at a conclusion. So, I happened to have in a shelf nearby a copy of the "Malleus Maleficarum", the book that Kramer and Sprenger wrote in the 16th century on the evils of witchcraft. I took it out and I opened it to the page where the authors dedicate several paragraphs to describe how evil women are. I read a few of these paragraphs aloud and my friend was so enraged that she left the room, without saying a word. Later on, she told me that she had done that to avoid telling me what she thought I deserved to be told just for keeping that book in my shelves. Maybe she was right, but the question of the origins of gender inequality remained unanswered (BTW, later on, we became friends again).

Why are women so commonly discriminated in almost all cultures, modern and ancient? Of course, there are plenty of studies attempting to explain the reasons. It is an interdisciplinary field that mixes history, anthropology, psychology, social studies, and even more; you can spend your whole life studying it. So, I don't even remotely pretend to be saying something definitive or even deep on this subject. It is just that, after much thinking on this matter, I thought that I could share with you some of my conclusions. So, here is a narrative of how gender inequality developed over the centuries in Europe and in the Mediterranean world. I hope you'll find in it something worth pondering.

So, let's go back in time, way back; when does the phenomenon that we call "gender inequality" starts? You probably know that Marija Gimbutas has been arguing for a long time that the pre-literate ages in Europe were characterized by a form of matriarchy and by the predominance of the cult of a female goddess (or goddesses). That is, of course, debatable and it is hotly debated; there is very little that we have from those ancient times that can tell us how men and women related to each other. However, when we move to the first examples of literature we have, then we see at least hints of a different world that involved some kind - perhaps - if not female dominance at least a more assertive role of women. Indeed, the first text for which we know the name of the author was written by the Sumerian priestess Enheduanna at some moment during the second half of the third millennium BCE. From these ancient times, there comes a very strong voice: the voice of a woman asserting the rule of the Goddess Inanna over the pantheon of male Gods of her times, hinting at an even larger role of female goddesses in even more ancient times.

If we follow the millennia as they move onward, it seems that the voice of women becomes fainter and fainter. In Greece, we have Sappho of Lesbos, renown for her poetry, but she comes from a very early age; the seventh century BCE. As the Greek civilization grew and was absorbed into the Roman one, woman literates seem to dwindle. Of the whole span of the Western Roman civilization, we know of a modest number of literate women and there are only two Roman female poets whose works have survived to us. Both go with the name of Sulpicia and you probably never heard of them. As poetry goes, the first Sulpicia, who lived at the times of August, may be interesting to look at. The second one, living in later times, has survived in a few lines only because they are explicitly erotic. But but the point is that it is so little in comparison with so much Greek and Latin literature we still have. Women of those times may not have been really silent but, in literary terms, we just don't hear their voices.

On the other side of the sexual barrier, note how the "Malleus Maleficarum" bases its several pages of insult to women largely on classical authors, for instance, Cicero, Lactantius, Terence, and others; as well as on the early Christian fathers. It is not surprising for us to discover that, from the early imperial times to the early Middle Ages, most writers were woman-haters. They thought that sex was, at best, a necessary evil that one had to stand in order to ensure the perpetuation of humankind; but no more than that. Chastity, if one could attain it, was by far the best condition for man and woman alike and, for sure, sex with a woman was only a source of perversity and of debasement. An early Christian father, Origen (3rd century CE) is reported to have taken the matter to the extreme and castrated himself, although that's not certain and surely it never became popular.

With the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire, there appeared something that had never existed before: the monastic orders. Never before so many men and women had decided that they wanted to live in complete separation from the members of the other sex. Read a book such as the "pratum spirituale" by 6th century CE the Byzantine monk John Moschos, and you get the impression that everyone at that time, males and females, were obsessed by sex; how to avoid it, that is. Chastity had never been considered a virtue before and, yet, now it had become the paramount one. At least, however, it seems that women had gained a certain degree of independence, seeking for chastity in their own ways and with a dignity of their own. Reading documents from that age, you get the well-defined impression that men and women had somehow decided that they wanted to avoid each other for a while. It was a pause that lasted several centuries. But why did that happen?

I think there are reasons, but to understand them we must go back to Roman times and try to understand what was the relationship between men and women at that age. And we may find that it was deeply poisoned by a sickness that pervaded the society of those times: social inequality and, in particular, the institution of slavery.

It is well known that the Roman Empire heavily based its wealth on the work of slaves. Their number is variously estimated as around 10% of the population, but it was larger in the richest regions of the empire. Probably, during the 1st century CE, some 30%-40% of the population of Italy was composed of slaves (1). Slavery was an integral part of the Roman economy and one of the main aims of the Roman military conquests was capturing of large numbers of foreigners, who then were turned into slaves.

Now, most slaves were male and were used for heavy or menial work, in agriculture, for instance. But many of them were female, and, obviously, young and attractive slaves, both male and female, were used as sex objects. Slaves were not considered as having rights. They simply were property. Caroline Osiek writes that (2).

To the female slave, therefore, honor, whether of character or of behavior, cannot be ascribed. The female slave can lay no claim to chastity or shame, which have no meaning. In the official view, she cannot have sensitivity toward chastity. Her honor cannot be violated because it does not exist. .. No legal recognition is granted to the sexual privacy of a female slave.

To have a better idea of how female slaves were considered in Roman times, we may turn to a late Roman poet, Ausonius (4th century CE) who had gained a certain notoriety in his times. He was not only a poet but an accomplished politician who had a chance to accompany Emperor Gratian in a military raid in Germania. From there, he returned with a Germanic slave girl named Bissula. He wrote a poem in her honor that says, among other things,

Delicium, blanditiae, ludus, amor, voluptas,barbara, sed quae Latias vincis alumna pupas,Bissula, nomen tenerae rusticulum puellae,horridulum non solitis, sed domino venustum.

that we can translate as

Delice, blandishment, play, love, desire,barbarian, but you baby beat the Latin girlsBissula, a tender name, a little rustic for a girla little rough for those not used to it, but a grace for your master

It is clear that Ausonius likes Bissula; we could even say that he is fond of her. But it is the same kind of attitude that we may have toward a domestic animal; a cat or a dog that we may like a lot, but that we don't consider our equal. Bissula was no more than a pet in terms of rights. It is true that her master was not supposed to mistreat her, and we have no evidence that he ever did. But she had strictly no choice in terms of satisfying him sexually. In this sense, she had no more rights than those pertaining to a rubber doll in our times. In modern terms, we can say that she was being legally raped. And nobody seemed to find this strange; so much that Ausonius' poem that described this legal rape was considered wholly normal and it was appreciated.

If we can still hear Ausonius' voice, we cannot hear that of Bissula. Probably, she couldn't read and write, to say nothing about doing that in proper Latin. So, what she thought of her master is anyone's guess. Was she happy that she was getting at least food and shelter from him? Or did she hate him for having been one od those who had, perhaps, exterminated her family and her parents? Did she ever dream of sticking a hairpin in Ausonius' eye? Perhaps; but we have no evidence that she ever did. If she had done something like that, by the way, she would have condemned to death all the slave of Ausonius' household. The Roman law practiced a strict interpretation of the principle of common intention and when it happened that a slave killed his/her master, it required that all the slaves of that master were to be executed.

So, we cannot hear Bissula's voice, just as we can't hear the voice of the millions of sex slaves that crossed the trajectory of the Roman Empire, from its foundation to its end in the 5th century CE. Exploited, without rights, probably turned to menial work whenever they got older and their masters lost interest in them, their voice is lost in the abyss of time and we can only imagine their plea. But, perhaps, we can get a glimpse of their feelings from their reflection on the other side; that of their masters who, in Imperial times spent pages and pages of their writings at insulting women. Yes, because the silent side, that of the slaves, was not without weapons in the war that the masters were waging against them. The masters may have expected gratitude from them, perhaps even love. But they got only hatred and despise. Imagine yourself as Bissula. Do you imagine she could have loved Ausonius? And can you imagine how could she have taken some revenge on him? I am sure there were ways, even though we can't say whether Bissula ever put them into practice. No wonder that so many men in these times accused women of treachery. In the war of the sexes, the women had to use guerrilla tactics, and apparently they were doing that with some success.

If slavery turned woman slaves into sex objects, the resulting war of the sexes must have had negative effect also on free women. They were not supposed to be legally raped as the slaves, but surely they could not ignore what their husbands were doing (and, by the way, free Roman women were not supposed to rape their male slaves and, if they did, they were not supposed to write poems about how cute their male sex dolls were). Very likely, this situation poisoned the male/female relations of generations of Roman citizens. Thinking of that, we cannot be surprised of the avalanche of insults that Roman male writers poured on women (want an example? Seneca in his tragedies [11 (117)]: "when a woman thinks alone, she thinks evil")

That kind of poisoned relationship continued for a long time but, at a certain moment, not much later than Ausonius' times, the Empire ceased to be able to raid slaves from anywhere, and then it disappeared. Slavery didn't disappear with the Empire: we had to wait for the 19th century to see it disappear for good. But, surely, the whole situation changed and slaves were not any more so common. The Christian church took a lot of time before arriving to a clear condemnation of slavery, but turning people into sex toys was not seen any more as the obvious things to do. So, things changed a lot and we may understand how during Middle Ages men and women were taking that "pause." It was as if they were looking at each other, thinking "who should make the first move?" A shyness that lasted for centuries.

And then, things changed again. It was an impetuous movement, a reversal of the time of hatred between men and women: it was the time of courtly love. With the turning of the millennium, the amour courtois started to appear in Europe and it became all the rage. Men and women were looking again at each other; and they were looking at each other in romantic terms: they loved each other. The love between man and woman became a noble thing, a way to obtain enlightenment - perhaps better than chastity. From the Northern Celtic tradition, the legend of two lovers, Tristan and Iseult, bursts into the literary scene. And it was a dam that gave way. Lancelot and Guinevere, then Dante and Beatrice, Petrarca and Laura, Ibn Arabi and Nizham. West European and Mediterranean poets couldn't think of anything better to express themselves than to dedicate them to noble women whom they love and respect.

And we hear again the voice of women: and what a voice! Think of Heloise, pupil and lover of Abelard, the philosopher in a tragic love story that took place during the early 12th century. Heloise burst onto the scene with unforgettable words: "To her master, nay father, to her husband, nay brother; from his handmaid, nay daughter, his spouse, nay sister: to Abelard, from Heloise. And if the name of wife appears more sacred and more valid, sweeter to me is ever the word friend, or, if you be not ashamed, concubine or whore." What can you say about this? I can only say that my lower jaw falls down as I utter "Wow!!"

It was a long journey from Heloise to our times. Long and tormented, just think that not much later than Heloise, the French mystic Marguerite Porete wrote her book "The mirror of the simple souls" in a style and content that reminds the works of the Sumerian Enheduana, four thousand years before. And Marguerite Porete was burned at the stake for what she had written. And, some centuries later, the war against females continued with the various witch hunts, fueled by books such as "The Malleus Maleficarum" (1520). And think that it was only in the second half of the 20th century that women were generally considered smart enough that they were allowed to vote in general elections. But we have arrived somewhere, to an age in which "gender inequality" is considered something wholly negative, to be avoided at all costs. An age in which, at least in the West, the idea that women are equal to men is obvious, or should be. And an age in which using woman slaves as sex toys is (or should be) considered as an absolute evil.

And yet, if history moves forward, it also moves along a tortuous road and sometimes it goes in circles. The similarities of our times and Roman ones are many. Certainly, we don't have slaves any more, not officially, at least. But that may not be so much a social and ethical triumph but a consequence of the fact that our society is much more monetarized than the Roman one. The need for money can easily make a man or a woman the monetary equivalent of a slave of Roman times. We call "sex workers" those people who engage in sex for money; they are supposed to be free men and free women, but freedom can only be theoretical when, if you really want it, you have to pay for it by starvation. And while the armies of the globalized empire do not raid any more the neighboring countries to bring back male and female slaves, it is the global financial power that forces them to come to the West. They have little choice but to leave countries ravaged by wars, droughts, and poverty. In general, the social equality that the Western World had been constantly gaining after the industrial revolution, seems to have stopped its movement. Since the 1970s, we are going in reverse, social inequalities are on the increase. Are we going to re-legalize slavery? It is not an impossible thought if you think that it was still legal in the US up to 1865.

So, maybe the rich elites of our times would again turn women into sex objects? Maybe they are doing that already. Think of Italy's leader, Silvio Berlusconi. Enough has been diffused of his private life for us to understand that he behaved not unlike Ausonius with his female toys, except that, luckily for us, he has not imposed on us some bad poetry of his.

So, is the war of the sexes going to restart? Are we going to see again the relations between men and women souring because of the deep inequality that turns women into sex toys? And maybe we are going to see the monastic orders returning and, perhaps, in a far future, a new explosion of reciprocal love? It is, of course, impossible to say. What we can say is that the world empire that we call "globalization" is all based on fossil fuels and that it is going to have a short life; very likely much shorter than that of the Roman Empire. Maybe the cycle will not be restarting, maybe it will; we cannot say. Humankind is engaged in a travel toward the future that is taking us somewhere, but we don't know where. Wherever we are going, the path is something we create with our feet as we march onward.

h/t: Elisabetta Addis

1. Harper, Slavery in the Late Roman World, AD 275-425. Cambridge University Press, 2011,

2. Carolyn Osniek, Female Slaves, Porneia and the limits to obedience, in "Early Christian Families in Context: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue" David Balch and Carolyn Osniek eds. Wm. Eedermans publishing Co. Cambridge, 2003

Ugo Bardi is a professor of Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Firenze, Italy. He also has a more general interest in energy question and is the founder and president of ASPO Italia.




Politics Not As Usual: Is This The Age Of American Fascism?

By Ramzy Baroud

10 March, 2016

Countercurrents.org

Regardless of the outcome of the American presidential primaries, or even the result of the general elections next November, a frightening phenomenon is under way. The US has decidedly moved to the Right, in fact the Ultra-Right; class differences are more pronounced than ever before, thanks to decades of neoliberal policies, the kind of capitalism that has concentrated the wealth in even fewer hands; racism is on the rise and the unmistakable signs of fascism are evident whenever Donald Trump holds a campaign rally.

Not that Trumps opponents are any less frightening in their rhetoric, but the man who has won 316 delegates in the Republican Partys primaries has proven to be a liability to a party whose supporters are known for their overt racism and hate speech. Sure, there are many hurdles yet to be overcome, but Trumps winning streak is already raising alarming questions about the future of the Republicans and the future politics of the entire country.

The fear of the Trump phenomenon should not be confined to a discussion concerning politics, but understood as a reflection of a societal shift, whose roots are many, and are now all converging to steer US politics towards a whole new direction. Even if the Republicans lose the elections, the trend is likely to continue - if not accelerate - under a Hilary Clinton administration, who is loathed by the Republicans and also many Democrats.

In the less likely chance that Bernie Sanders clinches the Democratic Party nomination, the country is likely to experience a political deadlock. Sanders refers to himself as a socialist, although he is not, since he does not call for common ownership of resources. But just the mere reference is likely to result in a political upheaval greater than that caused by Barack Obamas ascendency to the While House in 2009.

Obama, too, was called a socialist, which for many in the US is considered a swear word, even surpassing the word liberal. Of course, Obama was no socialist, either. For one, he bailed out the most corrupt financial institutions in the US following the economic recession, while millions of poor and middle-class Americans lost their homes, pensions and life savings.

Chris Hedges refers to the ongoing American upheaval as the revenge of the lower classes. And the blame should be shared by Republicans and Democrats alike, who represented and spoke on behalf of the wealthy elites and the massive corporations, yet differed in terminology that set them apart in language only.

There are tens of millions of Americans, especially lower-class whites, rightfully enraged at what has been done to them, their families and their communities, Hedges wrote. They have risen up to reject the neoliberal policies and political correctness imposed on them by college-educated elites from both political parties: lower-class whites are embracing an American fascism.

While the roots of the problem, at least among Republican support, can be identified, the alienation and the lack of a unifying vision is generating a terrible backlash:

These Americans want a kind of freedoma freedom to hate. They want the freedom to idealize violence and the gun culture. They want the freedom to have enemies, to physically assault Muslims, undocumented workers, African-Americans, homosexuals and anyone who dares criticize their crypto-fascism.

The rise of political hooliganism is not new, but has finally made a jump from relatively marginal, angry chauvinistic movements, such as the Tea Party, into a mainstream tidal wave.

The twist is that the Tea Party Movement had largely emerged after Obamas first term in office and was mostly the Republican establishments attempt at galvanizing their supporters to defeat any initiatives that aimed at expanding the role of government under the new administration.

It was a political ploy with a specific agenda, and its members were described as a mix of Libertarians and Conservatives although, in reality, it invested in a model of political populism that exploited peoples anger at the collapse of their economy and the short-sightedness of politicians.

That form of popular manipulation backfired, and even the Republican Party establishment is now dumbfounded by the Frankenstein monster it has itself created or, at least, allowed to be born. It is a Republican civil war as described by USA Today, and the panic over a Trump nomination is resurrecting old figures from their slumber, all trying to slow down the uncontrollable demagoguery that has afflicted their party.

Former 2012 Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, joined that civil war on 3 March as he hurled insults at Trump during a televised speech. He described him as phony and fraud who will hand over the White House to Clinton. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University, said Romney. He's playing the American public for suckers: he gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat.

Of course, Trump fired back with his own colorful language and animated style. Yet, the fact remains: playing Americans for suckers is as American as apple-pie, and Republicans who rallied behind the likes of the bizarre duo of John McCain and Sarah Palin in 2008 know this well.

But the fragmentation of the Republicans is not particularly unique in what promises to be a tumultuous and unkind election season. US liberals and some leftists are pulling up their sleeves in anticipation of a prolonged battle for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, as well. The mistrust for Hilary Clinton - who is seen by some as a hawk at a time that a unifying figure is most needed - drove many, especially among the younger generations, to rally behind the Senator from Vermont, Sanders.

Sanders, on the other hand, seems to follow a similar campaign strategy used by Obama. He, too, speaks of hope and change, although with his own unique set of terminology. His promises are also many, but his defeat in the Super Tuesday Democratic primaries to Clinton, who snatched victory in seven states leaving Sanders with four, makes some cast doubts on his electability.

Since desperate times call for desperate measures, the anarchist linguistic, Professor Noam Chomsky, is once more calling on voters to cast their vote against Republicans even if that means voting for Clinton in swing states such as Ohio. As for Sanders, Chomsky said in an Al Jazeera interview, doesnt have much of a chance.

Chomskys swing state strategy is not new, and he used that same line in previous elections, but the sense that there is a doomsday scenario that will be ushered in if Trump is chosen as the Republican nominee, is likely to be the driving force behind the Democratic supporters.

Yet regardless of the outcomes, the age of populism in American politics has begun and it is not likely to be cast aside to the margins for years to come. The sad reality is that there is little political consciousness that currently defines the attitudes of most Americans outside limited racial, class and tribal-like political ideologies. This leaves Americans with one of three choices, a recourse to democratic fundamentals based on equality and common good, outright fascism, or moving to Canada, as many are currently pondering.

So far, the signs are not promising.

Dr. Ramzy Baroud has been writing about the Middle East for over 20 years. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an author of several books and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His books include Searching Jenin, The Second Palestinian Intifada and his latest My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gazas Untold Story. His website is: www.ramzybaroud.net.




The Death Of Two Airlines

By B.F. Firos

10 March, 2016

Countercurrents.org

Indian journalists used to suffer from an OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) of a peculiar kind as they religiously prefixed the adjective flamboyant to refer to Vijay Mallya. The flamboyant fixation and occasional comparison to Richard Branson remained at its feverish pinnacle even after his Kingfisher Airlines ran aground and employees staged public protests demanding their unpaid salaries. As banks started baying for his blood, we saw the overly used flamboyant getting replaced, though much reluctance, with words like beleaguered.

Mallya became Indian medias popular corporate poster boy after he brought to India Tipu Sultans sword from Britain twelve years ago. Now he has escaped to the same Britain with the street-smart guile of a fly-by-night-operator. It had all the natural ingredients of a Jeffrey Archer novel: corporate conspiracy, bikini-clad damsels, and a final Bond-like escape. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would have named it A Scandal of Bohemian! But then, his sleuth Sherlock Holmes science of deduction and art of intuition wouldnt just be enough to locate the now-elusive, has-been prince. Holmes might just get lucky if he gets one or two tips from the flamboyant-crazy journalists on Mallyas whereabouts.

We saw how a weak-kneed state standing helplessly before the tantrums of Mallya who beguiled the whole country with his corporate melodrama; with jargons such as debt restructuring, local investors, and equity being thrown in for good taste. And he went about with hubris, embellished by his Formula 1 and IPL adventures, as out-of-job pilots and other airline staff looked at the sky for their salaries. The other day a few disgruntled staff protested outside his Mumbai residence. They didnt know that they were unwittingly singing songs of farewell to Mallya.

The near-void caused by Kingfishers exit was eventually filled by a couple of full-scale as well as no-frills carriers. Two decades ago, the countrys aviation sector witnessed a similar gap with the exit of East West Airlines, though on account of entirely different reasons. The meteoric rise and melancholic fall of East West, promoted by the Wahid brothers from Kerala, remains etched in Indias aviation history with the avant-garde entrepreneurship of its CMD Thakiyudeen Wahid. If Kingfisher died because of the corporate skullduggery by its owner Mallya, East West died after its promoter Thakiyudeen succumbed to a spray of machine gun bullets.

The East Wests was a rags-to-rich filmy story, but with a tragic real-life climax. What started as a modest manpower recruiting agency in Bombay blossomed into the countrys first private airline to touch skies in early 1992 after India launched its open-sky policy. It was a daring move: to test waters in a sector dominated by the government carrier. In its heady days, when Indian Airlines pilots went on strike, Indian government asked East West to fill the gap. But trying times were ahead. Just when the promoters contemplated shifting the headquarters to Chennai or Bangalore in the face of growing threats from various quarters, Thakiyudeen Wahid was shot dead outside his office in Bombay in 1995.

Post-Wahid, the airline suddenly found itself stranded in mid-air, with the pilot having gone, gasping for breath with a leadership vacuum and aircraft companies knocking at its doors. Thakiyudeens brothers, lacking in vision and the wherewithal to steer the troubled career, couldnt carry forward his legacy.

East West soon disappeared, rather tragically, into thin air without trace; everything about the airline company was submerged in the din of its alleged connection with Dawood Ibrahim. The politicians who had hitherto hobnobbed with the airline directors suddenly hid in the cocoon of the airline companys alleged underworld link. Probably, even to talk about saving a fast-sinking airline with supposed underworld connections must have been a sacrilegious act.

The airlines alleged underworld link is still a legally unproven charge, so is the charge that business rivalry was behind the murder. Chotta Rajan had claimed that he got Thakiyudeen killed. He was, claimed Rajan, Dawood's financier in India.

Thakiyudeen was probably not the right fit for a flamboyant tag dished out by our journalists. He was born in an ordinary family in a coastal village in Kerala; he didnt own yachts or resorts, neither an exalted pedigree worth exhibiting. But he created history in an industry few dared to touch, so did Mallya, but for entirely wrong reasons. East West and Kingfisher were phenomena of entirely different times and contexts. However, both can form the base of a plot that would make Jeffrey Archer squirm!



(The writer is a Dubai-based journalist. firosbf@gmail.com)






Refugee Bloodlines: America And Europe Can't Be Hypocrites Any Longer

By William Hawes

10 March, 2016

Countercurrents.org

As the Middle East-North Africa region continues to convulse with earth-shaking war, Western-backed jihadi terror, and sectarian divisions, the modern worlds media continues to avert its eyes. As the US presidential race gains steam, American journalism, even the well-meaning left, chronically under-report progress made in Syria, the cease-fire, the Syrian Arab Armys (SAA) progress, and NATO-Gulf Nations utterly destructive policies, lies, and duplicity. Saudis illegal war in Yemen barely registers as a blip on mainstream outlets. As all this goes on, disturbingly, refugees from the whirlwind of chaos and destruction are being denigrated as second-class citizens as they enter the European Union. In the US, the problems are just as bad, as Congress and the Washington establishment seem intent on pursuing blatantly anti-immigrant policies.

In 2015, approximately 1.3 million migrants applied for asylum in the European Union. Estimates show an expected similar or higher amount for this year, in the range of 1.5-2 million. Over 3,000 refugees died trying to cross the Mediterranean in 2015. Conditions are simply brutal for those who do make it to the EU. In Greece and Hungary, refugees wait patiently as surveillance is increased, checkpoints and fences multiply, militarized police battalions patrol, and razor wire is strung up on their way to their destinations.

In Sweden, thousands of unaccompanied minors and also adults are having problems finding employment and integrating. In Denmark, authorities are considering confiscating refugee assets worth over something like $1,400 dollars- a pittance. In Germany, migrants are being told their families may not be eligible to make the journey to join them, causing many to return to Iraq and Syria. In Calais, France, violence and arson continue as refugees live in make-shift shacks, endure freezing temperatures, and the brutality of riot police.

In the US, last November the House voted in favor of the SAFE Act, 289-137, on a bill that would expand background checks and halting refugees entering from Syria and Iraq. In January, the Senate barely overturned the bill 55-43. The US has only let in approximately a meager 2,300 Syrian refugees, and most are women and children. (1) The process currently can take as long as two years, with vetting from FBI and DHS. Certainly, the US Congress has fallen off the deep end into paranoia and xenophobia to even consider such racist measures as the SAFE Act.

As has been pointed out many times, the one million refugees so far taken into the EU represents only 0.2% of the total EU population of 500 million. Surely, a responsible and humane program could be implemented throughout the Schengen area with minimal problems, if only member nations overcome their fears and delusional projections of the minority migrant Others. The issues blocking such progress are not social integration, assimilation, and demographic cultural problems, but are ultimately political. They relate to the way national politicians use identity politics to disparage and dehumanize refugees and immigrants.

Ultimately, news stories and sympathetic photo-journalism do little to express what refugees are going through. If a picture paints a thousand words, then engaging face-to-face with dialogue and compassion for refugees and immigrants and their struggles can paint a million. The words may not pour out, but be sure to look your companion square in the eyes. When I spoke with my own grandfather, the words were not plentiful, to put it lightly. His look, the depth of sorrow in his eyes, spoke for itself. He seemed to be saying: Please, I do not want you to know about this. I cant talk about this. It is too painful. Ever since then, I have never blinked when expressing solidarity with refugees worldwide. It is seared into my consciousness, my blood, into my bones.

I have seen the look elsewhere. When I asked my friend from Lebanon about what he had seen in the civil war, he simply replied: Everythingeverything. His eyes shone, and I saw and felt the same tinges of anger and sadness. He was staring directly at me, his eyes steady. I did not push him after that. I had seen the look before.

At university, I experienced the look again: my friend from Germany was from the former GDR. He spoke of his elder family member, who was in the secret police. His eyes had the same knowing, the same endurance of immense suffering, the same desire for liberation, the desire for the unadulterated freedom of the human spirit. Here was a real-life analogy to Harry Potter: just as Voldemort was he-who-must-not-be-named, my friend would only use the phrase secret police. He could not bring himself to say Stasi, even though they had not existed for over fifteen years when we discussed this.

The UN documents about 60 million worldwide refugees. (2) This figure is almost certainly an under-estimate, as it doesnt factor in massive numbers of political and economic migrants. A more thorough accounting might put the number at anywhere from 75-150 million: about 1-2% of the entire worlds population.

If the US and European politicians continue to use xenophobia and racism to promote hate against refugees, our entire civilization will crumble into the dustbin of history. Of that there can be no doubt. The Enlightenment project of emancipation and universal rights cant be allowed to be rolled back because of anti-immigrant fear.

After the tragedy of the Vietnam War, the US response to calls for help was abysmal. However, the US did help resettle over one million people. The terrible events unfolding in North Africa and Southwest Asia deserve a similar response, starting now.

If there is any sense of goodwill and humanism left in world leaders, they must accept the UN Declaration of Human Rights (3) in its entirety and begin to build a framework for accepting millions of refugees into the developed world. The undeniable truth is that many of us in the US and Europe are descendants of immigrants and refugees ourselves. Despite the prejudices of the past, our ancestors were not turned away by tear gas, guns, batons, labyrinthine legal troubles, and barbed wire. Citizens in Europe and the USA must speak out and join hands in unity with refugees against the tides of intolerance, before it is too late.

William Hawes is a writer specializing in politics and environmental issues.

Notes:

1. http://www.factcheck.org/2015/11/facts-about-the-syrian-refugees/

2. http://www.unhcr.org/558193896.html

3. http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/




Emergence Of A New Left or A New Turn By The Old: Some Propositions On Recent Movements In India

By Mithilesh Kumar

10 March, 2016

Countercurrents.org

In a revolutionary period it is very difficult to keep abreast of events which provide an astonishing amount of new material for an appraisal of the tactical slogans of revolutionary parties.

Lenin, Two Tactics of Social-Democracy in the Democratic Revolution

Several movements, recently, have come to a state where an analysis of the trends of radical politics can be done. These movements range from FTII to the return of awards from intellectual, artists and academic to the movement against scrapping of UGC fellowships to the agitation against the institutional murder of RohithVemula culminating finally in the JNU movement. There are several other movements, big or small, that has happened all over the country but the above mentioned ones are those which captured the imagination of the people and where ideological battle lines were divided decisively. The task now is to discern those signs in politics and political movements which indicate that these movements have indeed brought a distinct trajectory in radical politics in India which has broken the relative deadlock and a bit of staleness that had set in the form and content of mainstream Left politics. By mainstream left the indication is towards parliamentary left especially the triumvirate of CPI, CPI (M), CPI (M-L) Liberation. By radical/revolutionary left it means those groups who are mainly in the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist camp and those who differ with the mainstream in terms of programme, stage of revolution, question of party etc. We should also be prepared that no such change has actually been achieved.

Let us first examine the movements that have been mentioned above; their genesis, their ideology, the vocabulary of their struggle and the strategy and tactics adopted by them. It is now a popular aphorism that a single spark can start a prairie fire. This prairie fire was the decision of IIT-Madras to derecognize the Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle (APSC) following an anonymous report that they are instigating protests against Prime Minister Modi and government policies under him. This was a crude method adopted by the institution to suppress a student group. This was the moment when the state will change its strategy to suppress dissent. After a widespread protest the de-recognized status of APSC was lifted with assigning of a faculty advisor. It was an indication that the authorities knew that outright crude strategy of suppressing dissent will not work. They have to be suppressed by a combination of violence and polarization of ideological stands. APSC succeeded in achieving a political victory and in some ways set the template of battle between the governmental authorities and the students which was going to inform the movements that followed. The struggle was an old one, between the oppressed and the oppressor but the methods of struggles of both the state and the subject had changed.

In a way FTII is where the new template of struggle started to develop. On the surface it was a very innocuous act. What should have been a routine appointment became a center of political storm and the new forms of battle began to unravel. However, there were two very different aspects to this movement in a political sense and which were in contradiction. The first aspect was that the appointee was a person without eminence hence he was not fit to head a prestigious institution. It is very hard to say that this is a political demand. The political aspect came when this was linked to an attempt to saffronise institutions and was seen as an attempt by the government to capture legally autonomous institutions. This contradiction it could be said was not resolved. Thus, the success of the movement was that it brought the issue of saffronisation stridently to fore however it could not decisively took a leap from localization to a more general struggle. It is true the protest came to Delhi with support from all around the country but it receded after a heroic strike that continued for 138 days. But the movement ensured that a discourse for a radical movement was set.

The so-called award wapsi created even more flutter in the intellectual imagination of the people as well as the government. Against the killing of artists and rationalists the intellectuals took a strong stand. The returning of award in itself was not a novel act as repeated reference to Rabindranath Tagores return of the Nobel Prize made it clear. What was novel about this protest and its vocabulary was the decisive way in which violence which could have been deemed case of individual crime was connected with form of state violence. This protest made an implicit point that these acts of violence was in fact state violence proper and it is not only a case of mere complicity. This understanding of violence by the movement showed clearly that states complicity in mass violence like Gujarat riots and state violence against individual contrarian political activists have evolved as twin iron-fists of state-power in the contemporary times or under a neoliberal regime of accumulation and governance. Identifying this was a major achievement of these acts. The fact that an isolated and individual act triggered this movement also showed something novel. That it does not always require well defined networks of activism to make certain political acts. This nebulousness and local nature of political association is something that future movements will use and it is quite apparent that this particular tactical maneuver is being used increasingly. Even the location of the struggle was diffused in the sense that there was no center where the struggle was concentrated. The attack on state was literally from all sides spatially and temporally. It would not be hyperbolic in any sense to say that the award wapasi movement did show a new way to conduct political battles in the intellectual arena and making intellectual the political battles to corner the government, something which has not always been the case.

The movement against scrapping of UGC fellowship is a momentous movement whichever way we look at it. In fact, one can go further and say that the complete ramification of this movement is still to be analyzed and understood and this will still take some time. This is so because the range of issues it brought forth for which a complex evolution of political praxis was and is needed. Again, it had distinctly two aspects. One was the economic demand of restoring fellowship to research students and extending it to all universities including the state universities without any revision of enforced criteria. The political demand which was similar yet took it further from the FTII movement which concentrated on the issue of saffronization and autonomy the movement against UGC started a debate on who is a researcher. This was in addition to pointing out the fact of privatization of education on a large scale due to WTO-GATS agreement. This was an important issue but not unique to this movement. What was unique was the earlier question. Suddenly, there was a debate on whether a researcher was simply a passive recipient of state grant or she is an active worker in intellectual production with a distinct production relation with the government and the people. There were positions for and against this proposition. The proponents of this line of thinking said that there was real proletarianzation of student-researchers in the universities not only because they came from economically weak background but also because of working conditions while they are doing research and producing tangible products. Those who opposed said that a university could not be equated to a factory so the student-researcher as worker thesis is fallacious. This debate is still valid and one of the surprises during the JNU movement was that this point was not brought and debated again anew when the accusation of misusing taxpayers money was brought on the student-leaders who were later arrested. There will be more occasions when this acute political question about the very nature of the political subject will be debated. As yet a lot of theoretical work needs to be done. There is a point that should be made here as it is intrinsically linked to the political economy in which a researcher functions. Let us assume that university is indeed a factory. It must be mentioned here that when factory is invoked it is not the classical 19th century or the fordist factory we are talking about but this is another debate. There is also the assumption that researchers along with the teachers and the karamcharis are workers with respective division of labour. Clearly, this is a factory that produces different kinds of goods and services. Let us also assume a market that is one, heavily regulated by the government through grants etc. and two that the various commodities need to be valorized. For commodity to valorize itself it needs to be sold in the market. We know that a large quantity of commodity produced by researchers and academic staff do not get valorized. Who suffers the loss then? Is it the capitalist (university) that pays the wages? In that case who owns the commodity: the capitalist or the worker (university or researcher)? How are the processes of alienation manifested in this production relation? Since, there is a valid claim on part of the worker that the produce is its own how do we understand the relationship between the capitalist and the worker? Is this a rent seeking behavior on part of the university and the government? These might be sketchy questions but they are the kind which needs to be resolve before we can make the assertion of student-researcher as worker. This is important because if it indeed could be shown that student-researcher is a worker then new forms of class alliances would have to be made. It will also radically revise and determine our understanding of the alliance, frictions and contradictions between student and workers movement. This movement also organized, perhaps, the most successful of all Occupy movements in India.

The institutional murder of Rohith Vemula can be and should be thought of as a turning point in how we conceive of our polity. The facts are clear. Rohith Vemula was hounded for his activism (by the university as well as ministers in the central government) based on Ambedkar, his trenchant criticism of caste system and religious fundamentalism. He was vacated from his hostel and forced to live in the open. He committed suicide by hanging himself. He was a Dalit. More important than the outrage it created in the country it forced the conscience of the people to stand and take notice of the Dalit question. One has to appreciate the fact that the death of Rohith Vemula happened in a city and in a university. There is no dearth of horrible news coming from the length and breadth of the country about the most inhumane and barbaric treatment of the Dalits by the savarn castes. But these were from the hinterlands away from certain civilities of the urban space that successfully conceals the everyday discrimination and atrocities that Dalits have to suffer in the city. All this is not new. Dalit scholars and activists have made this point a number of times over a number of years. It always fell on deaf years of the Brahmanical intellectual and activist despite they being well meaning. Perhaps the problem was precisely that they were well meaning of the liberal variety and never took pains to understand the problem. Rohith Vemulas death took each one of us who claim to think politically by the scruff of the neck. There is a catch though which should not be forgotten. He was a university student, a researcher (maybe a worker too in the sense discussed above) an articulate, passionate and rigorous political activist. The similarity with mainstream intellectual space was too acute and the physical proximity too close to ignore it. The fable of university being an equal space, a space for debate, discussion and other liberal luxuries lay shattered. It was not possible for the radical and mainstream left to be silent. It was forced to take a stand and it did and we will see later the problematic of that. The advantage of that movement beyond the solidarity aspect was that it was again no longer possible to ignore the politics that exists in the country on the basis of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar. And this Ambedkar is not the myth of an intellectual yet gentle scholar who gave the constitution. He was a fierce critic of the entire Brahmanical social structure which makes more than half of India. In fact, his political and ideological honesty did not even spare his own work as evident in the fact that he disowned the constitution. So, there it was this was a new kind of Dalit politics which respects its radical tradition but also aware of the tasks it has to fulfill in the contemporary times.

We now come to the JNU Movement which in some ways reflected and assimilated all the movements above and added to it question of nationalism and patriotism to set the matrix, nay paradigm, which radical and mainstream left politics has to confront, find answers and evolve their praxis. One should not forget in this entire narrative that these movements were conducted under great state repression. This repression was also not random or spontaneous as sometimes is claimed to be especially alleging that the police was provoked to the extreme. Everything about the violence that was perpetrated was coldly thought out, calculated and planned even the quantum and target of violence. It was meticulously planned like a war on whom to target: a crowd or an individual. Personnel were mobilized accordingly. These recent acts of violence in the above mentioned violence where the state goes to such detailed planning is reserved mainly for the Maoist Zone of Chhatisgarh, the concerted deployment of army and paramilitary in Kashmir or Manipur. The strategy and tactics of those wars have now been introduced in the urban areas.

The incident at JNU is too recent; in fact, ongoing for the need to recap it so we will go straight to the analysis of it. What the incident of JNU did was to bring together the issue of autonomy, saffronization, question of freedom of expression, political economy of being a student, caste, religion and nationalism. In here everyone was implicated maybe even embedded. The movement was and is overdetermined. Since, the attack was on the student-leaders who belonged to the left of different hues the left parties, radical and mainstream (which were directly involved) had to confront the questions raised by all these movement not individually but collectively and in the complexity of their interaction. The left never had to face all these questions not only together but when these questions were interacting together. It was only inevitable that some new idioms of politics have to emerge. It is here that we now have to carefully extricate whether these idioms and praxis are pointing to an emergence of a New Left or whether it is the old that is just trying to accommodate some new things in its old vocabulary and praxis.

It will not be an exaggeration to say that the mainstream left has had a tightrope walking to do ideologically. The necessity was first to set the terms of the battle. And this was done through defining the battleground on which it has to be fought out. This battleground was the constitution of India. This was the limit as well as the reference. So, this was not so much about a radical change in society but to restore and preserve the original spirit of the constitution. This constitution now had to be theoretically and practically amalgamated with the larger political, economic and social concepts of left politics and almost to be made and alloy. This is by all means a very tough, if not impossible task, to achieve. It is here Ambedkar and Ambedkarist politics becomes so important for the left. The person Ambedkar who made the constitution which now has socialist and secularism as two of its declared goals provided the legitimacy required both in the field of economic issues as well as political and social ones in the contemporary time. The social politics now is being defined by secularism and that of economic ones are being defined by socialism. And there is a very conscious effort to make the distinction between the two to which we will come later. Ambedkarist politics becomes important to the mainstream left because it gives them the radical subaltern status. Is it any wonder then that the slogan of Jai Bhim became part of the left vocabulary so effortlessly? There was no critique of Ambedkar from a leftist point of view (which some radical groups have done stridently) and certainly no critique of themselves on appropriating Ambedkar. The point is not against that they are giving the slogan of Jai Bhim. They are not only entitled to but, in fact, it gives them a fresh sense and direction of politics. The problem is that mainstream left has suddenly taken to their own variety of Ambekarist politics without critiquing or having an appraisal of their own very problematic relationship with them. This is plain and simple appropriation at least till now. One can only hope that there indeed happens an amalgamation of mainstream left politics and Ambedkarist politics. It will have a lot of potential and it will be interesting to see how it changes the Indian polity if that amalgamation happens.

Nationalism brought moments which gave a glimpse of changing thinking about mainstream left on the issue of self-determination. This is no place to get into a rather complex debate about self-determination between Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg. However, one has to say that the way nation-state being is defined by them it seems that they have reconciled to the federal system of solving the problem of nationhood. Currently, the vocabulary does not suggest that they are close to the position of right to secession. Even on the issue of Kashmir the struggle is against AFSPA and there is nothing to suggest that the mainstream left will demand or defend that right. The very slogan of Azadi has been in some way twisted, after the incident at JNU, into a limited signifier. Azadi stood for a complete withdrawal of the Indian state from Kashmir lock stock and barrel. However, the way it has evolved after the incident it seems Azadi has become one withdrawal of just the repressive apparatus of the Indian state but not a complete secession. Also, as with Ambedkar the slogan is again being appropriated and sometimes not in a very subtle way and sometimes erroneously. In fact, it was claimed that the slogan emerged from the struggle for justice in December 16, 2012 gang rape case. There is no political harm in borrowing, transporting or translating slogan. But in that event it has to be assured that where the slogan is translated or transported to it makes that political space equally radical. In this case, the slogan of Azadi was raised to displace and replace the original slogan which purportedly brought the law of sedition on the heads of the student-leaders. The original Kashmir was replaced by a more acceptable set of demands ranging from poverty to casteism.

The final point that needs to be made in this preliminary investigation is one that is mentioned above. The difference that is made between the socio-economic and political demands. For example, there was hardly any movement described above that did not raise the question of farmers suicide. But the vocabulary in which it was done is very suspect. The way it was presented it seemed farmers suicide and the agrarian crisis is due to the failure of the government. If the government which is more liberal can be installed the problem could be tackled through better policy. There is no attempt to analyze the situation through the prism of class and property relations which a left group is supposed to do. The agrarian crisis then becomes not the crisis of capitalism (or even semi-feudal semi-capitalism) but a crisis of governance. The good old leftist approach of land relations has been firmly laid to rest by the mainstream left in practical terms. This at least a novel phenomenon among the mainstream left. However, there are several other movements that are bent into the paradigm of governance and not the paradigm of capitalism or political economy. This leads to the concluding point that there are certain kind of movements that lend itself to be politicized which the left has picked up to define itself today. Yet, there are other demands which should have been raised by the mainstream left but they do not let itself so easily to politicization within the paradigm of governance. For example, can we imagine the political possibility which could have emerged if the demand for the release of 147 jailed Maruti workers along with the student-leaders was raised? One of the problems that prevents such a politics to emerge is that the theory of mainstream left is tested in the electoral arena or popular arena where class and class alliances are homogenized to form the people. In that sense, the mainstream left has displaced the concept of united front based on class alliance.

We come now to the question: Is this current phase emergence of New Left or just the old mainstream left taking a new turn. The contingent answer is that it is the latter for the contradiction in the praxis of the former has yet to play out. Also, there is the small matter of radical/revolutionary left who now are grappling with the problem of how to do class politics by eschewing populism. It is the dilemma that has wracked the left and continue to do so. At least, this has not changed.

Mithilesh Kumar is a PhD Candidate at Western Sydney University, Australia. His interest is in the issues of logistics, migration and labour, political philosophy and theory. He wants to work on the nature, evolution and innovation of the Indian state with respect to social and political movements in India. Email: kmithilesh@hotmail.com






How We Make In India: Is It By Bulldozing The Education System?

By By Rakesh S

10 March, 2016

Countercurrents.org

When we look at the recent attack on the universities, one question which automatically crops up in our mind is, Why the BJP government is against educating the minds of youth of this country. The Rohit Vemula episode, unrest in FTII Pune, protest in Jadhavpur University, the appointment of RSS inclined individuals (with very slender academic credentials) as heads of various Institutions, the budget allocations in the education sector and the recent JNU incident are some of the cases to prove the BJPs larger political agenda. In the aftermath of JNU incident, there have been numerous debates about the governments battle for ideological control for Indian universities, however not much attention has been paid to the treatment of education, especially higher education by the current government. In order to understand the larger agenda, there is a need to look at it through multiple lenses, one way is through the lens of much hyped Make in India campaign.

The BJP govt. has been giving importance to skill development since its formation. Numerous policies and programmes have been designed in order to propel the Make in India campaign. Our Prime Minister seems intent on placing renewed emphasis on skill development. He has been stressing on reaping the demographic dividend of our young population, however it looks like he intends to limit it to the manufacturing and service sector, that too at the labour class level. If we look at all the major announcements related to make in India, the thrust of the BJP government is to make the environment conducive for industry. The push for skill development is an attempt at creating a pool of cheap labour, which will attract corporates to expand its base in India. It will be supported by the recently proposed labour reforms, which will make it easy for companies to hire and fire as they wish, and pay whatever salaries they can get away with. Reducing red tapism and labour bureaucracy might be an argument of the government in favour of labour reforms, however the reality of the proposed reform is nothing, but labour exploitation in the name of ease of doing business. In order to pursue the neoliberal agendas, the current government will tighten the screw on labour to extract more value. When the focus of the government is on favouring the capital class, why would it waste its resources on educating the young minds of our country.

Adam Smith argues though the interest of the labourer is strictly connected with that of the society, he is incapable either of comprehending that interest, or of understanding its connection with his own. His condition leaves him no time to receive the necessary information and his education and habits are commonly such as to render him unfit to judge even though he was fully informed". This is exactly what BJP intends to do by promoting skill development. Make in India aims at create a large pool of young labour class, who are unable to understand the external world and its structural injustices. BJP and its sister organizations are well aware of the fact that quality education helps in intellectual growth and critical thinking. An important part of education, particularly higher education is to learn to ask questions. No government would like to be questioned, particularly if it is inefficient, communal and do not have much to offer, other than empty promises. Hence BJPs obsession of taking control of academic campuses is a planned and systematic attempt to muzzle the art of questioning. There is not an iota of doubt that what these attempts are all about and who stood to gain from them.

India needs a vibrant educational system to meet the demands of a knowledge economy. The demographic dividend that awaits our nation from its youthful population should not be squandered in the name of growth. A large proportion of youth belong to modest to extremely poor families. Good education will help these youth to climb up the social and economic ladder. These students should be given an opportunity to join the thriving middle class. History tells us that poor has been compartmentalized for years by the elite class in ways they want. Being poor is a big impediment to getting the education that lifts one out of poverty. Social mobility is only possible in the presence of educational opportunities. In such a scenario, the welfare state cannot snatch the right to pursue higher education. Only time will tell, if Make in India proves worthwhile, however if we are really serious about reaping the benefits of demographic dividend then there is a dire need to educate our young people, so that they can take advantage of what the world has to offer them in the 21st century. This will happen only, if we create a large pool of scientists, doctors, engineers, teachers, artists, sport persons, social scientists etc, mere skill development wont work in any way. In the name of reforms, the state power is carrying out their agenda in the stealthiest way possible. If we really care about acche din of our young population, then the hegemonic mediocrity of Make in India should not be allowed to flourish.

Rakesh S is a research student at Department of Social Work, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He can be contacted at rakeshs0807@gmail.com




Arnab Goswami And Sudhir Chaudhary Must Claim Responsibility

For Attack On Kanhaiya Kumar And Reward The Attacker

By Samar

10 March, 2016

Countercurrents.org

Not so dear Sudhir Chaudhary and Arnab Goswami, I am sure that both of you would be very happy today. You have a big reason for the happiness, after all. It is not everyday that self-designated champions of a very violent and bigoted mutant of nationalism find someone responding to their call. Yes, I know that both of you did not really call for an attack, a physical one I mean, on Kanhaiya Kumar, president of Jawaharlal Nehru Students Union (JNUSU). You are sharp people; you know how to stop short of that, just short of that I mean. You know how to remain mostly on the right side of law, even while unleashing outlaw crowds to kill the dissenters; with the notable exceptions from Sudhir Chaudhary with stints in Tihar jail to boast about.

You must be happy for your increased reach, it is not only lumpens organized in this or that Senas or Dals who carry out your orders. You must be happy for your message is spreading to loners, as it appears for now, and finding Vijay Chaudhary, a Ghaziabad resident travelling all the way to JNU to teach traitor Kanhaiya a lesson. Never mind the fact that Kanhaiya is not a traitor. Never mind, also, the fact that as a member of Communist Party of India, a political party that has often been in power and has MPs in parliament, he cannot ever be. Never mind the fact that a court of law has released him on bail as Delhi Police could not offer any evidence of Kanhaiya shouting anti-India slogans, irrespective of the fact that Supreme Court of India has repeatedly held that even shouting them would not attract sedition charges unless followed by indulgence in or incitement to violence. Yes, Supreme Court has held that repeatedly, in Kedar Nath Singh vs. State of Bihar (1962 AIR 955), Balwant Singh and Anr vs. State of Punjab (Criminal Appeal 266 of 1985), Arup Bhuyan vs. State of Assam (Criminal Appeal no(s). 889 of 2007) and Sri Indra Das vs. State Of Assam (Criminal Appeal 1383 of 2007) cases for instance. One of these cases involved a case exactly similar to one on JNU comrades- of shouting anti-India and pro Khalistan slogans that too on the day the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was killed. The court had observed the following in that case-

It appears to us that the raising some slogan only a couple of times by the two lonesome appellants, which neither evoked any response nor any reaction from anyone in the public can neither attract the provisions of Section 124A or Section 153A IPC. Some more overt act was required to bring home the charge to the two appellants, who are Government servants. The police officials exhibited lack of maturity and more of sensitivity in arresting the appellants for raising the slogans - which arrest  and act the casual raising of one or two slogans  could have created a law and order situation, keeping in view the tense situation prevailing on the date of the assassination of Smt. Indira Gandhi. In situations like that, over sensitiveness sometimes is counterproductive and can result is inviting trouble. Raising of some lonesome slogans, a couple of times by two individuals, without anything more, did not constitute any threat to the Government of India as by law established nor could the same give rise to feelings of enmity or hatred among different communities or religious or other groups.

I am certain that you, Arnab Goswami and Sudhir Chaudhary, would have none of it as you are self-designated custodians of the nation and its increasingly vulnerable feelings. You are the police, prosecution and judge all rolled into one. And you had declared Kanhaiya guilty on the basis of doctored videos, insinuations and what not. You had unleashed the lynch mob and set it after him, others.

You may now claim the responsibility for the attack and reward the attacker as well. You should make him mascot of your prime time shows, news hour (howsoever long that hour could be) and DNA. You may also think about congratulating yourselves for bringing lone wolf attacks, largely confined to self-radicalised Islamists in the West, to India now.

You should call upon the government of India to disband its police, prosecution and judicial institutions and delegate their powers to radicalized by you self-styled custodians of nationalism. It is just that they would come back to get you too, and not before long. Their sentiments are much more vulnerable than yours after all, and can get hurt by your positions too- like that on sexual minorities. I wish you the best to survive then.

Till then, you should be a little sad for the failure of attack and organize a better one. It would not be difficult, I guess as the very typical JNU response- of not beating the attacker to pulp, must have emboldened many other lone wolfs nationalised by you.

Samar is Programme Coordinator - Right to Food Programme Asian Legal Resource Centre / Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong




Mandal Commision At 25: Silver Jubilee Of Bahujan Politics

Press Release By Solidarity Youth Movement

10 March, 2016

Countercurrents.org

Reservation is one of the most misconstrued topics discussed in the country. For millenniums, majority of the country was exploited and oppressed by the savarna communities. The backward class of the society was deprived of all privileges and was denied even the basic rights. Reservation system was propounded to share the power and resource of the country befitting the idea of democratic nation. But, the hegemony and their media intentionally scathed arbitrarily the idea of reservation. They tarnished it as a generosity of the dominant class or an employment guarantee scheme. At best, reservation was seen as an affirmative action than a power sharing system.

Thanks to tremendous efforts of Dr. BR Ambedkar -the patron social democracy of India, the constitution carried the provisions to appoint a commission to review the social condition of the backward class of the nation and prescribed reservation for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. However, an important demand by Ambedkar was not conceded by Constituent Assembly. His demand was to appoint every ten years a commission to assess the social status of the backward class.

Every government came into power was reluctant to appoint a commission to review the social condition of backward class people. After 58 years of independence, only two commissions have been appointed so far in the regard. Kaka Kalelkar commission report was first of this. The commission report which recommended for caste-wise enumeration, fair representation of backward class in legislatures, government service and education were rejected.

Later, taking cue from the struggles of OBC leaders like that of Kanshiram, Janata Party government in 1979 appointed Mandal Commission. In the year 1989 the Mandal Commission was report was implemented. Soon after, the country witnessed unprecedented scale of protest against the governments decision. Sanghparivar which is ideologically against the reservation system felt hurt with the governments decision. In a counter movement they raised Mandir Movement to divert the attention of the majority from Mandal to Ayodhya. They were, to an extent, successful in misdirecting the nation that more than share in power and opportunities in mainstream life, Mandir and Masjid are important. They succeeded in making ground for rampant communal violence and reaping benefits through. It is the brief history of BJPs swearing into power in 2014.

Since its first day of the NDA government, Sanghparivar and its factions began to unleash unprecedented sort of atrocities against dalits and religious minorities. Persecutions, violent attacks and riots were instigated in different parts of the country. This in turn made the oppressed communities more resolute. They realized the weakness and decided to speak up to the power. The rigor and sharpness the country witness in these days are proof of this realization.

It is in this backdrop, Solidarity Youth Movement organized a campaign titled India will outlive the Sangh.

A seminar organised in this regard carried title, Mandal Commission @25: quarter century of Bahujan Politics. It was held on 6th February 2016 at Kozhikode. Thinker and dalit activist Professor Kancha Ilaiya inaugurated the seminar. He called for the joint efforts to ensure the representation of all the communities in education, job and power. Mandal Commission report succeeded in empowering dalits, muslims, adivasis and other backward class who were seen as enemies of the state. It created a political space for the OBCs who were absent in the national conscience. RSS could win the nation through Mandir movement staged to counter Mandal movement. In Modis reign too Savarna fascists are deciding the matters. When 95% of the children of Savarna people are studying in English medium schools, the lower class are denied English education. When the British made English the official language Muslims protested and quit their jobs in English government. Meanwhile, the Savarna people learned English and preferred to stick on with the British and appeased them. To resist the Savarna ideology solidarity between Muslims, dalits, adivasis and other backward communities are inevitable, Kanch Ilaiya said.

In his presidential address, Solidarity State president said, the Mandal commission signifies the awareness of the backward class who are majority of the country.

Dr. Fasal Gafoor, state president of Muslim Education Society said that reservation policies are to be made more efficient in the country. Reservation should be there for all backward communities proportionate to the population size. For this caste enumeration report is to be released. Like adopted in Bihar and Uttarpradesh reservation inside the reservation communities, are needed for extreme backward communities of the society, he said.

Prominent dalit thinker KK Kochu said that the backward class community could have a place in the political space after the partial implementation of Mandal Commission Report.

In the programme, leaders of all parties hold their hands together in a show of solidarity.

Viswakarma state president PA Kuttapan, BSP State President Gafur Puthupady, veteran journalist NP Chekkuty, Dravida Class United Front state president Anuraj Tirumeni, Welfare party state president Hameed Vaniyambalam, Dalit Employees and Pensions Association state president Manikandan and others talked. Solidarity state general secretary Sadiq Uliyil welcomed all and Kozhikode district president KC Anwar paid the vote of thanks.

The book, Politics of Beef, edited by I Gopinath was released by Prof. Kancha Ilaiya by handing over to KK Kochu.




Western Reporter In Syria Finds U.S.-Backed Fighters Are Jihadists

By Eric Zuesse

10 March, 2016

Countercurrents.org

Eva Bartlett, an independent journalist who is the first Western reporter who has travelled through the areas of Syria that have been freed from jihadist control by the Syrian government with Russian air-support, is reporting, at the sott.net website, that everyone she speaks with has stories of horror to tell, and that in many instances the jihadists who were inflicting the horrors were U.S.-armed and backed, basically supported by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey  often al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda. As Seymour Hersh and others have reported, the U.S. has worked with the Sauds, Qatar, and Turkey, to get men and weapons to al-Nusra.

For example:

In Latakia, many of the the over 1 million Internally Displaced Persons from Idlib, Aleppo and surrounding areas who are being housed and supported by the Syrian government spoke of the same heinous kidnappings, beheadings, and other crimes that most media currently only associate with Da'esh (ISIS), but which were perpetrated (with Turkish support) by the so-called FSA [thats the Free Syrian Army, the people that the Obama Administration backs and calls moderates] and other terrorist factions. A man from Harem, near the Turkish border, spoke of being kidnapped by FSA terrorists, and of the decapitations of Harem residents, heads sent home in boxes. "The terrorists attacked us, terrorists from Turkey, from Chechnya, and from Arab and other foreign countries. They had tanks and guns, like an army, just like an army. [The Sauds had bought those from the U.S.; the equipment is sent into Syria via Turkey.] For 73 days we were surrounded in the citadel of Harem. They hit us with all kinds of weapons. We had women and children with us. They showed no mercy. When they caught any of us, they slaughtered him, and then send his head back to us. They killed over 100 people, and kidnapped around 150... children, civilians, soldiers. Until now, we don't know what's happened to them," he said. People from the village of Kassab spoke of the joint Turkish-Nusra attack on their village in March 2014, of escaping with the help of Syrian soldiers, of the over 80 who were slaughtered, including 13 who were beheaded, and of the raping and plunder of their people and homes. "They raped our older women because they couldn't find any girls," one resident told me.

She said that in the city of Homs, when she was there in April 2014 (before the recent liberation of Homs by Syrian government forces):

Others spoke of the sectarian slogans in the early protests in Homs, including the slaughtering of Alawis and the driving out of Christians.

In other words, the jihadists who were occupying Homs were killing non-Sunnis: Alawites are Shiites; and, of course, Christians are also non-Sunnis. Bartlett reports that when she visited Homs again in December 2015 (after the Russian bombing campaign  which President Assad had invited into Syria  started on September 30th), the locals were preparing to celebrate Christmas for the first time in years.

She also reports that:

In Sweida, a Druze [non-Islamic, not merely non-Sunni] area southeast of Damascus which has largely fought off the attacks of militants since the beginning of the crisis in 2011, residents told me they had from very early on recognized the 'revolution' as a foreign plot against Syria. Druze leader, Sheikh Hammoud al-Hanawi (known as Sheikh al-Aqel) reiterated what residents had said about this plot, and spoke of how Sweida's young and old men have protected the region and stand with the Syrian Arab Army.

Near the close she says:

Wherever I've gone in Syria (as well as many months in various parts of Lebanon, where I've met Syrians from all over Syria) I've seen wide evidence of broad support for President al-Assad. The pride I've seen in a majority of Syrians in their President surfaces in the posters in homes and shops, in patriotic songs and Syrian flags at celebrations and in discussions with average Syrians of all faiths. Most Syrians request that I tell exactly what I have seen and to transmit the message that it is for Syrians to decide their future, that they support their president and army and that the only way to stop the bloodshed is for Western and Gulf nations to stop sending terrorists to Syria, for Turkey to stop warring on Syria, for the West to stop their nonsense talk about "freedom" and "democracy" and leave Syrians to decide their own future.

What she says is supported by Western-sponsored polls that have been taken of the Syrian public. Its not merely the people she has met in Syria. This  the fact that the Syrian people support overwhelmingly Assads leadership of their country  is the reason why the Obama Administration has been insistent that Assad must be overthrown and excluded from being a candidate, before there can be any elections to determine who should be Syrias President. The U.S. regime is the enemy of democracy in Syria (and the Syrian public resent this); the U.S. backs the Sunni Arabic royal families, and theyre unalterably opposed to democracy, because they fear their public. The American political system is far more sophisticated than theirs. For example, Obama said on 2 October 2015, Theyve been propping up a regime that is rejected by an overwhelming majority of the Syrian population because theyve seen that he has been willing to drop barrel bombs on children and on villages indiscriminately. He blatantly lied. The American people trust their leaders lies. Consequently, Americas leaders arent nearly as afraid of their public as are the Arabic royal families of their public  not even if Americas leaders actually represent those royal families more than they do the U.S. public. Americas leaders have PR; they dont even need to post severed heads as warnings to their public. In the U.S., deceiving the public (such as in this example) achieves the desired degree of control.



Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of Theyre Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRISTS VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.




SHARE DENNY SIMMONS / COURIER & PRESS Evansville Regional Business Hall of Fame inductee G. Richard "Dick" Eykamp addresses the crowd at the Old National Bank Events Plaza Thursday morning. DENNY SIMMONS / COURIER & PRESS Evansville Regional Business Hall of Fame inductee Norm Bafunno (left) addresses the crowd at the Old National Bank Events Plaza after accepting his award Thursday morning. DENNY SIMMONS / COURIER & PRESS Evansville Regional Business Hall of Fame inductee G. Richard "Dick" Eykamp addresses the crowd at the Old National Bank Events Plaza Thursday morning. Charles H. Braun Sr.

By Susan Orr of the Courier and Press

If you're waiting for the right time to pursue your dreams, you might want to adjust your thinking, said G. Richard "Dick" Eykamp, chairman of Princeton-based Mid-States Rubber Products.

"You don't have to wait for the perfect time to start. You can start when you have an idea and are ready," Eykamp said in a video detailing his life and career.

Eykamp was one of three people inducted Thursday into Evansville's Regional Business Hall of Fame during a breakfast event at Old National Events Plaza.

Other honorees were Norm Bafunno, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana; and the late Charles Braun Sr. (1910-1998), former chairman of Industrial Contractors Inc.

Dick Eykamp joined Mid-States Rubber Products in 1960, after college and service in the Air Force.

He and his wife, Rita, are also philanthropists to numerous local organizations including Boy Scouts of America's Buffalo Trace Council; the Evansville Museum; the University of Evansville; and the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra.

Eykamp said his notions of timing were shaped by his father, George Eykamp.

During the Great Depression, the senior Eykamp made extra money by selling honey as a side job. That money helped him start Mid-State Rubber Products in 1944.

The business succeeded, the younger Eykamp noted, even though rubber was in limited supply under wartime rationing.

Alan Braun, a son of Charles Braun Sr., accepted the Hall of Fame honor in his father's name. The younger Braun, former chief executive officer of Industrial Contractors, was inducted into the Hall of Fame himself in 2009.

Alan Braun described his father as someone with outstanding people skills and a knack for making bold decisions.

Charles Braun Sr. was 54 when, in 1964, he mortgaged his family's home to purchase Industrial Contractors.

"He wasn't a person that scared very easily," Alan Braun said of his father.

The company grew to become one of the top 200 contractors nationwide. It has done work on many major Evansville-area landmarks including Deaconess Gateway Hospital, Toyota, the headquarters for both Old National Bank and Vectren; and numerous others.

In December 2011, Skanska USA acquired Industrial Contractors for $145 million. The Evansville operation is now known as Industrial Contractors Skanska.

Alan Braun said that if his father were around, he would tell young people to follow their dreams.

"Don't be worried about how old you are or how young you are. Do what you want to do, and work as hard as you can. But have fun while you're doing it. Go where your passion is."

Bafunno, an engineer by training, worked at General Motors before joining Toyota in 1997. He was part of the startup team that established the Princeton operation. He now leads that facility, which employs more than 5,000.

In accepting his award, Bafunno offered praise to both his employer and those who work with him at the Princeton plant.

"They truly inspire me, and I share this recognition with all of them."
SHARE

I know many beer drinkers stick with what they know. If you like Tin Man's Dry Cell, Carson's Brown Cow or Turoni's Honey Blonde and it's the only beer you order, you are missing out folks. We are blessed to have three brewers in this city who believe in trying new recipes. Encourage it by ordering a half pint of the other offerings.

Tin Man has their Wired White IPA, Hoop Pole and Ingot available to try. Wired is a white IPA with a more floral and sweet flavor that balances out the bitter hops flavors. This is a favorite hot weather beer for me, and it sits under 7 percent ABV so you can have more than one.

Hoop Pole was brewed for Mount Vernon, Indiana's, bicentennial. It is a light German lager style called a Dortmunder Export. It is very refreshing and drinkable. This is a great beer, but I think most would agree Busch Light will still reign supreme in Posey County.

I saved the most interesting of Tin Man's trio for last, INGOT is a IPL. It's a hybrid beer and has lager and IPA characteristics. It looks like a light lager and starts that way to, but it finishes hoppy like IPAs. It also had a fruit hint as well. It won't be loved by all, but I thought it was a very interesting and good beer. I will be having another when I stop in the tap room.

Carson's loves to experiment too. They often have around 30 beers on tap. Some of the more recent ones include Madame Blueberry, BRC 22 and St. Carson's.

I am not a fruit beer person, and so I talked with a co-worker who knows her blueberry beers about Madame Blueberry, and she likes this one. She compared it to Wild Blue from Anheuser-Busch. She said AB's version is heavier, and she prefers the lady from Carson's. "It is lighter and has a fruitier taste. I could drink more of these." So if you like fruity beers, give this little lady a try.

St. Carson's is a Belgium triple and has received much praise. This isn't a new beer from Carson's, but it has been refined, and I love the current version. I only like big Belgium style beers, and this one qualifies. It isn't as dark as some triples I've tried, but don't let that fool you; it holds it's own very well.

The BRC 22 is a sour ale I mentioned in a previous column, but it deserves another shout out. If you enjoy a sour stout, you need to give this a try. The sour flavor isn't overpowering, and I think it complements the darker, richer flavors inherent in this beer. These are small batches, so stop by and get them while it lasts.

IN THE FRIDGE

I picked up Mr. Brown  a imperial brown ale  from People's Brewing Company in Lafayette. It's got a great malt flavor and is more complex than Brown Cow. If all their beers are as good as this one, I will be enjoying more of their beer. The label cracks me up too because it reminds me of a Clue character.

I also have the remains of a six pack of Mad Hatter from New Holland. If you like IPAs, but don't want to be overloaded by hops, you'll love this gem. New Holland is one of those craft breweries that can do no wrong. They are just spot on, and I am always willing to pick up a six pack of whatever they have on the shelf.

Until next time, you can get more Pints at courierpress.com/pints, follow me on Twitter and Instagram by searching for @mike_hartz or drop me a line at michael.hartz@courierpress.com.
SHARE

By Zach Osowski, zach.osowski@courierpress.com

INDIANPOLIS  A bill regulating police body camera videos  and how citizens can access them  is heading to Gov. Mike Pence after passing the Indiana Senate unanimously.

The Senate voted 50-0 to approve the conference committee report on House Bill 1019. The one big change made by the committee was the removal of the automatic release of videos relating to excessive force or civil rights violations.

The author, Rep. Kevin Mahan, R-Hartford City, said that was the one change the Senate made he couldn't agree with. His concern is the automatic release could be construed as an admission of guilt on the part of the law enforcement agency.

Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, said the removal of that language eliminated serious concerns police agencies had and would encourage more of departments to purchase and use body cameras.

The bill keeps the burden of proof on law enforcement agencies. If an agency refuses to release a video to the media or a member of the public, they must explain to a judge the reason why. Those reasons can range from public safety to an on-going investigation.

A judge must hear a complaint and issue a ruling within 30 days. The bill also stipulates how long an agency has to hold on to a video. The limit is 270 days for state agencies and 180 days for everyone else.

Sen. Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis, urged his colleagues to watch law enforcement agencies in their districts who start using body cameras over the next year.

"Please be cognizant of any of your communities who purchase these cameras," Taylor said. "We want to see how these are being used."

The House passed the report on HB 1019 Wednesday night unanimously.
SHARE

By Zach Osowski

INDIANAPOLIS  A controversial bill restricting the reasons a woman can have an abortion is now heading to Gov. Mike Pence after the Indiana House concurred with changes made in the Senate.

The concurrence on House Bill 1337 passed out of the House 60-40 after emotional testimony from both sides of the aisle. The final tally showed 11 House Republicans voted with the 29 Democrats either out of concerns with the changes the Senate made or because of the process by which the bill was pushed through.

When it left the House, HB 1337 just contained language regulating the disposal of fetal remains, either from an abortion or a miscarriage. The Senate added language relating to abortions after a similar Senate bill died in the House. The language states a physician can't perform an abortion if the mother tells him the reason for an abortion is because of the baby's gender, ethnicity or a diagnosed developmental disorder such as Down syndrome.

Because the bill was amended in the Senate and author Rep. Casey Cox, R-Fort Wayne, concurred with the changes, the abortion language was never discussed in the House, which rankled some members.

Rep. Holli Sullivan, R-Evansville, said none of the women in her district got to discuss or testify on HB 1337.

"I feel that my constituents are worthy of their input in the process," Sullivan said. "Female legislators in the House, they also didn't get a chance to vet, amend or make the Senate addition to the bill better."

Both Sullivan and Rep. Wendy McNamara, R-Mount Vernon, voted against the bill despite a strong history of being pro-life. Both of them said they couldn't vote for the bill because of the lack of a vetting process.

McNamara, who teared up while speaking on the bill, said it made her sick to her stomach to vote against HB 1337, saying the original language was very important to her because of personal experiences. But she couldn't vote with a clean conscience because the bill didn't go through the proper channels.

"I respect the process and the institution of government," she said. "This bill did not go through the process."

She also had several concerns with the Senate's additions and said she feared the bill would not reduce abortions but would instead increase dishonesty with patients and doctors.

"I think this will force women to find other deceitful alternatives," McNamara said.

Others, like Rep. Sean Eberhart, R-Shelbyville, said it wasn't the place of the Legislature to decide these issues.

"We need more women here," Eberhart said. "We're a bunch of middle-age men trying to make decisions on women's health."

Cox said he understood this was a difficult decision for many but said he wanted to err on the side of life and protect the rights of unborn children who can't speak up for themselves.

"I'm standing here, because I couldn't look myself in the mirror if I didn't do everything I could to try and extend protections to my children's counterparts," Cox said.
Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

LinkedIn

Email

Telegram



Istanbul, October 28, 2015The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns this weeks raids on several pro-opposition media outlets belonging to the Koza Ipek Group. Police broke into the companys building in Istanbul today and shut down live television broadcasts, two days after a Turkish court ordered the trustees of the privately owned company to be replaced, according to reports.

Istanbul police broke the gates of the Koza Ipek building in Istanbuls Sisli district and used water cannons and tear gas against protesters who had gathered in support of the news outlets, reports said. The building houses the companys five media outlets: Bugun TV, Kanalturk TV, Kanalturk radio, and the daily newspapers Bugun and Millet. Police cut live broadcasts of Bugun TV and Kanalturk TV during the raid, according to local press reports. The news broadcasts, which had provided political debate and opposition views in the run-up to November 1 parliamentary elections, have been replaced with documentaries on World War II and the lives of camels, reports said. It is unclear if the raid will obstruct the reporting of the radio station and newspapers. Both papers had published their October 29 editions by the time this alert was released.

By replacing news broadcasts with camel films days before a parliamentary election, Turkeys leaders have shown they no longer are interested in even pretending to respect the countrys democracy, CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. We call on the Turkish government to immediately return Bugun TV, Kanalturk TV, and the other Koza Ipek media outlets to their rightful management.

Todays action comes a day after riot police raided the Ankara headquarters of the media outlets holding company, Koza Ipek Group, which also owns mining and food production companies. The raids were carried out to enforce a Monday decision by the 5th Ankara Penal Court of Peace, which ordered senior management to be replaced with a government-approved board of trustees during an investigation into the company, according to reports. The Koza Ipek Group said it is contesting the legality of the government takeover.

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutors Office sought the takeover while authorities investigate alleged ties between the Koza Ipek Group and Fethullah Gulen, a government supporter turned critic living in self-imposed exile, according to the English-language Hurriyet Daily News. The Turkish government claims that Gulen is leading an illegal organization that has infiltrated Turkish society, the police, judiciary, and the media, with the purposes of toppling the current Justice and Development Party (AKP) administration. Gulen denies the claims.

The measures this week are a continuation of pressure on the Koza Ipek Group. In September, at least six Koza Ipek employees were detained briefly, and computers and hard drives were confiscated when Ankara police raided the company, according to reports. The group was accused of disseminating terrorist propaganda and providing financial support to the alleged Gulen-led illegal organization, according to reports. Turkish authorities have declared the alleged organization a terrorist group.

Turkeys broadly worded anti-terrorism statutes have enabled authorities to conflate coverage of banned groups as well as reporting on sensitive issues with terrorism or other anti-state activity, CPJ has found.

Authorities have said the appointment of a new board of trustees to the Koza Ipek Group was necessary to ensure a healthy investigation of the holdings finances and to uncover material truths, according to the Ankara court decision, as cited by the Hurriyet Daily News. In an interview for Bugun TV before the station was shut down, Koza Ipeks chief executive office, Akn Ipek, said the targeting of his companies was politically motivated and the government takeover was carried out because authorities failed to find any illegal activities during financial inspections of his businesses.
Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

LinkedIn

Email

Telegram



New York, January 27, 2016  Turkish prosecutors should immediately drop all charges against Can Dundar and Erdem Gul, journalists at the daily newspaper Cumhuriyet, and release them without delay, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Istanbul Deputy Chief Prosecutor Irfan Fidan today asked an Istanbul court to sentence Dundar, Cumhuriyets editor, and Gul, the papers Ankara bureau chief, to life in prison, life without parole, and an additional 30 years in prison on charges of accessing and exposing state secrets and aiding a terrorist group, according to CPJs review of the indictment. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish intelligence agency are listed as the complainants in the indictment. The journalists have been jailed since November.

Politically motivated prosecutions of journalists are again on the rise in Turkey, CPJ Deputy Executive Director Robert Mahoney. Threatening journalists with life in prison is calculated to further intimidate reporters into self-censorship. President Erdogan seems intent on controlling the narrative of Turkeys handling of fighting in Syria and the Kurdish southeast by any means.

Cumhuriyet in May 2015 published photographs ostensibly showing Turkish trucks carrying weapons to Syrian rebels in January 2014. Turkish officials accuse local security officers loyal to Fethullah Gulen, a preacher who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States, of stopping and searching the trucks in an effort to bring down the government, according to press reports. The Turkish government designates Gulens followers as a terrorist group. The charges of aiding a terrorist group stem from this designation.

Dundar and Gul remain in pretrial detention at Silivri Prison, outside Istanbul. Turkish authorities on January 22 denied permission for a coalition of international press freedom groups, including CPJ, to visit Dundar and Gul in jail. Representatives of those groups staged a vigil outside the prison today to express their solidarity with the journalists.

EDITORS NOTE: This alert has been modified to reflect that the court is based in Istanbul.
Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

LinkedIn

Email

Telegram



New York, February 29, 2016The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by the deteriorating climate for the press in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh and calls on authorities to ensure that journalists can work there without fear of intimidation. In recent weeks, two journalists have fled the district of Bastar out of concern for their safety, and lawyers defending imprisoned journalists have been evicted from their offices.

Alok Prakash Putul, a journalist for the BBCs Hindi Service, fled the district of Bastar on February 20, after residents warned him about his safety, according to his account published on the website of the BBC Hindi service and other news reports. Two days earlier, Bastar-based freelance journalist Malini Subramaniam, who had often reported on human rights abuses and the conflict between Maoist groups and the state in Chhattisgarh, left the state following harassment by the police and members of the anti-Maoist group Samajik Ekta Manch, according to English-language news website Scroll.in.

Recent threats and harassment of journalists covering Chhattisgarh, and those defending them, risk producing an information vacuum in an area where the press is already under tremendous pressure, said CPJs Asia program senior research associate, Sumit Galhotra. Authorities have a responsibility to protect journalists and ensure they can do their work without fear of reprisal.

Subramaniam, the freelance journalist, told CPJ that police officials had come to her home several times to interrogate her about her reporting. Members of the Samajik Ekta Manch had also protested outside her house, shouting slogans including, Death to Malini Subramaniam. Unknown assailants subsequently pelted her residence with rocks, and police interrogated one of her domestic staff for several hours twice in the same day, according to news reports. Police on February 17 summoned her landlord, who then gave her an eviction notice, Scroll.in reported. Subramaniam and her daughter had lived in the area for nearly five years, according to Scroll.in.

On February 20, Putul, the BBC Hindi Service reporter, was reporting on alleged police violence in Bastar when a villager told him unspecified parties were searching for him, and that anything could happen, he wrote on the BBC Hindi website. He left the same day. Putul wrote that he had received similar warnings from other residents.

Putul had reported on pressures faced by the lawyers from the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group. According to news reports citing the lawyers, Chhattisgarh police pressured the groups landlord to evict them. The lawyers were representing imprisoned journalists Somaru Nag and Santosh Yadav, whom Chhattisgarh police arrested in 2015 on unsubstantiated allegations that they were aligned with Maoists. Both Nag and Yadav remain behind bars.

Chhattisgarh police admit they spoke to Subramaniam and the legal aid groups landlords, but deny any role in the evictions, according to news reports.

Rights lawyer Isha Khandelwal, who was representing Nag and Yadav, had also recently begun representing Subramaniam amid calls for her arrest, according to news reports. Police have vilified the legal aid group as Maoists supporters, according to The New York Times, and have repeatedly harassed them in the past 18 months, according to the news website TheWire.in.

Reporting from Chhattisgarh poses serious challenges: According to CPJ research, police often pressure, harass, or abuse journalists in an effort to silence critical reporting or to compel them to serve as informants. Meanwhile Maoists have attacked journalists they accuse of being informants for police, CPJ has found.

CPJ has not received any response to a letter to Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh sent on January 19, asking him to ensure a safer working environment for journalists in the state.
Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

LinkedIn

Email

Telegram



Istanbul, February 16, 2016  Turkish authorities should immediately release Feyyaz Imrak, a correspondent for the pro-Kurdish Dicle News Agency (DIHA), the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Police on February 11 searched Imraks home in Antalya, on Turkeys southern coast, confiscated his reporting equipment and notes, and arrested him, according to local press reports. He appeared before an Antalya criminal court on February 15 to hear the states charges that he belongs to the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), which the Turkish government has designated a terrorist organization, according to press reports. Imrak is currently held at Antalya Prison, pending trial, his lawyer, Sidar Ozturk, told CPJ.

We call on authorities in Antalya to release Feyyaz Imrak immediately and allow him to report without fear of reprisal, CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said from New York. Turkey must stop using its overbroad anti-terrorism laws to stifle press coverage it deems undesirable.

Imrak, who is also a university student, was detained in the course of an anti-terrorism investigation into the activities of students allegedly sympathetic to the PKK, according to prosecution documents reviewed by CPJ. Several other students have been detained in that investigation so far, according to those documents.

As part of his questioning by the Antalya Chief Prosecutors Office, interrogators asked Imrak about his presence at demonstrations in recent months against Turkeys security crackdown in southeastern provinces of the country, which are heavily populated by ethnic Kurds, according to the prosecutors report. The journalist denied he was a member of the PKK, and said he was covering the rallies for DIHA, according to the report.

Interrogators also questioned Imrak about his telephone conversations and reporters notes from meetings with journalistic sources. Imrak denied all accusations of criminal activity during his interrogation and in his testimony to the Antalya court, according to prosecutorial and court documents, which CPJ has reviewed.

Imrak faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted on the charge of belonging to a terrorist organization.

Turkey remains among the worst jailers of journalists in the world. Imrak is at least the seventh Kurdish journalist Turkish police have arrested on suspicion of belonging to the PKK since December 1, 2015.
Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

LinkedIn

Email

Telegram



New York, March 9, 2016The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns todays attack on a group of six journalists and two human rights activists from Russia, Norway, and Sweden, and urges authorities in the Russian region of Ingushetia to bring those responsible to justice.

At least 15 masked men used vehicles to force a minivan carrying the journalists to stop on a highway linking the North Caucasus regions of Chechnya and Ingushetia, at about 7:20 p.m. according to news reports. The attackers broke the windows of the vehicle, forced everyone out, and beat them with wooden sticks while shouting Get out of Chechnya, there is no place for you in [the capital] Grozny, Alexandrina Elagina, one of the journalists who was attacked, told CPJ by phone. The attackers took the journalists reporting equipment and some of their belongings, and set fire to the minivan before fleeing, Elagina, from the independent Russian-language magazine The New Times, said.

The journalists were returning to Grozny from a reporting trip to Beslan, North Ossetia, which was organized by the Committee to Prevent Torture, its staff lawyer, Sergey Romanov, told CPJ. The independent group, based in Nizhny Novgorod, investigates human rights abuses in the North Caucasus and elsewhere in Russia. Egor Skovoroda, a reporter for the independent news website MediaZona who was injured in the attack, said the group had been followed by a car with Chechen license plates all day, according to reports.

The attack follows a burst of menacing comments on social media and in the press against critical journalists and rights activists by government officials in Chechnya in January. At the time, CPJ wrote to Russian President Vladimir Putin to condemn the language, noting that such rhetoric against government critics is often followed by violence. In response, A. V. Kotov, from the regional prosecutors office in Chechnya, wrote to CPJ on March 1 saying his office found no evidence of incitement to violence in the articles and social media posts highlighted by CPJ. A copy of his letter, in Russian, can be viewed here.

Todays attack on a group of journalists who were in Russias volatile North Caucasus to cover human rights abuses was enabled by the governments inaction in the face of overt hostility to the press, said CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova. When regional officials are allowed to menace reporters in public forumsand bear no consequences for doing sothe enemies of a free press are emboldened to act.

As well as Elagina and Skovoroda, the group included ystein Windstad, a reporter for the Norwegian monthly Ny Tid; Maria Persson Lofgren, from the Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Radio; Mikhail Solunin, a Russian blogger; and Anton Prusakov, a journalist at the Moscow-based business daily Kommersant. The journalists were accompanied by Ivan Zhiltsov and Ekaterina Vanslova, from the Committee to Prevent Torture, and a driver, Bashir Pliyev.

According to news reports and Elagina, everyone in the group was injured. Elagina, whose leg was bruised, said Windstad, Persson Lofgren, and Pliyev are being treated at a hospital in Ingushetia. Windstad told a colleague that he thought he was going to die during the attack, the Norwegian outlet NRK reported. The rest of the group are giving statements to Ingushetia police, who responded promptly to the incident, Elagina said. The journalist said she believes the attack was in retaliation for their reporting on human rights abuses in the region.

A few hours after the attack, armed, masked men were seen on security cameras breaking into the Ingushetia offices of the Committee to Prevent Torture. No staff were in the offices at the time of the break in, an employee at the rights group told CPJ.
Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

LinkedIn

Email

Telegram



New York, March 2, 2016  Indian authorities should investigate threats made against a television journalist in the state of Kerala and ensure her safety, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. News anchor Sindhu Sooryakumar has received thousands of threatening phone calls following a broadcast she hosted last week, she told reporters.

Sooryakumarwho anchors the Malayalam-language news program Cover Story for the privately owned Asianet TV and who is the chief coordinating editor for the channeltold journalists that she has received more than 2,000 threatening and abusive phone calls since her February 26 show, which discussed a ministers comments regarding protesting university students, according to The Times of India.

Indian authorities should take all measures necessary to protect Sindhu Sooryakumar in the face of the abhorrent threats against her, said CPJ Asia Program Senior Research Associate Sumit Galhotra. Journalists should feel free to raise questions and foster debate, including during times of controversy, without fear of reprisal.

Sooryakumars February 26 show discussed comments made in parliament by Indian Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani accusing students at Jawaharlal Nehru University of denigrating the Hindu goddess Durga in 2014. The university has been at the center of controversy since authorities charged at least one student and one professor with sedition over the course of February 2016. On the program, Sooryakumar also raised the question of whether the marking of a particular religious festival amounted to treason, according to reports.

Sooryakumar said that she began receiving calls from across India and beyond on her mobile phone and at her office accusing her of using insulting words to describe the goddess Durga and of offending religious sentiment, according to reports. The anchor has denied the allegations, in remarks to journalists. According to The Indian Express, it was an official from the ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) official on the news program rather than Sooryakumar who quoted a pamphlet that referred to the goddess as a sex worker.

Police said that Sooryakumars number was circulated on social media platforms, including WhatsApp and Facebook. Many of the callers threatened her with death, according to news reports. Others took to social media to call Sooryakumar a sex worker and to encourage people to solicit her services, according to news accounts. The anchor has filed a complaint asking police to investigate what she called the brain behind this organized hounding, according to press reports.

Police on Monday said they have arrested five men so far, all linked to right-wing Hindu nationalist groups, according to news reports. One of the five arrested men told police he had acted in response to a post to a WhatsApp group where a member posted Sooryakumars phone number to the group and encouraged members to abuse her for allegedly insulting Durga in a Facebook post.

Sooryakumar told The News Minute that some callers had identified themselves as supporters of the BJP and of right-wing groups including the Hindu group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. A senior BJP official in Kerala, Kummanam Rajasekharan, posted comments on Facebook denying that the BJP had any role in the matter, reports said.
Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

LinkedIn

Email

Telegram



New York, March 9, 2016  A Syrian journalist narrowly escaped an assault by two unidentified men in the southeastern Turkish city of Urfa on Tuesday. The incident follows a string of attacks against Syrian journalists believed to have been carried out by Islamic State operatives inside Turkey.

Ahmed Abd al-Qader, the director of the Syrian news website Eye on the Homeland, told the Committee to Protect Journalists he was returning home when two men ambushed him just outside his buildings entrance. According to Abd al-Qader, one of the men grabbed him by the shoulder as he tried to escape into his building. Abd al-Qader hit the man with a case of canned soft drinks he was carrying and managed to wrest himself free as his shirt ripped in the assailants grasp. Abd al-Qader escaped into his building with minor injuries, and the two men fled the scene.

Abd al-Qader said he was not sure whether the assailants were armed, but he believed the men to have been from the Islamic State group, and feared they were trying to stab him to death as they had murdered his brother, Ibrahim, and his colleague, Fares Hamadi. On October 30, 2015, Islamic State militants lured Ibrahim and Hamadi, to the apartment of an Islamic State operative who had gained the journalists trust by pretending to have defected from the group. Abd al-Qader told CPJ he believes the fake defector, Tlas Surur, fled to Syria after the murders where he began to send death threats to the journalist.

In a video published online Tuesday by the Islamic States local branch in Deir Ezzor, Syria, the group claimed responsibility for the murders of Ibrahim Abd al-Qader and Fares Hamadi, as well as Syrian filmmaker and journalist Naji Jerf and Ahmed al-Mousa, a reporter and activist for the website Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently. The video, entitled Escaping wont do you any good, shows two new captives, identified as Mohamed al-Kardoush and Jamal al-Ati, whom militants from the Islamic State group accused of providing information to Western governments. It was not immediately clear if the captives were journalists.

Supporters of the Islamic State group previously released a video claiming responsibility for the murders of Abd al-Qader and Hamadi and showing footage from the murder scene. The group has not provided similar evidence of responsibility for the murders of Jerf or al-Mousa.

We condemn the attack on Ahmed Abd al-Qader and call on Turkish authorities to swiftly find his assailants and bring them to justice, CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. Turkey must focus on solving the murders of Ibrahim Abd al-Qader, Fares Hamadi, and Naji Jerf, who had come to the country seeking protection, and ensure the safety of all Syrian journalists working there.

Since the start of the conflict, numerous Syrian journalists have operated independent media outlets in Turkey, including Eye on the Homeland and Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently. Syrian journalists have repeatedly told CPJ they face restrictions on reporting on events inside Turkey and fear the Turkish government is not doing enough to protect them from potential threats emanating from Syria. Members of Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently and Eye on the Homeland told CPJ they receive death threats on a daily basis for their reporting on Islamic State.

Turkish President Recip Erdogan in January met with a group of Syrian journalists to discuss their concerns, including assaults on Syrian journalists by Turkish border guards, the licensing of Syrian media outlets and journalists, and how Turkey might provide greater security for Syrian journalists in the country, according to news reports. Turkish authorities detained one of the participants in the meeting, the founder of the ANA Press news agency, Rami Jarrah, last month. Jarrah posted on his Facebook page that he was released after several days of detention without receiving any official explanation for the reasons for his detention or release.
Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

LinkedIn

Email

Telegram



Staffers at the Guangdong-based Southern Weekly magazine have publicly expressed their outrage at the heavy handed intervention of propaganda officials who unilaterally rewrote a New Years editorial calling for improved constitutional rule in China. A piece extolling the virtues of the Communist Party ran in its place. Sixty staffers posted an open letter to the provincial government accusing propaganda officials of raping the papers editorial procedures, The Associated Press reports. Apparently, the editorial was changed by censors after the magazine had closed and was being readied for the printer. Staff did not know of the changes until the piece appeared in print and online.

We demand an investigation into the incident, which has seen proper editorial procedure severely violated, the open letter said, according to a translation on the independent English-language website Shanghaiist. AP says another 35 former reporters from the newspaper called for the resignation of the provincial party propaganda chief Tuo Zhen, whom they held personally responsible for the changes. Staffers also took their case to Sina Weibo, Chinas mashup of Twitter and Facebook platforms.

You might be surprised that journalists in China would stand up to the government like this, given all that we have been reporting for years on media restrictions and the jailing of journalists. But Southern Weekly and its sister newspaper Southern Daily, based in the economic hothouse of Guangdong province that borders Hong Kong, have long been one of several vocal and independent-minded Chinese media. In fact, as Kristin Jones pointed out about a year ago in a CPJ blog post, When it comes to having impactshifting policies, changing local laws, and even provoking the arrests of party-connected criminalsthe media in China have shown their power repeatedly.

Which is not to say that media criticism of the Chinese government results in widespread reform. The government maintains active propaganda departments at the national, provincial, and local levels to head off what censors might consider unacceptable. Calls for democracy and ending the hegemony of the Communist Party; criticism of the military; mention of the Tiananmen demonstrations and the ensuing deadly crackdown; or discussion of religious groups like Falun Gong are all clearly taboo. But after that, the restrictions can vary from day to day and region to region. Editors and reporters push the envelope daily, but usually not enough to get anyone arrested. Too many violations can get editors or reporters fired or demoted.

To complicate matters, enter the official English-language response to the Southern Weekly staffs anger. An editorial in the Communist Party-run Global Times, Time to reflect on old media management, says:

The reality is that old media regulatory policies cannot go on as they are now. The society is progressing, and the management should evolve. Traditional media is integrating intimately with new media in China, resulting in frequent migration of professionals and different ways for them to pursue their personal interests. All these means the traditional regulation mechanisms no longer fit the new environment.

Tellingly, the paper did not call for an abolition of regulation mechanisms. Whats really needed, the paper says, is only the updating of the censorship regime to fit Chinas new media environment. Its the sort of dodgetaking on apparently controversial topics in official media in English for the benefit of foreign readers that CPJ Senior Researcher Madeline Earp addressed as far back as June 2009, when the paper actually mentioned the Tiananmen demonstrations and their bloody aftermath in a piece called Evolution of Chinese intellectuals thought over two decades. Earps blog post debunked the idea that the Global Times did anything other than damage control.

As for that new media environment Global Times mentions? The University of Hong Kongs China Media Project is tracking both popular and official responses to the Southern Weekly incident in A New Years greeting gets the axe in China as the story continues to unfold. The site also has a translation of the original editorial and the one that eventually appeared.
Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

LinkedIn

Email

Telegram



Ahmed Abu al-Hamza, Software as he was known by his friends, stood behind the camera on November 6 as a gunman explained how rebel forces took Tel Sukayk, a strategic hilltop north of Hama, from government forces. Suddenly the cameras sound recorder picked up the faint thud of a mortar shell firing in the distance. A few seconds of confusion then turned to horror as the shell exploded right in front of the camera, killing Abu al-Hamza and the rebel fighter and injuring several others.

Abu al-Hamzas friends shared the last moments captured on camera in a graphic YouTube video that garnered more than 1.7 million views. Copies of the video also spread quickly, some by accounts that confused the rebel fighter for Abu al-Hamza. Abu al-Hamzas colleagues and news outlet told CPJ he had just joined the local pro-opposition SMART News Agency for a try-out period and he died filming for SMART. But it turns out the other accounts were not so wrong after all, as his colleagues also said Abu al-Hamza was a member of a media center of a local affiliate of Ahrar al-Sham, a powerful rebel group with ties to Al-Qaeda.

Abu al-Hamza was one of 90 cases researched by CPJ of journalists who reportedly died while covering the Syrian conflict this year. Of the 90, CPJ could only confirm 13 cases in which a journalist died as a direct result of their journalism. Even this fraction made Syria the deadliest country in the world for the press, for the fourth year in a row. But as in previous years, CPJ could not find in the majority of researched cases evidence of a direct link to journalistic work or even determine that the journalist had died.

But this year, one trend stood out: nearly one third of cases researched were either members of armed groups or had so many pictures of the journalist wielding weapons that CPJ could not rule out the possibility they were combatants. This fact poses significant ramifications not just for CPJs research but for journalists in Syria and elsewhere.

In a handful of cases like Abu al-Hamzas, the journalist was working for a news outlet and an armed group simultaneously, or had previously worked for an armed group. Saleh Laila, who was killed by a car bomb in Aleppo in October, was both a correspondent for the Turkish state-run Anatolia News Agency and a founding member of the media center for the rebel Tawhid Brigade, according to the respective groups. Anatolia did not respond to CPJs requests for comment. Thaer al-Ajlani died reporting on assignment for Sham FM from the Damascus suburb of Jobar, but he was well-known for propaganda he made while working as a press officer for the National Defense Forces, a pro-government militia. Another SMART News Agency correspondent killed this year, Obada Ghazal, had previously worked with Ahrar al-Sham. SMART told CPJ the organization has a strict rule that all of its correspondents must be independent of all armed factions as a condition of employment.

Ahmad al-Mesalama, who was gunned down in Daraa in September by unknown assailants, worked for the local Nabaa Media Foundation. According to Nabaa director Ibrahim Hamad, al-Mesalama had worked as a press officer for the Nusra Front, Al-Qaedas official branch in Syria, until July 2014 when he joined Nabaa. After al-Mesalamas death, Al-Jazeera published on its website that he corresponded for the network and that he died covering fighting, although Al-Jazeera spokesman Hasan Patel later denied to CPJ that he had worked for Al Jazeera in any official capacity and said the network has a thorough vetting process for both permanent staff and freelancers and does not knowingly hire anyone who has a current or prior relationship with armed groups or rebel groups.

The intermingling of journalism and fighting is nothing new for Syria, where combatants view the media sphere as yet another battlefield in the civil war. Not all working for media centers for armed groups carry weapons, but CPJ has uncovered photos and videos of purported journalists carrying guns and cameras simultaneously. This year, the proportion of such cases or cases with direct links to armed groups has increased compared with previous years.

The reasons behind this militarization of the press are complex. But the primary driver is undoubtedly the past five years of brutal censorship. Since 2011, at least 92 journalists have died covering the Syrian conflict. Approximately 25 journalists are missing or held hostage, and at least seven are jailed by the Syrian government. In the face of such dire threats, international journalists have largely stopped going into Syria and scores of Syrian journalists have fled the country. Those left behind are either increasingly members of armed groups or pushed to rely heavily on those armed groups to ensure even a modicum of safety.

The implications for the newsgathering process and our ability to understand the conflict are clear. We are left both thirsty for information from Syria and drowning in it at the same time. The very same armed groups on all sides of the conflict that have worked tirelessly to censor the press have in turn become some of the leading producers and exporters of information. And there are fewer independent journalists to interrogate and verify that information from the inside.

This makes CPJs research all the more difficult. Abu al-Hamzas case is a rare exception. With his death so well documented on video, by eyewitness testimony, and by his news outlet, CPJ could confirm that his death was related specifically to his role at SMART News Agency and not his work filming battle scenes on behalf of Ahrar al-Sham, which CPJ would not consider journalism. But in the vast majority of cases where CPJ found close ties to armed groups, such clear evidence does not exist.

Part of the issue also stems from language. The Arabic word ealami literally means someone involved with the media and information; an ealami could designate a journalist, but it could also refer to a spokesman in a government office or a propagandist for an armed group. This elision of roles makes it easier for an ealami to work interchangeably for media outlets and armed groups.

Many Arabic reports about such people do not sufficiently distinguish between the two jobs. Only recently did the pro-opposition Syrian Journalists Association start keeping separate lists for those working as journalists and those working for armed groups. The Violations Documentation Center in Syria does not have separate lists but clearly identifies all cases it documents as either civilian or combatant.

While propaganda has always been part of war, it is of course distinct from journalism. For journalists, their best protection in any conflict zone is their civilian status under international law. Every time a journalist carries a weapon, and every time we confuse a member of an armed group for a journalist, that protective shield is dented.

That shield has not just come under assault in Syria, but throughout the Middle East. This year CPJ investigated the deaths of journalists in Gaza, Iraq, and Yemen that we could not report because of evidence the individuals were participating in violence. In the West Bank, a Palestinian man also posed as a journalist in order to carry out a stabbing attack on an Israeli soldier. All of these incidents fuel the dangerous narrative by both repressive governments and non-state actors that journalists are terrorists, spies, or combatants.

This blurring of the line endangers the lives of the journalists who continue to work in Syria, like ANAs Rami Jarrah. Jarrah, who has recently been reporting from Aleppo, told CPJ there is no excuse to carry out journalism while armed or directly associated with armed factions. While he said he has not seen any journalists carrying guns recently, he said he had previously fallen out with someone over the issue because the practice is threatening, selfish, and endangers all journalists.

It was only a few years ago that activists all over Syria picked up cameras to tell the world what was happening to their families, friends, and neighbors. They were met with brutal force, first by the government and then by the armed groups that spread throughout the country. They continued to report, in the face of that brutality and in the face of perceived indifference by the international community.

At that time, the most frequent question CPJ researchers had to ask ourselves about Syria was, How many YouTube videos does a journalist make? Now we are more often forced to ask, How many gun videos does a combatant make? The militarization of the press in Syria may present a research challenge for CPJ, but it presents by far the greater challenge to journalists reporting there and beyond.

Hopefully it is a reversible trend. Many media workers who work with armed groups have done so out of necessity, not preference, Jarrah told CPJ. Im sure that the vast majority of those that work with the armed groups would not let down an opportunity to walk away to any alternative.

AUTHORS NOTE: CPJ strives to independently verify every case of journalists killed in Syria and elsewhere. We are able to do this thanks to the help of our Beirut correspondent Nadia Massih and former MENA interns Lori Baitarian, Ian Cash, and Nadine Mansour.
Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

LinkedIn

Email

Telegram



As police cracked down on protesters in Delhi during recent protests over the treatment of Dalits, who occupy the lowest rungs of Indias caste ladder, journalists were caught in the fray. The protests were sparked by the suicide of Rohith Vemula, a student who had been barred from halls of residence and parts of campus, according to news reports.

More on this issue Slideshow

Security Guide

CPJ has previously documented cases of police and security forces using harsh measures and jailings to suppress media coverage across the country, from the restive regions of Kashmir and Chhattisgarh to the capital, Delhi. This latest case raises the question again of how such misconductoften uncheckedis able to continue in a country that claims the mantle of being the worlds largest democracy.

Photojournalist Rahul M., who was covering one of the protests in Delhi on January 30, for the independent magazine The Caravan, says police beat him and broke his camera. In an interview with CPJ, Rahul, who goes by only one name, described the assault and shared pictures of the protest that he managed to take before his equipment was smashed.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

CPJ: Please tell us about events leading up to your assault.

Rahul: Vemula belonged to the same region in south-eastern India I am from. As such, I had been following the media fallout of his death. Back home, local news channels probed leaders of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a right-wing student organization, to see if they had played a role in Vemulas death. [Editors note: The student group and government officials were accused of pressuring Vemulas university to take punitive measures against him. They have denied any wrongdoing, according to reports.]

In the wake of his suicide, an umbrella organization of various left-wing student groups announced a call to protest. I was covering a protest outside the Delhi headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the right-wing parent organization of the ABVP, for The Caravan.

I reached the protest late and started trailing other journalists, photographing and gathering information. I saw police charging at students. In fact, I remember pushing the shutter button, and capturing the police running at protesters when I heard the charge orders. The police started rounding up and beating the students toward the back of the protest. Many of the policemen I saw responding violently did not wear name-badges. A few minutes before the police aggression began, I asked some of the policemen why they were not wearing name-badges, to which they did not reply. I told them that I was a journalist, and that was why I was asking questions.

The police also turned a blind eye to young men in plainclothesunclear at the moment who they werebeating up the students.

[Editors note: The Delhi Commissioner of Police, Bhim Sain Bassi, did not immediately respond to CPJs request for comment on allegations of police brutality against students and journalists, or allegations against officers Rahul names in this interview.]

 Previous Image | Next Image 





















CPJ: Can you describe the attack against you?

Rahul: I was shooting pictures of policemen and men in plainclothes attacking students, which was when a few policemen surrounded me and a sub-inspector, whose first name on the nametag read Dinesh, grabbed my camera by its flip-LCD screen and smashed it to the ground despite my telling him that I was a journalist. Other journalists have photos of him just before he attacked me and also of him breaking my camera. His superior officer, whose name-badge read Sagar Singh Kalsi, was present at the spot when I was being attacked. By this time, constables had rounded me up and were charging at me, despite my repeatedly informing them that I was only doing my job as a journalist. I kept telling them I am a journalist but they kept beating me. Whenever I tried to go toward my broken camera to take it, they pushed lathis [batons] into my stomach.

I managed to get hold of my broken camera, and the first thing I did was to remove the memory card. As I was doing this, a female student argued with the police that I was a journalist and they cannot beat me. I immediately gave my camera, without the memory card, to her and told her my name and asked her keep the camera [for me.] The cameras 18-55mm lens is broken to bits, the battery space is damaged. My phone was also damaged.

After receiving the blows and abandoning my camera, I immediately rushed to The Caravans office to speak with editors about what happened, and discuss the story. Then I went back to my room, took painkillers, filed my story and went to sleep. Next day, I went to a hospital to seek medical treatment, and record what had happened.

CPJ: What has the police response been to these allegations?

Rahul: The police initially denied they used force. Now they have said they are investigating the matter.

CPJ: Has this attack affected your outlook on press freedom in India?

Rahul: Exercising press freedom, I think, is about going beyond the press releases and the stories the powerful want the public to believe in, to achieve transparency in the systems that govern us. As journalists we tend to take up assignments that our editors give us or from events that we find exciting, or file reports that are everyday affairs. I think freedom of press exists beyond these, in the way stories are followed, pursued, and taken to their logical end, in spite of all hurdles, and in an ethical way.

Journalists should be allowed to work freely as they keep democracies accountable. But a governments hostility to press shouldnt deter journalists from doing their jobs. The fact that my camera is broken shouldnt deter me from doing what my job is. Only cameras can be broken, not the photographs. Mine is a tragedy at a personal level, and important information could have been lost had I not taken the memory card out and written down what I saw.

The lesson from the incident is a personal one: be more careful. And, maybe, use the lens wildlife photographers use the next time I have to cover any protest outside the RSS office.

CPJ: We have long documented cases of police brutality against journalists in India and elsewhere, including here in the U.S. What changes do you think are necessary to prevent further cases of journalists being attacked or harassed by authorities in India?

Rahul: I think there need to be reforms in the police department. The police, in India at least, feel entitled to beat and harass people, including journalists. During the course of my reporting on an earlier story, I learned that police usually refuse to register First Information Reports, or complaints, in cases where police officers have assaulted protesters, even when there are records to prove injuries and eyewitnesses who can identify the perpetrating officers. If these victims demand action or accountability against such officers, they are threatened with counter-legal cases under non-bailable offences. So, in some sense, the laws that are meant to protect the publicespecially victims of violenceare strategically used by the police to protect themselves and further victimize those already suffering. Moreover, the Indian Police Act, which governs the police in India, introduced by the British during colonial rule to curb movements that sought independence from the British rule, is antiquated and needs updating.
Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

LinkedIn

Email

Telegram



The press is not allowed in refugee centers. The message from the Greek government could not have been clearer. No permission will be given to television crews and reporters to enter such premises that hosts refugees, Yannis Mouzalas, the minister in charge of immigration policy, said in a February 29 statement. In protest the Pan-Hellenic Federation of Journalists Unions, one of Greeces most important media professionals organizations, responded by underlining that the need for awareness of society requires showcasing all aspects of the refugee crisis, including the conditions in refugee hosting areas.

The migration crisis has become the most compelling story in Europe. It dominates televised news with dramatic footage of migrants on rickety boats trying to reach Greek islands from the Turkish mainland, families blocked at border checkpoints in the Balkans, or expelled by the police from improvised camps in the so-called Jungle in Calais, northern France. It overwhelms papers political sections, op-ed pages, and forums with polemics on the confusion and division of EU policies. It floods social media with outraged or outrageous statements.

Journalists however, increasingly find themselves banned from covering the story on the ground. Last year, Hungarys center-right government, which erected a razor-wire fence along the countrys borders with Serbia and Croatia, set the template in hampering journalists work. CPJ documented last year how, on a single day in September, seven journalists covering the migrant story were beaten or arrested in separate incidents by Hungarian police. Hungarian police denied attacking journalists, The Associated Press reported. The press was also banned from entering refugee camps or transit centers, with the general director of Hungarys office of immigration telling the rights group Hungarian Civil Liberties Union the ban was to protect refugees privacy and security. On September 3, riot police ordered journalists to leave a railway station in Bicske, where one of Hungarys main refugee camps is, after declaring the station an operation zone, the rights group reported.

Access to refugee centers has been limited in other countries too. Renate Schroder, director of the European Federation of Journalists, told CPJ, that a survey by the German Federation of Journalists of its regional offices found problems of access. Some Lander (states) guarantee the right for information by letting journalist regularly into camps, while others restrict it. They pretend that first comes the right to privacy for the refugees and asylum seekers. There is no nationwide law, it depends on the political will at regional or local level, she said.

European governments are wary of the political impact of the refugee crisis. Far-right movements and national populist parties are on the rise nearly everywhere in Europe and benefit from an image of governments being powerless and confused. The priority by authorities appears to be getting the story off of TV screens, especially when citizens express their fears and opposition to welcoming more migrants.

In the Netherlands, a number of towns and villages have gone so far as barring journalists from covering public asylum debates at which authorities explain to residents the decision to open refugee centers in their hometowns. In January, authorities in Luttelgeest, a village in Flevoland province, said that journalists could not come closer than 5 kilometers to such a meeting, Index on Censorship reported. Ive never experienced something like this before, Allard Berends, editor-in-chief of the regional broadcaster Omroep Flevoland, told Index on Censorship. It was just ridiculous. It was kafka-esque. The municipality said that it wanted to prevent turmoil and provide citizens with the privacy to speak their mind. In response, the Dutch Society of Editors in Chief said: In an open and democratic society it is up to the media to decide what to report on, how to report and what methods to use. Sander Dekker, the Dutch State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science, supported the decision in an answer to a parliamentary question, arguing the measure was not disproportionate. There have been other cases of journalists bans too, like in the village of Heesch, part of the Bernheze municipality, where the municipal council allowed entry only to local journalists and barred cameras, according to local reports.

Tents are burned as the makeshift refugee camp known as the Jungle, in Calais, is dismantled. Reporters covering the French site say they have been attacked. (AP/Jerome Delay)

Journalists have a tough task covering the migration story. In improvised refugee camps like the Jungle in Calais which, until it started to be dismantled in February housed about 4,000 migrants trying to cross the Channel to the UK, and where human traffickers operate, reporting can be hazardous. In a widely reported incident, the Dutch journalists Maaike Engels and Teun Voeten were attacked on January 16 by three migrants carrying a knife and pepper spray, who tried to steal their camera. The attack was stopped by other refugees, who came to their rescue and chased away the assailants, according to reports. In such a polarized climate journalists constantly work under the suspicion, from the left of fanning discrimination and, from the right of silencing inconvenient truths. We were criticized by liberal journalists and the refugee lobby as well as by right-wing anti-migration activists. Both sides accused us of fueling the propaganda of their opponent. Both camps urged self-censorship, wrote Voeten and Engels.

In Germany, journalists have been booed by far-right activists with the anti-Islam campaign group Pegida (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West). Reporting on its rallies means diving into a hostile crowd that despises journalists as agents of a political-media traitor elite whose promotion of multiculturalism has sold the country out to an invasion of foreigners, according to Agence France-Presse Berlin correspondent Frank Zeller. One of their chants is Luegen-Presse, auf die Fresse!which roughly translates to liar-press, well smash your face.

In October, a poll of 1,209 Germans by the Allensbach Institute found that 47 percent described the reporting on refugees as one-sided, i.e. pro-refugees. The criticism of the press reached a high point after a series of attacks near Cologne station on New Years Eve when hundreds of people, particularly women, were harassed by people the victims described as of Arab origin. German mainstream media were accused in conservative circles of being slow in reporting the story and hesitant in linking the violence to migration. Although the events remain murkythe role of refugees in the incidents is unclear and accusations against the slowness of the press have been challengedthe idea that Germanys public service media and elitist press are soft on migrants has received a boost among a population increasingly losing faith in the media, writes Der Spiegel. The leading newsweekly added: The German nationalist magazine Compact asked readers to vote for Germanys worst lying journalists  The rage, hatred and hostility are not just being expressed verbally anymore. Journalists are badgered and berated, hit with flagpoles, and attacked with pepper spray.

In mid-January a report by the EU-funded European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, which monitors attacks and supports press freedom, listed at least 49 attacks last year against the press in Germany, particularly during anti-migration rallies. On January 13, during a meeting with members of the German Parliament, Tom Strohschneider, the editor-in-chief of the left-wing Neues Deutschland, said that the number of death threats received by his staff increased heavily from the middle of 2015, the European center reported. The number of attacks has led the German Federation of Journalists to start a blog called Augenzeugen Info (Eyewitness Info) to report violence against the press.

In the toxic atmosphere triggered by the migration crisis the messengersthe journalistsare increasingly becoming the target of public anguish and anger.

On March 4, Dunja Mijatovic, the OSCE representative on freedom of the media, highlighted the need for the press to be able to report freely on refugees, and issued recommendations to OSCE states on the rights and safety of journalists covering the migrant story.

[Reporting from Brussels]
Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

LinkedIn

Email

Telegram



Coverage of protests and riots. Revelations of official corruption and graft. Major natural disasters. Investigations into deplorable living conditions. These are some of the important issues journalists cover in their role as the Fourth Estate.

Strip searches. Weapons and forgery charges. Accusations of sexual misconduct. Imprisonment. These are not the types of responses you would expect to news reporting. Yet these are the reactions authorities had to critical coverage by nine women journalists currently behind bars for their work, CPJ research shows.

Most were convicted on anti-state charges, but two have not even been charged, according to CPJs prison census. On International Womans Day CPJ is drawing attention to their cases. A Silk infographic about the nine journalists can be viewed here:

China, which hosted the UN meeting that led to the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action for womens empowerment and the establishment of International Womens Day, is imprisoning more female journalists than any other country. Of the 49 journalists jailed in China, three are women, CPJ research shows. All three worked on the Internet. Among them is website administrator Gulmire Imin, who was sentenced to life in prison after she was accused of fomenting violence through online posts.

Of the 199 journalists on CPJs annual prison census, only nine are women, and the charges and medium in which they work do not mirror the trends in the population of imprisoned journalists worldwide. None of the 33 journalists imprisoned in Africa are women. In Asia, four of the 71 are women; In Europe and Central Asia, two out of 29 are women, and in the Middle East and North Africa three out of 66 are women. Of the 109 online journalists on the census, seven were women. Four were freelancers, the other five worked as staff.

These journalists face an added risk compared to their male counterparts, because sexualized violence and traditional gender roles can make them more vulnerable. When Khadija Ismayilova, an investigative journalist who covered corruption and was critical of Azerbaijans president and his ruling circle, refused to stop reporting despite receiving anonymous threats in 2012, a sex video of her was posted anonymously online, according to reports. The Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reporter is currently serving a seven and a half year sentence on retaliatory charges, CPJ research shows.

When Atena Farghadani posted a cartoon on her Facebook page in 2014, mocking Irans parliament after they voted to restrict access to contraception, she was sent to Evin prison for three months. After her release in November 2014 the 29-year-old cartoonist uploaded a YouTube video describing how she was strip searched and mistreated by the female guards, which led to her being jailed again. Farghadani was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison. After her trial she shook hands with her lawyer, Mohammad Moghimi, leading both of them to be charged with illegitimate sexual relations short of adultery, and tried behind closed doors. CPJ has not been able to determine if a verdict has been issued in that case.

In some countries, even covering sensitive gender or womens issues can result in journalists being jailed. In October 2014, CPJ documented how photojournalist Aria Jafari was jailed briefly in Iran after covering protests calling for justice for women targeted in a spate of acid attacks.

Women make up a small number of imprisoned or killed journalists worldwide, but they face distinct threats. On April 27 CPJ will release its annual publication, Attacks on Press: Gender and Media Freedom Worldwide, which explores these issues in greater detail. (Follow CPJ on Facebook for more details.) In the meantime, join CPJ in calling for the release of these nine journalists who remain behind bars on a day when the world should be celebrating the contributions of women like them.
Sussex News

Story Saved

You can find this story in My Bookmarks.

Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.
Deakin University is piloting an innovative hyperlocation project in its bid to be recognised as Australia's most digitally advanced university.

The university is using Cisco's Connected Mobile Experiences (CMX) technology, along with intelligence built into the network and Aironet wi-fi access points, to allow students to take advantage of proximity services. For instance, students can see heat maps of study areas to find the quietest place in the library. Support staff can respond to callouts with pinpoint accuracy.

Craig Warren, Deakin's director of ICT infrastructure services, said the university's existing Cisco wireless network infrastructure was able to locate connected devices within three metres. This distance could be sharpened to within one-metre accuracy if the university deployed Cisco's hyperlocation module.

Deakin is supported by Dimension Data, which last year deployed 500 Cisco wi-fi access points to fix the universitys frustration with its wireless network.

Warren was impressed by Cisco's new Digital Network Architecture (DNA), announced at last week's Cisco Partner Summit in San Diego. "Our dependency on the network has increased to a point of criticality.

"With these high-end user mobility requirements, we need rich contextual information from the network tracking 55,000 students, 10,000 staff, the three-to-five devices they have. We need information on where they go, where they dwell, what they do differently on any particular device," he added.

Hyperlocation is a big focus for the vendor at this year's Cisco Live. Deakin's hyperlocation project began with a prototype at the university library, followed by the current pilot, which has been running for four months. The team will then put together an enterprise business case with the aim of a full rollout in the latter half of this year.

Lynn Warneke, director of channels and platforms at Deakin, said the university wanted to use technology in a way that is "truly smart but also truly useful". The university aims to be "the premiere university in Australia driving the digital frontier," she added.

Warneke pointed out some further use cases for the proximity project. "We are adding context to location. Students are able  if they opt in, of course  to determine the location of their Deakin study group on campus."

The technology can also take advantage of geo-fencing, triggering notifications as users move around the university campus, she added.

Warneke added that the university's hyperlocation mobile application was developed by Oakton, which is now owned by Dimension Data.

Dimension Data Australia last week was the sole Australian company to pick up a global award at Cisco Partner Summit in San Diego, when it was named Asia-Pacific partner of the year.

It backed this up with three gongs at Cisco Live  Dimension Data picked up awards for Software Partner of the Year and Cisco Capital Partner of the Year, while account manager Terry Kimball was recognised for Teaming Excellence Award of the Year.

The journalist travelled to Melbourne courtesy of Cisco.
Channel programs News

Political Guru: Partners Should Push Politicians to Middle Ground On Trade, Immigration

Michael Novinson

Share this

Solution providers should use their influence within their customer base and business community to push for immigration and trade policies that benefit the IT sector. That's the message from a renowned political expert speaking to IT professionals during a keynote address at XChange Solution Provider 2016 in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California, urged partners to band together and provide political cover for Republicans backing comprehensive immigration reform and Democrats in favor of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

"Our system of politics is not majority rule," Schnur told more than 225 partners Wednesday during the speech. "It's a system of minority rule with majority acquiescence."

/**/ /**/

/**/ brightcove.createExperiences(); /**/

Dan Schnur discusses Trump's ceiling on support at XChange Solution Provider 2016.

Schnur said that gerrymandered redistricting, the rise of partisan media and a campaign finance system dominated by wealthy individuals, corporations and labor unions have created an environment where politicians are too often rewarded for staking out extreme positions and punished for a willingness to negotiate or compromise.

"In politics, the victories come in between the 40-yard lines," Schnur said. "Even the most principled conservative and the most principled progressive must come out of their own ideological end zones."

[Related: Big Data's Big Role In Big Politics]

Specifically, Schnur criticized Republican presidential contender Donald Trump and Democratic presidential contender and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for what Schnur characterized as pushing to create larger barriers between the United States and the rest of the world.

Sanders' success has been fueled almost entirely by animus and fear among blue-collar workers, Schnur said, but his push to limit trade opportunities would be bad for the IT industry and the country at large, he said. Similarly, Schnur said, he considers Trump's proposal to deport tens of millions of undocumented immigrants from the United States to be impractical, hostile and mean-spirited.

"Removing 11.5 million people from this country  would require lining buses from San Diego, California, to Fairbanks, Alaska  and having the federal government manage the motorcades out of this country," Schnur said.

Although Schnur said he doesnt believe either Sanders or Trump will win the presidency, he said the sentiments fueling their campaigns have forced primary competitors on both sides of the aisle to stake out more extreme positions.

"I don't think [former Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton is nearly as anti-trade as she's sounded on the campaign trail in the past couple of months, and I don't think [Florida Sen.] Marco Rubio or [Ohio Gov.] John Kasich is as anti-immigration as theyve sounded.

Schnur urged attendees to devote a couple of hours each week to a worthy candidate or political cause important to them, and to let their friends, colleagues and customers know why the person or issue is so important to them.

"There's an old saying in politics: 'There's no such thing as a raging moderate,' " Schnur said. "And I like to be the counterargument: Politics is too important to be left to the politicians."

Chad Cline, co-founder and partner at Fort Worth, Texas-based Tarrant Technology, said he plans to accept Schnur's challenge to engage in more conversations with friends and customers. Cline has found that the loudest voices in his part of the country tend to espouse Tea Party views, but he believes that many Fort Worth-area residents are privately more centrist.

"It's hard to know who will operate inside the 40-yard lines, because the pressure is to speak like you're in the end zone," Cline said.

Still, Cline is optimistic than Clinton or Kasich would move more to the center should either of them become America's next president.

Although Brian Goddard, founding owner of Charlotte, N.C.-based gTechserv, said he understood the point Schnur was trying to make, he believes Barack Obama's presidency has put small businesses and the country's core values in jeopardy.

And after spending eight years in what he sees as one ideological end zone, Goddard said, he would like to see a major shift back to more traditional values and principles.

"We've spent way too long in the middle," Goddard said. "It's time to start winning again."
P&O Cruises Pacific Dawn has made the first ever crusie ship call to Gladstoneon, a Central Queensland port.

The call is the first of seven visits to Gladstone by Pacific Dawn and her sister ships Pacific Jewel and Pacific Eden this year, with the cruise line set to return to the city in 2017 on six occasions, according to a statement from P&O Australia.

The Pacific Dawn, which visited Gladstone as part of a four-night Queensland Sea Break cruise, was welcomed by the local community during a civic ceremony and presentation of the keys to the city.

P&O Cruises President Sture Myrmell thanked Gladstone Regional Council and the local community for extending such an enthusiastic and warm welcome to Pacific Dawns passengers and crew.

We know from experience that our passengers best remember destinations by the warmth of the community welcome and Gladstone has certainly lived up to its reputation as a friendly city, Myrmell said.

Gladstone has so much to offer as a cruise destination. Australians are fascinated by the ports nation-building industrial development, along with the beauty of the region as the gateway to the southern reaches of the Great Barrier Reef.

P&O Cruises fleet expansion has offered the flexibility to cruise to more regional destinations such as Gladstone following the addition of Pacific Aria and Pacific Eden.

Gladstone Mayor, Cr Gail Sellers, said Gladstone was very excited about the first arrivals by P&O Cruises ships, with Pacific Dawns visit today followed by Pacific Jewel on March 20, beginning a series of calls this year and next.

The cruise ships will be a great addition to the tourism industry in the Gladstone region. I join with our community in welcoming these impressive vessels along with the thousands of passengers that will be coming into our beautiful region, said Sellers.
Blockchain for entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector: challenges and opportunities - May 15, 2020 4:00 PM CEST

Blockchain for Agriculture webinar

Are you an entrepreneur in African, the Caribbean and Pacific countries and interested in blockchain? Do you want to know if and in which conditions you can leverage on blockchain to offer meaningful services to potential clients in the agricultural sector and beyond? This webinar organised by the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) in the framework its AgriHack and Blockchain projects, and in partnership with Blockchain Workspace in the Netherlands will discuss these questions. Apart from insights from three invited experts, experiences of an ACP entrepreneur investing in Blockchain will be shared. Other entrepreneurs from the audience may have the opportunity to briefly share their experiences as well. The session will be held in English only. With George Maina, founder of Shamba Records & Once Sync Limited (Kenya); Henk van Cann and Erwin Overstegen, both co-founder of the training firm Blockchain Workspace (bcws.io); and Ken Lohento (CTA)
Kate Piotrowski and Audrey Brandes, sophomores at Greenwich High School, will be hosting a prom dress drive. Piotrowski and Brandes are co-presidents of the Former Attire Club, the club organizes all the clothing drives at the high school.

The pair have a strong passion for community service,Piotrowski is veteran volunteer at Greenwich Hospital and Audrey just spent her summer in Costa Rica on a service trip.

The girls decided that they would mainly like to host drives that benefit girls and women, "the decision to focus our efforts toward females was because it's true that both men and women live in poverty, face discrimination and must overcome obstacles. But throughout historyin every country in the worldwomen and girls face additional obstacles and discrimination solely because of their gender.

Kate and I felt it was our duty to help these women out in anyway we can" says Audrey. They took over the club from Julia Bunte-Mein (who is now at Harvard) and Alexa Moses (now at Duke). "They were beyond amazing examples for us and showed us how we can organize the drives, give back to the community and just how to be sweet people" said Kate.

Earlier this year the pair hosted a Dress for Success clothing drive where they collected work clothes for women. The drive was extremely successful and they couldn't be happier with the overwhelming amount of donations.

"We really rely on the community to make these drives and events successful" Kate says "The Dress for Success drive went better than we could of ever imagined and we hope the prom dress drive is as lucrative". The prom dress drive will take place Friday March 18th from 3-6:30 and Saturday March 19th from 10:30-4:30 at the Tomes Higgins Home (216 E Putnam Ave, Greenwich, CT 06830).

Girls can come, try on and receive free dresses and accessories for prom or other occasions. "We set up a mock store at the Tomes Higgins Home, it's the most rewarding and fun experience" says Audrey "There is no better feeling than helping girls find prom dresses".

The girls will also be collecting donations (of dresses, accessories and shoes ON HANGERS) if you have any please bring them to either any of the drop-off bins at Greenwich High School in each of the houses or student activities at GHS or you can arrange a pick-up by contacting (203) 979-9368 or emailing formerattireghs@gmail.com.
Area economic development officials have launched a website to help attract more businesses to the region.

The website  accesswesternct.com  was launched by the Western Connecticut Economic Development Alliance (WCEDA), which was formed several years ago and raised more than $100,000 to develop a strategy that outlines the areas strengths and weaknesses.

Much of the information derived from the study is included on the site, in addition to key metrics of the region, major employers and links to other economic organizations including local chambers of commerce.

The purpose of the web site is to sell Western Connecticut region as a whole, but also provide a portal to each of the municipalities in the region, said Hal Kurfehs, a real estate agent who serves as chairman of the WCEDA. The site is also intended to help those businesses already here by giving them access to information that can help them grow.

The site was developed with about $25,000 in funding from the Western Connecticut Council of Governments (COG), a regional planning agency that covers 18 towns from Danbury to Greenwich.

John Chew, senior project manager for the Western COG, said development of the northern Fairfield County strategy was initiated prior to the reorganization of planning agencies into one larger group representing the region rather than the former Housatonic Valley Council of Elected Officials, which represented just the Danbury region.

Officials in the southern towns of the COG are also seeking a grant to update their strategies and combine them with that of the Danbury region. Kurfehs said the group may also establish its own website as part of the process.

Combining the two efforts, however, could prove difficult, Chew noted, because of the stark difference in the economic conditions in the northern and southern portions of the county. He added that the Connecticut Economic Resource Center, a private-public enterprise that provides services to the state, has already determined that Fairfield County has two distinct economic units.

An economic region has to be able to claim the same assets, Chew said.

Kurfehs said the new site will be updated regularly as new information becomes available.

This will be one stop source for information, he said.

dperrefort@newstimes.com
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

After a decade of business at Greenwich Point Park, Bartliks Concessions will hand over the reins to a new concessionaire this beach season.

Following a bidding process through the Town of Greenwich Purchasing and Parks and Recreation departments, the five year contract for the beach concession stands has been awarded to Carlos Hernandez after an extensive grading process that included proposals and presentations by interested vendors.

Jeff Freitdag, superintendent for marine facilities within the Parks and Recreation department, said Hernandez gave the best presentation and scored better when considering the criteria, which ranges includes a business plan and menu ideas.

I think the gentleman, Carlos, has an interesting background, Freitdag said. He had the beach concession in Fairfield until (Hurricane) Sandy knocked the building down, so hes got background in beach concessions ... and the residents were looking for something a little more upscale at times.

Freitdag said Hernandez will continue serving traditional beach fare like hamburgers and hot dogs, but at the newly renovated North concession stand at the Sue Baker Pavilion, diners will have more options including healthy choices like wraps, salads and seafood.

The Greenwich concession stands arent Hernandezs first run at the beach food scene. He ran the beach concession stand in Fairfield for 16 years before it was closed due to damage from Hurricane Sandy. The Bartlik stands in Greenwich also sustained substantial damage in the storm, but thanks to the Greenwich conservancy and generous donors, was able to get back up and running. Hernandez also owns and operates Solun Bar & Tapas in Woodbridge, known for Spanish tapas and paella.

Hernandez did not respond to a request for comment on his new business venture, but Freitdag said the town is excited for the new partnership.

While the town provides the building, water and other basic amenities, the concessionaire is responsible for providing all of their own equipment. Freitdag said hes unsure when Hernandez plans to open, but expects it will be soon as the beach season is apparently already underway. Greenwich Point Park draws thousands of visitors every year, and after a mild winter the Parks and Recreation Department is expecting the popular spot to be busier than ever. Several hundred visitors were already enjoying the park and beach Wednesday when temperatures neared 70 degrees.

Time will tell and well see how this new thing goes, Freitdag said.

KKrasselt@scni.com; 203-625-4411; Twitter: @kaitlynkrasselt
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

BRIDGEPORT - City officials are asking a federal judge to throw out the discrimination lawsuit brought by a police lieutenant now on leave following accusations he ordered a subordinate to write a fake racially charged letter that circulated the police department.

Lt. Lonnie Blackwell, president of the minority police organization The Guardians, is awaiting a disciplinary hearing before Acting Police Chief Armando A.J. Perez.

The allegations in the lawsuit have substantial merit and are deserving to be heard by a jury of Lt. Blackwells peers, said his lawyer, Thomas Bucci.

Former police Officer Clive Higgins told state police and officers from the city Office of Internal Affairs that Blackwell ordered him to write the letter to Bring attention to the department with respect to ongoing racial complaints.

Higgins received accelerated rehabilitation for writing the phony letter.

Long before the letter made news, in January 2014, Blackwell filed a discrimination lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the city and the Police Department seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for retaliation he claims he suffered when he complained he was being discriminated against in the department because he is African-American.

Milford attorney Richard Buturla, who represents the city in the case, declined comment on the lawsuit.

Blackwell, who has been a city police officer since November 2000, claims in his lawsuit that as a result of his leadership of The Guardians and the groups stance against discriminatory practices in the Police Department, he had been subjected to harassment, ridicule and unfavorable employment practices.

The practices, he claimed, included being the subject of two anonymous racist-themed letters that were sent to then-Chief Joseph Gaudett in 2012  and to being subjected to an internal investigation for allegedly planning to harm a white officer.

A March 3, 2012, letter to Gaudett from Concerned Officers, begins: This letter is being written to you after weve received numerous complaints regarding the freedom you have allowed Lt. Lonnie Blackwell.

The letter complains about the amount of salary and overtime Blackwell received -- $125,000 in 2009, $152,000 in 2010 and $168,000 in 2011.

All this to further his race hustle as the president of The Guardians. Do you as the chief of police allow this to happen in order to appear as if you have solved the racial woes of the department? the letter reads.

A second letter dated March 13, 2012, to then-Assistant Police Chief James Nardozzi, also from Concerned Officers, states: Blackwell is the most powerful person in the department. He does what he wants, when he wants and no one questions him. No one.

The chief of police and the assistant chief of police took no action, essentially condoning the racial hostility and harassment being directed at the plaintiff, the lawsuit states.

In its motion asking the judge to dismiss the case earlier this week, the city states Gaudett turned the 2012 letter into the Office of Internal Affairs, requesting an investigation.

Chief Gaudett considered the 2012 letter primarily to be a criticism of him and his leadership as the chief of police. He decided not to publicly condemn the anonymous letter, which he felt would have needlessly brought further attention to it and would have appeared as though he felt a need to defend himself, the motion states.

The authors of both the 2012 and 2013 letters remain unknown.

The lawsuit also claims that in retaliation for his complaints, Blackwell was stripped of his duties as head of the training academy and had his use of a take-home vehicle rescinded, unlike the citys treatment of white officers. It also claims the city failed to prepare a captains eligibility list, which only affected Blackwell and two other African-American lieutenants who have since retired.

The city countered that by ordinance and under the police union collective bargaining agreement, the chief has the authority to assign duties and that as part of a 2013 effort to reduce departmental costs, Nardozzi revoked home car privileges for numerous officers.

As to the promotion issue, the city contended that in 2013 and 2014 there was a shortage of sergeants which resulted in significant overtime costs  so priority was given to filling that rank.

A captains promotion exam was held in mid-2015 to fill four captain vacancies.

Blackwell was the only African-American lieutenant eligible to take the exam and received the fifth highest score. He was placed in the fifth-ranking position on the current promotional list, which is still in effect.
HARTFORD - A key legislative committee on Thursday passed a bill mandating paid family and medical leave for all state workers, but the legislation faces more revision and an uphill battle.

I have concerns, but will vote to get it out of committee, said state Rep. Louis Esposito, D-West Haven. I think we have to work on this.

The General Assemblys Labor and Public Employees Committee moved the bill forward on a mostly partisan vote based on the strength of its Democratic majority.

If passed by the full Legislature, Connecticut would join Rhode Island, New Jersey and California in mandating paid leave for family issues and medical problems. The state now requires employers to grant only unpaid leave.

The legislation establishes up to 12 weeks of paid leave for pregnancy, non-work related illness or to care for family member. An employee would have to make at least $9,300 a year and the law would apply to any business with two or more employees.

A worker would receive 100 percent of their weekly pay, up to $1,000 a week.

The leave is funded through payroll deductions from each employee, although how much is not clear. The version passed Thursday states a percentage would be deducted but does not specify how much.

An earlier version set the percentage at a half percent deduction from each paycheck. Opponents have said the amount would have to be far more.

Employees who already have an equivalent or better paid leave plan would be exempt from the legislation. If their plan is less than the state mandate, the new law would apply.

Carolyn Treiss, executive director of the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women, praised the bill.

This is a great day for the women and families of Connecticut, Treiss said. Paid leave benefits everyone,

and we will all need it at some point in our lives, whether we are new parents, or for our own illness or that of someone we love.

But state Rep. Richard Smith, R-New Fairfield, raised objections to the legislation and said he cannot support the bill as written. Because the employee deduction is not established, he said it could grow as high as 10 percent.

I cant support it as it is, but I do appreciate the effort, Smith said. I think it has a way to go.

State Sen. Peter Tercyak, D-New Britain, and committee co-chairman, said actuaries will ultimately set the employee deduction based on the amount needed to make the plan solvent.

Tercyak added that initially, as the benefit is established, some state money would be used to fund the leave but stressed that money would be repaid as the trust fund set up to receive payroll deductions becomes stable.

This will be based on what it takes to have the plan be solvent, Tercyak said of the employee deduction. This is to be paid for by employees only.

State Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, said the bill simply offers employees much needed paid leave.

This is an insurance plan for employee taking time off, Osten said. It allows the employee to get paid so they can face the ultimate embarrassment of losing their ability to exist.

Business leaders have come out against the bill, saying it adds another mandate in a state where the cost of operating is already among the highest in the nation.

In contrast, more than 100 of the states most influential women leaders on Thursday sent a letter to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and legislative leaders urging passage of the bill.
We need to have a little chat -- and it might get a little awkward. But those are the conversations that change us, so lets talk. You see, youve said time and again that you want to build wealth. To achieve great things. To retire young, rich and happy.

Related: What to Do When You Need Inspiration But It Just Won't Come

You want to spend your active days exploring the world, raising incredible children and helping your parents age well.

You want things to be different from how they currently are.You dont want to wake up, drag yourself out of bed and spend hours in traffic to sit at a job you despise. You dont want to take advice from that boss you cant stand, to live your life as a footnote in someone elses book.

I get it. Ive been there. But, let me be perfectly honest: That drudgery you currently call life will probably be yours forever. Let me explain why.

The reason you havent succeeded yet

Each week, you have a new idea. Each month, you shift focus. Every book you read tells you another way to make money. Every podcast you listen to, every dinner conversation, every blog post you read -- each gives you more and more ideas for building wealth.

So, you keep changing your mind. Youve contemplated ideas, such as:

Real estate investing

Multilevel marketing

Getting a better job

Selling products on Amazon

Selling information online

Inventing a product

Becoming a movie/rock star

Creating a muse

Saving your job income

Podcasting

Writing a book

. . . and probably 100 other ideas. Youve probably bought educational courses on a number of these methods and not finished a single one. Each week, you have a different passion, something else that you are going to do to achieve financial freedom.

Related: Does Your Business Idea Solve a Problem? Does It Fit You Personally? Ask Yourself These Questions Before Committing.

So, you pivot and, once again, ask me what I think of the idea. And this has been going on for years. But, its time to stop -- because heres the shockingly simple truth about building wealth. This truth is so simple, it can be summed up in three little words: "It all works."

Three words that will forever change how you build wealth

It all works. Its such a simple phrase, but I want you to repeat that to yourself every day. A hundred times a day, if you have to. Do it every time you are tempted to abandon what you are working on because a little voice starts telling you, This wont work.

Thats a lie; it does work. Because it all works. Every single idea youve had for building wealth -- someone has done it. Someone has made millions. It can be done, and you can do it. For example:

Can you become a millionaire by investing in rental properties? Of course. Many people have.

Can you become a millionaire by importing products from Amazon and selling them online? Of course. Many people have.

Can you become a millionaire by working a job you love, living frugally, and saving up your income? Of course.

Hopefully, you see a pattern here. Of course, Im not saying every crazy idea you have will lead to success -- because it wont. You will likely have to travel a tough path to get the success you so desperately crave.

But thats what life is, so why would you expect anything else? Is it because you only see the success stories of famous entrepreneurs, not the decade-long journey they had to travel through hell to get there?

For example, you might decide that buying rental properties is going to be your ticket to financial freedom. But with the first deal, you end up only breaking even. Does that mean rental properties dont work? Of course not. As millions of people can testify, investing in rentals does work. But if I buy that first property and it doesnt turn out so well, should I abandon it for another idea? No! Instead, Ill learn from it and keep moving. Because it all works.

Every method for building wealth you can think of has worked, and the key to success is being persistent until you find that success.

Stop with the ideas, already! Please, stop coming to me with ideas. Ill keep telling you the exact same thing: It all works. It's a great idea! Go with it, but make this your last idea. No more. Because this idea will work. Sure, you might fail, but eventually youll succeed if you stick with it. Maybe youll have to change the product, alter the service, amend the strategy.

But it will work if you keep working it. And, thats the problem, isnt it? You get bored and stop working on it! Sometimes, you never even start! The excitement wears off, and the passion turns into hard work -- which is often not very sexy.

But entrepreneurship is 1 percent ideas and 99 percent work. So, promise me something. Pick something, anything. And just do it, starting today. Starting right now. And then, next week, when some other cool idea becomes appealing, stop.

Related: 7 Ways to Keep Your Focus on Execution After the Idea

Thats when you need to fight though and repeat those three simple words to yourself: It all works.

Then, get back to work.

Related:



Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
Internet mayhem broke out last month when the Wall Street Journal published a report on how employers are using outside firms to predict health risks in their employees. Journalists and employees alike expressed their concerns about the sensitive health information employers might have access to and how theyre using it.

Related: Why You Need to Embrace the Big Data Trend in HR

Would employers use data about their workers' health habits to predict who would become sick or pregnant or develop serious health conditions? And would they then use this information to terminate these employees, to cut down on healthcare costs?

This debate will continue to be heated. But HR analytics -- used respectfully, with a partner you trust -- are important and can be helpful in guiding talent management and hiring decisions. What's more, analytics isn't going anywhere any time soon. According to a 2015 report by Deloitte, 35 percent of companies surveyed said they were actively developing data-analysis capabilities for HR.

From the big-picture perspective, of course, employers are in an awkward position: Should they use HR analytics? And if they do, how can they use this data in a way that doesnt upset employees or violate privacy and HR laws?

Here are a few types of data to carefully manage when you're conducting HR analytics, as well as some best practices for staying compliant with the law and honest with employees:

1. Health data

With the focus on healthcare costs and wellness programs, many employers are now using HR analytics to evaluate their programs' effectiveness, determine gaps in healthcare coverage or employee benefits and help improve programs overall.

Using employee and company data in conjunction with industry data can help you find the best benefit offerings and get employees great, affordable care; but employers need to be very conscious of and sensitive to employee privacy at the same time.

The biggest issue is a potential violation of HIPPA or other employee privacy law. Here, employees need to opt-in, to have their data collected and used. Then, there must be enough data generated by enough employees that employers cant pinpoint which data belongs to which employee.

When the data is analyzed, that process should be done in a way that looks at the organization as a whole, rather than individual employees and subgroups.

When employers focus on characteristics like health conditions, age, pregnancy and other specific topics, they can run into trouble. By looking at employees with certain characteristics, employers put themselves at risk for discrimination lawsuits.

Although the data may be used with the best of intentions, employees may question what the information is really being used for and whether employers are acting unethically. For example, they may think that the company is using the data to eliminate employees who incur larger healthcare costs.

The messsage: Always be open and honest with employees about how health data will be used, and analyze organizational health holistically. Work with a trusted partner to analyze the data, maintain employee privacy and fuel better benefits decisions.

Related: The Google Tool That Helps You Make Better HR Decisions

2. Predictive-performance analytics

The draw of HR analytics is that it can be used to make smarter decisions in talent management. Following that mindest, more employers are adopting predictive analytics to assess future hiring needs and build a strong pipeline of talent.

Specifically, predictive performance analytics use internal data to help assess potential employee turnover. But the same data can be used to influence firing and promotion decisions -- and thats a problem.

For example, the people-analytics team at Google actually developed a formula to make promotion decisions and found it 90 percent accurate in pointing the company toward the right decisions. But the formula was never used. Why? Analytics can give HR the information needed to make better decisions but shouldnt replace the decisions people make with algorithms.

When employers use predictive models to decide not to train people who, for instance, are on the verge of being either fired or awarded promotions, theyre basing their decisions on what an algorithm says may or may not happen, rather than what employees are actually doing. People are unpredictable, and unknown factors can influence outcomes. Decisions that affect people should be informed by data, but made by people.

Although predictive performance analytics seems like a proactive step to weed out employees who will eventually be assessed as delivering a poor performance, its a recipe for a wrongful termination suit -- not to mention an action that's unfair to employees.

Heres another example from Google: Back in 2011, its people-analytics team used data to determine the qualities of the best and worst managers. But the team didnt use the resulting insights to actually get rid of managers displaying those "worst" traits. Instead, the insights were used to improve performance.

The message: Be clear about which data from internal sources will be used for what purposes; and use it to help improve management and performance, not to weed out the weakest link.

Analyzing irrelevant information

When employers look at HR analytics, they may get lost in the small details and focus on the wrong things. For example, analytics may show HR that the closer, geographically, that employees live to the office, the less likely they are to leave than those who live farther away.

But does that mean the company should pass up on top talent just because those peoplle live more than a half hour from the office? Probably not.

Using specific data in this way is legal, but is it ethical? Can people be fairly evaluated on actions they havent yet done, but data predicts they may do? Will using data in this way lead to the best decisions for the business?

The message: When analyzing data, look at the big picture rather than zeroing-in on small minutiae -- such as the fact that one employee took more days off than another, for example. Always focus on making the best decisions for employees and the business as whole.

Related: How to Overcome the Greatest Risk to Your Company's Agenda

Overall, remember that numbers are just numbers. HR analytics can help guide decisions, but not make them. Use analytics carefully to avoid legal issues and mistrust from employees, and use them in conjunction with employee feedback, to make the best decisions possible.

Which HR analytics does your company use? How do you manage legal and employee concerns?

Related:

HR Analytics: How Should Big Data Be Used in the Workplace?

The One Thing Historical Big Data Can't Tell You

5 Ways to Use Growth Hacking to Increase Publicity and Profit



Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
More than 20 years before "The People v. O.J. Simpson" became the FX miniseries of the moment, drawing Americans back to controversial courtroom drama, the high-profile murder case pinned O.J. Simpson to the deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman in an eight-month televised trial.

When Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lance Ito made the controversial decision to allow cameras into the courtroom, the double-murder trial became an early show of reality television with every move made by the lawyers, witnesses, the judge and defendant up for national scrutiny and, for better or worse, ensuing fame.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Mexican drug cartels are like the mythological hydra: cut off one head and two more take its place.

RELATED: Why 'El Chapo's' beauty queen wife says she is 'afraid for his life'

Such is the case with the Sinaloa Cartel, whose leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was arrested in January after breaking out of a maximum-security prison near Mexico City in July 2015.

Guzman's prison stints and flights from law enforcement officers and the Mexican military have led to questions regarding who is directly in charge of the cartel's operations.

Mexican journalist Lydia Cacho told Telemundo in February that two of Guzman's sons "have controlled the cartel for many years, and the government knows this."

RELATED: Leader, co-founder of Mexican drug cartel Beltran Leyva pleads guilty to U.S. conspiracy charges

However, the brothers are believed to be active on social media, posting photos to Instagram, Twitter and Facebook flaunting their wealth and possessions.

In the past, this has led some cartel watchers to speculate whether members of the criminal organization would deem the brothers competent and sly enough to run the Sinaloa cartel.

"They're not as cunning," Mike Vigil, former DEA chief of international operations, previously told mySA.com. "They're not as astute as the older generation who try to keep a low profile. They didn't flaunt the wealth because they knew that, by doing so, they would become high-value targets."

RELATED: 3 men arrested in connection with killing of 7-month-old baby, family in Mexico drug gang shootout

Guzman's lawyer says the drug lord is now seeking extradition to the United States, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

Guzman wants to escape harsh conditions he says he has faced in prison, including sleep deprivation by prison guards.

Meanwhile, there are Sinaloa cartel veterans who may be pulling the strings on the notorious criminal organization.

Scroll through the slideshow to see the six men who could potentially replace Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman as the head of the Sinaloa cartel.

jfechter@mySA.com

Twitter: @JFreports
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo again has shown he is a visionary leader who can think outside the box by proposing a $5 million study for the feasibility of a bridge or tunnel from Connecticut to Long Island.

However, Connecticut officials from the Land of Steady Habits were quick to throw cold water on their neighbors vision by preferring to push for Governor Malloys plan for tolls for a $100 billion project on existing highway projects that repeats the same travel patterns and maintains the economic status quo quagmire.

The difference between Cuomos vision and what seems to be Malloys plan is that Cuomos idea would provide an alternative for intrastate traffic along the state's most congested routes by a linking the Sunken Meadow Highway that Robert Moses left on the shores of Long Island to a place in Connecticut or Westchester.

Geographically, Long Island is more connected to Connecticut than New York State itself. Only the Native Americans recognized that Long Island was just the other side of the shore because they set up villages on both sides. Today, Long Island might as well be another world to Connecticut, although economically it is one of the richest and most populous markets in the world.

However, Long Island is trapped and needs an emergency back door to Connecticut or Westchester.

With Cuomos creative ideas, the public could avert a human tragedy from a calamity waiting to happen. Connecticut would benefit by an alternative highway route. Intrastate truckers could be diverted to New York state. Consumers and business on both sides of Long Island Sound could reach new markets.

Travelers could save on gas, and our depressed urban centers could again become attractive to corporate site selectors. This infrastructure would help everyone in Connecticut regardless of location. Unlike tolls on existing roads where the Governor Malloy is engaged in a standoff with popular opinion, he could avoid a political donnybrook because the public will ultimately accept tolls on new roadways to cover the cost of a bridge or tunnels to Long Island.

When I was the House chair of the Commerce Committee, I asked a panel of economists what could be done to improve Bridgeports economy. The response was that the I-95 to I-91 corridor has too many cities to compete with and Bridgeport needs some economic hook.

The cities left out of the economic development were the Route 8 to 84 corridor, but a bridge or tunnel would change the economic outlook for Bridgeport and the Valley towns. Lets face it, Bridgeport, the states largest and one of the most distressed cities in the state, needs some legitimacy. There is no bridge or port to Bridgeport to make it noteworthy.

At one time I would lobby Connecticuts governor for a bridge or tunnel, but their eyes would roll with the costs. Now there are alternative sources to cover the cost by a high speed train federal funding and the need for new gas and internet pipelines and alternative deep water LNG or container port off the bridge or tunnel.

Hopefully, any feasibility study would consider these ideas. Any bridge or tunnel from Long Island to Bridgeport could generate enough funds to cover local impact, compensate those negatively impacted, and create a source of funds to really fund the environmental projects needed for Long Island Sound.

There is another great advantage for tunnels. Electric Boat engineers once developed submersible tunnels, like interlocking submarines that can rest in the water in trenches, as opposed to boring through the bedrock under the sound.

Once the feasibility is demonstrated the submersible tunnels could link land masses around the world. The advantage to Eastern Connecticut is a whole new industry could be created

The key with a bridge or tunnel to Bridgeport is the ability to divert traffic up Route 8 or divert to New York and make Pleasure Beach and the Stratford airport accessible.

If we continue the same traffic patterns we continue the same problem. Governor Cuomo presents a genius idea. Lets hope Governor Malloy and Connecticuts business community and elected leaders move in his direction.

The writer is a former state representative from Bridgeport and served as co-chair of the Legislatures Commerce committee.
Trump and the truther

The campaign was not aware of this individuals personal views, which we do not share or support.

Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump, disavowing any support for a Florida Baptist televangelist Carl Gallups, who gave the invocation at a Trump rally in January. Turns out Gallups is a truther who claims the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in 2012 was a hoax.

Drones

Do we want to be known as the state with best drone law as a model for other states, or do we want to be known as state with the most idiotic drone law?
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.
Sign up now to receive the latest Hurricane Ian updates via text
Lifestyle | Daily Life | News | The Sydney Morning Herald

Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. Were working to restore it. Please try again later.

Dismiss
We cannot be sure what the Queen thinks about all manner of things, but we may take it for granted that she is a fierce patriot and British Unionist who has given her life to the service of this country.

It seems to me highly likely that she is a convinced Eurosceptic, though whether she really wants us to pull out of the European Union, as The Sun newspaper has suggested, is unknowable.

How could she not be sceptical about an institution which challenges the British sovereignty which she symbolises, and has eroded so many of the powers of Parliament as well as the independence of British courts?

Scroll down for video

You don't forget it: I dont point the finger at Nick Clegg but his mealy-mouthed assertion yesterday that he has no recollection of the conversation with the Queen lacks plausibility

She was born in 1926, a year after the British Empire Exhibition in Wembley showed off the manufactured wonders of Great Britain and many of its far-flung colonies.

The notion of a united Europe would have then seemed outlandish to virtually every Briton of every class  though not to the nascent Nazis, including Adolf Hitler, who later promulgated their sinister version of a federal Europe dominated by Germany.

Throughout her long life, the Queen has seen Britain dwindle from a proud and independent great power with the biggest navy in the world to a sort of craven outpost of the EU which must get the say-so of mini-states such as Estonia and Latvia before it puts the paltry terms of David Camerons so-called renegotiation to the British people.

How could a person born at such a time and in such a place not hold Eurosceptic views? Indeed, apart from a handful of sandal-wearing Lefties with their heads in the clouds, almost everyone over the age of 75 probably thinks the EU constitutes an undemocratic  and unreformable  racket.

So I have no difficulty in believing that at a lunch at Windsor Castle on April 7, 2011, the Queen had a pop at the arch-Europhile and former EU employee Nick Clegg, then Deputy Prime Minister. I can easily imagine that she bowled him a few bouncers and suggested that the EU is heading in the wrong direction. Good for her, if she did!

Of course, it goes without saying that in the presence of Clegg and three other government ministers, including Michael Gove, she had every right to expect that any remarks would not be leaked. She was not airing views in public and she broke no convention.

I dont point the finger at Cleggie but his mealy-mouthed assertion yesterday that he has no recollection of the conversation lacks plausibility. If Her Majesty the Queen confronts you at a Windsor Castle lunch on a subject close to your heart, you dont forget it.

As I say, I have no idea whether the Queen is so frustrated by the EU that she may be privately backing Brexit, but a review of the relentless encroachments of the EU on British sovereignty must grieve her heart.

Meeting Cleggie: If Her Majesty the Queen confronts you at a Windsor Castle lunch on a subject close to your heart, you dont forget it

She will have seen, as we all have, how Britain can no longer control its borders  and will remain powerless to do so under the terms extracted by Mr Cameron. Should a country that isnt allowed to determine who can and cant come in be described as sovereign? I hardly think so.

The Queen will have observed how British foreign policy, which used to be conducted by her ministers, is increasingly in the hands of an unaccountable bureaucracy based in Brussels headed by a High Representative  currently an Italian lady whom 99 people out of 100 will never have heard of.

The Queen will have seen how Britain can no longer control its borders - and will remain powerless to do so under the terms extracted by David Cameron

We no longer have unfettered bilateral relations with other countries. The EU acts on our behalf, as it did when it succeeded in aggravating Russias President Putin by trying to lure Ukraine into the Wests sphere of influence. Mr Cameron obtained nothing in his modest renegotiation which will halt the EUs foreign policy juggernaut for one second.

Her Majesty is an intelligent and observant woman who will have noted that Parliament has ceded ultimate sovereignty to EU institutions for as long we remain a member of the organisation. The British Government has no authority to overturn a directive from Brussels, however much it dislikes it.

And the Queen will also be aware that the European Court of Human Rights (a non-EU body which EU countries are obliged to respect) and the European Court of Justice can trump the judgment of any British court even though the royal coat of arms will hang proudly within it, proclaiming a bogus supremacy.

Is it surprising that the Queen might marvel at these developments which have taken place since Britain joined the Common Market in 1973, and express the view that the EU is heading in the wrong direction? The wonder is that the insufferably smug Mr Clegg should remain unconcerned by the drip-drip, never-ending loss of sovereignty, but then his heart probably lies in Brussels.

One thing we do know about Her Majesty is that she is devoted to the Commonwealth, of which she is head. She is also sovereign of 15 countries in the global organisation other than the United Kingdom.

The Commonwealth includes the soaring economy of India and rising ex-colonies of Africa, as well as Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Over the past four decades, Britain has largely turned its back on its old friends, preferring to trade with the EU.

Anger: One can understand why Buckingham Palace should be so furious with the suggestion that she is backing Brexit, since such a policy would put her at odds with her Government

Now trade with our continental partners is falling as a proportion of the whole because most of the economies in the European Union are faltering. Establishing stronger links with the Queens cherished Commonwealth, which successive British governments have so long sidelined, seems suddenly wise.

So for all these reasons it is easy to understand her possible impatience with the EU. On the other hand, the threat of Scotland seceding from Britain in the event of Brexit  for we also know that she is, above all, a committed Unionist  might affect her view.

That said, would the EU welcome a breakaway Scotland? Spain, for one, would be against it for fear of encouraging its own independent-minded region of Catalonia down the same path.

There are good reasons for believing that Her Majesty may be profoundly suspicious of the EU and all its works

In the end, the Queen is a symbol of Britain, its history and its traditions. And it is these very things which the monolithic European Union, with its homogenising tendencies, either does not value or threatens to eradicate.

We may be certain that not a single interfering bureaucrat in Brussels is aware of the injunction in the book of Common Prayer that our monarch ought not to be subject to any foreign jurisdiction. The Queen, as head of the Church of England, wont have forgotten it.

Of course, one can understand why Buckingham Palace should be so furious with the suggestion that she is backing Brexit, since such a policy would put her at odds with her Government and break her lifelong habit of avoiding any hint of divisiveness. Moreover, when these reported comments were made in 2011, Brexit was not on the political agenda.

But there are good reasons for believing that Her Majesty may be profoundly suspicious of the EU and all its works, and that The Suns report of what she is supposed to have said to Nick Clegg is true.
A groom who married his fiancee just four days before she passed away revealed how he arranged the couple's wedding in just four hours.

Adam Welch, 29, wed Kerry Vincent, 27, from Warrington, Cheshire, in her hospital bed this month before she died in his arms after losing her battle with ovarian cancer.

The couple, who had been engaged since April last year, had planned to marry in Malta and had flown out to decide on a venue, before Kerry's stomach swelled and she was diagnosed with cancer in July.

Adam Welch, 29, married Kerry Vincent, 27, in her hospital bed this month before she died in his arms after losing her battle with ovarian cancer

Adam and Kerry from Warrington, Cheshire, pictured in Malta in July last year. The couple were hunting for a wedding venue before Kerry was diagnosed

Adam said: 'At first, I didn't want to get married in hospital but Kerry talked me into it and I am so glad she did. It would have been the biggest regret of my life if we hadn't.

'She was so beautiful and brave and I am proud to call her my wife.

'After the wedding, she was at peace and perhaps she knew it was time to let go.'

The couple met four years ago through Kerry's sister, Gemma, who works with Adam, and they moved in together in October 2013. Kerry was a keen runner and fit and active.

In April 2015, Adam staged a romantic proposal, going down on one knee in front of both sets of parents.

Adam said: 'Kerry fancied getting married in the sunshine, and found a place in Malta that looked lovely.'

Kerry took a picture of herself in May last year, left, and six weeks later her cyst had grown so dramatically that hotel staff thought she was pregnant, right

Adam got down on one knee to propose to Kerry in their garden in front of both sets of parents

The couple toasted their engagement and quickly planned the wedding which they wanted to have this summer

Kerry, pictured before she was diagnosed, with Adam at Heaton Park, Manchester. The couple met through Kerry's sister Gemma who works with Adam

Kerry, before her diagnosis getting ready for a night out in a printed bodycon dress in April, left, and proudly flashing her engagement ring, right

They arranged to fly out in July last year to make the booking. But before their trip, Kerry began to feel bloated and unwell.

Her GP at first suspected irritable bowel syndrome or a food intolerance and she was sent for tests.

An ultrasound just before their trip showed a cyst on the right side of her ovary  and Kerry was advised it could be removed routinely.

They went on holiday, with an appointment to see her consultant when they returned.

However whilst they were in Malta, her stomach continued to grow rapidly.

Adam said: 'Everyone thought she was heavily pregnant. The staff wouldn't even serve her alcohol.'

Kerry and Adam, pictured in Malta. Kerry had been diagnosed with an ovarian cyst before she left which doctors planned to remove on her return

Kerry's stomach had begun to swell rapidly from the cyst but doctors did not think it was cancerous

When Kerry returned to the UK after the holiday she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and had the tumour removed - which measured 18cm by 22cm and weighed 4.5lb

The couple booked their wedding for June 2016 and returned home.

However when doctors removed the cyst, which measured 18cm by 22cm and weighed 4.5lb, they realised it was more sinister. Kerry was then diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

Adam said: 'We were shell-shocked. We actually asked the doctors if there had been a mix-up. Nobody had mentioned cancer once. We had always believed it was a harmless cyst.'

Kerry began chemotherapy and although her dark brown hair fell out, she seemed to be beating the disease.

However the cancer returned and the couple decided to move their wedding to a hotel in the UK close to home.

Kerry had a large scar, left, after the surgery and had chemotherapy immediately. She lost her hair but it began to grow back, right

However the cancer came back and doctors said there was nothing more they could do. Adam organised the wedding in just four hours, with the help of family and friends, and the nurses decorated the ward

Then late in February, Kerry's health deteriorated suddenly and doctors said there was nothing more they could do.

However the heartbroken couple still longed to become man and wife with the short time they had left together.

Adam said: 'Kerry suggested getting married in hospital but I was against the idea at first. I wanted to wait.

'When I first proposed, we had all these ideas of getting married in a hotel abroad, with all the trimmings.

'But we realised that it actually didn't matter where or when we got married  as long as we did it.'

Adam organised the wedding in just four hours, with the help of family and friends.

HOW TO SPOT OVARIAN CANCER It is the fifth most common cancer amongst women and 7000 are diagnosed with the disease each year in the UK. Early diagnosis and treatment is essential. Symptoms include persistent bloating, difficulty eating and feeling full quickly, and frequent abdominal or pelvic pain. Advertisement

He recalled: 'The nurses decorated the ward, everyone chipped in to help. Kerry was in bed as we said our vows.'

The couple were married on March 2. Four days later, Kerry passed away in Adam's arms.

Adam said: 'It was as if she had held on for the wedding. I am heartbroken, but I am bursting with pride to be able to call Kerry my wife. She was an amazing woman.'

Adam is now campaigning for earlier diagnosis of ovarian cancer. He will also complete a sky dive next month in Kerry's honour to raise funds for Target Ovarian Cancer.

So far, Adam has raised more than 4,000 and hopes to reach 5,000 through his Just Giving page.

He said: 'The sky dive was booked last year and of course we had planned for Kerry to be there with me. But I know she will be with me in spirit, looking after me.
As they confronted the ruins of their former home, Ed Goldswain and his fiancee Jacquie Hale took a degree of comfort from the sanguine words of a local workman.

A day earlier, they had been forced to flee their North London flat with nothing more than the clothes on their back, after it literally cracked in half as a result of a botched basement conversion.

Now it was being demolished altogether after being deemed a 'dangerous structure' by the council. In a nightmarish few minutes, the couple had been left homeless and had lost all their possessions. Moreover, Jacquie was nearly eight months pregnant with their first child.

Ed Goldswain and his fiancee Jacquie Hale, above with their children George, aged seven months, and Ernest, aged two years, were forced to flee their North London flat with nothing more than the clothes on their back, after it cracked in half after a botched basement conversion

Still, every cloud: 'One of the guys involved in the demolition said, 'I know it's a nightmare, but look on the bright side - you've got insurance.' He said we might end up better off,' Jacquie, 40, recalls.

Some chance. More than three years later the couple have been left with debts of about 1 million, some 500,000 in legal bills, 100,000 in expenses and a 700 monthly mortgage - payable for the next 20 years - on a property they will never live in again, alongside the mortgage on their current home in Hertfordshire, where they moved 18 months ago with their two sons Ernie, three, and George, one, as they couldn't afford to buy again in London.

Jacqueline Hale, 40, above, with her sons, Ernie (left) aged 3 and George, 18 months, has been left stressed and saddened by the ordeal

Oh, and there's a bill for a whopping 318,000 sent to them by their local council, Barnet, for the cost of demolition. 'They had actually posted it to our old address, which I thought was pretty ironic given they were billing us for razing it,' says Jacquie. 'It was sent on by our mail forwarding service.'

Little wonder the couple oscillate between anger and bewilderment at their predicament - one which, Jacquie insists, anyone could find themselves in and for which no one seems minded to take responsibility.

Certainly not the many insurance companies involved, none of whom, with the exception of the couple's contents insurer, have paid out a penny, despite a High Court Judge making it clear that the couple were entirely blameless for the collapse of the building.

The couple's story serves as a timely warning to the families across Britain who, at a time of spiralling property prices, choose to extend rather than move.

This was the path chosen by Jacquie, a former financial services adviser, and Ed, who works in online marketing, when, in November 2011, they purchased 4 Stanhope Avenue, a two-bedroom flat on the ground floor of an Edwardian property in North London, for 345,000.

It wasn't huge, but it was affordable, especially given the newly engaged couple were ploughing 200,000 of their savings into it. Moreover, once they had converted the cellar, as other properties on the street had done, they knew it could make a roomy family home.

It was a project which took on a degree of urgency when, in April 2012, Jacquie discovered she was pregnant. Their search, via the website of the Federation of Master Builders, led them to Christopher Knott, who owned AIMS Plumbing & Building Services.

'We got about six quotes from different builders. Chris's quote was in the middle, but he was able to start the earliest. He had good references which we followed up and his website was professional, too.'

The house, above, in which the couple had purchased a two-bedroom flat on the ground floor, in North London, for 345,000, was demolished altogether after being deemed a 'dangerous structure' by the council

Certainly, no one can accuse Jacquie and Ed of being cavalier: Jacquie even scoured Knott's insurance policy, and after discovering that he was not covered for foundation work, ensured he took out a new one which she even personally checked with the insurer.

Work on the estimated three-month project started in September 2012 and initially seemed to go well - that is, until Jacquie and Ed woke up one Saturday morning to see large cracks in their bedroom wall.

Within a couple of hours they were centimetres wide, and the upstairs neighbours were hammering in panic on their door shouting that they too had cracks in their walls.

The couple bought a smaller home hoping to pour 200,000 of savings into an extension on the property

In in April 2012 the couple began work in the basement of the flat in Finchley, left, with Christopher Knott, who owned AIMS Plumbing & Building Services. Little did they know their house would effectively crack in half

'We went upstairs to take a look and, as we watched, in the space of a few seconds they went from about one to ten centimetres,' says Jacquie. 'We realised the house was close to collapse. All we could do was grab what we could and run out.

'Looking back I don't think we could process what was happening. We were in deep shock. All we kept telling each other was that the builder would sort it out.'

Far from it: the next day, they returned to find their house had effectively cracked in half. Barnet council declared it a 'dangerous' structure which had to be demolished, along with everything inside, from precious photo albums to family heirlooms.

More than three years later the couple have been left with debts of about 1 million, some 500,000 in legal bills, 100,000 in expenses and a 700 monthly mortgage - payable for the next 20 years - on a property they will never live in again. Above, Jacqueline in the basement shortly after the work started

The stress meant Jacquie had to be hospitalised after she experienced contractions. Reeling, the couple comforted themselves with the fact their insurance company would cover their costs, including the 318,000 demolition bill which arrived just before Jacquie was due to give birth.

'We couldn't believe it,' says Jacquie. 'It was a ludicrous sum, especially as expert engineers said the property could be rebuilt for 180,000, but again we thought it would be covered by insurance.'

They were wrong on all counts. While their contents insurer paid out for the majority of their possessions - along with compensation claims brought against them by neighbours - six months after their family home had crumbled into dust, the couple's solicitor told them that the building's insurer was refusing to pay out, as it deemed the building had fallen down of its own accord.

The stress of the demolition, in process above, meant Jacquie had to be hospitalised after she experienced contractions. Reeling, the couple comforted themselves with the fact their insurance company would cover their costs, including the 318,000 demolition bill which arrived just before Jacquie was due to give birth

He then told the couple their own insurance did not have a clause covering structural work.

Astonishing as this may sound, it is fairly standard, according to Jon Sellors, from insurers LV. 'Standard buildings insurance does not cover damage caused by structural alterations - and most large insurers do not offer cover for that kind of work. Instead, your cover should come from the builder's insurance policy.'

In turn, Knott's insurers also refused to settle, giving assorted reasons, among them that the price of the job was more than a certain percentage of his annual turnover.

'I think we both had mini breakdowns over the course of the next few months,' says Jacquie. 'We had a new baby, we were in rented accommodation and having to wade through reams of paperwork.

While Jaqcuie's contents insurer paid out for the majority of their possessions - along with compensation claims brought against them by neighbours - the building's insurer was refusing to pay out

'We were both distraught on different occasions, but we tried to be strong for each other. We are lucky that we have been able to pull together as a team. The stress could easily have driven us apart.'

In despair, the couple issued a compensation claim against their builder, although it would take another two years before the case came to court.

In that time, the couple - their life savings gone - moved to a new home in Harpenden, Hertfordshire - the closest to London and their 'old' life that they could afford.

'It was away from friends and family, but there was no way we could get on to the property ladder again otherwise,' says Jacquie. 'We had to take out a second mortgage and use money from our parents' pensions.'

In despair, the couple issued a compensation claim against their builder, although it would take another two years before the case came to court. Finally, last February, their case came to court, where the judge called it a 'sad case' and ordered Christopher Knott to pay the couple 290,000

Finally, last February, their case came to court, where the judge called it a 'sad case' and ordered Christopher Knott to pay the couple 290,000.

Alas, it was a hollow victory: 'The judge told us it was unlikely we would see any money and he was right,' says Jacquie. Knott had dissolved his company - although it hasn't stopped him setting up a new one, Stone Hall Building Services.

Little wonder that the couple are determined to get financial justice, and are now looking to pursue legal action against both the building's insurer and Knott's insurers - and have set up a fund to help their campaign.

'We have nothing left,' Jacquie says simply.

The couple are looking to pursue legal action against both the building's insurer and Knott's insurers - and have set up a fund to help their campaign

Today, she can only reflect on the moment when, shortly before building work began, she asked Knott if there was a risk that digging into the basement would lead to the house falling down.

'He told me that never happens,' she recalls.

Their ruined family home testifies to quite the opposite. Today, it remains a giant rubble-strewn hole walled in by protective barriers, a potent symbol of how dreams can literally crumble to dust. Frighteningly, it seems there was nothing the couple could have done to safeguard themselves.

'We have spoken to so many experts to ask if we could have done anything differently and none of them can find anything,' Jacquie says. 'If we ever get through this, I would like to focus on introducing new legislation to help ensure this doesn't happen again.'

And what of their builder, the still employed Mr Knott?

'I'd like him to experience the same heartache and suffering that we have gone through and put him out of business for good so he can't hurt anyone else,' says Jacquie. 'It's not just our house and our money, but we have lost years of our lives trying to sort this out. We didn't deserve this, but who does?'

A question the insurance companies are reluctant to address.
A mother has claimed she fell pregnant at the age of 45 by using leeches after doctors said her chances of conceiving were almost non-existent.

Nina Evans, 50, from London had been diagnosed with pre-cancerous fibroids on her womb and conceived her son Noel, now six, after eight months of the internal sessions.

She says the unusual treatment also helped her to breastfeed until he was three by stimulating her milk production.

After eight months of treatment, Nina fell pregnant and decided to continue her routine of nightly leech therapy

Nina, pictured with son Noel and her second husband, discovered a specialist in Russia who used leech therapy - and he inserted the creatures into her cervix

Nina, who also has a 28-year-old son from her first marriage, now plans to re-start the sessions in the hope of having another baby in her 50s.

The mother-of-two said: 'Leeches have been used since the time of the Egyptians and we are only now discovering the full extent of what they can do.

'I know that without leeches I would not have been given the chance to have my son at 45 and that is just the start of what they can do. I even use them on my six-year-old to treat bumps and bruises.'

She claims the blood-sucking worms have also given her more intense and prolonged orgasms.

Nina started trying for a child in 2003 with her second husband.

She said: 'We tried for five years and nothing happened so I saw my doctor and was devastated after tests diagnosed me with multiple myomas (benign growths) in my uterus.'

Nina used external leech therapy, where leeches are applied to the skin, but also used the treatment internally

Nina Evans pictured with some of the medical leeches she uses to give herself hirudotherapy, the use of the blood-sucking worms for medicinal purposes

'My doctor told me my chances of falling pregnant because of the myomas, coupled with my age, were almost non-existent.

'The only chance I had was treating the fibroids with a combination of medicine or surgery. In some cases, the fibroids are so bad that you require a hysterectomy.'

At first Nina put her thoughts of pregnancy to one side and focused on dealing with the medical condition.

She said: 'At that point I gave up on having a child. Instead I started having leech treatments to aid my recovery.

'I chose leeches because I was born in Lithuania and leech therapy is used for a whole range of illnesses.

'They're considered a general cure for all, and I knew from experience, having had leech treatment before, that it gave you more energy and a more positive outlook.'

Nina claims the creatures attach to the body and release three substances to reduce pain, improve blood supply and prevent clotting.

Even when she had son Noel, now six, she used leeches on her breasts to encourage milk production

Nina, pictured with Noel now, disposes of the leeches by dropping them in heavy alcohol to kill them humanely

'Most people see leeches as scary blood sucking creatures but to me they can change your life entirely,' she added.

Nina's research led her to a specialist in St Petersburg, Russia, who had developed a technique where leeches were inserted into the cervix.

She said: 'I know this will horrify people but the blood flow to the area is more prominent and the leeches can suck out bad toxins in the blood more easily while the saliva they produce could get into the body's blood supply fast.'

Nina started with external leech treatment, which included placing leeches on her back.

Leeches bred for medical use are not fed for up to four months so that they latch on and feed. Then once they are full they naturally fall off the body.

She said: 'I noticed almost immediately a sense of feeling better but the thought of leeches placed inside me was a little daunting. My first treatment was like having a smear.'

Nina, pictured with Noel and her older son, 28, is not concerned about using leeches as she said they naturally fall off the body when full

Nina now wants another baby after Noel, pictured, and believes leeches will enable her to conceive after 50

The specialist used a speculum to insert three leeches inside her vagina, which then attached themselves to the inside of her cervix.

Nina said: 'I didn't feel it, the speculum was the most uncomfortable thing really. Then after half an hour the leeches drop out.

'Within seven days I noticed a difference. I was feeling better, had more energy and over the next couple of months my periods became more accurate.

'I also noticed my orgasms were longer and more intense, some of the best I have ever had after each internal leech therapy.'

Nina said the leeches are counted in and out, and as they naturally drop out she was not concerned about any being left behind.

After five treatments in Russia, Nina got her own creatures to continue the treatment back home - and began inserting the leeches herself every night.

After each treatment, she would drop the leeches into heavy alcohol to kill them.

Even when Nina went into labour with Noel, pictured, she asked to have leeches on her back and surprised nurses with her treatment

There are strict rules governing the use of leeches in the UK. One insect can only be used on one person and they must be disposed of in a humane way.

She said: 'I abide by those rules and it's the kindest way to dispose of them without suffering.

'Over a period of one month I started having more energy, my complexion cleared and I hoped the leeches were also helping to cauterise or cut the blood flow to the fibroid.'

Although she had given up on pregnancy, in June 2009, after eight months of treatment, she missed her period.

Initially, she thought it was early menopause but did a pregnancy test just in case.

Nina said: 'Still not willing to believe it was true, I saw my doctor. He confirmed the pregnancy but even more astoundingly confirmed that all but one of the fibroids had disappeared all thanks to my blood-sucking friends. '

'I was thrilled. The leeches had helped me fall pregnant. I didn't want to change my routine, so as the baby grew in my belly I kept up with the leech treatment desperately worried if I didn't something terrible might happen.'

Nina went into labour in January 2010 with leeches attached to her back to help with pain, despite the nurses' shock.

Nina, pictured working out, says she has much more energy since the treatment. She found her orgasms intensified after using leeches and she believes they helped to 'reboot' her reproductive system

Her son Noel was born weighing 9lbs and 57 centimetres long.

Nina had been researching treatments and found evidence suggesting the treatment could also help with breastfeeding.

She said: 'I discovered leeches had been used to help produce hormones in the brain to encourage the milk to flow.

'So before a feed, I'd attach leeches to the top of my breasts. Having had one child before, I discovered my milk flowed more easily for Noel thanks to the curative powers of leeches. I was so successful I extended my breastfeeding for two years and seven months.

'My sex life was also excellent after the baby's birth.'

'I am convinced the leeches have helped give my reproductive system a reboot taking it back to my 20s.'

Nina, who is now the Director of the British Association of Hirudotherapy, helped the organisation gain government recognition as a valid complimentary therapy organisation.

'Leeches are a natural fertility treatment and if my son gets sick with something that leeches are known for helping cure, I use them on him.

'When he has a fall like toddlers and little boys do and he gets a bump, I immediately put a leech on and the bruising and swelling is much less than without the treatment. '

Nina now hopes the alternative method will help her conceive again.

She said: 'The next step now is baby number three and I am certain my leeches are the key to a natural conception, even if I'll be in my 50s.'
Like most mothers of teenage boys, Cheryl Leach is accustomed to a fair amount of chivvying.

Her son, Jordan, might be 16 years old and 5 ft 4 in tall, but he still needs reminding that his socks won't pick themselves off the bedroom floor and that his pizza needs taking out of the oven before it's burnt to a crisp.

Yet 42-year-old Cheryl's devotion to him knows no bounds, and when Jordan comes home from school, drops his bags on the floor and slumps on the sofa, she is overcome with delight to see him.

Cheryl Leach, 42, a midwife from Swindon, kisses her 16-year-old Jordan on the lips, despite the fact that he is 16-years-old. However, some find this practice highly uncomfortable. Last year, child psychologist Dr Charlotte Reznick caused outrage after suggesting it's wrong for a parent to kiss a child on the lips at any age

So much so, in fact, that she pulls his face to hers and gives him a full-on kiss on the lips.

Did that last sentence require a second glance? Did it make you shift a little uncomfortably in your seat? If so, you wouldn't be alone.

The issue of whether or not a parent should kiss their child on the lips has long been mired in controversy. Is mouth-to-mouth contact between family members a natural expression of love or an inappropriate transgression?

The issue of whether or not a parent should kiss their child on the lips, like Cheryl, above, has long been mired in controversy. She is furious at the insinuation there is anything untoward about her kissing her teenage son

Part of the reason the pair are so close is that Jordan's father left when Cheryl was pregnant. 'It was just the two of us for the first few years, we developed a special bond,' says Cheryl, who is now married to Darren, 44. The pair have two children together, Kaydon, seven, and Ella, eight, who she also kisses on the lips

Last year, child psychologist Dr Charlotte Reznick caused outrage after suggesting it was wrong for a parent to kiss a child on the lips at any age.

'If you start kissing your kids on the lips, when do you stop?' she asked. 'As a child gets to four or five or six and their sexual awareness develops, the kiss on the lips can be stimulating to them.'

Yet for all the ensuing fury at her comments, the sight of parents kissing their children on the mouth certainly seems to make others feel awkward, not least when the offspring in question is a teenager or fully fledged adult.

Last month on the ITVBe series Sam Faiers: The Baby Diaries - in which the reality TV personality and her boyfriend Paul Knightley are filmed preparing for the arrival of their son - 27-year-old Paul and his middle-aged mother Gaynor were captured kissing on the lips.

Darren Leach kisses his eight-year-old daughter Ella, on the lips, above. But while Darren, a construction worker, is happy to kiss the children, he isn't always as loving with his wife

With Gaynor's eyes closed and her arm draped lovingly around Paul's neck, they looked more like an odd age-gap couple than mother and son.

Social media users recoiled in horror at the 'creepy' and 'cringeworthy' kiss, with Gaynor branded a 'controlling mother-in-law from hell'.

But Cheryl - a midwife from Swindon who also kisses her two younger children, Ella, eight, and Kaydon, seven, on the mouth - is unrepentant at her behaviour. In fact, she is furious at the insinuation there is anything untoward about her kissing her teenage son.

'It is ridiculous and pathetic that people are making out this is something sexual,' she says. 'I don't care what people think. I will never stop kissing Jordan on the lips and he will never stop kissing me either.'

Sixteen-year-old Jordan's girlfriend, Daisy, seems surprisingly unbothered by her boyfriend's habit, especially considering that Cheryl and Jordan also hold hands in public - even at the school gates. Cheryl says 'I don't care what people think. I will never stop kissing Jordan on the lips and he will never stop kissing me either'

It is a bold claim, but one that Jordan seems to substantiate. 'I will carry on kissing Mum when I'm an adult,' he says. 'I've done it for such a long time that I just see it as normal.'

Part of the reason the pair are so close is that Jordan's father left when Cheryl was pregnant.

'It was just the two of us for the first few years, we developed a special bond,' says Cheryl, who is now married to Darren, 44.

'Jordan slept in my bed and when he started asking questions about sex I was happy to answer. We have always had a very open relationship.'

But it's not just younger children who indulge in kissing their parents. Jocelyn Miller, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, 34, still kisses her 61-year-old father, Ian, on the lips. 'It's my way of showing how much he means to me'

Their kisses only last a second or two, unless Jordan is in a more jovial mood, in which case he draws it out longer and adds a 'mwah' sound. His girlfriend, Daisy, seems surprisingly unbothered by her boyfriend's habit, especially considering that Cheryl and Jordan also hold hands in public - even at the school gates.

'My mates say 'aaah, cute' sarcastically - but it doesn't matter to me what they think,' insists Jordan. To Cheryl, who also kisses her parents on the lips, a mere peck on the cheek would be a desultory gesture.

'Kissing on the lips shows more affection,' she says.

But while Darren, a construction worker, is happy to kiss the children, he isn't always as loving with his wife. 'Darren and I don't kiss a lot,' Cheryl concedes.

Jocelyn doesn't kiss her father in public, however. 'I don't think it's perverted at all, but it's a private gesture and I'm aware some people think it's odd,' she says

'In his eyes he doesn't need to kiss me to prove he loves me. It upsets me, and perhaps this is why I kiss the kids more. I can go for days without kissing Darren - but not without kissing my children.'

Unsurprisingly, Dr Reznick - author of The Power Of Your Child's Imagination - doesn't share Cheryl's opinions: 'A teenage boy is more aware of his sexuality than a child, so I wouldn't recommend a mother kissing him on the lips.

'Children thrive on being touched on their forehead, cheeks or hands. The lips are different because they have more nerve endings and are more sensitive to stimulation.

'People don't like to hear this but the lips are an erogenous zone and feel-good chemicals that are associated with sexual arousal - including serotonin and oxytocin - are released through lip-kissing.

Asking Ian why he kisses his daughter on the lips prompts an outpouring of emotion. 'I love her so much. I couldn't love her any more than I do. Oh, I'm getting tearful now,' he says. But Ian does not kiss his 24-year-old son on the lips. 'Perhaps it is something to do with Jocelyn being of the opposite sex,' he says

'Babies and young children aren't thinking about their sexuality, but they are still being stimulated.'

And what if the child is an adult?

'I don't see what all the fuss is about,' says Jocelyn Miller, 34, who still kisses her 61-year-old father, Ian, on the lips. 'It's my way of showing how much he means to me . . . Until I was 13, Dad would come in to my room every night to kiss me and tickle my arm until I fell asleep.

'I'm close to Mum and we kiss on the lips, too, but not as often - I suppose because I'm a daddy's girl.'

Jocelyn, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, doesn't kiss in public, however. 'I don't think it's perverted at all, but it's a private gesture and I'm aware some people think it's odd,' she says.

Barbara Smeeton, 61, is happy to kiss her granddaughter Kelcey on the lips. She says that she feels the actions comes from her parents dying when she was in ther 30s

'I'll kiss Dad on the lips to thank him for support. We kissed when he was helping me get over a break up with an ex-boyfriend and before we left for the church on my wedding day. As a little girl I'd always kiss him on the lips and in my mind I'm still his little girl.'

Asking Ian why he kisses his daughter on the lips prompts an outpouring of emotion.

'I love her so much. I couldn't love her any more than I do. Oh, I'm getting tearful now,' he says.

But Ian does not kiss his 24-year-old son on the lips. 'Perhaps it is something to do with Jocelyn being of the opposite sex,' he says.

I'll kiss Dad on the lips to thank him for support. We kissed when he was helping me get over a break up with an ex-boyfriend

Although it is entirely platonic, Jocelyn admits her husband is nonplussed. 'He says it's up to us . . . but to him, lip-kissing is something between adults who are attracted to each other.'

For some, the worrying trend towards the sexualisation of children means lip-kissing should only ever be an adult activity.

'I am entirely against the sexualisation of children, but this is completely different and shouldn't invite criticism,' says psychologist Emma Kenny. 'It is about nurturing your child, letting them know how special they are.'

Amanda Hewlett, 35, regularly kisses her mother, Barbara, 61, and father, Dennis, 63, on the lips as well as her daughter, Kelcey, six, and 13-month-old son, Jak.

'It is a measure of how out-of-control society has become and how worried people are about being branded paedophiles that it is described as wrong,' says Amanda, who is from Heywood, Lancashire.

'I do it all the time, although it is obviously not a smooch and lacks the passion and intensity of a kiss I'd share with my fiance.'

Barbara regrets not telling her parents she loved them enough. She said: 'I didn't tell them I loved them as much as I should have, so I was determined to show affection towards my own children'

Amanda adds: 'My dad has a moustache so it tickles a bit.'

Barbara - who also kisses Amanda's 26-year-old brother, James, on the lips and her grandchildren - says: 'I have kissed my children like this since they were little. I think it stems from my parents dying when I was in my 30s.

'I didn't tell them I loved them as much as I should have, so I was determined to show affection towards my own children.'
Sarah Stage's pregnancy six-pack made the internet go wild in 2015, and nearly a year after her son's birth, the proud mom has shared a throwback photo of herself posing in her underwear just a month before his arrival.

The 31-year-old from Los Angeles, who found fame by documenting her pregnancy with a series or racy lingerie shots, took to Instagram on Tuesday to remind her two million followers that she was insanely fit last April - despite being nine months pregnant.

'Some days I miss being prego it was around this time last year when I was #36weekspregnant #9months with James,' she captioned the selfie, which sees her flaunting her barely-there baby bump.

Scroll down for video

Just a reminder: Controversial model Sarah Stage took to Instagram on Tuesday to share this throwback picture of herself when she was nine months pregnant

Loving mom: The 31-year-old from Los Angeles gave birth to her son James Hunter on April 14, 2015. She shared this adorable photo of them together in February to celebrate his first Valentine's Day

In the old snapshot, Sarah is modeling a pale pink bra and a yellow lace thong as she rests one hand on her stomach.

And despite the photo being almost a year old, fans are still amazed by her unbelievable physique, with more than 15,000 people liking the photo since it was posted.

'I wish I looked like this at 36 weeks!' one person wrote, while another added: 'I would miss it too if I looked like this.'

Sarah, who is of European and Costa Rican descent, faced ongoing backlash over her sultry pregnancy she photos, and one woman noted that she remembers the criticisms spurned by this particular snapshot.

Hot momma: Last week, Sarah donned stilettos and ripped jeans to take James for a walk

'American Dream': Sarah celebrated by her first home with her husband Kristopher Jason by sharing this heartwarming family photo in February

'I remember all the b****ing about this photo,' she said.

Sarah welcomed her son James Hunter into the world on April 14, 2015, and while her critics claimed that her unusually trim figure could be damage to to her unborn child, their fears were unfounded. James weighed a healthy eight pounds, seven ounces at the time of his birth.

Unsurprisingly, the model was back to flaunting her taut tummy just nine days after James was born, and now, almost a year later, she is getting ready to plan her son's first birthday party.

It's been an exciting couple of months together for Sarah, who revealed on Instagram in February that she and her husband Kristopher Jason have purchased their first home together.

Unbelievable physique: Sarah's fantastic figure has earned her two million Instagram followers

Courting controversy? Sarah faced backlash in December when she shared this Snapchat selfie of herself trying on clothes while her then-eight-month old was lying on a blanket on the floor

'Officially homeowners! #AmericanDream I still can't believe it [sic],' she wrote.

In the image, Kristopher is holding their son while they happily pose in front of their new house. While Sarah looks stunning in tight high-waisted jeans and a gray crop top, baby James looks thrilled with his parents purchase.

Kristopher also shared the happy photo on his Instagram page, writing: 'From college students to owning our first home... we did it together. #11 years #TheAmericanDream [sic].'

Since the birth of her son, Sarah continues to document his life, sharing numerous images of her precious little boy posed both with and without her.

Momma knows best: Although she received criticism that maintaining such a small figure while pregnant could harm the baby, her son James Hunter was born healthy, weighing 8lbs 7

Happy time: Sarah is pictured coddling her newborn last April while sitting on the floor of his nursery

However, from her breastfeeding photos to her bikini photoshoots just three weeks after giving birth, Sarah hasn't had any trouble strumming up controversy after welcoming James into the world.

In December, Sarah was heavily criticized for placing her then-eight-month-old infant straight onto the carpet at a mall in Sherman Oaks before taking pictures of herself in the mirror while she tried on outfits.

After she was accused of being a bad mother, the model was forced to defend herself by sharing another image on Snapchat which showed her son James asleep on top of a clean blanket.

She sent the new image to TMZ and also told the site that he was in the fitting room with her at the Californian mall for about an hour.

Although the picture shows the baby was comfortable, many on social media still felt it was unacceptable, while others argued that Sarah should be left alone.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were back at work today after facing criticism for jetting off on a secret luxury ski break to the French Alps last weekend.

But the pair proved they were anything but part time royals by squeezing in two engagements in one day: first a meeting with mental health patients and campaigners to highlight suicide prevention at St Thomas hospital, followed by a discussion with Streatham school children in Kensington Palace.

Kate, 34, recycled a distinctive bright green Erdem coat previously worn on the royal tour of New Zealand in April 2014 and at the launch of the Tour de France in Yorkshire in July 2014. William looked causal in chinos.

Scroll down for video

Later the couple moved on to Kensington Palace where they dropped in on a screening of a documentary about Jonny's experience and the #FindMike campaign. Jonny was saved from suicide when a passing stranger intervened, and years later he launched a campaign to find him which became a viral sensation

Mother-of-two Kate was looking fresh-faced and relaxed after her recent ski trip to the French Alps, the royal couple's first holiday as a family with both Prince George, two, and their 10-month-old daughter Charlotte

The down-to-earth Duchess removed her coat to reveal a black swallow print dress from the Jonathan Saunders/Edition for Debenhams range from 2012

The pair have been promoting awareness of mental health issues for some time.

But they have faced mounting pressure over claims that they are 'part time' royals who carry out far few engagements then the Queen and Prince Philip.

Criticism intensified after it emerged that they had been secretly holidaying in Courchevel in the French Alps, an oligarch's playground famous for its luxury chalets and exclusivity.

The private trip came after 33-year-old William was accused of being 'workshy' when it emerged he worked 80 hours a month as an air ambulance pilot, which works out as roughly half of a full-time, 40-hour-a-week job.

The Duchess of Cambridge arrived for at London's St Thomas Hospital with Prince William this morning to meet a mental health campaigner and the man who saved him from taking his own life, as they champion efforts to prevent suicide

Kate, 34, recycled a distinctive bright green Erdem coat previously worn on the royal tour of New Zealand in April 2014 and at the opening of the Yokrshire leg of the Tour de France

Kate meets Jonny Benjamin (centre) who started the #FindMike search in 2014 to find the unknown passer-by who stopped him as he attempted to jump off a bridge in central London six years earlier. The man who helped him was later identified as former personal trainer Neil Laybourn (right) when the search went viral

Since the start of the year he has also carried out just four royal engagements, even though his pilot's schedule is said to allow time for his official duties and charitable work. Kate has carried out four engagements since January, making today's visit the fifth of the year so far for both royals.

At this morning's engagement, the couple met with Jonny Benjamin who started the #FindMike search in 2014 to find the unknown passer-by who stopped him as he attempted to jump off a bridge in central London six years earlier.

Mr Benjamin, then 20, had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and said he felt his life had hit 'rock bottom' before the kindly intervention of a stranger.

The man who helped him was later identified as former personal trainer Neil Laybourn when the search went viral.

The couple clearly enjoyed meeting students, especially Kate who makes child mental health a priority in her charity work

Kate joined around 20 young people from a South London school at the end of a screening of Finding Mike: The Stranger on the Bridge a documentary about a man who was saved from suicide by a passing stranger

After watching the documentary the young students took part in a discussion, led by Jonny, Neil and the charity Rethink Mental Illness, as well as Kate and William. The Royal couple looked in great spirits as they laughed and joked with the assembled youngsters

The children who took part in the session were from a school where Jonny has previously delivered his ThinkWell project. The Duchess is passionate about child mental health and is the patron of a charity that provides emotional support to school pupils

The royal couple chatted to the two men at London's St Thomas' Hospital where Mr Benjamin was treated after he threatened to take his own life.

The FindMike canpaign became a global phenomenon - supported by dozens of high profile names including Stephen Fry, Boy George and Prime Minister David Cameron

A documentary has been made about his experiences and the campaign. Finding Mike: The Stranger on the Bridge, an award-winning documentary which aired on Channel 4 last year, captured the pair's meeting.

Mr Benjamin now regularly attends screenings of the film with young people as a way to encourage open discussions about mental health issues. He has also launched a campaign to raise awareness of mental health and suicide.

The Duchess is known for her love of mixing high street labels, particularly Reiss and L.K. Bennett, but on this occasion she chose a dress from Debenhams for her day of engagements

Today's engagements are the fifth set of royal duties Kate has undertaken so far this year. Her most recent engagement was a visit to Edinburgh where she visited the Art Room at Wester Hailes Education Centre and took part in a tennis coaching workshop with Judy Murray

William has endured criticism this week for only carrying out four official engagements this year, prior to today, despite working part time as an air ambulance pilot to allow for royal duties and charity commitments

The Duchess carried out a mixture of private and public engagements today. After the group session with school children, she was due to meet families bereaved by suicide for a private discussion

At the end of a half-hour meeting at St Thomas' Hospital, where Jonny was sectioned after being rescued on the bridge, the future King and Queen made a declaration of their own intent.

William, who has been called out to several suicide attempts in his part-time job as an air ambulance pilot, wants to focus on getting better care for young men with suicidal thoughts as part of a joint crusade on mental health by him, Kate, and Prince Harry.

He said: 'Someone told me five people a day try to kill themselves. I was just blown away by the statistics.'

Sitting beside Kate on a sofa talking to Jonny and Neil, he added: 'For both of us, the mental health piece has got lots of aspects. It's such a big issue that we need to do something about it.

Finding Mike: The Stranger on the Bridge, an award-winning documentary which aired on Channel 4 last year, captured the meeting of Jonny Benjamin (second from right) and Neil Laybourn (right)

The couple discussed issues surrounding suicide with campaigner Jonny Benjamin who believes that he may not have reached crisis point if he'd received help for his mental health challenges earlier in life

'We feel it's been raised higher up the ladder. It's suddenly bubbling just under the surface. Now we need to get up to the next level, to the surface.'

William plans to focus on male suicide, while Prince Harry concentrates on mental health issues facing military veterans, and Kate spends much of her official work on highlighting what needs to be done to help children affected by problems such as family breakdown, domestic violence, and addiction.

The Duchess stressed that childhood problems were the root cause of many the afflictions of adults. 'We see through the work that we do with addiction, homelessness, and knife crime that a lot of it stems back to childhood,' she said.

Mr Benjamin backed up their sentiments, saying: 'I wanted to let people know that it's OK to have suicidal thoughts and feelings.

Kate wore her brunette locks in loose curls for the visit, which also saw her recycle a favourite wool Erdem 'Allie' coat

Kate's has been working to highlight the importance of helping children deal with any issues they might be facing at an early age

'I also hoped to show people that through talking about it, and by having someone else listen, it is possible to overcome the darkness that overwhelms a person when they feel helpless.

'This is something that I learned from my exchange with Neil on the bridge six years ago, and a message that I've been trying to pass on to others.

'When you're in a place that you want to end your life, you've got no hope left and you've got no belief left in yourself.

'So for this stranger to come and put his belief in me, his faith in me, it changed what I was about to do. I didn't jump.'

Mr Benjamin firmly believes if he had received help earlier in life he would not have reached crisis point.

The Duchess was all smiles despite facing criticism this week for being 'work shy' after it was revealed that she had William have only carried out four official engagements each so far this year

The royals pose for a photograph with former patient Jonny Benjamin (right), and Neil Laybourn (left) during their visit to St Thomas' Hospital in London where Mr Benjamin was treated after he threatened to take his own life

He began experiencing mental health difficulties at the age of 10, later developing depression and eventually being diagnosed as suffering from developed schizoaffective disorder, a combination of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

In his early 20s he started to experience the delusion that he was on his own version of the film, The Truman Show, and was hospitalised as a result of his condition in January 2008.

Not long afterwards, however, he ran away from hospital with the intention of taking his own life by jumping off a bridge.

He said: 'People stand up and say 'I beat cancer' and they're not afraid to say that, but people are afraid to say 'I've got mental health issues' and that's what really needs to change.'

He strongly believes that people need to be more positive role models for those 'facing dark times in their lives'.

Earlier this morning the couple payed a secret visit to the Maytree Suicide Respite Centre in North London. The sanctuary posted a picture of the Royals sitting down for a cup of tea on their Twitter page following the visit

The couple met staff at the centre which offers free four and five night stays and the opportunity for those to be in crisis to be befriended and heard in complete confidence

Mr Benjamin believes that he may not have reached crisis point if he'd received help for his mental health challenges earlier in life.

Similarly, Kate's has been working to highlight the importance of helping children deal with any issues they might be facing at an early age.

THE FINDING MIKE CAMPAIGN Jonny Benjamin began experiencing mental health difficulties at the age of 10, later developing depression and eventually being diagnosed as suffering from developed schizoaffective disorder, a combination of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. In his early 20s he started to experience the delusion that he was on his own version of the film, The Truman Show, and was hospitalised as a result of his condition in January 2008. Not long afterwards, however, he ran away from hospital with the intention of taking his own life by jumping off a bridge. He was saved by a stranger who stopped and convinced him not to jump before continuing on his way. Six years later, in January 2014, he embarked on a campaign to track down the kind passer-by he believed was named Mike to thank him personally. The 'Finding Mike' campaign became a global phenomenon - supported by dozens of high profile names including Stephen Fry, Boy George and Prime Minister David Cameron - and eventually led to an emotional reunion for Mr Benjamin with 'Mike', in fact a former personal trainer called Neil Laybourn. Finding Mike: The Stranger on the Bridge, an award-winning documentary which aired on Channel 4 last year, captured the pair's meeting. Mr Benjamin has since launched a campaign to raise awareness of mental health and suicide. Advertisement

The Duchess has made the mental wellbeing of young people a key focus of her work and last month she swapped motherhood and royal duties for journalism for a day to support a children's mental health charity of which she is the patron.

She guest edited an online newspaper for a day, inviting journalists into Kensington Palace to use the royal apartments as a newsroom.

The project saw her commission articles from experts, parents and children focusing on mental health issues affecting young people.

She is also a staunch supporter of the charity Place2Be since assuming the role of patron in 2013, and last year she recorded a rare video address for the charity, which provides emotional help and support in schools.

Meanwhile Prince William especially wants to highlight the worrying numbers of young men between 15 and 35 years old who end their own lives.

While working as a pilot for the East Anglian Air Ambulance, he has been involved in a number of callouts to young men who have attempted suicide.

Brian Dow, from the charity Rethink Mental Illness, said the number of people resorting to suicide is a problem we can no longer ignore.

'We need to make sure people are able to talk, reduce the means of suicide, making it less possible to take your own life, but also giving support to families who have been through it also makes a very big difference as well,' he said.

'Jonny Benjamin says that if he had received help for his mental health problems earlier, he would not have reached the point where he was about to take his own life.

'Luckily someone was there for Jonny that day, but there are so many others whose stories end very differently.

'Not only is the number of male suicides staying stubbornly high, but the number of women taking their own lives is also creeping up.

'The reasons for suicide are complex, but we know that with the right support at the right time, things can change.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were back at work today after facing criticism for jetting off on a secret luxury ski break to the French Alps last weekend with their children George, two, and Charlotte, 10 months

Since the start of the year William has carried out just three royal engagements, even though his pilot's schedule is said to allow time for his official duties and charitable work

'The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry are doing a tremendous thing by highlighting this important issue.'

Mr Benjamin added: 'I am so honoured to take part in this event to raise awareness about suicide prevention. Every day in Britain 17 families lose a father, brother, mother or sister to suicide.

FACTS ON SUICIDE More than 6,000 people across the UK and Republic of Ireland take their own lives each year. Tens of thousands more attempt suicide. There is no simple explanation for why someone chooses to die by suicide and it is rarely due to one particular factor. Mental health problems are important influences, as well as alcohol and substance misuse, feeling desperate, helpless or without hope. Only half of all people who die by suicide have ever been in contact with specialist mental health services. Last month figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed a three per cent rise in suicides in England, though the numbers fell in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Altogether 6,122 people died by suicide in 2014 in the UK, down from the 6,242 who took their own lives in 2013. For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org Advertisement

'It is vital that every school includes mental health education to help prevent future tragedies.'

Earlier this morning the couple payed a secret visit to the Maytree Suicide Respite Centre in Finsbury Park, North London. The couple met staff at the centre which is the only charity providing non-medical residential care for suicidal people in the country.

It offers free four and five night stays and the opportunity for those to be in crisis to be befriended and heard in complete confidence.

There they met the small team of staff and volunteers, who include former residents, at the sanctuary.

Natalie Howarth, Maytree's director, said: 'Maytree's staff team and volunteers were thrilled to have met the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge today and to have had the opportunity to highlight Maytree's vital work in suicide prevention.

'Suicide is the last taboo, so to have such a high profile couple shed a light onto the issue is priceless. I hope that their visit to Maytree is a catalyst to a useful and meaningful journey for them both.'

Following the visit the centre shared a picture of the couple sitting down for a cup of tea on their Twitter page.

Later William and Kate joined Jonny, Neil and staff from the Rethink Mental Illness charity for a discussion with children from Dunraven School in Streatham, South London, at Kensington Palace on issues around suicide and mental health.

Kate previously wore the distinctive green coat on a visit to the National Cycling Centre of Excellence and Avantidrome on April 12, 2014 in Hamilton, New Zealand

She recycled the old favourite for a second time in the same year when launching the Yorkshire leg of the Tour De France with William in July 2014

The couple listened, clearly moved, as one young girl hesitantly talked about the issues she had suffered from after being diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder.

The pupil, who cannot be identified, said: 'I didn't really acknowledge the impact until I was eight when I started to suffer from extremely bullying. I felt like I couldn't talk to anyone about it. Then a teacher came up to me - it was my "Neil" moment - who told me I shouldn't feel embarrassed.'

William and Kate nodded enthusiastically as Jonny told her: 'No, no, you shouldn't.'

Before they left the 20 minute session for a private discussion families bereaved by suicide, William leaned forwards and spoke to the children about the importance of communication.

Jonny Benjamin (right) regularly attends screenings of the documentary about how Neil Laybourn (left) saved him from suicide with young people as a way to encourage open discussion of mental health issues

The royals returned to Kensington Palace to join young pupils from Dunraven School in South London and suicide prevention campaigners for a discussion. Kate changed into a 60 black dress with a white bird motif from Jonathan Saunders/Edition for Debenhams range from 2012

He said: 'If I may add anything to the expertise of what Neil and everyone else here has been talking about, that is the importance of talking to each other.

'I really feel that we don't listen and we don't talk enough so I hope that if anything you take away from today is to talk amongst yourselves, to share your problems and communicate and be there for each other. Thank you all for being here today and sharing. '

Kate had shed her coat to display a 60 black and white swallow print dress from the 2012 Jonathan Saunders/Edition for Debenhams range.

Afterwards, William and Kate were due to join a private meeting with a group bereaved in various ways by suicide, to discuss their experiences and the support they have received since.

The couple were moved by the account of a young girl who spoke about the issues she had suffered from after being diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder. She said she hadn't realised the impact until she started being severely bullied at the age of eight

At the end of the 20 minute session William spoke to the children about the importance of communication, encouraging them to talk about any problems they might be experiencing and to be there for each other

William and Kate also hope today's engagements will contribute to breaking down the stigma around suicide.

The couple, along with Prince Harry, are said to be determined to make mental health a major focus of their work in the year ahead.

However, they have this week faced criticism for choosing to take their first holiday as a family with Princess Charlotte in secret.

Their aides bizarrely refused to say where the royal family had stayed during their secret holiday, other than to say it was in the French Alps, but it's believed they enjoyed their break in the pretty Alpine village of Courchevel.

The upmarket 'playground of the oligarchs' resort within the popular Les Trois Vallees ski region is known for attracting A-list celebrities and royals. Film star Brigitte Bardot helped to put it on the map in the 1960s and David and Victoria Beckham are regular visitors.

Unlike royal ski holidays of old - when a group of photographers was invited to capture the family relaxing on the slopes - the Cambridges chose to escape the country without telling the media of their plans.
The Dutch Queen sparkled in gold as the French culture minister Audrey Azoulay played it chic in black as they met at a state dinner in Paris tonight.

Queen Maxima, 44, donned metallic stilettos for the glamorous affair but towered over president Francois Hollande's 5ft 7in stature on the two-day visit to France.

While Audrey Azoulay shunned Hollywood glamour for a safe bet in a black coat, graphic-print dress and black courts.

Queen Maxima wore gold for the state dinner held by French leader Francois Hollande tonight during her two-day state visit to France

French Culture Minister Audrey Azoulay played it chic in black for a state dinner in Paris wearing a long tailored coat

Earlier today the Dutch Queen smiled widely next to the French leader, who stood beside her with his chin resting at shoulder height as they posed for photographs outside the Elysee Palace.

While her husband King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands also had a few inches on the President.

The Argentinian born royal wasn't shy about upstaging the rest of the attendees in a show-stopping dress, including Hollande who wore a grey suit and charcoal tie.

She chose a nude sequinned dress with golden floral detailing, ending at the knee to show off her enviable pins.

The outfit was completed with statement drop earrings, bracelet, heels and even a boxy clutch bag in the metallic hue to up the glitz at the occasion.

Supermodel Lara Stone also attended the evening. The Dutch model wore a quirky peacoat with a red fur collar.

Queen Maxima of the Netherlands attended a state dinner held by Francois Hollande in Paris, with her husband Willem-Alexander

After looking chic in a nude outfit earlier in the day, Maxima upped the glamour in a qlitzy dress with a netted skirt and gold embellishment

Maxima let her outfit do all the talking and wore a brown smoky eye with a hint of plum lipstick, and wore her hair in relaxed curls

Maxima, pictured with Willem, flashed her legs despite the cold weather. The outfit was completed with statement drop earrings, bracelet, heels and even a boxy clutch bag in the metallic hue to up the glitz

The Argentinian-born royal wasn't shy about upstaging the rest of the attendees in her show-stopping dress, including Hollande who wore a grey suit and charcoal tie

Audrey Azoulay, who studied economics at Paris Dauphine University, chose an elegant ensemble but also wore sequins

The royal flashed her legs despite the cold weather but may have regretted her decision as she was seen clutching a neutral pashmina ready to wrap up in.

Maxima let her outfit do all the talking with a brown smoky eye, a hint of plum lipstick and her hair in relaxed curls.

Audrey Azoulay, who studied economics at Paris Dauphine University, chose an elegant ensemble but also wore sequins.

Her shift dress boasted lilac, black and white sparkle, which Audrey paired with sheer tights, black stilettos and drop earrings.

The royals and Hollande wave to cameras as they enter the dinner past guards armed with swords

Maxima appears bashful as she smiled for the camera in her show-stopping dress - perhaps mindful of towering over the president once again

Maxima and the French leader tap their glasses together to celebrate the evening and appear deep in conversation

The monarchs and Hollande raise their glasses to the evening held in honour of the Dutch royals

Dutch supermodel Lara Stone wore a quirky peacoat with a red fur collar teamed with pink heels and a chic shift dress

Lara looked elegant in an embellished shift with the statement fur to accessorise her outfit

The dinner today marks the first night of a two-day trip for the King and Queen of the Netherlands in a bid to deepen economic and cultural ties with France.

Ahead of their meeting with Francois Hollande this afternoon, Maxima and Willem-Alexander were treated to a welcome ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe.

The pair laid a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier as crowds made a special effort to welcome the royal couple.

Maxima donned a caramel-hued coat with brocade detailing and a statement hat, matched with caramel-hued shoes.

Queen Maxima towered over French President Francois Hollande (centre) on day one of her visit to Paris with husband King Willem-Alexander (left)

The Dutch royal smiled widely as she greeted the French leader at the Elysee Palace. The King and Queen of the Netherlands hope to deepen economic and cultural ties with France

The meeting marked the first day of the Dutch royal couple's two day visit to France with the Argentinian-born Queen opting for height-boosting heels to compliment her nude coloured dress

However, it was not just Maxima who left the President craning his neck with Willem-Alexander looking equally tall next to Francois

Later, they visited the famous Parisian gallery of the Louvre to view Rembrandt's wedding portraits of Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit, purchased jointly by the Dutch and French governments for 160million (122million).

The portraits will be alternately displayed in Paris and Amsterdam.

The royal couple, accompanied by ten business leaders, will attend an economic conference on Friday, focusing on innovation and green technology, and will visit a center devoted to helping startup companies develop.

The Dutch Queen was first handed her role of Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance in 2009 by Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon.

The King and Queen of the Netherlands were pictured inside the Elysee Palace with French President Francois Hollande during their meeting

Earlier that day the pair laid a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe during a welcome ceremony

Crowds lined the streets in an effort to welcome the royal couple as they paid their respects to the war dead

The Queen was seen leaving a special message inside a visitors book at the site of the tomb

Maxima, who is also the Honorary Patron of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion, has been tasked with raising awareness of the benefits of financial systems that also help the poor.

In practice, this means improving access to savings, insurance and credit - all of which are particularly important in countries where famine and rising food prices can hit the poorest hard and, in the worst cases, lead to starvation and malnutrition.

Access to credit and savings also gives business a boost, and allows small farmers and entrepreneurs in poor countries to strike out on their own and move past subsistence.

The Queen of the Netherlands seemed delighted to be greeted by so many at today's events
Dressed from head to toe in frills and pretty bows, Lolita Fahr Sindram looks a picture of femininity.

But on days when Fahr isn't wearing cutesy dresses and dolly shoes, Fahr dresses as a male comic book character.

Fahr, from Edinburgh, identifies as genderqueer and splits every day between being dressed as Marvel super-villain Loki to explore his masculine side and a sweet Lolita princess, who is more feminine.

Scroll down for video

Genderqueer Fahr Sindram identifies as neither male nor female and spends time alternating cosplay outfits between feminine Lolita costumes (left) and make superhero character Loki (right)

The 34-year-old says the two personas allows Fahr to explore life as both a masculine male and a feminine female in the most extreme ways - and has invested almost 20,000 on two looks.

When explaining gender identity Fahr said: 'I just know I am somewhere in the middle and there are days when I feel more like a man and other days I'm more drawn to more look like a woman.

'I dress extreme because I am very extreme on the inside. My imagination is absolutely wild. I have to have an outlet.'

In Fahr's late twenties the cosplayer began to feel torn between masculinity and femininity and five years ago decided to do away with gender all together

On her 'girly days', Fahr dons a sleek wig and puts on a twee Lolita-style dress from an impressive 12,000 collection

Fahr is equally as likely to transform into Marvel super villain Loki played by Tom Hiddleston (pictured here with Fahr as Loki)

Fahr had a liberal upbringing in Berlin, Germany, with encouraging parents keen for their children to express themselves regardless of gender stereotypes.

In the cosplayer's late 20s Fahr began to feel torn between masculinity and femininity and five years ago decided to do away with gender all together.

Fahr, who was born female, said: 'I had good days where I felt "oh this is great, this is princess, this is really cool, I feel like a girl I look perfect".

'And then I had days where I was like, "I feel like I'm an imposter, I feel like I am a man pretending to be a woman in a dress".

'Five years ago I just said to myself "I will not identify with female gender any more".'

Now Fahr spends at least an hour every morning assessing whether to live that day as a man or a woman.

Fahr (pictured with boyfriend William) says that coming to terms with gender wasn't always easy suffering a break down last year

Fahr says: 'When I wear Loki I try to be a little bit like sexy and I flirt with all the girls. When I wear Lolita I often try and behave like a lady'

Spending 'man days' dressed as Thor villain Loki, Fahr's hairline has even been shaved to look like actor Tom Hiddleston, who plays the character in the Hollywood movies.

On her 'girly days', Fahr dons a sleek wig and puts on a twee Lolita-style dress from an impressive 12,000 collection.

Fahr said: 'Some days I wake up and it's a girl day and some days I wake up and it's a boy day.

'When I wear Loki I try to be a little bit like sexy and I flirt with all the girls. When I wear Lolita I often try and behave like a lady.'

Fahr has been dressing in Japanese Lolita fashion since 2009. Fahr first started cosplaying as Loki for fun in 2011 and gradually became famous online for the likeness to the character.

Fahr (pictured out of costume) had a liberal upbringing in Berlin, Germany, and was encouraged by her parents to express herself regardless of gender stereotypes

Fahr has also forged a successful career by creating comic books for children

Fahr now has 100,000 online followers and admits that the character has become an obsession.

The cosplayer has spent over 7,000 on Loki outfits and is now hoping to have a nose job to complete the look.

Worryingly Fahr even admits in the past to living off just apples and coffee each day in a bid to achieve the lean look of the character.

Fahr said: 'Loki for me is like an escape to hyper-masculinity. Lolita on the other hand is for me to feel pretty.'

Fahr admits that there are negatives to living through made up characters and even claims to have lost a sense of identity and sadly last year suffered a breakdown.

Shaving off all of the long Loki locks was an attempt to start afresh, but it was unsuccessful.

Fahr's boyfriend William is a transgender male and completely supports Fahr's gender identity

Fahr said: 'It was a bad decision because after that I felt like I was not me, not him. Not anything. Of course I knew I wasn't a Norse God but I'd lost my sense of self.'

Now Fahr tries to spend some time in neutral clothes and feels more comfortable.

Fahr, a comic book writer and illustrator, has also been praised for her work in child protection.

Fahr's comic 'Losing Neverland' was recognised by the European Council of Sustainability for highlighting the dangers of child pornography.

Fahr said: 'Making comics and books for children is really important to me and many children come to my signings and I read to them.

'But just imagine, I read to children and in the back of the same room Loki fans are shouting for me. It was so stressful.'

The pair met on a cosplay chat room three years ago and share a passion for fancy dress

Fahr met partner William through a cosplay chat room three years ago. And William understands Fahr's gender identity better than most.

The 36-year-old teacher is a transgender male, and is supportive of Fahr's lifestyle.

William said: 'I do feel like I have a boyfriend and girlfriend and that is fantastic. Personally I think everyone should be free to be who they are.

'I feel a lot better presenting as male and living as male every day but that is not the case for everyone and I think Fahr is is a lot more complicated and has more difficulty than me actually because it can be changed from day to day.

'I actually love both. I have no preference between the two. Most of all I love Fahr as Fahr.'

Professor of Feminist and Queer Legal Studies at The University of Edinburgh, Sharon Cowan, says that Fahr's behaviour is not untypical of genderqueer people - although the wider population may find it unusual.

Professor Cowan said: 'Fahr likes the idea of having the flexibility to move between different ways of expressing her body.

'I think her options are generally around her outward expressions and to be honest I think she's nailed that already in the sense that she is expressing her gender in ways that make her happy.'

Fahr currently has no plans to stop dressing as alter-egos.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited the White House with his wife for the first time this morning, but though the event was meant to mark the meeting of two great allies, so far it's the fashion  and the women wearing it  that's stealing the show.

Trudeau's wife Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau, 40, and Michelle Obama, 52, were an incredibly chic pair during the arrival ceremony, enjoying the unseasonably warm Washington, D.C. day in knee-length dresses and heels.

In fact, Trudeau and President Obama may have felt quite overshadowed by the lovely ladies, who waved to the assembled crowd before heading inside to dance and sing with a group of schoolchildren.

Scroll down for video

Chic pair: Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau (left) and Michelle Obama (right) looked quite stylish at an event they attended together Thursday morning

A fun time: They joined in to dance and sing with a group of school children who performed at the United States Institute of Peace

Well done! They applauded at the end of the performance, which was part of Mrs. Obama's Let Girls Learn efforts

Coming together: Both Michelle and Sophie gave speeches at the event, where American and Canadian flags were on display

A fast friendship:Clearly getting along well, they shared a hug in front of the crowd

White House runway: The women flaunted their fabulous dresses as they arrived at the event

Don't fall! Sophie also helped Michelle as she walked off the stage, when she temporarily seemed to lose her balance

Poll Which First Lady's fashion look do you prefer? Michelle Obama Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau Which First Lady's fashion look do you prefer? Michelle Obama 884 votes

Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau 1238 votes Now share your opinion





The First Lady looked polished as usual in a cinched-at-the-waist Tanya Taylor dress in a black and green print.

She went the classic route with accessories and styling, slipping into a pair of black, pointed-toe patent pumps and likely getting a bit overheated in the 75-degree heat with a three-quarter-sleeve coat.

Mrs.Gregoire-Trudeau, on the other hand, went coat-free, showing off her floral sheath dress by Romanian-born Canadian designer Lucian Matis.

She got more experimental with add-ons, too, picking a scalloped red clutch by Aldo  a $50 bargain!  and red-and-pink striped heels.

Afterward, the two headed inside together for an event for Let Girls Learn, an initiative started by Mrs. Obama to promote education for the 62 million girls around the world who don't have access to it.

Chic pair: They ladies looked quite stylish at a welcome ceremony outside the White House earlier in the morning

Welcome! Mrs. Gregoire-Trudeau and her husband, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, are on their first official visit to Washington, D.C.

Instant pals: Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Gregoire-Trudeau seemed to be having a great time as they laughed and talked

Fashion first: President Obama and Prime Minister Trudeau looked polished as well, but their wives stole the show

Hey there! The two ladies has a chance to put their style on display as they waved to the crowds

Inside the United States Institute of Peace, the twosome danced and sang along with schoolchildren as they performed.

They seemed to enjoy the show as well as each other's company, laughing and sharing a hug in front of a crowd who listened to them give speeches.

Mrs. Gregoire-Trudeau also helpfully offered a hand to the First Lady as she walked off the stage and briefly seemed to lose her balance.

Of course, despite both having a reputation for being fashion-forward, there's no rivalry between these two women, who spent most of the morning together.

In fact, Sophie recently spoke too Katie Couric for a Yahoo News interview in which she shared her admiration for her her US neighbor.

'I think there's lots of authenticity in her personality and the way she connects with people,' she said of Mrs. Obama. 'What I admire is the causes that she's undertaken Talking about nutrition and exercise with American people.

Lookin' good: The First Lady wore a green-and-black printed dress by designer Tanya Taylor

A bright spot: Mrs. Gregoire-Trudeau wore a dress by Romanian-born Canadian designer Lucian Matis

All in the details: She accessorized with matching pink-and-red shoes and a scalloped red clutch by Aldo, which goes for just $50

Center of attention: Both well-dressed women stole the spotlight from their powerful husbands

Big event: A large crowd assembled to welcome the Prime Minister and his wife on the Great Lawn

'And I think that everything that has to do with girls' education is important to her, and it's also so close to my heart. Gender empowerment. Having more justice and equality in our society, for me, is huge. So yeah, I absolutely admire her path.'

Tonight, the powerful spouses will show off their style once again at the White House State Dinner, where they're sure to wow in glamorous gowns.

But while she seems to like getting dressed up  or at least, she does it well  Mrs. Obama admitted last year that's she actually looking forward to being able to buy the inexpensive stuff and dress down once she leaves the White House.
TLC announced that a new season of Jill and Jessa: Counting On will premiere March 15

The siblings all agreed that they have found it in their hearts to forgive him, though they add that trust will take a while to rebuild

Josh admitted to adultery and a porn addiction after it was revealed that he had an Ashley Madison account last year

Their statement comes one day after siblings Jessa, Jana, Jinger, and four other adult Duggar children spoke about life after Josh's adultery scandal

The family noted that the 28-year-old will continue to receive 'professional counseling' following the end of the six-month-long residential program

In an online statement, the Duggar family confirmed reports that Josh had left the Illinois facility where he received treatment for sex addiction

Out: Josh Duggar has left his faith-based rehab facility after six months of treatment

Josh Duggar has left the faith-based rehab center where he was receiving treatment for porn and sex addiction and returned home to be with his family in Arkansas, the Duggars confirmed today.

In a statement made on their official website, the family confirmed reports that the disgraced 28-year-old had completed his faith-based residential rehabilitation program and left the Illinois facility where he has been living for the past six months.

The Duggars added that the father-of-four has now returned home, where he will continue to receive 'professional counseling' while focusing on 'rebuilding relationships with his family'.

'Josh has completed his residential rehabilitation program,' the statement reads. 'We are so thankful for everyone who worked with Josh in this program.

'It was a crucial first step in recovery and healing for Josh. Josh has now returned to Arkansas, where he will continue professional counseling and focus on rebuilding relationships with his family.'

The family then asked their friends, family and fans to continue praying for them while Josh attempts to regain the trust of his siblings.

'We look to God for help and guidance and place all of our trust in Him.

'We are forever grateful for the love and prayers offered by so many and hope you will continue to pray in the days ahead.'

The news comes just hours after reports first surfaced suggesting that Josh had been out of the rehab center 'for a few days', and close to seven months after it was revealed that Josh had cheated on his wife by paying for a 'guaranteed' affair on adultery website Ashley Madison.

Back home: According to an official statement made by the Duggar family, Josh, 28, has returned home to Arkansas, where he is focusing on 'rebuilding relationships' with his family

Big day: In a preview clip for the Duggar's new TLC show, Anna appears to be going to visit Josh with daughter Meredith after packing her bags and loading them into a car

Moving on: The rehab facility where Josh was staying, Reformers Anonymous, requires participants to take part in 'Bible readings, prayers and manual labor'

But despite the family's positive statement, it seems it may take more time for the rest of his family to fully come to terms with his actions - and for him to be accepted back into the tight-knit Duggar fold.

In a recent interview with People, the older Duggar children insist that they've already forgiven their big brother, however admit that they have yet to build up the same level of trust that they once shared with their sibliing.

Jessa, 23, her husband Ben Seewald, 20, Jana, 26, John, 26, Jinger, 22, Joseph, 21, Josiah, 19, and Joy Anna, 18, all shared their feelings on the family drama with People, explaining how their faith gave them the courage to forgive  even if they don't exactly trust the philanderer and alleged child molester.

'I definitely have forgiven Josh. It is a process, though, that you have to work through in your heart,' Jessa said. 'And trust is not quickly rebuilt. It is something that takes a while. We love him very much, though, and we are very hopeful for the future.'

Her husband Ben, with whom she welcomed four-month old baby Spurgeon Elliot last year, echoed his wife's sentiment.

'I love Josh and I want the best for him,' he said. 'There are a lot of people who have been hurt in this situation. I want to look for ways to help heal the situation for Josh and for Anna and their kids especially.'

Some people were surprised when, after news of Josh's indiscretions broke, Ben's father Michael Seewald broke from the family script to plainly condemn the professed cheater. In August, he wrote in a blog post: 'It distresses me to say that Josh Duggars greatest sin is a byproduct of the sum total of his secretly sinful lifestyle.

It's OK: In a recent interview, the older Duggar children revealed that they have already forgiven big brother Josh for his transgressions

Still their big bro: Jessa and Ben, pictured with their son Spurgeon, both said they love Josh

Hard times: Josh's sister Joy Anna is seen crying in the new preview for the upcoming season of Jill and Jessa: Counting On

'That is, that by his hypocrisy, he blasphemed the name of God. He claimed to be a Christian, but by his deeds he has suggested otherwise. With the name of God on his lips he lived a covert and extensive lifestyle of evil.'

Now, though, it seems that most of the family is trying to move on. Jinger told People that they've actually come out stronger and 'purified' since they 'walked through the fire', while Josiah noted that holding onto bitterness is pointless, because all it does is hurt the bitter person.

'When something likes this happens, it is a shock, of course. It is something where it is a constant thing. But if you think about what God has done for you in your life and what you have been forgiven for, you have more of a liberty to forgive,' said Joseph.

Joy added: 'I have forgiven him and I feel that, but the trust is not there.'

All of the siblings seem to agree that it will take a long time and hard work for Josh to rebuild trust, especially because of the way his actions affected each of them personally.

In fact, Josiah  who ended his courtship with 18-year-old Marjorie Jackson in the midst of his family's scandal  revealed that it was she who called the whole thing off, though he didn't specifically say whether Josh's shocking double-life played a part.

Two steps: Jessa said that forgiveness is a process one has to work through in his or her heart  and it's not the same as trusting

Think of the kiddos: Ben said he is particularly worried for Anna and her four children

Moving forward: Joseph (left) and Janna (right) also offered up forgiveness, even if they say trust will take a while

'She didn't feel that it was the right timing then,' he said.

The Duggars are sure to offer more thoughts on the matter on the upcoming season of Jill and Jessa: Counting On, which will debut on TLC on March 15.

In the new season  which is advertised to be following the lives of Jill and Jessa but includes scenes and interviews with the other children and the Duggar parents as well, much like 19 Kids and Counting  viewers will also hear from Anna, who has has been raising her four children as a single mom during Josh's absence.

A preview clip for the new series showed Anna loading her bags into the car on the way to visit Josh at the rehab facility, where he had been staying since August.

In the clip, Anna also spoke about her recent troubles, saying: 'I don't know what I'm stepping into. I don't know how to handle each situation.

'It's not anything I ever would have thought I would walk through. Just do the next right thing. Have the next right response for the next 15 minutes.'

The new preview also seems to suggest that Jinger may in fact be courting family friend Lawson Bates, as she refuses to talk about who might be the next to enter a courtship when asked by producers on the show.

Joy Anna may also have a large role in the new series, and she is seen crying in the first promo as she discusses how difficult last year was, with Josh's molestation scandal followed a few months later by news of extramarital affairs and a porn addiction.

Coming up next: John (left) and Jana (right), the next-oldest kids after Josh, are asked about their courtship prospects in the new preview

New man? Jinger Duggar (pictured) seems to blush and declines to comment on her own courtship status

'With all our family's gone through, I've grown up a lot,' she admits.

However, despite much discussion about Josh, whose molestation scandal led to the cancellation of the family's original reality show 19 Kids and Counting last summer, the oldest son will not be on the show.

This new season will also be different from the episodes that aired last year, due to the fact that Jill and her husband Derick Dillard will be in Central America doing missionary work with their newborn son Israel.

Jessa and her husband Ben will remain in Arkansas, though, with their newborn son Spurgeon. Jessa says at the end of the new preview; 'We've shared this journey with the world. Family is everything.'

Last May, the public learned that Josh molested five minors as a teenager, including four of his sisters. He was never tried or charged for those offenses, and law enforcement was never notified in any official capacity by his parents.

In the aftermath of this scandal, the family's popular reality show 19 Kids & Counting was cancelled by TLC.

Acting coy: Joy Anna is also asked what she is looking for in a guy and seems to get bashful

Back to normal-ish: Anna can be seen relaxing and enjoying herself, painting her nails with her sisters-in-law

The summer then ended with the news that Josh had an account on the adult cheating website Ashley Madison, and had been having sexual encounters with women outside his marriage, including adult film star Danica Dillon.

Josh confessed to having affairs in a letter in August, writing: 'I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the internet and this became a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife.

'I am so ashamed of the double life that I have been living and am grieved for the hurt, pain and disgrace my sin has caused my wife and family, and most of all Jesus and all those who profess faith in Him.'

He has been visited at his faith-based rehab program by his wife Anna on multiple occasions, who has said she is standing by her husband.

The couple wed in 2008, and are parents to five-month-old Meredith Grace, two-year-old Marcus, four-year-old Michael and six-year-old daughter Mackynzie.

Out of the country: Jill and her husband Derick Dillard (pictured) are seen in Central America doing missionary work with their newborn son Israel during the new season

Expanding their family already? Jessa and Ben are at home with Spurgeon, and are still considering adoption once the baby is nine months old

Anna was first able to address her husband's infidelity last year when she appeared on the first leg of Jill & Jessa: Counting On, which aired in December. Anna broke down in tears while speaking about her marriage.

'I knew about this long before it hit the press,' said Anna while describing why she decided to stick by Josh during the molestation scandal.

Anna explained that she visited Josh and his family in Arkansas before they were officially courting, and that Josh told her family 'his life story'  including his sordid past.

'He was very detailed and honest with my parents because in his heart he knew he wanted to pursue a relationship.'

Anna then said that when their daughter Meredith was born in July, the media storm surrounding her husband's adolescent activity was calming down, and that the baby was a 'ray of sunshine' through all of the chaos.

Then, a month later, came the news of his affairs.

'I think it is such a betrayal for a spouse to go through what were walking through,' said Anna as she fought back tears.

She then added: 'It was hard to realize that it was such a public thing, and so, not only was it a betrayal against me, but it was also a betrayal for those who call themselves Christian.

Mr. Mom: Ben says he's already learned that stay-at-home moms don't like it their clueless husbands say they're 'babysitting'

Moving on: The series will show the family pushing forward after Josh's scandals

'Everyone was able to see us get married and to vow before God to be loyal to each other, and that loyalty was broken. And so, for my heart, it was just broken.'

Josh's sisters described rallying around Anna and wanting to be there for her in her time of need and said that she was an example of the power of unconditional love.

'Josh was my first love, my one and only, but I knew that my only hope was to cling to my faith, because I knew if I went off of what I was feeling, I would turn a mess into a disaster,' said Anna. 'In the stun and shock of everything, I was just praying, "God, help me to respond to all of this."

'I didn't know what to do. I knew we needed help, and I was just praying God would give the wisdom and the help that we needed to take the next step.'

She also said that her husband's decision to go to a Christian recovery program was a difficult one because she knew was going 'to be alone for an extended period of time' with a newborn.
Jenna went on to smooch Hoda to show her how she likes her two-year-old daughter Mila to kiss her

The daughter of former President George W. Bush joked that she and her infant Poppy 'French' because babies kiss with their mouths open

on the Today show after Daily Mail Online ran an article about it

Jenna, 35, and Hoda, 51, shared their thoughts on the hotly debated topic

Jenna Bush Hager has admitted that she can't get enough of smooching her two daughters, and even went as far as showing her Today show co-star Hoda Kotb how she likes to kiss her little girls as she weighed in on whether parents should kiss their kids on the lips.

Referring to an article published by Daily Mail Online about claims made by child psychologist Dr Charlotte Reznick, who has suggested it was wrong for a parent to kiss a child on the lips at any age, Jenna, 35, and Hoda, 51, shared their thoughts on the still hotly debated 'kissing controversy' during Thursday's Today show.

'Oh my gosh. I mean you should not ask me this question because I basically make out with my children,' Jenna said.

Pucker up! Jenna Bush Hager, 34, weighed in the 'kissing controversy' on the Today show on Thursday as she told her co-host Hoda Kotb, 51, that she doesn't see anything wrong with kissing her two daughters on the lips

Motherly love: Jenna, who is pictured smooching her two-year-old daughter Mila last May, was responding to child psychologist Dr Charlotte Reznick's claim that parents shouldn't kiss their kids on the lips at any age

The mother-of-two, who was filling in for Kathie Lee Gifford, joked that she didn't have any problems finding pictures of herself kissing her children for the segment.

And while Dr, Reznick warned that kissing children on the lips can be 'stimulating to them' when their sexual awareness develops, Jenna couldn't help but wax poetic about smooching her two-year-old daughter Mila and her six-month-old daughter Poppy as often as possible.

Hoda reminded Jenna that the controversy revolves around parents kissing their children on the lips, the daughter of former President George W. Bush said she doesn't have any problem with that either.

'When babies are babies they open their mouths, so we like French. I mean I don't put my tongue in there, but I am like, muah!' she said while puckering her lips.

Overshare? Hoda looked appalled when Jenna joked that she 'Frenches' her six-month-old daughter because babies kiss with their mouths open

Precious: The mother-of-two shared this photo of herself kissing her daughter Poppy, who was born in August

'Mila has this thing where I am like kiss me like mommy likes, which sounds dirty,' she added, as she erupted in laughs over her accidental double entendre.

'How does mommy like it?' Hoda joked, but she was clearly not ready for the demonstration Jenna was about to give her.

'This is how mommy likes it. Ready?' Jenna asked, but Hoda insisted that she wasn't going to let her co-star kiss her on the mouth.

While Jenna promised 'no Frenching', Hoda was visibly worried that she was going to aim for her lips.

Thanks, but no thanks! Hoda was terrified when Jenna offered to show her how her aughter Mila kisses her, and she insisted that she wasn't allowed to kiss her on the lips

Muah! Hoda was surprised when Jenna turned her head to kiss her on the cheek

Different opinion: Hoda started gulping her glass of red wine after Jenna lamented that Mila will no longer open mouth kiss her like she did when she was a baby

'I like a good strong face grab, turn the face, muah!' she said as she kissed a terrified Hoda on the cheek.

Hoda was surprised that all that build up was just for a sweet kiss on the cheek, but Jenna said she doesn't mind kissing her daughters on the lips because she likes to 'kiss them a lot'.

However, when Hoda asked if is any different for fathers to kiss their daughters on the lips, Jenna admitted that her husband Henry Hager, 37, is a little bit more reserved than she is.

'I mean Henry probably wouldn't make out with Poppy the way that I do,' she said, although she admitted that she knows people are 'judging' her and she will have to give it up at some point.

Two of a kind: Jenna took to Instagram earlier this week to share this precious photo of her cuddling with Mila after a day of work on the Today show

Sisterly love: The proud mom often shares photos of her littler girls on social media

Parenting style: Jenna said her husband Henry Hager (pictured) , 37, 'propbably wouldn't make out with Poppy' like she does

After Hoda noted that Jenna looked like a normal mom in a photo of her kissing Poppy, Jenna joked: 'I don't take pictures when I am Frenching her'.

Hoda commented that the 'level of weirdness' in Jenna is 'astonishing', but her co-host posed a question for her haters.

'The truth is if y'all don't agree with me out there, and most won't, Don't you love kissing your babes?'

Hoda noted that everyone loves kissing their babies but is a 'question of how long and the lingering' and at what age does that stop.

However, when Jenna confessed that Mila won't open mouth kiss her anymore like she did when she was a baby, Hoda started chugging her glass of red wine.
rates than those on wait list

A new procedure, which alters a person's immune system, could offer a breakthrough in transplant surgery allowing patients to receive kidneys from incompatible donors, experts have revealed.

Patients are currently forced to wait for a kidney to become available from a deceased donor.

And, in order for the operation to have a chance of success, that donor must be an absolute match, with anything less raising the chances of the body rejecting the new organ.

But, a new study now offers renewed hope of an alternative.

The breakthrough procedure, known as desensitization therapy, allows patients to receive kidneys from live donors, who are not exact matches.

Desensitization therapy filters out antibodies that would attack the non-matched organ, from the patient's blood.

Patients who undergo the procedure are more likely to be alive after eight years than those who wait for a kidney from a deceased donor - or don't receive a transplant, according researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

This 'revolutionary' procedure could help save lives by allowing more people to receive the kidneys they so desperately need.

Scientists revealed a breakthrough procedure can filter out antibodies from a person's immune system that would attack a transplanted kidney, allowing them to accept the organ from incompatible donors. (File photo)

Senior study author Dr Dorry Segev, of Johns Hopkins University, told Reuters: 'We used to say if you had a compatible donor, you could do a transplant.

'Now you can say, if you have an incompatible donor, we can make that transplant happen.

'That's very exciting to those on the waiting list.'

More than 100,000 people are currently on the waiting list in the US for a kidney, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.

However, only 17,878 kidney transplants were performed last year.

And of that group, more than 12,000 kidneys came from someone who had just died.

Meanwhile, the remainder came from living donors - which is considered to be an ideal situation, raising the chance of a successful transplant.

We used to say if you had a compatible donor, you could do a transplant. Now you can say, if you have an incompatible donor, we can make that transplant happen Dr Dorry Segev, of Johns Hopkins University

In the study, 1,025 patients received kidneys from otherwise-incompatible live donors after undergoing desensitization.

Those patients had an eight-year survival rate of 77 per cent.

In contrast, only 63 per cent of the 5,125 matched patients, who received a kidney from a deceased donor or remained on the weight list, were alive after eight years.

And, the eight-year survival rate was only 44 per cent for 5,125 people who remained on the wait list without receiving a kidney.

Dr Segev told Reuters: 'The paper is showing how much longer the patient will live compared to their next available option.

'Your next best option is waiting on the list for a compatible donor, and a lot of those patients will never find one.'

More hospitals have begun offering desensitization therapy to high-risk patients.

However, it wasn't clear how well the approach would work when used widely.

The study analyzed results from 22 transplant centers - and found that desensitization is effective.

Those who undergo the procedure - called desensitization - have a higher eight-year survival rate than patients who wait on the transplant list for a 'match' kidney from a deceased donor, or don't receive a kidney at all

Researchers said the potential for the therapy is so high, because almost one in three patients who need a kidney transplant are hard to match with prospective donors.

Many of those people are 'sensitized,' which means that their bodies are abnormally primed with antibodies - called anti-HLA antibodies - that would immediately attack most donated kidneys.

Production of those antibodies are often triggered by blood transfusions, a previous transplant and a longer time spent on dialysis.

The paper is showing how much longer the patient will live compared to their next available option. Your next best option is waiting on the list for a compatible donor, and a lot of those patients will never find one Dr Segev

There are currently 32,000 people in the US with anti-HLA antibodies who are in need of a transplant - and could benefit from the procedure.

Prior to desensitization, those patients could potentially receive transplants through kidney exchanges.

Such exchanges widen the organ pool by mixing up pairs of would-be donors and their recipients for better matches.

But with the new procedure, patients take potent immune-targeting medications.

Then, they have their blood filtered to remove the anti-HLA antibodies, which allows them to accept kidneys from non-match live donors.

If they had to wait for a deceased donor, those antibodies could potentially form again.

Nevertheless, desensitization is a time-consuming procedure - ranging from a few days to two weeks to be completed.

It is 'relatively low' cost compared to the cost of a transplant - which is typically $100,000 (70,400).

However, desensitization only costs around $10,000 to $20,000 (7,000 to 14,000).

The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In an accompanying editorial, Dr Lionel Rostaing and Dr Paolo Malvezzi, of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Grenoble Alpes in La Tronche, France, praised the procedure.
Making simple changes to the way chemotherapy is delivered could save the lives of thousands of women with breast cancer, research suggests.

Experts found that giving chemotherapy every two weeks, rather than every three, boosted long-term survival rates by 29 per cent.

Scientists think that increasing the frequency of chemotherapy rounds works more effectively because it gives the cancer cells less time to recover between bouts.

A trial of more than 3,000 women, with an average age of 44, found that closer treatment intervals significantly boosted survival  with no extra side-effects.

Simple changes to the way chemotherapy is delivered could save thousands of lives, experts say after a new study found treatment every two weeks instead of every three, boosts survival rates by 29 per cent

Crucially, increasing the frequency did not make women any more likely to suffer early menopause, one of the most concerning side effects of chemotherapy for younger women.

Experts last night said the NHS should now reconsider the way it treats the disease.

About 10,000 under-50s are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, and nearly 80 per cent of them undergo chemotherapy as part of their treatment.

Currently the standard practice is to give women chemotherapy three weeks apart.

But the study of 3,305 women, presented at the European Breast Cancer Conference in Amsterdam, found that speeding up the treatment to every two weeks improved 10-year survival by 29 per cent.

In some more aggressive cancers, the chances of the disease returning fell by 35 per cent.

Scientists think that increasing the frequency of chemotherapy rounds works more effectively because it gives the cancer cells less time to recover between bouts

Although the study was on young women  who are more likely to undergo chemotherapy - they said the findings were also likely to apply to older patients.

Lead researcher Dr Matteo Lambertini, from the National Institute for Cancer Research in Genoa, Italy, said: Our results confirm the superiority of dose-dense chemotherapy as compared to standard interval regimens - and its use should be implemented in Europe.

He added: We believe it may be considered the preferred treatment option  and should be proposed to all high risk pre-menopausal breast cancer patients.

Cancer experts said the therapy is better at reacting quickly to fast-growing tumour cells.

Professor Emiel Rutgers, head of the Department of Surgery at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, said: Breast cancer cells tend to divide quite quickly.

The dense dose hits them on their heads more efficiently, every time cells come into their cycle to divide you hit them again and again.

Baroness Delyth Morgan, head of Breast Cancer Now, said last night: This promising study confirms that having chemotherapy every two weeks, rather than three, can improve the chance of survival for women with breast cancer under 50.

Samia al Qadhi, chief executive of Breast Cancer Care, added: It is encouraging to see that more frequent cycles of chemotherapy  every two weeks rather than the standard three weeks - may help to increase survival rates in younger breast cancer patients.

'This method is already used in some cases, but this study helps to indicate whether more women should be treated this way.

One of the toughest chemotherapy side effects for younger women can be going into an early menopause, which may lead to infertility.

'So its welcome news that, in this study, dose-dense chemotherapy did not increase the chances of womens periods stopping.
A young musician who was recently signed by Sony has been forced to give up his dream career after his body was ravaged with Lyme disease.

Ren Gill was healthy and active, spending six days a week in the gym, until one morning in 2009 he woke up thinking he had the worst hangover he'd ever experienced.

He has spent the last seven years trying to find out what was behind his devastating symptoms which leave him bedbound for up to 23 hours a day.

When the 25-year-old first visited his GP he was diagnosed with depression and bipolar disorder, before being told by doctors in 2011 he had chronic fatigue syndrome.

But last December - after seeking specialist medical advice in Brussels - he was finally diagnosed with the bacterial infection Lyme disease.

Ren Gill says he has been forced to give up his dream after his Lyme disease went undiagnosed for years

Ren Gill was fit and active until he was struck down by Lyme disease, which leads to him spending up to 23 hours a day in bed

He said: 'My life changed overnight, I woke up one morning feeling like I'd been spiked - my personality disappeared, I was having muscle spasms and I kept having panic attacks.

'I thought it was just the flu but the feeling didn't fade.

'I feel like I had a promising music career ahead of me I'd just signed with Sony and was working on my album when my health really started to deteriorate.

'I used to go to the gym six days a week and was generally quite active but now my leg muscles constantly ache and I'm always so drained.

I woke up one morning feeling like I'd been spiked - my personality disappeared, I was having muscle spasms and I kept having panic attacks Ren Gill, 25

'I stay in bed for around 23 hours of the day, some days are better than others but a lot of the time even when I've woken up from a long sleep I can feel like I haven't slept in months.'

Mr Gill, from Brighton, had dreamed of a career in music all of his life and was approached by a record label after being scouted when he was busking in Brighton in 2009 - just as his illness started.

He then signed with Sony Records in 2010 and was working on making an album when his health deteriorated to the point where he was no longer able to carry on.

When he was first hit by the symptoms of the then undiagnosed disease he was studying music performance at Bath Spa University and was struggling to attend his lectures.

The condition has caused his body to develop intolerances and he reacts badly to various foods and means he is now only able to eat chicken and salads.

Mr Gill would go to the gym six days a week until one morning in 2009 he woke up thinking he had the worst hangover he'd ever experienced. Last December, specialists in Brussels diagnosed Lyme disease

The musician had dreamed of a career in the industry all of his life and was approached by a record label after being scouted when he was busking in Brighton in 2009

Sony signed Mr Gill after he was spotted busking in Brighton. He was recording an album when the devastating symptoms began and has to stop

But despite being left with next to no energy he said recording music from his bedside is what has kept him sane and he shares his self-penned songs with thousands of fans on YouTube and Facebook.

Music has always been my life, I'd always dreamed of having a career in it and I feel like it's really kept me going through all of this - even now I try to make music from my bed when I can

'I'd always had a gut feeling that there was something physically wrong with me, I knew I wasn't depressed and the antidepressants I was prescribed were just giving me insomnia.

'When I was finally diagnosed with Lyme disease everything just seemed to make sense, it answered a lot of questions I'd had about my health.

'Music has always been my life, I'd always dreamed of having a career in it and I feel like it's really kept me going through all of this - even now I try to make music from my bed when I can.

'My one hope is to raise awareness of Lyme disease, I hope it becomes more widely known so people won't have to go through what I have - I'm so lucky to have had such amazing support from my mum and my girlfriend.'

Mr Gill is now raising funds so he can go to Washington to visit a doctor who has been treating chronic Lyme disease patients for years and will hopefully be able to offer him life-changing treatment.

Despite being left with next to no energy he said recording music from his bedside is what has kept him sane and he shares his self-penned songs with thousands of fans on YouTube and Facebook

Mr Gill now wants to fly to America for treatment so he can re-start his promising music career

Dr Tim Brooks, Head of Public Health England's (PHE) rare and imported pathogens laboratory (RIPL) which tests samples for Lyme disease, said diagnosing the disease was difficult as many of the symptoms are similar to other conditions.

'Blood tests can be carried out to confirm the diagnosis after a few weeks, but these can be negative in the early stages of the infection and a person may need to be re-tested if Lyme disease is still suspected after a first negative test result.

'This is true of many infectious diseases and is not a peculiarity of Lyme disease,' he said.

'PHE are working with national and international partners to study new tests methodologies that may be useful in early disease, and to distinguish active infection from past exposure.

'All laboratory tests have to be interpreted in the context of each patient and the stage of their illness, in exactly the same way as any other medical investigation.

'It is extremely important that patients are reviewed properly by a medical practitioner on the whole symptom complex and presentation of their illness, and not treated on the basis of a single laboratory test without supporting clinical evidence.

'A number of private laboratories abroad offer tests for Lyme disease, but the value of many of these tests has not been published or verified.'

For more information about Mr Gill's future treatment visit his GoFundMe page.
Comes as new figures show A&E delays are worst recorded for 12 years

BMA said doctors may withdraw emergency care in strikes after April

Two further 48-hour strikes are planned for 6th April and 28th April

Thousands of junior doctors are taking part in a second day of striking

A&E departments could be forced to close this summer if junior doctors continue to strike over pay.

Doctors leaders today told MailOnline they have not ruled out further industrial action from now until August - when the Government plans to impose a new contract on junior medics.

Until now, emergency care has been provided by junior doctors during industrial action.

But with no progress being made, senior union members have vowed to escalate the scale of the action.

Speaking today, they warned even emergency care may be withdrawn in future strikes - for the first time in the NHS' history - in a bid to hold the Government to ransom.

With junior doctors the backbone of the hospital workforce, many A&E departments could be forced to close.

The news comes as alarming new figures show in January, delays in patients being seen within four hours in A&E were the worst since records began 12 years ago.

Scroll down for video

Summer of chaos: A&E departments could be forced to close this summer, as junior doctors striking over pay have threatened more strikes in which they will withdraw emergency care for the first time in the NHS' history

Escalate: Dr Bea Bakshi, a member of the BMA's junior doctor committee today said the union is considering 'escalating' the current strikes in order to force the Government to negotiate over a new contract

Jjunior doctors across England are on their second day of a third round of strike action in protest of the new contract.

More than 5,000 operations and procedures across England have been cancelled as the 48-hour stoppage enters its second day.

Hospitals are expected to be under more pressure than yesterday, with NHS England suggesting there may be more problems discharging patients owing to lower numbers of doctors.

Junior doctors are providing emergency care only until the end of the strike at 8am on Friday.

Overall, 19,000 operations have already been cancelled due to the walkouts, which began January, and thousands of patients have missed out on check-ups.

However an Ipsos MORI poll for BBC News released yesterday evening revealed 65 per cent of the public supported the doctors' cause.

Two further 48-hour strikes are planned from 8am on April 6 and April 26 - and during these strikes junior doctors will provide emergency care.

A senior member of their union today warned they may organise further strikes for after these dates, and could escalate the walkouts to force the Government to listen.

Speaking to GP magazine Dr Bea Bakshi, a member of the BMA's junior doctor committee: We will continue to escalate until we feel our voice is listened to.

I think all options are on the table right now and we have to consider all options to get the Government to come back to the table for a negotiated settlement.

Were doctors, we dont play politics. The reason we havent escalated to a full walk-out right now is because we genuinely dont want to strike.

But after two 24 hour strikes and three 48 hour strikes, if the Government is still not listening we have to consider all options that will force the Government to listen.'

Striking: Today junior doctors across England are on their second day of a third round of strike action. Pictured are NHS workers outside the Bristol Royal Infirmary at the start of a 48-hour walk out that began yesterday

Imposition: Jeremy Hunt announced earlier this year he will impose the new contract on junior doctors after months of talks with the BMA failed to reach a resolution

All strikes until now have enabled doctors to provide emergency only cover so those who work in A&E, intensive care or emergency units turn up for work as usual.

But a total withdrawal of care  the first in the NHSs history - would mean no junior doctors would work, forcing some casualty units and other departments of close.

The reason we havent escalated to a full walk-out right now is because we genuinely dont want to strike. But if the Government is still not listening we have to consider all options that will force the Government to listen Dr Bea Bakshi, a member of the BMA's junior doctor committee

Dr Bakshi, 29, added: We are deeply sorry for the disruption that this will cause patients but we do have consultants, we do have other staff in hospital.

We need to exert as much pressure on the Government as we can to get them to come back and negotiate with us.

MailOnline understands the BMA will meet shortly to discuss whether to escalate the action further.

The news comes after alarming new figures, released today by NHS England, showed the NHS is missing key targets, leaving vulnerable patients waiting for treatment.

In January, just 88.7 per cent of patients who arrived at A&E were seen and dealt with in four hours, falling far short of the target of 95 per cent.

This is the worst monthly performance since the target was introduced in 2004.

Targets for timely cancer treatment, diagnostic tests, ambulance and NHS 111 responses were also missed.

When the latest round of strikes were announced the BMA also announced it is also launching a judicial review against the Government's contract.

It claims the Government failed to carry out an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) when introducing the new contract.

This is an assessment to ensure new rules do not unfairly discriminate or disadvantage anyone affected.

As part of the judicial review, a judge will review whether Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt's failure to follow due process when introducing the new contract means it is unlawful.

The BMA said it does not expect the judicial review to stop the contract being imposed, and added it does not know when the review will take place or how long it is likely to take.

More strikes: Two further 48-hour strikes are planned from 8am on April 6 and April 26. Pictured are doctors outside St Thomas' Hospital, London

Judicial review: The BMA has announced it is launching a judicial review in which a judge will assess if the Government followed due process when imposing the contract. Pictured, a junior doctor on strike outside Whipps Cross hospital in Waltham Forest, London

In fact, the union ignored the advice of its own lawyers, who advised 'there is nothing inherently unlawful about the proposed contract', the Telegraph reports.

Usually, the hearing for a judicial review can last from a few hours to several days, and the judge provides a written decision sometime - often weeks - afterwards.

On Wednesday, NHS England said that 44 per cent of junior doctors - out of a possible 26,000 working on a typical day - reported for duty on the day shift.

But it confirmed that the figure included doctors who had never intended to strike, such as those working in emergency care.

Mr Hunt announced he will impose the new contract on junior doctors - everyone up to consultant level - after months of talks with the BMA failed to reach a resolution.

A&E closing: This would be the first time in history that junior doctors refuse to provide emergency care during industrial action. Pictured, doctors on a picket line in Cambridge

Figures from 228 organisations, of which 154 are acute hospital trusts, show that 2,077 inpatient procedures have been cancelled due to Wednesday and Thursday's industrial action alongside 3,187 day case operations and procedures, NHS England said.

Hundreds more routine clinics and appointments are likely to be affected.

Where possible, patients are being asked to contact their GP, seek advice from their local pharmacist, call 111 or check the NHS Choices website.

In an emergency, people should still call 999 or go to A&E.

The major sticking point has been over weekend pay and whether Saturdays should attract extra 'unsocial' payments.

Currently, 7pm to 7am Monday to Friday and the whole of Saturday and Sunday attract a premium rate of pay for junior doctors.

The Government wanted the Saturday day shift to be paid at a normal rate in return for a hike in basic pay.

The BMA rejected this and urged Mr Hunt to reduce the offer of basic pay and instead have better premium rates on Saturdays.

The imposed contract, which is due to come into force in August, has an increase in basic salary of 13.5 per cent.

Under the new arrangements, Mr Hunt said no doctor working contracted hours would see a pay cut, while night shifts and long shifts would be limited.

But 7am to 5pm on Saturdays will be regarded as a normal working day.

A Department of Health spokesman said: 'Patients have so far seen more than 19,000 operations cancelled as a result of the BMA's irresponsible and unjustified industrial action.'

Johann Malawana, the BMA's junior doctor chairman, said: 'We deeply regret disruption to patients and have given trusts as much notice as possible to plan ahead, but the Government has left junior doctors with no choice.

'Ministers have made it clear they intend to impose a contract that is unfair on junior doctors and could undermine the delivery of patient care in the long term.'
Three members of the same family have been dubbed the 'tree men' because of a rare disease causing massive bark-like warts on their hands and feet.

Eight-year-old Ruhul Amin, his father Tajul Islam, 40, and his brother Bashed Ali, 55, have been diagnosed with the skin disorder epidermodysplasia verruciformis.

The condition is caused by infection with the human papillomavirus and can create widespread skin eruptions, including wart-like lesions and reddish-brown pigmented plaques.

Until now, there were only three known cases in the world of the genetic disorder.

Tajul Islam, 45, and his son Ruhul Amin, eight, are now being treated at theDhaka Medical College and Hospital

Bashed Ali, 50, holds up his damaged hands which have been ravaged by the 'tree man' disease

It comes after a series of stories on 'Tree Man' Abdul Bajandar, whose severe case of the disease has made headlines around the world recently.

The family of three men are now being treated at the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital in Bangladesh, where Mr Bajandar, 26, is also currently recovering from surgery.

He was admitted last month for an operation to remove the 11lb of growths that first began appearing 10 years ago.

And after tests confirmed the warts were not cancerous, he was given the all-clear for the life-changing surgery.

Eight-year-old Ruhul Amin's long nails and lesions can be seen as he holds them up in a Bangladesh hospital

His crusted feet are covered in painful cracks and sores caused by the rare genetic skin disorder

The rare inherited skin disorder means the painful gnarled growths sprout from his hands and feet

The family in this new case - dubbed 'tree men' by locals - arrived at the hospital yesterday. The eldest, Bashed Ali, is most severely affected by the condition - which forced doctors to amputate his feet.

But the signs are also bad for eight-year-old Ruhul,who is is already showing significant signs of the disease on his feet, with painful cracks and growths.

His hands are also displaying early signs of the condition, doctors warned.

WHAT IS EPIDERMODYSPLASIA VERRUCIFORMIS? Epidermodysplasia verruciformis (EV) is a rare and inherited skin disorder which creates wart-like lesions anywhere on the body. The condition is caused by infection with the human papillomavirus and can create widespread skin eruptions, including wartlike lesions and reddish-brown pigmented plaques. In order to inherit the disease two abnormal EV genes, one from each parent, must be present. No serious treatment against EV has been found, yet several treatments have been suggested. Notable cases include a Romanian man named Ion Toader who was diagnosed with the condition in March 2007, and the Dede Koswara, from Indonesia. Advertisement

Samanta Lal Sen, who is in charge of Mr Bajandar's treatment, said he would look at the new cases.

'We shall examine them after forming a medical board,' he said.

The only other known cases of the disease include an Indonesian villager with massive warts all over his body.

He underwent a string of operations in 2008 to remove them.

Dede Koswara, whose story captivated the world, died, in January - although his death was not related to the disease.

In 2008 the Discovery Channel told the story of Mr Koswara.

In the programme, he returned home from hospital after having six kilo warts surgically removed from his body.

An American doctor had previously said the warts were the result of severe Human Pappiloma Virus (HPV) infection and doctors thought his type was the worst in the world.

The father-of-two first noticed the warts on his body after cutting his knee as a teenager.

He was later sacked from his job and shunned by neighbours when the branch-like growths covered much of his body and stopped him from working.

Mr Koswara had previously beenforced to take part in a circus act in Bandung in order to make ends meet.

But once his case was publicised donations from the public began to flood in for his treatment.

It is not known who will fund this family's treatment although the Bangladeshi government is footing the bill for Mr Bajandar who still needs up to 15 operations in total to rid his body of the growths.

In another case, Abul Bajandar, 26, earned the title Tree Man' because of his astonishing growths
The Zika virus can cause serious brain infections in adults, French scientists warned today.

The mosquito-borne virus has already been linked to brain damage in babies, largely through a birth defect call microcephaly.

Babies with the condition have abnormally small heads, and underdeveloped brains.

But until now, no effects on adult brains had been associated with the fast-spreading virus.

However, researchers revealed Zika has been found to cause adults to develop a brain infection called meningoencephalitis.

The infection involves inflammation of the brain and the tissue that covers the brain.

Scientists have now linked the Zika virus to a serious infection in adults called meningoencephalitis (pictured here, in a MRI scan), which causes inflammation of the brain - and the thin tissue that covers it

The discovery was made after the Zika virus was found in the spinal fluid of an 81-year-old man.

The patient had been admitted to a Paris hospital shortly after returning from a month-long cruise - at which point he was semi-comatose, with a high fever and partial paralysis.

Dr Guillaume Carteaux, of the Assistance PubliqueHopitaux de Paris, told AFP: 'It is the first case of its kind to be reported, to our knowledge.'

The mere presence of Zika in the man's system doesn't prove that the virus causes the infection.

Yet, Dr Carteaux said that 'other infectious causes, either viral or bacterial, have been ruled out.'

The team of researchers wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine that the man had been in good health before his four-week cruise, which made stops in New Zealand, New Caledonia, Vanuato and the Solomon Islands.

WHAT IS MENINGOENCEPHALITIS? The meninges are the layers of thin tissue that cover the brain. If these tissues become infected, its called meningitis. When the brain becomes inflamed or infected, the problem is called encephalitis. But if both the meninges and the brain are involved, the condition is called meningoencephalitis. Symptoms of meningoencephalitis include: Headache

Fever

Neck stiffness

Sensitivity to light

Seizures

Trouble thinking clearly

Personality changes

Unusual behaviors Unconsciousness Source: Johns Hopkins University Advertisement

Of the cruise stops, only New Caledonia is on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) list of places with Zika outbreaks.

The country was added on Wednesday to the CDC's Zika travel advisory - which has more than 30 destinations, mostly in Latin America or the Caribbean.

The researchers wrote: 'Clinicians should be aware that [Zika virus] may be associated with meningoencephalitis.'

Just one day before the report was published, another team of French researchers linked Zika to myelitis, an inflammation of the spinal cord.

Myelitis affects limb movement and causes paralysis by blocking communication between the spinal cord and body.

A 15-year-old girl had been diagnosed with acute myelitis in January on the French Caribbean island of Guadaloupe.

She was found to have high levels of Zika in her cerebrospinal fluid, urine and blood.

There is currently no treatment or vaccine for the Zika virus.

Zika typically only causes mild symptoms in adults - such as low fever, headaches and joint pain.

But the quick spread of the virus has raised global health alarms because of an obseved association with microcephaly and Guillain-Barre, a rare condition in which the body's immune system attacks the part of the nervous system that controls muscle strength.

Brazil has been hit hardest by the outbreak - with nearly 1.5 million affected and 745 confirmed cases of microcephaly in babies born to women infected with the virus.

Meningoencephalitis was detected in an 81-year-old man after returning from a cruise, researchers revealed. Zika was found in the man's spinal cord, and he was semi-comatose, with a high fever and partial paralysis

The virus had already been associated with brain damage in babies, largely through a birth defect called microcephaly (pictured). The defect causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads

The World Health Organization said 41 countries or territories have reported Zika transmissions within their borders since last year.

Additionally, nine countries have reported an increase in Guillain-Barre cases.

The rise in microcephaly cases and other birth defects so far has 'only been reported in Brazil and French Polynesia,' according to the WHO.

Next week, the WHO is meeting with the world's top experts on vector control to figure out whether a range of new methods could be safely - and efficiently - carried out against the Aedes aegypti mosquitos that transmit the virus.

Those methods include releasing genetically modified mosquitos, infecting mosquitos with a bacteria to prevent their eggs from hatching and stopping them from being able to transmit the virus, and releasing large numbers of sterilized male mosquitos to stop reproduction.

Also on Tuesday, the WHO said the sexual transmission of the Zika virus is more common than previously feared.

After a meeting of its emergency committee, the UN health agency warned there is increasing evidence that a spike in disturbing birth defects is caused by Zika.

The agency last month said the explosive outbreak in the Americas constitutes a global emergency.

WHO director-general Dr Margaret Chan said 'reports and investigations in several countries strongly suggest that sexual transmission of the virus is more common than previously assumed'.
AT THE EDGE OF THE ORCHARD by Tracy Chevalier (The Borough Press 16.99)

AT THE EDGE OF THE ORCHARD

by Tracy Chevalier

(The Borough Press 16.99)

In Ohios Black Swamp in 1838, James and Sadie Goodenough plant apple trees and battle over whether they should grow eaters or spitters (for cider).

Not long after, the combined toll of drink, violence, swamp fever, unremitting toil and the struggle to raise their family reaches a horrific resolution.

Fifteen years later, Robert, their deeply damaged son, is drifting ever westwards and ends up working for the Englishman William Lobb, who exports sequoia and redwood seedlings back to Britain.

As in Girl With A Pearl Earring, the period is powerfully realised - this is no sentimentalised view. So, too, is her characteristic trademark blending of fact and fiction by weaving in real characters.

A third of the way in, there is a shift in narrative, but it is skilfully calculated to reveal that it is the emotional landscapes of the pioneers that constitute the heart of this fine novel.

THE SUMMER BEFORE THE WAR by Helen Simonson (Bloomsbury 14.99)

THE SUMMER BEFORE THE WAR

by Helen Simonson

(Bloomsbury 14.99)

The hot English summer of 1914 lingers into the autumn and, in the coastal town of Rye, life continues as normal, the only high spot being the arrival of a female Latin teacher - too shocking - at the local school.

Unusually well-educated, Beatrice is the protegee of the independent-minded Agatha, whose nephews, Hugh and Daniel, take to Beatrice at once.

Over the course of the summer, relationships and feelings ripen, until the war turns everything on its head.

The author of Major Pettigrews Last Stand has written a quiet, but ultimately devastating, story of a society invaded by the death and violence from across the Channel.

Pinpointing the snobbery and rigidity of a social order that needed a good shake-up, it is gently satiric, but lovingly written. Dont be put off by the leisurely pace, for at its heart is shrewd observation and a memorable tenderness.

THE SILK MERCHANTS DAUGHTER by Dinah Jefferies (Viking 12.99)

THE SILK MERCHANTS DAUGHTER

by Dinah Jefferies

(Viking 12.99)

In the early Fifties, Vietnam is still a French colony, but there are indications of unrest.

Half-French, half-Vietnamese Nicole is more concerned that her French father has given the familys silk business to her enigmatic, beautiful older sister and fobbed Nicole off with an abandoned silk shop in Hanois Vietnamese quarter. Her jealousy and anger are such that she is slow to wake up to the dangerous political and social ferment threatening the French.

When the situation reaches boiling point, Nicole has to decide whether to throw in her lot with Tran, a Vietnamese insurgent, or with Mark, a handsome American trader.

The harsh choices and difficulties engendered by being neither one nationality nor the other in a chaotic time are particularly well conveyed.
MAESTRA by L. S. Hilton (Zaffre 12.99)

MAESTRA

by L. S. Hilton

(Zaffre 12.99)

Hilton was - until this book - principally known as an historian, who had also written two novels few people had heard of. This book changed all that.

Widely regarded as this years hot thriller, it is being compared to E. L. Jamess Fifty Shades Of Grey, so intense are its sex scenes.

Its been sold to 35 countries, and the film rights have been snapped up by Hollywood. The novel features a rapacious art historian named Judith Rashleigh, who works for a major London auction house by day and as a high-class companion in a drinking club by night.

It is her life after being fired from her day job that forms the story. Comparisons are being drawn with Patricia Highsmiths The Talented Mr Ripley, so amoral is Rashleigh, but those comparisons are odious. This novel utterly lacks Highsmiths delicate nuance.

Every effort is made to shock, and it contains some of the most egregious and manipulative murders and sexual encounters imaginable. At one point, the heroine describes a painting as sad, sneering and cheap, a phrase it would be safe to apply to this book.

FIRST RESPONSE by Stephen Leather (Hodder 14.99)

FIRST RESPONSE

by Stephen Leather

(Hodder 14.99)

Author of more than 30 novels, the prolific Leather is one of Britains biggest-selling thriller writers. He has the uncanny knack of producing plots that are all too real, and this is no exception.

It is the terrifyingly possible story of nine men in suicide vests who have taken hostages in nine different locations around London.

All insist that they will blow themselves and their hostages to smithereens unless the Government releases six jihadi prisoners held in Belmarsh top-security prison by 6pm that day.

In charge of the negotiations is a Muslim, Superintendent Mo Kamran of the Metropolitan Police, who has the assistance of MI5, the SAS and armed police officers. The difficulty is that the bombers refuse to negotiate at all until they have seen the prisoners released and flown out of the country on the rolling news coverage on television.

It is the authenticity of this plot that grasps the imagination and never lets it go.

THE PRIMROSE PATH by Rebecca Griffiths (Sphere 14.99)

THE PRIMROSE PATH

by Rebecca Griffiths

(Sphere 14.99)

This debut, from a former businesswoman who returned to her native Wales to write, superbly evokes both the brooding beauty of the countryside and the menace that can lurk behind its hedges.

It focuses on Sarah DVillez, who was in her teens 17 years ago when she was abducted and held hostage for 11 days by a man who is now about to be released from prison.

Her attempts to put the memories of her sexual abuse behind her by marrying and staying in London have failed and, with her abductor potentially able to find her, she isolates herself in a renovated barn in a small mid-Wales village, changes her name and dyes her blonde hair dark brown.

What she could not have predicted was that one new neighbour would be a peeping Tom, or that her mother - who didnt know where she was going or that she had dumped her name - would try to track her down.
WAKING LIONS by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen (Pushkin Press 12.99)

WAKING LIONS

by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen

(Pushkin Press 12.99)

Eitan Green is a good, conscientious hospital doctor in Israel, devoted to his wife and young children and dedicated to saving lives.

Which makes it all the more terrible when, driving home too fast on a deserted road in his SUV after another exhausting hospital shift, he hits an African migrant.

The man is clearly beyond help, and, in his shock and disbelief, Green flees the scene. Its a decision that will change his life in an extraordinary way.

For the next day, he is visited by the migrants wife - a tall, beautiful Eritrean - who is holding Eitans dropped wallet and who saw everything.

But it is not money that she wants. The price of her silence is something else entirely - something that will threaten everything that Eitan holds dear, a secret that will estrange him from his family, his career and, even more important, his sense of self. Can a good man still be good if he does one bad thing?

Waking Lions, the second novel from this young Israeli psychologist, whose debut, One Night, Markovitch, was highly acclaimed, is devastatingly good.

Its a literary thriller that is used as a vehicle to explore big moral issues. I loved everything about it.

HIS WHOLE LIFE by Elizabeth Hay (MacLehose 14.99)

HIS WHOLE LIFE

by Elizabeth Hay

(MacLehose 14.99)

On A car journey from New York to a lakeside cabin in Ontario with his American father and Canadian mother, ten-year-old Jim asks his parents what was the worst thing they ever did.

Jim is a worrier and, throughout this gentle narrative, which spans his youthful years, he remains essentially fretful - about his parents disintegrating marriage, about having a father he loved but could not admire, about his mothers anxiety that Quebec would elect to shear off from her beloved Canada in the 1995 referendum, about his mothers friend Lulu drinking too much, and about loyalty, forgiveness and the ambivalent nature of love.

Its a touching portrait of a sensitive, watchful boy growing up and understanding that life can be wonderful, but also full of uncertainties and loss.

Its an homage to nature, too: Elizabeth Hay vividly describes the landscape and seasons in her native country, where much of the story unfolds.

TRADING FUTURES by Jim Powell (Picador 12.99)

TRADING FUTURES

by Jim Powell

(Picador 12.99)

At 60, Matthew Oxenhay looks back on his life and doesnt like what he sees: a wife and children to whom he is largely indifferent, a house in Barnet that several decades of meaningless endeavour had procured, and a career in the City that had made him pots of money but given him no satisfaction whatsoever, especially now he has been passed over for the top job.

At his 60th birthday party, he flips and tells the assembled company, including his boss, just what he thinks of them.

Its all downhill from there, but entertainingly so - at least at first.

With his gallows humour and observational wit, Jim Powell gives us a vivid portrait of a man in meltdown.
CUCKOO

by Nick Davies

(Bloomsbury 9.99)

Traditionally, the cuckoo's distinctive call marks the end of winter's cold, dark days.

But this herald of spring is not such joyous news for all.

Every summer, millions of small birds have their eggs and chicks tossed aside by young cuckoos.

The interloper lays its eggs in the nests of other species and ejects the host eggs and its young in order to become sole occupant of the nest.

In Europe, most common cuckoo eggs are speckled, though the background colour varies. So the female bird needs to choose a host where the egg is a similar match, with some preferring to target meadow pipits, and others reed warblers.

Davies is an enthusiastic guide, taking us around Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire, his outdoor laboratory, where he describes the inventive and merciless methods of trickery that the birds use to dupe their hosts.

IN THE FAMILY WAY by Jane Robinson (Penguin 9.99)

IN THE FAMILY WAY

by Jane Robinson

(Penguin 9.99)

Continuing on the theme of cuckoldry comes Robinson's social history of illegitimacy between the Great War and the Swinging Sixties.

During wartime Britain, there were hotspots where the population of illegitimate children shot up.

One such place was Blackhill, County Durham, where the Grenadier Guards had been posted in 1940 and left 90 girls 'in the family way'. Mugshots of certain soldiers were displayed in newsagents' windows with 'Address Wanted' scrawled underneath to try to track down these assumed fathers for maintenance payments.

Today, it's hard to imagine the stigma, prejudice and hushed whispers surrounding a child born out of wedlock before the permissive age changed attitudes.

But Robinson's book, which draws on more than 100 interviews with unmarried parents and their children, is an important reminder of the uncomfortable past that cast out and punished single mothers and their babies.

SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES by Caitlin Doughty (Canongate 9.99)

SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES

by Caitlin Doughty

(Canongate 9.99)

When a person dies, they look 'very, very dead'. It sounds obvious, but Caitlin Doughty, who works as a crematorium operator in the U.S., says, if left untreated, a lifeless face looks positively horrific.

It's down to morticians to tinker with the droopy eyes and sagging lips to make the deceased look presentable.

Funeral directors become more like stage directors preparing for a performance, armed with eye caps and mouth formers ahead of a relative's visit.

On her first day at the family-run mortuary, aged 23, she was tasked with shaving an elderly man.

As she tried to close his eyes, his wrinkled eyelids 'popped back up like window shades'.
Even as the controversy around it refuses to die down, Art of Living (AOL) was given permission to organise the World Culture Festival by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Wednesday.

The bench refused to stay the event at this stage citing time constraints.

The NGT declined to issue a prohibitory order, though it observed that the information provided by AOL to authorities was incomplete, vague and uncertain.

A crowd of 3.5 million is expected to attend the Art of Living event

The NGT also imposed an environmental compensation of Rs 5 crore on AOL. It said a final amount would be decided by a court-appointed Principal Committee.

A scientific panel that the NGT had constituted has already recommended a fine of Rs 120 crore on AOL to restore the venue site on the Yamuna floodplain to its original condition.

Natural vegetation, marshland with reed beds, ecology, and the flora and fauna of the river have been disturbed, the panel report stated.

The bench, headed by Justice Swatanter Kumar, said AOL did not provide specific data that it would carry out such huge construction.

Safety concerns were raised primarily by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), which conveyed to the Delhi Police that the main dais was structurally unsafe.

In a letter dated March 9 to DCP (PM security), Special Director General (CPWD) Upendra Malik pointed out that corroded and worn out pipes have been used to construct the stage.

Preparations were underway at the venue as the controversy rumbled on

Securitymen inspect the spot. The PM is expected to visit the event, which has only increased safety concerns

The letter highlighted more loopholes: The system is further compromised by no ground preparation for creating levelled and firm ground for supporting structure, inadequate size of base plates resulting in excessive soil bearing pressure and non-staggering of splice joints creating weak links at some level in vertical members."

Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to pay a visit, these concerns assume greater significance. Nearly 35 lakh people may visit the venue over three days starting Friday.

The Special Protection Group (SPG) has also raised doubts over the preparations, and safety of the pontoon bridge.

The Delhi Police have raised concerns of a stampede and unmanageable chaos unless the shortcomings are addressed immediately.

On March 1, a police team had inspected the venue of the event and found certain shortcomings, especially with the stage where the Prime Minister and other VVIPs are to be seated, said a police source.

The stage for VVIPs did not have the mandatory structural certificate. The police communicated the matter to the Ministry of Urban Development. In the wake of security concerns, a separate stage is now being built for the Prime Minister.

During the court proceedings, the counsel for Art of Living, Saraswati Aksham Nath, sought to reject security concerns.

She said: It is true that a parallel stage is being erected for dignitaries, but its solely for their convenience. Our only aim is to conduct the event smoothly, with as little hassle to our VVIPs as possible. There is no safety issue involved.

Mail Today tried to contact AOL for its response on security concerns, but got no reply. Repeated phone calls and messages went unanswered.

Earlier in the day, when Mail Today visited the venue, Art of Living spokesperson Dinesh Ghodke said they were in constant touch with authorities to ensure security.

Apart from police personnel, our volunteers will ensure there is no chaos. We are discussing the matter with concerned authorities, Ghodke told Mail Today.

Sources said PM Modi, who was expected to inaugurate the event on March 11, is yet to take a call on the matter.

President Pranab Mukherjee, who was to deliver the valedictory speech, has already decided to give it a miss.

The World Culture Festival from March 11-13 is being held by Sri Sri Ravishankars NGO, Art of Living, to celebrate 35 years of humanitarian service, on the western bank of Yamuna.

The World Culture Festival website says a crowd of 3.5 million (35 lakh) is expected. Meanwhile, AOL said it would challenge the NGT order in Supreme Court.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar also tweeted that AOL was not satisfied with the NGT verdict and would appeal against it.

In its judgement on Wednesday, the NGT bench, headed by Chairperson, Justice Swatanter Kumar, said: For the reason of delay on the part of the petitioner (Manoj Misra) in approaching the tribunal and for the reason of fait accompli capable of restoration and restitution, we are unable to grant the prayer of prohibitory orderat this stage.

The court also fined the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) Rs 5 lakh and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee Rs. 1 lakh, saying, All authorities have abdicated their responsibilityonly passing the buckThey have failed to exercise due diligence in fulfilment of their public duties.

Petitioner Manoj Misra said: The NGT bench has thought it out well. Everyone, in this case, has faulted. There is a moral, ethical and financial question involved. It is time of introspection for us. Is it right to kill a river, revered in our holy books and essential to this city, like this?

AAP minister sought Army help for Sri Sri mega event

By Mail Today in New Delhi

AAP Minister Kapil Mishra wrote to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar to seek the Armys help in building extra pontoon bridges

While the Centre came in for criticism for extending support to Art of Livings World Culture Festival, the Delhi government was not far behind.

It was at the request of the Delhi government that the Army was roped in to construct an extra pontoon bridge across the Yamuna.

In a letter to the Union Defence Ministry, Delhis water resource minister Kapil Mishra had asked Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar to provide an adequate number of pontoon bridges over the river Yamuna.

In the letter dated February 16, Mishra said: A large number of people, who will be approaching the venue from Noida Link Road, will be required to cross Yamuna to reach the venue. This requires making of suitable, adequate and safe arrangements for people to reach the venue. Provision of adequate number of pontoon bridges on Yamuna (around four) is being seen as imperative for this purpose, Mishra said in the letter.

I am in favour of this event and now that the court has cleared the controversy we will try to make it a success. It will also boost Delhis tourism as people from so many foreign countries will take part here, Mishra told Mail Today, adding that he appreciates Armys move to construct second bridge after sending the letter.

For Swachh image, AOL wants Rs 53 lakh from government

By Kumar Kunal in New Delhi

Though the Art Of Living (AOL) event has received a green signal from the National Green Tribunal, the question arises of who will clear the waste generated by the millions of people who will be there for the event.

In a startling revelation, the foundation has sought Rs 53 lakh as sponsorship for making 500 makeshift toilets, acquiring 200 dustbins and appointing 200 Swachh Bharat Inspectors (volunteers) for the three-day cultural event on the banks of river Yamuna.

The Special Protection Group has raised doubts over the preparations, and the safety of the pontoon bridge

Interestingly, the AOL has demanded money under the Swachh Bharat Mission.

The cost of each toilet would be Rs 9,000, while dustbins would cost Rs 2,500 each. The total cost of 500 toilets would be Rs 45 lakh while total cost of 200 dustbins would be Rs 5 lakh only. To ensure cleanliness, they would appoint 200 volunteers as Swachh Bharat Inspectors. They would be paid Rs 1500 (for all days of the event) and would be given branded T-shirts and caps. This would cost Rs 3 lakh, the letter said.

These volunteers would stand next to dustbins and sensitise the people on the importance of segregating waste into biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste.

The letter was written by Tripta Dhawan, AOL trustee. The AOL letter claimed that around 35 lakh people are expected to attend the event, which includes dignitaries from India as well as other countries.

As such it will be a big event to showcase the initiatives taken by the Delhi government to keep the city clean and spread the message of cleanliness. On this momentous occasion where people in such large numbers congregate, it becomes eminent to keep the venue clean and showcase our country at its hygienic best, the letter said.

Interestingly, the Ministry of Urban Development has forwarded the letter of AOL to the Delhi government and asked them to explore the possibility of extending support to the organisers of the event.

As of now Delhi government has not taken any final decision on the funding of the sanitation work which will benefit the event.

City to face traffic mess this weekend

By Ankur Sharma in New Delhi

Brace up for traffic gridlock in Delhi over the weekend.

The mammoth gathering at the Art of Livings (AOL) World Cultural Festival in East Delhi along with the Radha Soami Satsang in South Delhi and marriages scheduled over the three days are set to choke the border points of the city.

According to officials, the AOL event is likely to cause traffic snarls on NH-24, Vikas Marg, Noida Link Road, Mayur Vihar, DND Flyway and Kalindi Kunj. Similarly, traffic will be affected on Delhi-Gurgaon stretch during the first half of the day.

During the evening, marriage parties are expected to add to the chaos across the city. To manage all this, there are only 5,500 traffic cops but the department has arranged for an additional 600 personnel for the job.

Senior officials claimed traffic cops will be made to work from 16 to 18 hours to handle the situation.
A high-profile lawyer is now in the crosshairs of the Narendra Modi government.

India Today has been able to exclusively access the inspection report of the Ministry of Home Affairs, which scrutinised the accounts of Lawyers Collective, a well-known NGO run by former additional solicitor general Indira Jaising.

The report has found glaring violations in the manner in which the NGO used the foreign donations received by it.

Former Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaising heads the NGO Lawyers Collective

According to the report, which is exclusively in the possession of India Today, Lawyers Collective received foreign contributions of Rs 32 crore between 2006 and 2014.

The MHA inspection team found that a large part of the money was spent on activities which were outside the list of items for which it had been collected.

Paying volunteers to organise dharnas, receiving foreign contributions while working for the government, sending foreign donations outside India, and spending foreign money to lobby with parliamentarians are some of the main violations listed in the report.

Under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act 2010, an Indian NGO can spend the foreign contributions only for the purpose for which the money has been collected.

Lawyers Collective has been given one month by the MHA to reply to the notice, after which legal proceedings will be initiated against the NGO.

According to the report, Rs 88,978 was paid to Delhi Network of Positive People on October 21, 2009 for paying 250 people for holding a dharna outside the Law Ministry.

They were paid Rs 200 each for food and conveyance to stage a protest for the HIV/AIDS Bill. To hold paid dharnas by utilising foreign contribution is a violation of Section 8 of the FCRA, 2010.

The report says that a large amount of foreign contribution was spent on air travel, boarding and lodging of Indira Jaisings husband Anand Grover and other members of the Lawyers Collective for draft legislation meetings and advocacy with MPs.

The report says Rs 13 lakh was spent on media and advocacy with 67 MPs in April 2010 and 99 MPs in August 2010.

According to the report, The utilisation of Foreign Contribution for advocacy indulging in lobbying with MPs and thereby influencing the political process and parliamentary institutions is in clear violation of the letter and spirit of the FCRA Act. Section 3 of the FCRA clearly prohibits acceptance of foreign contribution by any member of any party so that parliamentary institutions are not influenced in any manner."

The report also says that large sums of foreign contribution were used by Lawyers Collective for air travel and other expenses to attend conferences and charity dinners in different parts of the world.

This, according to the report, is a violation of Section 7 of the FCRA as there is no provision for using money received from abroad outside India.

The report also says that Jaising received compensation of Rs 96 lakh while she was the Additional Solicitor General during the UPA 2 governments tenure.

The report alleges that Jaisings travel expenses to Nepal and USA were borne by Lawyers Collective from the Foreign Contribution without approval of the MHA.

As a high-ranking legal officer of the Union government, Jaising was being paid a salary from government funds and receiving foreign contribution without government approval is a violation of Section 3 and 11 of the FCRA.

Lawyers Collective is a public interest NGO, established in 1981, which works in the areas of human rights, legal aid and litigation.

According to the NGO's website, it was created to provide expert legal assistance to the underprivileged, especially women and children, workers in the unorganised sector and other members of marginalised groups.

The action of the MHA is based on a complaint by an activist named Raj Kumar Sharma who alleged that Jaising had been misusing foreign funds received from international organisations like Ford Foundation, Open Society Institute and the Levi Strauss Foundation.

India Today spoke to Grover, a Trustee of Lawyers Collective. He said: This is a deliberate and mischievous attempt to tarnish our image. These notices are supposed to be confidential. We have filed a complaint with the Ministry of Home Affairs. We believe in the process of law and will respond to the notice which has been sent to us.
The Special Operation Group of the Jammu and Kashmir Police and the Army claim to have killed the handler of the attack on the Border Security Force convoy.

The cops, in an encounter in Awantipora, eliminated another militant. Both the militants are said to be foreign nationals and belonged to Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The encounter sparked protests in adjoining areas. Police used tear smoke shells to disperse the protesters. Police sources said around six to eight militants of Lashker-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen had convened a meeting in a field in Wandakhpora hamlet when the Army and the SOG started surrounding the area.

The attack on the BSF convoy in Udhampur left two personnel dead. One of the militants, Naved, was captured alive in the subsequent encounter.

While six militants, according to sources, succeeding in fleeing after a brief but heavy exchange of fire, two were killed in a nearby nursery of the agriculture department.

Inspector General of Police SJM Gilani confirmed that two militants were killed in the encounter and described the operation as pro-active while denying that the militants were planning to attack Indian Air Force base, around 7 km from the site of encounter.

The IGP identified one of the killed militant as Abu Ukasha from Pakistan and said he was the handler of the Udhampur attack on the Border Security Force on August 5, 2015. The attack had left two BSF men dead.

In the encounter that followed, a Pakistani militant Naveed was captured alive. The case is presently being investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Baber Nadeem, alias Hafiz, alias Ukasha, was group commander of LeT and was an A+ militant with over Rs 10 lakh reward on his head.

After the encounter, people from different hamlets of Pulwama district started protests shouting pro-freedom slogans. They also resorted to stonepelting on the police.
Liquor baron Vijay Mallya, once hailed as the king of good times, made a quiet exit to London via Delhi on March 2.

Mallya was a special passenger on board the London-bound Jet Airways flight 9W-122 from Terminal 3 of Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Highly-placed sources told Mail Today Mallya was inside T-3s premium lounge for nearly 60 minutes before he flew out. It is interesting to note that Mallya, chairman of the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines, chose to travel in a commercial flight and not one his private jets.

Industrialist Vijay Mallya caught a Jet Airways flight to London on 2 March. He recently expressed his intention to spend more time with his children, who are based in the UK.

Accompanied by a woman, Mallya travelled with as many as 11 bags, which official sources said were equivalent to the luggage of seven passengers on an average.

However, he faced no hassle in getting clearance as Jet Airways had deployed executives to assist Mallya. The business tycoon, now a defaulter of Rs 9,000 crore to various banks, was seated on 1D in business class of the aircraft.

Sources told Mail Today there was one more passenger in the business class on that flight: Mallyas female companion, a famous socialite whom the liquor baron has known for a long time.

According to sources, Mallya reached Delhi airport around 12pm on March 2. He entered the airport with his female companion.

Jet Airways staff were there to assist him and he was taken to the premium plaza lounge in T-3.

He was there for more than an hour. Jet Airways had deployed special staff for Mallya who attended to him. He used boarding gate number 1, sources said.

Sources said that when he entered Terminal-3, Mallya looked tense. As he was carrying excess luggage, the airline had deployed loaders.

Kingfisher employees protest against liquor baron Vijay Mallya for non-payment of dues outside Kingfishers office in Ville Parle in Mumbai

At the airport, Mallya and his female companion were served coffee and snacks. A number of people including some airport staffers had queued up to meet Mallya who was clearly the centre of attraction at the lounge, said the source.

Mallya tried to take a nap in the lounge, but couldnt, probably because he was tense. He walked very slowly when he was asked to proceed for boarding, sources said.

When Mail Today contacted Jet Airways, the airlines officials refused to come on record. According to sources, Mallyas tickets were booked a few hours before the flight.

Mallya enjoyed every facility extended to a special guest. It is uncertain whether Customs checked his extra baggage or not, sources said.

Mallya decided to take a commercial flight though he owns two private jets. It could be because if he had flown in a private jet, there would have been fresh controversy, a senior official said.

According to sources, there was no look-out notice on Mallya from the Immigration Bureau even though it had been asked to intimate the government if he travelled abroad.

When Mail Today contacted Mallyas UB group, the company did not respond to our queries.

According to sources, in London, Mallya may stay in a house near Madame Tussauds wax museum on Baker Street.

Mallya is being chased by almost every institution in the country - the banks, regulators and the judiciary - for Rs 9,000 crore that he owes to the lenders.

Voices rise in House over Mallya 'escape'

By Mail Today Bureau in New Delhi

While the Congress made allegations of a criminal conspiracy, saying Vijay Mallya was allowed to "escape", the government hit back insisting that the loans were given to him during UPA rule and he is no saint for them.

A war of words erupted between the government and the Opposition over the departure of Vijay Mallya in Parliament on Thursday.

Replying to the allegations, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said: There have been clear instructions that every possible action should be pursued to recover the money from Mallya, who owes Rs 9,091 crore to a consortium of banks led by SBI as of November 2015.

As the Congress alleged that Mallya had left India despite a Look Out Notice by the CBI, Jaitley said: That day, there was no order of any agency to stop him (from leaving the country).

He said Mallya had left the country before the banks moved the Supreme Court for seizure of his passport.

When the issue was raised in the Lok Sabha, MoS for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Pratap Rudy said: Mallya is no saint for us and he has not been given a single penny by the NDA Government.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said it was shocking that the UB group chairman, owing some Rs 10,000 crore dues to the SBI-led consortium of banks, fled to London on March 2. He claimed that in spite of warnings by the SBI law officer, no action was taken against the businessman.

The Congress, NCP and Left parties staged a walkout alleging that the governments response was not satisfactory and does not answer the points raised by them.

Mounting an attack in the Rajya Sabha, Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said: My allegation is that this government is party to this criminal conspiracy of allowing him to escape and leave the country. In this criminal conspiracy, this government should be made party and the Supreme Court should take note of this.

He claimed that without the participation and active support of this government, Mallya could not have left the country - and added that he should not be allowed to become the second Lalit Modi.

Countering charges by Azad, Jaitley said the banks have been asked to recover every penny that is due, adding that the first banking facility was given to Mallya and his firms in September 2004 which were renewed in February 2008.

He further said the accounts were declared non-performing assets (NPA) on April 30, 2009 and these debts were restructured and more facilites extended in December 2010.
What are the sociopolitical motivations behind the justice system's apathy over rape cases?

Recently, the International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT) hosted the Asian Womens Festival at the India International Centre.

Among the many stirring films screened there, I chanced upon a documentary, Encountering Injustice, on the struggle for justice for Meena Xalxo, a 15-year-old girl who was allegedly raped and murdered by the Chhattisgarh Police in 2011.

Indifference

It was a 12-minute film made by the WSS collective, and it showed Meenas parents chanting slogans and recounting the incident with tears in their eyes.

The number of women suffering rape and abuse in India is rising - but victims are often met with apathy

Despite their apparent vulnerability they appeared undeterred in their quest even after four years of running from pillar to post to get justice.

It is unfortunate that this is not a solitary incident. The indifference and apathy towards women and girls who have been violated, gang-raped or abused are steadily growing; a recent study indicates that the figures have grown from 16,496 in 2000 to 24,206 in 2011.

One does wish that in the face of the increasing violence, justice could be swifter and more sympathetic to the women and girls, boys under the age of 10 years, and others from minority groups like the transgender community who suffer sexual violence on a more subtle and regular basis since many of them are forced into sex work.

The sad truth is that justice moves at a glacial pace. In many countries in Asia and Africa, justice for survivors of sexual violence comes after they are dead.

The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), in its report on Gender Equality: Striving for Justice in an Unequal World, indicates that often cases of mass genocide and rape go unpunished due to lack of political will, poor quality of investigations, or because those conducting the fact-finding are biased into ignoring the evidence.

Another study indicated that in situations of armed conflict, approximately 50 per cent of the uprooted population is women and girls whose lives and personal freedom are continuously being threatened - and they have all at some stage faced sexual violence in the form of rape and molestation.

According to the report, the sexual violence committed in Assam/ the Northeast region has been synonymised as a form of collateral damage, making the quest for justice against such crimes look like a casual endeavour.

Social notions of women as the honour and dignity of the family and community are a major hurdle that blocks the road to justice for women.

High-profile

Some of the most high-profile cases have been Manorama in Manipur (2004), Khairlanji rapes and killings (2006), Nilofer and Asiya in Kashmir (2009) and the custodial torture of Soni Sori (2011).

The report also documents several other cases not reported at all - the alleged mass rape of several Pardhi women in Madhya Pradesh, of whom one was murdered (2007); the alleged custodial gang-rape of 50-year-old Janki Bai in MP (2009); and the alleged attempted rape by a soldier of the Indian Army in Dolopa.

There was also the widely reported Nirbhaya gang-rape case (2013), where the victim was a medical student who was brutally raped on a bus. While the high-profile nature of the case drew much empathy for the aggrieved parents, one of the rapists was allowed to walk free on account of being a juvenile.

A lesser-known statistic is that there were nearly a dozen cases of rape in neighbouring Haryana right after the Delhi incident occurred. In one instance, the men circulated video clips of the act, which led to the father of the girl committing suicide.

These are just a small percentage of the cases that have come to light.

Sanhati.com reports further disturbing figures. A study by doctors of the Department of Forensic Science & Toxicology, AIIMS, Delhi, reported that in most cases the rape victims were women from poor backgrounds and 80 per cent of the cases, the perpetrators were known to the victims.

Conviction

The indifferent functioning of police, the delays of the criminal justice system, and low rates of conviction contributed to a sense of impunity among the rapists.

Additionally in the Capital just 7 per cent of police officers are women, and they are frequently given inconsequential posts that dont involve patrol duty.

It does not take rocket science to figure out that we in India need a more sympathetic justice system that will bring the perpetrators of sexual violence to justice in a swifter and more efficient manner.

Oomen Chandy announced a special Nirbhaya scheme for the safety of women in Kerala. The chief minister has gone on record saying that special fasttrack courts would be set up for the early disposal of sexual harassment cases and other cases involving violence against women.

Through the innovative scheme, the government aims at making the state women-friendly where women can safely travel even at midnight.

The efficient functioning of any scheme depends on the intention of its people. Will Kerala, with its high literacy rate, set the bar for the rest of the country? One can only hope so.
Students of JNU condemned the attack on Kanhaiya, saying it did not "represent people's sentiments".

JNU Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar was allegedly attacked inside the campus while he was attending a lecture on nationalism at the administration block on Thursday.

According to police, the attacker was not from the university but came from outside. He has been identified as Vikas Chaudhary and hails from Ghaziabad.

Students and teachers present at the time of the incident said that Kanhaiya was attending the lecture on nationalism at the administration block when he was called by the attacker for some interaction.

Kanhaiya was asked for a dialogue, and when he went to talk to him, the man started abusing him and later hit and slapped him. Students present at the spot rushed to his rescue.

The accused was held by security guards, an eyewitness said. He was taken to Vasant Vihar police station, where he was questioned.

Chaudhary told the cops that he wanted to teach him a lesson for his comments made about the Indian Army.

Students of JNU condemned the attack on Kanhaiya and blamed right-wing individuals for the incident, saying these attacks create an atmosphere of hostility inside the campus.

Such attacks do not represent peoples sentiments. The people of India stand with JNU. Attacks like these are the handiwork of RSS and its affiliated outfits. These do not represent the general mood of the people. The people have seen through BJPs attempts to undermine democracy and dissent, Rama Naga, General Secretary, JNUSU said.

This is the third alleged attack on Kanhaiya, who waded into controversy after he was arrested by the Delhi Police for his alleged involvement in a February 9 event at the university campus that commemorated parliament attack convict Afzal Gurus hanging. The event saw some anti-national slogans being raised.

Kanhaiya was attacked earlier by lawyers outside the Patiala House court complex while the police were escorting him inside the court premises.

The same set of lawyers attacked him again at the same venue, a day later.

The students and teachers of the varsity had expressed apprehension about Kanhaiyas security after he was attacked by the group of lawyers in Patiala Court premises on February 17.
Immediately after his conditional release on bail, Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar showed us that he has all the makings of a politician.

He message changed from azaadi from India, which banners held at JNU had once displayed, to azaadi in India.

However, the debate over nationalism sparked by Kanhaiyas arrest and subsequent release, misses the point.

JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar was booked for sedition over an event held on the university campus in which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised

National interest has one definition, whereas Nationalism has many.

In a free society, practice whatever interpretation of nationalism you want, but dont compromise on national interest.

Kanhaiya may be guilty of many things, but sedition is not one of them.

Remember what we were all told at university: If youre not a communist before 30, you dont have a heart. If youre still a communist after 30, you dont have a brain.

Kanhaiya Kumar is 28, so he has a couple of years to make up his mind.

Ambition

Kanhaiya Kumar surprised everyone with his speech after being released on bail from Tihar Jail

Why are so many otherwise intelligent people looking at Kanhaiya as the new Arvind Kejriwal?

The argument goes thus: Kejriwal is lost to electoral politics, whereas Kanhaiya is pure, idealistic and unspoilt by ambition.

The people who say this are united by a common cause: undermining the leadership of PM Narendra Modi.

To them Kanhaiya is yet another tool to chip-away at Modis legitimacy.

Modi is just so gauche, shudders one Lutyens lady, who has spent a decade climbing the social ladder to arrive at her current perch.

Others have more serious complaints. The PM hasnt delivered on several fronts, making him a vulnerable target.

Modi has come under increasing attack from the Congress and its loyal following of lawyers, journalists, bureaucrats, and beady-eyed power-brokers who trawl Delhi.

The anti-Modi coalition got to work within months of the Congresss rout in May 2014.

In Gujarat, a Patidar revolt was engineered with Hardik Patel projected as a 22-year-old giant-killer, while in Haryana the Jats were egged on to commit horrific acts of violence.

Students are the latest instruments in a political attack directed expertly from the leafy heart of Lutyens Delhi.

The Modi government presents a juicy target. It lacks talent in Cabinet and Parliament. It is hamstrung by an ideologically moribund RSS - and perhaps worst of all, poisoned by enemies within.

Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal, and Nitish Kumar are justified in feeling that their strategy of de-legitimising the Modi government is well on track.

Every time the PM pummels Rahul in Parliament, as he did in his speech last week, the dissidents within the BJP come to the Congress aid with calculated barbs.

By not acting decisively against these elements, Modi is making a serious mistake.

Freedom

Freedom: The JNUSU president has changed his demand from 'azaadi from India', to 'azaadi in India'

But what of the JNUSU President? Read Kumar's speech carefully: Is it wrong to ask for azaadi from the problems that are existing in the country?

"Brother, its not from India, but its in India that we are seeking azaadi.

"And theres a difference between from and in. The azaadi we are asking for is from starvation and poverty, from exploitation and torment; for the rights of Dalits, tribals, minorities and women.

"And that azaadi we will ensure through this very Constitution, Parliament and judiciary. This was Babasahebs dream, and this is Comrade Rohiths (Vemula) dream.

Unfortunately, theres not a syllable here that has not been debated eloquently in Parliament, reported extensively in the media, and argued fiercely in the Supreme Court.

The plight of Dalits, tribals, minorities, the poor, the starving and the marginalised in our society shames us all.

But who does it shame most of all? Those who governed India for 56 of 68 years.

Does Kanhaiya have a single word of even mild chastisement for them? No, not a word. No mention either in his speech of the Congress role in failing to remove poverty despite nearly six decades in power.

No mention of the serial scams of the past UPA decade that stole the wealth of all Indians, especially those Kanhaiyas heart rightly bleeds most for: the desperately poor.

Their food subsidies and MNREGA wages were cruelly siphoned off.

Sacrifice

Lacking Originality: Everything Kumar argues has already been debated eloquently in Parliament, reported extensively in the media, and argued fiercely in the Supreme Court

In his anguish, Kanhaiya does mention the sacrifice of our soldiers - but again says not a word against those who kill them.

Instead this is what he said: Who is responsible for deaths of soldiers?

"And in Parliament, who are you playing politics with?

"Who will take responsibility for those dying?

"Not the ones who are fighting, but rather the people making us fight

"So who is responsible for war?

Not a word against the perpetrators of terrorism from Pakistan but misdirected fulminations against people making us fight as if Pakistans decades-long terrorism directed against India is, somehow perversely, Indias fault.

Kanhaiya doesnt say a word against Sonia Gandhi or Rahul whose family has governed India - the India he decries - for six decades.

He doesnt say a word either against his Left cohabitors who ruined West Bengal with a mixture of violence and povertarian politics.

But he has no such qualms about the PM, telling the a national daily that the student movement would continue until - the ruling alliance was thrown out of power.

Theres nothing wrong with opposing the government. But to treat Kanhaiya as a messiah when he hasnt uttered a single original thought, merely parroting an ultra-Left ideology, is as wrongheaded as the government charging him with sedition.
Everybody talks about the way the countrys depressed agriculture sector, the main source of income for 40 per cent of our population, has been pulling down our growth figures.

But does anyone really care about what our farmers have to offer and how our traditional crops can be turned into money-spinners with some intelligent marketing?

I kept asking these questions when I recently met Puneet Jhajharia and Ishira Mehta, who gave up lucrative, settled careers to try to solve the problem.

Kiwis from Arunachal Pradesh are 30 per cent cheaper, yet theyre sold in Delhi with foreign labels and at prices commanded by the imported fruit so that people buy them

Puneet (who had been developing technology solutions for Wall Street) and Ishira (who was with the International Finance Corporation after after a stint with NGO Self Employed Womens Association) launched CropConnect with the purpose of discovering hidden gems in our fields and getting them onto the table.

It is a very different startup in a market driven mainly by the urban hunger for a better lifestyle.

To set it up, the pair criss-crossed India - across 70,000 kilometres - to contact farmers and see for themselves whats pulling the sector back.

Of all the stories they shared with me, I found the one about kiwis grown in Arunachal Pradesh most telling.

India imports 4,000 tonnes of kiwis from New Zealand, Italy and Chile - the most favoured brand name being Zespry - but those grown in Arunachal Pradesh sell for 30 per cent lower than the price commanded by the multinational.

Over the last three years, Puneet and Ishira have seen Arunachals kiwis struggle to gain a toehold in the national market; ironically, there are no takers if theyre identified as locally sourced and cheaper to boot.

What is more worrying is that many of the traditional crops, some with healing properties, are getting lost forever

Fruit wholesalers therefore have hit upon a novel idea, as Puneet and Ishita have discovered, to clear domestic kiwi stock and make more money.

They sell them under a foreign label at prices commanded by the imported fruit.

Does that benefit Arunachals kiwi farmers?

Well, the market subterfuge does ensure their stocks dont remain unsold, but do they benefit from the higher prices their produce now commands? No way!

The north-east especially, Puneet and Ishira have discovered as they go about 'mapping the gap between the consumer and the producer', is a treasure trove of products that deserve to be better known in the rest of the country. These include Nagalands pineapples, Meghalayas ginger and turmeric, Manipur black rice and passion fruit, and the badi elaichi from Arunachal and Sikkim.

What is more worrying is that many of the traditional crops, some with healing properties, are getting lost forever.

These include Karnatakas Diana rice, which has been found to be beneficial for diabetics. And then there are products just waiting to be discovered, such as jamun powder from Jharkhand (again, beneficial for diabetics); bajra whole wheat biscuits from Jhajjar (Haryana) and bamboo rice from the seeds of bamboo blossoms growing in Karnataka.

There's also jhangora or barnyard millet, from Uttarakhand, which is now being hailed as an alternative to quinoa (for which production cannot match the worldwide demand); and another hugely beneficial product from the hill state - nettle tea. That's not all.

Many of the local products can be sexed up for the urban palate, such as the vinaigrette developed from the ubiquitous rhododendron flowers growing in Uttarakhand, or the rock salt flavoured with bhangjeera seeds.

And then there's the white munsiari kidney beans (rajma), which are accompanied by a sachet of the herb named gandrayani, which reduces the possibility of flatulence resulting from intake of the beans.

These diverse ingredients, sourced from 10 farmers groups from across India, find a place in the Original Indian Table boxes that Puneet and Ishita are test-marketing via their online store, www.originalindiantable.com.

These are baby steps that they hope will lead to the creation of an FMCG brand dedicated to the traditional produce of India- neatly packaged and intelligently marketed.

Its a commendable and creative initiative, but one is not good enough.

Indian farmers need many more CropConnects to enable them to enter the marketplace without middlemen getting into the picture. Let the free market work in their favour too.

Why Delhi doesnt have food trucks

When I was dating my then girlfriend (and wife of 23 years) - and gourmet meals were the last thing on our youth-intoxicated minds - our source of sustenance was a rickety neighbourhood van that went by the name of Nehas Treats (it continues, by the way, to be as shocking to the eyes and does more business than ever).

Its menu was allegedly Chinese - plenty of ajinomoto-and-chilli-paste-spiked chicken manchurian and chow mein jostling for attention with American chop suey of a shock-inducing colour.

The van was not far from the neighbourhood garbage dump, it looked as if it had not been cleaned for years, but we loved the food (maybe because it mattered the least at that point in time).

Globally, food trucks are a celebrated part of cityscapes but in Delhi, its illegal to operate one. (Picture for representation)

Well, having survived to narrate the story, I can assure you that we never fell ill because of Nehas Treats.

Food vans were once a regular sight on Delhis streetscape. Today, although Gurgaon has green-lighted food trucks (the global fad that has ceased to make news even as Indian cities struggle to accept them as legal entities), the capital has been denied its share of simple joys.

Apparently, back in 1982, keeping the Asian Games in mind, the then government had issued 100 licences to vans selling food (I particularly remember the one outside the Hindustan Times Building on Kasturba Gandhi Marg).

And then - and I dont know what prevailed upon the powers-that-be - no licences were ever issued.

Of the vans that belonged to the 100 original licencees, just 20 are still in operation.

Indian tuna goes up the price charts in Tokyo

Demand - and prices - for Indian yellow-fin tuna are steadily rising abroad

During a recent a conversation with Executive Chef Dharmendra Makwana of The Leela Palace Chennai he informed me, tongue very much in cheek, that sashimi-grade yellowfin tuna from the coast of Andhra Pradesh was now a prized commodity in Tokyos Tsukiji Market.

Ironically, yellowfin tuna off the coast of Visakhapatnam, weighs around 50 kilos and can be bought locally at Rs 200 a kilo.

But it is sold for Rs 800 to Rs 1,000 a kilo when it leaves for the export market, and touches the equivalent of Rs 7,000 a kilo when it reaches Tsukiji - widely considered the 'Wall Street' of the global fish trade - and gets auctioned.

The same tuna then travels back to five-star hotels in India at that humongous price.

Indian yellowfin tuna (and its cousins from Sri Lanka and the Maldives) is becoming the most sought-after source of sashimi in a world whose hunger for raw fish has ensured the depletion of the Tokyo Sea and many of the old fishing grounds in the Pacific Ocean.
Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj

A minister getting praise from the Opposition is unusual in Parliament.

The Lok Sabha witnessed such a rare phenomenon on Wednesday when Sushma Swaraj was hailed for her work in helping Indians in distress abroad.

AAP MPs Bhagwant Maan, Dharamveer Bharti joined BJD leader BJ Panda and RJD MP Pappu Yadav in thanking Swaraj for her prompt response.

Sushma returned the compliments by thanking all with folded hands.

Another hurrah for IAFs women

The sky is not the only domain in which the IAFs women officers are scripting glory.

Just when three women flight cadets are training to become fighter pilots, a set of women officers have made it to the prestigious Defence Services Staff College at Wellington.

Wing commanders Sapna Devi and D Malik and squadron leaders S Batra and Avadhi are undergoing the course that will prepare them for command roles.

This is the first time when women officers are undergoing this course.

Kurien pulls up ministers in RS

Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien pulled up Power Minister Piyush Goyal and senior BJP member VP Singh Badnore for repeatedly speaking while he was trying to restore order.

Trouble broke out when Opposition parties took on the government for allowing the Indian Army to be used for a private event.

Kurien reprimanded Goyal and Badnore for not heeding his words and asked the ministers to behave themselves in the House.

Government's World Sufi Forum draws flak

The World Sufi Forum which starts on March 17 seems to be heading for a shaky start.

Ahead of the event expected to be attended by PM Narendra Modi, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind accused the government of spreading hatred against the minority community.

I don't know if he (Modi) is going there or not, but if a section of Muslims is being held close and other is being ignored, hatred is being spread in minds of people, then this is bad for the country, chief Maulana Syed Arshad Madani said.

Vikram Chauhans Harvard lawyer

Advocate Vikram Chauhan, who is facing a contempt plea in the Supreme Court, fielded a Harvard Law graduate with an American accent to defend him.

As the hearing began and his lawyer Karamvir Dahiya started making submissions, other advocates were heard asking who the foreign lawyer was.
Another day, another house - but the target of Prime Minister Narendra Modis attacks remain the same.

Having prompted red faces on the Congress bench in the Lok Sabha, Modi went even further this time by comparing the largest Opposition party to death.

In his reply in the Rajya Sabha to the motion of thanks on the Presidents address, Modi said that -like death - the Congress was also above criticism.

Prime Minister Modi reached out to the non-Congress Opposition parties in the Rajya Sabha: 'Let us pass those bills passed in the Lok Sabha as soon as possible and give impetus to Indias progress,' he said

Ek baat zaroor haimrityu ko kabhi dosh nahi lagta. Mrityu kabhi badnam nahi hoti. Kabhi kabhi lagta hai Congress ko aisa koi vardan hai. Vardaan is arth mein hai ki agar hum Congress ki alochna karein, to aap ne media pe dekha hoga ki vipaksh pe hamla, vipaksh par arop. Kabhi ye nahi aata ki Congress pe hamla, Congress pe arop

"(Death is blessed that it doesnt get defamed. Sometimes it seems that the Congress also has a similar blessing. Whenever we attack or criticise the Congress, media calls it an attack on the Opposition; or an accusation against the Opposition).

The PM gave a detailed presentation of his governments achievements and his style of functioning using barbs, sarcasm, and poetry against his opponents.

Quoting Nida Fazli, the PM threw a challenge at the Congress stressing that he will chart his own course.

The tone of the PM's speech in the Upper House was less combative than in the Lok Sabha last week, where he had taken on Rahul Gandhi in a point-by-point rebuttal of the Congress vice-presidents speech attacking the government.

Modi hit back at the Congress leaders criticism of his policies by detailing schemes and initiatives, also telling the opposition party: You are looking at my work through a microscope. Had you used a binocular and critiqued your own initiatives while you were in power, then it would have been better.

Modi praised the Rajya Sabha as a chamber of ideas and insisted on coordination between both Houses.

[The] Nation is waiting for us to pass many Bills. Let us pass those Bills passed in the Lok Sabha as soon as possible and give impetus to Indias progress, he said.

Modis comments were seen as an attempt to reach out to non-Congress Opposition parties as the government is unlikely to cobble together a majority in the Rajya Sabha on its own for at least the next two years.

Modi appreciated the cooperation of members in the present session and said unlike in previous sessions, the proceedings were going smoothly.

But he attacked Rahul Gandhi, saying there are two kinds of people - the type who work; and the type who take the credit.

If they had done so much hard work when they were in power, they wouldnt be here, Modi said while blaming previous Congress governments for the crises the country finds itself in.
Vijay Mallya is said to have fled India a week ago and is 'most likely' in the United Kingdom

The Vijay Mallya loan default case in the Supreme Court (SC) took a dramatic turn on Wednesday when the attorney general revealed he left India a week ago.

AG Mukul Rohatgi dropped the bombshell that the liquor baron was 'probably in the UK' as the bench heard pleas filed by 17 public sector banks to stop the businessman from going abroad.

Justices Kurian Joseph and RF Nariman then issued a notice to Mallya as the banks sought his immediate summoning and impounding of passport.

Rohatgi told the bench: 'I spoke to the CBI little while ago and it told me that on March 2 he (Mallya) left the country.'

The judges gave permission for the notice to Mallya to be served through his official Rajya Sabha email address, his company, the Indian high Commission in London and also through the counsel representing him before various High Courts (HCs) and Debt Recovery Tribunal.

Mallya was asked to file his response within two weeks. The next hearing is on March 30.

Led by State Bank of India, the consortium of banks is struggling to recover the Rs 9,000-crore dues from Kingfisher Airlines (KFA).

Rohatgi said that 'on one pretext or the other, Mallya has avoided settling the dues'.

He confirmed that the banks want an order that Mallya should appear in person before the SC and his passport should be frozen.

'He has assets, both movable and immovable, abroad which are far excessive to loans secured by him here', the AG added.

At this, the bench wanted to know how the banks have granted him loans under such circumstances. It also asked why loans were extended to him when he had defaulted and was facing proceedings in court of law.

A Kingfisher Airlines protest against Vijay Mallya outside its office at Vile Parle, Mumbai

Rohatgi said that the loans were granted bearing in mind that KFA had a fleet of aircraft as well as brand value, and also on the basis that the logo and the aircraft were attached to the third party.

He stressed that the banks are not after Mallyas blood - but only want his passport to be impounded until the loan recovery proceedings are over.

Meanwhile, the Bombay HC said that it would hear on March 11 a service tax departments plea to recover government dues running into crores from Mallya and other directors.

The petition also seeks the freezing of Mallyas passport and restriction on his movement abroad.

The department claimed that Mallya had collected large sums of money from passengers as service tax, but he and other directors (of the airline) had not deposited the amount in government treasury.

Mallya left despite CBI lookout notice

Vijay Mallya - facing probe in a loan default case of the IDBI bank - apparently managed to leave the country despite of a lookout notice against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

CBI sources claimed that the agency had taken all legally-permissible precautions, including issuance of lookout notices to all exit points, to prevent any such move on Mallyas part - but he still managed to escape.

Even eight months after being recommended by its officer, the CBI has not been able to send any letters rogatory (LRs) to countries where the money taken as loans from IDBI was allegedly diverted by officials of now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines (KFA).

The CBI suspects that a major chunk of the loans was used for foreign remittance towards lease rentals, purchase of parts of aircraft.
Every state in India has been ordered to sterilise and vaccinate all stray dogs on its streets in a bid to control the population and the spread of rabies.

In a landmark ruling yesterday, the Supreme Court directed Delhi and all other states to carry out the procedure under the supervision of the Animal Welfare Board of India.

But a bench headed by justice Dipak Misra took note of the submission of the amicus curiae (the senior lawyer assisting the court) that dogs are not presently being sterilised by authorities, either due to lack of funds or apathy.

Stray dogs are not being sterilised in many areas at present due to lack of funds

The order said: 'We direct that the dogs which are required to be sterilised or vaccinated, the procedure shall be carried out in accordance with the act and rules and no organisation shall create any kind of obstacle or impediment.

'It shall be the obligation of the board to oversee that this is being carried out and no obstructions are created in this regard from any quarter'.

Welcoming the order, Arpan Sharma, director of the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations, said: 'Lack of effort from local bodies in dog population management is evident from the fact that north and east Delhi municipal corporations sterilised just 19,805 and 22,179 dogs respectively between 2012 and 2015.

'Further the fund allocation for animal birth control in the country has been extremely meagre with a paltry sum of Rs 96.84 lakh being allocated in 2014-15 and similar declining amounts in subsequent years. This is clearly grossly inadequate for a country of Indias size.'

The court passed an interim order on a petition of animal rights groups against the culling of dogs by some state governments like Kerala and Maharashtra.

In November 2015, the SC had allowed the municipal authorities in the country to eliminate stray dogs which cannot be cured.

The court is reviewing rules which allowed municipal commissioners in most states to order killing of troublesome stray dogs.

Justice Misra had said at the last hearing on February 2 that the courts task would be to end the 'anomaly and incongruity' between different rules which existed on the issue.

For example, the municipal act in several states gave the commissioner the discretion to euthanise the dogs on receiving a complaint. But the central act suggested something different.

The Animal Birth Control Rules (ABC rules) formulated under Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960 mandated the killing of only rabies afflicted, incurably ill or mortally wounded dogs.
The Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) has failed to meet its target as efforts from the private sector in the initiative are meagre, research has claimed.

According to the study, the private sector has contributed towards only 4.7 per cent of tuberculosis (Bacillus CalmetteGuerin or BCG), 3.5 pc of measles, 2.3 pc of Diphtheria Pertussis Tetanus (DPT3), and 7.6 pc of polio (OPV3) vaccinations in 16 states over the past three years.

It also showed certain low-income states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Assam and Bihar have low private as well as public sector vaccination coverage.

Certain low-income states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Assam, and Bihar have low private and public sector vaccination coverage

The Department of Global Health, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, USA and Indian Institute of Public Health, Public Health Foundation of India carried out the research.

Abhishek Sharma, School of Public Health, Boston, said: 'The private sectors role has been limited primarily to the high income states as opposed to these low income states where the majority of Indian children live.

'Urban areas with good access to the private sector and the ability to pay increases the Indian populations willingness to access private-sector vaccination services.'

Researchers analysed the health data on Indian private-sector vaccine sales, 2011 Indian Census data and national household surveys to estimate the percentage of immunised children among the 200912 birth cohort who received a given vaccine in the private sector in 16 Indian states.

'We also analysed the estimated private-sector vaccine shares as a function of state-specific socio-economic status. UIP provides basic vaccines free-of-cost in the public sector, yet national vaccination coverage is poor.

'The Indian government has urged an expanded role for the private sector to help achieve universal immunisation coverage,' said Sharma.

'In India, the public sector offers vaccination services to the majority of the population but the private sector should not be neglected as it could potentially improve overall vaccination coverage,' he added.
With Art of Livings World Culture Festival set to begin on Friday, major traffic snarls may grip arterial roads in East Delhi.

Four major roads - NH-24, Ring Road, Noida Link Road and DND Flyway are expected to witness heavy traffic. Delhi Traffic Police have imposed 13 major traffic diversions to avoid inconvenience to general commuters.

Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Muktesh Chander, who is charting out the traffic plan for the event, visited the venue on Thursday to take stock of the arrangements.

The World Culture Festival on Yamuna floodplain has raised traffic concerns

Organisers have made provisions for parking on the Yamuna bank.

The space is limited, so parking will be on a first-come-first-served basis, he said.

People should preferably take public transport to commute and avoid the Noida Link Road, NH-24 and the Ring Road stretch from the point of intersection with Bhairon Marg till the mouth of the DND Flyway, a traffic official said, adding that congestion can be expected on these stretches between 12 noon and 11pm.

The official further said that those approaching from the trans-Yamuna region towards central Delhi should use the ITO road as Akshardham and NH-24 will be congested.

Art of Living's World Culture Festival will be held as per the plan, despite the organisers refusing to pay the fine imposed by the NGT

Commuters from Noida heading towards Delhi should take the DND Flyway as traffic on the Noida link road is expected to be heavy during the event, he added.

Meanwhile, security arrangements for the event on the western bank of Yamuna across DND Flyway were heightened on Thursday.

Several specialised police units and all the 11 districts have been roped in amidst an uncertainty regarding the total footfall, which the three-day event would witness.

Police has also charted out a traffic plan to make sure that the arterial roads in the Capital are not clogged during the event.

Police again inspected the venue and prepared a status report that was submitted to a joint secretary-rank official in-charge of supervising the security arrangements, a senior official said.

A few shortcomings listed in the status report includes lack of direction boards, no fencing on the path leading to the venue, especially from Gate No. 10 and 11, which will give an access to the general public and inadequate CCTV cameras.

The official said that these shortcomings have been communicated to the organisers.

The report contains dozens of photographs of the site on the Yamuna floodplains and also highlights the absence of fencing and barricading on the pontoon bridges (floating bridges) constructed there, the senior official said.

A meeting chaired by the Special Commissioner of Police (Law & Order) was held at the venue today and security for the event was further stepped up.

Around 6,000 personnel from all the districts of Delhi Police and its specialised units like the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and Special Cell will be deployed at the World Culture Festival.

A special police control room would also be set up to ensure round-the-clock monitoring.

Art of Living is yet to deposit Rs 5 crore fine

By Mail Today Bureau

Sri Sri Ravi Shankars Art Of Living (AOL) Foundation has until Friday to deposit Rs 5 crore as the environmental compensation imposed on it by the National Green Tribunal, the court said on Thursday.

NGT made it clear that the law will take its own course if it (AOL) fails to do so.

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) informed NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar that AOL had not paid the fine.

In its final judgment on a petition against AOLs World Culture Festival being held on the Yamuna floodplain, the NGT had asked the organisation to pay Rs 5 crore to restore the damaged river site.

It was to hand over this amount to DDA a day before the event, that is March 10.

Mail Today could not independently verify if AOL had paid the amount before the newspaper went to press.
Retired Baltimore police officer Jeffrey G Bolger is set to receive $45,000 in back pay for about ten months he missed while on unpaid leave

A former Baltimore police officer acquitted of animal-cruelty charges after he slit a dog's throat while trying to restrain it is in line to receive $45,000 in back pay from the city.

Baltimores Board of Estimates is expected on Wednesday to approve a deal in which Jeffrey G Bolger, a retired 20-year veteran of the department, will be compensated for about ten months he missed while on unpaid leave from the citys police department.

Bolger, 50, was cleared in November of all charges stemming from the June 2014 killing of a seven-year-old Shar Pei named Nala.

Bolger had been charged with mutilating an animal, animal cruelty and misconduct in office.

A judge ruled that Bolger and another officer involved thought the dog was dangerous.

The killing was called outrageous and unacceptable by police commanders, who also accused Bolger of threatening to [expletive] gut this thing, according to the Baltimore Sun.

But the judge said evidence indicated the Bolger believed he was was putting the god out of its misery and acting in the interest of safety.

Under the police union contract, Bolger is entitled to back wages from June 2014 to March 2014, the months in which was was suspended from the force.

Bolger was then forced to retire from the department early, according to his lawyer.

The June 14, 2014, incident occurred after the dog bit a pregnant woman and Bolger and another officer intervened, believing the dog was dangerous.

Prosecutors argued that Bolger's actions were cruel and inhumane.

Bolger had said he thought the dog had strangled itself on the dog pole, and he was trying to spare it additional pain.

The judge said that she believed the dog was dead before Bolger cut its throat.

Bolger, 50, was cleared in November of all charges stemming from the June 2014 killing of a seven-year-old Shar Pei named Nala, pictured left with her owner, Sarah Gossard

Kathryn Nepote, the veterinarian that conducted the dog's necropsy, came to the determination that the dog's death was due to a loss of blood.

The defense brought their own veterinarian to the stand that testified that the cause of death could not be determined because certain body parts could not be inspected properly.

Officials had argued that there was no reason to kill the dog if it was already restrained.

'It did not pose a threat to anyone at that point,' Paul O'Connor, the prosecutor in the case, said. 'There was absolutely no reason to cut this dog's throat.

He waited until colleagues got control of the dog before bending down and slashing its throat with a knife, witnesses said. It bled to death before animal control arrived, police told the Baltimore Sun.

Other officers on scene attempted to subdue the dog with a control pole, but the dog ended up strangling itself in an attempt to avoid the pole.

It was then that Officer Bolger cut the dog's throat.

Bolger had been charged with mutilating an animal, animal cruelty and misconduct in office after slitting Nala's throat while trying to restrain the dog. He was cleared after a judge said evidence indicated the Bolger believed he was was putting the god out of its misery and acting in the interest of safety

Video courtesy TheLip.TV

The dog was was killed was initially thought to be a stray, but later was determined to have escaped from its home. Its owner says her pet was not vicious but just lost and scared.

'I never thought in a million years the police would show up and cut my dog's throat,' Sarah Gossard told CBS Baltimore in 2015.

Gossard had posted pictures of Nala online after the dog had gone missing.

It is understood that the woman who was bitten had been trying to read the dogs tags, which were engraved with an address and phone number.

'She went missing and after looking for her, I found out through a neighbor that she was put down,' Miss Gossard said.

Shar-Pei's are a fighting breed originally used as palace guards in China. The protective and loyal dogs take well to training and are easily socialized but can be stubborn. Largely silent, they only bark when playing or worried.
A man convicted of killing his ex-wife and four others in a 1997 shooting rampage near Houston was put to death Wednesday.

Before being executed, the 58-year-old Coy Wesbrook apologized profusely to some of his victims' relatives who witnessed the punishment.

'I want to say that I'm sorry for the pain that I have caused you people,' he said. 'I'm sorry I can't bring everybody back. I wish things could have been a lot different.'

Wesbrook killed his ex-wife, Gloria Jean Coons, 32; her roommate, Diana Ruth Money, 43; and three men: Antonio Cruz, 35, Anthony Ray Rogers, 41, and Kelly Hazlip, 28.

Before being executed, the 58-year-old Coy Wesbrook apologized profusely to some of his victims' relatives who witnessed the punishment

Wesbrook, a former security guard and delivery driver, married Coons in 1995. They divorced the following year but continued seeing each other.

They had lunch Nov. 12, 1997, and talked about reconciling. That was on his mind when he showed up that night at her apartment in Channelview, just east of Houston. Instead, he found people partying.

He testified at his 1998 trial that Coons humiliated him by having sex with two of the men at the party while he was there. He said when he tried to leave, Cruz grabbed the keys to his truck and joined others in taunting him. He said he 'lost it,' walked out, grabbed a 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. Each victim was shot at close range.

Neighbors who heard the gunfire and called police saw Wesbrook emerge from the apartment, place the rifle inside his truck and stand calmly by the tailgate of the pickup to wait for sheriff's deputies to arrive.

Coy Wesbrook, 58, was executed Wednesday for a 1997 mass killing (file photo)

'If I could change things and turn back time and bring all these people back and I could be in my right mind and not under the influence of any alcohol, none of this would have taken place,' Wesbrook said recently from death row.

In his final moments, Wesbrook said he loved his daughter and all his supporters. 'I pray that the Lord take care of me and all of you,' he said.

He concluded by telling relatives of his victims that he 'can understand your outrage and why you are mad at me. God be with all of us.'

As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital took effect, he took two deep breaths, then began snoring. A few seconds later, all movement stopped. He was pronounced dead at 8:04pm CST.

The execution was delayed about 90 minutes.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark said prison officials had anticipated an additional appeal would be filed by a death penalty opponent whose appeal hours earlier was rejected by the Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court.

That appeal sought another review of claims that Wesbrook was mentally impaired and ineligible for the death penalty under U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

'Out of an abundance of caution, we waited, and when nothing was filed, we went forward [with the execution],' Clark said.

Wesbrook's lethal injection was the eighth this year nationally and fourth in Texas, which carries out capital punishment more than any state. Two Georgia inmates have been executed so far in 2016, plus one each in Alabama and Florida.
Cars were submerged by water, residents forced to flee their homes with housecats and birds in tow, and the Louisiana National Guard and others rescued people by boat and in big military trucks as torrential rains Wednesday drenched parts of Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas with nearly a foot of rain.

Two people drowned in Oklahoma and Texas, and the rain is expected to stay in the forecast for much of the week.

Up to seven inches of rain was expected through Wednesday and up to a foot by the end of the weekend. Flash-flood watches were issued for areas from Port O'Connor, Texas, to near Springfield, Illinois.

Bossier Parish Sherrif's deputies search for people stranded in their homes in Shreveport, Louisiana, on Wednesday, March 9, 2016. Dozens of homes were flooded and scores of residents were evacuated

Bossier City Firemen and volunteers help Elaine Christy and her dog 'Boo' as they evacuate from rising water at the Pecan Valley Estates trailer park in Bossier City, Louisiana, Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Sam Breen paddles as he helps his friend Roger Dove, foreground, retrieve pets and belongings from his home in rising water at the trailer park in Bossier City, Louisiana, Wednesday, March 9, 2016

In northwestern Louisiana up to 80 homes and a nursing home were evacuated. No injuries were reported.

Sharon Anderson, her three children and four grandchildren were rescued from her south Bossier Parish mobile home after rising water threatened to trap them.

Several other families had already been trapped, and the water was still rising, she said.

'This morning it was touching the bottom of the houses,' she said. 'Now the steps on my back porch are underwater and if you walk down the driveway, it's over the knee.'

Anderson said they were pretty much surrounded by the water. The road into the area is flooded and another outlet that has a bridge is closed because of water.

'We're literally trapped,' Anderson said. 'You have to get a boat to get to our doors in this neighborhood.'

Several Louisiana parishes have declared a state of emergency, and the National Guard was sent in to help.

A man paddles a child while a dog playfully follows during rising floodwaters in the Golden Meadows subdivision in Bossier City, Louisiana, Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Roger Dove rides in a friend's skiff to retrieve his pets and some belongings from his home in rising water at the Pecan Valley Estates trailer park in Bossier City, Louisiana, Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Camie Kelly walks through floodwaters as she carries her family cat from the the Pecan Valley Estates trailer park as residents evacuate due to rising water in Bossier City, Louisiana, Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Gov. John Bel Edwards issued the National Guard order after nearly a foot of rain fell Tuesday night and Wednesday. The governor's office says eight guardsmen and four high water vehicles will be used in Bossier Parish to assist where needed.

The Louisiana National Guard transported Anderson's family and others from the neighborhood in a huge military truck later Wednesday. She said they planned to stay with family and in a hotel until the water receded.

Bossier Parish Sheriff Julian Whittington said a mandatory evacuation is in place for several neighborhoods and subdivisions. Displaced residents can find shelter at the Bossier Civic Center.

Meanwhile, Louisiana wildlife and fisheries enforcement agents have rescued more than three dozen people so far from flooded areas in Webster Parish.

Louisiana State Police closed a section of Interstate 20 near Gibsland after both the eastbound and westbound lanes were covered with a foot of water, making the road impassible.

Meteorologist Matthew Duplantis of the National Weather Service in Shreveport said Wednesday rain brought an additional two-to-four inches to the area.

The system will also contain severe weather in the form of high winds and the possibility of isolated tornados.

Northwestern State University's campuses in Natchitoches and Shreveport will be closed Thursday due to weather conditions, as are Bossier Parish public schools.

Bossier City firemen and volunteers help residents escape rising water at the Pecan Valley Estates trailer park in Bossier City, Louisiana, Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Residents wait for a boat from the Bossier City Fire Department to retrieve belongings as people are evacuated at the Pecan Valley Estates trailer park in Bossier City, Louisiana, Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Sam Breen paddles his skiff through rising water at the Pecan Valley Estates trailer park in Bossier City, Louisiana, Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Over southeast Louisiana, including the New Orleans metro area, forecasters say the slow-moving low pressure system is expected to bring a few rounds of heavy rainfall beginning Thursday morning and continuing through early Saturday.

Rainfall totals could reach 10 inches in some areas and could result in some flooding.

In rural southeastern Oklahoma, a 30-year-old man drowned Tuesday night after trying to drive his SUV across a low-crossing bridge that was covered by floodwaters.

And in Texas, a 22-year-old man drowned Monday night after his canoe capsized in Dickinson Bayou, southeast of Houston near Galveston Bay.

The flooding comes after recent severe thunderstorms raged across parts of Central and North Texas.

A tornado struck a mobile home park in the North Texas town of Tolar on Monday morning, smashing some homes and injuring two people after two other tornadoes late Sunday injured two people in the North Texas towns of Stephenville and Cool.

___
A star-studded social media campaign to increase funding for a radical cancer surgery will mean that countless more women will be able to receive the life-saving operation in 2016.

Mother-of-five Nicole Perko was stuck on a waiting list for peritonectomy surgery at the overcrowded St George Hospital in Sydney when a Dubbo high-school captain started an online petition in 2013.

The petition racked up 79,000 signatures and was publicly backed by a list of stars including Russell Crowe, Jennifer Hawkins and the late Charlotte Dawson.

And now, three years later, the campaign has led to a NSW Government sanctioned review which will result in the introduction of two new facilities dedicated to performing the complicated surgery.

Scroll down for video

Mother-of-five Nicole Perko was on a lengthy waiting list for a life-saving cancer surgery in 2013. A social media campaign to increase funding and facilities fast-tracked her operation

The social media campaign had over 79,000 signatures and was backed by a number of high-profile celebrities, including the late television presenter Charlotte Dawson

The surgery is quite often the only form of treatment for people with mesothelioma, a rare stomach cancer caused largely by asbestos exposure with a low chance of long-term survival if not treated.

Following the campaign, Ms Perko was fast-tracked to having the cancerous growth removed from her abdomen in late 2013 - but many others are still on a waiting list for the operation.

While there were 72 peritonectomy operations from 2013/14 at St George Hospital, that number is expected to reach 115 at the end of this year and extend to 170 by 2026.

NSW Health provided Daily Mail Australia with a recent review conducted by Highlands Health Consulting into the planning of peritonectomy services in the state.

The department is set to take on board a number of recommendations made by the review - including the establishment of two new faciliites to offset the increasing demand for surgery.

These include a private facility close to St George and another facility within a public Sydney hospital, the location of which is yet to be confirmed.

The proposed facilities should take a burden off St George Hospital - where Ms Perko had her surgery done

Australian model Jennifer Hawkins was also behind the social media campaign, which resulted in a recent review that will see two further facilities established in the next year

Susan Pearce, Deputy Secretary of NSW Health, told Daily Mail Australia the 15 recommendations provided by the review were supported, with plans already underway for the new facilities.

'Discussions are already underway with a private hospital with the aim of having the private service established by the end of 2016,' she said.

'In the meantime work will commence shortly on preparation of an expression of interest for the second public service ... (which) will need to be in the metropolitan area.'

Australia has the second-largest death-rate from mesothelioma in the world, only behind the United Kingdom, a figure that is largely thanks to the country's extensive history of asbestos use.

According to the latest data put out by the Australian Mesothelemia Registry, which is managed by the Cancer Institute of New South Wales, 641 people died of the deadly cancer in 2014.

Of those that died, roughly 80 per cent were men, although there has been a recent influx of women cases - which some doctors believe could be linked to talcum powder use, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Professor David Morris, a pioneer of the peritonectomy procedure, told Fairfax the review would 'offer people in NSW much better access to treatment for their peritoneal cancers.'

'I think it is a very good report,' the leading cancer surgeon 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.'
Bristol's states in another text: 'didn't think about her when I called off the wedding, and I didn't think about her when I left'

Court papers reveal it was Bristol who called it quits and returned to Alaska when she got pregnant

Bristol agreed to full day visits only to change her mind when Dakota said he wanted limited time in Bristol's company

He will be able to spend time her alone, although Bristol wanted all visits supervised - by her - because of breastfeeding schedule

Dakota will take the 3,600 mile trip from his home in Kentucky to Alaska twice a month to spend time with his daughter

In an interim order on custody, Alaska Judge Herman G. Walker Jr. has determined that it is in Sailor Grace's best interest to have equal access to both parents

In a stunning blow to the explicit wishes of Bristol Palin that she be awarded primary interim physical custody of daughter Sailor Grace and that Dakota Meyer only be allowed 'reasonable' visitation and no overnight visits, an Alaska Superior Court Judge has ruled that the couple must share both legal and physical custody.

In explosive court papers seen exclusively by Daily Mail Online, Alaska Judge Herman G. Walker Jr. has decided that it is in the best interests of Sailor Grace, born last December, to remain in Alaska for the time being. But Meyer will be able to make the 3,600 mile trip from his home in Kentucky to Alaska twice a month for four consecutive days each.

'The mother objects to overnight visitation because the child is currently breastfeeding nightly,' said the Judge.

'However the court finds it in the best interests of the child that overnight visitation [with the father] occur. Mother is to provide father with an adequate supply of milk or formula for overnight visitation.'

Meyer's visits with his daughter will begin this month. Overnight visits will begin in May.

Scroll down for video

Bitter battle: Dakota Meyer will now be able to see his daughter Sailor Grace twice a month for a four-day period. The visits begin this month with overnight visits beginning in May

Revenge? Dakota claims Bristol only changed her mind about how many hours a day he can spend with Sailor after he told Bristol he wanted as little time as possible in her company

Shocking text: Dakota Meyer says Bristol Palin revealed in this text that Sailor Grace only breastfeeds at night despite her not wanting him to have long visits due to her breastfeeding schedule

The battle over Sailor Grace began even before the baby was born last December 23. Dakota has not yet met his baby daughter.

As they tried to hash out a schedule whereby Dakota could come to visit his daughter, Bristol claimed her ex-fiance couldn't spend more than four hours a day with Sailor because of her rigorous breastfeeding schedule.

Meyer fired back - with an explosive text message from Bristol herself - that revealed 2-month-old Sailor Grace is only being breastfed at night.

Court documents obtained exclusively by Daily Mail Online show the Marine and Medal of Honor recipient asked the court to order full day visits, not overnights, to be mindful of Bristol's breastfeeding.

Bristol, 25, was initially fine with that arrangement as seen in a text message exchange but the court papers state she changed her mind after Dakota, 27, told her he wanted limited time in Bristol's company.

Meyer's attorney argues that since Sailor is already used to being in the company of a babysitter for eight to ten hours a day - she should be fine in her father's company for that long as well.

Meyer wanted a court ruling over visitation because he feared he may make the 3,600 mile flight from Kentucky to Alaska and then have Bristol change her mind 'if she gets upset with him'.

Agreement: Dakota says Bristol was fine with him taking Sailor for the day while he was in Alaska but then changed her mind, so he requested a court-ordered visitation

Furthermore, Dakota shares a text in which Bristol stated: 'didn't think about her when I called off the wedding, and I didn't think about her when I left.'

The papers then state: 'Her decision to move back to Alaska, a decision in which Mr. Meyer had no say, is why there is a need for something other than a traditional visitation schedule.

'She must now accommodate visitation between Mr. Meyer and Sailor and the fact that the visitation may inconvenience her or occur on weekends is simply a direct consequence of her own decisions.'

Following a court order Dakota completed a parenting course, something he points out Bristol has not yet completed, and has received certification for infant CPR.

The two have been in an increasingly bitter custody battle over baby Sailor since she was born in December.

A first series of text messages obtained by Daily Mail online last week showed an emotional exchange in which Palin told her baby's father, 'I want you to be a part of her life, from the bottom of my heart I do.'

Relationship details: Court documents and another text show Bristol is the one who left Kentucky and returned to Alaska. Dakota's attorney says he had no say in the matter

But Bristol also wanted to make sure Dakota did not interfere with her breastfeeding schedule.

Palin told Meyer, 'There's nothing on my end holding you back Dakota.'

She continued: 'I want you (and your family) to be in her life as much as possible. It's not about us, and I don't care if you hate me, put it aside and put her first.

'She grows everyday and everyday I literally just think about how much you're missing by not seeing her, so realize I'm not bs'ing you'

Meyer responded: 'I don't hate you Bristol I have no reason too [sic] but my hands are tied when I legally have no right to a child that is mine.'

Court order: Dakota has completed a parenting course, something he points out Bristol has not yet completed, and has received certification for infant CPR

While they have come to an interim custody agreement beginning March 18 Dakota is seeking longer visits with Sailor other than the four hours Bristol is currently allowing.

This drama comes as Bristol's long running battle with Levi Johnston, the father of her son Tripp, was finally settled seven years after his birth.



Johnston announced the news on Facebook, writing: 'I'm so happy to have my son in my life, and to put all of this back and forth in the courts behind me.

'It might have taken me 7 years and cost me around $100,000 in lawyer fees spread out among three different lawyers, as well as a lot of patience, but it was all worth it.

'I'm happy now to be successfully co-parenting.'

But Palin has yet to reach a final agreement with Meyer and, in the past, has rejected his bid for joint physical custody as 'impracticable' given that Meyer lives in Kentucky and she lives in Alaska.

Instead she has asked that she receive a 'decree for primary physical custody,' with visitation adjusted consistent with the child's age and Meyer's out-of-state resident.

She has also asked for interim and permanent child support and that Meyer pay Sailor's delivery and medical expenses.

'So thankful for my kids,' Bristol wrote on instagram of her son Tripp with Levi Johnston and baby Sailor

Dakota, the youngest person ever to be awarded the Medal of Honor, met Bristol in May 2014 during Sarah Palin's Sportsman Channel show, Amazing America.

The pair got engaged during a Rascal Flatt's concert in Las Vegas in early 2015, planning a wedding in his native Kentucky over Memorial Day weekend.

But less than a week before the ceremony, Palin announced the wedding was off when it emerged that Meyer had failed to inform her he had been married before.

Instead of tying the knot Palin set off on an RV trip in Alaska with a friend who was an exotic model.

A month later she announced her pregnancy, though she initially refused to say whether Dakota was the father.

She admitted that her second out-of-wedlock pregnancy was, 'a huge disappointment to my family.'

'I do not want any lectures,' she said, 'And I do not want any sympathy.
A Chipotle store in Massachusetts remained closed on Wednesday amid concerns that a number of employees had contracted the norovirus.

None of the sick employees came in to work at the branch in Billerica, but the store was closed as a precautionary measure, said Richard Berube, director for Billerica's health board.

He said his agency confirmed one case of norovirus and found two other suspected cases.

Scroll down for video

The Chipotle in Billerica, Massachusetts, (pictured) remained closed on Wednesday amid concerns that a number of employees had contracted the norovirus

Richard Verube, the Director of Public Health in the town of Billerica, speaks to reporters outside the temporarily closed Chipotle restaurant in Billerica, Massachusetts

But he later said in a news release there were three suspected cases. He did not return email and phone messages Wednesday night seeking a clarification.

Chipotle first closed the store Tuesday at the board's suggestion, and it is scheduled to reopen Thursday, he said.

The restaurant's managers said they would disinfect the restaurant and dispose of all food.

In a statement, Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold said: 'After learning that four of our employees were not feeling well, our restaurant in Billerica, Massachusetts, was closed for a full sanitization.'

He added that there were no customer illnesses linked to the Billerica location.

Four employees reported feeling ill at the store in Billerica, Chipotle said. None of them worked while they were sick and no customer illnesses have been connected with the restaurant, according to the chain.

It said the store received a 'perfect score' when it was inspected by the health department on March 3, but that it nevertheless closed the store for a 'full sanitation.'

The company is already fighting to win back customers following a rash of incidents in which customers were sickened around the country. Pictured, a file photo shows an employee making a burrito bowl

The illnesses were reported by the health facility to the state health department, Berube said, which then notified the town board of health.

While closing restaurants due to illnesses is rare, Berube believes there are 'other cases here and there that fly below the radar.'

The company is already fighting to win back customers following a rash of incidents in which customers were sickened around the country.

In December, more than 140 people got sick with norovirus. The illness was later attributed to a sick employee.

In August, tomatoes served at 22 locations in Minnesota were found to cause salmonella and more than 200 people in Simi Valley, California, were affected by norovirus.

The successful fast food chain was also linked to two major E.Coli outbreaks last winter. The first affected 55 people in 11 states, and a second infected five in Kansas, North Dakota, and Oklahoma.

And Chipotle shares fell $18.06, or 3.4 percent, to $506.63 Wednesday. Its shares are down 23 percent over the past year.

THE KILLER VOMITING BUG: HOW DEADLY IS NOROVIRUS? Norovirus is very contagious and can be caught from an infected person, contaminated food or water, or by touching contaminated surfaces. The virus causes your stomach or intestines or both to get inflamed (acute gastroenteritis). This leads you to have stomach pain, nausea, and diarrhea and to throw up. Norovirus is the most common cause of acute gastroenteritis in the United States. It can be serious, especially for young children and older adults. Each year, it causes 19-21 million illnesses and contributes to 56,000-71,000 hospitalizations and 570-800 deaths. The sickness can be avoided by washing your hands thoroughly and washing fruit and vegetables, laundry and surfaces thoroughly. Source: The Center for Disease Control and Prevention Advertisement

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. has said it's instituting a number of food safety procedures to ensure customer safety. That includes reminding workers they have three paid sick days a year, and that they should stay home if they're not feeling well.

The company closed all of its stores for a national meeting for workers in February. During the meeting, Chipotle reminded employees that two of the company's four recent food scares were the result of norovirus.

'If you're feeling sick, especially if you've vomited, whether at work or at home, you need to let your manager or your field leader know right away,' co-CEO Monty Moran said during the webcast.

Employees were told to watch for symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, explosive diarrhea, yellowing of the skin and eyes and dark urine.
The U.S. says it has dispatched three B-2 stealth bombers on a training mission to the Asia-Pacific region amid growing tensions with North Korea.

The deployment was announced Wednesday by U.S. Strategic Command, which is responsible for U.S. nuclear forces.

B-2 bombers are capable of launching nuclear as well as conventional weapons.

They are based at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.

Scroll down for video

The U.S. says it has dispatched three B-2 stealth bombers on a training mission to the Asia-Pacific region amid growing tensions with North Korea (file photo)

Pacific Air Forces commander Gen. Lori J. Robinson said in a statement: 'Strategic bomber deployments ensure our ability to project power at a time and place of our choosing and develop strong interoperability with our regional allies and partners.

'Recent events demonstrate the continued need to provide consistent and credible air power throughout the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

'Our ability to demonstrate credible combat power while training and interoperating with our network of like-minded partner nations is vitally important.'

Strategic Command said the bombers will conduct training with the Australian military during the deployment, which amounts to a show of force at a time of mounting tensions with North Korea.

B-2 bombers are capable of launching nuclear as well as conventional weapons. They are based at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri (seen in a file photo)

North Korea threatened pre-emptive nuclear strikes after the United States and South Korea began large-scale war games this month.

Strategic Command declined to say where the bombers will be operating from, or for how long.

It said in a Wednesday release: 'While in the Indo-Asia-Pacific, the B-2s will integrate and conduct training with ally and partner air forces, and conduct a radio communications check with a U.S. air operations center.

'This deployment will ensure bomber crews maintain a high state of readiness and crew proficiency, and will provide opportunities to integrate capabilities with key regional partners.'
In one recorded conversation, Podobnyy complained to Sporyshev that their work was nothing like 'movies about James Bond'

Tradecraft: The FBI used recorders hidden in binders to penetrate a Cold War-style spy ring operating in New York City, which included suspected Russian intelligence agent Evgeny Buryakov (pictured in court in January 2015)

In a twist straight out of The Cold War, it was revealed that the FBI eavesdropped on meetings involving Russian intelligence agents in New York City, including a suspected spy, by hiding recorders in binders.

The hours of secret recordings dating back from 2013 were disclosed in papers filed in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday in the case of Evgeny Buryakov, a Russian citizen who US prosecutors say posed as a banker while participating in a Cold War-style spy ring.

The FBI's high-tech snooping enabled the agency to penetrate the workplaces of Russia's foreign intelligence service, the SVR, and hear about Buryakov's work for it, prosecutors said.

They also captured one Russian agent, also charged in the case, complaining about the lack of excitement in his job, saying he expected it 'would be just slightly more down to earth than in the movies about James Bond.'

The disclosure came ahead of an April 4 trial for Burkyakov, who was arrested in January 2015 as prosecutors unveiled charges against him and the two other Russians, Igor Sporyshev and Victor Podobnyy.

Prosecutors say the trio conspired to gather economic intelligence for Russia, including information about US sanctions against the country, and to recruit intelligence sources in New York City.

The FBI began investigating the men in 2010 after ten Russian spies living in the US, all members of a sleeper cell referred to as 'The Illegals' by the SVR, were arrested, including red-haired femme fatale Anna Chapman.

Spy games: Buryakov, center, is accused of posing as a Russian banker to gather economic intelligence and recruit sources in New York City

Russian outpost: Buryakov, a 39-year-old married father-of-two, worked at Russian state-owned Vnesheconombank in Manhattan

The twists in the Buryakov case are reminiscent of plotlines from the popular FX show The Americans about a married couple who are Soviet spies operating in the US in the 1980s

When Buryakov was arrested and appeared before a federal judge prosecutors said: 'His life here is a deception.'

'Russian spies continue to seek to operate in our midst,' US Attorney Preet Bharara warned after the arrests. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich countered by accusing US authorities of manufacturing a spy scandal as part of its 'anti-Russian campaign.'

THE CHARGES AGAINST 'THE SPY 3' According to the charges in federal court in Manhattan: Buryakov worked for the SVR - the Russian foreign intelligence service under 'non-official cover', posing as a banker

He was handled by Sporyshev, a trade representative for Russia in New York, and Podobnyy, an attache to Russia's delegation to the UN

The handlers tried to recruit New York residents as intelligence sources, tasked Buyakov to gather intelligence before transmitting it back to Moscow

The SVR asked the three to gather intelligence on US sanctions against Russian banks and the US developing alternative energy resources

The three would communicate in brief phone calls with Buryakov saying he had a 'ticket', 'book', 'list' or 'umbrella' to hand over intelligence and arrange outdoor meetings to dodge surveillance

Sporyshev asked Buryakov to gather material so a Russian news agency could ask questions about American sanctions against the country Advertisement

Neither Sporyshev and Podobnyy were arrested, as they enjoyed diplomatic immunity in their respective roles as a Russian trade representative and an attache to the country's mission to the United Nations.

Buryakov, a 39-year-old married father-of-two, worked at Russian state-owned Vnesheconombank in Manhattan, has pleaded not guilty.

According to prosecutors, in April 2012, Sporyshev met an undercover FBI employee posing as an analyst at a New York energy firm at an oil and gas industry conference.

Over the next two years, they met to discuss the industry and other economic and political issues, prosecutors said, with Sporyshev providing gifts and cash for information.

In 2013, the FBI employee began providing Sporyshev with the binders containing purported industry analysis he wrote, supporting documents, and 'covertly placed recording devices,' prosecutors wrote.

As the undercover employee said his company would fire him if it learned he disclosed confidential information, Sporyshev would promptly return the binders after reviewing them, prosecutors said.

The recordings that resulted captured statements of Sporyshev, Podobnyy, and other Russian intelligence personnel from January to May 2013, prosecutors said.

In one secretly recorded conversation, Podobnyy complained to Sporyshev that their work was nothing like 'movies about James Bond,' according to the papers.

Eavesdropping: An FBI agent posing as an analyst at an energy firm would slip rigged binders containing purported industry analysis he wrote to a suspect Russian agent, who was required to return the binders so as not to get his source in trouble with his employer

In 2010, the feds arrested ten Russian spies living in the US, including red-haired femme fatale Anna Chapman (pictured at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013)

'Of course, I wouldn't fly helicopters, but pretend to be someone else at a minimum,' he said.

Sporyshev griped that he too thought he 'at least would go abroad with a different passport.'

According to a criminal complaint, the three accused spies spoke to each other in code over the phone to set up their meetings and claimed they had an umbrella or a ticket for the others.
Stormy weather, vehicles stuck on the side of the road and an isolated pub in the middle of the desert sounds like a recipe for disaster, but for one group of backpackers the biggest concern was running out of alcohol.

About 50 tourists spent Wednesday night stuck at the William Creek Hotel in remote South Australia due to unusual weather which brought with it heavy rain, and with more on the way, they could be there for longer.

But publican Trevor Wright said: 'running out of beer is the least of our problems - well be out of food before beer,' The Advertiser reported.

Scroll down for video

Tourists trapped at the William Creek Hotel make the most of the unusual rainfall in the desert

Katie Ayres, 20, from the United Kingdom (left) and Laura Kromann, 20, from Denmark, enjoy rafting in the Outback - the last thing they expected while visiting the desert region

The William Creek Hotel is in the tiny town of William Creek on the Oodnadatta Track, near Lake Eyre, with a population of about 60 people

Those stuck at the hotel are in good spirits despite the weather - saying the experience had turned into a party.

Katie Ayres, 20, from Taunton in the UK, told Daily Mail Australia being flooded in while in a desert was the last thing her tour group expected.

Ms Ayres said her group had been celebrating surviving.

'At one point we were sure we weren't going to make it to William Creek.

The group's van got stuck in mud, and they had to abandon a trailer and pile all the luggage into the van to make it to the hotel.

Apart from that, they were enjoying being in the middle of nowhere without any wifi.

Inside the bar at the William Creek Hotel, which owner Trevor Wright reassures is well stocked with beer for the stranded tourists

The hotel appears to be popular with travellers passing through the area, many who recount good memories of the venue online

'We're getting to know each other better. We're all pretty cheery - apart from the ones that are recovering from last night.

Mr Wright told Daily Mail Australia the group was making the best of the situation - one of the Englishmen staying even dressed up as a fairy for celebrations on Wednesday evening during their stay, which he called 'hectic'.

You've got to worry about those poms,' he joked.

Laura Kromann, 20, from Denmark, said: 'I was a bit worried being stuck in nowhere and not being able to get anywhere but its a party now'.

Videos and photos of the group - who expected a dusty, hot desert, not a muddy, flooded landscape - show them enjoying the water, swimming and rafting.

Trevor Wright, the publican of the William Creek Hotel, who has been playing host to the trapped backpackers

William Creek Hotel is located on the Oodnadatta Track near Lake Eyre in South Australia

They were even getting up close with some of Australia's wildlife - including centipedes and spiders - while in William Creek, on the Oodnadatta Track near Lake Eyre.

Mr Wright, who owns the tiny town of William Creek, including outback airline WrightAir, said the past 48 hours' rain, about 2-3 inches (5-8cm), was significant, considering the yearly average for the area was about 4-6 inches (10-16cm).

It had helped to fill Lake Eyre, which would be a boon to tourism in the region.

Ms Ayres is one of 13 tourists who are to fly out on Thursday, but others will remain until the weather clears.

However, that may not be for a while yet, as forecasters expect an unusual tropical air mass over the region - originating in the Northern Territory and Queensland - to continue to bring rain into next week.

At least the bar is well stocked.

A view of Lake Eyre, which has been filled with water from recent heavy rainfall in South Australia
Alexia Palmer (pictured) is accusing Trump Model Management LLC of lying on a work-visa application that said she would be paid a $75,000-a-year salary while living in the United States

Donald Trump is being sued by a Jamaican model who claims his agency brought her into the country on a special visa and promised to pay her $75,000 a year  but ultimately paid her less than $4,000 for three years work.

Alexia Palmer is accusing Trump Model Management LLC of lying to the federal government in its work-visa application that said she would be paid a $75,000-a-year salary while living in the United States, according to court documents.

Instead, according to court papers, Palmer received a total of $3,880.75 during the three years she was under contract with the agency.

A judge will decide by the end of this month whether to proceed with a proposed class action lawsuit filed by Palmer, the judge's office said.

The complaint alleges 'fraudulent misrepresentation' and violations of U.S. immigration and labor laws. It asks for $225,000 in back pay.

The suit was originally filed in October 2014.

A decision on a pending motion by Trump Model Management to dismiss is expected by the end of March, the clerk for Judge Analisa Torres, who is presiding over the case in the U.S District Court, Southern District, told Reuters.

If Torres rules the case can proceed, it could revive attention on the GOP frontrunner's foreign labor practices at a time when the celebrity billionaire's rise in American politics has riveted the world's attention.

Trump's lawyers have called the case 'frivolous' and 'without merit.'

In court documents, they said Palmer wasn't an employee and was more than adequately compensated for a 'very brief stint as a fashion model,' which they say amounted to less than 10 days of work over three years.

Scroll down for video

Donald Trump's (pictured) lawyers have called the case 'frivolous' and 'without merit.' A judge will decide by the end of this month whether to proceed with a proposed class action lawsuit filed by Palmer

Reuters could not independently confirm that assertion.

Lawrence Rosen, a lawyer for Trump Model Management, said: 'At the end of the day, this model just didn't have a successful career, and we fully expect to win.

Although Trump owns the modeling agency, the suit does not name him.

In a statement, Trump's campaign spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, said that Trump Model Management's treatment of Palmer was in line with 'standard practice in the modeling industry.'

Palmer's lawyer, Naresh Gehi, says his client was cheated of earnings and seduced by a life of glamour that never materialized.

'The visa application the company filed with the government requires that people are paid the full amount,' Gehi said. 'It's a requirement.'

Trump's third wife Melania (right) is a former model who was associated with Trump Model Management

Palmer, who was 17 when she came to New York in 2011, was not available to comment.

Sylvia Ayass, a lawyer who has worked with models on visas like Palmer's, said agencies typically pay what they state on visa applications.

Trump has won Republican frontrunner status in the 2016 election in large part by positioning himself as a champion of the American worker who will deport illegal immigrants, build a wall with Mexico and do away with the off shoring of U.S. jobs.

This is not the first time Trump's labor practices have drawn criticism.

In August last year, it was revealed that Trump's companies sought to import at least 1,100 workers on temporary visas since 2000.

Of those, 250 were filed for foreign fashion models, according to Reuters analysis of federal Department of Labor data.

Using a federal visa program called H-1B that allows U.S. employers to hire 'specialized' foreign labor, Trump's modeling agency offered Palmer 'at least $75,000 per year' for three years.

It listed that salary on her H-1B visa application in 2011, according to court documents.

It's not the industry norm to use H-1B visas, which are usually reserved for highly skilled specialized labor like engineers, programmers and medical specialists.

In court documents, Trump's lawyers said Palmer wasn't an employee and was more than adequately compensated for a 'very brief stint as a fashion model'. Pictured, the Trump Models agency in New York

O-1 visas are more common, modeling agency lawyers and executives said. The O-1 is typically used by artists and athletes.

Though H-1B use is rare, a Reuters analysis found that in the past three years, modeling agencies have submitted 181 applications for H-1B visas for foreign models.

Of those, 173 stated that the model would be paid an hourly wage, ranging from as little as $8.40 an hour to as much as $500 an hour.

The Trump Model yearly salary listed in the federal database of H-1B applications was the outlier.

Rosen, the lawyer for Trump Model Management, said the $75,000 a year figure was simply a guess, not a guarantee.

Under that contract, Palmer agreed 'to promptly reimburse' Trump Model Management 'for any and all costs and expenses' that the agency incurred relating to her modeling.

According to the suit, the agreement stipulated that Trump Model Management would take a 20 percent cut of Palmer's earnings but instead took 80 percent by deducting charges for everything from postage to walking lessons to mobile phone costs and limousine rides, as well as $4,000 in 'administrative fees,' according to court documents.
In the long years where Kevin Rudd was banished to Julia Gillard's backbench, he was constantly accused of 'stalking' the Labor leader, sabotaging her at every opportunity and scheming to destroy her.

But Mr Rudd's bad behaviour was nothing compared to what Tony Abbott is doing to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, the author of a controversial new book about the Abbott Government has claimed.

In a new column for The Australian, former top Liberal staffer Niki Savva said Mr Abbott 'should do the decent thing and disappear into the sunset' before 'whatever remains of his reputation is obliterated'.

Scroll down for video

'Tony Abbott should do the decent thing and disappear into the sunset.... He should encourage his former chief of staff (Peta Credlin) to do the same)': Those are the words of Liberal insider Niki Savva in a fiery new column

Ms Savva (pictured on the Insiders program) said Mr Abbott's behaviour on the backbench was worse than anything Kevin Rudd ever did - despite the Labor PM's long campaign to destabilise Julia Gillard's leadership

Kevin Rudd was long accused of sabotaging Julia Gillard's prime ministership from the backbench - and eventually he seized the job from her

Last week, Mr Abbott publicly commented on leaked classified information about how long it will take to build Australia's new fleet of submarines. News Corp quoted him saying he was 'flabbergasted' the program could be delayed.

The former prime minister's decision to comment appeared a vengeful attempt to sabotage Mr Turnbull's leadership, Ms Savva wrote in her new column.

'His decision to publicly comment on leaked classified information that went to the essence of Australia's strategic defence to undermine his successor was worse than anything Kevin Rudd ever did,' she said.

'Whatever his flaws, whatever Julia Gillard's shortcomings, Rudd did not compromise Australia's national security to undermine her.

'Abbott has complained a lot about treachery lately, but there was nothing under his regime that was remotely close to the act of betrayal by someone within the Liberal Party last week'.

Ms Savva's column continued to say Mr Abbott had failed as prime minister - and that Mr Abbott appeared determined to see his successor's leadership ended in a similarly spectacular way.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has announced the Australian Federal Police are investigating the submarines leak

In his corner: Peta Credlin was widely regarded as one of the most powerful figures in Mr Abbott's government - despite the fact she was never elected

A Liberal insider who worked as former Treasurer Peter Costello's press secretary and has had several 'cuppas' with Mr Abbott in the past, Ms Savva accused him of having a 'weird' relationship with his chief of staff, Peta Credlin, in her new book.

She claimed many Liberal MPs believed Mr Abbott was 'psychologically dependent' on Ms Credlin, who he delegated too much power to. Also quoted were former staff, including Mr Abbott's former media manager Jane McMillan, who claimed Ms Credlin ran a dysfunctional office and bullied staff.

Most controversially, Ms Savva also reported the existence of rumours Ms Credlin and Mr Abbott were having an affair, which they both deny.

Both the former prime minister and his chief of staff criticised Ms Savva for failing to approach them for comment on the many allegations in the book.

In a statement earlier this week, Mr Abbott said the best response to the book was the policy record of his government, which included stopping the boats and axing the carbon and mining taxes. 'That said, I'm not in the business of raking over old coals, nor am I in the business of responding to scurrilous gossip and smear'.

Ms Credlin said the book contained 'vicious and malicious' claims and said the affair rumours were 'completely false' and 'utterly untrue'.
Divers are at the site of a the shipwrecked Batavia, which crashed into the coral reef surrounding the Wallabi Group of the Houtman Abrolhos islands off Western Australia in 1629.

The Batavia, the flagship of the Dutch East India Company, was built in Amsterdam in 1628 and shipwrecked on her maiden voyage.

It is one of four Dutch East India Company shipwrecks discovered along WA's Mid West coast, including the Vergulde Draeck, Zeewijk and Zuytdorp.

Divers at the site of the Batavia shipwreck which crashed into the coral reef surrounding the Wallabi Group of the Houtman Abrolhos islands off Western Australia in 1629

It comes as the search for another Dutch East India Company ship is also underway off the West Australian coast.

A plane is set to survey waters around the Abrolhos Islands for the Aagtekerke, a Dutch Indian ship that left the Netherlands on its maiden voyage in 1725 and disappeared without a trace the following year.

The survey area includes Half Moon Reef, which is the site of the 1727 wreck of the Dutch East India Company vessel Zeewijk.

Records from Zeewijk survivors note the presence of timbers and artefacts from an older wreck in the surrounding area, which could be the Aagtekerke.

'There is a body of evidence that suggests there is another historic shipwreck in that area that may, or may not, be the Aagtekerke but first we have to find it,' Western Australian Museum chief executive Alec Coles said on Wednesday.

'That is not as easy as it sounds given that several previous searches have been unsuccessful.

The Batavia (pictured) is one of four Dutch East India Company shipwrecks discovered along WA's Mid West coast

The shipwrecked Batavia crashed into the coral reef surrounding the Wallabi Group of the Houtman Abrolhos islands off Western Australia in 1629

'Even if a wreck is found, however, we will still need to determine what that ship is.'

The survey will extend further than Half Moon Reef as it is understood there could be a wreck in deeper water within the wider Pelsaert Group of islands.

If the Aagtekerke is found, it will be the fifth Dutch East India Company shipwreck discovered along WA's Mid West coast, following the Vergulde Draeck, Batavia, Zeewijk and Zuytdorp.

Mr Coles noted the significance of this year, the 400th anniversary of Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog's arrival at Inscription Point near Shark Bay, which was the first European contact with Australia.
As housing prices continue to skyrocket across Australian major cities, an apartment in Melbourne has sold this week for the remarkably low price of $89,100.

The studio apartment located metres from the beach in Frankston, south-east of Melbourne, sold privately on Monday.

Other apartments on the same stretch of road in Frankston are currently selling for between $370,000 to $390,000.

Scroll down for video

The studio apartment (pictured) located metres from the beach in Frankston, south-east of Melbourne, sold privately on Monday for the remarkably low price of $89,100

While some may get excited at the prospect of affordable housing in Melbourne, the low price tag of the Frankston apartment - which is practically unheard of in the current market - is mainly due to the complex's bad reputation for crime and drugs and is located behind a derelict hotel.

The 36 sqm apartment is located at the abandoned Ambassador Hotel site in Frankston, which became a residential site seven years ago when 110 motel rooms were sold off as studio and two-bedroom apartments.

Melbourne's cheapest apartment was sold last year for $103,500 in the same complex, according to data from Domain.

Agents trying to sell apartment in the complex have often taken years to secure deals because of the complex's negative reputation.

The low price tag of the Frankston apartment - which is practically unheard of in the current market - is mainly due to the complex's bad reputation for crime and drugs and is located behind a derelict hotel

The 36 sqm apartment is located at the abandoned Ambassador Hotel site in Frankston

Complex became a residential site seven years ago when 110 motel rooms were sold off as studio and two-bedroom apartments

The 36 sqm apartment has an enclosed bedroom, separate living room, one bathroom and a parking space

It is notorious for drugs and crime that paramedics refuse to respond to incidents at the apartment complex unless they are accompanied by police.

The function centre next door, which was left abandoned and became home to squatters, was supposed to be turned into luxury apartments but was forced into a mortgagee sale.

Frankston Council plans to go ahead and demolish the site adjacent to the existing apartments this month.

Hocking Stuart agent Aaron Froling sold the cheapest apartment last year at the complex and also sold a two-bedroom apartment for $110,000 in April last year.

He was one of the agents responsible for selling the majority of the apartments in 2009 and 2010.

Mr Froling told Domain the deterioration of the complex had only recently occurred with some apartments selling for up to $250,000 in 2010.

Agents trying to sell apartment in the Ambassador complex have often taken years to secure deals because of the complex's negative reputation
CCTV footage has captured the moment a thrifty do-it-yourself handyman was caught stealing parts from a men's public toilet.

Western Australian Police are searching for a man who took apart a urinal inside the toilet block next to the Wandering Shire Council's office on Watts Street in Wandering on Saturday morning.

The bizarre video shows the man entering the premises in a white, long sleeve collar shirt, with denim shorts, during which he apparently used a screwdriver to remove some door trimming.

Scroll down for video

Western Australian Police have released CCTV footage of the moment a thrifty do-it-yourself handyman was caught stealing parts from a men's public toilet in Wandering on Saturday morning

The suspect had apparently removed parts of a urinal inside the public bathroom shortly before he walked back out topless with his shirt wrapped around the items in his arm.

Shortly after, the man returned to the toilet block just moments before he re-emerged as he slowly poked his head out to check whether the coast was clear.

With no one in sight, the man appeared to do another quick scan of the public surroundings before he casually walks away with a large body-sized mirror in hand - believing he got away with the act.

Police are now appealing for information to help identify the man in question over the offence.

The video shows the man entering the premises in a white, long sleeve collar shirt before exiting topless

He returned and moments later he re-emerged, poking his head out to check whether the coast was clear

Western Australian Police are appealing for information to help identify the man in question over the offence

WA Police have taken to social media to share the footage, which has more than 25,000 views since it was uploaded on Wednesday afternoon, in an attempt to track the man down.

'The mysterious case of the Wandering toilet parts...' the post reads on Facebook.

The post has been met with mix responses and several ridicules over the man's offence, with one person saying: 'Maybe he just "borrowed" that mirror to take a Selfie.'

Another person wrote: 'Maybe he just "borrowed" that mirror to take a Selfie.'

While another posted: 'Haha love it! The extra stealth people must come out at this time! He must believe he is invisible...'

Another said: 'Might have been doing a bathroom reno [sic] & forgot to buy the stuff lol.'

And another wrote: 'Probably got drunk then trashed his rental and now needs to repair before inspection.'
Police have released photographs of people they want to speak to in relation to a massive street brawl that erupted after 50 UFC fans started brawling outside a Sydney hotel.

The fight broke out during the UFC fight between Connor McGregor and Nate Diaz and spilled out onto the street outside the Ritz Hotel in Hurstville, south of Sydney, on Sunday at about 5pm.

It is believed the melee started after an argument inside the hotel during the UFC broadcast.

Scroll down for video

This was one of two images that police released in relation to the massive street brawl

A second photograph (pictured) was released by police investigating the fight

St George Local Area Commands Detective Inspector Paul Simpkins said the release of the images will help investigators to clarify the events concerning the brawl last Sunday.

'If anyone has information they are urged to contact St George Detectives on (02) 8566 7499 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000,' Det Insp Simpkins said.

Footage of the brawl shows people sprawled on the street as groups of others continue fighting.

Two 17-year-old boys were found by police with injuries. One of the boys was taken to St George Hospital to be treated for a fractured eye socket.

A 17-year-old boy suffered a fractured eye socket after 50 UFC fans started brawling outside a hotel in Hurstville, south of Sydney, during the Connor McGregor and Nate Diaz on Sunday

The brawl broke out during the UFC fight between Connor McGregor and Nate Diaz and spilled out onto the street outside the Ritz Hotel in Hurstville, south of Sydney, on Sunday at about 5pm

The massive fight, which involved up to 50 people, is believed to have started with an argument inside the hotel during the UFC broadcast

The other boy was found to be suffering bruising to his forehead.

The only person arrested so far is a 15-year-old girl who was using offensive language.

She was taken to Hurstville Police Station where she was later released and is expected to receive a youth caution.

No arrests have been made in relation to the assault of the males, and inquiries are still continuing.
The Dean of Berkeley's law school Sujit Choudhry, pictured, has stepped down amid claims he sexually harassed his executive assistant

The Dean of Berkeley's law school has stepped down amid claims he sexually harassed his executive assistant.

Sujit Choudhry will remain as a faculty member and earn a professor's salary at the school while an interim dean serves in his place.

It comes after his assistant Tyann Sorrell filed a lawsuit claiming Choudhry kissed and touched her repeatedly and when he acknowledged this following a campus investigation, his only punishment was a temporary pay cut.

Sorrell, 41, said the unwanted physical contact  which included bear hugs, arm and shoulder rubs, kisses on the face and her boss once placing her hands on his waist  happened multiple times on a near-daily basis, while Choudhry said it was once or twice a week at most.

He told campus investigators that he intended his actions to be taken as gestures of thanks or emotional support, not seen as sexual in nature.

He said that he did not hug or kiss men at the office, though, and expressed regret for not realizing he'd made his assistant uncomfortable.

In her lawsuit, the married mother of five said she worked for the school's previous dean without incident for two years.

She says the problems with Choudhry started within months of his becoming dean in July 2014.

Her lawyer John Winer said: 'We feel very strongly that the law school failed to take Ms Sorrell's complaints seriously enough.

'It is especially concerning that this admitted sexual harassment was perpetrated by the dean of one of the most highly respected law schools in the country. Someone who certainly should have known better.'

Provost Claude Steele confirmed that campus investigators found that the dean's behavior violated campus policies and that Choudhry 'demonstrated a failure to understand the power dynamic and the effect of his actions on the plaintiff personally and in her employment.'

Steele said he decided that docking the dean's salary by 10 per cent for one year, requiring him to undergo counseling, making him apologize, and allowing Sorrell to go on leave with full pay 'would be an appropriate and effective response, and would produce the necessary changes in his behavior.'

Choudhry will remain as a faculty member and earn a professor's salary at the school while an interim dean serves in his place. Pictured is Berkeley Law School

Choudhry told Steele on Wednesday morning that he wanted to relinquish the dean's job so the lawsuit would not become a distraction for the law school and the campus, Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said.

As dean, Choudhry earned a salary of $415,000, and he will make $284,200 as a faculty member, Mogulof said.

The lawsuit comes nearly five months after a prominent astronomer at Berkeley, Geoffrey Marcy, resigned amid a national outcry over revelations that the school had substantiated sexual harassment complaints from former female students without demoting or suspending him from his job.

Mr Winer said that as in the Marcy case, Berkeley's Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination concluded his client's complaints were credible and that Choudhry's behavior had violated campus sex harassment policies.

Another Berkeley Law dean, John Dwyer, resigned in 2002 after a former student accused him of molesting her after a night of drinking at her apartment.
Police in Long Island are reopening investigations into a 1981 double-drowning incident in which an environmental conservation officer and his wife died under mysterious circumstances.

William Becker, an officer with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and his wife, Michelle, were found drowned after leaving a dinner party on March 10, 1981.

The husband, who was 43, was still wearing his uniform when his body was found in a marina in Mattituck, Long Island the day after his disappearance. Michelle Becker's body was found nearby the following day.

Michelle Becker, left, and her husband William were found drowned in Long Island in 1981

The union representing Becker's department posted a $15,000 reward Wednesday for information leading up to the arrest of those responsible for the deaths.

Police in Suffolk County, Long Island deemed the drownings accidental in 1983 following a two-year investigation.

But family members were never satisfied with that conclusion.

'My family and I have never felt this was an accidental double drowning,' said Michael Malkush, Michelle Becker's brother. 'We deserve to know what really happened 35 years ago.'

DEC police major Scott Florence said there were several mysterious details surrounding the case.

Becker's uniform tie was found aboard a ship that was owned by the host of the dinner party that the couple had attended on the night of their disappearance, Florence told Suffolk Times.

Additionally, a dining table on the same boat was found broken off its hinges.

'Today, you would look at that and go, maybe there was a struggle and his tie got pulled off and the table broke,' Florence said.

Malkush said investigators told him their theory at the time was that the couple had sneaked aboard the ship to 'get romantic,' a hypothesis he doubts because the couple lived close by and William Becker had a known fear of water.

'We just feel that they didn't go down there on their own and accidentally fall in the water and both drown. We're just trying to find out the missing pieces,' Malkush told NBC News.

William Becker had served 15 years as an officer with the department and the couple left behind three children, the DEC said Wednesday as it announced the reopening of the case.
old tiles upside down on 350,00 home in Lancashire

Simon Fielding, 56, (pictured) charged a couple almost 8,000 to fix the leaking roof of their 350,000 home in Lancashire  but he simply turned all the old tiles upside down

A rogue trader charged a couple almost 8,000 to fix their leaking roof  but simply turned all the old tiles upside down.

Simon Fielding, 56, promised Sara and Nicholas Cole he would mend the roof of their 350,000 home.

But the serial criminal - who has appeared on BBC Ones Rogue Trader and has 11 convictions for 26 offences - simply turned the tiles over to make it look as though he had done some work, while the leak went unfixed.

And when the couple refused to pay he threatened to remove the tiles, claiming they were his property.

Last night Fielding was beginning a jail sentence after being branded one of the worst rogue traders in Britain.

Preston Crown Court was told that when the roof sprung a leak, Sara Cole, 34, organised for Ribble Valley Roofing to come round to the house in Wiswell, Lancashire.

The company charged 850 and the work was done in May 2014, but weeks later the leak reappeared so Mrs Cole, a mother-of-two and a dentist, and her husband Nicholas, 34, who is also a dentist, called the firm back.

A man calling himself David Fielding, from Ribble Valley Roofing, then turned up and said the entire roof needed replacing and it would cost 15,000.

Following a series of calls the cost was initially reduced to 12,000, but a price of 6,500 was eventually agreed with the use of reclaimed and existing tiles.

The court heard Fielding demanded half of the money up front and the rest on completion, but he rang Mrs Cole on two separate occasions asking for an extra 2,500 and then 2,300 - giving a total of 7,900.

As the job neared completion Fielding said the cost of the materials had risen and that they owed him another 3,600.

David Traynor, prosecuting, said the couple refused to pay but Fielding sent them a text saying unless the balance was paid he would go to the house and crate the 290 (slates) we have replaced because they were legally his.

The court heard that a building surveyor found Fielding had not replaced the tiles, but simply turned the old ones upside down to look like new. Fielding hadnt even fixed the cause of the original leak.

The Coles reported Fielding to Lancashire Trading Standards, who brought the prosecution.

The court also heard Fielding also worked on the home of Christine Walmsley and told her she needed to pay 12,000 for a new roof, before walking off with more than 9,000 without finishing the job.

Fielding was jailed for two years and three months after admitting two counts of fraud, and one count of engaging in an unfair commercial practice.
The 76-year-old said he never wanted to be seen as 'the black reporter'

He was knighted in 1999 for services to broadcasting and journalism

Sir Trevor McDonald, 76, revealed that he has never wanted to be seen as 'the black reporter'

His decades as one of Britains most trusted journalists saw him rewarded with a knighthood.

But in a break from his normally warm demeanour, Sir Trevor McDonald has branded the honour worthless.

In a candid interview looking at his more than five-decade career, the popular broadcaster, 76, also said he has never wanted to be seen as the black reporter and criticised the idea of positive discrimination.

He made the remarks to Desert Island Discs presenter Kirsty Young, who was interviewing him at BAFTAs London headquarters on Tuesday.

Recalling his interview with boxer Mike Tyson for his recent documentary on Las Vegas, Sir Trevor claimed the fighter had been obsessed with the fact he was a knight.

He said: Americans cant understand this thing about knighthoods, and quite rightly. I think theyre very lucky not to get involved in this rubbish.

I once had a conversation with President Bush about this, and I made the terrible mistake in saying that theyre pretty worthless.

And he said, Dont say that, my father has one, and this was true, his father got an honorary knighthood.

But Mike Tyson said to me at the end of the interview, he said, I kept being fascinated about this black knight. I said, No, youre making a terrible mistake. Im not really a knight in shining armour at all, I said, Its a title which you know you may have different views about.

Sir Trevor was knighted in 1999 for services to broadcasting and journalism and said at the time: It was an amazing surprise and the shock still hasnt worn off. To be honest, I still dont know why me. But its nice when youre recognised for something you do.

However, this awe certainly seemed to have worn off by the time he made his latest remarks.

Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Sir Trevor became ITNs first black reporter in 1973 but said he was determined not to be known for the colour of his skin.

The former ITN newsreader was knighted in 1999 for services to broadcasting and journalism

He said: I did not want to be a black reporter, I had no interest at all in that. Im black West Indian, thats what I am, I cant change that. I did not want to live my life continually in that channel, to be seen as such.

He also took a swipe at positive discrimination, saying: It would be horrible to be the person who gets the job because of positive discrimination, and to have everybody in the room look around and say I know exactly why he or she has got that job, thats awful.

While admitting that circumstances such as in South Africa post-apartheid such measures are needed, he added: Im a great believer in meritocracy.

In the wide-ranging talk, Sir Trevor revealed how Colonel Gaddafi offered him a job after their interview in 1988 and that he was worried about getting out of Iraq in one piece after subjecting Saddam Hussein to a tough interrogation in 1990.

Despite such close brushes with dictators, he branded himself a coward and said he had a serious dislike or reporting from conflict zones.

The father of two was presenter of ITNs News at Ten from 1992 to 1999 and was widely regarded as the nations most popular newsreader.

In 1999, he began to host ITVs flagship current affairs programme Tonight with Trevor McDonald, which aired twice a week.

He is known for his incisive interviews with figures from Tony Blair to Nelson Mandela and was named Newscaster of the Year in 1993, 1997 and 1999.
The knife reportedly found at O.J. Simpson's former estate likely is not connected to the killings of his ex-wife and her friend, a law enforcement official said - but it will take at least three weeks to know for sure.

Investigators are examining the knife for DNA or other material that could possibly link the weapon to the 1994 murders of Simpson's ex-wife and her friend.

But results aren't expected for at least three weeks, Capt. Andy Neiman said on Wednesday.

Scroll down for video

Test results on the knife aren't expected for at least three weeks, Capt. Andy Neiman (pictured) said on Wednesday. However, an law enforcement official says detectives doubt it is connected to the killings

Meanwhile, a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press that detectives doubt the knife is connected to the killings.

The official said the knife is commonly used among gardeners and was too small to make the wounds that killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.

The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

Both Simpson and Goldman had deep gashes to their necks, in addition to a number of other extensive knife wounds.

The weapon used in the killings has been a mystery for decades. Other knives have surfaced during the case, but they were not linked to the crimes.

O.J. Simpson, center, reacts as he is found not guilty of murdering his ex-wife and her friend in 1995, as members of his defense team, F. Lee Bailey, left, and Johnnie Cochran Jr., right, in court in Los Angeles

Investigators are examining the knife for DNA or other material that could possibly link the weapon to the 1994 murders of Simpson's ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson (left( and her friend Ron Goldman (right)

On Friday, Los Angeles police revealed that they were examining a knife reportedly found at Simpson's estate years ago.

Police said a construction worker gave the knife to an officer working as a security guard at a filming location. The officer then kept the knife for a number of years, police said.

Trent Copeland, an attorney who represents the officer, said his client retired in 1998 and that the construction worker gave him the knife in 2002 or 2003 - well after a jury found Simpson not guilty of the murders.

Copeland said the officer, George Maycott, immediately called LAPD to report the knife.

'Someone put him on hold, that person came back several minutes later, said he spoke to a supervisor who said, Double jeopardy is attached to this case, O.J.'s been acquitted. If that knife had blood on it there's really nothing we can do about it, so we don't want anything to do with this,' ' Copeland said.

Pictured, a Buck brand folding knife of the Buck brand, similar to the one described by LAPD officials after the discovery at Simpson's estate

Los Angeles Police Capt. Andy Neiman takes questions from reporters during a new conference at police headquarters in downtown Los Angeles on Friday

Maycott then kept the knife in a toolbox for the next 13 years or so.

'He was not this sort of bumbling keystone cop who cavalierly decided he would take what could have been a pivotal piece of evidence and put it in his bag,' Copeland said.

'He knows that he did exactly what any diligent professional officer would have done and that is you call LAPD immediately  and that's what he did.'

The bodies of Brown Simpson and Goldman were found stabbed multiple times outside her home on June 12, 1994.

The discovery led to the so-called 'Trial of the Century' - currently the subject of a ten-part FX series The People V OJ Simpson: American Crime Story - in which Simpson was represented by a team of high-profile attorneys led by the flamboyant Johnnie Cochran.

Simpson (pictured in 2013), who has always maintained his innocence, is now serving a sentence of nine to 33 years in a Nevada prison for a 2007 armed robbery and kidnapping conviction

Crews demolish the former home of O.J. Simpson, in 1998, in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles. Detectives are investigating a knife purportedly found some time ago

A jury acquitted Simpson in 1995 after deliberating for only four hours.

But in 1997, a civil court jury found him liable for the killings and awarded $33.5 million in damages to the victims' families.

Simpson, who has always maintained his innocence, is now serving a sentence of nine to 33 years in a Nevada prison for a 2007 armed robbery and kidnapping conviction in which he tried to retrieve football memorabilia.
A convicted felon known more for his criminally good looks than for his crimes is looking forward to becoming a model and actor now that he is free from behind bars.

Jeremy Meeks of California became known as the 'Hot Felon' after his baby-blue eyes, razor-sharp cheekbones and chiseled jawline first caught the public's attention when his mug shot was posted on the Stockton Police Department's Facebook page in 2014

Despite being behind bars for possession of a firearm, the 30-year-old was signed by talent agency, White Cross Management last year under Jim Jordan. He was released from prison earlier this month.

Scroll down for video

New team: 'I want to thank my family and everybody for all your love, support and prayers. I'm overwhelmed and grateful for what lies ahead. I'm ready,' wrote Meeks along with this Instagram image this week

Modeling contract: Despite being behind bars felony possession of a firearm, Jeremy Meeks was signed by talent agency, White Cross Management last year under Jim Jordan.

Jeremy Meeks, pictured in 2014 in Stockton, California was arrested on felony weapon charges on June 18 as part of a Stockton police gang sweep

Meeks with his son. Meeks said what he misses most is his family

Meeks with his wife Melissa and children in a photo posted to her Instagram page

A photo of Meeks' children visiting him in prison

'I want to thank my family and everybody for all your love, support and prayers. I'm overwhelmed and grateful for what lies ahead. I'm ready,' Meeks wrote on an Instagram photo posted this week.

'Were putting everything in place,' Jordan told BuzzFeed this week following Meek's release.

'Were in talks with a lot of different agencies. Theres movies on the table. We have a lot of different things happening.'

'Im in a place where I will be able to provide for my family and really change my life,' Meeks told ABC News from a Nevada prison last February.

'I never thought that everyone in the world would recognize me for my looks, so I feel extremely blessed and very thankful.'

Comedy: Jeremy Meeks' mug shot became a series of memes as soon as it went viral

Jeremy Meeks became known as the 'Hot Felon' after his baby-blue eyes, razor-sharp cheekbones and chiseled jawline first caught the public's attention in 2014 and became a series of memes (right)

'Im in a place where I will be able to provide for my family and really change my life,' Meeks, pictured on social media told ABC News from a Nevada prison last February

Meeks told ABC last year that he worked out regularly to be camera ready after his release.

'I eat healthy. I do a lot of push-ups, pull-ups, dips, burpees, and I stay very active,' he added.

Meeks has his eye on acting as well and told ABC that he would love to be on a show like Sons of Anarchy.

'There is a sea of opportunities waiting for him,' Jordon told ABC.

Meek said what he misses most is his family.

'I was just thinking about missing my family,' he said. 'I was really thinking about my son a lot at that moment, that was the only thing that was on my mind.'

He said his family has been very supportive of him.

'I've got a lot of support my family, my friends, and from my fans - I get hundreds and hundreds of letters every month. Im very thankful for all the support I've been getting,' Meeks said.
Five foreign criminals a day are being released from prison on to Britains streets instead of being deported, it has been revealed.

New figures show that 416 foreign national offenders  including rapists, robbers, paedophiles and drug dealers  were freed between October and December after completing their sentences.

There were 5,789 foreign offenders living in Britain due for deportation  the highest number for five years. Instead of being locked up until thrown out, they are released, at risk of absconding and potentially putting the public in danger.

THE RAPIST WHO REMAINED IN THE UK DESPITE ABUSING TWO CHILDREN William Danga, 43, (pictured below) a convicted rapist, abused two children as he fought deportation for his previous crime. He had been jailed for raping a 16-year-old girl. He was freed on completion of his sentence and sought to remain in Britain on human rights grounds. He subjected the two younger children - one of whom was only four - to appalling abuse while on immigration bail. A judge said in 2011 that it was remarkable Danga had not been thrown out of Britain after the earlier rape. But he challenged deportation on the grounds that he had a right to a family life. It was later deemed he could remain because he has a girlfriend and a young child. He is believed to be still in Britain. Advertisement

Nearly a third of them  1,865  have been loose for more than five years.

MPs and criminal justice experts last night accused the Home Office of complete failure in getting to grips with the system for deporting convicts from overseas.

Critics were scathing about the lack of progress since 2006 when Charles Clarke, then the Labour Home Secretary, was forced to resign over the failure to boot out 1,000 foreign criminals.

The statistics were highlighted by the Commons home affairs select committee, which has been investigating the Home Offices immigration directorates.

Of the 416 offenders freed in the final quarter of last year, only six were deported. Another 14 were given permission to stay.

The rest were challenging their deportation orders, many using controversial human rights or asylum laws, while others did not have travel documents so could not be removed immediately.

Critics were scathing about the lack of progress since 2006 when Charles Clarke, then the Labour Home Secretary, was forced to resign over the failure to boot out 1,000 foreign criminals

Keith Vaz, Labour chairman of the select committee, said: The public will be alarmed that 1,800 offenders are still here after five years. This demonstrates either incompetence, inefficiency or both.

Peter Cuthbertson, of the Centre for Crime Prevention think-tank, said: MPs are right to highlight an utterly shocking failure by the dysfunctional Home Office. There are more than enough British criminals released on to our streets as it is. Why top them up with foreign criminals who have no right to be here? This risk to public safety should be dealt with urgently.

Jack Montgomery, spokesman for Eurosceptic group Leave.EU, said: This scandalous situation would not be so hard to get a grip on if we didnt have the European Court of Justice seemingly doing everything in its power to obstruct the deportation of dangerous criminals.

The problem is even worse than these figures suggest because EU free movement rules... make it all but impossible to stop deported criminals who are EU passport-holders from simply hopping on the next flight back to Britain.

The Home Office said that last year it removed more than 5,600 foreign national offenders  the highest number for more than five years.
Impress, set up to offer independent regulation of the UK Press and backed by Max Moseley's millions, is not independent, not credible and does not represent major publishers, said the News Media Association (NMA)

The would-be Press regulator propped up by Max Mosleys millions fails to meet the criteria laid down by the Leveson Inquiry, it was submitted yesterday.

Impress, set up to offer independent regulation of the Press under the Governments state-backed scheme, is not independent, not credible and does not represent major publishers, said the News Media Association (NMA).

The NMA, which represents 90 per cent of UK media including 2,600 national, regional and local newspapers and websites, called for IMPRESS to be denied official recognition.

IMPRESS has applied to be recognised by the Press Regulation Panel (PRP), which was set up under the controversial Royal Charter agreed between the three main political parties and anti-Press campaigners Hacked Off after the Leveson Inquiry.

But the NMA said IMPRESS had failed to meet the criteria laid down by Leveson that a self-regulatory system would not be credible unless it attracted major publishers and the widest possible cross-section of the news media.

It is unrepresentative of the Press as a whole, it relies for its funding on a single wealthy donor, Max Mosley, it has no editorial code of standards and it cannot be described as independent, credible or effective, said a spokesman. Another senior industry figure said: This demonstrates that IMPRESS is effectively Max Mosleys private press regulator.

Yet if IMPRESS wins its official recognition, it would unfairly impose on the vast majority of UK publishers a system of penalties in circumstances that were never intended, said the MNA in a 45-page response to the PRPs call for information.

Under a law which recognition of IMPRESS could trigger, newspapers that do not sign up to a recognised regulator could be forced to pay the other sides costs in a libel action - even if they win their case.

No national or regional newspaper has yet signed up to IMPRESS, which admitted recently it will rely on 3.8million in donations over four years from the family of Mr Mosley, the ex-motor racing chief who has campaigned for tighter Press controls ever since the News of the World published photos of him at an orgy.

So far, IMPRESS  which has yet to publish a code of practice for journalists - has announced only a handful of very small publishers as its members, such as The Ferret, a crowd-funded Scottish investigative journalism website.

But the NMA said IMPRESS had failed to meet the criteria laid down by Leveson that a self-regulatory system would not be credible unless it attracted major publishers and the widest possible cross-section of the news media

The majority - including the Daily Mail - are overseen by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), which can impose 1million fines for serious and systemic wrongdoing. IPSO has said it will not seek official recognition under the Charter.

The chairman of IMPRESS, Walter Merricks, has insisted it would not be beholden to Mr Mosley or anybody else.

IMPRESS said yesterday it was not surprised by the NMAs submission, adding: We look forward to engaging fully with the detailed points they have made.
The Queen was last night at the centre of an extraordinary row over claims that she privately expressed Eurosceptic views.

Buckingham Palace was furious that the monarch had been dragged into the increasingly bitter EU referendum debate.

Whitehall sources pointed the finger of blame at Michael Gove for allegedly leaking comments made by the Queen at a lunch with ministers in 2011.

Scroll down for video

Chat: The Queen and Nick Clegg, to whom she reportedly expressed Eurosceptic views during a lunch in 2011

They said Mr Gove  one of four ministers at the lunch and now an Out campaigner  was the most likely suspect after a newspaper report suggested Her Majesty had declared the EU was heading in the wrong direction.

Labour is now demanding an official investigation by the Cabinet Office over what it claimed could be a breach of Whitehall rules on disclosing secret Privy Council conversations.

The Queen is said to have made her views known to Europhile Nick Clegg, who was then Deputy Prime Minister.

A source told the Sun newspaper: It was really something. The EU is clearly something Her Majesty feels passionately about. People who heard their conversation were left in no doubt at all about the Queens views on European integration.

Mr Clegg, having initially said he could not recall having any such conversation, later issued a firm denial, calling the newspapers account nonsense.

Lib Dem ex-minister Sir Edward Davey claimed the Queen would vote to stay in the EU

The Palace said: The Queen remains politically neutral, as she has for 63 years. We would never comment on spurious, anonymously sourced claims.

In a dramatic escalation of the row, officials later lodged an unprecedented formal complaint to the Press regulator Ipso about The Suns front-page headline, Queen Backs Brexit, on the grounds of accuracy.

There has been no outright denial that the Queen expressed a view on the state of Europe in 2011, when the continent was convulsed by the eurozone crisis. The conflict centres instead on the claim that she supports leaving the EU.

Senior Government sources said that at the time the lunch took place, David Cameron was yet to announce a referendum on EU membership and so Her Majesty would not have been in a position to take a view on the matter.

Friends of Mr Gove denied he was the source of the story, stating he had no idea where the claims had originated.

A spokesman for the Justice Secretary said: We dont comment on private conversations with the Queen.

Nevertheless, he was named as the most likely culprit at Westminster.

Along with Mr Clegg and two other ministers, he attended the meeting at Windsor Castle in April 2011 when the comments were reportedly made.

Also present was Cheryl Gillan, then Welsh Secretary, who is campaigning to leave the EU. She declined to comment on the alleged comments. Lord McNally, a Lib Dem who was also at Windsor in 2011, backed Mr Cleggs account and said he had no recollection of a conversation about Europe.

A Whitehall source said: It is hugely disappointing that what was in essence an extension of a Privy Council meeting has been purportedly used in this way.

Whitehall sources pointed the finger of blame at Michael Gove (pictured) for allegedly leaking comments made by the Queen at a lunch with ministers in 2011

YEAR EUROZONE WAS ON THE VERGE OF COLLAPSE In early 2011, the eurozone was in full-blown crisis  with many experts predicting the single currency could collapse altogether. Governments were in turmoil, Greece was on the brink of defaulting on its loans and youth unemployment was soaring. Indeed, all bar the most ardent Europhile would agree with the statement that the EU was headed in the wrong direction. Throughout 2010, increasingly savage austerity measures were introduced in Greece to try to curb its spiralling debts. In April that year, following worsening financial markets and violent protests, eurozone countries agreed to provide up to 30billion euros in emergency loans. The following month, eurozone members and the IMF cobbled together a 110billion euro bailout to rescue Athens from meltdown. But the euro continued to fall  with the Republic of Ireland being dragged in. In November, the EU and IMF agreed to a package for the Ireland of 85billion euros. Dublin was forced to pass the toughest austerity budget in its history. In February 2011, with no sign of the crisis abating, eurozone finance ministers set up a permanent bailout fund, called the European Stability Mechanism, worth 500billion euros. But, on the night before the April 7 lunch attended by the Queen, Michael Gove and Nick Clegg, Portugal requested a bailout for its stricken economy. The countrys government  led by Jose Socrates  acknowledged the failure to implement an austerity package had caused irreparable damage to the nations finances. Later in 2011, Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi was forced to resign when the yield on Italian bonds rose to more than 7 per cent  the rate at which Greece, Ireland and Portugal were obliged to seek bailouts from the EU. Advertisement

Labour MP Wes Streeting has now written to Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood to demand an investigation into what he claimed could be a breach of Privy Council rules.

In addition, convention dictates that conversations between the Queen and MPs remain private. Mr Streeting said: Whoever has sought to drag the monarch into the referendum debate for their own ends ought to be dragged into public to explain why they behaved in such an inappropriate way, and to apologise.

Mr Clegg told ITVs Good Morning Britain: It is not true. I have certainly, absolutely no recollection of a conversation like that, which I suspect I would have remembered if it had taken place. I just think its wrong that people who want to take us out of the European Union to now try and drag the Queen for their own purposes into this European referendum debate.

Lord McNally (pictured), who was also at the lunch, said he had no recollection of a conversation about Europe

Downing Street insisted there had been no clash with Mr Gove following reports of his involvement with the story, despite claims that No 10 had been incandescent about the newspaper report. Yesterday, the Out campaigner took his regular place at the heart of Mr Camerons inner circle to prepare answers for the weekly session of Prime Ministers Questions.

Meanwhile, Lib Dem ex-minister Sir Edward Davey claimed the Queen would vote to stay in the EU. The former energy secretary, who lost his seat last year, said reports that Her Majesty had voiced Eurosceptic opinions had no credibility.

He told the BBC that the Queen would never support Brexit because of the risk it could pose to the UK, adding: The Queen knows that if we vote to pull out of the EU, its the surest way to destroy the United Kingdom, because Scotland will then vote to go independent, as we all know. So I very much doubt she holds the views that are given her in The Sun.

Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg responded: Ed Davey doesnt know what he is talking about. To begin with, it is a matter of fact that the Queen does not have a vote in the referendum, so will not be voting for Britain to stay in the EU.

Last night The Sun said it stands by its story, stating it was based upon two impeccable sources and presented in a robust, accessible fashion.

The newspaper said it would vigorously defend the complaint to Ipso  the first lodged with the regulator by the Palace about or on behalf of the Queen.

Her Majesty famously intervened before 2014s poll on Scottish independence, urging Scots to think very carefully before casting their vote  interpreted as support for preserving the Union.
Gerry Downing, pictured on his website, describes himself as a 'Trotskyite' and revealed his readmission to Labour in a blog post

A hard-left activist who allegedly argued against 'condemning' the 9/11 bombers has been expelled from the Labour Party.

David Cameron raised the case of Gerry Downing during his weekly Prime Minister's Questions joust with Jeremy Corbyn.

The premier quoted a blog by Mr Downing in which he said the terrorists involved in the attacks on America 'must never be condemned'.

During prime ministers question time, Mr Cameron said: I was completely appalled to see yesterday that the Labour Party have readmitted someone to their party who says that the 9/11 suicide bombers, and I quote, must never be condemned, and belongs to an organisation that says we defend the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

These are appalling views and I hope that the Leader of the Opposition will throw this person out of the party rather than welcome him in.

Mr Corbyn did not reply to the question.

Aides to the Labour leader indicated after the session that the situation was being considered.

Mr Downing was kicked out of the party last summer over views expressed on his Twitter feed and blog but was re-instated in November after an appeal.

A party spokeswoman said tonight: 'Following further evidence that has come to light Gerry Downing has now been excluded from the Labour Party by the NEC panel.'

The row erupted amid new reports of a sustained attempt by members of the far left to take over the party.

The Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, the pressure group prominent in the 1980s, is pressing for a rule change meaning MPs would not be able to prevent Mr Corbyn from running for re-election if challenged.
The Army lied about ending a controversial program that embedded social scientists with troops fighting overseas, according to a USA Today investigation.

The Human Terrain System, which aimed at improving US combat units' understanding of local cultures in overseas battlefields, was blasted for alleged misuse of funds and supposedly terminated in 2014.

However, Defense Department officials said Wednesday the program is still ongoing.

Officials said Wednesday the Army lied about ending the controversial Human Terrain System. Pictured: School children gather around a US soldier standing guard outside a public school in the town of Iskandiriyah in Iraq, in a file photo from 2011.

The HTS program continues to receive funding and employs two Army officers, two civilian employees and five contractors using a $1.2 million-per-year budget, the anonymous official told USA Today.

Since 2007, the program has spent $725 million on employing civilians with degrees in social science to advise the armed forces on how to interact with civilians in war zones, according to USA Today.

Critics said the program was marred by time sheet fraud and unnecessarily risked the lives of civilians.

US troops pass civilians in Shembawut, Afghanistan during a mission of the US Army Embedded Training Team and Human Terrain Team to inspect pooling stations in a file photo from 2009.

According to the USA Today investigation, instead of shuttering the program the armed forces started using it to inform commanders based in the US, and began referring to it as the Global Cultural Knowledge Network.

'They reinvented HTS in the form of GCKN, and only now that theyre called on it are they saying that HTS never went away,' Republican congressman Duncan Hunter told USA Today.

Hunter, who is a member of the Armed Services Committee, said it was 'absolutely astonishing' that the program is still ongoing.

'The Army was happy with members of Congress and the scientific community thinking and believing it was killed. The Army is evidently OK with taking people for fools.'
As Prime Ministers Questions ended, David Cameron sped towards the double-doors behind the Speakers Chair

As Prime Ministers Questions ended, David Cameron sped towards the double-doors behind the Speakers Chair.

Neowww! Fast as the rabbit at a greyhound track.

Normally he takes a while to leave the Chamber, liking to exchange nods and pumped-lip smiles of encouragement with his favourites.

A clap on the back for some greaser. A tiny, almost mocking bow to the Speaker. Yesterday he scarpered pronto, scooting away without saying a word.

Was he cross? There was little need to be, for at PMQs he had again flattened Jeremy Corbyn. Or was he avoiding the next item on the agenda?

This was an Urgent Question from Tory backbencher John Redwood about the bizarre deal the European Union seems about to do with Turkey.

The EU intends to pay Turkey billions of pounds to try to stop Syrian migrants passing through its lands en route to Europe.

The EU will also speed up Turkeys application to join the EU and allow Turks (all 77million of them) visa-free travel to Europe.

Mr Redwoods question was officially put to Mr Cameron, but by the time he voiced it, the PM was smoke on the horizon. Emergency evacuation procedure successful, skipper.

The duty of answering Mr Redwood fell to the Foreign Offices Europe minister, David Lidington. Lidders is an odd figure, popular but twitchy. You sense he has too much brain stuffed inside his skull.

In recent weeks his facial tics have become more pronounced, almost to the point of Chief Inspector Dreyfus in the Clouseau films, as played by the late Herbert Lom. Though Tory backbenchers quite like Mr Lidington, there was a palpable dissatisfaction in their ranks yesterday as he put the Foreign Office line.

He plainly felt he could not criticise the EU (as he might have done before this referendum was declared) because it could look indecisive.

Mr Redwood wanted to know: would we have to let Turks into Britain and how many billions was it costing us?

Mr Lidington claimed that we had an opt-out on the Turk-migration aspect. Mr Redwood looked dubious about this. By the way, is it not interesting that both Mr Redwood and another veteran former Tory Cabinet minister, Peter Lilley, have not received knighthoods?

Perhaps they turned them down, not wishing to be beholden to anyone. Or perhaps they have been ignored by Downing Street because they are made of flinty stuff and would happily tell No 10 spin doctors to get lost.

Liam Fox (Con, N Somerset) rose. The Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, had just fled the front bench but he did loiter, half out of the Chamber, listening intently by the exit as the Eurosceptic Fox put his question.

Was he avoiding the next item on the agenda? This was an Urgent Question from Tory backbencher John Redwood (pictured) about the bizarre deal the European Union seems about to do with Turkey

Mr Hammond is looking terribly fagged out  so dark round the eyes. Is there a sense of fraying crisis among the Downing Street cabal?

Dr Fox argued that it didnt make any difference if we had an opt-out on the Turk migration thing.

Once Turks became EU citizens in another country, they would be able to move to the UK under free-movement rules.

Mr Lidington, speaking slowly, his lips and nose and brow doing little dances of perturbation, his hands windmilling, said most Turkish migrants wanted to live in Germany and it took a long time to gain German citizenship.

Good grief. That argument is so lame, were it a point-to-point horse it would be put down without hesitation.

Keith Vaz (Lab, Leicester E) felt the money being handed to Turkey should at least have some sort of performance-related aspect  ie based on how hard they tried to stop migration. MPs on all sides attacked Turkeys human-rights record.

And rip-snorter Anne Main (Con, St Albans) noted how often Mr Lidington had said maybe and might.

Brexiteer Mrs Main said that it just showed how the Stay in Europe gangs arguments were riddled by unknowns and insecurity.
Research comes from study of 350 workers and their gossiping habits

However chit chat about love lives was not linked to cynicism

Bosses take note. It is good for employees to gossip about their love life or their plans for the weekend.

However, chitchat about office politics should be discouraged... according to management gurus at Salford University.

They quizzed more than 350 workers about how much they gossiped when at work and what they talked about.

Management gurus at Salford University found that work-related gossip led to cynicism and tended to make employees less productive (file photo)

The men and women, who came from 26 companies of various sizes, also answered a series of questions about their colleagues.

These included whether their workmates were overly critical or whether they were team players.

Their answers to these questions were used to determine how cynical they were about their jobs.

This is important because work-weary employees tend to be less productive.

Researcher Professor Kirk Chang, an expert in human resources, said: Cynicism describes employees negative attitude about their organisation and managers.

These employees believe their managers lack integrity and take advantage of their time and effort.

More and more evidence has shown that cynicism has become one of the biggest challenges to business success, productivity and employee management.

Put simply, if they sit around moaning about their boss, or their colleagues, they become demotivated. The results showed that workers were slightly more likely to gossip about their colleagues than their social lives.

However, only work-related gossip was linked to cynicism.

So, despite the perception that allowing employees to stand around discussing their love lives is distracting, only talk about office politics was found to be bad.

Professor Chang, who did the research with Taiwanese colleagues, said: Virtually all workers engage in gossip at one time or another but surprisingly it has not been subject to much study.

You might think that gossip about non work matters might harm productivity, but we found that the opposite.

It was gossip about job-related matters that has the biggest impact.

From a study of 350 workers, researchers found gossip about job-related matters had the biggest impact, while chatter about social lives is not linked to cynicism (file photo)

In contrast, talk about non-work related matters can build trust, fostering closer relationships.

Writing in the International Journal of Human Resource Management, the professor said that because it is human nature to gossip, managers will find it hard to stop people chewing over office politics.

However, they could try to shift the balance in favour of social chitchat by organising away days or after work activities that allow workers to get to know each other better.

If colleagues start to bond out of work, they should find it easier to swap confidences in the office.

Professor Chang said: Once job-related gossip and non job-related gossip are controlled, cynicism may reduce and overall productivity improve.

Previous research has concluded we are born to gossip, with scientist says human brain has evolved to thrive on tittle-tattle  and the cattier the better.

It is said that exchanging juicy information about other peoples lives is a quick and easy route to distinguishing friends from foe and helps protect us from harm.

In other words, being able to resist a good gossip is nothing to be ashamed of.
'Benin is a city of blood, its pits full of dead and dying; human sacrifices were strewn about on every hand, hardly a thing was without a red stain.

That was how the Illustrated London News recorded the destruction of Benin City - in what is modern-day southern Nigeria - when, in 1897, a British naval expedition was raised to avenge the deaths of nine officers killed during a trade dispute between the king of Benin and Britain.

That dispute was, in turn, part of the wider 19th-century struggle between the European powers as they competed to carve up the riches of the African continent.

The Benin Bronze cockerel (pictured) was taken during a 19th century British naval expedition to avenge the deaths of nine officers killed during a trade dispute between the king of Benin and Britain

Britain sent a force of 500 men to destroy the city, with one eye-witness describing how the British troops turned their newly manufactured Maxim machine guns on the local defenders, who fell from the trees like nuts.

After ten days of fierce fighting, the British burnt down the palace and looted the royal treasures: delicate ivory carvings and magnificent copper alloy sculptures and plaques - now known as the Benin Bronzes.

Felix Roth was a medical officer with the British Army, and described the astonishing sight of these riches, which he witnessed as he entered the kings compound, where human sacrifices had been performed by the locals.

On a raised platform or altar, running the whole breadth of each side, beautiful idols were found. All of them were caked over with human blood, and by giving them a slight tap, crusts of blood would, as it were, fly off.

Lying about were big bronze heads, dozens in a row, with holes at the top, in which immense ivory tusks were fixed. The whole place reeked of blood.

Outside, all about the houses and streets are dead natives, some crucified and sacrificed on streets; the smell was awful. It was a gruesome scene. Roth reflected: I suppose there is not another place on the face of the globe so near civilisation where such butcheries are carried on with impunity.

The city of Benin had been the head of a medieval African kingdom, founded in the tenth century, while the bronzes were made between the 13th and the 17th centuries, during two artistic golden ages.

The cockerel ended up being a permanent fixture in the dining hall at Jesus College (pictured) at Cambridge University

Their principal objective was to glorify the Oba - the divine king - and show the history of his imperial power. They provide an insight into a brutal but sophisticated culture, showing battles, scenes of court life, and rituals involving warriors and royalty.

After the sacking of Benin, the bronzes were taken by the British to pay for the expedition. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office sold them off, and around 900 ended up in the worlds greatest museums, including the British Museum, which has one of the largest sets.

One of them, a bronze cockerel, ended up being a permanent fixture in the dining hall at Jesus College, Cambridge.

And it is that particular artefact which is now at the centre of an almighty row. In a craven act, Jesus College has bowed to pressure from its students and removed the cockerel after protests that the sculpture is stolen property and celebrates a colonial past.

The bronze had resided in the college since 1930 when it was bequeathed by George William Neville, a member of the 1897 Benin Expedition, whose son had attended the college. It was adopted as a symbol of Jesus because three cockerels heads appear on the college crest.

The sculpture depicts a proud, strong animal - an embodiment of power. Though its value is not clear because so few bronzes have been sold recently, in 1989 a bronze memorial head from Benin was auctioned at Christies in London for more than 1 million.

The University now accepts it will probably be sent back to Africa.

In a dense 11-page document entitled Proposal To Repatriate Benin Bronze, the students argue for returning [the artefact] to its place of origin. They say returning it to the community from which it was stolen is just. In other words, these students want to return the cockerel as a kind of therapy for the sins of British imperialism.

The racial equalities officer at Jesus College, Ore Ogunbiyi, crowed on her blog: Its quite nice to see Jesus setting a precedent and taking steps in the right direction to weed out the colonial legacies that exist in bits of the university. We still have a lot of work to do... but how exciting and momentous and revolutionary is this?!

It has now emerged that one of the key figures in the campaign is an old boy of an exclusive 17,000-a-year school.

The Benin Bronzes (pictured) 'were crafted from manillas - a traditional form of money made of bronze or copper - brought to Benin by European traders, which were traded for slaves, and then melted down,' writes Tiffany Jenkins

Jason Okundaye, 19, a theology and religious studies student, attended Whitgift School in Croydon. He was born in South London but is a member of the Edo tribe of Benin, and helped to draft the proposal.

He told The Tab student newspaper he was in support of repatriating the Benin Bronze but added the proposals language should not be paternalistic or colonial.

Yesterday, it was claimed that Nigerian officials have already made plans to come to Britain to collect the cockerel. It was reported that the Nigerian Minister of Culture was kept informed about the campaign, and will be overseeing the decision over what to do with it when it arrives back in the country.

Nigeria has been demanding the return of the Benin Bronzes since the Sixties, just as Greece has sought the return of the Elgin Marbles, taken from Athens in the 19th century and now the centerpiece of the British Museum. Only last year, the fragrant lawyer Amal Clooney was hired to make the case for the return of the Marbles.

The sculpture these noisy Cambridge students want to see returned to Nigeria was created from the proceeds of slavery. Arguments for the return of cultural treasures are today made through the prism of a modern nations "identity".

Nor are the Marbles and the Bronzes the only treasures campaigners are desperate to get back. Questions have been raised about the acquisition of the famous Rosetta Stone - whose inscriptions provide the key to understanding Egyptian hieroglyphs - which has been in the British Museum for more than two centuries after British troops brought it back from Egypt.

Turkey wants the Victoria and Albert Museum in London to return a marble carving of a childs head removed from a sarcophagus by the archaeologist Sir Charles Wilson in the late 19th century.

And the Chinese, too, have demanded the return of thousands of exquisite objects taken from the Summer Palace in Beijing during the Opium Wars of the mid-19th century.

They were plundered by the British and French armies before they burnt the palace to the ground, and subsequently scattered among institutions including the V&A, and the Royal Engineers Museum in Kent.

But, repatriating artefacts on the basis of what we feel about history would be a serious mistake. Not only would the worlds museums and institutions be emptied, it would be allowing modern-day sensibilities to rewrite history in terms of simplistic goodies and baddies, when it is always more complicated than that.

The story of the acquisition of the Benin Bronzes is ugly, but the artefacts creation is not without taint. The glory of Benin was built on the slave trade, and the Bronzes were crafted from manillas - a traditional form of money made of bronze or copper - brought to Benin by European traders, which were traded for slaves, and then melted down.

So the sculpture these noisy Cambridge students want to see returned to Nigeria was created from the proceeds of slavery.

Arguments for the return of cultural treasures are today made through the prism of a modern nations identity.

'Repatriating artefacts, or pulling down statues such as that of Cecil Rhodes in Oxford (pictured) - the subject of another vocal campaign - to make amends for colonisation is a poor substitute for reshaping the modern world' writes Tiffany Jenkins

For example, Melina Mercouri, Greek minister of culture in the Eighties, and a prominent advocate for the return of the Elgin Marbles, argued that the Parthenon and its sculptures belong exclusively to the Greek people: We are asking only for something unique, something matchless, something specific to our identity.

But the idea of a continued and unique Greekness, which ties together the ancient past and the people of the present, ignores centuries of invasions, changing borders, and the mixing of peoples. Ancient Greece was a series of city states. Athenians - not Greeks - built the Parthenon.

Equally, the Benin Bronzes were created as far back as the 13th century, long before the modern state of Nigeria existed.

So the idea that they belong to the people of Nigeria is deeply flawed. No matter where we are from - no matter what ethnicity we are - we can see and admire the Benin Bronzes. We do not have to be from Nigeria to do so.

The truth is that objects of art are a misguided target for those truly concerned about social justice. The fact that there is a sculpture of a cockerel in a university dining room is hardly the most pressing problem facing us today.

Repatriating artefacts, or pulling down statues such as that of Cecil Rhodes in Oxford - the subject of another vocal campaign - to make amends for colonisation is a poor substitute for reshaping the modern world. These students want to censor and rewrite history rather than do what young idealists should try to do - change the future.

The problem with these campaigns is that in becoming obsessed with colonialism, campaigners lose sight of the original meanings and purposes of the artworks, viewing them only as objects of apology.

But instead of repatriating artefacts, we need to appreciate them in the institutions which care for them - our great museums. For it is here that their true value can be understood.

In London, at the British Museum, you can see the Elgin Marbles in the context of multiple cultures and world history, which helps us understand their significance. Walking through the different galleries, you can see how the early civilisations of Egypt and Assyria contributed to the great accomplishments of ancient Athens.

It becomes evident how this Greek art influenced sculpture from Turkey to India. It is also obvious just how great an impact the Greek culture had on the Roman Empire.

BENIN BRONZES: THE CELEBRATED ARTWORKS MIRED IN CONTROVERSY The Benin Bronzes are a set of artworks created to celebrate the Benin Kingdom in what is modern-day Nigeria. Created by the Edo people in the 13th Century, many were looted from the area by British expeditions. Today museums throughout Britain, Germany and the U.S. hold hundreds of the items - despite pleas from Nigeria for the artifacts to be returned. When colonialists first discovered the pieces adorning the country's royal palaces, they were amazed that such incredible artwork could be created by people so 'primitive'. Today they remain some of the most celebrated artworks to emerge from Africa, but much like Greece's Elgin Marbles, they are mired in controversy due to the circumstances in which they were acquired. Advertisement

It is here, in Bloomsbury, that millions of visitors every year come to understand what these magnificent marble sculptures have meant to humans across time and around the world.

In the same way, when the Benin Bronzes first arrived in Europe, they transformed the way people saw Africa. Europeans were surprised that Africans  a people whom they assumed to be backward  could make such refined artwork, as is clear from the words of Charles Hercules Read, a curator from the British Museum, who secured the collection.

It need scarcely be said that at the first sight of these remarkable works of art we were at once astounded at such an unexpected find, and puzzled to account for so highly developed an art among a race so entirely barbarous.

The artworks were a force for good, however they were acquired. Thats why the Benin Bronzes - and all the other marvellous treasures we can study and appreciate at close quarters - belong here, in Britain.
See more on Donald Trump's campaign at www.dailymail.co.uk/trump

He says he was swept up in a clash between Black Lives Matter protesters and white supremacist Trump supporters

A Korean war veteran who was filmed repeatedly shoving a black woman in the back to eject her from a Donald Trump rally has said that he 'regrets' his actions and denies that they were racist.

Footage shows Alvin Bamberger, 75, pushing University of Louisville student Kayisha Nwanguma out of the political event at Kentucky International Convention Center on March 1.

'I physically pushed a young woman down the aisle toward the exit, an action I sincerely regret,' Bamberger wrote in a letter to Larry Kinard, president of the Korean War Veterans Association (KWVA), Military.com reported.

Scroll down for video

Shoved: Alvin Bamberger (left), a Korean War veteran, was filmed shoving student Kayisha Nwanguma (right) during a March 1 Trump rally in Louisville, Kentucky. Bamberger says he 'sincerely regrets his actions

Shouting: Bamberger shouted 'Get out of here' at Nwanguma, who was protesting the rally. He says he was emotional after being pushed over in a conflict between Black Lives Matter supporters and white supremacists

Multiple videos recorded at the event show Bamberger, in KWVA uniform, pushing Nwanguma in the back and shouting 'Get out of here! 'We don't want you here!'

In one video Nwanguma, who is trying to type something into her phone, can be seen telling Bamberger to 'stop pushing,' but the former soldier continues to shove her until a white man wearing a 'Make America Great Again' hat intervenes.

Nwanguma appears to return to Bamberger, seemingly to take a selfie with him over her shoulder, before leaving. Bamberger does not push her again.

However, as she walks away, other members of the crowd seem to begin attacking her.

'I have embarrassed myself, my family, and Veterans,' Bamberger wrote in the letter, which was not made public but was acquired by the WSCH radio station in Lawrence, Kansas. Its authenticity was later confirmed by Military.com.

'This was a very unfortunate incident and it is my sincere hope that I can be forgiven for my actions.'

Bamberger, who claims to belong to the Aurora, Indiana, KWVA chapter, says that his actions were not motivated by racism, but that he had become emotional after being shoved to the ground earlier.

He also says his response was influenced by 'being caught between' Black Lives Matter protesters and a group of Trump supporters whom he later learned were white supremacists.

Stop: Nwanguma, who is seemingly trying to type something into her cellphone while Bamberger shoves her, turns and tells him to 'Stop pushing me,' but he doesn't relent

Intervention: A white man in a 'Make America Great Again' cap (pictured) intervened to stop Bamberger pushing Nwanguma. Bamberger later wrote, 'I have embarrassed myself, my family, and Veterans'

'Everything seemed to be under control and mostly orderly,' he wrote. 'All that changed when Trump got to the stage. Protesters in the crowd became vocal and began pushing and shoving their way toward the stage.

'At one point I was physically knocked down and fell to the ground, losing my jacket (which was eventually returned to me). The protesters were holding up signs, chanting black lives matter' and pushing and shoving Trump supporters.

'Trump kept saying "Get them out, get them out," and people in the crowd began pushing and shoving the protesters,' he continued.

'Unfortunately a lot of this behavior was happening right next to where I was standing, and having been pushed to the floor myself, my emotions got the best of me, and I was caught up in the frenzy.

'I physically pushed a young woman down the aisle toward the exit, an action I sincerely regret.'

He added: 'Unfortunately my state of mind after being knocked down and hurt myself, and being caught between a group of white supremacists and Black Lives Matter protesters contributed to my behavior. However, there is no excuse for my actions.'

Nwanguma, a University of Louisville student, later described how she had been cursed at and called racial slurs during the terrifying incident.

'They were pushing and shoving at me, cursing at me, yelling at me, called me every name in the book,' she said. 'They're disgusting and dangerous.'

In a statement to Military.com, the KWVA said Bamberger was not representing the association at the Trump rally and that it 'does not, in any way, condone his actions.' It will be decided at a later date whether action is to be taken against him.

Cursed: Nwanguma later said that some of the Trump supporters used racial slurs while shoving her, although she was not talking specifically about Bamberger, who denies that his actions were racist

Trump interrupted his speech several times at the Super Tuesday rally to call for protesters to be ejected from the event.

He shouted at the crowd to 'Get them out, get them the hell out,' before cautioning his supporters not to use violence - in case it 'got him in trouble.'

'Don't hurt him,' Trump said, as supporters tussled with a black man in the crowd. 'See, if I say go get him, I get in trouble with the press.'

One of the members of the crowd has since been identified as 'violent white supremacist' Matthew Heimbach, who established the White Student Union at Towson University in Maryland, according to the New York Daily News.

Several protesters have since filed complaints with police claiming they were assaulted by Trump supporters.

Henry Brousseau, 17, of Louisville, said he went to the Super Tuesday event at the Kentucky International Convention Center in Louisville to protest Trump's campaign and was punched in the stomach by a woman who was wearing a T-shirt of the Traditionalist Worker Party.

Brousseau, who is white and transgender, said he joined people from Black Lives Matter, Parents for Social Justice, Showing Up for Racial Justice and other groups that went to the Trump rally to protest.

Complaints: Police received three complaints from protesters who had clashed with Trump supporters. Trump himself told the crowed to 'Get them out,' but cautioned not to hurt them in case he got in trouble

Video footage that has been circulated on social media shows people in Traditionalist Worker Party t-shirts pushing people and taking their protest signs.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks said in an email that the campaign does not comment on security matters.

The Traditionalist Worker Party did not respond to requests for comment.

Matthew Heimbach, the group's chairman, wrote in a blog on the website of the Traditionalist Youth Network that the protesters, including those from Black Lives Matter, were the aggressors.

He also tweeted, 'Its [sic] funny how BLM comes to a Trump event to fight, starts the fight and then loses the fight but plays big victims to the media.'

Southern Poverty Law Center's Lentz said, 'Matthew is a figure who is core to the white nationalists and white supremacist culture as it is right now in the U.S.'

Last week it emerged that the Marine Corps had discharged a man from its delayed entry program after he was also caught on film shouting at Nwanguma during the March 1 rally.
Analysis by Age UK found that 300,000 of the over 65s are chronically lonely and struggling to cope with basic daily tasks (file pic)

More than 300,000 of the elderly are chronically lonely, figures reveal.

Experts say loneliness is a silent killer that dramatically increases the likelihood of dementia, heart disease and early death.

Charities are urging the public to strike up conversations with elderly neighbours or distant relatives as it may be the highlight of their day.

Age UK says these frail pensioners face the double whammy of being both very lonely and also struggling to cope with basic, daily tasks.

But the situation has been made worse by social care cuts meaning many are no longer receiving home help.

An analysis by the charity shows that 300,000 of the over 65s are chronically lonely and struggling to cope with basic daily tasks such as cooking, washing and dressing.

Caroline Abrahams, charity director of Age UK said: Frankly, this is no way to spend your days.

Its bad enough to be struggling because of a care need and going without any support, but now it turns out that an appreciable number of older people in this position are facing a double whammy because they are chronically lonely too.

We think it is likely that many of these older people are living on their own and in quite isolating circumstances, unable to call on family, friends or neighbours for help if they need it.

The overriding purpose of social care is to meet a persons social care needs but, of course, for an older person who cant get out and about, a friendly chat - however brief - with a visiting care worker is extraordinarily precious if its the only conversation youll have all day.

Our social care system is in decline and failing to keep pace with our growing older population, leading to more older people with care needs going without formal help.

The charity says the situation has been made worse by social care cuts that mean many are no longer receiving home help

Now, we can see from our analysis that this is adding to the problem of acute loneliness among older people too.

The charity is handing a petition to David Cameron urging him to do more to tackle loneliness in the elderly.

Marcus Rand, Director of the Campaign to End Loneliness a network of charities and other organisations - aid: If you could catch loneliness wed be doing something about it.

But loneliness is a silent killer affecting one million people aged over 65. Its health effects are proven and devastating  equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Its cutting lives short.
This astonishing footage shows cars appearing float down the road after unprecedented rain hit much of the Gulf over the last couple of days.

The clip was shot in Abu Dhabi and shows some foolhardy motorists attempting to navigate the flood water, while other cars, which appear to have been abandoned, float down the road.

The woman who posted the footage to Facebook, Christen Neal, originally from Georgia in the United States, wrote: 'And so I've seen it all. It has flooded here in the desert!'

The clip was shot in Abu Dhabi and shows some foolhardy motorists attempting to navigate the flood water, while other cars, which appear to have been abandoned, float down the road

The clip shows some motorists were even forced to take refuge on the roofs of their cars after heavy rainfall caused devastating floods across the Gulf region.

Winds of 126km an hour battered the capital during the storms, the National Centre of Seismology and Meterorology at Al Bateen Airport reported.

The National reports that over 240mm of rainfall was recorded in an area between Dubai and Al Ain yesterday, and just after midday, Abu Dhabi International Airport tweeted that 'due to severe weather conditions, flights at Abu Dhabi International Airport are suspended until further notice'.

The woman who posted the footage to Facebook, Christen Neal, originally from Georgia in the United States, wrote: 'And so I've seen it all. It has flooded here in the desert!'

Winds of 126km an hour battered the capital during the storms, the National Centre of Seismology and Meterorology at Al Bateen Airport reported

The bad weather has disrupted flights, flooded roads and forced authorities to close schools in the desert nation. ]

In neighboring Oman, three people died due to stormy weather conditions.

Water poured through ceilings and whipped through streets in Dubai, the UAE's commercial capital.

In Abu Dhabi, the hard rains forced the capital's stock market to halt trading and close for the day.

All schools across the seven-emirate federation will be closed Thursday, according to the state-owned The National newspaper of Abu Dhabi.

Some schools in Abu Dhabi cancelled classes yesterday while those in Dubai closed early.

A delivery man rides his bike during heavy rain in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, March 9, 2016

A woman covers her shoes with plastic bags as she walks under the rain in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

The rain temporarily halted flights at Abu Dhabi International Airport, the home of Etihad. The rain also delayed some flights at Dubai International Airport, the home of long-haul carrier Emirates.

The United Arab Emirates' National Center for Meteorology and Seismology had warned that heavy rains were possible Wednesday. It said the unstable weather likely will continue into Thursday.

The Times of Oman reported that three people have died since Sunday across the country due to rain and lighting. The Education Ministry also ordered schools across most of the country closed on Thursday.
A police officer that helped talk down an alleged gunman suspected of shooting and wounding four officers in New Zealand says he's no hero.

Taupo police area commander Inspector Warwick Morehu helped negotiate with the man, finally bringing an end to the siege this morning.

Four officers were shot and injured in the incident. One officer who was shot in the head is in a serious but stable condition, and another who was shot in the hand is due to undergo further treatment.

Rhys Warren, pictured in the back seat, has been charged with shooting four police officers

Inspector Warwick Morehu (right) helped talk down the alleged gunman but says he is no hero

The two other officers have been discharged from hospital.

Inspector Morehu said that he was no hero and said the officers that were hospitalised were the real heroes.

'That certainly serves as an inspiration when you have close colleagues hurt in the field,' he said.

Police arrested 27-year-old Rhys Warren this morning and charged him with four counts of using a firearm against police. He appeared in court today.

Warren's arrest marks the end of a dramatic siege that lasted nearly 24 hours in the small rural town of Kawerau in the Bay of Plenty.

The incident began at 10.45am on Wednesday, when police heard three shots fired at a plane being used in a cannabis operation in the Otakiri area.

The events began at 10.45 am on Wednesday in the small Bay of Plenty town of Kawerau

The incident was sparked after three shots were fired at a plane being used in a cannabis operation in the area

Police cordoned off an address on Onepu Springs Rd, Kawerau after a fourth shot was fired at the plane and the Armed Offenders Squad was called in.

At 3.45pm police confirmed three officers had been shot and injured. About two hours later acting Police Commissioner Mike Clement confirmed a fourth officer had been shot in the hand.

Armoured vehicles from the army, as well as a defense force helicopter, were called in early in the evening. The standoff continued overnight, with no further shots fired.

About 9am this morning Inspector Morehu entered the scene at the request of Warren's family and talked with the alleged offender. Just after 9am Warren surrendered and was led away by police.

Inspector Morehu said that maintaining a good relationship with the family was important.

'You've always got to stay in touch with what's happening on the ground and it was my turn to jump into the fold and do what I could and so I'm happy to do that,' he said to The New Zealand Herald.

Warren has been remanded in custody and faces a maximum sentence of 14 years' jail.

An address on Onepu Springs Rd, Kawerau was cordoned off on Wednesday afternoon
Late Radio DJ Tommy Vance has been named as being at the centre of a sex for airplay scandal

Late Radio DJ Tommy Vance was named as being at the centre of a sex for airplay scandal last night.

In the 1970s it was alleged that music companies hired prostitutes for the BBC's top disc jockeys and executives if they played their records.

Orgies were arranged involving staff and call-girls at a brothel in Kensington, west London. Other executives and celebrities could look on from behind a two way mirror.

Prostitutes were also provided at hotels and other locations in the West End.

The News of the World printed the story but named no names.

But following an FOI request by the Mirror newspaper Mr Vance's name was finally revealed as being one of the accused.

Mr Vance was one of five named in an anonymous letter to a newspaper by an accuser who claimed to be a BBC producer.

The other four are thought to be still alive.

The producer told the News of the World after it exposed the sex-for-airplay 'payola's scandal: 'I am a BBC producer (radio) and not amused by the way you've smeared myself [and] my colleagues. I suggest you hit some guilty ones.' He named five people including 'Tommy Vance and [name redacted] who are king of the orgies'.

The claims were published by the paper in 1971 but with the names blacked out.

The BBC obtained a copy of the letter sent to the News of the World and as part of a probe into a string of scandals involving Top of the Pops led by QC Brian Neill.

The report denied there was regular 'immorality' in the Top of the Pops dressing rooms but said 'there may have been isolated instances'.

Yesterday the Mirror claimed that the BBC confirmed Mr Vance's name as part of a Freedom of Information Request but did not name the others involved.

Mr Vance, real name Richard Anthony Crispian Francis Prew Hope-Weston, joined Radio 1 in 1967. He hosted Top of the Pops and introduced Live Aid acts in 1985.

Mr Vance, who was married with two children died in 2005 aged 63.

Vance (back row, fourth from left) is pictured with a host of other radio DJs - including shamed Jimmy Savile (front row, in white) - at a Christmas lunch at broadcasting house. Mr Vance, who was married with two children died in 2005 aged 63

His best friend, fellow DJ Dave Cash, 73, branded the claims 'absurd' last night.

He said: 'I'd never say we were church-going baptists, but there was never any payola involved. Tommy was never short of a young lady.'

Mr Vance's son Daniel, 34, said of the allegations: 'It's not the person I knew. He was very straight, wanted things done properly. That's the truth.'

Tommy's agent Jon Roseman also rubbished the claims.

He added: 'He was a crazy guy but I loved him to bits. I think the person who made this accusation had their own agenda.'
Millions of households will see their energy bills fall under proposed new plans which should force suppliers into offering more competitive rates.

In a long awaited report, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) suggested a new cap which should allow four million customers currently using expensive pre-payment meters to sign up for rates.

Those already signed up to the 'big six' suppliers would have their details submitted into an opt-out database to allow firms to approach them with better deals, if they fail to switch on their own.

The plans have been heralded by consumer groups as an opportunity for the most vulnerable customers to save money, with firms currently taking consumers 'for granted'.

Watchdogs are expected to drop a plan for a blanket cap on rip off energy tariffs today according to City analysts - and any scaling back of the cap will be a victory for British Gas, SSE, EDF, Eon, Npower and Scottish Power

At present four million households use pre-payment meters, falling victim to escalated prices which make them unable to gain access to competitive rates.

Under the CMA's proposed plans, only the most vulnerable groups would continue to use meters and would see their bills capped at a rate expected to save them between 80 and 90 a year.

Those signed up to Standard Variable Rates would have their details entered into a national database where competitors would be able to see what they pay and approach them with better deals if they do not switch between suppliers for more than two years.

The investigation's chairman Roger Witcomb told BBC's Today programme the changes would help those stuck paying punishing rates gain access to a fairer market.

Describing their predicted 90 yearly saving, Mr Witcomb insisted others would not be 'bombarded' with paperwork from competing firms despite having their details made available in a database to encourage competition.

Customers currently on standard variable tariffs will have to opt out if they do not want their details to be included in the database after two years with one supplier.

PRE-PAYMENT METERS Four million households currently use punishing pre-payment meters, paying on average 300 a year more than other customers on tariffs. Under new plans only the most vulnerable would remain on a pre-payment 'smart' meter which would have capped rates. Others will be able to sign up to a tariff for the first time and save money via a database where suppliers and price comparison websites can compare rates. For those staying on meters, the cap would remain in place until 2020, allowing lower income households to save more for longer. Advertisement

STANDARD VARIABLE RATES Experts have predicted that customers paying standard variable rates could around 300 a year by switching suppliers but are unaware of better deals. The CMA's proposal would create a national database of customers' rates and details to which competing firms. Those who have not changed suppliers for two years may be contacted with better deals, though bosses have insisted there will be safeguards in place to stave off junk mail. Price comparison websites will also have access to the opt-out database, leading to hopes for a more transparent market. Advertisement

As a result, the share price of the British Gas owner, Centrica, has risen by more than 20% over the past month

Insisting that the measure will bring the best deals to their doorstep, Mr Witcomb said: There will be safeguards for that so people arent bombarded by junk mail.

What they will be bombarded with is offers to save them money. This isnt spam; it will be targeted mail to help people realise the savings available out there.

'The problem is that a lot of people are unaware they can switch. The problem is that too many are sitting on expensive deals when they dont need to.

The report was ordered in 2014 amid growing concern that energy suppliers were not allowing customers to reap the benefits of the falling cost of energy.

'A LONG WAY TO GO': CONSUMER GROUPS WARN SAY MORE IS NEEDED FOR A FAIR MARKET Consumer groups applauded many of the CMA's recommendations on Thursday, praising the body for its proposal that the country's most vulnerable energy customers be given more protection. However some said there was still a 'long way to go' before Britain could comfortably boast a fair market. Richard Lloyd, the Executive Director of Which?, said: 'After two years of this energy inquiry, there is still a long way to go before we will have an energy market that works for all consumers. 'While it is right to ensure that vulnerable customers on pre-paid meters are quickly protected, there are many people struggling with their bills who will not be helped by this price cap. 'And the regulator must make sure that releasing customer data to rival suppliers is done so that it genuinely helps people switch from the most expensive tariffs to better deals, rather than result in more unwanted nuisance calls.' Advertisement

Despite gas and electricity prices decreasing by up to 40 per cent, household energy bills scarcely changed.

Last year, the CMA proposed a blanket temporary cap on all standard variable tariffs after it found that families and businesses had been overcharged by 8.5billion over five years.

It said the cap on these tariffs, which apply to around seven in 10 of all households, was needed to protect consumers from rip-off charges.

The CMA said this would be a temporary measure while other efforts to boost competition, encourage switching and bring down prices took effect.

At the time, the idea was backed by the consumer group Which?, which has condemned the high cost of these standard variable rate tariffs.

Just last week, the consumer group pointed out that people on these tariffs were paying as much as 400 a year more than the cheapest deal available.

However, David Cameron always opposed the idea. And before Christmas, ministers issued new guidance to the CMA which made the idea of a blanket cap less likely.

Labours Shadow Energy Secretary Lisa Nandy condemned the apparent attempt by ministers to interfere with the CMAs deliberations.

She said: This looks like a dangerous abuse of ministerial power which risks compromising the inquirys independence.

The CMA must not cave into bullying by ministers or the big six energy companies. This inquiry must maintain a strict focus on the interests of energy bill payers.

The Department for Energy & Climate Change (DECC) said the introduction of a blanket price cap may not be compatible with efforts to improve competition in the energy market.

A spokesman said: Our top priority is to keep bills down for hardworking families and businesses across the country. Its important that we have a competitive and effective energy market that works for consumers and thats why we fully support the CMAs independent investigation and look forward to their final recommendations.

The watchdog has denied the governments doubts about the use of price caps has affected its approach.

A Which? consumer tracker found two in three people  63per cent - are worried about energy prices. And just one in three  34per cent - trust energy providers.

Lawrence Slade, chief executive of Energy UK, (pictured) said suppliers are cutting tariffs and competition is fierce, following the rise of a number of small power firms

The biggest supplier, British Gas, recently revealed that its profits for 2015 were up by 31per cent to 574million. Profits at the retail arm of SSE, which is the second biggest power company, for the six months to the end of September 2015 almost trebled to 101.5million.

Lawrence Slade, chief executive of Energy UK, said suppliers are cutting tariffs and competition is fierce, following the rise of a number of small power firms.

He said: Energy companies are bringing down their prices with cheaper tariffs launched almost every week. Since 2014 the cheapest tariffs have fallen by around 200. There are now over 50 deals under 1,000 being offered by 34 suppliers big and small operating in the market.

Suppliers are also making it quicker and easier for customers to find the right tariff for them. People should take advantage of this and shop around.

Almost four million customers switched supplier in 2015 and, currently, around 250,000 customers are signing up to new electricity deals every month.

The CMA will not publish its final decision on how to fix the broken energy market until June.

The National Pensioners Convention said: We would be extremely concerned if the cap on tariffs was watered down, leaving millions of pensioner households at the mercy of the big six energy companies.

Around one in three pensioner households struggle to pay their fuel bills and they all need protection from being ripped off by companies that put them on the most expensive tariffs without them knowing.

Older consumers are often missing out anyway on the best deals and this will only get worse if the plan for a cap is removed.
Former Kings Cross kingpin Bill Bayeh has pleaded guilty to assaulting Geoffrey Edelsten's ex-wife.

The 57-year-old admitted to assaulting intensive care nurse Leanne Nesbitt last year during a brief appearance at Sydney's Downing Centre court on Thursday.

Bayeh, once known as 'Billy the Boss,' pushed Ms Nesbitt in the chest after a heated argument as she arrived for a night shift at St Vincent's Hospital last February.

Court documents revealed that Bayeh made a number of vulgar threats involving sex toys to Nesbitt while the pair spoke outside the Five Boroughs coffee shop on Darlinghurst Road.

Scroll down for video

Former Kings Cross kingpin and convicted drug dealer Bill Bayeh (pictured) has pleaded guilty to assaulting Geoffrey Edelsten's ex-wife, intensive care nurse Leanne Nesbitt

Court documents revealed that Mr Bayeh made a number of vulgar threats involving sex toys to Ms Nesbitt (pictured) during an ugly verbal spat outside the Five Boroughs coffee shop last year

Ms Nesbitt lived a glamorous lifestyle as Mr Edelsten's (pictured) wife before the pair split in the late 1980s

Ms Nesbitt questioned the Kings Cross identity about comments he'd made some weeks earlier, sparking an argument that was recorded on her phone.

'Never speak to me on the street. You need to be in jail,' Ms Nesbitt said, according to a NSW Police statement of facts.

'They should never have let you out, you're a criminal.'

Bayeh responded.

'You need a vibrator up your a***,' he said.

'You've got a tape going, haven't ya?'

Bayeh then jumped from his seat, according to the facts presented at the court.

'I'm going to shove a dildo up your a***,' he allegedly said.

Ms Nesbitt feared for her safety and called police.

The ugly verbal spat and assault took place outside the Five Boroughs coffee shop on Darlinghurst Road

Bayeh told Nesbitt she 'needed a dildo up her a***' after she told him he should never have been let out of jail,according to a NSW Police statement of facts

Bayeh, once known as 'Billy the Boss,' will be sentenced next month after psychiatric evidence has been gathered

Ms Nesbitt (right) first met Mr Edelsten (right) in 1983 when he was a high-flying doctor and she was a up-and-coming model

In a recorded interview, Bayeh admitted to a confrontation but denied pushing her or saying anything about a vibrator or dildo.

His sentencing was adjourned until next month so psychiatric evidence can be gathered.

Bayeh will be sentenced at the same time for hindering police in a separate incident three days before the February 2015 assault.

On that occasion, Bayeh was accused of tearing up a handwritten 'drug code' when he was searched by police outside the same coffee shop.

He pleaded guilty to the hindrance charge earlier this month, while prosecutors dropped a second charge of resisting police.

Ms Nesbitt lived a glamorous lifestyle as Mr Edelsten's wife before the pair split in the late 1980s, reportedly having her first encounter with him at the age of 19 in July 1983.

She was a young up-and-coming model and he was a high-flying doctor, and a very high-profile member of Sydney's elite.

In 2012 she admitted to having an eight-year affair with author and broadcaster Clive James.

Mr Bayeh, a notorious underworld figure, was released from jail in July 2011 after serving a minimum 15-year sentence for drug trafficking.

Ms Nesbitt was allegedly pushed in the chest after confronting Bayeh for comments he had made weeks earlier
Wendy Maldonado, who killed her husband Aaron Maldonado, has been released from prison

An Oregon woman who spent 10 years behind bars for manslaughter in the death of her husband has been released.

Wendy Maldonado, who killed Aaron Maldonado, was let out Monday from the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville, KTVL reported.

Her son Randy was 16 when he assisted in the May 1, 2005 killing. He served about six years.

Maldonado, of Grants Pass, has said that she and her four children suffered abuse at the hands of her husband.

Aaron Maldonado's spousal abuse included beating and rape, KDRV reported, citing court records.

A judge labeled it 'the worst case of domestic violence that any of us has seen.'

Aaron Maldonado's aunt Maribeth Bishop told KTVL: 'That's never the end of a domestic violence situation, you never kill some one to get away, there are millions of avenues out there to get you out of a situation that you're in when you feel like you're in danger, your children are in danger.'

A website for Maldonado says: 'Married at 16 years old in the small community of Grant Pass, Oregon, Wendy Maldonado looked forward to a long life of wedded bliss with her husband.

'Instead, the days and years after their wedding turned into an endless cycle of fear, neglect and violence that left Wendy terrified for both her own welfare and that of her children.

'After eighteen years of marriage and abuse, Wendy Maldonado finally summoned the courage to deal with her husband in the only way she knew possible.'

Scroll down for video

She was 16 years old when she married Aaron Maldonado in Grants Pass, Oregon. The couple are seen together at their wedding

Aaron Maldonado's spousal abuse included beating and rape, it's been reported

Randy Maldonado told People last year: 'Our whole lives she took care of us, even in the middle of all the bad stuff.

'Now we want to take care of her and help her get her life back together, however that may look.

'It's going to be great after so long to finally be a family again and let this finally be over for her.'

A documentary about Wendy Maldonado, One Minute to Nine, came out in 2007.

Maldonado's website says: 'This shocking documentary, when it was aired on HBO, was renamed with a somewhat more in-your-face title, "Every F****** Day of My Life," referencing the answer Wendy gave to the 911 operator who asked her how often her husband hit her.'

Maldonado's son Randy was 16 when he assisted in the May 1, 2005 killing. He served about six years. He and his mother are seen at their sentencing

Wendy Maldonado has claimed that her husband said numerous times that if she attempted to walk out he'd kill both her and the four boys

Randy Maldonado also told People: 'I can't ever remember a time when he wasn't beating us.'

Wendy Maldonado also spoke to the news outlet, claiming that her husband said numerous times that if she attempted to walk out he'd kill both her and the four boys.

She also alleged Aaron Maldonado choked her, burned her with hot coat hangers, and knocked out teeth.
New York City cops put the brakes on the impressive trash train hauled by a homeless hoarder Wednesday, throwing the woman's possessions into a dump truck as she helplessly watched.

The procession of shopping carts that Sonia Gonzalez, 60, has been dragging around the city for years was deemed obstructive by city authorities.

The massive collection of 20 grocery carts, 14 laundry carts, eight suitcases, two large crates and one dolly stretched an entire city block, and city officials said it got in the way of traffic and pedestrians.

Sonia Gonzalez, 60, lies on the ground as two NYPD officers looks on

Sanitation workers assisted by police throw Sonia Gonzalez' stuff in a dump truck

Gonzalez, right had been hauling her trash train through the city for years

City authorities said they tried to get Gonzalez to seek help with homeless services

Police officers and sanitation workers threw away about half of Gonzalez' stuff by Wednesday night, and hoped to convince the woman to seek help at a homeless shelter, according to the New York Post.

During the raid, Gonzalez was heard shouting at cops 'You arent listening you son of a b***h!', and at one point lay down on the ground in protest.

Her collection included bottles and cans, an air conditioner, shower curtain rods, a wire shelving unit, a Hannah Montana kids laundry hamper and a pair of New Balance sneakers.

On Tuesday, the Puerto Rican native was found moving her collection of junk north on Tenth Avenue from West 39th Street .

Speaking to Daily Mail Online, Gonzalez said that locals call her 'Choo Choo' - because of her huge train-like procession of carts.

She added that the police do not bother her, but sometimes members of the public do phone 911 to complain about her.

Gonzalez speaks to NYPD officers as her trash train is being thrown away

Sanitation workers were assisted by NYPD officers as they threw Gonzalez' possessions in the trash

When asked why she had such a large number of carts and possessions, Gonzalez said it is so she can sell them and make some money.

She mostly hangs out in Hell's Kitchen but is constantly on the move - always with her belongings in tow. She secures the items to her carts with rope and plastic twine.

Gonzales told the Post that people sometimes give her $5 or $10, which she says she takes 'to stop them feeling bad.'

But the hoarder has been criticized by nearby workers who have complained she is bringing down the tone of the neighborhood.

One construction worker at 10 Hudson Yards told the Post: 'Someone needs to call Sanitation and have that crap thrown out.

'You don't want to go back to what [the neighborhood] was 20 years ago.'

Sonia Gonzalez has been hauling her enormous load - which stretches an entire block - around New York City for years

Her collection includes bottles and cans, an air conditioner, shower curtain rods, a wire shelving unit, Hannah Montana kids laundry hamper and a pair of New Balance sneakers

Gonzalez generally moves her carts one or two blocks at a time, as pictured above

While a driver moaned: 'This stinks. She needs to move her stuff!'

But according to a doorman who works between 41st and 42nd street, Gonzalez has been hauling her great load for years and he has never seen any police officers address her.

A City Hall spokesman said: 'Because this persons possessions are obstructing the sidewalk and traffic, homeless outreach teams and NYPD will again approach the client to attempt to convince her to accept shelter in an available Safe Haven location.'

'The NYPD personnel will go through her possessions with her and voucher any possessions of hers of value,' the official told the Post.

'If this individual refuses a Safe Haven location, the homeless outreach teams will continue to engage her over the next few days to convince her to come into shelter.'
See more news coverage on ISIS at www.dailymail.co.uk/isis

technique one of several cheap alternatives used by ISIS

ISIS are so strapped for cash that they are having to rely on children's helium balloons as a way of spying on the enemy.

Images posted online show Peshmerga forces standing with a Dora The Explorer inflatable shot out of the sky while being used by the terror group to monitor their terrain.

The colourful balloon - which features a picture of the kids' cartoon favourite - was carrying a camera when it was popped out of the sky earlier this week.

ISIS are so strapped for cash that they are having to rely on children's helium balloons as a way of spying on the enemy. Images posted online show Peshmerga forces standing with a Dora The Explorer inflatable shot out of the sky while being used to monitor their terrain

A photograph of it was shared by tickled Kurdish fighters who brought it back to earth.

Uploading it to Twitter, the men - who are pictured holding the yellow inflatable while dressed in camouflage and armed with guns - wrote: 'This is what Daesh (ISIS) are using as drones.

'It is becoming more desperate. They attach a small camera to a tether and let it drift over our position.'

Cartoon heroine Dora is - ironically - an American girl of Indigenous Mexican heritage.

Her hugely popular programme sees her set out on quests related to an activity that she wants to partake of or a place that she wants to go to.

She is always accompanied by her talking purple backpack and monkey friend Boots.

It is not known if ISIS are keen on the show or are just using what balloons they find available.

As they struggle to support themselves, the terror network have resorted to a whole raft of measly alternatives to the norm.

As they struggle to support themselves, the terror network have resorted to a whole raft of measly alternatives to the norm - with the embarrassing balloon being just one of them

The group are now using pensioners as suicide bombers - with a recently released photo showing a one-toothed old man saluting before driving a vehicle rammed full of explosives into a Syrian checkpoint.

Women's marriage licences now come with suicide mission release clauses when they wed jihadis.

The Islamic State have even gone to the extreme of manufacturing their own bombs using household materials in the hope of continuing the battle against rival forces.
A movie company owned by porn star James Deen was cited by California regulators on Wednesday for failing to use condoms on a film shoot, potentially exposing actors to hepatitis B and HIV.

The state Division of Occupational Safety and Health issued nine citations, including four for violations that offered a possibility of serious harm or death, according to an agency statement.

It proposed fining Los Angeles-based Third Rock Enterprises Inc $77,875.

Messages left for Deen, whose real name is Bryan Sevilla, weren't immediately returned.

The state Division of Occupational Safety and Health issued nine citations to James Deen's movie company, Third Rock Enterprises Inc on Wednesday for failing to use condoms on a film shoot, potentially exposing actors to hepatitis B and HIV

Deen, 30,is arguably is the biggest star in a profession that, until he burst upon the scene ten years ago, saw its only marquee names belonging to women such as Jenna Jameson and Tori Black.

He has also been one of the industry's most outspoken and articulate opponents of condoms in porn films.

'Cal/OSHA requires condom use in adult films to protect workers from exposure to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections,' Cal/OSHA chief Juliann Sum said in a statement, according to The Guardian. 'Third Rock Enterprises failed to protect employees from illness and injury while on set.'

Last December, Cal/OSHA began investigating Deen and his company after allegations that the star of thousands of hard-core films sexually assaulted eight porn actresses, including his former girlfriend, Stoya, on and off movie sets.

Deen has vigorously denied the allegations, and none of the Cal/OSHA violations involve those allegations.

Instead, the agency said investigators visited a film shoot in the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles on January 12. They found that the producers violated a California law requiring some kind of barrier to protect employees from blood-borne pathogens such as HIV, the agency said.

'Additionally, producers did not provide a vaccine or follow-up medical examination to employees who were potentially exposed to hepatitis B' and refused to turn over safety records, the Cal/OSHA statement said.

In Los Angeles County, a voter-approved law requires adult film actors to use condoms during film shoots. But many producers have fought the concept, arguing that actors already undergo health screening and audiences are turned off by condoms.

An investigation into Deen's company began after the porn star was accused of sexually assaulting eight porn actresses, including his former girlfriend, Stoya (pictured), on and off movie sets

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which strongly backed the local condom law and filed the initial complaints that led to the Cal/OSHA investigation of Deen's company, applauded the citations.

Deen 'is the most vocal critic and prominent public face of the industry in its opposition to condom use,' foundation President Michael Weinstein said in a statement.

The investigation into the production company began in December.

Weinstein said in December that they are investigating 'serious workplace health and safety violations' at Deen's company.

'James Deen could now be cited for workplace violence in addition to health and safety violations,' he told The Associated Press at the time.

Deen told The Daily Beast in December that he has never assaulted a woman on or off a movie set.

He acknowledged that sometimes he gets very aggressive in his films, many of which are known for rough sex. But he added he knows the limits of what's allowed.
Advertisement

Hillary Clinton refused to entertain a question tonight about her email scandal and whether she would drop out of the race if she's indicted.

'Oh for goodness - that is not going to happen. I am not going to even answer that question,' she angrily told Univision's Jorge Ramos during tonight's Democratic debate.

Ramos had to ask her the question twice before she finally acknowledged it, and when she finally did, she was visibly annoyed. Bernie Sanders likewise avoided taking a stance on whether the controversy was a blimp on the radar or a worthy issue and instead changed the subject to climate change and wealth inequality.

The candidates were facing off in their second debate of the week, this time in Miami, Florida, ahead of Tuesday's primary in the state. They also debated on Sunday in Michigan - a state that Sanders went on to win in yesterday's election, injecting new energy into his long-shot campaign.

Debating in state where a quarter of the population in Latino, illegal immigration was a top issue this evening, and both candidates promised to continue President Barack Obama's policy of not deporting children. Sanders took it a step further than either Obama or Clinton - who said she would prioritize criminals but didn't commit to ending all deportations - and promised not to send anyone with a clean record out of the country.

Also, in an intensely personal moment Clinton admitted that she struggles to connect with voters in the same way as Obama and her husband, a former two-term president.

Scroll down for video

NOT PLEASED: 'Oh for goodness - that is not going to happen. I am not going to even answer that question,' she told Univision's Jorge Ramos

Democrats Bernie Sanders (left) and Hillary Clinton (right) wave to the audience tonight in Miami, Florida as they face off on the debate stage for a second time this week

Clinton acknowledged the defect after The Washington Post's Karen Tumulty questioned her about her low honesty score with voters.

'Is there anything in your own actions and the decisions that you yourself have made that would foster this kind of mistrust?' Tumulty asked.

The former first lady told her, 'Obviously, it's painful for me to hear that.'

But she said, when you are in public life, 'even if you believe that it's not an opinion that you think is fair or founded, you do have to take responsibility, and I do.'

'I also have...very much committed, to the best of my ability, my energies and efforts to helping people. That's something I care deeply about,' Clinton said, 'and I will continue to do that.'

The ex-cabinet secretary, who started her career working for the Children's Defense Fund after Yale law school said she wants people to know they 'can count on me.'

'Look, I have said before and it won't surprise anybody to hear me say it, this is not easy for me. It's not easy to do what I think is right, to help people,' she said, or to hear stories about families who have been separated because of deportation, like a woman who had just questioned her from the audience.

Clinton said, 'I am not a natural politician, in case you haven't noticed, like my husband or President Obama.'

'So I have a view that I just have to do the best I can, get the results I can, make a difference in people's lives, and hope that people see that I'm fighting for them and that I can improve conditions economically and other ways that will benefit them and their families.'

Bernie Sanders got angry at Hillary Clinton for bringing up his support of a 2006 amendment that ensured that the Minutemen, a civilian militia, didn't get ratted out to the Mexican government

Bernie Sanders suggested that Hillary Clinton only picked out pieces of his congressional record and used those to deliver attacks against her rival

Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton exchanged blows on immigration, the auto bailout and her paid speeches to Wall Street at tonight's Democratic debate in Miami

She also promised her emails will not be issue in the election and her party's voters shouldn't let it bother them.

'I am not concerned about it. I am not worried about it. And no Democrat or American should be either,' she said.

Clinton again apologized for her behavior, but stated that it was 'not prohibited' or 'disallowed.'

'It wasn't the best choice. I made a mistake,' she said.

Ramos wanted to know who gave her 'permission' to operate a server out of her home and use a private account to conduct government business.

'There was no permission to be asked,' a clearly frustrated Clinton asserted. 'It had been done by my predecessors. It was permitted.'

Hosted by Univision and broadcast simultaneously on Fusion and CNN, immigration repeatedly came up and the candidates took turns accusing each other of lying about their position on the issue.

Clinton brought up a vote for an amendment Sanders made in 2006 in support of the Minutemen, when he was running for the Senate, but still in the House.

HELLO AGAIN: The candidates were sparring for the second time this week. On Sunday, they debated in Flint, Michigan. Tonight they were in Miami, Florida

Hosted by Univision and broadcast simultaneously on Fusion and CNN, immigration repeatedly came up tonight and the candidates took turns accusing each other of lying about their position on the issue as they argued in front of and took questions from a live audience

'No, I do not support vigilantes and that is a horrific statement, an unfair statement to make,' Sanders shot back.

The U.S. senator said Clinton has a tendency to pick small sections out of large pieces of legislation he supported or opposed and zero in on them.

'Madame Secretary, I will match my record against yours any day of the week,' he said as he ripped into her over he claim in the last debate that he voted against the auto bailout.

Clinton was quick on the draw. 'Let's do that,' she said. 'Let's talk about the auto bailout.'

The former New York senator walked through the 2008 debate and both of their votes for a standalone bailout bill that failed in the Senate.

A month later, a new piece of legislation that contained the money that would be used for the auto bailout came along and Sanders voted against it she said, after President Obama asked Democrats to vote for it.

'It was a hard vote,' she said. 'A lot of the votes you make are hard votes.'

Sanders did vote against that bill, but as he said again tonight, it was because the money for the auto industry was nuzzled in the broader Wall Street bailout package.

The candidates were on the same page tonight as they ridiculed Donald Trump tonight. Sanders continued to hit the Republican front-runner for his claims in the past that President Obama was lying about his birth records and may not have been born in America

That was the bailout of the 'recklessness, irresponsibility and illegal behavior of Wall Street,' he proclaimed.

The Vermont senator turned the tables on Clinton, who he beat yesterday in Michigan, and said she voted for the legislation at the time because it helped big banks in New York - her constituents.

'And then you go to Detroit,' he said, 'and suddenly this legislation helps the automobile workers.'

Sanders has throughout the campaign implied that Clinton is in the pocket of Wall Street and the billionaires that run it because she's collected so much money from them since resigning as secretary of state.

Asked about his calls for her to release the transcripts of her speeches to them tonight, he said, when you get '$225,000 for giving a speech, and she gave several speeches to Goldman Sachs, one of the Wall Street financial institutions whose greed and illegal behavior helped destroy our economy a number of years ago, when you get paid $225,000, that means that that speech must have been an extraordinarily wonderful speech.

'I would think that a speech so great that you got paid so much money for, you would like to share it with the American people. So I think she should release the transcript.'

Even Clinton had to laugh at the back-handed compliment that's become his favorite attack line on the campaign trail in the last week.

Sanders has throughout the campaign implied that Clinton is in the pocket of Wall Street and the billionaires that run it because she's collected so much money from them since resigning as secretary of state

Directly asked if he believed she was saying one thing in public and another thing in private, Sanders said, 'That is exactly what releasing the transcripts will tell us.

'There is a reason why Wall Street has provided $15 million just in the last reporting period to the secretary's super PAC,' he said. 'Now, the secretary says it doesn't influence her. Well, that's what every politician says who gets money from special interests.'

For her part, Clinton went after Sanders for praising ex-Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in a 1985 interview for bringing health care and education to his country.

Sanders once praised the 'revolution of values' in the Communist country, she said, 'I just couldn't disagree more.'

'You know, if the values are that you oppress people, you disappear people, you imprison people or even kill people for expressing their opinions, for expressing freedom of speech, that is not the kind of revolution of values that I ever want to see anywhere.'

In tonight's debate Sanders did not disavow his assessment and said, 'Cuba is, of course, an authoritarian un-democratic country.'

'But, on the other hand, it would be wrong not to state that in Cuba they've made some good advances in healthcare  they are sending doctors all over the world  they have made some progress in education.'

The former secretary of state is ahead in the delegate count and her campaign claimed today that it will soon have an 'insurmountable' lead over Sanders. Senior aides are balking at a timeline but they believe it will be sooner rather than later

YES OR NO?: Univision's Jorge Ramos pressed the candidates to commit to a deportation policy that doesn't include children

The candidates were on the same page tonight as they ridiculed Donald Trump tonight, however.

Sanders continued to hit the Republican front-runner for his claims in the past that President Obama was lying about his birth records and may not have been born in America.

'I think that the American people are never going to elect a president who insults Mexicans, who insults Muslims, who insults African Americans,' he said.

Neither would explicitly call Trump a racist, despite goading from Tumulty to do so.

'If I am so fortunate enough to be the Democratic nominee, there will be a lot of time to talk about him,' Clinton said of Trump.

But she claimed she lead the way in criticizing him. 'Others are also joining in making clear that his rhetoric, his demagoguery, his trafficking in prejudice and paranoia has no place in our political system,' she said. 'Especially from somebody running for president who couldn't decide whether or not to disavow the Ku Klux Klan and David Duke.

'So people can draw their own conclusions about him. I will just end by saying this. You don't make America great by getting rid of everything that made America great.'

Clinton said she would as the nominee 'take every opportunity to criticize him.'

'I'm not going to engage in the kind of language he uses,' she pledged. 'I think there's a better way for the American people.'

The former secretary of state is ahead in the delegate count and her campaign claimed today that it will soon have an 'insurmountable' lead over Sanders. Senior aides are balking at a timeline but they believe it will be sooner rather than later.

The Sanders campaign said tonight that the Clinton campaign is mistaken in its calculations.

FIGHT NIGHT IN MIAMI: Democratic Debate attendees file out of the Miami Dade Kendall Campus gymnasium after tonight's two-hour competition between Clinton and Sanders

After Tuesday the southern states Clinton does so well in will have run their course and it will be the senator's time to shine as the West heads to the polls, campaign manager Jeff Weaver told DailyMail.com tonight.He threw out Washington as an example of a state that has a large pledged delegate count that he expects Sanders to do well in.

Also on the horizon - Illinois, Missouri and Ohio. Weaver wouldn't pin them down specifically as targets but he acknowledged, given the senator's performance in states with similar demographics, like Michigan, that they're areas in which his candidate could do well.

Clinton attempted to downplay her opponent's victory there tonight, saying at the top of the debate of the Great Lakes State and Mississippi, which also voted yesterday, 'I won one of the contests and lost another close one.'

'I am continuing to work hard for every single vote across our country. I was pleased that I got 100,000 more votes last night than my opponent and more delegates.'

She added, 'This is a marathon, and it's a marathon that can only be carried out by the kind of inclusive campaign that I'm running, a campaign that reaches out to everybody, a campaign that offers real positive solutions to the problems that we face, a campaign that is based on how together we can make progress, because I am a progressive who likes to get things done.

'So I'm excited about the upcoming contests, including right here in Florida. And we'll continue to work as hard as I can to earn the vote of every single voter.'

Sanders predictably saw it a different way. It was considered by 'some people,' he said, as 'one of the major political upsets in modern American history.'
Police were searching Wednesday for the parents of a newborn baby girl who was found in the yard of a suburban couple in Phoenix, Arizona, with her umbilical cord attached.

The seven-pound, eight-ounce baby, whom the police are calling 'Baby Jane,' was found on Tuesday morning by the son of locals James and Roseanne McCulloh. Rosanne told Associated Press that he found the infant in a baby carrier on top of an irrigation box.

'I saw him jump 20 feet, and he said "There's a baby in it,"' she recalled. 'I ran over there. She wasn't blue. I touched her little arm, and I opened up the blanket. She was just beautiful.'

Scroll down for video

Abandoned: The newborn girl (pictured) was left at a home in Phoenix, Arizona, and police are struggling to find her parents. She is healthy, and believed to be of Hispanic or Native American origin

Dumped: Baby Jane was found at this home in Phoenix, Arizona, and police are now looking for the girl's parents

Mrs McCulloh says she believes the carrier was deposited at around 2am, as her daughter recalls hearing noises from the irrigation box at around that time.

Baby Jane had nothing but a blanket when she was found, so after calling 911, Mrs McCulloh warmed up a blanket in her microwave while her husband wiped the baby down, as it was still damp - due, it is believed, to having been so recently born.

The baby was then transported to hospital by emergency workers. Once there, doctors said that she appeared to be healthy, though as her umbilical cord was still attached it is believed that she was not delivered in a hospital, where it would have been removed.

Police are confused about why she was left at a residence, since Arizona's Safe Haven Law allows a person to leave newborns at certain locations such as fire stations, hospitals and churches without prosecution.

But while Baby Jane is safe, the hunt for her parents appears to be failing. 'At this point, our detectives have kind of exhausted all of our initial possible leads that we had,' Mesa police spokesman Steve Berry said at a news conference.

'We have had no success in locating either Mom or Dad for this child.'

Police are asking for anyone who may have been in the area on Tuesday to come forward, especially if they recall anyone who remembers seeing a woman, a vehicle or anything suspicious.

They had received no calls by Wednesday afternoon.

The baby is described as being either Hispanic or Native American, with black hair.

If she goes unclaimed, she will be put into the custody of the Arizona Department of Child Safety and likely placed in a foster home.
Floating hundreds of metres offshore, a metal yellow buoy sits out at sea as it waits for danger.

The 'Clever Buoy' is well underway at Sydney's Bondi Beach after the shark detecting device was launched last month as part of a one-month trial to prevent sharks lurking near swimmers.

And if successful, the futuristic system could mean the end of shark attacks in Australia.

The sonar beams from the buoy can alert lifeguards on the beach via a smartphone app when any animal - two metres or longer - is detected within a 300 metre radius.

Scroll down for video

The sonar technology - capable of detecting sharks - is currently being trialled off Sydney's Bondi Beach

The smartphone app that will alert lifeguards at Bondi Beach when a large, swimming object is detected

The Australian technology - designed by Western Australian company Shark Mitigation Systems - was launched last month at Bondi Beach where it's being trialled over a month.

Primary Industries Minister Niall Blair said the new shark detecting system was part of the NSW government's $16 million strategy to prevent shark attacks on surfers and swimmers.

'We think that this has the potential to be the Holy Grail when it comes to reducing the risk for beachgoers in NSW,' Mr Blair told reporters last month.

It's designed to detect self-propelled swimming shapes greater than two metres in length and then analyses the object's swim pattern to figure out if it's a shark.

A surfer wearing the anti-shark Elude diving suit - designed to trick predators into thinking they are poisonous

Two surfers have been spotted wearing shark deterrent wetsuits at Sydney's Bondi Beach on Wednesday

The buoy can alert lifeguards on the beach via a smartphone app to let them know a shark has been detected

This comes as the country has one of the world's highest incidences of shark attacks on swimmers.

Two surfers have been spotted wearing shark deterrent wetsuits as a new sonar technology is well underway in a bid to help lifeguards know when it's safe to go back in the water.

Photographs have emerged of the men wearing the anti-shark 'Elude' and 'Diverter' suits - which either allow divers to appear invisible by camouflaging their bodies underwater or trick predators into thinking they are poisonous - at Sydney's Bondi Beach.

With its unusual design of jagged blue shapes and black-and-white stripes, the beachgoers enjoyed their warm afternoon riding waves as the Clever Buoy sat about 500 metres offshore.

Sydney's famous Bondi Beach has a new ocean buoy that uses sonar technology to detect sharks

In 2014, a 2.5 metre great white shark was caught at Bondi Beach after it was thought to have died in nets

Last month, Shark Mitigation Systems co-founder Craig Anderson said Clever Buoy has a success rate of 90 per cent of detecting large sharks, ABC News reported.

'It uses a multi-beam sonar which is a relatively new sonar technology, coupled with some software which is very much like facial recognition technology for marine life,' he said.

'The reason we made it two metres is because history of shark attacks around the world tells us that with anything less than two metres you're unlikely to die.

Last year, 7 News reported several sharks were found dead and decaying in tangled and broken nets

Terrifying footage captured what appeared to be a four-metre great white shark off Wategos Beach at Byron Bay in northern NSW last July

Nearby resident, 14-year-old keen surfer Nicholas Tonks captured a photograph of the five-metre shark swimming behind a lifesaver on a jetski at Merewether Beach on the coastline of NSW last January

'We're very confident in the technology, but obviously trying it in a real-life situation where we're liaising with the guys in the tower 24 hours a day.'

In addition, listening stations that track tagged sharks will be set up along the NSW north and mid-north coast this week, including Yamba, Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie.
As the two Democratic candidates discussed immigration at tonight's debate in Miami, Bernie Sanders called out Hillary Clinton for picking out pieces of his Congressional record and using those bits for attacks.

'What the secretary is doing tonight and has done very often is take large pieces of legislation and take pieces out of it,' Sanders said.

'No, I did not oppose the bailout or the support of the automobile industry,' Sanders said, referring to one of the more cantankerous discussions from Sunday's Democratic debate.

'No, I do not support vigilantes and that is a horrific statement, an unfair statement to make,' Sanders continued.

The Vermont senator reiterated that he'd spent his political career 'fighting for workers, fighting for the poorest people in this country, Madame Secretary, I will match my record against yours any day of the week.'

Scroll down for video

Bernie Sanders tore into Hillary Clinton in the opening 30 minutes of tonight's Democratic debate saying that she made a 'horrific statement' about a vote Sanders made in 2006 in support of the Minutemen

Hillary Clinton jabbed at Bernie Sanders for not voting for comprehensive immigration reform in 2007 - a no-no to the audience in Miami, Florida, watching the Univision-sponsored Democratic debate

'Vigilantes' were brought up as Clinton dissected Sanders' record on immigration, pulling out a vote he made in 2006 when running for Senate, but while still in the House.

The vote, an amendment to a bill, ensured that the Minutemen  a group of armed civilians patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border looking for immigrants coming in illegally  wouldn't be ratted out to the Mexican government.

The amendment barred, according to Buzzfeed, the Department of Homeland Security from providing 'a foreign government information relating to the activities of an organized volunteer civilian action group, operating in the State of California, Texas, New Mexico, or Arizona.'

Sanders joined his Blue Dog Democratic colleagues, and many, many Republicans, in voting this up.

'There was a piece of legislation supported by dozens and dozens of members in the house that codified existing legislation,' tonight he explained.

Clinton used this as her cherry on top, telling viewers about a handful of past votes that made Sanders look anti-immigrant  a no-no for the predominantly Latino audience that's particularly paying attention to the Univision-sponsored debate.

'In 2006, Sen. Sanders supported indefinite detention for people facing deportation,' Clinton proclaimed. 'And stood with Minutemen vigilantes in their ridiculous, absurd efforts to hunt down immigrants.'

Sanders then pointed a finger at Clinton suggesting that she wasn't telling the whole story about his record, bringing up the automobile bailout example from the previous debate.

Tonight Clinton also pointed out that Sanders didn't vote for the 2007 comprehensive immigration reform bill that was championed by the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy.

Sanders said that he was against the bill because the guest worker program would allow conditions that were akin to modern slavery.

'I think it's very hard to make the case that Ted Kennedy, Barack Obama, me, La Raza, United Farm Workers, Dolores Huerta, leaders of the Latino community would have supported a bill that actually promoted modern slavery,' Clinton said back.

Sanders, as he did multiple times through the conversation, tried to explain that his broader record on the issue was more telling.

'Let me respond, let me respond to that,' he said. 'Ted Kennedy was a very close friend of mine and I served on the committee that he chaired.'

Kennedy, Sanders recalled, was kind enough to allow the Vermonter to hold a hearing in 2008 on the 'plight of the undocumented tomato pickers in Immakolee, Florida.'

'I went there on my own, it wasn't an issue really for the state of Vermont, to expose the horrendous working conditions and the semi-slavery, if you like, that those workers live under.'

A Guatamalan immigrant named Lucia asked Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in Spanish, 'What can you do to stop the deportations?'

As a result of that hearing, Sanders said, progress was made.

The senator also said the guest worker program was improved upon by the time the 2013 'Gang of Eight' comprehensive immigration bill came through.

'And of course I supported the 2013 immigration reform bill,' Sanders said.

The topic of immigration also led to one of the more tender moments of tonight's affair.

Lucia, a Guatemalan immigrant, spoke in Spanish and asked the Democratic candidates, 'What can you do to stop the deportations?'

'Oh, I absolutely support that,' Sanders began.

'The essence of what we are trying to do is unite families not to divide families,' Sanders continued.

He talked about a particular incident that stuck with him of an immigrant serving in the U.S. military. While the soldier was away the wife deported.

'That cannot be allowed to exist,' Sanders said.

'Ma'am, I will do everything that I can to unite your family, your children deserve to be with your mother,' he added.

When Clinton was presented with her time to answer, she first told Lucia that she was 'brave.'

'This is an incredible act of courage that I'm not sure many people really understand,' Clinton said, echoing Sanders support for legislation that would bring families back together.

Clinton also said that she's like to see stories like Lucia's 'heard more widely.'

'So that more Americans know what the human costs of these policies are,' Clinton said.




He threatened to arrest the two latest victims if they told anyone

He then made her call a third woman, whom he also raped

Police say he then did the same to a second woman this month

William Hernandez, 51, of San Bernardino, is being held on $1million bail

Accused: William Hernandez (pictured), 51, of San Bernardino County, is accused of pretending to be a police officer, threatening three women with a gun and then raping them

A 51-year-old California man is being held on $1million bail after allegedly sexually assaulting three women at gunpoint while pretending to be a police officer.

William Hernandez of Big Bear, San Bernardino County, is alleged to have approached a woman on February 18 and identified himself as a police officer before threatening her with a handgun and raping her in the New Kansan Motel, Rancho Cucamonga, for several hours CBS said.

While that event was being investigated in March, police said, a man identified as Hernandez did the same to a woman in Victorville, but also ordered her to call a third woman to their location, whom he also raped.

In all three cases, Hernandez is alleged to have claimed to be a police officer, although he had neither badge nor uniform and had no connection to law enforcement.

'[The victims] were not contesting it because they were scared,' Det. James Marshall told the LA Times. He added: 'This doesnt happen, and when it does its scary and its so egregious.'

Hernandez threatened to arrest the second and third victims if they did not stay in touch with him, Rancho Cucamonga police told CBS.

Hernandez faces nine felony rape-related counts as well as several charges for dissuading a witness from reporting the assaults, the LA Times says.

Location: The first reported rape occurred at the New Kansan Motel (pictured) in Rancho Cucamonga in February. Hernandez faces nine felony rape-related counts as well as other charges

He was taken into custody at a traffic stop in Big Bear on Monday. Police say a subsequent forensic investigation of his apartment found evidence connecting him to the attacks.

According to Hernandez's Facebook page, he has been married since June 1998 and has a daughter. He describes himself as a 'happy father and husband.'

Authorities believe that he may have attacked other victims who have stayed quiet, and are encouraging anyone with information to call Rancho Cucamonga police on (909) 477-2800 or Victorville police on (760) 241-2275.
Cassandra Grant posed as terminally ill friend Clare Arrowsmith to receive care at home and in hospital before staff realised she was a fraudster

Shocking photographs taken inside a hospital show a crazed fantasist hooked-up to life-saving machines as she lied about having cancer because she craved attention.

Cassandra Grant posed as terminally ill friend Clare Arrowsmith to receive care at home and in hospital before staff realised she was a fraudster.

The 37-year-old - who was perfectly healthy - also posed as a second dying woman, Huleya Aleve, to try and get treatment at a doctors surgery.

In that instance staff got suspicious and care wasn't given.

However, photographs of her in hospital in Bristol show the extreme lengths she went to to satisfy her desperate need for attention.

Grant can be seen attached to several different machines and with medical lines attached to her body and even in her mouth lying in a bed after duping ward staff.

Bristol Crown Court heard how Grant posed as Clare Arrowsmith, a former friend who was dying from the disease.

Staff at St George Health Centre in Bristol then initially cared for her at home before she received care in Frenchay Hospital in March 2014.

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.

Staff there eventually realised she was a fraudster and booted her out.

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.

Photographs of her in hospital in Bristol show the extreme lengths she went to to satisfy her desperate need for attention

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.'

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.

In selfies taken in hospital, Grant can be seen attached to several different machines and with medical lines attached to her body and even in her mouth lying in a bed after duping ward staff.

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.

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 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.

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.

After the first case, also at Bristol Crown Court, she was given a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years

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.

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

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.

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

'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.
Ahead of next week's Florida primary, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are battling it out for votes in Miami in their second face-off this week.

Meanwhile, on Twitter, an arguably more important debate is raging - what color is Sanders' suit?

The Internet is going crazy trying to determine whether the Vermont Senator is wearing a simple, smart black jacket or if he's opted for a more sensational choice - brown.

It's The Dress - when the world was split over whether a woman's wedding outfit was white and gold or blue and black - all over again.

Scroll down for video

Huge debate: Twitter exploded during Wednesday's face-off between Democratic candidates over whether Bernie Sanders' suit is black or brown

Deja vu: The debate is being compared to the The Dress - when the world was split over whether a woman's wedding outfit was white and gold or blue and black

'Bernies suit is the dress for dorks,' wrote Philip Bump, a writer for The Washington Post's politics blog, The Fix, on Twitter.

'Imagine being the staffer who has to tell Bernie Sanders the biggest twitter q from the first 30 mins was what color his suit is #DemDebate,' said DJ Judd.

The Hill's Judy Kurtz lauded Sanders' bold choice, comparing to it the time President Barack Obama wore a tan suit during a press briefing - a choice which also led to social media blowing up.

And stand-up comedian Travon Free joked: 'I don't care what color Bernie's suit is as long as it isn't "birthday".'

Colorblind: Bernie Sanders appears to be wearing a black suit in this picture from the debate in Miami

Bold: In another picture, Sanders (left, with Hillary Clinton) appears to be wearing a brown suit

Black, brown or blue? The Internet is determined to figure our the color of the Vermont Senator's suit

And the debate already led to the creation of a parody Twitter account @BerniesSuit.

The first tweet posted on the account urged Twitter users to 'RT for brown fav for blue.' It appears brown is winning.

But the truth may be even more confusing.

Mike Casca, Sanders' rapid response director, tweeted: 'The suit senator sanders is wearing tonight is blue.'

Winning: It has already led to the creation of a parody account, which asked the all-important question
Hillary Clinton mocked Republican front-runner Donald Trump during Wednesday night's Miami Democratic debate, offering a glimpse at a possible general election strategy for the fall.

In a discussion about her past support for building fences along portions of America's southern border, the former secretary of state was asked how that differs from Trump's pledge to erect a border wall.

'First of all  as I understand him  he's talking about a very tall wall, right? A beautiful tall wall,' Clinton said, as she channeled Dr. Seuss and laughter rang out.

Scroll down for video

IT'S A BIG BEAUTIFUL TALL WALL: Hillary Clinton mocked Donald Trump's signature border control proposal during Wednesday night's debate in Miami

HE'S A RACIST: Bernie Sanders hammered Trump  and unnamed 'others'  for resorting to 'racism and xenophobia and bigotry'

'The most beautiful tall wall, better than the Great Wall of China,' Clinton mocked, 'that would run the entire border, that he would magically get the Mexican government to pay for - and it's just fantasy!'

Hours earlier during a rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Trump autographed a fan's poster depicting a tall, gray border wall complete with a guard tower.

'Who's gonna pay for the wall?' he asked in a now-familiar routine.

'Mexico!' came the answer from an estimated 10,000 people.

Clinton defended her advocacy for border fences, despite recently calling for Americans to 'tear down barriers.'

'Where it was necessary, we did support some fencing,' she admitted.

'Where it was necessary, we did add border patrol agents.'

MEANWHILE IN NORTH CAROLINA: Donald Trump autographed a supporter's poster showing a border wall between the United States and Mexico

'We have the most secure border we have ever had,' she claimed moments later, noting that the number of illegal immigrants apprehended at the border is at its lowest in many years.

'The Republicans no longer have an argument' against comprehensive immigration reform, she said.

Bernie Sanders, Clinton's debate sparring partner, also said Trump's claims that Mexican illegal immigrants include large numbers of violent criminals makes him prejudiced toward Latinos.
A club has had all their pokie machines crushed at a scrapyard and has even received an offer to have them blown up by a fireworks retailers.

The Darwin Sailing Club has had their gaming room gutted and their 10 slot machines destroyed at a local tip following growing disapproval from their members, ABC reported.

The 1,000 members were surveyed last year on the proposition to remove them, and not a single person argued to keep the machines at the club in Fannie Bay, five kilometres north of the CBD.

Darwin Sailing Club has gutted their 10 pokie machines from the gaming room (pictured)

But General Manager John Melenewycz said their decision was not a political statement.

He said the pokie machines had been under-performing and did not fit with the clubs sailing and hospitality image.

Mr Melenewycz said the money theyd spend on staffing, electricity and insurance was not worth the $25,000 the machines collectively brought in last year.

They were sent to the tip on Wednesday morning and crushed in a metal compactor, Mr Melenewycz told ABC.

It was too late for fireworks retailer Totally Northern Territory (TNT) to blow one of the pokie machines to smithereens.

The slot machines were taken to a local tip (pictured) on Wednesday morning and crushed in a metal compactor

General Manager John Melenewycz (pictured) said the machines had been under-performing, and collectively brought in $25,000 last year

The company had offered Darwin Sailing Club $1,500 worth of explosives, and begged over Facebook to blow up one of the machines.

TNT told Daily Mail Australia Mr Melenewycz had been too flooded with phone calls to respond to the offer in time before they were sent to the tip.

'It's a shame he didn't take me up on my offer to blow one of them up,' TNT told Daily Mail Australia.

He had got the idea from The Whitlams song, Blow Up The Pokies.

Mr Melenewycz told ABC theyd had the pokie machines since at least 1985.

Many locals have celebrated the decision to have them removed.

Good on you Darwin Sailing Club, one person wrote on Facebook. Im going to eat there more often now, just on principle.

The waterfront sailing club has not yet decided what the now-empty gaming room will be used for, but it may be converted into a space for sailing memorabilia or part-time conference room for hire.

Last year, the Northern Territory state government lifted the maximum number of machines a venue could operate.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted John Melenewycz for further details.
Migrants heading to Britain from Poland have been given a 20-page guide on how to bag the most lucrative benefits from our welfare system.

The Polish Express newspaper provided its readers with a glossy manual detailing what steps to take to make sure they were given the highest possible amount of financial help upon arriving in the UK.

It features cartoon men and woman with information detailing each type of handout available.

The Polish Express newspaper provided its readers with a glossy manual (pictured) detailing what steps to take to make sure they were given the highest possible amount of financial help upon arriving in the UK

The 'benefits home page' describes the British benefits system as the 'best developed' in Europe

There are drawings of a plate piled high with banknotes and a man smiling beside a tree where the leaves have been replaced with pound signs.

It also has sections dedicated to universal credit, housing benefit and jobseeker's allowance.

Critics have blasted it as almost being an 'encouragement' for out of work Poles to head to Britain.

Tory MP Peter Bone told The Sun: 'What this shows is that Polish people are being encouraged to come to the UK because of our very generous welfare system.

It features cartoon men and woman with information detailing each type of handout available - with its contents page showing what appears to be a tree with money growing on it

The Jobseeker's Allowance page tells claimants they do not need to pay social security contributions to can apply and there is also no time limit in which it is paid

The Universal Credit explains that the system was created for 'several reasons'. It explains 'first of all, it seeks to encourage the unemployed to seek work'

'The only way we're going to regain control of our borders is by coming out of the EU.'

The Polish Express has a weekly circulation of around 75,000. It is also read by thousands of people online.

Its handy benefits guide includes an editor's letter which describes welfare in the UK as 'particularly interesting.'

There is also a drawing of a plate piled high with banknotes on a page entitled: 'On what benefits can you count on in the UK?'

The guide book also has sections dedicated to universal credit, housing benefit and jobseeker's allowance. It poses the question - Who can count on the Housing Benefit ? Housing benefit may apply to everyone - both working and unemployed who needs help paying rent.

The child benefit's page explains that 'the allowance is paid usually every 4 weeks, at a designated bank account, although in some cases (when a parent also gets other benefits), it can also be paid every week'

More than 111,000 Polish National Insurance requests were registered in Britain in 2015 with roughly 600,000 Poles residents in the UK

Readers are then offered dozens of hints and tips on how to rake in the most possible cash in state handouts.

Ilona Korzeniowska, the paper's chief editor, said of it: 'It's not a guide to say, 'go and take your benefits'.

'We have guides for people working. This is the only one for unemployed people.'

The production and print of the guides has raised fears that many migrants are seeking a move to Britain soon - before June's EU referendum brings in any curbs on welfare.

More than 111,000 Polish National Insurance requests were registered in Britain in 2015 with roughly 600,000 Poles residents in the UK.
Rate among 55 to 64 age group has also surged by 54 percent in same time

According to Director of Black Dog Institute, women are 'less risk-averse'

Suicide rate in women aged 15-24 have risen by 50 per cent in ten years

A suicide scourge gripping Australia has driven the national suicide rate to its highest level in 13 years and the figures among young women have surged by a shocking 50 per cent.

New figures released by the Bureau of Statistics this week show self harm is now the leading cause of death for Australians aged between 15 and 44 years old.

According to The Black Dog Institute director Helen Christensen, heightened risk taking among women aged 15 to 24 could be contributing to their heightened suicide rate.

Statistics released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show suicide has increased dramatically across all age groups in the last decade, with an increase of up to 50 per cent for women

Suicide expert Gerry Georgatos (centre) says support must be bolstered across the country to reduce the rate of suicide

'Young girls are becoming more assertive and less risk-averse. They're drinking earlier, smoking earlier ... all those associated behaviours might lead to more impulsivity, which might lead to more risk-taking, more injury, more suicide risk,' she said, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

'Men worry about money, supporting their families, being the breadwinner. Women worry about interpersonal problems, for example, family conflicts.'

Death by suicide suicides among middle-aged Australians and young women have also surged, while rates in some indigenous communities are among the worst in the world.

A suicide expert told Daily Mail Australia support must be drastically bolstered across the country, particularly in indigenous communities where suicide is emerging as the most pressing concern.

'Disadvantage is the biggest problem. The majority of these suicides are coming from communities which are losing schools and basic support infrastructures, which is creating a growing sense of hopelessness' suicide researcher Gerry Georgatos told Daily Mail Australia.

Mr Georgatos has been assigned by the Federal Government to provide crisis support to families affected by suicide in Western Australia.

The graphic shows the suicide rates per 100,000 people (above). Research shows the national suicide rate in Australia has risen to its highest level in 13 years

The latest figures painted a shocking picture of the suicide rates in Australia's indigenous communities, where a staggering 1 in 19 deaths are suicides  over 5 per cent of the total population.

'Some indigenous communities, if treated as a nation, have the highest suicide rates in the world,' Mr Georgatos said.

The latest figures show Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were about twice as likely to die by suicide as non-Indigenous Australian's.

The figures come just days after the story of a 10-year-old Aboriginal girl who took her own life in a remote community in Western Australia rocked the nation.

'We usually have about 30 or 40 suicides by Aboriginal people each year in WA, but we are already about halfway there by this point in the year.'

Western Australian police officers on a hill above the tiny remote community of Looma where a 10-year-old girl took her own life last weekend

But the demographic with the biggest spike is those aged 55 to 64 years, who surged by 54 per cent in the 10 years span.

'The figures are on the rise across the whole population. Men aged between 40 and 44 years actually had the biggest growth. This is when financial pressures often get the better of many men.'

The rate of suicide in women aged 15-24 soared by 50 per cent over the same period, which Mr Georgatos attributed to shifting gender dynamics.

'Women are becoming much more exposed exposed to hostile work expectations, their protective barriers are breaking down.'

Mr Georgatos has been assigned by the Federal Government to provide crisis support to families affected by suicide

The suicide researcher believes education and suicide support infrastructure must be improved across Australia

Mr Georgatos said support must be urgently bolstered to curb the alarming spike in the national suicide rate.

'We need to be offering support to the families at risk in practical ways, 24-7. Education and support infrastructures need to be urgently improved.'

An upcoming inquest into the high number of Indigenous suicides will focus on rural Western Australian societies.
There are few things more adorable than a baby giraffe try to take its first steps - seconds after departing the womb.

Unfortunately for newborn calf Amahle, a video of his birth at Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo, New South Wales, and subsequent attempt to walk on his stilt-like legs is something he will never live down.

The video posted by Taronga Zoo show's the calf hanging limply from outside his mother Asmara's womb before he embarks on his journey in the world.

Scroll down for video

Encouraged by his mother Asmara, newborn calf Amahle (pictured) hilariously fails a number of times to stand to his feet - but he does not give up

Almost there -

Asmara tenderly licks his forehead and encourages the youngster to stand to his feet, which he hilariously fails a number of times.

But with determination and courage - mind you, just minutes out of the womb - Amahle stands to his feet unsteadily and holds position, ready to walk as the Earth's tallest mammal.

'She (Asmara) is the most outgoing female of the herd so we knew she would feel comfortable wherever she gave birth, zoo keeper Simone Low said.

With determination and courage - just minutes out of the womb - Amahle (pictured right) stands to his feet unsteadily and holds position, ready to walk as the Earth's tallest mammal

Amahle (pictured right), who's name means 'beautiful one' in Zulu, was born on Tuesday and is the second giraffe birth at Dubbo in a week, following the birth of female calf Zane

Amahle, who's name means 'beautiful one' in Zulu, was born on Tuesday and is the second giraffe birth at Dubbo in a week, following the birth of female calf Zane from experience mother Tulli last Saturday.

Tulli is a very experienced mother, very relaxed and is showing all the right maternal behaviours caring for her calf, Ms Low said.

Tulli was born at Taronga Western Plains Zoo in 1997 and has played a major role in the breeding program to date. It is hoped that in the future once the new calf is old enough, that he will also play an important role in the regional breeding program, said Simone.

Giraffe numbers in the wild have been decreasing over the past 10 years and it is estimated less than 80,000 giraffe remain in the wild - directly as a result of poaching for bush meat and habitat encroachment by farmers, according to Taronga Zoo.

Over the coming weeks, the two newest additions will start to become more confident and explore the rest of the exhibit with the other young calves which will be great to see, Ms Low said.

Every birth for a species such as the Giraffe that are seeing a decline in wild populations is important, as it helps to insure against extinction.
The Florida woman who wrote on Facebook her four-year-old son was 'jacked up to target shoot' before the toddler found her gun and accidentally shot her in the back is recovering in hospital and will be questioned by police.

Jamie Gilt, 31, could face up to a year behind bars if found guilty of criminal negligence for leaving her .45 semi-automatic handgun within her toddler's reach, police said.

Gilt was listed in stable condition Wednesday and will be questioned as soon as her health improves, a spokesman with the Putnam County sheriff's office told the Florida Times-Union.

The boy was uninjured in the incident.

Scroll down for video

Jamie Gilt was shot in the back by her son as they drove through Putnam County in Jacksonville Florida

She runs the Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense page on Facebook which promotes Second Amendment rights

Discussing gun rights on Facebook, Gilt wrote Monday that her '4 year old gets jacked up to target shoot'

A former Florida prosecutor told the Times-Union if it were up to him, he would not press charges against Gilt because he feels she suffered enough.

'You have to put great weight on the fact that the person who is criminally liable is the one who was shot. Id be very reluctant to prosecute in this situation,' said former Jacksonville state attorney Harry Shorstein.

Gilt, who posts about firearms on her social media accounts, was driving through Putnam County, Jacksonville, Florida, on Tuesday in her truck when she was wounded after the toddler picked up the weapon and shot her in the back.

The shooting happened just a day after she said the youngster would get 'jacked up' before a shooting practice on a page dedicated to her musings on Second Amendment rights.

On the profile Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense she wrote: 'Even my 4 year old gets jacked up to target shoot with the .22'.

The site appeared to have been taken down Wednesday.

She reportedly believes she has the right to shoot anyone who threatens her family - and plans to teach her offspring the same mentality.

According to CBS47, Gilt was on her way to pick up a horse when the shooting unfolded.

Investigators with the Putnam County Sheriff's office will question Gilt once she recovers from her injury

Guilt, 31, was wounded after the .45 caliber round passed through the seat and struck her in the back

This pro-gun meme was reportedly posted to Gilt's Facebook page

Her four-year-old son picked up the loaded handgun from the back seat, pointed it towards his mother and pulled the trigger.

The powerful round went through the front seat and passed through Gilt's body .

Gilt flagged down a passing Sheriff's deputy and told him that she had been shot.

Deputies are convinced the round was fired from inside the vehicle.

Putman County Sheriff's office spokesman Joseph Wells said a deputy noticed a truck with a horse trailer driving erratically: 'As the deputy slowed to check on the vehicle, he observed an adult female in the drivers seat motioning to him as if she needed assistance.'

'The deputy ran to the vehicle and quickly determined that the driver had been shot.'

'The deputy notified the dispatcher of the situation and Putnam County Fire / Rescue was dispatched.'

'The deputy provided first aid until the arrival of paramedics. The victim was transported to University of Florida Health in Gainesville and was last reported to be in stable condition.'

'The only other occupant of the vehicle was the victims four-year-old son, who was unharmed.'

Deputies confirmed they found a .45 caliber handgun on the back seat of the car following yesterday's incident

Last month, Gilt uploaded an image to her Facebook page upholding her right to protect her child with a gun

Before being transported to the emergency room, the victim told deputies that her son had accidentally shot her.

'The investigation by Major Crimes Unit Detectives and the analysis of the crime scene confirmed that the victim was accidentally shot by the young boy who was sitting in the back seat of the vehicle.'

'The Florida Department of Children and Family Services are being notified and the investigation into how the child came to be in possession of the handgun is ongoing.'

According the Times Union, the responding deputy noticed the boy was not strapped to the booster seat in the car when he arrived at the scene.
Not long before Niki Savva published a book that laid bare the dysfunction of Tony Abbott's government, the pair would gossip over cups of tea in his private office. He would text her, cheerfully praising her newspaper columns ('Niki, good piece and got a good chuckle from the cartoon. Cheers, Tony').

But after she slammed Mr Abbott for his 'weird, psychologically dependent' relationship with his chief aide Peta Credlin this week, no doubt their days of chats over a 'cuppa' are over. And the only texts Abbott's camp are sending are demands for her to be sacked from her newspaper job.

So just who is this plugged-in Liberal Party insider who - after reporting rumours of an affair between Mr Abbott and Ms Credlin in her book Road to Ruin - has caused such an earthquake in the political world?

Scroll down for video

Woman of the moment: Niki Savva (pictured) worked for Treasurer Peter Costello for six years and as a political journalist in Canberra for decades prior to writing her explosive book

She started working as a political journalist in February 1974, during the height of Gough Whitlam's prime ministership (pictured)

Niki Savva was born in Choli, a small, remote village in Cyprus. Like thousands of Greek migrants, her parents moved the family to Australia in the early 1950s

Savva has worked at the highest levels of journalism and politics for more than 40 years. She filed acres of column inches working with legendary journalist Laurie Oakes and later toiled away as Treasurer Peter Costello's press secretary for six years.

But she comes from humble roots. Born in Choli, a small village in remote Cyprus, her parents Elpiniki and Andreas joined thousands of Greek migrants in hopping on boats to Australia in the early 1950s. Andreas came first, on his own, and later managed to buy a ticket for the rest of his family to follow him to a better life in Melbourne's outer suburbs.

Growing up as part of the 'Gringlish' speaking community, Ms Savva joked in her memoirs about how, as a little girl, she had a better mastery of English than her parents. She remembered how they asked her to translate a telegram from Greece for them when she was eight-years-old.

Her language skills proved helpful. Savva cut her teeth in journalism with a $26-a-week cadetship at the Dandenong Journal, the local newspaper. And in February 1974, she began her long march towards becoming one of Canberra's most well-regarded figures.

She scored a job as a political reporter at The Australian, one of the country's biggest newspapers, where she described her job as getting ministers to 'blab'. It was one in a long line of press gallery jobs.

Despite eventually becoming one of his key aides, in an earlier memoir she revealed some of her biggest scoops came from being tough on future prime minister John Howard. Savva was proudest of a story where she convinced Mr Howard to admit he had got his tax policy wrong.

'I asked John Howard three times whether, as leader, he accepted responsibility for the error,' she recalled in the book So Greek. 'I finally got the answer I wanted... It was a killer.

'They hung the posters of that front page (which read 'Howard: My Sums Wrong') at ALP campaign headquarters'.

Ms Savva (front row, second from left) is pictured with various press gallery staffers during her time as a political journalist

When a family crisis began to complicate her life as political journalist, in the late 1990s she jumped the fence and became one of Peter Costello's top staffers. Later, she worked for John Howard, the nation's second-longest service prime minister, guiding him through some of his final years.

As a reporter and a staffer she has come face-to-face with all the biggest names in politics over the past 40 years, including young up-and-comer Tony Abbott and her husband, Vincent Woolcock. Mr Woolcock has worked for every Liberal leader since Billy Sneddon.

And as Peta Credlin pointed out this week, he is currently working for the latest one, Malcolm Turnbull, who hired him as a staffer shortly after Abbott was turfed last September.

A furious Ms Credlin wrote in The Australian: I felt my 16 years of service to four Howard cabinet ministers and time in opposition, including as deputy chief of staff to Malcolm Turnbull, said more about my record than any bile from Savva

Ms Savva is now a prominent columnist and regularly appears on political shows on Sky and the ABC

She is pictured here during an appearance on the ABC Insiders show with political journalists Malcolm Farr, Mark Riley and Barrie Cassidy

Former prime minister Tony Abbott used to have 'cuppas' with Niki Savva, but she's unlikely to be invited back

Not happy: Peta Credlin - one of the major characters in Ms Savva's book - said it was filled with 'vicious and malicious claims'. She also pointed out Ms Savva's husband works for Malcolm Turnbull

Credlin continued: 'I accept that much of this post-leadership critique is politically motivated and driven by warring Liberal Party camps. Although Savvas husband works for Turnbull, I dont believe this attack would have the Prime Ministers support.'

But, by all indications Ms Savva - who has written many scathing columns about Abbott and Credlin - doesnt care much for the attacks on her and her husbands credibility.

In an article firing back at Ms Credlin on Thursday, she noted how long she had been in the political game - something there is little doubt about.

Paul Keating (once) claimed on radio I wrote what my husband told me. Privately, he called me a Tory b****,' she wrote, before reflecting upon her decades of experience.

'So spare me the lectures about ethics, dignity, appropriate behaviour, loyalty or veracity from those who arrived, relatively speaking, a matter of minutes ago.
In a stinging attack on poorly-performing secondary schools yesterday, Sir Michael Wilshaw said pupils were being failed by weak senior teachers who were prepared to put up with mediocrity

Too many senior teachers in Britain's schools are 'appeasers' who are prepared to put up with appalling behaviour, Sir Michael Wilshaw has warned.

In a stinging attack on poorly-performing secondary schools yesterday, the head of Ofsted said pupils were being failed by weak senior teachers who were prepared to put up with mediocrity.

Calling for more 'battlers, bruisers and battle-axes' rather than 'appeasers', he attacked sloppiness and classroom disruption as damaging to social mobility.

He said that unless Britain's schools get a grip on poor behaviour, children would have no competitive edge and continue to fall far behind other countries in attainment.

Earlier this year, the education watchdog warned of a gulf in standards between towns in the north and the south, with Knowsley in Merseyside being the worst-performing in the country.

Sir Michael said more bright young teachers needed to be attracted into the most challenging schools, but that many were being put off by bad behaviour.

He said: 'We need headteachers in our secondary schools that are going to be really transformative leaders, and we have not got enough of them.

'We need battlers, we need bruisers, we need battle-axes who are going to fight the good fight and are absolutely determined to get high standards. We have got too many appeasers in our secondary schools who are prepared to put up with mediocrity.'

Speaking in a panel debate at a Sutton Trust conference in London, Sir Michael argued that if England wants to do as well as other nations, every secondary school needs to have a good atmosphere of scholarship.

It comes after former education secretary Michael Gove tried to take on the 'progressive' teaching methods of the teaching establishment by bringing back discipline and vigour to classrooms.

Sir Michael said that if secondary schools are to improve, then it is important that good teachers are not put off the profession by bad behaviour.

He added that graduates of the Teach First training programme had told him 'depressing' anecdotes of poor management of naughty children.

He added: 'They leave university, do their training, go into schools full of vim and vigour and enthusiasm wanting to do well by children in disadvantaged communities and are put off by the poor culture in the schools that they're going into, by poor behaviour.

'And what they see - because they are bright young things, and very perceptive people - is just poor leadership.

'Unless we get leadership right then we will still continue to have problems.

'Our problems in the main, reside in the secondary sector, where recruitment and retention is most difficult.'

He said that Britain will continue to fall behind the other countries in international rankings run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) unless the problems are fixed.

Calling for more 'battlers, bruisers and battle-axes' rather than 'appeasers', the Ofsted chief attacked sloppiness and classroom disruption as damaging to social mobility (stock photograph)

'Secondary schools are not very good, in my view,' he said.

'If we're going to match the best jurisdictions in the OECD and elsewhere then we've got to improve our secondary school performance, and we won't get social mobility unless that happens.'

Sir Michael went on to say that inspectors can often tell how good a school is early on in a visit.

'They sense it as soon as they go in,' he said.

'What do they see? First of all they don't see any staff at the school gates to see the children in. They see the uniform all over the place, those woolly jumpers that you see, not a smart uniform although there's a uniform policy, they see a lack of scholarship and deep learning in the school, heads down.

'They see sloppy, scrappy worksheets rather than textbooks, they see noisy corridors and low level disruption. That's what they see.

'And if we are really aiming for our children to do as well as South Korea and Hong Kong and China, we need to have, in every secondary school in the country, a really good atmosphere and scholarship in that school.'
Long before she was bludgeoned to death by her husband of 20 years, Margaret Tannous told Sydney police he had threatened to kill her if she ever left him.

And one evening in 2014, George Tannous made good on his deadly promise, in what was the culmination of years of mounting delusion, rage and 'morbid jealousy'.

In the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday, Acting Justice Jane Mathews found Tannous not guilty of murder by reason of mental illness.

Long before she was bludgeoned to death by her husband of 20 years, Margaret Tannous (pictured) told Sydney police he had threatened to kill her if she ever left him

On Thursday George Tannous was found not guilty of murder by reasons of mental illness, even though he had admitted to killing his wife

A forensic psychiatrist testified during a brief judge-alone trial that the 58-year-old appeared to have limited insight into what he had done and his behaviour was consistent with the symptoms of a psychotic illness.

Tannous was described in court as a controlling man who had developed delusions his wife was flirting with other men in front of him and had repeatedly been unfaithful.

Yet all the evidence - according to Mrs Tannous's friends, family, and the slain woman herself - suggested her 'infidelities' were figments of her husband's delusions.

Court documents reveal Tannous called for an ambulance after beating his wife bloody in their Bankstown home on February 17, 2014, telling paramedics: 'I hit her because she made me mad.'

Court documents reveal Tannous called for an ambulance after beating his wife (pictured) bloody in their Bankstown home on February 17, 2014, telling paramedics: 'I hit her because she made me mad'

An agreed statement of facts also reveals Mrs Tannous had told police her husband was stalking her in 2012, and he had 'threatened to kill her if she terminated the relationship'.

She took steps to take out an apprehended domestic violence order against him, but withdrew her application soon after making it.

A trial separation that year was also short-lived.

The statement tells how tensions mounted in early 2014, when Mrs Tannous went to Lebanon alone.

While she was overseas, Tannous confronted a man who sublet part of the office where Mrs Tannous ran a successful migration business, telling him he should move out and asking him: 'If you were married would you be happy if your wife was sharing an office with a man?'

On Thursday, Ms Tannous's niece Jessica Karam (pictured) was at the NSW Supreme Court and and described her late aunt as 'a beautiful person'

'No one has the right to take anyone's life away - that's no one's job,' Ms Karam told reporters

On February 17, shortly after Mrs Tannous returned to Australia, Joseph Aboutanios told her about the conversation with her husband. Hours later, she was dead.

Prosecutors believe Mrs Tannous told her husband she wanted a divorce and he beat her so viciously with a broomstick that it snapped.

Mrs Tannous died in hospital shortly before midnight.

Justice Mathews ordered Tannous be detained indefinitely in a mental health facility.

Morbid jealousy, also known as delusional jealousy, is a psychological disorder leaving a person obsessed with thoughts their spouse is cheating on them without having proof.

Outside court, Jessica Karam described her late aunt as 'a beautiful person'.

'No one has the right to take anyone's life away - that's no one's job,' she told reporters.

'What I would like from today is for people to see and understand that violence against women is wrong, and it won't be tolerated in this country.
South Korea estimates value of assets left behind at $663million (500m)

Pyongyang to seize two joint business projects which closed over dispute

North Korea fired a pair of short-range missiles and announcing the liquidation of all remaining South Korean assets on its territory in retaliation to its latest sanctions.

The move comes after further measures were announced by Seoul on Tuesday to punish the North for its January nuclear test and last month's long-range rocket launch.

Military tensions have been on the rise ever since the January test  the fourth nuclear device North Korea has detonated in defiance of UN resolutions.

The UN Security Council responded with tough, new sanctions, which Pyongyang condemned as a 'gangster-like' provocation orchestrated by the United States.

Scroll down for video

A TV screen shows file footage of a missile launch conducted by North Korea at Seoul Railway Station on Thursday. Pyongyang fired a pair of short-range missiles and announced the liquidation of all remaining South Korean assets on its territory in direct response to unilateral sanctions announced by South Korea

The North also reacted furiously to the start earlier this week of large-scale South Korea-US military drills, threatening pre-emptive nuclear strikes against both Seoul and the US mainland.

The asset seizure announced on Thursday referred to two now-shuttered joint projects, the Mount Kumgang tourism resort and the Kaesong joint industrial complex.

'We will completely liquidate all assets of South Korean firms and related institutions left behind in our region,' the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in statement carried by the North's official KCNA news agency.

'From this time on, we nullify all agreements adopted by North and South Korea on economic cooperation and exchange programmes,' the committee said.

It also warned of other unspecified 'special measures'  political, military and economic  it would take against the South in the future.

South Korea announced the suspension of operations at the Seoul-funded Kaesong industrial complex last month, saying that money Pyongyang made from the venture was going towards its nuclear weapons programme.

The shock announcement prompted the North to expel all South Koreans from the estate and freeze all assets there, shutting down the last symbol of cross-border economic cooperation.

An association representing the 120 firms operating factories in Kaesong, which lies just across the North Korean border, estimated the value of the assets left behind at 820 billion won ($663m/ 500m).

North Korean employees work in a factory of a South Korean company at the Joint Industrial Park in Kaesong industrial zone. Pynongyang announced the liquidation of all remaining South Korean assets on its territory, including the park, thought to be valued at arounf 500million

The head of the association, Jeong Gi-Seob, described the liquidation order as 'outrageous'.

'No one can liquidate private assets unilaterally. I appeal to both the South and the North to consider the companies' interests and allow us to come to the North and wrap things up,' Jeong told AFP.

The Kaesong estate employed more than 53,000 North Koreans making items such as textiles, footwear and cheap electronics.

Mount Kumgang was the first major inter-Korean cooperation project, and thousands of South Koreans visited the Seoul-funded resort between 1998 and 2008.

The South suspended the tours in 2008 after a North Korean soldier shot dead a female tourist from the South who strayed into a restricted zone.

In response, the North scrapped a deal with the resort's developer  Seoul's Hyundai Asan company  and seized its properties there.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during a ceremony to award party and state commendations to nuclear scientists, technicians, soldier-builders, workers and officials for their contribution to what North Korea said was a successful hydrogen bomb test in January

With the exception of Kaesong, economic cooperation between North and South effectively ended in 2010 after a South Korean naval corvette was sunk by what Seoul said was a North Korean submarine.

Consequently, any economic 'sanctions' imposed by either side on the other are more symbolic than damaging.

The unilateral measures announced by Seoul on Tuesday included urging South Korean citizens to boycott North Korean restaurants operating overseas.

Earlier Thursday, the North fired a pair of short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its eastern coast.

Short-range missile launches are a regular and relatively low-level item on North Korea's long list of provocative gestures, and one it often employs to register annoyance.

It fired six high-calibre rockets into the sea a week ago just hours after the UN Security Council adopted its new sanctions package, which included the toughest measures imposed on Pyongyang to date over its nuclear weapons programme.
Police allege he armed himself with a knife repeatedly raped a woman in December

He was also charged with a string of offences relating to another assault

Davut Bulduk, 30, was charged over the sexual assault on Thursday night

The brazen attack took place in Roxburgh Park, Melbourne , on

A masked intruder who broke into a teenage girl's bedroom and sexually assaulted her as her parents slept in the next room has been arrested and also charged over a separate incident.

Davut Bulduk, 30, was arrested in Deer Park on Thursday in relation to the sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl that took place on February 26 in Roxburgh Park, a northern suburb of Melbourne.

Bulduk, from Coolaroo, made a brief out-of-session court appearance where he was charged with two counts of aggravated burglary and seven counts of rape that related to two separate incidents.

Scroll down for video

Bulduk, who police allege was caught on CCTV fleeing the 16-year-old's home in February, has been charged with two counts of aggravated burglary and seven counts of rape that related to two separate incidents

He was charged with aggravated burglary and four counts of rape over the assault of a 16-year-old girl who was allegedly woken up by a man kneeling beside her bed wearing a balaclava and told to 'be quiet' before she was raped for around 25 minutes.

Police also allege that Bulduk armed himself with a knife and broke into the Coolaroo home of a 38-year-old woman on December 31 and repeatedly raped her.

He was charged with one count of aggravated burglary and three counts of rape over December's alleged incident.

The 30-year-old did not apply for bail during his brief court appearance on Thursday night and was remanded in custody to appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday.

In February police allege Bulduk entered through and open kitchen window and made his escape through the bathroom, with CCTV cameras capturing him leaping over the neighbour's fence as he fled.

Bulduk allegedly sexually assaulted the young girl for 25 minutes - telling her to 'be quiet' when she woke to find him in her room

At one point during the assault he removed his mask to show the girl his face.

Images of the masked man captured by security cameras were released by police following the 'random' attack along with images of a pink 'Mossimo' t-shirt he discarded as he escaped.

Detective Senior Sergeant Walsh urged anyone who recognised the man to come forward so that police could give the victim some peace of mind knowing he was off the streets.

'I'd urge people to have a close look at the image because there will be someone out there in the community who knows who he is,' he said.

'This is a horrific crime and incredibly traumatic for the victim and her family.

The pink 'Mossimo' T-shirt that if of 'particular interest' to detectives trying to solve the sexual assault
A woman who dressed as a nurse, snatched a three-day-old baby from her hospital cot and brought her up for 18 years faces a decade in jail after being found guilty of kidnap  as the judge branded her tissue of lies as a fairytale

The biological family of the now teenager, who was brought up in a web of deceit and is known as South Africa's Madeleine McCann, gave a low cheer as Judge John Hlope refused to grant bail while the 51-year-old kidnapper waits to be sentenced.

The woman took Zephany Nurse from Groote Schuur hospital in Cape Town in April 1997 while her mother was in bed recovering from a C-section.

Scroll down for video

Convicted: The 51-year-old defendant is pictured arriving in court in Cape Town today where she would be found guilty of kidnapping Zephany Nurse, known as South Africa's Madeleine McCann

Relief: The biological family of the now teenager cheered as the judge refused to grant bail while the 51-year-old kidnapper waits to be sentenced. Pictured: Zephany's real parents, Morne (right) and Celeste (left) Nurse

The seamstress, 51, who cannot be identified, had told the court she hid a miscarriage from her husband and had bought the baby for 50 at a train station from a woman who promised to help her with an adoption.

Her lies meant her betrayed husband brought the baby up as his own, unbeknown to him his wifes dark secret.

But her web of lies came crashing down today as she was convicted of kidnap and led down to the cells  and now faces ten years behind bars.

Speaking to MailOnline as she prepared to hear her fate this morning, she said: 'Im not sorry I took her when the woman handed her over that day. I will always be in her life if she wants me.

'To me, I will always be her mother. I am sorry she found out the way she did. I am sorry for what the Nurse family has been through and I am happy they found her, I am proud of her.'

Guilty: The woman said she had unexpectedly been handed a newborn at a busy train station by a mystery middle-woman working for Sylvia. Her claim was dismissed by the judge as a fairytale and astonishing'

'Mother': The kidnapper told MailOnline she would always be the girl's mother and apologised for the way her 'daughter' found out

The teenager only learned of her true identity last year after an extraordinary twist in the lifelong hunt for her  when she made friends with a girl at school who turned out to be her sister.

The wood-pannelled court was packed with relatives and friends from the two families, who both hail from Lavender Hill, a poor suburb of Cape Town, which has been bitterly divided since the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Zephany was revealed.

There were murmurs of agreement as Prosecutor Evadne Kortjie argued against giving the defendant bail, claiming she posed a threat to the public if she was allowed to keep her freedom.

Biological mother Celeste Nurse broke down as Judge Hlope denied freedom to the woman who had deprived her of her first borns childhood.

Although they have been reunited with their long lost child, the reunion between the family appears to have been fraught.

Today, the kidnappers husband claimed Zephany, who is known by another name, has abandoned her biological family in favour of the one who raised her.

The 52-year-old electrician, who was left broken last year when he discovered his beloved daughter was not his, told MailOnline how the teenager remained close to him and his wife, despite the defendants appalling deceit.

She has abandoned the Nurses as a result of what has happened, he said, as he waited for the verdict in his wifes trial.

'Biological mother': Mrs Nurse (pictured centre leaving court today) only attended the fraught trial briefly to give her evidence

Emotions: Celeste Nurse broke down as the judge denied freedom to the woman who took her daughter

Investigator: Morne Nurse told the court how he had solved South Africas most famous missing person mystery himself after the couples daughter Cassidy, now 16, struck up a friendship with a girl at school

Relatives: Zephra Nurse, Zephany's grandmother, is pictured leaving the court in Cape Town, South Africa

'The main thing is that all of us should act like adults and put this child first. She is the most important person in this situation. Whatever happens now, she wont be made to stay away from us, that is her choice, she is an adult.

Giving evidence at her trial at the Western Cape High Court, the defendant admitted she had deceived her husband and child for almost two decades, choosing not to tell them the truth until she was arrested by police last year.

She had miscarried a baby in December in 1996, she told the court, but decided not to tell her family or friends.

She claimed she paid a deposit to a woman called Sylvia who promised me help with fertility treatment and/or adoption, and pretended to be pregnant while she attempted to conceive.

Newborn: Zephany, pictured as a baby, was stolen from Groote Schuur hospital in Cape Town, in April 1997

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

CONVICTED KIDNAPPER: 'I WILL ALWAYS BE IN HER LIFE IF SHE WANTS ME' As she prepared to hear her fate, the kidnapper gave an impromptu interview to MailOnline at a busy coffee shop opposite court, insisting that she would always be the girl's mother. 'Im not sorry I took her when the woman handed her over that day,' she said. 'I will always be in her life if she wants me. 'To me, I will always be her mother. I am sorry she found out the way she did. I am sorry for what the Nurse family has been through and I am happy they found her, I am proud of her.' The woman, who was banned under the terms of her bail conditions from having contact with the girl, added: I miss making food and clothes for her, we used to go shopping together. I miss her a lot. 'I used to do everything for her, it is hard not to be able to do that now. I am not afraid of losing her, we give her love. 'She was raised well, she had everything a child wanted. Whatever decision she makes, we will still be in her life. The accuseds husband, a gentle, quietly-spoken electrician sitting next to his wife, revealed their 'daughter' is still living with him and is standing by the woman who raised her. 'She is strong, but I am also worried about her,' he said. 'I want her to have a relationship with her birth parents, I cant stand in the way of that, we both want that.' Asked if he forgave his wife for lying to him for so long, he said: 'I still feel the same for my wife, I have all the love still for her. My family is split up now, my wife cant be with us. 'Our daughter wants her mother to come home, to be a family again. She has forgiven her and still thinks of her as her mother.' He revealed that following a row some months ago, the teenager has not had contact with her biological parents. She is not having any contact with them. She had a tiff with them and just blocked them out, I dont want to say any more than that. During the trial, the atmosphere between the two families and their supporters in the public gallery was fraught. Outside court, Morne Nurse had dismissed the kidnappers husband as an idiot for not realising his wife had deceived him. But the defendants husband refused to hit back. We are family, we are fathers, we are examples to our children,' he added. 'We must respect each other as grown ups, our children look up to me. 'Really, I had no idea that she wasnt my child. People used to tell me she looked like me and I thought she was mine.' Advertisement

The stocky dark-haired woman admitted she had been desperate for a child, but insisted she had not stolen the newborn girl from Groote Schuur hospital in Cape Town, in April 1997.

Her extraordinary claim to the court - that she had unexpectedly been handed a newborn at a busy Cape Town train station by a mystery middle-woman working for Sylvia - was dismissed by Judge John Hlope as a fairytale and astonishing to say the least'.

Mrs Nurse, who only attended the fraught trial briefly to give her evidence, broke down as she recalled how she had been dozing in her bed when a woman dressed in a hospital uniform offered to pick up her crying child. She did not see her daughter again for nearly two decades.

In his testimony, Morne Nurse told the court how he had solved South Africas most famous missing person mystery himself after the couples daughter Cassidy, now 16, struck up a friendship with a girl at school, in January last year.

Unbelievable: Zephany - pictured here as a baby with a family member - grew up just a few streets away from her biological parents in Lavender Hill, a poor suburb of Cape Town

Precious: The family only have a few photos of Zephany taken before she was snatched. She is pictured here with her uncle Abraham Nurse in Hospital on April 29, 1997

After seeing a remarkable resemblance between the older girl to his two other children, Mr Nurse began to suspect that the teenager was his missing daughter and launched his own investigation.

He gently quizzed the then 17-year-old about her date of birth and other family details and downloaded a picture of the girls mother from her Facebook page, which he sent to an eye witness who had helped police at the time of the kidnapping.

Convinced that the teenager was in fact his own long lost child, he approached the police who interviewed the defendant and carried out DNA tests, which confirmed the fathers suspicions.

The accused was picked out from an identity parade last year by Shireen Piet, a patient on the maternity ward in April 1997, who told how she had caught the defendant attempting to snatch her own newborn baby.

Mrs Piet had helped create a photo-fit of the defendant at the time of Zephanys disappearance that bears a striking resemblance to her.

Never forgotten: The Nurse family celebrated Zephany's birthday each year in her absence, in the hope that one day she might return to them

Hope: One of the 17 birthday cakes made for the Nurse family's beloved daughter, featuring her picture

At the time of her arrest, the accused claimed she had given birth to her daughter at a mobile maternity unit, but changed her story once DNA results revealed they could not be related.

Rejecting her testimony to the court, Judge Hlope told the accused,:One does not have to be rocket scientist to know that you dont buy a child.

'Human beings are not bought, you dont buy a child in South Africa. Your story is a fairytale and this court rejects it with the contempt it deserves.

In addition to being found guilty of kidnapping, the accused was convicted of fraud relating to an application for a birth certificate for the stolen child in order to get her into school.

She was also convicted of breaking child protection laws for knowingly raising a child she knew not to be her own.

The woman faces up to a decade behind bars for her crimes, which robbed the Nurse family of their first childs entire childhood.

Defence lawyers have requested social and psychological reports in advance of sentencing on May 30.

Reunited: Zephany's real parents, Morne and Celeste 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
A man has been charged over the sexual assault and stabbing of a British backpacker in Sydney.

The 23-year-old woman was allegedly attacked by her hostel housemate who slashed her throat with a knife and stabbed her numerous times.

But her survival instincts 'kicked in' and she allegedly knifed the 27-year-old Mexican in the chest before running off.

He also fled into the street, leaving a trail of blood behind him, according to police.

The man, who has not been named by police, is under guard in hospital, where a bedside court was arranged.

A woman fought off her housemate after he allegedly stabbed her in her own bedroom at this hostel in Sydney

He was charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent to murder and aggravated sexual assault with threat to inflict actual bodily harm over the attack on Tuesday.

A police statement said: 'About 3pm, a 27-year-old man forced his way into his housemate's room and allegedly attempted to sexually assault her.

'The woman, aged 23, attempted to resist the man, when he left the room and returned armed with a knife.

'The man allegedly stabbed the woman number of times. The woman was able to run from the man and armed herself with a knife before allegedly stabbing the man in the chest.'

He was refused bail and will appear at Sydney's Central Local Court on May 5.

Last night, the woman was in hospital in Sydney recovering from emergency surgery.

Yesterday, streaks of blood were visible on blinds, doors and walls in the property.

Witnesses said they heard 'bloodcurdling screams' coming from the inner-city boarding house at around 3pm.

The man was later seen staggering from the house, dripping blood, before being arrested by police two blocks from the boarding house.

The man had only been in the country for a few weeks and is believed to have become acquainted with the British woman while they were staying at what is known as a 'backpacker share house' in the inner-city suburb of Redfern.

The man was arrested after a short police chase on foot and taken to hospital where he remains under guard

According to police, the woman was in her room at the house  where up to 20 other backpackers were staying  when the Mexican man allegedly forced his way in and tried to sexually assault her on Tuesday afternoon.

It is alleged she resisted his advances, telling him to get out  but after leaving in a frenzy he returned with a knife and stabbed her.

When authorities arrived at the home, the armed man allegedly fled the scene to avoid police officers

Although she struggled desperately, police allege he managed to stab her several times before she was able to run from the room screaming.

As he came after her, she found another knife and allegedly stabbed him in the chest. He turned and ran from the building.

She wrapped herself in a towel to stem the flow of blood, according to police.

Footage shows dramatic moment police forced their way into the home after receiving a call from the victim

'I heard loud screams, psychotic screams, walked out and [saw] a girl pushed up against the window, blood coming out of her right hand side, saying: 'Help me, help me,' witness Jerry Betrou told ABC.

'She was pushed up against the window. She couldn't get out. It was like a cage.'

'There was so much blood and distressed people coming out of the house that made it a very scary scene,' said another witness.

'This was horrific for anyone to go through,' said Inspector Fitzgerald. 'She showed phenomenal bravery.'

Another backpacker, who received a cut to his hand when he first ran to the woman's aid, re-entered the house with police yesterday to describe what he had seen.

Two police officers who also received cuts and grazing while trying to arrest the man had to receive hospital treatment before they were released.

Police made an appeal to travellers to stay safe when sharing accommodation with people they do not know well.
This is the emotional moment an immigrant revealed her children had not seen her deported husband for three years during a live Democratic debate.

Lucia Quiej, who is originally from Guatemala, addressed Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton with the issue during Wednesday's event in Miami, Florida.

The mother-of-five, whose husband was apparently denied political asylum before being deported after being pulled over with an expired license in 2011, asked what the presidential candidates would do to reunite families that had been torn apart like hers.

This is the emotional moment Lucia Quiej, who is originally from Guatemala, revealed her children had not seen her deported husband for three years during a live Democratic debate

Touching footage from CNN showed Ms Quiej standing nervously as she opened up about her family's situation at the event.

Presenter Enrique Acevedo can then be seen translating the two candidates' answers into Spanish so Ms Quiej could understand.

Sanders was the first to react, claiming he would do 'everything' he could to help the immigrant's family.

He added: 'The essence of what we are trying to do is to unite families not to divide families.'

Clinton then addressed Ms Quiej, stating that she wanted the mother to know 'how brave... you are for coming here with your children to tell your story'.

She added: 'This is an incredible act of courage that I'm not sure many people really understand... you're doing your best to support your children but it is time to bring families together.

Viewers took to Twitter to commend Ms Quiej's bravery, with one user labelling it the 'most touching moment' of the elections.

'I don't think there is any doubt that we must do more to let stories like yours be heard more widely so that more Americans know what the human cost of these policies are.'

Clinton added that she would also do everything she could to prevent other families from facing similar situations.

Viewers took to Twitter to commend Ms Quiej's bravery, with one user labelling it the 'most touching moment' of the elections.

Rebecca Smith wrote: 'What a powerful display of bravery tonight by Ms Quiej. There is a devastating human cost 2 #immigration policies.'

The debate also saw Clinton refuse to entertain a question about her email scandal and whether she would drop out of the race if she is indicted. The presidential candidates are pictured at the event

Sanders likewise avoided taking a stance on whether the controversy was a blimp on the radar or a worthy issue and instead changed the subject to climate change and wealth inequality

Chris Newman added: 'This was amazing moment. Cool to know that both campaigns are actively seeking Lucia Quiej's endorsement' (sic).

And another user, known only as Ismael, said: 'Lucia Quiej is engraved into my heart. This most touching moment in #Election2016.'

The debate also saw Clinton refuse to entertain a question about her email scandal and whether she would drop out of the race if she is indicted.

Sanders likewise avoided taking a stance on whether the controversy was a blimp on the radar or a worthy issue and instead changed the subject to climate change and wealth inequality.
Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes' extraordinary claim that security guards at the Bataclan knew about the Paris terror attack in advance has been fiercely denied.

A source within the venue's security team said the accusation was 'evil' and 'without foundation', while police have refused to comment on what they labelled a 'conspiracy theory'.

Hughes said he was suspicious of the behaviour of guards at the Paris venue ahead of the band's concert on November 13 during which ISIS terrorists massacred 89 music fans.

Scroll down for video

Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes (pictured) made the astonishing suggestion security guards at the Bataclan knew about the terror attack in advance

Hughes said he was suspicious of the behaviour of guards at the Paris venue ahead of the band's concert. Gunmen opened fire moments after this picture was taken

The 43-year-old American revealed he asked for one guard to be replaced when he 'didn't even look at me' when the band entered the music hall - and claimed six didn't turn up for work that night. He set out no other ground for his incredible accusation.

He told FOX Business Network's Kennedy: 'When I first got to the venue and walked in, I walked past the dude who was supposed to be the security guard for the backstage.

'He didnt even look at me. I immediately went to the promoter and said, "Whos that guy? I want to put another dude on," and he goes, "well some of the other guards arent here yet," and eventually I found out that six or so wouldnt show up at all.'

FOX Business Network said Hughes did not make a definitive statement 'out of respect for the police investigation.

But he did say: 'It seems rather obvious they had a reason not to show up.'

A spokesperson for the Bataclan told Variety the accusations were 'insane'.

'Jesse Hughes spread some very grave and defamatory accusations against the Bataclan teams.

'A judicial investigation is undergoing. We wish to let justice proceed serenely. All the testimonies gathered to this day demonstrate the professionalism and courage of the security agents who were on the ground on November 13. Hundreds of people were saved thanks to [their] intervention.'

A Bataclan security guard told Mail Online that the accusations were absolutely evil - and without foundation.

Doormen, including one called Noumouke Sidibe who had worked at the Bataclan for 12 years, were widely praised for evacuating people from the venue.

Do you really think ordinary working people with a long record of service at the Bataclan were simply going to join in a mass murder plot? said the source.

Asked if the security guards were considering legal action over Hughes's claims, the source said: If possible.

A Paris police source said a parliamentary investigation into the attack was ongoing, and it would be against the interests of justice to comment on conspiracy theories at this stage.

The attack on the Bataclan was the bloodiest in a series of gun and suicide bomb attacks across the French capital on November 13 in which 130 people died

Hughes (pictured), a devout right-wing Christian, managed to escape from the killers  three ISIS fanatics armed with Kalashnikovs and suicide vests

The attack on the Bataclan was the bloodiest in a series of gun and suicide bomb attacks across the French capital on November 13 in which 130 people died.

Hughes, a devout right-wing Christian, managed to escape from the killers  three ISIS fanatics armed with Kalashnikovs and suicide vests.

Police later stormed the theatre, and two gunmen killed themselves during the raid by detonating suicide vests they were wearing. A third was killed by police gunfire before he could detonate his vest.

Elsewhere, gunmen opened fire on people in bars and restaurants in popular nightspots in the city while a suicide bomber targeted the Stade de France stadium during an international fixture.
This is the first picture of a victim gunned down in a London drive-by Uzi 'execution'.

The man, named locally as Oliver Tetlow, 27, was shot dead as a feud between two gangs escalated with fatal consequences.

A video of men boasting about stealing jewellery from a rival gang - posted online just hours before the shooting - is believed to have sparked the murder.

Armed police and the London Ambulance Service were called to the scene and found Mr Tetlow with multiple gunshot wounds after bullets were sprayed from a blacked-out hatchback.

He was pronounced dead by the roadside in Harlesden, north west London.

Witnesses said his mother was there within 15 minutes and was shouting hysterically 'that's my son'.

Scroll down for video

The man, named locally as Oliver Tetlow (pictured), was shot dead as a feud between two gangs escalated

The 27-year-old was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Harlesden, in north west London, last night

Witnesses recalled hearing a woman screaming 'Oliver - that's my son' at the scene in Harlesden, London

Onlookers fear Mr Tetlow, found with multiple gunshot wounds, may have been a victim of mistaken identity

Men holding jewellery in an online video has been linked to the gangland shooting in London last night

Armed police and the London Ambulance Service were called to the scene after Mr Tetlow was shot dead

Pictures of the incident appeared on social media, with many saying the shooting happened after a row over stolen jewellery.

The shooting came hours after a video appeared online of a group of men gloating with gold watches and chains and is thought to be linked to the gang feud.

In the video, the man holding the jewellery said: 'I told man, don't be comparing man to these dabbing a*s rappers be.

'Tell your guy come and get his f*****g s**t yo - f*****g d**k. These is the old version again. This ain't no new plate.'

Police believe the victim was shot by a man who fled the scene in a car. The gunman was said to have used a 'high-powered' Uzi gun to kill the victim.

The incident was witnessed by many people in the area at the time.

MailOnline understands the gang row is forming part of the Metropolitan Police's investigation.

Mr Tetlow's uncle today paid tribute to his nephew.

'He was a good boy. We love him. He was well loved. He was not a bad boy', he said.

'He was a very intelligent, academic kid and he was well loved.'

A video emerged online of a group of men gloating with gold watches and chains and is believed to be linked to the gang feud

Pictures of the incident emerged on social media, with many saying the shooting happened after a row over stolen jewellery

A taunting video of men boasting about stolen jewellery was posted online just hours before a drive-by shooting on a London street. Pictured is the jewellery in the video

Detective Inspector Andy George, who is leading the investigation, said: 'This was a shocking murder with multiple shots fired from what is believed to be a high-powered weapon.

'My team are undertaking a number of active inquiries to trace the vehicle involved and its passengers. Forensic work at the scene is ongoing.

'We believe a number of people in the area witnessed what occurred and have yet to come forward.

'I would urge them and anyone else who has information regarding this incident to contact us right away.'

No arrests have been made and detectives from the Homicide and Major Crime Command are investigating. Road closures and cordons remain in place.

Friends of the victim claimed he was innocent and just happened to be caught in the crossfire.

In the video the man holding the jewellery, said: 'I told man, don't be comparing man to these dabbing a** rappers be. 'Tell your guy come and get his f*****g s**t yo - f*****g d**k. These is the old version again. This ain't no new plate'

Pictures of men boasting about stealing jewellery from a rival gang is said to have sparked the drive-by execution of a man on a London street

The area near the scene was cordoned off after Mr Tetlow was shot dead on Church Road in Harlesden, London

Police and forensic officers at the scene in Harlesden after the man was shot dead last night around 10pm

Vinod Patel, 48, a builder who lives with his family nearby, told the Evening Standard: 'I was relaxing watching TV when I heard about six shots like a machine gun.

'I went outside and saw people running towards him. He'd been shot in the chest and stomach but was still breathing.

'One man was trying to help and feeling his pulse. It was all so quick but he didn't make it.'

One resident told the Brent & Kilburn Times her teenage son had been warned not to be out in Church Road last night as 'something would be going down'.

Saima Kokab, who lives just yards from the scene, said she was startled by the noise of rapid gun fire last night and immediately went upstairs to check on her children.

When she looked out of the window she could see people crowding the body and when police arrived, around 15 minutes later, she heard what she thought was the mother of the victim crying hysterically.

She said: 'It was a surprise for us, we heard gun shots and it is not like a firework, it is rapid. I was praying in the downstairs room and my kids were sleeping.

'It took around 15 minutes for police to come, and then I saw the police crowding around the body.

'Someone was crying a lot, it sounded like the mother who was crying with a lot of noise and she was really angry.'

The gunman was said to have used a 'high-powered' Uzi gun (pictured) to kill the victim

Aaron Campbell, 28, who lives in flats near the scene of the shooting, told the Daily Telegraph: 'I was just sitting watching TV when I heard the shots.

'There were a few of them and it was rapid fire. I was really shocked when I heard it.

'I didn't hear anything beforehand. There was no argument, no pre-warning there was going to be shots fired. It was like he was caught unaware.

'After I heard the shots, I ran downstairs and outside. I saw the guy's legs lying on the floor. His mum was there within 15 minutes and she was shouting "that's my son"'.

An 18-year-old witness told the Evening Standard: 'I was in the Cash and Carry and I heard a shot and came outside and at least another two shots went off really rapidly. It sounded like a machine gun.

'They shot him from point-blank range. They were going slowly at the time and then sped off down the street. The car had tinted windows so you couldnt see inside.

'Two men ran after the car to try and get the number plate but it was too fast.

'There was a man who stopped to help the man on the ground. He was doing CPR and trying to keep him alive but I dont think there was anything he could have done to save him. His chest was covered in blood and I saw the wounds.'

A card on flowers left at the scene read: 'The angels looked down from heaven one night. They searched for miles afar and deep within the distance they could see a shining star.

'They knew at that very instant the star was theirs to gain. So they took you up to heaven forever to remain. Oliver you will be truly missed.'

The shooting happened on the Church End housing estate, where singer Tulisa Contostavlos filmed a music video with the rapper Nine for her album The Female Boss in July 2012.
A mother was left frightened and scared of 'being chucked out of her house' after she was threatened with legal action and a $550 fine unless she can quieten her toddler.

Artist Janin Mayer, 33, told A Current Affair she was shocked after receiving a letter from strata company Bright & Duggan citing complaints from her neighbours over 'excessive noise, in the form of (her) child shouting and screaming from early in the morning to very late at night'.

Ms Mayer, her husband Evi and their 19-month-old son Elliav have been living in the oceanside Vaucluse apartment block in Sydney's exclusive eastern suburbs for less than three months.

The letter informs the couple they are 'disturbing other residents and as such you are in breach of the strata scheme by-laws.'

Scroll down for video

Artist Janin Mayer, 33, says she is disgusted after receiving a letter from strata company Bright & Duggan citing complaints from her neighbours over excessive noise, in the form of (her) child shouting and screaming

Upon reading the letter Ms Mayer felt like her son was being 'bullied,' leaving her uncomfortable in her own home.

'I felt like I was going to cry. It just made me feel really uncomfortable and kind of scared, it makes you feel like you're going to get chucked out of your house,' said Ms Mayer.

'Yes there is noise however its not like its day or night, its not 24/7 its not non stop.

'Hes a toddler so hes going to have some tantrums...hes not in common areas'.

Michael Vumbaca, General Manger at Jamesons Strata Management, believes neighbours should not have taken the approach of sending a letter to the mother's home.

'I actually dont think that this particular matter is something that a strata manager can involve itself in,' said Mr Vumbaca.

'I think a baby crying is incidental noise and it is not something thats within the control of the strata or the owners corporation'.

Instead, Mr Vumbaca recommends neighbours 'learn to collaborate with each other and treat each other with respect' rather than give a mother grief about her baby crying.

The mother felt like crying and was shocked after receiving the letter, fearing she would be thrown out of her house

Upon reading the letter Ms Mayer felt like her son was being 'bullied,' leaving her uncomfortable in her own home

'Please refrain from allowing your child to create excessive noise immediately and into the future. You must be mindful of other residents and keep noise levels to a minimum at all times,' the letter read.

'Continued breaches of the by-laws may result in the matter being taken further and a fine of $550 being imposed by the NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal.'

Ms Mayer, who is expecting her second child next month, says she feels discriminated against by the letter.

'WTF?! Discrimination to the utmost! I am revolted,' Ms Mayer wrote on Facebook to friends who voiced their support.

She says she and her husband are always mindful of her neighbours, close their windows and avoid common areas, explaining 'I don't know what else we can do', according to the Daily Telegraph.

Ms Mayer says despite initially feeling distressed by the 'threatening tone' of the letter, her family is now being inundated with support.

Ms Mayer says she is always mindful of her neighbours, shutting the windows in the morning and night to avoid being a disturbance

Ms Mayer, who is expecting her second child next month, says she feels discriminated against. She says her family is always considerate of neighbours and doesn't know where young families are supposed to go

Ms Mayer, her husband Evi and their 19-month-old son Elliav have been living in the oceanside Vaucluse apartment block in Sydney's exclusive eastern suburbs for less than three months

'Everyone's disgusted, especially people with children who just know that is normal behaviour for a toddler. In addition to the fact that city rental prices are so ridiculous anyway, it just adds to the feeling of being pushed out.'

She and her husband no longer feel comfortable living in the building and are considering leaving the city completely.

They also have serious concerns about how the neighbours will react when their newborn arrives in April, leaving them stressed and upset.

'I don't know where young families are supposed to go,' Ms Mayer told the Daily Telegraph.
A mother was gang-raped in front of her three-year-old daughter by attackers who killed her two-week-old son before assaulting the woman on a bus in India.

The 28-year-old had been visiting her sister when the bus pulled into a station in the town of Shishgarh in northern India's Uttar Pradesh State.

Police say her daughter, who hid in a corner of the bus, was the only witness as two men raped her mother. She has since given an account of the harrowing ordeal.

A mother was gang-raped in front of her three-year-old daughter by attackers who killed her two-week-old son before assaulting the woman on a bus in India

Police spokesman Surendra Singh Panwar said two men had been arrested and charged with gang rape and culpable homicide.

He said: 'She reached Shishgarh on Monday evening. At the bus station, from where she was to catch a bus to Bareilly, where she met the two accused.'

Another police spokesman, Yamuna Prasad added: 'Her child had been sick for some time and she went to visit her sister to meet a tantrik (a Buddhist healer).

'She was returning when she met the two accused at the bus station. She was allegedly raped inside the bus at the bus station. Later, she found her child dead.'

Police say her daughter, who hid in a corner of the bus, was the only witness as two men raped her mother. She has since given an account of the harrowing ordeal

The distraught woman was taken to hospital where she is receiving medical attention.

According to the Times of India, her baby was killed when attackers threw him to the ground.

The little girl managed to slip out of the bus without the attackers seeing. She was later found beside her unconscious mother by the side of the road.

The attack is just one of several recently reported cases of rape against women or children in India.

It comes after a 15-year-old girl in New Delhi lost her fight for life days after she was raped and set on fire by an attacker.
Vice President Joe Biden has told American troops in Jordan that ISIS is 'on its heels' but admitted that defeating the terror group will take time.

Biden made the remarks while speaking to U.S. Army personnel stationed at a military base near the Jordanian capital of Amman during a visit to the key Middle Eastern ally.

He added that ISIS poses 'no existential threat' to America 'because we've got you and the people you are training (and) the finest military tactics in the world.'

Scroll down for video

Joe Biden has told American troops stationed in Jordan in order to train armed forces in the Middle Eastern nation that ISIS is 'on its heels' during a visit today (pictured)

However, the Vice President (pictured with Jordan's King Abdullah, left) admitted that defeating the terror group will take 'a long time' and will require cooperation from other Middle East states

Biden was visiting Jordan as part of a Mideast tour of allies in the war against ISIS, including the United Arab Emirates, as America steps up military assistance to those countries

Biden was visiting the facility along with King Abdullah II, after the pair sat down earlier in the day for talks and posed for the cameras.

Washington has scaled up military aid to Jordan in recent months as the predominantly Sunni-Muslim kingdom takes on central role in the fight against ISIS.

The terror group controls large areas of neighboring Syria and Iraq and the widespread violence it has perpetrated there has caused almost 1million people to flee across the border into Jordan.

As part of the deepening military cooperation, the U.S. last week gave Jordan eight Blackhawk helicopters to help boost border protection. An additional eight Blackhawks are in the pipeline.

Biden and his wife Jill have been on a week-long tour of the Middle East, with Jordan being their last stop before returning to the U.S.

Earlier in the week Biden visited Tel Aviv in Israel and was almost caught up in a frenzied knife attack in which American tourist Taylor Allen Force, 28, of Lubbock, Texas, was stabbed to death.

Earlier in the day Biden met with King Abdullah in the capital of Amman to discuss his country's efforts to defeat ISIS, who control large swathes of territory in neighboring Iraq and Syria

Biden has been on a week-long tour of the Mideast with wife Jill (pictured arriving in Amman today) which included a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories

The Vice President salutes Jordanian soldiers after climbing off a plane at Marka Airport in Jordan's capital

Biden revealed that he was eating dinner with his family in a restaurant just a mile away at the time of the attack, which took place on a beachfront boardwalk in Jaffa, an area popular with tourists.

Biden was forced to condemn the Fatah political party of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas after the attack when a series of posts appeared on their Facebook page praising the perpetrator as a 'hero' and a 'martyr'.

Both the Vice President and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent their condolences to Force's loved ones as they criticized Palestinian officials.

'The United States of America condemns these acts and condemns the failure to condemn these acts,' Biden said.

'The kind of violence we saw yesterday, the failure to condemn it, the rhetoric that incites that violence, the retribution that it generates, has to stop.'

While Biden toured military facilities, wife Jill visited a Syrian refugee camp. In total, Jordan has accepted more than one million refugees from both Iraq and Syria after citizens were displaced by ISIS

Jill Biden watched children playing inside the refugee camp at Mafraq, one of three established along the Syrian border in the wake of the civil war there

But it seems his call went unheeded by Abbas when the pair met in Ramallah yesterday. Abbas said he was opposed to all acts of violence, but did specifically condemn attacks on Israelis.

Biden's trip also took in an airbase at Al-Dhafra near Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, another key Western ally in the fight against ISIS.

Flanked by an F-22 Raptor and an F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet, Biden applauded Emirati authorities for their 'stepped up and expanded' role in the anti-IS campaign.
David Cameron today blasted leave campaigners such as Boris Johnson who suggest job losses or a 'dent to the economy' are a price worth paying for Brexit.

The London Mayor last week conceded there 'might' be a blow to the economy following a Leave vote but at a speech today Mr Cameron said there was 'nothing more important than protecting people's financial security'.

Brexit campaigners issued their own research today which claimed the EU was costing jobs and insisting Britain was better off out.

David Cameron, pictured speaking at a Vauxhall factory today, warned Brexit would cost jobs and raise mortgage rates and insisted this was not a price worth paying

Speaking at the Vauxhall factory in Ellesmere Port, Mr Cameron said: 'For those who advocate leaving, lost jobs and a dented economy might be collateral damage, or a price worth paying.

'For me, they're not. They never are. Because there's nothing more important that protecting people's financial security.'

The Prime Minister repeated his claim that Britain would be a 'great country' outside of the EU.

But he warned: 'The question is: where will our economy be stronger; where will our children have more opportunities; where will families have the most security; where will Britain be better off: in or out of a reformed Europe?'

Mr Cameron claimed to be making the positive case for the single market, insisting tariff-free trade was a vital benefit to Britain.

He warned Britain would face a string of new tariffs on its exports if it quit the single market and said the Brexit camp could not be certain about when or in what form new deals would be struck.

The Prime Minister said: 'The best free trade deal in the world would still not replicate the single market.'

The case was rejected today by Vote Leave as Commons leader Chris Grayling insisted the Government's claim of a 'special status' for Britain meant little.

He said: 'If we vote to stay in the EU, we are voting to be substantially and increasingly governed from Brussels.

'It would be a vote for an unreformed EU which will hoover up more money and more power at every opportunity it gets.

'A vote to remain is a vote to leave the EU court and unelected EU judges in control of a whole raft of our laws.'

Mr Cameron met workers at the factory before making his latest intervention on the Brexit campaign

Mr Cameron's latest speech on the EU referendum campaign took him to Ellesmere Port as he spoke to Vauxhall workers about the benefits of membership

Mr Grayling insisted the Prime Minister had made a 'herculean' effort in Brussels but the lack of reform on offer underlined why Brexit was necessary.

And he warned the EU was 'on a journey' to greater integration Britain should avoid.

He said: 'In the early days all member states had a veto over new laws. So we had plenty of opportunities to protect our national interest.

'But the EU today has moved a long way away from those roots. Treaty after treaty scrapped those vetoes and made an increasing proportion of new EU legislation subject to qualified majority voting, leaving us unable to stop things that we did not agree with.

Mr Cameron's remarks appeared aimed at Boris Johnson, left in Downing Street this week, who said Brexit 'might' cost jobs but the case was dismissed today by Chris Grayling, right

'More and more areas of policy have fallen under the control of Brussels.

'And that's the first big problem that does not change as a result of the latest agreement.'

In other campaign developments today, the date of the Queen's speech was confirmed as May 18.

Commons leader Mr Grayling announced the date to MPs following speculation the set piece of constitutional theatre would be delayed until after the EU referendum campaign.

Unite leader Len McCluskey last night blasted German leadership of the EU in a speech at the German embassy.

He said he would be voting to Remain on June 23 but demanded further reforms to the organisation.

Amid concern the EU referendum has become too dominant, Mr Cameron has reportedly abandoned plans to hold the Queen's Speech, pictured last year, after the referendum rather than its usual slot in May

Mr McCluskey said: 'But the Greek crisis last year showed a very different and less attractive face of Europe. The threat of 'Grexit', the imposition of punishing austerity and the effective subjugation of the national democratic will, showed the EU and Germany's leadership of it in a very unattractive light indeed.

'What principle is being upheld when Greece's health service is pushed into ruin, when a generation is reduced to beggary in order to ensure that banks  yes, British as well as German  are repaid on time? It certainly isn't solidarity.

'Greece may have, indeed, been in financial crisis due to its own political leadership  but as journalist Paul Mason has said ''It may [have been] at the bottom of the economic pecking order, but Europe was supposed to be more than [just] an economy''.'

Speaking to the BBC last week, Mr Johnson admitted there could be an economic shock after a Brexit vote - but insisted this 'might not' be the case.

He said: 'Actually, there are plenty of people who now think the cost of getting out would be virtually nil and the cost of staying in would be very high.'

Unite boss Len McCluskey has attacked German leadership of the European Union, insisting the drive for austerity turned a generation of Greeks to 'beggary'

If Britain backs Brexit we'll face 13 per cent tariffs on SOCKS claims David Cameron in his latest warnings on the referendum

Mr Cameron, pictured during his speech today, said British businesses would face higher costs outside the EU

Britain could face spiralling tariffs on everything from socks and gloves to cars and bicycles if it quits the EU, David Cameron warned today.

The Prime Minister said before Britain joined the single market it faced a dizzying array of different tariffs on different products.

He warned no trade deal with the single market would ever be as comprehensive as being a member of the group.

In a speech to care workers in Cheshire, Mr Cameron said: 'Before we joined, we faced extremely high tariffs - 14 per cent on cars, 17 per cent on bicycles, 32 per cent on salt, 37 per cent on china.

'Even oddly 20 per cent on gloves but only 13 per cent on socks.

'All this meant higher costs for businesses and for consumers and less choice on supermarket shelves.

'Today there is one tariff in the single market and it is 0 per cent.

'What it means is this: a British businesswoman can sell her goods in Berlin as easily as she can in Birmingham. A lorry that sets off from Sunderland doesn't have to deal with layers of bureaucracy in every country as it heads, for instance, to Salzburg.'

Matthew Elliott, Chief Executive of Vote Leave said: 'After we vote leave, Britain will carry on being part of the free trade zone that stretches from Iceland to Turkey.

'Well also be able to take back control of immigration and spend our money on our priorities like the NHS.
Wants Bulgarian state to fund operation and pay for every captured refugee

He hands illegal migrants over to the police 'because they are all jihadists'

A self-styled migrant hunter has organised gangs of vigilantes to patrol and hunt down illegal asylum seekers in Bulgaria.

Dinko Valev, 29, has managed to acquire two armoured vehicles to travel through rough territory around the city of Yambol near the border with Turkey.

He says the reaction has been so positive among the population that he is now trying to recruit more people to expand his vigilante operation.

And he even wants the Bulgarian government to fund the operation and pay for every captured refugee.

He regards every illegal migrant as a jihadist and dismissed claims he was terrorising his captives.

He said: 'I would describe it as simply a sporting activity. You can't describe sportsmen as violent.'

Scroll down for video

Bounty hunter: Bulgarian gangster Dinko Valev stis on an armoured vehicle which he uses to track down and round up illegal migrants near his home in the city of Yambol in south-eastern Bulgaria

Valev (posing at home in his dressing gown) says the reaction has been so positive he is now trying to recruit more people to expand his vigilante operation and even wants the Bulgarian government to help fund it

Terrified migrants are forced to lie face down on the ground after being rounded up by one of Valev's patrols

Huddled in fear: Suspected illegal migrants cower on the ground after being 'caught' by Valev. Human rights activists have accused Valev of terrorising his captives with death threats

Valev says people have been turning up with off-road trial bikes and dogs to help in the search for illegal immigrants.

Others, including himself, also set off on their hunts on horses. When captured, the immigrants are then handed over to police, he said.

But the hunts organised by Valev have been slammed by the Helsinki Committee who have demanded officials clamp down on the immigrant roundups being organised by Dinko, saying what he is doing is illegal and branding him a criminal.

The Helsinki Committees for Human Rights are non-profit organisations devoted to human rights present in many countries, including Bulgaria.

In a statement to MailOnline, a spokesman said: 'Valev admits that he has hurt these people.

'His victims included men, women and children fleeing Syria. In one incident, he forced them to lie face down for half an hour after terrorising them with death threats.

'In another refugee roundup, he boasts about tracking a man for a while before finally capturing him.

'He repeatedly makes offensive remarks about refugees and it's clear that he plans to expand his volunteer corps to focus on capturing more asylum seekers.

'Even more worrying is that he wants the state to fund his operation and to pay for every captured refugee.

'So he is not only spreading fear of refugees within Bulgarian society, and inspiring people to treat them with disgust and hostility, and to reject them, but he's also asking for his actions to be supported.'

Valev says volunteers have been turning up with off-road trial bikes and dogs to help in the search for migrants

Valev has even managed to acquire two armoured personnel carriers to travel through the rough territory

Instead of getting the backing of authorities, the Helsinki committee statement sparked widespread outrage with a petition now being organised which has attracted thousands of signatures, demanding people support Valev.

In the first few hours alone, it ended up with 2,000 supporters.

Comments included one who wrote: 'We don't have a state that cares for Bulgarians. It is time for all Bulgarians to be united. I am proud of what Dinko is doing.'

Another added: 'Dinko is hero, we need more like Dinko. Jail time for the members of the Helsinki Committee, not for Dinko, you traitors!'

A Facebook page has also been set up supporting him.

Facebook user Hristo Dimov wrote: 'Let's protect Dinko from the Bulgarophobe such as the Helsinki committee.

'People are beaten on motorways, in discos, robberies are happening every night and every day,

'But Dinko Valev who protects us from the refugees and assists border controls in their work should be prosecuted?'

Valev has thousands of supporters online, with some calling him a 'hero' and human rights groups 'traitors'

Valev started the patrols after himself becoming a victim of an attack by migrants who tried to steal his bike

The mercenaries patrol through rough territory around the city of Yambol near the border with Turkey

Speaking on Bulgarian national TV, Dinko Valev said he had started the patrols after himself becoming a victim of an attack by migrants is now determined to round them up and see that they were evicted from the country.

He said they wanted to steal his motorbike and were shouting 'Allah'.

He said: 'I'm not organising anything other than inviting people to join me.

'I would describe it as simply a sporting activity. I am a sportsman, you can't describe sportsmen as violent. I have to do a public service at the same time that protects Bulgarians.'

Meanwhile, he has made no secret of the fact that he regards every illegal immigrant as most likely a jihadist.

In a TV interview, Valev said they make sure that all the immigrants they capture are handed over to police.
Queen Letizia has been drawn into a financial scandal after leaked texts revealed she pledged support for a banker friend accused of misusing funds.

The monarch reportedly sent the messages in October 2014 to Javier Lopez Madrid, a longtime friend of King Felipe VI and former Bankia bank board member.

The prominent business executive is caught up in a scandal involving alleged corporate credit card abuse and Spain's El Mundo newspaper has called on the Queen to explain the text exchange.

Queen Letizia (pictured) has been drawn into a financial scandal after leaked texts revealed she pledged support for a banker friend accused of misusing funds

Letizia used an expletive to describe to Lopez Madrid the section of El Mundo that printed a story about him and the credit card scandal, adding 'we know each other, like each other, respect each other.'

Lopez Madrid, one of dozens of former bank executives and board members being investigated for the credit card purchases, thanked Letizia and wrote: 'I'll make every effort to be careful in the future, we live in a very difficult country and I will be even more conscious about my conduct.'

Felipe then joined in the text conversation and said he wanted to have lunch with Lopez Madrid soon.

Spain's royal palace does not dispute the validity of the text messages, said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of palace rules.

Felipe has broken all ties with Lopez Madrid, the official said, declining further comment.

Lopez Madrid is also under investigation for alleged illegal financing of the Madrid branch Spain's conservative Popular Party.

Queen Letizia (right) reportedly sent the messages in October 2014 to Javier Lopez Madrid, a longtime friend of King Felipe VI (left) and former Bankia bank board member

The party ruled the country from 2011-2015 and now leads a caretaker government following an inconclusive December election.

El Mundo's open letter was written by Inaki Gil, editor of the society, fashion and gossip section that published the story criticised by Letizia, who was a television journalist before marrying Felipe.

Separately, acting Justice Minister Rafael Catala said an investigation would be opened to determine how the text messages leaked. He said he was concerned the messages 'could be associated with a judicial proceeding.'

The leaked messages emerged as Felipe has worked hard to restore the credibility of Spain's monarchy following the abdication of his father Juan Carlos in 2014.

Juan Carlos was roundly criticized for going on an expensive elephant hunting trip at the height of Spain's economic crisis and his popularity also suffered because of a public funds embezzlement investigation targeting Inaki Urdangarin, the husband of Princess Cristina, Juan Carlos' daughter.
Sacked: Part-time special constable Amarjit Singh

A married special constable has been sacked after he sent flirtatious text messages to a vulnerable woman he met through a mental health charity.

Father-of-six Amarjit Singh, 57, told the woman he wanted to kiss her and broke police regulations by twice going to her home while acting as her care support worker.

When the woman complained, Singh, from Bristol, claimed he had been attempting to build up the woman's self-esteem.

But a police disciplinary panel said he had abused his position of power by trying to groom the woman for an intimate relationship while she relied on him for support.

They found him guilty of breaching police professional standards by pursuing an improper sexual or emotional relationship with the woman.

They added that his behaviour was likely to bring discredit on the police and undermine public confidence in it, and ordered his immediate dismissal.

The panel heard how the woman was a client of mental health charity Rethink, where Singh had a role as a care support worker alongside his part-time job with Avon and Somerset Police.

He had worked with the police since August 2013, and described the force as his 'ultimate dream' and an 'escape' from life with his wife of 37 years, who is also mentally-ill.

The panel heard how Singh texted the woman last June from his personal mobile.

He wrote: 'Perhaps if you invite me to your home I can come for coffee but just remain confidential or I might get the sack x'.

She replied: 'You're welcome to come over for coffee. I won't say anything.'

Giving evidence from behind a screen, the woman said: 'He offered to come round and cook for me the next day and I didn't really want him to.

'I'm not very assertive and he said he wanted to kiss me and asked how I felt about him and if I missed male company. I said I just wanted to be friends.'

The panel heard that Singh went to her home twice, which was also against charity procedure, before the middle-aged woman reported him to her counsellor.

He also gave her his personal email address and phone number and contacted her out of permissible hours.

One text told her he had started to fancy her and wanted to kiss her. He wrote: 'I hope I'm not out of order.'

Another message said he wished he could go to her home to give her 'evening support' and a 'pat on the back'.

The panel heard his role as a support worker meant he would accompany the woman on trips to integrate her in the community, such as going on river walks and meeting at cafes.

George Thomas said: 'Mr Singh conducted a definite breach of boundaries. He knew he was transgressing these boundaries in a way that would lead to disciplinary action.

Taking advantage: Father-of-six Amarjit Singh, 57, pictured, told the woman he wanted to kiss her and broke police regulations by twice going to her home while acting as her care support worker

'He sought to conceal, with the victim's agreement, the nature of the contact.'

He added the day before he was formally quizzed he Googled 'how to permanently delete all data from an iPhone' but claimed he was trying to free up space for photos.

Richard Atchley, defending, said Singh had no formal mental health training from Rethink and was 'thrown in the deep end' without adequate support from senior staff.

He said: 'Helping people is what gives him pleasure. He was only trying to pick up her spirits.'

Singh denied trying to pursue a relationship with the victim and that he wouldn't have risked jeopardising his job as a police officer.

I thought at the time I was doing the right thing after seeing my wife going through this for 25 years or more. 'I wanted to see someone get their self-worth back. I'm the type of person who would never say no to anybody Amarit Singh

He told the panel: 'She constantly used to say to me that she was fat, not good looking, and in summer she would cover up in big clothes. It was to lift her self esteem.

'I thoroughly enjoy being a special constable, it is my ultimate dream. It took me most of my life to get a break as I was bedded down caring for an ill wife. Policing was an escape.'

He added: 'I thought at the time I was doing the right thing after seeing my wife going through this for 25 years or more.

'I wanted to see someone get their self-worth back. I'm the type of person who would never say no to anybody.'

Independent Chair of the Panel Emma Nott said: 'SC Singh's claim that he was merely building the self esteem of the victim was not born out by evidence.

'He was laying the ground for and therefore pursuing an intimate relationship with a vulnerable client who was relying on him for support.

'We find him guilty of an abuse of power and a failure to exercise self control. The abuse of power towards a vulnerable adult will undermine public confidence in the police force.

'While he was working as an employee of Rethink at the time, we expect police officers to abide by the standards of professional behaviour on and off duty.
Prince William put a smile back on the face of a toddler, who had suffered a potentially fatal reaction from eating a peanut, by making a balloon animal in the back of his air ambulance.

The Duke of Cambridge landed his aircraft at St Joseph's Catholic Primary School in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, after a 999 call was made by staff.

Lewis Swyers, three, was struggling to breathe after eating a snack which was given to him by a friend at nursery.

Prince William was unable to leave the cockpit of the helicopter, so decided to make a balloon animal from a blue surgical glove and used a marker pen to draw a face on it.

Lewis Swyers, three, was struggling to breathe after eating a snack which was given to him by a friend at nursery

Prince William was unable to leave the cockpit of the helicopter, so decided to make a balloon animal from a blue surgical glove and used a marker pen to draw a face on it

His kind actions touched the hearts of his parents Donna and Dean Swyers, from Little Dunmow, Essex, who said their son now idolises the Prince.

Mrs Swyers, 49, said: 'We thought it was a really touching thing for Prince William to do as it really took his mind off everything that was going on.

'He works really hard and went beyond the call of duty to put Luke at ease. Luke wouldn't let go of the balloon glove, even taking it to bed with him.

'When it was time for him to go back to school he asked me to put it in the boot of the car because he was scared it might fly away.

'Luke is only a couple of months older than Prince George as well which I think he quite likes.

'He keeps making us google Prince William to show him pictures and even since then he has idolised him.'

Panic struck after Luke, from Little Dunmow, Essex, suffered what his family now know was an allergic reaction while being collected by his grandmother after school.

Mr Swyers, a lettings manager, who is also mum to Olivia, six, and Joseph, three - Luke's identical twin - said: 'He was with his friends in the playground after school and one of them was handing out what we thought was a yoghurt-covered raisin.

'But then he started indicating he couldn't breathe properly and his lips turned blue.

'My mum, who is trained in first-aid, turned him upside down and hit him on the back to try and move the obstruction.

'Luckily someone had called the air ambulance and it came to land within minutes.

'It was a relief to know he was in safe hands.'

Luke (pictured left in hospital is only a couple of months older than Prince George (pictured right, with Wills)

Luke was also given a teddy bear by hospital staff, which he has called William - which also happens to be his middle name

The East Anglian Air Ambulance was dispatched from Cambridge Airport with Prince William at the controls and Dr Akos Soti and critical care paramedic Tim Daniels on board on February 8.

The Anglia II chopper took around 20 minutes to reach the school before Luke was taken to Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex, by East of England Ambulance Service.

As doctors worked to treat little Luke, he was passed the inflated surgical glove from inside the aircraft, which had two of its fingers tied as ears and felt-tip eyes and mouth.

Luke was also given a teddy bear by hospital staff, which he has called William - which also happens to be his middle name.

After being diagnosed as having a nut allergy, Luke was later discharged from hospital with an epipen, which he must use if he suffers similar symptoms in the future

Prince William put a smile back on the face of a toddler, who had suffered a potentially fatal reaction from eating a peanut, by making a balloon animal in the back of his air ambulance. Pictured is Luke with his new toy

After being diagnosed as having a nut allergy, Luke was later discharged from hospital with an epipen, which he must use if he suffers similar symptoms in the future.

Mrs Swyers added: 'We thought it must have been something in the yoghurt but we were later told it was a nut allergy.

'It was scary to not know about it and really if things hadn't worked out how they did, it could have been so much worse.

'Now we know, we can do everything we can to handle it.
Jailed: Claire Darbyshire, 36, killed multiple sclerosis sufferer Brian Darbyshire, 66, at the home they shared in Dagenham, Essex after he begged her to end his life

A transgender woman convicted of murdering her father by suffocating him with a plastic bag was jailed for life today - but must only serve a minimum of four years.

Claire Darbyshire, 36, killed MS-sufferer Brian Darbyshire, 66, who she cared for full time at the home they shared in Dagenham, Essex.

Today Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC, jailed her for life with a minimum term of four years, saying he accepted that she believed it was an act of mercy.

It is one of the shortest life sentences handed down in legal history - and she will only be released if she can convince a parole panel she is unlikely to re-offend.

Darbyshire's bed-bound father's decomposing body was not discovered until a week later when concerned neighbours prompted police to force entry to his home.

His killer was found wandering on the White Cliffs of Dover, where Darbyshire told a National Trust officer: 'I want to break my body, but I'm too scared to go through with it.'

A note written by Darbyshire found near her father's body said: 'If it was an animal then you would stop its suffering, but when it comes to a member of your own species, you want to prolong the suffering as long as possible.

'We have the cheek to call ourselves "civilised". Don't waste your time looking for me.'

Darbyshire added: 'Also, just to avoid any confusion on your part, I am pre-op transsexual.'

Afterwards, she claimed they had made a 'suicide pact' as his illness had become intolerable and she did not want to go on without him.

But following a trial at the Old Bailey, a jury found Darbyshire guilty of murder - rejecting the lesser offences of manslaughter or assisting a suicide.

Mr Justice Hilliard said the key to the case was that she failed to establish that her father had agreed she would also kill herself in a suicide pact.

He said: 'You gave evidence in the case and I accept your evidence that your father did raise the question of ending his own life and he wanted to do that and wanted your help to do so.'

Verdict: After deliberating for just 11 hours, a jury at the Old Bailey (pictured) unanimously found Darbyshire guilty of murder, rejecting the lesser offences of manslaughter or assisting a suicide

But he added she had unlawfully killed her father behind 'closed doors' and no defences to murder applied.

Widower Mr Darbyshire developed MS in 1995 and in 2014 the defendant took over as his sole carer.

Prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC told jurors that Mr Darbyshire, a retired Ford stock controller, had not expressed any suicidal thoughts or complained about being in pain to nurses who visited him.

Medical records revealed he had episodes of 'bad temper and aggression', but had never tried to kill himself.

Darbyshire complained to a friend about having to look after him and appeared to be getting more and more stressed.

After the killing, she caught a train to the Dover area, having texted the district nurse to visit 'asap'.

On the evening of September 3, Darbyshire approached a National Trust worker on the cliffs for help and ended up with support services in Canterbury.

It was not until seven days later that police discovered Mr Darbyshire's decomposing body at their home in this crescent in Dagenham, east London

Five days later, she mentioned the suicide pact for the first time, saying they had both taken an overdose which failed to work on September 1, before she suffocated her father.

On the morning of September 10 - eight days after the killing - police discovered Mr Darbyshire's body in his bed with a suit, teddy bear and various handwritten notes nearby.

The defendant wrote: 'Dad couldn't go on any more being bedbound. He asked me to help him end it. Now I have to end it too as my action is claimed as a crime.

'If it was an animal then you would stop its suffering, but when it comes to a member of your own species you want to prolong the suffering as long as possible.

'We have the cheek to call ourselves civilised. Don't waste your time looking for me. My phone call to the district nurse was my last action.'

Following her arrest, Darbyshire told police that she had planned to hand herself in the next day and a signed account was found among her belongings.

Darbyshire, who is pre-operative transgender, spent five months on remand in a men's prison awaiting trial and is expected to stay in the male system.

Detective Inspector Sarah McConnell, the investigating officer for the Homicide and Major Crime Command, said: ;It is always difficult for those involved when a person loses their life, whatever the circumstances, and this case raises a number of sensitive issues.

The reclusive lifestyle that Brian and Claire Darbyshire had lived for a number of years, means it is difficult to fully understand their precise situation.
David Cameron today ruled out an official investigation into the apparent leak of the Queen's view on Europe

David Cameron today ruled out an official investigation into the 'very serious' leak of the Queen's views on Brexit, insisting a probe by the press regulator should finish its work.

The Prime Minister refused to comment on the claims the Queen backs a British exit from the EU.

The claim is based upon an account of a conversation she is alleged to have had with Nick Clegg in 2011.

A furious Buckingham Palace took the rare step of filing an official complaint to the press watchdog yesterday following the revelations on the front of The Sun.

Justice Secretary Michael Gove was one of a handful of other people at the Privy Council meeting with the Queen in 2011 and today is the centre of suspicion as the source of the leak.

The newspaper has insisted it stands by its story, which it said was based on two 'impeccable' stories.

Labour has demanded an official Whitehall investigation into the leak and wrote to Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood yesterday demanding a probe.

But Mr Cameron, speaking to local radio today, ruled out such an investigation.

He said: 'Obviously these are very serious matters but, as far as I can see, Michael Gove has made clear that he has no idea where this story came from either.

'So you have got a very clear denial, a statement from Buckingham Palace and from the [former] deputy prime minister, an investigation underway from the press standards organisation, and I think we should let them do their work.'

The Prime Minister highlighted the denial of the story from Mr Clegg, who has insisted the story is 'nonsense' and he has no 'recollection' of the remarks.

Mr Gove has faced calls to make clear if he was the source of the leak.

But doorstepped outside his home last night, Mr Gove made no comment - telling waiting reporters only: 'It's nice to see you.'

The Queen is said to have made her views known to Europhile Mr Clegg, who was then Deputy Prime Minister.

A source told the Sun newspaper: It was really something. The EU is clearly something Her Majesty feels passionately about.

'People who heard their conversation were left in no doubt at all about the Queens views on European integration.

Justice Secretary Michael Gove, fourth left as The Queen arrived for last year's State Opening, has been accused as being behind the leak of Her Majesty's view on Europe

Mr Clegg, having initially said he could not recall having any such conversation, later issued a firm denial, calling the newspapers account nonsense.

The Palace said: The Queen remains politically neutral, as she has for 63 years. We would never comment on spurious, anonymously sourced claims.

In a dramatic escalation of the row, officials later lodged an unprecedented formal complaint to the Press regulator Ipso about The Suns front-page headline, Queen Backs Brexit, on the grounds of accuracy.

The report is based on a conversation between the Queen and Nick Clegg, right, at a lunch in 2011

There has been no outright denial that the Queen expressed a view on the state of Europe in 2011, when the continent was convulsed by the eurozone crisis. The conflict centres instead on the claim that she supports leaving the EU.

Senior Government sources said that at the time the lunch took place, David Cameron was yet to announce a referendum on EU membership and so Her Majesty would not have been in a position to take a view on the matter.

Friends of Mr Gove denied he was the source of the story, stating he had no idea where the claims had originated.

A spokesman for the Justice Secretary said: We dont comment on private conversations with the Queen.

Nevertheless, he was named as the most likely culprit at Westminster.

Along with Mr Clegg and two other ministers, he attended the meeting at Windsor Castle in April 2011 when the comments were reportedly made.

Also present was Cheryl Gillan, then Welsh Secretary, who is campaigning to leave the EU. She declined to comment on the alleged comments.

Lord McNally, a Lib Dem who was also at Windsor in 2011, backed Mr Cleggs account and said he had no recollection of a conversation about Europe.
Photographs from Sir Elton John's vast private collection will go on display at Tate Modern in a new exhibition.

The singer, has amassed more than 7,000 pictures since he started collecting them in 1991 after visiting friends at a photography exhibition in France.

However, his hoard has continued to grow and he now has one of the most admired selection of fine art photographs in the world - some of which will be available to view at the gallery from November.

Sir Elton John owns one of the most-admired private photography collections in the world and will be loaning some of his images to the Tate Modern in London

The Radical Eye: Modernist Photography exhibition will feature more than 150 works from over 60 artists, including Man Ray, Andre Kertesz, Berenice Abbott, Alexander Rodchenko and Edward Steichen.

Sir Elton, 68, said it was an 'honour' for him and husband David Furnish to be part of it as the couple will be loaning a selection of classic modernist images from the 1920s to the 1950s to the gallery.

He said: 'It is a great honour for David and I to lend part of our collection to Tate Modern for this ground-breaking exhibition.

'The modernist era in photography is one of the key moments within the medium and collecting work from this period has brought me great joy over the last 25 years.

'Each of these photographs serves as inspiration for me in my life; they line the walls of my homes and I consider them precious gems.

'We are thrilled to be part of this collaboration with Tate Modern and hope that the exhibition audience experiences as much joy in seeing the works as I have had in finding them.'

The rare vintage prints that he will be exhibiting were all created by the artists themselves.

The gallery will be hosting a modernist photography exhibition name The Radical Eye from 10 November 2016. Sir Elton will be contributing images such as the one above by Herbert Bayer

The Radical Eye exhibition will feature portraits of great cultural figures by some of the most important artists of the 20th century - including Georgia O'Keeffe by Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston by Tina Modotti, Jean Cocteau by Abbott and Igor Stravinsky by Weston.

A group of Ray portraits collected by Sir Elton over the last 25 years will also be exhibited together for the first time.

They depict key surrealist figures including Andre Breton and Max Ernst, as well as artists including Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar.

The Tate's director Nicholas Serota said: 'This will be a truly unique exhibition. There are few collections of modernist photography in the UK, so we are delighted that Sir Elton John has allowed us to draw on his incredible collection and give everyone a chance to see these iconic works.

'Coming face-to-face with such masterpieces of photography will be a rare and rewarding experience.'

Glass Tears (Les Larmes) by Man Ray (above) is another photo that Sir Elton will be loaning to the Tate Modern. This is the first time that a group of Ray portraits collected by Sir Elton will be exhibited together

Sir Elton began collecting the artworks as a distraction when he was recovering from drug addictio.

However, this isn't the first time that Sir Elton has shown off his photography collection.

In 2007, he had to close an exhibition of his images at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, Tyne & Wear.

The incident occurred amidst controversy over a photo depicting two naked girls, taken by American photographer Nan Goldin.

The image later became the centre of a police investigation as lawyers were forced to decide whether it was child pornography or art.

It was eventually decided that the photo was not indecent.

The Radical Eye: Modernist Photography from the Sir Elton John Collection opens on November 10 2016.
The father of a man convicted of stalking sportscaster Erin Andrews said there was no way his son will be able to pay the $28 million he owes the star for filming her while naked in a Nashville hotel.

A Tennessee jury awarded the star $55 million in damages after Michael David Barrett managed to secretly film Andrews while she was naked in the Nashville Marriot Hotel.

Barrett's father, Francis, speaking at his home in Portland, Oregon said: ' He cant afford $100, let alone $28 million. If he could, he wouldnt be living in my basement.'

Scroll down for video

Thomas Michael Barrett, pictured arriving at his father's house in Portland, Oregon has been ordered to pay sportscaster Erin Andrews $55 million in damages for secretly filming naked videos of the star

Barrett, left, used a modified peephole to film the star, right before uploading the movies on the internet

Speaking to the New York Post, Barrett's father said his son 'screwed up his life'.

He added: 'It's an awful thing, and he knows it.'

The 54-year-old stalker spent two-and-a-half years in prison following his stalking conviction.

Since his release from prison in 2012, Barrett has filed for bankruptcy with debts of almost $160,000.

His only assets were clothes, golf clubs and a 1995 Toyota Avalon worth a combined total of $3,000.

Jurors found her stalker 51 per cent at fault for altering a peephole in a Nashville hotel room and then secretly shooting nude video of her.

That means he is now on the hook for $28.5 million.

Barrett, pictured, filed for bankruptcy following his release from prison in 2012 and now drives a truck

However, It's unlikely that the former Chicago-area insurance executive will ever be able to pay that amount even if the verdict does stand.

Barrett admitted to stalking Andrews in three cities and altering hotel room peepholes and shooting videos in Nashville and Columbus, Ohio, and uploading them on the Internet.

Barrett didn't show up for trial.
She picked up the habit after her five-year-old son died in a boat

A woman who stabbed her lover to death with a glass pipe while high on ice has been released on bail after a court heard she turned to the debilitating drug when she lost her son in a boat accident.

Lisa McLaughlin, 51, had spent 18 months in jail when she was granted bail on Thursday after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of Graham Stevens, 31, who was stabbed to death in September 2014.

The Victorian Supreme Court heard the pair had been involved in a 'volatile relationship' and smoked the drug ice almost everyday, a habit she picked up after the death of her son, Zane.

Lisa McLaughlin (L) had spent 18 months in jail when she was granted bail on Thursday after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of Graham Stevens (R) who was stabbed to death in September 2014

The court heard that McLaughin was high on ice at the time of the stabbing - a debilitating habit she picked up after the death of her five-year-old son, Zane (pictured)

The mother-of-three cradled her son's lifeless body in her arms until he passed away after the family's boat collided with another vessel in the Patterson River, south east of Melbourne, in 2008.

Defence barrister Julian McMahon said the 51-year-old had been a successful pharmaceutical executive before the incident which caused her to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and a major depressive illness, the Age reported.

Mr McMahon said his client could not handle the emotional trauma and her life started spiralling out of control.

She lost her job, left her husband and in 2011 started dating Mr Stevens - a destructive relationship that was characterised by their reliance on drugs, according to the Age.

The Victorian Supreme Court heard the pair had been involved in a 'volatile relationship' and smoked the drug ice almost everyday

The mother-of-three cradled her son's lifeless body in her arms until he passed away after the family's boat collided with another vessel in the Patterson River, south east of Melbourne, in 2008

Mr McMahon said his client could not handle the emotional trauma and her life started spiralling out of control

Her lawyer said the 51-year-old had been a successful pharmaceutical executive before the incident which caused her to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and a major depressive illness

The Herald Sun reported that they had both become involved in low-level drug dealing to support their habit and often had police complaints about domestic violence during their three-year relationship.

Prosecutor Mark Rochford, QC, told the court that the couple had been arguing at McLaughlin's home in Seaford on the night of his death.

The court heard that McLaughlin grabbed a shattered glass pipe and stabbed him from behind- thrusting the shard 12 centimetres into his back - after he hit and kicked her.

The glass tubing pierced an artery and Mr Stevens died before an ambulance arrived.

The court heard that McLaughlin grabbed a shattered glass pipe and stabbed him from behind- thrusting the shard 12 centimetres into his back - after he hit and kicked her

The glass tubing pierced an artery and Mr Stevens died before an ambulance arrived

The altercation happened at McLaughlin's home in Seaford, a south east suburb of Melbourne

Justice Terry Forrest said this is not the first time a judge has warned the public about the dangers of methamphetamine and urged for others to take notice of the irreparable damage it can cause, the Herald Sun reported.

'Like a broken record judges make pronouncements about the toxins of methamphetamine,' said Justice Terry Forrest.

'[We see] people whose lives have been profoundly impacted and will remain profoundly impacted by the affects of that drug. I'm just another judge saying the same thing'

He reportedly told the court he planned to sentence McLaughlin to time already served and adjourned the case until April.
An environmental campaigner who was duped into having a two-year relationship with a police spy while he was working undercover has confronted him 20 years later after tracking him down to Australia.

Helen Steel traced former lover John Dines to Sydney two decades after he disappeared from her life claiming to have had a nervous breakdown.

He resettled in Australia where for the past five years he has been working at the graduate police college at Charles Sturt University where he is listed as a course director.

Helen Steel traced former lover John Dines to Australia two decades after he disappeared from her life claiming to have had a nervous breakdown

The undercover police sergeant, as he appeared in the early 1980s when he posed as John Barker, a protester against capitalism

Ms Steel is one of a group of women who successfully sued the police force after finding out they had been duped into relationship with police spies.

The Guardian reports that Ms Steel was fooled into having a relationship by Dines, who told her he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. But she was unaware he was a member of a secret Metropolitan police undercover unit, the Special Demonstration Squad.

The unit's aim was to spy on political groups.

Ms Steel was one of two defendants in the McLibel case - in which McDonalds famously sued two green campaigners over a defamatory leaflet in a landmark three-year high court case, that was widely considered to have been a public relations disaster for the corporation.

Dines vanished from Ms Steel's life in 1992 claiming he was going to South Africa to battle his demons. He told her his parents had abused him, she says.

Ms Steel was one of two defendants in the McLibel case - in which McDonalds famously sued two green campaigners over a defamatory leaflet in a landmark three-year high court case, that was widely considered to have been a public relations disaster for the corporation

He had in fact left to go back to work at the Met Police headquarters before quitting in 1994 and moving to New Zealand.

The paper reports that the police force then paid for him to be moved to Sydney - aware that Ms Steel was close to finding him. The Met has refused to confirm or deny this.

She had embarked on a long search for her former partner, whom she knew as John Barker.

It was later discovered Scotland Yard had taken the identity of a boy who died from leukaemia when he was eight in 1968.

She confronted Dines at Sydney airport on Sunday. The encounter was captured on video in which he is seen apparently apologising to her.

She told the Guardian's Paul Farrell that his apology was not enough to address her concerns that he may have been lecturing on discredited tactics.

'John was part of the ... special demonstration squad which spied on trade unionists, anti-racists and environmental campaigners.' She said. 'I was extremely concerned that he might now be promoting the kind of tactics that have been used on us in the UK.

'I felt it was important to come here to expose what happened in the UK in case these discredited tactics are being promoted in other countries.'

The pair pictured in 2005 outside court. She did not discover until 2010 that her boyfriend was a police spy

A university spokesman said Dines role was 'administrative only and does not involve teaching'.

In November, Scotland Yard apologised to seven women who were duped into having relationships with undercover police officers, admitting that the affairs were 'abusive, deceitful, manipulative and wrong'.

The Metropolitan Police agreed to settle multiple civil cases by paying an undisclosed amount of compensation, as well as issuing a public apology.

The force pledged that undercover officers would never again be allowed to enter into such relationships, which were described as 'a gross violation of personal dignity and integrity'.

Five separate police officers had relationships with women under a false identity while on long-term undercover operations to infiltrate groups radical political campaigners.

The men then apparently disappeared once their operations had ended, meaning that their lovers did not discover their true identity until years later.

The MailOnline has contacted Mr Dines for comment.

Dines told the Guardian he gave Ms Steel 'a personal and unreserved apology for all and any hurt that she may have suffered.'

A Met Police spokesman said: 'The MPS is not prepared to confirm nor deny if any individual works or has worked undercover.

'The policy of neither confirming or denying such information has been considered by the courts and found to be necessary to protect the identities of those who work or have worked in covert roles, often in difficult and dangerous situations.
Advertisement

Russia today lashed out at the EU's handling of the migrant crisis, accusing leaders of wilfully ignoring cultural differences that have caused such widespread friction and chaos across the Continent.

Konstantin Romodanovsky, head of Russia's Federal Migration Service, said 'multiculturalism has failed' because Europe never formed a unified strategy to integrate refugees into Western society.

He said: 'The European Commission left it up to individual nations to decide how they want to treat asylum seekers  despite the fact the policies and capabilities of member states are very different.

'The EU does not have an effective system for registering incoming migrants or effective mechanisms for deporting illegal immigrants.'

Plucked to safety: Christian Erdwienz helps a woman from Afghanistan to board the rescue cruiser Minden in the Mediterranean between Turkey and the Greek island Lesbos as migrants continue to make the perilous journey to Greece in the hope of resettling in Europe

About 35 refugees from Afghanistan sit on board the rescue cruiser Minden on the Mediterranean Sea between Turkey and Lesbos

As a result, he claims the EU was caught 'unprepared' when hundreds of thousands of migrants first starting arriving on the Continent last year.

He also accused leaders of ignoring the 'differences in culture, religious traditions, and customs' with the refugees, the vast majority of whom are Islamic.

He told RT: 'Practicing family reunification and offering refugees generous benefits without integrating them into the labor market, the EU did not expect that such a great number of people would claim these rights.

'This was clearly a mistake. The policy of multiculturalism has failed.'

He pointed to the mass sex attacks by gang of migrant men on women in Cologne.

He said: 'Note the defiant behavior of refugees and their growing claims and demands. What happened in Germany on New Years Eve is a striking example of this.'

Members of Turkish emergency services rescue migrants on a boat after they attempted to reach the Greek island Lesbos in the Agean Sea

First aid team members give medical attention to refugees after a boat carrying migrants sank in the Aegean Sea near Turkey

Members of Turkish emergency services save migrants on a boat after they attempted to reach the Greek island Lesbos in the Agean Sea

The body of a refugee is seen at morgue of Ayvacik Hospital after a boat carrying migrants sank in the Aegean Sea off Turkey's western province of Canakkale

His comments came after it emerged Brussels was seeking a deal with Vladimir Putin to stop fuelling the influx of migrants into Europe.

A sharp rise in numbers entering the continent from Russia has led senior officials to plead with Moscow for help.

It comes despite warnings that, by bombing Syria and fuelling the flow of refugees, Russia is 'weaponising' the crisis to 'overwhelm' and 'break' Europe.

Meanwhile, migrants continued to ignore warnings about that their hopes for quick access to a better life in Europe would fail.

Many still gathered on Turkish beaches and piled into boats today for the risky crossing to Greece.

Five, including an infant, drowned in the attempt. Those who did reach Greece faced an uncertain future.

Already tens of thousands are stranded in the country, with many camped in muddy fields with only sporadic access to humanitarian aid.

And with the Greek-Macedonian border closed they have no hope, at least for now, to embark on the so-called West Balkan route northward which had been the path for those wanting to resettle in the EU's more prosperous nations.

A man stands with an umbrella in a camp set by migrants at the Greek-Macedonian border near the Greek village of Idomeni

A migrant girl holding an umbrella stands in rain at the Greek border camp near Idomeni. After nearly three days of rain, conditions in the refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonian where about 14,000 people are stranded have deteriorated significantly

A migrant walks in a mud at a makeshift camp on the Greek-Macedonian border, near the Greek village of Idomeni

As EU interior ministers met in Brussels on the crisis, Austria urged migrants to give up hope of moving on.

'The Balkan route is closed,' Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner told reporters.

'The biggest problem is that these refugees still have hopes and expectations and these hopes are being constantly fed.'

More than one million migrants have come to Europe in the past year, most of them to Greece by boats from Turkey, where millions fleeing war, persecution or abysmal poverty have gathered.

Once bused to the Greek mainland from their island arrival points, most headed to the border with Macedonia, and then onward to Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, the entry point to Austria and other prosperous EU nations.

Passage through those countries began being restricted last month.

On Monday, countries along the Balkan route decided to allow through only people with valid EU visas.

Refugees block the railway to protest the restriction of admissions to Macedonia as they wait at a makeshift camp on the Greek border

Migrants covered in blanket walk in the rain at the Greek border camp near Idomeni, Northbound borders are closed and authorities plan to distribute fliers telling refugees seeking to reach central Europe that there is no hope of them continuing north

A migrant covered in plastic sheet tries to keep warm at the Greek border camp near Idomeni

Nearly 42,000 people are now stranded in Greece, including some 14,000 people camped out near the crossing, many in pup tents.

Torrential rain has added to the desperate conditions at the site, with tents sinking in mud and soaked firewood making it impossible to start camp fires.

Government health experts at the camp say there is no sign yet of an infectious disease outbreak, but have been urging refugees at Idomeni to move to nearby army-built shelters.

Authorities say some 70 children at the camp have received hospital treatment over the past three days for fever and diarrhea.

EU and Turkish leaders agreed at a summit Monday to the broad outlines of a deal that would see migrants 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 discourage people from setting set out on dangerous sea journeys, often arranged by unscrupulous smugglers.

In the latest deaths, Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said five migrants, including a three-month-old baby, drowned when their speedboat sank Thursday off Turkey's western coast, on its way to the Greek island of Lesbos.
A husband and wife sexually assaulted a 13-month-old baby girl they were babysitting in a case described by detectives as 'every parent's worst nightmare'.

Security guard Michael Chase, 52, and his wife Lara, 46, a pharmacist, took pictures as they abused the child in her bedroom.

His wife denied the offences and during a trial at Peterborough Crown Court claimed the couple had now separated after marrying in June 2014 and wanted her husband 'hung, drawn and quartered.'

Michael and Lara Chase, 46, pictured at their 2014 wedding, took pictures as they abused the baby girl left in their care in case described by detectives as 'every parent's worst nightmare'

Home: Michael Chase, 52, and his wife Lara, 46, a pharmacist, lived together at this house in Orton Goldhay, Cambridgeshire, but Mrs Chase says they have now split up

But a jury dismissed her claims and found her guilty of two counts of sexual assault and the distribution of indecent images.

Michael Chase admitted two counts of sexually assaulting a child along with four counts of taking indecent images, three counts of possession of indecent photographs of a child, possession of a prohibited image of a child, possession of an extreme pornographic image and making 4,524 indecent photographs of children.

Photos used during the trial included the victim being sexually assaulted by Michael Chase, with the jury deciding that Lara had been assisting him in his actions.

Lara had repeatedly insisted that she had been unaware of the incriminating photographs of her husband and the victim.

Sally Hobson, prosecuting, asked if she had known that her husband was taking photos of the victim with the flash on while all three of them were in the same room.

But Lara stated that the first she knew of any indecent images was during her first police interview.

Both Michael and Lara Chase, from Orton Goldhay, Cambridgeshire, will be sentenced tomorrow.

Detective Constable Lloyd Metselaar from Cambridgeshire Police said: 'I am pleased that the family of the victim in this case have received justice for what can only be described as "every parent's worst nightmare".

'The appalling acts committed together by both Mr and Mrs Chase on such a young child, who had been entrusted in their care, demonstrate the most serious breach of trust.

'This case demonstrates the determination and dedication of Cambridgeshire's specially trained officers who will bring to justice anyone involved in targeting the most vulnerable of society.'

Michael and Lara Chase live in a semi-detached 1960s property in a quiet Cambridgeshire cul-de-sac.

A neighbour told MailOnline today that Chase was previously a swimming pool attendant at the local primary school in the 1980s, when she was an 11-year-old. The school no longer has a swimming pool.

A woman who lives on the street told how Lara revealed to her last summer that Mick had been arrested by police after she reported him for 'looking at dirty images on his computer'.

When the news spread around the neighbourhood, the word 'nonce' is said to have been sprayed on the couple's garage.

Defence: Mrs Chase told her trial she is estranged form her husband and knew nothing of the abuse - but the prosecution proved she had been in the room when photos were taken

She said: 'She told me in the summer that Mick had been arrested. She said she dobbed him in after she found him looking at dirty images on the computer.

'She was very friendly and warm and people knew her from working at the chemist. That is why I find it extremely hard to believe.'

'She said he was going to get sent down and she was going to get rid of him. She left him for a while in the summer but she's been back since.

'We never knew what had happened. Someone wrote "nonce" on their garage and then the whole road found about it. I always thought he was a bit slimy but I never knew she was in on it too.'

Neighbours said Lara, who is understood to have two children, has been married two times before she married her paedophile husband in 2014.

Residents on the road are made up mainly of young families and neighbours today spoke of their shock at hearing the news about the couple.

One neighbour, who did not wish to be named said: 'They seemed a very nice couple. They were very friendly, it's unbelievable.

'They seemed to have a lot of friends. There was never anything to make me feel that there was any reason to think like that was going on. They seemed well liked. They always had people coming round. It just shows you can't judge any book by its cover.'

Another young mother who used to collect prescriptions from Lara said: 'She offered to bring my prescription round when my daughter was born four years ago.
Just as Valletta turned the money over, an officer arrived at the car

He pulled his car over after being

The taxi driver who was held at gunpoint by a passenger - only to be saved by a cop - is speaking out about the heart-pounding armed robbery.

Ralph Valletta had his dash cam video recording on Monday when a passenger pulled out a gun and held it up to his head in Wyommissing, Pennsylvania.

The passenger then threatened to kill Valletta if he didn't hand over all of his belongings. Valletta was nervously searching for valuables to give the robber when he got a stroke of extremely good luck in the form of a cop pulling up behind him.

'I was never so happy in my life to see flashing lights in the rear-view mirror,' Valletta told WFMZ.

Scroll down for video

Speaking out: Cab driver Ralph Valletta (left) was held at gunpoint on Monday, but sheriff's deputy Terry Ely (right) pulled up behind his car and saved him from the would-be robber

Robbery: Valletta pulled over his taxi in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, on Monday, a thug passenger decided it was a good time to rob him, not realizing a police car had actually pulled them over. Dash cam footage captured the heart-pounding robbery attempt

Arrested: Victor Martinez-Herrera, 18, has been charged with robbery, terroristic threats and a weapons charge

Berks County Deputy Sheriff Terry Ely said he was suspicious because Valletta's cab was stopped at a green light, so he got out to check that the driver and passenger were OK.

As he walked up to the cab, he heard the passenger threatening Valletta and jumped into action.

'Right when I hit the door, I heard the driver say, "Please don't shoot me," and "He has a gun to my head,'' Ely told the Reading Eagle.

'I immediately bent down and pulled my firearm out because I noticed he had a hood over his face when he looked over at me. I noticed the money in his hand and a black object in his right hand, and I started ordering him to drop the gun and get out of the car.'

The robber, identified as 18-year-old Victor Martinez- Herrera, was arrested at the scene and booked on charges of robbery, terroristic threats and a weapons offense.

He was committed to Berks County Prison in lieu of $100,000 bail.

It transpired that Martinez-Herrera's gun was actually a Ruger pellet gun, but was outfitted to look like a real firearm.

In an interview with ABC News, Valletta says that this wasn't the first time he has been robbed on the job. When asked what was going through his head, the cabbie said: 'Give him what he wants and get out. I don't want to get hurt'.

Valletta calls the cop who saved him his 'guardian angel' but Ely says he was just going his job.

'If that's how he feels that's great. We're out there everyday just trying to help out,' Ely said.
Cambridge University students have cancelled an Around The World In 80 Days-themed event over fears the costumes they choose to wear may be racially offensive.

Pembroke College's Junior Parlour Committee (JPC) feared that the theme could lead to 'cultural appropriation', with people wearing clothes from an ethnic group they don't belong to.

The move has been heavily criticised as the latest example of students taking a militant approach to political correctness and enforcing it on campuses across Britain and the U.S where last week students at a college in Maine were offered counselling after photos of people wearing mini sombreros at a tequila party emerged on social media.

Scroll down for video

Organisers from Cambridge University's Junior Parlour Committee (JPC) have cancelled an Around The World In 80 Days themed party for fears it will lead to offensive costumes

Other students at Pembroke College (pictured) are now arguing that axing the event is restricting their freedom of expression by preventing offence towards ethnic minorities

Students were offered counselling and 'a safe place' and students in the pictures now face disciplinary action over the pictures, described as an act of 'ethnic stereotyping'.

The JPC in Cambridge wrote to students this week to explain their decision to cancel the Around The World in 80 Days themed event, saying they have decided 'the most appropriate action is to break with the tradition of reusing finalists' first fresher BOP theme.

'Instead we are using an alternative theme, to avoid the potential for offence to be caused by the theme "Around the World in 80 Days".'

Speaking to The Tab, student Shani Wijetilaka said: 'Some members of the college met this decision with anger.

'Those in favour of the original theme claimed that "deliberately changing the theme implies the student body isn't capable of dressing appropriately by itself".

This decision just serves to perpetuate the downward spiral of extreme political correctness that I feel universities across the world seem to be succumbing to Cambridge Student

'The decision was characterised as "overly controlling and a little insulting" in a post that gained more than 130 likes.'

Lots of students defended the 80 days theme as a way of appreciating cultural diversity and did not see it as an appropriative and racist idea.

One said: 'I don't feel that dressing up in costumes that celebrate cultural diversity should be reprimanded.

'Can't we take joy in spending an evening in the national dress of another country?

'This decision just serves to perpetuate the downward spiral of extreme political correctness that I feel universities across the world seem to be succumbing to.'

But many students defended the JCR's decision to change the theme, and said it was 'literally a way to minimise the risk of people of colour having a sh** night'.

Other supporters of the decision to change the name called on others to 'check their privilege' and stop whining about their freedoms when it was just a party.

Students took to the streets of Oxford today as they continued their efforts to have the statue of Cecil Rhodes removed from one of the university's colleges

It is just the latest example of students sparking controversy with ultra-politically correct demands on campus.

Last month, gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell was called racist and 'transphobic' by a student union officer ahead of a debate the pair were both invited to speak at.

Fran Cowling, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) representative for the National Union of Students, refused to appear at Canterbury Christ Church University unless Mr Tatchell did not attend.

Ms Cowling stated in emails to event organisers that she could not share the stage with Mr Tatchell, because he signed an open letter in the Observer last year supporting free speech and against no-platforming, the practice by some universities to ban speakers because of their views.

Last month, gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell was called racist and 'transphobic' by a student union officer

According to the NUS officer, the letter supports inciting violence against transgender people. Cowling has also made an allegation against Mr Tatchell of racism or using racist language.

This came after students are tried to ban feminist Germaine Greer from giving a lecture at Cardiff University because they claim she discriminates against transgender people.

In February, left-wing activists succeeded in stopping Dr Adam Perkins' planned lecture at the London School of Economics because they disagreed with view on welfare.

He had been due to talk about the relationship between personality and the welfare state, but it had to be cancelled because of threats that students would disrupt it.

There have been similar problems in the US, with a number of parties being branded as racist for drawing influences from non-white minorities.

A student was evicted from her home at the liberal arts college in Maine because of the controversy caused by pictures of her and friends wearing mini-sombreros at a tequila-themed party she hosted.

Students at Oberlin College in Ohio attracted national mockery for objecting to their canteen serving sushi as they complained that it was a form of 'cultural appropriation'.

At a university on Ottawa, Canada, yoga classes were banned for the same reason.

At Fairfield University in Connecticut, students were criticised for wearing baggy clothes and carrying 40oz beers at a gangster themed party, making inferences, offending African Americans.

Comedian John Cleese said last month that he has been warned last month to avoid college campuses because some of his jokes would not be considered correct by today's student body.

And just yesterday, crowds of Oxford University students marched through the streets campaigning for the statue of 19th century colonialist Cecil Rhodes to be removed.

Lots of students at Pembroke (pictured) defended the 80 days theme as a way of appreciating cultural diversity and did not see it as an appropriative and racist idea

In a last ditch attempt to grow support for the theme in Cambridge, some students posted photos their first ever bop at the college as Freshers in 2013, for which the theme was Around the World in 80 Days.

But this backfired when some students said the photos actually made them realise the theme definitely had the potential to be offensive.

Photos showed some students in native American headdresses - and one student wrote of the bop that they thought some people had to be turned away for trying to wear a hijab.

The student said: 'I agreed with the original post until I looked at the photos.

'Some of the outfits are very questionable and I can see how they could cause offence.'

Around the World in Eighty Days is a 1873 adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, about the exploits of Phileas Fogg as he attempts to travel around the globe in under three months.

No-platforming civil rights campaigners, safe-spaces and culturally crass cuisine: How modern-day students quest for political correctness is becoming more and more embarrassing

From banning sushi for fears it offends Japanese culture, to refusing to allow lectures from academics who aren't 'right-on' enough, students today are taking an embarrassingly militant approach to political correctness. Universities have always been a hotbed of left-wing views and political activism, but many modern students are now so afraid of causing offence that academics fear it is stifling free speech. The academics, led by Frank Furedi, professor of sociology at the University of Canterbury, and Joanna Williams, education editor of Spiked, claim that the 'small but vocal minority' of student censors are a risk to democracy. Comedian John Cleese said he has now been advised to stay away from campuses due to fears his jokes may be too offensive for the 'right-on' student bodies of today. But many, instead of making important political points, are simply attracting mockery.

Maine, USA

Students were offered 'safe spaces' and counselling after pictures emerged on Facebook of people wearing mini-sombrero hats at a tequila-themed birthday party.

As soon as the photos emerged, administrators sent emails out announcing a full 'investigation' into a potential 'act of ethnic stereotyping'.

The General Assembly of Bowdoin students issued a statement of 'social solidarity' to back anyone offended and the students pictured wearing the hats now face disciplinary action.

The Bowdoin Orient, a student newspaper, reported that one of the party's hosts was placed on 'social probation' until March 2017, and forced to participate in an 'educational program' and 'active bystander training'.

She was also evicted from her room and was banned from the Spring social party.

This year's event followed another controversial one at thew college last year, when students held a gangster-themed party, wearing typically African American apparel that was criticised as racist.

And in 2014, the Lacrosse team's 'Cracksgiving' party sparked controversy because students wore native American headdresses.

Oxford University

Crowds of Oxford University students marched through the streets campaigning for the statue of 19th century colonialist Cecil Rhodes to be removed yesterday.

It is part of an ongoing campaign to remove the statue, which is around 4ft tall, is one of six on the front of the Oriel building and has stood there since 1911.

It commemorates the founder of Rhodesia, a revered figure from the days of the British Empire who left a large sum of his fortune to Oxford to fund scholarships for students worldwide.

Famous Rhodes scholars have included astronomer Edwin Hubble, musician Kris Kristofferson and world leaders such as Wasim Sajjad, Tony Abbott and Bill Clinton.

But a number of students, obsessed with political correctness, believe it is a symbol of colonialism that should be shunned and could offend today's multi-cultural student body.

Calls from Oriel started last year, arguing that the mining magnate and founder of Rhodesia was racist - and benefited from African resources at the expense of many South Africans.

The statue, (left) which is around 4ft tall, is one of six on the front of the Oriel building and has stood there since 1911, but campaigners say it is a symbol of oppression and want it torn down

Cambridge University

Cambridge University has agreed to remove a bronze cockerel from view after students complained about its links to Britains colonial past.

The Jesus College student union (JCSU) passed a motion saying that the Okukor sculpture in the dining hall should be handed over to Nigeria, where it came from, in a repatriation ceremony.

Jesus College this week said it will take down the Benin Bronze and start discussions on repatriating it to Africa, where students say it was stolen from in a 19th century British naval expedition.

The cockerel was one of hundreds of bronze sculptures taken from Benin City in 1897.

Cambridge said the move followed an important and complex question raised by students  but critics branded it a mistake.

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

London School of Economics

In February, left-wing activists succeeded in stopping Dr Adam Perkins' planned lecture at the London School of Economics because they disagreed with view on welfare.

He had been due to talk about the relationship between personality and the welfare state, but it had to be cancelled because of threats that students would disrupt it.

Ohio, USA

Students at Oberlin College objected to their canteen serving sushi as they complained that it was a form of 'cultural appropriation'.

A student, who was widely mocked, said that the university had 'a history of blurring the line between culinary diversity and cultural appropriation by modifying the recipes without respect for certain Asian countries cuisines.

She added: 'This uninformed representation of cultural dishes has been noted by a multitude of students, many of who have expressed concern over the gross manipulation of traditional recipes.

Students at Oberlin College objected to their canteen serving sushi as they complained that it was a form of 'cultural appropriation', with students concerned over the manipulation of recipes

Ottawa, Canada

In November, a university banned yoga because of complaints that it was a form of cultural appropriation

Jennifer Scharf, who has been offering the weekly yoga class at the University of Ottawa campus for seven years, said she was notified in September that the program was being ended.

In an email from the Center for Students with Disabilities, staff wrote that while yoga is 'accessible and great for students', there are 'cultural issues of implication involved in the practice', the Ottawa Sun reported.

The centre's staff said that yoga has been under 'a lot of controversy lately' as a result of how it is being practiced and which cultures those practices are 'being taken from.'

Staff from the centre also expressed that many of those cultures 'experienced oppression, cultural genocide and Diasporas due to colonialism and western supremacy'.
Marco Rubio says if he could do it all over again, he wouldn't have skewered Donald Trump with personal insults.

'Its not something Im entirely proud of,' Rubio said during a Wednesday evening town hall in Miami, Florida, hosted by MSNBC.

Rubio said, 'My kids were embarrassed by it and I, you know, if I had to do it again I wouldnt.'

The Florida senator later said at a Fox News forum, 'Im not telling you he didnt deserve it, but thats now who I am.

The last GOP debate was like the Wild West of politics, with Rubio and Trump arguing over their manhood.

Trump says he doesn't expect those sort of shenanigans during tonight's match at the University of Miami.

But Rubio also sicked on to Trump as they went over his business record and Trump University. The U.S. senator said last night those attacks were still fair game.

Scroll down for video

Marco Rubio says if he could do it all over again, he wouldn't have skewered Donald Trump with personal insults. 'Its not something Im entirely proud of,' he said

The Florida senator later said at a Fox News forum, 'Im not telling you he didnt deserve it, but thats now who I am'

Rubio also sicked on to Trump as they went over his business record and Trump University. The U.S. senator said last night those attacks were still fair game

Trump is promising to play nice at tonight's debate in Coral Gables, a suburb of Miami if his opponents are willing to do the same.

'I think it'll be...nicer, softer, lighter debate, I hope,' he told CNN's Chris Cuomo Wednesday on New Day.

Trump declined to take shots at the Florida senator instead saying, 'I would love to see the party come together and unify.'

Rumors have been swirling that Rubio could drop out before the state votes next Tuesday on March 15, but his campaign says those are not true and has accused Ted Cruz of more 'dirty tricks' to win over their supporters.

Trump refused to weigh in on whether Rubio should drop out during a phone interview on MSNBC Wednesday morning.

'I just don't want to be involved in his decision, his decision is a personal one,' Trump said.

The Republican front-runner said he doesn't think the 44-year-old can win Florida, though, and that will be damaging to him politically.

Trump is promising to play nice at tonight's debate - if his opponents are willing to do the same

'I think if he runs and loses, and I don't think he would win right now...I think he will never be able to do anything very big politically in Florida,' Trump said.

He had been asked about whether he'd consider Rubio as his running mate and accordingly added, 'I certainly don;t think he would be considered by anybody as a vice president. I don't think he could ever run for governor or whatever he might want to run for in the future.'

Rubio lost all four states that voted Tuesday so badly that he won zero delegates - a stunning defeat for the U.S. senator.

Ohio Governor John Kasich didn't win a single state, either, but he came in a hard-fought third in Michigan that saw him win just as many delegates as Cruz there.

'We did very well in Michigan,' he declared the morning after.

Trump celebrated his three-state win on Tuesday in a round of interviews yesterday morning on the major networks. He's seen here at a press conference in Jupiter, Florida, on Tuesday evening discussing his candidacy

Marco Rubio greets patrons at the Melao Bakery in Kissimmee, Florida. Trump refused to weigh in on whether Rubio should drop out during a phone interview on MSNBC Wednesday morning. 'I just don't want to be involved in his decision, his decision is a personal one'

The GOP governor said 'for the first time people are starting to hear what I have to say and this thing has moved to a more home court advantage.'

'Were going to win in Ohio,' he said of his home state, which votes the same day as Florida, next Tuesday. 'Thats going to be a whole new ball game.'

Cruz won delegates in each state that held contests - Mississippi, Michigan, Idaho and Hawaii. He won Idaho and came in second in the other three.

His total delegate count now stands at 359 to Trump's 458 and Rubio's 151. Kasich is now at 54.

Trump celebrated his three-state win in a round of interviews yesterday morning on the major networks.

'I was actually surprised that I did so well...the people of Mississippi, the people of Michigan, I love them because they fought through that barrage that they had to go through,' he said on New Day, referring to ads hitting him that ran in those state.

He said, 'To come up with the kind of numbers, not only just winning them but winning in a landslide, was...so incredible. It made [me] feel so good.'

Cruz has called on Kasich and Rubio to quit the race to give him a fighting chance against the Trump.

Neither wants to get out until after March 15, when their respective home states vote.

Ted Cruz has called on Kasich and Rubio to quit the race to give him a fighting chance against the Trump. Neither wants to get out until after March 15, when their respective home states vote. Cruz is seen here Tuesday in North Carolina with Megyn Kelly

John Kasich didn't win a single state on Tuesday but he came in a hard-fought third in Michigan that saw him earn just as many delegates as Cruz in the state. He's pictured here at his victory party that night in Columbus, Ohio

Trump predicted yesterday that he'd do well in all the upcoming contests - Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina vote that day, too - and said today, 'We have some great states coming up.

'I've always had a great relationship obviously with Florida. It's my second home. I'm there. I employ thousands of people in the state of Florida.'

As Trump argued, if he wins both Ohio and Florida, 'at that point it's pretty tough for anybody to do anything' to keep him from winning the nomination.

'I know we have a big lead in Florida. And I hear we have a pretty good lead also in polls in Ohio.' he said in the phone interview from Florida. 'Hopefully it will all work out.'

He suggested in the interview that he'd let the race take its course - but would throw punches if he has to in tonight's debate in Coral Gables, a suburb of Miami.

'I am a uniter. But I have to finish off the project,' he said. 'I can't all of a sudden stand there and let people...Marco was very, very nasty to me. I have to tell you. He was very, very nasty to me and I guess he made a mistake because I was more nasty to him.'

He warned, 'You have to finish off what you have to finish off.'

Rubio regretfully told MSNBC's Chuck Todd last night, 'I dont want to be that.'
tunnel is part of a new exhibit now on display at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas

Advertisement

Notorious drugs lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's elaborate escape from a high security Mexican jail last summer was widely recognized as an incredible feat of engineering.

The full extent his astonishing prison break-out has been revealed in a model of the subterranean tunnel and specially adapted motorbike he used to flee, in a new exhibit at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas.

Billionaire cartel leader El Chapo made his escape last July after he entered the shower block at the high-security prison and, unnoticed by any guards, pried open a 50cm by 50cm grill in the floor of the shower block and climbed 32 feet down a ladder into a tunnel below the prison.

Scroll down for video

El Chapo's astonishing prison break-out has been revealed in a model of the subterranean tunnel and specially adapted motorbike he used to flee, in a new exhibit at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas

Detailed planning: The tunnel was a miracle of underground engineering, and came compete with electric lights and ventilation. El Chapo began his escape by climbing through a grill in the floor of the shower block, before climbing down a 32ft shaft and entering the tunnel

Massive operation: An aerial image of the site shows the maximum-security Altiplano Prison, the Santa Juana construction site, and the path of the 0.7mile underground tunnel that connects them. Drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman escaped from the prison on Saturday through the tunnel, sparking a nation-wide manhunt

The notorious drugs lord was finally recaptured in early January - after six months on the run - in a bloody shoot out which saw five of his cartel gangsters killed and another six arrested (pictured on his arrest)

From there he used a motorbike that was waiting at the bottom for him to ride through the tunnel to freedom.

A miracle of subterranean construction, the remarkable tunnel was complete with air vents, electric lights, emergency oxygen tanks.

Although not a tall man - El Chapo means 'the shorty' in Spanish - the 5ft 6in gang lord was able to make his getaway standing upright in the 5.57 feet-high tunnel.

Engineers trained in Germany had been brought in specifically to build the secret tunnel after El Chapo was arrested and jailed in 2014.

There was even a motorbike fitted to rails inside the tunnel to help remove the tonnes of earth when it was being built.

The notorious drugs lord was finally recaptured in early January - after six months on the run - in a bloody shoot out which saw five of his cartel gangsters killed and another six arrested.

The model at Mob Museum is Las Vegas shows the tunnel system El Chapo used to escape his cell at the high security jail

An LED model shows the crime lord using an adapted motorbike that was waiting at the bottom for him to ride through the tunnel to freedom

El Chapo made his escape last July after he entered the shower block at the high-security prison and, unnoticed by any guards, pried open a 50cm by 50cm grill in the floor of the shower block

The billionaire cartel leader had then climbed 32 feet down a ladder into a tunnel below the prison, traveled along the mile-long tunnel and escaped via a construction site at the other end

The model features only portions of the jail such as a guard tower and Altiplano's white walls with blue trim

Neighbours have reported that a team of no more than four men were involved in constructing the tunnel, but the skilled workers stuck to a gruelling schedule of 10 hours a day for almost an entire year.

The engineers were forced to twice change the direction of the tunnel, in order to avoid the most sensitive areas of the prison, located 50 miles outside of Mexico City.

The underground getaway route carved a nearly mile-long path deep below the prison, before opening into a construction site in Santa Juana, hidden inside a ready-made house that was simple and understated.

The ramshackle and unfinished building housed two bedrooms and a cellar of 110-square-metres, from which the construction of the tunnel began.

While inside the building, it has been reported that the crime lord took his time, using the bathroom and collecting a change of clothes before once again disappearing into the Mexican countryside, eluding the authorities for the second time in 15 years.

The operation to construct the tunnel was enormous, and required extensive and precise planning with the help of detailed blueprints of the prison, obtained by El Chapo's men.

More than 3,250 tonnes of earth had to be removed and transported away from the site; the tunnel was nearly a mile long, 80cm wide and nearly two-metres tall, and would have produced 2,652 cubic metres of earth.

Once the earth was removed from the tunnel it was stored in a warehouse onsite, and from their taken away in trucks in tens of thousands of bags.

The sheer quantity of earth being removed would have required 379 dump trucks driving to and from the Santa Juana construction site.

Staff at the Altiplano prison are equipped with radar and electronic depth testing equipment which they are required to use regularly, specifically in order to check for tunnels. But still nothing was ever reported.

Heavily concealed: The end of the tunnel through which Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman could have escaped from the Altiplano prison

Ride to freedom: A Mexican newspaper published photos of the motorbike that El Chapo was said to have used to take him through the tunnel

Breathing free air: One of the ladders connecting the tunnel to either the prison shower block or the house that was the end of the tunnel

Martin Barron, a security specialist for the National Institute of Penal Sciences, told Argentina's La Nacion: 'Since 1991, the prison has had sensors in the surroundings to stop anyone escaping.

'It was said that it would be impossible to build a tunnel within the prison's perimeters, let alone one of almost a mile.

'This shows us that either the sensors were not working well, or they had been disconnected.'

Nearby construction said to be connected to a water reservoir project, aiming to bring water from the west of the capital into Mexico City, would have helped avoid arousing suspicion.

The company responsible for the construction, Cutzamala Constructions, reportedly started the job around 14 months ago.

Kingpin El Chapo was no stranger to subterranean getaways.

The Sinaloa cartel has a long history of tunnel building, particularly along the US border where they were used to smuggle narcotics into America, and in his home state of Sinaloa, where subterranean structures still hide weapons.

Guzman's cartel has been heavily involved in the bloody drug war that has torn through parts of Mexico for the last decade, taking an estimated 100,000 lives. It is believed to control most of the major crossing points for drugs at the US border with Mexico.

The entrance of the tunnel inside the house where used by Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman to escape from the Maximum Security Prison of El Altiplano

A judicial worker shines a torch into an area of the tunnel connected to the Altiplano Federal Penitentiary and used by drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman to escape

Sprawling: The Altiplano Federal Penitentiary complex in Almoloya de Juarez, is just 50 miles outside of the nation's capital Mexico City

His drug empire stretches across North America and into Europe and Australia.

El Chapo was on the run for six months before he was finally recaptured on January 8.

That same month, Rolling Stone magazine published an interview with the fugitive conducted in late 2015 by actor Sean Penn, who had arranged a secret meeting with Guzman in a jungle location.

El Chapo was paraded by police in front of the world's media before being put back in jail and Mexico has since agreed to extradite the gangster to America.

The U.S. has filed at least seven extradition requests in six different states for Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman to be extradited but justice officials warned that his lawyers were likely to 'milk it' by firing off different appeals at different stages of the extradition battle to prolong the legal tussle.

The model featuring his escape is part of a new temporary display and video at The Mob Museum focused on El Chapo and the Mexican drug cartels.

On display is the tunnel as well as portions of the jail such as a guard tower and Altiplano's white walls with blue trim.

It also features El Chapo's cell, showing prison bars, a bed, toilet, shower and the prison's surveillance camera - which the cartel leader was able to avoid by escaping via the bathroom.

The model's creators say it is not to scale but uses as 'forced perspective' to encapsulate all elements of the escape route into one design.
Gerry Downing (pictured on the Daily Politics Show today) called for Isis to be given 'tactical military assistance' in its fight against 'American imperialism'

A hard-left activist who was readmitted by Jeremy Corbyn's Labour party in November has made a remarkable call to support Isis against air strikes.

Gerry Downing defended a blog post by his Trotskyist revolutionary group Socialist Fight in which it argued for 'critical support and tactical military assistance' to be given to Islamic terrorists fighting 'US-led world imperialism'.

Labour said it had expelled him from the party last night after David Cameron used Prime Minister's Questions to ask Mr Corbyn why he had been re-instated Mr Downing after an appeal.

But speaking on the Daily Politics Show today, Mr Downing said no one from the party had informed him he had been kicked-out and used the TV appearance to repeat his highly controversial views.

He refused to condemn the 9/11 attackers and said we should instead seek to 'understand' their motivations, claiming they carried out the attacks on New York's Twin Towers because they were 'outraged at what had happened to their land'.

Asked about his Trotskyist group's blog calling for Isis to be given military support, Mr Downing said: Tactical support means that we are opposed to the US bombing of them because first of all US bombing involves the killing of what they call collateral damage  a vast number of civilians.

Pressed on what tactical military assistance would require, he said: 'If you analyse world imperialism as the main enemy you always oppose its actions  that follows logically, you would always be fighting out US imperialism from the Middle East etc.

Mr Cameron raised the case of Mr Downing's readmission to the Labour party yesterday, quoting his blog post insisting that terrorists involved in the 9/11 attacks 'must never be condemned'.

During prime ministers question time, Mr Cameron said: I was completely appalled to see yesterday that the Labour Party have readmitted someone to their party who says that the 9/11 suicide bombers, and I quote, must never be condemned, and belongs to an organisation that says we defend the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

Labour said it had expelled Gerry Downing from the party last night after David Cameron (left) used Prime Minister's Questions to ask Jeremy Corbyn (right) why he had been re-instated Mr Downing after an appeal

Appearing on the Daily Politics Show today, Gerry Downing (pictured right alongside presenter Andrew Neil) defended a blog post by his Trotskyist revolutionary group Socialist Fight in which it argued for 'critical support and tactical military assistance' to be given to Islamic terrorists fighting 'US-led world imperialism'

These are appalling views and I hope that the Leader of the Opposition will throw this person out of the party rather than welcome him in.

Mr Corbyn did not reply to the question but last night a Labour party spokesman said: 'Following further evidence that has come to light Gerry Downing has now been excluded from the Labour Party by the NEC panel.'

Gerry Downing, pictured on his website, describes himself as a 'Trotskyite' and revealed his readmission to Labour in a blog post

Mr Downing was kicked out of the party last summer over views expressed on his Twitter feed and blog but was re-instated in November after an appeal.

But the controversial activist said today: 'Everybody tells me I was expelled me last night but nobody has bothered to informed me  there has been no communication whatsoever.'

Defending his refusal to condemn the 9/11 attackers, Mr Downing said: 'What I was doing was to explain the reasons for it and the reasons for the attack are basically what imperialism did in the Middle East.

I think you have to say that in those circumstances the first thing you have to do is understand why that happened. It didnt happen because these are madmen or because theyre lunatics or because theyre bad people. It happened because they were outraged at what had happened to their land.

He added: I wouldnt use the phrase condemn because I think that like old Baruch Spinoza said, I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor to hate them, but to understand them and if you understand what happened and why it happened I would understand the motivations of the people who did that.

Yesterday's row over Mr Downing's readmission to Labour erupted amid new reports of a sustained attempt by members of the far left to take over the party.
Roger Curry, was discovered outside a bus station in Hereford on November 7 last year

A mystery American man with dementia, who can only remember his name, may have been dumped in Britain by his own family.

Roger Curry, was discovered face down outside a bus station near Hereford on November 7 last year and has now become the subject of an international investigation.

The grey-haired pensioner has no other ID and has been unable to provide any information about himself and does not know where he is from.

He has been cared for in a nursing home since being found by a woman and man.

The man had an American-sounding accent - and the woman was local and has now answered a police appeal for information.

She told officers the younger American told him he had found 'Mr Curry' lying face down a country road in the village of Credenhill nearly five miles outside Hereford.

The pair started to walk the pensioner towards Hereford County Hospital and they flagged down a passing ambulance.

But as soon as the paramedics stopped the younger American disappeared - fuelling suspicions that he was a relative who was trying to abandon the frail OAP.

The elderly man was taken to the hospital where he gave doctors the name Roger Curry but said he could not remember anything else about himself.

He has since been transferred to a local authority care home where he will remain indefinitely until the mystery is solved.

West Mercia Police say the younger man could be Mr Curry's son or another relative, and not a random Good Samaritan who coincidentally also happened to be American.

But they stressed that it's one of a large number of possibilities.

Detective Sergeant Sarah Bennett said: 'It's one of the lines of inquiry that we are pursuing.

'This man has told the other local man who has come forward that he has found Roger in the middle of nowhere.

'Since then, the hospital have been told by the ambulance that Roger was found face-down in the middle of the road in the middle of Credenhill.

DO YOU KNOW ROGER CURRY OR ANY OF HIS FAMILY MEMBERS? Get in touch by calling + 44 203 615 0203 or email lydia.willgress@mailonline.co.uk Advertisement

'He had no money and no ID, and has not been able to give any details about himself.

'This is an unusual situation and we are desperately hoping that we can reunite Roger with his family, wherever they may be.'

The local came forward after a police appeal to say he was one of two men helping Mr Curry in Hereford's bus station car park on the day he was first 'found'.

West Mercia Police told MailOnline this afternoon that an international investigation has been ongoing involving Interpol, the National Crime Agency and the Canadian and American embassies.

After a video of Mr Curry was shared by the Canadian Embassy - many people suggested his accent was American.

It's understood a linguist is to be brought in by police to pinpoint exactly where his accent is from.

The grey-haired pensioner has no other ID and has been unable to provide any information about himself or where he is from

The man and woman started to walk the pensioner towards Hereford County Hospital and they flagged down a passing ambulance

ELDERLY DUMPING IN THE US Elderly, or granny, dumping is when people bring elderly relatives into hospital and then disappear. The term was coined in the US in the mid-1990s and the phenomenon is becoming increasingly familiar across the country as families crumble under the strain of caring for relatives who are living longer than ever. Some people leave their relatives and then disappear on holidays, while others are unable to cope with the demands of being full-time carers. Advertisement

Police have issued a new appeal to identify the American who was with Mr Curry. He was described as being white, in his 40s, slim and around 5ft 8ins tall, with dark, wavy hair and glasses.

He was wearing a jacket with long sleeves, combat-style trousers and black boots.

DS Bennett added: 'We are appealing locally, nationally and internationally to anyone who can help us trace the man who was seen with Roger.

'He may have vital information that can help us piece together where Roger had been prior to him being found.

'Any information, little as it may be, could be the key to unlocking this mystery.'

Mr Curry is currently living in a care home run by Herefordshire Council.

Spokeswoman Mandy Appleby said: 'He says odd words in an American accent to his carers, only words not actual sentences.

The staff are very upset, and it would be nice to find somebody that knows him and find a family for him.'
Police have detained the father of Richmond AFL star Dustin Martin over links to outlaw motorcycle gang, the Rebels.

Shane Martin was locked up in Sydney on Thursday after his residency visa was cancelled and he reportedly faces deportation to New Zealand under part of of a federal crackdown on bikies and organised crime figures, The Herald Sun reported.

'I can confirm there was an operation in Sydney today related to the cancellation of a visa. The government takes its responsibility to protect the (public) seriously,' A spokesperson for Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said.

Police have detained the father of Richmond AFL star Dustin Martin (pictured) over links to outlaw motorcycle gang, the Rebels

Shane Martin (pictured left) was locked up in Sydney on Thursday after his residency visa was cancelled and he reportedly faces deportation to New Zealand

Mr Dutton has been granted the ability to revoke or renew visas on character grounds, effective of December 2014.

It is believed Mr Martin's Visa failed to meet minimum character requirements and it is alleged he is an eminent figure in the gang.

Mr Dutton told 2GB on Thursday the government has 'good grounds' to cancel bikies' visas and many of these matters have been resolved in the High Court.

'Were trying, together, to identify the top targets, and people who are causing most grief in our community,' he said.

Mr Martin - who has a matching 'Live Free. Die Free' tattoo with his son - stood by Dustin when he found himself suspended from the AFL and fined $2000 for making a 'handcuff' sign during a match.

In December, he was fined a further $5000 after threatening to stab a woman in the face with chopsticks and slamming his hand into the wall above her head at a Melbourne restaurant.

Martin, who was dragged out of the venue by the manager of Mr Miyagi, was forced to apologise for the incident.

Mr Martin - who has a matching 'Live Free. Die Free' tattoo with his son - stood by Dustin (pictured) when he found himself suspended from the AFL and fined $2000 for making a 'handcuff' sign during a match

In December, Martin was fined a further $5000 after threatening to stab a woman in the face with chopsticks and slamming his hand into the wall above her head at a Melbourne restaurant
who sponsored the bill claimed if women wanted to expose breasts, then men had the right to 'grab it'

Bill supporters said permitting beach nudity would lead to topless women at children's baseball games and libraries

The New Hampshire state legislature has struck down a bill that would have made it a criminal offense for women to expose their breasts or nipples in public.

Women in the Live Free or Die State will now be able to free the nipple without fear of arrest or an eventual spot on the state's sex offender list.

The House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee voted 18-0 against making it a misdemeanor for women to show their breasts with 'reckless disregard' for the people around them.

The bill was first proposed after two women participating in a 'Free the Nipple' protest on a Gilford beach received citations for being topless.

Scroll down for video

The New Hampshire House has struck down a bill that would have made it a crime for women to expose their breasts in public (pictured is the Free the Nipple protest in Hampton Beach that led to the bill's proposal)

One sponsor of the bill, State Rep. Josh Moore, said that if a woman was allowed to expose her breasts or nipples in public than they should have no problem with 'a mans inclanation to stare at it or grab it'

A judge dismissed the case in February, citing the fact that the state does not ban women from going topless if men are given the same right, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader.

Proponents of the legislation argued that allowing women to dare to bare on the beach would lead to topless females at libraries and Little League games.

They also claimed that the possibility of catching sight of a women without her top on in public would derail the state's tourism industry, according to the Huffington Post.

The proposed anti-nudity law made national headlines in December when two Republican state representatives hit back at a peer when she expressed her opposition to the bill on Facebook.

'If it's a woman's natural inclination to pull her nipple out in public and you support that, than you should have no problem with a mans inclantion [sic] to stare at it and grab it,' State Rep. Josh Moore commented on State Rep. Amanda Bouldin's post.

'After all... It's ALL relative and natural, right?'

Moore then said those who supported the bill had 'more respect for a woman and her innocence and decency' than those who believed woman had a right to go topless, according to Huffington Post.

State Rep. Al Baldasaro then commented on the post, informing Bouldin that her nipple 'would be the last one I would want to see'.

The bill also proposed that women where received a second offense for the charge, classified as 'indecent exposure' or 'lewdness', be placed on the sex offender registry and face up to seven years in jail

'You want to turn our family beach's [sic] into a pervert show,' he continued.

Libertarians want a nude beach, put your money together and buy one, if you want to expose you kids to nudity, go for it. Some of us liberty minded Reps do beleive in family values [sic].

The bill also proposed that women where received a second offense for the charge, classified as 'indecent exposure' or 'lewdness', be placed on the sex offender registry and face up to seven years in jail.

The House's report stated that many committee members felt this was excessive punishment.

It added that many believed the charges would force the state into federal court for violating the equal protection clause in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.

The report added that the bill would also force police officers into the 'uncomfortable position of having to determine the gender of a potential offender'.

Plus, House members said the very weather of the state made the bill almost a non-issue in the first place.

'In a state with an average temperature of the state of only 46 degrees,' it stated, 'the risk of rampant nudity seems rather low.'
Five women were arrested when their flight landed in Los Angeles on Wednesday after an onboard brawl broke out over a boom box speaker.

The fight erupted when Spirit Airlines Flight 141 from Baltimore landed in LA, after two intoxicated women had been playing loud music out of the speaker during the trip, according to reports.

Several passengers asked the pair to turn the music down, but instead they put the boom box in the air and started waving it around, an airline spokesperson told The Los Angeles Times.

A group of women then approached the two when the plane pulled up at the gate, starting an all-out brawl, which was captured on video.

In-flight fight: A brawl broke out among five women aboard a cross-country flight Wednesday morning after two of them refused to turn down their music, Spirit Airlines said

The fight broke out when the flight landed, after the animosity had built up in the air, with punches thrown and hair pulled. Many passengers could be seen filming the incident on their phones and video has emerged

In the video, the female passengers can be seen throwing punches, pulling at each other's hair and screaming as other passengers look on.

Some passengers move out of the way of the scuffle, while many others can be seen filming it on their cellphones.

Flight attendants were able to diffuse the flight before it count too out of control.

No one was seriously injured.

The crew notified LAX police and officers were waiting for the women when the flight landed.

Brawling: The fight erupted on the Spirit Airlines flight from Baltimore to LA on Wednesday after two intoxicated women started playing loud music out of the speaker, and three others asked them to stop

LAX Police spokesman Rob Pedregon described the incident to The Washington Post as a 'mutual combat situation'.

'It's just one of those things,' Pedregon said.

'People in the air, stuck in a small confined space for a number of hours.

'It isn't uncommon. People lose their tempers and just refuse to get along.'

In a video captured of the incident, the women can be seen hitting each other and pulling each others hair. At one point a woman falls to the ground before quickly jumping up and resuming the fight

The FBI were also called in, as per procedure.

All five were pulled off the plane and interviewed.

However no one was arrested or charged, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller told The Times.

The lack of charges laid seems surprising giving the viciousness of the video footage that has emerged.

One of the passengers, Emerson Silver, told NBC the situation was 'serious'.

'They were throwing serious punches,' Emerson told the network.

'The ladies  they were serious.'

A Spirit Airlines spokesperson said the ruckus was started by two intoxicated passengers. While all five women were detained by police at LAX, none were arrested or charged

The incident also shocked other travelers at the airport.

'I'd be really afraid,' Shamaila Taj, who was catching a different flight, told CBS.

'A plane is probably the last place you'd want to do something like that.

I would freak out more so than anything else.

'I would be scared out of my mind because you're stuck on a plane.
' and accused of putting her safety at risk

Authorities in Paraguay have blasted the British investigator who claimed missing Madeleine McCann had been smuggled into the country as 'irresponsible' and accused him of putting her safety at risk.

Vice interior minister Jalil Rachid said researcher Miraz Ullah Ali had been foolish to go public with his claims she was in the custody of a woman in the city of Aregua as Interpol chief Victor Tandi claimed it could have alerted the supposed kidnapper.

Last night it emerged the mystery private eye left the country on Monday afternoon after a stay of only three days.

Authorities in Paraguay have blasted Miraz Ullah Ali Isa (left), who claims to be a private eye from London, had said missing Madeleine McCann (right) from Leicestershire was living 'in the custody of a woman' in the southern city of Aregua

Jorge Kronawetter, director of immigration, said Ali flew into Silvio Pettirossi International Airport last Friday with Brazilian carrier TAM claiming to be a tourist and left with the same airline at 4.34pm local time on Monday for an unknown final destination.

Ali, who is thought to be based in Britain, said his mission was to see Aregua for himself and publish an appeal for information in a local paper.

But he sparked the fury of police and government officials after failing to alert the authorities before going public with his appeal.

In it, he told how Madeleine, from Leicestershire, had suffered in an indescribable manner and said there is a 2million (1.6million) reward for information leading to her safe return.

A newspaper advert by a private eye which appeared in Aregua this week is believed to have triggered a major search involving four local police stations, an anti-kidnapping division and Interpol

Daily newspaper Color ABC, which ran the ad on Alis behalf, also revealed today that he spoke no Spanish and made no attempt to hire a translator or speak with locals in Aregua, a city of around 100,000 inhabitants around 20 miles from the capital Paraguay.

Police including anti-kidnap specialists have been hunting for missing Madeleine after being alerted by the ad - but have so far drawn a blank.

Madeleines parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, were informed of the reports and appealed for more details.

Mr Rachid told a radio interviewer: 'I think what this supposed investigator did was very foolish.

'Hes saying missing Madeleine is in Aregua and he goes there to take some pictures and then returns. Obviously he left empty-handed.

'I believe hes been very irresponsible and committed a grave error in the way hes acted.

'This man has now left Paraguay and is back in London as far as I know.

Mystery: Madeleine (pictured, left, aged three and, right, in a police computer generated image showing what she may look like aged nine) went missing from a holiday flat in the Algarve resort of Praia de Luz in 2007

'The first suspicion that comes to mind is that hes trying to extort money out of Madeleines family.

'If youre an investigator and youve got information pointing towards a certain objective, youre not going to abandon the place where that objective is.

'Youre at least going to alert the security forces because from the point of view of an investigator, tracking down this missing girl would be a huge professional coup.

'Its illogical and totally incoherent what this man has done.

'It makes no sense to simply take a few photos and then leave.'

He added: 'We sent personnel to Aregua but didnt obtain any information pointing towards Madeleine being there.

'Thats not to say we wont in the future but at the moment weve got nothing.'

While Interpol chief Victor Tandi added: 'He committed a grave error if his information was right because hes alerting the kidnapper that hes looking for them. Its very strange.'

Heartache: The young girl's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, had been informed of the reported sighting

Ali described himself in his newspaper ad, where he gave his full name as Miraz Ullah Ali Isa, as a London-based private eye and claimed Madeleine had been smuggled out of Portugal by boat.

He said: 'We have been informed that Madeleine McCann is living in Aregua, possibly with a woman.

'She was kidnapped from her holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on the Algarve on May 3 2007 when she was three.

'She is now twelve. We believe two men were involved and that they smuggled her out of the country using a boat.

'Madeleine has suffered terribly. There is a reward of two million euros for information leading to her safe recovery.'
A crazed gunman who shot an off-duty undercover police officer told his girlfriend 'this is going to be my last day on earth', minutes before the incident.

Kevin Ryan Rojas, 19, had a row with his live-in girlfriend in Jacksonville, Florida yesterday morning before taking a gun and speeding off.

An undercover narcotics detective who was dropping his 14-year-old son to school before work spotted Rojas driving erratically in his white Cadillac around 7.20am yesterday morning.

Scroll down for video

Kevin Rojas, 19, fired four times through the windshield of an off-duty undercover narcotics officer's car while the detective was dropping his son, who was sitting in the passenger seat of the car, pictured, to school

The unnamed officer tried to pull over Rojas who was driving erratically at this railroad crossing, pictured,

The officer was shot four times by the Rojas during a routine traffic stop. The officer, who was taking his son to school, stopped Rojas at a railroad crossing on the outskirts of Jacksonville.

As soon as Rojas stopped, he jumped out of his car and opened fire with a 9mm Smith & Wesson semi-automatic handgun.

He fired four round through the windshield of the officer's car hitting him several times.

The officer, fearful for his son's safety, who was in the front passenger seat, crawled out of of the vehicle, and returned fire.

Rojas fled the scene, leaving the officer lying behind his car on the railroad crossing minutes before a train was due to pass.

Jacksonville Sheriff's Department believe Rojas may have been trying to commit 'suicide by cop' having just had a row with his live-in girlfriend.

Kevin Ryan Rojas, 19, has been charged with two counts of attempted murder and two counts of aggravated assault following yesterday's shooting

The officer was lying on a railroad crossing and needed to be saved by two eyewitnesses who dragged him out of the way of an oncoming train.

After the shooting, Rojas stole a Ford F350 truck and was soon spotted by two uniformed officers who gave chase.

Rojas crashed the truck into the front of a house and kicked in the door. The officers surrounded the house and saw Rojas take aim.

The two officers, Sam Pegan and Clyde Jacobs opened fire and hit Rojas three times in the leg, torso and arm before arresting him. He was taken to hospital where he is being treated. He is currently in a stable condition.

Rojas has been charged with two counts of attempted murder and two counts of aggravated assault.

Both Pegan, a six-year veteran and Jacobs, who has been with the force for seven years, have been placed on administrative leave in line with official policy regarding officer involved shootings.

Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said he was not in a position to name the undercover officer because of the nature of his work with the narcotics squad.

Williams claimed releasing the officer's name could put is safety in danger.

The officer was airlifted from the scene and underwent emergency surgery.

Following the surgery he was able to talk to detectives. His condition is described as 'critical but stable'.

Chief Tom Hackney told a press conference: Around 7.20am, we had the off-duty undercover detective who was on his way to work. During the trip to work, he would take his son to school. He had his son in the vehicle with him.

He saw a vehicle pass him by, go around him on the left hand side and began to drive erratically. He made the decision at that point in time to initiate a traffic stop of that car.

When he tried to initiate the traffic stop the suspect in the white Cadillac doesnt immediately stop.

The suspect then stops on the far side of the railroad tracks. The officer pulls in behind and rear ended the vehicle, partially on the railroad tracks.

Rojas had earlier threatened his girlfriend with the 9mm Smith & Wesson, pictured, used in the shooting before telling her 'this will be my last day on earth' leading police to think he was planning 'suicide by cop'

The officer put his ballistic body armour on at some stage. The undercover narcotic detectives in our department, they jump and go pretty fast.

'Part of the course of their duties is to be reactive when things happen. They are as such, ready to go at a moments notice. Thank God that he did. Immediately as the suspect got out of his vehicle he began firing at the undercover officers car.

There are four bullet holes very scarily placed in the windshield coming from an angle from the left of the car. Knowing that his son is in the car and concerned for his safety, the officer leaves the car and returns fire at the suspect. There was no conversation between the suspect and the officer. The only conversation they had was gunfire.

The suspect fired four times with a 9mm handgun. The officer fired nine times with his issued Glock pistol.

There is nothing worse than getting shot and to find yourself in the path of an oncoming train Chief Tom Hackney

Our evidence at the scene dictates that the suspect was not hit by the undercover detectives fire and he fled on foot.

The officer was able to put out on the police radio that he had been shot. It is a very chilling moment in time to listen to. It is every cops worst nightmare.

The suspect runs on foot to a nearby business and steals a running truck. The business had gone out and began to warm up their trucks for the day.

Two of the nearby business owners see what has happened, heard the commotion of the shots being fired.

'They ran out and put themselves in harms way and pulled the undercover detective off the railroad track from the path of a train. There is nothing worse than getting shot and to find yourself in the path of an oncoming train. They moved his car off the railroad tracks and pulled him off the railroad tracks. Probably saved his life even more.

The train coming blocked Collins Road. The detective did a great job of putting the description out there and being coherent and giving the heads up despite being hit numerous times.'

The first two officers racing to the scene were blocked by the passing train. However, a few minutes later the officers spot the stolen truck and begin a pursuit.

According to Hackney: 'He doesnt want to stop having shot a police officer.'

Moments later, Rojas crashes the truck into the front of the house and runs inside.

The two officers spot Rojas inside the house and warn him to drop his gun.

Hackney said: 'The suspect aims the gun at the officers through the sliding glass door of the house. They obviously fear for themselves being shot based on his previous actions and they fired. Both officers fired eight time between themselves. The suspect was hit at least three times in the leg, the torso and the hand.'

Hackney confirmed Rojas' actions could possibly be an attempted 'suicide by cop'.

Immediately before the shooting, Rojas had a row with his live-in girlfriend.

Hackney said: 'He armed himself with a gun inside the house that was owned by another of the residents in the house, threatened himself. He told his live-iin girlfriend that this was going to be his last day on earth. He pointed the gun at himself. Fired two shots inside the house into the ceiling. He then threatened her and left abruptly on his way to work.'
Advertisement

Migrants determined to continue their journey through Europe are cutting holes in the fence on the Greece-Macedonia border and sneaking through in groups of 10, MailOnline can reveal.

A border guard, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the asylum seekers were constantly finding new holes in the fence.

When caught, they are identified and sent back to Greece, he added.

It comes as Macedonian has completely closed its border for three days forcing migrants with a more aggressive attitude to find new, illegal ways to enter Europe, experts say.

Scroll down for video

Squalid: Up to 14,000 migrants are living in the waterlogged Idomeni camp on the Greece-Macedonia border. Tents were flooded and possessions that have been carried thousands of mile have been destroyed

Breaking through: Groups of migrants are cutting holes in the border fence and are sneaking their way into Europe. A border guard said people are constantly finding new holes in the fence

Cat and mouse: Migrants are managing to get through the fence and are then chased by police. If they are caught, they are indentified and then sent back to Greece

Up to 14,000 from the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere are languishing in squalid conditions in the Idomeni camp on the border, the focal point for the majority of migrants seeking passage to Europe.

It is reported that asylum seekers are managing to get through the fence, sparking a cat-and-mouse chase by police.

Most of them are 'aggressive' single men who know they will not be granted asylum as they are not genuine refugees, experts have told MailOnline.

Macedonia, which has declared a state of emergency, has deployed a number of armoured cars fitted with machine guns to the border, but this has done little do deter the arrivals.

Border guards are reportedly to be issued with tasers in an effort to control the flow of illegal migration.

Overnight the rain continued to fall in the hellish Idomeni camp, turning it into a swamp of mud and puddles.

Trapped: In total around 42,000 asylum seekers are in Greece, including between 12,000 and 14,000 at the Idomeni camp, 3,274 in Nea Kavala Polykastro and 3,674 are at Camp Mazarakis Kilkis, further from the the border. Almost 9,500 new arrivals have been reported in the Greek islands and at least 3,500 migrants are staying at four sites at Piraeus

Soaked: Dozens of children have been hospitalised after suffering from infection, and teams of volunteer doctors are battling to contain the threat of epidemics during the heavy downpours

Closed: The Greece-Macedonia border has been closed for three days, with no indication that the passage will be reopened. Some of the migrants living there have begun leaving the Idomeni camp

Tents were flooded and many of the migrants remaining possessions were destroyed.

Aid workers and parents struggled all night to protect children from the downpour, mud and cold by moving some of them to shelter.

Dozens of children were hospitalised after suffering from infection, and teams of volunteer doctors were battling to contain the threat of epidemics.

In the morning, a small number of refugees left Idomeni by taxi for other locations along the border. The rest joined a four-hour queue for breakfast.

The border has been closed for three days, with no indication that the Balkan passage will be reopened.

About 42,000 asylum seekers are now trapped in different locations all over Greece.

Between 12,000 and 14,000 are concentrated at the border in the Idomeni camp, while 3,274 are in Nea Kavala Polykastro and 3,674 are at Camp Mazarakis Kilkis, further from the the border.

New migrant routes: After the closure of the Macedonia border, migrants will find new ways to reach Europe, including 1. From Greece through Albania and by sea from Albania to Italy, 2. From Turkey into Bulgaira and then into Boznia, 3. By sea from Turkey to Italy, 4. From Russia into Finland, and 5. Through Libya and Turkey

Basics: It is not just the migrants in Idomeni who are struggling - about 42,000 asylum seekers are trapped in different locations across Greece

Determined: Migrants are reinforcing their tents with sheets of plastic and writing their names on the outside

LITTLE GIRL WASHES MUD FROM HER FAVOURITE SHOES IN MIGRANT CAMP Little Nayyirah wanted to wear her favourite shoes to make the tough trek across Europe, and showed them off to all the other children stuck in the the Idomeni camp on the Greek-Macedonian border. She is just one of the refugees who have arrived at the squalid refugee camp completely unprepared for the winter conditions. Proud: Nayyirah is pictured washing her favourite shoes at the camp on the Greek-Macedonian border Nayyirah was spotted crying when a boy showered her, and her shoes, with water when he jumped in a muddy puddle after two days of torrential rain. She was then photographed carefully cleaning her footwear with a bottle of water she sneaked out of her family's tent while soaking her feet in the process. When she spotted she was being photographed, she quickly ran off, fearing she might get into trouble over the bottle of water. Unprepared: Nayyirah is just one of the refugees who have arrived at the squalid refugee camp completely unprepared for the winter conditions One of the other refugees standing nearby said that the girl had been really proud of the shoes, and had been showing them off earlier when it was dry. She said the girl and her family were from Syria, although it was not possible to confirm after she disappeared. Advertisement

Almost 9,500 new arrivals have been reported in the Greek islands, waiting to be transferred to the port of Piraeus.

At least 3,500 migrants are staying at four sites at Piraeus. In an attempt to ease the congestion at passenger terminals, 1,000 people are being moved to temporary accommodation there every day.

Asylum seekers are showing no sign of giving up, with more arriving from elsewhere in Greece daily.

Many are reinforcing their tents with sheets of plastic, writing their names in Arabic on the outside to indicate that it is their home.

Other slogans scrawled on tents include it is cold, open the borders and made in EU.

The 19 mile border fence, built with Hungarian help, is gradually being extended to cover the entire 124mile border with Greece.

More border guards are being sent from other countries including Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, which already has 27 officers on duty and two dog patrols.

MailOnline has learnt that five people claiming to be Syrian travelled from Athens to Albania by bus today, raising fears that an alternative route is starting to open up.

Leaving: Migrants from Syria are pictured boarding buses near at the border to return to Athens

Officials are concerned that asylum seekers will start moving in larger numbers across the mountainous border between the two countries.

Migrants may use the Albanian coast as a jumping-off point to Italy, as many thousands of Albanians did during the collapse of communism.

Italian and Albanian media have reported that as many as 25,000 migrants who have gradually entered Albania in recent months are camping in the woods, ready to attempt passage to Italy.

Michele Emiliano, the president of Puglia, Italys closest point to Albania, said on Wednesday that an influx of up to 150,000 people from the Middle East and Africa is likely.

The UNHCR is working with the Albanian government to identify possible processing sites at two locations close to the crossing points between Greece and Albania.

Albania has not yet formally requested UNHCR to set up reception facilities.

Other possible new routes include via Montenegro to Kosovo, Bosnia Herzegovina and Croatia, and through Russia to Finland.

Eastern European people smugglers, who were active in the early 2000s, are starting to ply their trade once again, experts have told MailOnline.

Asylum seekers may also be smuggled some 900miles by sea from Turkey to Italy.

Muddy: A group of refugees in a makeshift camp on the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni where mostly people from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria are trying to cross to continue their journey through Europe

Waterlogged: The conditions in the border camp near Idomeni are hellish after it was battered by heavy rain

Most of the migrants pursuing alternate routes are single males who know they will be refused asylum now that the system is being tightened up, Gianluca Rocco from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said.

'Genuine refugee families from Syria will wait in Greece until they are able to enter a relocation programme,' he said. 'But if you know your asylum application will be rejected, you will try anything.'
He compared the climate change deniers to members of the 'mischievous' tobacco industry

Her comments came as she was questioned by Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Island

She said any information her office has received has been sent to the FBI in a bid to build a case

Lynch told the Senate Judiciary Committee she has 'discussed' the possibility of a civil suit against the fossil fuel industry

Attorney General Loretta Lynch has considered taking legal action against climate change deniers.

The United States' top lawyer told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that the Justice Department has 'discussed' the possibility of a civil lawsuit against the fossil fuel industry.

She said any information her office has received has been sent to the FBI in a bid to build a case.

Her comments came as she was questioned by Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Island.

Scroll down for video

Attorney General Loretta Lynch has told the Senate Judiciary Committee she has considered taking legal action against climate change deniers

He compared the climate change deniers to members of the tobacco industry - the advocates the Clinton administration won a racketeering case against.

Whitehouse said: 'The similarities between the mischief of the tobacco industry pretending that the science of tobacco's dangers was unsettled and the fossil fuel industry pretending that the science of carbon emissions' dangers is unsettled has been remarked on widely, particularly by those who study the climate denial apparatus that the fossil fuel industry has erected.

'Under President Clinton, the Department of Justice brought and won a civil RICO action against the tobacco industry for its fraud. Under President Obama, the Department of Justice has done nothing so far about the climate denial scheme.

'A request for action by the Department of Justice has been referred by you to the FBI. My question to you is other than civil forfeitures and matters attendant to a criminal case, are there other circumstances in which a civil matter under the authority of the Department of Justice has been referred to the FBI?'

The United States's top lawyer (pictured on Wednesday) said the Justice Department has 'discussed' the possibility of a civil lawsuit against the fossil fuel industry

In response, Lynch replied: 'Senator, thank you for raising that issue, and thank you for your work in this area. I know your commitment is deep.

'This matter has been discussed. We have received information about it and have referred it to the FBI to consider whether or not it meets the criteria for which we could take action on. I'm not aware of a civil referral at this time.

She added: 'I will look into that and get back to you, but I'm not aware of a civil referral outside of the one that you just raised,' added Lynch.

Whitehouse then asked: 'Are there any civil cases with the United States as plaintiff within DOJ's civil division in which the FBI is preparing the case for the civil division?' Whitehouse asked.

'Are you regarding climate change issues?' Lynch asked.

'Regarding any matter,' Whitehouse replied.
A retired policeman was detained in New York after his travel agent mistakenly identified him as a terrorist.

John McGarry from Sale, Greater Manchester, was meant to be enjoying a 6,500 cruise round the Caribbean and New York.

However, his plans were ruined when a travel agent gave the wrong answer to a critical question on his security application.

Mr McGarry from Sale, Greater Manchester, said his 6,500 New York and Caribbean cruise was ruined after a travel agent mistakenly ticked a box saying he was a terrorist

The question required by the US Department of Homeland Security, asked: 'Do you seek to engage in or have you ever engaged in terrorist activities, espionage, sabotage, or genocide?'

Unfortunately the travel agent replied yes.

As a result when Mr McGarry's ship arrived in New York, a week into the 26-day cruise, he was escorted off and given a grilling over his 'terror' links.

Mr McGarry says he was shunned by fellow passengers for the rest of the trip.

The retired policeman had booked the holiday through Cresta World Travel, in Altrincham.

The travel agency agreed to fill out an Electronic System for Travel Authorization - a security application required by US Department of Homeland Security - on his behalf.

After asking on numerous occasions about status of the travel document, Mr McGarry said he was eventually told about the agent's mistake.

Due to the gravity of the error, Mr McGarry was unable to travel until he had visited the American Embassy, in London, to be questioned and fingerprinted.

After making the trip, which was paid for by Cresta World Travel, Mr McGarry was then issued with a VISA.

Mr McGarry, who was an officer with Greater Manchester Police for 30 years, said: 'I was put through going to London at 6'o'clock in the morning, getting fingerprinted, interviewed numerous times.

'That's when they put the questions to me and said, "you shouldn't be here, you have had a raw deal, but don't blame us".

'It's nothing to do with them, they are doing their job. I was a cop and if I saw something in front of me, I had to do my job.

'The embassy acted on information from Cresta.'

However, Mr McGarry's ordeal did not stop there.

He set sail for America on December 15 and landed in New York a week later.

On arrival, he presented his VISA at security but was quickly escorted away in front of his fellow passengers and out of the terminal by US police officers.

The retired policeman booked the holiday through Cresta World Travel in Altrincham (pictured) the travel agents were also in charge of filling in the security application

Mr McGarry said that a stamp on his VISA had alerted officers to his previous visit to the American Embassy.

The officers questioned him and, after speaking to the embassy, finally let him go.

However, Mr McGarry said he was humiliated even further by being marched back to the cruise ship by officers.

He said the friends he made on the cruise ostracized him because of his dealings with the authorities and he was isolated for the remaining 19 days of his holiday.

'The cruise was ruined for me - no-one would come near me, it was like I had the plague,' said Mr McGarry, who travelled solo.

'I had to go down to the American Embassy like a criminal and then I had 19 days of hell - it wasn't necessary, all they had to do was tick the right box. It has caused a lot of trouble and ill-feeling.'

On his return, Mr McGarry contacted Cresta World Travel to make a complaint.

'They sent me a 150 voucher off another holiday with them,' he said.

'I sent it right back - I don't want anything to do with them.'

Cresta World Travel said they have advised Mr McGarry to contact Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) should he wish to make a formal complaint.

They did not wish to make further comment.
Patti Davis has paid tribute to her mother Nancy Reagan and described how they reached 'peace' after years of difficulties in their relationship.

The former First Lady passed away on Sunday at the age of 94 and is currently lying in repose ahead of her funeral in California on Friday.

As the nation remembers the influential former actress, Davis told Today that her mother was not afraid to die as she looked forward to being reunited with her husband President Ronald Reagan, who died in 2004 after 10 years battling Alzheimer's disease.

'She told me once that she was not afraid to die, she said 'I don't want it to hurt but I'm not afraid to die, I'll see Ronnie again',' she remembered in an interview with Maria Shriver on Thursday.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

Patti Davis told Today that her mother was not afraid to die as she looked forward to being reunited with her husband President Ronald Reagan, who died in 2004 after 10 years battling Alzheimer's disease

The frictions in Davis's relationship with her mother were highly public. It led to Davis posing on the cover of Playboy magazine and writing a blistering attack on her parents in a set of memoirs Home Front

The former First Lady passed away on Sunday at the age of 94 and is currently lying in repose (pictured on Thursday) ahead of her funeral in California on Friday

Kimberly Leif, of Simi Valley, California, cries in front of the casket at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

More than 3,000 people passed the casket Wednesday, the first day of the public viewing

Steven Leslie prays in front of the casket of former first lady Nancy Reagan in repose on Wednesday

As a mark of respect, her casket was carried by eight of her Secret Service detail as she was transported from a Santa Monica funeral home to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum

'I think she would be very honored and very happy that people paused in their lives to pay their respects to her and to honor her and it's really comforting to see all these people who are, I'm sure, not all Republicans standing out on freeway overpasses,' she continued.

'America lost a former First Lady but I lost my mother and I'm happy that she's with my father now.'

She added: 'They were complete unto each other.'

'If a band of gypsies were to take me and my brother away, they would miss us but they would be fine,' she laughed, clarifying: 'It didn't mean they didn't love us. But it meant that they were completely, their lives wouldn't be destroyed if we weren't there.

'They were complete unto each other. That can be a complicated thing for children. Where I came to in my life and with her was to be really happy for her that she had this great love in her life.'

The frictions in Davis's relationship with her mother were highly public.

It led to Davis posing on the cover of Playboy magazine and writing a blistering attack on her parents in a set of memoirs, Home Front.

However, the 63-year-old explained, when Ronald Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 1994, they entered a new phase in their relationship.

'I feel very complete in my relationship with her, I feel very clear and clean in where our relationship came to, particularly the last few years of her life,' she told Maria Shriver.

'At some point, and really it was at the beginning of my father's illness, I made a choice. I chose to aim for peace of mind and peace in and of itself with my mother.

'Past incriminations, anger, blame, all of our strained history together, there's no peace of mind in that at all.

Davis, 63, explained, that when Ronald Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 1994, they entered a new phase in their relationship

Davis posing (left) with her blistering memoirs Home Front in 1986, and (right) with her Playboy cover in 1994

'I really made a decision to look at her and look at us through a different lens, through a more loving forgiving lens. that doesn't mean that it was a smooth journey, it was not, there were a lot of peaks and valleys in there and a lot of deep valleys.

'My mother was not someone who would have been comfortable with an analytical conversation about, "let's talk about the past, let's work through this". It's a different generation and I think that needs to be respected. I think the better route is to just behave differently.'

Reflecting on her scandalous outbursts, which made headline news, Davis said she regrets attacking her parents in such a public way.

'I get now why I behaved the way did and why I acted out the way I did and wrote things that I wish I could remove from the face of the earth but I can't.

'I did have this incredibly public family so the feeling is sort of feeling invisible and excluded and marginalized and all of that. So really it was my attempt to go 'see me, hear me'. And I did it completely the wrong way.'

I get now why I behaved the way did and why I acted out the way I did and wrote things that I wish I could remove from the face of the earth but I can't Patti Davis on Today

Davis and her brother Ronald Prescott Reagan will speak at their mother's funeral in Southern California on Friday. Neither of them have children of their own.

The Ronald Reagan Foundation released details of the service set for 11am on Friday at the 40th president's library in Simi Valley.

James A. Baker, who served in President Reagan's administration, and former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw will also give remarks.

The ceremony will be officiated by the Rev. Stuart Kenworthy, vicar of Washington National Cathedral.

A choir from Santa Susana High School in Simi Valley will sing 'Amazing Grace.'

Friday's funeral will be private but members of the public are welcome to pay their respects again Thursday as Nancy Reagan lies in repose at the library.

More than 3,000 people passed the casket Wednesday, the first day of the public viewing.

Nancy Reagan's body was taken by motorcade along the Ronald Reagan Freeway to her husband's presidential library on Wednesday afternoon ahead of three days of formal mourning and solemn ceremonies for the former first lady.

'I did have this incredibly public family so the feeling is sort of feeling invisible and excluded and marginalized and all of that,' Patti reflected as she admitted she regrets her outbursts. Pictured: the family in 1960

Patti, her brother Ron and her parents in the White House at Christmas

Patti (right) and her brother (second left next to his late wife Doria) will speak at Nancy's funeral on Friday

As a mark of respect, her casket was carried by eight of her Secret Service detail as she was transported from a Santa Monica funeral home to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.

Davis, dressed in black and around 20 family members and close friends arrived at the funeral home for a 20-minute service that was presided over by the Reverend Stuart Kenworth.

Also there were the children of Ronald Reagan's son Michael and Dennis Revell, who is the widower of the former president's late daughter Maureen.

He arrived with his current wife.

The motorcade drove the 45-miles along a closed-down stretch of State Route 118 to the library in hill country northwest of Los Angeles where she will lie in repose from 1pm to 7 pm on Wednesday and again from 10 am to 2 pm on Thursday.

Mrs Reagan will be laid to rest just inches from President Ronald Reagan on a hillside tomb facing west toward the Pacific Ocean.




An Indian bride beat up her groom and called off the wedding after he turned up drunk to their ceremony and passed out on International Women's Day.

Ranjeet Kumar Kamat blackened her would-be husband's face with soot and threw a garland of shoes around his neck when he began calling out for beer during the wedding rituals.

He was locked in a room and only allowed out when the groom's family agreed to return the dowry.

A groom (third left) was beaten up by his bride, had his face blackened with soot and a garland of shoes thrown around his neck after he turned up to wedding ceremony drunk and passed out on International Women's Day

The marriage procession took place in the village of Khutauna-Natoli in the Madhubani district of India on Tuesday.

The couple had exchanged garlands during the first part of the ceremony when the groom went to a nearby road to drink alcohol with his cousin until both fell unconscious.

When they finally returned, the groom, who has not been named, kept demanding more beer.

When he was refused, he sparked a brawl with the guests, it was reported by Gulf News India.

The mortified bride then flew into a rage and refused to marry him.

Punch drunk: The couple (not pictured) had exchanged garlands during the first part of the ceremony when the groom went to a nearby road to drink alcohol with his cousin until both fell unconscious

Witnesses said she smeared soot on the groom's face, threw slippers at him and slung a garland of shoes around his neck.

The groom and his family were then locked in a room.

In another vicious attack on International Women's Day, a Romanian woman tore off her husband's testicle after he failed to give her flowers and then refused to help with the housework.

Ionel Popa, 39, from Vaslui County in the north east of the country, was rushed to hospital with his scrotum torn open after his wife Marinela Benea, 40, launched a vicious attack.

The mother-of-one grabbed hold of her husband's testicles and pulled violently during the argument.

In another vicious attack on International Women's Day, a Romanian wife Marinela Benea (pictured) tore off her husband's testicle after he failed to give her flowers and then refused to help with the housework

Mr Popa's left testicle was left hanging out of his scrotum after the skin was ripped apart.

He was forced to undergo emergency surgery to repair the damage and remains in a stable condition.

International Women's Day 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.
A university student has come up with an innovative way to relax in her university accommodation - by making her own bath.

Lucy Lyth, who studies philosophy at the University of Birmingham, thought of the solution after spending weeks unable to take a nice relaxing soak - because her house only has a shower.

So she went online and bought a 145-litre plastic tub - and whenever she fancies a bath she fills it from the shower and climbs in. Despite the distinct lack of drainage and room to manoeuvre, the 24 tub 'does the job'.

Lucy Lyth has finally got around the lack of a bath in her apartment - by improvising with a 24 plastic crate

The second year student said many of the houses in the student area of Selly Oak in Birmingham only had showers - and before long her need for a bath just became too much.

Lucy, who is originally from Richmond, south west London, said not having a bath was 'devastating'.

Speaking to The Tab the 20-year-old said: 'At home I am lucky enough to have a nice big bath.

'I have one most nights with candles around the edge and mixing up a range of bath products to overcome those stressful days.

'I love baths so much, it's literally awful not having one.'

Once back at university to start her second year, the stressed student called her friends to find out if anyone had a bath she could borrow.

She said: 'It was a few weeks into the year and I was craving a bath so much I decided to go and see if any of my friends had one I could use.

'One friend did, but because she never uses it, it was dirty and that made me not want to hop in.'

The 20-year-old student, who is studying philosophy at the University of Birmingham, is now able to relax in her makeshift bath

Not to be deterred, Lucy joked maybe she should just buy a giant tub to bathe in.

She said: 'I was just craving it so much I thought I would go for it and get one - and I got a huge tub off Amazon for about 24.'

The huge container does the job perfectly - although Lucy said it does come with a few problems.

'Obviously there were a few teething issues such as limited room to manoeuvre and a distinct lack of drainage,' she said.

'But it's nothing a little thinking outside the box, or in this case the tub, couldn't solve.'

Despite having slight difficulty moving around in the tub, the innovative student said it is surprisingly comfy - but she admits it helps that she's small: 'It is so comfy I love it - I use it at least twice a week.

'I'm really small, just over 5'3", so it's perfectly comfy for me.

'I fill it up with bubbles, light some candles, it's amazing.'
Republican presidential candidates may find themselves in a more subdued debate than usual on Thursday night in Miami, since nothing Donald Trump's rivals have thrown at him has made a major dent in his front-running campaign.

After the histrionics of last week's gathering in Detroit, the four remaining candidates are likely to search for higher ground as they offer closing arguments to Republican voters, particularly those in Florida and Ohio, who vote next Tuesday in nominating contests for the Nov. 8 election.

The burden is particularly heavy on U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Ohio Governor John Kasich, who must do well in their home states or face pressure to exit the race.

While Kasich is holding his own against Trump in Ohio opinion polls, Rubio has lagged far behind Trump in Florida.

Trump's victories in Michigan, Mississippi and Hawaii on Tuesday added to his momentum after a week of attacks by mainstream Republicans who are offended by his statements on Muslims, women and illegal immigrants and alarmed by his threats to international trade deals.

TEFLON DONALD: Trump has weathered millions of dollars in negative advertising and aggressive attacks on the debate stage, but his opponents keep plunging in the polls and he remains the GOP front-runner

ANTI-TRUMP: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is eager to reduce the Republican contest to a two-man race

The billionaire defended his calls for a tougher U.S. stance on free trade on Thursday, saying the United States has been taken advantage of in negotiations with other countries.

He also cited currency devaluations as a particular problem.

'I like free trade but you have to be represented by very, very good and smart and cunning people and we are not,' Trump said in an interview on CNBC. 'Other countries are and that's why they're all taking advantage.'

The tough-talking billionaire businessman told CNN on Wednesday he expected the debate to be a 'nicer, softer, lighter debate, I hope.' But he added: 'I'll be ready. I'm the only one who can beat Hillary,' a reference to Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton.

The tone could be set by Trump, 69, who forecast before several previous debates that he would take a more measured approach, only to quickly get into a verbal brawl with his rivals.

The CNN-hosted debate will be held at the University of Miami at 8:30 p.m.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, the take-no-sides chief fundraiser for the party, has been saying all week that he wants the whatever-it-takes 'tone' of past debates to improve on Thursday's debate stage.

On Wednesday, he described on CNN just how, saying he'd like to see 'more of a G-rated debate' than 'some of the things that have been said in the past.'

He said the RNC has spoken to the campaigns and to the sponsors about taking steps to 'reduce the temperature' on the debate stage and in the audience.

And Trump has been speaking in recent days of softness, party unity and potentially presidential behavior.

But he's qualifying it, too, by adding that he can't just stand there and let Rubio, Kasich and Cruz insult him or tell him to 'breathe.'

It's unclear whether he will let them push his buttons, yell back  or show the discipline to stay commanding but above the often juvenile tone that Trump himself has set.

'I would focus on a positive uplifting message that takes us back to why they're running for president and what's at stake in this election,' said Eric Fehrnstrom, a senior adviser to 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

Trump revealed last week that his wife, Melania, does not like when he uses bad language and had urged him to, 'be presidential.'

But that was before he took the stage in Detroit and bragged about the size of his genitalia.

ALL SMILES FOR NOW: Marco Rubio is under pressure to drop out of the race if he loses badly on Tuesday in his home state of Florida

In Detroit last Thursday, Trump came under sustained fire from Rubio, 44, over parts of his business empire such as Trump University, a now-defunct venture that critics said offered a flimsy education.

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas piled on Trump over his past support for Democratic causes.

Trump blasted Rubio throughout the debate as a lightweight and Cruz as a liar.

The Trump-Rubio debate clash in Detroit followed an abrupt change in Rubio's campaign to begin raising personal questions about Trump, such as saying he had small hands, a statement Trump saw as a reference to his penis size.

Rubio said he now regretted the personal insults.

'In terms of things that have to do with personal stuff, yeah, at the end of the day, it's not something I'm entirely proud of. My kids were embarrassed by it, and if I had to do it again, I wouldn't,' Rubio told MSNBC on Wednesday.

Cruz, 45, who would like to knock Rubio and Kasich out of the race so he could draw more support from anti-Trump Republican voters, will seek to use the debate to position himself as the best Trump alternative.

'Trump is clearly trying to reach out and be a little more statesmanlike,' said Cruz backer Saul Anuzis, a former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party.

'Cruz is going to make the case as to why he can beat Trump and be the viable alternative. From our perspective, we think it's a two-man race, we're the only one with a path.'

Rubio is fighting for survival and is facing something of a last stand in Florida. Rival campaigns said Rubio may feel a need to return to the optimistic message he stuck to for months before getting sidetracked by Trump.

Rubio told Fox News on Wednesday the campaign was always going to come down to who wins Florida.

'The nominee has to win Florida. You can't be the Republican nominee if you don't win Florida,' he said.

Kasich, Rubio and Cruz have one shot at denying Trump the nomination - preventing him from assembling the required 1,237 delegates to win the nomination outright, which would mean delegates would have to choose the nominee at their July 18-21 convention in Cleveland.

Trump said on CNN on Wednesday that 1,237 was an 'artificial number' and that if he entered the convention with more delegates than his rivals, he should be the nominee.

While he has vowed to wage war against the party if he is denied the nomination at the convention, Kasich, 63, said it was possible for Republicans to have a contested convention and emerge united.
Advertisement

Scores of children stranded at a disease-stricken migrant camp in Greece have been falling ill with fever and diarrhoea after torrential rain turned it into a mud bath.

Around 14,000 migrants are camped out in the Greek town of Idomeni on the Macedonian border after several Balkan states closed their borders.

Persistent heavy rain has turned the makeshift camp into a quagmire and daytime temperatures are only around five degrees centigrade.

Scores of children stranded at a disease ridden migrant camp on the Greece-Macedonia border have been falling ill with fever and diarrhoea

Around 14,000 migrants - around 40 per cent of whom are children - are camped out in the Greek town of Idomeni on the Macedonian border

One ill looking migrant child was pictured holding his stomach in discomfort before throwing up in the squalid camp

Two refugee children walk through the muddy field at the makeshift migrant camp in Idomeni which is suffering an outbreak of infection

The wet conditions are also allowing infections to fester with migrant children particularly vulnerable to falling ill.

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says 40 per cent of the camp's population are children, with many becoming sick due to the poor conditions and sanitation.

Others are also suffering from respiratory problems as migrants are forced to burn materials such as wood, plastic and bags and old clothes just to keep warm.

One migrant, Ibrahim Mardini, a 23-year-old student from the Syrian city of Aleppo, said: 'Our children are dying. There is water all over, even under the tents.

'Now it seems that the bombs in Syria look better than this misery. We are not animals.'

Meanwhile Tariq Mohammed, 27, also from Aleppo, was travelling with his wife and daughters aged five and two, and said all three had fallen sick and were given antibiotics.

Migrants prepare for a cold, baron night at the Idomeni migrant camp which is currently home to around 14,000 people

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said around 40 per cent of the squalid camp's population are children

Many of the children currently stranded at the Idomeni camp (pictured) are becoming sick due to the poor conditions and sanitation

A migrant named Ibrahim Mardini, 23, from Aleppo, said: 'Our children are dying. There is water all over, even under the tents' (pictured, other migrants gather round a fire in Idomeni

Mardini added: 'Now it seems that the bombs in Syria look better than this misery. We are not animals' (pictured, refugees warm themselves by a fire in the Idomeni camp)

Tariq Mohammed, another migrant from Aleppo, said his wife and two daughters had all fallen sick and had to be given antibiotics (pictured, three migrants try to warm themselves at the camp in Idomeni)

Greece said it has deported 81 economic migrants from Pakistan and north Africa back to Turkey, it emerged today

At least 61 Pakistanis, seven Algerians and 13 Moroccans who had entered the country illegally were picked up by Turkish authorities at a border crossing, Greek police said in a statement (pictured, migrants queue for medicine at Idomeni camp)

After nearly three days of rain, conditions in the refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonian border have deteriorated significantly

Persistent heavy rain has turned the makeshift camp into a quagmire and temperatures are thought to have dropped as low as five degrees centigrade during the day

The wet conditions are allowing infections to fester with migrant children (pictured in the camp) particularly vulnerable to falling ill

Migrants were pictured cutting down trees for firewood near the Idomeni camp

Carrying what little belongings they have, and with very few resources, the migrants were forced to cut down trees to light fires

He added: 'I don't know what will happen to us,' he said, standing in the rising mud near his tent as water dripped off the hood of his donated green poncho. Last night in the rain, my tent was swimming in water.'

Greece said it has deported 81 economic migrants from Pakistan and north Africa back to Turkey, it emerged today.

At least 61 Pakistanis, seven Algerians and 13 Moroccans - who had entered the country illegally - were picked up by Turkish authorities at a border crossing, Greek police said in a statement.

It added that Turkey refused to take another nine north Africans because of problems with their documentation.

Around 132,000 people have reached Greece from Turkey this year - the vast majority travelling across the Aegean in flimsy smugglers' boats. Most were refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

NATO's secretary general has said the alliance now has five warships deployed in the Aegean Sea as part of joint efforts with the European Union to stop the smuggling of migrants to Europe, with the focal point of operations a Greek island just five miles from Turkey.

'We have started to focus on the area around the Greek island of Lesbos,' Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference Thursday. He added: 'We are planning to move further south in the coming days and weeks.'

Migrants have been clambering desperately for food rations at the Idomeni camp after two days of heavy rainfall

Around 132,000 people (pictured, migrants receiving food in Idomeni) have reached Greece from Turkey this year

The vast majority of migrants and refugees who reached Greece travelled across the Aegean in rickety smugglers' boats

NATO and the EU recently agreed to step up cooperative efforts to shut down the human smugglers (pictured, migrants queuing for food at Idomeni)

A young boy decides to go splashing in the large puddles while wearing a brand new pair of boots supplied by aid workers

A little girl tries to clean the thick mud from her shoes using a water bottle after the Idomeni migrant camp turned into a quagmire

Extremely wet weather conditions have turned the ground at the camp into a quagmire and many migrants are just sleeping in lightweight tents

A young boy and girl try to avoid the huge puddles, which have formed due to persistent heavy rain on the Greek border with Macedonia

The poor conditions and sanitation as well as freezing temperatures mean that infection and disease spreads easily at the migrant camp

The refugees are currently trapped in Greece after the Macedonia closed its borders to any more asylum seekers from entering the country

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says 40 per cent of the camp's population are children, with many falling ill due to the poor conditions and sanitation

A young girl walks among the quagmire at the Idomeni refugee camp. Greece estimates more than 25,000 migrants are currently on its territory

NATO and the EU on Sunday agreed to step up cooperative efforts to shut down the human smugglers, with NATO sending vessels into Greek and Turkish territorial waters and coordinating its monitoring and intelligence-gathering actions with the EU's border agency Frontex.

'There are now five ships in the area,' Stoltenberg told reporters after holding talks with EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. 'There will be more ships in the coming days.

And we also have helicopters on most of the ships, so we are increasing the presence of NATO vessels with modern equipment, advanced capabilities,' to support EU efforts to end human trafficking in the Aegean.

The EU has been locked in dispute over how to stem an unprecedented influx of migrants that reached more than a million in 2015, many from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq and most aiming to reach wealthy Germany, Austria and Scandinavia.

Greek authorities confirmed today that there were 41,973 asylum seekers in the country, including some 14,000 stuck at Idomeni on the closed Macedonian border.

And both the German and Greek leaders blasted Balkan countries for shutting their borders o migrants ahead of an EU ministers meeting today.

The EU has been locked in dispute over how to stem an unprecedented influx of migrants that reached more than a million in 2015

Temperatures at the migrant camp have also dipped close to zero with many of the asylum seekers not having clothes or tents that are warm enough

Children wearing thin raincoats play among the washing hung out to dry despite the wet conditions at the Idomeni migrant camp

Slovenia and Croatia barred entry to transiting migrants from Wednesday and Serbia indicated it would follow suit

Greek authorities confirmed today that there were 41,973 asylum seekers in the country, including some 14,000 stuck at Idomeni on the closed Macedonian border

A teenage girl carries a young boy across the mud while wearing ponchos at the Idomeni refugee camp in Greece

Macedonia closed its border with Greece to migrants and now 14,000 of them are stuck at the Idomeni camp with nowhere to got

Greek Premier Alexis Tsipras warned that the EU 'has no future if it goes on like that' while Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel said the closures are 'neither sustainable nor lasting.'

Underlining the deep divisions in the bloc, Merkel and Tsipras' reactions flew in the face of the response of EU President Donald Tusk, who welcomed the route closure as being part of a collective response of the 28-member EU.

The strong words came after Slovenia and Croatia barred entry to transiting migrants from Wednesday and Serbia indicated it would follow suit.

EU member Slovenia said it would allow in only migrants wishing to claim asylum there or those seeking entry 'on humanitarian grounds and in accordance with the rules of the Schengen zone'.

But French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault backed German chancellor Angela Merkel for her 'morally and politically correct' support of asylum for migrants who qualify.

'We must remain faithful to our principles and the right to asylum is a commitment that our democratic nations have signed and must be respected,' Ayrault told iTele TV.

A group of boys kick litter and empty bottles into a large puddle that has formed at the migrant camp after torrential heavy rain

A pair of migrants have to try and dry out their soaking shoes after torrential rain at the Idomeni camp on the Greece/Macedonia border

A group of men sit inside their tent to enjoy a drink and a snack while trying to dry off their sodden shoes due to the torrential rain

A man sit among the muddy puddles as he prepares to pack up his tent and belongings and try and make it across the border into Macedonia

As well as falling victim to fever and diarrhoea, some are succumbing to respiratory infections as migrants burn all different kinds of material to keep warm

A migrant man covered in a pink plastic poncho to keep dry tries to start a fire on the railway lines near Idomeni in Greece

A man tries to prepare food in his lightweight tent despite the wet and muddy conditions at the Idomeni migrant camp

A man warms himself by a makeshift bonfire. The main migrant trail from Greece to northern Europe was blocked after western Balkan nations slammed shut their borders

Both the German and Greek leaders blasted Balkan countries for shutting their borders o migrants ahead of an EU ministers meeting today

Beleaguered aid groups have tried to improve conditions but have struggled given the mud, wet weather and unhygienic conditions

Around 14,000 migrants are camped out in the Greek border town of Idomeni on the Macedonian border after several Balkan states closed their border

Ayrault, who was in Egypt, said nations must also have the 'courage' to refuse to open their doors to economic migrants if the country in question cannot absorb them.

Asked about Merkel's welcome of migrants to Germany, the French minister said that 'I think when she focuses on this principle of the right to asylum, she is morally and politically correct.'
Donald Trump believes that if he wins the Republican presidential primary contests next week in Ohio and Florida, the GOP nomination will be beyond the reach of his remaining three rivals.

Asked Wednesday night on CNN if the contest will be over, he said: 'I think so, yes. I think if I win those two, I think it's over.'

The bold prediction came 24 hours before Thursday night's debate in Miami, a critical final test before many state primaries and caucuses become high-stakes 'winner take all' affairs.

Scroll down for video

KNOCKOUT BLOW: Donald Trump said Wednesday night that he aims to win in Ohio and Florida, and put the GOP presidential nomination fight away

NO CONTEST: The billionaire said he doesn't want to see a floor-fight scenario at the Republican National Convention, preferring instead to collect all the delegates he needs early

Anchor Anderson Cooper asked him about a scenario in which Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, two of Trump's debate opponents, drop out of the race after losing their home states.

With only Texas Sen. Ted Cruz left to oppose him, would Trump have a lock on the 1,237 Republican National Convention delegates he needs to secure the nomination in July?

'Well, I think if I win Ohio and if I win Florida, pretty much  you're going to be pretty much assured of doing that.'

The billionaire GOP front-runner seems positioned perfectly to capture the two biggest prizes on March 15.

Two new polls from the Fox News Channel and Quinnipiac University have him leading in Florida by more than 20 percentage points, with Rubio in a distant second place.

In Ohio, the Quinnipiac poll and another from CNN have Trump ahead of Kasich, but by a smaller margin of six points.

The Fox poll shows Kasich in the lead by five, but it's the only one of the five Ohio polls published this year that doesn't have Trump at the top of the leader board.

Trump said he doesn't think the convention, held this year in Cleveland to choose a White House nominee, will be the contentious floor-fight some of his critics are predicting.

'I don't see the convention going that route,' he said. 'I see  I see probably getting the delegates' beforehand.

'You know, it's like the fighters: That's the ultimate way of doing it. You knock them out. If you knock them out, nothing can happen.'

WHY SO HAPPY? Ohio Gov. John Kasich is trailing Trump in his home state, according to most polls taken this month

GOING DOWN WITH THE SHIP: Marco Rubio is behind by more than 20 points in his home state of Florida but shows no sign of dropping out  yet

If the RNC does turn into a 'contested' convention, Trump said he would 'have to fight it out.

'But you know, it's real unfair,' he complained.

'Let's say you get there and you're a few short, but you have 1,200, let's say, and somebody else had 500 or 600, because I'm way ahead. ... If you go to the convention and because of some artificial number that they set, if you go to convention and you're leading by a lot of delegates, I think you should get the nomination.'

'And that will be me. I mean I'll have far more delegates,' he said. 'Now, whether or not I get to that artificial number, I don't know. But I think I will.'

Trump's candidacy has left Republican officials with the uncomfortable idea that their second least favorite presidential candidate, the ultra-conservative Cruz, may be the party's best last chance to stop him.

IT'S ALL TRUMP: Next weeks two biggest delegate prizes look to be leaning Donald's way

Possible Cruz supporters include reluctant Senate colleagues and former presidential rivals with strong ties to major donors, who have feared Cruz's purist ideology but dread a Trump nomination even more.

Cruz on Wednesday announced the backing of one former primary opponent, Carly Fiorina, and is seeking the backing of another, Jeb Bush, on Thursday.

'It's an outsider year, and the most logical person to take on Trump based on past performance is Ted Cruz,' said another former presidential opponent, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Earlier in the year, Graham likened the choice between Cruz and Trump to 'being shot or poisoned.'

'He's not my preference,' Graham said of Cruz. 'But we are where we are. And if Trump wins Florida and Ohio, I don't know if we can stop him.'

In the Republican race for delegates, Trump has 458 and Cruz has 359.
An engine factory boss and an employee have been shot dead in an apparent murder-suicide in Indiana.

The two men were shot dead shortly after 8.30am in a conference room at the Cummins plant in Seymour.

Their bodies were found after panicked workers heard between two and four gunshots ring out and called 911.

An engine factory boss and an employee have been shot dead in an apparent murder-suicide in Indiana

The two men were shot dead shortly after 8.30 morning in a conference room at the Cummins plant in Seymour

One of the men was fatally shot before the gunman committed suicide, Indiana Police Sergeant Stephen Wheeles said.

The identities of the men have not been released, but a Cummins spokesman said they were a manager and a boss.

No one was else was injured in the shooting, which sparked a lockdown at the factory and at nearby schools.

Armed police were seen entering the building this morning before escorting workers out of the plant. Some had barricaded themselves inside offices after hearing gunfire.

The factory, which was surrounded by police cars and ambulances, was secure by 9.30am.

Around 500 workers were laid off late last year in Indiana, but it is not known if this is linked to the shooting.

One of the men was fatally shot before the gunman committed suicide, police said. Pictured, employees wait for news outside the factory

The Cummins plant has several hundred employees. Several workers had gathered outside thinking a fire drill was taking place.

'I heard screams,' worker Andrew Berrones told the Indianapolis Star. 'Someone told us to get out.'

The plant will remain closed until Monday, Fox 59 reported.

A statement from Cummins said: 'With sadness, we confirm there was a shooting at the Cummins Seymour Technical Center this morning.

'Authorities confirm there are two fatalities, both Cummins employees, and the all-clear for the facility has been given.

'We are working to support employees and their families at this time. We will provide further information as soon as its available.'

Indiana Governor Mike Pence, who is on his way to the plant, said: 'Our hearts go out to the family of the victim of this senseless act of violence at the Cummins plant in Seymour earlier today.
This is a women's coat that got trapped in the doors of a Tube train and dragged her along a platform for nearly 200ft.

The London Underground commuter was pulled onto the tracks after getting her coat stuck in a closing door, before she fell in the gap between the platform and the train.

The incident happened on the Northern Line at Clapham South on March 12 last year.

It has led to a Transport for London pledging to make Tube platforms safer after the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) released suggested improvements today.

This picture shows the area of the coat which was reportedly trapped in the doors of the Tube

Part of the coat zip caught in the carriage doors showing the height from above the train floor

A London Underground commuter was dragged nearly 200ft along a platform before she was pulled onto the tracks after getting her coat stuck in a closing door

The unnamed 28-year-old woman suffered injuries to her arm, head and shoulders after she stepped off the packed train to wait for another during the morning rush hour.

Her coat got trapped in the closing door, which led to her being dragged along the platform.

After 200ft the train's operator pulled on the breaks as he noticed 'unusual movements' on the platform.

But as the train stopped the woman fell in between the gap and the platform. She was rushed to hospital following the traumatic incident at around 8am.

Witnesses told of fire crews hoisting up a Tube train to free the woman on the northbound platform, and claimed the woman was pulled underneath the train as it approached.

One 13-year-old girl, who watched the incident unfold, said on Twitter: 'Her coat got stuck in the Tube doors, she was dragged across the platform. I saw it all. Thank God she survived.'

NHS worker Jack Smith, 25, told the London Evening Standard: I heard this prolonged scream from 20m (65ft) down the platform. There were loads of women around her screaming and pointing.'

The incident happened on the Northern Line at Clapham South on March 12 last year

Witnesses told of fire crews hoisting up Tube train to free the injured passenger during the incident

The report, which was published today stated: 'As a result of this accident, RAIB has made one recommendation, addressed to London Underground, seeking further improvements in the processes used to manage risks at the platform-train interface.

'RAIB has also identified one learning point for the railway industry, relating to the provision of under platform recesses as a measure to mitigate the consequences of accidents where passengers fall from the platform.'

In response to this accident, and in the light of other platform terminal incidents, London Underground has set up a team to consider several potential measures to improve safety.

These include:

improving passenger awareness of the potential risk at train doors using harder hitting, targeted safety messages;

localised briefing of customer service assistants allowing them to tailor announcements to suit individual station conditions;

encouraging service assistnats to move around the platform to suit local circumstances rather than mandating a defined position when undertaking duties;

using alternative types of baton including one incorporating a red emergency stop light;

providing platform staff with a portable means of stopping trains in an emergency;

repositioning, and reassessing the number of, CCTV cameras providing in-cab monitor images of the platform;

adjusting the configuration of yellow lines on platforms to alter passenger behaviour at doors.

Witnesses told of fire crews hoisting up a Tube train to free the woman on the northbound platform, and claimed the woman was pulled underneath the train as it approached

NHS worker Jack Smith, 25, told the London Evening Standard: I heard this prolonged scream from 20m (65ft) down the platform. There were loads of women around her screaming and pointing.'

Steve Griffiths, London Underground's Chief Operating Officer, said: 'Thankfully incidents of this kind are extremely rare, however we constantly seek to improve our excellent safety record.

'Following the incident at Clapham South we have carried out a full internal investigation as well as working closely with the RAIB.
The Labour MP in charge of maintaining ethical standards in the House of Commons stood down from his role today over allegations he arranged events in Parliament in exchange for money.

Sir Kevin Barron, the chairman of the Commons Standards Committee, said he was temporarily standing aside while authorities investigate claims he agreed to provide 'services' for a Japanese drugs firm.

His office said the money exchanged on behalf of arranging the events in the Palace of Westminster went straight to a children's hospice.

Labour MP Sir Kevin Barron (pictured) in charge of maintaining ethical standards in the House of Commons stood down from his role today over allegations he arranged events in Parliament in exchange for money

But he has referred himself to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.

Since he was appointed to the Commons Standards Committee Sir Kevin has arranged two dinners and a breakfast in Parliament for the Japanese Pharmaceutical Group in return for 9,000 in total, which was paid to a children's charity in his Rother Valley constituency.

Parliamentary rules ban MPs from using services or resources on the Palace of Westminster estate to 'confer any undue personal or financial benefit on themselves or anyone else'.

Sir Kevin told the Telegraph that because the money had been donated to a charity he had not breached the rules.

He insisted he had made 'absolutely no personal gane' from the arrangement.

But Sir Alistair Graham, the former chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, said that even if Sir Kevin had not benefited personally, the arrangement still amounted to a breach of the rules.

He said MPs on the ethics committee had to be 'whiter than white'. 'It's incredible that the chairman of the Commons standards committee could get themselves into such a situation, even if he is giving the money to charity,' Sir Alistair told the Telegraph.

'Giving the money to charity is not the issue. The issue is that the rules are there to be complied with. He has power of judging whether other people have not met the rules, he can only do that if he is whiter than white in meeting the rules himself'.

News of Sir Kevin's resignation came as the senior Labour MP David Lammy was forced to apologise after being fined 5,000 for bombarding Londoners with more than 35,000 cold calls last summer.

Labour MP David Lammy is fined 5,000 for making 35,000 cold calls in TWO DAYS

A senior Labour MP who was today fined 5,000 for bombarding Londoners with more than 35,000 cold calls has apologised - but then insisted he had no idea he was required to gain permission for making automated phone calls.

David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, was rebuked by the data watchdog for the nuisance calls that were made over just two days last summer as he tried to win the Labour nomination for London Mayor.

His campaign ended in failure, however, finishing a disappointing fourth and picking up fewer than 10 per cent of the votes.

Tottenham MP David Lammy was fined 5,000 for making more than 35,000 nuisance calls last summer

He apologised for making the 35,629 calls to Labour party members and registered supporters and said he accepted the Information Commissioner's decision.

But he added: 'If I had known that additional permission was required to make automated calls then I would have sought it before any calls were made.'

The privacy watchdog said the 5,000 fine handed to Mr Lammy must act as a warning to groups campaigning in the run-up to June's EU referendum, telling them they must abide by the same rules as salesmen and must have the permission of recipients of any phone calls.

The calls, which were placed over two days in August last year, played a recorded message to people urging them to back Mr Lammy's campaign.

The Information Commissioner found he broke privacy rules because he did not have permission to contact the 35,629 households.

Sadiq Khan (pictured launching his manifesto for the London mayoral election yesterday) won the nomination in September, beating Blairite candidate Tessa Jowell. He is now the favourite to beat Tory Zac Goldsmith

If Mr Lammy pays the fine by April 5 it will be reduced to 4,000.

The former education minister even finished behind Jeremy Corbyn ally Diane Abbott when the results of Labour's selection were announced in September.

In a statement today Mr Lammy said: 'I fully accept the Information Commissioner's decision and apologise unreservedly to any Labour party member or registered supporter that felt upset at receiving an automated call from my campaign.'

Under privacy rules calls that play automated message must only be made to households that have given the caller permission to receive this type of call.

In a strongly worded statement this morning, the watchdog said politicians and political groups campaigning for support are regulated in exactly the same way as salesmen and said it was 'simply not good enough to assume the people you're contacting probably won't mind'.

The nomination was won by Sadiq Khan, who beat the Blairite candidate Dame Tessa Jowell and is currently the favourite to beat Tory candidate Zac Goldsmith in the May 5 election.

Mr Lammy used the contact deatils of party members provided by the Labour party but the investigation into the calls found that he did not make the additional checks necessary to ensure he was able to contact the people with recorded messages.

DATA WATCHDOG WARNS EU CAMPAIGNERS AGAINST COLD CALLING IN RUN-UP TO JUNE VOTE The Information Commissioner told EU referendum campaigners they must abide by the same rules as salesmen Groups campaigning in the EU referendum have been warned they must learn from the 5,000 fine handed to Labour MP David Lammy after he was rebuked for making 35,000 cold-calls last summer. The respective In and Out campaigns have been told they must abide by the same rules as salesmen. Christopher Graham, the Information Commissioner, said that they must have the permission from the recipients of all phone calls and text messages before they are contacted. And in a strongly-worded warning, he told them: 'If the law isn't followed, the regulator will act'. 'The rules apply to political groups canvassing for votes in the same way they apply to salespeople offering a discount on double glazing,' he said. 'If you want to call someone in this way, you must follow these rules. Mr Lammy did not, and that is why he has been fined. 'It's not good enough to assume the people you're contacting probably won't mind. The law requires you to have permission before making calls with recorded messages.' Advertisement

Information Commissioner Christopher Graham said: 'The rules apply to political groups canvassing for votes in the same way they apply to salespeople offering a discount on double glazing.

'If you want to call someone in this way, you must follow these rules. Mr Lammy did not, and that is why he has been fined.

'It's not good enough to assume the people you're contacting probably won't mind. The law requires you to have permission before making calls with recorded messages. And if the law isn't followed, the regulator will act.'

He added: 'Mr Lammy's team should have known there were special controls in place around calls with recorded messages.

'Not only have we published detailed guidance on political campaigning on our website, but we have contacted political parties directly to remind them of the rules.'

Today's fine is not the first time investigators have taken action against cold calling by political campaigners.

In December the Telegraph Media Group was fined 30,000 for sending hundreds of thousands of emails on the day of the General Election urging readers to vote Conservative.

In November 2013 - in the run-up to the Scottish independence referendum, the Better Together campaign signed an undertaking after sending 300,000 text messages to individuals without first checking whether they had consented to being contacted.

Research published at the end of last year found that British households are bombarded by 4.8billion nuisance calls every year, with the most commons calls phoning people about accident claims, energy saving and home improvements.

It also found calls and texts for oven cleaning, industrial injury claims, energy saving and call blocking services were on the rise and the Information Commissioner warned companies to expect higher penalties this year.

Mr Lammy is an outspoken backbench Labour MP who has not shied away from speaking his mind about his leaders.

Just six months before last year's General Election he criticised Ed Miliband's leadership, complaining how the party had lost touch with its core working class voters.

In a personal attack on Mr Miliband he warned that Labour had become 'culturally adrift' from its voters and said its traditional working class base was being driven away by the 'disdain' of 'liberal, professional' frontbenchers who failed to understand their anger about immigration.

Mr Lammy caused even more damage to Mr Miliband just days before polling day when he admitted the party would look to 'forge a common alliance' with the SNP to ensure the Labour leader became Prime Minister.

It was a harmful remark to make at a time when Mr Miliband was being forced to reject constant Tory accusations that he would have to strike a deal with the Scottish nationalists to win power.

In January this year Mr Lammy agreed to David Cameron's invitation to lead a review into why black people make up such a high proportion of the prison population.

It was seen as a further sign of the disenchantment with Jeremy Corbyn's leadership among moderate Labour MPs.

The Government review will look into 'racial bias' in the Criminal Justice System.
Addressing his relationship with Russia's Vladimir Putin, Obama said he is 'not completely stupid'

Obama revealed he would have ordered airstrikes against Iran's nuclear facilities had last year's deal fallen through

Obama's comments drawing analogy between militant group of movie villain appear in new issue of The Atlantic

President Barack Obama likened the Middle East to Gotham, the fictional metropolis in the Batman franchise, with ISIS acting as the Joker who shows up on the scene and plunges the city into murderous chaos.

Obama's comments drawing an analogy between the jihadist militant group Islamic State, also known as ISIL, and the comic book villain portrayed by Heath Ledger in Christopher Nolan's 2008 film The Dark Knight, appear in a long-form piece exploring in depth the presidents foreign policy legacy, which The Atlantic published online Thursday.

The cover story by the magazine's national correspondent Jeff Goldberg, titled The Obama Doctrine, will appear in print in The Atlantic's April issue.

Scroll down for video

Explainer-in-chief: President Barack Obama likened the Middle East to Gotham, the fictional metropolis in the Batman franchise, with ISIS acting as the Joker

Obama told his aides that like the fictional villain portrayed by Heath Ledger in Christopher Nolan's 2008 film (pictured), the jihadist militant group had the capacity of spreading murderous chaos all around it

White House aides speaking to The Atlantic recalled how in meetings Obama would talk about a key scene in the Batman film as a way of explaining his view of ISIS and its role in the region.

'Theres a scene in the beginning in which the gang leaders of Gotham are meeting,' Obama would tell advisers. 'These are men who had the city divided up. They were thugs, but there was a kind of order. Everyone had his turf.

'And then the Joker comes in and lights the whole city on fire. ISIL is the Joker. It has the capacity to set the whole region on fire. Thats why we have to fight it.'

The president was widely panned by his critics on both sides of the aisle when in a 2014 interview with The New Yorker he dismissively referred to the extremist group, which currently controls large parts of Iraq and Syria, to a JV team.'

According to The Atlantic piece, Obamas remark was based on an analysis by General Lloyd Austin, then the commander of Central Command, who allegedly told the White House that ISIS was a flash in the pan.

The president famously referred to ISIS, which now controls large parts of Iraq and Syria, as a 'JV team' in a 2014 interview with The New Yorker

Finger-pointing: Obamas remark was allegedly based on an analysis by General Lloyd Austin, but the former commander of Central Command has denied downplaying the threat of ISIS

A spokesperson for Austin vehemently denied that the general ever made that statement.

Speaking to Goldberg, Obama shed light on his reservations about using the full might of the US military to destroy ISIS.

OBAMA ON PUTIN: 'HE'S NOT COMPLETELY STUPID' President Obama has offered some insight into his dealings with Vladimir Putin, revealing that contrary to popular belief, he has a solid working relationship with Russia's leader. Relations between the US and Russia have soured in recent years over Russia's annexations of Crimea, its military involvement in Syria on the side of the Assad regime, and the introduction of sweeping economic sanctions by the US and the European Union against Russia. But despite the simmering tensions between the two nations, Obama told The Atlantic magazine that his Russian counterpart was 'scrupulously polite' and 'frank' with him during all of their meetings. 'He never keeps me waiting two hours like he does a bunch of these other folks,' Obama noted. Obama downplayed Russia's role on the world stage, arguing that Kremlin's Crimean adventure and its support of Bashar al-Assad 'doesnt suddenly make him [Putin] a player.' As a parting shot, Obama added: 'For that matter, theres not a G20 meeting where the Russians set the agenda around any of the issues that are important.' Advertisement

There are going to be times where either because its not a direct threat to us or because we just dont have the tools in our toolkit to have a huge impact that, tragically, we have to refrain from jumping in with both feet, he said.

In a wide-ranging interview with Goldberg, the outgoing commander-in-chief looked back on some of his most controversial foreign policy decisions, including pulling the plug on a plan to attack Syria after making his famous 'red line' speech in 2013 regarding Bashar al-Assad's alleged use of chemical weapons against rebels.

At the time, Obamas decision not to launch airstrikes against the Assad regime earned him widespread censure from friends and foes alike, both at home and abroad.

Even Hillary Clinton, then secretary of state in the Obama administration, said privately: If you say youre going to strike, you have to strike. Theres no choice.

But reflecting on his decision-making process regarding Syria, Obama said he feels very proud that he was able to pull the country from the brink of yet another armed conflict in the Middle East.

The perception was that my credibility was at stake, that Americas credibility was at stake. And so for me to press the pause button at that moment, I knew, would cost me politically, he said.

And the fact that I was able to pull back from the immediate pressures and think through in my own mind what was in Americas interest, not only with respect to Syria but also with respect to our democracy, was as tough a decision as Ive madeand I believe ultimately it was the right decision to make.

While discussing the Iran nuclear deal, which was negotiated last year in an effort to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, Obama made a bombshell admission, saying that had the agreement fallen through, he would have been willing to order an attack against Iran.

The president, however, was quick to point out that 'the argument that cant be resolved, because its entirely situational, was what constitutes them getting' the bomb.

In his candid conversation with The Atlantic writer, Obama took a swipe at British Prime Minister David Cameron but had some kind words for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The president revealed that during the G7 summit last June, he clashed with Cameron over UK's defense spending, warning the prime minister that the 'special relationship' between their two countries would come to an end if Cameron's government failed to meet the NATO spending target of 2 per cent GDP.

Frenemies: Obama said of Russia's Vladimir Putin (left) that 'he's not completely stupid' and revealed that he clashed with British Prime Minister David Cameron (right) last summer over UK's defense spending

HILLARY CLINTON 'FEARS CHINA COULD BECOME DOMINANT SUPERPOWER' AND OBAMA WARNS OF FUTURE 'CONFLICT' WITH BEIJING Hillary Clinton, pictured in 2012 with then-Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, has spoken in private of her concerns about the rise of China Hillary Clinton has spoken in private of her concerns about the rise of China, saying she fears her grandchildren could grow up in a world dominated by the Chinese.' The revelation emerged during a wide-ranging series of interviews Barack Obama gave to The Atlantic, in which the President warned of the potential for a future 'conflict' with Beijing. The President said that if China 'continues on a peaceful rise' then there was potential for it to share responsibility with the U.S. in maintaining international order. But Obama fears that internal issues within China could see Beijing promote nationalism and focus only on problems within its region, which could have greater global implications. In that case, 'not only do we see the potential for conflict with China, but we will find ourselves having more difficulty dealing with these other challenges that are going to come', he said. Obama added: 'Ive been very explicit in saying that we have more to fear from a weakened, threatened China than a successful, rising China. 'I think we have to be firm where Chinas actions are undermining international interests, and if you look at how weve operated in the South China Sea, we have been able to mobilize most of Asia to isolate China in ways that have surprised China, frankly, and have very much served our interest in strengthening our alliances.' The President said Russia were less of a threat than China because of their own economic problems. Advertisement

Not mincing words, Obama said 'free riders aggravate me' in his talks with Cameron, and told him in no uncertain terms, 'You have to pay your fair share.'

Addressing his relationship with Russia's Putin, Obama described him as 'scrupulously polite' and 'frank' during high-level meetings.

'He never keeps me waiting two hours like he does a bunch of these other folks,' Obama noted, adding that believes the Russian leader is keenly interested in having his country perceived as a peer of the US on the international stage.

'Hes not completely stupid,' Obama said of Putin. 'He understands that Russias overall position in the world is significantly diminished.
Dramatic drone footage has captured the extent of flooding in the South that has left three dead.

Video taken from the unmanned aircraft shows Bossier City in Louisiana, where 3,500 people have been evacuated because of the rising floodwaters.

Twenty-five million have been told to be ready for 'historic' flooding with parts of Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas already seeing downpours, large hail, and at least two tornadoes.

And forecasters warn there is more to come.

The three casualties of the extreme weather drowned in Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana.

Scroll down for video

Drone footage has captured the extent of the flooding in Bossier City, Louisiana, as heavy rain and storms wreaks havoc across the South

The video shows four people on a raft in the middle of the flooded road in the city where 3,500 people have been evacuated because of the deluge

Most of the houses have managed to avoid the damage because of their position slightly above the road

Forecasters have said the conditions will get worse leading up to the weekend

Two men secure two horses in rising floodwaters as a Bossier Parish Sheriff truck passes. In the distance a vehicle's roof is just visible in the floodwaters

A Louisiana National Guardsman wades through water as residents are evacuated in the town

Dacia Winters (left) embraces Ryan Ficca (center) and Stormy Winters after they were evacuated

Residents are evacuated by boat through rising floodwaters in Bossier Parish

Sarah Yatcko (left) holds her son Tucker Neal as they are evacuated by boat with her father Jim Yatcko

Bossier Parish Sheriff personnel help Christine Sizemore out of a high water vehicle after she was evacuated

Sam Breen tows his skiff as he helps his friend Roger Dove retrieve his dogs Edison, foreground, and Allie, from his home, as floodwater rises at the Pecan Valley Estates trailer park in Bossier City, Louisiana. 3,500 people have been evacuated from the area because of the floods

A partially submerged truck sits in rising floodwaters in Bossier Parish, Louisiana

Residents sit in the back of a National Guard truck with their dogs as they are evacuated from Bossier Parish in the midst of the storms

A truck passes through rising floodwaters in Louisiana. The weather is set to continue battering parts of the state over the next two days

The Weather Channel reported: 'Unfortunately, the heavy rain will continue over this hard-hit part of the South for another 24-48 hours before slowly shifting east.

They also warned the extra rain 'will add to an already historic flash flooding event.'

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency on Wednesday in a bid to prepare for the downpours.

By Thursday morning, officials in north Louisiana evacuated 3,500 homes in Bossier City as a precaution as Red Chute Bayou approaches the top of its levee.

National Weather Service Meteorologist Jason Hansford says the bayou may top the levee or be breached.

Hansford say heavy rain continued across much of north Louisiana on Wednesday night and early Thursday morning with another 3 inches.

He says a weather spotter just north of Monroe reported 18.1 inches of rain since Tuesday night.

State police report several sections of Interstate 20 are closed from Bossier City to near Gibsland in northcentral Louisiana.

The National Weather Service has issued flood warnings and flash flood warnings for areas of the state that have been drenched by a stalled-out storm system. More than 6 inches of rain has already fallen in Monticello, Pine Bluff and Stuttgart this week, and the weather service says it will keep coming.

A National Guard soldier is seen wading knee-deep in water as he helps get people away from the badly-flooded areas

A man paddles a child in floodwaters in the Golden Meadows subdivision in Bossier City. Forecasters have told residents to prepare for more extreme weather over the next few days

A car is seen partially submerged during rising floodwater at the Pecan Valley Estates trailer park in Bossier City amid the rising water levels

Forecasters say heavy rain is possible Thursday, especially in southeast Arkansas where widespread flash flooding has already occurred. Minor to moderate flooding is expected on some rivers as well.

Rain remains in the forecast until Saturday, and the weather service says severe storms are possible Sunday too.

Dozens of people have taken up shelter at the Bossier Civic Center in a bid to avoid the storms.

The Red Cross set up the shelter for people who left their homes in the Bossier City area.

Colleen Morgan, shelter manager, says about 50 people are in the shelter now and more are on the way from the area south of Bossier City, where several subdivision were cut off by high water.

Morgan says the Red Cross is providing food, a place to sleep and blankets for those at the center.

Morgan says a TV has been set up for those wanting to watch the news. A few first responders have dropped in for coffee and food.

A man stands in rising floodwaters as a Bossier Parish Sheriff truck passes through

A speed limit sign is nearly covered by floodwaters in the Tall Timbers Haughton, Louisiana
Refugees in Germany are being taught about how to find the female G-spot, sex during pregnancy and how to enjoy homosexual sex.

The bizarre project  complete with graphic illustrations  is being financed by the German government.

In 13 languages on the government website Zanzu, all aspects of sexuality  from how to enjoy 'the first time' and how to avoid venereal diseases are tackled.

Scroll down for video

Refugees in Germany are being taught about how to find the female G-spot, sex during pregnancy and how to enjoy homosexual sex on a website (above) funded by the government. Topics include sex, virginity, the body and sex, the first time, sexual pleasure, sex during pregnancy and sexual problems and fears

Couples are shown performing oral sex in the scheme organised by the Federal Centre for Health Education

The government said the guide was necessary because many of the 1.1 million refugees who have arrived in Germany since last year received no sexual education whatsoever in their homelands

Men are shown coupling with one another, men and women performing oral sex upon each other in the scheme organised by the Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA).

The sub-headings to click on include 'Sex', 'Virginity', 'The body and sex', 'The first time', 'Sexual pleasure', 'Sex during pregnancy' and 'sexual problems and fears'.

It comes at a time when tensions between migrants and natives are still tense following the mass sexual assaults on women in Cologne on New Year's Eve.

The government said the guide was necessary because many of the 1.1 million refugees who have arrived in Germany since last year received no sexual education whatsoever in their homelands.

Men are shown coupling in an attempt to change 'backward' views towards homosexuals among migrants

As well as being available online and in some accommodation centres, many doctors and clinics charged with the health of migrants will receive the charts to better inform migrants about sex

The Alternative for Germany party which is riding high in the polls ahead of three vital regional elections this coming weekend declared the project 'a waste of taxpayer money'

And because many hold what are considered 'backward' views towards homosexuals  including attacking them in asylum centres  Berlin decided to issue the charts.

Refugees who have not been in the country long 'will receive discreet and direct access to knowledge in this area', said Elke Ferner, parliamentary state secretary in the ministry for family affairs.

As well as being available online and in some accommodation centres, many doctors and clinics charged with the health of migrants will receive the charts to better inform migrants about sex.
William Powell, 27, was arrested last week for allegedly giving out more than $3,000 in beverages at the IHOP in Brooklyn, New York where he worked as a waiter

An IHOP waiter was arrested last week after allegedly giving away more than $3,000 in soft drinks to diners over a seven-month period.

When William Powell, 27, was arrested on March 2, he reportedly told police 'I am the modern-day Robin Hood'.

'I am not stealing,' Powell told cops. 'I am serving the ones in need. I take from the rich and give to the poor. Whats the big deal? Ive been doing this since I started here.'

Powell, who worked at a Brooklyn, New York location, was caught when his boss found out that he was only making 6 per cent in beverage orders, compared to the 17 to 20 per cent other waiters were ringing up, despite video surveillance showing him serving the same amount of drinks.

Cops said Powell was likely giving the drinks away for free, in order to get better tips.

Powell denies the claim.

'It was me looking out for the community. There are certain people that couldn't afford the drinks,' he told the New York Daily News on Wednesday. 'There was no malicious intent. Me and the owner weren't seeing eye-to-eye.'

Powell says when he would see a customer hesitate before ordering a beverage, he just threw them in for free.

'I kind of told them, "This is not supposed to happen, but here you guys go,"' Powell recalls.

Police charged Powell with felony grand larceny and possession of stolen property. He was released from jail on his own recognizance.

Now, he worries he may not be able to find work as a waiter again.

'I really like being a waiter, I love being a waiter,' he said. 'You can change people's day through jokes and everything.'
Hillary Clinton has spoken of her fears her grandchildren could grow up in a world where China are the dominant superpower.

She has spoken in private of her worries, saying: 'I don't want my grandchildren to live in a world dominated by the Chinese.'

The revelation emerged during a wide-ranging series of interviews Barack Obama gave to The Atlantic, in which the President warned of the potential for a future 'conflict' with Beijing.

Scroll down for video

Hillary Clinton (pictured with Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2012) has spoken of her fears her grandchildren could grow up in a world where China are the dominant state

'In terms of traditional great-state relations, I do believe that the relationship between the United States and China is going to be the most critical,' Obama said.

The President said that if China 'continues on a peaceful rise' then there was potential for it to share responsibility with the U.S. in maintaining international order.

But Obama fears that internal issues within China could see Beijing promote nationalism and focus only on problems within its region, which could have greater global implications.

In that case, 'not only do we see the potential for conflict with China, but we will find ourselves having more difficulty dealing with these other challenges that are going to come', he said.

Obama added: 'Ive been very explicit in saying that we have more to fear from a weakened, threatened China than a successful, rising China.

'I think we have to be firm where Chinas actions are undermining international interests, and if you look at how weve operated in the South China Sea, we have been able to mobilize most of Asia to isolate China in ways that have surprised China, frankly, and have very much served our interest in strengthening our alliances.'

President Barack Obama (pictured in Beijing with Chinese President Xi) warned of the potential for a future 'conflict' with Beijing

The President said Russia were less of a threat than China because of their own economic problems.

'The path that Putin is taking is not going to help them overcome those challenges. But in that environment, the temptation to project military force to show greatness is strong, and thats what Putins inclination is. So I dont underestimate the dangers there,' he said.

Much of Obama's interview focused on foreign policy during his presidency, but he also hinted of his hopes that whoever is in the Oval Office next continues with his work in the Middle East.

He spoke of his U-turn on bombing forces loyal to President Bashar Assad in Syria following chemical weapons attacks on civilians.

President Obama said Russia were less of a threat than China because of their own economic problems

Speeches given by Secretary of State John Kerry, as well as international support from France, had led many to believe that the U.S. was days away from a new conflict in the Middle East.

But, after a change of heart - and the British Parliament failing to back Prime Minister David Cameron on the issue - he told military officials that they would not be bombing Assad's forces.

'Our assessment that while we could inflict some damage on Assad, we could not, through a missile strike, eliminate the chemical weapons themselves, and what I would then face was the prospect of Assad having survived the strike and claiming he had successfully defied the United States, that the United States had acted unlawfully in the absence of a UN mandate, and that that would have potentially strengthened his hand rather than weakened,' Obama said.

He spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a G20 summit and the two world leaders were able to persuade Assad to hand over his chemical weapons stockpile, which Obama sees as a great success.

The rise of ISIS that followed, however, has been a difficult problem for the President.

He appreciates the brutality they mete out in Syria, Iraq and Libya, but has told advisers: 'Theyre not coming here to chop our heads off.'

Obama's feeling that ISIS terror is not a major threat to Americans on U.S. soil is what sparked his anger at Republican presidential candidates, such as Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, who have called for the U.S. to not accept Syrian refugees on the basis of their religion.

'When I hear folks say that, well, maybe we should just admit the Christians but not the Muslims - when I hear political leaders suggesting that there would be a religious test for which person whos fleeing from a war-torn country is admitted - thats not American,' he said.

'Thats not who we are. We dont have religious tests to our compassion,' he added.
Advertisement

Growing up in a refugee camp, these Syrian girls have seen more of war and terror than than many ever do in their whole lives, but that does not mean that they don't share the same love for Disney as any others.

Syrian girls living in a refugee camp in Akkar, Lebanon were given the opportunity to play dress-up for a day, wearing the costume of their favourite Disney princess as they shared their hopes and dreams for the future.

Hiba, two, was born in the camp and has never known peace, while Maram, 16, hopes to one day become a children's nurse, saying she is a dreamer, just like her favourite Disney princess Cinderella.

Mona, aged 11, chose to dress up as Belle, from Beauty and the Beast, who she admires because of her intelligence. Mona's friend Raghad, 12, loves Frozen because it highlights the relationship between two sisters.

The Once Upon a War is the brainchild of Syrian artist Saint Hoax, who called his meeting with the young refugees 'a life-altering encounter', carried out to highlight the importance of education for children displaced by war.

Looking to the future: Maram, 16, says she is a dreamer, just like Cinderella, and she believes in a brighter tomorrow. She loves children, and she takes care of most of the younger boys and girls the camp in Akkar, Lebanon. Her dream is to become a children's nurse

Heading for the stage: 'We had the most delightful experience with Aya, aged six,' Saint Hoax writes. 'After we took her pictures, she sneaked into her house and changed into another dress. Ten minutes later, she came back to get her picture taken again. She told us no one took pictures of me yet. Of course we recognized her, but we took more pictures of her anyway. She loves being in front of the camera, and her dream is to become an actress. Beauty and the Beast is Ayas favorite fairytale. She styled her hair to look like Belle'

Future teachers: Bayan, 12, chose the pink Sleeping Beauty dress because it reminded her of a similar dress that she once had, before she and her family fled their home in Syria three years ago, forcing them to leave everything behind. Raghad, 12, loves Frozen because it highlights the relationship between two sisters. She's extremely attached to her sister and would do anything to protect her, just like Queen Elsa in the film. Mona, aged, 11, has two favorite princesses; Jasmine and Belle. Jasmine for sharing her own heritage, and Belle because of her intelligence. Both princesses are strong and adventurous and Mona relates to that. Bayan, Raghad and Mona all met in the camp three years ago, and have been close friends ever since. Their dream is to become teachers

Heartbreaking: 'Two-year-old Hiba was born in the camp in Lebanon. She has never been to Syria and this is the only life she has ever known. She has never watched Disney's Cinderella film but her parents told her the story. When we showed her the Cinderella dress, she chose it out of all the other dresses. This was the first time that Hiba got to put on a costume and play pretend'

Growing up on the run: Manar and Wouroud are both 20, and met in the Akkar camp two years ago. Sleeping Beauty was the first fairytale that Manar ever read, and has been her favourite since. Her dream is to become a doctor. Wouroud loves Snow White's calmness and kindness. She's fascinated with other cultures and her dream is to become a sociologist. Manar and Wouroud consider their friendship to be the best thing that came out of this war, and they both work as teachers in the camp
She spoke of experiences after releasing book Shadows of the Promise

Woman says she has now forgiven her mother for not believing them

Brother later took his own life due to the trauma of his suffering

They told the mother but she did not believe them until man was convicted

A woman who was raped and abused by her step-father has forgiven her mother for standing by the paedophile.

Dawn Phillips, from Hailsham, Sussex, was four years old when Bob Lambird first started sexually abusing her.

For more than 11 years, he committed horrific sex acts on her and older brother Mark.

But their ordeal was made all the worse when their mother, Anne, believed Lambird over her own children and accused them of making up the sex claims.

Dawn Phillips has forgiven her mother Anne Hooper (together left) for failing to believe her when, as a girl, she accused her paedophile step-father, Bob Lambird, of abuse

Lambird was later jailed for the sex abuse and - three decades after she was put through the abuse - Ms Phillips, now 48, has forgiven her mother.

Ms Phillips told this week how she was put through 11 years of hell at the hands of Lambird, until she left home aged 15.

Her brother Mark took his own life at the age of 48 because he was unable to deal with the abuse he had suffered.

Speaking this week, Ms Phillips, now a teacher, said: 'For 11 years Bob tormented mine and my brothers lives, it was horrific and unforgettable but I'm glad now that me and my mum have been able to move on with our lives.

'For a long time I was very angry at her for not believing us when we told her that Bob was sexually abusing us, but now I've been able to forgive her and we have a very strong relationship.

'He would sneak into my bedroom and touch me or himself, it started when I was four years old.

'While the abuse was happening I'd have out of body experiences and leave to the point I wasn't there anymore and in my mind it wasn't happening.'

She endured years of abuse at Lambird's hands but was not believed by her mother when she told her

Her brother Mark (pictured with Ms Williams in adulthood) took his own life because of what he went through

She continued: 'It was like living two different lives, during the day I had a normal life and at night time I was being constantly abused.

'When I was 11, I finally had the courage to tell my mum what was happening but instead of her believing me all hell broke loose, it was the worst day of my life.

'She was horrified about how we could say such thing after he'd looked after us for so many years.

'From there I realised there was no point telling anyone else and Bob twisted the knife by reminding me, "I told you no one would believe you".

'The abuse didn't stop then, it carried on, and when he was nearly caught in our rooms he'd make an excuse like looking for his dog or needing to go into the safe.

Ms Phillips moved to the US after leaving home in her teens, but returned to report Lambird to the police after hearing he had moved in with a woman who had a young daughter.

Ms Phillips, pictured as a girl, reported Lambird to police when she discovered he was living with another girl

Ms Williams and her mother became closer after the tragic death of Mark (pictured) after Lambird was jailed

She said: 'I couldn't bear to think he'd do it again, within days I'd flown back to the UK to report him to the police.

'I knew if I didn't he'd just destroy another girl's life and I couldn't bear to think that would happen.'

In March 1994, Maidstone Crown Court sentenced Lambird to six years imprisonment after being found guilty of 17 sex crimes. He died in prison two years later aged 57.

To the outside world Limbird was a charming landlord, but by night he was preying on Ms Phillips and her brother.

Ms Phillips said: 'I always knew my brother was being abused too, but we never spoke about it.

'I would see Bob's shadow hover outside my bedroom and some nights notice him disappear into Mark's room.

'It sounds horrible and I feel guilty for saying this but in some ways it was a relief when he went into Mark's room because for one night I knew he wouldn't be abusing me.'

After Mark's tragic death, Ms Phillips and her mother became closer and she has now told of her experiences in a book called Shadows of the Promise.

Ms Phillips (pictured, left with her partner Clinton) has now written a book about her horrific experiences

Anne Hooper, 69, the mother of Dawn and Mark, said: 'Dawn and I are really close now, we've bonded as mother and daughter, we live together and share everything, we're like best friends.

'Bob was a very cunning manipulator, he convinced me that Dawn and Mark were lying and that they were against him because he was their step-dad and not their real father.

'I feel so guilty that I let my children down, that was devastating, I felt mortified. I should have known they were telling the truth, I didn't want to believe them.

'Bob pulled the wool over my eyes and I didn't protect my precious children from him, I will live with the guilt for the rest of my life.'
Amira Behari (pictured) wore a long leather coat and gloves as well as her traditional Islamic garb

A Muslim woman who refused to remove her burka to testify against a man accused of abusing her has been warned by a German judge she will be jailed if she does not comply.

Amira Behari, 43, refused to reveal her face at the State Court in Munich last year when she appeared to testify against a man who allegedly abused her in a train station.

The man, identified only as Kai.O, allegedly called her an 'a******e' and told her to 'go back to where you belong.'

Judge Thomas Mueller said at the original hearing in November he wanted to see her face to 'read her emotions,' adding: 'I need to see you otherwise there will be considerable problems in adjudicating your case.'

Behari refused, saying: 'I have a God at the end of the world who will see me right at the end. I will not do this.'

In court she wore a niqab, which is an ultra-burka with only a gap for the eyes. She also wore gloves and a long leather coat.

Judge Mueller gave up and said he had no alternative but to find the accused not guilty.

But his decision enraged judges anjd prosecutors in Germany who appealed the decision and have now scheduled the case again for next week.

The prosecutor's office in Munich consulted with Koranic experts who said it was permissible for a woman to remove her niqab before the judicial authorities such as judges, police, prosecutors on the basis of needs and damage prevention.'

If she fails to comply on March 17, she faces a fine or even a spell in jail.
A man who used a device to shut down cellphones on his commuter train has been charged with a felony.

Dennis Nicholl, 63, claims he bought the phone jammer out of desperation for a quieter ride to work on Chicago's subway every day.

Using the device, which looks like a walkie talkie with six antennae, Nicholl would shut down the signal on every phone in his vicinity.

He was arrested on Tuesday on the train platform, months after enraged commuters spotted the device in his hand, took a photograph, and posted it online.

Now, Nicholl, a financial analyst at the University of Illinois Hospital, faces jail time and a fine of up to $100,000 for using the jammer, which is illegal to buy or use as they can shut off police radios and block emergency calls.

Dennis Nicholl, a financial analyst at the University of Illinois Hospital, faces jail time and a fine of up to $100,000 for using the jammer, which is illegal to buy or use as they can shut off cop radios and block 911 calls

Phone jammers, which are sold online in China for $30 to $300, interrupt cell service by transmitting its own signal at the same frequency.

When the two signals meet, they void each other out.

Although cell phones are designed to overpower most interruptions, phone jammers are too forceful to get past.

They were initially designed by the military to block out surrounding phones signals in negotiations or hostage crises.

Some can block signals as far as five miles away, hitting WiFi, GPS, and even aircraft.

Nicholl's antics were first spotted by accountant Aaron Robison, who witnessed Nicholl on the Brown Line drinking beer and holding a bizarre device.

Robison told the Chicago Tribune he saw Nicholl scowl at someone speaking on their cellphone and within seconds all phone signal went out.

'I think he liked the feeling of being in control of the car,' Robison told the Tribune. 'It's kind of a digital 'stay off my lawn, you young people with your cellphones.'

'He's disturbed by people talking around him,' attorney Charles Lauer said.

'He might have been selfish in thinking about himself, but he didn't have any malicious intent.'

Nicholl was released on Wednesday after posting $10,000 bail.
He took man, woman and baby hostage; one of the adults shot him at 7am

McCloud broke into a family home in the search area on Thursday at 4am

Police searched the city for seven days with helicopters and dogs

A capital murder suspect who escaped from a Mississippi jail last week has been shot dead by one of the people he had taken hostage, reports claim.

Rafael McCloud, 33, escaped from the Warren County jail in Vicksburg last Wednesday after attacking a jail guard with a shank and donning his uniform.

A week later, at 4.30am on Thursday, he broke into a family's home and took a man, woman and child hostage.

But at around 7am, the man managed to find a gun and shoot McCloud dead in their bathtub, police told the Vicksburg Post.

The husband, who has not been identified, was taken to Merit Health River Region Medical Center with non-life-threatening stab wounds as police removed the body from the home in the Fort Hill neighborhood.

His wife was hit in the head but was not injured and did not need treatment,' police said.

Scroll down for video

Rafael McCloud, 33, escaped from the Warren County jail in Vicksburg last Wednesday after attacking a jail guard and donning his uniform

Vicksburg police carry McCloud's body out of the home where he was shot by a homeowner after holding a man, woman and toddler hostage for almost three hours on Thursday morning

McCloud had been in jail since January, charged with the kidnap, rape and murder of Sharon Wilson, 69, whose badly beaten body was found dumped in an abandoned hospital last year. Pictured: his body being removed

'This is certainly not how we wanted this to end,' Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said, according to the Post.

'Our goal was to take him back into custody and have him stand before a jury in Warren County. But he brought this upon himself.

'We are incredibly relieved this family was not seriously injured and they were able to protect themselves this morning,' Pace said.

McCloud broke in when the husband left the door open as he went to start his wife's car.

According to the Post, the couple fought McCloud but he eventually overpowered them and tied them up.

Almost three hours later, the husband managed to break free from the rope, find a gun, and shoot McCloud who was in the bathroom. His body was found in the bathtub.

'It's been a long week for this community and we appreciate the cooperation of the public as we have pursued this community.'

He added that police believe McCloud had help evading authorities during his week at large.

'He had on tennis shoes; nice, white tennis shoes and a pair of blue jeans, so there is some indication someone has been helping him or he stole those items. But the shoes looked to be the exact size he wears,' Pace said.

The home was at the center of the police search, but McCloud had eluded officers until he was shot.

He had been in jail since January, charged with the kidnap, rape and murder of Sharon Wilson, 69, whose badly beaten body was found dumped in an abandoned hospital last year.

But on March 2, he escaped his cell by taking a jail guard hostage with a homemade shank - a crude knife made from a piece of metal - and forcing the jailer to give him his clothes.

According to Pace, McCloud 'forced the guard to disrobe and then put on his clothes' then 'held the shank against the guard' as they went downstairs before McCloud left through a side door.

He said that McCloud also took a radio and keys. Both items were recovered later in the grounds of the jail, as were McCloud's orange jail shoes.

Dozens of officers, including the department's K-9 officer Thor, were involved in the search, along with multiple units from the county sheriff's department.

During the search, police issued a warning to locals, saying McCloud was 'armed and desperate and extremely dangerous'.

Schools in western Mississippi were locked down as authorities searched on foot and in helicopters.

Initially, police were concentrating the search along Martin Luther King Boulevard, about a half mile northeast of the jail and around the area where McCloud once lived.

McCloud was being held for the kidnapping and slaying of 69-year-old Sharon Wilson, who police say was badly beaten and raped before her death last June.

Her body was dumped at Kuhn Memorial Hospital, an abandoned hospital building.

She was found by ghost hunters who told police they noticed a trail of blood, according to WLBT.

He faced charges for capital murder, sexual battery, rape, arson, home invasion, weapon possession by felon, grand larceny auto theft and burglary, according to court records.

During the search, police issued a warning to locals, saying he was 'armed, desperate, extremely dangerous'

Initially, police were concentrating the search along Martin Luther King Boulevard, about a half mile northeast of the jail and around the area where McCloud once lived. Pictured: officers during the land and air search

Sheriff Pace led officers into a home in Vicksburg while on the hunt for McCloud
A Donald Trump supporter arrested for punching a black protester in the face has said he 'might have to kill' the demonstrator if he sees him again.

John McGraw, 78, was caught on camera hitting Rakeem Jones, 26, as the protester was escorted out of a Trump rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Wednesday.

Before he was arrested, McGraw told Inside Edition that he assaulted Jones because 'we dont know if hes ISIS'.

Embed Code:

A Donald Trump supporter punched Rakeem Jones, a black protester, in the face in an 'unprovoked' attack during a rally yesterday

Rakeem Jones (in a white shirt) was among a group of protesters leaving the rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, yesterday when John McGraw, wearing a cowboy hat, struck him in the head

The attacker, whose has been identified as John McGraw, 78, was this morning charged with battery and disorderly conduct

The Trump fan was arrested today and charged with battery and disorderly conduct, WRAL reported.

But yesterday, as he left the Cabarrus Arena, McGraw was asked why he attacked Jones.

'Well, number one, we dont know if hes ISIS. We dont know who he is, but we know hes not acting like an American and cussing me  and sticking his face in my head. If he wants it laid out, I laid it out.

'He deserved it,' McGraw added. 'The next time we see him, we might have to kill him. We dont know who he is. He might be with a terrorist organization.

'You bet I liked it. Clocking the hell out of that big mouth.'

McGraw, who was wearing a cowboy hat, attacked the Jones in plain sight of police - but it was the protester who ended up being taken down by cops.

Neither were detained at the scene but McGraw was arrested and charged the next day.

Footage of the attack shows Jones walking up a set of steps to leave the arena and giving the crowd the finger.

At that moment, McGraw turns and hits the demonstrator in the face.

Jones is seen walking away from the protester and does not appear to retaliate, but the footage later shows a group of police officers wrestling the 26-year-old to the ground.

The footage shows Jones walking up a set of steps to leave the arena and giving the crowd the finger before he is punched

Jones said he was with a group of anti-Trump protesters which included a Muslim and a gay man

Police are investigating why the protester was taken down by police, but not the attacker.

'Boom, he caught me,' Jones told the Washington Post.

'After I get it, before I could even gain my thoughts, I'm on the ground getting escorted out. Now I'm waking up this morning looking at the news and seeing me getting hit again.'

Jones said he was with a group of anti-Trump protesters which included a Muslim and a gay man.

He said he did shout during Trump's speech, but that a woman in his group did, drawing anger from the crowd.

'She shouted, but at the same time, they were shouting too. Everyone was shouting, too. No one in our group attempted to get physical,' Jones said.

It is not the first time a protester has been attacked at a Trump rally, and Jones blamed the police for not stopping the assault.

'It's happening at all these rallies now and they're letting it ride. The police jumped on me like I was the one swinging,' he said.

'My eye still hurts. It's just shocking. The shock of it all is starting to set in. It's like this dude really hit me and they let him get away with it. I was basically in police custody and got hit.'

Musician Ronnie Rouse, who was with Jones at the rally, claimed the group were racially abused by Trump supporters.

Rouse said someone shouted 'go home n*****s' as they were led up the stairs by police officers.

'I wanted to take my 11-year-old child, to give him a touch of what's happening political-wise. I'm glad I didn't. I've never been more embarrassed to be from here in my life. It's just appalling,' he said.

Cumberland County Sheriff's Office and Fayetteville Police Department both said its officers were not the ones who detained the men, who were not arrested.

Jones is seen walking away from the protester and does not appear to retaliate, but the footage later shows a group of police officers wrestling the 26-year-old to the ground

Cumberland County Sheriff's Office and Fayetteville Police Department both said its officers were not the ones who detained the men, who were not arrested

Donald Trump was speaking at a campaign rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, yesterday when the assault took place

Trump's rally was disturbed 17 times yesterday, but The Donald refused to be stopped by the demonstrations.

'Go home to mommy and have her tuck you into bed,' Trump said to one protester as he was led out the arena.

The presidential hopeful then mocked a woman after she tripped as she was thrown out by cops saying she probably would blame him or sue the venue.

The protesters including one African-American woman who screamed about 'white privilege' while wearing a T-shirt that read: 'Dear White AmeriKKKA: I'm unapologetically black!'

Law enforcement wrestled with her and another woman because they initially refused to leave.

Cumberland County Sheriff's Deputy Sean Swain said afterward that the pair were charged with trespassing because they resisted.

'When Trump staff or Event One staff tells you you have to go, and you don't go, you get charged with trespassing,' he said.

They were issued misdemeanor citations and allowed to go home.

At first Trump had derided the protesters as 'nasty' and 'disgusting' but then changed his tune saying he loves them as they make the event fun and allow photographers to capture the size of the crowd as they are removed from the venue.

Dozens of protesters were escorted from the Cabarrus Arena to cheers from the crowd and even Trump

Protesters are removed as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Wednesday

Other anti-Trump activist flipped middle fingers, grabbed their crotches and dropped F-bombs. A protester is escorted from the arena above

The attack is not the first to target black protesters at Trump rallies.

Last night a Korean war veteran who was filmed repeatedly shoving a black woman in the back to eject her from a Trump speech in Kentucky insisted he was not a racist.

Footage shows Alvin Bamberger, 75, pushing University of Louisville student Kayisha Nwanguma out of the political event at Kentucky International Convention Center on March 1.

'I physically pushed a young woman down the aisle toward the exit, an action I sincerely regret,' Bamberger wrote in a letter to Larry Kinard, president of the Korean War Veterans Association (KWVA), Military.com reported.

Multiple videos recorded at the event show Bamberger, in KWVA uniform, pushing Nwanguma in the back and shouting: 'Get out of here! 'We don't want you here!'

In one video Nwanguma, who is trying to type something into her phone, can be seen telling Bamberger to 'stop pushing', but the former soldier continues to shove her until a white man wearing a 'Make America Great Again' hat intervenes.

Shoved: Alvin Bamberger (left), a Korean War veteran, was filmed shoving student Kayisha Nwanguma (right) during a March 1 Trump rally in Louisville, Kentucky. Bamberger says he 'sincerely regrets his actions

Shouting: Bamberger shouted 'Get out of here' at Nwanguma, who was protesting the rally. He says he was emotional after being pushed over in a conflict between Black Lives Matter supporters and white supremacists

Nwanguma appears to return to Bamberger, seemingly to take a selfie with him over her shoulder, before leaving. Bamberger does not push her again.

However, as she walks away, other members of the crowd appear to begin attacking her.

'I have embarrassed myself, my family, and veterans,' Bamberger wrote in the letter, which was not made public but was acquired by the WSCH radio station in Lawrence, Kansas.

'This was a very unfortunate incident and it is my sincere hope that I can be forgiven for my actions.'

Bamberger, who claims to belong to the Aurora, Indiana, KWVA chapter, says that his actions were not motivated by racism, but that he had become emotional after being shoved to the ground earlier.
A 23-year-old Ukrainian who posed as a 17-year-old high school student threatened to kill his classmates, his adoptive parents have claimed.

Stephayne and Michael Potts said Artur Samarin - who was known at Harrisburg High School in Pennsylvania as Asher Potts - talked about blowing up the school and picked out specific kids he wanted to hurt.

The pair say they contacted the FBI in November 2015 about the threats, months before his true identity was revealed.

Scroll down for video

A 23-year-old Ukrainian Artur Samarin (mugshot left and at school right), who who posed as a 17-year-old high school student, threatened to kill his classmates, his adoptive parents have claimed

He has been charged with identity fraud and has also been accused of having sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 22.

His adoptive mother, Stepayne, told FOX 43: 'He made comments about other shootings, and he told us that everyone would know his name.

'He said his name would be the biggest in the world. He started talking about certain kids in school he wanted to hurt. He started talking about blowing he school up.

Michael added: 'We gave him everything we had. We borrowed. We did everything we could to help him.'

Samarin's attorney, Adam Klein, said Potts' parents claims were 'full of lies.' Klein added there has been no indication that Samarin had a violent past.

'Up until the time he was arrested, he was an upstanding student,' Klein said. 'She is trying to paint herself as the victim. One would only need to look at her criminal history to see she is a con artist.'

Two weeks ago, the baby-faced Samarin was arrested on charges of identity theft, statutory sexual assault and corruption of minors - a development that drew shocked responses from those who knew him through his participation in a school military program, his academic excellence and his acceptance to a prestigious flight school.

Stephayne and Michael Potts (pictured with him) said Samarin - who was known at Harrisburg High School in Pennsylvania as Asher Potts - talked about blowing up the school and picked out kids he wanted to hurt

The pair say they contacted the FBI in November 2015 about the threats, months before his true identity was revealed

'My understanding is his motives were pure coming over here, and given his time at John Harris (High School), no one had a complaint about him,' said Klein.

'Until that's proven differently, that's my feeling at this point - that he came here to do what many immigrants do, to take part in the American dream.'

Following his arrest, Samarin told the station WHTM that he had no regrets about passing himself off as a teenager to get quality education but claimed that it was not his idea, but rather that of his adoptive parents, Michael and Stephayne Potts, with whom he lived for much of the past four years before moving in months ago with another family.

Samarin said in the phone interview from jail that his birth family pooled money to send him to the US 'for a better life'. After his visa ran out in 2013, he said, the Pottses helped him obtain a birth certificate and a fake Social Security card in the name of Asher Potts.

He explained that his adoptive parents came up with the idea to knock five years off his age because at the age of 20, they would not have been able to adopt him.

In the same interview, Samarin accused the couple of using his illegal immigration status as leverage to pressure him into acting like their house servant.

'Everything they ask of me, I could not tell them no,' he told the station.

Court records state the couple 'conspired with' Samarin in faking his way through high school, but they have not been charged.

Their lawyer, Corky Goldstein, said on Thursday it was the Pottses who first alerted authorities about Samarin by contacting the FBI months ago.

He has been charged with identity fraud and has also been accused of having sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 22

Goldstein would not say why the couple made the decision to blow the whistle on their adoptive son, but said that they thought he was younger than he is and that they did not know he was having sex with the girl. They deny his claim he was forced to work for them.

'She thought she was helping a young man who was being persecuted in his country, the Ukraine, by the Russians,' Goldstein said. 'They opened up their home to him.'

Goldstein strongly contested Samarin's claims that the Pottses had taken advantage of him and used him as free labor.

'They had nothing to gain [from Samarin],' Goldstein told PennLive.com. 'She [Stephayne] did all the cooking. They bought him clothes and took care of him. They even bought him plane tickets' to visit colleges.

The lawyer also denied that Samarin's adoptive parents, who have been struggling to make ends meet and have been evicted multiple times over the past four years, took the Ukrainian youth into their home for financial gain.

They wanted to do the right thing for him, whether they were right or wrong, Goldstein said. If they did anything improper or illegal, they're willing to own up to whatever she did... If charges are filed, she will turn herself in.

Samarin had left the Pottses and was living in a shelter several months ago when Waleed McClintock and his family let him move in with them in nearby Middletown.

McClintock said he was troubled by what he and his wife saw of the Pottses' relationship with Samarin and equally impressed by the young man's drive.

Samarin's attorney, Adam Klein, said Potts' parents claims were 'full of lies.' Klein added there has been no indication that Samarin had a violent past. He is pictured being inducted onto the National Honor Roll by Republican Patty Kim

Samarin, who shared a bedroom with McClintock's 17-year-old son, would rise before 5am to get a bus to school. He took college-level classes at night and also worked at a grocery store.

'This is the worst that Ukraine has to offer? OK, you can ship another busload over here,' McClintock said Thursday. 'He was a very impressive young man. He was respectful and intelligent and seemed to have a plan for his life.'

He said Samarin was slight of build, disappearing beneath a hand-me-down coat. He told McClintock little about his past or his family.

'We never pried,' he said. 'We simply wanted to offer a safe space to be in.'

In the interview, before he was charged with sexual assault, Samarin appeared to admit the identity theft allegations.

'What can I say? I did abuse the system. Yes I did,' Samarin told WHTM. 'I did use this identity, and it's the law.'

Police said that by the time Samarin's tourist visa expired in March 2013, he already nearly finished his freshman year at John Harris, better known as Harrisburg High School, despite having attended two years of college in Ukraine.

'By all accounts he was an excellent student,' Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico said. 'He was involved in the community, he was in the ROTC program, he did community service.'

He excelled in his studies, earning a 4.16 GPA by May 2014, was inducted into the National Honor Society and set his sights on a doctorate in aerospace engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida.

The school rescinded Samarins acceptance last week, PennLive reported.

The mayor of Harrisburg at the time pronounced October 27, 2013, as Asher Potts Day to recognize his accomplishments; he was a student representative to the school board; and he was third runner-up for a spot on the homecoming court, Pennlive.com reported.

Samarin's mother, Victoria Samarina, emailed WHTM from Ukraine this week after finding news accounts about him that confirmed her fears he might be in trouble. She said she was sure he could not have done anything wrong.

'I'm sure that he could not do anything wrong. I know that he just wanted to get a good education I could not help to get him here,' she wrote. 'Please convey to him that I love him very much; he's my dearest person in the world.'
Carly Fiorina, Ted Cruz's newest surrogate, went after Donald Trump on the morning shows suggesting that he's 'peddling a big lie' while mocking some of the businessman's recent publicity stunts.

Trump, said Fiorina, who made a surprise endorsement of Cruz at a rally in Florida yesterday, is 'being revealed over time and under pressure,' the businesswoman said this morning on CNN's New Day, hinting that The Donald is a fraud.

'He might want to talk about his steaks and his vodka,' she said, recalling the billionaire's slightly bizarre press conference Tuesday in which he brought out an assortment of Trump-branded products for reporters to see.

'Ted Cruz is going to talk about the issues and what the American people need to hear,' Fiorina continued.

Scroll down for video

Carly Fiorina spent her morning playing surrogate for Sen. Ted Cruz and going after GOP frontrunner Donald Trump for a number of reasons

Carly Fiorina (left) brought up Donald Trump's vodka, steaks and loyalty pledge and contrasted those antics with Ted Cruz, who she said wanted to stick to the issues

The former Hewlett-Packard CEO also went after Trump for making supporters take a loyalty pledge at his rallies.

'He's not in it for the little guy, he's in it for himself,' she said. 'That's why he asks his supporters to take a loyalty pledge to him.'

'Ted Cruz said yesterday in his rally, that's exactly backward, and Ted Cruz is right,' she continued.

'The president of the United States, when he raises his hand and takes an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, is pledging loyalty to this nation and to its citizens,' she added.

Fiorina, who left the race a month ago, after a dismal performance in the New Hampshire primary, added that she didn't necessarily miss the bustle of the campaign trail.

'You know, I like the campaign trail, but I have to say, when I got a month at home, it was pretty sweet too,' she said.

Sen. Ted Cruz (left) yesterday got a surprise endorsement from former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina (right) as she stood alongside him at a Florida rally in advance of Tuesday's primary

Carly Fiorina left the campaign trail a month ago, after a dismal showing in the New Hampshire primary, and said this morning on CNN that she didn't mind the month off

Over on Morning Joe, things got  as host Mika Brzezinski put it  a little 'spicy' as Fiorina suggested that the media was responsible for the rise of Donald Trump.

Fiorina was confronted with a question from Yahoo! News' Bianna Golodryga, a question that all the other Republican candidates were asked at the conclusion of the last GOP debate  would Fiorina support Trump if he becomes the nominee.

The former Hewlett-Packard CEO bristled.

'Well, look, I have said all along that I will support our Republican nominee, but here is a news flash,' Fiorina said. 'The media has given Donald Trump more air time, all outlets of the media, more time than anyone else combined, I guess, because foo of you think he is going to be our nominee.'

'Here is the thing: you don't make the call. The voters make the call,' Fiorina said.

At that, Brzezinksi interjected and said she didn't think the media thinks it's 'their call.'

The MSNBC host, who has taken some flack along with co-host Joe Scarborough for being too cozy with the Republican frontrunner, said that Trump 'goes on any show he can get on.'

'I think he's been asked the tough questions, I really do,' Brzezinski said. 'And it's his answers that apparently voters are OK with.'

In response, Fiorina pointed out that the cable channels broadcast Trump's press conference on Tuesday night in full, but didn't play up Cruz's win in Idaho and the fact that the Texas senator blew past neighboring Gov. John Kasich, of Ohio, in Michigan to take second place.

Trump won three of four states that night.

Doubling down on her example, Brzezinki brought up some of the more controversial comments that Trump has made about Muslims, including his proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the United States.

Trump also said that 'Islam hates us' in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper that aired last night.

Carly Fiorina had a much more heated exchange when she went on Morning Joe to talk Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. She said Trump's momentum was created by the media

Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski (left) dressed down Carly Fiorina (right) when she tried to compare Donald Trump's Muslim ban to President Obama and Hillary Clinton's support of the Black Lives Matter movement

'I'm certainly not saying the voters are stupid, I'm just telling you that in some exit polls, I think it was 66 to 70 percent of voters, agree with the Muslim ban,' Brzezinski said.

'Well, you know, Mika, people are afraid, OK?' Fiorina replied.

The former presidential candidate tried turning it back on the Democrats saying that President Obama and Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton are 'OK with protests that shout, you know, fry the pigs like bacon, but they don't ever comment on cops getting assassinated in their own cars.'

'Does that mean that every Democrat hates cops?' the Republican asked, noting that a lot of America's police officers don't feel like the administration has their backs in the wake of the 'Black Lives Matter' movement.

'I have never seen the president of the United States, Barack Obama, go out and say more divisive things than this candidate,' Brzezinski inserted, pointing a finger at Trump. 'Like purposefully divisive, purposefully not true. OK? Let's not parallel them.'

At that, Fiorina returned to her original point, that she didn't want to see Trump as the next president of the United States.
Two other men, aged 19 and 18, received shorter sentences for robbery

Knife pierced victim in the heart, which the judge ruled as manslaughter

Nzeh tried to swipe laptop and pulled a knife when Mr Adegbite fought back

Three men known for violent Gumtree robberies turned up to the sale

Mr Adegbite agreed to meet Nzeh in north London to sell his MacBook

A robber who stabbed an aspiring model in the heart as he attempted to steal the 1,000 laptop he was selling on Gumtree was jailed for 21 years and six months today.

Michael Adegbite, 28, fought back when the supposed buyers tried to swipe his Apple MacBook when they met on a street in Enfield, north London on July 19 last year.

But Christopher Nzeh, 18, pulled out a hunting knife and stabbed the personal trainer, who also worked as a teaching assistant, through the heart, leaving him to bleed to death in the street.

Montel Ajayi, 19, Isaac Owen-Brady, 18 and Nzeh, all admitted to planning to rob the victim - and all three were known to have carried out a series of violent robberies on Gumtree users previously.

Victim: Michael Adegbite, 28, pictured, was stabbed to death in Enfield, North London, on July 19 last year after robbers attempted to steal his 1,000 Apple MacBook

Nzeh was convicted of his manslaughter and all three men were cleared of murder.

Jailing the serial Gumtree robbers for a total of 34 years, Old Bailey Judge Paul Worsley QC said: I do find you have all been prepared, in the past, to use violence on those you have set out to rob and you have taken weapons to the scene.

Those who go armed with knives to commit robbery, whether or not they are used in the course of a robbery, will inevitably attract high sentences.

That is underlined when the victim is targeted and the robbery takes part in his home.

The judge sentenced Nzeh to a total of 21 and a half years for robbery, possession of a knife and manslaughter, telling him: You produced a knife from your waist, opened it out, then thrust it deep into the chest of Michael, piercing his heart.

The jury have concluded that you alone were responsible for the death of Michael.

He was only 28 years old. He was a model and a personal trainer. He had his whole life ahead of him.

He did not deserve to die alone in the street as he did.

Ajayi, who the jury found did not know a knife was going to be taken to the scene, was jailed for five years for robbery and Owen-Brady was handed a 12-year sentence for robbery, possession of a knife and a similar robbery on a 16-year-old.

Before targeting Mr Adegbite, Nzeh and Ajayi ambushed a man selling his iPad in May 2014, punching him repeatedly before grabbing the electronic device.

Owen-Brady was also involved in a previous Gumtree robbery, in March 2014, when a victim was stabbed in the back for his XBox games console.

Prosecutor Simon Mayo QC said all three men knew things might turn violent when they planned their next robbery on Mr Adegbite, who was a teaching assistant at Heathcote School in Chingford, Greater London, at the time.

The victim, along with friend Mohammed Umer, had arranged to meet a buyer in a car park near to Turkey Street train station, in Enfield.

Mr Umer tearfully recalled how they knew something was not right when three men instead of one turned up for the trade.

After a quick inspection of the laptop, Nzeh pulled out a large folding knife and told Ajayi and Owen-Brady: Lets go.

I thought they were going to take off with the MacBook computer if we didnt try to stop them, Mr Umer told the court.

Within moments, the defendant Christopher Nzeh had taken out the knife he was carrying, opened it to expose the blade and he then plunged it into Mr Adegbites chest Prosecutor Simon Mayo QC

They snatched back the laptop and locked themselves in the car, despite Owen-Bradys efforts to prise the window open.

The planned robbery was unsuccessful as Mr Adegbite and his friends stood their ground and resisted the defendants efforts to rob them, said Mr Mayo.

Realising that Mr Adegbite was not going to be a push-over, the defendants left the scene empty-handed.

Understandably upset and irritated by what the defendants had done, Mr Adegbite and his friends decided to try to follow the defendants in the hope that they might be better able to identify them.

Mr Adegbite summoned Phillip Omotoshi, another friend who lived nearby to help track them down.

Having now armed himself with a metal pole, Mr Adegbite spotted the robbers running along nearby Lackmore Road, Enfield, and got out of the car to confront them.

While taking that iron bar with him might not have been the wisest course of action, it was perhaps understandable in the light of the fact that he had been threatened with that rather nasty looking knife just minutes before, said Mr Mayo.

Within moments the defendant Christopher Nzeh had taken out the knife he was carrying, opened it to expose the blade and he then plunged it into Mr Adegbites chest.

As a result he suffered a wound to his heart, he rapidly collapsed and died shortly after.

Mr Umer, who was just second behind his friend, said he saw Nzeh swing the knife once.

It was just one movement and he moved away backwards, he said.

The other two moved as well backwards.

Michael walked around the back of the car and then I couldnt see him.

The Old Bailey heard that all three men on trial had committed violent robberies on people selling items on Gumtree before they attacked Mr Adegbite

Mr Umer said he then walked around and found his friend lying on the pavement.

He was on the ground - he was lying on his back with his arms out.

I could see blood coming out of his t-shirt near his chest.

Mr Omotosho said Mr Adegbite was a normally peaceful and fun-loving man, but had felt violated by the attempted robbery.

Im not sure what got into his head, that he just saw red when we went past them, he said.

Its stupidly out of character, its stupid, extremely out of character - it doesnt make sense.

The robbers, who were seen running from the scene of the stabbing, were snared after their fingerprints were found on the laptop and Mr Adegbites car window.

Ajayi, of Waltham Cross, Herts, Owen-Brady, of Enfield, and Nzeh, of Hitchin, Herts, all denied and were acquitted of murder

Ajayi and Owen-Brady also denied possessing an article with a blade or a point, namely a folding knife.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee endorsed his colleague Sen. Ted Cruz this afternoon in Miami.

'It's time for us to recognize that we don't have to settle anymore,' Lee said, speaking to reporters in the 'spin room' set up for tonight's Miami GOP debate.

The endorsement, Cruz's first from the Senate, will allow Cruz to dodge one of Donald Trump's favorite attack lines  that the Texas lawmaker is universally despised on Capitol Hill  but will also be a blow to Sen. Marco Rubio's struggling campaign.

'I'm sending the signal that it's time to unite,' Lee said. 'The time has finally come, the time is finally at hand when we Republicans need to unite behind one leader.'

Lee said that he had informed Rubio of his decision in a 'private conversation' as the two talk regularly.

Lee then suggested that the Florida senator drop out of the presidential race.

'If Sen. Rubio were asking me that, I would encourage him and I do encourage him to get behind Ted Cruz,' Lee said.

Sen. Mike Lee endorsed his friend and colleague Ted Cruz today from Florida signaling to other Republicans that it's 'time to unite'

Sen. Ted Cruz (left) got a boost today from his colleague Sen. Mike Lee (right) who endorsed the senator and called on the Republican party to follow his lead

Turning to the Republican party's frontrunner, Lee said he didn't come all the way to Florida 'to trash talk any other candidate,' but then explained how he has a lot of outstanding questions 'about what motivates Donald Trump.'

Early on, Lee met with all three of the senators running for president, which at the time also included Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, and said he didn't want to pick sides.

'Look, I'm in an awkward spot because I'm really close to all three of you guys,' Lee reportedly told the trio.

During a December interview with Politico, Lee articulated his embarrassment of riches.

'One of the weirdest things that can happen to a person is to have his three favorite co-workers all running for president of the United States at one time,' Lee said. 'It's just weird.'

More weird, however, has been this campaign cycle, with the rise of Trump, the fall of Paul and Rubio's campaign crumbling away just as he was racking up establishment support in a concerted way.

Cruz, as the candidate himself has said again and again, is starting to look like the strongest candidate to go head-to-head with The Donald, for Republicans who don't want to see the billionaire as their nominee.

Mike Lee stood in front of reporters today in Miami, Florida, before tonight's GOP debate and called on the Republican party to unite behind Sen. Ted Cruz

Sen. Mike Lee, speaking today in Miami, is friends with Sens. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul - and stayed mum on an endorsement until today

So far, Cruz has picked up endorsements from 24 Members of Congress and two governors, his home state governor of Texas, Greg Abbott and Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant.

Yesterday, he picked up the support of ex-candidate and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina.

With Lee at his side, Cruz could start pulling the Senate his way.

One of Trump's earliest attack lines against Cruz, uttered in mid-December long before the gloves between the two candidates came fully off, centered around the Texan's unpopularity in the Senate.

During an interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, Trump suggested that Cruz didn't have the 'temperament' to become the American president.

'When you look at the way he's dealt with the Senate, where he goes in there like, frankly, a little bit like a maniac  you're never going to get things done that way,' Trump said.

As the campaign rolled on and Cruz got the best of Trump in the Iowa caucuses, Trump sharpened those attacks.

'Everybody hates Ted,' Trump said on Fox & Friends in January.

'He's a nasty guy. Nobody likes him. Nobody in Congress likes him. Nobody likes him anywhere once they get to know him,' Trump also told George Stephanopoulos that month.

At today's presser, Lee put some of those attacks to bed, suggesting that more senators' endorsements were coming.

'I expect that will change,' he said of his first-and-only status. 'I am confident that more are on the way.'

As for timing, Lee suggested that Cruz was building momentum.

The Texas senator is the closest in delegates to Trump's 458.

He's 99 behind, receiving 359 from primary contests thus far.

But if Rubio, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich bow out, one national poll this week suggested that Cruz has more support than Trump in a two-man race.
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'.
Martin is accused of losing his temper on second wedding anniversary

Russian pianist was found with head and neck injuries at Manchester home

Natalia Strelchenko, 38, was strangled and beaten to death at her home in Manchester last August

A double bass player accused of murdering his world-renowned pianist wife has told a jury it was 'absolutely ridiculous' to suggest he was jealous of her musical career.

John Martin, 48, is accused of strangling and beating to death Natalia Strelchenko, 38, at their home in Manchester last August, after losing his temper on their second wedding anniversary.

The Norwegian musician denies both murder and manslaughter.

He has also pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of a male youth who cannot be identified for legal reasons.

Giving evidence at Manchester Crown Court, Martin refuted the suggestion that he was envious of his Russian-born wife because her career had taken off, while his had not.

Stuart Denney QC, defending, asked Martin: 'A suggestion was made at the beginning of this case that possibly you were jealous of Natalia's success, is there any truth in that?'

The defendant replied: 'That is absolutely ridiculous. I was never jealous of her career. That is false, totally. I supported her career all the way.

'Her career as a musician, I was actually maybe as much in love with that as Natalia herself. She was absolutely fantastic as a musician. I have no other words.'

Ms Strelchenko, also known as Natalia Strelle, was found with severe head and neck injuries at their home in Newton Heath and died in hospital a short time later.

The Russian musician began playing piano at the age of eight and went on to gain entry to the prestigious St Petersburg State Conservatory.

The Russian musician's husband John Martin (left) is accused of killing her after losing his temper on their second anniversary

She became a world-renowned solo pianist who made her concert debut at the age of 12 with the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra.

Ms Strelchenko moved to Manchester in 2009 following the breakdown of her first marriage three years earlier, before she began a relationship with the defendant in late 2010.

Martin, who trained at the Oslo Conservatoire, said he first met Ms Strelchenko in 2007 when they played together in an orchestra.

Ms Strelchenko began playing piano at the age of eight and went on to gain entry to the prestigious St Petersburg State Conservatory

She was found with severe head and neck injuries at their Newton Heath home (pictured) and was pronounced dead a short time later

He said they became 'good friends' before the relationship developed years later when Martin was still married to his second wife and Ms Strelchenko was a divorcee.

The computer science and maths graduate said he worked for computer giant IBM for nine years in Norway before he decided to become a freelance musician and later moved to Manchester, where he performed in various local ensembles.

Martin, who trained at the Oslo Conservatoire, said he first met Ms Strelchenko in 2007 when they played together in an orchestra

The victim's sister, Julia Strelchenko, had told the jury earlier in the trial that Martin did not want to have another child and initially left when she fell pregnant.

But Martin said he and his wife were both 'very happy' when they learned she was pregnant and said it was her choice to have an abortion.

He said he later became depressed when she complained about him spending time with his two children in Norway from his second marriage.

Asked whether there were domestic problems at their home, he said: 'At the beginning we had this agreement that we should try to keep the house a bit tidy at least.

'I am not the tidiest person myself but unfortunately it developed very bad and I ended up feeling like I was a servant ... simple things like leaving clothes on the floor.

'Trying not to have 100 pairs of shoes in the front entrance. Every time I went out with my double bass I was falling over.'

The defendant says he has no memory of the events of August 30.
The family of the pro-gun poster girl shot by her four-year-old son has dismissed the incident as a freakish accident and staunchly defended their right to bear arms.

In an exclusive interview with Daily Mail Online 31-year-old Jamie Gilts mother, Jane Bramble, 71, tearfully admitted it will be a long road to recovery for her daughter but said that her grandson is doing fine and watching cartoons.

Speaking from the familys rural homestead in Palatka, Florida Mrs Bramble said: It was just a freakish accident, Jamies done nothing wrong.

People are trying to make it into something its not, we are not criminals, we are the victims here.

Jamie, who posts about firearms on her social media accounts, was driving through Putnam County, Florida when her son found her pistol lying on the back seat of her truck and shot his mother in the back.

Only one day earlier she had boasted about her sons shooting prowess claiming he got jacked up before a shooting practice on a page dedicated to her fervent support of the Second Amendment.

Scroll down for video

Jamie Gilt was shot in the back by her son as they drove through Putnam County in Jacksonville Florida

Guilt, 31, was wounded after the .45 caliber round passed through the seat and struck her in the back

Speaking from the familys rural homestead in Palatka, Florida 9left) Mrs Bramble said: It was just a freakish accident, Jamies done nothing wrong.' Her daughter is in stable condition at the University of Florida Hospital in Gainesville

Today Mrs Bramble said: She grew up with guns and I grew up with guns. This is the country  if you see something come onto your property what are you going to do? Shoot it. If I see a rattlesnake come up here Ill blow it to bits. What would you do?

If they try to take our guns from us theyll just go into the hands of criminals. People own guns here, its our way of life  hunting and shooting. But Id still own a gun if I lived in New York City.

Mrs Bramble admitted that the whole family had been shocked and troubled by the shooting that happened on Tuesday morning.

Fighting back emotion she said: Of course Im upset. Just think what could have happened.

But she insisted that her daughter  who may yet face criminal charges of negligence for allowing her gun to fall into her sons hands  had no crime to answer to.

She said: The Sheriff hasnt spoken to her as far as I know. Why would he? And theyve not spoken to him either, she added pointing at her blonde-haired grandson.

As she spoke he held a plastic T-Rex toy up like a gun, taking aim and rapidly pulling the trigger to make it snap.

Mrs Bramble revealed that she did not know when her daughter would be released from the University of Florida Hospital in Gainesville where she was rushed following the incident.

She runs the Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense page on Facebook which promotes Second Amendment rights

She explained: Mark [the boys father] has been at her bedside all the time since it happened and shes in the best care but they wont say when shell get out.

It will be a long road to recovery and this is something that were all united in.

Mrs Bramble went onto read a prepared statement in which the family expressed thanks for all the prayers and support they have received.

She said: Ive had phone calls from people I havent heard from in years. People are being supportive; they know this is our way of life.

Of course you have to be respectful of guns. You cant just get angry and pull your gun on somebody but this was just an accident and we just want to get over it as a family.'

According to CBS47, Gilt was on her way to pick up a horse when the shooting unfolded.

Her four-year-old son picked up a loaded .45 semi-automatic handgun from the back seat, pointed it towards his mother and pulled the trigger.

The powerful round went through the front seat and passed through Gilt's body .

Gilt flagged down a passing Sheriff's deputy and told him that she had been shot.

Deputies recovered a .45 semi-automatic handgun from the floor of the truck. They are satisfied that the round was fired from inside the vehicle.

Gilt and her son had been travelling to pick up a horse from a relative when the accident happened.

Putman County Sheriff's office spokesman Joseph Wells said a deputy noticed a truck with a horse trailer driving erratically: 'As the deputy slowed to check on the vehicle, he observed an adult female in the drivers seat motioning to him as if she needed assistance.

'The deputy ran to the vehicle and quickly determined that the driver had been shot.

'The deputy notified the dispatcher of the situation and Putnam County Fire / Rescue was dispatched.

'The deputy provided first aid until the arrival of paramedics. The victim was transported to University of Florida Health in Gainesville and was last reported to be in stable condition.

'The only other occupant of the vehicle was the victims four-year-old son, who was unharmed.

Deputies confirmed they found a .45 caliber handgun on the back seat of the car following yesterday's incident

Last month, Gilt uploaded an image to her Facebook page upholding her right to protect her child with a gun

Before being transported to the emergency room, the victim told deputies that her son had accidentally shot her.

'The investigation by Major Crimes Unit Detectives and the analysis of the crime scene confirmed that the victim was accidentally shot by the young boy who was sitting in the back seat of the vehicle.

'The young man was reunited with other family members and Putnam County Sheriffs Office Victim Services Specialists continue to work with the family.

'The Florida Department of Children and Family Services are being notified and the investigation into how the child came to be in possession of the handgun is ongoing.'

According the Florida Times Union, the responding deputy noticed the boy was not strapped to the booster seat in the car when he arrived at the scene.

Wells said: 'Were satisfied that this is not a criminal shooting.'
Advertisement

The Great Depression remains one of the darkest periods of American history, and pictures from that time usually reflect the experience.

They are - typically - grainy and black and white, giving a window into time defined by Hoovervilles, around the block unemployment lines, and people waiting for a piece of bread.

Now the Library of Congress has released stunning new photographs that show the period in vivid color, showcasing the strength of families, the recovery of farming and the joys of state fairs as the nation emerged from a dark time.

The photographs stretch out across the USA, with boys fishing and cotton pickers in the South to a starch factory in the East and a corn harvest in the West.

Taken from 1939 to 1941, the pictures show an America just beginning to pull itself out of a financial disaster that sent nearly 15 million Americans into unemployment by 1933.

The photos are a selection from a joint project between the Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information to document American life through pictures taken between 1935 and 1944.

The US began its plunge into one of worst economic disasters of the 20th century after Wall Street plunged on October 24 1929, known as Black Thursday, precipitating the Black Tuesday crash, which sent shock waves around the nation.

The massive plunge in an overheated market was followed by a perfect storm of economic calamity, including the widespread collapse of banks, the rise of mass unemployment and huge movements of people from impoverished agricultural states in search of work.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt's reform measures would eventually go some way towards getting the country back on its feet, but it was in World War II, more than a decade after the crash, that the country's economy would find full relief.

Scroll down for video

Faro and Doris Caudill, homesteaders, on their property in Pie Town, New Mexico in October 1940. The town's name comes from a bakery that was famous for its dried apple pie

Doris passes the biscuits as her family eats dinner in their dugout in 1940. The country had come through the worst of the Depression, but the economy was still shaky

New corn is harvested in a Pie Town field in this picture taken by Russell Lee, who was working on a Farm Security Administration to show how the economic crises had hurt American farmland

Jim Norris stands in his corn field. The photos were part of the FSA's combined project with the Office of War Information to create a photographic record of American life between 1935 and 1944. Images taken from 1939 to 1941 have now been released

A Pie Town woman proudly holds up a quilt she made with a square representing each state

Tying a ribbon on a calf's tail was one of the main attractions at the Pie Town rodeo in late 1940

A horse-and-cart team pulling a car out of the mud on a road near the town, which as of 2010 now has a population of less than 200

North of New Mexico, a man hauls creates of peaches from the orchard to a shipping shed in Delta County, Colorado in 1940

Day laborers fight the sun with hats and bonnets as they pick cotton near Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1939

Four boys sit on a truck parked at an FSA labor camp. One of President Franklin D Roosevelt's reforms, these labor camps provided migratory working families with low-rent housing and free medical care

Migratory workers hang out at a 'juke joint' during a slack season in Belle Glade, Florida in early 1941

Nearly 50 trucks, some waiting for 24 hours, line up for their potatoes to be weighed and graded outside a starch factory in Caribou, Maine

People wait in line as surplus commodities are distributed in St Johns, Arizona in 1940. Pictures like these show that, even as the darkest days of the Great Depression fell behind them, many people still felt its effects until the US entered World War II after Pearl Harbor

Smokebelt: The scale of American industrial might on display in one of the pictures. It was World War II which would finally get the economy booming after the Depression

Men read headlines detailing earthquakes, obituaries and a late 'flying Santa' in Brockton, Massachusetts in 1940

Cajun children fish in a bayou near the school in Terrebonne, an FSA camp in Schriever, Louisiana in the summer of 1940

A family of girls in matching pink patterned dresses glance around the Vermont State Fair in Rutland in late 1941

A carnival barker accepts payment for a woman to see 'Teddy the Wrestling Bear' at the Vermont State Fair in early autumn 1941

Three women pose for the camera backstage at a 'girlie' show at the fair in autumn 1941. Months later, America entered the war

A parent helps lift his children out of a toy plane as it rotates along the track at the Delta County Fair in Colorado, late 1940
The Department of Justice pulled no punches today as it accused Apple of rhetoric which is 'not only false, but also corrosive'.

The tech giant is currently resisting a US Government court order to create software to unlock an iPhone which belonged to one of the San Bernardino terrorists.

The DOJ was responding to claims from Apple that the FBI could force them to turn iPhone cameras and microphones into surveillance devices to spy on users.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

Apple head of services Eddy Cue pictured telling Univision that agreeing to this request could open the floodgates for outlandish demands to allow law enforcement to use Apple as a tool to bypass privacy settings

Apple (led by CEO Tim Cook, above) claims the FBI could force them to turn iPhone cameras into surveillance devices to spy on users

The dispute between Apple and the government burst into the open last month when the Federal Bureau of Investigation obtained a court order requiring Apple to write new software and take other measures to disable passcode protection and allow access to shooter Rizwan Farook's iPhone.

Apple has said the government's request would create a 'back door' to phones that could be abused by criminals and governments, and that Congress hasn't given the Justice Department legal authority to make such a demand.

In the court filing on Thursday, federal prosecutors said Apple's stance was 'corrosive' of institutions best able to safeguard 'our liberty and our rights.' The government also said Apple 'deliberately raised technological barriers' to prevent the execution of a warrant.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Justice Department's new filing.

Head of Services at Apple Eddy Cue warned on Thursday that agreeing to the request to unlock the device could open the floodgates for outlandish demands to allow law enforcement to use Apple as a tool to bypass privacy settings.

Hitting back on Thursday, the Department of Justice filed a court motion that accused Apple of ramping up the security barriers that are keeping the iPhone locked.

The motion branded Apple's stance 'corrosive' of agencies that are trying to protect 'liberty and rights'.

'Someday they will want [Apple] to turn on [a user's] camera or microphone. We can't do that now, but what if we're forced to do that?' Cue said in an interview with Univision on Tuesday.

'Where will this stop? In a divorce case? In an immigration case? In a tax case? Some day, someone will be able to turn on a phone's microphone. That should not happen in this country.'

Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, shot and killed 14 people and wounded 22 others on December 2 before they were themselves killed in a shootout with police

He added that the scale of the task is too great for Apple to take on.

However in the DOJ's court motion filed to a California court on Thursday, government lawyers claim it would take just six employees two weeks to create the software.

'This burden is not unreasonable,' the lawyers wrote.

An increasing number of tech firms - and Edward Snowden - support Apple's stance against the US government.

Snowden said the FBI's claims that it cannot unlock an iPhone without the tech company's help is 'bulls***'.

The NSA whistleblower was speaking in the Common Cause Blueprint for a Great Democracy conference in Washington DC via video link from Moscow when he waded into the controversy.

'The FBI says Apple has the 'exclusive technical means' to unlock the phone,' he said.

'Respectfully, that's bulls***'.

Snowden then said the government agency has been aware of methods 'since the 90s' that would allow it to access information on the iPhone 5c used by gunman Rizwan Farook, according to Time.

On Monday Steve Wozniak said the FBI 'picked the lamest case' in their attack against the company he co-founded with Steve Jobs, according to The Guardian.

'Verizon turned over all the phone records and SMS messages,' Wozniak said during an appearance on the Conan O'Brien show.

'So they want to take this other phone that the two didn't destroy, which was a work phone. It's so lame and worthless to expect there's something on it and to get Apple to expose it.'

Last week FBI director James Comey told a congressional panel that a final court ruling forcing Apple to hand over the datat would be 'potentially precedential' in other cases where the agency might request similar cooperation from tech companies.

The remarks were a slight change to Comey's statement last month that ordering Apple to unlock the phone was 'unlikely to be a trailblazer' for setting a precedent for other cases.

Tuesday's testimony from Comey and remarks before the same US House Judiciary Committee by Apple's general counsel, Bruce Sewell, brought to Congress a public fight between Apple and the government over the dueling interests of privacy and security that has so far only been heard in the courts.

On February 16, a federal court in California instructed Apple to write special software to unlock Farook phone, an order the company is contesting.

Sewell and Comey's remarks also clarified some areas where the two sides fundamentally disagree.

Comey said the tool created for Farook's iPhone would not work on other models.

But Sewell said the tool that Apple was being asked to create would work on any iPhone.

'This is not about the San Bernardino case. This is about the safety and security of every iPhone that is in use today,' Sewell said.

Committee members seized on Comey's statement that the case could set a legal precedent allowing the agency access to any encrypted device.

'Given... that Congress has explicitly denied you that authority so far, can you appreciate our frustration that this case appears to be little more than an end run around this committee?' asked the panel's ranking minority member, Michigan Representative John Conyers.

Comey responded that the FBI was not asking to expand the government's surveillance authority, but rather to maintain its ability to obtain electronic information under legal authorities that Congress has already provided.

He also acknowledged that it was a 'mistake' for the FBI to have asked San Bernardino County officials to reset the phone's cloud storage account after it was seized.

The decision prevented the device, which was owned by the county, Farook's employer, from backing up information that the FBI could have read.

Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, shot and killed 14 people and wounded 22 others on December 2 before they were themselves killed in a shootout with police.
Martin Evans, 58, and co-director Sarah Beadle, 40, gave workers a 'how to' training manual detailing manipulative sales techniques, a court heard

Two roofing directors who gave salesman a guidebook on how to trick vulnerable customers out of thousands of pounds have been jailed for two-and-a-half years each.

Sarah Beadle, 40, and her co-director Martin Evans, 58, gave workers a 'how to' training manual detailing manipulative sales techniques.

Together they ran Summit Roofguard Ltd, a 4million-a-year roofing company operating in the West Midlands.

Salesmen first showed customers a hugely inflated reference price. They then said they could offer them a one-off bargain that was available for one day only, but still cost far more than it should have done.

The firm then inserted a confidentiality clause into the contract aimed at keeping the deal secret from a victim's loved ones and neighbours.

But the company were caught out by Dudley Council's Trading Standards.

During their four-year investigation into the firm between 2011 and 2014, officers found a training guide called 'The 14 Steps to a Sale'.

A court heard the manual acted as a step-by-step guide for staff to dupe victims into believing they were receiving substantial discounts when they were in fact pressuring them into vastly overpriced sales.

In one case, a pensioner paid more than 20,000 - including interest on a loan he could not afford - for guttering that could have been repaired for just 40.

In a trial last September, Beadle was found guilty of 28 counts of unfair, misleading or aggressive commercial practices.

Evans was convicted of 24 similar counts.

At Wolverhampton Crown Court today, both were jailed for two-and-half-years.

The pair showed little emotion as they were sentenced, but Evans waved and blew kisses to family members and supporters who wept in the public gallery.

The pair were both jailed for two-and-half-years for the 'complete sham' that exploited vulnerable pensioners

Sentencing, Judge Amjad Nawaz said: 'The case against the defendants involves the use of a sales techniques called the 14 steps.

'It was a device that duped consumers into entering into transactions.

'Summit Roofguard Ltd through its sales staff made the consumer believe they were getting a real genuine bargain.

'It was effectively a complete sham. The consumer was led to believe the process was genuine.

'Consumers were told the discount price was only available that day, that was deliberate. It was there to instill the belief that the bargain they had been given was too good to miss.

'It created a fear of loss. You can just imagine the pressure, particularly if they are old or alone or confused.

'The inference is they were there and not going to leave until they got the signature on the dotted line.

'The offending involving the elderly and vulnerable who became very confused by the paperwork leaves a very nasty taste'.

At Wolverhampton Crown Court today (pictured), both Beadle and Evans were jailed for two-and-half-years

Prosecutor Mark Jackson told the court the swindle, which was set out in the scripted 14 step guide, involved establishing an inflated reference price.

After a pitch lasting up to six hours and a call to a sales manager, customers would then always qualify for a 'grade A subsidy' as long as they agreed to take part in a fake marketing promotion.

The firm then inserted a confidentiality clause into the contract to keeping the deal secret from a victim's loved ones and neighbours.

During the trial, the jury heard dementia suffer Betty Tipper, 86, was sold windows and guttering to replace products installed just four years earlier.

The company continued to harass the pensioner despite her son John cancelling the orders and telling them both by letter and orally not to contact his mother.

It was effectively a complete sham. The consumer was led to believe the process was genuine (Judge Amjad Nawaz)

Another customer, Marion Hampton, 69, was persistently targeted by the firm for weeks after her husband had passed away.

In a separate case, an elderly couple were quoted a 12-month reference price of 17,000. They eventually signed to pay a 'bargain' 9,585 for work that ought to have cost them just 2,820.

The court heard the firm's annual turnover stood at 1.5 million in 2009, rising to 2.5million the next year and hitting almost 4 million in 2011.

It was predicted to top 5million in 2012 but the company has now stopped trading.

John Jones QC, defending Beadle, said: 'She has always followed a sales method which is replicated throughout the industry, a method that she was schooled in.

'Her case was and remains that she was unaware of what was being done and said in people's homes.'

James Tilbury, defending Evans, added: 'Mr Evans is a defendant who has battled against considerable woes to achieve a position of director.'

Speaking after the hearing, Trading Standards said the case has far reaching consequences for other sales staff engaged in such techniques across the UK.
They believed it would help reduce the number of youngsters joining terrorist or anti-government groups

The FBI wants teachers to inform on 'anti-government' or 'anarchist' students.

In a document titled 'Preventing Violence and Extremism in Schools', the bureau urges faculty members to assess concerning behavior of schoolchildren as they may be 'embracing extremist ideologies'.

They also list a number of indications, such as violent tendencies, which may be a sign they are planning an attack or may want to join a terrorist group.

Officials then want staff to pass on information to authorities in a bid to prevent any actions which could put others in danger.

The FBI wants teachers to inform on 'anti-government' or 'anarchist' students. In a document titled 'Preventing Violence and Extremism in Schools', the bureau urges faculty members to assess concerning behavior of schoolchildren as they may be 'embracing extremist ideologies' (file picture)

It would also help bring down anti-government groups and keep control of their actions, they believed.

'High school students are ideal targets for recruitment by violent extremists seeking support for their radical ideologies, foreign fighter networks, or conducting acts of targeted violence within our borders,' it reads.

'High schools must remain vigilant in educating their students about catalysts that drive violent extremism and the potential consequences of embracing extremist beliefs.

It goes on: 'Youth are embracing many forms of violent extremism; those perpetrated by terrorist organizations or other domestic violent extremist movements, to those maintaining biases towards others due to their race, religion, or sexual orientation.

'Youth aged 13  18 are actively engaged in extremist activities including online communication with known extremists, traveling to conflict zones, conducting recruitment activities, or supporting plotting against U.S. targets.

'These factors signify the potential for increased risk within our schools and local communities.'

The recommendations follow on from the 2000 FBI School Shooter study.

The findings suggested a student's personality, family, school, and social dynamics must be analyzed by school administrators and counselors to determine how best to respond to concerning behaviors or communications.

The bureau says recognizing behavior or communications indicative of radicalization leading to violence allows for a 'community's preemptive action, including intervention or disruption, prior to mobilization.'
But one expert believes it was a deliberate ploy so they cannot return home

ISIS may have deliberately released personal information about 22,000 of its fighters in a desperate attempt to stop them from leaving, a respected counter-terrorism expert has said.

A cache of documents containing the names, nationalities, addresses, telephone numbers, family contacts of tens of thousands of jihadis was seized today in the 'biggest counter-terrorism breakthrough in years'.

Recruits from at least 51 countries, including the UK, were ordered to give up their most sensitive information when they joined the terror group.

Elijah Magnier, a security analyst with more than 32 years' experience covering the Middle East, claimed they were tricked by ISIS and will now be forced to fight until 'the last breath'.

ISIS may have deliberately released personal information about 22,000 of its fighters to stop them from leaving, a respected counter-terrorism expert has said

Around 700 British Muslims have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS and around half have returned to the UK, according to British spies

He wrote on Twitter today that he 'doesn't believe it is a leak' and ISIS used a 'Sadam Husein [sic] blackmail style' to force them to fight - referring to tactics used by the former Iraqi dictator.

He added: 'These 22000 fighters see no exit now. I bet ISIS will defused [sic] the information to spread its own territory.

'Its intelligence services are exposing publicly the family members so fighters defend the land to the last breath.

He said the men who travelled to Iraq and Syria were 'fooled by the salary they are no longer getting'.

He added: 'The irony is ISIS doesn't need to pay these salary anymore because they have no place to go.'

Elijah Magnier, a security analyst with more than 32 years' experience covering the Middle East, claimed ISIS fighters were tricked by the terror group and will now be forced to fight until 'the last breath'

The leak by a disgruntled jihadi contained the details of at least 16 British fighters, including Birmingham hacker Junaid Hussain and Cardiff-born Reyaad Khan, who were both killed by a US drone last year.

Junaid Hussain, a computer hacker from Birmingham who was head of Islamic State's media wing, was also mentioned.

He and jihadi bride, former punk Sally-Anne Jones, plotted attacks against the UK before he was killed by a drone strike in August.

The files also included details of British rapper Abdel Bary, a 26-year-old from London who joined ISIS in 2013 and was last year pictured holding the severed head of a Syrian soldier.

Former UK intelligence chiefs described the documents as a 'goldmine' and it is believed to be the biggest ISIS intelligence haul ever uncovered.

The files included details of British rapper Abdel Bary (left), a 26-year-old from London who joined ISIS in 2013, and Junaid Hussain (right), a computer hacker from Birmingham who was head of Islamic State's media wing

It also contained the personal details of Cardiff-born Reyaad Khan (pictured), who was killed by a US drone last year

And experts believe the files could be invaluable in tackling jihadists who have sneaked back into Europe intent on bringing bloodshed to the streets in 'enormous and spectacular' attacks.

In a major coup for the West, a memory stick containing the information was stolen from an ISIS, was obtained by Sky News. The details it contains are understood to be authentic.

The documents are from ISIS' entrance interviews and show that the terror group even has its own human resources department.

The ISIS fighters' details were logged on an extraordinary induction form. And only when a recruit had filled in the 23 question registration card were they allowed into the group.

Questions on the form included date of birth, marital status, previous jobs, who recommended them, if they had fought before, what role they would take  for instance, 'fighter'  and any 'specialist skills'.

Only when an ISIS recruit had filled in the 23 question registration card were they allowed into the group

Experts believe the files could be invaluable in tackling jihadists who have sneaked back into Europe intent on bringing bloodshed to the streets in 'enormous and spectacular' attacks

The forms even includes contact details for next of kin. Many of the names on the registration cards are well known.

Many of the fighters who filled in the questionnaire came from so-called terror 'hot spots' like Tunisia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen - although it appears the highest numbers came from Saudi Arabia.
, are often used by the homeless

Shocking footage captures the devastating effect of legal highs as users are seen unable to stay upright and fight each other on Newcastle's streets.

The users, which all appear to be men, stagger around and often buckle over as they try to maintain their balance while caught in the clutches of the psychoactive substances.

Captured by Northumbria Police, the CCTV footage shows how the drugs, which are often taken by Britain's homeless, render their users almost completely unable to control themselves.

Fight: The aggressive side effects of legal highs are demonstrated as two users fight on Newcastle's streets

Fall: Despite standing over a bench a legal highs user completely misses his step and ends up on the floor

At first a man is seen stumbling across a pavement, clearly without any coordination, before the camera cuts to two other men squaring up to each other and preparing for a fight.

Showing the aggressive side effects of legal highs, one of the pair is seen kicking out and lunging towards his opponent.

The footage then cuts to a clip of another man holding a bag of cans and moving towards a bench in scuffed steps.

Despite being right next to the bench he misses it completely and falls flat onto the ground, sending one of his, presumably alcoholic, beverages flying across the pavement.

Throughout the footage the men are seen frequently collapsing onto the floor with one troubled user slowly stumbling backwards before lying down across the middle of a road.

Two of film's most troubling scenes show members of the public tending to users who have injured themselves or lost consciousness due to the drugs.

One man is seen crouching over a user and feeling for a pulse as he lies on the pavement outside a building.

Concern: In two troubling clips in the montage, members of the public are seen tending to users of legal highs

Balance: Throughout the footage users are seen unable to walk in a straight line and stumbling across streets

Posture: Many of the users are seen lying on the floor or on benches throughout the troubling footage

Legal highs often contain chemical substances which produce similar effects to illegal drugs such as ecstasy, cocaine and cannabis.

The authorities and drug charities across Britain have become increasingly concerned about their effects, with many young people and those living in poverty, getting hooked on the drugs.

Northumbria Police posted its montage of uncomfortable clips on YouTube as part of a campaign to tackle the selling of legal highs on the area's streets.

After the task force was launched the force experienced a 51.7% per cent fall in the number of calls relating to legal highs, during last month alone.

Stagger: In one clip a user is seen walking backwards slowly before stumbling off the pavement into the road

Collapse: Unable to keep his balance the helpless man lies down on his back in the middle of the road

Police and Crime Commissioner, Vera Baird, said:'I have been a determined campaigner on this issue, calling for the Government to take firm action against those who make these products and those who sell them.
An Indiana truck driver is being hailed as a hero after he jumped into a burning semi following a crash and dragged the vehicle's driver out of the raging inferno.

Bryan Corns Jr, 56, said he could not sit back and watch someone, albeit a complete stranger, burn to death without trying to help.

The incident took place on Interstate 65 South at around 6.15am Wednesday and was captured on video, which shows Corns dramatic act of heroism.

Scroll down for video

Deadly inferno: A semi-trailer spun off Interstate 65 South in Indiana, hit a guardrail and a tree, and burst into flames, ultimately killing the driver

Dramatic rescue: Trucker Steve Nicodemus caught on video the moment he and another passerby, Bryan Corns Jr, rushed to the burning semi to try and rescue the man trapped inside

Victim Tyrone McKenney was conscious during the rescue and even try to help the Good Samaritans who came to his aid by crawling on his hands

Hero: Police hailed Corns (left) as a hero for trying to save the life of a complete stranger, who was later identified as the 53-year-old South Carolina resident (right)

Despite Corns' valiant efforts, the driver of the fire-ravaged truck, identified as 53-year-old Tyrone McKenney, of Quinby, South Carolina, did not survive, reported the station Fox59.

His dog, who was in the cab of the truck when it spun out of control and burst into flames after striking a guardrail and a tree, was extracted from the fire-ravaged vehicle alive.

Still photographs shared on Facebook by a local towing company show the pooch wrapped in a blanket with what appears to be streaks of blood in its singed, matted fur.

McKenney was transporting a slippery liquid protein in plastic containers, according to police, which made it harder for Bryan Corns to try and remove him from the burning cab.

I saw the crash and just couldnt drive by without stopping to help, Corns told police. When I got to the cab of the truck the trailer was blazing, it was burning me, but I knew I had to get him out.

McKenney was transporting a slippery liquid protein in plastic containers, which only made the rescue more difficult

Tragic end: McKenney was taken to a hospital but died from his injuries an hour later

Corns told police he could not stand by and watch someone burn to death inside a truck

Corns, who has been driving a truck for 30 years, said McKenney was conscious and even tried to help him along by crawling on his hands.

Corns was aided by two or three other truckers, among them Steve Nicodemus who captured the blaze on video.

McKenney was taken to a local hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries an hour later.

Despite the tragic outcome of the incident, police praised Corns for risking his life to try and save a person he did not even know.

He didn't have to do what he did. He was there long before first responders could get there, Indiana State Police spokesman John Perrine told WRTV. He chose to do that willingly. Absolutely a noble gesture, he should be recognized for it.

Lucky dog: Several hours after the crash, firefighters inspecting the charred truck found McKenney's dog hiding in the cab. The pooch had its fur singed (left) but was otherwise unharmed

Second chance: The ginger pup is being cared for by a firefighter until the victims family could pick her up

Firefighters who responded to the scene discovered McKenney's dog hiding in the burnt out cab several hours after the collision, reported WISH-TV.

The female pup was taken to Franklin Animal Clinic for a check-up and was given a clean bill of health. She is currently being cared for by a firefighter until the victims family could pick her up.
See more news on Donald Trump at www.dailymail.co.uk/trump

Trump's legal team say she simply did not get enough work as a model

Immigration expert claims her case is an abuse of the visa system

taking most of her earnings as fees

Alexia Palmer (pictured) is accusing Trump Model Management LLC of lying on a work-visa application that said she would be paid a $75,000-a-year salary while living in the United States

A modelling agency owned by Donald Trump has been accused of treating a 17-year-old like a 'slave' after bringing her to the U.S on a visa he claims is widely abused.

Alexa Palmer claims immigration documents completed by the agency said she would earn $75,000 a year, but in fact she took away less than $5,000 in three years.

The Jamaican national is now suing the Trump Model Management, alleging she was not treated in line with the promises the firm initially made.

The Trump subsidiary had the Republican's third wife, Melania, signed to it before they couple married.

In a declaration of his finances published shortly after he declared he was running, Trump said the agency brought in between $1 million and $5 million each year.

However Palmer told ABC News's GMA that she had been exploited by the firm.

It took 80 per cent of her earnings in fees and expenses, leaving her with earnings in three years of $3,880 and $1,100 in cash advances, she said.

'That's what slavery people do,' she said. 'You work and don't get no money.'

It is however the visa arrangements which allowed her to come to the U.S. as a Trump model which is likely to prove controversial.

Palmer was allowed into the country on an H-1B, a visa for foreign workers which ties them to staying with the same company, and sets a minimum wage for them which is intended to prevent them being used to undercut American labor.

Palmer says her visa documents said she would work 'full-time' and earn $75,000 a year.

But that did not happen as she did not work full time, and was not actually employed by the Trump agency - raising questions over the visa being issued.

'I'd say that somebody's got some explaining to do,' Robert Divine, a former chief counsel to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services agency told ABC News.

'It would be extraordinarily unusual for that to be legal.'

Palmer's lawyer, Naresh Gehi, says his client was cheated of earnings and seduced by a life of glamour that never materialized.

'The visa application the company filed with the government requires that people are paid the full amount,' Gehi said. 'It's a requirement.'

The use of H-1Bs has been hugely controversial, with both Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz promising to crack down on their abuse.

'Slavery': Alexia Palmer, who was 17 when she came to New York on a visa arranged by Trump model management, says she received nothing like the $75,000 annual earning declared on immigration papers

Aspiring: Alexia Palmer in an early model shoot. She said she was wildly excited to be signed for a New York agency

Immigrant: The Trump agency brought Alexia Palmer to New York on an H-1B visa. She and her lawyers now say it was a breach of immigration law

Rare outing: According to court papers Alexia Palmer had just 10 days work in three years, despite being unable to carry out assignments for other agencies under the terms of her visa

Trump himself has spoken out about other companies abusing the scheme to bring in cheap foreign labor, then force Americna workers to train their replacements before firing them.

But he has also come under fire for using them to bring foreign workers into his Mar-a-Lago club in West Palm Beach, Florida.

His public policy position now is to make it a requirement of issuing an H-1B that American workers are hired first.

Trump's attorney, Alan Garten, disputed Palmer's claim and said: 'Anything she's saying about being treated as a slave is completely untrue. The greater demand for the model, the better that model does.

'In the case of the individual you're talking about, there wasn't - unfortunately - a lot of demand for the model.'

A judge will decide by the end of this month whether to proceed with a proposed class action lawsuit filed by Palmer, the judge's office said.

The complaint alleges 'fraudulent misrepresentation' and violations of U.S. immigration and labor laws. It asks for $225,000 in back pay.

The suit was originally filed in October 2014.

A decision on a pending motion by Trump Model Management to dismiss is expected by the end of March, the clerk for Judge Analisa Torres, who is presiding over the case in the U.S District Court, Southern District, told Reuters.

In court documents, Trump's lawyers said Palmer wasn't an employee and was more than adequately compensated for a 'very brief stint as a fashion model'. Pictured, the Trump Models agency in New York

Defense: Attorneys for Trump are vigorously defending the case and say Palmer simply was not successful enough

If Torres rules the case can proceed, it could revive attention on the GOP frontrunner's foreign labor practices at a time when the celebrity billionaire's rise in American politics has riveted the world's attention.

Trump's lawyers have called the case 'frivolous' and 'without merit.'

In court documents, they said Palmer wasn't an employee and was more than adequately compensated for a 'very brief stint as a fashion model,' which they say amounted to less than 10 days of work over three years.

Palmer's failed modelling career began when she came second, aged 17, in a contest in Kingston, Jamaica.

'I was very excited because all the girls in Jamaica wanted to be signed with an agency [in New York],' she told GMA.

Michael Wildes, the New York attorney who handled Palmer's visa application and those of other Trump models described the $75,000 figure as 'aspirational'.

'Our position is the application was proper when filed,' Wildes told ABC News.

This is not the first time Trump's labor practices have drawn criticism.

In August last year, it was revealed that Trump's companies sought to import at least 1,100 workers on temporary visas since 2000.

Of those, 250 were filed for foreign fashion models, according to Reuters' analysis of federal Department of Labor data.

It's not the industry norm to use H-1B visas, which are usually reserved for highly skilled specialized labor like engineers, programmers and medical specialists.

O-1 visas are more common, modeling agency lawyers and executives said. The O-1 is typically used by artists and athletes.

Though H-1B use is rare, a Reuters analysis found that in the past three years, modeling agencies have submitted 181 applications for H-1B visas for foreign models.

Of those, 173 stated that the model would be paid an hourly wage, ranging from as little as $8.40 an hour to as much as $500 an hour.
A seven-year-old boy was eating pizza with the family of a boy he goes to school with as a massive police search was under way to find him.

Koby Chandler was last seen outside his Gold Coast house on Joan Street in Southport at about 4pm on Thursday.

Police confirmed he was found safe and well just after 7am on Friday at a house two kilometres away.

He is now back home with his parents.

Koby Phoenix Chandler arrived back to his Gold Coast home on Friday morning in a police car after he was reported missing on Thursday afternoon when he went missing from his front yard

Police say Koby had wandered about one kilometre away from his home on Thursday afternoon and saw children playing in a front yard.

'He has seen some children playing in the front yard of a house... he has recognised one of the children as someone he goes to school with and subsequently started playing with them,' Detective Superintendent Dave Hutchinson said.

'Come dark, the parents of the house suggested he should go home. He has indicated that he lived nearby with his grandmother and it would be ok to stay.'

Police say the parents gave him a piece of paper with their phone number on it and told Koby to go home and get permission to stay the night.

'He left and returned a short time later and said yep it's fine, I can stay,' Det Supt Hutchinson said.

Police confirmed Koby does not live with his grandmother.

He ate pizza with the family and spent the night while police launched a wide-scale search for the missing boy.

Police had issued an Amber Alert - which involves the urgent broadcast of relevant information - overnight to help locate the boy and the parents saw it on Facebook on Friday morning.

They immediately called triple-0 to report Koby's whereabouts.

Det Supt Hutchinson said the circumstances were bizarre, but it was a relief Koby was found safe.

'I haven't spoken to them, but I think they were fairly surprised when they saw his face on the computer,' Supt Hutchinson said of the parents who Koby spent the night with.

Police confirmed seven-year-old Koby was found safe and well just after 7am on Friday at a house two kilometres away from where he was last seen

A search was conducted on Thursday night involving the police helicopter, volunteers from the State Emergency Service and police without success.

Police had asked residents in the Southport area to check their yards and any sheds, cubby houses, caravans, boats or vehicles in case he had sought shelter during the night.

'The witnesses that we have located observed the young boy playing out the front of his house. There's been a 15-minute gap where no-one has seen him,' Inspector Scott MacQueen told ABC Radio before he was found.

'When people have returned he has not been located.

Amber Alerts for abducted or high-risk missing children were introduced by the Queensland Government in September last year.
Know as 'the Bulldozer' he was key to media falling into line with Putin but had recently found new love and become father with Siberian model, 29

A close ally of Vladimir Putin, whose mysterious death in a Washington hotel led to rumors he'd been murdered for being an FBI informant, died of blunt force injuries an autopsy reveals.

Mikhail Lesin, the founder of Russia Today propaganda TV channel, was a Svengali figure for Putin, allegedly menacing the Russian media into idolizing the strongman president.

His death last November led to a swirl of speculation that he was murdered on Moscow's orders after offering to help the FBI.

Despite Russian reports of a heart attack, U.S. officials have today ruled that the 57-year-old died as a result of blunt force trauma to his head.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

Mikhail Lesin, whose mysterious death in a Washington hotel led to rumors he'd been murdered for being an FBI informant, died of blunt force injuries an autopsy reveals

Key aide: Mikhail Lesin (right, with Putin), who was Putin's press secretary during his first stint as president, founded state television network Russia Today, regarded in the West as a mouthpiece for the Kremlin

In a joint statement, the District of Colombia Office of Medical Examiner and Metropolitan Police Department said: 'The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) has released the cause and manner of death for Mikhail Lesin, 59, Russia.

'Cause of Death: blunt force injuries of the head,' the statement said on Thursday. 'Other contributing causes: blunt force injuries of the neck, torso, upper extremities and lower extremities. Manner of death: undetermined.'

The incident remains under active investigation, the statement added, according to Sputniknews.com.

Nicknamed the 'Bulldozer', Lesin was one of the key props of the Putin presidency, personally masterminding a wide-ranging media crackdown which has left the vast majority of Russian TV stations and newspapers obedient to the Kremlin.

He also set up Russia Today, now RT, seen by critics as a 'propaganda' channel aimed at the West.

Mere weeks before his death was announced, he fathered a child with glamorous model and flight attendant Victoria Rakhimbayeva.

She is believed to be aged 29, with whom he had enjoyed a close relationship since at least mid-2014, after the break-up of his marriage.

Early last year, he suddenly quit the latest of several high profile positions, as head of Gazprom Media, a major state owned media conglomerate.

There are unsubstantiated claims in Moscow that when he died he was in debt to billionaire Yury Kovalchuk, one of Putin's closest big business friends.

'He owed huge amount of money to Kovalchuk, which he supposedly didn't intend to pay back,' an unnamed source told The Moscow Times.

Claim: Lesin was reported by the TV station he set up - RT, known to be pro-Kremlin - to have died from a longstanding illness while staying at the Dupont Circle Hotel (pictured)

Comrades: Mikhail Lesin was Putin's press minister from 1999 to 2004, then his press adviser from 2004 to 2009, when he created Russia Today

Longstanding association: Mikhail Lesin had known Vladimir Putin before the Russian strongman took control of the Kremlin and was nicknamed 'the Bulldozer' for getting the media to dance to Putin's tune

Lesin was the the founder of Russia Today- seen by critics as a 'propaganda' channel aimed at the West (pictured with Telecommunication Minister Leonid Reimanm, L)

His presence and death in Washington shocked many Russians.

Lesin was found dead at 11:30am on November 6 while staying on an upper floor at the $240-a-night Dupont Circle Hotel, seen as modest for his multimillionaire lifestyle.

It is unclear if Rakhimbayeva was in the US with him at the time.

Yet some 16 months earlier, Senator Roger Wicker had called for a Justice Department probe into whether Lesin was engaged in money laundering.

The status of any subsequent FBI investigation is unclear, but - rightly or wrongly - in Russia it was widely believed that a probe was indeed under way.

Many elite Russians with links to the Putin regime are currently giving the US, and other parts of the West, a wide berth amid fears of arrest, hence the surprise and bewilderment at him being in Washington.

But there are also suggestions that Lesin had taken a decision to leave Russia for good before his untimely death in America.

Former Russian vice premier Alfred Kokh openly asked this week whether Lesin could have been murdered - like a new Alexander Litvinenko, a Putin foe poisoned by radioactive polonium poured into his tea in London nine years ago.

Kokh spoke amid fears in Moscow that he was ready to trade his inside knowledge of the Putin court for an end to any American investigation into the propriety of his wealth.

Questioning why Putin's former media manipulator was in the US capital, Kokh asked in an online posting: 'What's so interesting about Washington? I've been there quite a few times.

'And I'd answer - nothing. At all. It's a boring city without a touch of spice.

Lesin, 57, (pictured with new love Victoria Rakhimbayeva) was a Svengali figure for Putin allegedly menacing the Russian media into idolizing the strongman president

World traveler: Victoria Rakhimbayeva, believed to be 29, posted photographs from around the world and said that she and Lesin were planning to live in New York, although she preferred Los Angeles

Former model: Mikhail Lesin had found new love with Victoria Rakhimbayeva, a former semi-nude model for Russian Maxim magazine who was 28 years his junior

Getting away: 'Russia is already left behind, and I haven't yet made it to America,' she wrote at one point. 'Getting there with connections: 3 months in Europe and 3 months in Asia.'

'Widowed': In August 2014, Vicoria Rakhimbayeva posted from Italy saying: 'Every day of my life is so full of happiness that it seems it can't get any better.' She now faces raising their child alone

'But that's where FBI and the Russian Embassy are located. And also the body of a renowned Putin confidant found in a city hotel room, who the FBI was investigating on suspicion of money laundering.

'And Russian Embassy tries to create the impression that it was death by heart attack.

'Maybe they were afraid that Lesin was telling the FBI something in return for suspending the investigation?

'And that's why they had tea? As has happened a few times before.'

Human rights activist Pavel Chikov claimed the death of a man with an intimate knowledge of Putin's circle, was suspicious, stating: 'It would be right to assume that Lesin, who knows quite a lot, was ready for a deal within the FBI's investigation, which would make his position better.

'You don't normally go to Washington for treatment or for business but to communicate with officials.'

He added: 'There are not enough grounds to speak about murder. He could have been nervous. He may have had health issues.

'It could have been suicide. But anyway, it smells fishy.'

Prominent commentator Sergey Parkhomenko said of Lesin's death: 'To be honest, I wouldn't rule out the option of a program for witness protection.'

The one-time close Putin apparatchik is said to have owned property worth $28 million in Los Angeles, a rumored focus of the supposed FBI investigation, and two adult children who live in America.

Lesin's company the Dastel Corporation bought a 13,000 sq ft Beverly Hills home in August 2011 for $13.8 million and a 10,600 square foot property in Brentwood for $9 million in 2012, it was reported.

'For over a year he was living under FBI scrutiny and a total check on his assets,' he said.

Action girl: Victoria Rakhimbayeva emphasized her elite lifestyle posting picture after picture of her enjoying her travels. Her lover or husband - it is not clear if they married - leaves behind a reported $28m in LA property

On the move: This was among Victoria Rakhimbayeva's postings. She had worked for a private jet firm before taking up with Mikhail Lesin

'For some reason he came to Washington where he suddenly died but not from not of something he had been suffering from.'

Echoing Kokh, he suggested Lesin 'had something to swap his death for' - adding: 'There was a lot to swap it for.'

Moscow is prone to conspiracy theories when prominent people die before their time, but while Lesin had a number of medical issues, they were not seen as life-threatening and there was genuine shock among his friends and those who crossed paths with him.

'Lesin died. It's impossible to believe this,' tweeted Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT.

Alexey Venediktov, one of Russia's most respected journalists, who had dealings - and clashes - with him, wrote online:

'He left the country. September 25 he had a baby daughter. This September, now, so it's been a month, a month and a half.

You don't normally go to Washington for treatment or for business but to communicate with officials. There are not enough grounds to speak about murder. He could have been nervous. He may have had health issues. It could have been suicide. But anyway, it smells fishy. Human rights activist Pavel Chikov

'And honestly, when I found out about his death, my first thought was about the baby, to be honest. It's also about empathy, because, okay, he's gone but the girl with a baby - how is she?

'My condolences to the baby and her mother, his family, his son, daughter, Valentina, his wife.'

The head of Russian media regulator Rospechat, Mikhail Seslavinsky, said of Lesin: 'I saw him a month ago.

'He was full of energy, going through a new period in his life, talking about forgotten feelings because of his newborn little daughter'.

In private, Lesin 'highlighted his responsibility for all the members of his extended family, loved all of his family, and was hoping for an harmonious existence in a world new to him.'

He spoke of a succession of surgeries that Lesin - who had been a heavy drinker and smoker - had undergone. These were not for heart problems, but linked to his spine.

'He was always a fighter, even after going through several complex surgeries, He had recovered, was doing sports, and looked absolutely healthy,' he said.

Simonyan revealed he had lost 66 pounds after breaking his spine three years ago, and undergone 13 operations after his back became infected.

After his death was announced, RT said without explanation that Lesin 'had been suffering from a prolonged unidentified illness'.

Lesin had himself denied allegations of a US property empire and shrugged off the US scrutiny. 'I got used long ago to not being loved,' he said.

'Wicker's request has fed speculation about whether Lesin was in Washington to cut a deal with US authorities,' stated The Moscow Times.

'Some say he was killed by enemies to silence him; others say his death was faked as part of a witness protection scheme to keep him safe.'

White House press secretary Josh Earnest was asked this week 'all kind of speculation about the nature of his death', but replied: 'I don't have any comment on it.'

In the months before his death, Irkutsk-born Rakhimbayeva traveled on an odyssey to some of the most exotic places in the world, according to her social media accounts.

Always alone: Victoria Rakhimbayeva never posted pictures of Mikhail Lesin on her social media profiles but in one exchange told another user: 'Traveling is about my husband - he's a brilliant mind and a great organizer of his (and also my) life'

Something fishy: One human rights activist's verdict on the death chimed uncannily with a picture posted by the dead man's lover - or wife - Victoria Rakhimbayeva on social media (left). She had posted extensively on her travels (right) with Lesin

A former semi-nude model for Russian Maxim magazine, from 2010 she worked as a flight attendant on a British private jet firm.

It is unclear if Lesin - who she does not name - was with her at all times, but in one online exchange she made clear they intended to settle in New York, although she preferred Los Angeles.

'Russia is already left behind, and I haven't yet made it to America,' she wrote at one point.

'Getting there with connections: 3 months in Europe and 3 months in Asia.'

She said: 'Los Angeles is the best city in the world but husband is against', adding 'Poor me.'

She was asked: 'How did you manage to travel so globally between America and Russia, if it's not a secret? Savings?'

She replied: 'Traveling is about my husband - he's a brilliant mind and a great organizer of his (and also my) life.'

Five weeks ago, she posted from Hawaii, seven weeks ago from Los Angeles. Earlier she was in the Komodo Islands, Switzerland, Singapore, Bali, and Greece.

'We passed through all the islands in Greece on yacht,' she boasted around nine months ago.

In August 2014, she posted from Italy saying: 'Every day of my life is so full of happiness that it seems it can't get any better.

'But a new day comes and shows me new goals. I start thinking that happiness has no limits.

'Wish everyone love and unlimited happiness!'

A friend asks her: 'Who is he?'. She replied, believed to be alluding to Lesin: 'The one I need, finally.'

Lesin had been previously been married to Valetina, 57, with whom he had one son. He also had a daughter from an earlier marriage.

Former wife: Lesin, pictured in Paris with his wife in 2002, went on to run Gazprom-Media but stepped down last year. He had two children from his earlier marriages and a new baby with Victoria Rakhimbayeva

After the death announcement last year, a Kremlin spokesman said: 'The president appreciates the enormous contribution made by Mikhail Lesin to the formation of the contemporary Russian media.'

He had been press minister in Putin's first term, before becoming an adviser to the president between 2004 to 2009.

He quit amid claims of a conflict of interest between his business interests and his work as a civil servant.

Controversy surrounded him, as when during his stint as press minister the media empire of oligarch Vladimir Gusinsky media assets - noted for their independence - were transferred to state energy giant Gazprom.

He was also rumored to have played a key role in the creation of a secret tape compromising former Prosecutor General Yuri Skuratov.

Skuratov was seen in bed with two women, claimed to be prostitutes, forcing the resignation of a man who was probing alleged corruption in then president Boris Yeltsin's circle.

When he quit Gazprom Media in December, a move seen as a shock, he cited 'family reasons' although there were unconfirmed claims he had fallen out with other influential figures close to Putin.

Senator Wicker said of Lesin: 'That a Russian public servant could have amassed the considerable funds required to acquire and maintain these assets in Europe and the United States raises serious questions.'

The FBI has made no comment on any investigation.
Three men were arrested for aggravated assault and other charges after one of them pulled a Donald Trump for President campaign sign from the Georgia lawn.

The incident started on Tuesday when the campaign sign was destroyed and quickly escalated to the Dalton, Georgia, homeowner being threatened with a handgun, Dalton Police Department spokesperson Bruce Frazier said.

Mauricio Rodriguez, 18, pulled the sign from David Grant's lawn in front of friends, 17-year-old Alexander Moreno and 20-year-old Hector Ayala, crumpled it up and threw it on the ground, Frazier said.

Grant, 43, was sitting outside at the time and saw incident occur, so he approached the men to ask them to fix the sign.

Alexander Moreno (left), 17; Hector Ayala (center), 20; and Mauricio Rodriguez (right), 18, were arrested after an altercation in Dalton, Georgia, when one of the men ripped a Trump campaign sign out of a front lawn

David Grant, 43, saw the men outside his home and approached them, demanded they put the sign back in place. But then one of the men pulled a gun out and threatened Grant

'I went up to him,' Grant told the Washington Post. 'I said, "Put the sign up, fix it back". He just refused, throwing out profanities, walking backwards. I seen he was getting away. I told him he wasnt going nowhere until he fixed the sign.'

As the men tried to walk away, Grant grabbed Rodriguez by the lapels of his vest, according to News Channel 9.

But at that point, Moreno lifted up his shirt to reveal a handgun in a holster and removed the gun to point it at Grant, Frazier said.

'He said "you are about to get a cap popped in your a**!" Then he started patting his stomach and then showed a handgun,' Grant told WRCB of the incident.

A neighbor heard the commotion and called 911, but the men fled the scene on foot.

'The neighbor was standing out here beside his driveway and sees the man pull the gun out,' Grant added. 'My neighbor looks at me dead in the eye and say: "I got you, hang on". He runs in the house and comes back out with his pistol and says: 'Nobody is shooting him".'

Grant said the men were 'saying Spanish words' when they fled the scene.

They were later located by police and taken into custody.

Moreno was charged with aggravated assault, possession of a firearm without a license, possession of a handgun under the age of 18, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

A neighbor called 911 after seeing the sign be destroying and the following altercation. The men fled the scene but police later took them into custody

Grant and his wife were outside their home (pictured) when the men approached the Donald Trump campaign sign

Rodriguez was charged with making terroristic threats, criminal trespass, and possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.

Hector Ayala was charged with disorderly conduct.

Additionally, all three men were charged with violation of Georgia's Criminal Street Gang Act.

Grant told the Washington Post that he is 'not for the racism that everyone is saying Trump is about'.

'Im for what hes believing in as far as the rights,' Grant said, mentioning he's not the only one in town with a Trump sign. '[Trump is] about getting into the White House to straighten things out.'

He added that he would not vote for any other Republican in the presidential race.

'No! I wouldnt even put any of them in there. If I cant vote for him, Im not voting for any of them. Im actually just an independent,' he said.

He told the Post that he believes Trump can win the election.
A gang who used flower boxes to hide a 30million drug and gun-running empire have been sentenced to a total of 125 years in prison.

Gang members smuggled heroin, cocaine, MDMA, amphetamine and cannabis, as well as firearms and ammunition, from the continent to the UK.

They were transported via lorries to a depot in Accrington, Lancashire, that was set up as a flower warehouse, before being sold to dealers across the country.

The gang sentenced to 125 years in prison (pictured top left to right: Mohammed Imran Bhegani, Sajid Osman, Nigel Watson, Benny Planken) and (bottom left to right: Nizami Esshak, Taimur Zahid and Hussain Farooq)

Drugs seized in flower boxes (pictured) had a street value of 30million - the gang were caught after four drugs seizures in 2014, three at the Channel Tunnel terminal and one in Accrington

The drug-dealing empire was dismantled by the National Crime Agency and Dutch National Crime Squad

Dutch national Mohammed Imran Bhegani, 40, was sentenced to 36 years behind bars at Preston Crown Court, as head of the international crime operation.

Bhegani's right-hand man Sajid Osman, 44, from Blackburn, was also jailed today for 26 years.

The operation was dismantled by the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Dutch National Crime Squad.

The gang were caught after four separate drugs seizures in 2014, three made at the UK controls at the Channel Tunnel terminal in Coquelles, northern France, and one in Accrington.

Drugs seized had a street value of 30 million but more than a dozen other cross-Channel runs had taken place before they were caught.

In March 2014, Border Force officers found two guns, a pistol and a sub- machine gun with a silencer and laser sight and 28 rounds of ammunition, and more than 600 kilos of cannabis resin and skunk, 60 kilos of amphetamine, 50 litres of liquid amphetamine, six kilos of cocaine and one kilo of MDMA.

Dutch lorry driver Pieter Martens was jailed for 24 years for his role in that importation.

Firearms and ammunition were also seized and the gang have now been jailed for a total of 125 years

The gang were caught after four separate drugs seizures in 2014, three made at the UK controls at the Channel Tunnel terminal in Coquelles, northern France, and one in Accrington

Days later another seizure was made from a lorry at the Channel Tunnel, this time containing almost a tonne of cannabis, amphetamine, heroin and cocaine.

Then on July 1 2014, Nigel Watson, 52, from Telford, Shropshire, was arrested at Coquelles after a truck he was driving was found to contain 66lb (30kg) of heroin and 99lb (45kg) of MDMA.

The NCA and Dutch police then linked all the importations to Bhegani, from Arnhem, Holland, and Osman, and found that they had been involved in another 13 separate runs from the continent to the UK.

Bhegani made all the arrangements, getting consignments delivered to premises in Albion Mill, Accrington, rented and operated by Osman and another man, Nizami Esshak, 56.

Dutch lorry driver Benny Planken, 30, was later arrested after being identified as having imported the cannabis found in Albion Mill.

Bhegani was arrested at Esshak's home in Accrington and Dutch crime squad officers raided properties linked to him in the Netherlands.

They found phones and SIM cards that had been used to contact drivers and customers of the group, as well as documentation detailing price lists for drugs and transfers for large amounts of cash.

The gang smuggled lorry-loads of cocaine, heroin, MDMA, amphetamine and cannabis across the Channel

Investigators established that the drugs were bound for Albion Mill, a warehouse in Accrington

All the gang were convicted of importation offences, with Bhegani and Osman also convicted of importing firearms.

Greg McKenna, NCA regional head of investigations, said: 'In terms of organised crime, Mohammed Imran Bhegani was right at the top of the tree.

'He was an international drug dealer with high-level contacts in mainland Europe.

'Osman and Esshak were his trusted associates, charged with overseeing the UK end of the operation, taking delivery of the consignments and arranging the onward distribution.

'To operate on such a commercial scale the group needed the professional skills of hauliers like Watson and Planken, among others, to bring in their illicit cargo.'

Other gang members jailed today were: Esshak, of Accrington, for seven years; Taimur Zahid, 28, of Chorlton-Cum-Hardy, Manchester, for 27 months; and Hussain Farooq, 27, of Stockport, for two years.
An Australian student that is suspected of lacing a friend's ice coffee with cyanide could have been motivated by 'jealousy or revenge'.

That's the view of forensic hypnotist Kirdi Putra, a consultant called in by the Indonesian police to help solve the murder, which has captivated Indonesia.

Former Sydney student Jessica Kumala Wongso, 27, has been charged with the premeditated murder of her friend, Wayan Mirna Salihin, who died in Olivier cafe in Central Jakarta, Indonesia, on January 6.

Scroll down for video

Jessica Kumala Wongso (left) and Wayan Mirna Salihin (right) were friends that met in Sydney

Wongso, 27, has been charged with the premeditated murder of her friend who died after drinking cyanide-laced coffee at a Jakarta cafe

Both woman studied together at Billy Blue College of Design in Sydney, but Wongso stayed to work in Australia after her graduation in 2008.

By the time she returned in December last year, she had drifted apart from Ms Salihin, according to Mr Putra, who has interviewed Wongso and others involved in the case.

'A possible motive is some kind of jealousy and revenge,' Mr Putra told ABC's 7.30.

Mr Putra said that some of Wongso's friends had become closer to Ms Salihin and she was not invited to her wedding in Bali.

'First, her friends get taken away, second one, [Mirna] got a better life than [Jessica's] life  that could be a motive.'

Ms Salihin died on January 6 at a Jakarta hospital after suffering convulsions moments after she sipped an iced coffee ordered by her friend.

Since studying together Ms Salihin (pictured) and Wongso had drifted apart, according to Kirdi Putra, a consultant working for the Indonesian police

Ms Salihin did not invite Wongso to her wedding in Bali, which has been speculated as a possible motive for the alleged murder

Police said Wongso arrived at the cafe around an hour before her two friends and ordered three drinks, including the Vietnamese iced coffee that is believed to have killed Ms Salihin.

Testing by a police laboratory found a deadly dose of cyanide in Ms Salihin's body.

Wongso has maintained her innocence since her former study partner's death, telling reporters that she 'does not know where the cyanide came from'.

There has been speculation in the Indonesian media that Wongso and Ms Salihin were lovers after the victim's father, Darmawan Salihin, revealed a Whatsapp message between the two.

'Jessica said 'Mirna give me a kiss. It has been a long time since you have given me a kiss',' he was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Post.

Wongso has maintained her innocence in dealings with the media since her former study partner's death

Mr Putra, who has interviewed Wongso and others involved in the case, said jealousy or revenge could have been a motive

However, Mr Putra, who has analysed the pair's text messages, told the ABC there was no evidence of a relationship between the two.

If found guilty, Wongso could face the death penalty.

In a pretrial hearing at Central Jakarta Court last month, Wongso's lawyers argued there was a lack of evidence to link her to the crime and her continued detention was a 'gross violation' of human rights.

Wongso's lawyer Hidayat Bustam alleged police had conducted a search of Wongso's home without the required legal documentation and had on one occasion subjected his client to almost 12 hours of interrogation.

The Australian Federal Police have been called in to help assist with the investigation.

Ms Salihin took a sip and said her drink tasted bitter before dropping to the floor and convulsing
Ted Cruz thinks there's something to Donald Trump's embrace of the 'poorly educated'  a voting bloc the billionaire said he loved in the aftermath of the Nevada caucuses, which Trump won.

Talking to the Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody, Cruz said that his party's frontrunner was taking advantage of 'low information' voters to gain Republican ground.

'Who are not that engaged and who are angry and they see him as an angry voice,' Cruz explained.

Scroll down for video

Ted Cruz told the Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody in an interview that Donald Trump has succeeded with the support from 'low information' voters

Sen. Ted Cruz suggested that voters start coming his way the more informed they get about Trump's record

Cruz sat down with Brody and tried to put his finger on what was causing the Trump-mentum, but also what was getting voters to turn Cruz's way as well.

The Texas senator picked up two key endorsements this week  former GOP hopeful Carly Fiorina and Utah Sen. Mike Lee, Cruz's first get in the U.S. Senate  and picked up the state of Idaho as well.

Meanwhile, Trump picked up the majority of delegates from three states, Michigan, Mississippi and Hawaii, and has a comfortable lead in Florida and a handful of other states that vote next Tuesday, which could spell the end to another rival, Marco Rubio's, campaign.

Cruz looked at the map of Trump's wins thus far and gave it to the businessman that he did well in the southeastern states.

'He has had a good base of support,' Cruz noted. 'We've done well as well, we've been typically second in each of those states, and we've racked up delegates.'

Cruz suggested that as a number of primaries after Tuesday are being held out west, Trump could have a bit more trouble.

He has a 'harder problem' out there, Cruz said.

'He does well with a certain demographic of voter,' Cruz noted, quoting Trump's 'I love the poorly educated' press conference line.

'Listen, part of it is I think Donald is taking advantage of his voters because I understand what theyre angry about, but Donald if youre angry at the corruption of Washington, you dont solve it by supporting someone who has been enmeshed in the Washington corruption for forty years,' Cruz said.

The Texas senator used this opportunity to bash Trump's donations to Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, over the years.

Cruz suggested that once voters get out of the 'low information' hole and become more educated, his own candidacy becomes the obvious choice.

'Where we are beating him is when voters' get more engaged and they get more informed,' Cruz said. 'When they inform themselves, they realize his record.'

'He's what they're angry at,' Cruz continued. 'He is the corruption.'
He opened an emergency exit of Boeing 737 at Chengdu Shuangliu airport

There are some things you don't do on a plane and one of them is definitely not try to open any doors or windows.

However yesterday, one man in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan province, decided to open a plane's emergency door to let some air in just before take off, the People's Daily Online reports.

The China Southern flight bound for Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in north-west China, was delayed for around an hour as cabin crew closed the door of the Boeing 737 and waited for a new departure slot.

Badly behaved tourists: A Chinese air passenger has been detained for opening the emergency exit of a plane

Big delays: The flight bound for Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang province was delayed by an hour

Afterwards, the unnamed man explained to the crew that he just wanted to open the window 'get some fresh air' before the plane took off.

The man who was sat at the rear of the plane said it was too stuffy.

The flight was originally meant to take off at 9:55am from Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport but because of the disruption, ended up departing at 10:52 in the morning.

The flight, CZ3693, from Chengdu to Urumqi Diwopu International Airport lasts three and a half hours.

A spokesman from Chengdu Shangliu International Airport said the Boeing 737 was near the security gate with 130 passengers onboard.

The same spokesman also said once the door was open, airport ground staff closed the door from the outside and re-examined the plane. The flight was delayed for nearly 40 minutes.

According to China's Civil Aviation Law, those that cause theft or deliberate destruction, endangering flight safety and causing serious consequences can be held criminally liable.

This isn't the first case of a passenger opening doors of a plane in China.

In 2015, two people were arrested for opening three emergency doors after a dispute broke out about the plane being delayed.

One of those arrested was a tour guide who later served 15 days in detention for her actions.
Tickets are said to be the cheapest out of all the Disneyland reports with off-peak tickets costing 370 yuan (39)

Disney have released the first pictures of the inside of the theme park showcasing the castle, rides and hotels

Disney resort, occupying 963 acres, is set to open in Shanghai in east China on June 16 this year

Advertisement

Shanghai Disneyland celebrated 100 days to go until opening day by releasing the first images of inside the much anticipated theme park on March 8.

The resort is set to open on June 16 and has promised that it will pay homage to traditional Chinese culture as well as showcasing Disney's favourite films, the People's Daily Online reports.

The 963 acre park which cost $5.5billion (3.8 billion) to build is said to be the cheapest out of all the Disneyland resorts with off-peak tickets costing visitors 370 yuan (39) and then rising to 499 yuan (51) during peak times.

Scroll down for video

The biggest of them all! The Enchanted Story Book Castle is the tallest, largest and most interactive Disney castle in the world

Chinese: Mulan is one of the stories that guests will discover while cruising the water aboard Voyage to the Crystal Grotto in Fantasyland

Ride: Inspired by Disneys classic animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is a crowd-pleaser

Shanghai Disneyland will be the cheapest out of all 12 parks and resorts worldwide.

Previously, the closest park to Shanghai was Hong Kong Disneyland which is priced at HK$539 (55.98). While a one day ticket to Disneyland in California will set you back US$99 (67).

The resort is the first Disney park on the mainland and is three times the size of the nearest park in Hong Kong.

Shanghai Disneyland is set to feature six themed lands aimed at the Chinese tourist including a Pirates of the Caribbean themed land and a Mickey Avenue.

At the centre of the park is the Enchanted Story Book Castle which is the tallest, largest and most interactive Disney castle in the world. Inside the 196 feet castle, there will be attractions, a table service restaurant and even a hair salon for little princesses.

The castle will also be the focal point of the evening spectacular fireworks display, which will also feature a laser show and projections on the castle.

Where's the treasure? Live action shows will feature as part of Adventure Isle where guests will disappear into a world of pirates

Cool! A Tron themed ride where visitors sit on motorbike carriages will be included in Tomorrowland at the newest Disneyland park

Fun! Adventure Isle, an exciting new land found only at Shanghai Disneyland which immerses guests in a world of treasure and pirates

The Treasure Trove land is the first pirate themed land in a Disney park.

Visitors to the land will be able to see live shows featuring battles from the Pirates of the Carribean movie and an acrobatic stunt show in a specially made theatre.

Disney have promised to also pay homage to Chinese culture with famous characters such as Mulan being featured. Organizers have definitely thought of the Chinese visitors first with the Lion King musical being performed in Mandarin and the Winnie the Pooh storybook ride translated into Mandarin.

When details of the Shanghai Disneyland were revealed in July, 2015, Bob Iger, the CEO of The Walt Disney Company, said the park would reflect China's own culture.

Mr Iger said: 'The resort reflects Disney's legendary storytelling along with China's rich culture, and showcases some of the most creative and innovative experiences we've ever created,'

Visitors will journey through the adventures of Pooh and his friends with oversized storybooks telling the story in Chinese

Staying at the fantasy world: There are two hotels at the new resort including the Shanghai Disneyland Hotel and the Toy Story Hotel

There are two themed hotels at the resort including a Toy Story hotel. Inside the hotel's restaurant, there are Chinese kites featuring the loveable Toy Story characters such as Woody and Buzz Lightyear.

While the Shanghai Disneyland Hotel is art-nouveau inspired with a touch of Disney including bronze statues of Mickey and Minnie mouse.

However the most anticipated part of the resort is the new Star Wars ride in Tomorrowland which is joined by a Tron themed motorbike ride.

Ride testing for the Tron ride has already taken place with Disney saying it is the first kind of attraction like this for any of its theme parks around the world.

Big park: A set of aerial photos of the theme park, taken on February 3, show the final stage of the construction of the 963-acre space

The carousel located in Gardens of Imagination land is set to pay homage to the Fantasia film featuring Pegasus horses from the 1940 film
A family-oriented acrobatic team have taken the internet by storm in China for being twin brothers married to twin sisters in a special act.

Their team is called 'Fate' and together with their two daughters, the six of them give live performances around the country, reports the Peoples Daily Online.

Identical twin brothers Chen Kun and Chen Peng who are 40 years old are married to sisters Gao Ning and Gao Ding, both 38 years old. They are all from Changchun city and were pictured performing together on March 9.

Mirror image: Twin brothers married twin sisters, with their daughters they're a unique Chinese acrobatic team

Family affair: The six of them tour around China and abroad performing acrobatics in front of live audiences

The two twin brothers and sisters have practiced acrobatics since childhood. Since becoming parents they have passed their skills onto their daughters who are both six years old.

As a family, they are always rehearsing together, composing romantic acrobatics, and performing in front of live audiences home and abroad.

In a recent interview with CNS TV, the family said they are always laughing and having fun.

Although their daughters are not twins, their appearance is very similar. When the two families stand opposite each other it almost looks like they are looking in the mirror.

Skills: Ever since they were young the family have always practiced acrobatics and have never really parted

They learnt acrobatics in the Jilin Province drama school and joined the Changchun Acrobatic Troupe after graduation touring the country together.

According to the report, after that they barely parted.

Chen Kun said in the process of learning acrobatics, the person he was partnered with - who is now his wife - had a direct impact on how well the performances went.

They believe because they are all twins they are doing more difficult moves then they would if they had an ordinary partner.

In the future the family hope to own their own acrobatic training school.

Like mother like daughter: Since becoming parents the twins have passed their skills onto their children
Power is said to corrupt, and now experts have found individual people living in corrupt countries are also more likely to be dishonest.

A study has revealed individual honesty tends to be greater in societies with low degrees of corruption, tax evasion and political fraud, and vice versa.

While Austria, the Netherlands and the UK ranked highly for honesty in the research, Tanzania and Morocco, whose quality of institutions was marked as 'low', scored poorly.

A study has shown individual honesty tends to be greater in societies with low degrees of corruption, tax evasion and political fraud, and vice versa. The four graphs above show 'corrupt' countries such as Morocco and Tanzania scored poorly, compared with more 'honest' countries such as the UK, Austria and Sweden

Simon Gachter and his colleagues at the University of Nottingham came up with a 'prevalence of rule violations' (PRV) index to measure 159 countries.

They used available data from 2003 on political fraud, tax evasion and corruption.

They then conducted a die rolling experiment among 2,586 young people aged 22 on average from 23 representative countries, including Vietnam, Morocco, China, the UK, Spain, Sweden, Italy and the Czech Republic.

The participants were too young to have influenced the index that drew on 2003 data.

The 22-year-olds were each asked to roll a die in private and report the outcome.

In the experiment, higher numbers translated to higher earnings and it was simple for participants to report inflated numbers for a small amount of extra money.

The team discovered a 'robust link' between the prevalence of rule violations and intrinsic honesty.

This means individuals from countries with a low incidence of rule breaking were found to be less likely to lie in order to get extra cash, compared from those from 'corrupt' countries.

The study therefore suggests high exposure to rule breaking makes people more likely to stretch the truth.

However, few individuals were either fully honest or dishonest in their manipulation of the numbers.

The participants were each asked to roll a die in private (set up pictured) and report the outcome. In the experiment, higher numbers translated to higher earnings and it was simple for participants to report inflated numbers. The team discovered a 'robust link' between the prevalence of rule violations and intrinsic honesty

The study suggests high exposure to rule breaking in countries where bribery is common, for example, makes people more likely to stretch the truth to gain more money. This chart shows the rankings. The higher the number in the 'Prevalence of Rule Violations' column, the more dishonest a country was, on average

Dr Gachter told MailOnline: 'Even in the high corruption countries people are surprisingly honest in the sense that only a minority lie blatantly, although the incentive in the experiment are to lie maximally by claiming the highest amount possible irrespective of the die rolled.

'This behaviour is consistent with psychological theories of honesty that people care about honesty but sometimes stretch the truth a bit in a way to maintain an honest self-image and to benefit materially.'

The study, published in the journal Nature concluded: 'The results are consistent with theories of the cultural co-evolution of institutions and values, and show that weak institutions and cultural legacies that generate rule violations not only have direct adverse economic consequences, but might also impair individual intrinsic honesty that is crucial for the smooth functioning of society.'
Alerts when chase is over with message saying 'proceed with caution'

will cost $350 for each cruiser, app is free

More than 5,000 bystanders and passengers have been killed and tens of thousands have been injured in police car chases over the past 35 years, research says.

Now a former sheriff has created Pursuit Alert, which aims to help the public avoid police chases by alerting drivers within a three mile radius.

The moment and officer begins to chase down a subject, they turn on a device in their cruiser and it will send an alert to the app.

A former sheriff from South Carolina has created an app to warn bystanders of police chases (shown, a still from need for Speed)

HOW DOES IT WORK? Pursuit Alert is a equipment and app that aims to notify the public of a nearby police chase. The device will cost around $350 per police cruiser, which officers just switch when the begin chasing a suspect. It will automatically send out a push notification to app users within a three mile radius that warns them to stay clear of the area. Once there is no threat another notification, reading 'proceed will caution', will also be sent. Advertisement

Tim Morgan, former Pickens County Assistant Sheriff in South Carolina, and Trish Morgan worked on the technology with Pickens Innovation following the death of man killed during an incident, reports WYFF4.

Brent Winchester was traveling to work in 2008 when a car being chased by police lost control and spun into incoming traffic  Winchester was killed in the accident.

'I was in law enforcement for 37 years and one of the most difficult incidents I had to deal with was the death of an innocent victim in a high-speed police pursuit,' Morgan told ABC News WLOS.

After retiring from the Pickens County Sheriff's Office, Morgan started designing Pursuit Alert.

Police offers simply flip the switch on the device and a push alter will be send out to Pursuit Alert app owners in the vicinity of the chase.

Another notification will be sent out the chase is no longer a threat such as 'proceed with caution'.

'We're sending a notification out to all the sheriff's in the nation that new technology is on the market,' said Morgan.

Now a former sheriff has created Pursuit Alert, which aims to help the public avoid police chases by alerting drivers within a three mile radius. The moment and officer begins to chase down a subject, they turn on a device in their cruiser and it will send an alert to the app

The Pursuit Alert technology will cost around $350 for each police car, but Morgan hopes the free app will be out in the next few months as it is currently pending federal approval.

He also hopes one day the technology will be automatically installed in smartphones, similar to amber alert and weather alerts..

Tim Morgan (pictured), former Pickens County Assistant Sheriff in South Carolina, and Trish Morgan worked on the technology with Pickens Innovation following the death of man killed during an incident, reports WYFF4. After retiring from the Pickens County Sheriff's Office, Morgan started designing Pursuit Alert

Bystanders and passengers in chased cars account for nearly half of all those killed in police pursuits from 1979 to 2013, reports USA Today.

'A pursuit is probably the most unique and dangerous job law enforcement can do,' said Tulsa Police Maj. Travis Yates, who runs a national pursuit-training academy.

The Justice Department referred to pursuits as 'the most dangerous of all ordinary police activities in 1990 and emphasized the agencies needed to form different procedures when it came to chasing suspects.
They have suffered a long history of persecution and, in some cases, Jews were actively expelled from entire regions of Medieval Europe.

But cities that tolerated and allowed Jewish communities to flourish may still be reaping the benefits today, according to a new academic paper.

It argues that in these areas, Jewish communities were instrumental in the establishment of some of the early banks during the Renaissance and the effects are still noticeable in modern economies.

Medieval Jewish moneylenders (painting of Medieval moneylenders pictured) and pawnbrokers in the northern city states of Italy during the Renaissance set those regions on the course to prosperity. By contrast, cities that expelled the Jews at around this time fell behind and this is still reflected in their economies today

Professor Luigi Pascali, an economist at the University of Warwick and Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, claims the presence of Jewish moneylenders and pawnbrokers during the 1500s resulted in more credit being available in municipalities.

This flow of cash ensured that productivity and income was able to increase.

Speaking to MailOnline, Professor Pascali said: 'I argue that cities, in which the local Jewish community in 1500 caused an early development of the banking sector, have more banks today and, because of this, are more developed today.

RISE OF LOMBARD BANKING The prosperous northern Italian region of Lombardy became a byword for a type of banking that grew out of mount of piety style pawnshops which originated in the region. A ruling by Pope Leo the Great forbade charging interest on loans on the basis getting profit on money without working was sinful. However, the Talmud allowed loans to be converted into investments so interest could accrue from them. Although Jews were not allowed to hold land, they would instead trade in crops. This allowed them to lend to farmers against crops in their fields. As the skills needed for bookmaking were passed down within Jewish families, they were able to keep this trade within the community. This led to the establishment of merchant banks and led to the establishment of powerful banking families. Lombard banks quickly spread to other cities in northern Italy and even in to the Papal states. Advertisement

'Local banking development has a large causal impact on economic development.

'In particular, using firm-level data, I show that a higher density of local banks increases aggregate productivity in the manufacturing sector, by reallocating resources towards the most productive firms.

'This is the main channel through which local banks have an effect on economic development.'

In his paper, published in The Review of Economics and Statistics, Professor Pascali examines the presence of Jewish communities in Italian cities during the Renaissance.

In 1503, a large part of the south of Italy, including the Kingdom of Naples fell under the control of the Spanish crown, which had decreed all Jews convert to Christianity or be driven out of its territories.

However, in the north of the country, which remained either under French control or as independent city states, the Jews were able to remain.

Here they began establishing moneylending services after the Catholic Church, through several Ecclesiastical Councils, banned the practice of lending to earn a profit among Christians.

Professor Pascali said: 'Some Jews in Central Italy who had engaged in trade during the Middle Ages had accumulated sizeable fortunes and had both the capital and expertise to become moneylenders.

Medieval moneylenders (depicted in this painting by Rembrandt) ensured a flow of credit in cities that was not readily available in cities were Jews were expelled. Christian laws forbade the lending of money for interest, so Jews were able to dominate money lending, and in the cities where they remained, leading to the first banks

'Although the ban on Catholic [money lending] did not prevent the rise of a new class of Catholic merchant bankers, for more than a century the Jews enjoyed a monopoly in lending to the poor and the middle class.

'By the beginning of the 15th century, the geographic expansion of Jewish lending was complete and had become a general economic phenomenon in all parts of Italy.'

Jewish pawnbrokers also began to be established in many of the northern cities, ultimately leading to the creation of charitable loan banks, called the Monti di Pieta, in an attempt to drive them out of the market.

This meant even the poor could access credit if they needed it and these institutions still exist today.

While there are many that argue the expulsion of the Jews from southern Italy had a negative impact on the prosperity in the region at the time, Professor Pascali claims this can still be seen today.

In 1492 the Spanish crown ordered the expulsion of Jews from its kingdom and territories, leading them to be forced out of the cities in the kingdom of Naples and central Italy in the 1500s (illustrated in the map showing the expulsion of Jews in Europe). By contrast, Jewish communities remained in the northern city states

By looking at the presence of Jewish communities during the Renaissance and the current economic power of cities today, he claims there is a strong correlation.

According to his study, he estimates if the Jews had not been expelled from the Spanish territories, the GDP in southern Italy would have been seven per cent higher.

He said the expulsions of the Jews may explain at least 10 per cent of the income gap currently seen in northern and southern Italy.

Professor Pascali said: 'Although Jewish pawnshops disappeared over time, the Monti di Pieta have survived to the present day and gave rise to a significant portion of contemporary Italian banks.

'My results confirm that the level of local banking development during the Renaissance (proxied by the presence of a Monte di Pieta or a Jewish pawnshop) had strong causal effects on the current availability of credit in Italian municipalities.'

He added similar trends to those that occurred in Italy will also likely to have happened in other countries in Europe when Jewish communities were expelled in the Middle Ages.
A new Terminator-style robot could be set to kill weeds choking the countryside.

The futuristic Ibex uses tech similar to the Mars Rover and self-driving cars and can identify individual weeds before zapping them accurately.

Makers believe the robot can battle weeds clogging up pastures in hilly regions where rough terrain makes it hard to manage fields.

Scroll down for video

The futuristic British-made Ibex (pictured) uses tech similar to the Mars Rover and self-driving cars and can identify individual weeds before zapping them accurately. Makers believe the robot can battle weeds clogging up pastures of in hilly regions where rough terrain makes it hard to manage fields

Ramblers and walkers blighted by bracken could also be helped by Ibex which could track down the invasive fern which is toxic to cattle, dogs, sheep, pigs and horses.

HOW THE ROBOT TARGETS WEEDS The machine uses a 'Terminator-style' display to identify individual weeds before targeting them for extermination. On-board sensors allow it to identify encroaching weeds and destroy them one-by-one rather than with what's known as 'broadcast spraying'. The weeds are destroyed using a robotic arm. While software helps the machine track weeds and navigate across various terrains. A rugged, military design makes them the first machines of their kind and allows them to work in challenging environments where they can travel across thick mud, tough plants and on slopes of up to 45 degrees. Advertisement

The machine was created by Dr Charles Fox, whose family have farmed near Stocksbridge, outside Sheffield, South Yorkshire, for 250 years.

Dr Fox said Ibex could revolutionise weed control for under-threat farms where up to 10 per cent of pasture can be blighted.

The machine uses a 'Terminator-style' display to identify individual weeds before targeting them for extermination.

On-board sensors allow it to identify encroaching weeds and destroy them one-by-one rather than with what's known as 'broadcast spraying.'

The weeds are destroyed using a robotic arm.

While software helps the machine track weeds and navigate across various terrains.

Dr Fox said: 'There is a lack of ways to tackle weeds in difficult to reach areas like hill farms, it's become too expensive to employ individuals to spray each area and spraying a whole field - grass and everything - is not good for the environment.

The machine was created by Dr Charles Fox (pictured with the robot), whose family have farmed near Stocksbridge, outside Sheffield, South Yorkshire, for 250 years. Dr Fox said Ibex could revolutionise weed control for under-threat farms where up to 10 per cent of pasture can be blighted

The machine uses a 'Terminator-style' display to identify individual weeds before targeting them for extermination. An example of what the robotic rover can 'see' is shown. The blue patches are weeds

On-board sensors (pictured) allow it to identify encroaching weeds and destroy them in small patches rather than with what's known as 'broadcast spraying.' The weeds are destroyed using a robotic arm and a GoPro camera captures images as it navigates the hillside

'EU regulations are always unclear on bracken, sometimes it's alright to spray from helicopter and sometimes it's not alright.'

Eventually this robot will be capable of delivering a 'killer blow' to a plant just by putting one spot of weed killer on the right place on a nettle, continued Dr Fox.

It currently sprays small patches of weeds, around 12 inches (30cm) in diameter, but the makers are working towards per-plant versions.

It currently sprays small patches of weeds, around 12 inches (30cm) in diameter, but the makers are working towards per-plant versions. This graphic shows how the rover scans the hillside for weeds and problem areas

The robot has been compared to the fictional Terminator (pictured) because of the way it identifies and targets specific groups of weeds. Eventually this robot will be capable of delivering a 'killer blow' to a plant just by putting one spot of weed killer on the right place on a nettle, said Dr Fox

'I wasn't interested in farming when I was younger but going to Cambridge and being interested in computers and robotics I realised how much technology is now used in farming,' added Dr Fox.

'Everyone has done devices for crops and rows of plants, but no one has made something capable of tackling the dangerous and difficult terrain of hill farms - this is it.'

Co-funded by the UK's innovation agency, Innovate UK, and built in collaboration with Digital Concepts Engineering and G32 Technologies, Ibex robots are designed to be precise while reducing the environmental impact, fuel costs and labour costs for farmers caused by bulk herbicide spraying.
Will it be global warming? Nuclear war? Or perhaps a devastating fireball from space?

If you believe in life after death, the chances are you'll be more accepting of whichever apocalyptic scenario sends you to meet your maker.

Researchers in the US have found that people who believe they have a soul that lives on after they die were more accepting of end of the world scenarios than those who don't.

Researchers in the US have found that people who believed they have a soul which lives on after they die, were more accepting of end of the world scenarios (stock image) than non-believers

Over the course of five survey-based studies, a team of researchers led by Uri Lifshin at the University of Arizona, tested beliefs in immortality and their effect on how people viewed end-of-the-world scenarios.

The team outlined two types of immortality.

The first, symbolic immortality, is associated with someone living on through other people's memory, or works of art and literature.

While the second is a literal belief in immortality, where people believe in the soul.

In the first two studies, they found people who believed in a soul showed less resistance to an article outlining the impending end of humanity than those who didn't share similar beliefs.

'Those who do not believe in a soul would be more threatened by a scientific article predicting end of the world because it undermines their sense of immortality,' said Dr Lifshin.

Psychologists found that people who do not believe in a soul would be more threatened by a scientific article predicting end of the world 'because it undermines their sense of immortality.' Stock image

But they also found that soul believers would also likely want to have an impact on the world, showing they incorporated elements of symbolic immortality as well.

BELIEF ACTS AS A 'BUFFER' A team led by psychologists at the University of Arizona tested beliefs in immortality and their effect on how people viewed end-of-the-world scenarios. They found people who believed in an immortal soul that lives on after they die were more accepting of these scenarios than those who didn't believe in the immortal soul. The team explained that combined, the studies show belief in a soul may provide a psychological 'buffer' when faced with thoughts of the end of the world, an effect that was not seen in non-soul believers. Advertisement

By priming 'soul believers' to think about the impact they would like to have on the world and memories of others, they found they were not as accepting of the end of the world article.

In the final study, they extended the timeline of disaster to up to 200 years in the future, when most of the respondents' immediate family would not be affected.

The results showed that belief in a soul still had a significant effect on agreement with the article, as was the symbolic immortality prime from earlier.

Writing in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, the authors explained that combined, the studies show that belief in a soul may provide a psychological buffer when faced with thoughts of the end of the world, an effect that was not seen in non-soul believers.

They wrote: 'These results suggest that belief in an immortal soul provides psychological protection against the threat of humanity's demise that does not hold for symbolic immortality beliefs.'

The researchers said that belief in a soul may provide a psychological 'buffer' when faced with thoughts of the end of the world, an effect that was not seen in non-soul believers. Stock image

Belief in a soul is the foundation of most major religions around the world,with the soul living on either through reincarnation or in an afterlife.

Previous research has shown that as many as 40 per cent of Americans believe that the Rapture  a biblical end of times in which mankind will be judged - will happen before 2050.

At the risk of tempting fate, belief in a religious apocalypse has proved wrong countless times.

The most recent call for the rapture came at the end of last year, when Doomsday prophets revised their calculations to claim there was a 'strong likelihood' it would hit on 7 October.
It has already been blamed for a dramatic drop in the number of people sending text messages, and now WhatsApp is gunning for your email inbox.

As part of the latest iPhone update, the messaging service now lets users send files, including those in Google Drive, as well as PDFs.

In addition, it allows users to further customise backgrounds and zoom in on videos while playing.

As part of the latest iPhone update for WhatsApp, the messaging service now lets users send files, including those in Google Drive, as well as PDFs. In addition, it allows users to further customise backgrounds and zoom in on videos while playing

Pushed out to iOS platforms this week, the latest update brings a total of five new features to WhatsApp users on iPhone.

Users can now share photos, images and other files stored on other third party apps - including iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox and Microsofts OneDrive - with their contacts on WhatsApp.

Beyond photos, the app has added the ability to send and received PDF files. Once users receive the file they can see an in-line preview.

Tapping the preview image while it is displayed will open the PDF in the iOS document viewer.

LATEST WHATSAPP UPDATE WhatsApp's latest update, 2.12.15, gives more options to customise backgrounds. The most significant update is that it enables file transfer from third party apps, including Google Drive and Dropbox. Developers have improved the design for browsing photos and videos. Users can also zoom into videos while they are playing to get extra detail. Advertisement

The latest update also makes the app more customisable, giving the option to change backgrounds, while chats can be customised to stock images, solid colours, or photos from your library.

To change the background, users can go into Settings, select wallpaper and choose one of the solid colours.

The developers claim to have improved the design for browsing photos and videos in version 2.12.15.

In addition to the new functions, users will be able to zoom into videos while they are playing to get that extra detail.

Aside from the usual update fixes, it also cleared up a previous issue which was causing the app to take up too much storage on iPhones.

Android users can access the latest features by downloading beta versions of the update on Google Play.

Users can now share photos, images and other files stored on other third party apps  including iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox and Microsofts OneDrive  with their contacts on WhatsApp (pictured)

WhatsApp users can now customise the app even more in the new update. To change the background, users go into Settings, select wallpaper and can choose one of the solid colours (pictured left to right)

Last month, WhatsApp announced it will no longer support a range of older operating platforms by the end of the year.

In a blog post, the messaging app said it will be phasing out support for Blackberry, Nokia and older Windows and Android models by the end of 2016.

According to the Facebook-owned firm, the older smartphone platforms can no longer keep up with the latest features being rolled out for the app.

The firm wrote: 'As we look ahead to our next seven years, we want to focus our efforts on the mobile platforms the vast majority of people use.'

The full list of platforms being left behind includes: BlackBerry, including BlackBerry 10; Nokia S40; Nokia Symbian S60; Android 2.1 and Android 2.2; and Windows Phone 7.1
A highly secretive Pentagon organization is experimenting with 'micro-drones' which could one day take to the sky like a like a swarm of robotic locusts.

The experiments led by the Strategic Capabilities Office were conducted in Alaska last summer, according to The Washington Post, during which the tiny drones were launched from fighter jets.

After launch, the 3-D printed micro-drones break free of a canister and seek each other out to create a swarm.

Scroll down for video

SWARMING MICRO-DRONES The micro-drones have inch-wide propellers, and can be launched from the flare dispensers of F-16 and F/A-18 fighter jets. After launch, they descend in a parachute-equipped canister and then break free. Once free, the drones gain situational awareness and locate other drones to create a swarm. The program costs roughly $20 million, and is named after Perdix, a character in Greek mythology who was turned into a partridge by Athena. The Alaska exercise put the drones through 150 tests, 72 of which were from fighter jets. These micro-drones can also be launched from the ground by hand, or using a sling-shot like device. It's been said they can be used for surveillance and as a way of confusing enemy forces. Advertisement

While the SCO can't release specific details on the drones, it's been said they can be used for surveillance and as a way of confusing enemy forces.

The micro-drones have inch-wide propellers, and can be launched from the flare dispensers of F-16 and F/A-18 fighter jets.

In the footage reviewed by The Washington Post, a micro-UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) is shot out from an F-16 moving 430 mph.

This happens at 2,000 feet above the surface Earth, and the drone descends inside a parachute-equipped canister.

After a moment, the small drone which weighs roughly a pound bursts free and its swings spread out to catch the wind.

According to The Washington Post, these tiny craft have situational awareness, allowing them to move together in swarms after they've been released from the canister.

The program costs roughly $20 million, and is named after Perdix, a character in Greek mythology who was turned into a partridge by Athena.

The Alaska exercise put the drones through 150 tests, 72 of which were from fighter jets.

These micro-drones can also be launched from the ground by hand, or using a sling-shot like device.

In an interview with The Washington Post, physicist and director of SCO William Roper said last summer's tests proved the swarming capabilities of the micro-drones.

Roper also revealed the Pentagon's plans for a project called Avatar, which aims to pair 'fifth-generation' fighter jets with unmanned versions of older jets.

A highly secretive Pentagon organization is experimenting with 'micro-drones' which could one day take to the sky like a like a swarm of robotic locusts. The experiments led by the Strategic Capabilities Office were conducted in Alaska last summer, during which the tiny drones were launched from fighter jets

This would couple high-tech jets like the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter with jets like the F-16 Fighting Falcon or F/A-18 Hornet in a concept known as the 'Loyal Wingman' in the Air Force.

In the program, which was previously called 'Skyborg,' older jets would be flown autonomously for the first time, allowing them to act with less direction from the pilot in the manned jet.

In a speech this past February, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter discussed some of the proposed 2017 budget, including a call for $902 million for the SCO.

Carter described the many ways the SCO is exploring autonomous technologies, hinting at the capabilities of the swarming micro-drones.

'In the air, they develop micro-drones that are really fast, really resistant,' Carter said.

'They can fly through heavy winds and be kicked out the back of a fighter jet moving at Mach 0.9, like they did during an operational exercise in Alaska last year, or they can be thrown into the air by a soldier in the middle of the Iraqi desert.'

While the SCO can't release specific details on the drones, it's been said they can be used for surveillance and as a way of confusing enemy forces. The micro-drones have inch-wide propellers, and can be launched from the flare dispensers of F-16 and F/A-18 fighter jets

He also went on to say that this technology, along with a similar fleet of autonomous boats and other projects are just a few of the many systems the SCO is now working on.

'For example, the micro-drones, I mentioned a moment ago, use a lot of commercial components and are actually 3-D printed and the boats build on some of the same artificial intelligence algorithms that long-ago and in a much more primitive form were on the Mars lander.'

These types of UAVs have been tested since 2014, but the Alaska experiment during the military exercise Northern Edge, they reached a new milestone.

Physicist and director of SCO William Roper, pictured above, said last summer's tests proved swarming capabilities of the micro-drones. These types of UAVs have been tested since 2014, but the Alaska experiment during the military exercise Northern Edge, they reached a new milestone
If anybody tries to snatch it, it alerts an operator and takes images of a thief

The boxy drone can 'walk' at 4mph, cross the road and avoid obstacles

The mopeds of delivery drivers everywhere are set to be ousted by 'ground drones' that can navigate city streets by themselves.

The invasion has begun with Starship Technologies' delivery bots beginning their trials in London - and they are scheduled to begin trials in New York in spring.

The robot was invented by Skype co-founders Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis who hope their machine will be appealing for small businesses who could send up to 20lbs (9kg) of goods to local customers.

Scroll down for video

The mopeds of delivery drivers everywhere are set to be ousted by 'ground drones' that can navigate city streets by themselves. The invasion has begun with Starship Technologies' delivery bots beginning their trials in London (pictured) - and they are scheduled to begin trials and in Now York in spring

It is as yet unnamed, but Keith Cornell, Senior Adviser at Starship told MailOnline: 'We may hold a contest and they may have multiple names. They might have personalities of their own.'

Unlike robots designed to resemble humans, Starships bot is purely functional with a large compartment to hold deliveries, the equivalent size of two grocery bags.

The idea is that consumers could call for a delivery, which is carried to their door by a robot in between five and 30 minutes, for as little as 1 (60cents).

Each six-wheeled 'ground drone' is almost completely self-driving, but to begin with will be half controlled by a human operator.

Unlike robots designed to resemble humans, the Starships bot is purely functional with a large compartment to hold deliveries, the equivalent size of two grocery bags. MailOnline tested the unnamed robots at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (pictured)

It is constantly connected to the internet, using 3G technology to find its way to the customer's address.

'Walking' on the pavement at about 4mph (3km/h), robots can complete local deliveries within five to 30 minutes from a local hub or retail outlet.

The scheme also costs between 10 to 15 times less than the cost of current last-mile delivery alternatives, Starship claims.

MailOnline tested the unnamed robots at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Mr Cornell said: 'Trials will be in 14 cities if we get permission from councils.'

Walking on the pavement at about 4mph (3km/h), robots can complete local deliveries within five to 30 minutes from a local hub or retail outlet. The bot's 'cargo trunk' (pictured) is sealed throughout the trip and only the customer can open it using a specific app upon the drone's arrival

After more than 3,000 hours of testing in London, Starship Technologies' delivery bots (pictured) are scheduled to start deliveries in Greenwich next month. Each six-wheeled 'ground drone' is almost completely self-driving. It is constantly connected to the web, using 3G technology to find its way to addresses

Greenwich council has already given us permission and this will be the launch location with robots arriving' next month'.

He explained that by the end of the year it's hoped the robots will be 98 per cent autonomous.

HOW THE GROUND-DRONE WORKS Unlike robots designed to resemble humans, the Starships bot is purely functional with a large compartment to hold deliveries, the equivalent size of two grocery bags. Each six-wheeled 'ground drone' is almost completely self-driving. It is constantly connected to the internet, using 3G technology to find its way to the customer's address. Walking on the pavement at about 4mph (3km/h), robots can complete local deliveries within five to 30 minutes from a local hub or retail outlet. The scheme also costs between 10 to 15 times less than the cost of current last-mile delivery alternatives, Starship claims. Integrated navigation and 'obstacle avoidance software' enable the robots to steer clear of pedestrians or to jump over kerbs and cobbles, for example. Advertisement

'It's the last two per cent that's expensive,' he added.

So instead, the company plans on having a human operator in charge of 100 bots in case they run into trouble, for example.

He confirmed the firm has retail partners lined up - 'names you'll recognise' - but these are currently under wraps.

'Demand is not an issue,' he continued.

'The robot's designed to make life easier, so people might still go to the shops to buy flowers, for example, but could use them to carry heavy items such as potatoes home.

Integrated navigation and 'obstacle avoidance software' enable the robots to steer clear of pedestrians or to jump over kerbs and cobbles, for example.

However, human operators are ready to step in if an emergency should arise.

This includes if someone tries to steal the bot.

If a thief attempts to tamper with the robot, or snatch it, the operator can take over - talking directly to the wrongdoer and sending police to the drone's location.

The drone's nine cameras can also capture the criminal's face.

In any case, the bot's 'cargo trunk' is sealed throughout the trip- only the customer can open it using a specific app upon the drone's arrival.

Each six-wheeled 'ground drone' (pictured) is almost completely self-driving. It is constantly connected to the internet, using 3G technology. If a thief attempts to tamper with the robot, or snatch it, a human operator can take over- talking directly to the wrongdoer and sending police to the drone's location

One of Starship's main selling points is the battery-powered bot's (pictured) zero direct CO2 emission, as opposed to the pollution brought about but too many, short shopping car trips

ROBOT'S ANTI-THEFT MEASURES If a thief attempts to tamper with the robot, or snatch it, a human operator can take over- talking directly to the wrongdoer and sending police to the drone's location. The drone's nine cameras can also capture the criminal's face. In any case, the bot's 'cargo trunk' is sealed throughout the trip- only the customer can open it using a specific app upon the drone's arrival. The app will also allow shoppers to track the robot's location in real time. Advertisement

The app will also allow shoppers to track the robot's location in real time.

One of Starship's main selling points is the battery-powered bot's zero direct CO2 emission, as opposed to the pollution brought about but too many, short shopping car trips.

'Our vision revolves around three zeroes  zero cost, zero waiting time and zero environmental impact,' said Heinla, boss at Starship Technologies.

'We want to do to local deliveries what Skype did to telecommunications.'

For businesses, Starship's technology eliminates the largest inefficiency in the delivery chain, the last mile.

Instead of expensive and time-consuming door-to-door delivery, retailers can ship the goods in bulk to a local hub, then the robot fleet completes the delivery to the shopper's door for a fraction of the cost.

'With ecommerce continuing to grow consumers expect to have more convenient options for delivery  but at a cost that suits them,' Heinla said.
English oak trees could be devastated by a plant disease spreading through Europe, experts warn.

Xylella is carried by 300 different plants and was found in Italy last year, where it has since ravaged ancient olive groves.

The European Commission has described the bug, which has the full name Xylella fastidiosa, as 'one of the most dangerous' plant diseases world worldwide.

A new threat is facing the iconic oak tree (stock image). Experts have warned that the English oak could be devastated by a plant disease spreading through Europe

For many, the oak tree is one of the symbols of Britain. English oak was the timber used to build Lord Nelson's fleet, the roof of Westminster Hall, and is the symbol of the National Trust.

Now a leading tree grower fears oak trees could be wiped out by the disease, which he believes could have a bigger impact than ash dieback, which is wreaking havoc on that variety of trees across the UK.

Jamie Dewhurst, who grows 13 million trees a year at J&A Growers, said: 'The potential for Xylella will blow Chalara [ash dieback] totally out of the water - it is the unknown.

'We've seen it establish itself in France in a very short period of time, and maybe it's already in the UK.

'I would be very surprised if it is not more prevalent than it is at the moment.'

The disease, caused by the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa, was discovered in olive trees in Apulia, Italy in 2015 (pictured) but has since spread to Corsica and France. It has been found to kill oak trees in the US, and experts warn it could wreak havoc with Britain's oak trees

The disease has been found to infect English oak trees growing in the US and until 2013, it was only found in North America and Taiwan.

But in 2015 Xylella was discovered in olive trees in Apulia, Italy and has since spread to Corsica and France.

AN ADVANCING THREAT Xylella fastidiosa is a bacterium which infects hundreds of species of plants and trees. It can kill a healthy oak tree in just five years, causing the tree's canopy to thin, branches to dieback and black weeping patches to form on stems and lesions. The disease has been found to infect English oak trees growing in the US and until 2013, it was only found North America and Taiwan. But in 2015 Xylella was discovered in olive trees in Apulia, Italy, and has since spread to Corsica and France. A leading tree grower fears oak trees could be wiped out by a plant disease spreading through Europe. He believes could have a bigger impact than ash dieback, which is wreaking havoc on that variety of trees across the UK. Advertisement

Mr Dewhurst said: 'I personally call for national measures on Quercus robur [the English oak] because it is an iconic tree for the UK.

'If we're not careful we'll wake up and have Xylella in our oak.'

The government yesterday announced a 1million research project to investigate diseases that affect the tree.

Dr Rob Jackson, a microbiologist at the University of Reading who is involved in the research said: 'Xylella is not here yet but it's something that we need to be aware of. If Xyllella was to get in it could be pretty devastating.'

Dr Jackson said the research project will focus on Acute Oak Decline (AOD) which is spreading from southern England to Wales and the north.

The disease can kill a healthy oak tree in five years. Key symptoms include canopy thinning, branch dieback and black weeping patches on stems and lesions.

Dr Jackson added: 'We are justifiably proud of the mighty oak, which is a worthy symbol of Britain. Yet climate change and globalisation has brought an array of new threats, including bacteria and insect pests, which are conspiring to attack our oak trees.

Experts believed that the disease, which has ravaged Italian olive groves (pictured) could wipe out the English oak population in the UK

'Doing nothing could put oaks in risk of a Dutch elm-type decline, but with the potential for an even bigger impact on the British countryside.'

Oak trees in the UK are also threatened by the oak processionary moth, which has been found in London and Berkshire.

Its caterpillars damage oak tree foliage. It is also a threat to human health as its hairs are toxic and can lead to itching and breathing problems if inhaled.

It is first believed to have entered London and Berkshire as eggs already laid on semi-mature oak trees imported from continental Europe for a landscaping project.

Ash dieback was brought to the UK by infected trees from the Netherlands and was first detected at a nursery in Buckinghamshire and is expected to kill many of Britain's 80 million ash trees in the next two decades.

A spokesman for APHA said: 'Xylella fastidiosa is currently not present in the UK but we are taking action to protect against its introduction.
Gruesome videos of terror-driven killings have grown increasingly common over the years, and, cloaked by a scarf or a hood, the perpetrators can be difficult to identify.

Researchers in Jordan have now developed a way to recognize terrorists using a small part of their hands, measuring the characteristics of their fingers when they make the commonly displayed V sign.

The team trained an AI to identify different V signs, using sizes of the fingers and the different shapes and angles created by them to differentiate between people.

Gruesome videos of terror-driven killings have grown increasingly common over the years, and, cloaked by a scarf or a hood, the perpetrators can be difficult to identify. Researchers in Jordan have now developed a way to recognize terrorists when they make the commonly displayed V sign

HAND SHAPE BIOMETRICS Researchers say masked suspects could be identified using the shapes of their hands in the 'V' sign. The team photographed this gesture from 50 men and women of different ages, taking a total of 500 images. They focused on the end points of the two fingers, the lowest point in the area between them, and two points in the palm of the hand. Then, the team trained a machine-learning algorithm using two-thirds of the image set, testing its accuracy with the remaining images. Advertisement

To identify terrorists whose faces are hidden, officials often turn to voice recognition or other alternative methods.

A team of researchers at Mu'tah University in Jordan have proposed a new idea, reports MIT Technology Review.

By training a machine-learning algorithm, the researchers have developed a way to recognize the unique shapes when people make a V sign with their hand.

Hand shape biometrics is the ensemble of methods and techniques used for identifying a person depending on the hand silhouette and/or geometric features, which normally include finger widths, lengths, angles, ratios, etc, the researchers wrote in a paper on the study.

The team investigates to what extent a computer system can identify a person (e.g. a terrorist) from only two fingers (their victory sign), because this image might be the only identifying evidence they provide.

To do this, the team photographed this gesture from 50 men and women of different ages.

Several images were taken of each, against a black background with an eight mega-pixel camera phone, for a total of 500 images.

Sohail Noor, an Islamic militant, gestures a victory sign while seated in a police vehicle outside an anti-terrorist court December 28, 2002 in Karachi, Pakistan.

The researcher say a real-world scenario of this kind would offer limited information due to the low resolution of footage, so they narrowed down their own analysis.

The team focused on the end points of the two fingers, the lowest point in the area between them, and two points in the palm of the hand.

These points create different triangular shapes, which the researchers combined with statistical measures of the hand shapes to determine 16 features useful for identification.

By training a machine-learning algorithm, the researchers have developed a way to recognize the unique shapes when people make a V sign with their hand. An Islamic militant gestures a victory sign while seated in a police vehicle, pictured right

Then, the team trained a machine-learning algorithm using two-thirds of the image set, testing its accuracy with the remaining images.

The results were mixed, but in some cases, the AI was able to identify the hands with more than 90 percent accuracy.

Overall, the system yielded results between 40 and 93 percent total identification accuracy.

There is a great potential for this approach to be used for the purpose of identifying terrorists, if the victory sign were the only identifying evidence, the authors write.

Several images were taken of each, against a black background with an eight mega-pixel camera phone, for a total of 500 images. The team focused on the end points of the two fingers, the lowest point in the area between them, and two points in the palm of the hand

The team is now looking to try the method out on a larger data set, and determine the likliehood f misidentification.
of tourists flocked to Indonesia to watch the only total solar eclipse of 2016 last night

Advertisement

Thousands of tourists and astronomy enthusiasts flocked to Indonesia to catch the country's first solar eclipse in nearly 33 years - but Nasa has revealed an even more spectacular view.

The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) captured 13 stunning images capturing the shadow of the Moon marching across Earth's sunlit face.

They then turned this into a stunning animation to give a unique glimpse.

Scroll down for video

The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) captured 13 stunning images capturing the shadow of the Moon marching across Earth's sunlit face. In this, the only total solar eclipse of 2016, the shadow of the new Moon starts crossing the Indian Ocean and marches past Indonesia and Australia into the open waters and islands of Oceania (Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia) and the Pacific Ocean.

HOW THEY WERE CAPTURED The animation above was assembled from 13 images acquired on March 9, 2016, by NASA's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), a four-megapixel charge-coupled device (CCD) and Cassegrain telescope on the DSCOVR satellite. From its position about 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Earth and toward the Sun, DSCOVR maintains a constant view of the sunlit face of the planet. EPIC acquires images using ten different spectral filtersfrom ultraviolet to near infraredto produce a variety of science products. Natural-color images are generated by combining three separate monochrome exposures (red, green, and blue channels) taken in quick succession. Advertisement

The animation above was assembled from 13 images acquired on March 9, 2016, by NASA's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), a four-megapixel charge-coupled device (CCD) and Cassegrain telescope on the DSCOVR satellite.

'What is unique for us is that being near the Sun-Earth line, we follow the complete passage of the lunar shadow from one edge of the Earth to the other,' said Adam Szabo, NASA's project scientist for DSCOVR.

'A geosynchronous satellite would have to be lucky to have the middle of an eclipse at noon local time for it. I am not aware of anybody ever capturing the full eclipse in one set of images or video.'

In the images, the shadow of the new Moon starts crossing the Indian Ocean and marches past Indonesia and Australia into the open waters and islands of Oceania (Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia) and the Pacific Ocean. Note how the shadow moves in the same direction as Earth rotates.

The bright spot in the center of each disk is sunglintthe reflection of sunlight directly back at the EPIC camera.

From its position about 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Earth and toward the Sun, DSCOVR maintains a constant view of the sunlit face of the planet.

EPIC acquires images using ten different spectral filtersfrom ultraviolet to near infraredto produce a variety of science products.

Natural-color images are generated by combining three separate monochrome exposures (red, green, and blue channels) taken in quick succession.

According to Szabo, the satellite normally collects images at all ten wavelengths about once every 108 minutes (with just one image at full resolution).

For this eclipse, the EPIC team collected full-resolution images every 20 minutes on just the red, green, and blue channels.

This allowed the satellite to collect 13 images spanning the entire four hours and twenty minutes of the eclipse.

In addition to the EPIC camera, DSCOVR carries the National Institute of Standards and Technology Advanced Radiometer (NISTAR), an instrument that measures how much solar energy is being radiated back into space from Earth.

In coming weeks, scientists will be analyzing NISTAR data to quantify how the eclipse changed the incoming and outgoing radiation for those few hours.

The shadow of the new Moon starts crossing the Indian Ocean and marches past Indonesia and Australia into the open waters and islands of Oceania (Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia) and the Pacific Ocean.

The bright spot in the center of each disk is sunglintthe reflection of sunlight directly back at the EPIC camera.

On Earth, the eclipse was also visible in parts of Australia and south-east Asia.

However, only some parts of the country got to see the sun totally eclipsed by the moon, which happened almost immediately after the sun rose.

Because the moon's shadow crossed the international date line, it appeared in the afternoon of the 8th in some regions, despite being visible from the morning of the 9th in others.

This combined photo shows the moon passing in front of the sun (top left to bottom right) during a total solar eclipse in the city of Ternate, in Indonesia's Maluku Islands, on March 9

A partial solar eclipse is pictured above a cloud formation at dawn in Singapore on March 9. The eclipse was also visible around the region in Indonesia and Malaysia. However, only some parts of the country got to see the sun totally eclipsed by the moon, which happened almost immediately after the sun rose

A solar eclipse happens when the moon casts a shadow on the earth as it passes between the earth and the sun.

At least twice a year, the orbits of the moon and Earth block the sun to cause a shadow on Earth.

Most eclipses are partial, but when the moon is in close to the earth, it results in a total eclipse.

The last total solar eclipse was in March 2015, and the one before that was in November 2012.

The total eclipse was visible within a roughly 62 to 93-mile (100-150km) wide path that started in the Indian Ocean and sliced across parts of Indonesia including Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi before ending in the northern Pacific Ocean.

Now that's a view of the #Eclipse2016 from flight #870. Photo: Anchorage flight attendants Rachael C. & Sofia S. pic.twitter.com/Sa6qOUysRu  Alaska Airlines (@AlaskaAir) March 9, 2016

This picture shows the moon passing in front of the sun during a partial solar eclipse in Naypyidaw in Myanmar on March 9

School children watch a partial solar eclipse at the Planetarium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

An aeroplane flies past the sun as it goes into a partial solar eclipse in Singapore on March 9

Thousands of tourists and astronomy enthusiasts flocked to Indonesia to catch the country's first solar eclipse in nearly 33 years on Wednesday morning. Indonesia's capital Jakarta was not within the eclipse path, but the Sumatran port city of Palembang was

THE PLOT OF THE ECLIPSE Palembang was the first city to see the total eclipse, at about 7:20 a.m. local time. The total eclipse occured from midnight GMT (7pm ET) to 4 am G.M.T (11pm ET). It was visible within a roughly 62 to 93-mile (100-150km) wide path that started in the Indian Ocean and slices across Indonesia including Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi before ending in the northern Pacific Ocean. The point at which the total eclipse lasted the longest - four minutes and nine seconds - was in the Pacific Ocean east of the Philippines. Advertisement

Indonesia's capital Jakarta was not within the eclipse path, but the Sumatran port city of Palembang was.

The sun itself was entirely obscured from between 90 seconds and five minutes, depending on the viewer's location.

The point at which the total eclipse lasted the longest - four minutes and nine seconds - was in the Pacific Ocean east of the Philippines.

Palembang was the first city to see the total eclipse, at about 7:20 am local time on March 9.

The total eclipse then occurred from midnight GMT, 7pm ET to 4 am G.M.T (11pm ET).

Those is Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart missed the eclipse, but those in far north Queensland could see it from about 11am local time.

It happened in the Northern Territory by 10am and Western Australia caught a glimpse of a partial eclipse from 8am.

Astronomer Xavier Jubier recently also listed a number of flights that would cross the path of the eclipse.

According to his site, 'the greatest point of eclipse lies in the middle of the Pacific Ocean east of Indonesia where about 10 million people live inside the totality path.'

Hundreds gathered to watch the solar eclipse on the banks of the Musi River in Palembang, Indonesia

Jubier listed flights to Honolulu and Jakarta as being ideal for viewing the eclipse from.

It was also available to watch online using theSLOOH telescopes and observatories over the course of the eclipse.

And for people who missed it in the west, a total solar eclipse will pass through the US and over Europe in August 2017, with the longest visible viewing spot in Tennessee and Kentucky.

'Though only people along the narrow path of totality will see the total eclipse, millions more will see some degree of a partial solar eclipse in Asia and the Pacific, including Hawaii, Guam and parts of Alaska,' Nasa said in a statement.

The incredible natural phenomenon began over Indonesia before moving over Malaysia and South-east Asia. The sun itself was entirely obscured from between 90 seconds and five minutes, depending on the viewer's location
The product was even trialled for a limited time in the 1990s in the UK

l pizzas are just $3 (2.11) rising to $6 (4.23) for family options

Most people thought that the McDonald's McPizza was extinct - but it's been revealed that two of its restaurants still serve them.

Not only that, but their customers can even customize their pizzas with a range of toppings.

The McPizza was launched in the late 1980s and abandoned a decade later. But not in Ohio and West Virginia.

Scroll down for video

The McPizza was launched in the late 1980s and abandoned a decade later. But not in Ohio (pictured) and West Virginia.

MailOnline Travel contacted McDonald's, who confirmed that McPizza is served in Pomeroy, Ohio (pictured), and Spencer, West Virginia

MailOnline Travel contacted McDonald's, who confirmed that McPizza is served in Pomeroy, Ohio, and Spencer, West Virginia.

And in keeping with the low-cost philosophy of the fast-food chain, individual pizzas are just $3 (2.11) rising to $6 (4.23) for a family sized offering.

Available toppings for custom-made pizzas are pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, onions and green peppers.

The product was first launched in Canada and according to Canada.com McDonald's invested $25million into ovens across the country in a bid to make it a success.

In keeping with the low-cost philosophy of the fast-food chain, individual pizzas are just $3 (2.11) rising to $6 (4.23) for a family sized offering. Pictured is the McPizza-serving McDonald's in Spencer, West Virginia

Available toppings for custom-made McPizzas are pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, onions, and green peppers

And instead of instant collection at the counter, like nowadays, family-sized pizzas were served at tables by an employee and were placed on a raised rack so everyone could grab a slice.

Personal pizzas were introduced to cut down on production time and by 1991 the menu option was available in a staggering 500 locations.

The product was even trialled for a limited time in the mid 1990s at a few restaurants in the UK, but the concept was later scrapped.

'As part of the test we trialled three flavours - cheese, cheese and pepperoni and the Deluxe (cheese, green pepper, onion, peperoni and more) - and they were eight inch pizzas cut into four slices,' the company's website explains.

According to Canada.com the company invested $25million in ovens across Canada, in a bid to make McPizza a success

McDonald's confirmed that 'there are no current plans to expand this regional offering nationally', so hardcore pizza lovers will have to settle for making their way to the last two remaining stores

Pizza sales in McDonald's in the US and Canada dwindled and was discontinued in many restaurants by 2000.

This was largely due to the 11-minute cooking time, which jarred with the company's reputation for fast service.

However, the remaining restaurants still see the benefits of keeping pizzas on the menu.

Judy Norman, an employee at the West Virginia restaurant, told Canada.com that she has 'days when everyone wants pizza and there are days where every so often you get a pizza [order]'.

And there was a positive reaction on Twitter to the news that a McPizza can still be purchased.

Aaron Shafer from Ohio tweeted: 'I'd drive an hour and a half to try McPizza.' And Rence wrote: 'Let's go on strike to bring back mcpizza!'

McDonald's confirmed that 'there are no current plans to expand this regional offering nationally', so hardcore pizza lovers will have to settle for making their way to the last two remaining restaurants.
Her fashion sense is always on point.

And once again Jodi Anasta proved she was a leader in the style stakes when she stepped out at the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival (VAMFF) in a figure-hugging Alex Perry frock on Wednesday evening.

The glowing 31-year-old actress and model couldn't wipe the smile off her face as she posed for the cameras with some of her fashionable friends.

Scroll down for video

Looking good: Jodi Anasta donned a low-cut dress as she attended the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival (VAMFF) with friends including fashion blogger Nadia Fairfax On Wednesday night

The tightly-fitted dress featured silk detailing on the bodice, long sleeves and a very plunging neckline that showed off plenty of decolletage.

She teamed the sophisticated dress with a pair of black pointed shoes, which further accentuated her lithe and tanned legs.

The mother-of-one finished off the outfit with a black Mon Purse clutch with her initials emblazoned across the front.

Glowing and gorgeous: The glowing 31-year-old actress and model couldn't wipe the smile off her face as she posed for the cameras

Jodi's makeup included dark detailing around her big blue eyes, as well as a nude lip and a dusting of pink powder on her cheeks

Her brunette locks were styled into tousled curls which fell perfectly around her face and on her shoulders.

The Myer Ambassador pouted and posed for the cameras who vied to capture her best angles on the red carpet before she meandered into the catwalk event.

Proud: After the fashion show, Jodi took to her Instagram account to share a photograph of her elegant attire in all its glory while on the red carpet

After the fashion show, Jodi took to her Instagram account to share a photograph of her elegant attire in all its glory while on the red carpet.

She wrote alongside the snap: 'Busy day ending with the fab @bazaaraustralia #VAMFF show. So good!'

She also made sure to thank her fashion team for a job well done.

'Thanks @myer @evhpr @alexperryofficial @mon_purse,' she added.

Mother and daughter time: Jodi is a proud mother to her two-year-old daughter Aleeia

The event comes just days after Jodi revealed that she will keep her married surname for the sake of her two-year-old daughter, Aleeia, during trial separation from footballer husband Braith Anasta.

The 31-year-old told the Daily Telegraph: 'I dont know why people think I ever changed it [back],' she emphatically told the publication.

She added: 'I want the same last name as my daughter. I have no problem. I am an Anasta. Its a done deal.'

Split: Jodi split from her husband Braith Anasta two months ago

News of their split came to light in December after the pair were spotted having a heated argument in a park in Coogee.

Days later the couple told Daily Mail Australia in a joint statement: 'We are going to continue to support each other and remain best of friends.

'We only want the best for each other and more importantly our amazing daughter Aleeie,' they said.

A spokesman for the pair added: 'They have had challenges like all married couples and despite best efforts to make things work they have agreed that a trial separation is best for them and their precious daughter.'
Identifying as a lesbian and gender fluid, she has never been one to shy away from encouraging understanding of gender identities outside of the traditional binary.

And now Ruby Rose will receive a special award for her contribution to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community at the 27th annual GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles next month.

The 29-year-old Australian actress posted a snip from the GLAAD website to her Instagram on Wednesday, announcing that she was to be honored at the awards ceremony, along with the caption: 'Speechless. Thank you so much.'

Scroll down for video

'Ruby is breaking ground and inspiring dialogue': Ruby Rose will receive a special award for her contribution to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community at the 27th annual GLAAD Media Awards next month

The Orange Is the New Black actress will receive the prestigious Stephen F. Kolzak Award, awarded to someone who has made a significant difference in promoting equality and acceptance and raising awareness about the discrimination faced by LBGT and HIV-positive people.

Ruby will follow in the footsteps of her Orange Is The New Black cast mate Laverne Cox, who received the award last year.

Previous honorees of the award also include Wanda Sykes, Chaz Bono, Ellen DeGeneres, and Sir Ian McKellen.

See more of the latest on Ruby Rose as she is to be honoured at the GLAAD Media Awards

'Speechless': The 29-year-old Australian actress posted a snip from the GLAAD website to her Instagram on Wednesday, announcing that she was to be honored at the awards ceremony

Honoured: The Orange Is The New Black actress will receive the prestigious Stephen F. Kolzak Award, awarded to those who has made a significant difference in promoting equality and acceptance

'Ruby Rose is captivating audiences across the world, using her voice to transform conversations about gender and inclusion,' said GLAAD President & CEO Sarah Kate Ellis.

'Through her visibility and outspoken advocacy, Ruby is breaking ground and inspiring dialogue that advances acceptance for people of all genders.'

Ruby is an outspoken advocate for the LGBT community, tirelessly voicing her support for marriage equality, standing up against bullying, and advocating on behalf of transgender and gender nonconforming people.

Inspiring: Ruby will follow in the footsteps of her Orange Is The New Black castmate Laverne Cox, who received the award last year

Role model: Comedienne Ellen De Generes received the award in 2013

Tribute: Previous honorees of the award include Wanda Sykes (pictured left) and Chaz Bono (pictured right)

It's a big turn around for the Aussie, who only three years ago indicated she was losing a battle with depression, however her career in the spotlight continues to go from strength to strength.

The model and TV personality captured mainstream attention when she joined the cast of Orange Is The New Black in season three, playing sassy Litchfield inmate Stella Carlin - a romantic interest for the critically-acclaimed Netflix series' lead Piper Chapman.

After captivating a new fan following from the American comedy-drama, the tattooed beauty has managed to secure a number of modelling gigs and roles in new movies, including xXx: Return Of Xander Cage, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter and John Wick: Chapter Two.

Going from strength to strength: It's a big turn around for the Aussie, who only three years ago indicated she was losing a battle with depression

Role model: Last week, Ruby was announced as the spokesmodel of beauty brand Urban Decay and praised the brand for celebrating that same individuality that she has always endeavored to embrace

Career boom: Ruby hosted the 2015 MTV EMA Awards alongside Ed Sheeran

She also hosted the 2015 MTV EMA Awards alongside Ed Sheeran.

Just last week, the androgynous beauty was announced as the spokes model of beauty brand Urban Decay and praised the brand for celebrating that same individuality that she has always endeavored to embrace.

'Urban Decay believes in supporting individuality and personal self-expression two values I hold very dear because everyone deserves the freedom to explore their personality and discover their true selves,' she said.

Rise to fame: The model and TV personality captured mainstream attention when she joined the cast of Orange Is The New Black in season three, playing sassy Litchfield inmate Stella Carlin

Critically-acclaimed: Her character was a romantic interest for the Netflix series' lead Piper Chapman

In an interview with Refinery 29 earlier this year, the actress described herself as 'gender-fluid.'

'I've always been a tomboy, and been gender-fluid,' she admitted.

The brunette explained that representations of gender fluidity should enjoy a prominent place in mainstream media to help bring a sense of normality to young people who are trying to find the self-confidence to express who they want to be.

'The more we make [gender fluidity] mainstream, and the more this conversation continues and happens everywhere  thats how a younger generation can be whomever they want to be. Its freeing,' she advocated.

In 2014, Ruby wrote, produced, and starred in the short film Break Free, a tribute to gender nonconforming people that became a viral hit, garnering more than 17 million views on YouTube.

Ruby will be presented with the award at the Beverly Hilton on April 2.

For the first time in nearly a decade, the awards will be televised exclusively on Logo in a one-hour special premiering Monday, April 4 at 10PM ET/PT.

It was also announced that Demi Lovato will receive the Vanguard Award at the event.

Role model: In 2014, Ruby wrote, produced, and starred in the short film 'Break Free'

Influential: The film was a tribute to gender nonconforming people that became a viral hit, garnering more than 17 million views on YouTube
Myleene Klass has scrubbed up to film a new series which centres around a group of nurses from the Belfast Trust in Northern Ireland and will also feature her own mother, Magdalena.

The 37-year-old shared a series of images of herself in her uniform, writing: 'Where does it hurt?'

While filming for a yet to be titled BBC series, the TV presenter sings the praises for the nurses alongside her recent social media dedication to the caregivers.

Scroll down for video

Working on the wards: Myleene Klass has scrubbed up to film a new BBC series which centres around a group of nurses from the Belfast Trust in Northern Ireland and will also feature her own mother, Magdalena

In one photo, the musician channeled her inner Grey's Anatomy in a sultry selfie which she captioned: 'Where does it hurt? Working on the wards today. #BBC #NHS #belfasttrust'

The busy mother-of-two wore her shoulder-length locks loose and donned heavy black eyeliner and sported rosebud pink lips.

In another image, she posed by herself yet again with a piece of hospital equipment in an empty looking corridor, beaming at being in a slightly different environment than her usual.

Getting into the role: The former I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here star made sure she got the perfect picture opportunity in order to draw attention to the cause

In another image, she was joined by the nurses in a celebratory group shot where they all posed energetically during the midst of their shift.

She captioned the image: 'Actual squad goals. Thanks to the amazing nurses I worked with today, those around the UK and my own mama. #BBC #NHS #belfasttrust #ward4a.'

Myleene's investigative story-telling quality for this particular project will inevitably be backed up by her strong history of presenting duties on shows such as 10 Years Younger and World's Youngest Daredevils.

New friends: Myleene poses with a group of Belfast Trust nurses for her new BBC documentary in Northern Ireland

Since then she has also released books and clothing lines as well as giving birth to two children: Ava, six and Hero, four.

Filming for this particular project with her mum is hot on the tails of Sunday's Mother's Day, where she was caught running errands in London town, presumably quick to rush home to be with her children.

With a busy career in the spotlight, Myleene ensures that her relationship with her body is the best it can be.

Speaking to Women's Health, she revealed: 'I'm 5ft 5in and I'm not a model but

'I've learned to make the best of what I've got  short legs and bandy arms and a long back and terrible posture, but I don't wish to be anything else.'
Spring is just around the corner and so was Jessica Alba in another head-turning ensemble.

The 34-year-old actress had that seasonal glow on Wednesday as she emerged for what looked like a business-related outing in New York City where the sun was partly shining and temperatures hovered in the low 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

Jessica wore a midi-length white eyelet lace frock with flaring skirt and modest neckline, expertly matching it with a grey moto jacket that featured hip zipper details.

Scroll down for video

Elegant in lace: Jessica Alba looked ready for spring as she emerged in NYC wearing a frilly white lace dress on Wednesday

She high-stepped it in a pair of silvery pumps that gave her 5 ft 7 in some added height and wore her brown hair parted centre and flowing loose.

Jessica was in her element and smiled from behind dark opaque shades as she left her hotel in the Big Apple.

She wore pink lip gloss and carried the smallest of boxy clutches too, proving she can be practical with her beauty essentials as well as stylish.

Silver step: The 24-year-old actress added a grey zippered jacket and silver patent pumps

She's got flare: Jessica took wide strides and that flowing flare skirt followed

Picture perfect: Even behind those dark shades one could tell Jessica's make-up was impeccable

Feeling 'grey': The Into The Blue star added a chic grey moto jacket to the stylish mix

The Into The Blue star has been travelling a lot lately, beginning with a trip to Paris for fashion week.

Jessica took in the Dior show on March 4, looking chic in red flare trousers, white collared blouse and bolero jacket.

And the night before, on March 3, she attended the Balmain after show party while clad in a clingy bandage dress, black tights and black ankle-strapped high heels.

Hold that ride: Jessica emerged from her hotel on a confident note

Keeping in touch: The entrepreneur stayed in communication with her family via her ullu Hand Painted Leather iPhone 6 Snap-On Case in Turqish Deligh

The mother-of-two was soon reunited with her daughters, Honor, seven, and Haven, four, in Los Angeles as well as her producer husband Cash Warren, 37.

The family was seen stocking up on groceries at Bristol Farms and going out for brunch at Le Pain Quotidien, which is famous for its housemade breads, jams and French omelettes.

Jessica's start-up venture The Honest Company is now a billion-dollar empire selling eco-friendly baby goods and beauty products among other things.

Last year Forbes magazine claimed that Jessica owns somewhere between 15 and 20 percent of The Honesty Company and is worth $200 million.
Mariah Carey will be starring in a new reality show.

According to UsWeekly, the 45-year-old songbird is filming a docu-style series that takes viewers behind the scenes of her new Las Vegas residency as well as her upcoming tour, which will end in May.

The magazine claimed that her manager is a reality TV producer so it was a breeze making the deal.

Scroll down for video

Fun on the town: Mariah Carey will be starring in a new reality show, UsWeekly claimed on Wednesday

There is no air date yet mentioned, but she has selected a name for the show: Mariah's Squad.

And an insider said it's not bad at all. 'It's nuts, she is very funny on camera,' said the pal.

Several big singers have done this before, including Madonna with 1991's Truth Or Dare and Jennifer Lopez's 2014 HBO special Dance Again.

The Grammy winner was last spotted in a low-cut dress as she took her son Morocco, aged four, to sushi at Nobu in Malibu on Sunday.

Dazzling: The 45-year-old beauty shimmered in her gold and black dress when leaving Nobu on Sunday

The Dream Lover hit maker showed off her svelte figure in a mini dress that looked like it was plucked from the closet of her Las Vegas show.

The number had a gladiator style with pleats on the bottom and a belted design in the midsection. The top part was low-cut showing off ample cleavage.

The look was completely by black tights, high-heeled platform black lace-up boots and a small black cardigan.

Her little man: Also with the All I Want For Christmas hit maker was her son Morocco, who looked stylish in an Island Yacht Cruises pink shirt and a green army jacket with American flag on the side. Jeans and sneakers rounded out the tot's look

And then there was that 35-carat rock from Australian businessman Packer (he proposed on January 21).

Also with the All I Want For Christmas hit maker was her son Morocco, who looked stylish in an Island Yacht Cruises pink shirt and a green army jacket with American flag on the side. Jeans and sneakers rounded out the tot's look.

It appeared as if there was a nanny with the entourage as well as a bodyguard in a blue plaid shirt.

Packer's ex Erica recently said she approved of Carey.

Soon to be Mrs Packer: Mariah posing with her future husband James in January

Erica, 38, and James have three children together - Indigo, aged seven, Jackson, ages six, and Emmanuelle, aged three.

'If he's happy, I'm happy,' she told Channel Nine's The Today Show on Monday.

'I hear they're getting married. I've met Mariah a couple of times and she's really lovely so I wish them the best.'

Mariah's ex-husband Nick Cannon also said he was fine with the new lovebirds.

'I think we're all mature enough and have grown to love each other in so many different ways that you just want to see people that you care about in the happiest situation possible,' the 35-year-old told Extra.
Stormzy reflects on his painful split from Maya Jama and says he 'made mistakes'

Speaking to Louis Theroux, the rapper, 29, admitted to making mistakes during their four year relationship but revealed he has since grown.
He's been known for being a bit of a ladies' man over the years.

And it looks like Shane Warne's popularity has not diminished since his appearance on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here in the South African jungle for six weeks.

Speaking to Nova 96.9 FM's Fitzy and Wippa on Thursday morning following his elimination, the 46-year-old cricket star revealed his mobile phone has been flooded with emails and text messages.

Scroll down for video

Popular: I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here star Shane Warne reveals he's received 6100 emails and over 500 messages while in the jungle in South Africa for six weeks

'I've got nearly 6100 emails, I've got 300 Whatsapps (and) two hundred and something texts,' the retired sportsman told the radio hosts.

But while fans may be eager to know if those behind the emails and messages are ladies showing a romantic interest in Shane, the father-of-three has priorities elsewhere.

'So far I just let them keep coming in and I've just spoken to my children. That's the first thing I did.

'I haven't done anything since that,' he revealed, making reference to two daughters Brooke and Summer, as well as son Jackson, whom he shares with ex-wife Simone Callahan.

Family man: The father-of-three says he has his priorities elsewhere and spoke to his children first once he was booted out of the jungle on Wednesday

When Fitzy and Wippa enquired if Shane's famous ex Elizabeth Hurley had dropped him a note on his phone, Shane said he doesn't know, but is sure the 50-year-old ex fiancee would have no issues with his behaviour on the reality show.

'I don't think Elizabeth will have any issues with anything I did or said or anything on the show for sure,' he said.

'We're good friends and we'll remain that way.'

Someone he is definitely hoping to hear from is Carmen Electra, after revealing to DJ Havana Brown that he has a crush on the 43-year-old American stunner.

Excited! Last week Shane was like a giddy teenager as he was awarded with the chance to speak to his ultimate crush, Carmen Electra, through text on the Channel Ten reality show

Helping hand: The former cricketer sent a number of replies to Carmen, which were composed with the help of Havana Brown

She's interested! The American actress relayed a series of messages to the 46-year-old via text messages typed out by KIIS FM radio duo Kyle and Jackie O

Last week Carmen relayed a series of messages to Shane via text messages typed out by KIIS 106.5 FM radio duo Kyle and Jackie O.

'Hi Warnie, it's Kyle and Jackie O, we have Carmen Electra here, we've told her you're keen on meeting her.

'What do you want to say to her? Text us back,' read the first message in the text exchange.

Carefully composing his replies with the help of DJ Havana, Shane initially suggested responding: 'Hello there stranger,' and 'Yay that sounds awesome.'

However Havana advised Shane that he sounded a little 'too enthusiastic,' as she told him to be 'a bit more cool.'

Carefully composed: The sportsman decided to write back: 'Well hello there, lovely to meet you over the phone! Look forward to catching up xxxx'

Head-over-heels: Carmen thanked Shane for his flattering comments about her, and revealed she had spoken to his daughter already

Big step: He then replied: 'Gulp !!!! Thank you for being sweet... Ps What did you guys chat about? How awesome dad is? X'

'Yay is a bit... Something girlfriends would say together,' Havana explained.

The sportsman decided to write back: 'Well hello there, lovely to meet you over the phone! Look forward to catching up xxxx.

'Ps I'm lost in the jungle with the delightful Havana Brown, she says hi & let's do a dinner for 4 [with Havana's fiance] when we escape? X,' he then added.

Radio hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O had brought Carmen up to speed on Shane's flattering comments about her, and she took the liberty to thank him for his kind words.

'I've heard a lot about you and I'm very flattered about the things you said about me. I love Havana Brown and would love to have a get together with you and Havana - sounds like fun,' was her response.
She's found love again with Russian businessman Egor Tarabasov.

But Lindsay Lohan has admitted she once passed up the opportunity to enjoy a night of fun One Direction hunk Harry Styles in her single heyday, turning the singer down because she didn't recognise him.

The 29-year-old redhead made the amusing confession during a tell-all interview with The Sun's Bizarre column, claiming that Harry once showed up at her hotel room at 2am in the hopes of some fun.

Scroll down for video

No thanks! Lindsay Lohan claims she once turned down the opportunity to have some fun with Harry Styles when the One Direction singer showed up at her hotel room at 2am

When Lindsay opened the door, she recalls being baffled by the suit-clad man standing in front of her.

She joked: 'I said, "Well, youre very good-looking  can I help you?" That was it. I was like, "Im going to bed but it was nice to meet you".'

Lindsay explained that while she was intrigued by the curly-haired star's good looks and charms, she was too engrossed in the cheesy film she was watching to invite him in.

See Harry Styles updates as it's revealed Lindsay Lohan turned him down

Midnight Memories: Lindsay says she turned a sheepish Harry away, telling him, 'Im going to bed but it was nice to meet you'

The Mean Girls star added: 'It was 2am, I had just come back from an AA meeting. I looked like s*** too.'

Lindsay revealed her younger sister Ali was outraged when she recounted the anecdote the following day, and couldn't believe she'd snubbed one of the world's most eligible bachelors.

Harry reportedly claimed his pals had conned him into knocking on Lindsay's hotel room door by telling him there was an after-party being held there.

The actress confessed it's still awkward to this day when they bump into each other in Los Angeles.

Missed opportunity: Lindsay joked that her sister was furious she'd accidentally snubbed one of the world's most eligible bachelors

MailOnline has contacted Harry's representatives for comment.

Meanwhile, Lindsay is said to have her family's blessing over her romance with new beau Egor Tarabasov, who they believe 'keeps her out of trouble'.

According to TMZ, the former child star has been officially dating her new man since before Christmas, and the pair have already enjoyed numerous lavish breaks together.

The website reports the 22-year-old 'has the Lohan family stamp of approval'.

And Lindsay is said to be so smitten with her new beau, that she took him to New York for the festive season - specifically to meet her family.

While Lindsay and Egor haven't taken their relationship directly into the public eye, the Mean Girls star has posted several pictures of Egor to her social media accounts in the past weeks.

Mr. Right? Lindsay has now found love again with Egor Tarabasov, who she is believed to have been dating for four months




He caused uproar on Wednesday night after he declared his dislike for women with 'cankles' during reality show, First Dates.

And following the controversial critical remark, Andrew Good has now accused hot bikini blogger Natasha Oakley of also having cankles, which he describes as 'when a girls ankles and calves blend into one.'

Posting a photo of the famed swimwear model to his Facebook account, the 27-year-old from Sydney took a nasty stab at the Australian beauty, writing: 'See guys rigs can have s*** ankles too!'

Scroll down for video

He must be joking? First Dates star Andrew Good has accused bikini blogger Natasha Oakley of having 'cankles', which he describes as 'when a girls ankles and calves blend into one'

The image shows Natasha, 25, sitting with her legs crossed as she perches beside reality star Millie Mackintosh, her younger sister Sophia Vantuno and business partner and best friend Devin Brugman.

Famous for flaunting her enviable curves across social media, the Monday swimwear designer is famed for her perfectly toned frame.

Despite continuing to comment on the flaws of women and their bodies and demanding perfection, the reality star appears to be struggling in the dating department after having had to sign up to the reality dating in order to be matched to an eligible suitor.

The malicious attack on Natasha also comes after Andrew shared an unflattering image of himself to his Facebook account.

'See guys rigs can have s*** ankles too!': Posting a photo of the famed swimwear model to his Facebook account, the 27-year-old from Sydney took a nasty stab at the Australian beauty

Flawless: Natasha is famous for flaunting her enviable curves across social media

Instagram star: The blonde beauty is an Instagram star thanks to her endless bikini snaps

Not too shabby: The Monday swimwear designer is famed for her perfectly toned frame

The image shows him with a triple chin, while her also posted a number of other shots showing him confidently flaunting his figure as he poses naked in front of the mirror for a cheeky selfie.

A number of snaps also feature the Manly-resident opting to go shirtless while enjoying some quality time with friends.

And even more images reveal that despite a dislike for 'cankles' the Northern Beaches resident has a penchant for dressing up in women's clothing and locking lips with males.

Picky: The malicious attack on Natasha comes after Andrew shared ths unflattering image of himself to his Facebook account

Bit of a handful? The reality star can be seen with no trousers on, clutching his manhood in front of a urinal in one shot posted to Facebook

Flaunting it: A number of snaps also show the Manly-resident opting to go shirtless

Meanwhile, Andrew failed to impress his date Katie on Wednesday night when the pair shared a very awkward rendezvous after he critically revealed his physical preferences in women.

At the very start of the date Andrew openly confessed that he hates girls with 'cankles,' leaving Katie speechless.

While dining with the 24-year-old American beauty, Andrew explained: 'I had a celebrity crush and then I was looking at a photo and I figured out she has got cankles - Yeah not a thing for me.'

Andrew quickly reassured the foreign brunette that she didn't have cankles, saying: 'You don't, I have already checked,' to which she nervously replied: 'Oh...okay, great, thanks'.

Penchant for cross dressing? The russet-haired reality star got in touch with his feminine side in this cheeky snap in which he is seen dressed in women's clothing

Sealed with a kiss: More images reveal that despite a dislike for 'cankles' the Northern Beaches resident has a penchant for locking lips with males

Making things more uncomfortable between the pair, Katie also admitted that she was looking for an independent guy and one who doesn't live at home.

'A quarter of the guys I meet are living at home - scary right?' she said, before finding out that Andrew had lived with his parents in Manly since he 'popped out.'

Putting her off further, Andrew gushed about his living arrangements, making it clear he was not looking to move out of the comfort of his family abode anytime soon.

'My room mates are really good - I live there rent free and they do my cooking and cleaning,' he joked.

Awkward: First Dates Andrew openly confessed that he hated girls with 'cankles,' leaving his date Katie speechless on Wednesday night

Not impressed: Katie was left speechless as she listened on while giving off a shocked facial expression towards the tradesman
Outburst: Laurence Fox, 37, pictured with his wife Billie Piper, used the c-word to rebuke a heckler

Actor Laurence Fox has apologised after he used the c-word to rebuke a heckler during a live performance at London's Park Theatre.

The star of ITV's Lewis is currently playing French statesman Charles de Gaulle in The Patriotic Traitor, written and directed by Yes Minister's Jonathan Lynn.

According to the Evening Standard, Fox scolded a man who had been sitting in the front row.

'I won't bother telling you the story because this c*** in the front row has ruined it for everybody,' he is quoted as saying.

Fox, 37, who is married actress Billie Piper, left the stage and did not return for the final bow.

Today he apologised for the outburst, saying 'I should have handled it differently'.

Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Fox said the audience member had become 'so loud and so impossible to deal with' that he could not continue without reacting.

He said: 'Can I just start by apologising to the other 199 people in the theatre for my use of language.

'It was a very emotional part of the play and I was very upset about it, and then upset about how I'd behaved.'

He explained: 'This gentleman in the theatre started heckling, muttering and heckling early on during the play, and then towards the end started telling me to eff off.

'And it became so loud and so impossible to deal with, that I really should have had a little speech prepared and gone "Excuse me sir, you can either leave" - or whatever.'

He said he regretted using the swear word 'in the heightened emotion of the thing'.

Emotional: Laurence Fox, pictured with co-star Tom Conti, said the heckler was 'impossible to deal with'

He added: 'It's not an interactive stand-up comedy show. And therefore, if someone is hell-bent on heckling, they are ruining it for everybody and particularly the rest of the audience and the actors.

'So I think it becomes an un-performable play.'

After the performance, BBC producer Lewis Vickers tweeted: 'Exceptional performance of #PatrioticTraitor @ParkTheatre and @LozzaFox (Fox's Twitter handle) dealt brilliantly with that cunning stunt at the end.'

Fox replied: 'He was a cunning stunt wasn't he? Apologies for my being a cunning stunt as well ... So glad you liked it.'

Vickers added: 'I thought you dealt with it quite well in the circumstances. I hope the rest of the run goes well.'

The Patriotic Traitor centres on the relationship between de Gaulle and Philippe Petain, played by Tom Conti.

Formerly close friends, the two men ended up on opposite sides in World War II.

Apology: Fox, 37, pictured with co-stars Conti and Ruth Gibson, left the stage and did not return for the final bow. Today he said he regretted his language, admitting he 'should have handled the situation differently'

Fox is a member of the famous acting dynasty that includes his father James, best known for The Servant and Downton Abbey.

His uncle Edward starred in The Day Of The Jackal and also portrayed King Edward VIII in ITV's Edward & Mrs Simpson.
Making the most of the extended Australian summer, Storm Keating was spotted looking bright and beautiful as she shopped around Bondi, Sydney for husband Ronan Keating last week.

The 34-year-old donned an almost fluorescent pink singlet top, which she matched with a pink fedora and baby pink Prada handbag.

The statuesque Australian model also showed off her long slender legs in a pair of cut-off denim shorts.

Scroll down for video

Pretty in pink: Storm Keating looked bright and beautiful as did some shopping in Bondi, Sydney for husband Ronan Keating last week

The leggy beauty wore her long blonde hair down in loose waves around her face, and sported a natural make-up look, wearing just a hint of eyeliner.

The TV producer browsed the store, looking at a number of men's shirts and jumpers as she spent the day in the beachside suburb.

Preparing for the cooler weather ahead, Storm picked up a black hooded jumped and blue dress shirt for her husband, while managing to find a nice candle for herself.

The couple originally met on the set of Australia's X Factor for which Ronan acts as a judge and began dating after the breakdown of their previous marriages.

Ronan ended his 17-year-union with Yvonne Keating, while Storm divorced Sydney financial director Tim Ivers.

Winter is coming: Preparing for the cooler months ahead, the 34-year-old picked up a hooded jumper her X Factor judge husband

Matching: Storm matched her pink singlet top and hat with a light pink Prada handbag

They wed six month ago and have been regulars around Bondi, enjoying the extended summer weather.

Last month Ronan - already a dad to Jack, 16, Missy, 14, and Ali, 10 from his first marriage - revealed he was keen for the couple to have children of their own.

When pressed on whether he would like to be a dad again, he told Jonathan Ross on his chat show: 'Yes maybe yes, Id love to, well see how it goes. Wed love to, wed love to, itd be smashing.'

Leggy look: The Australian beauty showed off some leg during the outing, opting for a pair of denim cut-off shorts

The musician also revealed details about his 'emotional' proposal to Storm, which involved the rest of the family.

He explained that his children were in on the news and gathered alongside him as he dropped to one knee to pop the question.

'You very much involve them,' he said about his kids. 'Its a big deal because Storm isnt just marrying me, shes marrying the four of us as such so it was very special.'

He added: 'The four of us asked Storm to marry us which was amazing it was a really beautiful moment and very emotional It was very special. It meant a lot to all of us.'

The pair have since returned to their London home, jetting out of Australia late last week.

Something for herself? Storm stopped to smell a scented candle during the shopping trip

Happy customer: The TV producer walked away with a bag of goodies as she and Ronan prepared to leave Australia for their London home
Katie Couric and Ann Curry worked together on the Today show for many years - with Katie leaving in 2006 for a bigger and better gig and Ann getting the boot in 2012.

There were nothing but smiles going around the table as the former colleagues - and rivals - met up again at the Eye In The Sky film luncheon in New York City on Tuesday.

Katie and Ann, both 59, didn't sit next together but they were pretty close as they flanked the star of the movie Helen Mirren.

Scroll down for video

Rivals no more: Katie Couric and her former Today show colleague Ann Curry were reunited at the Eye In The Sky luncheon alongside the film's star Helen Mirren on Tuesday in NYC

They seemed genuinely happy to be back in each other's company, having moved on from the dramas that ensued during their tenure on the NBC morning news program.

Katie looked chic in a little black dress with beading running through the clingy fabric and a short hem to show off her toned, tan legs.

Ann wore a black long-sleeved dress with some awfully 'loud' Aztec-style necklaces draped around her neck and a matching metal bracelet.

Talk to me: The 59-year-old journalist had Helen's side at the table

You can talk to me too: Ann had Helen's other side during the elegant sit-down event that celebrated the war drama-thriller due out in US theatres on Friday

Varying styles: Katie used to tease Ann about her wardrobe when they worked together on Today and maybe shared a good laugh on this occasion too

Curry used to get some teasing from Katie about her wardrobe while on the Today show, according to New York magazine, so perhaps they both had a good laugh about that.

Katie hosted Today from 1991 to 2006 while Ann, who began as anchor for NBC News At Sunrise in 1991, became news anchor for Today in 1997.

Katie had a successful run alongside co-host Matt Lauer but went to become anchor of CBS Evening News, a post she held for five years until 2011, in addition to her own talk show.

Accessories galore: Ann decorated her simple black dress with a layering of heavy necklaces

Making the rounds: Katie - now Yahoo! Global News Anchor - spent some time chatting with Arianna Huffington

She now is the proud Yahoo! Global News Anchor.

Ann was dismissed as co-anchor on the Today show with many pointing the blame at Matt Lauer, according to a piece in New York magazine in 2013.

Ann was replaced with Savannah Guthrie.

Katie stuck up for Ann at the time of her tearful departure, saying NBC should have given her 'a proper send-off.'

Ray of light: Katie's toothy grin and giggle made the Today show a pleasure to watch in the morning while co-host Matt Lauer and news anchor Ann took a more serious stance

'I felt really bad for Ann. I still don't understand why they didn't give her sort of a proper send-off,' Katie told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

'Ann did some extraordinary work during her time there. It was just not the best chapter in the Today show. It made me sad for the institution.'

Curry didn't fare too bad in that she ended up signing a lucrative contract with NBC as correspondent.

Meanwhile, the luncheon and Wednesday's film premiere was also wistful as Eye In The Sky marks the last film of Alan Rickman, who died on January 14 in London at the age of 69.
Although hes a father to two beautiful girls, My Kitchen Rules judge Colin Fassnidge has revealed he wants to add to his brood.

In a new interview with OK! Magazine, the celebrity chef - who has daughters Lily, six, and five-year-old Maeve with wife Jane - confessed he would really like to have a son.

Im working on the boy, he blatantly admitted. Every man wants a boy. I need a boy because I have motorbikes. I have a drum kit. I need a boy!

'Every man wants a boy': My Kitchen Rules judge Colin Fassnidge has revealed he wants to add a little baby boy to his brood

Fassnidge - who owns trendy Surry Hills restaurant 4Fourteen - moved to Australia from Ireland in 1999, where he startedThe Four In Hand Dining Room in Paddington.

He often takes to his social media sites to post loving snaps of his family, his most recent being on Wednesday with the simple caption, Just chilling.

Meanwhile, Colin can currently be seen giving his food critiques on the latest series of popular TV show, My Kitchen Rules.

Family man: The celebrity chef has daughters Lily, six, and five-year-old Maeve with wife Jane

Honest: Im working on the boy, he blatantly admitted, Every man wants a boy. I need a boy because I have motorbikes. I have a drum kit. I need a boy!

This year on the show, the Irish-bin chef was joined by English chef and writer, Rachel Khoo.

This is Colin's fourth year on the reality cooking contest, which also features fellow well renowned chefs, Manu Feildel and Pete Evans.

But while holding a commitment to be a judge on the Channel Seven show, the father-of-two also owns and runs two successful restaurants.

Making memories: He often takes to his social media sites to post loving snaps of his family, his most recent being on Wednesday with the simple caption, Just chilling

Big success: Fassnidge - who owns trendy Surry Hills restaurant 4Fourteen - moved to Australia from Ireland in 1999, where he startedThe Four In Hand Dining Room in Paddington

Out now: For the full interview , read the new ssue of OK!, on sale now

In December Colin told Daily Mail Australia he had recently sold the popular Paddington restaurant, where he had been based for 10 years.

'The reason we are getting rid of it is because it is too small for what we are doing...

'It costs more to run the venue because there are that many other rooms,' he explained at the time.

'So we want to do something similar but bigger with the Four In Hand name,' he continued.

But while he keeps himself busy with his pre-existing projects, the Irishman insisted he wouldn't expand interstate.

'Not for me, not at the moment because I like to be in my restaurants,' he added.
He is often seen flashing his flesh while on the set of Home And Away.

And on Tuesday this was certainly the case once again for George Mason.

The actor who plays Ash on the Channel Seven soap was spotted at New South Wales' Palm Beach, soaking up the sun in all his shirtless glory.

Scroll down for video

Buff hunk: Home And Away star George Mason was spotted on the set of the Channel Seven soap at New South Wales' Palm Beach on Tuesday

Sporting just a pair of cool board shorts featuring different shades of blue, the genetically blessed hunk flaunted his toned torso and a hint of chest hair.

Emerging from the water while holding onto a surfboard, George was seen dripping wet as the rays hit his skin.

He closed his eyes and ran his hands through his damped locks, no doubt reflecting on the refreshing surf he had just enjoyed.

George was also spotted filming a separate scene alongside none other than James Stewart, who has previously starred on Packed To The Rafters.

See Home and Away updates as star George Mason flaunts his toned torso

Looking good: Sporting just a pair of cool board shorts featuring different shades of blue, the genetically blessed hunk flaunted his toned torso and a hint of chest hair

Surf's up! Emerging from the water while holding onto a surfboard, George was seen dripping wet as the rays hit his skin

More covered up during this segment of shooting, George wore a grey coloured singlet, though his bulging biceps were still very much on display for all to see.

With his hair tied back in a bun, he completed his look with a pair of black thongs.

George is originally from New Zealand and plays the role of Martin 'Ash' Ashford in the long-running show.

He first appeared on the series and made his debut as a resident bad boy in late 2014.

The genetically blessed hunk shot to fame after playing Regan in soap Shortland Street, before starring in Kiwi drama Go Girls.

Famous co-star: George was also spotted filming a separate scene alongside none other than James Stewart, who has previously starred on Packed To The Rafters

Summer Bay style: More covered up during this segment of shooting, George wore a grey coloured singlet, though his bulging biceps were still very much on display for all to see
They've spent the last week lazing on the sand at Bondi Beach.

But blogging best friends Natasha Oakley and Devin Brugman, both 25, have covered up their famous curves as they left Sydney for the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival (VAMFF).

Blonde beauty Natasha opted for a pinstripe jumpsuit, still managing to show off her ample cleavage with a plunging V neckline, while her American business partner looked angelic in a white dress and tan block heels.

Scroll down for video

Covering up: Natasha Oakley (L) and Devin Brugman (R) attend the Myer Contemporary Brands Collections as part of the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival

Both sun-kissed beauties wore their hair in loose waves and kept their make-up simple as they attended the launch of the Myer Contemporary Brands Collections on Thursday.

The bikini bloggers joined Myer ambassadors Jodi Anasta, Jennifer Hawkins and Rachael Finch at the event.

Since arriving in Australia from LA last weekend, the pair have hardly been seen with clothes on and have been regulars around Sydney's eastern suburb beaches, posting envy-inducing snaps to social media.

Swapping bikinis for clothes: Australian-born beauty Natasha opted for pinstripe jumpsuit, while Devin wore all-white for the event

Looking good: Natasha's business partner and best friend Devin looked angelic in a white dress

The pair were spotted on Bondi Beach wearing matching black bikinis, with Australian-born Natasha posting a snap of the pair walking hand-in-hand across the sand, writing in an accompanying caption: 'Showing @devinbrugman why I love home so much'.

Devin opted for a skimpier style of swimwear, sporting a G-string style bottom and halter-top, while her blonde bestie opted for a fuller brief and top.

Stunning brunette Devin took took to Instagram on Wednesday to show off her impressive DD-cup sized chest in the tiniest bikini to date.

Best friends: The pair, who have their own swimwear line, have been regulars on the beach since arriving in Sydney last weekend

Spilling out: Devin recently took to social media to show off her ample assets in the tiniest bikini to date

Posing for what appears to be an impromtu photo shoot, Devin kneels in the sand as her bikini top struggles to contain her assets.

Not to be outdone, Natasha has also posted a series of photos flaunting her assets while at Bondi Beach.

The pair founded successful blog A Bikini A Day together and now have their own bikini line, Monday Swimwear while also in the process of expanding to include a sportswear range, called Monday Active.
It was recently revealed that she would be joining the cast of The Only Way Is Essex to mark the show's 200th anniversary.

And with her reality series portfolio rapidly expanding, it doesn't look as though Megan McKenna is feeling the nerves as she put on a typically confident display when stepping out of the MTV studios in London on Wednesday,

The 23-year-old Ex On The Beach star looked buoyant ahead of her big debut, playing up to the cameras by flashing a cheeky wink and blowing kisses at the lens.

Scroll down for video

What nerves? Megan McKenna looked far from nervous ahead of big debut on TOWIE this weekend as she played up to the cameras outside of the MTV studios in London on Wednesday

The Celebrity Big Brother star - who was at the MTV headquarters to feature on the network's news segment - broke away from her usually glamorous style in favour of something a little more urban for her appearance.

The Essex native exuded cool in a camouflage print statement jacket, though she doubled up on her outerwear by layering a fitted bomber jacket beneath the coat.

She slipped her lithe legs into a black skinny jeans which were emblazoned with rips at the knee, before elongating her pins further with the help of strappy nude stilettos.

Fashiionista: The Celebrity Big Brother star broke away from her usually glamorous style in favour of something a little more urban for her appearance

Edgy: The Essex native exuded cool in a camouflage print statement jacket, though she doubled up on her outerwear by layering a fitted bomber jacket beneath the coat

Megan's lustrous brunette locks were scooped into a heavy side-part that cascaded down into flattering tousled curls, while her make-up look was typically dramatic.

Her stylish outing came the same day as it was revealed the reality star will appear in Sunday's episode of TOWIE, with a source telling MailOnline: Megan has filmed scenes for TOWIE's 200th episode celebrations this weekend.

The insider added: She's good friends with new girls Chloe and Courtney so it's inevitable she would have been involved with the show at some point.

Producers are hoping the wild side to Megan we saw on Celebrity Big Brother will come out in a big way and make for some excellent viewing.

Street chic: The reality beauty slipped her lithe legs into a black skinny jeans which were emblazoned with rips at the knee, before elongating her pins further with the help of strappy nude stilettos

Excited: The 23-year-old Ex On The Beach star looked buoyant ahead of her TOWIE debut, playing up to the cameras by flashing a cheeky wink and blowing kisses at the lens

Outbursts: The insider added, 'Producers are hoping the wild side to Megan we saw on Celebrity Big Brother will come out in a big way and make for some excellent viewing'

The source then teased: Now Megan's single she'll no doubt prove popular with the TOWIE boys, which could ruffle a few feathers.

A TOWIE spokesperson declined to comment when approached by MailOnline.

Reality veteran Megan has repeatedly tried her hand at superstardom with two stints on MTV's Ex On The Beach, failed audition attempts on Britain's Got Talent and The X Factor and a turn in TOWIE star Jessica Wright's now-defunct girl group LOLA.

Since making her way out of the Celebrity Big Brother house, Megan has been seen enjoying a night out with several members of the TOWIE cast.

The brunette beautys temper made her a household name earlier in the year after she clashed with fellow Celebrity Big Brother contestant Tiffany Pollard.
She recently enjoyed a romantic getaway in Paris with her beau of three years.

And Renee Zellweger looked thoroughly refreshed when she stepped out to run errands in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

The Bridget Jones star, 46, rocked a casual look for the outing which saw her pick up some items from the dry cleaners.

Scroll down for video

Calm and collected: Renee Zellweger, 46, looked thoroughly refreshed when she stepped out to run errands in Los Angeles on Wednesday

The actress cut a cool figure in her tomboyish ensemble, combining a grey jumper and black quilted gilet with a pair of boyfriend jeans and grey UGG boots.

As the Californian sun was shining, Renee sported an orange cap and she stored her belongings in a casual satchel.

She admired some pretty pink flowers while she waited to collect her laundry. The star's sleek blonde tresses fell effortlessly from underneath her cap and she sauntered with a cheery expression.

The actress has been hard at work in recent months on the highly-anticipated Bridget Jones's Baby.

Smiles in the sun: The Bridget Jones star rocked a casual look for the outing which saw her pick up some items from the dry cleaners

The third installment of the Bridget Jones franchise is being directed by Sharon Maguire, the director of the original Bridget Jones's Diary movie which was released in 2001.

It is currently in post-production and is set for release in September.

It follows on - after a decade-long gap - from the second film, which ended with Bridget engaged and seemingly happy with Mark Darcy, the man of her dreams.

Renee revealed that three different endings have been filmed and none of the cast, including her, know which one will be in the finished film.

Keeping it casual: The actress cut a cool figure in her tomboyish ensemble, combining a grey jumper and black quilted gilet with a pair of boyfriend jeans and grey UGG boots

'It's kind of brilliant. None of the cast knows who fathered Bridget's baby or who she'll choose as her beau.The plan is to keep us all in the dark, right up to the premiere,' she told The Sunday Express.

At the end of February, Renee arrived at London's Heathrow Airport with blues musician Doyle Bramhall II, 47, after they spent some quality time together in the French capital.

Their relationship began around a year after Renee split from Bradley Cooper, who she dated for five years after they met on the set of Case 39.
Janet Jackson seemed in good spirits as she was pictured for the first time since postponing the European leg of her Unbreakable tour.

The 49-year-old appeared relaxed and happy as she touched down at the Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday night.

Jackson wore her auburn hair in flowing waves over her shoulders as she wore nearly all-black while following a security personnel and her spouse Wissam Al Mana.

Jackson thrive: Janet Jackson seemed in good spirits as she was pictured for the first time since postponing the European leg of her Unbreakable tour on Wednesday night at LAX

The singer elevated her 5ft4in with a pair of wedge heeled boots as she carried a purse over her shoulder.

The singer was due to kick off four dates in the UK, along with shows in Ireland, Germany and France in just three weeks.

But the star has now cancelled all European gigs on her Unbreakable world tour and the concerts have not yet been rescheduled.

Keeping her spirits up: The 49-year-old elevated her 5ft4in with a pair of wedge heeled boots as she carried a purse over her shoulder

No worries: The singer appeared relaxed and happy as she touched down at the Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday night

Short notice: The singer was due to kick off four dates in the UK, along with shows in Ireland, Germany and France in just three weeks

An email to fans from Ticketmaster said: 'The event organisers have been in touch to let us know that, due to scheduling difficulties, they've had to postpone the "Unbreakable" tour.

'It is not possible to confirm new dates at the present time so we are refunding all ticket holders.'

Janet previously postponed 29 US dates on the tour after being advised to have surgery and rescheduled them for July and August.

Husband in tow: Her spouse Wissam Al Mana looked cool in sunglasses as they arrived at night

The singer had announced on Christmas Eve that she was postponing a number of shows because she needed an urgent operation, but declined to elaborate on the details.

Janet - the sister of the late Michael Jackson - then clarified that cancer was NOT the mystery illness that forced her to reschedule the dates.

She revealed she would restart her tour on March 30 in Birmingham, England, which was set to be the first date on her European leg.

Sad news: Janet postponed her European tour just three weeks before she was due to kick off four dates in the UK, along with shows in Ireland, Germany and France

Janet denied rumours she was battling throat cancer, telling fans in an Instagram message that she was 'recovering' without revealing the nature of her condition.

'The rumors are untrue. I do not have cancer. I'm recovering,' Janet wrote on January 7.

Her last date was due to be in Cleveland,Ohio on August 28, almost a year after she started the Unbreakable tour in Vancouver, Canada.

After her brother Michael died in 2009, Janet had temporarily retreated from the public eye but returned two years later with a global tour.

Unbreakable, Janet's first album since the King Of Pop's death, was released in October of last year with mostly positive reviews and with a sound that's been compared to her late brother's.
He fought back tears during an emotional speech at a FACES gala in New York on Monday in which he revealed his daughter Georgia, has been battling epilepsy.

And Harrison Ford, 73, spent some quality time with 25-year-old on Wednesday as they enjoyed lunch together in the city.

The proud parent cut a rugged figure, displaying his lengthy silver locks and stubble for the outing.

Scroll down for video

Dinner date: Harrison Ford, 73, spent some quality time with his daughter, Georgia, 25, on Wednesday as they enjoyed lunch together in the city

The Hollywood star rolled up the sleeves of his grey shirt and left the top button undone for a casual finish.

He teamed it with a smart pair of dark jeans which he safely secured with a leather belt that matched his stylish dark brown shoes.

Georgia kept casual in a white t-shirt with navy trim which complemented her high-waisted navy flairs perfectly.

Daddy cool: The Hollywood star rolled up the sleeves of his grey shirt and left the top button undone for a casual finish

In good company: Georgia kept casual in a white t-shirt with navy trim which complemented her high-waisted navy flairs perfectly

She was given a boost by a pair of tan leather sandals as she stood relaxed with her hand tucked in her pocket.

The actress's shoulder-length peroxide tresses were styled straight and she wore a trendy pair of shades and hooped earrings.

After spending time on the sidewalk checking their phones, the pair hailed a taxi to whisk them away.

Standing tall: She was given a boost by a pair of tan leather sandals as she stood relaxed with her hand tucked in her pocket

Action hero: The proud parent cut a rugged figure, displaying his lengthy silver locks and stubble for the outing

Speaking to New York Daily News Confidenti@l at the Finding a Cure for Epilepsy and Seizures event, Harrison said: 'She [Georgia] is joining me to thank FACES. I admire a lot of things about her. I admire her perseverance, her talent, her strength. Shes my hero. I love her.'

The Star Wars star explained how the disorder has affected everyone in their household as he said: 'When you have a loved one who suffers from this disease, it can be devastating.

'You know how it affects their lives, their future, their opportunities and you want desperately to find mitigation. You want to find a way that they can live a comfortable and effective life.'

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder which affects people of all ages often resulting in recurrent, unprovoked seizures.

Heading home: The actress's shoulder-length peroxide tresses were styled straight and she wore a trendy pair of shades and hooped earrings

Leading the way: Harrison took the lead as the pair set about hitching a ride
It's the moment all Marvel fans have been waiting for.

Spider-Man has finally made his debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the final trailer for Captain America: Civil War.

Released on Thursday, the new two-and-a-half minute clip closes with the much anticipated face-off between Chris Evans' Cap and Robert Downey Jr's Iron Man.

Scroll down for video

He's here! Spider-Man finally made his entrance into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the final Captain America Civil War trailer released on Thursday

'Alright, I've run out of patience,' Tony Stark says before shouting 'Underoos!' - referring to the children's superhero underwear brand.

Suddenly Captain America's shield is snagged from his grasp by web-sling from above, while his hands are instantly bound together in a second volley.

Spider-Man then flips into view, catches the shield and makes his introduction: 'Hey everyone!'

Final look: Released on Thursday, the new two-and-a-half minute clip closes with the much anticipated face-off between Chris Evans' Cap and Robert Downey Jr's Iron Man

New nickname: 'Alright, I've run out of patience,' Tony Stark says before shouting 'Underoos!' - referring to the children's superhero underwear brand

Down came a spider: Suddenly Captain America's shield is snagged from his grasp by web-sling from above

Despite being a Marvel character, Spidey has never before appeared in a Marvel Studios picture under owners Disney, unlike his comic-book stable mates The Avengers.

Even though Disney paid $4Billion for the studio, the film rights to the web-slinger were not included, as they were already licensed out to rivals Sony dating back to a time before Comic Book films were guaranteed blockbusters.

Likewise, Fox owns the rights to X-Men and The Fantastic Four, but fans have clamoured for all the properties to be owned by a single entity so that the characters can freely cross-over.

Face off: At the trailer dropped a new poster for the film also dropped showing the two characters going head-to-head

Gotcha! His hands are instantly bound together in a second volley

Welcome: Spider-Man then flips into view, catches the shield and makes his introduction: 'Hey everyone!'

Left out: Despite being a Marvel character, Spidey has never before appeared in a Marvel Studios picture under owners Disney, unlike his comic-book stable mates The Avengers

But a recent deal between Sony and Disney allowed for Peter Parker - this time played by Tom Holland - to make his debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as he plays a crucial role in the eponymous Civil War.

The trailer opens on the remote island prison where The Winter Soldier AKA Steve Roger's war buddy Bucky - is being held.

'This job... we try to save as many people as we can,' Captain America can be hear saying. 'Sometimes that doesn't mean everybody. But you don't give up.'

Captive: The trailer opens on the remote island prison where The Winter Soldier AKA Steve Roger's war buddy Bucky - is being held.

Big bill: As General Thaddeus Ross shows the gathered Avengers footage of the destruction caused in the events of the previous films

My bad: The group are visibly uncomfortable, especially Elizabeth Olsen Scarlet Witch, who failed to prevent a city being dropped from the sky last time round

As General Thaddeus Ross shows the gathered Avengers footage of the destruction caused in the events of the previous films, he tells the visibly uncomfortable group: 'Captain, people are afraid.'

'That's why I'm here,' Tony Stark chimes in. 'We need to be put in check. Whatever form that takes, I'm game.'

'I'm sorry Tony - If I see a situation pointed south I can't ignore it. Sometimes I wish I could,' Rogers replies.

Registration: 'We need to be put in check,' Stark claims. 'Whatever form that takes, I'm game.'

Trouble brewing: 'I'm sorry Tony - If I see a situation pointed south I can't ignore it. Sometimes I wish I could,' Rogers replies

Behind you: Other newcomer Black Panther - played by Chadwick Boseman - can be seen pursuing Bucky on foot as he flees on a motorcycle, tearing him off it at high speed in a spectacular stunt

'Sometimes I wanna punch you in your perfect teeth,' Stark shoots back.

The Cap can then be seen chasing other newcomer Black Panther - played by Chadwick Boseman - who in turn pursues Bucky on foot as he flees on a motorcycle, tearing him off it at high speed in a spectacular stunt.

'I know we're not perfect, but the safest hands are still our own,' Captain America claims as Tony Stark can be seen grappling with Bucky over a gun.

Nice piece: Stark activates his watch to transform it into one of Iron Man's gauntlets

Not quite: 'I know we're not perfect, but the safest hands are still our own,' Captain America claims as Tony Stark can be seen grappling with Bucky over a gun

Close call: He recoils in horror as Bucky fires a shot at his face, only surviving thanks to his gauntlet

He activates his watch to transform it into one of Iron Man's gauntlets, which is just as well as Bucky fires the gun at what would have been his face, with Stark recoiling in shock as he stops the bullet.

Don Cheadle's War Machine is not as lucky in the following scene as he is shot down mid flight.

'I was wrong about you,' Stark says has he is seen kneeling over his friend inside the downed suit. 'The whole world was wrong about you.'

Tagged: Don Cheadle's War Machine is not as lucky in the following scene as he is shot down mid flight

Did he make it? It's unclear if Rhodey Rhodes survives the fall

'I was wrong about you,' Stark says has he is seen kneeling over his friend inside the downed suit. 'The whole world was wrong about you.'

'They're coming for you,' he tells Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow. 'I'm not the one who has to watch their back,' she snaps back.

'This doesn't have to end in a fight Tony,' the Captain appeals, only to be punched in the face. 'You started a war,' Iron Man retorts.

The battle lines are clearly drawn as the former allies go head to head; Scarlet Witch can be seen immobilizing Paul Bettany's Vision, while Paul Rudd's Ant-Man is launched at Iron Man mid flight, slipping between his fingers in his miniaturized form and tumbling along his arm to tackle him in mid air.

Didn't see that coming: Scarlet Witch can be seen immobilizing Paul Bettany's Vision

Size does matter: Paul Rudd's Ant Man is launched at Iron Man mid flight, slipping between his fingers in his miniaturized form and tumbling along his arm to tackle him in mid air

Pick a side: Winter Soldier and Black Panther appear to get in plenty of dust ups

Old enemy: Crossbones can be seen giving the Captain a pummelling

'Stay down: final warning,' Iron Man tells a battered Captain America as he charges a gauntlet blast.

'I could do this all day,' he defiantly replies.

The opposing sides - Captain America, Winter Soldier, Hawkeye, Falcon and Ant-Man on one side, Iron Man, Black Widow, Black Panther, The Vision and War Machine on the other - then charge at each other for what looks like the climactic airport set battle.

'Stay down: final warning,' Iron Man tells a battered Captain America as he charges a gauntlet blast

Nope: 'I could do this all day,' he defiantly replies

The film is based on the seven-part comic series that saw the Marvel Universe divided over a Superhero Registration Act, introduced after dozens of children are killed in an explosion during battle being filmed for a reality series.

It marks the point where Peter Parker reveals his secret identity to the world in support of Stark's push for superhero regulation, but he switches side after seeing another superhero - Goliath - get killed in the ensuing clash.

Captain America: Civil War hits theatres on May 6.

In the blue corner: The opposing sides then charge at each other for what looks like the climactic airport set battle, with Captain America, Winter Soldier, Hawkeye, Falcon and Ant-Man on one side...

In the red corner:.... and Iron Man, Black Widow, Black Panther, The Vision and War Machine on the other
He's been focusing on his humanitarian projects since retiring from professional football.

And David Beckham was the guest of honour at a gala auction of signed photographs and newly-commissioned works of himself on Thursday evening, which are being sold in aid of 7: The David Beckham Unicef Fund and Positive View Foundation.

The 40-year-old star looked super suave for the event held at Phillips Gallery in London, suiting up and showing off the latest in his collection of expensive watches.

Scroll down for video

Check out the watch: David Beckham hit his charity auction in London on Thursday night in a smart suit and flashy timepiece

The dapper star flashed a look at his Patek Philippe timepiece with the celestial design retailing for around 200,000.

The stylish ex sportsman has a huge collection of designer watches, and has previously been a brand ambassador for Breitling.

He's been spotted with the likes of a 6000 Rolex on his wrist before, but now seems to be favouring luxury Swiss brand Parek Philippe.

See David Beckham updates as he is supported by parents and in-laws at gala auction

Need the time? The dapper star flashed a look at his Patek Philippe timepiece with the celestial design retailing for around 200,000

Starry choice: Brad Pitt is also a fan of the luxury Swiss brand of watches

Brad Pitt is also a fan, with his wife Angelina Jolie reportedly gifting the actor with a much coveted 1952 Patek Philippe platinum chronometer, thought to be worth more than $3million for their wedding in 2014.

David was looking sharp for his big night on Thursday.

Funds raised from the auction will help create positive change for children and disadvantaged young people around the world, a cause close to the father-of-four's heart.

While his wife Victoria and three youngest children Romeo, 13, Cruz, 10, and Harper, four, weren't in attendance, Beckham was still surrounded by his loved ones, including his 16-year-old son Brooklyn.

The star's parents Ted and Sandra and sister Joanne were there to raise a glass in his honour, as were Victoria's parents Tony and Jackie Adams.

David looked handsome as ever in a dapper suit as he mingled with guests at the gala.

The auction features more than than 50 original signed works, some previously unseen, by 27 internationally acclaimed photographers.

Fans can get their hands on photographs by the likes of Annie Leibovitz and Inez & Vinood , as well as specially-commissioned works from the likes of Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin.

Man of the hour: David was the guest of honour at a gala auction of signed photographs and newly-commissioned works of himself on Thursday evening

Like father, like son: His eldest son Brooklyn, 16, attended the event in order to support his father and was seen leaving the event later that evening

In his element: The sports legend flashed a beaming grin as he hosted the event at the Phillips Gallery in central London

Entourage: The 40-year-old star was supported by his father Ted, sister Joanne, mother Sandra, and in-laws Tony and Jackie Adams (left to right) at the event

Charitable: David is raising funds for 7: The David Beckham Unicef Fund and Positive View Foundation, in a bid to help vulnerable children around the world

Quite the collection: The auction features more than than 50 original signed works, some previously unseen, by 27 internationally acclaimed photographers

Family gathering: The father-of-four's loved ones raised a glass to his charity work

All must go: The works have been on display since last month, but will all be snapped up at the auction

Kathy Adler, curator of David Beckham: The Man and former Director of Education at the National Gallery, London, commented:

'David Beckham is the quintessential modern man, his fame far exceeding that of a sportsman.

'He is universally recognised, an icon of modern masculinity and a magnet for photographers. His appeal is ubiquitous: he is happy being a gay icon, a teenage idol, a spokesperson for sport, a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

Catching up: Damien Whitmore, Creative Director of Phillips, David and Bart Van Son, Phillips International Business Director for Contemporary Art

Centre of attention: David caught up with Paul Murashe and Laura Montana of Mayfair eatery Sexy Fish, who provided the food for the event at the sportsman's request

Ready to mingle: The exhibition drew a large crowd of rich art buyers and fans

Proud: Brooklyn had a big smile on his face when he left the venue with a minder in tow

Which way to the car? He seemed to have had a blast before making his way home

Keeping a low profile: The teen didn't pose with his father inside the venue

'He has redefined counter-cultural concepts such as tattooing and brought them into the mainstream.

The photographs constitute a narrative of Beckhams life and of the position he occupies in contemporary culture.

'He has constantly challenged notions of masculinity, from the famous sarong-wearing appearance to the many images of him as a devoted husband and father.'

Home time: Sandra posed with Nadja Swarovski as they called it a night following a successful auction

Smart: Sandra dressed in a camel-coloured coat and carried a designer bag for the big night

Slipping away: David's sister Joanne made a low-key exit from the star-studded exhibition

Show of support: Former England player Sol Campbell stopped by to see David's portraits

Main man: Fans can get their hands on photographs by the likes of Annie Leibovitz and Inez & Vinood , as well as specially-commissioned works from the likes of Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin

Exhibition: Curator Kathy Adler commented, 'David Beckham is the quintessential modern man, his fame far exceeding that of a sportsman'

She continued: 'He is universally recognised, an icon of modern masculinity and a magnet for photographers'

Making a change: Funds raised with help create positive change for children and disadvantaged young people around the world, a cause close to David's heart

Picture perfect: The gala auction features works from the likes of Annie Leibovitz and Tracy Emin
He may be under house arrest, but Meek Mill doesn't seem to be too unhappy about the experience.

Indeed, the hip hop artist was positively grinning in a Snapchat posted on Wednesday.

That may have something to do with his companion - Nicki Minaj - who can be seen posing behind shirtless Meek in the intimate snap.

The pair look to be having a lot of fun together, and have even been playing around with the Snapchat filters - resulting in a dog face for Nicki.

Scroll down for video

It's no prison! Nicki Minaj visits Meek Mill as he serves house arrest then they pose for a shirtless Snapchat in the bedroom

The reunion is the first time the two have been seen together since they had a 'blowout fight' after Nicki refused to live with Meek at their Philadelphia home while he served the sentence.

Last month a judge told the 28-year-old rapper he must serve a minimum of three months house arrest for parole violations on drug and gun charges.

According to TMZ, he wanted his girlfriend to live with him for the duration but she refused, triggering the fallout.

A new report from the site on Friday though reported sources close to the couple confirming their three week hiatus was over, after 'they both realized their communication skills suck and that's caused a lot of unnecessary fighting.'

On February 5 Mill escaped a custodial prison sentence but was dealt a critical blow to his hip hop career.

See Nicki Minaj updates as she visits Meek Mill serving house arrest and posts Snapchat

As they were: Nicki and Meek in January; he was sentenced to six months to a year in a county jail but is serving his time at home

Common Pleas Judge Genece Brinkley also ordered him to spend six more years on probation.

The judge sentenced the House Party rapper to between six months to a year in a county jail but, in perhaps his only break, is allowing him to serve his time at home.

After his first 90 days of house arrest, Judge Brinkley - whom Meek once branded a b***h' in one of his songs - will evaluate the rapper and decide of the house arrest will continue.

While being holed up in his and Nicki's mansion does not look too bad, the rapper will not be able to work, meaning no recording or touring, and can leave home only to do community service with groups serving adults, not young people.

This comes at a critical time in Meek's career as he battles to keep fans and stay relevant after a very public fight with rapper Drake and then had yet another beef with 50 Cent.

Prosecutors successfully argued that Meek had violated the conditions of his probation for a drug and gun conviction from 2009.

Prosecutors told the judge that Meek took a trip without obtaining a travel voucher, namely to go to New York for a concert and also to join Nicki in various cities including going to the American Music Awards with Nicki.
Jessica Alba completed another successful mission on behalf of The Honest Company - the launch of the Springtime in Paris Diaper Collection.

The 34-year-old actress and company co-founder executed similar style as she prepared to leave New York on Thursday.

Jessica was looking chic in a military-inspired black and gold-trimmed coat over a black jumper and faded jeans cuffed above a pair of black suede ankle boots.

Scroll down for video

Military chic: Jessica Alba wore a look of success as she checked out of her NY hotel on Thursday following the successful launch of new diapers for The Honest Company

The black fedora and opaque shades partially concealed her features but not the slight grin spreading across that face.

Jessica tugged her own white Loms Luggage suitcase and a large black leather tote too while strolling to a waiting vehicle that would, one assumes, would take her to the airport.

The launch of her company's new diaper collection the previous day at Laduree Cafe in New York's SoHo section proved to be the draw she intended it to be.

Mix and match: The 34-year-old actress wore a military-style coat and fedora with ripped jeans and a comfortable knit jumper

She's got this handled: Jessica tugged her own white suitcase and black leather tote as she departed her luxury Midtown lodgings

Detail oriented: The star's coat featured bronze buttons down the front and cuffs plus piping detail

Wearing a $2,490 white lace Brock dress and silver Manolo Blahnik pumps, Jessica introduced new non-toxic, super-absorbant diapers in an array of child-friendly patterns including French dogs, macarons, race cars, Eiffel Towers and luggage.

'Everything in [Paris] is so beautiful and so tasteful and chic,' Jessica told Us Weekly. 'I wanted to bring that to life in something that can be so horrible, like changing diapers.'

She added: 'Literally, its the worst thing ever... and I wanted to just make it a little better.'

Balancing act: Despite the busy day, the actress turned business mogul fit in a late workout

All aboard: There was a slight grin of satisfaction on Jessica's face as she reached the chauffeured car

Flight plan: Jessica continued to look like the California girl as she arrived at JFK Airport in NY ahead of her flight that was bound for home one can assume

Lightening up: The actress turned over her white suitcase to airport bag check and continued on through the terminal with just her handsome tote

The Sin City star has been travelling a lot this month already, beginning with a trip to Paris for fashion week.

Jessica took in the Dior show on March 4, looking chic in red flare trousers, white collared blouse and bolero jacket.

And the night before, on March 3, she attended the Balmain after show party while clad in a clingy bandage dress, black tights and black ankle-strapped high heels.

The mother-of-two was soon reunited with her daughters, Honor, seven, and Haven, four, in Los Angeles as well as her producer husband Cash Warren, 37.

Jetsetter: She was spotted arriving back home in Los Angeles later that evening

Glad to be home? She had an exhausted look on her face as she arrived at LAX Airport

Fashionable flyer: Jessica did not opt to change as she was still wearing her stylish outfit from the East Coast

Not too posh to push: She carried along her white luggage while heading to her pick-up vehicle

The family was seen stocking up on groceries at Bristol Farms and going out for brunch at Le Pain Quotidien, which is famous for its housemade breads, jams and French omelettes.

Jessica's start-up venture The Honest Company is now a billion-dollar empire selling eco-friendly baby goods and beauty products among other things.

Last year Forbes magazine claimed that Jessica owns somewhere between 15 and 20 percent of The Honesty Company and is worth $200 million.

Nice packaging: The Honest Company co-founder showed off a sample of the new Springtime in Paris Diaper Collection on Wednesday
It was Claudettes turn to cheat death in EastEnders, beating the odds in the same way that, with her physique, she had been defying gravity.

She followed two other unlikely survivors earlier in the week  Gavin Sullivan (who Claudette herself had brained with a candlestick, in the living room, like a buxom version of Miss Scarlet from Cluedo) and the Carters little baby Danny Dyer Junior (who was knocked over in his highchair by his grown-up brother and sister).

So much for community.

Claudette though was the most impressive, giving the Grim Reaper the swerve on no less than three occasions.

It's all going on: It was Claudettes turn to cheat death in EastEnders, beating the odds in the same way that, with her physique, she had been defying gravity

She somehow survived being throttled for 48 hours (by her son Vincent), then crashed down the basement steps (after a tussle with Patrick) before finally being buried alive (also by Vincent).

Its a good job they were so close.

Vincent had started strangling Claudette at the end of Tuesdays episode and was still going strong two days later, almost cross-eyed with determination.

He had found out that Old Muvver Hubbard had been lying to her boy his entire life about his fathers demise and (even worse) that she had killed him  pushing him off the balcony, without anyone on their estate noticing.

So much for Walfords other by-word: faaaamily.

With the guns Richard Blackwood had developed in the gym during his 10-year exile, youd think hed have polished her off but Patrick arrived (inexplicably) and stopped him.

'Yeh mon!'

When the old man began calling the police to report Claudettes crime, she tottered after him.

Given the height of her heels and the dress she was (nearly) wearing, it was no surprise when she lost her balance. With her embonpoint, it was a miracle she could stay upright at the best of times.

Not a great day: She somehow survived being throttled for 48 hours (by her son Vincent), then crashed down the basement steps (after a tussle with Patrick) before finally being buried alive (also by Vincent)

She came hurtling down the basement stairs, hitting the ground with a thud like a celebrity on The Jump, lying there lifelessly.

It was clearly an accident and Patrick had no motive to kill her. Plus, both Patrick and Vincent had heard Claudette confess to murder.

Just phoning the police would have been far too obvious. It was EastEnders after all.

Neither Vincent nor Patrick thought of calling an ambulance or checking her pulse to see if she was really dead. (With her chest, surely it couldnt have been that difficult to see if she was breathing.)

Instead, Vincent spotted a conveniently placed shovel and got to work, telling Patrick ten minutes later he had sorted it.

It was the only way, he mumbled. It really wasnt.

When the builders put down a layer of concrete the next morning, Vincent and Patrick were left believing it had become the latest house in soap to have a body buried in the basement or under the patio much like the Jordache family in Brookside or the Platts in Coronation Street.

Tough day: It was clearly an accident and Patrick had no motive to kill her. Plus, both Patrick and Vincent had heard Claudette confess to murder

Little did they know that (somehow) Claudette was being wheeled into Walford General where she was described as unresponsive, unaware of who she was, and presumably very dirty.

Patrick had a busy night all round, so traumatic he must have been in danger of having another stroke.

Killing Claudette (or thinking he had) was just the start of it. Behind Denises back he called Social Services, in the hope that they would rescue JJ from a life in Walford.

This was after he discovered that Jordan Johnson had been planning to help his serial killer/preacher father Lucas break out of prison and go on the run, taking Denise and Jordan Junior Johnson with them.

Then after Masood had kicked down his front door and the police had captured Jordan, poor Patrick had to accompany Denise to prison to visit the man who had been planning to abduct (again).

Are you sure youre doing the right thing? he asked  a rhetorical question whenever Denise is concerned.

Sometimes in my cell at night I say your name over and over like a mantra, Lucas told her, not noticeably less psychotic than he was before he began his rehabilitation. It feels like youre actually lying there next to me.

Yikes.

Poor Claudette: Little did they know that (somehow) Claudette was being wheeled into Walford General where she was described as unresponsive, unaware of who she was, and presumably very dirty'

I used to think that I could fix you, Denise reflected, like Chris Martin, before getting up and leaving as inexplicably as shed arrived.

How Lucas was going to escape and terrorise her now that he did not have Jordans genius to help him (stealing a neighbours car in front of dozens of witnesses who could identify him) was anyones guess but hopefully Lucas is still going to.

Lucas is in jail, Jordan is on remand, its over, Patrick promised, reassuring Denise that she was going to be OK and giving us hope that she wasnt.

Such internecine if implausible events concerning Denise, Jordan, and Lucas or Patrick, Claudette, and Vincent, made the nights other storylines rather trivial.

Suddenly Nancys heartbreak about Lee taking her job at The Rat didnt really look that fascinating after all.

Elsewhere it was Ronnies turn to perform the traditional soap scene of interrupting a wedding with a last minute declaration of love at the altar after she changed her mind about making a go of it with Jack (as she put it romantically).

Keep your chin up: Patrick had a busy night all round, so traumatic he must have been in danger of having another stroke

Predictably and equally traditionally, the way it went was anything but straightforward.

She sped out of Walford, across country, with Billy in a hearse, which (inevitably) ran out of petrol.

As luck would have it though, Ronnie reckoned, they were only a couple of miles from the hotel.

Im going to run for it! she announced, bounding off like the Bionic Woman.

Suddenly all those scenes of Ronnie jogging round the square made sense and paid dividends.

She charged across the grounds like a female Poldark without an orse, only to find that Jack wasnt getting married after all, but just attending his exs ceremony.

Presumably the prospect of Ronnie and Jack re-uniting (again) was meant to be a happy ending  although, with her track record and psychological problems, more for her than for him.
They say you should never work with children or animals in television.

And just because he's the most popular breakfast host on TV, doesn't mean Karl Stefanovic has quite cracked the newborn to toddler age demographic.

Hosting from Mooloolaba, Queensland on Thursday morning, the 41-year-old was pictured holding a toddler who looked quite unimpressed, despite the amusing faces Karl was pulling to try and crack a smile from the child.

Scroll down for video

Tough crowd: Karl Stefanovic has met many fans while filming on location this week, but none quite as unimpressed as this little boy

The moment, which was posted to the Today Show's Instagram was captioned 'Sigh. Even this kid isn't having a bar.'

It seems the children of the Sunshine Coast haven't quite warmed up to the father-of-three, with Karl making it two-from-two during his visit, also managing to upset a newborn.

While on a break, a woman in the crowd was pictured asking Karl to cuddle her baby for a quick snap, but as soon as the Gold Logie winner picked up the little girl she burst into tears.

Karl was then seen laughing off the incident, handing the infant back to her mother.

It's not the first time this week that a small child has become upset after being held by Karl.

Not again: It seems the children of the Sunshine Coast haven't quite warmed up to the father-of-three, with Karl making it two-from-two during his visit, also managing to upset a newborn

While filming in the South Australian outback town of Silverton earlier this week, Karl was asked to hold another small baby for a live cross.

Once again the bub instantly burst into tears as he bounced him around.

Seeing the humour in the situation, Karl laughed uncontrollably, unsuccessfully getting the baby to stop crying before co-host Lisa Wilkinson came to the rescue.

And again: While filming in the South Australian outback town of Silverton earlier this week, Karl was asked to hold another small baby for a live cross. Once again the bub instantly burst into tears as he bounced him around

Given his track record, perhaps Karl should leave the baby whispering to his colleagues.

Last year during another live segment in Darwin, a doting mother handed her five-month-old over to Karl, who joked that the baby looked Today Show finance expert Ross Greenwood.

Things appeared to be going well with Karl holding the baby up to the camera, until he returned the bub back to his mother when tears started to flow.

'It's so good when you can hand them back,' laughed the host.
He's racked up a list of highly-acclaimed film credits and those have come with hefty pay packets.

And Henry Cavill has unashamedly admitted he's an actor, not just because of the art but because of the 'fantastic money' in a new interview.

The Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice actor claimed travelling all over the world is only a pleasant experience if you have the luxury of getting from A to B via first class means.

Scroll down for video

Candid confession: Henry Cavill has unashamedly admitted he's in acting for the 'fantastic money' as well as the art in a new interview

Henry, 32, was 'slightly wary' of offending people in the candid chat with Page Six but didn't hold back.

He said: 'Im not just doing this for the art. The moneys fantastic and thats something which I deem - and again, it is frowned upon - very important.'

Adding: 'People will be calling me a c**k as theyre reading this, but travels great as long as youre going first class. I mean, traveling to New Zealand in economy, it sucks. Especially if youre over six feet. But first class? Im not going to ever pretend to be coy about that. I love it.'

'People will be calling me a c**k': Henry, 32, added that travelling all over the world is only a pleasant experience if you have the luxury of getting from A to B via first class means which he 'loves'

Hey, big spender: The Superman actor - pictured here on stage at the 88th Academy Awards in February with Kerry Washington - said he doesn't mind footing the bill for dinner etc. as he likes people to 'feel cared for'

Breakout role: The Man of Steel star's biggest role to date is as Superman in the 2013 reboot which is the highest grossing Superman film of all time

The award-winner added that he doesn't think anything of footing the bill for dinner as he 'likes people to feel cared for'.

Henry - whose most notable role to date is as Superman in 2013 box-office hit Man of Steel - did not attend university, landing his first film job aged 17.

However, he refuses to accept he 'missed out' and is focusing on enjoying his luxury lifestyle while he can.

Henry added: 'I didnt get to mess about and be a university kid, but I get to mess about now. And Ive actually got money to spend on nice places, rather than having to go to grotty pubs that stink of p**s.'

His Hollywood career took off after the release of Man of Steel which became the highest-grossing Superman film of all time.

He is believed to boast an estimated net worth of 9.8 million.
Top Islamic State commander leader Omar al-Shishani, known as Omar the Chechen, was "seriously injured" in a recent strike in northeastern Syria but not killed despite US suggestions to the contrary, a monitoring group said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday that according to its sources the March 4 strike had indeed targeted the jihadist's convoy, killing his bodyguards, while Shishani himself "was seriously injured".

"He's not dead," the Observatory's director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

See more news on ISIS as leader Abu Omar al-Shishani was NOT killed says monitor

Omar al-Shishani (real name Tarkhan Batirashvili) (C-L) pictured at an unknown location between Iraq's Nineveh province and the Syrian town of Al-Hasakah in an image made available by Jihadist media outlet al-Itisam Media on June 29, 2014

"He was taken from the province of Hasake to a hospital in Raqa province where he was treated by a jihadist doctor of European origin," he said. Raqa is IS's main stronghold.

The United States had stopped short of declaring Shishani dead, but a US official speaking on condition of anonymity said Shishani "likely died" in the assault by waves of US warplanes and drones, along with 12 other IS fighters.

The US official branded Shishani "the ISIL equivalent of the secretary of defence", using another acronym for the group.

Shishani was one of the IS leaders most wanted by Washington, which put a $5 million bounty on his head.

Shishani comes from the Pankisi Gorge region that is populated mainly by ethnic Chechens.

He fought as a Chechen rebel against Russian forces before joining the Georgian military in 2006, and fought Russian forces again in Georgia in 2008.

He resurfaced in northern Syria in 2012 as the leader of a battalion of foreign fighters, said Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, research fellow at the Middle East Forum, a US think tank.

As early as May 2013, when IS was just emerging in Syria, he was appointed the group's military commander for the north of the country, Tamimi said.

While Shishani's exact rank is unclear, Richard Barrett of the US-based Soufan Group has described him as IS's "most senior military commander", adding that he has been in charge of key battles.

"He is clearly a very capable commander and has the loyalty of Chechen fighters who are considered by ISIS as elite troops," Barrett told AFP.

Shishani is not, however, a member of IS's political leadership, a structure that is even murkier than its military command.

The lack of a US presence on the ground makes it difficult to assess the success of operations targeting militants in Syria, and Shishani's death has been falsely reported several times.

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook on Tuesday described Shishani as "a battle-tested leader with experience who had led ISIL (IS) fighters in numerous engagements in Iraq and Syria".
N. Korea fires missiles, liquidates South assets

North Korea looked to ratchet up already elevated tensions on the Korean peninsula still further Thursday, firing a pair of short-range missiles and announcing the liquidation of all remaining South Korean assets on its territory.

The moves were a direct response to unilateral sanctions announced by South Korea on Tuesday to punish the North for its January nuclear test and last month's long-range rocket launch.

Military tensions have been on the rise ever since the January test -- the fourth nuclear device North Korea has detonated in defiance of UN resolutions.

A soldier stands before a barricade at the Tongil bridge, a checkpoint leading to the Kaesong joint industrial zone, in Paju on February 11, 2016 Ed Jones (AFP/File)

The UN Security Council responded with tough, new sanctions, which Pyongyang condemned as a "gangster-like" provocation orchestrated by the United States.

The North also reacted furiously to the start earlier this week of large-scale South Korea-US military drills, threatening pre-emptive nuclear strikes against both Seoul and the US mainland.

The asset seizure announced on Thursday referred to two now-shuttered joint projects, the Mount Kumgang tourism resort and the Kaesong joint industrial complex.

"We will completely liquidate all assets of South Korean firms and related institutions left behind in our region," the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in statement carried by the North's official KCNA news agency.

- 'Nullify all agreements' -

"From this time on, we nullify all agreements adopted by North and South Korea on economic cooperation and exchange programmes," the committee said.

It also warned of other unspecified "special measures" -- political, military and economic -- it would take against the South in the future.

South Korea announced the suspension of operations at the Seoul-funded Kaesong industrial complex last month, saying that money Pyongyang made from the venture was going towards its nuclear weapons programme.

The shock announcement prompted the North to expel all South Koreans from the estate and freeze all assets there, shutting down the last symbol of cross-border economic cooperation.

An association representing the 120 firms operating factories in Kaesong, which lies just across the North Korean border, estimated the value of the assets left behind at 820 billion won ($663 million).

The head of the association, Jeong Gi-Seob, described the liquidation order as "outrageous".

"No one can liquidate private assets unilaterally. I appeal to both the South and the North to consider the companies' interests and allow us to come to the North and wrap things up," Jeong told AFP.

The Kaesong estate employed more than 53,000 North Koreans making items such as textiles, footwear and cheap electronics.

Mount Kumgang was the first major inter-Korean cooperation project, and thousands of South Koreans visited the Seoul-funded resort between 1998 and 2008.

The South suspended the tours in 2008 after a North Korean soldier shot dead a female tourist from the South who strayed into a restricted zone.

In response, the North scrapped a deal with the resort's developer -- Seoul's Hyundai Asan company -- and seized its properties there.

- Flatlined economic ties -

With the exception of Kaesong, economic cooperation between North and South effectively ended in 2010 after a South Korean naval corvette was sunk by what Seoul said was a North Korean submarine.

Consequently, any economic "sanctions" imposed by either side on the other are more symbolic than damaging.

The unilateral measures announced by Seoul on Tuesday included urging South Korean citizens to boycott North Korean restaurants operating overseas.

Earlier Thursday, the North fired a pair of short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its eastern coast.

Short-range missile launches are a regular and relatively low-level item on North Korea's long list of provocative gestures, and one it often employs to register annoyance.

It fired six high-calibre rockets into the sea a week ago just hours after the UN Security Council adopted its new sanctions package, which included the toughest measures imposed on Pyongyang to date over its nuclear weapons programme.

The package broke new ground by sanctioning specific sectors key to the North Korean economy -- such as mineral exports -- and seeking to undermine the North's use of, and access to, international transport systems.

North Korea's suspected missile arsenal

North Korea carried out a nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch last month
Sri Lanka arrests two men for torturing sea eagle

Sri Lankan police Thursday arrested two men for torturing a sea eagle after pictures on social media showed the endangered bird being skinned alive and its legs cut off.

Police at the beach resort of Habaraduwa, 130 kilometres (80 miles) south of the capital Colombo, made the arrests after a public outcry over the photos which were published on Facebook and in local newspapers.

"Our intelligence unit was able to track down some of the men involved," Habaraduwa police chief Udaya Kumara said by telephone. "We arrested two and we are looking for another three who were in the photos."

Eagles are regarded as a "highly protected" species under Sri Lanka's strict conservation laws Ted Aljibe (AFP/File)

Photos showed a group of men watching the bird being skinned by at least one man with a knife, while another filmed the incident on a mobile phone.

Inspector Kumara said the pair were being charged under Sri Lanka's flora and fauna act and could be sentenced to five years in prison if convicted.

Eagles are regarded as a "highly protected" species under the country's strict conservation laws.
S. African woman convicted of kidnapping baby in 1997

A South African woman was convicted Thursday of kidnapping a newborn baby and raising her for 17 years before an astonishing coincidence reunited the girl with her biological family.

"You must have been the person who removed the child from hospital," High Court judge John Hlophe told the woman, who claimed to have been handed the baby at a train station after entering into a private "adoption" programme.

"Your story, if anything, is a fairy tale and the court rejects it with the contempt it deserves."

The kidnapper's face was concealed to protect her identity as she entered South Africa's High Court in Cape Town, on March 10, 2016

The 50-year-old kidnapper, who cannot be named to protect the new identity of the girl she stole, remained grim-faced, staring at the judge.

The girl's biological mother, Celeste Nurse, 36, sobbed loudly as the guilty verdict was handed down while chants of "Yes! Yes!" were heard from the public gallery.

The kidnapper was denied bail and taken into custody ahead of sentencing on May 30. Onlookers clapped as she was taken down to the cells.

She was also convicted of fraud and offences under the country's Children's Act for registering the girl as her biological child.

The judge said she could face a sentence of up to 10 years in jail.

The girl's real identity came to light in February last year, when her younger biological sister began attending high school and pupils pointed out her remarkable likeness to a final-year student.

The younger girl told her parents, who met the older girl and immediately believed she was their long-lost baby.

They called the police, and DNA tests confirmed that the girl was indeed their child, whom they had named Zephany Joy Nurse.

Without knowing it, the Nurse family had been living within a couple of kilometres (miles) of their kidnapped daughter, while celebrating her birthday every year and never giving up hope of finding her.

- 'We were like family' -

During the trial, Celeste Nurse wept as she described how at the age of 18 she woke up in the maternity ward of a Cape Town hospital to find her three-day-old baby had vanished from her cot on March 30, 1997.

Witnesses said they had seen an unknown woman in a nurse's uniform at the hospital around the time and one of them picked out the accused at an identity parade.

The judge said he accepted the evidence of nine state witnesses as "trustworthy".

Turning to the accused, he said: "Your evidence totally disintegrated in cross examination."

The kidnapper had also sobbed in court during the emotionally-charged case, as she told of being barred from seeing the girl after her arrest in February last year.

Ahead of the verdict her husband told reporters that "we were like father and daughter and family together. I never knew it wasn't my daughter".

The kidnapper told the court during the trial that after a miscarriage in December 1996 she paid a woman who promised to find her a child to adopt.

In April 1997 she was handed a baby wrapped in a blanket at a train station in Cape Town, she said.

Delivering his verdict, Judge Hlophe remarked: "One doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to know you don't buy babies in South Africa."

The woman said she had not told her husband of her miscarriage, so presented the baby to him as their own child.

Zephany's whereabouts are uncertain, after the trauma of the case reportedly caused the 18-year-old to drop out of her final year of school.

Some reports say she is back living with the kidnapper's husband, the man she believed for 18 years to be her father.

Zephany issued a statement through her lawyer at the weekend condemning media coverage of the case.

"Don't you think for once that that is my mother? Whether it is true or not is not for you to toy with," she said in an apparent reference to the kidnapper.

"How would your daughter or son feel when their skin feels ripped off their face?"

Zephany said she was writing supplementary exams and asked for privacy.

Her biological father, Morne Nurse, told AFP outside the court last week that her biological parents had "a bit of contact still" with Zephany, but would not comment further.

After the verdict Thursday, Celeste and Morne Nurse were mobbed by journalists but would not comment beyond saying: "Thank you, thank you."

It is believed that they have contracted to sell their story.

Celeste Nurse, the girl's biological mother, sobbed loudly as the guilty verdict was handed down at the High Court in Cape Town, South Africa
Residents of Iraqi town protest after IS chemical attack

Hundreds of protesters blocked Iraq's main highway Thursday to demand strikes against a town from which the Islamic State group launched a chemical attack.

Seventeen residents of the town of Taza were being treated following a rocket attack launched on Wednesday from Bashir, south of the city of Kirkuk, medical sources said.

Kurdish peshmerga forces and Shiite militias are deployed in the area but a military push to flush out IS jihadists from some pockets has not materialised.

ISIL fighters raising their weapons as they stand on a vehicle mounted with the trademark Jihadists flag at an undisclosed location in the Anbar province - (AL-FURQAN MEDIA/AFP/File)

"30,000 people in Taza are under daily shelling and the government is silent," read a banner carried by one of the protesters blocking the road between Baghdad and Kirkuk.

"We demand Iraqi air force strikes on Bashir," chanted some people in the angry crowd.

According to Taza mayor Hussein Abbas, the town was struck by around 45 rockets over a period of three hours.

Several local officials said chlorine was used but samples were still being analysed to determine the exact nature of the chemical attack.

"The gas was a light silver colour and sometimes left some liquid where it landed," a senior security official said on condition of anonymity.

"A specialised unit took some samples that are being analysed," he added.

Burhan Abdallah, who heads the Kirkuk health directorate, said 200 people had been treated since the attack.

"Most of them have been discharged. Only 17 are still in care. One of the them is a child in serious condition," he said. "They suffer from respiratory problems, burns and rashes."

Bashir, a majority Shiite Turkmen town just south of Taza, is under IS control, despite being visible from the highway.

It lies in an area that is officially under federal administration but is controlled by Kurdish forces that de facto expanded their autonomous region on the back of the jihadists' 2014 offensive.

Tension has been high between the peshmerga and Shiite militias in the area, impeding military cooperation against IS.

The governor of Kirkuk, Najm al-Din Karim, said that while Bashir may appear to be an easy military target, its liberation requires anti-IS forces to be on the same page.
EU lawmakers slam Egypt over Italian student's 'torture' death

The European Parliament on Thursday called on Egyptian authorities to cooperate in probing the "torture and assassination" of an Italian student in Cairo, while lamenting that it was "not an isolated case" in Egypt.

saying it came within a context of deaths in custody in Egypt.

Giulio Regeni, a Cambridge University PhD student who was researching Egyptian labour movements, disappeared on January 25 and his badly mutilated body was found a week later.

Italian protesters hold a flag with photos of Giulio Regeni during a demonstration in front of the Egypt's embassy in Rome, on February 25, 2016 Filippo Monteforte (AFP)

MEPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of a resolution saying that the parliament in Strasbourg, France, "strongly condemns the torture and assassination under suspicious circumstances of EU citizen Giulio Regeni."

There were 588 votes for the resolution, 10 against and 59 abstentions.

The resolution "calls on the Egyptian authorities to provide the Italian authorities with all the documents and information necessary to enable a swift, transparent and impartial joint investigation into the case of Mr Regeni".

It urged Egyptian authorities to make "every effort" to bring Regeni's killers to justice.

But MEPs also noted "with grave concern that the case of Giulio Regeni is not an isolated incident, but that it occurred within a context of torture, death in custody and enforced disappearances across Egypt in recent years."

The European Parliament further urged the EU's 28 member states to stick to the bloc's rules on the export of military technology and surveillance equipment to Egypt.

The rules were adopted in 2013 after the ousting of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi by then-army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Regeni went missing on the fifth anniversary of the start of the uprising which overthrew longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 201. Police had been deployed across the city to prevent demonstrations.

His death has chilled relations between Rome and Cairo, with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi last month warning Egypt its friendship was on the line over the investigation.
South African soldier killed in Sudan's Darfur region

A South African soldier died Wednesday when his unit in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region was ambushed while escorting food supplies for a UN agency, an army statement said Thursday.

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) troops were protecting a convoy of World Food Programme trucks when they came under attack.

"During the exchange of fire, unfortunately one member of the SANDF was fatally wounded whilst another was wounded," the statement said, without commenting on who may have been behind the attack.

The South African army has been deployed in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur since 2008 as part of the joint African Union and United Nation mission Ashraf Shazly (AFP/File)

The South African army has been deployed in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur since 2008 as part of the joint African Union and United Nation mission.

President Jacob Zuma announced last month that South Africa would withdraw its 850 troops from Sudan as from April 1.

No reasons were given for the withdrawal.
Thousands evacuated as Iraqi forces advance against IS

Iraqi forces retook a town from the Islamic State jihadist group in Anbar province Thursday and evacuated 10,000 civilians as they advanced up the Euphrates valley, a security spokesman said.

"Counter-terrorism forces and army troops liberated the Zankura area in a swift military operation," Sabah al-Noman, spokesman of the elite Counter-Terrorism Service, told AFP.

"They evacuated 10,000 people who were transferred to a safe area," he said.

Iraqi army vehicles and a helicopter deploy in the front line in al-Anbar desert, 50 kms north east of Haditha, where the country's forces are fighting the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, on March 9, 2016 Ahmad Al-Rubaye (AFP/File)

An army colonel in the region said they would be offered first aid and then taken to camps for displaced people.

Zankura lies on a bend in the Euphrates river northwest of Ramadi, capital of Anbar province that Iraqi forces brought under full control last month.

The rural area around 125 kilometres (80 miles) west of Baghdad is on the way to Hit, a town which Iraqi forces have declared as their next target.

Noman claimed 80 IS fighters were killed in the operation but gave no figure for casualties in government ranks.

"Our forces also arrested 56 Daesh (IS) members who had shaved their beards and were trying to blend in with the fleeing families," the spokesman said.

Noman said the Iraqi flag was raised on the highest building in Zankura.

The sprawling province of Anbar -- which borders Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia -- was at the heart of the "caliphate" that IS proclaimed in 2014.

The jihadist group still holds most of the province but the noose is tightening around some of its key bastions.

The city of Fallujah, 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad, is almost completely surrounded by a mix of Iraqi forces.

Federal forces are also pushing down from Salaheddin province towards Haditha, a city in western Anbar which IS never took but has attacked relentlessly since 2014.

The US-led coalition, which has played a significant part in enabling the advance of government troops across Anbar, reported four air strikes in the Ramadi area on Wednesday.
Biden says fight against IS will take 'long time'

US Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday during a visit to American troops training Jordan's military that it will take a "long time" to defeat the Islamic State jihadist group.

"We are going to defeat ISIL (IS). They are already on their heels. Its going to take a long time, going to take a long time," he told the troops at a training centre outside the city of Zarqa, northeast of Jordan's capital Amman.

"They are no existential threat to the United States. Weve got you and the people you are training, the finest military tactics in the world," Biden said on a joint visit with King Abdullah II.

US vice president Joe Biden (C) attends a military demonstration at a Joint Training Center in the city of Zarqa, northeast of the capital Amman, on March 10, 2016 Khalil Mazraawi (AFP)

Biden earlier held talks at the royal palace with the king, whose country has been a member of a US-led coalition fighting IS in Syria and Iraq since 2014.

The king stressed the need to "support the Iraqi government's efforts in fighting against Daesh", using an Arabic acronym for IS, the palace said in a statement.

It said Biden and King Abdullah also held talks on the conflict in neighbouring Syria and the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Biden, winding up a regional tour which has also taken him to Israel, the Palestinian territories and the United Arab Emirates, discussed "efforts for peace between Palestinians and Israelis based on a two-state solution".

The king called for an end to "Israeli violations" of Christian and Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, the palace said.

Biden's wife, Jill, on Thursday visited the Zaatari refugee camp that is home to some 80,000 Syrian refugees in northern Jordan.

The kingdom says it is hosting 1.4 million Syrian refugees -- equal to 20 percent of its population and more than twice as many as the 600,000 figure given by the UN refugee agency UNHCR.

Syria's five-year conflict has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced millions.
China slammed at UN over crackdown on activists, lawyers

The United States and 11 other countries took China to task at the United Nations on Thursday over its human rights record and demanded it immediately release all detained activists and lawyers.

"We are concerned about China's deteriorating human rights record, notably the arrests and ongoing detention of rights activists, civil society leaders and lawyers," US ambassador Keith Harper told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Speaking on behalf of Australia, Britain, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United States, Harper said that in many cases, those detained "have not been granted access to legal council or allowed visits by family members."

US representative to the United Nations Human Rights Council Keith Harper, pictured on November 12, 2014, urges China "to release all rights activists, civil society leaders and lawyers detained for peacefully exercising their freedom of expression" Fabrice Coffrini (AFP/File)

"These actions are in contravention of China's own laws, and international commitments," he said.

Harper came out in support of comments by UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein last month raising concerns about the arrest of around 250 lawyers and activists in a crackdown since July 2015.

In comments harshly criticised by Beijing, Zeid said China appeared to be locking up government critics regardless of whether they had committed a crime, and demanded it release those detained "immediately and without conditions."

Harper echoed the call, urging China "to release all rights activists, civil society leaders and lawyers detained for peacefully exercising their freedom of expression or for lawfully practising their profession."

The US ambassador to the UN rights council also raised concerns over "the unexplained recent disappearances and apparent coerced returns of Chinese and foreign citizens from outside mainland China".

"These extra-territorial actions are unacceptable, and out of step with the expectations of the international community and a challenge to the rule-based international order," Harper said.

Five booksellers from Hong Kong's Mighty Current publishing house, known for its salacious titles critical of Beijing, for instance went missing last year.

They all later turned up on television in mainland China to say they had not been abducted, with some providing tearful confessions that they had been smuggling illicit books into the country.

Harper voiced concern over "the increasing number of individuals whose confessions have been aired on state media prior to any indictment or judicial process".
Qatar delays new Arab League head: diplomats

Qatar has delayed the appointment of a veteran Egyptian diplomat as the next head of the Arab League over his "hostile positions" towards the Gulf state, diplomats said on Thursday.

Egypt was expecting Ahmed Abul Gheit, the last foreign minister to serve under ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, to be chosen unanimously by the 21-member pan-Arab body.

But in a surprise setback to his candidacy, Qatar expressed reservations due to Abul Gheit's "hostile positions", an Arab diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

Former Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Abul Gheit, expected to be elected as the new secretary general of the Arab League on February 3, 2013 in the Egyptian capital Cairo Gianluigi Guercia (AFP/File)

Several diplomats told AFP that Doha accused Abul Gheit of pushing Egypt to boycott a Qatari-proposed Arab summit in 2009 to discuss an Israeli offensive against the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

Unlike the charismatic ex-chief of the Arab League, Egyptian Amr Moussa, who was known for his tough positions on Israel, Abul Gheit has often faced criticism for adopting a relatively softer approach towards the Jewish state.

In 2008, he even accused Hamas of being responsible for the Israeli war on Gaza.

Abul Gheit was expected to be appointed as a formality, but Arab diplomats said that discussions were still ongoing over his candidacy.

Diplomats told AFP that in the absence of a unanimous decision, Egypt would ask for a vote, in which Abul Gheit would need the support of two thirds of delegates.

Relations between Doha and Cairo have soured since the army's ouster of Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Cairo blames Doha for supporting Morsi's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood movement, the target of a brutal police crackdown since the Islamist's ouster.

Doha has regularly denounced the crackdown that left hundreds dead and thousands in jail.

Cairo proposed Abul Gheit, 73, for the post after fellow Egyptian Nabil al-Arabi declined a second five-year term as secretary general. His present term ends in July.

Traditionally, the secretary general of the Arab League has held the post for two terms, and Cairo has always insisted that it be held by an Egyptian diplomat.

"Egypt will not present another candidate ... there will be a decision today" on the next secretary general, Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Abuzeid told reporters.

- Challenges ahead -

Differences over Abul Gheit reflect the divisions within the pan-Arab body.

The next secretary general will take office at a time when the Arab League is facing multiple wars in the region, a rising threat from jihadists, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

At the top of the list is the war in Syria that has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced millions since it erupted in 2011.

The more than five-year-old conflict has seen regional heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Iran backing opposite sides.

While Iran has sent thousands of "military advisers" into Syria in support of the Damascus regime, Saudi Arabia supports Islamist rebels fighting Assad's forces.

A similar power play is evident in Yemen, where Iran-backed Shiite rebels are fighting a Saudi-led military campaign.

The United Nations says that more than 6,000 people have been killed in Yemen since the Saudi campaign commenced against the rebels a year ago.

The rise of the jihadist Islamic State group, which has swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria under its control and is rapidly expanding its footholds in Libya, has emerged as the biggest threat to the region's stability.

To combat IS, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi proposed setting up a joint Arab military force, but the plan faced resistance from within the League after it was initially adopted.

If chosen, Abul Gheit will be the eighth secretary general of the League since it was founded in 1945.
Three jihadists killed near Tunisia's Ben Guerdane: ministry

Three jihadists were killed Thursday in security operations in Tunisia's border area of Ben Guerdane, where militants launched a full-blown attack this week, the authorities said.

The latest deaths raised to 49 the tally of jihadists killed since Monday's assault in Ben Guerdane, near Libya's border, on an army barracks and police and National Guard posts.

One of the jihadists was killed in Zokra district after he shot at an army and police patrol, the interior and defence ministries said in a joint statement.

Members of the Tunisian military patrol a road near the Libyan border on March 10, 2016 in Bouhamed, 40 km from the town of Ben Guerdane Fathi Nasri (AFP)

The two others were killed in Hassi al-Nour district, where another man was also detained and four Kalashnikov rifles were seized, it said.

In total, eight militants have been detained since Monday, according to an AFP tally.

Thirteen members of the security forces and seven civilians were killed in Monday's attacks, according to official figures.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the attacks, but the authorities have blamed them on the Islamic State jihadist group present in neighbouring Libya.

IS has 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 close to the Tunisian border.

A nighttime curfew and tight security remain in place in Ben Guerdane, a city of around 60,000 inhabitants.

A local official has been dismissed, the authorities said Thursday, without giving any reason for the decision.

Tunisia has built a 200-kilometre (125-mile) barrier that stretches about half the length of its border in an attempt to stop militant incursions from Libya.
The more scientists learn about the Zika virus, the worse the situation appears to get, officials have warned.

Leading experts co-ordinating the US response to the current outbreak said the mounting evidence of links between the virus and severe birth defects and neurological conditions are worse than they first feared.

The growing tide of scientific discoveries increases the risk of devastating impact for pregnant women who potential contract the virus.

Dr Tom Frieden, chief of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said until Zika, 'never before have we had a mosquito-borne infection that could cause birth defects on a large scale'.

The more scientists learn about the Zika virus, which is typically transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, pictured, the worse the situation gets, officials leading the US response to the virus have warned

Returning from Puerto Rico, one of the US territories most affected by Zika, Dr Frieden warned the island could be on the brink of a massive outbreak of the virus.

He urged Congress to provide funding to help ensure the necessary resources are made available to mitigate the risk and protect those most at risk - namely pregnant women and their unborn babies.

Dr Frieden said: 'Puerto Rico is on the front lines of the battle against Zika, and it is an uphill battle.

'We need urgent action to minimize the risk to pregnant women.

'I am very concerned that before the year is out there could be hundreds of thousands of Zika infections in Puerto Rico and thousands of infected pregnant women.

'The rainy season is around the corner and funding from Congress is urgently needed.'

Speaking at the same briefing, Dr Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said: 'As the weeks and months go by, we learn more and more about how much we don't know, and the more we learn the worse things seem to get.'

Their warnings come as the CDC confirmed there have been almost 200 cases of Zika infection reported in the US  all traced to travel abroad.

The latest, was today reported by officials in Kansas.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment confirmed the first person in the state has tested positive for Zika.

The adult is from southwest Kansas, and has recently traveled to a country where the virus is rife.

The individual developed an illness that was consistent with Zika symptoms and underwent tests.

Health officials yesterday pleaded for Congress to provide $1.9 billion to fight the virus in Latin America and help prevent it from spreading to the continental US.

Some of the money would go to Puerto Rico, where Zika is spreading locally and 159 cases have been reported.

Capitol Hill Republicans have deferred the request, insisting leftover Ebola funds can be used.

However, health officials say new funding is needed.

Dr Tom Frieden, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said until Zika, 'never before have we had a mosquito-borne infection that could cause birth defects on a large scale'. He has just returned from the island of Puerto Rico, where he warns we are likely to see an 'explosion' of cases

The virus has already swept through Brazil, where thousands of babies have been born with microcephaly, a birth defect causing babies to be born with unusually small heads.

The sharp rise in microcephaly cases, at a time when Zika was prevalent, sparked fears of a link between the conditions.

Such is the concern, that the World Health Organization declared the current Zika outbreak an international public health emergency on February 1.

Scientists have since focused their efforts on establishing the link between Zika and the birth defect.

Growing evidence suggests the virus can cross the placenta to infect unborn babies, where the mother has been diagnosed with Zika.

Never before have we had a mosquito-borne infection that could cause birth defects on a large scale Dr Tom Frieden, director of the CDC

While researchers caution that Zika has not yet been proven to cause birth defects, evidence so far strongly suggests the possibility.

Dr Frieden said: 'We are learning more about Zika every single day, the link with microcephaly and other potentially serious birth defects is growing stronger every day.'

Dr Fauci and his colleague cited a 'really quite disturbing' report published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week that found in Zika infected pregnant women, 29 per cent 'had fetal abnormalities' that were detected via ultra sound.

Dr Fauci said: 'That means very well there maybe many more (cases) that you don't realize until after the birth of the baby.'

Dr Frieden also said a link between Zika and Guillan Barre syndrome - a rare neurological condition where the immune system attacks the nervous system - 'is likely to be proven in the near future'.

The condition can cause temporary paralysis in severe cases.

And he warned the fact the virus can be sexually transmitted 'is now proven'.

Efforts to control mosquitoes have been further complicated by the discovery that some common repellants are not working.

'We are finding widespread resistance to some insecticides,' said Dr Frieden.

'Puerto Rico is on the front lines of the battle against Zika and it is an uphill battle,' said Dr Frieden. He warned as the rainy season approaches and conditions become favorable for mosquitoes, more cases are expected

Other top concerns listed by Dr Frieden include the lack of access to contraception in Puerto Rico, a Caribbean island with some 3.5 million inhabitants.

Last month, the island territory declared a health emergency due to the Zika virus, which can be transmitted by sexual contact as well as by mosquitoes.

Health experts have urged women who want to become pregnant or who are pregnant to avoid travel to the more than 30 areas of the world where Zika is present - or if they live there, to postpone plans to get pregnant if possible.

As the weeks and months go by, we learn more and more about how much we don't know, and the more we learn the worse things seem to get Dr Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Men are urged to use condoms, or refrain from sex with pregnant partners.

'Most of the pregnancies in Puerto Rico are unplanned, unintended and there is an unmet need for contraception,' Dr Frieden said.

The latest figures, released in February, showed that Puerto Rico has documented 22 cases of Zika.

Updated figures are expected today, Dr Frieden said.

Health authorities anticipate 'the number of cases in Puerto Rico at some point beginning to increase not steadily but dramatically', he said.

There is no vaccine to prevent Zika, and in four out of five cases, the infection shows no symptoms.

Otherwise, it may cause fever, rash and red eyes.

Dr Fauci, said early vaccine trials may get under way by late summer or early fall, but reiterated that it will likely be years before an effective vaccine is widely available.

Some 100 CDC staff are working in Puerto Rico, as part of 750 CDC workers assigned to work on the Zika virus, Frieden said.

'There is nothing about Zika control that is quick or easy,' he added.
Activists in DR Congo get three months' prison

Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo jailed two young activists Thursday for three months amid a growing crackdown on dissent in the country.

The sentences follow the arrest of at least a dozen other members of a peaceful protest group seeking an end to violent conflict in the central African nation in the past year.

Juvin Kombi and Pascal Byumanine were arrested along with seven others following a demonstration against extra-judicial killings by armed militias in the north of the Nord-Kivu region in November 2015, according to their lawyer Georges Kapiamba.

-Lucha movement activist Juvin Kombi, 26, speaks during a an interview given to AFP in Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, on March 27, 2015 Federico Scoppa (AFP/File)

The pair were convicted of "inciting revolt" and fined 100,000 Congolese francs (100 euros), a significant sum in the impoverished country.

They were then released, having spent more than the length of their sentences on while remand, awaiting trial. The seven others arrested with them were, who had no known affiliation, were acquitted and released following the trial.

Kapiamba criticised their conviction, saying it was "not based in fact" and was an "attack on the right to protest".

The Lucha movement is a non-partisan peaceful protest group founded in Goma in the country's east to lobby for change in the violence-hit region and has drawn the ire of the country's rulers.

Two of the group's members currently in detention will go on trial in Kinshasa on Friday.

One of the group's highest profile detainees is Fred Bauma who was arrested at a good governance conference in the capital in March 2015 and has been held since.

The country's Supreme Court is expected to determine his fate on March 16.

Tensions are running high in the country amid opposition fears that President Joseph Kabila, in power since 2001, may refuse to leave office at the end of his term this December.
Egypt diplomat Abul Gheit named Arab League head

Veteran Egyptian diplomat Ahmed Abul Gheit was named Thursday as the Arab League's new secretary general, at a time when the regional body faces multiple wars and a widening jihadist threat.

In a sign of divisions within the pan-Arab body, however, Qatar voiced reservations over Abul Gheit's candidacy due to his "hostile positions" towards Doha, Arab diplomats said.

"The consultations resulted in the nomination of Ahmed Abul Gheit to the post of secretary general," Bahraini Foreign Minister Khaled bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa announced in televised remarks at the end of a ministerial meeting.

Former Egyptian foreign affairs minister, diplomat and writer Ahmed Abul Gheit during an interview at his home in the Egyptian capital Cairo on February 0, 2013 Gianluigi Guercia (AFP/File)

Abul Gheit, who served as foreign minister under Egypt's ousted president Hosni Mubarak, takes office at a time when the Cairo-based Arab League is facing several tests of its unity.

At the top of the list is the war in Syria that has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced millions since it erupted in 2011.

The more than five-year-old conflict has seen regional heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Iran backing opposite sides.

In addition, relations between Qatar and Egypt, which traditionally chooses candidates for the post of secretary general, have soured.

Cairo accuses Doha of supporting its outlawed Muslim Brotherhood movement of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, who was toppled by the army in 2013.

The Brotherhood has been the target of a brutal crackdown since then, and Doha has regularly denounced the operations that left hundreds dead and thousands in jail.

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani expressed Doha's "reservations" over Abul Gheit but voiced hope the next secretary general "will maintain contact between all Arab countries in the interest of joint Arab action."

Several diplomats told AFP that Qatar had accused Abul Gheit of pushing Egypt to boycott a Qatari-proposed Arab summit in 2009 to discuss an Israeli assault on Gaza.

Unlike the charismatic ex-chief of the Arab League, fellow Egyptian Amr Mussa, who was known for taking a tough stand on Israel, Abul Gheit has often faced criticism for adopting a softer approach towards the Jewish state.

Abul Gheit had accused the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas which rules Gaza of being responsible for the Israeli assault.

Cairo proposed Abul Gheit, 73, for the post after the incumbent, Nabil al-Arabi, another Egyptian, declined a second five-year term as secretary general. His term ends in July.

Traditionally, the secretary general has held the position for two terms and the post has gone to an Egyptian, with Tunisia's Chedli Klibi the sole exception.

- Wider disunity -

Differences within the 22-member organisation, in which Syria's membership was suspended in 2011 because of its conflict, hint at a wider disunity between Arab states.

While Iran has sent thousands of "military advisers" into Syria in support of the Damascus regime, Saudi Arabia supports Islamist rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

Saudi Arabia and several Gulf states have since made diplomatic moves against Lebanon, whose Shiite Hezbollah movement is fighting in support of Assad.

Sectarian rivalry is also evident in Yemen, where Iran-backed Shiite rebels are fighting a Saudi-led military campaign.

The United Nations says that more than 6,000 people have been killed in Yemen since the Saudi campaign against the rebels was launched a year ago.

The rise of the jihadist Islamic State group, which has swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria under its control and is rapidly expanding its foothold in Libya, has emerged as the biggest threat to the region's stability.

To combat IS, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi proposed setting up a joint Arab military force, but the plan has faced resistance from within the League after it was initially adopted.

Abul Gheit will be the eighth secretary general of the League since it was founded in 1945.

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani attends a meeting of Arab foreign ministers to elect a new secretary general of the Arab League in the Egyptian capital Cairo, on March 10, 2016 Khaled Desouki (AFP)
Elderly US man punches protester at Trump rally

A 78-year-old white man punched a black protester in the face at a Donald Trump rally and was charged with assault, media said Thursday, in chaotic scenes on the presidential campaign trail.

John McGraw -- who later said that next time "we might have to kill him" -- was also charged with battery and disorderly conduct after the event Wednesday night in North Carolina, the Cumberland County sheriff's office told the local TV station WRAL.

The incident was condemned by Bernie Sanders, who is vying with Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for the White House.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump signs autographs at a campaign rally on March 7, 2016 in Concord, North Carolina Sean Rayford (Getty/AFP/File)

"No one in America should ever fear for their safety at a political rally. This ugly incident confirms that the politics of division has no place in our country. Mr. Trump should take responsibility for addressing his supporters' violent actions," Sanders said.

Multiple videos of the assault show McGraw abruptly punching the young black man in the face as he was walking up a stairway with other protesters being escorted out by police, amid cries of "USA! USA!"

McGraw was not arrested until Thursday morning, as video of the assault gained widespread attention. He was released after posting a $2,500 bond, CNN reported.

The Cumberland County sheriff's office did not immediately return phone calls from AFP.

Rakeem Jones, the man who was punched, told The Washington Post that the sharp blow to the right side of his face caught him by surprise.

"After I get it, before I could even gain my thoughts, I'm on the ground getting escorted out. Now I'm waking up this morning looking at the news and seeing me getting hit again," Jones said.

Jones, 26, said he went to the Trump rally as a "social experiment."

A woman who was part of his group started to yell out against Trump when he began his speech, Jones said.

As he walked up the stairs, right before reaching McGraw's row, Jones is seen in the video turning to his right, smiling as he raises his arms and says something to the crowd. McGraw then sucker-punched him.

McGraw defended his behavior in comments to the program Inside Edition during the Trump rally.

"We don't know who he is but we know he's not acting like an American," McGraw said.

"Yes, he deserved it. The next time we see him, we might have to kill him."

Trump's rallies tend to draw large crowds, and some have been interrupted by protesters critical of the Republican frontrunner's policy positions on immigration and other sensitive issues.

Critics say he is stirring hatred among angry American voters with his inflammatory comments against Muslims and Mexicans.
Coalition bombs IS chemical sites after snaring 'emir'

The US-led coalition has carried out the first air strikes on Islamic State chemical weapons sites, the Pentagon said Thursday, acting on information from a senior operative described as the extremists' top chemical expert.

The successful "multiple" bombings came as a result of detailed intelligence from Sulayman Dawud al-Bakkar, also known as Abu Dawud, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said, confirming Dawud's capture by US special forces in Iraq last month.

The snaring of Dawud, who was transferred Thursday into Iraqi custody after interrogation, appears to be a major boon in the fight against the IS group in Iraq and Syria, and Cook said it had yielded almost immediate results as well as critical information for the future.

An F-16 Fighting Falcon departs Aviano Air Base, Italy enroute to Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, in support of Operation Inherent Resolve A1C Deana Heitzman (US Air Force/AFP/File)

Cook described Dawud as "ISIL's emir of chemical and traditional weapons manufacturing."

"His capture removed a key ISIL leader from the battlefield and provided the coalition with important information about ISIL's chemical weapons capabilities," Cook said, using an alternative acronym for the IS extremists.

"Through Dawud, the coalition learned details about ISIL's chemical weapon facilities and production, as well as the people involved.

"The information has resulted in multiple coalition air strikes that have disrupted and degraded ISIL's ability to produce chemical weapons and will continue to inform our operations in the future."

US media said that Dawud formerly worked for Saddam Hussein's regime.

The chemical weapons expert was picked up by US forces that the Pentagon only recently deployed to Iraq to conduct raids against the Islamic State group.

The strikes on the chemical facilities -- it was not immediately known exactly where and when the raids took place -- had carefully "factored in" the risk to the civilian population, Cook added.

The New York Times, citing officials, said that the US-led air campaign targeted a weapons production plant in Mosul, Iraq and another against a "tactical unit" near Mosul believed to be linked to the program.

In February, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and CIA Director John Brennan for the first time openly accused the Islamic State group of using chemical weapons, including mustard gas, in Iraq and Syria.

- 'Gross violations' -

The US military Central Command Thursday provided the most specific details so far of the chemical attacks it attributes to the group.

"We believe that Islamic State for Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) was responsible for the sulfur mustard attack in Marea, Syria on August 21, 2015, largely based on photographic evidence and the Syrian opposition's description of the event," said a CENTCOM statement.

"Based on the available information, we also believe that ISIL was likely responsible for some of the alleged attacks using sulfur mustard in Iraq."

Mustard gas -- also known as "sulfur mustard" -- can cause respiratory distress, momentary blindness and painful blisters.

"Any use by ISIL of CW is a continuation of its extensive record of gross violations of human rights, as well as its blatant disregard for international laws and norms," CENTCOM said.

According to CNN, the US intelligence community has confirmed 12 cases of the use of mustard agent, with three other cases suspected. They include locations in Syria and Iraq.

However, CNN said that US officials have been at pains to play down the attacks saying they believe any deaths were from being hit by artillery, not the agent.

Dawud's capture and the subsequent raids mark the second major blow against the extremists announced this week, in the US-led attempt to wipe out the IS group and its self-declared caliphate across parts of Syria and Iraq where the extremists implement an ultra-conservative interpretation of Islamic law.

Top Islamic State commander leader Omar al-Shishani, known as Omar the Chechen, was badly wounded in a recent US strike in northeastern Syria, though not killed as first believed, according to a monitoring group.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday that according to its sources the March 4 strike targeted the jihadist's convoy, killing his bodyguards, while Shishani himself "was seriously injured."

A US official had initially said Shishani "likely died" in the assault by waves of US warplanes and drones -- but the United States had stopped short of announcing his death, which had been erroneously reported several times before.

The US official branded Shishani "the ISIL equivalent of the secretary of defense."

Shishani was one of the IS leaders most wanted by Washington, which put a $5 million bounty on his head.

Key developments in the war in Syria in the past five years Gillian Handyside (AFP)
France to propose EU sanctions against Libyan officials: FM

France will on Monday propose imposing European Union sanctions on any Libyan official obstructing the formation of a UN-backed unity government, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said.

"I do not exclude threatening them with sanctions. In any case, that is what I will propose to my foreign affairs colleagues on Monday in Brussels," Ayrault told the iTELE news channel.

"Now, we can wait no longer," he added, denouncing those who "put themselves in the way out of self-interest".

French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault poses at the ministry in Paris, on March 8, 2016 Joel Saget (AFP/File)

The sanctions would likely consist of travel bans to the EU and asset freezes, and target the speaker of Libya's internationally recognised parliament, Aguila Saleh, as well as Nuri Abu Sahmein of the Tripoli-based General National Congress and its head Khalifa Ghweil, a European diplomatic source said.

Libya has had rival parliaments and governments since 2014, after an Islamist-led militia alliance overran Tripoli and forced the internationally recognised administration to flee to the remote east of the oil-rich nation.

Extremists including the Islamic State group have exploited the chaos, raising fears of jihadists using the Libyan coast as a launch pad to infiltrate Europe and launch attacks.

Western countries have agreed that military action is needed to dislodge IS in Libya, but world powers want a national unity government installed to request help before formally intervening.

"It would not make sense to impose travel bans and asset freezes on more than two or three people, because you would end up with no one to negotiate with," added the Brussels-based source.

"But what is being proposed will be effective because Libyan politicians like to travel to Malta and Italy for shopping and medical treatment," the source added.

A UN-backed national unity government, headed by Fayez al-Sarraj, was proposed in January but rejected by the internationally recognised parliament.

The parliament, located in the remote eastern town of Tobruk, has since said it does support the unity government but was unable to hold a confidence vote on the line-up of a new administration because it lacked a quorum.

"There is a prime minister, Mr Sarraj, who is capable of directing (a unity government). A majority of MPs say they are in favour but the parliament cannot find a consensus because of barriers," said Ayrault.

"We cannot continue with this situation that is a danger for Libyans, for the whole region... and for Europe," he added.

"We must fight Islamic State where it is trying to establish a foothold in Libya but before that a national unity government needs to be established."

France, backed by Britain, needs to build support for the sanctions amongst other EU members. Many countries are reticent to vote on sanctions that have not been proposed by the United Nations.
'Weedman' says closing pot temple violates religious freedom

TRENTON, N.J. (AP)  After battling the legal system on two coasts and spending time in and out of prison, New Jersey's loudest champion of marijuana went legit last year when he opened up a restaurant across from city hall in this state's capital city.

Now, he's headed back to court.

Ed Forchion, better known as NJ Weedman, said Wednesday that Trenton police infringed on his religious rights after shutting down the cannabis temple attached to his restaurant for operating too late at night last weekend.

Ed Forchion, a pro-marijuana activist known as NJ Weedman, stands in front of his Weedman's Joint resturant Monday, March 7, 2016, in Trenton, N.J. After years of legal fights over marijuana from coast to coast, NJ Weedman appeared to be going legit with a new restaurant in New Jersey's capital city. After years of legal fights over marijuana from coast to coast, NJ Weedman appeared to be going legit with a new restaurant in New Jersey's capital city. But after Trenton officials shutdown the attached cannabis "temple" Saturday night for operating too late at night, Forchion says he's headed back to court. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

He has filed an injunction in federal court to keep his temple open after 11 p.m. That's when many of his 600 congregants gather, some to smoke marijuana on a property that includes a large white cross festooned with ornamental marijuana leaves.

Police cleared out his "cannabis church" early Saturday because of a city ordinance that limits a business's hours.

"I call it a midnight mass," Forchion said. "I grew up in the Baptist church and have been to plenty of midnight services and midnight revivals. I should have the same rights as the Shiloh Baptist Church."

Forchion often campaigns for political office under the banner of marijuana legalization. And he's been on a long crusade in the courts, claiming that marijuana laws infringe upon his Rastafarian religion and unfairly discriminate against black people.

Forchion filed a petition this week with the U.S. Supreme Court to challenge his 2010 conviction for marijuana possession. Previous efforts in New Jersey's state courts have failed.

"It's a long shot, but long shots do come in," said Forchion's attorney John Vincent Saykanic.

Forchion's temple and his adjacent restaurant, NJ Weedman's Joint, were his way of starting a legitimate business last summer. He had spent time in and out of prison for marijuana possession and sometimes sold the drug. In 2012, federal agents in California raided his pot farm, confiscating 600 plants.

The restaurant's clocks are all stuck at the time of 4:20. And the joint offers $4.20 specials that include the "Fully Baked Burger." For $7.10, customers can get the "Budz Nugz," grilled salmon nuggets over a bed of mixed greens.

"I'm promoting peace and love in a violent city," Forchion said. "It's the marijuana culture. We're much more likely to give something to you than take something from you."

The temple, however, has drawn Forchion back under the gaze of police. Trenton police Lt. Stephen Varn said that "numerous citizen complaints in the area, including shots fired" prompted officers to clear out the temple.

But Forchion said no shots were ever fired in or around the temple.

Varn said police also are investigating whether the temple is actually a church or a business.

The New Jersey Division of Taxation said that Forchion's temple is registered as a for-profit entity. But Forchion disputed that, saying the paperwork lists its purpose as being a "cannabis church." He also said it's a subsidiary of a similar temple he owned in California.

Forchion said he will refile the paperwork if he has to. But he said the recent shutdown of his temple is an unneeded distraction as he petitions the U.S. Supreme Court.

"I've had a quiet year and I'm looking to do big things," Forchion said. "And now they want to squash me."

Ed Forchion, a pro-marijuana activist known as NJ Weedman, holds a certificate document from the New Jersey Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services establishing that his Liberty Bell Temple III Limited Liability Company is a Religious Cannabis Temple, Monday, March 7, 2016, in Trenton, N.J. After years of legal fights over marijuana from coast to coast, NJ Weedman appeared to be going legit with a new restaurant in New Jersey's capital city. But after Trenton officials shutdown the attached cannabis "temple" Saturday night for operating too late at night, Forchion says he's headed back to court. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

Ed Forchion, a pro-marijuana activist known as NJ Weedman, stands in front of his Weedman's Joint restaurant Monday, March 7, 2016, in Trenton, N.J. After years of legal fights over marijuana from coast to coast, NJ Weedman appeared to be going legit with a new restaurant in New Jersey's capital city. But after Trenton officials shutdown the attached cannabis "temple" Saturday night for operating too late at night, Forchion says he's headed back to court. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

Ed Forchion, a pro-marijuana activist known as NJ Weedman, watches videos from surveillance cameras, Monday, March 7, 2016, in Trenton, N.J., showing police beginning to arrive and block the street outside his Liberty Bell Temple and Sanctuary, next to his Weedman's Joint restaurant last Saturday night. After years of legal fights over marijuana from coast to coast, NJ Weedman appeared to be going legit with a new restaurant in New Jersey's capital city. But after Trenton officials shutdown the attached cannabis "temple" Saturday night for operating too late at night, Forchion says he's headed back to court. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
Venezuela withdraws top diplomat in Washington

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP)  President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday announced that Venezuela's top diplomat in Washington would be called back to Caracas to protest the decision to renew a U.S. decree imposing sanctions on several top officials from the South American country.

The two nations haven't exchanged ambassadors since 2010 and Maximilien Sanchez Arvelaiz had been Venezuela's acting charge d'affaires in the U.S. capital.

"We don't accept impositions or aggressions," Maduro said in a televised address announcing that the Venezuelan diplomat was being recalled. "Enough of the arrogance."

FILE - In this Jan. 15, 2016 file photo, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro gives his annual state of the nation address in Caracas, Venezuela. Maduro announced on Wednesday, March 9, 2016 that his nation's top diplomat in Washington would be called back to protest the decision to renew a U.S. decree imposing sanctions on several top officials from the South American country. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File)

In March of 2015, President Barack Obama slapped sanctions on seven Venezuelan officials, accusing them of perpetrating human rights violations and public corruption in the socialist-governed country. The individuals all came from the top echelon of the state security apparatus that was responsible for cracking down on anti-government protests that rocked Venezuela in 2104 and for pursuing charges against leading opponents.

The sanctions come after the U.S. Congress passed legislation authorizing penalties that would freeze the assets and ban visas for anyone accused of carrying out acts of violence or violating the human rights of those opposing Venezuela's government.

On Wednesday, Venezuelan officials said that Obama had sent a letter to leaders of the U.S. legislatures saying the sanctions would be renewed because the situation in Venezuela had not improved.

Maduro said the renewal "is a stain for Obama because he had plenty of opportunities to rectify the situation but imposed arrogance."
Honda rolls out fuel cell in Japan, to lease 200 first year

TOKYO (AP)  Honda has rolled out a new fuel cell vehicle, the first of its kind to be a five-seater. The zero-emissions Clarity may not sell in big numbers, however, given its price tag of 7.66 million yen ($67,000).

Honda Motor Co. said Thursday that its Japan sales target for the first year is just 200 vehicles, all through leasing to government organizations, such as the Environment Ministry, and businesses. Honda declined to identify the businesses.

Tokyo-based Honda says the Clarity will go on sale in California later this year for about $60,000, and will lease for under $500 a month.

Honda Motor Co. President and Chief Executive Takahiro Hachigo speaks during a press conference in the media preview of the Clarity Fuel Cell at the automaker's headquarters in Tokyo, Thursday, March 10, 2016. Honda has rolled out a new fuel cell vehicle, the first of its kind to be a five-seater. The zero-emissions Clarity may not sell in big numbers, however, given its price tag of 7.66 million yen ($67,000). (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

In Japan, the monthly leasing cost will vary according to the contract but will likely be about 100,000 yen ($880). Government green subsidies are expected to help defray the cost.

All the world's major automakers are working on fuel cells, which are being used to a limited extent in Japan, mainly through leasing.

They are super-clean, running on the energy created when hydrogen stored as fuel combines with oxygen in the air and so emits only water.

Honda, which also makes the Civic sedan, Odyssey minivan and Asimo robot, is a pioneer in fuel cell technology.

Its fuel cell became the first certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board in 2002.

The new model has a cruise range of 750 kilometers (470 miles) on a full tank, which is at the top for a sedan, according to the Japanese automaker.

Honda has been able to make the new fuel cell more powerful, and reduce its size, allowing for five passengers, instead of the previous four.

Last month, Honda's president said two-thirds of the company's sales will be zero-emissions, including fuel cells and electric vehicles, hybrids and plug-ins by 2030.

Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp. started selling its first fuel cells last year. Volkswagen AG, Hyundai Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Mazda Motor Corp. also have fuel cells in their lineups.

___

Follow Yuri Kageyama at: https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

Her work can be found at: http://bigstory.ap.org/content/yuri-kageyama

Honda Motor Co. President and Chief Executive Takahiro Hachigo speaks during a press conference in the media preview of the Clarity Fuel Cell at the automaker's headquarters in Tokyo, Thursday, March 10, 2016. Honda has rolled out a new fuel cell vehicle, the first of its kind to be a five-seater. The zero-emissions Clarity may not sell in big numbers, however, given its price tag of 7.66 million yen ($67,000). (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

A visitor takes a photo of the Clarity Fuel Cell in front of Honda Motor headquarters in Tokyo, Thursday, March 10, 2016. Honda has rolled out a new fuel cell vehicle, the first of its kind to be a five-seater. The zero-emissions Clarity may not sell in big numbers, however, given its price tag of 7.66 million yen ($67,000). (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
Brazil's ex-president charged in money laundering probe

SAO PAULO (AP)  Prosecutors in Sao Paulo state have filed money laundering charges against former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is accused of hiding his alleged ownership of a seafront penthouse in the city of Guaruja.

Silva has denied he owns the apartment, which belongs to constructor OAS. OAS is one of the biggest targets of a separate corruption investigation that focuses on state-run oil giant Petrobras.

The charges filed Wednesday against Silva still need to be accepted by a judge.

Brazils former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, center, smiles as he leaves a breakfast with senators of the government's allied base, in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, March 9, 2016. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

In a statement, Silva said that investigators "are not unbiased." He still has not been heard by the state investigators in the case.

The decision comes days before an anti-government protest on Sunday, and five days after Silva was held for questioning and his home raided by the police.

Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva greets supporters who have gathered outside his residence, in Sao Bernardo do Campo, in the greater Sao Paulo area, Brazil, Saturday, March 5, 2016. Brazilian police hauled in the former president for questioning Friday, in a sprawling corruption case centered on the Petrobras oil company that has already ensnared some of the country's top lawmakers and richest and most powerful businessmen. Silva reacted with indignation, saying the Petrobras corruption case has become a political witch hunt targeting him and his governing Workers' Party. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

A demonstrator protests with a bullhorn next to an inflatable the likeness of Brazil's former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in prison garb being detained by a police officer, in front of the Planalto Presidential palace, in Brasilia, Brazil, Friday, March 4, 2016. Brazilian police hauled in the former president for questioning in a sprawling corruption case centered on the Petrobras oil company that has already ensnared some of the countrys top lawmakers and richest and most powerful businessmen. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Brazils former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, flashes a thumbs up, after attending a breakfast with senators of the government's allied base, in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, March 9, 2016. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
California lawmakers voted Thursday to raise the smoking age from 18 to 21, approving a measure that would make the nation's most populous state only the second to put legal tobacco products out of the reach of most teenagers.

Before it can become law, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown must sign the legislation, which has already passed the state Assembly. His spokesman said the governor generally does not comment on pending legislation.

Only Hawaii has adopted the higher age limit statewide, although dozens of cities, including New York and San Francisco, have passed their own laws.

'We can prevent countless California youth from becoming addicted to this deadly drug, save billions of dollars in direct health care costs and, most importantly, save lives,' said Democratic Sen. Ed Hernandez, who wrote the bill.

State Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-Azusa, uses a smart phone to record the vote of his measure to raise the smoking age from 18 to 21, at the Capitol on Thursday in Sacramento

Hernandez is seen urging lawmakers to approve his bill to raise the smoking age from 18 to 21

The package of anti-tobacco bills would also restrict electronic cigarettes, which are increasingly popular and not regulated by the federal government.

The higher age limit won approval despite intense lobbying from tobacco interests and fierce opposition from many Republicans, who said the state should butt out of people's personal health decisions, even if they are harmful.

The six bills that passed both houses represented California's most substantial anti-tobacco effort in nearly two decades, according to the American Cancer Society.

'With California having such a huge population, it's going to be very impactful nationwide,' said Cathy Callaway, associate director of state and local campaigns for the society.

Advocates noted that the vast majority of smokers start before they are 18, according to data from the U.S. surgeon general. Making it illegal for 18-year-old high school students to buy tobacco for their underage friends will make it more difficult for teens to get the products, they said.

Opponents said American law and custom has long accepted that people can make adult decisions on their 18th birthday and live with the consequences. Eighteen-year-olds can register to vote, join the military, sign legally binding contracts, consent to sex and do just about any legal activity besides buying alcohol.

In response, Democrats changed the bill to allow members of the military to continue buying cigarettes at 18.

'You can commit a felony when you're 18 years old and for the rest of your life, be in prison,' Assembly Republican Leader Chad Mayes said. 'And yet you can't buy a pack of cigarettes.'

Another bill would classify e-cigarettes, or 'vaping' devices, as tobacco products subject to the same restrictions on who can purchase them and where they can be used.

The Food and Drug Administration has proposed regulations for e-cigarettes, but none has taken effect.

Anti-tobacco groups fear that vaporizers are enticing to young people and may encourage them to eventually take up smoking.

Senate Democrats, from left, William Monning, of Carmel; Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, of Los Angeles; Lois Wolk, of Davis; and Ed Hernandez, of Azusa, smile as the Senate adjourned a special session after approving a sweeping package of bills to crack down on tobacco use

State Sen. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa, called on lawmakers to reject a measure that would classify e-cigarettes as tobacco products subject to the same restrictions on who can purchase them and where they can be used

'All the progress we've made since 1965 to educate people about the hazards of smoking may be for naught as vaping has started a new generation of nicotine junkies that will be helplessly addicted and will ultimately graduate to smoking cancer sticks,' said Sen. Jeff Stone, a Republican.

Others say the devices are a less harmful, tar-free alternative to cigarettes. They have not been extensively studied, and there is no scientific consensus on their risks.

A vaping industry group, the Smoke-Free Alternatives Industry Group, urged Brown to veto the bill, saying in a letter that it could pose problems for vape shops.

'The stigma of being equated with tobacco has many negative consequences,' the group wrote.

The bills would also expand smoke-free areas to include bars, workplace break rooms, small businesses, warehouses and hotel lobbies and meeting rooms. Smoking bans would apply at more schools, including charter schools, and counties would be able to raise their own cigarette taxes beyond the state's levy of $0.87 per pack.

The legislation would take effect 90 days after the governor signs it.

Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian, D-North Hollywood, right, glances up to as the Senate votes are posted on his tobacco licensing bill, as he talks with Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica

The Senate vote came just over a week after San Francisco officials opted to raise the tobacco buying age to 21, making it the largest city to do so after New York. Nationwide, more than 120 municipalities have raised the smoking age, according to Tobacco 21, a group that advocates the policy shift nationally.

Hawaii was first to adopt the higher age limit statewide. New Jersey's Legislature voted to raise the smoking age from 19 to 21, but the bill died when Republican Gov. Chris Christie decided not to act on it before a January deadline.

Anti-smoking groups are collecting signatures for a November ballot initiative that would raise the cigarette tax to $2 a pack and direct the money to health care, tobacco-use prevention, research and law enforcement.
Long a niche, street medicine for homeless heads mainstream

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP)  They're house calls without the house.

Far from the sterile confines of a doctor's office or hospital, Brett Feldman looks for homeless people where they're most likely to be found  in wooded encampments, under bridges, along riverbanks, at soup kitchens  and treats them for ailments ranging from diabetes to trench foot, mental illness to substance abuse.

The 34-year-old physician assistant is one of the nation's few practitioners of "street medicine," a tiny health care niche that advocates predict will become more mainstream as hospitals and health care systems seek to cut costs, in part by reducing emergency-room visits among the homeless.

In this Feb. 19, 2016, photo, medical assistant Lina Marin, from left, registered nurse Laura Lacroix, physician assistant Brett Feldman, military healthcare consultant Zach Laudenslager and community outreach specialist Bob Rapp walk to visit a homeless camp in Bethlehem, Pa. Street medicine got its start more than 30 years ago as an altruistic pursuit of individual doctors and nurses. In cities scattered around the country and the world, they left the office and headed outside to care for the chronically homeless, a population that is generally sicker and dies far younger than people with homes. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Feldman's fledgling program is showing promise. His employer, the Lehigh Valley Health Network, about an hour north of Philadelphia, has seen the number of repeat visitors to the ER plummet. Feldman delivers primary and preventive care to about 100 homeless patients per month, treating them wherever they happen to be.

"My job is to bring comfort to them, and healing when I can," says Feldman, wearing a backpack filled with medical supplies and bundled up against the bitter cold as he makes rounds in the sister cities of Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton.

Street medicine got its start more than 30 years ago as an altruistic pursuit of individual doctors and nurses. In cities scattered around the country and the world, they left the office and headed outside to care for the chronically homeless, a population that is generally sicker and dies far younger than people with homes.

Until recently, though, relatively few of the 60 street medicine programs that operate nationwide have been affiliated with a hospital or health system. As health networks face increasing pressure to rein in costs, that could change.

Homeless people use the emergency room more often than the general population, stay longer and are readmitted at higher rates  a triple financial blow that's inflicting "open wounds, bleeding wounds for hospitals," says Dr. Jim Withers, a street medicine pioneer who launched Pittsburgh Mercy's Operation Safety Net program in 1992.

Hospitals are "probably the most front line in terms of absorbing costs that a street medicine program would save them," says Withers, who co-founded the Street Medicine Institute in 2009. "I think it's inevitable, but it hasn't happened yet. ... I think in the long run, it's going to be more cost-effective to be humane."

Behind a shuttered Allentown nightclub, Feldman meets up with Todd Hottle, 53, an intermittently homeless farmhand who likely needs hernia surgery. Hottle tells Feldman he plans to leave the hospital immediately after the procedure  the quicker to return to his tent.

Feldman urges him to stay a few extra days to heal.

"Oh, man, I don't know. I really don't like that place," Hottle says, eliciting laughter from Feldman and his team. "I don't like being locked up, penned up."

Despite the good-natured grumbling, Hottle says he appreciates Feldman: "He comes around and he checks out everybody, makes sure everybody's all right, brings down supplies. It's a good deal."

It's a good deal for Feldman's employer, too. The street medicine program, which is funded by grant money including a $200,000 award from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, has reduced 30-day readmission rates to Lehigh Valley Hospital from 51 percent to 13 percent. Moreover, Feldman and his team have been able to raise the rate of insured homeless from 24 percent to 73 percent, meaning the hospital gets paid more often for the care it provides.

"It seems to be keeping those crises down so they won't have to come in to the hospital, where it'll cost us in multiple times more," says Dr. Brian Nester, the health network's president and chief executive officer.

Other health systems with street medicine programs report similar benefits.

Dr. Sheryl Fleisch started a street psychiatry program at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2013. Fleisch and three psychiatry residents conduct "street rounds" in Nashville, Tennessee, once a week, hiking to homeless camps and providing follow-up care to people who have been treated at the hospital for mental illness and substance abuse.

"I had an appointment at McDonald's yesterday," she says.

Fleisch conducted soon-to-be-published research that will show dramatic cost savings to the hospital from a decline in ER visits and readmissions, as well as a boost in the percentage of homeless with insurance. The program plans to expand to include a nurse practitioner, an internist and other medical personnel.

A street medicine program at Mount Carmel Health System in Columbus, Ohio, diverts hundreds of costly emergency visits each month, says spokeswoman Samantha Irons. A program at JPS Health Network in Fort Worth, Texas, in combination with other initiatives, is likewise driving down ER utilization, says physician assistant Joel Hunt.

"We have something to offer that can be instantaneous," Hunt says. "You can zero in pretty quick with the right approach and gain people's trust."

Feldman became interested in street medicine as a student volunteering at a Chicago clinic. A homeless patient told him, 'You know, I didn't always like to be like this. I used to be somebody. And I used to have steak every night for dinner.'"

The conversation lit a fire under him. "I didn't think that anybody should have to feel like that," Feldman says.

Street medicine, he says, represents the idea that "everybody matters."

After meeting with Hottle, Feldman hits several other homeless hotspots. At a shelter, he sees Bridgete Hammerstone, 40, a recovering crack addict who has endured long stretches of homelessness.

"Someone like Brett is a blessing to me," she says, "because he opens the door to allowing the light in for the first time in life, and it's real special."

In this Feb. 19, 2016, photo, physician assistant Brett Feldman walks through the parking lot of a shuttered club to meet with a homeless person that he sometimes provides cares for in Allentown, Pa. Feldman, 34, is one of the nations few practitioners of street medicine. Its a tiny health care niche that advocates predict will become more mainstream as hospitals and health care systems seek to cut costs, in part by reducing emergency-room visits among the homeless. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

In this Feb. 19, 2016, photo, physician assistant Brett Feldman, left, and community outreach specialist Bob Rapp look for a pathway down to visit a homeless camp under a bridge in Allentown, Pa. Far from the sterile confines of a doctors office or hospital, Feldman, looks for homeless people where theyre most likely to be found - in wooded encampments, under bridges, along riverbanks, at soup kitchens - and treats them for ailments ranging from diabetes to trench foot, mental illness to substance abuse. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

In this Feb. 19, 2016, photo, medical assistant Lina Marin, from left, registered nurse Laura Lacroix, physician assistant Brett Feldman and community outreach specialist Bob Rapp visit a homeless camp under a bridge in Allentown, Pa. Street medicine got its start more than 30 years ago as an altruistic pursuit of individual doctors and nurses. In cities scattered around the country and the world, they left the office and headed outside to care for the chronically homeless, a population that is generally sicker and dies far younger than people with homes. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

In this Feb. 19, 2016, photo, physician assistant Brett Feldman checks a vacant homeless camp under a bridge in Allentown, Pa. Far from the sterile confines of a doctors office or hospital, Feldman, looks for homeless people where theyre most likely to be found - in wooded encampments, under bridges, along riverbanks, at soup kitchens - and treats them for ailments ranging from diabetes to trench foot, mental illness to substance abuse. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

In this Feb. 19, 2016, photo, physician assistant Brett Feldman checks a vacant homeless camp under a bridge in Allentown, Pa. Far from the sterile confines of a doctors office or hospital, Feldman looks for homeless people where theyre most likely to be found - in wooded encampments, under bridges, along riverbanks, at soup kitchens - and treats them for ailments ranging from diabetes to trench foot, mental illness to substance abuse. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

In this Feb. 19, 2016, photo, military healthcare consultant Zach Laudenslager picks up a needle during a visit to a vacant homeless camp in Bethlehem, Pa. Laudenslager searched out campsites with physician assistant Brett Feldman to provide care for the homeless. Street medicine got its start more than 30 years ago as an altruistic pursuit of individual doctors and nurses. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

In this Feb. 19, 2016, photo, physician assistant Brett Feldman, searches a public library for a homeless person that he provides cares for in Bethlehem, Pa. My job is to bring comfort to them, and healing when I can, says Feldman, wearing a backpack filled with medical supplies and bundled up against the bitter cold as he makes rounds in the sister cities of Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

In this Feb. 19, 2016, photo, Bridgete Hammerstone, left, 40, a recovering crack addict who has endured long stretches of homelessness, pauses while talking with physician assistant Brett Feldman during a check-up at a shelter in Easton, Pa. Someone like Brett is a blessing to me, she says, because he opens the door to allowing the light in for the first time in life, and its real special. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

In this Feb. 19, 2016, photo, physician assistant Brett Feldman examines Bridgete Hammerstone, 40, a recovering crack addict who has endured long stretches of homelessness, during a check-up at a shelter in Easton, Pa. Someone like Brett is a blessing to me, she says, because he opens the door to allowing the light in for the first time in life, and its real special. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Indian cultural festival fined for building at Yamuna River

NEW DELHI (AP)  India's environmental watchdog fined a group headed by a Hindu spiritual leader 50 million rupees ($740,000) for building features that altered the topography and flow of a river in India's capital before a major cultural festival this weekend.

The National Green Tribunal ruled it would allow the Art of Living Foundation to hold the festival on payment of the fine, which the group's leader refused.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who founded his group in 1982, said he would challenge the tribunal's order in an appeals court. "We have done nothing wrong. I will go to jail but not pay the fine," he told reporters, adding that his group would clean the riverbanks and leave no debris after the festival.

The tribunal issued the verdict late Wednesday in response to petitions filed by environmentalists who say the roads, ramps and pontoon bridges could cause irreversible damage to the Yamuna floodplains.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the festival Friday, but the president's office said President Pranab Mukherjee would not attend the closing ceremony on Sunday. The festival is expected to be attended by millions and will showcase performances by thousands of musicians and dancers.

The Yamuna River is a small tributary of the Ganges that swells during monsoon rains. Hindus bathe in the river during religious festivals, but not many people swim there.

The water looks dark with a foul smell, and officials say it is tainted with sewage and industrial pollution. The river water is chemically treated before being supplied to Delhi's nearly 18 million residents as drinking water.
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP)  A man wanted by Idaho authorities in an attack that left a church pastor seriously wounded was able to board a commercial airliner in Boise, Idaho, and travel to Washington, D.C., this week despite an attempted murder warrant for his arrest.

Kyle Odom drove from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, after the shooting more than six hours to the airport in Boise, and departed Monday morning, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

The agency said it was not informed of law enforcement's interest in Odom until Monday evening.

Six-year-old Rafe Adams, front, prays with his mother Chelsey and sister Keira, 8, during a prayer vigil held for Coeur d'Alene pastor Tim Remington at Candlelight Christian Fellowship in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, Monday, March 7, 2016. Remington, 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. (Kathy Plonka/The Spokesman-Review via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

"TSA had not received a law enforcement bulletin to 'be on the lookout' for the suspect," the agency said in a press statement.

The TSA screens passengers against the government's Terrorist Watchlist, but there is no similar database for wanted criminals that would have automatically prevented Odom from boarding a plane.

Odom, 30, was arrested while allegedly throwing items onto the lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday evening.

He also apparently wrote a manifesto contending that Martians controlled the Earth, police said.

Odom appeared in District of Columbia Superior Court on Wednesday, wearing handcuffs and a chain connecting his ankles. He said only his name when asked. Public defender Ieshaah Murphy said Odom declined to waive an extradition hearing and be sent back to Idaho in the next few days.

He will be held in jail pending a hearing scheduled for April 6 in Washington, where the only issue is whether the Idaho warrant for attempted first-degree murder in his case is valid.

Meanwhile, Pastor Tim Remington, shot six times Sunday outside his church in Coeur d'Alene, about 30 miles east of Spokane, had regained consciousness and is talking with his family.

Coeur d'Alene Police Detective Jared Reneau said Odom had attended Remington's church a few times and apparently was the author of a manifesto that contended the pastor was a member of a Martian species that had taken over the Earth. Details were contained in electronic documents that Odom apparently mailed to his family and news media outlets this week.

Given Odom's state of mind, Reneau said, "we feel pretty fortunate something worse didn't happen."

After the Sunday afternoon shooting, Odom drove west toward Spokane, Washington, where law officers lost track of his movements. He boarded a flight at the Boise Airport, some 400 miles south of Spokane, on Monday morning.

A former Marine from Coeur d'Alene, Odom is suspected of shooting Remington a day after the pastor 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.

Odom graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in biochemistry. The manifesto said that his life started to deteriorate during his final semester and was now ruined.

"Ruined by an intelligent species of amphibian-humanoid from Mars," the manifesto said.

The document said Martians were here before humans, lived underground and operated a breeding program for humans.

"Don't believe me? Ask President Obama to take a lie detector test of this one," Odom said in his writing.

Odom contended the Martians were unable to control his mind but had been following him. He said he had attempted suicide twice, but they stopped him.

"As you can see, I'm pretty smart," the manifesto said. "I'm also 100% sane, 0% crazy."

The manifesto included the names of members of Congress, members of the Israeli government, Remington and John Padula, outreach pastor for The Altar Church, where Remington is the senior pastor.

"My last resort was to take actions that would bring this to the public's attention," the manifesto said.

Remington, 55, regained consciousness Monday night in a Coeur d'Alene hospital. The pastor, who is married and has four children, is expected to recover from his wounds.

___

Associated Press writer Jessica Gresko contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.

This undated photo provided by the Coeur d'Alene Police Department via the The Spokesman-Review shows Kyle Andrew Odom. 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. The Coeur d'Alene Police Department said it is looking for local resident Odom, 30, a decorated former Marine who should be considered armed and dangerous. (Coeur d'Alene Police Department via The Spokesman-Review via AP)

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)

Coeur d'Alene Police Chief Lee White speaks during a news conference Monday, March 7, 2016, with a photo of Kyle Andrew Odom in the background in 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. The Coeur d'Alene Police Department said it is looking for local resident Odom, 30, a decorated former Marine who should be considered armed and dangerous. (Kathy Plonka/The Spokesman-Review, via AP)
The Latest: French minister hails Merkel's refugee stance

BERLIN (AP)  The Latest on the continuing issues of mass migration to Europe (all times local).

9:35 p.m.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault says German chancellor Angela Merkel is "morally and politically correct" in supporting asylum for migrants who qualify.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a media conference at EU headquarters in Brussels on Thursday, March 10, 2016. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg visited EU headquarters on Thursday to discuss the current migration crisis.(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Ayrault said in an interview broadcast by iTele TV Thursday that "we must remain faithful to our principles and the right to asylum is a commitment that our democratic nations have signed and must be respected."

Ayrault, who was in Egypt, said nations must also have the "courage" to refuse to open their doors to economic migrants if the country in question cannot absorb them.

Asked about Merkel's welcome of migrants to Germany, the French minister said that "I think when she focuses on this principle of the right to asylum, she is morally and politically correct."

Worrying about the migrant flux is legitimate and efforts must focus on saving the borderless Schengen space.

___

6:30 p.m.

Greece says it has deported 81 economic migrants from Pakistan and north Africa back to Turkey.

A Greek police statement released Thursday reports that 61 Pakistanis, seven Algerians and 13 Moroccans were picked up by Turkish authorities at a border crossing. All had entered Greece illegally from Turkey.

The police statement says Turkey refused to take in another nine north Africans due to problems with their documentation, but did not provide further details.

About 132,000 people have reached Greece from Turkey this year, in flimsy smugglers' boats. Most were refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

___

5:55 p.m.

The NATO secretary-general says the alliance now has five warships deployed in the Aegean Sea as part of joint efforts with the European Union to stop the smuggling of migrants to Europe, with the focal point of operations a Greek island just five miles (nine kilometers) from Turkey.

"We have started to focus on the area around the Greek island of Lesbos," Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference Thursday. He added: "We are planning to move further south in the coming days and weeks."

NATO and the EU on Sunday agreed to step up cooperative efforts to shut down the human smugglers, with NATO sending vessels into Greek and Turkish territorial waters and coordinating its monitoring and intelligence-gathering actions with the EU's border agency Frontex.

"There are now five ships in the area," Stoltenberg told reporters after holding talks with EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. "There will be more ships in the coming days. And we also have helicopters on most of the ships, so we are increasing the presence of NATO vessels with modern equipment, advanced capabilities," to support EU efforts to end human trafficking in the Aegean.

___

4:50 p.m.

The German Embassy in Tirana says that 806 Albanians were repatriated from Germany last week after their asylum requests were rejected.

An embassy statement said Thursday that the number of Albanian deportations from Germany this year is about 3,400, part of a total of 55,000 who asked for asylum in 2015.

Last year, Albanians were the fourth-biggest group of asylum-seekers in Germany after Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis, in search of better living standards and jobs.

Other people from western Balkan nations like Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia and Macedonia also have sought asylum in Germany, but Berlin considers them to be safe countries where individuals are unlikely to face the kind of persecution that would warrant asylum.

___

4:35 p.m.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland has toured the overcrowded refugee camp at the Idomeni crossing on Greece's northern border with Macedonia.

Nuland met Thursday with local government officials and representatives of non-governmental organizations to discuss living conditions at the site.

About 14,000 people are camped in the mud at Idomeni, or housed in an overflowing official camp, hoping that Macedonia will allow them to continue their trek north to central Europe. Greek authorities have urged the refugees to move to other organized shelters in northern Greece, as there is no immediate prospect of the border reopening.

Nuland also visited the Macedonian side of the crossing, speaking to Macedonian officials and police personnel from Slovenia, Serbia and other countries helping Macedonia patrol its border.

___

4:15 p.m.

Athens municipal authorities are pledging to expand the Greek capital's refugee shelter capacity, while extra accommodation will be provided in a seaside children's summer camp.

About 10,000 refugees and migrants are living in shelters in and around Athens, most of which are operating at full capacity.

Mayor Giorgos Kaminis said Thursday that city authorities are providing an additional plot that will allow the expansion of the central Elaionas shelter, where about 700 migrants live in prefabricated houses.

Kaminis said municipal authorities "will not accept" the creation of informal camps in city parks, squares and streets, where migrants have camped in the past.

He also appealed for greater central government support, saying that securing humane living conditions for migrants must be balanced with maintaining standards for Athenians.

___

4 p.m.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has renewed her criticism of other European countries' moves to shut borders to migrants, which she says won't create a sustainable solution.

Austria's decision to impose a cap on refugee numbers set off a chain of border closures that shut the Balkan route used by migrants to trek to central Europe.

Merkel told MDR radio in an interview broadcast Thursday: "This unilateral decision by Austria and subsequently by the Balkan countries on one hand brings us fewer refugees, but on the other hand puts Greece in a very difficult situation. And this situation is not durable and sustainable."

She added: "the problem is not solved by one (country) making a decision; it must be a decision that is right for all 28."

___

3:50 p.m.

The European Union says 23 of its member countries must start taking 6,000 refugees each month from Greece and Italy to ease Europe's migrant burden.

EU nations committed in September to relocate 160,000 refugees from Greece and Italy over two years to ease their burden, but seven months on fewer than 900 people have actually been shared.

The scheme is key to managing the migrant influx, and the EU's top migration official, Dmitris Avramopoulos, said Thursday that "if relocation does not work then the whole system will collapse."

.

___

3:15 p.m.

Authorities in Macedonia say 472 people, mostly from Syria, remain stranded in no man's land on the border with Serbia for a third day as a dispute between the two countries continued over which side should provide shelter for them.

The United Nations refugee agency on Thursday said more than half of those stranded are children and described the conditions they are living under as "alarming," with migrants sleeping in small tents in a muddy field between two countries.

Austria and Balkan countries on the route from Greece to northern Europe began imposing border restrictions for migrants last month and halted crossings completely this week, following a meeting of leaders from the European Union and Turkey.

___

2:30 p.m.

The U.N. human rights chief is denouncing a growing "race to repel" migrants and refugees by some European governments, and says he plans to raise his concerns in Brussels before a European Union summit next week.

In his annual report to the Human Rights Council, Zeid Raad al-Hussein said a draft EU-Turkey agreement on handling the migration crisis announced this week raises serious concerns, including "the potential for collective and arbitrary expulsions" from the bloc.

Zeid used Thursday's broad-ranging speech to chronicle concerns on issues including some 300 reported police killings of African-Americans in the United States last year; "signals" that Russia wants to close the U.N. human rights office there; ongoing violence in Burundi, Syria, Libya, Yemen and South Sudan; and arrests of lawyers and activists in China.

___

2:15 p.m.

As the European Union tries to send thousands of migrants back to Turkey and close the Balkans route many use, concern is mounting that people desperate to find sanctuary or jobs in Europe are already using smugglers to find other paths in.

Albania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania are alternative tracks, government ministers and experts confirm, and Spain is in contact with Algeria and Morocco to try to stop new routes opening from there.

"We must not let our guard down. We have to be careful," Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz warned Thursday as he arrived for talks with his EU counterparts in Brussels.

___

2:00 p.m.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is warning that the cost of the refugee crisis could hurt Greek efforts to pull out of recession.

The Paris-based organization said in a report Thursday that the addition burden could pose risks for the "fragile state of the economic recovery."

The report said the preliminary cost is estimated at around 0.35 percent of gross domestic product in 2015. It added that the "foreseen contribution of the European Union turns out to be insufficient, it would result in added pressure on the Greek budget."

OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria was in Athens Thursday to meet Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

Gurria said the OECD expects the Greek economy to grow by 1.9 percent next year after years of recession and flat growth.

___

1:50 p.m.

Muddy conditions after three days of rain at a refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonian border have left many struggling to re-pitch their small camping tents in the deteriorating conditions.

Consequently, dozens of refugees were boarding buses Thursday to centers in Athens or taking taxis to nearby camps.

About 14,000 people are stranded at the camp at Idomeni, with some migrants digging trenches to try to drain away muddy pools scattered throughout the fields.

Thousands of people have pitched tents donated by aid agencies in nearby fields and among railway lines. The crossing into Macedonia has been shut since Monday morning, and European officials have said the western Balkan route along which tens of thousands of migrants and refugees had passed over the past year is now closed.

___

12:05 p.m.

Turkey's European Union affairs minister says a proposed deal with the EU on the return of refugees to Turkey will apply only to migrants who arrive in Greece after the agreement has come into effect.

Volkan Bozkir told the state-run Anadolu Agency on Thursday that the deal does not apply to migrants who are currently on the Greek islands.

The EU and Turkey have agreed on the outlines of a deal that would send thousands of irregular migrants back to Turkey. In return, the EU would take an equal number of Syrian refugees in Turkey. The deal could be finalized at an EU summit next week.

Bozkir said the number of migrants that Turkey will take back would be "thousands" rather than "hundreds of thousands or millions."

___

10:35 a.m.

Austria's interior minister says refugees stuck at Greece's border with Macedonia must understand that they have no chance of crossing. Johanna Mikl-Leitner told reporters in Brussels that "the most honest thing is to tell the refugees: it's impossible to get through the Balkan route anymore. The Balkan route is closed." She says: "The biggest problem is that these refugees still have hopes and expectations, and these hopes are being constantly fed."

Mikl-Leitner said it is important to warn that the Balkan migrant route into Europe is closed because, she says, "that way you do not feed any hopes and expectations."

In recent months hundreds of thousands of people have traveled the route north from Greece hoping to settle in places like Germany or Scandinavia.

___

10:05 a.m.

Authorities in northern Greece say some 70 children living at a camp on the Greek-Macedonian border have received hospital treatment over the past three days, for fever and diarrhea.

Some 14,000 people are camped out near the border town of Idomeni, many in small tents normally used by summer vacationers. Torrential rain has added to the desperate conditions at the site, with tents sinking in mud and soaked firewood making it impossible to start camp fires.

Government health experts at the camp say there is no sign yet of an infectious disease outbreak, but have been urging refugees at Idomeni to move to nearby army-built shelters.

At the nation's main port of Piraeus, near Athens, authorities began transporting hundreds of migrants and refugees to shelters in central Greece to try to ease overcrowding there.

The government says nearly 42,000 people are stranded in Greece following border restrictions and closures by Austria and several Balkan countries that started last month.

___

8:30 a.m.

Turkey's state-run agency says five migrants, including a 3-month-old baby, drowned when a speed boat taking them to Greece sank. The Anadolu Agency says the boat went down early on Thursday off Turkey's western coast, on its way to the Greek island of Lesbos.

The agency said nine people were rescued from the boat that was carrying Afghan and Iranian migrants.

US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland, second right, visits the Greek border camp near Idomeni, Thursday, March 10, 2016. Northbound borders are closed and authorities plan to distribute fliers telling refugees seeking to reach central Europe that ?there is no hope of you continuing north, therefore come to the camps where we can provide assistance? as more than 36,000 transient migrants are thought to be stuck in financially struggling Greece. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

Refugees and migrants sit outside their tents at the Athens' port of Piraeus on Thursday, March 10, 2016. Authorities began transporting hundreds of migrants and refugees from Piraeus port to shelters in central Greece to try and ease overcrowding there. The government says nearly 42,000 people are stranded in Greece following border restrictions and closures by Austria and several Balkan countries that started last month. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Migrants queue for food portions at the Greek border camp near Idomeni, Thursday, March 10, 2016. After nearly three days of rain, conditions in the refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonian where about 14,000 people are stranded have deteriorated significantly, with many of its residents struggling to re-pitch their small camping tents in slightly drier patches. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

A Syrian refugee walks in the rain among tents in an improvised camp on the border line between Macedonia and Serbia near the northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, Thursday, March 10, 2016. Around 1.500 migrants and refugees are stranded at Tabanovce transit center for refugees in northern Macedonia. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

A migrant carries a mattress at the Greek border camp near Idomeni, Thursday, March 10, 2016. Northbound borders are closed and authorities plan to distribute fliers telling refugees seeking to reach central Europe that there is no hope of you continuing north, therefore come to the camps where we can provide assistance as more than 36,000 transient migrants are thought to be stuck in financially struggling Greece. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

Syrian refugees stand in the rain between tents covered with thermal blankets and waterproofs in an improvised camp on the border line between Macedonia and Serbia near the northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, Thursday, March 10, 2016. Around 1.500 migrants and refugees are stranded at Tabanovce transit center for refugees in northern Macedonia. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei stands between tents while visiting the Greek border camp near Idomeni, Wednesday, March 9, 2016. Ai Weiwei has visited the Idomeni refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonian border, where about 14,000 people, mostly Syrian and Iraqi refugees, have found themselves stranded after Macedonia shut its border. The artist has been focusing on the plight of refugees in recent months, and had spent time living on the Greek island of Lesbos, where many of the refugees arrive from the nearby Turkish coast. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei wipes water from his face during a rainfall while visiting the Greek border camp near Idomeni, Wednesday, March 9, 2016. Ai Weiwei has visited the Idomeni refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonian border, where about 14,000 people, mostly Syrian and Iraqi refugees, have found themselves stranded after Macedonia shut its border. The artist has been focusing on the plight of refugees in recent months, and had spent time living on the Greek island of Lesbos, where many of the refugees arrive from the nearby Turkish coast. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

A migrant watches as others wait in line for hot soup rations during a heavy rain at the northern Greek border station of Idomeni, Wednesday, March 9, 2016. Despair and confusion spread through the camp at the Greek-Macedonian border as thousands of stranded refugees were forced to acknowledge that the route through Europe that had carried their hopes and dreams was now shut.(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

A child waits along with adults for hot soup rations, during heavy rain at the northern Greek border station of Idomeni, Wednesday, March 9, 2016. Despair and confusion spread through the camp at the Greek-Macedonian border as thousands of stranded refugees were forced to acknowledge that the route through Europe that had carried their hopes and dreams was now shut.(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
US panel weighs changes to program for aging, ailing inmates

WASHINGTON (AP)  Iowa businessman Clarence Rice had been imprisoned for wire fraud for a matter of months when he was diagnosed with bile duct cancer. The prognosis was grim: He would have just a few more months to live.

His one hope for freedom was a federal program that permits the early release of certain aging and ailing prisoners. But a warden rejected his request on grounds that he had served only a fraction of his sentence. Rice died in January 2013 at the age of 64, less than two years after convictions for fraud that officials say caused millions of dollars in losses  and just weeks after his bid for release was turned down.

"It was such a painful experience  so painful and difficult," recalled his daughter, Allison Rice, still shaken by the memories of her father's gaunt and jaundiced face and her final visit with him.

In this Feb. 26, 2016, photo, Allison Rice, whose father was a white-collar criminal and died in prison of cancer without being granted compassionate release, poses for a photo in her apartment in Washington. The federal panel that sets sentencing policy is weighing changes to a program that permits an early prison release for certain elderly and sick inmates. The Sentencing Commission held a hearing last month about the Bureau of Prisons compassionate release program, and is expected to take up the issue again next week. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)

Now, the U.S. Sentencing Commission, the independent panel that sets sentencing policy, is weighing changes to the Bureau of Prisons' compassionate release program that can free prisoners for "extraordinary and compelling" reasons.

The issue is important, since prison officials have described prisoners 50 and older as their fastest-growing demographic, up by 25 percent between fiscal years 2009 and 2013. Yet even though studies show that the elderly are far less likely to re-offend after release, prison officials have for years struggled to define who should and should not be considered. The result: Inmates have sometimes died behind bars even after they've been found to meet the criteria for release.

"There are people who are currently in prison who ought to see a reduction in sentence because circumstances have changed that make their continued incarceration inhumane and unnecessary," Mary Price, general counsel of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, an advocacy group, said.

Advocates who want to open consideration to a broader swath of inmates hope the review process can bring long-absent clarity and consistency to the program.

The Justice Department, which already reworked the eligibility requirements in 2013, has created a working group to examine additional changes to current policy. But department officials have also urged caution. Changing the eligibility requirements dramatically could have unintended consequences, such as forcing the prison system to release fraudster Bernie Madoff or spies Robert Hanssen and Aldrich Ames, they warn.

More than a third of inmates 50 and older have serious criminal histories, and relatively few are seriously ill, federal officials say. The government estimates that about 97 percent of their older inmates are healthy and can care for themselves, and less than 1 percent requires the highest level of medical care.

"Simply put, the bureau does not house a large percentage of inmates with significant medical concerns or disabilities," the department said in a filing. "Many of those individuals are neither terminal nor debilitated, but rather are undergoing treatment for conditions from which they will recover."

Under the process, judges can order a sentencing reduction based on a request from the Bureau of Prisons for "extraordinary and compelling" reasons.

Broadly speaking, the privilege is intended for inmates with terminal illnesses as well as elderly inmates who have served a significant portion of their sentences. Officials take into account factors including criminal history, the nature of the crime, the inmate's age and the length of time served.

But the program has been called a bureaucratic mess by the Justice Department's inspector general. In a 2013 report the IG said the prison system lacked clear and consistent standards and recommended better training and updated national policies. It identified 28 of 208 cases in which inmates had been recommended for release by a warden or regional director, but died before a final decision could be made by the Bureau of Prisons director.

The Justice Department subsequently revised eligibility requirements to expand consideration for inmates 65 and older for both medical and nonmedical reasons, including those suffering from chronic illnesses who have already served at least half their sentences. Even so, the IG said last year that some of the new provisions were vague and unclear.

In total last year, the federal prisons director approved 99 requests and denied 117, according to Justice Department data.

The Sentencing Commission, which has asked for public feedback about whether to change the criteria, held a hearing last month and plans another next week. FAMM, the advocacy group, is asking the commission to consider making inmates 50 and older who have served at least half their sentences eligible for release.

It's obviously too late for any policy change to benefit Rice, but his daughter, Allison, hopes other family members can avoid what she went through.

She still weeps at the memory of saying goodbye to her father for what would be the last time in a crowded and sterile visitation room, surrounded by other prisoners and their loved ones. And she remains dismayed by the terse rejection letters her family received from the prison just weeks before he died.

"You're asking them for a favor, you're asking them to let your dad out," Allison Rice said. "You try to be on your best behavior and do everything they want you to do."

But then "you get denied and you think, 'That doesn't make any sense'," she said.

____

Follow Eric Tucker at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP

In this Feb. 26, 2016, photo, Allison Rice, whose father was a white-collar criminal and died in prison of cancer without being granted compassionate release, holds her father's watch which was given to her after his death, in her apartment in Washington. The federal panel that sets sentencing policy is weighing changes to a program that permits an early prison release for certain elderly and sick inmates. The Sentencing Commission held a hearing last month about the Bureau of Prisons compassionate release program, and is expected to take up the issue again next week. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)
MOSCOW (AP)  A Swedish reporter who was among a group of journalists and activists attacked by masked assailants near Chechnya said Thursday that the assailants accused them of being terrorists who were "killing our people."

Maria Persson Lofgren, a Norwegian reporter and four Russian journalists were in a minibus with two activists from Russia's Committee to Prevent Torture on Wednesday evening when men in several cars forced them off the road, ordered the bus occupants and driver out, beat them and set the vehicle afire.

Lofgren, who works for Swedish Radio, told the broadcaster that she was beaten, and needed 10 stitches in her thigh after she was thrown onto an iron beam by the roadside. She was also heavily bruised on her arms and legs.

A small bus on fire which was carrying foreign and Russian journalists, and activists from a non-governmental organization, is seen after been attacked near the border of Chechnya by men in Ingushetia, South Russia, Wednesday, March 9, 2016. A group of men attacked the small bus, beating the journalists and activists inside and set the vehicle on fire. Two of the journalists and the bus driver have been hospitalized. (Russian media organization Mediazona via AP)

The attack took place in Ingushetia, near the border with Chechnya. The group was heading for the Chechen capital, Grozny.

Chechnya is under the control of strongman president Ramzan Kadyrov, who is intolerant of dissent and heads a private security force that critics accuse of brutality.

The Committee to Protect Journalists on Thursday blamed Russian authorities' inattention to anti-media hostility in Chechnya as enabling the attack.

Committee to Prevent Torture member Oleg Khabibrakhmanov said there have been two other attacks on their organization recently.

"The attack follows a burst of menacing comments on social media and in the press ... by government officials in Chechnya," a CPJ statement said. The assault "was enabled by the government's inaction in the face of overt hostility to the press."

"I thought it was some kind of accident, but then a number of young men with masks jumped out with sticks, with which they broke the windows and started beating the Chechen driver of the bus," Lofgren said.

They yelled 'You aren't human rights activists. You are terrorists. You are killing our people," she said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday that the attack "is absolutely outrageous, absolute hooliganism ... and this is totally unacceptable."

___
MINAMISANRIKU, Japan (AP)  A lone tree. An elementary school where more than 70 students and teachers perished. A small hill that punctuates the otherwise flat landscape.

They are legacies that still stand in northern Japan's coastal towns, five years after the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 18,000 people. Each has its own story.

The single pine tree remained upright from a stand of thousands washed away along the coast in Rikuzentakata. Though it later died, it has been restored with artificial materials and put back where it was found as a symbol of hope and survival.

In this Sunday, March 6, 2016 photo, visitors pray in front of the skeleton of the tsunami damaged disaster prevention headquarters, where 43 workers died as the tsunami washed over it, in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan. The three-story building, that sticks up amid ongoing work around it to raise the ground level of the city, is one of legacies that still stand in northern Japans coastal towns, five years after the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 18,000 people. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

The future of several buildings is more contentious. Some people want them preserved as memorials of the tragedy. Others want them destroyed to erase the memory.

The two-story Okawa Primary School, where so many died, once echoed with the laughter of students. The only sounds today are heavy trucks carrying soil or construction materials to rebuild this area along a river in Ishinomaki.

The skeleton of the three-story disaster prevention headquarters in Minamisanriku, where 43 workers died as the tsunami washed over it, sticks up amid ongoing work around it to raise the ground level of the city.

Mayor Jin Sato, who survived by clinging to a railing on the disaster center's rooftop as waves washed over it, said recently that citizens are being given 15 more years to decide the building's fate. He noted it wasn't until about 20 years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima that that city officially decided to preserve the building known as the Atomic Bomb Dome.

The 6-meter (20-foot) artificial hill in Natori, built so fishermen in olden days could check the seas to see if it was safe to fish, now looks over a vast emptiness. A small but steady stream of visitors climbs "Weather Hill" to pay respects at a small memorial for about 1,000 residents killed by the tsunami.

Raising the ground may save lives in the future, but the scars of the past never heal easily.

___

Associated Press writer Ken Moritsugu in Tokyo contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP photographers and photo editors on Twitter: http://apne.ws/15Oo6jo

In this Monday, March 7, 2016 photo, the skeleton of the disaster prevention headquarters building, center, where 43 workers died as the March 11, 2011 tsunami washed over it, sticks up amid ongoing work around it to raise the ground level of the city, in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture. The three-story building is one of legacies that still stand in northern Japans coastal towns, five years after the earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 18,000 people. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

In this Sunday, March 6, 2016 photo, visitors walk near the skeleton of the disaster prevention headquarters building, where 43 workers died as the March 11, 2011 tsunami washed over it, in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture. The three-story building, that sticks up amid ongoing work around it to raise the ground level of the city, is one of legacies that still stand in northern Japans coastal towns, five years after the earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 18,000 people. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

In this Tuesday, March 8, 2016 photo, the lone pine tree that miraculously survived the deadly March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami is seen through the construction safety net in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, northeastern Japan. The single pine tree remained upright from a stand of thousands washed away along the coast. Though it later died, it has been restored with artificial materials and put back where it was found as a symbol of hope and survival. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

In this Sunday, March 6, 2016 photo, visitors walk to see the lone pine tree that miraculously survived the deadly March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, northeastern Japan. The single pine tree remained upright from a stand of thousands washed away along the coast. Though it later died, it has been restored with artificial materials and put back where it was found as a symbol of hope and survival. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

In this Monday, March 7, 2016 photo, the ruin of a residential building damaged by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami still stands near the sign of a tsunami inundation section in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture. The five-story building is one of legacies that still stand in northern Japans coastal towns, five years after the disaster that killed more than 18,000 people. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

In this Wednesday, March 9, 2016 photo, a monk offers prayers in front of the main entrance of Okawa Primary School where more than 70 students and teachers went missing after the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture. The school is one of legacies that still stand in northern Japans coastal towns, five years after the disaster that killed more than 18,000 people. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

In this Wednesday, March 9, 2016 photo, a monk offers prayers in front of the main entrance of Okawa Primary School where more than 70 students and teachers went missing after the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami as a truck for reconstruction work dives past in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture. The school is one of legacies that still stand in northern Japans coastal towns, five years after the disaster that killed more than 18,000 people. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

In this Saturday, March 5, 2016 photo, a woman prays for tsunami victims at a makeshift shrine in a neighborhood devastated by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami on top of Hiyoriyama in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan. The 6-meter (20-foot) artificial hill, built so fishermen in olden days could check the seas to see if it was safe to fish, now looks over a vast emptiness. A small but steady stream of visitors climbs Weather Hill to pay respects at a small memorial for about 1,000 residents killed by the tsunami. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
South African woman found guilty of 1997 baby kidnapping

JOHANNESBURG (AP)  A judge in South Africa found a woman guilty Thursday of kidnapping a newborn nearly two decades ago from a hospital and raising the girl as her own, just a short distance from where her devastated real parents were living.

Zephany Nurse, now 18, was reunited last year with her biological parents, Morne and Celeste Nurse, after the couple's second daughter befriended a girl at school who looked remarkably like her. After a police investigation and DNA tests, it turned out they were sisters and that the new friend was the Nurse's missing child.

Publicly, the girl is known by the name given to her by her biological parents and used in the media in the years since her disappearance. After she was found, the girl chose to continue using the name given to her by the kidnapper. To protect her privacy, a judge ordered that her adopted name and the name of her kidnapper not be used by the media.

Celeste Nurse, the mother of a child kidnapped in 1997, leaves a court, in Cape Town, South Africa, Thursday, March. 10, 2016. A judge in South Africa has found a woman guilty of kidnapping a baby nearly two decades ago and raising it as her own. The African News Agency reported that Judge John Hlophe in Cape Town convicted the woman of kidnapping, fraud and contravening child protection laws. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

The biological parents sobbed as the judge read the verdict, South African media reported.

Judge John Hlophe in Cape Town convicted the woman of kidnapping, fraud and contravening child protection laws, said Eric Ntabazalila, spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority. The judge revoked bail and the woman will be detained until her May 30 sentencing, he said.

Hlophe mentioned in court that the woman could be looking at a 10-year prison sentence, said Ntabazalila.

State prosecutors said the woman snatched a three-day-old baby from her sleeping mother's hospital bedside in Cape Town in April 1997. The prosecution also said the woman defrauded authorities when she registered the child as her own daughter in 2003 under a false birthdate.

"She is getting back the tears and the suffering over the 18 years (that) we went through," said Adam Nurse, the girl's biological grandfather.

Celeste Nurse told journalists outside the court: "I want to thank all you guys for supporting us through this trial. Building my relationship with my daughter is all that matters."

The girl was not in court and is taking final exams to graduate from high school.

The much publicized reunion between the girl and her real parents has been tense, with South African media reporting infighting among the Nurse family. The girl, struggling to adjust to her newfound family, has pleaded for her privacy, and in a statement appeared to give the woman who raised her the benefit of doubt.

"Don't you think for once that that is my mother? Whether it is true or not is not for you to toy with," she wrote, addressing journalists. "Take all the professionalism away and think how it would be if this was you and your family, and your reputation gets swept through the disgusting gutters of filth."

After her arrest, the court ruled that the kidnapper could not make contact with the girl.

Television images showed the man who raised the girl as his own weeping outside the courtroom. The defendant testified that her husband never knew that the child was not his.

The defendant, 51, had pleaded not guilty to all three charges. During the trial she testified that she adopted the child.

"I didn't know the baby was stolen," the woman testified, according to the African News Agency.

---

Follow Lynsey Chutel on Twitter at www.twitter.com/lynseychutel.

Celeste Nurse, the mother of a child abducted in 1997, leaves a court, in Cape Town, South Africa, Thursday, March. 10, 2016. A judge in South Africa has found a woman guilty of kidnapping a baby nearly two decades ago and raising it as her own. The African News Agency reported that Judge John Hlophe in Cape Town convicted the woman of kidnapping, fraud and contravening child protection laws. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

Morne Nurse, centre, the father of a child kidnapped in 1997, leaves a court, in Cape Town, South Africa, Thursday, March. 10, 2016. A judge in South Africa has found a woman guilty of kidnapping a baby nearly two decades ago and raising it as her own. The African News Agency reported that Judge John Hlophe in Cape Town convicted the woman of kidnapping, fraud and contravening child protection laws. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

Celeste Nurse,centre left, the mother of a child abducted in 1997, leaves a court with families and friends, in Cape Town, South Africa, Thursday, March. 10, 2016. A judge in South Africa has found a woman guilty of kidnapping a baby nearly two decades ago and raising it as her own. The African News Agency reported that Judge John Hlophe in Cape Town convicted the woman of kidnapping, fraud and contravening child protection laws. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

Morne Nurse, centre, the father of a child kidnapped in 1997, arrives at a court, in Cape Town, South Africa, Thursday, March 10, 2016. A judge in South Africa has found a woman guilty of kidnapping a baby nearly two decades ago and raising it as her own. The African News Agency reported that Judge John Hlophe in Cape Town convicted the woman of kidnapping, fraud and contravening child protection laws. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

Morne Nurse, centre, the father of a child kidnapped in 1997, leaves a court, in Cape Town, South Africa, Thursday, March. 10, 2016. A judge in South Africa has found a woman guilty of kidnapping a baby nearly two decades ago and raising it as her own. The African News Agency reported that Judge John Hlophe in Cape Town convicted the woman of kidnapping, fraud and contravening child protection laws. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)
22-member Arab League picks Egyptian chief at critical time

CAIRO (AP)  The Arab League's 22 members picked a veteran Egyptian diplomat to head the body in a late-night session on Thursday. Ahmed Aboul-Gheit was the only contender for the post.

The appointment came at a critical time for the Middle East, with Syria marking the fifth anniversary of its devastating civil war, regional proxy wars between Saudi Arabia and Iran on full display, and the battle against the Islamic State group raging in several Arab countries.

Egypt's Aboul-Gheit, a former ambassador to the United Nations and veteran diplomat under autocrat Hosni Mubarak, had been widely expected to win approval from the league members. It is a long-held protocol that Egypt, as host of the Arab League, traditionally nominates the chief. The league has been almost exclusively led by Egyptians.

FILE - In this Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010 file photo, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit speaks during a joint press conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The Arab League's 22 members are voting to elect the organization's new chief, with a veteran Egyptian diplomat the only contender for the post. Aboul-Gheit, a former ambassador to the United Nations and veteran diplomat under autocrat Hosni Mubarak, is the only nominee for the post and is widely expected to win approval from the league members. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed, File )

Bahrain's Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa announced the decision after some last-minute wrangling over the appointment, saying Aboul-Gheit would "serve a five-year term effective July 1" as secretary-general.

Diplomats said earlier that Qatar and Sudan had opposed the choice of Aboul-Gheit, with Egypt and Saudi Arabia lobbying them to accept the choice. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to brief journalists.

The secretary-general can be elected by obtaining a minimum two-thirds majority of member states, but the group prefers to have unanimous agreement.

Divisions have weakened the Arab League since the 2011 uprisings that toppled three longtime autocratic rulers but also sparked three civil wars.

But despite its waning influence, a strong leadership might help shore up a Saudi-led Sunni front against Iran at a time of ongoing military involvement by the Saudis and other Gulf Arab countries in Yemen and Syria.

Past league chairmen have included pan-Arab nationalists such as Amr Moussa and the outgoing head, Nabil Elaraby. Aboul-Gheit appears to mark a shift as he is known to be a pragmatic diplomat with strong enmity for political Islam factions like the Muslim Brotherhood, the parent organization of Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.

Aboul-Gheit was the last foreign minister under Mubarak, who was toppled in Egypt's 2011 uprising. He was replaced after Mubarak's ouster and kept a low profile while many of Mubarak loyalists were sent to courts for trials in corruption-linked cases.

FILE - In this file Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010 photo, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit speaks during his meeting with Hungarian Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi, not seen, in the building of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry in Budapest, Hungary. The Arab League's 22 members are voting to elect the organization's new chief, with a veteran Egyptian diplomat the only contender for the post. Aboul-Gheit, a former ambassador to the United Nations and veteran diplomat under autocrat Hosni Mubarak, is the only nominee for the post and is widely expected to win approval from the league members. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky, File)

FILE - In this Sunday, Dec. 26, 2010 file photo, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, speaks during a press conference next to his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari, in Baghdad, Iraq. The Arab League's 22 members are voting to elect the organization's new chief, with a veteran Egyptian diplomat the only contender for the post. Aboul-Gheit, a former ambassador to the United Nations and veteran diplomat under autocrat Hosni Mubarak, is the only nominee for the post and is widely expected to win approval from the league members. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim, File)
Ukrainian pilot on hunger strike agrees to take water

MOSCOW (AP)  A Ukrainian pilot on trial in Russia has agreed to take water but will continue a hunger strike following an appeal by Ukraine's president.

Nadezhda Savchenko, who served in a volunteer battalion against Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine and is accused of involvement in the deaths of two Russian journalists there, went on hunger strike and refused to take water after a court hearing last Thursday. Rights advocates feared she could die if she kept refusing water.

Mark Feygin, a lawyer for Savchenko, on Thursday posted her letter saying that she will take water but continue the hunger strike.

Ukrainian jailed military officer Nadezhda Savchenko sits in a glass cage during a trial in the town of Donetsk, Rostov-on-Don region, Russia on Wednesday, March 9, 2016. A Russian court will issue a verdict on March 21-22 in the controversial case against jailed Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko over the deaths of two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine, the judge said on Wednesday. (AP Photo)

"I will do all I can in order to save myself for the fight ahead and victories for Ukraine and for the truth," she was quoted as saying.

Feygin on Wednesday posted a letter he said was signed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, pledging to do "all it takes" to bring Savchenko home and saying he was ready to offer Savchenko a government job. However, Poroshenko's press office on Thursday said that the president had not sent the letter, and Feygin acknowledged it was a hoax.

Savchenko was captured by the separatists in July 2014 and later surfaced in custody in Russia. She says the separatists handed her over to the Russians, who took her across the border. Moscow claims that Savchenko escaped from the rebels and crossed the border on her own before she was arrested.

Top officials in Ukraine and elsewhere have been advocating for Savchenko's release and have called her a prisoner of war.

Russian officials have refused to discuss the possibility of a prisoner exchange while Savchenko is waiting for a verdict, expected at the end of March.

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, on Thursday told reporters that the Kremlin "made a note" of Poroshenko's reported statement as well as Savchenko's decision to take water but he refused to comment further.

___

This story has been corrected to change the date of the start of the hunger strike from Friday to Thursday.

People hold pictures of Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko during a rally outside the Russian Embassy in Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 9 2016. A Russian judge set a date of March 21-22 for issuing the verdict in the case against jailed Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, who is accused of involvement in the deaths of two Russian journalists during the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The judge said Wednesday, March 9, 2016, the reading of the verdict would begin March 21 and take two days. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)
ANKARA, Turkey (AP)  A Syrian journalist has escaped an assault in Turkey, months after his journalist brother and a colleague were killed in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. It was the latest in a spate of attacks against Syrian journalists in Turkey.

Ahmed Abdelqader, director of the website Eye on the Homeland, was ambushed by two men outside his building in Sanliurfa city but escaped with minor injuries, the CPJ said late Wednesday. The assailants fled the scene.

Abdelqader did not immediately respond to request for comment. But he told The Associated Press in an interview in December that he had been receiving death threats from IS since the murder of his brother, Ibrahim Abdelqader, and of Fares Hamadi in Sanliurfa in October.

The pair are believed to have been killed by a secret operative from the IS group who befriended them before the attack. They were working for the media collective called Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, a reference to the Syrian city of Raqqa that has become synonymous with IS and its efforts to build a caliphate.

IS has also claimed responsibility for killing another Syrian journalist, Naji al-Jarf, who was shot in the street in the southern city of Gaziantep in January.

"We condemn the attack on Ahmed Abdelqader and call on Turkish authorities to swiftly find his assailants and bring them to justice," CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. "Turkey must focus on solving the murders of Ibrahim Abdelqader, Fares Hamadi and Naji al-Jarf, who had come to the country seeking protection, and ensure the safety of all Syrian journalists working there."
VIENNA (AP)  Ignoring warnings that their hopes for quick access to a better life in Europe were in vain, migrants gathered on Turkish beaches and piled into boats Thursday for the risky crossing to Greece. Five, including an infant, drowned in the attempt.

Those who did reach Greece faced an uncertain future. Already tens of thousands are stranded in the country, with many camped in muddy fields with only sporadic access to humanitarian aid. And with the Greek-Macedonian border closed they have no hope, at least for now, to embark on the so-called West Balkan route northward which had been the path for those wanting to resettle in the EU's more prosperous nations.

As EU interior ministers met in Brussels on the crisis, Austria urged migrants to give up hope of moving on. "The Balkan route is closed," Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner told reporters. "The biggest problem is that these refugees still have hopes and expectations, and these hopes are being constantly fed."

A Syrian refugee walks in the rain among tents in an improvised camp on the border line between Macedonia and Serbia near the northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, Thursday, March 10, 2016. Around 1.500 migrants and refugees are stranded at Tabanovce transit center for refugees in northern Macedonia. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

More than 1 million migrants have come to Europe in the past year, most of them to Greece by boats from Turkey, where millions fleeing war, persecution or abysmal poverty have gathered. Once bused to the Greek mainland from their island arrival points, most headed to the border with Macedonia, and then onward to Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, the entry point to Austria and other prosperous EU nations.

Passage through those countries began being restricted last month. On Monday, countries along the Balkan route decided to allow through only people with valid EU visas.

Nearly 42,000 people are now stranded in Greece, including some 14,000 people camped out near the crossing, many in pup tents. Torrential rain has added to the desperate conditions at the site, with tents sinking in mud and soaked firewood making it impossible to start camp fires.

Government health experts at the camp say there is no sign yet of an infectious disease outbreak, but have been urging refugees at Idomeni to move to nearby army-built shelters. Authorities say some 70 children at the camp have received hospital treatment over the past three days for fever and diarrhea.

EU and Turkish leaders agreed at a summit Monday to the broad outlines of a deal that would see migrants 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 discourage people from setting set out on dangerous sea journeys, often arranged by unscrupulous smugglers.

In the latest deaths, Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said five migrants, including a 3-month-old baby, drowned when their speedboat sank Thursday off Turkey's western coast, on its way to the Greek island of Lesbos.

The agency said nine people were rescued from the boat carrying Afghan and Iranian migrants.

___

Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Derek Gatopoulus in Athens, Lorne Cook in Brussels and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

A Syrian refugee woman with a child walks in the rain among tents in an improvised camp on the border line between Macedonia and Serbia near the northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, Thursday, March 10, 2016. Around 1.500 migrants and refugees are stranded at Tabanovce transit center for refugees in northern Macedonia. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

A Syrian refugee woman with a child walks in the rain through mud and garbage in an improvised camp on the border line between Macedonia and Serbia near the northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, Thursday, March 10, 2016. Around 1.500 migrants and refugees are stranded at Tabanovce transit center for refugees in northern Macedonia. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

Switzerland's Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga, right, shakes hands with Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri, left, during a meeting of EU justice ministers at the EU Council building in Brussels on Thursday, March 10, 2016. Austrias interior minister on Thursday said refugees stuck at Greeces border with Macedonia blocked from moving further into Europe must understand that they have no chance of crossing. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner, right, speaks with hungarian Interior Minister Sandor Pinter, center, through an unidentified interpreter, left, during a meeting of EU justice and interior ministers at the EU Council building in Brussels on Thursday, March 10, 2016. Austrias interior minister on Thursday said refugees stuck at Greeces border with Macedonia blocked from moving further into Europe must understand that they have no chance of crossing. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

European Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos, left, speaks with Portuguese Interior Minister Constanca Urbano de Souza, center, and Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz, right, during a meeting of EU justice and interior ministers at the EU Council building in Brussels on Thursday, March 10, 2016. Austrias interior minister on Thursday said refugees stuck at Greeces border with Macedonia blocked from moving further into Europe must understand that they have no chance of crossing. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

European Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos, left, speaks with Norway's Migration Minister Sylvi Listhaug, center, and Switzerland's Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga, right, during a meeting of EU justice ministers at the EU Council building in Brussels on Thursday, March 10, 2016. Austrias interior minister on Thursday said refugees stuck at Greeces border with Macedonia blocked from moving further into Europe must understand that they have no chance of crossing. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

European Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos, left, is greeted by German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere during a meeting of EU justice and interior ministers at the EU Council building in Brussels on Thursday, March 10, 2016. Austrias interior minister on Thursday said refugees stuck at Greeces border with Macedonia blocked from moving further into Europe must understand that they have no chance of crossing. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner, left, speaks with hungarian Interior Minister Sandor Pinter, center, through an unidentified interpreter, right, during a meeting of EU justice and interior ministers at the EU Council building in Brussels on Thursday, March 10, 2016. Austrias interior minister on Thursday said refugees stuck at Greeces border with Macedonia blocked from moving further into Europe must understand that they have no chance of crossing. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

European Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos, left center, speaks with hungarian Interior Minister Sandor Pinter, center right, during a meeting of EU justice ministers at the EU Council building in Brussels on Thursday, March 10, 2016. Austrias interior minister on Thursday said refugees stuck at Greeces border with Macedonia blocked from moving further into Europe must understand that they have no chance of crossing. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, left, speaks with Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, right, during a meeting of EU justice ministers at the EU Council building in Brussels on Thursday, March 10, 2016. Austrias interior minister on Thursday said refugees stuck at Greeces border with Macedonia blocked from moving further into Europe must understand that they have no chance of crossing. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

European Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos, left, speaks with Portuguese Interior Minister Constanca Urbano de Souza, right, during a meeting of EU justice and interior ministers at the EU Council building in Brussels on Thursday, March 10, 2016. Austrias interior minister on Thursday said refugees stuck at Greeces border with Macedonia blocked from moving further into Europe must understand that they have no chance of crossing. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

European Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos, left, speaks with Norway's Migration Minister Sylvi Listhaug during a meeting of EU justice ministers at the EU Council building in Brussels on Thursday, March 10, 2016. Austrias interior minister on Thursday said refugees stuck at Greeces border with Macedonia blocked from moving further into Europe must understand that they have no chance of crossing. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
JOHANNESBURG (AP)  A lawyer for a hitman who killed South African anti-apartheid leader Chris Hani in 1993 says the killer will be released on parole this month.

Lawyer Julian Knight said Thursday that a court ordered parole for Polish immigrant Janusz Walus after legal appeal against the justice ministry's refusal to grant parole.

Walus was sentenced to life in prison for shooting Hani. Clive Derby-Lewis, a conspirator who also got a life sentence, was released on medical parole last year after more than two decades in prison.
WILKINSBURG, Pa. (AP)  Police were searching early Thursday for at least two gunmen who opened fire during a backyard party in suburban Pittsburgh, killing five people and wounding three others.

Four women and a man were killed late Wednesday during the party in Wilkinsburg. Allegheny County police said people scrambled toward the house as bullets began flying. Four of the victims were found dead on the back porch. The other died at a hospital.

Two men were in critical condition and a woman was stable, police said.

Police investigate the scene after a deadly shooting on Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Wilkinsburg, Pa. Police say multiple people were killed in the shooting and several were injured in suburban Pittsburgh. (Michael Henninger/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP) MAGS OUT; NO SALES; MONESSEN OUT; KITTANNING OUT; CONNELLSVILLE OUT; GREENSBURG OUT; TARENTUM OUT; NORTH HILLS NEWS RECORD OUT; BUTLER OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

Lt. Andrew Schurman of the Allegheny County homicide unit said the gunmen barged into the party just before 11 p.m. and opened fire in an ambush-style attack. He said gunshots came from two distinct locations, but police don't believe anyone at the party fired back.

"It looks like right now they were all fleeing toward the backdoor of the residence when the second gunman fired from the side of the yard," he said. "They all seemed to get caught on the back porch."

The suspects fled on foot.

Wilkinsburg is a poorer, largely blighted suburb just east of Pittsburgh that is known for drug trafficking and gun violence. But, neighbors described the street on which the shooting occurred as generally quiet and expressed shock.

Resident Kayla Alexander told WPXI-TV that she heard a barrage of gunshots  more than 20.

After the shooting, groups of residents gathered on the street, some of them sobbing and saying they lost family members.

James Boyd, 70, has lived in a home three doors away from the shooting for 24 years. He told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the gunfire "went on for almost a minute."

"I thought it was maybe the pipes bursting. But then we realized it was gunshots. We've had trouble in this neighborhood before but never this close to home," Boyd said. "I've never seen anything like this before."

Police investigate the scene after a deadly shooting Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Wilkinsburg, Pa. Police say multiple people were killed in the shooting and several were injured in suburban Pittsburgh. (Michael Henninger/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

Police investigate the scene after a deadly shooting Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Wilkinsburg, Pa. Police say multiple people were killed in the shooting and several were injured in suburban Pittsburgh. (Michael Henninger/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
Morocco criticizes UN chief's trip to Saharan refugee camp

RABAT, Morocco (AP)  Morocco has accused U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of "abandoning neutrality, objectivity and impartiality" during a recent visit to Western Saharan refugee camps in southern Algeria.

Morocco's Foreign Ministry has criticized Ban's trip in a statement, condemning the use of the term "occupation" in describing the territorial status of the Western Sahara.

The United Nations issued a response late Wednesday, saying Ban referred to the "occupation" of the territory because of "the inability of Sahrawi refugees to return home under conditions that include satisfactory governance arrangements under which all Sahrawis can freely express their desires."

During his weekend visit, Ban expressed frustration over dire living conditions in the camps and called for renewed peace talks for the Western Sahara, annexed by Morocco in 1975.

Ban has announced plans for a donors' conference to address the Morocco situation.

Morocco expressed "regret" over the plans to organize the donor's conference, and said past international aid has been unfairly spent. The government statement Tuesday also questioned why the U.N. chief didn't address concerns about rights violations in the Tindouf camps.

Ban also visited Algiers over the weekend, where he stated that there was "no real progress" in reaching a solution for the Western Sahara conflict.

While Ban's tour didn't take him to Morocco, the U.N. indicated there are plans for him to visit Morocco in the near future.

Morocco has proposed wide-ranging autonomy for the mineral-rich Western Sahara, but the Polisario Front insists on self-determination for the local population through a referendum.
As a major migrant route closes, others are ready to open

BRUSSELS (AP)  As the European Union tries to send thousands of migrants back to Turkey and close the heavily traveled Balkans route, concern is mounting that people desperate to find sanctuary or jobs in Europe are already using smugglers to find other pathways.

Albania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania are alternative tracks, government ministers and experts say, and Spain is in contact with Algeria and Morocco to try to stop new routes opening from there.

"We must not let our guard down. We have to be careful," Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz warned Thursday as he arrived for talks with his EU counterparts in Brussels.

Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner, right, speaks with German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, left, during a meeting of EU justice ministers at the EU Council building in Brussels on Thursday, March 10, 2016. Austrias interior minister on Thursday said refugees stuck at Greeces border with Macedonia blocked from moving further into Europe must understand that they have no chance of crossing. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

More than 130,000 migrants have entered Greece this year, but their path north through the Balkans to places like Germany and Scandinavia is essentially blocked, due to tight border controls.

Serbian officials said Thursday that around 150 people are coming to Serbia each day via a dangerous track through Bulgaria, and there are frequent reports of robberies and severe beatings by locals.

Smugglers are likely to take advantage of the EU's tentative deal with Turkey coupled with the border chokeholds through the Balkans, some experts say.

"This will be a major win for smuggling groups," Tuesday Reitano from the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime told The Associated Press. "The effects are already visible."

Reitano said groups of 50 or more migrants are already reported to have been smuggled through Albania by local mafia. Clandestine routes are opening again in Hungary, where authorities report that more people are breaching the razor-wire fence on its southern border.

Italy fears many may head west toward Albania, and take to boats to cross the Adriatic Sea.

"So far we have no evidence of any huge flow," Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said. He acknowledged that it would be logical to expect movement given developments in the Balkans but that "this is not a fact today."

While the routes are tricky to monitor, and movements can change quickly from day to day, the EU's border agency Frontex said its personnel have not spotted big shifts yet.

However, contingency planning is well under way should things change.

"Albania is just one of the possibilities," Frontex's deputy executive director, Berndt Korner, said in Belgrade Thursday.

"The same goes also for the western coast of Greece, the same might also go for Montenegro," he said. "(Whether) it goes up to Croatia remains to be seen, but it is definitely one of the possibilities that are under consideration."

Once the weather improves, people could turn back to the dangerous route across the Mediterranean Sea from Libya to Italy. Thousands have died off the Italian island of Lampedusa in recent years trying to make that crossing.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that Berlin and Rome are in close contact "to make sure well in advance that we have no repeat of what has been going on along the Balkans route."

The EU's in-principle deal with Turkey  a legally complex and unclear agreement essentially outsourcing Europe's refugee woes  remains a concern for many.

"This agreement will dramatically reduce the legal entry points into the Union, forcing desperate refugees to look for other routes," warned Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the liberal ALDE bloc in the European Parliament. "We will see again the revival of the Lampedusa route, a new Malta route, a new Albanian route, anew Bulgarian route."

___

Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade contributed to this report.

Syrian refugees stand in the rain between tents covered with thermal blankets and waterproofs in an improvised camp on the border line between Macedonia and Serbia near the northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, Thursday, March 10, 2016. Around 1.500 migrants and refugees are stranded at Tabanovce transit center for refugees in northern Macedonia. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

European Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos, left, speaks with Norway's Migration Minister Sylvi Listhaug, center, and Switzerland's Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga, right, during a meeting of EU justice ministers at the EU Council building in Brussels on Thursday, March 10, 2016. Austrias interior minister on Thursday said refugees stuck at Greeces border with Macedonia blocked from moving further into Europe must understand that they have no chance of crossing. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

A migrant boy presses his face against the window of a bus at the Athens' port of Piraeus on Thursday, March 10, 2016. Authorities began transporting hundreds of migrants and refugees from Piraeus port to shelters in central Greece to try and ease overcrowding there. The government says nearly 42,000 people are stranded in Greece following border restrictions and closures by Austria and several Balkan countries that started last month. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Switzerland's Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga, right, shakes hands with Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri, left, during a meeting of EU justice ministers at the EU Council building in Brussels on Thursday, March 10, 2016. Austrias interior minister on Thursday said refugees stuck at Greeces border with Macedonia blocked from moving further into Europe must understand that they have no chance of crossing. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

A man covered with thermal blanket walks along railway tracks beside an improvised refugee camp on the border line between Macedonia and Serbia near the northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, Thursday, March 10, 2016. Around 1.500 migrants and refugees are stranded at Tabanovce transit center for refugees in northern Macedonia. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)
Trump, rivals fight on _ but politely _ in late debate

MIAMI (AP)  Donald Trump and his Republican rivals turned Thursday night's presidential face-off into a mostly respectful but still pointed discussion of Islam, trade and more. Trump shook his head and declared at one point: "I can't believe how civil it's been up here."

Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio didn't hesitate to lay out their differences with Trump, but the candidates largely managed to present those arguments without vitriol.

In a lengthy discussion of the threat posed by radicalized Muslims, Trump refused to back away from his recent statement that "Islam hates the West." He said he wouldn't stoop to being "politically correct" by avoiding such statements.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Fayetteville, N.C., Wednesday, March 9, 2016. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

Rubio had a sharp comeback: "I'm not interested in being politically correct. I'm interested in being correct."

The Florida senator noted the Muslims in the U.S. military and said the only way to solve the problem of violent extremists is to work with people in the Muslim faith who are not radicals.

Cruz bundled together his criticisms of Trump for what he called simplistic solutions on trade and on Islamic terrorists, saying, "The answer is not to simply yell, 'China: bad, Muslim: bad."

Trump, though, clearly was intent on projecting a less bombastic  and more presidential  image.

His closing message: "Be smart and unify."

"We're all in this together," he said early on, sounding more like a conciliator than a provocateur as he strives to unify the party behind his candidacy. "We're going to come up with solutions. We're going to find the answer to things."

Trump's rivals, in a desperate scramble to halt his march to the nomination, gradually ramped up their criticism as the night wore on.

Rubio's overarching message: "I know that a lot of people find appeal in the things Donald says. The problem is presidents can't just say anything they want because it has consequences around the world."

Cruz, eager to cement his position as the party's last best alternative to Trump, had a string of criticisms of the Republican front-runner, too, saying flatly at one point: "His solutions don't work."

Trump refused to take the bait when Cruz repeatedly poked at his foreign policy positions and at one point lumped Trump with Hillary Clinton and John Kerry in supporting the Obama administration's Iran nuclear deal.

Trump's restrained response: "If Ted was listening, he would have heard me say something very similar" to what Cruz had said about the failings of the deal.

Trump was questioned about whether he had set a tone at his rallies that fueled violent encounters between supporters and protesters.

"I truly hope not," he said, but added that many of his supporters have "anger that is unbelievable" about how the country is being run and that some of protesters were "bad dudes."

Florida is the biggest prize of Tuesday's five-state round of voting, and all 99 of the state's delegates will go to the winner.

In all, 367 Republican delegates will be at stake, with voting also occurring in Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and the Northern Mariana Islands.

In the race for delegates, Trump has 458, Cruz 359, Rubio 151 and Kasich 54. It takes 1,237 to win the Republican nomination for president.

___

Benac reported from Washington. AP Writers Donna Cassata and Laurie Kellman in Washington and Jill Colvin in Fayetteville, North Carolina, contributed to this report.

___

Follow Nancy Benac on Twitter at http://twitter.com/nbenac and Julie Bykowicz at https://twitter.com/bykowicz

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during a "Get Out the Vote" campaign event at the The Ritz Ybor in Tampa, Fla., Thursday, March 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama speaks during a joint news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the Rose Garden of White House in Washington, Thursday, March 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Fayetteville, N.C., Wednesday, March 9, 2016. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton greets employees at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, Thursday, March 10, 2016, before departing to the airport en route to Tampa for a "Get Out the Vote" campaign event. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, speaks at the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton speaks at the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton speaks at the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt and Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton interrupt each other during the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt and Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton interrupt each other during the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, speaks at the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton speaks at the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, speaks at the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, speaks at the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton speaks at the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton speaks, as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, listens, during the the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton speaks at the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, speaks, as Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton listens, during the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, attempts to listen to a question from the audience as Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, walks off the stage during a break at the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton speaks, as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, listens, during the the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton speaks, as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, listens, during the the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton speaks at the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

A Univision staffer shows what topics are trending from women on Facebook during a break at the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, speaks, as Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton listens, during the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, speaks, as Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton listens, during the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., stand together before the start of the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton speaks at the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, speaks at the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, speaks at the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Murder suspect managed to elude US immigration authorities

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (AP)  U.S. immigration authorities last year sought to detain a Mexican national charged with killing five men in Kansas and Missouri this week, but they sent the detention order to an agency that didn't have him in custody.

It was not the first time Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino, who was in the U.S. illegally, eluded Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the agency. In June 2015, officials from a Kansas county where Serrano-Vitorino faced domestic battery charges asked federal immigration officials about him because he was born outside the country, but ICE didn't respond before the county let him go.

Serrano-Vitorino is now charged with killing a neighbor and three other men on Monday night in Kansas, then gunning down another man Tuesday morning at the man's rural home in Missouri. He was captured Wednesday morning. Authorities have not released a motive for the rampage.

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, 40, was deported in April 2004 because he was in the country illegally, but he re-entered at some unknown time, ICE said by email.

Serrano-Vitorino, who has been living in Kansas City, Kansas, was fingerprinted Sept. 14 at the Overland Park Municipal Court after being cited for traffic violations. That triggered an ICE order to have him detained. But ICE said it sent the order to the Johnson County Sheriff's Office instead of to the Overland Park Municipal Court.

Court administrator Robin Barnard said Serrano-Vitorino showed up at the court the next month to pay a $146 fine. He was never in custody of any local authorities for the traffic violations.

ICE said that had its order been sent to an agency that had Serrano-Vitorino in custody, it would have sought to deport him.

Earlier last year, Serrano-Vitorino was booked on a misdemeanor domestic battery charge in Kansas City, Kansas. The Wyandotte County Sheriff's Department sent ICE an overnight query about him, sheriff's Lt. Kelli Bailiff said Wednesday, but when ICE did not respond within the required six-hour period, Serrano-Vitorino was released.

ICE said the query, which did not involve his fingerprints, required the agency to interview Serrano-Vitorino, something it wasn't able to do between when the sheriff's office sent it at 1:30 a.m. and released Serrano-Vitorino at 7:30 a.m.

Serrano-Vitorino is jailed in Montgomery County, Missouri, on $2 million bond related to the Kansas charges. Messages left with his Missouri public defender Wednesday were not returned.

Serrano-Vitorino has had at least one previous conviction  an unspecified terrorist threat for which he was sentenced to two years in a California prison  that led to his 2004 deportation, according to ICE.

ICE also said Serrano-Vitorino was convicted in 2014 of driving under the influence in Kansas. But ICE records don't show the agency was notified that Serrano was fingerprinted at that time.

___

Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth, Margaret Stafford and Maria Sudekum contributed to this story.

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

Police gather near the house where a man was found murdered on Tuesday, March 8, 2016, near New Florence, Mo., just south of Interstate 70 near the intersection of Highway 19. 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

Janna Myers sits with her family in their car as they watch police search the area around the house where a body was found Tuesday, March 8, 2016, near New Florence, Mo. 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 multiple 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

A Missouri Highway Patrol helicopter flies near the house where a body was found Tuesday, March 8, 2016, near New Florence, Mo. 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 multiple 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

David Morawiec of New Florence, Mo., peers through his binoculars from the Bio Fuels USA station to get a better look of the 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
Killer of South African anti-apartheid leader to be paroled

JOHANNESBURG (AP)  A jailed assassin who killed a prominent anti-apartheid leader in South Africa in 1993 won a bid for parole on Thursday, igniting bitter memories of racial unrest during white minority rule as well as fresh scrutiny of the balance between punishment and leniency for crimes committed during that era.

A Pretoria judge ordered parole within two weeks for Polish immigrant Janusz Walus, whose killing of Chris Hani stirred fears of all-out racial conflict at a time when delicate negotiations for a democratic transition were underway. Hani was head of the South African Communist Party and of the military wing of the African National Congress, the main anti-apartheid movement that later became South Africa's ruling party.

While Nelson Mandela and other leaders at the time tamped down the anger roiling the country, and euphoria ran high after the first all-race elections in 1994, the country still grapples with its troubled legacy. In recent months, there have been more calls for prosecutions of figures from the apartheid-era government, reflecting a belief that the drive for racial reconciliation let some perpetrators off the hook and failed to improve the lives of many in the black majority.

FILE - In this Friday, March 1, 1991 file photo. Communist Party leader Chris Hani is shown outside Rand Supreme Court in Johannesburg, South Africa. A lawyer for a hitman who killed South African anti-apartheid leader Chris Hani in 1993 says the killer will be released on parole this month. Lawyer Julian Knight said Thursday, March 10, 2016 that a court ordered parole for Polish immigrant Janusz Walus after legal appeal against the justice ministry's refusal to grant parole. (AP Photo, File)

Some of those emotional wounds reopened as news spread that 60-year-old Walus, who has served 23 years of a life sentence, would be freed on parole this month.

Hani's wife, Limpho Hani, harshly criticized the white judge who heard a legal appeal from Walus' lawyer and overruled the South African justice ministry's refusal to grant parole.

"She is nothing but a racist," Hani's wife said in an interview with South Africa's Radio 702. "To her, black lives don't matter. She hardly made mention of my husband's murder in her judgment."

Limpho Hani also questioned South African courts, saying, "the judiciary wants to rule this country through the back door because they undermine executive decisions."

Judge Janse van Nieuwenhuizen referred in her ruling to South African legal guidelines on parole, including the fact that it is based on a "good prognosis" for rehabilitation, is subject to supervision and does not imply that a criminal has been acquitted.

Nieuwenhuizen noted that Walus had tried in vain to meet Hani's family and apologize to them.

"Their stance is simply that they will not forgive the applicant," the judge wrote.

Walus' lawyer, Julian Knight, said the justice ministry's decision to refuse parole was based on the "whims of politics," not the law.

Clive Derby-Lewis, a fellow conspirator of Walus who also got a life sentence, was released on medical parole last year after more than two decades in prison.

Walus said after his arrest that he and Derby-Lewis, a proponent of white minority rule, hoped the assassination would plunge South Africa into chaos ahead of the historic 1994 elections. The murder sparked some rioting, but the elections proceeded.

After white rul ended with those elections, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigated past atrocities and granted amnesty to some accused perpetrators. Walus and Derby-Lewis testified before the panel but were refused amnesty.

In a statement Thursday, the ANC said the parole order "is a "travesty of justice."

The ruling party said Walus almost set off a civil war by killing Hani, and that the immigrant should be immediately deported on his release.

___

Follow Christopher Torchia on Twitter at www.twitter.com/torchiachris

FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 18 1997, file photo, Polish immigrant Janusz Walus listens to a statements read during a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearing, in Pretoria, South African. A lawyer for a hitman who killed South African anti-apartheid leader Chris Hani in 1993 says the killer will be released on parole this month. Lawyer Julian Knight said Thursday, March 10, 2016 that a court ordered parole for Polish immigrant Janusz Walus after legal appeal against the justice ministry's refusal to grant parole. (AP Photo/Joao Silva, File)
The Latest: Fetus death in ambush puts homicide count at 6

WILKINSBURG, Pa. (AP)  The Latest on a deadly shooting at a backyard party in a Pittsburgh suburb (all times local):

3:15 p.m.

Authorities say the death of an 8-month-old fetus in a shooting at a backyard cookout near Pittsburgh has been ruled a homicide.

Allegheny County detectives look over the scene of a shooting on Thursday, March 10, 2016 in Wilkinsburg, Pa. Police say multiple people were killed in the shooting late Wednesday and several were injured in suburban Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

That brings the number of homicides in the late Wednesday night ambush to six.

One man and four women, including pregnant 25-year-old Chanetta Powell, were fatally shot.

A prosecutor says a man with a pistol opened fire on the partygoers, driving them in the direction of an accomplice who gunned them down with a rifle.

District Attorney Stephen Zappala says one or two of those at the party may have been targets of the gunmen. He says the motive remains undetermined, though a drug connection has not been ruled out.

Authorities say they have no suspects.

___

3 p.m.

The mother of three of the five people killed by gunmen at a backyard cookout near Pittsburgh says her family was massacred.

A tearful Jessica Shelton said Thursday that it makes no sense for anyone "to take people's lives like that."

Two gunmen are being sought in the late Wednesday night shootings.

A prosecutor says a man with a pistol began firing at the partygoers from an alley behind the house. He says an accomplice with a rifle then shot the victims in the head as they ran back to the house for cover.

Two of Jessica Shelton's daughters, one eight months' pregnant, and one of her sons were killed. She says the other two shot dead were her nieces. Another of her sons' was critically wounded.

The motive isn't known.

___

Noon

A prosecutor says the fatal shooting of five people at a suburban Pittsburgh backyard cookout was a planned, calculated attack, and one of the women killed was pregnant.

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala says one of the shooters used a handgun to steer the victims toward the house's porch, where a second gunman picked them off with an AK-47-style rifle. He says the victims were shot in the head.

The five were killed late Wednesday during the backyard party in Wilkinsburg. Two others are in critical condition.

He says as many as 15 people had been at the party.

Police are searching for at least two suspects.

The motive isn't known.

___

11:25 a.m.

A medical examiner has released the identities of the five people killed in an ambush-style shooting at a cookout in suburban Pittsburgh.

The Allegheny County Medical Examiner's office says the victims are 35-year-old Jerry Shelton; 37-year-old Tina Shelton; 27-year-old Brittany Powell; 25-year-old Chanetta Powell; and 26-year-old Shada Mahone.

The medical examiner says Jerry Shelton, Brittany Powell and Chanetta Powell are siblings.

A cousin says the cookout was at Brittany Powell's home.

The five were killed late Wednesday during the backyard party in Wilkinsburg. Two others are in critical condition.

Police are searching for at least two suspects.

The motive isn't known.

___

11 a.m.

A neighbor says he saw at least three children run onto the porch screaming "Mommy! Mommy!" after a shooting during a cookout in suburban Pittsburgh left five people dead.

Robert Morris, a 15-year-old who lives across the street from the home, says it was "terrible."

He and his father, Carl Morris, say a black Labrador retriever that had been shot in the tail ran to their house after the shooting.

They say a young woman and her child lived at the home.

Another neighbor, Mike Jones, says violence is rare in the neighborhood.

Four women and a man were killed late Wednesday during the cookout in Wilkinsburg. Two others are in critical condition.

Police are searching for at least two suspects.

The motive isn't known.

___

10:35 a.m.

Police say two piles of shell casings found outside the suburban Pittsburgh yard where an ambush-style shooting at a cookout left five people dead give a sense of where the gunmen were positioned.

The yard is about 30 feet wide by 50 feet deep. Police say they found one pile of shell casings just outside the yard in an alley. They found more shells along a fence that separates the house from a neighbor's yard, meaning a second gunman was less than 10 feet away from the porch where the victims ran for cover.

Four women and a man were killed late Wednesday during the cookout in Wilkinsburg. Two others are in critical condition.

Police are searching for at least two suspects.

The motive is not known.

___

10:05 a.m.

A county official is urging witnesses to come forward in a shooting at a backyard party that left five people dead and three wounded in suburban Pittsburgh.

Four women and a man were killed late Wednesday during the party in Wilkinsburg. Two others are in critical condition.

Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald says if violence is to be stopped, witnesses need to come forward.

Fitzgerald says "we must say enough is enough."

Police are searching for at least two suspects who they say opened fire in an ambush-style attack.

The motive is not known.

___

6:45 a.m.

Police are searching for at least two suspects in a shooting at a backyard party that left five people dead and three wounded in suburban Pittsburgh.

Four women and a man were killed late Wednesday during the party in Wilkinsburg. Two men are in critical condition and a woman is stable.

Allegheny County police say the cookout was taking place at the rear of a home on Franklin Avenue when the gunmen appeared just before 11 p.m.

Lt. Andrew Schurman of the Allegheny County homicide unit says they opened fire in an ambush-style attack. He says gunshots came from two distinct locations, but police don't believe anyone at the party fired back.

Four of the victims died on the back porch. The other died at a hospital.

A motive isn't immediately known.

Blood can be seen on the bottom of the back door of a home that is the scene of a shooting on Thursday, March 10, 2016 in Wilkinsburg, Pa. Police say multiple people were killed in the shooting late Wednesday and several were injured in suburban Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

Allegheny County detectives look over the scene of a shooting on Thursday, March 10, 2016 in Wilkinsburg, Pa. Police say multiple people were killed in the shooting late Wednesday and several were injured in suburban Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

Members of the community react at the scene of a deadly shooting in Wilkinsburg, Pa., Thursday, March 10, 2016. Police say multiple people were killed in the shooting late Wednesday and several were injured in suburban Pittsburgh. (Michael Henninger/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP) MAGS OUT; MONESSEN OUT; KITTANNING OUT; CONNELLSVILLE OUT; GREENSBURG OUT; TARENTUM OUT; NORTH HILLS NEWS RECORD OUT; BUTLER OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

Police respond to the scene of a deadly shooting in Wilkinsburg, Pa., Thursday, March 10, 2016. Police say multiple people were killed in the shooting late Wednesday and several were injured in suburban Pittsburgh. (Michael Henninger/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP) MAGS OUT; MONESSEN OUT; KITTANNING OUT; CONNELLSVILLE OUT; GREENSBURG OUT; TARENTUM OUT; NORTH HILLS NEWS RECORD OUT; BUTLER OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT
First lady's death stirs memories of Reagan era

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (AP)  They came to mourn the stylish, influential first lady and celebrate an era.

The death of Nancy Reagan at 94 has rekindled memories of a presidency passed, when the "Reagan revolution" reshaped American politics, ushered in the end of the Cold War and telegraphed a cheery optimism to supporters that's little more than a distant echo in the tumult and tawdriness of the 2016 presidential campaign.

As hundreds of mourners, admirers and just the curious continued a solemn procession Thursday past Mrs. Reagan's flower-draped casket at the Reagan Presidential Library, some paused to recall the days of "morning again in America," a Reagan campaign theme, and the Reagan doctrine intended to curb Soviet influence during the Cold War.

Teresa Spraggs holds flowers while waiting in line to board a bus to take her to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library for the public viewing of former First Lady Nancy Reagan Thursday, March 10, 2016, in Simi Valley, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

"We're just grateful for the Reagan years," Ray Brooks of Simi Valley said as he waited in line with his wife Jackie to board a shuttle to the library grounds where Mrs. Reagan's casket was placed in the marble lobby with a bronze statue of a smiling Ronald Reagan nearby.

"Everybody, no matter how they felt about those years, when they look back they remember them as good years because of the example they set. We need an example like that now," Brooks said.

Asked who among the candidates running for president this year might set that example, both burst out laughing.

"I try not to think too much about that," Ray Brooks said.

Though Reagan was a Republican icon, Richard Venn remembered the 40th president as a unifier known for his humor who could find friends among political rivals. He recalled Reagan's friendship with the late Democratic House leader Tip O'Neill of Massachusetts.

"We keep looking for his replacement, and we're still looking for his replacement," said Venn, dressed in a red, white and blue shirt, who lives in nearby Oak Park.

Preparations were underway for Friday's funeral, when forecasters said Thursday's brilliant skies could be replaced by thunderstorms and wind. A tent was erected over the site.

More than 3,000 people came to the library northwest of Los Angeles on Wednesday.

Mrs. Reagan will be buried next to her husband, who died in 2004.

The guest list of entertainers, actors, politicians and celebrities is a portal into the lives of the Reagans.

It includes former President George W. Bush and California Gov. Jerry Brown. Four of the five living first ladies and relatives of every president dating to John Kennedy were also expected to attend.

The list ranged from broadcaster Katie Couric to Las Vegas legend Wayne Newton, actor Tom Selleck and Caroline Kennedy.

Nancy Reagan's two children, Patti Davis and Ronald Prescott Reagan, will be among the speakers at the funeral, which will include choirs and a Marine Corps band.

James A. Baker, who served in the Reagan administration, and former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw also will give remarks during the private ceremony officiated by the Rev. Stuart Kenworthy, vicar of Washington National Cathedral.

The Reagans inspired a devoted following, particularly among Republicans and conservatives but were often reviled on the political left. Their popularity had limits.

The Iran-Contra scandal  secret moves to trade arms for hostages in Iran and divert the profits to Nicaraguan rebels  shook the White House. Fights over supply-side economics, which critics blamed for hurting American workers, shadowed his tenure. The debt held by the public soared on his watch - from $712 billion in 1980 to $2 trillion in 1988.

But mourners at the library Thursday did not dwell on political battles on Capitol Hill, or darker moments.

Foy Curry, who runs a home for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts in Pasadena, couldn't put a finger on why, but he said the country just seemed to be in a better state of mind during the Reagan years.

"America just seemed to be more whole in those days, and I think that's because Ronald and Nancy Reagan, they just drew people in," he said.

Roger W. Haley, a friend of the Reagan family whose mother raised money for the president's campaigns, said fond memories drew him to the library.

"We just have to get back to the reality of just being respectful of each other," said Haley, dressed in boots, jeans and a cowboy hat. "Like Hillary Clinton said the other day at one of her speeches, we have to get back to where people love each other again."

People wait in line to board buses to take them to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library for the public viewing of former First Lady Nancy Reagan Thursday, March 10, 2016, in Simi Valley, calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

An honor guard stands next to the casket of former first lady Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., on Thursday, March 10, 2016. (Mike Blake/Reuters via AP, Pool)

People pay their respects as former first lady Nancy Reagan lies in repose at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., on Thursday, March 10, 2016. (Mike Blake/Reuters via AP, Pool)

An honor guard stands next to the casket of former first lady Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., on Thursday, March 10, 2016. (Mike Blake/Reuters via AP, Pool)
8 men sentenced to 3 years in jail for enslaving fishermen

AMBON, Indonesia (AP)  Five Thai fishing boat captains and three Indonesians were sentenced Thursday to three years in jail for human trafficking in connection with slavery in the seafood industry.

The suspects were arrested in the remote island village of Benjina last May after the abuse was revealed by The Associated Press in a report two months earlier. The men were tried separately in Tual, an island in southeastern Maluku province, about 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) east of Jakarta.

The three-judge panel also ordered the defendants to pay fines of about $12,250 each or serve two more months in jail. In addition, the Thai captains  Youngyut Nitiwongchaeron, Boonsom Jaika, Surachai Maneephong, Hatsaphon Phaetjakreng and Somchit Korraneesuk  have to pay a total of $67,800 in compensation to their crew members.

FILE - In this Friday, April 3, 2015 file photo, Burmese fishermen raise their hands as they are asked who among them wants to go home at the compound of Pusaka Benjina Resources fishing company in Benjina, Aru Islands, Indonesia. On Thursday, March 10, 2016, five Thai fishing boat captains and three Indonesians were sentenced to three years in jail for human trafficking in connection with slavery in the seafood industry. The suspects were arrested in the remote island village of Benjina in May 2015 after the abuse was revealed by The Associated Press in a report two months earlier. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

"They all have been proven guilty of violating the anti-human trafficking law," said Edi Toto Purba, who led the panel. "They deserve the jail sentences as well as the fine."

He gave one week for the prosecutors, who had sought heavier sentences, as well as the defendants to appeal the verdict. Indonesian prosecutors had demanded prison sentences of up to 4 1/2 years for the five Thais and Indonesian Hermanwir Martino, and 3 1/2-year sentences for two other Indonesians, Yopi Hanorsian and Muklis Ohoitenan. They also demanded compensation ranging from $3,750 to $26,000 for the crew members.

Thirteen fishermen from Myanmar testified under protection of Indonesia's Witness and Victim Protection Agency. They told the court they had been tortured, forced to work up to 24 hours a day and not paid. They also said they were locked in a prison-like cell in a compound owned by fishing company Pusaka Benjina Resources, which has since been shut down. Martino and Ohoitenan worked for the company, and Hanorsian was known as the "enforcer" among the fishermen, who accused him of beating and torturing them in front of an Indonesian flag until they collapsed.

Some workers were angered by the outcome.

"They should be sentenced more because they tortured many fishermen for years. It's not fair for us," said Win Ko Naing, 26, who was enslaved in Benjina for almost six years. He has been following the case closely from Myanmar, but did not testify at the trial.

"They will never pay us compensation because they know how to get away from punishment," he added. "I will never forget what they did to many people over many years. Three years imprisonment is too easy for them. "

The AP investigation found that thousands of poor migrant fishermen, mostly from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, were recruited in Thailand and brought to Indonesia using fake travel documents where they were subjected to brutal labor abuses. Some had been enslaved for years or decades. The AP found some men locked in a cage and saw others calling out for help over the railing of their trawler. A company graveyard with dozens of bodies buried under fake names was also located. The Indonesian government carried out a dramatic rescue in Benjina in April, just over a week after the report ran.

More than 2,000 men were freed and sent home last year as a result of the investigation, which traced slave-caught seafood to some of the most well-known U.S. grocery stores and pet food brands, including Wal-Mart, Sysco, Kroger, Fancy Feast, Meow Mix and Iams. In addition, U.S. congressional hearings have been held, legislation has been changed, more than a dozen people have been arrested and multi-million dollar seafood cargo ships have been seized.

____

Associated Press writers Ali Kotarumalos in Jakarta, Indonesia and Esther Htusan in Naypyidaw, Myanmar contributed to this report.
Iraq's military falls short on logistics in fight against IS

SALAHUDDIN, Iraq (AP)  Iraq's military is once again trying to dislodge Islamic State group fighters from the vast Samarra desert, which stretches between newly recaptured territory in Anbar province and the IS-held northern city of Mosul. Yet, as operations move further away from the capital, government forces are increasingly plagued by logistical shortcomings.

Iraq's minister of defense Khalid al-Obeidi on Wednesday toured Camp Speicher, a military base 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of the capital, Baghdad. Surrounded by a crowd of assistants and military officials, he carefully asked commanders about food supplies, weapons deliveries and training.

"He's very detail-oriented, during the previous administration the Iraqi military had a lot of issues with troops not being fed, in addition to, you know, the larger payroll issues," said an official from the minister's office.

Popular Mobilization forces chant slogans against the Islamic State group as Iraqi Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi tours the front line in Anbar, Iraq, Wednesday, March 9, 2016. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

He was referring euphemistically to the entrenched corruption in the Iraqi military, which was exposed in the summer of 2014 when the army all but collapsed and Islamic State group fighters captured Mosul. In addition to the tens of thousands of troops who fled in the face of the IS assault, more than 50,000 troops were later revealed to be ghost soldiers  nonexistent troops whose pay was pocketed by senior commanders.

The ministry of defense official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the press.

Following millions of dollars of investment, Iraq's military is being tested once more. Earlier this month, Iraqi troops pushed to retake territory northwest of Samarra, 60 miles (95 kilometers) from Baghdad, and cut IS supply lines in advance of an eventual push on Mosul. Iraqi officials say the fight was led by the Popular Mobilization Forces, the government-sanctioned coalition of mostly Shiite militia groups  who have proved to be one of the most effective fighting forces on the ground  but also involved the Iraqi military. The ground troops were backed by both coalition and Iraqi air strikes.

Past attempts to retake the same area have failed, partly because the open terrain left Iraqi troops increasingly vulnerable to IS counter-attacks as they advanced.

The Samarra operation is intended to build on gains in the west of the country. Last month, Iraqi and coalition forces declared the western city of Ramadi fully-liberated. Afterward, Iraqi forces continued to clear villages in the area, most recently Zangura and Qariya Asriya northwest of the provincial capital. Iraqi forces this week evacuated more than a thousand people from the two villages being held as hostages by IS.

Defense Minister Khalid al-Obeidi took office just over a year ago in the wake of Mosul's fall. Since then, a U.S.-led coalition has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on training and equipment for Iraq's military. Yet, despite putting more than 18,500 troops through training, few of these troops are on the front lines. Previous victories have been led by Shiite militia forces or Iraq's elite counterterrorism forces.

At Camp Speicher troops greeted al-Obeidi in tight formations on the tarmac, wearing neat uniforms. Yet as the minister's convoy headed toward front lines in the Samarra desert, the order broke down.

At checkpoints along the road that runs north to Bayji  and onwards in the direction of Mosul  Shiite flags began to outnumber Iraqi national ones. Beyond Bayji, there were no more Iraqi military forces to be seen.

Along the Samarra desert frontline members of the Popular Mobilization Forces  young men in sandals, mismatched tee-shirts and fatigues  were the ones holding the hard-fought recent gains. Their simple posts were marked with boxes of bottled water, tents and portable toilets.

Standing at a frontline position just 9 miles (15 kilometers) from Islamic State group positions, al-Obeidi praised the "cooperation" between Iraq's military and the Shiite militia forces.

"These battles have shown high coordination between the armed forces and their professionalism," he said, looking out toward the horizon through binoculars. But even the visit was plagued with the logistical failings that often hamper the Iraqi army on the battlefield: one vehicle broke down and two Hummers in the minister's convoy ran out of petrol midway.

Unlike operations focused on cities, Iraqi military operations in the desert require lengthy, secure supply lines to transport food, weapons and fuel to the front.

In the Samarra desert, the trucks moving to and from Camp Speicher belonged to Shiite militia forces and bore pictures of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Historically, Iraq's military were "very talented logisticians," said Michael Knights, an Iraq military analyst and fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. But the U.S.-led invasion and the subsequent dissolution of the country's military changed that. "We brought in a new over-complex, over-computerized system and they never recovered," Knights said.

As operations move forward, coalition officials and analysts agree logistics will become increasingly important for any eventual push on Mosul.

"The operation at Mosul, like Ramadi before it, will chew up thousands of tons of ammunition and will require tens of thousands of troops to live at considerable distance from their home bases for months on end," Knights said.

The U.S.-led coalition agreed that supplying the front with ammunition and food will continue to be a "challenge" for the Iraqi military, but spokesman Col. Steve Warren said he's confident coalition advisers and training will be able to bridge the current gaps.

As the minister's convoy pulled away from the Samarra desert front and back to the base, the helicopters left with them, as did the dozens of defense ministry troops.

"It's not time for us to be out on the front lines," said Corporal Ahmed Saher, with the military's SWAT team, during the drive back to the base.

His unit was stationed in Tikrit but withdrew when the city was overrun by IS in 2014. They are now living at Camp Speicher, but have not returned to the front line. "The decision to deploy is not ours," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Sinan Salaheddin and Ali Hameed in Baghdad contributed to this report.

In this Wednesday, March 9, 2016 photo, soldiers help civilians flee their houses after clashes between Iraqi Security forces and Islamic State group extremists at a village outside Ramadi, 70 miles (115 kilometers) west of Baghdad, Iraq. Iraqi forces are trying to build on their recent gains in Ramadi to clear Islamic State group fighters from areas leading to the IS-held city of Mosul to the north. (AP Photo/Osama Sami)

In this Wednesday, March 9, 2016 photo, raqi Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi's convoy tours the front line in their fight against Islamic State group militants in the Samarra desert, on the border between Anbar and Salahuddin provinces, Iraq. Iraqi forces are again trying to clear Islamic State group fighters from the sprawling deserts that stand between recent territorial gains in Anbar province and the IS-held city of Mosul to the north. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

In this Wednesday, March 9, 2016 photo, Iraqi Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi 's convoy tours the front line in Anbar, Iraq. Iraqi orces are again trying to clear Islamic State group fighters from the sprawling deserts that stand between recent territorial gains in Anbar province and the IS-held city of Mosul to the north. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

In this Wednesday, March 9, 2016 photo, civilians leave their houses after clashes between Iraqi Security forces and Islamic State group extremists outside Ramadi, 70 miles (115 kilometers) west of Baghdad, Iraq. Iraqi forces are trying to build on their recent gains in Ramadi to clear Islamic State group fighters from areas leading to the IS-held city of Mosul to the north. (AP Photo/Osama Sami)

An Iraqi Army helicopter flies over security forces and Popular Mobilization forces as Iraqi Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi tours the front line with Islamic State group militants in Anbar, Iraq, Wednesday, March 9, 2016. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

In this Wednesday, March 9, 2016 photo, an injured woman comforts another as they wait for treatment after clashes between Iraqi Security forces and Islamic State group extremists in a village outside Ramadi, 70 miles (115 kilometers) west of Baghdad. Iraqi forces are trying to build on their recent gains in Ramadi to clear Islamic State group fighters from areas leading to the IS-held city of Mosul to the north. (AP Photo/Osama Sami)
Obama: Trump's views differ little from other Republicans

WASHINGTON (AP)  President Barack Obama says Donald Trump's positions aren't different from those of the other Republican presidential candidates  he's just more provocative in talking about them.

Obama weighed in on the 2016 presidential campaign during a news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Obama says Trump's positions on immigration and other issues aren't that different from those of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz or Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

Obama calls the Republican primary a "circus."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau listens as President Barack Obama speaks during a bilateral news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

The president says he takes responsibility for failing to bridge political divides, but says he has not contributed to the worsening tone of political rhetoric.
Bundy refuses in court to recognize US authority in Nevada

LAS VEGAS (AP)  Jailed Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy refused Thursday to acknowledge federal authority and declined to enter a plea to federal charges that he led an armed standoff against a round-up of cattle two years ago.

After several minutes of confusion about whether Bundy had a lawyer, U.S. Magistrate Judge Carl Hoffman entered a not guilty plea on Bundy's behalf and scheduled a detention hearing March 17.

Arguments then will focus on whether the 69-year-old Bundy should remain in custody pending trial on 16 charges, including conspiracy, assault and threatening a federal officer, obstruction and firearms offenses.

Randy Peck of Las Vegas, a supporter of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, holds a sign featuring Arizona rancher LaVoy Finicum in front of the U.S. Courthouse in downtown Las Vegas Thursday, March 10, 2016. Bundy is facing charges that he led an armed standoff against federal agents two years ago. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP) LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

It could be many months before trial. Federal prosecutor Steven Myhre told the judge the case involving 19 defendants would be slow-tracked as "complex."

"I make no plea before this court," Bundy said, standing in a courtroom full of family members, friends, media, court officials and U.S. marshals.

Bundy wore a maroon-colored Henderson city jail uniform, with his ankles shackled and his hands free during the 15-minute hearing. He waved before the hearing to his wife, Carol Bundy, and several adult children and supporters among about 40 people in the courtroom audience.

Joel Hansen, a Nevada attorney who has represented property rights advocates in a number of cases in the state, served as Bundy's attorney. But Hansen told the judge that Bundy plans to get another lawyer for trial.

Hansen said Bundy's refusal to enter a plea was a statement that he couldn't have done anything wrong because federal law doesn't apply.

Bundy has consistently denied U.S. government authority over rangeland around his 160-acre cattle ranch and melon farm in Bunkerville, about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

Federal BLM officials said in 2014 that he owed more than $1.1 million in fees and penalties for grazing hundreds of cows illegally for about 20 years.

"Mr. Bundy feels like he needs to stand up for the rights of all Americans in all states, and for the states to be the owner of public land and not the federal government," Hansen said outside court. "In the West, the government owns most of the land. He thinks that's wrong."

Bundy's second court appearance in Nevada drew about 100 protesters, including some carrying guns on their hips and others wearing cowboy hats, waving American flags and toting signs calling for Bundy's release. Nevada allows open-carrying of guns.

The scene was peaceful, with chants like "U-S-A!" and "The FBI lied and a man died!" and "Wake up America!" directed toward passing vehicles. The death referred to the fatal shooting on Jan. 26 of Robert "Lavoy" Finicum by Oregon state police.

In Oregon, the Deschutes County sheriff's office released hundreds of pages of documents Thursday including forensic reports and interview transcripts from its investigation of Finicum's death. The 55-year-old from Cane Beds, Arizona, was a key figure in the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

A prosecutor in Oregon determined this week that the shooting was justified. Two officers said they believed Finicum was moments away from drawing his pistol and shooting one of their colleagues.

"I didn't want to wait for him (Finicum) to bring out a firearm, because I knew that by the time that I was able to recognize and deal with it, that he could have very likely shot" the third officer, one state trooper told investigators.

In Las Vegas, uniformed and plainclothes police and U.S. marshals remained largely unseen, but cameras in a conspicuous portable police surveillance tower kept close watch on the demonstration. No arrests were reported.

Jaime Spears, who traveled from St. Augustine, Florida, sold $20 T-shirts bearing the phrase "Whatever it takes." It recalls Bundy's vow to resist a federal Bureau of Land Management round-up of cattle from public rangeland in the protected Gold Butte area around his ranch.

"We're thanking everyone for their support and their prayers," Carol Bundy said on the sidewalk. The mother of 14 maintained the federal government has no jurisdiction to hold her husband and four of her sons, who are among 19 people charged in the April 2014 standoff.

Bundy was arrested Feb. 10 when he arrived at Portland International Airport on his way to visit sons Ammon and Ryan Bundy in jail. They were arrested Jan. 26 on charges that they led a 41-day armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge near Burns, Oregon. Cliven Bundy was returned last week in custody to Nevada.

Convictions in the case in Las Vegas could result in penalties up to life in prison.

____

Associated Press writer Terrence Petty in Portland, Oregon, contributed to this report.

Greg Whalen, center, of Las Vegas, and other supporters of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy protest in front of the U.S. Courthouse in downtown Las Vegas Thursday, March 10, 2016. Bundy is facing charges that he led an armed standoff against federal agents two years ago. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP) LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

Diana Bundy, left, and Kylie Bundy, relatives of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, picket in front of the federal courthouse in downtown Las Vegas Thursday, March 10, 2016. Bundy is facing charges that he led an armed standoff against federal agents two years ago. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP) LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

FILE - In this Jan. 27, 2016, file photo, rancher Cliven Bundy stands along the road near his ranch in Bunkerville, Nev. Bundy is expected to tell a judge on Thursday, March 10, whether he has hired a lawyer; enter a plea to charges in a 16-count indictment filed March 2 against him and 18 other people; and seek release pending trial on a date yet to be set. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

Cathryn Adams and other supporters of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy gather in front of the U.S. Courthouse in downtown Las Vegas Thursday, March 10, 2016. Bundy is facing charges that he led an armed standoff against federal agents two years ago. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP) LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

Carol Bundy, wife of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, speaks to reporters in front of the U.S. Courthouse in downtown Las Vegas Thursday, March 10, 2016. Cliven Bundy is facing charges that he led an armed standoff against federal agents two years ago. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP) LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

Margaret Houston, sister of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, pickets in front of the U.S. Courthouse in downtown Las Vegas Thursday, March 10, 2016. Bundy is facing charges that he led an armed standoff against federal agents two years ago. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP) LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

Supporters of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy place signs in front of the U.S. Courthouse in downtown Las Vegas Thursday, March 10, 2016. Bundy is facing charges that he led an armed standoff against federal agents two years ago. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP) LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

FILE - This Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016, file photo provided by the Multnomah County, Ore. Sheriff''s Office shows Cliven Bundy. Bundy's family and friends plan a demonstration at the federal courthouse in Las Vegas to coincide with his scheduled Thursday, March 10, 2016, court date. (Multnomah County Sheriff''s Office via AP, File)
Man able to board airplane despite arrest warrant

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP)  A man wanted by Idaho authorities in an attack that left a church pastor seriously wounded was able to board a commercial airliner in Boise, Idaho, and travel to Washington, D.C., this week despite an attempted murder warrant for his arrest.

Kyle Odom drove from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, after the shooting more than six hours to the airport in Boise, and departed Monday morning, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

The agency said it was not informed of law enforcement's interest in Odom until Monday evening.

Six-year-old Rafe Adams, front, prays with his mother Chelsey and sister Keira, 8, during a prayer vigil held for Coeur d'Alene pastor Tim Remington at Candlelight Christian Fellowship in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, Monday, March 7, 2016. Remington, 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. (Kathy Plonka/The Spokesman-Review via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

"TSA had not received a law enforcement bulletin to 'be on the lookout' for the suspect," the agency said in a press statement.

The TSA screens passengers against the government's Terrorist Watchlist, but there is no similar database for wanted criminals that would have automatically prevented Odom from boarding a plane.

Odom, 30, was arrested while allegedly throwing items onto the lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday evening.

Odom also apparently wrote a manifesto contending that Martians controlled the Earth, police said.

Odom appeared in District of Columbia Superior Court on Wednesday, wearing handcuffs and a chain connecting his ankles. He said only his name when asked. Public defender Ieshaah Murphy said Odom declined to waive an extradition hearing and be sent back to Idaho in the next few days.

He will be held in jail pending a hearing scheduled for April 6 in Washington, where the only issue is whether the Idaho warrant for attempted first-degree murder in his case is valid.

Odom was also charged this week in federal court in Idaho with one count of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, based on his alleged fleeing of the scene of the pastor's shooting.

The FBI said in the complaint that Odom was tracked using license plate readers on Interstate 90 heading west toward Washington after the shooting. Investigators were also able to trace his cell phone as far as Hermiston, Oregon, before the phone was turned off.

Meanwhile, Pastor Tim Remington, shot six times Sunday outside his church in Coeur d'Alene, about 30 miles east of Spokane, had regained consciousness and is talking with his family.

Coeur d'Alene Police Detective Jared Reneau said Odom had attended Remington's church a few times and apparently was the author of a manifesto that contended the pastor was a member of a Martian species that had taken over the Earth. Details were contained in electronic documents that Odom apparently mailed to his family and news media outlets this week.

Given Odom's state of mind, Reneau said, "we feel pretty fortunate something worse didn't happen."

After the Sunday afternoon shooting, Odom drove west toward Spokane, Washington, where law officers lost track of his movements. He boarded a flight at the Boise Airport, some 400 miles south of Spokane, on Monday morning.

A former Marine from Coeur d'Alene, Odom is suspected of shooting Remington a day after the pastor 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.

Odom graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in biochemistry. The manifesto said that his life started to deteriorate during his final semester and was now ruined.

"Ruined by an intelligent species of amphibian-humanoid from Mars," the manifesto said.

The document said Martians were here before humans, lived underground and operated a breeding program for humans.

"Don't believe me? Ask President Obama to take a lie detector test of this one," Odom said in his writing.

Odom contended the Martians were unable to control his mind but had been following him. He said he had attempted suicide twice, but they stopped him.

"As you can see, I'm pretty smart," the manifesto said. "I'm also 100% sane, 0% crazy."

The manifesto included the names of members of Congress, members of the Israeli government, Remington and John Padula, outreach pastor for The Altar Church, where Remington is the senior pastor.

"My last resort was to take actions that would bring this to the public's attention," the manifesto said.

Remington, 55, regained consciousness Monday night in a Coeur d'Alene hospital. The pastor, who is married and has four children, is expected to recover from his wounds.

___

Associated Press writer Jessica Gresko contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.

This undated photo provided by the Coeur d'Alene Police Department via the The Spokesman-Review shows Kyle Andrew Odom. 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. The Coeur d'Alene Police Department said it is looking for local resident Odom, 30, a decorated former Marine who should be considered armed and dangerous. (Coeur d'Alene Police Department via The Spokesman-Review via AP)

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)

Coeur d'Alene Police Chief Lee White speaks during a news conference Monday, March 7, 2016, with a photo of Kyle Andrew Odom in the background in 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. The Coeur d'Alene Police Department said it is looking for local resident Odom, 30, a decorated former Marine who should be considered armed and dangerous. (Kathy Plonka/The Spokesman-Review, via AP)
Obama signals Supreme Court announcement could come soon

WASHINGTON (AP)  President Barack Obama on Thursday signaled that his announcement of a Supreme Court nominee could come soon, saying the nation's highest court needs to operate at full strength.

Obama did not say when he would reveal his choice to succeed the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who died last month. Senate Republicans have promised to ignore the nominee.

"I think it's important for me to nominate a Supreme Court nominee quickly because I think it's important for the Supreme Court to have its full complement of justices," he said during a White House news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

This photo provided by the U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit shows Judge Sri Srinivasan in Washington. In his search for a Supreme Court nominee, President Barack Obama is zeroing in on a small group of appellate court judges whose bipartisan credentials and traditional judicial pedigree the White House hopes will increase pressure on Republicans vowing to block whomever Obama nominates in an election year. (U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit via AP)

Obama said he wants an "outstanding jurist" with "impeccable legal credentials, who, by historical standards, would not even be questioned as qualified for the court."

In the hours after Scalia's death in mid-February, Senate Republican leaders pledged to block any Obama nominee, saying the president who is elected in November should get to make that pick.

"So in terms of who I select, I'm going to do my job," Obama said. "And then my expectation is going to be will the Senate do its job as outlined in the Constitution?"

Obama brushed aside the notion that the contentious confirmation process would limit his field of potential choices. His advisers planned to discuss the vacancy at the White House on Thursday with Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"I don't feel constrained in terms of the pool to draw from or that I'm having to take shortcuts in terms of the selection and vetting process," he said.

In his search for a successor to Scalia, Obama is zeroing in on a small group of appellate court judges with largely traditional credentials and a history of bipartisan backing.

That suggests the White House plans to challenge the Republican Senate to block a nominee whose pedigree might have paved the way for a relatively easy confirmation, if the fight weren't playing out in an election year.

Among the candidates in Obama's top tier are, according to a source familiar with the selection process:

Judge Sri Srinivasan of U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Merrick Garland, chief judge on the same court.

Judge Paul Watford of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Ketanji Brown Jackson, a district court judge in Washington, is also under consideration, although a less likely option, said the source, who was not authorized to publicly discuss private White House deliberations and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The judges' inclusion on the short list was first reported by National Public Radio, which also named Judge Jane Kelly of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as a finalist being interviewed by the president.

The emerging list, which the White House says is not final, seems in line both with Obama's personal and political aims.

As he has in his past two nominations, Obama appears drawn to candidates with traditional resumes  Supreme Court clerkships, prestigious posts in government and stints at major law firms.

The list also shows the president grappling with whether to add racial or gender diversity to the court.

Srinivasan, 49, would be the first Indian-American on the court, while Watford, 48, would be the third African-American to hold a seat. Brown Jackson, 45, would be the first African-American woman.

The White House has stressed that the nominee will have "impeccable" credentials, suggesting that person will have a record so sterling it will shame GOP senators into backing down.

Obama's consideration of Garland appears to fit that approach. Garland, a white 63-year-old with an Ivy League, East Coast background, would not add diversity to the court. But with a reputation as a judicial moderate and with broad respect in Washington, Garland could put maximum pressure on some GOP senators to crack from leadership opposition.

Both Srinivasan and Watford come with some bipartisan endorsement. Srinivasan was unanimously confirmed to the bench in 2013. Watford's confirmation vote was 61-34.

As Obama appointments, neither comes with long records on the bench, leaving their judicial philosophies somewhat ambiguous.

On the short list, only Kelly, a former public defender in Iowa, did not follow the traditional ladder to the highest court.

The risks associated with her experience have already emerged. In recent days, conservative groups raised questions about Kelly's work securing a plea deal for a man facing child pornography charges. After two decades as a criminal defense lawyer, similar cases are likely in her background.

FILE - In this May 1, 2008, file photo, Judge Merrick B. Garland is seen at the federal courthouse in Washington. In his search for a Supreme Court nominee, President Barack Obama is zeroing in on a small group of appellate court judges whose bipartisan credentials and traditional judicial pedigree the White House hopes will increase pressure on Republicans vowing to block whomever Obama nominates in an election year. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
AP FACT CHECK: Making hay with legislative weeds

WASHINGTON (AP)  Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders poked through the legislative weeds and tried to make political hay in their latest presidential debate.

Clinton called Sanders out for his record on immigration, the auto bailout and more, making some correct points about his votes while brushing aside complexities that help explain them  and why he's not a vigilante-loving hardliner on immigration who turned a cold face to Detroit in the auto-industry crisis.

A look at some claims in the Democratic debate Wednesday night and how they compare with the facts:

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton greets employees at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, Thursday, March 10, 2016, before departing to the airport en route to Tampa for a "Get Out the Vote" campaign event. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

CLINTON, accusing Sanders of voting against legislation to steer money to Detroit: "The money that rescued the auto industry was in that bill."

SANDERS: That bill "was the bailout of the recklessness, irresponsible and illegal behavior of Wall Street."

THE FACTS: Sanders is correct in the main. Legislation passed in October 2008 provided $700 billion to bail out big banks. But some of that money was later used for a bailout of Chrysler and General Motors. When Clinton voted for the Wall Street package and Sanders voted against it, neither senator knew money would be shifted to the auto industry.

When legislation came up separately that proposed explicit support for the auto industry, both voted for it. Then in January 2009, shortly before Barack Obama became president, lawmakers tried to block the release of a second phase of the package approved earlier for the Wall Street rescue. Sanders backed the effort to stop the release of this money. The effort failed. At this point, it was known that some of the money would go to the auto industry as well, although it was not known how much.

___

CLINTON: Sanders "stood with the Minutemen vigilantes in their ridiculous, absurd efforts to, quote, hunt down immigrants."

SANDERS: "No, I do not support vigilantes, and that is a horrific statement, an unfair statement to make."

THE FACTS: She was right about his vote, perhaps a little over the top in characterizing it. In 2006, as a member of the House running for the Senate, Sanders voted for an obscure and largely symbolic amendment that sought to prohibit Washington from giving information to foreign governments about the activities of a civilian group operating along the border.

At the time, some hard-liners against immigration were concerned that U.S. officials were tipping off the Mexican government about movements of the civilian Minuteman group that was patrolling the border for people crossing illegally.

Sanders said it was an unimportant amendment "supported by dozens and dozens of members of the House which codified existing legislation." But it stands as an example of lawmakers backing something they might not like  or might not have given enough thought to  in order to achieve larger goals in a bill. As it was, the amendment did not survive and the issue was mostly forgotten  but not by Clinton.

___

CLINTON: "I think our best chance was in 2007, when Ted Kennedy led the charge on comprehensive immigration reform. We had Republican support. We had a president willing to sign it. I voted for that bill. Senator Sanders voted against it."

SANDERS: "Well, you have guest-worker programs that have been described by the Southern Poverty Law Center, one of the important institutions in this country who studies these issues, as guest-worker programs akin to slavery... They were cheated. They were abused. They were humiliated."

THE FACTS: Clinton is right that Sanders opposed the immigration liberalization, but that doesn't make him an opponent of that goal. As he explained it, the abusive guest-worker program contained in the legislation was so odious that he could not back the broader bill.

What Sanders did not make clear, though, was that his position also reflected concerns of labor unions that the temporary workers would drive down wages and cost Americans jobs. His stance was not all about the plight of the immigrant laborers, as a video played at the debate showed.

___

CLINTON: Defending her use of a private email server, now the subject of an FBI investigation into whether it was improperly used for classified information, said "it was not prohibited. It was not in any way disallowed... I did not send or receive any emails marked classified at the time... I asked all my emails to be made public."

THE FACTS: Clinton is correct that when she began using the private email system as secretary of state in 2009, federal law did not explicitly prohibit doing so. But her own department warned its employees against the use of private email to conduct government business because it could compromise classified materials and be subject to hacking.

In the year since Clinton turned over 55,000 pages of emails to the State Department, the agency has since censored hundreds of those emails because they contained classified materials.

And when Clinton agreed last March to turn over "all" of her emails to the State Department and urged their release, she acted only after her aides had combed through all of her private emails, withholding messages that they deemed to be personal. Those decisions weren't made by federal records specialists who normally decide which materials need to be turned over.

___

Associated Press writers Alicia A. Caldwell, Jim Drinkard and Stephen Braun contributed to this report.

Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton respond to audience members at the Miami Dade College Kendall Campus in Miami on Wednesday, March 9, 2016. (Craig Rubadoux/Florida Today via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
Israel starts corruption trial for ex-chief rabbi

JERUSALEM (AP)  The corruption trial against Israel's former chief rabbi has begun in Jerusalem.

Lawyers for Yona Metzger appeared in court Thursday to discuss charges of bribery, money laundering and income tax violations. A defense lawyer noted that investigating police had eavesdropped on Metzger for two years.

Yona Metzger ended his term early, in 2013, over the charges.

Israel has two chief rabbis, representing the Ashkenazi, or European tradition, and the Sephardic tradition from the Middle East and North Africa. Together, they lead the country's supreme body overseeing Jewish religious services.

Metzger, who served as Ashkenazi chief rabbi, is the highest-ranking Israeli rabbi to face corruption charges.
Authorities: Man accused of killing 5 tried to kill himself

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)  A jailed Mexican national accused of killing five men earlier this week cut himself with a safety razor in an apparent bid to take his own life, authorities said Thursday.

Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino, 40, was hospitalized in stable condition after being found bleeding Thursday morning in Montgomery County's jail, the county sheriff's department said in a statement. He was taken to the facility after his capture Wednesday a few miles from where authorities say he gunned down a 49-year-old man at the man's home.

The department's statement did not specify how Serrano-Vitorino obtained the razor.

This handout photo provided by the Montgomery County Jail shows Pablo Serrano-Vitorino. The Mexican national suspected of killing his neighbor and three other men at his neighbor's Kansas home before killing another man about 170 miles away in Missouri was arrested early Wednesday, March 9, 2016, authorities said. (Montgomery County Jail via AP)

Serrano-Vitorino, who is in the country illegally, is charged with first-degree murder in that man's death and the deaths of his neighbor and three other men Monday in Kansas City, Kansas. His public defender in the Missouri case, Stephen Payne, didn't immediately respond to phone messages seeking comment.

Missouri's attorney general, Chris Koster, said Thursday that Serrano-Vitorino would be prosecuted first for the Missouri killing and that Montgomery County's district attorney, Nathan Carroz, had asked his office to assist in the case. Carroz did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Chris Schneider, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office in Wyandotte County, Kansas, said he wasn't aware of any arrangement about which state would prosecute Serrano-Vitorino first.

But Koster spokeswoman Nanci Gonder told The Associated Press that "we intend to keep him in the state of Missouri through the trial."

Both states have the death penalty, though prosecutors haven't said whether they would pursue it. Kansas, which has nine men on death row, has not executed anyone since it reinstated capital punishment in 1994. Missouri, which has 28 condemned inmates, has put 18 people to death since 2013.

Authorities haven't discussed a possible motive for the attacks, though Wyandotte County District Attorney Jerome Gorman said the Kansas killings did not appear drug-related.

A probable cause statement filed with the Missouri complaint against Serrano-Vitorino alleges that he confronted Nordman on Tuesday morning in Nordman's garage, and the two struggled over Serrano-Vitorino's rifle. As Nordman's wife ran for safety inside the house and called 911, she heard a gunshot and saw a man running away, the statement read.

Serrano-Vitorino was deported from the U.S. in April 2004 because he was in the country illegally, but he re-entered at some unknown time, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But since then, he has avoided deportation despite legal run-ins that have included a battery conviction last summer in Kansas City, Kansas.

In the run-up to his deportation, a felony complaint filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court charged Serrano-Vitorino with making criminal threats against a woman with a rifle in February 2003. The threat was "so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate and specific" in conveying that he'd kill her immediately, the complaint said. It also accused him of assaulting the woman with a firearm, but the complaint offered no details.

The Los Angeles Police Department declined Thursday to provide a police report. Superior Court spokeswoman Elizabeth Martinez said the threat charge was dismissed during plea negotiations, and Serrano-Vitorino was sentenced in April 2003 to two years in prison for the assault charge.

Nordman's relatives said in an emailed statement Thursday to the AP that "we want answers!" from U.S. immigration officials.

Nordman's sister-in-law, Deanna Dunn, wrote that Nordman died a hero, yelling out to awaken his wife and have her seek safety as he grappled with the intruder and managed to free the magazine from the rifle, "all before Randy was shot with the only bullet left in the chamber of the gun."

"It's a tragic and senseless crime that has forever created a hole in our hearts, and our lives will never be the same. We may never heal from this," she wrote, eulogizing Nordman as an affable and "good man, a salt of the earth kind of person."

___

Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth and Bill Draper contributed to this report.

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)

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

Police gather near the house where a man was found murdered on Tuesday, March 8, 2016, near New Florence, Mo., just south of Interstate 70 near the intersection of Highway 19. 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

Janna Myers sits with her family in their car as they watch police search the area around the house where a body was found Tuesday, March 8, 2016, near New Florence, Mo. 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 multiple 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

A Missouri Highway Patrol helicopter flies near the house where a body was found Tuesday, March 8, 2016, near New Florence, Mo. 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 multiple 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

David Morawiec of New Florence, Mo., peers through his binoculars from the Bio Fuels USA station to get a better look of the 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
Migrants stuck at closed borders, others seeking new routes

IDOMENI, Greece (AP)  Desperate migrants and refugees piled up Thursday in fetid fields of mud at a closed border crossing as officials warned that a well-trodden route to Europe used by hundreds of thousands in the past year was no longer available.

With the closure of the migrant trail through the Balkans from Greece to more prosperous countries, concern also mounted that people desperate for sanctuary or jobs in Europe are already turning to smugglers to find other pathways.

Government ministers and experts say that Albania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania could become alternate tracks, and officials Spain are in contact with Algeria and Morocco to try to stop new routes from opening there.

Migrants try to catch food and other items thrown from the back of a truck at the northern Greek border station of Idomeni, Thursday, March 10, 2016. After nearly three days of rain, conditions in the refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonian where about 14,000 people are stranded have deteriorated significantly, with many of its residents struggling to re-pitch their small camping tents in slightly drier patches. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

At the same time, the flow continued to the Greek islands by boat from Turkey, either by those who have not heard the Greece-Macedonia crossings are no longer open, or by others who hope the closure is temporary.

Some didn't make it. Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said five people, including a 3-month-old, drowned when their speedboat sank Thursday off Turkey's western coast en route to the Greek island of Lesbos. Nine people were rescued from the boat, which was carrying Afghans and Iranians, the agency said.

NATO stepped up its operations to try to stop the smugglers, deploying five ships in the Aegean Sea, with plans to send more in the coming days to monitor the area near the Greek island of Lesbos and areas farther south, said Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of the alliance.

Meanwhile, Greek police said 81 economic migrants from Pakistan and north Africa who had entered the country illegally were deported back to Turkey.

Nearly 42,000 people are stranded in Greece, including 14,000 camped in the mud near the Idomeni crossing with Macedonia. Nearly three days of rain finally ended, but that did little to lift the misery for those staying in donated pup tents in nearby fields and along railway tracks.

Long lines formed for sandwiches, tea and soup at the Idomeni camp, which long ago surpassed its capacity. Others warmed themselves at fires using what dry wood they could find, or they poured oil on sodden logs to get them to burn.

The fields have grown increasingly fetid, with pools of water and deep mud that sucks the shoes off children. People dragged their muddy tents to new locations, looking for a dry patch of ground.

Many people who have spent days at the camp in chilly temperatures were coughing heavily.

A crowd formed at a truck of donated goods, with men tossing bags of diapers, toilet paper, bottled water, yogurt and prepared meals to the cheering crowd. Dozens of packaged meals ended up falling to the ground, with cooked pasta and yogurt splattering in the mud.

Some people gave up and boarded buses for refugee camps in and around Athens.

"May God take his revenge on them  everyone who did this to us  from whatever country they come from," said Raife al-Baltajy, a Syrian from near Aleppo, as she waited for a bus with her family. "May god take his vengeance out on them. Isn't it sinful? Are we animals? Or are we human beings?"

She said she had been living in Syria for four years under the shelling, but traveled to Turkey, then to the Greek island of Lesbos, where she took a ferry to the mainland and on to Idomeni.

"Under this rain, in the cold. Who wants to protect us?" she said.

Government health experts say there is no sign yet of infectious disease at the camp, but they have been urging people to move to nearby army-built shelters. Authorities say about 70 children at the camp have received treatment in the past three days for fever and diarrhea.

Almaz Moho, a Syrian Kurd who traveled from Aleppo with her three daughters, one of them an infant born in Istanbul, said they came to Idomeni "because they said the borders are open," but found out otherwise.

"And they're unsettling the children, between the filth, the dust, under the pouring rain, with little food and soaked clothes," she said. "Where do you want us to go? Where do they want us to go? We have no homes."

As European Union interior ministers met in Brussels on the crisis, Austria urged migrants to give up hope of moving on.

"The Balkan route is closed," Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner told reporters. "The biggest problem is that these refugees still have hopes and expectations, and these hopes are being constantly fed."

Germany was critical, despite the benefits of having to cope with a big drop in migrant flows due to the border closures that were prompted by Austria's decision to impose a cap on refugee numbers.

That "brings us fewer refugees, but on the other hand puts Greece in a very difficult situation. And this situation is not durable and sustainable," Mikl-Leitner said.

More than 1 million people have come to Europe in the past year, most of them by boat from Turkey to Greece, fleeing war, persecution or abysmal poverty. Once taken to the Greek mainland from their island arrival points, most headed to the Macedonian border, then onward to Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia, before moving on to Austria and other prosperous EU nations.

Passage through those nations began being restricted last month, and on Monday, countries along the Balkan route decided to allow entry only to people with valid EU visas. But even as those countries shut their borders, others braced for an influx of people taking alternate routes  and risking new dangers  in their search for a new life.

EU and Turkish leaders agreed Monday to the broad outlines of a deal that would see people arriving in Greece having fled war or poverty be sent back to Turkey unless they apply for asylum. For every person sent back, the EU would take in one Syrian refugee, thus trying to discourage them from the dangerous sea journeys, often arranged by unscrupulous smugglers.

But that complex and unclear agreement remained a concern for many, including human rights officials who questioned its legality.

"This agreement will dramatically reduce the legal entry points into the Union, forcing desperate refugees to look for other routes," warned Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the liberal ALDE bloc in the European Parliament. He said people will again try crossing the Mediterranean, or go through Bulgaria and Albania.

Officials in Serbia said about 150 people are arriving each day via a dangerous trek through Bulgaria, with frequent reports of robberies and beatings by locals.

"This will be a major win for smuggling groups," said Tuesday Reitano of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, referring to the EU-Turkey deal. "The effects are already visible."

Groups of 50 or more already are reported to have been smuggled through Albania, Reitano said. Clandestine routes are opening again in Hungary, where authorities report more people are breaching the razor-wire fence on its southern border.

Italy fears many may head west to Albania and use boats to cross the Adriatic Sea.

Frontex, the EU's border agency, said contingency plans are underway for any big shifts in migrant movements, with the organization's deputy executive director, Berndt Korne, naming Albania, the western Greek coast and Montenegro as possibilities.

Once spring arrives and the weather improves, people also could turn back to the dangerous route across the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy. Thousands have died off the Italian island of Lampedusa in recent years on that crossing.

___

Jahn reported from Vienna. Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade, Lorne Cook in Brussels and David Rising in Berlin contributed to this report.

A Syrian refugee walks in the rain among tents in an improvised camp on the border line between Macedonia and Serbia near the northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, Thursday, March 10, 2016. Around 1.500 migrants and refugees are stranded at Tabanovce transit center for refugees in northern Macedonia. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

Migrants compete to get food and hygiene items thrown from the back of a truck at the northern Greek border station of Idomeni, Thursday, March 10, 2016. After nearly three days of rain, conditions in the refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonian where about 14,000 people are stranded have deteriorated significantly, with many of its residents struggling to re-pitch their small camping tents in slightly drier patches.(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

A Syrian refugee woman with a child walks in the rain among tents in an improvised camp on the border line between Macedonia and Serbia near the northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, Thursday, March 10, 2016. Around 1.500 migrants and refugees are stranded at Tabanovce transit center for refugees in northern Macedonia. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

Migrants gather around a fire at the Greek border camp near Idomeni, Thursday, March 10, 2016. After nearly three days of rain, conditions in the refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonian where about 14,000 people are stranded have deteriorated significantly, with many of its residents struggling to re-pitch their small camping tents in slightly drier patches. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

A Syrian refugee woman with a child walks in the rain through mud and garbage in an improvised camp on the border line between Macedonia and Serbia near the northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, Thursday, March 10, 2016. Around 1.500 migrants and refugees are stranded at Tabanovce transit center for refugees in northern Macedonia. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

Migrants catch food and other items thrown from the back of a truck at the northern Greek border station of Idomeni, Thursday, March 10, 2016. After nearly three days of rain, conditions in the refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonian where about 14,000 people are stranded have deteriorated significantly, with many of its residents struggling to re-pitch their small camping tents in slightly drier patches. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Migrants try to catch an egg thrown from the back of a truck as food and hygiene were donated at the northern Greek border station of Idomeni, Thursday, March 10, 2016. After nearly three days of rain, conditions in the refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonian where about 14,000 people are stranded have deteriorated significantly, with many of its residents struggling to re-pitch their small camping tents in slightly drier patches.(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Migrant children gather around a fire to keep warm at the Greek border camp near Idomeni, Thursday, March 10, 2016. After nearly three days of rain, conditions in the refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonian where about 14,000 people are stranded have deteriorated significantly, with many of its residents struggling to re-pitch their small camping tents in slightly drier patches. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

People dry clothes around a fire at the Greek border camp near Idomeni, Thursday, March 10, 2016. After nearly three days of rain, conditions in the refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonian where about 14,000 people are stranded have deteriorated significantly, with many of its residents struggling to re-pitch their small camping tents in slightly drier patches. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

A father holds his child at the Greek border camp near Idomeni, Thursday, March 10, 2016. After nearly three days of rain, conditions in the refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonian where about 14,000 people are stranded have deteriorated significantly, with many of its residents struggling to re-pitch their small camping tents in slightly drier patches. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

Migrants sit around a fire at the Greek border camp near Idomeni, Thursday, March 10, 2016. After nearly three days of rain, conditions in the refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonian where about 14,000 people are stranded have deteriorated significantly, with many of its residents struggling to re-pitch their small camping tents in slightly drier patches. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

Migrant runs among clothes hanged to dry on a fence at the Greek border camp near Idomeni, Thursday, March 10, 2016. After nearly three days of rain, conditions in the refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonian where about 14,000 people are stranded have deteriorated significantly, with many of its residents struggling to re-pitch their small camping tents in slightly drier patches. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

A Syrian boy walks through the mud in an improvised camp on the border line between Macedonia and Serbia near the northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, Thursday, March 10, 2016. Around 1.500 migrants and refugees are stranded at Tabanovce transit center for refugees in northern Macedonia. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

European Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos, left, speaks with Norway's Migration Minister Sylvi Listhaug during a meeting of EU justice ministers at the EU Council building in Brussels on Thursday, March 10, 2016. Austrias interior minister on Thursday said refugees stuck at Greeces border with Macedonia blocked from moving further into Europe must understand that they have no chance of crossing. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Switzerland's Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga, right, shakes hands with Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri, left, during a meeting of EU justice ministers at the EU Council building in Brussels on Thursday, March 10, 2016. Austrias interior minister on Thursday said refugees stuck at Greeces border with Macedonia blocked from moving further into Europe must understand that they have no chance of crossing. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

European Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos, left, speaks with from left, Dutch Justice Minister Ard van der Steur, Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner and Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano during a meeting of EU justice and interior ministers at the EU Council building in Brussels on Thursday, March 10, 2016. Austrias interior minister on Thursday said refugees stuck at Greeces border with Macedonia blocked from moving further into Europe must understand that they have no chance of crossing. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Company owner requires workers to have firearm at the office

ATLANTA (AP)  The decision by the owner of a small insurance company to require his employees to carry firearms at the office has sparked a debate: Would having a gun on the job make you safer, or is it inviting violence into the workplace?

Lance Toland said his three offices, based at small airports in Georgia, haven't had problems with crime but "anyone can slip in these days if they want to. I don't have a social agenda here. I have a safety agenda."

When a longtime employee, a National Rifle Association-certified instructor who's been the company's unofficial security officer announced her retirement, Toland wanted to ensure the remaining employees were safe. He now requires each of them to get a concealed-carry permit, footing the $65 bill, and undergo training. He issues a Taurus revolver known as "The Judge" to each of them. The firearm holds five rounds, .410 shells that cast a spray of pellets like a shotgun.

In this photo taken Feb. 26, 2016, Lance Toland, the owner of Lance Toland Associates, an aviation insurance company with three offices in Georgia, poses for a photo in Atlanta. The decision by the owner of a small insurance company to require his employees to carry firearms at the office has sparked a debate: Would having a gun on the job make you safer, or is it inviting violence into the workplace? (AP Photo/Lisa Marie Pane)

"It is a weapon, and it is a lethal weapon," said Toland, whose company specializes in aviation insurance. "When a perpetrator comes into the home or the office, they have started a fire. And this is a fire extinguisher."

No employee balked at the mandate, he said. "They all embraced it 100 percent, and they said, you know, I'm tired of being afraid," Toland said.

An employer's legal standing to impose such a requirement depends on several factors, foremost whether the business is high risk, a convenience store or taxi company, for example, said Carin Burford, a labor lawyer in Birmingham, Alabama.

More than 400 people on average are killed in the workplace each year, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Just last week, a gunman with a criminal record who had just been served with an order to stay away from his former girlfriend began a shooting spree, eventually landing at the lawn mower parts factory where he worked. Authorities say he killed three people and wounded 14 others before a police officer shot and killed him.

About half of U.S. states have laws allowing people to keep firearms in their cars at work. There are companies that allow employees to bring firearms to the office. But it's rare to hear of an employer making it a requirement.

Kevin Michalowski, executive editor of Concealed Carry Magazine, said he hasn't heard of any companies issuing a mandate, but he's increasingly hearing from companies, churches and schools seeking training so they're prepared to deal with a workplace shooting.

He said while workplace shootings don't happen every day, when they do happen, people should have the ability to protect themselves  particularly before police are able to respond.

"The gun-free-zone sign isn't going to stop anyone. In fact, it makes people more vulnerable," said Michalowski, who is a part-time officer in Wisconsin for a county sheriff's department and a rural police department. "The good people who could stop things are disarmed."

One person who isn't convinced is Charles G. Ehrlich, an attorney in California. He was working for the Pettit & Martin law firm in California on July 1, 1993, when Gian Luigi Ferri, a failed entrepreneur and former client of the firm, arrived at the high-rise office building with multiple weapons, killing eight people and injuring six before killing himself.

Ehrlich was lucky. A meeting he was attending went long, and he didn't end up down the hall in a conference room that was Ferri's first target. "I heard the shouting and the noise" but had just moments earlier left the floor.

"It's not like it is on TV or at the movies where the good guy just shoots the bad guy," said Ehrlich, the former president of the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. "It's very difficult to shoot a gun accurately, even when you're not under pressure."

Ehrlich also worries about the pressure cooker that exists in many workplaces  and that arming more employees might actually lead to more workplace shootings.

"Conceivably, someone who was well-trained  an ex-Green Beret or something like that  could've run down the hall, pulled out a weapon and fired a shot," he said of the shooting at the firm. "But would he have prevented anyone from being killed? No. Unlike John Wayne who is always faster than the other guy, this guy got off the elevator and just started shooting."

Playing in the back of Toland's mind was something personal: A beloved uncle who had adopted him as a child was killed in 1979 during a nighttime robbery at the convenience store where he worked. Three men robbed him of less than $100. It was the first day he hadn't brought a firearm to the store.

Andrea Van Buren, an agent with Toland's firm for the past two months, was already comfortable with firearms. She carried a Glock nearly every day for the past decade and practices at a range every week.

When she hears about workplace shootings elsewhere, among her first thoughts is: "I'm glad it's not happening here and then the second part is, it could happen here, and then I think, at least I'm prepared," she said. "It's sad. It's heartbreaking."

The revolver Toland is providing his employees isn't exactly ideal for concealment. It weighs two pounds and is more than 9 inches long. By contrast, a Beretta Nano 9mm handgun is more than a third lighter and measures less than 6 inches. Van Buren said she's not bothered by the impracticality. "I liken it to, I have an office computer and I have an office gun."

She understands that not everyone wants to work for a company that requires having a weapon. "Gun ownership isn't for everybody. It's a huge responsibility," she said. "If you're carrying, you've got to be willing to use it."

___

Follow Lisa Marie Pane on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/lisamariepane

In this photo taken Feb. 26, 2016, Lance Toland, the owner of Lance Toland Associates, an aviation insurance company with three offices in Georgia, holds a Taurus revolver, in Atlanta. The decision by the owner of a small insurance company to require his employees to carry firearms at the office has sparked a debate: Would having a gun on the job make you safer, or is it inviting violence into the workplace? (AP Photo/Lisa Marie Pane)
The Latest: Missouri slaying victim's family seeks answers

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)  The Latest on the man charged with murder in the killing four men in Kansas City, Kansas, and a fifth man in central Missouri. (all times local):

4:45 p.m.

The family of a Missouri man who authorities say was one of five men killed this week by a Mexican national say they want answers about why the alleged assailant was even in the U.S.

This handout photo provided by the Montgomery County Jail shows Pablo Serrano-Vitorino. The Mexican national suspected of killing his neighbor and three other men at his neighbor's Kansas home before killing another man about 170 miles away in Missouri was arrested early Wednesday, March 9, 2016, authorities said. (Montgomery County Jail via AP)

Randy Nordman's family issued a statement Thursday saying that if Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino had been detained and deported after several brushes with the law last year, Nordman might still be alive.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it sent an order to detain Serrano-Vitorino in September to a Kansas sheriff's department instead of the Kansas court where he was fingerprinted over traffic citations.

ICE says Serrano-Vitorino was deported in 2004 but made it back into the country at some point. He's accused of killing his neighbor and three other men at his neighbor's Kansas City, Kansas, home Monday and killing Nordman the next day at Nordman's central Missouri home.

1:25 p.m.

Authorities say a jailed Mexican national accused of killing five men earlier this week cut himself with a safety razor in an apparent attempt to take his own life.

The Montgomery County Sheriff's Department says in a statement that 40-year-old Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino was found to have cut himself Thursday morning in his cell and was taken to a hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.

Serrano-Vitorino was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder in the previous day's shooting death of 49-year-old Randy Nordman near New Florence, Missouri.

Serrano-Vitorino also is charged in Kansas with four counts of first-degree murder linked to the shooting deaths Monday of his neighbor and three other men at the neighbor's home.

12:57 p.m.

Missouri's attorney general says a Mexican national accused of killing one man in that state and four others in Kansas will be prosecuted first in Missouri.

Attorney General Chris Koster said Thursday that his office has been asked by Montgomery County's district attorney to assist in Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino's prosecution on a first-degree murder count related to the killing Tuesday of 49-year-old Randy Nordman.

Serrano-Vitorino is also charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the Monday killing of his neighbor and three other men at his neighbor's home in Kansas City, Kansas. A spokesman for that county's prosecutor says he's unaware of any arrangement between the two states involving Serrano-Vitorino's prosecution.

But a Koster spokeswoman, Nanci Gonder, tells The Associated Press that "we intend to keep him in the state of Missouri through the trial."

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)

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

Police gather near the house where a man was found murdered on Tuesday, March 8, 2016, near New Florence, Mo., just south of Interstate 70 near the intersection of Highway 19. 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

Janna Myers sits with her family in their car as they watch police search the area around the house where a body was found Tuesday, March 8, 2016, near New Florence, Mo. 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 multiple 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

A Missouri Highway Patrol helicopter flies near the house where a body was found Tuesday, March 8, 2016, near New Florence, Mo. 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 multiple 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

David Morawiec of New Florence, Mo., peers through his binoculars from the Bio Fuels USA station to get a better look of the 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
Senate shoots down resolution to block F-16 sale to Pakistan

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Senate killed a measure to block the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan as opponents of the $700 million deal insisted no U.S. tax dollars should be used to subsidize the transaction unless Islamabad becomes a more trusted ally.

Senators voted 71-24 on Thursday to reject a resolution sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a vocal critic of American foreign aid to Pakistan and other countries. Paul invoked the decades-old Arms Export Control Act in an attempt to derail the sale of the eight F-16 fighter jets to a country Paul called a "frenemy" of the United States.

"Though the government of Pakistan has been considered America's ally in the fight on terrorism, Pakistan's behavior would suggest otherwise," Paul said. "While we give them billions of dollars in aid, we are simultaneously aware of their intelligence and military apparatus assisting the Afghan Taliban."

That Paul secured support from nearly a quarter of the Senate underscores how fractured the relationship between the two countries has become. Washington has openly accused Pakistan's intelligence agency, the InterServices Intelligence, of supporting the Haqqani network, a Taliban faction that is also a U.S.-declared terrorist group. The ISI has denied the allegations.

President Barack Obama's State Department last month approved the F-16 sale to Pakistan, yet several Democrats, including Sens. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Mark Warner of Virginia and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, backed Paul's disapproval resolution.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, urged his colleagues to reject Paul's measure and allow the sale to proceed. Corker acknowledged that Pakistan has been "duplicitous" with the United States, but said rejecting the sale would have publicly embarrassed Islamabad and led Pakistan to buy fighters from Russia or France.

Corker said that he and Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the committee, have agreed to bar the use of any U.S. financial support for the deal until "there are behavior changes that take place in Pakistan."

The sale also gives the U.S. leverage over the long haul with Islamabad, Corker said. The F-16 deal comes with 30 years of maintenance, which Corker said could be withdrawn at any time. That would leave Pakistan without the parts and expertise to keep the high-tech aircraft in the air.

"Publicly embarrassing them and sending them to Russia or to France to buy fighter jets ends that leverage," Corker said.

___
A wheezing, unloved bull market tries to keep running

NEW YORK (AP)  It's been seven years since one of the stock market's best-ever runs began, but the anniversary is passing without a party yet again.

This bull market is the third-longest in history, and investors in mutual funds that track the broad U.S. market have more than tripled their money since a 6 percent jump seven years ago Thursday marked the start of the run.

Investors still don't believe in it. This bull market has been mistrusted and unloved from the start, even though it has managed to stagger higher amid a government shutdown, a debt crisis in Europe that nearly tore apart the European Union and a growth slowdown in China, the world's economic engine.

FILE - This Tuesday, March 10, 2009, file photo, shows a digital display board on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Its been seven years since one of the stock markets best-ever runs began, and investors still dont feel much of an itch to get involved. Worries are high that the market has already topped out, and a looming recession may knock the S&P 500 down again. Its an indication of what a strange bull market this has been, and another reminder how important it is to stay diversified. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams, File)

At times, even as the market stayed strong, regular investors were pulling money out of stocks instead of investing more as in past bull markets. Now, worries are high that the market has already topped out, and that a recession may be coming to knock the Standard & Poor's 500 index down again.

The index is down about 7 percent from its peak in May, and other investments like oil and emerging-market stocks have crashed in recent months, turning from bull to bear by falling 20 percent in value from recent highs. It's an indication of what a strange bull market this has been, and another reminder of how important it is to stay diversified. Nearly three quarters of retirement savings in 401(k) and similar plans is in stocks, according to a survey of plans at Vanguard, one of the largest retirement account administrators.

HOW THIS BULL MEASURES UP

This bull market may soon become the second-longest since World War II.

Yes, stocks have been weak this year, and at one point last month the S&P 500 was down as much as 14 percent from its peak. But the index has so far managed to avoid a drop of 20 percent, the arbitrary line where market watchers say a bull market morphs into a bear market. If that were to happen, traders would say the bull market ended on May 21, when the S&P 500 set its last record high.

If the bull market does manage to stay alive, it would join only two others that made it into an eighth year. One of those, in the 1950s, petered out less than two months after passing the milestone. The other became the longest bull market, extending from late 1990 into 2000, according to S&P Capital IQ.

UNLOVED BULL

This bull market had to overcome the challenges and doubts that haunted the nation after the 2008 financial crisis, which helped wipe out more than 8 million jobs and half of stock investors' holdings.

At first, investors didn't trust the bull because the job market was so slow to recover. Later, in 2011, it was concerns about the still-weak economy combined with worries about political tensions around the world. Fear spiked that the U.S. government could default on its debt and that the European Union could unravel due to its debt crisis. The S&P 500 dropped nearly 20 percent from late April 2011 into early October 2011, coming close to falling into a bear market before recovering.

Even when the stock market was doing well, like in 2013 when the S&P 500 returned 32 percent, investors were slow to embrace the bull. Some thought the market's gains hinged on unprecedented stimulus from the Federal Reserve that could evaporate or lose its power at any moment.

At times money went into U.S. stock mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, but never with the fervor that gripped investors during the dot-com boom or other bull markets. Over the last year, investors withdrew a net $66 billion from U.S. stock funds, even as they invested elsewhere. Just over $205 billion went into foreign stock funds over the same time, and nearly $8 billion entered taxable bond funds.

WHY ALL THIS DISTRUST STILL?

One word: recession. Investors are worried again that the economy, which has been growing only modestly, is about to go into reverse. The same fear has gripped investors repeatedly through the bull market. It started so early in the economic recovery, which began in June 2009, that "double-dip recession" became a common phrase.

The worries now focus on the slowdown in China, which is the world's second-largest economy and for years was its main engine of growth. Economies in Europe and elsewhere are also still growing only modestly, if at all, which pressures U.S. exporters.

And the Federal Reserve has almost no room to cut rates to stimulate the economy because rates are still close to a record low.

All that is against the backdrop of an economic recovery that, like the bull market, is also geriatric at nearly seven years old. The average economic expansion has lasted less than five years, going back to 1945, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.

YOU SHOULD SEE THE OTHER GUY

Investors may be uninspired by the broad U.S. market, but it has demonstrated its value to investors by holding up better than many other investments in recent months and years.

Oil has lost nearly two thirds of its value over the last two years, a result of a global oversupply. That's dragged down the value of energy companies in the S&P 500 by 30 percent. China's struggles have hurt stock markets across the developing world. Emerging-market stocks have lost 26 percent since a recent peak in April.

Even portions of the U.S. stock market outside the energy industry, like small U.S. company stocks, fell into a bear market, though they have recovered somewhat in recent weeks.

Many strategists on Wall Street say they expect the bull market for the S&P 500 to persevere, even if few expect huge gains. U.S. companies  and the stock market  have so far weathered a lot, strategists from Deutsche Bank wrote in a recent research report.

"In our view, this increases the chances of this being a slow but long expansion that rivals the 10-year record," they said.

FILE - This Tuesday, March 10, 2009, file photo, shows a digital display board on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Its been seven years since one of the stock markets best-ever runs began, and investors still dont feel much of an itch to get involved. Worries are high that the market has already topped out, and a looming recession may knock the S&P 500 down again. Its an indication of what a strange bull market this has been, and another reminder how important it is to stay diversified. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams, File)
Berkeley law school dean resigns amid sex harassment lawsuit

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP)  The dean of the University of California, Berkeley law school resigned Thursday amid faculty outrage that he had been allowed to remain in the position after a campus investigation substantiated sexual harassment allegations from his executive assistant.

The development came a day after Sujit Choudhry, 46, took leave from the dean's position, with plans to remain at the law school as a faculty member. Under the terms of the university's tenure rules, professors only can be fired by Berkeley's Academic Senate, and "Choudhry remains a member of the school's faculty at present," campus officials said in a statement.

Choudhry's assistant, Tyann Sorrell, 41, alleged in a lawsuit this week that her boss kissed, hugged and touched her repeatedly, but he received only a temporary pay cut as punishment and orders to undergo counseling following the campus investigation.

This May 12, 2014 photo released by the Univesity of California Berkeley shows Berkeley Law Dean Sujit Choudhry in Berkeley, Calif. The dean of UC Berkeley's law school went on an indefinite leave of absence from the post Wednesday, March 9, 2016, after his executive assistant sued him over allegations of sexual harassment and the university for allegedly not doing enough to prevent it. (University of California Berkeley via AP)

A written report from Berkeley's Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination concluded that Choudhry's behavior had violated campus sex harassment policies. The dean did not dispute the substance of Sorrell's complaint, only whether the physical contact occurred several times a day or a few times a week, the report states.

Chancellor Nicholas Dirks met with angry law school faculty members on Thursday morning along with Provost Claude Steele, who on Wednesday had said that the disciplinary measures he had imposed on the dean in July were appropriate.

After the meeting, the two said in a letter to law school professors, alumni and students that they welcomed the dean's resignation as being in the university's best interests.

"We are under no illusion that a resignation could or even should bring this matter and broader, related issues to a close," they said. "It is clear, as we heard during our meeting with law school faculty this morning, that the initial decision not to remove the dean from his position is the subject of legitimate criticism."

Choudhry is the second dean of Berkeley's top-ranked law school to resign under the cloud of inappropriate sexual behavior.

Another Berkeley Law dean, John Dwyer, resigned in 2002 after a former student accused him of molesting her after a night of drinking at her apartment.

Dwyer at the time described the relationship as consensual, but he said he acted inappropriately.

The revelations involving Choudhry came nearly five months after a prominent astronomer at Berkeley, Geoffrey Marcy, resigned amid a national outcry over revelations that the school had substantiated sexual harassment complaints from former female students without demoting or suspending him from his job.
The Latest: NJ Transit contract talks wrap up for day

NEWARK, N.J. (AP)  The Latest on contract negotiations between New Jersey Transit and its rail workers (all times local):

5 p.m.

Face-to-face negotiations have wrapped up for the day between New Jersey Transit and its rail workers unions.

Both sides plan to resume contract talks on Friday in hopes of averting a strike threatened to start Sunday.

Gary Dellaverson (dell-AH'-ver-son) says the basic issues of wages and health care costs still are being discussed and both sides are seeking a resolution.

NJ Transit is the nation's third-largest commuter railroad system and carries about 105,000 people from New Jersey to New York each day, either directly or through connections.

Unions have authorized a strike deadline of 12:01 a.m. Sunday.

___

3:35 p.m.

New Jersey Transit's special counsel says no agreement has been reached in contract negotiations with unions as a strike deadline nears this weekend.

Gary Dellaverson (dell-AH'-ver-son) said the basic issues of wages and health care costs are still being discussed and that both sides are seeking a resolution. The parties are negotiating in Newark on Thursday.

NJ Transit is the nation's third-largest commuter railroad system and carries about 105,000 people from New Jersey to New York each day, either directly or through connections.

Unions have authorized a strike deadline of 12:01 a.m. Sunday.

Dellaverson said every effort is being made to not be negotiating close to the strike deadline on Saturday.

2:30 p.m.

___

10:15 a.m.

Talks between New Jersey Transit and rail worker unions are resuming in Newark to try and avoid a rail strike this weekend.

More than 4,000 NJ Transit rail workers have authorized a strike for early Sunday morning. The two sides have yet to agree on wage increases, health care costs and the length of a contract.

Unions have been working without a contract for nearly five years.

A NJ Transit negotiator said Thursday that although the sides aren't in agreement on the issues yet, he's optimistic because the tone of the meetings has been positive.
OAS concerned by barring of presidential candidates in Peru

LIMA, Peru (AP)  The Organization of American States expressed concern Thursday over the timing of the disqualification of candidates from Peru's presidential race and said it was sending an observer mission for the election, in which the daughter of jailed strongman Alberto Fujimori is the front-runner.

The decision by Peru's electoral board to bar Keiko Fujimori's main rival on a technicality just one month ahead of the April 10 vote has sparked charges of political chicanery and a vow by economist Julio Guzman to fight his disqualification.

The board voided Guzman's candidacy on a 3-2 vote Wednesday, claiming the mechanism by which his party chose him violated its own internal rules.

Presidential candidate Julio Guzman answers a question during a press conference in Lima, Peru, Thursday, March 10, 2016. Peru's electoral council on Wednesday barred Guzman, the main challenger to front-runner Keiko Fujimori from the country's April 10 presidential election on a technicality. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Analysts called the ruling petty, noting that never before in Peruvian history had a candidate been so stricken from a presidential race. Others wondered why no one found fault with how Guzman was chosen until it became clear that he had become the lone serious challenger to Fujimori.

"While the system of challenges laid out in electoral legislation upholds the right to a hearing and judicial appeal, the timeframe set for the presentation of motions to disqualify candidates leads to uncertainty in both the electorate and the candidates themselves," the OAS said in a statement.

It said it would send an observer mission to Peru on Monday to follow up on preparations for the vote and to meet with election officials, political organizations and representatives of civic groups.

Guzman wasn't the only presidential candidate disqualified Wednesday. The board also found Cesar Acuna, a private university entrepreneur, broke the law by handing out cash at a campaign event. He had recently been running a distant fourth in polls.

Guzman's party said it would file an "extraordinary appeal" to the top electoral court against his disqualification. It urged officials to resolve the issue quickly because the ballots with the pictures and symbols of the candidates will start to be printed Saturday.

Guzman had surged in opinion polls, with recent surveys saying he had the backing of about 17 percent of voters, while 35 percent supported Keiko Fujimori, whose father is imprisoned for corruption and authorizing death squads. No other candidate polled above 10 percent.

With no candidate expected to win a majority of votes required to win the April 10 election outright, Guzman would have likely faced Keiko Fujimori in a June 5 runoff.

Keiko Fujimori narrowly lost a 2011 presidential runoff to current President Ollanta Humala.

Guzman is a 45-year-old former deputy minister in Humala's administration. A technocrat with a doctorate in public policy from the University of Maryland, he previously worked for the Inter-American Development Bank.

Presidential candidate Julio Guzman smiles next to supporters during a press conference in Lima, Peru, Thursday, March 10, 2016. Peru's electoral council on Wednesday barred Guzman, the main challenger to front-runner Keiko Fujimori from the country's April 10 presidential election on a technicality. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Senate shoots down resolution against F-16 sale to Pakistan

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Senate on Thursday killed a measure to block the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan as opponents of the $700 million deal insisted no U.S. tax dollars should be used to subsidize the transaction unless Islamabad becomes a more trusted ally.

Senators voted 71-24 to reject a resolution sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul, a vocal critic of American foreign aid. Paul invoked the decades-old Arms Export Control Act in an attempt to stop the sale of the eight F-16 fighter jets to a country Paul called a "frenemy" of the United States.

"Though the government of Pakistan has been considered America's ally in the fight on terrorism, Pakistan's behavior would suggest otherwise," Paul said. "While we give them billions of dollars in aid, we are simultaneously aware of their intelligence and military apparatus assisting the Afghan Taliban."

That Paul secured support from nearly a quarter of the Senate underscores how fractured the relationship between the two countries has become. Washington has openly accused Pakistan's intelligence agency, the InterServices Intelligence, of supporting the Haqqani network, a Taliban faction that is also a U.S.-declared terrorist group. The ISI has denied the allegations.

The State Department last month approved the F-16 sale to Pakistan, yet several Democrats backed Paul's disapproval resolution.

Sen. Bob Corker, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, urged his colleagues to allow the sale to proceed. Corker acknowledged that Pakistan has been "duplicitous" with the United States, but said rejecting the sale would have publicly embarrassed Islamabad and led Pakistan to buy fighters from Russia or France.

Corker said that he and Sen. Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the committee, have agreed to bar the use of any U.S. financial support for the deal until "there are behavior changes that take place in Pakistan."

The sale also gives the U.S. leverage with Islamabad, Corker said. The F-16 deal comes with 30 years of maintenance, which Corker said could be withdrawn at any time. That would leave Pakistan without the parts and expertise to keep the high-tech aircraft in the air.
Segregationist Byrd's name to be axed from Virginia school

RICHMOND, Va. (AP)  A Virginia school division decided Thursday to remove a prominent segregationist's name from a school, saying students should not be educated in a building named after a man who sought to shutter schools rather than integrate them.

The Henrico County school board voted 5-0 to strip Harry F. Byrd's name from the suburban Richmond school following a petition drive and overwhelming public condemnation of the school's name.

While most board members said Byrd had a positive influence in Virginia, they said they couldn't overlook his stubborn resistance to racial integration. Many also said Byrd had never apologized for his role in the state's so-called Massive Resistance to school integration.

Board member Beverly L. Cooke said that although Byrd reflected his times, "A public school should not be named after him."

The name change came after a spirited, months-long effort by a coalition of Byrd Middle School parents and community members. Some speakers at public meetings included African-Americans who were victims of Byrd's segregationist policies.

The board's decision was met with applause and hugs by proponents of the name change.

"I'm so proud and excited," said an elated Jordan Chapman, a 17-year-old senior who was among the leaders of the movement. "It definitely restores my faith in government."

The board said it would consider a new name for the school over the next 30 days, based on public input. Many have recommended the names of Virginia civil rights leaders.

Byrd was a governor, U.S. senator and powerful political force in 20th century Virginia. He also is credited as the architect of the state's official policy to keep public schools separated by race after U.S. Supreme Court decision struck down racially segregated schools.

Byrd had his defenders at heavily attended public meetings. They said he was a positive force for Virginia in many other ways, and that removing his name amounts to erasing history.

But for school board members, the school's link to Byrd could not stand.

Board member Roscoe D. Cooper III said that, "... we cannot change history, but we can revisit it." He called the name change a "breath of fresh air."

Many who were involved in the name-change movement said they had been unaware of Byrd's hand in Massive Resistance. They said the debate informed a whole new generation on a dark chapter of Virginia history.

In the South and elsewhere, once revered historic figures and symbols are being reconsidered over racial views now viewed as reprehensible. Statues celebrating the Confederacy are destined to come down in New Orleans and Confederate battle flags have been stripped from public places and license plates.

Byrd, who died in 1966, represents a much more contemporary figure. From the 1920s through the 1960s, his influence was apparent in virtually all public policy. The Democrat's dominance was known simply as the "Byrd Machine."

Byrd Middle School dates to 1971. Residents said the name change proposal has come up before but never gathered sufficient steam to reach the school board.

___
Protesters seek review board after Alabama police shooting

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP)  Protesters rallied Thursday outside Montgomery City Hall, saying they feel "alienated" by city officials after the fatal shooting of a local black man by a white police officer.

About two dozen people took part, holding signs reading "Justice for Greg Gunn" and "Black Lives Matter."

Officer Aaron Smith fatally shot Gunn on Feb. 25, officials have said. Smith was arrested and charged with murder less than a week later, a move the Gunn family called "progress" and Smith's attorney called a "political witch hunt."

Mary Thomas, center, and Orlando Ball, center right, hold signs during a protest of the fatal shooting of Greg Gunn by a white Montgomery police officer, Thursday, March 10, 2016 in Montgomery, Ala. Officer Aaron Smith fatally shot Gunn on Feb. 25. He was arrested less than a week later. Organizers say they want changes in policy and an independent review board of the department with citizen input. (Albert Cesare/The Montgomery Advertiser via AP) NO SALES; MANDATORY CREDIT

Gunn, 58, was killed outside a neighbor's house after Smith spotted him walking in a residential neighborhood a little before 3:20 a.m. Police initially said Gunn had attacked Smith, but Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey said he found probable cause to charge the officer with murder.

City officials said they handed over all evidence at the scene to the State Bureau of Investigations, which continues to examine the case. On Monday, Mayor Todd Strange announced the city's own internal investigation, a move that some locals criticized.

Protest organizer Larry Thomas said he believes the city's probe is an attempt to "derail" the judicial process and ongoing state investigation.

"I know that he (Smith) would never be charged if he didn't do anything wrong," Thomas said. "The district attorney had to have found probable cause. They're trying to derail that process. They don't want the legal system to run its course."

Thomas said the protesters would like to see the creation of an independent police review board with citizen input to help review complaints about officers, which are currently handled internally, and to provide input on police policy. Protesters also want the city's public safety director removed from the police department's chain of command.

Some have asserted that the overuse of "stop and identify" policies may have been a factor in Gunn's death.

"Law enforcement officers shouldn't be pulling people over or stopping people 'just because'," Thomas said. "Have a reason to stop someone. Be fair. Treat the people of Montgomery right."

The SBI and the district attorney's office remain tight-lipped on what evidence led to Smith's arrest. The mayor said his office has not been privy to SBI's or the district attorney's case and local police are "desperate for answers."

Gunn's family said Wednesday the probe is an attempt to "pander" to police.

Gunn family attorney Tyrone Means said Wednesday that the family's respect for the city and law enforcement "began to wane" when they saw a photo of Police Chief Ernest Finley and Smith with a caption expressing MPD's support for Smith.

Thomas doesn't fault the police department for standing behind their colleague, but said Smith "violated the rules."

"It's like how you support your child if your child messes up, you also discipline them," Thomas said. "If he's wrong, you show him the right way. A.C. Smith, he messed up. He took a man's life."

Aretha Vettis, left, and Tom Simon hold a sign during a protest of the fatal shooting of Greg Gunn by a white Montgomery police officer, Thursday, March 10, 2016 in Montgomery, Ala. Officer Aaron Smith fatally shot Gunn on Feb. 25. He was arrested less than a week later. Organizers say they want changes in policy and an independent review board of the department with citizen input. (Albert Cesare/The Montgomery Advertiser via AP) NO SALES; MANDATORY CREDIT
The Latest: Utah lawmaker ends push to repeal death penalty

SALT LAKE CITY (AP)  The Latest on a proposal to repeal the death penalty in Utah (all times local):

9:30 p.m.

The Republican Utah lawmaker who pushed his colleagues in the conservative state to abolish the death penalty is abandoning the effort hours before a deadline to approve it.

Republican Sen. Steve Urquhart looks on during debate on the Senate floor Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Salt Lake City. Utah's Republican-dominated Legislature will cast a final vote this week on a proposal to abolish the death penalty in the conservative state, a year after lawmakers voted to reinstate the use of firing squads in executions when lethal drugs are unavailable. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Sen. Steve Urquhart told The Associated Press Thursday night that there wasn't enough support for the measure in the state's House of Representatives and it wouldn't get a final vote before midnight deadline.

Urquhart says he came close to getting the needed votes but enough lawmakers were on the fence that the debate would have eaten up the final hours of the legislative session.

He says that likely wouldn't win him much favor and support for the measure.

The legislators are required by law to adjourn at midnight.

Urquhart says he thinks the proposal might be brought back in future years.

9 p.m.

The brother of the last inmate to be executed in Utah shouted at state lawmakers Thursday as it appeared they might not vote on a measure to abolish the death penalty.

Randy Gardner stood above lawmakers in the House of Representatives while holding a banner featuring autopsy images of his younger brother Ronnie Lee Gardner.

Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by firing squad in 2010.

His older brother was escorted by security out of the House chamber Tuesday after he shouted at lawmakers that no one had the right to do that to someone.

He later told reporters he was frustrated that it appeared legislators wouldn't vote on a measure to end capital punishment.

It was unclear if he would be arrested.

___

7:45 p.m.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert still won't say if he'd veto a bill abolishing the death penalty should the measure advance to his desk.

Herbert made the comments to The Associated Press on Thursday evening as a proposal to end capital punishment awaited a final vote from the Legislature hours before a midnight deadline.

The Republican governor says he's pro-death penalty but there are legitimate arguments to be made that the punishment is costly and ineffective because inmates can spend decades appealing their sentences.

Herbert says he's a little surprised the measure has moved so far in the state's conservative Legislature but it seems that public opinion is starting to shift on the practice.

___

6:45 p.m.

A Republican Utah lawmaker pushing for a repeal of the death penalty says he's working on an amended version of his proposal and still thinks lawmakers will debate and vote on it.

Sen. Steve Urquhart declined to talk further about his proposal, which made surprising strides in the state's conservative Legislature but faced an uncertain fate Thursday in the few hours lawmakers had left to approve it.

The proposal must be approved by the state House of Representatives by midnight Thursday.

A lawmaker co-sponsoring the proposal said earlier Thursday that he didn't believe it had enough votes to pass.

If passed, it moves to Gov. Gary Herbert.

Herbert, a Republican, won't say if he would sign the measure.

___

3:25 p.m.

The Republican speaker of Utah's House says he suspects a bill to repeal the death penalty may not come up for a vote before lawmakers end their annual session Thursday.

Greg Hughes made the comments after the proposal was pulled from the agenda at a mid-day meeting where House Republicans discuss pending issues before taking formal action.

Hughes says he believes the sponsor of the measure, Republican Sen. Steve Urquhart, asked that lawmakers not discuss it in the GOP meeting.

Urquhart did not return a message Thursday seeking comment.

Hughes says he doesn't know for sure if the measure will come up for a final vote but says it's possible lawmakers may adjourn without considering it.

Hughes favors abolishing the death penalty but says a repeal will be tough to pass in the conservative state.

___

3 p.m.

One of two Utah lawmakers sponsoring a measure to repeal the death penalty in the conservative state says he doesn't think it has enough support to pass.

Republican Rep. Eric Hutchings says about a third of the 75 members in Utah's House of Representatives are undecided on how they'd vote on the measure.

Hutchings says the remaining lawmakers are evenly divided on it.

He says he still expects legislators to debate and vote on the measure before a midnight Thursday deadline, despite one lawmaker telling reporters earlier Thursday that it would not move forward.

Republican Rep. Paul Ray, a strong supporter of capital punishment, said he believed the measure wouldn't be voted on because it didn't have enough support.

Hutchings says that's not the case.

___

11:15 a.m.

Utah lawmakers are nearing their deadline to decide if they want to abolish the death penalty in the conservative state.

Thursday is the final day of the legislative session, and lawmakers have until midnight to vote.

The measure cleared a House committee by one vote Tuesday. If it passes the full House, the bill will head to Republican Gov. Gary Herbert, who says he hasn't decided whether he'll sign it.

The debate in the GOP-dominated Legislature comes amid a renewed national discussion about capital punishment.

A nationwide shortage of lethal-injection drugs in recent years has led several states to pass or consider laws to bring back other execution methods, such as electrocution.

Last year, Utah lawmakers voted to reinstate firing squads as a backup method to ensure the state had a way to kill death row inmates if it couldn't get lethal-injection drugs.
US man says used as sex slave after his adoption from Russia

SAN JOSE, California (AP)  A man has filed a lawsuit against a California couple he said used him as a sex slave after adopting him from an orphanage in Russia at the age of 9.

Denis Flynn, 23, said his father, Ralph Flynn, would abuse him more and more frequently, and his mother, Carolyn Flynn, began abusing him when he turned 15. Denis Flynn spoke at a news conference on Wednesday.

The couple was arrested in November and faces multiple sex abuse charges. They have not entered pleas.

The office of Ralph Flynn's attorney, Steven Nakano, said there was a gag order in the case that would not allow the attorney to make any comment.

Carolyn Flynn's attorney, Wesley Schroeder, said he could not comment on the particulars of the case. Carolyn Flynn is charged with counts including incest and unlawful intercourse. Ralph Flynn faces more than 40 counts.

"I just cannot emphasize enough that due process and having a fair and impartial hearing are vital," Schroeder said.

Denis Flynn said he was living a fantasy when he first came to the couple's home after three years at an orphanage. He had his own bed and television and "fantastic food."
MIAMI (AP)  Abandoning the nasty insults of past debates, Donald Trump and his Republican rivals turned Thursday night's presidential face-off into a mostly respectful but still pointed discussion of Social Security, Islam, trade and more. Trump shook his head and declared at one point: "I can't believe how civil it's been up here."

Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio didn't hesitate to lay out their differences with Trump, but the candidates largely managed to present those arguments without vitriol.

In a lengthy discussion of the threat posed by radicalized Muslims, Trump refused to back away from his recent statement that "Islam hates the West." He said he wouldn't stoop to being "politically correct" by avoiding such statements.

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks as Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump listens, during the Republican presidential debate sponsored by CNN, Salem Media Group and the Washington Times at the University of Miami, Thursday, March 10, 2016, in Coral Gables, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Rubio had a sharp comeback: "I'm not interested in being politically correct. I'm interested in being correct."

The Florida senator noted the Muslims in the U.S. military and buried in Arlington National Cemetery and said the only way to solve the problem of violent extremists is to work with people in the Muslim faith who are not radicals.

Cruz bundled together his criticisms of Trump for what he called simplistic solutions on trade and on Islamic terrorists, saying, "The answer is not to simply yell, 'China: bad, Muslim: bad.'"

Trump, though, clearly was intent on projecting a less bombastic  and more presidential  image.

His closing message: "Be smart and unify."

"We're all in this together," he said early on, sounding more like a conciliator than a provocateur as he strives to unify the party behind his candidacy. "We're going to come up with solutions. We're going to find the answer to things."

The candidates split down the middle  Trump and Texas Sen. Cruz vs. Florida Sen. Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich  on the likelihood of the GOP race coming down to a brokered Republican convention this summer.

"I think I'm going to have the delegates, OK?" Trump said.

As for who has a realistic chance of winning the nomination, Trump simply wrote off Rubio and Kasich, saying, "There are two of us that can, and there are two of us that cannot, OK?"

Cruz heartily agreed with Trump on that.

Rubio countered that disappointing "delegate math" aside, he'd keep on fighting.

Kasich, for his part, said it wouldn't be so bad to have a contested convention. He added there are plenty of primaries left so "let's not get ahead of ourselves."

Trump's rivals, in a desperate scramble to halt his march to the nomination, gradually ramped up their criticism as the night wore on.

Rubio's overarching message: "I know that a lot of people find appeal in the things Donald says. The problem is presidents can't just say anything they want because it has consequences around the world."

Cruz, eager to cement his position as the party's last best alternative to Trump, had a string of criticisms of the GOP front-runner, too, saying flatly at one point: "His solutions don't work."

Trump refused to take the bait when Cruz repeatedly poked at his foreign policy positions and at one point lumped Trump with Hillary Clinton and John Kerry in supporting the Obama administration's Iran nuclear deal.

Trump's restrained response: "If Ted was listening, he would have heard me say something very similar" to what Cruz had said about the failings of the deal.

In a meaty discussion of Social Security, Cruz and Rubio both said they'd gradually raise the retirement age for younger workers to help stabilize the system and stave off financial disaster for the system.

Trump, in contrast, said he'd do "everything within my power not to touch Social Security, to leave it the way it is."

On that issue, the GOP front-runner couldn't resist taking a dig at the Democrats, saying he'd been watching them intensely "even though it's a very, very boring thing to watch"  and that they weren't doing anything on Social Security.

Trump was questioned about whether he had set a tone at his rallies that fueled violent encounters between supporters and protesters.

"I truly hope not," he said, but added that many of his supporters have "anger that is unbelievable" about how the country is being run and that some of protesters were "bad dudes."

President Barack Obama, offering political commentary from the sidelines, said earlier in the day the party was going through a "Republican crackup" that had taken on the tone of a "circus." He blamed the GOP itself for fostering the idea "that cooperation or compromise somehow is a betrayal."

Florida is the biggest prize of Tuesday's five-state round of voting, and all 99 of the state's delegates will go to the winner.

In all, 367 Republican delegates will be at stake, with voting also occurring in Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and the Northern Mariana Islands.

In the race for delegates, Trump has 459, Cruz 360, Rubio 152 and Kasich 54. It takes 1,237 to win the Republican nomination for president.

___

Benac reported from Washington. AP Writers Donna Cassata and Laurie Kellman in Washington and Jill Colvin in Fayetteville, North Carolina, contributed to this report.

___

Follow Nancy Benac on Twitter at http://twitter.com/nbenac and Julie Bykowicz at https://twitter.com/bykowicz

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., left, answers a question, as Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump listens, during the Republican presidential debate sponsored by CNN, Salem Media Group and the Washington Times at the University of Miami, Thursday, March 10, 2016, in Coral Gables, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Republican presidential candidates, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., from left, Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, stand together during the signing of the National Anthem, before the start of the Republican presidential debate sponsored by CNN, Salem Media Group and the Washington Times at the University of Miami, Thursday, March 10, 2016, in Coral Gables, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
UN chief concerned about NKorea missile launch

UNITED NATIONS (AP)  United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is "gravely concerned" about the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea fired short-range ballistic missiles into the sea Thursday in a show of defiance in response to new sanctions from South Korea.

Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric says the Secretary General is once again calling on North Korea to cease destabilizing acts such as today's missile launch.

"We reaffirm the Secretary-General's commitment to work for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," Dujarric said.
White attendee at Trump rally charged with hitting black man

FAYETTEVILLE, North Carolina (AP)  A white attendee at a Donald Trump rally was charged with assault Thursday after he was caught on video hitting a black man being escorted out by deputies, authorities said.

The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office said John Franklin McGraw, 78, was charged with assault and disorderly conduct after the rally for the Republican front-runner on Wednesday.

The statement said the victim was being escorted out after disrupting the rally, and deputies had their eyes on the stairs when the assault happened.

Protesters are removed as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Fayetteville, N.C., Wednesday, March 9, 2016. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

McGraw was arrested Thursday after investigators reviewed a video posted on social media.

Listings for McGraw rang disconnected. Authorities didn't respond to an email asking if he had an attorney.

In an email in response to a question about the assault, Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks said only that "we are not involved."

The man who was punched, Rakeem Jones, told The Associated Press that he and others went to the event as observers, not protesters. He says someone swore at one of their group, and by the time they tried to object, the police were escorting him out.

"It was like, wow, I got hit while the police are escorting me out. ... The police watched me get hit," he said.

Confrontations between protesters and Trump supporters have become common at Trump rallies across the country. Trump has incorporated reactions to them into his speeches.

Audiences are usually told ahead of rallies in an announcement not to harm protesters and instead attract authorities' attention by chanting, "Trump! Trump! Trump!"

In this Thursday, March 10, 2016 photo provided by Ronnie Rouse, Rakeem Jones is shown in N.C. A white Donald Trump rally attendee was charged with assault Thursday after he was caught on video hitting a black man, Rakeem Jones who was being escorted by deputies from the venue, authorities said. A news release from the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office said John Franklin McGraw, 78, of Linden, was charged with assault and disorderly conduct after the rally for the Republican presidential front-runner Wednesday in Fayetteville, N.C. (Ronnie Rouse via AP)
UN chief calls for 'moderation' after Iran missile launch

UNITED NATIONS (AP)  United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is calling on Iran to "act with moderation" after the country's Revolutionary Guard carried out missile tests this week.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard test-launched two ballistic missiles on Wednesday emblazoned with the phrase "Israel must be wiped out" in Hebrew  a show of power by the Shiite nation. Iran's foreign ministry says the launch does not violate the nuclear deal with world powers.

A Security Council resolution last year removing sanctions previously imposed on Iran also called on Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to deliver a nuclear weapon.
Some anti-Trump GOPs turn to Ohio, where Kasich could win

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)  Republicans hoping to stop presidential candidate Donald Trump were quickly deploying forces in Ohio Thursday as one of their last battlefronts ahead of Tuesday's crucial cluster of winner-take-all primaries.

Some anti-Trump groups said they were rushing to air television advertisements in Ohio, where home-state Gov. John Kasich has crept into a dead heat with the billionaire businessman, after the groups poured millions into Florida, despite Trump's solid lead there.

Nationally known Ohio conservative Ken Blackwell joined the chorus of anti-Trump voices, while Trump himself was planning weekend stops in Cleveland and Dayton.

Republican presidential candidate, Ohio Gov. John Kasich poses for a selfie with a Bernie Sanders impersonator at the end of a town hall meeting, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Palatine, Ill. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Still, some members of the Republican establishment in Ohio, the second-biggest prize among Tuesday's nomination contests, wondered if efforts to derail Trump here were coming too late and if their preoccupation with Florida has been a waste.

"You would think this would be their big charge up the hill," Ohio GOP state committee member Matt Cox said. "It would be a head scratcher if there's no bigger effort to stop Trump here."

Blackwell, a senior fellow with the Family Research Council who ran for Ohio governor in 2006, lambasted Trump on Thursday, calling him an unelectable "huckster" who is "dragging the nation into the gutter."

The former state elections chief and one-time contender to chair the Republican National Committee also sits on the boards of conservative groups Club for Growth and National Rifle Association.

He put his weight behind the Our Principles PAC  a group of wealthy Republicans and GOP activists who oppose Trump  which announced late Wednesday plans to spend $1 million on ads in Ohio in the primary campaign's final week. Officials with American Future Fund, another Republican anti-Trump group, said they too would spend money advertising in Ohio, but didn't note how much.

The movement toward Ohio comes as these and other groups combined to spend $4.1 million last week alone on ads attacking Trump in Florida, according to data provided by Kantar Media's Campaign Media Analysis Group.

But none of those groups have run ads attacking Trump in Ohio. And only one Republican group, which supports Kasich, paid for advertising in Ohio last week. The ads poke mildly at Trump and his rivals, but mainly promote Kasich.

Kasich's campaign has not aired any attack ads in Ohio, nor do they expect to. Kasich has long argued that the way to beat Trump is instead by projecting an understanding of the frustrations Trump has tapped. Kasich specifically is touting Ohio's increase in employment during his five years as governor.

And while it was not clear what the content would be, the pro-Kasich super PAC was scheduled to air about $750,000 in ads in Ohio in the final week.

Trump has dominated Florida polls for months, and maintained his solid lead in polls there this week. Rival Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio, a U.S. senator from Florida, vows to win the Florida primary, but has never led in voter surveys and has been running in second place according to recent polls. The winner of the Florida Republican primary receives all 99 delegates.

The winner of Ohio's GOP primary receives all 66 delegates.

Kasich, taking advantage of the Ohio Republican Party's apparatus, has carefully assembled a statewide get-out-the-vote operation, making gains through his positive, Trump-free message.

The governor's campaign has been making the case for several weeks that the Ohio governor is better prepared to win his home state than Rubio is to win his. John Weaver, a senior strategist for Kasich, played down the need for anti-Trump money in the race.

"We're not going to lose Ohio because of a lack of money. We're doing everything that we want to do in Ohio," Weaver said, calling the money spent in Florida "for naught."

Weaver also made the case that a focus away from Ohio by anti-Trump groups was an asset to Kasich. It reinforces the Ohio governor's claim as an outsider candidate, Weaver said, rather than the preference of the national party establishment, which Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz have criticized as ineffective and corrupt.

Kasich has carried a message of economic opportunity that appeals to a good chunk of Ohio independents and some Democrats.

Cincinnati Republican Alex Triantafilou said he was surprised there was not more of an anti-Trump effort in Ohio. "But I would also say, Gov. Kasich's operation is in overdrive."

"There's certainly a heavy grassroots effort here that's not being matched by any of the other campaigns," said Triantafilou, chairman of the Hamilton County GOP.

___

Associated Press writer Kathleen Ronayne contributed from Concord, New Hampshire.

___

Follow Thomas Beaumont and Julie Carr Smyth on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/TomBeaumont and http://twitter.com/jcarrsmyth

Republican presidential candidate, Ohio Gov. John Kasich speaks during a town hall meeting, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Palatine, Ill. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Junior doctors' strike enters second day

Thousands of junior doctors across England are on their second day of strike action in a row with the Government over a new contract.

More than 5,000 operations and procedures across England have been cancelled as the 48-hour stoppage enters its second day.

Hospitals are expected to be under more pressure than on Wednesday, with NHS England suggesting there may be more problems discharging patients owing to lower numbers of doctors.

Junior doctors and supporters on the picket line outside Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge

Junior doctors are providing emergency care only until the end of the strike at 8am on Friday. Two further 48-hour strikes are planned from 8am on April 6 and April 26.

On Wednesday, NHS England said that 44% of junior doctors - out of a possible 26,000 working on a typical day - reported for duty on the day shift.

But it confirmed that the figure included doctors who had never intended to strike, such as those working in emergency care.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced he will impose the new contract on junior doctors - everyone up to consultant level - after months of talks with the British Medical Association (BMA) failed to reach a resolution.

Figures from 228 organisations, of which 154 are acute hospital trusts, show that 2,077 inpatient procedures have been cancelled due to Wednesday and Thursday's industrial action alongside 3,187 day case operations and procedures, NHS England said.

Hundreds more routine clinics and appointments are likely to be affected.

Where possible, patients are being asked to contact their GP, seek advice from their local pharmacist, call 111 or check the NHS Choices website. In an emergency, people should still call 999 or go to A&E.

The BMA is seeking a judicial review over imposition of the contract, though Government lawyers have argued this is "misconceived".

The major sticking point has been over weekend pay and whether Saturdays should attract extra "unsocial" payments.

Currently, 7pm to 7am Monday to Friday and the whole of Saturday and Sunday attract a premium rate of pay for junior doctors.

The Government wanted the Saturday day shift to be paid at a normal rate in return for a hike in basic pay.

The BMA rejected this and urged Mr Hunt to reduce the offer of basic pay and instead have better premium rates on Saturdays.

The imposed contract, which is due to come into force in August, has an increase in basic salary of 13.5%.

Under the new arrangements, Mr Hunt said no doctor working contracted hours would see a pay cut, while night shifts and long shifts would be limited.

But 7am to 5pm on Saturdays will be regarded as a normal working day.

An Ipsos MORI poll for BBC News released on Wednesday revealed that 65% of the public supported the doctors' cause.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "Patients have so far seen more than 19,000 operations cancelled as a result of the BMA's irresponsible and unjustified industrial action."

Johann Malawana, the BMA's junior doctor chairman, said: "We deeply regret disruption to patients and have given trusts as much notice as possible to plan ahead, but the Government has left junior doctors with no choice.
SNP MP tried to claim for 137 spent on clothes after luggage was lost

An SNP MP tried to claim nearly 137 worth of clothes on expenses after his luggage was lost.

Phil Boswell - who is separately under investigation over spending on office costs and for allegedly failing to register financial interests - filed the claims shortly after he was elected to the Commons last year.

The latest expenses details released by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) show the Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill MP purchased a 59 shirt on May 12 "after luggage lost".

Phil Boswell is also under investigation over spending on office costs and for allegedly failing to register financial interests

The following day he spent 48 on clothing in Next and 29.95 in TM Lewin.

The watchdog refused to reimburse the claims - listed as "contingency" spending - as they were not allowed under the rules.

The information disclosed by Ipsa covers nearly 30,000 expenses claims by MPs that were processed in October and November.

Parliamentary standards commissioner Kathryn Hudson has been investigating a complaint that Mr Boswell did not properly register his directorship of Boswell and Johnston Ltd.

Ipsa compliance officer Peter Davis is looking into his office costs.

The details released by Ipsa also indicate that Tory backbencher Nadine Dorries claimed accommodation expenses of 1,820 a month between August and November last year, thought to be for rent on a London flat.

In June 2013, while her travel costs were under investigation by Ipsa, the Mid Bedfordshire MP announced that she would no longer claim any personal expenses. She was later ordered to repay 3,000 for travel that the watchdog's compliance officer ruled had been made for family reasons and not exclusively for parliamentary duties .

Ms Dorries told the Bedford Times and Citizen that month: "I'm going to work for free, I have to live in Bedfordshire because it is what my constituents expect from me, but as I sit on and chair committees I have to have accommodation in Westminster."

Writing on her blog the following month Ms Dorries said: "As everyone knows, I have removed myself from the personal expenses system. I shall use my salary to fund my second home in Westminster and my travel and all other personal expenses, which in effect means I shall be working for free."

Former nurse Ms Dorries, who was returned with a 23,000 majority at the general election, has appeared on ITV's I'm A Celebrity and forged a career as a novelist alongside her parliamentary work.

According to the latest register of financial interests, she is receiving 11,000 per month from her publisher.
North Korea's Kim says country has miniaturised nuclear warheads

By Jack Kim

SEOUL, March 9 (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country has miniaturised nuclear warheads to mount on ballistic missiles and ordered improvements in the power and precision of its arsenal, state media reported on Wednesday.

Kim has called for his military to be prepared to mount pre-emptive attacks against the United States and South Korea and stand ready to use nuclear weapons, stepping up belligerent rhetoric after coming under new U.N. and bilateral sanctions last week for its nuclear and rocket tests.

U.S. and South Korean troops began large-scale military drills this week, which the North called "nuclear war moves" and threatened to respond with an all-out offensive.

Kim's comments were his first direct mention of the claim, made repeatedly in state media, to have successfully miniaturised a nuclear warhead, which has been widely questioned and never independently verified.

"The nuclear warheads have been standardised to be fit for ballistic missiles by miniaturising them," KCNA quoted Kim as saying as he inspected the work of nuclear scientists, adding "this can be called a true nuclear deterrent".

"He stressed the importance of building ever more powerful, precision and miniaturised nuclear weapons and their delivery means," KCNA said.

Responding to the KCNA report, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman, Katina Adams, repeated a call on North Korea to "refrain from provocative actions and rhetoric that aggravate tensions."

Kim also inspected the nuclear warhead designed for thermo-nuclear reaction, KCNA said, referring to a miniaturised hydrogen bomb that the country said it tested on Jan. 6.

Rodong Sinmun, official daily of North Korea's ruling party, carried pictures of Kim in what seemed to be a large hangar speaking to aides standing in front of a silver spherical object.

They also showed a large object similar to the KN-08 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) previously put on display at military parades, with Kim holding a half-smoked cigarette in one of the images.

South Korea's defence ministry said after the release of the images that it did not believe the North has successfully miniaturised a nuclear warhead or deployed a functioning ICBM.

That assessment is in line with the views of South Korean and U.S. officials that the North has likely made some advances in trying to put a nuclear warhead on a missile, but that there is no proof it has mastered the technology.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, speaking by telephone to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, described the situation on the Korean peninsula as "very tense" and called for all parties to remain calm and exercise restraint, China's foreign ministry said.

North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6 but its claim to have set off a miniaturised hydrogen bomb has been disputed by the U.S. and South Korean governments and many experts.

Following on from the U.N. sanctions, South Korea on Tuesday announced further measures aimed at isolating North Korea by blacklisting individuals and entities that it said were linked to Pyongyang's weapons programme.

China also stepped up pressure by barring a North Korean freighter from one of its ports.

But a U.N. panel set up to monitor sanctions under an earlier Security Council resolution adopted in 2009 said in a report released on Tuesday that it had "serious questions about the efficacy of the current U.N. sanctions regime."

North Korea has been "effective in evading sanctions" by continuing to engage in banned trade, "facilitated by the low level of implementation of Security Council resolutions by Member States," the Panel of Experts said.
UK seeking to ease banking barriers with Iran, seals export finance deal

By William James and Jonathan Saul

LONDON, March 9 (Reuters) - Britain is working with its European partners to help ease the impact of banking restrictions on trade with Iran, Business Secretary Sajid Javid said on Wednesday, adding that the UK had signed a deal to simplify the financing of exports.

International sanctions, including banking restrictions, imposed against Iran ended in January under a deal with world powers in which Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear programme.

But U.S. measures including a ban on dollar trading and a freeze on U.S. banks engaging in trade remain in place. This has left non-U.S. banks and insurers wary of processing transactions with Iran, fearing they may still fall foul of the existing measures and a lack of clarity on what they are able to do.

Javid told the FT Iran conference in London that issues around cash and credit were "quite significant" but that Britain was working with other European nations and the banking industry to try to tackle them or provide clarity on how the guidelines work.

"For many firms it's not actually clear what you can or cannot do according to, let's say, U.S. rules. That's why one of the things that as a minimum has to be done quite quickly is to bring some clarity," he said.

Britain's trade envoy to Iran, former finance minister Norman Lamont, outlined the scale of the problem, saying he had struggled to get bank chiefs in London to meet with a recent delegation from the Iranian central bank.

"Terrified, they were," he said. "European banks, very much so the British banks, are very frightened of falling foul of what I would call the extra-territorial reach of American law."

Lamont added that he was talking to British banks continuously.

"The government are doing all they can to clarify this issue to find out what exactly what the banks'concerns are," he said.

EXPORT DEAL

Britain's export agency and its Iranian counterpart signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday, Javid said.

The deal will see UK Export Finance and the Export Guarantee Fund of Iran, the Iranian state-owned credit insurance company, work together to identify opportunities for trade in capital goods, equipment and services, Britain's business ministry said.

Other European Union countries including Italy, France and Germany have already struck billions of dollars worth of deals and many within Britain's business community complain that the country has been slower to respond.

Shrugging aside such concerns, Javid said "It's never too late". He added that he would lead a British trade mission to Iran later this year, possibly as early as May.
Tripoli volatile as push for unity government stalls

By Aidan Lewis and Ahmed Elumami

TRIPOLI, March 9 (Reuters) - Five years after the uprising that overthrew Muammar Gaddafi, Tripoli is on edge, somewhere between peace and war.

There is a semblance of normal life in the Libyan capital and glimpses of the unexpected - kite surfers zip across choppy waves and a group of amateur cyclists in matching kit pedal along a seafront highway.

Yet the armed groups that control the city are an unsettling presence. Gunmen in balaclavas staff checkpoints on key roads, and armed brigades have been flexing their muscles in late-night parades.

It is here that a unity government nominated abroad under a U.N.-backed plan is hoping to set up shop.

But two months after the deal was signed with limited Libyan support, Reuters interviews with residents and officials, and a string of recent incidents, show that resistance from hardliners in both Tripoli and the east is still getting traction, shrinking the space for the plan to succeed.

The hardliners in Tripoli present themselves as the true guardians of the uprising, protecting Libya against a counter-revolution and foreign meddling. Those in the east claim to be saving the country from Islamist extremism.

Both speak for some of the armed factions that hold real power in Libya, and are scared of losing influence, protection and access to the country's rapidly dwindling financial resources in a political transition.

In Tripoli's Martyrs' Square, where families stroll past dozens of men saying prayers at sunset, some support the unity government, saying they are fed up with violence, cash shortages and rising prices.

"We've had enough," said Fardous Boukhatwa, whose family was displaced by fighting in Benghazi and was visiting Tripoli with three of her children. "There is only one solution - reconciliation and forgiveness."

HARDLINERS

But others echo the criticism of the Tripoli hardliners. "The United Nations did not play the role of mediator, it was biased towards the east," said Abdulkarim Sadiq, a retired teacher from the suburb of Janzour. "They cannot bring peace to Libya - they just add fuel to the fire."

A group of teenage boys mention photos they saw on Facebook of Prime Minister-designate Fayez Seraj meeting the commander of Libya's eastern military forces, Khalifa Haftar, a former Gaddafi ally deeply mistrusted in the west.

For nearly two years, Tripoli has been under the control of armed factions that formed an alliance known as Libya Dawn to seize control of the capital.

They reinstated the old parliament, the General National Congress (GNC), and the newly elected chamber moved east to Tobruk.

The Dawn alliance has now splintered. Key brigades have said they will provide security for the unity government, but the situation is volatile.

Under the U.N.-backed plan, the GNC is meant to form a consultative chamber, and a few dozen moderates have been holding meetings in preparation.

After their third session was disrupted by protesters last week, one of those attending, Bilqasem Eggzait, said they might have to consider meeting in a different city.

The same day, a group that regularly protests against the unity government in Martyrs' Square appeared on a popular TV station to proclaim the unity government "illegal" and warn of "bloodshed and a fire of sedition" in the capital.

Early on Friday, the man nominated to head the State Council said rocket-propelled grenades were fired at his Tripoli office. The U.N. envoy to Libya swiftly condemned the incident, though the property later appeared undamaged.

On Sunday, three members of the committee tasked with preparing security in Tripoli for the new government were briefly detained, drawing further U.N. condemnation.

The chances of major clashes if the unity government came to Tripoli were small because a majority of Libyans support it, said Eggzait.

But with a unified security force to build and oil revenues at a fraction of their former value, the government would need to cut salaries for brigades of former rebels who added tens of thousands of men to the state payroll after the revolution, and this would be difficult. "Politics in Tripoli is not about ideology, it's about money," he said.

GUNFIGHTS

While recent violence in Tripoli has been limited to occasional gunfights and isolated clashes, Benghazi, Libya's second city, has been a battleground for Haftar's forces and a collection of armed groups including Islamic State.

After previous promises to "liberate" the city came to nothing, over the past two weeks the military has taken control of several key areas, allowing some residents to return to their homes and start repairing war-torn streets.

In the recently secured neighbourhood of Laithi, 42-year-old father of four Khairy Mohamed al-Qatrani said he had been able to return to his house "thanks to Khalifa Haftar, whose Karama (Dignity) operation has thwarted the plans of Islamic State to take control of Benghazi".

Qatrani said he hoped the army would be a neutral force in the future, but the military deadlock was broken as Haftar's allies in the eastern parliament, the House of Representatives (HOR), continued to block approval of the unity government, which includes Mahdi al-Bargathi, a Haftar rival, as defence minister.

The recent military push "very much has to do with Haftar's need to reassert himself as the saviour of the east in the face of challenges within his own camp," said Issandr El Amrani, North Africa director for International Crisis Group.

A majority of HOR members signed a declaration of support for the new government, but complained that hardliners had resorted to threats and physical force to prevent a vote.

A "crisis of trust" in the Tobruk chamber meant that voting to approve the government there had become impossible, lawmaker Ayman al-Nasr told Reuters.

Western diplomats, who say they can only provide sustained support for the fight against Islamic State in Libya at the request of a unity government, have looked on with growing exasperation.

The extremist group is in control of Gaddafi's home town of Sirte and has expanded to several other cities. This year it has launched a series of attacks on facilities in Libya's coastal "oil crescent".

Diplomats may now have to accept a return to negotiations, which could be complicated by the military advances in Benghazi and Haftar's enduring popularity.

Critics of the unity government plan say it was pushed through prematurely, before Libya's powerful armed factions were brought on board.

Unless this happens, with help from the regional powers that have backed both sides - Egypt and the United Arab Emirates in the east, Turkey and Qatar in the west - Libya's conflict will not be resolved, said Amrani.

"The political guys who stand in as proxies cannot negotiate for them at the end of the day," he said.
Three-time champion Seavey in lead halfway through Alaska's Iditarod

By Steve Quinn

JUNEAU, Alaska, March 9 (Reuters) - Three-time Iditarod sled-dog racing champion Dallas Seavey became the first to reach the halfway point of the near 1,000-mile race on Wednesday.

Seavey, winner in three of the last four years and looking for his third successive title, pulled in as the leader into the old mining town of Cripple, considered by race organizers to be the official midway checkpoint.

"He is working really hard out there," said Mitch Seavey, the father of Dallas and winner in 2004 and 2013. "Dallas is sick and he is not his usual happy self, instead he has this grim determination. He is dangerous."

Noah Burmeister, racing for the first time since 2008, has been challenging perennial favorites and trailed Dallas Seavey by 20 miles heading into Cripple.

Former champions Robert Sorlie, John Baker, Lance Mackey and Jeff King were among six others trailing Seavey.

The race commemorates a 1925 rescue mission that carried diphtheria serum by sled-dog relay to the coastal community of Nome, which is also Burmeister's hometown

Some 85 mushers and their dogs set off on Sunday from the town of Willow, about a 90-mile drive from Anchorage, on a journey northwest across the Alaskan tundra that the fastest team will likely complete in under 10 days.

Only four have withdrawn from the race. While most of competitors are from Alaska, this year's race drew entrants from as far away as Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

This year's winner will receive $70,000 and a new truck, while other top finishers will take home cash prizes from a race purse that exceeds $725,000.

Many mushers including the leaders have not completed a mandatory 24-hour rest coming into Cripple, so the leaderboard will be in flux until all contenders have completed this stop, plus two other mandatory rests that cannot be combined.
Romania - Factors to watch on March 10

BUCHAREST, March 10 (Reuters) - Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Romanian financial markets on Thursday.

DEBT TENDER

Romanian debt managers tender 250 million euros ($274.45 million) worth of Feb. 2021 euro-denominated domestic bonds.

MORTGAGE BILL

Draft legislation that would allow Romanians to simply give up mortgaged properties with no obligation to repay debts is a threat to the economy's strong growth, deputy central bank governor Liviu Voinea said on Wednesday.

AVERAGE WAGE

Romania's net average monthly wage rose 11.7 percent on the year but fell 8.1 percent on the month to 1,943 lei ($477.78) in January, after December holiday bonuses and public sector wage hikes, the National Statistics Board said on Wednesday.

CEE MARKETS

Shares in Central Europe's biggest independent lender OTP extended gains to new 6-year highs on Wednesday, boosted by share-buying of an investment fund linked to the bank's chief executive earlier this week.

DEFICIT WARNINGS

The European Commission warned Italy on Wednesday that its 2016 budget may break EU fiscal rules and urged Rome to take measures to redress the situation. The warning came in a letter sent to the Italian authorities. Similar letters were sent to Belgium, Croatia, Finland and Romania.

For the long-term Romanian diary, click on

For emerging markets economic events, click on

For an index of all diaries, click on
Poland - Factors to Watch March 10

Following are news stories, press reports and events to watch that may affect Poland's financial markets on Thursday. ALL TIMES GMT (Poland: GMT + 1 hour):

COURT

Poland's top court ruled on Wednesday that the government's planned overhaul of the tribunal was illegal, deepening a constitutional crisis that has stirred concerns about democracy and the rule of law in the EU's largest eastern member.

BOGDANKA

Polish coal miner Bogdanka said on Wednesday it estimated its 2015 net loss at 280 million zlotys ($72 million), which compares with a net profit of 273 million zlotys in 2014 as it had to write down the value of its assets due to the fall in coal prices.

ENEA

Poland's third biggest power group Enea said on Wednesday it estimated its 2015 net loss at 399 million zlotys ($101.90 million), which compares with a 908 million-zloty net profit in 2014, due to asset value impairments.

DEVELOPERS

Real estate developer Griffin Group is planning to take over one of its competitors to become Poland's biggest company in this sector, its Chief Executive Officer was quoted as saying by Rzeczpospolita daily.

OCHNIK IPO

Leather goods producer Ochnik is considering an initial public offering, Puls Biznesu daily said. The company with revenues of 100 million zlotys a year will issue new shares worth several dozen million zlotys.

ZE PAK

Lignite coal producer ZE PAK said late on Wednesday it had created write-downs worth 1.88 billion zlotys for 2015 due to tests that pointed to the loss in value of some of its assets.

CD PROJEKT

Poland's leading video games producer CD Projekt said in a statement that its net profit rose to 342 million zlotys last year from 5 million zlotys a year earlier.

TAURON

The management board of Poland's state-controlled utility Tauron has recommended paying out a dividend of 0.1 zlotys ($0.0254) per share for 2015, the company said in a statement on Thursday. Tauron's dividend for 2014 stood at 0.15 zlotys per share.

****Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.****
PRESS DIGEST - Bulgaria - March 10

SOFIA, March 10 (Reuters) - These are some of the main stories in Bulgarian newspapers on Thursday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

-- Bulgaria is ready to build a wire fence along its border with Greece to tackle a potential increase in migrant inflow, Defence Minister Nikolay Nenchev said (Trud, Standart, 24 Chasa)

-- Iranian and Bulgarian officials discussed opportunities for gas supplies from the Islamic Republic, at an intergovernmental meeting in Tehran, the government's press office said (Trud, Standart, Monitor)
Syria Observatory: IS commander still alive, badly wounded

BEIRUT, March 10 (Reuters) - The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday that Islamic State's military commander was badly wounded but still alive, appearing to contradict U.S. officials who said he was likely killed in a U.S. air strike.

The U.S. officials said on Tuesday that Abu Omar al-Shishani, also known as Omar the Chechen and described by the Pentagon as the group's "minister of war", was targeted near the town of al-Shadadi in Syria.

Observatory director Rami Abdulrahman said he had been badly wounded but not killed and had been moved to Islamic State's base of operations in Raqqa for treatment.

"He did not die," said Abdulrahman.
BEIJING, March 10 (Reuters) - Taiwan president-elect Tsai Ing-wen must "prove" her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is not pro-independence before Beijing will deal with her, a senior member of China's largely rubber stamp parliament said on Thursday.

China considers self-ruled Taiwan a wayward province, to be brought under its control by force if necessary. Defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan in 1949 after the Chinese civil war.

Beijing has repeatedly warned against any moves towards independence since January's landslide win by Tsai and her DPP in presidential and parliamentary elections. Tsai assumes office in May.

While the DPP's charter calls for the island's formal independence, senior DPP leaders have not publicly stated that clause of late and Tsai has said she wishes to have peace with China and to maintain the status quo.

Speaking on the sidelines of China's annual parliamentary session, Wang Yifu, who leads the Chinese-appointed Taiwan delegation to parliament, said the DPP's independence platform "makes the world feel uneasy".

Wang had been asked by a reporter to comment on Tsai's pledge to develop bilateral relations under the framework of Taiwan's constitution which stipulates that Taiwan and the Chinese mainland are part of "one China".

Tsai's pledge "contradicts" the independence clause in the DPP's own charter, Wang said, adding that she and the DPP would have to "prove (the DPP) is not a Taiwan independence party".

"This is the basis for cross-Strait exchanges," said Wang, who is also president of the All-China Federation of Taiwan Compatriots - a Chinese government group composed of Taiwanese exiles, defectors and their descendants.

The DPP did not respond to a request for comment.

China appoints a Taiwan delegation to parliament every year to back up its sovereignty claims over the island, even though nobody in proudly democratic Taiwan votes for them.

Wang stopped short of spelling out whether China wants the DPP to drop, revise or freeze the independence clause in its charter.

Wang urged DPP leaders to "appreciate and reciprocate the mainland's goodwill".

Chinese President Xi Jinping said last week China would never allow the historical tragedy of Taiwan being "split" off from the rest of the country to happen again, warning the island against any moves towards formal independence.
MOSCOW, March 10 (Reuters) - The European Union's foreign policy chief on Thursday told Russia to free Nadezhda Savchenko, a Ukrainian pilot accused over the killing of two Russian journalists, as Savchenko relaxed a hunger strike by starting to take liquids.

The 34-year-old is regarded as a national hero by many Ukrainians, but is charged in Russia with complicity in the killing of two Russian TV journalists during fighting between Ukrainian government troops and separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014. She denies wrongdoing.

On Thursday, Federica Mogherini, the EU's foreign policy chief, called on the Russian government to set Savchenko free, following similar calls from U.S. officials.

"This is no longer just a judicial or political case: now it's a matter of human compassion," Mogherini said in a statement released by the bloc's Moscow embassy.

"Her health condition is deteriorating rapidly and we all fear terrible consequences," said Mogherini, demanding Savchenko be set free on humanitarian grounds.

Nikolai Polozov, Savchenko's lawyer, told Reuters on Thursday his client had relaxed a hunger strike she embarked upon to protest against what she saw as the Russian court's overly lengthy proceedings and had started to take liquids while still refusing food.

She stopped consuming liquids last Thursday. Polozov said she had changed her mind after a request to do so from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and her supporters.

Her plight has prompted angry Ukrainians to pelt the Russian embassy in Kiev with eggs and Russians to picket the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow to demand justice for the killed journalists.

Savchenko, who was captured by pro-Moscow rebels in June 2014 and handed over to Russia, will be sentenced on March 21-22. She faces up to 25 years in a Russian jail if found guilty.
Africa must spend more on science research to halt brain drain, lift growth-scientists

By Kieran Guilbert

DAKAR, March 10 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A lack of investment in science is stunting Africa's growth, driving engineers, researchers and scientists abroad and depriving the continent of billions of dollars each year, the founder of a landmark conference said on Thursday.

Africa loses $4 billion a year by outsourcing jobs in science, technology, engineering and maths, the so-called STEM fields, to foreign professionals, said Thierry Zomahoun, chairman and founder of the Next Einstein Forum (NEF).

Most scientists and engineers who train in Africa work abroad because of the continent's limited opportunities and resources, he said, noting that Africa accounts for only one percent of global scientific research.

"There are still a lot of scientists across Africa, but they have been made invisible by a lack of development and investment," Zomahoun said on the sidelines of the NEF Global Gathering - Africa's first global science and technology forum.

"We want to make them and their work visible - to attract young people to stay, and encourage those who have left to come back to aid Africa's development."

Some 700 mathematicians and scientists from 80 countries are attending the event in Dakar, Senegal, as well as various government ministers and the presidents of Senegal and Rwanda.

The forum is showcasing the work of 15 of Africa's best young scientists, who are working on issues ranging from big data and cybersecurity to public health and waste management.

Cameroonian scientist Wilfred Ndifon is using a mathematical approach to develop a vaccine for malaria, and believes his method could also be used to design vaccines for other viral diseases such as yellow fever, dengue, and even Zika.

"This forum is not just about showcasing our work, but showing the potential for science in the continent and inspiring many more African people to do even bigger things," Ndifon said.

Yet Zomahoun said scientific progress could not be funded by government and public money alone, and urged the private sector to invest in the STEM and research and development (R&D) fields.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame told the forum there were too few students in science and engineering, and that a lack of African women in these sectors was holding back the continent.

"The pressure is on to catch up and keep pace so Africa is not left in the wake of technological progress," Kagame said.
Rubbish piles up in Spain's Malaga on 10th day of strike

By Jon Nazca

MALAGA, March 10 (Reuters) - A strike by refuse collectors in the Spanish city of Malaga entered its 10th day on Thursday, resulting in huge piles of rubbish clogging the streets and raising concerns the smell and mess could put off tourists ahead of the Easter holiday season.

Rubbish collectors from partly state-owned waste management company Limasa have been on strike since March 1 in the southern Spanish city against wage cuts and to demand better working conditions.

Malaga, whose airport is a major entry point for tourists seeking sun on Spain's Costa del Sol, has reinvented itself as a cultural hub in recent years to become a visitor destination in its own right.

French contemporary art gallery, the Pompidou Centre, opened an international outpost in a glass cube-shaped building in Malaga's Mediterranean harbour last year while a collection of works from the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg also opened in a renovated former tobacco factory in the city.

One hotel keeper said booking had tailed off a little in recent days.

"Reservations were much stronger than they were last year for Easter week, but they've suddenly tailed off a little in the past few days," said Francisco Moro, vice president of the Costa del Sol hotelkeepers association.

"There haven't been any cancellations as yet," he said, adding he was confident the city would be cleaned up before the end-March Easter break.

The mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre, and unions will meet later on Thursday in an attempt to resolve the dispute, Andalusian newspaper Sur reported.
Khamenei says Iranian economy yet to gain from foreign business visits

By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin

DUBAI, March 10 (Reuters) - Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Thursday Iran's economy had not yet benefited from the Western delegations visiting Iran as they had failed to deliver on their promises.

"We haven't seen anything tangible from these delegations visiting Iran ... We are expecting to see some real improvements. Promises on paper have no value," Khamenei said in a meeting with members of the Assembly of Experts, according to state television.

Hardline allies of Khamenei, wary of losing their grip in power, have criticised multi-billion-euro deals with European multinationals since a nuclear deal was reached with six major powers in 2015.

The deal led to lifting of sanctions in January in exchange for Tehran curbing its nuclear programme. Pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani has been trying to revive Iran's sanction-hit economy by attracting foreign investment.

Many trade delegations, including Europeans, have visited Iran since the deal was reached, paving the ground to increase economic ties. Rouhani signed a raft of deals when he travelled to France and Italy in January.

Khamenei also praised the high turnout of 62 percent in two crucial elections of parliament and Assembly of experts last month, but warned about efforts by Iran's "enemies' to infiltrate.

"We have been harmed by the West and we should not forget it. I am not suggesting cutting ties with them but we should be careful," he said.

Rouhani's allies won a big vote of confidence in Feb. 26 elections in both bodies, currently dominated by hardliners, despite mass disqualification of prominent reformists and many moderates by a hardline watchdog body.

The grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, was also barred by the Guardian Council from entering the race for the Assembly of Experts. Hassan Khomeini backed Rouhani's in 2013 presidential election.

The nuclear deal, championed by Rouhani and supported by the leader, has ended Iran's decades of economic and political isolation.

Rouhani and his allies have signalled the government's willingness to improve ties with "the Great Satan" and to discuss the regional crisis with the United States.

But Khamenei repeated his stance, saying: "We must have relations with the world but not with America and the Zionist regime (Israel)."

Analysts said the new parliament, which will start work on May 27, could hasten Rouhani's drive to open Iran to foreign trade and investment and loosen some of the legal shackles on economic activity.

Rouhani and his allies, including veteran pro-reform former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, won a stunning 15 out of the 16 Tehran seats in the 88-member Assembly of Experts, which selects Iran's supreme leader. Khamenei is 76 and underwent prostate surgery in 2014.
India, Bahrain agree on action to curb human trafficking, help victims

By Rina Chandran

MUMBAI, March 10 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - India and Bahrain have agreed to take steps to curb human trafficking and cooperate more closely on the rescue and repatriation of victims, an official statement said on Thursday.

The memorandum of understanding is expected to be signed when Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh visits Bahrain in early April, and follows an anti-trafficking pact between India and Bangladesh last year, India's government press bureau said.

South Asia, with India at its centre, is the fastest-growing region for human trafficking in the world, and the second-largest after Southeast Asia, according to the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime.

More than 150,000 people are known to be trafficked within South Asia every year, but the trade is underground and the real number is likely to be much higher.

Under the bilateral accord, India and Bahrain will "increase bilateral cooperation on the issues of prevention, rescue, recovery and repatriation related to human trafficking, especially women and children expeditiously", the statement said.

India has said it is considering similar agreements to curb human trafficking with other Gulf nations and Nepal.

India is both a source and a transit country for trafficking to Bahrain. People from South Asia often migrate voluntarily to Bahrain and other Gulf nations for jobs as domestic workers or in the construction and hospitality industries.

After being promised good salaries and working conditions, some face forced labour after arriving in Bahrain - their passports are withheld, their movements restricted, their wages unpaid and they are subjected to threats and physical or sexual abuse.

Domestic workers are among the most exploited people in the world, and some Asian countries including Indonesia have proposed banning women from moving to the Middle East to do domestic work.

India and Bahrain will aim to ensure speedy investigation and prosecution of traffickers in either country. Measures will also be taken to prevent trafficking, and repatriation of victims will be done quickly, the statement said.

A joint task force with representatives from both sides will be set up to monitor the working of the memorandum.
China urges diplomats and U.N. to boycott Dalai Lama in Geneva

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA, March 10 (Reuters) - China has written to diplomats and U.N. officials urging them not to attend a Geneva event on Friday where the Dalai Lama will speak, reasserting that it opposes his appearance at all venues due to his "separatist activities".

Reuters reported in October that China is waging a campaign of intimidation, obstruction and harassment that Western diplomats and activists say is aimed at silencing criticism of its human rights record at the United Nations.

The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Price in 1989, fled to India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Communist rule. China views him as a separatist, but Tibet's spiritual leader says he only wants genuine autonomy for his homeland.

In a letter seen by Reuters on Thursday, China's diplomatic mission in Geneva raised objections about the presence of Tibet's spiritual leader on the panel of Nobel laureates, being held at the Geneva Graduate Institute.

"Inviting the 14th Dalai Lama to the aforementioned event violates the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China, in contravention of the purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter. China resolutely opposes the 14th Dalai Lama's separatist activities in whatever capacity and in whatever name in any country, organisation or event," it said.

The letter was dated March 8, the day that the event - being sponsored by the United States and Canada - was announced.

"The Permanent Mission of China kindly requests the Permanent Missions of all Member States, U.N. agencies and relevant International Organizations not to attend the above-mentioned event, nor meet the 14th Dalai Lama and his clique."

U.N. spokesman in Geneva Ahmad Fawzi confirmed that U.N. agencies and offices in the Swiss city had received China's letter. "We take note but of course we are not bound by instructions from member states," he said.

A U.S. spokesman declined to comment on the letter saying: "I refer you to Chinese authorities for their views. We do not comment on the substance of our diplomatic exchanges."

Philippe Burrin, director of the Geneva institute, said that "pressures are being applied from various sides" but the event would not be cancelled.

"This is a question of freedom of expression and academic freedom to organise an event," he told Reuters.

"It is not an event on Tibet, it is not on a politically sensitive subject, i.e. territorial issues, but on the role of civil society in promoting human rights," he said.

At the U.N. Human Rights Council's main annual four-week session no delegation is expected to make a formal complaint about China but there has been criticism recently of its mass arrests of lawyers, including from the United States.

A rare joint statement criticising that crackdown, sponsored by a dozen countries, was read out by U.S. ambassador Keith Harper to the forum on Thursday.

China's envoy strongly rejected the censure and said the United States was hypocritical and guilty of crimes including the rape and murder of civilians.

Friday's event, also featuring Nobel laureates from Iran and Yemen, will take place on the sidelines of the U.N. session.

U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Kate Gilmore, the panel's moderator, is believed to be one of the first senior U.N. officials to meet the Dalai Lama.
Syria air strikes target Islamic State in ancient Palmyra

By Tom Perry

BEIRUT, March 10 (Reuters) - Russian warplanes were said to have launched heavy strikes on the Islamic State-held city of Palmyra on Thursday in what may be a prelude to a Syrian government bid to recapture the historic site lost to the jihadist group last May.

Dozens of Islamic State fighters were killed or wounded in the strikes that followed similarly heavy air raids in the Palmyra area on Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported.

The attacks add to the pressure on a group that is losing ground to a separate, U.S.-backed campaign by Syrian militia in the northeast, and whose military commander was declared probably dead by U.S. officials on Tuesday.

The group's tactics in Syria appear to reflect the strains, as it turns to suicide missions seemingly aimed at causing maximum casualties rather than sustainable territorial gains.

Islamic State is not included in a cessation of hostilities agreement that has brought about a lull in the war raging in western Syria between rebels aiming to topple President Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian army backed by the Russian air force.

Military operations against Islamic State in central and eastern Syria are continuing as both Damascus and its allies on one hand, and the United States and its allies on the other, seek to degrade Islamic State's self-declared "caliphate" that stretches into Iraq.

The Observatory said Russian war planes carried out 150 raids in the Palmyra area on Wednesday, followed by further attacks on Thursday. "If they take Tadmur (Palmyra) and Qarayatain, the regime would have taken back a big geographic area of Syria," said Observatory Director Rami Abdulrahman.

The loss of Qaraytain and Palmyra and the surrounding desert would reduce Islamic State's hold to about 20 percent of Syria.

Qarayatain is 100 km (60 miles) southwest of Palmyra. After capturing Palmyra, Islamic State blew up some of its ancient monuments in what the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO called a war crime.

Islamic State however appears well-entrenched in Palmyra, and while recovering the city would be a big boost for Damascus, its priority may be elsewhere for now, including the border with Turkey where it has been fighting rebels despite the truce.

FINANCES UNDER STRAIN

The momentum has turned against Islamic State since its rapid advances two years ago following the capture of the Iraqi city of Mosul. Its finances are also under strain, with fighters' pay cut by up to a half.

In what would be another major blow to Islamic State, U.S. officials said on Tuesday that its "minister of war", Abu Omar al-Shishani, was likely killed in a U.S. air strike near the town of al-Shadadi in northeastern Syria.

The militant, also known as Omar the Chechen, had a reputation as a close military adviser to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The Pentagon believes Shishani was sent to bolster Islamic State troops after they suffered setbacks at the hands of U.S.-allied militias including the Kurdish YPG.

The Observatory, which says it gathers its information from sources on all sides of the war, said on Thursday that Shishani was badly wounded but still alive and being treated somewhere in the group's Syrian stronghold of Raqqa province.

Recent Islamic State attacks have included suicide car bombings in the government-held cities of Damascus and Homs, and a determined but ultimately unsuccessful effort to sever the government's only land supply route to Aleppo.

Dozens of its fighters were also killed in a Feb. 27 attack on the YPG-held town of Tel Abyad at the Turkish border. A YPG official sent Reuters a list of the names of 72 IS fighters he said had been sent there on a suicide mission.

The official said Shishani's death, if true, would not be that significant because Islamic State "is being broken by the YPG and Syria Democratic Forces with or without him". "It doesn't change the equation at all as far as we are concerned."
Latin America gender pay gap shrinks slowly, harms development - UN

By Anastasia Moloney

BOGOTA, March 10 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The gender pay gap in Latin America has narrowed more slowly for well-educated women than for others, and the slow pace of change hampers development and progress towards gender equality, the United Nations Latin American arm has said.

The gap for women with more than 13 years of education shrank by 9 percent from 1990 to 2014, but left them still earning 26 percent less than their male peers, according to new figures released by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

"Earning the same salary as a man under equal conditions is a woman's right," Alicia Barcena, ECLAC's executive secretary, said in a statement earlier this week.

"It is an unavoidable requirement for their economic autonomy as well as for the achievement of gender equality," she said.

The ECLAC figures show that while the pay gap between Latin American women and men shrank overall by 12 percent between 1990 and 2014, women still earned a quarter less than men.

The least educated women, with a maximum of five years of schooling, saw the biggest reduction in the gender pay gap and now earned nearly 80 percent of comparable men's earnings, up from 58 percent in 1990, the report said.

ECLAC has since 1990 compared the wages earned by men and women aged between 20 and 49, living in urban areas, working 35 hours or more a week, across 18 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Laws passed across Latin America in recent years to protect domestic workers, the majority of them women, including setting minimum hourly pay rates, plus a rise in the monthly minimum wage, have lifted the earnings of less well educated female domestic workers, the report said.

More women in Latin America are now better educated and increasing numbers are working in the science and technology and telecoms sectors, but their pay has lagged that of male peers.

"This shows that the investment in education and vocational training of women has not impacted their earnings in line with those of men with the same training," the report said.

Big disparities between women's and men's pay persist around the world, and narrowing the gap will take decades.

In the United States, for example, if the pay gap continues to narrow at the pace it has since 1960, it will be 45 years before women and men have equal pay, according to the Institute for Women's Policy Research.

In the G20 leading nations, four in every 10 women see the gender pay gap as a key concern in the workplace, according to a 2015 poll of more than 9,500 women carried out by the Thomson Reuters Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation.
Greece battles to win back tourists amid migrant crisis

By Tina Bellon

BERLIN, March 10 (Reuters) - When Michelle Barns, a 45-year-old English mother of three, booked her family's summer vacation on the Greek island of Kos last year, she hadn't seen footage of the migrant influx that later made her consider cancelling the trip.

Kos, a sun-drenched tourist destination in the South Aegean, saw the arrival of over 23,000 migrants last year and images of violent clashes with the police spread around the world, with the island's mayor warning of bloodshed and Britain's Daily Mail tabloid describing Kos as a "disgusting hellhole".

Now Greece, where tourism accounts for a fifth of the 173 billion-euro ($191.17 billion) economy and employs one in five workers, is keen to restore its reputation with tourists.

"It is true that some of the Aegean islands had problems with the migrants last year," Greece's minister of tourism, Elena Kountoura, told Reuters at the world's biggest travel fair, ITB, in Berlin on Wednesday.

"But now, everything is back to normal and as a tourist, all you would see are beautiful places."

Budget airlines Vueling and Transavia said they had seen a shift in demand away from Greece due to the refugee crisis. Roy Scheerder, commercial director at Transavia, told Reuters the budget carrier had reduced capacity to Greece "quite dramatically."

The head of Greece's main tourism association SETE said on Wednesday that direct tourism receipts were expected to grow 5.6 percent to 15 billion euros this year on the back of 25 million visitors and 2.5 million cruise ship arrivals.

But he said those targets depend on the successful conclusion of a review of Greece's international financial bailout and managing the refugee flows.

To try to allay tourists' concerns, the Greek government has launched a video campaign on social media platforms, featuring interviews with travelers who assure viewers the islands are calm.

"Last year we were taken by surprise and unprepared for the influx," said Kos mayor Yorgos Kyritsis at the ITB, where his island has a booth displaying videos of smiling tourists strolling along sunny beaches.

"But migrants that arrive now are immediately taken to the registration centre and then quickly move on to the mainland."

While Kyritsis expects a 20 percent drop in visitors to his island this year, Greece's government is optimistic tourists will continue to flock to the country in 2016, surpassing last year's 26 million visitors and 14.5 billion euros in revenue.

And after being assured by several people on an online travel platform that Kos is safe, Michelle Barns is going ahead with her vacation plans and looking forward to two weeks at a resort on the island.
Foreign captives held by Philippines militants appeal for help

MANILA, March 10 (Reuters) - Three foreigners kidnapped by militants in the Philippines nearly six months ago have appealed to their governments for help to secure their release, as their al Qaeda-linked captors issued a one month deadline for their demands to be met.

The three foreign men, who Philippine authorities have identified as two Canadians and a Norwegian, were shown in a video clip, along with a Filipino woman kidnapped with them, crouching on the ground with gunmen standing over them.

"To the Canadian prime minister and to the Canadian people in the world, please, do as needed to meet their demands, within one month or they will kill me, they will execute us," said one of the men who identified himself as John Ridsdel, a Canadian mining consultant.

The three men were handcuffed and were thin, bearded and shirtless. The video clip of about a minute and a half was posted on a Facebook page linked to Philippine Islamists.

The four were kidnapped from a beach resort on a southern island last September. They are believed to be held in the jungle on Jolo island, a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf militant group.

Another of the men, who identified himself as Robert Hall, another Canadian, said he did not know how much money their captors were demanding but he appealed for help quickly.

A spokeswoman for Canada's foreign minister said the government was aware of the video but did not want to comment or provide new information in case it endangered the captives.

Calgary-based TVI Pacific, where Ridsdel was a semi-retired consultant, declined to comment.

The third man, who identified himself as Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad, made a similar appeal.

It was the third time the militants had released such video appeals from the captives.

In November, Ridsdel said in a video the militants were demanding one billion pesos ($21 million) for each of them.

A militant spokesman appeared in the latest video to issue a one-month ultimatum though he did not specify demands.

"We will do something terrible against these captives," said the masked spokesman, who gave the date as March 8.

The September raid on the resort was a reminder of the precarious security in the resource-rich southern Philippines despite a 2014 peace agreement with the largest Muslim rebel group that ended 45 years of conflict.
After missile tests, UN urges Iran to act with restraint

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS, March 10 (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has reacted to Iran's recent ballistic missile tests by urging Tehran to act with moderation and restraint and to avoid increasing regional tensions, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Thursday.

"In the current political atmosphere in the Middle East region, and so soon after the positive news of the lifting of sanctions against Iran, the secretary-general calls ... Iran to act with moderation, caution and the good sense not to increase tensions through hasty actions," Dujarric told reporters.

A series of ballistic missile tests this week conducted by Iran's Revolutionary Guard units drew international concern. The United States, France and other countries said that if confirmed, of launches nuclear-capable ballistic missiles would be a violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution.

Dujarric noted that it is up to the 15-nation council to examine issues related to resolution 2231, which calls upon Iran "not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology."

The United States has said Iran's missile tests do not violate the terms of an historic nuclear deal between Tehran and six major powers, which resolution 2231, adopted in July 2015, endorsed. The U.N. missile restrictions and an arms embargo on Iran are not technically part of the nuclear agreement.

Council diplomats say they will first await confirmation from national intelligence agencies about whether the missiles Iran has fired were nuclear-capable. They also say that Russia and China, which opposed the continuation of restrictions on Iran's missile program, would likely block council action.

Iran's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that the tests were not in violation of the nuclear agreement, which led to lifting of sanctions in January.

Western diplomats say resolution 2231, which "calls upon" Iran to refrain from certain ballistic missile activity, offers no green light for nuclear-capable missile launches by Tehran and is therefore a clear ban.

However, they acknowledge that Russia, China and Iran likely interpret that language as an appeal to Iran to voluntarily refrain from missile activity. Tehran has also said that none of its missiles are designed to carry nuclear weapons.

While no new U.N. sanctions may be imminent, Western diplomats say that the United States and some of its allies could take additional punitive action in the form of unilateral national sanctions against Iran over the latest missile launches, something Washington has done previously.
Arab League names Egypt's Ahmed Aboul Gheit as new chief

CAIRO, March 10 (Reuters) - The Arab League chose former Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Thursday as its new secretary-general, after diplomats said the vote was delayed for hours due to Qatari reservations.

Aboul Gheit served as Egypt's foreign minister during the final seven years of Hosni Mubarak's rule, leaving his post in 2011, following the mass protests that toppled the ageing ruler.

The 22-member organisation voted unanimously in favour of Aboul Gheit after much debate. He will replace Nabil El-Araby, who served as Egypt's foreign minister under a transitional government formed after the 2011 uprising.

El-Araby said last month that he would not seek another term as secretary-general after his current one ends in July.

Qatar welcomed Mubarak's fall and supported Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, who was elected in 2012 and overthrown a year later by the army after protests against his rule.

The debate over Araby's successor follows Morocco's announcement last month that it would not host the 2016 Arab League meeting as scheduled, saying it wanted to avoid giving a false impression of unity in the Arab world.

The Arab League has recently been a forum for predominantly Sunni Muslim countries led by Saudi Arabia to air grievances with regional Shi'ite power Iran.
Syrian opposition says not optimistic about peace talks

BEIRUT, March 10 (Reuters) - The head of the Syrian opposition's negotiating team said on Thursday it was not optimistic about peace talks getting under way in Geneva, and has still not confirmed if it will attend the U.N.-backed negotiations.

Asaad al-Zoubi, head of the main opposition council's delegation to the talks, told Al Arabiya al Hadath TV the humanitarian situation and continuing military operations carried out by the Syrian government and its Russian allies gave little cause for optimism.

"There is no optimism ... there is an international conspiracy and a cover-up of Russian massacres and a cover-up for (president) Bashar," said Zoubi, who is chief negotiator for the High Negotiations Committee (HNC).

Fighting has slowed considerably since a fragile "cessation of hostilities agreement" brokered by the United States and Russia came into force almost two weeks ago.

But the truce does not cover Islamic State or the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, whose fighters are deployed in western Syria, close to rebel groups that have agreed to cease fire, and there have been accusations of violations on all sides.

The HNC had in recent days expressed a degree of optimism about the peace process, saying the agenda proposed by the United Nations was positive and noting a reduction in government violations of the truce.

But Zoubi said there were still serious concerns about the actions of the Syrian government and its Russian allies, and cited fighting in a Damascus suburb on Thursday as an example.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the civil war, said there had been air strikes, shells fired by government forces and clashes between Syrian and rebel forces in the eastern Ghouta suburb on Thursday.

The HNC said on Thursday it had recorded 24 violations of the truce by the Syrian government and its allies on March 9 and 10. Russia also said it had registered violations, saying on Thursday it has noted eight in the past 24 hours.
North Carolina man charged with assaulting protester at Trump rally

By Colleen Jenkins

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., March 10 (Reuters) - A 78-year-old white man accused of punching a black protester in the face during a rally in North Carolina for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has been arrested on an assault charge, a local sheriff's office said on Thursday.

Rakeem Jones, 26, was being escorted from the rally on Wednesday night by sheriff's deputies in Fayetteville when John McGraw hit him, the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office said.

Video of the incident recorded by bystanders showed deputies pinning Jones to the ground, prompting social media criticism on why swift action was taken against him instead of his assailant.

"He had no right to put his hands on me," Jones said in a telephone interview.

McGraw also was charged with disorderly conduct and communicating threats. Detectives added the latter charge after seeing video of McGraw saying he enjoyed hitting "that loudmouth" and threatening next time "to kill him," the sheriff's office said.

The office said it would conduct an internal investigation, adding that deputies accompanying Jones did not see the assault.

Sheriff Earl "Moose" Butler called the attack cowardly.

"Regardless of political affiliation, speech, race, national origin, color, gender, bad reputation, prior acts or political demonstration, no other citizen has the right to assault another person or to act in such a way as this defendant did," Butler said.

Asked about the incident during the Republican debate Thursday night, Trump said he did not condone violence but said that some protesters "are bad dudes."

Trump's campaign rallies are boisterous, with the billionaire businessman often pausing to scold protesters and ask security officers to take them away. At a rally last month in Nevada, he said of a protester: "I'd like to punch him in the face."

Trump is the front-runner to be his party's nominee for the Nov. 8 presidential election.

His hour-long speech in the packed North Carolina arena was interrupted at least 16 times, according to a Reuters reporter who attended.

A friend of Jones, Ronnie C. Rouse, said they attended the event to observe, not protest, and were told to leave after an exchange with another man who Rouse said used a racial slur.

Jones, who works for an inventory company and as a tutor, said the punch came out of nowhere.

"The whole arena cheered as I was being escorted out and even more so after I got hit," he said, adding his right eye was swollen and bruised.
France says time to act on Libya, will push for EU sanctions

PARIS, March 10 (Reuters) - France's foreign minister on Thursday said there was no time to waste in forming a Libyan government that would pave the way for action against Islamic State and he would push for sanctions against individuals at a European meeting next week.

French officials have been warning for more than a year that the political void is creating favourable conditions for Islamist groups. Efforts to establish a U.N. backed unity government in the oil producing nation have been stalled by resistance from hardliners.

"We have to fight Daesh where it is trying to develop in Libya, but the precondition is the constitution of a new national unity government," Jean-Marc Ayrault told i-Tele television, referring to the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

"We can't wait any longer. It's enough. There are some who are blocking things for personal reasons and their own interests and I think we shouldn't exclude putting sanctions on them."

Ayrault said he would press for European foreign ministers to agree sanctions on individuals at a ministerial meeting in Brussels on March 14.

Diplomats renewed discussions this week on imposing travel bans and asset freezes on certain individuals, although a consensus among the 28 nations has yet to be reached with diplomats, saying Greece in particular was opposed to the move.

"We can't let the Libyan situation continue. It's not only a danger for the Libyans, but the region and it threatens Europe," Ayrault said.

The United Nations is seeking to unite factions and militias that have competed for power since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and Western powers say the U.N. process is the only hope of bringing stability and stemming Islamic militancy.

United Nations sanctions monitors said on Thursday Islamic State had greatly expanded its control over territory in Libya and the militants are now claiming to be the key defense for the North African state against foreign military intervention.

French aircraft have been conducting reconnaissance flights over Libya, where Paris took a leading role in a 2011 NATO air campaign that helped rebels overthrow Muammar Gaddafi's autocratic rule.
After years of being left out of the broadband loop, local officials are wondering if the suddenly available, high-speed internet options are simply too good to be true.

Many areas within Orange County have limited ability to access broadband and the Orange County Board of Supervisors has made the availability of broadband one of its legislative priorities, supporting the states efforts to promote public-private partnerships which can deploy universal, affordable access to broadband in underserved and rural areas.

In November, representatives from Louisa and Orange county governments and schools met with representatives from Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corporation (MBC) to learn about an open-access, fiber optic network project traveling through the area.

Established in 2004 by initial startup and capital funding from the state through the Virginia Tobacco Commission, the U.S. Economic Development Administration and Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, MBC was tasked to deliver, operate and maintain a carrier-grade "middle-mile" open-access fiber optic network. MBC is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation with the mission to deliver high-speed broadband access to underserved communities for economic development. The nonprofit is heavily funded by grants and private sector investments and has more than 40 carrier customers.

MBC, which owns and operates more than 1,800 route miles of fiber optic network in southern and southeastern Virginia, next will undertake a project that will travel through Louisa, Orange and Culpeper counties. "Open-access" refers to MBCs wholesale business model, which is available to the private sector. It enables businesses to work with the communication provider of their choice to secure diverse network access and to deliver high-speed broadband access across underserved communities.

Since then, other opportunities have presented themselves to the county. And Orange County Administrator Bryan David said the county is eager to take advantage of them.

During a supervisors meeting in February, Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) Director of Technology Darrell Hatfield explained an opportunity for the schools to receive funding from the FCCs E-Rate Program for the Orange County Public Schools Broadband Project.

Through the program, the county would receive 70 percent reimbursement for the telecommunications costs, which include installation and up to 12 strands of fiber. OCPS recently released a request for proposals for high-speed services to connect the schools "by a Wide-Area Network (WAN) solution that will allow for reliable and secure transmission of voice, video, data and internet access." The deadline for proposals was Tuesday. A decision on a vendor is scheduled to be presented at the school boards April 11 meeting.

Hatfield said this is the first year the program will allow schools or libraries to use the funds to run fiber. The countys public schools currently run 300 megabytes of bandwidth per 1,000 student/staff, while the FCC has said a target bandwidth goal minimum should be 10 gigabytes per 1,000 students/staff. The hope of the project would be getting those 10 GBs to schools, Hatfield said.

Hatfield said the schools looked to the county to be a partner in the project, which would allow the county to establish a "fiber backbone" by tapping into MBCs north/south fiber network and laying strands of fiber along the east/west trenches that would be dug for the schools fiber route. The schools system will run fiber from Gordonsville up Rt. 15, up Rt. 20, down Rt. 522 to Lightfoot Elementary and up Rt. 20 to Locust Grove Middle School.

Hatfield also said Governor Terry McAuliffe has proposed providing schools with an additional 10 percent of the funding for such projects. An additional 10 percent is available through the E-Rate Program, he added. Essentially, up to 90 percent of the project could be funded externally.

The installation of fiber optic cable is the most expensive part of the process, David said. The county would look at installing 144 strands of fiber, including the 12 for the schools, he added, noting it would be a fraction of the cost because of the ability to access MBCs open-access network and the reimbursement of the installation.

"Right now things are tracking along the way we think will allow the county to realize this opportunity," David said.

Once schools make a decision on a vendor, they will submit the proposal to the FCC for its approval, David said.

Meanwhile, the county is looking to establish a Wireless Service Authority, or a broadband authority, to take ownership of the fiber strands not owned by the schools.

"Its a much more efficient and cost-effective way for the county to undertake this work," David explained.

During its meeting Tuesday, the supervisors viewed a draft resolution creating the authority which would appoint the supervisors as authority members. A public hearing on the resolution to establish the broadband authority is expected to take place April 26.

David said upon the creation of the authority, the board will send a certified copy of the ordinance to the State Corporation Committee requesting a charter. Under the Virginia Wireless Service Authorities Act a charter exists for a term of 50 years. Once a charter is received, the authority will have regular meetings, which will include agendas, minutes and be under the same transparent process that other county entities are, David explained.

The construction of MBCs fiber optic line will also play an integral part in the countys plans for a public safety telecommunications network and providing "last mile" broadband to all areas of the county. The county has been researching services to design and deploy radio towers necessary to support the countys public safety telecommunications network, as well as to support private wireless internet providers. Constructing dual-purpose towers will allow the county to provide public safety to its citizens, while also allowing wireless internet service providers (WISP) to offer broadband to underserved or un-served areas of Orange County, David explained.

The towers the county builds will serve three users, David noted, the public safety systemas the primary tenant, wireless internet service providers and cell phone companies, who could rent space on the tower for their equipmentallowing fixed wireless access to reach all ends of the county.

"We want to be able to get to a standard where, generally speaking, in partnership with the private sector, we provide fixed wireless broadband to serve as much of the county as we can," David noted.

While the whole process has been moving quickly because the schools dont want to miss an opportunity to receive E-Rate Program funding, David said the county is moving in a very deliberate way, making sure it makes good decisions yet not committing itself to any financial course of action at this time.

"I think these are expenses that we would have incurred anyway to build the radio system," he said. "The way were going about it, we should realize considerable savings in partnering with Mid-Atlantic, the schools and also going to multi-purpose this fiber network for other uses like last mile broadband."

David said he is also working with Louisa County on ways the counties could partner their broadband initiatives to build redundancy.

"Were moving in an efficient way to legally and structurally have ourselves in a position to take advantage of this opportunity," David said.

The topic of broadband or some element of it will be on every board agenda for the foreseeable future, David added.

Amber Galaviz writes for the Orange County Review.
The heart of Ireland will be pumping throughout Dayton on Friday, March 25 as the Celtic Woman brings their 85-city North American tour to the Schuster Center.

Those in attendance will be infused with the blood of the Irish as the Celtic Womans music, which is rich with culture, connects straight to heart with those who hear it.

Celtic Woman is celebrating the release of their newest album, Destiny, their ninth straight that debuted at #1 on the Billboards World Music Chart. The tour and album features the vocal talents of Mairead Carlin, Susan McFadden, and Eabha McMahon along with violinist and founding member Mairead Nesbitt.

Nesbitt is the lone original member of Celtic Woman, and still relishes the opportunity to take the stage. I love connecting with the audience. Its my favorite two hours of the day. Im blessed with the opportunity as no matter how hard things get in any area of life I get those two hours to be uplifted, and to also uplift others through the music, she said.

From a family of accomplished musicians, including a mother who played the fiddle, Nesbitt learned the instrument in part so she could play with her mother. Prior to Celtic Woman, Nesbitts credits as a professional violinist include working with acts such Van Morrison, Sinead O Connor, and Emmylou Harris. Her spirited play is amongst the myriad of highlights contained within a performance of the Celtic Woman.

Despite being Irish, Nesbitt does not carry any type of lucky charm with her as she depends strictly on the power of preparation. She puts extreme focus into each performance so every audience will receive the same high quality of a show. I follow the equation of preparation minus interference equals performance, said Nesbitt. I have to be very prepared for a great performance and leave nothing to luck, but all in preparation and the rest is left to destiny.

Destiny is the groups most explicitly Irish album, which is appropriate since 2016 marks the 100th Anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising, which set in motion the events that led to Irelands independence. Several of the albums songs are sung in Gaelic. Contemporary highlights include My Land, a distinctive version of I See Fire, the Ed Sheeran-penned theme song from the film The Hobbit, and an uplifting interpretation of How Can I Keep From Singing. In Dayton, the Celtic Woman will perform all the new music from Destiny, along with four returning favorites; including Amazing Grace, Danny Boy, and You Raise Me Up.

In addition to a vocal masterpiece, the women provide a visual one as well by being adorned in a number of exquisite evening gowns throughout the performance. Their wardrobe is designed by the award-winning, Synan OMahony, whose been with Celtic Woman since the beginning. We are very lucky to have him, Synan makes sure our dresses look fabulous and allows for movement, which is important to me because I do a lot of it, said Nesbitt.

Dont miss the chance to see Celtic Woman at The Schuster, who has sold over 8 million albums, and platinum sales in 9 countries. Celtic Woman performs to sellout crowds across six continents and 23 countries, including at the Schuster Center on March 25.
A securityman guards near the stage of the three-day World Cultural Festival organised by spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The stage is now set for the controversial three-day cultural event opening tomorrow on the Yamuna flood plains even as Art of Living guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar struck a defiant note that he will not pay Rs 5 crore fine imposed by Green Tribunal and would rather go to jail.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the three-day event on Friday as President Pranab Mukherjee announced earlier that he wont attend the cultural meet. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe too pulled out because of security concerns.

Read: Amid controversy, Mugabe pulls out of Art of Living cultural event

Environmental activist Manoj Mishra, who has petitioned the National Green Tribunal (NGT) for a ban on the event, today again approached it complaining that AOL has not taken permissions from agencies like police, fire and CPWD and that the Ravi Shankar has said he would not pay the fine.

Read: Will go to jail but wont pay a penny: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on NGT fine

The NGT bench, headed by chairperson Swatanter Kumar, said that AOL has time to pay the fine till tomorrow and law will take its course if it fails to do so.

On Wednesday, the NGT expressed helplessness in banning the event after activists petitioned the tribunal seeking a prohibition of the event on the ground that there was large scale violations of environmental norms on account of the event.

However, it imposed a fine of Rs 5 crore on AOL as environmental compensation and asked the organisation to deposit the amount with the Delhi Development Authority today. It found several environmental violations by the organisers of the event.

Read: Sri Sri event: Pay fine or we'll revoke clearance, NGT tells Art of Living

A last ditch attempt by an NGO to seek the intervention of the Supreme Court to stop the event also failed with the petitioner asked to go to the NGT with his plea.

A bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur asked the petitioner Bhartiya Kishan Majdoor Samiti to approach the National Green Tribunal (NGT) with its plea as the three-day event is all set to begin tomorrow.

"This preparation is going on for a long time. Why have you come now? Why don't you go to the NGT," the bench said.

Read: SC junks plea seeking to stop Sri Sris World Culture Festival

The bench also asked the petitioner why he was coming with the petition at the the eleventh hour. "So you seek publicity out of it," it observed.

On his part, Ravi Shankar said he would rather go to jail than paying the fine on his organisation.

"We have not done anything wrong. We have been taintless and will remain so. We we will go to jail but not pay a penny," he said.

When pressed further whether he would defy rules, Ravi Shankar said "I will abide by rules but I have done nothing wrong."

The AOL chief said he was not "satisfied" with the verdict of the NGT and would appeal against it. He urged political parties not to "politicise" the event.

Read: Sri Sri event: Delhi Police prepares status report; steps up security

He also denied that any tree at the venue was felled and claimed that the trees had only been pruned and all they had done was level the floodplain.

"Not a single tree was felled. Trees were only pruned and we levelled the floodplain," he said.

Ravi Shankar also expressed confidence that Modi will attend the festival and claimed that people opposing it would "soon see sense".

"This is like a Cultural Olympics. 37,000 artistes from all over the world would come together at one single platform. This is an event to bring people closer to each other. Event of this magnitude should be welcomed," he said.

Meanwhile, Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma said Government has not extended any financial support for the event but Rs 2.25 crore was given to Art of Living Foundation as part of "routine" grant to organisations promoting art and culture.

"Culture Ministry has not given any money for organising this function... Even the Art of Living Foundation never asked for money from the government for organising this particular event," Sharma told.
Lula, who founded the ruling Workers' Party and was president between 2003 and 2010 before helping in his successor President Dilma Rousseff, has repeatedly denied ownership of the apartment or any impropriety. (Photo: AP)

Sao Paulo: Brazilian state prosecutors on Wednesday filed money laundering charges against ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in a dramatic twist to an anti-corruption battle threatening to bring down the government.

The indictment against the hugely influential leftist leader alleges that he hid ownership of a luxury triplex apartment at a seaside resort in Sao Paulo state, a source in the Sao Paulo prosecutor's Office said.

"He is accused of hiding property in relation to the triplex in Guaruja," the source, who asked not to be identified, told AFP. "Having undeclared property is a form of laundering money from illicit sources."

More details were to be given at a press conference on Thursday, the prosecutor's office said. A judge must still formally accept the charges for the case to proceed.

Lula, who founded the ruling Workers' Party and was president between 2003 and 2010 before helping in his successor President Dilma Rousseff, has repeatedly denied ownership of the apartment or any impropriety.

Mounting allegations

The state prosecutor's allegations come on top of a separate, much broader federal probe called Operation Car Wash which has uncovered a massive corruption scheme centered on giant state oil company Petrobras.

Executives at Petrobras allegedly took bribes in exchange for giving contracts to big construction firms and other contractors, who then massively overbilled the oil company. Politicians from several parties, including the Workers' Party, joined the sprawling scam, with bribe money feeding into campaign coffers, Operation Car Wash prosecutors say.

The corruption scandal, which has already seen a Who's Who of Brazilian politicians and businessmen face charges, is believed to be the biggest ever in Brazil.

Lula is now the highest profile figure to be snared. Police briefly detained Lula for questioning last Friday and Car Wash prosecutors said they suspected that the triplex apartment was given to him as a bribe by OAS, one of the companies accused of participating in the Petrobras conspiracy.

Lula's lawyer, Cristiano Zanin Martins, told Folha de Sao Paulo news site that the state allegations "confirm the lack of impartiality with which this matter is being conducted."

"Ex-president Lula is not the owner of the triplex," Lula's foundation said separately. "He has presented his defense and documents which prove this."

Is Rousseff next?

The intensification of the legal push against Lula comes just before nationwide opposition rallies Sunday. Huge crowds are expected in the capital Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo to call for Rousseff to leave office.

Brazil's first woman president faces multiple problems Congress is mulling impeachment proceedings over alleged illegalities in the government's budgetary maneuvers. Meanwhile, the Supreme Electoral Court is considering a case that could, eventually, result in judges declaring Rousseff's 2014 reelection to a second term invalid.

So far, Rousseff has managed to fight off impeachment, but the opposition has been fired up by the case against Lula and hopes that Sunday's protests will send a powerful message to any waverers in Congress. Analysts say that Rousseff could also be in the sights of Operation Car Wash prosecutors.

She has not been directly accused of any wrongdoing, but was chairman of Petrobras during much of the period when the corruption took place. A Brazilian magazine report that a Workers' Party senator accused in the scheme has promised to testify in a plea bargain that Rousseff tried blocking the investigation caused waves in Brasilia last week.
Zarghona Hassan, an activist and the founder of Radio Shaesta station prepares to go on-air, in Kunduz, Afghanistan (Photo: PTI)

Kabul: 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."
The crew have been detained in Kupang and could face people smuggling charges, which carry a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. (Photo: AFP)

Kupang: Six Bangladeshi migrants caught entering Australian waters by the country's border patrol have been sent back to Indonesia on a fishing boat, an Indonesian official said Thursday.

The move drew criticism from the Indonesian foreign ministry, which reiterated its opposition to Australia's controversial policy and warned such acts could be dangerous at sea.

The six men and two Indonesian crew departed the eastern Indonesian city of Kupang last week bound for Australia.

Local water police chief Teddy John Sahala Marbun said they reached Australian waters after three days at sea but ran into engine trouble, and were rescued by Australia's border patrol as their boat began to sink.

"After several days of sailing, the Australian customs vessel then entered Indonesian waters and handed the men over to an Indonesian fishing boat," he told AFP.

"They gave the fishermen fuel and other logistics, and asked them to return the men to East Nusa Tengarra (in eastern Indonesia)."

The crew have been detained in Kupang and could face people smuggling charges, which carry a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.

The boat's captain Isai Rano admitted he was paid 92 million Indonesian rupiah (about $7,000) to take the six Bangladeshis to Australia, Marbun said.

Immigration officials are still questioning the Bangladeshis about how they managed to enter Indonesia, while police search for other possible suspects.

"We are having a problem communicating because they only speak very little English," Marbun said.

Canberra's hardline policy of intercepting and turning back boats trying to reach Australia has largely stemmed the flow of vessels, but some still try to make the journey.

The controversial approach has caused particular tensions with Indonesia, the transit point for many would-be refugees and economic migrants en route to Australia.

Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said Jakarta's position on the policy remained unchanged.

"We do not support such acts, especially when done on water. It could potentially be dangerous," he told reporters.

It would also not provide a permanent solution to illegal migrant issues, he added.
Iran says two Qadr-H and Qadr-F precision missiles fired from launcher trucks tucked in the Alborz mountain range in northern Iran, hitting targets about 1,400 kilometres (870 miles) away in the southeastern Makran area. (Photo: AP)

Tehran: Iran fired two more long-range ballistic missiles on Wednesday as it continued military tests in defiance of US sanctions and fresh warnings from Washington.

The missile tests, described by Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards as a show of force in the face of US pressure, come just weeks after the implementation of Iran's historic nuclear deal with world powers.

After similar tests on Tuesday, Washington had warned it could raise the issue with the UN Security Council and take further action after US sanctions were imposed in connection with Iran's missile programme in January. US Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday that the United States would take action against Iran if the missile tests were confirmed.

"All their conventional activity outside the (nuclear) deal, which is still beyond the deal, we will and are attempting to act wherever we can find it," Biden said during a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

He said Washington was also ready to act if Iran breaks the nuclear agreement. The hard-fought deal, which saw international sanctions lifted in exchange for curbs on Iran's nuclear ambitions, did not extend to its missile programme.

Wednesday's tests saw two Qadr-H and Qadr-F precision missiles fired from launcher trucks tucked in the Alborz mountain range in northern Iran, hitting targets about 1,400 kilometres (870 miles) away in the southeastern Makran area, the Guards said.

"Our enemies have come to understand that increasing security pressures and sanctions will not affect the enhancement of our capabilities so they seek to limit us in the missile arena through imposing economic sanctions," said Guards chief Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari.

"Enemies of the Islamic revolution and regional security must fear the roar of the Guards' missiles," he added, quoted by the Guards' official website.

The Guards' deputy head General Hossein Salami said the missile tests were to demonstrate Iran's "defence and deterrent power".

"We have massive stockpiles of ballistic missiles waiting for orders and ready to hit targets at any moment from various points across the country," Salami said.

Ballistic missile tests have been seen as a way for Iran's military to demonstrate that the nuclear deal will have no impact on its plans, which it says are for domestic defence only.

US will counter threats

Previous UN resolutions have aimed at stopping Tehran from developing missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, although Tehran has always denied seeking the capability.

The US sanctions imposed in January saw five Iranians and a network of companies based in the United Arab Emirates and China added to an American blacklist.

US Secretary of State John Kerry called his Iranian opposite number Mohammad Javad Zarif Wednesday to protest the latest tests. The pair had built up a close working relationship during negotiations for last year's nuclear accord.

US State Department spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday that if the latest missile tests were confirmed "then we'll have every intention of raising the matter to the UN Security Council".

Kirby warned that the United States could take unilateral action "to counter threats from Iran's missile programme".

This week's series of tests have included short-, medium- and long-range precision guided missiles with ranges of between 300 and 2,000 kilometres, state media reported.

"The reason we have designed these missiles with such a range 2,000 kilometres is to be able to hit our remote enemies, the Zionist regime," said General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who heads the Revolutionary Guards' aerospace wing, referring to Israel.

"But there is no need to fire missiles to destroy the Zionist regime as it will gradually collapse. Our main enemy is the US," he said.

News agencies Fars and Tasnim, both close to the Guards, said the phrase "Israel must be wiped off the face of Earth" was inscribed in Hebrew on the missiles, recalling a quote by the late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. However, no writing was visible on the missiles shown in video footage or pictures published by local media.

Israel's foreign ministry "strongly condemned" the tests in a statement released Wednesday.

President Hassan Rouhani, a cleric close to moderates, pursued the nuclear deal in a bid to end Iran's international isolation. Less than two weeks ago, his moderate and reformist allies scored key gains against conservatives and hardliners in elections.

But 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.
Jawaharlal Nehru University student and teacher bodies intensified their protest against the varsity administration on Wednesday, as the varsity-appointed probe panel gets ready to submit its report on the controversial February 9 event.





The panel will submit its report on Friday. It got two successive extensions in less than two weeks.



The officiating registrar along with the vice chancellor is responsible for giving Delhi Police a blanket permission to enter campus, JNU Teachers Association (JNUTA) president Ajay Patnayak said.



They played a vital role in suspending eight students and have been spreading lies and rumours targeting JNU, and they have been involved in witch hunting of students, he said.



Both student and teacher associations participated in a protest outside the JNU administrative block on Wednesday and reiterated their demand for sacking university registrar Bupinder Zutshi.



Fresh posters have cropped up on the campus walls, with a sketch of Zutshi operating the remote-controlled JNU vice chancellor.



JNUTA secretary Bikramaditya Choudhary said the teachers will continue their protest till the registrar is removed. His action clearly shows that the registrars commitment is not with JNU but the government at the centre, he said.



Universitys student union also scaled up its campaign for removal of the registrar and revocation of suspension of eight students accused of organising the February 9 event, commemorating the judicial killing of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.



The student body said it has demanded immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the suspension ordered by the high-level committee based in its preliminary report.

JNU student union claimed that the order violated principles of natural justice.




Artworks have cropped up in support of Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya on the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus after the return of students union president Kanhaiya Kumar.



While Kanhiya is out on interim bail, Umar and Anirban are serving a two-week judicial custody in connection with the February 9 event commemorating the judicial killing of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.



Police have been claiming that Umar and Anirban were the main organisers of the event that stirred up a national outrage over the anti-India slogans raised on campus.



In front of the JNU administrative block, the students union have dedicated a space for artwork, demanding azadi for the two students. A cardboard box mimicking a prison cell has placards bearing names of Umar and Anirban.



Nearly a dozen more boxes put around it have messages demanding azadi from Operation Green Hunt, enforced disappearance, Malom massacre, pellet guns, fake encounters and military rape.



JNU Students Union at its council meeting on Tuesday had condemned the divisive slogans allegedly raised during the event, but said it demands the release of Umar and Anirban.



This council mandates the JNUSU to fight against this onslaught and ensure the suspension of all JNU students are withdrawn and all criminal charges including sedition levied on them are withdrawn, a council resolution said.



This council demands the immediate release of Umar and Anirban, the resolution added.



JNUSU also resolved to seek withdrawal of sedition charges slapped against the events alleged organisers. Delhi Police and JNU administration are complying with the external political pressure, the student body said.



Eight students have been suspended without any inquiry and have been debarred from academic activities. The JNUSU must explore all possible means to get the sedition law scrapped from the IPC as this draconian law has no place in a democratic council, the resolution said.


At a time when violence and destruction due to Jat agitation in Haryana has been widely reported, stories of courage and people rising above caste differences are also emerging.





During the agitation, a mob of Jat agitators wanted to torch a petrol pump on Guhana Road in Rohtak. An elderly woman faced them. Besides showing courage, she dealt smartly with the situation.



On the afternoon of February 20, Prem Devi was at her house when she heard a mob approaching the petrol pump on the main road. Leaving her grandson at home, she walked towards the petrol pump and saw the group of men discussing on how to torch it.

They were hell-bent on setting it ablaze. The staff of the petrol pump had run to the terrace as they were scared and watching the scene from there, says Prem Devi.



As the pump was near the colony where Prem Devi lives, she knew that if she did not do anything the rioters would burn it and the fire would spread to her locality.



The people in my colony feared for their lives and locked themselves up in their houses. First, I tried to reason with them about the damage that their action will do. But they didnt listen. Then I took the lath with which they were about to hit the petrol tanks. They told me to go back, but I said you can only torch it after killing me, she says.



A mother of two sons, Prem Devi was honoured with an Achievement Award by Delhi Commission for Women on Tuesday on the occasion of International Womens Day.

She recalls one moment during the argument when she was scared for her life.



I thought I will die

There was one moment when one young man from the mob was about to hit me and I thought I will die. But then I thought even if that happens my sons will be proud of me and continued pleading with them, she says.



When she heard the group discussing among themselves that the petrol pump owner was not from their caste and had once denied petrol to them, Prem Devi, belonging to the Jat community herself, told them that even she had a share in the petrol pump. She told them she will be left with no livelihood if they destroyed it.



Tried to persuade

I lied to them as I thought they might not do harm to someone from their community, she says.



This was when the elders in the group tried to persuade the young ones to leave the petrol pump. Finally the mob left. But she stood guard for four hours.



They appeared again after some time but were at a distance. They took a round and went away, she says.



Her act of negotiating with the mob was caught on the pumps CCTV, after which it was reported in the local media. Prem Devi has now become a hero for the petrol pump owners and those living in the colony.




The Delhi government is likely to fork out Rs 1,600 crore in Budget 2016-17 so that lakhs of residents continue to enjoy the benefit of halved electricity bills, a key poll promise of the Aam Aadmi Party government.





Sources said the next fiscals allocation for power bill subsidy is likely to be nearly Rs 175 crore higher than the current financial year allocation of Rs 1,427 crore. That is 12 per cent more.



The additional Rs 175 crore is largely going to be spent on slum dwellers or low-income consumers, said an AAP functionary. The increase in power subsidy is likely to benefit some 50,000 households in unauthorised colonies and on the fringes of the capital that still do not have a power connection, said an official.



During the debate on last years Budget proposals in Delhi Assembly, Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta of the Bharatiya Janata Party highlighted the fact that the national capital has about 50,000 households which did not have an electricity connection.



The city has 36 lakh power subsidy beneficiaries, which is nearly 80 percent of all power consumers.



Power Minister Satyendar Jain has assured Delhiites that like last year power rates would not be allowed to be hiked by the private discoms this year also.



It was for the first time in 2015, since 2011, that the power regulator did not order a hike in electricity rates. The AAP government has ensured this even in 2016, Jain told representatives of resident welfare associations.



In addition to the power subsidy, the Budget may retain the Rs 250-crore water bill subsidy for consumers who are not billed for using up the free 20,000 litres water a month, said an official.



On the water front, Chief Minister Kejriwals first anniversary gift for defaulters  waiver of their water bills pending up to November  would cost the government about Rs 2,900 crore for which budgetary provision is being made, said an insider.



Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodias Budget, to be presented on February 28, is likely to focus as financing the water and power subsidy for the low income users who have wholeheartedly supported the party in the two electoral outings since 2013.



Out of a plan outlay of Rs 19,000 crore in Budget 2015-16, Sisosdia had allotted Rs 645 crore for energy and Rs 1,343 crore for water supply and sanitation.



Meanwhile, the Delhi government has decided to continue using the services of now-transferred Principal Secretary S N Sahai till the end of the Budget session. Sahai has been shifted to Goa but is likely to assist Sisodia in giving a final shape to the Budget.




From now, students in South Corporation schools will leave their text books behind for juniors after they are promoted to the next class. The standing committee of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation on Wednesday passed a proposal to this effect. This will help the municipality save around Rs 1.25 crore annually. The civic agency has cleared the decks to allow distribution of used books in municipal schools under its limits.





The move would enable the South Corporation to save 30 per cent of the budget spent on the purchase of new books every year. The used books in good condition will be distributed after the books are bound in stiff covers, said standing committee chairperson Radhey Shyam Sharma.



This new initiative would help around three lakh students who are enrolled in the municipal schools under the jurisdiction of the South Corporation, he added.



The proposal was approved unanimously by councillors of both the ruling and opposition parties. Leader of House in South Corporation Ashish Sood said the civic agency has sought cooperation from many NGOs to provide old text books.



The distribution of used books would enable the South Corporation to provide books to at least one-third of the students at the beginning of the academic session, he said.

Sood added the South Corporation has become the first civic agency in the country to take such a decision in the interests of students.



Councillors suggested that resident welfare associations, market associations and philanthropist organisations should also be involved in this.



Though leader of opposition Farhad Suri supported the proposal, he described it as far-fetched. He suggested that the new books must be bound in hard cover at the beginning of the academic session to keep them in good condition.


Republican front-runner Donald Trump is maintaining his national lead and is way ahead of his party rivals in the crucial Florida State where presidential primary will be held next week, according to the latest polls.





With wins in as many as 14 States, Trump as of now has the maximum number of delegates (458) followed by Senator Ted Cruz (359) and Marco Rubio (151).



In its latest poll, Fox News said yesterday that Trump was leading in Florida with 43 per cent support from likely Republican voters, followed by Rubio with a distant 20 per cent.

Rubio, who had a dismal performance this Tuesday, needs to win his home State of Florida to stay in the Republican race to the White House.



During a town hall, Rubio exuded confidence that he would win the Florida primary, which he said would change the entire complexion of the Republican primary.



"It is true, we haven't done as well in some of those states as we wanted to, but it's going to come down to Florida for me, and it always has in the presidential races," Rubio told MSNBC in a town hall.



"In Florida the only one that has any chance of beating Donald Trump is me. If you don't want Donald Trump to be the nominee, even if you are a supporter of Ted Cruz or even if you're a supporter of John Kasich, you vote for Marco Rubio because a vote for anyone other than me is a vote for Donald Trump," Rubio said.



Political pundits, however, said Rubio's chances are slim.

The Republican presidential primary, scheduled to be held on March 15 along with other States like Ohio, Illinois and North Carolina, is considered crucial as it would decide on the party's nominee for the November 8 presidential elections.



To win the party's presidential nominee, the candidates need to have the support of 1237 delegates out of a total of 2472 delegates.



Florida has 99 delegates and the winner takes all of them, so does Ohio which has 66 delegates at stake.



In Ohio for the first time, Fox News polls said Trump was lagging behind State Governor John Kasich, who has the support of 34 per cent Republican primary goers, whereas Trump has a support of 29 per cent.



If Trump wins all of the delegates in Florida and Ohio, it could knock both Rubio and Kasich out of the race and this would make him almost a presumptive nominee with much closer to 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination.



However, both Rubio and Kasich said they would not let Trump win their home states.

Kasich who has so far earned just 54 delegates said his fortunes would turn for the better from a win in Ohio.



"We are going to win Ohio. That's not even a question for me. It's about what we do after that and all the places we have to go. But we're not taking it for granted," Kasich said.



"I mean, I'm working very hard there now, and so are all the team, our team out there. And I'll go down for the debate. Then I'm back and I'll be living in Ohio and all over the state, which is what I always do," Kasich told Fox News.


In a candid admission, the IAF today said that given its depleting strength, it does not have the adequate numbers to "fully execute" an air campaign in case of a two-front war involving Pakistan and China simultaneously.





It also sought more 5th generation fighter aircraft over and above the 36 Rafales since it was a requirement.



The revelation by the IAF comes at a time when the squadron strength of the force has come down to 33 in comparison to the sanctioned strength of 42.



Of the 33, a very large chunk is made up of Russian origin Su-30 jets, the front line fighter aircraft of the country.



However, the serviceability ratio of the aircraft is very poor with the figure hovering around 55 per cent. This means that out of 100 aircraft, only around 55 are available at a point of time with the rest being bogged down in service.



"Our numbers are not adequate to fully execute an air campaign in a two front scenario. Probability of a two front scenario is an appreciation which you need to do. But, are the numbers adequate? No. The squadrons are winding down," Air Marshal B S Dhanoa, Vice-Chief of the IAF said addressing a press conference here.



He was asked if the IAF has the capability to fight a two-front war if it breaks out tomorrow.



IAF sources said that a two-front war is not a likely possibility for the next few years and in the meantime, the force hopes to come up with the required capability.



"We have conveyed our concerns to the government. Government is seized of this problem and the reason why the government signed the 36 aircraft (Rafale) on G2G basis is because of urgency that they felt because of the depletion in squadron numbers," Dhanoa, a Kargil war veteran said.



Asked if there is a requirement for more Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) type aircraft besides the 36 Rafales, he said yes.



"There are various avenues that are being explored. There is a requirement for us to buy a MMRCA class aircraft more than the 36 numbers that we have signed. Which platform may come in, that is something between us and the government. We (both) will have to take a call," he said.



Deputy Chief of the IAF Air Marshal R K S Bhadauria said that a decision on more aircraft will be take only after the conclusion of the contract for 36 Rafale fighter jets.



Asked how many more MMRCA type aircraft is the IAF looking at, Bhadauria said he would not like to go into numbers.



"I am not going into numbers. MMRCA, you are aware of total numbers (126 fighters). We are getting 36 out of that. So there is a leftover there and we will take a rather holistic view of overall numbers," he said.



The IAF officers said that the Rafale will significantly enhance the capability of the IAF. Talking about the low serviceability of the Su-30, the IAF vice chief Dhanoa said that it is an issue.



"It is being monitored at the highest level in Ministry of Defence. We want to sign the long term material contract so as to have a quick turnaround," he said.



Dhanoa asserted that the sale of eight F16s to Pakistan does not drastically alter the air power balance in the region but admitted "it makes my life more difficult".



"I have to put more hi-tech platform against it. The MMRCA is designed in such a way that we need to offset this capability. When does war, conflict or adventure (Kargil) take place? It takes place when he has a doubt in your deterrence. If you demonstrate your deterrence, we should have peace because he will know that he will be hit very badly," he said.



To beef up the IAF, Defence Ministry has decided to procure a total of 120 indigenous Tejas Light Combat aircraft.



Of the 120, 100 of them will come with 43 improvements over the existing Tejas, currently being test-flown by the IAF for various parameters and slated for final operation clearance in March.



The first upgraded Tejas is scheduled to be produced in 2018 and the target is to complete the requirement by 2022-2023.



Tejas will fill the void created by aeging MiG-21s and MiG-27s that will be phased out by 2022.



There are 260 Soviet-era single-engine MiG-21 and MiG-27 jets in the IAF fleet. The Air Force needs at least 400 additional jets over the next 10 years.



The government is also exploring getting fighter jets through the 'Make in India route'. A number of fighter jet manufacturers have approached the Defence Ministry with their plans to set up production plants here.
Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley will be cross-examined by key 26/11 plotter Abu Jundal's lawyer for four days in the 2008 terror attack case here, beginning from March 22.





"We informed the court that Headley will depose from March 22-25 via video link from an undisclosed location in US, and the court passed an order," Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told PTI.



He also said that if needed Headley might also be re-examined by the prosecution later.

Headley, who has turned an approver, concluded his week-long deposition through video-link on February 13 in which he revealed the role and plans of LeT, ISI and Al Qeada to target India.



Last month, on February 22, Judge G A Sanap had directed Nikam to contact US authorities for Headley's second round of deposition and inform the court by February 25, after which the dates of his testification were to be finalised.



Jundal's lawyer Abdul Wahab Khan had then also sought four days to cross-examine Headley besides moving an application objecting to his being made an approver in the terror attack case.



Earlier on February 13, the day on which Headley's week-long deposition ended, the court had adjourned the case for cross-examination by Jundal's lawyer for a future date.



Headley, who is serving a 35-year jail term in the US in connection with the terror attacks case, had made some startling disclosures during his testimony which began on February 8. He spilled beans on how Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI provides "financial, military and moral support" to terror outfits LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen and how LeT had planned and executed the 26/11 attacks and the role played by ISI officials, involving him too.



He also revealed that LeT had planned an attack at a conference of Indian defence scientists at Taj Mahal Hotel a year before the 26/11 strikes and had even prepared its dummy.



Deposing via a video-link from the US, the 55-year-old terrorist had told the court that --Ishrat Jahan--who was killed in an alleged fake encounter in 2004 in Gujarat--was an operative of LeT.



Headley had also revealed that Al-Qaeda was in touch with him to attack Delhi's National Defence College and unravelled the plot by LeT and ISI to target Mumbai airport, BARC and the Naval air station here.



He also visited the Indian Army's Southern Command headquarters at Pune in 2009 on the instructions of ISI's Major Iqbal, who wanted him to recruit some military personnel to get "classified" information, the court was told.


Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today raked up the Bofors case reminding Rahul Gandhi of Ottavio Quattrocchi's escape to hit back at him for his attack on the government over liquor baron Vijay Mallya leaving the country despite owing over Rs 9,000 crore to banks.





Jaitley underscored that the loans were given during UPA rule and said mockingly that the Congress Vice President perhaps "could not understand" his answer. He also advised Gandhi to "study Constitution once" after the opposition party questioned Mallya's continuance as member of Rajya Sabha.



Debunking Gandhi's criticism on why Mallya was not stopped from leaving the country, the Minister said, "There is a legal process to stop anybody. Either your passport has been impounded or there is any court order. Except that immigration cannot stop you."



"Banks have gone to the Supreme Court to take an order and perhaps in the anticipation of that he (Mallya) left before," Jaitley said when asked about Gandhi's question as to how did the government allow Mallya to leave the country.



Raking up the Bofors case of Rajiv Gandhi tenure that has haunted Congress for decades, Jaitely trained his guns on the Congress Vice President.



"But Rahul ji should remember that there is a basic difference in Mallya leaving (the country) and Quattrocchi going out (of India). And let me explain him the difference.



"When the officials of Switzerland informed that Quattrocchi was also among the beneficiaries of Bofors and though the person who was heading the CBI investigation earlier K Madhavan wrote a letter that his passport should be impounded, the then government had not stopped him and within two days he left India. That was a criminal case," the Finance Minister said addressing the Cabinet briefing.



Stressing that there is a difference between the two incidents, Jaitley also said that by the time Mallya left, the banks had not initiated the legal process.



"It would have been better had the banks done it earlier," he, however, acknowledged.

Responding to questions that Rahul Gandhi has accused him of not answering his questions, the Finance Minister said," I had given dates in Parliament that all these loans were sanctioned in 2004 and 2007. In 2009, they became NPA and even after becoming NPA, it was restructured in 2010.



"If Shri Rahul Gandhi could not understand these dates and what I meant to say through them, you please help him understand this."



When asked about Congress questioning how Mallya remains a member in Rajya Sabha even after the issuance of a look out notice against him, he said, "There is a constitutional process to suspend the membership. If he (Rahul) studies Constitution once... it can happen only according to that. Membership is not terminated through press conferences."



Rahul had earlier said, "We asked Mr Jaitley to tell us how Mallya ran away from India. If there is action against him and a lookout notice has been issued against him, then what is he doing in Rajya Sabha."



Jaitley also dismissed a question on why Mallya's passport was not confiscated.

"There has to be a process. There is a law called the Passport Act under which an appropriate order is to be passed by the Passport Authority," he said.



Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said that everyone knew Mallya "could flee any day" and investigating agencies should have confiscated his passport and taken steps to restrict his movement.



Jaitely said, "According to me let the bankers take all steps to recover their money. If somebody is responsible of inaction or any other matter some facts come to notice, certainly, we will look into that and will take appropriate action."



Trying to push the government on the backfoot, Gandhi today asked how it allowed Mallya, who owes over Rs 9,000 crore to banks, to leave the country and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley have failed to answer this question in their speeches.



The Congress Vice President attacked the government saying the entire country is questioning why this government was "helping" people like Mallya by allowing him to escape and not fulfilling its promises made to people for bringing back black money and "giving Rs 15 lakh into every person's bank account".



Replying to another question on whether the government could order a probe in Ishrat Jahan case, Jaitely merely said,"I think a debate is going on in Parliament. Home Minister is competent and he will make a statement on that."


India today successfully put its sixth navigation satellite into the intended orbit in a launch that is just one step away from having its own regional navigation satellite system that will be on par with the US-based Global Positioning System.





The applications of the system that is expected to be "accurate and efficient" include terrestrial and marine navigation, disaster management, vehicle tracking and fleet management, navigation aide for hikers and travellers, visual and voice navigation for drivers.



In a textbook launch, Indian Space Research Organisation's(ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV C32) blasted off into cirrus (high altitude) clouds from the second launch pad at 4.01 PM at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here, about 100 km from Chennai.



ISRO delayed the launch by one minute to avoid a possible collision with space debris. The PSLV, in its 33rd consecutive successful flight, placed IRNSS 1F, the latest navigation satellite, into precise orbit 20.2 minutes after the lift-off as the ISRO scientists at the Mission Control Centre broke into applause.



"PSLV C-32 has put the satellite into right orbit. We have only one more in the constellation to complete the regional navigational system, which we hope to do next month," ISRO Chairman A S Kiran Kumar said.



Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded ISRO scientists for the successful launch, saying it was an "accomplishment we all take immense pride in." "Successful launch of IRNSS-1F is an accomplishment we all take immense pride in. I salute the hard work of our scientists & @isro," he tweeted.



Mission Director B Jayakumar said "The sixth satellite of our own navigational system has been placed very safely and very precisely. The vehicle (PSLV C-32) has done the job wonderfully and the inclination achieved is very close to the target."



IRNSS 1F, with a 12-year mission life, is the sixth and penultimate in the constellation of seven satellites planned under Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS), which would be on par with the GPS.



Earlier, at the end of the 54-hour countdown, the rocket lifted off as planned and all its four stages performed as programmed till the separation of IRNSS 1F. After the satellite was placed into orbit, the two solar panels of IRNSS-1F were automatically deployed in quick succession.

ISRO scientists said the Master Control Facility in Hassan (Karnataka) will take control of the satellite to perform further orbit raising operations and IRNSS 1F was likely to become operational in a month. Incidetally, Kiran Kumar said IRNSS-1E, the fifth in the series launched on January 20 last, has become operational now.



The first in the series, IRNSS-1A, was launched in July 2013 followed by IRNSS-1B (April 4, 2014), IRNSS-1C (October 16) IRNSS-1D (March 28, 2015) and IRNSS-1E. For the IRNSS-1F launch, the "XL" variant of PSLV used as in previous launches of IRNSS satellites.



Along with the navigation payload and ranging payload, IRNSS-1F also carries a "highly accurate Rubidium atomic clock" with it. The payload will transmit navigation service signals to users.



Speaking after the launch, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre Director B Sivan said the GSLV Mark III D1 would be launched by the end of this year.



"We have exciting days ahead. We are going to start next mission with the last of our IRNSS series and going to end this year with a spectacular mission of meeting the heaviest satellite of the Indian soil, by GSLV Mark III D1," he said.



In between, there would be a host of PSLV missions as well as GSLV and reusable launch vehicle-technology demonstrators, he added.



Satish Dhawan Space Centre Director Kunhi Krishnan said PSLV once again demonstrated its capability as one of the most reliable and sought after vehicles in the world.
Amid a war of words between the government and opposition over his sudden 'disappearance' from the country, External Affairs Ministry today said it has not been asked to take any action against liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who is facing legal proceedings for alleged loan defaults by his group to the tune of over Rs 9000 crore.



"As far as Vijay Mallya is concerned MEA has not been asked to take any action," MEA Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said. He was asked if the ministry was taking any action against Mallya, who has left the country, as per the Attorney General's submission in the court yesterday.



Asked about reports that Mallya was in the UK, the spokesperson said, "We cannot comment on that beyond what the Attorney General said in court." Yesterday, AG Mukul Rohatgi had told the Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Kurian Joseph and R F Nariman that Mallya left the country a week back as per the CBI input.



The bench issued notice to Mallya and sought his response within two weeks on pleas filed by a consortium of banks seeking direction for freezing his passport and his presence before the apex court.



Since the court was informed that Mallya has already left the country, probably for UK, the bench allowed the plea of AG that the notice to him can be served through his official Rajya Sabha Email ID, Indian High Commission at London and also through counsel representing him before various high courts, Debt Recovery Tribunal and also through his Company.



Asked about India recently approaching the Interpol with its demand for an early notification of the Red warrant sought by the ED against Lalit Modi, the former IPL Chairman, in connection with its money laundering case, Swarup said,"We have yet to receive the request from the Enforcement Directorate. As soon as that comes, we will immediately take action."
Industry has welcomed the passage of the Real Esate Bill, 2015. The bill was passed on Thursday in Rajya Sabha.





Builders said the new law will bring credibility to property business and protect consumers interest, but felt that some of the provisions like imprisonment are harsh.



Realtors apex body CREDAI President Getamber Anand said: The Bill would bring credibility to real estate business and endorse our demand of giving infra status to housing.



The industry expressed dissatisfaction over inclusion of the ongoing projects in the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill. They wanted government authorities including municipal bodies, which sanctions the project, to be brought under this bill.



Anand said bringing ongoing projects under this bill would lead to stoppage of work on the site in order to ensure compliances.



DLF CEO Rajeev Talwar said, We welcome the passage of The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill 2015. The setting up of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority will usher in much needed transparency and pave the way for implementation of standard practices across the sector, said .



Even though some clauses are heavily stacked against builders, we believe that this Bill has the potential to transform our industry. The Bill does not touch the issue of single-window clearance for approvals. It also needs to hold local bodies/authorities, banks, contractors, financial institutions accountable, and we hope they will come under its ambit in future, he added.



The passage of the Bill will definitely enhance the credibility of the construction industry as a whole by promoting transparency, accountability and efficiency in execution of the projects. Additionally, it will help put in place an effective regulatory mechanism for orderly growth of the sector, said J C Sharma, Vice Chairman and MD, Sobha.



The buyer confidence, which was shaken, will now come back with this crucial step taken by the government of passing the Real Estate Bill on Thursday, said Aman Singh Gehlot, Director, Ambience Group.



The Real Estate Bill will place the Indian real estate market, which currently is fragmented and unorganised, at par with that of other developed countries with clear accountability of developers through the establishment of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA), said Sanjay Dutt, Managing Director (India), Cushman & Wakefield.



CBRE South Asia CMD Anshuman Magazine said, The Bill will have a far reaching implications for the sector. It will help regulate the sector and promote transparency.
Labourers, led by the joint committee of labour organisations, staged a protest against the amendments made to labour laws by the Union government, here on Thursday.





They took out a rally from the Old Taluk Office premises to the DCs office and submitted a memorandum to the DC. The protesters said the ammendments made to the labour laws are meant to please corporate sector and urged the Centre to withdraw them.



They also urged the government to extend the service allowance to 30 days. Also,

Rs 600 should be fixed as the minimum wage for plantation workers. The ordinance, which allows the usage of coal mines for commercial purposes, should be withdrawn and the sale of Coal India should be stopped, they demanded.



They said that the ordinance, which has increased the foreign direct investment limit in insurance sector to 49 per cent, should be taken back. Machine made system should be scrapped. The amendments made to the labour laws, approved in Rajasthan Legislative Assembly, should be reintroduced, they said and sought a minimum salary of Rs 18,000 per month for anganwadi workers. Pension, bonus and PF contributions should be increased. Separate funds should be reserved for the welfare programmes and PF for labourers, the labourers demanded.



They also said that the registration of labour organisations must be made within 45 days of submission of applications. Sahyadri Plantation Union General Secretary Ramachandra Wadiyar, Staff Union General Secretary M C Shivanandaswamy and Mid-day Meal Workers Federation district President G Raghu also spoke.



AITUC President K Gunashekhar, General Secretary S Vijayakumar, Anganwadi and leaders Mangala, Indumathi, Parvathamma and Chandrakala were present.


The genetically modified mustard, which is under the government's consideration for commercial release, yielded less in farmers field when compared with popular varieties, a retired crop scientist has claimed citing new data, which has been contradicted by the developers.





The GM mustard, developed by scientists at Delhi University, was approved by the regulator, Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) for commercial cultivation, but environment minister Prakash Javadekar held back on the decision.



A comparison of yield data between GM mustard and popular non-GM Indian varieties shows that all of them give higher yield. In four out of six cases, the increase is more than 22%. Why do we need GM mustard, which the developers claim will yield more but in reality generate less. Non-GM mustard hybrids are equally good, said Sharad E Pawer, a retired crop scientist, who was associated with Nagpur University as a consultant on mustard development.



Trials were conducted by Indian Council for Agriculture Research. We could not have rigged the data. This accusation itself shows how desperate some parties are to stop GM technology for hybrid seed production in mustard, Deepak Pental, former vice-chancellor of Delhi University and the leader GM mustard team told Deccan Herald.



The mean yield of DMH-11 over 8 trials is 37% higher than that against varieties with whom the crop was checked. The facts presented by Pawar are distorted, said Pental.

Contesting Pentals argument, Pawar claimed when compared against currently used mustard varieties, DMH-11 performed poorly.



The comparison should have been made with national hybrid checks. It has not been done in this case. Instead, the comparison has been shown with weaker varieties, which provide a false impression that the transgenic hybrid is a better performer, he wrote to Javadekar last month.



A crop biotechnologist from Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Pawar is a fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences and was associated with the National Dairy Development Board's projects on developing better mustard hybrids for years. Pental is one of India's leading scientists and a member of all Indian science academies. Pawar asked the environment minister to investigate the trial data by an independent technical expert to save future embarrassment.


The NDA government on Thursday dug out 15 previous instances to justify Army constructing makeshift bridge on Yamuna riverbed to facilitate smooth flow of traffic for the Art of Living Foundation (AoLF)s World Culture Festival beginning Friday.





Of the 15 events, the government emphasised globally acclaimed Greek American music composer Yannis three-day music concert on the banks of Yamuna in Agra on March 20, 1997, since the AoLF event is similar in detail.



The Army had constructed two pontoon bridges for Yannis event when the BSP was running a coalition government in Uttar Pradesh with the support of the Congress. A day before Yannis function started on March 19, BSP parted ways with Congress to form the government with the BJP.



Coming out in support of the World Culture Festival, union minister M Venkaiah Naidu said people are trying to defame the country and its image was at stake due to the unnecessary controversy raked up in the media.



People did not have any problems with Yanni musical concert. But, since Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is an Indian, that is why people have problems, Naidu remarked.



On political parties raising objections to Armys assistance, he said, the Opposition is interested in going for Afzal Guru concert and Yakub Memom function and raises objection when there is anything to do with Hindu and Bhartiyata.



Among the list of instances during which Army rendered help are a foot bridge for Kumbh mela in Nasik way back in 1991 to construction of 120 feet Bailey bridge for pilgrims at Sabarimala temple in Kerala for four days in October 2011.



Thrice Armys help for facilitating movement was sought during Makar Sankranti, twice for Magh Mela, twice during floods and national and Commonwealth games. Interestingly, in all of these events the organisers were not private entities.



At AoLFs World Culture Festival, Army erected three pontoon bridges for the seamless movement of people coming from the Noida link road entrance or the Mayur Vihar side.


The cross-examination of David Coleman Headley, who had done the groundwork for the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai, would be conducted from March 22 to 25.





Abdul Wahab Khan, the defence lawyer of Sayed Zaibuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, an Indian facing trial in the Mumbai terror attacks, will examine Headleys claims.



In December 2015, Headley had turned an approver and was pardoned. The examination-in-chief was conducted between February 8 and 13 by Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam. The proceedings were conducted through video-conferencing from an undisclosed destination in the United States before the court of Additional Sessions Judge G A Sanap.



After Jundals lawyer informed that he was going to cross-examine Headley for four days, Judge Sanap asked Nikam to contact the Department of Justice in the United States and check their availability and inform the court by February 25. Accordingly, the formalities were carried out and the date was finalised on Thursday. The cross-examination has been fixed for four days from March 22 to 25, Khan said.



If needed, Headley might also be re-examined by the prosecution later, according to Nikam. Headley, 56, is currently serving a 35-year-prison term in two cases in the US.
Legislative Assembly Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa on Thursday said he would direct the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR) to write to Upalokayukta Subhash B Adi, through the Lokayukta registrar, that he was precluded from discharging his duties during the pendency of a motion seeking his removal.





Thimmappa had recently referred a motion moved by the Congress seeking the removal of Justice Adi to Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court, Subhro Kamal Mukherjee, for further action.



Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru after holding ameeting with senior members and officials of the legislature, Thimmappa said as per the provisions of the Karnataka Lokayukta Act, the Upalokayukta was precluded from discharging his duties during the pendency of the motion in the House.



However, Justice Adi had written to the DPAR citing the Supreme Court judgements that he could attend office even during the pendency of the motion.



We discussed the issue today. The Lokayukta Act clearly states that once I admit the motion and send it to the Chief Justice, the Upalokayukta cannot discharge his duties or attend office till the pendency of the motion. I will direct the DPAR to write to Justice Adi again, through the Lokayukta registrar, quoting the required sections of the law, Thimmappa said.



One of the charges made by the Congress in its petition was that Justice Adi overstepped his jurisdiction and closed a case involving a close relative of BJP leader Jagadish Shettar.
Home Minister G Parameshwara on Thursday said the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) was following leads after forensic reports established a common link in the murders of Kannada scholar M M Kalburgi in Dharwad in August last, communist leader Govind Pansare in Kolhapur and rationalist Narendra Dabholkar in Pune in 2013.





We have formed special squads to investigate the murder of Kalburgi. The FSL reports have found evidence that bullets fired at the three had similar marks. Our police are following the leads and we will nab the culprits soon, Parameshwara said in an interaction with reporters in Bengaluru.



He said the government had proposed to build 11,000 houses for constables and sub-inspectors in the State police force. We have sought that a loan amount of Rs 500 crore be made available to the Karnataka State Housing Corporation in the forthcoming budget for the fiscal year 2016-17, the minister said.



Parameshwara said while the total police force required in the State was one lakh, the available strength stood at 75,000. Appointment of 8,000 police personnel was in the final stages of approval.



On Delhi visit



Parameshwara, who is also the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president, said his recent visit to New Delhi only to submit to the party high command the details of the properties owned by the party in various parts of Karnataka. There was no political discussion with the high command, he said.



He said it was for the central leadership to decide on the calendar of events to elect a new Congress president in the State. Appointment to various posts in the State-run boards and corporations will be taken up after the budget session of the state legislature, he said.
In a move to save energy and cut power purchase costs, the Energy department is considering replacement of all existing irrigation pumpsets (IP sets) with energy-efficient electrical motors supplied through the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL).





Approximately, there are 25 lakh IP sets in the State for which a subsidy of Rs 6,200 crore was announced in the budget for 2015-16. The government is planning to give energy-efficient IP (EEIP) sets, up to a horse power (HP) of 10, free of cost to farmers.



Each EEIP set is likely to cost Rs 40,000, Energy Minister D K Shivakumar told Deccan Herald.



We will give it for free and recover the amount through the energy saved and through tariff subsidy, the minister said. The distribution companies (Discoms) will pay EESL from the energy saved and the money raised through tariff subsidy.



EESL is a joint venture of the public sector undertakings of the Union power ministry including the National Thermal Power Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation Limited, Power Finance Corporation Limited and Power Grid Corporation of India Limited.



EESL did a pilot project in Hubballi and Mysuru districts, which showed that energy can be saved up to 37%. Under the pilot project, 86 lakh kilowatt-hour (kwh) of energy was saved by replacing 2,000 old IP sets with EEIP sets. The total monetary savings was Rs 4 crore.



The State would approximately save 1.075 crore Mega Watt-hour of energy, if all 25 lakh IP sets are replaced with EEIP sets. The monetary savings would be Rs 4,300 crore.



Other benefits from EEIP are: reduce transmission and distribution losses due to installation of capacitor banks with control panels, lesser transformer burnouts and line tripping and no need to upgrade existing transformers since load is reduced.



According to EESL, the programme aims to expand through four states targeting nearly 70 lakh IP sets across Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
Energy Minister D K Shivakumar on Thursday said his political bete noire H D Kumaraswamy of the JD(S) should not talk of retirement from politics at least in the interest of his party workers.





Speaking to reporters after interacting with Congress workers at the party office, he sarcastically said hundreds of JD(S) workers will be doomed if their leader takes political retirement. What should the JD(S) workers do if he retires? He (Kumaraswamy) should not let them down. I request him not to retire on behalf of the JD(S) workers, he added.



It is not proper for a leader to think that he can serve people only if has power. A leader should continue serving people irrespective of she/he being in power, he said, adding that he was surprised when the JD(S) leader declared recently that he would retire if his party fails to come to power in the next Assembly elections in the State.



Shivakumar denied reports in a section of the media that Congress State president G Parameshwara was in Delhi on Wednesday to complain against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Except some minor confusion, the government has been doing well. The State party president met the Delhi leaders on some party affairs, he said. He said he was not in race to become the next State party president.
Registrar of Tumkur University D Shivalingaiah (in pic) was on Thursday appointed the vice chancellor of Karnataka State Open University in Mysuru.





A product of Bangalore University, he served as a professor in Library and Information Science at Mangalore University, before taking over as registrar of Tumkur University.

Governor Vajubhai R Vala has issued an order in this regard and his secretariat has issued a notification.



Shivalingaiah was expected to take charge from in-charge vice chancellor and registrar of KSOU, P S Nayak, on Thursday evening. However, he had not reached Mysuru till almost 9 pm. There were murmurs that Shivalingaiah was not fully qualified for the post and hence the delay in taking charge.



The term of the earlier vice chancellor, M G Krishnan, ended on January 30. His tenure was a turbulent one with the Bhaktavathsala Committee probing the irregularities in the institution and the University Grants Commission de-recognising the courses offered by the varsity for failing to comply with the rules.



Even before Krishnan retired, there had been hectic lobbying by several academics for the vice chancellors post in the cash-rich institution. Sources said the government was unhappy with the governors choice of candidate and was contemplating writing to the Raj Bhavan.


Young men from the North Karnataka districts are increasingly being drawn towards the Defence services. However, many of them dont make the cut, given the severe competition from other states and their own unpreparedness.





To give such aspirants a better chance, the Central University of Karnataka (CUK), Kalaburagi, has proposed to train these individuals, with the assistance of the recruitment selection boards of the Defence forces.



The varsity has also decided to start certificate and diploma programmes in defence studies for those men who have retired from the services, to enhance their job potential.

Further, the varsity plans to begin degree, master degree and PhD programmes in Defence and strategic studies in National Security as per the directive of the University Grants Commission (UGC), by the next academic year.



CUK vice-chancellor Maheshwaraiah said the Academic Council of the varsity took a decision to implement these programmes at its meeting held on January 25. Following this, the varsitys professor in Finance, M V Alagawadi, who was previously a joint director in the Ministry of Defence, met with the vice-chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force to explore the possibilities of signing memorandums of understanding (MoUs). Alagawadi said the vice-chiefs were eager to tie up with CUK to impart training through the proposed programmes.



Despite receiving rigorous technical training when in the force, the men are not certified, making it difficult for them to get jobs once they are out of service.



A large chunk of non-officers in the services retire as early as 35 years of age. However, without a certificate they stand no chance in the job market. The vice-chiefs too agreed that there is a dire need for such programmes. The Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi is already in the advanced stages of finalising the MoU. CUK will fashion its MoU on similar lines, Alagawadi said.



PhD options

CUK will begin with offering these programmes to the Air Force, given that the Training Command of the Indian Air Force is headquartered in Bengaluru.

Laying thrust on the PhD programmes, he said that there were very few officers from the State.



When it comes to defence aspirants, many of them fail in the verbal and written exams. We want to invite the recruitment selection boards, which can train these aspirants for a period of one month, and prepare them for these exams.
The much-delayed regularisation of unauthorised constructions and land development, popularly known as Akrama-Sakrama, has received a cold response in Bengaluru.



The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has in the past one year received only 1,598 applications seeking regularisation of properties under the scheme. And people appear to be not very eager to submit applications though the deadline to do so will end on March 22  the government had given one year time for people to submit the applications from March 23, 2015.



The much-discussed scheme envisages one-time regularisation of building deviation (up to 50 per cent in case of residential and up to 25 per cent in case of commercial) and illegal land development in the jurisdiction of all urban local bodies, including the BBMP, in the State. As per an estimate by the BBMP, there are more than two lakh unauthorised residential plots (also called B khata plots) in its jurisdiction and over five lakh buildings have been constructed violating the building bye-laws.



According to the BBMP officials, the Karnataka High Court direction to the government not to process the applications is one of the reasons for the poor response. A division bench of the court gave this order in March last year while hearing a petition by Citizens Forum for Mangalore Development for quashing the Akrama-Sakrama rules.



Filling in applications under the scheme is a cumbersome process. It is difficult to fill in the application without the help of an architect in case of byelaw violations. For, one has to calculate the quantum of setback violations, which depends on a number of factors such as plot area, built-up area, number of floors, floor area ratio and zoning regulations.



In case of B khata properties, assistance of an advocate in property matter is necessary. As the scheme has hit the legal hurdle, people are reluctant to spend money on submitting applications, the officials said.



Moreover, the officials said, the maximum limit fixed for the regularisation of unauthorised portions of construction is unrealistic. A majority of the unauthorised residential constructions in Bengaluru City have more than 50 per cent deviations. So, owners of such properties will not be eligible for regularisation under the scheme. It is also an important reason for the poor response to the scheme, the officials added.



BBMP Additional Director, Town Planning, L Shashikumar wondered why people are not eager to make use of the scheme. The court has not stayed the scheme. And it has no objection to receiving applications. The High Court has only asked the government not to process them.



People might come forward to submit applications when all legal issues get cleared. But so far, the government has not issued any direction on extending the deadline for submitting the applications, he said.


Bengaluru wont face any water shortage till June-end as the Kabini and Krishnaraja Sagar reservoirs have sufficient water to meet the demand, according to the dam authorities. There wont neither be any water scarcity for Mysuru and Mandya also.





KRS Dam Superintendent Engineer Shankregowda said on Thursday that of the 11.5 tmc feet water available, 7.5 tmc feet was reserved for drinking purpose in Mysuru, Mandya and Bengaluru.



The KRS has a capacity to store 15.5 tmc feet of water of which 11.5 tmc ft of water could be made use of. Everyday, Bengaluru and Mysuru receive 600 and 200 cusecs of water from the reservoir, respectively. With available water, we can meet the water needs of Bengaluru and Mysuru cities, till June-end, he said.



Four tmc feet of water is being released from the KRS as the third instalment for irrigation purposes from March 2. The water would be released till March 20.



Mysuru city, which has a population of more than 10 lakh, needs 230 million litres per day (MLD) of water. Rivers Cauvery and Kabini are the major sources of drinking water in the region.



The Vani Vilas Water Works (VVWW), which manages water supply in the city, lifts 100, 70 and 60 MLD of water from Hongalli, Megalapura and Belagola water pumping stations respectively.



VVWW Executive Engineer L N Anand told Deccan Herald, Mysuru needs 2,000 million cubic feet of water per month. At present, KRS has a storage up to 90.43 feet. VVWW can lift water from the dam, till the water level comes down to 75 ft.



Even though usage of water is a little high during summer, we can manage with available water, he said.
The State government may ask private schools in Bengaluru to fence their entire premises with cat bite metal nets, raise the height of compound walls, check stray dog population and keep vacant sites in their vicinity clean to avert the straying of leopards and other wild animals.





The measures were suggested at a workshop jointly organised by the Forest and Public Instruction departments after a leopard strayed into Vibgyor High school on the eastern outskirts of Bengaluru last month. The workshop discussed preventive measures to be taken by all schools located in the area where the leopard was sighted.



The Block Education Officer (BEO) of Bengaluru South Zone-4 has submitted the minutes of the workshop to the Department of Public Instruction.



At the workshop, the stakeholders were of the opinion that the Vibgyor incident could have been averted if the school premises was properly fenced with the cat bite metal net. Second, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) should check the stray dog population on the periphery of urban areas. Leopards often stray into the City in search of food and consider dogs easy prey.



Third, vacant sites around the schools should be cleared of garbage and thorny bushes because there are high chances that leopards could hide there after straying in. The authority concerned should issue notices to owners to keep their sites clean.



All schools, private or government, need to take the steps. But an official told Deccan Herald that state-run educational institutions would find it difficult to do so as the government may not release the funds.



Private schools, however, will have to take the measures as parents will pressure them

for their childrens safety, the official said. Its now up to the government to issue an order to all schools to take the steps suggested in the workshop, he said.




The mass fish death at the Ulsoor Lake early this week echoed in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Council meeting on Thursday.





Raising the matter in the Council, ruling party leader R S Sathyanarayana said, The BBMP, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) and the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) are primarily responsible for the incident. We will decide as to who was/were responsible for the large-scale fishkill at Ulsoor Lake.



He sought to know why the Palike has allowed fishery in over 80 tanks in the City. The Halasur ward corporator Mamatha Saravana said, Fish mafia is at work in Halasur. Those involved in it are not bothered about the conservation of the lake. She also sought to know how much the BBMP earns from the boating taken up by the Tourism department in Ulsoor lake.



Corporator Umesh Shetty demanded action against the Tourism department officials who have been allowing boating services illegally in Ulsoor Lake.



Mayor B N Manjunath Reddy said that a Memorandum of Understanding was signed for the development of Ulsoor Lake but due to the laxity of the BBMP officials, it could not materialise. He also blamed the Fisheries department for the sorry state of Ulsoor Lake.



Former mayor B S Sathyanarayana, who had launched the Namma Bengaluru Nanna Koduge (My Contribution to Our Bengaluru) scheme, said Canara Bank had agreed to develop it but the officials shut the doors on the development of Ulsoor Lake, which resulted in the fishkill three days ago.


Just moved in to the City on work, you could get horribly trapped in a twister of house-hunting woes. A total stranger, you could be completely at the mercy of an agent.





Unless, of course, you get rescued by a startup that lets you search for a house, suitable rent and location of your choice through a mobile app! Thats exactly what Nestaway, a City-headquartered home rental network promises to do.



Launched last April by a team of four, Nestaway has an option that has proved attractive for people just starting off their career: Only two months rent as security deposit instead of the 10-month rent norm and zero brokerage. Nestaway has so far placed over 8,000 tenants, 5,000 of them in Bengaluru, the startups co-founder and CEO, Amarendra Sahu, told Deccan Herald.



The app linked to the network will throw up a list of houses in a particular area / price band. A prospective tenant books the house online, after furnishing the required identity proof, address proof, employer ID, verified phone and email ID. Once the owner okays the deal through his / her Nestaway account, the security deposit is transferred to his account.

The rent is fixed by the owner. Nestaway takes care of the legal agreement, rent collection and home repairs. Sahu explained, We deduct 12.5 per cent from the monthly rental payable to the owner before the 5th of every month. The broker gets 2.5 per cent from this, thus ensuring a recurring monthly payment for him.



The brokers tasks are clear: Show houses to the tenant, deliver agreements and attend to and supervise repairs and services.



If a tenant has issues with the house booked online, he / she could either relocate to a new house or cancel the booking within three days. The entire money will be refunded, said Sahu.



Mutual trust between tenant and owner is often critical to a rental agreement. Most property owners are reluctant to rent out their homes to single strangers due to lack of trust and often cite security reasons. How does Nestaway tackle this? Besides the ID verification, the tenants whereabouts are furnished as mandated to the local police station.



To ensure safety, Sahu said, single woman tenants are offered accommodation only in apartments with security.



Owners are provided structure and content insurance for rental homes up to Rs one crore. Under a rental default guarantee, the owner gets his share of the rent irrespective of the tenants payment status.


Schools in Bengaluru affiliated to the Cambridge International Examination (CIE) have welcomed the March exam series designed to help students who are more interested to study in the country rather than abroad.





An indication of this is the doubling of the number of students taking the exam in the country. In the first series held in March 2015, there were 11,000 entries for the subjects on offer.



Entries for the March exam series 2016 went up to 26,000. The new exam series helps students by releasing results on time for the March application deadlines.



Sarojini Rao, Principal, Indus International School was of the opinion that the March series exams allowed students to finish their exams in March, thus allowing for the conduct of foundation courses which would better prepare the students as they move on to pursue either their IB diploma (under International Bacca- laureate) or A-Levels (under CIE) in the next academic session.



Also, for students who wish to move to an India-based curriculum after their Grade 10, this ensures their admissions process is a smooth since results are announced before the end of the academic session.



The March 2016 exam series has been extended to include subjects at Cambridge International AS and A Level (equivalent to class 11 and 12).


Despite police protection, Mayor B N Manjunatha Reddy was heckled and jostled outside the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Council building on Thursday by BJP members, who alleged disparity in allocation of funds to the Bommanahalli Assembly Constituency.





The BJPs Bommanahalli MLA Sathish Reddy, party corporators and their supporters who besieged the Mayor, raised slogans alleging partiality in fund allocation and threatened to disrupt Council proceedings for the second consecutive day. Police had made elaborate security arrangements and put up barricades to prevent any untoward incident.



Inside the Council, the Mayor had to face a vociferous Sathish Reddy and BJP corporators who were relentless in their tirade. For the second day, they staged a demonstration inside the Council hall.



Sathish Reddy said, I have no complaints over grant of funds to constituencies represented by Congress MLAs. My contention is, why my constituency was ignored. How can development happen without money?



Congress MLAs Munirathna from Rajarajeshwarinagar and Byrathi Basavaraj from KR Puram too had come to the BBMP Council meeting to support Mayor Manjunath Reddy. The two MLAs assured Sathish Reddy that they would call on Bengaluru Development Minister K J George and request him to release special grants to the Bommanahalli constituency.



Later in his speech, the Mayor conceded: Some error did occur in the allocation of funds. We will rectify the mistake in the allocation of funds to Bommanahalli.



Intervening in the discussion, Munirathna said if Sathish Reddy had raised this matter in during 2013-14 and 2014-15, the problem would not have arisen. He supported the Bommanahalli MLA's demand for funds and said no area should be left under-developed in the City. He added that Minister George has assured him that he would call a meeting and rectify the mistake.


Gauthier Reveret, Dolphin Integration

1. Introduction

With the development of more and more power-consuming mobile applications, the battery lifetime has become the biggest challenge of a low-power System-on-Chip (SoC).

Success in designing a low-power SoC requires successive attention to five intertwined networks:

the exchange network between functional blocks through data busses,

the clock distribution network, possibly enabling clock gating and frequency scaling,

the voltage regulation network, possibly enabling Dual Voltage and Frequency Stepping (DVFS),

the control network of power islands, managing changes of power modes implying transitions of clock frequencies and voltage regulator states,

the application network which spans over the PCB.

Developing and verifying a control network in a low-power SoC is a challenging task, especially managing the different states of regulators and modes of power domains.

This article first describes state-of-the-art approaches to addressing this issue, and then delves into the solution promoted by Dolphin Integration to go further, thanks to the easy and secure Maestro solution to manage SoC power mode transitions.

2. Control Network Design Solutions

When using advanced design techniques to reduce power consumption through the introduction of power domains, SoC states and power modes are managed by designing a Power Management Unit (PMU) or an Activity Control Unit (ACU) to supply and control the power domains. These are fundamentally SoC specific constructs, which can be designed in two distinct ways:

Using a monolithic approach, SoC integrators design a centralized scheme. The design and verification is often long and complex due to the lack of a hierarchically structured and modular approach for interconnections, placement and control, resulting in a low rate of re-use of elementary components, be they oscillators, voltage regulators or control modules.

Using a modular approach, SoC Integrators can design a network of interconnected elements in order to: Enable local modifications without cross-impacting the rest of the supply network or of the control network, when facing the need for architectural upgrades. Each modification thus impacts one regulator or one hardware module of the control network, not the complete hardware controller, Reuse modules several times in the design to control similar operations, Ease the top-level verification thanks to a determined number of elements with predefined functionalities.



Maestro is a modular solution dedicated to easing the control of frequency, voltage and mode transitions for the power domains of low-power SoCs. Due to its focus on power mode management and scalability, Maestro is the perfect solution for a wide range of low-power SoC complexities.

Other modular solutions are available on the market for the design of Networks-on-Chip (NoC), which are often mingled with the two previous solutions. NoC solutions are dedicated to data management in complex sub-systems where data is difficult to manage, as in the context of multi- or many-processor sub-systems. A NoC can manage data packet transmission between blocks by taking into account the state of each block.

The Maestro solution relies on different rules:

The subsidiarity principle with modular design thanks to generic and customizable modules, which structure the design of the ACU/PMU. Each module is dedicated to a type of island or resource in order to functionally manage its mode transitions, be it a power domain or island, voltage regulator, clock generator, etc.

Smart combination of one soft (C/C++) and six synthesizable RTL modules for a good compromise between flexibility and time-to-market.

Automatic management of conflicts between resources by Maestro modules.

A dedicated control bus independent from data busses, thus authorizing the construction of the power island architecture over the functional block architecture. It enables switching-off higher speed data busses, the control bus being always-on but at low-frequency.

Consistency with the construction of power domains per the UPF for turning them into islands endowed with the patented "Transition Ramp Cells" of Dolphin Integration's Island Construct Kit to optimize the in-rush current of each domain.

The simplicity of the communication protocol.

Figure 1: ACU vs. Maestro

3. MAESTRO SYNCHRONOUS Fabric

Maestro is a synchronous fabric dedicated to the control of the modes of power domains.

The major innovation consists in separating two busses for linking any peripheral block or island: the standard peripheral bus (SFR, AHB) for data transmissions and a dedicated control bus (part of the Maestro fabric) for the control of the modes of power domains. Maestro provides a new standard for introducing reusable control components which interact with SoC power domains and associated resources: voltage regulator, clock generator, etc. It enables dodging the most error-prone phases of either a top-down or a bottom-up SoC integration process. It is based on a set of generic and customizable components which can be assembled to manage the mode transitions of a SoC.

The main components of a Maestro network are the following:

Mode Switching Program (MSP): brain of a Maestro network. It knows the list of modes of the SoC along with the state of each island for each mode, and manages the sequences to switch from one SoC mode to another. For SoC containing a processor, the SoC power state table and the mode transition sequences are implemented as software executed by the processor.

brain of a Maestro network. It knows the list of modes of the SoC along with the state of each island for each mode, and manages the sequences to switch from one SoC mode to another. For SoC containing a processor, the SoC power state table and the mode transition sequences are implemented as software executed by the processor. CentralActivity Controller: component which manages the start-up sequence (inital boot) of the SoC as well as the power on and power off sequences of the MSP to enter into and wake-up from sleep modes. The Central Activity Controller is also a bridge between the system bus and the Dedicated Control Bus.

component which manages the start-up sequence (inital boot) of the SoC as well as the power on and power off sequences of the MSP to enter into and wake-up from sleep modes. The Central Activity Controller is also a bridge between the system bus and the Dedicated Control Bus. Local Activity Controller: local interface for a power domain which receives the mode change requests from the Dedicated Control Bus, knows the list of modes of the connected power domain with the corresponding state of its resources (voltage regulator, clock generator or divider, etc.). It manages the sequence of transitions of the island and associated resources corresponding to the mode changes requested by the Central Activity Controller.

local interface for a power domain which receives the mode change requests from the Dedicated Control Bus, knows the list of modes of the connected power domain with the corresponding state of its resources (voltage regulator, clock generator or divider, etc.). It manages the sequence of transitions of the island and associated resources corresponding to the mode changes requested by the Central Activity Controller. Dedicated Control Bus: standardized control bus which connects the different components of Maestro. All mode change requests (power state, frequency and voltage level) are transmitted through this dedicated control bus.

standardized control bus which connects the different components of Maestro. All mode change requests (power state, frequency and voltage level) are transmitted through this dedicated control bus. Resource Controller: component which manages the state of its associated resources (voltage regulator, clock generator or supply reference). It arbitrates resquests from different Local Activity Controllers and sets its resources in the most approriate mode. To ease the control of resources and the definition the power modes of the SoC, a set of parameters are defined. The parameter settings are configurable for every resource.

component which manages the state of its associated resources (voltage regulator, clock generator or supply reference). It arbitrates resquests from different Local Activity Controllers and sets its resources in the most approriate mode. To ease the control of resources and the definition the power modes of the SoC, a set of parameters are defined. The parameter settings are configurable for every resource. SmartVision: Interactive Development Environment of the third generation to facilitate debug of software by supporting the hardware of a "Built-In Realtime Debugger" (BIRD) amidst the graphic representation of the overall synopsis as on Figure 2.

4. HOW DOES MAESTRO WORK?



Based on such a synopsis, possible interactions between the different components can be:

The Mode Switching Program receives a request to change the SoC mode. It activates a sequence of island mode changes (below change mode of power domain B)

The Mode Switching Program sends a mode change request through the peripheral bus to reduce the consumption of the power domain B.

The Central Activity Controller sends the request over the Dedicated Control Bus.

The target Local Activity Controller decodes the request, sends the request to the associated Resource Controller and changes the configuration of power domain B.

The Resource Controller selects the most appropriate mode for its associated resources regarding the status of all its Local Activity Controllers.

The Mode Switching Program is informed of the status of the power domain B.

Figure 2: Example of Maestro insertion into a SoC

5. A Ready to USe Solution

Maestro is a patent pending solution ready to be used and delivered to any customer. It is based on synthesizable RTL blocks plus guidelines for MSP development and top-level assembly. It has been successfully implemented in a low-power Demonstration testchip at 55nm, with six power domains and four embedded regulators, controlled by Maestro.

It is worth noticing that all Maestro modules belong to the Always-On domain, within which the power islands are embedded: it enables either Maestro laid-out as scattered modules, or gathered as a compact ACU.

This Demonstration testchip represents a typical MCU application connected to several internal and external memories. A Whisper trigger for "Voice Activity Detection" (VAD) is in the always-on power domain, waiting for an external signal to wake up the system.

More information on Maestro on Dolphin Integration website.

About the author

Gauthier Reveret has joined Dolphin Integration in 2012 as digital design engineer in microcontrollers team. He is now involved in low power SoC architecture design.

Gauthier holds a master's degree in electronics and industrial computing from ENSSAT in Lannion, France.

He can be reached at gauthier.reveret@dolphin.fr

About Dolphin Integration

Dolphin Integration contributes to "enabling low-power Systems-on-Chip" for worldwide customers - up to the major actors of the semiconductor industry - with high-density Silicon IP components best at low-power consumption.

The "Foundation IP" of this offering involves innovative libraries of standard cells, register files and memory generators. The "Fabric IP" of voltage regulators, Power Island Construction Kits and their control network MAESTRO enable a flexible assembly with their loads. They especially star the "Feature IP": from high-resolution converters for audio and measurement applications to power-optimized 8 or 16 and 32 bit micro-controllers.

Over 30 years of experience in the integration of silicon IP components, providing services for ASIC/SoC design and fabrication with its own EDA solutions, make Dolphin Integration a genuine one-stop shop addressing all customers' needs for specific requests.

It is not just one more supplier of Technology, but the provider of the DOLPHIN INTEGRATION know-how!

The company strives to incessantly innovate for its customers success, which has led to two strong differentiators:

state-of-the-art panoplies of Semiconductor IP components for high-performance applications securing the most competitive SoC architectural solutions,

a team of Integration and Application Engineers supporting each users need for optimal application schematics, demonstrated through EDA solutions enabling early performance assessments.

Its social responsibility has been from the start focused on the design of integrated circuits with low-power consumption, placing the company in the best position to now contribute to new applications for general power savings through the emergence of the Internet of Things.

If you wish to download a copy of this white paper, click here






Henderson, NV  March 09, 2016  Aldec, Inc., today announces the latest release of Riviera-PRO 2016.02 - Advanced Verification Platform. Riviera-PRO is a tightly integrated solution for functional verification of complex System on Chip (SoC), ASIC and FPGA designs. This new release of Riviera-PRO brings enhanced support for Universal Verification Methodology (UVM) and significant performance improvements in simulation and verification along with new debugging features added to increase the verification productivity.

The complexities of todays designs are driving the adoption of Universal Verification Methodology (UVM) higher and higher. While Universal Verification Methodology (UVM) does bring a cutting edge verification solution to simulation doorstep but along comes the performance bottleneck.

Verification of complex designs using a simulation-based approach poses the big challenge of writing enough test vectors, said Satyam Jani, Riviera-PRO Product Manager SystemVerilog constraint randomization offers a nice solution to this issue, but at this point the performance of simulator becomes more critical. Aldec has always worked diligently to improve the simulation performance for such advanced verification techniques and, with this release of Riviera-PRO 2016.02, we have significantly improved the performance for random constraints with expressions containing the division operator (/) or linear equations.

In addition to rolling out official support for Windows 10, Riviera-PRO 2016.02 also introduces a new debugging tool, Design Units Window. This feature allows users to easily list the design units from multiple simulation dataset. Design Unit Window also shows coverage data on a per-unit basis from the coverage results of live simulation.

The 2016.02 release of Riviera-PRO also includes numerous new features, enhancements, and performance optimizations. For additional information, tutorials, free evaluation download and Whats New Presentation, visit http://www.aldec.com/Products/Riviera-PRO.

About Aldec

Aldec Inc., headquartered in Henderson, Nevada, is an industry leader in Electronic Design Verification and offers a patented technology suite including: RTL Design, RTL Simulators, Hardware-Assisted Verification, SoC and ASIC Prototyping, Design Rule Checking, IP Cores, Requirements Lifecycle Management, DO-254 Functional Verification and Military/Aerospace solutions. www.aldec.com






You can leave a response , or trackback from your own site.

by Kathleen Gilbert BEIJING, September 7, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com)  Escaped Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng is leading international opponents of forced abortion in calling upon the worlds largest company to end compliance with the Chinas one-child policy. Family planning police have targeted employees (569)

Sign up below to have the hottest Catholic news delivered to your email daily!

Close

Sign up below to have the hottest Catholic news delivered to your email daily!

Church Militant, we need to band together to protect our religious liberties and win the culture war!
Restore announced and completed a quick disposal of its Ireland document management operation on Thursday, selling the arm to Offsite Archive Storage for 36m (27.8m) barely three months after it acquired it.

The AIM-traded company announced in the morning it had entered into a contract to sell Restore Document Management Ireland, which operates out of two leasehold facilities in Dublin. The division held the Irish assets of Wincanton Records Management, which Restore acquired in December for 57.3m.

Completion was announced to the market at 1237 GMT, just over five hours after the disposal was first announced.

"Restore's strategy is to be the market leader in mainland Britain in our chosen activities within office services, where we can generate substantial cost and customer synergies," said chief executive Charles Skinner.

"In view of the limited synergies between Restore Ireland and our UK operations, this disposal realises an attractive valuation for our shareholders and enables us to continue to focus on a market of which we have deep knowledge and where we can achieve better returns," he added.

In the year to 31 March 2015, when Wincanton owned the business, it recorded EBIT of 2.3m before central management charges, on revenues of 9.7m. Provisional gross asset values on 31 December were 21.3m, which included intangible assets created on acquisition of 17.4m.

Restore said the net proceeds of the disposal will be used in the short term to reduce net debt. It intended to redeploy the proceeds in due course to pursue other opportunities in its core Britain market.

The market appeared to approve of the move, with Restore's share price trending up for much of the morning in relatively choppy trading. At 1240 GMT, it was up 0.63% at 321p.
Insulation maker Superglass said it expected to make an underlying profit in the full year as it reported a narrower first half loss.

The company posted a 0.5m loss for the six months to end of February, compared with a loss of 1.9m the year before.

Superglass said that, other than to re-balance inventory levels in September 2015 and in the traditionally short trading month of December, it had been trading at break even or positive earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation on a monthly basis.

It added that a reduction in capacity has driven an increase in selling prices, with average prices in the six months 4% ahead of the same period last year.

"A further price increase has been implemented by all UK glass wool manufacturers from 1 February 2016, although it will take some time to confirm the extent to which this increase will hold in a market which, to a degree, remains highly price competitive," the company said in a statement.

"The group remains on track to deliver positive EBITDA for the current financial year as a whole, in line with management's expectation."
Crossrail 2 was given the tick of approval by the National Infrastructure Commission on Thursday flagging through construction of an underground railway from Surrey to Hertfordshire.

The commission - established by George Osborne last year - urged Westminster to get on with the 27bn project "as a priority", with chairman Lord Adonis warning London would "grind to a halt" unless major work on the transport network went ahead.

Crossrail 2 would involve the construction of a new tunnel under central London, linking Wimbledon to Tottenham Hale and taking in the current suburban railway networks beyond.

It was hoped the route would be in operation by 2033, with Lord Adonis calling on the Chancellor to allocate funds to immediately develop the plans. Osborne was understood to be preparing to give his response in the Budget next week.

The route would stretch as far as Shepperton and Epsom in Surrey, and Broxbourne in Hertfordshire. It would also free up National Rail routes into Waterloo and Liverpool Street, which are currently already among the busiest stations in Europe.

It was reported 160m was required to take the project to the next stage of detailed planning, with Transport for London expected to stump up a chunk of that.

"By the 2030s London will be a mega-city of more than 10m people. Even allowing for planned investment and the imminent arrival of Crossrail 1 [the Elizabeth line], it will grind to a halt unless significant further improvements are made," Lord Adonis said to London Evening Standard.

"There is no good reason to delay. Crossrail 2 will help to keep London moving, create hundreds of thousands of homes and fire regeneration across the city from north-east to south-west," he added.

The original Crossrail project - now christened the Elizabeth line ahead of its inclusion on the Tube map - is due to be fully operational in the next few years. It would eventually operate from Reading to Essex via central London.
Barclays had received strong expressions of interest in its African banking franchise since it announced its intention to sell, just one week before, the banks chief said on Thursday.

Furthermore, the firm was open to considering selling its full 62% stake in the business, chief executive officer Jes Staley said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

The idea of keeping some optionality in Africa is attractive, but for sure at some point there is a price where a strategic sale might make sense, Staley said.

We have given ourselves time, two to three years, to get the sale done in a way that protects the franchise of Barclays in Africa, because it is a separate bank.

FTSE-100 listed Barclays purchased South Africas Absa in 2005 and three years afterwards its Johannesburg-based unit picked up its parents operations in eight African countries, thus increasing its footprint on that continent to a total of 12 countries and 12m customers.

Although Barclayss Africa unit was quite profitable, under current regulations the group was required to hold the same amount of capital as if it was entirely owned by Barclays, thus depressing the returns made on its equity.

To avoid that penalty Barclays would need to lower its stake in the African unit to below 20%, which would allow it to not have to consolidate its results with those of the rest of the group.

Staley also said he did not believe ex-Barclays boss Bod Diamond had the financial capability to buy the entire unit.

As of 14:09 GMT shares in Barclays were edging higher by 0.33% to 168.75p.
Heathrow Airport Holdings has named Lord Paul Deighton to succeed Sir Nigel Rudd as chairman when he steps down later this year.

Making an announcement earlier this week, Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye said Lord Deighton's experience is tailor made for one of the busiest airports in the world.

He understands the importance of world class national infrastructure as well as delivering outstanding service. He has exactly the skills we need to develop Heathrow as the best connected and most sustainable airport in the world.

Holland-Kaye also thanked and paid tribute to Sir Nigel commenting, His great stewardship as chairman over the last nine years has transformed Heathrow into one of the world's great airports."

Lord Deighton will guide Heathrow through its next phase of development and help prepare for the Government's decision on airport expansion.

In a statement, the incoming chairman Lord Deighton said: "Over the past decade, Heathrow has been transformed by 11bn of private investment into a world class airport that Britain can be proud of.

It is Britain's front door - providing a warm welcome to visitors and connecting all parts of our island trading nation to the emerging and international markets of the world that fuel growth, create jobs and drive exports. I'm delighted to be joining a team with an ambition to give passengers the best airport service in the world and focussed on delivering the runway that will keep Britain at the heart of the global economy."
Ibstock revealed what looked like a year of solid growth on Thursday, as it published its first results as a listed company.

Adjusted revenue at the FTSE 150 brick manufacturer improved 10.6% during the period to 412.8m, with adjusted EBITDA up 64.7% to 107m.

The company's adjusted results were based on a 12 month period, with its statutory results covering the period from 28 November 2014 to 31 December 2015. Ibstock said the statutory figures were complicated by the acquisition of operating businesses from CRH in February, and the initial public offering in October 2015.

Its results were in line with the board's expectations, with UK revenue ahead by 9% year-on-year, largely reflecting stronger clay brick prices. Ibstock also reported continued improvement in US performance, with revenue up 10% year-on-year in local currency.

Ibstock said it had strong free cashflow from operations of 69m and reduced its net debt to 145m, less than 1.4x adjusted EBITDA, and at a faster rate than anticipated.

"Our 2015 results are particularly pleasing as they clearly show that despite the CRH disposal and subsequent IPO we maintained our focus and delivered excellent growth in sales, profitability and cash generation for our investors," said chief executive Wayne Sheppard.

"While it is early in the year to have any real visibility, at this point our expectations for the full year remain unchanged despite a slower start for UK brick sales into the RMI market. Our major capital investment projects are progressing to plan and we anticipate another year of progress in 2016. The fundamentals supporting our business remain strong," he added.
The chief executive of oil giant Royal Dutch Shell saw his pay decline 8% last year as the collapse in the oil price dented profit.

In its annual report, the company said Ben van Beurdens total direct remuneration dropped to 5.14m (4m) from 5.6m.

His total remuneration including pension and tax equalisation, fell to 5.58m from 24.2m in 2014 as the value of his pension in 2014 was lifted by his promotion to the role of chief executive.

His salary, meanwhile, was fairly steady at 1.47m compared with 1.44m the previous year, but van Beurdens bonus edged up to 3.5m from 3.3m.

The CEO provided strong leadership both strategically and operationally. He adapted the structure and leadership of the organisation to the envisaged future with a strong focus on deep water and integrated gas, and showed visible hands-on leadership in the whole process of the BG acquisition, accelerating the benefits of the new organisation.

He also significantly reduced capital investment with bold decisions such as exiting Alaska and stopping work on the Carmon Creek project in Canada, the report said.

Last week, BPs annual report revealed that chief executive Bob Dudley enjoyed a 20% increase in his 2015 pay package to $19.6m, even though the company posted its worst annual loss in 20 years on the back of falling oil prices.
Confirming the move in a statement on Thursday, the AIM-listed lettings firm said Newtons appointment takes immediate effect.

He was formerly group chief executive of Newton Fallowell, a franchised lettings network across the Midlands with 31 outlets that Belvoir acquired in July 2015.

Following the acquisition, he has been responsible for the continued management and growth of the Newton Fallowell business.

Belvoir chairman and CEO Mike Goddard said: "With his deep understanding of estate agency and of growing a successful franchising network, Mark's appointment both strengthens and broadens the expertise on the Belvoir board.

We are delighted to welcome Mark to the team and look forward to the additional benefit that his wealth of knowledge will bring as Belvoir delivers on its multi brand strategy and value creation for shareholders."

At 1302 GMT, Belvoir shares were unchanged at 94.5p
Save my User ID and Password

Some subscribers prefer to save their log-in information so they do not have to enter their User ID and Password each time they visit the site. To activate this function, check the 'Save my User ID and Password' box in the log-in section. This will save the password on the computer you're using to access the site.

Note: If you choose to use the log-out feature, you will lose your saved information. This means you will be required to log-in the next time you visit our site.
Here's how to nominate prep athletes of the week in 2022-23
Columbia Pacific to build First Hill tower

Columbia Pacific Advisors said it will sign a long-term ground lease with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle and St. James Cathedral to build a 24-story senior care community on First Hill.

The complex will have 237 units, including independent living, assisted living and memory care suites on a half block site at 620 Terry Ave. The project will include 188 underground parking spaces.

Columbia Pacific said in a press release it expects to start construction next year, and open the units in 2019.

Ankrom Moisan Architects is the architect, and Berger Partnership is the landscape architect.




Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) test-fired two ballistic missiles on Wednesday that it said were designed to be able to hit Israel, defying US criticism of similar tests carried out this week. State television showed footage of two Qadr missiles being launched from northern Iran which the IRGC said hit targets 1,400 km away. Earlier tests on Tuesday drew a threat of new sanctions from the United States. "The reason we designed our missiles with a range of 2,000 km is to be able to hit our enemy the Zionist regime from a safe distance," Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh was quoted as saying by the ISNA agency. The nearest point in Iran is around 1,000 km from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The Obama administration is aware of the latest tests, US officials said. "Just as with the earlier reported test launches, we will look at these and take the appropriate response, both at the UN and unilaterally as appropriate," said a senior administration official who did not want to be named. Iranian agencies said the missiles tested on Wednesday were stamped with the words "Israel should be wiped from the pages of history" in Hebrew, though the inscription could not be seen on any photographs. Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon told Israel Radio the tests showed Iran's hostility had not changed since implementing a nuclear deal with world powers in January, despite President Hassan Rouhani's overtures to the West. "To my regret there are some in the West who are misled by the honeyed words of part of the Iranian leadership while the other part continues to procure equipment and weaponry, to arm terrorist groups," Yaalon said. The IRGC maintains dozens of short and medium-range ballistic missiles, the largest stock in the Middle East. It says they are solely for defensive use with conventional, non-nuclear warheads. Tehran has denied US accusations of acting "provocatively", citing the long history of US interventions in the Middle East and its own right to self-defence. US to approach UN

The United States said it would raise Tuesday's tests at the UN Security Council, where resolution 2231 calls on the Islamic Republic not to develop missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Washington also imposed sanctions against businesses and individuals in January over another missile test in October 2015. But the IRGC said it would not bow to pressure. "The more sanctions and pressure our enemies apply... the more we will develop our missile program," Hajizadeh said on state television. The missile test underlined a rift in Iran between hardline factions opposed to normalizing relations with the West, and Rouhani's relatively moderate government which is trying to attract foreign investment to Iran. Rouhani's popularity has soared since the nuclear deal in January, under which Tehran won relief from international sanctions in exchange for limiting its nuclear research. The president's allies made strong gains in recent elections to parliament and the body that will elect the next supreme leader. Foreign business delegations have since flocked to Tehran, but hardliners including senior IRGC commanders have warned that economic ties could strengthen Western influence and threaten the Islamic Republic. Some criticized a $27 billion deal between the government and Airbus to add 118 planes to its aging civilian fleet, saying the money should be used to create jobs locally. The Tasnim agency, which is close to the Guards, carried a photograph of reporters in front of the missile before launch. It quoted an IRGC officer as saying: "Some take photos with the French Airbus, but we take photos with native Iranian products". Washington said Tuesday's missile tests would not themselves violate the Iran nuclear deal.










Iron Mountain must sell Australian unit: Australian regulator

Leading US data storage and information management provider Iron Mountain Inc will sell its Australian unit in order to gain regulatory clearance for its A$2.7-billion ($2 billion) acquisition of its Australian rival Recall Holdings Ltd.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) today said in a statement that ''the proposed undertaking would involve Iron Mountain divesting its existing Australian business, excluding its local records management customers in the Northern Territory as well as its data management business.

Giving reasons for enforcing the divesture, the ACCC said that the proposed acquisition would likely to substantially lessen competition in a national market for the supply of physical document management services.

The proposed acquisition is also being reviewed by anti-trust authorities in the US, the UK and Canada.

In April last year, Iron Mountain offered to buy its Australia-listed rival Recall Holdings in a cash-and-stock deal valued at approximately $2.2 billion. (See: US data storage firm Iron Mountain to buy rival Recall Holdings for $2.2 bn) http://www.domain-b.com/infotech/itnews/20150429_data_storage.html

In November, ACCC said that it may block the deal since the proposed acquisition would give it 71-per cent market share and leave customers "vulnerable to price increases or reduced service levels".

Atlanta-headquartered Recall, established in 1999 by Sydney-based logistics group Brambles Ltd, is a leading provider of information management and protection services to around 80,000 customers in diverse sectors in 24 countries. The company has corporate offices in Brazil, the UK, Malaysia, and Australia and has over 300 operations centers across the globe.

Recall was demerged from associated logistics services provider Brambles in 2013.

Boston-based Iron Mountain provides records management, information destruction and data backup and recovery services to over 156,000 customers across North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia.

The company has over 1,000 facilities in 36 countries.

New York-listed Iron Mountain said it would establish a secondary listing on ASX to allow local trading of its shares by Recall investors.

Iron Mountain has operations in every state and territory in Australia, while Recall has a presence in every state and territory, except the Northern Territory.


For over half a century Rossnowlagh based artist Barry Britton has been synonymous with surfing but has also developed an international audience for his art which is depicted in many festival and surf posters throughout the world.

Over the years the Rossnowlagh mans surf posters have become collectors items and at the turn of the millennium he was commissioned to design posters for some of the top surf events at Pipeline in Hawaii.

Barry was first approached about doing an ould poster for the fledgling Ballyshannon Folk Festival by Anthony Travers in the early 80s and decades later the veteran surfer still dreams up new ways of depicting folk and trad musicians.

OFF TO FRANCE THIS WEEKEND

This week Barry has taken his work abroad to the green fields of France where he is mounting an exhibition of his works at the Irish Arts and Music Festival (known as the Slainte Festival), in Grenay and surrounding towns, has also designed the poster for the event which features some of the top Irish and Celtic artists.

His works include celtic landscapes, wild and rugged seascapes, trad musicians and surf scenes and on close examination you will always find little hidden pictures and celtic motifs embedded in his work.

The town of Grenay is very closely linked with Ballyshannon with many from both towns exchanging visits.

The towns were twinned in 2006 and after the disolution of Ballyshannon Town Council, a local committee has continued this vibrant twinning.

Two of the most regular visitors to the Erneside town are Didier Riez and Mayor of Grenay Christian Champaire and on their last visit, after chatting with Barry, Didier, who is chairperson of the Slainte Festival, who commissioned a poster in French for their festival which is taking place over the next fortnight.

Barry will also be involved in a local schools project where he will exhibit his works to the local students.

Barry Sweeny of the Local Hands Studio told the Democrat, At times I often think they are more Irish than we are ourselves - during the Six Nations Didier is also a great supporter of les verts and when it comes to Ireland and France his loyalty is often torn to shreds.

They have brought over many of the Rory Gallagher works to France and indeed other items from the studio. They are truly great ambassadors for Ballyshannon and have built up a strong relationship with the local community.

The Slainte Festival in north east France draws large crowds every year and some of this years headline acts include Frankie Gavin and De Dannan, Cathal Hayden, Kila and Breaking Trad to name just a few and provides a great showcase for Donegal in a strong tourism market.
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.
It turns out there is a replacement for displacement. Audi's head of technical development, Stefan Knirsch, has formally sounded the death knell for large capacity engines, saying the car maker will pursue weight saving and forced induction methods to improve the performance of its future flagship models.

While this is hardly a new revelation  car makers around the world are continually downsizing to comply with tightening emissions  the technical chief says Audi will pursue the strategy more aggressively under a wider company mandate to innovate the electric and hybrid sector.

That inevitably means smaller capacity replacements for the brand's S and RS performance models in the future, a trend led by the newly introduced SQ7 SUV, which uses a smaller capacity V8 engine in place of the V12 that powered its spiritual predecessor.

"I think the number of cylinders won't increase in the future," Knirsch told Australian media.

"Most likely they we will decrease again. Over the past 10 or 15 years we've seen performance cars grow in capacity. Now that's over. I think reducing the number of cylinders is the answer  of course we are able to increase power still a little bit  but we are able to work on weight reduction."

Audi is set to continue its new path in the upcoming RS5 performance coupe, with the outgoing model's 4.2-litre naturally-aspirated V8 petrol engine to be eschewed by a six-cylinder V6 employing twin turbochargers and a highly intelligent electric compressor to help maintain boost.

The brand is also planning to implement more "mild hybrids" into its line-up  a term which applies to many technologies, from auto stop-start technology to electric batteries which store energy to reduce fuel consumption.

"The next A8 will be the next car that has this technology on board with the full recuperation potential and we will roll out this technology to many future models," Knirsch said.

"No one is missing anything when the car is faster than 300km/h. The cars are fast enough."
Holden will try and lure younger buyers to its latest city car by offering them free ice cream.

The car maker will team up with famed confectionary brand Gelato Messina in a series of pop-up stores at major shopping centres in capital cities as part of a promotion for its new Spark, the smallest hatchback in its range and the cheapest car in Australia to feature Apple's CarPlay smartphone system.

The temporary stores are designed to provide 'Millenials' - first time new car buyers aged between 20 and 29 years - with a more comfortable touch point with the brand than a traditional dealership with the ability to showcase its value, style and functions without being hassled by salespeople. The free ice cream is simply a temptation to draw them in.

It is part of Holden's new marketing direction aimed at transitioning the car maker from the Commodore brand to appeal to wider audience as it enters the final phase of local manufacturing before closing its plants in South Australia and Melbourne late next year.

"It's the whole experience of attracting a new group of buyers to Holden," said Holden's marketing manager, Geraldine Davys.

"It's about getting them to come into the display and look and feel and touch the car in a contemporary environment that we think will make this target market comfortable."

The pop-up stores will open from April and run for approximately six weeks, with at least one in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Holden would not confirm how much the promotion would cost, other than Davys saying "it won't be free for us."

The Spark is the company's new city car hatchback which it says suits first car buyers, blending affordability with the latest in connectivity technology, a high level of safety, fuel efficient engines and the ability for owners to personalise it with different coloured body parts.

Pricing starts at $13,990 (plus on-road costs) for the LS manual, with the automatic variant costing $15,690 (plus on-road costs). Holden will offere the entry-level model at under $15,000 including on-road costs such as dealer charges and registration.

Stepping up to the LT variant will set buyers back $18,990 (plus on-road costs) as the LT is only available with an automatic transmission.

The Spark's big draw card is its use of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto across the range which enables smartphone integration with voice recognition commands.
Interview with Le Parisien

Interview with Benoit Cure, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, conducted by Matthieu Pelloli and published on 11 February 2016

You never see it in France, you wont get it from an ATM and most shops dont accept it Nowadays, how can the ECB justify the existence of the 500 note?

Banknotes are an important means of payment in the day-to-day lives of Europeans. Originally, the 500 note was issued in response to a number of euro area countries wanting a euro banknote that corresponded to the highest-value note in their former national currency. Its true that its very rarely used in France, but it is used more in other euro area countries, both as a means of payment and as a store of value.

Wasnt a new series of banknotes launched recently? Is this under way? Or envisaged?

The second series of euro banknotes is currently being introduced. New 5, 10 and 20 notes, which have even better protection against counterfeiting, have already been introduced and can be found in peoples wallets. The higher-value notes will be introduced gradually.

A European Commission draft document denounces the strong demand for 500 notes from organised crime. The head of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) recently called for the 500 note to be removed from circulation for the same reasons. What is the ECBs position on this?

Historically, these notes have enabled private individuals to make large payments in a convenient way. But this argument has become increasingly less relevant with the development of electronic payments. Further, the competent authorities increasingly suspect that they are being used for illegal purposes, an argument that we can no longer ignore given the importance of the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.

Mario Draghi recently declared before the European Parliament: Rest assured that we are determined not to see these high-value notes become a tool for criminals. Is the ECB preparing itself for some radical decisions regarding the future of the 500 note?

We are actively considering this issue and will take a decision soon.

You are a member of the ECBs Executive Board. Whats your personal position?

I find the arguments in favour of keeping the 500 note less and less convincing.

Among the euro area countries, Germany seems to be against withdrawing the 500 note as the Germans are used to paying cash. Is that a problem?

Some people, especially in Germany, are anxious about the disappearance of cash payments, which for them represent an element of personal freedom. Its a legitimate argument and I want to reassure them that its not about getting rid of banknotes in general; the discussion is only about the 500 note.

Where are the 500 notes? In which countries? Theres a lot of talk about Russia

We reckon that at least 20% of the notes in circulation, by value, are held outside the euro area, the majority in denominations from 50 to 500. Most of these notes can be found in the euro areas neighbouring countries, especially in eastern Europe and Russia.

Technically, there could be a monetary policy advantage for the ECB if it decided to withdraw the 500 note. Those who have it could in fact exchange it for banknotes in another currency, which would automatically push down the value of the single currency. Could that be a factor in its withdrawal?

No, this discussion has nothing to do with monetary policy.
To hear Michigan Republicans tell the story, they are all about the importance of education in Michigan. Get them in front of a microphone, camera, or a reporter and they will tell you its one of their highest priorities. Their hypocrisy on this issue is in clear display this week as they passed to bills, H.B. 4110 and H.B. 4112, which take over a quarter billion dollars out of the state School Aid Fund.

Im not kidding:

Much of the surplus in the current budget for Michigan schools could be used to pay down the states projected deficit after members of the Michigan House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday. House Bill 4110 would use about $250.3 million from the states School Aid Fund to pay down a deficit in the general fund, a separate part of the states budget. On Wednesday, lawmakers in the House passed the bill 62-48, mostly along party lines. The state is facing an estimated $456 million budget deficit for fiscal year 2015, which runs through the end of September. The School Aid Fund was projected to end the fiscal year with a $283.5 million surplus.

They are forced to do this because of the gigantic budget crater created by corporate tax breaks passed by Republicans in past years.

Heres what House Rep. Adam Zemke, the Democratic vice chairman of the House Education Committee had to say about the legislation last night:

We have just finished debating HB 4110 and 4112, the bills to remove and transfer GF (general fund) funds from the School Aid Fund (SAF) and from multiple departmental budgets to the general fund to pay for the tax credits that have blown a hole in Michigans FY 2015 budget. I voted nay for many reasons, but mostly because they take funds that are in the school aid fund and have been appropriated to that fund for the purposes of paying for public education, and use them to pay for tax credits that 1) should have been accounted for under the 2012 tax code changes and 2) should have been better monitored and reigned-in by the governing party long prior to today. These are not small funding shifts  we are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars here. Simply balancing the budget by using SAF dollars and dollars from other state services are just that, the simple fix. Theyre not the right fix. The right fix involves bringing tax credit recipients back to the table  the same table retirees, local governments and schools have been at over the past several years  and negotiating a deal to control these tax credits. Thats the fair and balanced solution. Just as we have a constitutional responsibility to produce a balanced budget, we also have a constitutional responsibility to provide students with a good education. And we have a responsibility to our citizens, small businesses and local governments to share responsibility fairly. And thats not what HB 4110 and 4112 do.

Republicans seem to think they can suck millions upon millions of dollars out of our state budget by handing out gifts in the form of tax breaks to corporations without causing problems. They also seem to think they can simply SAY they support education in Michigan and that their actions that prove otherwise wont matter.

Neither of these things is true and they proved this week that education isnt something they value, its just something they SAY they value while they eviscerate it. Do they really think we wont notice???

Two more things: Gov. Snyder knew about this budget crater BEFORE last Novembers election:

News broke today that the Snyder administration knew about the states massive budget shortfall last October while Gov. Rick Snyder campaigned on the premise that he had consistently balanced the budget. During testimony to the Michigan House regarding the states massive deficit in the upcoming budget, MIRS News reported that an official with the Department of Treasury said the administration became aware of the situation last fall. The testimony today proves that Gov. Snyder purposefully deceived voters throughout the latter part of his reelection campaign, said Lonnie Scott, executive director of Progress Michigan. Snyder ran on his accounting and budgeting experience, but now we know he was actively trying to hide a half a billion dollar budget shortfall from voters. The numbers dont lie  but Gov. Snyder sure did. Through that same testimony, lawmakers were told that the states tax liability through Michigan Economic Development Corporation MEGA tax credits is $9.38 billion, according to MIRS News, which is almost the entirety of the states General Fund Budget during the fiscal year. The state is on the hook for the tax credits through 2031 at varying levels, topping off at $607 million by 2029 and declining after.

In other words, Gov. Snyder. just kept it all under wraps until he had secured his reelection. To say that Michigan voters were duped is to put it far too mildly.

And, secondly, despite this self-inflicted budget disaster, Senate Republicans are still still moving forward with plans to spend up to $70 million on new office space.

Thats Michigan Republican small government hypocrisy in action.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on Tuesday announced a US$2.25 billion plan to expand the federal Lifeline subsidy program to help low-income consumers afford broadband Internet service.

Lifeline, which currently allows low-income consumers to buy mobile phone service at a discount, would let them buy standalone broadband starting Dec. 1 for $9.25 per month or apply the discount to bundled services. The minimum standard would be 500 MB at 3G speed, increasing to 2 GB by the end of 2018.

Only half the nations households in the lowest income tier subscribe to broadband at home, and 43 percent of all people who dont subscribe cite affordability as the reason, according to Wheeler and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn.

Forty-four percent of low-income consumers have been forced to cancel or suspend services because of financial constraints, they said. Among consumers whose only Internet access is through a smartphone, 48 percent have been forced to cancel or shut off service temporarily because of financial burdens.

Continuing Reforms

About 39.7 million households are eligible for the program, FCC spokesperson Mark Wigfield said.

The participation rate is about 32 percent in the Lifeline program, or about 13 million people, he told the E-Commerce Times.

The proposed change, which is subject to a March 31 vote by the full commission, builds on several administrative reforms launched in 2012 for the existing Lifeline program. The plan would have a monthly broadband allowance of 150 GB and fixed speed standard of 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload.

The plan is to phase out the subsidy for mobile voice by 2019, because the standard for that is moving toward voice over LTE. That is similar to what Vonage offers, where users talk over the high-speed Internet connection instead of a mobile voice plan, he added.

The new plan would make it easier for legitimate broadband providers to enter the Lifeline program and removes unnecessary administrative regulations to make sure a wider range of companies can participate, the FCC said. It also would establish a third-party entity, called the National Eligibility Verifier, to verify that consumers using the program are eligible to participate.

It would use existing government programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, which are prescreened, to determine eligibility for customers in order to reduce fraud. Reforms in 2012, including the National Lifeline Accountability Database, have decreased annual lifeline payouts by 30 percent, Wheeler and Clyburn said.

Expanded Access

Companies such as Google already have taken steps to expand broadband competition and access to low-income communities.Google Fiber operates in Kansas City, Missouri; Provo, Utah; Austin, Texas; and Atlanta and is expanding into Salt Lake City; San Antonio; Nashville, Tennessee; and Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, N.C., spokesperson A.T. Williams said.

The company is in talks with several other major cities, including Los Angeles and Chicago, he told the E-Commerce Times.

Google also participates in a Department of Housing and Urban Development program called ConnectHome, which launched last month in Kansas City and connects Gigabit Internet service to public housing residents for free.

Infrastructure Needed

The FCC plan should aggregate the $9.25 subsidy into grants that can be used to build wireless infrastructure in low-income communities, saidCraig Settles, a technology analyst who specializes in broadband issues.

That way, communities get to own the infrastructure and the service, and the grants could provide seed money for a more substantial hybrid wireless and wired infrastructure, he told the E-Commerce Times. And you reduce a lot of the fraud and waste so many people complain about.

The FCC should encourage nonprofit organizations to be part of the solution, Settles added, pointing to a program calledMobile Beacon, which has 75 library systems participating throughout the country.

As part of that program, the New York Public Library loans more than 10,000 mobile hotspots to patrons.

Skills Gap

The proposed changes are a significant step to opening up broadband access to far more low-income Americans, according toPublic Knowledge, which noted that half of households making less than $25,000 have no Internet service.

However, there still is a critical skills gap that makes broadband access out of reach for many low-income families, said Phillip Berenbroick, counsel for government affairs at the group.

That is why Lifeline modernization needs to be coupled with community engagement and outreach efforts to promote digital relevancy and digital literacy and why the FCCs modernization efforts should encourage widespread provider participation, he told the E-Commerce Times.

The FCC plan is a positive development, but it needs to be coupled with additional steps to increase competition for smaller communities, according toFree Press, a digital advocacy group that has fought for greater competition in rural parts of the country.

Letting a handful of companies control last-mile access to Internet users drives the cost of a connection far beyond the reach of many lower-income communities, said Matt Wood, policy director at Free Press. If the commission wants to increase affordability, it must address the lack of competition.
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.
Blog Archive June 2021 (1) May 2021 (77) April 2021 (77) March 2021 (82) February 2021 (68) January 2021 (64) December 2020 (67) November 2020 (66) October 2020 (66) September 2020 (67) August 2020 (74) July 2020 (83) June 2020 (92) May 2020 (86) April 2020 (104) March 2020 (105) February 2020 (74) January 2020 (75) December 2019 (75) November 2019 (70) October 2019 (89) September 2019 (69) August 2019 (81) July 2019 (77) June 2019 (73) May 2019 (110) April 2019 (110) March 2019 (102) February 2019 (85) January 2019 (123) December 2018 (116) November 2018 (112) October 2018 (121) September 2018 (107) August 2018 (150) July 2018 (163) June 2018 (190) May 2018 (145) April 2018 (112) March 2018 (124) February 2018 (113) January 2018 (164) December 2017 (150) November 2017 (144) October 2017 (169) September 2017 (171) August 2017 (135) July 2017 (131) June 2017 (147) May 2017 (160) April 2017 (138) March 2017 (156) February 2017 (143) January 2017 (203) December 2016 (208) November 2016 (185) October 2016 (173) September 2016 (194) August 2016 (232) July 2016 (225) June 2016 (238) May 2016 (231) April 2016 (215) March 2016 (246) February 2016 (226) January 2016 (252) December 2015 (230) November 2015 (250) October 2015 (234) September 2015 (222) August 2015 (253) July 2015 (275) June 2015 (279) May 2015 (223) April 2015 (226) March 2015 (243) February 2015 (258) January 2015 (281) December 2014 (292) November 2014 (296) October 2014 (413) September 2014 (472) August 2014 (506) July 2014 (483) June 2014 (488) May 2014 (512) April 2014 (497) March 2014 (531) February 2014 (482) January 2014 (535) December 2013 (482) November 2013 (441) October 2013 (416) September 2013 (491) August 2013 (521) July 2013 (491) June 2013 (470) May 2013 (457) April 2013 (426) March 2013 (420) February 2013 (414) January 2013 (489) December 2012 (433) November 2012 (504) October 2012 (469) September 2012 (430) August 2012 (427) July 2012 (360) June 2012 (336) May 2012 (362) April 2012 (322) March 2012 (263) February 2012 (224) January 2012 (291) December 2011 (295) November 2011 (325) October 2011 (330) September 2011 (319) August 2011 (333) July 2011 (318) June 2011 (387) May 2011 (373) April 2011 (389) March 2011 (375) February 2011 (335) January 2011 (400) December 2010 (445) November 2010 (395) October 2010 (312) September 2010 (262) August 2010 (277) July 2010 (323) June 2010 (386) May 2010 (360) April 2010 (333) March 2010 (351) February 2010 (336) January 2010 (384) December 2009 (353) November 2009 (300) October 2009 (308) September 2009 (350) August 2009 (298) July 2009 (255) June 2009 (203) May 2009 (193) April 2009 (186) March 2009 (197) February 2009 (173) January 2009 (148) December 2008 (181) November 2008 (197) October 2008 (236) September 2008 (304) August 2008 (314) July 2008 (273) June 2008 (27) May 2008 (1) April 2008 (6) October 2007 (1) May 2007 (1) April 2007 (6) March 2007 (2) February 2007 (1) October 2006 (1) September 2006 (1) August 2006 (4) July 2006 (4) June 2006 (1) July 2005 (1) May 2005 (2) March 2005 (1) June 2004 (2) May 2004 (1) April 2004 (4) March 2004 (2) February 2004 (2) July 2003 (2) June 2003 (5)
The 2016 presidential race is getting hotter by the day as Bernie Sanders unexpectedly takes Michigan, while Donald Trump wins both Michigan and Mississippi.

(Reuters/Jonathan Ernst) Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to supporters at his 2016 South Carolina presidential primary night.

Obviously, there is a lot of tension in the Republican party as Trump continues to win big, despite his decline over the past weekend. Ted Cruz took home some of the delegates that Trump initially thought was already his, but as Super Tuesday rolled out, the businessman regained his momentum.

It has yet to be seen how Trump will do in the next days, but it is expected that his winning streak will continue, only if Cruz doesn't unexpectedly rise from the ruins and grab states that are thought to be supportive of Trump.

As for Sanders, there is still hope for his falling figures as he snatched Michigan from Hillary Clinton's grasp. Since last year, it was expected that Clinton would take the state by huge wins, but come time for the delegates to pick which Democratic candidate should enter the White House nomination, the former Secretary of State fell short of the numbers, allowing Sanders to add on to his fewer figures.

On the other hand, Clinton is still lucky as she won Mississippi, which is a larger win compared to Michigan. Also, she did fairly well during the debate held in Miami as she empathetically handled an immigrant woman's question regarding uniting divided families.

Meanwhile, the odds for Marco Rubio making it to the White House are getting smaller by the day. His home state chose Trump over him and his fourth place spot only made his run more unfortunate than ever. It was predicted that he would definitely win Florida, but when the numbers were calculated, it seems he lost his appeal among the people he serves.

Cruz, on the other hand, received the support of former presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina. According to BBC News, Fiorina said during a Miami rally, "We're going to have to beat Donald Trump at the ballot box, and the only guy who can beat Donald Trump is Ted Cruz."
(UN Photo / Paulo Filgueiras)U.N. Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief Heiner Bielefeldt in October 2013.

GENEVA - The Vatican has said there is "a lack of political will on the part of the different institutions of the international community" to address attacks on the right of religious freedom.

The comments were made March 9 by Monsignor Richard Gyhra, the interim Charge d'Affaires of the Holy See mission to the United Nations in Geneva.

He was speaking during a U.N. Human Rights Council discussion on the Report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief.

"Minimizing the essential role that religion has in all societies will not be the answer to the current challenges found in the interplay of [the freedom of religion and the freedom of expression]," said Gyhra.

At the same hearing the UN human rights expert Heiner Bielefeldt noted that any attempt to fight intolerance, stereotyping, stigmatization, discrimination and incite to violence based on religion or belief should make use of both the rights to freedom of religion and freedom of expression.

"There is widespread perception that the rights to freedom of religion or belief and to freedom of opinion and expression are in opposition to each other," the U.N. Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief noted.

He was presenting his latest report to the U.N. Human Rights Council which is in session from Feb. 29 to March 24.

"While freedom of expression seems to signal a 'green light' to all sorts of provocation, freedom of religion or belief seems to give a 'stop sign' instead," he said.

"That kind of misunderstanding typically originates from the view that freedom of religion or belief protects religions or belief systems per se."

In his report, the human rights expert considers that both rights are closely related in law and in practice. "They both also protect unconditionally a person's inner realm of thinking and believing, no restrictions can be justified on whatsoever grounds," he stated.

'OVERCOME IMPUNITY'

One of the recommendation in Bielefeldt's report is that, "States should prevent or overcome a climate of impunity, in which intolerant groups may feel encouraged to commit acts of discrimination, hostility or violence against persons based on their religion or belief."

In his speech Gyhra noted, "We live in a world subject to the 'globalization of the technocratic paradigm,' which consciously aims at a one-dimensional uniformity and seeks to eliminate all differences and traditions in a superficial quest for unity."

He said, "Religions thus have the right and the duty to make clear that it is possible to build a society where 'a healthy pluralism which respects differences and values them as such' is a precious ally in the commitment to defending human dignity... and a path to peace in our troubled world."

Gyhra said that freedom of religion or belief is a fundamental right shaping how humanity interacts, alone or in community and with neighbors who have differing religious views.

"Religious freedom is rooted in respecting the freedom of conscience. By its very nature it transcends places of worship and the private sphere of individuals and families and seeks to build the common good of all persons."

The Vatican diplomat said another essential aspect to the respect for freedom of religion or belief and its relationship with freedom of expression is the limitation that some forms of national legislation impose by not permitting an open exercise of the freedom of religion.

"For a diminution of violations of this essential right, it is imperative that all persons of all religious persuasions, or of no religion, are treated equally as citizens in the fullest sense, without discrimination and persecution because of their convictions or beliefs," Gyhra said.

BLASPHEMY LAWS

At the same session of the Human Rights Council, the British Humanist Association spoke out against blasphemy laws.

BHA representative Cordelia Tucker O'Sullivan condemned the fact that 55 States outlaw blasphemy, 39 imprison people for it and in six it carries the death penalty  and 15 of those nations are members of the Council and cited Russia as one country with such laws.

"In Russia, a law was pssed as recently as 2013 which punishes 'public actions... committed in order to insult the religious feelings of believers' with fines of up to US$15,000, and imprisonment for up to three years.
An auditor-generals report has found that most private schools in Victoria can't prove they spend government funds appropriately.The Grants to Non-Government Schools audit  tabled yesterday by the auditor-general in parliament  examined whether the states private schools were effectively and efficiently managing and using state government grants.The report found there was limited assurance that more than $676m in government grants provided this year were being used for their intended purpose.In a sample audit of 22 schools, none could prove that their funding was not used on capital works, and only 20% of schools receiving student disability grants could prove that they were used for the purpose that they were intended.Acting Auditor-General, Dr Peter Frost, said the states education department had weak funding agreements with the schools, no performance measurement or targets, and that the schools were unable to prove funds were spent as they were intended.My audit found that there is limited assurance that grants are used for their intended purpose or are achieving intended outcomes, Frost said.The absence of clear, appropriate governance by [the education department] has led to poor grant administration, including inadequate monitoring ... of whether grants are used as intended.He added the reports findings showed the need to improve funding arrangements and oversight to increase accountability for the use of grantsHowever, Catholic Education Commission Victorias (CECV) chief executive, Stephen Elder, called the audit limited in scope.It is hard not to conclude that the scope was intentionally designed to serve this purpose, given that a broader scope would have challenged many of VAGO's findings, Elder said.Frost rejected the claim, saying that the audit may not have been the one the CECV wanted.A spokesperson for the Victorian Education Department told The Educator that it had accepted all recommendations presented by Victorian Auditor-Generals Office (VAGO) and would work closely with the non-government schools sector to deliver greater clarity, transparency and accountability for state funding.The Department welcomes the Victorian Auditor-Generals Office report and has begun implementing all five recommendations, the spokesperson said.In 2015, the Department started a program to improve the management and monitoring of funding to non-government schools through a combination of legislative, funding and regulatory means.These improvements, which significantly strengthen reporting and accountability requirements, are acknowledged in the VAGO Report, the spokesperson said.
To build the largest and most complete Amateur Radio community site on the Internet - a "portal" that hams think of as the first place to go for information, to exchange ideas, and be part of whats happening with ham radio on the Internet. eHam.net provides recognition and enjoyment to the people who use, contribute, and build the site. This project involves a management team of volunteers who each take a topic of interest and manage it with passion. The site will stand above all other ham radio sites by employing the latest technology and professional design/programming standards, developed by a team of community programmers who contribute their skills to the effort. The site will be something of which everyone involved can be proud to say they were a part. We welcome your comments. The eHam.net Team, Revision 07/2020.
Buenos Aires, Mar 10 (EFE).- The Perito Moreno glacier's "ice bridge" over the Magellan Peninsula of Argentino Lake in southern Argentina, collapsed Thursday as part of its periodic rupture process.

At 10:55 a.m., the hundreds of tourists and reporters on hand witnessed the spectacular crumbling and break-up of the huge masses of ice making up the most picturesque part of the glacier in Los Glaciares National Park, one of the country's top tourist attractions, drawing some 700,000 people from all over the world each year.

Pressure from the weight of the ice slowly pushes the glacier over the southern arm of Argentino Lake, damming that area and separating it from the rest of the lake. With no outlet, the water level in that closed-off lake section rises up to 30 meters (100 feet) above the level of the main body of Argentino Lake.

Every few years, the pressure produced by the height of the dammed water breaks through the ice barrier causing a spectacular rupture, sending a huge outpouring of water from the dammed-up section into the main lake area.

The most recent rupture was in March 2012 and the one before that was in 2008.

"Most (ruptures) ... have been at this time of year - at the end of the Southern Hemisphere's summer - but we've also had one in July (in winter). It's quite variable," park official Matilde Oviedo told EFE.

Perito Moreno, which covers some 200 square kilometers (about 77 square miles), is located in the Andes, the natural border between Argentina and Chile and is one of the few glaciers in the world that is not receding due to global warming.

The glacier is located in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, the third-largest concentration of fresh water ice in the world after the two poles.

Relacionados Argentine glacier begins spectacular process of natural rupture
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has compared the rhetoric of US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to that of German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

In an interview with Mexican daily Excelsior, he called Mr Trump's rhetoric "strident".

He added that "that's how [Italian fascist leader] Mussolini got in, that's how Hitler got in".

The Mexican leader also said that Mr Trump had hurt US-Mexico relations.

Donald Trump has said that if he is elected he will build a wall along the US-Mexico border to keep migrants from crossing into the US illegally.

The Republican candidate has also insisted that Mexico would pay for the border wall, which President Pena Nieto dismissed out of hand.

He said there was "no scenario" under which Mexico would ever pay for such a wall.

Mr Trump, who has made the fight against illegal immigration the main plank of his campaign, outraged Mexicans last June when he called undocumented Mexican migrants "criminals" and "rapists". President Pena Nieto said Mr Trump offered "very easy, simple solutions to problems that are obviously not that easy to solve".

"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," he said.

"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 added.

President Pena Nieto, who had up until now avoided commenting on Mr Trump's candidacy, insisted he would be "absolutely respectful" of the US political process.

His predecessors in office, however, have been more outspoken.

Former President Vicente Fox used an expletive on live television when he said Mexico would not pay for the border wall proposed by Mr Trump.

Felipe Calderon, who governed from 2006 to 2012, also dismissed the idea saying: "Mexican people, we are not going to pay any single cent for such a stupid wall!"
A sister of a Missouri woman who authorities say was strangled while vacationing in Mexico said Monday that the woman's boyfriend told her she overdosed on prescription medications during a suicide bid after an argument.

Mexican authorities say Tamra Turpin, 36, of the St. Louis suburb of Union, died about 9 a.m. Wednesday of strangulation in the Caribbean resort city of Playa del Carmen, near Cancun, and that 59-year-old attorney John Loveless is being held as part of a homicide investigation.

It's 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 near St. Louis said there was no comment. Appearing before a judge Friday in Mexico, Loveless declined to discuss the matter.

Turpin's 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.

Mills said she's awaiting word from the US consulate about sharing the text exchange with Mexican investigators and that she's "still keeping an open mind" about Loveless.

The US 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.

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 father's burial plot after her body is returned to Missouri, perhaps as early as this week, Mills said. 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.
Ely, Cambridgeshire is best known for its majestic cathedral dubbed the 'Ship of the Fens' because it dominates the flat landscape. The city, which is the second smallest in England, is about 14 miles north-northeast of Cambridge and about 80 miles by road from London.

08:11, 22 OCT 2022
Campaigners claim of 'paranoid secrecy' over prom plans

Campaigners have branded the level of "paranoid secrecy" within the Council of Ministers "shocking" - after it refused to disclose details of a planning enquiry into Douglas Promenade.

An independent inspector compiled a report on government's proposed 21 million scheme at the end of last year - it's now been handed to CoMIN for consideration.

Murray Lambden has led a campaign group on Facebook opposing the original plans to move the horse trams on to the walkway.

He says he believes "it has all gone quiet" because the inspector's report doesn't side with politicians' plans:

Media

Murray Lambden
Re: Invade Syria & Iraq, & get rid of ISIS, ISIL, IS Quote: Treverus Honestly: that's both the most factually wrong as well as simply the stupid statement on EF all week.



The isolation hurt Japan badly. When the US suddenly rocked up in Edo with steam powered gun boats did they look to the Japanese like space ships would to us. That shock was used to beat them into submission and opening up trade in less than favourable ways for them... we still call it gun boat diplomacy today.



The Japanese were not "ready" to end the feudal rule, they only stopped the shogunate and made the emperor an absolute leader...



If there is anything to be learned from the isolation than that it is stupid to consider yourself the most advanced society and not always have an open mind and a good look at what others are doing - otherwise you might miss out on something important... something I see more likely happening in Eastern Europe these days than in an Arabian country.



Long term this didn't hurt Japan at all. There was massive change in the political and social structure. Within 50 years they were able to smash an old world country (Russia) in battle. Within 100 years they were able to do battle with the USA on an even footing. Today they have the third largest economy in the world. A remarkable timeline in anyone's estimation.



Europe also made all progress once people rejected the power held over them by feudal lords and the church. The Arab world remains subjugated and impoverished because they refuse to accept what is keeping them there in the first place. Their tribal squabbles and their dedication to Mecca.



Japan entered isolation because they thought their system was the best, and entered the modern age when it became clear it wasn't. The Meiji Restoration only came about after Sakoku and precisely because of it. Japan eventually realised there was a greater need than the petty feudal squabbles that had occupied them for the previous 700 years. It took isolationism for them to realise this. American intervention was merely the catalyst.Long term this didn't hurt Japan at all. There was massive change in the political and social structure. Within 50 years they were able to smash an old world country (Russia) in battle. Within 100 years they were able to do battle with the USA on an even footing. Today they have the third largest economy in the world. A remarkable timeline in anyone's estimation.Europe also made all progress once people rejected the power held over them by feudal lords and the church. The Arab world remains subjugated and impoverished because they refuse to accept what is keeping them there in the first place. Their tribal squabbles and their dedication to Mecca.Japan entered isolation because they thought their system was the best, and entered the modern age when it became clear it wasn't.
Because there is no external regie. What you call regie in this context is entities formed by the actual residents. Also there is a fundamental flaw with your example. In an apartment complex or a house or whatever, there are CORRIDORS. So you can close your door and someone can go past your apartment/room. Not when we're talking countries. There are no corridors and people have to go through countries to get to other countries.



As such, it kind of makes sense that the regie that is made of the actual residents would expect that the outside people would guard the borders, because it is intuitive (they're there, they have borders and ways of enforcing them, so they could do it), and because it is easy for the inner residents as they won't have to lift a finger.





I really think behind all this is a lot of fear that has basis only on biases and sensationalist remarks with little objective and clear thinking behind them.



Refugees in Greece are being housed in empty hospitals or army barracks that have been replaced with new facilities. At least that's the plan. So according to the plan it's not like Greeks would put refugees in their living rooms, even though I'm pretty sure lots of them would easily do in the same way that lots of them would easily take their shotguns and go hunting...





And everybody talks big about "if I were a refugee" but I bet you any money that anyone wants the best out of any situation no matter how rotten it is. Greece or Italy have no jobs (fact) and so refugees that would like to work for a living wouldn't be able to. Especially GR has a tremendously obscure and difficult language. I think if you look statistically the educated Syrians you'll find lots of people speaking English, some speaking German, and none speaking Greek. So even if they could find a job, there are no international jobs in GR so they would have to live on welfare, which GR doesn't really have because it's bankrupt.





So they left a bomb ridden country to stay to a country that is like a desert to them? Would anyone go somewhere were they would starve to death or be dependent on the good will of people that are bringing them food as charity?



I don't find it unreasonable that they want to move somewhere with low unemployment, a diverse economy, and a place that already has shown tolerance to religions and cultures. And I don't find it greedy either.



We all would do it. Hell, we all did it, when we left our countries because of our first world problems



I want an international career, better quality of life, I want to travel, I want more money, I want brown sugar and a good ing vegan restaurant.



Anyone could argue you don't NEED to be in CH, you could be anywhere else, so f* off and good riddance, but then we'd have other whiny posts about how racist that anyone would be. So the same rhetoric would kind of sting if it were about us, but I keep to forget that we're different, we're special little snowflakes that DESERVE to have everything.
Re: Possible move from Australia Quote: Britething Hi there,

As a fellow newbie, I wanted to say hi. Some of the people here seem really nice. We're coming with kids too, but not to Zug.

Do you find the whole thing daunting too, or are you being really zen about it?

Good luck with the house hunting - that's the hardest part as far as I can see from this end.

And yes, I did the research too. Just fed up with the workload of it all.

Best of luck to you,

:-)



Lovely to meet you.

It is a tad daunting now that I have a child, we are in a great routine here and he has a wonderful little group of friends that we love. So from that aspect I feel it's daunting. I have definitely felt as thought there is a lot to learn but I have lived in the UK previously so I was aware that would be the case - new systems etc! I am quite zen about that I guess because i'm always happy to ask someone for help.

Where will you be living? How old are your children?



Found anything that's helpful for the kids search that you'd like to share? Hi Britething,Lovely to meet you.It is a tad daunting now that I have a child, we are in a great routine here and he has a wonderful little group of friends that we love. So from that aspect I feel it's daunting. I have definitely felt as thought there is a lot to learn but I have lived in the UK previously so I was aware that would be the case - new systems etc! I am quite zen about that I guess because i'm always happy to ask someone for help.Where will you be living? How old are your children?Found anything that's helpful for the kids search that you'd like to share?
Fight the good fight:

Facing a six-year barrage of increasingly large earthquakes, Oklahoma regulators are effectively ordering the states powerful oil-and-gas industry to substantially cut back the underground disposal of industry wastes that have caused the tremors across the state.

On Monday, the state Corporation Commission asked well operators in a Connecticut-size patch of central Oklahoma to reduce by 40 percent the amount of oil and gas wastes they are injecting deep into the earth. The directive covers 411 injection wells in a rough circle that includes Oklahoma City and points northeast.

It follows a February request that imposed a 40 percent cutback on injection wells in a similar-size region of northwest Oklahoma.

The actions significantly increase the effort to rein in the quakes, which the commission has long tried to reduce one well or a handful of wells at a time.

But they are an equally notable challenge to the industry, which will most likely be able to make the cutbacks only by reducing oil and gas production. ...

Although critics contend that earthquakes have caused millions of dollars of damage, Oklahomas political leaders have long been reluctant to impose restrictions on an industry that dominates the states economy. Until last spring, Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican, maintained that the cause of the tremors was unclear, and the state Legislature refused to consider legislation addressing the issue.

Ms. Fallin abandoned her position as the number of quakes rapidly increased. But the political leadership was not jolted into action until January, after a series of small earthquakes damaged homes and interrupted power in Edmond, an Oklahoma City suburb home to many in the states political and financial elite. ...
The proposed transaction, which has achieved broad consensus and is in advanced discussions, has its roots in Vukiles accretive acquisition of Synergy, successfully concluded last year.

Vukile CEO Laurence Rapp explains: With their excellent strategic fit, the retail assets of Synergy presented a compelling investment case for Vukile, acquired at the right price. We also acquired another unique asset in Synergys rare A and B unit structure. Each unit offers investors a different risk and reward profile.

Rapp adds: We believe weve found the best way to optimise this valuable structure in partnership with Arrowhead, which will achieve our goal to breathe new life into Synergy as a high-growth investment vehicle. It is positive for all the funds involved, and creates an exciting new proposition for investors.

This prospective deal aims to create an initial R4 billion high-yield, high-growth fund within the existing entity of Synergy that benefits from the A and B unit offering.

Synergy A units offer more risk-averse investors preferential distributions capped at 5% growth per annum, representing secure, predicable earnings. Its B units make it the ideal structure for investors looking for a higher-yielding proposition. After paying distributions to A-linked unitholders, remaining distributable earnings accrue to B-linked unitholders.

To reconstitute Synergy, its new asset base will include properties from both Vukile and Arrowhead.

In an asset swap, the bulk of Synergys retail assets will move into Vukile, and Vukile will inject the majority of its office and industrial assets into Synergy.

In addition, Synergy will acquire 100% shares in Cumulative Properties Limited, a subsidiary of Arrowhead that will house its portfolio of higher yielding retail, office and industrial properties, in return for the issue of Synergy B shares to Arrowhead.

The potential transaction meets key strategic goals for all three JSE-listed SA REITs.

For Vukile, the transaction continues its track record of innovative deal making and will see it becoming an almost exclusively retail fund, with an anticipated R11 billion of its R12 billion of physical assets being retail properties  over 90% of its portfolio. It will also benefit from its passive stake in the yield-driven reconstituted Synergy.

For Arrowhead, Synergy will become the vehicle for implementing its strategy of a separately listed high-yielding, high-growth fund. Arrowhead will have an active management stake in Synergy and will provide its expertise in managing portfolios designed for strong growth and higher yields to the fund.

For Synergy, the deal marks the start of its revitalisation that is likely to result in renewed interest and tradability of its currently illiquid units. Synergys asset management will be internalised and it will be staffed by a dedicated management team provided by Arrowhead.

Commenting on the proposed transaction, Rapp says: The transaction furthers our goal for transforming Vukile into a leading retail REIT. Retail has been the most defensive property class through the cycle and is investors most preferred sector. Four years ago, retail property was 54% of Vukiles overall portfolio. Weve now grown this to around 70%.

Should the transaction go ahead as envisioned, this will increase to about 92%. Also, our exposure to other South African property sectors will be higher yielding thanks to a holding of an approximate 25% of Synergy B units, which provide a better growth profile.

Mark Kaplan, COO of Arrowhead property Fund says: Were excited about this transaction. It really works well for everyone. It will realise an important part of Arrowheads strategy to move our smaller properties into a separate fund, as originally intended with Cumulative. Well be able to focus on bigger and better quality properties for Arrowhead, while keeping exposure to smaller properties with good strong growth and high yields in an income fund. Arrowhead is expected to hold around 65% of Synergy B units.

Kaplan adds: The vision for Synergy is to be income-focused. It will only undertake yield-enhancing transactions that grow sustainable earnings. We still see huge opportunity in smaller properties valued from about R20 million to R75 million. Most listed property companies arent competing in this niche space where Synergy will look to build its high-growth, high-yield fund. The A and B unit structure is a fantastic opportunity for this fund.

The final terms of the potential transaction still need to be negotiated and approved by the boards of the transacting parties, as well as Synergy shareholders. Synergy shareholders have been advised to exercise caution when dealing in their shares until a further announcement is made.
Protea Hotels would invest about R627m developing two hotels in Uganda, it said at a signing ceremony in Dubai.

The two new hotels in Kampala will be in addition to the two hotels Protea already operates in Uganda. It will also soon open a hotel in Rwanda.

The South African hotel chain is now part of multinational group Marriott, which intends adding 91 hotels in the Middle East and Africa region by 2020. This will bring more than 18,000 hotel rooms to market and expand Marriotts reach to eight new countries.

Signing in Dubai affirms the companys confidence in the strength of the Ugandan economy and in prospects for growth on the African continent, Marriott International president for Middle East and Africa Alex Kyriakidis said.

The new Protea Hotel Naguru Skyz and the Protea Hotel Pinnacle are both situated in Kampalas suburb of Naguru, an area popular for upmarket residential and commercial property, which has become a sought-after location for company headquarters and diplomatic missions in recent years.

The development of the two new hotels comes at a time when Kampala is ripe for the expansion of its hotel sector. The last hotel development dates back to 2007, Mr Kyriakidis said. The demand for additional, quality accommodation establishments is evident in the high occupancy levels experienced by existing hotels and the consistently high average room rates.

South African visitor numbers for the December to January holiday period were higher than in the previous year, and prospects look positive for the industry this year. Hotel occupancy figures were looking positive for the group, according to Mr Kyriakidis.

Protea Hotels Uganda MD Stuart Cook said the tourism sector was one of the Ugandan governments major focus areas of growth. The two new hotels will directly create more than five hundred new jobs. Protea has teamed up with Makerere University Business Schools Hospitality Management Programme to identify and develop the next generation of industry leaders through its experiential training programmes.

East Africa in general has seen impressive economic expansion  significantly higher than global figures  and with its newly discovered oil deposits soon to be commercially exploited, Uganda, in particular, offers great prospects.

Africa is part of the strategic growth plan for Marriott International, Protea Hotels and African Pride Hotels marketing manager Nicholas Barenblatt said. Africa is the continent where most of the growth in the hospitality industry is likely to occur over the next few years.

source" Business Day
The Delaware Department of Finance has posted proposed regulations for public comment to govern the state's unclaimed property audits and VDA proposals. The proposed regulations are intended to implement the Delaware legislature's direction "to complete the development of a detailed manual containing procedural guidelines for the conduct of Delaware unclaimed property examinations" as per January 2015's Senate Bill 11 Among the highlights of the proposed regulations relating to VDAs administered by the Department of Finance* is the establishment of a "rolling look-back date of 19 report years" for all VDAs entered into on or after January 1, 2017.The proposed audit regulations include details regarding the appropriate sampling and estimation methodologies, rules for the auditor's conduct of the audit, procedural steps, as well as a sample (though very summary) non-disclosure agreement acceptable to the state.The proposed regulations also contain a list of information and factors that may be used to select a holder for audit. These include a review of the holder's reports for "inconsistencies, omissions or a lack of detail" and a "comparison of a Holders past reports to the reports of similar Holders within the same industry and of the same approximate size."Comments are due to the Department of Finance by 4:30 p.m. on April 1.* By virtue of legislation enacted in 2012, the Delaware Secretary of State's office also administers a Voluntary Disclosure Agreement program for holders of unclaimed property. The proposed regulations above relate to the Department of Finance program. Implementing guidelines for the Secretary of State's program can be found here.
Dr. Eli David used to conduct an experiment with students in his AI neural networks and evolutionary computation classes by randomly throwing a pen at a student without warning.

Ive been doing this for the past 10 years. In nine out of 10 cases, the student managed to just grab the pen in the air; there was one unfortunate incident, said David, who is now the CTO of enterprise security firm Deep Instinct. Then I tell them you didnt have time to calculate the trajectory of the pen; its too complicated. But your brain has already trained on that kind of motion by having things thrown at you throughout your life, so your brain reacted just like an instinct in prediction mode.

Thats essentially the type of brain function that deep learning  a subset of artificial intelligence (AI)  attempts to replicate, but without human limitations.

Applying AI to Security

David isnt a newcomer to AI. Until he helped found Deep Instinct, he taught at his Ph.D. alma mater, Israels Bar-Ilan University. Its one of the few research groups to focus on genetic algorithms and neural networks. While there, he wrote more than 20 papers on computational intelligence and worked closely with research students.

When zero-day and APT (advanced persistent threat) attacks started outsmarting traditional security approaches a few years ago, David and Deep Instinct CEO and co-founder Guy Caspi saw an opportunity to apply AI to enterprise security. Caspi, a mathematician and data scientist, brought more than 15 years experience in cyber security and machine learning, including serving as a member of Israel Defense Forcess elite cyber team.

The thing we focus on and care about is new malware, David said. Bringing the AI  into this area makes sense because we have huge amounts of data to train from. As a general rule of thumb, the more data we have from a certain field, the more easily it would lend itself successfully to the application of automatic learning and especially deep learning, which is the most successful subfield of machine learning.

How Deep Learning Works

Most artificial intelligence solutions rely on humans at some level, generally for expertise that informs the computers analysis. If youre trying to create facial recognition, for example, a solution would program the computer to look for differences based on what human experts say are the most distinct differences between human faces: the distance between eyes, lip shape and so on.

Deep learning bypasses that by feeding in raw pixels and allowing the deep learning module to learn the importance of linear features for itself, David explained.

This works great for cyber security because finding what the important features are in a certain file is extremely difficult, and our methods are very limited, he said. So just feeding the raw files into a deep learning module pays much better results because it is learning the importance of linear features for itself that we humans could never have thought of.

Specifically, Deep Instinct shifts protection from reacting to constantly changing virus signatures to identifying characteristics of acceptable and unacceptable software code, inside and outside the file. It doesnt require constant updates, but it can still identify small evolutions in virus attacks. It also acts proactively by stopping attacks before they execute, even if theyre hidden within seemingly harmless .pdf or .doc files.

Building a Brain

The initial learning process requires a substantial neural network. David and Caspi knew a deep learning brain could handle the data problem, but the challenge was creating the actual brain. Deep learning brains require tens, if not hundreds, of gigabytes of memory, David said.

So that was probably the biggest challenge we had in our company. How can we squeeze a deep learning brain into something that takes only a few tens of megabytes, he said.

Their solution was to build a deep but sparse brain modeled on human brains. In human brains, not all the neurons connect. Similarly, Deep Instincts brain retained only the useful connections.

Another part of the equation was how to deploy what the brain learned in a small footprint. The answer is found in Davids pen exercise: Separate the training from the action.

In the training phase, the brain is fed tens of millions of malicious and legitimate files through the companys deep learning brain. That phase can take more than 24 hours and is done on-premise in Deep Instincts lab, but once its done, its good for months, he said. The results are used to create a deep learning prediction module that applies the lessons to the network. Every file is fed through that deep learning filter before its allowed into the network.

Deep Instinct is based in Israel, where its possible to attract elite AI and security experts. Two-thirds of the companys 50 current employees have a masters degree or Ph.D. in either AI or security, David said.

It is one of the first companies to bring an AI cyber security solution to market. So far, the move is paying off, David said.

Deep Instincts predictive approach detects 98 to 99 percent of new malware attacks in the companys benchmarks, he said, which amounts to about a 20 percent better detection rate than its competitors. Deep Learning also boasts a lower false positive than competitors.

Not surprisingly, companies have been skeptical of these claims, which is why Deep Instinct works with potential clients on a proof of concept.

Like in every field, when the results look too good to be true then the customers like to test them for themselves. In all the cases so far, they have verified that it is as large as we claim it is, David said.

Fast Facts about Deep Instinct

Founded: 2014

Founders: Guy Caspi, Doron Cohen, Dr. Eli David, Nadav Maman, Yoel Neeman

HQ: Tel Aviv, Israel

Product: A real-time solution that predicts and proactively stops APTs and zero day attacks, as well as more traditional cyber attacks, on any operating system including Android and iOS

Employees: 40

Customers: The solution came to market in January, so the company hasnt publicly announced its customers

Funding: Not disclosed

Loraine Lawson is a freelance writer specializing in technology and business issues, including integration, healthcare IT, cloud and Big Data.
Baltimore, Md., February 17, 2016 - In a new study, University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers have had promising results with a new treatment for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). The study, published today in the journal Science Translational Medicine, found a new treatment that protected mice from MERS infection.

The treatment - an antibody that blocks the MERS virus - was produced by cows that had been genetically modified to mimic certain aspects of the human immune system. These cows were given a new MERS vaccine that led to production of anti-MERS antibodies in large quantities. These antibodies were then purified to produce the therapeutic that was tested in the MERS-infected mice.

Last year, a South Korean epidemic of MERS killed more than 30 people. Overall, MERS has killed nearly 600 people since it was first discovered four years ago in Saudi Arabia. The South Korean outbreak, which began when a traveler returned from Saudi Arabia, infected hundreds of people there.

The research is a partnership between the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM), SAB Biotherapeutics (SAB), Novavax and the Naval Medical Research Center. The researchers tested the treatment for MERS, a disease that can cause severe respiratory symptoms and has a death rate of 40 percent.

"These results are very promising," says one of the lead researchers on the study, Matthew B. Frieman, PhD, an Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at UM SOM. "This is important not only because it gives us a potential way to attack MERS, but also because it provides evidence that using these transgenic cows can rapidly produce therapeutics."

SAB, a biopharmaceutical company based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, provided the genetically modified cows, a technology that it invented. Novavax, a vaccine biotech company based in Gaithersburg, provided the vaccine that triggered the antibody production in the cows.

"Through this collaborative team, we've brought together the top talent of the scientific community, global health experts and novel technologies to demonstrate the efficacy, safety, and responsiveness of our human antibody therapeutic," said Dr. Eddie Sullivan, PhD, President and CEO of SAB Biotherapeutics, Inc. "As we complete successful studies targeting various diseases, we're realizing the potential broad application and significance of the our platform in addressing these global health threats."

The next step, which will occur in the next three to six months, will be a human clinical trial to test the safety of the therapeutic. If that works, a Phase 2 trial will follow, to test whether it is effective for use in humans, in emergency situations.

MERS was first discovered in 2012 in Saudi Arabia. It appears that the disease spread to humans from camels, who may themselves been infected by bats. Research has shown that it is similar to Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which emerged in 2003 and resulted in over 8000 infections, killing 10% of those infected. Both are caused by Coronaviruses, both cause serious respiratory problems, and both are often fatal.

"Prof. Frieman's work is a fantastic example of how the school is partnering with private industry to break new ground fighting disease," said UM SOM Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, who is also the vice president for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor. "This work provides a great model for how we can respond rapidly to emerging diseases that threaten health around the world."

###

About the University of Maryland School of Medicine

The University of Maryland School of Medicine was chartered in 1807 and is the first public medical school in the United States and continues today as an innovative leader in accelerating innovation and discovery in medicine. The School of Medicine is the founding school of the University of Maryland and is an integral part of the 11-campus University System of Maryland. Located on the University of Maryland's Baltimore campus, the School of Medicine works closely with the University of Maryland Medical Center and Medical System to provide a research-intensive, academic and clinically based education. With 43 academic departments, centers and institutes and a faculty of more than 3,000 physicians and research scientists plus more than $400 million in extramural funding, the School is regarded as one of the leading biomedical research institutions in the U.S. with top-tier faculty and programs in cancer, brain science, surgery and transplantation, trauma and emergency medicine, vaccine development and human genomics, among other centers of excellence. The School is not only concerned with the health of the citizens of Maryland and the nation, but also has a global presence, with research and treatment facilities in more than 35 countries around the world.
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) March 10, 2016 -- Five years after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan, the disaster no longer dominates U.S. news headlines, although experts say it is a continuing disaster with broad implications. A new analysis by American University sociology professor Celine-Marie Pascale finds that U.S. news media coverage following the disaster minimized health risks to the general population.

Pascale analyzed more than 2,000 news articles from four major U.S. outlets following the disaster's occurrence from March 11, 2011 through March 11, 2013. Only 6 percent of the coverage--129 articles--focused on health risks to the public in Japan or elsewhere. Human risks were framed, instead, in terms of workers in the disabled nuclear plant. Pascale's research has published in the flagship journal for the International Sociology Association, Current Sociology.

Disproportionate access

"It's shocking to see how few articles discussed risk to the general population, and when they did, they typically characterized risk as low," said Pascale, who studies the social construction of risk and meanings of risk in the 21st century. "We see articles in prestigious news outlets claiming that radioactivity from cosmic rays and rocks is more dangerous than the radiation emanating from the collapsing Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant."

Pascale studied news articles, editorials, and letters to the editor from two newspapers, The Washington Post and The New York Times, and two nationally prominent online news sites, Politico and The Huffington Post. These four media outlets are among the most prominent in the United States. They also are among the most cited by television news, talk shows, other newspapers, social media and blogs Pascale said.

Nuclear disasters have potentially large-scale and long-term consequences for people, environments, and economies around the globe. Given limited public knowledge about the details of nuclear energy and encumbered access to disaster sites, the media have disproportionate power around the globe to shape public knowledge, perception, and reaction to nuclear crises, Pascale said. Pascale's article illustrates how systematic media practices minimized the presence of health risks, contributed to misinformation, and exacerbated uncertainties.

Pascale's analysis initially characterized the risk to the general population in one of three ways: low, uncertain, or high. However, when examining the bases on which these characterizations were made, it was clear that all media characterizations of uncertain risk were subsequently interpreted as evidence of low risk. In two years of reporting, across all four media outlets, there were only a combined total of 17 articles reporting any noteworthy risk from the largest nuclear disaster in history.

Corporations and government agencies had disproportionate access to framing the event in the media, Pascale says. Even years after the disaster, government and corporate spokespersons constituted the majority of voices published. News accounts about local impact--for example, parents organizing to protect their children from radiation in school lunches--were also scarce.

Globalization of risk

Pascale says her findings show the need for the public to be critical consumers of news; expert knowledge can be used to create misinformation and uncertainty--especially in the information vacuums that arise during disasters.

"The mainstream media--in print and online--did little to report on health risks to the general population or to challenge the narratives of public officials and their experts," Pascale said. "Discourses of the risks surrounding disasters are political struggles to control the presence and meaning of events and their consequences. How knowledge about disasters is reported can have more to do with relations of power than it does with the material consequences to people's lives."

While it is clear that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown was a consequence of an earthquake and tsunami, like all disasters, it was also the result of political, economic and social choices that created or exacerbated broad-scale risks. In the 21st century, there's an increasing "globalization of risk," Pascale argues.

"People's understanding of disasters will continue to be constructed primarily by media. How media members frame the presence of risk and the nature of disaster has enormous consequence for our well-being," she said.

###

American University is a leader in global education, enrolling a diverse student body from throughout the United States and nearly 140 countries. Located in Washington, D.C., the university provides opportunities for academic excellence, public service, and internships in the nation's capital and around the world.
New research that sheds unprecedented light on the behaviour of blasts produced by landmines and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) could aid the development of enhanced protection for UK soldiers on military, peace-keeping and humanitarian missions.

By focusing on explosives hidden in clay soils, the University of Sheffield project - funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) - has addressed a vital gap in knowledge about how buried explosives interact with their surrounding environment. This is a key factor in determining the pattern and extent of the pressure produced by an explosion.

Universities and Science Minister Jo Johnson said: "British scientific breakthroughs have saved the lives of millions and we will continue to invest in our scientists as they conduct such game-changing research. The potential for this research to provide better protection for British soldiers and humanitarian workers who risk their lives every day, underscores precisely why we continue to support UK science."

The project was part of a wider ongoing initiative - the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory's (Dstl's) programme to understand the effects of IEDs and land mines on armoured vehicles. As well as helping to inform future designs of armoured vehicles, the data produced by the project will aid risk assessment and route planning for operations in current and future combat zones.

Dr Sam Clarke, who led the EPSRC-funded project, says: "Detonations of explosives in shallow soils are extremely complex events that involve the interaction of the shock waves with the surrounding soil, air and water. The understanding we've generated about how clay soils affect the process is a key piece in the jigsaw, as it complements the extensive knowledge that's already been built up about explosions in sandy and gravelly soils, which are much less cohesive than clay soils."

Using the University of Sheffield's unique Explosives Arena, Dr Clarke and his team carried out around 250 test explosions using different soil samples and made 17 different pressure measurements during each test. The results were backed up and verified by numerical modelling developed and applied as part of an EPSRC CASE (Collaborative Award in Science and Engineering) Studentship.

The research has revealed how the blast produced by a landmine or IED would interact, for instance, with anti-mine body armour or an armoured plate fixed underneath a troop transport vehicle.

Hundreds of UK service personnel have been killed or injured by IEDs in recent years, while landmines in former warzones worldwide continue to cause thousands of deaths every year. In the face of dangers like these, there is a constant drive to keep improving the capabilities of vehicle armour, personal armour and protective footwear, and this can be aided by a clearer understanding about how explosions actually behave.

Dr Clarke comments: "The new data we've generated about the distribution of blast loading in clay soils will feed directly into Dstl's world-class work harnessing the latest science and technology to help protect UK troops and ensure they can operate even more effectively in future."

Examples of the test explosions carried out as part of the EPSRC-funded project are available here

"The data and understanding arising from this EPSRC funded research could ultimately improve safety for troops," says Professor Philip Nelson, Chief Executive of EPSRC.

###

For media enquiries contact: The EPSRC Press Office, tel: 01793 444 404, e-mail: pressoffice@epsrc.ac.uk

Interviews available: Dr Sam Clarke, Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, University of Sheffield, tel: 0114 222 5703, e-mail: sam.clarke@sheffield.ac.uk; or press@dstl.gov.uk

Notes for Editors:

The 2 year research project Understanding the Role of Soil in Subsurface Explosive Events ran from January 2014 to January 2016 and received total EPSRC funding of just over 100,000.

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). As the main funding agency for engineering and physical sciences research, our vision is for the UK to be the best place in the world to Research, Discover and Innovate.

By investing 800 million a year in research and postgraduate training, we are building the knowledge and skills base needed to address the scientific and technological challenges facing the nation. Our portfolio covers a vast range of fields from healthcare technologies to structural engineering, manufacturing to mathematics, advanced materials to chemistry. The research we fund has impact across all sectors. It provides a platform for future economic development in the UK and improvements for everyone's health, lifestyle and culture.

We work collectively with our partners and other Research Councils on issues of common concern via Research Councils UK. http://www.epsrc.ac.uk

The University of Sheffield, with almost 26,000 of the brightest students from around 120 countries learning alongside over 1200 of the best academics from across the globe, is one of the world's leading universities. A member of the UK's prestigious Russell Group of leading research-led institutions, Sheffield offers world-class teaching and research excellence across a wide range of disciplines. Unified by the power of discovery and understanding, staff and students at the university are committed to finding new ways to transform the world we live in. In 2014 it was voted the number one university in the UK for Student Experience by Times Higher Education and in the last decade has won four Queen's Anniversary Prizes in recognition of the outstanding contribution to the United Kingdom's intellectual, economic, cultural and social life. Sheffield has five Nobel Prize winners among former staff and students and its alumni go on to hold positions of great responsibility and influence all over the world, making significant contributions in their chosen fields. Global research partners and clients include Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Unilever, AstraZeneca, Glaxo SmithKline, Siemens and Airbus, as well as many UK and overseas government agencies and charitable foundations. http://www.sheffield.ac.uk

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) maximises the impact of science and technology (S&T) for the defence and security of the UK, supplying sensitive and specialist S&T services for the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and wider government.

Dstl is an Executive Agency of the MOD, run along commercial lines. It is one of the principal government organisations dedicated to S&T in the defence and security field, with three main sites at Porton Down, near Salisbury, Portsdown West, near Portsmouth, and Fort Halstead, near Sevenoaks.

Dstl works with a wide range of partners and suppliers in industry, in academia and overseas. Around 60% of MOD's Science and Technology Programme is delivered by these external partners and suppliers. http://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/defence-science-and-technology-laboratory
Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Although breast cancer is somewhat more aggressive in South Asian and Black women than in White women, this is largely due to age differences between ethnic groups in the UK, according to new research.

Dr Toral Gathani, a clinical epidemiologist at the University of Oxford [1], told the 10th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-10) today (Thursday) that findings from the largest study to date of tumour characteristics in relation to ethnicity suggested that inherent differences in tumour biology between the ethnic groups were unlikely to play a role.

She and her colleagues from the Cancer Epidemiology Unit analysed data from over 68,000 women with breast cancer registered in England between 2006-2013 - 66,192 in White women, 1,233 in South Asian women and 641 in Black women. The data included information on the age of diagnosis, region of residence, deprivation, ethnicity, tumour size, grade, oestrogen receptor status (ER), Herceptin receptor status (HER2), and whether or not the cancer had spread to the lymph nodes.

She reported that the average age at diagnosis was five years lower in both South Asian women and Black women (55 years) than in White women (60 years). Although South Asian and Black women were more likely to have biologically aggressive tumours, such as higher-grade tumours and more lymph node involvement, little difference remained between the ethnic groups after adjustment for factors that could affect the findings, particularly age.

Dr Gathani said: "Much of the apparent excess of aggressive breast tumours in South Asian and Black women is simply because they are younger than White women.

"Black and South Asian women are known to be slightly less likely to develop breast cancer than White women. Although their cancers are diagnosed at younger ages, this is largely because these ethnic minority populations as a whole are younger than the population of White women in the UK. Breast cancer is more aggressive in younger than older women, and this largely explained why more aggressive tumour features were seen in ethnic minorities," she said.

Socioeconomic factors had little effect on the differences observed. However, the researchers found that breast tumours were still slightly larger in ethnic minority than White women, even after adjustment for age and other potential confounding factors.

Dr Gathani said: "This may be due to delays in diagnosis, such as not having been screened or prolonged duration of symptoms before women seek medical attention." These factors were not investigated in this study.

"Ethnic minority women should be encouraged to be breast aware, to attend regular screening at the appropriate ages and to see their doctors if they have concerns," she concluded.

Chair of EBCC10, Professor Fatima Cardoso, who is Director of the Breast Unit at the Champalimaud Clinical Centre, Lisbon, Portugal, said: "This study suggests that the worse prognosis seen in breast cancer patients from ethnic minority groups in the UK can be at least in part explained by the younger age of this group. However, previous data show that age by itself may not be determinant of prognosis but rather the fact that breast cancer in younger ages is associated with features of worse prognosis. Therefore, further research is needed to clearly understand the role of age and ethnicity in breast cancer prognosis."

###

[1] Dr Toral Gathani is a clinical epidemiologist in the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford and also a consultant oncoplastic breast surgeon at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust.
This news release is available in French.

The optical chip developed at INRS by Prof. Roberto Morandotti's team overcomes a number of obstacles in the development of quantum computers, which are expected to revolutionize information processing. The international research team has demonstrated that on-chip quantum frequency combs can be used to simultaneously generate multiphoton entangled quantum bit (qubit) states.

Quantum computing differs fundamentally from classical computing, in that it is based on the generation and processing of qubits. Unlike classical bits, which can have a state of either 1 or 0, qubits allow a superposition of the 1 and 0 states (both simultaneously). Strikingly, multiple qubits can be linked in so-called 'entangled' states, where the manipulation of a single qubit changes the entire system, even if individual qubits are physically distant. This property is the basis for quantum information processing, aiming towards building superfast quantum computers and transferring information in a completely secure way.

Professor Morandotti has focused his research efforts on the realization of quantum components compatible with established technologies. The chip developed by his team was designed to meet numerous criteria for its direct use: it is compact, inexpensive to make, compatible with electronic circuits, and uses standard telecommunication frequencies. It is also scalable, an essential characteristic if it is to serve as a basis for practical systems. But the biggest technological challenge is the generation of multiple, stable, and controllable entangled qubit states.

The generation of qubits can rely on several different approaches, including electron spins, atomic energy levels, and photon quantum states. Photons have the advantage of preserving entanglement over long distances and time periods. But generating entangled photon states in a compact and scalable way is difficult. "What is most important, several such states have to be generated simultaneously if we are to arrive at practical applications," added INRS research associate Dr. Michael Kues.

Roberto Morandotti's team tackled this challenge by using on-chip optical frequency combs for the first time to generate multiple entangled qubit states of light. As Michael Kues explains, optical frequency combs are light sources comprised of many equally-spaced frequency modes. "Frequency combs are extraordinarily precise sources and have already revolutionized metrology and sensing, as well as earning their discoverers the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics."

Thanks to these integrated quantum frequency combs, the chip developed by INRS is able to generate entangled multi-photon qubit states over several hundred frequency modes. It is the first time anyone has demonstrated the simultaneous generation of qubit multi-photon and two-photon entangled states: Until now, integrated systems developed by other research teams had only succeeded in generating individual two-photon entangled states on a chip.

The results published in Science will provide a foundation for new research, both in integrated quantum photonics and quantum frequency combs. This could revolutionize optical quantum technologies, while at the same time maintaining compatibility with existing semiconductor chip technology.

###

About the publication

This highly promising breakthrough is described in an article in the prestigious journal Science entitled "Generation of multiphoton entangled quantum states by means of integrated frequency combs" (DOI : 10.1126/science.aad8532). The team that wrote the article is made up of Christian Reimer, Michael Kues, Piotr Roztocki, Benjamin Wetzel, Fabio Grazioso, Brent E. Little, Sai T. Chu, Tudor Johnston, Yaron Bromberg, Lucia Caspani, David J. Moss, and Roberto Morandotti. The research was made possible with the financial support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Australian Research Council, Fonds de Recherche du Quebec - Nature et Technologies (FRQNT), the European Union through the 7th Framework Program and Horizon 2020, Mitacs, and the City University of Hong Kong.

About INRS

Institut national de recherche scientifique (INRS) is a graduate-level research and training university and ranks first in Canada for research intensity (average grant funding per faculty member). INRS brings together some 150 professors and close to 700 students and postdoctoral fellows at its four centres in Montreal, Quebec City, Laval, and Varennes. Its basic research is essential to the advancement of science in Quebec and internationally even as it plays a key role in the development of concrete solutions to the problems faced by our society.
A group of the Lomonosov Moscow State University scientists, together with their colleagues from the Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences and the King's College London, succeeded in sorting out the mechanism of Alzheimer's disease development and possibly distinguished its key trigger. Their article was published in Scientific Reports.

'Alzheimer's disease is a widespread degenerative damage of central nervous system leading to a loss of mental ability.'Until now it was considered incurable,' tells Vladimir Polshakov, the leading researcher, MSU Faculty of Fundamental Medicine. Though now scientists managed to distinguish the mechanism 'running' the disease development, so, a chance appeared to elaborate some new chemical compounds, that may work as an efficient cure.

Several hypotheses are dedicated to the Alzheimer's disease development. One of the most common is the so-called amyloid hypothesis.

Amyloids (to be precise, beta-amyloid peptides) are molecular constructions of a protein type and in its normal healthy state they provide a protection to the brain cells. They live fast, and having fulfilled their function they fall prey to the work of proteases, the cleaning enzymes that cut all the used protein elements into harmless 'slags' that are further reclaimed or removed from a body. However, according to the amyloid hypothesis, at some point something goes wrong, and the cells' protectors turn to be their killers. Moreover, those peptides start gathering, forming aggregations and hence getting out of the reach of proteases' cutting blades. Within the amyloid hypothesis this mechanism is more or less precisely described on the later stages of the disease, when the toxic aggregations appeared already and further, when the brain is covered with amyloid plaques. However, the early stage of a beta-amyloid transformation into harmful organic products is highly unexplored.

'We knew, for example, that a crucial role in initiation of such processes is played by ions of several transition metals, first of all -- zinc,' tells Vladimir Polshakov. 'Zinc actually conducts a number of useful and healthy functions in a brain, though in this case it was reasonably suspected as a 'pest', and particularly as an initiator of a cascade of processes, leading to theAlzheimer'sdisease. However, it remained unclear, what exactly happens during an interaction of zin? ions with peptide molecules, which amino acids bind zinc ions, and how such interaction stipulates a peptide aggregation. We set a goal to clarify at least some of those questions'.

Scientists studied various pathogenic beta-amyloid peptides, their so-called metal binding domains -- relatively short peptide regions, capable to bind metal ions. A number of experimental techniques were applied, including nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, used to determine the structure of the forming molecular complexes. Some spectra requiring higher sensitivity were additionally measured in London. According to Polshakov, the choice of the studied pathogens was 'partly a luck'. One of the specimens was the product of so-called 'English mutation' -- peptide, different from a common beta-amyloid peptide only with one amino acid substitution. Using the NMR spectroscopy scientists managed to sort out chemical processes and structural changes while a peptide molecules interact with zinc ion and undergo further aggregation.

The second pathogen was an isomerized beta-amyloid peptide. It was not different from a normal one in its chemical composition, though one of its amino acid residues, aspartic acid, was in a form with a specific atomic positioning. Such isomerism happens spontaneously, without help of any enzymes, and is related to the ageing processes, another influential factor of the Alzheimer's disease. Fellow biologists from the Moscow's Institute of Molecular Biology showed recently, that administration of an isomerized peptide to transgenic mice led to an accelerated formation of amyloid plaques. With the presence of zinc ions, a metal binding domain of the isomerized peptide aggregated so fast that the forming structures were hard to detect. Though scientists managed to distinguish that despite all the differences in processes occurring to the 'English mutant' and isomerized peptide in presence of zinc ions, initial stages of these transformations were similar. The trigger happened to be the same -- a role of a pathogenic aggregation's seed was in both cases played by initially formed peptide dimers, i.e. two peptide molecules, connected to each other with help of zinc ion. Such dimers were also detected in normal human peptides, and the difference in all the studied forms could be explained by the speed of formation of corresponding dimer and its proneness to a further aggregation.

Based on their findings, researches proposed the mechanism of zinc-controlled transformation of a peptide-protector into a peptide-killer. That mechanism, scientists notice, explains multiple experimental data, not only gathered by the group, but also collected by their colleagues in other laboratories preoccupied with the Alzheimer's disease studies. Researchers also hope that thanks to a very certain targeting their discovery would help to produce new medicine capable to block beta-amyloid peptide aggregation stipulated by zinc ions.

###
WASHINGTON - The latest and final in a series of congressionally mandated biennial reviews of the evidence of health problems that may be linked to exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides used during the Vietnam War changed the categorization of health outcomes for bladder cancer, hypothyroidism, and spina bifida and clarified the breadth of the previous finding for Parkinson's disease. The committee that carried out the study and wrote this report, Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 2014, reviewed scientific literature published between Oct. 1, 2012, and Sept. 30, 2014.

Bladder cancer and hypothyroidism were moved to the category of "limited or suggestive" evidence of an association from their previous positions in the default "inadequate or insufficient" category. A finding of limited or suggestive evidence of an association means that the epidemiologic evidence indicates there could be a link between exposure to a chemical and increased risk for a particular health effect. A finding of inadequate or insufficient evidence indicates that the available studies are of insufficient quality, consistency, or statistical power to permit a conclusion regarding the presence or absence of such a link. For both bladder cancer and hypothyroidism, new results from a large study of Korean veterans who served in the Vietnam War were compellingly suggestive of an association. In combination with pre-existing supportive epidemiologic findings and substantial biologic plausibility, the new information provided evidence to merit a change in category of association for these two outcomes.

The committee for the first Veterans and Agent Orange report in 1994 concluded that there was little and inconsistent evidence concerning an association between any birth defects and parental exposure -- either mother or father -- to herbicides. The committee for the next report, Update 1996, placed spina bifida in the "limited or suggestive" category of association based on preliminary findings from the then ongoing Air Force Health Study. However, to date, a complete analysis of the data from the Air Force Health Study for neural tube defects has not been published. No subsequent studies have found increases in spina bifida with exposure to components of the herbicides sprayed in Vietnam. Contrary to expectation, intensive investigation of possible heritable effects in animal models still has not demonstrated that herbicide exposure of adult males can produce birth defects in their offspring. Taking these factors into consideration, the committee for this final report concluded that the evidence did not merit retaining spina bifida in the limited or suggestive category of association and downgraded it to the category of "inadequate or insufficient" evidence. This is only the second time that a Veterans and Agent Orange committee has demoted a health outcome to a weaker category of association. The first instance was the move of porphyria cutanea tarda from the "sufficient" category to the "limited or suggestive" category by the committee for Update 1998.

In addition to reviewing the evidence of health problems that may be linked to exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides, the committee was asked to address the specific question of whether various conditions with Parkinson's-like symptoms should qualify the assignment of Parkinson's disease to the limited or suggestive category of association with herbicide exposure. The committee noted that Parkinson's disease is a diagnosis of exclusion, and therefore, the diagnostic standards for this condition should not be assumed to have been uniform in the epidemiologic studies that constitute the basis for this association or in the claims submitted by veterans. Consequently, there is no rational basis for exclusion of individuals with Parkinson's-like symptoms from the service-related category denoted as Parkinson's disease. To exclude a claim for a condition with Parkinson's-like symptoms, the onus should be on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on a case-by-case basis to definitively establish the role of a recognized factor other than the herbicides sprayed in Vietnam.

Given that this is the final report mandated by the Agent Orange Act, the committee developed recommendations for future actions to advance the well-being of Vietnam veterans, including that the VA should continue epidemiologic studies of the veterans; develop protocols that could investigate paternal transmission of adverse effects to offspring; and design a study to focus on specific manifestations in humans of dioxin exposure and compromised immunity, which have been clearly demonstrated in animal models. The committee also called for a careful review of evidence concerning whether paternal exposure to any toxicant has definitively resulted in abnormalities in the first generation of offspring. In addition, the committee formulated recommendations for improved assembly and evaluation of information necessary for monitoring possible service-related health effects in all military personnel, including creating and maintaining rosters of individuals deployed on every mission and linking U.S. Department of Defense and VA databases to systematically identify, record, and monitor trends in veterans' diseases.

###

The study by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The Academies are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, technology, and medicine. They operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln. For more information, visit http://national-academies.org. A roster follows.

Contacts:

Jennifer Walsh, Senior Media Relations Officer

Emily Raschke, Media Relations Assistant

Office of News and Public Information

202-334-2138; e-mail news@nas.edu

http://www.nas.edu/newsroom/index.html

Twitter: @theNASEM

RSS feed: http://www.nationalacademies.org/rss/index.html Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalacademyofsciences/sets

Copies of Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 2014 are available from the National Academies Press on the Internet at http://www.nap.edu or by calling 202-334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242. Reporters may obtain a copy from the Office of News and Public Information (contacts listed above).

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES, ENGINEERING, AND MEDICINE

Institute of Medicine

Board on the Health of Select Populations

Committee to Review the Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of Exposure to Herbicides

Tenth Biennial Update

Kenneth S. Ramos M.D., Ph.D.* (chair)

Associate Vice President for Precision Health Sciences

Professor of Medicine

Director, Center for Applied Genetics and Genomic Medicine

Director, MD-PhD Program

Arizona Health Sciences Center

Tucson

Ilir Agalliu, M.D., Sc.D.

Assistant Professor

Departments of Epidemiology and Population Health and Urology

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Yeshiva University

Bronx, N.Y.

Erin M. Bell, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics

School of Public Health

State University of New York

Albany

Maarten Bosland, Ph.D., D.V.Sc.

Professor of Pathology

College of Medicine

University of Illinois

Chicago

Robert Canales, Ph.D., M.S.

Assistant Professor

Community, Environment, and Policy Division

University of Arizona

Tucson

Michael J. Carvan III, Ph.D., M.S.

Shaw Professor

School of Freshwater Sciences

School of Public Health

University of Wisconsin

Milwaukee

Melissa Gonzales, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Division of Epidemiology

School of Medicine

University of New Mexico

Albuquerque

Karl T. Kelsey, M.D., M.O.H.

Professor of Epidemiology and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Director, Center for Environmental Health and Technology

Brown University

Providence, R.I.

Kevin E. Kip, Ph.D., FAHA

Professor and Executive Director

College of Nursing

University of South Florida

Tampa

Stephen B. Kritchevsky, Ph.D.

Director, J. Paul Sticht Center on Aging

Professor of Internal Medicine and Translational Science

Wake Forest University School of Medicine

Winston-Salem, N.C.

Elan D. Louis, M.D., M.Sc.

Chief and Professor

Division of Movement Disorders

School of Medicine

Yale University

New Haven, Conn.

David Richardson, Ph.D., M.S.P.H.

Associate Professor

Gillings School of Global Public Health

University of North Carolina

Chapel Hill

Mitchell Turker, Ph.D., J.D.

Senior Scientist

Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences; and

Professor of Molecular and Medical Genetics

Oregon Health & Science University

Portland

Lori A. White, Ph.D., M.S.

Associate Professor

Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology

School of Environmental and Biological Sciences

Rutgers University

New Brunswick, N.J.

STAFF

Mary Burr Paxton, Ph.D.

Jennifer A. Cohen, M.P.H.

Co-study Directors

*Member, National Academy of Medicine
Public health emergencies such as the currently spreading Zika disease might be successfully necessitating open access for the available biomedical researches and their underlying data, yet filtering the right information, so that it lands in the hands of the right people, is what holds up professionals to bring the adequate measures about.

Submitted to the Open Science Prize contest, the present grant proposal, prepared with the joint efforts of scientists affiliated with Hypothes.is, ContentMine, University of Cambridge, Cottage Labs LLP and Imperial College of London, suggests a new scholarly assistant system, called amanuens.is, based on the existing ContentMine and Hypothes.is prototypes. Its aim is to combine machines and humans, so that mining critically important facts and making them available to the world can be made not only significantly faster, but also less costly. Through their publication in the open access journal Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO), the scientists, who are also well-known open access and open data proponents, are looking for further support, feedback and collaborations.

While Hypothes.is is a mixture of software and communities, which together annotate the available literature, ContentMine are building an open source pipeline to extract facts from scientific documents, thus making the literature review process cheaper, more rigorous, continuous and transparent. The role of amanuens.is is meant to bring these two systems together.

As a result, Hypothes.is is to display ContentMine facts as annotations on the online document, therefore increasing their visibility. In turn, the large Hypothes.is community, comprising users ranging from devoted and experienced Wikipedia editors to dedicated citizen scientists, would be able to provide manually their own annotations, which could be then fed back into the ContentMine facts store.

"Facts are important - but science is performed by people - so ContentMine are partnering with Hypothes.is to bring communities together around facts in the scholarly literature," sums up Dr Peter Murray-Rust. "Through combining machines and humans in a tight, iterating, loop, amanuens.is will be able to mine critically important facts and make them available to the world."

In their proposal, the authors give a hypothetical, yet foreseeable example with a Hypothes.is community, centered around research and discussions regarding a bacterium, already proven to restrain some mosquitoes from transmitting various viruses, and its potential use against Zika. There, amanuens.is downloads all open access papers on Zika from a multitude of sources within 3 minutes. In a matter of a couple of seconds a total of 123 files are downloaded. Then, amamnuens.is delivers a data table of the extracted data, including species, human genes, DNA primers and top word frequencies.

Within the community and thanks to the literature, made available via ContentMine, the users would be able to collaborate and build on the existing research outcomes. As a result, it could take only fifteen minutes and a brief proposal to mobilise the related scholarly resources and test for Zika resistance in infected with the virus mosquitoes.

"Finding facts to finding people took 15 minutes and this is how modern collaborative science should work," Prof Peter Murray-Rust says about the given example. "The people then create knowledge from the facts. The knowledge creates communities. The communities explore science- and people-based solutions."

In conclusion, the proposal states that similarly to the content and software provided by ContentMine and Hypothes.is, the outputs produced by amanuens.is will also be openly available. All of its data and annotations are to be public domain under a CC0 waiver.

###

Original source:

Martone M, Murray-Rust P, Molloy J, Arrow T, MacGillivray M, Kittel C, Kasberger S, Steel G, Oppenheim C, Ranganathan A, Tennant J, Udell J (2016) ContentMine/Hypothes.is Proposal. Research Ideas and Outcomes 2: e8424. doi: 10.3897/rio.2.e8424

About Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO):

The mission of RIO is to catalyse change in research communication by publishing ideas, proposals and outcomes in order to increase transparency, trust and efficiency of the whole research ecosystem. Its scope encompasses all areas of academic research, including science, technology, the humanities and the social sciences.

The journal harnesses the full value of investment in the academic system by registering, reviewing, publishing and permanently archiving a wider variety of research outputs than those traditionally made public: project proposals, data, methods, workflows, software, project reports and research articles together on a single collaborative platform offering one of the most transparent, open and public peer-review processes.

About ContentMine:

ContentMine aims to enable everyone to perform research using humanity's accumulated scientific knowledge. Its key focus is on research which relies on aggregating large amounts of dynamic information to benefit society. Therefore, it works with professionals such as clinical trials specialists and conservationists.

ContentMine is building software and training resources to liberate 100,000,000 facts from the scientific literature. Its tools, resources, services and content are fully open and can be re-used by anybody for any legal purpose. It is inspired by the community successes of Wikimedia, Open StreetMap, Open Knowledge Foundation, and others.

About Hypothes.is:

Hypothes.is is building an open platform for discussion on the web. It leverages annotation to enable sentence-level critique or note-taking on top of news, blogs, scientific articles, books, terms of service, ballot initiatives, legislation and more. Thus, it creates software, pushes for standards, and fosters community. In the spirit of its principles, the platform is free, open, non-profit and neutral.

Hypothes.is' efforts are based on the Annotator project, which it is a principal contributor to, and annotation standards for digital documents being developed by the W3C Web Annotation Working Group. It is partnering broadly with developers, publishers, academic institutions, researchers, and individuals to develop a platform for the next generation of read-write Web applications.

Hypothes.is is a non-profit organization, funded through the generosity of the Knight, Mellon, Shuttleworth, Sloan and Helmsley Foundations - and through the support of hundreds of individuals.
A low cost, easy to use, urine test to diagnose tuberculosis (TB) among patients with HIV could help reduce the TB death rate of HIV-positive patients in hospital, according to a new study published in The Lancet today.

In Africa, nearly 40% of all adult deaths related to HIV or AIDS are due to tuberculosis, but almost half of the TB cases remain undiagnosed and untreated before death. The authors of the study, which was conducted in 10 hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa, say that if implemented more widely, this low-cost intervention could save thousands of lives per year.

"This is the first trial of any diagnostic test for tuberculosis to show a reduction in the number of deaths. The reduction in mortality is likely to be because urine-testing, in conjunction with routine testing, resulted in a greater proportion of patients starting tuberculosis treatment early," [1] explains senior author and project supervisor Professor Keertan Dheda from the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

He adds: "When used in conjunction with routine testing, urine-testing for tuberculosis reduced the TB death rate of HIV patients in hospital. Importantly, we found that the test was particularly effective in identifying tuberculosis among patients with advanced HIV infection who are most vulnerable to advanced TB disease. The absolute reduction in mortality was small at 4%, but with 300000 patients with HIV dying from tuberculosis in Africa every year, implementing this low cost, rapid, bedside test could potentially save thousands of lives annually."[1]

Tuberculosis is the leading cause of death in people with HIV in low and middle income countries and hospitals are often overwhelmed with HIV-positive individuals who have suspected TB. Diagnosis of TB usually includes taking a chest X-ray and microbiological examination of sputum (mucus that has been coughed-up). However, for severely ill patients with TB and HIV, it can be hard to produce sputum and alternative approaches (sputum induction or alternative invasive sampling) are often unavailable. The LAM urine-test [2] detects a glycolipid molecule (lipoarabinomannan), which is linked to TB. It provides a result in 25 minutes and each test costs about US$2.66.

Professor Keertan Dheda says: "Since November 2015, a test measuring urine LAM has been recommended by WHO [3]. However, the recommendation was conditional, meaning it is up to the doctor or health system to decide whether or not to use the test. These data make use of the test more compelling and suggest that scale up and roll out of the test is now required."

In this study, the research team randomly allocated 2528 patients with HIV from ten hospitals in four countries in sub-Saharan Africa (four in South Africa, two in Tanzania, two in Zambia, and two in Zimbabwe) to receive either routine testing (smear, Xpert MTP/RIF and culture) as well as the LAM urine-test (LAM group, 1257 patients) or routine testing alone (no-LAM group, 1271 patients).

Eight weeks after being discharged from hospital, 21% (261) of patients in the LAM group had died compared to 25% (317) of patients in the non-LAM group - an absolute reduction of 4%. A greater proportion of patients in the LAM group (648; 52%) were treated for TB than in the no-LAM group (598; 47%). And, of those who started TB treatment, a higher proportion of patients were treated in the first 3 days in the LAM group (513/648; 79%) compared to the non-LAM group (413/598; 69%).

The effect of LAM testing on mortality varied by country but the highest sensitivity was found in people with the lowest CD4 cell count (a measure of how badly the immune system is damaged in patients with HIV) who are the hardest to diagnose with TB using routine testing. The authors found that the LAM urine-test had a sensitivity of 46% (the proportion of people with TB correctly diagnosed) and specificity of 90% (the proportion of healthy people who are correctly identified as healthy).

However, as Dr Andrew Kerkhoff, University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco, USA, writes in a linked Comment: "Peter and colleagues report on the diagnostic accuracy of urine LAM testing even though the study was not primarily designed a priori to rigorously assess this. If their finding that urine LAM specificity was less than 90% is taken at face value, these data would raise serious concerns about the potential of the assay to generate large numbers of false-positive diagnoses... The reference standard for tuberculosis diagnosis against which the diagnostic accuracy of the LAM-test was assessed was often only one sputum culture or Xpert test, both of which represent insufficiently robust reference standards. In a similar inpatient study population in Cape Town, South Africa, our results showed that the specificity of the same urine-LAM lateral flow assay exceeded 99% when compared with a rigorous microbiological reference standard that incorporated sampling of sputum, blood, and urine, for which we did a mean of 5.6 reference standard tests per patient."

He concludes: "In summary, Peters and colleagues report findings from their landmark trial that provide key evidence showing that urine-LAM testing is an effective means of rapid, low-cost, ante-mortem diagnosis for the large burden of HIV-associated tuberculosis. This burden for the past 25 years has only been brought to light by a long series of post-mortem studies. With the recent backing of WHO recommendations, we strongly advocate that the Determine TB-LAM point-of-care assay should be implemented by national tuberculosis programmes in sub-Saharan Africa to reduce AIDS-related inpatient deaths."

###

NOTES TO EDITORS

This study was funded by the European Developing Clinical Trials Partnership, the South African Medical Research Council and the South African National Research Foundation.

Declaration of interests: Keertan Dheda has obtained speaker fees at industry-sponsored symposia and non-financial support from Alere in the form of kits and test strips, outside the submitted work. No other authors declare competing interests.

[1] Quote direct from authors and cannot be found in the text of the article.

[2] The Alere Determine tuberculosis LAM Ag lateral flow strip test is a commercially available bedside diagnostic test.

[3] WHO recommendations on LAM urine testing http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/193633/1/9789241509633_eng.pdf?ua=1&ua=1
A University of Bristol cryptographer has been elected a Fellow of the International Association of Cryptologic Research (IACR), an award that is only given to a select group of cryptographers worldwide.

Nigel Smart, Professor of Cryptology in the Department of Computer Science and who leads the University's Academic Centre for Excellence in Cyber Security, has been named a Fellow by the IACR in recognition of his essential contributions to the theory and practice of real world cryptography and outstanding service to the IACR. Professor Smart is only the second UK national to be awarded the Fellowship.

The IACR Fellows Program recognises outstanding IACR members for technical and professional contributions that:

Advance the science, technology, and practice of cryptology and related fields;

Promote the free exchange of ideas and information about cryptology and related fields;

Develop and maintain the professional skill and integrity of individuals in the cryptologic community;

Advance the standing of the cryptologic community in the wider scientific and technical world and promote fruitful relationships between the IACR and other scientific and technical organisations.

Professor Smart is best known for his work on elliptic curve cryptography and pairing-based cryptography, and more recently for developing techniques for computing on encrypted data, such as multi-party computation and fully homomorphic encryption.

Professor Smart said: "This is a great honour, especially as it comes from my peers internationally. It recognises not only my own work, but in some sense the pioneering work in cryptography that has been conducted by the entire group in Bristol."

Professor Andrew Nix, Dean of Engineering, added: "It's great news that the International Association of Cryptologic Research has recognised Professor Nigel Smart in this way. It's more evidence of the world class research in cryptography being conducted by the Bristol Cryptography Group, and the impact it's having on our digital world."

The Fellows program was established in 2004 and since then around 60 cryptographers have been elevated to Fellows, including ten cryptographers, Len Adleman; Manuel Blum; Whitfield Diffie; Shafi Goldwasser; Martin Hellman; Silvio Micali; Michael O Rabin; Ron Rivest; Adi Shamir and Andrew Yao, who have also won the A M Turing Award, which is the Nobel Prize of Computer Science.

###
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Developing drought-tolerant corn varieties that make efficient use of available water is vital to sustain the estimated 9 billion global population by 2050. For the past several decades, University of Missouri researchers have been working to solve this world hunger problem and have made significant strides. Now, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded MU a $4.2 million grant to fund a four-year project to study how corn maintains root growth in drought conditions.

The "Physiological Genomics of Maize Nodal Root Growth under Drought" project, which will be led by a team of researchers from the MU Interdisciplinary Plant Group, received funding from the NSF's Plant Genome Research Program. As part of the project, students and postdoctoral associates will learn how to be more competitive in the job market, and minority students will be trained to conduct research through a diversity component of the grant. An MU School of Journalism outreach component will help to communicate results of the project to the public.

"Corn takes up most of its water through a particular set of roots called the nodal roots," said Robert E. Sharp, professor of plant sciences, director of the MU Interdisciplinary Plant Group and principal investigator of the project. "Under drought, the nodal roots must grow through dry soil to reach available water. However, virtually nothing is known about the mechanisms that allow nodal roots to achieve this essential feat. Our work will build upon years of interdisciplinary research here at Mizzou, both in the lab and in the field and thus, will contribute to the essential goals of increased food security and stability for the world."

In Missouri, it can be difficult to control the conditions needed to simulate drought and obtain good data. The university has a rare resource that allows scientists to simulate drought. Five years ago, co-investigator Felix Fritschi, Sharp, and their colleagues received a $1.5 million Missouri Life Sciences Research Board grant to build drought simulators on an experimental field. The simulators are mobile greenhouses measuring 50 feet by 100 feet that move over plants when it is raining and move away from plants when it is sunny (see video).

"The University of Missouri has the strengths of our scientists, undergraduate and graduate students, the facilities and equipment as well as the communications teams to attract multi-million dollar federal funding for this type of project," Interim Chancellor Hank Foley said. "In this case, all the researchers involved are here at Mizzou and will contribute their expertise to the goal of sustaining future global population growth. This 'one stop shop' is highly attractive to federal funders seeking to expend their research dollars wisely. In addition, every dollar invested at Mizzou adds nearly $60 to the Missouri economy and for every $1 million Mizzou attracts in federal funding, 30 local jobs are supported. Through this project, MU will pump more than $251 million into the state of Missouri's economy and will support more than 120 jobs."

The project also will disseminate research findings and provide information to the general public through various communication, technical training and outreach activities. These activities include science communication workshops involving MU School of Journalism students and hands-on training workshops where journalists shadow scientists and researchers to better understand the research involved. Students will then work through print and broadcast media to communicate the group's work to the public.

In addition to the training of students and postdoctoral associates, the project will provide summer research training internships for undergraduate students from Fort Valley State University, a historically African-American university located in Fort Valley, Georgia.

"This significant funding from the NSF highlights exemplifies the excellence of CAFNR and the Interdisciplinary Plant Group and the commitment to solving hunger and providing the resources needed to sustain world growth," said Thomas L. Payne, dean of the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. "This collaborative, diverse team of scientists and students showcase the College's commitment to excellence in teaching, extension and outreach. We're proud to be leading the effort and look forward to results that will benefit the world."

###

The interdisciplinary team involved with the research includes members from various MU colleges and schools. The co-primary investigators from the Interdisciplinary Plant Group include David M. Braun, an associate professor in the Division of Biological Sciences in the College of Arts and Science; Felix B. Fritschi, an associate professor in the Division of Plant Sciences in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources; Trupti Joshi, an assistant research professor and director of translational bioinformatics in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology in the School of Medicine; Scott C. Peck, an associate professor in the Division of Biochemistry in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources and an investigator in the Bond Life Sciences Center; Jonathan T. Stemmle, an associate professor of strategic communication at the School of Journalism; and Melvin J. Oliver, an adjunct professor in the Division of Plant Sciences and a supervisory research geneticist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service.
ANN ARBOR--Exposure to lead during early development can alter the the gut microbiota, increasing the chances for obesity in adulthood, researchers from the University of Michigan School of Public Health have found.

Adult male mice exposed to lead during gestation and lactation were 11 percent larger than those not exposed, due to differences in their gut microbiota, which is the ecological community of microorganisms within the body.

"Early life exposure to lead causes a long lasting impact on gut microbiome, and the change of gut microbiome may partially contribute to the increased body weight in adult life," said lead author Chuanwu Xi, associate professor of environmental health science.

Lead was added to the drinking water of female mice prior to breeding through nursing their young. Once weaned, the offspring were raised to adulthood without additional exposure, and then tested for lead effects acquired from their mothers.

"The lead levels in the mouse mothers were carefully designed to be within human population exposure levels. Our lowest dose is near the current U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's blood lead action level of 5 micrograms per deciliter, while the higher dose mirrors exposure levels during the 1960s and 70s," said Dana Dolinoy, U-M associate professor of environmental health sciences and of nutrition sciences. "Since we are investigating the effects of the developmental origins of disease, it is important to evaluate current and historically relevant lead levels."

Lead is found throughout the environment in natural and man-made settings. For decades, researchers have found many health problems associated with exposure, even at levels lower than the threshold for safety set by the CDC. Most previous studies have dealt with ingestion and inhalation.

"We investigated more specifically the role of gut microbiome in the health impact upon lead exposure in this study," Xi said.

Research has shown that large numbers of bacteria live in animal intestines, and the range of diversity in these microbes, and the balance of various organisms, is increasingly known to be tied to health.

In this study that used deep DNA sequencing of bacterial specific genes, the guts of both males and females exposed to lead had all of the similar complexity in microbiota as those not exposed. The differences were in the balance of the different groups of microorganisms.

For example, both adult males and females exposed to lead during early development had fewer aerobes and significantly more anaerobes, suggesting a changing microenvironment of the gut.

"In both males and females developmental lead impacted the adult microbiome. We only observed adult onset obesity in the males, but females may have shown effects on obesity if we had followed them longer," Dolinoy said.

###

Other authors: Jianfeng Wu, Xiaoquan William Wen, Christopher Faulk, Kevin Boehnke and Huapeng Zhang

Abstract

Chuanwu Xi, Dana Dolinoy
KUNMING, 6 March 2016 - At the Mountain Futures Conference held in Kunming, China, stakeholders in the world's mountainous areas put their backs into the Mountain Futures Initiative, which seeks to combine tradition with scientific research in order to upscale sustainable practices for the future of the world's mountainous regions.

The Mountain Futures Initiative (MFI) was proposed during the Conference by the three institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Kunming Institute of Botany, Chengdu Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, and the Institute of Geography and Natural Resources Research), and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF).

"Our current visions of the future are often dystopian, focusing too much on what will go wrong," said the World Agroforestry Centre's principal scientist and regional coordinator Dr Jianchu Xu. "Instead, the Mountain Futures Initiative wants to focus on what can be done, on a positive future. We want to combine local knowledge and scientific research to support innovations in knowledge, technology and institutions for a brighter montane future."

The Initiative will do so via three mechanisms: First, by exploring 'seeds' of a good Anthropocene. These are smart, grassroots ideas and innovations that help people cope with a changing climate in the mountains. Second, by building multi-stakeholder research-for-development platforms. And third, by scaling up such good practices that are aimed at sustainable livelihoods, environmental integrity and social justice.

Kunming Institute of Botany's deputy director Yongping Yang added that the mountains' natural capital including its genetic resources are nature's endowment for developing niche products for local livelihoods and economy.

Linxiu Zhang at the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy believes that human capital is the key, and we found that the nutritional status of children in rural areas is related to their intellectual development. Dr Wei Deng at the Chengdu Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment said that China ought to take an exemplary role in developing better futures for mountainous regions, as China is a 'mega-country'--both in terms of mountainous areas and population.

The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture's Hongyuan Xu added that the initiative fit well in the Chinese government's call for joint action and south-south cooperation within the One Belt One Road Initiative. Nisar Memon, former minister in the Pakistani government, agreed: "we cannot partition mountains: they straddle borders and cross divides."

The Mountain Futures Conference was co-organized by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), the Centre for Development and Environment at the University of Bern (CDE), the University of Central Asia, the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI), and Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation. It was funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Swiss Cooperation Office (SDC), Partnerships for Community Development (PCD), and the Hans Foundation, among others.

###

ABOUT WORLD AGROFORESTRY CENTRE

The World Agroforestry Centre, previously the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), is an autonomous, non-profit research organization whose vision is a rural transformation in the developing world as smallholder households increase their use of trees in agricultural landscapes to improve food security, nutrition, income, health, shelter, social cohesion, energy resources and environmental sustainability. The Centre generates science-based knowledge about the diverse roles that trees play in agricultural landscapes, and uses its research to advance policies and practices, and their implementation that benefit the poor and the environment. It aims to ensure that all this is achieved by enhancing the quality of its science work, increasing operational efficiency, building and maintaining strong partnerships, accelerating the use and impact of its research, and promoting greater cohesion, interdependence and alignment within the organization.

The Centre's East and Central Asia Regional office was founded in 2002 and is located in Kunming, Yunnan, China. Regional offices exist in Beijing and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) is the linchpin of China's drive to explore and harness high technology and the natural sciences for the benefit of China and the world. Comprising a comprehensive research and development network, a merit-based learned society and a system of higher education, CAS brings together scientists and engineers from China and around the world to address both theoretical and applied problems using world-class scientific and management approaches. The Kunming Institute of Botany is one of the Academy's research institutes.

CONTACT

Prof Jianchu Xu

j.c.xu@cgiar.org

+86 871 6522 3355

Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Witness this attack by University of Ottawa professor Stuart Chambers on the disability rights advocacy organization Not Dead Yet for its opposition to legalizing assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Chambers calls the organizations stance unprincipled. Why? Because it distinguishes between the right to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment, which the group supports, and legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide, which it opposes implacably. From Not Dead Yet: An Unprincipled Position Against Assisted Death:

Although the choices surrounding acts of commission and acts of omission could be similarly motivated by loss of autonomy, decrease in bodily function, or feelings of being a burden, Not Dead Yet only supports autonomous choice for passive treatment decisions (withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment) that lead to premature death. To be consistent, Not Dead Yet should be lobbying for or against all end-of-life alternatives.

Weve heard this same sophistry for decades. The truth is:

Withdrawing medical treatment may lead to death, but that isnt the intent. Indeed, the point is to stop an unwanted bodily intrusion, not to kill. As Paul Ramsey put it, that is treating the patient as a person.

lead to death, but that isnt the intent. Indeed, the point is to stop an unwanted bodily intrusion, not to kill. As Paul Ramsey put it, that is treating the patient as a person. With the exception of a feeding tube, such deaths are uncertain. Sometimes  if unexpectedly  people live. For example, Karen Ann Quinlan lived about ten years after her respirator was removed.

Death is certain in euthanasia and assisted suicide.

When medical treatment is withdrawn or withheld on request, if it comes, the death is natural.

In euthanasia and assisted suicide, death is unnatural, e.g., a result of homicide or suicide.

In contrast to removing unwanted treatment, the intent of assisted suicide and euthanasia is to kill.

Not Dead Yet sees clearly that assisted suicide and euthanasia discriminate invidiously against people with disabilities because they treat them as a disposable caste whose lives are not worth saving if they become suicidal.

The vital distinction between allowing to die and making dead through homicidal or suicidal means was recognized 9-0 by the United States Supreme Court in the 1997 decision Vacco v. Quill :

[A] physician who withdraws, or honors a patients refusal to begin, life sustaining medical treatment purposefully intends, or may so intend, only to respect his patients wishes to cease doing useless and futile or degrading things to the patient when the patient no longer stands to benefit from them.  A doctor who assists a suicide, however, must necessarily and indubitably, intend primarily that the patient be made dead. Similarly, a patient who commits suicide with a doctors aid has the specific intent to end his or her own life, while a patient who refuses or discontinues treatment might not [and, indeed] may instead fervently wish to live, but to do so free of unwanted medical technology, surgery, or drugs. [Citations omitted.]

In other words, the right to refuse unwanted medical treatment is not a right to die but a right to be free from unwanted bodily intrusions. So then were the nine Justices  liberal and conservative  who unanimously signed this decision unprincipled? Please.

We shouldnt be surprised by the attack on Not Dead Yet and the opposition of disability rights organizations to assisted suicide. They pierce the political and ethical sensibilities of those on the political Left. They appeal to secularist sensibilities and arguments. Most importantly, they are effective.

Advocates like Chambers would do well to learn the skill of three-dimensional thinking and making nuanced distinctions. It would help them understand cogent and sophisticated arguments against legalizing assisted suicide.

Image credit: Calleamanecer (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Cross-posted at Human Exceptionalism.


It may look like an unlikely pairing but Oman and Brazil are in talks to provide visa free travel to official passport holders of both countries.Brazil is further expanding its global presence and fostering new relationships with the Middle East by announcing plans to offer visa free travel to Oman's diplomats and tourists intending to stay less than 30 days.According to the Undersecretary General for Africa and Middle East Political Affairs in the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, Fernando Abreu, the talks are now at advanced stages.The news of potential visa free travel comes as part of Brazil's trade extension with Oman and exemplifies the Latin American country's intentions to work on numerous new projects with the Arab nation.One of the new exciting ventures includes plans for Oman to advertise food products made in Brazil later this year, extending the consumer and business reach of South America's largest nation.Shortage of food supplies in Oman was one of the main topics during the talks, which could be fulfilled with Brazil's help. As a first step towards this, a trade show will be held in Oman this October which will help introduce Brazilian food products to the Oman market."Working together with Oman will allow Brazil to expand its business further and open doors to the other Gulf nations, encouraging further Foreign Direct Investment. We look forward to seeing this relationship grow further and witness not only a growing demand for Brazilian foods in Oman, but also an improved touristic relationship and trade influx between the two countries," said Paul Telfer, chief finance officer of Ritz-G5, an international development and investment company with offices in Brazil, the UK and Singapore.According to Oman's Commerce and Industry minister Ali Al-Sunaidy there is a lot of potential and he has been visiting Brazilian enterprises. He also pointed out that Brazilian businesses can, in turn, take advantage of the strategic location and infrastructure of Omani ports, which will help with extending Brazilian product reach in the Gulf.Brazil already has companies operating in Oman such as the Brazilian mining company Vale which has an iron ore pellet plant and a sea terminal. The company has a total of US $2 billion in investments and generates approximately 3,000 jobs in the region.
Ohios steelhead fishery is second to none and in fact, ranks as one of the very best, according to steelhead trout addicts who have been known to chase these exciting trophy salmonids from the Redwood forests to the New York Island.

Buckeye pride

Now add These trout are meant for you and me, and youve got a song that reeks of fast fishing action all year long; exactly what steelhead trout fishing is all about. But it the steelhead fishery hasnt always been a Buckeye point of pride.

Stocked fish

Several different salmonids have been stocked in the Ohio waters of Lake Erie but most efforts have been less than robust, according to Division of Wildlife fisheries biologist Phil Hillman, a guy who has been deeply involved with most of the efforts to create a sustainable and productive salmonids program for the last few decades. Chinook salmon, Coho salmon, Brown Trout, and a species of rainbows known as Ohios London Strain, have all had their day, a drab day that involved thousands of stocked fish that were never seen again with few exceptions.

Fishing opportunity

While the salmon stockings flopped, the steelhead program has blossomed into a remarkable fishing opportunity for what most anglers treat as a quality, trophy fishery.

In fact, its proven to be mostly a catch and release fishery that at times is only interrupted between the catch and the release to shoot a quick picture.

But back up to the mid-80s when all the attention focused on an early steelhead stocking effort that held promise; a real possibility for success after several disappointing results with salmon and brown trout.

Rainbow trout

The first couple years featured Ohio-bred London Strain rainbow trout. And why not? After all, steelhead are nothing more than a stream-spawned rainbow that has fed its way through a couple eat-anything-and-everything Lake Erie summers to return as a grown up to its birthright to spawn or at least go through the motions.

But it wasnt quite that simple, according to Hillman who reached out to nearby Michigan fisheries officials to see how they were doing it.

Not good enough

The fish raised in the early years were OK but OK wasnt good enough for Hillman and others involved in the steelhead program. Thus began the road to real success.

Hillman said that Ohio now raises nothing but Little Manistee strain trout using spawn stripped from true, wild-strain Michigan fish. Hillman said that 400,000 smolts are stocked each year, a number spread between the Vermillion, Rocky, Chagrin, Grand, and Conneaut rivers.

Young trout

Smolts are young trout that are old enough to imprint or remember the individual odor of the stream they are stocked in. That is extremely important, according to Hillman because the whole point of the steelhead program is that adult fish return to the same stream where anglers pursue them from September to April as the weather permits.

Fast growing

The advantages of Little Manistee trout are many. They are durable and resistant to disease and they grow considerably faster than London strain fish. Little Manistee smolts reach 18 inches in just one year. After three summers of offshore foraging, they average 29 inches in length.

Return home

Another plus Little Manistee fish have is a seven-year life span during which they tend to return to the home stream several times. Since the Ohio steelhead program is based in just a few northeast Ohio Lake Erie tributaries for fisherman to catch later, it is much more than a put and take effort. Actually, most fish that stocked state-wide are intended to be caught soon after.

Not so for steelhead where young trout that are stocked in rivers from the Vermillion to the Conneaut, are on a course that makes them fishable after at least one full year and several years beyond.

We refer to it as a put, grow, and take fishery, Hillman said.
Safety watchdog issues half-term call to keep kids safe on farms
Aim is to break up Monsantos reign in the country

By Diego Flammini

Assistant Editor, North American Content

Farms.com

Soybean farmers in Brazil could have more options for choosing GMO seeds as Bayer and BASF are working to introduce seeds of their own to rival Monsanto in the market, according to a Bloomberg report.

The report says that Bayer CropScience will sell soybean varieties for the upcoming October planting season that can withstand Liberty herbicide; another option for farmers to weigh over Monsantos glyphosate-resistant seeds.

Bayer sold its soybean and corn seed assets in Brazil nearly 10 years ago and this will mark the companys first venture in the South American country since then.

Bayers seed director in Brazil, Eduardo Mazzieri, said farmers should have options when choosing their seeds.

BASF will also offer herbicide-resistant soybean varieties for the upcoming planting season. The Cultivance trait was developed with research from Embrapa, a research company run by Brazils federal government.

Bayer and BASF will be challenged to enter Brazils GMO soybean seed market.

Sara Miller, a Monsanto spokeswoman, told Bloomberg that the companys Intacta RR2 PRO soybean seeds could be used on nearly 35 million acres in South America in 2016; she said the number could shoot up to 75 million acres by 2019.

Mazzieri said that approximately 2,000 farmers will plant Bayers Liberty Link trait soybeans this year.

According to the recent WASDE report by the United States Department of Agriculture, Brazil is projected to produce about 100 million metric tons of soybeans in 2015/16.
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.
After a London jury acquitted six defendants in late January, I hope the Serious Fraud Offices decision to prosecute individuals for their alleged part in the LIBOR rate fixing scandal doesnt blow up in its face.

At the trial, the SFO alleged the six men had conspired with Tom Hayes to manipulate LIBOR. Hayes, a former UBS and Citigroup trader, was convicted by a jury in London last August.

After the acquittals, defendant Colin Goodmans solicitor said: We can only reiterate what his counsel told the jury, that the SFO case was a complete shambles and should never have been brought.

The LIBOR scandal required investigation. The flak from the United States and its Justice Department was a a significant driving force behind the UKs parallel investigation.

The SFO enjoys a mixed reputation among UK law enforcement agencies. Criticism of the agency is debatable; their investigations almost always come soaked in political intrigue.

Police fraud squads in particular, sometimes with tongue-in-cheek, suggest that the SFO will only accept a case referral if there is more than a hint of politics to it  as a means of securing the limelight and publicity.

The LIBOR rate fixing case illustrates this. The SFO secured the conviction of Tom Hayes after a jury trial and his incredibly heavy sentence of 14 years, reduced to nine on appeal. The outcome was reported by every newspaper and news channel.

But when things go wrong  such as the six LIBOR acquittals  the SFO suffers the criticisms.

Working for the SFO cant be easy when your fraud investigations are mixed with a hint of political scandal.

We havent heard the last of the LIBOR scandal. The Americans are determined to make their own political point that nobody messes with their financial system, especially Brit fraudsters hell-bent on making a few extra bob.

Once the dust settles and justice runs its course, we can be sure political fallout will follow.

From London, the SFO will be at the hub of this debate. And its reputation will continue to receive a mixed perception among law enforcement peers, regardless of the ultimate conclusion.

_____

Martin Kenney, pictured above, is Managing Partner of Martin Kenney & Co., Solicitors, a specialist investigative and asset recovery practice focused on multi-jurisdictional fraud and grand corruption cases www.martinkenney.com |@MKSolicitors.
The biggest doctor-led cancer care provider in the United States and a Florida subsidiary paid $34.7 million Tuesday to resolve whistleblower allegations they performed and billed for procedures that werent medically necessary.

21st Century Oncology Inc. is headquartered in Fort Myers, Florida and has offices in 16 states.

The whistleblower filed a lawsuit under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act. The FCA allows private parties to sue on behalf of the United States and receive a portion of the recovery.

The court awarded Joseph Ting, a former physicist at the Florida subsidiary, more than $7 million.

Ting alleged that 21st Century and South Florida Radiation Oncology used a medical procedure  called the Gamma function  to measure the exit dose of radiation from patients after they received radiation treatment.

The defendants knowingly and improperly billed for this procedure under circumstances where the procedure served no medically appropriate purpose, the DOJ said Tuesday.

The suit alleged that doctors at some 21st Century Oncology locations werent properly trained to interpret and apply the Gamma function results.

But the company allegedly billed Medicare and other government programs for the procedure even when no doctor reviewed the results, or reviewed them a week or more after the end of patients radiation treatments.

In December, a 21st Century Oncology subsidiary paid $19.75 million to settle another False Claims Act lawsuit.

The suit alleged the company billed for medically unnecessary laboratory urine tests, and encouraged doctors to order the tests by offering illegal bonuses.

The whistleblower in that case  Mariela Barnes, a medical assistant at a cancer-care practice in Fort Myers, Florida  collected $3.2 million.

The DOJ said Tuesday the claims resolved by the latest settlement were allegations only and there was no determination of liability.

The lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida was United States ex rel. Ting v. 21st Century Oncology and South Florida Radiation Oncology.

_____

Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog. He can be contacted here.
1. Hold Still is inspired by something that happened to me. I was taking photographs of my son jumping from high rocks into the sea while on holiday. Through the viewfinder, it seemed as if he was going to dash his brains out any second. I went cold thinking, "What if I snapped the moment he killed himself? How would I feel?"

Hold Still

2. I've interviewed a lot of celebrities. My favourites were Michael Douglas, who was charming and intelligent, and Bruce Willis, who seemed to me totally down to earth. The worst was one Hollywood actor, who, having listened to him drone on vaingloriously for over an hour, I switched off my tape recorder and told him truthfully I needed to be elsewhere. "Well," he said huffily, "that's never happened to me before."

3. There's nothing more exciting than breaking a news scoop. My day job is being a journalist on The Daily Telegraph. Once, I was holding a story that was so hot it was quivering in my hands. I almost panicked, not knowing what to do with it. The story flashed round the world that same day.

4. I once found myself alone in a room with Francis Bacon, William Burroughs and JG Ballard. Three of the greatest iconoclasts of the 20th century and I was tongue-tied as to what to say. "Are you a writer?" Burroughs asked. Not really, I gulped. "You will be," he drawled in his deadpan way.

5. I used to box in New York City. The highest my career got was when the manager of Bonecrusher Smith - who fought Tyson - spotted me sparring and asked, "Who's that kid with the killer left hook?" Sadly, there was not much call for asthmatic, short-sighted boxers at the time.

6. Everything in my thrillers I try to experience first-hand. Research is important for me. I visited Albania for Hold Still, so everything you read I actually experienced. I also visited a morgue, a high-security data centre and interviewed a bereavement abroad support group as part of research.

7. Jean-Michel Basquiat once gave me a painting. A mutual friend knew what a fan I was. I still admire Basquiat tremendously; it's almost as if his paintings are trying to teach us a new language.

8. I brought up my children as a single parent. I got sole custody of my two boys after my wife became too ill took after them. I imagined that my newly-single life would be a riot of air stewardesses and parties. The reality was Thomas the Tank Engine and feeding the ducks in the local park. In a way, I'm strangely grateful because, unlike many dads, I watched my children grow up.

9. My wife and I met playing bridge. After a decade on my own, I had pretty much given up the idea of meeting anybody. And then of course I did meet somebody the moment I was not looking anymore.

10. The meaning of life is to serve somebody. As Bob Dylan said, "You gotta serve somebody." I don't mean in a servile way but working for something that is bigger than you, whether it's a God or a cause or just your family. And I don't even like Bob Dylan.

Hold Still is published by Urbane Publications, price 7.99
There's just over a week to go now until we see Tom Hiddleston back in action on the big screen in High-Rise.

High-Rise

The popular British actor is already whipping up a storm and sending a few pulses racing on TV with The Night Manager, but High-Rise sees him team up with filmmaker Ben Wheatley for the first time.

High-Rise is the first time that we have seen the actor on the big screen since Crimson Peak last year and it kicks off a very busy 2016 for him.

And Hiddleston takes centre stage in this great first clip from the film as he shares the screen with fellow Brit Jeremy Irons. Take a look:

A wonderful cast has been assembled as Hiddleston and Irons are joined by Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, James Purefoy, Keeley Hawes and Elisabeth Moss.

High-Rise is a big screen adaptation of the book of the same name by J.G. Ballard and is the first film for Wheatley since A Field in England back in 2013.

Wheatley is one of the most exciting British directors around and has already brought us films like Sightseers and Kill List - it is great to see him back.

1975. Two miles west of London, Dr. Robert Laing moves into his new apartment seeking soulless anonymity, only to find that the building's residents have no intention of leaving him alone. Resigned to the complex social dynamics unfolding around him, Laing bites the bullet and becomes neighbourly.

As he struggles to establish his position, Laing's good manners and sanity disintegrate along with the building. The lights go out and the lifts fail but the party goes on. People are the problem. Booze is the currency. Sex is the panacea. Only much later, as he sits on his balcony eating the architect's dog, does Dr. Robert Laing finally feel at home.

High-Rise is released 18th March.

by Helen Earnshaw for www.femalefirst.co.uk

find me on and follow me on
Britain's Princess Beatrice celebrated WE Day in London on Wednesday (09.03.16).

Princess Beatrice

The royal showed her support for the event, backed by Free the Children UK, as she attended the charity concert at Wembley Stadium.

Beatrice was one of many famous faces at the gig, which brings together world-renowned speakers, performers and young people and raises money for youth projects worldwide.

Clive Owen, Rita Ora, Fleur East, Labrinth, Nico & Vinz, Professor Brian Cox, Beatrice York, Darren Criss, Karl Lokko, DNCE and Marlee Matlin were all in attendance while Beatrice and her pal Sam Branson were spotted dancing in the audience during the musical performances.

Sam's sister Holly is a patron of Free The Children and co-chair of WE Day UK

Children earned their tickets for the concert through volunteering and Clive said: "I'm honoured to return to the WE Day stage to congratulate the thousands of students who have all earned their ticket, and to applaud all the incredible work they've done throughout the year. Ever since my family and I went on a trip to Kenya to see the work of Free The Children four years ago, I have been a proud ambassador of a movement that is doing such important work and creating such positive change in the world."

WE Day UK was hosted by Laura Whitmore, Bluey Robinson, Yasmin Evans, and Becca Dudley.

WE Day is connected to a yearlong free educational programme, WE Schools, which provides educational resources and campaigns to help young people turn the day's inspiration into sustained action. For more information, visit www.we.org.
Kym Marsh is backing Jamie Lomas to return to 'Hollyoaks'.

Kym Marsh

The former 'Coronation Street' star is delighted with speculation her former partner is to return to the Channel 4 soap - who played gangster Warren Fox between 2006 and 2009 and again in 2011 - because he was a "huge asset" to the show.

She said: "There have been rumours that Jamie might be going back into 'Hollyoaks'. I haven't spoken to him about it but I hope it's true. He's been doing some theatre and he's opening his own theatre school, but I think he was a huge asset when he was in the show.

"He was such a good baddie in 'Hollyoaks'. There is no reason why he couldn't come back as his character was put in prison the last time he was on screen."

Meanwhile, over on 'Corrie', Kym is delighted to have Simon Gregson back as Steve McDonald following a five-month break.

She told OK! magazine: "Simon has started back to work. It was so good to have him back and we were really excited to shoot our first scene together. He looks so well.

"He was supposed to have been in Spain for six months so he had a spray tan. He joked about his hands looking patchy and said, 'I look like I've had a fight with a gingerbread man.' "
Chinese apparel giant Dayang Group, has taken a $30 million stake in Canada's Indochino, a startup selling made-to-measure menswear, mostly through its website, with measuring done by customers.In a press release, Indochino said this investment will help accelerate the company's expansion plans, significantly enhance the product offering to its customers, and generate additional operating efficiencies within the company's 2016-2020 plan.

Chinese apparel giant Dayang Group, has taken a $30 million stake in Canada's Indochino, a startup selling made-to-measure menswear, mostly through#

In conjunction with the investment, Indochino signed a five-year alliance agreement with Dayang Group that will enable the company to introduce three new suit silhouettes, to triple suit and shirt fabric selection, and to quadruple the range of suit personalization options for customers, both online and in its retail stores.My objective as incoming CEO of Indochino was to create a five-year business plan and associated investment strategy that would position the company to become an undisputed global market leader in made to measure apparel. This alliance is the first phase of our investment strategy, and we will continue to explore strategic opportunities that further accelerate demand and distribution for our brand and products, explained Drew Green, CEO of Indochino.Since its founding, Indochino has become one of the world's largest dedicated made to measure apparel brands, with an average annual growth rate north of 100 per cent since 2007, customers in over 130 countries, and retail showrooms in seven North American cities.As part of its investment strategy, the company will significantly expand its retail footprint in North America and increase its media budget to help unlock the online business' vast potential in North America and globally.Indochino is one of those rare e-commerce companies that was early to multiple big trends, like online customization and online-to-offline retail, with the potential to fully capitalize on those trends in the months and years to come, said Michael Cam-Phung, Principal at Highland Consumer Partners. This financing and strategic partnership solidifies the company's position and ability to scale globally.As part of this financing, Indochino is entering into a long-term strategic alliance with Dayang Group. A leader in the suit category, Dayang manufactures suits for a range of global brands like Ralph Lauren, BCBG, J-Crew and Banana Republic. This vertically integrated partnership will significantly improve Indochino's business operations and margins by helping to reduce variable production costs, optimize fixed costs and enhance the virtual inventory model it has established through beneficial terms with fabric mills globally.Both Dayang and Indochino share the belief that made to measure is the future of apparel, so this strategic partnership came about quite naturally, said Madame Li, Founder and Chairwoman of Dayang Group. We were looking to increase our operations in this rapidly growing category, and Indochino had the expertise, along with a strong focus on growing its business into a global brand and leader in the made to measure category.A representative from Dayang will also join Indochino's board, the release said. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
10 Italian textile machinery manufacturers will be exhibiting at the upcoming 2016 edition of Indo Inter Tex, to be held in Jakarta April 27-30, 2016 in a common pavilion.An ACIMIT press release informed that Caru, Crosta, Durst, Fadis, Ferraro, Monti-Mac, Pugi Group, Testa, Textape, Triveneta will be participating in the exhibition.

10 Italian textile machinery manufacturers will be exhibiting at the upcoming 2016 edition of Indo Inter Tex, to be held in Jakarta April 27-30, 2016 #

According to ACIMIT, Indonesia is one of the most relevant markets in the area, with roughly 24 million worth of Italian textile machinery sold over the first eleven months of 2015.In spite of a drop recorded compared to the same period for 2014, Italian manufacturers believe that the Indonesian market is full of potential, and ready to develop business opportunities, the trade body said.The textile industry is a driving force for the Indonesian economy and in recent years, the government has supported an overall modernisation of existing technology, Raffaella Carabelli, president of ACIMIT said.However, we believe that further investments are required on the part of Indonesian manufacturers in order to allow them to establish themselves fully in world markets, she added.Italy's participation at Indo Inter Tex falls within an intense programme of activities aimed at promoting the Italian textile machinery sector in Indonesia.Among the most recent activities promoted in partnership with the Italian Trade Agency are the various technology workshops in Indonesia's primary textile manufacturing districts. (AR)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Over 300 exhibitors from 11 countries and regions will exhibit at Yarn Expo Spring 2016 which will be held from March 1618, 2016 at National Exhibition and Convention Center, Shanghai.Countries participating at the show include China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Pakistan, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey and Uzbekistan, a Messe Frankfurt press release informed.

Over 300 exhibitors from 11 countries and regions will exhibit at Yarn Expo Spring 2016 which will be held from March 1618, 2016 at National#

Yarn Expo Spring showcases a wide spectrum of natural and blended yarns including cotton , wool, flax or regenerated flax, silk, man-made fibres and yarns and specialty products like elastic, fancy and blended yarns.According to the organiser, Yarn Expo is well known in the industry as a hub for global suppliers, and is becoming more diverse due to the increasing involvement of worldwide suppliers.Wendy Wen, senior general manager of Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd, said, As the fair organiser, we are pleased to witness the positive signs in the industry and to see the fair growing in tandem with it.We believe, with the growth in the fair this year, both exhibitors and buyers will have a very rewarding experience, she added.The fair's regular participant, the India Pavilion, is returning with 50 exhibitors to offer an all-encompassing range of high quality cotton yarns.Some of its participants include Acme International, GTN Group, Kikani Exports, Lahoti Overseas, Loyal Textile Mills Ltd, Nagreeka Exports Ltd, NSL Textiles Ltd and TT Ltd.Ravindranathan Narayanasamy, joint director of the pavilion organiser TEXPROCIL said, Indian exhibitors will bring open end yarns from 6s to 21s; ring spun cotton yarns from 10s to 60s count and also core spun and compact yarns.Yarns of different strength and specifications to suit various end uses, such as towel manufacturing, knitting, weaving and specialty products manufacturing will be on display too, Narayanasamy too added.Furthermore, the Pakistan Zone and exhibitors from Uzbekistan will feature various competitively priced cotton yarns to widen the sourcing options.While, exhibitors from Indonesia, Korea, Thailand and others are also highlighting cutting edge synthetic yarns.Yarn and fibre manufacturer Birla Jingwei Fibres will showcase its key innovative and eco products lines, Birla Modal and Birla Spunshades.Four revamped special zones  Natural Cotton Yarn Zone, Green Energy Zone, Science and Technology Zone and Dynamic Lifestyle Zone, are hosting over 150 domestic exhibitors.Alongside these special zones is the debut Fancy Yarn Zone, where the newest fancy yarns can be found from nearly 15 companies.
The Central government has announced a maximum sale price for Bt cotton seed varieties to bring about uniformity in cotton seed prices across the country , the Agriculture Ministry said in a press release.The price has been fixed on the basis of recommendations made by a nine-member panel set up on January 28 for this purpose by the Union Government.

The Central government has announced a maximum sale price for Bt cotton seed varieties to bring about uniformity in cotton seed prices across the#

The maximum sale price of Bt Cotton seed BG-I version has been fixed at Rs. 635 while for the BG-II version it is Rs. 800. The seed packets would be of 450 grams, including 120 grams refugia. The price is valid for the financial year 2016-17Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said the nine-member committee was set up to recommend the maximum sale price of Bt cotton seeds. After taking into consideration the seed value, licence fees, including one-time, and recurring royalty (trait value), trade margins and other taxes government declared the maximum sale price of Bt. cotton seed on Wednesday, he said.Singh justified the price control measure. As there was no uniformity in pricing of Bt cotton seeds across the country, the central government has recently intervened and issued a Cotton Seed Price (Control) Order, 2015, to fix a uniform price of Bt cotton seed across the states in the country for the benefit of farmers," he said.The Minister said that based on the representations, the department also made a reference to the Competition Commission of India for investigation of dominance of Mahyco Monsanto Biotech Ltd (MMBL) and abuse of monopoly in Bt cotton technology so as to ensure competition in the market.MMBL has already challenged the government's price control measure in the Delhi High Court. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Around 266 exhibitors are expected to showcase their products at the four-day India Carpet Expo beginning tomorrow in New Delhi, the textiles ministry said in a press release. Manufacturers and exporters from Agra, Bhadohi, Srinagar, Varanasi, Mirzapur and other key areas of the country would be displaying their products.

The latest exhibition will witness participation of about 450 carpet importers from 57 countries, primarily from China, the UK, the US, Australia, Germany, Brazil, Turkey, Canada, Mexico, Russia, Singapore and South Africa. Buyers from new countries, namely Bulgaria, Colombia, Hungary, Israel, Malaysia, Mauritius, Serbia, Taiwan, Vietnam and Zimbabwe have also confirmed their participation, according to the official release.

The India Carpet Expo is one of the largest handmade carpet fairs in Asia, offering a unique platform for buyers to source the best handmade carpets, rugs and other floor coverings under one roof. The expo intends to promote amongst visiting overseas carpet buyers, the weaving skills and cultural heritage of Indian handmade carpets and other floor coverings, making it an ideal platform for international carpet buyers, Indian carpet manufacturers, architects, buying agents, buying houses and exporters to establish long term business relationships.

Around 266 exhibitors are expected to showcase their products at the four-day India Carpet Expo beginning tomorrow in New Delhi, the textiles ministry#

The 31st edition of the expo, being organised by the Carpet Export Promotion Council (CEPC), under the aegis of Government of India. The CEPC would provide an assistance of $800 to buyers from Australia, Brazil, Chile, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, the US and all other Latin American Countries, and $550 to buyers from all other countries, as air travel subsidy. (NA)

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
The Minister for Education, Heritage and Arts, Hon. Dr Mahendra Reddy this week continues to present school essentials and stationery to the children in schools affected by Cyclone Winston in the Western Division today.



Minister Reddy visited more than twelve affected schools in the interior of Ba/ Tavua district on Wednesday 9th March 2016. These included Ba Muslim Primary school, Vatulaulau Sanatan Primary school, Moto Sanatan Primary school, Balevuto Public school, Nukuloa Primary school, Naloto District school, Namosau Methodist School, Naruku Primary school, Talaiya Muslim Primary school, Nacaci Hindu school, Nakoroboya Primary school and Veisaru Sanatan Dharam school.



The Minister delivered school bags, stationery packs and exercise books to the students. Minister Reddy, while distributing the relief packs, comforted the students and reminded them that they will be assisted all along the way. He added that the priority area for the Ministry was to see that all children return to school and are well-resourced to continue their education.



The schools affected had suffered major damage to infrastructure, including buildings, school furniture, computer labs, science labs equipment, school texts and library books and with major facilities totally ravaged. The schools have been supplied with temporary tents which will be used for classes while repair works to the buildings will continue.



Minister Reddy also urged the school heads, teachers and members of the community to work together in ensuring that children return to school.



Minister Reddy said that it was critical that the children are supported, guided and encouraged so that they can overcome the trauma of the cyclone. The Minister asked the teachers to be patient and not pressure students to wear uniforms or shoes given the destruction to personal belongings of families. He reiterated that the devastation caused by the cyclone must not derail the education of our children and that the Bainimarama Government is fully committed towards ensuring quality education to all.



Minister Reddy will continue with his tour of Western schools tomorrow.


We all know that Deepika Padukone is madly in love with Ranveer Singh, but she also looks very good with her cute friend Arjun Kapoor. And these candid pictures of Deepika with Arjun will surely make Ranveer jealous.

Deepika Padukone and Arjun Kapoor worked together for the first time in Finding Fanny but Arjun had revealed that he knew Deepika since the time she came to Mumbai to make a career in Bollywood.



The actor feels that Deepika Padukone has evolved into a graceful woman, ''With Deepika, I knew her when she came in and became a star overnight. I knew her then. And I always tell her that now she's an actor-star, which is a huge journey for a girl like her to undertake who doesn't come from a filmi family,'' Arjun told to a leading website.

PRETTY AS A DOLL! Meet Sizzling Beauty Alanna Panday, The Niece of Chunky Pandey

Arjun Kapoor further added, ''She's learnt on the job, her professionalism and the way she goes about her work, her smile that melts hearts all over, it's all amazing. She has just evolved into a graceful woman, who has command over her performance which is amazing to watch.''

''I had seen Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and her movies, so it was quite a treat to watch her act live, to work with her it was amazing to see how far she's come in the business from when she started,'' he said.

The Ki And Ka actor also feels that Deepika Padukone will do extremely well in Hollywood too, as according to him she is getting better with time.
Fawad Afzal Khan, more popularly known as Fawad Khan in Bollywood is one of the most handsome actors in the industry, not just here even in Pakistan where he has made a much bigger name for himself.

This actor who makes girls go weak in the knees fell in love with his now wife, Sadaf when he was a teenager and proposed marriage when she was just 16 years old. Though she rejected at the time, he kept his promise of marrying her and till date the two have a blissful marriage.

SEE CANDID AND MARRIAGE PICS OF THE COUPLE HERE!

Read Fawad's love story in his words, as told to MissMalini.com:

"I was 17, she was 16. There used to be MIRC at that time, which was Internet Relay Chat. So I 'met' her online. I was the one who was never allowed out of the house - I was allowed maybe once in a month, or something like that. Literally, I was like Rapunzel. (laughs) Not really, but ya - going out with friends and all was something that didn't happen so frequently.

So my friends used to tell me, "I know this girl, I know that girl." And one of my childhood friends knew of Sadaf and I told him that I'm interested in meeting her. Incidentally enough, the person I was going to meet, that I chatted to - was not Sadaf. Turns out the person I fell for was Sadaf, who was different from the person that I chatted to.

At that time, it wasn't like I was meeting to date or something; I was just going with the harmless of intention of meeting and seeing where things go from there. But then I fell for the other girl, and after that, I remember during A-Levels I met her again during tuition. We hadn't had contact in between for quite some time. And that's when we got into a relationship.

I remember I proposed to her on the phone after 10 days of getting into a relationship with her. I was like, "I've decided that I want to live the rest of my life with you because I think I'm an old-fashioned person and I'm not in for the hanky panky." Those were my exact words! Very cheesy, but I was like, "I really am. Will you marry me?"

And you would not believe what her reply was. "Are you mad?!" So I was like, why, what's wrong? She said, "I'm 16, what are you thinking right now? Just live it. Just live life for a while." But for the next three years I kept pestering her, and eventually after 3 or 4 years she finally said yes.
Finally, Lindsay has found the love of her life!

Of late Lindsay Lohan has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. After stepping away from media, during her probation period which ended in May 2015, she's been busy touring the world.

Her tour buddy has been a mystery man since she first posted a black and white image of young man with chiseled body wearing a shirt with open buttons and a pant, on Instagram.

Lindsay Lohan, 29, captioned this black and white image with the words "I love him". This post has sparked so much interest in the social media. Recently, Just My Luck star posted yet another pic with a young guy in a tux leaning in on LiLo's shoulder, this time his face was revealed and the whole world is happy for her.

So, who is this mystery man that Lohan is so head-over-heels in love with?Well, this hottie is a Russian by birth and his name is Egor Tarabasov. He's a 22-year-old multi-millionaire business man and the son of Dmitry Tarabasov, who owns several businesses in Moscow.

Lohan's rich new boyfriend is an entrepreneur himself and has settled down in London. Lohan has also been spotted in London more than often and was later revealed that the actress is living in London maintaining a low-profile while cozying up with her Beau.

The two have been busy touring the world, recently went on a ski trip to Switzerland. Lindsay Lohan introduced Egor to her family in NYC and sources say that they are "pretty serious" about this relationship.

Lindsay Lohan is said to star in a full feature film after a long gap, slated to release later this year. The Shadow Within is the first film she's starring after her legal constraints were lifted last year.

What do you think of Lindsay's new love interest? Leave your comments in the comments box!
It seems like Darshan is passing through a bad phase of life. Popularly called as Challenging Star Darshan is facing an challenging situations.

An Audi car becomes the main reason of the dispute between Darshan and his wife Vijayalakshmi, say sources. The actor is also being blamed for abusing wife Vijayalakshmi and assaulting the security guard Devaraj.

But, this time Darshan alone is not responsible for the raised issue! Earlier in 2011, Darshan was jailed for 14 days for assaulting and harassing wife Vijayalakshmi. After this incident, the Jaggu Dada actor has undergone lots of humiliation in his personal life, reveals the closest sources to the actor.

The actor has spoken to a few media channels in which he has revealed that, "I went to my wife's apartment to see my son Vineesh. But, I was stopped by a security guard".

Continue to see latest pics of Darshan from Jaggu Dada and Chakravarthy below....

Mr Airavata star has continued to tell that, "Inspite of requesting for many a times, the security guard, did not allow me to enter the apartment. He also abused me in Hindi".

The incident has taken placed yesterday, March 9 at the Prestige South Ridge apartments, located at Hosekerehalli, Banashankari. "I don't know, why my wife is stopping me to enter the apartment, when I myself is paying the rent of it".

Also Read: My Priority Is My Son & I don't Have A Boyfriend: Darshan's Wife Vijayalakshmi

"From past two days, I had not seen Vineesh(son). Also, my Audi car is being missued by my wife's alleged boyfriend. Thus I went to get take back my car", said Darshan.

With respect to the same, wife Vijayalaskhmi has opened up to the media. She said, "Darshan is making false allegations. If I have a boyfriend, let him prove it".

The incident has brought huge bitterness to the fans of Darshan. Senior actor Amabeesh has come forward to solve the dispute between the couple.

Will Darshan-Vijayalakshmi's dispute see a happy ending? Stay locked here to read more updates...

Watch Ambareesh speaking about Darshan and wife Vijayalakshmi below...

Video Courtesy: BTV
Challenging Star Darshan has landed in controversy again. This time the actor's marital life is in the limelight, after 4 years. The latest reports say that, wife Vijayalakshmi has filed a case against her husband, actor Darshan at Channammanakere Achkattu Police Station on Wednesday, March 9.

The Jaggu Dada actor was arrested four years ago, for assaulting & abusing wife Vijayalakshmi. He was also jailed for assaulting wife and son Vineesh Thoogudeep in 2011. Now, the issue has taken a new turn. Read below...

Vijayalakshmi's Statement

According to the reports, from the past 6 months Vijayalakshmi has been living with her parents & son Vineesh in Prestige South Ridge Apartments, located at Hosakerehalli, Banashankari. So, Darshan & Vijayalakshmi have been living separately since a long time

On Wednesday, March 9, the Jaggu Dada star has accused & broke the car glass owned by Vijayalakshmi. The actor has also assaulted the security guard, who stopped him from entering the Apartment at 6.45 PM in the evening.

Thus, angered by the unusual behaviour of her husband, Vijayalakshmi has filed a complaint against him. She has also requested the Police to advise Darshan to correct his behaviour.

Darshan

With regard to the same, even Darshan has filed a case against wife Vijayalakshmi. The actor has said that, he had gone to her apartments to get back his car. But, the actual reason for the split between the couple is yet to be revealed.

Police Reports

Police said the petition was filed at Channammanakere Achukattu Police Station on Wednesday (March 9) evening after the actor allegedly created a ruckus at his wife's residence in Hosakerehalli.

A senior official said that, there were two petitions filed, one by the wife and another by the security guard at the apartment, who was also allegedly verbally abused by the actor.

Reportedly, the actor had gone to his wife's residence to get back his car. Earlier too, his wife had lodged a complaint with the police about the assault.

Continue to see pics of Darshan & wife Vijayalakshmi below....
Piracy has become biggest curse for the producers. Especially, because of the growing technology and a great amount of enthusiasm among fans, it is becoming a tedious task for the makers to curtail leaks.

The latest to land in the hands of pirates is Allu Arjun's Sarrainodu. A song from the film has been leaked on the internet, even before its audio release. Though the producer reacted promptly and have warned that a strict legal action will be taken, the song is currently going viral.

The biggest irony in this case is that, many, who had no clue about the song leak, has got to know about it, after the press release was issued by the makers.

The press release clearly mentioned that a police case has been filed against the unknown pirates and informed that, anybody, who use the leaked song will be put behind the bars.

However, we see a lot of enthusiasts posting their take on the song on social networking sites, and the song has been getting a unanimous thumbs up. More than the leaks, this attitude of some, is now sending jitters.

On the other hand, Allu Arjun, Rakul Preet Singh along with the team flew to Bolivia, to shoot a song and as soon as the team returns, an official date for the audio release will be released, curbing further leaks.
China needs an overarching financial regulator to help maintain financial stability as the worlds second-largest economy opens up its capital account to the world.

Roller-coaster markets, bungled attempts to prop up prices, and mixed policy messages illustrate why a unified body is urgently needed.

A super-regulator could be created by merging the countrys three main financial regulators for securities markets, banking and insurance under the control of the central bank. This would provide integrated regulation and communicate the rules clearly to market participants.

It would certainly be more efficient, having to deal with just one regulator, Christopher Lee, the chief ratings officer for Greater China corporate ratings at Standard & Poors, said at FinanceAsias Borrowers & Investors Forum in Hong Kong.

One body would be better positioned to oversee Chinas increasingly complex financial institutions, which are branching out into online and offline products that fall under the remit of all three.

It would also be able to spot systemic problems as they arise, such as the excessive use of debt as investors binged on securities and banking products prior to the popping of the stock market bubble last summer.

Japans Financial Services Agency is one example of an integrated regulator that oversees an entire financial sector and is respected by bankers.

Other countries have also empowered one regulator above others in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis to better combat systemic risks. The UK for example has handed more power to the Bank of England, although some bankers have criticised the model for double regulation (and fines) by the Financial Conduct Authority, accountable to the Treasury, and the Prudential Regulation Authority, part of the central bank.

To be sure, a giant regulator could create its own version of internecine bureaucratic infighting and would likely be riven by conflicts of interest, as was the case with the People's Bank of China when it was in charge of regulating banks and monetary policy. However, it would also be a valuable chance to streamline policy and update regulation.

A co-ordinated response and single voice is particularly necessary now, given the challenges China faces in rapidly liberalising its financial markets.

The actions of China Securities Regulatory Commission, China Banking Regulatory Commission, and China Insurance Regulatory Commission have at times appeared to be working against the liberalisation of markets or have abruptly reversed policy.

Central government has talked about allowing free markets more say in how the economy allocates capital. However, when the Shanghai stock exchange benchmark index dropped by 43% between June 12 and August 26, government agencies proceeded to buy stocks.

The CSRC introduced a circuit-breaker mechanism at the start of the year, only to scrap it four days later. And even as China looks to gradually liberalise the renminbi, the PBoC has at times this year still intervened in the offshore market to prop it up.

At a practical level, the different agencies seem to have been embracing liberalisation at a different pace. The CSRC has been more reform-minded, say, than either the CBRC or CIRC.

I think it is a good thing  some coordination between departments. Since August last year we saw different departments have different policy changes, Sean Chang, head of Asian debt at Baring Asset Management, said at the conference.

The exact benefits of a super-regulator are unclear though, as a lot would depend on the people in charge. The most progressive agency, the CSRC, has also come under fire in recent months for its handling of market volatility.

PBoC takeover bid

Regulatory reform is an ongoing process in China as the countrys markets continue to evolve.

In 2013 the State Council, or cabinet, instructed the PBoC to coordinate meetings on monetary and financial supervision. Indeed the Communist Partys 13th five-year plan for 2016 to 2020 calls for greater coordination between regulators.

Even so, it seems talk of drastic reform has accelerated since the summers stock market rout.

Pan Gongsheng, the PBoC's deputy governor, told reporters in early March that the Chinese authorities are studying a reform plan. And Chi Fulin, president of the China Institute for Reform and Development, proposed to the annual meeting of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference that the three regulatory agencies should be merged.

A consensus seems to be emerging that the PBoC will take a leading role in any merged entity. It has long been viewed as first among equals, even though all four regulatory bodies report to the State Council.

Some of the groundwork appears to have been laid for a takeover.

The PBoC said it would launch a macro assessment system in 2016 to detect risks building in the financial sector.

When the CSRCs head Xiao Gang was replaced after months of criticism for his mishandling of the countrys stock market turmoil, he was replaced by Liu Shiyu who has spent most of his career at the PBoC, rising through ranks and becoming deputy governor in 2006.

However, one banker who deals frequently with China's regulators cautioned not to read to much into this move as top officials in China rotate around the top financial instititutions and they are all government officials.

What is clear is that market participants struggling to plan ahead in the absence of clear policy direction would welcome the creation of a super-regulator.

The Chinese regulatory regime is super-fragmented. They need a coordinator. Weve found [that] even within the same organisation they dont talk to each other at all  even within the same department, said Ricco Zhang, director Asia Pacific at International Capital Market Association at the conference. "They focus on different work streams and dont talk to each other to share information. So we feel very frustrated as we end up repeating the same thing."
WASHINGTON -- The SEC has a numbers problem.

With roughly just 10% of RIAs subject to an examination each year, commission officials, industry leaders and members of Congress all agree that oversight of the industry is insufficient.

But what is the best course of action to address that deficiency?

That question led discussions at the Investment Adviser Association's annual compliance conference on Capitol Hill, where SEC officials were reluctant to elaborate on the efficacy of a proposal under development to deputize a third-party organization to help the commission conduct advisor exams.

"I think there are many, many questions in this area," SEC Commissioner Kara Stein said.

Those uncertainties include what type of organization would be a good fit to help with advisor oversight, what authority it would act under, the scope of the exams and, especially, how much of a cost the industry would have to bear.

So Stein said that she is taking a wait-and-see approach, hedging on the relative merits of a third-party exam proposal that SEC staffers are expected to produce this year.

"I think we're struggling to think through, again, how to enhance and modernize our regulatory scheme or the way that we actually regulate investment advisors," she said. "I tend to look at the facts and circumstances right before me, and I don't have any right now."

However, Stein acknowledges that the current examination rate is inadequate. Responding to that shortfall, the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations recently began transitioning some 70 examiners from the broker-dealer side of the shop to the unit that conducts exams of investment advisors and investment companies.

SHIFTING RESOURCES

OCIE Director Marc Wyatt indicated his organization would likely continue shifting exam resources over to the advisor and investment company side.

"I would think so," Wyatt said. "We think for the risks that we have in the marketplace, our best capital allocation, resource allocation, will continue to be to the IA/IC space."

For her part, Stein hailed the move by OCIE to reallocate examiners to the RIA space, noting the challenge that the commission faces in keeping up with the continued growth of registered advisors.

"I think that's a really positive development," Stein said. "We have more and more people registering as investment advisors than we have in the past."

The SEC has been tackling the issue of advisor exams in other ways. The agency has been looking to hire more examiners, both by reallocating its existing budget and by appealing to lawmakers for an appropriations increase.

Additionally, Stein noted that the commission has been investing more heavily in technology and personnel to make better use of the industry data that it monitors to identify the firms that pose the greatest risk to investors or to the stability of the markets.

That issue of market stability and systemic risk has become an animating feature of much of the commission's work in the aftermath of the financial crisis. That focus is borne out in initiatives like the ongoing development of new rules for the asset-management industry, for instance. Some observers trace that and other efforts back to the SEC's involvement with the Financial Stability Oversight Council, a consortium of regulatory agencies organized under the Treasury Department.

AREA OF CONCERN

In the area of advisor exams, the commission has been focusing its efforts on the largest firms in the industry. So while the SEC has only been getting to 10% of registrants in a year, those practices account for about 30% of the assets under management in the advisor space.

Exams have long been an area of concern for the Investment Adviser Association. The group fought hard to defeat a proposal that would have authorized the SEC to designate a self-regulatory organization to help oversee advisors. On the other side, the IAA has been unsuccessful in its efforts to gin up support on Capitol Hill to enact legislation that would give the SEC the authority to collect user fees from its advisor registrants to conduct exams.

Of the SRO proposal, the IAA warned that FINRA would be the most likely outfit to take on advisor exams, performing a similar role there as it does in the broker-dealer space. Neil Simon, the IAA's vice president for government affairs, said that he still worries that FINRA could step into the RIA sphere under the third-party program the commission is exploring.

Given the new influx of staff to the IA advisor team and the methods OCIE is developing to target the highest-risk areas, might the SEC not be advised to hold off before pursuing an entirely new regulatory framework?

"To me, this argues for being cautious about any new programs like third-party reviews," Simon said. "Let's see what the effect is of this reallocation of resources to advisor exams before outsourcing what we believe is a governmental function."

Read more:
A former J.P. Morgan Chase advisor was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison for embezzling more than $20 million from clients whose investment accounts he managed.

Michael Oppenheim, a longtime financial advisor at J.P. Morgan in New York, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $20.2 million to the U.S.

Oppenheim, 49, pleaded guilty to embezzlement and securities fraud in Manhattan federal court in November.

Prosecutors said that Oppenheim abused his position by persuading clients to withdraw hundreds of thousands, and in some cases millions, of dollars from their bank accounts in the belief that he would invest the funds in low-risk municipal bonds. Instead, he used the money to engage in online trading, gambling most of it away. He also used the funds to pay to for personal expenses such as gambling and trading, a home loan, and credit card bills.

Michael Oppenheims clients placed not just their money but their trust in their financial advisor, only to have Oppenheim use their investments as his cash cow, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.

Oppenheim, a compulsive gambler who was seeing a psychiatrist for his addiction, tried to cover his tracks by providing his clients with phony account statements. On several occasions, he also transferred funds from one client account into another in a desperate attempt to replenish funds he had stolen.

In total, he swiped $20.2 million from eight clients, according to court documents. The criminal conduct occurred from at least March 2008 until he was fired from J.P. Morgan in March 2015.

"We worked closely with authorities throughout this process and are glad that the criminal case has been resolved," Mike Fusco, a spokesman for Chase Wealth Management, said in an email. He added that that the bank "has been working with all affected customers to ensure that any stolen funds have been returned."

The bank advised prosecutors that it had spent $26.6 million investigating and remedying the fraud and that it expects to incur additional costs as it finalizes resolutions with victims.

PERSONAL DEBT, BANKRUPTCY

Oppenheim had a gambling problem throughout most of his adult life, according to court documents. He had twice faced significant personal debt and bankruptcy prior to his latest gambling bout that started in 2008 and led to his current troubles.

When Oppenheim was dismissed from the bank, he had approximately 500 clients, who collectively had about $89 million in assets under his management. He targeted clients who he knew were susceptible to deception because they did not pay close attention to their account statements, according to court documents.

"I recognize that what I did was horrible," Oppenheim said, choking up on his words. He apologized to the clients he defrauded and to his wife and family, many of whom were in the courtroom.

Oppenheim worked for J.P. Morgan from May 2004 to March 2015 and held several titles during that time: personal financial advisor, financial advisor, senior financial advisor and most recently, private client advisor. He was barred by FINRA in July 2015, four months after his dismissal from J.P. Morgan, according to his BrokerCheck report.

Oppenheim's attorney, Paul Lewis Shechtman of law firm Zuckerman Spaeder, urged the judge for leniency, saying Oppenheim's gambling disorder caused him to make poor decisions. He also noted that Oppenheimer's daughter, a seven-year-old with severe developmental disabilities since birth, needed round-the-clock care from both her parents.

"He was in the grip of a disease that deprived him of sound judgment," he wrote in a court filing. "Compulsive gambling caused Michael to bet more in the hope of making his clients whole, when a rational person would have realized that gambling more made things worse."

As part of his plea agreement, Oppenheim also agreed to pay restitution of more than $27 million to the victims of his crime. A final restitution order will be submitted to the court by June 6.

Oppenheim is highly unlikely to make substantial restitution or forfeiture because "he has no assets," said Shechtman. "He lost it all gambling." If he works in prison, Oppenheim will have to set aside a certain percentage for restitution, but that "will not get you to $20 million very quickly," he added.

Oppenheim also faces a parallel SEC action. He and his wife have 60 days to respond to the complaint the SEC filed against them in April 2015. Oppenheim's wife is named in the complaint because one of the brokerage accounts he controlled and used for online trading was opened in his wife's name.

Read More:
WASHINGTON--We're not out to get you. Thats the message for compliance professionals from the SEC's new co-head of the Enforcement Division's Asset Management Unit.

The SEC announced the promotion of Anthony Kelly on Thursday, the same day he participated in a panel discussion at the Investment Adviser Association's annual compliance conference. In the panel, he took the opportunity to reassure the audience that his team is not singling out CCOs for enforcement actions.

"I know there's a sense out there that the SEC is targeting compliance professionals," Kelly said.

"I can tell you that is not the case. There is no change in policy where we are now trying to target compliance professionals," he said. "There's no shift in our thinking."

Kelly, who had previously served as assistant director of the Asset Management Unit, will now co-chair the division along with Marshall Sprung. Kelly succeeds Julie Riewe, who stepped down from the commission last month.

In a statement, Enforcement Division Director Andrew Ceresney praised Kelly for his "wide-ranging experience in enforcement and examinations, along with his exceptional judgment and dogged investigative skills."

JITTERS

Industry concerns about regulators targeting CCOs gained steam last summer after the SEC brought an enforcement action against BlackRock and its CCO in a case turning on the failure to disclose a conflict of interest and other compliance lapses.

Kelly insisted that actions like the one against BlackRock are still more of an exception than a rule, and that enforcement staff at the commission continue to view firms' compliance teams as "key partners."

Primarily, he said, the SEC takes aim at CCOs in two circumstances. In one case, the commission might bring an action against a compliance officer who was "affirmatively engaged in the misconduct," a situation that often arises when the individual is "wearing a different hat," such as CEO or CFO, Kelly said. Alternatively, the SEC's enforcement unit might get involved when a compliance official works to "impede one of our investigations," he said.

In either case, Kelly said, the decision to bring an action against a compliance officer is not one that his team will make lightly.

"Any time we're considering charging a CCO we take that very seriously," Kelly said. "We're not looking to second-guess their good-faith judgments."

Read More:
SYDNEY, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --Following the lifting of economic sanctions, Iran launched a 2025 strategic economic plan aimed at doubling its USD 415 billion economy. To achieve this mission in the next decade, the Iranian Government has to ease the current climate of economic recession, reduce unemployment and become the largest exporter and the largest economy in the region. Iran has to diversify from its dependence on oil & gas, enhance manufacturing in non-oil sectors, develop a knowledge-based sustainable economy, and attract investments to the tune of USD1.5 trillion. This emphasis on manufacturing growth has opened avenues for Australian companies and investors to participate in Iran's economic momentum as providers of technology, finance and manufacturing process enhancement support.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160309/342690

Ali Mirmohammad, Senior Consultant and Business Development Manager - MENASA, Iran, Frost & Sullivan, said, "Iran needs to increase its annual GDP growth to over 8% in the next two years. Focusing on developing the entire value chain in the mining and petrochemical industries is a priority area to form a good foundation for diversification. Efforts to make the country globally competitive are directed towards creating a favourable business climate for companies to enter and invest in developing its core focus sectors. These investments spanning industry verticals offer huge opportunities for technology providers, engineering and service providers as well as investors."

Australia's Foreign Minister, Ms Julie Bishop will be meeting the Iranian Foreign Minister, Dr. Mohammad Javad Zarif, next week in Canberra to facilitate negotiations regarding failed Iranian asylum seekers. Ms Bishop has also stated that a resolution in this area will further economic ties as Australia looks to engage with Iran in a number of ways to advantage Australian businesses. In a demonstration of its commitment and ambition to achieve economic progress in line with their 2015 plan, the Iranian Foreign Minister is travelling with a large economic delegation to offer specific opportunities in metals and minerals, healthcare, infrastructure engineering, as well as agricultural businesses.

"Following the announcement on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreements between Iran and 5+1, the Australian government had gradually started economic negotiations with the Iranian government in certain sectors, though were less swift to move in on this lucrative market than Europe was. While Australia currently contributes less than 0.4% of the USD 52-55 billion Iranian import market, it has potential to boost its contribution in the industries of mining, agriculture, medical and medicines, meat, as well as engineering and services. The Iranian Government is keen on attracting foreign investment through BOO, BOT and/or PPP modes and is encouraging joint ventures with local partners primarily in infrastructure, downstream segments of oil & gas, mining and petrochemical projects," added Mirmohammad.

Frost & Sullivan research indicates the following upcoming opportunities in each area -

Upstream oil & gas projects: USD 250-300 billion

Petrochemical: USD 70 -100 billion

Mining and Relevant industries: USD 30-40 billion

Infrastructures (Rail , Road , Aviation , maritime and sea port) : USD 250-300 billion

Power generation, water and waste water supply, Dams etc.: USD 120-150 billion

Manufacturing sector: USD 150-200 billion

Healthcare , Medicals and Pharmaceuticals : USD 50-60 billion

billion Tourism and hospitality : USD 30-40 billion

IT, ICT , and telecommunications and other verticals : USD 30-40 billion

Residential, commercial and entertainment buildings: USD 350 - 400 billion

Investment in Iran also provides strategic access to Europe, Africa, Russia and CIS countries. While instability in Iran's current business environment poses some business risk, availability of manufacturing infrastructure, skilled labour, access to over 400 million consumers and importantly low cost of products offer immense opportunities for Australian investors to invest or enter joint ventures with local Iranian partners, targeting not only the local Iranian market, but prospectively increasing market share through access into African, European, Russian, GCC and CIS countries.

Russia has already allocated over USD 40 billion to develop required infrastructure to ease export from Iran, and plans to cut import duties for Iranian companies; a move that would benefit Australian companies in JV's with Iranian companies exporting to Russia.

Other incentives that the Iranian Government has extended to foreign investors in Iran include 80% exemption of income for 4 Years in manufacturing investments, 100% of income for 10 years in less developed areas (all investment activities), 100% of Income for 20 years in free economic zones (all activities), 100% of income for no limited time in agricultural business, 50% on tourism income for no limited time and 100% on income derived from exportation for no limited time. Additionally, foreign investors that build factories in Iran and export 30% of their products will benefit from a 50% tax break in addition to other incentives.

Frost & Sullivan Perspective on Iran's Macroeconomy and Opportunities across Industries for Global Companies - A Goldmine of Opportunities was undertaken by the Innovation and Knowledge Center (IKC), which is the fundamental intelligence hub of Frost & Sullivan's consulting and strategy consulting business in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. It consolidates all forms of analysis including technical, application-related, economic, financial, and market under a single umbrella. In addition to creating comparative studies for countries such as the attractiveness index, the economic research arm of IKC has a portfolio of products, which can aid a market player to understand the impact of various macroeconomic forces and make the best of them in a business environment. Some of these enablers are country profiles, multi-country comparative studies, PESTLE analysis, and impact analysis of global economic and political developments, investment trackers, and economic pulse monitors.

To know more about Frost & Sullivan Perspective on Iran's Macroeconomy and Opportunities across Industries for Global Companies - A Goldmine of Opportunities or to hear how Frost & Sullivancan assist Australian companies keen on understanding and tapping opportunities in Iran, please email djeremiah@frost.com

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Is your organisation prepared for the next profound wave of industry convergence, disruptive technologies, increasing competitive intensity, Mega Trends, breakthrough best practices, changing customer dynamics and emerging economies? Contact us: Start the discussion

Contact:

Donna Jeremiah

Corporate Communications - Asia Pacific

P: +61 (02) 8247 8927

F: +61 (02) 9252 8066

E: djeremiah@frost.com

http://www.frost.com




CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The New Zealand dollar weakened against the other major currencies in the Asian session on Thursday. The NZ dollar fell to nearly a 6-month low of 1.1277 against the Australian dollar, from yesterday's closing value of 1.1246. Against the euro, the yen and the U.S. dollar, the kiwi dropped to a 10-day low of 1.6588, a 9-day low of 75.01 and an 8-day low of 0.6619 from yesterday's closing quotes of 1.6519, 75.38 and 0.6652, respectively. If the kiwi extends its downtrend, it is likely to find its support around 1.14 against the aussie, 1.69 against the euro, 73.00 against the yen and 0.65 against the greenback. 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.
COBB COUNTY (dpa-AFX) - Home improvement retailer Home Depot Inc. (HD) has agreed to pay as much as $19.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by consumers harmed by a data breach in 2014 that affected more than 50 million cardholders. This includes $13 million to reimburse shoppers for their out-of-pocket losses. Terms of the preliminary settlement were disclosed in papers filed on Monday with the federal court in Atlanta, where the home improvement retailer is based. Home Depot has also agreed to pay $6.5 million to fund one and a half years of identity protection services for cardholders. Further, Home Depot will improve its data security over a two-year period and appoint a chief information security officer to oversee its progress. However, the company has not admitted wrongdoing or liability in agreeing to settle the lawsuit. The data breach was disclosed by Home Depot in late 2014. Home Depot said that hackers obtained a total of 56 million credit card numbers a result of the breach. Since the breach, Home Depot has rolled out new encryption technology for their cash registers and self-checkout systems to protect customers. In March 2015, discount-store operator Target Corp. (TGT) agreed to pay $10 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought against the company following a similar massive data breach in 2013. At that time, Target said it will pay $10 million into a settlement fund to make payments to individual victims of the data breach. The victims will be eligible for compensation of up to $10,000, but will need to submit a claim form on a dedicated settlement website. 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.
MANILA (dpa-AFX) - Philippine exports decreased for the tenth consecutive month in January, defying economists' expectations for an increase, preliminary figures from the Philippine Statistical Authority showed Thursday. Exports fell 3.9 percent year-over-year in January, faster than the 3.0 percent decline in the previous month. Economists had expected a 0.4 percent increase for the month. The negative growth was mainly brought about by the decreases in five major commodities out of the top ten commodities for the month, the agency said. Exports of articles of apparel and clothing accessories tumbled the most by 46.2 percent in January, followed by chemicals with 34.6 percent decline. Meanwhile, shipments of electronic products, accounting for 51.1 percent of the total exports, climbed by 5.0 percent from January 2015. Japan remained country's top destination of exports during January, comprising 22.7 percent share to total exports. It grew by 7.7 percent from a year ago. 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.
HIROSHIMA, Japan, Mar 10, 2016 - (JCN Newswire) - Mazda Motor Corporation has announced its graduate recruitment plan for fiscal year ending (FYE) March 2018. Mazda will offer 205 engineering, 40 administrative and 260 manufacturing-related positions to prospective employees in Japan."Mazda's aim is to brighten people's lives through car ownership and become a brand with which customers feel an emotional connection," said Takeshi Fujiga, Executive Officer in charge of Global Human Resources. "We are looking for people who refuse to be satisfied with the status quo, who have a vision and single-mindedly take on new challenges to achieve it, and who can consistently conduct themselves in good faith from the customer's point of view."Mazda will continue to systematically secure people who can drive the company's future growth.About MazdaMazda Motor Corporation (TSE: 7261) started manufacturing tools in 1929 and soon branched out into production of trucks for commercial use. In the early 1960s, Mazda launched its first passenger car models and began developing rotary engines. Still headquartered in Hiroshima in western Japan, Mazda today ranks as one of Japan's leading automakers, and exports cars to the United States and Europe for over 30 years. For more information, please visit www.mazda.comSource: MazdaContact:Copyright 2016 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.

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.
Public Relations Department http://www.mitsubishi-motors.com +81-3-6852-4275

TOKYO, Mar 10, 2016 - (JCN Newswire) - Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) today announced its decision to participate in the CARS Program (Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy Program) in the Philippines(1).Upon approval for joining the CARS Program, MMC will expand its local production operation in the Philippines by starting production of the Mirage and Mirage G4 (or Attrage in some markets) from the beginning of 2017 at Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corporation's(MMPC)(2) Santa Rosa plant(3).Along with initiating production of the two models, MMC plans an initial investment at MMPC of over 4.3 billion PHP (approx. 10.4 billion JPY) which includes investment on a new stamping plant. MMC will then further expand investment as well as employment at MMPC in line with production capacity expansion.At a press conference held in Manila, Mr. Osamu Masuko, Chairman & CEO of MMC touched on the significance of the move: "Mitsubishi Motors has been engaged in production and sales business in the Philippines for over 50 years. The Philippines is one of the most important markets for us. It is indeed a great pleasure for Mitsubishi Motors to be able to contribute to the automotive industry of the Philippines facing a new development phase and also further make contribution to the economic growth of the Philippines even in the slightest terms."(1) For more information please visit http://industry.gov.ph/cars-program/(2) MMC's exclusive producer and distributor in the Philippines. http://www.mmpc.ph/(3) Located in Santa Rosa, Laguna Province. Operations began in January 2015.About Mitsubishi MotorsMitsubishi Motors Corporation is the fifth largest automaker in Japan and the fifteenth largest in the world by global unit sales. It is part of the Mitsubishi keiretsu, formerly the biggest industrial group in Japan, and was formed in 1970 from the automotive division of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.Throughout its history it has courted alliances with foreign partners, a strategy pioneered by their first president Tomio Kubo to encourage expansion, and continued by his successors. A significant stake was sold to Chrysler Corporation in 1971 which it held for 22 years, while DaimlerChrysler was a controlling shareholder between 2000 and 2005. Long term joint manufacturing and technology licencing deals with the Hyundai Motor Company in South Korea and Proton in Malaysia were also forged, while in Europe the company co-owned the largest automobile manufacturing plant in the Netherlands with Volvo for ten years in the 1990s, before taking sole ownership in 2001.Source: Mitsubishi MotorsContact:Copyright 2016 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
Nobel Laurate Prof. Shuji Nakamura and Company Unveil Ambient Luminaires, Flicker Free MR16s, 4 Degree AR111, and New SNAP System Accessories

Company Demonstrates Natural Sunlight Simulation Technology

Nobel Laurate Prof. Shuji Nakamura will join Soraa, the company he co-founded and world leader in GaN on GaN LED technology, to reveal true advancements in lighting technology at Light Building, March 13-18 at the Frankfurt Fair and Exhibition Centre, Germany.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160309006505/en/

Soraa's new Flicker Free MR16 LED lamp eliminates the problem of stroboscopic effect, or "invisible flicker", that plagues other companies' MR16 LED lamps. (Photo: Business Wire)

Soraa will showcase the company's first ambient luminaires with glare free, uniform light-an industry first-for general illumination in office, healthcare and retail spaces. By coupling the company's award winning optical design expertise with its Violet-Emission 3-Phosphor (VP3) LED technology, Soraa is redefining human centric lighting with exquisitely designed, minimalist luminaires that have a colour-rendering Index (CRI) 90 and red rendering (R9) 90. Utilising every colour in the visible spectrum-from violet to deep red-Soraa's VP3 VIVID COLOR renders warm tones beautifully and accurately. Unlike blue-based white LEDs without any violet/ultra-violet emission, the company's VP3 NATURAL WHITE is achieved by engineering the violet emission to properly excite fluorescing brightening agents including natural objects like human eyes and teeth, as well as manufactured white materials such as clothing, paper and cosmetics.

Precisely illuminating Shuji Nakamura's 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics gold medal in Soraa's booth, are the world's first 4 degree AR111 LED lamps. Equipped with Soraa's VP3 technology and outstanding peak intensity, the lamp and its 8, 9, 25, 36, 50, and 60 degree counterparts are perfect for retail and hospitality applications. The company's AR111 lamps are highly compatible with a broad range of enclosed, non-ventilated, indoor and outdoor fixtures. Additionally, Soraa's 4, 8, and 9 degree lamps work with its award-winning magnetic accessory SNAP System. With a simple magnetic accessory attachment, beam shapes can be altered and colour temperature can be modified, allowing endless design and display possibilities and flexibility.

Equipped with an advanced digital two stage driver, the company will show its new Flicker Free MR16 LED lamps. Featuring the company's signature elements of full visible spectrum light, the new lamps eliminate the problem of stroboscopic effect, or "invisible flicker", that plagues other companies' MR16 LED lamps. In doing so, Soraa's new digital driver completely addresses the adverse physiological effects associated with invisible flicker, as well as significantly expanding the compatibility and capability of the MR16 lamp.

Soraa will also display additions to its innovative line of SNAP System attachments adding AIM and ENHANCE for beam rotation and colour saturation. The AIM lens allows the user to deflect the beam by up to 20 degrees, focusing light on objects without having to rotate the lamp; and the ENHANCE filter makes colours brighter and skin tones warmer.

Last, but not least, the company will unveil several products that have colour tuning capabilities to simulate natural sunlight.

For more information on Soraa's LED lamps, please visit: www.soraa.com. Or see them for yourself in Soraa's booth Hall 4 Level 1, Stand B55 at Light Building, March 13-18 at the at Frankfurt Fair and Exhibition Centre, Germany. Also, drop by the booth on March 15 from 10-12pm and 4-6pm to meet Prof. Shuji Nakamura.

About Soraa

Pioneering lamps using LEDs built from pure gallium nitride substrates (GaN on GaN), Soraa has made ordinary lighting extraordinarily brilliant and efficient. Soraa's full spectrum GaN on GaN LED lamps have superior colour rendering and beam characteristics compared to lamps using LEDs created from non-native substrates. Founded in 2008, Soraa is located in Fremont California, where it manufactures its GaN on GaN LEDs in the company's state-of-the-art facility. For additional information, please visit www.soraa.com and follow the company on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160309006505/en/

Contacts:

Soraa Media Contact:

Makovsky

Andy Beck, +1-202-587-5634

abeck@makovsky.com
2015 Annual Results

Solid +6.3% revenue growth, EBITDA in line with expectations and further international development

Solid revenue growth and EBITDA in line with expectations despite the impact of the terrorist attacks in Paris Revenue: 1,415.4mn (+6.3% of which +2.9% organic growth) EBITDA: 446.1mn (31.5% of revenue) EBITDA margin improvement in France in H2 relative to H1 (-70bps yoy) EBITDA margin improvement of +60bps in Europe (excluding France) and +110 bps in Latin America Successful IPO and full refinancing of debt

Strong M&A activity Expansion in Latin America with acquisition of the n1 player in Chile 9 acquisitions in total completed in 2015

2016 outlook Revenue: +6% (+3% organic, +4% M&A and -1% FX) EBITDA margin: -30 bps in France and further improvement in Europe and Latin America

Proposal of a payment of 0.35 per share

(EUR million) 2015 2014* Change Revenue 1,415.4 1,331.0 +6.3% EBITDA 446.1 429.1 +4.0% Net result (57.1) (21.9) Headline net result** 71.4 6.5 Headline free cash-flow *** 56.6 87.0 Adjusted net debt (as of end of period) 1,440.7 2,019.1

Percentage change calculations are based on actual figures

* 2014 figures are restated from the first application of the IFRIC 21 interpretation and are in accordance with IFRS 3 - Business Combinations

** After elimination of impairment charge, PPA depreciation and IPO and refinancing expenses (net of tax)

*** After elimination of IPO and refinancing expenses (net of tax)

The definitions of organic revenue growth, EBITDA, EBITDA margin, EBIT, headline free cash-flow and adjusted net debt are in the "Financial definitions" section of this release.

Puteaux, March 10 2016 - Elis, the leading multi-services group in Europe and Latin America, specializing in the rental and maintenance of flat linen, professional clothing, hygiene and well-being appliances, today announces its 2015 full year financial results.

The accounts have been approved by the Management Board and examined by the Supervisory Board on March 9, 2016. These accounts have been audited and the auditors issued a report without any qualification.

Commenting on the 2015 full year results, Xavier Martire, CEO of Elis, said:

 We are pleased to announce today a solid set of 2015 results which confirm the strength of the Elis model. Despite a difficult macro environment especially in France and Brazil, organic revenue growth was +2.9% and EBITDA of 446.1mn was in line with the target we set last summer, with a margin of 31.5%, slightly above our expectations.

In France, 2015 was marked by good commercial momentum leading to organic revenue growth of +2.5% despite the negative impact from the terrorist attacks in Paris. However, pricing pressure in the French market had a dilutive impact on our margins, especially during the first half.

In Europe, we further strengthened our market shares through both organic growth and acquisitions. EBITDA margin improved by 60 basis points, thanks notably to the achievement of synergies..

In Latin America, we continued our expansion in Brazil and became the market leader in Chile through the acquisition of Albia. Despite a difficult macro environment in Brazil, commercial momentum and the transfer of Elis know-how allowed us to post organic growth of above +3% and a margin improvement of 110 basis points.

In 2015, Elis began a new chapter in its history with the success of the IPO in February and the full refinancing of its debt, with an interest charge that is now a third of that paid previously and with no significant maturity before 2020. We now have all the necessary resources to accelerate the deployment of our 4 strategic pillars: 1) Consolidate our positions in all our geographies, 2) Continue the development of our Brazilian platform 3) Pursue the improvement of our operational excellence and 4) Launch new products and services.

In 2016, we target revenues of 1.5bn driven by 3% organic growth, external growth of 4% and an impact of currencies that we today estimate at -1%. As far as margins are concerned, we expect another slight decrease of 30 basis points in France but aim to achieve further margin improvement in Europe and in Latin America.

Revenues

Reported revenue growth

(EUR million)



H1 2015

H2



FY



H1 2014

H2



FY



H1 Change

H2



14/15 Hospitality 145.5 164.0 309.5 136.5 154.0 290.5 +6.6% +6.5% +6.6% Industry 94.0 95.6 189.6 93.3 94.3 187.6 +0.7% +1.4% +1.0% Trade & Services 168.6 171.4 340.0 170.2 168.6 338.8 -1.0% +1.7% +0.3% Healthcare 79.3 80.3 159.7 76.1 76.4 152.5 +4.2% +5.2% +4.7% France* 478.6 499.5 978.1 468.0 486.0 954.0 +2.3% +2.8% +2.5% Northern Europe 84.2 100.9 185.2 72.5 76.2 148.7 +16.1% +32.5% +24.5% Southern Europe 66.0 76.6 142.5 59.3 66.2 125.5 +11.2% +15.6% +13.5% Europe** 150.2 177.5 327.7 131.9 142.4 274.3 +13.9% +24.7% +19.5% Latin America 45.1 47.0 92.2 36.2 49.1 85.3 +24.6% -4.2% +8.0% Manufacturing entities 8.5 9.0 17.5 8.2 9.2 17.4 +3.2% -1.5% +0.7% Total 682.4 733.0 1 415.4 644.3 686.7 1,331.0 +5.9% +6.7% +6.3%

Percentage change calculations are based on actual figures

* After other items including rebates

** Europe excluding France

Organic revenue growth

(EUR million) H1

organic growth H2

organic growth FY 2015

organic growth Hospitality +6.6% +6.5% +6.6% Industry +0.7% +1.4% +1.0% Trade & Services -1.0% +1.7% +0.3% Healthcare +4.2% +5.2% +4.7% France* +2.3% +2.8% +2.5% Northern Europe -0.9% +3.5% +1.4% Southern Europe +7.5% +8.5% +8.0% Europe** +2.9% +5.8% +4.4% Latin America +3.8% +2.8% +3.2% Manufacturing entities -1.2% -5.2% -3.3% Total +2.4% +3.3% +2.9%

Percentage change calculations are based on actual figures

* After other items including rebates

** Europe excluding France

In 2015, Group revenues increased by 6.3% to 1,415.4mn.

The increase of 84.4mn was driven by organic growth in France, Southern Europe and in Latin America along with the integration of our acquisitions.

France

In 2015, the +2.5% revenue increase in France was entirely organic and mostly driven by the roll-out of large contracts.

Revenue growth for the Hospitality segment was solid at +6.6% despite the negative impact from the terrorist attacks in Paris in January and November. The growth was driven by a good summer season and by the roll-out of large contracts with hotels, in line with our expectations.

Revenues for the Healthcare segment grew by 4.7%, helped by major contracts for both short-stay and long-stay.

Revenues for the Industry segment rose by 1.0% helped by good commercial momentum from the signing of new contracts with food processing clients. However, the activity with existing clients was generally more subdued.

Revenues for the Trade & Services segment increased by +0.3%. The macro environment remains difficult despite a slight improvement throughout the second half, with solid commercial dynamism in the services segment.

Europe (excluding France)

Revenue growth in Northern Europe (+24.5%) was driven by acquisitions in Germany and Switzerland. Organic revenue growth (+1.4%) was impacted by hospitality in Switzerland, which suffered from the rise of the Swiss Franc during the first half.

Revenue growth was also strong in Southern Europe (+13.5% including +8.0% organic). The improving macro environment helped drive good commercial momentum with Hospitality and Industry clients. The acquisitions completed in Spain in April also contributed to the strong growth in the region.

Latin America

Revenue growth in Latin America (+8.0%) was driven by acquisitions, which accounted for about half our growth. In a difficult macro environment in Brazil, organic growth was helped by very good commercial momentum, confirming our view of the market's potential..

EBITDA

(EUR million)



H1 2015

H2



FY



H1 2014*

H2



FY



H1 Change

H2



14/15 France 162.7 183.8 346.5 164.9 180.2 345.1 -1.4% +2.1% +0.4% As a % of revenues 33.9% 36.8% 35.4% 35.1% 37.0% 36.1% -120bps -20bps -70bps Europe** 33.6 47.3 80.9 31.7 34.2 65.9 +5.8% +38.6% +22.8% As a % of revenues 22.3% 26.6% 24.6% 24.0% 23.9% 24.0% -170bps +270bps +60bps Latin America 8.6 11.2 19.8 7.0 10.4 17.3 +22.1% +8.3% +13.9% As a % of revenues 19.1% 23.7% 21.4% 19.5% 21.0% 20.3% -40bps +270bps +110bps Manufacturing entities 1.4 1.1 2.5 1.6 0.7 2.3 -9.1% +54.0% +8.7% As a % of revenues 10.1% 8.3% 9.2% 12.7% 5.2% 8.8% -260bps +310bps +40bps Holdings -1.6 -2.0 -3.6 -0.5 -1.0 -1.5 n/a n/a n/a Total 204.6 241.5 446.1 204.8 224.3 429.1 -0.1% +7.7% +4.0% As a % of revenues 30.0% 32.9% 31.5% 31.8% 32.7% 32.2% -180bps +20bps -70bps

Percentage change calculations are based on actual figures

* 2014 figures are restated from the first application of the IFRIC 21 interpretation and are in accordance with IFRS 3 - Business Combinations

** Europe excluding France

In 2015, Group EBITDA increased by 4.0% to 446.1mn.

In France , EBITDA was slightly up but the margin as a percentage of revenues fell 70bps, mainly due to:

Phasing from a base effect in H1 2014 due to some non-recurring items,

Pricing pressure in France due to an increasingly competitive environment, especially noticeable during the first half.

However, this decrease contained to 70bps was better than our expectations.

In all other regions, EBITDA was up both in absolute terms and as a percentage of revenues:

In Europe (excluding France) , the consolidation of our footprint and the transfer of know-how continued to bear fruit with EBITDA margin up 60bps (after +200bps in 2013 and +80bps in 2014);

In Latin America , transfer of know-how also led to a +110bps EBITDA margin improvement.

From EBITDA to Net result

(EUR million) 2015 2014* EBITDA 446.1 429.0 As a % of revenues 31.5% 32.2% Depreciation & amortization (237.7) (218.9) EBIT 208.4 210.2 As a % of revenues 14.7% 15.8% Banking charges (1.5) (1.1) PPA depreciation (45.6) (41.3) Goodwill impairment (14.6) - Other operating income and expenses** (12.3) (23.1) Operating result before IPO & refinancing expenses 134.4 144.7 As a % of revenues 9.5% 10.9% Financial result** (68.7) (153.6) IPO & refinancing expenses (123.3) - Result before tax (57.6) (8.9) Tax 0.4 (13.0) Reported net result (57.1) (21.9) Headline net result*** 71.4 6.5

Percentage change calculations are based on actual figures

* 2014 figures are restated from the first application of the IFRIC 21 interpretation and are in accordance with IFRS 3 - Business Combinations

** Excluding IPO and refinancing expenses

*** After elimination of impairment charge, PPA depreciation and IPO and refinancing expenses

EBIT

Purchase of linen linked to the implementation of large contracts signed in 2014 led to higher depreciation, impacting EBIT greater than EBITDA.

Operating result before IPO & refinancing expenses

PPA depreciation was mainly accounted for in 2007 and the amortization period will end in 2018.

The impairment tests conducted as of 31 December 2015 led to the booking of:

A 5.4mn impairment charge in Manufacturing Entities (Kennedy Hygiene Products),

A 9.2mn impairment charge in Belgium.

Financial result

Elis completely refinanced its debt in 2015 in 2 stages: (i) as part of the IPO in February, then (ii) on April 22 with the issuance of 800 million of 2022 Notes priced at 3.0%.

The new financing structure is totally unsecured without any major repayment before 2020. This leads to a full year normative interest charge which should be a third of that paid before the IPO.

NB: the new financing structure was implemented in February and April 2015. Therefore, the 2015 cost of debt is therefore not normative.

Net result

Net result amounted to -57.1mn and includes (i) 123.3mn non-recurring expenses related to the IPO and various debt refinancing charges, (ii) a 14.6mn impairment charge and (iii) a 45.6mn PPA depreciation.

Headline net result

The Headline net result was 71.4m in 2015, significantly up relative to 2014. It is after the elimination of (i) the IPO & refinancing expenses, (ii) the impairment charge and (iii) the PPA depreciation (net of tax),

Other financial items

Investments

Group net investments amounted to 259.0mn in 2015 (18.3% of revenues), compared to 143.9mn in 2014 (10.8% of revenues). It should be noted that during 2014, a real estate sale & lease program was undertook which had a favourable impact of c. 93mn. 2015 is notably impacted by linen purchase and by some industrial investments in order to absorb additional volumes linked to large contracts signed at the end of 2014.

Headline free cash-flow

After the elimination of the IPO & refinancing expenses, Headline free cash-flow amounted to 56.6mn, compared to 87.0mn in 2014. This decline is mainly due to the 2014 base effect linked to the sale & lease program.

Adjusted net financial debt

Group adjusted net financial debt as of 31st December 2015 was 1,440.7mn or 3.1x trailing 12 month EBITDA (proforma for the full year impact of acquisitions).

In addition to the elements mentioned above, the net financial debt is impacted by some acquisitions completed at the end of 2014 and by an unfavourable evolution of some non-operating components of the working capital requirement (notably the French CICE which is not pre-financed).

Dividend

At the next Annual General Meeting of Shareholders on 27 May 2016, the Supervisory Board will recommend the payment of 0.35 per share for the 2015 financial year, similar to that approved in 2015 for the 2014 financial year.

Presentation

The 2015 annual results presentation will be available from 8:30 am Paris time on March, 10th in the "Other press releases and documents" section of our website: http://www.corporate-elis.com/en/investor-relations (http://www.corporate-elis.com/en/investor-relations)

Plenary presentation in French, audible live by webcast only

Speakers:

Xavier Martire, CEO

Louis Guyot, CFO

Date:

Thursday, March 10

9:00 am Paris time - 8:00 am London time



Webcast link (live and replay):

http://edge.media-server.com/m/p/ki95zg9i (http://edge.media-server.com/m/p/ki95zg9i)

Webcast replay will be available for 1 year following the event.

Investor and Analyst conference call in English

Speakers:

Xavier Martire, CEO

Louis Guyot, CFO

Date :

Thursday, March 10

2:00 pm Paris time - 1:00 pm London time - 8:00 am New York time



Webcast link (live and replay):

http://edge.media-server.com/m/p/p2akm32z (http://edge.media-server.com/m/p/p2akm32z)

Webcast replay will be available for 1 year following the event.

Numbers to dial:

France: +33 1 76 77 22 29

France (toll-free): 0805 631 579

United Kingdom: +44 203 427 1907

United Kingdom (toll-free): 0800 279 4992

United States of America: +1646 254 3360

United States of America (toll-free): 1877 280 2342

Code: 9012847#

Numbers for replay:

France: +33 1 74 20 28 00

United Kingdom: +44 203 427 0598

United States of America: +1 347 366 9565

Code for replay: 9012847#

Audio replay will be available for 1 week following the event.

Financial definitions

Organic growth in the Group's revenue is calculated excluding (i) the impacts of changes in the scope of consolidation of "major acquisitions" and "major disposals" in each of the periods under comparison, as well as (ii) the impact of exchange rate fluctuations.

EBITDA is defined as EBIT before depreciation and amortization net of the portion of grants transferred to income.

EBITDA margin is defined as EBITDA divided by revenues.

EBIT is defined as net income (loss) before net financial expense, income tax, share in income of equity-accounted companies, amortization of customer relationships, goodwill impairment, other income and expense and miscellaneous financial items (bank fees recognized in operating income).

Headline free cash-flow is defined as cash EBITDA minus non cash-items items and after (i) business-related changes in working capital, (ii) linen purchases and (iii) manufacturing capital expenditures, net of proceeds, minus interests payments and minus tax paid.

The concept of Adjusted net debt used by the Group consists of the sum of non-current financial liabilities, current financial liabilities and cash and cash equivalents adjusted by capitalized debt arrangement costs, the impact of applying the effective interest rate method, and the loan from employee profit-sharing fund.

Forward looking statements

This release may contain some forward-looking statements. These statements are not undertakings as to the future performance of the Company. Although the Company considers that such statements are based on reasonable expectations and assumptions at the date of publication of this release, they are by their nature subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual performance to differ from those indicated or implied in such statements.

These risks and uncertainties include without limitation the risk factors that are described in the Document de Base and in the 2014 Annual Financial Report, both registered in France with the French Autorite des marches financiers.

Investors and holders of shares of the Company may obtain copy of these documents from the Autorite des marches financiers' website: www.amf-france.org (http://www.amf-france.org) or from the Company's website: www.corporate-elis.com (http://www.corporate-elis.com)

The 2015 Document de Reference will be registered with the Autorite des marches financiers in the second half of April 2016. The Company does not have the obligation and undertakes no obligation to update or revise any of the forward-looking statements.

Next information

Q1 2016 revenues: May 4, 2016 (before market)

About Elis

Elis is a specialized multi-services group, leader in Europe and Latin America for the rental and maintenance of flat linen, professional clothing, as well as hygiene appliance and well-being services. With more than 21,000 employees spread across 13 countries, Elis consolidated turnover in 2015 was 1,415 million and consolidated EBITDA reached 446 million. Benefiting from more than a century of experience, Elis today services more than 240 000 businesses of all sizes in the hotel, catering, healthcare, industry, retail and services sectors, thanks to its network of more than 300 production and distribution centers and 13 clean rooms, which guarantees it an unrivalled proximity to its clients.

Contact

Nicolas Buron, Investor Relations Director - Phone: +33 1 41 25 46 77 - nicolas.buron@elis.com (mailto:nicolas.buron@elis.com)

Appendices

Consolidated income statement for the period*

In thousands of euros 2015 2014 Revenue 1,415,418 1,330,980 Cost of linen, equipment and other consumables (240,048) (222,214) Processing costs (518,275) (470,014) Distribution costs (224,819) (212,921) Gross margin 432,276 425,831 Selling, general and administrative expenses (225,346) (216,748) Operating income before other income and expense and amortization of customer relationships 206,930 209,083 Amortization of customer relationships (45,584) (41,271) Goodwill impairment (14,575) 0 Other income and expense (33,413) (23,130) Operating income 113,359 144,681 Net financial expense (170,932) (153,551) Income (loss) before tax (57,573) (8,870) Income tax benefit (expense) 435 (13,018) Share of net income of equity-accounted companies 0 0 Net income (loss) (57,138) (21,888) Attributable to: owners of the parent (57,613) (22,731) non-controlling interests 475 843 Earnings (loss) per share (EPS): basic, attributable to owners of the parent -0.54 -0.46 diluted, attributable to owners of the parent -0.54 -0.46

* 2014 figures are restated from the first application of the IFRIC 21 interpretation and are in accordance with IFRS 3 - Business Combinations

Consolidated balance sheet

Assets

In thousands of euros 31 December 2015 31 December 2014 Goodwill 1,589,340 1,536,098 Intangible assets 368,778 404,383 Property, plant and equipment 774,923 707,086 Equity-accounted companies 0 0 Available-for-sale financial assets 146 168 Other non-current assets 6,270 6,890 Deferred tax assets 12,118 12,450 TOTAL NON-CURRENT ASSETS 2,751,575 2,667,074 Inventories 52,547 58,641 Trade and other receivables 358,341 327,863 Current tax assets 4,099 2,842 Other assets 12,780 13,461 Cash and cash equivalents 56,594 59,255 TOTAL CURRENT ASSETS 484,361 462,062 Assets held for sale 0 0 TOTAL ASSETS 3,235,936 3,129,136

Equity and liabilities

In thousands of euros 31 December 2015 31 December 2014 Share capital 1,140,062 497,610 Additional paid-in capital 320,777 175,853 Other reserves 724 7,224 Retained earnings (accumulated deficit) (361,142) (302,305) Other components of equity (45,616) (10,105) EQUITY ATTRIBUTABLE TO OWNERS OF THE PARENT 1,054,804 368,277 NON-CONTROLLING INTERESTS (338) (125) TOTAL EQUITY 1,054,466 368,152 Non-current provisions 22,918 28,997 Employee benefit liabilities 58,259 48,337 Non-current borrowings 1,267,386 1,947,291 Deferred tax liabilities 182,131 197,777 Other non-current liabilities 39,639 34,373 TOTAL NON-CURRENT LIABILITIES 1,570,332 2,256,775 Current provisions 5,766 4,078 Current tax liabilities 1,848 892 Trade and other payables 135,059 139,718 Other liabilities 232,546 234,836 Bank overdrafts and current borrowings 235,919 124,684 TOTAL CURRENT LIABILITIES 611,138 504,208 Liabilities directly associated with assets held for sale 0 0 TOTAL EQUITY AND LIABILITIES 3,235,936 3,129,136

Consolidated cash flow statement*

In thousands of euros 2015 2014* CASH FLOWS FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES CONSOLIDATED NET INCOME (LOSS) (57,138) (21,738) Depreciation, amortization and provisions 284,508 251,518 Portion of grants transferred to income (128) (125) Goodwill impairment 14,575 0 Share-based payments 981 0 Discounting adjustment on provisions and retirement benefits 824 1,266 Net gains and losses on disposal of assets 1,229 (3,737) Share of net income of equity-accounted companies 0 0 Other (1,478) 0 Dividends received (from non-consolidated entities) (12) (13) CASH FLOWS AFTER FINANCE COSTS AND TAX 243,361 227,171 Net finance costs 101,606 151,268 Income tax expense (435) 13,095 CASH FLOWS BEFORE FINANCE COSTS AND TAX 344,532 391,535 Income tax paid (17,280) (21,414) Change in inventories 5,980 (11,989) Change in trade receivables (17,883) (12,982) Change in other assets 602 (7,076) Change in trade and other payables (14,198) 18,608 Change in other liabilities (7,159) 5,191 Variation des autres postes (231) (471) Other changes (455) (437) NET CASH FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES 293,908 360,965 CASH FLOWS FROM INVESTING ACTIVITIES Acquisition of intangible assets (6,481) (4,853) Proceeds from sale of intangible assets 0 0 Acquisition of property, plant and equipment (261,475) (231,558) Proceeds from sale of property, plant and equipment 8,910 92,541 Acquisition of subsidiaries, net of cash acquired (117,253) (97,262) Proceeds from disposal of subsidiaries, net of cash transferred 1,000 1,000 Changes in loans and advances (226) 121 Dividends from equity-accounted companies 12 13 Investment grants 50 0 NET CASH USED IN INVESTING ACTIVITIES (375,463) (239,998) CASH FLOWS FROM FINANCING ACTIVITIES Capital increase 689,400 43,000 Treasury shares (2,175) 0 Dividends paid - to owners of the parent (39,881) 0 - to non-controlling interests (5) (9) Change in borrowings** (490,785) (37,237) - Proceeds from new borrowings 3,962,527 1,270,786 - Repayment of borrowings (4,453,312) (1,308,023) Net interest paid (76,939) (117,206) Other flows related to financing activities (853) 0 NET CASH USED IN FINANCING ACTIVITIES 78,762 (111,452) NET INCREASE (DECREASE) IN CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS (2,793) 9,515 Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period 58,523 48,598 Effect of changes in foreign exchange rates on cash and cash equivalents (33) 410 CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS AT END OF PERIOD 55,697 58,523

* 2014 figures are restated from the first application of the IFRIC 21 interpretation and are in accordance with IFRS 3 - Business Combinations

** Net change in credit lines

Elis - 2015 annual results (http://hugin.info/167809/R/1993062/733748.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: Elis via Globenewswire



HUG#1993062


Sponda Plc Press release 10 March at 09:00 a.m.Sponda marks launch of new Mothership of Work concept on 10 March 2016Property investment company Sponda Plc launched a new kind of user-powered service concept, unique in Finland, at Pieni Roobertinkatu 9 in Helsinki on 1 February 2016.The Mothership of Work (MOW) launch event takes place today, 10 March 2016. The press are welcome to attend a media briefing at 3:30 p.m.The Mothership of Work (MOW) is a co-working space for freelancers and businesses. MOW's versatile facilities and services were developed in co-operation with the target group and cater to the users' needs, adding convenience to working and strengthening communality."Ambitious independent professionals in the creative field need the support of a community and services which make daily work easier. Mothership of Work is a concept fully tailored to this group, important for the Finnish economy," says Pia Arrhenius, SVP, Corporate Planning and IR, at Sponda. "We wanted to create a service concept which is not only simple and flexible but also communal and serves the needs of this group," Arrhenius adds.At the MOW, small businesses can achieve the muscle mass of a large enterpriseThe Mothership of Work will provide tenants with their own workspace as well as internet, IT support, multifunctional shared spaces and a choice of additional services. At MOW, tenants can access health and well-being, accounting and financial management and legal services.MOW is equipped with the latest technology throughout, including audiovisual technology and building services engineering. A bespoke MOW mobile application for members facilitates interaction between residents and is designed to bring together professional opportunities and talent.Setting the vibe is the MOW Host, whose role is to help residents move in, get settled and get to know each other. No rent deposit is required at MOW, and the term of notice of the lease agreement is one month.The total area of the six-storey building, which accommodates up to 250 tenants, is over 2,000 square metres, with different kinds of open spaces, a library, cafe-style lounges as well as private project spaces and offices. Restaurateur Kim Heinio will open a new restaurant on the ground floor of the building."The transformation of working life is changing the ways people work. Therefore, co-working spaces are being established worldwide. In Finland, such spaces have been rare in this scope before Mothership of Work. As market leaders in office construction, at Sponda we want to take the lead in developing new commercial services and facilities in response to this new international trend.The concept was created by Sponda in collaboration with the +1 Agency.Sponda PlcAdditional information: Pia Arrhenius, SVP, Corporate Planning and IR, tel. +358 40 527 4462Sponda Plc is a property investment company specialising in commercial properties in the largest cities in Finland. Sponda's business concept is to own, lease and develop retail and office properties and shopping centres into environments that promote the business success of its clients. The fair value of Sponda's investment properties is approximately EUR 3.7 billion and the leasable area is around 1.9 million m2.Attachment:https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=550951
Sanoma Corporation, Stock Exchange Release, 10 March 2016 at 9:00 CET+1Sanoma has today published its Annual Report 2015 in electronic format. Sanoma's Annual Report consists of 'Sanoma View' as well as the Financial Statements and Board of Directors' Report for 2015. Sanoma's Corporate Social Responsibility report for 2015 is included in 'Sanoma View'. The documents are available in Finnish and English at Sanoma.com and Sanomaview.com.At the same time the registration for Sanoma's Annual General Meeting, to be held on 12 April 2016, has started. The registration will end by 6 April 2016 at 16:00 Finnish time (CET+1). The notice to the Annual General Meeting was published as a stock exchange release on 9 February 2016.Additional information Sanoma's Investor Relations, Pekka Rouhiainen, tel. +358 40 739 5897About SanomaSanoma is an inspiring, relevant and trusted consumer media and learning company. Ever since its formation in 1889, the company has held creativity and independent thinking at its core in order to deliver high-quality content in new and different ways.Sanoma's consumer media business provides consumers with engaging and personalised content through cross-media brands that touch their lives. Sanoma's close relationships with its consumers enable the company to offer unique value-added marketing solutions to its business partners.Sanoma Learning's learning solutions enable teachers to excel at developing the talents of every child, creating opportunities for children to advance their prospects in life.With operating companies in Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland and Sweden, Sanoma realised net sales of more than EUR 1.7 billion in 2015. The company employed over 6,000 employees.Attachment:https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=550949

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.
VIENNA (dpa-AFX) - HUGO BOSS (HUGSF.PK) reported that its 2015 net income attributable to equity holders of the parent company decreased year-over-year to 319.3 million euros from 333.3 million euros. Earnings per share was 4.63 euros compared to 4.83 euros. Operating result (EBIT) was 447.7 million euros compared to 448.7 million euros. EBITDA before special items increased to 594.1 million euros from 590.8 million euros, prior year. Sales increased by 9% to 2.81 billion euros in 2015 from 2.57 billion euros, last year. Adjusted for currency effects, the increase came to 3%. Sales in the Group's own retail business were 7% above the prior year's level in local currencies in 2015. The online business made an important contribution with double-digit growth. Currency-adjusted retail comp sales increased by 2%. The Managing Board and the Supervisory Board of HUGO BOSS AG intend to propose to the Annual Shareholders' Meeting an unchanged dividend of 3.62 euros per share for fiscal 2015. HUGO BOSS expects to be able to increase sales in fiscal year 2016 by a low-single-digit percentage rate, adjusted for currency effects. The company expects a decrease at a low-double-digit percentage rate in operating profit (adjusted EBITDA before special items) in fiscal 2016. The Group said it is reviewing cost structures and planned investments, particularly with regard to the further expansion of its own retail business. Accordingly, investments in the current fiscal year will be below 200 million euros. 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) - Recruitment firm Michael Page International plc (MPI.L, MPGPF) reported Thursday that its fiscal 2015 profit before tax increased 12.9 percent to 90.7 million pounds from last year's 80.4 million pounds. Earnings per share were 21.1 pence, 10.5 percent higher than 19.1 pence a year ago. The prior year rtesults included exceptional items. Revenue for the year increased 1.7 percent to 1.065 billion pounds fropm prior year's 1.047 billion pounds. On a constant exchange rate basis, revenues grew 7.1 percent. Further, the company said a final dividend of 7.9 pence per ordinary share is proposed, higher than last year's 7.58 pence. This would imply an increase in the total dividend for the year of 4.5 percent over 2014 to 11.5 pence per ordinary share. Commenting on the outlook, Steve Ingham, Chief Executive Officer of PageGroup, said, 'Trading so far in Q1 has continued in a similar pattern to that seen in Q4, with the exception of Greater China where we have seen trading conditions deteriorate further, particularly with our multinational clients and in Hong Kong. .. we will continue to focus on driving profitable growth in 2016, as we did throughout 2015, whilst remaining able to respond quickly to any changes in market conditions.' 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.
BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Germany's exports dropped unexpectedly in January, while imports grew more than forecast, figures from Destatis revealed Thursday. Exports fell 0.5 percent month-on-month in January, following a 0.7 percent drop in December. This was the second consecutive decrease in shipments. Economists had forecast exports to grow 0.8 percent. Meanwhile, imports grew 1.2 percent from December, when it fell 1.6 percent. The pace of growth was faster than an expected 0.8 percent. As a result, the trade surplus decreased to a seasonally adjusted EUR 18.8 billion from EUR 20.3 billion in the previous month. At the same time, the current account surplus fell to EUR 13.2 billion in January from EUR 14.9 billion in the previous year. The expected level was EUR 17 billion. 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) - Hiscox Ltd (HSX.L) announced it has reached an agreement to sell the Hong Kong division of its DirectAsia business to Well Link Group Holdings Limited. The company said the transaction allows to focus the future growth of DirectAsia on its operations in Singapore and Thailand. DirectAsia is a direct to consumer insurance company, and its primary business is motor insurance. It was established in 2010 in Singapore before expanding into Hong Kong in 2012 and Thailand in 2013. 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 euro weakened against the other major currencies in the pre-European session on Thursday. The euro fell to a 9-day low of 1.4543 against the Canadian dollar and a 2-day low of 1.0935 against the Swiss franc, from early highs of 1.0975 and 1.4584, respectively. Against the U.S. dollar and the pound, the euro dropped to 1.0963 and 0.7724 from early highs of 1.1003 and 0.7741, respectively. Pulling away from an early 10-day high of 1.6588 against the NZ dollar and a 2-day high of 124.91 against the yen, the euro edged down to 1.6479 and 124.43, respectively. If the euro extends its downtrend, it is likely to find support around 1.40 against the loonie, 1.08 against the franc, 1.08 against the greenback, 0.76 against the pound, 1.61 against the kiwi, 122.00 against the yen and 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.
New enhancements offer powerful analytical tools and workflow capabilities to professionals across all segments of the buy-side on an open, customizable platform

NEW YORK/LONDON, March 10, 2016 - Responding to the needs of analysts and portfolio managers to have access to a comprehensive suite of data, news and analytic solutions via a single access point, Thomson Reuters today announced that its flagship financial desktop, Eikon, now contains all of its leading financial content sets in one platform, with web-style search and applications for investment idea generation, all built in.

Thomson Reuters Eikon customers can now access I/B/E/S estimates, Reuters news, unique StarMine (http://lipperalpha.financial.thomsonreuters.com/) quant models, the widest set of environmental, social and governance (ESG) measures in the industry, a renowned Deals database, fund ratings from Lipper, Datastream economics and other products. This is the first time all these content sets have been available in a single platform, potentially enabling users to make more connections between data sets, gain unique insights and generate new ideas.

These tools are designed to enable Eikon users to accelerate their research process by screening companies using financial measures, quantitative models, and non-financial metrics such as environmental, social or governance data points. Eikon is also designed for investment professionals to more easily value securities across all asset classes in a given portfolio, with users able to monitor their portfolios against real-time benchmarks at the portfolio, group, and security level.

Eikon's ESG (http://financial.thomsonreuters.com/en/products/data-analytics/company-data/esg-research-data.html) database contains information on more than 5,000 global companies and over 400 metrics, including all exclusion (ethical screening) criteria and all aspects of sustainability performance, offering investors a tool for in-depth, socially responsible investment analysis.

Through App Studio (http://financial.thomsonreuters.com/en/products/tools-applications/trading-investment-tools/eikon-trading-software/eikon-app-studio.html), Eikon's third party development suite, specialist applications and content can be easily integrated within the Eikon desktop. This open approach allows users to benefit from access to financial apps created by third party developers globally, built directly into Eikon.

"Eikon is seeing unprecedented growth among the research, portfolio management and wealth advisory community. The growth is driven by making the full depth and breadth of TR content and analytics integrated into the Eikon workflow and visual experience. The addition of ESG to Eikon is another important milestone in Eikon's evolution for buy-side users," said Ranjit Tinaikar, managing director, advisory and investment management, Thomson Reuters. "As the search for alpha becomes more competitive, these enhancements further reinforce our commitment to helping our clients find the insight to generate innovative investment ideas."

"With Eikon, the transition from a legacy system has proved to be much smoother than expected, eliminating the fears of a steep learning curve," said Daniel O'Reilly, vice president, portfolio analytics, Beutel, Goodman & Company, Ltd. "The design of the new system, with its universal search function, makes finding information very easy. Within a day or two, the new way of doing things seems far superior to the old menu-driven interfaces on the legacy products, and support from Thomson Reuters has been excellent."

Added Steve Wyett, SVP and chief investment strategist, private wealth, BOK Financial: "We chose Eikon to streamline and consolidate products from multiple vendors to a single platform across The Private Bank Investment Management Group, giving them a powerful set of tools with a very intuitive interface. Some of the key benefits are real-time monitoring of client portfolios, easy access to breaking news, comprehensive Datastream charting for client presentations and an easy to use-Excel add-in - all in a consistent platform across the team. We also appreciate the mobile access to Eikon from different devises so we can access market-moving information from the road. We are happy to be aligned with a company that has shown a willingness to continue to invest in their products to make sure they remain at the forefront of available options."

Thomson Reuters Eikon (http://financial.thomsonreuters.com/en/products/tools-applications/trading-investment-tools/eikon-trading-software.html) is a powerful and intuitive next-generation solution for consuming real-time and historical data, enabling financial markets transactions and connecting with the financial markets community. Its award-winning news, analytics and data visualization tools help its users make more efficient trading and investment decisions across asset classes and instruments including commodities, derivatives, equities, fixed income and foreign exchange. Thomson Reuters Eikon is a leading desktop and mobile solution that is open, connected, informed and intelligent, and provides access to a messaging community of over 250,000 financial professionals.

Eikon is an open platform, customizable to the individual needs of a financial professional or institutions. Users can connect with clients and/or peers through Eikon Messenger (http://thomsonreuters.com/en/products-services/financial/equities-markets/eikon-messenger.html) in a secure and compliant manner. Eikon Messenger is available as part of an Eikon subscription or as a free, stand-alone service.

Other recent Eikon enhancements include: Buy-Side Optimized Workflow (BOW) (http://thomsonreuters.com/en/press-releases/2015/november/eikon-app-streamlines-buy-side-equities-traders-workflow.html), a dashboard tailored specifically for buy-side equities traders; an expansion of commodities supply chain insights on Commodity Trade Flows (http://thomsonreuters.com/en/press-releases/2015/december/thomson-reuters-expands-scope-commodities-supply-chain-analysis.html); and Healthcare Intelligence (http://thomsonreuters.com/en/press-releases/2015/october/new-healthcare-intelligence-application-to-streamline-industry-analysis.html), which leverages content from Thomson Reuters Cortellis to offer easy access to comprehensive drug pipeline data for a given medical indication.

Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of news and information for professional markets. Our customers rely on us to deliver the intelligence, technology and expertise they need to find trusted answers. The business has operated in more than 100 countries for more than 100 years. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges. For more information, visit www.thomsonreuters.com (http://www.thomsonreuters.com/).

CONTACTS



Brian Bertsch

+1-646-223-5985

brian.bertsch@thomsonreuters.com

Lemuel Brewster

+1-646-223-5147

lemuel.brewster@thomsonreuters.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: Thomson Reuters Corporation via Globenewswire



HUG#1993225


Helping Transform how the Industry Markets, Sells and Processes its Financial Products

iPipeline - a leading provider of next-generation solutions and services to the life and pensions market today announced Openwork as Industry Leader at iPipeline's Connections 2016 Conference. The award recognises Openwork, one of the UK's largest financial advice networks, comprising more than 2,500 financial advisers, for its commitment to the development and launch of new innovative solutions that transform the way protection is bought and sold within the UK protection market.

Mark Duckworth, CEO, Openwork commented: "We are delighted to have been recognised as Industry Leader. During 2014 we worked closely with iPipeline to create a solution which would help streamline the protection advice process. With the introduction of SolutionBuilder in early 2015, we've witnessed how the quality and service our advisers provide their clients has radically improved as solutions can be sourced more comprehensively and efficiently than ever before. As a result, we've streamlined the advice process and increased our adviser productivity".

SolutionBuilder is iPipeline's new innovative protection modelling tool in the UK market. Through SolutionBuilder, Openwork advisers have seen a 10% increase in productivity and a 20% rise in benefits per client. This demonstrates the ability to not only increase profitability but to close the protection gap, meaning more clients are better protected. Not only this, it has also driven a 45% reduction in the time taken to model and quote solutions, and 30% improvement in straight through processing helping keep the costs of advice down.

Each year, iPipeline recognises industry leaders within Financial Services who are demonstrating innovative ways to transform how the industry markets, sells and processes its financial products. The Connections event is held on an annual basis in Las Vegas from 9-11 March, this year 600 industry representatives attended.

-ENDS-

Notes to Editors

About iPipeline UK

iPipeline UK (previously Assureweb) is a leading provider of business intelligence, e-quote, e-application, policy delivery, and policy holder services to the UK life and pensions market. iPipeline offers the UK's broadest range of integrated and licensed solutions used by leading providers, distributors, and their IFAs via their Websites or CRM systems. To learn how you can better use iPipeline's industry-leading solutions to streamline and accelerate your business activities, visit us at www.ipipeline.com/uk.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160310005529/en/

Contacts:

iPipeline

Jenny Burt

Marketing Manager

01242 211726

jburt@ipipeline.com
10 March 2016

TWENTYFOUR INCOME FUND LIMITED

(a non-cellular company limited by shares incorporated in the Island of Guernsey under the Companies (Guernsey) Law 2008, as amended, with registered number 56128 and registered as a Registered Closed-ended Collective Investment Scheme with the Guernsey Financial Services Commission)

Directors' Shareholdings

TwentyFour Income Fund Limited (the "Company") hereby announces that, pursuant to the conditional placing by Numis Securities Limited of New Ordinary Shares described in the prospectus dated 29 January 2016, the Company was notified in accordance with DTR 3.1.2 R that Trevor Ash (non-executive director and Chairman of the Company) and Ian Burns (non-executive director and Chairman of the Audit Committee of the Company) had each made the following purchases:

Trevor Ash purchased 19,495 ordinary shares of 1p each in the capital of the Company ("Ordinary Shares") on 8 March 2016 at 102.59 pence per Ordinary Share. Following this purchase, Mr Ash now holds 49,495 Ordinary Shares, representing approximately 0.02% of the Company's issued ordinary share capital.

Ian Burns purchased 29,242 Ordinary Shares on 8 March 2016 at 102.59 pence per Ordinary Share. Following this purchase, Mr Burns now holds 29,242 Ordinary Shares, representing approximately 0.01% of the Company's issued ordinary share capital.

Enquiries:

Company website: www.twentyfourincomefund.com

Rebecca Booth

Northern Trust International Fund Administration Services (Guernsey) Limited

Tel: +44 (0) 1481 745189

Email: rb235@ntrs.com
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 03/10/16 -- Kirkland Lake Gold Inc. ("Kirkland Lake Gold" or the "Company") (TSX: KGI), an intermediate gold producer with operations in Ontario, Canada, today announces financial results for third quarter reporting period of Stub Year 2015 (November 1 to December 31, 2015, "SY15_Q3"), as well as the full eight month period of Stub Year 2015 (May 1 to December 31, 2015, "SY15", or "YTD"). All figures in this release are in Canadian dollars unless stated otherwise.

Highlights(2)

-- Produced 27,604 ounces of gold in SY15_Q3 for total YTD production of 102,597 ounces, meeting the mid-range of production guidance of between 90,000 - 110,000 ounces. -- Achieved a head grade of 0.42 ounces per ton ("opt"), or 14.4 grams per tonne ("g/t") with mill recoveries of 97.1%. -- Sold 101,094 ounces of gold at an average realized price per ounce of $1,483 (US$1,142) in SY15. -- Cash Operating Costs per Ounce of Gold Produced(1) of $716 (US$535) in SY15_Q3; and $793 (US$612) YTD. -- All-in Sustaining Cost per Ounce of Gold Sold(1) ("AISC") of $1,358(3) (US$1,006) in SY15_Q3; and $1,259 (US$970) YTD. -- All-In Cash Cost per Ounce of Gold Produced(1) ("AICC") of $1,346(3) (US$997) in SY15_Q3; and $1,338 (US$1,030) YTD. -- Income before income taxes of $2.8 million in SY15_Q3 and $16.5 million YTD. -- Net and comprehensive income of $1.0 million or $0.01 per share in SY15_Q3; and $7.3 million or $0.09 per share YTD. -- Generated cash flow from operations during the period of $15.4 million; and $49.2 million YTD. -- Generated free cash flow(1) of $7.9 million during the period; and $19.3 million YTD. -- Cash as at December 31, 2015, was $93.7 million and subsequent to the close of the acquisition of St Andrew Goldfields Ltd., the Company had cash and cash equivalents of $109.5 million as of February 19, 2016.

Mr. George Ogilvie, Chief Executive Officer of the Company commented, "We are pleased to be able to report a seventh consecutive quarter of positive earnings and free cash flow generation, which has resulted in our cash balance continuing to grow.

"Post year end we completed the acquisition of St Andrew Goldfields; which, along with higher gold prices, further boosted our cash balance to approximately $110 million. We believe the pro-forma company will continue to show improvements in its key business metrics allowing us to further deleverage the company over the course of the next two years.

"In 2015 we saw continued success with our exploration program in the Kirkland Lake camp. Our intention in 2016 is to continue to invest in the Kirkland Lake camp within the Macassa Mine and our regional drill program. For our newly acquired East Timmins assets we intend to invest within the existing operating mines in 2016; while taking this year to assess our entire 120km strike length of land across the Porcupine-Destor Fault with a mindset to drill on identified targets in 2017."

Financial and Operational Metrics

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Key Operating Information Q3/SY15 Q2/SY15 Q4/15(i) SY2015 FY2015 Change ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Average Tons per day (tpd) 1,123 1,006 12% 1,016 1,022 -1% Average Head Grade (opt) 0.41 0.42 -2% 0.42 0.43 -2% Average Head Grade (g/t) 14.1 14.4 -2% 14.4 14.7 -2% Tons ore milled 68,517 92,532 -26% 248,824 369,976 -33% Recovery (%) 97.2 96.6 1% 97.1 96.5 1% Gold Produced (Oz) 27,604 37,979 -27% 102,597 153,957 -33% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Key Financial Information (CAD$) Q3/SY15 Q2/SY15 Q4/15(i) SY2015 FY2015 Change ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gold Sales (Oz) 25,284 39,109 -35% 101,094 155,709 -35% Average Realized Price ($) (per Oz)(1) 1,486 1,481 0% 1,483 1,412 5% Revenue (000's) 37,582 57,934 -35% 149,874 219,888 -32% Income before Income Taxes (000's) 2,765 8,262 -68% 16,508 25,506 -36% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cash Operating Cost per Ton Produced(1) 289 363 -20% 327 345 -5% Cash Operating Cost per Oz Produced(1) 716 885 -18% 793 831 -4% All-in Sustaining Costs (AISC) per Oz Sold(1) 1,358 1,283 6% 1,259 1,227 3% All-in Cash Costs (AICC) per Oz Produced(1) 1,346 1,445 -7% 1,338 1,327 2% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Key Financial Information (US$)(2) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Average Realized Price ($) (per Oz)(1) 1,101 1,186 -7% 1,142 1,228 -7% Cash Operating Cost per Ton Produced(1) 216 291 -26% 252 300 -16% Cash Operating Cost per Oz Produced(1) 535 709 -25% 612 723 -15% AISC per Oz Sold(1) 1,006 1,028 -2% 977 1,067 -8% AICC per Oz Produced(1) 997 1,157 -14% 1,030 1,154 -10% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - FY2015 was the 12 month period from May 1, 2014 to April 30, 2015; SY2015 was the eight month period from May 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015. - AISC for Q3/SY15 is higher than AICC due to inventory adjustments and the difference in ounces sold versus produced during the period.

Macassa Mine Complex

The operation performed well during SY15 and despite a challenging second quarter, the Company achieved just over the mid-range of its stated guidance on production ounces. For the full eight month period of the Stub Year, the Company milled 248,824 tons (or 225,729 tonnes) at a head grade of 0.42 opt (14.4 g/t), with recoveries of 97.1%, producing 102,597 ounces of gold.

The average mining rate for SY15 was 1,016 tpd, 2% below the anticipated rate of 1,035 tpd. The production issues encountered late in Q2 that carried over into November resulted in a slight drop in the tons produced. The strategy of focusing on quality tons versus quantity of tons has worked well over the past 24 months generating 7 quarters of continuous profitability and free cash flow. The primary focus remains on ensuring that the mined head grade reconciles with the stope reserve blocks. With a focus on gold ounces produced, as new mining levels are opened up in the lower SMC (54 Level and 56 Level), there will be an incremental increase in tons produced while still maintaining the targeted head grade.

For FY2016 the Company is targeting an average production rate of 1,130 tpd. With additional high grade stopes from the 5400 Level coming online mid-year, this will result in more quality ore tons. The bulk of the new mining equipment is expected to arrive over the next couple of months which will allow the Company to achieve its stated level of production for 2016.

East Timmins Assets

As reported by St Andrew Goldfields Ltd. (see press release dated January 8, 2016 under the St Andrew Goldfields Ltd. profile on www.sedar.com), the Holt, Holloway and Taylor mines produced 107,333 ounces of gold for the full 12 months of 2015. The Taylor Mine declared commercial production in November 2015, and contributed 15,964 ounces of production.

Kirkland Lake Gold is currently integrating the budgets and assessing the mine plan for 2016 at each of the three East Timmins Operations. The Company expects to release updated 2016 guidance information before the end of April 2016.

Exploration

During the stub year, the Company continued underground drilling with two rigs (50,700 feet of drilling) on the Macassa-5300 foot level. The drills tested the down dip component of the SMC on the South Claims as well as further to the east on the HM Claim areas of the land position. Both drills focused on resource replacement and further expansion of the SMC.

As well, the Company commenced a surface drilling program to test for mineralization on the north side of the Amalgamated Break and the possible easterly extension of the SMC across a previously untested trend of approximately 1,500 metres in strike length. The first two phases of this program were completed during SY15 and 9 of the 11 holes intersected mineralization. This drilling has defined a deep mineralized horizon approximately 1,830 m (approx. 6,000 feet) below surface that now has a strike length of approximately 500 metres (1,640 feet).

SY15 Key Performance Indicators

The Company's guidance metrics for the eight month Stub Year 2015 (eight month period from May 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015), are detailed in the table below. The delivery of new battery operated equipment was delayed due to the manufacturers delivery schedule, therefore the expenditures are being deferred into 2016, resulting in a lower capital spend than anticipated. As a result, the Company revised its guidance on Total Capital Expenditures to $32 - $35 million for SY15 from initial the initial guidance of $41 - $48 million. Accordingly, guidance on free cash flow generation was also increased to $11 - $18 million from the initial guidance of $2 - $5 million.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SY15 Guidance Results Against (C$) Metric SY15 Actual Guidance ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- $800 - $850 Cash operating cost per ounce(1) $793 Beat $1,200 - $1,300 AISC per ounce sold(1) $1,259 Achieved $1,300 - $1,400 AICC per ounce produced(1) $1,338 Achieved $32 - $35 million Total Capital Expenditures $30 million Revised Down $145 - $155 million Revenue $150 million Achieved $43 - 53 million Cash flow from operations $49 million Achieved $11 - $18 million Free cash flow generation(1) $19 million Beat ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

For a description of risk factors affecting the Company and 'Forward Looking Information', see the Company's Annual Information Form for the year ended April 30, 2015, and the Company's MD&A for the period ended December 31, 2015, filed with certain securities regulatory authorities in Canada and available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. For a description and reconciliation of Non-GAAP measures please see below and refer to Appendix B of the Company's MD&A for period ended December 31, 2015, as filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Conference Call Details

The Company will hold a conference call to discuss the most recent quarter and year end results for its Stub Year of 2015 on Thursday March 10, at 11:00am EST. You are invited to participate via teleconference using the details below. A replay of the call will be posted on the Company's website (www.klgold.com).

Participant Dial-In Numbers

Toll-Free North America: +1 (877) 291-4570; Local and International: +1 (647) 788-4919

Local from Switzerland: (0-800) 835-354; Local from the United Kingdom: (0-800) 051-7107

Conference ID: 62024192

Replay Dial-In Numbers

Local and International: +1 (416) 621-4642

Toll Free North America: +1 (800) 585-8367

Conference ID: 62024192

Replay Available Until: April 10, 2016 at 11:59PM ET

Qualified Persons

Production and processing at the Company's milling facility are under the supervision of Mr. Chris Stewart, P.Eng, Vice President of Operations. The Company's exploration program is under the supervision of Mr. Stewart Carmichael, P.Geo, Regional Manager of Exploration. Messrs. Stewart and Carmichael are 'qualified persons' for the purpose of National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, of the Canadian Securities Administrators, and have reviewed and approved this news release. As the Vice President of Operations and Manager of Exploration, Messrs. Stewart and Carmichael are not considered independent.

Selected Financial Information & Review of Overall Performance

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Financial Highlights (All amounts in 000's of Canadian Dollars, except gold price per 8 Month ounce, shares Stub and per share 2 Months Year Ended Year Ended figures) Ended 3 Months Ended Dec 31, Apr 30, Dec 31, Oct 31, Apr 30, 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gold Sales (ounces) 25,284 34,606 39,109 101,094 155,709 Average Gold Price (per ounce) 1,486 1,461 1,481 1,483 1,412 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Revenue 37,581 50,570 57,935 149,874 219,888 Production Expenses 28,444 37,468 43,551 111,375 169,788 Exploration Expenditure 2,592 1,773 1,799 5,514 6,113 Other Expenses 3,780 5,033 4,324 16,496 18,482 Income before Income Taxes 2,765 6,296 8,262 16,508 25,505 Net and Comprehensive Income 1,040 2,068 7,874 7,338 19,786 Per share (basic and diluted) 0.01 0.03 0.11 0.09 0.27 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cash flow from operations 15,362 20,115 21,180 49,192 78,154 Cash flow (used in) from financing activities (5,724) (4,891) 28,303 (14,517) 10,259 Cash flow from (used in) investing activities 452 (12,237) (12,385) (22,025) (46,191) Net increase in cash 10,337 2,271 36,304 13,405 41,428 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total cash resources 93,727 83,390 80,322 93,727 80,322 Other Current Assets 25,506 27,196 26,536 25,506 26,536 Current Liabilities 32,991 29,700 35,854 32,991 35,854 Working Capital 86,242 80,886 71,004 86,242 71,004 Total Assets 484,740 476,521 467,259 484,740 467,259 Total Liabilities 172,146 165,405 165,272 172,146 165,272 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Basic weighted average number of shares outstanding 80,954,117 80,493,133 80,306,617 80,570,879 73,334,778 Dividends per share NIL NIL NIL NIL NIL ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

The Company has included non-GAAP performance measures throughout this document. These include: cash operating costs per ton of ore produced, cash operating costs per ounce of gold produced, all-in cash costs per ounce of gold produced, all-in sustaining costs per ounce of gold sold, free cash flow, average sales price and working capital. Cash operating costs per ton of ore and ounce of gold produced, all-in cash costs per ounce of gold produced and all-in sustaining costs per ounce of gold sold are common performance measures in the mining industry but do not have any standardized meaning. The guidance provided by the World Gold Council for calculating all-in costs was reviewed and partially followed; however, the Company includes financing fees within the total cash costs and adjusts for non-cash items such as inventory valuation changes and, as a result, uses ounces produced rather than sold as the divisor when calculating AICC. Total cash operating costs include mine site operating costs (mining, processing and refining, in-mine drilling expenditures, administration, and production taxes), but are exclusive of other costs (royalties, depreciation and depletion, non-cash inventory valuation adjustments, off-site corporate costs, reclamation, capital, long-term development and exploration). All-in cash costs include all cash costs incurred or accrued during the period. The guidance provided by the World Gold Council for calculating all-in sustaining costs was reviewed and followed for calculating AISC. The Company currently considers all capital spending to be sustaining in nature. These measures, along with sales, are considered by the Company to be indicators of the Company's ability to generate operating earnings and free cash flows from its mining operations. The Company believes that certain investors use this information to evaluate the Company's performance and ability to generate cash flows. These should not be considered in isolation as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS and are not necessarily indicative of production costs presented under IFRS. The following tables provide reconciliation of such costs to the Company's financial statements for the quarters and year to date periods as noted:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cash Operating Costs All amounts in 000s of Three Canadian Dollars except Two months months Stub year Year tons ore produced, ounces ended ended ended ended of gold produced and unit Dec 31, Apr 30, Dec 31, Apr 30, costs 2015 2015 2015 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Production Expense $ 28,444 $ 43,550 $ 111,375 $ 169,788 Gold Inventory Valuation Adjustment (845) 694 (2,100) (314) Amortization and Depletion (6,712) (8,868) (23,809) (34,286) Stock-based compensation (158) (180) (336) (1,429) Cash Production Costs $ 20,730 $ 35,196 $ 85,130 $ 133,759 Royalties (960) (1,571) (3,820) (5,839) Cash Operating Costs $ 19,770 $ 33,625 $ 81,310 $ 127,920 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tons of Ore Produced 68,517 92,532 248,824 369,976 Ounces of Gold Produced 27,604 37,979 102,597 153,957 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cash Operating Cost per Ton $ 289 $ 363 $ 327 $ 346 Cash Operating Cost per Ounce $ 716 $ 885 $ 793 $ 831 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- AISC per Ounce Sold Three All amounts in 000s of Two months months Stub year Year Canadian Dollars except ended ended ended Ended ounces produced and unit Dec 31, Apr 30, Dec 31, Apr 30, costs 2015 2015 2015 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operating Costs per FS $ 20,613 $ 32,931 $ 83,410 $ 128,234 Royalties Expense 960 1,571 3,820 5,839 Stock Based Compensation 436 762 1,316 4,158 Exploration Expense (no Surface) 333 435 1,472 2,011 Corporate Expense (no financing costs) 1,275 615 3,436 3,230 Mineral Property Additions 6,932 10,896 27,324 41,479 Property, Plant & Equipment Purchases 3,813 2,002 6,524 5,953 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- AISC $ 34,362 $ 49,212 $ 127,302 $ 190,904 Ounces of Gold Sold 25,284 38,335 101,094 155,709 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- AISC per Ounce Sold $ 1,358 $ 1,283 $ 1,259 $ 1,227 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- AICC per Ounce Sold Three All amounts in 000s of Two months months Stub year Year Canadian Dollars except ended ended ended Ended ounces produced and unit Dec 31, Apr 30, Dec 31, Apr 30, costs 2015 2015 2015 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cash Operating Costs (see above) $ 19,770 $ 33,625 $ 81,310 $ 127,920 Royalties Expense 960 1,571 3,819 5,839 Exploration Expense 1,527 1,798 5,514 6,112 Corporate Cash Expense 4,142 4,980 12,777 17,065 Mineral Property Additions 6,932 10,896 27,324 41,479 Property, Plant & Equipment Purchases 3,813 2,002 6,524 5,953 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- AICC $ 37,144 $ 54,872 $ 137,267 $ 204,368 Ounces of Gold Produced 27,604 37,979 102,597 153,957 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- AICC per Ounce Produced $ 1,346 $ 1,445 $ 1,338 $ 1,327 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Three Two months months Stub year Year ended ended ended Ended Dec 31, Apr 30, Dec 31, Apr 30, Average Sales Price 2015 2015 2015 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Revenue (in 000s of Canadian Dollars) $ 37,581 $ 57,934 $ 149,874 $ 219,888 Ounces of Gold Sold 25,284 39,109 101,094 155,709 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Average Gold Sales Price CAD $ 1,486 $ 1,481 $ 1,483 $ 1,412 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CAD / US dollar exchange rate used in conversions 1.3498 1.2485 1.2984 1.1499 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Three Two months months Stub year Year ended ended ended Ended Dec 31, Apr 30, Dec 31, Apr 30, Free Cash Flow 2015 2015 2015 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cash Inflows from Operations $ 15,362 $ 20,728 $ 49,192 $ 78,154 Mineral Property Additions (6,932) (10,896) (27,324) (41,476) Property, Plant & Equipment (520) (2,002) (2,603) (5,953) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Free Cash Flow $ 7,910 $ 7,830 $ 19,264 $ 30,722 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Working Capital (All amounts in 000s of Canadian Dollars) Dec 31, 2015 Apr 30, 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Current Assets 122,622 106,858 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Current Liabilities 32,980 35,854 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Working Capital 89,643 71,004 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

About the Company

Kirkland Lake Gold Inc. is a Canadian focused, intermediate gold producer with assets in the historic Kirkland Lake gold camp, and east of the Timmins gold camp along the Porcupine-Destor Fault Zone, both in northeastern Ontario. The Company is currently targeting annual gold production of between 260,000 to 310,000 ounces from its cornerstone asset, the Macassa Mine Complex and the recently acquired Holt-Holloway and Taylor mines.

The Company is committed to building a sustainable mining company that is recognized as a safe and responsible gold producer with quality assets in safe mining jurisdictions.

The Toronto Stock Exchange has neither reviewed nor accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This Press Release contains statements which constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs and current expectations of the Company with respect to the future business activities and operating performance of the Company. The words "may", "would", "could", "should", "will", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are based on the opinions, assumptions and estimates of management considered reasonable at the date the statements are made such as, without limitation, opinion, assumptions and estimates of management regarding the Company's business, including but not limited to; the development of the Macassa Mine Complex and the East Timmins operations and the anticipated timing thereof, the anticipated timing of the release of the updated 2016 guidance information on the East Timmins assets. Such opinions, assumptions and estimates, are inherently subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other known and unknown factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements.

These factors include the Company's expectations in connection with the projects and exploration programs being met, the impact of general business and economic conditions, global liquidity and credit availability on the timing of cash flows and the values of assets and liabilities based on projected future conditions, fluctuating gold prices, currency exchange rates (such as the Canadian dollar versus the United States Dollar), possible variations in ore grade or recovery rates, changes in accounting policies, changes in the Company's corporate mineral reserves and resources, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, changes in project development, construction, production and commissioning time frames, the possibility of project cost overruns or unanticipated costs and expenses, higher prices for fuel, power, labour and other consumables contributing to higher costs and general risks of the mining industry, failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated, unexpected changes in mine life, seasonality and unanticipated weather changes, costs and timing of the development of new deposits, success of exploration activities, permitting time lines, government regulation of mining operations, environmental risks, unanticipated reclamation expenses, title disputes or claims, and limitations on insurance, as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in the Company's annual Management's Discussion and Analysis and Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2015, and the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis for the interim period ended December 31, 2015, filed with the securities regulatory authorities in certain provinces of Canada and available at www.sedar.com.

Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Although the Company has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be others that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements except as otherwise required by applicable law.

(1) The Company has included the following non-GAAP performance measures in this press release; average realized price per ounce sold, cash operating cost per ton produced and per ounce produced, AICC per gold ounce produced and AISC costs per ounce sold. These are common performance measures in the mining industry but do not have any standardized meaning. Refer to the end of this document for a reconciliation of these measures to the accompanying financial statements as filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

(2) All US dollar equivalents are converted at the average CAD to USD exchange rate during the reporting period.

(3) During the SY15_Q3 period, the AISC is higher than the AICC due to one-time transaction fees associated with the acquisition of St Andrew Goldfields Ltd., inventory adjustments, and the difference in the amount of ounces sold versus produced.

Contacts:

Kirkland Lake Gold Inc.

George Ogilvie, P.Eng

Chief Executive Officer

+1 416-840-7884 or Toll Free: 1-866-384-2924

gogilvie@klgold.com



Kirkland Lake Gold Inc.

Suzette N. Ramcharan, CPIR

Director of Investor Relations

Direct: +1 647-361-0200 or Mobile: +1 647-284-5315

sramcharan@klgold.com

www.klgold.com




TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 03/10/16 -- Denison Mines Corp. ("Denison" or the "Company") (TSX: DML)(NYSE MKT: DNN) is pleased to announce another high-grade uranium intersection near the Gryphon deposit on Denison's 60% owned Wheeler River property in northern Saskatchewan. Drill hole WR-641 intersected 3.9% eU3O8 over 9.2 metres, including 6.7% eU3O8 over 5.3 metres, approximately 160 metres to the northwest of the Gryphon deposit. Denison reports its initial exploration results as the radiometric equivalent uranium ("eU3O8") from a total gamma down-hole probe. All intersections will be sampled for chemical U3O8 assay.

Drill hole WR-641 is located approximately 100 metres northwest of, and on the same section line as, WR-633D1 - a recent drill hole in which Denison previously reported an intersection of approximately 11 metres of basement-hosted uranium mineralization grading over 1% eU3O8, including intervals of 5.7% eU3O8 over 1.0 metre and 6.3% eU3O8 over 1.7 metres.

Denison's President and CEO, David Cates, commented, "We are very encouraged to see such promising follow up results to WR-633D1 - together these results suggest that we may be on to another significant body of mineralization right next to Wheeler River's recently delineated Gryphon deposit. We are roughly half way through the 2016 winter drill program at Wheeler and we have plenty of metres left for further follow up on the mineralization immediately north of Gryphon and to continue to test targets southwest of the Gryphon deposit."

The Gryphon deposit is hosted in basement rock and is estimated to contain inferred resources of 43.0 million lbs U3O8 at a grade of 2.3% U3O8. Gryphon is located on the Wheeler River property, approximately 3 kilometres to the northwest of the Phoenix deposit, which is estimated to contain an additional indicated resource of 70.2 million lbs U3O8 at a grade of 19.1% U3O8. Together, the Gryphon and Phoenix deposits put Wheeler River amongst the largest and highest grade undeveloped projects in the Athabasca Basin.

High-Grade Uranium Mineralization in Drill Hole WR-641, Section 5200GP

Following the high-grade intersection in drill hole WR-633D1, a drill rig was dedicated to follow up in the area immediately north of Gryphon and further test the Basal Pegmatite unit. The follow up program commenced on the same section line as WR-633D1 in both the down- and up-dip directions. Additional mineralization and strong alteration was intersected in WR-633D2, 50 metres up-dip of WR-633D1, and indicated further drilling up-dip was warranted. Drill hole WR-641 was targeted approximately 50 metres up-dip of WR-633D2 and encountered 3.9% eU3O8 over 9.2 metres, including 6.7% eU3O8 over 5.3 metres. The high-grade mineralization in WR-641 was intersected approximately 180 metres below the sub-Athabasca unconformity and occurs within strongly altered pelitic gneisses that occur within the Basal Pegmatite unit. This represents the best result obtained to date within the Basal Pegmatite unit and is amongst the best basement intercepts since Gryphon was discovered in early 2014.

Denison's Vice President of Exploration, Dale Verran, commented, "These recent high-grade intersections, along with the significant alteration and structure, emphasize the mineralization potential of the Basal Pegmatite unit, which occurs immediately footwall to the Gryphon deposit and has undergone little previous drill testing and remains open in all directions."

Follow up drilling has yet to proceed along strike from the high-grade intercepts in WR-633D1 and WR-641, where the mineralization is open in both plunge directions. Furthermore, additional follow up drilling is warranted up-dip of WR-641 to test the extents of the high-grade mineralization and test additional graphitic pelites which exist in the Basal Pegmatite unit.

A summary of highlight intersections obtained to date on Section 5200GP is provided in Table 1, including results for WR-641 and WR-633D1. The mineralization intersected on Section 5200GP this winter is interpreted as a series of stacked, southeasterly dipping lenses that occur up-dip and footwall to the Gryphon deposit.

Table 1: Summaryof highlight intersections from Section 5200GP Drill Hole From (m) To (m) Length (m)(5) eU3O8 (%)(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- WR-594(2)(,6) 833.0 834.0 1.0 0.16 (and)(2)(,6) 840.0 841.0 1.0 0.09 (and)(2)(,6) 846.5 847.5 1.0 0.16 WR-594D2(2)(,6) 800.7 801.7 1.0 0.10 WR-582D1(2)(,6) 761.5 769 7.5 0.09 WR-638(3) 725.7 726.7 1.0 0.12 (and)(3) 727.6 729.5 1.9 0.13 (and)(3) 738.5 739.5 1.0 0.12 (and)(3) 740.4 741.6 1.2 0.16 (and)(3) 747.4 748.4 1.0 0.32 (and)(3) 760.2 761.2 1.0 0.13 (and)(3) 763.7 764.7 1.0 0.11 (and)(3) 781.4 782.4 1.0 0.98 (and)(3) 785.0 786.0 1.0 0.14 WR-633D1(3) 751.5 754.7 3.2 2.0 (includes)(4) 753.6 754.6 1.0 5.7 (and)(3) 757.7 765.3 7.6 1.7 (includes)(4) 760.3 762.0 1.7 6.3 (includes)(4) 764.2 765.2 1.0 1.2 WR-633D2(3) 748.3 749.6 1.3 0.76 WR-633D2(3) 758.3 759.3 1.0 0.18 WR-633D2(3) 785.0 786.0 1.0 0.30 WR-641(3) 575.3 576.3 1.0 0.20 (and)(3) 718.1 719.1 1.0 0.62 (and)(3) 721.1 730.3 9.2 3.94 (includes)(4) 723.7 729.0 5.3 6.70 Notes: (1) eU3O8 is radiometric equivalent uranium from a total gamma down-hole probe. All intersections will be sampled for chemical U3O8 assay (2) Intersection interval is composited above a cut-off grade of 0.05% U3O8 (3) Intersection interval is composited above a cut-off grade of 0.1% eU3O8 (4) Intersection interval is composited above a cut-off grade of 1.0% eU3O8 (5) As the drill holes are oriented steeply toward the northwest and the basement mineralization is interpreted to dip moderately to the southeast, the true thickness of the mineralization is expected to be approximately 75% of the intersection lengths (6) Previously reported results

Basal Pegmatite Unit Potential

The drilling results obtained to date within the Basal Pegmatite unit on Section 5200GP highlight the mineralization potential of this unit which remains largely unexplored. In addition to the numerous mineralized intercepts obtained this winter, the Basal Pegmatite unit has shown to contain numerous sub-units of pelitic gneiss which are variably graphitic, commonly faulted and hydrothermally altered. These geological features attest to a favourable environment for the discovery of additional uranium mineralization.

The maiden mineral resource estimate for Gryphon, completed in late 2015, included the A, B and C series lenses which all occur hanging wall to the Basal Pegmatite unit. The D series lenses, which occur within the Basal Pegmatite unit, were not included in the resource estimate due to insufficient drilling at the time. The D series lenses occur approximately 180 metres up plunge of the high grade intersections obtained in WR-633D1 and WR-641 - which could possibly represent the down plunge extent of some of the D series lenses. Further drilling is required to test whether the D series lenses are continuous with the mineralized intercepts obtained in WR-633D1, WR-633D2, WR-638 and WR-641.

Exploration Southwest of Gryphon Along the K-North Trend

In addition to basement targets in the vicinity of the Gryphon deposit, drill testing for unconformity mineralization has continued to the southwest of Gryphon along the K-North trend. During 2015, numerous mineralized intercepts were obtained along this trend over a 1.5 kilometer strike length - including drill hole WR-597, which intersected 4.5% U3O8 over 4.5 metres. The mineralization is located at or proximal to the unconformity and is associated with structurally disrupted, clay altered and geochemically anomalous sandstone and basement rock, typical of other Athabasca unconformity deposit settings.

Drilling during the 2016 winter program has focused on testing for additional zones of mineralization at the unconformity along strike of the southernmost hole drilled in 2015, WR-628, which intersected the most significant sandstone alteration and anomalous geochemistry of the 2015 program. Drill testing has been completed on section with WR-628 and along strike to the southwest at 200 and 600 metres respectively. Although no significant high-grade mineralization has been encountered, weak mineralization as well as significant alteration and structure continue to provide a vector to the southwest which is untested for approximately four kilometres along strike. Exploration in this target area continues as part of the current drill program.

Wheeler River Property

The Wheeler River property is host to the high-grade Phoenix and Gryphon uranium deposits. The Phoenix deposit is estimated to include indicated resources of 70.2M lbs U3O8 at a grade of 19.1% U3O8, and is the highest grade undeveloped uranium deposit in the world. The Gryphon deposit is hosted in basement rock, approximately 3 kilometres to the northwest of Phoenix, and is currently estimated to contain inferred resources of 43M lbs U3O8 at a grade of 2.3% U3O8. Wheeler River is a joint venture between Denison (60% and operator), Cameco Corp. (30%), and JCU (Canada) Exploration Company Limited (10%).

A 47,000 metre exploration drilling program is currently underway at Wheeler River with a focus on testing numerous unconformity and basement exploration targets in the vicinity of the Gryphon deposit, as well as other priority target areas on the property. Concurrent with the winter 2016 drilling program, a Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") is underway studying the economic potential of co-developing the Gryphon and Phoenix deposits. The PEA is expected to be completed during the first half of 2016.

Illustrative Figures & Further Details

A property location and basement geology map is provided in Figure 1. Figure 2 provides a plan map of the northeast plunging Gryphon mineralized lenses projected up to the basement geology at the sub-Athabasca unconformity and shows the location of drill hole WR-641. Figure 3 provides a cross-section along section line 5200GP and illustrates the new mineralization discovered in drill hole WR-641 and the interpreted southeasterly dipping mineralized lenses.

Further details regarding the Gryphon deposit and the current mineral resources estimated at Wheeler River are provided in the report titled "Technical Report on a Mineral Resource Estimate For The Wheeler River Property, Eastern Athabasca Basin, Northern Saskatchewan, Canada.", dated Nov. 25, 2015, authored by William E. Roscoe Ph.D, P.Eng. and Mark B. Mathisen C.P.G of RPA. A copy of this report is available under Denison's profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

Qualified Person

The disclosure of a scientific or technical nature contained in this news release was prepared by Dale Verran, MSc, Pr.Sci.Nat., Denison's Vice President, Exploration, who is a Qualified Person in accordance with the requirements of NI 43-101. For a description of the assay procedures and the quality assurance program and quality control measures applied by Denison, please see Denison's Annual Information Form dated March 5, 2015 filed under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

About Denison

Denison is a uranium exploration and development company with interests focused in the Athabasca Basin region of northern Saskatchewan. Including its 60% owned Wheeler River project, which hosts the high grade Phoenix and Gryphon uranium deposits, Denison's exploration portfolio consists of numerous projects covering over 390,000 hectares in the eastern Athabasca Basin. Denison's interests in Saskatchewan also include a 22.5% ownership interest in the McClean Lake joint venture, which includes several uranium deposits and the McClean Lake uranium mill, which is currently processing ore from the Cigar Lake mine under a toll milling agreement, plus a 25.17% interest in the Midwest deposit and a 61.55% interest in the J Zone deposit on the Waterbury Lake property. Both the Midwest and J Zone deposits are located within 20 kilometres of the McClean Lake mill. Internationally, Denison owns 100% of the Mutanga project in Zambia, 100% of the uranium/copper/silver Falea project in Mali, and a 90% interest in the Dome project in Namibia.

Denison is also engaged in mine decommissioning and environmental services through its Denison Environmental Services division and is the manager of Uranium Participation Corporation, a publicly-traded company which invests in uranium oxide and uranium hexafluoride.

Follow Denison on Twitter @DenisonMinesCo

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information contained in this press release constitutes "forward-looking information", within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and similar Canadian legislation concerning the business, operations and financial performance and condition of Denison. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "believes", or the negatives and/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". In particular, this press release contains forward-looking information pertaining to the following: exploration (including drilling) and evaluation activities, plans and objectives; potential mineralization of drill targets; and the estimates of Denison's mineral resources.

Forward looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made, and they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Denison to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Denison believes that the expectations reflected in this forward-looking information are reasonable but there can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and may differ materially from those anticipated in this forward looking information. For a discussion in respect of risks and other factors that could influence forward-looking events, please refer to the "Risk Factors" in Denison's Annual Information Form dated March 5, 2015 available under its profile at www.sedar.com and in its Form 40-F available at www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml. These factors are not, and should not be construed as being, exhaustive.

Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking information contained in this press release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Denison does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information after the date of this press release to conform such information to actual results or to changes in its expectations except as otherwise required by applicable legislation.

Cautionary Note to United States Investors Concerning Estimates of Measured, Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources: This press release may use the terms "measured", "indicated" and "inferred" mineral resources. United States investors are advised that while such terms are recognized and required by Canadian regulations, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission does not recognize them. "Inferred mineral resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian rules, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility or other economic studies. United States investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of measured or indicated mineral resources will ever be converted into mineral reserves. United States investors are also cautioned not to assume that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource exists, or is economically or legally mineable.

To view Figures 1-3, click on the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/Denison310.pdf

Contacts:

Denison Mines Corp.

David Cates

(416) 979-1991 ext. 362

President and Chief Executive Officer



Denison Mines Corp.

Sophia Shane

(604) 689-7842

Investor Relations




Copenhagen Airports: Two million travellers in February



The number of travellers at Copenhagen Airport grew by 16.0% year on year in February. Much of the increase was from tourists travelling to Denmark on one of the many new routes.



A total of 1,945,542 passengers travelled through Copenhagen Airport in February 2016, 268,342 more than in February of last year. The 16% growth rate marks the third straight month of double-digit growth rates at Copenhagen Airport. Both domestic and intercontinental traffic grew substantially, and for European routes alone the growth rate in February was 17.4%:



- Especially Norwegian, easyJet and Ryanair account for a very large part of the growth, but the low-cost carriers are not the only ones generating growth. Generally, there is growing interest in travelling to Denmark. More tourists are travelling to Denmark, and that generates growth and creates jobs here, explains Thomas Woldbye, CEO of Copenhagen Airports.



Copenhagen and Denmark make up an attractive market for the airlines, which results in more competition. As part of this trend, Hungarian Wizz Air is launching its first service to Copenhagen on 22 March, a service between Copenhagen and Skopje, the capital of Macedonia:



- At Copenhagen Airport, we are very pleased that we continue to attract new airlines and routes while existing airlines are also expanding their operations. This shows that we are competitive and able to attract a large part of the current growth in the airline business, which benefits growth and job creation, says Woldbye.



Attachment:

https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=550991

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Germany's exports dropped unexpectedly at the start of the year suggesting that weak demand from emerging economies, especially China, weighed on foreign demand, while imports growth exceeded expectations. Exports fell 0.5 percent month-on-month in January, following a 0.7 percent drop in December, Destatis reported Thursday. This was the second consecutive decrease in shipments. Economists had forecast exports to recover in January by expanding 0.8 percent. Meanwhile, imports grew 1.2 percent from December, when it fell 1.6 percent. The pace of growth was faster than an expected 0.8 percent. As a result, the trade surplus decreased to a seasonally adjusted EUR 18.8 billion from EUR 20.3 billion in the previous month. On a yearly basis, exports declined 1.4 percent partially offsetting December's 3.3 percent increase. It was the first annual fall since August 2014. Growth in imports slowed to 1.5 percent from 3.5 percent. On an unadjusted basis, the trade surplus totaled EUR 13.6 billion compared to a EUR 19 billion surplus in December. It was forecast to drop to EUR 17 billion. At the same time, the current account surplus fell to EUR 13.2 billion in January from EUR 14.9 billion in the previous year. The expected level was EUR 17 billion. Jennifer McKeown at Capital Economics said the euro area's slow recovery is likely to weaken this year, warranting bold action from the European Central Bank later today. Markets and economists are looking forward to a further reduction of at least 10 basis points in the deposit rate, which will push it deeper into negative territory. 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.
MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 03/10/16 --

-- Total revenues of $35.5 million for Q3 Fiscal 2016, an increase of 39% over the same period last year -- Strong U.S. revenue growth, up 88% in Q3 Fiscal 2016 over Q3 Fiscal 2015 -- Solid Q3 Adjusted Consolidated Gross Margin at 50.3%, a 6.7 percentage point increase over the same period last year -- Q3 Adjusted EBITDA increased to $3.6 million, or 10.1% of revenues, an improvement of 4.8 percentage points compared to the preceding year -- Q3 Adjusted Net Income increased to $4.1 million compared to $2.1 million for the same period last year -- Q3 Adjusted diluted EPS of $0.16 compared to $0.08 for the same period last year -- Q3 operating cash flow of $3.8 million -- Acquisition of Fluxwerx Illumination Inc., a fast growing pure-play specification-grade LED lighting solutions provider, for a total initial consideration of $60 million -- New revolving credit facility of $40 million to finance expanding operations

Lumenpulse Inc. (TSX: LMP), a leading manufacturer of high performance, specification-grade LED lighting solutions, released today its financial results for the third quarter and nine-month period ended January 31, 2016.

"Our results for the third quarter were spearheaded by the impressive performance of our U.S. operations, which grew 88%, well above the industry growth rate, reflecting the traction of our innovative and expanding product portfolio and the strength of our distribution channels," said Francois-Xavier Souvay, President and CEO of Lumenpulse.

"Q3 Adjusted Lumenpulse Products Gross Margin attained 50.8%, up from 45.2% over the same period last year due to the continued leverage of our manufacturing capabilities and productivity initiatives. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $3.6 million or 10.1% of total revenues representing a notable improvement over the $1.4 million or 5.3% reported for the same period last year.

"In recent months, we were active on the M&A front with the acquisition of Exenia s.r.l. based in Italy, which adds complementary LED products in the retail, hospitality and museum sectors. This acquisition also allows us to access a well-established network of 14 Italian agents and 13 European VARs, which in turn should increase the penetration of our brands in Italy and the rest of Europe.

"Today, in a separate press release, we announced the acquisition of Fluxwerx for an initial consideration of $60 million, which could reach $85 million based on an earn-out payment, which is subject to certain conditions. The merging of our organizations represents a major milestone, which we believe will be transformational for the Lumenpulse Group, creating one of the most exciting and innovative companies in the LED lighting industry.

"Over the next few quarters, we look forward to the integration of our recent acquisitions as we see tremendous cross-selling and technology synergies, new opportunities via a larger addressable market, expanded geographic access and the benefit of new management sharing our vision and goals," added Mr. Souvay.

"We remain in a solid financial position which allows us to continue the execution of our growth strategy. We had $41.3 million in cash and cash equivalents at quarter-end, of which a substantial portion was used to acquire Fluxwerx. Recently we entered into a new revolving credit agreement of up to $40 million allowing us to maintain our operational flexibility," added Peter Timotheatos, Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer.

"Our objectives remain to continue growing Lumenpulse's business at a rate that exceeds the growth rate in the general lighting market for LED products, and, within the next four years, to converge towards market growth, to maintain an Adjusted Gross Margin of approximately 50% and ultimately to deliver Adjusted EBITDA margins of approximately 18% to 20%," concluded Mr. Souvay.

Financial Highlights (Unaudited, in millions of Canadian dollars, except per share amounts) For the third quarters and the nine-month periods ended January 31, 2016 and 2015 -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- Q3 2016 Q3 2015 Change YTD 2016 YTD 2015 Change -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- Revenues - Consolidated 35.5 25.5 10.0 104.8 69.7 35.1 Growth 39% 50% -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- Revenues - Lumenpulse products (LP) 33.9 22.7 11.2 98.2 60.1 38.1 Growth 50% 63% -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- Adjusted Gross Profit % - Consolidated(1) 50% 44% 6 pts 49% 43% 6 pts Gross Profit % - Consolidated 49% 43% 6 pts 48% 43% 0 pts -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- Adjusted Gross Profit % - LP(1) 51% 45% 6 pts 50% 45% 5 pts Gross Profit % - LP 49% 45% 4 pts 49% 44% 5 pts -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- Adjusted EBITDA(1) 3.6 1.4 2.2 9.8 1.7 8.1 EBITDA1 1.6 1.1 0.5 6.4 0.3 6.1 -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- Adjusted Net Income(1) 4.1 2.1 2.0 9.8 1.6 8.2 Net Income (Loss) 1.6 1.6 - 5.6 (0.3) 5.9 -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- Adjusted EPS (Loss per Share) - Diluted(1,2) 0.16 0.08 0.08 0.39 0.06 0.33 EPS (Loss per Share) - Diluted2 0.06 0.06 - 0.22 (0.01) 0.23 -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- 1 See the Non-IFRS financial measures section below. 2 The calculations for the third quarter and the nine-month period ended January 31, 2016 include the effect of 1,246,331 and 1,308,637 stock options, respectively, which are deemed to be dilutive. In the periods where the Company incurred net losses, all potentially dilutive stock options have been excluded from the calculation of diluted loss per share. All outstanding share options could potentially dilute earnings per share in the future.

Revenues

For the third quarter of Fiscal 2016, revenues increased by $10.0 million, or 39%, to $35.5 million compared to $25.5 million for the corresponding period last year. The increase was driven by the revenue growth of the Lumenpulse Products segment partially offset by the decrease in OMP revenues. Lumenpulse Products achieved significant year-over-year growth of 50% with revenues of $33.9 million from $22.7 million for the same period last year. For the nine-month period, Lumenpulse recorded revenues of $104.8 million, a 50% increase compared to revenues of $69.7 million for the same period last year.

The Lumenpulse Products revenue growth was fueled by a strong performance in the U.S. with year-over-year quarterly growth of 88% and a nine month year-to-date growth of 95%. For both periods, the increase was primarily due to the leveraging of our existing product lines and further penetration of our existing network of agents and VARs in North America, the expansion of our addressable market coverage and a favorable foreign exchange impact.

International revenues decreased slightly to $9.2 million compared to $9.5 million for the same period last year. Revenues in the third quarter included a favorable foreign exchange impact and the benefit of the recently acquired Exenia. However, these were offset by a lower-than-expected performance in this segment driven in part by the economic slowdown experienced in certain geographical areas during the past few months and the usual seasonality experienced during the third quarter.

Adjusted Gross Margin(1)

For the third quarter and nine-month period ended January 31, 2016, Adjusted Consolidated Gross Margin increased to 50.3% from 43.6% and to 49.1% from 43.3% respectively. For both periods, the increases were primarily related to the greater proportion of Lumenpulse Products, which generated a higher and improved gross margin.

For the third quarter and the nine-month ended January 31, 2016, Adjusted Gross Margin on Lumenpulse Products increased to 50.8% from 45.2% and to 50.1% from 44.9%, respectively. The variance is primarily due to a favorable geographical mix, manufacturing efficiencies and greater production capacity utilization.

Adjusted EBITDA(1)

For the third quarter of Fiscal 2016, Adjusted EBITDA increased to $3.6 million from $1.4 million for the same period last year. For the nine-month period ended January 31, 2016, Adjusted EBITDA increased to $9.8 million from $1.7 million a year ago. For both periods, the increases were mainly attributable to significant increases in Adjusted Gross Profit, partially offset by the higher level of operating expenses required to support growth.

Adjusted Net Income(1)

For the third quarter of Fiscal 2016, Adjusted Net Income increased to $4.1 million, or $0.16 per diluted share, from $2.1 million, or $0.08 per diluted share, for the corresponding period last year. Adjusted Net Income for the nine-month period increased to $9.8 million, or $0.39 per diluted share, from $1.6 million, or $0.06 per share a year ago. These favorable variances were mostly due to the improvement on Adjusted EBITDA and a foreign exchange gain included in the net financing costs, partially offset by higher depreciation and amortization.

Financial Position

The Company's financial position remains solid. With cash flow from operations of $3.8 million in the third quarter, driven mainly by profitability, the Company's cash and cash equivalents stood at $41.3 million as of January 31, 2016. Subsequent to quarter end, on March 9, 2016, a substantial amount was used to fund the acquisition of Fluxwerx. The Company also cancelled its previous revolving credit Facility and entered into a new revolving credit facility of up to $40.0 million.

Acquisition of Fluxwerx Illumination

The Company also announced today that it has acquired Fluxwerx Illumination Inc., a privately owned, fast growing, pure-play specification-grade LED lighting solutions provider based in British Columbia, Canada, for a total initial consideration of $60 million.

Fluxwerx is a manufacturer of innovative, high-performance, LED luminaires for the general lighting of commercial and institutional spaces, such as office, education and healthcare. Founded in 2011, Fluxwerx has quickly established itself at the forefront of LED lighting solution providers, with a distinctive product offering and innovative proprietary anidolic optics technology.

The initial consideration paid by Lumenpulse consists of an upfront cash payment of $36 million, the issuance of Lumenpulse shares for an aggregate amount of $20 million (based on a price of $15.78 per share) and a cash holdback of $4 million to be paid approximately one year after closing. The upfront cash payment was financed with available liquidities.

The transaction is subject to post-closing adjustments and to an earn-out payment of up to $25 million, payable in cash or shares at the option of Lumenpulse, based on a linear formula which combines revenue and Adjusted EBITDA targets for Fiscal 2017. The revenue component of the earn-out payment is based on a range between $43.8 million and $55 million, subject to the achievement of a minimum Adjusted EBITDA performance.

Conference Call

Lumenpulse has scheduled a conference call to discuss these results on Thursday, March 10, 2016, beginning at 11:00 A.M. (ET). This conference call will be broadcast live on the Internet at the following link: Q3 2016 Earnings Conference Call. A slideshow presentation intended for real-time viewing with the conference call will also be available. Alternatively, investors may join by dialing in North America: 1-844-825-4409 (conference ID: 45117499). The webcast will be archived at www.lumenpulse.com/en/investors/quarterly-results.

Non-IFRS Measures

This MD&A makes reference to certain non-IFRS measures. These measures are not recognized measures under IFRS, do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and are therefore unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. Rather, these measures are provided as additional information to complement IFRS measures by providing further understanding of the Company's results of operations from management's perspective.

The non-IFRS measures permit assessment of the results generated by the Company's core business, prior to consideration of how the activities are financed, how the results are taxed or the non-cash impact associated to the volatility of the Company's share price. Unusual or other items of a non-recurring nature, that could make the period-over-period comparison of the Company's underlying business less meaningful or not representative of future performance, are further excluded from Adjusted Non-IFRS measures. Although amortization of acquired intangible assets, expense for share-based compensation and expense for unrealized gains or losses on revalued cash share-based compensation have been recognized in prior periods and could reoccur in future periods, management excludes these charges during internal reviews of performance, operational analysis, decision making, and other activities. These measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our financial information reported under IFRS. Management's definition of these measures may differ from similarly titled measures reported by other companies.

We use non-IFRS measures including EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income (Loss), Adjusted Gross Profit, Adjusted Earnings (Loss) per share-basic and diluted to provide investors with supplemental measures of our operating performance and thus highlight trends in our core business that may not otherwise be apparent when relying solely on IFRS financial measures.

EBITDA is defined as earnings before net financing (income) costs, income taxes, and depreciation and amortization. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as EBITDA less unusual and non-recurring items, non-cash share-based compensation and unrealized gains or losses on revalued cash share-based compensation. Unusual and non-recurring items is defined as expenses incurred for the initial public offering ("IPO"), acquisition-related costs and employee termination costs associated with an operational restructuring. Unrealized gains or losses on revalued cash share-based compensation which has been expensed and is unexercised at the end of the reporting period. These unrealized gains or losses are driven by the fluctuation of the Company's common share price during the reference period.

Adjusted Net Income (Loss) is defined as net income (loss) before net change in carrying value of the redeemable shares at the option of the holders and related financial derivative liability, early repayment fee on long-term debt, unusual and non-recurring items net of taxes, unusual and non-recurring tax recoveries, non-cash share-based compensation, unrealized gains or losses on revalued cash share-based compensation and amortization of acquired intangible assets. Unusual and non-recurring tax recoveries is defined as income tax recoveries resulting from estimated values of acquired assets and liabilities.

Adjusted Gross Profit is defined as gross profit less non-cash share-based compensation, unusual and non-recurring items, unrealized gains or losses on revalued cash share-based compensation and depreciation and amortization.

Adjusted Earnings per share - diluted is defined as the Adjusted Net Income on the weighted average number of ordinary shares outstanding during the period and all potentially dilutive stock options.

Adjusted Loss per share - diluted is defined as the Adjusted Net Loss on the weighted average number of ordinary shares outstanding during the period. In the periods where the Company incurred net losses, all potentially dilutive stock options have been excluded from the calculation of diluted loss per share. All outstanding share options could potentially dilute earnings per share in the future.

For a reconciliation of net income (loss) to EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Income (Loss), a reconciliation of gross profit to Adjusted Gross Profit" see section 2.2.1 "Reconciliation of Non-IFRS Measures" in the Company's Management's Discussion & Analysis for the Third Quarter Fiscal 2016 filed with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities, which is available on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com.

Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Such forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, information with respect to our objectives and the strategies to achieve these objectives, as well as information with respect to our beliefs, plans, expectations, anticipations, estimates and intentions. This forward-looking information is identified by the use of terms and phrases such as "may", "would", "should", "could", "expect", "intend", "estimate", "anticipate", "plan", "foresee", "believe", or "continue", the negative of these terms and similar terminology, including references to assumptions, although not all forward-looking information contains these terms and phrases. Forward-looking information is based upon a number of assumptions and is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward-looking information. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risk factors identified in the Company's annual information form filed with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities, which is available on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on this forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purposes of assisting the reader in understanding the Company's financial performance, financial position and cash flows as at and for the periods ended on certain dates and to help investors measure progress towards management's objectives and the reader is cautioned that such statements may not be appropriate for other purposes. Unless otherwise noted, the forward-looking information contained herein is provided as of the date hereof, and we do not undertake to update or amend such forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable law.

To obtain the complete unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements, the Management's Discussion & Analysis and additional information about the Company, including our 2015 Annual Information Form, please consult our website at www.lumenpulse.com and on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com.

About Lumenpulse Inc.

Founded in 2006, Lumenpulse designs, develops, manufactures and sells a wide range of high performance and sustainable specification-grade LED lighting solutions for commercial, institutional and urban environments. Lumenpulse is a leading pure-play specification-grade LED lighting solutions provider and has earned many awards and recognitions, including several Product Innovation Awards (PIA), three Next Generation Luminaires Design Awards, a Red Dot Product Design Award and a Lightfair Innovation Award. Including Fluxwerx's 70 employees, Lumenpulse now has more than 584 employees worldwide, with corporate headquarters in Montreal, Canada, and offices in Vancouver, Quebec City, Boston, Paris, Florence, London and Manchester. Lumenpulse is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol LMP.

(1) Please refer to the table in the Financial Highlights above for IFRS measures and to the Non-IFRS measures section at the end of this press release.

Contacts:

Elisabeth Hamaoui

Investor Relations/M&A

(514) 937-3003 ext. 388

ehamaoui@lumenpulse.com

www.lumenpulse.com




Regulatory News:

The Gunnebo Group's Capital Market Day 2016, which took place in Stockholm on March 10, was attended by around 40 analysts, fund managers, investors and journalists.

The Capital Market Day opened with a statement from the Group's President and CEO, Henrik Lange, under the heading "Strategic Update":

"Gunnebo has a clear, well-defined strategy for profitable growth that is based on the four core product areas Safes Vaults, Cash Management, Entrance Security and Electronic Security."

"After nine months at the company, one of my main findings is that Gunnebo has a broad offering with more technology than we have talked about before. This is something we will leverage going forward, and it lays a strong foundation to support profitable growth through increased solution selling."

"However we have not achieved our financial goals. Therefore the Group management team has reviewed Gunnebo's business and identified a number of activities that together will help us achieve these targets. Productivity will be key in everything we do going forward, and we will invest in activities which will generate growth in our product areas, strengthen our software platform, maximise our capability to develop business with international key customers, and improve our service delivery."

The day then continued with a financial update from Gunnebo's CFO, Susanne Larsson, as well as presentations on each of the three sales regions EMEA, Americas and Asia-Pacific, delivered by the regional SVPs.

All presentations and a webcast recording from the event will be available on www.gunnebogroup.com from the evening of March 10.

GUNNEBO AB (publ) Group Communications

The Gunnebo Group is a global leader in security products, services and solutions with an offering covering cash management, safes and vaults, entrance security and electronic security for banks, retail, CIT, mass transit, public commercial buildings and industrial high-risk sites.

The Group has an annual turnover of 660 million, employs 5,500 people and has sales companies in 32 countries across Europe, Middle East Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Americas as well as Channel Partners on over 100 additional markets.

We make your world safer.

www.gunnebogroup.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160310005645/en/

Contacts:

Gunnebo

Henrik Lange, President and CEO Gunnebo AB,

tel. +46 10 2095 000,

or Karin Wallstrom, Communication IR Director Gunnebo AB,

tel. +46 10 2095 026,

or e-mail: karin.wallstrom@gunnebo.com
BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The Swiss franc gave up its early strength against its major rivals in Europe on Thursday. The franc eased to 0.9988 against the greenback, 1.4207 against the pound, 113.67 against the yen and 1.0956 against the euro, from its early highs of 0.9963 and 1.4142, 3-day high of 114.08 and 2-day high of 1.0926, respectively. The franc may locate support around 1.02 against the greenback, 112.00 against the yen, 1.105 against the euro and 1.43 against the pound. 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.
MEXICO CITY, 2016-03-10 13:00 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Empresas ICA, S.AB. de C.V. (BMV:ICA) (NYSE:ICA), the largest infrastructure and construction company in Mexico, announced that its Board of Directors has accepted the resignation of Alfonso Gonzalez Migoya as Deputy CEO and as a member of the Board of Directors. The Board also ratified the executive management team led by Luis Zarate Rocha as Chief Executive Officer and Guadalupe Phillips Margain as Chief Restructuring Officer."My work at ICA has concluded," Mr. Gonzalez Migoya stated. "My commitment with ICA was to prepare the foundations, organize the team, and make the initial undertaking to restructure ICA's operations and finances into order to restore its economic viability. I am pleased to have been able to serve the Company during these past several months."The Board of Directors today was also presented with the general parameters of the restructuring plan. ICA expects to approach its creditors over the next several weeks with its proposed plan.Bernardo Quintana, the Chairman of the Board, said, "On behalf of the Board of Directors, I want to thank Alfonso for his dedicated service during this crucial period in ICA's history."Such forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties and may differ materially from actual results or events due to important factors such as changes in general economic, business or political or other conditions in Mexico, Latin America or elsewhere, changes in capital markets in general that may affect policies or attitudes towards lending to Mexico or Mexican companies, changes in tax and other laws affecting ICA's businesses, increased costs, unanticipated increases in financing and other costs or the inability to obtain additional debt or equity financing on attractive terms and other factors set forth in ICA's most recent filing on Form 20-F and in any filing or submission ICA has made with the SEC subsequent to its most recent filing on Form 20-F. All forward-looking statements are based on information available to ICA on the date hereof, and ICA assumes no obligation to update such statements.Empresas ICA, S.A.B. de C.V. is Mexico's largest infrastructure company. ICA carries out large-scale civil and industrial construction projects and operates a portfolio of long-term assets, including airports, toll roads, water systems, and real estate. Founded in 1947, lCA is listed on the Mexican and New York Stock exchanges. For more information, visit ir.ica.mx.For more information, please contact:Gabriela Orozco gabriela.orozco@ica.mxChristianne Ibanez christianne.ibanez@ica.mxrelacion.inversionistas@ica.mx +(5255) 5272 9991 x 3012Pablo Garcia Chief Financial Officer pablo.garcia@ica.mxIn the US: Daniel Wilson, Zemi Communications +(1212) 689 9560 dbmwilson@zemi.com
10 March 2016

GB00B5SLRQ49

DIVERSIFIED GAS & OIL PLC

('DGO' or 'the Company')

Further issue of 3,600,000 of 8.5 per cent. Unsecured Bonds

due 23 June 2020

Admission Announcement

The Directors of Diversified Gas & Oil Plc are pleased to announce that an application has been made for the further issue of up to 3,600,000 of 8.5% Unsecured Bonds due 2020, with a nominal value of 1 each, of the Company (the "Bonds") to be admitted to trading on the ISDX Growth Market. The Company's registered office is at Regis House, 45 King Williams Street, London EC4R 9AN. The expected admission date of new Bonds to be issued in connection with this Announcement is 14 March 2016.

The Company's 8.5 per cent. Unsecured Bonds were originally admitted to the ISDX Growth Market on 24 June 2015. To date DGO has raise approximately 4.2m in five placings of the Bonds.

1. Company Information

Diversified Gas & Oil Plc was incorporated on 31 July 2014 in England and Wales as a public limited company by its founders, Robert Hutson Jr. and Robert Post. It intends to use the proceeds of the issue of the new Bonds described in this Announcement to acquire approximately 1,000 conventional oil and gas wells and has entered into a Letter of Intent with a seller in Ohio, USA. These assets are considered non-core to the seller as it has shifted its focus to the Utica and Marcellus shales. The purchase price of the acquired assets is $4.8m, which represents a significant discount to current market price. The present value ("PV") discounted future cash flows at the $4.8m purchase price represents a 70% discount rate of future cash flows.

These assets are currently producing over 225 BOPD and 3,500 MCF of natural gas per day. The production of these assets will generate a total revenue at current market prices in excess of $6.5m with EBITDA estimated at approximately $1.5m. The operating expenses for the acquired assets would be combined with the Group's current operations in Ohio, resulting in a substantial cost reduction for the acquired assets.

On completion of the acquisition, the DGO Group will operate over 5,000 conventional wells in the Appalachian Basin, producing approximately 450 BOPD and 13,500 MCF per pay of natural gas.

2. Directors

The Directors have extensive senior level experience in private and public held companies, both within and outside the oil and gas sector.

The Directors of the Company, their age and positions are as follows:

Robert "Rusty" Hutson Jr., (Age 46, Chief Executive Officer)

Before founding the DGO Group in 2001, Rusty held finance and accounting roles for 13 years at Bank One (Columbus, Ohio) and Compass Bank (Birmingham, Alabama). He finished his banking career as Chief Financial Officer of Compass Financial Services. Rusty is a 50% owner of the Company and has a B.S. degree in Accounting from Fairmont State College, West Virginia. He is a former CPA (Ohio).

Robert Marshall Post, (Age 58, Chairman)

Robert joined the DGO Group in 2005. He was previously a corporate controller for Whiting Corporation for 3 years. He then purchased TramBeam, an overhead crane company, from Whiting Corporation and owned and operated this business for 20 years. Robert sold TramBeam in 2002 to a London-based corporation, FKI Industries. He has a B.S. degree in Accounting (Finance minor) from Jacksonville State University, Alabama.

Martin Keith Thomas (Age 51, Non-Executive Director)

Martin is a lawyer based in the city of London. Martin has built a strong reputation for advising companies and investment banks on flotations and other transactions on the markets of the London Stock Exchange. For the past twenty years, Martin has been one of the most active lawyers advising on public offerings of shares in London.

3. The Issue

The Company has applied for the new Bonds to be issued in connection with this Announcement to be admitted to trading on the ISDX Growth Market.

DGO Group has received a commitment for further placings of up to 1,000,000 of new Bonds to be issued at par with this Announcement. It is expected that the admission of the first tranche of such new Bonds to the ISDX Growth Market will take place on 14 March 2016.

Once an aggregate of 3.6m of the new Bonds have been placed another Information Memorandum will be issued for the next 3.5m commitment.

The net proceeds of the issue of the new Bonds referred to in this Announcement will be used by the Company to fund the intended acquisition and other appropriate value driven investment opportunities of small gas and oil operators across West Virginia and Ohio.

4. Information on the Bonds

The new Bonds bear interest from and including the applicable issue date at the rate of 8.5% interest per annum, payable quarterly in arrears in instalments on 31 March, 30 June, 30 September, and 31 December in each year. The new Bonds will be redeemed by the Company on the 23 June 2020.

5. Capital Structure

5.1 Issued Capital

The issued share and loan capital of the Company as at the 7 March 2016 is as follows:

Issued Issued  Number Ordinary Shares 412,000 41,200,000 Bonds 4,165,944 4,165,944

5.2 Bonds Significant Holdings

As at 7 March 2016, the following parties have an interest of more than 3% in the Bonds of the Company:

Name Bondholder Number of Issued Bonds at Nominal Value 1 Percentage Bond Holders Robert R. Hutson Jr. 216,000 5% Robert M. Post 216,000 5% Optimus Socially Responsible Investment Ltd 640,000 15% Beaufort Securities Limited 2,000,000 48% Falcon Balanced Fund 320,000 8% Falcon Cautious Fund 320,000 8% Falcon Aggressive Fund 320,000 8%

5.3 Shares in Public Hands

The Company has no share capital in public hands.

6. Sector Classification

DGO Group is classified as oil and gas producer on ISDX.

Clearing System

With effect from admission settlement of transactions in the new Bonds will take place within CREST. Bondholders who wish to receive and retain share certificates will be able to do so.

CREST is a computerised share transfer and settlement system enabling securities to be held in electronic uncertificated form and transferred otherwise than by written instrument. The Articles permit the Company to issue Bonds in uncertificated form in accordance with the CREST Regulations.

8. Document Available for Inspection

Copies of the Information Memorandum dated 7 March 2016 and each of the documents incorporated by reference into the Information Memorandum will be available free of charge during usual business hours on any weekday (Saturdays and public holidays excepted) at the offices of Alexander David Securities Limited at 49 Queen Victoria Street, London EC4N 4SA.

The directors of Diversified Gas and Oil Plc accept responsibility for this announcement.

COMPANY CONTACT DETAILS:

Diversified Gas & Oil

100 Corporate Ridge,

Suite 100,

Birmingham,

Alabama 35242

USA

Telephone: + 1 205 408 0909

http://www.diversifiedgasandoil.com/

CORPORATE ADVISER AND CONTACT DETAILS:

Alexander David Securities Limited

David Scott - Corporate Finance

James Dewhurst - Institutional Sales

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7448 9820

http://www.ad-securities.com

49 Queen Victoria Street, London EC4N 4SA
Geneva, Vienna, New York - March 10, 2016 -- WISeKey (http://www.wisekey.com/), a World Leading Swiss based cyber security company and bright box LLC (http://www.bright-box.eu/) a global connected car vendor specialized in developing tech solutions for the auto industry announced today at the Geneva Auto Show a strategic alliance to include cybersecurity protection technology to the bright box's solutions allowing clients to remotely control vehicle functions such as climate control and locks via their mobile phone and to receive information such as the vehicle's location.





Bright box took off in 2012 with the launch of Dealer Mobility, a mobile app facilitating interaction between car dealers and their clients. This was followed by Remoto, which the company began working on in mid-2013.

All new cars on the market today include wireless technologies that could pose vulnerabilities to hacking or privacy intrusions as current systems and data security remain largely unprotected. Smart cars without cybersecurity protection technology could allow hackers to gain remote access by exploiting vulnerabilities in their connected ecosystem. While the number of cars connected to the internet keeps growing quickly (to over a quarter of a billion by year 2020, as estimated by Gartner) smart car manufactures are working to identify and reduce potential hacking vulnerabilities in their vehicles.

Carlos Moreira, WISeKey's founder and CEO, said, "We are delighted to partner with bright box and support a company whose business is aimed at improving people's lives. Bright box, and its product Remoto, have managed to solve a problem faced by millions of drivers, and unlike its competitors, bright boxy has done it cheaply and for the mass market. The company has every chance of becoming a leading supplier for many of the leading car manufacturers.

"As cars continue to evolve, essentially become giant computers on wheels, they are vulnerable to the very same threats and attacks as home computers, laptops and smartphones. Hackers can easily access the vehicle's computer system, manipulate the brakes, engine, and transmission, using laptops from their living room. Our technology, is designed to secure and protect identity and avoid malicious hacking."

WISeKey is currently deploying several large IoT Cybersecurity projects and is working with car manufacturers to apply its technology to cars to strengthen their Digital Identification of both, drivers and smart car operating system, and digitally sign and encrypt the information these cards are sending to Trusted Clouds. The concept is to allow cars to be accessible only via secure identity that can be stored on apps or wearables (see video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAyKfPOYwws (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAyKfPOYwws)).

WISeKey's solution reduces potential security threats by:

Embedding digital certificates, using WISeKey's Public Key Infrastructure and OISTE's Global Rootkey into NFC Trusted (http://www.nfctrusted.com/) tags, which can be installed and connected to existing advanced driver assistance systems and car operating systems.

Providing a Digital Certificate to authenticate each sensor installed inside a smart car.

Protecting driver's personal data as smart cards cars collect massive amount of data and essentially know everything about the driver's personal behavior and movements, which is much similar to current smartphones.

"We are pleased to collaborate with such a significant partner to improve security technology in our connected car platform. This partnership offers strong support for our business and strengths bright box company position in the automotive industry. The Remoto solution with the potential strong cybersecurity protection enables car manufacturers to provide their customers highly secured connected cars and furthermore to increase driver's confidence," said Robert Schuessler, VP of bright box.

About WISeKey

WISeKey is a leading information cybersecurity and identity Management Company, a Global growth Company partner of the World Economic Forum, providing specialized technologies for data protection, effective identification and authentication of people or objects to ensure secured communications and transactions without compromising trust. More information on www.wisekey.com (http://www.wisekey.com/) and find out more on www.wisekey.com/media-corner (http://www.wisekey.com/media-corner)

WISeKey Social Media accounts Twitter @wisekey (http://bit.ly/1puihjT), Linkedin (http://bit.ly/wkin), Facebook (http://on.fb.me/1LuJBdW), Instagram (http://bit.ly/1TbRSa1), Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/user/WISeKeySA)

About bright box

bright box LLC (www.bright-box.eu) is a European corporation that is specialized in solutions and platforms in the connected car sector. Its headquarters are in Vienna and the developers work primarily in Eastern Europe. The bright box management team has many years' experience with software systems in the automotive sector.

In essence, bright box offers two products. The first is Remoto, a connected car platform for automobile manufacturers, and the second is Dealer Mobility, a customer app solution for automobile manufacturers. With Remoto, bright box delivers a turnkey connected car platform from one source which comprises all components that an automobile manufacturer needs: a certified Telematic Control Unit (TCU) to be installed in the vehicles, a web-based control panel and a customer app for the vehicle's owner to control and track it remotely.

WISeKey:



Youmna Abisaleh, Head of Marketing and Sales



Tel: +41 22 594 30 40



Email: yabisaleh@wisekey.com (mailto:yabisaleh@wisekey.com) Investor Relations:



Lena Cati, The Equity Group, Inc.



Tel : +1 212-836-9611



Email: lcati@equityny.com

bright box:

Robert Schuessler

VP

Tel: +43 171 728 434

robert.schuessler@bright-box.de

www.bright-box.eu

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: WISeKey via Globenewswire



HUG#1993393


BOSTON, MA -- (Marketwired) -- 03/10/16 -- Constant Therapy, the leading innovator of science-based, customized brain rehabilitation apps, today announced it has raised $2 million in Series A financing. Golden Seeds led the round with participation from Kapor Capital, Launchpad Venture Group, Pond Capital and Community Health Network of Connecticut. The investment will enable the company to expand the scientific research, data, marketing and development behind its product.

Constant Therapy is revolutionizing the treatment of speech, language and cognitive disorders by using science-based digital brain therapy delivered on mobile devices. Its highly customized rehabilitation program, which enables continuous therapy anytime, any place, has earned accolades from national organizations in recent months including: the American Heart Association People's Choice Award for Best Health Technology, AARP 2015 Consumer Choice Award for Health Innovation and Village Capital and Global Health & Social Innovation Capital Partners Award.

"Constant Therapy quite literally puts speech, language and cognitive therapy in your pocket," said Keith Cooper, CEO and serial entrepreneur who joined the company last spring. "Developed by some of the world's foremost experts in brain rehabilitation, it allows us to harness both data and science to optimize the effectiveness of treatment, customize it for each patient and then deliver it for individual use, or as an integral part of clinician-led therapy."

Constant Therapy's mobile solution is aimed at improving the cognitive and language skills of patients with stroke, brain injury, dementia, aphasia and learning disorders so they can perform better at everyday tasks. Patients are able to accelerate their recovery via the company's NeuroPerformance Engine, an advanced analytics engine, which analyzes patient performance and automatically customizes their therapy program for their specific needs. The company's growing library of therapeutic tools today includes 65 science-based therapy categories and more than 60,000 exercises.

"We believe Constant Therapy can be a disruptive positive force in the $10 billion market for brain rehabilitation services," said Kevin Ohashi, PhD, managing partner and co-founder of Pond Capital. "Unlike traditional paper-based therapies that rely on static and manually delivered exercises, its mobile exercises are dynamic, updated constantly and customized for each patient. Clinicians can use Constant Therapy with their patients in clinic and the patients can continue to work independently when they go home."

The company was founded in 2013 by Boston University professor Swathi Kiran, who was head of the Aphasia Research Laboratory. While working with patients, Kiran noticed that people with cognitive, language, and speech disorders could benefit from a tool that combined technology with communication therapy. She teamed up with three notable technologists to develop mobile versions of proven speech therapy tasks and co-founded the company. They include: Dr. Veera Anantha, President, Mahendra Advani, Architect and Ehsan Dadgar, Mobile Development Lead.

Constant Therapy is the only company that partners with speech and language pathologists and other therapists by giving them access to the full version of the program for free to use with patients in their care. Some healthcare organizations that use Constant Therapy include Spaulding Rehabilitation Network, the Stroke Comeback Center and The MossRehab Aphasia Center.

Patients can use the program at home by purchasing a subscription to Constant Therapy for $19.99 per month, $199.99 per year or $299.99 for three years. Download today at your app store of choice: constanttherapy.com/download

About Constant Therapy

Boston-based Constant Therapy provides mobile applications for continuous and customized therapy to people with speech, language, cognition, memory and learning disorders. Born out of groundbreaking research at Boston University and in use at prominent and nationally recognized rehabilitation institutions, Constant Therapy provides the most comprehensive set of tools for traumatic brain injury (TBI) and stroke survivors and for people with aphasia or dementia, or children who need special education and care due to learning disabilities. Therapy tasks are based on the latest research and are easy to use. With 65 task categories and a growing library of over 60,000 exercises, patients can continue to make progress at home or even after traditional care ends in the clinic. For more information: http://constanttherapy.com

Media Contacts:

David Templeton

DBT Communications

203.530.0458

dbtcom@gmail.com



Carleen LeVasseur

DBT Communications

408.264.6767

carleenlevasseur@gmail.com




PUNE, India, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Vendors in global SONAR System market are adopting mergers and acquisitions as well as partnerships to stay competitive and expand their geographical presence as well as leverage the technical expertise of acquired companies to develop innovative products. The analysts forecast global sonar system market to grow at a CAGR of 7.31% during the period 2016 - 2020.

Complete report on SONAR System market spread across 45 pages, analyzing 6 major companies and providing 10 data exhibits is now available at http://www.reportsnreports.com/reports/496187-global-sonar-system-market-2016-2020.html.

According to the Global SONAR System Market 2016-2020 report, focus on improving safety of marine transportation is one of the major drives in the market. There has been a rise in offshoring and drilling activities across the globe. The rise in international trade activities has necessitated improvement in safety standards for navigation. To achieve this, a number of nautical charting activities and surveys are being conducted. The ships are provided with SONAR navigational charts to record the real-time status of ships.

The development of advanced SONAR systems for defense application has led to a considerable increase in government funding. The major funding programs initiated by the government will propel factors for market growth by 2020. For instance, in March 2015, Kraken SONAR Systems received USD 450,000 in funding from Canada's National Research Council-Industrial Research Assistance Program for the development of high-resolution sonar systems based on Kraken's Interferometric Synthetic Aperture SONAR technology. Similarly, the US Navy awarded USD 13,864,676 in funding to Lockheed Martin for the development of an Acoustic Rapid Commercial-off-the-Shelf Insertion SONAR system. Such growing funding will drive the global SONAR systems market until the end of 2020. Order the Global SONAR System Market 2016-2020 report at http://www.reportsnreports.com/purchase.aspx?name=496187.

During 2015, the Americas dominated the market, accounting for more than 37% of the market share in terms of shipment. Factors like growing investments in UUVs and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) systems and increasing focus on improving the safety of marine transportation, will contribute to a high demand for SONAR systems in the region.

The global SONAR system market is highly competitive with few dominating vendors. Due to the high growth potential of this market, the vendors are focusing on developing innovative products to capture more market share. Since the SONAR industry has minimal scope for product differentiation, vendors are investing substantially in R&D. Also, some vendors are adopting strategies such as mergers and acquisitions for technical expertise and resources to develop innovative products. The leading vendors in the market are ATLAS ELEKTRONIK, Kraken Sonar, Kongsberg Maritime, Raytheon, Thales and Teledyne Reson.

Other Prominent Vendors in the market are: Harris, Northrop Grumman, R2Sonic, Sound Metrics, Neptune SONAR, Garmin, Furuno Electronic, Johnson Outdoors, Navico, and FLIR Systems. Further, the report states that SONAR systems have an adverse effect on marine life, as it can lead to the injury or even death of species that live underwater.

Another related report on Public Sector Market is The Global Global Submarine and MRO Market 2015-2025 - Competitive Landscape and Strategic Insights: Market Profile. This report shows the leading Global Submarine and MRO market segments in various regions across the world. Details of top companies active across the global Global Submarine and MRO market are provided, together with market size and forecast 2013-2023 for the main players across those areas.

Key Findings: The report provides a detailed analysis of the competitive landscape of the Global Submarine and MRO market. It provides an overview of key Global Submarine and MRO companies catering to the Global Submarine and MRO sector, together with insights such as key alliances, strategic initiatives and a brief financial analysis.

Companies Mentioned: BAE Systems Plc, DCNS, Navantia S.A., Fincantieri SpA, Saab Kockums, Mazagon Dock, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co., Ltd(DSME), PO Sevmash, ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), Admiralty Shipyard, General Dynamics Electric Boat Corp, ASC Pty Ltd, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation and Lockheed Martin. Complete report available at http://www.reportsnreports.com/reports/426912-the-global-global-submarine-and-mro-market-2015-2025-competitive-landscape-and-strategic-insights-market-profile.html.

About Us:

ReportsnReports.com is an online market research reports library of 500,000+ in-depth studies of over 5000 micro markets. Not limited to any one industry, ReportsnReports.com offers research studies on agriculture, energy and power, chemicals, environment, medical devices, healthcare, food and beverages, water, advanced materials and much more.

Contact:

Ritesh Tiwari

UNIT no 802, Tower no. 7, SEZ

Magarpatta city, Hadapsar

Pune - 411013

Maharashtra, India.

+ 1 888 391 5441

sales@reportsandreports.com



Connect With Us on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReportsnReports/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/reportsnreports

Twitter: https: //twitter.com/marketsreports

G+ / Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/111656568937629536321/posts

RSS/Feeds:http://www.reportsnreports.com/feed/l-latestreports.xml
BINGLEY, England, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

On the 3rd May 2016 Pigmentalia will host a great event for those interested in starting a new and exciting career in tricopigmentation. Milena Lardi (of Beauty Medical in Milan, Italy) who is one of the leading experts in the world will be presenting and demonstrating her techniques.

She is a frequent guest speaker at some of the main hair restoration conferences worldwide, sharing her knowledge with the top hair transplant surgeons as well as supporting research for new products and methodology.

This unique 1 day conference will be held at the Mercure Hotel in Bingley (West Yorkshire) with great connections to Leeds station and Leeds Bradford Airport. The Pigmentalia Academy is also based in Bingley where students from all over the world come to attend our training courses.

More information about the event can be found on http://www.tricopigmentation.training

Mr Jasper Scholtes, one of the directors at Pigmentalia, said today, "Hair Follicle Simulation is one of the most innovative and effective solutions available today for hair loss without the need for surgery, cover-ups or medicine. Many men and women are experiencing hair loss from an early age, affecting their confidence, not knowing what to do about it, where to go or who to speak to.

Tricopigmentation is the implantation of specifically developed pigment into the scalp. We implant microscopic dots that will simulate hair follicles and give the illusion of a shaved head.

Tricopigmentation has become increasingly popular all over the world. This is the perfect opportunity to not only become part of this growing industry, but also to be part of Pigmentalia - a company who pride themselves on training individuals to the highest standard."

Tricopigmentation is a semi-permanent solution. It's a lifestyle choice and will disappear within a couple of years without leaving a residue on the scalp. This means there is no need for laser removal in the future which can be expensive, quite painful and potentially destroy the remaining hair on the scalp.

Tricopigmentation can be very effective for cases of Alopecia, male pattern baldness and to cover up hair transplant scars. This procedure is also a very good enhancement for clients who have had a hair transplant but who require more density.

Pigmentalia and Beauty Medical have joined forces to build an international network of tricopigmentation technicians and centres. The UK clinic and academy is managed by Jasper Scholtes, Debbie Clifford (Pigmentalia Technician and Trainer) and Tina Walsh.

Our technicians are among the best in the world and are known for creating the most natural looking results. Every single one of them is trained in one of our own Academies in Madrid, Milan (Beauty Medical) or the United Kingdom and assessed by Milena Lardi.

VIDEO LINK: https://youtu.be/v5uqr1DLwno

IMAGE LINKS:

http://www.pigmentalia.co.uk/images/milena-lardi-may-2016-web-pigmentalia.jpg

http://www.beautymedical.it/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/tricopigmentazione-paolo-prepost21.jpg

http://www.beautymedical.it/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/tricopigmentazione-cuoio-capelluto-2.jpg

http://www.beautymedical.it/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/tricopigmentazione-paolo-durante2.jpg



For further information please contact:

Jasper Scholtes

Director

Pigmentalia UK

Tel: +44(0)75-2107-2844

Email: jasper@goldeneyecompany.co.uk

Website: http://www.pigmentalia.co.uk


NAVIGATE Study Assesses Impact of Minimally Invasive Technology to Aid in Early Diagnosis and Treatment of Lung Cancer

DUBLIN - March 10, 2016 - Committed to technologies that assist in the goal of reducing lung cancer morbidity worldwide, Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) today announced European enrollment in the NAVIGATE clinical trial. This 2,500-patient international study will assess the long-term impact of its superDimension navigation system as an aid in early detection of lung cancer and subsequent treatment.

The superDimensionsystem uses LungGPS technology, the first of its kind to enable Electromagnetic Navigation Bronchoscopy (ENB) procedures. ENB procedures provide a minimally invasive approach to access difficult-to-reach areas of the lung, which can aid in the diagnosis of lung disease, can help patients avoid surgery for benign disease and other invasive procedures like transthoracic needle aspiration, and lead to earlier, personalized treatment - potentially saving lives. The superDimension system has received CE Mark in Europe, 510(k) clearance in the US and has also been approved for use in numerous international markets.

"Early detection, diagnosis and intervention are crucial to the survival of people living with lung cancer," said Mag. Petra Lichtenberger, Assistant to Prof. Dr. Lamprecht at the Department of Pulmonology of Kepler University Clinic Linz, Austria, which enrolled the first ENB patient in Europe. "Technology that allows medical professionals to view areas of the lung that could not be accessed before is a major advance that is changing the landscape of lung cancer diagnosis and helping save patient lives."

Up to 75 centers around the world will enroll patients in the single-arm, multi-center post-market observational study designed to evaluate the impact of ENB procedures on early diagnosis and treatment. The NAVIGATE study will also determine the success rate of physicians using the technology to obtain biopsy samples from the surrounding lymph nodes. In addition, the study will assess the effectiveness of physicians' placement of fiducial markers or dyes to guide subsequent procedures to treat or remove lung tumors.

More than 22 sites have been activated to enroll patients since the study first launched in the U.S. in April 2015. Healthcare professionals will follow patients for 24 months.

"The NAVIGATE study represents our commitment to delivering meaningful solutions that support the early detection and treatment of lung cancer to save patient lives," said Vafa Jamali, president, Early Technologies business in the Medtronic Minimally Invasive Therapies Group. "The enrollment of patients in Europe for the NAVIGATE study is a significant milestone and an important step to help establish ENB procedures as the gold standard for detecting lung cancer in the earlier, more curable stages."

According to the World Health Organization, lung cancer is the number one cancer killer in the world, accounting for 1.59 million deaths in 2012.1 In its early stages, lung cancer presents few, if any, symptoms. As a result, diagnosis for the vast majority of lung cancer patients happens in the late stages, and long-term survival rates drastically decline. When diagnosed early, an estimated 85 percent of lung cancer cases appear at a more curable stage.2 Early detection and immediate treatment dramatically increases the typical long-term survival rate from 15 percent at five years3 to 88 percent at 10 years.2

To date nearly 100,000 ENB procedures have been performed globally at more than 600 hospitals commercially and as part of prior clinical trials.

Additional information about the NAVIGATE study and enrolling sites can be found at clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02410837 (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02410837).

Multimedia Release

A multimedia version of this release, with video and links to graphics can be found at: http://bit.ly/1TIeoLk (http://bit.ly/1TIeoLk).

About Medtronic

Medtronic plc (www.medtronic.com (http://www.medtronic.com/)), headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, is among the world's largest medical technology, services and solutions companies - alleviating pain, restoring health and extending life for millions of people around the world. Medtronic employs more than 85,000 people worldwide, serving physicians, hospitals and patients in approximately 160 countries. The company is focused on collaborating with stakeholders around the world to take healthcare Further, Together.

Any forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties such as those described in Medtronic's periodic reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results may differ materially from anticipated results.

-end-



1 World Health Organization. Cancer. Fact Sheet. Last updated February 2015. www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs297/en/ (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs297/en/). Accessed January 20, 2016. 2 The International Early Lung Cancer Action Program Investigators. N Engl J Med. 2006; 355:1763-1771. 3 Molina JR, Yang P, Cassivi SD, Schild SE, Adjei AA. Non-small cell lung cancer: epidemiology, risk factors, treatment, and survivorship. Mayo Clin Proc. 2008;83(5):584-594.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2718421/ (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2718421/). Accessed January 20, 2016.

Contacts:

John Jordan

Public Relations

+1-508-452-4891



Ryan Weispfenning

Investor Relations

+1-763-505-4626





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: Medtronic plc via Globenewswire



HUG#1993191


WEST PALM BEACH, Florida, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --INTECH Investment Management LLC, a global asset manager with a focus on equity strategies for institutional investors and $47.6 billion under management, today announced that it has expanded its marketing group with the appointment of Andre Prawoto as Chief Marketing Officer, an industry leader with more than 25 years of experience in the financial-services industry.

In this new role, Prawoto, who most recently was at American Century Investments, will be responsible for INTECH's marketing and product management functions, helping the firm develop and penetrate new investor segments while deepening ties with its existing institutional client base. Located at the firm's global headquarters in West Palm Beach, Florida, Prawoto will report to John Brown, Executive Vice President and Head of Global Client Development at INTECH.

"Andre's significant business development and marketing experience will support our efforts to enhance INTECH's brand and will be instrumental in ensuring that INTECH's unique solutions-set is presented to our growing client base," said Brown. "As the industry grows and demand for INTECH's strategies increases, we believe it is critical to develop an effective marketing strategy that distinguishes INTECH among its peers. We are excited to welcome Andre to our team."

Added Prawoto, "I am thrilled to join INTECH, a pioneer in mathematically based investing with a unique market proposition. I look forward to working alongside such a highly talented and motivated team and broadening the firm's marketing capabilities to increase the value INTECH brings to its clients and bolster the firm's already strong brand and messaging platform."

Prior to joining INTECH, Prawoto was Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Development at American Century Investments. Before that, he was a Partner at JRW, where he provided marketing and business guidance to asset managers. He also spent four years at SunTrust Capital Management as Senior Vice President, Managing Director, and he began his career at Franklin Templeton Investments. Prawoto earned a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the University of San Francisco. He is currently pursuing an MS in Predictive Analytics at Northwestern University.

About INTECH

Having utilized the same disciplined and mathematical investment process for more than 25 years, INTECH has been managing equity portfolios for an array of institutional clients across the globe.INTECH delivers solutions to address its clients' specific investment objectives. This includes relative-risk equity strategies, with a focus on long-term returns in excess of the target benchmark, as well as absolute-risk equity strategies, with a focus on reducing the absolute risk of the portfolio through low and managed volatility strategies. The company's global headquarters is located in West Palm Beach, Florida, with its research headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey, and an international headquarters in London. As of December 31, 2015, INTECH had approximately $47.6 billion under management and 84 employees worldwide. INTECH has been named a "Best Places to Work in Money Management" company by Pensions & Investments for three consecutive years. INTECH is an independently managed subsidiary of Janus Capital Group Inc. (NYSE: JNS), based in Denver.

About Janus Capital Group Inc.

Janus Capital Group Inc. ("JCG") is a global investment firm dedicated to delivering better outcomes for clients through a broad range of actively managed and smart beta investment solutions, including fixed income, equity, alternative and multi-asset class strategies. It does so through a number of distinct asset management platforms, including investment teams within Janus Capital Management LLC ("Janus"), as well as INTECH Investment Management LLC ("INTECH") and Perkins Investment Management LLC ("Perkins"), in addition to a suite of exchange-traded products under VelocityShares. Each team brings distinct asset class expertise, perspective, style-specific experience and a disciplined approach to risk. Investment strategies are offered through open-end funds domiciled in both the U.S. and offshore, as well as through separately managed accounts, collective investment trusts and exchange-traded products. At the end of December 2015, JCG's complex-wide assets totaled approximately $192.3 billion for shareholders, clients and institutions around the globe. Based in Denver, Colorado, JCG also has offices in London, Milan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Melbourne, Sydney, Paris, The Hague, Zurich, Frankfurt, Dubai and Taipei, as well as Boston, Mass., Darien, Conn., Princeton, N.J., West Palm, Fla., Chicago, Ill., and Newport Beach, Calif.

Contact: Ciara Brinkmann, Prosek Partners: 212-279-3115 ext. 117
CARLSBAD, CA--(Marketwired - March 10, 2016) - International Stem Cell Corporation (OTCQB: ISCO), a clinical stage biotechnology company developing novel stem cell-based therapies and biomedical products , announced today it has entered into definitive agreements with two institutional healthcare investors and management for the private placement of $6.3 million of the Company's convertible preferred stock and common stock purchase warrants to purchase up to an additional $25.7 million of the Company's common stock. The gross proceeds for the initial purchase of securities consisted of $2.5 million in cash and conversion of $3.8 million debt. Dr. Andrey Semechkin, the Company's Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, purchased $4.3 million of the preferred stock (on the same terms as the outside investor) through conversion of the $3.8 million of indebtedness owed to him and $500,000 of cash. The closing of the offering is expected to occur on or about March 15, 2016, subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions set forth in the Purchase Agreement.

"The recurring investment of these healthcare focused institutional investors is in support of and attests to the potential of our technology. The capital raised will help to drive our Phase 1 study of ISC-hpNSC for the treatment of moderate to severe Parkinson's disease. With enrollment of patients already underway, we look forward to the end of this year for preliminary safety and efficacy clinical data," commented Dr. Andrey Semechkin, ISCO's Co-Chairman and CEO.

Pursuant to the terms of the private placement, the Company will issue (i) 6,310 shares of Series I-1 and Series I-2 convertible preferred at a price of $1,000 per share, (ii) Series A Common Stock purchase warrants to purchase up to approximately 3.6 million shares of common stock at an initial exercise price of $3.65 per share with a term of five years, (iii) Series B Common Stock purchase warrants to purchase up to approximately 3.6 million shares of common stock at an initial exercise price of $1.75 per share with a term of six months and (iv) Series C Common Stock purchase warrants to purchase up to approximately 3.6 million shares of common stock at an initial exercise price of $1.75 per share with a term of twelve months. The Series I-1 and Series I-2 preferred stock are both convertible into shares of common stock of the Company at an initial conversion price of $1.75. $3,810,000 of the gross proceeds of this Offering will be satisfied by the forgiveness of the total principal balance of the Company's bridge loan payable to Dr. Semechkin in the same amount.

The institutional investors have been granted resale registration rights with respect to the shares underlying the preferred stock and warrants, and all investors have been granted rights of participation in future offerings of the Company's securities.

Rodman & Renshaw, a unit of H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC is acting as the exclusive placement agent for the offering.

The securities to be sold in the private placement have not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or state securities laws and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or an exemption from such registration requirements. The company has agreed to file a registration statement with the SEC registering the resale of the shares of common stock underlying the securities to be sold to in this private placement to certain of the investors.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

About International Stem Cell Corporation

International Stem Cell Corporation (ISCO) is focused on the therapeutic applications of human parthenogenetic stem cells (hpSCs) and the development and commercialization of cell-based research and cosmetic products. ISCO's core technology, parthenogenesis, results in the creation of pluripotent human stem cells from unfertilized oocytes (eggs). hpSCs avoid ethical issues associated with the use or destruction of viable human embryos. ISCO scientists have created the first parthenogenetic, homozygous stem cell line that can be a source of therapeutic cells for hundreds of millions of individuals of differing genders, ages and racial background with minimal immune rejection after transplantation. hpSCs offer the potential to create the first true stem cell bank, UniStemCell'. ISCO also produces and markets specialized cells and growth media for therapeutic research worldwide through its subsidiary Lifeline Cell Technology (www.lifelinecelltech.com), and stem cell-based skin care products through its subsidiary Lifeline Skin Care (www.lifelineskincare.com). More information is available at www.internationalstemcell.com.

To subscribe to receive ongoing corporate communications, please click on the following link: http://www.b2i.us/irpass.asp?BzID=1468&to=ea&s=0

To like our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter for company updates and industry related news, visit: www.facebook.com/InternationalStemCellCorporation and www.twitter.com/intlstemcell

Forward-looking Statements

Statements pertaining to anticipated developments, the expected timing and results of preclinical studies and subsequent regulatory filings, the potential proceeds upon exercise of warrants , and other opportunities for the company and its subsidiaries, along with other statements about the future expectations, beliefs, goals, plans, or prospects expressed by management constitute forward-looking statements. Any statements that are not historical fact (including, but not limited to statements that contain words such as "will," "believes," "plans," "anticipates," "expects," "estimates,") should also be considered to be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, risks inherent in the development and/or commercialization of potential products, regulatory approvals, need and ability to obtain future capital, application of capital resources among competing uses, and maintenance of intellectual property rights. Actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements and as such should be evaluated together with the many uncertainties that affect the company's business, particularly those mentioned in the cautionary statements found in the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The company disclaims any intent or obligation to update forward-looking statements.

Contacts:

International Stem Cell Corporation

Russell Kern, PhD

Executive Vice President, CSO

Phone: 760-940-6383

Email: ir@intlstemcell.com



Media:

Christopher Hippolyte

Phone: (626) 942-5624

Email: chris.hippolyte@russopartnersllc.com



Tony Russo, Ph.D.

Phone: (212) 845-4251

Email: tony.russo@russopartnersllc.com
BRASILIA (dpa-AFX) - Developing vaccines against the Zika virus suspected of causing birth defects would take at least three years, according to a Brazilian health expert. Jorge Kalil, head of the Butantan Institute in Sao Paulo, was talking to reporters in Geneva, where global health experts are meeting since Monday to determine what research and development should be prioritized in the fight against Zika Zika is spreading rapidly in the Americas. The Zika virus was previously only known to cause moderate cold and flu-like symptoms, but increasing evidence indicates it may be connected to multiple neurological disorders, as well as microcephaly, a severe birth defect in which babies are born with smaller heads and brains. The World Health Organization's deputy director for health systems and innovation Marie-Paule Kieny that work was under way to develop an emergency vaccine product profile to help stake out regulatory requirements and help guide developers. She told reporters that the final profile is expected to be ready in May, although developing a usable vaccine would take much longer. 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.
Ensures highly reliable power supply for all types of demanding industrial applications

Advanced design in heavy duty outdoor cabinet

Field-proven in harsh environment

AEG Power Solutions (FWB:3W9K), a global provider of power electronic systems and solutions for industrial power supplies and renewable energy applications, today announced Protect RCS Outdoor Plus, a thyristor-controlled, premium industrial rectifier and battery charger for use in harsh environmental conditions.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160310005784/en/

Protect RCS Outdoor Plus Rectifier/Charger by AEG Power Solutions (Photo: Business Wire)

Protect RCS Outdoor Plus helps ensure the availability of electrical power for all types of demanding industrial applications such as oil, gas and petrochemical, power generation or distribution, transportation or any critical processes requiring an outdoor solution in a remote area and extreme climatic environment Its design is derived from the Protect RCS, which already has years of proven track record in the field.

The new system provides highly reliable power and battery charging capabilities. It includes a thyristor-controlled rectifier suitable for charging nickel-cadmium or lead-acid batteries while supplying DC loads, and can also be used without batteries as a direct power supply. For maximum flexibility, the rectifier is composed of independent building blocks and can be supplied with optional equipment as required.

To simplify maintenance and decrease total cost of ownership, the Outdoor Plus has been carefully designed to allow maximum natural airflow cooling, with the rectifier separated from the batteries. It is supplied in a heavy duty steel cabinet, which is IP65 compliant according to IEC 60529.

All parameters of the new Outdoor Plus system can be digitally set, and monitored via the front panel display. An alarm and event logger includes a date and time-stamped event log memory.

The new solution has already been proven in the field by Petronash to secure the power supply for gas process skids in a harsh environment. If mains power should fail, the AEG PS systems provide standby power to ensure safe shutdown. In this deployment, the AEG PS equipment is housed outdoors in an atmosphere containing significant levels of highly corrosive hydrogen sulphide (H 2 S) gas, and must cope with the ambient temperatures of up to 56C experienced in the desert. The solution also requires a high IP65 ingress rating.

"We developed the Outdoor Plus version of our Protect RCS industrial rectifier/charger as it answers a specific market demand to secure power in extremely harsh environmental conditions and often remote areas, for critical processes," explains Lothar Heinemann, Product Manager at AEG Power Solutions. "Our DC R&D team brought in a wealth of experience, and the product design not only guarantees one of the highest levels of reliability, but also simplifies the maintenance and decreases the total cost of ownership, which is a major concern of our customers."

About AEG Power Solutions

AEG Power Solutions (AEG PS) Group is a global provider of power electronics systems and solutions for all industrial and demanding commercial power requirements offering one of the most comprehensive product and service portfolios in the area of uninterruptible power supply and power management.

Thanks to its distinctive expertise bridging both AC and DC power technologies and spanning the worlds of both conventional and renewable energy, the company creates innovative solutions for next generation distributed power generation.

AEG Power Solutions Group is the sole subsidiary of the holding company 3W Power S.A. (WKN A114Z9) ISINLU1072910919), based in Luxembourg. The Group is headquartered in Zwanenburg in the Netherlands. The shares of 3W Power are admitted to trading on Frankfurt Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: 3W9K).

For more information, visit www.aegps.com.

This communication does not constitute an offer or the solicitation of an offer to buy, sell or exchange any securities of 3W Power. This communication contains forward-looking statements which include, inter alia, statements expressing our expectations, intentions, projections, estimates, and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are based on the reasonable evaluation and opinion of the management but are subject to risks and uncertainties which are beyond the control of 3W Power and, as a general rule, difficult to predict. The management and the company cannot and do not, under any circumstances, guarantee future results or performance of 3W Power and the actual results of 3W Power may materially differ from the information expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. As a result, investors are cautioned against relying on the forward-looking statements contained herein as a basis for their investment decisions regarding 3W Power.

3W Power undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement contained herein.

AEG is a registered trademark used under license from AB Electrolux

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160310005784/en/

Contacts:

AEG Power Solutions

Claire Pairault

Corporate Communications

Mobile: +33 6 19 60 91 64

Email:

claire.pairault@aegps.com

or

Contact for Editors

Anja-Maria Hastenrath

embedded PR

Phone +49 (0)89 64913634-11

Cell +49 (0)171 1959330

ah@embedded-pr.com
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Cuba's state newspaper says it welcomes the upcoming historic visit of US President Barack Obama, which is scheduled for later this month, but warned him not to expect political concessions from the Communist nation. No one can expect any change in Cuba's unconditional adherence to its revolutionary and anti-imperialist ideals, said an editorial published by Cuban official daily Granma. March 21 marks the latest milestone in a series of developments of improving relations between the two countries, when Obama will begin a two-day tour of the island nation -- the first visit by a US president since Calvin Coolidge in 1928 Obama had insisted he would only travel to Cuba if the communist government made progress on reforms in areas such as human rights. But Granma warned him against putting pressure on Cuba's internal affairs. We have won this sovereign right with great sacrifices. The editorial reiterated Havana's demands for Washington returning the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, lifting more than half-a-century-old embargo on Cuba and fully normalize ties in areas such as immigration. 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.
CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 03/10/16 -- CanaDream Corporation (TSX VENTURE: CDN) today announced record financial results for the nine months ended January 31, 2016, as follows:

Revenues for the nine months ended January 31, 2016 were $34.9 million, net and comprehensive income $5.3 million, and cash flow provided by operating activities $17.3 million.

The Company encourages interested parties to access CanaDream Corporation's Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) on the SEDAR website, www.sedar.com, for a more detailed discussion of these results.

Summarized results for the nine months ended January 31, 2016 are as follows:

Nine months ended January 31, ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2016 2015 Change ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Revenue $ 34,882,323 $ 28,475,602 22% Income before finance, other income, and income tax $ 7,544,637 $ 5,943,661 27% Income before other income and income tax $ 6,251,284 $ 4,908,434 27% Other income $ 768,447 $ 437,803 76% Income before income taxes $ 7,019,731 $ 5,346,237 31% Net and comprehensive income $ 5,267,707 $ 4,004,511 32% Cash provided by operating activities $ 17,289,156 $ 15,168,653 14% Cash flow from operations per share fully-diluted 89.2 cents 78.9 cents 13% Basic earnings per share 27.2 cents 20.9 cents 30% Fully diluted earnings per share 27.2 cents 20.8 cents 31% Weighted average shares outstanding 19,364,107 19,164,168 Weighted average diluted shares outstanding 19,385,743 19,236,335 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

For the nine month period ended January 31, 2016, CanaDream recorded net and comprehensive income of $5.3 million, a 32% increase from the prior period. Cash flow provided by operating activities of $17.3 million increased $2.1 million, or 14%, from the prior period. On a fully diluted basis, earnings per share were 27.2 cents which was a 30% increase from the prior period.

Total revenue of $34.9 million increased 22% - Guest revenue increased 17% due to increased Guest fleet utilization and higher average nightly revenue. Fleet sales revenue increased 32% due to a higher volume of unit sales of Guest fleet and fleet inventory combined with a higher average selling price. Operating expenses increased 21%.

At January 31, 2016, investment in Guest fleet was $31.0 million, an increase of $9.6 million from April 30, 2015, due to fleet purchases of $20.4 million, a decrease from fleet disposals of $5.3 million, and $2.4 million in transfer to fleet inventory. Fleet and other financing increased $6.9 million to $38.0 million from April 30, 2015.

The Company's core business, promoting the opportunity to "experience Canada at your own pace" through the recreational vehicle experience, is seasonal in nature with the majority of its revenue being earned during the May to October period, the first and second quarters of its fiscal year. The majority of the Company's cost of services expenses before employee compensation, benefits and depreciation are incurred in that same period. The Company markets for sale previously Guest experienced recreational vehicles and fleet inventory on a continuous basis throughout the year; however, sales of such units are generally strongest from January to early summer. As a result of ongoing depreciation, interest and other operating expenses, the last two quarters of the fiscal year normally produce operating losses. Losses incurred in the last two quarters may exceed profits earned in the first two quarters of the fiscal year.

The financial data included in this release has been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, except for the term cash flow from operations per share fully diluted. Cash flow per share is a measure that provides shareholders and potential investors with additional information regarding the Company's liquidity and its ability to generate funds to finance its operations.

CanaDream Corporation promotes Canada and the opportunity to "experience Canada at your own pace" in recreational vehicles and sells its Guest experienced recreational vehicle fleet on a wholesale and retail basis. The Company is utilizing its proprietary business-to-business web-enabled system, www.canadasbest.com, and its business-to-consumer on-line internet reservation system, www.canadream.com, to operate and expand its network of RV rental locations in Canada. CanaDream maintains six Company-operated locations in Calgary, Vancouver, Whitehorse, Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax. CanaDream now offers a global RV solution by partnering with Apollo Motorhome Holidays in Australia, New Zealand and the USA. The Company is also leveraging its proprietary technology to build a collective membership network of associate dealers that are fully interconnected to CanaDream's e-commerce systems. CanaDream currently has one associate dealer franchisee in Edmonton, Alberta.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as the term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

CanaDream Corporation

Mr. Brian Gronberg

President & CEO

Toll Free: 800-461-7368

BRIAN@canadream.com




VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 03/10/16 -- Revelo Resources Corp. ("Revelo" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: RVL) is pleased to announce that Doug Reed, currently the Company's Controller, will succeed David Miles as Chief Financial Officer.

Tim Beale, President & CEO of Revelo stated, "I would like to thank David for his substantial contribution to Revelo and for making this transition as smooth as possible. I wish him great success in his future endeavors," he added, "I look forward to working with Doug in his new capacity as CFO. His experience and knowledge of Revelo makes him the perfect fit for this new role."

Mr. Reed brings more than 10 years of accounting experience in the mineral exploration and mining industry focusing on financial reporting, regulatory compliance, internal control and corporate finance activities. Mr. Reed is currently the CFO of Pacific Empire Minerals Corp, a private mineral exploration company, and the corporate controller of Eurasian Minerals Corp. He has also worked in public practice as an audit manager overseeing the annual audits of public companies and auditor requirements related to various special transactions. He was the corporate controller of Revelo from 2014 to 2016. Mr. Reed holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Victoria and is a Chartered Professional Accountant, CA.

ABOUT REVELO

Revelo is building a sustainable exploration business focused on securing prospective land along the prolific mineral belts of northern Chile, and by implementing effective exploration and capital management strategies to grow, advance and de-risk its portfolio to provide shareholders with multiple opportunities for exploration success.

Revelo controls more than 350,000 hectares of 100% owned exploration tenement along proven mineral belts in northern Chile. The portfolio is comprised of 21 high-quality exploration projects prospective for copper, gold and silver, including 2 projects already under option/JV agreements with Newmont Mining (Montezuma Project) and Austral Gold (San Guillermo Project). In addition, Revelo retains a 2% royalty interest in the Victoria Project, an important copper-gold-silver exploration project in northern Chile.

Revelo is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX VENTURE: RVL). For more information please visit Revelo's website at www.reveloresources.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Timothy J. Beale, President & CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENT

This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical fact, that address events or developments that Revelo expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential", "indicate" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although Revelo believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements.

Contacts:

Revelo Resources Corp.

Chiara Orrigoni

Investor Relations Manager

+1 604 687-5544

info@reveloresources.com

www.reveloresources.com




VIENNA (dpa-AFX) - Blue Origin, the privately funded space business company is planning to start short, paid trips to space by 2018. The passenger could spend a few minutes in the space and can experience weightlessness. Moreover, the space tourists could see the entire earth and enjoy its magnificence from around 100 kilometers above. The company which has been operating since 2000, without much fanfare, has launched its reusable Shepard spacecraft in last November. The space ship has visited the outskirts of space and returned in January. Blue Origin is owned by Amazon.com founder and rocket enthusiast Jeff Bezos. He said the company is planning to build six new Shepard vehicles for six passengers. Of course, the space trip will be a costly affair. Bezos has reportedly invested more than $500 million in Blue Origin. 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.
Sydney, 10th March 2016 - Thomson Reuters today announced its appointment by NAB Asset Servicing, the largest custodian in the Australian market, to be its new preferred data partner, delivering market data, exchange-traded pricing and reference services through Thomson Reuters DataScope Select and Eikon financial analysis desktop.

"We appointed Thomson Reuters not only because they offer excellent breadth, depth and quality of content in the market, but they are committed to working with us as partners and bringing the very best experience to our customers", said David Knights, Acting Executive General Manager of NAB Asset Servicing.





"Working with a market leader like NAB Asset Servicing to innovatively solve their complex data content and delivery requriements is a fantastic win for the Australian business and we're excited about the future potential of the relationship," said Daryl Sisson, Managing Director for the Financial & Risk business of Thomson Reuters in Australia and New Zealand.





Through DataScope Select, NAB Asset Servicing will gain access to Thomson Reuters expansive instrument coverage from across the globe with over 40 Million assets and entities held on file, including pricing data (security, loan and complex), security reference, analytics, corporate actions, fixed income analytical data, FX cross rates, benchmarks, environmental, social and governance data. It will be supported by Thomson Reuters Eikon, a leading financial analysis desktop and mobile solution.

DataScope Select is a leading strategic data delivery platform for non-streaming pricing and reference content globally. The platform is a full cross-asset offering with intelligently linked data for all Thomson Reuters DataScope content including Reference Data, Corporate Actions, Legal Entity Data, end-of-day/intra-day pricing and Evaluated Pricing Services.

About Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of news and information for professional markets. Our customers rely on us to deliver the intelligence, technology and expertise they need to find trusted answers. The business has operated in more than 100 countries for more than 100 years. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges. For more information, visit www.thomsonreuters.com (http://www.thomsonreuters.com)

About NAB Asset Servicing

Asset Servicing, part of NAB's Product and Markets business, is the largest custodian in the Australian market and has AU$793 billion in assets under administration. It provides custody, master custody, investment administration and other related services to a range of locally and internationally domiciled clients. These include government agencies, investment managers, superannuation funds, insurance companies and banks. NAB has provided domestic custody services since 1950 and global custody and investment administration services since 1975.

Note to editor:

In 2015, Thomson Reuters was recognised by a number of global industry awards across the following categories: Best Data Provider for Derivatives, Best Data Provider for Foreign Exchange, Best News Provider, Best Evaluated Pricing Service Provider, Best Networking & Infrastructure Provider, Best Real-Time Market Data Initiative, Best Corporate Actions Data Provider.

Media contacts:

Grace Harvey

Thomson Reuters

Corporate Affairs Manager, Australia and New Zealand

+61 2 9321 8138

Grace.Harvey@thomsonreuters.com (mailto:Grace.Harvey@thomsonreuters.com)

James Richards

NAB Asset Servicing

Corporate Affairs Consultant

+61 459 812 770

James.Richards@nab.com.au (mailto:James.Richards@nab.com.au)





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: Thomson Reuters Corporation via Globenewswire



HUG#1993449




LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Author JK Rowling has been accused of appropriating the living tradition of a marginalized native American tribe by writing about the Navajo legend of the skinwalker in a new Harry Potter story.



Rowling has published the first part of a series of stories, titled 'Magic in North America,' on her digital publishing website Pottermore. The author promises to enlighten readers about a previously unexplored corner of the wizarding world, taking them into the lives of North American witches and wizards, their history and their magic, and introduces audiences to a new era of the world that J.K. Rowling has created.



The first part, 'A History of Magic in North America,' is being published on pottermore.com over four days, through March 11.



The series of stories will give fans the historical background to the latest Harry Potter film, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which marks J.K. Rowling's screen-writing debut.



The film is an all-new adventure starring Eddie Redmayne as magizoologist Newt Scamander, who arrives in New York in 1926. The film will be released in the UK on November 18.



But Native American writers and activists have raised objection to the depiction of their spiritual beliefs. In particular, the inclusion of characters based on the Native American concept of 'skinwalkers' - humans who can transform into animals at will. Their depiction in publicity materials and a video trailer have led to accusations of cultural insensitivity.



In a tweet addressing the novelist, Dr Adrienne Keene, a Cherokee scholar, wrote: 'You can't just claim and take a living tradition of a marginalized people. That's straight up colonialism/appropriation.' Keene detailed her objections at length on her blog, saying that Native spirituality and religions are not fantasy on the same level as wizards.



Navajo writer Brian Young said he was broken hearted about the new piece of writing.



Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens in 1926 as Newt Scamander has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures. Arriving in New York for a brief stopover, he encounters a No-Maj (American for Muggle) named Jacob, a misplaced magical case, and the escape of some of Newt's fantastic beasts, which could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds.



The Navajo Indians are the largest Native American Tribe federally recognized in the United States.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
DUBLIN, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/3wkd8k/global_aerospace) has announced the addition of the"Global Aerospace Fasteners Market 2016-2020" report to their offering.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130307/600769 )



This comprehensive report predicts that the global aerospace fasteners market will grow with a 7% CAGR by 2020.



The Russian technology office of Airbus has developed a new software to assist in visualizing the manufacturing process during aircraft assembly. This software, known as assembly simulation of reliable processes (ASRP5), was installed in the Airbus manufacturing chain in 2015.

The software allows stress experts and assembly line engineers to analyze and visualize the assembly process, optimizing the use of fasteners to avoid stress. This will enhance the production rates of single-aisle and wide-body aircraft by decreasing the time needed for complex joining processes during aircraft assembly.



Questions Answered:

What will the market size and the growth rate be in 2020

What are the key factors driving the global aerospace fasteners market

What are the key market trends impacting the growth of the global aerospace fasteners market

Who are the key vendors in the global aerospace fasteners market

What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the global aerospace fasteners market

Trending factors influencing the market shares for EMEA, APAC, and the Americas.

What are the key outcomes of the five forces analysis of the global aerospace fasteners market

Companies Mentioned:

3V Fasteners

Alcoa

B&B Specialties

KLX

LISI Aerospace

CDP Fastener Group

National Aerospace Fasteners

Stanley Aerospace Fastening

TFI Aerospace

Wesco Aircraft Holdings

Report Structure:

PART 01: Executive summary

PART 02: Scope of the report

PART 03: Market research methodology

PART 04: Introduction

PART 05: Market landscape

PART 06: Global aerospace and defense supply chain system

PART 07: Global aerospace and defense value chain system

PART 08: Market segmentation by application

PART 09: Market share by applications

PART 10: Geographical segmentation

PART 11: Market drivers

PART 12: Impact of drivers

PART 13: Market challenges

PART 14: Impact of drivers and challenges

PART 15: Market trends

PART 16: Vendor landscape

PART 17: Appendix

PART 18: About the Author

For more information visithttp://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/3wkd8k/global_aerospace





Media Contact:

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
STAMFORD, Connecticut and LUCCA, Italy, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

New Orleans event includes 40 sessions covering all aspects of budgeting, planning, forecasting, and financial reporting required by modern finance

Tagetik, a visionary leader in global performance management software solutions, today announced that KPMG international finance leader Morris Treadway and political analyst James Carville will keynote the company's tenth annual global conference, Tagetik in Touch, from April 24 - 27, at the Royal Sonesta in New Orleans.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140625/694014 )



Treadway's keynote, "Are CFOs Ready for the Challenge?" will present findings from KPMG's View from the Top, a recent survey of 549 global CEOs on the role of CFOs in business today. He will discuss the unique challenges and transformative attributes of the CFO's role, the implications to finance and other functions, and what CFOs need to do to close the gap between expectations and the reality on the ground.

"We have entered the age of the Renaissance CFO," said Treadway, global head of financial management and global enterprise performance management center of excellence lead. "Today's CFO is expected to operate on a global scale, leveraging financial data and analytics to achieve profitable growth, capitalizing on a dynamic regulatory environment and nurturing and acquiring top talent. He or she is managing a vast ecosystem of expanding complexity with the goal of achieving competitive advantage." Treadway's keynote will be held at 9:15 a.m. on Tuesday, April 26.

Carville's keynote, "Politics and the 2016 Race to the White House," will examine the political power shifts over the past years and dissect the extreme forces shaping the 2016 presidential election. A native of New Orleans, Carville will also discuss what trends from the last two decades mean for the future and will share favorite political and personal stories from his three decades in politics. Carville's keynote will be held at 5:45 p.m. on Monday, April 25.

Overall, the conference agenda encompasses 40 sessions, covering topics critical to modern finance such as what-if modeling and scenario planning, forecasting, dashboarding, and narrative reporting, in addition to product roadmap details, the direction of the CPM market and enterprise cloud technology. Tagetik will also host a French Quarter scavenger hunt on Sunday afternoon to benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Southeast Louisiana.

"These conferences are hugely important to our customer partnerships and contribute to the consistently high marks our solution gets for customer satisfaction," said Manuel Vellutini, Tagetik co-CEO. "Our customers gain from the direct guidance and insights offered by our finance and technology experts who are onsite. In turn, the input and suggestions we get from our customers influence our development priorities and help us keep up with the practical and strategic needs of today's forward-thinking financial leaders."

Registration for Tagetik in Touch is open. For more details, visit the Tagetik in Touch conference website.

About Tagetik

Tagetik understands the complex challenges that face the Office of Finance and translates that knowledge into intuitive, enterprise-scale performance management software solutions that drive business results. With Tagetik, companies get the simplicity of the Cloud and the power to unify financial and operational planning; shorten the consolidation and close process; immediately analyze results, model and compare full financial statement impact of business scenarios; adjust strategic plans; seamlessly update rolling forecasts; produce formatted and auditable financial statements and management reports; collaborate on business reviews, and automate disclosure and board reporting. Tagetik has built-in financial intelligence so that CFOs, finance managers, and operations executives can orchestrate multiple or all processes in one software solution. More than 850 customers across 35 countries count on Tagetik to improve efficiency, reduce risk, save money and deliver results. For more information, visit http://www.tagetik.com. We get Finance. You get results.

Follow us on social media:

Twitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

Google+

YouTube

Blog

Media Contacts:

Linda Galloway

insidHR Communications

+1-303-863-8620 office

+1-203-733-7446 mobile

lgalloway@insidhr.com


Banque SYZ SA / SYZ GROUP: SYZ Asset Management awarded at European Funds Trophy 2016 . Processed and transmitted by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Geneva, 10 March 2016 - SYZ Asset Management has been awarded " Best Swiss Asset Management Company" in the category " 26 to 40 rated funds" at the European Funds Trophy 2016.

This ceremony recognises since 2007 the best funds and asset management companies based in Europe. The event took place in Paris on 8th March, in partnership with numerous specialised media, such as Le Jeudi, Tageblatt, Editpress, La Stampa, El Pais, LCI and l'Opinion.

Known for their professional competence and neutrality, members of the jury coming from finance, research or investment have rewarded the quality of our work and our teams. For more information, you can visit the European Funds Trophy website: http://www.european-funds-trophy.eu

6

Press Release - Award EFT (http://hugin.info/166509/R/1993470/733904.pdf)


TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 03/10/16 -- AlarmForce Industries ("AlarmForce") (TSX: AF) will release its first quarter results for the three months ending January 31st, 2016 on Tuesday, March 15, 2016 after market close. The Company will subsequently hold a conference call on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 at 10:00 AM Eastern Time hosted by Graham Badun, Chief Executive Officer, and Chris Lynch, Chief Financial Officer. A question and answer session will follow the corporate update.

CONFERENCE CALL DETAILS Date: Wednesday, March 16, 2016 Time: 10:00 AM Eastern Time Participant Dial-in Numbers: Local - Toronto: 647-788-4919 Operator-Assisted Toll Free - North American: 1-877-291-4570 Conference ID: 69184285 CONFERENCE CALL REPLAY A digital recording of the conference call will be available for replay later the same day. To access the recording: Local - Toronto: 416-621-4642 Toll Free - International: 1-800-585-8367 Passcode: 69184285 Expiry Date: March 30, 2016 at 23:59 ET

About AlarmForce

AlarmForce provides security alarm monitoring, personal emergency response monitoring, video surveillance and related services to residential and commercial subscribers throughout Canada and the United States. More information about AlarmForce's products and services can be found at alarmforce.com.

This press release contains forward-looking information which is not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, performance and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward-looking information contained or referred to in this press release includes, but may not be limited to, AlarmForce's future enhancement and development of products, AlarmForce's proposed write down and possible other write downs of assets or investments (and the timing thereof) and other actions which may impact financial performance.

Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, the inability of AlarmForce to reach an agreement with one or more specialty manufacturers, the inability of specialty manufacturers to meet the demands and requirements of AlarmForce, the actual amount of the proposed write down being different than the estimated amount, a change in AlarmForce's decision to complete the proposed write down, as well as certain other risks set out in AlarmForce's public documents, including its annual information form dated January 21, 2016, filed under AlarmForce's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

The forward-looking information in this press release reflects the current expectations, assumptions and/or beliefs of AlarmForce based on information currently available to AlarmForce. In connection with the forward-looking information contained in this press release, AlarmForce has made assumptions about: AlarmForce's business, the economy and AlarmForce's industry in general. AlarmForce has also assumed that no significant events occur outside of AlarmForce's normal course of business. Although AlarmForce believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking information are reasonable, forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such information due to the inherent uncertainty therein.

Any forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, AlarmForce disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise.

Contacts:

News Media:

Hugh Mansfield/Andrea Ellison

(416)-599-0024/(212)-370-5045

hugh@mansfieldinc.com

andrea@mansfieldinc.com



Securities Analysts:

Chris Lynch

(416) 445-2414

clynch@alarmforce.com




WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND -- (Marketwired) -- 03/10/16 -- Following the announcement on 1 April 2015 of its proposed business restructure (the "Transaction"), Antipodes Gold Limited (TSX VENTURE: AXG)(NZAX: AXG) (the "Company") is now pleased to announce the completion of the sale of the Company's gold exploration assets to OceanaGold (new owner of Newmont Waihi Gold), and the approaching final stage of the Transaction, the reverse takeover of Chatham Rock Phosphate Limited.

The settlement of the assets sale allows the company to focus on the reverse takeover ("RTO") of CRP. As a necessary adjunct to that, the TSX Venture Exchange requires that the Resulting Issuer (Antipodes, with CRP as a subsidiary) must have working capital sufficient to meets its general and administration and budgeted operating costs for the 12 months following the RTO date.

To that end, CRP has bolstered its cash position by entering into a conditional subscription agreement for up to NZ$600,000 (C$540,000) of new shares ("New Capital") from a private investor ("Investor") at NZ$0.006 per share. The New Capital will be paid to CRP in instalments over a 12 month period. NZ$350,000 of the New Capital is unconditional and the corresponding ordinary shares in CRP is to be issued to the Investor (on an unpaid basis) shortly. The remaining NZ$250,000 of the New Capital is conditional on CRP completing a pre break announcement process under the NZAX listing rules to authorize the issue of that remaining New Capital.

The CRP subscription agreement also contains provision for the granting of warrants for one year at $0.006 ("Warrants"). CRP proposes that if the takeover offer by the Company of CRP is completed before 30 September 2016, CRP will seek (subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval) that the Company issue AXG Warrants to the Investor. It is proposed that one (1) Warrant will be granted for every two (2) CRP shares subscribed for (up to 50 million in aggregate). The granting of the CRP Warrants reflects the significance of the New Capital and AXG/CRP's need for working capital following the RTO.

CRP intends to raise further funds of up to NZ$900,000 (C$810,000). The Management Information Circular provided to AXG shareholders in October 2015 anticipated that CRP would need to raise C$850,000. With the delay in the settlement of the OceanaGold sale, CRP has expended a further 4 months of operational cash, which needs to be replaced in order to meet the newer working capital requirements.

"The divestment of gold assets provides an opportunity for shareholders to invest in a company with exciting prospects in the marine and terrestrial phosphate industry. Phosphate is an essential nutrient for New Zealand's pastoral industry, its biggest exporter, and is also sought after by a range of Asian and Pacific countries," Company chairman Adrian Fleming said.

Chatham holds a mining permit over New Zealand's only significant phosphate deposit, located on the seabed on the Chatham Rise, 400 km east of Christchurch. The Chatham Rise Phosphate has special properties being a "Reactive Phosphate" allowing direct application with improved environmental benefits over imported products.

Following the decline of Chatham's initial marine consent application in February 2015, Chatham is planning to submit a new application, subject to improvements to the consenting process. Chatham is also planning to diversify its portfolio of phosphate assets and is evaluating opportunities in a diverse range of international locations.

Mr. Fleming said given the continuing difficulties faced by junior gold explorers to raise capital for exploration, the Company's directors believed it was an attractive opportunity for shareholders to swap their existing interests in a company with few remaining assets, without needing to invest any new cash, to one in a new industry with good prospects.

"Any assets remaining within Antipodes Gold can be put to good use by Chatham to complete its reapplication and to diversify its phosphate assets," said Mr. Fleming.

Cautionary Statements

The completion of the RTP portion of the Transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including final acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange. There can be no assurance that the Transaction will be completed as proposed or at all.

Adrian Fleming, Chairman

Neither the Exchange, its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined under the policies of the Exchange), or New Zealand Exchange Limited has in any way passed upon the merits of the Transaction and associated transactions, and has neither approved nor disapproved of the contents of this press release.

Contacts:

Peter Liddle

+649 360 8211




Ireland's Creative Culture to Be Highlighted in March 12 Street Parade By Internationally Acclaimed Macnas Visual Performance Troop

IDA Ireland, the Irish government agency responsible for foreign direct Investment, today announced its return to Austin for the South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Conference and Festival. IDA will bring a unique Irish performance to SXSW, a street parade and performance on Saturday, March 12, by the internationally renowned Macnas performance troop.

"Ireland has a strong creative culture that attracts organizations from all over the world," said Paraic Hayes, senior vice president of U.S. west coast operations for IDA Ireland. "South by Southwest, with its celebration of creativity, is the perfect place to showcase the innovation and talent that differentiates Ireland internationally."

According to the European Commission, Ireland's Gross Domestic Product will grow by 4.5 percent in 2016 the fastest rate in Europe. This growth has been fueled by Irish innovations in digital health solutions, pharmaceuticals, and software development. Ireland's success is also driven by its professional talent pool, with more than 40 percent of the country's population consisting of young adults under 30, many of whom have a strong background in science, technology, engineering and math. This young, talented workforce has made Ireland an ideal location for U.S. companies looking to expand their presence into Europe. Many of the most successful companies in the world use Ireland to better service and grow their European business, including: Google, Intel, Facebook, PayPal, Apple, Amazon, Twitter, Airbnb, Slack, Dropbox and many more.

"IDA Ireland's innovative approach leads to exciting collaborations between all representative bodies of Irish music, film, start-ups, indigenous companies and international companies," continued Hayes. "At least one west coast U.S. Company has opened an office in Ireland every two weeks for the last two years and we are committed to supporting and growing relationships with U.S. organizations in 2016."

The Macnas street parade and spectacle will showcase Ireland's spirit of creativity and the unique bond that the country has forged between technology and the arts. Titled "Wild Hunt and the Sleepwalker," the performance will chronicle the adventures of a 15-foot tall boy explorer and his encounters with magical creatures, fire and light. The performance will take place on Saturday, March 12, 2016 from 6:45 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on 6th Street in Austin, Texas. More information can be found at: http://schedule.sxsw.com/2016/events/event_OE04674.

About IDA Ireland

Ireland's inward investment promotion agency IDA Ireland is a government agency promoting Foreign Direct Investment into Ireland through a wide range of services. We partner with potential and existing investors to help them establish or expand their operations in Ireland.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160310005712/en/

Contacts:

West Coast U.S. Media Contact:

McGrath/Power Public Relations for IDA Ireland

Nadia Jamshidi, 408-727-0351

nadiaj@mcgrathpower.com
Ron Paul Delivers Common SenseRon Paul, the renowned Libertarian politician, is blasting the idea of rebuilding the U.S. military heavily promised by Republican presidential candidates.He said Americans need to rebuild the military, if at all, by restoring its mission as the defense of the United States, not of "Washington's overseas empire.""The neocons will weaken our country and our military by promoting more war," Paul wrote in his weekly column posted on the Ron Paul Institute web site on Sunday. (Source: ".

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.
NASHVILLE, TN -- (Marketwired) -- 03/10/16 -- AlliedBarton Security Services, the industry's premier provider of highly trained security personnel, in partnership with the Metro Nashville Police Department, will host two seminars on Workplace Violence on Tuesday, April 5, 2016, at the Music City Center located at 700 Korean Veterans Boulevard, Nashville.

The morning seminar with be held from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. A second seminar will be held that afternoon from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The presentation, Understanding the Violent Mind - Layoffs and Terminations, will feature internationally acclaimed crisis management expert, Bruce Blythe. He is the Chairman of Crisis Management International; Crisis Care Network; and Behavioral Medical Interventions.

Members of the business community interested in attending the event must register in advance.

Media interested in attending this event are encouraged to RSVP to the press contact in this release.

About AlliedBarton Security Services

For more than 50 years AlliedBarton Security Services has provided superior security officer services to protect people, homes and businesses. AlliedBarton tailors security programs to meet clients' needs with committed professionals who enhance clients' brands. The most honored security services provider, AlliedBarton consistently delivers exceptional service which creates a differentiated experience for clients and the people they serve. More than 60,000 employees and 120 offices serve thousands of clients with levels of protection that anticipate needs and build enduring relationships. For more information call 1.866.825.5433 or visit http://www.alliedbarton.com.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlliedBartonSecurityServices?ref=search&sid=1595856124.1976210655

Twitter: http://twitter.com/alliedbarton

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/alliedbarton-security-services?trk=hb_tab_compy_id_162381

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/AlliedBartonSecurity

Blog: http://www.alliedbarton.com/AboutUs/Blog.aspx

Contact:

Nancy Tamosaitis

Vorticom Public Relations

Phone: 212-532-2208

Email: Email Contact




DapTechnology, a world-leading supplier of advanced IEEE-1394 protocol analyzers and solutions to the aerospace, defense, industrial, automotive and consumer electronics markets announced today the availability of the new FireSpy9x32bT IEEE-1394 Protocol Analyzer. The FireSpy9x32bT bus analyzer is the world's first and only 9-channel IEEE-1394 bus analyzer. Based on the 4th Generation bus analyzer architecture, the FireSpy9x32bT, in fact combines nine single-channel FireSpy analyzers into one single IEEE-1394 bus test instrument. The analyzer features an on-board processor that is significantly more powerful, as well as improved host computer connectivity via USB3.

The FireSpy9x32bT boasts 9 IEEE-1394 nodes connected to nine synchronized analysis engines which are driven by three dual-core ARM processors running at 667 MHz. Each node has two connected ports which are each terminated with LEMO push-pull connectors for improved ruggedness. The FireSpy9x32bT is equipped with 15GB of internal memory and features extensive hardware filtering and triggering capabilities. The analyzer can be connected to a host computer using the USB3 interface. On the host, the provided user-friendly GUI may be used to control the FireSpy for analyzing and displaying bus traffic, or alternatively, the available API can be used to author custom control software.

The seamless integration of the SAE AS5643 standard, available as a protocol add-on, makes the FireSpy9x32bT the preferred tool for many aerospace and defense qualification and flight line test solutions. DapTechnology has committed extensive resources and effort to support the SAE AS5643 Standard in all major subsystems of the FireSpy9x32bT. The company continuously updates the analyzer's features and functionality according to implementation requirements and standardization efforts.

"Test coverage, portability, ruggedness and maintainability are key factors to consider when considering manufacturing and flight line test equipment," says Jan de Vries, CEO of DapTechnology. Mr. de Vries adds, "We are continuously striving to empower our customers by providing innovative, affordable and reliable tools that help drive increased productivity.

The FireSpy9x32bT is now available and may be purchased directly from DapTechnology or one of our authorized resellers. Additional information on FireSpy products and DapTechnology may be obtained by visiting www.daptechnology.com or by sending an e-mail to sales@daptechnology.com.

About DapTechnology

DapTechnology is a company specializing in products, systems and solutions based on the IEEE-1394 and SAE AS5643 Standards. Since it's inception in 1998, the company has been working closely with the IEEE-1394 and SAE AS5643 standards development organizations, strategic industry partners and key customers to develop world-class products employing IEEE-1394 and SAE AS5643.

Both DapTechnology B.V. and DapUSA, Inc. are owned by DapHolding BV. DapUSA, based in Phoenix, AZ, was formed in 2005 to address the ever-growing North American market for IEEE-1394 systems and solutions.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160310006112/en/

Contacts:

DapTechnology

Azim Mohammed, 1-800-863-0989 Ext 211
According to the latest market research study released by Technavio, theglobal medium and low voltage switchgear marketis expected to exceed USD 101 billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of over 10% during the forecast period.

This research report titled 'Global Medium and Low Voltage Switchgear Market 2016-2020', provides an in-depth analysis of the market in terms of revenue and emerging market trends. This market research report also includes an up to date analysis and forecast for various market segments and all geographical regions.

Request sample report: http://goo.gl/iLVuDC

The report segments the global MV and LV switchgear market by end-user and can be divided into four broad categories which are:

Global LV and MV switchgear market by power utilities

Global LV and MV switchgear market by industrial segment

Global LV and MV market by residential segment

Global LV and MV switchgear market by commercial segment

Global LV and MV switchgear market by power utilities

The global LV and MV switchgear market by power utilities is expected to generate revenue exceeding 34 billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of over 10%.

According to Anju Ajaykumar, lead analyst at Technavio for power research, "Increased industrialization and urbanization in developing countries has resulted in the high demand for energy, thereby rendering power utilities an important market for switchgears. Intense competition between industrial and non-utility generators has compelled electric power utilities to replace old and outdated equipment to increase operational efficiency, thus, leading to a growth for the switchgear market."

According to statistics from the US Energy Information Administration, the global consumption of energy is projected to rise to 630 quadrillion BTU by 2020 owing to strong economic growth and rising population in developing countries. Growing investments to meet this increase in energy demands in countries such as China, India, the UAE, and Brazil will also drive the demand for LV and MV switchgears.

Global LV and MV switchgear market by industrial segment

The global LV and MV switchgear market by industrial segment is likely to exceed USD 29 billion in 2020, growing at a CAGR of over 11%.

Industries use either process manufacturing or discrete manufacturing in the production of goods. Process manufacturing is used in industries such as oil and gas and chemical, while discrete industries include the automotive, consumer durables, and foods and beverages. These industries have their own captive power plants. As these industries increase and expand worldwide, their growth is expected to drive the global demand for LV and MV switchgears.

Global LV and MV market by residential segment

The global LV and MV switchgear market by residential segment is expected to reach USD 23 billion in 2020, growing at a CAGR of over 11%.

Rapid urbanization in major developing countries such as India and China is fueling the growth of the residential segment. The residential segment is a major end-user of LV switchgears. These devices are increasingly used in this segment to protect household appliances against electricity fluctuations and hazards caused by faulty surges in power.

"In China, one of the fastest-growing economies, construction activity is contributing significantly to the demand for LV and MV switchgears, mainly due to the growth of the residential construction market," says Anju.

Global LV and MV switchgear market by commercial segment

The global LV and MV switchgear market by commercial segment is expected to generate revenue of over USD 14 billion in 2020, growing at a CAGR of almost 8%.

The growing use of computer technology across various sectors has led to an increase in the development of data centers, IT, and telecom all of which use switchgears in their operations. Servers, computers, and peripherals such as printers and other electronic equipment require an adequate and uninterrupted power supply. These equipment may get damaged due to voltage fluctuations and power surges in the power grid. Therefore, switchgears play a crucial role in providing protection against such power grid issues. The need for increased protection and network stability will propel the growth of the global LV and MV switchgear market.

Technavio analysts highlight the following five vendors as the top contributors to the global medium and low voltage switchgear market:

ABB

Alstom

Eaton

Schneider Electric

Siemens

Browse Related Reports:

Global Solar Microinverter Market 2016-2020

Global Residential Solar Energy Storage Market 2015-2019

Global Battery Energy Storage Market for Renewables 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/20160310005017/en/

Contacts:

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media Marketing Executive

US: +1 630 333 9501

UK: +44 208 123 1770

www.technavio.com
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump continued his inflammatory rhetoric regarding Muslims on Wednesday, suggesting the Islamic religion is at war with the West. 'I think Islam hates us,' Trump said in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper. 'There's a tremendous hatred. We have to get to the bottom of it. There's an unbelievable hatred of us.' Trump declined to say whether the hatred was within Islam itself, however, arguing media members such as Cooper will have to figure that out for themselves. At the same time, the real estate tycoon seemed to stand by his proposed ban on all Muslim immigration into the U.S. 'We have to be very vigilant. We have to be very careful,' Trump said. 'We can't allow people coming into this country who have this hatred of the United States.' Trump also reiterated his argument that the U.S. has to be tougher in the fight against terrorism due to the brutal tactics of groups such as ISIS. 'Everybody believes in the Geneva Convention until they start losing and then they say, 'oh, let's take out the bomb.' Trump said. 'We have to play with a tougher set of rules.' The billionaire's rhetoric regarding Muslims has drawn criticism from some quarters, but that has not stopped his march toward the Republican presidential nomination. 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.
PUNE, India, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a new market research report, "Operational Predictive Maintenance Marketby Solution, by Service (System Integration, Training and Support, Consulting, by Deployment Type (Cloud, on-Premise), by Application Area, by Region (NA, Europe, APAC, MEA, LA) - Global Forecast to 2020", published by MarketsandMarkets, the market size is estimated to grow from USD 582.3 Million in 2015 to USD 1,884.3 Million by 2020, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 26.5%.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )



Browse 47 Tables and 47 Figures spread through 112 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Operational Predictive Maintenance Market"

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/operational-predictive-maintenance-market-8656856.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.

Operational predictive maintenance solutions are gaining popularity with increasing usage across all the major industrial verticals such as automotive, manufacturing, energy & utilities, healthcare, and others. One of the main reasons for the increasing usage is the ability of these software solutions to precisely predict asset failure, enabling enterprises to take the asset out of production just before it is to fail, thus ensuring production is not hampered in any way due to the failure of the asset.

The manufacturing vertical is expected to have the largest market size

The manufacturing vertical has the largest market size in the Operational Predictive Maintenance Market. Manufacturers are seeing the maintenance as a strategic business function as lowering the maintenance cost will help increase profitability.

Cloud deployment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period

The cloud-based operational predictive security market is expected to grow at the highest CAGR, as cloud-based operational predictive maintenance will enable enterprises to reduce their dependence on IT, data mining specialists, and data integration.

Request for Sample @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsample.asp?id=8656856

North America expected to contribute the largest market share, APAC to grow the fastest

North America is expected to hold the largest market share and would dominate the Operational Predictive Maintenance Market from 2015 to 2020, due to the presence of a large number of solution and service vendors. APAC offers potential growth opportunities for the Operational Predictive Maintenance Market to grow, as countries in APAC are investing heavily to increase the efficiency of production assets.

The major vendors in the Operational Predictive Maintenance Market include IBM Corporation, Software AG, General Electric, Bosch, Rockwell Automation, PTC, Schneider Electric, SKF, and others.

MarketsandMarkets segments the Operational Predictive Maintenance Market on the basis of solutions, services, application areas, deployment types, and regions. The report covers regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East & Africa (MEA), and Latin America. The report also covers detailed information regarding the major factors influencing the growth of the Operational Predictive Maintenance Market, such as drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities.

Browse Related Reports:-

Predictive Analytics Market by Business Function, Applications (Risk Management, Operations Management, Sales Management, Supply Chain Management, Workforce Management), Organization Size, Deployment Model, Vertical, & by Region - Global Forecast to 2020

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/predictive-analytics-market-1181.html

Internet of Things (IoT) in Utility Market by Software (Analytics, Security, Smart Grid Management, Predictive Asset Maintenance, and CIS & Billing System), Platform, Service, Application, and by Region - Global Forecast to 2020

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/iot-utility-market-116054824.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.

Contact:

Mr. Rohan

Markets and Markets

UNIT no 802, Tower no. 7, SEZ

Magarpatta city, Hadapsar

Pune, Maharashtra -411013, India

1-888-600-6441

Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com



Visit MarketsandMarkets Blog @ http://www.marketsandmarketsblog.com/market-reports/telecom-it

Connect with us on LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets
David C. McCourt, chairman and CEO of Granahan McCourt announces appointment of new financial directors at ALTV and Skyware Technologies to analyse aspects of relocation

Dublin-based telecoms and media investment group Granahan McCourt Capital (GMC) has announced it will be continuing its investment into the Irish market with the potential relocation of two businesses in its portfolio to the country.

Granahan McCourt, which announced the acquisition of Irish telecom firms, enet and AirSpeed late last year, is making moves to further underpin the company's investment in Ireland, bringing multi-national businesses to the country.

Evaluating the potentials in the Irish market, Granahan McCourt has appointed the expertise of two new financial directors who will be tasked with conducting financial analysis of relocating global brands within the GMC portfolio, Skyware Technologies and ALTV to Ireland. Margaret Chadwick will be joining satellite manufacturer Skyware Technologies as financial controller, having served as financial accountant at Brink's Ireland and Valeant Pharmaceuticals. Paul Phillips will be joining video production and streaming platform ALTV as financial controller, formerly working as head of finance at Youth Nation and senior financial analyst at DeNA Studios Canada.

The appointments will support the vision of global telecoms and media entrepreneur David McCourt, chairman and CEO of Granahan McCourt, who is dedicated to supporting tech talent within Ireland and bringing more business into the country's growing technology market.

Granahan McCourt has already made substantial investments in Ireland through its companies enet and AirSpeed. enet, the largest alternative telecoms network in Ireland, has played a vital role in the Irish government's National Broadband Plan by launching high-speed fibre optic networks in rural areas, such as North Kerry and Mayo, providing a boost to the commercial sectors of these often overlooked regions.

"We hope that the relocation of some of our key businesses to Ireland will allow us to enable the individuals and businesses within the country to take advantage of the many resources Granahan McCourt has to offer," McCourt commented. "Granahan McCourt's business portfolio is committed to partnering with governments and other stakeholders to bring content and connectivity to technologically underserved areas around the world. We hope to continue investing in Ireland's growing technology sector through the many companies in our business portfolio."

About Granahan McCourt:

Granahan McCourt Capital, LLC is a private investment firm focused on the technology, media and telecommunications industries.

For over 25 years, David C. McCourt, Chairman and CEO of Granahan McCourt Capital, has been an innovator, entrepreneur, and business leader across the technology, media and telecommunications industries. He has founded or bought 20 companies in 9 countries, and is widely recognised as a transformational force in the telecommunications business.

In addition to receiving the 'Entrepreneur of the Year' award from Ernst and Young LLP and the Harvard Business School Club of New York, he received the 2014 Award for Outstanding Alumni Entrepreneur from Georgetown University.McCourt was the first Resident Economist appointed by the USC Annenberg School for Communication Journalism and is also an Emmy award-winning TV producer. The Economist has described him as having "impeccable credentials as a telecom revolutionary".

For more information, visit: www.granahanmccourt.com.

-Ends-

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160310006168/en/

Contacts:

Whiteoaks Consultancy

for Granahan McCourt Capital

Jen Rook

t: +44 (0) 1252 727313 ext 276

M: +44 (0) 7557 162106

jenniferr@whiteoaks.co.uk
PUNE, India, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a new market research report "Identity and Access Management Market by Component (Provisioning, Directory Services, Password Management, SSO, & Audit, Compliance, and Governance), by Organization Size, by Deployment, by Vertical, and by Region - Global Forecast to 2020", published by MarketsandMarkets, The market is estimated to grow from USD 7.20 Billion in 2015 to USD 12.78 Billion by 2020, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12.2% during the forecast period.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )

Browse 71 Tables and 47 Figures spread through 136 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Identity and Access Management Market"

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/identity-access-management-iam-market-1168.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.

Growing emphasis on compliance management, increasing trend of mobility, and growing demand from BFSI, telecommunications, public and critical infrastructure sectors are the main drivers driving the growth of the identity and access management market.

Audit, compliance, and governance is expected to gain maximum traction during the forecast period

The audit, compliance, and governance component is estimated to grow with the highest CAGR during the forecast period. However, provisioning services have captured the highest market share as the provisioning lies at the core of access rights compliance and enforcement initiatives. Cloud deployment is expected to grow with the highest rate from 2015 to 2020. However, on-premises deployment is expected to contribute largest market share during the forecast period.

Large Enterprises has captured the largest market share in identity and access management, by organization size market

Affordability of resources and high economies of scale has allowed large enterprises to leverage the benefits of IAM solutions. Moreover, huge workforce enables them to specify experts in different areas of IAM security and helps them to better manage their data and privacy.

North America the largest revenue generator of the Identity and Access Management Market in 2015

North America is contributing maximum toward the Identity and Access Management Market through component, deployment type, and organizational size. The changing needs of the workforce, adoption of cloud applications, BYOD, and mobile practices along with meeting the heavy compliance regulations are driving the organizations in North America to adopt IAM solutions. Europe and Asia-Pacific are the second and third-largest regions in terms of market size for identity and access management.

Ask for Sample Pages @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsample.asp?id=1168

The market is competitive due to the entry of new players with new and innovative offerings. Major vendors in the Identity and Access Management Market space include large number of vendors such as IBM, Microsoft, Hitachi, Dell Software, EMC Corporation, Okta, and Centrify.

The report shows growth of the Identity and Access Management Market in various regions. The report aims at estimating the market size and future growth potential of this market across segments such as components, deployment type, organizational size, and regions. Furthermore, the report also includes an in-depth competitive analysis of key players in the identity and access management market, with their company profiles, SWOT analysis, recent developments, and key market strategies.

Browse Related Reports



Cyber Security Market by Solution (IAM, Encryption, DLP, Risk and Compliance Management, IDS/IPS, UTM, Firewall, Antivirus/Antimalware, SIEM, Disaster Recovery, DDOS Mitigation, Web Filtering, and Security Services) - Global Forecast to 2020

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/cyber-security-market-505.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.

Contact:

Mr.Rohan

Markets and Markets

UNIT no 802, Tower no. 7, SEZ

Magarpatta city, Hadapsar

Pune, Maharashtra 411013, India

1-888-600-6441

Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com





Visit MarketsandMarkets Blog @ http://www.marketsandmarketsblog.com/market-reports/telecom-it

Connect with us on LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets
10 March 2016



U.S. Oil & Gas Plc.



("U.S. Oil" or the "Company")



Operations update

Operations Update and Intention to Drill

In a May 2013, an independent Competent Person's Report (CPR) by Forrest A. Garb & Associates (FGA) of Houston, Texas, estimated 19.2 million barrels Contingent Resources (C50) for a portion of the Company's lease area in Hot Creek Valley Nevada. Since then, the Company's stated intention has been to achieve Reserves status for some part of those estimated Resources. The Board believes that Reserves would significantly improve the Company's position in terms of finalising an industry partnership to fund large-scale exploration and development of the Hot Creek Valley property.

Required funds

To enable the planned operations described below to be undertaken, the Company will need to raise additional funds . Details of how this may be achieved will be set out in due course in a separate announcement. The intentions described below are contingent on sufficient funds being raised. If sufficient funds are raised, the Company anticipates it will be able to commence drilling operations in early Summer 2016.

Background to the operational plan

Results from the Gravity Magnetic and Geochemical surveys of Hot Creek Valley, including the area around the Eblana #1 well, were reported by the Company in May 2014. The data collected were analysed to develop further the geological model and provided invaluable structural information for provisional targeting of the next drills. An intensive process of independent analyses and technical reporting then focussed on the geophysical structures updip to the discovery well Eblana #1. Extensive preliminary area modelling has recently been carried out by Halliburton in advance of a planned Vertical Seismic Profile (VSP) survey.

Based on its studies, the Company's intention, subject to funding, is to re-enter the Eblana#1 well, offsetting the drill depending on the results of the planned VSP survey. The well will be drilled to a greater depth than previously to penetrate Palaeozoic strata . A second well may also be drilled if sufficient funding is available. The currently depressed price of drilling and services at this time offers a valuable opportunity for highly cost-effective operations.

Permits

The geological, geophysical and petrophysical studies described above culminated in a report and recommendation to the Board on 14th October 2015. Applications for the necessary permissions were submitted to State and Federal authorities on 28th October 2015. Six permissions were required and applied for, four have been granted and two remain to be awarded.

Ground operations

Site preparation is currently underway at Eblana #1. The access road has been repaired after winter damage. A completion rig is onsite and has removed tubing, prepared the well, run a cement bond log and acquired preliminary well control data in preparation for drilling operations.

Stock Exchange Listing

The Board's intention is to obtain a trading facility for the Ordinary Shares on a suitable market, and it continues to explore this objective. Although the Board hopes a listing can be achieved in the near future, there can be no certainty about how long this may take. Nor can a successful outcome be guaranteed. It is important to note that listing is contingent on satisfying working capital requirements amongst other factors.

Brian McDonnell, CEO of U.S. Oil said:

'Given the turmoil afflicting the oil sector at present, and the difficulty in finalising an industry partnership in the current conditions, the Company has decided to press on to drill independently if sufficient funds can be raised. We remain confident in the viability and value of our asset as a conventional resource with, potentially, extremely low uplift costs. We are equally confident that this advantage will in due course be recognised by the wider industry.'

THE DIRECTORS OF THE COMPANY ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CONTENTS OF THIS

ANNOUNCEMENT

Neither this announcement nor the information contained herein constitutes an

offer or solicitation by U.S. Oil and Gas plc for the purchase or sale of any

securities nor does it constitute a solicitation to any person in any

jurisdiction where solicitation would be unlawful.

For further information contact:

Brian McDonnell, Chief Executive Officer +353 (1) 631 9022

Alexander David Securities Ltd - Corporate Finance Adviser

David Scott +44 (0) 20 7448 9820

James Dewhurst +44 (0) 20 7448 9820

Email: james.dewhurst@ad-securities.com

Definitions: The terms 'Reserves' and 'Contingent Resources' are as defined in the 'Petroleum Resources Management System' of the Society of Petroleum Engineers.

About U.S. Oil & Gas:

U.S. Oil & Gas plc is an oil and gas exploration company with a strategy to identify and acquire oil and gas assets in the early phase of the upstream life-cycle and mature them. The Company's

main asset is in Nye County, Nevada where it holds the entire share capital of US-based company, Major Oil International LLC ("Major Oil"). Major Oil has acquired rights to exploration and development acreage in Hot Creek Valley, Nye County, adjacent to the oil and gas rich Railroad Valley area of Nevada, both of which are part of the Sevier Thrust of central Nevada and western Utah, USA.

For further information please refer to our website at: www.usoil.us

Ends
Regulatory News:

At its meeting on March 8, 2016 chaired by the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Antoine Frerot, the Board of Directors of Veolia Environnement (VE) (Paris:VIE) decided, on a proposal from the Nominations Committee, to propose the following resolutions relating to the revision of its composition, to the Shareholders' Meeting on April 21, 2016:

the renewal of the terms of office as directors of Mr. Jacques Aschenbroich and Ms. Nathalie Rachou,

the appointment as new directors of Ms. Isabelle Courville, a Canadian national, and Mr. Guillaume Texier, a French national. Ms. Isabelle Courville is currently a non-voting director on VE's Board of Directors. Mr. Guillaume Texier is the Financial Director of the Saint Gobain Group.

At the request of Messrs. Serge Michel and Georges Ralli, the Board will not request the renewal of their terms of office as directors. The Board expresses its deepest gratitude for their long and faithful service and for the quality of their contribution to its work. Upon a decision of the Board and after the Shareholders' Meeting on April 21, 2016, Mr. Serge Michel will exercise the functions of a non-voting director.

The Board of Directors has also decided to add to its committees by appointing Ms. Homaira Akbari, who will join the Account and Audit Committee, Mr. Paolo Scaroni, who will join the Nominations Committee, and Ms. Clara Gaymard, who will join the Compensation Committee. Apart from these changes, the composition of the Board's committees will remain unchanged.

Veolia group is the global leader in optimized resource management. With over 174 000 employees worldwide, the Group designs and provides water, waste and energy management solutions that contribute to the sustainable development of communities and industries. Through its three complementary business activities, Veolia helps to develop access to resources, preserve available resources, and to replenish them.

In 2015, the Veolia group supplied 100 million people with drinking water and 63 million people with wastewater service, produced 63 million megawatt hours of energy and converted 42.9 million metric tons of waste into new materials and energy. Veolia Environnement (listed on Paris Euronext: VIE) recorded consolidated revenue of 25 billion in 2015. www.veolia.com

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160310006248/en/

Contacts:

Press Relations

Laurent Obadia Sandrine Guendoul

Stephane Galfre Marie Bouvet

Tel.: 33 1 71 75 12 52

Mob.: 33 6 25 09 14 25

sandrine.guendoul@veolia.com

or

Investor and Analyst Relations

Ronald Wasylec Ariane de Lamaze

Tel.: +33 1 71 75 12 23 06 00

Terri Anne Powers (United States)

Tel.: +1 312 552 2890
WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 03/10/16 -- Prime Minister's Office

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today issued the following statement after a bilateral meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama:

"Today, President Obama and I had a very productive meeting that will help our countries transition to low-carbon economies, foster clean growth, and create good jobs and great opportunities for our citizens.

"The President and I agreed to formally join the Paris Agreement in the global fight against climate change, and to take ambitious actions to reduce methane, hydroflurocarbon, and greenhouse gas emissions.

"We announced a new partnership to build a sustainable Arctic economy, and we will work together to develop new, science-based standards for commercial fishing, low-impact shipping, sustainable development, and Arctic biodiversity.

"We also committed to make our borders more open and more secure, and we agreed in principle to expand preclearance to Billy Bishop Airport in Toronto, Jean Lesage International Airport in Quebec City, as well as rail service in Montreal and Vancouver.

"The President and I reaffirmed our commitment to streamline trade between our countries. Each day, $2.4 billion worth of goods and services cross the border. We agreed to work in collaboration to bring trade and investment to new heights.

"Finally, we agreed that Canada will host the North American Leaders Summit in the Summer of 2016. President Obama will address Parliament during his visit to Canada for the summit.

"Canada and the United States share the same values, the same origins, and the same space. We face many of the same challenges, and we are all better off when we tackle them together."

Related products

Fact sheet: Canada - United States: Neighbours, Partners, Allies

U.S.-Canada Joint Statement on Climate, Energy, and Arctic Leadership

This document is also available at http://pm.gc.ca

Contacts:

PMO Media Relations:

(613) 957-5555




TYSONS CORNER, VA --(Marketwired - March 10, 2016) - NeoSystems Corp., a leading technology-enabled professional services company specializing in integrated accounting/finance, HR, and IT functions, is proud to announce that it has been named a Deltek GovCon Premier Partner for 2016, only one of seven companies nationwide to receive this distinction.

NeoSystems 360 Support and Services' secure, private cloud, is trusted by over 700 companies and over 50,000 employees accessing NeoSystems-hosted Deltek Time & Expense (T&E). All of the solutions are managed in a secure, private, redundant cloud that is SSAE-16 SOC 1 & SOC 2, PCI-DSS, MA 201, HIPAA, and ITAR compliant.

"This honor marks the 9th consecutive year that NeoSystems has been selected as a Deltek GovCon Premier Partner," states Michael Tinsley, CEO of NeoSystems Corp. "We are proud to work alongside Deltek in our long-standing, trusted partnership, and we share a joint commitment to helping the government contracting community manage and deliver for their customers, the U.S. Government, and U.S. taxpayers."

Deltek's Premier Partners provide sales, implementation, consulting, support, and customization services and are required to meet and maintain a number of high standards. NeoSystems' professional and technical experience in providing comprehensive consulting and integration services for Deltek's software solutions is a key differentiator for government contractors of all sizes. NeoSystems' team of experts has been instrumental in implementing Deltek solutions, providing hosting services, performing upgrades, as well as executing on day-to-day accounting, financial planning, and reporting.

About Deltek

Deltek is the leading global provider of enterprise software and information solutions for government contractors, professional services firms and other project- and people-based businesses. For decades, we have delivered actionable insight that empowers our customers to unlock their business potential. 22,000 organizations and millions of users in over 80 countries around the world rely on Deltek to research and identify opportunities, win new business, recruit and develop talent, optimize resources, streamline operations and deliver more profitable projects. For more information, please visit www.deltek.com.

About NeoSystems Corporation

NeoSystems Corp., based in Tyson's Corner, Virginia, delivers integrated strategic back office services and solutions for commercial entities, government contractors, and nonprofit organizations. Today, NeoSystems supports 700 companies and over 50,000 employees with its BPO services and NeoSystems' experts have implemented hundreds of fully integrated financial and business management systems. Utilizing best of breed technology and leveraging in-depth expertise in Accounting & Finance, Human Capital Management, Hosting (SOC1/SOC2), and Information Technology, our team enables companies to improve vital operations, reduce their overhead costs and become compliant with complex requirements. We enable our clients to grow, become more profitable, efficient, and better equipped to win new business. NeoSystems is partnered with the world's leading software companies, including Deltek, NetSuite, Ultimate Software, IBM, Integrify, Contract Logix, and others to provide best-in-class ERP, HR, IT, Contract Management and business solutions. For the sixth year in a row, NeoSystems has also been named one of America's fastest growing private companies by Inc. Magazine. For more information, please visit www.neosystemscorp.com.

Embedded Video Available: http://www.fedpubseminars.com/OnlineCourses/Webinars/Audit-Compliance-With-Workflow-Automation/Access/?id=40

Agency contact:



Nancy Rose Senich

1-202-262-6996 cell/txt.

nancy@rose4results.com

neosystems@rose4results.com



Source: NeoSystems Corp.
OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 03/10/16 -- Industry is recalling Wonderful brand pistachios from the marketplace due to possible Salmonella contamination. Consumers should not consume and retailers, hotels, restaurants and institutions should not sell, serve or use the recalled products described below.

The following products have been sold nationally.

These products may have been sold in bulk or in smaller packages with or without a label and may not bear the same product names as described below. Consumers who are unsure if they have purchased the affected products are advised to contact their retailer.

Recalled products

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brand Product Size UPC Codes ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wonderful Roasted Unsalted 200 g 0 14113 91365 2 BEST IF USED BY Pistachios 2016/10/26 1509123260301 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wonderful Roasted Unsalted 225 g 0 14113 91253 2 BEST IF USED BY Pistachios 2016/10/26 1509123256901 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wonderful Roasted Salted 225 g 0 14113 91204 4 BEST IF USED BY Pistachios 2016/10/27 1509123259801 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wonderful Roasted Salted 25 lb 00014113910255 BEST IF USED BY Pistachios 2016/11/02 1510123294601 BEST IF USED BY 2016/11/05 1510123332501 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

What you should do

Check to see if you have recalled products in your home. Recalled products should be thrown out or returned to the store where they were purchased.

Food contaminated with Salmonella may not look or smell spoiled but can still make you sick. Young children, pregnant women, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems may contract serious and sometimes deadly infections. Healthy people may experience short-term symptoms such as fever, headache, vomiting, nausea, abdominal cramps and diarrhea. Long-term complications may include severe arthritis.

- Learn more about the health risks

- Sign up for recall notifications by email, follow us on Twitter, or join the CFIA community on Facebook

- View our detailed explanation of the food safety investigation and recall process

If you suspect you have become ill from eating a recalled product, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) recommends contacting your doctor.

Background

This recall was triggered by a recall in the United States by Wonderful Pistachios and may be associated with an outbreak in the United States. The recall by the company is published on the website of the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA). The CFIA is conducting a food safety investigation, which may lead to the recall of other products. If other high-risk products are recalled, the CFIA will notify the public through updated Food Recall Warnings.

The CFIA is verifying that industry is removing recalled product from the marketplace.

Illnesses

There have been no confirmed illnesses in Canada associated with the consumption of these products.

More information

- CFIA: www.inspection.gc.ca/contactus

Contacts:

CFIA Media Relations

613-773-6600




SAN DIEGO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 03/10/16 -- Every year, advances in technology make rhinoplasty more accurate and predictable. With the right plastic surgeon with experience and skill, and the right facial conditions, your nose can be reshaped to flatter your face for a lifetime. But it's not simple. Dr. Roy David, a San Diego facial plastic surgeon, warns, "rhinoplasty is one of the most difficult cosmetic surgery procedures performed, 20% of my rhinoplasty surgeries are for revision rhinoplasty, so be selective when choosing your surgeon."

Complex Surgery

"Getting a nose job" -- it sounds so casual, like an everyday occurrence. It's true that over 200,000 are performed each year. But it's not a simple surgery. In fact, it is one of the most difficult of all cosmetic surgery procedures. That's why it is essential that you choose the best rhinoplasty surgeon available.

Here are four tips to help you find the best rhinoplasty surgeon.

Know What You Want

Decide what it is you don't like about your current nose. Find photos of people with noses you prefer. This is your starting point.

It is important to remember that a nose that looks wonderful on someone else may end up looking awkward on you. When it comes to noses, one size doesn't fit all.

The right facial plastic surgeon can help you refine what you want in a nose, explain what is possible and help you decide on the right look.

Look for Experience and Expertise

Because of the way the nose is formed, rhinoplasty requires a facial surgeon with highly specialized skills. The doctor you choose should be board certified in plastic surgery or otolaryngology, which is ear, nose and throat surgery.

Research websites to make sure the surgeons you are considering meet these requirements. Check with the American Society of Plastic Surgeons for a list of local qualified doctors.

Read Reviews

Check for reviews from previous patients. You can find these on the physician websites, consumer medical websites and sites like Yelp and Google+.

When you go in for a consultation, ask to see rhinoplasty before and after photos. You can learn a lot from these because these are real-life examples of the doctor's handiwork. Pay special attention to patients who had rhinoplasty on a nose that looks like yours currently does. Does the after photo look attractive?

Use Computer Imaging

Work with a surgeon who uses computer imaging technology. This lets you see the possibilities before surgery. You can digitally try on specific nose shapes. The imaging is approximate, not exact, but it helps both you and doctor know what you would like and what fits your face.

Both you and the doctor will better understand before surgery what you are trying to achieve. It is important that both of you are on the same page, agreeing on mutual goals and expectations.

Trust an Expert

Dr. Roy David, M.D., is the San Diego facial plastic surgeon with the training, experience and skill you need to perform your rhinoplasty. Thousands of happy patients over the last 10 years attest to his caring, surgical skill and aesthetic abilities. Prior to his medical career, he was a paratrooper and medic.

He is double board certified, by both the American Board of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and the American Board of Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery. He is part of the elite group that has completed the highly regarded Fellowship in Facial Plastic Surgery through the AAFPRS.

A specialist when it comes to cosmetic surgery, he focuses exclusively on the nose, eyes, face, neck and scalp. He takes great pride in making a positive impact on his patients' lives.

Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=2977107

Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=2977109



Contact:

www.sandiegoface.com

Email Contact

858-658-0595



Media:

Internet Marketing Guyz

www.internetmarketingguyz.com

Email Contact




VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 03/10/16 -- MPH Ventures Corp. (TSX VENTURE: MPS) (OTCBB: MPSFF) (FRANKFURT: IJA2) (the "Company") has corrected the terms of the Warrant in an earlier news release today regarding the closing of its private placement financing. Each Unit will consist of one common share and one half non-transferrable share purchase warrant (the "Warrant"). Each whole Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one additional common share at a price of $0.075 per share for a period of two years expiring March 10, 2018.

All other terms of the private placement are correct.

About MPH Ventures Corp.:

MPH Ventures has acquired a 20% interest in Travelucion S.L., an online travel digital media company and has given notice of its intention to acquire the remaining 80% interest, subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval. Travelucion is a cash-flow positive online travel digital media company that specializes in travel marketing, electronic reservations and online booking solutions for international visitors to Cuba. Travelucion owns one of the most significant portfolios of Cuban focused web assets, through 432 sites, which collectively generate over 30 million page-views per year and direct traffic to the main Travelucion booking site.

For further information on MPH Ventures Corp. (TSX VENTURE: MPS) visit the Company's website at www.mphventurescorp.com.

MPH Ventures Corp. has approx. 45.4 million shares issued and outstanding.

MPH VENTURES CORP.

James G. Pettit, President & CEO

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THE CONTENT OF THIS NEWS RELEASE.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT

Completion of the transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including Exchange acceptance and disinterested shareholder approval. The transaction cannot close until the required shareholder approval is obtained. There can be no assurance that the transaction will be completed as proposed or at all. Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the Management Information Circular to be prepared in connection with the transaction, any information released or received with respect to the COB may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. Trading in the securities of the Company should be considered highly speculative.

The TSX Venture Exchange has in no way passed upon the merits of the proposed transaction and has not approved nor disapproved of the contents of this press release.

READER ADVISORY

Statements in this press release may contain forward-looking information including, statements regarding the contemplated COB and private placement. Any statements that are contained in this press release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of MPH Ventures. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include, failure to obtain regulatory approval, the continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. There can be no assurance that the proposed change of business or private placement will be completed or, if completed, will be successful. Please see the public filings of the Company at www.sedar.com for further information.

Contacts:

MPH Ventures Corp.

James G. Pettit

President & CEO

604-687-3376 or Toll Free: 800-567-8181

604-687-3119 (FAX)



MPH Ventures Corp.

Don Myers

Director

604-687-3376 or Toll Free: 800-567-8181

604-687-3119 (FAX)

info@mphventurescorp.com

www.mphventurescorp.com




HOUSTON, TX -- (Marketwired) -- 03/10/16 -- Zintel Public Relations announced today it was honored as PR Agency of the Year for Security Companies by the 2016 Info Security Product Guide's Global Excellence Awards. The coveted award program recognizes and honors excellence in all areas of information security.

Representing IT security companies since its founding in 2003, Zintel Public Relations has helped propel the success of numerous industry startups, market leaders and non-profit organizations. The agency is routinely recognized for exceptional media relations, message development, thought leadership and analyst relations services.

More than 50 judges from a broad spectrum of industry voices determined the 2016 Global Excellence Award honorees. Winners were announced during the awards dinner and presentation on February 29, 2016 in San Francisco attended by the finalists, judges and industry peers.

"It is an honor to be named Agency of the Year for Security Companies," said Matthew Zintel, founder and managing director at Zintel Public Relations. "Serving both public and private IT security companies for nearly 13 years, Zintel PR is uniquely positioned to help craft successful messages and gain market recognition for organizations that protect data, email, infrastructure, identities, transactions and web traffic. With IT Security at the forefront of our lives and businesses, Zintel PR is proud to serve as a strategic partner to many of the industry's forward thinkers."

About Info Security Products Guide

Info Security Products Guide plays a vital role in keeping end users informed of the choices they can make when it comes to protecting their digital resources. It is written expressly for those who are adamant on staying informed of security threats and the preventive measures they can take. Readers discover a wealth of information, including tomorrow's technology today, best deployment scenarios, people and technologies shaping info security, and market research reports. Visit www.infosecurityproductsguide.com.

About Zintel Public Relations

Zintel Public Relations, LLC offers award-winning communications that create, nurture and propel an organization's message. A true partner in growth, Zintel PR transforms concepts into results through exceptional media relations, editorial craftsmanship and persistent thought leadership efforts. Founded in 2003 and based in Houston, Texas, Zintel PR offers an unyielding commitment to success alongside unparalleled professionalism that is routinely praised by global corporations as well as bootstrap startups. Visit www.zintelpr.com.

Press Contact:

Zintel Public Relations

Email Contact

281.444.1590




According to the latest research study released by Technavio, the global hydraulic actuators market is expected to reach close to USD 2 billion in revenue by 2020.

This research report titled 'Global Hydraulic Actuators Market 2016-2020', provides an in-depth analysis of market growth in terms of revenue and emerging market trends. This market research report also includes up to date analysis and forecasts for various market segments and all leading regions.

Request sample report: http://bit.ly/1QF3Rdv

"Vendors of hydraulic actuators in North America and Europe are increasingly outsourcing their hydraulic equipment manufacturing to low-cost countries such as India and China, which have low labor costs and few environmental regulations. Large MNCs are also investing directly in manufacturing plants in developing nations to reduce raw materials and workforce costs for enhancing profit margins," said Bharath Kanniappan, one of Technavio's lead analysts for automation research.

"Weber Hydraulic, a leading manufacturer of hydraulic equipment and actuators, invested close to USD 4 million in a greenfield manufacturing facility in Pune, India, which became operational in 2013. In 2015, the company doubled the production capacity of hydraulic cylinders, pumps, and latches in the facility due to a strong demand from automotive OEMs like Asia MotorWorks, Foton Motor, Mahindra Navistar, and Daimler India, to the serve solar field projects in India," added Bharath.

Global hydraulic actuators market by end-users 2015

Oil and gas 26.37% Aviation 23.97% Construction 19.48% Metals and mining 16.62% Agricultural equipment 7.7% Others 5.86%

Source: Technavio research

Top three end-user segments of the global hydraulic actuators market:

Oil and gas

Aviation

Construction

Oil and gas: largest segment of the global hydraulic actuator market

The global hydraulic actuators market in the oil and gas industry was valued at over USD 447 million in 2015. The demand for hydraulic actuators is increasing significantly due to major infrastructure expansions in upstream, midstream, and downstream activities, owing to recent developments in unconventional oil and gas extraction such as shale gas and coalbed methane (CBM) production.

Although hydraulic actuators face stiff competition from electrical actuators, the segment will continue to lead in the oil and gas industry due to their comparatively higher power-to-weight ratio. Also, hydraulic actuators can operate large loads at high speeds compared to electric actuators, and are smaller than pneumatic actuators.

Aviation: second largest segment of the global hydraulic actuator market

The global hydraulic actuators market in the aviation industry was valued at over USD 416 million in 2015. The aviation industry is undergoing major transformations in technology and aircraft designs. Such developments have also vastly improved engineering aspects of actuator systems used in aircrafts. Hydraulic actuator systems may soon be replaced by fuel-efficient, compact, and lightweight electronic actuator systems in aircraft.

Earlier, hydraulic mechanisms were used to operate non-propulsive systems on an aircraft. However, the advent of modern power electronics and gear technology has made electrical actuators competitive with hydraulic actuators in terms of power-to-weight ratios.

Consequently, aircraft OEMs are collaborating with suppliers to design new systems to incorporate electrical architecture. However, maintenance of existing hydraulic systems in the aircraft industry will contribute immensely to the growth of this market over the next four years.

Global hydraulic actuators market in construction industry

The global hydraulic actuators market in the construction industry was valued at USD 303.2 million in 2015. Hydraulic actuators are used in various construction equipment vehicles such as excavators, cranes, backhoes, dozers, dumpers, pavers, and graders; concrete machines; drilling rigs; and wheel loaders during construction of infrastructure projects.

Increase in commercial and infrastructure projects in China, India, Brazil, and the Middle East also significantly impact the demand for hydraulic machinery. China is a prominent developing nation for the global hydraulic actuators market. The National Development and Reform Commission of China plans to invest close to USD 6.4 trillion during 2013-2025 to support 425 million people anticipated to move to its urban areas. This development spells a boom for the construction segmentation of the global hydraulic actuators market over the next four years.

Browse related reports:

Global Actuator Market 2016-2020

Global Hydraulic Valve Actuators Market 2015-2019

Global Industrial Valves and Actuators Market 2015-2019

Global Hydraulic Equipment Market 2016-2020

Purchase any 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/20160310005439/en/

Contacts:

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media Marketing Executive

US: +1 630 333 9501

UK: +44 208 123 1770

www.technavio.com

media@technavio.com
VENTURA, CA--(Marketwired - March 10, 2016) - Gsolutionz Inc., a premier technology solutions provider and an Avaya Connect Platinum Partner, announced today it has been honored with two significant awards for its accomplishments in 2015: Avaya Mid-Market Partner, Southern California for the first half of fiscal 2015 and 2015 Avaya Mid-Market Partner of the Year, Western Region. Gsolutionz was recognized on February 1 st 2016 at Avaya's Executive Partner Forum in San Diego.

"While we salute all of our partners who took the time to be part of our conference this week, special congratulations go to our 2015 award winners for their customer focus and passion to drive results," said Steve Biondi, vice president of Avaya's Global Partner Organization. "Our partners are instrumental to Avaya's success and I'm pleased to recognize this year's winners."

"Gsolutionz is an outstanding example of what we would like all of our Mid-Market Avaya Partners to be. This award was very deserved," said Kristine Messenger, Avaya Channel Account Manager. "Gsolutionz has shown tremendous growth in the Mid-Market space, making the art of selling IP Office look easy to others. Their exploratory consultation conversations with customers are unique, really looking to define what is needed and wanted. I believe Gsolutionz exemplifies what it means to be a Mid-Market partner for Avaya and only hope all our partners can have as much success as they have had this year."

"The Gsolutionz Team appreciates the recognition and the outstanding partnership that we share with Avaya. The Partner of the Year Award is a direct result of that partnership and is bringing new technologies to market that exceed our customer expectations in every respect," said Ian Pugh, President at Gsolutionz.

"Our team is honored to receive this award from Avaya and it demonstrates the results of our Team's hard work and dedication to serving our customers," said DeLaine Clifford, Director of Customer Success.

Gsolutionz specializes in providing communications systems that help business owners grow their businesses and reach their long term business goals. An IP Office specialist, Gsolutionz clients benefit from a consultative technology partnership that delivers long-term cost savings and productivity gains across the organization.

"The Gsolutionz Team has been amazing! Our technology deployment was seamless, quick and done right the first time around! The whole team -- consultants, customer care, technical, administrative -- has been professional, helpful, and knowledgeable," said Odilla McLeod from The Argen Corporation.

"I would not consider working with any other vendor for our technology needs. When I work with Gsolutionz, I know I don't have to worry about any unexpected issues that will interfere with our business operations," said Cheryl Powers from Atascadero Mutual Water Company.

About AVAYA

AVAYA is a global provider of business collaboration and communications software and services, providing unified communications, contact centers, networking and related services to companies of all sizes around the world. For more information please visit www.avaya.com.

About Gsolutionz Inc.

Gsolutionz is a Platinum AVAYA Business Partner, providing consulting, sales and support of AVAYA's Mid-Market solutions. Staffed with a team of high qualified and certified professionals, Gsolutionz provides Unified Communications, Network, Collaboration and Cloud Solutions for Mid-Market customers. For more information, or for a free communications consultation, visit www.gsolutionz.com, Email letspartner@gsolutionz.com or call 1-866-GET-GSOL.

Contact:

Randall Cure

805-662-1524

Gsolutionz Inc.

http://www.gsolutionz.com

1-866-GET-GSOL (866-438-4765)
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.
NEW YORK, 2016-03-10 22:15 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leucadia National Corporation (NYSE:LUK) ("Leucadia") and FXCM Inc. (NYSE:FXCM) ("FXCM") today announced that they have entered into a memorandum of understanding (the "MOU") to amend the terms of their Amended and Restated Credit Agreement (the "Credit Agreement"), and their Amended and Restated Letter Agreement (the "Letter Agreement"), each dated January 24, 2015. The nonbinding MOU remains subject to the execution of definitive agreements and Board and regulatory approvals. Leucadia and FXCM expect to complete the amendment by June 2016.Principal Changes to the Credit Agreement:-- The Credit Agreement would be extended by one year to January 2018 to allow FXCM more time to optimize remaining asset sales. While FXCM is actively marketing the non-core assets it has identified to be sold, Leucadia and FXCM concluded that greater value could be realized for all stakeholders through additional time to complete the asset sales. -- FXCM would have the right to defer any three of the remaining interest payments by paying interest in kind. Payments in kind will permit FXCM to honor its debt obligations, while maintaining maximum flexibility to invest and grow its core business. -- Until the loan and interest under the Credit Agreement are fully repaid, all distributions and sales proceeds shall continue to be used solely to repay the loan plus interest.Principal Changes to the Letter Agreement:-- The Letter Agreement would be terminated and its terms shifted to Newco's LLC agreement. -- The existing FXCM Newco, LLC ("Newco") agreement would be amended, Newco would be renamed FXCM Group LLC ("FXCM Group"), and Leucadia would own a 49.9% common membership interest in FXCM Group. FXCM Holdings LLC would own a 50.1% common membership interest in FXCM Group. -- FXCM Group would be governed by an eight-member board, comprising three directors appointed by Leucadia, contemplated to be Rich Handler, Brian Friedman and Jimmy Hallac, three directors appointed by FXCM, and two independent directors, one each to be nominated by Leucadia and FXCM. -- No FXCM Group distributions would be permitted until the principal and interest due under the Credit Agreement is repaid. -- After January 2018, Leucadia and FXCM would each have the right to begin a process that could unwind the partnership, potentially resulting in a sale process for FXCM Group. -- A long-term incentive program with a five-year vesting period would be put into place for FXCM senior management to retain and incentivize management to maximize cash flow generation and the growth of the business that would operate only after Leucadia's principal and interest under the Credit Agreement is repaid and would equal the following: -- 10% of all distributions or sales proceeds from FXCM Group up to $350 million; -- 12% of all distributions or sales proceeds from FXCM Group from $350 million to $850 million; and -- 14% of all distributions or sales proceeds from FXCM Group above $850 million.Long term incentive program participants shall receive their share of any distributions or sales proceeds while unvested.-- Leucadia would own a non-voting preferred class of membership interest that, when added to its 49.9% common membership interest, would result in the following distribution of proceeds from FXCM Group:Old Waterfall Revised Waterfall Amounts due under Credit Agreement 100% Leucadia 100% Leucadia Next $350 million 50% Leucadia 45% Leucadia / 45% FXCM / / 50% FXCM 10.0% FXCM Management Next $500 million 90% Leucadia 79.2% Leucadia / 8.8% FXCM / / 10% FXCM 12.0% FXCM Management All aggregate amounts thereafter 60% Leucadia 51.6% Leucadia / 34.4% FXCM / / 40% FXCM 14.0% FXCM ManagementRich Handler, Chief Executive Officer, and Brian Friedman, President of Leucadia, stated: "We are pleased to amend our agreements with FXCM, and affirm our long-term commitment to FXCM and our confidence in FXCM's future in the retail FX market. We believe that our anticipated deal will be beneficial to both companies and solidify Leucadia's role as a long-term partner. The FXCM management team has been essential to building the company into the industry-leading FX brokerage that it is today, we fully support them, and feel that retaining them is vital to FXCM's future success. We are optimistic about what we can achieve together moving forward.Drew Niv, Chief Executive Officer of FXCM, stated: "Leucadia as a long-term partner in FXCM will be of great benefit to all FXCM stakeholders, clients, and employees, as well as confirm the health and stability of FXCM to our customers. The extension of the Credit Agreement should also help FXCM realize appropriate values for assets we expect to sell, while also allowing us to continue to grow our core business."Additional Changes to be Anticipated:-- FXCM Inc. will change its name and NYSE ticker symbol, to be determined at a later dateAbout FXCM Inc.FXCM Inc. (NYSE:FXCM) is a leading provider of online foreign exchange (FX) trading, CFD trading, spread betting and related services. Our mission is to provide global traders with access to the world's largest and most liquid market by offering innovative trading tools, hiring excellent trading educators, meeting strict financial standards and striving for the best online trading experience in the market.Clients have the advantage of mobile trading, one-click order execution and trading from real-time charts. In addition, FXCM offers educational courses on FX trading and provides free news and market research through DailyFX.com.Trading foreign exchange and CFDs on margin carries a high level of risk, which may result in losses that could exceed your deposits, therefore may not be suitable for all investors. Read full disclaimer.Visit www.fxcm.com and follow us on Twitter @FXCM, Facebook FXCM, Google+ FXCM or YouTube FXCM.About Leucadia:Leucadia National Corporation (NYSE:LUK) is a diversified holding company engaged through its consolidated subsidiaries in a variety of businesses, including investment banking and capital markets, beef processing, manufacturing, oil and gas exploration and production and asset management. The Company also owns equity interests in businesses that are accounted for under the equity method of accounting, including a diversified holding company, real estate, commercial mortgage banking and servicing, telecommunication services in Italy, automobile dealerships and development of a gold and silver mining project.Contact:FXCM Jaclyn Klein 1-646-432-2463 jklein@fxcm.com investorrelations@fxcm.comLeucadia National Corporation Laura Ulbrandt 1-212-460-1977
Advanced O3b satellite network cost-effectively delivers fiber-like connectivity

O3b Networks and SpeedCast International Limited (ASX: SDA) today announced an agreement to provide connectivity over the innovative O3b satellite network. The service will be provided to consumers, businesses and government customers by Amalgamated Telecom Holdings (Kiribati) Limited (ATHKL), a subsidiary of Amalgamated Telecom Holdings of Fiji.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160310006626/en/

Tabuaeran, Fanning Island, The Republic of Kiribati (Photo: Business Wire)

The Republic of Kiribati has a population of about 100,000 living on 33 atolls and islands, across 3.5 million square km of ocean. O3b is the ideal solution, as the dispersed geography makes laying undersea fiber cables unreasonably expensive and time-consuming. Existing geostationary (GEO) satellites can't match the O3b network's high throughput and low latency, which is necessary for modern e-commerce, e-government, e-education and e-Health applications.

Kiribati is in the final stages of testing the O3b link, and will first deploy the service to Tarawa, the largest island in the country. The multi-year agreement provides flexibility to expand capacity where required, ensuring ATHKL can provide high-performance connectivity for HD video, e-commerce, online education, or cloud services.

O3b's Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites orbit at 8,062km above the Earth and have a latency of less than 150 msec-25% that of the geostationary (GEO) satellite systems connecting Kiribati. The switch to the lower-latency, higher-throughput O3b service will transform the island nation providing connectivity equivalent to long-haul fiber, while avoiding the exorbitant cost of laying an undersea cable to the island.

"SpeedCast is happy to partner with ATHKL and O3b to quickly and cost-effectively provide the people of Kiribati cutting-edge technology, enabling economic growth and access to all forms of e-commerce, education and health," said Pierre-Jean Beylier, CEO of SpeedCast. "ATHKL will first bring their world-class internet connectivity to the people of Tarawa, and, in time, to the rest of the country."

"O3b and SpeedCast are delighted to support ATHKL in bringing Kiribati into a new era of connectivity," said Imran Malik, VP Asia for O3b Networks. "With O3b's high-throughput and low-latency connection, with value adds from SpeedCast, Kiribati is stepping into the future."

This announcement follows the expansion of SpeedCast's O3b-based infrastructure in the Pacific, with customers in Port Moresby and Lae, PNG; Christmas Island, Australia; and Solomon Islands, already benefiting from O3b's high-throughput low-latency advantage.

About O3b Networks Limited

O3b Networks Limited is a global satellite service provider operating a next-generation satellite network for telecommunications operators, Internet service providers, enterprise and government customers in emerging markets. The O3b system combines the global reach of satellite with the speed of a fiber-optic network providing billions of consumers and businesses in nearly 180 countries with low-cost, high-speed, low latency Internet and mobile connectivity. O3b Networks' investors include SES, Google, Liberty Global, HSBC Principal Investments, Northbridge Venture Partners, Allen Company, Development Bank of Southern Africa, Sofina, Satya Capital and Luxempart. O3b Networks is headquartered in St. Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands.

About SpeedCast International Limited

SpeedCast International Limited (ASX: SDA) is a leading global satellite communications and network service provider, offering high-quality managed network services in over 90 countries and a global maritime network serving customers worldwide. With a worldwide network of 33 sales and support offices and 31 teleport operations, SpeedCast has a unique infrastructure to serve the requirements of customers globally. With over 5,000 links on land and at sea supporting mission critical applications, SpeedCast has distinguished itself with a strong operational expertise and a highly efficient support organization. For more information, visit www.speedcast.com.

Social Media: Twitter | LinkedIn

SpeedCast are trademark and registered trademark of SpeedCast International Limited in Hong Kong and other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective owners.

2016 SpeedCast International Limited. All rights reserved.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160310006626/en/

Contacts:

O3b Networks

Company Contact

Jason Wauer

+ 1 703-989-6594

pr@o3bnetworks.com

or

Media Relations Contact

Kate Nesbitt

+ 1 703-287-7814

O3b@speakerboxpr.com

or

SpeedCast International Limited

Media Contact Information:

Clara So, Head of Marketing

+852 3919 6894

clara.so@speedcast.com

or

Investor Contact Information:

Ian Baldwin, Chief Financial Officer

+61 (0) 2 9086 2785

ian.baldwin@speedcast.com
Recognition of a Partner Performance Management technology one more market signal PRM has crossed over into mainstream use by corporations worldwide

SILICON SLOPES, Utah, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Global SaaS Partner Relationship Management (PRM) leader Impartner won a Silver Stevie Award in the new Best Relationship Management Solution category in the 10th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Impartner was recognized for its flagship product, Impartner PRM, and the ability of its highly engineered yet simple-to-use Velocity' onboarding process to have companies up and running with a new Partner Portal in as few as 30 days-immediately transforming their ability to drive more revenue through their indirect channel.

Logo- http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150821/260238LOGO

The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service are the world's top sales, business development, contact center and customer service awards. The Stevie Awards organizes several of the world's leading business awards shows including the prestigious American Business AwardsSM and International Business AwardsSM. 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 United States and several other nations attended.

"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 winner's accomplishments, and we congratulate all of the winners on their commitment to excellence and innovation."

"We're thrilled to have an international business-awards organization like the Stevie Awards recognize PRM technology and Impartner and their importance to business relationships on the world's stage," said Dave R Taylor, chief marketing officer of Impartner."Indirect channels are the single, most cost-effective way for companies to boost their revenue.By automating processes, optimizing partner performance, amplifying marketing messages and enhancing partner experience, PRM technologies truly harness the power of partner programs, ensure they become a true growth and profit engine for the corporation, and drive channel sales."

More than 2,100 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were evaluated in this year's competition.More details, including the list of Finalists in all categories, are available at www.StevieAwards.com/Sales.

About Impartner

Impartner delivers the industry's most advanced SaaS-based Partner Relationship Management (PRM) solution, helping companies worldwide manage their partner relationships and accelerate revenue and profitability through indirect sales channels. Impartner PRM is the industry's only turnkey solution that can deploy a world-class Partner Portal in as few as 30 days, using the company's highly engineered, three-step Velocity' onboarding process. For more information on Impartner, which is based in Utah's tech hotbed, the Silicon Slopes, visit www.impartner.com, or in the United States call +1 801 501 7000, for EMEA general call +33 1 40 90 31 20, for London call +44 0 20 3283 4465, and for LATAM call +1 954 364 7883.

Follow Impartner on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

Contact:

Kerry Desberg

Impartner

+1-425-231-9529

kerry.desberg@impartner.com
Santa Monica, CA-based venture capital firm Mucker Capital closed its $45m third fund.

Led by co-founders & managing partners Erik Rannala and William Hsu, Mucker Capital invests in seed and pre-seed stage companies building defensible and scalable businesses in Internet software, services and media.

In order to support portfolio companies, the firm also leverages a network consisting of of more than 200 entrepreneurs, executives, and investors from Southern California and Silicon Valley, who, in addition to spending time one-on-one with founders, also hold office hours, roundtable discussions, and sessions at the Muckers office in Santa Monica.

With the first two funds, Mucker has invested in nearly 40 companies including Ascend, Blayze, BloomNation, Buttor, Chromatic, Konect, Mashape, Naritiv, Panjo, Penango, Retention Science, Tapatalk, Taskrabbit, Vadio, Vidme, Younity, etc.

In a blog post announcing the close, Hsu explained that the fund targets startups with solid metrics and growth, focused on customers, and keep burn rates low.

FinSMEs

10/03/2016
Oncora Medical, a Philadelphia, PA-based digital health startup, raised $1.2M in seed funding.

Backers included iSeed Ventures, BioAdvance, and medical physicist and entrepreneur, Dr. Thomas Rock Mackie. In addition to the funding, Gary Kurtzman, MD, Managing Director, Healthcare at Safeguard Scientifics (NYSE:SFE), is joining Oncoras board of directors as chairman.

The company intends to use the funds to establish an engineering team in its headquarters and complete early product installations with leading health systems.

Co-founded by David Lindsay and Chris Berlind in 2014, Oncora is developing software to improve the way oncologists access, organize, and learn from past radiation treatment data.

The companys platform leverages this data to provide doctors with tools to create personalized treatments for future patients.

Oncora is a participant in the University City Science Centers Digital Health Accelerator and is supported by the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern PA, an initiative of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development funded by the Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority.

FinSMEs

10/03/2016
Bengaluru - British liquor major Diagio plc on Wednesday confirmed paying Indian industrialist Vijay Mallya $40 million (Rs 275 crore) as part of the $75 million (Rs 516 crore) agreement it entered with the latter on February 25.

"We paid Mallya $40 million immediately as part of the $75-million agreement he signed with our company on February 25, with the balance ($35 million) being payable in equal instalments over five years," Diageo spokesperson Kirsty King told IANS from London on telephone.

Asked about the Debt Recovery Tribunal's (DRT) March 7 order to it not to pay Mallya any part of the severance package till its next hearing on March 28, King said the company was yet to receive such an order.

"We understand that the Debt Recovery Tribunal is in the process of issuing an interim order, which we will review once the full details are available," King said, adding the company was yet to receive the notice.

The tribunal's presiding officer, R. Benkanahalli, on March 7 directed Diageo and its Indian subsidiary United Spirits Ltd (USL) not to pay Mallya till the disposal of the State Bank of India's application and ordered temporary attachment of the deal amount till March 28.

As part of the sweetheart deal, Mallya resigned as chairman and director of USL and agreed not to compete with Diageo in spirits business the world over for the next five years and not to interfere in its Indian arm's business matters.

Though SBI rushed to the tribunal a day after the agreement on February 26 to advance hearing on its original application filed in June 2013 for recovery of loans it and 16 other state-run and private banks advanced to Mallya's now defunct Kingfisher Airlines in 2004-12, it was not aware of Diageo's part payment to the 60-year-old liquor baron.

"We were not aware that Diageo had paid Mallya $40 million and even Mallya's counsel (Uday Holla) did not tell the tribunal during arguments on March 4 about the payment. We will seek action against him (Mallya) for suppressing the fact," SBI counsel told IANS from New Delhi.

As a lead bank of the consortium of 17 banks to which Kingfisher owes Rs.9,091.39 crore as combined loans with interest, the SBI filed four interlocutory applications in the tribunal on March 2 after CBI director Anil Sinha expressed concern over its delay in acting against Mallya.

"We have also filed a caveat before the Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunal in Chennai to hear us before adjudicating on any appeal on Mallya against the Bengaluru tribunal's March 7 order till its next hearing on March 28," the counsel said on the condition of anonymity.

IANS
By Shantanu Guha Ray

The nationwide bust up over how a certain liquor baron made bankers kiss dirt, walking away with bagful of cash through a VIP channel, possibly to an undisclosed city in Europe, is making headlines and triggering breaking news almost every day now.

But questions need to be raised about the curious case of billionaire Subrata Roy who paid loads of cash to the market regulator and last week completed two years behind bars in Delhi's maximum security prison.

Roy, who recently wrote a tome on his life experiences, is now called a philosophical author by many .

Jokes apart, someone seriously needs to scrutinise the case again, especially at the way the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) handled it and the way Sahara group demonstrated considerable resilience. A few days ago, a handful of Sahara employees protested the delay in payment of salaries; they were in their undergarments. The idea was to be visible on television.

But what's happening in the case?

On 31 August, 2012, the apex court had asked SEBI to return money to Saharas investors. In the last 40 months, it has been able to pay Rs 50 crores. The Mumbai-based market regulator advertised four times in as many as 144 newspapers, inviting demands for repayment. Worse, the fourth advertisement said it was the last opportunity for raising demand for repayment.

Does that mean that - under any circumstances - SEBI won't be able to pay over Rs 100 crores? And what has it got in its kitty? It has received a whopping Rs 12,000 crores and even earned interests on FDs. Also, SEBI has the property papers of Saharas land bank worth Rs 40,000 crore in its custody. There are chances it will have another Rs 5,800 crore ( Rs 800 crore cash and Rs 5,000 crore bank guarantee) by the time Roy and his two directors walk out of the prison gates. Sahara, which sought time for raising the stipulated cash from its assets for SEBI, was given a 45-day extension that ended in November 2015. The group claimed it had five "solid offers" for its properties.

The slugfest between the market regulator and Sahara has been described as corporate India's best known samudra manthan. SEBI disputes Sahara's claim that it has paid 95 per cent of its investors from whom it had collected Rs 24,000 crores through optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCD) in 2009-10, after the written permission from 2 Registrars of Companies. The Supreme Court however, upheld SEBIs plea and directed that Saharas investors have to be refunded the money along with interest through SEBI.

The billion dollar question that needs to be raised is when will SEBI verify the authenticity of these investors? If four advertisements have failed, doesn't it become obligatory for SEBI to verify Sahara's repayment claim? After all, the Supreme Court says the the final decision on the issue of unpaid investors lies with SEBI. The market regulator, which said in January 2013 that it wanted to hire a verification agency, has reportedly failed to organise one. So who will help ascertain the genuineness of bondholders in the Sahara case.

Look at the way the events have progressed. SEBI has not given any reason for withholding its notice inviting the tenders. The first tender to seek a verification agency was floated on 2 November, 2012. SEBI asking for applications by 22 November, 2012. It did not happen and so the deadline was extended to 21 December, 2012, and again extended till 15 January, 2013. After the expiry of this last deadline, SEBI decided to withhold the tender notice.

It is now March 2016. Someone must ask questions, either in court or on televised debates. Otherwise, the billionaire, will have no option but to write the second sequel of his planned trilogy.
LAHORE, Pakistan The abducted son of a Pakistani governor who was murdered for criticising the country's blasphemy laws was reunited with his family on Wednesday, a day after his release and a little over a week after his father's killer was executed.

Shahbaz Taseer was flown to his hometown of Lahore from the southwestern city of Quetta, where he was recovered on Tuesday by intelligence agents more than four years after his kidnapping, Pakistani military spokesman Asim Bajwa said.

Taseer smiled broadly for cameras and gestured as he got aboard a chartered jet, images released by the military showed. In later images, he was seen embracing family members.

In a tweet, Bajwa described Taseer's condition as "hale and hearty".

Taseer was met by family at the airport in Lahore, but did not speak to the press. They left for their home under tight security.

Taseer, who is in his 30s, had been missing for more than four years after being abducted in Lahore months after his father Salman Taseer, then governor of Punjab, was killed by his own bodyguard over perceived blasphemy in 2011.

Mumtaz Qadri, the man who killed Salman, was executed in Rawalpindi last week. His funeral was attended by thousands of supporters who considered his act justified.

Pakistan's army said Shahbaz had been rescued by intelligence agents in a hotel in the town of Kuchlak, 25 km (15 miles) north of the Baluchistan provincial capital, Quetta.

None of his captors was arrested and no other details of the operation were released.

Shahbaz Taseer was believed to have been kidnapped originally by the radical sectarian Islamist group Lashkar e Janghvi and later handed to al Qaeda and then to the Pakistani Taliban, intelligence sources told Reuters.

(Writing by Asad Hashim; Editing by Kay Johnson and Nick Macfie)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
NAYPYITAW A deepening rift has opened between Myanmar's powerful military and Aung San Suu Kyi, sources say, threatening the democracy leader's prospects for forming a successful government even as parliament prepares to nominate presidential candidates on Thursday.

With the date fast approaching for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) to take power, efforts to portray the party and its former foes as working cordially together towards a smooth transfer of power have faltered, according to politicians and officials familiar with the situation.

"She believed that she would be able to work with the military, but after the last meeting with the commander-in-chief, she realized that she cannot negotiate with them," said a senior NLD Upper House lawmaker briefed on the talks.

"It's quite clear that she has moved on from waiting for the military to collaborate."

Talks between the NLD and the military began soon after Suu Kyi's party won a landslide victory in a historic election on November 8, heralding the country's first democratically elected government since the military took power in 1962.

But Suu Kyi has become frustrated with the intransigence of the military on issues ranging from a constitutional amendment that would allow her to become president to the location of the handover ceremony before the start of the new government on April 1, say sources in her camp.

General Tin San Naing, the spokesman for military MPs, declined to comment on the details of negotiations.

The military has stressed its belief that it has a vital role to play in politics until the transition to democracy is secure, and had worried that changing the constitution quickly could set a dangerous precedent.

Myanmar's junta handed power to a semi-civilian government made up of ex-generals in 2011, after nearly 50 years of military rule, but the constitution it drafted left the military with considerable power.

As well as a clause that effectively bans Suu Kyi from becoming president because her children are British citizens, the constitution also gives the military three powerful ministries and 25 percent of the seats in parliament that amounts to a veto over any constitutional change.

The charter, which leaves the security apparatus and much of the state bureaucracy under military control, will force the NLD government to work with the armed forces.

PARKING SPOTS, OFFICE EQUIPMENT

Underscoring the antipathy between the two sides, an official who met Suu Kyi recently said the bickering had extended beyond the constitution and powersharing to small details such as car parking slots at the handover ceremony and equipment removed from offices by outgoing government staff.

The tensions boiled over in parliament two weeks ago in a rare show of dissent by military MPs, who stood up to protest against accusations by NLD parliamentarians that the outgoing administration had mishandled public projects.

"We were scared when the military MPs suddenly stood up against our MP's proposal... my heart just dropped when I turned around to check the noise. The situation was really tense," said Tint Soe, a Lower House NLD lawmaker.

The stand-off in parliament came about a week after the third meeting between Suu Kyi and Min Aung Hlaing, the powerful army chief.

"The army came to the negotiating table with a long shopping list of demands that proved unfeasible," said Win Oo, a former member of the army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), who closely monitors the transition.

"The two sides are now in the state of cold war. It's a political killing field."

The NLD had hoped the military could be persuaded to endorse a constitutional amendment allowing Suu Kyi to become president.

But as it became clear late last month that was not going to happen, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate decided to cut short the negotiations and bring forward by a week the process for selecting a proxy president - who will run the country at her behest.

The NLD has yet to say who that will be. Most of the speculation has centred on candidates who have a low profile and will be loyal to the party leader.

On Thursday, the upper house and lower houses of parliament, and the military block in the legislature, will each nominate a candidate. The joint chamber will vote on which of the three becomes president - and the NLD boasts a big enough majority to carry the vote no matter which way the military votes.

It has been unclear how quickly after Thursday's nominations the joint session vote will be held. A director from the parliament told Reuters on Wednesday that the vote would not take place until Monday.

The losing candidates will become vice presidents. For some in the NLD, contemplating the end of a long wait to form a government, the wrangling over the transition is a grim portent.

"It will be really difficult for her in the future because of the military - it is very clear they don't want to cooperate," Tint Soe, the NLD lawmaker said. "It's such a miserable situation."

(Additional reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin and Aung Hla Tun; Editing by Simon Webb and Alex Richardson)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
by Dinesh C Sharma

The case of World Cultural Festival  being hosted by the Art of Living Foundation in floodplains of river Yamuna  is getting intriguing by the day. After the National Green Tribunal (NGT) slapped a penalty of Rs 5 crore on AOL for causing widespread destruction of the floodplains, it has emerged that the huge stage where artists will perform has been found to be structurally unsafe.

A team of the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), which visited the site and inspected the huge temporary stage, has reported to officials looking after Prime Ministers security that safety of the structure has been compromised and that it is not in accordance with design parameters set by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) for such structures.

The stage measuring 40 feet in height, 200 feet in width and 1,000 feet in length has been found to be unsafe on four grounds, according to the CPWD report seen by this writer.

First, no ground preparation or compaction has been done for ensuring leveled ground for supporting the structure. In fact, Sri Sri Ravishankar has inadvertently admitted this himself in interviews by saying that not a single nail has been dug into the ground, without realising that it is not an engineering feat but a design flaw that has made the structure unstable. Second, the size of the base plates used is inadequate, which will result in excessive pressure on soil below. Third, splice joints have not been staggered creating weak links in vertical columns at same levels. Fourth, corroded and worn-out pipes have been used in erecting the whole structure.

The inspection team included officers from Delhi Police, intelligence and SPG, besides CPWD officials, because they wanted to review safety of the stage for the Prime Minister who is supposed to attend the festival.

The CPWD first flagged off the safety concerns in a detailed report on 4 March and followed up with another letter on 6 March. The organizers sent a reply through a company called Delhi Tent Decorators, which is involved in erecting the stage, and acknowledged all the flaws. They promised to take action on all the counts, particularly safety and stability of the temporary structure in the event of high speed winds. This was on 7 March.

Since the tent company has no expertise and knowledge about structural design safety issues and BIS standards, the organisers contacted a city-based firm, Vintech Consultants to do a quick structural analysis of the mega stage.

The structural analysis data was provided to the Central Design Organisation of CPWD on 8 March. An analysis of this data revealed that the structure is completely flawed and unsafe. The consultant had used a model of the stage and applied wind speed of 4.7 meter per second to show it safe. This is one tenth of the BIS standard. The structure to be declared safe should be able to withstand wind speed of 47 meters per second. It is not safe even at 4.7 meter per second, CPWD has warned in its report.

The CPWD then conducted a structural analysis using a 3-D structural analysis and design software called STAAD Pro and found the structure to be unsafe at several points under various load conditions.

Structural safety is a major issue, given weather warning issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) which predicts thunderstorm accompanied with strong winds and isolated hailstorm over Delhi and West Uttar Pradesh from 11 March to 13 March.

The issue of safety of the stage had also figured in the NGT order of 9 March. It said certain material deficiencies/discrepancies have been pointed out by the Police Department of Delhi in its letter dated 1 March and letter of PWD dated 8 March. We direct the Foundation to comply with the safety, construction stability and other requirements.

The tribunal, in fact, pulled up AOL for keeping details of the programme a secret. "The information provided was incomplete, vague and uncertain since it did not provide any specific data, supporting documents, comprehensive plan with regard to carrying on of such a huge construction, leveling activity and also construction of other approach roads, pontoon bridges, ramps, parking and a huge stage, the order noted.

Even if the PM chooses to attend the show and is seated in a separate enclosure as is being claimed  and not on the unstable stage  it would send a wrong signal because the safety of thousands of performers (who will be on stage at the same time) is in great danger as of now.
New Delhi: Afzal Guru's lawyer Nandita Haksar on Thursday said that the law of sedition is "loosely" defined in the Indian constitution and its interpretation depends on who is in power.

"What is sedition and what is not in law is just the matter of who is the master. We need a much deeper understanding of nationalism, of sedition and their subtleties. Even lawyers only look at individual rights and media sees things in black and white," she said while addressing the students at JNU.

Haksar was speaking on "Sedition and Nationalism" as a part of nearly a month-old speak-in series on 'nationalism' by JNU professors and eminent personalities in the backdrop of arrest of three JNU students in a sedition case over an event against hanging of Afzal Guru during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.

Haksar, the lawyer of both the Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and Ex-DU lecturer SAR Gilani, booked for sedition charges said, "she wanted to prove to the Kashmiris that India had space for dissent".

"When I did the case of Afzal Guru and Gilani that was to prove to the people of Kashmir that there is a space. Do not identify this country with Modi. Please identify this country with all of us Indians who are willing to listen," she said.

Haksar also asserted that questioning the shady acts of Indian Army personnel should not be disallowed under the garb of "nationalism".

"Of course our soldiers are there and they are defending but who are they defending it against? Are they defending it against militants who come inside or are they defending it against our own people who are alienated? The fact is that the only security India can give is that people inside the country are not alienated," she said.

Haksar slammed the government for arresting students and said free thinking should be allowed in campuses.

"Campuses by tradition have been places of thought. Without campuses, you can't have nationalism. JNU is the place where people charged with sedition become nationalists," said Haksar.

"My nationalism is not going to be defined by Modi or state. This is the battle of different visions of nationalism. I believe we are right and they are wrong," she said.

PTI
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday made a fresh pitch for passage of GST and other legislations in the Rajya Sabha considering the "conducive atmosphere" that has been prevailing in Parliament this session with cooperation from the opposition.

Like in the Lok Sabha last week, he was both conciliatory and mocking towards the Opposition, particularly Congress, during his hour-long reply to the debate on the motion of thanks to the President's address in the Upper House.

Referring to some 300 amendments that have been tabled to the motion of thanks, Modi appealed to the parties to withdraw them and passed the motion unanimously to ensure dignity of the President's office and in keeping with the high traditions of the House.

However, despite his appeal, the government suffered an embarrassment when the House adopted the Motion of Thanks to President's Address with an amendment moved by Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad in a division in which 94 voted for the amendment and 61 against.

The amendment regretted that the address did not commit support to rights of all citizens to contest Panchayat elections in the backdrop of law in Rajasthan and Haryana where matriculation has been fixed as the criteria for contesting the polls.

During his speech, Modi invoked late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's words to say that Rajya Sabha is a chamber of ideas and there was need for coordination between it and the Lok Sabha because both of them are part of a structure.

"I hope we give importance to Pandit Nehru's thinking and I hope all pending bills are passed in this session," he said amid thumping of desks by the treasury benches.

The government has been having difficulties in getting through with its legislations, especially the crucial Goods and Services Tax bill, because of the lack of majority in the Upper House.

Adopting a conciliatory approach, the Prime Minister referred to the President's address in which the President appealed to the members to ensure smooth functioning of the Parliament and not allow disruption.

"We have been running Parliament this session smoothly for this I would thank the opposition for carrying forward President's message. The impact of the President's message is a matter of pride for us," he said.

Pointing to the smooth functioning of the Houses this session, Modi said the Lok Sabha sat till midnight on Tuesday night and the Rajya Sabha had a late sitting a couple of days ago.

"Even after the late sittings, the members were enthusiastic and excited. Because, after a long time, they got an opportunity to express themselves in Parliament and to put through their views across.

"The Question Hour is a good opportunity for members to keep the government, ministers and the executive on a tight leash and ensure accountability which is greatest strength of democracy," he said.

Modi said in the past session, out of 169 starred questions, only seven were taken up while 42 hours were wasted because of disruptions.

In the session before that, only six questions were taken up and 72 hours were lost in disruptions.

"Now, ministers and officials are forced to make preparations for replying in Parliament. This is the strength of democracy. No words are enough to thank...," he said.

The Prime Minister told the Congress that it was in power for long and that the NDA has got the opportunity now.

"Development in fits and starts is not enough. Such an approach will leave us far behind. We need to move from incremental to quantum jump," he said.

The Prime Minister mocked the Congress for claiming ownership to the programmes of his dispensation.

In his reply, Modi pressed the need for cooperation between Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, considering the fact that many of the bills passed by the Lower House have got stuck in the Upper House.

"This is the Upper House. When great people move, others follow them... Whatever happens in this House (Rajya Sabha), its impact is felt on Lok Sabha, Assemblies and Municipal Corporations. So we should think how to create an atmosphere by which democracy can be strengthened," he said.

Modi mentioned GST and said there are many bills like this which are pending in the Rajya Sabha.

"The Peoples' Representatives (Lok Sabha) have endorsed (bills) but Representatives of the States (Rajya Sabha) have not," Modi said.

He then invoked first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to pitch for coordination between the two Houses.

"If there is no coordination and cooperation, then difficulties will increase. Nehruji had this concern.... Hope we pay attention to Nehruji's concerns and clear all pending bills. There is a good atmosphere...By passage of the bills, the country will get momentum."

Modi said the opposition was welcome in criticising and finding faults, if any, in the implementation of initiatives taken by his government as he listed a number of programmes, including for farmers, youth and other sections of the society.

At the same time, he targeted Congress for claiming ownership to the schemes of his government by quoting Indira Gandhi as saying "There are two kinds of people in the world -- one who works and another who takes credit for it...You try to belong to the first category because there is little competition in it. This has been said by Indiraji."

The Prime Minister told Congress benches that they had got a chance for long to enjoy power and it was now BJP-led coalition's turn to work for the country.

While noting that all governments have made some contribution, the Prime Minister said, "if we work with the attitude of 'hota hai, chalta hai', it will take a long time for the development of a big country like India. We need to apply full force."

The Prime Minister, in his speech, referred to the qualification criteria fixed in BJP-ruled Rajasthan and Haryana for those contesting Panchayat polls and said it has been approved by the Supreme Court but attempts are being made to give it a "political colour".

"There can be difference of opinion...Some say what about those who remained illiterate," he said, and went on to target Congress, saying the reason for 'illiteracy' was the policies followed by its government after Independence.

"We want to bring any qualitative change but it is being politicised," Modi said, daring Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad to give 33 per cent tickets to totally illiterate people to contest the upcoming Assembly elections in the five states to demonstrate Congress' commitment in this regard.

Congress member Mani Shankar Aiyar intercepted to say that the Prime Minister has no idea how much illiteracy has increased since Independence and he is insulting the nation by his remarks.

Modi, however, was sarcastically dismissive of his comments, terming these as 'bhule bisre geet' (old songs) sung by someone whose membership is coming to an end.

While targeting Congress, Modi likened it to 'death', saying the party never gets any blame.

"Death has a blessing. It never gets blamed for anything. If somebody dies, the blame goes to reasons like cancer, age.. Death itself is never blamed or defamed.

"Sometimes I feel that Congress has this blessing. If we criticise Congress, the media terms it as 'attack on opposition' but not an attack on Congress. However, if we attack (JD-U leader) Sharad ji (Yadav) or BSP, then it said it is an attack on JD-U or BSP.

"Congress never gets the blame....It needs to be pondered upon as this is in itself a big science," he said.

Taking a dig at Azad for referring to alleged fault lines in Jan Dhan Yojana, Modi said that he was trying to find fault with a microscope.

"I thank Ghulam Nabi Azad ji. This is what Opposition should do. He got the recording done of what is lacking in Jandhan in Bhopal. Whatever the facts be, I appreciate the effort. It shows the Opposition is vigilant.

"Had you worked so hard while in in government, there would have been no need for Modi to do Jandhan. You went out with a microscope to see where we were lacking. Had you earlier worked with binoculars, this work would not have been left for Modi," he said sarcastically.

Contending that his government's focus is on good governance and transparency, the Prime Minister referred to the scams in coal blocks and 2G spectrum allocation during the UPA regime.

"What was the climate before our government came? All round corruption and nepotism had gripped the country. Right or wrong, the trust had gone down. The country's image had taken a beating abroad as well," he said claiming that his government was a policy driven one.

Listing the initiatives of the government on allocation of mines, spectrum and FM bandwidth, Modi also referred to a write up in Forbes magazine, which lauded the way natural resources are being auctioned in India.

"This is the way matters should be handled," the Prime Minister said quoting from the magazine as he reminded Congress of the controversies surrounding the allocation of coal mines during the UPA.

The Prime Minister said coal allocation has fetched over Rs 3 lakh crore, spectrum allocation around Rs 1 lakh crore while the auction on going for six other minerals could fetch Rs 18,000 crore.

Modi also said that over 300 projects worth Rs 15 lakh crore that were pending at various levels have been cleared by his government.

The Prime Minister, who has often been criticised by the Opposition for "centralising" all powers in his hands, spoke at length on how his government decentralised powers.

"The third big aspect of good governance is decentralisation. It is such a big country that you cannot run through centralisation. The more you decentralise the better it will work," Modi said amid counter slogans from the Opposition benches, which shouted "one-man show".

The Prime Minister also made a veiled reference to alleged corruption in environmental clearances when Jayanthi Natarajan was environment minister in UPA without naming her.

"Government has taken many steps towards decentralisation," he said disapproving of the tendency to concentrate all powers in Delhi.

"We all know what all was talked about then. Everyone knows that," he said adding that his government also increased the rights of states in granting permissions for sand mining.

Digvijay Singh (Congress), however, countered it saying sand mining has been a state subject. Hitting out at the Congress for claiming ownership of his government's schemes, the Prime Minister said that it can also take credit for the Ganga cleaning programme, which was initiated during Rajiv Gandhi's tenure.

"When we talk about Ganga cleaning, it is but natural that you will say you started it. I accept it. Rajiv Gandhi started it but then I wonder why it is still dirty after 30 years," he said.

"We never claim anything. It is all your contribution. You have ruled the country for 60 years," Modi added.

Urging the members to help the country move forward and help double the farmers' income by 2020, Modi said, "I am not an economist like Dr Manmohan Singh. I do not possess that big knowledge, but we work in the right direction. We can achieve that."

Making a pro-farmer pitch, Modi, whose government has been criticised as pro-rich by the Opposition, listed various measures taken in the last two years for the welfare of farmers.

He also quoted noted farm scientist MS Swaminathan, who had stated that a "dawn of a new era in farming is in sight".

Claiming that his government's focus on value addition in farm sector will help the agriculturists double their income.

"An e-portal on farming, whereby farmers can sell their produce on line anywhere in the country will be launched on 14 April, the birth anniversary of BR Ambedkar.

The Prime Minister also answered to the criticism of CPM leader Sitharam Yechury and took a dig at him for supporting the UPA-I government led by Congress. He also wondered from where did the CPI-M leader get his figures, which he could not find anywhere.

He said that the Left parties, who oppose the capitalists, should be the first ones to back the government on the Clean India Initiative on which even the media is supportive.

Modi ended his speech with a poem by Urdu poet Nida Fazli ending with the lines "tum bhi badal sako to...", an apparent taunt to the Opposition,

especially the Congress, to change.

After the Prime Minister's reply, members tried to seek clarifications but Chairman Hamid Ansari refused it saying it will then be an endless debate.

While Modi left soon after his speech, many members who had tabled amendments to the thanks motion, withdrew them but Azad insisted that he will not withdraw it.

His amendment was adopted after an hour-long debate over its validity and the right of the House to move such an amendment.

Objecting to the move, Leader of the House Arun Jaitley said "federalism will go for a six" as Rajya Sabha does not have powers to pass resolutions against state legislatures which also, in turn, can pass such resolutions.

He also said it is not in the jurisdiction of this House to discuss any matter covered by state legislatures.

This was objected to by Azad and other opposition members including Yechury, who claimed that it was well within the right of the House to pass it as it was only a concern expressed by members.

Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien, who was in the Chair, gave a ruling after claims and counter-claims from both sides, and said, "This is only a concern of members. There is also a valid explanation why these things be not there. There is no harm in putting it to vote."

PTI
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's foundation, The Art of Living will celebrate its 35th anniversary this year with a mega event, the World Culture Festival from 11-13 March in New Delhi.

The event, which will take place on the banks of river Yamuna, was recently marred by controversy after Manoj Misra, the convener of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan, an NGO working for the revival of river Yamuna, along with Anand Arya and Pramod Kumar Tyagi filed a petition claiming that the event would cause damage to the ecosystem of the Yamuna floodplains.

While coming down heavily on government agencies for failing to carry out responsibilities, the principal bench of the NGT headed by Justice Swatanter Kumar asked AOL Foundation to pay a fine of Rs 5 crore as compensation.

But if you are wondering what exactly is this World Culture Festival, here is what you need to know about the event:

- The World Culture Festival is a celebration of The Art of Living's 35th anniversary and will take place on 11-13 March in New Delhi.

- The venue for the event is spread across 1000 acres of land.

- According to the event's website about 3.5 million people are expected to attend the festival from 155 countries, making it biggest cultural gathering in recent times.

- Million others are expected to participate virtually, as the event will have a live webcast.

- The stage for the event itself is said to be spread across 7-acres, an attempt to enter Guinness Book of World Records.

- 35,973 artists are expected to perform dance, music and other artistry, with 8,000 musicians playing 40 instruments in a musical symphony, several of them tribal.

- The gathering will witness one of the biggest meditations sessions in the world.

- Apart from the various performances, the event also features keynote addresses by leaders from across the would.

- The list of speakers on the website include Bidhya Devi Bhandari (President of Nepal), Hildebrando Tapia Samaniego (Vice-President - Andean Parliament, Peru), Maithripala Sirisena (President of Sri Lanka), Ryszard Czarnecki (Vice President of the European Parliament), Linda Cathrine Hofstad Helleland (Minister of Culture in Norway), Carla Bacigalupo (Minister of Justice and Labor, Paraguay), among others. The full list can be accessed here.

- The event will hold a leadership forum, co-hosted by the World Forum of Ethics in Business and a youth forum.

You can access the festival's website here.
Chandigarh: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday said his government may set up a judicial commission of inquiry to probe the incidents of violence and arson during the Jat quota agitation.

He said an inquiry committee, headed by former DGP of Uttar Pradesh Prakash Singh, was set up by his government to inquire into the acts of "omission and commission" on the part of civil and police officers during the agitation.

"And, if need arises, the option of setting up a judicial inquiry can also be exercised," Khattar told reporters in Chandigarh.

Congress had on Monday demanded that a judicial inquiry by a Supreme Court judge be ordered into the incidents of violence.

At least 30 people were killed and over 200 injured during the Jat agitation, during which miscreants also inflicted heavy damage on government and private property.

PTI
New Delhi: The Supreme court today asked the parties to two petitions, pertaining to incidents of violence in the Patiala House court complex during the hearing related to JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar, to complete pleadings by 29 March.

"Let the petitions come up for hearing on 29 March," a bench comprising Justices J Chelameswar and A M Sapre said and asked the counsel for Delhi Police, Delhi High Court Registry and others to file their respective responses or counter responses before the next date of hearing.

The court passed the order on a bunch of petitions filed in this regard. In one such petition, filed by advocate Kamini Jaiswal, an SIT probe had been sought into the incidents on February 15 and 17 in which three lawyers were allegedly caught on camera "bragging and boasting" they had beaten up the student leader and others.

The court had, on 26 February, sought response from the Centre and Delhi Police on Jaiswal's plea which has also sought initiation of contempt action against the lawyers for allegedly beating Kanhaiya and others in the district courts complex.

The plea has sought "suo motu contempt proceeding" against lawyers Vikram Singh Chauhan, Yashpal Singh and Om Sharma on the ground that they have allegedly been caught on camera talking about the attacks, claiming that the three interfered in the "administration of justice" and wilfully violated the orders passed by the apex court on 17 February.

In the earlier petition, an alumnus of JNU who was hurt in the violence on February 15, N D Jaiprakash, had complained of inaction of police against those were allegedly involved in thrashing journalists, students and teachers in a city court and sought a fair trial "free from fear of violence and prejudice".

It had alleged that police were a "mute spectator to this brazen display of violence and brute force being perpetrated on innocent persons" who had gathered in the Court premises.

PTI
Auto refresh feeds

Opposition cornered the government and alleged that the Sri Sri event is paralysing New Delhi.

JDU questioned as to how Sri Sri was refusing to pay the fine and if he was above the law.

The Sri Sri issue was brought up by the Opposition in the House again, the Government defended the event and said that the Opposition should not politicise the even unecessarily. Jairam Ramesh brought up ecological destruction.

Aadhaar Bill to be passed as a money bill, which means that it cannot be amended in the Rajya Sabha. Congress demanded that a standing committe be put in place.

"If you criticize me, it is your freedom of speech. If I criticize you, it is my intolerance?" Arun Jaitley to Sitaram Yechury in Rajya Sabha

"Privacy not an absolute right, it is subject to a restriction that it can be restricted by a procedure established by law, " Arun Jaitley in Rajya Sabha. "Present law is completely different. It borrows UPA's idea (UID), but the privacy law is much more tightened.

"The only question is, can national security be the ground for sharing information? The answer is yes," Arun Jaitley cites US judgements while debating Aadhaar Bill in Rajya Sabha.

"Does your policy involve Pakistan and Hurriyat leaders holding talks with each other? Does it involve only exchange of shawls and saris between Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif?" he said.

"Talks are necessary between India and Pakistan. But it has to be strategic and process-driven," said Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia in Lok Sabha.

"On one hand, our soldiers are sacrificing their lives. Farmers are committing suicide. And you are giving lessons on nationalism?" he said. "Don't embarrass the country," he added.

"This government's Pakistan policy has been aptly described by Kapil Sibal. It is like an unguided missile which is a spectacle when it is fired but loses its course," said Scindia.

"Every individual must have the option to opt out of Aadhaar," he said.

"I believe that if you read this legislation in this current form, it makes it a mandatory proposition as opposed to a voluntary proposition," said Ramesh.

"I don't have an Aadhaar number. I don't need one," said Congress leader Jairam Ramesh. He added that he did not need it because he does not take the benefit of any subsidies.

A person should have the option to opt out of Aadhaar: Jairam Ramesh in RS

"My party wants Aadhaar to be confined to the targeting of subsidies," said Ramesh, as he said that Congress wants Clause 57 of the Aadhaar legislation to be dropped.

PM jumps from one vision to another: Rahul on govt's Pak policy "What is required is a coherent strategy. PM does not have that vision. He jumps from one vision to another," said Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on the Modi government's policy on Pakistan.

PM jumps from one vision to another: Rahul on govt's Pak policy "What is required is a coherent strategy. PM does not have that vision. He jumps from one vision to another," said Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on the Modi government's policy on Pakistan.

The NGT on Tuesday questioned the Centre as to why no environmental clearance is needed for constructing temporary structures on Yamuna plains as building of pontoon bridge by army for cultural festival comes under the scanner of NGT. This was during a hearing on pleas seeking the cancellation of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living three-day 'World Culture Festival' on the Yamuna flood plains to celebrate 35 years of the foundation.

A bench headed by NGT chairperson Swatanter Kumar heard the matter in which the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Uttar Pradesh and Delhi government made their submissions with regard to grant of permission to the festival.

On 3 March, DDA had submitted that it had granted conditional permission for organising the event and had no idea about the magnitude of the programme. The event later drew criticism after some activists petitioned the NGT, a quasi-judicial body on environmental issues, asking it to stop the event as it would have a deep impact on the Yamuna flood plains.

The DDA backed its decision to grant permission for the festival, while the Art of Living said it has fulfilled all conditions and taken requisite permissions for the event.

Well leave it as a beautiful bio-diversity park. As per my knowledge, not even a single tree has been cut down, we've only trimmed four trees. We want the Yamuna to be clean. We will not pollute the environment. We haven't cut a single tree, said Sri Sri Ravi Shankar reacting to the criticism over army men construction the pontoon bridge, reports DNA.

Meanwhile, a source close to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar told IANS said the Indian Army's decision to make pontoon bridges for the upcoming event was taken after Delhi Police expressed a fear of stampede at the venue, where around 30 lakh people are expected.

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.

Earlier on Monday, President Pranab Mukherjee 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 event.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the 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 NGT will resume its hearing on Wenesday on holding of the festival.

The AOL Foundation expects 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.

With inputs from agencies
After Makarand Paranjape, professor of English at JNU, during his lecture on nationalism questioned the basis of left politics in the campus, he came under severe attack. A professor of JNU wrote an open letter questioning comments made by Paranjape on the 'recent unfortunate events in JNU'. Paranjape has written to refute the charges made against him. Firstpost produces both the letters for a dialectical debate on the JNU row.

Dear Prof. Paranjpe,

I am taking the liberty of writing this open letter to you on the JNUTA group page and on my Facebook page because of some comments you've reportedly made on the recent unfortunate events in JNU. I am referring to the report of the Hindustan Times (HT) of 19 February, 2016. I'm also pasting the link so that all of us know exactly what I'm referring to.

I apologise for not having written earlier; but I only saw this news item yesterday and decided to write to you immediately. Better late than never, isn't it?

You raise three important issues, and these constitute the crux of this open letter to you.

First, you charge the students of having organized the program of 9 February on 'false pretexts' and a 'subterfuge'; an ostensible 'poetry reading session' which was turned into 'commemoration of Afzal Guru'.

I wonder if you recall the poster which was put up as an invitation for the event. Under the banner headlines, 'A Country Without a Post Office', the poster unequivocally stated that the program was "Against the Brahmanical 'collective conscience'. 'Against the judicial killing of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhat!', and 'in solidarity with the struggle of the Kashmiri people for their democratic rights to self-determination'. In case you have doubts about these citations, a copy of the poster is also attached.

You are free to criticize this event and its organizers, but 'false pretexts' and 'subterfuge' are unfortunately equally false accusations. In my mind there's no ambiguity about the linguistic or semantic intent of the event organizers. Please also note the fact that the administration first gave, and then withdrew permission a few minutes before the program was to start, should also tell you that no 'false pretexts' or 'subterfuge' were involved. The administration's intentions stand exposed and are of no concern to me here; but as a colleague the least I expected from you was an honest appraisal of events.

On the question of a 'cultural event', I don't need to tell a professor of English that culture is a malleable term which lends itself to a myriad, even political, interpretations and nuances. A cultural event can quickly metamorphose into a political one depending on the kind of sentiments in a specific location.

Let me hasten to add that I am in no way commenting on or justifying what allegedly happened there. I was in Chennai on the 9th and got to know of this event upon my return. In any case, the so-called evidence of what has largely been a trial by a virulently biased media is rapidly turning out to be false and manipulated. Nevertheless, you are still welcome to your opinions. I am just pointing out some basic factual, conceptual and interpretative differences I have with your unfortunate remarks made about JNU students in a public forum.

The second issue you raise is of your disappointment, that the JNUTA, of which you are a member, passed 'no resolution condemning that misuse'. Once again I leave the choice of words to your better judgment, but 'condemning the misuse' would have amounted to prima facie accepting that (1) so-called 'anti-national' slogans were actually shouted there, and that too by our students; and (2) the steps taken by the administration without due process to let the police inside the campus was justified.

However, allow me to draw your attention to the first few lines of the JNUTA resolution of 16 February 2016. It reads as follows:

"The JNUTA GBM notes that while the University community has repeatedly reiterated that it stands by the Constitution of India and the values enshrined therein and stands opposed to those who are against the country, the malicious slander and intimidation campaign against JNU and what it stands for is being sought to be raised to an even higher pitch even as the University Administration continues to fail in its responsibility to defend JNU and its autonomy and to ensure the safety and security of the members of the University community."

Shouldn't you have at least checked with the JNUTA before maligning the Association publicly three days after the resolution had been adopted in the GBM? What did you expect teachers to do in a situation when the entire university was under attack? Did you want them to go out and do some cultural cleansing to seek retribution for the 'subterfuge' of students in order to prove their nationalism to the present political dispensation?

Have you even taken the trouble to attend even a single JNUTA GBM, now or earlier? Have you even once taken the podium to place your opinions among your colleagues for a discussion? Have you even once tried to convince your colleagues to take a harder line on the event because you think the nation wants to know? Or is it that you distrust your colleagues and place greater faith in external platforms to get some quick publicity?

Is this what makes you a public intellectual?

Now I come to the third issue raised by you. I'm struck by your ideas about how students should stick to their studies and not enter politics. The report quotes your following sage advice to them. `Have you you come to JNU to do politics or to study because in the end you will be neither here nor there'. This is really impressive, and I believe this is precisely the advice RSS has been giving in its shakhas all these years.

Depoliticize students, but be subversively political yourself. That's the new way forward, isn't it? And if you can't depoliticize, then destroy. I'm afraid that's the cultural project of this new dispensation?

Are they your mentors too, Prof. Paranjpe?

With best wishes,

Your sincerely,

Professor Rajat Datta

Centre for Historical Studies

JNU

Response from Professor Makarand Paranjape

Response to Professor Rajat Datta's "JNU Students And Free Speech: An Open Letter To Prof. Makarand Paranjape"

Dear Professor Datta,

Not being active on social media, I was taken aback to find myself the subject of a campaign of vilification following your "Open Letter" of 2 March 2016. That you had done me the honour of writing an "Open Letter" was in itself unexpected; the reactions that followed, however, dismayed and hurt me. A small portion of what I said at the Festival of Letters of the Sahitya Akademi was reported, but your reaction to it, circulated instantly in various forums, brought me notoriety in our own little village of JNU where I was quickly branded as "the internal enemy."

That your "Open Letter" was also posted on the JNU Teachers' Association (JNUTA) Facebook page was even more worrisome. By whose design or authorization did this happen? Did the Executive or GBM approve? I have written to the President and Secretary of JNUTA to find out, but have received no reply thus far. Paradoxically and regretfully, this almost proves the central thesis that I was trying to make in my talk in a panel on "Freedom of Speech" on 19 February 2016 at the SahityaAkademi: those who project themselves as the champions of democracy are quite as intolerant of dissent as those they condemn. Hence, this is not a battle between those who uphold the freedom of speech and those who seek to muzzle it, but between two opposing and politically charged factions, an "Open Letter" being one of the weapons in the arsenal to interrogate opponents, in addition to branding, boycott, bullying, and browbeating.

Your first charge in you "Open Letter" is that no "false pretexts or subterfuge were involved" in the seeking of permission for the event on 9 February 2016, during which a breakaway faction of Democratic Students Union took out a rally for a convicted and executed "terrorist," accusing the Indian state and judiciary of having committed a judicial murder, and supporting the secession of Kashmir from the Indian union. "You are free," you say, "to criticize this event and its organizers, but 'false pretexts' and 'subterfuge' are unfortunately equally false accusations." In support of your contention, you quote from the poster announcing the event: "Against the Brahmanical 'collective conscience'. 'Against the judicial killing of Afzal Guru and MaqboolBhat!', and 'in solidarity with the struggle of the Kashmiri people for their democratic rights to self-determination.'" You thus accuse me of falsehood and distortion.

But surely, Sir, you have made a fundamental error in confusing or conflating two different documents in your line of argument, which I did not expect of you as a historian. I nowhere referred to the poster in my remarks; I was speaking of the reported requisition seeking permission from the office of the Dean of Students, wherein the event was billed merely as a poetry reading, with an expected audience of seven.

The "false pretexts" and "subterfuge" were in this requisition, not in the posters that followed. Indeed, if you had cared to detail the exact sequence of events, which again might be expected of you as a historian, it was when the said poster appeared that the administration possibly got wind of the real intent of the organisers and withdrew permission. But flouting the withdrawal, the organisers went ahead, which led to protests by another group of students leading to the unfortunate subsequent events. Without understanding my line of argument, you misrepresented, worse, accused me of lack of honesty. But as you are my respected colleague, I shall refrain from casting aspersions on your motives.

Your second accusation is that I "maligned" the JNUTA three days after it passed a resolution that it "stands by the Constitution of India." You accuse me of distrusting my colleagues and garnering some quick publicity from external platforms. Allow me to disabuse you on both counts.

The latter first for as a historian, you will admit that context is sometimes as important as the text. I was, as I mentioned earlier, already an invited speaker at the SahityaAkademi's Annual Festival of Letters. My talk was on "India's Intolerance Wars."

I had no intention of referring to JNUhad not the fateful events following 9th February 2016 engulfed us. Itwas widely expected of me to comment on the JNU imbroglio, since it had been in the news continuously from then to the day of my talk on the 19 February 2016. No wonder, after I spoke, I was literally mobbed; so many said that I had shown remarkable courage in speaking up; not one of them accused me of bad faith or seeking publicity.

Unfortunately, the only part of my talk that was reported was pertaining to JNU; everything else was ignored. I had called for a way to reconcile the antinomies of our times; that would be the work of sahitya or literature in our times. None of this let alone the rest of my talkwas reported; indeed, on my part, I had no idea that the Press was even present there.

Let me now address the first part of your second accusation. The JNUTA resolution that you cite does not specifically condemn the Afzal Guru event. My objection was that the JNUTA approach was one-sided. In the correspondence that followed between various faculty members, some had made a demand for such an explicit condemnation, but their demand had not been acceded to by JNUTA. Instead, some of these dissenting faculty members had been vilified.

These unseemly attacks had distressed me, but I did not allude to them in my talk. I only said that the false pretexts under which the 9 February event had been held had not been condemned by my association. You may or may not know this but I had explicitly written the JNUTA President about this on that very day, 19 February 2016. I requested some points in my letter be tabled in the GBM, which did not happen. I append my letter below, as it is:

The President, JNUTA

Finally, to your third issue about "depoliticisation" of students.The issue, to my mind, is not of depoliticisation, which seems so remote a possibility in JNU, but ofthe quality and content of this politics that we so vaunt to ourselves and to the world. Are we never to do some honest soul-searching and self-interrogation about how seldom it amounts to anything more than repetitive, intellectually deficient shibboleths, anti-state, anti-establishment, anti-majority, anti-this-or-that sloganeering, peppered with factual inaccuracies, distortions, and hate-speech? Of course, in my talk I only said that politics at the expense of studies would harm the long-term interests of most students, except the "cadres," who would be patronized and taken care of.

Isn't a call to reorient our students toward academics therefore necessary to re-intellectualise and safeguard our academic ecosystem?You claim that "this is precisely the advice RSS has been giving in its shakhas all these years."

Since I don't attend RSS shakhas I wouldn't know; but perhaps you do, since you speak with such authority about what is said there "all these years." Don't worry: even if you do frequent RSS shakhas, I for one, shall not start treating you as an "untouchable." I believe that talking and listening to all sections of our ideologically and socially diverse country is one of the demands of our times, especially if we wish not to escalate the uncivil strife that engulfs us.Ironically, this morning's papers quote the recently released JNUSU President condemning outright the 9 February 2016 event: now that he has reversed his stand so diametrically and drastically, what will you say of his intentions and integrity?

Frankly speaking, Sir, I have doubts about the utility of ourexchange, which has already been too time and energy-guzzling for one who still wishes to read, write, think - and, yes, teach our wonderfully curious and inspiring students. I am sure that it is the latter who constitute one important reason that makes JNU so worthwhile for each of us who are its faculty members.

Yours sincerely,

Makarand R. Paranjape

Professor of English, JNU
New Delhi: The stage is now set for the controversial three-day cultural event opening on Friday on the Yamuna flood plains even as Art of Living guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar struck a defiant note that he will not pay Rs 5 crore fine imposed by Green Tribunal and would rather go to jail.

Environmental activist Manoj Mishra, who has petitioned the National Green Tribunal (NGT) for a ban on the event, today again approached it complaining that AOL has not taken permissions from agencies like police, fire and CPWD and that the Ravi Shankar has said he would not pay the fine.

The NGT bench, headed by chairperson Swatanter Kumar, said that AOL has time to pay the fine till tomorrow and law will take its course if it fails to do so.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the 'World Culture Festival' that plans to bring together people of talent, eminence and repute in which 3.5 million people are expected to participate.

In the wake of controversies triggered by concerns over environmental violations, President Pranab Mukherjee pulled out of the valedictory function on Saturday and there was no official word on whether Modi will participate.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, who was one of the invitees, has also pulled out of the event.

Yesterday, the NGT expressed helplessness in banning the event after activists petitioned the tribunal seeking a prohibition of the event on the ground that there was large scale violations of environmental norms on account of the event.

However, it imposed a fine of Rs 5 crore on AOL as environmental compensation and asked the organisation to deposit the amount with the Delhi Development Authority today.

It found several environmental violations by the organisers of the event.

PTI
New Delhi: A 28-year-old student from Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh committed suicide in New Delhi on Thursday, police said, clarifying he was not a student at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

The police had earlier described Dushyant Dixit as a doctoral scholar of the Jawaharlal Nehru University. They later said he was a student of M.Sc in a private university in Bareilly.

Dixit was found hanging on Thursday morning from a ceiling fan at his paying guest accommodation in Ber Sarai in south Delhi.

The police said Dixit, who hailed from Dhaneta village in Bareilly, was disturbed over some family problems. A suicide note was recovered.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Prem Nath told IANS that Dixit lived alone in the room.

A friend came to meet him at around 9 am. When there was no response to his knocking, he peeped in through a window, only to see Dixit hanging, Prem Nath said.

Police said they were mistakenly led to believe that he was a student of JNU by another student who lived nearby.

"The reason behind Dixit's suicide has no links with JNU or his studies," the officer said. He reportedly came to Delhi to take the help of a JNU professor to complete his project.

The JNU too denied that Dixit was its student.

"The JNU administration expresses deep condolences to the family members of Dushyant. It is clarified that the deceased is not a student of JNU," a statement from the university said.

Ber Sarai, located close to the JNU campus, has a significant population of JNU students.

IANS
With terror threat looming large, there has been a heightened level of security preparedness at Yamuna floodplains where the World Culture Festival 2016, being organised by Sri Sri Ravi Shankars Art of Living, is due to kick off from 11 March.

The mega 3-day event will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and 172 dignitaries, including heads of states, ministers and parliamentarians from across the world will participate. It will see a congregation of nearly 35 lakh people from around the globe, including 20,000 artists from 155 countries.

The festival is being hosted across 27 acres and is said to be one of the biggest cultural gatherings in recent times. The grand stage, which has been declared unsafe by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) in its structural safety report, is spread over seven acres of Delhi Development Authority (DDA) land between Barapullaha Road and DND flyover.

Although there is no official confirmation on the total number of deployment, sources said more than 4,000 personnel of the Delhi Police and its specialised units like the Quick Response Teams, Special Cell, Crime Branch, Special Branch and Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and dog squad are at work for the event. At least 1,500 officers, including deputy commissioners of police, assistant commissioners of police and inspectors, will be on duty at 69 enclosures at the venue. Another 500 officials will be pressed into service in and outside the hotel where the dignitaries, guests and artistes will stay.

In addition, Special Protection Group (SPG), National Security Guards (NSG), paramilitary forces and Central Industrial Security Forces (CISF) personnel have been deployed at the venue to ensure foolproof security of the prime minister and other dignitaries.

The inner enclosures close to the stage and sitting arrangements for dignitaries will be guarded by the SPG, NSG, Delhi Polices PM security unit, paramilitary forces and Quick Response Team of the city police.

A total of 170 CCTV cameras, including pantiltzoom camera (PTZ camera), and six luggage scanners have been installed. The Delhi Police is also considering using drones for aerial surveillance. The venue has 13 entry points guarded by CISF personnel. Entry number one to nine will have restricted entry for VIPs and VVIPs who will be issued special passes and parking stickers. Gate number 10 to 13 will be for the general public.

No pointed and sharp objects and lighters will be allowed at the venue. No one will be allowed to carry bags beyond the pontoon bridges built up at the venue to cross the Yamuna. Visitors can carry only water bottles with them, Major General (retired) SP Sinha, the security head of Art of Living for the event, told Firstpost while giving details of the security arrangements.

He said regular meetings are being held with the Intelligence Bureau (IB), SPG and Delhi Police officials to ensure safety and security of the participants. We are getting support and cooperation of all agencies of the central as well as state governments, he added.

Asked if the authorities are capable of conducting a hassle-free event, , he replied, Hundred percent fool-proof security can never be guaranteed, but we are trying our level best. A total of 45,000 trained volunteers of the Art of Living have also been pressed into service to co-operate with the police officials.

Asked whether the CPWD has declared the stage unsafe for the prime minister, Sinha said a special stage with container base has been set been set up for the PM and his Cabinet colleagues.

On Plan B in case of emergencies, he said volunteers will be deployed at every five yard at pontoon bridges (which can bear the load of 15,000 people at a time) to control and assist the crowd. In addition, officials of the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) will be present with their 12 boats to tackle any emergency, he added.

The participants will have to bear bumpy rides and dust to reach the venue. Spraying of pesticides and mosquito replants is going on. Special perfumes will be sprayed during the 3-day programme to kill the odour coming from Yamuna, which has turned into a drain.

Spreading the message of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam  One World Family, said Dinesh Ghodke the World Culture Festival 2016 is a celebration of The Art of Livings 35 years of service to humanity, spirituality and human values to over 370 million people across 155 countries. The festival emphasizes co-existence and celebrates diversity by bringing together the power of 3.5 million people on a common platform.

Over 37,000 people will perform at the festival in 3 days. Worlds largest stage-WCF will witness the worlds largest stage set up over an area of seven acres. This is an attempt to enter the Guinness Book of World Records for the Largest temporary stage in the world.

More than 20,000 international guests are expected. Sizable contingents from South America, Mongolia, Russia, the United States, Europe, Japan, Malaysia, Australia, Pakistan among others will take part in the event. A total of 650 drummers will arrive from South Africa and 1,000 artists from China will perform here.
The 32nd plenary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) concluded in Bengaluru on Wednesday and the theme was Response of the Church in India to present day challenges. The Church in India identified lack of clarity on the governments stand on intolerance amid growing fundamentalism', 'narrow, culture-based interpretation of nationalism' and the increasing saffronisation of the education system' as some of the main challenges they are facing, as reported by Zee News.

The week-long plenary of Catholic bishops also discussed the incidents of fundamentalism including the recent attack on a church in Raipur, reported The Indian Express.

An article in The Hindu, quoted the CBCI Chairman Cardinal Baselios Cleemis as saying, There is a growing tendency of communalism and a unilateral understanding of faith and religion, which he pointed out was against the nature and spirit of the great diverse tradition of India.

When probed further and asked specifically if the church viewed this as a political issue, he said, These are social issues dragged and manipulated by politicians. He did not name any party or politician.

Protesting over the systemic concerted effort to manipulate the education system, he pointed out the growing trend of not consulting the church working in rural and tribal education, over those issues. He labelled it as saffronisation of education, as many have, and said, Viewing the complex reality of India through a narrow lens is dangerous.

The Indian Express quoted the cardinal as saying, "We dont have a clear picture from the government on the issue of intolerance. Some people sometimes say positive things and the next day we have someone saying the opposite. We dont know what to believe. As we see it, there is a growing tendency of fundamentalism in this country which has to be stopped. This is against the nature of this great tradition."

As stated on CBCI website, the fourth day of the Plenary held at St. Johns, attended by 180 catholic bishops, saw serious deliberation over the challenges and the issues of present day India.

The bishops highlighted the right to profess, practise and propagate ones faith underlining the fundamental equality of all human beings, regardless of caste, gender, creed and status in life, as stated in the Constitution.

They demanded to be heard, asking to be treated equal to the Hindu Dalits, so that the Christian and Muslim Dalits get reservations and all other concessions available to the Scheduled Castes.
New Delhi: Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on Thursday said he does not mind going to jail if the court wants him to, but declined shelling out money for the imposed fine.

Asked during an interview by a TV channel if he would go to jail having refused to pay the fine for the three-day International Culture Festival proposed to be held in the Yamuna floodplains here, Ravi Shankar said: "Yes, I will".

He also said that he would not pay the fine of Rs 5 crore slapped by the National Green Tribunal (NGT).

The NGT, which found several environmental violations by the organisers, blamed the delay on the part of environmental activists in raising the issue before it which compelled it to grant permission for event.

However, on Wednesday, the green court gave a go-ahead to the World Culture Festival, organised by Art of Living Foundation, on the condition that it pay an advance fine of Rs 5 crore.

The spiritual guru also said that the structure being made for the event was temporary and will be dismantled after the event.

"The structure created for the event is temporary and will be dismantled after the event. We wanted to create awareness about Yamuna through this event," said Shankar.

On Monday, President Pranab Mukherjee 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 event.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the event on Friday and the President was scheduled 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 AOL Foundation expects 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.

With inputs from IANS
Apparently, history repeats itself in politics too.

The 'affordable housing for all plan' is the brainchild of former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan's government. They first signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI) on 28 April, 2010 for the construction of five lakh homes in five years. But the signatures and MOU remained on paper alone, because not a single affordable home was built since then. But the BJP-led government of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis went one step ahead of its predecessor and signed a Rs 1.10 lakh crore MoU for the construction of 5.69 lakh homes in five years. The interesting thing is that while the signing authority changed for government and MCHI, everything still remains only on paper.

Firstpost has acquired copies of both the MoUs.

After signing the MoU in April 2010, the state government passed a government resolution (GR) on 1 June, 2010 and made a joint committee which was headed by the then chief secretary along with the five senior-most IAS officers from the departments of urban development, housing, MMRDA and Mhada, along with the city's municipal commissioner, to monitor the MoU. From the MCHI, the signatories were then chairman Puran Doshi, president Sunil Mantri, Dharmesh Jain, Mayur Shah and Nainesh Shah. The 10-member joint committee has not even met five times in five years, alleged a senior official from the housing department.

While the 2010 MoU looks like an actual MoU, the 2016 one signed during 'Make in India' week last month looks like a scribble on plain paper.

See for yourself. This is the 2010 MoU:

Homes for All

It doesn't completely stand on legal ground, said an official. However, despite the fact that not a single home was built in the past five years, the review committee is not taking any serious action against MCHI, he added. "I am not aware of what was signed in the year 2010, but if at all it (the MoU) was signed, it shows that the erstwhile (Congress-NCP) government had the habit of signing fake MoUs and doing nothing (about it). Our government has a policy of following every single MoU signed," Fadnavis said, while speaking to media persons.

Meanwhile, here's the MoU signed by the Fadnavis government:

Memorandum

Preempting an Opposition attack during the Budget session of the legislature this week, the Maharashtra government on Saturday said it has formed a high-powered committee headed by Chief Secretary Swadheen Kshatriya to ensure that the MoUs signed during the 'Make In India' Week fructify. On 3 March, in an exclusive story, Firstpost revealed how the Fadnavis government's showpiece MoU for housing for poor is a rehashed dud. The formation of the committee was announced days after the Opposition raised serious questions on the lack of transparency of the MoUs. NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik had alleged that one MoU with the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI) on affordable housing was inked by the government only to inflate the investment numbers.

Kshatriya said that apart from the high-powered committee, there will also be some sub-committees that will report to it on the progress of the MoUs. "We will decide the modalities about MoUs, as there were over 2,500 MoUs and it is not possible for the high-powered committee to take a review and monitor all of them. So we have decided to bifurcate MoUs on the basis of expected investment and the jobs generated," he said and added,"The large MoUs in terms of investments and jobs will be handled by the high-powered committee, while the rest will be taken care of by the sub-committees and also by the principal secretaries of the concerned departments, under the high-powered committee."

Malik said the Congress-NCP government headed by Ashok Chavan had inked a similar MoU with MCHI in 2010 for constructing 5.69 lakh affordable houses in five years in Mumbai Metropolitan Region, but the MoU lapsed in February 2015, without a single house being built. The value of this MoU is Rs 1.10 lakh crore, which in turn means that around 15 percent of the Rs 8 lakh crore investment announced by the chief minister is fake, he had alleged.

Confirming that there was a similar, if not identical MoU between the two sides, SS Husain, CEO of MCHI, told Firstpost that the earlier one signed with the state government in 2010 did not work out from both ends and hardly any work was done on it in the past five years. "It could not be executed from both sides," he admitted. Asked why, he simply said: "Ask the previous MCHI president, not me."

But this time, Hussain claimed the intent was genuine and that the MCHI, which has more than 1,500 builder-members, will execute the project in all earnestness. "In 2016, we will build 3 lakh affordable homes," he said with inexplicable confidence, based as this claim is on the ruins of a defunct MoU.

The project, however, never took off, because Chavan had to resign in November 2010  the same year after his name came up in connection with the Adarsh scam. A senior officer from the housing department confirmed that the 2010 MoU expired in February 2015, and Fadnavis has decided to give the builders one more chance. The MoU was to come to an end in February 2015. This year, the housing department once again sent a letter to MCHI reminding them about this and to find out whether the builders are interested in carrying out the five-lakh homes project in the future, he said.

In an interaction with senior officers before the 'Make in India' week, Fadnavis reportedly said that roping in private developers was important to construct affordable homes. He emphasised, however, that care needs to be taken to ensure that no untoward benefits accrue to builders. Three months earlier, Fadnavis also asked the Slum Rehabilitation Authority to give Rs 500 crore to the Konkan board of Mhada to buy land in the MMR and construct affordable homes. The chief minister also assured Rs 500 crore to the Shivshahi Punarvasan Prakalp Limited (SPPL) for building affordable houses in the MMR region.

When Firstpost asked why these same MoUs are being inked with the MCHI, a senior official from the housing department said that this time the Maharashtra government will facilitate the members of MCHI-CREDAI, to obtain necessary permissions, registrations, approvals, clearance and fiscal incentives. "We are doing only 'Ease of Doing Business' in all sectors just like it has been implemented in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation," he added.

Former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan alleged that during 'Make in India', most of the MoUs signed were fake. "I have asked the chief minister to put all 2,500 MoUs on the internet so that everyone knows which company signed and what is their background. We did not act upon it because the builders wanted to extract unreasonable concessions. If I had agreed to those conditions I would have committed illegalities," he said.

Speaking with Firstpost, the chief minister who presided over the signing of the first MoU Ashok Chavan acknowledged that the MCHI did not build a single home. "We accommodate all clearances and facilitate approvals, but they (MCHI) are busy building big houses for rich. The lapses were from their end, so ask them why they did not build five lakh affordable homes in five years," he said.

Meanwhile, then chief secretary and chairman of the joint committee JP Dange said that he could not recall the MoU and had nothing to say about the matter.
The government suffered an embarrassment on Wednesday when the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha adopted the motion of thanks to President's address with an amendment moved by Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad in a division in which 94 voted for the amendment and 61 against.

The amendment regretted that the address did not commit support to rights of all citizens to contest Panchayat elections in the backdrop of law in Rajasthan and Haryana where matriculation has been fixed as the criteria for contesting the polls.

According to a report in The Indian Express, while the AIADMK voted with the NDA, the BSP was not present in the house, and top leaders of the Samajwadi Party and Trinamool Congress were also absent from the house.

The amendment was moved despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal to the opposition in the Rajya Sabha to support the bills passed by the Lok Sabha. This was while replying to a debate on the motion of thanks on the president's address to parliament.

The Indian Express reports that this was the second year in a row that the government had to face such an embarrassment in Rajya Sabha and it was the fifth time in the history of Indian democracy.

PM Modi made a fresh pitch for passage of GST and other legislations in the Rajya Sabha considering the "conducive atmosphere" that has been prevailing in Parliament this session with cooperation from the opposition.

Like in the Lok Sabha last week, he was both conciliatory and mocking towards the opposition, particularly Congress, during his hour long reply to the debate on the motion of thanks to the President's address in the Upper House.

Referring to some 300 amendments that have been tabled to the motion of thanks, Modi appealed to the parties to withdraw them and passed the motion unanimously to ensure dignity of the President's office and in keeping with the high traditions of the House.

"Death has a blessing... It's above criticism... No one criticises death. People say someone died of cancer, (people say) he died of old age... The cancer and old age are blamed but not death," the Prime Minister told the Parliament.

"Sometimes I feel the Congress is also blessed (like death)... Whenever we criticise the Congress, the media says opposition is under attack," the Prime Minister said. "This does not happen when something is said about other opposition leaders such as BSP's Mayawati or Janata Dal-United's Sharad Yadav."

The Congress, he implied in his 90-minute speech, wanted to take credit for everything.

With agency inputs
Chennai: After keeping alliance aspirants on tenterhooks, actor-turned politician Vijayakanth on Thursday said his party DMDK would go it alone in the 16 May Tamil Nadu Assembly polls, belying the hopes of DMK, BJP and the four-party bloc PWF.

"I am making it clear that Vijayakanth (DMDK) is going to fight elections alone," he said to a thunderous applause from the gathering at the party's women's wing meet in Chennai.

The declaration by DMDK came against the background of sustained efforts by the DMK, BJP and People's Welfare Front PWF (comprising MDMK, VCK and CPI(M) and CPI) to rope in the Vijayakanth-led party into their fold.

It also has firmed up the election scenario in Tamil Nadu which looks set for a multi-cornered contest among AIADMK, DMK-Cong combine, BJP, PWF and DMDK.

DMDK was part of BJP-led NDA in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, and the saffron party was hoping to retain it in its alliance for the assembly elections.

Ridiculing speculation in the media about which alliance the DMDK would choose, he asked, "Why are you worried?"

Citing some media reports that claimed "bargain was going on (by DMDK) with potential allies," he said, "I did not bargain with anyone (party)."

Thanking all the political parties who sought an electoral tie-up with him, he categorically said that DMDK would face the elections alone. "I am (DMDK) standing alone in elections," he said.

Explaining the background to the party decision, he said his partymen were confused when TV channels owing allegiance to select political parties aired views according to their whims and fancies on the probable decision of the DMDK.

A seven-member party panel would choose DMDK candidates for the assembly election, he said.

Recalling his interaction with party workers in Kancheepuram last month, when he was asked whether he should be kingmaker or king (to which they said he should be the King), he said the DMDK would fight elections alone.

Stating that he was leading his partymen in the right direction, he said only his partymen had the right to question him on choosing electoral-tie-up and asserted that he need not answer the media in this regard.

Founded in 2005, DMDK fought the 2011 Assembly elections as an ally of the ruling AIADMK and later fell out with it.

PTI
Islamabad: The kind of intelligence Pakistan shared with India is precisely what the relationship needs more of, said an influential Pakistani daily which observed that the Mumbai terror attack "poisoned the bilateral relationship far more than Pakistan acknowledged or even appears to have realised".

An editorial titled 'Cooperation with India' in the Dawn said that the interior minister and the prime ministers adviser on foreign affairs have acknowledged that Pakistan did warn Indian authorities of a possible terrorist strike on Indian soil following an illegal border crossing by militants from Pakistan.

"The kind of intelligence sharing that was revealed last week and that led to a state of high alert in Gujarat, India, is precisely what the Pakistan-India relationship needs more of," it said.

Describing it as "timely, relevant and cooperative", the editorial said: "Important too is the militant identity of the men who are believed to have crossed the border illegally  not just the out-of-favour Jaish-e-Mohammad, but the hitherto sacrosanct Laskhar-e-Taiba as well."

"Perhaps the distance between all anti-India non-state actors and the state itself is set to grow.

"If that is indeed the case  that the Lashkar and its affiliates forays against India will henceforth be discouraged and anti-India groups will face closer scrutiny - then perhaps it is also time for the prosecution to resume proceedings against those linked to the Mumbai attacks."

The editorial said that what happened in November 2008 "poisoned the bilateral relationship far more than Pakistan acknowledged or even appears to have realised".

It observed that not just the bilateral relationship, "but Pakistans international standing was in jeopardy. When cities are attacked like Paris was last November, the memory of Mumbai is still invoked in many parts of the world, including among many allies of Pakistan".

"The reluctance to prosecute the Mumbai suspects has also undeniably boosted the resistance of Indias hawks to engaging Pakistan. While India can and should help Pakistan where necessary  the imminent trip of Pakistani investigators to India to probe the Pathankot incident will be an important precedent  Pakistan too must be resourceful and inventive in its prosecution of anti-India militants."

It went on to say that timely sharing of intelligence with India, investigating and prosecuting any Pakistani militants involved in staging the Pathankot attack, and resuming and rapidly concluding the Mumbai-related trials would send a powerful message on the anti-terror front.

"Not only would Pakistans seriousness of purpose in an across-the-board fight against terrorism be communicated, it would also clear the path for a full-fledged re-engagement with India," the daily said and added: "India should help rather than impede that possibility."

IANS
Seoul: North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on Thursday, South Korea's military said, a likely show of anger at continuing springtime war games by rivals Washington and Seoul and another ratcheting up of hostility on the already anxious Korean Peninsula.

The South Korean defence ministry says the missiles were fired from North Hwanghae province, flew about 500 kilometres (310 miles) and fell into the water off the country's east coast. They are believed to be Scud-type missiles, said ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun.

Such missile firings by the North are not uncommon when animosity rises here. North Korea hates the massive annual military drills staged by Seoul and Washington, calling them invasion preparations. The allies say the drills, which this year are described as the biggest ever, defensive and routine. Pyongyang is also angry over tough United Nations sanctions following its recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.

The firings come a day after North Korea caused a new stir by publicising a purported mock-up of a key part of a nuclear warhead, with leader Kim Jong Un repeating a claim that his country has developed miniaturized atomic bombs that can be placed on missiles.

The North's Rodong Sinmun newspaper carried photos on its front page showing Kim and nuclear scientists standing beside what outside analysts say appears to be a model warhead part  a small, silverish globe with a ballistic missile or a model ballistic missile in the background.

The newspaper said Kim was briefed by his nuclear scientists and declared he was greatly pleased that warheads had been standardized and miniaturised for use on ballistic missiles.

Information from secretive, authoritarian North Korea is often impossible to confirm, and the country's state media have a history of photo manipulations. But it was the first time the North has publicly displayed its purported nuclear designs, though it remains unclear whether the country has functioning warheads of that size or is simply trying to develop one.

South Korea's defence ministry quickly disputed the North's claim that it possesses miniaturized warheads. It called the photos and miniaturisation claim an "intolerable direct challenge" to the international community.

US State Department spokesman John Kirby declined to comment on North Korea's nuclear capabilities, saying it was an intelligence matter, but told reporters the US takes Pyongyang's rhetoric seriously.

North Korea warned Monday of preemptive nuclear strikes after the United States and South Korea began the war games, which are to last until the end of April.

North Korea has previously said it has nuclear warheads small enough to put on long-range missiles capable of striking the U.S. mainland, but experts have questioned those claims.

The round object shown in the photos appears to be a model of a warhead trigger device which would contain uranium or plutonium, according to nuclear expert Whang Joo-ho of Kyung Hee University in South Korea. He said it was obviously a model because Kim and others would not stand near an actual device because of concerns about radioactivity.

Karl Dewey, a senior analyst for IHS Jane's, a defence and aerospace publishing company, said the sphere could be a simple implosion weapon, possibly with hydrogen isotopes added to make it more efficient.

"It is unlikely that the object in the photo is a thermonuclear bomb (also referred to as a hydrogen bomb)," he said in a statement. "Thermonuclear weapons are multistage devices and in modern weapons the need to place two separate stages together would result in a more oblong-like structure."

Also shown in the photos is a KN-08 ballistic missile or its model, which reportedly has an estimated range of 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles), according to South Korean analysts. The KN-08, which North Korea showed off in 2012, is said to be capable of being launched from a road-mobile vehicle, which would make it difficult to monitor via satellite. The South Korean Defense Ministry said it believes the missile hasn't been proven functional.

North Korea says it tested its first Hydrogen bomb on 6 January, followed last month by the launch of a rocket that put a satellite into orbit but which violated U.N. resolutions because it employs dual-use technology that could also be applied to long-range ballistic missiles.

AP
Dhaka: A 250km-long protest march against plans to build an Indo-Bangladesh coal-fired power plant near the Sundarbans began on Thursday with hundreds of people calling for scrapping the project they believe would harm the ecosystem of the world's largest mangrove forest.

The Rampal power plant, an India-Bangladesh joint venture on which preliminary work has already begun, will provide much needed electricity to the country when it becomes operational in 2018.

India and Bangladesh signed a deal in 2010 to jointly develop the power plant.

Demonstrators began a four-day "long march" from Dhaka to Khulna in protest against the power plant, which they believe is a threat to the world's largest mangrove forest -- the Sundarbans.

Environmentalists, cultural and political activists, and eminent individuals began the march from Jatiya Press Club in a bid to press the government to abandon the project.

The government is bent on establishing the 1,320 MW coal-fired power plant 14 kilometres upstream of the Sundarbans Reserve Forest, a world heritage site declared by UNESCO.

International rights bodies, environment organisations and many others have tried but failed to urge the Bangladesh government for relocation of the plant fearing for the safety of the ecosystem the forest beholds.

"It is a project of mass destruction," Professor Anu Muhammad, member secretary of National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports, was quoted as saying by the Daily Star.

He slammed the government for "dubious approach" to climate change and alleged that it was claiming recognition for contribution to environment on one hand while "trying to destroy the Sundarbans" on the other hand.

Engineer Sheikh Muhammad Shahidullah, president of the national committee, inaugurated the "long march" that will travel through Manikganj, Faridpur, Magura, Jhenaidah and Jessore to eventually reach Rampal in Khulna.

They will hold rallies at different places and raise awareness among the locals.

PTI
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:

What is the status of the search?

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.

What happens if wreckage is found?

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.

Are they searching the right area?

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.

What caused the disappearance?

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.

Why are next-of-kin so suspicious?

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.

How rare are cases like this?

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.

What will be MH370's aviation legacy?

A crucial factor in the mystery was the inability to monitor MH 370'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.

AFP
The beleaguered World Culture Festival (WCF), being organised along the banks of the Yamuna floodplains in Delhi, had already attracted its share of controversy without having to deal with guests dropping out. But Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, it seems, had a change of mind owing to fears that he would cut a forlorn figure. According to reports emanating from Zimbabwe, Mugabe was supposed to be the chief guest at the Art of Living Foundation's event. To that effect, the president made his way to New Delhi  even threatening to punch a reporter in the face just before taking his flight.

But on Wednesday, Mugabes press secretary George Charamba, issued a statement from New Delhi in which he announced that the Zimbabwean president would sadly be declining the invitation. "The cancellation follows communication from organisers of the festival acknowledging substantial inadequacies in protocol and security arrangements around the event. A number of leaders slotted for participation, including those from the host country, have also withdrawn their participation. The President is expected home in a couple of days, said Charamba.

Clearly Pranabdas absence resonated strongly with the 92-year-old dictator, who perhaps beat a hasty retreat back home in order to avoid having to share stage with less worthies.

AOL Foundation was apparently quick to swing into action and delete any trace of Mugabe's presence from the WCF website  if such traces existed at all, it must be noted.

At times like these, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar may be grateful that Firstpost exists.

We have painstakingly put together a list of names he could consider  people who wouldn ensure Mugabes absence was not felt:

Kim Jong Un

He would at least ensure Mugabe isnt very badly missed by the thousands of people who would doubtless show up at the World Culture Festival to watch a loony dictator in the flesh. If Mugabe once threatened to punch a reporter for asking him about his retirement plans, Kim threatens to fire nuclear missiles every time anybody even looks at him. Its a perfect fit.

Donald Trump

The man is busy running a presidential campaign in the US, but there is literally nothing he will not do for free publicity, so Sri Sri might want to tap into this resource. He is also the man who gave us gems like You know, it really doesnt matter what the media write as long as youve got a young and beautiful piece of ass. Maybe he could club the India visit with a trip to the Times Now studio, whereby he could enter into a shouting match with the very graceful Arnab Goswami.

Silvio Berlusconi

He amassed vast sums of money, held an iron-fisted hold over the countrys politics and sports, indulged in serious high-level corruption, invited several women home for bunga bunga parties and basically had to be shoved out before he left. We should basically give him Indian citizenship at once. Since that is not happening any time soon, the least we can do is have him attend Sri Sris ambitious programme.

Vijay Mallya

The one-time King of Good Times has fled India and no amount of persuasion is going to make him come back. Especially considering how much money he owes Indian banks, we need an excuse to get him to return. This is as good as it gets. An international event dogged by controversies will see hundreds of international guests and most importantly, will provide him a chance to flaunt the good life. If we know Mallya, he will take the bait.

Kanhaiya Kumar

Ever since he secured bail a week ago, Kanhaiya Kumar has been everywhere. And lets face it, given how politicised the World Culture Festival already is, there is no way he will not show up, and make a rousing speech. Might as well make it appear like like he was actually meant to be there.

Aditya Chopra

The YRF scion has made no public appearances and has been photographed around once. In total. There could be no bigger coup for Art of Living than to get the reclusive Chopra to come out of his self-imposed exile and attend their event. To tempt him into attending, we should dangle the possibility of hanging out with Kim Jong-Un at the event and the chance of exchanging some notes on being a successful recluse.



With inputs from AP
WASHINGTON The White House has ruled out an encounter between President Barack Obama and revolutionary leader Fidel Castro in Cuba this month and is confident the Cuban government will not create obstacles to a meeting between Obama and dissidents in Havana, a top adviser said on Wednesday.

Despite the goal of improving ties between former Cold War foes, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said Obama would not use his trip to meet Cuba's demands that he shutter Radio and TV Marti, U.S. broadcasters created to transmit anti-communist programming to the island nation.

Obama plans to hold talks with Cuban President Raul Castro during his historic March 20-22 visit but will not meet with Castro's brother, a legendary figure who took power in a 1959 revolution and led Cuba for 49 years.

"We've had no discussion about that meeting taking place, and we certainly wouldn't seek it," Rhodes, who was one of the negotiators in secret talks that led to a thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations, told Reuters in an interview.

Asked if a meeting was ruled out, Rhodes said: "Yes."

A meeting with the elder Castro could overshadow a trip that is meant to focus on the future of the U.S.-Cuba relationship rather than its troubled past. Castro, 89, stepped down from power after a series of health problems and rarely leaves his Havana home, though he occasionally meets visiting dignitaries.

The White House has said previously it did not expect a Fidel Castro meeting to occur but did not say it was ruled out.

The administration made clear when it set up Obama's trip that he would meet with anti-government dissidents in Havana despite the Cuban leadership's objections to what it sees as meddling in the country's internal affairs.

Rhodes said the list of participants had not been finalised and the meeting would take place in a U.S. facility, which suggests the U.S. embassy or ambassador's residence.

That meeting would take place after official events with Raul Castro.

Cuban dissidents in the past have reported being detained in their homes or picked up by police en route to major international events such as summits or papal visits, but Rhodes said he did not anticipate that happening for Obama's trip.

"We haven't worked out the logistics, but ... they have not suggested that they will throw up those types of obstacles," he said, adding the United States would be watching whether Cuba detained or harassed activists in connection with the visit.

Two of Cuba's most prominent dissidents, Berta Soler and Jose Daniel Ferrer, were detained on Tuesday, according to dissident groups.

Susan Rice, Obama's national security adviser, on Wednesday met with Cuban-American activists and U.S. human rights advocates and told them Obama would meet Cuban "independent civil society" representatives chosen by his aides, the White House said.

OUTSTANDING DIFFERENCES

Obama's Republican critics have accused him of playing down human rights concerns in order to pursue rapprochement with Cuba, which began in December 2014 and is now seen as a major piece of his foreign policy legacy.

The Cuban government has done little to reciprocate for a series of U.S. measures that eased restrictions on U.S.-Cuba travel and trade. It is unclear whether it will make any large gestures during Obama's visit, the first by a sitting U.S. president since 1928.

Rhodes countered that the outreach to Cuba was aimed at helping the local population while opening up commercial opportunities for Americans.

The administration plans to roll out further measures next week to chip away at decades-old restrictions to commerce.

Obama also wants to lift the embargo on Cuba, which is only possible through congressional action. Republican leaders in Congress oppose such a move.

Other differences remain. The Obama administration is not considering returning the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay to the Cuban government, and Rhodes said it would not make changes to the Radio and TV Marti broadcasters at this time.

Both issues are irritants that the Cubans consider obstacles to full normalization with Washington.

"The Cubans don't like Radio Marti and TV Marti for sure," Rhodes said. "There's only so much you can get to."

The U.S. government launched Radio Marti in 1983 and later added TV Marti to transmit anti-communist news and information into Cuba, where the government has a monopoly on the media.

A decision on whether to put an end to a U.S. program that encourages Cuban doctors and nurses on overseas assignments to defect was not tied to the trip either, Rhodes said.

(Additional reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Andrew Hay)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Washington: Progress in India-Pakistan ties has been hindered by cross-border violence and territorial disputes, but leaders of both the countries have demonstrated commitment to reinitiate the comprehensive dialogue, a top Pentagon commander has said.

"Progress on the India-Pakistan relationship is hindered by cross-border violence and territorial disputes," General Lloyd J Austin, Commander of US Central Command told members of the Senate Armed Service Committee during a Congressional hearing yesterday.

"However, there have been some encouraging signs and lines of communication remain open as demonstrated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's meeting in Pakistan in late December 2015 and the subsequent commitment to reinitiate the Comprehensive Dialogue," Austin said.

"Dialogue between the two countries is critical especially given that they are both nuclear powers," Austin said.

The US Central Command will continue to do its part to help encourage and strengthen the critical relationship between Pakistan and its neighbours, Austin added.

PTI
New York: A US teenager, charged with hate crime after he brutally assaulted a Sikh man last year, calling him a "terrorist" and "bin Laden", has been sentenced to two years' probation and ordered to perform community service for the Sikh community.

The 17-year-old, whose name was not released, had pleaded guilty in December last year to hitting Inderjit Singh Mukker, 53, of Darien, Illinois after a traffic altercation on September 8, just days before the 9/11 anniversary.

DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin announced on Thursday that the Willowbrook teen has been sentenced to two years' probation by the juvenile court.

Besides probation, he was also ordered to perform 200 hours of community service, part of which must be serving the Sikh community, pay over $4,800 in restitution and undergo counselling as deemed necessary by the probation department.

"My office has zero tolerance for crimes based on hatred or prejudices. Not only have the defendant's outrageous actions on September 8 taken an emotional, physical and financial toll on Mukker, that continues to this very day, his actions also have shaken the entire community," Berlin said.

Berlin said the defendant has learnt that any attack motivated in whole or in part by a pre-conceived bias against another individual is a serious crime that carries serious consequences.

Mukker and the defendant were involved in a "road rage" incident instigated by the defendant yelling racial slurs at the Sikh-American, including "Terrorist, go back to your country, Bin Laden!" a police investigation had found.

The defendant repeatedly punched Mukker in the face as he sat in his vehicle. Mukker lost consciousness, bled profusely and suffered a fractured cheekbone and a laceration to his cheek. Upon their arrival, police had found Mukker in the front driver's seat of his vehicle. He received six stitches. Police located the defendant, who had fled the scene, at his home. When officers attempted to arrest him, he had resisted and even punched a police officer in the face.

Advocacy group The Sikh Coalition said that there has been a "meteoric rise" in hate crimes against Sikh-Americans as xenophobic political speech has increased. "Charging the assailant with a hate crime is an important step towards addressing the broader epidemic. We hope that the 200 hours of community service are spent with the Sikh-American community in an effort to further educate people about the community," said Sikh Coalition legal director Harsimran Kaur.

PTI
Limestone. (Credit: Public Domain)

Among the many strategies for reducing our carbon footprint is sequestration, where carbon is stored instead of released into the atmosphere. Carbon released into the atmosphere contributes to global warming and climate change, whereas sequestration is a means of mitigating those two things.

Sequestration may be terrestrial, which means the carbon is stored in trees and other plants, or it can be geological, which means carbon is stored in large reservoirs deep underground. Terrestrial sequestration can be reversed if the trees or other plants storing the carbon are burned or if they break down due to decay, releasing trapped carbon.

Although it may seem like geological sequestration may not be reversible, seeing as how it consists of carbon stored in reservoirs made of rocks and fluids, Penn State University researchers have found in a recent study that this may not be the case.

Using X-ray tomography techniques via the universitys Center For Quantitative Imaging, Zuleima Karpyn, associate professor of petroleum and natural gas engineering and colleague Li Li, associate professor in the same department, have shown that chemical reactions can occur that allow carbon dioxide to form new flow channels within rock that some might have assumed would serve as a permanent storage site for excess carbon.

The X-ray tomography images we produce are specialized, Karpyn explains. X-ray tomography can be used for many things. For example, it is widely used in the medical field. But the way we use it is different. Our instrument is not calibrated for living things, its calibrated for rocks. We can identify fluids inside rocks and conduct flow experiments. Our goal for the study was to recreate underground geologic conditions to study the reactivity of the rock and cement to CO2-rich brine.

Using their General Electric Co. X-ray tomography system, with peripheral equipment including a positive displacement pump, closely regulated pressure transducers and temperature controllers, Karpyn and Li were able to measure degradation in the rock samples they analyzed.

The data sets of rock images are very large. We used Avizo image-processing software and MatLab to analyze the image data, says Karpyn.

Another instrument called an Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer, or ICP-MS, was used to analyze the chemistry of water coming out from the rocks. The water samples include ions such as magnesium, silicon and sodium. They reflect the extent of rock degradation. The water samples were taken every few hours for eight days and were refrigerated for later analysis.

Li and Karpyn were not attempting to find the best way to geologically sequester carbon in their study. Rather, they were trying to mimic typical geological sequestration scenarios that already exist, such as in abandoned wells, and look for chemical reaction pathways that might result in the escape of sequestered carbon dioxide.

We looked at a limestone type of host rock with a cement core and a sandstone-type host with a cement core, says Li. The carbon is at high pressure and is a liquid. It is mixed with saltwater. We found that when the carbon and saltwater mixture reacted with the limestone/cement system, the cement remained intact because the limestone was much more permeable to flow and was reactive. In the sandstone/cement system, the opposite occurred: the cement reacted because the sandstone was not reactive and remained intact. In that system, the cement was the primary reactant with the carbon and saltwater liquid. So you see, the reaction pathways you get for carbon dioxide release are system- and environment-dependent.

Carbon dioxide leaks tend to be most likely at the point of injection, as the system is under high pressure, Li says. Over time the host rock system tends to relax, making carbon dioxide release less likely.

Li and Karpyn emphasize that choosing the site of geological sequestration very carefully is of utmost importance. Surveying the geological area should be done in as much detail as possible, with robust mapping of the area a primary concern.

If carbon dioxide does escape via some pathways, the results can be serious. When carbon dioxide goes up from the deep subsurface to shallow aquifers or lakes, it can dissolve into water so the water becomes acidic. The water can become undrinkable and uninhabitable for wildlife.

Everything in the ecosystem can be affected, not just the bigger things like fish but even at the bacterial level, Li explains. The effect is somewhat similar to ocean acidification, already an ongoing problem due to climate change.

In terms of future work, Li and Karpyn would like to see even higher resolution imaging for their rock samples. The equipment we have at our Center for Quantitative Imaging is cutting-edge. That being said, in analysis we are always reaching for improvement, says Karpyn.

The carbon sequestration work, while in many ways an incremental process, has nevertheless held surprises for Li and Karpyn. We didnt expect wed get through the rocks and make new pathways that were as clear as they were, Li recalls. We did not realize they were going to stand out as much as they did.

Li and Karpyns work on geological carbon sequestration is performed through a team of professionals and graduate students. Li and Karpyn especially want to acknowledge the efforts of Peilin Cao, a Penn State doctoral student.

Even though we have definitely found chemical reactions which can lead to escape of carbon dioxide from geological sequestration sites, we arent trying to sound an alarm at this point, Li emphasizes. Just because there is a potential for these reactions to occur, that doesnt mean they will occur in a given geological sequestration site, especially if the site is chosen with great care. We simply want to make people aware of potential problems to keep in mind when performing carbon sequestration.

Top image: Limestone. (Credit: Public Domain)
Twitter is making it easier for its users to explore links within Moments on iOS and Android. For those unaware, launched in October last year, Moments is a news curation tool that tracks live events on Twitter

The micro blogging site adds the ability for users to tap on a link to a news article or a blog directly from a Moment. After browsing the page you can simply click out and go back to Moment where you have left off. In addition, in a bid to load content smoother and faster Twitter is rolling out support for Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) powered web pages when available.

Prior to this addition,at the time of viewing a Moment, you only had the option to click on the result showing the original tweet and then the linked material. Google recently launched AMP in India which is companys answer to Facebooks Instant articles. Along with the users, the update helps publishers to find and surface content in Moments which will in turn make it easy for them to provide more relevant context to its audience.
Russia recently enacted an embargo on all imports of corn and soy products originating in the U.S. China shared the same sentiments with Russia towards GMOs and crop chemicals as it enacted its own embargoes in 2015 for the protection of its bees and food supply against food contamination.

These two powerful countries, Russia and China have banned the import of GE (genetically engineered) foods. In fact, US farmers have lost more than $427 million in sales after China rejected the imports of US corn. Russia has also imposed a ban on GE products saying that its nation has enough space and resources to produce organic and sustainable foods.

Russia's country's Prime Minister Medvedev was quoted in saying "Moscow has no reason to encourage the production of genetically modified products or import them into the country. If the Americans like to eat GMO products, let them eat it then. We don't need to do that; we have enough space and opportunities to produce organic foods."

Recently, the Russian parliament suggested a norm set for the maximum allowable content of transgenic foods for Russian manufacturers that produce foods with GE ingredients. When the percentage of GMO exceeds 0.9%, the producer must label its products accordingly and warn the consumers.

More than 30 countries have banned GMO crops, but powerful biotech and chemical lobby including GMA (Grocery Manufacturing Association) have introduced a pro-GMO legislation through Congress that would kill states GMO labeling efforts:

The biotech and chemical companies are shoving 'Agent Orange Corn' down our throats while countries like China and Russia have banned the imports of GE products.

Not only biotech is hiding their toxins in our food supply, they recently have introduced a new bill to Congress in order to outlaw GMO labeling. The bill is introduced by US Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) and is meant to forbid states from mandating GMO labeling.

While 90% of Americans want their foods labeled, the biotech and chemical companies spend thousands of dollars to bring the consumers in a different direction.

That's the irony, the Americans pay the price of being misinformed of what they eat. The Russians and Chinese simply refuse to eat the unsafe US-grown GMO corn and soy.
Taco Bell's Canada just launched their new product and the Canadians have the exclusive experience to taste the iconic Cheetos Crunchwrap Slider starting from February 29th. On the menu, Chester Cheetah's Cheddar Jalapeno sprinkles in the Crunchwrap seems to create global hunger as many of the US fans crossed the border just to have a taste of the new meal.

During the press release, Senior Director of Marketing, Nancy Rooney, stated that Cheddar Jalapeno is the perfect addition that creates the extra hit on the flavor and crunch. "It's a lunchtime favorite," she added. Bringing the innovative product to customers becomes Taco Bell's first priority and the three combo varieties simply means that there's something for everyone.

After three months of trial and experiments, the company comes up with several ingredients. This mashup is featured in Taco Bell's signature dishes of Beefy Cheddar, Spicy Chicken and Supreme. According to Taco Bell Canada's Head of Marketing, Veronica Castillo, Crunchwraps have been introduced a decade ago and the term 'Slider' is its newest innovation that comes in a smaller size with the different flavor profile and of course, the Jalapeno Cheetos.

Sold at $2.99 a wrap, consumers find the snack to have that typical Mexican food taste. The launch has generated crossover craze and social media buzz that lasted more than a week after its introduction. So far, the menu has been a best-seller with its limited time of availability.

Across North America, Taco Bell's burritos, nachos, and quesadillas have gained popularity due to its 36 million of customers. The quick service chain restaurant has more than 200 locations in Canada alone.
Mexican grill restaurant, Chipotle, shuts down today due to an employee testing positive for norovirus. According to Buzzfeed, Chipotle shuts down for cleaning immediately after this incident occurred. As reported in Food Safety News, the facility shut down right away when other employees tested positive right away for norovirus.

Spokesman for the Massachusetts Chipotle restaurant, Chris Arnold, said as reported in Food safety News:

"After learning that four of our employees were not feeling well, our restaurant in Billerica, MA was closed for a full sanitization."

However, Arnold assured that the customers' illnesses are not in any way related to the norovirus epidemic. Arnold has not disclosed as to when the facility would be open again to the public. Furthermore, he has not disclosed whether or not the food is to be destroyed.

The closure comes just after one month the restaurant chain had an emergency morning meeting. The meeting's purpose was to discuss food safety protocols in general for the food chain. Founder and CEO, Steve Ells, answered questions about food and workplace issues that arose in January, according to The New York Daily News. These issues include: granting sick leaves for employees so they can rest when they are not feeling well, DNA testing of foods and regulations to better prepare foods at the facilities.

In 2015, a norovirus epidemic in California instigated a criminal investigation, sources said. Word has it that prosecutors subpoenaed Chipotle's food safety records back then. On December 2015, there was also a norovirus epidemic outbreak in Boston.

Customers decreased as Chipotle deals with E Coli and salmonella epidemics in 2015, as reported in Buzz Feed. It was unclear as to whether all of the employees would test for norovirus in the said Massachusetts facility.

Chipotle is being sued by the victims of norovirus and their families. In total, 100 civil claims have been allegedly filed against Chipotle, as reported in Food Safety News. Many high school students and one parent were among the complainants of these civil claims. These people got sick during the norovirus epidemic outbreak in Simi Valley, California. 1,000 complainants could be after the this said case.

Stockholders are also seeking federal legal claims against Chipotle. The claims state that Chipotle was in violation of The Securities Exchange Act regulations when the former made false and/or misleading statements.

The federal contenders claim that Chipotle's regulations violated the consumer and workplace safety regulations. Contenders claim that Chipotle violated consumer and employee health rights, in this regard.
How safe is your bottled water? You might find the question a bit odd because well, the water is bottled in the first place so it should be clean and safe, right?

Not necessarily. Of course, there are brands that are true to their claims of providing safe water in a bottle. But then again, there are those other brands whose products may not be as wholesome as advertized.

And the water may not even be that special at all. Even the FDA admitted in its website that some of the bottled water contains water from the municipal tap. Yes, people are basically paying premium for water that they might as well get from the faucet at home. The FDA did say that the water is clean with all the distillation, reverse osmosis, 1 micron filtration or ozonation it had to go through but still, it's a little bit disappointing. All this time, people have been imagining of pristine lakes or springs every time they drink bottled water.

But the water source should be the least of one's concerns regarding bottled water. According to a recent article from Heath Tips Portal, the real concern comes from the fact that some of those high-priced bottled water brands contain fluoride, a substance that has no business in a water supposedly safe for consumption.

Fluoride can cause dental fluorosis and skeletal fluorosis according to a Dr. Mercola article. This explains why 40 percent of American teen suffer from dental fluorosis due to their massive exposure to this dangerous substance, a result of the US government's past policy of mixing fluoride into America's drinking water supply for supposed dental benefits.

Which is why it is appalling to know that some of these bottled water brands still contain fluoride. Even the International Bottled Water Association had to notify the public of these companies and the contaminated brand they sell. Listed below are the list of bottled water companies and their brands as appearing in both IBWA and HealthTipsPortal websites.

Brand Company

Alhambra DS Services

Arrowhead Nestle Waters North America, Inc.

Belmont Springs DS Services

Crystal Rock Crystal Rock, LLC and Vermont Pure Holdings Ltd

Crystal Springs DS Services

Deer Park Nestle Waters North America, Inc.

Diamond Springs Diamond Springs Water Co.

Hinkley Springs DS Services

Ice Mountain Nestle Waters North America, Inc.

Kandiyohi Premium Waters Inc.

Kentwood Springs DS Services

Mayer Bros. Mayer Bros . Apple Products Inc.

Mount Olympus DS Services

Nursery Water DS Services

Ozarka Ozarka Water and Coffee Service

Poland Spring Nestle Waters North America, Inc.

Pure Flo Pure Flo Water Company

Puritan Springs Puritan Springs Water

Shenandoah Shenandoah Corporation

Sierra Springs DS Services

Sparkletts DS Services

Zephyrhills Nestle Waters North America, Inc.
If a recent report is to be believed, Spain is the most popular winemaker in the world. In 2015, Spain sold 2.4 billion liters of wine compared to 2 billion liters French wine. What is, however, interesting is that in spite of selling much more wine, Spain earned only 2.6 billion ($2.8 billion) compared to 8 billion ($8.7 billion) earned by French wine and 5bn by Italian wine, according to the Spanish Wine Market Observatory.

In an interview with the Independent, Spanish Wine Market Observatory head, Rafael del Rey, said that while the situation was certainly frustrating, they are aware what they need to do with the French. Stating that they needed to change their marketing strategy, Rey said they should reduce sale of wine in bulk to other producers and concentrate on Spanish wine, which indicated its origin.

Citing the example of Italy, Rey said Italy also faced a similar situation 15 years back, but currently wine producers in Italy have nearly doubled the price of their wines. He was optimistic that the Spanish wine industry too would completely different a decade later.

Spanish wines are of top quality and possess the aptitude to compete with the best wines available anywhere worldwide; a NBC report quoted Eric Lagarde, who represents M. Touton Selection, a major wine distribution company in the United States, as saying. Lagarde further said, "And for the most part they are great value - especially right now with a stronger dollar."

In fact, the whole of European Union, especially France, Spain and Italy, have all witnessed a surge in their wine exports following higher demands from the United States and China. The news relating to the success of Spanish vinters comes in the wake of a report that revealed that popularity of wine is on the rise among millennials.

According to a report in The Drinks Business magazine, president of the Comite Europeen des Entreprises Vins Jean-Marie Barillere is of the view that currently the European Union is among the most important wine exporters globally and, following three years of relative stability, the union has achieved the best ever performance in 2015."
Poke (pronounced "poh-kay"), a Hawaiian salad dish prepared with raw fish cubes, is all set to take the lunchtime food scene in the U.K. by storm. Poke is already gaining popularity in the United States, especially among foodies with a preference for sushi.

For the uninitiated, poke is basically a Hawaiian salad dish usually prepared with raw fish cubes, especially tuna or salmon, and marinated in a soy sauce dressing. This cuisine is gluten as well as dairy free, and is also available in vegan varieties for people inclined to vegetarian foods.

While Britons are yet to get a taste of the salty fish cubes, major cities in the United States are already getting more accustomed to this Hawaiian dish. In fact, the New York Magazine has wondered in a recent article if the fish supplies would be able to keep pace with the growing demand for poke, IB Times reported.

So far, the only experience people in London have had with this Hawaiian dish is the Eat Poke, a pop-up store that has been moving in the Kerb street community. Eat Poke has been offering smaller dishes bearing a close resemblance to the Hawaiian style food. In Hawaii, poke is basically a casual dish and not a full meal.

Meanwhile, Pret a Manger is all set to become the first U.K. chain to include poke to its lunchtime menu. They are expected to be followed by Bill Granger, an Australian chef owning three restaurants in London that offer raw tuna and avocado poke dish, Independent reported.

In fact, chefs have started loving poke for its potential for variety with poke, which literally means "to cut or section." As far as the ingredients are concerned, almost anything goes, including mushrooms or beetroot as alternatives to fish. Hannah Dolan, a food developer at Pret, said: For a while we have been contemplating to include poke salad in our menu, the publication quoted Hannah Dolan, a food developer at Pret, as saying. She said that inspired by the Hawaiian dish they would be introducing their individual version of the dish this spring.
Last week, this tweet ignited the Internet.

It showed London-native Natalie Gordon's picture depicting pre-peeled oranges stored in plastic containers being sold for a whopping $6 in a supermarket. As of this writing, the tweet managed to garner over 100,000 retweets and favorites.

The product has then garnered widespread media attention, mainly slamming the controversial new product and its manufacturer, Whole Foods'. It even has its own hashtag, #orangegate, and had headlines such as "Whole Foods' Pre-Peeled Oranges Are the Ultimate in Burgeois Laziness", epitomizing the world's swift condemnation. Environmentalists have also cried foul, saying that the packaging is wasteful and it pollutes.

Whole Foods responded quickly by removing the product from its shelves and by attempting to diffuse the tension it created by making light of it. Although the response to #orangegate has been negative, some sectors have deemed the product necessary for certain groups of people. This holds true for people with disabilities, particularly those with limited hand dexterity. These also include people who have arthritis and have difficulty in peeling oranges.

A disability studies scholar, Kim Saunders, wrote this on her blog:

As a person with limited hand dexterity, I look at this and see an easier way to eat healthy food. I actively avoid eating oranges, not because I dislike them (they are definitely tasty) but because I have so much difficulty peeling them. Any attempt to peel an orange is likely to result in an unappetizing mess because I've squeezed the orange to hard while trying to maneuver it for peel removal. I don't have access to peeled oranges from my grocery store though I'd probably take advantage of them if I did. I do buy precut vegetables all the time because it is more convenient and safer for me to do so.

This in turn does not only make it an environmental issue, but also a disability issue, as said by a minority of pundits. There are also some people who claim who would buy these pre-peeled fruits, citing convenience.
The oldest yet funkiest alcohol drink - Baijiu is popularly known as China's most favorite liquor. Americans who are accustomed to beer and wine might find Baijiu tastes like ripe fruit. However, Lumos bar owner, Orson Salicetti, philosophically explains how sipping the scarce drink can make you travel back to Chinatown and discover new spice.

Gradually being introduced in New York, the flavor of Baijiu is quite a surprise for the first time drinker. Made from sorghum (and many other grains), the high-proof, citrusy and sweet traditional liquor creates a fiery punch. Strangely, the harsh taste is a staple in China. Some people who've made a trip to China, for a business or friendly visit, are often subjected to Baijiu night. Now that it heads to the West, hip bartenders infuse it with other flavors to make amazing cocktail scenes.

According to Shawn Chen, Red Farm's beverage director, drinking Baijiu in China is like a knife fight. So, before you order a shot of the best-selling liquor in the world, you probably should know a few things about Baijiu.

Baijiu, pronounced as "bye jyoh", is actually two words. Bai means white and jiu is liquor. The so-called traditional Chinese white liquor refers to a category of alcohol drink as the taste may vary from smooth to fiery. Made from distilled fermented sorghum or other grains, it tastes so strong (80 to 120 proof) that it's not recommended to drink by the bottle. It's unlikely to drink it in a martini glass, either.

Salicetti suggests drinking the smooth-infused Baijiu with fruity flavors. This is typically favored by newbie drinkers due to the rice fragrance and its softer taste. The rum tames baijiu as it adds that earthy flavor to the mixture. The drink is quite uncommon and it's not an order that guests usually make. But for adventurous souls, baijiu definitely gives a new experience.
Raw milk is a hot topic these days, particularly in West Virginia. After the bill legalizing raw milk was approved by West Virginia lawmakers, raw milk is back at the headlines again - this time as a possible suspect.

Apparently, some West Virginia lawmakers and Capitol staffers decided to celebrate raw milk's legalization by drinking it in the State Capitol. Over the weekend, however, some Capitol staffers and lawmakers reported falling ill which prompted some to suspect that the raw milk might have something to do with it, according to Jonathan Mattise article for Associated Press appearing in the live5news website.

Mason County Republican Delegate Scott Cadle, who authored the bill and joined the milk toast, explained that it is not the milk that's making them sick. Cadle said, "Everybody up there is getting it. It's a stomach virus. It didn't have nothing to do with that milk."

This view is corroborated by House spokesman Jared Hunt who noted that some lawmakers, including House Speaker Tim Armstead, were already sick on Thursday, even those who did not drink the milk.

The milk debate stems from two very different viewpoints. Opponents of raw milk often cite the possibility that untreated milk might contain dangerous microorganisms that can pose serious health risks such as Samonella, E. Coli and Listeria according to an FDA article.

On the other hand, proponents of raw, unpasteurized milk argues that raw milk is the healthier option because pasteurization destroys enzymes and vitamins such as A, C, B6 and B12. Moreover, raw milk advocates argue that pasteurization radically transforms milk proteins turning them into unnatural configurations that could actually be damaging to one's health according to this Huffingtonpost article by Dr. Joseph Mercola.

In an attempt to put matters in perspective, Delegate Josh Nelson was even quoted as saying "Guys, we're not talking about legalizing marijuana or anything like that, were simply talking about - milk," according to Jed Oelbaum reporting for Good Magazine.

For now, health officials are still conducting investigations if the milk is to be blamed for the fever, vomiting and diarrhea experienced by those who fell ill. It could just be a case of a very bad timing after all.
In Poor Charlie's Almanac, Charlie Munger talks about one of his favorite case studies on incentives. Although the story happened years ago, it speaks to the foundational culture at FedEx (FDX 2.06%). It's also my favorite mental model on incentives. Here's what Munger said:

The heart and soul of their system -- which creates the integrity of the product -- is having all their airplanes come to one place in the middle of the night and shift all the packages from plane to plane. If there are delays, the whole operation can't deliver a product full of integrity to Federal Express customers. And it was always screwed up. They could never get it done on time. They tried everything -- moral suasion, threats, you name it. And nothing worked. Finally, somebody got the idea to pay all these people not so much an hour, but so much a shift -- and when it's all done, they can all go home. Well, their problems cleared up overnight. So getting the incentives right is a very, very important lesson. It was not obvious to Federal Express what the solution was. But maybe now, it will hereafter more often be obvious to you.

Incentives are an important part of how we make decisions every day. Equally important, in ascertaining the potential for investment, is understanding a company's competitive advantages and price-to-intrinsic value.

Let's examine, then, some reasons that now may be the time to look into FedEx.

Global leader in express transportation

FedEx has grown ground revenue market share for almost 20 years and controls more than 25% of the market. The company gains a significant competitive advantage from transportation infrastructure, with worldwide brand recognition for quality and speed. The company's Express product is an extremely popular feature, with near certain delivery in one to three days, and the company serves countries that comprise more than 90% of the world's GDP.

FedEx's dominance in its ground segment, a primary profit driver, has certainly given the company a leg up on its competition.

Positioned well for international and e-commerce growth

FedEx's opening of the most advanced internal distribution center in Mexico City was a surprise to some. However, it shows the company's commitment to growing in other key areas around the globe, such as China, Brazil, Mexico, India, the UK, Hungary, and Poland. International growth has more than doubled, from $653 million in 2011 to $1.4 billion at the close of 2014. The company's clear focus on growing internationally should position the company well for increased population and GDP growth abroad.

In addition, e-commerce growth should give FedEx a long wave of demand growth for shipping. The year-over-year growth rate of U.S. online sales versus retail sales is over 3 to 1. FedEx is well positioned to take advantage of this growth, and I don't see it dissipating anytime soon as more companies break away from traditional brick-and-mortar models.

Population and GDP growth around the globe position FDX well over the long term through increased product demand. The high barriers to entry in the industry should allow the company to maintain or even build market share, compounding investor returns over the long term.

A shareholder-friendly, competent management team with plenty of incentive

Since 1971, co-founder and CEO Fred Smith has led this $36 billion global transportation company. And he has plenty of incentive to operate in a shareholder-friendly manner, because he owns 5.58% of the shares outstanding. The company has proved itself to be incredibly shareholder-friendly in the past, returning capital of about $7.46 billion to shareholders mainly in the form of share buybacks since 2011.

What it means for FedEx

With its forward P/E at 10.82, you're paying below a market multiple for a business that has true competitive advantages. The FCF yield is 2.81% (based on three-year average free cash flow), the EV/EBIT ratio is 19.16, and the dividend yield is 0.72%. Even with shares off more than 25% over the past 12 months, the company appears to be moderately overvalued, but it's not every day you find businesses with great moats like FedEx off 25% from recent highs. Its competitive position and commitment to international and e-commerce demand should give investors a unique opportunity for years to come if the stock is purchased at the right price.

Foolish investors with the ability to look past current business weakness should welcome the pullback as an opportunity to look closer at the company. I'll wait for a larger margin of safety before jumping in the water, but I'll be watching.
Could shipping containers be the future of local produce? A Boston-based startup called Freight Farms thinks so.

The company is transforming the containers into grow machines  or what they like to call Leafy Green Machines  in hopes of turning everyday people into farmers.

We are taking this back to the way it was 200 years ago, where local food was the expectation and people were actually part of the food system, Freight Farms CEO Brad McNamara tells FOXBusiness.com. And, theyre targeting anyone with a real motivation to do their own thing and be part of the food system.

Its entrepreneurs, the husband-wife teams, retirees, former veterans. You name it!

Freight Farms is part a new wave of companies that are bringing innovation to agriculture while meeting the growing demand for high-quality, fresh, locally grown and sustainable produce. Other brands include CropBox in North Carolina, Growtainers in Dallas, and PodPonics in Atlanta.

These containers have basically been upcycled to be a hydroponic farm with about an acre of farmland, says David Schmitz, who runs a freight farm at Stony Brook University in Long Island, New York.

Schmitz and his student interns are producing around 800 heads of lettuce per week for their school cafeteria. And, theyre doing it all year long while using 90% less water than regular farming, no pesticides and no soil; all within a 320-square-foot space.

Were probably hitting 800 to 1,000 students per week with our produce, adds Schmitz.

The best part says McNamara is that the shipping container farms cost a fraction of the price of a commercial-scale urban greenhouse, which requires significant capital. One Freight Farm costs around $82,000 with an additional $20,000 per year for operating costs.

Students Kylie Campanelli and Chad Marvin, who are part of the Sustainability Studies Program at Stony Brook, say the farm is easy to run and only requires around 20 hours of maintenance a week. McNamara also says that part of the fee includes a two-day farming boot camp, where soon-to-be farmers visit them at their headquarters in Boston.

Its to get the person from the street to a commercial farmer, he says.

To make things even easier, Freight Farms also has a mobile app called Farm Hand, where up-and-coming farmers can monitor their settings remotely.

We also built a mobile first super hydroponic store app called Farmhand SHOP app so were able to go to all the vendors and source all the best materials for our farmers, says McNamara. Our goal is to empower more people to be farmers.

To date, the AgTech company has about 60 farms worldwide including in 20 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, with a lot of international pilots kicking off later this year.

Major corporations like Google,(NASDAQ:GOOG), Aramark. (NYSE:ARMK) and Marriott (NASDAQ:MAR) have also jumped on board, adding container farms to some of their corporate campuses and hotels.

The startup, which launched in 2010 after raising $30,000 from a Kickstarter campaign, received an additional $3.7 million in venture funding in December 2014 from Spark Capital.

I see Freight Farms being a global network of people based in a community of growers who are producing food for their local market in the way that their local market demands, adds McNamara.
Customers today no longer have relationships with just the product or service, but with the organization and what it represents. Every offering is a reflection of the values, passions and ideas of the collective individual efforts that went into creating the experience felt by the consumer. The modern consumer not only values what went into the product they consume, they now have the ability to access it through multiple digital social channels, effectively making every employee an ambassador of the company.

The employee voice is stronger than ever, and a newly released study from IBM Institute for Business Value says that harnessing that voice is truly the critical differentiator when it comes to really winning over those coveted customers.

According to one of the authors, Maria-Paz Barrientos, Vice President and Partner at IBM, an organization is defined by its culture and how the employees interact within that culture. For this reason it is imperative we take the employee experience into account when strategizing to shape the customer experience. The study revealed five areas of focus:

Personalization: It can be tough balancing the needs of the company with the unique characteristics of the multitudes of teams within the organization and the individuals they are comprised of. People have different needs and motivations and in the past drilling down to these individual differences was no simple task. Barrientos points out that times have changed and we now have the data and analytics to help us create targeted more personalized experiences based on individual needs. Every company should be exploring ways to leverage social technology to ensure individual needs are being met in ways that help connect employees to the larger mission.

Transparency: There is no doubt we are in a highly transparent world where both information and misinformation on just about anything is merely a click away. People want and need to understand as much about their world as they can, including their work. The study explains that much as individuals are looking to gain a greater understanding of what goes into their food, clothing, and other goods and services, they are also seeking to understand their own organizations workings. This is why transparency at all levels is important along with providing clarity around the why behind the work that employees are engaged in. Understanding the why allows employees to author more direct and approachable narratives for consumers around the value of the product or service they provide.

Simplicity: In an increasingly complex and globally connected world simplicity still rules. The fact is the more convoluted an employees work is the more non-value added it will feel. Barrientos points out people know when they are doing non-value added work and it becomes demotivating. The authors of the study note that even simple activities, such as running an effective meeting, are often complicated by conference rooms equipped with incompatible technology and virtual platforms that freeze at key moments. Always seek to boil every effort down to its core elements so as to reap the benefits of simplicity.

Authenticity: Leadership in any organization must pay attention to the way in which their behaviors reflect that which they preach. Organizations must accurately reflect who they are in all they do in order to authentically align with employees, so as to create an authentic consumer experience. It is a wise practice to routinely audit the way in which the organization represents itself both internally and to the outside world. Simple things like examining your physical space, benefit offerings, and lifestyle practices may reveal surprising contradictions that send mixed messages. As obvious as it may sound aligning what you espouse to be with who you actually are as an organization is a practice frequently overlooked.

Responsiveness: A recent New York Times article highlighted studies that have shown how corporate wellness and weight loss incentive programs tend to fail due to lack of timely feedback. Psychologists have long since known positive feedback is only reinforcing when it is timely enough to be associated with the specific behavior. Thus, waiting until yearend to reward that hard fought battle of the bulge is more of an administrative check-the-box than a motivational tool.

The same holds true for managing and motivating the work efforts of those same employees. When it comes to timely feedback Barrientos notes its so easy to do, yet most organizations fail at it so well. Whether its lack of training, poor communication skills, or cultural barriers, managers at all levels just seem to struggle with giving timely and constructive feedback to their direct reports.

In the digital mobile age there is just no excuse for this lack of leader engagement. Modern mobile technology now provides us with access to the right performance data and the ability to provide timely feedback directly linked to that data. The fact is managers dont even have to provide feedback in-person. It can be a mere click on your smartphone or a comment on a teams social dashboard.
For those who think your Social Security benefit comes to you free and clear, think again. For a good amount of baby boomers, Uncle Sam will most likely have his hand out when it comes time to pay your taxes.

Mike Lynch, Vice President of Strategic Markets for Hartford Funds, provided FOXBusiness.com with some tips on how to manage your Social Security taxes when nearing or in retirement.

Boomer: Have Social Security benefits always been taxed? Is there any legislation in the works to remove the tax liability for seniors?

Lynch: No, Social Security benefits were not taxable until 1983 with the enactment of the Amendments to Social Security Act. Beginning in 1984, a portion of Social Security benefits have been subject to the federal income taxes. Unfortunately, there has not been any public discussion regarding eliminating the taxation of Social Security. Social Security is a program that has been around since 1935. It has gone through a number of changes in the past, and will most likely continue to do so in the future to ensure its survival.

What you can do today is begin to think about tax diversification. You may have heard the term regarding investment diversification and being well diversified. It is important to also think about tax diversification, meaning having some money in taxable, tax deferred, and tax free investments. Working today with your tax professional to ensure you are well diversified from a tax perspective can only help you down the road as you enter retirement, regardless of changes to social security taxation.

Boomer: How do I figure out if my Social Security is taxable?

Lynch: The first step in determining your tax liability on your Social Security benefit is to determine your Combined Income. Generally, combined income can be determined by adding your adjusted gross income +  of your Social Security benefits + nontaxable interest. For more information, taxpayers can refer to IRS Publication 915 and, of course, speak with a tax advisor for specific advice.

For someone filing a federal tax return as an individual:

? If combined income is less than or equal to $25,000, you will not have to pay federal income taxes on your benefits.

? If combined income is more than $25,000 and less than $34,000, you may have to pay income tax on up to 50% of your benefits.

? If combined income is more than $34,000, up to 85% of your benefits may be taxable.

For someone filing a federal tax return jointly:

? If combined income is less than or equal to $32,000, you will not have to pay federal income taxes on your social security benefits.

? If you and your spouse have a combined income that is more than $32,000 and less than $44,000, you may have to pay income tax on up to 50% of your benefits.

? If the combined income is greater than $44,000, up to 85% of your benefits may be taxable.

If you are married and filing a separate tax return, you probably will pay taxes on your benefits.

Boomer: What steps can be taken to avoid paying taxes on Social Security or at least minimize my liability?

Lynch: There are three things that you can do today, prior to taking your Social Security benefits:

1. Determine your benefit amount. If you havent yet, the first step is to go onto the ssa.gov website, setup an account, and run an illustration for yourself to determine your benefit amounts at specific ages (62-70).

2. Determine the what. Many folks I speak with want to know the magic year or optimal age to take benefit payments. There are a number of factors that will determine this, and there is no right time or age. It really depends on your specific situation. What I have found helpful, though, is to determine the what rather than the when. What income do you need? What income do you and your spouse need? Once you determine your what, you can go back and reevaluate the strategies behind when you file and when your spouse files, so that you can get as close to your what, your desired dollar amount, as possible.

3. Develop a team. Pull together trusted tax, legal and financial professionals who can work together and with you to develop your plan.
Image source: Getty Images.

With the stock market in nearly nonstop rally mode over the past six years, investors haven't needed to look far to uncover an abundance of growth stocks. But not all growth stocks are created equal: While some could still deliver extraordinary gains, others appear considerably overvalued, and might instead burden investors with hefty losses.

What exactlyisa growth stock? Though it's arbitrary, I'll define a growth stock as any company forecast to grow profits by 10% or more annually during the next five years. To decide what's "cheap," I'll use the PEG ratio, which compares a company's price-to-earnings ratio to its future growth rate. Any figure around or below one could signal a cheap stock.

Here are three companies that fit the bill.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV

Generally, automakers aren't viewed as "growth stocks," but most investors probably haven't taken a good look at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (NYSE: FCAU), which offers incredible growth potential in 2017 and beyond.

Like most automakers, Fiat Chrysler has been plagued by industry analyst predictions that U.S. auto sales are peaking. With China's recent slowdown in GDP growth and Europe's ongoing growth concerns, the U.S. has been propping up some of the world's largest automakers. If growth in the U.S. were to slow, Fiat Chrysler would certainly feel it. And, as the company's third-quarter earnings results showed, vehicle sales have been a bit light in Latin America, with revenue down $24 million on a year-over-year basis in Q3.

2017 Jeep Renegade. Image source: FCA Group.

Despite these concerns, it's mostly pedal to the metal for Fiat Chrysler. The company's Jeep brand is still leading the charge, with sales rising by 6% in fiscal 2016. Aside from redesigning some of the mainstays within the Jeep lineup, two aspects of the Jeep line have been hitting on all cylinders. First, Fiat Chrysler now has production facilities in China and Brazil that are helping reduce its production and transportation costs to the desired end market. Secondly, Fiat Chrysler's focus on smaller SUVs (e.g,, the Jeep Renegade) is hitting home with cost-conscious consumers around the globe.

Beyond Jeep, we're seeing a noticeable uptick in sales of SUVs, trucks, and yes, minivans. The Ram brand witnessed an 11% uptick in units sold in 2016, likely a reaction to an improving U.S. economy, as well as lower global crude prices, which lead to lower prices at the pump. Stable pump prices can entice consumers to buy trucks, SUVs, and minivans, which is great news for Fiat Chrysler since these vehicles have juicier margins.

Sporting a PEG ratio that's well below one and a forward P/E of just five, Fiat Chrysler looks to be a growth stock to consider buying.

Boyd Gaming Corporation

Another cheap growth stock that could be worth a proverbial roll of the dice is gaming entertainment property owner Boyd Gaming (NYSE: BYD).

As you might have rightly surmised, the biggest constraint to Boyd Gaming's growth in the U.S. is consumer spending. Gaming is a cyclical industry, and it relies on strong GDP growth to entice consumers to open their wallets and head to the casino. Weaker-than-expected GDP growth in 2015 and much of 2016, compounded with the uncertainties of the transition to the Trump presidency, are all reasons why consumers may be a bit shy about their discretional spending.

Image source: Getty Images.

While I wouldn't deny these challenges, there are reasons to believe that Boyd's fortunes are going to keep improving. One of the prime pathways to growth for Boyd Gaming involves acquisitions. An ongoing low-rate environment has been conducive to borrowing, which has allowed Boyd to be aggressive with M&A. In April, Boyd purchased Cannery Cassino Resorts' Las Vegas operations for $230 million, and also gobbled up the Aliante Casino Hotel and Spa for $380 million. All three properties are located in fast-growing North Las Vegas and position Boyd for superior growth in the years that lie ahead.

When applicable, Boyd has also been working to meld technology and innovation to drive customer experience and profitability higher. A 2014 deal with Bally Technologies allowed Boyd the opportunity to introduce new slot machine monitoring, marketing, player tracking, and accounting to a good number of its slot machines. Bally's technology also allows Boyd to offer players downloadable promotional slot machine credits, which could keep them engaged longer and boost brand loyalty. This isn't a technology that's implemented overnight, so it should generate continually improved returns throughout the remainder of the decade.

Looking ahead, Boyd Gaming's EPS is expected to grow from $0.79 in 2016 to an estimated $1.75 by 2019. With a PEG that's also below one, Boyd Gaming is certainly worth a look.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc.

A final cheap growth stock worthy of investors' attention is specialty biopharmaceutical company Emergent BioSolutions (NYSE: EBS).

The biggest concern right now for specialty drugmakers is what might happen with pricing in the intermediate term. Donald Trump has, on multiple occasions, suggested that he would lower drug prices during his presidency, and even went so far as to suggest that drugmakers are "getting away with murder" in regard to their pricing power. More specifically, Emergent BioSolutions was recently hit after announcing its preliminary 2016 full-year sales, which assume a $20 million year-over-year decline at the midpoint as a result of lower BioThrax sales.

Image source: Getty Images.

But as with the other candidates above, Emergent BioSolutions remains intriguing despite its challenges. Whereas specialty drugmakers could find their pricing power handicapped given Trump's comments, Emergent is in a prime position as a biodefense company for the military. The aforementioned BioThrax vaccine is the only Food and Drug Administration-approved vaccine for pre-exposure protection against Anthrax. It currently makes up around half of the company's annual sales. Given its niche position, I would contend that pricing power won't be a concern for Emergent.

Even more so, Trump could wind up being an ally to Emergent. During his campaign, Trump suggested spending more on defense, which included boosting the manpower of all branches of the military. More military members probably means a higher number of vaccines needed.

There's also a really good chance that Emergent makes some serious administrative cost cuts in 2017. In its preliminary results press release, the company cautions that restructuring charges are likely. While that could provide a short-term drag on earnings, the result should be improved margins by as soon as 2018.

Emergent BioSolution's PEG of 1.3 isn't as low as Fiat Chrysler's or Boyd Gaming's, but the expected growth from $1.05 in full-year EPS in 2016 to an estimated $2.44 by 2019 can't be overlooked. Investors targeting cheap growth stocks should know the name Emergent BioSolutions.

10 stocks we like better than Fiat Chrysler Automobiles When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*

David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.

Click here to learn about these picks!

*Stock Advisor returns as of January 4, 2017

Sean Williamshas no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen nameTMFUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle@TMFUltraLong.The Motley Fool recommends Emergent BioSolutions. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Most of us would consider several hundred dollars to be a big spend at popular retailer Costco Wholesale , but banking giant Citigroup just filled its shopping basket with over $1 billion worth of goods.

IMAGE SOURCE: TAXREBATE.ORG.UK VIA FLICKR

The merchandise in question is the co-branded, Costco True Earnings credit card loan portfolio currently managed by American Express . This is a big piece of business. Let's see what's behind it, and who stands to gain the most from the deal.

Retail retreatLast year the "don't leave home without it" credit card giant left its position as Costco's exclusive payment card of choice, plus the co-branding partner of the True Earnings card. The deal between the two companies had been in force since 1999, but was up for renewal, and they couldn't agree on new terms.

Visa was chosen as Costco's one accepted card brand, while Citigroup got the job as the co-branding partner for the retailer's credit cards (which will carry the Visa brand). All eligible current AmEx/Costco cards will port over to accounts maintained by Citigroup.

Both arrangements were contingent upon Citigroup reaching a deal to buy out AmEx from its contract with Costco. Late last month, it did. Terms of the sale were not specified, but AmEx did say it expected a gain of around $1 billion. The deal is expected to close in June.

DiscardedIt almost goes without saying that the loss of Costco exclusivity was a hard blow to American Express. It's about to vaporize a partner that was responsible for roughly 20% of the payment card company's overall loan portfolio.

Although AmEx has managed to drum up new business -- with brokerage Charles Schwab and Walmart unit Sam's Club -- both its fundamentals and its share price have yet to recover from the loss.

It'll book a nice gain from the sale of the card portfolio to Citigroup, but this is a one-time item and it doesn't change AmEx's underlying fundamentals. Stripping out the deal's anticipated take from fiscal 2016 guidance reveals that the company is projecting a decline in core profit.

For Citigroup, the immediate future is sunnier. Sure, $1 billion (or thereabouts) is a mountain of money to you and me, but Citi won't have a problem writing that big of a check -- the monster bank's net interest income alone was almost 50 times that number in fiscal 2015.

Costco will also benefit mightily from the new arrangement. It can use the win too, as it's posted year-over-year earnings declines in both of its last two quarters.

Once the dust settles and the new arrangements are in place, Costco's fundamentals should recover, and pleasantly so. Not least because it inked a sweetheart of a deal with Visa that will see it pay almost zero in swipe fees for purchases.

Plus, since Visa cards are much more numerous than AmEx plastic, the retailer has access to a much larger group of cardholders. The potential benefits of this are obvious.

Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'emSo how does the longer-term future look for the three players involved in Costco's big card game?

AmEx will probably continue to struggle with growth, but it's a dynamic company with a good business, and it should recover eventually. Citigroup, a veteran card issuer, will do just fine with the co-branded Costco plastic, although this will constitute a relatively small part of its sprawling, multi-national business.

As for the retailer, it's probably going to do best of all. It's getting plugged into the most extensive card payments network in town and is paying peanuts to use it. Before long, the earnings erosion of the recent past should be nothing but a fading memory.

The article Don't Look Now, But American Express is Selling a Big Retail Card Portfolio originally appeared on Fool.com.

Eric Volkman has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Costco Wholesale and Visa. The Motley Fool recommends American Express. 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.
Sometimes even well-intentioned moves have a way of turning out horribly wrong.

Like dressing up in a revealing outfit to surprise your significant other at the door only to find that he or she has brought the boss home for dinner. That might be a little more 1980s sitcom than what happened between Comcast and the state of Oregon, but it's pretty close.

In this case the Oregon state legislature created a tax break designed to encourage companies to make large, new investments in infrastructure for affordable, high-speed Internet access. It was clearly an attempt to attract Alphabet with its Google Fiber product, but it went horribly wrong.

Here's what happenedWhen the state legislature passed what has become known as the gigabit tax break, it was intended to lure new investment, not reward existing players. Specifically, it was not intended to benefit Comcast, Rep. Phil Barnhart (D-Eugene), told Oregon Live.He pointed out that the cable and Internet giant's "Gigabit Pro" product uses "an existing network and charges extreme prices the Legislature never contemplated when they approved the tax breaks last year."

Giving those breaks to Comcast, which state utility commissioners unanimously voted 3-0 the company qualified for -- amounted to rewarding it for doing "nothing" Barnhart testified, the news website reported.

Like a squirrel finding a bird feeder, Comcast swooped in and legally took something it didn't earn and that wasn't meant for it. Instead of having the tax break attract new competition for the company -- which it still could -- it cost the state tens of millions and fattened the ISP's bottom line while doing nothing for the public.

It's a major mistake by the lawmakers, according to Barnhart, who admitted the error.

"The Legislature is not likely to be that foolish," he said. "We are foolish often, but usually not that foolish."

It's also worth noting that while the tax break was meant for companies delivering mass-market products, the Comcast service involved is certainly not that. Whereas Google charges $70 a month for gigabit Internet service, often waiving any installation fee, Comcast's product, Gigabit Pro, offers 2 gigabit service for $299.95 a month plus an installation charge of $1,000 or more.

So even though the law doesn't see it this way, it's not an apples-to-apples comparison. It's more apples to filet mignon.

These are Google Fibers existing and prospective territories. Source: Google.

What happens next?While it would take a change in the law to stop Comcast from receiving its undeserved and unintentional tax break, the utility commission did leave the door open for the type of increased competition the legislation was supposed to create.

The Oregon Public Utility Commission did confirm March 1 that potential services from Google FIber and Frontier Communications would qualify for the tax break, according to Oregon Live. Under the law, companies are provided a property tax exemption if they offer most of their customers Internet service of 1 gigabit per second. Both Google Fiber and the perspective Frontier service would qualify and the law was more or less written specifically to attract Google, which has been considering parts of the state, specifically Portland.

Frontier has already announced plans for a 1 gigabit service product in Portland.

What happened here?This is a case where Comcast can't win. If it passed up the tax break it was legally entitled to, then it might not be serving shareholders properly. On the other hand, taking public money for doing nothing could, and probably will, bring a public backlash.

Ultimately if Frontier and Alphabet enter the market to compete, then taking this tax break could hurt Comcast's already damaged reputation. The company should stave that off by using the tax break to provide discounts for people who can't afford the service or to add capacity in under-served areas.

Governments can do things with unintended consequences, but it this case, the business that benefits should try to find a way to make sure it doesn't look like it's taking money from the public till without providing anything in return.

Whether the law gets changed or not, Comcast needs to find a way to do the right thing and at least use this money to benefit the public. If it doesn't, then Google and Frontier will have another arrow in their quivers as they enter the market.

The article Here's How Comcast Got a Huge Tax Break Meant for Google originally appeared on Fool.com.

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Daniel Kline has no position in any stocks mentioned. He believes that taking something not meant for you will always come back to bite you. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares) and Alphabet (C shares). 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: Slack.

Microsoft is a different company under CEO Satya Nadella for the simple reason that the company knows how to say no. Under former CEO Steve Ballmer, the company was heavily faulted for recklessly spending on acquisitions, only to see these investments written down in subsequent years. The new Microsoft appears to be more disciplined in its approach to spending company cash.

According to a report from TechCrunch citing an unnamed source, Microsoft briefly considered buying the cloud-based communication tool Slack for $8 billion before both Nadella and former CEO Bill Gates rallied against the idea, with Gates pushing for the company to instead spend capital on improving its Skype product.

For Slack, this would have been an excellent exit strategy for current investors, as the company was valued at $2.8 billion post-money less than one year ago. Additionally, an acquisition would avoid an IPO exit.

More recently, public perception has become decidely more bearish for tech's unicorns after struggling post-IPO performances from former darlingsFitbit and GoPro. The new Microsoft appears to be more disciplined in how it allocates capital, and that's most likely a positive for investors.

A brief history of Microsoft's acquisitionsBallmer's time at Microsoft has been characterized as a "lost decade," as many faulted the CEO for failing to grow market capitalization. I previously argued that this isn't an entirely fair characterization,because Ballmer grew revenue and earnings at a commendable clip during his reign. However, one area where Ballmer should be faulted was the company's acquisition strategy, which led to millions in shareholder destruction.

In 2007, Microsoft paid $6.3 billion for Internet-advertising company aQuantive to compete with Google in search. At that time, Microsoft paid a near-90% premium for the company. In 2012, after watching Google continue to dominate search, Microsoft took a $6.2 billion writedown on the purchase.

Former aQuantive staffers reportedly blamed Microsoft's "Windows-first" culture and focus on search rather than aQuantive's display-advertising niche for the failure. Whether the company initially overpaid for the company, or destroyed its value post-acquisition with a flawed strategy, is immaterial for investors.

But wait, there's more...Not content with $6.2 billion in shareholder destruction, Ballmer announced Microsoft would buy Nokia's smartphone business in 2013 to compete with both Apple and -- you guessed it -- Google, as both had vertically integrated business models at the time. As an ominous warning, Google sold its Motorola Mobility division to Lenovo after quarters of operating losses before Microsoft completed the purchase for $7.9 billion.

After an unrelated $1 billion writedown for Microsoft's Surface RT tablets, Ballmer was replaced by current CEO Satya Nadella in early 2014. In June 2015, the company took an even larger $7.6 billion impairment charge on the Nokia purchase after watching the Lumia unsuccessfully attempt to grow market share. Nadella's new strategy is to focus less on smartphones, and more on making its software more mobile-friendly. Interestingly enough, Nadella has done a decent job with the failed Surface tablets, as well.

Questions about Skype's acquisition Even purchases without large writedowns have drawn controversy for Microsoft. Its purchase of videoconferencing/VOIP provider Skype in 2011 raised eyebrows. Skype was purchased by online bidding site eBay for $3.1 billion in 2005. In 2009, eBay sold 65% of Skype to a group of investors led by Venture Capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, valuing the entire company at $2.75 billion-- less than the amount it paid. Two years later, Microsoft paid $8.5 billion for the company, providing this investment group with 200% returns.

With this history of acquisitions, one can't blame Microsoft for attempting to refine products it has in-house first. But don't cry for Slack. The service supposedly had eight-to-10 acquisition offers as of last year, and is growing users at a healthy clip.

Could this be the company that got away for Microsoft? Maybe. But if past is prologue, the best thing for both companies was for Microsoft to pass on the acquisition.

The article Satya Nadella Is No Steve Ballmer. Rumors About Slack Bolster the Case. originally appeared on Fool.com.

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Jamal Carnette owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends GOOG, GOOGL, AAPL, EBAY, and GPRO. 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.
Volkswagen announced on Wednesday that U.S. chief Michael Horn, shown here at a media event in 2015, abruptly left the company "by mutual agreement." Image source: Volkswagen.

In a surprise move, Volkswagen announced late Wednesday that Michael Horn, CEO of the VW brand's U.S. operation, has left the company by "mutual agreement."

In a statement announcing Horn's departure, VW global brand chief Herbert Diess thanked Horn for building a "strong relationship" with VW's U.S. dealers and for "exemplary leadership during difficult times for the brand."

His job will be filled on an interim basis by his boss, Hinrich Woebcken, who is the VW Group's North America chief.

Why this is a big deal: A 25-year VW veteran who took over the brand's top U.S. post early in 2014, Horn had been a prominent voice of Volkswagen here since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency first charged the company with cheating on emissions tests last September.

In appearances before news media and congressional committees, Horn had repeatedly and bluntly acknowledged that VW had made major mistakes by incorporating software into its diesel-powered vehicles that produced false readings on government emissions tests. He apologized repeatedly to VW customers, even recording an online video to deliver the message.

Horn was well regarded by VW's U.S. dealers for his blunt, truth-telling style and for the steps he had taken throughout the crisis.

What his departure means: It's not yet clear why Horn left the company, though the wording of VW's statement suggests his departure may not have been entirely voluntary. It's very possible that his departure was engineered as part of VW's ongoing negotiations with the U.S. government over its diesel cheating scandal. It's also likely that VW's senior leadership blamed him in part for the brand's steep drop in U.S. sales since the scandal first broke.

The move wasn't popular with dealers. Several dealers interviewed by Automotive News and The Wall Street Journal late on Wednesday praised Horn highly. One group of U.S. VW dealers issued a statement praising Horn and calling his departure a "serious blow," while saying that there is "no sense of a resolution" to the diesel scandal forthcoming from Volkswagen headquarters in Germany.

Is VW setting Horn up to be the "fall guy" with the U.S. government?That seems unlikely, or at least likely to lead to a big public fight: Horn has repeatedly and emphatically insisted that he had been unaware of the illegal software until shortly before the EPA's charges were announced. In an appearance before a U.S. House of Representatives panel last fall, he said that the decision to create and install the cheating software had been the work of a few individuals, not an organizational decision.

The general manager of a prominent U.S. Volkswagen dealership told Reuters that Horn had been offered other jobs within VW outside of the United States, but had declined them.

What's next from Volkswagen: VW is believed to be in the process of negotiating a settlement agreement with the U.S. government, one that could be announced before (or as part of) its 2015 earnings presentation that is now scheduled for late next month.

Developments in the last week or so have suggested that the two sides remain far apart. It's possible that Horn's departure from the U.S. was a concession to the Feds.

It's also possible that there's much more to the story that hasn't been made public yet. If so, it'll come out eventually. Stay tuned.

The article Volkswagen's U.S. Boss Suddenly Departs: What It Means originally appeared on Fool.com.

John Rosevear 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: ARIAD PHARMACEUTICALS

What: Optimism for sales growth for its cancer drug Iclusig and the eventual FDA approval of brigatinib helped lift shares in Ariad Pharmaceuticals 11.2% last month, according toS&P Global Market Intelligence.

So what: The maker of the $149,000 therapy for the treatment chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and Philadelphia chromosome positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Ph+ ALL), two rare blood and bone marrow diseases, reports that sales of Iclusig totaled $112.5 million last year and $33.3 million last quarter.

Despite being temporarily removed from the market in 2013 because of safety concerns, Iclusig's sales have been growing steadily since its relaunch. Last year, sales increased 102% from 2014, when the drug was allowed back onto the market.

Although Iclusig's growth is impressive, its revenue still failed to offset growing operating expenses. Those costs grew to $336 million in 2015, up from $266 million in 2014, and as a result, Ariad Pharmaceuticals lost $231 million last year.

One reason behind Ariad Pharmaceuticals soaring expenses is brigatinib, a drug its developing for the treatment of ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer, or ALK-NSCLC. In early stage trials, brigatinib delivered a 70% average patient objective response rate, and that has management thinking it may be able to put the drug in front of regulators for approval by the end of this year.

Now what: A risk of dangerous blood clots means that Iclusig use will likely remain limited to higher risk patients, crimping its peak sales potential. While the $112.5 million in sales last year is good, I'm a bit concerned that Iclusig sales annualized out at a $133.2 million pace last quarter. That could indicate that Iclusig's growth is decelerating. That worry is amplified by the fact that full year sales of Iclusig were shy of management's $130 million forecast last summer.

Obviously, a brigatinib approval would give the company a welcome source of new revenue that could accelerate it toward profitability (I'm sure a good deal of the pop in Ariad Pharmaceuticals' share price last month is tied to that potential), but investors may not want to get the proverbial cart too far in front of the horse. After all, cancer drugs can -- and often do -- fizzle out during clinical trials.

Overall, Ariad Pharmaceuticals is projecting Iclusig sales of $190 million this year, but that still won't be enough to cover its expenses. Therefore, given brigatinib success is uncertain and the company already has a market cap of $1.2 billion, I think shares are pretty fully valued here and because of that, investors might want to focus their attention elsewhere until we get more insight on brigatinib's efficacy.

The article Why Ariad Pharmaceuticals Shares Jumped 11.2% In February originally appeared on Fool.com.

Todd Campbell has no position in any stocks mentioned. Todd owns E.B. Capital Markets, LLC. E.B. Capital's clients may have positions in the companies 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.
With less than a week until the winner-take-all primary in the Sunshine State, a super PAC backing Florida Senator Marco Rubio is targeting his Republican rivals. Conservative Solutions PAC released a negative TV ad on Thursday taking aim at Texas Senator Ted Cruz, billionaire businessman Donald Trump and Ohio Governor John Kasich.

The 30-second spot, Closest, makes the case for Rubio as the Republican who exposed Donald Trump as a fraud, and who's closest to beating Trump in Florida. It features a newspaper headline suggesting Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton would crush GOP frontrunner Donald Trump in a general election. A narrator says, In Florida, a vote for Cruz or Kasich is a vote for Trump. Its time to stop Trump and elect a president we'll be proud of. Marco Rubio. Florida, make it happen.

This is the second smear ad with Kasich; On Wednesday the same super PAC launched an ad attacking his record as Ohios governor. The 30-second spot calls out Kasich for expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act and for increasing taxes on a list of items including, cars, laundry, lawns, gyms, Internet and on and on.

The Kasich campaign responded to the ads, with Communications Director Chris Schrimpf telling FOXBusiness.com, "After his attacks against Trump failed, it's sad to see the Rubio team now resort to attacking John Kasich, the one candidate who has run a positive campaign. If history is any guide, these negative ads will backfire and Gov. Kasich will only climb higher in the polls."

The Kasich focused ads are circulating in Florida and Illinois as Rubio faces his biggest make-or-break moment in the Florida primary. Rubio has said he must win in his home state to remain a viable contender for the Republican nomination. At this point Rubio has won one state and delegates in Puerto Rico, placing in third and fourth finishes in most presidential contests. It is the latest sign of trouble for the Rubio campaign, which has been fighting rumors of dropping out ahead of the March 15 primary.

The Basics on John Kasich: More Spending, More Taxes.https://t.co/Pe6z7el8I8  ConservativeSolution (@cspac) March 9, 2016

According to a recent Fox News poll, Trump is in the lead in Florida with 43% support from likely Republican primary voters compared to Rubios distant second with 20%. Cruz has 16% and Kasich comes in fourth with 10%. Trump also leads Rubio 47-22% among the quarter of Florida Republicans who reported already voting. The poll shows 48% of Sunshine State GOP voters approve of Rubios performance as senator, while 38% disapprove.

The final GOP debate before the March 15 primary was scheduled to take place Thursday night in Miami, Florida. Its the last chance for the remaining Republican candidates to appear on a national stage together and make their case to primary voters in Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina.
Women are more apt to be lead authors of research in major medical journals today than they were a generation ago, but they still lag significantly behind men, a recent study suggests.

The gender gap matters because lead authors make key decisions on what topics to research, who to include in studies, which outcomes to examine and how to interpret the data, said lead author of the current study, Giovanni Filardo of Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.

It also matters because early-career researchers depend on publications to advance to more senior positions, meaning the gender gap in medical journals may contribute to a gender disparity in leadership roles at universities and teaching hospitals down the line.

"A lot has been written about the `leaky pipeline' for women in academic medicine," Filardo said by email. "No one seems to have identified any gaping holes - such as an identifiable process excluding women from receiving research funding - that could be relatively easily and quickly fixed with a policy change."

"Rather, the problem seems to be multiple, small, insidious leaks that are hard to pin down precisely for repair and that, at the level encountered by the individual, may seem too small or even petty to be worth drawing attention to," Filardo added.

To explore the gender divide in published work, Filardo and colleagues analyzed authorship over two decades for six prominent journals: Annals of Internal Medicine, The BMJ, JAMA, Archives of Internal Medicine, The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

In 1994, women were lead authors on just 27 percent of articles in these journals, the research team reported in The BMJ.

Some journals published more work led by women than others, the study also found.

The BMJ had the highest total proportion of female first authors, at 39 percent, while the lowest proportion was found in the NEJM, at 24 percent.

While most journals increased female lead authors over time, NEJM actually had a smaller proportion by the end of the study than it did twenty years earlier.

Female lead authors also had better odds of placing non-experimental studies - such as those based on analysis of existing database information - in these prominent journals than they did of placing experimental research.

The proportion of non-experimental studies with female lead authors increased from 31 percent to 40 percent over the study period.

For experimental studies, which might include the gold-standard randomized controlled trial design, female first authors advanced from 20 percent to 35 percent over the study period.

Women were most likely to be lead authors on articles about general medicine, followed by cardiology. They were much less likely to be first authors on studies focused on specialties like infectious disease, cancer or HIV.

While it's hard to say exactly why women may be underrepresented in these journals, it's possible that their lack of representation on editorial boards and as reviewers who critique and select research for publication may play a role. Male reviewers are more likely to publish work by other men, the authors note.

To close the gender gap in lead authorship, journals may need to diversify their editorial staff and to do a better job of addressing unconscious gender bias, Kathryn Rexrode, a researcher at Harvard Medical School and director of the Office for Women's Careers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, noted in an accompanying editorial.

"The influx of women in medicine and science has changed some of the questions that are asked," Rexrode said by email.

Until recently, most clinical research was done in men and lab research was done in male animals, Rexrode noted.

"Women researchers were a large part of the impetus to ask, `but what about women?'" Rexrode added. "This has led to increased research in sex differences, and the `every cell has a sex' campaign - which will hopefully benefit both men and women patients."
Editors note: Dana Perino, co-host of The Five and former White House Press Secretary recently talked with former First Lady Laura Bush about the new book We Are Afghan Women.

DANA PERINO: Mrs. Bush, the new book from the Bush Institute, We Are Afghan Women, has the subtitle "Voices of Hope." In reading through the stories of the women, it is remarkable how much hope they seem to have in the face of so many challenges. In your many interactions with Afghanis, do you find that hope triumphs over their experience, and why so?

FORMER FIRST LADY LAURA BUSH: Every time I have spoken with Afghan women, from the late fall of 2001, through my visits to Afghanistan, and up through today, I have been impressed by their resilience, their bravery, their ability to solve problems, and their desire to build a better country. And for many years, these women were silenced.

When I met with the new First Lady of Afghanistan Mrs. Rula Ghani last year at the Bush Center, she told me her goal: to dare the world to view Afghanistan in a different light. She said the Afghan people, particularly the women, dont want our pity; instead, they want our respect as business owners, doctors, parliamentarians, teachers, and writers. They want the world to recognize their successes and their desire to create lasting, positive change.

As one young Afghan woman says, I have the option to be optimistic or pessimistic and my choice is to be optimistic.

DP: You write in the introduction that 60 percent of the population in Afghanistan is under the age of 25 and they've never known peace. I would imagine that means that they are hungry to learn and need a safe and healthy environment in which to do so. When it comes to effective foreign aid, in Afghanistan and elsewhere, should there be a particular focus on women and children first?

MRS. BUSH: We know from research that when mothers are educated, their children are more likely to be educated and healthy. Education helps freedom thrive. Its very important that we help ensure Afghanistans young democracy advocates are prepared to be tomorrows political and civil society leaders. When you give children books and an education, you give them the ability to imagine a future of opportunity, equality, and justice.

DP: I was touched by many of the anecdotes in the book and have thought of Nasima Rahmani who writes about how important Voice of America was to her when she was able to listen to it. How important is it that the West continue to try to be a part of the daily lives of people around the world, especially where access to a free media may be limited?

MRS. BUSH: Ive heard stories from people in Central Europe and the Soviet bloc, who told me how important Voice of America was during the Cold War. I am grateful that VOA continues to broadcast news all over the world.

When it comes to the women in this book, the opportunity for free expression is the best support we can give to them. They are courageous enough to speak their minds, and by listening, we also have a chance to learn.

And that is why the Bush Institute published We Are Afghan Women. We wanted to shine a spotlight on the successes of Afghan women, and encourage sustained commitment to Afghan women and Afghanistan. We want Afghan women to know that George and I stand with them.

DP: As a former librarian and teacher, your love for books is well known, however, I'm not sure people appreciate how much you understand how stories can help influence thinking and advance an agenda. The stories in the book are beyond compelling -- was that part of your thinking when you embraced the project on behalf of the George W. Bush Institute, to make the problem more tangible through their own voices?

MRS. BUSH: Absolutely. They are Afghan stories, but they are also universal stories. Many women will recognize their own struggles against discrimination in education or in the workplace. We see women who confront domestic abuse and violence, serious and devastating problems not only in Afghanistan but here at home in the United States. We find inspiration in the stories of women who stood up to the naysayers who told them their business ideas would fail, and the women who would not accept problems but solved them. We share in the desire that Afghan mothers and fathers have for their own children to lead better lives.

DP: We Are Afghan Women comes at an important time as America makes decisions on how long we should keep troops in the country and how much support we should provide. Resources are scarce, but in your experience, have you seen that investing in women in a country like Afghanistan can have immediate and larger pay-off?

MRS. BUSH: Yes, of course. George and I believe that women are the catalysts of change. I launched the American University of Afghanistan on my trip to Afghanistan in 2005. When the doors opened in 2006, there were 52 men and one woman enrolled. Last year, I was presented with an honorary degree by the 2014 valedictorian of AUAF, a woman from Kabul named Onaba Payab. Onaba now works to promote education and economic rights for all Afghan women and is pursuing a masters degree in public health. Her story proves that investments in the success of women are investments that pay off. And we know the inclusion of women in all aspects of society strengthens and improves the stability of their countries.

We all can promote a better future for Afghanistan. We need to ensure that Afghanistan does not become a terrorist haven or fall to the Taliban or ISIS. To do that, we need to continue to assist Afghan security forces, and I welcome President Obamas decision to maintain a US military presence through 2016 and beyond.

We must never forget that what happens in Afghanistan  and elsewhere in the world  matters to us here at home.
The images are horrific. Who can forget the video of masked Islamic jihadists on a beach beheading Christians -- executing them on-camera for the world to see?

And while there has been condemnation of the massacre of Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East, theres an important step the Obama administration must take to address this ongoing tragedy that has resulted in the slaughter or displacement of nearly one million Christians.

Words matter. And how we describe these atrocities is critical. Sure, these acts are barbaric, horrendous, and even monstrous.

But theres one word the Obama administration will not use to describe these atrocities. The White House  as well as the State Department  refuses to call these acts genocide.

The United Nations (UN) Genocide Convention defines genocide as acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. That is certainly what is happening to Christians being executed by ISIS  the Islamic State  around the world.

But the word genocide carries with it important legal ramifications, too. Genocide violates international law and such a designation is necessary to activate certain legal requirements of the UN Genocide Convention that would force President Obama to protect Christians.

In short, all President Obamas talk about the slaughter of Christians doesnt require action. Labeling these heinous atrocities against Christians as genocide legally requires action. Dying Christians dont need more talk; they need action.

In a letter to Secretary of State Kerry, the American Center for Law and Justice outlined in-depth the legal arguments explaining why the United States, the U.N., and the rest of the international community must recognize this as genocide and act accordingly to stop it.

We have been working in the international community and here at home to underscore the importance of this official genocide designation.

We have filed legal documents with the U.N. and on Friday we will be presenting key oral statements there. We filed an amicus brief, including testimony from survivors of ISIS genocide, with the European Court of Human Rights. And we have seen positive results.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament has declared that ISIS is committing genocide against Christians.

Here at home, members of Congress understand whats at stake. The House Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously approved a bipartisan resolution last week that would officially label what ISIS is doing to Christians as genocide.

The resolution expresses the sense of Congress that all governments, including the United States  should call ISIL atrocities by their rightful names: war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

Many Americans understand the importance of acting now. In fact, weve heard from nearly 215,000 people urging the Obama administration to label the Middle East atrocities genocide.

However, the Obama administration refuses to act  refuses to embrace that language.

The White House continues to say that no determination has yet been reached with respect to labelling the ongoing massacre as genocide.

And Secretary Kerry continues to waffle. He recently told the House Appropriations Subcommittee that he is still reviewing the issue saying there must be additional evaluation done before a decision is made about using the designation.

Secretary Kerry, what are you waiting for? You have the facts. You see the carnage. Why is the Obama administration dragging its feet on this issue?

Some believe it goes directly to administrations philosophy and repeated refusal to identify the enemy as radical Islamic terrorism.

Consider this important exchange as reported by NBC News from that same recent Congressional hearing:

"The whole world knows Christians are being slaughtered in the Middle East," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican and frequent critic of the Obama Administration. Rohrabacher also was not satisfied when Kerry said the greatest threat to the U.S. is "violent extremism, radical religious extremism." When Rohrabacher asked Kerry why he didn't use the words "radical Islamic terrorism," Kerry quickly answered: "It is predominantly Islamic and I have no hesitation in saying that."

Heres what we know. As long as the Obama administration refuses to recognize the slaughter of Christians for what it is  genocide  the sad truth is that the United States is not doing everything in its power to protect the persecuted.

That must change. With the Obama administration facing a March 17th deadline for determining whether it will use the label, its time to send a powerful message to the president right now:

Mr. President, words matter. Call the ongoing massacre of Christians what it is  genocide  so the United States and the global community can provide them the vital legal protections they deserve.
Donald Trump could bring a welcome pragmatism to American foreign policy and something we have not seen in some timeprospects for genuine success.

He has yet to assemble an organized team of advisers. Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions is the only figure counseling Trump well known to the public and from the elite circles of foreign policy experts. His campaign website lacks a comprehensive statement of goals for foreign relations and the use of American power.

However, Trump's proposals on China and illegal immigration -- which closely parallel Mitt Romneys 2008 platform -- and positions toward Russia and the Middle East add up to a more coherent realism than has characterized the generally frustrated policies of President Obama.

President Clinton agreed to Chinas membership in the World Trade Organization in exchange for an agreement to open its markets to U.S. exports and investment.

That proved a terrible deal. Beijing still maintains much higher tariffs on U.S. products than are imposed on Chinese products here, subsidizes manufacturing by endlessly rolling over loans on money-losing state enterprises, and suppresses the value of the yuan to keep its exports cheap and American goods expensive in China.

American consumers enjoy artificially-inexpensive coffee makers at Wal-Mart but at a terrible hidden cost. Free trade destroys jobs when it admits additional imports but its supposed to create new jobs through the sale of more American goods and services abroad. With China that exchange has hardly balanced.

During Obamas tenure, the trade deficit with China has increased by about $100 billion. And it costs American workers some 800 thousand jobs directlyand more than 1.2 million jobs counting in those lost from those workers not spending lost wages domestically.

Trumps proposed tariff on imports to force China to revalue its currency and renegotiate its trade practices is hardly reckless. Similar measures have been proposed by liberal New York Times columnist Paul Krugman.

Illegal immigration at our southern border has vexed American presidents for generations, but the Mexican government has generally refused to cooperate in stemming that flow.

It is not acceptable to say in polite circles, even though absolutely true, that Mexico has one of the most corrupt governments among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Developmentthe club of western industrialized countries.

The weight of graft keeps Mexico from providing citizens with adequate social services, clean drinking water and air, and decent wages driving them north in search of a better life. In turn, many Mexicans working here send sizeable remittances to relatives back home and that helps prop up a wanton regime.

As an advocate of NAFTA when proposed, like others, I hoped that a more open commercial relationship with the United States would propel reforms but that has failed.

Trump cant force Mexico City to build a wall along the border but by taxing remittances, Washington can pressure it to start cleaning up its filthy regime and genuinely cooperate in border control.

President Putin is asserting Russian power in Eastern Europe and the Middle East by among other things supporting Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad

American options for dealing with Russia and ISIS are limited by twin realities. Led by Germany, Europeans are unwilling to put ground troops into harms way to help defend Eastern European freedom or combat ISIS. The American public, without such a European commitment, will surely not countenance American expeditionary forces to push Russia out of the Ukraine or to destroy ISIS.

The next best option is one chosen by President Truman when faced by Stalin at the end of World War IIaccept a deal with Russiaand no matter how distasteful, and keep Assad as a counterweight to ISIS.

Dealing with the world as we find it, not as we wish it would be, is hardly the inclination of a fool.

Its the stuff of successful statecraft.
The Michigan primary results on Tuesday signal a quantum shift in GOP voter attitudes on free trade policies that have served corporate crony agendas leaving the American people behind.

Thats not just analysis, it is fact based upon a just released Americans for Limited Government survey conducted by independent pollster Patrick Caddell. The stunning results of the Caddell study showed that GOP voters reject the global trade agenda at an even higher rate than Democrat voters, throwing conventional wisdom on its ear.

The ramifications for President Obamas ill-conceived Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) could not be more ominous. When asked in an informed question about whether the TPP should be passed in a lame duck Congress, Republican voters oppose it by a 66 to 15 margin, far outstripping Democrat or Independent opposition.

This represents a quantum shift in anticipated political party attitudes on an issue where Republican members of Congress could be counted upon to salute in almost lock-step in favor of any legislation labeled free trade.

The conversion point for Republican voters comes from a strong sense that the system is rigged against them in favor of the corporate cronies who manipulate the law to benefit themselves at the expense of everyone else.

Caddell found that GOP voters view the results of the free trade agreements over the past two decades serve as the primary indictment against any new agreement with a 59 percent saying that previous deals were more of a benefit to other countries, and a startlingly low 4 percent agreeing that free trade deals have been more of a benefit to the U.S. and only 14 percent who said they were equally beneficial to all.

The economic facts over the past two decades bear out GOP voters dismissal of the notion that trade deals help the United States. The year 2000 was the last year that the U.S. economy grew at 4 percent or above, and not coincidentally, the same year the U.S. granted China permanent normal trade relations.

What makes the current skepticism even more acute is the fact that the U.S. economy has not even grown at a 3 percent level since 2005, and the past ten years have had the worst level of GDP growth since the Great Depression as labor participation among working age adults has collapsed.

When asked in an informed question about whether Congress should pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership in a lame duck session as has been proposed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, GOP voters answer with a resounding no, opposing passage of the deal by a 66 to 15 percent margin.

Republican power brokers, consultants and elites have been confounded by the utter rejection of every presidential candidate who has chosen to take on their mantle in this election season with Marco Rubios last place finishes in both Michigan and Mississippi providing the latest evidence. Caddell finds that GOP voters flat out dont trust their leaders to look out for the national or their own individual interests with 85 percent agreeing with the statement that, political leaders are more interested in protecting their power and privilege than doing what is right for the American people.

This stark wake-up call for GOP leadership is devastating, but it is survivable if they are willing to take stands that demonstrate that they are fighting to restore America.

In this regard, the GOP Senates decision to stand firm against allowing President Obama to fundamentally change the make-up of the Supreme Court rather than relying upon a vote of the people to make that decision is a great first step.

Every Republican candidate for President and Congress, should forcefully reject the notion of passing Obamas Trans-Pacific Partnership with a particular disdain for bringing it up in a lame duck when many of their colleagues will be looking for their next jobs rather than looking out for the interests of the American people.

By rejecting the status quo trade agenda of the D.C. elites, Congress will show the independence that their political base is looking for, reconnecting by taking a stand against those who are pulling the strings with no regard for the plight of Americans or America itself.

It is no secret that Republican voters are in outright revolt, they are tired of their prosperity being traded away and their childrens futures being diminished as our nations wealth gets transferred around the world to benefit corporate cronies with the pull to gain favor, and nations that dont like us very much.

They have caught on to the big lie that these trade agreements benefit them or America, and now it is time for GOP leaders to follow them and reject the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the latest in a long line of bad trade deals.
Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders staked their ground Wednesday night in Florida as both vowing not to deport children and illegal immigrants with a clean criminal record.

Their comments set up a showdown with Republican candidates Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who both have vowed to clamp down on illegal immigrants in the country.

Trump and Cruz, along with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich will get their opportunity to address the thorny topic Thursday when they debate in the Sunshine State.

Clinton and Sanders squared off in their eighth debate Wednesday night held at Miami Dade College in Florida. The Univision/CNN debate is the final one scheduled this month between the candidates in the running for the 2016 Democratic nomination.

During the debate, both Clinton and Sanders vowed to push for immigration reform if elected president.

The essence of what we are trying to do is to unite families, not to divide families, Sanders said.

Clinton says she will extend President Obamas executive orders shielding some illegal immigrants from deportation.

Clinton called the New York businessman un-American and said he traffics in prejudice and paranoia.

You dont make America great again by getting rid of everything that made America great, Clinton said, referencing Trumps campaign slogan.

Sanders said voters would never elect a candidate like Trump.

Clinton also slammed Trumps plan to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.

As I understand, hes talking about a tall wall. A beautiful, tall wall, Clinton said, adding that Trumps plan to keep out immigrants and his claim hell get Mexico to pay for it is a fantasy.

Clinton then turned her sights on Sanders, accusing him of supporting legislation that would have led to indefinite detention of people facing deportation, and for standing with Minutemen vigilantes.

Sanders refuted the notion, which he called "ridiculous" and "absurd," and accused Clinton of picking small pieces out of big legislative packages to distort his voting record.

"No, I do not support vigilantes and that is a horrific statement and an unfair statement to make," he said, adding: "I will match my record against yours any day of the week."

Clinton also dodged early debate questions about ongoing investigations into her use of a private email server when she was secretary of state. When debate moderator Jorge Ramos of Univision asked her if she would drop out of the race if indicted over the handling of her email while secretary of state she replied,"Oh for goodness sake, that is not going to happen. I'm not even answering that question."

The FBI is investigation the possibility of mishandling of sensitive information that passed through Clinton's private email server.

Sanders, as he has in the past, declined to bite on the issue, saying, "The process will take its course." He said he'd rather talk about the issues of wealth and income inequality.

Clinton also defended her role in the deadly 2012 attack on the American mission in Benghazi, Libya.

She said Wednesday that her shifting explanations for the crisis in the early hours were because of changing dynamics and new information.

Clinton also said the investigation has been politicized by Republicans seeking to score points against her campaign.

"This was fog of war," she said, saying that she regrets the lives lost in the crisis.

She added: "I wish there could be an easy answer at the time but we learned a lot."

Sanders came into Wednesday nights debate after a surprise primary win in Michigan Tuesday, where he had been trailing by more than 20 points in the polls.

Clinton vowed to keep fighting Wednesday, saying, It was a very close race. Ive won some and Ive lost some.

Sanders campaign officials made the case Tuesday night that the Vermont senators attacks on Clintons support for free trade deals had an impact in the Michigan race, and likely will be effective in upcoming contests in Ohio, Illinois and Missouri.

The Sanders camp maintains Clintons advantage in the South will go away after next Tuesday, as rural voters in other states take a closer look at their candidate.

Clinton, though she maintains a healthy lead overall, needs Floridas 99 delegates up for grabs March 15 to help clinch the nomination.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Fox News contributor Mara Liasson told viewers Wednesday on Special Report with Bret Baier that Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders' victory in Tuesdays Michigan primary sent a clear message to challenger Hillary Clinton about her viability in key states in the general election.

Sanders now says, look I'm winning in the states that are actually battleground states in the fall, she's winning in red states that don't really matter, you know, in the general election. So, he has...that was a huge, huge thing that happened last night, Liasson, a National Public Radio national political correspondent, said.

Sanders pulled off an upset in Michigan, winning by a slim margin, 49.8 percent to Clintons 48.3 percent.

Liasson noted that was not expected, wasn't even expected by Bernie Sanders, he looked as stunned as anybody else did, adding that Sanders victory in a state like Michigan could have much larger implications for Clinton later on, should she secure the nomination.

"He won in a state where the Democratic primary electorate resembles the national electorate much more than in South Carolina or Mississippi," Liasson said, pointing to two of Clinton's recent victories.

And the question this raises is, if she can get beat by a Democratic populist in Michigan in March, why can't she get beat by a Republican populist in Michigan in November?"
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump pushed back Wednesday night against what appears to be a growing movement among the party establishment  including a few of his former rivals  to at least slow down his march to the convention with enough delegates in hand to claim the nomination.

Speaking with Sean Hannity on a special Fox News town hall, Trump accused GOP lawmakers opposed to his campaign of "taking advantage of our country."



The billionaire businessman called his campaign a movement "of competence and common sense and low taxes and [secure] borders and it would be so foolish to give it away."

Trump was referring to a conference held by the conservative American Enterprise Institute at Sea Island off the coast of Georgia over the weekend, where one of the topics reportedly was stopping Trump from securing the Republican nomination.

The conference reportedly was attended by Senate Majority Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan and other key Republican congressmen.

"I know all these people," Trump told Hannity. "These are people that are taking advantage of our country. They dont want to have strong borders. They want stuff flowing across the borders. They dont want to have taxation when countries treat us unfairly because they benefit from that."

"Politicians will do whats right for the people that gave them the money," Trump added later, "not what's right for the country."

Former GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush also planned to meet with Trump's rivals on Thursday ahead of a GOP debate in Florida, fueling speculation that he's preparing to endorse a candidate challenging Trump.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, meanwhile, told Fox News that he would not drop out of the Republican presidential race before next week's Florida primary, saying, "we're gonna fight this thing through Tuesday ... and we're going to go on."

Rubio denied multiple reports that he had discussed the possibility of dropping out before the winner-take-all contest.

Speaking with Fox News Megyn Kelly, Rubio said: "I have never discussed dropping out with anyone on my team, or anyone on the planet Earth ... I'm the only one who can beat Donald Trump in Florida.

A Fox News poll released Wednesday showed Rubio trailing Trump by 23 percentage points among likely Republican voters in Florida.

"I honestly dont believe Donald Trump will be the nominee," Rubio said. "I continue to believe it's going to be me, and it's got to start here in Florida."

Rubio also dismissed the possibility that he would form a so-called "unity" Republican ticket with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Trump's closest challenger in the delegate race, calling it " the kind of drama that makes it interesting in TV to speculate about."

"At some point we're all going to team up," Rubio said in reference to the non-Trump candidates. "We're all going to be on the same team, I hope.

Cruz told Kelly that Rubio and Kasich were "good, honorable people, but neither of them has a path to the nomination."

"Head-to-head, not only do I beat Donald Trump," Cruz said, "but I defeat him resoundingly."

Cruz also walked back his earlier opposition to a possible convention fight between himself and Trump if neither man reaches the required 1,237 delegates during the primaries.

"Look, [Ronald] Reagan and [President Gerald] Ford battled it out at a contested convention [in 1976]," Cruz said. "That's what conventions are for." However, Cruz restated his opposition to a so-called brokered convention, calling it "a fever dream of the D.C. establishment" and warning of "an open revolt" among Republican voters if it came to pass.

Cruz later turned his rhetorical fire against Trump and Rubio over immigration reform and the so-called "Gang of Eight" bill in 2013.

"When Marco Rubio stood with Barack Obama and [Sen.] Chuck Schumer and [then-Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid ... I stood with millions of Americans," Cruz told Kelly. "Not only was Donald Trump nowhere to be found, he was funding the Gang of Eight. He gave $50,000 to five of its members."

Cruz also accused Rubio of lowering the tone of the campaign, saying, "I have no views whatsoever on any part of Donald Trumps anatomy," an apparent reference to Rubio jabbing Trump's "small hands" at a Virginia campaign stop.

For his part, Rubio told Megyn Kelly that he regretted the remark, saying "my kids were embarrassed by it, my wife didnt like it, I dont think it reflects [well]; thats not who I am."

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who has staked his campaign's future on victory in next Tuesday's Ohio primary, told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren that he would "probably not" pick up enough delegates in other contests to overtake Trump, but noted that voters had only "picked about half the delegates [so far] this year ... anything is possible."

A Fox News poll released Wednesday showed Kasich leading Trump by five percentage points among likely Republican voters in the Buckeye State.

"We're going to win Ohio," Kasich told Van Susteren. "That's not even a question for me. It's about what we do after that and all the places we have to go. But we're not taking it for granted."

Trump has 458 delegates to Cruz's 359 following Tuesday's contests, in which Trump won the Mississippi and Michigan primaries as well as the Hawaii caucus. Cruz also picked up a win in the Idaho primary. Rubio is a distant third with 151 delegates, while Kasich has 54.
Ted Cruz said in an interview ahead of next weeks critical primaries that Donald Trumps supporters have relatively low information and are not that engaged  an oblique dig at the very voters Cruz is aggressively courting.

The Texas senator, though, said in the interview with CBN News that hes winning over these voters as they inform themselves and learn more about Trumps record. Explaining his comments, he referred to Trumps past remarks about the poorly educated supporting him.

Donald does well with voters who have relatively low information, who are not that engaged and who are angry and they see him as an angry voice, Cruz told CBN. Where we are beating him is when voters get more engaged and they get more informed. When they inform themselves, they realize his record. Hes what theyre angry at. He is the corruption, and if you want someone to stand up to Washington, the only one who has been doing so in this race is me.

Donald does well with voters who have relatively low information, who are not that engaged and who are angry and they see him as an angry voice.  GOP presidential contender Ted Cruz

Cruz also said Trump is taking advantage of his voters  which is roughly the same charge the GOP front-runner leveled at his Republican detractors during a Fox News town hall Wednesday night.

At the forum, Trump pushed back against what appears to be a growing movement among the party establishment  including a few of his former rivals  to at least slow march to the convention with enough delegates in hand to claim the nomination.

The billionaire businessman called his campaign a movement "of competence and common sense and low taxes and [secure] borders and it would be so foolish to give it away."

Trump was referring to a conference held by the conservative American Enterprise Institute at Sea Island off the coast of Georgia over the weekend, where one of the topics reportedly was stopping Trump from securing the Republican nomination.

The conference reportedly was attended by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan and other key Republican congressmen.

"I know all these people," Trump told Fox News Sean Hannity. "These are people that are taking advantage of our country. They dont want to have strong borders. They want stuff flowing across the borders. They dont want to have taxation when countries treat us unfairly because they benefit from that."

Cruzs comments about Trumps supporters comes ahead of another Republican debate Thursday night in Florida, the site of one of five big primaries next Tuesday. The stakes are higher than ever, as those five primaries could decide the fate of Trumps remaining rivals.

As Trump builds his delegate lead over the field following a string of wins earlier this week, Cruz is positioning himself as the one candidate who could actually beat Trump in the end  citing several primary and caucus victories, most recently in Idaho.

He was buoyed Wednesday by the endorsement of former candidate Carly Fiorina. And, speaking with Fox News Megyn Kelly, he said the other two candidates in the race  Marco Rubio and John Kasich  do not have a path to the nomination.

"Head-to-head, not only do I beat Donald Trump," Cruz said, "but I defeat him resoundingly."

Rubio is under tremendous pressure to win Florida next week, his home state. But a Fox News poll released Wednesday showed Rubio trailing Trump by 23 percentage points among likely Republican voters in Florida.

Rubio, though, told Kelly he has no intention of dropping out right now.

"I have never discussed dropping out with anyone on my team, or anyone on the planet Earth ... I'm the only one who can beat Donald Trump in Florida, he said.

Rubio also dismissed the possibility that he would form a so-called "unity" Republican ticket with Cruz, Trump's closest challenger in the delegate race, calling it " the kind of drama that makes it interesting in TV to speculate about."

"At some point we're all going to team up," Rubio said in reference to the non-Trump candidates. "We're all going to be on the same team, I hope.

Former GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush also planned to meet with Trump's rivals on Thursday ahead of the GOP debate in Florida, fueling speculation that he's preparing to endorse a candidate challenging Trump.

Ohio Gov. Kasich, meanwhile, is vowing to win his home state next week. He told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren that he would "probably not" pick up enough delegates in other contests to overtake Trump, but noted that voters had only "picked about half the delegates [so far] this year ... anything is possible."

A Fox News poll released Wednesday showed Kasich leading Trump by five percentage points among likely Republican voters in the Buckeye State.
EXCLUSIVE: The dozen failed ObamaCare cooperatives have not repaid any of the $1.2 billion in federal loans they received and still owe more than $1 billion in additional liabilities, according to recent financial statements cited Thursday at a congressional hearing.

We shouldnt hold our breath on repayment, Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said in his opening statement at the hearing.

In some states, these losses will be absorbed by other insurance companieswhich means, by the policyholders of other insurance companies who have to pay increased  premiums, he said. In other states, doctors, hospitals and individual patients stand to suffer large out-of-pocket losses due to the co-op failuresas our report details.

Portmans statement, first obtained by Fox News, refers to an investigation by the committees majority staff.

It claims the most recent balance sheets provided to the subcommittee show the failed cooperatives owe more than $700 million to doctors and hospitals for plan year 2015.

The failed cooperatives lost $376 million and exceeded the projected worst-case-scenario losses outlined in their loan applications by more than $260 million in 2014. They lost an additional billion dollars in 2015, according to the report.

Once the co-ops got going in 2014, things went south in a hurryboth in terms of financial losses and enrollment figures that wildly deviated from the co-ops own projections, Portman said. Despite getting regular reports that the co-ops were hemorrhaging cash, HHS [the Department of Health and Human Services] took essentially no corrective action for over a year.

Deloitte Consulting initially granted the cooperatives a passing grade based on an HHS-designed grading scale. However it added seven of the 12 had serious deficiencies in their enrollment strategy, according to the report. Others submitted budgets that were incomplete, unreasonable, not cost-effective and several relied on unreasonable projections about their own growth.

The report cited in Portmans statement also claims that from 20142015, the administration lent an additional $848 million to the failed cooperatives, as they lost more than $1.4 billion.

In previous testimony, administration officials have told congressional panels that the administration scrutinized cooperative business plans and then placed them on corrective oversight when necessary.

In 2015 we conducted 27 financial and operational reviews, 16 in-person visits, and had 43 formal communications, Andy Slavitt, the acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, told the Senate Finance Committee earlier this year. Not to mention hundreds of phone calls. And we've kept the states up to speed on every important interaction to help inform their regulatory actions.

When questioned how much money the government could salvage from the failed cooperatives, officials said they were only beginning to determine amounts.

We are in the process of recouping that loan money right now, said Dr. Mandy Cohen, the chief operating officer and chief of staff of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, last month to a House panel. Well look at their excess revenue and then use all the tools available to us through their loan agreements and state and federal law to pull back federal tax dollars.

ObamaCare provided $2.4 billion in federal loans to establish 23 non-profit cooperatives. A dozen failed and the administration has required eight of the remaining eleven to adhere to a corrective action plan designed to fix business flaws and prevent additional failures. The closed cooperatives account for $1.2 billion in federal loans.

Defenders of the law and cooperatives say these non-profit insurers operated in difficult markets and that it often takes years of financial commitment to build a viable business.

The failed cooperatives left hundreds of thousands of customers searching for a new insurance company. In some states, the loss was significant.

HHS gave the New York co-op $90 million to prolong its financial life, rather than allow it to scale down, that co-op went on to lose another $544 million in 2015, according to Portmans statement, citing his staffs report.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner in the Democratic presidential delegate count, pledged she would address the market void left by the failed cooperatives.

We need to get more companies, more nonprofits, to fill this space. The ones that knew what they were doing have provided good services, but a lot of them have failed because they didn't have the right support, she said Monday at a Democratic presidential forum hosted by Fox News.

Even in those markets where those co-ops had previously operated, we have seen a commitment on the part of those who are administering the markets to try to facilitate greater competition, said White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest. And creating the co-ops was just one way to do that, but we certainly are going to be open to other ways to encourage other entities, private or public, to get engaged in this process.

When previously questioned by Congress, administration officials declined to forecast how many of the remaining cooperatives would survive this year.

The co-ops themselves are really the ones who are going to be the ones to determine whether or not they ultimately will be successful, said Cohen. They have a lot of work to do to rapidly mature their entities, their small businesses as you know and theyre still getting their foothold on this business.
Lunch used to be a thing for lawmakers in Washington.

You could cab downtown to The Palm for a power lunch of steak au poivre and fried onions. Slide out the side door of the Dirksen Senate Office Building and across the parking lot to the legendary Monocle for braised lamb chops.

But sometimes, if youre a Republican senator, its simpler to just grab a bite with your GOP colleagues in the Mike Mansfield Room of the Capitol.

Yet even this is becoming a complicated media event thanks to the unpredictable presidential primary battle -- as reporters these days camp out in the Senate subway station, firing off a battery of questions to lunch-driven lawmakers about the apparent doom which supposedly looms for the Republican Party this year.

Donald Trump this. Ted Cruz that. Marco Rubio. Did someone say Kasich?

Major primaries in Ohio and Florida are on the horizon next week. The results could set the table for this campaign cycle. The House of Representatives isnt in session this week. So every reporter in Washington worth their byline made a beeline for the Capitol to query senators about the presidential race.

The hand-operated train which runs to the Russell Senate Office Building pulls in. Sens. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and John McCain, R-Ariz., pile out. Reporters flock to McCain. Both are up for re-election this year. Burr, despite representing a swing state, somehow escapes the crew and hoofs it upstairs to the weekly GOP luncheon, practically incognito.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.  often a target for a press gaggle on intelligence and firearm issues  walks by with barely a notice.

Democrats arent important this week. Only Republicans.

This weeks reporter scrums in the Senate subway station were intense.

Some are starting to suggest that Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, may be the only person who can short-circuit Donald Trump en route to the Republican nomination. And yet not a single GOP senator has endorsed their colleague. That phenomenon is practically unheard of in American politics.

There was a rumor four senators were going to endorse Ted Cruz, said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. But that rumor was unfounded.

Four senators. Zero senators. It doesnt seem to matter much. Republican senators dont like Ted Cruz  even if some grudgingly concede he may be the only person capable of defeating Trump. And not everyone is sure Cruz is better than Trump.

Collins believes Cruz needs a Dale Carnegie course.

Im not sure Ted has developed relationships in the Senate, said Collins. Some of his rhetoric toward the Republican leader has not been conducive.

Last summer, Cruz raged on the floor about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., trade policy and an effort to renew the controversial Export-Import Bank.

I cannot believe that [McConnell] would tell a flat-out lie, steamed Cruz. We now know that when the majority leader looks us in the eyes and makes an explicit commitment that he is willing to say things that he knows are false.

Some Republicans  especially those in leadership or tenuous political positions  tried to take the high road with Cruz.

Teds a smart guy, said Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Thune, R-S.D. His tenure in the Senate has been him trying to be a disruptor.

And it was that disruption which seems to have turned off many of his Senate colleagues.

He was leading the government shutdown, said Collins. It was a disaster in every way.

Expectations were created that somehow we could win, echoed Thune of the shutdown.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., faced a competitive primary a few weeks ago. Republicans pumped significant monetary and human resources into the state at the end to close the deal for Shelby. Colleague Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., is the only senator to endorse Donald Trump. Shelby wasnt in much of a mood to talk shop Tuesday when a mob of reporters waited for him to disembark from the Senate trolley.

Im going to lunch right now, said Shelby brusquely brushing past the throng.

Things were almost as hectic on Wednesday as senators cruised past reporters from the subway station en route to a midday procedural vote. Only, there was no formal lunch planned this time. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., is also a vulnerable GOPer this cycle who hails from a swing state. But Johnson didnt feel accosted by reporters as he walked to one of the subways.

Im happy to answer questions, said Johnson. Or not answer, as the case may be.

He chuckled.

Would Trump or Cruz take a pragmatic approach to governing?

Im praying, replied Johnson.

Perhaps that means senators should say grace before lunch  regardless of where they decide to eat.

Capitol Attitude is a weekly column written by members of the Fox News Capitol Hill team. Their articles take you inside the halls of Congress, and cover the spectrum of policy issues being introduced, debated and voted on there.
If a bill passed by the Mississippi House becomes law, students wont be the only ones receiving grades from teachers.

Under House Bill 4, also known as the Parent Involvement and Accountability Act, teachers would be required to grade parents involvement with their childrens education.

The legislation, by state Rep. Gregory Holloway (D-Hazlehurst), would mandate a section be added to each childs report card on which the parents are graded on their responsiveness to communication with teachers, the students completion of homework and readiness for tests, and the frequency of absences and tardiness.

Mary Clare Reim, research associate on education at the Heritage Foundation, said the bill is the wrong way to encourage more parental involvement.

My initial reaction is, this is absurd, Reim said. The concept that parents should be graded by teachers on their involvement is a reversal of what the education system should look like. Parents should be grading teachers on their performance. Putting grades on parental involvement from the top down is not the way this should work.

Click for more from Watchdog.org.
Holding a bloody shirt he carries with him to remember the Islamic State's crimes against Iraqi Christians, Douglas Bazi described for a Washington audience Thursday how he's suffered at ISIS' hands: He was kidnapped, had his teeth bashed in with a hammer and watched as his church was bombed.

There is not life in Iraq, Bazi said, noting his congregation has been targeted so often it is called the church of the martyrs, or the church of the blood.

Bazi joined Middle Eastern Christian leaders and human rights advocates from the Knights of Columbus on Thursday as the group, along with In Defense of Christians (IDC), released a powerful and comprehensive report they say makes the case that the terror campaign against Christians and other minorities in Syria, Iraq and other parts of the Middle East can only be called one thing: genocide.

The report, along with the personal accounts conveyed at the National Press Club in Washington on Thursday, put even more pressure on the Obama administration to officially label the atrocities as genocide.

The State Department and White House so far have not done so, but are facing a congressionally mandated March 17 deadline to make a decision.

We are forgotten, and we are alone, Bazi, a former ISIS hostage and now a priest at an Irbil refugee camp, lamented.



Bazi was joined by Irbil-based Dankha Joola, who pointed out that of the 2 million Christians who lived in Iraq before the war, fewer than 300,000 reside there today -- many victims of killings and kidnappings, others forced to leave their homes by radicals, Al Qaeda, and now ISIS.

Carl Anderson, head of the Knights of Columbus, which produced the 278-page document with IDC, hopes this report will help advance their cause.

"The evidence contained in this report as well as the evidence relied upon by the European Parliament fully support -- I would suggest compel -- the conclusion that reasonable grounds exist to believe the crime of genocide has been committed," Anderson said.

The report lists 1,131 Iraqi Christians killed between 2003 and June 9, 2014, including where they were killed and when. It also incorporates 24 pages of witness statements collected between February and March of this year, and nearly 200 documented attacks -- including destruction of property, sexual assaults, enslavement, torture, imprisonment and killing -- in Iraq, Syria and North Africa. Also included is a documenting of attacks on 125 Iraqi churches from 2003 to 2014.

The report also features a legal brief arguing that the crimes committed rise to the level of the Genocide Convention Implementation Act of 1987, and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

The European Parliament in February already declared that genocide is taking place in the Middle East against Christians, Yazidis and other ethnic and religious minorities at the hands of the Islamic State.

"While we believe this to be the most comprehensive report on this subject to date, covering incidents in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Yemen, we continue to receive new reports and new evidence," Anderson said Thursday. But with new reports pouring in every day, he cautioned: "It may only be the tip of the iceberg."

There have been widespread reports of crucifixions, beheadings and kidnappings, with women and girls forced into marriages with ISIS fighters, or sold into sexual slavery. In Syria, Christians once accounted for 10 percent of the population, but today their numbers have declined to an estimated 1 million or less. Last summer, ISIS kidnapped nearly 300 Christians from Syrian villages and later ransomed them back for $100,000 per person. The money was raised by the Assyrian Christian diaspora.

On March 4, gunmen stormed a Catholic retirement home in Yemen and gunned down 16 people, including four Indian nuns affiliated with the order established by Mother Teresa. According to reports, the city of Aden where the attack occured has seen its Christian population flee.

While groups like the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic organization, press the administration to make the genocide designation, Congress is applying similar pressure.

There are bills with strong bipartisan support in both the House and Senate expressing the sense of Congress that those who commit or support violence against Christians and other ethnic minorities including Yazidis, Turkmen and Kurds for ethnic or religious reasons are committing genocide.

When pressed, Secretary of State John Kerry said in a recent House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing that you have to get facts from the ground, more than just anecdotal.

The Knights of Columbus say they were asked to conduct Thursdays report by David Saperstein, ambassador at-large for religious freedom at the State Department, to give the administration the evidence on the ground, and hopes it will clarify matters in Foggy Bottom.

When asked on March 1 why the administration has yet to make the determination, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the word genocide involves a very specific legal determination that has, at this point, not been reached.

Advocates say this report proves the legal thresholds have been met, and then some.

We think the legal question is met and I would reiterate that what is required by the statute is a finding of probable cause, which is not beyond a shadow of a doubt, it that there are reasonable grounds to believe that this crime has occurred and is occurring, said Anderson, and I think the facts in this report establish, compellingly, that there are reasonable grounds to believe this crime is being committed.

The State Department did not return a request for comment, though administration officials have said they recognize and will work to address the violence against Christians and other groups regardless of the words used to describe it.

At least three presidential cadidates -- Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz on the Republican side, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side -- have called on the administration to designate this as a 'genocide.'
Sen. Ted Cruz picked up his first Senate endorsement Thursday from Sen. Mike Lee of Utah.

Its time to elect Ted Cruz as the next president of the United States, Lee said at a press conference in Coral Gables, Fla.

Republican front-runner Donald Trump has been on Cruzs case for not being able to net support from his colleagues in Congress.

Lees endorsement also hits Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who has been friendly with Lee.

Rubio is trailing both Cruz and Trump in the polls as they each seek the 2016 GOP nomination.

When asked by a reporter if Rubio should get out of the race, Lee said if Rubio were to ask him, he would encourage Rubio to do so.

The comment puts even more pressure on Rubio to pull out following poor showings in last weeks primaries.

During an interview with Fox News Megyn Kelly on Wednesday, Rubio vowed to stay in the race, adding that he will continue fighting and even predicted that he would win his home state of Florida on March 15.

Lee, a former Constitutional lawyer, is among one of the most conservative senators in Congress.

While this is Cruzs first Senate endorsement, he has already accrued more than 22 congressional endorsements including those from Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., Rep. Mark Stanford, R-S.C., and Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas.
Photographers turned out in force to capture views of the spectacular total solar eclipse visible from Indonesia and across Southeast Asia Wednesday  and their varied, beautiful images show the many faces of that celestial event. Here's a sampling of the amazing solar eclipse snapshots we found in our mail today.

NASA tracked the solar eclipse from Micronesia, capturing stunning video of the moon blocking the sun, and many other eclipse-chasers also had their cameras ready for the event. One veteran astrophotographer, Justin Ng of Singapore, put together an awesome collage of eclipse phases (below) from photographs he took in Palu, Indonesia, while leading a team of eight first-time eclipse photographers. It was Ng's first time as well, and the eclipse proved challenging compared to his usual night-sky targets. But the experience, he said, was unforgettable.

"Moments before the totality, I could feel the drastic change in temperature (it became cooler), and my guess would be at least a 5-7 degree Celsius [9 to 13 degrees F] difference," Ng said in an email. "During the totality, the scene turned darker, and I was able to see the sun's corona with my eyes! It's akin to seeing a 'black hole' in the sky, and everything was so surreal and unbelievable." Plus, Ng was able to spot Venus and Mercury during totality. [See more photos of the 2016 total solar eclipse]

Matt Skinner wasn't in a location to see the total solar eclipse, but he managed to document the partial solar eclipse visible from Anchorage, Alaska. He was a first-time eclipse photographer as well, and it was actually the first time he managed to see an eclipse clearly at all.

"The clouds were thick throughout much of Anchorage, but I was lucky enough to find a spot where the sun showed itself for about 20 minutes or so," Skinner told Space.com in an email. "The mountains and the light refracting off of the water were bonuses for me, as I had only intended to capture the eclipse."

After his first eclipse experience, he's ready for more  particularly, the U.S.-spanning total solar eclipse coming up in August 2017, he said.

Akash Anandh snagged this shot with a telephoto lens on his camera, and also photographed the eclipse through a telescope that was available for viewing at the National University of Singapore, he told Space.com.

Vincent Tan (darthcryder) ran across the solar eclipse while on a photo walk with a friend, unexpectedly catching this beautiful view of an airplane in silhouette.

And Ben Ali Tolentino caught this view of the eclipse in projection from the Philippines.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center invited everyone to submit photos of the eclipse on Flickr, and highlighted some additional spectacular views.

Most of the United States missed a glimpse of this eclipse, but American readers can get ready to flex their astrophotography muscles next year, when a total solar eclipse will cross the United States and offer full or partial views nationwide.
Are we about to enter a new era of physics? Data collected by the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland may have identified particle activity that doesnt fit the standard laws of physics.

The analysis by scientists including physicists at the Institute of Nuclear Physics at the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN) could have huge scientific implications.

There are some indications that physicists working at the LHC accelerator at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva may see the first traces of physics beyond the current theory which describes the structure of matter, said the IFJ PAN, in a recent press release.

The structure of matter is described by a theoretical framework called The Standard Model, which identifies the roles played by different particles. Boson particles, for example, are carriers of forces, whereas photons are related to electromagnetic interactions. Matter is formed by particles called fermions.

However, scientists, analyzing data collected by the LHCb experiment in 2011 and 2012, noticed an anomaly in the decay of a particle called a B Meson. According to the research, the traditional method for determining the particles decay may lead to false results.

Related: Science breakthrough? Physicists may have discovered Higgs boson relative



Could the anomaly hint at a new understanding of the Universe? Scientists are certainly intrigued by the anomaly. To put it in terms of the cinema, where we once only had a few leaked scenes from an much-anticipated blockbuster, the LHC has finally treated fans to the first real trailer," said Professor Mariusz Witek of IFJ PAN, in the release.

Witek notes that the framework used to describe the structure of matter poses plenty of questions for scientists. The Standard Model cannot explain all the features of the Universe, he said. It doesnt predict the masses of particles or tell us why fermions are organized in three families. How did the dominance of matter over antimatter in the universe come about? What is dark matter? Those questions remain unanswered.

To further illustrate his point, the Professor notes that gravity isnt even included in the Standard Model.

However, scientists caution that more research is needed on the B Meson anomaly. We cant call it a discovery. Not yet, said the IFJ PAN.

CERN spokesman Arnaud Marsollier told FoxNews.com that the B Meson data, which first emerged last year, are not conclusive. More data are needed before we can tell anything significant on this, so we will have to wait for the LHC to restart (soon), he explained via email, noting the importance of patience when recording and analyzing data. Science needs time! he added.

Related: Revamped Large Hadron Collider set to restart

CERN is currently starting powering tests on the huge particle accelerator. Beams should be back by the end of the month or early April, and collisions sometimes next month if everything goes as planned, said Marsollier.

Oxford University Physics Professor Guy Wilkinson, who serves as the spokesman for the LHCb experiment, told FoxNews.com that CERNs B Meson data is extremely interesting, but noted that it could be a couple of years before scientists perform a full analysis. When we analyse this new sample in a year or two we will be able to make a fresh and, I hope, more categorical statement on this topic, he explained, via email.

The 17-mile LHC was built between 1998 and 2008 to help scientists test some theories of particle and high-energy physics and advance understanding of physical laws.

In 2012 the Collider won global acclaim with the discovery of the long-sought Higgs boson particle, which explains the behavior of other particles. Physicists Peter Higgs and Francois Englert were subsequently awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers
NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) arrived at the red planet 10 years ago today and has since completed 45,000 orbits and generated a vast amount of scientific data.

Of the seven missions currently active at Mars, MRO returns more data every week than the other six combined, according to NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the Orbiter mission.

Related: Mars in three days? NASA touts new propulsion system

The Orbiter has revealed in unprecedented detail a planet that held diverse wet environments billions of years ago and remains dynamic today, explained NASA JPL, in a statement.

NASA highlighted, in particular, MROs discovery of the possibility of liquid water on present-day Mars. The Orbiter has also identified underground geologic structures, scanned atmospheric layers and observed the planet's weather on a daily basis.

Related: NASA releases stunning 360-degree Mars video

"This mission has helped us appreciate how much Mars -- a planet that has changed greatly over time -- continues to change today," said MRO Project Scientist Rich Zurek of NASA's JPL, in the statement.

NASA explained that MRO data have improved knowledge about three distinct periods on Mars. Observations of the oldest surfaces on the planet show that diverse types of watery environments existed -- some more favorable for life than others, it said. More recently, water cycled as a gas between polar ice deposits and lower-latitude deposits of ice and snow, generating patterns of layering linked to cyclical changes similar to ice ages on Earth.

Related: NASA sets May 2018 launch for delayed Mars InSight mission

The Orbiter also helps identify landing states for Mars rover missions and stationary landers and helps rover teams choose routes and destinations. Additionally, it works with the orbiting Mars Odyssey spacecraft to relay data from rovers and landers to NASAs Deep Space Network antennas on Earth.

Mars continues to loom large for NASA. On Wednesday the space agency announced that it is targeting a May 2018 launch for its delayed Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission to study the planet.

Related: NASA releases new ultraviolet image of Mars' moon Phobos

NASAs long-term goal is to send a manned mission to the red planet by 2035.
Calling all U.S. Airmen  do you have what it takes to name the militarys next stealth bomber?

For the first time, Air Force personnel have the chance to name a revolutionary, state-of-the-art aircraft - the first long-range stealth bomber of the 21st century.

The new stealth bomber joining the U.S. Air Force is expected to be a remarkable aircraft. In war, this new aircraft could fly deep into hostile areas  undetected  where it can unleash serious munitions against an enemy.

Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James threw down the challenge last month when she unveiled the first concept image of the bomber.

Related: Air Force unveils initial B-21 long range bomber design

This aircraft represents the future for our Airmen, and (their) voice is important to this process, James said. "So we have an image, we have a designation, but what we don't yet have, we don't yet have a name.

This is where I'm challenging and I'm calling on every airman today ... to give us your best suggestions for a name for the B-21, America's newest bomber," she added.

Any Airman. whether Active, Guard, Reserve or civilian has a shot at naming an aircraft that will fly as part of the future fleet ensuring U.S. air dominance in war for the next generation.

What do we know about the ultra-secret stealth bomber?

There has been plenty of speculation about the new Long Range Strike Bomber, which has been shrouded in secrecy.

Related: New tech gives US helicopter pilots 'Superman-style' vision

Last fall the Pentagon announced that Northrop Grumman would be making the aircraft, which is intended to revolutionize stealth bombing.

Another big clue about plane came during a Super Bowl commercial, which featured a new aircraft that at one point was literally cloaked. Some industry experts believed this was a representation of Northrops vision for the new mysterious bomber, prompting a flurry of speculation on social media.

Now, the Pentagon has revealed the first rendering of the concept design. The Long Range Strike Bomber looks black and its zig-zag shape is fittingly futuristic. It wouldnt look out of place in the next Star Wars film.

The new stealth bombers designation is B-21, reflecting the fact it is the first bomber of the 21st century.

So what can this futuristic aircraft do?

The aircraft will be able to launch from the U.S. and attack any spot anywhere on the globe with unrivalled stealth and lethality.

Related: High-tech sponge can save lives in less than 20 seconds

The aircraft is expected to replace the nearly four-decades-old B-1 as well as the legendary B-52 Stratofortress that has served the country for about six decades.

The military has kept details of the wish list for its new bomber classified. However, the B-21 will inevitably be fully loaded with lots of technologies and next-gen innovations. It may even withstand nuclear weapon-generated electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) and still operate.

So who is making the new bomber?

On March 7, the Pentagon revealed even more details about the new plane.

Pratt & Whitney, a company that makes the F-35 engine, will build the B-21 engine.

The Air Force has also named six other companies who will help Northrop Grumman in building the rest of the bomber: BAE Systems, GKN Aerospace, Janicki Industries, Orbital ATK, Rockwell Collins and Spirit AeroSystems.

Related: Air Force, Marines, bolster air power with major Super Hercules deal

The B-21s path to creation is not without resistance. Developing a revolutionary Long Range Strike bomber does not come at a cheap price tag. It will have to duke it out for funding against other Air Force programs.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman, Sen. John McCain, also recently stated he would not authorize the B-21 if it was procured under a cost-plus contract.

Next Steps

The B-21 has moved into the Engineering and Manufacturing Development phase.

Interested Airmen should check in with the AF.mil website and the Air Forces social media accounts for updates on how to submit their ideas for a name. The name will be announced at the Air Force Association conference held Sept. 19 to 21 this year.

The new bomber will start deploying in the mid-2020s.
Police were searching Wednesday for the parents of a newborn baby girl who was left in front of a suburban Phoenix home, her umbilical cord still attached.

"At this point, our detectives have kind of exhausted all of our initial possible leads that we had," Mesa police spokesman Steve Berry said at a news conference. "We have had no success in locating either Mom or Dad for this child."

The 7-pound-8-ounce infant remained hospitalized, but doctors said she appeared to be healthy. Police estimate she was hours old when she was found, Berry said.

James and Roseanne McCulloh said their son spotted a baby carrier on top of an irrigation box Tuesday morning while he was standing on the front porch. He then gently removed a metal panel that was on top of it.

"I saw him jump 20 feet, and he said 'There's a baby in it,' " Roseanne McCulloh said. "I ran over there. She wasn't blue. I touched her little arm, and I opened up the blanket. She was just beautiful."

The girl was wrapped in a blanket, but there was nothing else in the carrier. The couple brought her inside and called 911. Roseanne McCulloh warmed up a blanket in the microwave while her husband wiped the baby down. Emergency responders showed up and transported the girl to the hospital.

Roseanne McCulloh said she believes the baby was left there around 2 a.m. She said her daughter recalls hearing noise from their irrigation box through her bedroom window around that time.

Mesa police are asking anyone who may have been in the area Tuesday morning to come forward, Berry said. Investigators want to speak with anyone who remembers seeing a woman or a vehicle or anything suspicious. As of Wednesday afternoon, police hadn't received any calls with possible new leads since holding the news conference.

Investigators do not believe the mother gave birth at any hospital. Berry said no medical facility would have let an infant leave with "a full umbilical cord attached."

Arizona has a Safe Haven Law that allows a person to leave a newborn at certain locations such as fire stations, hospitals and churches without fear of criminal prosecution. Police are wondering why the parents essentially left the baby on the sidewalk when there is a fire station about half a mile away, Berry said.

"Fortunately, the homeowner did happen to come out to the house and discovered the baby," he said.

The infant, who police are calling "Baby Jane," is described as either Hispanic or Native American with black hair.

If nobody claims the baby, she will be put into the custody of the Arizona Department of Child Safety and likely placed in a foster home.
An escaped murder suspect with little to lose made a desperate move before dawn Thursday, breaking into a house at knifepoint and holding a husband, wife and son hostage for hours in a bathroom.

But this family wasn't going down without a fight. After Rafael McCloud tied up the 30-year-old husband, he broke loose and fought with McCloud, who stabbed him in the back of his shoulder, Vicksburg Police Capt. Sandra Williams said. McCloud tied the man up again, but his 24-year-old wife persuaded McCloud to let her leave the bathroom. She returned with a family handgun and shot the intruder, Williams said. Then she cut loose her husband and he shot McCloud multiple times with the same gun.

The man was released from a local hospital after treatment. His wife and their 5-year-old son weren't seriously injured.

It was the end to a manhunt that began March 2 when McCloud -- who could have faced the death penalty if convicted in the 2015 killing -- used a homemade shank to get the jump on an officer and escaped the county jail.

"This is absolutely not the outcome we had all hoped for," Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said. "We had wanted to capture him and have him stand before the judge. But he chose this, and I am so personally relieved that this family was not injured more than they were and they were able to protect themselves."

The man told police that McCloud confronted him about 4 a.m. as he and his son entered their attached garage, which Vicksburg Police Chief Walter Armstrong said McCloud entered through a side door. The family finally ran outside and flagged down a passing driver who called 911 about 7 a.m.

Warren County Deputy Coroner Kelda Bailess said authorities found McCloud dead, slumped over the bathtub. His body was sent to the state crime lab for autopsy.

Authorities didn't name the family members.

Police knew of no connection between McCloud and the family, who live on a street atop a steep ridge north of downtown Vicksburg. One side of the ridge looks out toward the Mississippi River, while the other looks onto part of the Vicksburg National Military Park, marking the site of a key Civil War battle.

McCloud escaped the Warren County Jail on March 2 when he overcame an officer and forced the officer to give up keys, radio, pants and jacket, authorities said. Once McCloud went out a door, he was free because the century-old red brick jail in downtown Vicksburg has no perimeter fence.

Officials combed the historic town for days, interviewing family members and friends of McCloud and poking through abandoned buildings. The found the pants McCloud took on the site of an abandoned hospital -- the same place where authorities found Sharen Wilson -- the woman McCloud was accused of killing in January 2015. McCloud was indicted on murder and rape charges in her death and had been jailed since June 29. Prosecutors could have sought the death penalty in the case.

The jail, the former hospital and the single-story home are all within a roughly 1 mile radius.

"I was kind of surprised he was still in the area," neighbor Mike Keck said. "I thought he would've tried to get as far away as possible. I'm glad to see it's finally over. We can be at ease now."

Armstrong said McCloud was found wearing blue jeans and tennis shoes and said police are investigating whether someone aided him while he was on the lam.
The Department of Justice is expected to announce charges against up to five Iranians believed to be tied to the 2013 hacking of a New York dam, a law enforcement source told Fox News.

The DOJ is expected to make the announcement sometime in the coming days, according to the source. The individuals are believed to have connections within the Iranian government.

The hackers allegedly infiltrated the control system of the Bowman Ave Dam in Rye Brook, N.Y., which is about 20 miles outside New York City, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time. The breach raised fears of the vulnerabilities of the United States' infrastructure to foreign hackers. It also came at a time that the Iranians were on the offensive in attacking U.S. banks.

It was believed at the time that the hackers never took control of the dam, but were able to probe the system, the report said.

The expected DOJ announcement was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

In this case, the hackers were believed to have gained access to the dam through a cellular modem, the paper reported in 2015, citing an unclassified Homeland Security summary of the case that did not specifically name the dam. Two unnamed sources told the paper that the summary was referring to the relatively small, 20-foot-tall, concrete dam about 5 miles from Long Island sound. The dam is used for flood control in the area.

Initially, intelligence analysts feared the hackers were targeting another dam: The Arthur R. Bowman Dam in Oregon, a 245-foot-tall earthen structure that irrigates local agriculture and prevents flooding near the town of Prineville, approximately 150 miles southeast of Portland. That belief prompted investigators to notify the White House that Iran had escalted its cyberwar with the United States.

The source told Fox News that the upcoming charges are expected to come out of the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York.

Fox News' Matthew Dean contributed to this report.
A federal judge on Thursday denied a former Arkansas circuit judge's request to withdraw his guilty plea on a bribery charge.

Chief U.S. District Judge Brian S. Miller wrote in his ruling that the federal bribery law was correctly applied in Michael Maggio's case, that there was sufficient evidence against him and that the judge likely understood the charge when he pleaded guilty last year.

Miller scheduled Maggio's sentencing for March 24.

"Maggio was a Circuit Court Judge who essentially admitted that he sold his office by substantially reducing a jury verdict in exchange for campaign donations," Miller wrote. "He stated several times that he understood his rights and the waivers associated with his plea."

Prosecutors said in a filing last month that Maggio had violated his plea agreement by being uncooperative and failing a lie detector test when questioned about the campaign contributions. The former judge faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Miller asked attorneys in the case whether the bribery statute was correctly applied. Maggio's attorney James Hensley argued that the alleged bribe was not related to government business, which was required under the statute.

U.S. attorneys argued that as an elected actor of the state, Maggio's job as a judge was state business, regardless of whether his rulings were related to government actions.

The Associated Press left a message Thursday seeking comment from Hensley.

Maggio filed a motion Feb. 12 to withdraw his January 2015 plea to a charge that he had accepted campaign donations from an unnamed nursing home owner and a lobbyist in exchange for reducing a jury award in a negligence case involving one of the nursing home owner's facilities.

Maggio was accused of accepting the $50,000 donation two days before reducing the jury's $5.2 million award to $1 million. Prosecutors said the donation, which included $24,000 from the company's owner, was made in July 2013.

Maggio admitted in January 2015 that he had accepted the campaign donations from an unnamed nursing home owner and lobbyist in exchange for reducing the jury award.

Click for more from Fox 16.
The Pennsylvania couple who cared for a 23-year-old Ukrainian national who posed as a high school student under a false identity told reporters Wednesday they contacted federal authorities in November 2015 after he started to make threats about hurting teachers and fellow classmates.

Stephayne and Michael Potts spoke to the media for the first time since Artur Samarin was arrested, according to WPMT-TV. Samarin was known in Harrisburg as Asher Potts and was arrested on Feb. 23.

Stephayne Potts told reporters she called the FBI because she was worried that Samarin was going to hurt people at Harrisburg High School.

"He made comments about other shootings, and he told us that everyone would know his name. He said his name would be the biggest in the world," she said. "He started talking about certain kids in school he wanted to hurt. He started talking about blowing he school up."

Adam Klein, Samarins attorney, refuted the Potts comments. He said there was nothing to believe that Samarin had a violent past.

"Up until the time he was arrested, he was an upstanding student," Klein said. "She is trying to paint herself as the victim. One would only need to look at her criminal history to see she is a con artist."

The Potts said they met Samarin in 2012 while he was in Harrisburg with other Ukrainian students as part of an international work program, WPMT-TV reported. Stephanye Potts said she had talked to him inside the Townhouse Apartments complex in Harrisburg where she and her husband live and where Samarin was staying. Samarin told the couple he was getting beat up by fellow participants in the work program.

Stephayne Potts said she thought Samarin was 18 when she learned he was working at a Red Robin. But Samarin insisted that he was 14. In September of 2012, the Potts took in Samarin and he was enrolled in high school by October of that year. Stephayne Potts said she didnt need any documents to get him into Harrisburg High School.

She admitted that she knew Samarin was in the country illegally, but insisted she had intended to legalize his status when he turned 18.

"I still dont believe hes 23," she added. "Someone will have to prove that to me. We watched him go from high pitched tones to the way he speaks now. His show size, clothing size, he got taller as well."

Samarin was a member of the National Honor Society and the school's ROTC and Naval Sea Cadet programs. He was to graduate in June.

He was arrested in February and initially charged with theft, identity theft and records tampering. He is also facing a sexual assault charged over a relationship with a student.

The Potts have not been charged with any crimes.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from WPMT-TV.
A convicted felon whose mugshot went viral following his arrest two years ago was released from federal prison this week, his manager said.

Jeremy Meeks, 32, was arrested in June 2014 on weapons charges in Stockton, Calif. When police posted his mugshot on their Facebook page, Meeks' gaze attracted the attention of tens of thousands of admirers, who posted comments such as, "He's hot" and "Being that sexy is illegal?"

In February 2015, Meeks was sentenced to two years in federal prison. However, he was released to transitional housing in Sacramento on Tuesday, having served just over a year of his sentence.

Jim Jordan, described as Meeks' manager, told the Los Angeles Times that after a few weeks in transitional housing, Meeks will be "completely free to start his new journey."

Jordan said that his client has "a multitude of offers on the table".

"Were in talks with a lot of different agencies," Jordan told Buzzfeed News. "Theres movies on the table. We have a lot of different things happening."
A Los Angeles Times photographer was arrested Wednesday for allegedly refusing to cooperate with police while transmitting photographs of the Nancy Reagan funeral motorcade.

Ricardo DeAratanha, 65, was arrested after Simi Valley police responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle about three-quarters of a mile downhill from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

Deputy Chief David Livingstone said DeAratanha refused to identify himself and balked at providing further identification, and was arrested for resisting and obstructing officers.

However, DeAratanhas attorney Mark Werksman told the Los Angeles Times that his client provided multiple unassailable press credentials and the officers kept asking him for more ID. DeAratanha has been with the newspaper since 1989.

The attorney says the officers grew angry when DeAratanha suggested that his Brazilian ethnicity and tan skin was behind their questioning of him.

Livingstone, the deputy chief, denied that race had anything to do with the encounter.

This is not something we want to happen, Livingstone said. Had he cooperated, we wouldve had a different outcome.

DeAratanha was cited and released. He was treated at a local hospital for a sprained elbow.

The Ventura County district attorneys office has 30 days to decide whether to press charges. The photographers arraignment is scheduled for April 7, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Authorities in Ohio said they arrested a man earlier this month who stuffed more than $230,000 worth of cocaine into three pairs of shoes.

Essex Jamal Clark, 47, was initially pulled over in a rental van for a traffic violation. At some point, a drug-sniffing dog was called to the scene and discovered a small bag of cocaine in the vehicle, Fox 59 reported.

After a further investigation, police found three pairs of modified shoes with six packages of cocaine worth more than $230,000, the report said. Clark allegedly was wearing a pair.

Clark was charged with possession and trafficking in cocaine as well as possession of criminal tools. The report said he also was cited for following too closely.

FoxNews.coms Edmund DeMarche contributed to this report.
A 93-year-old Ohio woman has received the high school diploma she was denied because of rules that expelled married students.

Dorothy Liggett was a few weeks from graduation from Akron's North High School in 1942 when officials discovered she was married.

The Akron Beacon Journal reports that Akron Superintendent David James hand-delivered the diploma to Liggett in suburban Fairlawn on Wednesday as part of a surprise ceremony.

Liggett's daughter Janice Larkin had written James about her mother. James said it was wrong that Liggett was denied the diploma after being a good student all her years in school.

Liggett and her late husband, John Huston, ran away to Kentucky to get married after her husband was called into the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II.

Click for more from Fox 8.
Reagan National Airport officials said they received a total of 8,670 noise complaints last year and at least 6,500 of them came from one person.

Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority officials said that one unidentified Washington resident was responsible for roughly three-quarters of last years noise complaints, according to the Washington Post. That adds up to about 18 calls every day for one year.

We find the complaints to be completely valid, which is why weve formed a community working group, David Mould, spokesman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, told the Post. We hope to find some good solutions.

Ed Solomon, president of the D.C. Fair Skies Coalition, a group founded to raise awareness of the residents concerns, said he hopes that the news of the total amount of complaints doesnt take away from the need for the airport to change the flight patterns.

Airport officials have said they are working with residents in the area to address the noise.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Utah lawmakers are nearing their deadline to decide if they want to abolish the death penalty in the conservative state.

Thursday is the final day of the 2016 legislative session, and lawmakers have until midnight to vote.

The measure was originally considered a longshot in Utah's GOP-dominated Legislature, but it cleared the Senate and then squeaked through a House committee this week.

If it passes the full House, it will head to Republican Gov. Gary Herbert, who supports capital punishment and says he hasn't decided whether he'll sign it.

The debate comes amid a renewed national discussion about capital punishment.

A shortage of lethal-injection drugs in the U.S. in recent years has led several states to pass or consider laws to bring back other execution methods, such as electrocution. Last year, Utah lawmakers voted to reinstate firing squads as a backup method to ensure the state had a way to kill death row inmates if it couldn't get lethal-injection drugs.

Republican Sen. Steve Urquhart is leading the push to repeal capital punishment in the state. He argues the death penalty is costly and gives imperfect governments a godlike power over life and death.

Urquhart initially was doubtful of his proposal's chances because of the strong support for capital punishment in the state. But in recent weeks, he said he believed the libertarian-leaning Legislature would pass the measure.

Death penalty supporters argue Urquhart's repeal would leave prosecutors shortchanged at the bargaining table, where the possibility of execution helps them negotiate plea deals of life without parole.

Other critics said the death penalty is a just punishment for especially heinous crimes.

The bill would allow executions to go forward for the nine people on Utah's death row now but remove it as an option for any new convictions.

Utah is the only state in four decades to carry out executions by firing squad, with three such deaths since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.

State lawmakers stopped offering inmates the choice of the firing squad in 2004, saying the method attracted intense media interest and took away attention from victims. But they resurrected it last year, making the practice available for all death row inmates if lethal-injection drugs cannot be obtained 30 days before their execution.

Most Utah lawmakers are Mormon, but the firing-squad effort didn't seem linked to any teachings or doctrine from the Salt Lake City-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Mormon church takes a neutral position on capital punishment.

Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have abolished capital punishment, and lawmakers, including Republicans, in more than half a dozen other states have suggested their states do the same.

Last year, Nebraska's Republican-controlled Legislature voted to abolish the death penalty over a veto from that state's GOP governor.

It became the first traditionally conservative state to eliminate the punishment since North Dakota dropped the practice in 1973. But death penalty supporters quickly launched a petition drive, leaving Nebraska voters to decide the issue this November.
A Utah mother facing criminal charges after prosecutors said she took her daughter egging has agreed to a plea deal.

Court records show that 45-year-old Jennifer Terry of Ogden agreed to pay $2,000 in restitution to and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of criminal mischief.

Authorities say she helped a group of girls driving around town throwing eggs at as many as 20 homes in the Ogden area in August. Prosecutors say it caused an estimated $2,350 in damage to one house's stucco and $3,000 in damage to a car's ignition.

Her attorney did not immediately return a call seeking comment Wednesday, and a phone number for her was disconnected.

Prosecutors say Terry told police she did it due to family issues and because she didn't care.

Sentencing is set for April 14.
The two top executives of the Wounded Warrior Project  among the largest veterans charities in the country  were fired Thursday after an investigation into accusations of lavish spending on parties, hotel and travel, according to a statement released on behalf of the embattled organization.

Wounded Warrior Project's CEO, Steven Nardizzi, and COO, Al Giordano, were fired by the charity's board amid criticisms about how it spent more than $800 million in donations over the last four years. The development was confirmed by Abernathy MacGregor, a public relations firm hired to represent the veterans charity.

To best effectuate these changes and help restore trust in the organization among all of the constituencies WWP serves, the Board determined the organization would benefit from new leadership, and WWP CEO Steve Nardizzi and COO Al Giordano are no longer with the organization, the statement said.

The statement also said a preliminary financial audit found that some policies, procedures and controls at WWP have not kept pace with the organizations rapid growth in recent years and are in need of strengthening.

The charity came under fire after an earlier CBS News investigation in January revealed large amounts of spending on administration, meetings, and travel.

Nonprofit watchdog Charity Navigator says Wounded Warrior Project spends just 60 percent of its budget on veterans. The Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation provides more than 98 percent to veterans. Charity Navigator also assessed that Wounded Warriors total revenue for 2014 was well over $340 million.

Army Staff Sergeant Erick Millette, who returned from Iraq in 2006 with a bronze star and a purple heart, told CBS News at the time he admired the charitys work and took a job with the group in 2014 but quit after two years.

"Their mission is to honor and empower wounded warriors, but what the public doesn't see is how they spend their money," he said.

Millette said he witnessed lavish spending on staff, with big catered parties.

"Going to a nice fancy restaurant is not team building. Staying at a lavish hotel at the beach here in Jacksonville, and requiring staff that lives in the area to stay at the hotel is not team building," he told CBS News.

According to the charity's tax forms obtained by CBS News, spending on conferences and meetings went from $1.7 million in 2010, to $26 million in 2014, which is the same amount the group spends on combat stress recovery.

Two former employees, who were so fearful of retaliation they asked that CBS News not show their faces on camera, said spending has skyrocketed since Steven Nardizzi took over as CEO in 2009, pointing to the 2014 annual meeting at a luxury resort in Colorado Springs.

"He rappelled down the side of a building at one of the all hands events. He's come in on a Segway, he's come in on a horse, one employee told CBS News.

About 500 staff members attended the four-day conference in Colorado, which CBS News reported cost about $3 million.

In January, Charity Navigator, a group that oversees nonprofit organizations, placed Wounded Warrior Project on its watch list, Fox News reported, citing a separate CBS report.

Wounded Warrior Project declined CBS News' interview requests for Nardizzi in January, but instead sent Director of Alumni and a recipient of their services, Captain Ryan Kules, who denied there was excessive spending on conferences.

"It's the best use of donor dollars to ensure we are providing programs and services to our warriors and families at the highest quality," he said.

Kules added the charity did not spend $3 million on the Colorado conference, but he was not there and was unable to say what it did cost. He also told CBS News that the charity did not spend money on alcohol or engages in any other kind of excessive spending.

Last week, a major donor to the Wounded Warrior Project veterans charity called for the nonprofits CEO to resign in light of allegations of lavish spending on staff meetings, CBS News reported.

Fred and Dianne Kane, the parents of two Iraq War veterans, have donated $325,000 to the Wounded Warrior Project since 2009 through their personal charity, Tee-off for a Cause. Slightly more than half of the Kanes' donations directly benefitted veterans, according to CBS News.

But after recent tax forms reflected questionable spending by the veterans charity on staff expenditures, including $26 million on conferences and meetings at luxury hotels in 2014 alone, Fred Kane called for Nardizzi to be fired.The expenditure on conferences and travel was up from just $1.7 million in 2010, according to reports.

Hearing that there was this waste of money, donor dollars that should have been going to servicemen and women that were injured, and that it was spent on [Wounded Warrior Project staff] having a good timeits a real disappointment, Dianne Kane told CBS News.

The Kanes also initiated an online petition calling for a public audit of the Wounded Warrior Project in addition to canceling the next golf tournament Tee-off for a Cause was to hold to benefit the Project.

Kaine, in the recent interview, also questioned Nardizzis apparent public absence while his organization has been under scrutiny.

Where is this guy? You lead from the frontgood or badyou dont hide, he said, If no one is going to talk about this right now and it has to be me, then it has to be me.

Kane said he has cut charitable ties with the Wounded Warrior Project, embarking on a new charge to effect change at the organization.

Click for more from CBS News
A year after U.S. airstrikes and Kurdish fighters saved Iraq's Yazidi population from death at the hands of ISIS atop Mount Sinjar, the historic religious enclave is facing death in its homeland and a cold shoulder from America, say activists.

Despite the ongoing threat of execution in Iraq, nearly all Yazidis, a Kurdish monotheistic community that lives throughout Iraq, Syria, Turkey and even Armenia and Georgia, who have applied for asylum in the U.S. have been rejected, FoxNews.com has learned. The reason why is not clear, but advocates say Washington is turning a blind eye on the situation.

What we are seeing, in real time, is genocide, said Frank Wolf, a former congressman from Virginia and senior fellow at 21st Century Wilberforce, a nonprofit that seeks to protect Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East. To declare it genocide, that would expedite relief. You cant allow it to go on."

What we are seeing, in real time, is genocide."  Frank Wolf, former congressman and 21st Century Wilberforce senior fellow

The Yazidi religion includes elements of ancient nature-worship, as well as influences from Christianity, Gnosticism, Zoroastrianism, Islam and Judaism.

The dramatic rescue of the Yazidi came in August 2014, after ISIS fighters chased an estimated 40,000 Yazidi men, women and children from the town of Sinjar and onto a nearby mountain to which they then laid siege. With the mountain surrounded, and supplies running low, the Yazidi faced certain death until airstrikes and boots on the ground cleared an escape route. The Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government estimated in December that 4,000 Yazidi were killed before international help arrived.

Of the tens of thousands of Yazidis uprooted from their homes, only 10 families have been granted asylum in the U.S., according to Yazda, an American-based Yazidi advocacy group. None of the visas were issued due to religious persecution faced at the hands of ISIS.

None of these families [in U.S.] are related to the crisis," Abid Shamden, who works with Yadza, told FoxNews.com, adding that the visas were given as part of a special program for translators who worked with the U.S. military during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. But many are still there. They are not given any special status. They are all treated as the same. My family has been waiting since 2012 for visas.

Shamdens colleague, Murad Ismael, added that several families who sought help under the translator program have even been denied.

Some of them worked for the U.S. and they are not being allowed to come here, he said. Those who have gotten here have family members who were killed by terrorists back home.

Officials for the State Department declined to comment, saying specific cases involving visas are confidential.

Many members of the religious minorities in Iraq and Syria -- Yazidi or otherwise -- have been seeking asylum in the U.S. since ISIS launched its violent offensive, carving out a caliphate the size of Indiana in northern Syria and Iraq. But the process is arduous, and often fruitless, say experts.

"The procedures to get a U.S. visa are very complicated," Jameel Ghanim, executive director of Yazda's operations in Iraq, told FoxNews.com. "I can say it is impossible for the regular person to gain a visa unless he is business man, a diplomat,or already has one of his relatives with U.S. citizenship."

Ghanim was among those forced to flee once ISIS moved into the Sinjar region.

"We did not have weapons to fight, and the troops of Peshmerga, who were supposed to protect the civilians, were the first to escape and leave the people behind to face the most barbaric [ISIS] members," he said, adding the he and his family fled to the Kurdish region.

"After I found a place for the family to live, I went to [refugee] camps to collect young Yazidis who volunteered to go and fight back against ISIS, trying to save whatever we could."

The Yazidi plight is similar to that of Chaldeans, an ancient Christian population routed from its historic home in Iraq. Some 28 Chaldean Christians who crossed into the U.S. from Mexico are now being detained in a federal facility in San Diego, and nearly a dozen of them have already been ordered deported.

At the outset of the Iraq War in 2003, there were nearly 1.4 million Christians in the country. Estimates today say the total is likely fewer than 250,000.
Beijing on Thursday fired back at criticism from the United States and 11 other Western countries calling attention to China's "deteriorating human rights record" at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The accusations follow recent disappearances of five Hong Kong residents associated with a publisher of books banned in China and the temporary detention of a Swedish man accused of training unlicensed lawyers there. The Swedish national disappeared from his holiday home in Thailand and later made a tearful appearance on Chinese state TV to say he surrendered over a 12-year-old fatal drunk driving case.

The Western countries denounced the "unexplained recent disappearances and apparent coerced returns" of Chinese citizens and foreigners to China. They also claimed Beijing's "extraterritorial actions are unacceptable."

U.S. ambassador Keith Harper told the council state broadcasts of confessions before any judicial process violates international conventions and Chinese laws.

Chinas Ambassador Fu Cong responded, "The United States conducts large-scale extra-territorial eavesdropping, uses drones to attack other countries' innocent civilians. Its troops on foreign soil commit rape and murder of local people."

Fox News' Jonathan Wachtel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The party of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi confirmed Thursday that she will not become Burma's next president, instead nominating two loyalists for the post, including her former driver.

Unofficially, she has vowed to be the de-facto leader by calling the shots from behind the scenes, and party members said Thursday that's how things will work in Burma's first democratically elected government in more than a half century.

The party nominated two Suu Kyi loyalists for the post including the front runner Htin Kyaw, a 70-year-old Oxford graduate. Htin Kyaw was also her former driver, AFP reports.

The nomination will be followed by a vote among legislators later this month before the new president is installed April 1.

"I'm very happy and very pleased and I believe he (Htin Kyaw) will work together with Aung San Suu Kyi for the benefit of the people," said Khin Su Su Kyi, an NLD lawmaker.

For the past several weeks Suu Kyi is believed to have held closed-door talks with the powerful military generals to suspend a constitutional clause that bars her from the presidency.

The outcome of the negotiations was not known until Thursday when the names of the loyalists were announced, signaling the end, at least for now, of Suu Kyi's longtime ambition to be Burma's leader.

Suu Kyi did not attend Thursday's high-profile nomination session but posted a letter on Facebook to her legions of supporters. She called it a "first step toward realizing the expectations and desires of the people who overwhelmingly supported the National League for Democracy in the elections."

"It is our will to fulfill the people's desire," Suu Kyi said in the letter. "We will try as hard as we can to do that."

The longtime former political prisoner led her National League for Democracy to a landslide victory in Nov. 8 general elections, paving the way for the country's first democratically elected government since the military took power in 1962.

Despite her massive popular support, the 70-year-old Suu Kyi is blocked from the presidency because the constitution bars anyone with a foreign spouse or children from holding the executive office. Suu Kyi's two sons are British, as was her late husband. The clause is widely seen as having been written by the military with her in mind.

During Thursday's parliament session, the NLD nominated, from the lower house, Htin Kyaw, a longtime confidante and associate of Suu Kyi. He is widely respected and seen as a front runner.

"I think he is the best one for the country. He has experience, he's fair and he's a real gentleman so our country's future will be very good," said Kyaw Win Maung, an NLD lawmaker.

Htin Kyaw's father was a national poet and a National League for Democracy lawmaker from an aborted 1990 election, while his wife is a prominent legislator for the party in the current house. His father-in-law, a former army colonel, was a co-founder of the NLD.

From the upper house, the NLD nominated Henry Van Hti Yu of the ethnic Chin minority.

The outgoing ruling party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party, also nominated two candidates  Sai Mauk Kham, currently a vice president, and former upper house speaker Khin Aung Myint.

The military bloc, which holds a constitutionally mandated 25 percent of seats, is also allowed to nominate one candidate. His name has not yet been announced. But he will likely become the country's other vice president.

A vote will be held later this month to elect the president and two vice presidents.

The NLD candidates are assured of a victory given the party's control of both chambers. One of them will become the president and the other will become a vice president.

Suu Kyi fought for decades to end dictatorship in Burma, and remains her party's unquestioned leader. She was awarded the 1991 Nobel prize while under house arrest, where she spent 15 years locked away by a junta that feared her political popularity.

Suu Kyi has made clear that even if she is not president she will be in charge.

Kyaw Thiha, an upper house NLD lawmaker, said Thursday that the new president will take orders from Suu Kyi.

"She cannot become the president, but it doesn't really matter because she will be controlling everything. She will be the one to control us," Kyaw Thiha said. "It doesn't really matter that she is not becoming the president."

Political analyst Toe Kyaw Hlaing predicted that the people won't have a problem with that arrangement.

"The public voted for change, so now the public wants a pure civilian president," he told The Associated Press. "So when the civilian president comes to power, I think the public will support him, and the public may not care whether he is a proxy president or not."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The latest extremist attacks against Christians in 2016 thus far have come from an unlikely source.

As Christianity has seemingly been under attack in places like Iraq, Syria, and Africa for over a decade from extremist groups like ISIS and Al Shabaab, the first six weeks of 2016 have seen a fresh outbreak of anti-Christian violence in India with nearly 30 incidents of religiously motivated violence against Christians reported in just over two months.

While it follows a global trend, its Hindu nationalists leading efforts of persecution and attacks.

"His silence is tacit approval...He needs to come out again and reign in his party."  Jeff King, ICC

According to various news reports, there have been 26 documented incidents of religiously motivated violence against Christians spread across the subcontinent since Jan. 1. Incidents of violence against Christians have always existed in one form or another, but were usually limited to a particular region or issue.

However, the violence has begun to spread with Hindu radicals enjoying near complete impunity for their actions.

They are wolves in sheeps clothing, Jeff King, president of the International Christian Concern, told FoxNews.com. There has been an increase in attacks because these nationalists feel emboldened with [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi in power.

Religious Breakdown of India | Graphiq Religious Demographics of India

Local police officials took no action against the aggressors in many of the incidents. One such was Jan. 29 in the southeastern state of Tamil Nadu when a mob of over 30 radicals in the village of Ettimadai ruthlessly attacked, beat, and dragged a Catholic priest and three church officials from their car.

All four men tried to flee from the mob but were eventually caught. The mob then dragged and beat them for a mile and a half. Despite pleas for help during the incident, police stood idly by.

All four men were hospitalized as a result, with the priest requiring treatment in the intensive care unit of a nearby hospital.

The group was first approached by the mob while they were waiting in their car outside the police station to speak with authorities regarding the arrest of a priest and two others from an AIDS/HIV clinic run by the church.

Just two weeks earlier, in the Nizamabad District of Telangana State, a local pastor and members of his congregation were savagely beaten by a mob of 40 Hindu radicals after they falsely accused him of trying to convert Hindus to Christianity.

According to locals, the attack occurred during a Christian prayer gathering and resulted in the hospitalization of six, including a four-year-old girl whose leg was broken during the attack.

Map of Christian Persecution Worldwide | Graphiq Map of Christian Persecution Worldwide

It was [a] very scary scene, Pastor Nitin Kumar, recently recounted to humanitarian group International Christian Concern. They tore my cassock and I received blows, punches, [and] kicks from all directions as I was their prime target. [Our] Bibles were snatched from us and were tore and trampled. [Other] believers ran to all directions as they were chased by the mob.

And just last Sunday, a Pentecostal church in the Chhattisgarh state was attacked by a mob believed to have been a part of the militant Hindu Bajrang Dal organization. They were alleged to have entered the church during prayer services and broke chairs, fans and musical equipment, according to Christian Today. It was the fourth attack on churchgoers in the region over the last six weeks.

While attacks against Christians have occurred for quite some time, the problem has seemingly become widespread after the election of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party or the Indian Peoples Party. The BJP believes in what is known as Hindutvaa cultural nationalism which favors Indian culture over westernization.

"Since 2014 there has been a significant increase in attacks on Christians and Christian communities by radical Hindu forces in India, David Curry, president and CEO of Open Doors USA told FoxNews.com. The government, which came into power with the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party, has strong Hindu nationalist ties. As a result, radical Hinduism, which was already present under the previous government, has increased steadily.

And while Modi and the BDP have not publicly praised the attacks, they arent publicly opposing them either.

The central government has refused to speak out against the atrocities  thus further encouraging radical Hindus to step up their discrimination against Christians, Curry added. The government's tolerance--if not promotion--of discrimination against Christians has led to a marked rise in the number of people within India openly pushing for a completely Hindu India.

The rash of outbreaks led humanitarian groups like the ICC to campaign in Washington to put pressure on Modi and the BDP to stop the wave of extreme nationalism.

His silence is tacit approval, King of the ICC said. Push came to shove once before and he [Modi] had to come out and say that India is tolerant and the nationalists backed down.

And the most of the populace is very tolerant, but he needs to come out again and rein in his party.

Late last month, a bipartisan letter was sent to Modi by eight U.S. senators and 26 members of Congress, requesting that he strongly and publicly condemn the acts of persecution.

But so far, there has been no response.

The BJP will be silent unless there is political pressure, King added. With Congress coming out with this letter, with that rise in pressure, the party will have to address the issue.
Talk about a hair-raising commute to start the week.

Drivers in the energy-rich Mideast nation of Qatar got a surprise Monday when an escaped tiger was seen prowling among cars on a major motorway in the capital of Doha.

The countrys Ministry of Interior later posted on Twitter that the owner of the tiger has been identified. It added that the animal was handed over to competent authorities and further legal proceedings have been initiated.

Video and pictures circulating on social media showed the tiger making its way between vehicles in the capital, Doha. Other images showed a man in a traditional white robe holding the big cat on a chain.

Some wealthy Arabs in Qatar and other Gulf states keep big cats as status symbols despite prohibitions against the practice.

A lion escaped its Dubai owner's home in January and was captured wandering a residential neighborhood. In Kuwait, a man was sued in 2014 after his pet lion escaped and attacked a Filipina maid.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Germany's federal criminal police said Thursday they are in possession of files containing personal data on members of the extremist Islamic State group and believe them to be authentic.

The announcement came after Britain's Sky News reported it had obtained 22,000 Islamic State files on the border with Turkey and Syria, files that detail ISIS fighters' real names, where they were from, telephone numbers, and even names of those who sponsored and recruited the militants.

Though the significance of these files is yet to be gauged, they could be the largest yet treasure trove of documents found on ISIS and the most significant leak on its past and present fighters and operations across the Mideast.

They could also shape the campaign against the extremist group, which emerged from Al Qaeda in Iraq. The cache, exposing its members and their families, could undermine its future ability to recruit and inspire would-be members.

US Army Col. Steve Warren, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State, said the information could help the coalition fight the Islamic State group by aiding in a crack-down on ISIS's foreign fighter networks.

He said that while he was not able to verify the documents, he hoped that "if there is a media outlet that has these names and numbers, I hope they publish them." This would help bring attention to the problem of foreign fighters joining ISIS, and would help law enforcement crack down on the problem, he said.

"This would allow the law enforcement apparatus across the world to become much more engaged and begin to help do what we can to stem this flow of foreign fighters  so we're hopeful that its accurate and if so we certainly plan to do everything we can to help," he said.

Sky said the files were passed on to them on a memory stick stolen from the head of Islamic State's internal security police by a former fighter who had grown disillusioned with the group.

Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported it had also obtained "dozens" of similar files on the Turkey-Syria border, where it said Islamic State files and videos were widely available from anti-ISIS Kurdish fighters and also members of the Islamic State group itself.

A spokeswoman for Germany's Bundeskriminalamt, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter with the media, said her agency is currently evaluating the files. She declined to say where the agency obtained the files, how many documents are involved and how long it has had them.

Sky reported that the documents are a collection of forms filled out by recruits when they were inducted into the Islamic State. The forms have 23 questions and include nationals from at least 51 countries, Sky reported.

Germany's Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told the dpa news agency that the material would give authorities a better chance to track down and prosecute people who had fought with ISIS.

The material also seems to have the potential to help authorities crack recruitment networks in Europe and elsewhere that have been sending fighters to join the Islamic State group, which has seized large swaths of land in Syria and Iraq and declared a self-styled caliphate on the territory under its control.

There are no clear estimates of how many Islamic State fighters there are in Iraq and Syria, but the numbers range between 30,000 and 100,000. A CIA assessment in late 2014 put the number of ISIS fighters at around 31,500.


Israel said Thursday it is looking into the shooting death of a Palestinian attacker who killed an American student in a stabbing spree earlier this week.

In Tuesday's attack, the Palestinian assailant ran through the ancient port city of Jaffa with a knife, stabbing several people along his way, until he was shot by a police officer.

Israel's Justice Ministry said the routine check is conducted after every shooting incident by police.

It follows a video that emerged from the scene of the Jaffa stabbing, showing the attacker lying on the ground as an onlooker yells at the officer to shoot him "in the head." A sound that appears to be gunfire is heard. Other voices then tell the officer to stop, saying the attacker "is lying down" and "don't shoot him again."

The Palestinians accuse Israel of using excessive force in trying to subdue more than five months of near-daily Palestinian attacks. The bloodshed  mainly stabbings but also shootings and car-ramming attacks  has killed 28 Israelis and two Americans. During the same time, at least 179 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, a majority of which are said by Israel to have been attackers. The rest were killed in clashes with security forces.

The attack in Jaffa took place as Vice President Joe Biden, on a visit to Israel, was meeting former Israeli President Shimon Peres, at the nearby Peres Center for Peace. The American victim, Taylor Force, was a 28-year-old MBA student at Vanderbilt University and a West Point graduate who had served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Biden criticized the Palestinians for failing to condemn the stabbing, after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' political party posted a statement online praising the stabber.

A statement from Abbas' office following his meeting with Biden on Wednesday night said Abbas offered his condolences for the American's death, but stressed that Israel has killed nearly 200 Palestinians during the current round of bloodshed.

In a press conference with the visiting Romanian president Thursday, Abbas did not directly mention the Jaffa attack but said he opposes "violence, extremism and terrorism regardless of its source."

Palestinians say the violence stems from frustration at nearly five decades of Israeli occupation. Israel says it is fueled by a campaign of Palestinian incitement compounded on social media sites that glorify and encourage attacks.


One person was injured Thursday after three gunmen opened fire near a restaurant in the Bastille area of Paris, The Telegraph reports.

Emergency services arrived on the scene to treat the victim after a quarrel between several men led to the exchange of several shots, according to French media. Police said they were ruling out terrorism in this case.

One of the gunmen was arrested, police say. The whereabouts of the other gunmen are unclear.

The gunfire erupted outside the Chez Papa restaurant, French media added.

France remains under a state of emergency after terrorists in Paris with ISIS ties launched a string of attacks in November, killing 130 people.
Nearly 2,400 Yazidi men, women and children have been ransomed, rescued or lucky enough to escape the clutches of ISIS, according to new figures from a Kurdish government bureau that works closely with the minority Iraqi religious community.

The Yazidi community, with the protection of the Kurdish Regional Government and funding from around the world, has formed an extensive international network to save their women from sexual slavery and men from serving in the black-clad jihadist army.

The younger and more beautiful she is and the less number of children she has  if any  will make her more expensive.  Abu Shujaa

There are several ways, Abu Shujaa, who established a volunteer group with safe houses and has managed an underground rescue railroad to liberate hundreds of Yazidis since the ISIS onslaught in his hometown of Sinjar, told FoxNews.com. Sometimes the girls access phones and contact family members or friends and they get directed to us.

Other times, volunteers investigate and locate where the girls were taken, and when they find out they then reach out to them and arrange the escape, he added. There are other ways too, but we cant reveal yet as there are a whole lot of girls left we have to rescue.

The Kurdistan Regional Governments Office of the Prime Minister has a special bureau dedicated to observing the rescue of Yazidi victims. Although it plays no role in negotiating with captors, in cases in which family members pay ransom, the office reimburses them.

Of an estimated 4,029 Yazidi women and girls abducted over the last three years, some 1,456 have been rescued, according to statistics from the Kurdish government, which works with the Yazidi community.

While women are held by ISIS for sex, men are captured and forced into the terrorist army. Some 3,403 men and boys have been captured, with just more than 900 making it back to their families. In total, some 1,293 Yazidis have been killed by ISIS, many of them among the men and boys taken and given the choice of joining ISIS or being killed. Another 460 remain unaccounted for.

The tight-knit community, which is concentrated along the nations northern Ninevah Plain, has endured horrific suffering since the rise of ISIS. Of a population estimated at 550,000 before the terrorist army began its ethnic and religious cleansing campaign, some 400,000 have been displaced according to the directorate.

While entering ISIS-held territory could mean death for Yazidis, they have a network of civilian women trapped inside Mosul and other places within the so-called caliphate who want to do something good for humanity and help, according to Shujaa.

With help from their Kurdish allies, as well as Muslim sympathizers, Yazidis have pulled together to deliver their women and girls from the misery inflicted by ISIS. The Yazidi religion includes elements of ancient nature-worship, as well as influences from Christianity, Gnosticism, Zoroastrianism, Islam and Judaism, and ISIS justifies its slavery and slaughter under the guise that Yazidis are devil worshippers.

By enslaving women, ISIS is effectively cleansing the lands of Yazidi and other minority groups of their ethnic identity, said Daniel Sullivan, director of policy and government relations at the Washington-based nonprofit United to End Genocide.

Rescue typically involves several intermediaries carrying out a series of steps such as smuggling cellphones and counterfeit IDs into the places where the girls are being held, establishing a network of safe houses and long journeys on foot under cover of darkness.

The process has been managed and supervised by the family of the victims themselves, said Yakhi Balak, who heads a Yazidi task force that works with the Kurdistan Regional Government to facilitate and track rescue operations. The family coordinates with their religious leaders with the moral support of local Yazidi communities.

Each successful rescue has its own dramatic and harrowing tale. The family of one girl told FoxNews.com their daughter was granted permission to use her captors phone and was able to alert outsiders with a rough description of her location. That allowed Yazidi activists to put a plan into place, working with contacts inside Mosul. Another girl told of escaping through a broken window when her captor was not at home. She hid in a sympathetic familys home until smugglers could reach her.

Such escapes are the exception, not the rule. Most Yazidis who have made it out of ISIS captivity owe their freedom to ransom paid by loved ones and with funds raised by international charities. Fees for buying back a Yazidi captive vary wildly  as do the prices wealthy Arabs and ISIS fighters pay for them at stomach-turning auctions held in public squares.

The younger and more beautiful she is and the less number of children she has  if any  will make her more expensive, Shujaa said. Every girl comes back with a unique story that is very powerful and emotional. Some of them as young as 8 are being raped and enslaved. A few days ago, a beautiful 11-year-old girl was sold at the market in Raqqa for the equivalent of $20,000.

Ransom fees generally must cover whatever the slave buyer paid, plus a profit and, in most cases, a cut for Sunni tribesmen who often facilitate negotiations. Just over a year ago, a Yazidi family could buy back a daughter for as little as $300. Now, the price can top $13,000, according to Yazidi officials.

In many cases the local wealthy Arab residents were among the buyers of sex slaves, Balak said. Different prices were paid at the time of purchase and in some cases slaves were sold for a profit. Buy back prices were usually higher than slave market price.

Many Yazidi families have scraped together the money needed for a loved ones safe return only to find out theyve been tricked, an Iraqi with close ties to the government in Baghdad said.

The scammers are everywhere, he said. They are in Iraq and they are outside of Iraq. Its terrible.

Rescue groups have raised funds in North America, including through GoFundMe.com. The efforts have raised alarms in some quarters, both that donors could be getting scammed and also that, even if the funds go to ransom, the process makes captives more valuable and the money ends up in the hands of ISIS.

The lack of monitoring on the ground means Western governments must clamp down on funds headed for the caliphate, even if intentions are good, said Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of Israel Law Center, which focuses on blocking funding to terror groups.

A representative for crowd-funding platform GoFundMe told FoxNews.com that red flags have indeed been raised as to whether campaigns of this nature have directed funds to ISIS in order to secure the release of hostages, and that they have referred matters to the Office of Foreign Assets Control with concerns over violations of U.S. sanctions.

A spokesperson for the U.S Department of the Treasury responded that online donations are not a significant contributor to ISILs wealth.

Rather, it remains the case that ISIL has generated the vast majority of its funds through oil and gas, extortion, and looting banks in the regions that it controls, the spokesperson said.

Liberating a young girl from the clutches of ISIS is worth whatever a heartsick parent  or a determined community  can afford, said Balak.

However, other than some sort of cash exchange there are seemingly few other options to bring back the innocent victims.

Looking at the greater human tragic picture, rescuing a human being in the hands of savages should not be counted toward terrorism funding, Balak added.
The Pentagon transferred the head of the Islamic State terror group's chemical weapons development unit to the Iraqi government Thursday shortly after the U.S. captured him in a raid, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook announced.

Cook stressed the U.S. would keep ISIS detainees only for the "short term," handled on a "case by case" basis. "We have a government on the ground in Iraq, a partner in the fight against ISIL, that we feel confident we can rely on in this instance."

A defense official who would not reveal his identity reached by Fox News after the briefing confirmed the Pentagon has no plan on handling ISIS detainees. Cook would not say whether the U.S. government had access to ISIS detainees once turned over to the Iraqi government. Many GOP lawmakers have urged the Pentagon to send the detainees to Guantanamo Bay, which President Obama has vowed to close.

A GOP congressional aide told Fox News, "The law requires a comprehensive detainee policy. By definition, 'we'll figure it out if we ever capture anyone' is not a comprehensive policy."

U.S. special forces captured Sulayman Dawud al-Bakkar, also known as Sleiman Daoud al-Afari, in a raid last month in northern Iraq, according to Iraqi and U.S. officials. The special commando unit was deployed to Iraq to conduct raids and collect intelligence on the ground.

The Pentagon press secretary said al-Bakkar's capture and transfer could be "a template for future cases."

Cook said the airstrikes conducted as a result of al-Bakkar's capture "disrupted and degraded" the group's chemical weapons capabilities, but did not necessarily eliminate the problem.

"We feel good about the damage we've done to the program," he said.

Cook declined to provide details of the strikes but said the information they've received will allow the U.S. to conduct additional strikes.

Al-Bakkar worked for the late President Saddam Hussein's now-dissolved Military Industrialization Authority, where he specialized in chemical and biological weapons. Iraqi intelligence officials said he is about 50 years old and headed the Islamic State group's recently established branch for the research and development of chemical weapons.

He was captured in a raid near the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A top leader of Yemen's Shiite rebels has issued a harsh rebuke of ally Iran, calling upon Tehran to back away from the crisis in Yemen.

Youssef al-Fishi, a top military commander of the rebels known as Houthis, is asking Iranian officials to "remain silent" and "stop exploiting" the Yemeni civil war for their own interests.

The remarks, posted on al-Fishi's Facebook page on Thursday, underscore how the formerly firm Houthi-Tehran alliance may be faltering after a year-long Saudi-led air campaign targeting the rebels.

The rebuke comes a day after Saudi Arabia announced it has carried out a prisoners' exchange for the first time with Yemeni tribes.

The Saudi air campaign and ground offensive aim to roll back Houthi gains after the rebels captured the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, in 2014.
A Buyers Choice Home Inspections Targets Australia for Growth

Rapidly Expanding International Home Inspections Business Advances Strategic Franchise Development

March 10, 2016 // Franchising.com // POMPANO BEACH, Fla.  A Buyers Choice Home Inspections (ABCHI), North Americas fastest-growing home inspection business, announced today an extensive growth initiative to increase its international presence in Australia.

With existing locations in 15 countries, including New Zealand, ABCHI is targeting major markets throughout Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. The franchise development strategy focuses on awarding regional territories to master franchisees who complete thorough training to build their region with unit franchises.

Through our extensive market research and analysis, we believe Australia is a major opportunity for our brand, said Bill Redfern, founder, president and CEO of ABCHI. And weve seen the unbelievable success of our master franchisee in New Zealand, who is on target to double his unit franchises in the next year or so.

ABCHI is well on its way to becoming the largest home inspections company in the world. In the past year, the company has expanded to India with plans to open 390 units in the next five years. Additional locations exist in North America, Europe and South America.

The success we have experienced with ABCHI is grounded in the strength of support the brand offers our franchise partners, including both the regional owners and unit franchisees, added Redfern. We take pride in our ability to provide extensive training, ongoing marketing assistance and a collection of proven systems and processes to help franchise partners run an effective business. And the numbers reflect that it is paying off.

With demand growing for reliable and professional home inspections that publish easy to understand results, the company is filling a void in what is often seen as an ad hoc home inspection industry. Using proprietary software, ABCHI creates comprehensive reports for consumers that help them make more informed decisions about homes they are considering purchasing. A growing number of real estate firms, agents and mortgage companies are also commonly recognizing ABCHI franchise partners as unparalleled in working with their clients.

Founded by Bill Redfern, A Buyers Choice Home Inspections quickly became the largest home inspection franchise in Canada after only two years of franchising. His track record of success stems from his remarkable attention to detail. Every ABCHI inspector is insured and certified above licensing standards, going beyond what provinces and states require of independent home inspectors.

For more information about A Buyers Choice Home Inspections and franchise opportunities in Australia, visit www.ABuyersChoice.com, call (954) 933-7129 or email bill.redfern@gfoonline.com.

About A Buyers Choice Home Inspections

A Buyers Choice Home Inspections (ABCHI) is a franchise business meeting the huge demand for home inspections. The company is rapidly expanding throughout the United States, Canada and worldwide, on a path to become the worlds largest home inspection company. By focusing on developing and maintaining local, trust-based relationships with its customers, ABCHI is creating a home inspection business unlike any other. Currently, there are nearly 200 franchises internationally across 15 countries. For more information, please visit www.ABuyersChoice.com.

For more information about A Buyers Choice Home Inspections franchise opportunities, call (954) 933-7129 or email bill.redfern@gfoonline.com.

SOURCE A Buyers Choice Home Inspections

Contact:

Katharine Nichols

All Points Public Relations

(847) 897-7495

knichols@allpointspr.com

###

Comments:

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.

Disqus
Bach to Rock Franchise Announces Plans to Develop Four New Schools in Connecticut, Georgia, New Jersey and New York

America's Music School Franchise Continues Robust, Nationwide Expansion into New and Existing Markets

March 10, 2016 // Franchising.com // BETHESDA, MD - Bach to Rock(B2R), Americas music school for students of all ages, announced today the signing of several franchise development agreements to launch four new schools in the states of Connecticut, Georgia, New Jersey and New York. The brand is experiencing a burst of growth with 30 additional franchised locations slated to break ground between 2016 and 2017.

The present development plans in Connecticut, Georgia, New Jersey and New York include:

Ridgefield, CT: New franchisee Carl Giangrasso is a former financial services executive and IT operations consultant. I am proud to be opening the first Bach to Rock in Connecticut this fall, and am eager to make our school a community hub for musicians of all ages to expand their talents, he said.

New franchisee Carl Giangrasso is a former financial services executive and IT operations consultant. I am proud to be opening the first Bach to Rock in Connecticut this fall, and am eager to make our school a community hub for musicians of all ages to expand their talents, he said. Roswell, GA: Husband and wife team Carmen and Nancy Guinto are thrilled to be opening Georgias first Bach to Rock in the Atlanta area in the fall of 2016. Nancy is a classically trained pianist and educator, and while Carmen is an IT professional and business owner, he is also an aspiring vocalist, guitarist, bassist and harmonica player. We want our Bach to Rock school to be a place that everyone enjoys, from our employees to our students. Its like creating a new extended musical family, said the couple.

Husband and wife team Carmen and Nancy Guinto are thrilled to be opening Georgias first Bach to Rock in the Atlanta area in the fall of 2016. Nancy is a classically trained pianist and educator, and while Carmen is an IT professional and business owner, he is also an aspiring vocalist, guitarist, bassist and harmonica player. We want our Bach to Rock school to be a place that everyone enjoys, from our employees to our students. Its like creating a new extended musical family, said the couple. Rockland County, NY and Paramus/Ridgewood, NJ: Eric Philo is a former investment banker and corporate analyst. He is confident that Bach to Rock is a solid business proposition; however, it is the opportunity to help kids break out of their digital habits that captivated him. Music is a way to teach the digital generation about interacting with other kids by playing music, talking, laughing and joking, he said. With his own album debuting later this year, Philo is delighted to share his passion for music with students when he expands Bach to Rocks presence in New York and New Jersey this fall.

I am very honored to welcome these franchisees to the Bach to Rock family. We are experiencing continued growth due to our proven business model and music education philosophy, said Brian Gross, president of Bach to Rock. We have a winning formula that helps budding musicians of all ages nurture and grow their talent. At the same time, we help fill a void left behind by school budget cutbacks. Bach to Rock offers a prime opportunity for entrepreneurs to become successful.

Bach to Rock franchisees are provided with an array of tools to position them for success, including extensive hands-on training, marketing and public relations support and a proprietary web-based management system, along with demonstrated techniques for business growth. Franchisees also benefit from multiple revenue streams such as individual and group classes, early childhood education programs, state-of-the-art recording studios, summer and winter camps, birthday parties and more.

Bach to Rock has repeatedly been named to Entrepreneurs Franchise 500 and was listed in the Top Ten Trending Categories for 2016. In 2014, Inc. Magazine named Bach to Rock one of the fastest-growing private companies in America for the third consecutive year and Franchise Times ranked it as one of the 500 Powerhouse Brands and on its Next 300 Franchise System list. In addition, Washington Family Magazine named Bach to Rock to its Best Music Instruction list and readers of Northern Virginia Magazine voted the company as Best Piano Instruction. Bach to Rock also was named the number one company to watch by the Washington Business Journal.

Bach to Rock is currently seeking qualified candidates to open franchise locations in markets across the country. Individuals seeking to own and operate a Bach to Rock should possess a minimum net worth of $500,000 and liquid assets of at least $100,000. While music experience or ability is not necessary, candidates should have a passion for music and be able to build a strong team of committed musicians to ensure the schools success. Franchisees can expect their initial investment to range from approximately $370,000 to $522,500, including a $35,000 franchise fee.

To learn more about music school franchise ownership opportunities with Bach to Rock, as well as its veteran and franchise referral programs, contact Ralph Rillon, vice president of franchise development, at 1-855-227-7570 or franchise(at)bachtorock(dot)com, or visit http://www.bachtorockfranchise.com.

About Bach to Rock

Bach to Rock (B2R) is a music education school for students of all ages from early childhood through high school and beyond. B2R knows learning music should be fun and students learn best when they play music they enjoy. Weekly ensemble instruction and band formations lead to public concerts, Battle of the Bands and recording sessions in B2Rs professional recording studios. B2R builds technique, fosters teamwork and enhances self-esteem through private lessons, band instruction, and public performances. Bach to Rock opened its first corporate-owned location in 2007 in Bethesda, MD., and with its most recent opening in Wellesley, MA, has now grown to 12 schools in California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Ten franchised schools are in development in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, New York, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia, with an additional 30 schools in development nationwide. Follow B2R on Facebook athttp://www.facebook.com/BachtoRock and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/BachtoRock. For more information, visit http://www.bachtorock.com or call 1-877-227-8558.

SOURCE Bach to Rock

Media Contact:

Angela Sakell

Bach to Rock

240-620-3031

asakell@bachtorock.com

###

Comments:

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.

Disqus
Blast 825 Pizza Opens Newest Restaurant in Huntington Beach, CA

March 10, 2016 // Franchising.com // HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA  Blast 825, a quick-fired pizza restaurant, will celebrate the grand opening of its newest location in Huntington Beach, CA on March 11 at 18541 Beach Blvd. from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Guests will enjoy half-off all pizzas, with proceeds given to the Orange County SPCA through the restaurants Blast Buddies pet charity program.

In a fast-paced, social world, who says pizza should be any different? Todays customers know exactly what they want, and Blast 825 Pizza gives it to them fresh and fast  in just three minutes quick.

Its simple: customers choose their hand-stretched and made-fresh-daily dough, their favorite sauce, and an unlimited number of the freshest toppings available. Once their hand-crafted pizza masterpieces are prepared, an 825 blast of heat does the rest. Customers can watch as their personal pie bubbles up to perfection in the restaurants custom brick ovens. Three short minutes later, the pizza is ready to enjoy  making a deliciously interactive dining experience.

Blast 825 Pizza is never boring with new flavor combinations to discover. Thriving on customer creativity allows everyone to get exactly what they want  kids can eat like kids and adults can satisfy a more sophisticated pizza palate.

The entire community is invited to come have a BLAST anytime between 11 a.m. and 10 p.m. to experience one of the hottest new trends in the industry from a company that sets a new standard of customer service and has a real connection with its community. To help welcome Blast 825 to Huntington Beach, the local Chamber of Commerce is performing a ribbon-cutting ceremony in front of the restaurant on March 11 at 4 p.m.

My partner, Sophie Wang, and I are absolutely delighted to be the first of the Blast 825 Pizza franchise to open in Southern California, said Jim Hudson, owner of Blast 825 Pizza in Huntington Beach, CA. It is our mission to bring the best tasting pizza to Huntington Beach and the surrounding communities. Weve created a very welcoming space, where guests can relax and savor their food with a great beer or glass of wine. Guests will discover that Blast 825 Pizza is a great place to linger, relax and chat with friends and family.

At Blast 825 Pizza, pets are important, too. Thats why the Huntington Beach location features a pet- friendly patio and has invited the Orange County SPCA to be part of its celebration. Proceeds from each pizza sold during the restaurants grand opening will be given to the non-profit that is committed to fostering the humane treatment of animals through: education, relieving animal suffering, promoting the animal/human bond and providing cruelty intervention.

As part of our belief in corporate philanthropy, Blast 825 Pizza makes it a priority to give back to charities at the local level each time a new restaurant opens its doors, said Tom Ferdinandi, chief operating officer for Milano. We have deep roots in giving back to the community and believe that a company is only as strong as the community in which it lives and does business.

Currently, Blast 825 has eight California locations: Clovis, Rocklin, Roseville, Elk Grove, Cupertino, Fresno, Huntington Beach and San Luis Obispo.

About Blast 825 Pizza

Founded in 2013, Blast 825 Pizza is a quick-fired pizza restaurant chain known for the 825 BLAST of heat given to every custom pizza, creating pizza perfection in just three minutes. Guests create a personal 10 pizza, choosing from 40 fresh toppings, four artisanal sauces and three types of hand- stretched dough, including gluten-free, to customize their perfect pie. Toppings on the signature 18- foot bar include spicy pepperoni, artichokes, and vegetables roasted in-house, with finishing sauces like pesto, BBQ and infused olive oil. Blast 825 Pizza is a division of parent company Milano Restaurants International Corporation, a restaurant management company headquartered in Fresno, California that has owned and operated award-winning restaurants for over 55 years. For more information on Blast 825 Pizza and franchising opportunities, visit www.blast825pizza.com and for more information on Milano Restaurants, visit www.milano-ri.com.

SOURCE Blast 825 Pizza

Media Contact:

Sarah Pruner Gunlund

(559) 268-9741

spruner@jsaweb.com

###

Comments:

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.

Disqus
Home Care Assistance of Greater Chicago Launches Campaign to Honor Aging Adults

Home Care Assistance, the premier provider of home care services, recently launched a campaign, We See You, which features photographs and stories of senior clients acknowledging their accomplishments and life experiences

March 10, 2016 // Franchising.com // Chicago, IL  Home Care Assistance of Greater Chicago, a premier home care provider, is excited to announce We See You, a campaign designed to highlight the lives of senior clients through photographs and stories.

When I sit with our clients, the picture of their lives fills in so beautifully, says Margalit Tocher, President of Home Care Assistance Chicago. When they realize that we truly see them, they light up.

Margalits experiences inspired her to bring the campaign to life through a video featuring her grandmother and using images from her grandmothers past to create a beautiful montage over the course of the film.

Nine out of ten seniors prefer to age in the comfort of their own home, yet thousands of seniors still move to facilities every year. A professionally trained and compassionate caregiver can provide the support to help each senior age safely and independently for as long as possible where they prefer: home. Home Care Assistance caregivers provide the following services to help seniors live well at home: hourly and live-in care, meal preparation, transportation, walking/transferring assistance, medication reminders, companionship and more.

I feel that our success in providing exceptional home care is that we take the time and effort to not just see an individual, but to appreciate his or her experiences, passions and accomplishments. We see the person for who he or she is, in addition to the individual as he or she is today, Margalit adds. The company seeks this same level of compassion in its caregivers so that each client is treated like a family member, providing peace of mind for their loved ones.

Home Care Assistance hires only the most qualified and compassionate individuals as caregivers to serve the evolving needs of the companys clientele. Home Care Assistance accepts only one out of every 25 caregiver applicants on average. Applicants undergo thorough screening including background checks, reference checks and work authorization. A proprietary Caregiver Personality Screening test assesses each applicants traits, such as kindness, honesty and conscientiousness.

To learn more about Home Care Assistance and the companys We See You campaign, visit weseeyouchicago.com.

About Home Care Assistance

Home Care Assistance is the leading provider of home care for seniors across the United States, Canada and Australia. Our mission is to change the way the world ages. We provide older adults with quality care that enables them to live happier, healthier lives at home. Our services are distinguished by the caliber of our caregivers, the responsiveness of our staff and our expertise in Live-In care. We embrace a positive, balanced approach to aging centered on the evolving needs of older adults. A 2016 Franchise500 and Inc. 5000 Company, Home Care Assistance has received numerous industry awards including Entrepreneurs Fastest-Growing Franchises and Franchise Business Reviews Top 50. For more information about Home Care Assistance, our services and franchise opportunities, visithomecareassistance.com.

SOURCE Home Care Assistance

Media Contact:

Kathryn Zakskorn

Director of Franchise Marketing

650-462-9501

kzakskorn@homecareassistance.com

###

Comments:

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.

Disqus
Just Between Friends Franchise Experiencing Growth Nationwide

26 Franchises Hit at Least 30 percent Growth in One Year

North Americas Leading Childrens and Maternity Consignment Event Helps Families Save & Earn Money

March 10, 2016 // Franchising.com // Tulsa, Okla.  Despite an uncertain economic situation, North Americas Leading Childrens and Maternity Consignment Event Franchise, continues to grow. Just Between Friends Franchise System, Inc. is celebrating 26 franchises that each experienced at least 30% growth or higher year over year. Two franchises  one in Delaware & one in Colorado - each grew by more than 100%. JBF offers a family-friendly, flexible business opportunity that does not require a large investment. Here is the list of the franchises and the moms & dads who own & operate them.

Middletown/Dover, DE: Eileen Cordero  129%

Pueblo, CO: Brenda Sanchez  112%

Katy, TX: Kris & Mandy Kimmel  91%

Kingwood, TX: Laurie Morse & Linda Reeves - 81%

Orlando, FL: Josie Karash  77%

St. Cloud, MN: Kelly Studer & Jenny Studer - 77%

Phoenix Northwest, AZ: Janell Perkins - 74%

Wilmington/Newark, DE: Eileen Cordero  70%

Maple Grove, MN: Kris Bishop & Katy Saunders - 68%

Enid/Ponca City, OK: Kristal Schlichting 66%

Mahoning Valley, OH: Kathy Clark 62%

McAllen, TX: Claudia & Raul Garcia - 56%

Vancouver, WA: Pat Meyers - 55%

Bell County, TX: Theresa Spaulding & Nicole Euting - 49%

Des Moines, IA: Marisa Clark  48%

Eden Prairie, MN: Kris Bishop & Katy Saunders - 46%

Somerset/Middlesex, NJ: Tara Green - 43%

Kirkwood/Arnold, MO: Marcia Restrepo & Nancy Duin - 41%

Tacoma, WA: Allison Stephens - 39%

Georgetown/Round Rock, TX: Bridget Jones  38%

Pleasanton, CA: Gina Pascual - 37%

Everett, WA: Eunice Gong - 37%

Salem, OR: Ron Caton  34%

Rochester, MN: Chuck Tebow & Khiengchai Fulton - 34%

White Bear Lake, MN: Denise Klipsic - 33%

Tucson, AZ: Shawna Wilfert  30%

Just Between Friends Franchise System, Inc. continues to grow as a whole as well, with a record 735,000 families shopping their 150+s consignment sales events in 2015 throughout the US and Canada.

When our franchisees do well, it means that we are helping even more families. Our events touch hundreds of thousands of families and give back to their local communities. This is truly a win-win-win business, explains Shannon Wilburn, CEO and Co-Founder of Just Between Friends Franchise System, Inc., based in Tulsa, Okla. She explains how JBF continues to grow despite the economic climate.

Just Between Friends is truly a recession-proof business. The 2008 market crash and recession changed the way people shop. Even in good economic times, people now want to be frugal and find ways to save & make extra cash. When things are uncertain, especially in the oil states, JBF is a great option to help families make ends meet.

Just Between Friends has 153 franchises in 28 states and one in Canada. Each franchise has two to three consignment events a year. During these events, local families can sell new and gently used childrens and maternity items, while setting their own price and earning up to 70 percent of the sales. Franchise owners provide the venue and marketing to make the event a success. Each event also partners with at least one local charity, providing cash and in-kind donations.

About Just Between Friends

In 1997, Just Between Friends was created in a living room in Tulsa, Oklahoma when Shannon Wilburn, a mother of two young children, and her friend Daven Tackett hosted a sale with 17 friends as consignors and had gross sales of $2000. In 2015, that same sale hosted two events and grossed almost 1 million dollars. The sales caught on with families and grew, so in 2003, they formed Just Between Friends Franchise Systems, Inc. Wilburn is now sole owner and CEO of Just Between Friends Franchise Systems, Inc., which has 153 franchises in 28 states and one in Canada. System wide sales in 2015 topped 27 million and they expect to top 29 million in 2016. In June 2015, Forbes Magazine named Just Between Friends one of the top five franchises in the United States, up from #10 in 2014. JBF was also named one of Entrepreneur Magazines Top 500 Franchises in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. Just Between Friends Franchise Systems Inc. also received a Franchisee Satisfaction Award and was named in the Top 50 franchises by Franchise Business Review for the past 6 years. JBF has been featured on numerous national television shows including The Today Show, Good Morning America, Real Biz with Rebecca Jarvis, Fox News, CBS Early Show, ABC News, CNN, Headline News, Inside Edition and CNBCs The Big Idea. They have also been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Inc.com as well as many top markets including Seattle, Denver, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco and Philadelphia and on popular websites www.yahoo.com, www.sheknows.com and Disney website www.family.com.

SOURCE Just Between Friends

Contact:

Diane White

(918) 770-3905

DianeWhite@jbfsale.com

###

Comments:

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.

Disqus
Minuteman Press in Bristol, England Wins Two Sustainable Transport Awards at Travelwest Business Travel Awards

The Minuteman Press franchise in Bristol, England was recognized for their efforts in making a positive impact on the environment by winning two sustainable transport awards at the Travelwest Business Travel Awards 2015. They were awarded Best Newcomer and also won their category at the Big Commuting Challenge, successfully reducing their regular car journeys to zero and changing to doing all their deliveries by electric bike and trailer.

March 10, 2016 // Franchising.com // BRISTOL, England - Minuteman Press in Bristol has pitched in to help the environment by instituting sustainable travel practices for commuting to work and making deliveries to clients. As a result of these efforts, Minuteman Press in Bristol was honored at the Travelwest Business Travel Awards, winning two sustainable business travel awards: Best Newcomer and category winner for the Big Commuting Challenge.

Travelwest issued the following statement on their website about Minuteman Press impressive sustainable business travel achievements when awarding them the Best Newcomer award: Minuteman Press are a small business in South Bristol  their achievements include winning their category at the Big Commuting Challenge this year, successfully reducing their regular car journeys to zero, and changing to doing all their deliveries by electric bike and trailer.

Peter Wise, Director of Minuteman Press in Bristol, commented on winning the Best Newcomer award from Travelwest: We are thrilled to have won this award. It was honour enough to have been in the final shortlist. He added, A small business in South Bristol turning words into actions, contributing to the environment in a positive way and in any weather.

Minuteman Press in Bristol operates with no motor vehicles, as all staff members have made a commitment to sustainable transport. Each person on the team commutes to and from work by public transportation (train, bus) or by bicycle and foot. For local meetings and deliveries, the Minuteman Press team in Bristol travels via bicycle and trailer, which helps the environment as well as their business because deliveries are on time, traffic and parking issues are avoided, and there are no fuel costs.

With the same passion they have for helping their customers, Minuteman Press in Bristol is committed to sustainable transport. Their fleet of bikes has grown, and members of the team find the practice rewarding thanks to the exercise and fresh air that are now built in to their daily routines.

We are proud of the entire team at Minuteman Press in Bristol for winning two such prestigious awards, said Mark Jones, Minuteman Press International Area Manager for the UK South region. Their commitment to sustainable business travel is only matched by the hard work they put in to helping their customers on a daily basis.

For more information on Minuteman Press in Bristol, visit http://www.minutemanbristol.com.

Learn more about Minuteman Press franchise opportunities at http://www.minutemanpressfranchise.com.

About Minuteman Press

Serving the business community for over 40 years, Minuteman Press customer service driven business model provides digital print, design and promotional products and services to businesses from concept review through to completion. Today we are much more than just print; we can provide anything you can put a name, image or logo on! Our new slogan  We Design, Print & Promote YOU!  indicates the wide variety of products and services we offer that go beyond printing.

For more information about our products and services or to find your local Minuteman Press, visit www.minutemanpress.com.

About Minuteman Press International

Repeatedly ranked #1 in category by Entrepreneur Magazine, Minuteman Press International is a top rated business service franchise that offers world class training and unparalleled ongoing local support. Minuteman Press opened in 1973 and began franchising in 1975. Today, there are more than 900 locations worldwide including the U.S., Australia, Canada, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Minuteman Press aims to grow to more than 1,000 franchises within the next three years. Prior experience is not necessary to own and operate a successful Minuteman Press franchise.

Learn more about Minuteman Press franchise opportunities at www.minutemanpressfranchise.com.

Like Us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/MinutemanPressFranchise

Follow Us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/MinutemanIntl

Join Us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/minuteman-press



SOURCE Minuteman Press International

Contact:

Al Sanders

Minuteman Press Franchise Opportunities

1-800-645-3006

Chris Biscuiti

Media Relations

cbiscuiti@mpihq.com

###

Add to Request List Added Request Information

Comments:

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.

Disqus
RICHMONDMore stringent water treatment and fish testing will be required along the James River under a settlement reached by Dominion Virginia Power and the James River Association on the release of coal ash wastewater.

The announcement Wednesday ends the associations legal challenge of a state permit allowing the so-called de-watering of coal ash impoundments at Bremo Power Station in Fluvanna County. Water is drained from the ponds before the power company caps the potentially toxic remnants of coal-fired power generation.

But a separate challenge will move forward of the de-watering plan for Dominions Possum Point power plant in Northern Virginia. The Potomac Riverkeeper Network said the state permit for discharges into Quantico Creek and the Potomac River is inadequate to protect the waterways.

Late Tuesday, Prince William County announced it had reached settlement with Dominion and would not challenge the Possum Point permit.

The settlement governing the Bremo discharges followed weeks of debate, protests and arrests over the discharge of millions of gallons of coal ash wastewater into state waterways. Much of the anger has been directed at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, which issued the permits.

The DEQ said in a statement it was pleased Dominion will voluntarily go beyond federal and state regulatory requirements to further enhance water quality protections at its Bremo and Possum Point power stations. It defended the permits, saying they protect water quality and human and aquatic health.

Bill Street, chief executive officer of the James River Association, said the enhanced water treatments for Bremo are aimed at maintaining the James water quality. The fish testing will involve tissue sampling conducted over the next two years to see if any toxins are collecting in the fish as a result of the discharges.
Data add up

During the 30-year period examined, SWOG completed 94 randomized Phase 3 clinical trials  the largest and most definitive type of clinical trial conducted in the U.S. before a treatment is brought to market. Such studies are designed to show whether a treatment works, or doesnt. Those 94 trials tested therapies for patients with a range of cancer types and involved a grand total of 46,424 patient volunteers, randomized to receive either the experimental treatment or the standard-of-care treatment.

Of those 94 trials, 28 closed early, mainly due to a lack of volunteers, so we dont know the answers to the scientific questions those trials posited. Of the remaining trials, 26 showed positive results and 40 had negative findings, where the experimental therapy didnt work as hoped.

Unger and his colleagues looked at the 273 scientific articles published using data from those 66 positive and negative cancer trials and used Google Scholar (Googles academic literature search engine) to ask how many times each article was cited by later articles in the field  a rough approximation of how important other scientists found each publication.

[Citations] are a metric that represents a construct that is kind of hard to measure, which is impact, scientific impact, Unger said.

When it came to primary articles  those papers reporting actual trial outcomes  positive trials did tend to get more citations than negative trials, they found. From 1995 to 2014, the primary papers about positive-trial results garnered more than 15,000 citations (or an average of 43 per year for each article), while those about negative findings got just above 9,100 (an average of 21 per year per article). These primary, positive-trial articles also tended to be published in higher-visibility, higher-impact medical journals.

But when the researchers added in the secondary articles  that is, publications about anything learned from the trials results, from new biomarkers to new hypotheses  the picture changed. On average, there were 55 citations per year for each article for positive trials, and 45 per year for the negative trials, a difference the researchers found was not statistically meaningful. The sum of all the citations for both primary and secondary articles was nearly identical for positive and negative results, with over 21,000 citations for each.

All those numbers add up to one overarching theme: The redemption of the negative finding.

Negative trials matter because they tell us what doesnt work  which can be as important as what does, Dr. Dawn Hershman, a Columbia University oncologist and one of the study co-authors, said in a statement.

And its not just academic. Negative results can have real, immediate impact for patients, too. Take the example of a drug thats being prescribed off-label for a given condition, a relatively common situation, Unger said. Now, imagine that drug is tested in a rigorous Phase 3 trial for that condition.

If a trial like that turns out to be negative, and shows that the new drug doesnt work, that can be beneficial to patients, Unger said. They may have been spending a lot more money on this drug that people think is working when, in fact, it isnt, or they can be experiencing some toxicities from this drug that they wouldnt otherwise, or they can have their hopes raised about a cure in a way that turns out to be unreasonable and not borne out by the results.

So its another reason, I think, patients would be comforted by the idea that contributing to a trial, regardless of how it turns out, is really important. Because the information is vitally important, whether it ends up being positive or negative, he said.

The real negative

There is a third class of trials that Unger views as true failures  and the study bears this out. These are the trials that close early, usually due to a lack of volunteers. Among the 94 SWOG trials in the study, nearly 30 percent fell into this category.

The trials that have the least impact are those that are never finished, Unger said.

He hopes his study will change perceptions of clinical trials, both the positive studies and negative findings, and help all communities involved in medical research  patients, clinicians and the researchers themselves  understand that contributing to a clinical trial will have value, no matter the outcome, as long as there is an outcome.

Sometimes, studies fail after a lot of resources and a lot of patient time and effort and investigator time and effort were put into them, he said. The most important thing is that when a study is launched, it completes, because if it does complete its going to have a meaningful impact either way.

Funding for the study came from the Dr. Charles A. Coltman Jr. Fellowship of The Hope Foundation, the public charity for SWOG; and from the National Cancer Institute's Community Oncology Research Program Research Base grant.
Love For Jewelry Online Shop For Jewelry Lovers Starts 13 March 2016

Love For Jewelry announced the availability of their new Love For Jewelry Online Shop Service beginning 13 March 2016. More information can be found at http://loveforjewelry.com.

--

Customers looking for the latest Love For Jewelry Online Shop Service availability will soon be able to get involved with. Today Francis Chua, Owner at Love For Jewelry releases details of the new Love For Jewelry Online Shop Service's development.

The Love For Jewelry Online Shop is designed to appeal specifically to jewelry lovers and includes:

Free International Shipping - This was included because it will ensure the price the customers see is the price they will be paying. This is great news for the consumer as this will not confuse them when they perform a checkout of the item.

Multiple Payment Options - This was made available, so that customers can choose to pay via credit cards or PayPal. Customers who use the service should enjoy this feature because this will give them the flexibility when purchasing as they have the option to use the payment gateway they are comfortable with.

Secure Checkout - Love For Jewelry made sure to make this part of the Love For Jewelry online shop Service's development as customer information are being encrypted when purchasing. Customers of the Love For Jewelry online shop will likely appreciate this because this will give them greater peace of mind as they will know that their data are secured.

Francis Chua, when asked about the Love For Jewelry Online Shop said:

"Our Online Shop will be available 247. Customers will have the ability to purchase our jewelry from the comfort of their home."

This is the latest offering from Love For Jewelry and Francis Chua is particularly excited about this launch because It is really going to put the business on the map and will be able to reach customers from every corner of the world. He's excited about this as Love For Jewelry has been working on this for the past few months and finally all the pieces are in place and are able to launch it now.

Those interested in learning more about Love For Jewelry and their Online Shop can do so on the website at http://loveforjewelry.com.

For more information about us, please visit http://loveforjewelry.com/

Contact Info:

Name: Francis Chua

Email: media@loveforjewelry.com

Organization: Love For Jewelry

Address: 10 Anson Road #10-11 International Plaza Singapore 079903

Phone: +6597966321

Release ID: 106444

For more information visit r



Recent Press Releases By The Same User

Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17)
Stein Tree Service Receives Top-Notch Reviews

This month, five customers gave Stein Tree Service five-star reviews on Google+.

--

Stein Tree Service has gained a reputation as one of the best in the business, which is evidenced by its numerous positive reviews. Just this month, the tree care company received five customer reviews on Google+, all evaluating their experience with the company as five out of five stars, which is the highest rating. The experts at Stein Tree Service are delighted to read what their customers have to say.

"When our customers are happy, we are happy," said Jeff Stein, Owner and Founder of Stein Tree Service. "And when they tell us why they are satisfied, we get excited to share it."

One customer stated that Jeff of Stein Tree Services has been a dependable arborist for many years, who has given fair estimates and shows up promptly to see what work needs to be done. As one of the most experienced tree guys in the area, Stein is able to give honest and knowledgeable advice and is willing to answer any type of question regarding tree and plant health. The tree service crews were also complimented on being friendly and getting the job done well.

Several reviewers commented on the tree care company's commitment to cleaning up after every job and described that there was no debris left behind after the work was completed. One reviewer stated that Stein Tree Service was voted the Best Tree Service to call on in the customer's neighborhood. The customer also spoke well of the company's storm aid program, a type of storm damage plan that residents can purchase. Emergency tree services may be rendered when a storm strikes, which may leave fallen trees or branches that must be cleaned up in order to prevent further damage to properties. Customers may choose between two storm clean up plans, which will ensure that they receive service no matter the size of damage without having to pay thousands of dollars. For a low annual fee, customers can receive five or ten hours of clean up and debris removal services. The crews are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and the trucks may be dispatched by radio to be available in less than two hours.

Additional compliments were given concerning Stein Tree Service's commitment to quality work. To read the reviews posted on Google+, visit https://goo.gl/maps/ac15YAWKi3n.

About Stein Tree Service:

Founded in 1983 by ISA Board Certified Arborist and highly experienced tree expert, Jeff Stein, Stein Tree Service provides top quality tree care. The tree care company is licensed in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey and consists of over a dozen full-time employees, including ISA Certified Tree Risk Assessors and ISA Certified Arborists, who have provided many years of property safety. With state-of-the-art equipment, Stein Tree Service provides residential, commercial, municipal and emergency tree care.

For more information about us, please visit http://steintree.com/

Contact Info:

Name: Jeff Stein

Organization: Stein Tree Service

Address: 3607 Downing Dr, Suite 4 Wilmington, DE 19802

Phone: 302-478-3511

Video URL: https://youtu.be/wOkQkDeIFSQ

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/stein-tree-service-receives-top-notch-reviews/106512

Release ID: 106512

For more information visit r



Recent Press Releases By The Same User

Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17)
Aragon Moving Makes its Biggest Move Yet

FORT LAUDERDALE - Aragon Moving Systems, winner of HomeAdvisor's Best of 2015 industry awards, announces a giant leap forward with an expansion of its facilities at a new Fort Lauderdale location.

--

Florida's favorite mover offers its clients a big expansion in capabilities. FORT LAUDERDALE - Aragon Moving Systems, winner of HomeAdvisor's Best of 2015 industry awards, announces a giant leap forward with an expansion of its facilities at a new Fort Lauderdale location. With Aragon's increase in capacity, they have become the go-to resource for large scale international moves for all of South Florida. Aragon will still provide its award-winning services for local moves, but beginning in the Spring of 2016 they will be able to provide Florida residents with the best and most comprehensive options on the market for every type of move possible.

"Moving is a stressful time for everyone," says Ely Nagli, Aragon Moving System's Managing Partner. "And with international moves, everything is just a little more complicated. That's why Aragon is focused on upgrading it's facilities to be able to better handle the logistics of a move to Europe, Latin America, or Canada."

The expansion consists of a merger with a bigger entity and a move of the company's headquarters from Miami to Fort Lauderdale, where the demand for reputable moving companies is higher for both long distance and local moves. Aragon looks to continue its great relationships across Miami-Dade County as it expands to better serve Broward County and the rest of Florida. When looking for Maimi movers or movers in Fort Lauderdale for any of local, long distance, or international upcoming moves do keep Aragon Movers in mind. As a family owned and operated company with years of moving experience, they take pride in providing the best possible moving services, tailored to suit any customer's requirements. For more information, please visit Aragon Movers

Contact Info:

Name: Ely Nagli

Email: info@aragonmovers.com

Phone: 305-509-6488

Organization: Aragon Moving Systems

Source: http://www.prreach.com/pr/22917

Release ID: 106544

For more information visit r



Recent Press Releases By The Same User

Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17)
Locum GP Plymouth Launches Website To Promote Services To Local Community

Locum GP Dr. Bradley Tomkins has launched a personal website to enable the local community to find out more about his credentials and history, to feel more at ease with their general practice care.

--

General Practitioners are the first point of contact for the NHS, and face a daily challenge to identify and treat the common problems and ailments individuals may be developing, as well as being responsible for the early identification of more serious conditions. GPs play a vital role, and despite their years of training and preparation, many patients know relatively little about them as people. Locum Doctor Bradley Tomkins is looking to change that, with a new website dedicated to sharing his personal information, work history and more with patients and doctors alike in the Plymouth region.

The website is simple, clear and straightforward, with a high quality image of Dr. Tomkins up front before diving straight into the details of his life and career, including the kind of training he has received, his previous experience and his current availability, together with his credentials, including his status as a member of the Royal College of General Practitioners.

The information is not only informative but interesting, with details on his time serving as an officer in the Royal Navy and his family life. The website offers a point of contact for NHS services throughout Plymouth to contact him to have him work at their practice whether they require short term cover or a long term resident doctor.

A spokesperson for Locum GP Plymouth explained, "Locum GP Dr. Bradley Tomkins has created this website to ensure patients and fellow professionals alike can find all the information they need on his work, experience and availability. He is currently available for opportunities within NHS and private practices and eager to continue helping those in need receive the highest quality of care. With a personable approach, expert knowledge and years of experience, he will make an ideal addition to any practice in or around the Locum and Plymouth areas."

About Locum GP Plymouth: Locum GP Plymouth is a biographical website offering information on local Locum GP Dr. Bradley Tomkins. The website has been designed to offer clean and clear insights into Dr. Tomkins' life, career and practice and enable people to get in touch to arrange and appointment easily online.

For more information about us, please visit http://locum-gp-plymouth.co.uk

Contact Info:

Name: PRWhirlWind

Organization: PRWhirlWind



Source: http://marketersmedia.com/locum-gp-plymouth-launches-website-to-promote-services-to-local-community/106594

Release ID: 106594

For more information visit r



Recent Press Releases By The Same User

Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17)
Home Care Assistance - Toronto/York Region Weighs in on Launch of National Institute on Ageing

Toronto/York region speaks about a new initiative from the Ted Rogers School of Management addressing the issue of ageing in Canada.

--

Home Care Assistance - Toronto / York Region (HomeCareAssistance-Toronto.com), the leading provider of non-medical, in-home senior care in the Greater Toronto Area, weighs in on the opening of the National Institute of Ageing.

The Ted Rogers School of Management has recently announced the opening of its National Institute of Ageing (NIA). The goal of the institute is to provide research related to ageing from both the health and financial perspectives. (Source: Song, M., "Ted Rogers School of Management launches National Institute on Aging," The Eyeopener, March 5, 2016; http://theeyeopener.com/2016/03/trsm-launches-national-institute-on-aging/.)

"Being in an industry where we cater nearly exclusively to seniors, it's important for us to know that there is attention being given to the reality of ageing," says Brian Shevel, president of Home Care Assistance - Toronto/York Region. "We're going through a transition in this country, and we all need to make sure we are taking measures to ensure those who are ageing are doing so in a safe and healthy manner with the resources and access to services they need to continue living fruitful lives."

The City of Toronto is just one of many partners that the Ted Rogers School of Management has secured. The Ontario Gerontology Association, Sinai Health System, and the International Federation on Aging have all joined together to help guide the success of this institute.

"When you see these types of organizations taking part, you know there's something positive happening," Shevel continues. "We can only assume the research and information coming out of this institute will be beneficial in many ways to the Canadian public, particularly the elderly."

The NIA is an expansion of an initiative launched last year called Pension Innovative Research (PIR). This more recent launch is an attempt to broaden the scope of how ageing is viewed and is one of the only institutes of its kind to include the financial aspects of ageing. The NIA aims to allow ageing Canadians to remain independent, engaged, and a productive part of the society.

"When you look at those goals, they match nearly precisely with what we aim to do here at Home Care Assistance. When we see goals that align so closely, we have to acknowledge that this is the start of something that can help improve the transition of our ageing population," Shevel concludes.

Home Care Assistance - Toronto/York Region provides caregivers who are specially trained to assist seniors practically and with sensitivity. More information can be found at www.HomeCareAssistance-Toronto.com.

For more information about us, please visit http://www.homecareassistance-toronto.com

Contact Info:

Name: Brian Shevel

Organization: Home Care Assistance - Toronto

Address: 3300 Rutherford Rd., Unit A6 Highlands Farm Center Vaughan, Ontario L4K 5Z2

Phone: 416-822-0204

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/home-care-assistance-torontoyork-region-weighs-in-on-launch-of-national-institute-on-ageing/106602

Release ID: 106602

For more information visit r



Recent Press Releases By The Same User

Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17)

Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17)
Advertorial: Nigel, can you tell me about what led you to the creation of your new opportunity?

Last year we completed a successful raise for our hydro EIS, however, following theremoval of renewable energy businesses benefitting from qualifying for EIS relief, TIME has been seeking new asset backed EIS opportunities. Our focus was on trades we considered to be real investments genuinely in line with the intentions of the Enterprise Investment Scheme, rather than overly contrived vehicles that rely too heavily on the tax breaks. One of the areas which TIME has been monitoring for many years is shipping and this is a sector we feel is an ideal fit with EIS.

TIME:EIS invests in dry bulk shipping, offering investors an asset backed opportunity in a global industry that has been established for hundreds of years. This non-contentious business model makes TIME:EIS an excellent fit within the EIS regulations  which is why advance assurance from HM Revenue & Customs has already been granted. Asset backing will take the form of physical ownership of assets i.e. ships, providing added security for investors.

TIME:EIS targets an initial fund raise of 20 million, split across four tranches.

Shipping is a diverse industry and following substantial research and analysis of market trends, TIME has taken the decision to focus on the dry bulk shipping sector, targetingHandymax and Supramax vessels. The base case target return for TIME:EIS is 1.27 plus up to 30 pence income tax relief.

What makes shipping an attractive investment opportunity?

The dry bulk shipping industry currently faces considerable challenges, with charter rates barely covering operating costs and therefore many ship owners and operators that have to cover the costs of debt are operating at a loss. Against a backdrop of increasing worldwide demand for the transport of goods, it is easy to see why industry forecasters are expecting an improvement in the next three to five years.

Shipping has substantial tax free upside potential should charter rates, and as a result, vessel values, rise. As TIME expects them to, over the next three to five years. Government support for new sources of finance for the shipping industry is strongly evidenced, with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury announcing in September 2015 that, the British Government will pull out all the stops to keep the UK a world-leading maritime centre. The Department for Transport also released their September 2015 Maritime Growth Study in which they support investment in UK shipping businesses. The Department for Transport stated that, A thriving maritime sector is extremely important in supporting the wider UK economy.

The asset backed nature of shipping, in the form of physical ownership of vessels, also provides attractive downside protection for investors. With a typical lifespan of 25+ years, ships are normally sold on at a price linked to the current and expected charter rates, as well as retaining a significant scrap value for the steel they are built from. It is important to highlight that TIME:EIS will not be utilising any borrowings for vessel acquisition. This means we will be able to react promptly to the right opportunities for asset acquisition, without having to satisfy bank lending arrangements.
Investment advisers will be forced to pay the cost of compensating clients of a failed IFA who mis-sold high-risk unregulated investments, after the Financial Services Compensation Scheme declared the firm in default.

In its latest update for the period from 1 November to 31 December 2015, the FSCS listed 11 firms within its investment, life and pensions categories where it is now accepting claims for compensation, including Turnberry Wealth Management.

Turnberry, which entered liquidation last March, lost at least three cases with the Financial Ombudsman Service before it collapsed.

The Fos ruled the IFA advised clients to invest in high risk unregulated schemes that were unsuitable for them.

One was an investment in a scheme that could have resulted in 100% loss of capital, in order to reduce the clients tax liability.

In another case, Turnberry recommended a client borrow money to invest in an unregulated scheme, also to save tax, that would leave the client with about 50% of his non-pension assets in unregulated investments.

The third case the Fos upheld against Turnberry involved a client being advised to invest in three unregulated collective investment schemes (UCIS), three years before she planned to retire without a personal pension.

Other firms now in default include, in the east of England, Essex-based Taylor Burr Associates Limited, in the Midlands, Solihull-based Lifestyle Future and Sutton Coldfield-based Allen Financial Management Limited.

In the north east, Cleveland-based Argentum-Lex Wealth Management Limited and Doncaster-based Mortgage Processing Centre Limited were both in default, while in the south east it was Dover-based The Joseph Bevan Partnership, and in the south west Weston Super Mare-based BlueInfinitas Limited.

The only Welsh firm in default was Denbigh-based Cathedral City Wealth Management Limited, while in Scotland there was Edinburgh-based Alba Asset Management Limited and Glasgow-based Affiliate Financial Services Limited, along with Turnberry.

peter.walker@ft.com
Axa Investment Managers Chris St John is not looking to go off piste with his new multi-cap fund, but will lower stock concentration compared with his mid-cap vehicle.

Mr St John is set to run the Axa WF Framlington UK fund  which launched last week  as his first solo multi-cap portfolio. He currently manages the companys UK Mid Cap vehicle.

He said stocks in the Mid Cap fund would form the core of the offshore multi-cap product. But the overall number of stocks in the latter will rise to a maximum of 90 holdings, in order to accommodate smaller firms.

In essence it will be a mid-cap fund with a bit of freedom either side [of the market-cap spectrum]. It will have a broad spread throughout the FTSE All-Share index, with exposure to the Alternative Investment Market, he said.

While the fund is unlikely to include any stocks not held elsewhere on the Framlington equities desk, Mr St John said he would venture away from Nigel Thomass UK Select Opportunities fund and include more specialist firms.

Mr St John said he was looking to add Arm Holdings, which is held by Jeremy Gleeson in his Axa Framlington Global Technology fund but is not in Mr Thomass portfolio.

He will also target smaller stocks, such as travel agency On The Beach and Gym Group.

Mr St John is deputy manager on the UK Select Opportunities fund and is in line to succeed Mr Thomas when he retires.

The UK Mid Cap vehicle has a stock limit of 80, but the additional 10 positions will allow Mr St John to hold small caps without becoming too large a shareholder in a given stock.

A concentrated portfolio doesnt lend itself to small-cap investing. I want to be able to hold 20 or 30 basis points of the fund in a company, he said.

The new fund would not have an even three-way split between small, mid and large caps, he added. However, it will follow the same principle as the UK Select Opportunities fund and Henry Lowsons UK Smaller Companies vehicle in terms of investing in growth stocks offering sustainable dividends.

Mr St John said: Some 95 per cent of the fund will be in [stocks held in] the UK Select Opportunities, my Mid Cap and the small-cap funds.

But there will also be stocks held by Jamie Hooper in the UK Growth fund and some by the specialist desk.
Is the UK better off in the EU or going it alone? With four months to go until Britain decides, this question is being furiously debated across the nation.

Should we stay or should we go is fiendishly difficult because the question is multifaceted and each facet is itself devilishly difficult to get a handle on.

A key facet and a source of much debate is whether the UK economy would benefit from Brexit.

What would the effect of Brexit be on immigration, trade, manufacturing, financial services, regulation, innovation, productivity, foreign investment, the public sector, consumption and the property market?

Its no surprise that there is a great deal of disagreement on all of these but overall (and as long as you ignore external factors), the likelihood is that Brexit would be neither as good nor as bad as is advocated by its proponents and critics.

Capital Economics, commissioned by Woodford Investment Management, made exactly this point recently even going so far as to state that in among all the uncertainty it was more plausible the net effects of Brexit would be modestly positive to the UK economy.

However, the UK economy does not operate in isolation and so focusing exclusively on it does not answer the question of whether Brexit would be good for the UK or not. There are wider socio-political ramifications.

Consider pro-EU Scotland. The UK economy might possibly be better off under Brexit, should it remain together, but what about if Brexit triggers another Scottish referendum? By all accounts negotiating an exit from the EU will take at least two years. How does the UK negotiate strong trade terms and a graceful exit from the EU when it may actually begin fracturing right in the middle of those negotiations?

The prospect of another Scottish referendum would be destabilising enough, but what happens if it is actually successful? In the end the UK didnt have to answer this question in 2014  but it may in future.

Consider also the effect of Brexit on the EU itself. One thing probably every British person would agree on (although probably not every Continental) is that the EU would be weaker without the UK. But is it in the UKs interest to have a weaker EU when 40% of Britains trade goes to other EU countries?

A successful Brexit vote may strengthen the hand of other secessionist parties throughout Europe. That could impact growth in the EU, and so growth in the UK through second order effects.

Leaving aside the economy for a moment, from a security point of view its tough to see how a weaker EU would benefit Britain. In everything from terrorism threats to potential aggression from nationalistic Russia, the EU provides collective security benefits. A simple thought experiment to confirm this is whether Vladimir Putin would vote for Brexit if he could (given the sanctions the EU has applied to Russia).
NFU Mutual has pitched the idea of a Help to Buy Pension to assist struggling first-time buyers with the deposit needed to get on the property ladder.

The insurer commissioned ICM to interview a random sample of 2,051 adults earlier this month, finding that a quarter of would invest more into a pension if they could access a lump sum before they turn 55.

Of those who would invest more, one in six said they would be inclined to use it as a deposit on a house.

This increases to a third when talking to 18 to 24-year-olds.

Already proving very popular among first-time buyers in Canada, who can borrow limited amounts from their pension to help them get on the property ladder, NFU Mutuals research showed early access to some of their retirement savings would encourage more to start saving into pensions.

Sean McCann, Chartered financial planner at NFU Mutual, said: Weve already had Help to Buy mortgages and Help to Buy Isas, so a Help to Buy pension isnt as unlikely as it may sound.

Borrowing money from your pension to help people buy their first home is already part of the savings culture in Canada and our research suggests it could prove popular here too.

If the chancellor is looking to encourage people to save more for their retirement this could be an option.

He added that while getting on the property ladder is more of a priority for young people, pension savings may not start in earnest for some until theyre well into their 30s.

He said: That may mean they work for much longer or retire with a much lower income than they had hoped.

peter.walker@ft.com
Several asset managers have waved goodbye to their heads of UK defined contribution recently, sparking questions about fund propositions and overall workplace strategies.

Dimensional Fund Advisors has confirmed Jonathan Parker has left his post as head of UK DC, following AllianceBernsteins head of DC sales Tim Banks leaving in November.

In October 2009, AllianceBernstein launched one of the UKs first customised target-date platforms in the UK, joining forces with Architas last January to bring a range of low-cost auto-enrolment-style funds for retail investors to market.

But in February Architas and AllianceBernstein confirmed the Architas BirthStar Target Date funds had lost its promoter, amid poor sales.

JPMorgan Asset Management was one of eight other asset managers operating in the UK market to jump on the target date bandwagon, launching its SmartRetirement funds in 2013, like several others, with expertise from its US parent.

However, it too has now lost a DC figurehead in Simon Chinnery, who is leaving the company to pursue other opportunities, according to a source close to the matter.

The firm declined to comment.

In an interview with Financial Adviser in January, he said the target date strategy was in part inspired by the strong performance of similar funds managed by the firms US multi-asset team, which boasted around 19bn in assets at launch.

Nico Aspinall, head of UK DC investment consulting at Towers Watson, suggested the target date concept was oversold and just has not yet caught on this side of the Atlantic, mainly because the structure of administration here is different to the US.

He said the UK has become more comfortable with lifestyling strategies, whereas in the US, target date was seen as the solution for large scale schemes to group members together.

Barnett Waddinghams head of DC Mark Futcher said target date has also not yet proved it is sufficiently different from existing DC accumulation options. They will have taken on people that understood the market, but maybe not the investment structures required.

Much like lifestyle funds de-risking towards annuity purchase, if a member chooses the wrong target date, then the investment strategy may not be right for them at retirement.

Our understanding is that fund managers woke up to the growing importance and money flowing into DC, but failed to develop any real focused products for the market. They will have taken on people that understood the market, but maybe not the investment structures required, he added.

Stephen Budge, principal for UK DC at Mercer, said active managers have struggled to get into the market more generally, as costs dictate that passive firms do best.

All target date funds have experienced limited take-up, he said, with around 3bn worth of assets across all managers offering them, excluding those held within Nest.

Theyve really got to be implemented as the default fund to gain any traction, he noted, citing out AllianceBernstein managing to get several master trusts to use its target date range.
World dairy production is massively overshooting any extra demand for milk, the EU has warned before a crucial meeting of farm ministers.

The EUs short-term outlook said milk prices could not recover until this was reined in.

By the end of the year, Europe, USA, Australia and New Zealand will produce 3.5bn litres more milk than they did in 2015.

But the growing demand for dairy, which analysts keep predicting, represents just 1.5bn litres more milk each year.

See also: Arla to close Essex dairy

The EU expects milk deliveries across the continent to be 5% higher on the year in the first quarter of 2016.

This will level off after the spring, with annual production forecast to rise 1.5% to 154bn litres.

Ireland, the Netherlands and Denmark will account for most of the increase, with some slowdown in central and eastern Europe.

Under current conditions, and trends, further milk price declines can be expected, especially at the beginning of 2016, the EUs report said.

Emergency measures

The council of European agriculture ministers will meet on Monday (14 March) to debate how well current emergency measures are coping.

Farm commissioner Phil Hogan told Members of the European Parliament earlier this week that he still opposes any increase in intervention prices.

But he said he might be open to voluntary supply management, in which producer organisations and co-ops take product off the market themselves.

This would mean invoking an article of the European Common Market rules which exempts farmer groups from competition regulations in times of severe market imbalance, he said.

Mr Hogan has previously dismissed more radical measures, such as a system that pays farmers to cut back production when floods of milk depress prices.

Ahead of the meeting the French and German governments have written a joint statement, which also backs voluntary action.

The countries want the EU to pay for measures, open to farmers and dairy businesses, which would temporarily manage milk volumes to let prices recover.

Full review

The NFU is meeting with Defra secretary Liz Truss when she attends Mondays council.

The union demands include a review of dairy intervention prices and the removal of fertiliser import tariffs, to improve competition and help costs fall.

NFU chief dairy adviser Sian Davies said any discussions on supply management should be between farmers and milk buyers  not at government or European level.

Too many short-term solutions are being thrown around without clear thoughts of the long-term impact, she said.
Growers who fear they will be unfairly penalised by tighter limits on water abstraction will be able to appeal against new restrictions due to be imposed by the government.

Plans to replace abstraction licences with a system of permits based on the amount of water abstracted over a previous 10-year period are not set in stone, a senior Defra civil servant told the UK Irrigation Association spring conference.

See also: Defra plan to abolish water abstraction licences

Up to 25,000 growers will be affected by abstraction regime reform. But many feel they will lose out under the plans. They argue that limits based on abstraction volumes over the past decade would be unfair because it was unusually wet so less water than usual was used.

Limits based on the amount of water abstracted during a particularly wet decade would leave farmers unable to abstract enough water in the event of a future drought, suggested growers at Orton Hall Hotel, Peterborough, on Wednesday (2 March).

Hopes were raised that there might be room for manoeuvre by Henry Leveson-Gower, head of abstraction reform at Defra. The 10 years we are thinking of is still to be set, he told delegates. The formula linked to those 10 years had not yet been finalised, he added.

The government says reform is necessary due to increasing demand for water  from agriculture, industry and a growing population. It also needs to implement environmental requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive. The reforms would come into effect from 2020.

Using the example of the river Lark catchment in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, Mr Leveson-Gower acknowledged growers concerns. We all agree that the 10 years to 2012 were all wet, so they were unrealistic. We could think of adjustments to take that into account.

The volume of water allocated to growers for abstraction was not the end of the story, said Mr Leveson-Gower. The aim of the formula was to allocate roughly the right amount of water for most people. But growers would be able to appeal against their allocation if they felt it unfair.

Everyone would receive a draft determination of their permitted volume. There would then be a six-month period where they would be able to discuss their case with the Environment Agency and set out why they felt it was inappropriate.

Growers would then receive a formal determination of their permitted volume. They would then be able to appeal to an independent body. Mr Leveson-Gower said it was in Defras interests to be fair because it wanted to minimise the number of appeals.

If we have loads of appeals, the process of moving into the new system will just drag on for years. So we are trying to work out a system where we address peoples issues as far as we can within their business needs to minimise the number of formal appeals.

Norfolk asparagus grower Tim Jolly said he believed the Defra proposals still contained too much stick and not enough carrot. He added: I cannot see many incentives coming out of the system to achieve what we all know we need.
Members of the European Unions agriculture committee held a minutes silence to pay their respects to farmers who have committed suicide during the present crisis in farming.

MEPs fell silent during a committee meeting in Brussels on Monday (7 March) in memory of those farmers who have taken their own lives due to the dire situation arising from the ongoing crisis in agriculture markets.

Jose Bove, a Green MEP from France who suggested the minutes silence, said some 600 French farmers had taken their own lives out of despair.

The MEPs urged EU commissioner Phil Hogan to ensure the European Commission acts now to help farmers cope with falling prices for their produce using all available tools and said it should not shy away from proposing new ones even if it entails legislative changes.

Irish MEP Mairead McGuinness said: There is something very rotten in our society today if those who produce food are so desperate that they are committing suicide.

See also: Pressure mounts on EU to intervene in farming crisis

We do have to ask ourselves what state we are in that we have to eat food three times a day and those who produce it are so desperate.

Ms McGuinness noted that it is not only dairy and pigmeat sectors that are facing the crisis, but grain farmers and fruit and vegetable growers are struggling, too.

Commissioner Hogan has previously refused to admit that there is a crisis engulfing sectors of the farming industry, in particular dairy.

But MEPs were grateful that he acknowledged the problems affecting the industry at the meeting.

A deep and profound crisis

Mr Hogan told MEPs the EU farming sector was experiencing a deep and profound crisis which in the short term shows little sign of improvement.

In response, Spanish MEP Lidia Senra Rodriguez said: Welcome, Commissioner Hogan, to the real world.

German MEP Martin Hausling added that farmers were facing not just a crisis but the biggest crisis we had in a recent decade.

MEPs then exchanged ideas about measures the European Commission could introduce to help farmers.

Ms McGuinness urged the EU to introduce a binding legislation to tackle unfair trading practices and she insisted that Mr Hogan should put more pressure on his fellow commissioners to do more on the food supply chain.

Ms Senra Rodriguez asked the commission to explore other solutions such as regulating the production and regulating markets.

If we carry on along the same path we are deceiving the sector, she said.

Market-driven approach

Dutch MEP Jan Huitema described calls from some member states to subsidise the reduction of production and raise intervention prices as a huge step back in time, instead advocating a market-oriented approach.

The only structural solution is that we have to make our agricultural sector more competitive on the world market, he said.

Farming is important but many farmersfeel that the common agricultural policy no longer sells produce at the right prices, said French MEP Philippe Loiseau, criticising the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations.

It is geared towards exports but it kills jobs in Europe. The objectives of your policies go for productivity and yield, but it does not go to the interest of farmers.

Analysts have blamed the EU farming crisis on oversupply in dairy and some meat products, a crash in Chinese imports and Russias continued ban on imports of western foods.
Farmers from across Scotland joined a protest at Holyrood to highlight the cashflow crisis engulfing agriculture.

About 150 Scottish farmers and crofters gathered for the rally on Thursday morning (10 March), brandishing banners saying No farmers, no food, Less bull, more backing, Sort the mess with the farmers and Trust local, buy Scottish.

The protest, led by NFU Scotland, aimed to highlight to Scottish politicians and MSPs the importance of a vibrant rural economy.

See also: Scottish farmers to get LFA support cash as crisis deepens

With prices for almost every farm commodity on the floor, Scottish farmers and crofters have also had to endure late payments in one of the wettest winters on record.

The @NFUStweets rally  Scotland's farmers, crofters & rural communities need to be properly supported #nfusrally16 pic.twitter.com/OdTDqMfakB  SRUCSA President (@SRUCSAPresident) March 10, 2016

To date, Scottish government has paid only 103m of basic payments out of a total budget of almost 400m.

NFU Scotland said a key reason behind the farm cashflow crisis was the Scottish governments problems delivering support payments to farmers and crofters following its 178m investment in a flawed IT system.

Earlier this week, first minister Nicola Sturgeon pledged 200m of public funds to pay farmers 80% of their BPS, for anyone who has not received their payment by the end of this month.

NFUS president Allan Bowie told farmers at the protest he wanted all Scottish MSPs to understand farmings position as the cornerstone of the whole rural community is under threat ahead of the Scottish parliament elections in May.

The failure to properly deliver farm support payments to the sector this spring has blown a hole in the rural economy, said Mr Bowie.

That has shown how vulnerable farming businesses are and how reliant hundreds of businesses and thousands of jobs are on primary producers.

He said an election was looming, farmers voices matter and the politicians were listening, adding: Lets see what they can deliver.

The politicians were listening and queueing up to lend their support @NFUStweets #nfusrally16 pic.twitter.com/hqUfmqFK8T  Nancy Nicolson (@C_NancyNicolson) March 10, 2016

Deputy first minister John Swinney told farmers he understood the crisis they were suffering and he was listening to their views.

Scottish rural affairs secretary Richard Lochhead, who has faced intense criticism for his handling of the botched BPS system, was heckled as he addressed the crowd.

Mr Lochhead said he agreed with the sentiment of many of the banners. Nonetheless, some protesters called for his resignation after he finished his speech.
Story Highlights 50% approve of Obama's job performance in latest weekly reading

Nearly nine in 10 Democrats approve, up from 81% in early 2016

Americans view Obama's final year similarly to Reagan's thus far

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- President Barack Obama earned a 50% job approval rating for the week ending March 6, his highest weekly average since May 2013.

Obama's current 50% weekly average exceeds the 46% he averaged in his seventh year in office, which ended on Jan. 19 of this year. This latest rating also exceeds his 47% average since taking office in 2009, spanning nearly two full terms.

Throughout his seven years in office, Obama's ratings have been among the most politically polarized of any modern president. His current higher overall rating continues to reflect an extreme degree of party polarization, with 87% of Democrats approving of the job Obama is doing as president versus 11% of Republicans.

Obama's current standing with Democrats is four percentage points higher than his average approval rating among Democrats since taking office in 2009. At the same time, his job approval ratings from Republicans and independents are close to his term averages for these groups. Obama's current 87% reading among Democrats is also up from 81% at the beginning of this year, while his ratings among independents and Republicans have been more stable over the past two months.

While it's hard to pinpoint precisely why Obama's approval rating has risen among Democrats recently, there are a number of plausible explanations. The unusual status of the Republican primary race -- exemplified in particular by front-runner Donald Trump's campaign style and rhetoric -- may serve to make Obama look statesmanlike in comparison. The campaign season also may activate latent partisan loyalty among those broadly in the Democratic camp.

Obama's Approval Ahead of Bush's, Below Clinton's and on Par With Reagan's

Although up, Obama's overall job approval rating is still lower than that of his most recent Democratic predecessor, Bill Clinton, at a comparable point in his two-term presidency. In early March 2000, Clinton's approval rating was 63%. At that point, Clinton fared about as well as Obama among Democrats -- 89% approved of Clinton then, compared with the 87% who approve of Obama now. But unlike Obama, a majority of independents (65%) and close to a third of Republicans (31%) rated Clinton well, reflecting a much less polarized environment 16 years ago.

Obama is doing significantly better than his most recent predecessor, George W. Bush, who had a 32% job approval rating in March 2008. Bush was rated equally poorly by the opposing party as Obama is today. However, unlike Obama, he did not enjoy the same high level of support from his own party, with fewer than three in four Republicans (72%) approving of his job performance at that time.

In March 1988, 51% of U.S. adults approved of Ronald Reagan's job performance, almost identical to Obama's current rating. Reagan's profile across party lines was not as polarized as Obama's, however, with 81% approval among Republicans and 28% among Democrats.

Implications

After averaging 48% in the first two months of the year, Obama's weekly job approval rating has edged up to 50%. This increase has been driven partly by Democrats' approval of Obama rising to a nearly three-year high. Obama's popularity among Democrats has been improving steadily over the past year -- perhaps one reason why presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is tacking herself tightly to the Obama legacy.

In comparison, the two most recent candidates running to succeed a two-term president of the same party -- John McCain running to follow the unpopular Bush, and Al Gore trying to succeed the popular but scandal-prone Bill Clinton -- went to greater pains to ensure they were not associated with the outgoing president. Prior to that, George H.W. Bush in 1988 presented himself as a natural heir to the Reagan legacy and was able to win his own term.

These data are available in Gallup Analytics.

Survey Methods

Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Feb. 29-March 6, 2016, on the Gallup U.S. Daily survey, with a random sample of 3,563 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is 2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting.

Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 60% cellphone respondents and 40% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods.

Learn more about how the Gallup U.S. Daily works.
The Billie Jean King Main Library initially closed because of increased "mental health-related episodes" around the facility, official said.
Linn County Commissioners Roger Nyquist, John Lindsey and Will Tucker plan to file a $1.4 billion breach of contract class action lawsuit against the state of Oregon today in Linn County Circuit Court.

The commissioners are seeking compensation on behalf of 15 Oregon counties, including Linn and Benton, that contain state forest trust lands.

Todays filing is not a surprise: On Jan. 13, the commissioners, represented by John DiLorenzo of the Portland-based law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine, notified Gov. Kate Brown and the Oregon Department of Forestry of Linn Countys intent to sue. Such notification is required by Oregon statute.

The response to our notice of intent to file this lawsuit has been overwhelmingly positive in our community, Nyquist said in a prepared statement. The states contractual obligation is to manage our forests in a way that benefits both rural counties and the environment. Theyre not doing that, and rural communities are paying the price. I believe that a jury will reach the same conclusion.

According to the commissioners, for more than 70 years the state was to adhere to a legal framework for the conveyance of forest lands from the county to the state. In exchange for the conveyances, the lands were to be managed and revenues returned to the counties, with the state taking a management fee.

The counties then allocate those funds to county services such as law enforcement or to local taxing districts such as the OSU Extension Service District.

The commissioners contend that since 1998 the Oregon Department of Forestry has put more emphasis on uses other than timber harvesting  such as fish and wildlife habitat, trails, campgrounds and open spaces  which have resulted in a $35 million annual reduction in revenue to the counties.

When the state acquired the mostly cut-over timber lands, starting in the 1930s and 1940s, the management was to be focused on the greatest permanent value.

Linn County believes that means a sustainable timber harvest that generates income. Others, including environmental groups have disagreed with that stance, arguing that greatest permanent value also means giving weight to the other public uses of the land.

State officials have not yet made any comment about the pending lawsuit.

This is a straightforward breach of contract case, DiLorenzo said. The states breach has strained county budgets and impacted public safety, education and other basic services local citizens need. Theyre not getting the benefit of their bargain with the state.

Other counties named in the lawsuit are Clackamas, Clatsop, Columbia, Coos, Douglas, Josephine, Klamath, Lane, Lincoln, Marion, Polk, Tillamook and Washington. Those counties can opt out of the lawsuit if they wish, if the lawsuit is certified as a class action by the court.

The $1.4 billion figure was calculated based on the loss of potential county revenues since 2001, plus projecting years into the future if the current reimbursement model is allowed to continue unchallenged.

There are about 654,000 acres of forest trust lands in Oregon, including about 21,000 acres in the Mill City area in northeast Linn County.

There are about 8,000 acres in Benton County. Benton County commissioners have not yet said if they want to be included as a party to the lawsuit.
Forecasters at the National Weather Service office in Portland have issued a wind advisory for the mid-valley, and predicted that hurricane-force winds would hit the Oregon Coast on Wednesday evening.

The forecast also called for winds of 30-40 mph in the coastal mountains, including Alsea, between 4 p.m. Wednesday and 6 a.m. Thursday, when the advisory was expected to expire. The Willamette Valley was expected to have 20-30 mph winds in the same time frame.

This one is stronger than your average winter storm, said Matthew Cullen, a meteorologist with the services Portland office.

Cullen said the wind and rain are effects from a low-pressure system.

There is a very deep, very strong low-pressure system off the coast, he said.

Cullen said the strongest winds would be on the beaches and coastal headlands, which are more exposed. The service said gusts could reach 75 mph there.

Cullen said the Willamette Valley and valleys in the mountains are more sheltered, but exposed and high-altitude areas in the Coast Range would receive higher winds. There, the gusts could reach 70 mph, the service said.

According to Cullen, the expected high wind speeds could result in downed trees and power lines, and he urged people to be cautious.

Oregon State Police said one person died after a tree fell onto a pickup truck during the storm on the northern coast.

KPTV-TV reported a tree fell onto the truck between Cannon Beach and Seaside on U.S. Highway 26 about five miles east of U.S. Highway 101.

The Oregon Department of Transportation reported a number of downed trees in the coastal area on Wednesday night.

Cullen at the National Weather Service suggested that people secure objects outside their homes that could be blown around in the windstorm, such as lawn furniture. He also advised residents to keep phones charged and be ready to call 911 to report downed power lines.

Pacific Power said its staff was making preparations to respond to outages during the storm. The company encouraged its customers to call 877-508-5088 if they experience a power outage.

Cullen said the worst of the storm would hit Wednesday evening but added that a second front could hit around midnight. He said Thursday would be windy, but that the most severe weather in this storm should have passed.

Cullen said Oregon typically sees its strongest storms in the winter months and storms like this should be over by late spring or early summer.
Nov. 16, 1933  March 3, 2016

Martha Condon passed away March 3. The loving wife of Ken Condon for 37 years; the loving mother of four children, Douglas, Sarah, Erica and Benjamin; the loving grandmother and great-grandmother of Jesse Rose, Cody Rose, Spencer Wenner, Dominic Dandelos, Solomon and Gerome Rose, and Luciana Colon; and loving sister of David Graham, Martha had a long and active life.

Born in Lowell, Arkansas, she attended the University of Chicago in the 1950s, served her country at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama, served on the Corvallis City Council in the early 1970s and was the secretary for Bishop Steiner in Corvallis in the early 90s.

She was also a part owner in a printing co-op in Eugene in the late 1970s.

Martha was known among her friends and family as a stellar chef. She was truly phenomenal in the kitchen and no one who came to visit ever left hungry.

In a life that was never easy from the start, Martha made it through over four score years. She never tired of working to better the world around her. But as must inevitably happen, her indefatigable health finally gave out.

The sorrow felt by all who knew her cannot be expressed. She touched many lives and left an indelible mark on each.

Joe Lewis, the boxer, was once asked in an interview how he had become champion. His reply I did the best I could with what I had.

Let it be remembered always that Martha Condon did the best she could with what she had.

A memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Monday, March 14, at McHenry Funeral Home, 206 N.W. Fifth St., Corvallis.

Please leave your thoughts and memories for the family at www.mchenryfuneralhome.com.
Oct.16, 1941  Feb. 29, 2016

Rex Jakabosky has passed from this life and has gone to his eternal life with his Lord and Savior.

Ramblin Rex was born in Upland California. As a young man, his love of music was clear and he pursued his passion throughout his life. He sang, played piano, guitar, harmonica, which he learned from his grandmother, the trumpet and just about anything he got his hands on. While they were in high school together in Lancaster, California, he met and played with Frank Zappa, who later formed the group, The Mothers of Invention and and Henry Vestine, one of the original members of Canned Heat.

Rex moved to Oregon in 1971 and had a strong influence on many of the up and coming musicians in the area. After many years of livin the blues, in 1976, he became clean and sober and accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior. He took his Blues Ministry wherever he roamed, through Europe and across the United States.

In 1993, Rex traveled to Europe and developed strong relationships and ties. He made his home in the Czech Republic, the home of his ancestors, for many years. In 1996 he met and forged a bond with Lubos Andrst, a renowned blues and jazz guitarist, with whom he performed twice with the legendary B.B. King. Preston Pearce from the International Church in Prague, where Rex worshiped, described him as a true example of a godly man.

Rex is survived by his brother, Larry Jakabosky of Philomath; and three sisters, Ellen Batchelor of Yachats and Linda and Susan Carter of Philomath.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Maynard and Emma Jakabosky; and nephew Kenneth Carter Jr.

There will be a memorial for Ramblin Rex at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 19, at the College United Methodist Church in Philomath. There will be a dinner afterwards provided by the family.

For an autobiography of his life and ministry, please visit his website (www.ramblinrex.wz.cz).
The two people accused of murder and kidnapping in the Jan. 15 slaying outside a Corvallis restaurant likely will have to wait until August to find out whether their cases will be consolidated.

Forest Grove resident Michael A. Deyette II, 43, and Brooklyn Shepard, 35, have both been denied bail after pleading not guilty to kidnapping, conspiracy and murder in connection to the Jan. 15 shooting death of 29-year-old Jason Scott Williams. According to court documents, Benton County Circuit Court judges in both cases have scheduled a hearing for Aug. 6 to discuss consolidating the two cases into one. Judge Locke A. Williams is scheduled to preside over the August hearing.

Prosecutors have alleged that Jason Scott Williams was lured out for a smoke break outside of the Sharis restaurant on Ninth Street by Shepard while Deyette waited in the parking lot with a .223-caliber rifle. Shepard considers herself the foster mother of Williams fiancee, Chauri Strait-Corbray (also known as Cecei Strait).

Ryan Joslin, chief assistant district attorney, said Wednesday that Judge Williams has indicated that all other motions in both cases would need to be ruled on before consolidation.

In Shepards case, the defense has filed a motion to suppress evidence. Judge Matthew Donohue, who is assigned to Shepards case, said previously that the court would need to address the motion to suppress before the court could consider consolidation.

In Deyettes case, Judge David B. Connell on Tuesday granted the defenses request for a conditional certification of a forensic evaluator. The file in the case has been sealed by the court, but according to the Oregon Health Authority, the court may grant conditional certification of a psychiatrist, psychologist or other forensic evaluator in certain circumstances.

According to information agreed to by both the defense and prosecution, Shepard and her husband, Wayne Hintergardt, invited Jason Scott Williams, Strait-Corbray and the couples young daughters out to dinner in Corvallis and pulled into Sharis at around 7 p.m. on Jan. 15. After sitting down in the restaurant, Shepard then asked Williams outside for a smoke break. Williams was shot and killed during that smoke break in the parking lot just before 7:45 p.m.

Deyette remains in the Benton County Jail on 11 charges, including aggravated murder, conspiracy to commit murder, first-degree kidnapping, conspiracy to commit kidnapping and attempted murder. His next scheduled hearing is a status check on March 28.

Shepard has pleaded not guilty to six charges, including first-degree kidnapping, murder and conspiracy. Her next hearing is a status check on May 16.
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

FRIDAY

Emergency food boxes, by appointment, North Corvallis Ministry Center, 5050 N.E. Elliott Circle. Appointments: 541-220-1040.

AARP Foundation Tax-Aide, 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Corvallis Senior Center, 2701 N.W. Tyler Ave., appointments only, 541-602-5829; 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Philomath Community Library, 1050 Applegate St., appointments only, 541-602-5829; 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Corvallis Elks Lodge, 1400 N.W. Ninth St., walk-ins and appointments, 541-602-5829. Free tax service open to taxpayers of all ages and backgrounds, with special attention to those 60 or over; AARP membership not required. Information: 888-227-7669 or www.aarp.org/taxaide.

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.

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. A thrift store is in the same building; proceeds help support the pantry. Information: 541-757-1988, ext. 317.

Classes

FRIDAY

Prenatal yoga, 10:30 a.m., Corvallis Yoga on 6th, 311 N.W. Sixth St. Cost: $130 for a 12-week session; $13 per class drop-in rate. Ongoing, start any time. Information: 541-753-1824.

Events

TODAY

Reading Education Assistance Dogs, 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., Brookes Reading Room, Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, 645 N.W. Monroe Ave. Children age 4 or above can read to a dog for a 20-minute session. Walk-ins welcome.

Sustainability Fair and Town Hall, 5 p.m., CH2M Hill Alumni Center, 725 S.W. 26th St. Fair, 5 to 7 p.m.; town hall, 7 to 9 p.m. The fair will feature more than 50 hands-on exhibits. The town hall will feature a keynote address by James Reismiller Cassandra Robertson, on Germanys energy model.

FRIDAY

Preschool story time, 10 a.m., Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, 645 N.W. Monroe Ave. For ages 3 to 5.

Music a la Carte, noon, lounge, Memorial Union, 2501 S.W. Jefferson Way. The Tiptons, a Seattle-based saxophone quartet, will perform.

Accordioso, the Corvallis Accordion Club, 7 p.m., Old World Deli, 341 S.W. Second St. Sing-along and performance of Irish songs to celebrate St. Patricks Day.

The Lion King, 7 p.m., auditorium, Philomath High School, 2054 Applegate St. Tickets: $5 at the door.

5 to 1 Theatre presents Sound and Vision, 8 p.m., lab theatre, Majestic Theatre, 115 S.W. Second St. Tickets: $10 to $12; 541-738-7469 or www.majestic.org.

Battle of the Bands, 8:30 p.m., ballroom, Memorial Union, 2501 S.W. Jefferson Way. The winning band will open the Dam Jam concert this spring.

Health

FRIDAY

Free medical clinic, 8:30 a.m., Community Outreach, 856 N.W. Reiman Ave. Provides care to low-income people without health insurance.

Rapid HIV testing, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Westminster House, 101 N.W 23rd St. Free testing and counseling. Information: 541-740-0405.

Spanish-language food handler class, 1:30 p.m., Benton County Environmental Health, Sunset Building, 4077 S.W. Research Way. Information: 541-766-6841.

Organizations

FRIDAY

Corvallis Bicycle Collective, noon to 4 p.m.; for location, call 541-224-6885 or go to www.corvallisbikes.org. The group welcomes all to volunteer or to work on their own bikes.

Greater Corvallis Rotary Club, noon to 1 p.m., Corvallis Country Club, 1850 S.W. Whiteside Drive. Information: 541-754-7102.

Oregon State Toastmasters Club, noon, room 119, Crop Science Building, southwest corner of 30th Street and Campus Way, OSU. Information: 541-207-3054 or http://osutm.toastmastersclubs.org/#null.

Corvallis Bridge Club, 10 a.m., 6:30 p.m., Heart of the Valley Bridge Center, 1931 N.W. Circle Blvd. Sign-up 20 minutes before game. Partners/information: 541-754-6596 or www.corvallisbridge.org.

Teen Advisors, 4 p.m., boardroom, Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, 645 N.W. Monroe Ave. The Society for the Prevention of Boredom in Teens, a teen leadership group.

Corvallis Kirtan Community, 7 p.m., room 7, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis, 2945 N.W. Circle Blvd. Kirtan with the New World Kirtan Band. Information: www.meetup.com/the-corvallis-kirtan-community.

Scholarships

Anyone planning to pursue a medically-related career in a hospital setting is invited to apply for the Virginia Welch Scholarship through the Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center Auxiliary. Applications are available at the Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center volunteer office. Completed applications must be postmarked by April 21. Information: 541-768-5083.

Schools

TODAY

Philomath School District Board of Directors, 6:45 p.m., district office, Clemens Primary School, 535 S. 19th St. Work session to review and complete personnel adjustments. Preceded by executive session at 6 p.m. to review and evaluate the employment-related performance of district employees.

Support groups

TODAY

Take Off Pounds Sensibly, 6 p.m., Grant Avenue Baptist Church, 1625 N.W. Grant Ave. Information: basil2001@comcast.net.

FRIDAY

Alcoholics Anonymous:

7 to 8 a.m., noon, room 11, First Christian Church, 602 S.W. Madison Ave.

7 to 8 a.m., upstairs, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis, 2945 N.W. Circle Blvd.

5:30 p.m., library, pastoral center, St. Marys Catholic Church, 501 N.W. 23rd St.

7 p.m., Crossroads Christian Fellowship, 2555 N.W. Highland Drive.

Information (24 hours): 541-967-4252 or www.aa-oregon.org.

Narcotics Anonymous:

Noon, 7 p.m., room 11, First Christian Church, 602 S.W. Madison Ave.

Information (24 hours): 877-233-4287 or www.lblna.org.

Mens Support Group, 2:30 p.m., Westminster House, 101 N.W. 23rd St. For men who have experienced verbal, physical, emotional and psychological abuse by sexual partners, wives, parents, bosses and others.

Codependents Anonymous, 6 p.m., room 13, Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan, 333 N.W. 35th St. Information: 541-754-1589.

Crystal Meth Anonymous, 6 p.m., 115 N.W. Sixth St. Information: 541-286-0137.

Couples in Recovery open Alanon meeting, 7:30 p.m., room 201, United Presbyterian Church, 330 Fifth Ave. S.W., Albany. Open to Benton and Linn county residents. Information: 541-791-3778.
Angela Merkel in Bad Neuenahr : Chancellor greeted with loud applause

Bad Neuenahr Chancellor Angela Merkel was in Bad Neuenahr on Wednesday afternoon to support leading CDU candidate in state elections.

Teilen

Teilen Weiterleiten

Weiterleiten Tweeten

Tweeten Weiterleiten

Weiterleiten Drucken

The eagle has landed, squawked a police radio yesterday at 4:45 p.m. Angela Merkel had arrived in Bad Neuenahr amidst heavy security.

The Ahrweiler CDU party had invited 900 guests to the Dorint Hotel, where they greeted the Chancellor with thunderous applause. She was accompanied by leading CDU candidate Julia Klockner, who is hoping to replace Malu Dreyer as Prime Minister of Rhineland Pfalz in elections on 13 March.

Both women were wearing red blazers and back trousers. Getting out of their armoured limousines, they greeted a large crowd before heading inside. You live in a wonderful area, Mrs Merkel enthused to a first round of applause. She said she knew the Ahr Valley from her time as Minister for Youth, when Bonn was still the seat of government. She had often cycled along the Rhine and the Ahr.

After Glockner had finished her loudly applauded election speech, Merkel gave her support, emphasized the reliability of the CDU and highlighted the importance of the upcoming election. She went on to speak extensively about the migrant crisis.

The police were out in force. Bodyguards, special forces from the Federal Criminal Police Office and police patrol officers were at the hotel from the morning of the visit. Streets were temporarily closed and 40 volunteer helpers from the CDU were on hand to guarantee Merkels visit to Bad Neuenahr went smoothly.

By 6 p.m. it was all over and and Angela Merkel and Julia Klockner headed to their next appointment in Simmern.
Army Unit Commander - Why I Ordered My Men to Flog Protesting Women in Delta

bayonel3 at 10-03-2016 11:21 AM (6 years ago) (m)

Nigerian Army Unit Commander stationed at Ovre-Eku community, Ethiope East Local Government Area, Delta State, Lt. E. D. Oworobo, has said he ordered his men to flog protesting women old enough to be his mother because he believed the women attempted to disarm his men. The disputed land is being claimed by PRESCO Oil Company

The women who had no weapons were mercilessly beaten like criminals, kicked about and inflicted various degrees of injuries at Ovre-Eku (Iwevbo) community over a land which had been in dispute for years between Edo and Delta states. Oworobo and his men of the 4th Brigade Command, Benin-City, Edo State, while trying to exonerate himself from the dastardly act after treating the women like criminals claimed that he had no option than to order his men to use minimal force to disperse the protesters. Although it is still something to wonder how women could disarm a whole army unit, that Oworobo had contacted the District Officer, DO, of Eku Police station, Mr. Andrew Efejedia, in an attempt to exonerate himself and his men of any wrong doing in the incident. According to the source, Oworobo had asked the DO, Dont you know it is a crime to carry a charm according to the Criminal Code of Nigeria? Lt. Oworobo also threatened to deal with the Warri correspondents of The Authority and The Nation newspapers, Theophilus Onojeghen and Bolaji Ogundele, both of whom had contacted him to know what actually transpired between his men and the protesting women.

The offence of the journalists was their effrontery to contact him for the militarys side of the incident. In separate reactions to the journalists, an angry Lt Oworobo had described them as idiots and madmen, allegedly saying: Youre an idiot. Youre a mad man. Why are you calling me? So I should report to you abi? Who are you to call me? If you ever call me in your life, Ill deal mercilessly with you. Nigerian Army Unit Commander stationed at Ovre-Eku community, Ethiope East Local Government Area, Delta State, Lt. E. D. Oworobo, has said he ordered his men to flog protesting women old enough to be his mother because he believed the women attempted to disarm his men. The disputed land is being claimed by PRESCO Oil CompanyThe women who had no weapons were mercilessly beaten like criminals, kicked about and inflicted various degrees of injuries at Ovre-Eku (Iwevbo) community over a land which had been in dispute for years between Edo and Delta states. Oworobo and his men of the 4th Brigade Command, Benin-City, Edo State, while trying to exonerate himself from the dastardly act after treating the women like criminals claimed that he had no option than to order his men to use minimal force to disperse the protesters. Although it is still something to wonder how women could disarm a whole army unit, that Oworobo had contacted the District Officer, DO, of Eku Police station, Mr. Andrew Efejedia, in an attempt to exonerate himself and his men of any wrong doing in the incident. According to the source, Oworobo had asked the DO Lt. Oworobo also threatened to deal with the Warri correspondents of The Authority and The Nation newspapers, Theophilus Onojeghen and Bolaji Ogundele, both of whom had contacted him to know what actually transpired between his men and the protesting women.The offence of the journalists was their effrontery to contact him for the militarys side of the incident. In separate reactions to the journalists, an angry Lt Oworobo had described them as idiots and madmen, allegedly saying:

Post Reply I scour the world wide web to bring you interesting stories from around the globe. +2348055557203 Posted: at 10-03-2016 11:21 AM (6 years ago) | Hero

Vectorcy at 10-03-2016 11:33 AM (6 years ago)

(m) I see..Hmmmmm,no b smal tin oo,anytin wey concern army..my body no da near dere...dos guys no da pity @ al Oo....u fit open eye 4 police but no try am near army,,,iSsokay Posted: at 10-03-2016 11:33 AM (6 years ago) | Hero I see..Hmmmmm,no b smal tin oo,anytin wey concern army..my body no da near dere...dos guys no da pity @ al Oo....u fit open eye 4 police but no try am near army,,,iSsokay Reply

sandra78 at 10-03-2016 11:37 AM (6 years ago)

(f) Military men in Niaja Posted: at 10-03-2016 11:37 AM (6 years ago) | Gistmaniac Military men in Niaja Reply

emma4love3 at 10-03-2016 11:44 AM (6 years ago)

(m) So you mean you did all that to those old women,na waoo for you you are supose to shw some human in you not inhuman Posted: at 10-03-2016 11:44 AM (6 years ago) | Hero So you mean you did all that to those old women,na waoo for you you are supose to shw some human in you not inhuman Reply

gogoman at 10-03-2016 11:47 AM (6 years ago)

(m) WELCOME TO NAIJA Posted: at 10-03-2016 11:47 AM (6 years ago) | Addicted Hero WELCOME TO NAIJA Reply

samdove28 at 10-03-2016 11:55 AM (6 years ago)

(m) @CHRISVEC, WETIN HAPPEN, NA DIFFERENT FACE OF YOU I THEY SEE SO. ABI NAIJAPALS DON FLOG YOU TOO. Posted: at 10-03-2016 11:55 AM (6 years ago) | Gistmaniac @CHRISVEC, WETIN HAPPEN, NA DIFFERENT FACE OF YOU I THEY SEE SO. ABI NAIJAPALS DON FLOG YOU TOO. Reply

raynebee at 10-03-2016 12:21 PM (6 years ago)

(f) what rubbish.... Posted: at 10-03-2016 12:21 PM (6 years ago) | Hero what rubbish.... Reply

kp45 at 10-03-2016 12:23 PM (6 years ago)

(m) Oh...... Posted: at 10-03-2016 12:23 PM (6 years ago) | Hero Oh...... Reply

raynebee at 10-03-2016 12:29 PM (6 years ago)

(f) what rubbish.... Posted: at 10-03-2016 12:29 PM (6 years ago) | Hero what rubbish.... Reply

uduaksampson at 10-03-2016 01:41 PM (6 years ago)

(m) I don't like the way Nigeria Military whose weapons, uniforms, and feedings are taken care of by tax payers money, would in return mercilessly without any action from the Fed. govt.

God save Nigeria from the Hands of our Military Posted: at 10-03-2016 01:41 PM (6 years ago) | Newbie I don't like the way Nigeria Military whose weapons, uniforms, and feedings are taken care of by tax payers money, would in return mercilessly without any action from the Fed. govt.God save Nigeria from the Hands of our Military Reply

slimmygal at 10-03-2016 03:03 PM (6 years ago)

(f) yeye soldiers Posted: at 10-03-2016 03:03 PM (6 years ago) | Gistmaniac yeye soldiers Reply

kison at 10-03-2016 04:08 PM (6 years ago)

(m) NO RESPECT FOR WOMEN...NA WA OO..YA BETTER be careful, be very very careful, CAREFULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL... Posted: at 10-03-2016 04:08 PM (6 years ago) | Hero NO RESPECT FOR WOMEN...NA WA OO..YA BETTER be careful, be very very careful, CAREFULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL... Reply

zezprincess at 10-03-2016 05:15 PM (6 years ago)

(f) Hmmmm,you ordered your men to beat&flog wimen who is old enough to be your mother&you are happy,no remorse,You don't know what you've put yourself into,if those women curse younyour own don kpafuka.Rubbish,I be like say na igbo&kaikai wey you drink dey shak you. Posted: at 10-03-2016 05:15 PM (6 years ago) | Hero Hmmmm,you ordered your men to beat&flog wimen who is old enough to be your mother&you are happy,no remorse,You don't know what you've put yourself into,if those women curse younyour own don kpafuka.Rubbish,I be like say na igbo&kaikai wey you drink dey shak you. Reply

BournIdentity at 10-03-2016 07:20 PM (6 years ago)

(m) Idiots animalistic army in human flesh,,, force get order methods like gas wear dey tear 4 person yansh. If dem blow,,, dem go run commot Posted: at 10-03-2016 07:20 PM (6 years ago) | Addicted Hero Idiots animalistic army in human flesh,,, force get order methods like gas wear dey tear 4 person yansh. If dem blow,,, dem go run commot Reply

obikwe90 at 10-03-2016 11:03 PM (6 years ago)

(m) This man should be sacked immediately. Going by the way he has dealt with these woman, I have no doubt he uses his wife as a punching bag at home. Men of his type shouldn't have a prominent position in a civil society. Posted: at 10-03-2016 11:03 PM (6 years ago) | Newbie This man should be sacked immediately. Going by the way he has dealt with these woman, I have no doubt he uses his wife as a punching bag at home. Men of his type shouldn't have a prominent position in a civil society. Reply

imaria at 11-03-2016 12:30 AM (6 years ago)

(f) No respect for women in Nigeria Posted: at 11-03-2016 12:30 AM (6 years ago) | Gistmaniac No respect for women in Nigeria Reply

dollar22 at 11-03-2016 12:50 AM (6 years ago)

(m) nigeria is a ZOO that's all you need to know Posted: at 11-03-2016 12:50 AM (6 years ago) | Gistmaniac Reply

dickieponga at 11-03-2016 12:51 AM (6 years ago)

(m) U did very well officer cos naija no dey hear word until u beat dem...

Good job keep it up... Posted: at 11-03-2016 12:51 AM (6 years ago) | Hero U did very well officer cos naija no dey hear word until u beat dem...Good job keep it up... Reply

diezo at 11-03-2016 12:28 PM (6 years ago)

(m) AND U REALLY COME OPEN UR MOUTH TALK ALL DIS TRASH AS D REASON WEY MAKE U BEAT PEOPLE MOTHER WHAT IF NA UR MAMA NA DEM FLOG LIKE DAT IF U HEAR HOW U GO FEEL ANYWAYS NA NAIJA WE DEY WEY UNA FIT DO ANYTHING UNA LIKE WEY NO BODY FIT CHALLENGE UNA BUT MAKE UNA NO FORGET TO REMEMBER SAY PERSON NO WELL ANOTHER PERSON WEY WELL COME DEY TAKE TABLET FOR PERSON WEY NO WELL NA WHO NO COME WELL   !!! Posted: at 11-03-2016 12:28 PM (6 years ago) | Gistmaniac AND U REALLY COME OPEN UR MOUTH TALK ALL DIS TRASH AS D REASON WEY MAKE U BEAT PEOPLE MOTHER WHAT IF NA UR MAMA NA DEM FLOG LIKE DAT IF U HEAR HOW U GO FEEL ANYWAYS NA NAIJA WE DEY WEY UNA FIT DO ANYTHING UNA LIKE WEY NO BODY FIT CHALLENGE UNA BUT MAKE UNA NO FORGET TO REMEMBER SAY PERSON NO WELL ANOTHER PERSON WEY WELL COME DEY TAKE TABLET FOR PERSON WEY NO WELL NA WHO NO COME WELL   !!! Reply
Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro: 8 Leaked Features You should know Features oi -Sayan

Samsung has been making headlines recently thanks to the launch of their Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge smartphone in India at a highly competitive price. However, new reports suggest that the company is already prepping up to launch yet another premium offering in the form of the Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro.

SEE ALSO: 7 Best Features of Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge that make it superior than the S6 Edge [First Impressions]

The alleged device which is a pumped version of the original Samsung Galaxy A9 has already cleared a few certification test, thereby revealing the appearance and certain specs of the smartphone. So here's a roundup of all the bits and pieces of information related to the alleged smartphone.

All metal build, but with replaceable battery!

As you might be aware the metal build is the trademark of every A series smartphone from Samsung, and the Galaxy A9 Pro is purported to sit in the top of the series. So while it is no surprise to see it touting a metal frame on the side, it quite overwhelming to spot that the device may come with a removable battery! Well, this bit of information got leaked while the Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro was clearing the FCC in US.

Slightly heavier and thicker

According to the leaked information the Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro will be around 10g heavier than the original A9 (2016). Apart from that it would also be thicker by 0.5mm as per the TENAA listing. The reported weight and width are 210 grams and 7.5mm respectively.

Real estate carried forward from its sibling

It is reported that the Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro will sports a similar 6 inch display as seen in the original A9. Just in case specs matter to you, it worth noting that the 6 inch AMOLED panel comes with a resolution of 1920x1080p i.e. Full HD.

Now with more RAM

Unlike the original Galaxy A9 (2016) which came with 3GB of RAM, the Pro variant will boast of 4GB. This is similar to the one seen in the recently launched Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. In terms of storage the Galaxy A9 Pro will feature a 32GB eMMC memory.

Dragon on the inside

Leaked information from tipsters suggest that the Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro will come with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 SoC under the hood. It is the among the latest gen SoC from Qualcomm which consist of eight cores clocked at 1.8GHz. This is coupled with Adreno 510 GPU.

16MP camera carried forward from the Galaxy S6?

If reports are to be believed the Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro will sports the same 16MP camera as seen in the previous gen Samsung Galaxy S6. It's worth noting that the camera module on the Samsung Galaxy S6 is still among the most capable ones available in the market.

8MP front facing camera to satisfy selfie needs

On the front the Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro is reported to come with an 8MP front facing selfie snapper. As expected the camera module will have a wide angle view for fitting more people onto the frame.

To get a 'Touch' of Marshmallow

While the Samsung Galaxy A9 (2016) still run on Android Lollipop 5.1 based TouchWiz, it is reported that the Galaxy A9 Pro will come with Marshmallow on top. This isn't quite a surprise considering the fact that Android N is round the corner.

Best Mobiles in India

Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications
These are the only devices to receive the Android N developer OTA update! Features oi -Ankit

Surprising users and developers all across the globe, Google today announced that the developer edition of their latest mobile operating software, Android N, would be available via OTA starting today. This news breaks all the speculations that were expecting the update to come at their annual I/O conference later in May.

SEE ALSO: 7 Signs Of Having Digital Amnesia Due To Excessive Addiction Towards And Internet

Starting off with their in-house devices, Android N will be made available to all major OEMs within the months to come. Here is a list of all the compatible devices that will receive the OTA update at the offset of this upgrade.

Nexus 6P

It is no surprise that the Nexus 6P will be the first to receive the Android N developer version as it is Google's current flagship smartphone. Launched with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, the Nexus 6P is a beast of a device with specifications like Snapdragon 810 processor, 3GB RAM, a Quad-HD display and a 12MP camera sensor. Termed as Android's best of 2015, the Nexus 6P is a great choice for faster upgrades as seen with Android N.

Nexus 5X

The Android N developer upgrade will also be rolled out to Google's mid-range flagship for 2015, the Nexus 5X. Succeeding the Nexus 5, the 5X has been a force to reckon within the mid-range smartphone segment for the past 6 months. With specifications like a Full HD display, the hexa-core Snapdragon 808 and similar camera features as the 6P, the Nexus 5X is a justified successor to the highly-acclaimed Nexus 5 of 2013.

Nexus 6

The previous Nexus smartphone is also slated to receive the Android N update as it is believed to still be a decent device when it comes to the mid-range pricing segment. The biggest problem of the Nexus 6 has always been its gigantic form factor, with a 6-inch display at the front. The Nexus 6 will be the last generation in Nexus smartphone range to receive the developer build of the Android N update. It is believed that the previous generations will get the final build after commercial release.

Nexus 9

The Nexus 9 is the latest-gen Tablet from Google and will, apparently, be the only tablet to receive the initial Android N developer builds via OTA. Launched in 2014, the Nexus 9 is a 9-inch tablet - made by HTC - that boasts of specifications like a Denver processor, Nvidia Tegra K1 graphics chip and 16GB of internal storage. Priced fairly low by Google, the Nexus 9 was termed as the true Android competitor to the Apple iPad range. The Nexus 7 will not be one of the devices to get this OTA but it is expected that the previous-gen tablets will receive the final build of the OS.

Pixel C Tablet

Google's bigger tablet PC, the Pixel C is also part of the initial list that will be receiving Android N developer preview via OTA method. Launched in 2015, the Pixel C is a much bigger 10.2-inch tablet that looks to target the hybrid device market, with accessories like keyboard and mouse available for sale separately.

Another big news about the Pixel C is that Google is running a limited period offer of providing a flat 25% discount on the Pixel C, for anyone who registers as a developer. This seems like a step for Google to promote the testing of their new beta feature - Split Screen view - on their tablets.

Nexus Player

Built by Google to enter the mobile gaming market, Nexus Player is another device that will receive the Android N developer OTA as soon as today. This $99 device hasn't shown much of its potential yet but Google is expected to have been planning some major updates for the Nexus Player to become fashionable once again.

SEE ALSO: Google's Project Fi goes Invite-Free: Here's All You Need to Know!

Android One

This category of Android One phones in this list is debatable as several regions across the world report that their smartphones haven't yet received the update. While we shall have to wait and see regarding that issue, Android One has been Google's pilot project to push the sales of low-priced smartphones in developing countries. With India being their main focus, collaborations have been made with the top phone manufacturers to develop cheaper phones with focus on faster updates.

Best Mobiles in India

Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications
Russia Main Threat to EU, NATO Cyber Security - Estonian Intelligence

Sputnik News

22:05 09.03.2016(updated 23:03 09.03.2016)

A report by the Estonian Information Board said that Russia poses a major cyber security threat to the European Union and NATO.

TALLINN (Sputnik)  Russia poses a major cyber security threat to the European Union and NATO, a report by the Estonian Information Board, released on Wednesday, said.

'In cyberspace, Russia is the source of the greatest threat to Estonia, the European Union and NATO. Estonia is a target of hostile cyber acts both as an individual country, and as a member of the EU and NATO. Russia is actively adding to its cyber-attack capacity and has a wide range of tools and resources necessary for carrying out attacks,' the report, titled 'International Security and Estonia,' said.

The Information Board, which is Estonia's foreign security service and intelligence agency, alleged that Russia employs attacks involving denial-of-service, malware and security vulnerabilities to wage an information war against the European Union and NATO. Russia employs hackers and cyber activists to manipulate social media, the press and thus public opinion to enforce its geopolitical power, the report said.

The report also alleged Russian to be waging a 'hybrid war' in Ukraine, disrupting information and other infrastructure to ferment dissatisfaction with the government and legitimize anti-government militia groups.

The report comes just a day after a meeting between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Estonian Foreign Minister Marina Kaljurand. The meeting focused on the situation in Ukraine and current European security issues, as well as the upcoming NATO summit in Warsaw, the situation in Syria, energy and cyber security, according to Kaljurand.

Since 2014, NATO has been building up its military presence in Europe, particularly in eastern European countries bordering Russia, including Estonia, using Moscow's alleged interference in Ukraine as a pretext for the move.

Russia has repeatedly expressed concerns over NATO's military buildup along its western borders, warning that the alliance's expansion undermines regional and global security.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Little Dirty Secret: Pentagon Admits Using Spy Drones Over US

Sputnik News

18:59 09.03.2016(updated 19:00 09.03.2016)

The Pentagon has used spy drones on non-military missions over the territory of the United States in the past decade, however, rarely and lawfully, US media reported on Wednesday citing the data of inspector general.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The report by the Defense Department inspector general, disclosed under a Freedom of Information Act request, said spy drones on US non-military missions occurred less than 20 times between 2006 and 2015 and in compliance with law, USA Today reported.

The US drone program has remained a point of contention for lawyers and human rights advocates since its inception.

The US military has increasingly relied on drones to conduct operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Syria and Iraq. Critics have slammed the practice for killing a significant number of civilians and destroying infrastructure unrelated to terrorists.

Data collected by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism shows that US drone strikes have killed up to 1,000 civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen over the past 10 years.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Standing NATO Maritime Group Two expands area of activities

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

09 Mar. 2016

AEGEAN SEA -- The German flagship of Standing NATO Maritime Group Two (SNMG2) FGS BONN is the first NATO ship to enter the area of activity for a first patrol around the Greek island of Lesbos. Over the weekend, NATO had expanded the area of activity into the territorial waters of Turkey and Greece, in close coordination with both Allies. NATO also expanded its cooperation with the EU's border agency Frontex.

"We are able to support the local authorities with our sensors, amplifying their capabilities. It is absolutely necessary to provide critical information to them, including the Turkish and Greek Coast Guards and the European Border Agency, FRONTEX to help them deal with the illegal human trafficking networks," said Rear Admiral Jorg Klein, Commander SNMG2.

Monday evening BONN began her passage into the area between the island of Lesbos and the Turkish coast, while maintaining continuous contact with local authorities. Turkish and Greek liaison officers embarked aboard FGS BONN are facilitating timely information sharing to all involved authorities, further enhancing the effectiveness of the ship's presence in the area.

"This first patrol has shown that we as a well-trained NATO force are able to start with our task in this area. All the units as well as my multinational staff are well prepared to contribute to the objectives of this mission, which is to help counter the lines of illegal human trafficking and illegal migration in the Aegean Sea," said Rear Admiral Klein.

At the moment SNMG2 consists of the German flagship FGS BONN, the Canadian frigate HMCS FREDERICTON, the Hellenic frigate HS SALAMIS, the Turkish frigate TCG BARBAROS and the British landing ship dock (auxiliary) RFA MOUNTS BAY. SNMG2 was directed to conduct reconnaissance, monitoring, and surveillance, and to share information with Turkish and Greek authorities and the European Union's border agency FRONTEX to assist in international efforts to counter human trafficking and criminal networks in the region.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






NATO and Armenia committed to partnership

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

09 Mar. 2016

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan and Armenian Defence Minister Seyran Ohanyan on Wednesday (9 March 2016) for talks on the partnership between the Alliance and Yerevan. The Secretary General thanked Armenia for its contributions to NATO's missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo.

The two Ministers also met with the North Atlantic Council for an exchange of views on Armenia's cooperation with the Alliance and regional security. The Secretary General welcomed Armenia's commitment to the NATO Building Integrity Programme and the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325.

Mr. Stoltenberg also highlighted Armenia's sustained cooperation with NATO in the areas of defence reform, enhanced interoperability, defence education reform and civil emergency planning. Armenia has been a NATO partner for over 20 years, developing political dialogue with Allies and cooperating on democratic, institutional, and defence reforms.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






3rd Fleet Commander Visits New Zealand

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS160309-07

Release Date: 3/9/2016 11:08:00 AM

From Commander, U.S. 3rd Fleet Public Affairs

SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- Commander, U.S. 3rd Fleet Vice Adm. Nora Tyson visited New Zealand, March 6-9.

During her trip, she met with Maritime Component Commander Commodore Jim Gilmour, attended briefs, toured installations, vessels, and training facilities, and participated in discussions on bilateral relationships to better understand the size, scope, challenges, and capabilities of the Royal New Zealand Defense Force.

Tyson said the U.S. partnership with New Zealand plays a critical role in promoting regional stability and the free flow of trade and commerce travelling across the world's oceans.

'We value our relationship with New Zealand and to actually be here to see firsthand some of their capabilities and to speak with military leadership in person is invaluable,' said Tyson. 'At 3rd Fleet we are operating throughout the Pacific more regularly and we know that effective operations are underpinned by strong relationships in the region.'

Tyson also served as guest speaker at the Royal New Zealand Air Force Women's Development Group, where she spoke about the importance of retention, diversity, and innovation.

'There is a direct correlation between diverse demographics and innovation,' Tyson said. 'As technology, information systems, and science continue to evolve, so must we. The best way to do this is through diversity of thought, harnessing the ingenuity of our diverse talent base. Everyone has something to bring to the table. It is the sum of our differences, whether they be gender, age, race, education, religion, culture, or socioeconomic status that makes us a stronger, more innovative and agile force.'

Tyson also noted New Zealand has participated in the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) previously and has been invited to participate in RIMPAC again later this summer. RIMPAC is the world's largest international maritime exercise and takes place in and around the Hawaiian Islands every two years.

U.S. 3rd Fleet leads naval forces in the Pacific and provides the realistic, relevant training necessary for an effective global Navy.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Turkey's FM: Ankara can't force refugees back to war, terror

Iran Press TV

Wed Mar 9, 2016 3:48PM

Faced with widespread criticism, Turkey says it has no intention to send asylum seekers back to conflict zones under a potential agreement with the European Union aimed at stemming the flow of refugees into Europe.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu of Turkey declared Ankara's stance at a news conference in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Wednesday, after a meeting between foreign, interior and justice ministers of Turkey and Belgium.

Cavusoglu said Ankara is willing to cooperate with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to ease the refugee crisis.

"We want to do this in compliance with human rights. Of course we cannot forcibly send people back to war and terror," the Turkish foreign minister stated.

The remarks by the Turkish official comes despite the fact that on March 7, the Turkish government proposed to take back all those refugees who cross into Europe from its soil in return for more money, faster EU membership talks and quicker visa-free travel. European Union leaders also welcomed the initiative.

Elsewhere in his comments, the top Turkish diplomat defended the deal as the best way to discourage irregular refugees and fight smuggling rings taking people on perilous journeys across the Aegean Sea to Greece.

The UN and human rights groups have warned that such a deal may violate the refugees' right to protection under international law.

Cavusoglu said, "The European Union seems to have accepted many elements of this deal. But there are differences in terms of meeting our demands. We will continue to work on that in the coming days."

Turkey is the main launching point for asylum seekers who have made the dangerous crossing into Europe.

The continent is facing an unprecedented influx of refugees, most of whom are fleeing conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East, particularly Syria.

More than 141,000 asylum seekers have reached Europe via the Mediterranean so far this year, while over 440 people died in their journey to the continent, according to the latest figures by the International Organization of Migration (IOM).

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Egyptian air force kills 17 militants in Sinai Peninsula

Iran Press TV

Wed Mar 9, 2016 7:56AM

More than a dozen Takfiri militants in Egypt have reportedly been killed in military assaults against their positions in the North African country's restive Sinai Peninsula.

A security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said fighter jets targeted a training camp for members of the Velayat Sinai militant group south of the border town of Rafah, located 340 kilometers (211 miles) east of the capital, Cairo, early on Wednesday, leaving 17 extremists dead, Sky News Arabia reported.

The development came only two days after two police officers were killed and five others injured when a roadside bomb explosion struck their armored vehicle west of the city of el-Arish, situated 344 kilometers (214 miles) northeast of the capital.

On March 5, Egyptian military commando forces, known in Egypt as Sa'ka (Thunderbolt) forces, raided a militant base south of the town of Sheikh Zuweid, situated 334 kilometers (214 miles) northeast of Cairo, engaging the extremists holed up inside the base. Five Takfiri terrorists were killed in the raid.

The Sinai Peninsula has been under a state of emergency since October 2014, following a deadly terrorist attack that claimed the lives of 33 soldiers.

Over the past years, militants have been carrying out anti-government activities and deadly attacks, taking advantage of the turmoil caused in Egypt after democratically-elected President Mohamed Morsi was ousted by the military in July 2013.

Velayat Sinai terrorists have carried out most of the attacks, mainly targeting the army and police.

In November 2014, the group pledged allegiance to the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group, which is mainly wreaking havoc in Iraq and Syria.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Yemeni forces capture 150 Saudi mercenaries in Bayda: al-Masirah

Iran Press TV

Wed Mar 9, 2016 6:51AM

Yemeni forces have reportedly captured at least 150 Saudi mercenaries in the war-hit country's central province of al-Bayda.

According to a report by Yemen's Arabic-language al-Masirah news website, the Yemeni army, backed by Popular Committees loyal to the Houthi Ansarullah movement, caught Saudi mercenaries in Rada' town on Tuesday as they were heading toward a Saudi military base in west-central Ma'rib Province.

On Wednesday, Yemeni forces pounded a military base in Ma'rib with a ballistic missile, killing and injuring a number of Saudi mercenaries.

The report also said that at least three civilians were killed after Saudi warplanes targeted a vehicle in Humaydat district in Jawf on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, according to al-Masirah, several Saudi forces were killed after Yemeni Qaher ballistic missiles hit a Saudi military base in the northern province of Jawf on Tuesday.

Yemenis carry out such attacks in retaliation for Saudi strikes, which were launched in late March last year in a bid to bring the country's fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a Riyadh ally, back to power and undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

Over 8,400 people, among them more than 2,200 children, have been killed and over 16,000 others injured since the onset of the aggression. The strikes have also taken a heavy toll on the country's facilities and infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, schools, and factories.

Last week, the United Nations said in a statement that in February alone Saudi war on Yemen had killed or wounded 246 people throughout the country.

Dozens of Saudis have been killed or injured by fire from Yemen during the conflict.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Taliban Infighting Leaves Nearly 70 Militants Dead - Reports

Sputnik News

23:25 09.03.2016(updated 00:17 10.03.2016)

Almost 70 Taliban fighters have been killed during factional infighting within the movement in Afghanistan's western Herat province, local media reported Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Two senior regional leaders were among the 67 militants killed during clashes between Taliban factions, the Khaama Press newspaper reported.

Mullah Malik and Mullah Wakil, who were senior Taliban leaders in the neighboring Farah province, were reportedly killed during the clashes, which also left 65 people wounded. The clashes are continuing, according to the newspaper.

The publication stated, citing local officials, that fighting broke out between groups loyal to high-ranking Taliban leaders Mullah Samad and Mullah Nangialai.

Recent infighting between Taliban factions was first reported in late 2015, when Taliban loyalists clashed with a splinter group aligned with the Islamic State (Daesh).

The Taliban has also faced a leadership struggle since the death of former leader and Emir of Afghanistan Mohammed Omar in 2013.

Afghanistan is experiencing political, social and security instability, as the Taliban movement and other radical extremist organizations such as the Daesh, prohibited in many countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Russia, continue staging attacks against civilian and government targets.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Saudi Arabia Refutes Reports on Secret Talks Between Riyadh, Houthis

Sputnik News

21:57 09.03.2016(updated 22:08 09.03.2016)

Riyadh has not held secret talks with representatives of the Houthi rebels on the settlement of the Yemeni crisis, Adviser to the Saudi Minister of Defense Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asiri said Wednesday.

DUBAI (Sputnik)  According to Arab media, Yemeni Houthis and Saudis have been holding secret negotiations on the establishment of a truce for the delivery of humanitarian aid across the border.

'There are no negotiations with any party other than the legitimate Yemeni authorities,' Asiri told the Al-Arabiya radio station.

Earlier on Wednesday, Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdul-Malek Mekhlafi also denied reports that representatives of the Houthi rebels and the government of Saudi Arabia held talks on the peaceful settlement of the crisis in Yemen.

Yemen has been engulfed in a military conflict between the government and Shiite Ansar Allah movement, also known as Houthi rebels, who have been supported by army units loyal to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Since late March last year, a Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against Houthi positions at the request of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Philippines to Lease Five Japan Planes for Patrols in Disputed S China Sea

Sputnik News

18:20 09.03.2016(updated 18:21 09.03.2016)

The Philippines plans to lease five military aircraft from Japan for maritime patrols in the South China Sea, the Southeast Asian nation's President Benigno Aquino said Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  This announcement comes amid a heated dispute between Manila and Beijing over who should control dozens of small rocky islands and reefs in the waters west of Philippines, referred to as the West Philippine Sea in Manila.

'We will lease from Japan five TC- 90 training aircraft, which will help our Navy patrol our territory, particularly in the West Philippine Sea,' the president said during his visit to the Fernando Air Base in Lipa City.

The planes will reportedly be donated by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force. The maritime-capable patrol planes will be an upgrade to the Philippine Air Force which commands a small air fleet.

China, Philippines and their neighbors  Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Brunei  have numerous territorial disputes in the South China Sea. China claims the biggest part of the contested territories. Both Beijing and Manila lay claims to the Scarborough Shoal, which lies some 100 miles off Philippines.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Yemeni FM Refutes Reports on Peace Talks Between Saudi Arabia, Houthis

Sputnik News

17:24 09.03.2016(updated 17:25 09.03.2016)

Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdul-Malek Mekhlafi on Wednesday denied reports that representatives of the Houthi rebels and the government of Saudi Arabia held talks on the peaceful settlement of the crisis in Yemen.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  According to the foreign minister, the only peace talks that Yemen supports are the talks to implement UN resolution 2216.

'Our position is announced and clear. There is no secret or back channel, or any other form of talks [with Houthis] apart from the talks sponsored by the [UN envoy] Esmail Ould Shaikh Ahmad,' Mekhlafi said, as quoted by the Gulf News media outlet.

Mekhlafi also reportedly expressed hope that a new round of talks under the auspices of the UN would be held soon.

Yemen is been engulfed in a military conflict between the government and Shiite Ansar Allah movement, also known as Houthi rebels, who have been supported by army units loyal to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Since late March, a Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against Houthi positions at the request of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






In Vietnam, Calls for US-led Naval Initiative in South China Sea

by Trung Nguyen March 09, 2016

Vietnam's social network users have welcomed a plan to establish an informal naval coalition led by the United States, expressing hope it will contain China's expansion in the South China Sea.

The chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, Admiral Harry B. Harris Jr., proposed last week to join the navies of Japan, Australia and India in preserving freedom of navigation in contested waters.

The call was made as China expands land reclamation efforts in an assertive push that worries Vietnam, one of the South China Sea's maritime claimants.

Social media user Vo Tan Hung told VOA's Vietnamese service that Beijing 'must reconsider its aggressive moves in the contested waters if the coalition is born.'

Some go further by likening members of the prospective naval quartet to 'quadrilateral pillars,' a reference to the four top jobs in Vietnam's political system.

Earlier plan

Japan, which disputes Beijing's role in the East China Sea, floated a similar proposal in 2007, but the idea was dropped in the face of Chinese protest.

While Australia is reportedly considering Harris' idea, the positions of India and Japan are unclear.

Responding to the suggestion, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Beijing had 'no objection to normal exchanges and cooperation between relevant countries, but such cooperation shall not target a third party.'

Meanwhile, Duong Danh Dy, an expert on China-Vietnam relations, said the birth of the group 'will benefit Vietnam.'

'Beijing cannot disregard its smaller neighbors like Vietnam in the presence of regional powers,' he said. 'China cannot do whatever it wants.'

While top Vietnamese officials say they are sticking to their foreign policy of not siding with other countries to counter any third nation, the Southeast Asian country has been strengthening defense ties with a number of countries, including the Philippines, which is among the most vocal claimants to the disputed waters.

After the USS Curtis Wilbur, an American destroyer, sailed near an island controlled by Beijing, but also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan, Vietnam's Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Hanoi respected 'innocent passage' of ships through territorial waters in accordance with international law. Some observers said Hanoi's statement appeared to support regional freedom-of-navigation exercises by its former foe.

More military spending

Apart from expanding its relations with world powers, Vietnam has also boosted military spending, becoming the world's eighth-largest arms importer from 2011 to 2015, according to a recent report published by the Stockholm-based International Peace Research Institute.

Tran Bang, veteran of the Sino-Vietnam border war, said the move shows Vietnam's clear awareness of its foreign threats, China in particular.

'Beefing up defense capability is necessary for Vietnam to defend itself,' Bang said. 'It is right to do so as its giant neighbor [is] ready to make aggressive moves at any time.'

In related news, Vietnam opened Cam Ranh, its strategic port facing the South China Sea, on Tuesday, with President Truong Tan Sang saying it 'would play a part in stabilizing regional peace.'

Two Japanese warships are expected to make a port call there after escorting a submarine in a visit to the Philippines next month, Vietnamese media reported. Tokyo and Hanoi agreed last year to conduct their first ever joint naval exercise.

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA's Vietnamese service.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Peru - 2016 Elections

On 10 April 2016, Peruvians went to the polls to elect a new President and Representatives to the 130-seat Congress. Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, joined a list of other candidates including former President Alan Garcia and former Prime Minister Pedro Pablo Kucznyski vying for the presidency. If no candidate garnered 50 percent plus one, a second round would take place.

Drug cartels could soon have even more formidable power in Peru, where an there are a number of narco-candidates running for office, including for president, in the countrys April 2016 general elections that puts the South American country at risk of becoming a narco-state.

Narco-candidates are supported, financed by drug trafficking bosses, and narco-businessmen have also started becoming candidates, Peruvian sociologist Jaime Antezana told teleSUR on 4 March 2016. So there are candidates that come directly from drug trafficking and money laundering, as well as candidates who are politicians who are being financed by cartels.

In the case of Popular Force, half of the narco-candidates are people that are linked directly to the business, Antezana explained. They are traffickers and money launderers, but they pass as if they were successful business people, entrepreneurs.

On 04 March 2016 the Special Jury of Elections, which approves presidential tickets, barred presidential hopeful Cesar Acuna, a wealthy former governor, from the April 2016 elections because of vote-buying allegations. It also moved toward disqualifying likely runoff contender Julio Guzman, a centrist economist, in a surprise decision that could turn the race on its head. The National Jury of Elections can overrule the decisions made Friday by a lower electoral panel.

Guzman, seen by polls as tying front-runner Keiko Fujimori in a likely June runoff, was allowed to stay in the race 24 February 2016 after he fulfilled a series of technical requirements related to his party's registration. But those same technicalities were cited by in accepting a citizen's petition to declare Guzman's candidacy "inadmissible".

Perus presidential race was officially down by two more candidates just a month ahead of voting day, electoral authorities definitively ruling 09 March 2016 that presidential hopefuls Julio Guzman and Cesar Acuna were not allowed to run. That decision helped current poll-leader Keiko Fujimori.

A Gfk poll in early March 2016 published by the Peruvian daily La Republica showed Fujimori leading with 35 percent of the vote, followed by Guzman with 16 percent, former Economy Minister Pedro Pablo Kuczynski with 7 percent, writer Alfredo Barnechea with 5 percent, and former two-time President Alan Garcia with 4 percent. Acuna dropped out of the top five after polling in fourth place last month.

The head of the Organization of American States criticized Peru's elections 01 April 2016, suggesting they would not be fully democratic if steps were not taken to ensure all candidates can participate. The comments follow the electoral board's barring of two leading presidential hopefuls last month in an unprecedented move that many consider unfair. OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro, said Peru needed to avoid "semi-democratic elections."

Repeated political attacks on Perus left-wing presidential hopeful Veronika Mendoza may have actually helped the candidate advance in the polls and secure a spot tied for second place, according to the analysis of a local pollster reported 02 April 2016 by Perus La Republica. The leftist presidential candidate had promised to strengthen labor rights, tighten oversight on mining operations, and write a new constitution to combat inequality. Throughout her campaign, Mendozas progressive platform including rewriting the countrys dictatorship-era constitution has been smeared as anti-mining and Chavista, criticizing her for following the example of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. She has also been called a terrorist. But the candidate surged in the polls unlike any other, catapulting into a tie for second place with IMF and World Bank economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski just over a week ahead of the April 10 election.

A runoff scenario between Fujimori and Kuczynski would see a win for the frontrunner by a margin of 41 to 37.8 percent, while a race between Fujimori and Mendoza would be virtually the same at 41.7 to 37.4 percent, according to the Gfk poll.

Close to 23 million Peruvians headed to the polls to cast their ballots between 8:00 a.m. local time and 4:00 p.m. to vote for one president, two vice presidents, 130 Congress people and five Andean Parliament members in elections that have been shadowed by reports of candidates being linked to corruption, drug trafficking or obscures pasts. The true electoral battle, however, was not on presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori but among leftist Veronika Mendoza and Pedro Kucynski. Veronika Mendoza had not been linked to any wrongdoing and had been surging in the polls. Right-wing former Wall Street economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was mixed up in the Panama Papers scandal.

The center-right politician won nearly 40 percent of the votes counted. Wall Street banker Pedro Pablo Kuczynski received about 24 percent of the votes. Nationalist Veronika Mendoza was in third with about 17 percent. Fujimori faced a runoff election against the second-place winner on 05 June 2016.

The election pit the Fujimori family's brand of conservative populism against Kuczynski's elite background and stiff technocratic style that curbed his appeal in poor provinces and working-class districts. The two candidates, who were virtually tied in pre-election polling, largely offer continuity with the current neoliberal system and are both right-of-center. Their platforms offer similar plans for reducing poverty and crime while boosting development and tourism. Fujimori's slight lead over Kuczynski melted away in the days before the election, evoking memories of her close defeat to outgoing President Ollanta Humala in 2011.

With 36 percent of voting acts counted on 05 June 2016, Peru's electoral authoritie said Pedro Pablo Kuczynski had 50.6 of the votes cast Sunday, compared with 49.4 percent for his rival Keiko Fujimori. Two quick counts by local pollsters showed Kuczynski winning by around 1 percentage point, which was still within their margin of error. Kuczynski had 50.59 percent of the vote against 49.41 percent for Fujimori, with 52 percent of votes counted. With 91 percent of all votes counted on 07 June 2016, Kuczynski had 50.32 percent support while Fujimori trailed on 49.68 percent. The gap narrowed from a previous tally.

On 07 June 2016 Mariano Cucho, the head of ONPE, urged Peruvians to wait "with calm and prudence" for the final results. Ballots from voters living abroad had not been counted. Making up 3.86 percent of the electorate, foreign-based voters mostly live in the United States where Kuczynski stumped for votes at the start of his second-round campaign. These votes from Peru's embassies abroad could take days to trickle in. Ballots from some far-flung provinces also had yet to be counted, including in the southern Andes where Kuczynski swept up support and in sparsely-populated jungle regions where Fujimori is popular.

Peruvian economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski will be the next president of Peru, the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) confirmed at 4 p.m. the afternoon of 09 June 2016. After a long four-day count, Kuczynski, from the Peruvians for Change (PPK), edged out his rival Keiko Fujimori, from Popular Force, with a wafer-thin margin, winning by 50.117 percent to 49.883 percent. This tight presidential contest was the closest in 25 years in Peru, with over 18.5 million Peruvians having voted.

Kuczynski will have to reckon with a solid majority of Fujimori's party in Congress and a leftist alliance that has promised not to align with either of them.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






'No terrorist attack can reverse Tunisia's democracy,' UN Security Council says

9 March 2016  Strongly condemning the 7 March terrorist attack in Tunisia, the United Nations Security Council last night stressed that "no terrorist attack can reverse Tunisia's democracy and its efforts towards economic recovery and development."

"Any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed," the 15-nation body said in a press statement.

According to media reports, the attack killed at least 12 members of Tunisia's security forces and seven civilians, and injured more than 17 in Ben Gardane, a town located on the border with Libya, on Monday.

In the statement, the Council underlined the need to bring perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice, and urged all States to cooperate actively with all relevant authorities, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions.

Further, the Council reaffirmed the need for all States to combat the threats posed by terrorist acts to international peace and security, by adhering to the Charter of the United Nations and other obligations under international law, including international human rights law, international refugee law and international humanitarian law.

A press statement is a declaration to the media made by the Council's President on behalf of all 15 Members.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement on Monday through his spokesman, condemning the attack.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






US Jury Convicts Ex-Air Force Member of Trying to Join IS

by Ken Schwartz March 09, 2016

A federal jury in New York Wednesday found a former member of the U.S. Air Force guilty of trying to enter Syria and join Islamic State.

Forty-eight year-old Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh faces up to 35 years in federal prison when he is sentenced later this year.

This is the first time a jury has convicted a suspect for trying to join the Islamic State terrorist group. Others have entered plea bargains to avoid trial.

U.S. Attorney Robert L. Capers said Wednesday 'the evidence presented at trial and the jury's verdict instill confidence that our law enforcement agencies and their many important partners at home and abroad work effectively to disrupt and defeat the deadly siren's call of terrorist groups around the globe.'

Pugh was an Air Force technician who specialized in installing and maintaining engines and navigation and weapons systems. He worked as an airplane mechanic in the U.S. and Middle East after leaving the service.

Prosecutors say Pugh traveled from Egypt to Turkey in January, 2015 to try to cross the border with Syria and join up with Islamic State to wage 'jihad.' Turkish authorities sent him back to Egypt and he was deported back to the United States within days.

With the help of an undercover agent, the FBI arrested Pugh less than a week after he returned to New York.

Investigators found evidence on Pugh's laptop computer, including gruesome Islamic State videos of executions, terrorist propaganda videos, and a letter Pugh wrote before heading to Egypt. He declared himself an Islamic warrior who intended to defend Islamic State.

'There are only two possible outcomes for me,' he wrote. 'Victory or martyr.'

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Chinese facilities in Djibouti not military base, military expert says

People's Daily Online

By Yuan Can (People's Daily Online) 17:15, March 09, 2016

What China plans to build in Djibouti are logistics facilities which should not be regarded as military base in respect of functions and scales, a military expert told Global Times.

China is not the first country to build relevant facilities in Djibouti and this is not the first time that Djibouti has opened to foreign military, said Zhang Junshe, a senior researcher at the PLA Naval Military Studies Research Institute. The U.S., France and Japan have already built military bases in the area, Zhang added.

As Djibouti is one of the closest major ports to Somalia, China decided to build supplementary facilities there to provide its escort fleets with food, water and oil.

At a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress on March 8, Wang Yi, China's foreign minister, said China has so far dispatched 22 batches of escort fleets to Gulf of Aden and waters off Somalia coast to carry out escort missions to counter piracy.

These fleets had experienced difficulties that affected the 'rest and reorganization of the servicemen and the supply of oil', according to the Foreign Ministry.

Zhang also mentioned that China's fleets used to dock at ports of other countries through diplomatic approaches.

'China will not seek military interference into regional and other countries' affairs and not seek military expansion,' Zhang said. 'China has long insisted on a defensive defense policy.'

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, said Wang.

On Feb. 25, China's Ministry of National Defense confirmed that construction of relevant infrastructure and facilities had begun. Defense ministry spokesman Wu Qian said workers had been sent to the site.

In December 2015, the Ministry of National Defense confirmed that China and Djibouti had reached an agreement on the outpost.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Xi urges 'sincere and honest' government-business relations

People's Daily Online

By Zhao Cheng (People's Daily) 14:01, March 09, 2016

Chinese President Xi Jinping recently urged a new type of government-business relations characterized by sincerity and honesty. NPC deputies and political advisors attending the ongoing two sessions believed that the new definition will help rectify some problematic official-businessman relations.

President Xi elaborated on the connotation of the two words 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 4th Session of the 12th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

According to Xi, sincerity means that government officials should maintain magnanimous contacts with private business owners, and help them solve practical problems. Meanwhile non-public entrepreneurs are obligated to offer their honest opinions when communicating with government officials.

Honesty refers to the fact that government officials need to be aboveboard and ethical to stamp out excessive greed. Abuse of power is strictly prohibited. Business owners should always abide by the law and never collude with government officials.

Government-business relations have always been a sensitive topic given that recent years have seen several backroom deals between officials and business people.

Deputies hailed the new definition given by Xi, believing that the new definition will provide guidance for the government and businesses in dealing with their ties. Xi previously urged aboveboard and legitimate relations between officials and businessmen on many occasions, criticizing collusion.

China has undertaken multiple actions to build the new type of government-business relations since the 18th Communist Party of China National Congress. For example, serving Party or government officials are not allowed to hold positions in enterprises. In the past two years, the Organization Department of CPC Central Committee has removed 63,000 officials from their company positions.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate also issued documents recently to investigate duty crimes that violated the legitimate rights of non-public enterprises.

Analysts also predicted that as Xi proposed the new definition, coupled with detailed regulations, those problematic official-businessman relations will be rectified. As a result, government officials will use their power under the rule of law to serve the people, and businessmen will not depend on connections as called guanxi when doing business.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Cuba Warns Against US Meddling; White House Unconcerned

by Mary Alice Salinas March 09, 2016

The White House said it is "not particularly concerned" about an editorial published in Cuba's state newspaper warning the United States against meddling in its internal affairs. The editorial comes as President Barack Obama prepares for a historic visit to Havana, March 21-22.

The editorial published on Wednesday in the Communist Party's official newspaper, Granma, said while Barack Obama will be warmly welcomed, the communist government has no plans to change its political system as the two nations normalize relations after more than 50 years.

The article noted there should be no doubt about the Cuban government's commitment to its "revolutionary and anti-imperialist ideals." It also criticized U.S. support for the rights of political dissidents, saying Washington "should abandon the pretense of fabricating an internal political opposition, paid for with money from U.S. taxpayers."

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Wednesday the White House is not worried about the opinion piece and reiterated the president's intention of meeting with "political opponents of the Cuban government and standing up for, in a very tangible way, the universal human rights of the Cuban people."

There are reports the two countries have been at odds about which dissidents Obama will meet. According to reports, Havana is proposing that he meet only with government-approved members of 'civil society.'

The White House has insisted it solely will determine the list of Cuban citizens, including anti-government activists, with whom the president will visit during the trip.

"This is an opportunity to use the moral influence of the United States to advocate for greater freedoms for the Cuban people," Earnest said. "That's something that the United States does around the world and it certainly makes sense that we would be doing that in a country just 90 miles off our shores."

Since the policy shift, the U.S. has cleared the path for more travel, trade and commerce with Cuba and has urged the Cuban government to make it easier for Cuban citizens to start businesses, engage in trade and access information online.

Too many concessions

The Obama administration approach toward Cuba is sharply opposed by many in the Republican-led Congress and by some Republican presidential hopefuls. Florida Senator Marco Rubio has threatened to reverse the change in U.S.-Cuba relations.

U.S. critics of Obama's policy to normalize relations argue the U.S. leader gave too many concessions in the policy shift, particularly when it comes rights, such as freedom of association, freedom of speech and the ability to engage in politics.

But "[Obama] is not giving up on human rights in order to normalize relations with Cuba; he is normalizing with relations with Cuba as a way to make progress on human rights," said William LeoGrande, Cuba expert and American University government professor.

In December 2014, Obama announced the United States would re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba and begin the process of normalizing relations. The White House has argued that decades of U.S. isolation of Cuba failed to build an open and democratic country and diminished U.S. influence in the Western Hemisphere.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Newspapers Denounce Key Resolve and Foal Eagle 16 Joint Military Drills

Korean Central News Agency of DPRK via Korea News Service (KNS)

Pyongyang, March 9 (KCNA) -- Newspapers of the DPRK on Wednesday denounce the largest-ever joint military drills Key Resolve and Foal Eagle 16 launched by the U.S. imperialists and south Korean puppet forces.

Rodong Sinmun in an article says there is no guarantee that the U.S. will not ignite a war while staging the war exercises under the simulated conditions of a preemptive nuclear strike with huge forces of aggression involved.

Prior to the joint military drills, the U.S. imperialists conducted a missile launch drill in the mainland and a joint landing drill with the Japan 'Self-Defense Forces', thereby not hiding the fact that they began finally examining the feasibility of a war against the DPRK and the scenario for fighting it, the article says, and goes on:

As the enemies' drills have turned out to be the most undisguised nuclear war rehearsals to infringe upon the sovereignty of the DPRK, its military counter-measure will be more preemptive and offensive nuclear strike.

If the U.S., empire of evils, ignites a war on the Korean peninsula, this will be a signal of its ruin.

If the U.S. imperialists ignite the second Korean war finally, the strong military muscle of the DPRK will pound the enemy positions by the Juche-oriented war method, unimaginable and unprecedented.

The enemies will find no place safe from the strike of the powerful revolutionary Paektusan army.

Minju Joson in a commentary says that the U.S., which was the first to inflict nuclear disasters upon mankind and has resorted to nuclear threat and blackmail, will disappear in face of the just nuclear strike of the army and people of the DPRK. -0-

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Kim Jong Un Guides Work for Mounting Nuclear Warheads on Ballistic Rockets

Korean Central News Agency of DPRK via Korea News Service (KNS)

Pyongyang, March 9 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, first chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army, met the scientists and technicians in the field of researches into nuclear weapons and guided the work for mounting nuclear warheads on ballistic rockets.

He learned in detail about the signal successes made by the nuclear scientists and technicians in the field of national defence science in the work true to the party's line of founding the Juche-oriented nuclear force.

He listened with great attention to the briefing on the research conducted to tip various type tactical and strategic ballistic rockets with nuclear warheads and acquainted himself with the specifications and mechanism of the miniaturized powerful nuclear warheads with a Korean-style structure of mixed charge.

Praising the nuclear scientists and technicians, trustworthy 'nuclear combatants' of the party, for having made a signal success in the national defence scientific researches to significantly bolster up the nation's defence capability and self-defensive deterrent true to the party's line of simultaneously developing the two fronts, he noted it is very gratifying to see the nuclear warheads with the Korean-style structure of mixed charge adequate for prompt thermo-nuclear reaction. The nuclear warheads have been standardized to be fit for ballistic rockets by miniaturizing them, he noted, adding this can be called true nuclear deterrent.

He noted with great satisfaction that Koreans can do anything if they have a will.

Being a proud nuclear weapons state at present, we have a firm guarantee for making a breakthrough in the drive for economic construction and improving the people's standard of living on the basis of the powerful nuclear war deterrent, he stressed.

He said that the WPK's line of simultaneously developing the two fronts is not a temporary counter-action for coping with the rapidly changing situation but a strategic line to be permanently held fast to as long as the imperialists' nuclear threat and arbitrary practices persist.

He called on the nuclear scientists, the frontline combatants responsible for the country's nuclear deterrent, to creditably perform their honorable mission and duty on behalf of the party, the country and the revolution on the first battle line for decisively foiling with a nuclear treasured sword the enemies' daily escalating reckless moves to stifle the DPRK and glorifying it as the matchless nuclear power which no force on earth dares to provoke.

Noting that our nuclear force's real 'enemy' is a nuclear war itself, he added that the stronger our nuclear strike capability gets, the more powerful our deterrent to aggression and nuclear war grows and it is the most just and reliable way of preventing the country from a nuclear war disaster to firmly bolster up the nuclear force both in quality and quantity.

The right to make a preemptive nuclear strike is by no means a monopoly of the U.S., he said, declaring that if the U.S. imperialists infringe upon the DPRK's sovereignty and right to existence with nuclear weapons, it will never hesitate to make a preemptive nuclear strike at them.

He expressed great expectation and belief that scientists and technicians in the field of researches into nuclear weapons would develop and produce more Korean-style various type nuclear weapons of Juche to completely contain the enemies with nuclear force and thus provide a firmer guarantee for the eternal future of Kim Il Sung's nation and Kim Jong Il's Korea.

He was accompanied by General Kim Rak Gyom, commander of the KPA Strategic Force, Hong Yong Chil and Kim Yo Jong, vice department directors of the Central Committee of the WPK. -0- (2016.03.09)

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Seoul Unable to Confirm Pyongyang Possesses Miniature Nuclear Warheads

Sputnik News

16:36 09.03.2016(updated 16:41 09.03.2016)

Seoul cannot yet confirm that Pyongyang has miniaturized nuclear warheads that can fit on ballistic missiles, despite North Korea's claims, South Korean media reported Wednesday.

TOKYO (Sputnik)  On Tuesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced that his country had managed to reduce the weight of nuclear warheads, enabling them to mount them on ballistic missiles, the Yonhap news agency reported.

'We think the North's technology of miniaturizing nuke arms has reached a significant level But South Korea and the U.S. have not had any intelligence that the North has succeeded in fitting nuclear warheads on ballistic missiles. There is no sign for that,' Yonhap news agency quoted an unnamed official from the Defense Ministry as saying.

South Korea's Defense Ministry has analyzed photos of the supposed miniature warhead published in the North Korean Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Tuesday and found that Pyongyang does not yet possess the technology to create a functional miniature warhead, the agency reported.

Tensions over North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs escalated after Pyongyang said on January 6 that it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb and put a satellite into orbit on February 7, violating UN Security Council resolutions and triggering condemnation from the international community.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






North Korean Propaganda War Goes Nuclear

by Brian Padden March 09, 2016

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Wednesday his country has developed miniature nuclear warheads that can fit on a ballistic missile.

While such bellicose claims are not new from the reclusive nation, this is the first time the North Korean leader has made such an assertion.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Wednesday that Kim met with nuclear scientists and technicians who briefed him on 'research conducted to tip various types of tactical and strategic ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads.'

The agency also published photographs that appeared to show the North Korean leader visiting a facility where the warheads were made.

The photos could not be independently confirmed and a number of military analysts have said they doubt the North's claim.

U.S. military leaders have said in the past that North Korea has the right connections and technology to develop a miniaturized nuclear device, but it has yet to demonstrate such capability.

North Korean boasts about its nuclear capability support Pyongyang's intensified efforts to counter world condemnation following the country's fourth nuclear test and recent long-range rocket launch.

But its public diplomacy outreach has done a very poor job of defending itself against such vilification. After the U.N. imposed new tough sanctions last week on the reclusive nation, its military responded by firing projectiles into the sea. Kim also threatened to conduct a pre-emptive nuclear strike against South Korea and the United States.

Last month, North Korean authorities continued a longstanding practice of forcing detained foreigners to make carefully staged public confessions. This time they made an American student admit that his attempt to steal a sign in a hotel was part of a sinister U.S. plot.

And the North Korean media regularly makes obscene, graphic and derogatory comments about U.S. and South Korean leaders.

History of provocation

Brian Myers, who examined North Korean propaganda in his 2010 book, The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why it Matters, said Pyongyang's confrontational public relations style can be traced back to founding leader Kim Il Sung, who was installed by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II.

'Kim Il Sung always said the Korean people should not be afraid of the Yankees. They should realize that the Yankees can be beaten and these images serve that end,' said Myers, who is also an associate professor of International Studies at Dongseo University in South Korea.

North Korea, he said, uses threats and belligerent language as a way to engage Washington.

'This rhetoric is the North's way of saying to Washington, You guys better keep us on the front burner because we are just as ready to fight and die as your enemies in the Middle East are,' he said.

Rhetoric

In recent years North Korea's rhetoric has become more harsh and bellicose in part because more information from the outside world is filtering into the once tightly controlled and isolated state.

'In the old days the regime could make very peaceful noises to the outside world and very bellicose racist noises in what I call megaphone propaganda, the sort of thing that North Koreans get in their farms and factories.

But now as more and more North Koreans have access to outside sources of information, the regime is under much and more pressure to speak in one voice. And that means making much the same warlike and often racist noises in export propaganda that it has always made on the home front,' said Myers.

There is a method to North Korea's warlike rhetoric. Internally it is meant to boost a sense of national pride. Externally it is meant to increase anti-American extremist sentiment in South Korea and elsewhere.

It has also worked in the past to force concessions from the West.

Diplomacy

But, Myers said, while this type of diplomacy may seem to many as amateurish and counterproductive, it accurately reflects the uncompromising position of the political and military leaders in Kim Jong Un's inner circle of power.

'Those are ultra nationalists who are genuinely outraged by the presence of American troops in South Korea, who remain genuinely committed to reunifying the peninsula. And this is the problem with ultra-nationalists everywhere, is that it's very difficult for them to put themselves in the shoes of other nations, of other races and has great difficulty presenting itself in a sophisticated way to them,' he said.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Japan Condemns North Korea's Alleged Launch of Short-Range Missiles

Sputnik News

05:58 10.03.2016

Japan's Defense Ministry has condemned the alleged launch of two short-range missiles by North Korea, Japanese media report.

TOKYO (Sputnik)  The reported Thursday launch could have been carried out using Scud ballistic missiles, Japan's Kyodo news agency said on Thursday citing Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani who did not exclude the possibility of more provocations on the part of Pyongyang.

Earlier on Thursday, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said that North Korea had fired two short-range missiles into East Sea (Sea of Japan).

The missiles were fired at around 05:20 a.m. local time on Thursday (about 21:00 GMT on Wednesday) from North Hwanghae Province in North Korea, the JCS said as cited by the South Korean Yonhap news agency. The missiles hit waters northeast of the port city of Wonsan, the South Korean military said.

On March 3, Yonhap reported citing South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun that several short-range missiles were fired from the North Korean Wonsan naval base. All of them reportedly fell into the sea.

The reported launches come in the wake of new sanctions introduced against North Korea by the UN Security Council earlier this month.

The sanctions came in response to Pyongyang's January hydrogen bomb test, as well as the launch, a month later, of a long-range rocket to allegedly place a satellite into orbit, in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Iran test-fires two ballistic missiles during large-scale drills

Iran Press TV

Wed Mar 9, 2016 6:26AM

Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has successfully test-fired two ballistic missiles in line with the country's defense doctrine.

The missiles dubbed Qadr-H and Qadr-F were fired on Wednesday during the large-scale drills, codenamed Eqtedar-e-Velayat.

The missiles were fired from East Alborz heights in northern Iran and could hit targets 1,400 kilometers away in Makran Coasts southeast of the country.

Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Division Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh said Qadr-H missile has a range of 1,700 kilometers while Qadr-F missile can destroy targets some 2,000 kilometers away.

Iran's test-firing of the missiles comes after a US State Department spokesman, Mark Toner, on Tuesday criticized the country's missile launch, saying Washington planned to bring it before the United Nations Security Council.

Last month, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the Islamic Republic will continue to develop its missile program and that Tehran needs "no permission" to enhance the country's defense capabilities.

"We have announced that we will not ask permission from anyone to [strengthen] our defense and missile capability," Zarif said in an interview with Iranian Students' News Agency, ISNA, on February 28.

The top Iranian diplomat went on to say that the country's missile program does not breach last July nuclear agreement struck between Tehran and six world powers and that the deal does not ban Iran from boosting its defense capabilities.

In recent years, Iran has made great achievements in its defense sector and manufactured different types of military equipment.

Iran has repeatedly assured other countries that its military might poses no threat to other states, insisting that its defense doctrine is entirely based on deterrence.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






US Holds Islamic State Agent Tied to Chemical Weapons

by Jeff Seldin March 09, 2016

U.S. defense officials say an Islamic State operative captured by American special-operations forces is a key figure in the militant group's chemical-weapons program in Iraq, where new gas attacks by the terror group were reported Wednesday.

The unidentified suspect's detention was reported last week, but his link to chemical weapons was not disclosed until now by defense officials who requested anonymity. The Islamic State agent was captured during raids in Iraq and Syria by a U.S. "expeditionary targeting force," assigned to gather intelligence and identify high-ranking IS leaders.

A Pentagon spokesman, Captain Jeff Davis, would not comment on recent operations but made general remarks about the "expeditionary targeting force."

"One of the goals, one of the missions we anticipate they they will do is that they will capture a small number of ISIL leaders," he said, using another acronym for Islamic State. "The detention of these we anticipate to be very short term. It will be coordinated with Iraqi authorities."

Officials in Iraq told VOA Wednesday that Islamic State fighters fired rockets loaded with mustard gas, also known as sulfur mustard, into a town north of Baghdad late Tuesday and early Wednesday. Iraqi and Kurdish officials said dozens of civilians were injured by the attack on Taza Khurmatu, a town whose residents are mostly Shi'ite Muslim ethnic Turkmens.

"The rockets spread a garlicky smell and caused nausea and vomiting," according to Soran Jalal, head of Taza Khurmatu's civil defense office. He told VOA that investigators confirmed the weapons carried mustard gas.

A commander in Kirkuk, the Kurdish population center north of Turkmen town, estimated about 30 people required hospital treatment. Lieutenant Muhammad Qadir told VOA at least five of the wounded had facial burns caused by chemical agents.

Separately, a police official in Kirkuk, Brigadier General Sarhad Qadir, said it was determined the rockets were fired into Taza Khurmatu from territory controlled by the Islamic State group.

U.S. officials are aware of the group's use of such weapons.

"We know that they have used chemical weapons on multiple occasions in both Iraq and Syria and we should have no misconceptions.  This is a group that does not observe international laws or international norms. They have demonstrated they will stop at nothing to inflict death and destruction on innocent people," Pentagon spokesman Davis said. "Sulfur mustard - it's usually in a powdered form and it's put into artillery shells, rockets. And when those blow up it creates a dust cloud that can primarily aggravate but in large doses can absolutely kill."

U.S. officials say Islamic State is still developing its chemical weapons program, so some reports about the terror group's use of chemical weapons on the battlefield is "still largely about fear." Islamic State fighters still find it easier to manufacture and use improvised explosive devices (IEDs) or to use suicide bombers to inflict casualties, according to the American officials.

Correspondent Sharon Behn in Iraq and VOA reporters Rikar Hussein and Dlchad Anwar contributed to this report

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






US, Israel Head Closer to New Defense Pact, Despite Tension

by Ken Bredemeier March 09, 2016

The United States signaled Wednesday that it is moving toward a new package of military assistance to Israel, its closest Middle Eastern ally, even as relations between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remain fraught with tension.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, in Jerusalem for a meeting with Netanyahu, said the Jewish state's regional military superiority must be preserved with both the quantity and quality of its weaponry. The two countries are negotiating a new U.S. defense aid pact to replace the $3 billion-a-year agreement that expires in 2018.

The Israelis are seeking $4.5 billion annually from Washington; the U.S. is targeting a figure of about $3.7 billion. Netanyahu said in January that the two countries are finalizing details for a 10-year package.

Biden said the assistance is necessary because Israel is in a 'very, very tough neighborhood, a tough and changing neighborhood. We are committed to making sure that Israel can defend itself against all serious threats, maintain its qualitative edge with a quantity sufficient to maintain that.'

Biden told reporters that Obama has 'done more to help bolster Israel's security than any other administration in history.'

But whether a new aid package is completed before Obama leaves office next January is an open question. Israeli aides hinted last month that they may wait to complete a deal until his successor is sworn in.

Rocky relations

The relations between Obama and Netanyahu have been contentious. The latest dispute unfolded this week, when the White House said it found out through news accounts that the Israeli leader had decided not to make a trip to Washington next week for a meeting with Obama after first suggesting the get-together.

Nonetheless, David Makovsky, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told VOA the U.S.-Israeli friendship has thrived despite the prickly Obama-Netanyahu relationship.

'Everyone has talked about the rockiness and the relationship between President Obama and the prime minister, while pointing out that the security relationship has survived and thrived, despite the political differences,' Makovsky said. 'But I don't know if in the eighth year of an eight-year year term there is great expectation of any grand turnaround at this point.'

Even so, Makovsky concluded, 'I think these are two countries that understand joint values and the U.S.-Israel relationship is really too big to fail. It's grown in breadth and depth, the security relationship is very vibrant, very strong. So it's a kind of [like] A Tale of Two Cities, you know: the best of times and the not exactly best of times.'

Netanyahu's office said he called off next week's trip to Washington because he did not want to upstage the current Republican and Democratic presidential nominating elections, even though Obama is not on the ballot.

Leaders' past spats

The United States has been a staunch ally of Israel for the duration of its nearly seven-decade existence in the turbulent Middle East, but there have been year-by-year conflicts between Obama and Netanyahu, both of whom assumed power in early 2009.

When the two leaders first met at the White House seven years ago, White House officials were irked that Netanyahu avoided endorsing Palestinian statehood, a U.S. priority that Obama now acknowledges will not become a reality before he leaves office.

Later the same year, Obama said in a Cairo speech that the United States 'does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements' in the West Bank  housing communities that Israel has expanded over the years even as the world community has denounced the new construction.

In March 2010, when Biden was on another trip to Israel, the Israeli government announced plans for a new 1,600-home settlement. Later the same month, when Netanyahu was in Washington, he was denied the normal formalities accorded a foreign dignitary, including the ritual handshake.

By 2011, a peeved Obama was caught on a live mic complaining about Netanyahu in a conversation with then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

'You may be sick of him, but me, I have to deal with him every day,' Obama said.

Four years ago as Obama sought re-election, the White House viewed Netanyahu as a key supporter of Obama's Republican opponent, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who was openly welcomed by Netanyahu on a visit to Israel.

There were new tensions last year as Obama and five other world leaders negotiated a nuclear agreement with Iran that curbed its development of nuclear weaponry in exchange for lifting sanctions that had sharply diminished Tehran's economy. Netanyahu, a staunch foe of the deal, accepted a Republican invitation to address Congress to denounce the deal as it was being negotiated. Obama refused to meet him while he was in Washington for the speech.

The two leaders subsequently met at the White House after the nuclear deal was completed, shook hands and moved on to discuss the two countries' mutual interests in curbing Middle East turmoil.

VOA's Elizabeth Cherneff contributed to this report.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Party nominates Suu Kyi's ex-driver for Myanmar president

Iran Press TV

Thu Mar 10, 2016 9:12AM

The party of Myanmar's democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has nominated her former driver and close friend for president.

Myanmar's National League for Democracy (NLD) announced 69-year-old Htin Kyaw as the party's nominee for the post on Thursday.

Under Myanmar's constitution, Suu Kyi herself is banned from holding the executive office because her children are foreign nationals and not Myanmarese citizens.

For the past several weeks, Suu Kyi is believed to have held closed door talks with the powerful military generals to suspend a constitutional clause that bars her from presidency.

The Thursday announcement signals the end, at least for now, of Suu Kyi's longtime ambition to be Myanmar's leader but many analysts say Htin Kyaw will act as her proxy.

Kyaw Thiha, an upper house NLD lawmaker, said Thursday that the new president will take orders from Suu Kyi.

'She cannot become the president, but it doesn't really matter because she will be controlling everything. She will be the one to control us,' Kyaw Thiha said.

Suu Kyi has previously said that even with the election of someone else as president, she will be the de-facto leader, and will have a position "above" the president.

Last November, Suu Kyi's NLD won about 80 percent of contested parliamentary seats, more than the two-thirds it needed to control the parliament and select the president.

Myanmar has an indirect system for electing a president, based on which three candidates are nominated  one by the lower house, one by the upper house, and one by the military bloc in the parliament.

A parliamentary commission vets the candidates, and both houses will subsequently vote in a joint session. The winner of the vote will become president and the losing nominees will take up the posts of vice president.

The NLD, which dominates both houses of parliament, nominated Htin Kyaw from the lower house, and Henry Van Hti Yu, an ethnic Chin minority, from the upper house.

The parliament is set to hold the vote to select the president later this month. The president picked will take over from outgoing Thein Sein on April 1.

Htin Kyaw's background

Htin Kyaw is the son of veteran NLD member Min Thu Wun. His wife is a sitting NLD lawmaker, whose own late father was once party spokesman.

Htin Kyaw went to school with Suu Kyi and once served as her driver. He has long been part of Suu Kyi's inner circle and currently runs her charity. He is a graduate of economics and has taught at university.

It is not still clear how Suu Kyi will rule through Htin Kyaw in the future government. Some say she may take up the post of foreign minister, which will give her both a position in the cabinet and a seat in the military-dominated security council.

Suu Kyi has vowed to create a government of national reconciliation. However, she has turned a blind eye to the plight of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims.

The Rohingyas, who mainly live in the western state of Rakhine, have been subject to systematic repression by extremist Buddhists since the country's independence in 1948.

Muslim candidates were barred from taking part in Myanmar's parliamentary elections, and Rohingya Muslims were also deprived of the right to vote.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Daesh rocket attacks kill 9 civilians in Syria's Dayr al-Zawr

Iran Press TV

Wed Mar 9, 2016 6:39PM

At least nine civilians have been killed and 15 others injured in rocket attacks by the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group on residential neighborhoods in the province of Dayr al-Zawr in eastern Syria.

Daesh terrorists fired rockets at the neighborhoods of al-Joura and al-Qusour on Wednesday, according to the Lebanese al-Mayadeen television channel.

The news comes as the Takfiri militants continued to suffer in the province with the Syrian air raids destroying their gathering centers.

The Syria warplanes also destroyed the terrorists' vehicles in the villages of al-Mari'ya and Hweja al-Mari'ya in the eastern countryside of Dayr al-Zawr, killing and injuring all on board.

To the north of the country, militants also fired several rockets at Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood in Aleppo city, injuring 4 civilians.

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.

A ceasefire agreed by the United States and Russia took effect in Syria on February 27 at midnight Damascus time. The Syrian government also accepted the terms of the truce on condition that military efforts against Daesh and the al-Nusra Front Takfiri militants, who are not included in the ceasefire agreement, continue.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Syrian forces seize four villages from Takfiri militants in Aleppo

Iran Press TV

Wed Mar 9, 2016 11:19AM

Syrian government forces have seized four villages from Takfiri militants in the northern province of Aleppo, local media report.

Syrian forces took control of Kharbil, A'akil, al-Qali' and Sardeh villages on Wednesday after clashes with foreign-sponsored militants, the Lebanon-based al-Mayadeen TV said.

A number of militants were also killed and injured in the fighting.

In Homs Province, government forces clashed with militants in Mahassa village in southern area of Qaryatayn city and took control of the region after killing several militants.

According of official SANA news agency, the Syrian air force targeted a gathering of Daesh militants around the city of Palmyra. Syrian forces also foiled an attack by Daesh militants on the areas of al-Maqale'a, Thanyet al-Rajmeh, and Duhour al-Hayyal in Palmyra and killed and injured many of them.

Reports also said that some 40 militants were killed and another 32 injured during clashes in a village in Deir Ezzor.

SANA has not referred to the casualties among the Syrian government forces.

Syria has been grappling with a deadly conflict it blames on certain foreign states for nearly five years. More than 470,000 people have been killed and millions have been displaced in the Arab country, according to a February report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research. The militancy has also taken a heavy toll on the country's infrastructure.

The Arab country is currently observing an agreement for the cessation of hostilities which entered into force on February 27. The agreement stipulates the cessation of all military hostilities in Syria, except for the operations against the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group and al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front militants.

The agreement was negotiated by Russia and the United States. Washington is among the main supporters of militants fighting the Syrian government forces.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Syria militants use phosphorus in chemical attack in Aleppo: Kurds

Iran Press TV

Wed Mar 9, 2016 5:46AM

Militant groups operating in Syria have used yellow phosphorous in a chemical attack on a mainly Kurdish residential district in the northern city of Aleppo, a Syrian Kurdish group says.

"The Sheikh Maqsoud district in Aleppo was attacked with chemical weapons on Tuesday evening. Radical groups launched dozens of rockets filled with yellow phosphorus element," the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) said in a statement.

According to the statement, the attack was carried out by several foreign-backed militant groups, including the al-Qaeda-linked Ahrar al-Sham.

Kurdish sources said several people were rushed to a hospital following the chemical attack. The victims were reportedly suffering from the common symptoms of chemical poisoning.

Despite an agreement on the cessation of hostilities in Syria, which was negotiated by the US and Russia and which went into force on February 27, fighting has continued in Aleppo Province during the past days.

The YPG had previously reported that the militants operating in the area had not been respecting the agreement and were continuing to attack Kurdish areas.

On Monday, some nine people, including a family of seven, were killed in a shelling in the city of Aleppo. Another 16 people lost their lives after militants fired dozens of rockets on Sheikh Maqsoud a day earlier.

The YPG also says that Turkey has recently fired artillery shells at Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, effectively violating the agreement.

There is a hodgepodge of factions fighting in Syria. A number of regional countries have been backing various armed groups. Turkey, though, has been the only regional country directly firing into Syria, hitting what it says are Kurdish targets, who are themselves fighting extremist groups inside Syria including Daesh terrorists.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. According to a February report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the five-year-long 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.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Russian, Syrian Aviation Drives Nusra Front Away From Suburbs of Idlib

Sputnik News

19:11 09.03.2016

The Russian Aerospace Forces and the Syrian aviation have driven al-Nusra Front militants away from the Syrian city of Idlib.

DAMASCUS (Sputnik)  Al-Nusra Front militants have left their positions southeast of the Syrian city of Idlib after attacks by the Russian Aerospace Forces and the Syrian aviation, a source told Sputnik on Wednesday.

'The militants left their positions in Abu al-Duhur in the southeastern suburb of Idlib after attacks carried out by the Russian Aerospace Forces and the Syrian aviation, and also after disagreements began between the units of different militant groups in the region,' the source said.

Al-Nusra Front is a branch of the al-Qaeda militant group, operating in Syria.

Russia and the United States reached an agreement on the introduction of a ceasefire in Syria on February 22. The ceasefire took effect on Saturday. The cessation of hostilities does not apply to designated terrorist organizations operating in Syria, including Daesh and al-Nusra Front, both outlawed in Russia.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Five Syrian Moderate Opposition Commanders Join Ceasefire - Russian MoD

Sputnik News

18:39 09.03.2016(updated 18:40 09.03.2016)

Truce agreements with five Syria's moderate opposition field commanders have been concluded in the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russia and the United States reached an agreement on the ceasefire in Syria on February 22. The truce excluded Daesh and al-Nusra Front terrorist groups, both of which are outlawed in Russia.

'In the course of last 24 hours, ceasefire agreements have been achieved with commanders of 5 armed formations with total staff up to 450 men active in vicinity of Mahajjah [in Daraa province],' the ministry's Reconciliation Center Bulletin reads.

The ministry added that a number of local ceasefire agreements in Syria has reached 42. Besides, the ministry reported six talks with religious leaders and representatives of local communities in the provinces of Damascus, Aleppo and Quneitra.

'The sides discussed upon issues concerning joining the ceasefire regime and returning back to peaceful life by members of opposition armed formations,' the ministry said.

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

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Syrian Aviation Drops Leaflets Urging Deir ez-Zor Militants to Surrender

Sputnik News

18:30 09.03.2016(updated 18:51 09.03.2016)

Syrian army helicopters dropped leaflets across a number of villages in the eastern Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor calling on militants to lay down arms, local sources told Sputnik on Wednesday.

DAMASCUS (Sputnik)  On Sunday, Syrian Air Force jets dropped leaflets in the cities of Jabal Zawiya and Jisr Shughur in the northwestern province of Idlib issuing similar calls.

'The moment of truth is here, the world is changing rapidly, the army is advancing. Think about yourself, the delay could cost you your life, hasten to surrender and save your lives and future,' the brochures read.

In accordance with the Russia-US brokered ceasefire in effect since February 27, the leaflets flown across ceasefire-affected areas list the phone number of Russia's reconciliation center in Latakia for militant groups seeking to join the truce and engage in dialogue.

Terrorist organizations active in the Arab Republic are not affected by the cessation of hostilities between government and rebel forces.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Syrian Army Wins Back Strategic Region in Homs in Blitz Offensive

Sputnik News

09:57 09.03.2016(updated 13:27 09.03.2016)

The Syrian Army seized back part of al-Quaryatayn city in the eastern part of Homs province and a strategic hilltop as part of its ongoing advance on Daesh terrorists, Iran's Fars news agency reported.

In a parallel development, the government forces, backed by popular units, thwarted the militants' attack on their positions in al-Maqala region in the western part of Palmyra, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy.

According to a field source, army units destroyed an explosives-packed truck, driven by a terrorist suicide bomber, before it reached a hill in al-Tuloul area near al-Quaryatayn.

The Syrian air force destroyed vehicles and positions of Daesh terrorists in the vicinity of Jazal oil field, Mahasa, al-Savanah and near al-Bayarat area in Homs province.

Also on Tuesday, government forces managed to retake a number of key sites along the Aleppo-Latakia Highway in an advance that paved the way for the Syrian Army to reach the hilltops overlooking Jisr al-Shughur, located in the western part of Idlib province, according to Fars news.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Syrian Army Destroys Daesh Tunnel Depot, Restores Security in Aleppo

Sputnik News

09:37 10.03.2016(updated 09:41 10.03.2016)

Syrian army units active in the northern city of Aleppo found and destroyed a tunnel used by terrorists as an arms depot, Iran's Fars news agency reported on Wednesday.

'The Syrian army troops seized a long supply tunnel of the terrorists in one of the neighborhoods of Aleppo,' Fars News wrote citing military sources on the ground.

'The tunnel could lead the militants toward the Syrian army's positions and concentration centers in Jamiyeh al-Zahra in Dawar al-Maliyeh neighborhood,' the sources added.

On Tuesday the al-Nusra Front and Jund al-Aqsa terrorist groups confirmed the loss of at least 26 of their fighters killed and wounded and a number of their military vehicles destroyed following a series of failed attacks on the government forces' positions in Tal al-Eiss in southern Aleppo.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Army, backed by popular forces, restored security to eight newly liberated villages in the south of Aleppo province and was now advancing towards regions still under the terrorists' control.

Syrian military forces also engaged in fierce firefights with the remnants of militants in the areas just liberated inflicting heavy losses and damage on the militants.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






UN Medical Team Enters Yalda District of Damascus for 1st Time in 5 Months

Sputnik News

07:09 10.03.2016

UNRWA has provided health care in the Yalda district of Damascus, Syria for the first time since September 2015.

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik)  The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has provided health care in the Yalda district of Damascus, Syria for the first time since September 2015.

'Today, Wednesday 9th March, distribution operations continued in the Damascus district of Yalda for the fourth consecutive week. A medical team composed of 1 medical officer, 1 nurse and 1 pharmacist accompanied the distribution team and provided much-needed basic primary healthcare to 250 civilians from the area. This is the first time that UNRWA was able to bring in a medical team to Yalda since 23 September 2015,' UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness said in a Wednesday statement.

UNRWA resumed humanitarian aid distribution operations in Yalda on February 13. It distributed 5,700 food parcels in the district during the first week following the resumption.

Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011. The government forces have been fighting against several opposition factions and militant groups, including Islamic State (Daesh) extremists. The conflict has significantly damaged the country's economy and caused a humanitarian disaster.

A US-Russia-brokered ceasefire came into force across Syria on February 27. It was supported by Damascus, as well as by dozens of opposition groups on the ground. Daesh and other radicals operating in Syria are not part of the deal.

Last year, UN humanitarian agencies failed to reach affected territories in Syria amid fierce clashes between the Syrian government forces and opposition groups.

Since January 2016, over 230,000 of people have received humanitarian assistance in Syria, UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura announced on Wednesday.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Two Years After Crimea Annexation, Tatars' Resentment Growing

by Luis Ramirez March 09, 2016

Two years after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, resentment is building among the region's Tatars. The Muslim minority group is native to Crimea. But many have been leaving the peninsula, saying Russian authorities are running them out of government jobs and taking away the autonomy that they once enjoyed under Ukrainian rule.

Seeing Moscow again controlling their native Crimea brings ugly memories to Azime Umerova and her husband. They remember 1944 when Soviet leader Josef Stalin deported their families and thousands of other Tatars from the peninsula.

At her home on Ukrainian-controlled territory just a few kilometers from where Russian authorities have established a new international border, Umerova, 77, describes the day Stalin's security forces showed up at her family's house and ordered family members out at gunpoint.

'They gave us an order to get ready quickly, that we had 15 minutes to take our most important belongings,' she said. 'Everyone was tremendously upset and shouting 'where and why.' Nobody knew anything. Everyone was crying, both children and adults. And soldiers with automatic guns were pushing us to pack into the boxcars.'

The journey to the deserts of Uzbekistan was torturous and they endured years of slave labor. Stalin accused the Tatars, who chose their traditional way of life over the forced collectivization and atheism of Stalinist Russia, of treason.

Feelings of bitterness

Umerova is famous in the town for the delicious hard candy she makes and sells, and which she proudly displays. Two years after her people once again lost Crimea to the Russians, it is hard to fight feelings of bitterness against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

'If I was a bird, I would fly over and destroy the Kremlin down to the last brick and him with it,' she tells VOA. The words are stronger than expected from a grandmother whose bright smile, repeated hugs to a reporter and thick eyeglasses project an image of warmth and tenderness.

Her husband of 58 years, Rustem Umerov, 81, was also deported as a child and suffered similar experiences. He shares his wife's sentiments on what has happened in Crimea in the past two years.

He said, 'every nationality has its motherland, and ours is Crimea, so how can we not feel sick about it?'

At the town mosque, there is anger at what is perceived as inaction by Ukraine's leaders. A group of men gathering for morning prayers say Ukraine has given up on Crimea and never really put up a fight.

'The problem of Crimea is mentioned only in passing. It would seem there is no problem there, that everything is all right there, and that we have resigned ourselves to the situation,' says their imam, who identified himself only as Usein.

Volunteer battalion

Despite a doubling of manpower and the defense budget over the last year, Ukraine's armed forces are stretched as the war against Russian-backed separatists drags on in the country's eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.



Activists backed by Turkey and other majority Muslim countries have taken matters into their own hands. Last September, they set up a fully equipped force called the Noman Chelibijihan Battalion. VOA visited their camp, with tents and barricades, built next to the highway that leads north on a stretch of land connecting the Ukrainian mainland with the Crimean peninsula.

Men and women in combat uniforms and ski masks gather inside the tents. They stand at the barricades, looking across the horizon where a Russian flag waves at a distance of about 2 kilometers from the first Russian checkpoint on the highway from mainland Ukraine.

'We are ready for everything,' Haydarma, one of the battalion's members, says. 'Coming here is not a simple proposition, and our goals are not simple. Personally, I am ready to give my life for this.'

Members say they do not rule out a Russian attack and are ready for it. They declined to answer questions about weaponry, but asserted they are 'fully equipped.' Behind the tents is a line of trenches, sandbag barricades, and lookout points.

The group's leaders declined to discuss their numbers, but told VOA they are no fewer than 100, comprised mostly of Tatars but also include Chechens, Ukrainians, and Afghans. They receive training from Ukrainian military advisers.



Ukraine's government allows the group to operate but battalion leaders say Kyiv does not provide support other than training.

Enforcing blockade

For now, their actions have been limited to enforcing a blockade of cargo from Ukraine to Russian-controlled Crimea. Battalion members have set up a checkpoint next to their camp, where they stop large trucks traveling to the peninsula.

Their aim is to stop any form of support from Ukraine to Crimea as long as the Russians control the territory.

The group has not claimed responsibility for acts of sabotage on power lines that supply Ukrainian electricity to the peninsula. The acts, widely believed to have been carried out by Tatar activists, have resulted in blackouts of several days and sent Russian officials scrambling to install generators and find other sources.



The actions have been no more than a nuisance for Russia, and there is no hint whatsoever that the Tatars' actions are having any effect toward reversing the annexation of the territory.

But the volunteers say they cannot sit idle and remain silent.

'If we do not fight for Crimea, then who else will?' one volunteer asked.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






CHARLOTTE, N.C.  It might be the most important piece of financial information about you  and it's finally easier for you to actually get a look at it.

Big banks and credit card companies are increasingly offering customers free access to their FICO score. This score, named after the software and analytics company that developed it, is used by lenders to determine how risky you are when they are deciding whether to issue a new credit card, mortgage or auto loan.

Banks have been able to make scores available to customers for four years, a result of a FICO initiative, but they have been slow to do so. Discover Financial was the first major credit card issuer to give its customers access to their FICO scores in 2013. But banks like JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup among others have adopted the program in the past year.

"This is a piece of information that grades you and judges your ability to borrow, and because it is so crucial, you should be entitled to have it," said Chi Chi Wu, an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center.

It's the latest move by the banks to give credit information to consumers since Congress required that the three credit bureaus offer credit reports to individuals once a year. Credit reports contain much of the information that goes into determining your score, but not the actual number.

A borrower's FICO score is used in 90 percent of lending decisions, but until recently a person had to pay for it  if it was available at all. Worse, borrowers looking for their credit score would sometimes be provided what's known as an "educational score" which guesses a person's FICO score but is not the score used to determine a person's ability to borrow.

Knowing your credit score can help you negotiate for better rates and shop for better loan deals. Also, if you know your score is weak, you can work to improve it and possibly save hundreds of dollars on a future loan, or thousands of dollars on a mortgage.

Because of the lack of availability, FICO estimates that only half of Americans have accessed their score in the past year and far more don't know what their score is.

Fair Isaac Corp. created the FICO score in the late 1980s. Jim Wehmann, executive vice president of scores for FICO, said the company recently developed what it calls its "Open Access" program partly because banks were already paying for borrowers' FICO scores and there was little to no cost for banks to pass along the score.

"There was lots of confusion out there about what a FICO score is, and those educational scores were not helping. We felt the banks were the natural conduit to get consumers FICO scores, because that's where the credit process begins," Wehmann said.

Wehmann estimates 100 million Americans now have access to their FICO score through a credit card or their bank.

There are a number of different types of credit scores that FICO calculates, but the most common is a number between 300 and 850 points. The higher the score, the more creditworthy that borrower is. The average U.S. credit score is about 695, FICO says. FICO uses a formula  it does not share the exact calculations  that factors a borrower's payment history, how much debt the person has, if they have ever filed for bankruptcy and other financial behavior.

Free FICO scores have become a selling feature for banks. When Chase added free FICO score access to its Slate card in March 2015, applications and usage rose, said Pam Codispoti, president of consumer branded cards at Chase. Codispoti said the bank is considering adding the FICO score feature to its other cards.

"It was really about stepping up to meet a consumer need. Everyone benefits when our customers have more tools to handle their financial lives," she said.

Getting your credit score through your bank won't impact your credit score, FICO says, since the borrower is not actively looking to get new credit. Some credit card companies, like Chase and Discover, also provide tips on how a customer can improve their credit score, like making sure you don't max out credit cards or miss payments.

Consumer advocates  regular critics of big banks  back the trend.

The increased availability of free FICO scores could mean decreased revenue for the three main credit agencies  Equifax, TransUnion and Experian  that sell credit scores, credit monitoring and credit reports to consumers. The agencies' main source of business, though, is compiling, maintaining and selling credit reports to banks.
The future of Alpha Natural Resources remains uncertain, but after filing a reorganization plan Tuesday, company officials said they hope to exit bankruptcy proceedings this summer.

Alpha, the ailing Bristol-based coal company, plans to sell certain core assets and restructure the companys remaining assets, according to a written statement. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in August, but had not filed a reorganization plan until Tuesday.

The company, one of the largest coal producers in the country, has suffered during the recent downturn in the industry. In recent years, Alpha has closed a number of mines and laid off hundreds of employees to offset a slump in coal prices.

Since we began the bankruptcy process last August, we have taken numerous steps to enhance efficiency throughout our business and make tough but necessary decisions regarding the future of our operations, said Alpha Chairman and CEO Kevin Crutchfield.

Alphas proposal, which is subject to approval of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, builds on a motion filed Feb. 8 with the bankruptcy court requesting approval of procedures to govern a marketing and sale process for Alphas core assets. The procedures are designed to implement a process that will allow all interested parties to bid.

If approved, the company would sell its core assets to a group of senior lenders for $500 million, unless a better offer is submitted by an outside party, according to the written statement. The $500 million offer from the lenders, known as a stalking horse bid, is an attempt by the company to maximize the value of its assets or avoid low bids.

The list of core assets, which is included in the stalking horse bid, include the companys McClure, Nicholas and Toms Creek mine complexes in West Virginia and Virginia and the companys interest in Dominion Terminal Associates, a coal export terminal in Newport News. Alphas non-core assets would be spun off into a smaller company, which would focus on fulfilling the companys environmental reclamation obligations.

By selling certain assets and restructuring the companys remaining assets into a reorganized Alpha, the company said it would be able to provide maximum recovery to its creditors, while preserving jobs and putting itself in the best position to meet its reclamation obligations.

The proposal, the company said, would allow for a conclusion of Alphas bankruptcy proceedings by June 30. A hearing to consider approval of the proposal is scheduled for Thursday.

In related news, convicted ex-Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship is opposing a prosecution push to make him pay $28 million in restitution to Alpha, which purchased the former Richmond-based company in 2011. In a Beckley, W.Va., federal court filing Monday, Blankenships attorneys said he shouldnt have to pay Alpha for legal fees, investigative expenses and fines.

Blankenship was convicted Dec. 3 of a misdemeanor conspiracy to willfully violate mine safety standards at Upper Big Branch Mine. The southern West Virginia coal mine exploded in April 2010, killing 29.

Blankenships attorneys wrote that Alpha viewed the explosion and investigations as an opportunity to buy Massey at a lower price. Alpha declined to comment.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe traveled to Halifax County on Wednesday to announce that Slick Rock Lumber will open a new sawmill operation there and Springfield Distillery will open a new whiskey distillery.

The sawmill company will create 13 new jobs in the county and source 75 percent of its timber needs from Virginia land owners, according to a news release.

This is the first economic development announcement in Halifax County during the McAuliffe administration and the first facility grant announcement for the county.

Virginias forestry industry supports thousands of good jobs in our rural communities and provides important market opportunities for the Commonwealths private forestland owners," McAuliffe said. "Partnering with a company like Slick Rock Lumber is a great way my administration can support Virginias forest products sector, one of Virginias top private industries. Slick Rocks new facility will bring welcomed employment opportunities and economic vitality to the region, further helping with my administrations efforts to build a new Virginia economy.

Slick Rock Lumber will invest $535,000 in site improvements and equipment needed to open the new hard- and softwood sawmill.

The companys primary products will be railroad ties and large planks to be made into mats for use by utility, construction, and logging companies. Slick Rock is also committing to purchase more than $5 million of Virginia timber over the next three years, or 75 percent of the forestry inputs needed for the new production venture.

McAuliffe also announced that Springfield Distillery will open a new whiskey distillery in Halifax County.

The company, the first craft distillery in Halifax, will create five new jobs in the county and source 100 percent of its corn and barley needs from Virginia agricultural producers.
Elko, Nevada (FSCwire) - Lithium Corp. [OTCQB  LTUM] the Company is pleased to announce that it has signed a definitive agreement with 1032701 B.C. LTD., a private British Columbia company with respect to the Fish Lake Valley lithium brine property in Esmeralda County, Nevada.

The terms of the formal agreement are much the same as those laid out in the February Letter of Intent (LOI) signed with 1032701; payment of $300,000, issuance of 400,000 common shares of the publicly traded company anticipated to result from a Going Public Transaction, and work performed on the property by the Optionee in the amount of $1,100,000 over the next three years to earn an 80% interest in the property. 1032701 then has a subsequent Earn-In option to purchase Lithium Corp.s remaining 20% working interest within one year of earning the 80% by paying the Company a further $1,000,000, at that point the Company would retain a 2.5% Net Smelter Royalty, half of which may be purchased by 1032701 for an additional $1,000,000. Should the Purchaser elect not to exercise the Subsequent Earn-In, a joint venture will be established. During the Joint Venture, should either party be diluted below a 10% working interest  their interest in the property will revert to a 7.5% Net Smelter Royalty. The first tranche of cash and shares are to be issued within 60 days of the signing of the formal agreement.

Brian Goss, Lithium Corporations president commented, We are pleased to have executed the final agreement, and have been informed that Menika Mining Limited (TSX-V: MML) released a press release on March 8, 2016 stating that they have signed an agreement to acquire 1032701, and their interest in the Fish Lake Valley agreement. As per the stipulations in the Lithium Corp./1032701 LOI and the resulting formal agreement, Menika Mining meets all criteria, and Lithium Corp. looks forward to working with Menika to develop the Fish Lake Valley lithium in brine prospect.

For further information with regard to Lithium Corp., please contact Tom Lewis or Brian Goss at (775) 410-2206 or via email at info@lithiumcorporation.com

About Lithium Corporation

Lithium Corp. is an exploration company based in Nevada devoted to the exploration for energy storage related resources throughout North America, looking to capitalize on opportunities within the ever expanding next generation battery markets. The Company maintains a strategic alliance with Altura Mining, an ASX listed natural resource development company that is currently developing its 100% owned world-class Pilgangoora lithium pegmatite property in Western Australia.

Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This current report contains "forward-looking statements," as that term is defined in Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Statements in this press release which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future.

Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with mineral exploration and difficulties associated with obtaining financing on acceptable terms. We are not in control of minerals prices and these could vary to make development uneconomic. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate. Investors should consult all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factors disclosure outlined in our most recent annual report for our last fiscal year, our quarterly reports, and other periodic reports filed from time-to-time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

To view this press release as a PDF file, click onto the following link:public://news_release_pdf/lithium03102016.pdfSource: Lithium Corp. (OTCQB:LTUM) http://www.lithiumcorporation.com/

Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com

Copyright  2016 Filing Services Canada Inc.
Australian sales of champagne have surged. Photo: Nikola Bilic

Australians clearly have a lot to celebrate - we're buying more bubbly than ever.

Champagne sales have surged by nearly a quarter, cementing Australia's place as the sixth largest importer in the world, just behind Belgium. The UK took out the top spot, followed by the US, Germany and Japan, according to figures from Champagne Bureau, which represents the Comite Champagne organisation in Australia.

In 2015, we imported 8.1 million bottles of champagne  an increase of 24.31 per cent on the previous year's figure of 6.5 million bottles.

"That sounds like a lot, but it's not surprising," says Amanda Yallop, head sommelier at Sydney's three-hatted Quay restaurant. "There's a huge collection of people who are into champagne."

The stereotype of bubbly only being ordered by affluent businessmen and "ladies who lunch" has been overhauled  Yallop says attitudes have changed and champagne is no longer seen as something reserved for the upper echelon of society. "And that comes across in champagne sales," she says.

Young men will come into the restaurant and order champers instead of beer; consumers graduate from local sparkling wines to artisan grower champagnes as an affordable alternative to grand marques  and people aren't so strict about rationing the beverage as a special one-off.

"People will drink champagne with a meal, in advance of a meal, after a meal; they'll have a bottle of champagne to share with the table," says Yallop. "It doesn't need to be a birthday or anniversary, now it's 'we're getting together with friends, let's enjoy ourselves'."

Wine writer Mike Bennie, who helped curate the drinks list for Noma Australia, notes champagne has also become significantly more budget-friendly.

Advertisement

"When I started in the industry 15 years ago, champagne prices were equal if not higher for most big-name champagnes," he says. Bennie thinks that the rise of secondary market champagne  and major importers addressing this by offering more competitive pricing  combined with supermarkets selling bottles directly has helped make champagne more accessible than it's previously been. After all, Aldi sells bubbly for $25. So it's no surprise that sales have surged in Australia.

Despite the price drops, the image of sparkling wine is still aspirational  which doesn't hurt its allure.

"People enjoy the peripheral lifestyle that champagne suggests," he says.

Local demand isn't just for the cheapest wine  Bennie says there's been a "head-spinning" boom in artisanal grower champagne. And Yallop thinks the strong demand for champagne can be partly attributed to this: "the quality of champagne that is available to Australians right now is the best that it's ever been."
Co-owner Anna Nguyen designed the fitout at Friend or Pho. Photo: Tom Ross

Sisters Anna Nguyen and Chelsea Le won't be able to celebrate the anniversary of their first joint venture until the next leap year in 2020  they opened Friend or Pho on February 29, in a heritage terrace opposite Yarraville's Sun Theatre.

The daughters of Vietnamese immigrants, Nguyen and Le learnt the restaurant trade from their parents, who ran a couple of bakeries in the area when the girls were young.

Le (a former pastry chef) is in the kitchen with "Uncle" Hung (ex-Hong Van), who has come out of retirement to cook a menu that takes cues from the north (rice noodle soups made from a 12-hour stock, including a vegan version) and south (broken rice with a grilled pork chop topped with a fried egg).

Rare beef and brisket pho made with a 12-hour broth. Photo: Nola James

Nguyen, a designer at an architectural firm who now moonlights as a restaurant manager, is responsible for the smart fitout: a few blondwood benches around a white central island, shelves lined with colourful condiments and lanterns brought back from a research trip to Saigon; an outdoor courtyard uses fold-down recycled timber benches.

It's currently BYO only, but there's a killer iced coffee; a cold-drip brew floating atop a thick layer of condensed milk. "Give it a bit of a whirl," Nguyen says, "depending on how much sweetness you want."

In a couple of weeks they'll be extending their opening hours  the best time to eat pho is early in the day, so breakfast is on the cards.

Open Mon-Tue 5pm-10pm; Fri-Sun 11am-10pm.

3 Ballarat Street, Yarraville, 03 9042 4431, friendorpho.com.au
SHARE Lt. Col. Ryan Vetter The 17th Training Wing Joint Service Color Guard from Goodfellow Air Force Base presents colors at a ceremony marking the 14th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Ngan Ho/Standard-Times

By Lt. Col. Ryan Vetter Special to the Standard-Times

GOODFELLOW AIR FORCE BASE, Texas  For the past 75 years, the city of San Angelo has supported the military members and multiple missions of Goodfellow Air Force Base. Jan. 26 of this year marked the start of the diamond jubilee for Goodfellow, and the partnership between San Angelo and the base is stronger than ever.

This partnership was recognized last March as the San Angelo community won the 2015 Altus Trophy for its community support to the base, which is home to the 17th Training Wing. The selection committee chose San Angelo due to its innovative partnership initiatives. These partnerships continued to emerge throughout 2015.

Most recently, a partnership agreement was signed between the Concho Valley Rape Crisis Center and the base's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response office to work together in providing education and training to base personnel and the community. Agreements were also finalized between Shannon Medical Center, the San Angelo Community Medical Center and Goodfellow which established an avenue to share disaster response training.

Overall, seven partnership agreements were signed in 2015 and several others are in the works, collaborations which improve our standard of living while driving down costs, making it even easier to work with our civilian counterparts. Working together is critical in today's fiscal environment as the 17th Training Wing accomplishes its mission of developing exceptional intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance and fire protection professionals for America and her allies.

Goodfellow graduated nearly 12,000 airmen, soldiers, sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen this past year, after which they go on to support operations around the world. While the military force continues to draw down, the demands on intelligence and cyber professionals have increased. That is great news for Goodfellow: 2016's student projection numbers are on the rise and our outstanding instructors and support staff are ready to meet these critical needs for our nation.

To meet the increased demand from ally and partner nations for training, we're working to create a world class international training center for the future and expand cooperation with our other allies and partners across the world. Looking forward, the plan for 2025 and beyond includes modernized and new classified training facilities, additional dorm rooms, the development of a centralized student center, and additional quality of life improvements such as revolutionized dining options and expansions of our fitness facilities.

Over the past 75 years, encompassing three, maybe four generations, the men and women of Goodfellow graduated more than 375,000 pilots, intelligence operators, and firefighters for our great nation. There is no slowdown in sight. With San Angelo area community partners at our sides, Goodfellow Air Force Base is in it for the long haul and will continue its excellent tradition to train our military to keep America safe.

Lt. Col. Ryan Vetter is deputy commander, 17th Mission Support Group.
SHARE

By Staff Report

The art of storytelling is being brought to life through creative artwork, writing and interactive activities Saturday at the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts' Family Day Tall Tales.

Tall Tales runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the museum, 1 Love Street, and is free to the public.

Saturday's event will have costumes and props, string stories with a narrative and a book drive, said Bekah Coleman, curator of education at SAMFA.

Visitors will be able to write their own stories, listen as others read to them and, if they bring a book to donate to Give More HUGS, write a message inside of it, she said.

Give More HUGS is a nonprofit organization that provides students in need with educational materials such as books with inspirational messages.

"Texas and American Tall Tales" by Stoddard Owens and Kaitlynn LeBrasseur will began at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Sandy Pederson will entertain families with String Stories at noon inside SAMFA's galleries.

A storytelling tour that explores the museum's two exhibits  "A Voyage across Cultures: The Enduring Fascination of Chinese Export Porcelain" and "BIG: Large-scale Works from SAMFA's Collections"  will start at 1 p.m. There is no fee to see the exhibits Saturday.

The Provisional Class of the Junior League of San Angelo will be on-site to provide a healthy snack for children and educate them about eating healthy through its Kids in the Kitchen program. The program was created by the Association of Junior Leagues International to help combat childhood obesity, according to a SAMFA news release.

Junior League volunteers will help visitors put together a snack that can easily be made at home. The recipe and an activity sheet also will be handed out.

For more information on the event, call 325-653-3333 or visit samfa.org.
A little more than a year ago (Jan. 1, 2015), one of the largest churches in the United States disbanded.

Mars Hill Church, boasting more than 12,000 in attendance across 15 campuses in five states at its peak, dissolved as an organization. Allegations of abusive leadership and plagiarism against Mark Driscoll, the founder and lead pastor of the church, surfaced and the ensuing controversy led the celebrity pastor to resign. Leaving a massive leadership vacuum in his wake, the church liquidated its assets, dismissed its staff and helped satellite sites become their own independent congregations.

Mars Hill became a spectacle to the world of a failed church because of brash, arrogant leadership. Beneath what was so widely reported, though, lies the real secret of its failure, and it's one we've seen in church history before. Mars Hill failed for the same reason the church in Ephesus did.

That's right. Early churches failed, too.

Ephesus, in what is modern-day Turkey, is now only a ruin of an ancient city. Once a great port city, silt from its river filled the port and the city died, but only after its church did. Ephesus is the most-addressed single church in the New Testament. According to Acts, Paul spent more aggregate time with the Ephesians than any other church, and he wrote three letters to the church and its pastor, Timothy (Ephesians and 1 & 2 Timothy). Additionally, Ephesus is the first church Jesus addresses in his letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) in Revelation 2 and 3.

While recognizing their good works and good doctrine, this was Jesus' criticism of the Ephesian church, "But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent" (Revelation 2:4-5, ESV).

The Ephesians lost sight of loving Jesus in the middle of all the stuff they did. They became a good-works machine instead of an organic group of people who just loved Jesus. They stopped focusing on God's glory and started focusing on their own works and their own doctrine. They not only missed the forest for the trees, they missed the maker for the forest he created.

In a 2014 article of Christianity Today's Leadership Journal, Bill Clem, a campus pastor and elder a the former Mars Hill Church, discussed a pivotal point in the Mars Hill saga. The church hired Sutton Turner as the church's general manager, then promoted him to management of central operations. Clem discussed Sutton's impressive qualifications, "He had an MBA from Harvard and had just worked for the Prince of Qatar's royal family on a major real estate development where he oversaw 1,500 people." He then went on to discuss how Sutton transformed the organization and made it efficient with a new business model focused on return on investment and a prescribed manner of staffing satellite locations based on their attendance and revenue.

Again, missing the point.

God's glory is all that counts.

When we focus on attendance, growth, revenue, numbers, statistics, programs and business models, we stop focusing on the only thing that matter  God's glory. "The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love" (Galatians 5:6b, NIV).

Mars Hill and the Ephesian church should have simply listened to what Paul wrote to them, "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen" (Ephesians 3:20-21). The church should be giving glory to God and God alone. Not to a celebrity pastor and not to itself.

Churches that fail to give God glory fail utterly. History bears out what happened in Ephesus. The church was practically a Gnostic cult by the mid-third century and was overrun by Muslims just a few hundred years later. They fell just as Paul warned in Acts 20:29 and as Jesus warned in Revelation 2:4-5. So did Mars Hill and for the same reason.

So rather than fall, let's learn from failures. In your church, do you see programs, or do you see faith expressing itself through love? Do you see church growth or God's glory motivating the church's decisions? I urge you to turn your own attention to our first love: the carpenter who was also God who saved us from ourselves. Make his glory your primary goal, and as we do so together, we can change this city for the better and for God's glory.

Kyle Hooks is the associate pastor at Angelo Bible Church. Contact him at 325-716-4258 or kyle@lookingupfrombelow.com. You can like Looking Up at facebook.com/lookingupfrombelow.
SHARE

By Federico Martinez, Federico.Martinez@gosanangelo.com @federico.martinez@gosangelo.com

Hundreds of Angelo State University students literally got a taste of Europe during a Tuesday event that let them taste different cuisine and learn about cultures.

The campus event, Tour of Europe, was held in the lobby of the Houston Harte University Center. Booths were set up to represent various countries, including France, Germany and Spain.

"This is the first time we've done this program," said Robert Garcia, program director for ASU's Multicultural Center. "We wanted to expose students to the diversity of students enrolled here. We have students from 25 countries represented at ASU."

Student Brenna Kleiber eagerly sampled a slice of German cheesecake but was hesitant to try German-style creamed spinach.

"It's really good," Kleiber said of the cheesecake. Her response to the spinach was a little less enthusiastic: "I'm going to eat it."

Raphaelle Thomas, an exchange student from France, greeted visitors to her booth with crepes and eagerly answered questions about her culture and country.

"I'm glad we're having this program," Thomas said. "I think it's important that we're showing American students more about France's culture and history.

"I get asked a lot of strange questions. I think it's because many people in San Angelo haven't experienced a lot of diversity, so they're not familiar with people from other countries."
SHARE

By Noah Bierman, Tribune Washington Bureau (TNS)

WASHINGTON  Tuesday's primaries in Michigan and Mississippi  and additional Republican contests in Idaho and Hawaii  further clarified the GOP side of the presidential race and posed new questions for Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

The results also intensify pressure on Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

Here are five take-aways:

1. Michigan shows why Hillary Clinton has had trouble locking down the nomination  and why Bernie Sanders has proved durable

Michigan is a good test for Democrats, a big state with several groups the party needs to win general elections: minority voters, union members and blue-collar workers who have been displaced or left behind by changes in the economy.

Clinton needed a big victory there to push Sanders to the curb, yet her ability to attract key groups was mixed, and that eventually doomed her. Sanders was declared the winner of Michigan's primary late Tuesday, though because the state's nominating delegates are split proportionally, both candidates walk away with support.

While Clinton decisively won minority voters, about a third of the Democratic electorate, Sanders scored another big win among whites, according to exit polls conducted for a consortium of news organizations.

Here's why Sanders did well: He won union households, also about a third of the electorate there. He also won among voters who cared most about income inequality and those who said international trade takes away U.S. jobs, both sizable groups in Michigan.

The candidates split voters who said jobs and the economy were the biggest issue, the largest share of voters.

Clinton's claims that Sanders failed to support the auto bailout did not stick apparently and may have reinforced perceptions that she is not honest and trustworthy.

2. Mitt Romney hardly matters

The GOP's 2012 nominee, perhaps the most prominent face of the party establishment, viciously attacked Republican front-runner Donald Trump last week as a phony, unworthy of the presidency. That was followed by a raucous debate in which Trump's opponents attacked him more consistently and relentlessly than at any previous forum. A barrage of television ads targeting the billionaire has begun in Ohio and Florida, which hold their primaries next week.

Yet as usual with Trump, it rolled off his back. The two biggest states at stake Tuesday went for Trump, with voters saying in exit polls that they agreed with his call to ban Muslims from entering the country, a divisive position that set him apart from the party's establishment. Those seeking an outsider who "tells it like it is" also gave the nod to Trump.

Here's a key stat for Trump: About 60 percent of Republican voters in Michigan exit polls said they felt betrayed by Republican politicians.

During his unusual victory news conference Tuesday night, Trump went on an extended riff, trying to rebut Romney's claims that many of his businesses have failed by holding up a copy of Trump magazine and talking about Trump steaks.

3. Does Trump have a ceiling?

Trump keeps winning. But he continues to fall short of a majority in his victories, surpassing 40 percent of the vote in three states before Tuesday. He was short of a majority in Michigan and close to 50 percent in Mississippi on Tuesday night, with results in Idaho and Hawaii pending.

Part of that is a result of the Republicans' four-man race. But as the campaign continues, the question will linger.

Polls often show Trump's support is incredibly strong among his supporters. But he still faces great skepticism from many quarters of the party. In Michigan, about half of Republicans said in exit polls that they would be satisfied if he was the nominee, suggesting he is gaining ground in rallying the party, but has not yet closed the deal.

4. John Kasich did well in Michigan, but doing well doesn't cut it

The Ohio governor treated his showing in Michigan, where he was fighting for second place with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, as evidence that he's surging. But the campaign is long past the stage for handing out participation ribbons. Candidates need actual victories.

And even as Kasich has won some admirers for his touchy-feely town halls, he has not won any states. Michigan was supposed to be the beginning of a string of victories for the Midwesterner's long-shot bid. Trump proved durable, winning his first Midwestern state after he lost the Iowa and Minnesota caucuses.

Kasich is holding out for next week's Ohio contest to notch a victory. But it is unlikely to be enough.

5. Marco Rubio is crashing

The Florida senator has also been pointing to next week, when Floridians also head to the polls, as his make-or-break moment. But it's hard to see how even a victory in his home state  a highly unlikely scenario at this point  can save Rubio.

Distant fourth-place finishes in Michigan and Mississippi reinforced the notion that Rubio is unable to translate his popularity with donors and establishment Republicans into support from actual voters. He may be the next man out.
SHARE

The following editorial appeared in Sunday's Los Angeles Times:

For the third time in eight years, the presidential campaign is doubling as a referendum on the U.S. health care system. And once again, the debate will revolve around the rising cost of health insurance and the number of people struggling to obtain or maintain coverage. The obvious difference this time, though, is that the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as "Obamacare," is now fully in effect.

Although the 2010 law has helped slow some cost increases, the continuing rise in premiums and prescription drug costs and the uptick in health care spending growth show that there's much work left to do. The question for voters this year is whether that work would be easier if the Affordable Care Act were repealed, and the answer is no.

It's important to remember that health care costs were rising rapidly from 2000 to 2008, when double-digit premium increases were common in both individual and group plans. Nevertheless, all the major GOP candidates in 2012 and 2016 have suggested that we roll back the clock to the pre-Affordable Care Act days, when insurers were free to reject or gouge enrollees with pre-existing conditions, and to exclude coverage for less common, more costly ailments.

To protect consumers and slow health care cost growth, Republicans Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have united behind two proposals.

The first is to let insurers offer policies across state lines. That's a solution in search of a problem, however, because health insurance is by its very nature a local product, not a national one.

Meanwhile, hospital and physician groups are consolidating, giving them more power to dictate prices to whatever insurers happen to serve their region. That's a problem no candidate is discussing.

The second GOP idea is to lower the cost of high-deductible plans, which encourage consumers to become smarter shoppers for health care services. That may be a good idea, but it's no panacea. Not only do consumers often need health care on an urgent basis  one doesn't shop around for an ambulance service  but they lack the sort of comparison-shopping tools they rely on for most every other good they buy. Medical professionals are slowly developing ways to measure the quality of a doctor, hospital or treatment, but those efforts are in their infancy.

On the other side of the political spectrum, socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders wants to eliminate private insurers and extend Medicare to all Americans  an idea with great appeal among liberal Democrats. Sanders argues that the government's lower overhead would result in huge savings. But simply cutting administrative expenses wouldn't address the incentives within the industry that are raising costs relentlessly. His plan is like a proposal to hit the brakes on a runaway train without trying to unstick the accelerator.

The inevitable result would be the government having to choose whether to pay for less care  aka rationing  or spend ever more on health care.

What we really need is to fundamentally change the way health care is delivered and paid for. A system built to profit from sickness and injury has to be reoriented to profit from wellness and prevention. We also need far better ways to measure the value we're getting from the money we spend, so that we can shift dollars away from less effective and efficient providers, drugs and devices.

The industry has been exploring those sorts of changes for a while, but the Affordable Care Act accelerated the efforts. Its insurance reforms and subsidies also have helped cut the percentage of uninsured Americans from 16 percent in 2010 to 9.1 percent through the first nine months of 2015.

Yes, the increase in coverage has come at a considerable cost  $85 billion a year and climbing. But having more people insured is key to shifting care to better managed and more efficient means. In other words, it's an essential part of the broader effort to rein in health care costs  and eliminating it would be a step backward, not forward.
SHARE

By John Frock

I'm not sure what to make of Donald Trump. He pretty much comes across as an egotistical, blustering, bombastic blowhard. But the appeal to someone who is a professional politician hater (me) is somewhat magnetic. His pluses: nonestablishment, nonprofessional politician and cares not about political correctness.

He also seems not to care at all what people think about him, at least superficially. And he certainly regards the general press and media with deserved disdain like most of us who can read, comprehend, analyze and who are not easily snowed by propaganda, which excludes many birthed post-1990.

Me? I'm fed up to the gills with professional vote-getters such as Republican Rep. Mike Conaway who seldom follow or acknowledge the desires of the electorate they're supposed to represent as a reward for keeping them in their high-paying jobs with hundreds of perks. Not looking out for us, he helped President Barack Obama increase the national debt among other foul deeds, albeit in the company of other professional vote-getters.

True, I admit to being a die-hard cynic, but brazenly believe that my 75 years on this planet entitles me to be so, that people under 40 should cut me some slack due to my doddering old age. I well know that I'm doddering, but not capriciously ignorant nor quite yet senile.

My cynicism was exacerbated when Obama was running for the first term of which will conclusively prove to be the most disastrous presidency of all time. It's time to give Jimmy Carter a D-plus as he's surrendered the title of worst-ever president to Obama.

I find it remarkably ironic, not to mention incredibly stupid and monumentally hypocritical, that today's pundits have attacked Dr. Ben Carson (I'm still a major fan) and Trump as having no experience in politics/government. At least, compared to Obama's sterling lack of achievements, one was a brilliant surgeon, the other a stupendously successful businessman. Both Trump and Carson have accomplished much in their lives.

The pundits exceeded the theoretical bounds of hypocrisy because none of them ever recognized, admitted to or pointed out that Obama lived a privileged early life, that his jobs as a civil rights lawyer, associate professor and community organizer to increase black voter registration undoubtedly contributed to his penchant for promoting racial divisiveness from the bully pulpit.

Scooping ice cream for Baskin-Robbins didn't give him much insight as to the real needs of the citizenry either.

That he is supposed to be a constitutional expert is a paradox since he has ignored the Constitution when it clashes with his ideology and he's faced many court challenges and will no doubt continue to do so. It's my conviction that had he not been black, he'd never have been president. But, though anything but a gifted orator, he can and could read a Teleprompter better than almost anyone.

However, anyone other than the comatose knows Carson makes Obama look like a pathetically ignorant hick by comparison. The fact that the fourth estate ignored Carson is no doubt attributable to several reasons, including that he is a black conservative, which is a figurative four-letter word to media ideologues. He is brilliant way beyond anything they want to deal with. Thirdly, they were scared to death because he is so soft-spoken, unexciting, noncontroversial and so much smarter than any of them.

What makes me bristle with suspicion is that the media and the political establishment (GOP) are throwing verbal rocks and assaults at Trump on an almost nonstop daily basis. Even the weak-kneed wimp Mitt has recently weighed in with harsh criticism. My opinion of Romney is that he almost went out of his way to intentionally lose to Obama, yet is proverbially the pot calling the kettle black. He never criticized Obama like he has Trump.

What totally escapes elitist pundits such as George Will and Jonah Goldberg on the right and the plethora of leftist pundits (too numerous to mention) is that the most reasonably intelligent (those with a brain larger than a pecan) and informed Americans are totally fed up to the gills with the established Democratic and Republican parties' miscreant-malingerers. Collectively, they're all missing the point  American voters are ticked off!

Say what you will about Donald Trump. It won't really matter to me when the chips start to fall for real. I'd vote for a dill pickle, a banana-eating orangutan or die before I'd ever betray my country by voting for a profane, power-hungry, female-demagogue-criminal such as Hillary Rodham Clinton.

I strongly suspect her own husband wouldn't vote for her either, except that as first husband he'd be able to renew his philandering in the White House while his wife works on finishing the destruction of the USA that Obama started.

John Frock lives in San Angelo.
SHARE

By Wayne Hill

One World Trade Center has now replaced the old World Trade Center. "One" is an address, but the subliminal message is clear.

The political movement for world government has many facets. For example, we have so-called free-trade agreements that create supranational organizations that govern the agreements made and these supranational organizations supersede our nation's own congressional authority, resulting in a loss of national sovereignty to unelected bureaucrats. Eventually these supranational organizations will be transformed into regional governing bodies.

What the globalists' envision is a world similar to what the United States was, which is sovereign states that all agree to a common defense, with open borders and the free flow of goods and services across those borders and the freedom of citizens to move from state to state without hindrance. We have since lost our state sovereignty and are dictated to by a federal master and the coming world government will be master of all the nation states.

Another facet of world government is the creation of global citizens, which entails the loss of national identity and national interests. Ridding a nation of its national identity starts by re-educating its population to think in global terms. The younger generations don't question globalism, since they've been hearing it all their lives, but most of their parents don't question it either.

Globalist ideology is that all citizens of the world have the same status as all other citizens of the world, regardless of whether they are native to that nation or not. Both illegal immigrants and those who are brought here by United Nations mandates are given higher status for food, medical care, housing and education than our own citizens. Even our homeless veterans don't have it as good as most illegal immigrants.

Mass immigration serves the globalist ideology by diluting the national identity. If immigration were a controlled process, like the one that existed decades ago, it can be beneficial to a nation, but when it's out of control and immigrants are literally pouring in as they are today, it leads to a fragmented society of conflicting interests.

Another way that globalist ideology is served by mass immigration is to weaken our form of government. Most of the immigrants entering the U.S. today come from Third World nations who have little to no idea how our national government is designed to work. They come from nations with repressive regimes and would be happy as long as a gun isn't pointed in their face. Their presence provides the opportunity for a government that no longer answers to constitutional law to continue to expand its power and authority over the true government of this nation, "We the people."

Globalists pass themselves off as true humanitarians who care about these poor unfortunate people, but in reality their goal is evil in concept because they are imposing their will over you.

Globalist ideology has stolen the power from the people. We had a government of the people, for the people and by the people. That meant a government guided by God, because the true constitutional government of this nation is the people of this nation who overwhelmingly believe in God. Now that the people have lost that power, God is no longer guiding the decisions made in our nation's capital. The lust for power and privilege, however, is.

Wayne Hill lives in San Angelo.
SHARE

Bruce Bishop, San Angelo

We must stop the Clinton machine from regaining the White House. The Clintons are corrupt to their core. The Clinton Foundation has collected millions of dollars from corporations and foreign nations in exchange for favors rendered by former Secretary of State Clinton.

We are sick of the endless, self-serving Washington agenda, spending our money to buy votes, while ignoring the issues that we are screaming about.

This election will be decided by low-information voters. Our next president will be selected by people who don't know the difference between liberal and conservative, who can't name the three branches of government, who can't name a single Supreme Court justice, but who can tell you the top five songs, the top five movies and the top five Kardashians. Trump would get some of those votes.

As a conservative, Ted Cruz would be my first choice for president. Unfortunately, because he fights for conservative principles, he has become the enemy of his own party. The Republicans pretend to be conservative, but they are only dedicated to preserving their cushy jobs in Washington.

If Cruz were to become the Republican nominee, he would be destroyed by the leftist mainstream media. In a Cruz-Clinton debate, gentleman Cruz would allow Hillary to walk all over him, like Romney did for Obama. In a Trump-Clinton debate, Trump would "rip her face off."

Trump has promised to "make China play fair," and to bring back our manufacturing jobs. He has also promised to stop the flow of jihadists into our country. Those are my top issues, and the reasons why I support Trump.
SHARE

By Trudy Rubin

As the 2016 campaign grows ever more grotesque, consider this: The next U.S. president will still be confronting an Islamic State group's caliphate in Syria and Iraq when he or she takes office.

Hint: "Bomb the s--- out of them" (the mantra for you-know-who, as well as his Texas opponent) won't suffice to destroy the jihadis. Even if a serious candidate wins, the new president will still face an unholy Islamic State group mess.

Here are three key things about the struggle for Syria that any presidential wannabe should keep in mind:

Contrary to popular wisdom, the future of Syria and the fractured Mideast will be shaped on the battlefield, not at the negotiating table.

Not because negotiations are a bad thing  the current "cessation of hostilities" in Syria, cobbled together by Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, is critical for getting relief supplies into besieged areas where people are starving.

But further talks on a real cease fire and a Syrian transition plan will merely give Russia and Syrian President Bashar Assad, a chance to cement the military gains they've made since Russian advisers and planes poured into the country. Those military advances give Assad and Vladimir Putin all the negotiating cards.

"Russia is already dictating the terms," says Jennifer Cafarella, co-author of the Institute for the Study of War's very credible 90-day forecast of what lies ahead for Syria. "They engaged in the negotiating process to preserve the (Assad) regime. They have no incentives to cut a deal that gives the Syrian opposition any concessions."

That's because regime forces, backed by Russian airpower and Iranian-supplied militia troops, have solidified Assad's once-faltering hold on Syria's coast and western spine and surrounded the rebel-held neighborhoods of Aleppo.

"Once they take Aleppo they will basically have what they want," says Smith College's Steven Heydemann, a leading Syria expert. "If Aleppo is emptied out, the rebels will have almost nothing."

Indeed, Putin will use the threat of the continuing refugee tsunami as a cudgel to pressure the West  even as Russia exploits cease-fire loopholes to keep bombing. "A refugee crisis that brings down the European Union is Putin's wildest wet dream," says Ryan Crocker, the former U.S. ambassador to Syria and Iraq, "so I expect he will do everything he can to increase the refugee flow."

As the price for easing that flow, Putin will likely demand a "transition" formula that guarantees Assad's retention of power and removes Western economic sanctions on Moscow.

Don't buy the mantra that a Russian/Assad victory will stabilize Syria.

That's the Russian narrative, calling on the international community to recognize an Assad regime as the only hope for stability and join Moscow in battling the Islamic State group. This narrative is deceptive. "Destroying (ISIL) is not one of the top Russian objectives," says Cafarella, using another name for the Islamic State group. Russian airstrikes have mainly targeted the non-jihadi Syrian opposition, not the Islamic State group.

Meantime, Moscow knows the Syrian army doesn't have the manpower to take and hold Raqqa city, the seat of the Islamic State group's so-called caliphate.

Rather than defeat the jihadis, Putin's manipulations will increase their threat by radicalizing embittered rebels, who will bolster the Islamic State group in Syria or elsewhere and infiltrate the refugees flooding into Europe.

Meantime, the Russian leader's machinations will make it harder for the U.S.-led coalition to strategize against the Islamic State group. Example: Putin is egging on Syrian Kurds  the main anti-Islamic State group ground force that Washington backs with airstrikes  to seize a strip of territory along the Turkish border. This infuriates Turkey, which fears it will inspire its own Kurdish rebels. It also drives a wedge between NATO partners Ankara and Washington.

One thing you have to say about Putin: Few thought he could manipulate the Syrian mess so well and play on Western desperation with such ease.

At this point, the de facto partition of Syria may be the best of the horrible options on the negotiating table. But it's probably too late for such an option to stop the bloodshed and end the war.

The thinking behind such a plan: Given Russia's backing for Assad, there's no way he'll give up power. So the only way to stop the suffering and take on the Islamic State group would be to negotiate protected zones in areas still held by Sunni rebels. Then the West could work with non-jihadi Sunnis to take down the Islamic State group's caliphate in the east.

But at this point, the Russians and Assad can get de facto partition  along lines they carve out by force  without negotiating any concessions to Sunni opponents. And with Russian planes in the air, Moscow knows the U.S.-led coalition won't create such a protected zone by military means.

So Putin is in the driver's seat. If he were farsighted, he might recognize the wisdom of throwing the Sunnis some crumbs, in hopes of ending the fighting. But that doesn't look likely.

"It certainly isn't over," Crocker told me sadly. "Nowhere close. The problem is going to get a lot worse for a whole lot longer."

If the nascent cease-fire collapses, it's hard to see what Plan B the administration can come up with. The whole Syria mess seems likely to land front and center on the next president's desk.

Trudy Rubin is a columnist and editorial board member for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Contact her at trubin@phillynews.com.
Alaska Gov. Jay Hammond and others knew all the way back in the 70s the dangers of relying financially on a finite resource. So when oil money began flowing into state coffers, Hammond and the legislature created in 1976 the Permanent Fund, which gets a share of the states oil revenues every year. The fund was seen as a source of income for when the oil ran out. Lawmakers cant touch the initial investments -- just the earnings, which get divvied up and distributed annually to every resident who receives about $2,000.You have to remove the money, Hammond said in 1980. Put it behind a rope where you cannot utilize it for flamboyant expenditures.Today Alaska still relies on oil revenues to fund most of its day-to-day operations, but nearly two years ago, oil prices began steadily declining. Since then, the state has withdrawn more than $6 billion from its substantial reserves and cut $1 billion in spending to close budget gaps. Last week, Moodys Investors Service became the second ratings agency this year to strip Alaska of its AAA rating.With no rebound in sight, Alaska is finally being forced to address its oil reliance. For the Last Frontier, that means the most significant financial overhaul since the Permanent Fund was established. Chiefly, current Gov. Bill Walker wants to reduce residents annual dividends and use the Permanent Funds investment earnings to supplement state spending. He also wants to create the states first income tax since 1980.Halfway through the state's 90-day legislative session, lawmakers appear close to agreeing on state spending levels but have yet to consider any tax increases. A Januarypoll found the majority of residents support Walker's proposal and lawmakers have acknowledged they will likely need to use Permanent Fund earnings for spending. Still, they have not addressed how the fund should be restructured.On a recent trip to Washington, D.C., Walker spoke withabout his plans. The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.Its one of the reasons I ran. We had a $1.6 billion deficit when I ran for governor and I called it a crisis. Now were at $3.8 billion and I dont call it a crisis and heres why: Were talking about it. Were admitting it. Before, it was like, What, theres a deficit? Nobody would talk about it.Theres been a lot of focus on the income tax. Were the only state in the nation without onea statewide sales tax. Right now, were the lowest in the nation in our personal taxes. If all these proposals go through, well still be the lowest in the nation.We were warned by Gov. Jay Hammond that this day would arrive. It arrived. We did nothing. We continued to build the size of government on a single commodity resource, a nonrenewable resource. [So we began to address this issue by reaching] out to Alaskans [via resident forums] and saying, Look heres our situation, heres the problem. Here are some options on the solution. We submitted a plan and Ive repeatedly said our plan is written in pencil, not pen. If someone can improve upon it, well celebrate that and talk about it.Maybe they can, but its going to be challenging to do that. In some respects, some parts of the package wont support one without the other, so its kind of an "all lock arms and walk down the aisle together" thing.Some people call it too aggressive. Some people say Im politically naive. Well OK, maybe I am politically naive. This is a new thing for me, Im a private-sector guy. In the private sector, you dont kick the can down the road waiting for the next election.Absolutely. I would celebrate. If thats the price of fixing Alaska, I would celebrate. It would be a win.
A West Virginia lawmaker who passed out cups of raw milk to celebrate passage of a raw milk-related bill says the unpasteurized beverage had nothing to do with an intestinal virus that plagued a number of House of Delegates members and staffers last weekend.During announcements in the House chamber Thursday, Delegate Scott Cadle, R-Mason, invited lawmakers -- and anyone else who wanted to "live dangerously" -- to sample raw milk that he had brought from a Mason County dairy. A handful of lawmakers who drank the raw milk later got sick, though there's been no evidence that Cadle's milk was the cause."There's nobody up there that got sick off that milk," said Cadle, who was home sick with a stomach bug Monday but returned to work at the state Capitol on Tuesday. "It's just bad timing, I guess."The state Bureau of Public Health started an investigation Tuesday after receiving a complaint that the raw milk might have caused a disease outbreak.Discussions of the raw milk, and ailing legislators and staff, dominated Capitol hallways this week.After Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signed the raw milk bill into law last week, Cadle walked up and down the Capitol's East Wing, which houses delegates' offices, offering up milk samples to anyone wanting a taste. Some people took just a sip, while others drank a glassful."A lot of people haven't tasted raw milk ... and they find out it's got a little better flavor than store-bought milk," Cadle said. "Most of them people just tasted it. That's all they did."By then, a stomach virus already had been circulating through the House, Cadle said. Staffers and fellow lawmakers complained about flu-like symptoms -- fever, vomiting, diarrhea, he said."It ain't because of the raw milk," Cadle said. "With that many people around and that close quarters and in that air and environment, I just call it a big germ. All that Capitol is is a big germ."Officials with the Bureau for Public Health and Kanawha-Charleston Health Department said Tuesday they hadn't received any recent reports about illnesses caused by raw milk.Several legislators who've been sick with stomach viruses did not sample the raw milk."A lot of people get sick every year we go down there," Cadle said. "They call it the Capitol crud."The raw milk bill doesn't legalize the sale of raw milk. Instead, the legislation allows "herd-sharing" agreements, where people buy a share in a cow or other milk-producing animal and use that animal's raw milk. Anyone who enters such an agreement must sign a statement acknowledging the risks of raw milk, specifically that it may contain bacteria like Listeria, salmonella and E. coli.Tomblin vetoed a similar raw milk bill last year over public health concerns, but signed this year's bill because it allows the state Department of Health and Human Resources to make rules for herd-sharing and raw milk.State law and DHHR rules forbid the sale or distribution of raw milk."Offering or selling raw milk to the public is prohibited," according to the rules. Violators face a $50 to $500 fine, but DHHR officials said they were unaware of the law ever being enforced."I might have been breaking the law," Cadle said. "Hell, I don't know. I gave it away."Cadle, who is running for Mason County Commission instead of re-election to the House, would not say where he got the raw milk -- only that it came from a neighbor's dairy."I got a place to get it, and I'm not going to tell where I got it," Cadle said. "It was free."A DHHR official said state law bars the agency from releasing the name of the person who filed the complaint Tuesday.Cadle said he never pressured anyone to drink his raw milk."If someone wanted to drink it, fine. If they didn't fine," he said. "They didn't get sick by that milk, I can tell you that, because I drink it all the time."
The costs of the Flint drinking water crisis continued to climb Tuesday as Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder asked the State Administrative Board to approve contracts worth up to $1.2 million to cover his outside legal bills and Attorney General Bill Schuette asked for approval of a $1.5 million contract with attorney Todd Flood to cover the cost of his investigation into the public health disaster.Snyder's request Tuesday increases the estimated cost of his outside legal fees from just under $500,000 to more than double that, with up to $400,000 going to civil attorney Eugene Driker and up to $800,000 going to Brian Lennon, a criminal defense attorney who Snyder officials say has been hired in an investigative role to research and process emails and other records.Also Tuesday, Schuette asked the board to approve a contract of up to $1.5 million with Royal Oak attorney Todd Flood, the lawyer Schuette tapped to head up his investigation into whether any state laws were violated in the lead contamination of Flint drinking water, which has led to state and federal emergency declarations and instructions to Flint residents not to drink tap water without using a lead filter.The contracts were approved Tuesday by the finance and claims committee and now go to the full State Administrative Board on March 15. The board, which has representatives from the governor's office, the attorney general's office, the lieutenant governor, the secretary of state, the treasurer, the superintendent of public instruction, and the director of the transportation department, is generally an administrative rubber stamp for state contracts worth $250,000 or more.Snyder's bills are controversial because they are in addition to the costs of attorneys from Schuette's office who are defending him in a raft of civil suits related to the Flint crisis. Schuette's selection of Todd to lead his Flint water investigation has also been criticized by Common Cause in Michigan and Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Brandon Dillon because Todd has been a campaign donor to both Snyder and Schuette."It's 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 Flint's water," said Dillon. "That money should go toward replacing lead pipes and getting safe drinking water to Flint families, not for Snyder's 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," said Dillon. "The people of Flint deserve better."Snyder spokesman Ari Adler said the legal contracts are being increased "based on the anticipated billing for work already completed and the workload as we look ahead at the processing of all emails and documents related to the Flint water crisis."Between the executive office and the state departments, we have an enormous amount of data to go through to ensure we are releasing everything that is relevant to the Flint water crisis but also protecting personal and other information that is never released, even under FOIA," he said."The Governor's Office and the state departments are processing this data as part of numerous requests but are unable to complete the work needed in a timely manner without outside assistance. This work is being done to ensure that state government is being transparent, so the use of state dollars is appropriate."Schuette spokeswoman Andrea Bitely said the $1.5 million contract with Todd's law firm is intended to cover "the costs of the entire team of prosecutors and investigators," including former Detroit FBI Director Andrew Arena, "and anticipates reasonable expenses for the team going forward.""The attorney general is running an independent, broad-based investigation team that will leave no stone unturned,"Bitely said. "That is what the citizens of Flint, and Michigan as a whole, want and deserve."With a crisis of this magnitude making families' daily lives a struggle and shaking the trust of citizens in their government, we will not do a half-baked investigation on the cheap," she said. "We will get answers."Driker, of Barris, Sott, Denn and Driker in Detroit, specializes in complex business litigation and alternative dispute resolution and has represented many of Michigan's largest corporations, including DTE Energy, Dow Chemical, Ford and GM, according to the firm's website. He has also represented the state of Michigan and served as a mediator in the Detroit bankruptcy case.Lennon, of Warner, Norcross & Judd in Grand Rapids, specializes in criminal defense law, especially health care fraud and other white-collar and drug offenses, corporate internal investigations and compliance issues, according to the firm's website. He is a former federal prosecutor in Virginia and in the western district of Michigan.Flint's drinking water became contaminated with lead in April 2014 while the city was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager.The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has acknowledged it failed to require the addition of needed corrosion control chemicals to the water. As a result, lead leached from pipes, joints and fixtures into an unknown number of Flint households, causing a spike in the levels of toxic lead in an unknown number of Flint children.Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint, also criticized Snyder's legal bills in a statement issued Tuesday."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," Ananich said. "Our priority should be sending every resource we can to removing pipes and protecting kids, not covering legal fees."
A state House committee strongly rejected a bill Wednesday that would abolish the death penalty, saying the state needed to retain capital punishment as a sentencing option.House Bill 203 was filed by Rep. David Floyd, a Bardstown Republican. The bill was co-sponsored by 12 legislators from both parties and had the support of a former judge, a former assistant commonwealth's attorney and Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty, a national conservative group.The last execution in Kentucky was in 2008, and the state currently has an injunction in place against executing people on the state's death row. Numerous bills have been filed calling for repeal of the death penalty over the years, and a 2011 report by the American Bar Association found numerous and "substantial" concerns with how death penalty trials and appeals were handled in Kentucky, and about the lack of any requirement that evidence from death penalty convictions be preserved for future DNA testing.Floyd's bill called for the death penalty to be abolished, and for anyone currently on death row to have their sentence changed to life without the possibility of parole.Marc Hyden, national advocacy coordinator for Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty, said group members believe capital punishment "is inconsistent with our core principles" of valuing life. The death penalty is expensive and "does not deter murder," Hyden said."I believe conservatives are correct to be skeptical about this power (of government), because many of us don't trust the government to deliver a piece of mail," Hyden said.Many people on death row nationwide have had their convictions overturned and continuing to allow the death penalty would "guarantee mistakes will continue to occur," he said.According to the Innocence Project, 336 people on death row nationwide have been exonerate through DNA testing.Stephen Ryan, a retired District and Circuit Court judge from Jefferson County, said death penalty cases over which he has presided generally took more than year before they went to trial, because the defendants' public defenders were required to file "multiple, multiple motions to protect their clients' rights." When a defendant was sentenced to death, the appeals process would take years, Ryan said."It take 15 to 21 years for a case to get through the appellate process," Ryan said. "... We're spending millions prosecuting and defending death penalty (cases)."I don't think it gives closure to the family" of the victim, Ryan said. However, if a person is sentenced to life without parole, families "know that person is going to prison for the rest of their life."Joseph Gutmann, a former deputy commonwealth's attorney from Jefferson County, said he prosecuted death penalty cases and believed in the death penalty because "an innocent person could never get through the entire court process" and be found guilty.But, Gutmann said, "I was wrong on all accounts... Victims (families) want to know the person won't be able to hurt anyone else. Life without parole accomplishes this."Rep. Gerald Watkins said, according to polls he has seen, "67 percent of Kentuckians support the death penalty," and people sentenced to life without parole could have their sentences commuted by governors."The problem with life in prison is there's no guarantee (it) means life in prison," Watkins said. "If you opt for life in prison, there's no guarantee that's where the person will be."For "heinous crimes," Watkins said, "I do believe (the death penalty) needs to be a sentencing option."Rep. Johnny Bell, a Glasgow Democrat, recounted the case of Gabriella Doolin, a 7-year-old who was raped and killed in Allen County last November. A Scottsville man, Timothy Wayne Madden, 38, has been charged with murder, rape, sodomy and kidnapping in the incident"To me, I want the individual to feel the same terror and dread that 7-year-old girl did" when he is facing the death penalty, Bell said. A sentence of life without parole "doesn't seem balanced to me."Several members voted "no" on the bill, while others chose to "pass" on the vote. Rep. Brent Yonts, a Greenville Democrat, passed on the bill and said legislators should look at death penalty laws in other states that only allow the death penalty under certain circumstances."That might be a compromise on this point," Yonts said.
Description

GIS  10 March 2016: The President of the Republic of Madagascar, Mr. Hery Rajaonarimampianina, arrived this evening for a four-day State Visit to Mauritius. He was greeted at the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport by the Prime Minister, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, and other eminent personalities. The Malagasy delegation comprises three ministers and several high officials. The President of the Republic of Madagascar, Mr. Hery Rajaonarimampianina, arrived this evening for a four-day State Visit to Mauritius. He was greeted at the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport by the Prime Minister, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, and other eminent personalities. The Malagasy delegation comprises three ministers and several high officials.

Mr. Rajaonarimampianina is the Chief Guest of the Government for the celebrations marking the 48th anniversary of Independence and 24th anniversary of the Republic of Mauritius.

After the arrival ceremony, the President of the Republic of Madagascar accompanied by Mrs Voahangy Rajaonarimampianina, left for the State House, Reduit for a courtesy call on the President of the Republic of Mauritius, Dr Ameenah Gurib-Fakim.

Tomorrow, he will meet the Prime Minister, Sir Anerood Jugnauth at the Treasury Building in Port Louis, where he will have a working session followed by an exchange of Memoranda of Understanding/Agreements between both parties. The two leaders will make a joint press statement.

The following agreements would be signed: a Memorandum of Understanding on the setting up of Special Economic Zones in Madagascar that lays down the modalities for the development of the Zones; and the General Framework Agreement and the Agreement for a Joint Commission.

The General Framework Agreement aims at enhancing the existing friendly relationship, strengthening the historical ties, promoting and supporting cooperation in various sectors, namely, agriculture, trade, fisheries, tourism, transport, education, research, culture, environment, energy, health, innovation, information and communication, defence and security, migration and development, and justice. A Joint Commission that would be co-chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of both countries, would oversee the implementation of the Agreement.

The Malagasy President will have working sessions with members of the Indian Ocean Commission and the Indian Ocean Rim Association in Ebene. A meeting with the local business community is scheduled at Le Maritim Hotel in Balaclava. He will also meet the Chief Justice, Mr. Keshoe Parsad Matadeen; the Speaker of the National Assembly, Mrs Santi Bai Hanoomanjee; and the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Paul Berenger. In the evening, Mr. Rajaonarimampianina will attend a State Banquet hosted by the Prime Minister at the Swami Vivekananda International Convention Centre, Pailles.

On 12th March 2016, the Malagasy President will visit the Aapravasi Ghat World Heritage Site in Port Louis, the Compagnie Mauricienne de Textile Ltee at Pointe aux Sables, and the Embassy of the Republic of Madagascar, in Floreal. It will be followed by a lunch offered by the President of the Republic of Mauritius, Dr Ameenah Gurib-Fakim at the State House, Le Reduit. Mr. Rajaonarimampianina will afterwards proceed to the Socota Phoenicia technopole in Phoenix. In the evening, the Malagasy delegation will be at Champ de Mars to attend the official celebrations marking the National Day.

On Sunday morning, the Malagasy President will have a working session with the Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Tourism and External Communications, Mr Xavier Duval at The Oberoi Hotel, Pointe aux Piments. Before proceeding to the airport for his departure, Mr. Rajaonarimampianina will visit the Le Morne Cultural Landscape.
The state of Hawaii The commonwealth of Virginia Atlanta, Ga. Austin, Texas Burlington, Vt. Flint, Mich. Indianapolis, Ind. Jackson, Miss. Jackson, Tenn. Miami Milwaukee, Wis. Raleigh, N.C. Riverside, Calif. Seattle Tallahassee, Fla.

TechHire, the Obama administrations push to open more tech jobs to middle- and lower-class Americans, is expanding. The initiative, which launched in 21 communities one year ago through a $100 million initiative, expanded on March 9 to include 15 new communities.The program aims to reduce unemployment and mobilize a broader-based technology workforce by connecting regional partners across government, businesses and nonprofits.The new TechHire communities are:Participation in TechHire includes three main activities for a city or state. Participants are to pursue lines of non-traditional hiring to fill jobs in the areas of highest demand, incubate training programs that reduce the path to employment from a timeline of years to months, and lean on community-based programs that can vouch for the skills and credibility of job candidates who dont possess traditional skills and education backgrounds.In Seattle, where 3,200 technology and engineering jobs were opened in the last 30 days, demand for talent is booming. The citys goal is to use TechHire to place 2,000 people in tech jobs by 2020.We will leverage this program and the White Houses support to launch new local initiatives, extend the impact of our Summer Youth Employment Program, and accelerate the incredible work of community partners, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said in a statement.Miamis plan is to place 2,500 candidates into tech jobs by 2020.We see it as an opportunity to bring together partners and provide tools, Jacob Leibenluft, deputy director of the National Economic Council, told the Miami Herald . Part of the goal of this program is that communities learn from each other. As the network grows, we will see returns to scale.Milwaukee, which branded its TechHire effort as Employ Milwaukee , seeks to place 150 candidates by next year, and 600 candidates by 2020.The White House reported that the U.S. has more open jobs today  5 million  than any point since 2011. Quickly training Americans using new methods to fill those positions is the crux of the TechHire initiative.
Public health departments are about to get a booster shot of their own.Thanks to a three-year $3 million investment from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Public Health National Center for Innovations is launching a three-state pilot in Ohio, Oregon and Washington. The center  created on March 4 by the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB)  is an organizational and funding hub aimed at modernizing public health. And this summer, it will add another 10 states, yet unannounced, to the program  which will re-examine the policy and programs that mold how states keep populations healthy and safe.Public health has a long history of working with community partners, but what were talking about now is working with them and new partners in a slightly different way, in particular in light of health reform, said Jessica Solomon Fisher, PHAB chief innovation officer.The policies and technologies surrounding health care are evolving, so its time for public health departments to start innovating and making the most of their available resources, Fisher said, from finding new ways to handle payments and reimbursement to community health planning and partnerships between health care and health departments.Usually you dont hear government and innovation in the same sentence, but here weve got quite a number of state and local public health partners and also tribal working together to make their side of the governmental work better using innovations that maybe have not been tested before, said PHAB CEO Kaye Bender. Rather than say we cant modernize this or we cant use this technology because the law says X and the law was written in 1962, for example, then part of the innovation is to persuade legislators and other local policymakers to change the law.The center will facilitate the exploration of new ideas in public health so that the best ideas can be standardized and spread across the nation, Kaye explained.Any health department that is really looking at itself inside out and saying, 'How can we be more efficient, how can we be more effective, and how can we make sure that what we do is the highest quality that it can be?' has the potential to save lives, she said.Each of the three initial pilot states will receive $250,000. Funding will be issued to states for the pursuit of a wide array of public health programs that the states can choose from. In Washington state, the funds will be put toward the development of foundational health measures, public health initiatives that are geared not toward individuals, but the protection of entire populations, explained Jennifer Tebaldi, special assistant to the secretary of Foundational Public Health Services at the Washington State Department of Health.[Historically,] public health came in with water safety, safe food, did a lot of things in the environment to help extend peoples lives so they werent dying of disease, Tebaldi said. But now we have the world of the Affordable Care Act, things are changing in health care; the ability to impact peoples health is really in the prevention side, to stop us from getting sick in the first place rather than treat them after they do get sick.The state faces two intertwined challenges, Tebaldi said. The first is to innovate and modernize how it addresses public health, and the second is to establish concrete statutory guidelines for what public health means starting in 2017. Specific guidelines will create a mechanism of accountability to ensure the state is pursuing the activities its being paid to participate in, and in turn generate more interest from investors that will make an innovative public health program both sustainable and more effective, she explained.Foundational public health issues occasionally catch the publics eye when theres a disaster, like the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, or when the news popularizes medical conditions like Ebola or the Zika virus. But much of public healths purview involves invisible acts to keep everyone safe that no other company or government entity claims responsibility for.Foundational public health, Tebaldi said, includes things like site inspections, drinking water monitoring, paralytic shellfish testing, radiation control, industrial regulation, health profession and facility licensing, and data collection. As government becomes more sophisticated with how its data is used and how it forms relationships with research institutions and private companies, opportunities for life-saving data innovation grow.We do a lot of surveillance. Public health collects a lot of data, and so you think about birth and death records, marriage, hospitalization records, birth defects registry and surveys, Tebaldi said. Data can do a lot for us, too. Thats another one of the big changes in public health and the health-care system is that push to combine lots of data together, and a lot of the things we collect are building blocks for those connections.  This is all part of modernizing what we do.
Technologists like Elon Musk and Bill Gates worry that robots may one day threaten to extinguish the human race, but there is another threat more subtle and immediate.According to a recent study, people are a bit naive when it comes to trusting robots. Research presented March 9 by the Georgia Institute of Technology showed that during an emergency, test subjects were prone to following a robots instructions  even after the robot had proven itself unreliable. The research was released at the 2016 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction in Christchurch, New Zealand.The experiment tested the reactions of 42 volunteers, mostly college students, who were not told the nature of the research project in which they were participating. Groups of volunteers were asked to follow a shop-vac-sized robot emblazoned with the words EMERGENCY GUIDE ROBOT. A hidden researcher remotely controlled the robot, sometimes leading the subjects in a circle twice before reaching the conference room, sometimes leading subjects to the wrong room, or sometimes turning the robot off before they reached their destination, at which point the subjects were informed that the robot had broken down.Once the test subjects were led to the correct conference room, they were asked to complete a survey about robots and to read a magazine article about indoor navigation technologies, which they were told they would later be quizzed on. Then, the hallway was filled with artificial smoke, which set off a smoke detector. The robots red LEDs lit up and its illuminated white arms pointed the test subjects toward an exit at the rear of the building or sometimes toward a darkened room blocked by furniture. The researchers were surprised by their test subjects consistent reactions.We expected that if the robot had proven itself untrustworthy in guiding them to the conference room, that people wouldnt follow it during the simulated emergency, said Paul Robinette, a Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) research engineer. Instead, all of the volunteers followed the robots instructions, no matter how well it had performed previously. We absolutely didnt expect this.The only way the researchers found they could stop test subjects from following the robot was if the robot performed errors during the evacuation itself. And even then, between 33 and 80 percent of participants continued following the robot anyway.The popularization of robots, drones and other automated technologies paired with this finding of human overtrust presents new challenges to both engineers and emergency managers, the researchers wrote.It is reasonable to assume that a new technology is imperfect, so new life-saving (and therefore life-risking) technology should be treated with great caution, the study reads.   Robots interacting with humans in dangerous situations must either work perfectly at all times and in all situations or clearly indicate when they are malfunctioning. Both options seem daunting.This research, funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Linda J. and Mark C. Smith Chair in Bioengineering, is one part of a long-term study to understand how humans interact with robots and how emergency managers can overcome the technological and social barriers to maintaining public safety.Robots have a future in emergency egress, but the concerns for emergency managers need to be considered today, Georgia Tech Fire Marshal Larry Labbe wrote in an email toI envision a robot that can help a conference attendee find the lecture room, provide direction to a coffee shop and in the case of an emergency provide directions and information, he wrote.   Robotic interface with emergency evacuation and emergency response needs to be considered now. The technology exists and the application to emergency situations is only limited by our imaginations. I'm keeping my eye on it now.Just as fire alarm systems have been improved to overcome the hurdles of the human condition, he said, so too can technologists and emergency managers overcome the challenges presented by emergency egress robots.If a person has been subjected to numerous nuisance alarms, they are less likely to have confidence in the next alarm," Labbe said via email. Whereas if an actual incident occurs and the fire alarm warns occupants and saves lives, the confidence level is high. This same technology struggle has been overcome by constantly improving the technology of fire alarm systems. The future of robot-based emergency systems will be subject to the same human response.The good news, said Steve Detwiler, whole community recovery planner for the Miami Dade Office of Emergency Management, is that for every use of technology in emergency management, theres always some human component.Whether were using our [emergency notification] systems or sending out emails, theres always somebody on the other end that is a person that is giving out that information, Detwiler said. For emergency management, a lot of times technology is simply a tool that we use. Theres always that personal connection. You read about the robots taking over, especially in the industrial sector where things are expected to look completely different in 20 years. But in our profession, you really cant automate us, because not only do we send out information during a disaster, but theres a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes.Drones are increasingly used for aerial surveillance during disaster assessment, reaching areas that humans wouldnt otherwise be able to reach and relaying information that can help keep the public safe, Detwiler said.For us, all these technologies really just augment what we already do and gives us more capabilities of being able to reach out to the public, because were becoming a more and more interconnected society, he said. Having those kinds of resources and using them is advantageous for us.
Doubts Vijay Mallya might have to miss next weekend's season opener in Australia appear over, but the Force India chief's troubles in India are far from over.

As over a dozen aggrieved banks line up to recover debts following the collapse of the former billionaire's airline Kingfisher, they called for the seizure of his passport.

But as the application was heard in an Indian court on Wednesday, it became clear that Mallya had left India over a week ago.

"Where is Vijay Mallya?" read a headline at Forbes, concluding that he is probably in England, where his F1 team is based.

Before leaving, Mallya had reacted angrily to suggestions he is an "absconder", but it is not clear when he will be returning to his native country.

"Let him appear personally and deposit his passport," Mukul Rohatgi, the Indian attorney general, is quoted as saying by India's Telegraph newspaper.

A report in India's Economic Times added: "The government will take all steps, including seeking extradition if required, to bring Mallya back".

A correspondent for the Times of India, who was staking out one of Mallya's residences in England, described the flamboyant 60-year-old as being "on the run".

And an official for the elite Indian police agency CBI was quoted by the Hindustan Times: "CBI will seek the assistance of Interpol to get Mallya detained or arrested by local authorities of wherever he might be, to be brought back to India via deportation for joining the due process of law."

(GMM)
F1 veterans have revealed they disagree with reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton's stance about the 'halo' cockpit cage slated for 2017.

Some of the Mercedes driver's colleagues have also admitted their opposition to the safety device, but Hamilton went a step further by calling it the "worst looking mod in F1 history".

Hamilton's Instagram post was subsequently deleted, but he also told reporters at the end of the Barcelona test: "I hope we have an option to use it or not because I will not be using it."

F1's champion before Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, disagrees with the Briton, saying 'halo' may be "ugly" but "nothing justifies not having these two guys around anymore".

The German was referring to Indycar's Justin Wilson and also Henry Surtees, an 18-year-old who was killed when debris struck him on the head during a F2 race in 2009.

"Sebastian hit the nail very clearly on the head with what he said," John Surtees, Henry Surtees' father, said on Wednesday.

The Telegraph quoted 1964 world champion Surtees as adding: "Lewis could perhaps think a little more about the halo and think about the responsibility he does have as a world champion.

"He could actually consider this and, if possible, give the maximum input into making certain that it is as less intrusive as possible," he said.

"I suffered the tragedy of losing Henry which certainly could have been prevented by a development like this."

Another world champion, Fernando Alonso, also trod carefully in assessing 'halo', commenting: "I know it is a little extreme in terms of aesthetics, but hopefully next year we have some type of system on all the cars."

Even Mark Webber, an avowed motor racing "purist", would not join Hamilton in the severity of his criticism about 'halo'.

"There is still a lot to discuss, such as how much you can see through Eau Rouge with this halo," the Australian, a pallbearer at Wilson's funeral, is quoted by Speed Week.

"But when you've carried a coffin, you don't want to do that again," he added.

(GMM)
US grand prix organisers brushed aside any doubts about the 2016 race by revealing Taylor Swift, one of the world's top pop acts, will perform at the October event.

It ends weeks of speculation about the future of the popular Austin race, after it was given only provisional status on the final 2016 calendar.

"(The race) is going to be here for a long time," track chief Bobby Epstein is quoted by the Times.

Earlier, Austin's race came under a cloud when the Texas government suddenly reduced its state contribution to the fee payable to Bernie Ecclestone.

The problem was worsened by torrential rain last year that badly hurt attendance, but Epstein told the local American Statesman newspaper that he intends to sell lots of tickets for 2016.

"We think that this year's event will restore funding to the level we need," he said.

And to help with that, the Circuit of the Americas has had to pay top dollar to secure the services of Taylor Swift.

"We had to make it financially irresistible to her," the Guardian quotes Epstein as saying, "but it is our fifth year celebration and we have reason to celebrate and sometimes you spend a little bit on special occasions."

Meanwhile, Manor has signed Alexander Rossi as a reserve driver this year, even though the Californian will also contest the entire Indycar calendar.

"He has one heck of a schedule ahead of him and it's a commitment that only the most disciplined of drivers would be able to manage," said team boss Dave Ryan.

(GMM)
Volkswagen Group of America today announced the departure of Michael Horn, president and CEO, Volkswagen Group of America. Through mutual agreement with Volkswagen AG, Horn will be leaving to pursue other opportunities effective immediately.

On an interim basis, Hinrich J. Woebcken, who was recently announced as the new Head of the North American Region and Chairman of Volkswagen Group of America, will assume the role of president and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America.

Horn assumed the role as president and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America in January 2014. Prior to his current role, Horn served as the Global Head of After Sales at Volkswagen AG (VW). Horn joined Volkswagen in 1990 and has held many roles of increasing responsibility within the brand over his tenure, including Head of Volkswagen sales North West Europe, Head of sales and marketing luxury class vehicles, and Head of sales for Europe.
This project lays the foundation for follow-on work to further reduce the NO x emissions from the current 0.1 g/bhp-hr level by 90% to 0.02 g/bhp-hr, the lowest of the CARB Optional Low NO x standards.

The California Energy Commission awarded the Gas Technology Institute (GTI) a $1-million grant to demonstrate a production-intent advanced version of the Cummins Westport Inc. (CWI) ISB6.7 G natural gas engine. The advanced version engine meets the 2018 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Heavy-Duty On-Board Diagnostics (HD-OBD) requirements and will continue to meet California Air Resources Boards (CARBs) Optional Low NO x 0.1 g/bhp-hr emissions level.

The Energy Commission earlier funded CWI to develop a 6.7-liter stoichiometric spark ignited (SI) natural gas engine now referred to as the ISB6.7 G. This engine is scheduled for full production in April of 2016 and is suited for Class 5 through 7 commercial vehicle markets including pickup and delivery trucks, utility trucks, school buses, shuttle buses, yard tractors, and specialized municipal works vehicles such as street sweepers.

The production launch of the ISB6.7 G will start with Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) partner Thomas Built Bus in the C2 school bus platform. Further integration work is required to expand the vehicle OEM offerings of this engine in the Medium-Heavy Duty market.

US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Air Resource Board (CARB) require On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) to be implemented in heavy-duty alternative fueled vehicles for the 2018 model year. Heavy-duty diesel vehicles were required to implement OBD for model year 2013 vehicles while implementation in alternative fueled heavy duty vehicles was delayed till 2018 due to the development burden of this new level of diagnostics and the comparatively small volume of heavy-duty alternative fueled vehicles being manufactured.

The OBD system monitors all emissions impacting components on the vehicle to ensure the vehicle remains below pre-determined emissions thresholds throughout the life of the vehicle. OBD also aides with the diagnosis of emissions related faults and repair of emissions equipment. This in turn protects the environment from excess emissions due to engine issues and prevents costly progressive engine damage.

If an issue is detected by the OBD system, the operator is notified through a Check Engine warning on the vehicle dash and the operator is expected to bring the vehicle in for repair. The OBD system stores information about the fault and relays this information to a technician when connected to the engine control unit. This allows for more efficient troubleshooting and quicker and more accurate repairs. Development of HD-OBD to meet 2018 EPA & CARB regulations for alternative fueled heavy duty vehicles is required for continued sales and market expansion from 1 January 2018 and beyond.

GTI and its subcontractor CWI will use the production model year 2016 ISB6.7 G SI natural gas engine and further develop an advanced version of this engine with HD-OBD to meet 2018 EPA & CARB regulations for alternative fueled heavy duty vehicles.

A number of tasks will be completed to address integration issues currently preventing the ISB6.7 G from being utilized in vehicle OEM models such as street sweepers and shuttle buses. These tasks will further expand available engine options such as a remote mounted engine control unit (ECU) which allows the ISB6.7 G to work within existing vehicle chassis and also the compatibility with a hydrostatic drive which was utilized in street sweeper applications.

This engine will then be deployed in a number of vehicles in multiple applications including street sweeper, shuttle bus and school bus in California where the development tasks conducted will be utilized in real world operation and validated over a variety of duty cycles applicable to those vehicles (i.e. Shuttle Bus, Sweeper, and School Bus) with the performance measured and assessed. CWI will be targeting existing end-users of CWI ISB6.7 G engines and also those that may currently be utilizing ISB6.7 diesel engines and wanting to convert their fleet to natural gas.

The California Energy Commission also awarded GTI two grants totaling nearly $2 million to demonstrate new waste heat recovery systems for industrial furnaces and steam boilers. Joseph Gallo Farms received a $1-million grant to demonstrate a waste heat recovery system using advanced absorption chiller technology, and ergSol Inc. received a $1-million grant to demonstrate an integrated high-efficient solar thermal system in the Central Valley.

The City of Petaluma received a $3 million grant to design and operate an anaerobic digestion system to produce 150,000 gasoline gallon equivalents of renewable natural gas from food and beverage waste and use the gas to fuel refuse trucks. The goal is to recycle waste and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
Jason Normand, who was arrested by the Wyoming Department of Criminal Investigation Thursday evening during a SWAT-backed search warrant, was initially targeted by DCI after agents allegedly purchased methamphetamine from him late January.

According to court documents, Normand allegedly sold a confidential informant 7 grams of methamphetamine from his residence at 355 Fir Street Jan. 15. During the sale, Normand also offered to sell the informant a firearm, telling the informant he owned a lot of guns. The sale was completed using prerecorded Wyoming State Buy Funds and the substance purcha...
Officers responded to a report of a possible abandoned vehicle 1795 Bridger Drive. Officers checked the area and the vehicle was leaving the area.

Officers responded to the School District No. 2 School Bus Yard, in reference to a passing a school bus violation, on Hitching Post Drive and West Virginia Street. Officers completed a report regarding the incident, which was forwarded to the Green River City Prosecutor.

Officers served a court summons on South Wagonwheel Drive.

Officers served a court summons on East 3rd South Street.

Animal control officers responded to a barking dog complai...
A SWAT raid initiated by the Wyoming Department of Criminal Investigation and local law enforcement resulted in multiple arrests and the members of the countys SWAT team targeting the wrong house.

According to a media release from the Green River Police Department, a search warrant was served at 355 Fir Street, utilizing the countys joint SWAT team. The team was mobilized because investigators believed people at the residence were armed, citing the search warrant operation was a high risk.

During the operation, some members of the SWAT team broke a window and utilized a flash-bang dev...
A longtime Rock Springs resident has become the first democrat to start campaigning for Wyoming's lone U.S. House of Representatives seat.

Ryan Greene kicked off his campaign at an event Saturday evening at the Freight Station in Rock Springs.

"It's the best news I've heard in a long time," Frank Prevedel, one of Greene's supporters told an audience of more than 250 people. "We need somebody who knows this state."

Greene is originally from Rock Springs and works for Greene's Energy Services, a business originally started by his father. Greene said many of the state's problems, including its...
The American Red Cross of Wyoming is searching for more volunteers to serve the state, especially in Sweetwater County.

Chris Allen, Volunteer Services Manager for American Red Cross of Wyoming, said the Red Cross has about 200-trained volunteers across Wyoming, however those numbers can change quickly.

The number of volunteers constantly fluctuates as volunteers take another job and move, retire, move out of the area, pass away or become less interested in disaster response, Allen said.

The American Red Cross of Wyoming works to prevent and alleviate human suffering in times of emerg...
Henry Jackson "Jack" Duncan, 98, passed away March 1, 2016 at LifeStream Cook Division in Youngtown, Ariz.

He was born on Jan. 10, 1918 in Kit Carson County, Colo., northeast of Burlington, Colo., to Bert Lorenzo and Dora Delilia Duncan. He was one of ten siblings, all of whom, with the exception of one sister, were born in sod houses.

He attended elementary school in Burlington, Colo. until his parents moved away from the district and could not afford tuition for him to continue his education.

He participated in the Civilian Conservation Corp from July 1934 through April 1935. He then went to Wyoming where he worked for a sawmill and later as a jack hammer high scaler on the Seminole Dan project.

Duncan met Bertha Gradert in Saratoga, and in 1937 they married in Laramie. At the time of her death Feb. 5, 1992, they had been together for nearly 55 years.

Jack worked for the Union Pacific Railroad in Green River. In 1940, he completed his education through correspondence courses, ultimately receiving a degree as an electrician. He continued his career with Union Pacific as an assistant electrician, fire chief, and pumper operator for his final 15 years. In May 1977 the company released him due to his hearing loss. He held the position of secretary of the Electrical Union for 20 years and has been a member of the IBEW for 60 years. During much of the time he spent with Union Pacific, his wife Bertha and he also owned and operated a marine and shop business.

They were both involved with the Congregational Church in Green River.

In June 1992, Jack married Mary Beth Ralston and became a step father to her three children, Duke and wife Darlene Ralston, Richard and wife Darlina Ralston, and Jackie Sue and husband Mark Petersen; nine grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren. Also surviving him are a son, Jackson Wayne and wife Karen Duncan of Ninilchik, Ark., grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren, seven great-great-grandchildren; a daughter Faye Elizabeth Weber of Mesa, Ariz., two grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren.

He had been an extremely active member of the Morristown Baptist Church, now called the Morristown Christian Church, in Morristown, Ariz. He served two terms as chairman for the homeowner's association of Circle City, Ariz., instigated the plan to build a community center for the Duncan Public Park, which was named in his honor, and recently donated the land upon which the Circle City Fire Department building now sits, housing the city's fire truck and ambulance.

Memorial services honored Jack at the Morristown Christian Church March 5.

A graveside service will take place at Ft. Bridger Cemetery in Ft. Bridger June 4.

In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to the Alzheimer's association.

Condolences may be offered to Jack's family by visiting http://www.sunlandmemorial.com.
Admittedly, this isnt something on our readers radar, but trust us, its an important issue.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced it would stop running public notices of its Clean Air Act permits in newspapers, opting to post the notices on their website only. For a state as distrustful of the EPA as Wyoming, this is a problem.

The EPAs move inherently shrouds the agencys business in secrecy. Residents curious about what the EPA is working on in their backyard will have to keep their eyes posted to the EPAs website, something that is a major inconvenience for anyon...
J.J. Anselmi, formerly of Rock Springs recently published his first book, "Heavy: A Memoir of Wyoming, BMX, Drugs, and Heavy Music."

J.J. Anselmi, formerly of Rock Springs recently published his first book, "Heavy: A Memoir of Wyoming, BMX, Drugs, and Heavy Music." Anselmi currently teaches English composition and literature at Saint Paul College, and he holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from CSU Fresno.

As described by the publisher, Rare Bird Books out of Los Angeles, '"Heavy" chronicles Anselmi's experiences growing up as a straight edge, BMX-riding metal head in Rock Springs. His grandpa, Don Anselmi, was a well-known businessman and politician who was featured in a 1977 "60 Minutes" episode for his alleged connect...
BERLIN  Germany's federal criminal police said Thursday they are in possession of files containing personal data on members of the extremist Islamic State group and believe them to be authentic.

The announcement came after Britain's Sky News reported it had obtained 22,000 Islamic State files on the border with Turkey and Syria, files that detail IS fighters' real names, where they were from, telephone numbers, and even names of those who sponsored and recruited the militants.

The broadcaster said the files were passed on to them on a memory stick stolen from the head of Islamic State's internal security police by a former fighter who had grown disillusioned with the group.

Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported it had also obtained "dozens" of similar files on the Turkey-Syria border, where it said Islamic State files and videos were widely available from anti-IS Kurdish fighters and also members of the Islamic State group itself.

A spokeswoman for Germany's Bundeskriminalamt, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter with the media, said her agency is currently evaluating the files. She declined to say where the agency obtained the files, how many documents are involved and how long it has had them.

Sky reported that the documents are a collection of forms filled out by recruits when they were inducted into the Islamic State. The forms have 23 questions and include nationals from at least 51 countries, Sky reported.

Germany's Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told the dpa news agency that the material would give authorities a better chance to track down and prosecute people who had fought with IS.

The material also seems to have the potential to help authorities crack recruitment networks in Europe and elsewhere that have been sending fighters to join the Islamic State group, which has seized large swaths of land in Syria and Iraq and declared a self-styled caliphate on the territory under its control.
GREENSBORO  Groups have come together to try to improve life in a Greensboro neighborhood, but not everyone may be on board with what it will take.

Some landlords tell police they know about drug dealers renting from them, but they rent to them anyway.

When you have property owners who say, I dont do criminal background checks, or I know they deal drugs, but they pay their rent on time, they pretty much say that theyre in it for the money, former Greensboro Police Capt. Jeff Lowdermilk said.

Lowdermilk, who retired at the end of January, spoke as the Greensboro Police Department and other city departments continued a push to reduce crime and improve living conditions for an area generally bordered on the north by East Wendover Avenue, on the south by East Market Street, on the west by North English Street and on the east by Sykes Avenue.

A double shooting on Dec. 9 in the 3300 block of Beck Street that left a man dead and another hospitalized galvanized community members to find answers to problems plaguing the area.

Police, Greensboro City Councilman Jamal Fox and church leaders held a prayer walk and went through the community to discuss residents concerns.

That (death) was a call to action for us, Fox said. We got a lot of feedback from residents  people told me how scared they were.

It was all the homicides happening in and around the area.

In early January, residents met with police and city leaders to determine how to tackle these issues. They decided to come at the community from three angles  crime prevention, resolution of housing issues and youth engagement.

We put all that together and came up with a 90-day plan, Lowdermilk said. Maybe churches, maybe parks and recreation, maybe housing  we can partner with some of those organizations to help address those issues that police dont normally address.

Residents said youth might be better served if the Peeler Recreation Center, which contains a basketball court and weight room, stayed open later than 10 p.m., giving young people a place where they can participate in group activities.

Residents talked about organizing workshops, clubs or church programs to engage children and teenagers and about finding ways to keep children in school.

Housing issues that residents brought up included poor drainage and flooding for low-lying areas, abandoned or vacant houses left unkempt, cars abandoned at some homes and poor lighting on streets, Lowdermilk said.

Residents discussed the possibility of applying for beautification funding for some projects and how to attract new businesses.

Inspectors followed up on residents complaints about a resident running a car repair business out of his home, structures left in disrepair or about people living in boarded-up houses.

Data show that most of the crime in the area have involved prostitution, drug sales and burglaries, Lowdermilk said.

Crime data for Greensboro City Council District 2, which Fox represents and which contains most of East and Northeast Greensboro, show increases in property crimes from 2014 to 2015.

Larcenies from vehicles increased 29 percent, from 432 to 558. Car thefts also increased 29 percent, from 119 to 154.

Violent crimes spiked in 2015. Although homicides dropped from 10 to 9, commercial robberies jumped 56 percent, from 16 to 25. Aggravated assaults increased 32 percent, from 185 to 245, and rapes increased 29 percent.

In all, reports of violent crimes grew by 27 percent.

Police began conducting operations in the community aimed at reducing prostitution and narcotics activity, according to Community Resource Officer Doug Campbell.

They became more of a presence to discourage crime and to be available for people to discuss concerns.

Some people who are OK with chatting dont want people seeing you talk with them, he said.

And others, such as Jim Routh Sr., a co-owner of Beck Street Apartments, are willing to say they know who and where the criminals are, but are willing to rent them apartments.

We know where the weed gets sold, he said. We know where the crack gets sold. We dont bother them.

He added that he can find a reason to kick out renters if he needs.

Thats the nature of privately owned apartments, Lowdermilk said.

Until we get that squared away, thats going to be the big issue for me  to make sure the property owners do their part, he said. Im not in the position to tell this person, youve got to do this or this happens.

Weve got to be realistic about what can be done.

Data show that their effort had a surprising outcome: Police received more calls.

That means residents may be more willing to speak to officers than before the initiative began, GPD Lt. Sean Gladieux said.

Calls for service increased from four in February 2015 to 11 for the same month this year.

Potentially, were getting more calls for service, he said. People may have more trust in their police department.

It was a comprehensive approach to reducing crime in the neighborhood, he said.

Any bit of effort on crime, you have to look at from a holistic perspective, he said. That is, it cant just be the police department. Or, it cant just be the citizens.

It really takes the entire civil, social, faith-based, government  it takes everybody to be involved.

Overall, the efforts have had a positive impact on the community, Fox said.

Its still early, he said.

He said it seemed that there were fewer serious incidents.

To continue the effort, the city intends to conduct more community walks, encourage churches and other organizations to invest in the community and to promote business investments.

In an example, according to Fox, the city is giving leaders of Genesis Baptist Church a low-interest loan, through a fund set aside for affordable housing, to help with construction of low-rent apartments along Delancy Street. The churchs leaders, known as Trinity Funding and Consulting, will turn over the property to the church once the apartments are built and rented. BB&T bank is partnering in the effort, and construction could begin this week, organizers said.

Church members agree with their leaders efforts to help police and city agencies clean up the neighborhood, the Rev. Theodore Stevens said.

If somebody doesnt take the lead, the neighborhood sits at a standstill, he said. We found out we could really have an impact.

Now, church members are behind the need for the church acquiring more of the nearby abandoned properties, he said.

Also, the church has become a hub, where community members can gather for meetings or to organize community events.

The city is going to begin conducting community walks involving more city leaders, probably starting with areas along Summit and East Bessemer avenues, Fox said.

There is a different feel in the neighborhood than just a couple of months ago, he said.

The feeling is not as alarming as in December, when people didnt feel safe, he said. Its feeling like a community again.
NEW YORK  A U.S. Air Force veteran was convicted Wednesday of terrorism charges for attempting to join the Islamic State group and die a martyr, the first verdict from more than 70 cases the government has brought against Americans accused of trying to support the militant group.

An anonymous jury in Brooklyn began deliberations Tuesday afternoon in the case against 48-year-old Tairod Pugh, of Neptune, New Jersey. He was convicted of attempting to provide material support to terrorists and obstruction of an official proceeding.

"I think he's sad," Pugh's attorney, Eric Creizman, said as he left the courthouse. "I feel bad for his family."

"Right now it's just disappointing," he said of the verdict. "This was an interesting case in that there was no direct evidence  everything was circumstantial."

Prosecutors said Pugh was stopped at a Turkish airport in January 2015 carrying a laptop with information on Turkey-Syria border crossing points, 180 jihadist propaganda videos, including footage of an Islamic State prisoner beheading, and a letter declaring: "I will use the talents and skills given to me by Allah to establish and defend the Islamic States."

During the trial, prosecutors showed jurors materials found on Pugh's computer and cited a letter Pugh wrote to his wife saying, in part: "There is only two possible outcomes for me: Victory or martyr."

Prosecutors said he flew there so he could find a route into Syria and join the Islamic State group. He was forced by authorities to turn back and was arrested soon after his return on a flight to New York City. Pugh was in the Air Force from 1986 to 1990, when he was trained to install and maintain aircraft engines and navigation and weapons systems.

During closing arguments Tuesday, Creizman insisted Pugh had no ill intent when he went to Turkey a month after losing his job as an aviation mechanic and telling his supervisor to stop "talking to me like I'm an idiot." He said Pugh had hoped to move to the Middle East with his wife.

He said his client was feeling small and inconsequential when he started researching the rise of the Islamic State group in the summer of 2014, impressed that Muslims somewhere were trying to establish a country and wouldn't "back down from anything."

"This is a fantasy," Creizman told jurors of Pugh's social media posts that seemed supportive of radical Islamists.

He said his client had always talked about Middle East politics and liked to research the subject online, but he noted that many of the articles he read were written by mainstream news organizations, including some critical of the militants.

Still, he acknowledged that Pugh had opinions some might find offensive and Pugh believed some of the Islamic State group's atrocities were a media creation.

Other defendants have pleaded guilty to charges of trying to support the Islamic State group, but the verdict "further demonstrates our commitment to bring justice to all those who seek to provide material support to terrorists," said John Carlin, Assistant Attorney General for National Security.

U.S. Attorney Robert L. Capers said the verdict "provides yet another example of a successful outcome in our national security effort and demonstrates the crucial role that law enforcement action plays in that effort."

In her closing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiana Demas urged jurors to follow the trail of Pugh's Internet research to discover that he went to Turkey to find a way to sneak into Syria and join the Islamic State group.

She showed jurors an image from Pugh's computer that showed areas controlled by the Islamic State group and said: "This map shows a lot about his intent in Turkey."

Prosecutors told jurors that Pugh destroyed four computer flash drives when he realized he was being scrutinized by authorities.
Mystified Outer Banks tourists witnessed a bizarre act of nature Friday, Oct. 14, as fish began flinging themselves onto the beach at Ocracoke Island. Multiple videos shared on social media show the ocean appeared to boil with fish as they tumbled over each other in the surf. The so-called bluefish blitz concluded with thousands of dying fish piled on the sand, flopping up and down as ...
Spaghetti Incidents cones to go. Photo: Bobby Doherty

Spaghetti Incidents cones to go. Photo: Bobby Doherty

Takeout

Spaghetti Incident

231 Eldridge St., nr. E. Houston St. 646-896-1446

How do you eat spaghetti while ambling along city streets? Chef Emanuele Attala has come up with an elegant solution to a problem we didnt even know existed. Inspired by old photos of Italian beachgoers tucking into unspecified foodstuffs rolled up in butchers paper, he devised the spaghetti cone. Now all his variously sauced spaghetti and bucatini is available to go via that format. And the extraordinary thing is that in many ways eating spaghetti from a paper cone is not only more fun, but neater and more efficient than eating it from a plate or a bowl. Hot dogs, meat skewers, and pizza slices pale in comparison.

Spaghetti Incidents cones to go. Photo: Bobby Doherty

Matzo-Ball Soup

Del Posto

85 Tenth Ave., at 16th St.; 212-497-8090

As far as we know, Mario Batali hasnt turned Del Posto into a delicatessen. So why is the waiter presenting you with an amuse-bouche of matzo-ball soup? Correction: Make that masa ball soup. It comes in a tiny cup with a featherlight, half-inch ball of corn-flour dough. The broth, which also serves as the base for some of the kitchens sauces, is made from 90 hens, 30 at a time in a 50-gallon steam-jacketed kettle over the course of three days. One gulp is all it takes to finish it off, but its the richest, purest, most soulful gulp of soup youve ever had.

Spaghetti Incidents cones to go. Photo: Bobby Doherty

Ceviche

Llama Inn

50 Withers St., at Meeker Ave., Williamsburg; 718-387-3434

As any Peruvian-food fan knows, ceviche rises or falls on the strength of its leche de tigre, that citrus-sour, chile-spiked liquid in which the raw fish cooks. Peruvian-American chef Erik Ramirez is sufficiently versed in the technique and lore of the ancient preparation to take certain liberties  namely, replacing the traditional fish stock with dashi, which adds a smokiness that he feels pairs well with bananas, especially plantains: While classic kitchens garnish their bowls with roasted corn and sweet potato, Ramirez adds plantain chips for crunch and fried ripe plantains for sweetness, a quirky complement to the dish-defining acidity.

Quality Eats bacon. Photo: Courtesy of the Vendor

Fritters

Lilia

567 Union St., at N. 10th St., Williamsburg; 718-576-3095

When you think of Italian fritters, or frittelle, you think of grated zucchini dipped in batter and deep-fried. Or maybe you think of the tiny newborn fish Sicilians call neonate or bianchetti. But Missy Robbinss cacio e pepe frittelle are something else: airy, creamy puffs of choux pastry amped up with Asiago, Pecorino Romano, and black pepper, fried to order, then rolled in more pepper and Pecorino the way doughnuts are dipped in sugar and cinnamon. They come three to an order in a ceramic bowl, go way too fast, and taste like some kind of Franco-Italian super-gougere.

Spaghetti Incidents cones to go. Photo: Bobby Doherty

Sandwich

High Street on Hudson

637 Hudson St., at Horatio St; 917-388-3944

Why Phillys No. 2 hoagie, the roast pork with provolone, lives in the shadow of the cheesesteak is a mystery. Its the equivalent of what it would be like if New York were better known for calzoni and garlic knots than pizza. High Street on Hudsons souped-up version of this undersung sandwich (heritage-breed pork shoulder, sharp provolone, anchovy-enhanced broccoli rabe fermented like kimchee, fantastic house-baked sesame-seeded semolina) proves the point. True, its about half the weight and size of standard-bearer Johns Roast Pork in Philadelphia, but its also an interpretation that wont leave you vowing to go vegan the next day.

Spaghetti Incidents cones to go. Photo: Bobby Doherty

Cheese Course

Rebelle

218 Bowery, nr. Prince St.; 917-639-3880

Picture your dream cheese course, curated from a cart groaning with wheels and wedges in oozy states of ripeness. Rebelles isnt that. I wanted the choice to be simple, says chef Daniel Eddy. Cheese  yes or no? And so he offers only Comte, Frances answer to Swiss Gruyere. But this Comte spends 18 months in the tunnel-cave of affineur Herve Mons, where its rind is washed in vin jaune and its paste achieves an incomparably sweet, nutty flavor. Eddy serves it shaved into medium-thin, curling ribbons you can eat with your hands  silverware optional, as is the She Wolf Bakery sourdough and Ploughgate Creamery butter.

Spaghetti Incidents cones to go. Photo: Bobby Doherty

Bacon

Quality Eats

19 Greenwich Ave., nr. 10th St;. 212-337-9988

Michael Stillman has made it his mission to reinvent the stale old totems of the steakhouse experience for a new generation of beefeaters, and at this trendy West Village restaurant he gets up to all sorts of mischief (scalloped sunchokes, anyone?). Instead of the usual preheated nitrate bomb (yes, we mean you, Peter Luger), the bacon in this addictive appetizer is a slab of sizzled Neuskes from Wisconsin. Its addictiveness is enhanced by jalapeno jelly and a radical dollop of peanut butter (crunchy, of course). Take one bite, and we guarantee youll never see steakhouse bacon (or peanut butter) the same way again.

Spaghetti Incidents cones to go. Photo: Bobby Doherty

Lupulos salt-cod casserole. Photo: Anna Webber

Spaghetti Incidents cones to go. Photo: Bobby Doherty

Chinese Barbecue

La Chine

540 Lexington Ave., nr. 49th St.; 212-872-4913

Any card-carrying pork fiend will tell you its difficult to improve on the classic Cantonese barbecued char siu recipe, but this nouveau millionaires version (it costs $30) served at the ambitious new multiregional Chinese restaurant in the Waldorf Astoria comes close. The Singaporean chef, Kong Khai Meng, uses strips of Berkshire pork collar, which he roasts slow and low to a soft, gelatinous tenderness. But the key is the crunchy, lacquered crackle, which comes courtesy of the bees from the Park Avenue hotels rooftop apiary and makes each bite taste like some ethereal form of trenchermans candy.

Spaghetti Incidents cones to go. Photo: Bobby Doherty

Le Turtles whole roast chicken. Photo: Paul Wagtouicz

Spaghetti Incidents cones to go. Photo: Bobby Doherty

Baked Potato

Mekelburgs

293 Grand Ave., nr. Clifton Pl., Clinton Hill; 718-399-2337

Remember back when stuffed baked potatoes seemed like a viable fast-food concept? Well, that day might come again, if the spuds in question are accoutred as smartly as the ones served in the back-room beer bar of this Clinton Hill gourmet grocery. Although the black-cod-and-caviar variety has a certain swanky appeal, were partial to the not-so-basic bacon and cheese: a substantial russet liberally massaged with olive oil and salt, impregnated with a melting cache of Raclette-style cheese from Vermonts Spring Brook Farm, lavished with sour cream, and crowned with a cube of braised double-smoked bacon.

Spaghetti Incidents cones to go. Photo: Bobby Doherty

Salsa

Empellon Cocina

105 First Ave., nr. 6th St.; 212-780-0999

Last spring, Alex Stupak installed a four-seat counter in Empellon Cocina where he and his team host multicourse tasting menus. Halfway through the meal, the chef asks diners to select salsa ingredients, choose-your-own-adventure style: raw or roasted garlic (The most divisive of all the choices, Stupak advises. Ive seen couples almost get divorced); several different chiles; raw or toasted onion; and finally raw or roasted tomato and tomatillo. Then, watch as your bespoke salsa is used throughout the meal. Nine months after the menu launched, Stupak says, Weve never repeated a salsa yet.

Spaghetti Incidents cones to go. Photo: Bobby Doherty

Sausage

Gabriel Kreuther

41 W. 42nd St., nr. Sixth Ave.; 212-257-5826

Gabriel Kreuther hails from that great sausage region of eastern France, Alsace, so it shouldnt come as a surprise that his version of a country sausage, which you can enjoy in the bar area of his eponymous restaurant in midtown, contains three kinds of pork instead of just one. Bacon and pancetta are ground together with pork shoulder, along with cabbage for softness and a hint of Gruyere for bite. The filling is piped into a natural casing, blanched to a baby whiteness, roasted to a glistening brown, and served in the highest possible Alsatian style with a pot of mustard and a tangle of housemade sauerkraut.

Spaghetti Incidents cones to go. Photo: Bobby Doherty

Cutlet

Wildair

142 Orchard St., nr. Rivington St. 646-964-5624

Not so long ago, the best nonliquid sustenance you could hope for at a wine bar was a slab of old pate. But the compact little menu at this New Age Orchard Street wine bar is filled with all sorts of blue-ribbon recipes, including this pork Milanese, which wouldnt taste out of place in Milan, or even Vienna. The generous flap of pork shoulder is well tenderized and perfectly cooked. The golden, faintly eggy crust bubbles up in a most pleasing way. The sauce gribiche is stuffed with capers, bits of boiled egg, and parsley. Enjoy it with a Gamay-style bottle from Mendall, made by a former IT wizard in the hills of northeastern Spain.

Spaghetti Incidents cones to go. Photo: Bobby Doherty

Casserole

Lupulo

835 Sixth Ave., at 29th St.; 212-290-7600

The foundation of any great casserole is the pot its cooked in, and this one  a cannonball-black Dutch oven as big as a hubcap  is no exception. But what separates George Mendess magisterial Portuguese classic from your grandmas Sunday casserole is that elusive combination of delicacy and heft. There is bacalhau in the mix, olive oil (but no cream), garlic, and kalamata olives, all mingled in a deep strata of potatoes, which Mendes and his cooks thinly slice like layers of a napoleon pastry and bake to a golden crisp on top. Eat it all in one sitting, if you dare, or do what we do and enjoy the leftovers the next morning, with a fried egg on top.

Spaghetti Incidents cones to go. Photo: Bobby Doherty

Bar Snack

The Polo Bar

1 E. 55th St., at Fifth Ave.; 212-207-8562

The celebrity-packed dining room at Mr. Laurens restaurant has its charms, but if youre lucky enough to procure a table, we recommend you linger a bit at the upstairs bar. The drinks are pricey but well made, and because its for dining guests only, the railroad-car space rarely feels crowded. And then there are those compulsively delicious fried olives. Theyre bite-size green queen olives, coated with bread crumbs and served warm in a silver bowl. Pop one in your mouth as you enjoy your martini and then another. Once youve finished the first bowl, ask politely for a second. Theyre free, after all, and they might just be the best thing you taste all night.

Spaghetti Incidents cones to go. Photo: Bobby Doherty

Churro

Cosme

35 E. 21st St., nr. Park Ave. S.; 212-913-9659

Like lots of popular dishes imported to this city from afar (pizza, bagels, General Tsos chicken, etc.), the churro has suffered its share of abuse over the years. Well, not anymore. This delicate confection  available for lunch and brunch at this great Mexican restaurant  is made to order and served like an elegant, twisty piece of food sculpture. Its consistency is airy and pastrylike (instead of dank and greasy). Add the gentle dusting of sugar and the Mexican hot chocolate for dipping, and its about as different from your average big-city churro as a stale cookie is from the finest Parisian meringue.

Spaghetti Incidents cones to go. Photo: Bobby Doherty

Roast Chicken

Le Turtle

177 Chrystie St., at Rivington St. 646-918-7189

Its not the presentation that makes Le Turtles whole roast chicken the best in a burgeoning field, although this birds grand procession from kitchen to table on a bed of burning hay is quite a show. But even if you ate the thing blindfolded, youd discern the moistness of the meat, the crispness of the skin, the deep chicken-y flavor  all consequences of chef Greg Proechels five-day process. His fresh-killed pullets get brined for 42 hours, hung in the walk-in for three days, roasted, rested (breast side down; this is crucial), kissed with charcoal, and blasted with lemon and porcini salt. And thats before the fireworks.

Spaghetti Incidents cones to go. Photo: Bobby Doherty

Chicken Fingers

Fuku+

15 W. 56th St., nr. Sixth Ave.; no phone

Not until this inspired collaboration between Mission Chinese Food and Fuku came along has a chicken finger truly transcended its chicken-finger-ness. Fried to a perfect crisp, the white-meat tenders are tossed with Mission Chineses Chongqing spice blend (which Danny Bowien uses on his beloved chicken wings), chile oil, and sliced scallions, then topped with dried chiles. The result is a crunchy, tangy, mouth-numbing umami explosion that makes this unquestionably a chicken finger for grown-ups.

Spaghetti Incidents cones to go. Photo: Bobby Doherty

Chicken Wings

Bar Goto

245 Eldridge St., nr. E. Houston St.; 212-475-4411

Kenta Goto says the atmosphere at his seven-month-old Bar Goto draws inspiration, in part, from the beauty and elegance of Japan. Fittingly, the bars food is equally elegant. The standout: superlative chicken wings that arrive in a neat stack of tips, wingettes, and drumettes. Traditional hot sauce is swapped out for a milder housemade mix of miso, soy sauce, chile, ginger, and garlic. If you look around, you may notice customers eating theirs with chopsticks. But theyre so satisfying  tender, a little sweet, as fatty and salty as youd hope  that youll want to order another round of drinks and dive in with your hands.

Spaghetti Incidents cones to go. Photo: Bobby Doherty

Chicken Fried

Sadelles

463 W. Broadway, nr. Houston St.; 212-254-3000

The 24-hour buttermilkandspecial spices brine is one key to this tender, crunchy, supremely regal, fried-to-order bird, which appears as a regular evening special at the Major Food Groups new Soho outlet. But the thing we like best are the trimmings  the wad of wet coleslaw, the bottle of Crystal hot sauce, and the truffle honey, served with proper New York style in an etched-crystal jar.

Spaghetti Incidents cones to go. Photo: Bobby Doherty

*This article appears in the March 7, 2016 issue of New York Magazine.
Photo: Bobby Doherty

Photo: Bobby Doherty

Shark Cocktail

Mother of Pearl

95 Ave. A, at 6th St.; 212-614-6818

Tiki has struggled to take hold in New York, but Mother of Pearl aims to change that with a space thats more aerielike and bright than its predecessors. On warm days, the cheery front room opens wide to Avenue A, with sheer curtains and hardy-banana plants lining the entrance. Take a seat at a flowery banquette or post up at the tiled bar atop a bar stool modeled after Polynesian sculpture, and ask head bartender Jane Danger for a Shark Eye cocktail ($15)  it blends passion fruit with Maraschino and bourbon and is poured over pebble ice into a shark-shaped glass. To finish, Danger dashes cherry-red tiki bitters into the drink and lets them dribble down the side of the sharks mouth, resulting in a cocktail thats both downright delicious and Instagram catnip.

The Freehold. Photo: Courtesy of the Vendor/Nicholas Rhodes / NickyDigital.com

Slushie Cocktail

Leyenda

221 Smith St., nr. Butler St., Boerum Hill; 347-987-3260

After the cocktail cognoscentis pendulum swung some years ago from Prohibition-era tipples to unpretentious cocktails served by bartenders, not mixologists, it carried another trend with it: boozed-up slushie drinks. They may have reached their apotheosis at pan-Latin-themed Leyenda, where partner Ivy Mix serves the Headless Horseman, a cinnamon-y frozen drink made with pumpkin, allspice dram, and cachaca, then topped with an aflame lime wedge. Its one on a list of many Latin-inspired drinks  several garnished, prettily, with fresh flowers  which you can knock back with a plate of guacamole (foods by Sue Torres) at the 13-seat wooden bar in a room decorated with Virgin Mary statues and Mexican prayer candles. Or take your drink to the sunny back patio.

Photo: Bobby Doherty

The Bennett. Photo: Courtesy of the Vendor/marchphoto2015

Photo: Bobby Doherty

Hotel Bar Without the Hotel

The Freehold

45 S. 3rd St., nr. Wythe Ave., Williamsburg; 718-388-7591

Just as the Ace Hotel lobby did for Flatiron start-up bros, the Freehold offers a community space for Williamsburgs upwardly mobile set (but with no rooms upstairs). The reception desk is actually a coat check, while the hostess, who lends out Monopoly and Risk, goes by concierge. Beneath 16-foot-high ceilings, the freelancing afternoon crowd logs onto free Wi-Fi and takes meetings on mid-century-modern couches. But come sundown, social-media managers let loose with $3 pint specials, outdoor Ping-Pong, and stand-up-comedy shows. On weekends, DJs play to a packed bar of Manhattanites whove come to dance on the couches to Biggie Smalls remixes.

Photo: Bobby Doherty

Coney Island Brewing Co. Photo: Courtesy of the Vendor

Photo: Bobby Doherty

Roving Hip-Hop Party

The VS Parties

vsparties.com

Pop-up hip-hop parties arent new to the city. But while Henny Palooza is limited to serving only Hennessy cocktails, and Grits & Biscuits just plays southern-trap tunes, the VS Saturday-night parties offer a more universal concept. Promoter Clarence Fruster launched the roving series (its been held at the Roxy Hotel Tribeca and Irving Plaza) with DJs ranging from big names like Talib Kweli to locals like Austin Millz spinning hour-long versus sets  think Beyonce versus Rihanna, Drake versus Meek Mill, and old-school Bad Boy versus Roc-A-Fella  that elicit plenty of grinding and yaaass of approval from the crowd. A $15 to $30 cover charge gets partygoers an hours worth of an open bar sponsored by top-shelf liquors like 1800 Tequila and Ciroc. At a recent party, a Jay ZversusKanye West set concluded with a preview of Wests new album The Life of Pablo  the night before it officially dropped. The crowd went wild.

Genuine Liquorette. Photo: Courtesy of the Vendor

Pinball Beer Hall

Sunshine Laundromat

860 Manhattan Ave., nr. Milton St., Greenpoint

Push open the dryer-machine door in the back of this laundromat, and youre suddenly in a hidden beer bar that also happens to host what might just be the citys best collection of publicly playable pinball machines. There are currently 27 games, including classics like the Addams Family, modern hits like an AC/DC Limited Edition, and an ultrarare Big Bang Bar; all are pulled from proprietor Peter Roses roster of mint machines. Also available: eight rotating beers from Other Half and Barrier Brewing, a bizarre vending machine (a few bucks gets you a pregnancy test affixed to a pack of pork gravy), an Area 51 arcade game built into an old dryer, and, coming soon, a giant claw machine that passersby will be able to operate from the sidewalk.

Photo: Bobby Doherty

Beachside Beer Hall

Coney Island Brewing Co.

1904 Surf Ave., nr. W. 16th St., Coney Island; 718-996-0019

While breweries continue to pop up boroughwide, with Strong Rope simmering oatmeal stouts in Gowanus and LIC Beer Project fermenting beers in industrial Long Island City, their locations leave something to be desired. Especially when compared to the salt-breeze setting of Coney Island Brewing. Unveiled in September, the brewery has beachy blue walls, boardwalk-style floors, and a steel bar where Eric Hernandez serves beers every bit as thrilling as the Thunderbolt: a whiskey-cocktail-inspired Hot Toddy ale and Belgian-style Trappd on the Cyclone. Come summer, the patio is the perfect apres-beach roost for toweling sand off toes while hydrating with a Mermaid Pilsner.

Photo: Bobby Doherty

Bartending Class

Genuine Liquorette

191 Grand St., at Mulberry St.; 646-726-4633

Expensive bartending classes were once the realm of NYU undergrads unaware that the certificate handed out at the end would do little to earn them a job at PDT. Those looking to learn how to mix better drinks at home  how to properly stir ice, what kind of cocktails need a hard shake  would be better off taking a three-hour $75 seminar with Eben Freeman. On select Monday nights, the bar closes for the lessons, during which youll focus on technique, learn to make the bars signature canned cocktails, and get your picture taken for the wall, meaning you can now jump behind the bar and mix drinks for your friends. Its nice being a patron here, too: You can order a hamburger from the Genuine Superette kitchen upstairs and sip one of Ebens All-Star cocktails, like the Crumble, a drink he first served at the late, great Tailor.

Photo: Bobby Doherty

Upper East Side Bar

Seamstress

339 E. 75th St., nr. First Ave.; 212-288-8033

Youve heard this one before: A classy cocktail bar opens on the Upper East Side, an oasis in frat-land (indeed, youve heard it at this very address before  the space was formerly home to the cocktail haven JBird). But as much as Seamstress distinguishes itself in location, it stands out for its mastery of American classics; the menu offers 50 of them, from the Aviation to the Zombie, plus new creations. The textbook-style menu (learn about classic drinks through history while getting tipsy) makes sense when you consider head bartender Pam Wiznitzer was a masters candidate in food studies at NYU while bartending at the Dead Rabbit. The space has a sultry feel  tabletop candles, leather banquettes  thats great for dates if youd prefer that to cocktail history.

Photo: Bobby Doherty

Secret Party Room

Broadway Crown Fried Chicken & Pizza

691 Broadway, nr. Whipple St., East Williamsburg; 718-387-7780

Beyond the fried-chicken counter and past the kitchen is a nondescript storage room that doubles as a 150-person party venue, complete with a crystal chandelier. Mohammad Nawabi, part owner of this neighborhood fried-chicken joint, rents out the 1,400-square-foot space (from $1,200 for five hours) to moms hosting baby showers, independent record labels throwing holiday parties, and even a local raver who had DJs playing her vape-themed birthday party until the early morning. Revelers bring their own booze and sound system, but the kitchen will stay open serving two-piece chicken snack boxes ($4.50) and curly fries ($2.50) as long as the party runs.

Photo: Bobby Doherty

Drag Show

Tacky Tuesdays at Boots & Saddle Drag Lounge

100A Seventh Ave. S., nr. Grove St.; 646-892-4800

Most Hells Kitchen drag shows offer slick and put-together productions. But on Tuesday nights, something a little less polished happens at this more-than-40-year-old West Village mainstay (which moved from Christopher Street to its new location, in the former Actors Playhouse space, last summer). Illuminated by hanging lanterns and neon beer logos, feisty host Ari Kiki (male name Marti Balloveras) wears ill-fitting Forever 21 plus-size outfits and askew lipstick while barreling into the audience to lip-sync and banter. In a skintight get-up, Ari recently did a reverse somersault while aping a Kelly Clarkson tune. That was 300 pounds going over me! Ari exclaimed, cackling. Seventies drag star Divine has been reborn for the Drag Race age.

Photo: Bobby Doherty

*This article appears in the March 7, 2016 issue of New York Magazine.
Quit frothing milk and go register already. Photo: Jason Alden/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Never one to shy away from activism, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is urging baristas to follow his lead by doing their civic duty this November. In a company-wide letter this week, he tells the chains 150,000 U.S. employees that, in fact, its so important to him that he went to the trouble of building a website that essentially removes votings two biggest barriers: not registering in time, and forgetting to go do it.

The site is already up, and Schultz explains its being done in partnership with Brooklyn-based get-out-the-vote group TurboVote:

Over 60% of respondents to a 2014 U.S. Census Bureau Survey said they did not vote due to a variety of issues, including the registration process or forgetting to vote. To make it easier for you, we are making a digital tool from TurboVote accessible to all partners in the U.S. This tool makes registering to vote fast and secure from computers and mobile devices. Just visit the TurboVote site and in a few minutes, you can register to vote and sign up for important reminders to stay informed about local and national elections throughout the year.

Schultz says he got the idea back in February when he asked employees how Starbucks could make a difference both inside and outside of stores this year. One shift supervisor suggested making people aware of the importance to vote, and a bunch more employees agreed that getting involved in voter registration was a great idea. The letter stresses that the outreach drive is nonpartisan and hopefully about more than just the next White House occupant, since Americans should participate in all elections, even those for city councils and school boards. To show theyre serious about not taking any excuses on this, Schultz adds the company will even cover the cost of registration or absentee-ballot mailings for employees.

[Politico]
Sounds like the Modern is doing just fine. Photo: Nathan Rawlinson/Courtesy of the Modern

So, now that were several months into New Yorks big no-tipping revolution, how are things going? For his latest Freakonomics podcast, Stephen J. Dubner wonders just that, so he turns to Danny Meyer, the man who ignited the entire conversation when he announced that Union Square Hospitality Group would do away with gratuity. The good news: Since the change was instituted on November 19, 2015, things have gone better than Meyer or anyone else at USHG apparently expected.

The restaurateur tells Drubner that December, the first full month with the so-called Hospitality Included model in effect at the Modern (the first of Meyers restaurants to adopt the program), was not only the restaurants most profitable December in its history but its most profitable month ever, period.

I never wouldve guessed we wouldve already been this profitable this early on. We thought this would be a long slough, Meyer explains. And we would ultimately be more profitable because we would have less turnover, more applicants, and a better product that more people would want to come try. The reason for this, Meyer surmises, also has a lot to do with the noise that the switch generated: The number of people eating at the Modern this year relative to any other year in the month of December, which is already our busiest month, was dramatically higher than any other December weve had.

The info nevertheless demonstrates that people  or at least the well-heeled clientele of a pricey, two-Michelin-starred place like the Modern  arent about to abandon their favorite restaurants just because they can no longer control how much a server gets paid. Meyer, of course, recognizes that other restaurants wont benefit from the same attention that the Modern received, but hes nevertheless rolled it out at Maialino, an all-day hotel restaurant with breakfast and a popular bar, too.

There have been other benefits for the restaurant since the system was introduced. In the four months since the change was instituted, job applications for kitchen positions skyrocketed by 270 percent, versus being down an average of 50 percent during the seven months before; more surprising for tipping enthusiasts, applications for the server pool grew 25 percent the first month, 100 percent the second month, and a whopping 215 percent during the most recent month. At the same time, turnover has been reduced among both kitchen and dining-room staff. Meyer, however, did not comment on whether renegade diners were slipping servers contraband tips.

[Freakonomics]
Tres not French. Photo: Wildpixel/Getty Images

Frances illustrious culinary traditions are facing their latest attack, only this time theres no microwave or doggy bag to blame  just the taste preferences of the nations 65 million people. French diners love for two dishes has reached epic levels, according to a new study, and its a real problem because neither involves Nutella or a baguette. Per its findings, the future of French cuisine is le burger and la pizza, terms that frustrate culinary purists because all French food worth its salt requires translation.

The study, which was done by French food consultant Gira Conseil, shows a whopping 75 percent of the nations restaurants have been forced to put a burger on the menu. Worse, 80 percent of those report its become their top-selling item, enough to make the burger more popular than the ubiquitous ham sandwich. Pizza consumption, meanwhile, is so through the roof that the French find themselves second only to Americans in the number eaten annually. France, again, has about 65 million people (compared to Americas 323 million), so thats a number worth keeping in mind in light of the amount of burger-eating thats going on  about 1.2 billion last year, roughly a 12 percent increase. The French ate a record number of pizzas in 2015 as well  819 million, which is 10 million more than the previous year.

Naturally, this leaves gourmands in a tizzy, since the study warns the erosion of French culinary heritage is now all but complete. Especially because only 51 percent of those nearly 1 billion pizzas are even purchased at restaurants. Worse than Dominos, the remainder are store-bought  the height of declasse.

[Forbes]
Well, we dont know where it started from, but someone with a review device or an early shipment of the Galaxy S7 has reported that the Verizons Galaxy S7 is not compatible with Samsung Pay on the Play Store. It simply wasnt allowing them to download it.

After reaching out to Verizon, Android Central was able to receive confirmation that Samsung Pay is, in fact, coming to the Verizon S7. The app was simply not available because it was still undergoing testing before flicking the switch and releasing the app. The Samsung Pay app is up on the Play Store now and downloadable by the Verizon S7.

Verizon executive, Jeffery Nelson, tweeted regarding this issue to clear the air once and for all.

.@SamsungSupport confirms Samsung Pay is

undergoing testing & will be avail on schedule for our 3/11 launch of

Galaxy S7 & Galaxy S7 edge  Jeffrey Nelson (@JNels) March 9, 2016

The Samsung Pay app will be ready for users when they get their new Galaxy S7s on Verizon when the ACTUAL launch of the phone comes around on March 11.

Source 1 | Source 2
Arch Coal suspended its application for a major mine in southeastern Montana on Thursday, two months after the mining giant filed for bankruptcy protection and amid broader struggles for the coal industry that have reversed its once-bright prospects in the state.

The St. Louis-based company cited a weak coal market, a shortage of capital and an uncertain permitting outlook in announcing it was suspending the proposed Otter Creek mine.

The move marks a major blow to longstanding efforts to expand mining in the Powder River Basin along the Montana-Wyoming border, the nations largest coal-producing region. Arch had invested at least $159 million to acquire coal leases in the area.

Arch can no longer devote the time, capital and resources required to develop a coal mine on the Otter Creek reserve, the company said in a press release.

The Otter Creek mine would have extracted up to 20 million tons of coal annually from state-owned and private leases south of Ashland near the Wyoming border. Fuel from the mine was to be sold domestically and in overseas markets.

Plans to build a $400 million railroad to the mine site were put on hold indefinitely last year.

The loss of the two projects sinks near-term hopes for a coal-fueled economic boom in southeastern Montana, a largely agriculture region thats failed to attract mining on the scale of the massive strip mines just to the south in Wyoming.

A 2012 economic impact study of Otter Creek funded by the Montana Contractors Association said it would have generated hundreds of high-paying jobs and $91 million in annual tax revenues.

But the proposal - already more than three years behind schedule - faced strong opposition from nearby landowners, members of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and conservation groups such as the Northern Plains Resource Council and Sierra Club.

They warned a mine would industrialize rural communities and threaten water supplies relied on for irrigation.

The ranching economy and culture out there is really strong and we didnt want that to change, said Dawson Dunning, whose family operates a ranch along Otter Creek. It would turn that land from agriculture to open pit mining.

Thursdays move by Arch is likely to reverberate through the 2016 election season.

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock defended his administrations handling of the companys application, after state environmental regulators last year raised concerns over Otter Creeks potential to harm local water supplies.

Those worries prompted the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to tell Arch representatives in March 2015 they needed to submit more information before the application could advance.

Arch said in Thursdays press release that the process had taken longer than anticipated. DEQ Director Tom Livers said it was up to Arch to take the next step.

Republican Greg Gianforte, who hopes to challenge Bullock this fall, accused the Democratic governor of refusing to issue a permit to Arch. But Bullock said the problems facing the coal industry stretch beyond Montana and reinforce the need for a responsible approach to developing the states energy resources.

The Montana Land Board sold the public mineral leases involved in the mine proposal to Arch Coal in 2010 for $86 million. The company paid $73 million for adjacent leases from Great Northern Properties, a Houston-based company that holds coal reserves throughout the western U.S.

The Otter Creek leases hold an estimated 1.5 billion tons of coal.

What will happen to those leases is uncertain. Arch spokeswoman Logan Bonacorsi did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press. The company boasts the second largest coal reserves in the U.S. but was driven into bankruptcy after amassing billions of dollars in debt.

Otter Creeks critics said the companys permitting delays offered a convenient excuse for a project that no longer made economic sense. Demand for coal has plummeted in the past several years amid competition from cheap natural gas and increased reliance on renewable energies to generate electricity.

Its the market. Period, said Anne Hedges with the Montana Environmental Information Center.




Haiti - Security : Canada could take command of the Minustah





According to diplomatic and government sources in Port-au-Prince and Ottawa, Canada would like to contribute more concretely to the efforts of peacekeepers in the Minustah and would consider taking over in autumn of Brazilian staff (979 peacekeepers), which represent the largest contingent (40%) of the forces of the Minustah in Haiti.



Currently only 5 Canadian peacekeepers (out of 2,370) and 90 police officers (out of 2,376) are deployed in Haiti.

In the evantual framework of this Canadian succession, 2,000 Canadian soldiers and police officers could be deployed, however nothing has yet been decided on the level of the workforce. Other sources speak of one thousand men.



By becoming the majority contingent of the Minustah, Canada would take the command according to the rule. In addition to Canada's interest in a seat on the Security Council, the use of French by its staff in Haiti, could play in his favor, as mentioned by the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last month.



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Politic : Parliament forms its Permanent Commissions





Wednesday, the two Houses of Parliament have separately gathered in plenary to constitute the Permanent Commissions.



In the Senate it was the second time a plenary session was held (since 20 January), 22 Senators were present at the roll call where only the Senator Dieupie Cherubin (KID) was absent. During this session in which more than two hours were devoted to what should be the agenda... Senators finally constituted 13 Permanent Commissions (less than the 18 established in Article 172 of the Senate Regulation) . The minority Group obtained the presidency of 6 Commissions and the Majority group of 7. It is now up to the various political blocs to appoint the President of each commission under their control.



At the Chamber of Deputies, a meeting was also held to constitute the various Permanent Commissions, which unlike the Senate are up from 12 to 20 Commissions. However, unlike the Senate, the meeting did not go well and was suspended at the request of members of the "Parliamentary Alliance for Haiti" (APH) commonly known as G48, when it was introduced the Special Commission that was to be responsible for examining the documents of the Prime Minister named. A suspension perceived by the majority as an act of "runaways" of APH.



SL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - FLASH : Dominica lifts temporary ban on visas for Haitians





Rayburn Blackmoore, the Minister of Justice, Immigration and National Security of the island of Dominica, confirmed that the ministry would resume the issuance of visas to Haitian nationals, after the temporary halt of the program in 2015.



However, he stressed that the visa program for Haitian will be governed by strict rules that will include a cap of 25 visas per month and intensive monitoring to counter abuse of the system.



"The decision to put a stay on the insurance of visas to Haitian nationals had to be taken in order to strengthen this instrument," he said. "Consequently, a new structure has been put in place within the administrative section in the ministry for processing all visas."



He also addressed the need to limit the number of visas that will be treated "Not more than 25 visas per month, except in exceptional cases," indicating that the visa system overhauled, with new regulations allow greater monitoring of the system.



Recall that Dominica which is the Eastern Caribbean countries with the largest Haitian population, has implemented its visa requirements for Haitians in 2005. To date Dominica has granted just over 6,000 visas to Haitian nationals whose the majority are employed in agriculture.



SL/ HaitiLibre


















Login or sign up to follow actresses, movies & dramas and get specific updates and news

Login Sign Up

 New Ad-free Subscriber Login

Email

Password

Password Username Your E-mail will only be used to retrieve a lost password.

Stay logged in

Help
Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute will host Conor Grennan, author of Little Princes: One Mans Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal, for its 2016 Laurette LePrevost Writers Symposium.

The college will host a reading and discussion session with Grennan on Thursday, April 7 at 12 p.m. on CCC&TIs Watauga Campus and at 7 p.m. at the J.E. Broyhill Civic Center. On Friday, April 8, the college will host a reading and discussion with Grennan at 12 p.m. in the gym on the Caldwell Campus in Hudson. All events are free and open to the public.

Grennan embarked on an around-the-world trip in 2004, during which he volunteered in the Little Princes Childrens Home in the village of Godawari, Nepal. When he learned that the children in the home were not orphans, but were in fact trafficked, he moved to Kathmandu, Nepal and started Next Generation Nepal, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reconnecting trafficked children with their families. From his experiences, he penned the NY Times and #1 international bestselling memoir Little Princes: One Mans Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal, which has been translated into 12 languages so far and has received a number of literary awards. He is a highly requested speaker at universities and corporations and was named a Huffington Post Game Changer of the Year in 2011.

Grennan is a citizen of the United States and Ireland and a graduate of the University of Virginia and the NYU Stern School of Business, where he served as president of the student body. He currently resides with his wife and two children in Los Angeles, Calif.

Many CCC&TI students are reading Grennans novel this semester as part of the English and Reading curriculum.

Laurette LePrevost, former Dean of Arts and Sciences for CCC&TI, was instrumental in building the Writers Symposium into an annual event that has brought in such renowned writers as Maya Angelou, Ernest Gaines, Nikki Giovanni, Robert Morgan and Clyde Edgerton. Under her leadership and guidance, CCC&TIs symposium has become the longest-running consecutively held Writers Symposium in western North Carolina and one of the longest in the Southeast. The Writers Symposium series was renamed in her honor when she retired in 2004.

Support for the Laurette LePrevost Writers Symposium is provided by the Foundation of Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute. For more information on CCC&TIs Laurette LePrevost Writers Symposium, call 828-726-2321.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

Reddit

Pocket


The Christian Action League of North Carolina, Inc., the oldest state-wide Christian public-policy organization in the Tar Heel state, is endorsing Ted Cruz for President of the United States. The League has a 501c4 tax status and is allowed to declare support or opposition to a candidate for office.

Dr. Mark Creech, executive director, released the following statement Thursday morning:

We are witnessing possibly the most dangerous time in American history. Its not that our great country hasnt faced incredible challenges in the past, but today the enemies of our Republic strike at the heart of our national identity  the meaning of America. Such issues will determine the preservation of liberty for the generations to come.

Although the Christian Action League concedes there are many pressing considerations in choosing a President, none are more important than marriage and family, restoring a culture of life, and preserving our first right  the right to practice ones faith freely. No current candidate in the Democratic field demonstrates a proper commitment to any of these necessary supports for a healthy society. All the candidates in the GOP field have shown some commitment to these three, either with lip service or some demonstration of allegiance, but none has the long track record of their zealous defense and promotion as Senator Ted Cruz.

Voters today are angry at their elected officials for showing little or no courage in standing up for their rights and representing their concerns. They rightly feel betrayed. They feel most politicians are willing to sell them out and leave them hanging. Therefore, many people, including evangelicals, seem to prefer an outsider. Ted Cruz, however, should not be counted among your run-of-the-mill, get along to get along, kind of elected official. Instead, it has been his undaunting commitment to fight for his constituents  to fight for principle over politics  that has made him an undesirable among established powers in Washington.

Many years ago, John Ruskin contended that [s]kill is the unified force of experience, intellect, and passion in their operation. Ted Cruz has extensive experience debating, crafting and pushing legislation, as well as defending in court the values dearest to evangelical Christians. What is more, he has done it with keen intelligence and fervor.

Last, the issues tearing away at the moral fabric of our nation have largely, almost exclusively, been foisted upon us by run-away federal courts, most certainly the U.S. Supreme Court, which has abandoned the original intent of the U.S. Constitution in too many of their rulings. To sustain freedom, this form of tyranny must stop. Because the next President will likely fill the seat of recently deceased Justice Antonin Scalia and other seats that may become available, it is imperative we have a President who is a strong constitutionalist. We believe Ted Cruz would best serve this need.

Therefore, the Christian Action League urges its supporters and its vast network of churches and citizen evangelicals in North Carolina to vote for those eternal verities that should take precedence over all other concerns  those that go to the character of our nation. A country that remains compromised on marriage and family, the right to life and the right to live according to the dictates of their faith in public or private, is likely to perish from the earth.

Every leader has clay feet, and none is without blemish. Nevertheless, evangelicals should choose for their leaders those who by their persons and promotion of policy reveal a consistent commitment to a strong Christian worldview.

We believe Ted Cruz best fits this need and endorse his candidacy for President of the United States.

Dr. Mark H. Creech Executive Director

Dr. Creech added that he didnt think the Christian Action League had ever endorsed a candidate for President before, at least not during his tenure as executive director. Still, the Board felt there was entirely too much at stake in this election, he said, matters that could affect the nation for many years to come  matters that required we break away from our tradition and provide some needed direction for evangelicals in the state. This does nothing to take away from the Leagues primary mission of addressing the great social issues of our time.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

Reddit

Pocket


In its second attempt, a groups petition language for a proposed ballot measure that would legalize marijuana in North Dakota was approved Wednesday by the North Dakota Secretary of State.

Group members intend to begin organizing its signature drive in the coming days. The effort seeks to remove from North Dakota Century Code all references to marijuana and substances deriving from cannabis as being illegal drugs as well as possession of marijuana paraphernalia.

If approved, the measure would set a legal age of 21 for possession of marijuana and paraphernalia as well as the growing of it. Taxation of marijuana by local or state government would be capped at 20 percent sales tax.

Its a relief were finally at the stage for collecting signatures, committee chairman Eric Olson, of Fargo, said in a phone interview.

The group had originally filed Feb. 10 but were rejected because it had submitted outdated state law language as part of the petition. Olsons group resubmitted on Feb. 26 with the correct language.

Olson said the next step is to hold organizational meetings and get petition circulators on board. He said a Fargo meeting has been planned and a Bismarck meeting also is to be scheduled.

Being a statutory initiative, it would require 13,452 legitimate signatures at least 120 days before the election. The deadline for turning in signatures for the Nov. 8 election is July 11.

My goal is to get in the 20,000 range just for a safe range, Olson said.

Information on the groups marijuana legalization measure can be found at www.legalizend.org.

The measure is the second proposed marijuana initiative for which signatures are being gathered.

Last fall, a group pursuing a medical marijuana initiative received approval to circulate petitions; a sponsoring committee member told the Tribune last week the group has gathered about 10,000 signatures so far.

Lawmakers rejected two pieces of medical marijuana legislation in the 2015 session. A bill to legalize medical marijuana to those with a prescription failed by a 26-67 vote. Later, a resolution for an interim study of legalization of medical marijuana for those with serious medical conditions failed by a 32-61 vote.
Finnish Customs reported on Wednesday that the value of goods exported from Finland fell by ten per cent year-on-year to 3.6 billion euros and that of imports by nine per cent to 3.9 billion euros in January. The balance of trade consequently showed a deficit comparable to that observed a year earlier, of roughly 320 million euros.

January brought no turnaround for the export industry of Finland, indicate the latest preliminary statistics on the foreign trade of goods.

Roger Wessman, an economist at Bastiat Consulting, commented on the preliminary statistics on Twitter. The value of goods exports for January is a new low point in the series of bleak statistics from the past few months, he wrote.

Finnish Customs reported that exports declined in all important export categories in January despite the fact that the decline was mitigated by a major aircraft delivery.

Exports to other member states of the European Union fell by 9 per cent year-on-year and imports from other member states by 8 per cent in January, while exports to third countries dropped by 12 per cent and imports from third countries by 9 per cent, according to Finnish Customs.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Finnish Customs

Source: Uusi Suomi
Miller endorses Edwards for Senate

Hendersonville City Council member Jeff Miller endorsed Chuck Edwards for state Senate on Thursday, citing Edwards business experience and Western North Carolina roots.

Related Stories

Edwards is in a three-way Republican primary in Senate District 48  the seat currently held by

retiring Senator Tom Apodaca.

A Hendersonville native, Miller owns and operates Millers Fine Dry Cleaning, a family business that opened its doors more than 100 years ago, and is co-founder of the Honor Flight Network that gives World War II veterans the opportunity to visit their memorial in the nations capital.

As a small business owner who sees the challenges our job creators and working families face

every day, I want someone with Chuck Edwards real-world experience representing us in Raleigh,

Miller said. Chuck knows how to solve problems, and he knows the impact public policy has on our

local economy. Hell be a strong voice for Western North Carolina.

Edwards, who has lived in Henderson County for more than four decades, worked his way

up from a cook at McDonalds and now owns seven franchises with nearly 400 employees.

He has served on the boards of various local charities and nonprofit organizations. This is

his first campaign for political office.

Jeff is a tireless public servant who has helped Henderson County and Western North Carolina

in countless ways, and its an honor to have him on our team, Edwards said.
Fugitive rams cruiser, faces multiple charges

EAST FLAT ROCK  A 32-year-old local man faces a series of felony charges after he rammed a Henderson County sheriff's cruiser, got his car stuck in a yard and ran away, the sheriff's office said.

Deputies responding to the call saw a woman lying on the ground and a male subject running away. The deputies identified themselves and attempted to take the fleeing suspect into custody as he got in a vehicle. The male suspect quickly accelerated backwards into a deputy's vehicle. He then drove forward, striking landscape and other objects before becoming stuck and fleeing on foot.

Deputies chased the suspect and subdued him with a Taser before making the arrest. The suspect was identified as Jermaine Latrus Hamm, of 99 Leisure Lane, Hendersonville. After Hamm was taken into custody, deputies learned that he is wanted by three different counties in Georgia on warrants charging him with aggravated assault, obstruction of a law enforcement officer, burglary, possession of cocaine and fleeing a police officer. Hamm was charged on Wednesday with two felony counts of assault on a government official, two misdemeanor counts of resisting a public officer, assault on a female and a felony fugitive extradition warrant from the state of Georgia. He was jailed in Henderson County Detention Center under a $151,000 secured bond.
Gardai have begun a digging operation in a rural Co Kildare location for a 38-year-old man who has not been seen since July.

Detectives believe missing Wicklow man Barry Corcoran was brutally murdered by a west Dublin criminal and his body buried in a secret location.

Officers acting on new information began a search yesterday in the Rathangan area of Co Kildare.

It is understood the site that Clondalkin gardai are searching is five acres and that the dig may go on for some time.

This is just the latest search for this mans body, a source told the Herald last night.

The chief suspect in the case is a violent criminal in his early 40s who was known to Mr Corcoran.

The suspected murder victim had previously stayed in the criminals home, and it is understood that Mr Corcoran was killed after the two men got into a dispute.

The suspect has a number of previous convictions for extremely violent offences and has served jail time.

He has links to a number of dangerous Dublin criminals.

It previously emerged that gardai investigating the suspected murder received sinister letters alleging Mr Corcoran was shot dead and buried in a shallow grave.

Gardai made an official appeal for information last August and revealed that Mr Corcoran went to the post office in Wicklow town on the day he was last seen alive before getting the bus to Dublin.

Friend

He spent some time in the north inner city, before boarding the Luas Red Line to the Kylemore Stop on the Naas Rd, arriving there at 2pm.

A friend met him there and he bought some items in a local shop at 2.30pm and again at 6.45pm.

He was meeting friends on Cremona Road in Ballyfermot and was last seen by them that night. It is not known what happened afterwards. Gardai said Mr Corcoran would not have known the area.

He is unemployed and is dependent on social welfare. He has not accessed his cash since and has no credit card.

In an interview with the Herald in July, his brother William said that he told friends and relatives that he would be home the following day. They raised the alarm when he didnt show.

I just feel it in my waters that something is wrong, said William, who shares a house with Barry in the Ocean View Estate in Wicklow town.

Wiliam added that his missing brother had left his phone and passport at home.

He doesnt have any bank accounts we can check either; theres no credit cards or anything. He dealt in cash and lived day-to-day on his dole.

Worry

He needs the dole to live and he didnt collect it on Monday. So thats when I thought something was definitely up. Thats when the worry set in, he said.

Gardai have conducted door-to-door inquiries and have examined local CCTV footage as part of the investigation which is being led by Supt Brendan Connolly.

Gardai have carried out extensive investigations since Barry was reported missing, Supt Connolly said in an appeal last year.

As a result of these investigations we have significant concerns regarding his welfare and safety  I would urge anybody with information to contact us here in Ballyfermot Garda Station.

We are very concerned for Barry. This is out of character for him.
President Barack Obama visits the Dubliner, an Irish pub in Washington, D.C., with his Irish cousin, Henry Healy, center, and Ollie Hayes, a pub owner in Moneygall, Ireland, on St. Patrick's Day, Saturday, March 17, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

US president Barack Obama has pledged to return to Ireland after his second term in office ends, his Irish relative says.

The president has told his eighth cousin, Henry Healy, from Moneygall in Co Offaly, that he wanted to revisit the country before the end of his term, or very shortly afterwards.

Mr Healy and his uncle, Ollie Hayes, have been invited to the White House for their fifth and final St Patricks Day with President Obama. They are due to fly out to Washington next Monday.

Its a bit of a bitter-sweet invitation, Mr Healy told the Herald. There will be a hole to fill next Paddys Day.

Mr Hayes said that the official invitation for the trip arrived last week, but that there had been correspondence ahead of that.

He and Mr Hayes, who runs the bar bearing his name in Moneygall that was visited by Mr Obama in 2011, spoke about the presidents plans to return to our shores.

He said that he wanted to get back to Ireland before the end of this term, which doesnt look like its going to happen. Either that, or he said he would visit very soon afterwards, Mr Hayes said.

Mr Healy also spoke about the possibility of Donald Trump becoming the next US president, following the elections in November this year.

I have absolutely no desire to have any connections whatsoever with Donald Trump, he said.

Hopefully, reason will prevail and he wont become president.

Speaking about the numerous visits that he has made to the US after discovering he was a very distant relative of Mr Obama, he remained philosophical.

What guy can say at 31 years of age that he has been invited by the president to visit the US so many times? Its hard to believe, he said.

Both Mr Hayes and Mr Healy will attend a reception with the president on Tuesday. Mr Hayes said that, since Mr Obamas visit five years ago, a lot of Americans have come to see his pub.

We still have the 50 note that he and the first lady paid with  and the glasses they used for the Guinness, he said. People come to take pictures and also to take pictures with a cardboard cut-out that we have.

Promotion

Last week, it was confirmed that the pair will be joined by Taoiseach Enda Kenny, even if no Government has been formed by then.

While Mr Kenny will travel to US capital, it emerged that the number of ministers going abroad as part of the annual promotion of Irish business, culture and tourism would be curtailed.
The recent RTE drama Rebellion featured a scene in which Eamon de Valera and other 1916 Volunteers are about to be shot by firing squad. At the very last minute, a British army officer tells them that their sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment.

The future Taoiseach and President is so relieved that he immediately doubles over and vomits - much to the disgust of his fellow revolutionaries.

As de Valera's grandson Eamon O Cuiv has complained, it did not happen quite like that. Even so, this reprieve was an absolutely critical moment in the political history of Ireland.

Dev and the other 1916 survivors went on to fundamentally shape the party system we have today - one still largely intact even despite last month's seismic general election.

The Rising featured many people who would become seminal names in Irish politics. The most glamorous was Michael Collins, revered today as Fine Gael's spiritual leader, even though he died before it was founded.

W.T. Cosgrave and Desmond FitzGerald served as President of the Executive Council and Foreign Minister in the first Free State government - and both had sons who ended up in the Taoiseach's office.

On the Fianna Fail side future President Sean T O'Kelly and future Taoiseach Sean Lemass fought together in the GPO, while Lemass's son-in-law Charles Haughey also made it to the top. As for Labour, they could boast that James Connolly founded their party in 1912.

It all started, however, with de Valera. The only 1916 commandant to escape execution (for reasons that historians still dispute) suddenly enjoyed an iconic status within Irish republicanism.

Leadership

The Sinn Fein founder Arthur Griffith, who had not fought in the Rising, recognised this and handed the leadership over to him at the party's 1917 Ard Fheis.

When a general election came around in 1918, Dev made a critical move. He persuaded Labour that freedom had to be achieved before socialism, which meant standing aside and giving Sinn Fein a clear shot at the Home Rule Party.

Dev's troops duly won the election, giving conservative nationalists a big head-start over left-wing nationalists - one that they are still clinging onto almost a century later.

To put it another way, Patrick Pearse's Gaelic vision had won out over James Connolly's social radicalism.

This is still the main reason why Ireland, unlike every other country in Europe, has never had an openly left-wing government.

When asked about this, de Valera famously declared, "Labour must wait" - and last month's election drubbing will force them to wait for at least a bit longer.

After 1918, the War of Independence, Anglo-Irish Treaty and Civil War split Irish nationalism into several different factions. The pro-Treaty side took power as Cumman na nGaedheal and later morphed into Fine Gael. De Valera soon decided that he was willing to compromise for power after all and set up his own Fianna Fail party in 1926. The remnants of Sinn Fein faded away and were irrelevant to southern politics for 70 years.

Before long, a pattern emerged at Leinster House. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael alternated power between them, with Labour occasionally drafted in to make up the numbers.

Irish politics was a 'two and a half-party' system, without any traditional left-right divide - with the bonus that fascism and communism never got a look-in.

Shadow

With so many Easter Rising veterans in Dail Eireann, the event itself cast a long shadow.

"Where were you in 1916?" and similar insults were common during Dail debates.

As late as 1948, Fine Gael leader Richard Mulcahy was denied his chance to become Taoiseach because he had ordered the executions of so many republican prisoners during the Civil War.

Over the years, new political players such as Clann na Poblachta, the Progressive Democrats and the Green Party have all tried to break the 1916 mould.

All of them have either gone bust or been quickly reduced to tiny numbers.

Even in last month's historically fractured election, 70pc of voters still supported parties who claim at least some link with the Easter Rising.

So how would Irish politics be different if the British had decided to shoot de Valera after all? Like so many other debates about 1916, we will simply never know.
Wyoming leaders are right to recognize that waiting until a problem gets out of hand is not a solution.

Noting that problems with heroin and other opioids are increasing across the nation, Gov. Matt Meads office has requested that a state panel study abuse of the drugs here in Wyoming in the time between this legislative session and the next. We certainly welcomed the news that the legislative leadership and the Joint Judiciary Committee took him up on that request.

According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the drug overdose death rate has more than doubled since 2000. Of over 47,000 overdose deaths in 2014, more than 28,000 were from abuse of opioids and heroin. The U.S. Senate voted 89-0 last week to begin considering a measure targeting heroin and opioid use across the nation, from urban centers to rural areas.

Rural areas, after all, are not spared from the plague of this addiction. The states with the highest death rates in 2014 were West Virginia, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Kentucky and Ohio.

Those states, however, are still ahead of Wyoming in an important way: They are tracking and recording these deaths. Its hard to pinpoint the size of Wyomings problem, because we have very poor tracking, as the governors deputy chief of staff says. Coroners in the state have been known to use different terms to describe and categorize the deaths, from accidental overdose to drug overdose to opioid deaths.

Wyoming should have a common language that will help us quantify the problem. Thats the first step on the path  to define the scope of the issue and then come up with a plan to address it.

Even without solid numbers, though, we are hearing loud and clear that theres a problem here. Kebin Haller, now the head of the Wyoming Highway Patrol, formerly served as deputy director of operations at the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation. I never thought I would say that we have a heroin problem in Wyoming, but we do now have a heroin problem in Wyoming, Haller told the Associated Press in that role last year. It is directly connected to the abuse of prescription-controlled substances related to pain relief.

Some addictions do start with recreational drugs, but others are far less intentional. When the painkillers run out for someone injured on the job, for example, that person might be desperate enough to do whatever it takes to keep the pain at bay. As a state, especially one with many physically demanding jobs, we must make sure people in that position have the resources to navigate that difficult time without becoming addicted.

We are so glad the Joint Judiciary Committee agrees with Mead that heroin and opioid abuse is an issue worth studying in our state. Lives depend on Wyomings ability to solve this problem.

Wyoming leaders are right to recognize that waiting until a problem gets out of hand is not a solution.

 Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune
Pope Francis has imposed new financial accountability regulations on the process for making saints after gross abuses were revealed.

Francis issued norms Thursday that require external vigilance over the Vatican bank accounts created for canonization causes as well as regular budgeting and accounting to make sure donations are being used correctly.

The reforms come after two blockbuster books based on confidential Vatican documents revealed that the Vatican's saint-making machine brought in hundreds of thousands of euros for each saintly candidate but had virtually no financial oversight.

The books estimated the average cost for each beatification cause at around 500,000 euros ($550,000).
GRAND FORKS  Interim University of North Dakota President Ed Schafer compared three Hersheys kisses in red, pink and silver wrappers to the ongoing discussion about budget cuts at the school.

At a well-attended, campuswide meeting Wednesday, he said a person may want all three chocolates because theyre equally delicious, but tough decisions are on the horizon.

My experience tells me the answer, while certainly not easy, is simple to understand, Schafer said. We must prioritize programs and policies and put precious revenue to work to fully fund those priorities.

UND must trim $9.5 million from its 2015-17 budget while its School of Medicine and Health Sciences must reduce its own by $3.1 million after North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple ordered state agencies to slash budgets in response to a forecasted state revenue shortfall.

Schafer said this means low-priority positions and programs could be eliminated, and the universitys administration will not be immune to cuts either.

Departments have been asked to submit budgets detailing both 5 and 10 percent cuts, which deans will then work with and hand up the ladder for Schafer to make final decisions in mid-April.

Schafer said decisions will be made based on three overarching university priorities, which are providing the best possible student learning experience, serving the state of North Dakota and providing long-lasting, affordable and permanent career opportunities for employees.

This isnt about the administrators saying these are your priorities, Schafer said. This is about the ability of each unit to prioritize what we do.

But some in the audience were concerned. History professor Jim Mochoruk received applause when he said he worried staff wouldnt see the same considerations in the process as tenured faculty, and Director of Music Therapy Meganne Masko said she has been told the plan so far for the School of Arts and Sciences involves cutting her program.

Schafer said the best way a person can advocate for something they deem important would be to articulate and champion how each service, position or program serves the three priorities.

Priorities

Schafer said he is looking for a long-term solution, pointing to the more than $20 million needed to repair UNDs steam plant, which provides heat throughout campus buildings. He said simply moving funds from one pool to another would only create problems in the future, adding he wants the university to be stable when the future president takes over this summer.

My mission here is to build on that foundation, to create a stronger, better university that is financially stable while providing value to all of those who are involved, Schafer said.

Schafer said Altru Health Systems uses the steam plant, and so he hopes to see if they might take on some of the financial burden.

But despite knowing the states economic downturn is cyclical due to the nature of the oil industry, Schafer said legislative appropriations to universities in the state will most likely decrease during the upcoming 2017 legislative session.

We will live within our means, and that requires addressing our diminishing budgets, he said.

Along with aligning programs, positions and services with the three university priorities, Schafer said students shouldnt bear the brunt of the problem with a tuition increase. Maintaining competitive salaries, as well as ensuring students are able to complete programs and graduate as planned and maintaining facilities, also are priorities going ahead. Schafer said he hopes the way those goals will be accomplished come from the faculty and staff at UND.

We will invent a new university that will be a strong beacon of knowledge and a pride for all to see, and thats going to be a tough job, he said.

Pointing to a recent letter published in the Grand Forks newspaper, Schafer acknowledged some think there are too many administrators employed at UND and explained some growth over the years has been necessary due to federal mandates concerning diversity and compliance.

Fixes so far

Ever since budget cuts became a reality this winter, UND Vice President for Finance and Operations Alice Brekke said nothing is off the table, in regard to finding revenue or cutting expenditures.

A voluntary buyout program for staff was announced Wednesday, which offers up to one week of annual-base salary for each year of employment at UND, not to exceed half of that employees annual-base salary. Applications will be accepted online through March 31.

A similar faculty buyout program for a years salary was offered to qualifying faculty starting in early February. The programs are separate, but both only apply to those whose age added to the number of years employed by the North Dakota University System equal at least 70.

Schafer said the programs differ partially for legal reasons.

Were trying to make it work as best we can, and the one thing I can assure you is we arent going to be cavalier and were going to be humane as we approach them, he said.

Schafer added if any positions are cut, counseling services will be offered, noting he knows the UND community feels like a family.

A temporary hiring freeze requiring approval to fill any open positions has been in place since early February, as well as several other cost-saving measures.This round of budget cuts is on top of a $5.3 million shortfall for fiscal year 2016 the university recently addressed using one-time funds.

We built too much to do in our system, and we dont have enough money to pay for it, Schafer said.

The target date for academic deans to turn in proposals to their respective vice presidents is Tuesday, and those administrators will hand in final budgets to Schafer for his consideration April 1, with the master list of priorities slated to be published by the Presidents Office.

Schafer is slated to make final decisions around April 15 and encouraged those with ideas or concerns to set up appointments to visit with him, email or call him before that time.

Schafer said the budget will be blended with other university budgets at the North Dakota University System Office and massaged by Chancellor Mark Hagerott before going to the North Dakota Office of Management and Budget, which will combine it with all of the other state agency budgets before going to the Governors Office.

My mission here is to build on that foundation, to create a stronger, better university that is financially stable while providing value to all of those who are involved. Interim University of North Dakota President Schafer.
A federal judge in Ohio has rescheduled the sentencing of a Kentucky accountant who spent much of six years as a fugitive hiking the Appalachian Trail.

The judge has postponed a March 30 sentencing date until June 1 to give the attorney for James Hammes (HAM'-uhs) more time because of her trial schedule.

Hammes pleaded guilty in October to a wire fraud count and agreed to pay back money embezzled in the $8.7 million case. Federal authorities agreed to drop 74 other charges against Hammes, a former Lexington employee of a Cincinnati-based Pepsi-Cola bottler.

The wire fraud count carries a maximum of 20 years behind bars.

FBI agents arrested Hammes in May 2015 in Damascus, Virginia.
GRAND FORKS  In a sure sign of spring, a male and female peregrine falcon have converged at a nest box on the University of North Dakota water tower, but the females identity is a mystery, and her presence could result in a turf war when and if Terminatorthe female peregrine who has nested in Grand Forks since 2008returns to the site.

Grand Forks raptor expert and licensed bander Tim Driscoll said the male is Marv, which he confirmed by the band number on the birds leg. This will be Marvs third season of mating in Grand Forks.

Driscoll names the peregrines he bands, saying its easier to remember the birds by name than by a band number. Grand Forks and Fargo have the only two confirmed peregrine nests in North Dakota.

Driscoll said the new female has a black-colored band on her leg, but he hasnt been able to get a get a look at the band number to learn more about her past. She may have been produced in Winnipeg, he said, because banders in the Manitoba capital traditionally use black leg bands.

Driscoll, by comparison, uses bands that are black and red.

Female peregrines are larger than males, he said, and the birds dont travel together during migration.

Marv returned on Monday to Grand Forks, Driscoll saidtwo days earlier than last year. In 2014, his first year in Grand Forks, Marv flew April 21 into town. Terminator, who was hatched in 2006 in Manitoba, traditionally hasnt shown up in Grand Forks until late March or early April, Driscoll said.

This will be Terminators ninth year of nesting in Grand Forks if she returns, Driscoll said. And if she returns and the mysterious female still is here, feathers might flyboth figuratively and literally.

The anticipation of the drama that could unfold is part of the fascination, Driscoll said.

We dont know if Terminator comes back, but if she does, the basic assumption would be thered be a bit of a territorial fight, Driscoll said. The assumption would be (Terminator) would win because she has more at stake because its her nest box.

Thats not a given, though, he conceded.

To make it more complicated, shes got Marv, and maybe he wont take to this new lady, Driscoll said. Hes letting her sit in the box, but that doesnt mean he will mate with her. Its never this simple, but generally speaking, when there are territorial disputes, its female on female and male on male.

In the meantime, Driscoll said hes going to keep trying to get a better look at the number on the new females leg band, which is easier said than done.

Worst-case scenario, a new female is better than no female, he said, but Terminator is his sentimental favorite.

Its better to have her here than no Terminator, but shes not even late yet, so Im not too worried about that, Driscoll said. If things hold, we expect her to show up in a couple of weeks.

I hope we have a few more years of Terminator left.
Nobel Prize winner, IU grad fondly remembers his time in Bloomington

Philip H. Dybvig said he loves Bloomington and thought it was a great place to be an undergraduate.
We attempted to send a notification to your email address but we were unable to verify that you provided a valid email address. Please click here to update your email address if you wish to receive notifications. Otherwise, you may click here to disable notifications and hide this message.
The India-Pakistan relationship currently resembles a collage of circumspection and expectation  faint hope coexisting with old doubts.

On the face of it, either side appears in search of consensus within: New Delhi for initiating a comprehensive dialogue pushed back by Pathankot; Islamabad for going after Punjab-based anti-India groups that export terror to derail dialogue. The conflict in this confluence is between Pakistan wanting early resumption of foreign secretary-level talks while India bides time for proof of an honest probe to catch the perpetrators of Pathankot.

The Narendra Modi regime is of the view the attack on the IAF base hurt the ambience the Indian Premier built for a full-blown dialogue by visiting Lahore to wish Nawaz Sharif on his birthday. Only a professional probe into the incident  complete with names of individuals and organisations that carried it out  could help get closer to the FS-level talks.

The ongoing engagement between the two countries national security advisers on terrorism has undoubtedly paid dividends, including useful intelligence exchange. But foreign secretary Jaishankars comment that dealing with terror took precedence over the comprehensive dialogue for now will stand until, at least, the arrival of the Pak probe team. Much would depend on the evidence they bring and the evidence they seek, said an Indian official.

Theres appreciation in Delhi of Pakistani NSA Lt Gen Naseer Janjuas approach in his talks with Indias Ajit Doval. The tipoff he sent about a terror strike during Maha Shivratri was a refreshing change about which Pakistans interior minister Chaudhary Nisar has since briefed Parliament: Such activities are carried out by non-state actors but we have to take the burden of responsibility.

The initiative however would have little value unless the Pathankot case is taken to its logical conclusion.

Pakistan shouldnt be in denial mode. They should explain to us the compulsions that make them keep or not act against anti-India elements. We can disagree but can also understand their point, remarked a highly-placed security official. He was responding to a close aide of Sharif who, in an informal interaction with Hindustan Times, called the Pathankot probe an opportunity to assure each other of our commitment to counter terrorism.

The Pak PMs aide was simultaneously emphatic that progress with India on issues of concern to his country would help the Sharif regime build a political consensus  of the kind it has behind the army action on the Af-Pak border  to go after groups active in the eastern flank.

He flagged issues such as Siachen, Sir Creek, Kashmir, trade and terrorism to clarify: We arent insisting on identical pace. But FS-level talks need to be made a normal process

Read | Are the two NSAs scripting the new India-Pakistan lexicon of peace?

The spread of groups like Jaish-e-Mohammad and the Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistans Punjab province and beyond through a network of mosques, seminaries and even kindergarten schools affords them a socio-religious clout, officials there insist, and it can only be progressively diminished.

What made the challenge even more formidable were their linkages with elements in security-intelligence agencies.

We have taken a decision in principle to fight all of them. But you must appreciate we cannot go after them at the same time, the official remarked.

He said Sharif has taken a strategic decision, with the Army on the same page, to improve ties with India. But he wasnt sure whether the Modi regime has reached that point yet.

For his part, the Indian official said: Pakistans legitimacy is down internationally. It should realise that India can help regain it better than even the US. Four our part, we have to assure them that our growth will not weaken them but will be for them a source of stability and strength. They in return should stop blaming us for their faults and resort to a proxy war...

In short, things could move forward if Pakistan carries out bona fide probe into Pathankot with tangible results.

Once trust develops, all issues that are doable can be taken upand that includes Siachen. The possibility of Modi and Sharif catching up during the March 31-April 1 Nuclear Summit in Washington is there. They also have a meeting window in the India-Pak T-20 match.

Noting is confirmed. But then surprises are becoming commonplace in our bilateral ties.

(The writer was in Pakistan recently on a lecture invite from the Centre for Research and Security Studies)

Also read:

Ahead of PM Modis visit, US strengthens ties with India against Let, JeM

Pak, India should not let non-state actors derail peace process: UK
The NDA governments plan to push for a constitutional amendment in Parliament to reserve 50% seats for women in panchayats and municipalities is a great idea. In 1992, the House reserved one-third seats in the local bodies for women. It is unfortunate that it has taken so long for MPs to realise that women, who constitute 48% of the population, have the right to be in decision-making positions.

The history of womens reservation began in the 1980s with the Karnataka Zilla Parishads, Taluk Panchayat Samitis, Mandal Panchayats and Nyaya Panchayats Act, 1983, reserving 25% seats for women, making it the first state to do so.

Read | On Womens Day, Sonia seeks early passage of womens reservation Bill

At that time, many said seats will go vacant due to lack of candidates. However on an average three women contested for one seat when the elections were held in 1987. Orissa implemented 33% reservation much before the 73rd Constitutional Amendment. It also decided that if a sarpanch (elected or nominated) was a man, then his deputy will be a woman.

The 64th and 65th constitutional amendments that Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi introduced in Parliament on May 15, 1989, reserved 30% seats for women. But the Bills were defeated in the Rajya Sabha. When the National Front came into power in 1989, reservation for women increased to 33%. But it was the Narasimha Rao government that passed the Bill. In the 72nd and 73rd constitutional amendments introduced in September 1991 (which became the 73rd and 74th in 1992), the reservation did not go up further; it remained at 33%. In 1993, it became part of the Constitution.

Read: PM bats for empowering women but no mention of reservation Bill

Thanks to the amendments, women joined politics in large numbers, changing the scope of political debate and ideas like gender-budgeting were popularised.

Bihar took a step forward in 2009 by reserving 50% seats for women in local governments. Seventeen other states followed.

But attempts to introduce 33% reservation for women in Parliament have failed. In 1996, the 81st constitutional amendment Bill for 33% seats for women in Parliament was introduced in the Lok Sabha. It was reintroduced in 1998 as the 84th amendment and again in 1999. In 2003, the Bill failed to clear the House twice. Finally, in 2010 it was passed in the Rajya Sabha but is still pending in the Lok Sabha.

Political will is necessary to ensure reservation for women in assemblies and Parliament.

Are male politicians afraid that womens participation in public life will bring about a paradigm shift in todays governance systems?

Read: PM Modi, walk the talk on women empowerment

This is unfortunate because there are enough examples ---- Kerala, Goa, Tripura, and Mizoram ---- to show how society benefits from empowering women.

George Mathew is chairman, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi
With the 2010 publication of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Ohio State University law professor Michelle Alexander, the conversation about Americas exploding prison population singularly became focused on the intersection of race, poverty, and the War on Drugs. According to the narrative, the drug war disproportionately targets blacks in lower income communities as a means of social control via the criminal justice system similarly to the way Jim Crow controlled blacks in the early 20th-century.

The one problem with mass incarceration-as-Jim-Crow thesis is that it does not fit the empirical data. The drug war is not the reason that today we have nearly 2.5 million people incarcerated in this country. In the mid-1970s the U.S. prison population grew from about 300,000 to 1.6 million inmates, and the incarceration rate from 100 per 100,000 to over 500 per 100,000 largely due to violent crime, property crime, and rogue prosecutors. Drug policy changes would, therefore, have little effect on prison population rolls.

The first significant challenge to the Alexander thesis came from Yale Law School professor James Forman, Jr. In a 2012 article, Racial Critiques of Mass Incarceration: Beyond the New Jim Crow, Forman observes that drug offenders constitute only a quarter of our nations prisoners, while the violent offenders make-up about one-half. While sympathetic to the ways in which those living in poor black communities are more likely to end up incarcerated than those in middle-class black communities, it is simply not true that drug policy, targeted at blacks, is driving prison numbers.

The Jim Crow narrative obscures the fact that prison numbers began to grow after reported street crime quadrupled from 1959 and 1971 and homicide rates doubled between 1963 and 1974 as robbery rates tripled. During this time, many black leaders were asking for more police presence in their neighborhoods to curb the violence and property crimes. Moreover, Forman explains, if there was some mass race conspiracy to incarcerate blacks via drug law enforcement policy, it would be difficult, then, to explain police activity in cities like Washington, D.C. which are majority-black populated and controlled.

The fact remains that among state prisoners in 2006, which houses nearly 90 percent of all prisoners, 50 percent were serving time for violent offenses, 21 percent for property offenses, 20 percent for drug offenses, and 8 percent of public order offenses. Forman, concludes then, even if every single drug offender in America were released to tomorrow, the United States would still have the worlds largest prison system.

The second major blow to the Alexander thesis comes from John Pfaff, professor of law at Fordham Law School. In his 2015 article The War on Drugs and Prison Growth: Limited. Importance, and Limited Legislative Options, Pfaff highlights that overall only 17 percent of all prisoners are serving time for drug offenses and that drug offenders in prison only explains about 22 percent of prison growth. In fact, if all black drug offense prisoners were released today, the black prison population would drop by 1.4 percent. According to Pfaff, it is the conduct of prosecutors that has driven prison growth in recent decades, not drug policy. Prosecutors much more aggressive in throwing the book at people.

Pfaff, and others, observe that while the War on Drugs may not have grown the prison population it may have contributed more collateral social and economic costs such as reduced health outcomes for the poor, removing men from the labor market, destabilizing families, destroyed social networks, and destroying civic participation which all open the door for anti-social and criminal behavior. In the end, the War on Drugs has undermined civil society and made many low-income communities worse off in the process.
Before Beauty and the Beast opened in Mumbai last September, everyone had two questions: will it really match the scale and spectacle of New Yorks Broadway? And, can a fully Indian cast pull off something like that?

Valid questions, both. New York has a history of musicals going back over a hundred years. And actors aspire and train to be on a Broadway stage for years before making it.

Come opening night, it would not only answer those questions, but also give India a whole new genre. The sets were maginificent, as were the costumes and props. And the performances were so refined, youd think the actors had been training for years (actually, they trained for a full year).

READ MORE: How Meher Mistry went from an Amazon ad to playing Belle in Beauty and the Beast

After a week of sold-out shows in Mumbai, 60 trucks worth of sets were hauled to Delhi. And Disney Indias first musical proved just as successful there.

And thats prompted a return, as well as plans of expansion.

Siddharth Roy Kapur, MD, Disney India, reveals that Beauty and the Beast will return to Mumbai with a second season in May. And this time, it will be a longer run: 10 shows straddling two weekends. And given the kind of demand they saw in season one, theyve decided to open ticket bookings as early as March 16. After May, it travels to Delhi again, in June.

Beauty and the Beast to go to other cities

But Disneys got bigger plans. They want to take it to other cities as well. Roy Kapur says, Season one showed us that the demand does exist. Wed like to take the show to Bangalore, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai, cities where the audience is aware of Broadway. Were figuring out the venues at present.

READ MORE: When we snuck into a rehearsal of Beauty and the Beast

But will a second run in Mumbai and Delhi see the kind of excitement it did the first time around? To use a movie release parallel, you can never measure up to the demand of the opening weekend. Roy Kapur is optimistic that the word of mouth generated with season one was strong enough to bring more people in. Friends and family who didnt see it then would want to see it now. And were expecting some people to want to see it again.

Next production by 2017

But the bigger question is: what next? By 2017, we plan to have our next show, says Roy Kapur. And while Disney is yet to decide what that will be, its heartening to know that Beauty and the Beast wasnt just a one-time experiment, but only the beginning.

Beauty and the Beast, season 2, opens on May 6, at NSCI, Mumbai. Tickets, starting Rs1,500 (bookmyshow.com), on sale from March 16.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Bengal will miss Kanhaiya Kumar, the firebrand student leader of Jawaharlal Nehru University and newfound stormy petrel of the Left.

Kumar, who was scheduled to campaign for the Left in the assembly polls, will not come because of security issues triggered by the death threats he received.

Recently, CPI(M) general-secretary Sitaram Yechuri announced that the JNU student leader will visit Bengal and campaign for the Left. After he got bail in the sedition case, Kanhaiya became a superstar especially after he delivered a stunning speech on the night of March 3. The speech made international news, hogged headlines all over the country and catapulted him to a poster boy of the Left.

No decision has been taken to send him to Kolkata for campaign during the assembly polls. There are security concerns for him. He has to stay here for now. We have to first solve the issue of his security, D Raja, leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha told HT over phone from Delhi.

Kanhaiya is the president of JNU students union and member of CPIs student wing, the All India Students Federation.

After the matter settles, we will discuss whether he will go to Kolkata or not, added Raja.

According to party sources, Kanhaiya received a number of death threats recently after he was released on bail by the Delhi High Court. Adarsh Sharma of Purvanchal Sena had put up posters announcing reward of Rs 11 lakh for anyone who kills Kanhaiya Kumar. Kul deep Varshnay, a BJP Yuva Morcha leader, had also announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh for cutting off Kumars tongue.

CPI leaders as well as Kanhaiyas mother expressed grave concerns about his safety and demanded proper security cover. The matter has also been raised in Parliament by opposition leaders.

He can campaign for the Left even from Delhi, said Ritabrata Banerjee, CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The BJP has declared its first list of candidates for the Assam Assembly election on Wednesday.

Assam BJP president and Union minister Sarbnanda Sonowal, the partys chief ministerial candidate, would contest from Majuli (reserved for ST) constituency in Jorhat district.

The BJPs list of candidates for Assam was finalised in the partys parliamentary board meeting held at its headquarters. JP Nadda announced the name of candidates running for constituencies in the Assam assembly elections.

Today, we have day long discussion for the final list of candidates. The party has selected me to contest from Majuli constituency. I am happy to contest from the constituency, said Sarbananda Sonowal, BJPs chief ministerial candidate.

BJP, which faced dissent from grassroot workers for leaving 24 seats to its electoral alliance partner Asom Gana Parisad (AGP), was careful in selecting candidates for important constituencies in a bid to avoid another revolt.

Majuli assembly constituency falls under Lakhimpur Lok Sabha constituency. In the last Lok Sabha elections, Sonowal got the highest number of votes from the Majuli constituency.

Sonowal has been focusing on the river (Brahmaputra) islands development since he was appointed a Union minister.

Majuli is Indias largest river island, mostly inhabited by the tribal Mishing community. The cultural hub of Assam, Majuli is the epicentre of Assams Vaishnavite movement.

We had many challenges in finalising the list of candidates but it includes candidates from all communities... There are also 20 candidates whose ages are below 40 years, said Himanta Biswa Sarma, convenor of BJPs Assam election management committee.

The party has decided to field its Jorhat MP, Kamakhya Prasad Tasa, against Congress stalwart and chief minister Tarun Gogoi in Titabar constituency.

The Titabar assembly segment falls under the Jorhat parliamentary constituency. BJPs decision to field its Jorhat MP against chief minister Tarun Gogoi could be a move to keep the Gogoi busy in his home constituency.

Most MLAs from other political parties (Congress and AGP) who had joined BJP in recent past were given party tickets to contest from their respective constituencies. Out of 126 constituencies, BJP would contest in 84 constituencies and leave 42 others to its four allies -- AGP (24), BPF (Bodoland Peoples Front-16) , Rabha Jatiya Aikya Manch (1) and Tiwa Jatiya Aikya Manch (1).

In six constituencies, it would go for friendly contest with its allies AGP and BPF. The party would announce candidates for Nalbari and Kalaigaon constituency in the next three days.

BJP has high hopes for its electoral performance among the five poll-bound states.

Elections will be held in two phases; the first phase will include 65 constituencies and will begin on April 4. The second phase will include 61 constituencies and the will begin on April 11.
Bollywood actor Salman Khan will appear before the Jodhpur chief judicial court on Thursday in connection with a 17-year-old Arms Act case against him. Reports said the actor left early from Mumbai for the crucial court appearance in the case which is an offshoot of the black buck poaching case.

Khan and his co-stars have been accused of hunting three chinkaras and a blackbuck while shooting for the film Hum Saath Saath Hain near Jodhpur in 1998.

Read: Salman Khans journey from Bollywood brat to being human

The forest department had filed a separate case under the Arms Act, accusing Khan of not renewing the licences of a revolver and a rifle he possessed at that time. The CJM court had ordered the actor on March 3 to record his statement.

His counsel Hastimal Sarswat said he could only confirm that the actor has been asked to appear before the court but refused to divulge if and when Khan would appear in the court on Thursday.

The actor had earlier sought permission to resummon five witnesses in the case, stating that he was innocent in the matter. The process of re-examining the five prosecution witnesses was recently completed in the CJM court.

The statement of Khan as an accused would be recorded for possible conclusion of the trial. earlier this year, Khan was acquitted by the Bombay high court in the 2002 hit-and-run case. HC quashed a trial court verdict that held him guilty of driving his Toyota Land Cruiser over people sleeping on a Bandra footpath.
Bollywood actor Salman Khan told a Jodhpur court on Thursday that he is innocent and was being falsely implicated in the 1998 Arms Act case.

I am innocent and have been falsely implicated in this case, Khan said, as he recorded his statement, in connection with the poaching of protected black bucks during film shooting, at Kankani village in October, 1998.

The court had, on March 3, ordered Salman Khan to appear before it on March 10.

Read: Salman Khans journey from Bollywood brat to being human

Chief judicial magistrate Dalpat Singh Rajpurohit questioned him about the statements of the three witnesses in the case, who were earlier re-examined, but Khan termed them as false.

Referring to a statement signed by him where a witness Uday Raghvan had stated that he had brought the arms from Mumbai following directions from Khan, the actor claimed he had signed the statement under pressure from forest officials.

He added that the forest officials lodged a case based on a false newspaper report.

At the start of proceedings, Khan told the court I am Indian and thats my caste.

The actor reached Jodhpur airport by charter plane, from where he was escorted to a hotel. Tight security measures were taken in and around the court premises for his arrival, during which the area was out of bounds even for lawyers.
After Alia Bhatt said in an interview that she loves Sidharth Malhotra, the news went viral and now she has again hinted at loving her Kapoor & Sons co-star.

Recently, at a press meet for the promotions of the film, Kapoor and Sons, Alia sported shoes with life written on the left shoe and love written on the right shoe. Incidentally, her rumoured boyfriend Sidharth was seated to her right and the other co-star Fawad Khan was at the left.

And when she was asked, out of love and life, what would she give to her co-stars, she replied, Whats on my right? So love for Sid (Sidharth) and life for Fawad.

They really "lift" my spirits don't they :) #KNS18thMarch @s1dofficial @fawadkhan81 A photo posted by Alia (@aliaabhatt) on Mar 7, 2016 at 5:18am PST

Rumours of the two actors being in a relationship have been doing the rounds since a substantial amount of time, with some publications claiming that they are dating.

In a recent interview, Alia was quoted saying, The way you guys are talking, its as if the stories are just out. Yes, I love him. Theres no stress. It was as usual amazing shooting with him.

The two had recently featured in a steamy cover for a popular fashion magazine, and about the experience of the shoot, she said, I was feeling very hot, since we were in Maldives, and it was very hot, but if you would see the cover, Sid is definitely looking very hot and I feel that he has raised my hotness quotient.

Read: Shaandaar was a clear no-show, but no regrets, says Alia Bhatt

About Sidharths tweet fight with Kamaal R Khan for the latters comment on the cover, Sidharth said, I didnt defend anyone, if somebody is making cheap comments on any girl, its wrong. Thats it, I dont want to give it any more importance.

Kapoor & Sons is gearing up for release on 18 March.

See more pics from their Vogue photoshoot:

Beach love! #VOGUE @s1dofficial @vogueindia @anaitashroffadajania thank you @fsmaldives for the beautiful location  A photo posted by Alia (@aliaabhatt) on Feb 26, 2016 at 4:57am PST

Lounging with this hottie  @s1dofficial #VOGUE A photo posted by Alia (@aliaabhatt) on Mar 2, 2016 at 1:35am PST

Andddddd one more !!! @s1dofficial #VOGUE  A photo posted by Alia (@aliaabhatt) on Mar 2, 2016 at 1:37am PST

HQ scan of sidharth and Alia's vogue photoshoot. pic.twitter.com/mzsv5gFBlF  sidharth malhotra fc (@dailys1dharthfc) March 2, 2016

This Alia-Sid Vogue Photo Shoot Will Leave You Gasping for Air... https://t.co/YdOrrllQ1T pic.twitter.com/uc4F7pgYYZ  Vogue Magazine fans (@voguemnews24) February 28, 2016

Alia & Sidharth chemistry turns the heat up in Vogue photoshoot#AageRaho | https://t.co/ZnSn1y93LP pic.twitter.com/eJdNtnF064  Contex8 (@contex8media) February 28, 2016
Indian full-service carriers (FSC) are reducing premium class seats to cater to an increasing demand for cheaper economy seats that remains the preferred choice for the price-conscious Indian traveller.

Vistara, the Tata-Singapore Airlines-backed FSC, has decided to cut down the number of business class seats by half to eight and reduce the number of premium economy seats by 12 to 24. In the process, the airline will add 30 economy class seats.

Air India (AI), another FSC, has completely done away with business class seats on about one-third of its domestic Airbus A320 fleet while reducing business class seats from 20 to 12 on others.

India has three FSCs  AI, Jet Airways and Vistara -- and four budget airlines  IndiGo, SpiceJet, GoAir and AirAsia India. The budget airlines control over 60% of the domestic market.

Vistara CEO Phee Teik Yeoh had told HT in an interview earlier that there was a strong demand for its economy class seats which were mostly overbooked.

Industry experts said a combination of factors such as price, schedule integrity and on-time performance had resulted in a large chunk of corporate travellers shifting to budget airlines.

Business class value proposition at current fares levels remains weak, given the significant price difference. Corporate traffic especially the premium traffic remains muted and will continue to be challenging in the near term, said Kapil Kaul, South Asia CEO of aviation consultancy Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.

The business class passenger load factor was around 50%, said sources. Airline executives said it was a challenge filling the premium class seats when the longest domestic flight is just over three hours long.

Price remains the key factor. A business class ticket is at times five times costlier than economy and even top corporate executives have started travelling economy class, said Rajji Rai, chairman of Swift Travels.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The government is considering tweaking and bringing back a controversial tax on provident fund, including a proposal to have 70% of an employers contribution either taxed or mandatorily parked in a taxable pension scheme.

An employers contribution to the provident fund (PF) is not taxed now. The governments argument is if an employees cost-to-company is Rs 1 crore a year then about Rs 12 lakh (employers contribution to PF) of that pay is tax-free, which it sees as unfair.

An employer now contributes 12% of an employees basic pay to provident fund. An employee contributes a similar amount to the fund.

The plan now is to funnel 70% of an employers provident fund contribution into a pension scheme run by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). The remaining 30% can go to the provident fund along with the employees contribution, the Mint reported on Thursday.

If an employee opts out of the EPFO pension scheme then she will have 70% of her employers contribution to the provident fund taxed.

The salary threshold for the new proposal is yet to be decided but it is unlikely to apply to those earning less than Rs 100,000 a month so as to avoid any backlash from the middle-class, the newspaper said. Given the subjects sensitivity, the government may not even call the new proposal a tax.

The idea is to create a pension society and pensions are always taxed, the newspaper quoted an unnamed government official as saying.

We have a mechanism to make this happen and its being worked on.

The proposed formula draws from a similar existing scheme for those earning less than Rs 15,000 a month. This is based on the logic that the not-so-well-paid people need some form of regular income, through pensions, after retirement, the Mint said.

Read the full Mint article here
The National Green Tribunal on Thursday refused to give an urgent hearing on a fresh plea seeking a stay on the three-day Art of Living event on the banks of the Yamuna from Friday.

The petitioner claimed the organisers had not taken permission from the competent authority as directed by the tribunal.

There is no urgency in it. You can file a proper application and point out the deficiencies in compliance with the directions of the tribunal. We will see if there is any breach or not as per the law, it said.

The green panel directed the Central Pollution Control Board, the ministry of environment and forests and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) to instruct the organisers about the disposal of municipal solid waste and drinking water.

The counsel appearing for the DPCC informed the tribunal that as directed by it, a committee was already visiting the site and if necessary, directions would be issued.

The tribunal, which had earlier in the morning asked the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) counsel whether the foundation had deposited the fine or not, had fixed the matter for in-chamber hearing at 4pm.

But later the green panel agreed to hear the matter in the open court.

The NGT had on Wednesday expressed its helplessness in banning the event, saying it was fait accompli.

It had imposed an initial fine of Rs 5 crore on AOL as environmental compensation after coming down on it heavily for not disclosing its full plans and also on the DDA and environment ministry for their role.

The green tribunal, which found several environmental violations by the organisers, blamed the delay on the part of environmental activists in raising the issue before it which compelled it to grant permission for event.
The Jawaharlal Nehru University is brimming with confidence now, a month since it became the eye of the sedition storm which saw the arrest of students, including union leader Kanhaiya Kumar, under the colonial era law.

A month ago everyone in JNU was scared and there was a sense of fear that anybody could be picked up for merely being present at the event. But after a month of struggle, we are more confident, said a PhD student who didnt want to be named.

The student said teachers and students from across the world expressed solidarity with them.

Conversations at the campus dhabas and over cups of tea have changed  from being worried about the Centres crackdown on JNU to discussing students next move to counter negative perception about the university.

No one in JNU will support the kind of slogans that were raised by some people that day. But it was wrong on the part of police, media and some politicians to label entire JNU as anti-national, said an MA student on condition of anonymity.

On February 9, anti-national slogans were allegedly raised at an event organised to mark the death anniversary of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

But you see the kind of support we got in the two marches that were organized by JNUSU. Even my friends from Delhi University and Jamia came for it, the MA student said

Students said the support from various sections, including academics and activists, helped the university continue their struggle.

It took some time but now everyone knows how fake videos were circulated to discredit JNU. People are realising whats right and that is why we have support pouring. We are confident of winning this fight, said Rahila Sumbul, AISF member.

Former JNUSU president Lenin said, We have overcome the initial fear but we still have a long struggle to fight. Our protest will continue till we win.

However, some students expressed dismay at the teachers support for students who allegedly raised anti-national slogans.

ABVP JNU unit president Alok said, It was shocking to see the way a section of teachers have come out to save those who organised the event... They are now doing propaganda by conducting nationalism classes. We want judiciary to punish those involved in the event, he said.

The ABVP, affiliated to the BJP, is on the other side of the line in the JNU row.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
For the first time, the entries for the March 2016 exam series of the Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) have doubled in India this year, indicating that more and more international board students are aspiring to pursue further education in Indian colleges and universities.

The number of entries for the ongoing March exam series has risen to 26,000, while it was just 11,000 last year.

Till last year, only the Class 10 equivalent-Indian General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) was offered in March. But this year, nine subjects of the AS levels (Class 11 equivalent) and A-levels (Class 12 equivalent) were also offered.

The series was started in India last year, after complaints from Mumbai International Schools Association (MISA) that Cambridge students were unable to apply to Indian colleges on time.

Earlier, students could only take the exams either in June or November, while most Indian universities and colleges began their admissions in June itself.

We introduced the March series in India last year to help Cambridge students meet Indian college application deadlines, said Ruchira Ghosh, regional director, South Asia, CIE. It is encouraging to have such a great response, notable through the doubling of entries this year.

Read more: Rise in number of CIE-affiliated schools in city

City schools said March series has helped students apply for First Year Junior College (FYJC) online admissions. Once the exam is conducted in March, students get their results by May and original mark sheets in hand in the first week of June, even before the SSC results are announced, said Kavita Aggarwal, principal, JBCN International School, Oshiwara and president, MISA.

So they are able to apply for FYJC online admissions along with the SSC students. Previously, students would have a hard time securing admissions on the basis of their provisional marks.

Also, on demand from schools, more IGCSE subjects such as history, geography, English as second language, will be added to March series in the next year.
Professor Yogesh K Tyagi took over as the vice-chancellor of Delhi University on Thursday, succeeding professor Dinesh Singh whose term ended in October.

Tyagis immediate concern would be to clear the confusion over the grading mechanism under the Choice-based Credit System (CBCS). The issues took a backseat with the V-Cs post lying vacant for nearly five months.

Read more: DU V-C selection rules at odds, likely to get delayed

There could be mistakes as a vice chancellor, but I will always work with honesty. I will try to get views from everyone and move forward in the endeavour, said Tyagi.

Described by many as a religious man, the 22nd V-C of DU performed a small ritual before assuming office.

Tyagi was the dean at the Faculty of Legal Studies at South Asian University (SAU) in New Delhi. Before that, he taught at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, from where completed a PhD in Legal Studies.

Several former V-Cs of DU and those from other universities were present on the campus to welcome him.

Upendra Baxi, former DU V-C, talked about the importance of two As in a universityAutonomy and Accountability. You will be the V-C who will see the centenary celebration of the varsity, he said.

Another former V-C, Deepak Pental, asked Tyagi to distinguish between good academics and good administrators.

Some of the good academicians will not run after administration... But only good academicians should be made a part of the administration, said Pental.

The vice-chancellors of Jamia Millia Islamia, Gujarat University and Lucknow Law University Talat Ahmad, HC Patel and Gurdip Singh, respectively, were among those present o welcome Tyagi.

Amitabh Mattoo, adviser to the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, was also present.

Tyagi was accompanied by his mother who expressed her happiness on the occasion.

Outgoing VC Dinesh Singh says he made DU innovative
Forget cats on YouTube. Dogs are on Facebook. A Mumbai-based page wants to help your pet find a mate.

Extremely active and fun loving with the prettiest eyes. looking for an amicable partner just like him (sic).

These arent lines from a dating app. This is for Caesar, a 16-month-old Lhasa Apso looking for a mate on Facebook. Doggiemonials, an initiative by Dogs and More pet magazine, is a Facebook page for pet parents looking to get their fur-babies mated.

It began with Dog AFair 2016, a pet carnival by Dogs and More, where several pet owners made requests for help finding a mate for their dogs. The Facebook page began with people who filled forms at the dog carnival, says Rozina Gaziyani from Dogs and More. Since its inception, Doggiemonials claims to have received an average of 10 such requests per day.

Internationally, dog dating is not new. There are websites like doggiesmatch.com (USA) that have dedicated database to help your pet find a mate. However, in India, the concept of pet-mating services on a social media platform is less common.

How it works

We make sure that its a pet owner and not a breeder. We also check for entries that could be a possible match and tag the pet parents in the comment under the picture, explains Gaziyani about the process. People are asked to share pets pictures and information such as age, gender, health issues (if any), and temperamental peculiarities, so that it becomes easier to connect with others on the platform.

Doggiemonials Facebook page (Courtesy: facebook.com/doggiemonials)

Dogshaadi has its dedicated website (dogshaadi.com), as well as a Facebook page. Users listing their pets for mating can create a profile using their Facebook account or personal ID. A dashboard provided to every user account makes managing the listing easier. Users can delete or modify the listing once their need is fulfilled, says a Dogshaadi team member.

READ MORE: Why is urban India bringing home pets faster than ever?

While Dogshaadi has its own network of breeders with stud dogs that they trust and recommend, Doggiemonials maintains a strict no-breeder policy.

Recently, Commando Kennels, a Hyderabad-based dog training service with a database of over 1,500 dogs shut its dog matrimonial services: What began as mating service was slowly becoming a rampant breeding scheme  something that we as animal-lovers do not endorse, says a team member at Commando Kennels.

What pet owners should keep in mind

Youve found a mate for your mutt, but it doesnt end there. When two unfamiliar dogs interact in close quarters, there are several issues that need addressing. Dogs are territorial by nature and bringing a new dog into your pets territory could thwart any progress you are trying to make. It helps if the probable mating partners are allowed to interact at a place neither of them has visited before, says Pranita Balar, animal behaviour specialist. She adds that checking temperamental and behavioural compatibility is essential.

Simba is a 4-year-old Golden Retriever looking for a bride. (Courtesy: Dogshaadi.com)

A lot of health problems like hip dysplasia, elbow dysplasia, and even cancer are common among several breeds like Golden Retrievers, Saint Bernards and Bulldogs due to inbreeding in previous pedigree lines. The only way to prevent this from occurring in the next generation is a thorough check of medical records.

Apart from ensuring that the dog is well cared for, vaccination records, deworming, tick-and-flea care are important. Size compatibility is also an important factor  a large dog mating with a small female would not be ideal, as the latter could face problems at the time of delivery, says Dr Makarand Chousalkar, from Top Dog Pets Clinic.

For both Doggiemonials and Dogshaadi, the services do not go beyond providing an interactive platform for pet owners looking to get their dogs mated. Both services are free.

Visit facebook.com/doggiemonials for more info
An Air India (AI) Delhi-Kochi flight, with a senior minister and Members of Parliament on board, was delayed by over an hour at the Delhi airport after a fight broke out between two flight attendants on Thursday.

Sources said the incident happened in full view of passengers after boarding for flight AI 048 was complete. A junior flight attendant allegedly misbehaved with a senior member and there was an altercation, said an official.

AI has suspended two cabin crew members for delaying the flight, said Ashwani Lohani, chairman and managing director, AI. Any kind of indiscipline will not be tolerated. We regret the inconvenience caused to passengers, he said.

Sources said the flight attendants had to be offloaded after which the flight departed.

Sources said that among those on board included a senior central minister and three Members of Parliament. A number of senior IAS officials too were on the flight.

We have ordered an inquiry and strict action would be taken against the crew responsible for the delay, said an official.
As many as 591 former workers of a Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) thermometer factory, who were exposed to mercury in the course of their work, won a major battle on Wednesday when the company arrived at a settlement with them.

The unit, located at Kodaikanal, was shut down in 2011 after an NGO discovered that it had been dumping toxic waste in the hill town scrapyard.

Environmental activist Nityanand Jayaraman said it was an unprecedented victory for the working class that such a major company had bowed to public pressure, and given in to the demands of its former workers.

Read: Kodaikanal won! Activists cheer as HUL settles mercury poisoning dispute

HUL came to an understanding with the factorys ex-workers association on March 4, which was then recorded before the first bench of the Madras high court  comprising justice SK Kaul and justice MM Sundaresh  on Wednesday. The court also appointed lawyer Suhrith Parthasarathy as the nodal commissioner for implementing the settlement.

Why did the factory shut down?

In 2011, Greenpeace volunteers found mercury-filled thermometers dumped at a scrapyard in Kodaikanal, about 500 km south of Chennai. Following a huge hue and cry, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board shut down the thermometer factory.

What happened to its workers?

Social activists found that a significant number of former HUL workers, mostly residents of nearby villages, suffered from mercury poisoning. Though the workers were initially unaware of their rights, they were encouraged to form a unified body and then file a class action suit against the company  seeking compensation for the damage to their health.

How toxic is mercury?

Exposure to mercury can cause brain damage, autism, Alzheimers, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, cancer, kidney malfunction, neurological syndrome, insanity, paralysis, coma and  in extreme cases  death.

How many workers will benefit from the settlement?

As many as 591 workers employed with the thermometer factory will be paid an ex-gratia amount before March 28.
The real estate bill seeks to set up a Real Estate Regulatory Authority in states and federal territories to oversee real estate transactions. It will help regulate sector and bring in clarity in terms of who governs/monitors realty projects.The bill is touted as a key reform measure in the vast real estate sector.

Here is how the new real estate bill will benefit consumers

1) As of now the real estate sector was largely unregulated in India. If a consumer had a complaint against a developer he would had to make rounds of consumer or civil courts. Also absence of standardization and lack of adequate consumer protection has constrained the healthy and orderly growth of the industry. Not anymore. Once the bill becomes an Act, in case of any grievance, the consumer can go to the real estate regulator for redressal.

Read more: Congress on board after tweaks, Real Estate Bill may pass in Parl today

2) The bill will make it mandatory for all commercial and residential real estate projects where the land is over 500 sq. mt. or eight apartments will have to register with the regulator before launching a project. By making registration of the project compulsory with the regulatory authority, the bill aims to provide greater transparency in project marketing and execution. Failure to do so will attract a penalty which may be up to 10% of the project cost and a repeat offence could land the developer in jail.

3) Developer will have to put 70% of the money collected from a buyer in a separate account to meet the construction cost of the project. States can increase the ceiling but not lower it. This will put a check to the general practice by majority of the developers to divert buyers money to start new project instead of finishing the one for which money was collected. This will ensure that construction is completed on time.

4) It is likely to stabilize housing prices. The bill will lead to enhanced activity in the sector, leading to more housing units supplied to the market. In the governments opinion, the bill will bring in the much-needed confidence to infuse more investment and, in turn, stabilise house prices.

5) The bill also seeks to impose strict regulations on the promoter and ensure that construction is completed on time. Its purpose is to ensure that the buyer gets the property as per the specifications that he had been promised

6) Carpet area has been clearly defined in the bill to include usable spaces like kitchen and toilets imparting clarity which was not the case earlier.

7) A developers liability to repair structural defects has been increased to 5 years from the earlier 2 years.

8) Real estate appellate tribunals now required to adjudicate cases in 60 days as against 90 days in the earlier proposal.

9) Regulatory Authorities to dispose of complaints in 60 days while no such time limit was indicated earlier.

How it benefits builders:

The builders will also benefit from the proposed legislation, as it proposes to impose penalty on allottee for not paying dues on time. Also the builder will have the opportunity to approach the regulator in case there is any issue with the buyer.

But, builders believe that the bill was heavily stacked against them. The bill provides for penalty, upto 10 per cent of the total project cost or even imprisonment, if builders do not honour their commitment or fail to register themselves with the regulator

How it works in other countries

United States

Real estate in the US is regulated at numerous levels. Therefore, there is no single regulatory body, but rather a series of bodies that regulate different ownership and usage aspects. To safeguard the interest of the end-users, the US. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has rules under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act to protect consumer interests pertaining to residential properties.

Issues related to end users are not a matter of federal regulation. These are dealt with in a legal contract. If a purchaser enters a contract with the developer, and the developer does not deliver on the terms agreed upon in the contract, the developer can be taken to court for breach of contract. In the US, there are state real estate licensing laws and a code of ethics in place.

United Kingdom

There is an absence of a regulator to monitor development.The Financial Services Authority (FSA), which is now part of the Bank of England, regulates almost all investments in real estate. The Property Misdescriptions Act 1991 prohibits the making of false or misleading statements on property matters in the course of estate agency business and the property development business.

Germany

In principle, no regulatory authority exists. According to the German Civil Code, the seller is generally liable to the buyer for damage compensation, if the delivered property deviates from the description in a guaranty or in a brochure. The seller is generally also liable for damage compensation in case of delayed deliverables.

Singapore

Land ownership and planning is primarily controlled by the public sector. Hence, based on the demarcated use, the respective regulatory authority such as Housing Development Board for residential and Jurong Town Corporation (JTC) for industrial will regulate and guide development. Details such as the possession, allotment date and specifications are usually set out clearly in contracts; end users are able to undertake legal means to claim compensations.

UAE

The UAE Government is considering the establishment of a federal real estate regulatory authority. Currently, the government does not have a body to supervise the sector, although emirates like Dubai and Ajman have their own real estate regulatory authorities  Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) in Dubai and Ajman Real Estate Regulatory Authority (ARRA) in Ajman. The Land Department of Dubai is proposing the Real Estate Investor Protection Law.

China

The Central Government introduced a regulation for real estate in 2010, which is more stringent and specific than it has historically been to control the market. The State Department of Real Estate New State 10, is a regulation which enforces an accountability system for the local government to stabilize local real estate prices. This is aimed at promoting the construction of affordable housing to promote social development and enforce stability and accountability. On this basis, local governments have introduced their own control rules in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

The sales agreement contract specifies the area of the property being sold. In case of the sale of residential property, a minor differential (generally in the range of 2-3%) in the area is permissible. In case this is not followed, the buyer can legally get a refund from the developer. The mortgage contract is a legal document and provides legal protection to the bank (lender) and the buyer (borrower).

The sales agreement specifies the terms and conditions for sale and determines the legal rights of both the buyer and the seller. Apart from conditions in the sales agreement, there are no other provisions to safeguard end-users.

Source: Realty decoded: Investing across borders by Ernst & Young and Ficci

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The army should not be involved in providing equipment and soldiers for private events as it is a strain on its resources and dents its image, several serving and retired officers have said amid the controversy over the government asking the force to build bridges for an Art of Living event in Delhi.

Defence minister Manohar Parrikar is reported to have asked his ministry to frame a policy for the armys involvement in such events, but several officers HT spoke to cautioned against diluting the forces role.

Roping in army machinery for humanitarian assistance, disaster relief or conducting a national event is one thing. Doing the same for a private function is totally avoidable, said a senior officer who didnt want to be named.

The army has a specific role and it is best not to dilute it. Theres no point in providing assistance to private players even for a fee, said another officer.

Read | Art of Living event an ecological disaster, says Delhi high court

The governments direction to the army to build two floating bridges on the ecologically-sensitive Yamuna floodplain for the three-day event beginning March 11 came under Opposition criticism in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

In damage control mode after criticism from political rivals and environmental activists, defence ministry officials had on Tuesday said the army was asked to set up the pontoon bridges after the police expressed fear of a stampede.

Read | Defence ministry told army to build bridges for Sri Sri event

Interestingly, the armys help was sought to build two pontoon bridges when international musician Yanni performed on the banks of the Yamuna in Agra way back in March 1997.

Spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankars Art of Living foundation hasnt had to pay for the construction of the bridges as the defence ministry doesnt have a policy for charging a fee for such events. Whenever the armys help is requisitioned by state governments under aid to civil authority, the states or concerned departments reimburse the ministry.

Former army chief General Deepak Kapoor said, Its different when the armys help is sought for an event like the Commonwealth Games. Conducting that event is the nations responsibility and all resources available can be used. But using the army for private events is not correct.

Lieutenant General BS Jaswal (retd), a former northern army commander, said the militarys assets were meant only for training, war and for the larger good of people. Private events should be a strict no no.

Read | Defence ministry working on policy to rope in Army for civilian causes
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) pulled up the Art of Living organisers for the uninformed extravagance of the World Cultural Festival on Yamuna floodplain near Delhi. The trial concluded with a green signal to the event on March 11-13, and slapped a fine of Rs 5 crore.

On the other hand, the liquor baron Vijay Mallya, under pressure from banks to repay around Rs 7,000 crore of debt owed by his defunct Kingfisher Airlines, was reportedly out of the country already, in spite of a look out notice issued against him.

There was an outrage against the violation of environmental norms by the Art of Living event organisers as well as how Mallya could fly outside the country when all the exit points had been warned to stop him from leaving since October.

The stories took the social media by storm. Here are some of the noteworthy comments on Facebook and Twitter:

Modi&Kejriwal govts come together to violate every rule &destroy Env to sponsor SriSri Circus.Both Supremos also agreed not to allow Lokpal!  Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) March 10, 2016

.@TheVijayMallya allowed to flee country. @SriSri allowed to ruin a river. It was a week of powerful people getting away.  Neelesh Misra (@neeleshmisra) March 10, 2016

Media- Army working at Sri Sri Event

AAP Fans-Shame on Modi

Media- AAP Govt requested DM for Army

AAP- Proud of AAP...always ready to help  Paresh Rawal (@Babu_Bhaiyaa) March 9, 2016

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy also took to commented on Twitter. (You may need to refer to the Swami glossary for this one.)

Mallya,the King of good times,mastered the Art of Living from Cong&Art of leaving from BJP.Still SriSri can teach him about Art of Impunity!  Aamir Wani (@aamirwani88) March 10, 2016

Cartoonist Manjool also got his strokes right on this one:

One more flies over d cuckoo's nest taking a lot of his money with him. Back to being king of good times unless he surprises us by returning  harinder baweja (@shammybaweja) March 9, 2016

And Twitter was full of popular references, like this one:

King of good times leaving India .???? pic.twitter.com/bVfOvZxKvB  Redjohn. (@WhiskeeyRiver) March 9, 2016

Bollywood actor Paresh Rawal, also a BJP MP from Gujarat where sale of liquor is banned, also commented on the good times:

Some on Facebook posted these:
Tourism and water minister Kapil Mishra in a letter to Union defence minister Manohar Parrikar on February 16 requested the Army to build an additional pontoon bridge for Art of Living (AoL) foundations World Culture Festival on the Yamuna floodplain.

The government did not reveal this before the National Green Tribunal on Tuesday when asked about the permissions the foundation sought for the bridges.

(One pontoon bridge for the festival) is not adequate for safe movement of the large gathering of people. Hence we request the Army for building at least one more pontoon bridge over River Yamuna during the World Culture FestivalThe Delhi government will, however, not bear any expenditure whatsoever, (sic) the letter said.

By the time Mishra wrote to the defence minister, the Army built one pontoon bridge at the venue.

The event to be held from March 11-13 has drawn flak from various quarters over concerns that it will cause lasting damage to the ecologically fragile floodplain. But Delhi government, especially Mishra, expressed full support to the fest.

The minister even offered government help. Please let me know if Delhi government can do anything for you to extend or expedite support to (AoL founder) Sri Sri Ravi Shankars World Culture Festival, the letter said.

Mishra clarified, after the NGT order on Wednesday, that he had only written to the Union minister to ask for an additional pontoon bridge for peoples safety.

No role in permit for Sri Sri event: Uma Bharti

Union minister of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation Uma Bharti on Wednesday said her ministry had no role in giving or cancelling permission to the world fest.

Wishing the event great success, Bharti said she was sure that there will be no damage caused by the event.

And, I totally believe, Yamuna and its problems will come into focus after the event, said Bharti, who added the attention would improve the quality of Delhis lifeline.

She even said her ministry will request the environmentally alert Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to take part in social programmes of the Centres Clean Ganga mission.
The Supreme Court will on Thursday hear a plea from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the Allahabad high courts order to drop criminal conspiracy charges against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in the Babri Masjid demolition case.

There are two sets of cases in this regard  one concerning BJP veteran LK Advani and his supporters who were on the dais at Ayodhyas Ram Katha Kunj when the Babri mosque was demolished on December 6, 1992, and the other against lakhs of kar sevaks (volunteers) who had gathered in and around the disputed structure on that day.

Read: Subramanian Swamy moves SC for construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya

The CBI had chargesheeted Advani and 20 others under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between classes), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 505 (false statements, rumours etc. circulated with the intent of causing mutiny or disturbing public peace) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

It had subsequently invoked charges under Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC, which was quashed by the special court. The decision was upheld by the Allahabad high court in 2010.
 Updated: Two News Agencies Amend Original Role Reversing Headlines Concealing Palestinian Terrorism | Main | Watchdog: Iran Nuclear Deal Prevents Public Reporting of Violations 

March 10, 2016

A Striking Difference Between the AP and Reuters Reports on the Palestinian Response to the Murder of Taylor Force

Yahoo News carried reports from both the Associated Press (AP) and Reuters on the fatal stabbing of American West Point graduate and combat veteran, Taylor Force.

The AP report included the following discussion of the official Palestinian response:



Biden criticized the Palestinians for failing to condemn the stabbing, after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' political party posted a statement online praising the stabber. A statement from Abbas' office following his meeting with Biden on Wednesday night said Abbas offered his condolences for the American's death, but stressed that Israel has killed nearly 200 Palestinians during the current round of bloodshed.

The Reuters report included the following:

"Let me say in no uncertain terms, the United States of America condemns these acts and condemns the failure to condemn these acts," Biden said, with Netanyahu at his side, in remarks that appeared critical of Palestinian leaders. Palestinian leaders say many Palestinian attackers have acted out of desperation in the absence of movement towards creation of an independent state. Israel says they are being incited to violence by their leaders and on social media... Abbas expressed his condolences over Force's death, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, and said the establishment of a Palestinian state was key to ending the violence.

Notice that Reuters employs obtuse wording that fails to clearly convey that Vice President Joe Biden's remarks were directed at the Palestinian leadership for failing to condemn the murder and the Reuters report makes no mention at all of the ruling Fatah party's praise for the stabber.

Posted by SS at March 10, 2016 11:39 AM

Guidelines for posting

This is a moderated blog. We will not post comments that include racism, bigotry, threats, or factually inaccurate material.

Post a comment
Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday told Lok Sabha that many documents related to the preparation of the ministrys second affidavit in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case are missing and an internal inquiry has been ordered .

Replying to a motion on change in the Ishrat case affidavit, filed in the Gujarat high court on September 29, 2009, the home minister said the ministry is conducting an internal inquiry on missing documents from the Ishrat affidavit file. Further course of action will be decided later.

The minister said two letters written by the then home secretary (GK Pillai) to the Attorney General (AG) are not traceable. The draft of the second affidavit that came from the AG in which the then home minister (P Chidambaram) made changes is also missing.

On June 15, 2004, the Gujarat police shot dead three men and a woman  19-year-old Ishrat Jahan while they were allegedly on a Lashkar mission to assassinate then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. However, a probe conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and a high court-appointed Special Investigation Team found it to be a fake encounter.

The first affidavit in the case was filed on the basis of inputs from Maharashtra and Gujarat Police besides the Intelligence Bureau where it was said that the 19-year-old girl from Mumbai outskirts was a Lashkar-e-Taiba activist but it was ignored in the second affidavit, Home Ministry officials said.

The second affidavit, said to have been drafted by the then Home Minister P Chidambaram, said there was no conclusive evidence to prove that Ishrat was a terrorist, officials said.

Former Union Home Secretary G K Pillai had claimed that as Home Minister, Chidambaram had recalled the file a month after the original affidavit, which described Ishrat and her slain aides as LeT operatives, was filed in the court.

Only after the affidavit was revised, as directed by the minister, did the file come to me, Pillai had said. Chidambaram had said the second affidavit in the case was absolutely correct and as minister then I accept the responsibility.

He had also maintained that the intelligence agencies can only get inputs, they cannot certify. The state police, which has to file the charge sheet, has to investigate and get evidence before filing the charge sheet, he said.

Chidambaram also expressed disappointment over Pillai distancing himself from the affidavit issue despite being equally responsible.

Meanwhile, Rajnath also said in Parliament that no politics should be done over terror.

There should be no politics on terror. Be it the Ishrat Jehan or any other case, no government should do flip-flops. Those who call themselves secular, they tried to give communal colour to terrorism, coined the term saffron terror. This happened for the first time in the world. We will not accept it in any way in the country, Rajnath added.

With inputs from Agencies
The National Green Tribunal on Wednesday slammed the Delhi Development Authority for vaguely permitting the Art of Living foundations world culture festival on the Yamuna floodplain and described the Delhi pollution watchdog as incompetent.

The tribunal imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on DDA and a fine of R1 lakh on the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) while delivering its verdict for petitioners who had sought a stay on the event, apprehending damage to the eco-sensitive floodplain.

The three-day festival will start from March 11 and 2-3 lakh people are expected at any point of time.

Though the green court did not stay the event, it came down heavily on the DDA and the pollution panel.

The permission granted by the DDA on June 30, 2015 is a vague permission, which, in fact, is the very basis of the case of the Foundation... It is not in consonance with the orders of the NGT and, in fact, is in excess of the powers vested in DDA which runs contrary to the spirit of the judgment of the tribunal. This cannot be termed as a recreational activity simplicitor, an NGT bench headed by Justice Swatanter Kumar said.

Read | AoL row: Defence personnel caution against using army for private events

The green court said just the cultural activities could be termed recreational but the construction of ramps, roads, accumulation of debris, alteration of the natural topography and removal of natural vegetation from the floodplain, cannot be recreational.

It is a complete project in itself and the DDA ought to have applied its mind, the court said. The tribunal said that the DDA was fined for non-performance of its statutory functions. It also directed the DDA to not, in the future, issue such permissions.

The bench also rejected the DPCC claims that it was not obligatory on the panel to grant or refuse the consent to the foundation for such constructions and the manner in which it will deal with the waste generated at the event.

...we have no hesitation in holding that DPCC has failed to discharge its statutory obligation despite the fact that the foundation had submitted an application for obtaining its consent.

The Board has failed to exercise due diligence and in fact it has exercised its authority improperly in taking a stand that no orders were called from the Board in the facts and circumstances of the case. Thus, we impose costs of R1 lakh on DPCC, the bench said.

The tribunal also said that all (government) authorities have failed to fulfil their duties.

Read | Art of Living event an ecological disaster, says Delhi high court
On the night of July 3, then Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief Syed Asif Ibrahim sat in his North Block office  slowly going through a note summarising the much-anticipated charge sheet in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case filed by the CBI earlier that day.

The charge sheet, which only named Gujarat police officers, had mentioned prominently that the encounter  which resulted in the death of 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan and three men in the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004  was an IB-led operation. Ibrahim took exception to the allegations, and fought hard to prevent his officials  including then special director Rajinder Kumar  from being arrested.

Ultimately, the CBI didnt arrest Kumar  allowing him to retire from service on July 31, 2013, with his pension intact. The relief, however, was short-lived. The probe agency charge-sheeted Kumar and three junior officers seven months later.

Gujarat cadre IPS officer Satish Verma was the reason for the CBI probes bias against me. He nursed a grudge against me because I had ticked him off during my Ahmedabad posting, alleged Kumar. I wrote two letters to then CBI director Ranjit Sinha, objecting to Vermas presence in the probe team.

Verma was a member of the special investigation team that initially probed the Ishrat Jahan case. Later, he assisted the CBI when the investigation was handed over to it.

Kumar was questioned by the CBI in May 2013, raising a storm in the IB. A few senior officials even expressed their discomfiture regarding the direction of the probe to Ibrahim.

By then, Kumar had been summoned for questioning again. There were strong indications that he would be arrested.

In the second week of June 2013, a meeting held by senior home ministry officials with IB and CBI officers at North Block arrived at a crucial decision. Satish Verma was taken off the probe team for the sake of fairness, said a former government official.

Read: Documents in Ishrat Jahan case missing, probe on, says Rajnath

Verma didnt physically participate in the second round of questioning on June 18, ultimately parting ways with the probe team on June 23.

Kumar alleged that the CBI had virtually outsourced its probe in the Ishrat case to Verma. He questioned me the first time, and the second time  despite not being present  tried to remote-control the questioning. The interrogators tried playing funny with me, but CBI joint director Anil Palta (who was leading the interrogation) stopped them, he said.

Kumar told Hindustan Times that a CBI official wrote in the file that no case was made out against him, only to be overruled by seniors. A former CBI official confirmed to HT on the condition of anonymity that it was Palta who described the case against the IB official as very weak.

Read: I shouldve written dictated by minister on Ishrat affidavit, says Pillai

However, Verma denied the allegations levelled against him by Kumar. I was investigating the case and he was an accused. There was nothing else in between. I was just doing my duty, he said.

When Kumar was charge-sheeted in February 2014, the CBI decided to seek the sanction of the ministry of home affairs  the IBs administrative ministry  to prosecution him and three others. Agency director Ranjit Sinha also sought the attorney generals opinion on whether such a sanction was required.

Interestingly, when the CBI filed its first charge sheet against Gujarat police officers, it didnt seek a similar sanction from the state government.

Sinha refused to comment on the matter.

Nevertheless, it was this decision of the CBI that ultimately helped Kumar and the other IB officials escape prosecution. The central government changed hands in May 2014, and the new Union home ministry  under Rajnath Singh  decided that the agencys case was not strong enough to warrant a trial for Kumar.

Verma now says that he will seek a certified copy of the case documents to check if he can challenge the home ministrys decision in court. To this, Kumar has a quick retort: What is his locus standi in the case?

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The BJP leadership on Thursday came out in strong defence of the World Culture Festival after Prime Minister Narendra Modis participation in the event was announced.

Taking on critics, parliamentary affairs minister Venkaiah Naidu said: It is a prestigious event for India. Indias prestige is at stake in the event. No body should politicise the event.

The BJP pointed out that the AAP government, which is at loggerheads with the BJP on most of the issues, had maintained a silence on this occasion.

Naidu, who had been a vocal critic of the Opposition over the JNU row, told Hindustan Times, When people went to an event on Afzal Guru, there were no problems. There are no problems in praising Afzal Guru. But some people have discovered a lot of problems with the World Cultural Festival. If someone is opposed to such events, he or she should not go.

The government has come under fire for engaging the army to construct temporary bridges in the World Culture Festiva, a private event.
Indian Air Force vice-chief Air Marshal BS Dhanoa admitted on Thursday that the IAF did not have sufficient number of warplanes to fight a two-front war, setting off alarm bells about the countrys ability to tackle a combined threat from China and Pakistan.

Our numbers are not adequate to fully execute an air campaign in a two-front scenario, Dhanoa said, drawing attention to the sharp drawdown of Indias fighter fleet. The count of IAFs fighter squadrons has shrunk to 33 compared to a desirable strength of 42, a capability gap the air force is struggling to fill.

It is rare for top military commanders to make such a startling public admission, even though parliamentary panels have raised questions about Indias ability to fight the two adversaries at the same time  a worrying scenario that the IAF describes as Contingency-III.

Probability of a two front scenario is an appreciation which you need to do. But are the numbers adequate? No. The squadrons are winding down, said Dhanoa, who is in line to become IAF chief on December 31, 2016.

The admission comes days before the IAF carries out a firepower demonstration in Pokhran - the site for Indias underground nuclear detonation - on March 18. The spectacle will involve 181 planes including 103 fighter jets. President Pranab Mukherjee and PM Narendra Modi are expected to witness exercise Iron Fist-2016, held every three years.

The only defence attaches not invited to witness the exercise, whose tagline is Demonstrating the Capability to Punish, are from China and Pakistan. The IAF said it was a collective decision of the ministry of external affairs and the defence ministry to leave them out.

The IAFs plans to scale up its capabilities have hit several hurdles, including delay in the light combat aircraft (LCA) project, scrapping of a deal to buy 126 modern fighter jets and stalemate in the Rafale purchase.

The existing fleet consists of 14 squadrons of ageing MiG-21 and MiG-27 fighters that will be retired in phases by 2024. Each fighter squadron consists of about 18 planes.

Russian-origin Su-30 fighters account for about 10 squadrons but the fleet is plagued by engine troubles and is also battling poor serviceability. The remaining nine squadrons consist of Mirage 2000 fighters, Jaguars and MiG-29s. The IAF hopes to add more muscle with the induction of the LCA, more Su-30s, Indo-Russian fifth-generation fighter aircraft and possibly a medium-weight fighter that could be built in India in collaboration with a foreign player.

The IAF had told a Parliamentary panel in February 2014 that Pakistan would certainly fish in troubled waters if China were to launch offensive operations against India. It, however, stressed that China may not pose a collusive threat if hostilities were to break out between India and Pakistan.

On the sale of eight F-16s to Pakistan, Dhanoa said it would not drastically alter the air power balance in the region but it makes my life more difficult as the IAF has to field a more hi-tech platform against it.

War, conflict or adventure takes place when he (the enemy) has a doubt about your deterrence. If you demonstrate your deterrence, then he knows that he will be hit very badly. He added that Iron Fist was designed to send a message to the other side that they do not have a military option.
Prime Minister Narendra Modis efforts towards a Congress-mukta Bharat are not over yet. Modi gave that call in 2014 and has achieved it, to some extent.

Congress was reduced to a number  less than 10% of the total strength of the Lok Sabha  that denied it even Leader of Oppositions status in Parliaments lower house. But Modi feels there is a need to press the refresh button on his strategy.

In the last seven days, PM Modi spoke in both Houses of Parliament and tried to achieve it through a two-pronged strategy. First by taking on the Congress whose opposition has held the reform agenda of his government. And second, by making a distinction between the Congress and other opposition parties.

Why is not the House allowed to function properly? It is their inferiority complex, Modi said in the Lok Sabha last week while replying to the debate on motion of thanks on Presidents address.

There are many deserving members in the opposition, who will get an opportunity to speak if the House will run. Some people do not want them to overshadow, he added.

Modi reached out to the opposition admitting that his suggestion to fix a full day just to allow first time MPs to speak was actually inspired by a similar suggestion from Biju Janata Dal leader Tathagata Satpathy. Modi said he was pained when the poll manifesto of Mulayam Singh Yadavs party was torn by Rahul Gandhi in 2012 at a public meeting.

He brought this isolate Congress strategy in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday when he insisted whenever the BJP attacks the Congress, media presents it as an assault on the entire opposition. This concession, he added, is not available to others like Bahujan Samaj Party head Mayawati or Janata Dal (United) chief Sharad Yadav.

It is described as attack on BSP or JD(U). But attack on Congress is attack on entire opposition, Modi argued.

So what is the Prime Ministers strategy for drawing a distinction between the Congress and other opposition parties? What purpose is he trying to serve by driving a wedge into the opposition?

The Congress remains BJPs principal challenge in most of the state where the latter has a foothold  such as Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Rajasthan.

A resurgence of the Congress in Bihar, winning 27 out of 41 seats it contested, did not augur well for the BJP. The Congress is abandoning its go solo strategy. It formed an alliance with the DMK in Tamil Nadu and is set for an understanding with the Left in West Bengal. Any gain that the Congress accrues will hurt the BJP.

The Congress party has been aggressive in Parliament, more than any other opposition party. Its opposition to the provisions of the GST bill and some others such as the land acquisition law has ensured they remain stuck.

The Modi government believes the Congress was throwing a spanner into its work and its tit-for-tat strategy was turning out to be counter-productive to the dispensation that is about to complete two years in power.

The more Congress gets isolated in Parliament, the more it will help the BJP in Parliament. The governments floor managers believe the Congress cannot sustain opposing their reform agenda beyond a point if it lacks support from other opposition parties.

The government has been insisting in allowing parties like the BJD and Trinamool Congress to occupy the centre stage in opposition benches, as their opposition or support to legislations are issue based and reasonable in opposing a move.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Liquor baron Vijay Mallyas departure from the country led to a political slugfest inside and outside Parliament on Thursday with Rahul Gandhi slamming the government for allowing him to leave and finance minister Arun Jaitley hitting back by reminding the Congress vice-president of Bofors scam accused Ottavio Quattrocchis flight from India.

In the Rajya Sabha, leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad accused the government of being party to the criminal conspiracy to allow Mallya to leave the country when he was facing a probe for loan default. Jaitley responded by saying it was during the UPA regime that banks provided loans to him. The Congress levelled similar charges against the government in the Lok Sabha, too.

While the Congress and the Samajwadi Party attacked the government inside Parliament, Gandhi upped the ante outside, telling reporters, We simply asked that someone who stole Rs 9,000 crore from the country, how did he run away from the country? How did you allow him to escape? This is the simple question and we neither got a reply to this from Modi-ji nor from Jaitley-ji.

Jaitley said at a Cabinet briefing that Rahul-ji should remember that there is a basic difference in Mallya leaving and Quattrocchi going out When Switzerland officials informed that Quattrocchi was also among the beneficiaries of Bofors and though the person who was heading the CBI investigation earlier, K Madhavan, wrote a letter that his passport should be impounded, the then government had not stopped him and within two days he left India. That was a criminal case.

Responding to Azads charge, Jaitley said the first banking facility was given to Mallya and his companies in September 2004 which were renewed in February 2008. Though in April 30, 2009 Mallyas accounts were declared non-performing assets, the debts were restructured and more loans were given to him in December 2010, Jaitley said.

How these accounts were running, what facilities were given, the dates tell their own story, Jaitley said, adding, In what circumstances were the loans given is an issue of investigation and the CBI is investigating.

Raising the issue during Zero hour, Azad held the government responsible for allowing Mallya to leave the country. Without the participation and without the active support of this government, he could not have left the country. That is my allegation the government is party to this In this criminal conspiracy, this government should be made party and the Supreme Court should take note of this, Azad said amidst slogan shouting by his party members against the BJP.

Azad demanded to know why the government did not forfeit Mallyas passport and restrict his movement when it was known that he could flee any day. Comparing Mallyas fleeing with that of Lalit Modi, the Congress leader said the present government had failed to bring back the former IPL chief, too. One had escaped, the second Lalit Modi (Mallya) should not be allowed to escape.

On Azads contention that the present government had failed to bring back Lalit Modi, Jaitley said it was during the UPA rule that the former IPL chief left the country.

The Samajwadi Partys Naresh Aggarwal said the matter of Mallya who was a Rajya Sabha MP should be referred to the ethics committee.

Refuting Azads charges, Jaitley said there was no order to stop Mallya from leaving the country. Mallya had left the country before the banks moved the Supreme Court for seizure of his passport, he said. Jaitley added that banks had been asked to recover every penny that was due.

The finance minister said there were 22 cases filed in different parts of the country against Mallya and some of his assets had also been attached. Mallyas liabilities, including interest, totalled Rs 9,091.4 crore as of November 30 last year.

As it happened: Heres how events unfolded in parliament today

2:30 pm Finance Minister Arun Jaitley reminds Rahul Gandhi of Ottavio Quattrocchis escape after Congress leader targets govt over Vijay Mally

Must remind Rahul Gandhi of fact that there is a basic difference between Mallya leaving & Quattrocchi leaving the nation, said Jaitley. He reiterated that the day Mallya left country, banks had not started the legal process.

12: 58 pm If you have promised the people of India that you would bring black money, bring back Vijay Mallya, Rahul said further.

Jaitley ji se puchha ki Mallya ji desh se bhaag kar kaise nikle? Jaitley ji ne lamba bhaashan dia par iska jawaab nhi dia: Rahul Gandhi  ANI (@ANI_news) March 10, 2016

12:41 pm Mallya stole money and fled India. Govt still mum, says Rahul

Gandhi further alleged that Mallya stole Rs 9,000 crore from the country and ran away.

 We asked Arun Jaitley how they could allow someone like that to flee the country.. but Mr Jaitley gave such a long lecture but refused to answer our question, said Rahul.

Ques is how did a man who stole Rs. 9000 crore leave country, neither Modi ji nor Arun ji gave an answer in the Parl: Rahul Gandhi  ANI (@ANI_news) March 10, 2016

12: 15 pm Rahul Gandhi says govt will not allow debate on Mallya issue

Outside the Parliament, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said they (Congress) would like to react on the Vijay Mallya issue. If they allow us to react (on Vijay Mallya issue), we will. But I doubt they will allow. Government does not allow us to speak. PM does not like to discuss these issues, he said.

Government does not allow us to speak. PM does not like to discuss these issues: Rahul Gandhi on Vijay Mallya issue pic.twitter.com/zEfIbXZQ1G  ANI (@ANI_news) March 10, 2016

11:45 am Banks will recover every penny from Mallya, says Jaitley

Following the uproar over Mallya, finance minister Arun Jaitley assured the Opposition in Rajya Sabha that a CBI investigation is underway and justice will be served.

Jaitley also said that Congress, which was in power for 10 years till 2014, never took any steps to recover the loans.

He pointed out that attachments of Mallyas assets have taken place in the past few months. The finance minister further clarified that the liquor baron managed to flee the country on March 2, as the CBI lookout order only reached authorities after that.

Several of his assets have been attached, banks are doing all they can to recover every penny from Mallya..Mallya left India even before the banks moved the Supreme Court, said Jaitley.

Vijay Mallya was given banking facility for the 1st time in 2004 even when account was not in order, Jaitley added.

Countering the charges, Jaitley said the banks have been asked to recover every penny that is due, adding that the first banking facility was given to Mallya and his companies in September 2004 which were renewed in February 2008. The Leader of the House further said the accounts were declared non-performing assets (NPA) on April 30, 2009 and these debts were restructured and more facilites extened in December 2010.

In what circumstances were the loans given is an issue of investigation and the CBI is investigating, he said. How these accounts were running, what facilities were given, the dates tell their own story, Jaitley said, adding when the loans were given, how they were given... introspection will be required.

Jaitley said the liabilities including interest aggregates to Rs 9,091.4 crore as on November 30, 2015.

A group of mainly state-run banks had moved the Supreme Court on 5 March to prevent the flamboyant businessman, who is known for his extravagant lifestyle, from quitting India.

But the attorney general said the 60-year-old had left on March 2 after stepping down as chairman of United Spirits, the Indian arm of Britains Diageo, following allegations of financial lapses.

Agencies and the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) have told me he left the country on the second of March, said Mukul Rohatgi, representing the banks in court.

11: 30 am Why was Mallya not arrested before he could escape, asks Congress

The Congress on Thursday moved an adjournment motion in Lok Sabha to discuss how industrialist Vijay Mallya went abroad inspite of CBI issuing a look-out notice against him.

The Congress accused the Modi government of helping Mallya leave the country. Congress MP Ghulam Nabi Azad questioned the government on why Vijay Mallya was not arrested why his passport was not seized.

Vijay Mallya is not a needle that he couldnt be caught. He can be seen for a kilometer away, Azad added.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh too reiterated that Mallya should not have been allowed to leave the country.

The question is not about who gave loans to Mallya, the question is why was he allowed to leave India-Jairam Ramesh in Rajya Sabha  ANI (@ANI_news) March 10, 2016

9/03/2015

PM seeks opposition help in passage of GST, other bills

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday made a fresh pitch for passage of GST and other legislations in the Rajya Sabha considering the conducive atmosphere that has been prevailing in Parliament this session with cooperation from the opposition. Like in the Lok Sabha last week, he was both conciliatory and mocking towards the opposition, particularly Congress, during his hour long reply to the debate on the motion of thanks to the Presidents address in the Upper House. Referring to some 300 amendments that have been tabled to the motion of thanks, Modi appealed to the parties to withdraw them and passed the motion unanimously to ensure dignity of the Presidents office and in keeping with the high traditions of the House.

However, despite his appeal, the government suffered an embarrassment when the House adopted the Motion of Thanks to Presidents Address with an amendment moved by Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad in a division in which 94 voted for the amendment and 61 against. The amendment regretted that the address did not commit support to rights of all citizens to contest Panchayat elections in the backdrop of law in Rajasthan and Haryana where matriculation has been fixed as the criteria for contesting the polls.

Opposition raises stink over Sri Sris Yamuna event

Clamor grew louder on Wednesday against Sri Sri Ravi Shankars cultural mega-extravaganza on the ecologically sensitive Yamuna floodplains with the opposition questioning how the government deployed the Indian Army to construct pontoon bridges for the event that has also triggered environmental concerns.

Opposition members shouted slogans in the Rajya Sabha and demanded Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar to reply how the army was involved helping the three-day private event that begins on Friday.

The World Culture Festival, organised by the Art of Living Foundation, is awaiting a nod from a Delhi green court, which is expected to give its verdict later Wednesday over the pleas seeking its cancellation.

The mega-event marks 35 years of the foundation run by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar -- a spritual guru for many, and considered close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well.

The protesting members raised a stink in the Rajya Sabha over how the foundation was allowed to hold the event -- expected to draw some three lakh people -- that threatens the fragile Yamuna.

There is this person (Ravi Shankar) who is saying he is doing a cultural festival, and you put the army there to construct bridges. The government should shut this down immediately. In 1,000 acres, they are doing this. It will destroy Yamuna, Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Sharad Yadav said.

Some other opposition members got up and started shouting slogans Save army and Rakhsa mantri jawaab do demanding that the defence minister respond to their protests.

As the ruckus grew louder, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Sitaram Yechury alleged that it was highly irregular that the services of the Indian Army are being used for such an event.

Can the Indian Army be roped in to build pontoon bridges? It is highly irregular that the army is summoned to create facility for a private function, Yechury said.

Congress member M.S. Gill echoed the concerns. How can you send the army to build bridge?

Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad questioned why an environmental clearance was not taken before the Delhi government gave the event a green signal.

The question arises what about the environment, biodiversity and ecology in the country, Azad said.

Azad also said that there were fears of stampede and terror threats. Is it also not true that Delhi Police has warned of stampede and chaos. Also we hear every day Pakistan has sensitised the government of India that some terrorists have come... The police has also informed whether security angle has been taken in account.

The government tried to defend the event as well as the deployment of army personnel. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the army was involved from a security point of view.

As we talk, green tribunal is hearing the issue. The whole programme is taking place with proper permission, Naqvi said.

He said that Ravi Shankars intention cannot be doubted as he has started mission for cleaning Ganga and Yamuna.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who is Leader of the House, said it was not proper to raise the issue in the Rajya Sabha when a tribunal is hearing the case.

Rule 69 makes it absolutely clear that when a tribunal is hearing ...it cannot be raised, Jaitley said. The opposition accused the finance minister of misleading the house because such a ruling pertains to criminal and civil cases and not those related to environment.

Peace returned to the house after members re-assembled following a two-minute adjournment over the noisy scenes.
Businessman Vijay Mallya made at least four trips abroad before his controversial March 2 departure since a look-out notice was issued by CBI on October 16 last year to know his movements.

Sources in central security agencies said on Thursday that the CBI had issued the look-out notice, six days after searches at his official and residential premises, requesting the Bureau of Immigration(BoI) to inform it about his departure and details of destination where he might be heading.

They said Mallya travelled abroad in the last week of October and returned in November. He made two trips in the first and last weeks of December and a trip in January, in addition to his recent trip, reportedly to London, on March 2.

The look-out circular depends on the issuing authority and unless they ask BoI to detain a person or to stop him from boarding a plane, no action is taken.

Read: Vijay Mallya joins long list of fugitives in London

The sources said CBI apparently did not seek to detain him or stop him from travelling abroad and every time he travelled, the agency was duly informed.

When asked why the CBI did not seek to impound his passport to stop his movement abroad, agency sources said Mallya had been cooperating in the investigation by presenting himself for questioning as and when required and also providing documents required by the agency.

CBI sources said according to a Supreme Court judgement passport of a person can only be impounded when he has been chargesheeted or a trial is pending against him. Since he has been cooperating, there was no reason to stop him from moving abroad, they said adding that he had appeared for questioning thrice, since look out notices were issued, once here and twice in Mumbai between December 9-12, 2015.

They also said the agency was keeping a track on his movement but did not interfere as he has always returned. CBI had registered a case against Mallya, Kingfisher Airlines, chief financial officer of the airlines A Raghunathan, and unknown officials of IDBI Bank in its FIR alleging that a Rs 900 crore IDBI loan was sanctioned in violation of norms regarding credit limits on the basis of complaint received from the bank.

Clarifying his position in the loan owed by KFA, Mallya in a recent statement had said after the closure of the airline, since April, 2013, the banks and their assignees have recovered, in cash, an aggregate of Rs 1,244 crore from sale of pledged shares. In addition an aggregate of Rs 600 crore is lying deposited in the Karnataka High Court (since July, 2013) and a further sum of Rs 650 crore belonging to United Breweries Holdings has been deposited in the Karnataka High Court since early 2014, being sums realised from the sale proceeds received by United Breweries Holdings from the sale of shares in United Spirits to Diageo Plc in July, 2013, he had said.

Thus, the aggregate cash recovery/security available is Rs 2,494 crore, Mallya said. The attorney general informed the Supreme Court on Wednesday that he has been told by CBI that Mallya has left the country on March 2.

The bench issued notice to Mallya and sought his response within two weeks on pleas filed by a consortium of banks seeking direction for freezing his passport and his presence before the apex court.
JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, who is facing sedition charges, was attacked on the JNU campus on Thursday evening when he was going to attend a lecture on nationalism.

Security guards in plain clothes and professors, who were accompanying Kumar, rescued him and nabbed the attacker.

The man, in his thirties, identified himself as Vikas Chaudhary of Ghaziabad. Kanhaiya refused to lodge a police complaint but wrote to the JNU security officer, asking how the man entered the campus.

The accused identified himself as Vikas Chaudhary of Ghaziabad. Chaudhuary reportedly told students that he wanted to teach Kanhaiya a lesson for shouting anti national slogans. Police have detained Chaudhary for questioning.

Kanhaiya faces sedition charges in connection with an event on campus against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.

He was granted interim bail for six months by the Delhi high court last week after spending 18 days in jail.

The students and teachers of the varsity had expressed apprehension about Kanhaiyas security after he was attacked by a group of lawyers in Patiala House court premises on February 17.

The Delhi Police has asked the varsity authorities to intimate them about Kanhaiyas movements outside the campus. A man who claimed to be the president of Purvanchal Sena had last week announced a reward of Rs 11 lakh for anyone who shoots Kanhaiya. He was later arrested.

(With inputs from PTI)
The government on Thursday informed Parliament that a few key documents with regards to preparation of the second Ishrat case affidavit are not traceable in the home ministry and that an internal inquiry has been initiated in this regard.

Nineteen-year-old Ishrat Jahan, along with her three alleged associates  Javed Sheikh, Jeeshan Johar and Amzad Ali Rana, was killed in an encounter on June 15, 2004.

The Union home ministry filed two affidavits in response to a petition filed by Ishrat Jahans mother Shamima Kausar and Javeds father Gopinath Pillai seeking a probe into the encounter.

Replying to a debate on the calling attention motion on change in the second affidavit in the Ishrat case, Union home minister Rajnath Singh listed six documents that are missing.

He said two letters written by the then home secretary (GK Pillai) to the Attorney General (AG) on September 18, 2009 are not traceable. Two more letters written by the home secretary to the AG on September 23, 2009 are missing. Also not traceable is the affidavit vetted by the AG. And more importantly, the draft of the second affidavit that came from the AG in which the then home minister (P Chidambaram) made changes is also missing.

Some members have demanded an action in this regard. There are few questions on which a probe is required. Our internal inquiry is on. We are trying to gather all facts. After due deliberations, a final would be taken in this matter, the home minister said.

In the first 14-page affidavit filed on August 6, 2009 in the Gujarat high court, Union home ministry, while the UPA government was in power, stated Ishrat and Javed Ghulam Sheikh, the person she was travelling with at the time of encounter, were operatives of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

The affidavit said Javed, originally a Hindu named Pranesh Pillai who converted to Islam later, had gone to Dubai and while working there he was subverted to the cause of LeT. Just two months prior to the encounter he had allegedly met LeT operative Muzammil in Oman.

LeT operative David Coleman Headley in the court deposition in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks trial mentioned Muzammil saying it was his operation in which a female operative (Ishrat) was killed.

But on September 29, 2009 Union home ministry, made an about turn and said the central government was not concerned with the merits of the action taken by the Gujarat police and anything stated in the (first) affidavit was not intended to support or justify the action of the state police.

The home minister also said that Headley in his statement to the NIA mentioned Ishrat and that stated the same in the court deposition.

But despite requests from the CBI, the part of the Headley statement on Ishrat was not made available by the (home ministry), Singh said.
 A Striking Difference Between the AP and Reuters Reports on the Palestinian Response to the Murder of Taylor Force | Main | Palestinian Evangelical Leader: Yep, We're Anti-Zionists 

March 10, 2016

Watchdog: Iran Nuclear Deal Prevents Public Reporting of Violations



Yukiya Amano, head of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) admitted on March 7, 2016 that the Iran nuclear deal limits public reporting on potential violations by Tehran.

The IAEA is tasked with ensuring Iranian compliance with the agreement between six countriesGermany, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China, the United Statesand Iran over the latters purported illegal nuclear weapons program.

According to The Washington Free Beacon, an online newspaper, Amano told reporters that his agency is no longer permitted to release details about Irans nuclear program and compliance with the deal (IAEA: Iran Nuke Deal Limits Public Reporting on Possible Violations,? March 7, 2016).? Amano made his remarks after questions arose about the February IAEA oversight report not being transparent.

The IAEA head stated that the report was purposefully vague because the nuclear agreement prevents the watchdog from publishing critical data about the Iranian program that had been disclosed previously.

National Review Online noted that this is the result of a Dec. 15, 2015 IAEA Board of Governors resolution that directed the agency to cease reporting on Irans compliance with its Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty obligations and past Security Council resolutions (In Yet Another Secret Side Deal, Irans Nuclear Violations Wont Be Publicly Disclosed,? March 9, 2016).? The magazine notes that this also means that the possible military dimensions of the nuclear program no longer will be publicized by the IAEAdespite a December 2 report that raised several serious unresolved questions about Irans nuclear weapons-related activities.?

The February IAEA report did not provide information about Irans stockpiles of low-enriched uranium or Irans nuclear centrifuges, the machines responsible for enriching uranium.

Free Beacon noted that both these omissions and others led to nuclear experts like former IAEA deputy director general Oli Heinonen raising questions about the report. Heinonen, now an analyst with Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a D.C.-based think tank, said that the report by the watchdog agency does not list inventories of nuclear materials and equipment or the status of key sites and facilities.? Despite lacking these details, that report was used as the basis for the agreement to proceed to the next stage: implementation, which among other things included $100 billion in sanctions relief. As CAMERA noted, then-Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey remarked in June 2015 that these unfrozen funds likely will be used by Iran to subsidize terrorists (Gen. Dempsey: Iran Sanctions Relief Will Fund Terrorism,? July 6, 2015). Iranian belligerence and failure to comply with international law was on display in other recent Islamic Republic initiatives. On March 8, Iranian state media stated that the Islamic Republic had conducted a series of precision-guided missile tests. This was the second such test since October 2015 and both instances violate U.N. Security Council resolutions. Two of the ballistic missiles had the phrase Israel must be wiped out? written on them according to Iranian information media. The head of the Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps aerospace division, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, told state TV: The 2,000 kilometer range of our missiles is to confront the Zionist regime. Israel is surrounded by Islamic countries and it will not last long in a war. It will collapse even before being hit by these missiles.? The test took placeperhaps not coincidentallywhile U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited Israel.



As CAMERA has noted (Elie Wiesel Challenges President Obama; Washington Post Misses Story,? April 30, 2012) Iran has threatened to destroy Israelwhich violates the U.N. Charter Article 2 against aggression and the U.N. anti-genocide convention. That violation canunlike some violations of the nuclear agreementbe reported publically.



Posted by SD at March 10, 2016 01:08 PM

Guidelines for posting

This is a moderated blog. We will not post comments that include racism, bigotry, threats, or factually inaccurate material.

Post a comment
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the Art of Livings controversial cultural festival on the floodplain of Delhis Yamuna river as an environment court gave the organisers time till Friday to pay a Rs 5-crore fine.

Modi will inaugurate the three-day event on Friday, the Press Information Bureau announced after Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe pulled out because of security fears. President Pranab Mukherjee has already announced he wont attend the event.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has cleared the festival despite fears of damage to the ecosystem, but has said it will appoint a committee to assess the environmental damage caused by it.

Read | Will go to jail, but wont pay Rs 5-cr fine: Ravi Shankar on Yamuna fest

The World Culture Festival, organised by spiritual guru Ravi Shankar, spreads across 1,000 acres on the banks of the Yamuna. It features a 7-acre stage for 35,000 musicians and dancers, newly built dirt tracks and 650 portable toilets. Environment groups accuse organisers of ripping up vegetation and ruining the rivers fragile ecosystem by damaging its bed and disrupting water flows. They want authorities to cancel the event and avert further harm.

Shankar has said his organisation wont pay the fine. We have not done anything wrong...we will go to jail but not pay a penny, he told NDTV. This is like a cultural Olympics...normally, something like this should be welcomed, he said, just hours before a hearing in Indias top green court at 4pm.

<span itemprop="name" content="Watch | Art of Living prepares for the World Culture Festival"></span><span itemprop="description" content="Preparations are on in full swing for Sri Sri Ravi Shankar&#x27;s World Cultural Festival on the banks of the Yamuna. The event is expected to be the biggest in Delhi and also the World&#x27;s largest peace meditation. The World Culture Festival will hold 32000 artists on a 7-acre stage. The event will bring together spiritual and religious leaders, politicians, peacemaker and artists to spread the message of peace. Hindustan Times visited ground zero to find out how exactly things are shaping up."></span><span itemprop="duration" content="104"></span><span itemprop="thumbnail" content="http://cfvod.kaltura.com/p/1679921/sp/167992100/thumbnail/entry_id/0_omv7pokx/version/100012/acv/192"></span><span itemprop="width" content="640"></span><span itemprop="height" content="362"></span>
The Punjab BJP on Monday (on March 7) questioned the Centres logic behind imposing a Rs 6.3-crore cost on the state for deploying paramilitary forces to fight Pakistan terrorists at the Pathankot airbase in January.

Central forces were in Pathankot from January 2 to 27 and the Union home ministry had asked Punjab to pay for it.

However, deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has sought a waiver from the Centre, saying the deployment of these units was in national interest and the expenditure thereon should not be billed to the state government.

The Shiromani Akali Dal is a part of the BJP-led NDA at the Centre and the senior alliance partner in Punjab.

The Centres move did not go down well with the Punjab BJP unit either. Why should Punjab pay for a terror strike on a central government installation? said BJP state unit president Kamal Sharma.

Though its the BJP government at the Centre, I want to urge it not to impose such charges on the state, BJPs cabinet-rank minister in Punjab Madan Mohan Mittal also told HT. The terror attack on the Pathankot airbase was not a local law and order problem. It was an attempt by terrorists from across the border to sabotage peace in the country. So, it is beyond logic to pay for central forces, Mittal added.

He said the Centre was not charging strife-torn states of Jammu and Kashmir and Assam for fighting terrorists.

What the Centres letter said

In a letter to the Punjab government on January 20, the union home ministry asked the state to pay for the deployment of 20 companies of paramilitary forces in Pathankot and nearby areas between January 2 and 27. The letter said that the expenditure for each company was Rs 1.77 lakh a day. The Punjab government was told to pay for the transportation charges too.

Eleven companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and nine companies of the Border Security Force (BSF) were deployed to fortify the Pathankot airbase during the terror attack.

In its reply, the state home department headed by deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said: These paramilitary forces, along with Punjab Police, were used to carry out sustained search and combing operations up to 10-12 km around Tibri cantonment. Because both Pathankot and Tibri are vital defence establishments, the central forces were deployed in national interest. It is requested that the expenditure of Rs 6.35 crore be waived.

Cong slams slams Centre

The Congress on Monday (March 7) dubbed as travesty the Centres move to bill Punjab for deployment of paramilitary forces in the wake of the Pathankot terror strike and made a strong pitch for waiver of all militancy related dues of the state.

Travesty to bill Punjab for #anti-terror operations ALL Militancy related dues of Punjab need waiver Punjabs fault Pakistan is its neighbour (sic), party spokesman Manish Tewari said on micro-blogging site Twitter.
The Indian Air Force has advised its three women trainees, who are in line to become Indias first female fighter pilots, to put off motherhood for at least four years after they get commissioned into the IAF in June.

IAF vice chief Air Marshal BS Dhanoa told HT on Thursday that an advisory to avoid pregnancy was issued to the women training at an IAF facility near Hyderabad so that their training schedule was not disrupted.

The women are preparing to head for the last leg of their combat training in June, a watershed in the IAFs 83-year history. Undisturbed training is required for a minimum of five years for fighter pilots to become combat ready. Thats the practice in all major air forces. The women are about to complete one year of training, said Air Vice Marshal NK Tandon, who is from the IAFs personnel branch.

He stressed the IAF had only issued an advisory to the women and it wasnt a no-pregnancy clause.

As first reported by HT on December 17, the three women cadets had volunteered for the fighter stream and were selected for stage-II training on Kiran Mk-II planes at Hakimpet for six months. They had passed out of the Air Force Academy at Dundigal on December 19.

Stage-II training in the fighter stream at Hakimpet is critical as the performance of the cadets will decide whether they are fit for the final stage of preparation.

Bhawana Kanth, Mohana Singh and Avani Chaturvedi are the trainees who qualified for the fighter steam after it was thrown open to women in October 2015.

They will go to Bidar in Karnataka in June 2016 for stage-III training for a year on British Hawk advanced jet trainers, before they can fly supersonic warplanes.

As first reported by HT on November 22, six female cadets were taking a shot at becoming fighter pilots after the government approved an IAF plan in October making them eligible to fly warplanes from June 2017, ending a rigid combat exclusion policy. However, only the three female trainees were selected for the fighter stream after a high-powered board of officers carried out detailed assessment of the flying capabilities of the cadets training at the Dundigal-based premier academy.

Read | Ready to face any challenge that arises: Women fighter pilot trainees
Amid a war of words between the government and opposition over his sudden disappearance from the country, external affairs ministry on Thursday said it has not been asked to take any action against liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who is facing legal proceedings for alleged loan defaults by his group to the tune of over Rs 9000 crore.

As far as Vijay Mallya is concerned MEA has not been asked to take any action, MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.

He was asked if the ministry was taking any action against Mallya, who has left the country, as per the Attorney Generals submission in the court on Wednesday.

Asked about reports that Mallya was in the UK, the spokesperson said, We cannot comment on that beyond what the Attorney General said in court.

On Wednesday, AG Mukul Rohatgi had told the Supreme Court bench comprising justices Kurian Joseph and RF Nariman that Mallya left the country a week back as per the CBI input.

The bench issued notice to Mallya and sought his response within two weeks on pleas filed by a consortium of banks seeking direction for freezing his passport and his presence before the apex court.

Since the court was informed that Mallya has already left the country, probably for UK, the bench allowed the plea of AG that the notice to him can be served through his official Rajya Sabha Email ID, Indian High Commission at London and also through counsel representing him before various high courts, Debt Recovery Tribunal and also through his Company.

Asked about India recently approaching the Interpol with its demand for an early notification of the Red warrant sought by the ED against Lalit Modi, the former IPL Chairman, in connection with its money laundering case, Swarup said,We have yet to receive the request from the Enforcement Directorate. As soon as that comes, we will immediately take action.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has fined the Art of Living foundation R5 crore for holding its three-day World Culture Festival on the Yamuna floodplain. It may have to shell out more penalty.

Read more: Govt failed in its duty: NGT slams pollution watchdog over Yamuna event

Construction work going on at the Art of Livings world culture festival venue on Wednesday. The National Green Tribunal did not cancel the event but fined the organisers for possible damage to the fragile floodplain of the Yamuna.

The Rs 5 crore environmental compensation imposed on the foundation is only the initial penalty as the rest of the fine amount will be decided after an NGT-appointed committee assesses the damage to the floodplain.

You may have to pay for the restoration of environment, the National Green Tribunal said. The organisation will have to pay for damage to the water bodies.

Read more: AoL row: Defence personnel caution against using army for private events

An NGT-appointed panel last month had stated it was too late to scrap the event and suggested a fine of R120 crore.

This amount (R5 crore) would be paid by the Foundation prior to the commencement of the event. This amount would be adjusted towards the final compensation determined to be paid by the Foundation for restoration work, an NGT bench said. It also directed the principal committee constituted under the judgment to submit a report within four weeks on the steps needed for restoration, restitution and rejuvenation of the floodplain.

It will also state the approximate cost for such restoration and restitution. We further direct that the entire area in question shall be developed as a biodiversity park, the cost of which will have to be paid by the (Art Of Living) Foundation and the DDA in the proportion as be directed by the tribunal finally, the order said.

The foundation will have to file an undertaking on Thursday that it would, within two weeks from the date of demand by the DDA, pay the balance fine amount.

A committee will immediately inspect the site and issue directions by tomorrow in relation to the source of water, collection and disposal of solid waste and sewerage generated during the event and also issue directions to ensure that there is no further environmental degradation, activist Manoj Misra, the petitioner in the case, said.
A Pakistani militant carrying a bounty for his role in Udhampur attack last year, Abu Okasha, was killed in an encounter in Pulwama district.

A top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander and four other ultras, however, managed to escape the security ring due to alleged connivance of locals.

NIA had announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh on information about Okasha, a resident of Khyber Paktukhwa in Pakistan.

NIA had recovered his photograph during raids at various terror hideouts in the Valley for his involvement in the Udhampur terror attack, in which a Pakistani LeT terrorist Mohammed Naved Yakub was arrested.

Sources said LeTs Kashmir chief, Abu Dujana, was among those who managed to escape from the encounter site as local residents allegedly diverted the attention of security forces by pelting stones at them.

The encounter broke out as security forces were conducting search operations in Puchal area of Awantipora and shots were heard from nearby Goripora village, an official said.

He said reinforcements were immediately rushed to Goripora and a cordon was laid around the village to prevent the militants from fleeing.

The militants fired towards the security personnel who retaliated, leading to fierce exchange of gunfire, the official said.

Two militants were killed in an exchange of fire but five of accomplices escaped, the official said, adding the bodies of the slain ultras have been recovered.

As the forces were battling militants, a group of local residents started pelting stones at the security personnel, the official said.

The incident diverted the attention of security personnel and allowed the other militants to escape from the cordon, the official said.

Dujana took over operational command of Lashkar following the killing of Abu Qasim in Kulgam area of south Kashmir in October last year.
Home minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday accused the erstwhile UPA government of hatching a deep conspiracy to frame Narendra Modi when he was the chief minister of Gujarat. Singh alleged that the previous regime had done a flip-flop on the links of Ishrat Jahan with terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

Without naming P Chidambaram, he charged the then home minister of giving colour to terrorism by coining the term saffron terror.

Responding to a calling attention motion on alleged alteration of affidavit relating to Ishrat Jahan case in the Lok Sabha, the home minister said, Unfortunately, I have to say there was a flip-flop by UPA government in the Ishrat Jahan case.

Amid protests and slogan shouting by Congress members who trooped into the Well of the House, Singh charged Chidambaram of coining the term saffron terror and Hindu terror. Colour, creed and religion should not be associated with terrorism. Terror has no colour... The seculars gave colour to terrorism. Selective secularism cannot be accepted by the country, he said.

Singh said the recent statement made by Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley before a Mumbai court only reaffirmed the first affidavit filed by the UPA government on August 6, 2009 before the Gujarat high court that Ishrat Jahan had links with LeT. It (Headleys statement) was the second clear indication that she was a terrorist, he said.

The minister said the second affidavit filed by the government before the high court on September 29, 2009 weakened the fact that she was an LeT operative.

He said the effort seemed to be to defame the then Gujarat chief minister (Narendra Modi), state government, some leaders and those associated with the case. There was a deep conspiracy to frame them.

The home minister said a few key documents including two letters written by the then home secretary, GK Pillai, to then attorney general late GE Vahanvati and the copy of the draft affidavit have so far been untraceable.

He said the missing documents include the copy of the affidavit vetted by the AG and the draft of the second affidavit vetted by the AG on which changes were made. We have ordered an internal enquiry in the Home Ministry in this regard and necessary action will be taken accordingly, he said.
Neelam Katara told the Delhi high court that if Vikas Yadav, convicted of murdering her son Nitish, is released on parole, he may kill someone else and 10 years later the victims mother could be standing before the court seeking justice.

The submission was made before Justice Siddharth Mridul while opposing Vikas plea for four weeks parole to sell his ancestral property in Uttar Pradesh.

I do not want to hear that after 10 years some other woman stands in the court (Delhi high court) and says that her son has been killed by the petitioner (Vikas) while he was out on parole, Neelam said and opposed the plea of Vikas, who is serving 30-year jail term without remission for killing Nitish Katara.

She further submitted that the convicts in the case have not even taken a baby step to reform.

This was supported by Delhi Polices additional standing counsel Rajesh Mahajan, who said during the trial and pending of the appeal, Vikas has been manipulating and misusing the system.

His (Vikas) plea for parole is not maintainable, Delhi Police counsel said.

Whereas, senior advocate N Hariharan, appearing for Vikas, said this attitude of the authorities will make him an animal and even worse.

There is every chance of his reformation, he contended.

Vikas Yadav has filed a plea for four weeks parole to sell his ancestral property in Uttar Pradesh. (HT File Photo)

The arguments which remained inconclusive will resume on March 17.

The high court on March 27 last year granted seven-day custody parole to Vikas to visit his 93-year-old grandfather who underwent an angioplasty.

The high court had on February 6, 2015 enhanced the sentence of Vikas and his cousin Vishal from life imprisonment to 25 years without remission for murdering Nitish and five more years for destruction of evidence in the case.

Read | Supreme Court rejects death penalty plea in Katara murder case

Yadavs acquaintance Sukhdev Yadav alias Pehelwan was also awarded an enhanced life sentence of 20 years without remission by the high court.

The three were awarded life term by a trial court for abducting and killing Nitish, a business executive and son of an IAS officer, on the intervening night of February 16-17, 2002. They did not approve of the victims affair with Bharti, daughter of D P Yadav.

The high court had on April 2, 2014 upheld the verdict of the lower court, describing the offence as honour killing stemming from a deeply-entrenched belief in caste system.

In August last year, the Supreme Court had upheld the conviction of Vikas and others in the case. PTI PPS HMP ZMN
The Supreme Court refused to entertain on Thursday a petition against the World Culture Festival, a day after the National Green Tribunal cleared the controversial three-day event in spite of fears of damage to the sensitive Yamuna floodplain.

This preparation is going on for a long time. Why have you come now? Why dont you go to the NGT, a bench headed by Chief Justice of India TS Thakur asked petitioner Bhartiya Kisan Mazdoor Samiti.

Questioning the motive behind filing of such a petition at the eleventh hour, the bench said: So you seek publicity out of it? It asked the petitioner to go to the National Green Tribunal (NGT).

The event organised by Art Of Living Foundation led by spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on the Yamuna floodplain opens Friday and will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The petition alleged that no requisite permissions have been granted by various authorities concerned to this proposed event.

The NGT on Wednesday expressed its helplessness in banning the event but imposed a fine of Rs five crores on AOL as environmental compensation. It criticised the foundation for not disclosing its full plans and also the DDA and environment ministry for their role.

It found several environmental violations committed by the organisers and said the delay by environmental activists in approaching the NGT was responsible for compelling the green court in granting permission for event.

The Delhi High Court too had on Wednesday described the event, from whose valedictory function the President has already pulled out, as a disaster from the ecological point of view.

However, Ravi Shankar said on Thursday that he would prefer to go to jail than paying the fine.
The Congress on Thursday accused the Narendra Modi government of criminal conspiracy in allowing liquor baron Vijay Mallya to flee the country and said investigating agencies should have seized his passport and taken steps to restrict his movement.

My charge against this government is that when so many agencies were interrogating him (Mallya), why was he not arrested, why was his passport not confiscated, Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said in the Rajya Sabha.

Raising the matter during Zero Hour, Azad said everyone knew Mallya led a luxurious life, had bases in several countries and could flee any day. He added Mallya is not a needle and moves around with an entourage, expressing surprise at how Mallya managed to leave the country despite a CBI look-out notice.

My allegation is that this government is party to this criminal conspiracy of allowing him to escape and leave the country. In this criminal conspiracy, this government should be made party and the Supreme Court should take note of this, Azad said.

Without the participation and without the active support of this government, he could not have left the country. That is my allegation, he said adding one had escaped, the second Lalit Modi (Mallya) should not be allowed to escape.

Read | But where exactly is Vijay Mallya?

Following the uproar, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley assured the Opposition that a CBI investigation is underway. He also pointed out that the loans were given to Mallya by PSU banks when the Congress-led United Progressive government was in power.

Earlier, Jaitley had defended the government and said the liquor baron left the country even before the consortium of banks had sought a look-out notice against him. Jaitley told the Rajya Sabha the government is trying to ensure that the banks recover every penny Mallya owes them and that justice will be served.

He also pointed out that Mallyas assets have been attached in the past few months and further clarified that he managed to flee on March 2 even before the CBIs lookout order could reach the authorities.

Read | Vijay Mallya could be on Interpols wanted notice. Heres why

The Supreme Court had issued a notice to Mallya on a plea filed by a consortium of 17 public sector banks, including the State Bank of India, seeking to restrain him from leaving India and impounding his passport.

Mallyas escape from India came to light when attorney general, Mukul Rohatgi, appearing before the Supreme Court, on behalf of the PSU banks, said that probe agencies have informed him that the former UB Group chairperson has left the country.

Read | If Mallya doesnt return, his passport can be revoked: Attorney General

Minister of state for parliamentary affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi also said the government will not let the liquor baron escape with the money of Indian citizens.

We will get hold of Vijay Mallya, we will not let him escape like this. Anyone who has siphoned nations money illicitly, we will not let them live in peace, Naqvi said.

The Supreme Court has sought Mallyas response to the banks plea by 30 March which is the next date of hearing.

Also read | Art of Leaving: Twitter outrage on Sri Sri and King of Good Times
Art of Living founder Ravi Shankar said on Thursday that he will not pay a Rs 5-crore penalty for organising a cultural event on the Yamuna floodplain in Delhi.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has cleared the World Culture Festival despite fears of damage to the ecosystem, but said the foundation will have to pay the fine.

We have not done anything wrong...we will go to jail but not pay a penny, the 59-year-old spiritual leader told NDTV.

This is like a cultural Olympics...normally, something like this should be welcomed, he said, just hours before a hearing in Indias top green court at 4pm.

The green court has asked the Art of Living to give an undertaking by Thursday that bioenzymes will not be released into the Yamuna.

The three-day festival begins March 11, and 2-3 lakh people are expected.

Read: Zimbabwe prez Mugabe pulls out of AoL event due to security concerns

The Art of Living Foundation has said it will spend Rs 25.63 crore, of which Rs 15.63 crore was for stage, marquees and other constructions, and the remaining Rs 10 crore for decoration and lighting.

Shankar, who has a worldwide following, denied that the armys move to construct bridges for the event was an apparent signal of his proximity to the government.

If lakhs of people are coming, how can you consider this a private event? If this were the Kumbh Mela, wouldnt the army be used to help? Shankar said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will likely attend the event. President Pranab Mukherjee, however, has opted out.

The BJP has defended the programme in the face of uproar in Parliament. Delhis ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), too, has extended support, underscoring what many see as Shankars clout with political parties.

The Art of Living has said the event will not cause any damage, with Shankar calling a petition to block the event politically motivated.

He said the green courts verdict was unsatisfactory and the foundation will challenge it.

Read: Sri Sri event: NGT fines AoL Rs 5 cr but it may have to shell out more

We appreciate all those who came in support of World Culture Festival. The festival will go as per planned and since we have not violated any rules we will appeal against the NGT order, the foundation said.

But organisers have admitted they did not get permissions from the city fire service, police and the transport department for parking vehicles at a bus depot.

Read: Govt failed in its duty: NGT slams pollution watchdog over Yamuna event
The Art of Living foundations controversial culture festival has suffered another blow with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe pulling out of the event after organisers admitted there were shortcomings in security arrangements.

Mugabe, who left Harare for New Delhi on Monday to attend the three-day World Culture Festival, returned home less than 48 hours after his arrival in the Indian capital, media reports said.

Read | President Pranab to skip Art of Living event; NGT hearing on festival

The 92-year-old leader called off his engagement in India where he was scheduled to be guest of honour at the World Culture Festival, state-run ZBC TV reported.

In a statement, presidential spokesperson George Charamba said the cancellation follows communication from the organisers of the festival acknowledging substantial inadequacies in protocol and security arrangements.

A number of leaders slotted for participation, including those from the host country, have also withdrawn their participation, he added.

People work at the site of World Culture festival organised by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art Of Living foundation on the floodplain of Yamuna river in New Delhi. (AP Photo)

Mugabe was forced to abandon his dodgy visit for the event amid reports that he was shocked to discover he was the only head of state and government in attendance, the Zimbabwe Newsday reported.

Mugabe had travelled to India with foreign minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi and senior government officials even after it emerged that President Pranab Mukherjee would not attend the controversial event.

Read | Sri Sri event: NGT fines AoL Rs 5 cr but it may have to shell out more

The festival organised by spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankars foundation has been under a cloud for several reasons. The organisers have been criticised for damaging the banks of the Yamuna river for building a massive stage for the festival.

The army too faced criticised after soldiers were ordered to build two pontoon bridges for the event. It has also emerged that the Union culture ministry gave Rs 2.5 crore for the cultural festival to be held on the ecosensitive Yamuna floodplain.

Mugabe, nicknamed a serial traveller by detractors, is under fire for his costly foreign visits. The President has a huge travelling budget which has often seen him travel with a group of hangers-on who are paid huge sums of money in travel allowances, the Newsday reported.

Read | Art of Living event an ecological disaster, says Delhi high court
Around 200 children in three districts of West Bengal fell sick on Wednesday after being administered deworming tablets.

Two hundred children have been admitted to hospitals in the three districts of South and North 24-Parganas and East Midnapore with symptoms of pain in the abdomen, vertigo and vomiting, state director of health services Biswaranjan Satpathy said.

He said the tablets were given to 82 lakh children in 11 districts of the state.

The official said, Many are having panic attacks, which is purely psychological after hearing the news that some others have fallen ill.

However, they have sent samples of the medicine for lab testing.

We have no doubt whatsoever on the Albendazole tablets. Their expiry date is August, Satpathy said.

Deworming tablets are given to children to remove worms from their bodies. Parasitic worms known as soil-transmitted helminths and schistosomes cause various infections.

An unofficial report from the South 24-Parganas district, however, said around 1,000 children of various schools at Basanti were hospitalised.

Dr Tarun Roy, in-charge of health in the zilla parishad, said the number of affected students in Jainagar and Gosaba were much less. They were admitted to Basanti hospital.

Roy, a medical practitioner, explained that the sickness could be partly attributed to the fact that the tablets were taken in empty stomachs while for others it could be panic.

Rumour of death of some children after taking the tablet also contributed to the panic, he said.

In Midnapore district where unconfirmed reports said more than 1,000 were affected, people put up road blockades at Tamluk and Moyna in protest.
Mumbai: Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis announced in the Assembly on Thursday the state was considering tweaking the Development Control Rule to make the zero-discharge buildings regime mandatory for new housing societies. He said the state was deliberating on it and they may amend the laws to implement it.

This means societies will have to shoulder the responsibility of disposing of the waste at its source by having their own mechanism. He also said a team headed by a deputy municipal commissioner will overlook the dumping ground issue, including setting up scientific disposal plants.

While announcing there would be no new dumping grounds allowed in the state and the existing would be replaced with scientific disposal plants, he also announced that the tendering process to set up the waste to energy plant at Deonar would be taken in the next three to six months. We have appointed Tata Consultancy Services to study the feasibility of the plant at Deonar. The actual work of the tendering process may not begin in three months as the report of the consultant is yet to be submitted, but it will be started in six months, he said.

The issue of the fire at the Deonar dumping ground in January was raised through calling attention by Mumbai MLAs in the assembly. The government said that the interim report of the committee on the fire incident has been submitted to the government and it was open to probe if any irregularities or lapses have taken place in the contract.

Replying to the query raised by BJP MLA Ashish Shelar if the incentives were possible for segregation at source by societies, Fadnavis said the municipal corporations could take a decision on it.

With the chief engineer of solid waste management post vacant, Fadnavis also assured that the post will be filled within the next one month. The additional police commissioners report on the Deonar fire will also be submitted to the assembly, Fadnavis told the house.

Fadnavis said although local residents have been opposing the new dumping grounds at Kanjurmarg, Airoli, the government wants to make it clear that the corporations would not be allowed to dump the waste, but they will have to scientifically dispose of it. Fadnavis said the plants at Airoli and Taloja are spread on 32.77 hectares and 38.87 hectares respectively and the lands have been handed over to corporations.
RJD legislator from Nawada in Bihar, Raj Ballabh Yadav, surrendered before a Biharsharif court on Thursday almost a month after an arrest order was issued against him in connection with the rape of a minor.

I have surrendered as I respect the judiciary, the 53-year-old legislator said.

Yadav, a former minister in the Lalu Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal government and three-time MLA, said he is innocent and has been framed.

Yadav was charged with rape of a Class 10 girl on February 6. Police, which had initially denied registering a case, was forced to file it on February 9 after a chance inspection by DIG (central range) Shalin. An arrest order was issued on February 13 against Yadav in connection with the rape case.

Read | Rape accused MLA Raj Ballav Yadavs properties attached

The incident in Nalanda, chief minister Nitish Kumars constituency, set off a political war with the BJP-led NDA attacking the government for what it called a return to the jungle raj. The opposition also used the incident to drive a wedge in the Janata Dal-United and RJD alliance.

Yadav surrendered exactly a month after the Patna high court, where he had applied for an anticipatory bail, failed to take up the case despite a change of bench.

A Biharsharif court headed by ADJ-1 Rashmi Shikha, which registered the case under protection of children from sexual offences act (POCSO), had earlier denied bail to Yadav and also ordered that his property be attached, saying it was a heinous crime which could not be overlooked.

Read | Bihar: 4 women held in minors rape case, Raj Ballabh still on the run

Biharsharif administration and police have cancelled his vehicle and gun licenses and his attached homes on orders of the court.

The girl had told the police that she was lured by a woman, Sulekha Devi, and her daughter to the MLAs house, where she was raped. She later identified Yadav as the offender recognizing in person and from photographs the police had shown her.

Sulekha Devi, her sister, daughter and mother have been arrested by Biharsharif Police.

The Nitish Kumar administration took a strong view of the case and confronted opposition barbs over the delay in Yadavs arrest saying, He cannot run. How far can he? He will be arrested, booked and put through speediest of trials and jailed.

Kumar had also ordered a medical re-examination of the girl after taking into cognizance a National Womens Commission teams observation that the one-man medical team report was fallible. The doctor was recommended for suspension.

The political war, however, spilt over with the NDA effecting a bandh in Biharsharif on March 6 and threatening a statewide strike, if the state failed to arrest Yadav.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The trial in the infamous 2004 mass suicide case finally began on Wednesday with the two accused appearing in a local court here.

The accused --- Kultar Singh, a retired deputy inspector general of police, and Hardev Singh, who is currently posted as Zira deputy superintendent of police --- appeared in the court of additional district and sessions judge Monica Goel as directed by the Punjab and Haryana high court.

Accused had sought stay on arrest

The two had approached the HC separately seeking a stay on their arrests after a local court had issued non-bailable arrest warrants against them.

The HC not only granted a stay on their arrests but also okayed an interim bail to Kultar Singh, after his counsel moved a separate application. The HC, however, directed Kultar to appear before the additional sessions judge at Amritsar on June 9.

In Hardev Singhs case, his counsel didnt move an interim bail application but only sought a stay on his arrest.

After hearing the defence counsel, the additional sessions judge confirmed Kultars bail and told him to furnish a surety bond of Rs 50,000. Hardev, after making an appearance in the court, can now move the HC for interim bail.

The next hearing in the case is on March 21.

Kultar Singh was posted as the Amritsar SSP in 2004 when five members of a family in the Chowk Karori locality of the city allegedly committed suicide, blaming the police officer for forcing them to take the extreme step.

The suicides took place under the jurisdiction of Kotwali police station. Hardev Singh was the in-charge of the police station at that time

Had evaded arrest all these years

This was the first appearance of the two accused in a court in the case. In 2009, Punjab Human Rights Organisation (PHRO) activist Sarabjit Singh Verka first brought the matter before a local court, seeking justice for victims as police was not probing the case seriously despite having instituted three inquiries.

In September 2011, a local court acting on a application moved by PHRO issued nonbailable war rants against Kultar Singh and Hardev Singh under sections 306 (abetment of suicide), 420 (fraud), 467 & 468 (forgery of documents), 471 (using forged document as genuine) of the Indian Penal Code and 7/13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Since then, the court has issued arrest warrants against the two on as many as seven occasions. The alle g ation against Hardev Singh was that he tried to destroy the evidence in the case.

Suicide note written on walls of house

On October 31, 2004, Hardip Singh along with his wife, mother and two children allegedly committed suicide after consuming some poisonous substance. Before taking this extreme step, the family had written a suicide note on the walls of a room of their house and had even sent copies of suicide note to their friends and some acquaintances by post.

In the suicide note, the family squarely blamed Kultar Singh, holding him responsible for forcing the family to take the extreme step.

Though the local police in 2004 registered a case, no one was taken into custody immediately as the main accused was a police officer.

Subsequently, inquiries were held but nothing concrete happened.
On the third day of the Punjab assembly budget session on Thursday, speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal suspended all Congress MLAs for a day for disrupting the proceedings of the House amid pandemonium over a resolution moved by chief minister Parkash Singh Badal against sharing of river waters.

The Congress members were demanding amendments in the resolution on SYL (Sutlej-Yamuna link) canal issue. The Opposition wanted the SAD-BJP government to condemn the Centre for filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court recently, favouring early completion of the SYL canal to give more water to Haryana. The Congress also sought direction to the government to de-notify the land acquired for the SYL canal and return it to farmers.

The Opposition also insisted on initiating the discussion on the resolution instead of the CM and didnt allow him to speak. The charged Congress members ignored repeated pleas by the speaker of not creating ruckus in the House.

Ruckus in House

After four adjournments, BJP MLA Madan Mohan Mittal moved a proposal before the speaker for suspending the Opposition MLAs. Leader of opposition in the House Charanjit Singh Channi said 26 Congress MLAs were present in the House when the speaker ordered their suspension. The resolution of the ruling alliance has no meaning. Its like delivering a lecture and has nothing concrete, said Channi, adding that the amendments suggested by the Congress were action-driven. The government could have easily closed the mater for always by de-notifying the land on which the SYL was built, said Channi.

However, the amendments in the resolution proposed by Channi were rejected by the speaker on technical grounds, saying the proposal was not given in the prescribed format and it had to be submitted two days in advance.

Later, reacting to the rejection, Channi said proposing the amendments two days in advance was not possible as he came to know about the resolution yesterday (Wednesday).

On being asked that it was state Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh who welcomed former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi during the foundation-laying ceremony of the SYL canal in 1982, Channi said: Amarinder stood for the rights of state and brought in the Termination of Water Agreements Act, 2005. To this, the treasury benches flashed a copy of an advertisement with photograph of then PM Indira Gandhi and Amarinder in an English daily in 1982 showing the latter welcoming the then PM.

Supporting Channi, Congress MLA Balbir Singh Sidhu said in the Rajiv-Longowal Accord, the Akalis accepted to construct the SYL canal and the then Badal government got `2 crore in the 1980s to conduct a survey.

Break ties with BJP, CONG to SAD

Channi told the media that in such a crisis situation, the SAD should snap ties with the BJP in Punjab and also pull out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre. The Akalis should also step down and seek fresh elections in the state, he suggested.

Former Congress Legislature Party leader (CLP) leader Sunil Jakhar, who is MLA from the Abohar constituency, said the Congress should have participated in the debate. I am not against my partys collective decision, but we would have cornered the ruling alliance with fact and figures by participating in the debate, Jakhar told HT.

He added that any amount of water going into SYL would affect the Abohar area  the kinnow belt of the state which is entirely fed on the canal water. Every drop of water being diverted to the SYL canal would affect our area and will turn it into a desert, he told HT.

Plead of day

CLP leader Charanjit Singh Channi stood up with folded hands and offered to touch the feet of BJP minister Madan Mohan Mittal when the former interrupted him. I will touch your feet, but please let me speak, said Channi, and everyone in the House burst into laughter.

Advice of day

As the CLP leader repeatedly insisted on allowing him to speak on the resolution on the SYL canal, deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal stood up and said the newly-nominated CLP leader may not know the procedure of the Vidhan Sabha and suggested him to take advice from his predecessor, Sunil Jakhar.

Barb of day

As health minister Surjit Kumar Jyani was unable to pronounce the word psychiatry, Congress MLA Sunil Jakhar told the House to use simpler words so the ministers who cant speak English can make their point. Officials use difficult words on notes prepared for ministers. Please in future, use manovigyan in place of psychiatry, suggested Jakhar.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Jewellers staged a dharna at the Sadbhawna chowk here under the banner of the Swarnkar Sangh and the Sarafa Association here on Thursday.

The protesters said that the imposition of 1% excise duty on gold ornaments was not acceptable and it should be withdrawn.

The leaders of protesters stated that in 2012, the finance minister of UPA government at that time, Pranab Mukherjee, had proposed 1% excise duty on gold and, at that time Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) had supported the agitation of jewellers. Now when the BJP is in government, it has takne a U-turn on the issue and taken the same decision.

Jewellers also demanded withdrawal of the condition of providing permanent account number (PAN) of customers on the purchase of gold worth more than Rs 2 lakh. They said most of residents of villages are in agriculture-related works and they did not have PAN. So, the condition of PAN should also be withdrawn, they said.
Days after he was challenged to an open debate on freedom of expression by 15-year-old Jhanvi Behal from Ludhiana, JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar has finally spoken about it.

In a video available online, Kanhaiya has wished that Behal achieves so much in life that she gets an opportunity to debate with US presidential candidates in future.

Skip to 1:48 to hear Kanhaiya respond to Jhanvi Behals challenge:

A student of Class 10 in DAV Public School, Ludhiana, Jhanvi had also advised Kanhaiya to think before making such statements and to avoid using abusive language against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Jhanvi is an active member of non-goverment organisation Raksha Jyoti Foundation.

Video: Watch 15-yr-old Ludhiana activist challenge Kanhaiya Kumar

In an interview to Hindustan Times, Jhanvi had said, What has happened on the JNU campus in the name of freedom of expression is not tolerable for any Indian. The students were raising anti-India slogans, when armymen were sacrificing their lives fighting against Pakistan-sponsored terrorists.
From April 1, customers dining at various eateries in the city would not have to pay any service charge with the UT administration declaring the levy as illegal on Wednesday. UT deputy commissioner Ajit Balaji Joshi passed the orders  issued by the department if food and civil supplies  stating that service charge cannot be levied on food bills at hotels and restaurants, after the legal remembrance (LR) stated that service charge is illegal as it is not backed by any statute.

At present, several restaurants and hotels in Chandigarh are levying service charge ranging between 6% and 12% on total food bills claiming that it was meant to be distributed to the staff.

Those charging levy to be booked

The orders of the DC have been issued under Section 133 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) that confer special powers to the issuing authority. This implies that if a complaint is received, there will be a direct registration of a case under Section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the IPC.

Background and current practice

The levying of service charge has been an issue that has had residents approaching the administration for redress for long. On August 31, 2014, the administration had told restaurants not to levy service charge.

Post this, the administration had issued another letter wherein it approved the levying of the service charge on the condition that the restaurants will have to pay VAT on the amount collected as service charge.
Panjab Universitys (PU) proposal to set up an India - UK Advanced Training Schools(IUATS) in waste water treatment has won approval under the Newton Bhabha Fund programme.

Panjab Universitys is one of the two proposals to be selected from India.

The proposed India and UK Advanced Training School aims to impart knowledge, skill and training in all aspects of waste water treatment/ management. It aims to enable participants and stake holder to impact the social and economic life of local and urban populations as well as deliver mutual benefits to participating countries in waste water management and sanitation.

PU professor of chemistry, SK Mehta will lead a group of 10 scientists from Chandigarh for a UK workshop on how to train the students who are a part of this programme.

The workshop will be held during July 2016 in UK with Prof SK Mehta as the lead coordinator from India and Prof. Alex Ibhadon, from the University of Hull, UK as the lead coordinator from UK.

The Newton Bhabha Fund is worth 50 million over five years and is supported by the UK and Indian governments through a ministerial agreement. IIT Gandhinagar is the other Indian institution, whose proposal also got approved. The Newton Fund is part of the UKs official development assistance.

Its aim is to develop science and innovation partnerships that promote the economic development and welfare of developing countries. IUATS will provide financial support to bring together group of mentors, early career researchers and post-doctoral fellows from both countries. The programme aims to train participants in advanced research techniques and methodologies and to create opportunities for exchange of knowledge and good practice between the UK and India.
Pandemonium ensued in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, shortly after chief minister Parkash Singh Badal put forth a resolution for discussion on the SYL canal issue. Congress is seeking dismantling of the SYL canal and return of the acquired land back to the farmers.

The Opposition was seeking amendments to Badals resolution which the speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal denied. Subsequently, opposition leaders started shouting slogans against the government. The House was then adjourned for half an hour.

The highlights of Badals resolution are:

1. Punjab not to accept any unjust decision on SYL and River waters, says resolution moved by Badal

2. Punjab has not a single drop of water to spare

3. Violation of Riparian principle is unconstitutional and therefore unacceptable, says Badal

4. Punjab has always been discriminated against by Center

5. River waters issue extremely critical for Punjabs present and future : Badal in a resolution

6. Situation today extremely grave and dangerous : Badal

7. Punjab has complete legal Riparian right over its river waters

8. Punjab not to tolerate nor allow any unjust decision on SYL and river waters to be forcibly imposed on Punjab

Oppositions demands

The Opposition wants the government to condemn the Centre for supporting the SYL canal. Additionally, it wants the government to break away from the NDA and break alliance with the BJP in Punjab.
On the second day of the Punjab assembly budget session, speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal rejected the Congress demand to include more names in obituary references.

The rejection came with an advice that only names of peoples representative (MLAs, MPs, ministers) and freedom fighters who died between the previous session and the current one be included. After the speaker read out 28 obituary references, leader of opposition Chanranjit Singh Channi demanded inclusion of more names.

The House was adjourned for the day after paying tributes to those who died in the period between the last sitting and the ongoing session.

Later, talking to the media, Channi said he had written to the speaker to include names of around 13,000 farmers who had committed suicide due to debt in the obituary references and also names of people killed in road accidents involving buses. Besides, Channi sought inclusion of names of two people killed in police firing at Behbal Kalan last year.

However, the Speaker agreed to Akali MLA Pawan Tinus demanded of obituary reference for chancellor of Sant Baba Bhag Singh University, Jalandhar, Baba Malkiat Singh.

I would like to convey the House to adopt the practise to only have peoples representatives and freedom fighters in obituary references. Let us not lengthen the list and maintain the grace, said Atwal. Interestingly, the list of obituaries read out by Atwal included names industrialists, writers, security personnel, high court judges and retired army officers along with politicians and freedom fighters.

The speaker read out names of former Lok Sabha speakers Balram Jakhar and PA Sangma, former governors of Punjab Gen OP Malhotra and Lt Gen JFR Jacob, former speaker of Punjab Vidhan Sabha Harnam Das Johar, former state minister Ranjit Singh Balian, former MP Tarlochan Singh Toor and former MLAs Gurnam Singh Dhirowali and Manmohan Singh Brar.

The list also included names of Savinder Kaur Kahlon, wife of former Vidhan Sabha speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon, justice NK Sanghi of the Punjab and Haryana high court, defence personnel killed while fighting militants at the Pathankot airbase and 10 army men, including lance naik Hanumanthappa who died following an avalanche in Saichen.

The obituary list included nine freedom fighters, writer Mahip Singh, industrialists Brij Mohan Munjal and Brij Bedi, former director general of the Border Security Force Ashwani Kumar and brigadier Sant Singh (retd).

Faux pas

The Vidhan Sabha office was found lacking in preparing the details of obituary references. The list of the obituary references was sketchy and many names were missing. The list stated that army men lance naik Hanumanthappa and nine others, who were killed in Saichen avalanche, were from the Border Security Force.

Congress walks out of advisory panel meeting

The Congress walked out in protest from the business advisory committee meeting in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha on Wednesday. Leader of opposition Channi said the Congress had been given a dissenting note in the business advisory committee.

We had urged the speaker to extend the session by two days or increase the sittings so important issues could be debated, but he rejected our demand. We had listed 13 core issues which needed to be discussed in the House and demanded that a Congress representative should be present when the ballot was done for questions, said Channi.We have already given an adjournment motion on the SYL issue, but now the government is bringing a resolution on it, which is unethical. The speaker should clarify about our adjournment motion which we submitted two days back, he said.

Later, talking to the media, Channi said the speaker had not accepted Congress resolutions to be brought for discussion on a non-official business day. The Congress has sought to bring resolutions on farmer suicides and inability of the government to protect scheduled castes and backward classes in the state, he added. Thursday is fixed for non-official business when chief minister Parkash Singh Badal is expected to speak on the SYL canal issue. In the past nine years, not even a single resolution proposed by the Congress has been taken up in the House, said Channi.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
A day after HT exposed a scam of Rs 72 lakh in Government Girls Senior Secondary School at Shankar village, that was unearthed in an education department inquiry in October last year, the district education officer (DEO) has recommended a criminal case against the accused.

Following education minister Daljit Singh Cheemas orders on Wednesday, the DEO wrote a letter to the senior superintendent of police (SSP rural) to take action against school clerk Jatinder Kumar, who has been named in the inquiry report.

I received a call from the education minister to look into the matter and lodge an FIR against the accused so I have written to the police in this regard, said DEO Harinder Pal Singh.

The embezzlement of Rs 72 lakh, in which Kumar drew salaries of school teachers no longer on rolls and transferred to his private bank account, was first revealed in an education department committee investigation. The role of treasury officials at Nakodar is suspected as Kumar could not have done the deed single-handedly.

A report was submitted to the education secretary in December last year but no action was taken.

Kumar was appointed in the school in gross violation of norms despite the fact that a government designated clerk was already working there.

According to rules, no person other than a specially designated government clerk can be given username and password for uploading salary bills of employees online.

Even the records from 2011 to 2012 have also been deliberately misplaced and the inquiry report suggests that there is more to it than meets the eye and the fraud could turn out to be even bigger.
Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Avtar Singh Makkar has condemned the open sale of swaroops of Guru Granth Sahib at a Car Boot Sale in Wolverhampton town in the West Midlands in England.

In a release issued here on Thursday, Makkar said that this amounted to showing disrespect to the holy book. The Sikh scripture cannot be put up for sale in bazaar or any other place, he added. He appealed to the British government to take steps to check such incidents in future.
Whats the matter?

Activists of the Student Federation of India (SFI) from Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) filed a case against internet giant Yahoo.com over use of their photo to denote a protest on Jadavpur University in Kolkata. The FIR was registered on February 21 on the complaint of Vikram Kayath of the SFI, a wing of the Community Party of India-Marxist (CPM); and he had said the report was an attempt to defame him and the SFI.

What about the photo?

The photo was a usual protest on HPU campus but Yahoo used it with an article about students allegedly raising slogans against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru at Jadavpur University. These slogans were termed anti-national.

Why the hoopla?

The report was titled Now, Jadavpur varsity students raise pro-Afzal slogans, and had come just after similar slogans were allegedly raised on the campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. The JNU row sparked off a national storm which had led to arrest of JNU student union president Kanhaiya Kumar and others.

What did Yahoo.com say?

In the Himachal Pradesh high court, Yahoos counsel Randeep Singh Rai argued that the FIR was bad in law since Yahoo had no criminal intent to commit an offence. On Tuesday, when Yahoo had filed the petition for quashing the FIR, the lawyer had told the court that his client was ready to pay compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the respondents.

What court ruled; what about the money?

The court on Wednesday quashed the FIR and ruled, Since the parties have amicably resolved the matter and, moreover, the petitioner has also prominently published a public apology on its website on February 25 and 26, 2016, no useful [purpose] will be served by keeping the FIR proceedings pending. The court directed Yahoo to deposit Rs 2 lakh in the court within one week.

Also read: Apple iPhone at Rs 68! Forum fines Snapdeal, orders to honour deal
Bollywood actor Adah Sharma is all set to make her Tamil debut with romantic drama Idhu Namma Aalu starring Simbu. Adahs Telugu film Kshanam is a hit, pushing her collective worth as a bankable star.

Adah will be seen as Simbus ex lover. Both of them will shake a leg for a special song called Maaman Waiting. Apparently, it was her song Shake it like Shammi from Hasee Toh Phasee that impressed the makers who eventually signed her for this role, said a source from the films unit.

Read: 1920 star Adah Sharma to make Kannada debut with Ranavikrama

The track is said to be the title song of the film, which is directed by Pandiraj. According to the source, Adah has already arrived in Chennai to shoot for her portion.

Read: Prominent Telugu stars praise Adivi Sesh-starrer Kshanam

Also starring Nayanthara, Andrea Jeremiah and Soori, the film is gearing up for release in April. The film also marks the debut of composer Kuralarasan, younger brother of Simbu.

ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktop
It wouldve been difficult for us to see her as somebody elses wife after we have seen her as Kapil Sharmas wife on Comedy Nights With Kapil for so long and now it looks like it isnt happening either.

Sumona Chakravarti said that the rumours of her getting married are totally rubbish while chatting with radio jockeys of a Dubai based radio station, Josh978UAE.

Sumona, the rumours said, is marrying Samrat Mukherjee, a Bengali actor and that he is the cousin of famous Bollywood actors Kajol and Rani Mukherji.

Sumona with Shah Rukh Khan on the sets of Comedy Nights With Kapil. (Twitter)

The actor said that she meets Samrat only once a year for Durga Puja and though he is a family friend, she has no intention of getting married anytime soon.

She shared the radio bite on her Twitter handle with laughing emoji icons to put all rumours to rest.

Samrat is said to be 11 years senior to Sumona and was also seen in Ashutosh Gowarikers Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se (2010) with Abhishek Bachchan and Deepika Padukone.

Read: Why is Kapil Sharma always after Sumonas lips? Fans ask her the same
Controversial Bangladeshi tycoon Moosa bin Shamsher is facing charges of hiding information on his wealth and earning money beyond his known sources of income after he informed an anti-corruption watchdog that he has $12 billion in a Swiss bank.

On Thursday, a case was filed in Dhaka against Shamsher, who is known to have a vast and shady network in many countries, including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, as an alleged broker in defence purchases.

Mir Jainul Abedin Shibly, a director of the Anti-Corruption Commission, filed the case accusing Shamsher of providing false information about his wealth and failing to clarify how he accumulated so much wealth.

If convicted, Shamser could face up to three years in jail and a fine for one charge, and three to 10 years in jail and confiscation of his wealth for the other.

He did not react to the charges.

Shamsher has been questioned by the commission several times in recent months after he allegedly failed to explain his position to investigators.

In a wealth statement submitted to the commission on June 7, 2015, Shamser said he had $12 billion in a Swiss bank. He said he had deposited ornaments worth about $90 million in the banks vault. He also said he owned about 1,200 bighas of land near Dhaka.

Shamsher allegedly failed to explain how he had amassed this wealth.

The probe against Shamsher began in 2014 after Business Asia magazine ran a story that provided details of his wealth. Officials said Shamsher claimed he earned the money legally through business over the past four decades.

The businessman explained to officials that the $12 billion now frozen in the Swiss bank had come from deals for the purchase of arms by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Pakistan. His company DATCO is involved in exporting farm and industry workers from Bangladesh to the Middle East. But officials were not satisfied with his clarifications.

Shamsher, who usually uses the term Prince before his name, was once the subject of a cover story in The Sunday Telegraph of London. He has been in the limelight for his lavish lifestyle.

He became an issue during the 1997 general election in Britain as he reportedly offered the Labour Party and Tony Blair 5 million as a campaign donation. The party rejected the offer.
Jairo Zapata, a young Democrat, started out a Hillary Clinton supporter. It was easy to be one. He knew about her, her husband and his presidency. Then he heard of Bernie Sanders.

His friends at college were full of Sanders. But Zapata said he was not impressed, so he set about researching him. And he was soon hooked  loved him. He is a staunch Sanders supporter now.

The 19-year-old stood among a raucous bunch of students outside the Democratic debate venue at Miami Dade College here on Wednesday in support of the 74-year-old candidate.

Inside, Sanders tried to build on his surprise win in Tuesdays Michigan primary, called the most significant upset in the recent history of US presidential elections.

We have come a long way in 10 months, Sanders said, referring to the initial response to his candidacy, mostly indulgent derision, with a nod to his polls.

Sanders is now a serious candidate whose renegade campaign funded by small donations is posing a serious challenge to the front-runner, who once had a lock on the nomination.

I believe that our message of the need for people to stand up and tell corporate America and Wall Street that they cannot have it all is resonating across this country, he said at the debate.

Sanders has won nine of the Democratic nominating contests so far to Clintons 12, and trails her 566 to 1,215 in the count of delegates, with 2,383 being the target.

But, he has argued, those numbers tell a happy story.

And buoyed by the Michigan victory, Sanders clashed with Clinton at the debate on immigration, the 2008 bailouts and her links to Wall Street, reprising mostly old differences.

Sanders, a most untypical presidential candidate, has caught the imagination of a section of Democrats who find hope in his message, strength in his consistency and faith in his humility.

They are mostly white, young and blue-collar workers, and not unlike those backing Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner who cannot be more different than Sanders.

Brian Crowley, a long-time political writer, said Sanders and Trump are backed by similar voters who feel disenfranchised and hurt by a bad economy, separated only by issues.

Except one: Their opposition to free trade agreements, which according to both have invariably led to job losses. Trump likes to hammer China and Mexico for it.

Sanderss opposition to it was crucial to his victory in Michigan, as he was able to successfully link job losses in the state to trade agreements Clinton supported, before opposing them.

There is also a touch of counter-culture to his campaign built around his support for legalising marijuana, a popular issue with left-leaning college-goers.

Adrian Hernandez, 20, was unable to recall any of Sanderss policies that he supports  I dont remember right now, he said sheepishly  but added he likes the way he talks.

Jose Rekut, 25, went to Sanders because he didnt like Trump. When asked about Clinton, he shrugged, Yeaaaa but went with Bernie.

Zapata had a better explanation: Sanders promise of free public college, support for marijuana legalisation, and, above all, his history of being consistent, unlike Clinton.

But despite the surprise win in Michigan, which forced Sanders to take another look at Florida, a state he had given up on earlier, his supporters are not sure he will bag the nomination.

I dont think he will win, said Eddie Balon, an older man who joined the students outside the debate venue. But he would have at least changed the conversation.
A Ukrainian pilot held in Russia over the death of two Russian journalists during separatist fighting in eastern Ukraine climbed onto a table and flashed an obscene gesture at a judge at the end of her trial on Wednesday.

Nadezhda Savchenko, 34, who faces up to 25 years jail if found guilty, has become a hero for many in Ukraine resentful of what they see as Kremlin backing for pro-Russian insurgents trying to break Kievs control over eastern territories.

Her lawyer, Nikolai Polozov, said she had suffered heart problems and fever since beginning a hunger strike last week in protest at what she called a show trial. Her life, he said, was in danger and she needed the attention of Ukrainian doctors.

I dont accept my guilt or recognise the sentence of a Russian court, Savchenko said in the courtroom, according to a translation from Ukrainian read out by one of her lawyers.

People hold pictures of Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko during a rally demanding freedom for her, outside the Russian Embassy in Warsaw, Poland on Wednesday. (AP)

An online broadcast from the courtroom showed her climbing onto a bench in the cage for defendants to raise her middle finger at the judge.

Helicopter pilot Savchenko was captured in eastern Ukraine in 2014 during fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Moscow separatists and handed over to the Russian authorities. It remains unclear how she was brought across the border to Russia.

The court in the southern Russian region of Rostov-on-Don said it would sentence Savchenko on March 21-22.

Breach of Minsk Peace Deal

In a phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia had been prepared to allow Ukrainian doctors to visit Savchenko but that was no longer possible because of her behaviour in court.

The pilot will now be denied any further visitors until her sentencing, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Regarding the health of N. Savchenko...(She) feels normal, is doing exercise. She is under the constant supervision of Russian doctors.

The pro-Russian insurgency broke out in the industrial, largely Russian-speaking Luhansk and Donetsk regions in April, 2014, shortly after Moscow annexed Crimea in reaction to the toppling of a Moscow-friendly president in Kiev. The conflict has eased since a peace agreement but tensions continue.

A woman attends a rally demanding the liberation of Savchenko by Russia at the Freedom Square in Tbilisi, Georgia on Wednesday. (REUTERS)

Russia denies providing arms and personnel to the insurgency.

A German government spokesman urged Russia to free Savchenko immediately, saying her imprisonment was in breach of the Minsk peace deal for eastern Ukraine that was agreed last year.

In addition, there are many questions as to how Ms. Savchenko was brought to Russian territory, Steffen Seibert said during a regular news conference.

Russian prosecutors say that in June 2014, during the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine, Savchenko helped to direct artillery fire in the Luhansk region where a shell killed two Russian television reporters.

Her lawyers say the time and location of calls made from her mobile phone disprove the allegations. At the time of the incident, Savchenko was fighting with a ground unit.

(Reporting by Alexander Winning, Denis Dyomkin and Jack Stubbs in Moscow, Joseph Nasr in Berlin; Editing by Ralph Boulton)
A year-old government rule is the reason why online publications with foreign investment will have to seek permission from Chinese authorities before publishing content on the internet from Thursday.

State media quoted a newspaper affiliated to Chinas top media watchdog as saying that a government catalogue had banned foreign investment in online publications.

An anonymous official from Chinas media regulator, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT), told the newspaper affiliated to it that the watchdog was following rules laid down in the Catalogue for the Guidance of Industries for Foreign Investment, which specifically puts foreign investment in online publishing on the blacklist.

To publish, online content providers will have to knock on the doors of SAPPRFT first from now on. Industries on the list include books, newspapers and magazines, digital publications and audiovisual products, the official said.

Joint ventures between Chinese and foreign firms should first seek the approval of the SAPPRFT before publishing content online, including text, photos, games and animation, state-run Global Times newspaper reported about the rule that came into effect on Thursday.

The catalogue was jointly released by the National Development and Reform Commission and the commerce ministry in 2015 but the rules were notified on February 4.

The clarification comes after China released a new regulation on February 4 that prohibits foreign businesses from publishing online content, the newspaper said.

Moreover, the official from the SAPPRFT stressed that online publishing service providers within the Peoples Republic of China must have their servers and storage equipment located in the Chinese mainland, the article said.

Local experts said the rule is being implemented to protect and preserve Chinese culture and ideology.

But it is also seen as the latest effort by the government to restrict and control information circulated on the internet in China.

The regulations, according to the newspaper, added that online content publishers should promote core socialist values and spread morals that improve the quality of the nation and promote economic development.

Even online game service providers who allow people to download or play games online are required to get SAPPRFTs approval, the newspaper said.

There was tough regulation of anything online before and they shut down anything they thought disrupts social order. But a lot of what might have been common practices before are being put into legislation so China can argue its operating under the rule of law, Paul Gillis, visiting professor at Peking Universitys Guanghua School of Management, told The Independent newspaper last month when news of the new regulation emerged.
US senator Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on Wednesday he does not expect an upcoming vote on a $700 million sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan to keep the deal from going ahead.

However, he said there was still discussion of whether US taxpayer funds could be used to finance the purchase.

President Barack Obamas administration announced on February 12 that it had approved the sale of the Lockheed Martin Corp aircraft as well as radars and other equipment to Pakistan.

It drew immediate criticism from India and concern from some members of Congress.

Republican senator Rand Paul, in late February, invoked legislation known as the Arms Export Control Act in the hope of stopping the sale by passing a Resolution of Disapproval, calling Pakistan an uncertain ally.

Cardin told reporters he opposed Pauls resolution and expected it to fail, with the chambers Republican and Democratic leaders opposing it. The measure could be taken up by the Senate as soon as Thursday.

Cardin said lawmakers had concerns about Pakistans nuclear program, commitment to fighting terrorist organisations and cooperation in the Afghanistan peace process but generally supported the sale.

It was not controversial that Pakistan needs to modernise its air force and its counter insurgency and counter-terrorism activities, particularly in the mountainous territory of the border with Afghanistan, he said.

Congress is considering a request to reprogram some funds, in other words, use them for a different purpose than allocated in a budget bill, to help finance the deal.

Cardin said he was not yet prepared to make a judgment on whether US taxpayer funds should be used to help Pakistan with the purchase.
It is not the first time that a person fleeing local law in foreign countries has taken shelter in London: Vijay Mallya, who flew here on March 2, joins a long list of controversial Indian and other foreign citizens who find Britain a safer place than their home countries.

However, it needs to be noted that he is not a declared absconder yet, as a senior official told HT: Unless Mallya himself returns to India, there is virtually no chance of India being able to secure his extradition through normal channels. He says he is not running away from creditors, he is not an absconder yet.

Britain has a long and proud history of providing refuge to those fleeing political and religious persecution, but those facing financial allegations in home countries are also finding refuge in the cooler climes of Britain as the lines of those claiming refuge get increasingly blurred.

As nineteenth century reformer Samuel Smiles called London the worlds asylum, the refuge of the persecuted of all lands.

Over centuries, hundreds of thousands from various countries have secured refuge and asylum in Britain, including the Huguenots, people from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Indians expelled from Idi Amins Uganda in the early 1970s.

Britains contemporary unease with increasing numbers of refugees is reflected in tighter updates in law: the popular perception is against welcoming refugees any more, but this does not evidently extend to high net worth individuals.

In recent years, high profile foreign offenders with considerable wealth have also found refuge and a safe place to park their assets and enjoy a peaceful life, away from local laws of their home countries snapping at their heels  including many from Russia.

India and Britain signed an extradition treaty in December 1993, but Indian circles in London do not remember a single individual wanted by India being extradited. In 2008, India extradited Maninderpal Singh Kohli to Britain in the Hannah Foster murder case.

Alleged financial offences is the reason for India seeking the return of Mallya and Lalit Modi, but there have been several cases related to other offences in India  none of which, however, has gone in Indias favour, mainly due to stringent human rights laws in Britain.

Recent cases in which India has not been successful include those of Ravi Shankaran (accused in the Indian Navy war room leak case), Tiger Hanif (wanted in connection with two bomb attacks in Gujarat in 1993), music director Nadeem Saifi (accused and acquitted in the Gulshan Kumar murder case), and several individuals related to the Khalistan movement.

Tiger Hanif has exhausted all options in British courts to avoid extradition. His case is with Home secretary Theresa May, who needs to approve his extradition, but he also has the final option of approaching the European Court of Human Rights to avoid extradition.

India has been seeking the extradition of British national Raymond Varley, accused in child abuse cases in Goa. One British national recently extradited was Indian-origin Shrien Dewani, who faced court in South Africa for the 2010 honeymoon murder of his wife, Anni.

British courts usually refuse extradition requests that are based on political reasons or from countries where a person is likely to face torture or the death penalty. Several cases have been refused on the ground that extradition would deny the person the right to family life (Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights).

Wanted in India, living in Britain

Some recent cases of individuals wanted for alleged offences in India:

 Vijay Mallya (financial)

 Lalit Modi (financial)

 Ravi Shankaran (Navy war room leak case)

 Tiger Hanif (1993 blasts in Gujarat)

 Nadeem Saifi (Gulshan Kumar murder case)

 Raymond Varley (UK citizen; child abuse cases in Goa)

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan will be in Nepals Pokhara tourist town next week for a SAARC meet but there is no word on whether they will hold talks on the sidelines of the gathering.

Ahead of a meeting of SAARC foreign ministers during March 15-17, joint secretaries and foreign secretaries of the member countries will hold preparatory meetings in Pokhara, located 200 km northwest of Kathmandu.

Officials said no decision had been made on whether Indian foreign secretary S Jaishankar would hold separate talks with his Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Chaudhry on the sidelines of the meet.

Speculations are always there when Indian and Pakistani dignitaries attend such a meet. But nothing has been finalised yet or conveyed to us, a senior diplomat at the Indian embassy here told Hindustan Times.

The two foreign secretaries were expected to hold talks in January but the meeting was cancelled in the aftermath of the terror attack on Pathankot airbase, which was blamed on Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed. Both sides havent talked since.

Rumours are rife that the foreign secretaries could use the Pokhara meet to discuss the possibility of resuming bilateral talks and deliberate on issues for the SAARC summit to be held in Islamabad later this year.

The meeting in Pokhara will also be attended by external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, who will fly directly to Pokhara to participate in deliberations on March 17.

Details of her visit have not been chalked out. She is expected to spend 24 to 36 hours in Pokhara and return directly to New Delhi from there, the senior diplomat said.

Swaraj visited Nepal in February, when she led a delegation of political leaders to pay respect to late prime minister Sushil Koirala, who also headed the Nepali Congress party.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on Thursday in defiance of a UN Security Council resolution, as South Korean and US forces conducted massive war games.

The North also announced on Thursday it has scrapped all agreements with the South on commercial exchange projects and would liquidate South Korean assets left behind in its territory.

North Korea has a large stockpile of short-range missiles and is developing long-range and intercontinental missiles as well. The missiles fired on Thursday flew about 500 km off its east coast city of Wonsan and were likely from the Soviet-developed Scud series, South Koreas defence ministry said.

Japan, which is within range of the longer-range variant of Scud missiles or the upgraded Rodong missiles, lodged a protest through the North Korean embassy in Beijing, Japans Kyodo news agency reported.

North Korea often fires short-range missiles when tensions rise on the Korean peninsula. Pyongyang gets particularly upset about the annual US-South Korea drills, which its says are preparations for an invasion.

The US and South Korea remain technically at war with the North because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armed truce instead of a peace agreement.

Around 17,000 US military personnel are participating alongside some 300,000 South Korean troops in what South Koreas Defence Ministry has called the largest ever joint military exercises.

North Korea on Sunday warned it would make a pre-emptive and offensive nuclear strike in response to the exercises.

Liquidating assets

After Thursdays missile launches, North Korea announced it would liquidate South Korean assets left behind in the Kaesong industrial zone and in the Mount Kumgang tourist zone.

Seoul suspended operations in the jointly run zone last month as punishment for the Norths rocket launch and nuclear test.

Mount Kumgang was the first major inter-Korean cooperation project. Thousands of South Koreans visited the resort between 1998 and 2008. Seoul ended the tours in 2008 after a North Korean soldier shot dead a South Korean tourist who wandered into a restricted zone.

North Korea is also livid about stepped up UN sanctions adopted last week following its recent nuclear test and long-range missile launch.

South Koreas foreign ministry said Thursdays missile launches again violated a series of UN Security Council resolutions and it would refer the matter to the Council sanctions committee mandated to enforce the resolutions.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei described the situation on the Korean Peninsula as complex and sensitive.

All sides should stop their provocative words and deeds to avoid a further rise in tensions, he said.

Miniaturised warheads

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country has miniaturised nuclear warheads to mount on ballistic missiles, state media reported on Wednesday, and called on his military to be prepared to mount pre-emptive attacks against the US and South Korea.

It was his first direct comment on the technology needed to deploy nuclear missiles. North Korean state media released photographs it said showed Kim Jong Un inspecting a spherical miniaturised warhead. State media has previously made that claim, which has been widely questioned and never independently verified.

South Koreas defence ministry said it did not believe the North has successfully miniaturised a nuclear warhead or deployed a functioning intercontinental ballistic missile.

State department spokesman John Kirby declined to comment on Kims claim to have miniaturised nuclear warheads and accused him of provocative rhetoric.

Id say the young man needs to pay more attention to the North Korean people and taking care of them than in pursuing these sorts of reckless capabilities, Kirby said.

The Pentagon said this week it had not seen North Korea demonstrate a capability to miniaturise a nuclear warhead. But Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the department was working on US ballistic missile defences to be prepared.

North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test on January 6 but its claim to have set off a miniaturised hydrogen bomb last month has been disputed by the US and South Korean governments and many experts, who said the blast was too small to back it up.
A shooting at a backyard barbecue in a town in the northeastern US state of Pennsylvania has left five dead, with at least two suspects still on the run, police said on Thursday.

Four of the victims -- three women and one man -- died at the scene while another woman died in hospital, police said in a statement.

Two men are in critical condition and a woman is in stable condition following the incident that unfolded at a home late on Wednesday in the town of Wilkinsburg, they said.

The ballistic evidence on the scene leads police to believe that two different weapons were discharged from two different people, the statement said.

No one has been taken into custody and police were urging witnesses to come forward.

Wilkinsburg is located around 10 kilometres (six miles) east of the city of Pittsburgh.

Police said shots were fired from an alley and that when party-goers tried to seek cover in the home, someone on the side or backyard adjacent to the residence fired at the back porch, where all four deaths occurred.

No ages or identities of the victims has been released.

According to CBS affiliate KDKA, neighbours reported hearing 30 to 40 shots ring out.

Emergency dispatchers said seven ambulances were called to the scene, according to local broadcaster WPXI.

Neighbourhood resident Kayla Alexander told WPXI that the street where the shooting occurred is normally quiet and filled with playing children.

Local media footage from the scene showed a massive police presence and streets blocked off as visibly distraught groups of onlookers wept and hugged.

WPXI reported that some said they had lost family members.

The rampage represents the latest mass shooting to rock the United States, where such attacks have become commonplace.

Late last month, a factory worker killed three people and wounded 17 in a shooting spree in Kansas.

Other recent mass shootings include a rampage by an Uber driver that left six people dead in Michigan and the December terror attack in San Bernardino, California, in which 14 people lost their lives.

Gun violence is responsible for some 30,000 deaths per year in the country, with 330 mass shooting incidents recorded last year.
A US teenager has been sentenced to two years probation for brutally assaulting a Sikh-American man last year. The teen has also been charged with hate crime for calling the victim a terrorist and bin Laden, and has been ordered to perform community service for the Sikh community.

The 17-year-old, whose name was not released, had pleaded guilty in December last year to hitting Inderjit Singh Mukker, 53, of Darien, Illinois in a traffic altercation on September 8, just days before the fourteenth 9/11 anniversary.

DuPage County States attorney Robert Berlin announced on Wednesday that the Willowbrook teen has been sentenced to two years of probation by the juvenile court.

Besides probation, he was also ordered to perform 200 hours of community service, part of which must be serving the Sikh community, pay over $4,800 in restitution and undergo counselling as deemed necessary by the Probation Department.

My office has zero tolerance for crimes based on hatred or prejudices. Not only have the defendants outrageous actions on September 8, taken an emotional, physical and even financial toll on Mukker that continues to this very day, his actions also have shaken the entire community, Berlin said.

Read | US Sikhs feel vulnerable, join with Muslims to combat backlash

Berlin said the defendant in this case learned that any attack motivated in whole or in part by a pre-conceived bias against another individual is a serious crime that carries serious consequences.

Mukker and the defendant were involved in a road rage incident instigated by the defendant yelling racial slurs at Mukker, including Terrorist, go back to your country, Bin Laden!, a police investigation had found.

The defendant repeatedly punched Mukker in the face as he sat in his vehicle. Mukker lost consciousness, bled profusely and suffered a fractured cheekbone and a laceration to his cheek. Upon their arrival, police had found Mukker in the front drivers seat of his vehicle. He received six stitches.

Read | Sikhs raise around Rs 53 lakhs for campaign to tackle growing misconceptions in US

Police located the defendant, who had fled the scene, at his home. When officers attempted to arrest him, he had resisted and even punched a police officer in the face.

Advocacy group The Sikh Coalition said ever since Mukker was viciously assaulted, there has been a meteoric rise in hate crimes against Sikh-Americans as xenophobic political speech has increased.

Charging the assailant with a hate crime is an important step towards addressing the broader epidemic. We hope that the 200 hours of community service are spent with the Sikh- American community in an effort to further educate people about the community, Sikh Coalition legal director Harsimran Kaur said.
Half Moon Bay, CA (94019)

Today

Partly cloudy skies, with gusty winds developing during the afternoon. High 61F. Winds NW at 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph..

Tonight

Clear. Windy early. Low around 50F. Winds NNW at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.
It was a life-changing moment for Natasha Fuller. Her first-grade Wisconsin teacher made an amazing announcement - she was going to donate her kidney to the 8-year-old.

The emotionally charged moments of the announcement to the grandmother, Chris Burleton, were captured by the Oakfield Elementary School District teacher, Jodi Schmidt, in a video.

Burleton put the mind-blowing news on Facebook. "This WONDERFUL lady named Jodi Schmidt is a teacher at Natashas school...and she gave the best ever present to Tasha.Jodi is a match for Tasha to get a kidney.........so very very thankful to Jodi and her family....Tasha will get a NEW kidney from this wonderful lady......GOD BLESS!!!!!!" the grandmother wrote.

This WONDERFUL lady named Jodi Schmidt is a teacher at Natashas school...and she gave the best ever present to... Posted by Chris Burleton on Friday, March 4, 2016

Last week, Schmidt invited Burleton to the school and gave Burleton a pink, gift-wrapped box, inside which was a present with a message that told her that the child's teacher would be a kidney donor for the child.

"You? Oh my gosh!" Burleton exclaimed when she opened the box, and then broke into an emotional outburst. "Here I thought I was coming to school because she was naughty!"

Fuller has been sick since she was born and has lived with her grandparents, Chris and Mark Burleton of Oakfield, Wis., for the past two years in order to get the benefits of specialized care at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Her parents and twin sister live in Oklahoma.

Fuller had been born with prune belly syndrome, which can lead to urinary tract disease as well as the need for kidney dialysis. She had to keep accompanying her grandmother to Milwaukee three times a week. However, reported to be in renal failure, she was on the donor kidney list for years. Still, she tended to develop infections that immediately removed her from the transplant list, Burleton said.

"I just lost it," Burleton said. "You could never tell this little girl has three tubes in her, she doesn't let it faze her. She is happy and sassy, and she just wants to lead a normal life, and do things like go swimming."

In the video, the principal of Oakfield Elementary School, Becky Doyle, explained that the process began last December when Schmidt discovered that she could be a match to be a kidney donor to Fuller. "I want to do something for this child," Doyle recalled Schmidt saying. "She found out yesterday that she's a match in two areas. She has talked with her family and her husband."

Schmidt felt that she was the right person and had come to the world for a reason. "I'm so excited," Schmidt said in the video. "I figured I'm O-negative blood and it did just come to me. I think we're all brought to a certain place and time for a reason."

The news was broken to Burleton, and then Fuller was brought in to take the gift waiting for her. The child, though, was not too aware of the significance of the present. She first read, "It's a match," on the card, and then thanked and hugged her teacher. However, when the adults asked if she knew what the match involved, she shook her head.

She was later told that some sweets might be involved too, which excited her.

"We can get a popsicle where I was ... in the hospital?" Fuller asked before giving her teacher a second hug.

Watch the emotional footage below.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Lucy's bakery, Cleveland

Lucy Ortelecan in 1993.

(David I. Andersen)

(This story originally ran in The Plain Dealer on Feb. 24, 1992.)

The doors stay locked on Tuesdays at Lucy's Home Bakery and Strudel Shop, 12516 Buckeye Rd. Proprietor Lucy Ortelecan, wearing nurse's white, turns the thermostat up to 85 degrees and moves into one of two large rooms behind the shop.



There, across four large, cloth-covered table tops, she and three other workers mix, knead and delicately stretch strudel dough into paper-thin sheets.



"It's easy," she says, wiggling her fingers in demonstration. "It's easy if you know how."



Not many people do know how, which makes Lucy's one of those surviving treasures of another era, another culture.



Cleveland once had the second-largest population of Hungarians in the world, with the Buckeye neighborhood as a central point. But many Hungarians have moved to the suburbs. Those remaining in Cleveland are dying off, Lucy says.



But you wouldn't know it by the bakery. Hungarian is spoken at the small shop, behind the counter and around two small cafe tables in the corner. Jars of imported peppers and tins of paprika line the shelves. It's a protective, sometimes jovial atmosphere.



"Is this Lucy's Bakery? Are you Lucy?" one of the twice-a-day regulars teases Lucy while she is being interviewed. She drops her head, smiles and waves the silver-haired man away.



The bakery's interracial clientele demonstrates that you don't have to be Hungarian to love Lucy's. Most popular is the strudel - layers of crisp dough wrapped around apple, cherry, cheese or poppy-seed filling.



Lucy also sells strudel uncooked and frozen, so that customers can store it and bake it when needed. And she does a sweet cabbage filling on request, when she has the time.



Like typical neighborhood bakeries, Lucy's offers brownies, doughnuts and special-occasion cakes. But the display cases are brightened with European-style fare: chocolate rum balls, marzipan "potatoes," tiny thumbprint nut cookies with raspberry jam filling, brightly colored petit fours and buttercream cake rolls.



Lucy frequently offers fruit-, rum- or chocolate-layered tortes. And among her breads are rolls made from bacon cracklings and cheese sticks with Swiss and caraway. Everything, sweet or not, has the tender crumble of fresh-baked goods made with butter.



"We don't use a mix," she says. "Everything is from scratch."



The Cleveland Encyclopedia of History singles out Hungarians as "hard-working and tolerant" people, and that dovetails with Lucy's work schedule. She's up to bake by 3:30 a.m. and doesn't leave the shop until about 12 hours later. She's 72.



It's a pace she's kept up since she lived in Arad, Romania, once part of Hungary. As a child, she wouldn't stay out of the kitchen. When Lucy was 17, her father bought her a bakery and hired an expert to teach her the trade. When she and her late husband, Tiberiu, came to Cleveland, he got hired for factory work. Lucy started the bakery on her own a year later, in 1953.



The couple had spent two years in an American relocation camp in Austria, fleeing the communist takeover of their own country. She still has relatives there and worries about food shortages. She hedges when it comes to a political discussion.



"What I think I don't tell," she says.



Instead, she talks about baking and how tough it is. Because of that, she doesn't expect her daughters, Mary and Doina, to take over the business.



And tastes have changed. Lucy bakes coffeecake without butter for one longtime customer, but scrunches up her face when uttering the word "margarine."



"We ate butter and eggs for years before there was cholesterol," she says. "You'll see. One day the doctors will give it back."
The parents of a 19-month-old boy who died due to meningitis in 2012 said they're not guilty for their son's death. The couple are currently on trial, where it was revealed that they treated their son with pancake syrup instead of medicine.

A jury in Canada is hearing the case of David Stephan, 32, and Collet Stephan, 35, who were charged by the police for not properly seeking medical treatment for their son, Ezekiel. Only when the young boy stopped breathing did his parents bring him to the hospital. But by then, it was already too late.

Authorities alleged that the Stephans gave their son home remedies and supplements - maple syrup, berries, apple cider vinegar, onions, garlic and ginger root - when he started getting sick. Despite the home treatments, the child's condition continued to deteriorate.

In a taped investigation, the jury heard the couple telling the police that they relied on naturopathic remedies. The couple manages Truehope Nutritional Support Inc., which distributes natural treatments and supplements.

In 2004, the company was warned by Health Canada for selling Empowerplus, a supplement that's supposed to manage mental illness. Prosecutors alleged the Stephans also gave this to their then sick son.

A social worker on the couple's case testified that the Stephans didn't have any record with the Child and Family Services prior to this unfortunate event. A registered nurse and friend of the family also came to check on Ezekiel, upon his mother's request, and advised the parents that they should take him to the doctor. The baby had apparently been sick with fever and colds for two weeks before he developed a respiratory infection. She suspected he could have meningitis.

The Stephans insist that they love their son and that they attended to his needs. They believe that this case against them is a way for the government and certain groups to force parents to vaccinate their children.

"We have found there (sic) actual names on Health Canada documents that showed that they were greatly responsible for initiating the seizure of our mental health supplements at the border back in 2003, that ultimately resulted in numerous suicides as over 3000 Canadians were relying on our products in favour of pharmaceutical medications and were now put into a place of hardship," part of the Stephans' statement said.

"This group is known to put on seminars that are sponsored by various pharmaceutical companies for the purpose of defaming and disparaging any treatments that are outside of allopathic medicine including chiropractic, naturopathic and homeopathic medicine," the statement adds. "One of these seminars was solely dedicated to the defaming of my father's company that is known as Truehope."

The Stephans could face five years in prison if convicted for their negligence. The couple has two older kids.

Will we ever be free?I am not sure that Collet and I have ever looked forward to a weekend as much as we have now.... Posted by Prayers for Ezekiel on Sunday, March 6, 2016

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Whether you believe in the notion that eclipses are bad omens or not, the total solar eclipse that took place on Wednesday morning and affected Indonesia and the Central Pacific was a sight to behold. Although many people gathered on Belitung's beach to view the event, passengers on Alaska Airlines Flight 870 had the best view.

After last year's event, astronomer Joe Rao calculated the flight plan of Alaska Airlines Flight 870, which made its way from Anchorage to Honolulu, and discovered that it would fly right though the darkest part of the eclipse, known as the eclipse totality. However, he also found that the flight would leave the airport 25 minutes too early for passengers to see the event.

Rao called Alaska Airlines and convinced them to change their departure time from Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Alaska Standard Time, so that they could catch the astronomical event.

"We recognize our customers' passions," said Chase Craig, the airline's director of onboard brand experience. "Certainly we can't change flight plans for every interest, but this was a special moment, so we thought it was worth it. Now we have a plane full of customers who will be treated to a special occurrence."

Hal Anderson, captain of the flight, contacted Oceanic Air Traffic Control to let them know of the tactical changes taking place and used a flight plan that utilized the most efficient route in order to account for weather and wind.

"The key to success here is meeting some very tight time constraints - specific latitudes and longitudes over the ocean," he said. "With the flight management computer, it's a pretty easy challenge, but it's something we need to pay very close attention to. We don't want to be too far ahead or too far behind schedule."

In addition to having the best view of the eclipse, the passengers were also the last people in the world to witness it.

"Nobody will see it after us," said Craig Small, an astronomer who was onboard the flight.

The next total solar eclipse will take place on August 21, 2017, and for the first time since 1918, it will be visible in the entire United States.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Amazon announced Wednesday that it is set to lease 20 Boeing 767 widebody freighters from the Air Transport Services Group (ATSG) in the e-commerce giant's latest push towards developing its own delivery network.

Confirming the deal, the ATSG has also stated that Amazon leased the massive air freighters for a period of five to seven years. Leasing Boeing 767s that are specifically designed for cargo transport typically cost about $600,000 to $700,000 a month, while 767s, which used to be passenger planes, are cheaper, costing about $300,000 to $325,000 a month.

While the ATSG has not confirmed if the airplanes being leased by Amazons are freighters or converted passenger planes, it is expected that Amazon would be spending millions of dollars for the lease of the airplanes every year.

Despite the rather large amount, Amazon still expects to save a lot of funds by leasing the Boeing 767s from the ATSG. After all, the company has announced that it spends a significant portion of its funds on third-party delivery partners like United Parcel Service (UPS) and FedEx. Last year alone, Amazon spent a massive $11.5 billion on shipping.

Though the lease of the Boeing 767s is a notable step for Amazon towards self-reliance, analysts nonetheless believe that the company's plan to seemingly build a dedicated air fleet of its own poses no threat to the e-commerce giant's delivery partners.

RBC Capital Markets analyst John Barnes believes in this assumption.

"This is an incremental negative for FedX and UPS as it will likely remove some higher yielding express freight and parcel volume from each of the respective networks," he said.

Patrick Fitzgerald, FedEx's senior vice president of integrated marketing and communications, also welcomed Amazon's lease of the Boeing 767s.

"We work closely with Amazon and have been aware for some time of their need for supplemental air capacity related to inventory management," he said.

Even prior to the lease of the airplanes, Amazon has been taking significant steps towards creating its own self-reliant delivery system. The company has previously purchased thousands of trailers and hired contract drivers to expedite the delivery of its orders. Apart from this, the company has also started exploring the idea of using drones to deliver small packages to customers.

Amazon's leased Boeing 767s are set to start their operation on April 1.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Back in early 2015, the chance of "Brexit" - which refers to Britain leaving the European Union (EU) - seemed very low. However, as the months passed and Europe's migration crisis escalated, recent surveys are now pointing more favorably towards this possibility.

Renowned physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking is among one of the many that is calling for Britain to stay in the EU, claiming that Brexit would be a "disaster for U.K. science."

Hawking, among more than 150 other fellows of the Royal Society, sent a letter time the Times newspaper, arguing that scientific research would be destroyed by leaving the EU. They cite the fact that many promising young scientists were recruited from Europe, as well as the benefit that increased funding from the continent has had on the field of U.K. science.

"First, increased funding has raised greatly the level of European science as a whole and of the U.K. in particular because we have a competitive edge," the team wrote. "Second, we now recruit many of our best researchers from continental Europe, including younger ones who have obtained EU grants and have chosen to move with them here."

The letter claims that the Brexit situation would encourage scientists who live elsewhere to move to Britain and points to Switzerland as an example of the downfalls of such a move - although the country is paying into the EU, it only has limited access to funds and has a difficult times recruiting younger, talented scientists due to the restrictions that it faces.

Conversely, Angus Dalgleish of St George's Hospital, University of London and a spokesman for "Scientists For Britain," who are in favor of Britain leaving the EU, has a different opinion.

"We are standing up against what is a very large body of people who feel that if we leave the EU it will be a disaster for funding and collaboration - and we completely refute that," he said. "The bottom line is that we put far more into Europe than we get out. Any difference we can more than easily make up with the money we would save."

Still, most of the options available to Britain if it does decide to leave the EU are not very appealing - it would need to setup a form of trading and institutional relationships to start, which could be a very long and arduous process.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
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.

About Melia Hotels International

Founded in 1956 in Mallorca (Spain), Melia Hotels International operates more than 390 hotels (portfolio and pipeline) throughout more than 40 countries, with brands including Gran Melia Hotels & Resorts, Paradisus by Melia, ME by Melia, Melia Hotels & Resorts, INNSiDE by Melia, Sol by Melia and TRYP by Wyndham. The Company is the global leader in resort hotels, while also leveraging its experience to consolidate the growing segment of the leisure-inspired urban market. Its commitment to responsible tourism has led the Group to become the third most sustainable hotel company in the world in 2018, according to RobecoSam, the investment company to produce the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Melia Hotels International is also included in the IBEX 35 Spanish stock market index and it is the Spanish hotel leader in Corporate Reputation (Merco Ranking). Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Instagram meliahotelsinternational.com

Communications Department

+ 34 971 22 44 64

Melia
It looks like you've reached a page that doesnt exist (anymore).

Please use the navigation or search above to find content on Hospitality Net.

Go back to home
Susan Duckworth

Utah Rep. Susan Duckworth, D-Magna, poses for a photograph at the Utah State Capitol Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, in Salt Lake City. Utah is one of the latest states to consider making tampons and other feminine hygiene products tax-free, diving into an international debate on whether women are penalized for their biology. Duckworth, said she wants feminine hygiene products tax-free because they are medically necessary items, but her bill would also cut taxes on adult incontinence products and children's diapers.

(Rick Bowmer/The Associated Press)

NEW YORK -- Margo Seibert and Natalie Brasington don't think women should have to pay a "period tax," and like a growing number of other women, they are publicly questioning whether being female in the U.S. carries unfair costs.

The pair are among five New York City women who filed a lawsuit last week arguing that it was unconstitutional for the state to levy sales tax on tampons and sanitary napkins while offering medical product exemptions to many other items used by both genders, like lip balm, foot powder and dandruff shampoo.

The case, they say, is about more than the few cents in tax levied on each pack.

Sick of the social taboo, and frustrated by a lack of access for some to a staple, these women and others are talking very publicly about menstruation and gaining political traction that would have been impossible a generation ago.

A national push to abolish sales tax on tampons is gathering steam, led by social media campaigns like #periodswithoutshame. At least six states are now considering legislation.

Cosmopolitan magazine launched an online petition, and even President Barack Obama has questioned why the items are taxed.

"I tend to talk about my period quite a bit, to anyone who will listen," said Seibert, a 31-year-old actress and founder of an online campaign that promotes a "shame-free" period.

Brasington, a 31-year-old photographer, said the tax affects women disproportionately and is a genuine burden for poorer women.

"Being a woman is so expensive," she said.

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, a vice president at the NYU School of Law's Brennan Center for Justice, said she began writing articles and op-eds on "menstrual equity" when she discovered food pantries were desperate for sanitary napkins and tampons because poor women can't afford them.

The tax campaign reflects a broader debate over "gender pricing," or charging women and men different rates for similar products and services, from haircuts to razors to T-shirts.

New York City's consumer protection agency studied the cost of 800 common household items last year and found that products marketed to women cost, on average, 7 percent more than similar products for men.

"Women's outcry over this issue isn't just about the tax on tampons. It's a reflection of the routine unfairness that seeps into our everyday lives," said Sonia Ossorio, president of the National Organization for Women in New York. "At the end of the day, the tampon tax movement is one small way to challenge the broader sexism that still persists. Because that's the real taboo here."

While women's advocates have long lamented that many women's products cost more, their providers say there can be legitimate reasons -- a more decorative product or more complicated haircut, for instance. And some have noted that women sometimes pay less: for life and auto insurance, for example.

Nationwide, 40 states tax feminine hygiene products, deeming them non-necessities or even "luxury items," while making exceptions for products as similar as adult incontinence pads.

Currently, five U.S. states exempt tampons and other feminine hygiene products from their sales tax, which varies around the country from about 2.9 percent to as high as 7.5 percent. Another five states have no sales tax.

New York taxes tampons and sanitary napkins as tools "to control a normal bodily function and to maintain personal cleanliness."

The 4.5 percent state sales tax on the products costs New York women millions of dollars a year; estimates range from about $7 million to twice that, a minute fraction of the state's $142 billion budget.

Advocates say the cost, however small it may seem, is burdensome for poor women, who also can't purchase the products with food stamps.

"Having one's period is not a luxury," state Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, a Democrat who has proposed abolishing the tax. "Because of our biology, we bear this extra cost, and the state should not compound it."

The state Department of Taxation and Finance declined to comment, citing the lawsuit. Two major manufacturers of feminine hygiene products, P&G, the maker of the Tampax brand, and Edgewell Personal Care Co., the maker of the Playtex brand, didn't respond to inquiries this week about the tax issue.

Zoe Salzman, the attorney on the New York case, said they'd push to get a judge to rule the tax unlawful.

"If men had to use these products every month, they would already be tax-exempt," she said.

Meanwhile, the legislative proposal has yet to get a hearing, though supporters are hopeful about its prospects, especially since Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently said the tax should be abolished.

That wasn't the sense in Utah, where a legislative committee last month nixed a proposal to tax-exempt the items. While some members of the all-male committee supported the idea, others questioned where the state would draw the line on what to tax in the future.

The Los Angeles Times, in an editorial last week, expressed similar concerns in opposing a tax exemption that California lawmakers are considering.
A recent analysis by Deloitte of a J.D. Power study highlights the significant financial impact of establishing a strong Brand Promise and ultimately becoming a High Prestige Hotel.

Delivering an exceptional guest experience is a fundamental goal of every hotel seeking profitability and a good return on investment for its owners. But a recent analysis by Deloitte shows how hotels must go far beyond the guest experience to achieve that goal.

The Deloitte analysis of the J.D. Power 2015 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study concludes that:

Underlying the guest experience, a hotels brand promise can have a strong impact on business results. Knowing what your brand stands for and delivering on that promisecan serve as a key to long-term success. Loyalty and commitment are strongest when a brand offers a differentiated brand promise and consistently delivers on that promise by providing an outstanding experience.

So building a strong, positive reputation is critical to creating loyal guests. In doing so a hotel can move into what J.D. Power calls a High Prestige property. As the chart on the right shows High Prestige hotels are significantly more likely to attract repeat guests as Low Prestige properties. High Prestige hotels are more than twice as likely to attract repeat guests when a guest experiences a problem during their stay.

The Value of Loyal Guests

There is a significant body of research detailing the financial benefits of maximizing customer retention.

Gartner Research is quoted as saying 65% of a companys business comes from existing customers, and it costs five times more to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one satisfied.

Perhaps the most compelling reason to invest in customer retention are the findings from Bain analyst Frederick Reichheld and published in his book, The Loyalty Effect, the Hidden Force Behind Growth, Profits and Lasting Value. After exhaustive research among hundreds of companies across many different industries Reichheld concluded:

Companies with the most loyal customers are the most profitable.

Creating More Loyal Guests

So, how does a hotel build and maintain a strong and differentiating brand promise and ultimately create more loyal guests? Deloitte offers the following suggestions:

Know what your brand stands for and what it means to your customers. Hopefully it is a benefit guests really want to buy and not simply a feature of your property. Make sure your employees understand your brand promise and can help ensure it is consistently delivered to your guests. Create a culture within your property that consistently reinforces your brand promise. Measure how well your brand promise resonates among guests and employees. Monitor how well it is being delivered and establish standards to ensure that it is. Maintain ongoing training to help consistently deliver on your brand promise, reinforcing the message. with customers and strengthening your brands reputation.

The Deloitte analysis provides a good foundation for how a hotel can create a strong brand promise and is definitely something hoteliers should consider implementing. As Deloitte points out  your profitability depends on it.

Taking Your Brand Promise and Loyalty to the Next Level

To truly succeed however a hotel needs to go well beyond the six steps detailed above. It needs to incorporate its brand promise into every point of contact with a guest or potential guest since the hotel experience goes well beyond the time a guest spends on property.

Therefore, a hotels brand promise needs to shine through in the call center (especially if it is outsourced), its website, advertising, email marketing, reservation confirmations, pre-arrival and post-stay communications, brochures and even personal correspondence.

Hoteliers need to think of communicating with prospects and guests on a continuum  before they arrive, during their stay and after they leave. Repetition is the mother of learning. So, during this continuum your brand promise continues to be delivered until they rebook. Before, during and after so the cycle begins once more.

This is the essence of integrated Customer Relationship Marketing or iCRM as practiced by professional experts in the fields of database and direct marketing. Communications are designed to deliver relevant content including your hotels brand promise effectively at each stage of the customer lifecycle from initial awareness through where you have developed loyal brand advocates.

Brand Promise and Loyalty Case Studies

The next HospitalityMarketingBlog post will provide examples of hotels that have built strong and unique brand promises. They have used CRM best practices to establish themselves as High Prestige Properties and seen their customer loyalty, repeat business and profitability grow.

If you believe hotel has a good example of a strong brand promise that has led to increased loyalty and profitability and should be featured in the next blog post, please contact me.





About Madigan Pratt

Madigan Pratt is President of MP&A Digital & Advertising, an award-winning agency helping luxury hotels attract and retain profitable customers. Principals with over 60 years of collective experience at some of the world's largest advertising and direct marketing companies lead the agency's team of marketing, creative, public relations, Internet and social media professionals. Follow Madigan on Twitter at A_Mad_Man or on his Hospitality Marketing Blog. The agency relocated from New York to Williamsburg, VA in 2006.
Over the last eight years ITB Asia in Singapore has met with great success, and now ITB Berlin is to launch a second offshoot in Asia, namely ITB China, which starting in May 2017 will be held annually in the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Conference Center.

Over the last eight years ITB Asia in Singapore has met with great success, and now ITB Berlin is to launch a second offshoot in Asia, namely ITB China, which starting in May 2017 will be held annually in the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Conference Center.



ITB China contract signing

On Wednesday at ITB Berlin Dr. Christian Goke, CEO, Messe Berlin, and Charlie Li, founder and CEO of TravelDaily China, signed a partnership agreement to this effect. TravelDaily is the countrys largest online news portal and is also an event organiser for Chinas tourism industry.

At the same time agreements were signed with Alitrip, the travel brand of the Chinese internet giant Alibaba; with Ctrip, the countrys leading online travel agency; with Caissa, a major offline tour operator; and Tunio, the leading online leisure travel agency.

Along with the Jinjiang hotel group and the tour operator Utour they have all pledged to send their buyers to ITB China. According to Dr. Martin Buck, division head at Messe Berlin, this is a further reason for exhibitors to attend.

Dr. Goke spoke of a new chapter in the 50-year history of ITB Berlin and Charlie Li noted that the worlds largest travel trade show would be meeting the worlds largest travel market.
Four Points Regina Hotel Opens in Saskatchewan

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:HOT) today announced that its Four Points brand has expanded its Canadian footprint with the opening of Four Points Regina, the brand's second location in Saskatchewan.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:HOT) today announced that its Four Points brand has expanded its Canadian footprint with the opening of Four Points Regina, the brand's second location in Saskatchewan. Owned and managed by VJ Management, the newly constructed Four Points caters to the modern traveler with an emphasis on approachable design and stylish comfort.

Four Points Regina offers 127 spacious guest rooms, 1210 square feet of market-leading meeting facilities and full-service dining at Movado's Grill. Amenities include a state-of-the-art 24-hour fitness center, a business facility, fast and free Wi-Fi throughout the hotel and the brand's signature Best Brews and BBQ, including refreshing local beers and seasonal BBQ-style appetizers at Roger's Pub. The hotel is convenient to leading attractions, including Co-operators Centre, Queensbury Convention Centre, Conexus Art Center, Mosaic stadium, Brandt Center, Credit Union Eventplex, Saskatchewan Science Center and just ten minutes from Regina International Airport (YQR).

"With its tremendous appeal to business and leisure travelers and flexible development options, the Four Points brand has never been stronger," said Brian McGuinness, Senior Vice President of Specialty Select Brands for Starwood. "As Starwood's global pipeline driver, Four Points now boasts more than 200 hotels in dynamic destinations around the world and is continuing its rapid expansion across Canada."

Four Points is on track to expand its portfolio of rooms by nearly 60% in the next five years with new hotels strategically located in nearly every corner of the globe. Hotels expected to open in 2016 include Four Points Juneau, Four Points Little Rock, Four Points Fort Lauderdale Airport/Cruise Port, Four Points Manhattan Hudson Yards, Four Points Charlotte  Lake Norman, Four Points Raleigh North, Four Points Dallas Fort Worth Airport North, Four Points Houston Katy, Four Points Virginia Beach Oceanfront, Four Points Ikot Ekpene (Nigeria), Four Points Changchun, Hi-Tech Zone (China),Four Points Chengdu, Anren (China), Four Points Srinager (India), Four Points Aurangabad (India), Four Points Surabaya (Indonesia), Four Points Bandung (Indonesia), Four Points Singapore Riverview (Singapore), Four Points Krasnodar (Russian Federation), Four Points Moscow Vnukovo Airport (Russian Federation), Four Points Edmonton West (Canada), Four Points Grande Prairie (Canada), Four Points by Sheraton Sherwood Park (Canada).
In year-over-year comparisons, the industrys occupancy decreased 1.0% to 63.7%. Average daily rate for the week was up 3.3% to US$120.62, and revenue per available room increased 2.3% to US$76.89.

The U.S. hotel industry reported mixed results in the three key performance metrics during the week of 28 February through 5 March 2016, according to data from STR.

In year-over-year comparisons, the industrys occupancy decreased 1.0% to 63.7%. Average daily rate for the week was up 3.3% to US$120.62, and revenue per available room increased 2.3% to US$76.89.

Among the Top 25 Markets, San Francisco/San Mateo, California, posted the largest increases in ADR (+21.8% to US$269.72) and RevPAR (+25.5% to US$228.35). Occupancy in the market grew 3.0% to 84.7%.

Two additional markets saw RevPAR increase by double figures: Los Angeles/Long Beach, California (+19.8% to US$141.70), and Nashville, Tennessee (+17.8% to US$107.72).

Three markets experienced a double-digit drop in RevPAR for the week: Anaheim/Santa Ana, California (-16.3% to US$101.00); Boston, Massachusetts (-15.6% to US$100.67); and Houston, Texas (-10.6% to US$78.63).

After the San Francisco/San Mateo market, Los Angeles/Long Beach (+16.0% to US$172.18) was the only market to post a double-digit rise in ADR.

Anaheim/Santa Ana reported the largest drop in ADR, down 8.9% to US$138.80.

Norfolk/Virginia Beach, Virginia (+6.5% to 49.7%) recorded the largest occupancy increase, while Boston (-14.4% to 62.6%) saw the only double-digit decline in the metric.

View weekly U.S. hotel performance review

About STR

STR provides clients from multiple market sectors with premium, global data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights. Founded in 1985, STR maintains a presence in 10 countries around the world with a corporate North American headquarters in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and an international headquarters in London, England. For more information, please visit str.com.
50 Cent struck a deal with his creditors Wednesday afternoon in a Hartford federal court that could potentially spring him from bankruptcy. Under the terms of the agreement, he is on the hook to pay his creditors as much as 74% as much what he originally owed them. The deal still requires a stamp of approval from a federal judge.

As of last July, 50 owed his various creditors $28 million, including $18 million to Sleek Audio. That reported number does not include the $7 million settlement with Lastonia Leviston for narrating her sex tape and posting it online. As a part of his new bankruptcy agreement, he would lose the right to appeal that verdict.

50 alleged that the cash he used to spell out the word BROKE in an Instagram photo was fake. Holley Claiborn, U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee for Connecticut, insisted that his use of allegedly fake cash in the Instagram photo raises concerns about his credibility. After the court proceedings adjourned on Wednesday, he posted a since-deleted Twitter picture of him with wads cash stashed into his belt and the caption, I had to go to court today because.

He also went after the New York Times on Instagram vintage 50.

[via]

50 Cent
Japanese clothing brand Uniqlo has been making strong forays into the United States in recent years. It was never going to be difficult when your product is dope basics on the cheap, but the brand has also done a great job positioning itself with the correct brand ambassadors, going so far as to pick out new ambassadors every time they open offices in a new region. Now Uniqlo has tapped grime emcee Skepta for their This Way To Utopia campaign.

The campaign celebrates Londons arts and music culture, and Skepta is joined by a designer, a photographer, a DJ, a model and a filmmaker for the campaign. He appears in a grey sweatsuit with a patterned down vest. The Japanese brand is using the campaign to promote the re-opening of its Oxford Street location next week.

Skepta is on a bit of a roll right now. He recently got a massive co-sign in the form of Drake claiming to sign with Skeptas Boy Better Know label, and Nike gave him his own Air Max sneaker.

[via]

Skepta-UK
While some Air Jordans seem to get a retro every five years, the French Blue Air Jordan 12 has been passed over repeatedly. The last time this classic pair of Air Jordans released was all the way back in 2004, the year Kanye West released his debut album The College Dropout. Now, Jordan brand is bringing them back.

As part of Jordans Remastered series, these 12s will feature premium tumbled and pebble leather and a nearly exact replica of the original shoes shape. The shoe features a predominantly white upper, with the toe box panel in the shoes namesake French Blue. Subtle red accents appear on the heel, sole and insole for one of Jordans more balanced colorways.

The remastered French Blue Air Jordan 12 will retail for $190, and hits shelves later this month on March 26. Make sure you mark your calendar, because these will most definitely sell out.

FrenchBlue-Jordan12
Brian Gleeson's latest project Tiger Raid is set to unveil this coming April at New York's Tribeca Film Festival.

Directed by Simon Dixon, Tiger Raid is an adaptation of Mayo man Mick Donnellan's play of the same name.

The film stars Brian Gleeson and Damien Moloney who play two mercenaries in a war torn Iraq. As they plan on conducting a kidnapping, their dark and incendiary pasts creep up to haunt them and cause a violent rift between the pair.

Co-produced by Dublin-based Samson Films and partly funded by the Irish Film Board, it's a hugely exciting endeavor for the film to have been picked up by the international festival. "I'm very excited about the film," writer Donnellan gushed to RTE. "Having it chosen by Tribeca is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I'm delighted and lucky to be involved with such a fantastic team."

Furthermore, Dublin director Gary Shore can look forward to his horror Holidays premiere at the festival. Shore co-directed the film which tracks the subversive and grim alternatives of spending a national holiday. Not surprisingly, Shore undertook the St. Patrick's fearsome festivities.

Both Tiger Raid and Holidays will premiere at the Midnight strand of the festival. The Tribeca Film Festival runs from April 13-24.
The Mackinac Island Lilac Festival is Michigan's unofficial summer kickoff. When the Island teems with blossoming lilacs, it sets the stage for a unique, 10-day festival in June.

From June 3-12, lilacs will be blossoming as thousands flock to Mackinac Island for a bevy of events, including the Farm Bureau Family Fun Playground at Windermere Point, beer and wine tastings, hayrides, cruises, live music, lilac tours, the Lilac Festival Grand Parade presented by Coca Cola and more.

While June is still a few months away, you can jump right into the Lilac Festival action now by helping it secure the title of Best Flower Festival in USA Today's Travel Awards poll.

The Lilac Festival is competing against 19 other major flower festivals around the country, including: The Rose Parade, North Carolina Azalea Festival, Dallas Blooms, Portland Rose Festival and more. And the Lilac Festival isn't the sole Michigan-based nominee.

Mackinac Island is teaming up with Holland to support both the Lilac Festival and Tulip Time in the USA Today poll. The state of Michigan packs a lot of flower power, so the two are combining to harvest it all with a 1-2 finish in mind.

Tulip Time, which runs May 7-14, also features a robust lineup of events, including: dances, comedian Bill Engvall, theatre performances, a carnival, multiple parades and more.

Together, the Lilac Festival and Tulip Time aficionados can show the rest of the country that the Mitten State not only knows its flowers, but also knows its festivals. A vote for either is a vote for Michigan.

To vote, visit 10best.com and select either festival. And remember, you can vote daily across all devices. At the time of publication, Lilac festival ranks first and Tulip Time ranks second.

Previously, Mackinac Island just narrowly missed taking home the title of Best U.S. Island. Puerto Rico claimed the top spot despite Mackinac Island holding the one-spot for a long period of time during the vote -- just another example of the need in recurring, daily votes.

Back the Lilac and Turn-up for the Tulip. Since you can vote daily on multiple devices, you can cast votes for both Lilac Festival and Tulip Time everyday until voting closes on March 28.

April showers bring May flowers and March votes bring Best Flower Festival titles.

Click here to vote Lilac Festival. Click here to vote Tulip Time.
Pet Shop Boys, Primal Scream & Cyndi Lauper are among the studio guests

Electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre is 3Arena-bound on October 10 as part of his first European tour in six years.

It's a relatively intimate gig for a man who holds the Guinness World Record for playing to 3.5 million people in Moscow to celebrate the Russian capital's 850th birthday.

Tickets are 60 and go on sale on March 14.

The Frenchman has a new album out on May 6, Electronica 2: The Heart Of Noise, which finds him shacking up in the studio with the likes of the Pet Shop Boys, Julia Holter, Primal Scream, Gary Numan, Hans Zimmer, The Orb, Jeff Mills and Cyndi Lauper.

Jarre has also paid tribute to Sir George Martin, describing him as "the man who changed pop forever."
The 3 Arena show will form part of Jean-Michel Jarre's first European tour in six years

Jean-Michel Jarre, the pioneer of electronic music will embark on his first European tour in six years in 2016 coming to Dublin's 3 Arena this October 10.

Jarre's first live performance was 1979 and since then he has played to some of the biggest audience's in history. In 1990 Jarre played to 2.5 million people in front of the Arc de Triomphe to celebrate 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. In 1997 Jarre then beat that record by one million and performed to 3.5 million people in Moscow to celebrate the cities 850th birthday.

Jarre is not only famed for being the pioneer of electronic music but he is also famed for the visual show that accompanies his live sets.

Advertisement

Tickets for Jarre's 3 Arena date go on sale this Monday March 14 at 9am. Tickets are priced at 60 including booking fee.
Indian eathouses, doggy diners & Spanish wine are all on this fortnight's menu

Its often dismissed as urban myth, but during the 1980s asking for the wine-list in an even quite posh Waterford restaurant would routinely elicit a Blue or Black? response - these being the noxious Blue Nun and only slightly less gag-inducing Black Tower.

A new arrival from the UK, I was also horrified to discover that the only Parmesan you could buy was the powdered stuff which smelt of dirty socks and came in a cut-off toilet roll; a similar lack of fresh basil, coriander and parsley, and a choice of ethnic restaurants that was limited to Chinese and Italian.

In other words, the Ramen-slurping, Baba Ganoushmunching, Patatas Bravas-chomping, Naan Bread-scoffing, Bubble Tea-necking kids of today are completely feckin spoiled!

There was certainly nobody in Ireland like Sunil Ghai, the Executive Chef at Ananda in Dundrum who any day now will be opening Pickles, his casual eats & drinkhouse on D2s Camden Street.

A pakoras throw from Whelans, the emphasis will be on regional North Indian cuisine with spicy libations to match. picklerestaurant.com.

Advertisement

A look out of the Hot Press Central window confirms the major facelift our Dame Street neighbour, Pichet, is being given. While the builders are in, chef Stephen Gibson is presiding over a Pichet Pop-up in the Eastside Tavern on Stephens Green. pichetrestaurant.ie

Following the HSEs mean-spirited crackdown on dogs in pubs, were delighted to report that Dublins first caninefriendly cafe, Pupp, has opened at 37 Clanbrassil Street.

Ditching their Google tech jobs to go into business together, Ella Wallace and Paul Froggatt are causing a major buzz locally with their handmade pastries, locally roasted coffee and full range of hipster-ish doggy accessories.

The Dublin Cookie Co. aims to do for biccies what Aungier Danger has done for donuts with the March 5 launch of its first shop in Thomas Street, D8. Already a festival and market favourite, their Chocolate Chip & Peanut numbers are pure baked goods porn. You can also go the DIY route by investing in a jar of their Cookie Dough. No offence to Fido, but we wouldn't be wasting them on dogs. thedublincookieco.com

We'd have preferred a whole month but, hey, let's not be greedy! April 11-17 has been declared Ireland's inaugural Spanish Wine Week with a nationwide programme of events that includes a teatime glass of chilled Albarino and seafood tapa pairing in The Cliff Townhouse, Dublin (11) for just 3; paella 'n' wine tasting in L'Atitude, Cork (13); a Hidden Treasures & Curiosities night hosted by Tomas Clancy in 64 Wine, Glasthule (14); a Spanish Cheese, Meet & Wine night in Sheridan's, Galway (14), and a Spanish Evening in La Touche Wines, Greystones (16). And that really is just for starters. A su salud! winesfromspaininireland. wordpress.com

If you happen to find yourself south of the Thames, artist Damien Hirst is having another go at this food lark with Pharmacy 2, a half-diner, half-drugstore residing in his Newport Street Gallery.

Thankfully, dishes like the Rabbit & Crayfish Stargazy Pie, Duck Curry with Crispy Apple Pakora and Hunan Spiced Pork Broth are as striking as the decor. Mains come in at around 13, which is decent value for that part of London.

Advertisement

Finally, the Galway Bay empire has expanded into Dun Laoghaire with the opening on York Road of Beer Traders, which has 19 brews on draught and a bottle and can range that includes a fabulous 6.9% Edge Padrino porter from Spain.
Video analysis indicates it wasn't an accident

The breaking news from Sweden is that police believe the crash, which claimed the lives of Viola Beach members Tom Lowe, Kris Leonard, River Reeves and Jack Dakin and their your manager Craig Tarry, may have been caused deliberately by the driver of the car they were travelling in.

After swerving on to the hard shoulder and crashing through barriers, the vehicle plummeted through a gap on a motorway river bridge, which had been raised to let a boat through.

As far as I can see, most of the band had already been killed up there on the bridge," says Lars Berglund, the police officer leading the investigation. "It looks like the driver was acting intentionally.

The traffic incident, which occurred on February 13, has been re-created by Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, which quotes another police source as saying "it's not natural to carry on driving if there's a stop sign, parked cars and blinking red lights."

In the week prior to the crash, the English outfit had supported Blossoms in the Dublin Academy.
The Harrison family, Julian Lennon & Brian Wilson have also joined the tributes

Yoko Ono has paid her respects to Sir George Martin.

"God bless George, the greatest music producer of all time," she says. "Peace and love to Judy, Giles and the family. Thank you for passing the great baton to the next generation of musicians. We owe you so much. Love, Yoko."

Olivia and Dhani Harrison add: "George Martin was a gentleman above all. May he rest in peace."

Sir George's aforementioned son, Giles, touchingly messages: "RIP Dad. I love you. I'm so proud to have been your son. I'll miss you more than words can say. Thank you for all the times we had together."

The word from Julian Lennon is: "The fifth Beatle, without question, and likely one of the best and most iconic music producers of all time."

Acknowledging their friendly '60s rivalry, Brian Wilson proffers: "The records that George Martin made with The Beatles were some of the greatest ever and they inspired me to greater heights. Love and mercy."

There have also been plenty of tributes from Irish admirers.

"One of the most crucially important figures in popular music, and the definition of a gent," notes Undertone Paul McLoone while Boy George also describes him as "a gentleman and legend."

"A true innovator and inspiration to all," say the Penrose boys, while Kodaline pay tribute to: "An absolute genius and inspiration."
What happens on the U.S. Senate floor later this week will reveal the fabric of our national character as the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) comes to a vote. We have an opportunity to save thousands of lives. The opioid crisis has made drug overdose the leading cause of accidental death in Americans 25 to 64 - more deaths than even from car accidents or guns - and I'm encouraged that both political parties are actually united in their goal and strategy. Additional funding for treatment will be needed, but this is a crucial start.

CARA will write into law several measures that I believe are urgently needed.

First, it will give the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy the power to grant money for prevention programs. Michael Botticelli, the first person in addiction recovery to ever head that office is exactly the person who can lead the evaluation of sensible community measures to combat addiction. He has lived addiction's reality and knows that the country needs a different strategy on drugs.

Second, CARA will put an emphasis on intervention and treatment at the high school level. With adolescents who receive addiction treatment reporting they are offered drugs the first day back at school, we are ensuring failure if we continue business as usual. Recovery high schools, which are currently inaccessible to most because of cost, create an environment where our teens can succeed. Public schools in Minnesota and Texas have developed models that can be duplicated, and CARA will help establish this.

Third, CARA will increase availability of naloxone. This safe medication can reverse an opioid overdose and major pharmacy chains have decided to offer it over the counter. People returning from opioid rehab who relapse often end up dead unable to handle their former opioid dose. Tens of thousands of people have died under those circumstances, found by loved ones who could have administered a naloxone dose and kept them alive.

I bestow strong kudos on the leadership behind CARA - Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, for their aisle-crossing leadership in drafting the bill. But the passage of CARA leaves us with an urgent and profound question: What should ideal addiction treatment look like?

Like many others, my education in treating addiction was rather poor. This has unfortunately led to an underutilization of the best evidence-based treatments for addiction, which, according to addiction doctors, often includes medication-assisted treatments such as naltrexone, methadone and buprenorphrine. If these highly effective prescriptions were embraced and deployed in proportion to the real statistical need, deaths would drastically decrease.

But medications alone are not the answer. That's why the psychologists and alcohol and drug counselors, or even 12-step programs, are also important. They help a person navigate the challenges of depression, anxiety and shame that make simply treating the pathology of a craving through medication insufficient.

Perhaps the greatest part of my education was the irreplaceable enrichment earned by listening to people in recovery. They taught me that while addiction is fatal when left untreated, remission and a life of recovery is absolutely possible if embraced by the patient. They taught me that there are more than 20 million success stories who are living quietly in recovery in this country and serve as a testament that the story of addiction does not have to end with jail or death.

One size does not fit all, though. There are gradations to the severity of an addiction, and different tools work relative to its progression. Which tool eventually works requires a comprehensive assessment and treatment plan with universally accepted standards and metrics that is reimbursed by insurance and protected against discrimination and stigma.

I know that we will prevail. But our current approach isn't working, and the death toll and addiction rates released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in December were the highest ever recorded. CARA is a vital first step as we continue to tackle other parts of the addiction enigma with the rare bipartisan teamwork shown on Capitol Hill this week. Let us be as comprehensive in our approach to addiction as it is in taking lives.

Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon and author, hosts the TV series, "The Dr. Oz Show."
Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print.

Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition.

If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create.
As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content.

When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to.

After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS!

OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK

The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those.
Members of the Harriet Tubman Purple Hat Society

Members of the Purple Hat Society celebrate Harriet Tubman.

(Third-Party-Submitted)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- In case you're not familiar with the Harriet Tubman Purple Hats Society, allow us to introduce the organization.

The Harriet Tubman Purple Hats Society was founded in 2007 by Thomasina Williams, an Advance Woman of Achievement in the Class of 2000, and the late Andrew Gill.



The mission and goals of the Society are to empower women to live in the spirit of Harriet Tubman, one of the greatest heroines of her era, by participating in cultural, social, economic and political activities that will have a profound impact on the quality of life in their communities.



The State of New York has authorized March 10 as the official Harriet Tubman Day and to commemorate the occasion the group has organized a four-day celebration.

First off on Thursday, March 10, The Harriet Tubman Purple Hats Society will sponsor a Fifth Grade Essay Contest at PS 20, Port Richmond.

Then on Friday, March 11, members will meet for lunch at LiGreci's Staaten, West Brighton at 1 p.m.

Saturday, March 12, a bus tour of the Underground Railroad sites on Staten Island will take place. Points of Interest, narrated by Debbie-Ann Paige, lecturer and h istorian. The bus leaves from the Parking Lot at the Bridgeview Senior Center at 150 Nicholas Ave., Port Richmond at 9 a.m. and returns at 1:30 p.m. Bus tickets are $20 and all are welcome.

On Sunday, March 13, planned is a Founder's Day Worship Service at the Stapleton U.A.M.E. Church, 49 Tompkins Ave. at 11 a.m. with Rev. Maggie Howard, pastor .And again all are welcome.

For additional information kindly contact Elizabeth Plair, president of the Harriet Tubman Purple Hat Society at 718-447-4005, Virginia Allen at 718-448-5183-events coordinator, or Nancy Ashon-Poku, vice president at 347-729-2723 or Lucille Herring, historian of The Harriet Tubman Purple Hats Society at 917-842-5550 or 718-494-0472.



Interestingly, Harriet Moses Tubman was born in 1822 into slavery in Maryland as Araminta Harriet Ross. She became a leader in the effort to end the evil of slavery and to protect her people from the cruelty of slavery that denied to millions of African-Americans the basic right to human dignity.

After she had escaped to freedom in Pennsylvania she would risk her life many times to return to the south to rescue dozens of slaves who would themselves find freedom in the northern states or in Canada.

For her leadership in guiding these men, women and children to freedom, Harriet Tubman was known as Moses. Her courage in the face of evil will remain forever an inspiration for all individuals of good will to resist tyranny and refuse to submit to injustice here in the United States and around the world.

Harriet Tubman became an American icon in the years after she died.

A survey at the end of the 20th century named her as one of the most famous civilians in American history before the Civil War, third only to Betsy Ross and Paul Revere.

She inspired generations of African Americans struggling for equality and civil rights and she was praised by political leaders across the nation.
AMG Employee Management, Inc. Will Attend CCSA 2016 in Long BeachCalifornia Charter Schools Conference is a great venue for AMGtime to present their innovative Time and Attendance technologies to schools.

Posted by Press Releases on Thursday, 03-10-2016 12:51 am

Currently 0.0/5 Stars.

1

2

3

4

5 0.0 from 0 votes

LOS ANGELES, CA (PRWEB) MARCH 08, 2016AMG 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 ne...

Close Forgot Your Password? Enter in your email address and we will send it to you. Send Email An HR.com member profile provides you with access to a multitude of information and education along with the opportunity to network with the largest HR community on the web.

If you need any help, call .877.472.6648 and ask for our Member Experience Co-ordinator.

Hi Please check your email for an activation link. If you do not receive your activation email within a few minutes, check your spam folder or call our Help Desk at 1.877.472.6648 For faster assistance, dial extension 4. Thank you! Continue

Hi Verification error - Please enter the correct code above. Verified Wow! You have successfully verified the account Continue

Hi your HR.com account is ready Your Profile completion: 30% Complete your profile
C&A Industries, Inc. Named #1 Employment Agency by B2B Magazine for Eighth Year in a RowStaffing leader C&A Industries, Inc. for eighth consecutive year has been named the top Employment Agency in Omaha by B2B Magazine. C&A is the parent company to recrui

Posted by Press Releases on Thursday, 03-10-2016 12:47 am

Currently 0.0/5 Stars.

1

2

3

4

5 0.0 from 0 votes

OMAHA, NE (PRWEB) MARCH 08, 2016C&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 ...

Close Forgot Your Password? Enter in your email address and we will send it to you. Send Email An HR.com member profile provides you with access to a multitude of information and education along with the opportunity to network with the largest HR community on the web.

If you need any help, call .877.472.6648 and ask for our Member Experience Co-ordinator.

Hi Please check your email for an activation link. If you do not receive your activation email within a few minutes, check your spam folder or call our Help Desk at 1.877.472.6648 For faster assistance, dial extension 4. Thank you! Continue

Hi Verification error - Please enter the correct code above. Verified Wow! You have successfully verified the account Continue

Hi your HR.com account is ready Your Profile completion: 30% Complete your profile
Minuteman Press Franchise in Bath Wins Business Services Award at Bath Life Awards 2016The Minuteman Press franchise in Bath, England was the big winner at the Bath Life Awards 2016 in the Business Services category. They were recognized for providing hig

Posted by Press Releases on Thursday, 03-10-2016 1:00 am

Currently 0.0/5 Stars.

1

2

3

4

5 0.0 from 0 votes

BATH, ENGLAND (PRWEB) MARCH 08, 2016The Minuteman Press franchise in Bath were honored to win Best Business Services provider at the Bath Life Awards 2016, which recognizes local businesses for their hard work in serving the community. When announcing the award to Minuteman Press for the Business Services category, the Bath Life Awards judges stated, "Vital support for so many Bath businesses. Always helpful, great problem-solvers and continue to invest in tech innovations."Minuteman Press owner David Ghent opened the Bath center in April 1998 with two staff members. Over 17 years later, David now has 15 employees and his design, print and marketing business has become an integral part of the Bath business community."David and his team at Minuteman Press Bath continue to make strides and push the boundaries when it comes to growing the business," said Mark Jones, Minuteman Press Area Manager for the United Kingdom South region. "They have worked with many busin...

Close Forgot Your Password? Enter in your email address and we will send it to you. Send Email An HR.com member profile provides you with access to a multitude of information and education along with the opportunity to network with the largest HR community on the web.

If you need any help, call .877.472.6648 and ask for our Member Experience Co-ordinator.

Hi Please check your email for an activation link. If you do not receive your activation email within a few minutes, check your spam folder or call our Help Desk at 1.877.472.6648 For faster assistance, dial extension 4. Thank you! Continue

Hi Verification error - Please enter the correct code above. Verified Wow! You have successfully verified the account Continue

Hi your HR.com account is ready Your Profile completion: 30% Complete your profile
Northwest Center AnnounceTom Everill Retires After Leading the Organization For More Than a Decades Retirement of CEO

Posted by Press Releases on Thursday, 03-10-2016 12:49 am

Currently 0.0/5 Stars.

1

2

3

4

5 0.0 from 0 votes

SEATTLE, WA (PRWEB) MARCH 07, 2016Northwest Center has announced the retirement of Tom Everill after 10 years of service as CEO of the organization. Everill began with Northwest Center as Chair of the Board and was named CEO in 2005, leading the non-profit to become one of the largest social enterprises in Washington state.By nearly every measure, Northwest Center has never been stronger or better positioned for the future as it is today thanks to Toms dedication, said current Board of Directors Chair, Mike Gano.Everill announced his retirement in August 2015 and was recently named chairman of the Antioch University Seattle board of trustees.In an email to friends and colleagues, Everill said he plans to remain in Seattle and also spend more time at his rural home in Michigan.Now I aspire to a quieter, more reflective life of writing and teaching and time the mountains,  Everill said.ABOUT NORTHWEST CENTER Since 1965, Northwest Center has served peopl...

Close Forgot Your Password? Enter in your email address and we will send it to you. Send Email An HR.com member profile provides you with access to a multitude of information and education along with the opportunity to network with the largest HR community on the web.

If you need any help, call .877.472.6648 and ask for our Member Experience Co-ordinator.

Hi Please check your email for an activation link. If you do not receive your activation email within a few minutes, check your spam folder or call our Help Desk at 1.877.472.6648 For faster assistance, dial extension 4. Thank you! Continue

Hi Verification error - Please enter the correct code above. Verified Wow! You have successfully verified the account Continue

Hi your HR.com account is ready Your Profile completion: 30% Complete your profile
United Benefit Advisors Welcomes New Partner Firm Insgroup, Inc., One of the Largest Privately Held Independent Insurance BrokersTexas Agency Joins UBAs Global Network of Independent Employee Benefits Advisory Firms

Posted by Press Releases on Thursday, 03-10-2016 12:57 am

Currently 0.0/5 Stars.

1

2

3

4

5 0.0 from 0 votes

INDIANAPOLIS, IN (PRWEB) MARCH 08, 2016United 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 ul...

Close Forgot Your Password? Enter in your email address and we will send it to you. Send Email An HR.com member profile provides you with access to a multitude of information and education along with the opportunity to network with the largest HR community on the web.

If you need any help, call .877.472.6648 and ask for our Member Experience Co-ordinator.

Hi Please check your email for an activation link. If you do not receive your activation email within a few minutes, check your spam folder or call our Help Desk at 1.877.472.6648 For faster assistance, dial extension 4. Thank you! Continue

Hi Verification error - Please enter the correct code above. Verified Wow! You have successfully verified the account Continue

Hi your HR.com account is ready Your Profile completion: 30% Complete your profile
Gone are the days when faithful employees worked the same job for countless years, held to their role by a sense of loyalty. Millennials represent 34 percent of the workforce these days, and their average job tenure for the youngest of them (between ages 2024) is less than 16 months. Clearly, younger workers are not afraid to seek out new opportunities when they grow tired of current pursuits. They tend to place a high value on personal goals, relationships and experiences, and like to feel involved and informed about all aspects of their employer organization. Some companies throw up their hands in despair at the thought of trying to retain this new generation of workersbut in spite of their quirks (or perhaps because of them), millennials bring valuable qualities to the table. Given the right tools and information, they can become your brightest, savviest, and most loyal workers. However, how do you achieve good results with millennials? First, lets delve into what employee engagement really means. Beyond Benefits According to a recent Gallup poll, employee engagement in the U.S. sits at only 32 percent. To truly engage the minds and hearts of workers, companies need to widen the focus beyond providing necessary benefits such as health insurance and paid sick days. While workers value these perks, theyre often not enough to inspire whole-hearted engagement. According to leadership consultant and speaker Mark C. C...
In case youre not an avid calendar-checker, Employee Appreciation Day was on March 4. This day provided a perfect opportunity for employers to actively recognize the accomplishments of team members at every level for their superb work. However, if you missed it, and even if you didnt, dont fret  there are plenty of clever ways to show your employees appreciation throughout the year. Compare the employer-employee professional relationship to a marriage: If a husband only tells his wife he loves her on Valentines Day, she may question his feelings the other 364 days despite his genuine yet un-professed love. No relationship counselor will advise a husband to express appreciation to his wife in a giant sweep one day out of the year. This same principle is applied to the workforce. Employee appreciation needs to be consistent and continual throughout the year, and an integrated part of your companys culture. Without it, employees may feel that their efforts are overlooked and un-thanked, and employers could lose loyalty. Employee appreciation is one of the key ways employers can motivate employees and, in turn, increase company profitability. A 2015 unaided, open-ended questionnaire conducted by O.C. Tanner surveyed 1,000 randomly selected American employees and found that the single most important practice employers can use to ensure their employees produce great work is to recognize them. These f...
Millions of dollars are spent each year in boardrooms as executive teams determine the best strategy to win in the marketplace, be more competitive, and change the growth curve to the positive. No doubt, it is hard work to get this right. Leaders must marry up market analytics, organizational strengths and competencies, and make the right investments in order to advance the ball. After all of this work, executives feel immense pressure to act and act quickly and express the following:  Weve got to move and move fast.  It took forever to bake this thing. Lets make sure we capitalize on it before the market opportunity passes us by.  I dont have time or patience for employee resistance. Lets take our pain and get moving. In these moments many of us can forget what it takes to mobilize thousands of employees and make them actually want to accept the strategy we have invested so much time, energy and resources to createultimately sending a smart strategy straight to failure. The pressure executives so often feel leads to rushed implementations that entail wordy memos emailed to employees or standalone town halls where strategies are shared via PowerPoint presentations. These scenarios tend to fail because they are simply a broadcast of information. Success is found when leaders work to design experiences to win the hearts and minds of their pe...
Welcome to my annual publishing predictions, and hello 2020! Also be sure to check out my annual companion post, Smashwords 2019 Year in...
Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-03-10 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 meets with OECD sec general Gurria [02] EU Commissioner Avramopoulos: We must open a safe and legal window to refugees [03] Greece is in Brussels to claim a united Europe, says Alt. Migration Minister Mouzalas [04] 41,973 refugees currently in Greece; 12,000 at Idomeni camp [05] Greece needs to recover growth to address economic and social challenges, OECD survey [01] PM Tsipras meets with OECD sec general Gurria Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras received on Thursday OECD secretary general Angel Gurria. Tsipras said that Gurria is in Athens at a very crucial moment and underlined: "We have the economic crisis that tends to come to an end and in parallel we have the refugees crisis" he said and expressed the hope all these to end in the best possible way. On his part Gurria called the time of his visit to Greece crucial adding that they at OECD are very happy that they can support the Greek government's reforms programme. He also stressed that a lot of work is needed and a series of issues are still pending in order this programme to be implemented, however, the government is dealing with the pending issues very effectively. [02] EU Commissioner Avramopoulos: We must open a safe and legal window to refugees We must discuss what we can do together to face the humanitarian crisis in Greece since there is danger to turn into a humanitarian disaster, stated European Commissioner For Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos upon his arrival to the EU Interior Ministers Summit held on Thursday in Brussels Avramopoulos noted that the work must continue in order a higher number of relocations to be reached. He also underlined that if we really want to stop the illegal migration from the back door, we must open a 'safe and legal window" to the migrants otherwise the ruthless traffickers will try to find new routes. [03] Greece is in Brussels to claim a united Europe, says Alt. Migration Minister Mouzalas Greece is here today to claim a united Europe where the decisions will try to find solutions, united not unilaterally" stated Alternate Migration Policy Minister Yiannis Mouzalas upon his arrival to the EU Interior Ministers Summit in Brussels on Thursday. Mouzalas said that Greece is in Brussels to claim the implementation of the previous Summit's decision that tries to give a European solution to the refugees problem "Visegrad counties and Austria's unilateral actions inflated the problem" he said adding that "we appeal to the European Union and to its founding and basic principles. Solidarity and responsibility" Finally, Mouzalas said that Greece requests the immediate activation of the EU-Turkey action plan, the immediate activation of the readmissions from Turkey and the state-members commitment in the relocation and readmission. "We believe in United Europe and we claim single action" concluded Mouzalas. [04] 41,973 refugees currently in Greece; 12,000 at Idomeni camp Approximately 41,973 refugees are currently in Greece, according to the Refugees Crisis Management Coordination body figures released on Thursday. 9,428 of then are on the islands of Lesvos, Samos, Chios, Kastellorizo, Kos, Leros and Kalymnos. 9,623 are hosted in the region of Attica. The refugees at Idomeni camp (Greek-Fyrom buffer zone) are approximately 12,000 refugees. The new arrivals in the last 24 hours reached 2,373. [05] Greece needs to recover growth to address economic and social challenges, OECD survey Boosting economic growth and investment to create jobs, improving the stability of public finances and providing an effective social safety net are crucial to help Greece recover from the profound social costs of the economic crisis, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in its latest report. The Paris-based organization in its economic survey of Greece said that poverty has risen since the crisis to reach one third of the population. Tackling poverty and inequality must be urgent policy priorities, it added. The survey sees the recovery strengthening in 2017 as ongoing reforms and external demand benefit investment and jobs. It stresses that successful negotiations to address public debt sustainability are critical to improve the outlook. However, major risks remain. Not only could the credit crunch continue to undermine domestic demand but weak activity could be compounded by a slowdown in global trade and softer growth in the rest of the Euro area, the destination of a third of Greek exports. The survey added that the refugee crisis could pose major problems for the Greek economy, particularly if the EU contribution turns out to be insufficient. Preliminary estimates put the cost of the influx of refugees at around 0.4% of GDP in 2015. Presenting the survey in Athens, OECD Secretary-General Angel GurrAa said: "Greece has gone through a painful adjustment and it's still facing a challenging economic and social outlook. Thus the country needs to recover growth to address such challenges. Reforms are starting to bear fruit, it is now essential to improve implementation, increase Greek "ownership" and focus efforts on both social well being and competitiveness. The OECD will continue to stand by the Greek Government, providing expertise and support to help Greece promote more inclusive and sustainable growth." Resources will need to be reallocated from savings generated elsewhere, such as from pensions, defence or improvements in tax collection, according to the survey. The pension reform should focus on better aligning contributions and benefits, reducing special regimes and alleviating the burden on the most vulnerable. More investment, for instance in infrastructure and logistics, would support exports which are essential to a sustained recovery. Liberalising further the network industries would also give the quality and quantity of investments a boost. EU structural funds should be used more effectively to increase investment in education, research, and innovation, as well as in information and communication technology to help improve skills. The report said the adjustment process has so far depended too heavily on fiscal measures and labour markets while not enough progress has been made on product market reforms. Product market reforms, introduced since the crisis, have advanced only slowly, and have been undermined by weak implementation and largely left monopoly power in place. Enhancing administrative capacity, stronger ownership of the policy changes and clear communication about the expected benefits to the general public, would improve the effectiveness of the new reform programme. Tax evasion remains widespread in Greece, thus reducing revenues needed to support social policies. The OECD calls for a broadening of the tax base while the tax administration should be strengthened and given more autonomy, allowing it to free up resources for audits and improved enforcement. Weak economic growth and bank recapitalisation needs have pushed up Greece's already high public debt. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article
Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-03-10 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 has phone contact with Russian President Putin [02] US Assistant Secretary of State Nuland visits Idomeni refugees camp [03] Greek unemployment rate fell to 24 pct in Dec [01] PM Tsipras has phone contact with Russian President Putin Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Thursday had a phone contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin. They discussed the regional developments, the refugees issue as well as the economic and energy relations between the two countries with particular focus on the conflict in Syrian and the refugee crisis. Moreover, they discussed the new opportunities created for the development of the relations as well as issue regarding the Greece-Russia year 2016. [02] US Assistant Secretary of State Nuland visits Idomeni refugees camp US Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland visited on Thursday the refugees camp at Idomeni. Nuland arrived at the camp at 10:30 and was briefed by members of UNCHR and of Medicines Sans Frontieres on the situation in the camp. The US official left without making any statements. [03] Greek unemployment rate fell to 24 pct in Dec Greek unemployment rate fell to 24 pct of the workforce in December 2015, from 25.9 pct in December 2014, down from a revised figure of 24.4 pct in November 2015, Hellenic Statistical Authority said on Thursday. The statistics service, in a report, said that the number of unemployed people totaled 1,149,716 in December, down 86,854 compared with December 2014 (a decline of 7.0 pct) and down 19,365 or 1.7 pct compared with November 2015. The number of employed people was 3,649,367, up 113,285 compared with December 2014 (up 3.2 pct) and up 18,727 compared with November 2015 (up 0.5 pct). The unemployment rate among women was 28.3 pct in December 2015, from 29.6 pct in December 2014 while unemployment among men fell to 20.5 pct from 23 pct over the same period, respectively. The unemployment rate in the 15-24 age group fell to 48.9 pct in December from 51.2 pct in December 2014, in the 25-34 age group it fell to 30.1 pct from 33.8 pct, in the 35-44 age group it eased to 20.4 pct from 22.8 pct, in the 45-54 age group it fell to 19.7 pct from 20.7 pct, in the 55-64 age group it rose to 18.1 pct from 16.7 pct and in the 65-74 age group it fell to 9.7 pct from 12.2 pct. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article
Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-03-10 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/> CONTENTS [01] Gov't proposals on pension reform a 'monstrosity', Mitsotakis tells ND forum [01] Gov't proposals on pension reform a 'monstrosity', Mitsotakis tells ND forum Main opposition New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Thursday invited productive bodies and society to participate in drawing up ND's programme, while attacking the government's proposals for reforming the pension system as a "monstrosity". He was speaking during an opening address to the Constantine Karamanlis Institute of Democracy forum on social insurance. "ND listens to the views of the citizens. It is changing its mode of operation. It is uniting Greeks without looking at where they belonged politically yesterday or what their social, ideological identity and reference is. We are creating a grand majority social and political alliance for the just reforms our country needs," he said. Mitsotakis also hailed the participation of capable people with valuable experience from adjacent political areas of the progressive centre and broader centre-left in the dialogue opened by ND on this issue. Regarding the pension system, he said ND was pointing the way toward a fair, efficient and sustainable pension system and had demonstrated in Parliament that it mounted an opposition based on positions, views and an alternative proposal. ND's leader went on to attack the government's handling of the refugee crisis, saying it had put Greece at the tail end of Europe on an issue where it should have first say. The government had reached the point where it was learning about the closing of the Balkan route from Twitter, he added. "Had Mr. Tsipras understood what he co-signed in Brussels? With every day that passes, the government's credibility and the so-called humanity of Mr. Tsipras is sinking into the mud of Idomeni," he said. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article
Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-03-10 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/> CONTENTS [01] Supporting the recovery of Greece [02] Ai Weiwei returns to champion refugees' cause at Idomeni; 'This is like a second war,' Syrian woman says [03] BoG, EBRD examine secondary loan market plan [01] Supporting the recovery of Greece The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) stands ready to support Greek businesses using both with its own funds and financing from third parties, while working with the authorities on policy reform, EBRD President Sir Suma Chakrabarti said in an exclusive article submitted to the ANA-MPA on Thursday. Noting that the country faces huge challenges, he also pointed to what he called many promising signs. "Greece has many good and solid companies. The entrepreneurial spirit has not been crushed by long years of recession and is ready to bounce back. The appetite and need for investment are huge. The EBRD stands ready to support this with our own money, by attracting third-party finance and by working on policy reform with the authorities with whom we are also mapping out our strategy for Greece for the coming years," he said. Chakrabarti, who was in Athens a few days ago for the launch of the EBRD's operations in Greece, said he was leaving Greece with "strong impressions" and that if reforms stay on track, the bank expects to "move full steam ahead" and bring many more projects to fruition. The full exclusive article to the ANA-MPA is given below: Supporting the recovery of Greece By Sir Suma Chakrabarti, President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development EBRD A few days ago I had the opportunity to visit Athens for the first time since Greece became a country where the EBRD invests. Last year's decision to invest in Greece until end-2020 came at the request of the Greek authorities and with the consent of our shareholders to support the recovery of the country's economy from a deep and protracted crisis. My brief stay in Athens allowed me to meet government, business and banking sector representatives and to open an office which will serve as a base for our activities across the country. I left Greece with strong impressions. It is obvious that the country is facing enormous challenges. Our economists do not expect a return to growth before next year and the highly volatile global economic and political environment is not helping. Greece has embarked on bold and painful reforms. Important steps have been taken, but there is still more to do  both to meet international obligations and also to create the conditions for a sound and sustainable recovery. At the same time I witnessed many promising signs. Greece has many good and solid companies. The entrepreneurial spirit has not been crushed by long years of recession and is ready to bounce back. The appetite and need for investment are huge. The EBRD stands ready to support this with our own money, by attracting third-party finance and by working on policy reform with the authorities with whom we are also mapping out our strategy for Greece for the coming years. A key element in this strategy will be the stabilisation of the banking sector. This is critical so that Greek companies, many of which are small and privately-owned, regain access to finance. Another one is turning Greece's geographic location into an advantage. At the moment the country is under enormous strain from the crisis in the Middle East. But it also has the potential to become a hub on land and sea for transport and energy between Europa and Asia. Improved regional links will also help the integration of Greek companies into the global economy. Anyone who has ever visited Greece has enjoyed the quality of local products. Yet exports remain well below potential. I am very pleased that we were able to make a first contribution to support the Greek export industry by signing a trade finance facility with a leading local bank during my visit. This was just the latest example of EBRD activities in the country. We had already taken part in the recapitalisation of the four systemic Greek banks, participated in a bond purchase and invested in fund that promotes small and medium-sized enterprises. If reforms stay on track, we now expect to move full steam ahead and bring many more projects to fruition. We are continuing to develop a strong pipeline in the corporate sector. We are in advanced talks with several agribusiness companies, a local sector in which we see a lot of potential. At the same time we are building up projects in tourism, pharmaceuticals, ITC and logistics. We will support privatisations and also seek to work with municipalities across the country to help improve the quality of their services. These are just a few examples that do not simply illustrate the EBRD's plans for Greece but which also highlight the enormous potential we see in Greece. For too many years now this has been overshadowed by the crisis. It is now time to turn a page and start looking ahead. The EBRD stands ready to make its contribution. [02] Ai Weiwei returns to champion refugees' cause at Idomeni; 'This is like a second war,' Syrian woman says Dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was at the side of the refugees in Greece once again on Thursday, this time at the tiny village of Idomeni on Greece's northern border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and its increasingly problematic refugee camp. After four days of rain and hermetically sealed borders, the camp had become a nightmarish expanse of churning mud, with thousands milling about in endless lines for a little food, water and other necessities. "This is like a second war," said Hala, an elderly Syrian woman, as she leaned on her husband's arm in a long line for food. "We have to fight for a plate of food, battle for a tent to lay down our heads. I have many years on my back and all this is very difficult for me. I fled my country and now I am stuck here, in the mud, the cold, the dead end," she told the ANA-MPA. One of the many hoping to reach Germany, Hala said she has a son there who is waiting for her. One of the "lucky" ones that managed to pass through the border about a year ago. Meanwhile, the news from Europe is not good and the iron-barred gate into the FYROM no-man's land remains stubbornly closed to now 12,000 refugees stacked inside the Idomeni camp, originally designed for no more than 2,500. In the village for the last two days, Ai Weiwei blasted the conditions at Idomeni and said that what is happening there is "a big violation of human rights". This is not the first time that the Chinese artist has championed the refugees' cause. He also visited the island of Lesvos and in late 2015 used 14,000 life jackets discarded by refugees landing on the island to create an installation in Berlin, wrapping five columns of the city's iconic 'Konzerthaus' in the bright orange life vests to draw attention to the refugees' plight. For those like Ahmed, who lost both his daughter and his house to the war in Syria, it seems the violence has no end. "Where would I go back to? There is no one waiting for me there," he says, showing us a picture of his bombed house on his cell phone. "I took it to remember what I escaped from," he said. Around him sit countless other families with their children, who managed to survive both the war and the perilous sea crossing into Europe. Huddling around camp fires to keep warm, with their eyes on the fence that bars their way, they must now also survive the vicissitudes of life in Idomeni. [03] BoG, EBRD examine secondary loan market plan The Bank of Greece in cooperation with European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) are examining ways to develop a secondary loan market and ways to restructure small- and medium-sized enterprises' loans. Th. Mitrakos, vice-governor of the Bank of Greece, addressing a seminar in Athens on Thursday, underlined that SMEs are the backbone of the Greek economy. A banks' turn to long-term solutions, combined with a restructuring of viable enterprises with changes in the structure, business planning and  if necessary - their management, will contribute to the stabilisation of the economy and its transition to a new export-orientated productive model. Banks should also examine taking joint action towards large business non-performing loans, a necessary precondition to offer viable solutions in a reasonable time period. Hellenic Financial Stability Fund is already working on drafting a study on the issue. Referring to initiatives undertaken by the Bank of Greece towards resolving the problem of NPLs, Mitrakos said that the bank issued an act envisaging the framework for the set up and operation of companies focusing on management or purchase of loans from credit institutions. He said that the central bank, in cooperation with the European Central Bank and commercial banks, was working towards setting new business goals for the management of NPLs. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article
At least one Canadian restaurant chain didn't hesitate to change its dress code after a human rights body said it was sexist to make women wear sexualized clothing.

Earls Kitchen + Bar, which is based in Vancouver but has locations across the country, announced Wednesday that it is changing its guidelines to give staffers the choice of wearing pants instead of skirts.

Up until now, the chain had a "suggested dress code" that recommended a black skirt "no shorter than one inch above the knee" with an option to request pants.

Advertisement

Now, women working at Earls can choose what to wear on their own, be it a skirt or a "straight-cut black pant."

The update came on the same day that the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) called for an end to "sexualized workplace dress codes."

The OHRC's policy position states that, while employers can still have dress codes, female employees "should not be expected to meet more difficult requirements than male employees, and they should not be expected to dress in a sexualized way to attract clients."

Advertisement

It noted that women are sometimes expected to dress in a "sexualized or gender-specific way," such as wearing "high heels, short skirts, tight clothing, or low-cut tops."

The OHRC added that employees might feel pressured to dress this way "because they fear losing tips, shifts, or even their jobs."

Earls said it has been working on amendments to its guidelines for "some time," and that the chain will spend about a year reworking its dress code so that both women and men wear similar uniforms in future.

"Although our female service staff have a choice in what they wear, we understand that even our suggested dress code could be considered discriminatory," a company statement said Wednesday.

Advertisement

"We were unaware we were in contravention of the Ontario Human Rights Code until recently, and consequently, female servers will now be offered the choice of pants or a skirt rather than having to request it."

The OHRC's policy position came after CBC's Marketplace published an investigation into restaurant dress codes at various Canadian chains.

As part of the probe, a CBC staffer applied for jobs at restaurants including Moxie's, Earls, Jack Astor's, and Joey Restaurants to find out what women were expected to wear.

Marketplace also spoke with women who said they received "unwanted attention" thanks to the outfits they were wearing. Some spoke about health problems that arose from wearing high heels on shift.

Advertisement

Spokespeople for those restaurants said their dress codes are meant to ensure their servers look "classy," not sexualized.

Follow Us On Instagram

Also on HuffPost:
Mauril Belanger dreamed of becoming Speaker of the House of Commons, of trying to make Canada's Parliament and politics a bit better from his perch in that big, green chair.

Those hopes were cruelly dashed last November when the veteran Liberal MP was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), better known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

Advertisement

Liberal MP Mauril Belanger gives a thumbs up as he sits in the Speaker's chair Wednesday. (Photo: Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

There's no cure. No stopping the hateful deterioration.

It started to take his voice on the campaign trail. He's now lost it completely.

But Belanger has shown up for work, woes be damned, to represent the constituents of Ottawa-Vanier as he has since 1995.

On Wednesday, his colleagues paid special tribute to his courage.

In an historic first, Belanger served as honorary Speaker for the day. He described it as a "dream coming true."

Advertisement

He was applauded loudly as he walked the Speaker's parade  a ceremonial procession through the aptly named Hall of Honour  to open the sitting. He took his spot in the best seat in the House.

Liberal MP Mauril Belanger takes par in the Speaker's parade as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and others applaud. (Photo: Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

Just as he did in a memorable address in January, Belanger used a tablet computer to convert his typed speech to audio, introducing MPs for member's statements and the start of question period.

The bickering and partisanship that so often permeates in the chamber was replaced instead with the sight of Parliamentary pages running tissues over to members overcome with emotion.

Advertisement

"It is a great honour to call you Mr. Speaker," Bloc MP Louis Plamondon, the longest-serving member and "dean of the House" told Belanger.

"You look great up there," interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose offered. "You've achieved in a very short time what many Speakers dream of  which is a well-behaved chamber."

Liberal MP Mauril Belanger is given a standing ovation as he makes his way to the Speaker's chair in the House of Commons. (Photo: Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

Ambrose asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to join her in urging Canadians to support organizations fighting to find a cure for ALS.

Advertisement

Trudeau obliged, and saluted the Speaker for the "dignity and grace" he brings to the House as he battles his disease. Belanger wiped away tears. The eyes have it.

NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair, who earlier in the day called the occasion a rare moment of grace in Parliament, lauded Belanger's years of work on behalf of official bilingualism and francophone Canadians.

Mulcair asked the prime minister how he might follow up on his MP's "exceptional contribution" to minority language rights.

Trudeau conceded "no one in this House has done more" on the issue. The prime minister pledged his government will bring in a new official languages plan.

Advertisement

Liberal MP Mauril Belanger is helped by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as he prepares to leave the Speaker's chair. (Photo: Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

Belanger honoured his colleagues  in French and English  with words that rang out clearly.

"I would like to thank you all dear colleagues of this House for the great privilege you have bestowed upon me to serve as honorary speaker of the House of Commons today," he said via his tablet. "Thank you very much."

He received a standing ovation. Some MPs banged on their desks, as if words wouldn't suffice.

Also on HuffPost
Social workers in Saskatchewan are under fire for giving two homeless, indigenous men one-way bus tickets to B.C., after the provincial government refused to fund their stay in local shelters.

On Tuesday, Jeremy Roy, 21, and Charles Neil Curly, 23, were sent on their way to Vancouver and Victoria, respectively, after they were denied provincial funding to stay at the The Lighthouse Supported Living homeless shelter in North Battleford, The Saskatoon StarPhoenix reported.

Roy, who's from the small community of Beauval in northern Saskatchewan, told the newspaper that he asked for a bus ticket after learning that the provincial ministry of social services wouldn't pay for him to stay at the shelter overnight.

Advertisement

He got the idea to travel to Vancouver after overhearing that Curly  who couldn't get funding either  was travelling West, according to the newspaper.

Roy has "significant" mental health issues, doesn't know anybody in Vancouver, and has never had a job  but "just made a decision to go" anyway.

Social workers handed tickets to both Roy and Curly upon request.

Caitlin Greencross, manager of North Battleford Lighthouse, said it's not unusual for the government to buy tickets for people who aren't from Saskatchewan.

Advertisement

However, she said it's the first time she's seen people sent out of their home province, according to the StarPhoenix.

Greencross, who said she's "deeply concerned" over the situation, worries that Roy doesn't understand what's really happening and that he won't have access to medication he needs.

"I'm almost speechless," she told CBC News.

"Like, I don't know what to say. We can't start shipping people off when we haven't done our due diligence in our own province. It's just not acceptable."

"We can't start shipping people off when we haven't done our due diligence in our own province."

Social Services Minister Donna Harpauer said in a statement that the deputy minister is reviewing the circumstances under which the men were given tickets.

"I have had a conversation with Social Services Deputy Minister Greg Miller regarding reports that two young men were given bus tickets for out of province destinations by Social Service workers. "I reaffirmed to the Deputy Minister that regulations require a case plan be established by workers and clients before transportation be provided. The Deputy Minister is also reviewing if case plans were in place for these individuals and he will be reminding front line workers that clients should have a plan in place before they are given bus tickets for destinations away."

Warm welcome in B.C.

On Wednesday, B.C. Premier Christy Clark said both men will be welcomed on the West Coast once they arrive.

Vancouver Coun. Kerry Jang echoed her comments, but told News1130 that he was "disgusted" with the actions of the Saskatchewan government.

"They've essentially put these individuals at risk for death or other types of problems."

"You don't treat people like that," he said. "You don't put them on a bus to somewhere else hoping that they don't fall through the cracks.

"They have no supports here, they have no connections here. They've essentially put these individuals at risk for death or other types of problems."

Roy and Curly's story comes after the Saskatchewan government changed the rules around who would receive provincial funding to stay in shelters, the StarPhoenix reported.

Advertisement

The province isn't giving money to First Nations people because it believes responsibility for that funding lies with the federal government, according to the newspaper.

With files from The Canadian Press

Also on HuffPost:
CP

Canadas government is the smallest its been since the Second World War, and thats hurting its ability to provide services, says a new alternative federal budget.

The latest edition of the document  which the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives releases every year ahead of the official federal budget  calls for substantial corporate tax hikes, the closing of tax loopholes and the elimination of tuition fees.

Advertisement

Federal total spending as a share of the economy stands at 13 per cent of GDP, its lowest point in the past 60 years, states the document, released Thursday.

The last time the government was this small we had no national health care plan, no pension plan, no guaranteed income supplement, no employment insurance."

Falling corporate tax rates and growing tax evasion are to blame, and the result has been a measurable withdrawal of public services and support programs upon which many rely, the CCPA said.

Advertisement

The CCPA's budget would hike the federal corporate income tax rate to 21 per cent, from the current 15 per cent. That would return the rate to the level it was at in 2006, when the Harper government came to power.

It would also crack down on the use of tax havens by the wealthy, adding $50 million to Canada Revenue Agencys budget to go after tax cheats.

Those three changes would put an additional $20 billion in the federal governments coffers, the CCPA says  enough to fund an ambitious social spending agenda.

Perhaps most notably, the alternative budget would eliminate tuition fees for all post-secondary students.

But the budget proposes only paying for half the cost needed to bring tuitions to zero, with provinces covering the other half. It estimates free tuition would cost Ottawa $3.3 billion annually, implying that provinces collectively would have to pony up another $3.3 billion. The budget would only provide this funding to provinces that offer free tuition.

Advertisement

The budget would also increase spending on First Nations and affordable child care, and would eliminate income splitting, which many progressive economists have argued largely benefited wealthier families and families with one -stay-at-home parent.

The proposed budget is likely to come in from criticism from conservative-leaning critics who argue hiking corporate taxes will reduce business investment, reducing job growth. They also argue a higher corporate tax rate would make Canada less competitive on the global stage.

Taxing investment profits at the same rate as income could also prove controversial. Although a recent study said the practice costs Canadas governments $12 billion a year, many economists argue the capital gains tax is double taxation. The money was already taxed as business income, hence the lower capital gains rate.

But the CCPA argues these moves would be a positive to the economy, by reducing inequality and improving the financial situations of Canadas most impoverished people.

Advertisement

It says its budget would lift 1.1 million Canadians out of poverty and create 520,000 jobs at its peak.

The Trudeau Liberals will release their debut budget on March 22. Finance Minister Bill Morneau warned last month that the deficit is likely to be bigger than earlier forecasts  up to $18.4 billion in the next fiscal year, not including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's promised $10 billion in deficit spending, meant to boost the economy.

When taking the planned deficit spending into account, economists estimate Canada's federal budget could face a shortfall of up to $50 billion over the next two years. However, even that larger number amounts to 1.5 per cent of Canada's GDP annually  a relatively small deficit that most economists agree doesn't threaten Canada's long-term economic health.
After a 27 hour trip to Enterprise Connect, I can safely say that we have an unqualified me-too business. Video conferencing and collaboration - now called meetings and workflow - were printed on every booth. Here is what I saw.

Cisco demonstrated Spark, which I thought was for SMB, but is being pitched to Enterprise especially with its big hook into Salesforce. The demo that I got at the booth was rather disappointing. Not very visual. Looked like a console.

"Cisco Spark delivers cloud-based business communications that enables customers to message, meet and call anyone, whether it be on their mobile device, desktop or meeting room end-points." [PR] Isn't this what all the UC&C platforms promise? And keep in mind that this is re-branded Squared.

Not that Slack is the end-ll-be-all, but if you can't at least offer that type of look and feel and functionality (what I refer to as UX and CX or simply user or customer experience) then what are you doing? With two million daily users in 2 years, there is something they like about it besides the way it decreases internal email that people like.

Atlassian HipChat has a similar UX. The room or container or locker or folder or whatever you want to call the holding space for documents, conversations, recordings and notes around an event - sales call, project, meeting - is about organization and working on it when I want to or can as well as a depository for everything about the event in one easy to use, share, store space. This is a long time coming - and it still needs some improvement but it is getting better.

I still am waiting for a single inbox for email, texts/SMS, IM, etc. One place for all my comms. Maybe some day. Right after SSO (single sign on), which we haven't heard about since FOWA 2007.

I did hear more talk about APIs, SDKs, and integrations. Zapier and IFTTT weren't there but maybe in spirit.

Genband had some news. It has re-organized its product portfolio under Kandy. Now fring and other products that are monthly recurring revenue are under Kandy. Genband is in a patent dispute with Metaswitch that some have speculated leads to a merger. Genband is also doing co-marketing for its customers - see here.

And XO touted that it is using GenBand for advanced real time communications. When XO becomes Verizon in 2017 that means Alex Doyle will have one more platform to deal with!

ThinkingPhones came out as Fuze at this show with a marketing campaign playing on Unified.

NETSCOUT has a platform to measure service delivery issues in a multi-vendor environment. This platform looks at Voice and video media performance; Call signaling and UC server performance; as well as Network and enablers' infrastructure performance.

One big announcement came out before the show: Switch.co re-branded as Dialpad. Craig Walker was a keynote speaker at the show. Dialpad was in the Sprint booth talking about mobility and enterprise. (They gave away nice jackets.)

Another big deal was Avaya launching Zang.io, in what at first glance looks a little like Kandy's logo (and font and colors) and at second glance looks like they are trying to put one up on twilio. It is kind of a mixture of the two. "Zang connects popular collaboration apps like Google Hangouts with business solutions like Salesforce.com or SAP for a seamless user experience. Zang comes with simple SDKs, sample apps and the ability to use other third-party communications apps, which speed adoption and value creation." (You can read the rest here.)

This either works for Avaya and they move beyond premise PBX - or it fails and they file BK. Those are the only 2 options because while telcos like Windstream still sell Avaya, from what Avaya partners tell me, it is more about old logos, not new logos. And there is too much competition in the Enterprise space. Lot of big booths (20x20 and larger) at the #EC16.

One cool toy came from Oblong. "The result of more than 20 years of research at MIT Media Lab, Oblongs flagship product, Mezzanine, is an immersive visual collaboration solution defining the next era of computing: multi-user, multi-screen, multi-device, multi-location." It was a total immersion telepresence system that could be controlled by something like a Wii game controller or an IOS device. It was a nifty toy that brings Minority Report to life.

Voxbone was serving up international DIDs, right alongside Belgian chocolates and expresso! Thanks!

Yesterday (3/8) was International Women's Day, so here are some forgotten women in tech history.

Today's GapingVoid cartoon is about silos in organizations and collaboration. Ha!
After centuries of perpetuating gender norms, were finally starting to clue-in to the necessity of gender neutral clothing. Labels like TILLYandWILLIAM offer gender-neutral pieces in minimalist cuts, 69 remains anonymous so as to continue their work as a genderless and non-demographic entity, and Nicopanda (by Nicola Formichetti) walked male models in skirts during New York Fashion Week last September. (And, lest we forget the splendor of Jaden Smith for Louis Vuitton, wearing a skirt because he dresses however he wants to.)

Which is why Im sure Zara had their heart in the right place for the gender-neutral line they released this week. Called "Ungendered," the eight-piece minimalist and overly comfy-looking line is arguably meant to capitalize on the need for non-binary clothing, but theres a problem: its loungewear. And loungewear, as we know, has never really fallen under the same norms as day-to-day or formal pieces, and also: its loungewear. Its not like youre going to bust it out for a night on the town. (Unless thats your vibe, and then by all means, do you.)

Advertisement

And thats where I think the issue with our approach to gender fluidity in fashion is stalled. In the race to catch up to gender neutrality, brands are still fixating on outdated norms because were still coming at style from a boy/girl state of mind.

Zara is opting for minimalistic and comfortable (see: "accessible") approaches to clothing over skirts and dresses designed to fit mens bodies, and the likes of heels and cut-out dresses (as seen in Hood By Airs show last year) are still reserved for the catwalk. And, as pointed out by Teen Vogue in the wake of Jadens Louis Vuitton campaign, were still describing male models as wearing "womens clothing" (and vice versa), thus defining looks based on gender norms. Which is an issue because we shouldnt be assigning gender labels to anybody without their approval (or without knowing how theyd preferred to be identified). But it continues because its easy.

@sarahdonnealia @riannevanrompaey @jean_campbell #jadensmith @christiaingrey in the new @louisvuitton SS16 ad Campaign photographed by Bruce Weber A photo posted by  (@nicolasghesquiere) on Jan 3, 2016 at 6:37am PST

Advertisement

And I get it: for a brand to embrace and then to run with gender neutrality and gender-free clothing might seem daunting, especially since weve built a fashion empire based exclusively on separating men and womens clothing. So, hoping to appease everybody and to avoid assigning even more labels, brands have gravitated toward creating uniform-like pieces that wont hurt anybodys feelings. Thats why I assume houses like Zara, who are trying to break the gender mold, find themselves trapped in another one: in an attempt to avoid assigning anything to anyone in any way, theyve created a Star Trek-like aesthetic, where everybodys wearing the same thing. But theres no fun in that. (Again, unless thats your look and if it is, go forth and be minimal.)

Fashion, as we know, is another extension of self, and also one of the most exciting ways to assert and declare who you are on your own terms. So the industrys roadblock isnt necessarily with specific pieces of clothing (since well all buy and wear whatever we want), its with whom the pieces are intended for. So, the industry is finally into a man wearing a dress, but theyre still making him buy it in the "womens section." And thats the problem: Gender neutrality cant really exist if were still conforming to gender norms.

Which is a lot to take in, but also not really. Were seeing men in skirts and heels on the runway, were seeing women in tuxedos and tracksuits  and its great. But at the same time, were still assigning labels in the process, which makes loungewear seem like the only true answer to gender neutrality, mainly because we think thats always been the case.

But its so much easier: all we have to do is look at clothing en masse as gender neutral; as something anybody can wear, no questions asked. After all, those of us in the industry are the ones whove created the labels were trying to erase now. Were the ones still having a field day over gender-neutral lines, as if those are the only answer to gender neutrality.

Theyre a great step, but theyre not the solution. That parts on all of us: to champion true gender neutrality, we start by looking at clothes and the person choosing to wear them and then we say, "Oh cool  that outfit looks great on them."

Advertisement

Follow Huffington Post Canada Style on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter!

Also on HuffPost
A Florida woman who advocates access to guns was shot by her four-year-old son Tuesday.

Jamie Gilt, 31, from Jacksonville, is in stable condition after her son shot her by accident while she was driving, according to the Putnam County Sheriff's Department.

The boy was sitting in the back seat at the time.

She was shot through the seat and the round went through her back, Capt. Joseph Wells of the department told the Florida Times-Union.

Advertisement

The site reports a Facebook page belonging to a Jamie Gilt from Jacksonville contained pro-gun messages and noted a post advocating a four-year-old's right to shoot targets.

Thanks. All of ours know how to shoot too. Even my 4-year-old gets jacked up to target shoot the .22, she said in response to pro-gun commenters on a post.

Both a Jamie Gilt personal Facebook account and a page called Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense have been taken down as of Thursday.

Advertisement

A post on Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense read "My right to protect my child with a gun trumps your fear of my gun," according to NBC News.

Deputies want to find out how Gilt's son obtained the handgun. He's since been placed in the care of family members. The state's Department of Children and Families has been notified of the case.

According to WLTV, it's illegal in Florida for someone to leave a loaded firearm in a way that allows a child access to it.

Also on HuffPost
Jeremy Meeks has been released from prison and is ready to start his modelling career.

The 32-year-old "sexy felon," whose "hot" mugshot went viral back in 2014, is now a free man, according to Buzzfeed.

Advertisement

The father of three was sentenced to 27 months in prison last year on weapon charges, but was released early for good behaviour. And now his agent Jim Jordan says they're looking into modelling and acting opportunities for the former felon.

"We have a lot in store regarding Jeremys new career," Jordan said in a statement, reports ABC News. "There are a multitude of offers on the table. Jeremy is humbled and grateful and overwhelmed by the outpouring of love, support, and prayers for him and his family."

He told Buzzfeed, "We're in talks with a lot of different agencies. There's movies on the table. We have a lot of different things happening."

And it looks like Meeks is excited to start embark on his life post-prison, posting a picture with Jordan and saying "I'm ready."

Advertisement

I want to thank my family and everybody for all your love, support and prayers. I'm overwhelmed and grateful for what lies ahead. I'm ready @jimjordanphotography and @whitecrossmanagement #jeremymeeks #jimjordan #whitecrossmanagement A photo posted by JEREMY MEEKS (@jmeeksofficial) on Mar 9, 2016 at 4:43pm PST

Last week, Meeks posted a photo to Instagram in celebration of his prison release.

"Looking forward to reuniting with my family. Counting down the days. #6days #spreadtheword," he captioned the pic.

Looking forward to reuniting with my family. Counting down the days. #6days #spreadtheword A photo posted by JEREMY MEEKS (@jmeeksofficial) on Mar 2, 2016 at 12:26pm PST

He also shared a family photo, and a picture of himself on a motorboat, which he captioned, "Looking forward to my time on the lake with my kids."

Looking forward to my time on the lake with my kids A photo posted by JEREMY MEEKS (@jmeeksofficial) on Mar 8, 2016 at 11:29am PST

Advertisement

Bout to start this countdown! A photo posted by JEREMY MEEKS (@jmeeksofficial) on Mar 3, 2016 at 2:30am PST

So is a spread in GQ or a #MyCalvins campaign up next? Only time will tell!

Follow Huffington Post Canada Style on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter!

Also on HuffPost
Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr was left to mind the store Thursday as several key cabinet ministers geared up to sip champagne in Washington.

For his trouble, Carr was ridiculed for not being invited to the party.

Advertisement

Interim Tory Leader Rona Ambrose gave Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr some grief Thursday. (Photo: The Canadian Press)

Interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose kicked off question period by reminding the House of Commons that while the Obama administration rejected the Keystone XL pipeline, it also lifted the export ban on American oil.

"The U.S. is not only our biggest energy customer, they're now our biggest competitor," she said.

She also addressed the plan struck by U.S. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to slash methane emissions from the oil and gas sector by 40 to 45 per cent below 2012 levels by 2025.

The top Tory said that a "level playing field" was crucial for any climate change deal to work.

"Can the prime minister guarantee Canadian energy workers he won't put them behind the eight ball by implementing new measures at home that the U.S. has no intention of implementing themselves?" she asked.

Advertisement

"How important is energy to this government when the energy minister isn't even invited to go to Washington?"

Carr said it remains a priority for the new government  and Trudeau, personally  to get resources to market.

"The best chance for that to happen is to have a credible regulatory process that unfortunately was not the case with the previous government, but is now in place to give us a result that we all want," he said.

Then Ambrose went for the jab.

"How important is energy to this government when the energy minister isn't even invited to go to Washington?" she said, to laughter and applause.

"I even got invited to go to Washington."

Nine other Liberal cabinet ministers made the cut to attend Thursday's state dinner at the White House:

Advertisement

Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna

International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland

Fisheries Minister Hunter Tootoo

Heritage Minister Melanie Joly

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale

Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains

International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau

Amazing what a difference a year can make. Proud to be on such an incredible team! #StateDinner#PMDCpic.twitter.com/Ksid6MLftX  Catherine McKenna (@cathmckenna) March 10, 2016

The prime minister's mother, Margaret Trudeau, as well as Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau's parents will also be in attendance.

Carr not invited to World Economic Forum, either

This is not the first time Tories have singled out Carr's absence from a big event. In January, finance critic Lisa Raitt noted that the minister was also not part of the prime minister's delegation at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Advertisement

"Who you bring is what you plan on selling," Raitt told Postmedia. "And you leave the guy home who's in charge of oil and gas, who can talk about pipelines, the process around pipelines?

"Who can try to give some assurances to the world community that we'll get our natural resources to tidewater?"

With a file from The Canadian Press

ALSO ON HUFFPOST:
The Trudeaus have landed in Washington, D.C. for a historical visit, and Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau is doing it in (Canadian) style.

Accompanying her husband on his first prime ministerial visit to the United States, the mother-of-three donned the "Yazmin" Ellie Mae jacket to the Canada 2020 reception that took place at the Renwick Art Gallery Wednesday evening.

Advertisement

Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau poses for a pic, wearing all Canadian designers #statevisitpic.twitter.com/KPeknYo1kT  Meagan Fitzpatrick (@fitzpatrick_m) March 10, 2016

The easy fit lace and leather botanical jacket, which was paired with a simple white dress by Judith & Charles and an Ela peach-coloured clutch, fitted the 40-year-old beautifully with its high rounded neck, making it the perfect ensemble for the cocktail-like reception.

As for Ellie Mae, the Toronto-based designer who describes her collection as "vintage-inspired eclectic patterns with modern street style," her first reaction of seeing Sophie in the garment was surreal.

"After it sunk in I was overwhelmed with excitement. Its one of those feelings that only happens a few times in someones life," she tells HuffPost Canada Style via email.

Advertisement

The designer admits she had an idea that the Prime Minister's wife would sport the jacket in Washington, but for which event was still up in the air.

Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau poses with husband Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Toronto's own, The Weeknd, at the Canada 2020 reception

"Our team works closely with Sophies stylist, Jessica Mulroney, and with her partnership we were able to dress Sophie in our collection at such an important event."

And this isn't the first time Sophie has opted for a frock by the Central Saint Martins-educated designer  the Montreal-native is clearly a fan of the brand having worn the 'Sheila' jacket during the Prime Minister's speech on International Women's Day.

Advertisement

We absolutely love Sophie Trudeau in our Sheila jacket!!  #madeincanada #canadiandesigner #fashion #sophietrudeau #toronto #elliemae A photo posted by Elliemaestudios (@elliemaestudios) on Mar 9, 2016 at 3:54pm PST

As for what she wore upon her arrival into Andrews Air Force Base with her family, Gregoire-Trudeau chose a grey, low-plunging two-piece suit with cream detailing from Vietnamese-Canadian designer, DUY, and a Haollan high heel from Aldo.

"I saw her on my phone and the suit looked amazing on her," Duy Nguyen, who is based in Montreal, tells etalk. "She has great legs and gorgeous skin, very easy to dress. Oh, and it was fun doing a fitting in Rideau Hall. I am so honoured to be chosen from so many great designers in Canada."

On Thursday, Justin and Sophie will attend their state dinner hosted by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle, the first for a Canadian in 19 years.

Advertisement

Follow Huffington Post Canada Style on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter!

Also on HuffPost
An advocacy group representing Canadian scientists is urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to not reuse draconian rules of the former government during his term as prime minister.

Ottawa-based non-profit Evidence for Democracy released an open letter Wednesday praising Trudeau for reinstating the mandatory long-form census as well as giving the go-ahead to Environment Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada researchers to speak with the media and public as they please.

It was also addressed to Innovation, Science, and Economic Minister Navdeep Bains, and Science Minister Kirsty Duncan.

Advertisement

But there's more to this than just the muzzling issues.

We applaud this quick action to support the open communication of scientific information to the public, reads the letter. But the group warns traces of policies from the previous government still remain in some departments.

The scale of communication restriction under the previous government has left a legacy of draconian communication policies in many departments that prohibit journalists from contacting government scientists directly.

The one-page letter was signed by the groups president Debi Daviau and executive director Katie Gibbs.

Advertisement

Scientists rally on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Sept. 16, 2013. (Photo: Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

Gibbs told The Huffington Post Canada that, to the groups knowledge, some of the media blackout policies enforced by the former Conservative government have yet to be lifted.

But there's more to this than just the muzzling issues which is why we're calling for broader science integrity measures to be brought in, she said in an email.

The group wants to see rules in place to protect scientists work, ensuring research is free from political interference as well as the right to last review  a condition that would grant experts the right to make sure government communications citing their work isnt misleading or inaccurate.

Gibbs says theyve yet to hear back from the federal government about the open letter.

Evidence for Democracy represents more than 15,000 federal scientists across the country

Liberals: We will treat scientists with respect

During the last years of the former government under Stephen Harper, the Conservatives courted controversy over their decision to slash research funding and their policy of muzzling scientists from speaking with media.

Advertisement

The Liberals had campaigned with a pledge to let scientists speak freely about their work.

Last year, to show how serious the party was about its election pledge, Bains was appointed to a new cabinet position as minister of innovation, science and economic development  a new portfolio.

Minister Navdeep Singh Bains responds to a question during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Feb. 19, 2016. (Photo: Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

Our government values science and will treat scientists with respect. This is why government scientists and experts will be able to speak freely about their work to the media and the public, the Mississauga-Malton MP said days after being sworn in.

The priority was repeated in the science ministers mandate letter from the prime minister, asking that scientists be able to speak freely about their work, and that scientific analyses are considered when the government makes decisions.

Advertisement

Trudeau is in Washington, D.C. for a three-day official visit where negotiators for the two countries announced a new climate deal to curb methane emissions.

Also on HuffPost:
Glenn Van Der Knijff via Getty Images Toronto, Ontario, Canada, North America

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be introducing you to some trailblazing professionals, in my ongoing effort to change the perception of the word "millennial". These 6 adventurers, ground breakers and revolutionaries are changing their industries with their unique views as young professionals. Last week, you met Shannon Simmons, who started her own financial services companies, and this week, I have the pleasure to introduce....

Advertisement

Meet Kendra Nicholson

Community Manager at Steam Whistle Brewing

Self proclaimed "fairy beer mother" Kendra is the community manager of one of the fastest growing companies in Toronto - Steam Whistle. She's responsible for producing the excellent online content that comes out of the brewery and is the voice behind the hugely popular social media accounts: Facebook (over 32,000 fans), Twitter (over 34k followers) and Instagram (over 10k followers). And if those numbers aren't proof enough of her success, just speak to any one of Steam Whistle's extremely loyal fans (myself included).

Caitie Drewery: So what does your day-to-day look like?

Kendra Nicholson: I develop our online content and manage our social channels as well as handling customer service and taking care of our super fans. (Aka playing fairy beer mother). My job involves tweeting about beer all day - not a bad gig!

CD: And what was your journey to get where you are?

KN: I actually went to school for fashion design. Post-graduation I realized the industry was not for me (after too many frustrated nights in the sewing lab). I made the transition to cosmetic marketing for 3 years. At that time there was a shift towards digital and brands were starting to realise they needed a dedicated person to manage how their brand was represented online. As someone who spent more time on Facebook and Twitter than hitting the books through college I thought - that's my dream job!

I took a few online courses and accepted a job managing the social feeds for a collection of boutique hotels and resorts and did some consulting work before landing the gig at Steam Whistle.

Advertisement

CD: That shift within companies of recognizing the importance of digital brand management has been very interesting to watch, but companies certainly still have some learning curves. What are some of the challenges you still face in digital marketing?

KN: When I was first starting out in social media the most frustrating question I was asked daily was "What is the Return on Investment (ROI) of social media? I think the reason people ask the question is because they don't understand the true value of the payback. The investment in social media and digital marketing leads to brand awareness, product feedback, community engagement and customer service. Can you assign a dollar value to that?

CD: And how did you overcome those ROI hang ups?

KN: I would advise anyone asked to prove the value of social media to counter with what specific Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) that are important to their business goals. Are they looking to increase follower count, engagement, reach or are they looking to build a thriving community amongst their customers? Once you have an idea of what social success look like to them you can provide actionable goals to take them there.

CD: What is the company culture like at Steam Whistle?

KN: I consider myself very fortunate to work with a team of people who not only value social but can also teach me a thing or two. Steam Whistle is a collaborative open-doors environment where everyone's ideas and opinions are encouraged. We have employees with decades of industry experience working alongside newer employees who are adopting and teaching cutting edge technologies and apps which leads to a very well rounded dynamic.

CD: What is your one piece of advice to young bucks out there?

KN: Never stop learning! Being new to the beer industry I needed to put in some work to gain my bearings, I just wrapped up my Prud'homme Beer Sommelier course. I attend webinars weekly and digital conferences as often as I can. I think it's naive to assume you know everything about an industry and if you work in digital your industry changes every hour. The people who get left behind are those who aren't constantly evolving and adapting with the world around them.

Advertisement

CD: What does the word "millennial" mean to you?

KN: To me the concept of a millennial is someone who has lived half their life with the internet and half without. There is inherent value in the ability to balance all that technological aptitude with IRL relationship building. While correspondence through e-mail can be the most convenient our best ideas at the brewery come from face to face brainstorming sessions. Having a couple beers can certainly help the creative process too!

CD: What has been your biggest FTW moment?

KN: For the second time we've been ranked the second Most Engaging Canadian Beer Brand on Twitter and 3rd on Facebook. That accomplishment felt great, both as the only craft brewery on the list and also because we do everything in-house at Steam Whistle. It validates that pre-designed memes and scheduled tweets will only take you so far. Ultimately what people are looking for is real life human connection. In an era when people are expecting automation - people lose their mind when a beer company actually tweets back!

CD: Bonus question - what show are you binge watching right now?

KN: Over the holidays I binge watched Making a Murderer (just like everyone else). I was left with many questions... Specifically does Steven Avery actually not own any underwear?

The Kendra Nicholson Crib Sheet: My Top Takeaways

Kendra has scored her dream job, but it certainly didn't land in her lap. The most important piece to takeaway from Kendra's journey is that her passion and hard work is what opened up doors for her. That's something we can all mirror - we just have to find the right work, company or team to truly get passionate about. She's also a great role model for you digital mavens out there; both in how she conducts herself online and the advice she has to really engage your social communities. Here's the 4 quotes that stuck out most to me:

"The investment in social media and digital marketing leads to brand awareness, product feedback, community engagement and customer service. Can you assign a dollar value to that?" "Ultimately what people are looking for is real life human connection. In an era when people are expecting automation - people lose their mind when a beer company actually tweets back!" "To me the concept of a millennial is someone who has lived half their life with the internet and half without. There is inherent value in the ability to balance all that technological aptitude with IRL relationship building." "I think it's naive to assume you know everything about an industry and if you work in digital your industry changes every hour. The people who get left behind are those who aren't constantly evolving and adapting with the world around them."

Next week, meet Drew Campbell, Marketing Manager of Digital at Boston Pizza International and learn about building your own brand and what it's like be a kid in a figurative candy store (which in Drew's case was the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity).
MANDEL NGAN via Getty Images US President Barack Obama and Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau take part in a welcome ceremony during a State Visit on the South Lawn of the White House on March 10, 2016 in Washington, DC. / AFP / MANDEL NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

This world leader has been called the "Anti-Trump."

Yes, that sounds like the perfect title for Barak Obama. Whereas Donald Trump blusters seemingly randomly at those around him, Obama keeps his cool like a gentleman from Kingsman.

Whereas Trump spews vitriol at various visible minorities, Obama is himself a visible minority.

Whereas Trump talks about building a walls ("Let's build a higher wall..."), Obama has been building bridges his whole life.

Advertisement

But Obama is not the world leader dubbed the "Anti-Trump" by the Washington Post. That honour falls to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

American media might just be picking up on Trudeau's approach to politics and its stark contrast to that of Trump, but Canadian media have been abuzz with Trudeau's anti-Trump stance since last December.

With Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau, being honoured at a White House State Dinner, all eyes are on Trudeau. Will he comment on Trump when in the company of a president who would surely share his views?

What can we expect Trudeau to say about Trump in Washington? Nothing. What can we expect him to say about diversity? And inclusiveness? And building bridges? A lot!

No. "I'm not going to pick a fight with Donald Trump right now. I'm not going to support him either, obviously," he said at the Huffington Post Town Hall.

So, what has changed since December?

Nothing. Going back to December, Trudeau responded to a simple question, whether he would "stand up to Trump and condemn his hateful rhetoric."

Contrary to what one might assume by reading the headlines, Trudeau never actually answered the question. He spoke about the importance of Canada's prime minister being able to work with the American president, whoever he might be.

Then he broke into a lecture about how to do politics his way.

Trudeau did not mention Trump by name, not once. He did talk about how diversity is a strength, not a weakness. He did talk about how "fear doesn't make us safer, it makes us weaker." He did point out that ISIS kills mostly Muslims, so blaming Muslims in general for terrorism "is not just ignorant, it's irresponsible."

Those who love nothing better than a good cat fight will insist that the prime minister was taking jabs at Trump. But his comments were completely in line with his campaign themes in the last election, when he suggested sending airplanes with immigration officials to Syria to airlift refugees, as Canada did with the Vietnamese boat people in 1979.

Advertisement

His comments in December echoed the "one in particular" story he told during his election victory speech, about the Muslim woman approaching him in her Hajib, seeking a Canada where her daughter would be free to make her own choices in life.

And those same comments are now reflected in the banner that for several weeks was a fixture on Canada.ca (and is still up on the prime minister's own pages): #WelcomeRefugees.

Let's not forget that Trudeau's father, when he was prime minister in 1971, made multiculturalism an official government policy.

Despite all the hoopla around his remarks in December, Trudeau was actually careful not to comment on Trump, specifically.

What can we expect Trudeau to say about Trump in Washington? Nothing.

What can we expect him to say about diversity? And inclusiveness? And building bridges? A lot! In fact, it's hard to imagine Trudeau passing an hour without talking about those favourite topics of his. And in the current president, he is likely to find a receptive audience.

Advertisement

That's a good thing for Canada. The two countries always accomplish more when the president and the prime minister get along. Who can forget Brain Mulroney and Ronald Reagan singing "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" together?

The result was the Free Trade Accord. And a pact to clean up acid rain. And the Commission on Environmental Cooperation. And advances on Arctic sovereignty. And a softwood lumber deal? Well, you can't win them all.

Obama won't be president for long, but if the two men with a similar world view can get down to business while Trudeau is visiting in Washington this week, they might be able to move some important files along, including environmental protection in the Arctic, enhanced trade, border security, joint action on climate change, a new softwood lumber agreement and ratification of the Trans Pacific Partnership, to name but a few.

When a new president is sworn in next January, who knows what lies ahead for Canada-U.S. relations? One thing is for certain: if Trudeau has to call on president Trump, he will not have a receptive ear -- not because he took pot shots at him during the primaries, but because the two men simply do not speak the same language.

Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook

MORE ON HUFFPOST:
One of the most exquisite moments in Vancouver Opera's Madame Butterfly is the Second Act scene where the giddy heroine covers her home in cherry blossoms in anticipation of Pinkerton's return, only to discover his betrayal.

Its emotional resonance is powerful on a personal level, and the Vancouver Opera production's leads -- Mihoko Kinoshita as Butterfly and Richard Troxell as Pinkerton -- gave strong performances on opening night as the arrogant American cad and the fragile Japanese flower.

Advertisement

But in the midst of the pre-U.S. election circus, it's hard not to highlight the political dimensions of a character who arrives on a boat named the Abraham Lincoln, and whose seduction and abandonment of a local ends in tragedy.

While it would be fun to cast the production in line with Republican and Democratic primaries -- Trump would be a shoo-in as Pinkerton, perhaps Bernie- moral conscience of America- Sanders as the American consul disgusted by Pinkerton's heartlessness. As for Hillary, it would be a toss up between Suzuki the loyal servant, and a role as Pinkerton in drag. Butterfly, of course, would be the long-suffering American voter.

Advertisement

But let's no waste such high drama on mere domestic politics. The real opera is found in American foreign policy.

I can imagine a production of Butterfly where a variety of dictators in the vein of "the only thing worse than being an enemy of the U.S. is being a former ally" -- from the Shah of Iran to Saddam Hussein to Noriega to Bashar Assad -- sing that poignant second act aria.

Butterfly in Baghdad could be set in a variety of eras: perhaps that moment towards the end of the horrific eight year Iran/Iraq war that wiped out a generation of young men, when Saddam Hussein realized that the U.S. was arming both sides.

Or Butterfly in Nasiriyah, circa 1991, when the anti-regime uprising, encouraged by Bush senior, was brutally quashed by Saddam, whose helicopters were conveniently allowed safe passage through U.S. controlled airspace.

Or that moment in 2011 when Gaddafi realized that his exoneration by the UN and backing by the U.S. was only a short term "temporary marriage" and that he would soon meet a violent end and have his country torn apart.

Advertisement

Or perhaps the time Bashar Assad realized -- somewhere after the puff piece about his wife ran in Vogue and when the U.S. began to arm the al Nusra Front -- that he was out of favour with the West as the friendly dictator we could farm out torture to.

Alas, American love is fickle. It respects neither ancestors nor contracts but seems to suffer, like Pinkerton, from a particularly violent form of ADD.

But back to the domestic drama for a moment. It's not clear that U.S. foreign policy would change that much if Hillary or Sanders win. Hillary's record on backing violent and illegal invasions and supporting the likes of Bibi Netanyahu is well documented. Sanders would certainly be less belligerent, but hardly seems to diverge from mainstream American policy on Israel.

Oddly enough Trump -- who again would be well cast as Pinkerton -- seems to have adopted of late a kind of libertarian non-interventionism akin to that of former Republican candidate Ron Paul. Although his wall-building ways -- more akin to 19th century Shoguns than business moguls -- seem at odds with his free enterprising past, he did call out both Hillary and the Bushes for their support of the disastrous invasion of Iraq.

Advertisement

While it would be nice to imagine a new happy ending for American domestic and foreign policy -- perhaps a triumphant Sanders who manages to magically break the AIPAC fetters that have tied so many post-war presidents and emerge as a champion of human rights and social justice at home and abroad -- I am not optimistic. I predict more traditional world wide American productions of Butterfly in the future and more of those exquisitely painful Second Act arias. It's enough to make Puccini weep.

All photos supplied by Vancouver Opera. Photo credits all Tim Matheson
CP

On March 8, 2016, an unidentified man died in the custody of the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA). The name of the person was not released, almost as if it doesn't matter already, or as if he had never existed in the first place.

Was he a refugee, someone with no papers? Was he young or old, healthy or not? We don't know. We might never know. No independent investigation has been ordered. CBSA continues to be above all forms of scrutiny. This is unacceptable.

Advertisement

Meanwhile, the fate of another man remains in the hands of the CBSA and the organization's recent assessment of his deportation to Algeria. Indeed Mohamed Harkat has been fighting a security certificate for over a decade.

A security certificate is a tool that allows the government to order the deportation of an individual deemed to represent a national security threat to Canada. The suspect can't see the evidence against him. He is basically fighting a moving shadow.

In human rights activism circles, we call it a Kafkaesque situation in reference to the absurdity of the "Trial" by Franz Kafka. A tool which was initially meant to expedite the removal of a potential "risk" turned out to be no more than a shameful tool to be used in dealing with refugees and immigrants.

Mohamed Harkat and his wife Sophie will continue to fight the injustice done to them in the name of national security.

After the first version of the security certificate process was found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2007, the government introduced a second version of security certificate process where the suspect can be represented by a special advocate who is cleared to know the secret evidence against his client, but still can't share it or discuss it with him.

In 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada expressed "discomfort" with that new version, calling it "imperfect" and not ideal, but not declaring it unconstitutional, either.

Despite all the legal battles Mohamed Harkat and his wife have been conducting to allow him to stay in Canada, he finds himself today facing deportation to Algeria. Recently CBSA filed a report where it plainly concludes that Mohamed Harkat should be deported to Algeria, despite the risk of being tortured there if he returns.

Reading some parts of the report, it seems clear that CBSA never learned any lessons from all the previous cases where Canada was found complicit in the torture of Canadians.

Basically, the CBSA's approach can be summarized by the following: Mohamed Harkat's actions (or "potential" actions) have been amplified, and his risks of torture and abuse in Algeria have been minimized.

Advertisement

Even the fact that Mohamed Harkat has been married to Sophie Lamarche, who has been fighting all these years to keep him in Canada, has been described in very demeaning words.

Using a patriarchal cliche on how a man's contribution is assessed in the family, the report concluded that Sophie Lamarche wouldn't suffer much since Mohamed Harkat hasn't been financially supportive.

But how about trying to find a job if you have been labeled a terrorist or an alleged "sleeper agent?" Did CBSA try to answer that question? Perhaps Maher Arar, Abdullah Al Malki, Ahmed Al Maati, Muayed Nurredine and Benamar Benatta can help them by sharing their own disastrous employment experience.

Moreover, why should a relationship be strictly examined from this perspective? What happen to affection, to partnership, to companionship?

Furthermore, the report goes on and makes the astonishing inference that since Mohamed Harkat does not have any kids with Sophie, his deportation won't be as serious for the couple.

Advertisement

First of all, why do they meddle in these private matters? And second, since when was the number of children a couple has used as a criterion in avoiding the deportation of people overseas? Didn't we see cases where CBSA ordered the deportation of a mother despite the fact that her kids will stay in Canada?

This report is not and will not be represent the end of the ordeal for Mohamed Harkat. More legal challenges lie ahead. However, this report is another serious story to add to the long list of stories about the lack of accountability and oversight for CBSA.

Mohamed Harkat and his wife Sophie will continue to fight the injustice done to them in the name of national security. Meanwhile, CBSA needs to answer its actions to the Parliament of Canada and to all Canadians.

Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook

MORE ON HUFFPOST:
Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron speaks the The Huffington Post UK about Brexit, Tory splits, Jeremy Corbyn, legalising cannabis, the diversity of his party and why the Lib Dems have a 'vast' opportunity to grow.

Advertisement

"Jeremy Corbyn clearly doesnt care," Tim Farron sighs.

The Liberal Democrat leader is looking at how the EU referendum campaign has unfolded so far. He is unimpressed. And worried. "Anybody who doesnt think they can lose an election, deserves to lose the election," he says.

"The case for Remain is very strong," Farron insists. But he despairs at the way the debate has been dominated by "insults being traded" between "old school mates" Boris and Cameron on the Tory side.

And lack of engagement from the Labour leader frustrates. "His wing of the party is quite isolationist. They might talk internationalist. But they are quite isolationist," the 45-year-old says. Corbyn's decision not to share a platform with other pro-EU leaders, is, he bristles "utterly small-minded".

"Its a real shame that thats the case. But that kind of leaves us as the only progressive party united and enthusiastic about Britain remaining in Europe. We are reminded our role in this is very important."

Advertisement

Farron says he wants to offer the public a vision of the "sunlit uplands" that EU membership can bring. But dismisses the complaints by the 'Out' campaign that the 'In' camp is scaremongering.

"There is nothing wrong with people being afraid of something thats dangerous," he observes. "This is dangerous world and you are better of with your friends and neighbours than you are against.

"All that 'Project Fear' stuff is a load of baloney."

In an interview with The Huffington Post UK ahead of the Lib Dem Spring conference this weekend, Farron suggests the Tory divide over Europe could be permanent.

"The offer of the referendum was Camerons short-term way of putting a plaster over a wound in the party," Farron says. "The wound is evidently deeper and probably unhealable now."

Farron says as much as he is irritated by the internal-Conservative "soap opera" battle over Europe, it is "damaging the Tory party, probably fatally".

Advertisement

He adds: "I was talking to a Tory peer the other day, who just thinks this is the end for them. That there will be some kind of proper split now."

This, coupled with Labour's floundering, presents a "vast" opportunity for the Lib Dems to bounce back after their general election drubbing.

Conservative MPs on both sides of the Brexit divide publicly insist the party will come together again after June 23 as one happy family.

But Farron questions their optimism.

He points to the experience of the 1975 referendum which split the Labour Party and led to the creation of the SDP.

Advertisement

"When you get into a different bunker to people it becomes something you get used to. I dont know whether when Roy Jenkins and Shirley Williams got into a different bunker to Tony Benn et al, Id be very surprised if they or anybody else could have predicted in five years time, six years time, they would up sticks and join another party."

He adds: "That doesnt mean that is going to happen this time either. It means, we dont know."

Liberals in the Labour Party, he says, have "a leadership that isnt interested in winning elections and trying to turf them out". While liberals in the Conservative Party find the "quite nasty and narrow politics" of Cameron and George Osborne "distasteful".

"That creates a place where there are a lot of liberals out there who are in parties who are not going to provide them with a home."

Farron wants to give them a home.

"However long it might take us to recover, it wont be as long as the division within the Labour Party and the Tory party will continue for. I look at us, and we have to puff out our chests and grow and accept a place that is made for us. Our result last May makes that pretty challenging but there is nobody else so it has to be us," he says.

"I dont expect the electorate to give us an overnight comeback by any means. It will be a tough challenge. This is not a quick job. But its an essential job. Its a great challenge but it's an exciting one as well as you see British politics unfolding you see the biggest opportunity for us in recent history."

Advertisement

This week, Farron said cannabis should be legalised. The policy shift was accompanied by an admission that he had smoked the drug while at university. Did he enjoy it? "I don't remember," The MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale laughs.

But he says it is his experience as an MP, not his youthful experimentation, that informs the decision.

"I dont think my position on this issue is affected by that at all. I think its just right to honest about it. For what its worth, I take the view that as a liberal you should be against everything that robs you of your liberty and that includes stuff that youre addicted to," he says.

He attacks the "politically easy" decision of many MPs to ignore evidence that, he argues, shows legalisation is the way forward. "When you look at the damage done by drug-related crime in so many of our communities even in a pleasant place like the Lake District, its real and it's heart breaking. To ignore the evidence for a change in regulation that could make that better, I think thats really reprehensible."

Advertisement

Before he became Conservative leader, Cameron famously held a more liberal position on drugs. "I think it's focus group driven rather than evidence driven. The same applies to his position on refugees," Farron says of the prime minister. "He is a follower not a leader."

"As an MP you see the damage drugs do to families and communities and my motivation is about that. And you see very talented people brought very, very low. Families which were otherwise stable brought to their knees by addiction."

Legalisation, he says, will enable the government to regulate the strength of the drug so people know what they are smoking while at the same time "completely kicking the legs from underneath" criminals.

"You also take away cannabis from the same marketplace as harder drugs then you significantly reduce the chances of people moving from one to another because youre just not in the same place when youre buying it," he says.

Farron also argues it would mean people who have problems are treated as people with a health problem rather than a criminal one and therefore are more likely to come forward to seek help.

Advertisement

To "cap it all", he adds, a legalised cannabis market would raise 1bn in taxes which could be ploughed back into police, healthcare and education.

However Farron is not convinced the same approach of decriminalisation should apply to prostitution, as recently recommended by Corbyn. "I dont believe in laissez-faire, because that tends to lead to the weakest being damaged and the powerful getting their way," he says.

"That would probably still apply within the sex industry. I certainly remain to be convinced on that. Your job, when you are looking at regulation of things like that, is to look about how you protect the most vulnerable people. I am not convinced Jeremys position would achieve that."

Another failure of the laissez-faire approach has pushed Farron to try and use this weekend's party Spring Conference to push through a change to how it chooses parliamentary candidates by introducing all-women shortlists.

Advertisement

Awkwardly for a party that claims to be committed to fairness, all its current MPs are men. And even when the party had 57 MPs before 2015, just seven were women.

Farron also wants to increase the number of non-white, LGBT and disabled candidates.

"Its about understanding that laissez-faire achieves very little and we end up situation where we had a terrible result last May and we were left with eight blokes. Eight blokes who were white. All of whom are wonderful. But they dont reflect the diversity or the difference within British society.

"I want to do this as freely and in as liberal way as as possible," he says. But in a challenge to those in his party who oppose the move, he adds: "But its important a leader should lead. And I think it's an argument that says we will be more strong electorally if we are more strong in our diversity.

"This is an issue where leadership, top down change, is very important. Its about deciding, you know what, if we dont take direct action we may never solve this problem. If you set the example at the top then it will permeate."

Under Farron's plans, if a sitting Lib Dem MP stands down in 2020 they will be automatically replaced by a female candidate. And regions of the country that are especially strong prospects for the party, with for example four seats, will have to field two men, two women and at least one would have to be BAME.

Advertisement

It's an approach taken from the Canadian Liberal Party, which jumped from third place in 2011 to power in 2015. "There are loads of lessons to be learned from Justin Trudeau," Farron says.

The Lib Dem leader will not be drawn on whether any of his current MPs have hinted they may look for the escape hatch at the next election. "I have no indication from any of my colleagues of what will happen," he says.

Asked if he expects his predecessor Nick Clegg to stand down from parliament in 2020, he replies quickly: "I dont. No. I very much hope he will continue."

And he says the fact the parliamentary party is so diminished could help ease the path to having more diverse candidates at the next election as notionally winnable seats are not already occupied by straight white men.

"Let's be perfectly blunt about this," he says. "Its kind of easier to do it now when youve got whole swathes of the country where we dont have a Lib Dem MP.

Advertisement

"We do have strength. We have plenty of winnable seats. But we havent got people who are sitting. That makes the job less painful and can be done more quickly. Which is why its so important we do it this weekend."

Farron took over the Lib Dems at a difficult time. Ruthlessly kicked by the electorate, the road back looks long. One man he does turn to for advice is Clegg. Farron says he seeks out the forme leader, who has been "immensely helpful".

"Hes not a backseat driver, he is not someone who is always in here telling me what he thinks. He is a very humble guy," Farron says. But notes there are similarities to his position now to Clegg's back in 2007.

"He had and interesting start to his time as leader. People forget we had a very difficult time. Ming [Lord Campbell] resigned shortly after Gordon Brown bottled it and did not go for an election. We then had a situation where Vince [Cable] played an absolute blinder as acting leader for two months and they were really hard shoes to fill.

Advertisement

"And so with Nick, people will remember quote rightly the brilliant debates in 2010. But it took him a good couple of years to establish himself."
The Archbishop of Canterbury has said it is absolutely outrageous to dismiss people who fear the influx migrants as racists.

In an interview to The House magazine, Justin Welby said it was a valid emotion to be concerned about Europes colossal crisis of migration.

Advertisement

In his first intervention on the EU debate, he said there was genuine fear in fragile communities over the impact on jobs, housing and the NHS. But he makes clear the UK should be taking our share of the load.

Calling for a really visionary debate about what our country looks like where both the Leave and Remain clearly spell out their ideas, he said there was no one correct Christian view as you cant say God says you must vote this way or that way.

His comments come amid accusations of scaremongering from both sides, with immigration and the refugees crisis on the continent the issue most likely to inflame tensions over border control.

The Archbishop said: It should be about what we fear. Fear is a valid emotion. Fear of what happens if we leave, fear of what happens if we stay. You can understand why that really matters. Fear is legitimate.

Advertisement

My hope and prayer is that we have a really visionary debate about what our country looks like. From those who want to leave; what would it look like? What would Britain look like, having left? What would be its attitude internationally? What would be its values? What are the points of excitement, of contributing to human flourishing? How does that liberate the best that is within us?

And from those who want to stay, how would we change the European Union? How would we make it more effective if we remained in it? Whats our vision?

More than a million migrants and refugees crossed into Europe in 2015, sparking a crisis as countries struggled to cope with the influx, and creating division in the EU over how best to deal with resettling people.

The UK has opted out of any plans for a quota system but, according to Home Office figures, 1,000 Syrian refugees were resettled under the Vulnerable Persons Relocation scheme in 2015. Prime Minister David Cameron has said the UK will accept up to 20,000 refugees from Syria over the next five years.

Advertisement

The Archbishop says it can only be handled at a European level, and we have to play our part, conceding that the 1.1m taken last year in Germany makes 20,000 sound really very thin.

He said: We are leading the world locally, in the area of the crisis, in terms of humanitarian support. But its got to be both, not either/or. Were taking an extraordinary lead there. It shows what we can do. Can we not show the same capacity and strength here, as we do there?

We have to be careful. Im aware of the complexity. The Government is rightly concerned about effectively subsidising people smuggling. That is quite proper, that could make everything worse. But we cant pretend were not part of this issue. Weve got to find ways of taking our share of the load.

But he went on: Fear is a valid emotion at a time of such colossal crisis. This is one of the greatest movements of people in human history. Just enormous. And to be anxious about that is very reasonable.

There is a tendency to say those people are racist, which is just outrageous, absolutely outrageous.

Advertisement

In fragile communities particularly  and Ive worked in many areas with very fragile communities over my time as a clergyman  there is a genuine fear: what happens about housing? What happens about jobs? What happens about access to health services?
Banksy's true identity has been "unmasked" by a revolutionary scientific technique designed to fight crime.

Scientists at Queen Mary University of London subjected the anonymous graffiti artist's works to a test using the technique that mapped out scores of works attributed to him in Bristol and London to establish a pattern and then compared to addressed with links to a man previously named in the press as Bansky.

The results, they say, show Banksy is Robin Gunningham rather conclusively.

Advertisement

A 2004 article from the Evening Standard showing what is claimed to be a picture of Banksy

Gunningham, from Bristol, was named as Banksy by The Mail on Sunday after an investigation in 2008.

Biologist Steve Le Comber, who was part of the study, told the BBC: "Id be surprised if its not Gunningham, even without our analysis, but its interesting that the analysis offers additional support for it. What I thought I would do is pull out the 10 most likely suspects, evaluate all of them and not name any.

"But it rapidly became apparent that there is only one serious suspect, and everyone knows who it is. If you Google Banksy and Gunningham you get something like 43,500 hits."

The mathematical technique was developed by criminologists and the researchers said the Banksy study showed the its wider applications.

Advertisement

A Banksy artwork in Cheltenham lampooning GCHQ

The study, published in The Journal of Spatial Science, said the "Dirichlet process mixture" model it uses "takes as input the locations of these artworks, and calculates the probability of offender residence across the study area. Our analysis highlights areas associated with one prominent candidate (e.g., his home), supporting his identification as Banksy."

It adds: "More broadly, these results support previous suggestions that analysis of minor terrorism-related acts (e.g., graffiti) could be used to help locate terrorist bases before more serious incidents occur, and provides a fascinating example of the application of the model to a complex, real-world problem."

The study, published on Thursday, went up after delays as the journal's publishers discussed the content with Banksy's lawyers, the BBC reported.
Britain First's quest to have its leader elected as Mayor of London suffered a setback after its campaign slogans were disqualified for being "offensive".

The Electoral Commission wrote to Paul Golding to inform him he would not be able to use the following...

BRITAIN FIRST  KEEPING LONDON BRITISH!

BRITAIN FIRST  VOTE BRITISH!

PAUL GOLDING  KEEPING LONDON BRITISH!

Paul Golding (centre)

In a letter headed "Refusal of your applications to register new descriptions" it said: "I regret to inform you that we have had to refuse your application to register [the slogans].

"The law requires the Commission to form an opinion whether a proposed description would be offensive.

"We came to the conclusion that your party descriptions were offensive."

An angry post on the Britain First website suggested "if Britain First had submitted BRITAIN FIRST  WE LOVE MIGRANTS it would have been accepted!"

Advertisement

The post adds: "The Electoral Commission is supposed to be an impartial body that regulates UK elections.

"However, lately the Electoral Commission has started to show political bias towards certain right-wing parties.

"The latest example is their refusal to allow Britain First to register certain slogans to be used on ballot papers.

"Offensive to the white liberal politicians and journalists and Islamic extremists, but not to true Londoners."

Golding announced his intention to stand as mayoral candidate last year and the party declared it wanted to hang its opponents.

Advertisement

Deputy leader, Jayda Fransen, admonished their "pro-EU, Islamist-loving opponents" for "ruining our country".

She added: "They think they can get away with ruining our country, turning us into a Third World country, giving away our homes, jobs and heritage, but they will face the wrath of the Britain First movement, make no mistake about it!

"We will not rest until every traitor is punished for their crimes against our country.
Children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may just be "immature" compared to their school peers, a new study has suggested.

Researchers found the percentage of children diagnosed with ADHD significantly changes depending on their month of birth - 2.8% of boys born in September were diagnosed with the condition, but the figure increased to 4.5% for those born in August.

The study called 'ADHD or just immature?', published in the Journal of Pediatrics, looked at nearly 400,000 children between four and 17 years old in Taiwan.

Advertisement

Children who were born in August were more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD

For girls in the study, the percentage rose from 0.7% of those born in September to 1.2% with August birthdays.

"Our findings emphasise the importance of considering the age of a child within a grade when diagnosing ADHD and prescribing medication to treat ADHD," said Dr Mu-Hong Chen, lead author of the study.

The NHS states symptoms of ADHD in children include a short attention span or being easily distracted, restlessness, constant fidgeting or overactivity and being impulsive.

Advertisement

When broken down and analysed according to age, nursery or primary school-aged children born in August had an increased risk of being diagnosed with ADHD and receiving ADHD medication.

However, teenagers born in August did not have an increased risk of ADHD diagnosis. Study authors said this implied that increasing age and maturity lessens the impact of birth month on ADHD diagnoses.

The authors concluded that teachers may be comparing behaviour of the more mature children born in September, to the younger children who are nearly a year younger.

Percentages of boys with ADHD compared to birth month September - 2.8 October - 2.8 November - 3.1 December - 3.1 January - 3.5 February - 3.4 March - 3.9 April - 3.9 May - 3.9 June - 4.1 July - 4.2 August - 4.5

Dr Chen added: "When looking at the database as a whole, children born in August were more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD and/or receive ADHD medication than those born in September.

Advertisement

Dr Kuben Naidoo, consultant psychiatrist and chairman of the ADHD Foundation, said although the findings of the study were interesting, they must be treated with a "degree of caution".

"The authors have stressed that they conducted this study to determine if findings in an Asian population mirrored results from earlier work carried out in Western populations," he said.

"These earlier studies did in fact confirm the potential influence of relative age on the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD in children and adolescents.

"While the study findings indicate an increase in the rate of diagnosis and treatment for ADHD in this Taiwanese population, the authors acknowledge significant limitations including absence of key information such as family history and environmental factors."

Dr Naidoo said the study highlights the importance of ensuring the assessment for ADHD is rigorous and relies on a variety of sources of information.

Advertisement

He said in the UK, the assessment and diagnosis of ADHD across the lifespan is "robust" and relies on information gathered from a number of sources including the family and school.

"The option to treat with medication is not taken lightly and consideration is also given to psychological strategies to support the individual," he added.

"The issue is not as simple as assuming that age, as an indicator of neurocognitive maturity, influences ADHD symptoms as we do see a significant number of adults presenting to psychiatric services for the first time with symptoms of ADHD."

Tap to launch slideshow.
Ken Livingstone, the former Mayor of London, delivers a speech at Britain's Labour party's annual conference, in Manchester, England, Wednesday Sept. 29, 2010. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ken Livingstone has likened Dan Jarvis receiving donations from a hedge fund guru to "Jimmy Savile fundraising [for] a children's group".

The former London Mayor attacked ex-Paratrooper Jarvis for taking 16,800 from one of Labour's biggest private donors, whom he branded one of "the most rapacious and damaging form of capitalists."

Advertisement

Speaking on Thursday night he told LBC's Iain Dale: "The other thing you have to say about Dan Jarvis: If you're really Labour what are you doing taking donations from hedge fund managers - the most rapacious and damaging form of capitalists that we've had.

"It is absolutely bizarre. It's a bit like Jimmy Savile fundraising [for] a children's group."

It came a week after news Martin Taylor, a man who donated 600,000 to Labour under Ed Miliband, gifted a significant sum to the Barnsley MP, a move viewed by some as grooming him to challenge Jeremy Corbyn for the leadership.

The MP was criticised for taking money from Taylor

Jarvis was defended by fellow MP Ian Austin after left-leaning comedian Matt Forde joked the news was representative of Labour's new "kinder politics".

Advertisement

Disgusting. Just disgusting. No other word for it. Ken Livingstone's comments are disgusting, disgusting, disgusting, disgusting. @mattforde  Ian Austin (@IanAustinMP) March 10, 2016

Jarvis made a speech on Thursday widely seen as his first step in a bid to take over from Corbyn, in which the MP warned that Labour faced a major test in Mays elections.
Sex harrassment

http://www.dailycal.org/2016/03/09/dean-of-uc-berkeley-school-of-law-sued-for-sexual-harassment/

The dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law is being sued by his executive assistant for sexual harassment, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

The complaint names UC Berkeley Law School Dean Sujit Choudhry and the University of California Board of Regents as defendants in the lawsuit filed by attorneys for Tyann Sorrell, who began her position as executive assistant to the dean at Berkeley Law in 2012.

Sorrell is suing for eight causes of action, including sexual harassment, retaliation, failure to take reasonable steps to prevent harassment and retaliation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault, battery, failure to discharge a mandatory statutory duty and violation of business and professions code.

The complaint states that when Choudhry took over as dean of the law school in July 2014, he gave Sorrell unwanted bear hugs and kisses, among other sexual contact from July 2014 to March 2015.

In July, UC Berkeleys Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination found that Choudhry had violated the universitys sexual harassment policies, according to the complaint. During the investigation, Choudhry allegedly admitted to hugging, kissing, messaging or caressing Sorrell at least multiple times per week, as well as hugging and kissing other female employees.

As a result, the complaint stated, Choudhry was disciplined with a 10 percent reduction in salary for one year and required to write a letter of apology to Sorrell. Sorrell alleged in the lawsuit that she was told by Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Claude Steele that he had seriously considered terminating the Dean but had decided not to because it would ruin the Deans career.

Campus officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

Sorrell is a former victim of domestic and sexual abuse, according to the complaint. After the OPHD began its investigation, she used sick and vacation time to take leave from the university and currently remains on leave.

The complaint says that besides Sorrell, other women were also subjected to unwanted sexual interactions with Choudhry, including the deans chief of staff, Areca Smit, and Berkeley Laws senior assistant dean and chief operating officer, Georgia Giatras.

The complaint alleges the UC Board of Regents knew of the probable injurious consequences of Choudrys continued employment, but failed to take adequate action by choosing to continue his employment and preventing him from conducting unlawful, discriminatory harassment.

Sorrell is asking for monetary compensation that include damages sufficient to punish and make an example out of all individual Defendants, according to the complaint. In addition, Sorrell is demanding attorneys fees and costs of the suit be paid as well.

This is not the first time a dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law has been accused of sexual harassment. In 2002, former dean John Dwyer resigned amid allegations that he sexually harassed a former law student.

In October 2015, then-astronomy professor Geoffrey Marcy resigned from his position after he was implicated in a breach of campus sexual harassment policies in June 2015. His resignation followed public uproar over the discovery of allegations of sexual misconduct spanning several years.

Check back for updates.
Dan Jarvis MP Laura Lean/PA Archive

Former soldier and Labour MP Dan Jarvis has criticised the apparent leaking of the Queen's private conversation that has led to claims she backs the UK leaving the European Union.

The ex-paratrooper, touted as Labour's next leader, said "most of the public" would take a "very dim view" of a "senior government minister" who made the conversation public.

Advertisement

He was asked to comment on the claims that Justice Secretary Michael Gove, one of the most senior government figures campaigning for "Brexit" at the June referendum, is the source of the leak to The Sun.

In an interview with The Huffington Post UK last year, Jarvis said he "proudly" sings God Save the Queen and hailed the "value" of the Royal Family following the furore over Jeremy Corbyn's silence during Battle of Britain commemorations.

On the role the Royal Family plays with the forces, he said: "Its right that when soldiers come back from operational commitment they are received by a member of the Royal Family rather than a politician. In that sense, I think the Royal Family add a lot of value to our country."

Advertisement

The Sun's front page on Wednesday (above) and The Daily Telegraph front page on Thursday (below), suggesting Michael Gove was The Sun's source

The newspaper, whose "Queen Backs Brexit" front page on Wednesday is now infamous, today continued to defend their story in the face of denials from Buckingham Palace and Nick Clegg, who was reported to have prompted the monarch to "let rip" over fears of the direction the EU was heading.

Friends of Gove have denied he leaked details of the conversation, which is thought to have occurred five years ago.

The Queen is supposed to remain neutral, making both her true views explosive. But unveiling details of private meetings breaks royal protocol.

Advertisement

As the rest of the press sought the paper's source, The Sun editor Tony Gallagher said his team was "completely confident" it was accurate and said the paper "knew more than we published".

He denied the paper had overwritten its headline, which suggested the Queen's five-year-old remarks amounted to her wanting Britain to leave the EU in the June referendum.

"We knew much more than we published and that remains the case," he told the Today programme on Thursday. "Two sources came to us with information about the Queen and her views on the EU. We would've been derelict in our duty of us to not put that in the paper.

"It's as simple as that. The fact the story is inconvenient for a number of people is not my fault. We serve our readers, not the elite."

Presenter Mishal Husain probed him on the headline, arguing the story, which claimed the Queen had said the EU was "heading in the wrong direction", did not support it.

Advertisement

She pointed out that the palace complaint to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) is under Clause One of its code that prohibits headlines "not supported by the text".

Gallagher said: "You're going to have to take my word for it that we're completely confident the Queen's views were expressed exactly as we've outlined in both the headline and the story.

Tony Gallagher said The Sun 'knew more than we published' about the story

"It is also the case that we knew much more than we published and that remains the case. We are in no doubt that the story is accurate."

He also said there was a "second occasion", as well as the 2011 lunch attended by Clegg, where the Queen had made "similarly scathing remarks".

Advertisement

Husain pushed Gallagher over whether the Queen's alleged comments, said well before an EU referendum was even announced, could have amounted to her backing Brexit.

Gallagher said this was "semantics" but Husain insisted it was "entirely different". "There are plenty of people who were disparaging five years ago who are backing for the UK to stay in the EU," she said. Gallagher replied that the state of the eurozone and the European Union in 2011 suggested someone with Eurosceptic views then, would back a Brexit now.

Gallagher would not give details of the second incident where the Queen was said to have made anti-EU claims, saying it would trigger an "absurd mole hunt" among the rest of the press.

Today's papers have named Gove, who is backing a Brexit, as one of the Sun's possible sources.

The Daily Telegraph reported Gove, who was Education Secretary at the time, had "refused to deny" it.

On Today, Gallagher told Hussein: "You wouldn't expect for a single moment to reveal anything about the sourcing of a story... Those of a cynical mind might think there's an attempt to take Michael Gove out of the Leave campaign."

Clegg has denied he was the source and said he cannot remember the conversation. He said: "I've no recollection of this happening and its not the sort of thing I would forget."

The Sun's political editor, Tom Newton Dunn, who wrote the piece, called this a "non denial denial," a term used by journalists to describe an attack on a story that does not actually refute its assertions.

Labour MP Wes Streeting has written to the cabinet secretary asking for an inquiry. "Let's see what comes back," a party spokesman said.

Chris Grayling, Leader of The House of Commons, said private conversations with The Queen "should always be kept private".

Advertisement

But Grayling, who is Lord President of the Council, the head of the Privy Council, the role Clegg was fulfilling at the time of his alleged meeting, stopped short of calling for an official investigation into the leak, and instead said the press watchdog was right to look into the story.

David Cameron has also ruled out an inquiry.

He told BBC Sussex: "The Palace has made a very clear statement, the former deputy prime minister has made a very clear statement saying that this didn't happen and I think we should leave it at that.
Dan Jarvis MP speaks during the Progress annual conference, at TUC Congress House, central London. Laura Lean/PA Archive

Dan Jarvis, hailed as a future Labour leader, will today map out his economic vision for a party of work and jobs that hails New Labour but acknowledges it wasnt enough to tackle falling wages of workers.

In a major speech this morning that will be seen as the first steps towards a leadership bid, the backbench MP will put tackling inequality at the heart of his plan, noting how the wages of British workers have been hit by cheap labour.

Advertisement

And the The Huffington Post can reveal he is to call for a reform of the corporate tax system that squeezes out risky banking practices.

Echoing Tony Blairs famous tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime line, Jarvis will call for Labour to be tough on inequality, tough on the causes of inequality.

Dan Jarvis told The Huffington Post in September why he did not run for the Labour leadership when Jeremy Corbyn won

Advertisement

His pitch, delivered at an event hosted by the Demos think-tank, appears to be an attempt to square the circle between the electoral success of New Labour and the resurgence of the Left that has prompted the rise of Jeremy Corbyn. He will argue it is a false choice to either champion Labours record in government or denounce it.

The Barnsley MP, a former Army officer, will say Labour must always be the party of work and jobs, so that nobody is left behind, but adds: Lets be frank  New Labours approach wasnt enough. It didnt get at the root causes.

New Labour didnt see with sufficient clarity the downsides of globalisation. They knew it meant cheap consumer goods. But, they didnt recognise that too often, it meant cheap labour too.

Today the average income in Barnsley is still over 100 a week less than the average income in Barnes in London.

I believe this gap matters. Its bad for our economy. Its bad for our communities.

"And its bad for our politics too. If people feel the system works against them, they will turn away from mainstream parties, or from politics altogether. To think otherwise reflects a poverty of ambition for a progressive party.

Advertisement

Its a false choice to say we must either champion Labours record in government or denounce it. The truth is we should defend our achievements and learn from our mistakes. To anyone outside Westminster, thats common sense.

Dan Jarvis: Its a false choice to say we must either champion Labours record in government or denounce it. The truth is we should defend our achievements and learn from our mistakes."

Jarvis will say the next Labour government must take a more radical economic approach  more radical than we had under Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband.

He will say: If we do not share the proceeds of growth fairly then the moral foundations of our economy are called into question.

Advertisement

Put simply, Labour needs to be tough on inequality, tough on the causes of inequality.

On shareholder reform, he will tell the audience: We must act to encourage long termism in business.

That means considering some radical options  like rebalancing our corporate tax system, which favours risky debt over equity.

And it might mean looking at the rights of shareholders, so that those who own the shares for longer have greater rights and those who buy in during a takeover bid don't get an unfair say.

He will also launch an attack on George Osbornes record as Chancellor, saying exports as a share of national income have fallen from 29% to 27%, and note the economy is still too dependent on financial services in the South East.

He will say: Mr Osborne is fond of telling us he has fixed the roof while the sun is shining. Well, its not the roof Im worried about, its the foundations.

Advertisement

When you hear George Osborne say long term economic plan, what he really means is short term political gain.

The paratrooper, who gave up his military career to become an MP in 2011, had been seen by many in the party as an ideal candidate to give the party a fresh start.

But Jarvis, who held his Barnsley Central seat with an increased majority, said while he wanted to be part of the "rebuilding process" he could not take the top job.

In 2010, his wife died of cancer at the age of 43 after a four-year battle, leaving him the single father of two children - then aged eight and six - and has since remarried.

He said when revealing he would not run: "My eldest kids had a very tough time when they lost their mum and I don't want them to lose their dad. I need some space for them, my wife and our youngest child right now, and I wouldn't have it as leader."

Advertisement

His speech comes in a week when Rachel Reeves, a frontbencher under Ed Miliband, gave a speech that eviscerated Osborne and was seen as one of a "shadow Chancellor in exile".
REDCAR, ENGLAND - JANUARY 22: Labour shadow Justice Minister Dan Jarvis reacts as he speaks with police officers during a visit on January 22, 2015 in Redcar, England. The visit comes on day eight of a nine day national tour ahead of Labour's general election campaign and Mr Jarvis heard about the challenges of providing neighbourhood policing. (Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images) Ian Forsyth via Getty Images

Dan Jarvis has warned that Labour faces a major test in Mays elections as he delivered a speech on the economy that was widely seen as the first step in a future leadership bid.

In a significant move to raise the bar for the elections on May 5, the former shadow minister and ex-Paratrooper said that his party should be taking not losing councils in England and should be making progress in Scotland.

Advertisement

Mr Jarvis, who is seen by allies of Jeremy Corbyn as a possible challenger this summer, said that Labour was at the point in the electoral cycle where it should be doing very well.

Jeremy Corbyn, after his landslide election last September

Amid predictions that the party will lose seats, the first time an Opposition has done so outside a general election since the Falklands war, the Barnsley Central MP said progress had to be seen in key areas vital for Labour to win a 2020 general election.

Former leadership contender Liz Kendall and other MPs have said the party should be winning an average of more than 400 gains in the coming local elections.

Advertisement

Asked directly if the May elections  for English councils, Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly, London and other city mayors  were a test of Mr Corbyns leadership, he replied that real votes matter more than polls.

The metric by which all of us are judged in politics is votes in the ballot box. Weve got very important elections taking place in May. Its a major test for all of us, all of us have to be out there making that case, he said.

HuffPost UK revealed this week that 'moderate' Labour MPs now plan to launch a leadership challenge to Mr Corbyn in July.

At the same time, supporters of the leader as equally keen to change party rules to ensure his future has to be decided by the party members who swept him to power on a landslide last year.

But Mr Jarvis sidestepped questions about his own leadership ambitions and signalled that he would not back any attempt to launch at coup against Mr Corbyn before the EU referendum on June 23.

Advertisement

The public will frankly have very little sympathy with those people within the Labour party who are focused on anything other than trying to secure a Labour win in May and a referendum win in June. I can absolutely tell you thats what 100% of my focus will be on, he said.

And he added: The remarks that Ive made today are in no way seeking to be a critique of anybody in the Labour Party. I think its a good thing that our leader Jeremy Corbyn wants to have an open debate about the future of our party and the future of our country. I think thats an entirely positive thing.

Asked if he believed a sitting Labour leader should be automatically included on a ballot after a leadership challenge, Mr Jarvis replied: Anyone who knows me knows that I dont spend a huge amount of time getting into the process and detail of the mechanics of the Labour party.

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell

But the former shadow foreign minister sent a strong message to the partys Left that he Labour MPs represented not just their local Labour members but also all voters in their constituency.

Advertisement

As a Labour MP Im not a delegate for my local party, Ive been elected to Parliament by my constituents to stand up for them and make sure their voice is heard in Parliament, he said.

In the end I dont think we should ever lose sight that the public get to decide and I think we that need to make sure that having lost two general elections, our policies are rooted in the things that people care about."

He also appeared to get in a dig at John McDonnell's recent economics lecture series, declaring that ordinary voters who need a Labour government do not attend economic seminars.

"Keir Hardie said that the British are a practical people, not given to chasing bubbles. The people I meet, the people I am talking about, dont attend economic seminars.

"They dont follow the doctrinal discussions of the Labour party. They want to vote for a party that doesnt just oppose the government. They want a party that beats the government."

Advertisement

Dan Jarvis, at the Demos event

Brushing off questions about whether he wanted to one day be Prime Minister, Mr Jarvis said that he was very comfortable with the decision I took last May, when he opted to put his family before running for the vacancy left by Ed Miliband.

In his speech, at the think tank Demos, the former soldier made a clear pitch for the soft left views of his party rank and file, calling for a new deal between Government and trade unions on issues such as skilling workers.

He also called for more active Government from a future Labour administration and criticised New Labour for failing to do more to tackle inequality and the squeeze on wages that began in 2004.

"Lets be frank, New Labours approach wasnt enough. It didnt get at the root causes. New Labour didnt see with sufficient clarity the downsides of globalisation. They knew it meant cheap consumer goods. But, they didnt recognise that too often, it meant cheap labour too.

Advertisement

He also distanced himself from Peter Mandelson's famous phrase that he was 'intensely relaxed' about the 'filthy rich'. New Labour was "intensely relaxed about things they shouldnt have been intensely relaxed about, he said.

Mr Jarvis said he wanted a Labour party that was "tough on inequality, tough on the causes of inequality - a direct echo of Tony Blair's own line that it should be tough on crime and the causes of crime.
Prime Minister David Cameron speaks during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, London. PA/PA Wire

David Cameron has said he will seek re-election to parliament at the next general election despite plans to stand down as prime minister before 2020.

"I love being MP for Witney and Im very keen to continue, but right now Ive got to focus on this important referendum," he said this morning. "I draw huge strength from being a Member of Parliament in Oxfordshire."

Advertisement

He told BBC Radio Oxfordshire it was "very much my intention" to carry on as an MP after 2020 even though he will have left No.10.

Cameron will stand down as prime minister at some point before the next election. However he has said he will not quit Downing Street immediately this year if he loses the EU referendum.

Tony Blair quit parliament after stepping down as prime minister. However Gordon Brown returned to the backbenches after his 2010 election defeat and only left parliament last year.

Margaret Thatcher remained an MP for two years after stepping down as prime minister and was made a member of the House of Lords in 1992. And John Major stayed in the Commons until 2001, despite having been kicked out of Downing Street by Tony Blair in 1997.

Advertisement
Photographer Finn Hopson has captured an extremely rare sighting of a dolphin breaching the water at Brighton Pier.

What could only be described as a once in a lifetime shot, Finn explained how he managed to snap the incredible moment, "I run a photography gallery on Brighton beach, right by the old West Pier so this was right in front of where I work.

Advertisement

One of my neighbours popped in to say she thought she'd seen a dolphin so I grabbed my camera and went to take a look.
A former prisoner whose wanted mugshot went viral is set to become a model and says he is "overwhelmed and grateful for what lies ahead".

Jeremy Meeks shot to fame after his picture was posted on the Stockton Police Departments Facebook page after he was arrested, along with three others, in a sting relating to a series of shootings and robberies in California.

Days after the 30-year-old's picture was uploaded it had been shared nearly 5,000 times and had attracted close to 50,000 likes.

Advertisement

The mugshot that made Jeremy Meeks famous

Hottest criminal ever! remarked on woman, while another swooned: God he has beautiful eyes.

Meeks has now signed to White Cross Management as a model. It had previously been reported that he had signed with another modeling agency.

Meeks' profile on the White Cross Management website

Posting on his official Instagram page on Wednesday, the former inmate said: I want to thank my family and everybody for all your love, support and prayers.

Advertisement

Im overwhelmed and grateful for what lies ahead. Im ready @jimjordanphotography and @whitecrossmanagement.

Meeks was jailed for possession of a firearm in 2015 but was reportedly released early.

After Meeks' arrest, Stockton police officer Joseph Silva described him as one of the most violent criminals in the Stockton area.

Meeks' post on Instagram about his signing to White Cross management

In a statement, his new agent Jim Jordan said: "We have a lot in store regarding Jeremy's new career. There are a multitude of offers on the table.

"Jeremy is humbled and grateful and overwhelmed by the outpouring of love, support, and prayers for him and his family."

Advertisement
Thousands of documents containing the personal details of fighters for the so-called Islamic State, have been leaked according to reports.

More than 22,000 documents show the addresses, telephone numbers and family contacts of those who have signed up to join the terror group IS, Sky News reported.

The information reportedly shows that people from 51 countries, including the UK, had filled in 23 question forms for IS, also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh, which is thought to have been planning 'enormous and spectacular attacks' on Britain.

Advertisement

Sky News says there has not been a leak on this scale from a terror organisation before

One of the forms shows the details of Junaid Hussain, a Briton married to Sally-Anne Jones, a former member of an all-girl punk rock group, The Press Association reported.

His form reveals his fighter name "Abu Hasayn Al Britani", his mother's maiden name, his date of birth, the fact that he has a secondary level education and was previously an "electronics specialist".

Advertisement

Islamic State fighters pictured in 2014

It also reveals that he entered Syria in the city of Jarabulus having travelled through Turkey and Pakistan and names the recruiter that brought him into the IS fold as Abu Al Taj - Tel Abyad.

David Cameron announced in September that Hussain had been killed in an RAF drone strike.

The Prime Minister said that Hussain, along with Reyaad Khan, from Cardiff, who had also been killed, was "involved in actively recruiting Isil sympathisers and seeking to orchestrate specific and barbaric attacks against the West, including directing a number of planned terrorist attacks right here in Britain, such as plots to attack high-profile public commemorations, including those taking place this summer".

Iraqi security forces after clashes with Islamic State fighters near Ramadi, Iraq

The documents were stolen by a former member of the Syrian Free Army who joined IS and then became disillusioned, saying that it has been taken over by soldiers from the Iraqi Baath party of Saddam Husssein, Sky News said.

Advertisement

He said he took them from the head of IS's internal security police. Sky News said it had passed the cache of documents on to the security services.

Former global terrorism operations director at MI6, Richard Barrett, described the leak as a "fantastic coup".
Comedian Jeremy Hardy performing on stage during the 'We Know Where You Live. Live!' event to mark the 40th anniversary of Amnesty International at Wembley Arena. William Conran/PA Archive

A comedian performing at a pro-Jeremy Corbyn rally has said Labour members who support renewing 'Trident' are mentally ill.

Jeremy Hardy, who appeared last night at a 'JC4PM' event in Edinburgh, appeared to mock a former shadow defence minister with a history of mental illness for backing Britain's nuclear deterrent, saying it suggested he had depression.

Advertisement

He made the joke about ex-Labour frontbencher Kevan Jones, who resigned from the defence brief in January after a clash with party leadership figures over his pro-Trident views. The North Durham MP was diagnosed with clinical depression in 1996.

BuzzFeed reported Hardy as saying on Wednesday: "I would have thought you could hazard a guess that if someone supports nuclear weapons, if your view of existence is so bleak youre prepared to help with the extermination of the entire northern hemisphere, that kind of suggests depression, dont you?"

Jones has spoken out about his "deep depression" in the past

The comments prompted outrage from Labour's shadow minister for mental health, who said Hardy's joke must not be "tolerated".

Advertisement

"There is no excuse for using someones mental health as a stick with which to beat them," Luciana Berger told PoliticsHome.

"Mental health has come out of the shadows in recent years, but too many people with mental health problems still face stigma, abuse and discrimination.

"We must not tolerate comments like those used by Jeremy Hardy which only serve to reinforce the gap in understanding and undermine the good work being done to tackle the taboo that still surrounds mental health."

Berger said there was 'no excuse' for the joke

Another Labour MP, John Woodcock, a former member of the Common's defence committee, blasted the comments as "unacceptable" and called on Corbyn to issue a strong rebuttal to them being made at a rally organised in his name.

Advertisement

"What Hardy said is unacceptable," Woodcock told HuffPost UK.

"Its really sad that a man who makes a big show of claiming to be left-wing and morally superior over all the people he denounces thinks its fine to make a joke about a particular individuals mental health condition in the name of wanting to make Jeremy Corbyn prime minister."

Woodcock said he was 'proud' of his party's record on mental health

"As a party were doing really welcome things like promoting Luciana Berger to shadow health minister with full shadow cabinet responsibility and Im glad she has spoken out about this.

"But I think its important that things which are done in the name in the name of our party or leader of our party properly reflect the kind of values that were supposed to have as a party.

"If someone had been telling racist jokes and the response from Jeremy's office was Oh well - it's nothing to do with us Id be very dissapointed and surprised."

Advertisement

Guardian columnist Marina Hyde also rebuked Hardy for his jibe, referencing the backlash after former London mayor Ken Livingstone was forced to apologise for saying Jones "might need some psychiatric help".

Impressed by Jeremy Hardy doubling down on jokes about Kevan Jones's depression after it went so well for Ken. Assume it's now Labour policy  Marina Hyde (@MarinaHyde) March 10, 2016

Despite the intense criticism, Hardy remained in high spirits and stood by his joke.

"Today is Chronic Humourlessness Disorder Awareness Day. Please take it seriously," he mused on Twitter this afternoon.

Today is Chronic Humourlessness Disorder Awareness Day. Please take it seriously.  Jeremy Hardy (@JeremyJHardy) March 10, 2016
Labour MPs have condemned Ken Livingstone for invoking Jimmy Savile to criticise the partys rising star Dan Jarvis, telling The Huffington Post UK the ex-London mayor is not fit to lace his boots.

Livingstone compared former Army major Jarvis to "Jimmy Savile fundraising (for) a children's group" for taking 16,800 from a hedge fund guru.

Advertisement

The defence of the Barnsley Central MP - an Afghanistan and Iraq veteran who received an MBE for creating a training system to teach troops how to spot improvised bombs - was instant.

Dan Jarvis

Michael Dugher, a former shadow minister, told HuffPost: "Ken Livingstone is not fit to lace Dan Jarvis's boots."

Labours Jamie Reed, also an ex-frontbencher, told HuffPost: "There's no sewer so fetid that Ken won't swim in it. No regard for the victims, no regard for the pain and anger he will have caused, and no care for the damage he continues to do to Labour. It's another embarrassment. I look forward to his shame-faced apology for his latest sickening outburst."

Advertisement

An unnamed Labour MP said: "Dan Jarvis risked his life serving his country and fighting terrorists. Ken spent his life serving himself."

Others weighed in on Twitter. Ian Austin said the comments were disgusting, disgusting, disgusting, disgusting, and Toby Perkins that they were offensive and stupid.

Disgusting. Just disgusting. No other word for it. Ken Livingstone's comments are disgusting, disgusting, disgusting, disgusting. @mattforde  Ian Austin (@IanAustinMP) March 10, 2016

That's pretty good, it's 7.54pm before Ken Livingstone said today's offensive and stupid thing, later than normal. https://t.co/zFooBVDn1h  Toby Perkins (@tobyperkinsmp) March 10, 2016

Labour-supporting comedian Matt Forde argued he would have been suspended if not close to Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn. Livingstone is currently co-chairing a controversial review of the Trident nuclear weapons system.

Advertisement

Just imagine Ken Livingstone wasn't a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn. There would be no question of his expulsion. What is Labour becoming?  Matt Forde (@mattforde) March 10, 2016

The money came from Martin Taylor, one of the Labour Partys biggest private donors. He donated 600,000 to Labour under Ed Miliband and the money handed to Jarvis was viewed by some as grooming him to challenge Corbyn for the leadership.

The comments came as Jarvis gave a speech that set out his economic vision for Labour, which some will have read as the first step to a leadership bid. The MP was careful not to make any criticism of the leader.

Speaking on Thursday night he told LBC's Iain Dale: "The other thing you have to say about Dan Jarvis: If you're really Labour what are you doing taking donations from hedge fund managers - the most rapacious and damaging form of capitalists that we've had.

"It is absolutely bizarre. It's a bit like Jimmy Savile fundraising [for] a children's group."

Livingstone was labelled "shameful" last year after saying Tony Blair "ignored" security service warnings that invading Iraq would cause terrorist attacks on British soil.

Advertisement

On BBC's Question Time, the former London mayor highlighted the 7/7 bombings in London as a reason why the UK should not get involved in airstrikes in Syria - and claimed terrorists "gave their lives" and "took Londoners lives in protest against our invasion of Iraq".

In a significant move to raise the bar for the elections on May 5, Jarvis said his party should be taking not losing councils in England and should be making progress in Scotland.

The ex-paratrooper, who gave up his military career to become an MP in 2011, had been seen by many in the party as an ideal candidate to give the party a fresh start after last years election defeat but opted not to run.

In 2010, his wife died of cancer at the age of 43 after a four-year battle, leaving him the single father of two children - then aged eight and six. He has since remarried.
Briton Miraz Ullah Ali told a Paraguayan newspaper he had information about Madeleine gleaned from an investigation he had conducted.

Despite not speaking to authorities, he told newspaper ABC Color: "My team and I received the information that Madeleine arrived in Paraguay a month or two ago and is living in Aregua in the custody of a woman."

Advertisement

Miraz Ullah Ali travelled from Britain to Paraguay last week

But Paraguay vice interior minister Jalil Rachid claimed Ali could have inadvertently alerted a kidnapper: "I think what this supposed investigator did was very foolish.

"Hes [Ali] saying missing Madeleine is in Aregua and he goes there to take some pictures and then returns. Obviously he left empty-handed.

"I believe [Ali has been] been very irresponsible and committed a grave error in the way hes acted. This man has now left Paraguay and is back in London as far as I know."

Advertisement

Media outlets reported that a multi-agency search had begun in the city after Ali's claims.

Questions about the Briton's investigations have been raised after it was learned he only stayed in Aregua for three days, did not speak with locals and despite not speaking Spanish, made no attempt to hire a translator.

Aregua is 30 kilometers from the capital Asuncion

Interpol chief Victor Tandi said: "He committed a grave error if his information was right because hes alerting the kidnapper that hes looking for them. Its very strange."

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police did not have anything to add from what they told The Huffington Post UK on Thursday, that the force was aware of the allegations and making enquiries.

Jorge Kronawetter, Director of Immigration, said Ali flew into Silvio Pettirossi International Airport last Friday and left the following Monday to an unknown destination.

Advertisement

Madeleine would be 13 this year

The search in Paraguay is continuing.

Deputy chief, Sanny Amarilla, said: "We are investigating neighbourhoods where there are foreign citizens, villas, condos, to see if there is someone with a similar description that corresponds to the newspaper clipping.

"This news stretches across the globe, it is very important. So if they are in the area we need to find this girl and return her to her family."

Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry

Her parents Kate and Gerry, of Rothley, Leicestershire, are continuing the search for their daughter.
Danielle Allen is a political theorist at Harvard University and a contributing columnist for The Post.

To all those who oppose Donald Trump: Stay the course.

From Thursday to Sunday, Trump performed his most impressive run of pirouettes to date. On Thursday, at the Republican debate in Detroit, war crimes were in, as they have been since November. On Friday, in a statement to the Wall Street Journal, they were out . On Sunday, in a Face the Nation interview, they were back in, except they wouldnt be war crimes anymore because Trump intends to change the law to make, at a minimum, waterboarding legal.

Since November, Trump has repeatedly argued for bringing waterboarding and  more than that  back. Since December, Trump has repeatedly declared that the fight against terrorism requires killing the families, including children, of terrorists.

Both actions are against international and domestic law, and soldiers can be found guilty of war crimes if they obey an unlawful order.

Trump-Hitler comparisons take off Embed Copy Share Play Video 2:08 Donald Trump drew swift condemnation after images of supporters raising their right arms and swearing to vote for him emerged on March 5. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

Since December, people have been telling Trump that he has proposed war crimes, and last month, former CIA director Michael Hayden said the military would not carry out such orders.

At Thursdays debate, when Trump was asked whether he still maintains his commitment to targeting the families of terrorists, he insisted that he did. He was asked what he would do if the military refused to carry out similarly illegal orders to torture. He said : Ive always been a leader. Ive never had any problem leading people. If I say, Do it, theyre going to do it. Thats what leadership is all about.

Then, in a statement to the Wall Street Journal on Friday, he retracted, or seemed to do so, saying, I will not order a military officer to disobey the law. It is clear that as president I will be bound by laws just like all Americans and I will meet those responsibilities.

On the same Friday, at a rally in Michigan, however, he said : Waterboarding is absolutely fine, but we should go much further.

And on CBSs  Face the Nation  on Sunday, he said this: Now, I will always abide by the law, but I would like to have the law expanded. . . . Right now, basically, waterboarding is essentially not allowed, as I understand it. . . . I would certainly like it to be, at a minimum, at a minimum to allow that.

If you had happened to read the Wall Street Journal report but missed the televised debate or Sunday interview, you might have been inclined to breathe a sigh of relief. Oh, thank goodness. Torture is out. War crimes are out, you might have thought.

But you would have been wrong to let down your guard.

Trump speaks out of both sides of his mouth so frequently that it is unreasonable to credit what may at first appear to be morning-after disavowals.

His first thoughts reveal his instincts. His second thoughts may go a different direction, but, dont worry, there will be third and fourth thoughts, and they point right back to the first thought.

Trumps first thoughts tell you all you need to know.

His instincts are to violate freedom of association and freedom of religion, as he revealed when he refused to rule out the registration of Muslim Americans.

His instincts are to violate freedom of the press, as he revealed when he called to open up libel laws to restrict the capacity of the media to say negative things about him.

His instinct is to call for the killing of innocents.

He praises the leaders of China who massacred their own citizens in Tiananmen Square .

He said that a protester  should have been roughed up  and that it was better in the old days when protesters would have been  carried out on a stretcher . This is to condone unlawful violence, something that the leader of a democratic republic should simply never do. Not even once. Not even on the campaign trail. Its far worse than the comments about his body parts and is, in my view, disqualifying.

All these unacceptable remarks are just versions of Trumps fundamental failure to respect the law as the guardian of peoples rights.

We all know how he has doubled down on and then folded on many of these positions. He disavowed the registration of Muslims. He made sure to wink at David Duke before finally fully disavowing him. To avoid having to release the transcript of his off-the-record conversation with the New York Times, he now claims to respect the media. At his rallies, announcers now instruct audience members  not to touch or harm the protester  but to draw the attention of security officers.

He has, however, not yet disavowed his praise of the perpetrators of the Tiananmen Square massacre nor his decision to distribute a Mussolini quotation . And although it seemed that he was going to disavow torture, he instead proposes to legalize it. Would anyone be surprised if he did the same with the proposal to target terrorists families?

These acrobatic leaps should not be interpreted as meaning that Trump has learned something, that civics lessons in legal structure, constitutionalism and war crimes are sinking in. People have been schooling him in these lessons since December. He has to have known all along that what he has been proposing is unlawful.

Nor should the turn-and-turn-about routine be interpreted as an example of worthy flexibility, of coming to believe that a new position is better than the first one.

Instead, we should interpret the acrobatics as shifts in Trumps negotiating position. Instead of negotiating with the lower-income, high-school-educated whites who have made up his base so far, he is preparing to negotiate with the rest of us, the ones who have been pressing the constitutional issues. Hes giving us back lawfulness, or so he means to make it seem, like a hostage-taker whose kindness we should now appreciate.

And this leads us to see the core of his instinct. In his self-praise of his deal-making abilities, he makes it clear that he believes that you should start any negotiation from an extreme position and move from there.

What is the extreme position with which he began this campaign? Trump has told his base that he is willing to put the very Constitution on the table on their behalf. This has quite reasonably provoked considerable fear and anxiety among the rest of us. On Friday, he appeared to take the Constitution and lawfulness off the table and, presumably, we were all supposed to feel relieved.

But a negotiators first position is credible only if he is willing to act on it. This means we have to understand Trump as willing, in principle, to act on the threats he has made to lawfulness and to the Constitution  as he has just declared he is for waterboarding. This already turns our Constitution into something dependent on his arbitrary will. If its still safe, we are given to understand, its only because he hasnt yet decided to act on his threats to it.

One reason constitutional government is such an extremely valuable possession is because it lessens the uncertainty of the social world. The point of having a constitution is to get rid of arbitrary power.

In the American Revolution, the colonists sought to overthrow a king who had, as Thomas Paine put it,  a thirst for arbitrary power . Trump deserves to be on historys list of individuals with such a thirst.

The way this Trump campaign feels is what arbitrary power feels like. This is what a Trump presidency would feel like, too.

To all those who oppose Trump: Stay the course. Dont let his acrobatics fool you. We should all recognize the techniques of a habitual abuser when we see them.
A teenager from a famous racing family has crushed to death when her horse fell on her, as her parents watched on from the stands.

Thousands have shared tributes after promising rider Olivia Inglis, 17, died riding her horse Coriolanus in a championship event in Australia on Sunday.

Her parents Arthur and Charlotte were watching from the stands at the Scone Horse Trials in New South Wales when the horse fell during a "botched" jump, local media said.

Advertisement

Olivia was reportedly killed 'instantly'

The horse, which had been trained by Olivia's mother, fell on her during a "botched" jump, local media said.

The accident happened at around 9am and paramedics ran to help Olivia, while the crowd could only watch.

She is thought to have died "almost instantly" from the impact, ITV News reported.

A rescue helicopter was dispatched, the Australian Daily Telegraph newspaper said, but she could not be saved.

Advertisement

Equestrian Australia spokeswoman Judy Fasher told the Daily Telegraph that said the Inglis family were "beside themselves" after witnessing the death.

You can imagine they are traumatised, theyve got a horrendous situation today, she said. Unfortunately sometimes horses make mistakes.

She paid tribute to Olivia as talented and accomplished and said she had been riding since she was a little girl.

She was an accomplished rider, very experienced and has been riding all her life, since she was a little tot, she said.

Her mother is a rider, she trained and rode the horse.

Olivia was from a family of well-known horse racers, and the daughter of horse auctioneer Arthur Inglis.

Advertisement

Riding fans have been sharing pictures of themselves with their horses online in tribute to the young sportswoman, using the hashtag #RideForOlivia.

By Thursday morning more than 120,000 people had posted photographs or videos on Instagram alone, the BBC claimed.

Join the tribute for Olivia Inglis, the young event rider tragically killed in Australia  #rideforoliviapic.twitter.com/MrqxWMYf4J  Laura Collett (@CollettEventing) March 8, 2016

#rideforolivia Words cannot describe how sad it is when passion takes one's life. pic.twitter.com/CPhARXkkZ0  Gosia (@GoshaF1) March 10, 2016

Our deepest sympathy to the Inglis family & friends of Olivia #RideForOlivia  pic.twitter.com/5x44vf9HhI  Hugh Bowman (@HugeBowman) March 10, 2016

Advertisement

#RideForOlivia Our thoughts are with the family & friends of Olivia Inglis at this extremely sad and difficult time. pic.twitter.com/5x9eigmtiU  British Showjumping (@BritShowjumping) March 9, 2016

#RideForOlivia So sad to hear of the tragic loss of this young Eventer... Share you horsey memories for her pic.twitter.com/Pv88gBbTQO  Ludwig Svennerstal (@svennerstal) March 9, 2016

The competition's organisers said the jump where Olivia was killed had been successfully jumped by three other riders that day, and was used in last years' event where there were no incidents.

The event has been cancelled while an investigation takes place, according to a police spokesman, and Coriolanus is being looked after by vets.

The Scone Horse Trials released a statement saying offering "heartfelt condolences" to Olivia's parents, asking that their "privacy be respected at this time.
This week in politics saw more questions about Jeremy Corbyns leadership credentials, a poignant International Womens Day debate in the Commons and a defeat for the Government in Sunday trading plans.

At the weekly meeting of Labours Parliamentary Party on Monday, Jeremy Corbyn tried to rally his loyalists and told MPs who arent happy with him to stop the sniping.

Advertisement

But some MPs in the room werent willing to stay quiet, and urged Corbyn to show some passion for the EU In campaign, while others talked about the local elections, the leaders poor poll ratings and his failure to connect with working class voters.

Labour rising star Stephen Kinnock spoke to Commons People this week, and called on Corbyn to roll up his sleeves and get involved in the EU debate.

He also set out what Corbyn needs to achieve in Mays local election to avoid a leadership challenge.

Today, the man many seen as the Labour leader in waiting  Dan Jarvis - sought to hang some political views on his oft-discussed backstory with a major speech on the economy.

Advertisement

He said Labour is a party of work and jobs and New Labour didnt do enough to tackle the falling wages of workers.

Echoing Tony Blairs famous tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime line, Jarvis called for Labour to be tough on inequality, tough on the causes of inequality.

International Womens Day took place on Tuesday this week, and Parliament marked the annual event with a debate in the Commons.

The most poignant moment came when Labour MP Jess Phillips read out the names of every woman who has been murdered by a man in the UK in the last year.

The Commons remained silent as she read out the names of the 120 women and girls, aged 13 and over, killed in the last 12 months, in cases where a man has been tried and found guilty or charged or believed by police to be the primary suspect.

Advertisement

Former Labour leadership contender Yvette Cooper told Commons People that she felt her party did need more women in top positions as she set out her Reclaim the Internet campaign.

The Government suffered a defeat this week over its plans to extend Sunday trading hours  and it wasnt even a close call.

Some 26 Tories voted against the plans which would have allowed larger stores to open for longer on Sundays .

The rebel Tories joined with Labour and the Scottish National Party to keep Sunday special.

The defeat was even more embarrassing after the Government offered a last-minute concession to the Enterprise Bill that would have seen the changes initially limited to 12 pilot areas in England and Wales.
The editor in chief of the Sun has said the public will "have to have to take my word" that the newspaper's story alleging the Queen "backs Brexit" is accurate, amid mounting speculation over who leaked an alleged conversation between the monarch and Nick Clegg.

Buckingham Palace complained to the press watchdog on Wednesday after the tabloid splashed on a leaked 2011 conversation in which she reportedly lambasted the direction of "European integration" to the then deputy prime minister.

Advertisement

Labour has written Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood demanding an inquiry into who leaked the Queen's remarks.

The Sun's front page on Wednesday (above) and The Daily Telegraph front page on Thursday (below), suggesting Michael Gove was The Sun's source

Advertisement

As the rest of the press sought the paper's source - suggesting Justice Secretary Michael Gove, who also attended the lunch - editor Tony Gallagher said his team was "completely confident" it was accurate and said the paper "knew more than we published".

He denied the paper had overwritten its headline, which suggested the Queen's five-year-old remarks amounted to her wanting Britain to leave the EU in the June referendum.

"We knew much more than we published and that remains the case," he told the Today programme on Thursday. "Two sources came to us with information about the Queen and her views on the EU. We would've been derelict in our duty of us to not put that in the paper.

"It's as simple as that. The fact the story is inconvenient for a number of people is not my fault. We serve our readers, not the elite."

Presenter Mishal Husain probed him on the headline, arguing the story, which claimed the Queen had said the EU was "heading in the wrong direction", did not support it.

Advertisement

She pointed out that the palace complaint to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) is under Clause One of its code that prohibits headlines "not supported by the text".

Gallagher said: "You're going to have to take my word for it that we're completely confident the Queen's views were expressed exactly as we've outlined in both the headline and the story.

Tony Gallagher said The Sun 'knew more than we published' about the story

"It is also the case that we knew much more than we published and that remains the case. We are in no doubt that the story is accurate."

He also said there was a "second occasion", as well as the 2011 lunch attended by Clegg, where the Queen had made "similarly scathing remarks".

Advertisement

Husain pushed Gallagher over whether the Queen's alleged comments, said well before an EU referendum was even announced, could have amounted to her backing Brexit.

Gallagher said this was "semantics" but Husain insisted it was "entirely different". "There are plenty of people who were disparaging five years ago who are backing for the UK to stay in the EU," she said. Gallagher replied that the state of the eurozone and the European Union in 2011 suggested someone with Eurosceptic views then, would back a Brexit now.

Gallagher would not give details of the second incident where the Queen was said to have made anti-EU claims, saying it would trigger an "absurd mole hunt" among the rest of the press.

Today's papers have named Gove, who is backing a Brexit, as one of the Sun's possible sources.

The Daily Telegraph reported Gove, who was Education Secretary at the time, had "refused to deny" it.

On Today, Gallagher told Hussein: "You wouldn't expect for a single moment to reveal anything about the sourcing of a story... Those of a cynical mind might think there's an attempt to take Michael Gove out of the Leave campaign."

Clegg has denied he was the source and said he cannot remember the conversation. He said: "I've no recollection of this happening and its not the sort of thing I would forget."

The Sun's political editor, Tom Newton Dunn, who wrote the piece, called this a "non denial denial," a term used by journalists to describe an attack on a story that does not actually refute its assertions.

Labour MP Wes Streeting has written to the cabinet secretary asking for an inquiry. "Let's see what comes back," a party spokesman said.

Chris Grayling, Leader of The House of Commons, said private conversations with The Queen "should always be kept private".

Advertisement

But Grayling, who is Lord President of the Council, the head of the Privy Council, the role Clegg was fulfilling at the time of his alleged meeting, stopped short of calling for an official investigation into the leak, and instead said the press watchdog was right to look into the story.

David Cameron has also ruled out an inquiry.

He told BBC Sussex: "The Palace has made a very clear statement, the former deputy prime minister has made a very clear statement saying that this didn't happen and I think we should leave it at that.
Labours Stephen Kinnock has increased the pressure on Jeremy Corbyn by setting out what he needs to achieve in May to avoid a leadership challenge.

In an exclusive interview for the Huff Post UKs Commons People podcast, the Aberavon MP threw down the gauntlet to the Labour leader ahead of the local elections.

Advertisement

Mr Kinnock, who is a parliamentary aide to Business Secretary Angela Eagle, warned there would absolutely be questions about Corbyns leadership if Labour didnt tighten its grip on power in Wales, coming a minimum of second in Scotland and win the London mayoralty.

He also said Corbyn would be judged on how well he mobilises the pro-European Labour vote in the run up to Junes EU referendum.

His comments come as fellow Labour MP Dan Jarvis today warned the party faces a major test in Mays elections as he delivered a speech on the economy that was widely seen as the first step in a future leadership bid.

Speaking to Commons People, Kinnock admitted Corbyn had tapped into a hunger for a different kind of politics, but added: The big question is when people look at him do they see somebody who could be the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and I think we will know a large part of the answer to that question following the elections on May 5 and also how the Labour Party carries itself now through to the 23rd June and the Referendum.

Advertisement

Jeremy, as any leader, gets judged on performance, gets judged on results, so until we see what those results are opinion polls  as we saw with the 2015 election  they are not worth the paper theyre written on.

When asked what Corbyn needed to achieve in May, Kinnock replied: We need a Labour mayor in London. We need a big jump forward in the council elections in England, we need in Wales to hold on well to Government. I think Scotland  very, very problematic  but we need as an absolute minimum to be coming in as a second party in Scotland.

When asked if questions about the leadership would be raised if those achievements werent met, Kinnock said: Absolutely, I think any leader of any political party is judged by their results and we need to set ambitious, challenging targets for what we want to achieve in May.

If were not reaching those targets then of course questions need to be asked.

Kinnock, who has taken a pro-active role in making the case for the UK to remain in the EU, also called on his partys leader to roll up his sleeves and get involved in the debate.

He said: I think we need a passionate case from all sides of the debate and the Labour Party definitely has a really important role to play in that.

Advertisement

Yes, I would like to see our leadership out there more absolutely - I would like to see a big set piece speech for example. I wonder why we havent heard one yet.

Jeremy has spoken quite a lot in the Chamber in this but I think it would be great if he went to a business that does a lot of business with the European Union and made a speech to the work force or something like that.

He might even want to role up his sleeves like the Prime Minister does.

Kinnock also spelt out his fears for what a UK outside of the EU would look like with the Tories in power.

He said: What do you think the first thing a post-Brexit Tory government would do, with Boris Johnson or Liam Fox as the Prime Minister?
A man was viciously attacked at a Donald Trump rally in North Carolina on Wednesday, the latest incident in an increasing trend of violence carried out by supporters or security staff of the Republican Party frontrunner.

The assailant, wearing a ponytail and a cowboy hat, was arrested and charged by local police. He was later identified as 78-year-old John McGraw, who admitted to Inside Edition that he liked "knocking the hell out of that big mouth." When asked why he puched the protester, McGraw said: "Number one, we dont know if hes ISIS."

Advertisement

"We dont know who he is, but we know hes not acting like an American," he added. "The next time we see him, we might have to kill him."

The physical attacks on protesters, often subtly encouraged from the podium, have caused considerable disquiet among US election commentators, some going as far as to compare Trump supporters to the Nazi Brownshirts.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Fayetteville, N.C., Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Advertisement

However, these are not organised attacks carried out by party thugs, but spontaneous violence by men (always men) that feel empowered by Trumps bombastic rhetoric to attack detractors of their cause.

That's not to downplay their significance. Even for an election that has ripped at the boundaries of normality, physical violence is an unexpected trend in a country whose First Amendment guarantees the right to voice opposition. And for all the rancor and bigotry of the American hard right during the Obama years, there was no accompanying violence until the tycoon launched his White House bid from a gold escalator in June.

There is also a very clear racial component to some of the attacks. This was particularly notable when an African-American female was shoved by a known white supremacist at a rally in February.

The candidate has repeatedly said he cannot control what happens in the large crowds that attend his rallies. Trump could, of course, discourage it but has shown little inclination to dampen the frenzy that has carried him to within a blond hair of the GOP nomination. He even encourages violence, telling a protester at a recent rally in Las Vegas that he'd "like to punch him in the face.

As the New York Daily News recently argued, should the violence continue theres a strong likelihood someone could be seriously injured or killed at a rally. Not that it would damage his polling. As Trump pointed out earlier this year: "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters."

Advertisement

Below is a litany of aggression from supporters and agents of the brash billionaire builder.

An African-American woman is shoved at a rally in Louisville, Kentucky on March 1, 2016.

A Trump supporter shouts 'light the motherfucker on fire' as an African-American protester is removed at an event in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 14, 2015.

And about ten minutes into the Trump rally, this happens. pic.twitter.com/65pXHjsJ3x  McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) December 15, 2015

A Trump security guard punches an immigration activist during a protest on December 3, 2015 in New York City.

Advertisement

Trump supporters attack an African-American protester during a rally in Birmingham, Alabama on November 21, 2015.

A black protester at Trump's rally today in Alabama was shoved, tackled, punched & kicked: https://t.co/Aq0wuaAtaxpic.twitter.com/cTRDMtjuBl  Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) November 21, 2015

An African-American protester at a rally in Richmond, Virginia is spat at by a Trump supporter on October 14, 2015.
The French national was travelling from Istanbul to Paris when passengers alerted cabin crew to a child hidden in a cloth bag by her feet.

Advertisement

The woman is reported to have been in the process of adopting the girl from Haiti.

A passenger named Vincent said: "The cloth bag belonged to a woman sat at the back of the plane. At one point she opened the bag and her neighbour on the other row of seats saw something moving inside.

"He alerted flight attendants, who then discovered a baby,"

The woman was in the transit zone in Istanbul and had been prevented from boarding the flight with her child. She then bought a ticket for herself and smuggled the child on board.

Authorities were alerted and she was arrested upon landing but prosecutors decided not to press charges.

Air France said in a statement: "According to the initial information in its possession, Air France indicates that an adult is reported to have travelled accompanied by a child hidden in a bag without a valid transport ticket.

Advertisement

"The company requested the presence of the French authorities on the flight's arrival.

"Air France will fully cooperate with the investigation underway being conducted by the competent authorities.
Another junior doctor strike has come and gone and the government hasn't blinked. It was unlikely that they were ever going to. Jeremy Hunt unilaterally rejected the proposal that NHS employers and the BMA had agreed upon prior to the last strike and then chose to impose the new contract immediately afterwards as a giant two fingers up to the whole medical profession and, in fact, everybody else who cherishes democracy and reason. He considers himself to have won already and will try to ride out the next series of strikes in his characteristically disengaged manner.

The strikes are important because they demonstrate the strength of feeling amongst healthcare professionals who have spent forty years being manipulated, coerced, and denigrated by successive governments and have finally had enough. There is however a flaw at the heart of the BMA strategy of sequential strikes. The problem is that the current generation of Tory ministers were raised suckling at the ideological teat of Margaret Thatcher and, just as she resisted the miners' strikes, so they see it as an almost sacred duty to stand firm against industrial action.

Further to this is the problem that, whilst the strikes threaten to create a crisis for the NHS, the NHS deals with crises from an individual to an institutional level on a daily basis and has done for decades. The NHS is good at crisis management. Doctors themselves scupper the impact of the strikes by the almighty effort of junior doctors who prepare for, and then make up for, any shortcomings in patient care caused by the strike, and by the effort of the consultants and other doctors providing emergency cover during the strike which ensures that patients do not suffer.

Advertisement

So, despite the symbolic importance of the strikes, their political impact is limited. And with each strike that comes and goes, and with each strike that the government ignores, the impact lessens.

The BMA needs to start re-thinking, it needs to find new strategies with which to take on the government. The legal challenge to the contract is a good start but will no doubt be skilfully mired in a swamp of bureaucracy by government lawyers so, in the meantime, junior doctors need to maintain and increase the pressure on Hunt. There are other protests that could run alongside the strikes that may appear less dramatic at first glance but would likely have more political clout. For example, junior doctors could work to rule.

By actually turning up and leaving at the hours dictated by their rotas, junior doctors would effectively withdraw hundreds of thousands of hours of labour every day that the NHS currently gets from them for free. This would rapidly demonstrate just how stretched current resources are and why they can't be stretched any further to satisfy a Tory manifesto soundbite without extra funding or extra manpower.

Junior doctors should also consider withdrawing their labour from the private wards that exist within many NHS hospitals. This would undermine the parasitic profiteering that the private sector currently enjoys at the expense of the NHS. In some hospitals, in some specialties, junior doctors on NHS contracts are taken away from their NHS patients for significant periods of time to care for those receiving private healthcare.

Advertisement

This effort should also include GP trainees who provide countless hours to the GP out of hours services, many of which are now run for profit by private companies such as Virgin Care. These companies keep their costs down by filling their rotas with NHS paid junior doctors and cheap locums, often flown in from abroad. Such a withdrawal of labour may demonstrate to private care providers that healthcare provision is not so lucrative when there is no longer an NHS from which to cream the lowest risk and most lucrative work.

These measures would help, but the real protest must wait till August and junior doctors must maintain their resolve till then and beyond. There must be a co-ordinated and massed refusal to accept this new contract. Junior doctors have many other options than to accept it. The contract is not being imposed in Scotland or Wales, and it is certainly not being imposed in New Zealand or Australia, and England's loss will be else-where's gain. But there are also less drastic options such as taking up research posts or clinical fellowships which stand outside the training schemes and will, in the end, only be of benefit to the future career of the junior doctors. This will require a generation of junior doctors to be bold and committed but without such action there may not be many more generations of NHS doctors to follow.
With a name like Rosa perhaps you'd think she has no choice - her namesakes Rosa Parks and Luxemburg were two revolutionary heroines in the fight for global justice and equality. But becoming a mum has given me further reasons for wanting to make sure my baby (and her dad) attended the Walk in Her Shoes rally and march on Sunday 6 March - my very first mother's day as Mum.

Three main reasons spring to mind:

Maternal health:

Like all first time mums child birth was a pretty daunting prospect. But as we sat in the NCT classes I often reminded myself that unlike most women around the world, my chances of a safe and pain free delivery were a million times better than women I had met in hospitals in Bangladesh and South Sudan. The latter country remains one of the most dangerous places in the world to have a baby - with a staggering one in seven mothers dying. Maternal health rightly remains central to the new UN global development goals, and securing women's rights to choose if and when they have children - and then ensure they live when they do so - has still got to be the foundation of achieving gender equality.

The care economy:

Next up, I've had to think about how to balance work life with having a child. I'm lucky to live in the UK where people have fought long and hard for statutory maternity pay and where shared parental leave is now at least a possibility. But this is not the case for the majority of women globally. If women are to achieve their full potential, socially and politically, and if we are to economically empower millions more women, then improved social security and maternity leave to support child care has to become a reality. Women can't continue to invisibly underpin the global economic system by caring for children, the elderly, and their communities without some wider recognition and practical support. Mexico has measured the economic value of domestic and care work at 20% of its GDP (higher than manufacturing at 16%!). More countries need to start to calculate this value and adapt their public policies accordingly.

Advertisement

Dads and sons need to be involved in this too:

I struggled with breast feeding and ended up using bottles of formula milk. Once I'd got over the angst of not giving my child the best start, I focussed on the fact that the benefits included my husband being able to share the feeding (including in the middle of the night!) Yet every baby class I attend, it's all women. I spot some men walking the streets with prams as I pound the local neighbourhood and I beam at them. But there's no doubt that despite paternity leave (NB in our case this wasn't fully paid) and shared parental leave most men are still pretty isolated from sharing the caring in early months. And yet men are key allies in helping and in shifting the attitudes and practices which maintain inequality. My husband is a proud feminist (and frequently reminds me that he knew what Spare Rib was when I didn't). We need to enable and encourage more men to share in child care and to be seen as fatherhood role models.

In addition to all the above reasons, my emotional connection to gender inequality and social injustice has also been re-awakened. It's sad but true that after twenty odd years working on human rights and development issues you can get a little hardened to the heart breaking stories of grinding poverty, conflict and abuse.

Advertisement

But the current news reports of the horrors of the refugee crisis really get to me, as I imagine how different my own child's chances would be if she had been born in different circumstances.

So the three of us and my own mother proudly marched on Sunday the 6th in solidarity -so grateful for what we have and with a renewed urgency that more women and girls have their rights respected.
The Government's defeat in attempting to relax Sunday trading laws reflects not just the unpopularity of their proposals, but a desperate effort to avoid proper parliamentary scrutiny.

The measures were first proposed in last year's Local Government and Devolution Bill, but were removed after strong opposition from Labour and some deep unease on the Tory backbenches.

Then, at the last moment and with no prior warning, the Tories slipped the Sunday trading measures into the Enterprise Bill, sneaking a poison pill into what was otherwise a bland Bill and transforming it into a noxious brew.

Advertisement

By doing so, the Government prevented the proposals from receiving proper scrutiny in the House of Lords.

They limited the opportunity of the Commons to discuss the measures and examine their potential impact. Indeed, when they were first mentioned in the debate at the Second Reading, we found ourselves in the absurd situation of debating measures that we had not actually seen.

And yesterday at the eleventh hour, the Government attempted to introduce a manuscript amendment in an attempt to kill off David Burrowes' amendment to scrap the proposals. This was a desperate last-ditch effort, a grubby abuse of power and it was a deeply unbecoming way to treat parliament. Thankfully the Speaker saw sense and refused to select this amendment which was submitted late.

It's clear why the Government acted with such secrecy, and with such little regard for parliamentary procedure: there is overwhelming opposition to relaxing Sunday trading laws, and the evidence base is weak and unconvincing. Sales actually decreased when Sunday trading rules were relaxed during the Olympics, and the government proposals were opposed by many retailers, including Sainsbury's and the Association of Convenience Stores.

Advertisement

Furthermore the measures were not in the Conservative manifesto, and indeed the Prime Minister said he had no plans to change the Sunday trading rules ahead of last year's election. The Tories have no mandate for this change.

There is clear opposition from shopworkers. Nine in ten USDAW members in large stores - those who would be affected by the changes - oppose them. There is also little demand from consumers for a change, with a recent poll showing that two in three people are happy with the current rules, with under one in four wanting reform.

I'd like to say that this sorry affair is an isolated incident. Unfortunately, it is part of a wider and concerning trend from a Government that are desperate to avoid scrutiny. They have attempted to sneak through cuts to tax credits and the abolition of student maintenance grants through statutory instruments, effectively the legislative backdoor. They have tried to silence opposing voices by gagging charities, and by attacking funding for the opposition through cuts to short money and the vicious, vindictive Trade Union Bill.

Strong scrutiny is essential to good legislation. This Government have demonstrated a track record of ducking, diving and dodging scrutiny. If the Government truly believe in the programme they are implementing, they should not be afraid of proper debate, and should be able to demonstrate greater respect for parliament and for democracy.
So, a high profile star, known for their sexy image and status as a sex symbol, (amongst other things) has recently posted a semi-nude picture of themselves, strategically positioned to protect their "modesty".

Terrible right? Except, I'm not talking about Kim Kardashian's already infamous throwback selfie. I'm referring to Justin Bieber's recent magazine cover of Clash magazine, where he's posed in nothing except a hat, with the image cutting off just before his crotch. Strangely, this isn't a big deal. There is no backlash. No one is yelling "he's a bad role model" and that he needs to "respect himself and his family more". For me, this unfair and illogical double standard between men and women is what is at the heart of this issue.

Advertisement

There is no doubt that we are in contentious territory. Balancing out the right for a woman to choose what empowers her and be able to control her own sexuality vs. being wary of not wanting to present women as one dimensional sex objects, is a tricky one for feminists to tackle. Kim Kardashian is in many respects a walking paradox. There are no straightforward solutions here.

On the one hand, we can't ignore the context under which selfie-gate is happening. Much of the media coverage of women is about what they look like and what they're wearing. If Kate Middleton has the odd day where she doesn't look 100% perfect, the media makes sure we all know it. Older women in the public eye (particularly in Hollywood) are much more of a rarity, when compared with older men. All round idiot Piers Morgan even suggested that Kim Kardashian's selfie was inappropriate because she was getting too old, despite having praised her last attempt to "break the internet":

Calling Madonna embarrassing seems kind of rich, coming from someone who sticks up for xenophobic bigot Donald Trump just because they're "friends". Even if women achieve great things, ultimately how pretty we are still seems to be most important thing, as Cambridge graduate and barrister Charlotte Proudman found out when she was approached by a male professional because of her "stunning profile picture" on the professional networking site LinkedIn. (Just as a quick reminder to the Daily Mail journalist/vomit inducing human being Sarah Vine, who labelled her a "Feminazi" for highlighting such everyday sexism, LinkedIn is a social media space for work, not a personal/dating media platform. To be approached on such a forum because you are pretty is demeaning and undermines your career achievements).

Advertisement

A cultural view that it is ok to sexually objectify women can, when it gets really bad, lead to people thinking sexual that assault is OK and that "no doesn't always mean no". Like these douche bags, trying to suggest to Amber Rose (who has now publicly supported Kim) that unwanted sexual advances are partly her fault because of the way she dresses.

I sympathise with Chloe Moretz's point on twitter, even though, embarrassingly Kim Kardashian then exposed her as a bit of a hypocrite for previously having posed wearing very little herself on the cover of Nylon Magazine (Awks). In the wider context, images like Kim's selfie help to perpetuate a culture of objectification and an obsession with women's appearance, which in turn causes us to cease to view women as human beings.

BUT, taking all this into account, I go back to my initial point: the incessant double standard slut shaming has made the debate almost intolerable for me. You only need to scroll through the comments on the selfie for thirty seconds to see people throwing the word "slut", "slag" or "hoe" around so casually. These people don't care about women's rights, or sexual objectification. They care about slandering women they perceive as less than them, because they are, shockingly, showing their sexuality. There is nothing inherently wrong with a woman baring her sexuality; a woman showing her sexual side is not in of itself a bad thing. Our sexuality is not something to feel embarrassed or ashamed of. If she's in control of it, it could be seen as a good thing, empowering even. Kim stated yesterday in a powerful self-penned essay "I am empowered by my sexuality...and feeling comfortable in my own skin" and that she wants her daughter to be "comfortable in her body". "But you can be sexy without taking your clothes off" a lot of people have said. Which is something I agree with, but people should probably also be open minded enough to realise that there are different ways to be sexy: fully clothed, semi-clothed or completely starkers. Whatever rocks your boat.
Four Famous Embroideries of China

The Four Famous Embroideries of China refer to the Xiang embroidery in central China's Hunan Province, Shu embroidery in western China's Sichuan Province, Yue embroidery in southern China's Guangdong Province and Su embroidery in eastern China's Jiangsu Province.

Xiang Embroidery

Xiang Embroidery

Xiang embroidery is well known for its time-honored history, excellent craftsmanship and unique style.

The earliest piece of Xiang embroidery was unearthed at the No 1 Tomb of Mawangdui, Changsha City of the Han Dynasty (206BC-AD220).

The weaving technique was almost the same as the one used in modern times, which demonstrated that embroidery had already existed in the Han Dynasty. In its later development, Xiang Embroidery absorbed the characteristics of traditional Chinese paintings and formed its own unique characteristics. Xiang embroidery experienced its heyday at the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and in the early Republic of China (early 20th century), even surpassing Su embroidery. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Xiang embroidery was further improved and developed to a new level.

Xiang embroidery uses pure silk, hard satin, soft satin and nylon as its material, which is connected with colorful silk threads. Absorbing the spirit of Chinese paintings, the embroidery reaches a high artistic level. Xiang embroidery crafts include valuable works of art, as well as materials for daily use.

Shu Embroidery

Shu Embroidery

Also called Chuan embroidery, Shu embroidery is the general name for embroidery products in areas around Chengdu, Sichuan Province. Shu embroidery enjoys a long history. As early as the Han Dynasty, Shu embroidery was already famous. The central government even designated an office in this area for its administration. During the Five Dynasties and Ten States periods (907-960), a peaceful society and large demand provided advanced conditions for the rapid development of the Shu Embroidery industry. Shu embroidery experienced its peak development in the Song Dynasty (960-1279), ranking first in both production and excellence. In the mid-Qing Dynasty,

the Shu embroidery industry was formed. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Shu embroidery factories were set up and the craft entered a new phase of development, using innovative techniques and a larger variety of forms.

Originating among the folk people in the west of Sichuan Province, Shu embroidery formed its own unique characteristics: smooth, bright, neat and influenced by the geographical environment, customs and cultures. The works incorporated flowers, leaves, animals, mountains, rivers and human figures as their themes. Altogether, there are 122 approaches in 12 categories for weaving. The craftsmanship of Shu embroidery involves a combination of fine arts, aesthetics and practical uses, such as the facings of quits, pillowcases, coats, shoots and screen covers.

Yue Embroidery

Yue Embroidery

Also called Guang embroidery, Yue embroidery is a general name for embroidery products of the regions of Guangzhou, Shantou, Zhongshan, Fanyu and Shunde in Guangdong Province. According to historical records, in the first year of Yongyuan's reign (805) during the Tang Dynasty (618-907),

a girl named Lu Meiniang embroidered the seventh volume of the Fahua Buddhist Scripture on a piece of thin silk 30 cm long. And so, Yue embroidery became famous around the country. The prosperous Guangzhou Port of the Song Dynasty promoted the development of Yue embroidery, which began to be exported at that time. During the Qing Dynasty, people animal hair as the raw material for Yue embroidery, which made the works more vivid. During Qianlong's reign (1736-1796) of the Qing, an industrial organization was established in Guangzhou. At that time, a large number of craftsmen devoted themselves to the craft, inciting further improvements to the weaving technique. Since 1915, the work of Yue embroidery garnered several awards at the Panama Expo.

Influenced by national folk art, Yue embroidery formed its own unique characteristics. The embroidered pictures are mainly of dragons and phoenixes, and flowers and birds, with neat designs and strong, contrasting colors. Floss, thread and gold-and-silk thread embroidery are used to produce costumes, decorations for halls and crafts for daily use.

Su Embroidery

Su Embroidery

With a history of more than 3,000 years, Su embroidery is the general name for embroidery products in areas around Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. The craft, which dates back to the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280), became a sideline of people in the Suzhou area during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

Well known for its smoothness and delicateness, Su embroidery won Suzhou the title City of Embroidery in the Qing Dynasty. In the mid and late Qing, Su embroidery experienced further developments involving works of double-sided embroidering. There were 65 embroidery stores in Suzhou City. During the Republic of China period (1912-1949),

the Su embroidery industry was in decline due to frequent wars and it was restored and regenerated after the founding of new China. In 1950, the central government set up research centers for Su embroidery and launched training courses for the study of embroidery. Weaving methods have climbed from 18 to the present 40.

Su embroidery features a strong, folk flavor and its weaving techniques are characterized by the following: the product surface must be flat, the rim must be neat, the needle must be thin, the lines must be dense, the color must be harmonious and bright and the picture must be even. Su embroidery products fall into three major categories: costumes, decorations for halls and crafts for daily use, which integrate decorative and practical values. Double-sided embroidery is an excellent representative of Su embroidery.
'Anomalisa' is a breathtaking, surreal masterpiece - Asaf Korman's compassionate 'Next To Her' is a sensitive and compelling tour-de-force - 'The Here After,' Magnus von Horn's impressive debut feature is a tale of alienation, abandonment and guilt - Robert Eggers award winning low budget 'The Witch,' is original, unnerving and gripping.

Director: Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tom Noonan, David Thewlis, Michael Stone. Animation, Comedy, Drama. USA 2016 90 mins. Winner Grand Jury Prize 2015 Venice Film Festival (15) *****

Advertisement

Original, extraordinary and unique. 'Anomalisia' is a breathtaking and brilliant stop motion animation black comedy that's surreal, bizarre and emotional.

Unhappy in his marriage, family and work, life's bleak and lonely for motivational speaker Michael Stone (David Thewlis). Some may whisper that it's a mid-life crisis? Michael's going to speak at a convention in Cincinnati. he books in at the Hotel Fregoli, retreats to his room and raids the mini bar. Despair and exhaustion cling to Michael. A drink in the bar with Bella, a love from the past is a no-go but then a chance meeting with Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a sales rep at the convention. Is this the moment of change? Unlucky in love Lisa's worshiped Michael Stone from afar and he's smitten. They talk and laugh. The love affair begins.

With realistic bodies, the dummies with their faces in two sections, unsettling and bizarre. Everyone has the same voice, Tom Noonan playing all parts except Michael Stone (superb David Thewlis retaining his Northern accent) and Lisa (brilliantly voiced by Jennifer Jason Leigh). A sex scene that beats anything Hollywood can offer makes you wonder whether it's puppets or the real thing and Lisa's knock out rendition of 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' have to be seen to be believed.

Mesmerising, humorous, sad and surreal, Charlie Kaufman, who scripted 'Being John Malkovich', 'Adaptation' and 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' and directed and wrote 'Synecdoche, New York' delivers a masterpiece - a day in the life of Michael Stone, a glance at everyday life, a nightmare, the nightmare of everyday life? Stunning.

Advertisement

Released 11th March

Director: Asaf Korman. Liron Ben-Shlush, Dana Ivgy, Yaakov Daniel Zada. Drama. Hebrew with English subtitles. Israel 2014 90 mins. Official Selection Un Certain Regard 2014 Cannes Film Festival (15) ****

Asaf Korman's first feature is a compelling and sensitive tour de force that enters the claustrophobic world of two sisters who have forged an interdependence. All but abandoned by their mother, Chelli (Liron Ben-Shlush), a part time security guard cares for her severely disabled sister Gabby, played so effectively by Dana Ivgy that it's all but impossible to believe that she's acting. It's a world where the two sisters share everything from watching TV, bathing to sleeping together in their dingy apartment in a rundown district in Haifa. Locked in the apartment for most of the day, complaints from neighbours and social services intervention forces Chelli to place Gabby in a day care centre. When romance blossoms with a colleague, Zohar (Yaakov Daniel Zada), Chelli's life's on the up but his positive rapport with Gabby triggers Chelli's possessive streak and her co-dependence surfaces with disastrous consequences.

With close up shots that connect the audience with the characters, Asaf Korman's stark and realist touch sits easily with the standout performances. In a world bound by frustration, anger and love, Chelli and Gabby become isolated from Zohar, the mummy's boy who's courageous and compassionate and the one liberating factor in both their lives.

Advertisement

Released 11th March

Director: Magnus von Horn. Ulrik Munther, Mats Blomgren, Wieslaw Komasa. Drama. Swedish with English subtitles. France, Sweden, Poland 2015 101 mins. Director's Fortnight 2015 Cannes International Film Festival (15) ****

With echoes of Thomas Vinterberg's 'The Hunt,' the Swedish pop star Ulrik Munther gives a powerful performance in Magnus von Horn's directorial feature debut 'The Here After,' a tale of alienation, abandonment and guilt.

John (Ulrik Munther) recently released from a young offenders institution returns to the family farm and his controlling father (Mats Blomgren), younger brother Filip (Alexander Nordgren) and an ailing and senile grandfather (Wieslaw Komasa). His school is unwelcoming and they want rid of John. His crime's not forgotten or forgiven and the lynch mob mentality surfaces.But what was John's crime? With a controlled direction, Magnus von Horn offers a slow and restrained build and it's not until an unexpected and violent confrontation in a supermarket that hints of his past emerge. Bullied, harassed, isolated and abandoned by former friends except for Malin (Loa Ek), whose rebellious streak draws her to John, and an inability to leave his past leads him to confront it.

Screened at Director's Fortnight at Cannes, shot on 35 mm by Lukasz Zal with long takes, wide lensing and muted colours offering a sense of isolation and detachment, Magnus von Horn's slow burn and restrained direction and music free soundtrack effectively builds tension in what is an impressive feature debut.

Advertisement

Released 11th March

Director: Robert Eggers. Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Inesor, Kate Dickie. Drama, Horror. USA 2015 Best Director Sundance Film Festival; Sutherland Award, First Feature 2015 London Film Festival 90 mins. (15) ****

Unsettling, intense and unnerving, Robert Eggers impressive award winning, low budget debut feature with an excellent cast and sense of historical detail isn't the standard horror film.

New England, 1639, devout Christian William (Ralph Ineson) and his family are banished to a farm on the edge of a dense forest. Life's hard, nature's cruel, crops fail and tensions build. Strange and unsettling things happen and there's talk of witches. When the youngest child Samuel disappears the family are uncompromising in their conviction that a supernatural force is linked to their daily troubles. Paranoia grips, and hysteria mingles with Christian belief. Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy), the first born will be the scapegoat. The twins Mercy (Ellie Grainger) and Jonas (Lucas Dawson) sense she's the Devil's handmaiden and Black Philip, the goat must be a symbol of Satan. The descent into madness begins.

Stunning, original and gripping with superb cast performances and controlled direction, set decades before the infamous Salem witch trials in the 1690s and with echoes of Michael Haneke's 'The White Ribbon,' make it 'must see' viewing.

Advertisement

Released 11th March
Any critic of the student activist left will be more than familiar with what can only be described as the clear distortion of the ordinary meaning of certain words, a distortion which does not appear to be accidental. After all, if the definition of "violence" now includes walking past a statue of the 'wrong' historical figure (or perhaps paintings by white artists in Cape Town), and the French flag can be cast as a "violent symbol" rather than simply a national flag (absurd at the best of times, morally turpitudinous in the wake of the Paris attacks where hundreds of civilians in Paris were the victims of actual violence), then it becomes easy for activists to justify attempts to force their removal over the heads of clear majorities (or, in the case of the UCT paintings, burning them openly in a naked display of iconoclasm).

More concerning still, however, is how this same logic is applied to speakers at universities. In the kerfuffle surrounding the appearance of Marine Le Pen at the Oxford Union last year, the "argument" was made that she didn't even need to say anything to violate the "safe space" of activists; her very presence was enough, because she was allegedly a fascist and anti-Semitic (with no evidence produced to support this, and despite the fact that Jewish votes for the FN are on the rise). The answer to the perceived violence of the very presence of Le Pen was actual violence directed at students wanting to attend by a violent mob casting itself as a regular protest, and the besieging of the Union to the point where those fortunate enough to get in were under Police protection for more than an hour.

Advertisement

The upshot of this has been a similar vandalism of the concept of free speech, not least in the irony that the anti-Le Pen mob claimed that it was, in fact, free speech (quite when free speech came to encompass besieging a building and breaching its perimeter at least once is yet to be explained). More absurdly, when a friend of mine in Manchester had one of her SU campaign banners defaced with a Swastika, this was met with various smug comments telling her that the vandalism (technically a criminal act) was actually free speech, and therefore speech should be regulated (she was running on a free speech platform). Of course, no definition of free speech by its defenders includes vandalism, but that seems beside the point; if vandalism were free speech, it would need regulated, conceding the principle of regulation of speech which doesn't incite violence or defame - and allowing for further regulation of speech with which activists disagree as a result. More ironically still is that , when we consider that the candidate was a woman of colour, the very same activist left defending the vandalism would doubtless have condemned it as a racist attack, if only the target had been left wing.

But perhaps most revealing, and worrying, use of language by the activist left is probably not a distortion at all; it is how such activists employ the concept of ownership to justify their demands. It was far from uncommon to hear Rhodes Must Fall supporters claim that the statue has no place in "our university". What they forget is that Oxford University does not belong to them, but to many other groups as well: to the wider student body (a survey - one of the largest in the Cherwell newspaper's recent history - of whom suggested that they were in favour of the statue staying up by 54% to 37%); to the alumni of the University and the Colleges who continue to make Oxford one of the best-endowed universities in the world; and to the Town, of which the Colleges are undoubtedly a part.

Advertisement

Yet this seemed to escape RMF, and not just when we consider that the students of Oriel (who, of any student body in the university, would be able to use the language of ownership of the statue in question) were least likely to support RMF in the Cherwell survey. When the donors of Oriel did what was perfectly within their rights to do - namely, to consider refusing to donate to the College but instead spend their money elsewhere - the response by RMF was to accuse Oriel of "selling out".

Never mind that the stance of the donors (that Rhodes should stay) was far more reflective of the opinion of the general public, and current Oriel students, or that a donor whose bequest would be worth more than double the current value of Rhodes's might legitimately wonder whether that money should be left to an institution that would not defend the commemoration of his benefaction when society likely moves on to regard our society as negatively as we regard Rhodes's - according to RMF, the statue should be torn down anyway. Never mind also that the Oriel development office has had to cancel planned fundraising and redundancies are likely in the wake of the withdrawal of donations (redundancies that will likely disproportionately affect staff towards the bottom of the hierarchy). Never mind also that this money could go towards actually helping students in the College (perhaps with hardship funds; better welfare support; or more and cheaper accommodation in future); according to RMF, the importance of this fails in comparison with removing a statue.

It is difficult to see how such an attitude - prioritising the removal of a statue which offends you though the Heavens fall - represents anything more than an unreasonable sense of entitlement, as if the repeated invocation of the university allegedly being "ours" did not already betray this. But this sense of entitlement is far from unique to Oxford: how else could US students claim to be "hurt" by a Colombian student's mini-sombreros to the point of being offered counselling (thereby taking such services from people who actually need them, especially when - if the UK university situation is anything to go by - they're unacceptably stretched as it is), or could colleges like Western Washington in America be receiving demands to employ far-left activist students to place tenured faculty under investigation for "microaggressions"?
Yesterday 70 sixth form girls were invited to Parliament to spend the day with MPs and help launch the 50:50 Parliament Ambassador Programme. The programme aims to inspire interest and engagement in politics, and was received enthusiastically by the young women. So much so that these leaders of tomorrow went on to cause quite a whirlwind at Westminster!

After an inspirational pep talk from 50:50 Parliament the fired up sixth formers & campaigners donned the t-shirts and arrived in Westminster Hall to meet MPs, as planned, for a historic photo.

Advertisement

However, the photograph created a collision with convention that was too much for the Parliamentary Authorities to bear, even on International Women's Day. It was probably the unparliamentary slogans, or it could have been our unparliamentary dress and hair, but there was suddenly some hesitation about whether the group photo could be released.

It was hoped that after the Equality Debate in the afternoon, in which Mims Davies MP said that "more has to be done" and Jess Phillips MP listed the 120 women that had died at the hands of men in the last year, Parliament might be moved. But no, the 50:50 campaign could not have the official photo.

Fortunately George Freeman MP saved the day by tweeting his support for the #5050Parliament campaign, including a photo!

Advertisement

So it is with great pleasure that we share this wonderful picture that was taken of 70 girls, newly recruited 50:50 Parliament Ambassadors, and MPs supporting 50:50 Parliament and our petition for parity, in the heart of Westminster on International Women's Day 2016.

It was a fantastic way for Parliament to show solidarity with the 50:50 Parliament Campaign and the UN hashtag #PledgeForParity and a clear demonstration that women are welcome at Westminster!

So, inspite of the little hiccough concerning photographic conventions in the Commons, 50:50 Parliament had a wonderful International Women's Day. It was a real pleasure to be with so many talented young women and future MPs. It was also awesome to hear female MPs speaking eloquently about a range of important, pressing issues that affect women's lives in the Equality debate brought by Mims Davies MP. During that debate several MPs decried the lack of women at Westminster.

To make your own personal #PledgeForParity sign the #5050ParliamentPetition at change.org/ 5050Parliament.co.uk. Currently fewer than 3 in 10 MPs and Peers are women. The 50:50 Parliament Petition asks all Party Leaders to take action for better gender balance in Parliament.

50:50 Parliament want women to be equally welcome at Westminster as MPs and Peers: not just on International Women's Day but every day of the year. 150 years after the Suffrage Petition of 1866 we are still shouting out for equality.

Advertisement

50:50 Parliament is an inclusive cross-party campaign, supported by men, women and people of all genders from across the UK. It aims to inspire interest and engagement in politics and calls upon all Party Leaders for solutions and action to ensure better gender balance in Parliament.

If you would like to become an Ambassador for the cause email Frances@5050Parliament.co.uk . 50:50 will provide training, materials and support to help Ambassadors engage more people across the country in the 50:50 Campaign.
*Stephanie Mawson is a Gates Cambridge Scholar at the University of Cambridge, doing a PhD in History focusing on the colonisation of the Philippines and the role of ordinary Filipinos in that process. Emma Nicholls is a Gates Cambridge Scholar at the University of Cambridge, doing a PhD in History on the intersection between economic and political structures of control and the workings of imagination in the late medieval period. Zoe Stewart is a Gates Cambridge Scholar at the University of Cambridge, doing a PhD in Clinical Biochemistry, studying the impact of the first artificial pancreas to be fitted in pregnant women with diabetes. This article was first published on Opendemocracy.net.

Something incredible is happening in Australia this summer.

The immediate catalyst was a High Court case over the fate of 267 asylum seekers - including 54 children and 37 babies - that had been receiving medical treatment in mainland hospitals. When the High Court determined that it was lawful for the government to send these asylum seekers back to indefinite detention in Australian run camps on the Pacific islands of Nauru and Manus, it provoked an explosive response from refugee rights campaigners across the country.For refugee activists across the country, suddenly it feels as if change is possible.

Advertisement

Offers of sanctuary poured in from religious institutions, state premiers, and the Prime Minister of New Zealand. Meanwhile, healthcare workers vowed to refuse to allow children in their care to be sent back to Nauru.

A flashpoint emerged at the Lady Cilento hospital in Brisbane, where a 12 month old baby was hospitalised for severe burns suffered while in detention in Nauru. For ten days, a 24 hour picket involving hundreds of healthcare workers, unionists and community members surrounded the hospital to support the staff. The government was forced to back down and release Baby Asha and her mother into community detention.

Under the banner of #LetThemStay, the movement is spreading. Teachers, childcare workers, nurses, doctors, university staff and students have been staging local protest actions across the country. Tens of thousands have participated in marches and vigils. Letters are being written, petitions signed, banners dropped off bridges, from boats in Sydney harbour and off the Melbourne Arts Centre spire.

For refugee activists across the country, suddenly it feels as if change is possible.

And change it must. Australia is leading the world in its punitive treatment of asylum seekers, indefinitely detaining all asylum seekers arriving by boat in government-sponsored offshore detention facilities.

Advertisement

From these camps, there are rampant allegations of sexual abuse of women and children, denial of adequate health treatment and, in one instance, the alleged murder of a young man called Reza Berati by G4S security personnel. Brian Owler, president of the Australian Medical Association, recently described offshore detention as a 'state-sanctioned form of child abuse' and as leading to 'extreme levels of physical, emotional, psychological, and developmental distress' for both children and adults alike.

Paving the way for Fortress Europe?

But Australia's tough border procedures are more than just an issue for people seeking asylum in Australia. Brian Owler, president of the Australian Medical Association, recently described offshore detention as a 'state-sanctioned form of child abuse'.Across Europe, Australia's asylum seeker policies have been considered as a possible way forward for dealing with the current influx of refugees from Syria, as well as ongoing flows of refugees and migrants from Africa. Briefings on Australia's asylum seeker policy have been prepared and put before the European Parliament, while some think-tanks have put Australia forward as an example from which the EU can learn.

Last October, former Prime Minister Tony Abbott helped this situation along by using an address in London to commend his government's approach to immigration. In this speech, Abbott argued that people fleeing across more than one border - including Syrian refugees - were 'economic migrants' and he urged European leaders to study the Australian experience or face 'a tide of humanity surging through Europe and quite possibly changing it forever.'

While many in Britain and Europe dismissed Abbott's comments, he nonetheless found an audience amongst Europe's far-right. UKIP leader, Nigel Farage called Abbott's stance on asylum seekers 'heroic'. And then there were the comments of notorious right-wing columnist, Katie Hopkins, who likened Syrian refugees to cockroaches and suggested that gunships be used to stop them, before going on to say that 'It's time to get Australian' on refugee boats in the Mediterranean.

The International Alliance Against Mandatory Detention: a call to action

In the face of this situation, those of us who live outside of Australia need to stand up in the name of human rights and social justice, to support those asylum seekers being treated by the Australian government as political refuse and to amplify the voices of many thousands of refugee activists.Nigel Farage called Abbott's stance on asylum seekers 'heroic'.

Advertisement

We believe the time has come for Australia's anti-apartheid moment.

The tide is changing on an Australia that is clinging desperately to its White Australia past. People inside and outside of Australia are standing up and challenging a system that seeks to construct physical and imagined borders that separate people based primarily on their race and creed.

It is for this reason that the International Alliance Against Mandatory Detention was founded just over a year ago. The Alliance is a network of Australian activists working and studying in cities across the world. We have chapters in London, New York, Geneva, Berlin, Santiago, Phnom Penh, and dozens of other locations, including our very own chapter in Cambridge, UK.

Here in the UK, we have held embassy pickets, candlelight vigils and photo petitions. We have participated in divestment campaigns against companies which profit from detention. We have built alliances with local refugee activists to build awareness of what is happening on Nauru and Manus. We have also released a series of videos calling on the Australian government to immediately close all detention centres, return all asylum seekers to mainland Australia, reopen community processing facilities and reconsider the policy of mandatory detention.

The Alliance finds inspiration in the history of other international solidarity movements, but especially from the British-based anti-apartheid movement.The Alliance finds inspiration in the history of other international solidarity movements, but especially from the British-based anti-apartheid movement. Politicians like Jeremy Corbyn cut their political teeth standing outside the South African embassy, in opposition to that country's system of apartheid. While these international solidarity activists did not win the anti-apartheid struggle - that was won by South Africans - they did amplify the voices of those struggling for justice. They stood up, and through their actions of solidarity, they were part of changing global history.

The Alliance takes as our core aim the disruption of Australia's international image as the carefree, lucky country. We want the world to know that as a leader in human rights abuses, Australia does not show a way forward for supporters of freedom and civil liberties.

Advertisement

Just as happened in South Africa, the ideas behind a system can seem so unflinching, so permanent, so untouchable - right up until the moment they fall.

On March 19-20, we will be joining the call for a global day of action against Australia's mandatory detention regime, and we encourage fellow Australians abroad to join us, wherever you are.

As asylum seekers fight each day to be treated as human beings, they need to know that we hear their voices. And Australian politicians also need to know that the world is watching. This is a fight for justice for the countless lives that are being destroyed by indefinite, mandatory detention.
Whether we're in politics, diplomacy or business, we all know that risk and opportunity are two sides of the same coin.

Some commentators are sounding the alarm about the Chinese economic slowdown, and the impact this might have on other economies in the region and further afield. This does not change the fundamental fact that Asia is now - and will remain - a major engine for global growth, and one with which we must continue to engage.

You only have to look at how Asia is changing, and the astonishing pace of that change. China's Pearl River Delta now encompasses 42 million people - that's more than the 20 biggest European cities put together. It's the largest urban area on the planet. There are 160 cities of over 1 million people in China alone. And despite hundreds of millions of people moving into cities in the last decade, Asia's urbanisation surge is only just beginning. This urbanisation is directly linked to income growth and consumer spending. The purchasing power of Asia's growing middle classes is going up faster than the sky scrapers they are moving into.

Advertisement

This huge movement of people is not restricted to Asia. They are travelling overseas in ever greater numbers. India overtook China recently to become the fastest growing outbound travel market - predicted to more than triple to 50 million between now and 2020.

Two of the world's top three economies are now Asian; a third of global trade and GDP is represented by Asia. Some predict that by 2025 as many as two thirds of the world's population will be Asian. Both the G7 and G20 will be hosted in the region this year - clear testament to its growing significance.

There is no doubt that these seismic economic shifts are being felt right across the world, and the UK is feeling them too. Some argue persuasively that the Asian economic centre of gravity was shifting westwards. Others argue just as forcefully that it was the centre of gravity of western economies that was heading east.

Of course both are right. People in Europe are looking east as never before, but Asians are also increasingly looking west - as students, investors and tourists. Some estimates suggest that Chinese tourists spend as much as 8,000 during a visit to the UK.

Advertisement

This increasing integration is having a huge impact on the UK. Cheaper Asian imports - from T-shirts to televisions - have given British people today a standard of living their grandparents could only dream of. But at the same time these products threaten the livelihoods of lower skilled British workers. So economics spills over into politics, with protests about globalisation - not least against free trade agreements such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which is already the subject of urban myths.

But we all have to accept that this increasing global inter-connectivity is here to stay and embrace it. Asia is embracing e-commerce. Ten years ago only 2% of Indonesia's population used the internet. This year a third are expected to: that means 100 million Indonesians connected globally, with huge implications for economic growth and social change. Chinese consumers spent a record 10 billion online in just one day last year.

At an individual level, it means that a teenager on a laptop in Hanoi can do business with a company in Huddersfield. At a country level, it has meant a recognition of growing economic inter-dependence and the need to join forces with others.

Like our work with the Republic of Korea - building a new fleet of ships for the Royal Navy, which has led us to work together to promote the project to third countries. Or our plans to bring Typhoon fighter jets to Japan later this year, for the first non-US military exercise Japan has ever hosted.

Cooperation like this not only breaks down barriers between countries inside the grouping or partnership, it also magnifies their individual power and influence outside it.

Advertisement

In the trading context, you can see the proof of this in the EU - which I'll come to in a moment. You can see it in the Commonwealth, where we are expecting to see the value of intra-Commonwealth trade reach $1 trillion by 2020. And you can see it in ASEAN's economic success, and the launch of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). Almost two thirds of ASEAN's growth in the last quarter century has come from productivity gains. Today ASEAN is the fourth largest exporting region in the world, accounting for 7% of global exports.

We support ASEAN's Vision 2025, with its plan to tackle non-tariff barriers, harmonise the regulatory environment and liberalise services. These changes will be crucial for boosting growth in South East Asia and strengthening integration with the rest of the world economy. We also support the Free Trade Agreements that the EU is pursuing with countries in the region - we see these as laying the foundations for an EU-ASEAN FTA.

The UK, the EU and other like-minded economies are gradually building a global free trade network - through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and various EU Free Trade Agreements, with the Republic of Korea, Vietnam and Singapore. (On Monday 7 March I was able to reaffirm our commitment to the EU-Vietnam FTA during our third Annual UK-Vietnam Strategic Dialogue here in London.) An agreement with Japan is in the pipeline; I very much hope to see soon a resumption of negotiations on the EU-Thailand FTA; and the UK is advocating a feasibility study on an EU-China FTA.

The benefits of international cooperation are not just seen in trade. It is a simple truth that in an inter-connected world, problems and threats in the form of Daesh-inspired terrorism, instability in the South China Sea or the North Korean menace require a unified response. Large multilateral organisations like the EU or NATO, ASEAN or the UN are listened to in a way that no individual country is. That is plain fact.

I am pleased that United Nations Security Council Resolution 2270 passed unanimously this week, delivering a strong response from the international community to North Korea's nuclear test and satellite launch using ballistic missile technology. We must stand united against acts that so flagrantly disregard international agreements and responsibilities.

Advertisement

And it makes sense that these groupings come together for discussions. ASEM is a good example - giving the UK and its European and Asian partners a forum to discuss issues of mutual interest and further consolidate their influence.

Change, and increasing global connectivity, are as relevant to us here in Europe as they are for people in Asia.

Like Asia, the European Union has changed a great deal over the last half century. From its roots as a means to prevent further conflict between France and Germany the EU has grown into something different. Whilst with a whole range of new members this is inevitable, it does mean that reform is now clearly needed if the EU is to respond to the changed demands of the 21st Century.

But that aside, it is clear that the Union has brought peace and stability to its member states and to much of the European continent. It has introduced democracy, the rule of law and market economics to the former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. And it acts as a champion for those values globally.

A lot of this is down to the multiplying effect of EU cooperation. Its members have achieved more together than they could have achieved alone. The United Kingdom's membership of the EU, like our membership of NATO, the Commonwealth and the UN, amplifies our power and influence on the world stage.

Advertisement

In Asia, it gives us greater leverage in the negotiations on free trade agreements and on the comprehensive investment agreement with China. These are tough negotiations, and our negotiating power to secure market opening in important sectors is much greater from within the EU than outside it.

At a time of increasing economic uncertainty and rising security threats, cooperation at an international level is more important than ever. The EU has powerful tools at its disposal, be they security, diplomatic, economic or humanitarian. They allow us to project our influence further than it would otherwise reach. Of course NATO remains the cornerstone of UK defence - we will never give control over such decisions to the EU. But the EU complements NATO's military activities with its important longer-term stabilisation and development arms.

Of course the benefits also go the other way. The UK gives EU foreign policy greater credibility thanks to our global perspective. We are after all one of the EU's two serious military powers. We are the only major nation to have kept our promise to spend 2% of our national output on defence and 0.7% of our national income on international development. We take the lead on cutting red tape, negotiating FTAs and extending the single market. So our membership of the EU benefits both the UK and the EU.

For all these reasons, I believe that the United Kingdom will be stronger, safer and better off in a reformed EU. Looking at the issue from an Asia perspective, it makes no sense at all for us to withdraw from the European Single Market just at the moment when Asia is creating one of its own.

Some say the whole renegotiation and referendum exercise is an unnecessary gamble. If we were convinced of the case for staying in, why take the risk of Brexit by putting it to a referendum? I have two simple answers to these questions.

Advertisement

First, like many, I am aware that the EU has its shortcomings. But I believe that the deal which the Prime Minister successfully negotiated is a landmark agreement which delivers tangible benefits for the UK in the four key areas of concern: economic governance, competitiveness, sovereignty and welfare/migration. The deal gives the UK special status within the EU that no arrangement outside the EU could match. It is a good deal for Britain - as the Prime Minister has said, it is a deal that gives us "the best of both worlds".

The deal he secured on competitiveness is of particular relevance to you here this evening. It is a tacit recognition by the EU of the need to reform in order to respond to the economic challenge Asia represents. The rise of Asia underlines the case for the UK to stay in the EU and to influence reform from within.

Secondly, this referendum is about democracy. More than a generation of new voters have joined the British electorate since our accession in 1973. I am one of them. In last year's election, this Government was given a clear mandate to renegotiate the terms of our EU membership and to let the electorate - not the politicians - decide whether to stay in or to leave. In setting a date for the referendum on 23 June we are honouring our electoral commitment.
Detail from the Gundestrup Cauldron, Image courtesy of the National Museum of Denmark

Celts could be weird and scary. They were mad for the drink and when they had it, you had to watch out for them: they saw things and became aggressive. They were radge fighters, absolutely mental, they dressed up to go into battle and they played great big war horns so loudly they would scare the living daylights out of you. And they liked bling, loved it actually: gold, bronze, iron, glass, precious stones. They wore chunky jewellery decorated with abstract patterns and symbols. They were skilled at metalwork, leatherwork, pottery and weaving and if something precious was broken, they would mend it - a bronze flagon with a broken handle would get a different handle, or a hole would be fixed with a decorated patch, and made as good as new - better in fact. Oh and they loved parties and feasting; the women were great hosts and they were buried with their special pots and flagons, probably so they could use them for a big after-party on the other side.

Advertisement

The treasures assembled in the monumental exhibition of Celtic art which opened at the National Museum of Scotland this week (March 10) painted, for me, a tremendously vivid picture of the peoples who left these precious things behind, buried in graves, hidden in hordes, stuck in the mud of tidal waterways.

The Glauberg Statue, Image courtesy of the Keltenwelt am Glauberg

There are pieces from all over Europe here: a marble statue of a naked, hairy Celt from Rome; a life size representation of a grave and well-dressed Celtic warrior from Germany; the complex twisted kilo of gold that is the Snettisham Great Torc; the delicate double helixes of the Blair Drummond torcs. So many important objects: weapons, jewellery, drinking vessels, engraved stones and statues.

Advertisement

The Blair Drummond Torcs. Image courtesy of the National Museum of Scotland.

The written text of the exhibition - "Celts: Art and Identity" - is careful and academic and almost undercuts the power of the objects with its non-committal scholarship. Who were the Celts? Not sure. Did they even exist? A moot point. What was their importance? A source of cod identity for modern-day nationalists, mainly. What did their writing say? We don't know. It concludes that the most we can safely say about the Celts is that they are identified with a particular style of art, richly symbolic, decorative, animist, and that the term loosely describes a non-Greek and non-Roman way of being in the ancient world.

History is famously written by the victors and their heirs. Edward Gibbon wrote in his "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" that the Romans did not remain in Scotland long because "they found little to detain them." To the Romans, the tribes of the north were mere barbarians, and Gibbon agreed.

It was the 16th century Scottish historian and philosopher George Buchanan who rediscovered the term Celts, which appears in Roman writings as a word that native tribes called themselves. In the 'Rerum Scoticarum Historia' published in 1582, Buchanan drew on place names and classical writings to make the claim that the Scots and Irish were descended from the Celts, a tribe originating in France around Lyons who then travelled through Spain and along the Atlantic coast to Scotland and Ireland.

In later times this gave rise to a division between "Celtomaniacs' and 'Celtosceptics', divided on the interpretations of history, a debate that it still raging today.

But whichever position the viewer takes, the sheer magic of the extraordinary things which are in many cases so unimaginably old is hard to resist. Seeing them all together at once is a rare opportunity.

Advertisement

Here is the massive silver cauldron discovered in Denmark in 1891, the Gundestrup cauldron dating from 150 to 50 BC, brought from its usual pride of place in Copenhagen's Nationalmuseet. It is engraved with images of what appear to be jumping female warriors and is an iconic piece of Celtic art.

It is not much of a surprise to find that, according to the exhibition, which was put together by the British Museum and the National Museum of Scotland, modern scholarship agrees that it is almost certainly not Celtic. Probably manufactured in in either Romania or Bulgaria, it is made out of silver which would have been an unusual choice for an Iron Age Celtic object and it is more likely Thracian. (The Thracians were loosely allied to the Trojans and are mentioned in Greek writings). How it got to Denmark is unknown.

Even within the British Isles, provenance and influence are disputed. The Roman invasion created fault lines. Beyond the pale, the Celts flourished but the rest of the country was Romanised to various degrees. But, even for a Roman legion, living in southern Britain was very different from living in Rome and the Roman-commissioned art made in England shows various degrees of Celtic design. The things left behind show that it was a melting pot of shifting influences. Roman mirrors of polished silver bear Celtic symbols; Roman-style finger rings were made in Ireland and Scotland with local motifs and styles.

The exhibition demonstrates that then, as now, people moved fairly freely around Europe and that influences blended and shifted. It is not always easy to say where one group ends and another begins.

In the absence of a written record left by the Celts themselves, their history is opaque. There is an absence of fact or certainty about how they saw themselves or how their society worked, and as far as text goes, we are left with the impression they made on others.

Advertisement

But the opportunity to see in person so many of the awesome objects they created must lead to a richer and deeper understanding of the art and culture of the inhabitants of non-Classical ancient world, those we call the Celts.
The European Parliament makes much of International Women's Day to preach to the world that women would still be chained to the kitchen sink were it not for a series of legislative reports and directives to ensure 'gender mainstreaming' and gender equality workshops.

But an issue which has enraged women across the country, regardless of political ideology or social background is the tampon tax.

EU VAT rules mean that despite the products being essential for women, Westminster cannot make them 'zero rated'. This was confirmed in a reply to my colleague, fellow MEP Louise Bours, when they said:

Advertisement

'Introducing zero VAT rates for sanitary items would not be in line with the VAT Directive.'

MPs in Westminster held a debate on the subject, with the cringe-making debate being to 'force a negotiation' with the 27 other countries in the EU to stop this blatant discrimination against women.

Because it is discrimination.

I recently, in my position as MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, submitted a request to the European Parliament that us MEPs put our time to good use and take a break from voting on how to deal with particularly flatulent species of cow to call for an end to this gender discrimination.

There is even a clause in the VAT Directive which I believe the tampon tax contravenes (although I will admit to having to search through the lengthy tome rather than know it off the top of my head). It clearly states that men and women should not be discriminated against in the access and the supply of goods and services. Well aside from being rather good for lighting camp fires, it's women who need to purchase tampons and not men. It is clearly gender discrimination based on the functioning of a woman's body.

But my colleagues from across the EU refused the debate, no doubt shelving the debate in the run up to the UK referendum for fear of highlighting Brussels' role in the hated tax.

Advertisement

The committee of senior MEPs and civil servants refused to allow it to be discussed despite regularly calling for legislation on equality for women.

I can only imagine they are clearly terrified that if British women realise the fact they pay tax on essential items like tampons is because of an EU directive it will encourage more of them to vote to leave.

According to opinion polls women are more likely to be risk averse and vote to remain in the EU for fear of 'a leap in the dark'.

It's another example of say one thing, do another; just like they spend years calling for equality for women in the workplace by imposing patronising quotas, then allow thousands of migrants who have no respect for women to enter the EU and wander freely, harassing and sadly sometimes raping women.

If politicians, be it in Strasbourg or Westminster really cared, they'd be cracking down on doctors who perform female genital mutilation in the UK or spending foreign aid on projects we could all get behind like proper gynaecological care in the developing world instead of propping up brutal dictators.

Advertisement

But instead International Women's Day is a combination of a Public Relations exercise and a chance to patronise women. All female guests in the hotel I am in were given a rose today to celebrate: a touching gesture but patronising. Perhaps very grand hotels provide their favoured female clients with a basket of kittens.

It also implicitly implies that if we women have a day, that the rest of the year is all about men.

I don't believe in this strident feminism where we can't call ourselves Miss or are letting the sisterhood down by wearing heels to the office. I believe in equality rather than one sex being better than the other.
Going to the hospital for a fairly routine examination, and coming out of it knowing that you have cancer is a very strange feeling.

Tuesday 4 November 2014 was the worst day of my life so far. I had been bleeding in between periods and after sex for a few weeks prior to this, and after looking up these symptoms on Google, which was not a good idea, I went to see the nurse at my GP surgery. She immediately could see that something fishy was going on down there, and referred me to the local hospital. Here I would have a colposcopy, which means a little camera going up your vagina. Yep, there was the tumour. Attached to my cervix in all its glory. I was asked to come back in a fortnight, to find out the staging and plan of action.

Advertisement

I left the room, where my friend Helen was waiting for me. She is one of the best people on this earth, and held me whilst I sobbed on her shoulder and left mascara stains on her nice winter coat. We went back to my flat, where I phoned my manager and friend Big Claire (we're the tallest girls in the office by a good few inches), to say I probably wouldn't be coming in to work tomorrow as you know, just gotten cancer and all. Calling my Mum and Dad to tell them that their only child, who they managed to have after 19 years of trying for a baby, has cancer, was not nice.

The next two weeks were awful. Waiting to be told how likely it is that you might die is paralysing, and I would flit between rushes of adrenaline and spending countless hours staring at the wall, or wailing into a pillow. Being a strong mixture of dramatic and fatalistic, I obviously presumed everyone would next be gathering at my funeral, rather than birthday party. I was scared, but the thing I felt more than fear was anger. How dare this be happening to me? I'm only 24. Cancer, if you kill me I will be so, so furious at you. I'm not done yet.

I found out that the tumour was a stage 1b, which as far as tumours go, is pretty good. I had to have an EUA (examination under anaesthetic) where cameras were inserted up my bottom, front bottom and right up my lady pie, to check no other naughty lumps were welded to my rectum, bladder or womb. When my doctor, Mr Ind, told me that everywhere else was all clear, it was like being told I didn't have cancer at all. This meant I could have a radical trachelectomy, which removes the cervix, surrounding tissue and top part of the vagina. Bring it on.

My operation was on Tuesday 9 December 2014. Apparently I love having big events on a Tuesday. Mr Ind had gone through the possible risks and side effects with me, which included an emergency blood transfusion, permanent bladder damage and a kidney infection. None of this bothered me. All I could thing about as I closed my eyes, was the possibility of waking up with lymphoedema. Lymphoedema is a long-term condition that causes swelling in the body's tissues, most commonly the legs. I was not okay with waking up to a pair of fat ankles. I've got cancer in my cervix, not my feet. Thank you very much.

Advertisement

You'll be pleased to hear that my ankles and I survived the ordeal; the operation was a success. Now, I have regular check-ups and when I get to the 'five years all clear' mark, my chances of recurrence will be next to nothing. I am writing articles, blog posts, giving talks and doing stand-up comedy about my cervical cancer extravaganza. A noise needs to be made, and I want it to be as loud as possible. Cervical screening, aka smear tests, begin at 25 years old in England and not enough women are attending their appointments. Or, ladies avoid going to see their doctor if there's a problem 'downstairs' because they think it will eventually go away, or it's just too embarrassing. Looking after our gynaecological health is crucial. Yes, cancer and vaginas are two awkward subjects, but I don't want them to be. Let's talk about them, laugh about them and raise awareness about them.

I wouldn't change what has happened to me, because as odd as it is to say, so many good things have come out of it. If I can make a difference, then I will die with a smile on my face. But that will be in my sleep when I am 101, and not from this cruel disease. Cancer, you were barking up the wrong chuff.
Serving in the Armed Forces is one of the most honourable positions to hold. Thousands of brave men and women risk their lives on the front line to keep our country safe. They work to protect people living in the face of conflict. They deserve our constant support and eternal gratitude.

Every five years, Parliament must pass an Armed Forces Bill to renew military law and to ensure that a standing army is kept in peacetime. The Armed Forces Bill 2015 has completed its initial stages in the House of Commons and is currently going through the Lords. Throughout, it has received cross-party backing with everyone acknowledging the need for our Armed Forces; and recognising and appreciating the vital work they do.

The Bill gives parliamentarians a chance to try and improve the lives of our military, with amendments being proposed in the Lords ranging from reporting sexual assault to the quality of catering.

Advertisement

Those joining our Armed Forces are often called upon to put their life on the line. Tragically, we often hear about the injuries and illnesses they suffer as a consequence of their service, often with long-lasting implications not just for the individual themselves but their families too.

Mental illness can be just as debilitating as physical injuries. We know that many veterans of conflicts face post-traumatic stress disorder, and other mental health conditions. Despite the work of the Royal British Legion and other veterans' welfare organisations, many ex- service personnel find it hard to adjust to civilian life. Most eventually find their feet, but some suffer from anxiety, depression, phobias or a range of other conditions. Studies from the King's Centre for Military Health Research have found that domestic violence and harmful drinking is more likely among those veterans experiencing mental health problems. It can be a hard landing after a life in uniform.

Despite the mental health of soldiers and veterans receiving greater attention in recent years, there is a wide disparity between the support offered for physical problems and that for mental health problems. Under the current scheme, mental ill health doesn't hold a high enough classification to warrant the upper award of compensation- despite its potentially limiting impact on day-to-day life. Labour is calling on Ministers to put this right.

This is an important test-case for the Government's intent on mental health. After pressure from Labour during the passage of the 2012 Health and Social Care Act, the Government is now committed to what is called 'parity of esteem' between physical and mental health. If they want to put their words into action, let them start with fair compensation for our service personnel.

Advertisement

Parliamentarians from across the political spectrum are supporting our amendment to The Armed Forces Bill 2015, as they recognise how serious this problem is. At the Lords Committee stage of the Bill, the Defence Minister Earl Howe defended the status quo. He claimed that support for members of the Armed Forces suffering from mental ill health is already in place, and that the financial compensation is sufficient.

We disagree. Members of our Armed Forces who experience mental health problems as a result of serving their country should get the same compensation as their counterparts suffering from physical injury and illness. We will continue to call on the government to recognise this, act on it and give all our veterans the support they need.

Lord Don Touhig is Shadow Defence Minister in the House of Lords
I met a friend in London recently for a few drinks and a chat about what he has been up to recently. He is a professional working in sales and said that for the past few months he has not even been able to come up for air because the pressure to succeed at work was so great.

I heard a similar story when I met another friend for lunch and heard that he was facing extreme peer pressure at work to put in more hours. Being a creative type in a central London communications company clearly doesn't mean that life is one long swirl of gin and tonics. He told me that a typical day is 8am to 6pm, but even these daily ten-hour stints are considered part-time.

Then today I read how Amazon is using shock videos on big screens in their warehouses to show current employees how their surveillance systems trapped former employees attempting to steal stock from the company. As a retailer with an enormous amount of valuable stock there is a justifiable concern about theft, but to my mind this shock approach steps over a line where there is supposed to be some goodwill shared between the employer and the employed.

Advertisement

The BBC News website quoted Matthew Gwyther, editor of Management Today, saying: "What sort of an organisation has got to the point that it thinks this is a satisfactory or commendable way to be behaving? It reminds me of Ben Hur with them standing over the rowers with a whip."

Gwyther's comment made me smile. That's exactly how it feels to be working in a modern corporate environment. I know that I'm lucky. As a professional writer I don't have to commute to work each day, I don't need to deal with office politics, and I don't have to impress a boss I don't like. I do need to maintain good relationships with my clients though, so although I have much more flexibility than someone in a corporate role, I still need to work, but by removing myself from the enterprise I can be judged solely on what I deliver and not how many hours I spend grafting in the office.

This is what I find strange. Both the friends I spoke to are intelligent professionals in senior jobs where they can directly affect the success of their company. It makes no sense to grind them down so much that they resent their boss, or the company. If they are feeling good, creative, and happy, then they are going to earn the business more cash than if they are resenting the fact that their colleagues expect them to be in the office on a Friday evening.

The team packing Amazon parcels cannot have the same direct impact on the success of Amazon, but nevertheless I'm sure that some flexibility and friendliness from the management would go a long way to making them work more efficiently - and to be less inclined to steal. You don't steal from an employer you respect.

Advertisement

When I studied for my MBA I remember exploring the psychology of trust between different companies and between employers and the employed. In almost all cases it was possible to identify a real cash value to the business if the connections have established greater trust, but anecdotally it seems that we are moving away from these ideas of building better companies that nurture their employees and hurtling towards dog-eat-dog as the only way of doing business.

A friend closer to my home in Sao Paulo recently explained how her boss wanted her to take a training course. It was an important course if she wants to get positioned for a future promotion, but it also meant giving up a month of Saturdays to attend a training course. I said that if it were important to the company then why would they not schedule the training during the normal working week? She replied that the company sees the training as valuable to her career - she could just leave for a new job once qualified.

Contrast this with a former job of mine in a French bank where they insisted on providing training that would directly impact our job, but we could also choose more general career training - like foreign language courses. Talking to my friends about corporate life today, this kind of investment in developing staff sounds like it is from another world, not just a few years ago.
Reflecting on the above documentary (which was probably the last time that the public will see it in its current form) I felt like I wanted to blog about it because mental health is a subject close to my heart.

People think that Broadmoor is a prison. It's not. It's a maximum high security hospital somewhat 40 miles from London located in a forest which was founded in 1863. It has 284 beds and 15 wards some of which are assertive, which gives the patient more freedom. The lives of people in society continue nearby. Old Victorian buildings have witnessed the troubled lives of hundered's of people in its 150 year history which has been a secretive and mysterious institution. It was first built as a lunatic asylum for the criminally insane which is now an NHS hospital.

Entry to Broadmoor takes time and strict protocol. It houses 210 patients behind its walls whom have serious mental disorders. New construction to transform the building took place in 2014 which was a 242 million pound project. Prior to this there were talks of turning it into a hotel.

Advertisement

800 staff work there, some of which these days they deny doing so. Everything has to be confidential.

Broadmoor is an institution which houses some of the most dangerous killers ever known. The Yorkshire ripper Peter Sutcliffe is just one of them. Patients may have background history of violence, child adversity, alcohol and substance misuse, their childhoods haven't been good, they may have been abused and run away, but some of the patient's say that it's the most stable place they have been in years and its home for some of them.

The most mentally ill patients are on an intensive care ward which takes about 6 staff just to open one person's room. There are different wards, one of which is the 'Chepstow Ward' and this is medium dependency. All wards are different and patients are put on them depending on where they need to be. There are weekly ward meetings. The 'Cranfield Ward' is for violent people. Some are high dependency wards for people that self harm and they're under 24 / 7 observation. There are seclusion areas too. The 'RSU' (Regional Secure Unit) is a way out of Broadmoor. It's not a dumping ground for society's most notorious criminals with a final destination of no hope to being released. There is hope as each ward is a staging post to ones recovery.

It takes about 10 locked doors to move a patient from one ward to another ward. Strict routine and stability is very important as is consistent interaction with others. The rooms are air locked with fingerprint identification. The cornerstone of treatment can be psychological therapies which are available. Medication can control behaviour and therapy can change it. There are other groups too like violent offenders groups for example to name a few. Some like to participate in doing art work and poetry.

Advertisement

The patient's can be vulnerable, anti social, segregated and paranoid. Some suffer visual and / or auditory hallucinations. They may have psychotic disorders and their reality is somewhat different to others. Some present a grave and immediate risk to the public and the crimes they have committed include arson, torture, rape and murder.

Patients can be sectioned under the mental health act against their will, for example a section 12 has to be carried out by an approved Psychiatrist.

It costs a massive 300,000.000 per year to keep just one patient in Broadmoor which equates to about 822.00 a day! This is five times more than the cost of someone in prison.

It's known as a ghost town. There are certain times and configurations in which patients can move and searches have to be done before they do so to check for weapons to disarm patients. They will use anything they can get their hands on to self harm like cutlery and even those types of items have to be accounted for. Incompatible patients don't collide so it's best they are kept away from one another to eliminate conflict. As well as this camera's record their movement in a control room.

Everyone is born with certain temperaments with certain predispositions to certain behaviours. Violence issues are rife in Broadmoor and planned intervention is needed. EG: Some patients are allowed out into the yard for 'X' amount of time. If they decline to return to their room (even if they may have been given an extra half an hour) then a restraint procedure maybe carried out which can take 8 members of staff to control the patient. They may have to go as far as getting the patient on the floor to get them into their room. One may hold their legs, another their head, the arms and so on. Once on the bed feet furthest away from the door the staff can let go on exit one by one using safe procedure. After this staff will tend to take time out to re-appraise after using force.

Advertisement

It sounds like patients are locked up like caged tigers and let out one by one but Broadmoor serves its purpose. There's approximately 5 physical assaults per week on staff which include punching, kicking, throwing hot liquids, urine and faeces warranting the hospital pursuing criminal charges.

Staff teams are deployed about 30 times a year. They enforce medication to dealing with full scale riots which need specialised training and equipment for.

Patients may believe that they aren't unwell and refuse to take medication, some which can cause weight gain and sedation. Anti psychotics are some and some patients are described as looking starry eyed when on them.

Patients may have internal anguish which can torment them and be debilitating, some can't communicate properly which is frustrating and they feel isolated, discomfort, depressed, distressed which can cause a lack of co-operation. As a result they will spend more time in Broadmoor. They are allowed to go to work within the hospital (they make goods for the public) and can also purchase goods from a shop. They earn less than a pound an hour. No tobacco is allowed.

When patients are due to leave Broadmoor a mental health tribunal will take place to consider conditional discharge hopefully not resulting in a recall. The average time to be in Broadmoor is 8 years but some have been in for 30 years.

Advertisement

There is no release date for patients. "There's time, then there's Broadmoor time"

Find me here:

Facebook: Sharon Sutton

Facebook: Me, Bipolar & I

Twitter: mebipolarandi

Web: www.mebipolarandi.com

The Mighty: Sharon Sutton

Huffington Post: Sharon Sutton
A Bittn - Photograph by Andrew Nguyen via Getty Images People crossing in George Crossing in Town Hall Sydney

As four people are being treated in hospital for Legionnaire's Disease, NSW Health is testing air conditioning units around Sydney Town Hall -- where all men are believed to have been.

There are concerns more people have become infected with the rare but potentially deadly disease but what exactly is it and how does it spread via air conditioners?

Advertisement

Here's everything you need to know about Legionnaire's Disease.

What is Legionnaires' Disease?

It's a severe form of pneumonia caused by bacteria called Legionella. The bacteria can be inhaled in water droplets and infect one type of cell in the lungs causing infection and in rare, extreme cases, death.

When was it first discovered?

The bacteria was discovered in 1947 but the first big outbreak of 182 cases happened at an American Legion Convention in Philadelphia in 1976, thus becoming known as 'legionnaire's disease'.

Legionella bacteria under the microscope.

What's it got to do with air conditioners?

NSW Health communicable diseases director Dr Vicky Sheppeard said the bacteria needed water to thrive.

Advertisement

The bacteria that cause Legionnaires disease live in water and can multiply in the water used to cool air conditioning systems, so infection is prevented by routinely maintaining and treating these systems," Sheppeard said.

People outside can be exposed to the bacteria when a water cooling system emits contaminated water particles into the air.

How do I know if I have it?

Sheppeard said symptoms included fever, chills, a cough and shortness of breath. As the disease progressed, gastrointestinal problems were likely to occur and in late stages, caused organ failure.

Should people avoid Sydney Town Hall?

NSW Health is not advising people avoid the area.

What's the worst outbreak in Australia?

Is there a cure?

There are several effective treatments and Dr James Vince of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research this week published the results of a new breakthrough in treatment.

He told The Huffington Post Australia the bacteria only infected one type of cell -- the macrophage which, ironically, usually sought out infection.

Advertisement

"There are good treatments out there," Vince told HuffPost Australia.

"There are standard antibiotics that are used against the bacteria, but one of the things our research looked at is the fact that the bacteria is often quite resistant to standard antibiotic therapy because the antibiotic has trouble infiltrating the cell wall of the macrophage.

"Instead of targeting the bacteria or pathogen, we looked at targeting proteins in the host that causes those targeted cells to die."
I grew up surrounded and supported by strong, intelligent and compassionate women. They encouraged me to think for myself and to voice my opinion. And to speak up for those who need to be heard.

I've been lucky enough to travel to some incredible places and meet many incredible women along the way... in places like Ethiopia, Mauritania, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Syria. Many struggle for a voice and the rights they deserve. It's a world far from what many of us know. Yet they continue to inspire and fight on for their daughters and for women of the future.
In a p-YUGE-ilistic development, a Donald Trump supporter punched a protester. Reporters are learning that campaign staff can do far worse things than not hand out WiFi passwords. And the final GOP debate before Tuesday's primaries is tonight. It will probably be the last chance for establishment types to positively grade their candidates' performances on Twitter and lie to themselves that everything will be okay. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Thursday, March 10th, 2016:



A big hunky slice of eh.

TRUMP SUPPORTERS GETTING WAYYYY TOO STREET JUSTICE-Y - Their patron saint is basically drunk Dog the Bounty Hunter. Laura Barron-Lopez: "Video surfaced Thursday of a Donald Trump supporter punching a protester in the face at the Republican presidential front-runner's rally in North Carolina on Wednesday. The footage shows a white man in a cowboy hat walk down the row to the aisle where protesters are leaving and sucker-punch an African-American man, later identified as Rakeem Jones. WRAL reports that the suspect, John McGraw, 78, was charged with assault and battery on Thursday  Inside Edition tracked down McGraw after the rally and asked him if he liked the rally. 'You bet I liked it. Knocking the hell out of that big mouth,' McGraw said. Asked why he punched the protester, McGraw told Inside Edition, 'Number one, we dont know if hes ISIS.' 'We dont know who he is, but we know hes not acting like an American,' McGraw went on. 'The next time we see him, we might have to kill him.'" [HuffPost]

Advertisement

Newt Gingrich tells HuffPost's Candidate Confessional podcast how Mitt Romney's Super PAC destroyed the Gingrich campaign in Florida.

TRUMP MAKING NICE WITH MEGADONORS - Most vile person in politics? Meet most vile development in campaign finance. Ken Vogel: "The GOPs biggest donors are mostly united in their distaste for the partys presidential front-runner Donald Trump, but they increasingly are coming to grips with the prospect of his nomination, and many are now signaling they would support him in a general election. The shift, detailed in interviews with a dozen major donors and their representatives, is less an indication that the partys donor class is warming to Trump, and more a reflection of their disdain for Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton. Their willingness to rally in opposition to Clinton should tamp down concerns on the right that the lingering unease with Trump would mean a free pass for Clinton from big-money attacks in a prospective general election matchup with Trump. 'If it were Trump vs. Hillary, I would have to give to Trump. And I would kind of hold my nose doing it, but I would have to do it, said Minnesota billionaire Stan Hubbard, adding that hed prefer that the GOP nominate either Ohio Gov. John Kasich or Texas Sen. Ted Cruz." [Politico]





Stop it, bro: Paul Ryan sent a cease and desist letter to the people behind the Draft Ryan movement.

Advertisement

MEET GARY JOHNSON, POSSIBLE TRUMP SPOILER - Eliot spoke with the Libertarian presidential candidate: "Johnson wasn't just presenting himself as someone who can appeal to a conservative electorate cast adrift by Donald Trump, but as someone who can be the Libertarian Donald Trump by matching the front-runner's boisterous, media-savvy brand of politics. The greatest free market president. A really fabulous disciple of the Austrian School. Just the best. Ayn Rand. John Galt. It's gonna be beautiful. In case his point wasnt clear enough, consider the Libertarian debate where he called Trump a 'pussy.'...he'll have to polish his presentation a bit. During a discussion about the late Antonin Scalia's Supreme Court seat, Johnson -- who believes the Senate should consider President Barack Obama's nominee -- conceded he couldn't name the remaining eight sitting Supreme Court justices. Asked about his plan to reform Social Security, he suggested three proposals, but could only articulate two: raising the retirement age and creating personal investment accounts. 'Gosh there's one other one, what is it?' Johnson mused before trailing off. The final proposal -- means testing for Social Security recipients -- came to Johnson several minutes later." [HuffPost]

DELANEY DOWNER - Poor people who want welfare in West Virginia may soon be subject to drug testing. The state legislature this week approved a measure that would screen welfare applicants for drug use and then require urine samples from anyone whose screening results raised suspicions. (This kind of screening process typically happens via a written questionnaire, although the West Virginia bill doesn't specify the point.) If Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin (D) signs the bill into law, West Virginia will join 13 other states that have passed welfare drug testing bills in the past five years,according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. "Our concentration has been more on helping people get the services they need if they're addicted to drugs," Tomblin said Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. "At the same time, we'll just look at this bill when it comes down here." [HuffPost]

DOUBLE DOWNER It's unclear what's going on with the Flint water infrastructure bill, other than nothing. John Cornyn said it could get a vote next week, but Bill Nelson seems pretty committed to his hold. Sorry, Flint. Sad!

Advertisement

Does somebody keep forwarding you this newsletter? Get your own copy. It's free! Sign up here. Send tips/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to huffposthill@huffingtonpost.com. Follow us on Twitter - @HuffPostHill

OBAMA APPROVALS HIT THREE-YEAR HIGH - Will undoubtedly provide the lame duck president the political capital he needs with the Republican Congress to name some post offices. Natalie Jackson: "President Barack Obama is enjoying some of the highest ratings of his second term in office. A new Gallup poll out on Thursday shows that 50 percent of Americans surveyed approve of the job he's doing in office -- his highest rating in that poll since early 2013. The higher Gallup ratings are reflected in HuffPost Pollster's average of Obama's job approval ratings. The Pollster average shows that 48.4 percent of Americans approve of the job hes doing in office, while 48.2 percent give him negative ratings. The margin is narrow -- thats only 0.2 percent net positive -- but its the first time Obamas job approval ratings have reached positive territory in the HuffPost Pollster average since his re-election honeymoon period ended in the spring of 2013. The HuffPost Pollster chart average is configured to not give any one poll much weight, meaning that the average changes slowly." [HuffPost]

SENATE ACTUALLY DOES SOMETHING ABOUT OPIOIDS Laura Barron-Lopez, Ryan Grim and Jason Cherkis:"After an uncertain and at times rancorous debate, the U.S. Senate on Thursday did the unthinkable: passed a major piece of legislation by a nearly unanimous vote. The sweeping bill, targeted at the opioid epidemic, aims to bend drug policy away from punishment and toward a public health approach. Along the way, the bill's authors beat back an effort to inject hundreds of millions of dollars into enforcement-centered approaches...The bill -- approved in a 94-1 vote -- known as the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) of 2015, was sponsored by Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a product of nearly three years of work across the aisle...this new bill shifts the emphasis of the treatment industry away from what's known as "abstinence" and toward medication-assisted treatment. The latter strategy is proven to be a more effective means of helping those with a substance abuse problem, but is stigmatized by a dogmatic treatment community that often opposes any intervention by prescription medications. " [HuffPost]

SENATE MIGHT ACTUALLY CONFIRM A GUY  AND A GAY GUY, AT THAT! But maybe we should wait until 2017 so the American people can vote on our gay secretaries of the Army. Jen Bendery: "A Senate committee voted unanimously Thursday to confirm Eric Fanning as the next Secretary of the Army. His nomination now heads to the full Senate, where, if he's confirmed, he'll become the first openly gay person to hold the top military post. Fanning, who was nominated last September, has served in several senior positions at the Defense Department, and had been filling in as acting Army Secretary since November, when then-Secretary John McHugh stepped down. He pulled out of his acting role in January, though, as some on the Senate Armed Services Committee didn't like that he was serving in that capacity while waiting to be confirmed. It's a sign of progress that his nomination is moving at all given that he's been waiting for six months for a vote, and given Republicans' overall blockade of President Barack Obama's nominees. But he's still got another hurdle to clear: Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kansas), who has placed a 'hold' on his nomination to protest the president's plans to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay." [HuffPost]

OH, JEB! - We never thought of Jeb! as a "force people to get a haircut" kind of guy. Sophie Weiner: "Devon remembered a night when she had to break it to the ex-Republican presidential candidate that she couldnt get him a milkshake. The pastry chefs are busy making dessert for everyone, so there are rules about when you can order milkshakes, she said. 'One night, Jeb Bush is there, and he flags me down and asks for a milkshake. I give him my spiel about why you cant get a milkshake before 8 pm. Hes like, No, I really want a milkshake. Im like, Im sorry, sir, I cant get you one. So he asks to speak to my manager. Like his presidential campaign, Bushs milkshake confrontation would end in defeat. ;So I find a manager and tell him whats going on. He goes back over to the table and tells him basically the same thing I did. Jeb Bush gets kind of angry. He says something like, Do you know who I am?! My manager bends down and says, Yes, sir, I know who you are. But the milkshake rule still applies to you.'" [Gawker]

BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Here's a dog chasing a dolphin.

COMFORT FOOD

- Lawnmower dog just doin' chores.

- Move over, Pizza Rat. Kleenex rat is the new hotness.

- Weezer's very weird new video.

TWITTERAMA

@dceiver: Uber, but for marshaling the forces of darkness to eternally hound Corey Lewandowski until he dies weeping and alone



@mcalderone: The Clinton rope mess, led by advance staffers, seemed to get more attention than GOP frontrunners top aide accused of grabbing reporter.

Advertisement

@DanaSchwartzzz: It's incredible that there's a head of state named "Barack" but equally amazing there's one named "Justin"
This post, Abdullah Al-Saud's first time writing for a U.S. audience as Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to the United States, is appearing on the Huffington Post's contributor platform in conjunction with a news story examining the Saudi Arabian government's effort to respond to growing criticism in the U.S. Read the accompanying story here. A response to this post, written by the surviving family members of three 9/11 victims, is published here.

Extremism, especially violent extremism, is a scourge on the planet. Those who promote extremist ideologies or sponsor acts of violence in the name of Islam cannot be condoned or supported by anyone of true faith. In Saudi Arabia, extremists have attempted to hijack our religion, have murdered many of our people and used terrorism to intimidate our nation. There are two things that Saudi Arabia and its people hold most dear, and will never allow to be threatened - our faith and our security.

Saudi Arabia has been falsely accused by some commentators of promoting extremism. Don't they realize that extremists are as much or more of a threat to Saudi Arabia than to any other part of the world? If critics took the time to look at the facts, they would see that Saudi Arabia has and will continue to lead all nations in combating the mindset that foments violent extremism. Because as the home of Islam's two holiest mosques, we have both the responsibility and the authority to prevent Islam from being perverted by evildoers.

Advertisement

Every part of Saudi society has united to confront extremism. Our religious scholars, including the Mufti and members of the Board of Senior Scholars, have loudly and repeatedly condemned extremism and terrorism and have worked to guide those who could be deluded by extremist ideologies away from that misguided path. Mosques are being protected from becoming platforms for inciting extremism or collecting money that could be diverted into the wrong hands. Our educational systems and curriculum continue to go through major reforms, including teacher training to ensure that our children receive the best religious education. Teachers who fail to meet strict guidelines are removed. The government has also invested in massive public education programs to educate people on the dangers of extremism. These programs have included, but are not limited to, advertising, social media, events, and television programs.

Saudi Arabia is waging a "war of ideas" to prevent the terrorist mindset from taking root among vulnerable populations in our country and around the world, such as the young and the potentially disenfranchised. These efforts include everything from direct outreach to the Islamic world at large to rehabilitation programs that instill the concepts of moderation and tolerance, and undermine any intellectual or religious rationalization for extremism and terrorism. Saudi Arabia has taken direct, focused steps to neutralize sources of extremism. The Ministry of Interior - drawing on the expertise of an array of social scientists, psychiatrists, psychologists, and others - has created strategies tailored to neutralizing radicalism. In addition, the Ministry has been working in conjunction with King Fahd Security College, and Naif Arab University for Security Sciences; as well as other universities and research centers to develop and refine training for public security professionals.

Advertisement

Some point to our faith, calling us "Wahhabis" (meaning Saudis), as a convenient group to blame for the global problem of extremism. But the fact is there is no group of people called "Wahhabis." You will not find a "Wahhabi" anywhere in Saudi Arabia. There is no book of "Wahhabism" or any meeting of "Wahhabists." It does not exist. "Wahhabism" is an invented term that has become a slur against the Saudi people. The historical reality comes from an 18th century Islamic scholar named Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab. He believed and preached that Muslims should adhere to the original sources of their religion, The Holy Qur'an and Sunnah (teachings and attributes of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him). Over the centuries, Abd al-Wahhab's approach became part of one of the major schools of Islamic thought called the Hanbali School. Hanbali is an orthodox and conservative philosophy. But violent or extremist? Absolutely not.

Today, we often hear claims that the "Wahhabis" are exporting extremism and fueling radicalism in religious schools and "madrasahs." Setting aside the prejudicial overtones of such statements, the very idea is absurd. Saudi Arabia has never had expansionist ambitions. And it is illogical for the Kingdom to promote the very mindset that has threatened Saudi Arabia with deadly attacks against our homes and mosques.

We believe that spiritual leaders from every corner of the globe, no matter what religion, must be engaged in the "war of ideas" against terrorism, and Saudi Arabia has taken it upon itself to facilitate that.

In early 2008, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz launched the interfaith dialogue as a way to underscore the commonalities among the world's religions. To initiate this endeavor, King Abdullah convened a meeting on June 4, 2008 of more than 500 Muslim scholars from around the world. The conference highlighted the importance of dialogue and emphasized the need for the faiths and cultures of the world to combat extremism and intolerance. This was followed by the World Conference on Dialogue in Spain on July 16, 2008. The conference, hosted by King Abdullah and King Juan Carlos I of Spain, brought together 300 delegates from around the world representing Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Judaism and Shintoism. The culmination of this dialogue initiative was a special session of the United Nations General Assembly on November 12, 2008, attended by more than 25 world leaders. In 2011, The King Abdullah International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID) was founded in Vienna to promote mutual understanding among followers of different religions and cultures around the world.

Advertisement

So rather than allow these baseless charges to continue, let's focus on the facts. First and foremost, it is contrary to our faith and the fundamental tenets of Islam to allow extremism to exist. True Islamic values are based on peace, the sanctity of life, concern for the needy, the improvement of self and the worship of God. Extremists violate all of these beliefs, and there is no place for them in our society or any other. Second, it is in our national security interests to eradicate extremist ideology which advocates for the destabilization of our region, the use of terrorism to create fear and chaos, and the violent overthrow of our society. Saudis are working together to modernize our society and create a better life for our children. Extremism has no place within that vision. Rather than point fingers, we hope the world will work with us to help achieve these goals.

Since its inception, Saudi Arabia has stood firmly against all violent extremist movements regardless of their religious or ideological excuses. Recently, the Kingdom announced the formation of an Islamic coalition to combat terrorism, which includes nearly 40 countries. In addition, the Kingdom intensified its participation in the military campaign against Daesh (ISIS) and we are ready to send ground troops to Syria to take the fight to Daesh. Saudi Arabia is also playing a leading role within the International coalition in the efforts to cut off funding to Daesh.

Saudi Arabia will win this battle against extremism no matter how long it may take. We will combat terrorist groups militarily and ideologically. We will work with regional and international partners to promote political stability to create the environment for a lasting and sustainable peace and security.

Advertisement
I recently had the honor of meeting with Susan Burton in Los Angeles. Susan, who spent 20 years of her life incarcerated, has become one of the great leaders of the social justice movement in America. At first, Susan's story didn't feel unusual to me, having been incarcerated as a kid alongside girls whose mothers were addicted to drugs as was mine. Drug addiction is a way we ease pain. To face and work through pain often requires a healing hand, a therapist, a loving community. I'm talking the type of emotional pain that all too often grows wild in the darkness of poverty, trauma, lack of opportunity and educational resources, and the desperation that fuels survival against all odds. Between black brown and white, there are many core similarities in the cycles of working class poverty with addiction topping the list, but the scale is vastly tilted toward people of color on the losing end time after time. These cycles continue unabated in families and communities until someone strong, brave and filled with a mighty big love stands up to break the chain.

That last time Susan walked free she made up her mind to turn her life around. She found resources on the other side of town - the Clare Foundation in Santa Monica - and went into treatment, becoming part of a sober community. She wondered why there weren't any resources like Clare in south L.A. but the answer was pretty obvious. Susan found work as a caregiver, diligently saving until she'd acquired enough for a down payment on a house in Watts.



Susan also dreamed of becoming a licensed home care aid but her felony convictions stood in the way. She found herself completely shut out of the system, with no support whatsoever. And so, her dream shifted. She decided she would find a way to provide the support she so desperately needed to others.



Susan knew about the buses that deposit parolees coming from jails and prisons into L.A.'s Skid Row, an area of homelessness rife with crime and drugs. She started showing up on Skid Row inviting women parolees to her house, providing safe haven and comfort to women like herself; women who desperately wanted to change their lives and needed help. Women who could not return to living situations that contributed to their problems in the first place.



After two years of housing and caring for women parolees out of her own pocket, Susan founded a nonprofit organization in the year 2000 called A New Way of Life; an organization dedicated to helping women rebuild their lives after incarceration.



Today, nearly sixteen years later, Susan Burton's A New Way of Life (ANWOL) consists of six transitional houses in L.A. that have provided lodging, food, clothing, job training, recovery support and pro-bono legal services to upwards of 900 women and their children. It's nearly impossible to find national recidivism statistics and the most recent I came across were from 2005, from the National Institute of Justice stating that within three years of release, about two-thirds (67.8 percent) of released prisoners were rearrested. This negligence to study recidivism rates and what actually affects the numbers is shocking in itself. Susan's ANWOL is a anti-recidivism success story. 18 months after release, 80% of those who leave Susan Burton's transitional housing programs surveyed were employed or taking classes and had not returned to jail or prison.



How many women do we continue to incarcerate for drug felony convictions? I've read and heard stories from ex-inmates about conditions in the jails that are not only unhealthy but highly illegal, and I'd like to point out just one among many 'punishments' for bad behavior at a prison in California. 'Jute balls' are frozen, flavorless balls of mashed cabbage, veg and most likely mystery meats which serve as dinner. According to Reuters, we taxpayers in California are paying over $64,000 a year to incarcerate one person. It costs less than 1/3rd that amount to house and care for a woman yearly through A New Way of Life. I'd call that a jute ball we all need to gnaw on for a moment.



Our politicians can speak about change and revolutions but it's the boots-on-the-ground leaders like Susan Burton who are pointing the way on how to heal a broken system. We would do well to pay closer attention to the grassroots heroes who are creating impactful change and who are doing it empirically, with overwhelmingly positive results.


Image credit: Agnes Mocsy/Young Kim

As a physicist musing about genius, I wonder whether I know any geniuses or whether the best physicists I know are just really, really smart. I cannot help but think about the romantic image associated with most scientific geniuses: brilliant minds stunningly producing transformative ideas in a magic moment of enlightenment.

Here come the well-worn examples of Isaac Newton with his revolutionary ideas about gravity that (supposedly) literally struck him when an apple dropped on him from a tree. Or Albert Einstein with his wild hair standing in front of a chalkboard covered in impossible-for-earthlings-to-understand equations pulled from his mind through pure thought experiments.

It's not just age-old tales. We come across a similar image of genius in the 2014 film "The Theory of Everything," where Stephen Hawking is portrayed as having a major revelation about black holes while secluded in his living room, peering at the coals in his fireplace. The image of genius that emerges, at least in science, is that of someone -- specifically, a man -- working in isolation to single-handedly conduct an intellectual revolution that can scarcely be understood by his peers. This picture of lone geniuses is not only inaccurate, but our affinity for viewing our intellectual history and its heroes through the lens of a lone-genius mythos is damaging both to science and to society.

Advertisement

Lone geniuses are not lone. Look closer and you'll find that they work in a wide community of people who often lay the ground for a scientific breakthrough. By focusing praise on one individual in isolation, we often miss the much richer and more exciting story of how discoveries are made -- stories that involve enigmas, partial solutions, near misses, epic failures, and active communities of people frantically working in collaboration or in competition to solve problems uncovered by the work of forerunners.

Consider the most famous equation in physics: E=mc. Known in connection with the special theory of relativity which was a paradigm-shifting theoretical advance. But it didn't happen all at once. Years before Einstein wrote down this equation, Henri Poincare was discussing simultaneity and the relativity of space, and published something nearly identical. The less famous m=E/c.

Poincare's work was spurred on by the failure of the Michelson-Morley experiment to show evidence for the then-prevalent theory of a background aether that transmitted light. Hendrik Lorentz developed the transformations to explain the experiment and Poincare showed how the transformations could be made consistent with the principle of relativity. Only after this did Einstein derive the Lorentz transformations using the relativity principle and the constancy of the speed of light. Clearly the stage was set in a way that is rarely illustrated in the stories we tell about science and scientists. It is more poetic to envision Einstein inventing his theory through thought experiments while riding his bike in the Italian countryside.

Our tendency to view scientific history through the lens of intellectual giants sneaks into how society views different disciplines. It turns out that how much we apply the lone-genius paradigm to a given field changes who participates in that field. Success in some fields -- like physics, philosophy, and music composition -- are viewed by many, including the professionals themselves, as requiring an innate ability or genius, as opposed to requiring a talent that can be acquired and nurtured by hard work. Studies have exposed a direct link between the expectation of "genius" for a discipline and the gender and race gap for negatively stereotyped minorities.

Advertisement

One possible explanation for this trend is stereotype-threat. That's the fear of living up to a negative stereotype, often one held about a minority group, that is so overwhelming that you underperform and end up fulfilling the negative stereotype. People in situations like that become anxious, they spend more time thinking about how they are performing, and they struggle to quiet down the whirlwind of negative thoughts in their heads. All of which chip away at their performance.

It is well established that women and African Americans are stereotyped as not being good at math or physics. One recent analysis revealed that undergraduate students evaluating their professors attached the adjective "genius" to male physics professors far more frequently than to female and black physics professors. Imagine you are from a stereotyped group working in a community of predominantly white male physicists where you are expected to be a little "Einstein". You will likely struggle (often unconsciously) with doubts and anxieties about how you are matching up to others' expectations.

While the "genius" narrative may be a delicious treat for one's ego, it is harmful for the community. The way we combat this is simple enough, because it's simply the truth. We need to emphasize a collective paradigm, the opposite of the lone genius paradigm: that you don't have to be Einstein, that to reach your full potential the skills needed can be acquired through hard work, and that the field is collaborative.

We don't really need to put our geniuses on such a lonely pedestal. They are our intellectual and creative heroes and we should certainly celebrate their achievements. It doesn't diminish the greatness of Einstein to include the richness of the scientific process that led him to his famous equation. I would argue that it enhances the beauty of his accomplishments.

Let's be frank. Most of us physicists are not geniuses, though we are often labeled that way. We achieve with hard work, commitment, passion, mentoring, and collaboration. I know a lot of very smart physicists who work very hard and have excellent, creative ideas. I am lucky to be working alongside them, and feel constantly inspired by their smarts, yet I don't think its necessary to label them geniuses. In fact, I think if we stop calling them geniuses, it'll make our field healthier and more diverse.

Advertisement

We can start to change the lone-genius paradigm by telling fuller, more accurate stories about our contemporaries and our predecessors. Newton did not just come up with the concept of universal gravitation in one day. He sweated through twenty years of hard work to develop it. We must also fight some of the cultural stereotypes we now nourish against the capability and intelligence of underrepresented groups, and work to turn the scientific landscape into something that reflects the variety of our society.
Marco Rubio voted against Sonya Sotomayor for the US Supreme Court.

In the messy business of being a political climber, one climbs over bodies. Marco Rubio tried to block the nation's first Latino Supreme Court justice. His blocking judicial nominees further down the federal bench also made news:

It's time to ask Sen. Marco Rubio if he cares more about appeasing Republican leadership than ensuring his constituents have access to justice. Yet again, a qualified judicial nominee whom Rubio claims to support is stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Rubio refuses to do anything about it. In 2013, Rubio allowed Sen. Chuck Grassley, then ranking Republican on the committee, to put the brakes on Middle District of Florida Judge Brian Davis for nearly two years before he was confirmed. This time it's Southern District nominee Mary Barzee Flores whom Grassley (now the committee chairman) is holding up, but Rubio's response has been the same: stand idly by while the people of Florida wait for a judge. ("Why won't Marco Rubio speed process for judicial nominee Flores?", Sun Sentinel, Sept. 16 2015)

There may be another case where Rubio successfully obstructed a fellow Cuban American from advancement, and a Republican at that.

In a distinguished career, Jose Abreu served as one of Miami's most well-respected and competent civil servants. As Director of Miami International Airport, Abreu brought to an end a decade of turmoil around pay-to-play politics and lobbying involving contracts at the region's largest and most important economic engine. Former Governor Jeb Bush appointed Abreu to another key post: Florida Secretary of Transportation.

In late January 2013, Abreu was invited to visit the White House to meet with President Obama. He was a final candidate for an open position in the Cabinet: U.S. Secretary of Transportation. Standing in Abreu's path: another Republican Cuban American from Miami: the junior senator from Florida, Marco Rubio.

Advertisement

Why wasn't Abreu appointed after being vetted by the White House, including a visit with President Obama?

Why would Rubio -- serving on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation -- bar a fellow Cuban American Republican from a Cabinet post? The intrigue is on several levels. The Capital Hill Cuban blog blasted Abreu in February 2013, after the Brazilian multi-national firm, Odebrecht, was awarded by the airport to head a major new development called Airport City. The ostensible reason: Odebrecht was working with the Cuban government on major infrastructure projects at the port of Mariel.

Political opposition to Havana has long been the organizing principal of Miami's Cuban American political elite. Rubio, included.

But there was another issue, at play. At Airport City, Abreu had turned away a last-minute effort by Miami-Dade's power political player, MCM Construction, to insert itself in the bidding process; a process that had closed. MCM, owned by the campaign-heavy Munilla family in Miami, has a reputation for bullying its way into local government contracts.

According to the website OpenSecrets, in the 2016 election cycle MCM is one of the largest Republican donors from the construction industry. A June 2015 report by Center for Responsive Politics identified $58,400 in MCM Construction contributions. In November 2015, members of the Munilla family were listed as hosts of a Rubio for President fundraiser at the Deauville Beach Resort in Miami, with Leadership Circle contributions at $27,000.

Advertisement

In 2013, the White House was willing to be inclusive despite the fact that one Republican cabinet official, Defense Secretary Chuck Hegel, had already upset fellow Republicans for refusing to embrace Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's call to obstruct every initiative of the president.
This week, artificial intelligence (AI) reached a significant milestone. For the first time, Google's DeepMind unit beat the legendary champion of Go. Machines are now being built with self-learning mechanisms that simulate the neural network of the human brain. What does this mean for the future of AI and its ability to replace humans in the workplace? The future just got closer.

Sebastian Thrun is a well known pioneer in AI and autonomous cars (he launched Google X), but today he's laser focused on making sure online education bridges the skills gap, via his company, Udacity. Here's what he said recently about AI:

Udacity is my response to the development of AI. The mission I have to educate everybody is really an attempt to delay what AI will eventually do to us, because I honestly believe people should have a chance. - Sebastian Thrun

I sat down with Thrun at the company's headquarters in Silicon Valley recently to explore his grand vision and audacious promises. Last year, Udacity raised $105 million in venture funding, based on a valuation of $1 billion. Is this another overvalued Silicon Valley unicorn or is the value justified?*

First, a little back story: In 2012, Thrun was astounded at the massive number of people signing up for his Stanford AI course online course: 160,000 in all, mostly from outside the United States. He quickly realized that online education has the potential to make learning affordable and reach millions globally.

"Nothing has more potential to unlock a billion more brains to solve the world's biggest problems," wrote Tom Friedman in 2013. But of course, his and Thrun's rosy predictions couldn't happen overnight. The online learning business had some serious teething problems with high drop out rates, and dismal failure rates. But today, the future of online education is looking brighter.

There are now hundreds of online education companies around the globe. In the U.S. the big three are: Coursera (a Stanford startup) which now boasts 15 million students; EdX (affiliated with MIT and Harvard) with over 5 million users; and Udacity, 4 million.

Advertisement

Since Udacity's high profile failure at San Jose State, the company has refocused its online courses and recently partnered with Google, AT&T and Amazon to design "nanodegrees" tailored to the needs of tech companies. Thrun is so bullish about the market value of these 4-12 month nanodegrees, which offer project based learning, that he's offering a money-back job guarantee.

For certain Nanodegree programs we're offering all your tuition back unless we or you find yourself a job within the first 6 months of graduation. For the student, the education is basically free. ... These are jobs that pay $80,000 or more, maybe $120,000 in Silicon Valley. With the first month's salary they can recoup all tuition or we just pay them tuition back... - Sebastian Thrun, CEO Udacity

Here are more highlights from my conversation with Sebastian Thrun:

On Redefining Education

I think education has to shrink: We have to stop thinking of education as a four or six year investment you can only afford once in your life. We have think of education as a lifelong thing, to shrink the size of our degrees and make education a daily habit, the same way we brush our teeth every day. We have to redefine what education really means.

On Access to Education

Elite colleges like Stanford are extremely inaccessible. They're failing in their mission to provide access. The Udacity recipe is exactly the opposite - we want to reach everyone and have no admission hurdle. We want to be able to educate people. We do this today in Ghana, in Sub Saharan Africa, in Bangladesh, in China, around the world. If we do this, we can have a substantial impact on the world's GDP because so much talent is under utilized because of lack of education. If we give people in Syria the same chances as kids in America have, it's going to be spectacular.
Yesterday, when she first woke up, my teenage daughter Enani asked, "If Donald Trump gets elected president, will I be sent back to Africa?"



Enani was born in Ethiopia and, through international adoption, became our daughter when she was two years old.

I posted Enani's comments to Facebook, and right away I knew I'd struck a nerve. Other parents began to chime in: it seems Enani expressed a fear that many children born outside the U.S. -- particularly internationally adopted children of color -- are feeling.

Advertisement

In the few months since Donald Trump announced his candidacy, immigrants who once felt relatively safe in their new country -- a country that used to take pride in its status as a "melting pot" and a "nation of immigrants" -- have seen that there is a very ugly white underbelly of America that doesn't want them here. Trump supporters are making clear that even citizenship means little to them when it comes to Muslims and people of color.

My husband and I (who are white) thought we were prepared for the hurdles our adopted daughter would face. We were educated, we had read so many books, we had gone to talks, attended classes and discussions. We believed that we could help our Ethiopian child navigate the stresses of racism in the U.S. and grow up to be a strong African American woman. It never occurred to us that, seven years into the term of America's first nonwhite president -- and nearly 12 years into our life with her -- she would have to contemplate the threat of being "sent back to where she came from."

I don't mean to imply that a President Trump could "make good" on every ugly specter that he's raised. But the first, most basic duty of parenthood is to keep your child safe, a duty that includes making them feel safe, too. Suddenly, thanks to the Trump campaign, my husband and I find ourselves failing at this second part. Our daughter feels acutely just how many of her fellow citizens do not want her here.

It's a tremendously scary feeling for a 14-year-old -- not least because the United States is, in fact, her only country; she had to give up Ethiopian citizenship to become a U.S. citizen. When she was adopted, she lost her country, her first language, her culture, everything she had ever known. She was flown 8000 miles to live with total strangers. Still, we made the choice to adopt because we believed we could make a wonderful life for her here.



America is the land of opportunity, right? The greatest country in the world, right? I don't know. When I see images from Donald Trump rallies, I don't recognize my country anymore. I don't recognize the country we brought our child to grow up in.

Advertisement

Losing both parents is an almost unimaginable trauma. Being internationally adopted is a trauma. Being interracially adopted is a trauma. Our daughter has suffered so much loss in her life. We believed that with love and nurturing and support, we could help Enani cope with her terrible early losses. But, even here, even with parents who love her more than anything, even living in a mostly black community, she knows that a frightening number of her fellow American citizens would like to see her gone. Enani is no fool. She's smart and funny and beautiful. We want everything good for her. But, we cannot protect her from the racism and hatred that seem to be increasing daily.



We can't protect her from the truth.

I tell Enani that she is a U.S. citizen, that she is safe. She IS a U.S. citizen, but will that really keep her safe?

On February 29th, 30 black students were thrown out of a Trump rally in Georgia. On March 1st, a young black woman was attacked -- grabbed, pushed, shoved, and assaulted with racist slurs at a Trump rally in Kentucky. Of course, on March 5th, in Florida, Trump asked his supporters to raise their right hands to pledge to vote him, resulting in a scene that was a throwback to Nazi Germany. Trump seems to relish and encourage the bloodlust, and I, like many others, think it's only a matter of time before someone is killed at one of his rallies.

Donald Trump has verbally attacked people with disabilities, soldiers who were POWs, "the blacks," immigrants, Mexicans, women. . . . It's clear that the only people he sees as worthy of respect are native-born whites -- plus, of course, the (white) Eastern Europeans he imports to work for (or marry) him.

Of course, for now, his worst excesses are saved for America's Muslim population. He talks about monitoring mosques -- spying on Muslims in their own houses of worship. He has proposed forcing Muslims to register in a national database. He's gone so far as to suggest that Muslims should have to carry identification cards so they can be more easily recognized by police and other authorities. But every American who believes this "special treatment" could or would be limited to Muslims has not thought very hard about the matter or studied much of history.

Advertisement

Trump says he loves "the poorly educated."

Of course he does.

The poorly educated are less likely to understand the string of choices that led to Germany's murderous rampage, not only against Jews, but Romani people, gays and lesbians, the mentally and physically disabled, Socialists, political dissidents, and many others.

The poorly educated are less likely to understand the full importance of the famous words by Pastor Martin Niemoller:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out -- Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out -- Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out -- Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me.
There is never a dull moment in Chicago politics, but this particular election cycle is sort of peculiar. On March 15th, people in the Land of Lincoln will be voting for state and county offices. Normally, this election would get lukewarm media attention, but, Chicago polls do not disappoint.

The race taking center stage in this year's theatrical masterpiece is that of the Illinois State's Attorney. Incumbent Anita Alvarez, is seeking re-election but is in the fight for her political life. States Attorney Anita Alvarez is trying to recover from a collage of scrutiny regarding the Laquan McDonald police shooting. On October 20, 2014, 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times by Chicago Police. Over a year later, the police dashboard camera recording was released to the public showing the chain of events that lead up to and including the police shooting. Hours after the video was released, Police Officer Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder. Alvarez was raised in the Pilsen neighborhood and a mother of four children. She spent her legal career in the Cook County state's attorney's office and became State's Attorney in 2008.

Advertisement

Alvarez's closest challenger is Kim Foxx. Foxx is a Chicago native born and raised in the Cabrini Green housing projects on the near north side. She is married, with two daughters and also has extensive experience in the state's attorney office as a child advocate and former supervisor. Prior to running for state's attorney, Foxx was Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle's Chief of Staff. Kim Foxx is also endorsed by a broad coalition of elected officials and civic groups.

And coming in at a distant third, is Donna More. More is an Evanston native, mother of one child and brings to the table experience as a prosecutor for both Cook County and the United States. Currently, More works in private practice.

In unusual turn of events, there's a hotly contested state representative race, also on this bill. Constituents of Illinois' 5th district are tasked with either re-electing Ken Dunkin or Attorney Juliana Stratton. Representative Dunkin seems to have fallen out of the good graces of the Democratic Party for being a no-show when it was time to vote or voting against the party on a few key bills. When Dunkin was asked in several media interviews, to justify his vote against the Democratic party's typical alliances, he positioned himself as an "independent" and not beholden to any political party. Dunkin has been heard saying several times in interviews, "People over Politics." Juliana Stratton, an attorney, a mother of three daughters and a resident of the Bronzeville neighborhood, may be considered an "outsider" by some, but she has a history in public service. According to her television ads, she positions herself as a reformer in the criminal justice system.

Advertisement

But really, are the voters motivated to get out to the polls or are they fatigued of the mudslinging coming from every and all directions? There's a long-standing bone of contention between voters and elected officials asking one another; "What have you done for me lately?"

And to be perfectly honest, it's a valid question for both to ask.

Voters are thinking what have you done for me in order for you to earn my vote and the candidates ponder what have you done for me so I'll be motivated to help you with some type of service or assistance? (Although it is still their job; whether the constituent voted for them or not).

There are no scientific surveys or sophisticated polling algorithms behind this theory, so, just have a cup of your favorite beverage and enjoy the irony in the discussion.

Voter turnout in election cycles are typically abysmal and sadly, this has become the norm. Unless some star-studded quality politician is running for office, folks just don't seem to see the value of voting.

It puzzles many how some people do not find value in voting for the person who will potentially represent them and the interest of their tax money, in city legislature and beyond. At the end of the election cycle, someone will be declared the winner, so why not vote and have a say so in who that may be?

Advertisement

Earlier, it was mentioned that regardless of voter turnout or even votes casts for their opponent, it is still the fiduciary duty of the winner, to serve all constituents. How are our politicians evaluated on their effectiveness in office? Well, every election cycle pretty much answers that question--even if there are only a few who bother to show up at the polls.

And so it begins, the workers for the politician receive the creme de la creme, while some of the others are left scrapping at the bottom of the barrels.

How can this vicious cycle can be stopped?

Is there really a solution to this dilemma?

We always hear the people should come out and vote and perform their civic duty. Is that what incumbents really want? Statistics have shown that typically low voter turnout usually favor incumbents.

So is all this get out to vote rhetoric, on behalf of the incumbent, all for show; or, is it only important when the "powers that be" are wishing to run a no name candidate, in an effort to get their new flavor of the month into office?

After all, they do call it politics for a reason.
Why people travel alone? Will having a companion won't make it more fun and convenient?

Such things would often come to my mind whenever I come to know about someone travelling alone. And if it's a woman I would be the first one to question the safety. But what makes people travel alone especially women. I spent some time last week doing an online research and talking to some of my female friends trying to find answers to some of the questions.

World is traveling alone

A little bit of research online tells me that exploring the world alone is a fast growing trend, according to an analysis by 101holidays website, on its 100,000 bookings 35% of their clients are single travelers. They have also reported that the trend is only increasing year on year and they have even launched a site dedicated to single travelers. It also says that solo travel is especially very popular among women with 58.3 percent of the solo travelers being females.

Why she travels alone

Traveling alone for woman is about exploring themselves while they explore the world outside. A tag of being softer, delicate and dependent makes some of them really offended and they set out on a solo travel to prove that they are much more.

Advertisement

Independence: Planning it themselves and setting out on a trip shunning the established beliefs and making everyone know that it is their time. It brings a feeling of independence at the same time seeing world from their own eyes rather than their companion.

Undiluted experience: Being solo means doing what they want to do and visit places they feel like.

Increased disposable income: Every year sees women across the world earning better than the previous year and which gives them a good amount of disposable income to splurge on. At places she is earning more than her male counterpart and wishes to enjoy this.

Where does she travel alone

I would not agree to the idea of restricting the free spirited independent women from going anywhere but there are some places in the world which are preferred by solo women travelers over others. According to a popular blog, nearly half (45 %) of agents noted Europe as the most popular destination for clients booking solo travel, followed closely by Mexico / Caribbean (33%) and the United States / Canada (15%). Surprisingly, more exotic destinations like Africa, Asia, Central or South America and the South Pacific (all 2%) were cited as destinations less traveled.

When does she travel

Ideally any part of life is right to travel alone but there are some important factors working in solo woman travel and according to 44% of agents polled, most of their clients taking solo trips are 55 years of age or older, followed by those 45-55 (29%), 35-45 (18%), 25-34 (9%) and 18-24 years of age (0.4%). (Source: Gutsy traveler) Considering the various dependencies and responsibilities post marriage, a woman should travel alone at least once during the bachelorhood it'll enable you to know yourself more closely and also think over your future course of life. After marriage you may give some time to your new relation and then you can start exploring the world once in a while.

Advertisement
Never mind that he was raised by a mother so ferocious she was nicknamed, "Becky the Barbarian." To paraphrase Barry Goldwater, ferocity in defense of your kids' education is no vice.

Back in the 1980s, if you lived in rural West Virginia and wanted your kids to learn French and Calculus, you had a fight on your hands; local public schools didn't comply. But Becky Ross fought hard to win new educational opportunities for the children in her life; so hard, in fact, that her son Alec made it to Northwestern, then to Barack Obama's 2008 Presidential campaign, and from there to the State Department, where he logged half-a-million miles to advance America's diplomatic goals through mobile and social technologies.

Alec Ross, 44, is now taking up his mom's fight. Formerly Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and author of an important new book called The Industries of the Future (Simon & Schuster 2016), Alec would tell your kids exactly what he has told his own 13-, 11-, and 9-year-olds:

Advertisement

Work hard at reading, writing and arithmetic, but don't forget Mandarin, coding and genomics. And make sure to learn a thing or two about bitcoin and blockchain!



It needn't be Mandarin, of course; any foreign language will do. Alec's point: The industries of the future - robotics, cybersecurity, genomics, big data, fintech and artificial intelligence - will require skills durable in an automated world; those reliant on the full array of 21st Century languages: foreign, technical, programming, and scientific.

Take the scientific language dedicated to the genetic code: Why should fluency start at a relatively young age? Because genomics will be more than a fulfilling career for many; it's a life-expectancy changer for everyone. Here's how Alec tells it:

"Today, a simple blood test can detect cancerous cells 1/100,00th the size of what can be detected by an MRI. Which means that cancers typically found in stages three and four will now be found in very-early stage one - adding three or four years of life expectancy. As big data drives down the cost of mapping the genome - it's now a couple of thousand dollars compared to the $100,000 Steve Jobs paid in 2011 - this technology will prolong life for more and more people."

And why make "fintech" part of the curriculum for well-prepared kids? Alec says it this way: "We're still only beginning to discover the possibilities that digital currency will open up. But the code-ification of money, markets, payments and trust is the next big inflection point in the history of financial services." I couldn't agree more. You see, in our family, the fintech expert is me. I have "schooled" my own kids in fintech including blockchain, bitcoin and mobile payments of all sorts.

Advertisement

And so your kids will have to learn the language of fintech: digital money, mobile payments, and more. Sure, let them play with blocks before they learn about blockchain. But when they're old enough to appreciate the value of money, and sufficiently mature to understand that all sound relationships are girded by trust, introduce them to blockchain - a platform technology for trusted transactions that creates an indelible public ledger underlying digital currencies. Do it not because Goldman Sachs is harnessing blockchain to enable digital settlement of securities trades - powerful endorsement, though it is. Do it because your kids' financial literacy will hinge on understanding this "World Wide Ledger," as Don Tapscott calls it, especially as more and more financial institutions bake blockchain technology into their products and tools.

More, do it because in five years blockchain will go mainstream as a means of validating user trust in the sharing economy. Note AirBnB CTO Nathan Blecharczyk, who, in a recent interview with London's City AM, suggested that blockchain "could factor into the ways in which [we] enhance the trust mechanisms that enable [our] service"; mechanisms now limited to a mixture of social-media profiles and profile reviews.

So that's a snapshot of what Alec Ross would tell your kids: Fear not - we'll create more jobs than tech can replace; jobs offering unprecedented opportunities for independence, mobility and choice. But know that these job will hinge on fluency in one or more of the 21st Century languages - the languages of coding, scientific discovery, technical advancement, and cultural outreach.

But Alec also has a few things he'd like to say to parents, too. Chief among them: Steal a page from dear old mom, Becky the Barbarian. Don't rely on public education to teach your kids all they need to know; those who do typically end up disappointed.

Advertisement

Be a ferocious advocate for your kids' training and education. If their schools don't offer a foreign language, find an alternative. If coding is not on the curriculum, find another way to expose them to it. Alec's 13-year-old son takes Mandarin online and learns coding through Codeacademy, a free site that has taught more than 24 million people to code. Another resource he recommends: Scratch (scratch.mit.edu), a nonprofit project of MIT Media Lab's Lifelong Kindergarten Group that teaches computer programming through the creation of stories, games, and animations.

I like Alec Ross, and not just because he shares my older son's name. He's smart, candid, and caring, and has written a very powerful and readable book.

And although I've never met her, I like Becky, too. I share the ferocity she used to avail the kids in her life of every educational opportunity. If you'd like, you can ask my own two college-age sons whom I have tried to shape and direct into two industries of the future: biomedical engineering and behavioral finance.
Bernie's "rigged economy" and "income inequality." An ideologue, Bernie doesn't understand the cause is Big Government and crony capitalism, all of this is even worse under Obama, who borrowed staggering amounts to produce an anemic recovery.



"A progressive who likes to get things done." That's how Hillary tries to co-opt Bernie, but Bernie highlights her credentials in The Establishment. She and Bill have taken in $150 million in speaking fees.



High marks to Jorge Ramos finally going beyond immigration. He asked Hillary about her emails and whether she would quit the race if indicted. The audience booed Ramos when he played a video of the mother of an American slain in Benghazi. "Some of the families think you lied to them," Ramos said. "Secretary Clinton, did you lie to them?" Bernie graciously deferred on Benghazi before putting (this enrages Hillary) his verbal knife into Hillary -- criticizing her regime change approach in Libya and her support for the Iraq war. Ramos was enormously credible when he probed Bernie: "Would you consider Raul Castro a president or a dictator?" This after they showed a video of Bernie praising Communist thugs. Congratulations to Hillary for faulting Bernie for his support of Fidel Castro in Cuba and the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.



Karen Tumulty asking Hillary if Trump is racist. Hillary would only say that Trump is "un-American" and not for "American values," and Trump insults "Mexicans and Muslims." But what are American values? Surely not those of Hillary and Bernie?



Pandering to the national African-American audience. Hillary said Trump used birther issue to try to"de-legitimize" Obama. Later Hillary noted "the Republicans" would deny Obama the next Supreme Court nominee; Sanders, pandering: "Nobody asked me for my birth certificate, maybe it has something to do with the color of my skin."



Pandering also to national Latino audience. "Comprehensive immigration reform" are code words for not securing the border first, but instead prioritizing amnesty and a "path to citizenship" to enlarge the Democratic voter base. Sanders says guest work program is a "race to the bottom" and pledges as president to use even more executive power than Obama for, in effect, amnesty. He he criticized Clinton for opposing New York drivers licenses for "undocumented immigrants." For good measure, Sanders says Hillary wanted to "send back" children to Honduras. Hillary says Sanders voted with "the Republicans" (she always uses those words with scorn) for "indefinite detention" of "undocumented immigrants." Asked a question in Spanish by an illegal alien, Hillary praises the woman. What message does Hillary thus send to those who want to come to America legally?



Hillary's integrity. Karen Tumulty is impressive in asking Clinton what she has done to "foster...distrust." Then Tumulty gives Sanders a softball: "Why do you want Hillary to release the transcripts of her Wall Street speeches?" Hillary retreats to her Jesse Jackson slogan, "No bank too big to fail, no executive too big to jail." Bernie implies this question -- would she jail people who paid her inflated speaking fees?



Dumping on Koch brothers. Both Hillary and Bernie relish attacking the Kochs, who failed to enhance their image last year and thus remain election whipping boys. In a weird attack, Hillary says Kochs praised Bernie's opposition to the Export-Import Bank, while Bernie boasts that the Goldman Sachs CEO said he is "dangerous."



Bernie's freebies. Colleges rip-off students with high tuition, and the students can't even get jobs. Yet Bernie wants more kids in colleges, which comprise the least innovative sectors of America. Under Bernie's plan, colleges would have little incentive to exploit Internet opportunities or reform their bloated bureaucracies. Bernie would fund all this with a $70-billion-a-year tax on "Wall Street speculators" which means regular folks buying stocks for their retirement. Hillary would "refinance everyone's student debt," those loans pushed by Democrats to underwrite the demand curve and thus fund unjustified tuition hikes.
A banner calling for a ban on the controversial method of gas extraction known as fracking

During Sunday's Democratic Debate in Flint, Michigan, many organizers and supporters of the environmental movement rejoiced as they heard Bernie Sanders simply say "no" to fracking. Meanwhile, I cringed.

This past year, my mother was laid-off two times, struggled to find a job, and took in unemployment compensation until it ran out in February. However, for the first time that I can remember, my mother's yearly income was above the poverty line this year. Although she just barely earned above the threshold for a single-mother supporting a family of four, it finally feels like she made it. For a short while, she can escape the label of poverty, and for this, I have Chevron to thank.

Advertisement

When I was home for the holidays, my family announced the news to me: 72 members of my mother's extended family, including my mother, had signed on to sell Chevron the mineral rights to an inherited section of land for gas drilling. The land rests in my rural town in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and like for many others in our region, the economic benefits of hydraulic fracturing outweigh any concerns of environmental risk. During his most recent visit, Chevron's representative told my family that last month alone, the company paid out 19 million dollars to those who leased land in our neighboring county of Marshall, West Virginia. At the same time, fracking is bringing much-needed, well-paying jobs to a region where there are few ways to make a living.

Yet my family assumed that I wouldn't support their decision because I'm the "environmentalist." When I was 17 years old, I sued the state of Pennsylvania for not taking adequate action to address climate change. Later that year, I stood in front of the White House at one of the first protests against the Keystone Pipeline. I have spoken out against hydraulic fracturing at public rallies, international conferences, and even in a short-film which was hand-delivered to President Obama. I am opposed to what the intensive extraction process can do to the environment and to the health of those who live near the drilling. Despite national campaigns and community resistance against hydraulic fracturing, I have seen the industry boom and expand throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania and beyond.

But, I'm not going to oppose my family's decision to sell their land to Chevron. I'm not going to call upon the "fracktivists" across the nation to join me in a fight against the drilling in my town. Currently, we are part of an economic system which makes it profitable to take extensive measures to extract and burn fossil fuels like natural gas, despite their impacts on our health, environment, and climate. How are we supposed to expect families and communities to reject these industries which many depend upon financially?

Bernie Sanders cannot simply reject fracking without also mentioning the need for alternative energy and economies. If he's going to ban fracking in Southwestern Pennsylvania and across the U.S., then he also needs to talk about his plan to build resilient economies in those same communities who depend on the industry.

Advertisement

We cannot confuse creating what we do want with destroying what we don't want. The climate movement has gotten good at saying "no" -- no KXL, no pipelines, no fossil fuels. But, we also have to practice saying "yes" to solutions. Last week, I listened to Naomi Klein give a lecture about The Leap Manifesto, which she created with hundreds of others who are working to transition Canada to a more just and sustainable future. The plan is extensive and calls for investment in housing, public infrastructure, and transportation. It calls for a transition from carbon-intensive jobs to clean energy jobs by providing training to those who currently work in the fossil fuel industries. The plan has justice at its heart by ensuring this transition happens first in low income communities and communities most impacted, and dependent upon, the fossil fuel industries.
"All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts..."

-- As You Like It, William Shakespeare

With Shakespeare's birthday fast approaching on April 23, it's gotten me thinking about us writers, we happy few, or indeed we cursed few -- among them, screenwriters Ben Ripley (Source Code) and Jerry Stahl (Permanent Midnight), music author Steffan Chirazi (Metallica's chronicle "So What!"), and my neighbor and playwright/author James Trivers.

Writing, oh, writing. For many, there are more close misses than homeruns. Writing drives us crazy, but we can't live without it.

Advertisement

Look at my neighbor Trivers' several decades long story -- for example, he's had two books ("I Can Stop Anytime I Want" and "Hamburger Heaven") published by Prentice Hall; had the screenplay Norma Jean, Jack and Me produced; and, has eleven e-books available through Club Lighthouse Publishing.



Writer James Trivers: All the world's a stage "I'm going through"

Trivers has been at this writing thing for awhile. And he still gets excited by what may happen with a good piece of writing like "Drinks with Mother Teresa," a clever, funny and provocative one-act play which has been selected for presentation in the New Play Lab of the prestigious 35th William Inge Theater Festival -- running from April 20-23 and finishing on playwright Shakespeare's own birthday. Trivers' play is one of only 35 scripts chosen, and the New Lab's goal is to help authors further their work through a public reading and discussion of the work.

The William Inge Theater Festival takes place in Independence, Kansas, in the hometown of William Inge, on the same streets in the town that inspired the young playwright. Writer Inge brought small-town life in America's Midwest to Broadway with several outstanding plays -- "Come Back Little Sheba" (1950), "Picnic" (1953, Pulitzer Prize-winning), "Bus Stop" (1955) and "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs" (1957). He also earned an Academy Award-winning screenplay award for Splendor in the Grass in 1962 directed by Elia Kazan.



Historical fiction "Young Hitler" Trivers with Claus Hant--Quartet Books

Trivers, who has often mixed non-fiction characters with fictional situations in his writing, explains his inspiration for "Drinks with Mother Teresa":

Advertisement

When I read online that for the last thirty years of her life, Mother Teresa was racked with a crisis of faith, I was fascinated. I believe saints are bilious zealots anyway, single-minded and impossible in their way. Their worldview is simplistic and adamant. I researched her more. I read her bio on my Kindle, and also a telling collection of her letters. In that tome, I saw her word choice and her worldview. When I read that she'd lectured in Las Vegas in 1960, I loved the juxtaposition of a saint in a city where gambling and prostitution is legal. I thought actor/celebrated personality Peter Lawford, a Brat Pack member, would be a perfect foil. I figured they could meet in the Green Room of the Flamingo, and when I cast him as the emcee for her presentation, the story began writing itself.

The interactions between Mother Teresa and Lawford, who was JFK's brother-in-law, are poignant, thought-provoking and often hilarious, and these scenes drive the play.

Besides Norma Jean, Jack and Me, The Phil Spector Incident, and "Drinks With Mother Teresa," author Trivers has blended non-fiction characters with fictional situations several other times, including using Helen Keller, O.J. Simpson and even TE Lawrence (or Arabia). He suggests:

Marrying fictional situations with non-fiction people intrigues me, because it allows me to invent and interpret the stories we read about. For example, my O.J. story is a twentieth century spin on Othello, making him Ojello. When you write about historical or pop culture figures, the audience knows who these people are, you get to put these people under a microscope of your perceptions and dramatize what these people are like. I love reading biographies, as it's a way of witnessing great success and also great failure.

Trivers is also excited about having his play selected for the New Play Lab, expressing:

I'm hoping when 'Drinks With Mother Teresa' is presented as a play-reading at the Inge Festival, it will give me an opportunity to see how it sounds and plays in front of an audience. I also look forward to meeting other writers, producers and seeing that part of the Midwest. Perhaps someone may like it enough to take a step further and place it in an evening of one-act plays somewhere. Who knows, as it's always the roll of the dice. All I know is that the function of art is to entertain, entertain, and entertain. And I hope I've done that with my play.



As the Bard's birthday approaches, the playwright might himself say, "Such stuff as dreams are made on..."
A Zaman supporter holds the latest edition of Turkish daily newspaper Zaman with the headline 'Suspended the constitution' while another holds a placard reading 'Zaman won`t be silent' in front of the newspaper's headquarters in Istanbul on March 5, 2016, after Turkish authorities seized the headquarters in a midnight raid. Turkish authorities on March 5 were in control of the newspaper staunchly opposed to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after using tear gas and water cannon to seize its headquarters in a dramatic raid that raised fresh alarm over declining media freedoms. Police fired the tear gas and water cannon just before midnight at a hundreds-strong crowd that had formed outside the headquarters of the Zaman daily in Istanbul following a court order issued earlier in the day. / AFP / OZAN KOSE (Photo credit should read OZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images)

A week after the Turkish Constitutional Court ruled out that the arrest of Can Dundar and Erdem Gul, two prominent journalists of Cumhuriyet Newspaper, violated their basic human rights, a local court ordered the illegal takeover of Turkey's largest media group, Feza Zaman Inc., which includes Zaman Daily, Today's Zaman, Cihan News Agency and Aksiyon Magazine.

President Erdogan, who took the ruling as a challenge to his power and executive presidency ambitions, said that he does not respect and does not even recognize the decision of the Supreme Court.

Advertisement

This development came right after former President Abudllah Gul's moves and remarks were considered as signs of the emergence of a new center right party that could challenge Erdogan's executive presidency goals.

Many believe one of the reasons for Erdogan's decision to illegally order the takeover of the Zaman media group was to silence the rising opposition around the leadership of Abdullah Gul and leading figures from the Justice and Development Party, such as Bulent Arinc, Huseyin Celik, Sadettin Ergin and Nihat Ergun, who started to criticize Erdogan before the Constitutional Court's ruling about Can Dundar and Erdem Gul.

Some also believe that Erdogan and his family members might face some international law suits and, on the way to executive presidency goals, Erdogan would do his best to silence critical media outlets in the country as much as possible. The possible international legal cases against Erdogan and his family members are allegedly linked to ISIL's illegal oil trade issue.

For instance, an Italian public prosecutor has opened a file on Bilal Erdogan, son of President Erdogan of Turkey, to investigate allegations about his involvement to bring in large amounts of money to Italy last September, which has received a huge media attention across the world. The recent efforts by the Russian Federation at the U.N about Turkey's alleged involvement in ISIL's illegal oil trade brings to mind a similar possibility for Berat Albayrak, another son-in-law of Erdogan.

Advertisement

No matter what Erdogan's real motivation is for the unlawful order to takeover Zaman media, it is obvious that Erdogan wants to silence all critical voices. For many, it was one of the darkest days of Turkish history -- and it seems that it will not be the last one.

"It's yet another setback for freedom of the press and for democracy in Turkey. Ultimately, countries are stronger and more stable when opinions can be aired freely," Pulitzer Award winner journalist Paul Moses told me.

Professor Lauhona Ganguly of The New School in New York notes that that the takeover of media organizations is a blatant and shameful move to undermine democracy in a country, and that is what we are witnessing, unfortunately, today in Turkey.

"It is important for critical voices to flourish in a democratic society and this rather explicit political act of seizing a media organization, even if it is being done through the courts, must be opposed by all -- not only by people in Turkey but by democratic societies all around the world," she said.

Ganguly further states that "the threat to free press and democracy in one country today has an impact on free press and democratic movements around the world. It is time for European Union, in particular, to issue stronger statements and actions condemning this act against free speech by the Turkish government."

Advertisement

Joyce Davis, a well-known American writer and Middle East expert emphasizes that people who love Turkey are heartsick about the unlawful takeover.

"The basis of any democracy is a free press. Turkey has just taken the path toward dictatorship. It is not only alarming for the Turkish people, but for the entire world," she said.

One of the biggest mistakes of President Erdogan, during his entire rule, was the illegal order to take over a media group.

Erdogan has already lost his eligibility for being part of the civilized and democratic world. The only hope he has from now on is to reach out his goals to establish an autocratic rule where no checks and balances would be tolerated in the system.

Any attempt to change the constitution by Justice and Development Party in near future does not aim to promote civil rights or democracy but Erdogan's ambitions to be the executive president of Turkey. By limiting free speech, and taking over 70 percent of the media, Erdogan has already reduced the ability of voters in Turkey to make free and informed decisions during elections. The law allowing the government to regulate the Internet and block any content is a major setback towards civil liberties and democracy.

Advertisement

The recent developments demonstrate how press censorship in Turkey has been activated through a dispersed network of state power, commercial forces, and self-censorship.
"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."
It is the duty of any individual remaining a fire-keeper of reason to often and with rigor interrogate not only their convictions and beliefs, but the very foundations of all information they themselves, at any point, deem fact. This scrutiny must be constant and ever-fluid like the nature of knowing itself. Such is the good and necessary work of both a responsible human being and an examined life. I do my best to be attendant to these principles, and value them as much as I do rational discourse and a good minestrone soup. I've parsed and scoured much available information--all the while maintaining a stringent degree of skepticism towards my own faculties and judgement--but can no longer withhold the following, hopefully earned, conclusion: The current election cycle for the American Presidency has descended into dangerously Orwellian territory and media outlets, once trusted, are complicit and conscious in manipulating its outcome. Nowhere is this fact more evident than in the media's coverage of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders presidential bid, where, employing tactics of omission, obfuscation, and--most egregious by far--the deliberate creation and proliferation of misinformation, the media has proven itself to be no more committed to accuracy than a poet hired through Craigslist to write a birthday card for your cousin thrice removed.

Prior to reading the rest of this piece, I urge you to perform a simple test in order to draw your own conclusion regarding the above position: Clear your browser's history, or "cache," and Google "Hillary Clinton." Clear that history again and Google "Bernie Sanders." Note before conducting this experiment that, as of March 9th, 2016, Clinton has won 745 delegates to Sanders 540. Upon doing this, I'm quite confident that any objective reader will be able to discern, without much difficulty, the media's overwhelming inclination to both christen and portray Clinton as the de facto Democratic nominee. If the pudding, too, be SEO, analytics, and sponsored content, the proof lies also therein.

Advertisement

***

Despite Bernie Sander's crucial Democratic Primary win in Michigan on Tuesday, March 8th, as of Monday, March 7th RealClearPolitics appears to have omitted Sanders in reporting general election polls.

It is important to note that in spite of RealClearPolitics omission, The Huffington Post--tracking a compendium of 38 separate polls-- shows an 11 point lead in a Sanders vs. Trump general election, demonstrating a margin of victory upwards of three points higher than Clinton's in the same matchup. This fact illuminates another inconsistency--despite the majority of the media's purported (and profitable) shock and revulsion at Donald Trump's ascendance, and a general acknowledgment that a Trump presidency would mean disaster, the media consistently fails to draw attention to the fact that Sanders is projected to win in near landslide fashion in a general election vs. Trump, while Clinton--in some places by as much as six points--less so. Even the CNN News Group--an outlet that has been even more overt than others in demonstrating allegiance to Clinton; an outlet whose parent company, Time Warner, has donated, through both PACs and individuals, $591,542 to Clinton since 1992--projected, on March 1st, that Sanders would beat Trump 55% to 43% in a general election, while Clinton would win 52% to 44%. By neglecting to emphasize these projections, the media's seeming aversion to a Trump Presidency is called into question. Not unrelated, and as indicative of the American media's current state, is a religious preoccupation with the shoot-me-stupid, inane, and unintelligible dross that Donald Trump emits like a pin-pricked mole. This commitment to giving airtime to a bigoted and ludicrous television star perhaps evidences something far more sinister: Trump as fascist, bubble-gum pop decoy used to drown out the noise of both rising crises in America--income inequality, poverty, Flint's water system, racially-driven police violence--and the peacefully mounting revolution against the big money status quo of which the media is comfortably a part.

Consider the night of Tuesday, March 8th: Hillary Clinton, after being defeated in the Michigan primary in stunning fashion, is giving a stump speech in Ohio in which she will presumably react in some way to the results in Michigan--in lieu of any major news network airing the entirety of Clinton's speech, everyone immediately tuned to Donald Trump, and remained on him for the duration of an hour, as he commenced talking about nothing. It might be too presumptuous to call this a look over there wallet-pickpocket flimflam, but I will. Given what was happening in Michigan, it was no doubt wise to draw attention from Clinton and a potential instance of (minor) concession and newly accentuated vulnerability. I might have less difficulty with this tact if it was more finessed; a more Copperfield-esque sleight of hand, but the media, like many, seem to have grown too torpid even for deft subterfuge. That being said, Americans still care, and seem to be, more and more, caring for Bernie Sanders. In the coming weeks I would urge all to be vigilant and cognizant of distraction, because as it stands, the revolution will not be televised.
MIDLAND, MI - DECEMBER 10: The Dow Chemical logo is shown on a building in downtown Midland, home of the Dow Chemical Company corporate headquarters, December 10th, 2015 in Midland, Michigan. Recent news reports have indicated a possible merger between Dow and DuPont. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

As the post-Scalia Supreme Court begins to recalibrate its balance, with or without a confirmed ninth Justice, one of the Court's most fiercely-contested areas of law -- in which Justice Scalia left very large footprints -- is environmental law. Justice Scalia, more than any other Justice, was the most aggressively anti-environmentalist on the court. He championed property rights over conservation and land use regulations, private development over polluters of air and water, and non-deference to government regulations limiting the ability of factories and refineries to contaminate the environment and endanger the health and safety of millions of Americans.

Indeed, based on recent events, it is clear that anti-environmentalists, companies that pollute the environment, and even anti-environment members of the Court, recognize that they have lost their strongest ally, and that in all likelihood there will be a restoration of a reasonable balance between protecting private property and protecting public health and safety. Consider the $835 million settlement by Dow Chemical two weeks ago in a class action lawsuit alleging that Dow conspired to fix prices for polyurethane, a widely-used industrial chemical. Dow was found liable in 2013 by a Kansas jury and petitioned the Supreme Court to review the judgment. The settlement, observers believe, is attributable to Dow's reasonable expectation that with Justice Scalia gone, a more unfavorable outcome is likely if the case went to the Court.

Advertisement

Similarly, the refusal last week by Chief Justice Roberts to block an Environmental Protection Agency regulation limiting emissions of toxic chemicals from coal-fired power plants is a clear signal that the Court will be less likely to follow Justice Scalia's feverish anti-environment crusade. Interestingly, in that same case, Michigan v. Environmental Protection Agency, decided last June, Justice Scalia wrote one of his most unprincipled and unprecedented decisions. In striking down EPA's regulation, Scalia ruled that the regulation unreasonably burdened coal and oil power plants because the regulation allegedly did not take into account the industry's costs of compliance. Justice Scalia argued that it is unreasonable "to impose billions of dollars in economic costs in return for a few dollars in health or environmental benefits." Justice Scalia was wrong. The EPA , as the four dissenting Justices carefully documented, in fact conducted several lengthy cost-benefit studies, and found that the economic benefits of its regulation would exceed the industry costs nine times over, by an average of $80 billion a year, to say nothing of the 11,000 fewer premature deaths that would result annually, and the many more avoided illnesses, in the absence of the regulation.

Moreover, in an upcoming case next month, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes, Justice Scalia, who had earlier accused the US Army Corps of behaving "despotically," would almost certainly have sided with the defendant mining company against the government's claim that the Clean Water Act protects the wetlands on the company's property from being polluted. Recall Justice Scalia's inflammatory opinion in the controversial 2006 Clean Water Act case, Rapanos v. United States, in which he claimed that the Corps "exercises the discretion of an enlightened despot," disparaged the factors used by the Corp to guide its discretion, including "aesthetics," and added, bombastically, that the "immense expansion of federal regulation" over "swampy lands" would give the Corps jurisdiction over "half of Alaska and an area the size of California in the lower 48 States."

Advertisement

Too, Justice Scalia's death may have enormous implications on the fate of President Obama's Clean Power Plan. The Plan requires states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector by 32 percent by 2030. Justice Scalia shortly before his death voted to stay the EPA rule even before any lower court heard arguments on it. It's unusual for the Supreme Court to block enforcement of a rule before any lower court even considered the merits. With Justice Scalia gone the odds have improved greatly that the Plan will survive.

Justice Scalia's 30-year tenure on the Court left a devastating mark on environmental law. He authored at least a dozen key decisions on environmental law. He consistently exalted property rights over reasonable land used regulations. In one of his most controversial decisions, Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council, he ruled that a state conservation law that prevented a landowner from erecting homes on a barrier beach to protect the beach from erosion was an unconstitutional taking of private property because it deprived the owner of all economic use. Presumably, under Justice Scalia's new "total takings" doctrine, there would have been no unconstitutional taking if the value of the property had decreased by 95 percent. In Nollan v. California Coastal Commission, Justice Scalia ruled that even if the government could deny a developer a permit, it could not impose "illogical" conditions on the development, even if the condition was clearly in the public interest, such as requiring the owner of coastal property to maintain a pathway to a public beach.

Justice Scalia, uniquely in environmental cases, disregarded the principle that courts should give considerable deference to an administrative agency's interpretation of a statute. That is the holding in the landmark case of Chevron v. USA Natural Resources Defense Council. But in three cases, the only instances in the Court's history where the Court gave no deference to the agency - Justice Scalia ruled in all three cases that the agency's interpretation of a statute should not be given deference because the agency acted arbitrarily. Not surprisingly, in all three cases the agency accused of behaving arbitrarily was the EPA.

Justice Scalia appears to have considered himself a special gatekeeper to the federal courts with a mission to bar environmental litigants from entering. In several cases Justice Scalia imposed severe procedural obstacles on plaintiffs who sought to raise environmental claims in a federal court. These plaintiffs, according to Justice Scalia, had to carefully articulate that they had so-called "standing" to bring their lawsuit - that they had suffered some cognizable injury. Not surprisingly, Justice Scalia applied his standing rules almost always to environmental groups challenging federal regulations. In one of his most controversial decisions, Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, he wrote that the plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge government projects overseas that might have caused injury to certain wildlife. The plaintiffs had visited the area, and complained that government construction projects were destroying the wildlife. Despite the fact that Congress authorized citizens to sue under the Endangered Species Act, Justice Scalia found that the plaintiffs had not shown enough proof that they suffered a tangible injury.

Justice Scalia's legacy in the environmental area is formidable. Had he lived, and assuming a continued conservative Court, the anti-environment doctrines he engineered probably would have been strengthened. Without him, environmental rules have a much better chance of surviving.
Young Man Praying

Several days ago I was asked by a local news reporter what my response was to the report that Donald Trump, the leading vote getter in the Republican Presidential primary, waffled on whether or not to denounce the support of widely known White Supremacist David Duke. Normally, it would have taken me seconds to get on my rhetorical high horse and rattle off a list of reasons why I found this deplorable yet not surprising given the current public resurgence of white nationalist/supremacist sentiment in this country.

Advertisement

But instead, I found myself with only the motivation to say very little this time. With a slight smirk and a hint of fatigue in my voice, I simply responded, "no comment." That's it. That's all I said. And it wasn't because I didn't have anything more to say, it was because I just didn't feel like saying it.

These days persons like myself (that is, black and involved in fighting social injustice) are almost constantly giving explanation for the continued contested existence of black life in America and quite frankly, this can be extremely exhausting. Moreover, I contend that given all of the pervasive injustices that continue to threaten black life in America it can be said that simply the act of being black is an exercise of exhaustion. From this viewpoint, you can understand why many in the Black community who've been fighting for justice find themselves, as my Grandmother would say, "sick and tired of being sick and tired."

Justice Fatigue and Care for the Caregivers

But if the truth be told, Blacks do not have a monopoly on social justice exhaustion or "justice fatigue" as Dr. Teresa Fry Brown describes it. The fact is many people of goodwill that make up the broad rainbow coalition of those who fight for justice and inequality find themselves increasingly tired and overwhelmed these days. With all of the intractable issues in our society that seemingly won't get right or can't get right many justice workers and seekers of all kinds are finding themselves in need of a refreshing well of renewal.

This raises the important questions, who cares for the care-givers? Who shows love to those who seek the expansion of love in public policy and democracy?

Advertisement

We often speak magnanimously about loving "the unlovable" and serving "the least of these" but who cares for those who dare to take on these tasks? For example, there is a growing crisis among clergy-caregivers in the United States as it relates to self-care and wellness. Some studies have shown that possibly 70% of all pastors are stressed out and burned out. Now couple this fact with all the ministers, activists, program coordinators, nonprofit workers, legislators, attorneys, artists and academics etc., who are involved in justice work in our society and a picture will begin to emerge of a significant group in need of care.

So I ask again, who cares for the care givers?

Jesus and Care for Caregivers

In the gospel of John chapter 12, verses 1-8, the writer gives a narrative that provides us the opportunity to ponder what a faith-inspired response might be to the question who should care for the caregiver? Consider these words from the gospel:

Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, "Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages." He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. "Leave her alone," Jesus replied. "It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me." (John 12:1-8)

In this narrative Jesus is depicted to be in Bethany before Passover having dinner with friends and individuals to whom he's given care and healing in the past. At a certain point one of the individuals, named Mary, decides to take a costly perfume and anoint Jesus' feet and hair. Initially the reader is not told why Mary chooses to act in this way. But eventually in verse 7 we are told that she has been preparing to serve Jesus as a part of helping him fulfill his mission.

Advertisement

In other words, Jesus was a justice-worker and care-giver who needed at times for others to show care to him. Without this reciprocity of care it stands to reason that he would not have been able to fulfill his mission. In the same way, we all who fight for and seek justice must find ways to care for ourselves and those whom we serve must find ways to show their love and support and not wait until we are dead to give us our flowers, as the saying goes.

I understand that the process of caring for care-givers and justice workers can be tricky because there are those like Judas Iscariot in the biblical text who will attempt to exploit the process for their own personal gain. These justice hustlers, as I call them, use the work of justice and service as a mere means to gain fame, wealth and power. But the presence of Judas like justice hustlers is not good reason enough to abandon the worthy cause caring and showing love for those who give their lives caring and fighting for us. These are just some things to think about as we continue the long march toward justice!

Bible Study Questions

1. How do we address the force and structures in our society that make black life often exhausting?

2. When you read John 12:1-8, what sticks out in your mind the most about Jesus's response to Judas and his understanding of Mary's show of care? Is it important to think about the unnamed and voiceless people in the text and what they may be thinking?

3. What organizations are involved in providing care to justice workers and care-givers of various kinds? How can you be a greater support to care-givers you are connected to?

For Further Reading

Mclaren, Brian & Padilla, Elisa & Seeber, Ashley Bunting (editors). The Justice Project. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2009.

Advertisement

Spong, John Shelby. The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic. New York: HarperCollins, 2013.

Like ON Scripture on Facebook

Follow ON Scripture on Twitter @ONScripture
In 2012, Democrat Barack Obama won reelection with 51 percent of the vote compared to Republican Mitt Romney's 47 percent. Obama's victory was the result of a formidable coalition of racial minorities and progressive Whites, particularly single women. In 2016, if Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders is to prevail, they must recreate the same coalition. And, White men will be the smallest faction.

As reported by Ruy Teixeira and John Halpin in The Obama Coalition in the 2012 Election..., Obama achieved victory, "by carrying 93 percent of African American voters, 71 percent of Latino voters, 73 percent of Asian American voters, and only 39 percent of white voters."

In his recent book, "Brown is the New White," Steve Phillips claimed Obama's victory symbolizes a new American majority: "Progressive people of color now comprise 23 percent of all the eligible voters in America, and progressive Whites account for 28 percent of all eligible voters."

Advertisement

The 2016 Democratic presidential candidate must mobilize the new American majority. If they do, they won't need to carry blue-collar white men to win. In 2012, Obama got the votes of only 35 percent of white men.

The groups Clinton or Sanders needs to carry are African American voters, Latino voters, Asian American voters, and progressive White voters - particularly single women.

African American Voters: In 2012, 13 percent of voters were African American. Teixeira and Halpin noted, "[Obama's] support among African Americans was... overwhelming this year (93 percent...)." Steve Phillips observed, "African Americans are the most loyal and consistent Democratic voters in the country." They are 23 percent of the Democratic vote.

Latino voters: In 2012, 10 percent of voters were Latinos. Teixeira and Halpin reported, "Hispanics increased their share in line with their growing share of the eligible electorate." Steve Phillips noted, "Latinos are now the largest group of color in the country, ...making up 17 percent of the total U.S. population and 46 percent of all people of color in America." Phillips predicted more Latinos will vote in 2016; he estimated that if they have the same participation rate as in 2012 (less than 50 percent) they will be 14 percent of the Democratic vote.

Advertisement

Asian American voters: In 2012, 3 percent of voters were Asian American. (2 percent were of "other" race: Native American, Pacific Islanders, Arab Americans, Iranian Americans, or mixed.) Steve Phillips forecast that if, in 2016, they have the same participation rate as in 2012 (greater than 50 percent) they will be about 8 percent of the Democratic vote.

Progressive White voters: In 2012, non-Hispanic White voters were 71 percent of the electorate. In 2016, because of differential growth rates that share will decrease to 68 percent.

Of particular interest are the unmarried White women. Teixeira and Halpin reported, "President Obama did especially well among unmarried women in 2012, carrying them by 36 points (67 percent to 31 percent)... Unmarried women also made up a larger share of voters in this election--23 percent."

Extrapolating from 2012 numbers, in 2016, White non-Hispanic voters will constitute approximately 56 percent of the Democratic base. 17 percent will be unmarried White women. 16 percent will be married White women. 12 percent will be unmarried White men. And, 10 percent will be married White men.

Ranking Democratic segments In 2016 the key Democratic voting groups will be:

- African Americans, 23 percent

- Unmarried White (non Hispanic) women, 17 percent

- Married White (non Hispanic) women. 16 percent

- Latinos, 14 percent

- Unmarried White (non Hispanic) men, 12 percent

- Married White (non Hispanic) men. 10 percent

- Asian Americans (and others), 8 percent

Advertisement

This should be encouraging news for Democrats. African American voters can be expected to turnout in high numbers (unless their votes are suppressed by Republican dirty tricks). A recent Elle magazine survey found that 90 percent of single women said they were "almost certain" to vote in 2016 and most will vote Democratic. And, there's compelling evidence women will not vote for Donald Trump; the same Elle survey noted 84 percent of all women said, "they'd be unlikely to vote for a candidate who referred to women as 'fat pigs,' 'dogs,' 'slobs,' 'disgusting animals,' or 'bimbos.'"

In addition, there's strong evidence Republican anti-immigrant, anti-Hispanic rhetoric will dramatically increase the Latino voter participation rate.

Meanwhile, Democrats fret about blue-collar White men. While every vote counts, it's estimated that these White men are only 5 percent of the Democratic base. Therefore, the outreach to White men should have a low priority.
California school districts are now required to disclose their share of the Golden State's mounting debt for teacher pensions. In the past, this unfunded liability was only reported collectively, by the California Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) and the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS).

The new disclosure requirement is a positive development, as it might help California teachers understand just how severely underfunded their pensions are. K-12 educators should consider the relative security their counterparts in higher education enjoy. The difference is, in higher education, modern, 401(k)-style plans - often administered by TIAA-CREF - are the norm.

Advertisement

For those who are particularly risk-averse, annuity products can replicate the guaranteed retirement income that defined-benefit systems traditionally have provided. Unlike the stark reality of today's K-12 teacher pensions, however, most privately-administered annuity plans for higher education faculty are extremely well-funded.

In a modern, defined contribution system, all workers and retirees get an annual report on the status of their pension investments. Future retirees know if their employer ever underfunds the pension system. They additionally have the option of choosing different kinds of investment vehicles.

Under the current system, many educators will not realize how vulnerable their defined benefit programs are until they begin seeing fellow teachers laid off, as pension obligations increasingly crowd out classroom spending. Alternatively, teachers might retire only to see their benefits cut for lack of funding.

The California Legislative Analyst's Office estimates that school districts currently devoting 8.26 percent of their budgets to CalSTRS in 2016 can expect to pay 19.2 percent in 2020. These funds, sadly, will be taken from the classroom. In other words, 20 percent of "education" money will not go to current teachers or students; instead those dollars will just go to pensions.

Advertisement

For the sake of current and future teachers - not to mention the kids they serve - K-12 educators and their union representatives would do well to seriously consider the defined contribution model that has served higher education so well.
In the four years since the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released Primary Care and Public Health: Exploring Integration to Improve Population Health, there has been an increasingly urgent conversation about the need for improved collaboration between health care and public health.

Influential efforts to educate the public health and primary care communities about collaboration include, for example:

Advertisement

As a kid, I used to watch G.I. Joe. Every episode concluded with a G.I. Joe character saying, "Knowing Is Half the Battle." What I didn't realize at the time was that G.I. Joe was teaching me a lesson that would stick with me throughout my professional career -- the difference between knowing and doing.

Just knowing is not enough.

So what can people in public health and health care do? Over the past eight months, I have been on a listening tour (both online and in person) to find out what is working throughout the country and what's not.

Are you ready to move from knowing to doing? Here are some lessons I've learned from leaders in public health and health care.

Advertisement

1. Develop and educate the workforce.

Whether it's in medicine or public health, we have to educate the workforce about potential improvements that can be achieved through collaboration between these sectors.

In a Twitter chat hosted by the Healthcare Leader Blog on collaboration between public health and health care, I learned that those working in health care often don't know what public health does or has to offer. Helping our health care colleagues understand what state and local health departments can offer is important to start collaboration.

In Virginia, for example, former State Health Official Dr. Karen Remley regularly shared updates on disease trends with the provider community. In Georgia, the EPIC (Educating Physicians In their Communities) program sent teams of trained professionals to physicians' offices to teach them about important public health efforts in support of breastfeeding and immunization.

Only about half of the state public health agency workforce had heard about public health and primary care integration. Among those who had heard about it, 91 percent thought it was an important topic, and 52 percent wanted more emphasis on integration.

These data, from the Public Health Workforce Interests and Need Survey (PH WINS), demonstrate that there is a demand among the public health workforce for more information on how to partner with health care. Given this demand, governmental public health leaders should be encouraged to talk with their staff about ways to improve collaboration.

Advertisement

We will have achieved success when all public health planning considers potential partnerships and leverage points for clinical medicine.

2. Communicate & Convene.

While there's lots of conversation around the need for collaboration between public health and health care, there's more to do to get health care leaders and public health officials actually talking. It continues to surprise me that many in health care don't know who their local public health officials are. Public health may know the hospitals within their jurisdictions but often don't have the personal relationships with their leaders.

We need to find opportunities for public health and health care to talk, share experiences, and learn about each other's pain points.

Public health leaders can leverage their unique position inside government to create these opportunities through convenings and summits. Use the influence of the mayor or governor or the health official to bring health care leaders together with public health officials to start a conversation about improved partnership. We can jump-start these conversations with practical examples of health care and public health working together and how the relationship has benefited each side. If every health department nationwide did just one such convening, we would start a national conversation with the potential for significant change.

Whether in public health or health care, we need to communicate our successes more effectively. Sharing success stories from around the country where collaboration works, as we do in The Practical Playbook, is a great start.

Advertisement

3. Capitalize on Opportunities to Work Together.

"Finding opportunities to work together" sounds like a vague admonition -- until it's applied.



In January, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that kidney stones are becoming increasingly common among children in Philadelphia. This incredibly painful disease, usually found in middle-aged white men, is most likely caused by low water intake.

The medical response is, of course, to recommend that children in Philadelphia drink more water. The problem is that the water in many Philadelphia schools is warm, metallic-tasting, and discolored -- or, as one student described it, "pretty gross."

This is the perfect opportunity for public health and health care to work together. Today, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is working with the water department, the public health department, and Philadelphia schools to make clean water access a reality for all children in the city.

This kidney stone cluster wouldn't have been solved by the medical provider alone. Cross-sector partners were needed to address a community-level cause.

Examples like this are everywhere. If you're on the lookout, you can leverage them as an opportunity to create new partnerships with a lasting potential for change.

Advertisement

4. Close the Data Divide.

A movie like Moneyball might make you think that data crunching is everywhere. If statisticians can come up with a way to win the World Series, they can definitely find a way to improve our health, right?

Wrong. Despite all that we hear about "big data" and "analytics," both public health and health care face significant data challenges.

Public health professionals often find it difficult, if not impossible, to access timely, local disease and risk data, especially for chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes, and asthma. The relatively recent expansion of electronic health records as well as the emergence of other sources for digital health information has increased the availability of health care data and presented new opportunities for large-scale analysis. These developments have the potential to make the work of public health more effective, but we are still catching up when it comes to unlocking the right mix of privacy controls and technology.

Health care providers have an unimaginable amount of personal health information -- from blood tests and imaging scans to nutrition diaries, disease screens, and more. However, while individual data are deep, access to community health information that can provide vital context to an individual's opportunities to be health is almost nonexistent. Crime rates, foreclosures, places for free and safe exercise, pharmacy locations, and other such information could be critical when providing health counseling and could be included in the electronic medical record (EMR).

In the District of Columbia, a local physician remedied the problem of shallow community health information by integrating a database of local parks into his hospital's electronic medical record system. As a result, when providers want to recommend exercise to patients, they are able to give useful, location-specific examples of where they might go and how to get there.

Advertisement

5. Have Courage!

Change is never easy -- but this is the time to take action.

We spend too much on health care and get too little in return. The nature of disease in America has undergone a tremendous paradigm shift from acute to chronic illnesses. Last but not least, political and regulatory changes have already forced the tectonic plates to start shifting below the health care system's feet.

Public health and primary care have been working in their silos for a very long time. Moving towards this model of primary care and public health collaboration represents a massive social transition from an ineffective but known past to an unknown, but hopefully healthier, future.

Are you a leader of tomorrow -- someone willing to take a risk and be a health care disruptor? I hope so. It's going to take more than knowing to make a change... it's going to take a lot of doing.

Now that you know, the next step is yours...

GO JOE!

---
In Michigan, Bernie Sanders delivered "one of the greatest upsets in modern political history." At the eighth Democratic debate, Sanders remained red-hot.

He stayed true to his bread-and-butter message that corporate America cannot have it all. "Our message is resonating," Sanders said.

"We will convince the super delegates that Bernie Sanders is the strongest candidate to defeat Donald Trump," Sanders continued.

Advertisement

When Clinton attacked Sanders, the Senator swung back hard: "Madam Secretary, I will match my record with yours any day of the week."

Sanders contrasted his tough on Wall Street record with Clinton's Wall Street injected super PAC. He contrasted his vote against the war in Iraq with Clinton's vote for it.


"The most important thing we can do to help make teaching be regarded as a more prestigious career is to tell the stories of the wonderful and inspiring work they are already doing." -- Colin Hegarty

Meet the teachers who make up the Final Ten shortlist (narrowed down from 8,000 nominations in 148 countries around the world) in the Varkey Foundation's Global Teacher Prize 2016. They are Aqeela Asifi, Ayub Mohamud, Colin Hegarty, Hanan Al Hroub, Joe Fatheree, Kazuya Takahashi, Michael Soskil, Richard Johnson, Maarit Rossi and Robin Chaurasiya. The winner will be announced in an evening ceremony on March 13th at the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai when one teacher will take home a $1 million international prize. Kazuya Takahashi tells me that being in the final Top 10 makes him proud that he "made the right choice to become a teacher." It also opens his eyes to his other "great and inspiring colleagues around the globe. We teachers can work together to have a huge impact on the next generation."

Advertisement

Around the world, educators, parents and students know quality teachers matter immensely. How can we make teaching a more prestigious career? How can we entice better quality talent from more lucrative careers into classrooms? How do we retain good teachers and make sure they are where they are needed most? The Global Search for Education asked the Global Teachers Prize finalists to share their perspectives.

Colin Hegarty: The most important thing we can do to help make teaching be regarded as a more prestigious career is to tell the stories of the wonderful and inspiring work they are already doing and share that with students, parents, teachers and the wider community. Telling these positive stories shares the profound impact a teacher can have on our lives. We all connect with stories and they speak to our soul; so as well as using them to thank the great work of existing teachers, they can inspire our communities to highly regard teachers and attract brilliant people into the profession for future generations.



"We should offer prestige, respect, good conditions, and good salary for teachers."

-- Hanan Al Hroub

Hanan Al Haroub: I agree with the saying that the teachers are the real power in this world. They are the only ones who can change societies, the ones who can create productive and active generations. Using well organized plans to achieve this goal, we should offer prestige, respect, good conditions, and good salary for teachers. This will enhance the teaching profession and will increase the numbers of graduates who will look at education as a secure and future profession, and equate this profession with other famous professions such as medicine, engineering, law, etc.

Richard Johnson: Provide salaries and conditions to entice bright, innovative/creative minds and lift the profile of the profession. Look towards how we can solve the problem of teaching to the test. While standardized testing isn't going away, we can do more to make the learning journey more exciting and in fact more effective with a culture of high tech, project based learning where learners are immersed in 21st century learning skills from an early age. Retaining good teachers is a case of selecting the right ones from the beginning. Interviewing and selection processes should be in place to determine passion and temperament required for teaching.

Advertisement

Aqeela Asifi: We can make teaching more prestigious by showing its importance to the communities, and by giving it value in our society. We should invest in the education sector and give teachers the sense that their future is stable in this profession and help them realize their importance in serving their communities. Teachers should believe their future in teaching is stable. If they believe they are stable they will remain in education.



"Every young or new teacher who starts working at a school needs a good introduction to the school's practices and a mentor to help him/her during the first year." -- Maarit Rossi

Maarit Rossi: We have to change the negative image of the teacher's career to a positive, prestigious, and desirable career. We can read in newspapers that when school reforms are done, the budget is most likely undersized and the teachers are overburdened with work. Administration should provide proper funds and support so that teachers can manage their work. Every young or new teacher who starts working at a school needs a good introduction to the school's practices and a mentor to help him/her during the first year. When a salary is on the right level in a society, it also tells the members that the profession is valued. In many countries, the teacher's salary is low compared to other similar level professions.

Joe Fatheree: Public opinion about the value of a teacher must change for the profession to be considered prestigious enough to lure our brightest minds into seriously considering education as a viable career. Respect is a missing ingredient for many professional educators. Career lattices, pay, and working conditions are important additional factors. However, the most significant concern I hear from prospective candidates and veteran teachers is they want their efforts and opinions to matter and be respected by all members of the greater community.

Mike Soskil: Effective leaders will affirm that inspired and empowered individuals are more productive and exceed expectations. Unfortunately, many efforts to reform education through standardization of teaching and learning, and shifting control from classrooms to boardrooms have served to disenfranchise educators. Instead of having their professional expertise valued and used to improve the lives of their students, teachers are being told to conform to programs developed by outsiders with no knowledge of the individual needs of students. If we wish to attract talented individuals into the teaching profession and retain excellent teachers already in service, we must organize our educational systems so students, teachers, parents, administrators, and policy makers are partners rather than a control-based hierarchy. We must focus on providing inspiration, support, and autonomy to teachers so that they may provide the same to students. Only when we treat teachers as the professionals that they are, will we see the success that we desire in our schools.

Advertisement



"Only when we treat teachers as the professionals that they are will we see the success that we desire in our schools." -- Mike Soskil

Ayub Mohamud: We can make teaching a more prestigious career by investing time and energy on the creativity and innovation of teachers and students in their classrooms and communities. Also making teaching lucrative and rewarding will create avenues where teachers can support the students to become the next innovators who are changing their communities and schools. This will greatly contribute to practical educational models where students learn practical skills in schools and set up sustainable businesses and also come up with solutions to their developmental challenges. Additionally, connecting the corporate leaders and teachers in the classrooms will also allow exchange of knowledge and skills to help teachers better do their work in the classroom.

Robin Chaurasi: I can't speak for the whole world, but I can speak for India in saying that teaching is considered an "if all else fails" career. And this is also the mentality of schools and employers: if one leaves, we can find another. Very few people are concerned about quality, accountability, or sustainability. Clearly, India's many teaching fellowships are also not designed to lure teachers in for a lifetime or long term career, they are only (very) short-term solutions. For the younger generation making career choices, I think this has a lot to do with the lack of investment in teachers as well as the unreasonable requests made of them, e.g. to teach classrooms of 50-100 students, to catch up children who are 5-10 years behind.

Kazuya Takahasi: There is not a simple answer. Education is the only way to change the world. If teachers and business people work together, as my school's students worked with a social entrepreneur in Indonesia, schools can teach students that they can change the world through business. Keep working on strengthening a relationship between schools and business, there might emerge a new movement. So the best way to show teaching is a prestigious career is to educate kind and passionate challengers in the business world. They know education is as important as business.

Advertisement

(All photos are courtesy of Apollo and CMRubinWorld)

Join me and globally renowned thought leaders including Sir Michael Barber (UK), Dr. Michael Block (U.S.), Dr. Leon Botstein (U.S.), Professor Clay Christensen (U.S.), Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond (U.S.), Dr. MadhavChavan (India), Professor Michael Fullan (Canada), Professor Howard Gardner (U.S.), Professor Andy Hargreaves (U.S.), Professor Yvonne Hellman (The Netherlands), Professor Kristin Helstad (Norway), Jean Hendrickson (U.S.), Professor Rose Hipkins (New Zealand), Professor Cornelia Hoogland (Canada), Honourable Jeff Johnson (Canada), Mme. Chantal Kaufmann (Belgium), Dr. EijaKauppinen (Finland), State Secretary TapioKosunen (Finland), Professor Dominique Lafontaine (Belgium), Professor Hugh Lauder (UK), Lord Ken Macdonald (UK), Professor Geoff Masters (Australia), Professor Barry McGaw (Australia), Shiv Nadar (India), Professor R. Natarajan (India), Dr. Pak Tee Ng (Singapore), Dr. Denise Pope (US), Sridhar Rajagopalan (India), Dr. Diane Ravitch (U.S.), Richard Wilson Riley (U.S.), Sir Ken Robinson (UK), Professor Pasi Sahlberg (Finland), Professor Manabu Sato (Japan), Andreas Schleicher (PISA, OECD), Dr. Anthony Seldon (UK), Dr. David Shaffer (U.S.), Dr. Kirsten Sivesind (Norway), Chancellor Stephen Spahn (U.S.), Yves Theze (LyceeFrancais U.S.), Professor Charles Ungerleider (Canada), Professor Tony Wagner (U.S.), Sir David Watson (UK), Professor Dylan Wiliam (UK), Dr. Mark Wormald (UK), Professor Theo Wubbels (The Netherlands), Professor Michael Young (UK), and Professor Minxuan Zhang (China) as they explore the big picture education questions that all nations face today.

The Global Search for Education Community Page
Happy IWD from Geneva!

Where we are stepping it up and working towards #Planet 5050 seeking to make everyday a positive fight for gender parity throughout our Geneva Gender Champions initiative.

Already the GGC Panel Parity Pledge has begun to change the complexion of panels. Every Geneva Gender Champion has taken the simple Panel Parity Pledge in which they promise not speak on all male panels, (or all female panels dealing with 'Women's Issues' dealing with the other 50% of the population).

We are told no male Champion has had to forego a speaking engagement since they took the GGC Panel Parity Pledge.

Evidently, when Champions and staff have alerted panel organizers that Champions have pledged not speak on all male panels, EVERY Champion in our network got a response to remedy the situation when the panel was previously all male. Excellent female speakers were added to each of the events that formerly were all male. Would that all change is so simple!

(We are seeking to evaluate this impact in a measurement scheme; more back on this soon.)

Advertisement

Take a look at all the other commitments here from The World Trade Organization, World Meterological Organization, the World Bank Group, World Intellectual Property Organization, UNRISD, UNITAR, UNIDIR, UNICEF, UNHCR, UNECE, UNCTAD, Interpeace, International Trade Centre, International Organization for Migration, International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva Centre for Security Policy, CERN, GAVI, CARE International,

and the Permanent Representatives to the UN in Geneva from

Viet Nam, Uruguay, Turkey, Thailand, Sweden, Malta, South Korea, Slovenia, Singapore, Senegal, Philippines, Pakistan, Norway, New Zealand, Mozambique, Mexico, Latvia, Japan, Italy, Israel, Ireland, Iceland, Greece, Germany, Finland , Fiji, European Union, Denmark, Croatia, Costa Rica, China, Chile, Canada, Brazil, Belgium, Austria, Australia, and Albania

Advertisement

We are forming Impact Groups and programming for change within and without our organizations. Externally looking to international fora, and internally to workplace culture and human resource policies that constrain.

We're working together for impact enlisting International Organizations big and small, Ambassadors and their Missions from East and West, South and North, civil society from one person NGOs to the largest International NGOs, Academia, and our first corporate sistren and brethren. We're trying to move the needle.

Talk to us next year and let's see how much we have changed.
MIAMI BEACH, FL - MARCH 10: Hillary Clinton Talks With Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine For His SiriusXM Show 'The Mayor' at Fontainebleau Hotel on March 10, 2016 in Miami Beach, Florida. (Photo by Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images for SiriusXM)

With Trump continuing to dominate in the primaries, it's become even clearer -- like looking through Hillary's prism glasses -- that his nomination is all but sewn up and inevitable. And though Bernie Sanders' win in Michigan was a surprise to most (not to me), the nomination is still Hillary Clinton's to lose.

But regardless of whether it's Trump, Cruz, or [insert someone: cough: Romney], for the Democrats to win in November, Clinton will need to get the young vote back on her side-- the way Obama got it in 2008. And one way she can do that is by offering an olive branch to the entire Democratic party and choose Bernie Sanders as her running mate.

Advertisement

It's no surprise that democrats--and liberals as a whole--don't really vote. It's not that we don't like to vote, or aren't angry at the usual political gridlock, or that we don't have strong political views, it's just that we don't care. It seems like something always comes up on election day.

If there were ever a JPEG that perfectly summarized the impotence of the young, under 35, liberal voter, it's this text that I got from a girl friend who lives in Nevada on the day of the Nevada caucus:

As a friend, I was supportive. The Nevada caucus was contentious, with Clinton eking out a win by just under five-percent. But it's tough to argue with her decision. Liberals all across the country have long-struggled with the decision of, "Do I want to stand in line for three hours with no WiFi, or go pound some High Life and find some random girl to hook up with."

"Voter disengagement" is what I call it. Liberals are fluent in it, and it's long been a major problem for them in past elections.

Advertisement

It's well-known that conservatives will unflinchingly trek through endlessly connected fast-food parking lots just to vote. If you told a conservative that they'd have to drink a gallon of Flint water just to vote, they would. Because conservatives view voting as a priority--a must. Liberals view voting as more of an annoyance.

Conservatives are angry. Ok. I agree. They're also fed up with a flaccid government (second erection reference). But whether their anger is justified or directed in the right place, is moot. Anger is what puts voters in the booths. And the Republicans know this.
US President Barack Obama speaks to the press following a meeting with financial regulators at the White House in Washington, DC, on March 7, 2016 to receive an update on their progress in implementing Wall Street reform. / AFP / Nicholas Kamm (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

There is a lot going on in the political world to talk about today, but in the background of the raging presidential campaign President Barack Obama hit a second-term milestone today. His job approval polling average is now once again "above water" -- defined as more people who approve of the job he's doing than disapprove. This might not sound all that momentous, but it is actually the first time in almost three years that it has happened. Obama's public job approval has been on a major upswing this year, which (if it continues) might significantly boost the chances of the Democratic nominee winning in November. So while Obama's poll rise hasn't been a topic for conversation in the presidential race so far, it could prove decisive later on.

As I mentioned, there are plenty of other things to focus on -- which may, in fact, be the point. There were crucial primaries last night. Bernie Sanders scored an impressive upset in Michigan. Donald Trump's steamroller hasn't slowed down. Marco Rubio should be contemplating whether to drop out before Florida votes next week. Ted Cruz is now the only viable Republican alternative to Trump. Democrats are debating again tonight, and Republicans hold another of their on-screen brawls tomorrow night. Next Tuesday's voting could lock the race up on either side. So there's no shortage of things to talk about.

Advertisement

But, again, this might be the whole point. Congress has been fairly quiet of late, due to the budget deal cut last year when John Boehner made his exit (no fiscal cliffs or shutdowns in sight, unlike this season during previous years). There's going to be an enormous battle over Obama's Supreme Court judicial nomination, but until he actually names someone this fight has been far in the background for most people. The presidential race has been sucking up all the oxygen in the political world, to put all of this another way.

Presidential elections get people to focus on politics who normally don't pay much attention. A lot of them are probably remembering why they voted for Obama in the first place, right about now. Obama certainly looks a lot more presidential than some of those vying to take his place, to put it mildly. And both Democrats running, whether they choose it or not, will get described as running for "Barack Obama's third term," insuring that Obama's legacy will be a matter for debate all the way to November.

Hillary Clinton has fully embraced this concept, much more than Bernie Sanders, but they still both have some nice things to say about Obama on the stump. Obama is still very popular among Democrats, so they're playing to their audience by doing so. They're doing a good job of talking up his record, something Obama himself has been notably bad at doing for his entire presidency.

At the same time, the Republicans are describing their view of the smoking hellscape that America has become under the foul tyrant Obama. Many independent voters are looking around and wondering how unhinged from reality these candidates truly have become. Unemployment is below five percent and businesses are hiring once again. The auto industry is doing fine. Sure, America has long-term problems, but many of these existed before Obama ever began his run for the White House and many of them will exist long afterwards. Obamacare hasn't killed jobs, and tens of millions have actually benefited from it. None -- that's zero -- of the doom-and-gloom catastrophes predicted by Republicans during Obama's term in office have come to pass. Oh, and gas is finally cheap again. Things ain't so bad out there, which is a serious disconnect from the way Republican candidates are portraying the current situation to their base voters.

Advertisement

All of this has added up to the American public being pretty bullish on the job Obama's been doing. This trend started in December of last year, and has shot upwards amazingly fast in 2016. In the "rolling average" of all public polling at Real Clear Politics, Obama hit his milestone today as 48.4 percent of the public now approves of the job he's doing, while only 47.4 percent disapprove (these figures are "as of this writing" -- sometimes they get adjusted throughout the day). That is one full percent above water, which might not sound like that big a deal, but when you consider that the last day this was true for Obama was June 7, 2013, you can better understand its importance.

Obama was sworn into his second term with an approval rating above 50 percent, in what is known as the "honeymoon" period (this was his "second honeymoon," of course). A majority of the public always approves of the president it just elected, to state the obvious. But, usually within the first six months or so, the honeymoon period almost always wears off. In Obama's case, this dropoff was dramatic and crossed over into "underwater" territory in June of his first year (of his second term). For almost three years, it has stayed beneath the waves. Today, it crossed back over.

By the end of 2013, Obama's daily job approval average had briefly dipped below 40 percent. This coincided (not surprisingly) with the government shutdown battle and the disastrous rollout of the Obamacare website. At his lowest point, he was more than 12 percent below water in the polls. In 2014, Obama recovered somewhat at the beginning of the year (up to around 44 percent), but then fell back to the range of 41 to 42 percent. He spent most of the year below water by double digits. After the second grim midterm election for Obama, he actually got a big boost at the start of 2015. But after this quick rise, he hovered in the range of 45 to 46 percent all year long, and he was below water by over four percent for the whole time. At the end of last year, he slumped back down to below 44 percent, finishing the year off at 43.6 percent -- and almost eight percent underwater. That was only two and a half months ago.

Since then, Obama has seen a burst of good news in the polling. Today's daily job approval average of 48.4 percent is almost a full five points higher than where he started the year -- and that's a remarkably steep rise for such a short period of time. Some of Obama's individual polls are even better. The last two polls taken nationwide were the NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll, which put Obama at 49 percent approval, and the ABC News-Washington Post poll, which put him at 51 percent.

Of course, polls go up and they go down. This all could be just a temporary spike in the polling. As mentioned, the president is about to wage a huge fight over the Supreme Court with Senate Republicans. Having such a fight might even improve Obama's standing with the public, since it will all be about Obama's political legacy. Or it could cause a downswing -- anything's possible in polling.

Two-term presidents don't normally see big polling improvements during their final year in office, except for a kind of reverse-honeymoon which normally happens during their lame-duck period (their final three months in office). The public is usually willing to cut the outgoing president a break, even if they just elected the other party's guy to replace him. Even George W. Bush saw his approval rise modestly, at the very end (up from 25 percent approval to only 29 percent approval, but a slight rise nonetheless). But it's rare for a second-term president to see such gains at the start of his final year in office, rather than at the end. So far, Obama's trend has been pretty solid for the past three months, so it seems like it is more than just a momentary blip.

If Obama's rise in the polls proves to be temporary, and his numbers sink beneath the waves once again, then the milestone he reached today won't be that memorable or remarkable. But if he sustains the level of approval he is currently at -- or continues to improve -- then it's going to be a lot easier for Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders to get elected in November. There is a direct correlation between how a president is seen in the public eye during an election year and how well their party does at the ballot box. The message of "stay the course" becomes a lot easier to make when most of the public approves of that course.

President Obama's average daily approval rating is above water for the first time in roughly 1,000 days. Not many have noticed this milestone yet, but if he continues to improve or even just holds onto his recent gains, it'll be a subject that will garner a lot of attention -- especially out on the campaign trail.

Advertisement

Chris Weigant blogs at:
There is no other way of guarding oneself against flattery than by letting men understand that they will not offend you by speaking the truth. . . .

Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

Herewith a few suggestions for Donald Trump that may be of help to him when he becomes president. That he needs them is suggested, among other things, by recent comparisons of him to Adolf Hitler. The most recent comparison was made by Anne Frank's stepsister, Eva Schloss, who, in an essay to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, said that Mr. Trump was "acting like another Hitler by inciting racism." In early March some commentators said that when those attending Trump rallies raise their right hands in what appears to be a salute, they seem to be performing a current version of the "Heil Hitler" salute seen at Nazi rallies. Mr. Trump has said that suggestions that it is a form of "Heil Hitler" are "ridiculous. His fans are simply pretending to be taking the oath of office he will be taking when he is sworn in. The gesture is frequently accompanied by the shout of "Do the swear in, do the swear in."

Advertisement

Because of many of the things that have been said during the past few weeks, it is none too soon to suggest that Mr. Trump should begin considering steps he can take to control the sorts of disrespectful things that will certainly increase when he enters the White House. He has already said that "[O]ne of the things I am going to do if I win . . . .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." Although that is a great idea, he should consider additional steps that have been taken by some of our close allies to make sure their elected officials receive the kind of respect to which the offices they hold entitle them.

As soon as he is elected Mr. Trump should persuade Congress to pass a law similar to one in Turkey that makes insulting the president a crime. Such a law has proved highly effective in that country where 1,845 cases have been brought against Turkish citizens for insulting their president, Recep Tayyan Erdogan. People have been charged for such things as media posts that are critical of the president or newspaper stories that are critical of him. On March 4, 2016, President Erdogan's riot police took over the largest opposition newspaper in Turkey, throwing out its editors and journalists. Over the weekend Erdogan supporters were installed and on March 7, when the next edition of the paper appeared, instead of criticism of the administration it was filled with praise for its activities.

It is not only to Turkey that Mr. Trump can look for guidance. In Thailand, a 15-year sentence awaits anyone insulting the king, queen, heir, or regent. A former stock broker was recently sentenced to six years in prison for Facebook postings that were deemed offensive to the king and, thus, a violation of royal defamation laws.

Our long time friend and ally, South Korea, has a somewhat different, bur equally useful approach to insure the president receives the respect she deserves. Although the South Korean Constitution guarantees freedom of expression, that guarantee is weakened by defamation laws that provide that comments that are deemed not to be in the public interest, can result in a 3-year prison sentence, if they are true, and a seven-year prison sentence, if they are not true. That is a valuable tool to make sure that a president can act in the country's best interests without fear of criticism from people who don't have a clear understanding of what the president is doing.

Advertisement

According to Park Kyung-sin, a professor of law at Korea University, "the government is especially sensitive about defending the personal reputation of the president." Although bills have been proposed in Parliament that would weaken the laws making it a crime to make comments not deemed to be in the public interest even if true, they have all failed.

Instead, the government has pushed through Parliament even tighter restrictions on what can be said. One anti-government law maker said of the newly enacted legislation, during a 10-hour filibuster, that he could never "support this attempt to place a dog collar on the people." An activist who had spread a rumor that the reason the President of South Korea did not respond in a timely fashion to the sinking of the ferry that killed 304 people, was because she was in the midst of a romantic encounter with a former aide. The house of the protestor who spread that rumor was searched and the protestor arrested and interrogated. Following his release, he called the arresting officers "running dogs for the government" and he and colleagues threw dog food in front of the prosecutor's office shouting "bow-wow."
Introduction:

The announcement of two Iron Age seals from Jerusalem is most welcome, and fascinating (see the final two paragraphs of this blog post for a summary of the significance). Both of these seals are about 2700 years old, dating to the late 8th or early 7th centuries BCE. These were found on scientific excavations that have been conducted in Jerusalem by Drs. Doron Ben-Ami, Yana Tchekhanovets, and Salome Doron. The photos of the seals that have been released are those of Clara Amit, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority. http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/63019/meet-elihana-bat-gael-first-temple-era-woman-valor-jerusalem/#gOXCWYRql3uqvEgY.97

I. The Broader Context of the Jerusalem Seals

Seals were part and parcel of the economic and legal activities of the people of the ancient Near Eastern world, particularly the elites. Seals would be used in cases, for example, of the purchase or sale of something of substantial value (e.g., land, precious metals), or in the case of a marriage, or divorce, or adoption (etc.). Within Iron Age Israel, Judah, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Phoenicia, Philistia, and Syria, stamps seals were very commonly used. Many seals have been found on scientific excavations in these regions. Most of these seals are quite round and have about the same diameter as a small coin (although they are thicker than coins). Most were made of attractive, and sometimes rare, stones (incised with a sharp incising tool, made of metal). Most seals have holes drilled through them so that a string ("cord") could be attached to them (see Genesis 38:18 for a reference to a seal on a cord, in the story about Judah and Tamar). Some were attached in antiquity to a ring, and on rare occasions (such as tomb contexts), the seal and ring are found together. Seals with words inscribed on them are called "Epigraphic Seals." Seals without words inscribed on them are called "Anepigraphic Seals." Seals with imagery (e.g., animals, people) on them are called "Iconic Seals." Seals without imagery are called "Aniconic Seals." Some seals have words and imagery, some just imagery, some just words. Seals are often divided into "lines." Each line is referred to as a "register."

Advertisement

There are some particularly nice references to seals and sealing practices in the Hebrew Bible. Among the most detailed descriptions is the one contained in the book of Jeremiah, a prophet of the late First Temple and early Exilic Periods. Within this biblical text (Jeremiah 32), the prophet is said to have purchased a field from a kinsman of his, in the tenth year of Judean King Zedekiah (ca. 587 BCE, just as Jerusalem was about to fall to King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon). Jeremiah is said to have signed a deed of purchase, in the presence of witnesses. There were two copies of this deed (both probably written on papyrus), one the "open copy" and one the "sealed copy." The open copy would normally be retained for rapid reference and would often have been kept by the purchaser (or a close associate). The sealed copy, however, would normally be archived, often in the house of a scribe, or in an archive of a palace or temple. The sealed copy was the binding legal copy and would only be opened if and when there was some reason to verify in a decisive legal fashion the fact or the nature of the agreement (e.g., purchase, or sale, or marriage, or adoption, or divorce, etc.). In any case, the sealed copy would be rolled up or folded up, and a string would be wrapped around it and then a small clump of wet clay would be attached carefully and precisely to the string, and then the parties to the agreement would press their seals into the clumps of wet clay (the result would be an impression of the seal in the clay, the impressed clumps of clay are referred to as "bullae," sing: "bulla"). The seals would serve as proof of the event (e.g., purchase, sale, marriage, divorce, adoption). Note that seals are normally incised (i.e., made) in mirror image, so that when they are impressed into the clay, the resulting image is positive (i.e., in the correct orientation). Within the narrative of Jeremiah, the prophet Jeremiah gives both the sealed copy and the open copy to Baruch ben Neriah for safe keeping.

II. The Readings of the Two New Jerusalem Seals

The first seal reads (Register 1): L'lyhnh; (Register 2): bt. g'l. Translation: (Register 1): Belonging to 'Elyhnh; (Register 2): daughter of Go'el. As is customary for seals, this seal (and the other one) begin with the letter lamed, that is, the "Lamed of Ownership." The first personal name on this seal (i.e., on the first register) consists of two basic morphemes: 'ly and hnh. Note that it is also arguably possible that the yod (y) is to be associated with the second morpheme (as a marker of the imperfect tense), rather than the first. In any case, the first morpheme is from the root meaning "to be high" and is associated with a number of personal names and divine names (e.g., the personal name 'Eli in Samuel and the divine name 'Elyon, for example, in Deut 32:8-9, et passim). The second basic morpheme is arguably that of the root nwh, in the Hiphil stem. From this verbal root come various names, including the personal name Noah of Genesis (Gen 6, et passim) and Samson's father (Manoah, Judg 13). At this time, I would suggest that an acceptable translation of this personal name on the seal is something such as "God Most High has brought rest." The second register begins with the standard word for daughter, that is, bt. Although this is not the first seal of a woman to be found, such seals are always of substantial importance because they were, and thus are, quite rare. The second personal name (G'l) is the standard word for "Redeemer" (e.g, a kinsman redeemer). This root is well attested in the Hebrew Bible. For example, Boaz is referred to as a kinsman redeemer (e.g., Ruth 3:13, et passim), because he functioned as a kinsman redeemer for the land and family of Elimelech. In the case of this seal from Jerusalem, that same root word is used as the basis of a personal name. Of course, the putative linguistic symmetry of the two verbal roots for the personal names on this seal is quite nice, with the first personal name referring to "bringing rest" and the second root revolving around the semantic realm of "kinsman redeemer," (cf. Ruth 1:9, with Naomi's statement that she hopes her daughters-in-law could find "rest" (nwh) in the house of a different husband, after the death of Naomi's two sons).

Advertisement

The second seal can be read (Register 1): LS'ryhw. b (or LS'dyhw b); (Register 2): n.Sbnyhw. Translation: (Register 1): Belonging to Sa'aryahu (or Sa'adyahu), so- (Register 2): -n of Shebnayahu (with the word for "son" beginning at the end of the first register and concluding at the beginning of the second register, as is fairly typical at times in seals). The more difficult aspect of this seal is the proper reading of the fourth letter of the first register. The apparent morphology of the head of that letter in the published photo is strongly suggestive of a dalet, rather than a resh (because of what appears to be a slight overlap over of the head). But the length of the stem of that letter is more suggestive of a resh. To be absolutely certain of the reading (i.e., of the morphology of this letter), therefore, I'd prefer to be able to look at this under a microscope myself. Perhaps I can do that soon, permissions permitting. In any case, for the sake of argument, I will discuss both potential morphemes (i.e., of the reading dalet and of the reading resh) for the personal name on the first register. For S'r, the lexeme is arguably the one that has the basic meaning "to visit, inspect, conduct affairs," or the lexeme "heavy gale, high wind, to drive away, to blow away." I slightly prefer the former lexeme, if the reading resh is accepted. Conversely, for the reading S'd, the lexeme is arguably the one meaning "support, strengthen." The presence of the yahwistic theophoric is also to be noted, as this is a nice marker of a Judean personal name, something that makes sense in a Jerusalem context, of course. The personal name of the second register (Shebnyahu) is attested in the Hebrew Bible and in the epigraphic record. For example, within Isaiah and Kings (Is 36:3; 2 Kgs 18:18, etc.), there is reference to an official state scribe during the time of Hezekiah (r. ca. 715-687 BCE) as Shebna (a shortened form of the same name on the seal; for additional references to this personal name, see Neh 9:4; 10:5, 12:14, etc.). Epigraphic references include the Old Hebrew Arad Inscriptions (e.g., Arad 27, late 7th/early 6th centuries BCE) and arguably the Royal Steward Inscription of Jerusalem (late 8th century BCE). In terms of meaning, some have suggested that the tri-literal root of this personal name means something such as "to come near, close." Perhaps.

III. Script, Language, and Date

The script of both of these seals is the standard Old Hebrew script. The script of both seals is nicely done, certainly the work of a trained seal maker (for an important reference in Second Temple Jewish Literature to a seal-maker, see especially Ben Sira 38:27). I have seen some suggestions by some scholars that the script of the 'Elyhnh Seal might be Ammonite. This is definitely not the case. The script of both of these seals is Old Hebrew. Note in particular the stance of the bet (on both seals), reflective of the standard recumbent stance of the Old Hebrew, rather than Ammonite. Regarding the date, I would contend that a date in the late 8th century or early 7th century BCE is the best palaeographic date. Regarding language, it can be said that the language of both of these seals is Old Hebrew, and, of course, the presence of the (Judean) Yahwistic theophoric on the Ben Shebnyahu Seal argues for this as well. Finally, I should also like to emphasize that the reason it was quite rare for women to have seals was not because, as some have apparently suggested, because of the "generally inferior economic status of women." Rather, I would contend that it was because ancient Near Eastern societies (including that of the Iron Age Levant) were patriarchal. For this reason, men were normally responsible for most of the agreements that would require the sealing of documents. There were certainly some exceptions, as reflected in the lofty narratives about Job's daughters (Job 42), the daughters of Zelophehad (Num 27), and the Noble Wife (Prov 31). But the biblical and epigraphic evidence converge to suggest that men were the normal brokers of agreements requiring sealed documents.

In sum, these two seals are Old Hebrew. They are both well done, the work of a well-trained seal maker. The palaeographic date that I would assign to them is that of the chronological horizon that spans from the late 8th century to the early 7th century BCE. The Yahwistic theophorics are predictable, but still important. The fact that one of these seals is that of a woman demonstrates that she was a very prominent woman indeed, someone who must have engaged in business and legal activities that necessitated her owning a seal. This is most impressive and certainly the most important component of these new finds.

Advertisement
An estimated 44,000 ex-felons in Maryland will have an easier time regaining the right to vote after being released from prison, following the end of a heated fight between the state's governor and its legislature.

Without a vote to spare, backers of bills (SB 340, HB 980) to allow ex-felons' voting privileges to be restored immediately upon their release from prison squeaked to a hairsbreadth 29-18 vote victory in the state Senate on February 9. To overturn the governor's veto, legislators had to muster affirmative votes from three-fifths of each chamber of the state's General Assembly.

The state Senate override vote had been postponed for months, as supporters and opponents battled over votes. The Senate tally generally followed party lines, although four Democratic senators from more conservative areas sided with opponents. In fact, the override succeeded only on the second try on the day it came up. The first attempt fell one vote short, as one senator left the chamber right before it came time to vote; a second vote after the missing senator returned eventually put the measure over the top.

Advertisement

The state's lower legislative chamber, the House of Delegates, had voted to override by an equally narrow 85-56 margin the previous month. In the votes, the Democratic-dominated Maryland legislature continued its unbroken streak of successfully overriding all six vetoes to date by first-term Republican governor Larry Hogan.

Maryland's new law will take effect in March, and as a result, will no longer require released ex-felons to complete all terms of their sentence - such as parole or probation - before being legally refranchised. Until a 2007 law signed by former governor Martin McNally (D), Maryland had not allowed restoration of ex-felons' voting privileges.

States differ widely in how they treat re-enfranchisement of former felons. Two states (Maine and Vermont) let persons convicted of felonies continue voting even while they are serving prison terms. Three states (Florida, Kentucky and Iowa) have lifetime bars on convicted felons voting. Maryland now joins 13 other states and the District of Columbia in permitting felons voting rights as soon as they are released; seventeen states require not just release, but completion of the ex-offender's sentence, including any required parole or probation.

Advocates of the change argued it would help ease prisoners' re-entry into society; some cited a study done for the Florida Parole Commission, which found that ex-offenders who had their voting rights restored had a recidivism rate only about one-third as high as ex-offenders who were not permitted to vote after their release. Others pointed to the stricter law's heavier impact on minority group members. Some also argued making the end of incarceration, rather than completion of all post-incarceration conditions would be far easier for state election officials to administer.

Advertisement

Opponents of the measure attempted to counter by arguing it was not supported by the public, which they said looked with alarm at proposals to make imprisonment less onerous. Some predicted that voters would retaliate at the polls against legislators voting to make it easier for felons to regain voting rights.

Electoral calculations may also have been on the minds of some proponents of the measure, as political analysts noted that about 20,000 of the ex-offenders who could gain immediate access to the ballot box come from Baltimore, and would be eligible to vote in this spring's primary contests there in hotly contested mayoral and City Council elections, as well as the November general elections.
When I was growing up in Alabama, my Dad warned me to never talk politics in public.

I didn't listen. Fast forward to my adult life in New York City and I think it's big fun to sit home and have two or three glasses of red wine while watching a Republican debate meltdown into Donald Trump's pants. But, maybe I should let my thoughts gestate a bit before I shout out three or four snarky Facebook status updates onto the internet as if I'm some cheap armchair pundit.

It's not as if my ridicule is going to challenge anyone to think outside their own partisan sandbox. If I'm lucky, I'll get a few "likes," affirmation that I'm preaching to my own choir.

But there is all kinds of vitriolic shouting coming from across the partisan divide on Facebook, Twitter and even Instagram this campaign season. Even among left leaning friends, I've seen comment threads devolve quickly from healthy debate into junk filled bombastic tirades over Hillary and Bernie.

Advertisement

Beliefs get shredded, insults hurled and intelligence questioned. Then come the threats to "unfollow" or "unfriend." Exactly how does cutting off contact with someone with opposing ideology further discussion, debate and democracy?

Around two years ago, Pew Research Center spelled out how deep the partisan divide in America actually is. They surveyed 10,000 Americans and found that "Republicans and Democrats are more divided along ideological lines -- and partisan antipathy is deeper and more extensive -- than at any point in the last two decades."

The 2014 report confirms that "ideological silos" are now common on both the political left and right. People with down-the-line ideological positions -- especially conservatives -- are more likely than others to say that most of their close friends share their political views.

Take me for example. I was born and raised in the reddest of states, Alabama. But for most of my life, I've lived here in very blue New York City, and I'd wager that the majority of my friends, including those on Facebook share my progressive values. That said, I know I have a few friends who are proudly conservative, and scattered in that mix, I'd bet there are a few moderates.

Advertisement

I'd like to believe social media could play a role in furthering democracy. But are we more likely willing participants in increasingly segregated partisan echo chambers? I wanted some perspective so I sought out some political experts to help me understand.

"There's no question that we are self segregating by ideological perspectives more than we have before, at least in my lifetime," said Brian Balogh, a co-host of Backstory with the American History Guys, the public radio program and podcast that brings historical perspective to current events.

Balogh says he thinks social media hardens the divide because communication online is so instantaneous. People says things they might not have, face to face, and define themselves as being "against" the opposing view. This adversarial political dynamic is nothing new.

"For much of the 19th century, the metaphor most commonly used for politics was war. You didn't pick and choose your political preference. It was deeply embedded in both you and your family's identity. It was just men who voted and you voted the way your father did. Your political party and ideology was as much a part of your identity as your ethnicity," says Balogh.

The political parties characterized themselves as armies. They would gather at massive torchlight parades where citizens would speak, argue and debate all through the night, Balogh says.

Advertisement

Social media is the modern-day version of all that, Balogh says with a caveat: "In general I believe in free expression. But, I do think we need a safe space in social media for constructive political discussion and debate, a place where people's patriotism, integrity and persons aren't threatened," because they hold opposing views"

He also says people might want to take a few minutes and think about what they are writing in a Facebook update, before posting it online for the world to see.

Balough said his Dad once told him to never write a letter in anger before waiting one full day before mailing it. And that got me thinking about some of the comments I've made on Facebook during Republican debates.

"If you had to do it again, do you think you might have made a more effective and slightly more dispassionate post if you had waited a day?"

Balogh says he finds it useful to read and understand opinions written by intelligent people who hold different political views than his, that knowledge and understanding helps him defend and argue his own viewpoints more effectively.

Advertisement

After all, what we say or share on Facebook has the potential to elicit an instant response from an acquaintance, friend or relative who might be opposed to our political viewpoints.

"We all have that conservative or liberal uncle that will chime in and start a war with your left-leaning friends via a Facebook comment thread," said New Jersey-based Democratic Party political operative Michael Embrich, who is also former spokesman for the internet freedom group TestPac.

He said he steers clear of confrontation in those situations.

"The unwritten rule about this type of situation is, keep your mouth shut, avoid conflict, don't get sucked into the Facebook rubicon," said Embrich.

Embrich says he has a few political friends, including people embedded in a U.S. senator's office, who claimed they would delete any Facebook friends who "Like" or support Trump.



"The post did not go over smoothly. I think the threads are up to about 500 comments, if it hasn't been deleted already," said Embrich.

There are actually tools that enable Facebook users to see which friends have "liked" Trump.

But Florida-based political strategist Mary Anna Mancuso, founder of the conservative blog Politicalhype.com says when people post threats to "de-friend" or "unfollow" those who do not support their candidate, or share in their political beliefs, it does not help bring people together for healthy debate.

Advertisement

"When people post their comments about various political topics they're not necessarily contributing to the political divide, rather, they are engaging in an ongoing discussion utilizing Facebook as their sounding board. This election cycle for better or worse has gotten people talking and engaged on some level with a candidate or campaign," says Mancuso.

She contends that the 2016 Presidential election is not more heated or divided than campaigns past, but it is more amplified as a result of both parties having their own "extreme" candidates in Trump and Sanders.

Mancuso says constructive debate and discourse is great, but when people launch into personal attacks and take shots at one another, the exchange becomes a problem and is no longer constructive.

Political strategist Maria Katrien Heslin says when "adding your two cents" online, come armed with facts and logic.

"Differences of opinion on any topic should be welcomed by us all -- when the opinions are delivered and received with respect, and when they are backed up with facts and logic," said Heslin, who was also Bloomington, Indiana's first female Deputy Mayor.

Advertisement

Heslin says when it comes to politics, a lot of people are not terribly well informed, yet feel the urge to share what they think of as their truth.

"They allow their self-identity to be so enmeshed in their particular viewpoint, so they cling fervently and lash out at others who may disagree with them," says Heslin.

And, she says, understanding why people think the way they do is critical to having a civil and adult dialogue.

"The rules on social media should be simple," she says. "Know your facts, communicate your positions with solid reasoning and encourage others to do the same. Be open to learning what others think and why."

Truth be told, maybe I need to get out more and have these discussions in person, with real people and not my Facebook feed.

Advertisement

As Jennifer M. Grygiel, communications professor at S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University told me if you were having a heated political discussion with a friend in real life you might sense that you've struck a nerve due to their body language, lack of eye contact etc.
Speaking last night to Anderson Cooper of CNN, Donald Trump went on record stating, "I think Islam hates us". This comment by the Republican candidate caught me off guard. In my ten years of studying the Islamic tradition, I have never felt the need to ponder the question, Who is "Islam"?

Is "Islam" a person? If so, I would like to know where "Islam" resides so I can go visit he, she, hir, or s/he. Hopefully, "Islam" lives in the United States - preferably in Texas, where I am based - so I will not have to rack up travel expenses to visit he, she, hir, or s/he. I also wonder if Trump has ever met "Islam"? That would be an interesting exchange. If they have met before, I wonder where and in what context.

Take another glance at Trump's comment and you might question if "Islam" is actually a thing. Or perhaps "Islam" is an object or place. It is not entirely clear.

Advertisement

As someone who teaches a college course on Islam and engages with Muslim Americans, I am interested in hearing how Trump describes "Islam". Is "Islam" tall or short, big or small, light or dark, liberal or conservative? Where does "Islam" live? In a tiny little house or in a big mansion in a far away land? In light of Trump's comment, one also might wonder about the values that "Islam" stands for. How does one measure "Islam's" values? What are the issues that make "Islam" tick? Has "Islam" changed over the years?

My sarcasm aside, Trump treats Islam as a monolith. According to him, it is a single bloc, static, and unresponsive to new realities. In five words ("I think Islam hates us"), Trump captured the essence of Islamophobia; "Islam" is separate, inferior, barbaric, irrational, primitive, violent, aggressive, and threatening. These five words have made him the most Islamophobic candidate ever to run for the highest office of the United States. That is the sad reality. That is un-American.

In short, there is absolutely no validity in Trump's comment. Islam in America has produced some of the best citizens that serve as doctors, lawyers, politicians, business executives, soldiers, and scientists. This is Islam - service, compassion, knowledge, and sacrifice.
FLINT, MI - MARCH 06: Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speak during the CNN Democratic Presidential Primary Debate at the Whiting Auditorium at the Cultural Center Campus on March 6, 2016 in Flint, Michigan. Voters in Michigan will go to the polls March 8 for the state's primary. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Corporate media is very good at spinning the news of the day to fit their predetermined narrative. Last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) won 3 of 4 democratic primary contests (Kansas, Nebraska and Maine) by wide margins, but all anyone heard from the pundits was how well Hillary Clinton did in the South and her "insurmountable" delegate lead. Trusted media outlets like the Washington Post coordinated a virtual smear campaign against Sanders, releasing 16 negative articles in 16 hours the day before the crucial Michigan primary. Trusted statistician Nate Silver, fivethirtyeight.com, released a report giving Sen. Sanders less than one-percent chance of carrying the state. Everyone in the establishment, including Sec. Clinton, was preparing to pivot out of the primary race and toward the general election. Needless to say, they all got it wrong.

Advertisement

Bernie Sanders crushed the polling projections which had him losing Michigan by more than 21 points only a few days ago. His shocking upset demonstrated that his message of growing income and wealth inequality, ending disastrous trade policies, and rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure is resonating with working-class and middle-class voters of all stripes in the so-called Rust Belt of the Midwest. Upcoming primaries in Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Missouri and Wisconsin, previously considered a lock for Sec. Clinton, now appear increasingly favorable to the Sanders campaign, and the path to the nomination only becomes more promising from there.

A surprising dynamic emerges when comparing the states won by each candidate. Hillary Clinton has so far posted wins in 12 states: Iowa (debatable), Nevada, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Bernie Sanders has won 9 states: New Hampshire, Colorado, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Vermont, Kansas, Nebraska, Maine and now Michigan. It doesn't take a political science expert to understand that Clinton's current lead is near-completely comprised of wins in historically red states. In fact, three-quarters (9 of 12) of Hillary's primary victories are in states overwhelmingly considered lost causes for Democrats in the general election. By contrast, only a third (3 of 9) of Bernie's wins were in such states.

This deficit among blue states should be very disconcerting to Sec. Clinton's campaign, as well as her supporters, as the primaries move out of the South. A Democratic candidate that loses a majority of historically Democratic states is unequivocally not more electable. In a recent Salon article, former Clinton White House counselor Bill Curry echoed that sentiment with a scathing indictment of the former Secretary and the political establishment as a whole. In it, he called Clinton the "weakest candidate" on the Democratic side and said, "By Saturday, eight of the 11 states of the old Confederacy had voted. In them [Clinton] won 68 percent of the vote. Ten of 39 states outside the South had voted. In those states Sanders took 57 percent of the vote. On March 15, the Confederacy will be all done voting. The race begins then." While Hillary Clinton may have the support of the old Confederacy, Bernie Sanders, rather poetically, has the support of the Union. If history is any indication, the Union will prevail once more.
In 1995, Sikh political prisoner Professor Devinderpal Singh Bhullar became the first person in Indian history to be sentenced to death in a split Supreme Court decision. Convicted under the now repealed Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), Professor Bhullar's case remains one of the most tragic and prime example of miscarriage of justice.

In 1990, Professor Bhullar was teaching engineering courses at Guru Nanak Polytechnic College in Ludhiana when he was implicated for his alleged role in the bombing of Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Sumedh Saini's vehicle. When the police failed to locate Professor Bhullar, they arrested his father and another family member, tortured them, and both died while in custody (Voices for Freedom, 2013).

Three years later, Professor Bhullar was implicated in the car bombing of a government convoy due to its similarity to SSP Saini's bombing. Having already lost two family members through police torture and murder, Professor Bhullar sought political asylum in Germany. He was denied asylum and was extradited back to India (Voices for Freedom, 2013). Upon his return, Professor Bhullar was charged under TADA.

Advertisement

Enacted in 1987, TADA allowed Indian authorities to detain individuals based on vague allegations without a trial. Often these detainments would target minority groups and result in gross human rights violations and torture while in custody (Amnesty International, 1994). It was the collective effort of human rights organizations and political parties that eventually led to its review and repeal in 1995. Despite it being lapsed and deemed unconstitutional, those cases that resulted in convictions while it was enforced, remain valid.

After enduring a six-year trial, Professor Bhullar was sentenced to the death penalty. His conviction was based solely on a confession, which was later recanted due to it being obtained under torture and coercion (Kaur, 2011). There was no other evidence against Professor Bhullar other than the recanted confession.

In 2014, the Indian Supreme Court commuted Professor Bhullar's sentence, citing his declining mental health and delay in the submission of his mercy petition (Amnesty International, 2014). Professor Bhullar has spent more than 20 years in jail and remains imprisoned.

The injustice in Professor Bhullar's case is further exemplified when comparing to the case of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt. Dutt was convicted under TADA in 1993 for his involvement and purchasing of weapons from those responsible for the Mumbai serial blasts. After serving 18 months, Dutt was allowed to leave prison, and in November 2006 he was acquitted under TADA and charged with a lesser conviction with the Arms Act. Under the Arms Act, Dutt received a six-year sentence and served approximately three and a half years (Bhatt, 2013). On February 25, 2016, he was granted early release from prison based on good behavior (BBC, 2016).

Advertisement

Professor Bhuller's plight and the unequal treatment of minorities by India's judicial system has been brought to attention by human rights campaigner Bapu Surat Singh Khalsa. Bapu Surat Singh has been on a hunger strike since January 16, 2015, calling for the release of political prisoners. Due to his continued struggle, Professor Bhullar was granted a transfer from Tihar Jail to Amritsar Jail after more than twenty years in June 2015.

The continued unequal treatment and arrest of minorities has also been addressed by the Indian Supreme Court. Specifically referring to the use of TADA, the Supreme Court has warned against police officers abusing their power to target innocent individuals and cause sufferance (BBC, 2012).

As Indian celebrities and police officers continue to receive leniency in their convictions and sentences (which include murder and life imprisonment), Sikh political prisoners such as Professor Bhullar remain in jail with little or no evidence. It is estimated there are more than 100 Sikh political prisoners being kept in jail in India, 70-75 which have served more than their given sentences (The Logical Indian, 2015). Some state governments, such as Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu, have already taken the initiative to release political prisoners. More states, including Punjab where most of the Sikh political prisoners are being imprisoned, need to do the same and release these prisoners as well.

But what is beyond disturbing and unbearable is the helplessness that Sikhs find themselves in every time India hangs one of ours on the noose to make a statement, or kills one in a fake encounter, or worse - when, on the global stage, the crimes against the innocents are justified as curbing terrorism and the perpetrators of the mass killings and disappearances are venerated as the face of anti-terror. - Gurmeet Kaur (Sikhchic, 2011)





(Left) Professor Devinderpal Singh Bhullar in the early 1990s (Right) Professor Bhullar in 2015



Newlyweds Professor Devinderpal Singh Bhullar and his wife Navneet Kaur

Amnesty International. (1 November, 1994). India: The Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act: the lack of "scrupulous care." Retrieved from https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/ASA20/039/1994/en/

Advertisement

Amnesty International. (31 March, 2014). Commutation of Bhullar's death sentence must spur rethink on death penalty. Retrieved from https://www.amnesty.org.in/show/news/commutation-of-bhullars-death-sentence-must-spur-rethink-on-death-penalty

BBC. (27 September, 2012). India Supreme Court warning over minority arrests. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-19739556

BBC. (25 February, 2016). Sanjay Dutt: India Bollywood actor released from jail. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35657086

Bhatt, Miloni. (21 March, 2013). 1993 Bombay blasts: how a gun changed Sanjay Dutt's life. NDTV. Retrieved from http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/1993-bombay-blasts-how-a-gun-changed-sanjay-dutts-life-516852

Kaur, Gurmeet. (8 June, 2011). Judicial Murder: The Case of Devinderpal Singh Bhullar. Sikhchic. Retrieved from http://www.sikhchic.com/columnists/judicial_murder_the_case_of_devinderpal_singh_bhullar

Advertisement

The Logical Indian. (26 September, 2015). A Man Who Is Fasting For 253 Days And Government Doesn't Want You To Know. Retrieved from http://thelogicalindian.com/news/a-man-who-is-fasting-for-253-days-and-government-doesnt-want-you-to-know/
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel heralded the European Union's deal with Turkey as a "breakthrough." The deal envisions returning migrants and refugees from Greece to Turkey. For every Syrian sent back to Turkey, the EU will resettle one Syrian refugee from Turkey. The deal is ethically, politically, and practically flawed. Moreover, it violates international law.

"Refoulement" (forcible return) is forbidden by international law. Persons who cross an international border have the right to protection. They cannot be returned against their will. Victims cannot be returned to a country from which they fled.

The principle of non-refoulement is inspired by the collective failure of European countries during World War II to provide sanctuary to refugees fleeing Nazi atrocities. Non-refoulemnent was enshrined in Article 33 of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status, and Article 3 of the 1984 Convention against Torture. Article 33 affirms: "No Contracting State shall expel or return a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened..."

Advertisement

Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), reacted skeptically to the EU-Turkey deal, "[I am] concerned about any agreement that involves blanket return of all individuals from one country to another without sufficiently spelled-out refugee protection safeguards." He demands legal safeguards for any mechanism transferring responsibility for asylum claims.

Grandi welcomed the EU's financial contribution to support Turkey and refugee communities in Turkey. However, Turkey is an unprincipled and opportunistic partner.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan laments hosting the growing number of migrants and refugees. He has repeatedly threated to expel them. Erdogan said, "Let the United Nations advise other countries to accept the refugees." The generic return of refugees to Turkey is a step towards their potential repatriation to Syria or Iraq.

The European Council is under Germany's sway. It falls to the European Parliament (EP) to provide an opinion on the legality of refoulement. The EP Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs should offer an opinion on refoulement. In addition, the Committee should formally ask the Legal Counsel of the European Parliament to refer the matter to the European Court of Justice.

Advertisement

Merkel talks about a European consensus, but the European Council is deeply divided over the proposed EU-Turkey deal. The deal is actually a "pre-agreement" because some governments did not actually agree. The European Council will meet for further deliberations on March 17-18.

Opponents are galvanized by Merkel's heavy-handed tactics. Additionally, German voters are skittish. Germany's handling of the migrant and refugee crisis may backfire and cost her Christian Democratic Union in state elections on March 13 in Saxony-Anhalt, Baden-Wurttemberg and Rheinland-Palatinate.

EU Member States are concerned about Merkel's collusion with Turkey. They resent that Turkey has used the crisis to extort financial gains and EU privileges.

An EP member cynically likened the EU-Turkey deal to Donald Trump's proposal that Mexico solve the immigration crisis for America, and pay for the wall.

While Merkel deserves credit for taking in one million migrants and refugees, she and European leaders must remember the lessons of World War II. Appeasement does not work. Refoulement is an illegal and unethical solution to Europe's refugee crisis.

Advertisement
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau answers media after a meeting, at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, Sunday, Nov. 29, 2015. More than 140 world leaders are gathering around Paris for high-stakes climate talks that start Monday, and activists are holding marches and protests around the world to urge them to reach a strong agreement to slow global warming. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Upon taking office as Canada's Prime Minister, one of the first things Justin Trudeau did was to condemn the pro-Palestinian, pro-human rights movement for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against the state of Israel until it grants Palestinians full rights. Among various pronouncements, his criticism of BDS came out a year ago in the form of a tweet that explicitly tied BDS to university campuses. It read, "The BDS movement, like Israeli Apartheid Week, has no place on Canadian campuses. As a @McGillU alum, I'm disappointed." Now Trudeau has crossed the aisle to back a conservative motion condemning BDS as well as any Canadians who support the movement. Once again, currying favor with the State of Israel has created a set of strange bedfellows. The Liberal party, upon which many voters pinned their hopes for a supposedly post-Harper era, quickly caved in before the motion:

Advertisement

About a dozen Liberal MPs refused to vote on the motion, which passed by a vote of 229-51; only two Liberals voted against it. The near total Liberal consensus prompted NDP Leader Tom Mulcair to charge that the prime minister is once again aligning himself with the Tories to suppress the civil liberties of advocacy groups... '[T]o call upon the government to condemn someone for having that opinion, that's unheard of,' Mulcair said, adding that motion 'makes it a thought crime to express an opinion....Since when do we allow that in a free and democratic society?'

As Canadian politicians bend over backwards to accommodate Israel's stifling of criticism, it is crucial to recognize that Canadians themselves are almost evenly split on support for Israel. Hence in their decision to back the motion, these politicians are not reflecting the will of a sizeable proportion of the people they supposedly represent. Interesting choice.

It is precisely on college campuses that we find a counterbalance to Canada's suppression of rights; it is here that we find the expression of dissent, and a call for action for social justice. Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights McGill (SPHR McGill) responded to Trudeau's 2015 statement thus: "The only way that we will be able to remove the intentional suppression of discussion around Palestine that scares spineless politicians such as Trudeau and others is to refuse to be sidelined by their attempts to harass students at one of Canada's foremost universities."

Today we find the fight for Palestinian rights to be even stronger, and this strength helps to explain the recent motion passed by Parliament. Critically, the backlash against this repressive motion now includes not just student activists, but also a significant and growing number of faculty in Canada.

Advertisement

At McGill, a group of faculty has begun a petition, circulating widely by email, protesting their administration's endorsement of the Parliament's motion. Entitled "Not in Our Name: A response by McGill Professors to Principal Suzanne Fortier's condemnation of BDS," the statement reads in part:

As McGill professors committed to justice and equity, we strongly disagree with Principal Suzanne Fortier's official response on behalf of the university administration to the recent Students' Society of McGill University (SSMU) motion in support of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel and the subsequent on-line process which failed to ratify this vote. Her email response, sent to all McGill students and faculty, came moments after the results of the on-line process were announced, and echoed the disappointing and ill-informed motion passed by the Canadian Parliament in condemning the growing BDS movement. For Principal Fortier to denounce a movement defending the rights of Palestinians against those who are oppressing them is in fact what 'flies in the face of tolerance and respect' -- not the BDS movement itself. The call for BDS, drawing upon lessons learned from earlier international movements against apartheid South Africa, indeed urges universities to end institutional ties with institutions funded and sponsored by the Israeli state, and which are complicit in the Occupation and violations of international law. The BDS movement is a measured, non-violent and principled civil society response to life under occupation and colonialism when a people's basic rights are violated and denied.

Meanwhile, at another of Canada's premier institutions of higher education, the University of Toronto, a large number of faculty have declared their support of the student divestment initiative. Omar Sirri, one of the graduate student organizers of the divestment campaign, asserts:

The recent declaration of support from more than 130 faculty and librarians is hugely significant for the divestment campaign at the University of Toronto. BDS student activists are working to educate our campus community about the plight of the Palestinian people, and the need for divestment from companies that profit from violations of international law and war crimes. Our work is constantly under attack, most recently from the Canadian government, which was elected just months ago on a platform that called for an end to the politics of fear and censorship. To have such strong faculty support at a critical moment like this wonderful news for our campaign.

A press release accompanying the faculty statement reads as follows:

In a powerful endorsement of the Campaign for Divestment from the Israeli Occupation organized by University of Toronto's Graduate Student Union, a group of over 130 faculty and librarians have signed a public declaration calling for the University of Toronto to divest from its holdings in companies profiting from the ongoing Israeli military occupation of Palestinian territories. The signatories come from all three campuses of the university and from over 38 different departments across all faculties. Their statement points out that the near total failure of international diplomacy to hold Israel accountable for the growing humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem requires, at a minimum, the need to "identify the injustices, speak out against them, and support the Palestinian appeal for solidarity." The declaration urges the University administration to divest from Northrop Grumman, Hewlett Packard, and Lockheed Martin, in order to send an important signal to the global military industrial complex that it takes very seriously its own stated ethical principles and that it refuses to be complicit in the escalating violations of human rights in Israel-Palestine.

Rebecca Comay, a philosophy professor at the University of Toronto, comments on the significance of this faculty initiative in the current political climate.

The public rallying of faculty and students around this issue is noteworthy at this critical moment. Just two weeks ago a parliamentary motion was passed (by an overwhelming margin) condemning the BDS movement on the grounds that it impinged on the 'friendship' between Israel and Canada and 'promoted the demonization and delegitimation of the State of Israel.' The contradictions are utterly stupefying: the official position of the Canadian government is that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories (including East Jerusalem) is illegal. Meanwhile this same government is trying to stifle non-violent efforts to end this illegal occupation.
There must be a day of reckoning and it can't be left up to fate. That's the premise of this extremely inventive geriatric revenge movie, which is the brainchild of casting director turned screenwriter Benjamin August. His ingenious script weaves together senior citizens, Holocaust survivors, onset Alzheimer's and a trail of death into a drama/mystery/thriller. It's a highly unlikely, puzzling storyline that's hard to imagine until you get dragged into its addictive suspense.



(Photo courtesy of A24)

Martin Landau and Christopher Plummer co-star in Remember.

Zev Gutman (Christopher Plummer) wakes up in a New York nursing home disorientated, barely remembering who he is or where he came from. A fellow patient, Max Rosenbaum (Martin Landau) who is wheelchair-bound, reminds him that he is a Holocaust survivor, his wife recently died, and on her deathbed he promised to track down and kill the former Nazi commander who murdered his and Max's families at Auschwitz.

It's a lot for the 90-year-old to absorb, so Max has written Zev a letter, with the details of his assignment and provided money and provisions for the sojourn. The culprit, who immigrated to North America, is living under the alias of "Rudy Kurlander." Max has narrowed the field down to four possible candidates, living in four different regions: California, Canada, Idaho or Ohio. With no more than a valise, a prayer of a chance of success and dementia wearing him down daily, Zev sets off on a multi-country, interstate journey of vengeance.

Advertisement

Canadian director Atom Egoyan, known for very erotic (The Adjuster), nonlinear (Exotica) and esoteric filmmaking, doesn't seem like he'd be the right person to breath life into this very intimate script. However, Egoyan breaks out of his one-dimensional, non-emotional mold to convey the anger, fear, sadness and disorientation the central character feels. Somehow he finds a way to make the story feel and look very ordinary, as if it could happen, though it never did.

Egoyan's understated efforts are helped by Paul Sarossy's (Exotica) very simple cinematography, which makes the footage look like it was shot on a smartphone with available light (exteriors) or a bright light bulb (interiors). The wardrobe (Debra Hanson) could have been stolen from Goodwill. The production design (Matthew Davies, Hannibal) and set decoration (Danny Burke) are frugal and plain. All contribute to making what's on view look stark and real.

The gift of August's affecting screenplay is that it unfolds in layers that are not fathomable, from scene to scene. Zev's memory is so shot full of holes that it's like watching a senior citizen walk on to the set of Groundhog Day, unaware. Still, as Zev plods through, hunting down the right Rudy with the intent on exacting justice, his journey gets weirder, scarier and more brutal in ways that are so matter of fact you can't believe what you are watching.

Heading the ensemble cast is Oscar-winner Christopher Plummer (Beginners) who is only getting better with age. His Zev doesn't have to scream "I'm lost and I don't know what the hell I'm doing," it's on Plummer's face, in his trembling body, stammer and very unsteady gate. Landau plays Max like a cunning, supportive yet feeble mastermind. Legendary German actor Jurgen Prochnow (Das Boot), veteran Swiss actor Bruno Gantz (The Boys From Brazil) and American actor Dean Norris (Breaking Bad) add their strong performances.

Advertisement

Once Remember begins to unfold, the astonishment of watching an elderly man, who is losing his memory minute-by-minute, become a one-man Nazi hunter is intoxicating.
WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 25: Senate Democrats, including Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) (C), gathered in front of the Supreme Court to hold a news conference and demand that Senate Republicans hold confirmation hearings when President Barack Obama names a news Supreme Court justice nominee February 25, 2016 in Washington, DC. GOP leaders in the Senate said they would not hold a confirmation hearing after Obama said he would name someone to replace Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, who died earlier this month while on a hunting trip in Texas. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

There's a vacancy on the most important court in America, and the message from Senate Republicans is crystal clear: forget the Constitution. For Senate Republicans, it does not matter who President Obama nominates because they will allow no votes and will hold no hearings on that nominee. Their response to one of the most solemn and consequential tasks that our government performs is to pretend that the nominee -- and President Obama himself -- do not exist.

At the same time that they are blocking all possible Supreme Court nominees, Senate Republicans are in a panic because their party appears to be on a path to nominate one of two extremists for president -- extremists who attack the legitimacy of their political opponents and demean millions of Americans. Senate Republicans worry that, if either candidate is selected to be the party's standard-bearer, the Republican party will lose in November.

Advertisement

Republicans' stance on Supreme Court nominees and their response to the extremists at the top of their party's ticket are the same issue. And the solution is simple. If Republican Senators want to stand up to extremists running for president, they can start by standing up to extremists in the Senate. They can start by doing their jobs.

Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution says that the president nominates justices to the Supreme Court, with the advice and consent of the Senate. There is no secret clause that says "...except when that president is a Democrat." If Senators object to a nominee's qualifications, they can vote no and explain themselves to the American people. Although President Obama and I are members of the same political party, I haven't agreed with every single nomination he's made -- and I have made my objections clear. That's how advice and consent works: learn about the nominees, and then use your best, good faith judgment to evaluate their qualifications.

But for seven years, Republican Senators have bowed to extremists who reject President Obama's legitimacy and abuse the Senate rules in an all-out effort to cripple the Administration and paralyze the federal courts. Republican extremists aren't voting against individuals based on a good faith judgment about a specific person. They are blocking votes wholesale in order to keep those jobs vacant and undermine the government itself.

For years, Republicans have delayed confirmation votes on government officials across the board. In 2013, only one year into the president's second term, Republican leaders flatly rejected the president's authority to confirm any judges to fill any of three open seats on the second-highest court in the country. Democrats had to change the filibuster rules to move nominees forward. Once Republicans took over the Senate in 2015, judicial confirmations nearly ground to a halt.

Advertisement

The same is true for non-judicial nominees. Republicans have held up the president's nominees to run the Department of Labor and the Environmental Protection Agency, largely on the suspicion that those highly-qualified individuals might actually help those agencies do their work. Republicans have held up nominees to the National Labor Relations Board and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Republicans regularly hold up the confirmation of dozens of ambassadors, undermining our national security and our relationships with other nations.

Last year, Republicans blocked confirmation of the Attorney General, the highest law enforcement official in the country, for 166 days. That is longer than it took the Senate to consider the prior seven Attorneys General combined.

The message from Senate Republicans couldn't be clearer: no matter how much it damages the nation, no matter how much it undermines our courts, no matter how much it cripples our government or lays waste to our Constitution, they will not acknowledge the legitimacy of our democratically-elected president.

For too long, Senate Republicans have wanted it both ways. They want to nullify the Obama presidency while claiming that they can govern responsibly. That game is over. Extremist candidates motivated by bigotry and resentment are on the verge of winning the Republican Party's nomination for president, and Republican Senators must now make a decision.

Because here's the deal: extremists might not like it, but Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008 by nine million votes and won re-election in 2012 by five million votes. There were no recounts or hanging chads, no stuffing the ballot box or tampering with voting machines, no intervention from the Supreme Court. President Obama was elected the legitimate president seven years ago, and he is the legitimate president right now.

Advertisement

So if it's true that some Republican Senators are finally ready to stand up to the extremism that denies the legitimacy of this president and of the Constitution, I say to them: do your job. Vote on a Supreme Court nominee. Vote on District Court judges and Circuit Court judges. Vote on ambassadors. Vote on agency leaders and counterterrorism officials.
Throughout the world we see attacks on women and girls, and in many countries it is by no means given that girls and boys are valued equally. We have seen mass rapes in India, and the documentary "India's Daughters" clearly exposed how many men view women to be of less value. Forced marriages, child brides and mutilation of girls in certain African and Middle Eastern countries remain a widespread problem. And when wars and conflicts rage, women and girls are even more vulnerable and prone to sexual attack. We share a great responsibility to fight against and confront cultures whose medieval and reactionary view of women's and girls' rights quite simply put women lower than men. The fight for women's human rights requires a global effort.

As Minister for Children, Education and Gender Equality in Denmark, I will be travelling to New York in a few days together with the other Nordic Ministers for Gender Equality to attend the 60th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Among the topics of discussion will be the Global Goals for Sustainable Development and their importance for women's empowerment. When we gather together in the UN, I will devote particular energy to promoting the right of women and girls to decide over their own body. As the story from Copenhagen shows, there is plenty of scope for improvement - both globally and in the Nordic countries. Together we must demand action and ensure global progress for women's rights and gender equality.

The events in Cologne on New Year's Eve, where hundreds of German women were subjected to attacks by men of Middle Eastern and North African background were a wake-up call to us that when wars cause mass migration and people with another religion, culture and background journey towards gender-equal and democratic societies, it is absolutely fundamental that we do not tolerate the reactionary view on women's rights that they bring with them. Attacks on women are always a breach of human rights and they can never be excused by religion and culture. We must never accept regression when it comes to gender equality and women's rights. We must never accept that women and girls fleeing from totalitarian societies to Western democracies are prevented from enjoying the same freedoms, opportunities and gender quality that we have fought for and achieved through centuries of struggle.

Advertisement

Even in Denmark, where gender equality between men and women is a cornerstone of our society, we must maintain efforts to ensure gender equality. Last fall, a 25-year-old Danish woman shared her experiences from a bar in Copenhagen on social media. She had been groped and called a bitch by some men, and the bartender instead of helping her felt she was being over-sensitive. Her story was shared over 3,000 times and liked by more than 13,000 people. She is not alone in her experience. According to a YouGov survey, 7 out of 10 women in Denmark have been subjected to episodes of groping in bars and nightclubs. The vast majority of these women and girls have felt this as an unpleasant assault. Unfortunately, this is part of the reality women still face in a modern and gender-equal country like Denmark. Many of the women describe it as unpleasant. Even men perceive unwanted physical attention or touching as intimidating. Everyday sexism in bars and nightclubs is unfortunately also part of the reality in a modern and gender-equal country like Denmark.

The problem is also evident on the internet. On social media, we see new instances of everyday sexism virtually on a daily basis, where women and girls of all ages are subjected to harassment, sexist attacks and a condescending tone, all of which is totally unacceptable. An American study published by the Pew Research Center shows that 40 percent of internet users have been subjected to harassment, and that 73 percent have witnessed others being harassed. According to the study, it is especially young women aged 18 to 24 who are targeted.

Advertisement

A fundamental problem with this form of harassment is that it can scare away both women and men from taking part in the public debate. Sexism and hate speech might be thought of as innocent and humorous, but for those on the receiving end, it can be felt quite keenly. Therefore, it is essential that we share our experiences in the media or on social media, so that we bring to light all the things - both great and small - which go on in bars and nightclubs, in workplaces or in families. The many stories help counter the taboo and draw explicit attention to a problem that needs tackling. It also sends a clear message that sexism and harassment are unacceptable.

Regardless of where sexism and hate speech occur, it is a problem that it affects our democratic society and conflicts with our Nordic values of gender equality and equal opportunities. Equality and the right to express oneself and participate in society irrespective of gender is a fundamental value in all the Nordic countries as well as a great many other places around the world. We must not take these values for granted, but safeguard them. Sexism and hate speech are first and foremost about how we view each other and the perception we have of each other. There is therefore a need for a change in attitude, so that equality and freedom are not only embodied in our legislation, but also observed in everyday life. Therefore, I will put everyday sexism on the agenda at the 60th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Because it is in the everyday that we live our lives. And even though everyday sexism cannot in any way be equated with the many countries where violence, oppression, lack of freedom and social control are part of everyday life for girls and women, it emphasises that even in progressive and gender-equal countries such as Denmark we must maintain our efforts to break gender stereotypes and ensure genuine gender equality.
My husband, Patrick, and I kissed for the first time on the famous Lange Voorhout Street in The Hague. This is a special place for me, with precious memories. We eventually married where it all began on this spot, in Pulchri Art Gallery, right on Lange Voorhout, on an unforgettable day in April. Patrick and I had both had previous relationships and kids. He has two daughters, 25 and 26, while I have two sons, 15 and 16, and a daughter, 12. We also have a lot of fun with our two Labrador pups, Hans and Fietje.



Traveling the world at 29

After high school, I started working right away, as I wanted to build my own life and become independent. But, I also studied law in the evenings. My first job was as a project manager at KPN, a Dutch telecommunications company, where I was doing amazing things. When I was 29, I was already traveling all over the world to conduct negotiations on joint ventures with other telecom companies. In my early 30s, I moved to the USA to work as a global alliance manager for AT&T. After the birth of my second child, I started my own consultancy practice, as I no longer wanted to spend my life on airplanes. In 2010, we returned to the Netherlands, and I started working for Accenture, a global professional services company.

A nice walk to school

A career and family life can be excellently balanced, as long as you get your priorities right: What do I want, and how am I going to organize it? I've always done this, and I advise young people to do the same. Set clear boundaries every day, and prevent your work from taking over your life. My company allows people to work flexible hours and work from home from time to time. As long as you achieve the results that you've agreed on, you can organize your time. If possible, I walk my daughter to school every day, and I often work between 7 and 10 p.m. to catch up on e-mails. If someone from my team can't make it to a meeting because their child is getting their swimming certificate, I simply say: "You have to be at the swimming pool!"



Don't take them by the hand

In my current job, I'm responsible for a large group of people. I strongly believe in a motivational leadership style, which is similar to how I see my role as a mother. I teach my kids to take responsibility and allow them to make mistakes. Since we moved back to the Netherlands, they cycle to school themselves. I give them space, but support them when they need it. Motherhood is great training for leadership. I don't take my staff by the hand either, and I give them a lot of space. At the same time, I'm in the driver's seat. And, as every mother learns at some point, you mustn't want to do it perfectly, and you take life as it comes with a smile.

Advertisement

You're as strong as your team

My mother worked part-time, and my father was a CEO in a big corporation. He always enjoyed talking to me about my work and teams. I've benefited greatly from his insights. You need people you can trust, both in your own environment and in the organization. You're only as strong as your team: That's something I've learned over the years. I fight for my people. I believe in the power of a close-knit group of people, with a great sense of mutual loyalty. Diversity makes teams even more successful and allowing people to be their authentic self contributes to a team's success.

At my workplace, I find a variety of people and cultures, with all different backgrounds, knowledge and skills. That's what I enjoy, just like the social component of my work. I'm 53 now, and I think it's a beautiful idea that I contribute not only to the development of my employer, but also to the society in which my children are growing up. For example, we help find jobs for people with disabilities (autism, physical disabilities etc.), either at Accenture or in our clients' organizations. We are, for instance, supporting a large retailer in the Netherlands to create jobs in their stores for 2000 persons with disabilities. It makes my job very rewarding.

As a member of the Advisory Board of WorkPlace Pride, on behalf of my company, I also am supporting this organization to make the workplace a better environment for LGBT persons.

Advertisement
On March 11, 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and 50-foot tsunami triggered meltdowns at three of six nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan. It was the one of the worst accidents in the nuclear industry's 60-year history, contaminating thousands of square miles, displacing more than 150,000 people, and costing Japanese taxpayers nearly $100 billion.

The disaster was a wake-up call for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). After all, nearly a third of the 104 U.S. reactors operating at the time were General Electric Mark I or Mark II reactors, the same as those in Fukushima. The accident raised an obvious question: How vulnerable are those reactors -- and the rest of the U.S. fleet for that matter -- to comparable natural disasters?

The NRC set up a task force to analyze what happened at Fukushima and assess how to make U.S. reactors safer. In July 2011, the task force offered a dozen recommendations to help safeguard U.S. nuclear plants in the event of a Fukushima-scale accident.

Advertisement

Unfortunately, the NRC has since rejected or significantly weakened many of those recommendations and has yet to fully implement the reforms it did adopt, according to a new Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) report. UCS also found that the agency abdicated its responsibility as the nation's nuclear watchdog by allowing the industry to routinely rely on voluntary guidelines, which are, by their very nature, unenforceable.

"Although the NRC and the nuclear industry have devoted considerable resources to address the post-Fukushima task force recommendations, they haven't done all they should to protect the public from a similar disaster," said report author Edwin Lyman, a UCS senior scientist and co-author of the 2014 book, Fukushima: The Story of a Nuclear Disaster. "If the NRC is serious about protecting the public and plant workers, it should reconsider a number of recommendations it scrapped under pressure from the industry and its supporters in Congress."

Half-Baked Reforms

The post-Fukushima task force's top priority was overhauling what it called a "patchwork" of NRC regulations and industry voluntary guidelines for "beyond-design-basis" events -- incidents that plants were not designed to withstand. The task force argued that both regulators and plant owners would benefit from a coherent set of standards that would guard against severe events like Fukushima and provide a framework for implementing its other recommendations. After several years of deliberation, however, the NRC ultimately passed on making any fundamental changes, maintaining that its regulatory framework doesn't need fixing.

Lyman said this was a critical mistake. "By rejecting the task force's top recommendation," he said, "the NRC regulatory regime will remain full of holes, leaving the public at risk from potential accident scenarios that regulators may overlook."

Advertisement

The NRC then relied heavily on its vaguely worded "backfit" rule to reject many of the other recommended post-Fukushima safety upgrades. The rule limits the agency's ability to require new safety rules if a proposed upgrade's cost is deemed to exceed its benefits. Many important safety recommendations failed to pass this test, despite the fact that they would have made plants safer.

"The post-Fukushima, lessons-learned process provided the NRC a golden opportunity to reform its inconsistent approach to regulating the industry," Lyman said. "Unfortunately, it didn't take advantage of it."

Letting the Industry Make the Rules

The NRC and the nuclear industry's main response to the Fukushima accident is what they call the "diverse and flexible coping capability" program, or FLEX for short, which will provide extra backup emergency equipment to cool reactors and spent fuel pools during a prolonged power loss.



The FLEX program is a prime example of the industry jumping out ahead of the NRC. In this case, the industry purchased backup emergency equipment -- pumps, compressors, generators, batteries and the like -- before the NRC had the chance to develop guidelines for the program. To cut costs, the industry bought commercially available equipment that may not weather a severe accident, and the industry-initiated FLEX guidelines hinge on ambiguously worded, hard-to-enforce directives that, for example, mandate "reasonable protection" of safety equipment. Regardless, the NRC largely approved the industry's plan instead of developing its own standards.

Likewise, the NRC decided to continue to allow plant owners to develop their own voluntary plans for managing a core-melt accident, rejecting a task force recommendation to require them to do so. If plans are voluntary, the NRC has no authority to review them or issue citations when they are deficient.

Advertisement

"Once again, the NRC is ignoring a key lesson of the Fukushima accident: Emergency plans are not worth the paper they are printed on unless they are rigorously developed, maintained, periodically tested, and subject to NRC inspection and enforcement," said Lyman. "When it comes to many critical safety measures, the NRC is allowing the industry to regulate itself."

Saying No to Filtered Vents



When three of the six Fukushima Daiichi reactors overheated, plant workers scrambled to lower reactor core pressure by depressurizing the containment building so they could inject cooling water. They couldn't open the containment vents from the control room, however, because there was no electric power. Without enough cooling water, the reactors melted down.



To avoid the possibility of this happening at the 30 currently operating U.S. reactors that share the same containment design as those at Fukushima, the NRC staff recommended that the agency not only require plant owners to install reliable, "hardened" vents that could be easily opened during an electricity outage, but also compel owners to add filters to avoid releasing radioactive material into the surrounding community. Four countries with the same type of GE reactors -- Finland, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland -- require filtered vents, and Japan is planning to do so.

The nuclear industry, however, argued that the FLEX program obviated the need for filtered vents, despite the fact that filters would be more dependable than relying on plant workers to perform complex tasks under very trying circumstances. After years of analysis, the NRC staff reversed its original recommendation, asserting that that neither vent filters nor the industry's proposed alternatives were justified. Last August, NRC commissioners voted to do nothing.



"As a result," the UCS report states, "in the event of a severe accident, the NRC is leaving plant operators with a horrible dilemma: ... open the vents and deliberately release radioactivity into the environment, or ... allow the reactor containment to overpressurize and potentially rupture, resulting in an even greater release of radiation."

Either way, we're talking about contaminating a vast area with high levels of radioactivity and increasing the cancer risk for nearby residents.

NRC Should Reconsider Safety Recommendations

The UCS report pulls back the curtain on a post-Fukushima reform process that has largely played out behind the scenes. Hopefully its findings will raise some eyebrows -- if not sound the alarm -- on Capitol Hill and in the Obama administration, because public safety depends on federal oversight. Elected officials should insist that the NRC reconsider the safety measures it rejected, especially replacing its hodge-podge of vaguely written rules and voluntary guidelines with a rational regulatory approach, and establishing a transparent process that allows the public to assess the effectiveness of its reforms.

"The NRC and the nuclear industry have taken steps to address some of the safety vulnerabilities revealed by the Fukushima disaster," said Lyman. "But so far, the agency has failed to fully learn the lessons of Fukushima. It needs to go back to the drawing board and reconsider critical safety recommendations that it dismissed without good justification. And let me stress: This is not an academic exercise. The health and safety of more than 100 million Americans who live within 50 miles of a nuclear plant hang in the balance."
The Western Balkans are back in the EU agenda, perhaps a first intelligible step since the beginning of the migration crisis, as 'gatekeepers' and crossroads between East and West the Western Balkans cannot be ignored anymore, moreover they can play a crucial role.

It is important, however, to treat the Balkans with due caution: "balkanize" was a term that came to underline "diversity, conflict and fractionalization"; much of what the world would think of the Balkans and much like what the Balkan people would define themselves. In the words of Albanian Foreign Affairs Minister, Ditmir Bushati, the countries in the Western Balkans have moved 'from being enemies into neighbours [however] a lot of energy is wasted on how we sit around the table and how [they] call each other'. These transformation among the relations countries and people have in the Western Balkans can be attributed to the 'clear perspective' of European integration and the political will of the leadership, in many of them to, at least, just get ahead in the process.

The Thessaloniki agenda for the Western Balkans was approved by the European Council of Thessaloniki on June 2003. The novelty was the possibility for all countries of the Western Balkans, to accede to technical and financial instruments applied to EU member states. The Thessaloniki Agenda specified the areas that would benefit from european financial assistance and not only. Fight against organized crime and general cooperation in strengthening the judiciary and domestic affairs; promotion of economic development; regional cooperation for the return of refugees, the promotion of cultural and education exchanges and social development were among the pillars of this agenda, the success of which was highly dependent on the will of interested countries in implementing reforms. The state of art in the EU reports showcase the region in getting closer to the Union. It counts four candidate countries and two potential candidates: Kosovo* has signed the Stabilization Association Agreement expected to enter into force later this year; Bosnia and Herzegovina has lately applied to join the EU. However, of the candidate countries, only Montenegro and Serbia have opened EU membership negotiations. Croatia has been the last member to join the Union in 2013 and since this last accession treaty signed the bar for the remaining countries in the Western Balkans has been raised. Conditionality is not anymore a mere 'copy - paste exercise' of the EU acquis in internal legislation but a satisfactory track record in its implementation is required.

Advertisement

The exodus to Europe resulted in undermining the principle of free movement and is challenging Schengen. The Euro bubble in the past months has not have a shortage of high level meetings regarding the migration crisis. Most notably, La Valetta summit focused on the cooperation with third countries (Africa) and a Meeting on the Western Balkans Migration Route where the EU and Western Balkans' leaders agreed on 17-point plan of action. This crisis for the Western Balkans has been, so far, more than a danger, an opportunity. The refugees cross from on external border of the EU - notably Greece - to transit in the region to reach northern EU member states. The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM) has been among the countries directly affected by the crisis. The increased tensions rising at the border with Greece and with the upcoming parliamentary election in April 2016 warn that the migrant crisis has well gotten out of hand. The High Representative Vice President of European Commission Mogherini visited Tirana last week all the while minister of Home Affairs, Tahiri was mentioning the existence of a contingency plan should the need be to open the Albanian border to refugees.

The well informed technocrats in Brussels have long considered all the options, including paying court to all possible players. Albania was hence, considered since early on last fall, as a route to re-direct the influx of refugees in the Adriatic.

Advertisement

Should this option unfold in the days to come, one may only hope, not as much on the international organizations and governments alike, but in the strength and generosity of people. It would not be a first, for Albanians who demonstrated great humanity hosting 500 000 refugees during the war in Kosovo.

The focus on EU's approach is still on the need to strengthen its external borders. Commissioner Hahn stressed that in retaining control of the influx of refugees to Europe would allow for a change in the process of how these migrants are reaching Europe and how State authorities are answering to the demands. Italy and Greece continue suffering a huge pressure - as entry points - hence the European Council agreed to relocate an amount of 40.000 persons to be distributed amongst different Member States. The current European legal framework on asylum - Dublin Regulations - is under strain given the fact it is widely acknowledged it no longer respond in an efficient manner to the needs of EU Member States but also of asylum seekers. Not only several countries bear the burden of the system - Greece, Italy as entry points and German, Austria and Sweden as final destinations - but also the deadlines to get an application processed are slow and also it entailed many dramatic family separations.

Nevertheless, it is not as much about the influx of refugees and the absorption capacity of the EU member states as much as an increased waive of populism that has cashed in the fears caused by unemployment and overwhelmed welfare system preexistent the refugee crisis. Furthermore, the European migration policies suffered the linkage of increased security threat and the arrival of refugees despite calls from European leaders - notably Juncker - to avoid simplifications. Taking note of this, particularly worrisome is that the EU leadership seems to fail to understand that a long term sustainable solution requires that borders are kept open and further find mechanisms that allow access to safety of persons seeking international protection.

The cooperation and readiness shown by the region has made for a case of arguing the 'ally' card versus the 'stability' card and prompting technocrats in Brussels to strongly (re)consider the success of enlargement policy. The 'sudden' reminder that the EU project cannot be complete without the integration of the Western Balkans might be shocking for 'euro-skeptics' and those suffering from a 'chronic' enlargement fatigue.

Advertisement
The assassination of indigenous environmental leader Berta Caceres the night of March 2 in La Esperanza, Honduras has sparked international outrage.

The only eyewitness of Caceres' murder--Gustavo Castro Soto--was shot and wounded during the attack. A Mexican citizen from the Chiapas chapter of Friends of the Earth, Castro is also the coordinator of the Mesoamerican Movement against the Extractive Mining Model (M4) and a board member of Other Worlds, a US-based environmental rights organization.

Following interrogation by Honduran police in La Esperanza, Castro Soto was aided by the Mexican Embassy, who attempted to put him on a plane back to Mexico. They were stopped by Honduran authorities who drove him back to La Esperanza where, sleep-deprived and still in his bloody clothes, he was subjected to further questioning. A week after Caceres' brutal murder (and yet another round of interrogation), he was allowed to return to the Mexican Embassy. Honduran authorities refuse to let him leave Honduras, however, for another thirty days.

Advertisement

Gustavo Castro Soto, wounded and traumatized, is not a criminal and has answered all the questions asked of him. The question that needs answering is: Why is he still being held?

That the Honduran government would refuse the Mexican Embassy the right to repatriate one of their own citizens--and that the more powerful Mexican state would tolerate such a diplomatic indignity--is baffling. Most likely, neither Mexico nor Honduras are calling the shots.

There is much to hide about Berta Caceres' murder and Castro Soto's eyewitness account will fly in the face of any cover up. But it's not just the assassins, the Honduran police, the Honduran government and the power companies supporting the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project who need to hide the truth: it is the United States State Department.

Why? The answer begins with the former president Bill Clinton's signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement and ends with Hillary Clinton's precarious showing in the Democratic Party's presidential primaries.

Advertisement

For over two decades, the United States has led the charge for the privatization of Central America's economies. (The US's penchant for supporting despotic regimes dates back over a century). The World Bank, the Central American Development Bank and USAID have all worked to "modernize" Central American political institutions and the region's infrastructure by deregulating labor and environmental regulations and providing economic incentives for extractive industries, like timber and mining. But this trove of resources requires energy; hence the demand for hydroelectric power. The regional project for extractive industries and hydroelectric dams also needs to persuade the hundreds of thousands of peasants and indigenous communities presently living in in the central mountains and eastern tropical plains of the Central American Isthmus to turn over their land, their rivers, their forests and entire territories to international corporations.

As demonstrated in the hundreds of popular referendums carried out in the Central American countryside over the last ten years, few communities have wanted to do so. Peasant and indigenous protests in southern Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras have been massive.

The corporations and the governments have struck back, hard.

Hondurans are not the only people to suffer under the growing corporate violence, widespread incarceration of community organizers, the revival of paramilitary death squads and the assassination of anti-mining and anti-dam leaders.

Honduras is however, the country that has the clearest link between the rise of repression and former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. It was Clinton who moved to keep democratically-elected president Manuel Zelaya from returning to Honduras after he was deposed in a coup in 2009. It was Clinton who pushed for the US to recognize the new regime that unleashed a reign of terror upon any community, organization or social movement that dared stand in the way of the extraction of the region's resources. It was Clinton who kept quiet in the face of these atrocities. The US State Department still sits at the apex of what has become a structure of terror bent on violently dispossessing the indigenous people of the Rio Lenca of their land.

Advertisement

But things went awry. The Hondurans who ordered her assassination did not realize that Berta Caceres, her organization COPINH, and the international movement for environmental justice to which they belong would respond so massively to her murder. The assassins did not realize that Gustavo Castro Soto was Mexican. They didn't realize they'd failed to kill him.

The perpetrators also did not realize that this assassination would compromise the structure of terror itself; that because of her support for the murderous Honduran regime the assassination would become a political liability for the former Secretary of State in her run for the presidency. (To be fair to Hillary Clinton, supporting despotic regimes is part of the job of the Secretary of State... something at which she has excelled.) The political damage from trying to cover up the assassination is likely going to be just as damaging as the truth. Now they are all stuck.

This is why the truth is being held captive in the Mexican Embassy of Tegucigalpa.
The ceaseless exodus of refugees from Syria and other destitute people from the Middle East challenges international politics, religion, and civilization.

The Greeks have always been hospitable people. When they were worshipping the several gods of Homer, their greatest god, Zeus, was Zeus Xenios and Hikesios: Zeus the protector of foreigners. Greeks preserve this virtue from their ancient culture.

But in 2016 no matter how Christian Greeks feel about destitute Moslems landing to their shores, they know they cannot afford to maintain their hospitality. There are so many Moslem refugees already in Greece that they pose a potential existential threat to the country.

Advertisement

The presence of Moslem refugees in a few Aegean islands already wrecked their tourism

In 2016, Greece, inundated by refugees, is weak and poor. Since 2008, the European Union and its American partner, the International Monetary Fund, have been hammering Greece into destitution. The reason for the harsh punishment is to cough up money corrupt Greek politicians borrowed and misused.

The medicine for the debt is austerity, which does two things. First, it impoverishes the country, and, therefore, makes the repayment of the debt impossible. Second, it sows hatred for the European Union and Germany in particular that runs the EU.

So the EU-IMF is acting in Greece like a farm boss with a whip. But in the case of the refugees, the chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, is probably thinking of Schengen without Greece, meaning the shutting down of the borders of FIROM and Bulgaria, leaving all refugees to Greece.

The Schengen Agreement dates from 1985. It creates a borderless Europe for the citizens of the EU. But the virtues of free movement within EU have been diluted by revisions of the Agreement to satisfy Germany and other north and western European countries. The losers are Greece, Italy and Spain that have to accept refugees and keep them. All that the EU's agency for border control does is simply registering the refugees. That way if some of those refugees end up going to Germany, they will be sent back to Greece, Italy or Spain.

Advertisement

It's these selfish reasons that Germany still keeps Greece in the Schengen Agreement. Bulgaria, for example, is not in the Schengen scheme, so it has no refugee problem. Bulgaria borders Turkey.

Meanwhile, the EU and US brought NATO into the murky refugee river flowing from the NATO ally, Turkey, into another NATO country, Greece. What is the purpose of a military alliance that protects Turkey in the perpetuation of aggression against Greece?

Strangely, the head of NATO, America, keeps itself out of the refugee quagmire. The US blasted the Middle East in 2003 and, indirectly, precipitated the Syrian civil war -- with its river of human beings running away from bombs.

Turkey took advantage of this chaos by embracing Jihadist Islam even further while intensifying its war against the Kurds. Turkey also is directing all the refugees who reach Greece. Why is NATO keeping a blind eye towards Turkey and the EU is even paying Turkey billions to supposedly stem the flow of refugees? Is it because the NATO boss, America, has the cold war fixation of using Turkey against Russia?

The American factor explains why Germany acts against the interest of the EU. Merkel is simply implementing American policy. But Germany and the US should know that Turkey is manipulating them.

Advertisement

Turkey has a long experience of playing one Christian nation against the other. But the countries of the West, supposedly Christian and civilized, hated each other more than they hated Turkey. They always resorted to wars rather than expelling Turkey from Europe.

Turkey tortured Christian European countries for centuries. In early twentieth century, Turkey committed genocide against Armenians and Greeks.

The latest exhibition of Turkish shrewdness and bulling of the EU took place in Brussels, March 7, 2016. Turkey demanded the EU accelerate discussions for becoming a member of the EU and, in addition, give it another 3 billion euros for refugee costs. For every refugee from Turkey the EU takes in, Turkey promised to import a refugee already in the EU / Greece who is not acceptable for asylum.

Hungary rejected the Turkish demands but Merkel thought them worthy for consideration.

Nevertheless, while EU members continue bickering about Turkey and the endless refugees besieging Greece, they fail to talk about the result of their policies: using the asylum section of the Schengen Agreement for forcing Greece to become a refugee concentration camp. Such a prospect will probably make Greece a Moslem country with unforeseeable revolutionary and catastrophic consequences not merely for Greece but for all of Europe.

The alternative, of course, is to attack the problem at its roots. End the civil war in Syria and reform the asylum clause of the Schengen Agreement. Greece should not be responsible for keeping the asylum seekers, who should be returned home or to a safe haven. Throw Turkey out of NATO and guard the Greek borders as the borders of the EU.

Advertisement
by Christian Sarkar

Stuart Hart is one of the world's top authorities on the implications of sustainable development and environment for business strategy. He is currently the Grossman Chair of Sustainable Business at the University of Vermont. Previously, Hart founded sustainable MBA programs at Cornell, UNC, and the University of Michigan. He wrote the seminal article "Beyond Greening: Strategies for a Sustainable World," which won the McKinsey Award for Best Article in Harvard Business Review in 1997, and helped launch the movement for corporate sustainability.

With C.K. Prahalad, Hart also wrote the path-breaking 2002 article "The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid," which provided the first articulation of how business could profitable serve the needs of four billion poor in the developing world. He is the author of the business bestseller "Capitalism at the Crossroads: Next Generation Business Strategies for a Post-Crisis World" now in its third edition.

As someone who helped launch the sustainability movement in the business world, what do you see happening today? Is Capitalism still at the crossroads?

Advertisement

Businesses are learning that they do not need to accept trade-offs when it comes to societal and economic performance. You must meet both criteria. The future demand it, your customers demand it, and your conscience demands it.

In my book, Capitalism at the Crossroads, I presented new strategies for identifying sustainable products, technologies, and business models that will drive urgently needed growth and help solve social and environmental problems at the same time. I also argue that corporations are the only entities in the world today with the technology, resources, capacity, and global reach required.

What we're now experiencing is a transformation to a more sustainable form of capitalism--and ultimately, a more sustainable world. This transformation began in the 1990's with the "eco-efficiency" revolution when, for the first time, it became clear that reducing waste, emissions, and pollution can actually save money and lower risk.

In the past decade, two exciting new commercial developments have burst onto the global scene. One revolves around the commercialization of new green technology; the other around better serving and including the poor at the base of the income pyramid. Both are exciting, but the problem is that they have evolved as separate communities. The green techies say, "Just give us the venture capital, and we'll invent the clean tech of tomorrow," as if it will then spring magically into reality.

Advertisement

Proponents of the base of the pyramid approach seek to address poverty and inequity in developing countries through a new form of enterprise. They say, "How do we innovate business models, extend distribution, and become embedded in the community to build viable businesses from the ground up?" But such "pro-poor" business advocates often lose sight of the environment, as if all this new economic activity will automatically create a sustainable form of development at the base of the pyramid. Tragically, that way of thinking could take us all over the cliff, if we end up with 6.7 billion people consuming like Americans.

The challenge of our time, therefore, is to figure out how to bring these two worlds together to enable a global "Green Leap." Indeed, emerging clean technologies, including distributed generation of renewable energy, biofuels, point-of-use water purification, biomaterials, wireless information technology, and sustainable agriculture hold the keys to solving many of the world's global environmental and social challenges.

Because these small-scale green technologies are often "disruptive" in character, the base of the pyramid is an ideal place to focus initial commercialization attention. China's towns and small cities, Brazil's favelas, and India's rural villages present such opportunities. Once established, such technologies can then "trickle up" to the established markets at the top of the pyramid--but not until they have become proven, reliable, affordable, and competitive against the incumbent infrastructure.

In my view, the Green Leap is a key point of leverage in transforming the global economy toward sustainability. If I am right, this holds important implications for policy-making. Rather than circling the wagons and seeking to build a Green Fortress America (or Europe, or Japan), the best thing we could do is get our most promising technologists and entrepreneurs out of the US (and the rest of the developed world markets) and into the rural villages, urban slums, and shantytowns of the world where 4 billion plus people currently reside. It is here that the Green Leap will take place. And, it is here that the corporations of the 21st century will be born.

How does the Green Leap compare to "reverse innovation"? What are the dangers?

One area of important learning has been the potential for incubating disruptive innovations and business models starting in the underserved space at the base of the pyramid and later having some of these innovations move up-market.

Advertisement

Clay Christensen and I wrote about this over a decade ago (2002) in an article entitled "The Great Leap: Driving Innovation from the Base of the Pyramid." The idea has caught on. Over the past decade, a whole slew of new terms and buzzwords have arisen to describe this phenomenon, including trickle-up innovation, frugal innovation, and the latest incarnation--reverse innovation. Vijay Govindarajan and his colleagues have led the way in developing the strategic logic for reverse innovation and documented a growing number of cases illustrating this approach from the corporate sector, beginning with GEs development of a low-cost, hand-held ultrasound device in rural India and China.

A key difference between reverse innovation and the earlier work on base of the pyramid strategy is the promise--even expectation--of large and profitable up-market migration for the innovations incubated in the underserved space: GE's hand-held ultrasound device, for example, has "trickled up" to the US and other developed markets and now constitutes one of the fastest growing and profitable businesses for GE's Healthcare business.

There is some good news and some bad news regarding this trend. First the good news: Reverse innovation provides an attractive internal logic for undertaking such innovation initiatives within large corporations: Rather than simply focusing on the possibility of opening up new markets among the world's poor and underserved, reverse innovation offers the potential for having your cake and eating it too--by incubating innovations in the underserved space that can migrate up-market bringing new, disruptive, affordable, and (potentially) more environmentally sustainable products and services. Witness the growing "trickle-up" success in point-of-care medical devices, mobile telephony, and distributed energy technologies, for example. Exciting stuff, to say the least.

But now for the bad news--there is a potential dark side as well: The risk that corporations gradually come to view the world's slums and rural villages primarily as laboratories for incubating innovations for the rich. The poor, in other words, come to be seen more as guinea pigs than as underserved people and communities with special needs and requirements--a place for corporations to force cost constraints on their innovation process enabling even higher returns in the eventual (ultimate) market at the top of the pyramid.

Should this scenario come to pass, it would represent a double tragedy. Not only would this damage corporations' reputation and continuing right to operate, but the evidence is also mounting that few innovations incubated in the base of the pyramid space can easily travel up-market without significant modification, threat of imitation, or competitive reaction: Frugal designs must be upgraded to appeal to the wealthy; low-cost innovations can often be easily imitated, and competitors with lower cost structures can enter as fast seconds after the pioneers have incurred all the development costs.

Advertisement

Allow this to serve as a cautionary tale to all those large, incumbent corporations thinking reverse innovation is the magic bullet: Focus on first things first--better serving and lifting those underserved at the base of the income pyramid. Should some of these disruptive, lower cost, or environmentally sustainable innovations eventually lend themselves to application in the up-market, that is great news for the Corporations and the World. But let us not look back in ten years and view reverse innovation as yet another classic example of the Law of Unintended Consequences.

What can business do to embrace this transformation? Do you find a sense of urgency?

For the most part, the Corporate Sustainability Advisory Council (SAC) is now part of the standard apparatus for most major corporations.

The first SACs were launched in the 1990s; and with a few notable exceptions, they were used primarily as PR tools to curry favor with increasingly vocal environmentalists and other troublesome social stakeholders. Back in the day, members of SACs (myself included), were typically engaged to review (what were then new) Corporate Responsibility/Sustainability Reports, serve as judges for staff sustainability awards, and provide advice on specific CSR or environmental initiatives by the company.

SACs typically met once or twice a year and members were almost always prominently featured on the corporate website, but seldom compensated, other than covering travel expenses and accommodations. This was presumably done to avoid the appearance that members were being "bought" but in reality, it was a statement about the perceived value of these councils: Meetings were usually run by CSR or environmental management staff. The CEO might make a symbolic appearance at the beginning or end of the meeting, but generally no senior executives or business leaders were engaged in the work of the SAC. It was a largely symbolic initiative convened for external appearances and social legitimacy. That was then.

This is now: The days of the Symbolic SAC are rapidly coming to an end: As social and environmental challenges become increasingly material, gaining serious advice on these matters is no longer a luxury. Increasingly corporations are seeking to elevate the SAC--to make it an integral part of the strategic process of the company.

Advertisement

What are the best ways to do that?

In my experience, there are five keys to taking the Sustainability Advisory Council to the next level:

1. Encourage Free Speech. Include only the highest quality people from diverse backgrounds with stellar reputations and strong views. And then encourage them to speak their minds. The last thing you need is a polite group of advisors willing to rubber stamp CSR initiatives. SAC members should be encouraged to ask hard questions and introduce variety, not provide cover for existing practices and strategies.

2. Make it Real. Don't waste valuable time on peripheral activities like Sustainability Reports, Websites, and Staff Awards. Instead, engage the SAC in the real stuff--the strategic and operating challenges that are most significant to the company's future. If SAC members have not signed NDAs there is something wrong.

3. Engage the C-Suite. Cameo appearances by the Chief Executive no longer cut it. If the SAC is tackling serious strategic issues, then the CEO and other key C-Suite Executives need to be active participants in the deliberations. Deep dialogue and mutual learning can only happen when people spend time together and get to know each other.

4. Interact with the Board. The past separation between the SAC and the Board of Directors must come to an end. In tomorrow's world where sustainability and strategy are joined at the hip, the Board cannot govern effectively without access to the SAC's expertise, and the SAC cannot gain the necessary perspective without knowledge of the Board's concerns and priorities. Hold at least one joint meeting (or overlap the two meetings) each year.

Advertisement

5. Compensate Appropriately. Members of the Board of Directors are paid serious money for their year-round engagement in the company's governance. Nothing less should be expected from SAC members. This means that pro-bono appointments and token honoraria must give way to compensation commensurate with the new expectations. Bottom line: Don't skimp on SAC member compensation if you expect them to prioritize SAC work over the myriad of other opportunities and obligations on their plates.

How do you help corporations begin the journey?

It starts with the mindset. After working with scores of corporations and executive leaders over the past twenty years on matters relating to business and sustainability, I have come to the conclusion that there are fundamentally four distinctive mindsets of executives when it comes to this challenge: Deniers, Avoiders, Camouflagers, and Transformers. Not surprisingly, the sustainability strategy (or lack of one) in any given company is driven by the prevailing mindsets. Allow me to describe them for each type:

Deniers are executives who either refuse to face facts or willfully deny the existence of a problem despite the existence of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Whether the issue is climate change, poverty, inequity, or loss of biodiversity, deniers consistently discount scientific evidence as "biased" or align themselves with a fringe minority of "experts" who expound the opposing view. For deniers, climate change is a hoax and poverty is due to laziness or lack of aptitude. Context and circumstance matter little to deniers. Belief is absolute, not unlike religious dogma. For those working in companies led by Deniers, it is virtually impossible to be an effective sustainability change agent since these concerns are literally dismissed out of hand by senior leadership.

Avoiders are executives who may actually understand the social and environmental challenges we face, but either postpone serious consideration or seek to avoid engagement of the issues in the company altogether. The classic Avoider is in his or her early 60s or only 2-3 years away from retirement or being packaged out with a large financial windfall. Their primary motivation is selfish--to "kick the can down the road" so that they don't have to invest the time and emotional energy in the few years they have remaining. For the Avoider, the serious challenges of global sustainability can wait, so they become someone else's problem. Patience is required if one seeks to be a change agent or sustainability champion in a company led largely by Avoiders.

Camouflagers are executives who wrap themselves and their companies in the jargon of sustainability but fail to take decisive action or launch initiatives that would fundamentally alter their strategic path.They take on the "protective coloration" of sustainability by investing in incremental initiatives that continuously improve existing operations and strategies. Camouflagers want their cake and eat it to: external validation for their progressive stance but little in the way of strategic risk or change. Companies led by Camouflagers typically publish elaborate Sustainability Reports with lots of charts and graphs showing how eco-efficiency and corporate responsibility have reduced emissions, lowered costs, or built brand image. Those seeking to become engaged in sustainability in companies led by Camouflagers had best get their Six Sigma Black Belt or demonstrate a passion for corporate volunteerism.

Advertisement

Finally, Transformers are executives who are willing and able to stake out a new direction for their companies--one which will disrupt current industry structure and "leapfrog" toward a more sustainable world. Transformers are not afraid to take unpopular positions within the current industry; they often withdraw from industry associations, defund lobbying designed to preserve the status quo, and make preemptive investments that threaten to unseat industry incumbents. Not satisfied with incremental improvement, Transformers seek creative destruction. For those really interested in using the power of business to drive us toward a more environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive world, companies led by Transformers are the place to be.

But where does the learning come from? How can business accelerate the shift?

It has been 30 years since I completed my Ph.D. degree. Over that time, I've served on the faculties at three different "top 20" business schools--Michigan (Ross), University of North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler) and Cornell (Johnson) and started Centers focused on sustainable enterprise and inclusive business at all three. I've watched the "American" business school model--with its emphasis on scholarly publishing and functional core courses in the MBA program--spread across the world. And as I start on my fourth decade of professional life, I have come to a conclusion: The dominant model of business education and entrepreneurial development is broken.

We desperately need new models of business education and entrepreneurial development appropriate to the challenges we face in the 21st century, which include epidemic inequality, ecosystem degradation, and a looming climate crisis. We need transformative change and revolutionary new business models, not just adjustment around the edges. We need a focus on the skills required to imagine, co-create, launch and scale game-changing new ventures that simultaneously lift the poor and leapfrog to new environmentally sustainable ways of living.

I've joined forces with the University of Vermont to create a new Sustainable Entrepreneurship MBA program (SEMBA). In essence, we're doing something about the "saddlebag" approach to sustainability that has permeated academic world for so long. Together with my colleague and friend Dean Sanjay Sharma, who I first met more than 15 years ago, we're taking action on our article, "Beyond 'Saddle Bag' Sustainability for Business Education" (Organization & Environment). It chronicles the history of how business schools have incrementally added courses in sustainability, corporate social responsibility and ethics in response to evolving societal demands. What we're doing represents a bold new venture where a major university has sought to fundamentally reinvent business education and the MBA degree by addressing the environment, ethics, entrepreneurship, poverty and inequality.

Advertisement

Our aim is to build and nurture a global, action-learning ecosystem, enabling us to develop the next generation of leaders who will build, disrupt, innovate and reinvent sustainable businesses and enterprises in a world that demands it.

What advice do you have for the CEO who is trying to get the ball rolling?

I'd ask them a few questions:

Where Will the company's disruptive and leapfrog technologies come from? Significant attention has been paid to the challenges of business model innovation, co-creation, and organizational innovation in facilitating BoP business venturing. Less attention has been paid to where the technologies and innovations that drive such ventures come from and how they might be best developed. Businesses are beginning to focus on the three primary sources of new technology for driving inclusive and sustainable business development and how they are best driven from the bottom up: Exponential technology, shelf technology, and grassroots/indigenous technology.

Is there a way for BoP business logic be applied to the developed world? For the past decade the primary focus has been on the challenges of building successful BoP businesses in the impoverished rural areas and megacity slums of the developing world. Comparatively little attention, however, has been paid to how innovation from the bottom up might create opportunity and better serve the growing underclass in the US, Europe and other parts of the Rich World.

How do we move beyond silos? How do we apply systems thinking to improve BoP Sustainability? Most BoP ventures to date have been focused on the sectors and industries that define business at the top of the pyramid: water, energy, transportation, telecommunications, food, housing, health, and education, to name just a few. Yet increasingly we see that the world's challenges, particularly those at the base of the pyramid, do not fit neatly into traditional sectoral or industry compartments. Instead, they cross boundaries and require broader ecosystems of partners to succeed. How do businesses understand and take on the challenges and opportunities of systems thinking, boundary spanning, ecosystems and interconnections in creating and scaling BoP innovations.

Advertisement

So yes, we are still stuck at the crossroads. Given our short tenure on this planet, we humans are a bit like the crash test dummies from the Auto industry, moving in slow motion: The changes that we see around us seem gradual enough that they do not seem particularly out of the ordinary--we've always had hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts, and wildfires. So, maybe we are just in a bad stretch. Or even if this is the new normal, perhaps it won't be that bad: warmer temperatures means longer growing seasons...etc.

But when we view this video in "real time"--that is in geologic time--then the changes that are happening are occurring in the blink of an eye, like the actual crash of the crash test dummies. As far as we can tell, the atmosphere and the climate of the earth have never changed this quickly before, in the history of the planet. Not even close. Sure, the climate has fluctuated wildly over the billions of years that life has thrived on our planet. But the changes took place over millennia, not decades. There was time for life to adapt. We, unfortunately, are driving ourselves into the proverbial wall, but we can only see it happening in slow motion. Time to clean out the head gear, humanity, or the next generation of dummies will not like how this crash video turns out.

Thanks Stu!
LANSING, MI - MARCH 08: Republican presidential candidate Ohio Gov. John Kasich speaks at a campaign rally at the Lansing Brewing Company on March 8, 2016 in Lansing, Michigan. Voters in Michigan go to the polls today to select their partys presidential nominee. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

There has been a lot of God talk during this presidential election cycle. I have searched past presidential elections, and I have not been able to find another period where God has played such a prominent role. Senator Marco Rubio has a group of advisers specially chosen for their faith perspective, and Ted Cruz father has claimed that his son has been anointed by God to be the President of the United States.

One candidate has been somewhat silent about his faith although he is a person of deep faith. Ohio Governor John Kasich is a man of deep spirituality, and his faith does help him come to conclusions on issues, but he has not made this a centerpiece of his campaign.

Advertisement

Governor Kasich has been polling in the low digits until the most recent GOP debate where the conversation was all about the size of certain things. Governor Kasich appeared to be the only adult on the stage and seemed to be very presidential and because of that more people are taking a long hard look at him.

Governor Kasich was born Roman Catholic but like most of us strayed away from his faith, but after his parents had been killed by a drunk driver, he found he needed more. In his book, Every Other Monday, he writes about his turn back to faith. "I drifted away from religion as a young adult. Then I looked up one day, and there was a huge hole in my life where God and religion had been." The book gets its name from a Bible study that he started to attend and that he feels started to give him some clarity in his life.

I wanted to know if this 'God thing' was real. For several years, some of my Washington friends had been trying to get me to attend their weekly Bible study reform group, and I'd always resisted. The last thing I wanted was to sit in a chapel with a group of politicians talking about God because I worried we'd say one thing in there and then go back out and do the exact opposite. But when I returned to Washington after my parents' death and tried to cobble my life back together, I started to look at this group as a possible lifeline. I was devastated, shattered, and desperate for any tether.

Governor Kasich belongs to the conservative Anglican Church of St. Augustine in Westerville, Ohio. St. Augustine is part of the Anglican Church in North America that splice from the Episcopal Church in 2004 after the election of Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire. Bishop Robinson was the first openly gay person to be elected a bishop in Episcopal church, and his election caused many to leave the national church.

Advertisement

Kasich believes in the traditional definition of marriage; he voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, and he supported Ohio's ban on same-sex marriage. However, when the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on June 26, 2015, that same-sex marriage was legal in the United States he said on Face the Nation, "I believe in traditional marriage, but the Supreme Court has ruled. It's the law of the land, and we'll abide by it... it's time to move on." He did not try and fashion exemptions to the law. Although he disagrees with the same-sex marriage, the law of the land is the determining factor. Many in the faith community would disagree with the decision as has been clearly displayed in Kentucky and Alabama, but in Ohio, the law is the law.

Governor Kasich has a strong sense of duty toward doing right by the poor. This is fueled by his Christian faith and the Scriptures that are part of his life. He came out in support of the Affordable Care Act especially the provision that expanded Medicaid. In 2013, the legislature in Ohio was debating a bill that would expand Medicaid to bring coverage to 275,000 more people in Ohio. A June 19th article in The Columbus Dispatch quotes Governor Kasich speaking about this duty toward to poor. "The most-important thing for this legislature to think about: Put yourself in somebody else's shoes. Put yourself in the shoes of a mother and a father of an adult child that is struggling. Walk in somebody else's moccasins. Understand that poverty is real."

Governor Kasich went on to relate a conversation he had with a member of the legislature:

I had a conversation with one of the members of the legislature the other day. I said, 'I respect the fact that you believe in small government. I do, too. I also know that you're a person of faith. 'Now, when you die and get to the meeting with St. Peter, he's probably not going to ask you much about what you did about keeping government small. But he is going to ask you what you did for the poor. You better have a good answer.'

On the campaign trail, Governor Kasich has tried to move the conversation away from the saber-rattling over divisive issues such as immigration and ISIS. He has tried to bring the conversation back to issues such as job creation, national defense and "healing the divisions between the races." I cannot help but this that this comes from his faith and his desire to help the poor.
It never fails. When I ask someone if they played an instrument in school, either their eyes light up with joy or exasperation sets in. No matter what their reaction, they always remember their music teacher.

I love teaching music. I love the screeching sounds in September because, hopefully, they turn into beautiful, melodic sounds by June. I love the scales and the patterns. I love the other "non-musical" abilities my students acquire, like perseverance, focus and problem solving. I just love what I do.

Advertisement

But it's not all roses and lollipops. Not only do arts teachers need to constantly defend their place in school curriculum, but many times we have to scramble around looking for funding for supplies and other vital items -- such as instruments.

This is where DonorsChoose.org comes in to save the day.

And today, on March 10 there are many other super heroes partnering with DonorsChoose.org, such as actors, athletes, philanthropists and citizen donors like you, to fund more than a million students in classrooms across the country. This certainly sounds like the #BestSchoolDay!

When I remember my #BestSchoolDay, I remember the people and the experiences and how they made me feel. When I picked up a trumpet for the first time, it may have seemed as if I was picking up shiny metal tubes molded together, but in actuality I was picking up the gateway to my future. I bonded with my teachers who pushed me beyond my self-imposed limits and I learned lessons that have shaped the woman I am today.

My #BestSchoolDay continues to inspire me to create more #BestSchoolDays for my students.

When our DonorscChoose.org proposals get funded and the students open the packages of music books or instruments from the donors, the look on their faces are pure delight. Not only because they have the supplies they need to be successful, but they realize that someone out there thought about them. Someone out there cared. Someone out there wants them to have the #BestSchoolDay ever!

Advertisement

Today is an exciting day, with the onset of giving into our classrooms by more than 50 founders, athletes and actors, but this story would be incomplete without you, our citizen donors who can also remember their #BestSchoolDay and help create one for students right in your hometown or all the way across the nation.

Genein Letford is a music educator, the 2015 Hart Vision Teacher of the Year and a DonorsChoose.org board member.
"Hansel and Gretel" is another traditional fairy tale that helps us understand what's going on in this crazy campaign that has drawn in anti-establishment voters who are angry, since they have been beaten down by the economy and want changes to the way things are. The story of Hansel and Gretel helps to illustrate the saga of these voters, since they are lost in the woods, seek refuge in what looks like an attractive place to go, and are threatened by destruction by an evil witch who has lured them in, only to try to eat them up before they manage to escape.

In this case, the original story, which comes from German folklore, was first recorded and published by the Brothers Grimm in 1812. As the story goes, Hansel and Gretel are young children whose father is a woodcutter, and when a great famine occurs, his abusive second wife convinces him to send the kids into the woods, because they eat too much, so she and her husband won't starve to death. The situation is a little like today's economic turmoil that's resulting in increased inequality, so many once middle-class people and poor people are suffering more and more, and so can feel very lost. Thus, as you think of Hansel and Gretel going off into the woods, you might think of the Republican and Democratic Party struggling to find its own way and survive.

Advertisement

At first, Hansel and Gretel try to return home after Hansel lays out a trail of pebbles and then breadcrumbs, but that doesn't work very well, much like it has proved difficult to get any bills through Congress to help the poor and downtrodden. But eventually Hansel and Gretel follow a beautiful white bird, who is singing so delightfully, to a house in the woods built of bread and covered with cakes and windows of clear sugar. So since the children are so tired and hungry, they start eating the roof and windows of the house. This inviting attraction is a little like the way Trump has sent out his call to the angry and frustrated people, using sweet enticing words and entertaining antics to woo them, which he knows how to do well as a reality show host featuring glamourous celebrities. So his promises and claims of greatness and success are like sweet candy to voters, so they eagerly follow and vote for him. They think it will be just great in the gingerbread house built by Trump.

But then, as the traditional story goes, a hideous old woman comes out of the house and lures Hansel and Gretel inside with the promise of good food and soft beds. As a result, after having a wonderful meal, the children lay down to sleep in beds with linen sheets, feeling like they are in heaven. But in fact, the old woman had only pretended to be kind, because she is in reality a wicked witch, who built her house of bread in order to cook and eat the children who fall into her power, just like Trump might seek to use his power if elected President to do whatever he wants, such as building a wall to keep out Mexicans, preventing Muslims from entering the country, torturing suspected terrorists, and killing their innocent family members. And the gingerbread house is, of course, like one of Trump's many real estate properties.

Advertisement

In any case, poor Hansel and Gretel are at first helpless. The witch locks Hansel in a cage in a stable behind a grated door to fatten him up, so she can eat him, much like Trump has been capturing the Republican Party by rounding up more votes than anyone else. He has done so by reshaping the debates, so he can insult and demean the other candidates, while they have little success in fighting back, much like Hansel in his cage. Trump just insults the opposing candidates some more and looks for their weaknesses to undermine them, such as repeatedly calling Cruz a liar and attacking Rubio as too weak and soft to make a good President. Still, Hansel is able to keep the witch from eating him by holding out a little bone, which she thinks is his finger, so she continues to think he is still too thin to eat, much like the remaining Republican candidates, Cruz, Rubio, and Kasich, keep entering primaries and caucuses in the hope of getting enough votes to stop Trump from winning the nomination.

Meanwhile, the witch treats Gretel like a slave, ordering her around to cook and fetch water, much like Trump has been putting down Hillary, as not being worthy of being President, accusing her of everything from the e-mail scandal to lying about the attacks in Benghazi and having a husband with a roving eye.

But finally, Gretel proves to be the smart one. After the witch decides to eat Hansel even if he is too thin, she prepares the oven for him and decides to kill Gretel, too. So she asks Gretel to open the oven and lean in front of it to see if the fire is hot enough. But suspecting that the witch plans to kill her, Gretel pretends she doesn't understand what the witch wants her to do. So she asks the witch to show her. Once the witch demonstrates, Gretel pushes her into the oven and shuts and bolts the iron door, after which the witch burns to death. Then, she frees Hansel, and they discover chests of pearls and jewels throughout the witch's house, which they take back home with them. Likewise, the wily Hillary can be the one to successfully attack Trump, whether he wins the nomination or not, and the witch's house with its treasures and precious stones is much like Trump's beautiful three-floor penthouse in Manhattan, which is filled with luxurious paintings and furniture, like a room from a Louis XIV palace. And in the end, the witch is burnt up, much like Trump might feel burned should he lose the nomination to Cruz, Rubio, or other establishment Republican, or should he lose badly to Hillary in the election in November. In that case, no wonder Trump might feel all burned up, because he has lost despite all his insults, lies, and low-blow attacks, much like the evil witch ended up getting destroyed in her own oven.

*************
By Laura Woods, Contributor

The March 9 Democratic debate held in Miami pitted Bernie Sanders vs. Hillary Clinton on the stage. The previous debate in Flint, Mich., held on March 6 saw the two candidates angrily talking over one another and clashing on everything from Bernie Sanders' tax plan for Wall Street to Hillary Clinton's education reform initiatives.

The latest Democratic debate of 2016 covered key issues, from Hillary Clinton's stance on immigration to Bernie Sanders'. Maria Elena Salinas and Jorge Ramos of Univision and Karen Tumulty of The Washington Post served as moderators of the debate.

Find out what the two candidates had to say about taxes, education and more.

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders' Tax Plans

Neither Bernie Sanders' nor Hillary Clinton's tax plans got too much attention during the fifth Democratic debate of 2016. Each candidate spoke on a tax initiative they plan to enact if elected, but this mostly focused on large corporations and the top one percent of individuals:

Advertisement

In her opening remarks, Clinton noted that removing economic barriers to success is one of her top priorities. "My focus is on more good paying jobs with rising incomes for families and how we prevent corporations from taking jobs out of our country by imposing an exit tax, making them pay back any tax breaks they've gotten," she said.

Sanders did not go into detail about his proposed progressive estate tax rate structure or his 10 percent billionaire's surtax, but he did find a way to insert it into a discussion about education reform: "We are going to get to Donald Trump by raising the taxes on the top 1 percent and our millionaires and billionaires."

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders on Free Education

Another hot topic of the evening was Bernie Sanders' education reform and Hillary Clinton's education policy. The two detailed their plans to make higher education more affordable.

"We're going to refinance everyone's existing student debt, 40 million Americans have student debt," Clinton said. "... Under my plan, you will be able to also lower your debt, move into a program to pay it back as a percentage of your income and more than that, my plan for debt-free tuition at public colleges and universities will eventually eliminate any student debt. But for people who have it, I'm going to put a date certain that after a certain number of years, you no longer have to pay anything."

"I do not propose free college tuition, I proposed free tuition at public colleges and universities" Sanders said. "... So I do believe we should make public colleges and universities tuition free, and I don't believe we should punish millions of young and not-so-young people with outrageous levels of student debt."

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders on Health Care

Not surprisingly, Hillary Clinton went head to head with Bernie Sanders on health care; the two have markedly different approaches to ensuring Americans have proper coverage.

Hillary Clinton criticized Bernie Sanders' plans for a single-payer health care program, claiming it would be more expensive than the senator is willing to admit. He responded with: "What Secretary Clinton is saying is that the United States should continue to be the only major country on Earth that doesn't guarantee health care to all of our people. I think if the rest of the world can do it, we can."

In response to Sanders' accusation, Clinton said she has been a champion for universal coverage but is more realistic. "Between the Republicans trying to repeal the first chance we've ever had to get to universal health care, and Senator Sanders wanting to throw us into a contentious debate over single payer, I think the smart approach is build on and protect the Affordable Care Act. Make it work. Reduce the cost."

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders on Minimum Wage

Salinas noted that the net worth of Latinos has gone down 42 percent during Obama's presidency and 60 percent of Latinos earn less than $15 per hour. She asked the candidates what they would do to improve the living conditions of Latinos.

On this, Clinton said, "We do need to raise the minimum wage and we have to guarantee equal pay for women."

Sanders said: "We have got to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour."

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders on Climate Change

Bernie Sanders' policies on the environment are similar to Hillary Clinton's in they both believe climate change is man-made and requires immediate action.

Tumulty started the dialogue by asking the candidates to share their concern on the effects of rising sea levels and climate change -- a question that was raised by more than two dozen Florida mayors. The two seemed to agree their plans would require major funding.

Clinton said: "... We do have to invest in resilience and mitigation while we are trying to cut emissions and make up for the fact that this is clearly man-made and man-aggravated."

"Now, I hope that Secretary Clinton would join me if we are serious about climate change, about imposing a tax on carbon on the fossil fuel industry and making massive investments in energy efficiency and sustainable energy," Sanders said.

Which presidential candidate do you side with? Watch the next round of Democratic debates in April in Pennsylvania, followed by the final Democratic debate of 2016 in California in May.

Advertisement
Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, gestures towards Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton , durings the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Generally, when you're debating a person who might get indicted because of an ongoing FBI investigation, you've won the contest in terms of trustworthiness. Bernie Sanders defeated Clinton during the Univision Democratic Debate on Wednesday, primarily because only one Democrat on stage risks indictment by the Justice Department. If you've traveled into the future, from a time period in American history when FBI investigations doomed presidential campaigns, then you're reading this correctly.

Univision host Jorge Ramos correctly pointed out that Hillary Clinton faces the risk of indictment, and asked Clinton whether she'd quit the presidential race if she were indicted over her private email server. Here is the video of Jorge Ramos courageously asking the question, and stating "If you get indicted, will you drop out?"

Advertisement

Needless to say, the former Secretary of State wasn't pleased with the question.



With Clinton's racial justice record "abysmal" according to Boston's Black Lives Matter President, it's important to analyze Clinton's reaction, in light of her "Super Predator" comment from the '90s. The mere thought of indictment, much less jail time, is offensive to Clinton, even though not long ago she called for more prisons and tougher sentences.

Clinton also accepted money from two major prison lobbyists, and took more money from these prison lobbyists than even Jeb Bush. I explain Clinton's prison lobbyist ties in the following YouTube segment.

David Banner and civil rights activist Ashley Williams have demanded to know why Clinton called black youth "Super Predators." The former First Lady continued the statement with "we have to bring them to heel." The rhetoric, during the time period, was coded language that resulted in laws targeting black communities across America. According to Michelle Alexander in a Nation piece titled Why Hillary Clinton Doesn't Deserve the Black Vote, "Bill Clinton championed discriminatory laws against formerly incarcerated people that have kept millions of Americans locked in a cycle of poverty and desperation."

Thus, it's political karma that a presidential candidate who takes money from prison lobbyists (the same interests that promote mass incarceration) would be offended by Jorge Ramos's question. Her reaction gave Bernie Sanders the clear victory during a debate that touched upon a number of topics.

Advertisement

Yes, Hilary Clinton risks possible criminal indictments, as explained by Charles Lipson in Hillary Clinton's Coming Legal Crisis:

These are vital issues, but Clinton faces a far bigger problem. She and her closest aides could be indicted criminally... The FBI reportedly has assigned some 100 agents full time to the investigation and another 50 temporarily. The bureau would not commit such massive resources unless the initial investigation raised troubling questions of potential criminality. FBI Director James Comey is monitoring the case closely and coordinating with the intelligence agencies, which have to review the documents. Comey has a reputation for integrity, and it is his call whether to refer charges to the DOJ. Attorney General Loretta Lynch would then decide whether to indict... An alternative possibility is that the DOJ accepts an FBI recommendation to indict Clinton's aides or even the former secretary herself.

Thus, even if Clinton herself isn't indicted, the indictment of a close associate could easily end her presidential campaign.

Still think a Clinton indictment is an example of H. A. Goodman hyperbole or bias?

During an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN where Lt. General Michael Flynn stated Hillary Clinton should "drop out" of the race, Flynn also said "If it were me, I would have been out the door and probably in jail."

Advertisement

President Obama's former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency stated he'd be in jail if he acted in the same manner as Hillary Clinton. No, this isn't H. A. Goodman, the biggest Bernie Sanders booster on the internet, making the statement; it's one of President Obama's former intelligence officials saying he'd go to jail for acting like Hillary Clinton.

I mention Lt. General Michael Flynn's viewpoint of the FBI's email investigation during my recent appearance on CNN with Victory Blackwell.

Furthermore, I ask Hillary supporters in the following YouTube segment if they know why Clinton needed a private server. Why was Clinton the only Secretary of State never to use a State.gov email address and the only Secretary of State to use a private server exclusively?

Like Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Edward Snowden also believes Clinton will face legal consequences, as quoted in a Guardian piece titled Edward Snowden says Hillary Clinton 'ridiculous' to think emails were secure:

"This is a problem," Snowden said, "because anyone who has the clearances that the secretary of state has, or the director of any top-level agency has, knows how classified information should be handled." He added: "If an ordinary worker at the State Department or the CIA ... were sending details about the security of embassies, which is alleged to be in her email, meetings with private government officials, foreign government officials and the statements that were made to them in confidence over unclassified email systems, they would not only lose their jobs and lose their clearance, they would very likely face prosecution for it."

So, according to Edward Snowden, not H. A. Goodman, Clinton's actions would lead someone else to "likely face prosecution." I also mention Edward Snowden's viewpoint during my CNN interview.

Therefore, we have a former U.S. intelligence official and Edward Snowden agreeing on the same thing, which should tell you something about the future of Clinton's campaign. Thank God for Univision's Jorge Ramos, because it's taken this long to get a debate moderator to ask the most relevant question in 2016.

As for a potential Clinton indictment, more voices have stated it's not only a possibility, but a likelihood. Liz Peek of The Fiscal Times writes why Clinton faces serious risk of indictment in a piece titled How the FBI Could Derail Hillary Clinton's Presidential Run:

What could bring Hillary down? According to some who have followed the case closely, Mrs. Clinton could be charged with breaking several laws, including willfully transmitting or retaining Top Secret material using a private server, unauthorized removal of classified information from government control or storing such information in an unauthorized location, lying to Congress, destruction of government property (wiping the server), lying under oath to a judge about having given the government all her emails or obstruction of justice.

No, not all the speculation about the FBI investigation and indictments revolve around a right-wing conspiracy. Clinton either circumvented laws, or broke them, and either way, the FBI's conclusion in several months will impact her campaign.

Advertisement

Finally, while Hillary Clinton was offended by Jorge Ramos's question, and Bernie Sanders won the debate simply because he was the only Democrat without risk of indictment, another powerful voice can be linked to this issue. Rapper and activist David Banner has a question for Hillary Clinton, as stated in a piece titled David Banner Questions Hillary Clinton About Past "Super Predator" Comments:

David Banner offered a series of questions to Hillary Clinton over past comments she made about "gangs of kids" evolving into "super predators." In his post, Banner brought up Clinton's past "super predator" comments and asked the following questions: "What exactly do you plan to do to repair the hundreds of thousands of lives that you and your husband have admittedly ruined through your biased anti crime campaign? What is the time line? 'I apologize' and 'I am wrong' is not good enough. We will wait for your answer." Clinton's exact statement on super predators, which was made at an appearance at Keene State College in 1996, is as follows: "[They're] not just gangs of kids anymore. They're often the kinds of kids that are called super predators. No conscious. No empathy."

In a series of questions, David Banner asks the former Secretary of State to address the past. The world is waiting for her to answer these questions.
Thomas Friedman seems to believe the Donald has almost sewed up a majority of the Republican Primary delegates and will be a formidable foe for Hillary, assuming she is the Democrat's candidate. But chances are his past will catch up with him as voters begin to think with their head rather than gut instinct that Friedman seems to believe motivates many voters.



"Donald Trump is a walking political science course," said Friedman in a NYTimes Op-ed. "His meteoric rise is lesson No. 1 on leadership: Most voters do not listen through their ears. They listen through their stomachs. If a leader can connect with them on a gut level, their response is: "Don't bother me with the details. I trust your instincts." If a leader can't connect on a gut level, he or she can't show them enough particulars. They'll just keep asking, "Can you show me the details one more time?"

That may be so for many Republican primary voters, but Trump's suspect past hasn't yet been investigated. Repubs have given him a blank check to date, believing that he will flame out of his own accord.

Advertisement

Even Mitt Romney calling him a con artist last week didn't seem to hurt Trump in Michigan, though Ohio Governor John Kasich was creeping closer in the final tally of delegate votes, in a defacto tie for second place with Texas Senator Ted Cruz.



Graph: Marketwatch



Trump's sordid business dealings are known to very few. One of his 4 Chapter 11 (business) bankruptcies was for Trump Casinos and Hotels. "For 10 years between 1995 and 2005, Donald Trump ran Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts -- and he did it so badly and incompetently that it collapsed into Chapter 11 bankruptcy," said Marketwatch's Brett Arends, who has been tracking his business failures for years. "His stockholders were almost entirely wiped out, losing a staggering 89 percent of their money. The company actually lost money every single year. In total it racked up more than $600 million in net losses over that period," something no other major casino chain did over that term.

In total, Donald Trump pocketed $32 million in nine years of running Trump Casinos and Hotels, while his public stockholders lost more than $100 million. But much more damaging are the various class action lawsuits filed again Trump and Trump University, which was a university in name only.

Instead of receiving a quality degree, "as good as any university's", said Trump, students received a printed certificate and no degree after spending as much as $36,000 on a weekend course that solicited more money, and were given commonly known real estate websites, such as Zillow, and several worthless property referrals.

Advertisement

These are the words of several plaintiffs suing Trump that a San Diego court has elevated to gangster status. Trump is accused of not only fraud, but racketeering, as if he were running a criminal enterprise.

One of the two San Diego cases has been allowed by the judge to be brought under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, said Time Magazine's Steven Brill. "This means that, fairly or unfairly, opponents will be able to say that a large group of everyman voters, many of them elderly, have accused a leading contender for the Oval Office of being a racketeer."



The records indicate, for example, that Trump University collected approximately $40 million from its students-who included veterans, retired police officers and teachers-and that Trump personally received approximately $5 million of it, despite his claim, repeated in our interview, that he started Trump University as a charitable venture.

Trump's own followers may be able to disbelieve the evidence that is being unearthed of his many business failures in a hyper fervid primary season full of promises. But the facts are only now coming to light. And the picture is revealing.

Even if the trials actually happen, they are still probably a year away, said Brill--though a tentative trial date in October of this year has just been set.

"But the internal Trump University records already sitting in the case files could become a weapon wielded by Trump's 2016 opponents. They could argue that Trump's foray into enticing aspiring entrepreneurs to tap their credit cards to pay for get-rich-quick classes-where Trump's actual input, other than the marketing, was restricted to a life-size poster of the mogul mounted in front of the room so they could take pictures with it-says a lot about the man under the Make America great again hat."

The evidence is in plain sight. The Donald always comes first, and very few others have profited thereby.
A United Nations human rights panel has raised concerns about the treatment of LGBTI minors in Iran and for the first time, asked the Iranian government to protect their rights as it is obligated to do under an international treaty governing children's rights.

On January 26, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child specifically raised concerns about discrimination, cruel and degrading treatment, including electroshocks and forced surgical treatment, among other serious human rights concerns.

The concerns were raised in the Committee's "Concluding Observation" regarding Iran's compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

Advertisement

In preparation for Iran's CRC review, in March 2015, OutRight Action International and the Iranian Queer Organization (IRQO) joined a number of Iranian civil society groups, under the umbrella of Impact Iran and submitted an alternative report regarding the implementation of the CRC by Iran and LGBTI children. Among issues highlighted in this report were discrimination based on the sexual orientation and gender identity of children, including discrimination within the criminal justice system, discrimination in the media and access to information, domestic abuse and violence and harassment, physical abuse and abuse in schools.

In its latest concluding observation, the Committee raised a series of concerns:

that LGBTI children face continuous discrimination because of their real or perceived sexual orientation or identity and that the same sex sexual behavior of adolescents above the actual age of criminal responsibility is criminalized and punished with penalties ranging from flogging to death penalty. The Committee recommended that the state decriminalize same sex relations and take measures to eliminate discrimination against LGBTI children.

that LGBTI children, according to reports, are subjected to electroshocks, hormones and strong psychoactive medications for the purpose of "curing" them. The Committee called on Iran to ensure that LGBTI children are not subjected to such cruel and degrading treatment and that those responsible for these acts be held accountable.

that LGBTI children have no access to information about gender identity or sexual orientation and that transgender individuals are forced to undergo surgical treatment. The committee asked the government to make information available and to end forcible surgical treatment of transgender persons.

that LGBTI children face harassment, bullying and expulsion from schools for failing to observe social expectations for male and female norms. The Committee recommends that the State party prohibit, prevent and punish harassment, bullying and expulsion of children who belong to LGBTI groups from schools.

Iran signed the CRC in September 1991, and subsequently ratified the treaty in July 1994, with serious reservations. "The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran reserves the right not to apply any provisions or articles of the Convention that are incompatible with Islamic Laws," the government stated. Such a broad reservation in effect renders the CRC useless and allows the government to walk away from its obligations under the treaty. (For more information in this regard, please see: http://indicators.ohchr.org/)

In order to ensure the full compliance of signatories with the CRC, the treaty set up a monitoring and reporting mechanism to examine progress by states and act as the official interpretation body of the convention. State parties are required to submit progress reports as part of this process. In accordance with this requirement, Iran's compliance has been so far reviewed three times by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. The first review took place in 2000, the second in 2005 and the third and the fourth review in 2016.

As a state party to the CRC, Iran is bound by the Convention and the Committee's Concluding Observation. However, it is likely that Iran will dismiss the Committee's recommendations on LGBTI rights on the grounds of their "incompatibility with Islamic Laws." This has been the government's perspective on the overall question of LGBTI rights in the past. Over the past five years, at least on five occasions various UN human rights mechanisms, including the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran (2013 and 2015), UN Human Rights Committee (2011), UN Economic and Social Council (2013) and UN Human Rights Council (2014) have raised concerns about LGBTI rights violation in Iran.

The government of Iran may continue to dismiss these concerns, but it is important that the international community continue to demand that Iran live up to its international obligations. Such pressure may force Iran to reconsider its position on this issue.
Multi-talented, multi-faceted author and game designer Jane Jensen has written a mystery novel set deep in Amish country. Kingdom Come is both an intriguing examination of a reclusive culture and a promising start to a new series. A beautiful girl is found dead in the barn of an Amish farmer, creating uproar in the community. Detective Elizabeth Harris must find the killer while at the same time, figure out who she can trust. A longtime fan of Jane, I reached out to her to talk about Kingdom Come, the potential dark side of faith, and her plans for the series.

Kingdom Come is the fascinating start to a mystery series. Can you tell readers how you became interested in the Amish community as a setting for mysteries?

I was born in Pennsylvania and moved back to live in Lancaster County five years ago. I've always been fascinated by all kinds of religions and sects, and the Amish in particular. Living here, I was inspired to set a murder mystery in the area. It's gorgeous countryside and farmland with an old-world feel, but you always wonder if it's as idyllic as it appears on the surface. My imagination tends to be pretty dark, so of course the answer is 'no'!

Advertisement



What was your research process like?

I read a number of auto-biographies written by people who had left the Amish and of course there's lots of tourist-level information available where I live. And I do have Amish neighbors that we buy produce from on a regular basis. My detective, Elizabeth Harris, is an 'outsider' to the culture, so I felt I knew enough to represent her point of view.

In your bio you've mentioned that you're a minister's daughter. Do you think coming from a religious background gives you an affinity for the subject matter?

Definitely. I am a liberal by nature, and I wrestled a lot with being a liberal child in a very conservative household when I was growing up. I'd waffle between wanting to be 'good' and follow what I was told, and having strong internal doubts and logical reasoning that didn't allow me to fully embrace the belief system. As an adult, I've been agnostic, but I find my writing constantly comes back to the theme of what people believe and why. There's certainly a sense of yearning that can never be fulfilled in Kingdom Come.

The series ends with a lot of potential for future installments. What are your plans for the series?

I've written book #2. It's called In the Land of Milk and Honey and it will be out in August 2016.

One of the remarkable things about you as a writer is how you've excelled in a variety of genres. I came to your work through your groundbreaking Gabriel Knight games, which are supernatural thrillers; others might find you through your award-winning science fiction novel, Dante's Equation, or your popular romance novels written under the pen name Eli Easton. Now you're beginning a mystery series. What are your thoughts about this propensity to span genres?

Advertisement

Kingdom Come is the most classic cozy/procedural mystery I've ever written, but I've always had an affinity for mysteries and my computer games and early novels had a mystery plot to them. So I see Kingdom Come as in that same Jane Jensen/thriller family and it uses the same part of my brain. The romance books under Eli Easton are a completely different 'me', if you will.

What are you working on now?

I'm currently writing an Eli Easton romantic comedy in my "Howl at the Moon" series. My husband and I both are dog crazy, and this romance series features dogs who can shift into people but still have dog traits. So that's a blast to write. My next Jane Jensen project will either be another Elizabeth Harris book or a historical thriller that I've had on the back burner for a while.

Jane Jensen is a novelist and game designer. Best known for her computer game series, Gabriel Knight, and her novel, Dante's Equation, Jensen has published seventeen games, four thriller novels, and the first Elizabeth Harris mystery, Kingdom Come. She also publishes romance as Eli Easton. She lives with her husband, Robert Holmes, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Visit her at twitter.com/jensen_jane and facebook.com/janejensenhomes.
As soon as he hung up the phone, Ralph Morse knew that he needed to get moving. He was still 90 miles away and there wouldn't be much time before people began to hear the news. Albert Einstein had just died.

Morse was a photographer for LIFE magazine. He drove down to Princeton, New Jersey as fast as possible, but other members of the media had already been alerted by the time he arrived. Morse would later recall the situation by saying,

"Einstein died at Princeton Hospital, so I headed there first. But it was chaos -- journalists, photographers, onlookers. So I headed over to Einstein's office at the Institute for Advanced Studies. On the way, I stopped and bought a case of scotch. I knew people might be reluctant to talk, but most people are happy to accept a bottle of booze, instead of money, in exchange for their help. So I get to the building, find the superintendent, give him a fifth of scotch and like that, he opens up the office." [1]

When Morse walked into Einstein's office, he snapped a photo of the desk where Einstein had been working just hours before.

Nobody knew it yet, but Einstein's body would be cremated before anyone could capture a final photo of him. As a result, Morse's photo of Einstein's desk would soon become the final iconic image of the great scientist's career. [2: With regards to his cluttered desk Einstein famously said, "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?"]



Albert Einstein's office just hours after his death on April 18, 1955. (Photographer: Ralph Morse. Image Source: Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images.)



The Work Ethic of Einstein

Einstein died of internal bleeding caused by the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm, a condition he had struggled with for years.

Advertisement

In 1948, seven years before his death, Einstein had surgery to prevent the "grapefruit-sized" aneurysm from rupturing. [3] One physician familiar with Einstein's case wrote, "For a number of years he had suffered from attacks of upper abdominal pain, which usually lasted for 2-3 days and were often accompanied by vomiting. These attacks usually occurred about every 3 or 4 months." [4]

Einstein continued to work despite the pain. He published papers well into the 1950s. Even on the day of his death in 1955, he was working on a speech he was scheduled to give on Israeli television and he brought the draft of it with him to the hospital. The speech draft, shown below, was never finished.



The final document worked on by Albert Einstein, a draft of his speech for Israel's 7th Anniversary. (Image Source: Einstein Archives Online)

Contributing vs. Consuming

"Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value."

-- Albert Einstein

Einstein's most famous contribution to science, the general theory of relativity, was published in 1915. He won the Nobel Prize in 1921. Yet, rather than assume he was a finished product, Einstein continued to work and contribute to the field for 40 more years.

Up until the moment of his death, Einstein continued to squeeze every ounce of greatness out of himself. He never rested on his laurels. He continued to work even through severe physical pain and in the face of death.

Advertisement

Everyone has a gift to share with the world, something that both lights you on fire internally and serves the world externally, and this thing-this calling-should be something you pursue until your final breath. It could be your actual job, as it was for Einstein. It could be a creative hobby, as it was for Vivian Maier. It could be the care you provide to those around you.

Whatever it is for you, our lives were meant to be spent making our contribution to the world, not merely consuming the world that others create.

"I have done my share."

Hours before his death, Einstein's doctors proposed trying a new and unproven surgery as a final option for extending his life. Einstein simply replied, "I have done my share, it is time to go. I will do it elegantly." [5]

We cannot predict the value our work will provide to the world. That's fine. It is not our job to judge our own work. It is our job to create it, to pour ourselves into it, and to master our craft as best we can.

We all have the opportunity to squeeze every ounce of greatness out of ourselves that we can. We all have the chance to do our share.

Advertisement

James Clear writes at JamesClear.com, where he shares science-based ideas for living a better life and building habits that stick. To get strategies for boosting your mental and physical performance by 10x, join his free newsletter.

This article was originally published on JamesClear.com.
Known as the "Lourdes of America," el Santuario de Chimayo, 40 miles north of Santa Fe, New Mexico, is one of the most important Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world. Even so, it is unknown to most Americans.

Each Holy Week, Chimayo, a tiny town of 3,000, swells to more than 40,000 as the annual pilgrimage fills the high desert roads of Northern New Mexico with the faithful. Many of the pilgrims walk hundreds of miles to visit the site.





Sometimes called the Santuario de Nuestro Senor de Esquipulas, the Santuario is known for its healing dirt. Legend says that around 1810, a local friar saw a light coming from a hillside by the Santa Cruz river. He did some digging, and found that the source of the light was a crucifix buried in the dirt. He named it Nuestro Senor de Esquipulas, Our Lord of Esquipulas.

Advertisement

Three times, the friar tried to take the crucifix to a neighboring town. Each time it disappeared, only to be found again in its original spot on the hillside. It was clear that Nuestro Senor de Esquipulas wanted to stay in Chimayo, and a small chapel was built there. The current church was built in 1816, by early Chimayo settler Don Bernardo Abeyta.

Over the centuries, miraculous healings have been attributed to the soil where the crucifix was buried. The holy dirt could be eaten, or applied to the afflictions of the faithful, and they would be healed. The tradition of the healing dirt continues to this day.

The church stayed in the Abeyta family until 1929, when it was given to the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. It was declared a national landmark in 1970.

-



Off to the side of the altar is a doorway leading to a small prayer room with a wall of cast off crutches, and an entrance to el pocito, or "the little well," of healing dirt.

Advertisement

People line up to enter the Santuario.

Many people carry crosses on their pilgrimage and erect them on the grounds.

Calls for prayers for the ill and troubled are posted.

Located steps away is the Santa Nino de Atocha Children's Chapel. The story says that in the early 1850s, a member of an influential local family became ill. When he recovered, he made a pilgrimage to the shrine of Santo Nino de Atocha in the town of Plateros in Zacatecas, Mexico.

When he returned to Chimayo, he brought a small papier mache doll of Santo Nino (Jesus as a Child). He received permission to construct a private chapel to house the doll. It was completed in 1856, and greatly contributed to large number of devotees of Santo Nino in Northern New Mexico.

If you go:

El Santuario de Chimayo

15 Santuario Drive, Chimayo, NM 87522

Open daily 9-5 (October-April), 9-6 (May-September)
Around ten years ago, I stood on the sidewalk and watched then senator of New York, Hillary Clinton march down Fifth Avenue in the midst of the Gay Pride Parade. What I focused on at the time was that she was the only person in the parade wearing high heels. The lesbians certainly weren't wearing heels. Even the drag queens that year had started wearing sneakers with their dresses. What I remember now, of course, is that Hillary was there -- before marriage equality, before LGBT rights were known as human rights.

Fast forward to the current presidential election. I am having dinner with an older, less out, lesbian friend who gives me a look and says that gay people will have problems if a Republican wins the presidency. She is right, of course. The backlash to marriage equality is already underway.

It's not only publicly out people who will suffer. Now that so many of us are married, we have government papers identifying us. Too many gains have been made, to go backwards. That is why I am supporting Hillary Clinton for president. She has the best background for the job. She is ready on day one. As a relatively recent member of a Unitarian Universalist church and a lay minister, I am technically open to all religious faiths in a way that I have not been before. But I have to admit that the white evangelical conservative Christians in the middle of the country scare me.

Advertisement

It is because of them that I am writing the following three Tweets outlining the reasons that I support Hillary:

Supreme Court justices decided in the nxt pres. term will decide our fate -- including LGBT rights http://tinyurl.com/j3ujxlh #VoteHillary

Prez Obama first friend in white house to LGBT community -- #VoteHillary continue the legacy http://tinyurl.com/ja38xw5 @HillaryClinton

African American support buoys #Hillary http://tinyurl.com/jtgjh9x Let's take their lead. The last thing we need is a divided Democratic Party.

Advertisement

Of course, there are many other reasons to support a mainstream Democratic candidate. These include reproductive rights which are already being eroded and will be influenced by the Supreme Court. Bernie Sanders has some good points. But the candidate who defines himself as a "Socialist Democrat" and uses words such as "oligarchy" will not win over middle America. Chances are slim to none that he will win a general election.

No one wants to dash the idealism of young people -- or those who stand with the young. But in pointing out the obvious, we are helping the young people avoid the decades long (or more) struggles that affect them too. Yes, LGBT rights can be rolled back. Reproductive rights can be taken away.

Hillary Clinton is tough and more than competent.
Even in a healthy economy, qualified job seekers often struggle with reaching recruiters and human resource professionals due to in part to the increasing number of job applications from unqualified candidates. The average recruiter spends just 6 seconds viewing a resume and many job seekers get passed over because they didn't fully articulate their skills and qualifications for the specific job opening.



Even in a Great Economy the Hiring Process is Challenging

A recent report from Workopolis, shares that only 2% of candidates who apply for roles receive a job interview, but social media is the great job search equalizer. Job candidates are often surprised at which social media platforms are popular with recruiters, and the with which frequency that recruiters, HR and hiring managers use them to connect with candidates, work to fill job openings for high priority openings and share information about their company with a targeted pocket of prospective job candidates.

There's a huge disconnect between job seekers and HR leaders which is why I'll be at the SXSW Job Market Stage on Sunday, March 13, 2016, for a Dual Speaker Session titled, Resumes Suck! 7 Ways to Land a Job in Social Media.



Advertisement

Social Media Job Search Tips from HR Experts

HR and recruiting experts like myself agree that a good social media strategy not only improves the likelihood that you will interview for a job opening but also increases your ability to connect with employers to better understand if your personal and professional values align with the company. This is why I reached out to 15 of my peers in HR and recruiting to share with you how to best leverage social media in your job search.

"Joining "interactive" sessions with an employer like #AskATTJobs is a great way to get information and interact with recruiters." - Jennifer Tharp, Executive Director of Talent Attraction at AT&T

"With social media we are all living in a digital fishbowl today. Every breathe you take is seen, heard and felt across all of these mediums and employers are paying attention. Set your privacy and content settings right." - Philip Newman, Head of Talent Strategy at Home Depot

"LinkedIn.com/alumni is the best kept secret in social! It gives you a glimpse of what people with your emphasis of study are doing now. Most alumni are more than happy to connect." - Dina Mederios, Head of Global Sales & Strategy at LinkedIn

Advertisement

"Have an opinion. Put a viewpoint out on topic(s) for your industry. Network, meet people, and just have fun." - Eric Tung, Digital Recruiting Evangelist at BMC Software

"Social media during a job search is a gold mine! Be confident in your personal brand. Think twice before posting anything, and then let social media feed you with possibilities and opportunities." - Meghan M. Biro, CEO of Talent Culture

"Within your profile tell people what you're actually looking for and provide multiple ways they can track you down - including cell phone number to text you. Have a freaking personality, don't be so scrubbed that you look like a robot." - Tim Sackett, President at HRU Technical Resources

"Never apply before first searching for employees on social media that either previously worked in a company you worked for or graduated from the same school you did. Then call them and get them to be your employee referral. This will increase your chances by 14 times." - Gerry Crispin, Co-Founder of CareerXroads

"Social Media is just the gym, you still have to do the heavy lifting and close the deal in real time" - Andres Traslavina, Global Recruiting Manager at Whole Foods Markets

Advertisement

"Keyword tag your LinkedIn profile. Many people don't know that if they use keywords and key phrases throughout their LI profile, especially those that recruiters will search for, they increase their likelihood of being found." - Lida Citroen, Principal at Lida360 and International Personal Branding Expert

"The most memorable candidates for me are those who are just nice. Nice in what way? Well, they reach out and respond politely. They say thanks for the offer, even if they are not interested in the role I reached out to them for." - Kristin Rogers, ExtendMyStaff

"Social media is great for FINDING people, not being found. When you find your networking target, DO NOT EMAIL THEM. Pick up the phone and call them." - Rob Dromgoole, Director of Talent Acquisition at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

"Create a graphical representation of your resume in PowerPoint, title it with the keywords you want to be known for, upload to SlideShare and post to your LinkedIn profile. Splash your core message on the first slide." - Craig Fisher, Head of Employment Branding for CA Technologies

"Social media is a straight-up career locksmith - it opens doors to hiring managers - aka people who were previously unreachable. Not only can a job seeker connect with their prospective future boss, but they can soak up invaluable employment content. Often there are specific hashtag campaigns for employees to share their stories - the real experiences that were previously only available in private conversations." - Bryan Chaney, Head of Employment Branding at Indeed

Advertisement

"Build relationships with recruiters through social by discovering and sharing relevant info that we find interesting." - Michael Goldberg, Head of Talent Acquisition at American Heart Society

"Use it to engineer serendipity with employees at those companies at coffee shops, movie theaters, etc. I just did it earlier this evening to get access to an investor that I've been trying to meet." - Ravi Mickelsen, Co-Founder and CEO of JobFig

My best advice when it comes to using social media in the job search is this, "Do your research and meaningfully connect with hiring managers and recruiters. Find creative ways to build relationships, like serving as a source of candidate referrals for them."





Social Media is About Relationships
Thinking about how the President has acted during this year's primary. He's going to let Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders slug it out. I guess that is ok.

I go back in time. 2008. I am a middle-aged white guy; city-bred, but suburban living. I am middle class with kids in middle school. I am outraged at the stolen election of 2000. I was apoplectic at our entry into an optional war in Iraq.

So I see this African-American on the Democratic debate stage. OK, another also ran. This country was not ready for someone of that shade.

Advertisement

But he started making his case.

He never would have existed in my mind if he did not stand up to Hillary Clinton and make a moral Iraq War argument.

He never would have gotten anywhere near my vote if he did not clearly state - he was getting bin Laden.

The moment Hillary laughed and Biden clucked was the turning point.

I voted for him because he was not Hillary Clinton and had no part in the creation of the Iraq War.

I voted for Candidate Obama because he took everything the Clinton team dished at him. And did it with calm and coolness.

It was even more revealing of what the Clintons are when you look at the execution of their game plan for 2008. It made me even more disgusted with them; the roots of the Birtherism movement and Rev. Jerimiah Wright. The half-truths being executed on Bernie Sanders today were practiced and almost perfected in 2008.

Advertisement

What bothers me in 2016, I look and see that President Obama's silence may help Hillary Clinton to the White House.

I have to ask what changed since 2008 (aside from my middle schoolers racking up college debt)?

Was it her vote on Iraq that killed an innocent country?

Nah - that didn't change. Those folks are still dead.

Has he been warped by Washington DC to the point he forgot why he went there?

An animal deal that puts Hillary in the White House will be the largest stain one could imagine on his legacy.
Justice Antonin Scalia's death last month presented the occasion to select the 118th Supreme Court justice. Although President Barack Obama has pledged to nominate a successor, Senate Republican leaders have insisted since shortly after Justice Scalia's death that the president elected later this year, not Obama, should make the appointment and have refused to hold hearings on, or courtesy calls with, any Obama nominee. This unprecedented action violates long-standing principles of constitutional practice.

The Constitution assigns the president and the Senate critical roles in the process. It provides that the president shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint, judges of the Supreme Court. This division -- the president nominates and appoints, the Senate provides advice and consent -- makes clear the shared responsibility as does the Constitution's structure. Since the two political branches are playing a unique role in composing the leadership of the judiciary, a branch that can exert checks over them both, it would be anomalous if the role was not shared. Although most presidential nominees are confirmed -- approximately 90 percent since 1900 -- the Senate has defeated nominees.

The Constitution envisions a collaborative process, especially when party control of the White House and Senate is divided. Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan were not able to appoint their preferred choices of Judges Clement Haynsworth/G. Harrold Carswell and Robert Bork but heavily Democratic senates then unanimously confirmed conservative, Republican-appointed Judges Harry Blackmun and Anthony Kennedy even though no Democratic president would have nominated either. In 1993 and 1994, Bill Clinton appointed Judges Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer rather than his preferred choices because Republican senators reported they could accept those Democratic appointees.

Advertisement

The process works this way in presidential election years as well as during earlier parts of a president's term. The Constitution makes no distinction regarding the president and Senate's responsibilities in year four vs. earlier years. A century ago, President Woodrow Wilson nominated Louis Brandeis on January 28, 1916 and he was confirmed on June 1. When Charles Evans Hughes resigned from the Court a few days later to accept the Republican nomination to run against Wilson, the President nominated Judge John Clarke who was unanimously confirmed on July 24, 1916. There was no suggestion that the President's or Senate's responsibilities were suspended pending the election; in fact, former President (and future Chief Justice) William Howard Taft wrote Hughes that, with his resignation, the Republicans would be sacrificing a Court seat to prevent Wilson from making appointments during a second term that would further damage the Court. On six occasions during the 20th century, the Senate confirmed justices during a presidential election year; in a seventh, a justice was given a recess appointment and confirmed the following year. The same practice largely occurred during the 18th and 19th centuries except during the accidental presidency of John Tyler who alienated both parties, made controversial choices and persisted in resubmitting them after they had failed to win favor; the Senate did not confirm any of his seven nominees in 1844, thereby skewing the 19th century statistics.

Contrary to some claims, the defeat by filibuster of President Lyndon Johnson's nominations of Justice Abe Fortas and Judge Homer Thornberry to replace Chief Justice Earl Warren and Fortas respectively is not a precedent supporting the Republican position. Chief Justice Warren disclosed his desire to retire in June, 1968; Justice Scalia's death occurred in February. Warren timed his retirement for when the Senate confirmed his successor so some argued there was no vacancy; there now is a vacancy. A bipartisan group of Senate Republicans and Southern Democrats filibustered Fortas; here one party alone provides the opposition. Finally, and most importantly, the Senate held hearings and debated the nominee in 1968 and some of the opposition stemmed from Fortas's ethical problems, from the cronyism the appointments reflected, and from opposition to Court decisions. The Senate did not declare the nominations dead before they were even made!

Advertisement
The Circle is one of the most divine structures of all. Even in its definition, as all the points in the plane equidistant from a center point, there is a sense of beauty and justice. While the Square and all things rectilinear may dominate our architectonic landscape and grid-centric spaces, it is its sibling Circle that brings the spirit of nature, growth and motion. It is the Circle that reminds us that along every point on the path is both a beginning and an end. It is the Circle that inspires poets and mathematicians alike.

The Circle constant Pi = 3.14159..., the circumference of a circle divided by its diameter, is the never repeating number that has intrigued both mathematicians and mystics for centuries. Pi has been calculated out to over a trillion digits, and is thought to contain-if translated to alphanumeric--every possible word, sentence and book. But before you go off looking for your social security number in the infinite sequence of Pi, know that even 31415 does not show up until over 88,008 digits in.

Advertisement

While this number may have one of the fanciest addresses on the number line, it also lives in a cross-sectional domain where mathematics meets culture meets nature. Some even debate the place of Pi as the circle-constant king, believing it should instead be tau (two times Pi). Nevertheless Pi continues to capture the attention of millions of people worldwide, especially on March 14th=(3/14)-which is both Pi Day and, incidentally, the birthday of Albert Einstein.

Pi Day was started in 1988 by the physicist Larry Shaw at San Francisco's Exploratorium science museum. Back then, as they do now, Pi Day partiers read the digits of Pi, gobbled down dessert pies and walked about in circles. In 2009, The House of Representatives passed House Resolution 224, designating March 14 as National Pi Day. The resolution "encourages schools and educators to observe the day with appropriate activities that teach students about Pi and engage them about the study of mathematics."

Before Pi day became official, I worked on visualizing the decimal expansion of Pi by arranging the Pi digits in a special way then color coding them, making digital quilts. I also tried various bases, including binary with black and white, and base 3 with red, white and blue, creating American Pi. To make real Pi quilts, I went to Alma Sue Quilt Shop for assistance, where I collaborated with Amish quilters to yield 13 large mathart quilts.

To add a human quality, I designed 5 Pi dresses for those who could appreciate both urban mathart geekness and dress shapes of the 60's, perfect for Lady Gaga or Erika Badu, who might be looking for some Pi Day fashion.

Advertisement

Going beyond the visuals, I had to hear Pi too. So I mapped Pi in the key of b flat creating a Blues composition that the late great Kenny Drew Jr. recorded for me. Then I teamed up with YouTube sensation mathmusician, Vi Hart to cover the first 170 numbers of Pi in the spoken digit "The Pi Day Anthem." This work of quilts, dresses, poetry, video installation and music based mostly on Pi, comes together in the exhibition, SquareRoots: A Quilted Manifesto, featuring my alter ego Johannes Curtis Schwarzenstein, the AfroGermanJewishMathArtPoet, my testimony to the magical connection between mathematics and art. Here is the exhibition video:

Mathematics is a beautiful language that helps us explore the physical world and beyond. So when the time comes to honor Pi Day, every March 14th, I invite you to reflect not only on all things circular, the number Pi, pizza, fruit pies, and that rocking Pi Day Anthem music video, but also the presence of mathematics in nature, art and the culture around us.

John Sims, a Detroit native is a multi-media political MathArtist who creates projects spanning the areas of mathematics, art, text, performance, and political-media activism. For more on his Pi work see the Science News article: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/quilting-pi
After twenty-four years at the helm of the institution that he has radically transformed, Sonoma State University President, Ruben Arminana, will retire on July 1, 2016. But first he has to run a kind of gauntlet: a strike by faculty members that's slated to run from April 13 to 15, and then again from April 18-19. If the strike does indeed take place, all 23 campuses of the California State University (CSU) system, will be involved.

The mega institution of higher learning offers nearly 2,000 bachelor's degree programs in almost 250 subject areas. It has 460,200 students, 24,405 teachers and 23,012 staff members.

If Arminana is counting the days until teachers walk picket lines and carry signs, he's not the only one. Twenty-two other CSU presidents, from San Diego and Los Angeles to San Jose and San Francisco, are also counting the days until the date, and hoping against hope that a settlement will be reached and a strike averted.

Advertisement

Not surprisingly, money is the stumbling block. The California Faculty Association, which represents teachers, is calling for a five percent raise for faculty members. The CSU is offering two percent. For the moment, the gulf between the two sides appears to be nearly irreconcilable.

Born in Cuba in 1947, Arminana arrived in the United States as a boy with only a dime in his pocket, or so family legend has it. His mother and father sent him to the States when he was 14, soon after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution and the arrival of Russians from the Soviet Union who aimed to help build a communist economy on the island.

Ruben Arminana's father, a lawyer and judge, was not a revolutionary, but in 1959 he officiated at Che Guevara's marriage to his Cuban wife, Aleida March. Che and his guerrillas turned the Arminana home in Santa Clara, Cuba, into their military headquarters that they used to attack and defeat the army of the Cuban dictator, Fulgencio Batista. They did not recruit Ruben. Moreover, his parents send him as far away from the revolution as they could.

"Make something of yourself in the States," his parents told him. Indeed, he did. He attended Hill College, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of New Orleans. His degrees are in economics and political science, subjects he has taught through the Osher Life Long Learning program.

Advertisement

While other Cuban-born American citizens have also served as university and college presidents in the U.S., Arminana is the most visible, the best known and the most successful fund-raiser.

Ever since 1992, when he took office as president of SSU, he has raised millions and millions of dollars for the Jean and Charles Schulz Information Center, the Green Music Center and the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Hall, a state-of-the-art concert facility that has given SSU a national reputation and that some though not all faculty members have resented.

No wonder Arminana has called himself "a beggar in a tie." He adds, "I've had a good product to sell. I ask for investments, not for gifts and I ask investors who have been good at investing."

Q: At all the entrances to SSU, signs from the California Faculty Association say, "I don't want to strike but I will." How likely is a strike?

A: There's a distinct possibility. I was hoping that it would not happen on my watch. I don't like strikes. A strike leaves a bad taste in almost everyone's mouth. It creates tensions and brings about fractures that take years to heal. This strike is unprecedented because it's system-wide. It's big, complicated and complex.

Advertisement

Q: The strike couldn't come at a worse time for you personally.

A: If I could persuade people to wait until next fall when I'm gone I would.

Q: What about the issue of increased pay?



A: For the past seven years, no one has had a salary increase except through promotion. Faculty members are underpaid.

Q: Is that something you say publicly?

A: Absolutely and the chancellor of the CSU system says it, too, but what the faculty is asking for might not be doable. The system is offering a two percent increase. The faculty wants a lot more. The other unions have a me-too clause. If the teachers get an increase they get an increase, too. The money just isn't there to meet the demands.

Q: I've heard that money really is available.

A: Our campus doesn't have it. I don't have a drawer with millions. I tell people if you can find my secret stash I will give you 99% of it.

Q: Is there room for leeway between the CSA and the CSU?

A: Possibly. I can envision an increase of five percent over a three-year period, but not all at once.

Q: Graduating seniors seem to be worried about finishing classes and receiving their degrees.

A: No one wants to create undue stress on the students, especially those who are slated to graduate. I suspect that faculty will make accommodations and that students will receive credit even though actual classes won't physically meet.

Advertisement

Q: Some teachers say that the strategy of the SSU administration is to divide students from faculty and then to conquer both.

A: We're not that smart and we're not that effective.

Q: Aside from the fact that you don't like strikes, would you agree that teachers have a legal right to strike?

A: I respect their right to strike and to express their feelings. Still, the campus cannot allow safety to be threatened. We can't have anyone blocking the entrance to SSU. I have asked everyone to be accommodating, flexible and understanding.

Q: You'd like the strike to be over as quickly as possible?

A: Like the flu, we'll suffer through it. We just don't want to create a situation where people are antagonistic to one another.

Q: The end of your time here at SSU coincides with a new chapter in Cuban/American relations. As a Cuban-born American citizen how do you feel about the opening, as it's been called, between the two countries?

Advertisement

A: It's the right thing to do. It benefits Cubans in Cuba and in the United States and it's in the interests of the U.S., too. I'm in favor of diplomatic relations between the two countries and increased economic and cultural ties, too. The embargo of Cuba didn't work. It didn't topple the Castro government. It's time for a change.

Q: Will you return to the land of your birth?

A: I hope to do so next year. I have not been back to Cuba since the 1970s when I traveled there with then Louisiana Congressman, John Breaux, to discuss trade relations. President Jimmy Carter approved our mission, but we were not successful.

Q: What would you like to do when you're back in Cuba?

A: If possible, I would like to visit the cemetery where my grandfather and grandmother are buried. I'd like to enjoy a Cuban sandwich at a restaurant called La Caridad, and see my old home, school, church and the streets that I walked as a child.

Q: After your retirement will you continue to live in Sonoma County?

A: I am not sure. My wife, Marne, and I are considering our options. We could remain here where we have many friends, but we could also relocate to New Orleans where we met 29 years ago. Marne and I both know and like New Orleans. Another option is Austin, Texas, where I went to school and where I have many friends who retired there after long careers. There's a rich cultural life in Austin. Marne liked it much better than she thought she would. In any case, we'll be in Sonoma for a year after I no longer occupy the president's chair.

Q: You've been fortunate to be married to the same woman all this time and to have many of the same interests.

Advertisement

A: She has Scandinavian roots while I'm a Latin American. She tends to be more thoughtful than me, and a better judge of character. We take a major trip once a year, usually to Europe and we travel well together. When we first met we discovered that we both collected nutcrackers. Now, we have 350.

Q: You also have your own collection of masks which is in your office and that you'll take home with you when you leave.

A: The masks are all from Latin America and mostly from Mexico and Guatemala, but also from Peru, Colombia and Argentina.

Q: Do you also wear masks, metaphorically speaking, on the job?

A: As president I have to wear many different masks because I see many different people all day long and talk about many different subjects. I have, for example, my "Don't Have Money Mask."

Q: Faculty members often say that the president of a university has to serve the faculty and the students.

Advertisement

A: I mostly agree, though I would add that a college president also must serve the community. Public universities need to be integrated into the community. They can't be isolated ivory towers.

Q: Universities often change slowly, don't they?

A: We deliberate everything and we talk everything to death in the name of liberation. Universities rarely operate with a sense of urgency. That's part of their legacy. The church as an institution doesn't move with urgency, either. We're both conservative institutions.

Q: Sonoma State is located in a region where citizens value slow food, slow money and a slow life style.

A: That's one of the charms of this area and one of the impediments, too. We cherish the slow, but the slow has detrimental effects. We tend to strive for perfection and don't have enough concern for the time factor. In journalism you might have a great story, but if you miss the deadline it loses its value. We have similar issues in academia.

Q: As SSU president are you a powerhouse?

A: One of the major misconceptions about universities is that the president and the administration have power. If you have a thirst for power don't become a university president, though you can sometimes have the power of the pulpit. The job demands that you bring together different constituents. I can't change a student's grade and I have little say in the hiring of new faculty members. In the private sector it's different. If a CEO says something, it's done. Here it takes years before something gets a hearing.

Advertisement

Q: How would you like to be remembered?

A: I hope that Sonoma will remember me as a president who helped to bring greater recognition from the community to the university. I think I have made SSU more visible. Over the past two-and-a-half decades we have raised a half-a-billion dollars, mostly from people in the area. In part due to my efforts, the community has come to see this institution as a valuable asset.

Q: Do you know SSU's new, incoming president, Judy Sakaki?

A: I've known her for fifteen years and have followed her career as she has moved from CSU Hayward, as it was once called, to Fresno to UC Davis and for the last ten years at the office of the chancellor in Long Beach. Judy is highly capable, thoughtful and bright. Her commitment to students is very strong, especially to first generation students of color. She's excited to be coming here. I hope she has a honeymoon and that the strike doesn't detract from the start of her new job.
" If there's one thing missing in our country, it's an acknowledgment of the broad humanity of black folks. Racism--and anti-black racism in particular--is the belief that there's something wrong with black people. " --Ta-Nehisi Coates

I owe my existence to black people. You see, my mum was engaged to another man, Michael Dabbs, before my father. "If a black man walked into a bar, I'd walk out," said Dabbs in 1949. My mum was mortified upon hearing these words. Shortly thereafter, she called off the engagement. Luckily, many years later, she met my father. If it weren't for her principles, I wouldn't be here.

In 2002, I bought and moved into a 1,100-unit Columbus, Ohio housing complex called Woodland Meadows, where the majority of residents, employees, and ex-felon workers were African American. My father is Argentine and my mother is British, which makes my skin a very light shade of Hispanic or a slightly dark shade of white, depending on one's perspective. My name is Jorge, but I don't speak Spanish. I go by "George," but I check "Hispanic" on loan applications. I am a minority business owner and my wife is African American.

Advertisement

At Christmas, we usually visit my wife's family first. Their Christmas dinner is the same as my family's dinner, and I suspect the same as most families' dinner: food, drink, conversation, presents, maybe a glimpse of a Lakers game on TV, and lots of love.

Most of the hundreds of ex-felons who worked at Woodland Meadows were young African American males. If I walked past any of these guys in a dark alley, my heart would beat faster and my gait would quicken. The reaction is subconscious, the result of growing up in an America where the villains on TV and other media tend to be African American while whites are frequently portrayed with positive imagery. Many news outlets pander to the white majority and perpetuate the perspective that whites may commit crimes, but African Americans are criminals.

Describing the heart-wrenching agony as thousands of African Americans cried for help from rooftops, bridges, and anywhere else dry in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, the African Independent observed that the white majority's pain subsided once news was broadcast of African Americans looting stores for food, water, diapers, and baby formula:

[The] Majority of White Americans who were heart broken by images of a Black third world at their doorstep coasts and neighborhoods could henceforth sleep at last with the customary belief that Blacks deserve what happens to them, as they are thugs and thieves, unrestrained looters...

Fascinatingly, as media images of New Orleans' African American residents wading through hurricane-induced floodwaters with "looted" food were broadcast around the world, whites were described as having "found" food. The best excuse for mistreatment of African Americans is to blame African Americans.

Unarmed Rodney King got a healthy beating by five white police officers, but he deserved it because he was on PCP (untrue). Unarmed Michael Brown was killed by a white police officer, but he deserved it because he was charging the officer in a menacing fashion (dubious). Unarmed Oscar Grant got shot in the back and killed by a white transit police officer while he lay face down, but he deserved it because he was resisting arrest (untrue). Unarmed Eric Garner was killed by a white police officer, but, according to Congressman Peter King, "If he had not had asthma, and a heart condition, and was so obese, he would not have died from this." (Bullshit). Trayvon Martin was shot dead by a neighborhood watch patrolmen, but according to rocker and conservative radio show host Ted Nugent, he "got justice" because he was a "17-year-old dope-smoking, racist gangsta wannabe." (Why do people listen to Ted Nugent?)

According to FBI statistics, between 2005 and 2012 in the United States, white police officers killed an average of two African Americans per week. This is almost like a national weekly quota: write a certain amount of speeding tickets, harass a certain number of minorities, and kill two African Americans. The actual count is likely much higher, as only 750 of the 17,000 law enforcement agencies in this country voluntarily report to the FBI's database.

The majority of these are treated as "justifiable homicides" because the victims are blamed for getting killed. In the United States, African Americans are typically assumed to be at fault, no matter how minor the offense. Even when African Americans clearly do well for the community, credit is often muted or even misappropriated by white people. Almost 500 African Americans and Hispanics perished in the 9/11 attacks, including firemen, bankers, security guards, and many others. However, 9/11 commemoratives and memorials have been largely devoid of minorities. LeRoy Wilson Homer Jr. was an African American pilot, husband and father flying United Flight 93, which was downed by terrorists. Yet when the critically acclaimed movie United 93 was released in 2006, Homer was depicted by a white actor.

Advertisement
Chris Rock had some great zingers at the Oscars. But the line that really got me thinking was when he rhetorically asked, "Is Hollywood racist? You damn right Hollywood's racist, but you've grown accustomed to it." More than anything else he said, this line made me pause, because it made me think of the ways in which it fit into the research my colleagues and I have conducted as part of the Children's Television and Language Project at Tufts. If grownups have grown accustomed to the Whiteness portrayed in most Hollywood products, what does this mean for the children exposed to them?

Over the past several years we've systematically investigated the images of ethnicity, race, gender and age in children's animated programming. Not only have we analyzed the way characters are drawn, we've also assessed how they talk. Linguistic cues, along with visual ones, give children powerful messages.

Studies conducted many years ago found that the world of children's animated television wasn't a very equitable place. Male characters outnumbered female characters by a ratio of almost 6:1. Women were almost always shown in predictable and stereotypical ways, subservient to males, more interested in their appearance and romantic connections than in being a leader. People of Color were barely depicted at all, and in the rare instances that they were, shown as secondary characters with largely stereotypical characteristics.

Advertisement

Our more recent research shows that things have improved, a little. In a data sample that includes the top 20 cartoons viewed by children aged 6-12, we found that male characters outnumber females by a 3:1 ratio. In over 1000 characters with speaking parts, the great majority (75%) were white. Characters of color (not counting the blue, green or other highly colored non-human characters) accounted for only 17% of the sample. Only 10 out of all of the characters we coded were Latino - less than 1% of all the characters we looked at. About 17% of the US population is now Latino, and the percentage is growing. Clearly the world of children's animated programming is still out of step.

Older characters are also underrepresented in the cartoons, with 6.7 % of the characters classified as elderly, versus the 13% of the U.S. population over 65. The vast majority of these elderly characters are minor or walk-on characters (87%), with only 8 elderly characters in our entire 1000 character sample developed as either a major villain (5) or major hero/sidekick (3). "The few characters there were tend to be comic," says my co-researcher, Jennifer Burton, a professor of the practice in Drama and Dance. "With the exception of being on the ugly side, the few elderly characters are generally presented as positive." This is a consistent with other underdeveloped and underrepresented character types (i.e. females), who also display generally "good" traits, versus the complexity of developed characters.

Part of the way that our team of students knew to code characters as being of a particular racial or ethnic background was how they were drawn. But part of it came from some of the contextual cues given in the shows, including the dialect with which a character spoke. And here we found some particularly distressing data.

Advertisement

Of the characters who were clearly evil or cast as "bad guys," more than one-third had discernably non-American accents. This is consistent with earlier incarnations of this study we'd done. Sometimes the accents were Russian, sometimes German, sometimes vaguely Eastern European, sometimes British. But the conclusion was clear: the vocal casting in a number of these cartoons suggested that an accent that sounded "other" than American was being used as a way of identifying the villain.

These results are concerning for a few reasons.

First of all, we know that while children today have many media options and many platforms on which they can receive media, television programs remain the single most prevalent form of media that young children consume. Kids 0-9 watch about 35 hours of television a week, and the most recent Kaiser Family Foundation report found, given the variety of platforms, that the overall amount of television most American children 8-18 watch actually increased to just over 4 hours/day. That's a lot of potential exposure to these images.

We also know from the research that children are able to discern race, ethnicity and gender from about age 3 onward, sometimes simply by assessing "who looks like me/who sounds like me, who doesn't." In addition, Calvin Gidney, a professor of Child Study and Human Development who is one of my co-investigators, notes that "Linguists have found that by as year as age 4, children form judgments about other people based solely on how they speak."

It needs to be said that not all of the cartoons we looked at had stereotypical depictions of race, ethnicity, gender and age. Not surprisingly, the world of PBS animated programming looks different from the world depicted in some other quarters of the children's televisual landscape. Some shows were better than others; some were even fairly equitable. But the majority were not. To have a world of animated programming in which males outnumber females, in which people of Color are largely absent, in which stereotypical images continue to prevail to such an extent, and in which the "bad guys" are often marked by distinctive non-American dialects is problematic.
A prison cell

Kindra Chapman , 18, died in a cell in Alabama. She hanged herself with a bed sheet.

Joyce Curnell, 50, died in South Carolina, allegedly begging for water and medication that never came.

Ralkina Jones, 37, died in Ohio. She had a heart condition among other medical issues and was recorded telling officers that "she didn't want to die in a jail cell."

Advertisement

Raynette Turner, 43, died in New York. The mother of eight was found dead in a Mount Vernon jail even though she, too, alerted the authorities to her medical condition.

Sandra Bland's death horrified the nation. Bland, at just 28 years old, was driving home after having landed her dream job, when former Texas state trooper Brian Encinia stopped her for supposedly failing to signal a lane change. The stop devolved into a beating off-camera, an arrest, and Bland would be found hanging dead in a Waller County Texas jail cell three days later.

Although Bland's death followed a string of high-profile racially charged deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of white police, her hanging death rattled public sensibilities because of this country's history of lynching and the role of law enforcement therein: for decades African Americans were taken from jails and lynched by angry white mobs, if not at the behest of police officers outright then with their tacit approval as they unlocked the cells.

Bland's death also pierced the silence surrounding police brutality against black women, and for many it became a powerful symbol of the State's devaluation of black life. That summer, 2015, Bland was among the other aforementioned black women to die in jail, nearly all in custody for only two or three days and imprisoned for minor charges--things like traffic violations or shoplifting.

Advertisement

And before all of these deaths, a transgender black woman, Kayla Moore, died in police custody in Berkeley in 2013. Moore, like Curnell, was seeking medical treatment when an outstanding warrant landed her in jail instead. According to the authorities, "While restrained in a gurney due to her 'large stature,' Moore stopped breathing and was taken to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead." New evidence suggests authorities failed to properly monitor her vital signs. Moore's father filed a lawsuit but ultimately justice remains elusive.

Sandra Bland's case seemed like one that might get justice and result in some kind of change. However, despite tireless, heart-breaking pleas for justice her family has received anything but. Between the secret report presented to a secret grand jury that resulted in--surprise, surprise--no indictment to the slap in the face that is Encinia's perjury charge (yes, you read that correctly: Sandra Bland is DEAD and he is facing a misdemeanor) to the lack of engagement on the part of the Department of Justice it's been one disappointment after another.

But we cannot let this stand. This is a national crisis.

Bland's demise, the deaths of the other black women, and the more recent suspicious death of 16-year-old Gynnya McMillen, who died earlier this year in a cell in Kentucky, mark a broader failing in the justice system that must be addressed.

As US Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D) explained at a recent press conference outside a federal courthouse in Houston: "We're in a fight for getting the right kind of treatment for citizens of this nation and particularly young women and young men of color."

Black women and girls should not be killed in jail in America. Not under any circumstances. And the last thing their families should have to do is fight for answers.

Advertisement

Justice has always been biased in this country, but it's a crisis point when a federal judge must order the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to review heavily redacted reports on the suspicious deaths, as one just did in Texas on February 18, so that Bland's family might obtain access to clear documents.

What exactly are they hiding? And why exactly are we tolerating it?

Bland's mother makes a call: "Let's start looking at indicting the system then," and, "let's not let our quest for justice die like they did." Call upon the FBI to open the records and continue to press the Department of Justice to launch an independent investigation into Sandra Bland's death.
The world seems a pretty miserable place right now. Refugee crises; spread of the Zika virus; violent extremism; failing and struggling states - it feels like our troubles are outrunning our ability to manage them.



But as my organization gathered to review its annual impact one piece of good news hit with striking effect: our work in malaria control around the world is likely to be dramatically less "profitable" this year versus last.



Good news and less profitable?



At PSI, we measure everything we do to improve global health. In particular, we use a common unit of measurement: years of healthy life. Also known in geekier terms as a DALY averted, or Disability Adjusted Life Year averted. In other words, years of healthy life that would otherwise have been lost to death or disease.



And, yes, we're a non-profit organization, but we count years of healthy life added as "profit" - or our retained earnings.



And the latest data underpinning our metrics show us that mortality from malaria in Africa is down. Way down. Fewer kids are dying. Apparently, a whole lot fewer.



Our health impact in malaria this year is likely to be down by 40 percent versus last year. We - and many others - may literally be working ourselves out of a job in terms of malaria control.



I don't want to overstate this. 438,000 people are still estimated to die every year from this ancient killer, malaria. We have a long way to go before achieving the goal the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has laid out for the global elimination.



What's led to this progress? Governments in Africa made strong political commitments to fight malaria. The world created the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria in 2001, and the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) was launched under President Bush and continues under President Obama. Billions of dollars were mobilized, for insecticide-treated bed nets, for indoor household spraying, for better treatment regimes.



I've just returned from Kinshasa where the British Government (DfID) is funding innovative work to get quality antimalarial medication and diagnostic tests to people through the private sector - where most people in the Congo get the care they need.



In a world of seemingly bad news, it's worth taking moment to celebrate something good - the progress we've made against malaria.



#thebrightside
International Women's Day this year generated much discussion about gender inequality around the world, and conversations need to continue on this critical subject. It's also important however, to acknowledge the progress made thus far. In particular, I would like to recognize the many contributions made by women in the development and growth of the Internet. I'm asking others to join me in the Internet Society's effort to "Shine the Light" on women who use the Internet to innovate and make a difference --in their families, in their communities and for themselves.

Women around the world have made tremendous advances socially, economically and politically, but progress towards gender parity will be stunted if we do not increase the number of women who have access to the one technology that has transformed the lives of billions of people - the Internet.

The disparities are evident. Worldwide,there are 200 million fewer women than men online. In developed countries women and men have access to the Internet at close to the same rates, but in the developing world women are 25% less likely than men to have access, and the number jumps to 45% in regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa. Even in rapidly growing economies such as Asia and the Middle East, there are 35% fewer women than men online.

Advertisement

This gender gap in the number of women with Internet access can be measured economically--according to the Broadband Commission Working Group every 10% increase in access to broadband translated to a 1.38% growth in gross domestic product-- but equally important, it can be measured socially. Women who have Internet access are more likely to use it in their daily lives. They use their connections to access education, health care, government services and to organize their families and communities for social, economic and political empowerment.

With access to the Internet, women in Bolivia learning digital literacy skills can now take part in the online job market, and in India they are creating micro enterprises using the Internet in fields like fishery and sustainable agriculture. The Internet is a powerful tool in the hands of women for organizing their villages, starting new businesses and building local economies.

While we know there remains significant work to be done, I believe that women are already empowered to make a difference and to bring about change. We need to highlight their accomplishments and achievements so they serve as a beacon for other women and girls.

There is a powerful community of women who are successfully using the Internet to create opportunities and change lives. Many of these women have faced personal and professional barriers, whether they are from a remote village in Pakistan, or an executive for one of the largest technology companies in the world. I like to think of these women as digital trailblazers.

Advertisement



Mariel Garcia organizes workshops for young women in Mexico on online privacy.

Women such as Nighat Dad, a lawyer and Internet activist who founded the Digital Rights Foundation and included in TIME magazine's list of next generation leaders for helping Pakistani women fight online harassment, and Mariel Garcia who organizes workshops for young women in Mexico on online privacy.

We need to Shine the Light on these women and all women who are using the Internet to make an impact. Whether it's adding content that is relevant to other women, encouraging and inspiring other women and girls who are just getting online, or creating and innovating - women have a central role in helping to build the Internet of Opportunity. So as we focus on achieving gender parity for women, let's also celebrate the voice of women online and the many achievements they have made through the Internet. #Shinethelight
vector of sleep concept with brain. info graphic paper cut style.

It seems that every pundit on the planet has taken a shot at explaining the phenomenal rise and mercurial character of Donald Trump, currently the leading contender to become the Republican nominee for US President. A recent op-ed piece by Timothy Egan in the New York Times, "A Unified Theory of Trump," suggested a novel and I believe entirely plausible explanation for Trump's behavior as a candidate: he is chronically sleep deprived.

Egan pointed to Trump's comments last November in which he boasted about his disinterest in sleep. As reported by Nara Schoenberg in the Chicago Tribune, Trump told a crowd in Springfield, Illinois that "I'm not a big sleeper, I like three hours, four hours, I toss, I turn, I beep-de-beep, I want to find out what's going on." A few days later Trump told Henry Blodget in an interview for Business Insider that he can get by on as little as one hour of sleep. Here is an excerpt from the interview; the sleep discussion comes at the very beginning:

Advertisement

HENRY BLODGET, CEO AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF BUSINESS INSIDER: You have an incredible work ethic, which is clearly part of your success. You're tweeting at 3 o'clock in the morning, you're up all night.

DONALD TRUMP: It's part of my campaign. [Conservative radio host] Mark Levin said to me last night, I had a dinner-show at 8:30. He says, "I saw you on 'Morning Joe' at 7, I saw you in the debate. Where do you get the energy?" he said. I said, "Mark, you know what, I got one hour of sleep last night. Because I flew from Milwaukee at 2:30 in the morning. You know, by the time you're finished up with all the stuff and the interviews." It was a successful debate, so I stayed around.

I then flew, I went to New Hampshire. I went to a hotel, I stayed for one hour, because I got there at 5. And by the time I got there, I had to get up to get out at 6:30 something. So I slept for one hour over there.

He said, "Where do you get the energy?"

HB: So where do you get it? Where does it come from?

DT: Genetically. My father was very energetic, my mother was very energetic. He lived to a very old age and so did my mother. I believe that I just have it from my father, from my parents. They had wonderful energy.

In her Huffington Post commentary, "Can Sleep Deprivation Explain Donald Trump's Behavior?" Krithika Varagur noted that in his 2004 book Trump: Think Like a Billionaire, he "claimed to sleep only from 1:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m., in order to gain a competitive advantage in his dealings. He advised readers, 'Don't sleep any more than you have to. ... No matter how brilliant you are, there's not enough time in the day.'"

I won't speculate about Trump's genetics, but I agree with Schoenberg, Egan, and Varagur that his behavioral patterns are characteristic of someone with chronic sleep deprivation, the symptoms of which include emotional imbalance, sudden mood swings, cognitive deficits, poor judgment, memory loss, irritability in social situations, increased appetites, loss of creativity, the tendency to continue with an error despite contrary evidence, and an inability to recognize and adjust to new conditions. Most of these symptoms do seem applicable to Trump. As Egan put it,

Advertisement

"His judgment is off, and almost always ill informed. He has trouble processing basic information. He imagines things. He shows a lack of concentration... in addition, Trump is given to inchoate bursts of anger and profanity. He creates feuds. In his speeches, he picks up on the angry voice in the mob and then amplifies it."

But if this theory about Trump is true, then his political success seems even more bizarre than ever. How can someone who flaunts his psychological dysfunction be winning the fervent support of a large portion of the American electorate?

The answer may be embedded in the question. Trump's supporters themselves may have a tendency to chronic sleep deprivation.

The behavioral signs are consistent with this idea. People who support Trump are remarkably unyielding in their attachment to him; nothing anyone says will change their minds. As Trump himself commented in January, "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters." His supporters seem to include many people who are angry, suspicious of reason, socially irritable, and uncreative in the sense of seeking a return to an earlier, simpler time, when America used to be great.

Stronger evidence comes from demographic studies of sleep. Trump's supporters tend to be people at the lower end of the income scale, less educated, and, in their own words, feeling besieged by outside forces threatening to overwhelm the country. Empirical research has shown that people in precisely those demographic conditions are more prone to suffer insomnia and problems sleeping. For example, Sara Arber at the University of Surrey has shown correlations in the British population between poor sleep and low socio-economic status. Here is how I describe her findings in chapter four of my book Big Dreams:

Advertisement

"Research by Sara Arber and her colleagues at the Center for the Sociology of Sleep at the University of Surrey has found clear connections between socioeconomic status and sleep quality. In a study based on interviews with 8,578 British men and women between the ages of 16 and 74, Arber and her colleagues identified several social and economic factors associated with increased sleep problems: unemployment, low household income, low educational achievement, and living in rented or public housing. Women had worse sleep problems than men, and divorced or widowed people had worse sleep problems than married people. Overall, their study found that disadvantages in social and economic life were strongly correlated with poor quality sleep. Noting the negative health consequences of sleep deprivation, Arber and her colleagues suggested that "disrupted sleep may potentially be one of the mechanisms through which low socioeconomic status leads to increased morbidity and mortality."

The last point bears emphasis. Poor socioeconomic conditions can lead to poor sleep, which in turn can lead to increased health problems and a shorter lifespan. Sleep seems to be a pressure point where adverse social forces can directly and negatively impact a person's physiological health.

My research with the Sleep and Dream Database has also found that people at the low end of the economic scale tend to have more insomnia and trouble sleeping. In a 2007 survey I found, consistent with Arber et al's research, that people with higher education and higher annual income tended to have less insomnia than people with lower education and lower annual income. A 2010 survey found the same pattern: people without college degrees had somewhat worse insomnia than people with a college degree. On the personal finances question, people with the lowest annual income reported having worse insomnia than did the people with the highest annual incomes. (I discuss these surveys at greater length in chapter 4 of Big Dreams.)

Most Americans are sleep deprived not by choice or genetics, but because of the relentless stress and pressure of modern life. For those Americans at the lower end of the economic scale, with fewer opportunities and more anxieties about the worsening condition of the country, it becomes difficult to preserve normal, healthy patterns of sleep.

Advertisement

And then Donald Trump comes along and says sleep deprivation is nonsense, that's just what losers think when they see a high-energy individual with a strong work ethic. Trump shows people how to re-brand their loss of sleep as a badge of honor, reconceive their misfortune as a virtuous strength, and transform their diminished inner life into an outward projection of aggressive confidence. It seems to work for him, and the implicit promise of his campaign is that it will work for his supporters, too.

References:

Arber, Sara, Marcos Bote, and Robert Meadows. "Gender and socio-economic patterning of self-reported sleep problems in Britain," Social Science & Medicine 68 (2009): 281-289.
I recently spoke at the United Nations Youth Assembly on how students can pay their way to make the most impact in the world. As the CEO of NextGenVest.com, the College Money Mentor, we help thousands of students around the world navigate financial aid, grants, scholarships, and student loans all over text message as they leave $2.7 billion unclaimed each year.

The Youth Assembly included 400 top student delegates from 80 countries. This was an audience of the world's future leaders who were passionate about making a positive change.

Before starting my speech, I asked the audience what cause they are most passionate about changing in their lives...over Snapchat. I asked them to think about framing their future ambitions in the context of money because it's incredibly difficult to make a difference in the world if you are not able to financially support yourself.

Advertisement

The majority of the student delegates in the audience want to attend college in the US, but many of them have very little guidance on navigating the rising cost of tuition.

Here were the top 4 challenges the United Nation Youth Assembly Delegates want to tackle in the coming years based on the collective amount of snaps we received from all of them:

1. Affordable Access to Higher Education

This isn't surprising. According to the College Board, the average cost of tuition and fees for the 2015-2016 school year was $32,405 at private colleges. This is for one year, not a full four years. By comparison, tuition is free at public universities in countries such as Argentina, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Even worse, for students that take out loans to pay for college 30% of them will drop out before getting a degree.

Not only is college expensive, the process of even applying is incredibly complex for students both in the US and outside. One of the UN delegates, Sohil Shah pictured above, started College Essayist, to navigate the many components of US college applications.

Advertisement

2. Gender Equality

In the US, women earn just 74 cents for every $1 a man earns. On a global scale, women own 1% of the world's wealth though they comprise more than 50% of the world's population. Much of this has to do with access to education. Approximately one quarter of girls in the developing world do not attend school.

3. Protecting the Environment

Climate change and water scarcity have been identified as the world's top global risks in the Global Risks Report. According the World Economic Forum, global greenhouse gas emissions have grown by nearly 80% since 1970 leading to intense and more frequent weather events such as droughts, storms and changing rainfall patterns.

4. Alleviating Poverty and Hunger

Global poverty is still a huge issue even though it is improving. When it comes to hunger, the proportion of undernourished people in the developing regions has fallen in line with the extreme poverty figures -- down from 23.3% in 1990-1992 to 12.9% in 2014-2016. With that said, however, the global poverty line is still only at $1.25 a day.

Can They Do It?

These student delegates all want to change the world. But will they be able to if they represent the average US college graduate who has $30,000+ in student loan debt? I hope they do.
On Jan. 14, 2016, Indonesians woke yet to another terrorist attack in the central business district of Jakarta. It was the latest in a series of attacks stretching back to 2011, when a suicide bomber attacked a mosque. Terrorism incidents like these in Indonesia and Malaysia are primarily caused by the mutual distrust created by differences between religious groups.

Given the events unfolding in Iraq and Syria, including Iraqi forces' recent recapture of Ramadi, ISIS may be looking to expand its operations elsewhere, causing it to attack Jakarta. However, many Muslims in Indonesia refuse to identify with the terrorist group's corrupt ideology, and are working to condemn ISIS' proposition of a global Muslim caliphate. Anton Alifandi, a principal analyst for IHS, a global analysis firm, has said that the ideology ISIS is propagating does not appeal to the majority of Muslims living in Indonesia, and that many Muslim organizations have started actively campaigning against ISIS' terrorist activities. One of these organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), has more than 50 million Muslim members. Indonesian Muslims have taken to social media to denounce ISIS using the hashtag #KamiTidakTakut - in English, #WeAreNotAfraid.

Advertisement

Southeast Asia has faced multiple terrorist attacks in the recent past, particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia. The Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, has called Southeast Asia a "key recruitment area for ISIS," and during the opening of the ASEAN summit in November, the Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak, said that the attacks were propelled by ISIS' religious ideology. The increasing number of both terror threats in Malaysia and successful attacks in Indonesia could imply that ISIS has reinvigorated its terror networks as part of its plan for the region.

Indonesia is third largest democracy in the world, harboring more than 250 million people. More than 80 percent of them are Muslims, giving the country the largest Muslim population in the world. This means that ISIS may still have hopes of promoting its ideology there, which would make Indonesia prone to further attacks. However, more European Muslims have joined ISIS than their Indonesian counterparts. ISIS may be having a hard time infiltrating Indonesia, even though it is a primarily Islamic nation.

Recently, Malaysia has also received threats of terrorist activity that never materialized. However, with the recent bloodshed in Jakarta, a long-dreaded terrorist attack in Malaysia may be looming nearer. Mohamad Fuzi, Director of the Malaysian Special Forces, confirmed that the terrorists involved in the Jakarta incident made a phone call to a contact in Malaysia before the attack. Malaysian authorities, with the support of Australian and American intelligence, were successful in killing terrorist leaders Azahari Husin and Noordin Mohammad Top in 2005 and 2009, respectively. However, the Syrian conflict has worked to intensify terrorist activity in Southeast Asia - and specifically Malaysia - in many ways. In April of 2015, Malaysian authorities arrested 17 people in Kuala Lumpur on suspicion of plotting terror attacks, and at least 70 members of Malaysia's armed forces were identified by police as having ties to ISIS.

Advertisement

The Malaysian government has beefed up security in anticipation of an imminent attack. Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, the Malaysian Inspector General of Police, confirmed Jan. 16 that the police had arrested a suicide bomber who was allegedly on route to detonate a bomb in Kuala Lumpur that day. In the wake of this latest suicide bombing attempt, another similar attack in Malaysia is plausible.

Despite the fact that Indonesia has a larger Muslim population, Malaysia could more easily fall into ISIS' hands. A study by the Pew Research Center revealed that eleven percent of Malaysians are sympathetic to ISIS, compared with only four percent of Indonesians. Most Muslims, internationally, do not identify with ISIS ideology.

"Malaysians want to be anti-terrorism, and yet they want to have popular support," said Lowell Dittmer, editor of Asian Survey and a political science professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Competition between Malaysian political factions, he said, "makes them all want to say, 'I am more Muslim than you are,' so that pushes the whole electoral competition (towards a) pro-Muslim (extremist) position."

Dittmer added that through Malaysia, ISIS wants to expand into the Philippines and Southern Thailand, where many Muslims live. Part of the difficulty in stopping extremism, he said, is that Islam is a widespread religion with no central organization. "People have been saying that (followers of) Islam should come out and combat these violent tendencies," he said, "but how can you form a moderate consensus in Islam against those radical people?"

While the fight against Islamic extremism is real and dangerous, there are concerns as to whether the war on terror can be won through military force alone. ISIS uses radicalization as its primary recruitment tool. Directly fighting the ideology propagated by ISIS could be a more efficient way of combating terrorism, since the group cannot maintain a military presence if it cannot persuade new members to join.

Advertisement

Terrorist organizations like ISIS use the Islamic faith to justify their ruthless acts. The religious conflict they seek to instigate is the primary cause of terrorism, both in Southeast Asia and in many other parts of the world. But ISIS' beliefs are founded on a ridiculous misunderstanding of Islamic teachings. Many Muslims already disagree with them.

It may be necessary to launch combat operations, conduct surveillance and tighten security in areas prone to attack. However, it is possible to win the war on terror by instead advocating the proper teachings of Islam, thereby fighting radicalization within the Muslim community and exposing ISIS' beliefs as lies.
Political scientists have long struggled with understanding American political parties. For years, we wrote that they lacked ideological structure and organizational capacity. We looked with longing at European political parties which painted issues in cleaner partisan lines, structured vote choice, and mobilized the working class. This European party envy was perhaps best expressed in the American Political Science Association's Committee on Political Parties 1950 report "Toward a More Responsible Two Party System."

Then Newt Gingrich happened, and American parties began a process of sorting neatly into well-defined ideological camps. In light of this new reality, political scientists quickly pivoted and lamented the inability of parties to govern. The American political system built on checks & balances and separation of powers required political parties that were less rigid and more open to compromise. European style parties just didn't work very well within a Madisonian design. Norm Ornstein and Thomas Mann chronicled this shift in "The Broken Branch" and then declared in a follow-up that partisan polarization "was even worse than it looked."

In 2016, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders provide yet another twist in this evolving story line. Both are contenders for their party nominations despite rather sordid histories of partisan infidelity and, at best, weak connections to their current party's organization and leadership. Not long ago, Trump claimed to be a Democrat (and/or an Independent) rather than a Republican. And, while Sanders might have caucused with Democrats, he kept them mostly at arms' length, working with them when convenient but never fully embracing the cause.

Advertisement

Their primary success reminds us that--despite our recent flirtation with responsible parties--nominations remain outside of party control and the meaning of a party label is fluid and subject to change with each new election cycle. Sanders is a Democrat and Trump a Republican for no better reason than that they say they are.

Their success is also a reminder that--even if party labels help to define political identities, structure political attitudes, and guide political behaviors--we aren't particularly fond of parties as organizations. Neither party enjoys very strong favorability ratings, especially when the party is explicitly linked to Congress. Republicans in Congress are held in particularly low esteem.

Recently, political scientist Howard Gold summarized trends in public attitudes toward political parties and party systems. The following findings are particularly noteworthy for current purposes:

The percent of Americans with favorable views toward the Democratic and Republican Parties has declined significantly. In 1997, 60 percent of Americans had a favorable view of the Democratic Party. This dropped to 46 percent in 2014. Over the same time period, Republican favorability declined from 57 to 37 percent.

Americans are more likely to see "important differences in what the Republicans and Democrats stand for" today than in the past. In 1996, 64 percent of Americans said there were important differences in the parties. By 2012, this had increased to 81 percent.

Since 2003, the percent saying the Republican and Democratic Parties do an adequate job of representing the American people has declined from 56 percent to 26 percent.

Advertisement

Overall, we are more negative toward parties, see them as more polarized, and less effective in representing our preferences. Paradoxically and simultaneously, however, partisans have become increasingly disgruntled with their own party for not remaining adequately committed to core "conservative" or "liberal" ideological values.

Within this context it should come as no surprise that presidential candidates running against the party establishment are enjoying success. Running against the party is not, historically, a unique phenomenon. Eric Cantor's loss to David Brat (described in Slingshot by Bell, Meyer, & Gaddie) is illustrative of Tea Party take-downs of establishment politicians over the past several years. These challenges have typically come from the right and self-described "true conservatives," and have been aimed at elected officials believed to be too accommodating, too willing to compromise, or too corrupted by Washington.



What is unique about 2016 is the potential for a GOP infidel rather than jihadist to destroy or recreate the Republican Party brand from the top down. The Sanders' campaign is similarly more of a coup aimed at toppling establishment leaders than a grassroots revolution.

We won't know the full effects of these campaigns until we know the outcome of the 2016 elections. What we do know - with all due respect to Stephen Wayne - is that this is no way to run an election. Since 1968, nominating processes have been ceded to rank and file caucus-goers and primary voters, opening the door to entrepreneurial outsider candidates willing to challenge the party establishment and giving undue influence to voters in early primary and caucus states.

We can debate how well this system has worked in prior presidential elections but the 2016 election cycle has been a case study in a broken presidential nominating process. It is past time to revisit the rules, give the parties greater control over who can compete for party nominations, and shorten the length of the primary season.
Too often foreign policy is relegated to the land of the wonks and is hidden from the political arena. Despite what the wonks think, foreign policy is a political issue. Period. Full Stop. This is especially the case when the subject is war, which means you are talking about sending sons and daughters into combat. In 2008, exasperation with war in the Middle East was a large part of the political tsunami that washed over Sen. John McCain. The Trump circus, the Clinton scandal machine and her Wall Street dalliances are masking talk of the candidates' Middle East policy this year, but the mask will come off. Neither Democrat nor Republican voters yet seem to be fully aware that Sen. Rubio, Sec. Clinton and Donald Trump all are going to market with a policy to send ground troops into Syria, but I have a hunch it soon will become clear to voters. As it does, it will make for an extraordinary November.

In a recent speech, the Donald dropped an actual policy recommendation which jarred me. It was a bad recommendation, but at least it was an improvement over the usual ad hominem shtick. He called for refugee "safe zones" in Syria. It caught my attention because it is not something that simply rolls off the tongue of someone who does not have a foreign policy and whose campaign website policy section looks like digital finger painting. The Democrat and Republican establishmentarians and Donald Trump have the same wonkish Syria policy. Do voters understand what this means?

Advertisement

The theory behind a safe zone is that it would give refugees a safe place to go and divert them from Europe, where the refugee flow is an existential threat to the EU. Critically, it is important to understand what a "safe zone" actually is. It is simply the foreign policy establishment's euphemism for "ground troops." You cannot secure a safe zone without ground troops unless your goal is to make it even easier for Russia to target Syria's civilian population. In other words, it is a limited invasion. Germany's Angela Merkel has danced around the issue. NATO will not do it nor does a European coalition of the willing seem likely, which begs the question: why are Clinton, Rubio and Trump so eager to sacrifice U.S. soldiers for a mission to prop up Europe...when the Europeans, themselves, are not in favor?

From Rubio such a suggestion is expected. His campaign is premised on creating Bush 3.0 so he can get the band back together for another spin through the Middle East. He even teamed up with Clinton to author regime change in Libya. Likewise, it is expected from Clinton. But Donald Trump, whose policy for Syria/ISIS, as far as I can ascertain, is "to bomb the sh-- out of them" and take away their oil and Internet? As he seems incapable of naming foreign policy advisors who do not instantly strike the Heisman Trophy pose to distance themselves it seems unlikely he arrived at this policy through a coherent process. Maybe he really does get his foreign policy knowledge through an osmotic process of "watching the shows" as he claimed. It is best not to ponder.

But this means that Democrat favorite, Clinton, the Republican establishment's darling, Rubio, and Trump all favor invading Syria. That leaves only one viable candidate in the race who does not support another Middle East ground invasion, Ted Cruz. I am not naive about the political makeup of the Huffington Post's readership, so I will let this sink in a bit.

Advertisement

This situation is remarkable because then-Senator Obama's opposition to the Iraq war, especially in juxtaposition to Hillary's infamous vote, is what catapulted him to the nomination. The Republican establishment still does not seem to understand that in 2008 Americans had reached their fill of Middle East adventurism and, as a result, McCain never stood a chance. An instant tell that the establishment Republicans have not learned this lesson is their unwavering support for Rubio. They still prefer his message of regime change instead of Cruz's policy focus on rebuilding America as a shining beacon on the hill and rebuilding our levers of power that allow for a strong and engaged America, leaving military force to a last resort. Luckily, Republican voters still have a chance to deny the nomination to the two - Trump and Rubio - advocating for a Syrian ground invasion.
Patrick was a shepherd. This not might come as a surprise to some because he is sometimes portrayed with a staff, but just as often his feast day is symbolized by a sprite and jolly leprechaun holding a four-leaf clover. But of course Patrick was not a leprechaun. He was a slave, and as slave he was forced to tend sheep. During his time in captivity, Patrick grew very close to God, praying continually. Finally, God appeared to him in dream and told him to escape. Patrick managed to get away and board a ship sailing to France. According to legend, Patrick was at first refused passage aboard the ship, but as he walked away, the hounds on board began barking and would not stop until Patrick was allowed on the ship.



After escaping slavery, Patrick returned to Ireland on his own. Actually, he was urged to return. The story goes that Patrick had a dream in which he heard the voice of the Irish people saying, "Come and walk among us again." So he did - after studying to be a missionary and being ordained a bishop.



Patrick lived in the days of druids and pagans. Patrick was a bishop in the Catholic Church, but when he began his ministry, Ireland was not exactly a Catholic country. It is believed Patrick converted a powerful chieftain named Dichu to Christianity, along with thousand of others. He is credited for bringing the Catholic faith to Ireland.



Patrick used a three-leaf clover to help people understand the Holy Trinity. Many people mistakenly associate the four-leaf clover with Saint Patrick, Ireland, and with good luck, but Patrick actually used a three-leaf clover to demonstrate that there is one God who exists in Three Persons.



Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland. Okay, probably not. Legend has it that Patrick got rid of Ireland's snakes by beating on a drum and driving them into the sea. It's more likely that the snakes are merely symbolic of sin and paganism. It's true there are no snakes in Ireland today, but there probably weren't any when Patrick lived there either.
When I was in 11th grade, my physics teacher, Dr. Stoneback, shocked the entire class -- literally -- while demonstrating a Van de Graaff sphere. With one student touching the odd-looking silver machine, the rest of us linked hands in a circle, expecting our hair to stand up on end. But the instant the last person in the chain touched the sphere, our "circuit" closed, and the charge it released made everyone practically jump out of their skins.

Looking back, the voltage may have been a bit too high, but the experience got the whole class -- indeed, the whole school -- talking. It also (pardon the pun) supercharged my interest in math and science, ultimately propelling me toward a degree in astrophysics.

Advertisement

Aside from teaching me about electromagnetism, that day taught me another important lesson: Inspirational moments in school, the kind that transform students from passive attendees into active participants in their own learning, often come not from a textbook or a worksheet, but from fun, hands-on experiences. Ms. Napolitano, my daughter's fourth-grade science teacher, could have simply explained "force equals mass times acceleration" on a whiteboard, for example. Instead, she had her students make marshmallow catapults and discover Newton's first law for themselves -- to the profound chagrin of the kids who missed that particular class.

This is exactly the kind of learning we support at the Overdeck Family Foundation and Bedtime Math. We believe that a solid, healthy, early start sets children up for success at home, in school, and in life. As kids get older, great teachers, stimulating content, and mind-expanding challenges inspire their love of learning. That's why Bedtime Math has launched thousands of free after-school math clubs: so kids can dive into hands-on, playful activities, turning an often abstract subject into "the cool thing to do." And in our rapidly changing world, it is our responsibility to reimagine schools in ways that do better for our kids.

My husband, John, and I love DonorsChoose.org because it directly enables teachers to get the materials they need to create those inspirational moments of learning. Stuff -- be it a Van de Graaff sphere or a few bags of marshmallows -- costs money, but it's a big part of what makes classrooms tick. Those materials and supplies help students go on to become the scientists, engineers, doctors, and creative problem solvers we will need to tackle the world's challenges, including the need for sustainable-energy sources, improved access to clean water, and cures for endemic diseases.

For #BestSchoolDay, we chose to focus on the Washington, D.C., area because we work closely with the CityBridge Foundation there to help transform education in the nation's capital. Additionally, John grew up in the area and has many fond memories of school trips to places like the National Air & Space Museum. Most of all, however, we're participating in #BestSchoolDay because it's going to help create thousands of unforgettable learning experiences in classrooms across the nation and send the message that students in every community deserve the opportunity to be inspired.

Advertisement

#BestSchoolDay is also a powerful reminder to us all that, while helping teachers create special moments is crucial, it doesn't have to be wildly expensive. In the classrooms we're sponsoring, and in many others across the country, the items teachers need to create really cool beginner's physics experiments or to introduce kids to engineering-design principles tend to be relatively modestly priced. In some cases, all these teachers are asking for is help buying paper and markers. In other words, with just a little help, these classrooms' goals are within reach.

We hope that #BestSchoolDay will encourage people all over the country to do what they can to help a teacher make a difference in the lives of his or her students. Even a small donation can have a major impact on a classroom -- and on the trajectory of a student's life. Join us by visiting DonorsChoose.org, and see how even one small act of kindness can help create a school day kids will never forget.

Laura Overdeck is the founder of Bedtime Math, a nonprofit that offers kids playful recreational math to help them love it and excel at it, and together with her husband John, founded the Overdeck Family Foundation, whose mission is helping all kids achieve their greatest academic potential.
Alzheimer's -- The Sun Was Truly Shining

Mom & Me

As the first week of our visit came to an end, I was hoping to see mom become more aware. Fortunately, during week one, each day mom seemed to become a little more alive. I could see she was yearning for the warmth of our human touch. I only wished that she would recognize me as her daughter. Alzheimer's disease has stolen from mom not only her identity but those whom she loved.

Since our arrival, each day was either cloudy or raining with only hints of sun peeking through. The weather was not cooperating although this was not why we came to Florida. It was to spend some quality time for the entire month with mom. As week two began I awoke to the first day the sun was shining. There was not one single cloud in the sky. It was a crystal clear day and I felt the warmth from its rays, yet I could also not help but feel a pang in my heart.

My heart ached and I knew it was somehow connected to mom and the sunshine. I wondered how I could feel so sad on such a sunny warm day. I soon realized the heaviness I felt was that I could not share this day with mom. I knew she was probably incapable of enjoying it.

Advertisement

Truthfully speaking she has no awareness of what is happening in "our" world. She cannot recognize whether the sky is cloudy or filled with brilliant sunshine. She does not care and the world she now lives in could be described as a "safe" haven.

I wished that I could have taken her out to feel the warmth of the white sand as we strolled on the beach. I wanted mom to be able to put her toes in the sparkling water and feel the suns reflection on her body. This was a pastime that we once shared, one that I knew she loved. I was feeling sad just knowing she was missing out on this glorious sunny day.

As my husband and I approached the nursing home I realized that I had to quickly shake off these negative thoughts and feelings that were tearing at my heart.

As we approached mom, her first words were "I'm too young to die." She then tenderly touched my hand and kept repeating "stay with me," as we circled the hallways of the facility. I wondered what she could possibly be thinking.

Advertisement

On the tenth day my cousin's family came to visit mom. Mom had seven visitors all at once. I was hoping that all the noise and attention would not disturb her. Sometimes the sound of noise can be disorienting for those who suffer from Alzheimer's. I know that mom had no idea who anyone was, yet the mere fact that my cousin wanted to come and bring her family meant the world to me.

The following day I was pretty certain we would find mom curled up in bed feeling exhausted. Instead we found her walking around in her Merry Walker filled with lots of energy, beaming with happiness. She immediately asked my husband if he would be her "boyfriend" quickly adding that she was only kidding. For that moment mom was back, as quick witted and sharp as she could be.

As the day came to an end, this visit with mom is one that I hope never to forget. It became a day when that the sun was truly shining!

Earlier on Huff/Post50:
pastrami sandwich rye bread

By Rebecca Endicott, writer at LittleThings

With St. Paddy's Day right around the corner, we can't help but turn our thoughts to ways to properly celebrate the holiday that pays homage to the Emerald Isle.

Of course, St. Patricks's Day here in America looks a bit different from how it looks back in Ireland. While plenty of holiday traditions can be traced back to the old country, several are unique to more modern Irish-American customs.

Advertisement

For example, the corned beef and cabbage that Grandma insists is a centuries-old family recipe? It used to be boiled bacon with cabbage. Corned beef didn't enter the equation until Irish arrivals to America learned all about brining from their new Eastern European neighbors.

Now, it's a unique and delicious part of Irish-American culture, one that's enjoyed all across the country come March 17.

Of course, these days, we can get a little more creative with the customary ingredients. For a modern take on this old-fashioned recipe, we're especially obsessed with tasty corned beef sliders, which offer a perfect taste of that St. Paddy's spirit!

Cook: 4 hours | Prep: 20 minutes | Serves: 2-4

Ingredients

4 cups water

2 Tbsps. sugar

2 Tbsps. apple cider vinegar

1 corned beef brisket and spice packet

1 diced white onion

1/2 cup diced celery

1 cup diced potatoes

1/3 cup Dijon mustard

3 Tbsps. honey mustard

1/4 cup stout

24 sweet rolls, sliced in half

Coleslaw, to garnish

Instructions

In a Crock-Pot, combine water, sugar, apple cider vinegar, corning spices, brisket, onion, celery, and potatoes. Cook on high in Crock-Pot for 4 hours. Mix both types of mustard and the stout together, then spread on the inside of the sweet rolls. Slice cooked brisket into 1/4-inch slices, and place in the rolls. Top brisket slices with coleslaw and close sandwich. Serve and enjoy!

For step-by-step instructions, check out the tutorial video, and make sure to SHARE this St. Paddy's classic with friends and family looking to celebrate the holiday in style!

More Recipes From LittleThings

:
I was fearless and thirsty for adventure. I was searching for something. I didn't know then what that was, but my constant curiosity was moving me towards new ventures, new places, and new people. I was happy with what I have experienced but continued to have this anxious feeling of excitement about the future. I sensed that there is much more to life than I have come to realize yet, so I quit job to travel the world and find out what living life is really all about...

I was born in Poland but my travel wanderlust took me all over the world and I came to call USA my second home. After graduating from college, I spent over a decade building my corporate career across IT, Aerospace and Financial industries. Very quickly, I found myself managing large international teams and seamlessly navigating through the corporate world. In my 30s, I got to the corporate VP level. At that point I worked about 60-80 hours a week and was in a process of completing my MBA. By most standards, I was very successful. I had an amazing husband, career, and home.

I also had absolutely no time to enjoy any of it.

And that's where I stopped to think.

Didn't I want this? Didn't I want this amazing, successful career? Didn't I want the financial security? Didn't I want to become a CEO one day? So why am I having second thoughts now?

Advertisement

For the first time in my life I started looking around and paying attention to life. I was rushing to achieve so much and was getting close to my final goal only to realize that there is a serious cost associated with that accomplishment. The cost of life. I realized we have only one! Wow, what a revelation to this overachiever.

We have only one life and there is no do over.

All the hours, months and years dedicated to my education and career, while very productive, were not used for truly living life. Don't get me wrong. I had a life. I fully used my standard 2 weeks time-off for amazing vacation, I had dinners with friends and even dancing with my husband. But with each accomplishment there was less and less time for the simple pleasures in life. Feeling wind in your hair, watching sunsets, trying new things, laughing so hard that it is difficult to catch your breath...

So I sat there one day and wondered: Is that all there is to life? Is it possible that I will spend the next 10 years achieving my goals only to realize that it is too late to begin living? Didn't I want this?

The problem was: yes, I did. Unfortunately, in my calculations for climbing to the top and accumulating wealth (um... stuff), I did not account for the loss of time. I took my time here for granted. I operated under assumption that I will have plenty of time to focus on me after I finish everything else... after I retire.

Advertisement

The question that lingered was: why am I postponing living life for retirement years instead of living now?

The questions kept coming and I did not have all the answers yet, but I knew for sure that I needed to start living more. I wanted to do what I love the most: travel the world, meet people and truly live life while I still can! I wanted to try the things I have always been afraid of or simply did not have enough time to tackle. I wanted to learn how to make wine in Tuscany, and how to sail in Mediterranean. I wanted to climb the base camp of Mount Everest, scuba dive in Bali, and every other thing you can imagine.

The voice in my head kept telling me that all those things were normally reserved for retirement. But, when I listened to people in retirement, many of them didn't have the energy or were not in a physical condition to do the things they have always wanted to do. They urged to live life to the fullest, live the life of no regrets while you still can. After all, there are no guarantees in life. You either do the best of it or not. No second chances.

This was such a departure from my thinking thus far that I would question my decision over and over. But each time, I kept coming back to the memories from years past, when still in college I embarked on a summer-break trip around Europe. I had completely no money but figured out ways to travel all over Europe. I remember eating fresh peaches from the tree, meeting people, swimming in the sea, sleeping on the white sand, climbing mountains. I remember feeling that sense of wander, excitement, possibility and I wanted to feel it again!

But do I have to do it now? Is that the right time to take a break in my career? Do I have enough money? How about waiting another year... maybe two... maybe three? All very valid questions and I learned to rationalize answers to all of them. But each time I pushed my dream aside, I heard about a friend diagnosed with cancer, facing heart attack, stroke, accident... From one day to another, without any warning life was cut short. I was realizing that there may not be the next year to give my dream a try. I started understanding that quitting my job to finally live my life is not the riskiest decision. Staying in it and not giving my life a chance is.

Advertisement

I wanted to make sure that one day, when I am 60 or 70 years old and ready to retire -- I feel like I fully lived. I figured I still have another 30-40 years of work ahead of me and once I complete my adventure, I can always come back and continue my career.



Over 50 countries and 5 continents traveled, soaking sun in Santorini, diving on the Great Barrier Reef, soaring above the clouds on the hot air balloon in Turkey and sailing Mediterranean is my life now.

I am still learning to how to enjoy life without over-scheduling and over-planning for tomorrow. In those few months, I learned that you have only two choices in life.

You either follow your dreams and make them happen or you will be fulfilling the dreams of others.



I decided to do the first.

I also learned that fear can stop you from accomplishing your goals only if you let it.



And I don't.

Once you do that you will quickly find out that amazing things begin happening. Opportunities you have never even thought off or imagined for yourself are now fully available.

The impossible becomes possible and the only thought left is: why didn't I do it sooner!

So, if you have a dream, big or small -- give it a try. Worst case scenario, it may not work out and you can always go back to living your life as is and have no regrets. Best case scenario, you may just surprise yourself and fulfill your dream! So forget any excuses and give it a chance before it is too late.

Advertisement
An elephant "abduction": Bad news for elephants A few months ago I wrote an essay with Catherine Doyle and Keith Lindsay called "The Conservation Charade: U.S. Zoos Propose Importing Wild African Elephants" about three zoos proposing to import 18 elephants from Swaziland to the United States. As it turns out, these elephants were secretly shipped to the United States on March 8. We are calling them "The Stolen 18." I learned about this in an anonymous email sent to me the same day by a very courageous and compassionate person. I thought that others who are also working on stopping the shipment of the elephants also received the same email, but I discovered they did not. I shared it, keeping the sender's identity confidential, and this got the ball rolling from a number of different people and the media (please see, for example, " US zoos secretly fly 18 elephants out of Swaziland ahead of court challenge " and " To save rhinos, half of this African country's elephants are being airlifted to U.S. zoos "). This image is of the elephants in crates being loaded onto an airplane heading to Dallas, Texas. The person who told me what was happening to these magnificent beings sent it to me.

"The fight to prevent a lifetime of captivity for 18 elephants, 15 of whom are currently under 12 years of age, came to an abrupt and devious end. As was widely reported over the past couple months, three U.S. zoos--the Dallas Zoo, the Sedwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas, and Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo--applied for and obtained from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) a permit to import these elephants from the wilds of Swaziland. A lawsuit was filed soon after the permit was issued claiming that that USFWS had a mandatory duty under the National Environmental Policy Act to fully evaluate and disclose whether the elephants, as a result of captivity, would suffer social, psychological, behavioral, and physical impacts for the rest of their lives. The lawsuit, brought by Friends of Animals, was supported by the world's foremost experts on elephants, including Dr. Joyce Poole, Dr. Phyllis Lee, Dr. G.A. Bradshaw, Dr. Marc Bekoff, and the entire board of the Elephant Specialist Advisory Group.



Faced with the real possibility of a court finding that the law compels such disclosure (which certainly would have negatively impacted public and scientific opinion about the proposed transfer), the zoos decided to take no chances. Without informing the court or media, a plane was secretly sent from Kansas City on March 5 to retrieve the elephants ahead of a scheduled hearing on March 17 at which time the court was to hear Friends of Animals' legal arguments. That plane landed at approximately 7:30 a.m. local time in the capital city of Swaziland on March 8. If it were not for the brave actions of a local Swaziland person with knowledge of the situation who contacted Marc Bekoff, it is almost certain that we would still not have known that the elephants were to be stolen away before receiving their day in court. As it turns out, this official was able to provide Friends of Animals, within mere hours of the plane landing, with enough information to support a request for an emergency restraining order, which was temporarily granted by the court. Sadly, the zoos had already moved to anesthetize, crate and move the elephants onto the plane. Faced with sparse medical testimony from the zoos' own veterinarians, the court dissolved the restraining order shortly after midnight in Swaziland. The elephants are scheduled to be flown away before another day dawns.



The underhandedness of this move cannot be understated. This is the first time since 2003 that elephants have been taken from the wild for purposes of populating U.S. zoos. Since then, our scientific understanding of the impacts that confinement has on elephants has grown tremendously. We know today that they nearly always endure severe physical and physiological hardship, especially when they have spent their entire lives in the wild. Once they reach the zoos and are placed in confinement, they are likely to suffer some of the very same mental and physical conditions one would expect when a human is placed into confinement. They become depressed, lose their appetites, and can become fidgety, dissociative and/or even aggressive. Moreover, it is well documented that captive elephants have a much greater chance of developing health problems and dying at a much earlier age when they are transported overseas and endure these stress factors. This not something that the three zoos involved here wanted to see, a court order for the USFWS to take into consideration. As such, they decided to sneak in and steal away these 18 under the darkness of night. Let's not forget their sacrifice, and let them be the last elephants to ever again endure such a fate in the U.S."
Former first lady Nancy Reagan speaks in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, Wednesday, June 3, 2009, during a ceremony to unveil a statue of President Ronald Reagan. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

From my Hollywood days -- when the Reagans were often guests at our family home to later years when, as California's First Lady, she attended my husband Byron Janis' concert in Sacramento and later on during the Reagan administration -- Nancy has continued to be a presence in our lives.

In 1983, Byron was invited by the Reagans to perform at a state dinner. It was a major event honoring Byron and the 40th anniversary of his orchestral debut, the Emir of Bahrain, and the five crew members of the Challenger, including Sally Ride, the first woman astronaut.

Advertisement

The following year, Nancy so graciously hosted a lunch for the all the governors' wives at the White House at which Byron performed. After the program, she announced that he had been suffering from arthritis for 12 years and was now being made the Ambassador for The Arts for the Arthritis Foundation. Going public with his secret was terribly trying and painful at first for my husband, but Nancy's caring support and warmth made a most difficult moment quite tolerable and, in fact, liberating.
Volunteers Help With Water Distribution in Flint See Gallery

Donations of bottled water are pouring into Flint, Michigan from around the country. But they also need more gallon water, hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes.

"We need more sanitizer and baby wipes. Some people need distilled water," said Bill Quarles, General Superintendent of First Trinity Missionary Baptist Church in Flint, Michigan and Dean of Great Lake District Congress to a group of volunteers that traveled from Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia. These days, he can easily work close to 80 hours a week making sure that water is available to Flint residents that do not have enough clean water for drinking, bathing, cleaning and cooking.

Advertisement

"Last Friday we had 400 cars...We'll put and leave water outside the building. Other churches are getting water, but not as much," he said.

At First Trinity, residents drive by to pick up water, care packages and, if they have small children, baby wipes. Picking up cases of free bottled water at the church seem as ordinary as stopping at the grocery store on the way home. The water station at First Trinity is open every Tuesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. A "while supplies last" notice is included on the fliers that go out to residents in the neighborhood.

Pastor of First Trinity Missionary Baptist Church, Ezra Tillman, Jr., would like to see more coalition building among residents in Flint.

"I would like to see that the attention from across America will help us to come together to get something done, otherwise we are not in a capacity to really lead," he said. "We need to speak to residents to encourage them to respond to injustice."

Advertisement

Plans and construction are underway to replace the corroded pipelines in homes of residents in Flint, Michigan. For the past two years, residents have grappled with the effects of a decision made in April 2014 to switch their clean water supply from Lake Huron, technically the world's largest freshwater lake, to the less clean Flint River, in an effort to save money.

"Some parts of the area are a lot worse. It was bad. And the governor knew it was bad. Families are cooking with it, and some places are so bad they couldn't bathe in it. The inner city is most affected," said Ken Mayer, a resident who works at the YMCA of Greater Flint

In an effort to familiarize volunteers from around the country with individuals who are directly affected by the water crisis, First Trinity Missionary Baptist Church sends teams out into communities, to senior homes and to daycares to deliver water to individuals and families.

At one home, a young woman answered the door with a small child in hand.

"It takes half a case of water to bathe my smallest son," she said as she accepted a case of water.

A female resident who has lived in Flint since 1969 said she stopped drinking the water two years ago. The water turned brown when she turned on the faucet and smelled like rotten eggs, yet she still cooked and bathed it. Now, she only uses bottled water.

"I use two cases of 32 bottles a day, and there's five of us in the house," she said. She uses a filter on her shower, and insists that it works, despite sources stating otherwise. "I have one in the sink but the water runs so slow that it takes 15 to 20 minutes to get a glass of water," she said with a laugh. While some have left Flint altogether, she has no plans to leave.

Advertisement

"There's been a lot of miscommunication, especially from the state level down. So you have the governor, who is saying that based off of the information that he has received from different entities...the water is safe to bathe in," said Catrina Tillman, wife of Pastor Tillman at First Trinity. "But locally, we're seeing the rashes on people's skin. We're seeing kids that are being affected by it...Everyone knows it's not safe to drink. But they're still using it in terms of cleaning, cooking, bathing and so that's why we have kind of shifted our focus here at First Trinity."

The City of Flint is comprised of nine different wards that have been affected differently by the switch in water supply. Housed in one of the hardest hit wards is a church that, for some time now, has served as a receiving center for water donations coming from around the country, and as a water distribution center for residents in need. As political as the situation in Flint, Michigan has become, members of First Trinity just want to help the local people.

"We're still collecting bottled water but we've moved on to what we call Phase 2. And that's where we are asking for gallon water instead of the individual bottled water," said Mrs. Tillman.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reads from a statement about Pope Francis during a campaign rally in Kiawah, South Carolina, February 17, 2016. Trump cannot claim to be a Christian, Pope Francis said Thursday, after the billionaire vowed to build a border wall to keep out immigrants. 'Anyone, whoever he is, who only wants to build walls and not bridges is not a Christian,' the pontiff told journalists during his return journey from a trip to Mexico in response to a question about Trump's anti-immigrant stance. / AFP / JIM WATSON (Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

The rise of Donald Trump in the race for the Republican nomination is based in part on a consensus among conservative Catholics in America, who prefer him over the other Republican candidates (Cruz, Kasich and Rubio), who vaunt a far less marked religious appeal. There were signs of this during the primaries in various states, most notably in Michigan. What's most interesting is that the xenophobic and nationalist candidate has earned the vote of a majority of Catholic Republicans, either unaware or uninterested in the fact that Pope Francis said, just three weeks ago during his return flight from Mexico, that Trump's message "is not Christian."

The phenomenon of Catholic Trumpism lays bare several deep internal contradictions and trends at work in American Catholicism. The first deals with the evolution of the American Catholic church and its inherent political alignment. In 2008 the election of Obama to the office of the President highlighted a stratification of votes among Catholics not only along social and ideological lines, but ethnic lines as well. In the last two presidential elections, white Catholics voted by a large majority for Republican candidates, while non-white Catholics voted for the Democrats. The success of Trump (who stood out during the early part of Obama's presidency for accusing the President of not being born in the United States, and therefore having been elected illegitimately) among conservative Catholics is therefore part of a trend that was already clear during the previous decade within the American church. A church, worth noting, that is still run by white leadership, but with a majority that will cease to be white well before the midway point of this century, turning largely Latino and Asian, along with a small Afro-American minority.

Advertisement



Catholic support for Trump cannot be explained simply by the fears and decline of white America's lower middle class.



The second element can be seen in shifts in the role played by pro-life vs. pro-choice in relationsihps between the church and politics in America. For the past 40 years, starting with the Supreme Court's decision in 1973 to legalize abortion, the abortion issue has been the critical factor for the American church, whose bishops aligned staunchly with Republicans from 1980 onward first and foremost for their anti-abortion stance.

Seduced by the partially-instrumental positioning of the GOP, Catholic bishops feel abandoned by a Republican Party that risks nominating a person who is unafraid of distancing himself from the party orthodoxy on this issue. The pro-life agenda has disappeared not only from the Democratic Party, but from large part of the Republican Party as well. Trump earns the votes of most conservative Catholics despite his more than flip-floppy position on the issue. Social, economic and immigration issues have overtaken abortion in importance within the white conservative Catholic church, whose members are now clinging desperately to Trump, terrified to lose "white supremacy" within American society, as well as by the deindustrialization and impoverishment of the American middle class.

Advertisement

The third element is the involution of political culture among conservative American Catholics. Catholic support for Trump cannot be explained simply by the fears and decline of white America's lower middle class. Instead it should be viewed through the lens of decadence within the neo-conservative Catholic intelligentsia in the US during the papacies of John Paul II and Benedict XVI. On one hand the "victimology" elaborated by bishops and conservative Catholic Americans concerning the religious freedom of Catholics around the country who felt under fire from the Obama administration has found its surrogate in the ethnic and nationalistic victimhood professed by Trump against Latinos and the Chinese. On the other hand, there is a culture of moral excommunication of a political adversary, now one of the distinctive features of Trump (who adds theatrical elements that further perfect the media circus that is US presidential primaries).

During the early '90s, conservative American Catholicism morally and politically excommunicated Bill Clinton, and in 2008 it was Obama's turn -- the only difference being that the "excommunication" reserved for Obama was not merely political and moral, but also civil and not devoid of racial undertones, aimed constantly and consistently at undermining and delegitimizing his presidency. The libertarian rhetoric of the Tea Party, with its "let's take back our country" (in other words, let's take it out of the hands of an African-American president), is extremely similar to Trump's brand of xenophobia -- two things that American bishops proved themselves incapable of reacting to, back then and today. It's a short step from libertarian-liberalist rhetoric to the death of the key idea of "the common good" for Catholic morality, and the Republican Party already took this step over the course of the past decade.

From a certain point of view, Trump is merely the tip of the iceberg of this perversion, which is at once moral and theological: the social and moral depth of the message candidates close to the religious right, like Cruz and Rubio, are sending is not much more Christian than Trump's manifest moral illiteracy.

Advertisement

The fourth element: Pope Francis' "American problem" has shone a light on the hypocrisies and contradictions that exist in American Catholicism. The majority of American bishops and conservative American Catholics are not following Francis: in part this is due to the Pope's message; in part because a peculiar feature of American Catholicism has emerged over the past decade. According to "the American equation," that which is good for America is good in and of itself; American Catholicism lives within a similar illusion. On March 7th of this year, two of America's most famous conservative Catholics, George Weigel and Robert George, published an appeal to conservative American Catholics asking them not to vote for Trump. Not only did this appeal (which was also signed by other academics) include not a single quote from Pope Francis (even though the Pope had already been quite clear in statements on Trump), it built the anti-Trump argument based on an interpretation of the church's social teachings that is identical to that of American liberal capitalism: their thesis is that Trump is no good for Catholics because Trump is no good for American capitalism. Furthermore, the document depicts the Obama administration as a period of deep constitutional distortion (and not for its use of drones), as well as damaging to the social and economic fabric of a free America, which the country must recover from, but not by running to Trump. It's an appeal that lays bare the hypocrisies of neoconservative America, which still refuses to forgive anything to with President Obama (especially his health care laws), but is willing to forgive everything about George W. Bush, including the disastrous wars in the Middle East, the use of torture, the destruction of social welfare policies and what little of the welfare state that existed in America after Clinton left office.

The moral excommunication brought to bear on Obama starting in 2008 and today on Hillary Clinton by conservative American Catholics is now backfiring on those among the political and intellectual elite who played around at being wizard's apprentices as they manipulated the various and diverse ethnic and ideological positions in order to delegitimize the Obama presidency.

No wonder America's white lower middle class is now turning to Trump, a man who is not afraid to point a finger at the disasters of the Bush era. In their own way, Catholics for Trump are presenting the country and the American Catholic church with the bill for a moral and intellectual bankruptcy that it will not be easy to recover from, even for one of the most important churches in modern global Catholicism.

This post first appeared on HuffPost Italy. It has been translated into English and edited for clarity.
Last year I saw a remarkable documentary, The Space Between, which chronicles the struggle of providing palliative care services in a Kenyan hospice setting through the stories of four individuals receiving care at Kimbilio Hospice (Kiswahili for Refuge). Kimbilio Hospice is a 24-bed, in-patient hospice that provides quality palliative care services to adults and children living with life-threatening illnesses. The hospice is managed by Living Room Ministries International (heretofore Living Room) which was established in 2009 and to this day, the care given at the hospice remains free of charge. Over the course year Juli McGowan Boit the founder of the hospice and filmmakers Kimberly Nunez-North & Travis North kindly shared with me their experiences.

Providing palliative care in emerging market health systems has unique challenges. One of the most pervasive is the understanding of palliative care and hospices as services provided prior to (an inevitable rapid) death. But as defined by the WHO, "Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual." However the stigma related to death and dying run very deep in some communities and cultures. Another reality of low resource environments is how to allocate scarce resources. In Africa most of the financial resources and health infrastructure is directed at addressing communicable diseases such as HIV/AiDs, TB and malaria as well as child and maternal health.

Advertisement

Understanding how large the palliative care market is in Kenya is not a straight forward calculation. Juli McGowan Boit, is a nurse practitioner and HIV volunteer in rural Kenya who partnered with local leaders to found the Kimbilio Hospice, shared the following information. It is estimated that 1.6 million people are living with HIV/AIDS and according to Kenya's ministry of health, "cancer ranks third as a cause of death after infectious diseases and cardiovascular diseases. It causes 7% of total national mortality every year. Although population based data does not exist in the country, it is estimated that the annual incidence of cancer is about 28,000 cases and the annual mortality to be over 22,000. Over 60% of those affected are below the age of 70 years. In Kenya, the risk of getting cancer before the age of 75 years is 14% while the risk of dying of cancer is estimated at 12%." According to the WHO, "at least 50% of HIV patients and 80% of cancer patients will suffer from severe pain in the course of the terminal phase of their disease." As Juli made clear, "all of these patients would benefit from palliative care, if it was available and affordable."

What Juli McGowan Boit, and the filmmakers Kimberly Nunez-North & Travis North are doing is changing the narrative of palliative care, how it can be administered and its impact in some of the most trying conditions.

The consistency of Living Room's approach to caregiving on both a patient and community level has yield, intentionally or not, a model example of the "The Innovator's Method" - insight, problem, solution, business model, scale it. An example of this is their Kimbilio Funeral Home. The funeral home serves the hospice as well as the larger community.

Advertisement

(source the Innovator's Method)

Insight: Living Room met with members of the community for over a year before starting the business in 2012 to make sure that it was a service they wanted within the village.

Problem: The nearest mortuary is located in a town about an hour's drive away from the hospice

.

Solution: A funeral home within the community provides manageable accessibility (reduced travel) as well as reducing costs for the families. The services include embalming and storage, casket sales, flowers and programs. The funeral home also offers a vehicle for hire that serves as a hearse as well as tents and chairs that can be rented for funeral services.

Business model: The funeral home has been open for three years and is currently covering 15% of Kimbilio Hospice operating expense.

Scaling it: Living Room anticipates the funeral services will cover up to 25% of the hospice's operating expenses within the next year.

Since the release of The Space Between there have been some notable developments and welcomed surprises. First is that the documentary was embraced by an unanticipated audience, nursing schools and the medical education community. Kimberly explained, "We didn't set out to make a film that could be used as an educational tool. I was actually shocked given that the medical advancements in the USA are much greater than the resources available in Kenya. However, after talking to many hospice providers and educators, it became clear that dying -- and how you cope with and prepare for it -- is a common factor for all people. Wealth, resources and opportunity get leveled out in those final moments of your life. I heard it echoed many times -- compassion and love is what all of us want in our final hours."

Advertisement

For Living Room, an expanse of the hospice and funeral home services to a second site located near Eldoret town was approved by the Kenyan and U.S. boards. The site is approximately a 35 mile/90 minute drive from Living Room's existing campus and is situated in a strategic location in its nearness to a newly opened cancer center, which provides care to nearly 700 cancer patients/month in the out-patient clinic. Living Room will be the primary referral site enabling many adults and children to receive quality palliative care services. The expansion demonstrates, and adds further credibility to the importance of palliative care to the larger Kenyan health care system.

A second surprise is how the new site was acquired. The day after the decision to expand into Eldoret, Juli received a call from a lady who wanted to donate furniture to Living Room. Her name was Kate, and she explained that her 95 year old mother-in-law had just passed away and had been living on an eight acre farm a few miles from Eldoret town. Kate had come to Kenya for the funeral and to get the estate in order and would shortly be returning to England. Within two weeks of meeting Kate, Living Room was able to purchase the land for half of the valued price. Juli is still astonished by the experience, "the serenity and beauty that fills the place is impossible to describe with words and feels like a gift I did not even know to ask for."
Lithuanians are tough businessmen. They give in slowly and do not enjoy doing so. During meetings they present a poker face, but they will never fail to notice their partner's brand of clothing.

Among the fastest growing EU economies, Lithuania offers interesting opportunities for exporters. It is the largest and southernmost of the three Baltic states, and while Latvia and Estonia have been strongly influenced by Russia and Finland, Lithuania's culture tends to be in a category of its own. And since its accession to the EU its market has become more modern and sophisticated, with higher demands for quality.

Each for one's self and those they know

Lithuanian society is very hierarchic, and this is doubly true for companies. For instance, meetings are rarely attended by both upper level management and regular staff, and a similar approach is expected from trade partners. Attendance of negotiations by employees in lower positions may even require approval from superiors.

Advertisement

This formality is also reflected in the type of discussions that are deemed acceptable. During work meetings, it is normal to talk about work or national sports, but political issues generate powerful feelings and can lead to arguments. In the off-hours, subjects such as personal experiences and family are more appropriate.

With an emphasis on personal connections, a whole range of matters are resolved through family and acquaintances. Because the country's market is relatively small and people in business circles know each other well, it becomes extremely important to have representatives living in Lithuania who have acquired local trust and respect. Lithuanians are generally hospitable and friendly towards foreigners, and they highly appreciate long-term friendship. So take advantage of any opportunities for establishing good relationships during informal meetings, to which Lithuanians will most likely invite you after successful or important negotiations.

Gucci and poker face

The act of greeting in Lithuania includes a handshake. However, take care to apply just enough strength to appear confident, but not so much that you come off as aggressive, and always make eye contact. During exchanges with strangers, Lithuanians protect their personal space and are watchful of non-verbal communication, which includes being careful not to show their emotions outwardly. Similarly reserved behavior is also recommended for their business partners, and this extends to clothing and time: choose quality, brand-name attire and be punctual.

Most often Lithuanians negotiate toughly; they are slow to make concessions and do not like doing so. You may find that they ask a lot of questions about details because they place great value on caution and substance, preparing extensively for meetings, with an interest in getting directly to the heart of the matter.

Advertisement

It is customary among Lithuanians to address people using first names, but it is always best to wait until they initiate this. And remember: in the event of a business lunch or dinner, the host is expected to pay the bill, even during repeat meetings.

Late payment

Bureaucracy is imbedded in the Lithuanian culture, and concluding a transaction can last longer there than it might here. It is a good idea to have all steps confirmed in writing, especially financial arrangements. Even so, unfortunately, Lithuania's payment promptness ranks towards the bottom of the ladder among EU member states.
There was a period of about two years that my husband and I were focused almost solely on starting our family. Twenty-two months after our son was born, I was pregnant with our second child. Two pregnancies in less than two years meant a lot of doctor's appointments. Prenatal check ups, followed by sick and well-visit appointments for my newborn, followed by another round of prenatal appointments.

At times it felt like I was either at a doctor's appointment or scheduling the next one. Thankfully, both pregnancies were successful and both of our babies were healthy.

A few months after bringing home our second child, a sweet, happy little girl, I felt like it was time to tie up a few loose ends regarding my own health. Though I've had glasses most of my life, I barely wore them during my two pregnancies. It was a matter of convenience, mostly.

Advertisement

But with two young children in the house, and running two businesses from my home, I felt myself reaching for my glasses more and more. It had been a decade since my last eye exam, so I decided it was time to make an appointment with my optometrist to update my prescription.

That appointment would end up saving my life.

During a routine eye exam, my optometrist noticed a small freckle in my left eye and, not wanting to take any chances, referred me immediately to the Stein Eye Institute at UCLA. It was there that I met Dr. Tara McCannel, a retinal surgeon.

I had a feeling from the outset that this was not just a freckle. It can take up to six weeks to get an appointment with a specialist. I was scheduled within 10 days. During my appointment I was seen by four technicians and three doctors. I underwent an ultrasound and had a dye injection so that doctors could see intricate details of the blood vessels deep inside my eye.

After about six hours of tests, Dr. McCannel gave me the diagnosis. I have ocular melanoma, a rare but aggressive form of eye cancer. Only 2,000 people are diagnosed with ocular melanoma each year in the United States and many patients don't realize they have it until it has spread to other parts of their bodies. Doctors still aren't sure exactly what causes it, but they do know that once ocular melanoma has spread to other parts of the body, it is universally fatal.

Advertisement

I was lucky. Mine was found early enough that not only was Dr. McCannel able to save my life, she was able to save my sight. In many cases, the eye is simply removed to prevent the spread of cancer, but in my case, doctors at UCLA were able to offer what's known as brachytherapy.

In order to treat my cancer, Dr. McCannel performed a biopsy and stitched a radioactive gold plaque to the back of my eye. The plaque contained 16 tiny, radioactive seeds that delivered concentrated doses of medicine directly to the tumor, while protecting other sensitive tissue surrounding it. After seven days, the plaque was removed.

Today, my vision is still a bit blurry in my left eye, but once the swelling goes down completely, it should return to normal. The tumor is still in my eye, but I will go to regular visits with Dr. McCannel so she can measure it and evaluate the effects of the radiation.

I vowed to use this experience to educate others about this rare, but dangerous condition. There is no predicting who will get ocular melanoma. And the symptoms are often so subtle, that patients aren't diagnosed until later stages, when their vision and their lives are threatened.

I'm grateful you're reading this article and, as long as I have your attention, I feel compelled to ask; when's the last time you went to the eye doctor? Are you due for an exam? If so, what's keeping you from making an appointment?

Advertisement

I'm glad I did. Had I not made that random call to my optometrist a few months ago, I may never have gotten the chance to see my children grow up.
ALEPPO, SYRIA - MARCH 4: Syrian opponents gathered at the Tarik al-Bab neighborhood stage a protest against the Assad regime and Russia after the Friday prayers in Aleppo, Syria on March 4, 2016. (Photo by Beha el Halebi/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

I have heard more times than I can count, especially since the start of the Vienna peace process on Syria last November, that Syrians are simply "tired of war" and that it is time to give up on the Syrian Revolution's core demand for the departure of the Assad dictatorship. Over the past few weeks in particular, ill-informed but highly ideological commentators have argued that residents of opposition areas in Syria now support the regime, that the entire Syrian armed opposition are extremist mercenaries, and that, in fact, the entire Syrian revolt against Bashar al-Assad was planned by the CIA.

These viewpoints have been stock Assad regime arguments since pro-democracy protests first hit the streets of Syria in March 2011. I was surprised to hear them expressed so openly in the United States in recent months. But these opinions are wrong, and the protests that have broken out across Syria over the past week have proven them so.

Advertisement

The initial protesters in 2011 started out with calls for minor reforms, only to be met with bullets, arrests and torture. They later called for Assad's departure and, after nine months of peaceful protests, they threw their support behind an armed pro-democracy insurrection and requested international military action against the regime. However, due to global apathy and escalating regime bombardments on civilians -- Human Rights Watch head Kenneth Roth has called regime-dropped barrel bombs the main threat to Syrian civilians -- the protest movement has largely died down and Syrian voices have grown quieter.

The Vienna process represents a concerted effort by the United States, the United Nations, and Assad regime allies to ignore and negate this history. While the Syrian people have been clear in their calls for Assad's departure, UN envoy Steffan de Mistura has tried to muddy the waters by claiming that Syrians are too exhausted and confused by war to say more than "khalas, it's enough." The Geneva Communique, a UN document agreed upon by the U.S. and Russia, calls clearly for a political transition ending in "free and fair multi-party elections." But first Russia, and then the United States have used the Vienna process to adopt the new formula of a "unity government" that does not require Assad's departure and may not end in the democracy that Syrians seek.

The Vienna process has led to a very partial, tenuous and temporary reduction in hostilities that is to be celebrated despite its profound flaws. Russia is now both a monitor of the ceasefire and the main killer of Syrian civilians, which represents a profound flaw in the framework. The regime has continued to attack the key front lines of Harbenafsa and Kabani with Russian help, which represents a flaw in implementation. But by far the biggest issue with the Vienna process is attempts by the U.S., the UN, and Russia to renege on the Geneva Communique and its pledge of multi-party elections.

Protesters in Syria have recently taken advantage of the reduced violence to return to the streets and reaffirm their demands for the departure of Bashar al-Assad and for full democracy. The protests evoked the initial scenes of the Syrian Revolution in March 2011. They represent a refutation of the Assad regime's brutality, the calls for a theocratic state by ISIS and other extremists, and the Vienna diplomatic process that has all but ignored their demands.

Advertisement

In northern Syria, which many American officials now see as an extremist stronghold beyond repair, protests in one town saw pro-democracy rebel commanders appear before massive crowds alongside the famous civil society activist Hadi Abdullah. Abdullah, who was kidnapped by Syrian Al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Nusra last month, led protesters in pro-democracy chants and in a pledge to rededicate themselves to the Syrian Revolution. Another town near the Turkish border, Azaz, held large protests singing for freedom and demanding the fall of the Assad regime despite being under a three-way attack by the regime, ISIS, and Kurdish PYD forces.

Jabhat Nusra has gained traction in some opposition areas of Syria due to its fighting prowess. While the U.S. and other natural supporters of pro-democracy rebels did not act to defend Syrians from slaughter, hardline funders have provided Nusra with ample weapons and funding to fight the Assad regime. Many analysts have wrongly interpreted Nusra's growth as a sign that Syrians have abandoned their demands for democracy and that the Syrian conflict is now a sectarian war. The recent protests in Syria have corrected this notion as well, reaffirming that even after five long years of war, Syrians still desire democracy and do not embrace Nusra's vision for Syria.

Nusra is not happy with this new development. On Monday, Nusra forces appeared at a pro-democracy protest in the northern city of Idlib and abruptly forced the protest to end. Activists were detained, cameras and other recording equipment were smashed, and the three-starred revolutionary flags that the protesters carried were ripped in two. While the action was ostensibly carried out by Jaish al-Fatah, an anti-Assad fighting coalition that includes Nusra, other Jaish al-Fatah member groups have condemned the incident.

The Assad regime also stands to suffer from the ongoing wave of demonstrations, which show that civil society in Syria is still alive and well and that Syrian civil society activists are eager to play a role in governing their country. One reason the Assad regime initiated attacks on civilian areas, and released numerous extremists from its jails early in the Revolution, was to prevent the emergence of a viable, inclusive and effective rival government in Syria.

Advertisement

Long before ISIS controlled a single Syrian town, Assad tried to rally both global and domestic support by claiming that it was either him or the terrorists. If Syrian civil society is able to move back to the fore, Assad's worst nightmare -- a viable rival government -- could soon emerge, further undermining regime legitimacy and increasing dissent in Syria's already-jumpy minority communities that form the Assad regime backbone. International diplomats who try to build a "peace" settlement around the continuation of Assad's brutal reign might then find that they have built a castle out of air.
911 phone operators

The job of a 9-1-1 emergency operator is to dispatch first responders in the form of police, firemen, or ambulance. The job of a first responder is to immediately, incisively grasp the scene to which they're dispatched, and not to act rashly if there's confusion or ambiguity.

Those basic principles went tragically awry in the case last December of Quintonio LeGrier, a 19-year old African-American male on Chicago's west side. It is now known that LeGrier contacted emergency services at least three times seeking help for what he described as someone threatening his life. He requested an officer be sent to the home but his initial requests went unanswered; ignored even.

Advertisement

A later request from his father resulted in police on the scene and ultimately in Quintonio's untimely death, killed by Officer Robert Rialmo. He was shot six times total, four of those in the back. A neighbor, who was asked by the father to assist, was also killed in what has been described as an accident. Both Quintonio and his neighbor, Ms. Bettie Jones, were only seeking help from the officers.

In theory and practice mental health professionals advise family members to seek emergency help when they feel their life or that of their loved one is in imminent danger. As a former clinical therapist with experience treating adolescents managing mental health difficulties, I know that being unable to call for emergency help during these times is an injustice to our community.

A national poll conducted in August 2015 by Reuters shows that only 24 percent of African-Americans say they trust the police to be just and fair. However, young children are taught to trust police officers. Police officers are among the list of safe people to run to in times of danger. Unfortunately the murder of Quintonio LeGrier and an innocent bystander sends the message that calling for emergency help is steering clients into danger unbeknownst to them.

Consider this: The issue of families receiving the most appropriate assistance for their needs should not lie solely with them; especially if they have picked up the phone to call for help with the appropriate authorities. If you've ever been anywhere near a person experiencing mental health difficulties, you know they are not likely to think clearly. Respectively, their caregiver is coul d be equally unclear. This would suggest that the recipient of the call for help should be the clear thinker. They should offer some sense of support with helping the caller distinguish their need. This is clearly not what happened when Quintonio called for help.

Advertisement

The case for Quintonio LeGrier is being reviewed by the independent police review authority for police officer wrongdoing. And while the 9-1-1- dispatcher is under investigation, no true prior to hire or on the job training seems to take place for anything other than managing the equipment in the call center. They should be trained and prepared to handle mental health emergency phone calls. How ironic is it that a person who is receiving emergency calls and charged with dispatching first responders in only three forms, police, fire, or ambulance, can't help the caller figure out which first responder is needed at the scene?

It would be great if everyone who experiences mental health challenges had a mental health professional to turn to. In a perfect world our entire healthcare system would make that possible. In a perfect world there would be no barriers or stigma in seeking mental health services. This is not the case.

Although mental health affects everyone, African-Americans and Hispanic Americans utilize mental health services at about half the rate as White Americans. Oftentimes caregivers are unaware that a mental illness exists until a manic episode manifests. Even then, with youth in particular, the average amount of time between onset of symptoms and intervention is 10 years.

Caregivers assume when they call America's emergency telephone number since 1968 for whatever reason they will receive the emergency assistance needed. They may not completely understand the varying possibilities for response and they may not have the presence of mind to paint a full history of the situation. They should not have to. 9-1-1 emergency dispatchers have the responsibility of taking control of the conversation and obtaining details to pass on to the first responder(s). They are supposed to be trained to work under stress and ask vital questions of the callers. As such, first responders should always be aware of the situation and will take these things into full consideration when approaching the scene.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi answers questions during an interview, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015, in New York. Sisi discussed various issues including Egypt's role in the Middle East, his country's work on an expansion project to the Suez Canal, and relations with the United States. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

In the wake of increasing reports on unprecedented repression in Egypt, the EU is voting today on a resolution condemning current atrocities. Vacillating between threat and apology, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's admitted in his speech last month presenting his strategy for 2030 that he is highly alarmed and aware of the current outrage in Egyptian streets, particularly due to police brutality. Additionally, strong criticism from his previous avid supporters are indicative of the serious current tension and the internal political rift within the country. Meanwhile, the US continues to misread the situation sticking to the same old policies, assuming this government is capable of maintaining stability.

In fear of a growing popular dissent, Egypt's sweeping crackdown on free expression has intensified over the past few months to an unprecedented level, including apolitical targets. Last week week, four Coptic minors were sentenced to five years in jail on blasphemy charges over a Facebook post, while, novelist Ahmed Naji was sentenced to two years in prison for his sexually explicit fiction.

Advertisement

These cases are neither an aberration nor new to the government's broad repressive campaign, but the recent escalations are indicative of a regime fighting for survival in the face of growing resentment and crumbling support due to its inability to deliver on promises of security and economic development. Alarmingly, protests are not only gaining massive support through formal organized channels like the doctors and press syndicates firm stands against repression, but also spontaneous protests erupt sporadically around the country. This has driven President Sisi to call for "legislative amendments to be introduced to stop irresponsible acts by police officers."

However, there is no evidence that such legislation will be effective. Almost all officers who have been charged in killing, abuse, and torture cases since 2011 have been acquitted, had guilty verdicts overturned, or been given suspended sentences and returned to their jobs. Instead of taking concrete steps to reform the security sector, the government has focused the blame on low-ranking police officers as a deviant group.

Such cosmetic statements and apologies will not resolve the current quagmire, as the internal power dynamic is far more complex than just an extended trend of repression. The police will not back down; there is a deliberate escalation in the level of brutality and repression, sending two clear messages. On one hand, the police are sending the regime a message that they will not be scapegoated or accept criticism and that their brutality is essential for their protection. On the other hand, it is a strong message to the public that any form of dissent will be faced with maximum aggression, including torture and killing. Such dynamics will only drive the country into a vicious circle of violence. While the police posture, previously supportive figures have started to publicly criticize the escalation of repression, a sign of increased political fragmentation amongst power elites.

Advertisement

Despite multiple sources of support and funding from the U.S., the E.U., and the Gulf, the regime has been unable to deliver on its promises of security and economic growth. The assumption that Egypt is stable is certainly flawed. Even with regards to the proclaimed war on terror, the latest Egypt Security Watch report shows that terror attacks persist despite heightened security measures; despite slowing from their height in early 2015, attacks remain 50% higher than their average in 2014. It does not help that the country is facing real economic challenges, requiring potential austerity measures which will further fuel anger.

For its part, the United States seems content to rebuild its ties with Egypt. Amid this wave of repression and brutality, at his testimony at the Senate Appropriations Committee about the removal of aid conditions on human rights, Secretary John Kerry acknowledged the concern over the current wave of repression but at the same time, asserted there is a major security challenge and that US should balance its interest in Egypt.
The first bilateral meeting of the newly installed Canadian prime minister and the American president is slated for this week, a summit that promises to include more pomp than policy--and that's a unique travesty as a long-simmer dispute in prescription drug policy between the two nations continues to enable crippling addiction across the continent.



Not only is it the first stateside tour for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but the occasion marks the first state visit by any Canadian premier since 1997. In the 19 years of radio silence since, Canada's indulgent drug policy has created in America an opioid addiction surging to pandemic levels.



The Canadian government's willful ignorance of oxycodone abuse, both there and here, is killing Americans daily, and that--not whose face will next appear on the cover of Vogue or Vanity Fair--is what President Barack Obama and Trudeau should discuss.



Now, there's a great deal of blame to share in prescription drug abuse. But Canada's role in the proliferation of abusable oxycodone is uniquely frustrating, because almost overnight the dynamic could shift.



The U.S. Food & Drug Administration, which has regulatory authority over pharmaceutical medications manufactured and sold in the United States, began six years ago requiring makers of oxycodone to adopt abuse-deterrent technology. This new formulation included physical and chemical properties that made difficult the process of injection or snorting, by which an abuser could gain a swift and pronounced high.



American health care regulators, federal lawmakers, governors, and physicians groups have begged Canada in the since years since to likewise ban the production and sale of the old, abusable formula of oxycodone. Quite the opposite, the Canadian Department of Health has continued approving new generic forms of the old, abusable formula.



There was a brief moment when it looked like progress might be made. But then the new Canadian Minister of Health, who could force the adoption of abuse-deterrent technologies in as little as three months, seems to have recently abandoned an earlier plan by the previous government to phase out the abusable formula.



Frustrated, a bipartisan group of four senators and 8 members of Congress, including the entire Senate and House delegation from opioid-ravaged New Hampshire, sent a desperate letter this week to Canadian health officials urging them to ban the sale of abusable oxycodone.



In the six years since FDA banned the sale of abusable oxycodone, Canadian generics have streamed south into the United States with impunity. Today, these drugs have made their way to 49 of 50 states.



According to the website of StreetRX.com, a crowd-sourced platform that monitors the street value of both prescription and illicit drugs, an addict in Syracuse, New York can score an abusable, crushable 10-milligram pill of OxyContin for just $5. In Michigan, an addict can purchase an 80-milligram pill by way of Canada for $30.



There's no way around it: Americans have died as a direct consequence of Canada's policy of deliberate inaction.



Prime Minister Trudeau's visit to Washington this week is a remarkable opportunity for President Obama to constrain America's opioid addiction by finally forcing Canada to do today what it should have done years ago: be responsible.
Denver's recent "sweeps" of people experiencing homelessness are a sad reminder of how inhumanely many Colorado cities treat those among us who already face challenging circumstances. The criminalization of homelessness never rests, and people who are homeless almost never get any peaceful rest as a result. Unhoused persons in Denver and other communities in Colorado are routinely arrested for minor offenses, or told by police to "move along," even in the middle of the night, often multiple times. The question that is never answered is, "Move along to where?" If not onto private property, not on sidewalks or in parks or pretty much anywhere on public property, then where exactly is a person without a home supposed to go?



There are shelters, of course, but in almost no Colorado communities are they sufficient for the number of people without homes, especially in cold weather. No doubt many shelter managers do the best they can with the resources they have, but shelters are often crowded and unpleasant places. There is little to no privacy, and there may not be room or adequate storage for personal possessions. Some shelters are "dry," so anyone smelling of alcohol or marijuana will be turned away. Other shelters ban certain persons for weeks, months, or permanently, so they don't have that option. Shelters in Colorado Springs have been infested with bedbugs, and cities like Fort Collins routinely claim that their shelters are not full, even as they are turning people away. There are women who don't want to go into the same shelter with men who have sexually abused them. Crowded shelters can be especially difficult for people suffering from an active mental illness. There are all kinds of reasons unhoused persons either have no choice or would rather take their chances and have a little more freedom somewhere outside, if they can just find somewhere to go.



It is not surprising that unhoused persons in Denver have sought to create a small space for themselves in downtown areas near some of the shelters and service providers, but the City of Denver is now aggressively engaging in sweeps of these areas, once again telling people without homes to "move along," without saying "to where." For those who must or who prefer to sleep outdoors, it is outrageously insensitive of city officials to dismiss them as "service-resistant." It is not illegal to be without a home or to sleep outside of a building, but if there is no outdoor location where a person can sleep or rest without being harassed or arrested, then we have effectively criminalized homelessness.



Denver's sweeps treat people who are homeless and their few possessions as little more than trash, something to be swept out of sight so other people can feel more comfortable. Confiscated property is supposed to be inventoried so it can be reclaimed, but that does not appear to happen in practice. There are no records to be found of what happened to anyone's property in Denver's last sweep on a cold, snowy night in December, for example, and the "reclamation center" from this latest set of sweeps appears to be little more than a row of trash cans. Lacking transportation if they have been pushed somewhere else, and always afraid of arrest or harassment, few of those who might have property there dare to show up.



These sweeps and other efforts to drive away unhoused persons are often justified in the name of public safety or public health, but is that really the core concern? If enforcement was more narrowly tailored it might be believable, but Denver and other communities often use broad and vague ordinances in an attempt to hide or drive away anyone who is unhoused. Already, Aurora is concerned that people who are homeless in Denver will be pushed into their community. Municipalities around Colorado are competing to pass the most hostile laws to unhoused persons, or to enforce vague laws in the broadest possible way. Boulder makes extensive use of its camping ban, defining even a small blanket as illegal shelter. Colorado Springs has made it a crime to sit in downtown areas. Have a car? Many communities won't let you sleep there, either. Need some food or spare change? Many communities want to make it illegal to ask. An adult with a home has no legal worries drinking a can of beer, but the same thing can land a person without a home in jail. Unhoused persons are targeted by ordinances against vagrancy, trespassing, loitering, or curfew violations and any number of other laws criminalizing their mere presence. Colorado jails are full of people who are homeless, at great cost to taxpayers, rarely for serious crimes. The real safety and health issues are for unhoused persons themselves, their already difficult lives made worse by criminal records and constant harassment.



Denver officials seem proud of their aggressive "sweeps", but they ought to feel ashamed. Unless there are truly good alternatives for the people they are sweeping away, unless they can point to adequate places where people can go, it is little more than cruelty. The relief that some people may feel driving through the "cleaned up" areas is only anguish to people without homes. It creates the appearance of solving a problem while only making real problems worse. It may feel uncomfortable to see people experiencing homelessness in our communities, but maybe that's a discomfort we need to feel, until the day that we face up to the underlying causes of homelessness and seek solutions that actually help the lives and respect the civil liberties of our unhoused neighbors.
I do not worry about these people. They have always been with us; they add a variety to life. -- John Kenneth Galbraith on certain types of conservatives, Massey Lectures, 1965.

The motion before us concerns free speech and open debate at a time when both are under siege on all fronts. Specifically, in this case, it also deals with reforming Islam and the Middle East, and deals with unscrupulous public thinkers and their equally ignominious followers. By way of background, the neuroscientist Sam Harris published a short booklet on reforming Islam, I reviewed it critically and argued that it was simplistic and unoriginal, Harris publicly invited me for a discussion on his podcast, I publicly agreed, we debated about Islam and terrorism for four hours on his podcast, and then he refused to release it, saying it was "boring." When I objected to this purge in an essay for Salon, Harris produced a second podcast in which he aired three selectively edited and redacted clips from our talk to unwitting ears--despite saying in one of the clips that he would explicitly not do so. Each of these excerpts were instances where Harris was lecturing me about one of the many issues we discussed, the last clip cutting off just as I was about to rebut his points. As of today, Harris steadfastly refuses to air the complete audio.

Advertisement

The controversy around this debate is of little interest to me. What is interesting is how quickly the principle of free inquiry is turned on its head when it becomes inconvenient. It is true that the right of free speech does not include entitlement to any platform one chooses. An illiterate fanatic has no right to be published in The New York Times, though if the Times turns down an Op-Ed solely because they do not agree with its arguments or its ideological stances--within reasonable limits; a bellicose militia commander advocating genocide should not be published--the paper of record has infringed upon the writer's right but only minimally, because other media are available to our rejected scribe.

Continuing this analogy, if the Times refuses to publish a debate that took place on the Times' turf, in which one of its writers participated and which was advertised to the public in advance, the editors have certainly committed the sin of censorship and ought to be fired. Journalistic ethics on this matter are very strict: Even altering an article that has already been published requires appending an editorial note informing readers of the changes. Removing an article in its entirety for whatever reason is another clear violation of writerly ethics that currently assume the status of unwritten rules. These are rules of transparency and they help ensure that the custodians of information and knowledge do not defraud citizens of the truth--and the truth is an embattled prisoner in today's world, where falsifications and fabrications are published and spread every second.

If it means anything, free speech is a three-pronged right to: 1) A fair hearing in the public square we all inhabit; 2) The right not to have one's speech curtailed, whether by campus mobs or official censors; and 3) The right of the public to hear opinions they may oppose. This third strand is the most important, as the infringement of a single person's right to speak is necessarily also an infringement of the public's right to hear what that person has to say. As John Stuart Mill wrote in On Liberty:

Advertisement

First: the opinion which is attempted to suppress by authority may possibly be true. Those who desire to suppress it, of course deny its truth; but they are not infallible. They have no authority to decide the question for all mankind, and exclude every other person from the means of judging. To refuse a hearing to an opinion, because they are sure that it is false, is to assume that their certainty is the same thing as absolute certainty. All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.

Harris has the exclusive right to the audio of our debate, a condition he imposed without reservation beforehand. Thankfully, I did record my end of the conversation on my phone and took notes on what Harris said, and I am willing to stand behind every word I uttered on the podcast. Can Harris say the same?

In diminishing the public's right to hear our exchange--because it was "boring"--Harris decided that he was the impartial judge of what could and could not be allowed into the public square. Our debate garnered significant public attention--my last essay on his suppression of our talk was shared over ten thousand times in twenty-four hours--and yet the contents of the debate are still locked away on Harris's computer.

His second reason for keeping the conversation barred is that he did not wish to "inflict such boredom" upon listeners. This is a laughable excuse and anyone who believes it needs to have their head examined. A "boring" four-hour conversation is a contradiction in terms, as oxymoronic as "intellectual censor." But, suppose a debate on such contentious issues as Islam and terrorism and American foreign policy was maddeningly boring to the point of being an audio sleeping pill. Suppose that any listener who endured even twenty minutes of it would fall into an unproductive daze that lasted half the day. Even such an alchemic debate of biblically boring proportions would not be "inflicted" upon anyone--listeners would not be forced to click on the link, turn up the volume, and sit down for three hours to listen to it. If the listener disliked it, he or she could simply shut it off and go make a cup of coffee. Harris could even upload the debate onto an alternative platform if he does not want to use up his precious website space, unless, of course, "boring" in Harrispeak translates into "This will make me look bad so I can't air it" in plain English. A neutral observer to our public back-and-forth should not rule out this conclusion.

Since the word "boring" has been inflicted upon the public so assiduously by Harris, it is useful to point out that the level of interest a public conversation is projected to garner has never been the standard that determines whether an argument or debate should be censored. Interest level is certainly factored in to editorial decisions--newspapers and magazines would go out of business if what they published was "boring" in the true sense of the term--but every stage of my disagreement with Harris is currently in the public realm, every stage except the actual debate itself. If other editors, journalists, and news anchors adopted Harris's definition of "boring" as their standard for transparency, news publications would degenerate into the worst kind of tabloid hucksterism, in addition to freezing free inquiry. The guest on our show argued a troublesome point? Bury her segment and say it was "boring." The invitee to a symposium challenged the host's record? Burn the audio and say it was "boring." One can imagine a gleeful Richard Nixon responding to critics about his secret tapes: "Gentlemen, those tapes are boring!"

In his last podcast, Harris says a number of things which are untrue or half-true. He says that I was "immature, smug, extraordinarily petty, and fairly paranoid," and that I was a "thin-skinned and coddled and micro-aggressioned [sic]" individual who was "incapable of having an honest conversation." How true these statements are as descriptions, I do not know--but between the two of us, I am the only one asking for the public to hear our exchange and decide for themselves, the only one asking that readers not be coddled like children and be allowed to make up their own minds as they see fit. How true these statements are as insults, I can only respond how Pierre Trudeau responded to Richard Nixon: I have been called worse things by better people.

Apart from playing redacted snippets from our talk, Harris says a few other things in that podcast that merit a response. He defends, once again, his use of the term "collateral damage" as a "standard phrase that everyone uses on this topic." The issue of collateral damage was raised when I quoted for Harris the figure of 288,000 Muslims killed by US bombs in recent decades, most of them civilians whose lives he did not defend. This number was a back-of-the-envelope figure calculated by Harvard's Stephen Walt on his Foreign Policy blog several years ago, and is obviously on the higher end of estimates, but Harris has not said much about the deaths of innocent civilians at even one-tenth of this number.

In point of fact, "collateral damage" is not the term that everyone uses. It is a term of propaganda, a euphemism whose literal meaning is "innocent people we killed." The term makes the innocent dead into an indefinable collection of flesh, thereby dehumanizing them and scrubbing the public record clean. Think of the the outburst of criticism if President Obama read aloud the names of civilians killed by the drone program the way he rightly reads aloud the names of victims of mass-shootings--they are not "collateral damage" anymore but individuals with names and faces and aspirations taken prematurely by missiles incinerating their bodies.

Advertisement

Writers with public platforms should not be using and defending the sterilizing jargon of those who hold official positions in government. Let the generals use the euphemisms. This is exactly what George Orwell spent his life railing against--the lifeless rhetoric of powerful individuals who use their platforms to dupe the public through verbal trickery. It is precisely to dull the reactions of the public and reduce the citizenry's scope of thought that the Inner Party in Orwell's 1984 studiously trims words from the dictionary.

Harris claims that I am being hyperbolic when I argue, as I did in Salon, that he "dehumanizes Muslims to such an extreme degree that it verges upon bloodlust."

If my description of his words is hyperbole, how should the following words be described:

It is time we admitted that we are not at war with "terrorism." We are at war with Judaism. [...] The Jewish world is utterly deranged by its religious tribalism. In confronting the religious literalism and ignorance of the Jewish world, we must appreciate how terrifyingly isolated Jews have become in intellectual terms.

These sentences belong not to Alfred Rosenberg or Hajj Amin al-Husseini, two of the twentieth century's most notorious anti-Semites, but--once "Judaism" is replaced with "Islam" and "Jews" with "Muslims"--to Sam Harris. Diabolical statements negate the hyperbole in their responses. Never-mind, though, because Islamophobia is not real!

"What are the chances that on my own podcast," Harris asks in the same podcast where he played three self-adulating fragments of our debate, "I just transformed into Colonel Kurtz?"

Advertisement

To those who did not get the reference, Colonel Walter E. Kurtz was the murderous and savage character played by the great Marlon Brando in the film Apocalypse Now. The character is based on Kurtz from Joseph Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness, a ghastly character who advises the authorities to "Exterminate all the brutes!" In the movie, the sadistic Colonel Kurtz uses the most barbaric tactics to torture and kill the Vietnamese, without censure from military higher-ups. Only after pictures documenting the massacres are released and transparency achieved does the military object to Colonel Kurtz's exterminations. Irony is to be found even in the crevices of rhetorical questions. What are the chances that Sam Harris transforms into Colonel Kurtz? I know the answer to this question, but because of Harris's playing fast and loose with the truth, listeners do not.

What was most fascinating to me after my last essay was published was how hundreds of Harris's admirers responded online. I am not talking about insults or vulgarities--these are cheap bullets utilized by people with small vocabularies. Rather, the extreme length many of his supporters on social media traveled to remain ignorant. One person e-mailed me with a longish rant about how I agreed to a "discussion" and not a "debate," as if a discussion about vigorous disagreements is anything but a debate. Other admirers of his seized on my agreeing to the authoritarian terms he set as a way of completely exonerating his act of censorship, incapable of detecting any ray of bad faith on Harris's part. Many others still repeated points I had directly addressed in my pieces, either because they had not read them or could not read them, in the same way that many religious people cannot read arguments against their faith. It was as though this horde of unthinking followers, comfortable behind fake names and avatars, could not bear to have their opinions about Harris budged even slightly. A flurry of angry, often semiliterate tweets, messages, and e-mails came my way like an ululating mob whose prophet had been attacked. I have been in these situations before, usually while debating fundamentalist Muslims and Christians. It seems that cults can be formed in unsuspecting places.

This was not upsetting but illuminating. Writing publicly is like entering a loud, crowded party--except that the party is taking place on a stage and there are an infinite number of rows filled with spectators, most of whom you cannot see but who can see you and who can and do heckle and shout unsparingly. Just as the actor in a stage-play cannot disparage the boos he may receive for a bad performance, nor can the writer put out a text and complain about the response. Unlike the actor in the play who can walk off the stage, however, the writer's words remain on public display forever. The party, so to speak, never ends. Maybe this is why Harris will not publish the debate.

Advertisement
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders participates in the democratic presidential debate at Miami Dade College in Miami, on March 9, 2016. / AFP / Gaston De Cardenas (Photo credit should read GASTON DE CARDENAS/AFP/Getty Images)

Although his opponents seek to paint him as too far left, Bernie Sanders' views are mainstream. At Wednesday's Washington Post-Univision debate in Miami, for example, Hillary Clinton argued that Sanders' ideas are not realistic and too expensive. "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is," Clinton said. In fact, the ideas that Sanders has injected into the campaign are hardly radical. Sanders is in sync with the majority of Americans on most key issues.

Here's a brief run-down:

Big Business



About three-quarters (74 percent) of Americans -- including 84 percent of Democrats, 72 percent of independents, and 62 percent of Republicans -- believe that corporations have too much influence on American life and politics today, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll. In contrast, only 37 percent think that labor unions exercise too much influence.

The Pew Research Center discovered that 60 percent of Americans -- including 75 percent of Democrats -- believed that "the economic system in this country unfairly favors the wealthy."

Fifty-eight percent of Americans said they would support breaking up "big banks like Citigroup," a key plank of Sanders' platform and the goal of a bill that Sanders sponsored in the Senate.

Seventy-three percent of Americans favor tougher rules for Wall Street financial companies, versus 17 percent who oppose stronger regulation.

Sixty-four percent of Americans strongly or somewhat favor regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, factories and cars and requiring utilities to generate more power from "clean" low-carbon sources.

Progressive Taxation

More than three-quarters of Americans (79 percent) think that wealthy people don't pay their fair share of taxes, while 82 percent believe that some corporations don't pay their fair share of taxes.

Sixty-eight percent of Americans favor raising taxes on people earning more than1 million per year, including 87 percent of Democrats, 65 percent of independents, and 53 percent of Republicans.

Inequality and Poverty

A strong majority (66 percent) say that wealth should be more evenly divided and that it is a problem that should be addressed urgently.

Ninety-two percent of Americans want a society with far less income disparity than currently exists in the United States. Americans prefer some inequality to perfect equality, according to the professors at the Harvard Business School and Duke University who conducted the survey. But when asked to pick an ideal level of income disparity, Americans prefer the more egalitarian level similar to the one in Sweden (although without identifying the country by name) to that in the U.S. What's more, the rich and the poor, and Democrats and Republicans, are almost equally likely to choose the Swedish model. For example, 93.5 percent of Democrats and 90.2 percent of Republicans preferred the level of income distribution that exists in Sweden.

Sixty-nine percent of Americans -- including 90 percent of Democrats, 69 percent of independents, and 45 percent of Republicans -- believe that the government should help reduce the gap between the rich and everyone else. Eighty-two percent of Americans -- including 94 percent of Democrats, 83 percent of independents, and 64 percent of Republicans -- think the government should help reduce poverty.

Money in Politics

Eighty-four percent of Americans think that money has too much influence in politics. Slightly more Americans (85 percent) want an overhaul of our campaign finance system

Seventy-eight percent of Americans think that campaign spending by outside groups not affiliated with candidates should be limited by law.

A majority of Americans (54 percent) believe that money given to political candidates is not a form of free speech protected by the First Amendment. In other words, they disagree with the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling.

Minimum Wage and Workers' Rights

A recent poll by Hart Research Associates found that 75 percent of Americans (including 53 percent of Republicans) support an increase in the federal minimum wage to $12.50 by 2020. Sixty-three percent of Americans support an even greater increase in the minimum wage to $15 by 2020.

Eighty percent of Americans favor requiring employers to offer paid leave to parents of new children and employees caring for sick family members. Even more (85 percent) favor requiring employers to offer paid leave to employees who are ill.

Advertisement

A significant majority of Americans support the right of workers to unionize, despite several decades of corporate-sponsored anti-union propaganda. Eighty-two percent believe that factory and manufacturing workers should have the right to unionize. A vast majority support the right to unionize for transportation workers (74 percent), police and firefighters (72 percent), public school teachers (71 percent), workers in supermarkets and retail sales (68 percent), and fast food workers (62 percent).

Health Care and Social Security

Over 50 percent of Americans (including one-quarter of Republicans and nearly 80 percent of Democrats) say they support a single-payer "Medicare for All" approach to health insurance, something Sanders has long advocated. Only 36 percent oppose the idea. 12 percent are neutral.

Seventy-one percent Americans support a public option, which would give individuals the choice of buying healthcare through Medicare or private insurers. This was part of Obama's original health care plan but the insurance industry lobby killed it, thanks to every Senate Republican and a handful of Senate Democrats, led by Senator Max Baucus of Montana.

The Gallup poll found that 67 percent of Americans want to lift the income cap on Social Security to require higher-income workers to pay Social Security taxes on all of their wages. Most people still don't realize that workers who earn more than $118,500 a year don't contribute on their full income and that simply removing that tax loophole for high earners would close the lion's share of Social Security's modest long-term funding gap. Legislation introduced by Senator Sanders and Representative Peter DeFazio of Oregon would apply the same payroll tax already paid by more than nine out of 10 Americans to those with incomes over $250,000 a year. Census Bureau data shows that only about 5 percent (1 in 18) of workers would pay more if the cap were scrapped, and only the top 1.4 percent (one in 71 workers) would be affected if the tax were applied to earnings over $250,000.

Higher Education

More than three-quarters (79 percent) of Americans think that education beyond high school is not affordable for everyone in the U.S. who needs it. Seventy-seven percent believe that higher education institutions should reduce tuition and fees, while 59 percent and 55 percent respectively agree that state governments and the federal government should provide more assistance. The average tuition bill for students at a public four-year college has increased by more than 250 percent over the past three decades. More than one-third (35 percent) of 2000-2014 college graduates report graduating with more than25,000 in undergraduate student loan debt, in inflation-adjusted dollars. The recently graduated college class of 2015 has an average debt burden of $35,051 per student, the highest ever. Sanders introduced legislation to make four-year public colleges and universities tuition-free, paid for through a tax on Wall Street transactions.

Same-Sex Marriage

Today, 60 percent of Americans believe it should be legal for gay and lesbian couples to marry, according to the Gallup poll, a figure that is likely to increase in the coming years, especially after the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is legal. But in 1996, only 27 percent felt that way. That year, then-Congressman Sanders was one of only 67 House members to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act, which barred federal recognition of gay marriages.
When it comes to terrible education decisions, few legislatures can hold a candle to the whiz-bang elected wizards of Florida. Along with their the state's chief education minion Pam Stewart, they have raised fetishizing the Big Standardized to awesome heights.

Stewart and the legislature earned their Gold Medal in Being Awful for their treatment of Ethan Rediske. The state demanded that Ethan's parents provide plenty of proof that he needed to be excused form the Floirida BS Test because he was dying. Stewart accused Ethan's mother of trying to use Ethan's situation to make political hay, because when a grieving mother has lost a long-suffering child to long-term debilitating illness, her first thought as she grieves is to get some political leverage out of the situation. Okay, maybe Stewart can be excused for thinking that of course someone would try to raise political capitol from the tragic death of a young child -- because that's exactly what legislators in Tallahassee proceeded to do.

Many testocrats have tried to sell the story that we are actually doing students a huge favor by wasting their time on BS testing, but nobody has really committed to this unsupported claim like Florida's leaders. And here they are, at it again.

Advertisement

The law now says that all students must participate. And that means that the Rule of Stupid Laws now kicks in: When you create a stupid law, you end up looking far stupider trying to enforce it than anybody does breaking it.

There was a classic example years ago in Massachusetts at Danvers High School when the principal (I am not making this up) tried to ban the word "meep." Besides opening the school to universal ridicule, the entire business included robocalling the entire student body and (still not making this up) informing a lawyer that his "meep" infused letter to the district had been forwarded to the police. If you've spent any time at all around small humans, you know how this played out. Students tested every possible permutation of the rule. Would you get in trouble for saying "Mee" or "Peem" or "Peep" or, most awesomely, "Ni." I have often wondered how that story finally played out, but I can guarantee you it didn't end with the principal winning cheerful compliance and students solemnly determining they had seen the error of their ways.

In Florida, the word is not "meep," but "participate." And that means we now get to watch the state of Florida attempt to beat back all manner of tests of that law.

Advertisement

If my child signs his name to the test and then pushes the test away an answers zero questions, has he participated? Does he have to answer one question to qualify as "participating"? Ten questions? Does she have to try, or is it participating if she plays ACDC on the test?

Hilariously, the state has so far declined to answer any such questions:

"I feel like answering the type of question provides more information that could be construed as encouraging students or parents not to take the test," DOE spokeswoman Meghan Collins said. "That's just something we don't want to do."

In other words, we refuse to tell you what the minimum requirement is to avoid violating our stupid rule.



The Tampa Bay Times pressed Stewart's office for an official, legal definition of participating, but they simply referred the reporter to the actual letter of the law, which is not very helpful:

"Participation in the assessment program is mandatory for all school districts and all students attending public schools, including adult students seeking a standard high school diploma under s. 1003.4282 and students in Department of Juvenile Justice education programs, except as otherwise provided by law. If a student does not participate in the assessment program, the school district must notify the student's parent and provide the parent with information regarding the implications of such nonparticipation."

So the penalty for not participating is a note home to your parents. And nobody seems to know what the big bad punishment might be beyond that. But still no whiff of a definition of what "participate" actually means.

Advertisement

Whatever it means, lots of Florida parents don't do it. Last year over 100 Florida schools didn't get their official fake grade from the state because they fell below the 95% participation rate. Probably lots of principals and teachers and students and families crying themselves to sleep over that one.
REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF REAL CLEAR DEFENSE



As part of the research for my Crouching Tiger book on the rise of China's military and its companion documentary film, I interviewed 35 of the top experts in the world from all sides of the China issue. These are key edited excerpts from my sit-down at the University of Chicago with Professor John Mearsheimer, author of the realist classic work The Tragedy of Great Power Politics.

My argument, in a nutshell, is that if China continues to grow economically over the next 30 years, much the way it has over the past 30 years, that it will translate that wealth into military might. And it will try to dominate Asia, the way the United States dominates the Western Hemisphere.

Advertisement

And my argument is that this makes good strategic sense for China. Of course, the United States will not allow that to happen if it can. And the United States will, therefore, form a balancing coalition in Asia, which will include most of China's neighbors and the United States. And they will work overtime to try to contain China and prevent it from dominating Asia. This will lead to a very intense security competition between the United States and China's neighbors on one hand, and China on the other hand. And there will be an ever-present danger of war.

Of course from this observation rises the imperative if not to strangle China's economy then to certainly slow it down.

There's no question that preventive war makes no sense at all, but a much more attractive strategy would be to do whatever we could to slow down China's economic growth. Because if it doesn't grow economically, it can't turn that wealth into military might and become a potential hegemon in Asia. I mean, what really makes China so scary today is the fact that it has so many people and it's also becoming an incredibly wealthy country. Our great fear is that China will turn into a giant Hong Kong. And if it has a per capita GNP that's anywhere near Hong Kong's GNP, it will be one formidable military power. So the question is, Can you prevent it from becoming a giant Hong Kong?

My great hope is that China's economy will slow down on its own. I think it's in America's interest, and it's in the interest of China's neighbors to see the Chinese economy slow down in terms of its growth rate in really significant ways in the future because if that happens, it then can't become a formidable military power.

Advertisement

As for the possible hegemonic intentions behind China's rapid military buildup, Professor Mearsheimer is unequivocal:



I think it's very clear that China is a revision of state. The Chinese have made it clear that they think that Taiwan should be made part of China. They believe that the Senkaku or Diaoyu Islands, in the East China Sea, should become Chinese. The Japanese, of course, now control them. And they believe that they should dominate the South China Sea in ways that they don't at the moment.

And what the Chinese would like to do, is they'd like to push the United States back towards the United States. And the first step would be to push them beyond the First Island Chain, which would allow them to control all of the waters in between that First Island Chain and the Chinese mainland. And then, of course, if they push the Americans out beyond the Second Island Chain, they'd control most of the West Pacific. They'd control the waters off their coastline.

On the inevitably of conflict between the US and China, its roots lie in the necessity of adopting a "containment strategy" much as the US had to do with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Says Mearsheimer:

I think that the optimal strategy for the United States for dealing with China is to pursue a containment strategy similar to the one that we pursued with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. There will be some people who will argue for preventive war or for a rollback strategy, but it would be remarkably foolish, in my opinion, to pursue that option. It makes much more sense for the United States just to work with China's neighbors to try and contain it and to prevent it from becoming a regional hegemon.

The problem that we face, however, is that as we move towards a containment strategy now, we almost certainly guarantee that there will be an intense security competition between the United States and China. One might say to me: "John, the argument you're making for containment now, basically creates a situation where you have a self-fulfilling prophecy, where it guarantees that China and the United States will compete for security and they will always be a danger of war."

Advertisement

My response to that is it's true, but we have no choice because we cannot afford to let China grow and dominate Asia for fear that it might have malign intentions. So, therefore, we have to contain it now, and it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. And my argument is that this is the tragedy of great power politics.

As for whether the Hillary Clinton "pivot to Asia" is simply an old-style containment in a new rhetorical bottle, there is this bit of history:

Now, in the 1990s, the Clinton administration did pursue engagement. There was little evidence of containment: and you could do that in the 1990s because China was then weak enough that it didn't matter.

So I believe in the 1990s that the Clinton administration really did believe in engagement and thought that containment was a bad idea and pursued this policy of engagement.

But we're now reaching the point where China is growing economically to the point where its going to have a lot of military capability, and people are getting increasingly nervous. So what you see is we're beginning to transition from engagement to containment; and this, of course, is what the pivot to Asia is all about.

Hilary Clinton, who is married to Bill Clinton and pursued engagement in the 1990s, is now the principle proponent of the pivot to Asia; and she fully understands that it is all about containment.

Of course, what's going to happen here given that we live in the United States is that we're going to use liberal rhetoric to disguise our realist behavior. So we will go to great lengths not to talk in terms of containment even though we're engaged in containment and even though the Chinese know full well that we're trying to contain them. But for our own sake and for our public we will talk in much more liberal terms. So it's liberal ideology disguising realist behavior.

Advertisement

As for the idea that economic engagement itself is a viable peace strategy, Professor Mearsheimer sees this as decidedly counter-historical:

Many people find it hard to believe that countries that engage in security competition also continue to trade with each other economically. But if you look at Europe before World War I-- and, indeed, if you look at Europe before World War II, what you see is that there was a great deal of economic interdependence on the continent and with Britain before both world wars. So I believe that if China continues to grow economically, there will still be much economic intercourse between China and its neighbors and China and the United States. And I still think that you will have a lot of potential for trouble between these two countries. And don't forget, even though you had all this economic intercourse between World War I and World War II, you still got World War I and you still got World War II.

If you look at Europe before World War I, there were extremely high levels of economic interdependence between Germany and virtually all of its neighbors, certainly between Germany and Russia, Germany and France, and Germany and Britain, these were the main players. And despite this economic interdependence, these high levels of economic interdependence, you still got World War I.

Another example would be the period before World War II. The Germans invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. And for the previous two years, Germany and the Soviet Union-- this is Nazi Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union-- had been close allies in Europe. In fact, in September 1939 they had invaded Poland together and divided it up.

Advertisement

So there was a great deal of economic intercourse between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union between 1939 and 22 June, 1941. Nevertheless, that economic interdependence did not prevent World War II from escalating into a major war between Moscow and Berlin.

And, in fact, there are all sorts of stories about the German forces invading the Soviet Union and passing trains that were going into the Soviet Union that were carrying German goods, and trains coming from the Soviet Union towards Germany that were carrying Soviet raw materials and some Soviet goods as well. So there was economic interdependence between Germany and the Soviet Union and yet you still got a war.

Closely related to the argument that economic engagement will prevent war between the US and China is the economic interdependence argument. In Professor Mearsheimer's world that's a dangerous gamble because politics and nationalism can often trump economics.

I've talked about the fact that I think China cannot rise peacefully, probably a hundred times; and the argument that is used against me most often is clearly the economic interdependence argument, and it goes like this:

The United States and China, and China and its neighbors are all hooked on capitalism and everybody is getting rich in this world of great economic interdependence; and nobody in their right mind would start a war because you would, in effect, be killing the goose that lays the golden egg. So that what is happening here is that economic interdependence has created a situation where it's a firm basis for peace.

Advertisement

I think this is wrong. Let me explain. I think there's no doubt that there are going to be certain circumstances where economic interdependence will be enough to tip the balance in favor of peace; but I think as a firm basis for peace, it won't work because there will be all sorts of other situations where politics trumps economics.

People who are making the economic interdependence argument are basically saying that economics trumps politics. There are no political differences that are salient enough, right, to override those economic considerations?

Again, there will be cases where that's true. But there will be many more cases, in my opinion, where political considerations are so powerful, so intense, that they will trump economic considerations.

And just to give you an example or two. Taiwan: The Chinese have made it clear that if Taiwan were to declare its independence now, they would go to war against Taiwan, even though they fully understand that that would have major negative economic consequences for Beijing. They understand that, but they would go to war anyway. Why? Because from a political point of view, it is so important to make Taiwan a part of China, that they could not tolerate Taiwan declaring its independence.

Another example is the conflict in the East China Sea between Japan and China, over the Diaoyu or Senkaku Islands. It is possible to imagine those two countries, China and Japan, actually ending up in a shooting match over a bunch of rocks in the East China Sea. How can this possibly be because it would threaten the economic prosperity of both countries? It would have all sorts of negative economic consequences.

Advertisement

But the fact is, from the Chinese point of view and the Japanese point of view, these rocks are sacred territory. The politics of the situation are such that it is conceivable that should a conflict arise, it will escalate into a war because politics will trump economics.

One of the equally enduring themes of American foreign policy is that the existence of nuclear weapons will insure the peace in Asia. However, Professor Mearsheimer is not so sure of that at all - and makes a powerful case the existence of nuclear weapons actually opens the door to more limited conflicts in Asia over key flashpoints like Korea and the Senkaku Islands.



The existence of nuclear weapons makes it virtually impossible for the United States and China to end up fighting World War III, in other words, a large conventional war. I think that the presence of nuclear weapons makes that one scenario impossible; but I do think it's possible that the United States and China could end up in a limited war over, let's say, Taiwan, over Korea, over the Senkaku or Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea, or over a series of islands in the South China Sea.

These are more limited conflicts, and I think that nuclear weapons do not make them impossible.

So I think that nuclear weapons are a force for peace between the United States and China in the sense that they rule out World War III; but there are all sorts of other kinds of war, more limited in nature, that I believe are not ruled out by the presence of nuclear weapons.

And I would note to support this that during the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union both had thousands of nuclear weapons. Nevertheless, they maintained large conventional forces, and they even thought about fighting a conventional war in the heart of Europe.

Advertisement

Of course, that was almost unthinkable because of the presence of nuclear weapons in Europe. World War III with nuclear weapons in Europe was virtually unthinkable. But nevertheless, we still had very powerful conventional forces, and we worried about all sorts of contingencies where we could end up fighting against the Soviet Union during the Cold War, the most prominent of which, by the way, was the Persian Gulf, where we thought there was some possibility after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979 that they might invade the Middle East or the Persian Gulf. We, therefore, built the rapid deployment force; and that was built, in large part, to deal with a war against the Soviet Union in the Persian Gulf.



As a final argument that China's rise will surely be peaceful, there is Confucian Pacifism. Professor Mearsheimer, however, wants no part of that argument:

Many Chinese believe that there will not be trouble in Asia because China is a Confucian culture. This is what I called the Confucian Pacifism argument; and the argument is that China has historically not behaved in an aggressive way towards its neighbors. It's behaved in a Confucian way, which is to say that it has behaved very defensively. It's not been aggressive at all; and to the extent that China has been involved in wars, it's due to aggression on the part of its neighbors. In other words, China is always the good guy, and its adversaries in wars are always the bad guys.

This is a lot like "American Exceptionalism," right? Americans believe that they're almost always the good guy, and it's the other side that is the bad guy. We tend to see the world in very black and white terms, where we're the white hats and the other side is the black hats. The same thing is true with Confucian Pacifism. It's basically a story that says, you know, the Chinese are the white hats.

The fact is if you look at Chinese history, what you see is that the Chinese have behaved, over time, much like the European great powers, the United States, and the Japanese. They have behaved very aggressively whenever they can; and when they have not behaved aggressively, it's largely because they didn't have the military capability to behave aggressively.

Advertisement

But the idea that China is a country that has not acted according to the dictates of realpolitik and has always been the victim, not the victimizer, is clearly contradicted by the historical record. China is like everybody else.



As hard as Professor Mearsheimer is on China's hegemonic intentions, he is equally critical of an American pattern of aggression that has, in his view, helped give rise to China's own increasingly militaristic behavior.

Many Americans think that because the United States is a democracy and it is a hegemon, that it is a benign hegemon. And those same Americans think that the rest of the world should view the Americans in those terms. They should see us as a benign hegemon. But that's not the way most other countries around the world see us, and it's certainly not the way the Chinese see us.

The United States has fought six separate wars since the Cold War ended in 1989, the first of which was against Saddam Hussein's Iraq in 1991. Then we fought against Serbia over Bosnia in 1995, and again, in 1999 against Serbia, but this time over Kosovo. And then we went to war against Afghanistan in the wake of September 11th, and then in 2003, March 2003, we invaded Iraq. And in 2011 we went to war against Libya.

So anyone who makes the argument that the United States is a peaceful country because its democratic, right, is confronted immediately with evidence that contradicts that basic claim. It's not an exaggeration to say that the United States is addicted to war. We are not reluctant at all to reach for our six-shooter. And countries like China understand this.

And when countries like China see the United States pivoting to Asia, and they see what our record looks like in terms of using military force since 1989. And when they think about the history of US-Chinese relations, when they think about the Open Door policy and how we exploited China in the early part of the 20th century. And when they think about the Korean War - most Americans don't realize this, but we were not fighting the North Koreans during the Korean War, we were fighting the Chinese from 1950 to 1953. We had a major war, not with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, but with China. China remembers all these things. So they do not view the United States as a benign hegemon. They view the United States as a very dangerous foe that is moving more and more forces to Asia and is forming close alliances with China's neighbors. From Beijing's point of view, this is a terrible situation.



On the inevitability of war between China and the US, Professor Mearsheimer sees it rooted in how the competition between China and the United States will ultimately play out on the world stage -- and on the high seas of the East and South China Seas.



So one of the really interesting questions here is what is the competition between China and the United States going to look like? First of all, I think there's going to be a serious arms race. I think that the Chinese will spend increasing amounts of money on defense and they will build more and better military capability.

At the same time, the United States is going to increase defense spending, and it's going to send more and more of its military assessments to Asia than it has in the past because the United States is going to be bent on containing China, and this will lead to an arms race.

The Chinese will try and best us, and we will try and best them, much the way the United States and the Soviet Union did during the Cold War.

I think it's almost for sure you'll have crises. You'll have crises in the South China Sea and the East China Sea. I wouldn't be surprised if you had a crisis on the Korean peninsula that threatened to bring the United States and China into the fray. That would be a very dangerous situation.

So I think, in addition to arms races, you'll have crises. And then, of course, you'll have the ever-present danger that those crises will escalate to wars. And given the geography of Asia, it is possibly that you could have a war between the United States and China. Just to give you one example:

If a conflict were to break out between Japan and China over the Diaoyu or Senkaku Islands, the United States would almost certainly come in on the side of Japan; and it's possible to imagine shooting starting in that situation because you're talking about a war that would be fought at sea, and where there would be no need to use nuclear weapons.

This is not like a war on the central front during the Cold War where the United States and the Soviet Union, were they to fight, would end up fighting World War III with nuclear weapons; and because that possible scenario was so horrific, it was extremely unlikely.

We're talking about fighting a war over a series of rocks out in the East China Sea. It's easy to imagine such a war starting.

Advertisement

It's easy to imagine North Korea collapsing and a conflict breaking out between North and South Korea that pulls the United States and the Chinese in.

It's easy to imagine a war being fought over Taiwan and the United States coming in on the side of Taiwan, presenting a situation where the United States and China are fighting each other.

Against the backdrop of these rapidly rising tensions in the Asia-Pacific, Professor Mearsheimer offers some serious advice to a China that he sees badly misplaying its strategic hand of late:

Where the Chinese have gone wrong, in my opinion, is they have overreacted in almost every case; and, as a consequence, they have scared their neighbors, and they have scared the United States. The Chinese argue that it's imperative in these crises to lay down markers and to make it clear where China stands on the conflict or the dispute in question; and I understand that, but they do it in ways that seem very aggressive in tone and -- or aggressive in nature, and they end up scaring people. And that's not smart.

Now, some people might say, a lot of countries have pursued hegemony in the past and they have ended up destroying themselves. Look at what happened to imperial Germany, look at what happened to imperial Japan, look at what happened to Nazi Germany. Look at what happened to the Athenians.

Advertisement

Now, there's no question that, in the past, countries have pursued hegemony and have ended up getting destroyed in the process. What subsequent countries do, looking back, is say to themselves: We're going to be much smarter the next time. We're going to pull it off. We're going to be like the United States.

Just take China for example. The Chinese understand full well what happened to Imperial Germany, what happened to the Soviet Union; and the Chinese do not want to end up committing suicide. So what the Chinese are doing is thinking about how to maximize their power in smart and sophisticated ways.

So my argument would be that, given the tragedy of great power politics, they will pursue regional hegemony. They will try to push the Americans out of Asia, they will try to dominate Asia, and they will try to do it smartly. Whether they're successful or not is another matter.

Finally, Professor Mearsheimer offers a firm rebuttal to the case for American isolationism. It is a rebuttal firmly rooted in his theory of Great Power Politics that says an American retreat will only invite an unwelcome Chinese advance.



One might argue that what the United States should do if China continues to rise is that we should retreat to Hawaii or retreat to the continental United States; and we should pursue an isolationist strategy. And the argument here would be that it doesn't really matter whether China dominates Asia because it can't get at the United States anyway.

This is actually a very powerful argument. If you think about it, we're separated from China as we separated from Europe by two giant moats. The Chinese would have to come 6,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean to get to California. There's not going to be an amphibious operation that's 6,000 miles long across the Pacific Ocean.

Advertisement

So not only do we have these oceans, we also have thousands of nuclear warheads, which are the ultimate deterrent. Furthermore, we dominate the Western Hemisphere.

So the United States is an incredibly secure country; and one can make a quite persuasive argument that, even if China dominates Asia, it's not going to affect the United States in any meaningful way.

My view is that there's one powerful counter to that argument; and it's the main argument again isolationism; and it says that if China dominates all of Asia, if it's a regional hegemon, it is then free to roam around the world much the way the United States, as a regional hegemon, is free to roam around the world.

Most Americans don't think about this, but the reason that the United States is wandering all over God's little green acre, sticking its nose in everybody's business, is because we are free to roam. We have no threats in the Western Hemisphere that pin us down.

Now if China is free to roam because it's a potential hegemon, it can roam into the Western Hemisphere. It can develop friendly relations with a country like Brazil or country like Mexico. It could put a naval base in Brazil much the way the Soviets were putting troops in Cuba, right?

Advertisement
Rajani Venkatraman Levis, MFT is an immigrant therapist of Color who speaks five languages and artfully navigates the intersections of trauma with race, class, ethnicity and other facets of diversity in her writing, teaching and psychotherapy practice. She is a California Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, a Certified Trauma Specialist and an EMDRIA Approved Consultant in EMDR.

A lot of people tell me that given our current sociopolitical environment, conversations about diversity feel too fraught to engage in. As an immigrant woman of color, and a therapist as well as a counselor-educator, I can tell you that I engage in, witness and co-create these conversations on an ongoing basis. In fact, I wouldn't have the choice to pass, even if I tried.

Yes, I can talk about institutionalized oppression at length, but for now, I want to engage with you, the individual reader and not just the stereotype of your racial, ethnic, cultural or national identity. Similarly, I speak for myself and not for others like me, although I do hope that this may open up more compassionate conversations about difficult dialogs.

Advertisement

Sometimes, these conversations go spectacularly well and we feel confident in our ability to build a bridge across cultures. While at other times, they're awkward, hurtful, distressing and unmentionably uncomfortable. The culprit, in many of these one-on-one debacles, is the non-sequitur.

Imagine for a moment that you and I were just introduced at a social gathering.

Me: "Hi! I'm Rajani."

You: "Hi! I'm Linda"

Me: "Nice to meet you Linda. Oh! I went over to my neighbor's house the other day, and she was making spaghetti for dinner. I just LOVE pasta. You're so lucky, you get to eat it all the time."

Admit it: That is a totally random thing to say and even an American mealtime staple cannot magically transform this non-sequitur into a lovely two-way conversation.

I, on the other hand, am often at the receiving end of somewhat similarly random statements that I can only ignore at the peril of being considered rude or lacking social graces. It often occurs moments after we have been introduced, when without preamble, the speaker launches into making a link, however tenuous, with my presumed country of origin, even if it has not yet become a part of the conversation. And it can sound something like this:

Advertisement

"There's this man from India who works at my husband's office, and John often tells me that his lunches smell absolutely delicious."

Or...

"I was in a cab driven by a young Indian man recently, and he told me that he was planning to have an arranged marriage."

In my most compassionate place, I hear these statements as an attempt at connection that is destined to bomb. However, I have clearly not achieved the requisite degree of enlightenment to inhabit my most compassionate place 24X7. So, I am sometimes impacted by the weight of twenty years of repeated conversations with strangers and acquaintances that follow similar patterns. And in the seconds that it takes for the speaker to go from "Hello" to the tenuous Indian link, I feel as if I am watching the gears in their head clicking into place as their machine of socialization begins to churn out the inevitable stereotypes that will no doubt hijack this conversation: Indian accents and Gandhi, arranged marriages & and Slumdog Millionaire, curry and cab drivers, call centers and poverty.

In mere seconds, the speaker's attempts at connecting with me devolve into absurd non-sequiturs such as the name of the call center representative in India who helped troubleshoot a tech issue last week. And my compassion dissipates into the feeling of being objectified or placed in a box defined solely by my country and racial origins. I attempt to disengage as I resist becoming circumscribed by some singular stereotypical identity, a placeholder for what "Indian" means to this person. And the attempt at connection flatlines.

My earliest inquiry into this connection issue centered on the question that irks immigrants and people of color and anyone with a non-standard American accent.

Advertisement

"Where are you from?"

This seemingly simple question has many implications that belie its humble four word status. A simple answer, such as "San Francisco" never seems to meet the questioner's expectation, and its pesky persistent companion is:

"So where are you from, really?"

Most immigrants and many people of color have some variation of this story. A student of mine once said that her family has been in the United States for six generations, but that based on her skin color, she still gets asked this question on a regular basis. Or take my friend Raul whose family has been here in California for generations, while it was the border that actually crossed over them. I suppose you can imagine his ongoing frustration when asked where he comes from, by someone whose sense of belonging is marked by being White, a singularity of identity that is privileged enough to resist questioning.

Most of the time, diversity small talk is predicated on assumptions, or simply put, when you ask a question with an answer in mind. So if you ask me where I'm from because you want to tell me about your experiences of India, or because you want to have your opinions confirmed, we may both be less satisfied with the conversation. A question that creates a learning encounter for both of us, is one we will be mutually enriched by. Whereas, when you circumscribe me by what you think you already know, we may both leave the conversation a little impoverished by the lost opportunity to truly meet in the middle.

In my most grounded, compassionate moments, when someone asks me where I am from, I am willing to translate that what they mean is "I'm curious about you" or "I'd like to get to know you better." However, when I define myself by my San Francisco home of 20 years, the answer doesn't align with their curiosity. And what began with an intention to increase connection through curiosity, unwittingly turns into an encounter that reinforces my otherness. What it triggers for me is a reminder of the many times I have been told explicitly "Go back to where you belong" or other variations that imply a lack of belonging in the United States. Far worse, it strikes terror about what the growing support for our xenophobic presidential hopeful will mean for immigrants like me. For me, switching out of the political horror story and into compassion requires a movement towards connectedness. Or could it be the other way around, that switching into connectedness requires a movement towards compassion?

As we wrap up this conversation, I offer you Taiye Selasi's fantastic Ted Talk: "Don't ask me where I'm from, ask me where I'm a local." As she so rightly points out, a person cannot come from a nation, which is but a concept, whereas our experiences are where we come from. So if we skip "Where are you from really?" we could explore where I was local, before my experiences became more local to San Francisco. And when we're connected enough to swim past the diversity small talk of non-sequiturs, we could engage with the deeper, more meaningful questions that connect my identities, questions that elicit my unexpressed longing and ignite my sense of belonging, questions that hone in on my sense of being valued for being bicultural in the United States or multi-local, as Selasi might say; questions such as:

What is the best thing about being from India? Would you introduce me to a sound that you were familiar with in your home country that doesn't exist in this soundscape? If there was one thing from your heritage culture you could instill to make this country a better place, what might it be? What is one of your earliest memories of what you consider a classic American moment? What do you love about being a local in two very different parts of the world?


Anti-TPP protest in Chile via Flickr

Protests in the streets seemed inevitable, even before the details of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) were made publicly known. In the week following the signing of trade deal in New Zealand on February 4th, protests erupted from Asia to the Americas. Some of the most virulent protests took place in South and Central America: Peru, Mexico, and Chile, the Latin American signatories, all saw their citizens take to the streets. As reported by the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio, fliers claimed the TPP "... is the most dangerous trade agreement signed in history because it threatens national sovereignty, access to medicine and the Internet, healthy eating and a clean environment."

While such a claim is preposterous, it is nevertheless true that the TPP, which will affect 40 percent of the global economy, has been cloaked in secrecy and controversy for much of the seven years it has taken to develop it. Its intended purpose, leaders say, is to ease trade around the Pacific Rim, create jobs, and eliminate poverty in participating countries. So why are people in countries like Peru, whose economy could potentially benefit greatly from such an agreement, protesting?

The Promise of the Future

The case against the TPP revolves around its secretive nature and concerns about its impact on worker protection laws, the environment and human rights. For other activists, the TPP is the pinnacle of corporate power, a trade deal that is meant to benefit the bottom line of big companies at the expense of governments and workers. Finally, critics question the significance of increasing food dependencies, the failure to include advocates for workers' rights in the discussions leading up to the treaty, and the opaque mandate awarded the nefarious ISDS courts.

Advertisement

However, that is a profoundly warped understanding of what the TPP seeks to achieve. In truth, a more balanced take on the treaty would paint quite a different image.

Some countries are optimistic about the opportunities a trade deal of this sort can open up, particularly Vietnam and Malaysia, which benefit geographically from being integral parts of the Asian value chain. For example, twenty-six percent of Vietnam's exports comes from the production of apparel, footwear, and textiles. These industries already lure clothing manufacturers with cheap labor and light regulation. Even with heavy tariffs of 20 to 48 percent on goods shipped to the U.S., moving manufacturing to Vietnam has been profitable. TPP will eliminate tariffs or cut them so low as to be virtually non-existent, increasing the profitability of companies choosing to manufacture in Vietnam. The decrease in trade restrictions is likely to provide even more incentives for American and even Chinese footwear companies to move their operations to Vietnam - a well-trod path for American companies, but a complete novelty for China. It's not surprising that Beijing will lose up to $100 billion every year following the signing of the TPP.

Malaysia, too, is in a position to benefit greatly from the TPP. Closer economic ties to the U.S., Canada, and other large trading partners offer enhanced access to markets for their electrical and electronics products, textiles, and automotive manufacturers. Concerns about worker rights (so prevalent in Latin America) were successfully dispelled under the administration of Prime Minister Najib Razak, who passed a series of demand-side measures meant to improve the living standards of Malaysians. A minimum wage, as well as the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs has sent the country's poverty rate to 0.6 percent. When tariffs are removed, Malaysia is projected to achieve gains of anywhere from $107 to $211 billion between 2018 and 2027.

Advertisement

The quiet South American

Inexplicably, though, Latin American governments have had a harder time explaining to their citizens why the TPP should be embraced--even as Southeast Asia's gains have been widely publicized.

A large Latin American bloc supports the TPP, and Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama and others are already positioned to join it at some later point. These Latin American free-trade-friendly countries are poised to take advantage of new opportunities the agreement will make available, such as opening new markets for export - most importantly, the Pacific corridor. Moreover, parts of Latin America that have embraced globalization will be able to develop their own value chain in their respective geographic areas, contributing to economic growth throughout the region.

Mexico, which is Latin America's second-largest economy, has become a manufacturing powerhouse and major exporter. Thanks in large part to its embrace of free trade, Mexico is now among the largest producers of flat screen TVs and automobiles in the world. Through the signing of the TPP, these industries will be able to export to wealthy markets in New Zealand and Japan and boost the economy by approximately $150 billion in five years. In addition, data exchanges are covered in what amounts to a digitalization of NAFTA. Peru and Chile have depended on exports, primarily to China, of such commodities as ores, minerals, timber, and food products. With the decline in China's economy, they have the opportunity to find other, similar markets. In this vein, Peru's exports will expand by 10.3% while Chile's will grow by 5%.

What's more, not to participate is potentially more costly than actual participation. Chile, Peru and Mexico will not just reap billions in extra trade, but they will also get a seat at the global trade table and benefit from the capacity to actually shift the rules of future agreements. Not the same thing can be said about the free trade skeptics of Mercosur countries, who, by choosing to stay outside the TPP and other likeminded initiatives, will be further marginalized and disengaged from the burgeoning Latin American value chain. As markets open up, the enduring economic power will be in the hands of countries that are able to do business on a global basis.
To sleep, perchance to dream.

I said something on Twitter, innocently and perhaps stupidly so, and my friends, the atheists, came calling in response. I enjoyed it altogether. I love my friends, the atheists. This and future posts by this name are especially for them.

I started out life a pie-eyed realist. The truth, instinctively, has always meant everything to me; I need to know in a desperate way.

But I was naive, probably I still am, and I found that realism is a dark way, because at every turn reality dealt me and my fellow humans blow after blow bludgeoning us down into pessimism. The truth hurts.

Advertisement

Somebody loves me? They die. Day before the big race? I stub my toe. We've all been there. But I couldn't live with pessimism and his partner cynicism - I am going to die anyway, so why not enjoy my life? So, I actively, purposefully chose optimism instead. I calculated that there are probably just as many true happy or funny things as there are true crappy and bitter things, and with life dealing me enough crap as a matter of course, I might as well focus on the true stuff that makes me laugh.

But then an interesting thing happened and just recently: I realize that laughing and being happy is the way things are supposed to work anyway. In terms of sheer practicality, when I approach life in a way that denies bitterness air and precious time, opting instead to give funny stuff and happy stuff air, I feel better and I get more done. Indeed, everything runs more smoothly, especially my relationships.

So now, here I am again - a pie-eyed realist. Am I still naive? Perhaps, but not nearly as.

I am here to be lucid and to build a bridge. Perhaps we, me and the atheists, will build many bridges and towers together.

To give us an encouraging beginning, we have something profound in common: I hate religion. I might even hate religion more than atheists.

Advertisement

When atheists laugh about the way the Bible is used by religious people, I laugh too. Not out of respect or any other motive, but only because it truly is funny, on the merits. It is ridiculous, with all due respect to people's sincerely-held beliefs, to think that the bush Moses went to was actually, literally on fire... but didn't burn. How can people ever believe that?

But I did once. Wasn't I blind? Now we have something else in common: We all think I am blind.

Is everybody blind? Yes and no, just like me. We are all figuring out the truth for ourselves. I am honest with myself, enough to see that I am stupid and blind. In that regard, ironically, perhaps I have become smart and see clearly.

Can we agree that everybody in the room enjoys irony? Maybe we can.

We have much more common ground than we imagine, if for no other reason than we don't take the time to open our eyes and see that we don't have to imagine it at all; the common ground is already there.

Everybody has dreams, pipe or no. Why do we call our dreams our dreams? Is it not true that the real dreams happen while we are, for all practical purposes, unconscious? Are they always good? I mean, doesn't everybody else have nightmares like me? Those are also our dreams, aren't they?

And yet everybody agrees to the metaphor. I bet that in Russia they call their dreams their dreams, even though they also have nightmares. I bet it happens in Jordan too. Somehow this dream business got down in our bones so much we all say it and accept it as truth without giving it much thought at all.

Advertisement

We all choose to accept the good side of our dreams, validating that with our metaphor of how we want to materialize those dreams to our endless happiness, even though, for all of us, the nightmares are terrifying. We all seem to accept the risks - we are all, so to speak, pro-dream. There are no exceptions.

That may sound trivial, silly, even pedantic, but I find that the simplicity of this epiphany makes it yield more light to me. We all dream. These are the most real and tangible concepts imaginable.

Almost every problem we face as people comes down to our refusal to find common ground. Our dreams are important to us, almost sacred, and I am not aware of anybody who is exempt, though I confess that I fear to hear their story if they exist. So, the brute fact that we all refer to our dreams the same way means we have it in common down in our bones; and the proof is in our words - there are no dissenters when talking about dreams as dreams. Sooner or later we say what we really mean, and we have, as a race, accepted that metaphor as perfect. I assert that this is more important than appears at first sight.

I have dreams in common also with that Jewish redactor from two-and-a-half millennia ago who was trying to speak to his contemporaries, maybe also even perhaps to me, and didn't know how to say it. He was limited by his worldview and perspective, somewhat like me, only more extremely. He used what means he had available to him, the scriptures handed down to him from other people who dreamed and sought the truth over centuries of time. And while I am not going to argue about whether or not he did that correctly, I can at least assert that he wanted the same things out of life that I do. And that you do.

The more honest I am with that rabbi, even with his mythology, the closer I get to his mind. Was his a superstitious mind? Probably. Can I learn anything from that mind? Or better put: Can I learn anything from any mind not privy to the information provided by our digital, nuclear age?

Advertisement

Quite frankly, the more honest I am with today's atheists, the closer I get to their mind, devoid as it is of superstition. That is good - I also hate superstition. If I connect with the old prophet, no matter what he believes, in some respects I connect with the world entire; if I connect with an atheist, no matter what they believe, in some respects I connect with the world entire. Truth is, the atheists are closer to me, because they are here with me, in this consciousness, at this moment in history. The only modern prophet I am aware of to reach out to is Dr. King, who is dead. My hope is with the atheists.

Isn't that ironic? I enjoy that. But maybe there are atheists who don't. Maybe good irony is in the eye of the beholder. Maybe there is bad irony. I doubt it. I still hope we all enjoy it and have at least that in common.

This will not be my last letter to you, my atheist friends.

What if the meaning of Moses at the burning bush is that all of the ground is holy? What if the ground we are on is holy whether we like it or not? What if the agnostic lover of the ocean, wanting us to preserve it and cherish it and enjoy it, what if my atheist forest ranger friend who sees the glory in the trees is walking around on holy ground... and doesn't realize it? And yet, ironically, in the most important ways does realize it? Might I suggest she take off her shoes? Maybe she doesn't even need to.

Is the bush burning because the ground it is growing out of is holy? For the rabbi, yes. Might that suggest that we too might burn if connected to such ground? Is there even such ground that we have in common?

Perhaps. Sounds like the basis of building a bridge. We can still hate religion and everything.

I hope my atheist friends make comments. I will try to answer them all. I am ready for this connection with my sisters and brothers the atheists. I almost crave their mockery, because it makes me laugh. Seriously, it is funny. Superstition is funny and absurd; truth is too. Truth has many faces.

Advertisement

I think we will find mutual respect. I really do. None of you can out grind or out love me.
If constitutional amendments for redistricting reform and term limits are placed on the November ballot, they'd likely get a friendly reception from the majority of voters in Illinois.

A new poll conducted by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute found that two-thirds of Illinois voters support legislative redistricting reform and a whopping 78 percent favor term limits. Just 25 percent and 20 percent say they oppose the measures, respectively. The poll also found more than 60 percent of respondents favor so-called "right-to-work" laws that prohibit mandatory union membership in union-represented workplaces.

Supporters of redistricting reform told polltakers the current system allows lawmakers to gerrymander districts in order to benefit their respective political party, and that having an independent group redraw district lines every 10 years would be a fairer alternative. Opponents argue minority communities are protected by the way maps currently are drawn and writing laws shouldn't be done by individuals who don't hold elected office.

Advertisement

The poll shows 71 percent of voters are in favor of the Illinois Supreme Court adding a neutral, tie-breaking vote to the redistricting panel when lawmakers are at odds over redrawing the legislative map, while 19 percent say they're against the proposed change.

Currently, the Independent Maps coalition is leading the charge against gerrymandering and expects to have enough valid signatures to place a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment on the ballot. The amendment proposes an 11-member, non-partisan commission whose decisions and map-drawing process would be open to the public; 64 percent of voters polled say they favor this type proposal and 25 percent oppose.

Support for redistricting reform is consistent across all demographics and political affiliations, according to the Simon Institute.

"Illinoisans are in a mood to change things," said David Yepsen, director of the Institute. "In addition to redistricting changes, they also support restricting campaign contributions in judicial races and term limits for legislators."

Advertisement

Seventy-two percent say they support campaign contribution limits -- particularly in judicial races -- though liberal voters are more inclined to back campaign finance reform than conservative and centrist voters, according to the Institute.

Of all the state government restructuring questions posed to voters, support for term limits on lawmakers was the strongest, with 78 percent in favor and 20 percent against imposing term limits.

Another interesting finding from the poll is voters' views on right-to-work, which is one of the most divisive items in Gov. Bruce Rauner's "Turnaround Agenda."

More than half, 61 percent, say they would vote or leans towards voting for Rauner's proposal that gives workers the option to opt out of joining a union without putting his or her job at risk; one-third of voters say they would oppose or leans towards opposing right-to-work laws.

While Republican voters were more supportive of right-to-work policies, the majority of Democrats polled surprisingly were in favor of the governor's proposal.

Advertisement
What a coup! Publicist Peggy Siegal exulted in the day's headlines: drones taking down 150 al-Shabab inductees in Africa. The occasion was a luncheon at la Grenouille to celebrate the movie Eye in the Sky. Directed by Gavin Hood and starring Helen Mirren, with Alan Rickman in his last performance for the screen, this nail-biting drama, a behind the scenes look at what it takes to fight terrorism could not be more relevant, and Siegal feigned taking credit for planting the story to support the film opening this week. Mirren plays Colonel Powell, who displays the remarkable cool and determination necessary in the decision making process. Do we proceed, and bomb three wanted terrorists and two men wearing suicide vests, when there is possible collateral damage in the person of a single little girl selling bread nearby, or do we risk the possibility of the martyrs killing dozens in a marketplace or other densely populated location just to save the girl? The movie teeters on this narrow edge. Alan Rickman delivers a key line: "Never tell a soldier that he does not know the cost of war."

The lunch crowd included Julie Taymor whose play Grounded, a one-woman tour de force starring Anne Hathaway at the Public Theater last year, dealt with this dire question in another way, limning the decision making of women, thought too soft under these circumstances. In truth, Hood, Taymor and Mirren concurred, women are quick to make these time sensitive life and death choices. They have to be. After the lunch, Gavin Hood and Julie Taymor swapped notes. "You must read the latest, a study called Drone Theory," Hood offered, and the two filmmakers chatted heatedly as others left the room.

Advertisement

The next night, at the premiere after party at Parkview Lounge, we caught up with Barkhad Abdi. You remember this Somalian refugee and Oscar nominee from the movie Captain Phillips. His role is crucial to the on the ground efforts in Eye in the Sky's Kenya, shot in South Africa. While the decisions to kill are made thousands of miles away, accomplished with the press of a remote, after legal clearance and P.R. priorities are met, his single effort to buy up the girl's bread brings the "fog of war" to the level of the human.
Eric Dooh, a farmer, shows the oil polluted mud from his fish ponds affected by an oil spill in 2004 in Goi, Nigeria, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2016. Twenty years after the oil-pollution crisis in the Niger delta shot to world attention when the then military government hanged the author and environmentalist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, residents in the region are seething with anger again that the problem hasnt been fixed. Photographer: George Osodi/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Niger Delta's legendary "blood oil" disaster has persisted for decades, and is now deepening. Oil in the Delta fuels a dangerous mix of environmental devastation, a violent militancy that has killed thousands, human rights abuses, corporate greed and exploitation, epidemic corruption, massive oil theft, sabotage, repression, poverty, anger and despair. It is time to put an end to this ongoing atrocity, once and for all.

The 30,000 square mile Niger Delta -- including rich coastal waters, islands, mangroves swamps, and rainforests -- was once one of the most productive and diverse ecological habitats on Earth. But today, after 60 years of oil extraction, the region's environment and society are devastated -- a textbook example of the "oil curse."

Advertisement

The Delta is arguably the most severely oil-damaged environment anywhere in the world. A decade ago, our team of scientists conducting an oil damage assessment in the Delta estimated that each year, some 250,000 barrels (10 million gallons) of oil spill there, an amount comparable to that of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska -- each year for 50 years. Oil operations have also caused extensive habitat degradation from road building, forest clearing, dredging and filling, thousands miles of pipelines, and chronic pollution from gas flaring and drilling wastes.

Our 2006 team estimated the financial damage from oil in the Niger Delta to be in the tens of billions of dollars, and we recommended compensation, an immediate upgrade of all oil pipelines and facilities, and a comprehensive spill cleanup and restoration program. Subsequent assessments, including by the U.N., confirmed our conclusions and recommendations. Unfortunately, little has progress has been made since.

Despite hundreds of billions of dollars earned from oil, the region's 30 million residents, mostly subsistence fishermen and farmers, remain some of the most impoverished people in the world. They eat oil-contaminated food, drink toxic water, breathe polluted air, and are chronically unhealthy, with average life spans less than 50 years.

Along with environmental devastation, the lack of financial benefits for local people has fueled a violent militancy over the past two decades, killing thousands, destabilizing the region, and preventing sustainable development. Nigeria's "blood oil" first came to international attention in 1995 when the military government executed the Ogoni Nine, a group of tribal activists protesting the damage and inequities from oil, including writer/activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. In 2009, Shell paid $15.5 million to settle claims brought by the families of the Ogoni Nine, who asserted that Shell had conspired in the executions.

Advertisement

The "blood oil" business model for companies in the Niger Delta is simple: produce as much oil as quickly and as cheaply as possible; exploit inadequate government oversight; cut corners (and costs) on safety, monitoring, maintenance and integrity management; ignore or blame others for oil theft, spills and violence; pay bribes to government, military and police when necessary; and continue making huge profits as long as possible. And as the government is a majority owner of oil projects and relies on oil for most of its revenue, it habitually turns a blind-eye to the ongoing crisis.

While all operators, including ExxonMobil, Chevron, Total, ENI, and Agip, contribute to the problem, locals say that by far the worst actor is Shell. Asked why they don't clean up their mess or upgrade their infrastructure, Shell blames pushback from their Nigerian government partners, and security risks from militants. As for its hundreds of spills each year, Shell blames most on illegal oil theft ("bunkering") by local people, instead of the company's refusal to maintain or upgrade its dilapidated pipelines and facilities. Actually, much of the oil theft in the region is by the oil companies themselves underreporting production ("excess oil lifting"), to avoid paying royalties and taxes. Thus, "blood oil" keeps flowing, keeps spilling and the region continues to devolve into chaos and despair.



Oil soaked boats and shoreline, Niger Delta



Today, people still see little hope of breaking this spiral of poverty, environmental destruction, and violence. The government, oil companies, and militants are simply making too much money from the current madness to want to fix the crisis. But clearly the region cannot stabilize and begin to recover until these intersecting issues are resolved.

Some villages have filed individual claims for oil damages in Nigerian courts, but none of these have been satisfactorily resolved. Others have recently sought justice in courts in the UK and the Netherlands. One landmark case against Shell in the UK courts, for massive spills in 2008 and 2009 from Shell's Trans Niger Pipeline, was settled last year for $80 million for 15,000 people whose lives have been ruined. While one of the largest spill settlements in Nigeria history, this still provided only $5,000 per person. Similar cases were filed in the UK courts just this month.

Advertisement

These cases are extremely helpful in placing liability where it belongs, but in context with the thousands of oil damage cases in need of resolution across the Delta, such an incremental approach could take decades. And even if local people win such cases, compensation is seldom sufficient, and effective oil cleanup and restoration never occur. To its credit, the Nigerian government is now organizing a $1 billion Ogoni Restoration Project, which is long overdue and welcomed, but the project will only address a small portion of the greater Delta ecosystem.

This slow, incremental approach will not solve the larger crisis, and local people can't afford to wait decades for justice and restoration. Until all claims and grievances across the entire region are equitably resolved, the oil infrastructure is upgraded to highest international standards, and the ecosystem is cleaned up and fully restored, there will likely be no peace or development in the Delta. Some in Nigeria are even proposing a complete cessation of oil extraction - a laudable, yet politically challenging goal at present.

As the Nigerian government has been unwilling to initiate a comprehensive restoration effort on its own, the U.N. should be asked to help by convening an independent Niger Delta Restoration Commission, vested with the full legal authority and participation of the Nigerian government. The Niger Delta Restoration Commission would function as an arbitration body, with similar authority to South Africa's post-apartheid "Truth and Reconciliation Commission." We proposed this a decade ago, but the U.N. deferred to the Nigerian government, which at the time ignored the suggestion.

Today, as Nigeria's "blood oil" crisis deepens, it is time to convene the U.N. Restoration Commission, and implement a comprehensive restoration initiative across the entire Delta, as follows:

1.Prevent future oil spills by requiring the industry to upgrade its oil infrastructure to international best available and safest technology standards. Substandard pipelines and drill facilities must be removed or replaced; waste dumping, gas flaring, and illegal bunkering must end. If a company cannot meet this standard, its permit to operate must be revoked.

Advertisement

2. Cleanup and bio-remediate all oil already spilled.



3. Restore all ecological and socioeconomic systems injured by oil, including fisheries, hydrology, agriculture, freshwater, and other ecosystems.

4. Compensate the people of the Delta in a just manner for all injury caused by the oil industry.

5. Establish an equitable oil revenue sharing system for all people in the Delta.

6. Expedite judicial proceedings to hold those guilty of corruption or violence accountable, restoring the rule of law.

7. Enact improvements in governance and corporate behavior to secure future environmental and social integrity of the region.

Much of this is already required in Nigerian law, but has never been enforced. The Restoration Commission will need tens of billions of dollars, which should be paid by all oil companies in the Delta, in particular Shell and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company. Shell should immediately pay $10 billion into the Restoration Fund, with the understanding that more will be paid by other companies.

By comparison, BP will pay over $60 billion for its 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Oil spill damage in the Niger Delta is even more severe and has persisted for decades, but Shell and other companies have paid only a small fraction of this amount in Nigeria. This is unjust, and must be remedied.

Advertisement

Also, Shell just wasted $7 billion drilling a dry offshore well in the Chukchi Sea off northern Alaska, and this money would have been better spent restoring damage the company has caused in Nigeria.
A Emirates Airbus A380 plane lands at Heathrow Airport

The news earlier this month that Hungary was likely to offer Emirates the ability to fly from Budapest to the United States -- called "Fifth Freedom" rights in the aviation industry -- is just the latest in the Gulf carrier's unprecedented growth in the U.S. market, and further evidence of expansion built on the benefit of massive government subsidies. As has been amply demonstrated, these subsidies and unfair benefits -- totaling $6.8 billion for Emirates since 2004 -- violate the Open Skies agreement that give the Dubai-based airline unlimited access to the U.S. market, damaging U.S. carriers, their employees, the communities they serve, and their European partners.

You may think, "What's the big deal?" The big deal is that this move doesn't make business sense for Emirates for several reasons. Budapest ranked #22 in European destinations, about 1/15 the size of the biggest market, London. The former Hungarian flag carrier Malev, which collapsed in 2012, stopped its nonstop flight to New York in 2008. Delta Air Lines flew that route in the summer from 2005 to 2011, and American flew it for only seven months in 2011. The fact that no traditional airline has operated the route with financial success is precisely what causes airline experts to wonder about Emirates' interest in the route.

Advertisement

To understand this issue, you need to know a little about the rules that govern international aviation. Unlike the deregulated domestic markets of the U.S., Canada, or the European Union, international flying is controlled country-to-country, or bilaterally, with agreements that are similar to treaties. These bilaterals have been around since 1944, when nations of the world agreed to a set of principles to govern global flying called "freedoms of the air." The Fifth Freedom principle enables airlines to carry passengers between two foreign countries, provided that the flight begins in or continues on to the carrier's home country. Technically, Emirates could operate a Dubai-Budapest-U.S. service.

Seventy years ago, airplane range was limited, fuel stops were needed, and airlines could not economically operate a long route without the right to carry "local" customers between countries. But as smaller, long range wide-bodies like 767s took to the sky, most carriers began reducing the number of Fifth Freedom flights. By contrast, Emirates is increasing the number of these flights.

The proposed Budapest route would be the second time Emirates' has exploited Fifth Freedom rights. In 2013 they began flying nonstop from Milan to New York (a market about twice as large as Budapest). Since they fly three times daily nonstop from New York to Dubai, it's pretty clear they don't need to land in Italy for gas. A recent study from GRA, respected economic consultants, simulated Emirates' economic performance on routes to and from the U.S. and concluded that New York-Milan was among their many unprofitable routes. GRA found that 19 of the 23 routes Gulf carriers operate from the U.S. were estimated to lose money, and more than half had profit margins under 20 percent.

From the Hungarian perspective, the route makes sense. There's no nonstop flight to the U.S. today, no local long-haul airline exists, so why not invite Emirates to the market, likely to foster business and tourism?

Advertisement

But for U.S. airlines, this will divert U.S.-Hungary traffic that today connects in the hubs of their joint-venture partners: Delta with Air France and KLM via Paris and Amsterdam; American with British Airways and Iberia via London and Madrid; and United with four Lufthansa Group carriers (Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, and Brussels Airlines). Because airlines are interdependent networks, steady erosion of connecting traffic threatens the viability of the transatlantic services to the European connecting hubs, like Chicago-Frankfurt. In return, threats to those long-haul flights jeopardizes U.S. domestic service, because more than half of all passengers on a typical American, Delta, or United overseas flight make a connection to or from a domestic airport. As I've written before, we're all in this together.

The bottom line is that if it weren't for the billions of dollars in subsidies that Emirates has received from its government sponsor, the airline wouldn't even be able to consider an unprofitable, unsustainable route such as Budapest to the U.S.
The European Commission has embarked on an ambitious journey to create a seamless 28-country market for digital goods and services in Europe. It is a journey that carries great hopes and expectations, because while there has been considerable progress since 1992 in establishing a single European market for goods, there are still significant barriers to a digital single market (DSM), which the Commission's proposals, under the leadership of European Commission Vice President Andrus Ansip, attempt to overcome. Ansip's visit to Boston this week highlights that what Europe does with the DSM is likely to have considerable impact on U.S. technology companies.

There is both promise and peril in what the Commission and Europe more broadly are trying to accomplish. First, the peril. For at least a decade, policymakers have worried that Europe has fallen behind the United States in the digital economy. While some hot spots are emerging in places like Berlin and London, Europe doesn't have its own Boston when it comes to tech hubs. And unfortunately rather than work to develop those hubs, European policymakers have sought to bring U.S. tech companies down a peg, thinking that will make European companies more competitive. We hear talk from Brussels about "replacing today's Web search engines, operating systems, and social networks with European ones" and for "digital independence" from the United States. We see Germany proposing antitrust enforcement against Facebook for the having too much data; France making it illegal for Amazon to provide free shipping on books; multiple countries banning Uber; and the Commission itself possibly regulating Internet platforms like Google, Twitter, and Apple, while at the same time discussing how to create a "European cloud computing industry" (to keep the Americans out). While these actions all might hurt U.S. companies, they hurt European businesses and consumers more by making it harder and more expensive to use cutting-edge information technology services.

Advertisement

At the same time, the Commission is proposing a number of changes that could lead to increased innovation. From regulatory harmonization between the 28 member countries, to measures to reduce cross-border package shipping costs, to a more continental telecommunications market, these measures will help Europe thrive in the digital economy while at the same time increasing opportunities for U.S. technology companies to sell more to Europe.

So as the Commission moves forward with its DSM proposals, it should drop the stick and embrace the carrot. In other words, rather than seek to drag down U.S companies to give European ones a leg up, the Commission should double down on and build on the unique strengths Europe already possesses, particularly its ability to engage in smart public-private partnerships. Case in point: while the United States leads in many areas of IT, it lags in areas involving "chicken-or-egg" technologies. A case in point is digital signature and electronic ID technology. The technology exists to provide every American with their own unique digital signature capability they can use to authenticate themselves online (goodbye identify theft) and sign legal documents online (hello convenience). But almost no American has one because what would they do with it? No governments or companies accept them, because no consumers have one. Contrast that with Estonia, a small country in Eastern Europe. Because of smart leadership by then-Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, the Estonian government established a program so that 94 percent of Estonian citizens now have an E-ID they can use for securely accessing databases holding their own records, signing documents, and even voting in elections online. There is no reason the European Commission couldn't use Estonia, or as some say "E-stonia," as a model to ensure that every European citizen has E-ID digital signatures.

They could do the same with personal health records. The United States struggles to get doctors to have digitized health records (although Massachusetts does better than most states), but in Scandinavia, if people's doctors don't have electronic records, patients think they are old school. Again, there's no reason with the leadership of the Commission that all Europeans could have electronic health records.

Advertisement

The same for smart cities. While Boston has done some cool things with technology, European cities like Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Copenhagen lead. Why not have all European cities lead? And Europe could also lead in the emerging data economy, in part because success will depend on government open data and smart partnerships. As data-driven products and services define next wave of the digital economy, Europe could expand their efforts to publish open data, ensure there are no restrictions on the reuse of government data, and adopt high standards for data quality.
"What I'm not trying to do is just pass legislation. I'm trying to change the face of American politics."

Pull these words out of the context of "the news" and let them pulse like the heartbeat of the future.

The words are those of Bernie Sanders, of course -- engaged last week in a confrontational interview with Chris Matthews. Free college tuition? Matthews loosed his skepticism on the presidential candidate, who pushed back:

Advertisement

"You and I look at the world differently. You look at it inside the Beltway. I'm not an inside the Beltway person."

"But the people that vote on taxes are inside the Beltway," Matthews retorted.

"Those people are going to vote the right way when millions of people demand that they vote the right way on this issue. I have no doubt that as president of the Untied States I can rally young people and their parents on this issue. . . . As president of the United States, I would have the bully pulpit. What I'm not trying to do is just pass legislation. I'm trying to change the face of American politics."

I listen in disbelief and feel hope percolate as poll results come in. This week Sanders triumphed in my wounded home state of Michigan, confounding the media and political status quo yet again. Is this really a revolution emerging from a presidential race?

That's not supposed to happen. And I find myself skeptically embracing the possibility, spurred by the near total cynicism and intentional cluelessness of the mainstream media. For the past half century, the American media, in collaboration with the military-industrial corporatocracy -- the Beltway -- has delivered up issueless presidential campaigns to the American public. Business as usual, in all its manifestations, is not to be disrupted. Until now.

Advertisement

Something uncontrolled is happening in American politics. Trump supporters raise their hands in pledges of brand allegiance and the ghost of fascism smirks. America's racists, so marginalized all these years, converge at the edges of his campaign, knowing that his "disavowal" of the Klan is a wink-wink, nudge-nudge sort of thing. He's their man. Allegedly respectable Republicans convulse.

Among the Dems, Sanders is bringing democracy to the disaffected, calling not for slivers of social fairness but a full-blown re-emergence of the New Deal, in defiance of the Democrats' post-Reagan allegiance to compromised ideals. He's standing up for the sovereignty not of Beltway politics but of working-class America -- the people! -- reopening the door of participatory politics and declaring that the American government should not be for sale.

I'm so close to believing in the revolution -- in this reclamation of the United States of America.

At a recent debate, a woman in the audience asked Sanders: "Do you think God is relevant?"

He answered yes, to serious applause, explaining: "What we are talking about is what all religions hold dear, and that is to do unto others as you would like them to do unto you. . . . I believe morally and ethically we do not have a right to turn our backs on children in Flint, Mich., who are being poisoned or veterans who are sleeping out on the street. . . . I want you to worry about my grandchildren and I promise you I will worry about your family. We are in this together."

And the Golden Rule enters the presidential race and I stand in awe of the potency of this ethical imperative. It's the opposite of the spectator idiocy of "my guy is better than your guy," the state to which the media has reduced American democracy.

If the Golden Rule is not simply a personal but a political principle, we cannot wage war. And knowing this, I can't think about social fairness without feeling a shattering sense of despair . . .

Advertisement

"The United States launched a series of airstrikes on an al-Shabab training camp in Somalia on Saturday, killing more than 150 militants and averting what a Pentagon official described as an 'imminent threat' posed by the group to both U.S. and African Union troops stationed in the war-torn country."

As Glenn Greenwald put it, reflecting on this latest impersonal news about dead bad guys: "We need U.S. troops in Africa to launch drone strikes at groups that are trying to attack U.S. troops in Africa. It's the ultimate self-perpetuating circle of imperialism: We need to deploy troops to other countries in order to attack those who are trying to kill U.S. troops who are deployed there."

And here's the beginning of an open letter written by four former U.S. Air Force drone operators, which they sent last November to President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and CIA Chief John Brennan: "We are former Air Force service members. We joined the Air Force to protect American lives and to protect our Constitution. We came to the realization that the innocent civilians we were killing only fueled the feelings of hatred that ignited terrorism and groups like ISIS, while also serving as a fundamental recruitment tool similar to Guantanamo Bay. This administration and its predecessors have built a drone program that is one of the most devastating driving forces for terrorism and destabilization around the world.

"When the guilt of our roles in facilitating this systematic loss of innocent life became too much, all of us succumbed to PTSD. . . ."

Changing the face of American politics is a profound, unfathomably difficult undertaking, but it's nothing at all if it doesn't begin with the Golden Rule. And this rule cannot be selectively applied.

Advertisement

- - -

Robert Koehler is an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist and nationally syndicated writer. Contact him at koehlercw@gmail.com or visit his website at commonwonders.com.
So the internet is abuzz over the first trailer for the Ghostbusters reboot. The reactions to the trailer for the new film, which raised eyebrows by recasting the protagonists as woman, were as polarized as the responses when the movie was announced. People either loved it or they hated it.

Sadly, I found myself on the side of the haters.

I wanted to like it. I really did. When the movie was first announced, I thought that a reboot was a really bad idea, but I held my tongue. I was cautious in my pessimism. I didn't want to lumped in with the myriad of voices that were opposed to it for reasons that were petty and sexist (you may recall that Donald Trump was one of those voices). Also, I genuinely like all of the performers involved. Watching the trailer, unfortunately, I found my pessimism to be justified.

Okay, so the trailer begins with allusions to the 1984 film, including showing locations from that movie, which would suggest that the film is a continuation in some way. Of course, this is immediately shown not be the case as we are shown the outline of an origin story that seems to so closely resemble the original film that it becomes evident that this is merely a remake, and not a very imaginative one at that. I mean, really, couldn't they have thought of another place aside from the New York Public Library to encounter the first ghost? Is there a reason that they had to stick to the same number of Ghostbusters and the same racial demographics? Not to mention the fact that, once again, the black character is the non-scientist who is rough around the edges. I mean, I love Leslie Jones and her aggressive brand of humor, and it pleases me to see her getting into bigger film roles, but am I the only one who finds this a little cheap, if not blatantly racist?

Advertisement

Basically, it looks like it will be just a bigger, glossier, crasser telling of much the same story, with no evidence of the sly humor of the original film, which so deftly balanced comedy with supernatural horror. I would welcome the opportunity to be proven wrong, and see the film succeed on its own merits and the performances of its gifted cast, but I doubt that this project will prove to be one that is worthy of their talents.

Again, I thought the reboot was a bad idea from the beginning, and it had nothing to do with the gender switching. It had to do with Harold Ramis.

Like many fans, I had been eagerly awaiting Ghostbusters 3 for years. I knew that that it had largely been held up by Bill Murray, who seemed to be reluctant to return to broader comedy since his transformation to idiosyncratic indie hero (a transformation that I have relished watching). The other obstacle, it would become known, was the long-standing feud between Murray and Ramis, co-star and co-writer of the original movie and Murray's frequent collaborator until they had a falling out after Ramis directed him 1993's Groundhog Day. (The feud was a largely one-sided one, as it was Murray who refused to work with Ramis again and the two former friends would not speak for several decades.)

Advertisement

Alas, it was never to be. Although there was speculation for years, and scripts floating around, it never coalesced. Sadly, Ramis, who in addition to Ghostbusters, was the comedy genius behind Caddyshack , Stripes, and National Lampoon's Vacation, passed away after a long illness on February 24th, 2014. I was pleased to hear that Murray and Ramis reconciled before his death, but I was sad that it happened far too late for them to don their tan coveralls again.

And so it really seemed to be adding insult to injury when it was announced less than six months later that a new movie was in the works. I could imagine a scene in which an executive at Paramount callously proclaimed "Well, it looks like a sequel is out. How about a reboot?"

Couldn't they have given Harold Ramis a little time in his grave before he had to start spinning in it?

It seems that the idea of not rushing out another product to make money based on a known property was apparently not even an option. It is upsetting to see a movie that I loved so much in my childhood, that was so original, funny, and so daring in its genre bending, to be reduced to a property to be monetized.

Now, I would not wish to denigrate the talents of the performers involved by calling an all-female version of Ghostbusters "gimmicky," but it did seem to me to be a way of making a calloused, business-oriented decision seem creative, artistic, and original. The cynic in me (the loudest of my inner voices) also wonders if part of the reason for this decision was to hijack the conversion, to distract from the fact that a reboot was simply a good idea at all, and give the makers of the film the ability to dismiss naysayers as a bunch of pathetic, sexist, internet trolls.

Advertisement
03 11 08 philadelphia pa ...

It's a sad day when you find one of your favorite writers on the opposite side on an issue.

In today's post, "Scenes from Our Neverending Abortion War: Wiping Away a Right One Regulation at a Time" the extortion is made explicit to support Hillary-> over an eeeeeevil Republican president who'll ensure Roe v, Wade is overturned. "So when you're in a voting booth in November, wondering if you should maintain your purity and not vote if your preferred candidate isn't on the Democratic ticket," The Rude One threatens, "know that you'll have the potential bodies of women stacked up on your conscience."

Advertisement

OK. I'll accept every single woman who dies from a botched abortion and every single baby born that was unwanted under a President Drumpf... if Hillary-> voters have to accept the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis resulting from her vote for the Iraq War and all the orphaned children of Libya and Syria because of her warmongering policies as Secretary of State. Because I'm betting that far fewer women will die from botched abortions under President Drumpf than will die from drone bombings under President Hillary->.

All this extortion to support a "Democratic" candidate is necessary when she pushes the war machine's foreign policy, Wall Street's economic policy, Chevron's energy policy, big business' trade and labor policies, and Big Pharma's medical marijuana policy. If we had anything resembling a left-wing party in this country, it would be extorting us to vote for its candidate, lest this Hillary-> Clinton become elected and plunge the country into wars in the Middle East, let the big banks run roughshod on the economy, promote environmentally dangerous fracking worldwide, shutter American factories by shipping jobs to Mexico, and stall on medical marijuana until pharmaceutical companies can patent it.

For this extortion to work, I need to believe that the President Drumpf scenario is apocalyptic, and I just don't. (President Cruz, on the other hand, might work to extort me.) Donald Drumpf says outrageous things like a right-wing radio host or the old Morton Downey, Jr. show -- it's for the ratings. I don't believe Donald Drumpf even believes half the words coming out of his mouth. He's trolling the rabid GOP base for votes and after the primaries, his pivot to centrist moderate -- and even to the left of Hillary-> on some issues -- will once again stun the political pundits.

Drumpf's actually pissed off the anti-abortion right with positive defenses of Planned Parenthood you'll hear from no Republican. He rightly savages George W. Bush for ignoring the warnings that led to the 9/11 attacks and for lying about WMDs to get us into the Iraq War -- and was rewarded by Dubya-loving South Carolina with a huge victory. He's called for reining in the excesses of hedge fund managers and military spending.

Advertisement

Don't misunderstand me. Drumpf's an embarrassment to the country, not just the Republican Party, and his nakedly racist, Islamophobic, and misogynist rants are unfit for politics. But in a long-term view, Drumpf will govern so poorly and be so despised by both party's establishments he'll be just a one-term president. Pundits predict a Drumpf run equals a Democratic Senate, which can block any of Drumpf's SCOTUS nominees who want to overturn Roe v. Wade. (We #BernieorBust people aren't staying home; we'll be voting on the down-ticket races for Dems to obstruct a possible Drumpf Administration.)

But the long-term view of Clinton is one that spells disaster for any hope of aggressive progressivism not sanctioned by the establishment, like single payer health care, ending fracking, stopping drone wars, free public colleges, and federally descheduled marijuana. The hundred-fifty-million dollars net worth Hillary-> has earned thanks to the largess of Wall Street, Pharma, Defense, Private Prisons, and Energy wasn't for her inspiring speeches. She is bought and paid for and will work to further the one-percent agenda, while accepting what politically-beneficial-but-functionally-ineffective scraps of progressivism the one-percent will allow to provide the illusion of real change.

A President Hillary->, having proven that money, not principle, is the way to win election will further convince downticket Dems they, too, must abandon principle for money. With the power of incumbency and the withering of the GOP, she'll win a second term, and that rightward corporate slide of the Democratic party, proven successful by three straight two-term Centrist Dems, will be locked in.

We'll still be suffering from the major problems we suffer today, but President Hillary-> will extract minor concessions from the one-percent to be able to point to "progressive accomplishments". We'll still have boots on the ground in the Middle East... but Hillary-> will make some minor changes that improve the Veterans Administration. We'll suffer another banking/housing bubble burst... but Hillary-> will create some program to help with some of the pain of foreclosures. Americans will still suffer from medical bankruptcies... but Hillary-> will get a couple percentage points more people enrolled in Obamacare. Big money will still rule politics... but Hillary-> will win some level of disclosure for who's donating to what. Cannabis users will still be imprisoned for medical use... but Hillary-> will let GW Pharmaceuticals study how to put it in a bottle with a barcode. Wealth will still accumulate outrageously to the one-percent... but Hillary-> will inch our minimum wage up to $12 eventually.

There is a great political cartoon I've seen showing the ill-fated Titanic ship. Drumpf's at the back of the Titanic, pointing at the dangerous sharks in the ocean and screaming "We need to kill these sharks!" Hillary->'s at the front of the Titanic, explaining, "I'm the best captain here, I know all about how to run a ship!" Only Bernie is on the bow, screaming "ICEBERG!"
Beautiful muslim teenage girl posing on black background (this picture has been taken with a Hasselblad H3D II 31 megapixels camera)

I was serving on a Muslim panel discussion of the Islamic faith and a question from the audience was posed about Muslims' belief on gay marriage. I listened as the first Muslim panelist responded, delicately evading the question. As I was listening, I could not help wondering why it was so difficult for that question to be answered, assuming my perception was correct. I did not have to respond, but I chose to because it was a legitimate question that deserved a real response. I took the mic and candidly stated that Islam does not condone homosexual relationships, but we believe in free will to act and that our actions will be judged by God on Judgment Day.

The day prior to this panel discussion, I attended another interfaith event on Islamophobia as an audience member. A Muslim woman expressed to me her hesitation of discussing her view on homosexuality in a public setting. I know of others who also avoid addressing some of these unpopular stances.

Advertisement

This made me think, though many of us are "openly Muslim" as women wear the headscarf and others have no issue saying, "I am Muslim," but are we truly unapologetically Muslim? Perhaps this means different things to different people. Of course, this goes far beyond the one issue on the moral or religious view on homosexuality, but it is the concept of comfortably embracing and sharing who we are, which includes firmly held beliefs. I know that if I am able to express those parts of me even when widely unpopular, then I have achieved the power and freedom that comes with being unapologetically ME.

Unapologetically Muslim goes further than not succumbing to the fears of being seen as a terrorist or believing that America is not my home. As a Black American Muslim, I am not challenged with the belief that America is not my country and I don't belong. However, being Black in America has taught me something unique about being unapologetically Muslim.

Granted, being Black and Muslim are not synonymous because being Black is not a choice but being Muslim is; however, the expression of both is a choice. As a Black woman, I had to learn to express my identity without shame or trepidation. Historically, Black communities have done much to empower Black people to love ourselves, our features, and our culture for what it is and how it evolves from the "Black Power" movement to the "Be unapologetically Black" mantra. The model of unapologetically Black has given me a confidence to be unapologetically Muslim as well, in a time where Muslims are under a microscope and we are questioned about our values and "American-ness."

Black empowerment has given me the opportunity and experience to express my Black identity in settings where I may be the only Black person, without feeling less than; without the self-consciousness that others may not be able to relate to my Black culture, my look, my way. It taught me just to be me --Be comfortable in my skin without continuously thinking about what others may think of me and how I am perceived.

Advertisement

In that, the confidence to be different translates into the expression of my Muslim identity as well.

Being unapologetically Muslim connects to a deeper spiritual place for me. To have no apology for who I am makes me a better Muslim. It means I don't have to act in response to negative narratives just to prove to others what "good people" Muslims are. And by the same token, I don't have to suppress who I am to gain others' acceptance.

I am reminded that doing good in this world is an obligation on me as a Muslim, to please God, not merely to change impressions. Though, I believe Muslim Americans should control our own narrative because it is our story to tell. But, I also know that as Muslims our intention in this world is to please our Lord first. If we're doing good, as we should, the correct narrative will take care of itself because we're already a visible force to combat untrue rhetoric.

I heard a saying from a Muslim scholar that says, "That which is done from Allah (God) will last; that which is done for other reasons will be obliterated."
In the last few days I have met a new phalanx of Heroes. Traveling through Serbia with the International Rescue Committee, we followed the refugee route from Presevo (Macedonian border) to Belgrade and up to Sid (Croatian border). Along the way I met with the partners of the IRC aid network - in my experience with international aid (which is admittedly neither unbiased nor vast) a new paradigm has evolved in Serbia due partly to the ingenuity of the IRC leadership teams and partly due to Serbia's unique history.

Rather than arriving on the ground in the midst of the worst humanitarian crisis since the Yugoslav wars and setting up independent operations, the IRC has partnered with existing local NGOs to convene a network of indigenous aid. IRC staff mined the country for home-grown aid organizations and then established themselves as a clearinghouse of support - financial, organizational development, psychosocial, etc. -for these enterprises. It has also sought to strengthen connections between these NGOs for mentorship, case referrals, and information sharing. The effect is that - rather than asserting an aid-imperialism (we are here to give you what we think you need) or a culture of dependency (we are your only source of help) - the IRC is empowering a Serbian aid network that will continue to nourish and sustain the country long after (inshallah) the flow of refugees from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other war-torn countries has ended.

Advertisement

These are the people in the neighborhood:

Sarah Wayne Callies with volunteers in Presevo. Photo: Monique Jaques/IRC

The Rock Star: Valon (Founder and Director, Youth for Refugees)

Valon was walking me through the Presevo refugee check point: an abandoned tobacco factory beside the train tracks just across the border from Macedonia. A gorgeous young woman rounded a corner, broke into a huge grin, and threw herself into his arms. He embraced her, made her laugh, and left with a smile. Valon has that effect on people - a natural leader, easygoing and charming even though he hasn't had a full night's sleep in months.

Valon is the founder of Youth for Refugees. He started the group - made up of young volunteers, some of whom work service jobs to support the time they donate - after seeing some refugees sleeping in the rain near his house. He wondered why the government and the churches weren't sheltering them - but rather than waiting on someone else to attend to the problem, he found homes for them that night among people in his community.

The economics of this generosity are worth mentioning: Serbia is not a rich country. Many of the Syrian refugees had - before their country was torn to pieces and they were targeted with unthinkable violence - a much higher standard of living than the average Serbian. Valon and his friends are reaching out to help a population who has been, until a few years ago, far more privileged than they themselves are likely ever to be. And as anyone knows who has worked in food service, that requires a grace and largesse that impress me all the more.

But Valon and his volunteers didn't stop with housing people. He did something very smart: he talked to the refugees and found out what they need. The answer was twofold: information and dignity. So in collaboration with the IRC and another local NGO, Info Park, he also set up an information kiosk at the train station where refugees could get vital information: when did the trains leave, what did they cost, what about busses, where were they going to next?

Advertisement

And then, with IRC support, Valon also opened a coffee shop with a barbershop next door. They are small affairs, you can cross them in a couple of steps and until more decorations show up their plywood walls are humble. So far the coffee is instant but there is a small deck with some patio furniture and a plastic playground for children. The impact of this small, humane, and peaceful space almost defies description.

I will put it this way: I spoke with a Syrian family from Homs who had finally fled after the destruction and violence became intolerable. For two years they had lived a five minute drive from their elderly mother and they had not been able to visit her once because of the fighting in the streets. For a population that have had no access to salt and sugar for years to sit in a clean cafe and be treated like human beings, offers incalculable balm to souls who have suffered beyond the imagination.

Now, the million dollar question: why is Valon doing it? What roots in the hearts of a couple dozen twenty-somethings so deeply that they devote their lives to servicing a community they do not know? These kids were refugees themselves during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990's. One of them described being thrown over a wall by his father into the hands of relative so that he would be safe. Another told me he and his family walked dozens of miles across the mountains to reach safety. They know what it is to be powerless, afraid and in danger. And they know the deep roots of gratitude and compassion that infuse your life forever afterwards; they are living proof of it. It made me wonder - if the world community were to unite around the refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, what spectacular undertakings of compassion and humanity would their children enact to make us all proud?

Sarah meets a Syrian family near the Sid refugee transit site where the IRC and its partners provide care for the most vulnerable refugees.

Advertisement

The Goddess: Marijana (Director, Atina)

Full disclosure: I have a crush on this woman. I defy any one who spends an hour with her not to have one too. For starters, knowing the conversation would be painful, she offered me a glass of her home-make Rakija, a pear flavored Serbian brandy - it was both sensational and deceptively strong. But more than that, Marijana is a warrior, and you get the sense that, like Athena for whom her organization is named, she sprung fully armed from a great mind.

Whereas Youth for Refugees is a new organization, Marijana and the coterie of brilliant women at Atina have been doing their work for over a dozen years: the work of advocating for and providing services to vulnerable women and children. They worked initially with victims of the wars following the breakup of Yugoslavia, learning their trade with women who sometimes remain a part of their organization for seven years - no one is given up on or left behind at Atina. This is an office of women who understand the complexities of healing from GBV (gender-based violence) and the atrocities committed against the most vulnerable members of the war and the flight from it: women and children traveling alone. The Atina women go to train stations, bus station, aid centers and parks seeking out women and children who have suffered the unspeakable acts of degradation and violation that they are often afraid to share with their own families. "We need to raise a generation of men who think of rape like cannibalism," Marijana says as she recalls the stories she's heard.

We discuss how hard it is for women and children to open up about sexual assault, and I don't say it out loud because it seems silly to cry in front of a woman who has seen so much worse, but I think about the dozen years it took me to speak about my own sexual assault. It's then I realize that Atina is a first step in a long journey for many women and children who will arrive Germany or Austria or France - somewhere safe at last - and only then begin to face the capricious and challenging process of reclaiming yourself after GBV. What Marijana teaches me is that our aid must be ongoing - we need to build networks so that women who open up to Atina are placed in good hands when they land in their new home. We need to connect stars like Atina with similar organizations throughout Europe so that they can form a kind of Underground Railroad to guide our sisters to wholeness again.

IRC partner InfoPark provides refugees passing through Belgrade with critical information and services such as free WiFi.



The DJ: Gordan (Project Manager, InfoPark)

During the Milosevic era in Yugoslavia, there was little in the way of independent media - but B92 was a radio station that peppered in real news with house music and made celebrities of the DJs brave and creative enough to thread the needle. One of them is Gordan. Last summer he was on a bike ride in Belgrade along the Danube when he spotted some people sleeping under a bridge. He decided to talk with them - treat them like people, find out how they were doing: a small act that cost him nothing - the courage to ask and to listen. What he heard moved him - so he got to work.

The folks under the bridge told him they'd left the public park in Belgrade because it was foul - thousands of people were encamped there, trying to figure out what their next steps were in a refugee route that was confusing and rife with exploitation. Some of them didn't know where they were. But they all had to use the bathroom a few times a day and there were no facilities. It was humiliating, revolting and dangerous.

Gordan wrote to the Mayor of Belgrade, asking for portable toilets to be set up for the people sleeping in the park. Think of the smell, he reasoned, and the public health hazard. Eventually the mayor sent two dozen toilets, and things in the park got better. People in Belgrade noticed that the government was engaging with the refugees, and they began to take an interest as well.

Seeing that people were desperate for information about the migration route - many communities in Syria have been without TV or internet for years thanks to thorough bombing of the infrastructure - Gordan got the government to give him one of the little wooden huts they were storing for the Christmas craft fair on the pedestrian mall. He bought tea, staffed the place with people in the know, and starting passing out hot drinks and information. People flooded to him, relieved beyond words to have information they could trust and a hot drink.

Advertisement

He was about a week away from running out of money when Kirk Day, IRC's former regional director, sought him out. Kirk had heard of the work he was doing and asked if Gordan needed support. The IRC's funding kept the operations in the park going, and when they heard about the thirst for information on the migration route, from Lesvos to Western Europe, put their web-design team to work. There is now a website (www.refugeeinfo.eu) available in four languages where refugees can get all the vital information about their transit.

If a website seems like an unglamorous form of aid work, consider that access to accurate and up-to-date information about border closings, transit options and their costs, etc., keeps refugees out of the hands of smugglers. Smugglers are a massive underground industry preying upon refugees from Greece all the way to Germany. (The Financial Times recently estimated it's a 6m euro industry. The Feb 24 issue.) Every day refugees hand over life savings to smugglers only to be abandoned on the route - or worse, be trafficked into forced marriages, prostitution, slavery and brothels. Keeping safe and legal routes of migration open to refugees - and making sure they know about the route -- quite simply saves lives.

IRC and InfoPark know this - because they've talked to the refugees and found out what they need. Simple acts of communication - like Valon's barbershop - make people feel seen, heard, acknowledged. And the IRC realized that Valon in Presevo and Gordan in Belgrade were working on solving the same problem, so they put them in touch. Now the two organizations work together on the Info Park kiosk in Presevo and share information, streamlining the journey for the thousands of exhausted and baffled survivors of the violence in the Middle East.

Two more stars linked in the growing constellation of aid, connected by the IRC. Along with Atina and other regional partners, those stars begin to form a picture of hope, a true north for those seeking asylum. May it guide them to peace.
Will adding a few words to food packages disclosing the presence of genetically modified organisms increase food prices?

Two recent industry-funded studies contend that mandatory GMO labels will increase the price of groceries. But, both studies suffer from the same basic flaws. Both studies assume that a mandatory GMO disclosure will require food manufacturers to reformulate all processed foods to use non-GMO ingredients. In addition, both studies ignore the impact of retail pricing strategies on the price a consumer pays at the point of sale.

By contrast, independent studies show that GMO labels will not act as a warning, as some farm and food organizations contend. In one recent study, two agricultural economists found that the mere presence of a GMO label did not increase consumer concern. Another study, based on five years of consumer data, also found that GMO labels would not scare consumers.

Advertisement

Two economists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture came to a similar conclusion after studying the behavior of consumers in countries that require GMO labeling. Their study found that most consumers look only for one or two attributes - like price or calories - and tend to overlook other disclosures.

The most recent study, financed by the Corn Refiners Association, concludes that simply changing labels will increase food prices. But, food companies frequently change their labels to highlight new innovations or make new claims. Adding a few words or a symbol to the package during a periodic refresh cycle will add little or no cost to designing and printing the label.

The biggest flaw with both studies is that they assume the cost of making food is directly reflected in the price at the point of sale. As explained in a 2013 paper, pricing strategies are based on many factors, including shopper demographics and rival pricing behavior. Simply assuming the costs of label changes, which are negligible, will be passed along to the consumer overlooks the competitive world in which retailers set prices.
The 2016 election is the first Presidential election that will occur since the Supreme Court struck down key provisions in the Voting Rights Act. Partially because of the weakened VRA, 10

new voting restrictions that will be in full force for 2016, including seven new voter ID laws. New studies suggest that the motivation of these laws is suppressing non-white voters, and worryingly, that they will be successful at doing so. As I've

, laws that shift the composition of the electorate have the impact of shifting resources away from low-turnout communities towards higher turnout communities. That makes these laws all the more worrying as 2016 approaches.

Why states pass laws:

A number of earlier studies have already suggested that voter ID laws are motivated by voter suppression. Political scientists Keith Bentele and Erin O'Brien found the laws were, "highly partisan, strategic, and racialized affairs." Later, Bentele and Ian Vandewalker found that, anti-Black stereotyping is "strongly associated" with the proposal of voter ID laws, though share of the population that are Black and turnout among people of color predict the passage of such laws. In an early study, political scientists Daniel Smith and Seth Mckee found that, "where elections are competitive, the furtherance of restrictive voter ID laws is a means of maintaining Republican support while curtailing Democratic electoral gains."

In their new study, with political scientist William Hicks, they instead examine what predicts support for voter ID laws among individual legislators. They find, unsurprisingly, that partisan identification is the strongest predictor. However, the also find that, "Democratic lawmakers representing substantial black district populations are more opposed to restrictive voter ID laws, whereas Republican legislators with substantial black district populations are more supportive." This is powerful evidence that voter suppression is at heart of support for voter ID.

Another strand of studies examine what leads individuals to support voter ID laws. A study by McKee and other scholars finds that, "racial resentment appears to have the strongest impact on attitudes toward strict photo ID laws, and the effect is seen among both Republicans and Democrats." An earlier study by political scientists David Wilson and Paul Brewer finds that racial resentment increases support for voter ID laws (see chart), as does regular Fox News viewership and believes that fraud is widespread. A more recent study by nearly half a dozen scholars finds that, "racial resentment appears to have the strongest impact on attitudes toward strict photo ID laws, and the effect is seen among both Republicans and Democrats."

Advertisement

There are also questions of racial bias in implementation. A 2014 study by Ariel White, Noah Nathan and Julie Faller finds that when election officials are queried about voter ID laws, they are more likely to respond to emails from a white sounding name than a Latino sounding one (see chart). A 2008 study of New Mexico finds that Hispanic voters are more likely to be asked to show voter ID at the polls. Data from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study show that voters report being asked to show ID in states without voter ID laws, raising further concerns.

Although the study is still in the working paper stage, an important study by Avidit Acharya, Matthew Blackwell and Maya Sen

, "those parts of the American South where slavery was more prevalent in the 1860s are today areas with lower average black voter turnout, larger numbers of election lawsuits alleging race-related constitutional violations, and more racial polarization in terms of party identification." Their

that slavery created "incentives to to reinforce existing racist norms and institutions to maintain control over the newly free African-American population" which persist to this day. Given that the right to vote is still very contested,

, the impact of these laws is all the more important.

The impact of voter ID on turnout:

One of the most fiercely debated questions about voter ID is the impact it has on turnout. After studying the impacts of laws in Kansas and Tennessee, GAO finds that voter ID laws reduce turnout, though their literature review suggests the results of other studies were mixed. However, most of the previous studies were performed using data from before 2006, meaning that they were mostly examining the earlier, less stringent voter ID laws. In addition, because they used Census Bureau data, they were limited in the scope of analysis they could perform about the racial and partisan effects of voter ID. But a study currently under review by Zoltan Hajnal, Nazita Lajevardi and Lindsay Nielson shows that voter ID laws increase racial gaps in turnout, and skew turnout toward the political right (the chart come from a newer version paper provided to me by Hajnal). They find that the impacts are largest when the voter ID laws are strict, and that impacts tend to be larger in primaries.

A

of Texan non-voters living in a swing district finds that the voter ID law kept eligible voters away from the polls, and disproportionately benefitted the Republican candidate. There

to believe that ID laws would skew turnout, because research indicates people of color, young people and low-income people are less likely to have necessary identification.

Conclusion:

These studies are key in that they make a very persuasive case that voter ID laws are exactly the type of racially-biased shenanigans that the Voting Rights Act was meant to prevent. As I've argued, politicians should actually be pushing for policies that make it easier, not harder to vote. The evidence is strong that AVR would be the most consequential voting rights reform in decades. Recently, I wrote about a 1976 political science dissertation that strengthens the case. It turns out that when registration laws were first being implemented, in many cases the burden of compiling lists fell on town and county officials, rather than on potential voters. It counties where officials compiled lists, turnout was higher than in counties where individuals had to register themselves.

Advertisement

This, combined with all of the evidence that registration is a key barrier to political participation and that policies that ease the burden of registration boost turnout, suggests automatic voter registration could dramatically change our nation's political system. Demos recently released a report showing that automatic voter registration could bring at least 27 million new voters into the system (I worked on the numbers). Already in Oregon, the new Automatic Voter Registration system is having a big impact. NPR reports that, "More than 4,000 new voters were registered in the first six days -- compared to an average 2,000 new registrations each month under the old system." In addition, it is becoming increasingly clear that the preclearance provision of the Voting Rights Act, which was re-authorized by overwhelming majorities in Congress is necessary. Ginsburg was indeed correct: the Court threw out the umbrella, and we now face a torrent of voter ID laws.
North American travelers looking for bargain transatlantic fares will have lots more options this summer, as European-based low-fare lines expand their reach. Three lines have announced aggressive moves:

Norwegian will add flights to Boston from London/Gatwick, Copenhagen, and Oslo, along with flights to Ft. Lauderdale, Los Angeles, and New York/JFK from a new base at Paris/Orly. These flights will use Norwegian's new 787s with conventional economy and better-than-average premium economy service. Sample round-trip fares for mid-August from Boston to London range from $726 for a nonrefundable economy ticket to $1,301 in premium economy. For comparison, British Airways posts $1,271 for Boston-London economy round-trips and $2,005 for premium economy at the same time. Although Norwegians' base fare looks low, fees are high: $65 each way for one checked bag, $12 to $16 each way for advance seat assignment, $40 for meals, and comparably stiff prices for beverages would bring the total to somewhere near $1,000 for most travelers. Its premium economy deal, however, includes checked bags and meals and is therefore a considerably better deal than BA's premium economy.

Advertisement

Norwegian's other proposal is more of a puzzlement: Nonstops from Cork, Ireland, to Boston, using narrow-body 737s, pending U.S. government approval. Certainly, that's technically feasible, but Cork seems an odd choice, at least for now: Currently, Norwegian does not fly to Cork at all, so no onward connections would be available. Meanwhile, Norwegian will continue its established services from various U.S. points to Scandinavia, including Bergen.

WOW Air, the new Icelandic low-fare line, will fly this summer from Baltimore, Boston, Los Angeles, Montreal, San Francisco, and Toronto to Reykjavik, where you can catch a connecting flight to any of 17 important European cities. Wow's apparent plan, to make Reykjavik become something of the Atlantic equivalent of Dubai, seems feasible. Outside of the New York area, other big U.S. cities generally enjoy nonstop flights just to London, and maybe Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and Paris. But if you want to fly from, say, Los Angeles to Berlin, you have to change to a connecting flight somewhere, and Reykjavik is probably a lot more user-friendly than JFK, Heathrow, Frankfurt, or De Gaulle.

Wow's plan will probably work out well from its East Coast points. It flies A321s and can adjust capacity to demand quickly, but the West Coast is something of a gamble. Wow bought three 340-seat A330s for those trips, and filling up all those seats, even if only twice a week, may be tough.

Wow consistently draws a lot of press with its occasional $99 fare sales. Right now it's featuring Boston-Reykjavik and Baltimore-Reykjavik flights at $99 one-way very early or very late in the summer. Those ultra-low fares are something of a come-on: Typically they apply only to one-way to Iceland; ongoing connecting and return fares are a lot higher. Currently, for example, Wow quotes $744 round-trip from Boston to London during the same mid-August period when Norwegian posts $726 for nonstops. And like Norwegian, Wow adds stiff fees on its lowest fares: $67 for a checked bag, for example. Seat selection ranges from $8 for an ordinary seat with 30-inch pitch, $19 for an ordinary seat with 32-inch pitch (most of the plane), up to $57 for an exit-row seat. And you have to pay separately for a seat each flight on a connection. Like its long-established rival Icelandair, Wow features free Iceland stopovers.

Advertisement

XL Airways France expands it U.S. footprint by adding nonstops from Los Angeles to Paris, in addition to last year's trips from Miami, New York/JFK, and San Francisco. Round-trip fares from Los Angeles to Paris/De Gaulle for mid-August range from $1,099 for a nonrefundable economy seat, including a checked bag and a meal; to $2,482 for premium economy. For comparison, Air France posts $1,310 for a round trip in economy and $2,024 in premium economy at the same time.

Given that XL's base economy fare covers a bag and meals, its fare looks good compared to Air France. But Beware: XL's A330s have nine really, really narrow seats in each row rather than the standard eight.

Canadian Lines

WestJet flies its new 767s year-found from Calgary and Toronto to London/Gatwick, and adds seasonal nonstops from Edmonton, Vancouver, and Winnipeg. It also flies seasonally from St. John's to Dublinby far the shortest transatlantic flightas its narrow-body 737s have ample range.

Air Canada's in-house low-fare division, Rouge, will fly from Toronto to Athens, Barcelona, Budapest, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Lisbon, London/Gatwick, Manchester, Prague, Venice, and Warsaw; from Montreal to some of those cities plus Casablanca and Nice; and from Vancouver to Dublin. Air Transat, too, will continue to offer a smorgasbord of seasonal nonstops from major Canadian cities to dozens of European cities.

Advertisement

U.S. Airlines No-Show



With all that competition from European and Canadian lines, you may be surprised that no U.S. low-fare line seems to have any interest in ultra-cheap transatlantic flights. Apparently, the big three legacy lines (American, Delta, United) have concluded that they can offer enough economy seats on their regular flights at prices low enough to compete, and neither quality niche-players Alaska and JetBlue nor ultra-low-cost Allegiant, Frontier, and Spirit have any interest, at least so far. Maybe next year...

Consumer advocate Ed Perkins has been writing about travel for more than three decades. The founding editor of the Consumer Reports Travel Letter, he continues to inform travelers and fight consumer abuses every day at SmarterTravel.

More from SmarterTravel:
the Marion Musser Lloyd '32 Chair of History

Solidarity with Refugees, a recent initiative started at Vassar College (VC), is described on its official webpage (http://refugeesolidarity.vassar.edu) as "members of the Vassar student body, faculty, staff, administrators, and alumnae/i communities" who are united by a common concern about the worldwide refugee crisis. The initiative is focusing on bringing refugee scholars and students to campus as well as developing an app that will allow one-on-one language tutoring for refugees hoping to live and work in Western countries. Last week, I sat down with Professor Maria Hohn, chair of Vassar's History Department and faculty advisor for VC Solidarity with Refugees. We talked about why she started Solidarity with Refugees, student involvement in the initiative, and the importance of social engagement.

Sophia Slater: What is your background?

Maria Hohn: I'm from Germany, and I came to the US in 1983. I was a non-traditional student, meaning I went to college to get my BA as a 32-year-old single parent and working full-time as a cleaning woman. I received my BA at 36, and went on to get my PhD at the University of Pennsylvania. Because I was so old already when I started, I promised myself I would be finished by the time I was 40, so I got a very fast PhD. Vassar was my first job, and I've been here since 1996.

Advertisement

Why did you start VC Solidarity with Refugees?

When I was in Germany last summer I encountered a number of refugees, and I was shocked coming back here and hearing our government say that this is not an American problem, and seeing the unwillingness to connect this larger worldwide crisis to our own geopolitics. I reached out to Vassar's President Hill and our Dean of the Faculty and said, "We need to activate our students. What can we do?" It just took off from there.

Was there immediate interest in the project from the student body?

I had my first teach-in about the refugee situation last October, and saw how much student interest there was and was inspired by the tremendous response. It became clear that I couldn't do this on my own and that I would need help from the students. This is why we have the Student Leadership Council now, and it's an absolutely crucial team. In the beginning, we were like blind people walking in the dark. But now we're getting a better sense of what we can actually do.

Not many professors have launched independent initiatives where they are working so closely with such a large number of students. Is it important for you to engage with the Vassar student body?

Yes, absolutely. I did an initiative that is somewhat similar to VC Solidarity, partnering with a colleague at Heidelberg University, concerning research on African-American GIs living in Germany after WWII. We did a lot of work with students who interviewed GIs, helped conduct research, and set up the online portal where we organized all of this information. I really enjoyed working with students to make information accessible in a digital format, and I followed a similar model when setting up VC Solidarity. Working with students expands the potential of any project.

Advertisement

What has been the biggest difficulty in running VC Solidarity with Refugees?

The hardest part, and most of us feel this, is that you want to help and you want to help now, but that's not always possible. It's very difficult to realize that it takes time to build structures, and networks that actually work. It is extremely frustrating to hear about horrific events happening with refugees abroad while you're still building a network of support at home. I thought everything would move faster--I'm not a patient person.

What is the importance of social engagement outside academic classes?

Our students hunger for social justice-related classes, but it's very important to get students to apply social justice theory to real historical and current events. I always try to get students to think about the past in order to guide them in their own future actions as well as their present life. Much activism is self-referential, meaning it's about identity politics, and we need to acknowledge that aspect of our lives, but we also need to see the larger issues that the world as a whole is facing. I always wonder: how can we use the concepts we are learning in class and make them not so abstract? VC Solidarity is a wonderful way to experientially do this, and apply what we learn in college to real-life situations.

With so many global problems, are you hopeful that this generation of students will have a positive impact in the years to come?
If you are heading to Africa, have I got a plan for you!

(Kampala, Uganda.)

My telephone rang at 05:51. It was my Ronald from Nalubale Rafting. He was looking for the hotel in Kampala where I was staying. Ronald arrived at the hotel at 06:10. 06:10! They had told me last night that he would be there at 06:15. Five minutes early? In Africa? Wow! A professionalism seldom experienced on this continent...!

Ronald helped me to get my backpack in the car and we drove through the city to pick up another future would-be Nile rafter. Our road crew complete, we drove two hours east to a Ugandan city called Jinja which is at the source of the Nile...a great place to start a whitewater rafting trip.

The River Nile. Whitewater rafting. The longest river on the earth. Class 5 rapids! Awesome...

I remembered to put on my seatbelt as we got out of the city. When I opened my eyes again we were pulling up the gates of the Nalubale Rafting Hostel and Offices. It was almost like I had been teleported from the outskirts of Kampala to Nalubale in Jinja... The car pulled up next to a stack of rafts.

Advertisement

Will, a very friendly co-owner of Nalubale Rafting, greeted us as we got out of the car. Nalubale Rafting was on a beautiful property and Will told me they have been running the company for 10 years. They have become the highest ranking Nile rafting company on TripAdvisor with a reputation of being the friendliest. Oh, I had lucked out and picked the good one! A staff of excited ex-pats and locals were busy getting everything ready for the morning while I was checking in with Will.

Nine of us climbed into the back of a truck and sat on the bench seats. For 40 minutes as we drove through the Ugandan countryside on our way to the river. Children's voices rang out along the road asking, "Hi, how are you?" in every small village we passed though, pleased at the chance to use the sentence they have learned in primary school.

We arrived at the River Nile. Beautiful. Green. It is lush. Alive with birds all around. The roar of the rapids in the distance announced their location to your presence. The Nile is a wonderful and required place to see in your life. And, the water is 27 Celsius of gentle warmth...

We unloaded the truck and got everything ready. There was our whitewater raft complimented by a First Aid whitewater raft, and four other kayaks for all safety precautions. At 10:00 we climbed onto our water vessels and headed out on the water.

Advertisement

The 25 kilometer stretch of Nile River we would be tackling has rapids from Class 1 to Class 6. We would only be passing through rapids from Class 1 to Class 5.

I asked our guides, Nell and Kate, to classify the rapid classes for me in their own words...This is their wonderful summary:

Class 1 Rapids - Flat water moving with little obstruction. A bathtub, where you smoke a cigar and listen to Barry Manilow.

Class 2 Rapids - Steeper. Maybe a little obstruction in the path. There might be splashes of waves here in there that get you in the face.

Class 3 Rapids - Potential falls in the river. Possible features to navigate around, but no consequences. All good fun.

Class 4 Rapids - More vertical waters. You may need to make one or two technical moves to get around something. You could get a little banged up in these or break something in your body passing through these.

Class 5 Rapids - This is where it is at! Steep waters. Creeks on the river! Big features of water and waves with multiple maneuvers necessary to navigate through the rapids. Swimming comes with a risk of injury.

Class 6 Rapids - Highest end of the rapid-scale of magnitude. Potential death if things go wrong. You do not want to be out on that boat!

A safety briefing took place. On the flat river, we practiced falling out of the raft and helping each other back in again. We practiced flipping the raft over and getting to safety. Once our guides were comfortable with our adequacies, we were ready. As a team, we paddled into the moving water...



Nalubale means 'Mother Nile', the spirit that resides around Lake Victoria.

The rafting adventure started with a 4 meter waterfall that we were to navigate our way down. What an introduction to the day! Were we ready? Of course! So much fun. Maria, a Spanish girl seated behind me, kept on checking to make sure she was able to scream. Her ability would never leave her!...

Advertisement

A First Aid safety supply raft stayed ahead of us and the four kayakers positioned themselves strategically for every rapids we would encounter in case there could be any problems. Our raft always came through the rapids last with all eyes on us to make sure we got to safety should any of us rookies fall out of the air-inflated boat.



The source of the River Nile begins in Jinja, Uganda, 1,200 meters above sea level.

Before lunch, we passed through two sets of Class 5 Rapids and two sets of Class 3 Rapids. When we were in between the excitement of the rapids and floating down the river, the nature around us was incredible. There were eagles soaring above and kingfishers hunting to the side. A young otter made an appearance. Local Ugandans were fishing from small wooden boats, fishing from rocks, swimming in the river, and ferrying across the water in boats filled with people, bicycles and bananas. The river is really alive. Here and there, up on the green banks were small huts for living, and some for tourism accommodation. Giant bolder stacks form islands in the river that needed to be navigated around, and small islands of vegetation floated down the river beside the raft. The whole scene was amazing.



Class 6 Rapids in the background, behind the goat and the farmer.

Everyone was having a great day and we were involved in a lot of splash wars with the staff as we passed by each other on the water. At 12:30, we parked on the side of the river and climbed 50 meters up a bank where a pre-prepared lunch of wraps, salad, fresh fruit, and fresh baked cake was fuel for the afternoon. The feast was fantastic!

The afternoon was more of the same; there would be water fights, sea-green tossing battles, rapids to ride, and a lot of laughter. Our total time on the river for the day was five hours of rafting through eight sets of rapids. It was an amazing experience. It even poured rain and a thunderstorm took place as we were on the water which was a nice break from the sun as nature showed more of her sides to us.

Advertisement

On the final rapid, in the deepest part of 25 kilometer stretch of river, one guide remained in the raft and the other four of us jumped out to swim through the rapids as it was safe to do so. I passed through a swirl pool and it felt like I was in a video game or a washing machine cycle that eventually sent me on through. The rushing river carried us for about another kilometer downstream. I have always wanted to experience that in a safe place, to just feel the rush of the river carrying me with the current. We all ended up at the same place where we got out of water, carried the rafts and kayaks to the truck, and loaded everything. Then, it was party time as we climbed onto the bench seats in the truck and drank beer supplied all of the way back to the Nalubale Rafting headquarters, laughing and joking with the staff for the whole ride.



I guess we'll see you later then!

If you are thinking of traveling to Uganda, seeing the River Niles is essential, and one of the coolest ways you could ever encounter this river is by rafting down it. But, you need to hurry. The Ugandan government is building a dam to generate hydroelectric power and within two years, many of the small river villages will be flooded and the rapids are likely to disappear. So try to get there as soon as you can!

If you are looking for a great day, Nail the Nile! It is a blast!
The Tropical Forest Alliance is holding its general assembly in Jakarta this week, and it's hard to imagine a more appropriate setting.

After all, Indonesia recently surpassed Brazil as the deforestation capital of the world, and the country consistently ranks among the world's five largest emitters of greenhouse-gases - mostly because palm-oil manufacturers in the "land of a thousand islands" have been chopping the archipelago's peat forests to make way for plantations.

That's especially bad for the climate, because drained peat exposes centuries' worth of half-decayed plants, releasing two greenhouse gasses: carbon dioxide and methane. It's a double-whammy that contributes several times as much to the greenhouse effect as does normal deforestation, and it's also harder to calculate than are emissions from most deforestation - yet such calculations are critical if Indonesia is to manage its climate-change impacts.

Advertisement

Towards that end, the country is building the Indonesian National Carbon Accounting System (INCAS), which aims to track the "carbon flux" across all land-use types - forests, farms, and fields - with 95% accuracy by 2018. That's the level needed to receive payments for emission reductions that are rigorous enough to be transferred as carbon credits.

Forests Covered; Peat Lags

INCAS wrapped up the first of four development phases late last year, and it's now able to deliver that 95% accuracy when measuring carbon flows into and out of the country's forests. But peatlands are the stickiest problem, and INCAS can't yet offer top-tier accuracy for those.

The reasons are myriad: for one, peat bogs vary widely in depth and dampness, which effect emissions, but man's impacts are also difficult to track there for historical reasons. The country's governance system has roots in diverse traditional societies that are spread over hundreds of islands, and it evolved as the country transitioned through colonial, dictatorial, and - finally - democratic rule. The central government has surprisingly little authority, especially when it comes to land-use issues, and often has to negotiate with local regents to prevent exploitative practices, while competing agencies often have jurisdiction over the same piece of land.

The Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) is currently working with other agencies to deepen its accounting of peatlands and expand into farms and fields, with the system fully-functional by 2018, but it faces obstacles that are scientific, societal, and structural.

Advertisement

A Long and Winding Road

INCAS began germinating six years ago, when Indonesia built its initial climate-change strategy on tackling deforestation.

The country aimed to fund its efforts through carbon finance initiatives that slow climate change by saving endangered forests and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD), coupled with programs that promote sustainable forest management and climate-smart agriculture (REDD+). To jump-start those efforts, Norway pledged $200 million to build a "REDD+ regime" that included a stand-alone REDD+ Agency that reported directly to the president, with $800 million more following when verified emission-reductions.

Those verified emission-reductions, however, haven't yet materialized, and the REDD+ Agency became a casualty of the 2014 presidential election. The new president, Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, merged the previously competing ministries of environment and forestry into one entity, the MoEF, in which the Directorate General of Climate Change (DG CC) now resides.

Late last year, DG CC surprised the world by shifting its emission-reduction strategy from forest emissions to industrial emissions, with forest management now categorized as an adaptation (as opposed to mitigation) strategy. The new climate action plan described REDD+ as a primarily domestic mechanism that would funnel income from a growing industrial base to sustainable land-use strategies, while leaving a door open to international funding for REDD+ as well.

Advertisement

Then, with fires raging on the eve of the Paris climate summit, the country signaled a revival of forest protection as part of its mitigation (as opposed to adaptation) strategy, and last month, the Norwegians pledged $50 million to support peatland restoration.

Degrees of Certainty and Uncertainty

The MoEF picked up where the REDD+ Agency left off, working with the Australian government and the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) to scale the province of Central Kalimantan's REDD+ pilot program up into what is now INCAS.

The ultimate goal is to provide "Tier 3" accounting of carbon flows due to changes in land-use across the entire landscape.

Tier 3 is the highest level of accounting recognized by the IPCC, and it offers estimates that are 95% certain but it requires the taking of thousands of random measurements of tree-circumference and peat depth across the landscape - literally dropping teams of technicians into remote areas with measuring tapes and depth-sticks - coupled with exhaustive documentation of changes in land-use, as forests are converted to fields and fields are converted to forests.

Tier 1 accounting, by contrast, is built on average carbon content by land-use type, while Tier 2 is built on national or regional averages. These lower tiers are far less accurate than Tier 3, especially when it comes to peat, which varies by depth.

Advertisement

The challenge is compounded when it comes to identifying changes in land-use, especially in an archipelago like Indonesia, with its legacy land-use regimes.

"Data about peat and peatland management is maintained by numerous national and subnational agencies, research organizations and private companies," says INCAS Technical Team Leader Haruni Krisnawati. "It is anticipated that greater collaboration between these organizations could yield substantial improvements in input data, and potentially the development of Indonesia-specific peat models that would improve GHG emissions estimates for Indonesian peatlands."

It's a challenge that the REDD+ Agency also struggled with before being dissolved.

"Right now, the Ministry of Industry has one classification for our land, and the Ministry of Agriculture has another, while the Ministry of Forestry has another," REDD+ Agency head Heru Prasetyo told Ecosystem Marketplace in 2014. "Then you have different conflicting concessions and licenses on the land, some overlapping, and each with a different expiration date."

Peat: Stuck in Tier Two - For Now

For now, says Krisnawati, the peat estimates for Indonesia generated using a combination of Tier 3, 2 and 1 methods and data - averaging out to Tier 2, but progressing to Tier 3 as the project progresses.

"The INCAS is designed to use higher level methods when suitable data and models become available and scientifically tested," she says.

Advertisement

Phased Approach

INCAS is just now embarking on the second phase of a four-phased development program that generated the system's first national level data results last year. In addition to deepening its accounting for peat, Phase Two is an expansion period to incorporate emissions and removals from the agriculture sector. It also involves bringing in more agency partners and ramping up technical training.

The INCAS Roadmap, a guide developed by the MoEF to map out the system's long-term evolution, offers an ambitious timeline for completing Phase Four in 2018. At that point, the system will produce complete emissions accounts for Indonesia's entire Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector but will remain flexible to adapt to improved methods as they develop.

INCAS: Monitoring for Climate Change

Simplified REDD

INCAS aims to streamline and simplify the Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) requirements needed to develop REDD initiatives - either at the project level or the jurisdictional level. The roadmap describes one national platform that all REDD+ stakeholders can use, which it says will drastically reduce the need for provinces, districts and other REDD+ proponents to develop and maintain their own GHG accounting systems which will reduce monitoring and transaction costs, timeframes and ensure consistency which should ultimately lead to an increased uptake of REDD+ activities in Indonesia.

Kriswanati says the platform uses an event-driven system that measures both the impact of an activity and the impact of its avoidance, which allows for alternative project scenarios and management practices.

Advertisement

And the INCAS will eventually increase its use of local knowledge and data and generate emissions reports for subnational jurisdictions, including the REDD level project, Kriswanati says. This will both better inform the national account and, ensure that subnational accounting is on par with national standards.

There is also potential for the INCAS to create a digital interface for REDD projects that links to the INCAS. Developers of registered REDD projects and jurisdictional programs could log on and gain access to national datasets, methodologies and tools and generate their own subnational GHG inventories and projections.

This, however, is a Phase-Three feature, and an aspirational one at that, says Krisnawati, who points out that several nuts-and-bolts issues must first be resolved - such as whether a web-based GIS-system for INCAS spatial data is even feasible.

Cooperation and Support

Collaboration isn't just needed to assess peatlands as the Director General of the INCAS partnering organization CIFOR, Peter Holmgren, says broad support is critical.

"Unless the processes and systems are truly owned by the government of each country, we will never be able to pull together good information for the world on forests or emissions," he says.

Advertisement

The roadmap stresses the importance of knowledge and expertise-sharing among different land agencies, and the importance of transitioning INCAS from a research and development status into an operational government system, which will open the door to human and financial resources.

The INCAS will need to tap into a new source of funding as it's currently - and temporarily - financed largely by the Australian government. As a government system, it would have access to more finance allocations.

But in order for the INCAS to increase its financial capacity and expand its team, the MoEF must endorse the INCAS legally. The ministry did endorse the system last year, but that essentially initiated the administrative process to officially implement the endorsement. Such processes take time, however, and often depend on available resources.
JUPITER, FL - MARCH 8: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump throws his magazine as he speaks during a campaign press conference event at the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, FL on Tuesday March 08, 2016. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

It is difficult to watch Donald Trump's ascent in the Republican Party this election season, without drawing parallels to another uniquely American demagogue: Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy.

Here are the four most significant characteristics the two men share:

1. Both are products of partisan politics.

In 1950, the little-known senator, searching for an issue that would grab the public's attention, declared that he had a "list" of names of communists working in government. Though few people paid him much notice at first, he repeated, expanded, and varied his charges in succeeding speeches. Although he never uncovered a single communist, his antics produced front-page news across the country. His face appeared on the cover of Time and Newsweek, and Republican candidates begged him to make appearances on their behalf.

Advertisement

Republican leaders of the day aided and abetted McCarthy's rise to prominence. Embittered by their stunning loss in the 1948 election, Republicans saw McCarthy as the ideal way to undermine support for President Harry Truman, and guarantee victory in 1952. So long as McCarthy brandished his anti-Communist club against Democrats, respectable Republicans were willing to overlook his provocative and offensive tactics.

All that changed once the Republicans gained the White House in 1952, for the first time in 20 years, with the election of Dwight Eisenhower. Now, McCarthy's perpetual investigations proved an embarrassment to the party and, many of the same people who had publicly supported him a few months earlier, began to turn against him.

In December 1954, following the disastrous televised Army-McCarthy hearings, Republicans joined Democrats in voting to "condemn" McCarthy for bringing the Congress into disrepute.

The Republican establishment has responded to Trump the same way. Republicans were convinced they should have won against President Barack Obama in 2012. They emerged from that defeat determined to regain the White House in 2016, by any means necessary.

Advertisement

While Republicans, like everyone else, underestimated Trump's appeal, they also saw him as a useful vehicle for undermining support for the Democratic Party. That meant ignoring Trump's incoherent, impractical, and inconsistent policy proposals, and remaining largely mute when the billionaire called immigrants "criminals" and "rapists." As long as Trump's reckless charges and baseless attacks appeared to be helping the party by bringing in new voters, Republican were willing to look the other way.

After Trump scored surprising victories in early primary states, and emerged as a viable nominee, Republicans turned against him. They now saw him as a liability who was hurting the Republican brand. Party elders like Mitt Romney, who had remained silent for months, suddenly found Trump's rhetoric distasteful and his style unpresidential. Trumps victories in Mississippi and Michigan suggest the establishment attacks are too little, too late.

2. They brilliantly manipulate the media.

No matter how reckless and irresponsible the candidate's accusations, the media -- newspapers back then, television and digital outlets today -- have provided a platform because McCarthy sold papers just as Trump boosts ratings.

The rules of objective journalism dictated that the press cover McCarthy's outrageous indictments, even if reporters knew they were not true. McCarthy never produced a shred of evidence to support any of his accusations, but his tactics gained him the publicity he needed, and thus fueled his attacks.

Trump plays a similar game today, using controversy and shocking comments to manipulate the media agenda. His attacks on immigrants, war heroes, and women are purposefully designed to generate controversy and keep him at the center of attention. Trump has also used the snarky language of Twitter to set the political agenda, and control the daily news cycle. The networks and cable news programs, desperate for the ratings spike that he provides, have even allowed him to call in his interviews. Like McCarthy, Trump traffics in fear and bigotry, but because he makes money for the major news outlets, they continue to give him a disproportionate amount of air time.

Advertisement

3. They preach phony populism.

Populism has a rich history in American politics, but it has always been a double-edged sword. In the hands of reform-minded leaders it has been used to mobilize majorities and, usually, to expand government power. But in the hands of demagogues it has been used as a way of gaining power by demonizing opponents.

McCarthy became the most talented demagogue of recent time by denouncing liberal elites who he claimed had coddled communists. He called Truman's Secretary of State Dean Acheson a "pompous diplomat in striped pants." He denounced the "egg-sucking phony liberals" who defended "communists and queers."

Trump has chosen to demonize immigrants. He claimed, falsely, that an "Arab community" in New Jersey cheered when the Twin Towers fell on September 11th. He stated that the U.S. should ban Muslim immigrants and keep a database of Muslims already in the United States. He blames violent crime in the United States on African-American and Hispanics, and uses phony crime statistics supplied by a white supremacist group as proof.

4. They tap into real anxieties but offer no solutions.

McCarthy offered simple answers to the complex questions of the Cold War. He reassured a worried nation that a string of foreign policy setbacks resulted from the traitorous actions of a few individuals, not from a flawed view of the world or the strengths of communist opponents. China turned communist, McCarthy explained, because "traitors" in the State Department had sold out American interests, not because of the internal weakness of the Chinese Nationalist regime that the U.S. supported. The Soviets developed the atomic bomb, he said, because spies had sold them America's secrets, not because they had talented scientists capable of developing their own bomb.

Trump taps into the fears of a white working-class struggling with the consequences of globalization, a dramatic shift of wealth to the very rich, and diminished opportunities. Their fears about the future are real (and justified). The possible solutions are complex. What does Trump offer? All the problems facing the nation can be solved, he suggests, by tossing out the "very, very stupid people" running the government, by building a wall on the Mexican border, and by banning Muslims from entering the country.

Advertisement
And human rights activist protests against the murder of Honduran environmental activist Berta Caceres in the outskirts of the embassy of Honduras in Guatemala on March 3, 2016. Caceres, a respected environmentalist who won the prestigious Goldman Prize last year for her outspoken advocacy, was murdered in her home Thursday, her family said. AFP PHOTO/ Johan ORDONEZ / AFP / JOHAN ORDONEZ (Photo credit should read JOHAN ORDONEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

Hondurans across borders woke up to devastating news on Thursday morning of the murder of Berta Caceres, leader of the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Honduras (COPINH) -- a staunch feminist organizer dedicated to the rights of Indigenous and Afrodescendant communities, women, children, and LGBTI community members. The news of her murder was also a blow to the Lenca and all Indigenous peoples in the country, an already embattled and impoverished Honduran community fighting to maintain the natural resources so important to their survival and so coveted by transnational corporate interests: their land and water.

I first met Berta Caceres when I interviewed her in October 2009 about the coup d'etat earlier that year. I was in Honduras with a group of scholars and activists, who were eager to know about Indigenous struggles. Berta was an inspiration. She was first and foremost an unapologetic Indigenous feminist who saw her struggle as an Indigenous woman as inseparable from that of land and water rights, and other environmental rights. She was committed to challenging antiquated beliefs about women and Indigenous people. Berta embodied a truly intersectional belief system that transcended notions of Indigenous womanhood often construed by academics as that of victim and oppressed. She was the face of contemporary Indigenous resistance descended from a long line of fighters.

Advertisement

Years later, I would meet Berta once again outside of Soto Cano Air Base protesting US Militarism as a part of the Resistance movement against the coup d'etat. There, we were tear-gassed by police forces while exercising our constitutional right to protest, hers as a Honduran in the land of her original peoples, mine as a Honduras-US binational citizen. We walked many miles together, and then protesters took refuge in her organization, for food and drink, to replenish. Her status as a leader never separated her from the rest of us protesters and community members. Her reassuring leadership and political clarity shone, as she shared kind words, food and inspiration with almost everyone there.

Berta was an indomitable feminist.

Berta is best known for her battle against the mega hydroelectric project of Agua Zarca (DESA), which threatened to displace people from the land and monopolize river and water resources for the Western and Southern regions of the country. Illegitimate coup governments (in 2010 and 2013) granted concessions to transnational hydroelectric corporations, opening Honduras to transnational business.

But to most of us Hondurans, Berta Caceres is known for standing up for justice and truth about the 2009 coup d'etat in Honduras. From 2009-2011, President Obama and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denied that the coup was a coup. We, scholars in Honduras and the US, spent literally months and years making the case to prove the obvious to the Obama administration that what had transpired in Honduras was a coup d'etat by any standards. It was not until the 2011 release of Wikileaks evidence that demonstrated the US role clearly. But by then, a new government led by Pepe Lobo was minted and approved.

For years, Hondurans were living in a virtual time bomb -- one that then Secretary Clinton and President Obama failed to acknowledge or do anything about. According to the Observatory of Violence at the UNAH, and CATTRACHAS, 2011 was the most violent year in Honduras. 2011 marked an acute increase in violence attributable to the coup d'etat period, which opened the way for the unconstitutional government of Juan Orlando Hernandez, sanctioned by Clinton and US State Department. This government ushered in a period of chaos and instability for the Honduran people. In fact, by 2011 we also saw a clear spike in migration to the U.S., the presage to the refugee situation we are now seeing at our border.

Advertisement

Even in this hostile and dangerous context, Berta Caceres and her people confronted a transnational corporation and won! In the years that followed the coup, Caceres and the COPINH, protested and successfully shut down a damn project by DESA Corporation, a magnificent accomplishment in an era of Neoliberal governments that obey global capital. This was a show of unity and strength, only possible through the united voices of all Indigenous and Afrodescendant communities. Yet for their bravery, members of the COPINH were murdered, and threatened daily. Berta could not enjoy a stable life, had to go into hiding in her own country, and received unrelenting persecution and harassment daily.

Who killed Berta Caceres you ask? It is hard not to point the investigative lens towards the collusion between Juan Orlando Hernandez' violent government and DESA corporate security and paramilitary forces. Her murder can be seen as a result of the resurgence of 1980s-style Death Squads in a country were impunity reigns. The state has ushered in transnational corporations in the wake of the coup, prioritizing international business -- or pillage depending on how you see it -- over the safety and constitutional duty to its citizens and the rule of law.

But let's not ignore the culpability of Secretary Clinton who expeditiously moved to ignore the illegality of the coup, who demonstrated callousness and lack of feminist politics to her southern counterparts, who stood and watched while women and children faced increased violence as a result of the coup she denied; the same Clinton who said our government should deport the unaccompanied minors at the border who were fleeing violence she helped to cover up.

It seems Clinton's brand of feminism stops at the US border, as her actions neglected the lives of Indigenous women like Berta Caceres. It is the same military police that the US Embassy promoted under Clinton's watch that harassed and limited Berta in her exercise of her constitutional right to organize and protest, and that ultimately has turned a blind eye to rampant violence against so many Human Rights defenders, activists, and community leaders. While claiming feminism and the rights of some women, Hillary Clinton, in her embrace of US imperialist policies, has caused the demise of so many more women in the world; this is not the work of a courageous feminist. Clinton's "hard choice" in Honduras was a calculated choice to look the other way to increase her political interests. History will remember her cowardice.
I love the Tree of Contemplative Practices diagram and was glad to see it make the rounds on social media - it reminded me of the tree of yoga I discovered in a random yoga studio in Carmel decades ago.

Back then I was pleased to see my Iyengar yoga training in a wider framework.

I traded yoga tights for sensible workplace flats in 2010 when I moved into yoga based mindfulness for the workplace. Now, as a professional corporate mindfulness consultant, I share a variety of mindfulness techniques stemming from the movement branch of the tree.

But, much as I love the visual of that verdant tree, in sharing with workplace professionals in mind, I find myself wanting to overlay a garland of practicality atop the foliage. A gesture of collective softening of all our traditions, a bright banner of open mindedness.

Advertisement

I feel strongly that rich traditions of all kinds are best received with language and experience that meet people where they are. Jeremy Hunter has long warned of the "executive immune response" to contemplative language in the corporate world. Likewise, leading experts from Kristen Neff to Rick Hansen and John Kabot-Zinn continue to place increasing emphasis on the integration of core mindfulness skills into everyday, daily personal routine. If we want a more contemplative 9-5 workforce, we may want to start with small doses of intention, attention and awareness, and leave the activism, social justice and ritual for down the road.

When it comes to mindfulness at work, that means meeting people where they are with short bursts of meaningful practice. Integrating traditional skills into micro-practices to sustain after formal training or as a stand alone wellness offering.

The good news is the increased interest and research in mind body practices and the neuroscience of felt sense. We're only now exploring the power and practicality of leveraging the felt sense of the body - the foundational skills from the movement tradition - during the "average work day". Richard Miller, Kelly McGonnigal and others are exploring the neuroscience of interoreceptivity and the physical response, while the felt sense of presence is foundational to corporate programs like the Awake@Intel mindfulness training program.

Perhaps "Felt Sense Quotient" will become the new measurement for emotional resiliency. Perhaps the six second pause will be the new Leadership Excellence power tool.

Advertisement
Come 1994, many South Africans assumed that the official end of apartheid meant "job done - we are a democracy." But despite an excellent constitution and world-class public institutions, the country looks increasingly dysfunctional.

So if a great constitution and carefully designed public institutions don't make a democracy, what was left out? I believe that, crucially, civil society was not retooled for freedom. Two concepts drawn from education research may hold a possible solution to this shortcoming: first, the idea that knowledge is socially constructed and, second, the notion that self-efficacy is a significant factor in ability.

Issues of agency

In an authoritarian state, there are a limited number of levers of power. Control of those levers is centralised. Ordinary citizens cannot easily fix societal wrongs, nor safely organise themselves into groups that aren't sanctioned by the state.

Advertisement

In a democracy, though, ordinary citizens should have access to lesser levers that work to their personal or, in small groups, collective benefit. The workings of government are open to ordinary citizens. They can attend public meetings and access government policies and documents. This is particularly valuable at a local government level, where officials who control the processes that affect ordinary people's lives are close to hand and should - in theory - be easy to reach.

But such levers are not familiar to most citizens in a country like South Africa, which has a strong culture of protest. This culture does not recognise that there are other levers of power besides those held by leaders in high places. At my own university, I've asked protesting students how the institution's management could do better. Their response? "Don't ask me. We have highly paid leaders who should be solving these problems."

This suggests that change can only be achieved by supplication. Whether this is polite but possibly ineffectual or expressed with extreme anger, such supplication starts from the same place: the view that an individual or small groups of individuals lack agency. One of the biggest drawbacks of this approach is its short-term nature. An example from my own small town: in 2014, 3,000 residents signed a petition calling on the owners (government rail monopoly Transnet) to save the historic railway station from being dismantled by looters. The municipality and the provincial heritage authority had failed to act on earlier complaints.

That is an instance of supplication - asking or trying to order the authorities to fix things. The property was fenced off, security guards installed and the worst of the damage was repaired. But it was just a quick fix: residents were not empowered in any way. They have been excluded from planning the future use of the station site. They do not have the leverage to demand such inclusion unless they start another petition campaign.

Advertisement

This illustrates how problem solving has stalled in South Africa. The government is trying to take on too much and failing. Many transitional societies run into the same problem: there is too much to do and government becomes bogged down. With a more activist civil society, the weight of doing everything can be lifted from government so it can focus on bigger problems.

But how can these alternatives be introduced to South Africans?

Can we learn from education?

The idea that knowledge is socially constructed deviates from the earlier view of education theory that was more cognitive. In the social construction view, knowledge is not just about what you know, but also about how you interact with others and what you are.

What is missing in South Africa is the knowledge of what it means to be a citizen of a free, democratic society. That is not just about knowing that one is a citizen, but knowing how one should behave and interact with others. A social discourse is part of that knowing: when we enter a situation where we are unhappy with how others perform, how do we interact with them? How do you react when someone criticises the way you perform? These are not trivial questions in a multicultural country.

Self-efficacy is the perception that individuals are able to control events that influence their lives. In education, that sort of belief leads to better educational outcomes. It confers a kind of self-belief that you will be able to solve a hard problem.

This idea fits well with what Black Consciousness leader and activist Steve Biko called psychological liberation, which calls on oppressed people to liberate themselves from the externally imposed idea that they're incapable and so should be looking for external salvation.

Advertisement

These ideas apply equally well in understanding how to reconfigure a failing society.

What is 'normal'?

In a dysfunctional society, the norm becomes doing what is actually antisocial. In a place like South Africa that has never been "normal" in the sense of a free, open society where individuals have agency, there is no norm on which to build. Antisocial behaviours become the new normal when the shackles are loosed. There are some who believe that a return to an authoritarian society is the answer. It's not.

Instead I propose drawing on those two ideas from education theory to build a functioning civil society in which the "normal" involves behaving in a socially aware manner, rather than doing what you like.

Many levers for democracy

I am not dismissing protest as a tool, but merely arguing that it is not the only tool. Stopping at protest implies that a society is not really democratic because treating supplication to the powerful as the only option for change implies that power relations cannot shift.

Ultimately a society can only work if the levers of power are effectively wielded. In an authoritarian system, that means the levers are centralised and tightly held. In a democracy, they are distributed and loosely held. For a genuine free democracy to work, citizens need to learn what it means to live free. A large part of that involves grasping the levers of power at their disposal.

Philip Machanick, Associate Professor of Computer Science, Rhodes University
As a retired military officer, I do not publicly endorse candidates.

But as someone who served as a judge advocate, or military lawyer, for 34 years, I do think it can be helpful to examine in a nonpartisan way the legal aspects of Donald Trump's campaign rhetoric on the use of force against the Islamic State, or ISIS.

Here are two recent quotes from Trump:

One of the problems that we have and one of the reasons we're so ineffective is they're trying to, they're using [their own families] as shields ... We're fighting a very politically correct war. [Y]ou have to take out their families. They care about their lives, don't kid yourself, but they say they don't care about their lives. You have to take out their families.

Exactly what Trump is suggesting doing is not clear here, so let us examine some of the different possibilities.

Protecting human shields

Some might argue Trump was merely making the point that regardless of the enemy's use of their own families as human shields, he would still order attacks on Islamic State fighters.

The law in this regard is made clear in the 2015 U.S. Department of Defense Law of War Manual, which codifies how the U.S. military can wage war. Civilians cannot be targeted unless they are directly participating in hostilities - a distinction that can be complicated to determine.

However, the manual also concludes that the illegal use of human shields does not necessarily bar otherwise legitimate attacks on military targets like enemy fighters. According to the manual, the party that employs human shields assumes responsibility for any injury to them.

Advertisement

Here's where it gets complicated. Normally, the "proportionality rule" forbids any attack if it is expected that the incidental civilian casualties would be excessive in relation to the anticipated military gain, such as killing ISIS fighters.

However, with respect to situations where the enemy is using civilians as human shields, the manual's view of the law puts the shields in a unique category. Although an attacker would still need to do everything feasible to protect the shields, the proportionality rule itself would not bar an attack on those who use them.

Why? The manual reasons that to allow an enemy like ISIS to manipulate the proportionality rule by employing human shields to virtually prohibit all attacks would "perversely encourage" ISIS and others to use human shields with abandon. To be sure, human shields themselves can never be targeted. But the US reserves the right to still target and attack the enemy, even if that enemy is using their own family members as human shields and those shields become incidental casualties.

Beyond the issue of human shields, Trump is plainly frustrated by today's policy restrictions in battling ISIS. Current U.S. targeting limitations do seem to go well beyond what the law of war requires. The limitations apparently permit attacks only where there is a near certainty of zero civilian casualties.

These beyond-what-the-law-requires rules of engagement have been criticized by experts not only as bad warfighting strategy, but also on moral grounds. Retired Air Force General Mike Loh charges that constraints in the fight against ISIS violates "the just war principle of winning quickly with a high probability [of] success."

Advertisement

The Obama administration seems to be recognizing problems with its overly restrictive policies.

Recent reports now say that "the administration is taking the gloves off after more than a year of reluctance to target the terrorist's core infrastructure for fear of hitting civilians or risking the lives of American troops." If Trump is only suggesting stepped up attacks on ISIS, military law would not create any barriers.

Targeting civilian family members

The law is subtle when it comes to human shields. In very rare circumstances, it can even be tricky when it comes to the idea of targeting civilian family members.

To be clear, an order from President Trump - or anyone else - to target civilian family members who were not directly participating in hostilities simply as a strategy to coerce the fighters themselves could not be reconciled with the law of war. Such an order could not - must not - be obeyed.

Has any president ever issued illegal orders to the military? Many scholars believe that Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus, which was enforced by the military, along with the Civil War trials of civilians conducted by military commissions, were unlawful. Arguably, this would make any orders to effectuate those policies unlawful as well.

But the legality of orders isn't always clear-cut. In the Republican debate on March 3, Trump introduced (perhaps unwittingly) some new and complicating nuances to his proposal by setting it in the context of the 9/11 attack.

Advertisement

According to Trump, two days prior to the attack, family members of the terrorists got "sent back" to a location to where "they watched their (sic) husband on television flying into the World Trade Center." Trump insisted that "the wife knew exactly what was happening." Assuming for purposes of discussion that this rendition of the facts is accurate (and there is real disagreement about that), the legal issues can get convoluted.

Contrary to what some people seem to think, the law of war does not limit its protections to just "innocent" civilians.

So long as they do not directly participate in hostilities, people typically retain the legal status of protected "civilians" for purposes of targeting under the law of war, even if they are morally or criminally liable in some way. In my opinion, simply "knowing" about a terrorist act does not amount to direct participation in hostilities. That means the wife in Trump's anecdote could not be targeted with bombs, but might still be held accountable under the law.

For example, Umm Sayeff, the wife of a former Islamic State leader killed in the May 2015 Special Forces raid that resulted in her capture, was charged on February 8 with conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terror organization in connection with the death of American hostage Kayla Mueller.

Sayeff is reported to have been "running ISIS' sexual slavery network." As part of this network, Mueller was allegedly tortured into becoming the personal sex slave of Islamic State kingpin Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. As loathsome as Sayeff's behavior is alleged to be, it doesn't necessarily follow that she would have lost her status as a "civilian" under targeting law.

Advertisement

However, deadly force may be applied to such persons under international human rights law which can operate alongside of the law of war. In this criminal law regime, a killing is justifiable if its done in defense of someone in imminent danger of becoming a victim of a serious crime such as rape or genocide, even if the perpetrator is a "civilian" who cannot be targeted under the law of war.

Of course, law enforcement forces, not the military, are typically responsible for protecting people from criminals. However, if a military strike was the only way to save someone from becoming a victim of a horrific crime, I don't think international or domestic law would block it. But absent more facts, none of this seem to me to justify attacking the wives of the 9/11 perpetrators who were not, to my knowledge, engaging in anything like Umm Sayeff's behavior.

Law of reprisal

Trump's reference to the 9/11 attacks raises another complex question under the law of war: to what extent can otherwise protected civilians who may support - or even be complicit in - terrorists acts that violate the law of war become subject to attack under the law of reprisal?

According to the Pentagon's Law of War Manual, "reprisals" are "acts taken against a party that would otherwise be unlawful, in order to persuade that party to cease violating the law."

Most countries are parties to Additional Protocol 1 to the Geneva Conventions which, in Article 51, forbids reprisals against civilians. The U.S., however, is not a party to Protocol I and does not consider this portion to be binding customary international law.

Advertisement

The U.S. finds the provisions restricting reprisals to be "counterproductive [because] they remove a significant deterrent that protects civilians and war victims on all sides of a conflict," according to the Law of War Manual.

Long before Trump's candidacy, thoughtful scholars have raised the idea of limited reprisals as potentially useful tools to counter the barbarism of terrorists. Still, the International Committee of the Red Cross insists that reprisals are not permitted in conflicts where the adversary is not another country.

The U.S. approach to reprisal is not an invention of the Obama administration. A footnote in the manual makes it clear that it is a U.S. position of long standing by quoting a 1987 statement of Judge Abraham Sofaer, then legal advisor to the U.S. State Department.

Sofaer explained that the U.S. would not sign on to the elimination of reprisals because "[h]istorically, reciprocity has been the major sanction underlying the laws of war."

He added if the prohibition came into force for the U.S., an "enemy could deliberately carry out attacks against friendly civilian populations, and the United States would be legally forbidden to reply in kind." He warned that to "formally renounce even the option of such attacks ... removes a significant deterrent that presently protects civilians and other war victims on all sides of a conflict."

Advertisement

Some people might say that Trump's proposal does not even go as far as to "reply in kind" against an entire "civilian population" as the U.S. interpretation of the law would seem to permit. Rather, he suggests targeting only those adult family members of terrorists who "knew exactly what was happening."

They might also say he's further limited his proposal to a reprisal for 9/11 attacks against American civilians, which the world has condemned as unlawful. Moreover, some might argue that Trump could order reprisals in response to ongoing war crimes committed by ISIS. After all, Trump has saidof them: "They're chopping off the heads of Christians and anybody else that happens to be in the way. They're drowning people in steel cages."

In my view, however, the other stringent prerequisites for lawful reprisals have not yet been fulfilled.

For example, the Law of War Manual points out that other "means of securing compliance with the law of war should be exhausted before resorting to reprisals." I think it remains to be demonstrated that has occurred, or that reprisals would be effective persuasive tools in the current conflict with the Islamic State.

To me, the absence of evidence of a reasonable prospect of success undermines the lawfulness and morality of any reprisal. And I have long rejected the application of reprisal to any civilians though not against civilian property such as personal bank accounts, luxury items and the like.

Advertisement

Looking ahead, it is significant that Trump recently acknowledged that the U.S. "is bound by laws and treaties" and that as president he would "not order a military officer to disobey the law." Instead, he said he would "seek [the] advice" of military and other officials.

This is good news, and something all the candidates - and their critics - ought to embrace, as applying the law of war in the 21st century is much more complicated than many think. Words do matter, and where the nation's security is concerned, no words can be more important.




Mexico is inarguably home to North America's best unspoiled beaches (sorry, Redneck Riviera -- it's true). But because many of these strips of tropical paradise are worthy of your screensaver, they haven't stayed magical for long. Perfect beaches equal swarming crowds. MTV killed Cancun in the '90s, hipsters currently riddle Tulum, and Sayulita is now a hot cruise ship port of call.

So, where exactly can you get your tan on in Mexico without having to deal with chain restaurants and American spring breakers?

One word: Yelapa.

If you haven't heard of this tiny beach haven in Puerto Vallarta's Bahia de Banderas, that's a good thing. It has gone decades without the infiltration of obstructive high-rises or a mass influx of tourists. Some say it's Mexico's last authentic beach town, and we'd agree. So much so that we put together these eight reasons why it's absolutely the country's top undiscovered stretch of sand.



More: The Most Beautiful Places in the World You Didn't Know Existed

Advertisement



Credit: Flickr/Ernest von Rosen



You can only get there by boat

Twenty miles south of Puerto Vallarta, Yelapa is so off the radar you can only arrive by boat. Most travelers hire a private charter from Boca de Tomatlan or take a water taxi from Los Muertos Beach, and they often stop en route at Majahuitas, a popular snorkeling spot. And when visitors do finally arrive in Yelapa, the boat pulls right up onto the beach. Who needs a dock?

There are no chain restaurants, bars, or hotels

The only businesses in town are locally run and include about a dozen beach bars/restaurants and a handful of small hotels. Unlike other "undiscovered" beach towns, which may have an OXXO gas station or Subway, Yelapa still feels "pre-tourism boom" retro, without any souvenir shops, to boot.

Did somebody say beach pies?

What really put Yelapa on the map for locals is not tacos or chimachingas or even Mayan ceremonies -- but pies. Yes, fresh-baked pies. Two local bakers strut up and down the beach daily selling a variety of flavors, from coconut to cheesecake. They are like the ice cream trucks of Yelapa, and visitors can score a slice for a mere $2.

All the fresh seafood, none of the inflated prices

It's a town of villagers who make their money foraging and fishing. All the seafood you eat there is caught fresh from local waters, and sold well below typical resort prices.

Advertisement

More from Thrillist:


Rick Ross and U.S. Veteran Steve Jacobs.

Over the weekend, hip-hop artist Rick Ross made a surprise visit to a Southern Crescent Habitat For Humanity's first Fayette County project in Fayetteville, Ga. The project was a home repair funded by The Home Depot Foundation for US Veteran, Fayetteville-resident Steve Jacobs.

Once Ross arrived, he was greeted by a crowd of volunteers, South Atlanta-Habitat partner families, and Southern Crescent Habitat for Humanity. Southern Crescent Habitat for Humanity (SCHFH) is an organization that helps lower-income families find opportunity, stability, and improve their quality of life by providing homeowner education and partnering with donors and volunteers to construct and to repair existing homes.

Ross then was welcomed by Southern Crescent Habitat CEO Kem Kimbrough, City of Fayetteville Mayor Ed Johnson, Fayette County Commissioner David Barlow, City of Fayetteville Manager Ray Gibson, and Tyrone Town Manage Kyle Hood who all officially welcomed Ross into Fayette County and acknowledged his philanthropic interest for the county.

Advertisement

The on-site discussion that followed highlighted the need for affordable housing and home repairs in the Fayette County area. Afterward, Ross engaged in conversation with Southern Crescent Habitat's partner families Chatara Brumfield and Retonda Tate who described their life changing experience with Southern Crescent. Both families had challenges with other home buying opportunities, but found a fit with Southern Crescent Habitat's home ownership program. Intrigued by the families testimony, Ross pledged, "Anything that I can do, I want to do it."

Ross then walked to the build site where forty surprised volunteers from Publix and AT&T Pioneers were assisting with the painting of Jacobs home. Alongside volunteers, Ross grabbed a paint brush and a paint bucket and assisted with the painting. The day concluded with Ross taking photos with the volunteers and ready to move forward with planning his involvement in Fayette County.
As a staunch progressive, I freely admit that I have appreciated Bernie Sanders' contribution to the dialogue of this presidential campaign. I'm inspired by his crowds and delighted that there appears to be real political muscle on the progressive left in America again. But, I'm supporting Hillary Clinton -- energetically, enthusiastically and unapologetically -- here's why:

For thirty years I've been a professional advocate on the front lines of America's most pressing social problems, working side-by-side with the organizations that have led the charge for solutions to the most challenging issues facing our country. And I can honestly say that not once in those thirty years has Senator Sanders been a champion, partner or even an able ally. To be sure, he's always been a reliable vote, but never a leader or even an effective supporter. Now, I understand that members of Congress can't be all things to all people, and most members have causes they spend special time and attention to. The problem is Bernie hasn't been a leader on any of them. Not AIDS; I know, I ran the national AIDS lobby. Not anti-tobacco; I know, I ran the public health coalition that brought the tobacco industry to its knees. Not disability rights; I know I was a co-chair for the ADA coalition. This list goes on but I'll stop there.



As human rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) so aptly put it a few weeks ago: "he never saw him [Bernie]" at any of the critical moments of the civil rights movement for which Senator Sanders claims to have been an early young student leader. The same story rings true when you examine all of the important issues that have been debated over the twenty-five years Senator Sanders has been in Congress. Unlike his colleague, the senior Senator from Vermont Patrick Leahy -- who is also supporting Hillary and has been a champion for the middle class, civil rights, and in the global fight against poverty for over four decades -- Senator Sanders has been largely absent. How can someone with such a weak record of results in public service promise so much to liberals and progressives on the campaign trail when he doesn't have anything to show for it? Maybe he's been saving it all up for this big moment in the spotlight. This rings hollow in my ears, though, because my eyes did not witness it when it would have actually mattered.

Advertisement

I'm especially troubled that his appeal to millennials is seen as his particular strength. I hope that millennials are wise enough to look behind the hyperbolic messages and ask themselves "can this guy change that?" Sadly the answer is if he really wanted to change things, shouldn't he have at least tried over all these years. A new face, a new voice, a new more bombastic message may grab attention, and it has; but it is not a substitute for deeper evidence of whether that candidate is truly capable of bringing change.

And even during this campaign cycle I've continued to see the same inattentive behavior from Senator Sanders. Despite multiple and repeated attempts on a broad range of issues, his campaign has steadfastly refused or been painfully slow in responding to the efforts and outreach of major non-profit organizations that I continue to work with every day. What candidate for President refuses to meet with advocates for our country and the world's most vulnerable citizens? The answer has been Bernie Sanders. Only Donald Trump compares in his aloof dismissal of requests from the nonprofit community to engage. While many of us appreciate Senator Sanders' articulation of the problems these organizations are trying to fix, I find it bewildering that he has not demonstrated any interest in learning about how change-making work is already being done by those on the frontlines. There is something very troubling about a crusader who champions problems but has no time for solutions.

Juxtapose Bernie Sanders' history to the track record of Hillary Clinton. When groups I worked with have needed a champion she is almost always first in line to take up the banner and get solutions moving forward. This is true when she was First Lady, Senator, Secretary of State and now candidate for president. Unlike the Sanders campaign, when we have approached the Clinton camp not only have meetings always been scheduled immediately, her senior staff have always been in attendance, often staying in the room for more than an hour to hammer out ways she could help lead. I'm too cynical to be impressed by "check the box" meetings; instead these meetings were serious, respectful, and results oriented sessions by people committed to real change - not just cursing at the darkness. In short, on the front lines of the issue campaigns that have mattered most, Hillary Clinton has always been there, rolling up her sleeves to help.

Advertisement
Usually the term free rider is defined in the context of a public good. An individual is a free rider who is reluctant to contribute voluntarily in the provision of a public good. All people consume a pure public good in the same amount, and it is not probable to exclude others from its consumption. National defense is an example of a pure public good.

The free rider problem could arise in a common property resource such as public pastureland and forestlands, public waterways and clean air. It could also arise in the provision of private goods, such as the electricity grid, when some individuals hook up to the system without paying. Such cases arise due to large detection and enforcement costs in eliciting payments. Hence, in large group settings, it is necessary to use enforcement mechanisms of taxes and/or user charges with the force of the law.

Estimates developed by the IRS show that Net Tax Gap (NTG), tax liability minus taxes neither paid in time nor collected, increased from $290 billion in 2001 to $385 billion in 2006. NTG was 85.5% percent of the Gross Tax Gap that comprises only taxes not paid in time. Tax evasion occurs when one fails to report income or claims more than the legally allowed deductions. The underreporting gap on individual income taxes, corporate taxes and employment taxes is close to 98 percent of the NTG. IRS report Tax Gap for Tax Year 2006, Overview, January 6, 2012, found that "More than a third of the growth in the underreporting gap was attributable to corporate income tax." (www.IRS.gov).

Advertisement

These tax evaders are free riders, as they benefit from public goods and services. I am sure there are many minor free rider issues that are not cost effective to be resolved. However, when large amounts of revenue loss is involved or large groups are involved, it could impose a heavy cost on the nation. Joel Slemrod and Jon Bakija (SB) in their book Taxing Ourselves (2008) argue that tax evasion creates horizontal inequities, since equally well off people share different tax burdens. Tax evasion deprives the government of revenues that could have been used in the production of public goods, such as infrastructure, cleaning up the environment or more spending for education and training programs. Tax evasion, if pervasive due to lack of monitoring and enforcement, may necessitate higher tax rates, thus causing further evasion and loss of productivity and income.

Tax avoidance by businesses and individuals, though legally sanctioned, increases vertical inequities since large corporations and wealthy individuals have resources to hide their profits and/or incomes in offshore tax havens. In a study Picking UP the Tab 2013, Phineas Baxandall and Dan Smith, April 2013, found annual tax revenue loss of $150 billion in 2012 from tax havens. Authors estimate that if this extra annual loss of $150 billion "was distributed evenly among all taxpayers, in 2012 each American taxpayer would pay an additional $1026" to offset the loss. Such tax avoiders are legally sanctioned free riders.

A particular free rider problem, recently reported in the media, caught my attention. Certain ranchers in Utah and other Western states claim that BLM (Bureau of Land Management) and USFS (US Forest Service) are interfering with their rights to use public lands for grazing their livestock. BLM and USFS require permits and user fees from ranchers for grazing rights on public lands.

Advertisement

Cliven Bundy, a rancher in Nevada, supported by armed anti-government groups led by his son David Bundy, refused to pay long overdue grazing fees for his cattle on public lands managed by BLM. In order to avoid violence, law enforcement officers withdrew from the ranch without collecting fees. But, finally Cliven Bundy was arrested recently when he was involved with armed occupiers of a wildlife refuge in Oregon, headed by his son Ammon Buddy. Many other armed men involved in standoff in Nevada and Oregon, including David Bundy, were arrested and indicted for criminal acts.



BLM and USFS manage most of the public lands, and most of the land is in 11 Western states. These rebellious ranchers claim the right to use public lands free of charge. The data from The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), January 2015, show that grazing fees that have been declining since 1991 adjust with the cost of raising livestock and the market price of livestock and were only 6.72% of the private grazing user fees on private lands. Hence, all ranchers who use public lands are already obtaining large amounts of taxpayers' subsidized benefits to earn profits. However, these rebellious ranchers would like to obtain extra subsidy from taxpayers, including other law-abiding ranchers.



The rise in the ratio of unreported income to reported income to IRS since 1985, as shown by estimates developed by Professor Edgar Feige, and public lands' grab by some ranchers with tacit support of some politicians, are indicative of a developing culture of free ridership. This culture is corrosive to the economic system. It creates a contagion effect when law-abiding taxpayers notice some others not fulfilling their responsibilities to the society. Research shows that dishonesty and honesty are contagious. Leaders, who either directly or tacitly encourage free riders, contribute to the contagion effect and hence undermine lawful functioning of the society and nurturing of trust in the state.
After a brief gap, we're back with an all-new episode of the Nostalgia Theater show! This week, we're talking about Disney's

Darkwing Duck

, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this very year (

). A spin-off of Disney's

,

Darkwing

was created by

(

Chip 'n' Dale's Rescue Rangers

,

Buzz Lightyear of Star Command

), who was gracious enough to join me for a fun and insightful hour of conversation as we took a fond look back at the terror that flaps in the night, plus his many other experiences in the world of animation. Check out the show via the embed below, or subscribe via

,

, or

. As always, send all questions or comments our way via

, and don't forget to hit "like" on
Alex Wong via Getty Images WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 07: U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during a meeting with financial regulators at the Roosevelt Room of the White House March 7, 2016 in Washington, DC. The President received an update on progress in implementing Wall Street reforms. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

NEW DELHI -- Now, hear this. A woman in Guwahati has applied to change her surname to match that of the President of The United States.

Archana Ozah, a woman in her mid-thirties, reportedly applied to change her surname to Obama on 3rd March 2016.

Advertisement

Ozah released an advertisement in a local daily which read, I, Archana Ozah, had changed my surname legally from Archana Ozah to Archana Obama vide court affidavit dated 03.03.2016 sworn before the Notary Public, Kamrup (M) at Guwahati.

In the past, she would allegedly pray to a portrait of Obama, and light incense sticks in his honour.

Her application may not come through, but Ozahs determination to establish herself with a link, however remote to the president of the United States, remains undeterred. I have not been able to live with Obama, but I will die an Obama," she said in an interview.

Ozah, as it turns out, is not alone in her devotion to Obama Obama, who was Twitter's most followed world leader last year, has quite a fan following in India:

Advertisement

HuffPost India reached out to this Gurgaon-based litti chokha cart seller, who said that he loves Obama, and would be honoured to meet him. Since he doesn't have money to go to America, he was content with featuring him on his cart. "Some people love the Indian Prime Minister, but I love Barack Obama," he said.

Gopal even admitted that sometimes he fibs about Obama eating at his stall.

A design website discovered an ad by a restaurant that was using Obama's face to quite literally lift people's 'spirits':

And then there's Barack Bhau Obama....

Advertisement

Contact HuffPost India

Also See On HuffPost:
Mark Thompson via Getty Images AUSTIN, TX - OCTOBER 31: Force India Chairman Vijay Mallya walks along the paddock during practice ahead of the United States Formula One Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas on October 31, 2014 in Austin, United States. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

A WhatsApp forward I received today morning went something like this: Mallya ka intezar to 17 bank kar rahe hainMallya ko pakadna mushkil hi nahi namumkin bhi hai. The forward was obviously a play on the dialogue that Amitabh Bachchan made famous in his 1978 movie Don.

Meanwhile Vijay Mallya, who owes 17 Indian banks Rs9,000 crore (or Rs7,000 crore depending on which news report you want to believe), has left the country. The attorney general Mukul Rohatgi told this to the Supreme Court today. Mallya left the country on March 2, 2016, the day the banks moved the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) against him.

Advertisement

The banks had approached the DRT in order to stop the severance payment of $75 million (or a little over Rs500 crore) that Diageo Plc. was supposed to make to Mallya, in lieu of him stepping down as chairman of United Spirits Ltd. Mallya has also entered into a five-year non-compete clause with Diageo. This payment is supposed to be made over a period of five years.

The DRT directed Diageo not to make any payments to Mallya until the case is disposed of. It has set the next hearing date for March 28, 2016. A report in The Times of India seems to suggest that Mallya may have already been paid $40 million out of the $75 million that he had been promised.

The newspaper quotes the fine print of the agreement that Mallia inked with Diageo on February 25, last month: Diageo will pay $40 million of this amount immediately with the balance being payable in equal installments over five years. Diageo's payment obligations are subject to Mallya's ongoing compliance with the terms of the agreement."

Advertisement

The question is why are the banks going after Mallya? In India, the banks going after a corporate defaulter is unheard of. But this time they seem to have the blessings of RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, who sent a strong message when he said defaulters should not flaunt an expensive lifestyle.

After the airline shut down the value of the brand crashed, and the banks ended up with nothing.

Also, typically when banks lend a big amount, they lend it against a collateral. The idea is that if the borrower defaults, the banks can sell the collateral and recover their money.

So why are the banks going after Mallya instead of just selling the collateral and recovering their money? This is precisely the question that Justice Kurian asked the Attorney General in the Supreme Court today. How did you give these loans. Was there no secured assets on these loans?" he asked.

It turns out that the banks had lent against the brand value of Kingfisher Airlines, which at that point of time was worth some thousand crores according to a consulting firm. After the airline shut down, the value of the brand crashed, and the banks ended up with nothing. We had some assets (as security) for the loans advanced, Rohatgi said.

The Indian Express cites the 2012-2013 annual report of Kingfisher Airlines and writes that the Kingfisher Airlines brand was worth $550 million. The airlines brand had been valued by the consultancy firm Grant Thorton. Further, it had been registered separately from the Kingfisher beer brand.

Advertisement

The newspaper further quotes CBI sources as saying: Lending on the brand value of Kingfisher Airlines is a major concern. We have questioned the banks. It is basically an intangible asset. We are digging into the issue.

A report in the Hindustan Times points out that IDBI Bank lent Rs900 crore to Kingfisher Airlines against its brand in 2012-2013. By this time, the airline had already started making losses.

The question that crops up here is that do banks normally lend such a huge amount of money against the brand value of a company, which is clearly an intangible asset. Further, do banks lend money against an intangible asset, to a company which is making losses?

Another important point that needs to be made here is that an intangible asset like a brand normally tends to be overvalued. It is precisely because of this reason companies cannot have the value of their brands on their balance sheets unless they have bought it from someone else.

Given this, why lend so much money against a brand? Interestingly, the Kingfisher Airlines brand name was pledged to 14 lenders. As a report in The Indian Express points out: The airlines brand name was pledged to 14 lenders, including State Bank of India (SBI), IDBI Bank, Punjab National Bank, Bank of India and Bank of Baroda under a debt recast agreement in which loans valuing Rs 6,500 crore were restructured and converted into equity.

Advertisement

There is a lot of talk in the media about how could banks lend such a huge amount of money against the Kingfisher Airlines brand. The answer is very simple. The lending happened during the go go years of Indian banking when crony capitalists close to the government of the day, got loans way beyond their repayment capacity. Mallya is not the only such businessman, there are many more.

This explains why the Congress party, which is quick to seize-in on any issue which would embarrass the government, has been quiet on this issue up until now. And how about the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party? The party had supported Mallyas election to the Rajya Sabha in 2010.

Mallya in his defence wrote an open letter to the media a few days back. In this letter he said: In fact, banks have non-performing assets of Rs11 trillion and have borrowers who owe much more than the amount allegedly owed by Kingfisher Airlines to the banksa fact never alluded to or widely reported by the media as in my case None of these large borrowers (whose debt is significantly more than Kingfisher Airlines debt) have been declared wilful defaulters, but unfortunately, United Breweries Holdings and I have been declared wilful defaulters by certain banks on technical grounds. I have legally challenged these declarations.

This is merit in these claims. As of December 2015, the total gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of the Indian banking system stood at Rs3.9 lakh crore. The loans Mallya and his companies have defaulted on form a small part of the total NPAs of the banking system. But that doesnt mean Mallya should be allowed to get away with it.

If Mallya had had a less flashy lifestyle like some other big defaulters have, the banks would have probably not gone after him.

In fact, if the government wants the other bid defaulters to pay up, it is very important that it ensures that Mallya is made to pay up. The way things go with Mallya will act as a benchmark for the other big defaulters.

The trouble with Mallya is that he has a very flashy lifestyle. And it is very evident that he continues to flaunt his money despite having defaulted on the loans. As Raghuram Rajan, governor of RBI recently, put it: If you are in trouble you should show that you care by cutting down your expenses and not flaunting more spending in public.

Further, the employees of Kingfisher Airlines continue to remain unpaid. Also, the fact that Mallya gobbled up their provident fund payments as well, did not do any good to his image.

The point being that if Mallya had had a less flashy lifestyle like some other big defaulters have, the banks would have probably not gone after him. There wouldnt have been a public outcry and all the hungama in the media, either.

Advertisement

To conclude, Mallyas fall is an excellent example of a businessmen going beyond his core area and ending up in huge trouble. Mallya ran a successful liquor business until he thought of running an airline. And that is precisely where all his troubles started.

Airlines continue to remain a difficult business to run. Only if, Mallya had happened to read what legendary investor Warren Buffett had to say on airlines: The worst sort of business is one that grows rapidly, requires significant capital to engender the growth, and then earns little or no money. Think airlines. Here a durable competitive advantage has proven elusive ever since the days of the Wright Brothers. Indeed, if a farsighted capitalist had been present at Kitty Hawk, he would have done his successors a huge favor by shooting Orville down. The airline industrys demand for capital ever since that first flight has been insatiable. Investors have poured money into a bottomless pit, attracted by growth when they should have been repelled by it.

But then Mallya was busy--with his IPL team, Formula One team, with his Kingfisher models, with his calendar and numerous other pursuits. When making a calendar becomes as important as running multiple businesses, guess this is how it ends!

Also See On HuffPost:
Anna Henly via Getty Images Indian schoolgirl studying in the classroom at her poor village school outside Bandhavgarh National Park. The children sit barefoot on the floor to learn their lessons. She is wearing a school uniform.

They say a pen is mightier than a sword. Ask 9-year-old Muskaan Ahirwar, and she will agree. Like all other 9-year-olds, Muskaan goes to school, is curious about new things and loves playing in her free time.

The class 3 student from Bhopal also runs a library for other kids.

In Bhopal, in a slum area in Arera Hills, right behind the Rajya Siksha Kendra (State Educational Center), the 9-year-old runs a library--Bal Pustakalay, reports Times Of India.

Advertisement

Everyday, after returning from school, at about 4 in evening, Muskan sets up the library for slum children outside her house. The students eagerly wait for her to open the library and as soon as she does they surround her to listen to her stories and read their books.

"We play here, learn hear and read lot of books about freedom fighters and great Indian kings and many others," one enthusiastic reader told TOI.

The idea of a library in the slum area was conceptualised in December when the local branch of the Rajya Siksha Kendra realised that while many children go to school they do not really bother reading once theyre back. They first gave about 25 books to children to share and read. The library now has 119 books.

To create an interest among the kids, the members of the Siksha Kendra held a quiz competition among the kids. Muskaan won the quiz and was one of the most enthusiastic participants the Kendra members had met.

Advertisement

She was then given the responsibility of educating other students in the slum.

"I love doing this. Other children in slum area take books and then return other day. Some stay back to read here with me and ask questions where they don't understand," Muskaan told ToI.

With the help of her elder sister, who is in class 7, Muskaan also maintains a register for her library.

Muskaan's father is a carpenter by profession. Her mother, who is a housewife, is very proud of her two daughters. "We never thought she would bring about a change in the society," she said.

Also See On HuffPost:
SoberP via Getty Images Vector modern phone icon in bubble speech background

Bengaluru's cops will now accept complaints on WhatsApp and SMS, to make policing easy for residents. Citizens can register their complaints at +91-9480801000 through a WhatsApp message or SMS to this number and police will follow up.

Bengaluru crime branch's DCP tweeted the announcement.

The city police have a dedicated Facebook page and a Twitter account that spreads awareness among users and help them register queries. The traffic police also have a website for citizens where they can report traffic violations. An android app for the same is also available.

Bengaluru police have been taking a number of steps to use technology to help the citizens. They have recently tied up with an IT firm to develop an app which will allow users to curb the high fares charged by the auto drivers. In that app, the user can see the estimated fare, send an SOS message, scan the onboard QR code and register a complaint against the auto. They also started using live streaming tool Periscope to ask citizens to report crime.

Other police departments are also using technology to make cities better. Delhi police have a Twitter account. They also have apps for women safety and traffic reporting. Mumbai police, whose Twitter account is much lauded has recently tied up with Uber to install alco-booth at Mumbai bars and pubs to reduce drunk driving.

Advertisement
NARINDER NANU via Getty Images Indian schoolchildren eat their free mid-day meal at a government school in Amritsar on July 19, 2013. Punjab state Education Minister Sikander Singh Maluka issued directions to all authorities concerned to observe hygiene regulations in serving the mid-day meal and said all principals and heads of schools would be held personally accountable for any discrepancies in the service. Twenty-three children died on July 17, after eating a free lunch feared to contain poisonous chemicals at a school in thee eastern Indian state of Bihar. AFP PHOTO/NARINDER NANU (Photo credit should read NARINDER NANU/AFP/Getty Images)

The education department in Bihar has hit upon a novel scheme to curb alcoholism. The government plans to employ children to put psychological pressure on their parents to commit to abstinence, according to the Indian Express. The parents will have to "give in writing" to their children that they would not drink, helping Bihar's transition to a sober state from 1 April, 2016.

The Nitish Kumar government has banned the sale of alcohol in the state from the first of April, keeping a poll promise to women voters in the run up to the Assembly Elections.

Advertisement

Let people criticise us, but they cannot know from Patna what kind of social churning this upcoming liquor ban has already started in rural parts of Bihar. This will prove a big tool for womens empowerment. We are engaging students because it would psychologically put pressure on the parents once they would give in writing to their children that they would not drink, the Express quoted the CM as saying.

The state's education department will seek a commitment from fathers of students of primary and secondary schools to not drink alcohol, the report said, adding that private schools are exempt from this but were free to follow the model on their own.

Currently, there's a complete alcohol ban in Gujarat, Kerala, Nagaland and Lakshadweep and a partial ban in Manipur.

Advertisement

Contact HuffPost India
Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, or rather Yuvraj Shri Manvendra Singhji Raghubir Singhji Sahib, the crown prince of one of India's oldest royal families made a public announcement in 2006 that made headlines around the world: the 40-year-old formerly married prince announced he is gay.

The prince recently collaborated with Come Out Loud, and in a video shared his experiences.

"When I was 12 or 13, I realised I wasn't attracted toward the opposite sex but to the same sex. There was no internet... there was no one to tell me what it was," he said.

This is a country where gay sex is still criminalised, the pressure to marry and have children in order to continue the family line is massive and there's a huge stigma attached to homosexuality. However, there was no pressure on the Prince to marry at first. In the video, he says he did it 'voluntarily' because he thought that will make him 'normal.'

Advertisement

Manavendra says that he is not the only homosexual man in the Indian royalty. In the video he claims that he knew several relatives and friends from royal families who were gay, but could never 'come out'.

When he came out to his parents, they refused to accept it. So, they took him to several doctors to 'make him straight'. They offered to pay money for any form of surgery. They also took him to religious leaders.

After they failed to 'convert him back to normal', the Queen, took out an ad in the newspaper to publicly disown her only son. In his home state, effigies of the prince were burned and demands were made that he be stripped of his title for bringing shame to his family line.

"I'm not attached to my biological family and that is something that happens in most royal families. Because you're not brought up by them  they're there to give birth to you and then you're in the care of servants... I have never experienced love and affection from my own biological mother so when my parents disapproved or disowned me, it didn't hurt me at all," he once told Guardian in an interview.

Advertisement

In 2000, a sense of injustice compelled Prince Manvendra to start The Lakshya Trust, a community-based organisation dedicated to supporting gay men and to education about and prevention of HIV/Aids. "It's doing well, a lot more people are educated now," he says in the video.

When Oprah Winfrey called the Prince to her show, he had said, "When I say that the homosexuals are not free in India, we don't have the freedom to love. All of us are scared. Imagine those who have fallen in love, they've had partners in their lives, they've had boyfriends, they want to go for long-term relationships -- are now all scared. That's where we are losing our freedom."

At the end of the video, the Prince signs off with a lovely message: "We are all human beings. We are all equal... All we want is love. Gay rights cannot just be won in the courtroom but in the hearts and the minds of the people we live with."

We hope the world listens to this one.

Advertisement

Contact HuffPost India

Also See On HuffPost:
He's out on conditional bail, but Jawaharlal Nehru students union leader Kanhaiya Kumar shows no intention of keeping a low profile and staying away from controversies. The day he was released, he headed straight to JNU to deliver a rousing speech on 'azaadi' or freedom, peppered with jibes against the current dispensation. On the eve of International Women's Day, Kumar told a crowd on the campus that Indian army personnel have committed atrocities against women in Jammu and Kashmir.

A video clip aired by a news channel shows Kumar criticizing the army for alleged human rights violations in the disputed territory, leading to a police complaint by the BJPs youth wing for "making anti-national statements".

"No matter how much you try to stop us, we will speak up against human rights violations. We will raise our voice against AFSPA. While we have a lot of respect for our soldiers, we will still talk about the fact that in Kashmir women are raped by security personnel, Kanhaiya said.

Advertisement

During war in Rwanda 1000 women were raped. In Africa during the ethnic conflict, when military attacks other group firstly their women were raped. You take example of Gujarat, women were not just killed but were raped first, he added.

The complaint filed by the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha on Wednesday in the Vasant Vihar police station against Kumar and JNU professor Nivedita Menon says they made anti-national statements in the aftermath of February 9 event.

Advertisement

Police has not lodged an FIR but are looking into the matter.

Despite the submission of an undertaking before court, Kanhaiya has yet again addressed a gathering of students and uttered poisonous words against the Indian Army, labelling them as rapists of Kashmiri Women, a BJYM statement said.

JNU professor Nivedita Menon has been spewing hatred against the Indian Armed Forces in public meetings as well. She made statements like it is recognized worldwide that India is illegally occupying Kashmir, it added.

When PTI contacted Menon, who teaches at the Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory at the School of International Studies in JNU, she said: "I dont believe anything I said was anti-national.

Menon is also the author of 'Recovering Subversion: Feminist Politics Beyond the Law (2004)' and the editor of 'Gender and Politics in India (1999)' and 'Sexualities (Women Unlimited, 2008)'.

Kanhaiyas party All India Students Federation (AISF) maintained that, he made the remarks in context of atrocities on women worldwide and not just in Kashmir. He in no way meant to demean Army or any other force and he clarified that in his speech too.

Advertisement

The ABVP which had objected to the February 9 event as well, issued a statement saying, the judge in her order also advised Kanhaiaya to not forget the contribution of those sacrificing lives on borders. His statement is an attack on Indian Army.

Kanhaiya was arrested on February 12 in a sedition case over an event on campus against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised. He was granted an interim bail for six months by Delhi High Court last week.

However Kumar's assertions on human rights abuse in Kashmir are not new. International organisations such as the Human Rights Watch have documented violations of civil rights in Jammu and Kashmir.

This is what a Human Rights Watch report had to say about the role of the army in the disturbed region.

"Indian security forces, which include the army and two paramilitary forces, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Border Security Force (BSF) have assaulted civilians during search operations, tortured and summarily executed detainees in custody and murdered civilians in reprisal attacks. In October 1992, representatives from Asia Watch and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) traveled to Kashmir to document rape and other human rights abuses and violations of the laws of war by Indian security forces. They also investigated incidents of abuse by armed militant groups who have also committed rape and other attacks on civilians. PHR and Asia Watch condemn these crimes as violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.... Rape has also occurred frequently during reprisal attacks on civilians following militant ambushes."

(Inputs from PTI)

Contact HuffPost India

Also on HuffPost:
Hindustan Times via Getty Images NEW DELHI, INDIA - MARCH 7: Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union President Kanhaiya Kumar speaks at the JNU Campus, on March 7, 2016 in New Delhi, India. JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar was granted interim bail for six months by the Delhi High Court after spending 20 days in jail. Kumar was arrested on February 12 on charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy after alleged anti-national slogans were raised on the JNU campus on February 9. (Photo by Vipin Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

NEW DELHI -- Amid a raging row at JNU, it has now emerged that its students union president Kanhaiya Kumar, who is facing sedition charge, was fined by the varsity administration last year for allegedly misbehaving with a girl student and threatening her.

The incident had occurred on June 10, 2015, when the girl student asked Kanhaiya, who at the time was not the students union president, to not urinate in the open inside the campus. The girl, who now teaches at Delhi University, alleged that Kanhaiya misbehaved with her when she objected and also called her a psychopath while threatening her with dire consequences.

Advertisement

Following a complaint by her, the JNU administration held a proctorial inquiry that found Kanhaiya guilty. The university has found Kanhaiya Kumar guilty of misbehaving with an ex-student (female) and threatening her. This act is serious in nature and unbecoming of a student of JNU and calls for a strict disciplinary action against him (Kanhaiya) keeping his career prospects in mind, the Vice Chancellor has taken a lenient view in the matter, said the office order issued on October 16, 2015 by the then Chief Proctor, Krishna Kumar.

Kanhaiya is fined Rs 3,000 and also warned to be careful and not get involved in any such incidents in future. Otherwise, strict disciplinary action will be taken against him, the order said. While an unsigned order was shared on social media by the girl, who accused Kanhaiya of being a false revolutionary making claims about upholding the dignity of women, the university administration confirmed in a statement that the letter was authentic and action was taken against the student leader.

I am dejected and pained to see how my JNU community has ganged up to create false revolutionary. I want to ask, do you really understand the D for Dignity of a female, Mr Kanhaiya? Unzipping your private part in public and urinating on road  are these your revolutionary tools to uphold a females dignity? I am shocked to see how a misogynist like Kanhaiya is being hailed as revolutionary, she said in an open letter that is circulating online.

Kanhaiya faces sedition charges in connection with an event on campus against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.

Advertisement

He was granted interim bail for six months by the Delhi High Court last week after spending 18 days in jail.

Meanwhile, All India Students Federation (AISF), the outfit to which Kanhaiya belongs, said in a statement, "Talks about public urination and threatening are being spread to malign Kanhaiya's image. He had a verbal argument with the girl following which she had registered a complaint. We do respect the girl's right to criticise Kanhaiya but we want to reiterate that he has always stood for gender justice. Also, when the incident took place, he was not the president of the students' union," it added.

Advertisement

Contact HuffPost India

Also on HuffPost:
Screenshot/YouTube

On Wednesday, Mathrubhumi, a leading Malayalam daily in Kerala, faced a lot of outrage on social media for reproducing an offensive comment about Prophet Muhammad.

Many Muslim organisations like Popular Front of India (PFI), Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and others gathered outside the newspapers offices in various locations yesterday, raising slogans and burning newspapers.

Advertisement

This morning, the newspaper put out an apology on its front page today.

We understand the comments hurt the sentiments of followers. We apologise deeply for the error, the newspaper said.

The newspaper, in its apology, said they had picked up a comment from social media.

The comment was a response to a story on Kerala High Court judge Kemal Pashas observations on polygamy among Muslims and Muslim personal law.

Advertisement

One of the comments that the Malayalam daily had picked up as a response to the judge's comment, criticized Prophet, without naming him, for marrying six-year-old Aisha, reported The NewsMinute.

Justice B Kamal Pasha, in a public event, had asked if Muslim men can have four wives then why not women. He also said that personal laws followed by Muslims are heavily biased towards men, and religious leaders reinforce male dominance. Now, the judge is also facing heat from Muslim scholars, reports The Indian Express.

Also See On HuffPost:
Sanatkada

When a celebrated life passes away, the obligatory cliche is all over the headlines. No, Ram Advanis death is not the end of an era for Lucknow.

The era ended some time in the early 2000s. Mayfair Building, which houses Ram Advani Booksellers, also had the British Library, which shut down in 2000. There was a whole movement in Lucknow to make the British Council reverse its decision. The movement included writing emails to the Queen of England, from computers at the British Library.

Advertisement

Along with the British Library and Ram Advani Booksellers, there used to be Mayfair cinema that showed Hollywood movies, and Kwality restaurant for the dinner after the movie.

Ram Advani Booksellers was the last outpost. An ageing Advani could not keep pace with the publishing boom, the onslaught of sales and marketing in the publishing world that moved books like FMCG products. Advanis bookshop was the first shop to down shutters in the evening. Its white letters on a black board in the middle of Hazratganj was a sign of the centrality of intellectual life to a modern city. The greatest concession he made to popular literature was Harry Potter.

When you entered the shop, he welcomed you with courtesy. Beethoven played in the background, the air-conditioning almost seemed like an anomaly. He engaged with you on what you wanted to read, and fished out the book that would match your interest. In discussing the book with you not like a salesman but like a fellow-reader, he made it impossible for you to not buy it. The best salesman for the sort of goods he was selling.

In an interview, Advani said he used to visit his grandfathers bookshop in Rawalpindi, where he met some of the Punjabs most important people and found them to be 'kind without patronizing'.

In an interview, Advani said he used to visit his grandfathers bookshop in Rawalpindi, where he met some of the Punjabs most important people and found them to be kind without patronizing. This attracted him to the idea of running a bookshop too. Kind without being patronising, is an apt way of describing how he received customers. Amongst the visitors his bookshop saw after independence was Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

It has been said that his bookshop played a role in making Uttar Pradesh one of the more studied parts of India. Foreign scholars ordered books from him via international courier to maintain that link with him, his bookshop, and with Lucknow. I dont think this practice lasted long in the age of Amazon and Kindle.

From Ram Advani to free wi-fi

My fond memories of Advani included being introduced to the work of Lucknows prime historian, Rosie-Llewelyn Jones, and Advani making me plead with him to let me buy archival copies of the journal Seminar. He parted with a few.

Its white letters on a black board in the middle of Hazratganj was a sign of the centrality of intellectual life to a modern city. The greatest concession he made to popular literature was Harry Potter.

Future generations, at least in Lucknow, will not know what it was like to open the gate and enter Ram Advani Booksellers. It was a place, unusual even in pre-liberalisation era, that did not scream commerce, money, discount, sales, and promotions. You stepped into a place remarkably calm and quiet given that it was in the middle of Hazratganj, Lucknows central shopping district. Before the arrival of malls, people went for a stroll in Hazratganj. This important social activity was called Ganjing.

Advertisement

Today in Ganj, you can see young man sitting on benches or the steps for hours, glued to their mobile phones. You may even find one or two men with laptops. Its the super-fast free wifi they are after.

Since I dont yet have grey hair, I like to not be cynical and mourn this change. I like to think that the world of Mayfair Building thats long gone, is being accessed on their mobile phones  yes, even through the social media feeds and the movie downloads.

There was much more to Advani than the bookshop. Advani, the man, was an institution of Lucknows civil society. The Sindhi who was born in Hyderabad, now in Pakistan, symbolised a less acknowledged aspect of Punjabi-Sindhi community in Lucknow. Advani was the biggest aberration to the stereotype of Partition refugees as wily businessmen who sold clothes and food and drove Lucknows old elite out of business.

What Ram Advani meant to Lucknow

Lucknow is seen, even by its own residents, as a city of loss  1857, the end of the Nawabi dynasty, and then the exodus of the Muslims in Partition, all of this history ensures Lucknow keeps mourning the passing away of a golden era. In this mourning it has not been considered the greatness that survived in Lucknow as a city.

A great city is defined by its cosmopolitanism, a word we usually hear along with Bombay. But in its own way, Lucknow has forever been a city of migrants which made it a cultural mosaic. Recently, Madhavi Kuckrejas feminist organisation in Lucknow, Sanatkada, had this cultural plurality of Lucknow as the theme of its annual festival. With an exhibition, a book and various other means, the festival celebrated Lucknow ki rachi basi tehzeeb  the terms rachi and basi emphasising that Lucknows famously cliched high culture was created and established, and it still exists. The title refuses to speak of this Tehzeeb in past tense. It exists.

Advertisement

Every other person thinks of Lucknows Tehzeeb cliche along with its last emperor, Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, who was exiled to Calcutta. Every other person in Lucknow thinks he is Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. The Lucknow Zoo was renamed after him.

If not the Nawabi court, the Tehzeeb cliche is associated with Hindu-Muslim amity. Lucknows almost never seen Hindu-Muslim violence despite being so close to Ayodhya and Kanpur. In his autobiography Lucknow Boy, the late editor Vinod Mehta wrote it was Lucknow that was responsible for his faith in secularism. In Delhi, I find it unbelievable when I meet people who did not have Muslim classmates in school. In Lucknow, this is not possible.

In a study, political scientist Ashutosh Varshney found that Lucknow had strong civic associations that prevented Hindu-Muslim violence. But how and why does Lucknow have such strong civic associations? I got the answer in Sanatkadas festval celebrating the citys cosmopolitanism that went beyond the Hindu-Muslim trope.

The Sanatkada festival went into the histories of various communities, their arrival to Lucknow and their contribution to the city. Over the centuries, these included Anglo-Indians, Bengalis, the Chinese, Gujaratis, Kashmiris (both Pandits and Muslims), Maharashtrians, Oriyas, Paharis, Punjabis and Sindhis. This melting pot is the story of Lakhnavi Tehzeeb as much as the contribution of the Nawabi dynasty.

Advertisement

Advani was the shining star of this cosmopolitan culture of Lucknow. It is this, as much as his bookshop, for which Id like to remember him.

Contact HuffPost India

Also on HuffPost:
SeeDoc

Technology has truly expanded out world. You can watch videos, order food, call a cab and pay your bills without leaving home. With smartphone technology making new strides everyday, now medicare is a frontier tech experts want to win. And there's an app that does just that.

The app SeeDoc uses video conferencing and instant messaging to solve medical problems remotely.

SeeDoc was launched on 8 March officially in an event in Delhi by the Silicon Valley-based co-founders Jaideep Singh and Vivek Bansal. Before that, the app was in the beta phase and had seen 300000 downloads from the Play store and the AppStore. SeeDoc has a simple interface where you can either choose to ask a free question the doctor or have a video conference with the doctor.

Advertisement

Once you select an option in the next window you can choose your problem from categories such as Fever, Digestion, Skin, Weight, Sexual, Pain, Hair or Other. Next, a doctor will be assigned to you based on the problem and you can have a consultation session with the doctor. Each video consultation costs you 400. The app claims to server 500 video consultations per day.

In the app, you can directly start asking questions, but it is recommended that you fill out your profile details so doctors can give you a better consultation. The profile page is detailed. You can fill out basic info such as Name, gender, birth date, weight, waist, height, daily activity level and so on. Apart from that, you can also enter details such as personal and family medical history, vaccinations, allergies, lifestyle and lab reports. The app also has tools like Diabetes probability detector.

Advertisement

SeeDoc has a team of doctors who are specialists in General Medicine, Cardiology, Pediatrics, Gynecology, Internal Medicine, and

other key areas. The team told us that the average experience of doctors in the SeeDoc team is 6 years.

We talked with the co-founder of the app Vivek Bansal and he said, "We want to change medical consultation in India. Our aim is to that people can be in the comfort of their home and get the consultation from top doctors. We also care about the patients so we are providing free follow-ups with the check-ups to make sure that the user's problem is solved".

"Also to maintain continuity, we display the calendar of the doctor who previously consulted the patient. If the timings are not matching patient can choose another doctor. SeeDoc will soon tie up with labs and medical stores so if any reports or medications are needed patients can avail these ".

Advertisement

Dr. Anuj Agarwal, Chief Medical Officer & co-founder at seeDoc said, "Our team of doctors have been handpicked from the best in the medical fraternity. They are MCI and state registered from top medical institutions and colleges such as AIIMS, Fortis, Medanta, Max, AFMC, MAMC, and Manipal. We have combined the best medical practices from the NHS in the UK, and from India, to make sure that patients receive the highest quality of medical care".

People are still skeptical about getting medicare online although they are more open to having some basic consultation. While for some symptoms a visit to the doctor is always advisable as they would have the equipment to perform the check-up it is a good facility to have for a remote consultation.

Healthcare-based start-ups are also growing as search services such as Practo are hugely popular. You can now buy medicine online too on, NetMeds and 1mg.

Advertisement
Scott Heavey via Getty Images LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 12: Sahara Force India Team Principle Vijay Mallya welcomes Sergio Perez as their new driver on December 12, 2013 in London, England. (Photo by Scott Heavey/Getty Images)

Liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who is facing legal proceedings for allegedly defaulting loans of over Rs 9,000 crore from various banks, has currently sought refuge in his country house on the outskirts of London, according to media reports. News of Mallya's whereabouts comes even as a furious Opposition staged a walk out of Parliament, demanding his arrest.

News channel Times Now reported that locals have confirmed Mallya's presence at his country home in Tiwen village. Mallya's staff refused to comment on the issue.

Advertisement

Yesterday, the government informed the Supreme Court that Mallya left the country a week back, sparking sharp reactions from politicians.

"I spoke to the CBI little while ago and it told me that on March 2 he (Mallya) left the country," Attorney General(AG) Mukul Rohatgi told the bench comprising Justices Kurian Joseph and R F Nariman. The bench issued notice to Mallya and sought his response within two weeks on pleas filed by a consortium of banks seeking direction for freezing his passport and his presence before the apex court.

Since the court was informed that Mallya has already left the country, probably to UK, the bench allowed the plea of AG that the notice to him can be served through his official Rajya Sabha Email ID, Indian High Commission at London and also through counsel representing him before various high courts, Debt Recovery Tribunal and also through his Company.

Banks will take every possible action against defaulters: FM Arun Jaitley in Lok Sabha #VijayMallya  ANI (@ANI_news) March 10, 2016

Mallya's reputation preceded him at the Tiwen village in Hertforshire where his "secret" country home 'Ladywalk' stands.

"He visits the local pubs regularly. Even yesterday a lady in a Black Audi car with 'Force India' written on it was here to meet him. I can tell when he is in town because there is a buzz around he moves around in several fancy cars. His house is among the biggest in our county," a villager told NDTV.

CNN-IBN too confirmed, quoting neighbours, that Mallya was staying put in his 30-acre estate.

Miles away, back in Delhi, Congress President Sonia Gandhi led a walkout in Lok Sabha. "They talk about bringing back black money, then how did they allow this," questioned Rahul Gandhi.

The government responded with a counter charge: "When Vijay Mallya went abroad, the Congress was in power and a case was registered under FEMA," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said.

Advertisement

Contact HuffPost India

Also on HuffPost:
Sony Develops App For Streaming Royalty Reports

Sony Music has recently developed an app which allows artists to view exactly what their daily earnings from streaming royalties are, marking a move towards the royalty transparency which so many artists have been hoping for.

__________________________________

Guest Post by Bobby Owsinski on Music 3.0

In what may be a real breakthrough for artists, Sony Music has developed an app that shows exactly what their daily streaming royalty earnings are. The app also includes information about how these earnings impact their label advances as well.

Other features include other key information in real time, such as streaming volume across all platforms, airplay data, profiles by age, gender and location of listeners, and a heat map of areas of the world where the artist is currently popular. It also offers insight to the artist's popularity on social networks as well, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The app is only available to Sony artists in Sweden (where the app was developed) at the moment, but is expected to be rolled out to Sony artists globally later in the year.

This is a first for a major label, since it makes earnings a lot more transparent than in the past. Artist royalty statements have always been viewed with some suspicion as labels have traditionally used a variety of accounting tricks to limit the royalties owed, but the new Sony app gives at least some hope that this position may change in the future.

Although the Sony real-time app is a revolution for a major label, it's not the first of its kind. Kobalt has offered these features to artists and songwriters for some time.

Share on:
Frank Boynton to vice president, Operations, Retirement Solutions Division

Donna Burton to vice president, Human Resources-Total Rewards, Corporate Division

Chris Dallas to vice president, Investment Counsel, Corporate Division

Darlene Goodwin to vice president, Application Services, Corporate Division

Bradley Sherrell to vice president, Technology Office, Life Insurance Division

Winnipeg-based Great-West Lifeco is expanding its operations in the Republic of Ireland with the acquisition of two insurers. Great-Wests subsidiary Irish Life Group Ltd. will acquire the health insurance company Aviva Health and also increase its 49 per cent stake in GloHealth to 100 per cent. It intends to combine the two businesses to create one of Irelands leading health insurance companies.The acquisitions are expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2016. The deals are subject to regulatory approval. Great-West says that the plan will give the company around 400,000 customers in Ireland who will benefit from the parent firms global expertise and the Canadian health insurance division in particular.A poll by PEMCO Insurance Northwest reveals that there is little support for the annual shift to daylight saving time in the region. Just 1 in 5 respondents supports the time change with 64 per cent preferring to stay on one time year-round. Most of those (39 per cent) would opt for standard time but 25 per cent want the lighter evenings and would prefer to stick with DST permanently.For insurers there could be benefits of scrapping daylight saving; a report in the Journal of Applied Psychology in 2009 found that workers were more likely to be involved in an accident in the Monday following the change to DST due to losing an hours sleep and in 2014 a study at the University of Colorado found that fatal motor accidents increase during the DST months.Pacific Life Insurance Company of California has appointed five new vice presidents:The appointments are effective April 1 2016.
"We need to talk about insurance the way we want to hear about it," says insurance educator
Cheshire Selectmen Argue Over Expanding Board

CHESHIRE, Mass.  The town's three selectmen got into a heated debate on Tuesday over a town meeting vote to expand their board.



It started when Selectman Robert Ciskowski asked his colleagues to honor the vote from last year that would have started the process of expanding the board to five members.



That article, however, was flagged by the attorney general's office because the size could not be changed by town meeting, but only through special legislation or a charter amendment.



Ciskowski made a motion to contact legislators to start this process  motion that did not get a second.



"I believe that it may be been flawed the way it was written but I feel as though voters made a resounding vote," he said. "I think I know what they want."



He vowed to continue to "make the motion until eternity" until it gets seconded. Selectman Paul Astorino accused him of "beating a dead horse."



Chairwoman Carol Francesconi said she felt last year's vote was really not a good indication of what the people of Cheshire want.



"I don't know if it was resounding," she said. "One hundred and seventy-seven people were at the meeting: 100 voted yes and 77 didn't vote or said no. So 100 versus 2,000 registered voters does not sound resounding."



Ciskowski responded that if the article was written correctly, they would be working on the change right now.



Astorino outright said he was against the expansion and felt the cramped Town Hall simply could not fit a five-member board. The board's table takes up most of the Selectmen's Meeting Room, leaving space for only a few chairs for the audience.



"If there were five of us here, where would we sit?" he asked Ciskowski. "When you come up with a plan to build a new Town Hall I will listen to you."



He added that he found only one town in Massachusetts with 3,500 or less people with a five-member select board. Truro, with a population of about 2,000, expanded its board to five in 1992.



"I think Cheshire if being run properly," Astorino said. "That is my opinion and I will take that to my death bed ... keep beating the dead horse."


India vs Pakistan Weather Forecast, T20 World Cup 2022: Rains Delay Training, Flood Alert in Melbourne on Match Day

T20 World Cup: 'This Has Hurt Indian Cricket the Most'-Sunil Gavaskar Slams India for 'Optional' Practice Sessions

T20 World Cup: 'Even if They Lose to Pakistan....'-India Great Says Things Looking 'A Lot Better' in India's Group

India vs Pakistan: Here's How The Rivalry Has Shaped up Over The Years Across T20 World Cups
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
Cross-posted from the State EdWatch blog

By Daarel Burnette II

Arizona is close to letting districts decide among a menu of standardized tests rather than administering one statewide test, according to the Arizona Republic .

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, is expected in the coming days to sign legislation passed by both the House and Senate that would let districts decide whether their high school students and students in grades 3-8 will take the states AzMERIT exam, or if they will take one of a series of exams pre-approved by the states board of education. The legislation would go into effect for high school students in the fall of 2017 and for the rest of the states students in 2018.

The move is a potential violation of the Every Student Succeeds Act, which requires that students in grades 3-8 are given one test statewide. The law goes into effect in the fall of 2017. States that violate the law risk losing Title I dollars.

As my colleagues Catherine Gewertz and Andrew Ujifusa pointed out last week , Floridas legislature is considering a bill that would allow districts the option of administering the ACT Aspire exam instead of the states standardized exam, the Florida Standards Assessment, in grades 3-8, beginning in the 2016-17 school year. Parents in Florida have the option of notifying that they want their students to instead take the statewide exam.



The U.S. Department of Education is still in the initial phases of developing regulations for ESSA, a process that could last months. The law doesnt go into full effect until the 2017-18 school year.

In Arizona, state Rep. Paul Boyer, a Republican, told the Arizona Republic the bill would remove duplicate testing for teachers and students and give them more face-to-face time. Teachers in the state say currently they have to prepare students for school-wide, district-wide and the statewide tests.



The point is if youre already offering a more rigorous test and you can compare it, then theres no point in offering the additional test, Boyer said. That gives teachers more face-to-face time with students that we desperately need.

The state board would have to approve any alternative test. According to the Arizona Republic, two thirds of the states students failed the inaugural AzMERIT exam.

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
If youve read any significant amount of Every Student Succeeds Act coverage, youve seen Tennessee GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander come up a lot. After all, he helped write the new law, hes the head of the Senate education committee, and hes made it clear he intends to watch ESSA implementation like a hawk.

But theres a presidential election going on, and you might remember that Alexander himself sought the Oval Office not once, but twice. Hes also served as Tennessees governor from 1979 to 1987 and the U.S. secretary of education under former President George H.W. Bush.

In the spirit of Facebooks Throwback Thursday, I thought it would be neat to take a look at what he said about education back in 1996 and 2000, when he sought the GOP nomination for president, and see how what he said on the campaign trail compares to what candidates are, and are not, saying today.



Nothing Would Be More Important

Lets go to the 1996 election cycle first. In a February stump speech in Marietta, Ga. that year, Alexander the presidential hopeful said, I would focus on education. Nothing would be more important.

Alexander also highlighted his fight with the teachers union as governor of Tennessee in order to pay teachers more for teaching well. And he stressed his support for a G.I. Bill for kids from middle- and low-income families that was basically a proposal for vouchers. Alexander pitched the same proposal ten days earlier in New Hampshire.

That is better than a U.S. Department of Education, which is one school board too many, Alexander said in his Marietta speech.

It wasnt the only time Alexander took a shot at the department during the run-up to the 1996 election. In March 1995, in a speech in his home town of Maryville, Tenn., Alexander promised the audience that as president he would abolish the department and give you the responsibility for making the decisions yourself. We know what to do. (This was after Alexander had served a stint as the departments secretary.)

Also in 1995, Alexander called for an end to Goals 2000 , a program initiated by former President Bill Clinton that incentivized states to pursue changes to curriculum and assessment. By contrast, in 1991 when Alexander was education secretary, he unveiled America 2000, which called on communities to adopt goals and measure their progress towards them. He also pushed for new forms of federal aid, and a national examination system based on new world standards.

In the 2000 presidential cycle, public education remained at the forefront of Alexanders campaign. In 1999, for example, he said that fixing public education would be one of the three core issues in his campaign, along with improving families incomes and strengthening national defense.

And also during the 2000 campaign, Alexander panned a proposal by Democratic nominee Vice President Al Gore to offer financial incentives to people who agreed to switch to a teaching career and work in needy schools.



One Notable Legacy

So what are a few takeways from Alexanders positions and remarks, and to what extent do his positions live on with todays GOP candidates?

Its pretty difficult to imagine a presidential candidate from either major party today declaring that education policy would take priority over every other issue, as Alexander did in 1996. Public schools have gotten a little more attention recently in the 2016 cycle, as the question about what to do to fix Detroits schools and how to address mediocre teachers came up in recent Democratic and Republican debates. But so far, in the blizzard of presidential debates and on the campaign trail, K-12 education has played a very minor role .

In particular, given the pushback to the Common Core State Standards and testing from a variety of groups and individuals, its hard to imagine any candidate, Democrat or Republican, pushing for new world standards or any sort of national examination system of the sort Alexander pushed when he was education secretary.

But as for todays GOP candidatesthey have eagerly adopted at least one of Alexanders positions from 20 years ago: Several of the 2016 GOP hopefuls have called for an end to the Education Department .

Also, Alexanders description of the Education Department hasnt changed much. When hes criticized the Education Department recently, hes said several times that the department acted like a national school board under former Secretary Arne Duncan.

Click the following link to see five key positions each candidate holds on K-12 and see if you can find any other similarities.

Sign of the Times

One way Alexanders 1996 campaign laid the groundwork for a piece of 2016 election imagery has nothing to do with education policy.

That year, his campaign signs featured Lamar! complete with an exclamation point . Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who has a pretty lengthy track record on K-12 policy himself, deployed signs featuring Jeb! during his unsuccessful 2016 presidential run. (Bush also used the exclamation point in his successful campaign for Florida governor in 1998 , according to the Christian Science Monitor, a couple of years after Alexander did.)

Education Week Library Intern Maya Riser-Kositsky contributed to this story.

Photo: Republican presidential hopeful Lamar Alexander gestures during a campaign speech in front of Nashua Town Hall in Nashua, N.H., with supporters who turned up wearing red and black checked jackets, an Alexander trademark, in February, 1996. Elise Amendola/AP-File

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
The content you are trying to view is exclusive to our subscribers.

To unlock this article:
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and other Republicans on the Senate panel that oversees education spending are really unhappy that the presidents budget request for the U.S. Department of Education only asks for $500 million for the brand new Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants aka the big giant block grant in the Every Student Succeds Act. And they said so in a budget hearing Thursday, featuring Acting U.S. Secretary of Education John King.

ESSA authorizes about $1.5 billion a year for the block grant, while eliminating some 50 separate programs aimed at student health and safety, arts education, education technology, school counseling, and more. Alexander pointed out that the block grant was essentially a compromisemany senators wanted to keep those eliminated programs around, or had hoped to create new ones. He doesnt understand why the presidents budget asks for more than $5 billion in new K-12 programs while not seeking to fund the block grant sufficiently.

Were looking for signals about how well you are going to follow this new impulse of Congress in this new education law, Alexander said.

King told him that the $500 million is actually an increase for all the programs that were rolled into the block grant, which include the Elementary and Secondary Counseling program and a physical education program. They are currently funded at $278 million all told, he said. Plus there isnt room for major spending increases, he added.

We were trying in this budget both to advance the presidents priorities and stay under the caps for discretionary spending, he said.

That answer didnt placate everyone on the committee. Another GOP lawmaker, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, told King hes none-too-pleased that the administration has proposed making the block grant competitive within states. Under ESSA, the funds are supposed to go out by formula.

It looks like youre ignoring the clear intent of Congress, he said. Cassidys worried, too, that rural schools could be shortchanged if the program becomes competitive. King said states could give priority to rural applicants, like the department does with Investing in Innovation grants (now called the Education Innovation and Research grants under ESSA).

And Sen.Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc. added her voice to the chorus. (One note: We originally said it was Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who chimed in here. Thanks to the eagle-eyed reader who corrected us!)

But Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., the chairman of the panel, seemed to understand where King was coming from.

You asked for essentially double what youve been spending, he said. I dont [want] to suggest that anyone is stepping back from the traditional commitment to the health, safety and other programs included in the block grant.

So whats the takeaway? The exchange is probably good news for fans of the block grant, who may see a little more than $500 million when the committee releases its spending bill for fiscal year 2017 (that mostly impacts the 2017-18 school year, the first year that ESSA will be fully implemented).

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
Visa, Honda and ParkWhiz Showcase Apps that Let Cars Pick up the Tab

Visa Inc., recently announced it was making the Visa Token Service available to auto manufacturers, helping to pave the way for easy and secure car-based commerce. To further advance car-based commerce, Visa is also offering a range of related digital payment solutions, including new standards for Bluetooth (BLE) and QR codes that could help expand enablement of mobile payments for both merchants and consumers in any environment. As payments shift from plastic to digital, technologies built with Visa Token Service, provide an ecosystem of payment partners  from auto manufacturers to point of sale (POS) providers and beyond  a streamlined way to offer commerce and payments anywhere there is an Internet connection.

Car-Based Commerce

Fuel App Concept: Pay for gas in one click without leaving the car. The fuel app detects when the car is low on fuel and navigates the driver to nearby gas stations. Once parked next to the pump, the app knows the exact amount of gas needed to fill the tank and can calculate the cost to fill up. The driver can also purchase convenience store items with full integration of discount and loyalty/rewards programs.

Pay for gas in one click without leaving the car. The fuel app detects when the car is low on fuel and navigates the driver to nearby gas stations. Once parked next to the pump, the app knows the exact amount of gas needed to fill the tank and can calculate the cost to fill up. The driver can also purchase convenience store items with full integration of discount and loyalty/rewards programs. Parking App Concept: Just park your car, push the park button on the app, and go. Designed in partnership with ParkWhiz for off-street parking spots, the parking app helps a driver pay only for the time used and helps avoid under- and over-paying. Once a parking session is ended, the elapsed time and amount paid are shown on the cars dashboard, requiring the driver to simply press a button to complete the transaction.

In partnership with Honda and ParkWhiz, Visa will demonstrate fuel and parking proof-of-concept apps at Mobile World Congress, February 22-25 in Barcelona, Spain (Hall 6, Exhibit Booth 6D40). Developed by Honda Developer Studio and fully integrated into Hondas head unit, the fuel and parking proof-of-concepts are designed to bring greater simplicity and convenience to services and tasks consumers do every day. Both apps showcase Visa Token Service and feature Visa Checkout, Visas online payment service offering simple, one-touch payments. Additional features include:

Visa demonstrated car-based commerce as an industry-first at Mobile World Congress 2015, when it showcased how in-car payments could simplify ordering food at a quick service restaurant. Over the last year, Visa has continued to test and evolve in-car payments, including showing how to simplify the process of leasing or buying a car, or even managing services like auto insurance or road tolls, directly from the drivers seat.

The notion of transforming a car into a platform for payments is not as far off as some may think, and we have made a great deal of progress since first introducing the idea one year ago, said Jim McCarthy, executive vice president of innovation and strategic partnerships, Visa Inc. Working with Honda to test these prototypes gets us another step closer toward commercial reality, which we think provides exciting opportunities to everyone who plays a role in the payments and automotive ecosystems.

"This project demonstrates how apps can truly transform the in-car experience while creating new opportunities for automakers," said John Moon, developer relations lead for Honda Developer Studio.

"At ParkWhiz we are very focused on creating a frictionless, and of course safe, parking experience for drivers," said Aashish Dalal, CEO, ParkWhiz. "Eliminating the need for drivers to take tickets or check out at pay boxes is a giant step toward a frictionless experience and a big win for drivers. ParkWhiz is thrilled to be partnered with Visa on this ground-breaking innovation."

The companies currently expect to test the fuel app concept in Northern California and the parking app concept in New York City, both over a three-month period, starting this spring.

Back to top
IMF Survey : Asia and Latin America Look to Strengthen Trade, Financial Ties

Trade and financial ties between Asia, Latin America have strengthened, but regions face challenges going forward

China slowdown affecting Latin Americas commodity exporters, financial flows may be affected

The Trans-Pacific Partnership can be a good deal for global trade

There is great potential to deepen trade and financial linkages between Asia and Latin America, and implementing the right policies will be key to a successful partnership, conference participants said.

Asia-Latin America Conference

The March 3 conference, entitled Economic Linkages between Asia and Latin America: Opportunities, Challenges, and Policies, noted that trade and financial ties between Latin America and Asia have clearly strengthened over the past decade. China in particular has become a major export market for Latin Americas commodities. Investment flows between both regions have also been growing, especially from Asia to Latin America.

But uncertainty about the future is higher. Rebalancing of economic activity in China (from investment and manufacturing toward consumption and services), weaker commodity prices, and tighter global financial conditions are bearing down on Asia and Latin America. These developments are also weighing heavily on global trade.

For the first time in 20 years, trade growth is slower than GDP growth, said IMF Deputy Managing Director Min Zhu in his opening remarks. The key issue for both regions is finding ways to promote growth and trade, he said.

Zhu also mentioned the large number of trade agreements between both regions. In the past 10 years, both continents have signed many trade agreementsfrom 2 in 2004 to 22 in 2013 and more are expected. The key to success with trade agreements is implementation, implementation, implementation, Zhu said.

The conference, held at IMF headquarters in Washington, D.C., brought together academics, regional experts, as well as senior policymakers, including U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman. Conference participants also discussed how the new Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)a trade agreement among twelve Pacific Rim countries signed last monthwould affect both regions as well as the global trading system.

A shifting relationship

Panelists discussed the recent and potential spillovers between China and Latin America, and the risks associated with them. According to Andres Gluski, President and CEO of AES Corporation, the most important near-term risk to the trade relationship between Asia and Latin America was the price of commodities, which are driven by the growth in China. Against this backdrop, Margaret Myers, a Director at the Inter-American Dialogue, considered the diversification of engagement as a critical issue for both regions in the longer run. The current model of engagementwhere about 80 percent of lending by Chinese policy banks to Latin America focused on extractives and infrastructure developmentperpetuated commodity dependencies, Myers said. Bank lending has also slowed given weaker commodity prices and lower growth in both China and Latin America.

Xie Wenze, a Professor at the Institute of Latin American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, mentioned three areas where the relationship between Asia and Latin America could be strengthened further over the next 5-10 yearstrade, production chains, and infrastructure. In the past, the economic cooperation between both regions was mostly driven by trade, but from now on financial cooperation will be the most important engine, added Wenze.

But Moises Naim, a Distinguished Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, pointed out that both regions would first need to realign their relationship. In the case of China, the country would need to move away from being a generous lenderwhere no questions were asked and not much due diligence performedto a collector of bad debts. Several panelists agreed and called on China to increase transparency and rely on more market-based mechanisms in its lending strategy.

A new partnership

Conference participants debated how the TPP would affect the evolving relationship between Asia and Latin America. The TPP is the largest regional trade agreement involving advanced and developing countries, and also the most comprehensive in scope and depth of liberalization, said Jeffrey Schott, a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Its also a living agreementmeaning that new countries could join after the TPP enters into force. Caroline Atkinson, former U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor, said she was optimistic that the TPP could be ratified this year by the U.S. Congress.

The TPP could lead to nearly $500 billion in permanent real income gains and more than $1 trillion in exports of goods and services above baseline projections, said Schott. While the U.S. and Japan account for most of the gains (about 55 percent), Vietnam and Malaysia stand to gain the most as a share of GDP. For Japan, the TPP is tremendously important and allows the country to jump ahead to a global free trade agreement network, said Takatoshi Ito from Columbia University. Countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Korea, and the Philippines, currently not members of TPP, would benefit strongly from joining. But Chinas accession would be the real game changer in terms of boosting the gains for all participants, said Herminio Blanco, former Mexico Trade and Industry Minister.

Panelists considered the TPP a ground-breaking deal as it covered six major chapters (services, investment, labor, environment, intellectual property rights, and digital trade), set high standards on labor and environmental issues, and included new areas such as e-commerce. TPP puts a premium on eliminating unnecessary barriers to trade that stand in the way of firms being able to take advantage of the global economy and export their products, said U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman.
Imperial Valley News Center

Oaksterdam University Returns to Las Vegas March 11-14 With Cannabis Horticulture Seminar

Oakland, California - Oaksterdam University, the first cannabis college in the United States, will be in Las Vegas March 11 to 14, 2016, to host its renown Cannabis Horticulture Seminar. The entire seminar will be held at The Plaza Hotel and is the most comprehensive and advanced learning opportunity in the country for prospective and existing cannabis growers.

Were happy to be back in Las Vegas to offer this seminar, said Dale Sky Jones, Executive Chancellor of Oaksterdam. People from around the country are looking for comprehensive cannabis horticulture training and it is very easy to come into Las Vegas for a four-day course.

Sponsored by Green Therapeutics, a licensed cultivation and production MME located in North Las Vegas, this seminar will be taught by Oaksterdam Universitys Joey Ereneta, Jeff Jones, Dale Sky Jones, Aseem Sappal, and Amanda Connor. Learning about cannabis horticulture dovetails well with OUs Basic and Business Programs as it is important for aspiring budtenders, cannabis chefs, edibles manufacturers, and others to have a well-rounded education.

This seminar will also include a class project in which attendees will create their own personal grow room design! At the end of four days of intensive instruction26 hours of grow training from OUs expert growersattendees have the option to become certified, which is an excellent credential to have in the expanding cannabis industry. Certification is available and requires passing an exam.

Topics will cover everything from seed to sale and more including:

Introduction to cannabis, legal implications and new political developments

Introduction to vegetative growth including starting from cuttings

Nutrients and pH; how to mix measure and adjust

Flowering and plant propagation

Grow room design

Conditions for optimal plant growth

Indoor horticulture safety and responsibility

Introduction to grow equipment

Electrical safety and lighting

Pests and pathogens

Organic methods

Harvesting

The seminar consists of two parts; Part 1 will cover basic information on March 11 and 12, while Part 2 will cover advanced information on March 13 and 14. Part 1 tuition is $645; Part 1& 2 tuition is $1,045. Participants must graduate from Part 1 to take Part 2. Registration is open at http://oaksterdamuniversity.com/lasvegas2016/.

About Oaksterdam University: Since 2007, when Oaksterdam University became the first cannabis college in the United States, it has been the forerunner in providing the highest quality training to people interested in a career in the cannabis industry and the first institution to address the growing needs of the marijuana movement, from patients to regulators. Such a focus has established Oaksterdam University as the only cannabis college with a comprehensive curriculum in cannabis business and horticulture available today. In addition to training individuals wanting to get into the cannabis industry, OU trains regulators including city council members, state agencies, and government officials as well as state evaluators overseeing medical marijuana license applications. Oaksterdam Universitys scope into research and development has expanded through partnerships with the Oregon Health Research Institute as well as with the University of West Indies. Our faculty is comprised of professionals, academics and entrepreneurs, and OU alumniover 25,000 from over 30 countries who have received training regarding cannabis and marijuana policy reformare the most active in the world.
Research Stars Will Illumine Medicine, Science and Energy at UC San Diego-Kyoto University Symposium

La Jolla, California - Two of the worlds preeminent research universities will co-host Nobel Prize laureates and other academic and research luminaries when UC San Diego and Kyoto University hold their March 14-15 Joint Symposium on the La Jolla campus.

The Nobel laureates, Roger Tsien of UC San Diego and Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University, will keynote six leadership speeches and three breakout sessions focused on regenerative medicine and biology; cancer and drug development; and advanced energy research.

Tsien will also deliver the keynote lecture for the cancer and drug-development sessions, and Yamanaka will deliver the keynote lecture for the regenerative medicine and biology sessions.

The second UC San Diego-Kyoto University Joint Symposium will feature some of the most insightful and thought-provoking scholars and scientists of the Pacific Rim, said Sandra Brown, Vice Chancellor for Research at UC San Diego. We are establishing the foundation of productive, long-term, international collaborations.

University leaders speaking at the symposium include UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla; Vice Chancellor Brown; and Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences David Brenner.

Kyoto University is represented by Executive Vice President for Research Nagahiro Minato and Executive Vice President Kayo Inaba.

Researchers and faculty members from the American and Japanese universities will participate in the three breakout sessions. Both UC San Diego and Kyoto University are doing ground-breaking work in regenerative medicine, biology, cancer treatment, drug development, and energy research, and a key goal of the symposium is to strengthen current collaborations and spark future ones with paired presentations.

Registration is open to UC San Diego faculty, staff and students, as well as members of the regional research community. Sign up, and learn more about the symposium, here.
Safeguarding California - Climate Change Implementation Action Plan for Agriculture

Sacramento, California - With the release this week of the States Safeguarding California: Implementation Action Plans, the work of CDFA is detailed along with other state government agencies working to adapt to climate change.

Excerpts:

CDFA has developed outreach and incentive programs such as the Healthy Soils Initiative, the State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP), and the Dairy Digester Research and Development Program (DDRDP).

The Healthy Soils Initiative is a central piece of CDFAs efforts to develop climate-smart management practices. Governor Brown introduced the Healthy Soils Initiative in his proposed budget for the 2015  2016 fiscal year. The purpose of the Healthy Soils Initiative is to build the organic matter content in soils which offers multiple benefits that contribute to food security and climate change resilience. Soils that are rich in carbon, or soil organic matter (SOM), are more resistant to erosion (such as could occur in an extreme wind or precipitation events), have greater water retention (providing resiliency during water scarcity) and provide nutrients to crops, among numerous other ecosystem benefits.

Senate Bill 103, emergency drought legislation from March 2014, designated $10 million from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund for CDFA to disperse to farmers for the implementation of irrigation practices that save water and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The resulting program, the State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP), promotes both climate change mitigation and adaptation through water management and energy efficiency, making agriculture more resilient to the impacts that climate change will have on water and energy resources. CDFA designed SWEEP to provide grants for irrigation improvements that conserve water (e.g., conversion of flood irrigation to micro irrigation or implementation of water management tools) with energy efficiency components (e.g., conversion of diesel pumps to electric or renewable energy sources) that reduce GHG emissions. These projects have allowed farmers to effectively manage water resources and create resiliency in their operations through the use of on-farm technologies (e.g., soil water sensors and irrigation scheduling).

CDFA is also working on incentivizing practices to obtain both mitigation and adaptation on California dairies through the Dairy Digester Research and Development Program (DDRDP). Dairy anaerobic digesters are poised to become a larger contributor to Californias renewable energy portfolio. By utilizing methane to create renewable energy, they mitigate methane greenhouse gas emissions and also help the industry adapt to a changing climate. In 2014, CDFA was provided $12 million from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to provide grants for digester development and to fund research and demonstration projects that study and facilitate changes in manure management practices at California dairies that will directly result in greenhouse gas emission reductions: and, facilitate improved understanding of the scientific and technical aspects of dairy digesters.

Climate change is inevitably going to transform Californias agricultural sector. The goal of agricultural adaptation efforts should be sustainability and continued vibrancy in the agricultural community at all farm sizes. Engagement with stakeholders must be an underlying theme throughout all state activities in order achieve successful proliferation of information and elicit collaborative efforts. CDFA will continue to engage with partners and stakeholders to find new ways to build resilience in the sector.
Moments of Acute Stress Can Cause Molecular Alterations in Immune Response

San Diego, California - Chronic psychosocial and emotional stress has well-documented negative effects upon the human immune system, measurably increasing the risk of disease. Much less is known about the health effects of acute but transitory episodes of stress, such as jumping out of an airplane. Do these panic-inducing moments also raise the risk of stress-related conditions and disorders, such as cardiovascular disease, sleep dysfunction, impaired wound healing, depression and obesity?

A team of researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, Stony Brook University in New York and elsewhere addressed that question by asking study participants to literally jump out of a plane, taking blood samples before and after to measure key immune response indicators.

Their findings are published in the March 4 issue of Brain, Behavior and Immunity.

In our everyday lives, acute stress is manageable and does not cause physiological damage, said study co-author Brinda Rana, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine. However, for those who experience it frequently, it can be a risk for chronic diseases and disorders, such as cardiovascular and immune modulated inflammation. And since the health of the immune system is crucial to protection against pathogens and other diseases, its important to understand the impact of stressful life events on the ability of our immune system to properly do its job.

The study involved 39 individuals (24 males, 15 females) who had independently contacted a New York-area skydiving school to schedule a first-time tandem sky dive in which the student skydiver was connected by harness to an instructor who guided the student through the jump, freefall and landing.

All of the participants were healthy adults with no history of cardiac or mental illness. They were divided into two groups: 13 would have their RNA expression profiles measured to understand molecular signatures associated with stress, and 26 would be studied by flow cytometry to access changes in immune cell composition in blood.

Blood sampling was precisely scheduled by the lab of co-author Lilianne R. Mujica-Parodi, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Stony Brook University. Participants provided a baseline blood sample at 9:15 a.m. within one week prior to or one day after the sky dive. On the day of the skydive, all participants awoke at 6:30 a.m. and arrived at Stony Brook University Hospital at 7:30 a.m. where pre-boarding samples were collected at 9:15 a.m., one hour before take-off.

The actual jump occurred at 10:30 a.m., when the airplane reached an altitude of 11,550 feet. Skydivers landed five minutes later, with post-landing samples taken at 10:45 a.m. and again at 11:30 a.m. back at the hospital.

Our tandem skydive instructor is also a phlebotomist, said Mujica-Parodi. He carried the blood draw supplies with him on the jump and was poised to draw blood as soon as the skydivers hit the ground.

In addition, saliva samples were collected every 15 minutes from 9:15 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on both the day of the sky dive and the baseline hospital day.

Previous research has shown that acute, short-term stress provokes a mixed bag of immune responses, some beneficial, some not. For example, numbers of natural killer cells, which are part of the innate immune response, increase, but skin healing capacity is reduced. The novelty of the study, said Rana, is leveraging advanced computational and molecular tools to assess large-scale immune system responses, to more finely detail the effects of acute, short-term stress.

Our study is the first to probe the rapid transcriptomic (messenger RNA) changes in white blood cells that occur before and after an acute psychological stressor, said Rana. We identified specific genes and pathways involved in both the innate and the adaptive immune response that were dysregulated in response to the acute stress of the sky dive, and which returned rapidly to natural baseline levels one hour after the jump.

Interestingly, the researchers noted that modules of coordinately expressed genes responding to stress were different between male and female skydivers, which they say may help explain gender differences observed in development of stress related cardiovascular and autoimmune disorders, as well as conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (which is twice as common in women).

Nadejda Beliakova-Bethell, PhD, first co-author of the study and an assistant project scientist at UC San Diego, with background in infectious diseases, said while the research was exploratory, it laid the foundation for future, more detailed experiments to elucidate the contribution of stressful life events and exposure to pathogens to the functioning of the immune system.

The immune response to stress is similar to the response to pathogens, said Beliakova-Bethell. An instance of an acute stress or infection activates the immune system, while chronic stress or infection results in the exhaustion of the immune system, making it less effective at responding to new stressful events or new pathogens. The effects on the transcriptome of white blood cells, observed in this study, were very transient, returning to baseline levels within one hour after landing, but with repeated acute or chronic stress, these transcriptomic changes would be expected to be more permanent, and may be similar, at least in part, to the effects of chronic viral infection.

Future studies could make an important contribution to identifying gene targets for developing therapeutic strategies that would help people to cope with the prolonged effects of a stressor or to fight new infections. This would be specifically important for the elderly, who would have accumulated effects of stressors and infections throughout their lifetimes.

Co-authors include Michael S. Breen and Christopher H. Woelk, University of Southampton, UK; Joshua M. Carlson, Northern Michigan University; and Wayne Y. Ensign, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego.

Funding and support for this research came, in part, from National Institutes of Health (grants 5MO1-RR-10710, AG035031 and 2T32AI007384-21A1), the Office of Naval Research Stress Physiology and Biophysics Program (grant N00014-19-1-0351; UC San Diego #27283A); VA Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health; Center for AIDS Research at UC San Diego (grant AI36214), the San Diego Veterans Medical Research Foundation, the Pendleton Charitable Trust and the Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, Office of Research and Development.
Nine-Year Anniversary of the Disappearance of Robert Levinson

Washington, DC - Secretary of State John Kerry: "On the anniversary today of Robert Levinsons disappearance from Kish Island, Iran, nine years ago, I want to underscore our commitment to locate Bob and bring him home.

"For almost a decade, a beloved husband, brother, father, and grandfather has been kept from celebrating family milestones most take for granted. No one should have to endure what Mr. Levinson and his family have endured for so long.

"As the President has said, and as I have told the Levinson family when I have met with them, we will never forget Bob, and we will not rest until the Levinson family is whole again.

"The U.S. government in its entirety will continue all efforts to locate Bob and bring him home. The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has committed to cooperating with the United States to determine the whereabouts of Mr. Levinson, and we are holding Iran to its promise.

"In March 2015, the FBI also announced a $5 million reward for any information that could lead to his safe return. We call on anyone with information about this case to contact the FBI at http://tips.fbi.gov or email the FBI at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ..

"Information will be kept confidential and can be provided anonymously."
UPDATED

The Chicago school district is suing former superintendent Barbara Byrd-Bennett and the owners at SUPES Academy and Synesi Associates for more than $65 million in damages in connection with the ex-superintendents role in steering about $23.5 million in contracts to companies owned by her former employers, the Chicago Tribune reported Thursday.

The lawsuit , filed in Cook County Court in Chicago and first reported by the Tribune, accuses Byrd-Bennett, Gary Solomon, the owner of SUPES Academy and Synesi, and Thomas Vranas, who is also a co-owner of SUPES Academy and Synesi Associates, and the two companies of conspiring to defraud the school district of millions of dollars through a bribery and kickback scheme.

The lawsuit accuses Byrd-Bennett and the other defendants of deceiving the school district, breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and fraudulently obtaining public funds, which should be returned.

The defendants conduct was intentionally deceitful, and so reprehensible that it warrants punitive damages, according to the lawsuit.

Byrd-Bennett pleaded guilty last October to one count of wire fraud in connection with the bribery scheme. She is cooperating with federal authorities in their case against Vranas and Solomon, and faces up to 7.5 years prison.

Federal officials have said that Byrd-Bennett agreed to steer contracts to SUPES Academy in return for secret kickbacks. The scheme netted her more than $865,000, the district says in its lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges that Byrd-Bennett made the deal to steer business to Vranas and Solomon well before she was appointed CEO of Chicago schools in October 2012. Byrd-Bennett had worked as a consultant for SUPES before taking the top job in Chicago.

Byrd-Bennett falsely told the district when introducing a Synesi employee to CPS that she would receive no financial benefit, and she gave Synesi information that provided the company with an advantage over competitors, according to the lawsuit.

Simply put, the lawsuit says, the defendants have stolen money from Plaintiff and the schoolchildren of the City of Chicago, and that money should be returned.

[Update (6:01 p.m.): CPSs CEO Forrest Claypool said in a statement that Byrd-Bennett and company were aware of CPSs financial situation yet proceeded to take needed resources away from students.

With scarce resources, staff furloughs and painful budget cuts, CPS is keeping a close watch on every dollar, Claypool said. Barbara Byrd-Bennett and her co-conspirators knew the Districts dire straits and still concocted this scheme to divert needed resources away from classrooms and line their own pockets. So today CPS took action in Cook County court to go after the $65 million in damages and civil penalties that our children are entitled to receive. With serious budget challenges facing the district, well continue to fight for every dollar our children deserve. ]
Reconnaissance Flights Into Atmospheric Rivers Aim To Improve West Coast Storm Predictions

San Diego, California - Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego have developed a new method for improving atmospheric river forecasts based on collecting special observations using two aircraft in atmospheric rivers over the northeast Pacific Ocean.

The method was used for the first time in February in National Weather Service-directed flights over the Pacific Ocean. Atmospheric rivers are corridors of moist air and strong winds that can deliver large portions of Californias annual precipitation in a matter of days.

The data collected during this study will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of improving the computer model forecasts of heavy rainfall during these winter time events by providing high-resolution information within these rivers of moisture that flow over the Pacific Ocean into areas along the West Coast, said Lt. Col. Jon Talbot, 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron senior meteorologist.

Scientist F. Martin Ralph, director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at Scripps, said the observations made aboard two U.S. Air Force C-130 aircraft were aimed at improving forecasters ability to say exactly where atmospheric river storms will make landfall and produce heavy rain. Current forecasts of landfall location of ARs made one to three days in advance are typically off by 300 kilometers (200 miles).

The inaccuracy is especially acute in forecasts of precipitation events related to atmospheric rivers. Sometimes the inaccuracy is so great that storms miss entire watersheds that had expected to be inundated with rain or snow, impacting adjacent areas that may or may not have been prepared. As with hurricanes, improvements in atmospheric river storm tracking capabilities can inform decisions at state and county levels to take potentially life and property-saving emergency measures.

Ralph said the mission represents a new chapter in West Coast weather prediction by bringing the capabilities of the Air Forces Weather Reconnaissance Squadron to bear on the challenges of observing atmospheric rivers and improving prediction of their landfall.

While many key data are provided by satellites and other sources over the oceans, they lack the ability to adequately observe both the winds aloft and the water vapor aloft in atmospheric rivers themselves, said Ralph, an expert on atmospheric rivers and the developer of the reconnaissance mission this winter. These gaps, including subtle differences in the patterns of water vapor, winds, and temperatures, are greatest within atmospheric rivers and their precursor weather conditions offshore and are the top cause of forecast errors in AR landfalls.

During three February storms, the two aircraft flew over the north Pacific. One aircraft was based in Hawaii. The second aircraft flew two missions from near Seattle and the third from near San Francisco. The researchers deployed dropsondes from the aircraft, small cylindrical tubes containing instruments that make detailed measurements of water vapor and wind speed and direction as they fall to earth. In coordinated flights, two aircraft deployed the dropsondes roughly every 50 miles across the full width of each AR. This creates a multidimensional view of the ARs. The data was fed in real-time to the weather prediction models at the National Center for Environmental Prediction and other global weather prediction centers

The Scripps-NOAA-Air Force data-collection flights led by Ralph complement two similar missions led by NOAA that employed manned and unmanned flights to observe atmospheric conditions in the tropical Pacific Ocean. All three took advantage of one of the strongest El Nino seasons in the past 60 years to view the evolution of storms. This operational mission built upon a decade of past research, and coordinated with current research that used other aircraft also sampling storms this winter over the Pacific.

This mission is also one of several efforts at Scripps designed to observe this years event using methods that were less developed or nonexistent during the last major El Ninos.

The suite of Scripps projects includes a survey of the Southern California coastline by aircraft-mounted light-detection and ranging, or lidar, instruments. Lidar creates detailed measurements of coastal topography as El Nino changes the shape of beaches and cliffs. Another study will send Scripps researchers to Californias coastal waters in April to examine El Ninos effects on California Current marine life during a time of year when nutrients are propelled to the ocean surface from deep waters. Other researchers are enlisting the publics help to document the evolution of El Ninos effects on the coastline and estuaries at ground level with photos.

Better forecasts of landfalling atmospheric rivers can help with precipitation and river predictions in ways that support water managers in California, said Jay Jasperse, chief engineer of the Sonoma County Water Agency, which oversees operations for a key reservoir that helps supply water to 600,000 people.

Atmospheric rivers are the key to our areas water supply, and to flood risk, added Jasperse. These efforts by Scripps, NOAA, and the Air Force are welcomed as we develop new methods to support water management in this drought-prone region, including exploring the use of Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations. Better information on approaching atmospheric rivers, such as being developed by Scripps Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes and its partners, are vital to our water operations.
FTC Action Leads to Court Orders Against Scheme That Charged Millions of Dollars to Consumers' Bank and Credit Card Accounts Without Their Consent

Washington, DC - At the Federal Trade Commissions request, a federal district court has banned seven individuals, Ideal Financial Solutions Inc., and its subsidiaries from collecting or disclosing consumer information. Until the FTC filed its lawsuit in 2013, the defendants operated a massive scam that took money from consumers bank accounts without their authorization.

These defendants bought sensitive personal information from data brokers and used it to steal peoples money, said Jessica Rich, Director of the FTCs Bureau of Consumer Protection. Misusing sensitive data causes real harm to consumers, and Im pleased that the court banned the defendants from this conduct.

The defendants bought consumer payday loan applications, which included Social Security and bank account numbers, from data brokers and payday loan websites, and used the information to defraud consumers. To end the problem, the FTC has sued several of the data brokers who sold consumers information to Ideal Financial, including Sitesearch Corp., also known as LeapLab, Gen X Marketing Group LLC and Sequoia One LLC.

The court has imposed a $43,083,720 judgment against Ideal Financial Solutions and its subsidiaries, Steven Sunyich, Christopher Sunyich, Michael Sunyich, and Melissa Sunyich Gardner, and a $36,575,542 judgment against Jared Mosher. The court banned the ringleaders, Jared Mosher, Steven Sunyich and Christopher Sunyich, from marketing, selling and handling any credit-related products or services. It banned all of the defendants from collecting or disclosing consumer account numbers except for transactions expressly authorized by the consumer.

Settlements entered in June 2014 banned Kent Brown and Shawn Sunyich from placing unauthorized charges on consumer financial accounts and collecting and disclosing consumer financial information without the consumers express consent. The orders imposed suspended $25 million judgments against each defendant, and Brown was required to liquidate his assets and turn them over to the FTC.

The U. S. District Court for the District of Nevada entered the final judgment against the remaining defendants on February 23, 2016.

The Federal Trade Commission works to promote competition, and protect and educate consumers. You can learn more about consumer topics and file a consumer complaint online or by calling 1-877-FTC-HELP (382-4357).
U.S.-Kazakhstan Strategic Partnership Dialogue

Washington, DC - Under Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller welcomed Kazakhstani Deputy Foreign Minister Yerzhan Ashikbayev to the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on March 8 for a working session of the Fourth U.S.-Kazakhstan Strategic Partnership Dialogue.

Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Nisha Biswal led the U.S. delegation for discussions on international and regional affairs, security cooperation, economic cooperation, human and labor rights, rule of law and governance, education cooperation, and other issues of mutual interest. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Tom Malinowski chaired the Committee on Human Dimension with Kazakhstans Deputy Minister of Justice Elvira Azimova. Commerce Assistant Secretary for Global Markets Arun Kumar chaired the Committee on Economics with Kazakhstans Vice Minister of Investment and Development Rakhim Oshakbayev.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov launched the Fourth Strategic Partnership Dialogue in Astana, Kazakhstan, in November 2015.

The Dialogue is a regularly planned policy consultation designed to advance our common agenda and opportunities for cooperation across the full range of bilateral and regional issues.

The United States looks forward to broadening and deepening its relationship with Kazakhstan on the basis of these candid and constructive conversations.
Alcohol Action Ireland has called for Irish women to be fully informed when it comes to decisions around their alcohol consumption, as figures reveal they are now drinking more alcohol, and more often, than previous generations.

The group said this week that the impact of this change in drinking patterns was already clear in a number of worrying health trends, including an increase in the number of young women presenting with serious alcohol-related conditions, such as liver cirrhosis, and a high rate of alcohol-related cancers.

Speaking on Tuesday (March 8) to mark International Womens Day, Catherine Keane, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at Alcohol Action Ireland, said: We must create an environment where Irish women are fully informed when it comes to decisions around their alcohol consumption. At the moment we have an alcohol-saturated environment and Irish women are drinking much more than previous generations  this is having very serious consequences for their health, many of which they are simply unaware of.

More than one-fifth (22.8%) of female drinkers, who consumed alcohol in the week prior to the Health Research Boards national alcohol diary survey, drank more than the low-risk weekly drinking guidelines (i.e. more than 11 standard drinks). This measure was highest in the 18-to-24 years age group, with 39 per cent of young women drinking more than the recommended weekly guidelines in the week prior to the survey.

One-in-ten (9.1%) women consumed more than the recommended weekly guidelines in a single day in the week prior to the survey.

According to Keane, women, from a young age, were constantly exposed to targeted alcohol marketing, largely promoting drinks high in alcohol content such as wine and spirits, which all served to normalise regular and excessive drinking, so that it was seen as acceptable, risk-free, and central to relaxing and having fun with your friends.

While women are being bombarded with messages about how wonderful wine is or are being invited to take part in events like a Bottomless Prosecco Brunch, there is no mention of the other, very real side of alcohol consumption for female drinkers in Ireland, which is far removed from the frothy, fun advertising, added Keane.

She pointed out that excessive alcohol consumption increased womens risk of developing a wide range of diseases, such as liver cirrhosis and several forms of cancers, including breast cancer. One-in-eight breast cancer cases in Ireland is associated with alcohol consumption and the proportion of alcohol-related deaths from cancer among Irish women, at almost four-in-10, is significantly higher than the European average.

Keane warned that as well as having very serious consequences for womens physical health, alcohol consumption was also a significant contributory factor to mental health issues.

Alcohol is widely promoted to women as a way to relax and de-stress, or a reward at the end of a long day, and, along with this, there is a widespread misconception that wine is somehow better for you than other types of alcohol, therefore making it appear more acceptable or even safe.

Keane expected that the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill would help to inform women about the impact of their alcohol consumption.

Our newly elected TDs have a responsibility to prioritise public health and create an environment that supports women in Ireland to make healthy choices, with the implementation of the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill a key priority.

This landmark piece of legislation contains a number of important provisions, including health labelling on all alcohol products and regulations to protect children from alcohol marketing, which will help create an environment that promotes and supports health and well-being rather than encouraging the harmful drinking patterns that currently cause so much damage.

dara.gantly@imt.ie
Langur Attends Feeder's Funeral, Tries to Wake Him Up in Heartbreaking Video
First, Kansas politicians squawked when the states supreme court ruled its school funding formula inequitable.

Now, it appears, theyre working to come up with an answer, according to the Associated Press . But many question if the proposals are enough.

Kansas lawmakers Wednesday proposed two answers to the state supreme courts February ruling, which said the state underfunded poor districts by at least $54 million last school year. The state must come up with money by June, or risk having the court effectively shut the schools down.

The House appropriations committee agreed Wednesday to sponsor a plan by Rep. Ron Ryckman, a Republican, to increase the states spending by $37 million this fall.

An alternative plan, currently being designed by Sen. Ty Masterson, a Republican, would reallocate the states education spending among the states 286 school districts.

Both plans, according to the AP, would create winners and losers. Under Mastersons plan, 100 districts would get more money and 186 districts would lose money. Under Ryckmans plan, just 79 districts would lose money.

But Democratic Sen. Anthony Hensley told the AP that neither proposal would provide the states poor districts with enough money.

Its a very bad idea, and it doesnt come close to complying with the supreme courts order, Hensley said, according to the AP. Hensley said the state owes its poor districts close to $110 million, making up for shortfalls during the 2015-16 school year and next school year.

Lawyers for Dodge City, Hutchinson, Kansas City, and Witchita, the four poor districts that filed the original lawsuit, said the courts ruling implies that the state owes for the 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 school years, totaling $163 million.

The court has yet to rule on another part of the long-running lawsuit, Gannon v. State of Kansas, dealing with adequacy of funding, which would require the legislature to increase its aid to education by $548 million.
Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

IndyArts email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Ottessa Moshfegh's Eileen (Jonathan Cape, 14.99) is the clear stand out of this month's debut novels. Moshfegh's 1960s snowy New England-set tale of a young woman who lives with her alcoholic father and works in a boys' prison has been compared to the works of Shirley Jackson and Flannery O'Connor, with shades of Hitchcock thrown in for good measure. And although this illustrious heritage certainly points to some of the novel's more noirish elements, it doesn't quite do either author or her heroine, with her "cold and deadly New England exterior," justice. There's something far more grubby and gritty here than one expects. It's rare to hear the term "makes my skin crawl" outside the realm of horror, but that best describes my reading experience. Not afraid to peer into the darkest and dirtiest corners of her characters lives, Moshfegh has proved herself an audacious talent, and without doubt one to watch.

While Eileen retains sharp focus on what turns out to be a defining moment in the protagonist's life  events over one Christmas that led to her leaving the town she grew up in, her "hell and home"  Mary Paulson-Ellis's The Other Mrs Walker (Mantle, 12.99) takes a protracted look at her characters' lives, weaving together two stories beginning nearly a century apart. In 2011 middle-aged Margaret Penny flees her life in London, seeking refuge with her elderly mother in Edinburgh. Meanwhile, back in 1929, a small girl greedily devours an orange given to her by her father while her mother gives birth to twins upstairs. All in all, it feels a little heavy, too much too densely packed together, but the interlocking plots are cleverly and carefully enough constructed  not to mention full of twists and turns  and Paulson-Ellis is reaching towards something akin to poetry with a syntax: "Then Margaret understood. Here was a woman just like her. Receptionist. Administrator. Personal Assistant in more ways than one. A dish on the side that never quite became the proper meal."

Family myths and intergenerational secrets also lie at the heart of Miroslav Penkov's Stork Mountain (Sceptre, 18.99). An American student heavily saddled with debt travels to a remote town in rural Bulgaria, where Turkish, Greek and Slavic cultures intersect, in search of his inheritance. Again, as with The Other Mrs Walker, two stories entwine, the fate of the grandson curiously reminiscent of that of his grandfather before him  the latter a man so caught up in myth-making it's hard to work out the truth from the lies. There's plenty to admire in Penkov's story; his handling of history and folklore in particular, but the narrative is more than a little unevenly weighted  the serious stuff all packed into the final few chapters, especially when compared to the lightness of the earlier sections.

By comparison, there's nothing particularly easygoing about Elliot Ackerman's Green on Blue (Daunt Books, 9.99). A US soldier who has served five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Ackerman's literary endeavours see him examining the other side of the story. What could have been an uncomfortable act of cultural appropriation  the tale of an Afghan war orphan, poised between boyhood and manhood, caught up in a conflict far beyond his control  is actually written with an impressive degree of empathy. Ackerman paints a picture of a world defined by Pashtunwali  a code of honour that dictates what turns out to be an almost never-ending cycle of revenge and violence between men  into which the insurgence of foreign forces treading a fine line between aid and exploitation only complicates the situation. War's true nature, the young soldier learns towards the end of the novel, is "that it had no sides. Each was the same as another."
Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

IndyArts email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

This year is the bicentennial of Charlotte Bronte's birth. She died in March 1855, at the age of nearly 39, which makes this month something of an anniversary too. Her best known work, Jane Eyre, has the capacity of a fairytale to transcend time, with its Cinderella story of an unwanted child who becomes a poor, plain governess but ends up beating the odds by snaring the Byronic hero Mr Rochester.

High points in the novel's rich afterlife include the 1943 Hollywood version with Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles, and, in more recent times, Michael Berkeley's opera, Fanny Britt's graphic novel Jane, the Fox and Me and the artist Paula Rego's haunting images. Yet despite its mesmerising staying power, posterity has not quite known what to do with Jane Eyre. In modern times it has been marketed as a feel-good children's book, claimed as a high-minded feminist bible, and commercially exploited as a cliched bodice-ripper (I recently bought a racy, lacy bra called "Bronte" in its honour). Yet what did it mean to readers when it first came out?

Jane Eyre has become so cosily a part of our cultural landscape that it is hard to imagine ourselves back into the mindset of the Victorians who first encountered it when it appeared out of the blue in 1847, published under the male-sounding pseudonym "Currer Bell". It became an instant bestseller, but quickly developed a reputation as a "naughty book", as GH Lewes put it. No one could doubt what Lewes called its "strange power of subjective representation", given the intense authenticity of its first-person voice. But as soon as critics concluded that the mysterious Currer Bell must be a woman, the book was attacked as "coarse" and immoral.

The most notoriously vituperative notice, published in the conservative Quarterly Review, accused Currer Bell of "moral Jacobinism"  of trying to start a revolution. It went on to insinuate that, if indeed female, she must have "for some sufficient reason  forfeited the society of her own sex", ie that she must be a fallen woman whose loose sexual behaviour had made her a pariah in decent circles. Few insults could have been more excoriating at the time. Charlotte Bronte  in reality, the spinster daughter of a provincial parson and a lifelong Tory  was nonplussed at being simultaneously tarred with the brush of political liberalism and personal libertinism.

It is easy today to dismiss Jane Eyre's Victorian critics as purblind prudes. The fact that the Quarterly's anonymous critic was herself a woman, Elizabeth Rigby, outraged 20th-century feminists, who saw it as an unsisterly affront from a hidebound conservative. Yet it is worth asking whether the intensity of the contemporary response was a more honest reaction to Jane Eyre's insistent abrasiveness than the modern tendency to remove its sting by blandly categorising it as a classic.

Culture news in pictures Show all 33 1 /33 Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures 30 September 2016 An employee hangs works of art with "Grand Teatro" by Marino Marini (R) and bronze sculpture "Sfera N.3" by Arnaldo Pomodoro seen ahead of a Contemporary Art auction on 7 October, at Sotheby's in London REUTERS Culture news in pictures 29 September 2016 Street art by Portuguese artist Odeith is seen in Dresden, during an exhibition "Magic City - art of the streets" AFP/Getty Images Culture news in pictures 28 September 2016 Dancers attend a photocall for the new "THE ONE Grand Show" at Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin, Germany REUTERS Culture news in pictures 28 September 2016 With an array of thrift store china, humorous souvenirs and handmade tile adorning its walls and floors, the Mosaic Tile House in Venice stands as a monument to two decades of artistic collaboration between Cheri Pann and husband Gonzalo Duran REUTERS Culture news in pictures 27 September 2016 A gallery assistant poses amongst work by Anthea Hamilton from her nominated show "Lichen! Libido!(London!) Chastity!" at a preview of the Turner Prize in London REUTERS Culture news in pictures 27 September 2016 A technician wearing virtual reality glasses checks his installation in three British public telephone booths, set up outside the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, Netherlands. The installation allows visitors a 3-D look into the museum which has twenty-two paintings belonging to the British Royal Collection, on loan for an exhibit from 29 September 2016 till 8 January 2017 AP Culture news in pictures 26 September 2016 An Indian artist dressed as Hindu god Shiva performs on a chariot as he participates in a religious procession 'Ravan ki Barat' held to mark the forthcoming Dussehra festival in Allahabad AFP/Getty Images Culture news in pictures 26 September 2016 Jean-Michel Basquiat's 'Air Power', 1984, is displayed at the Bowie/Collector media preview at Sotheby's in New York AFP/Getty Culture news in pictures 25 September 2016 A woman looks at an untitled painting by Albert Oehlen during the opening of an exhibition of works by German artists Georg Baselitz and Albert Oehlen in Reutlingen, Germany. The exhibition runs at the Kunstverein (art society) Reutlingen until 15 January 2017 EPA Culture news in pictures 24 September 2016 Fan BingBing (C) attends the closing ceremony of the 64th San Sebastian Film Festival at Kursaal in San Sebastian, Spain Getty Images Culture news in pictures 23 September 2016 A view of the artwork 'You Are Metamorphosing' (1964) as part of the exhibition 'Retrospektive' of Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo at Fridericianum in Kassel, Germany. The exhibition runs from 25 September 2016 to 1 January 2017 EPA Culture news in pictures 22 September 2016 Jo Applin from the Courtauld Institute of Art looks at Green Tilework in Live Flesh by Adriana Vareja, which features in a new exhibition, Flesh, at York Art Gallery. The new exhibition features works by Degas, Chardin, Francis Bacon and Sarah Lucas, showing how flesh has been portrayed by artists over the last 600 years PA Culture news in pictures 21 September 2016 Performers Sean Atkins and Sally Miller standing in for the characters played by Asa Butterfield and Ella Purnell during a photocall for Tim Burton's "Miss Peregrines Home For Peculiar Children" at Potters Field Park in London Getty Images Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A detail from the blanket 'Alpine Cattle Drive' from 1926 by artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner is displayed at the 'Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum for Contemporary Arts' in Berlin. The exhibition named 'Ernst Ludwig Kirchner - Hieroglyphen' showing the complete collection of Berlin's Nationalgallerie works of the German artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and will run from 23 September 2016 until 26 February 2017 AP Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A man looks at portrait photos by US photographer Bruce Gilden in the exhibition 'Masters of Photography' at the photokina in Cologne, Germany. The trade fair on photography, photokina, schowcases some 1,000 exhibitors from 40 countries and runs from 20 to 25 September. The event also features various photo exhibitions EPA Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A woman looks at 'Blue Poles', 1952 by Jackson Pollock during a photocall at the Royal Academy of Arts, London PA Culture news in pictures 19 September 2016 Art installation The Refusal of Time, a collaboration with Philip Miller, Catherine Meyburgh and Peter Galison, which features as part of the William Kentridge exhibition Thick Time, showing from 21 September to 15 January at the Whitechapel Gallery in London PA Culture news in pictures 18 September 2016 Artists creating one off designs at the Mm6 Maison Margiela presentation during London Fashion Week Spring/Summer collections 2017 in London Getty Images Culture news in pictures 18 September 2016 Bethenny Frankel attends the special screening of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" to celebrate the 25th Anniversary Edition release on Blu-Ray and DVD in New York City Getty Images for Walt Disney Stu Culture news in pictures 17 September 2016 Visitors attend the 2016 Oktoberfest beer festival at Theresienwiese in Munich, Germany Getty Images Culture news in pictures 16 September 2016 Visitors looks at British artist Damien Hirst work of art 'The Incomplete Truth', during the 13th Yalta Annual Meeting entitled 'The World, Europe and Ukraine: storms of changes', organised by the Yalta European Strategy (YES) in partnership with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation at the Mystetsky Arsenal Art Center in Kiev AP Culture news in pictures 16 September 2016 Tracey Emin's "My Bed" is exhibited at the Tate Liverpool as part of the exhibition Tracey Emin And William Blake In Focus, which highlights surprising links between the two artists Getty Images Culture news in pictures 15 September 2016 Musician Dave Grohl (L) joins musician Tom Morello of Prophets of Rage onstage at the Forum in Inglewood, California Getty Images Culture news in pictures 14 September 2016 Model feebee poses as part of art installation "Narcissism : Dazzle room" made by artist Shigeki Matsuyama at rooms33 fashion and design exhibition in Tokyo. Matsuyama's installation features a strong contrast of black and white, which he learned from dazzle camouflage used mainly in World War I AP Culture news in pictures 13 September 2016 Visitors look at artworks by Chinese painter Cui Ruzhuo during the exhibition 'Glossiness of Uncarved Jade' held at the exhibition hall 'Manezh' in St. Petersburg, Russia. More than 200 paintings by the Chinese artist are presented until 25 September EPA Culture news in pictures 12 September 2016 A visitor looks at Raphael's painting 'Extase de Sainte Cecile', 1515, from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence during the opening of a Raphael exhibition at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, Russia. The first Russian exhibition of the works of the Italian Renaissance artist Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino includes eight paintings and three drawings which come from Italy. Th exhibit opens to the public from 13 September to 11 December EPA Culture news in pictures 11 September 2016 Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd perform during Otis Redding 75th Birthday Celebration - Rehearsals at the Macon City Auditorium in Macon, Georgia Getty Images for Otis Redding 75 Culture news in pictures 10 September 2016 Sakari Oramo conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Chorus and the BBC Singers at the Last Night of the Proms 2016 at the Royal Albert Hall in London PA Culture news in pictures 9 September 2016 A visitor walks past a piece entitled "Fruitcake" by Joana Vasconcelo, during the Beyond Limits selling exhibition at Chatsworth House near Bakewell REUTERS Culture news in pictures 8 September 2016 A sculpture of a crescent standing on the 2,140 meters high mountain 'Freiheit' (German for 'freedom'), in the Alpstein region of the Appenzell alps, eastern Switzerland. The sculpture is lighted during the nights by means of solar panels. The 38-year-old Swiss artist and atheist Christian Meier set the crescent on the peak to start a debate on the meaning of religious symbols - as summit crosses - on mountains. 'Because so many peaks have crosses on them, it struck me as a great idea to put up an equally absurd contrast'. 'Naturally I wanted to provoke in a fun way. But it goes beyond that. The actions of an artist should be food for thought, both visually and in content' EPA Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures

The battle lines of gender politics, and their relationship to politics tout court, were much more nuanced and ambiguous in the late 1840s than one might assume. At first glance, Elizabeth Rigby  who later married the head of the National Gallery  seems a Victorian woman after Charlotte Bronte's own heart. Carving out a successful journalistic career on her own merits, she stormed a bastion of male privilege when she was appointed lead critic of the revered Quarterly. As such she embodied in real life the ideals expressed by the fictional Jane who tells Mr Rochester that women are secretly as ambitious as men to exercise their faculties.

Why, then, did Elizabeth Rigby so hate Jane Eyre? An easy answer would be that she had to conform to the Quarterly's old-school stance to keep her job. But her review fails to support that. In fact, if one reads it in depth it is clear that she does not attack Bronte's novel from a conservative position. Her accusations of Jacobinism are a cover for her own progressive political platform.

How, Rigby wonders, can Currer Bell make a hero out of Rochester? He is a rich, privileged, middle-aged, married man who gets a kick out of grooming the disempowered teenage governess he has employed to teach his illegitimate daughter. First he hooks her by telling her intimate details of his previous sex life. Then he goes on to try to get her into bed under false pretences by fixing a mock wedding. According to Rigby, most women of spirit would recoil from such a blatant exploitation of power for sexual ends. But Jane, clearly a self-deluded masochist, delights in addressing him as her "master". As for the "governess problem", Rigby is scathing. As we now know, the real Charlotte Bronte was in reality paid a mere 16 per annum when she worked as a governess in a private family, which, in today's equivalent, would be considered stingy pocket money for an au pair. Rigby fully understands that such underpaid employment was almost the only work option for impoverished but educated women at the time. Yet she blasts Jane Eyre, since it suggests that the only solution to the governess's dilemma is to marry the master. Instead, Rigby laments the fact that governesses are prevented by their gender from forming a trades union. Higher wages, she argues, would be the true solution to their plight.

Despite the "Jacobin" label, Rigby does not see Jane Eyre as a forward-looking book but as a throwback to less egalitarian times. Her views, usually regarded as misguided by modern critics, in fact enable us to understand how Jane Eyre's success in mesmerising generations of readers derive from its unspoken contradictions, which arguably give it its electric energy and have allowed it to be interpreted in so many contradictory ways.

Jane's assertiveness is indeed feminist, relocating the Byronic ego in the figure of the poor, plain governess. But her erotic masochism reflects the Fifty Shades of Grey view of gender relations promoted by the sub-Byronic commercial literature of the 1820s and 1830s which the young Charlotte had imbibed, along with the amoral, libertine, and frankly misogynistic Tory anarchism of Blackwood's Magazine and Fraser's Magazine, her favourite reading in her youth.

As a provincial, Charlotte Bronte was behind the times and outside the loop of literary London. She had no idea quite how tawdry and naive her female Byronism would seem in 1847 to the new, progressive Victorian establishment, who had moved their focus from Romantic individualism to social amelioration. And yet, for all her doubts, even Rigby acknowledged that Jane Eyre was a work of genius. Jane Eyre is too full of paradox to be read as a moral manual, but it has survived because, artistically, it has rarely been bettered.

Lucasta Miller's book is The Bronte Myth' . Her essay on why Bronte books were deemed "coarse" will appear in the Blackwell Companion to the Brontes
Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

IndyArts email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Her books have sold nearly two million copies worldwide, brought literary tourists flocking to Naples, attracted fans including Zadie Smith and Alice Sebold, and inspired fashions and recipes.

Now the Italian author of the Neapolitan novels is in the running for her first major international literary prize. The only problem is that nobody knows  or is telling, at least  the identity of the mysterious woman writing under the pseudonym Elena Ferrante.

Ferrante has been named on the 13-strong longlist of The Man Booker International Prize for The Story of the Lost Child, the last of four novels in her acclaimed Neapolitan series, released last year in Britain.

Daniela Petracco, the UK director of Europa Editions which publishes Ferrantes work in Britain, said: Shes happy to be successful but as far as I can tell, its not that important to her. Shes a writer who needs to write in order to live. Having her books read is the most important thing.

Despite the huge interest in her, as yet no one has been able to unmask the real Ferrante. No one has succeeded so far, Ms Petracco said. She is happy that all of her acclaim has come on the strength of the books alone.

The only people known to have had face-to-face contact with Ferrante are Sandro Ferri and Sandra Ozzola Ferri of Edizioni E/O, Europa Editions parent company and the Rome-based publishers of Ferrante in Italy.

Ms Petracco corresponds with Ferrante by email but has never spoken to her.

Ferrantes first novel, Troubling Love, was published in 1991. But it was the Neapolitan series that brought her to worldwide attention more than two decades later.

Her work is now published in 39 countries, selling close to 900,000 copies in the US and more than 300,000 in Britain. In Italy, a television production company is to adapt the Neapolitan books into a 32-part series.

She was nominated for Italys highest literary honour, the Strega Prize, last year but missed out to Nicola Lagioia for La Ferocia (The Ferocity). The Man Booker announcement marks her first international nomination.

This years longlist, which includes books from 12 countries including Angola, South Korea and Brazil, is the first by the Man Booker International Prize since it joined forces with The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. The Booker used to award authors for a body of work, but now it is for a single novel, shared with the translator.

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

Booker International: The longlist

Jose Eduardo Agualusa: A General Theory of Oblivion

Elena Ferrante: The Story of the Lost Child

Han Kang: The Vegetarian

Maylis de Kerangal: Mend the Living

Eka Kurniawan: Man Tiger

Yan Lianke: The Four Books

Fiston Mwanza Mujila: Tram 83

Raduan Nassar: A Cup of Rage

Marie NDiaye: Ladivine

Kenzaburo Oe: Death by Water

Aki Ollikainen: White Hunger

Orhan Pamuk: A Strangeness in My Mind

Robert Seethaler: A Whole Life
Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

IndyArts email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

On my first visit to Italy I was 13. It was on a Schools Abroad trip, on which we spent a night in the port of Brindisi, where I and my fellow schoolmates were sexually harassed by scary sailors, made sick by the stink of diesel and where nothing could have been further from the Italy of Lucy Honeychurch and George Emerson. The next time I went to Italy I was about to go to university  I was in love with life, in love with travelling, in love with love and more than ready to fall in love with the Italy I knew from the works of E M Forster. It is a love affair that has never ended.

I read A Room with a View at the age of 14  and have continued to do so, on a regular basis, ever since. I turn to it whenever I need comfort reading; it's the literary equivalent of hot buttery mashed potato on a miserably cold day. Despite that, I seem to discover something new each time I read it.

The first time I visited Florence, I felt I knew it already. Seeing the Arno and knowing this was the same river on which Lucy, Charlotte and the Emersons also gazed, gave me a thrill of connection to a past age. In 2015 I gave a talk on my biography of Princess Louise at the British Institute in Florence. Stepping into the building, on the banks of the Arno, was to enter a world where nothing seemed to have changed since Princess Louise's time (incidentally, a woman whom Forster knew). I felt as though I'd stepped into the Florence the Rev Eager would recognise, and was sure I could discern some of his "flock" in the audience.

There are so many books one should never re-read: books that spoke soulfully to your younger self seldom work when read again (most notably, for me, Paolo Coelho's By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept).

A Room With A View, however, has entertained me at all stages of my life so far. Wherever I've travelled, I've encountered Forster's characters. In Jordan, I could discern Mr Beebe and Mr Emerson visiting the temples of Petra. Last year I was in Norway when I saw a family sit down for a picnic  and they actually possessed "mackintosh squares". I have visited churches, temples and mosques all over the world and have lost count of the times I have been informed "this was built by faith", to which I always intone in my mind Mr Emerson's words: "Built by faith indeed! That simply means the workmen weren't paid properly." So far, I have managed to prevent myself from saying it out loud. I hope E M Forster would smirk a wry smile at that.

Lucinda Hawksley's new book is 'Charles Dickens and His Circle' (National Portrait Gallery, 9.99)
Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

IndyArts email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The Kindness by Polly Samson (Bloomsbury, 8.99)

Samson's second novel may be set in a dreamy rural backwater, but readers should watch out for snakes in the grass. When we first meet Julian he's "an old man of 29", felled by grief and living in his bucolic childhood home, Firdaws, which until recently he shared with his lover, Julia, and small daughter, Mira. As he attempts to evade the attentions of his overbearing mother and an ex-girlfriend, he revisits the details of a painful family tragedy. Samson's languid storytelling captures the melancholic tang of happiness gone sour and good intentions gone wrong. Emma Hagestadt

Nelly Dean by Alison Case (Borough Press, 7.99)

In this hugely enjoyable re-telling of Wuthering Heights  even purists will be won over  sensible housekeeper Nelly Dean is finally allowed to reveal her more tempestuous side. First brought up as Hindley's playmate, she later becomes his servant, though remains as devoted as ever to this increasingly brutish young man. Yet unlike the other adolescents at the Heights, Heathcliff and Catherine, Nelly must cook, clean and run the dairy. No gallivanting on the moors for her. Case, a professor of Victorian literature, does for Nelly Dean what Jean Rhys did for Bertha Mason  rescues her from the attic. EH

My Life In Houses by Margaret Forster (Vintage, 8.99)

As a child growing up in 1940s Carlisle, Forster dreamed of having a house of her own, a place where she could read and write to her heart's content. In this enjoyable memoir the novelist recounts her life through her homes  a remarkable journey that takes her from a council house with no inside lavatory, via Oxford, to the tall London house where she lived and worked from 1963 until her death last month. This house, and not just a room of her own, she argued, "provided a structure and a privacy" that allowed her to write, and her extraordinary literary legacy is proof that she was right. Marcus Field
Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

The Life Cinematic email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

In a film already so shrouded in secrecy, 10 Cloverfield Lane is sure to contain many surprises - one of which includes the voice cameo of a particular Hollywood A-list actor.

For those of you wanting to listen out for it, you won't have to stay alert for too long - the cameo in question occurs near the film's start in a scene which sees the protagonist Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) leave her fiance, Ben.



Now, the audience doesn't see Ben instead only hearing him shout off-camera - but he does have a particularly recognisable voice; specifically that of Oscar-nominee Bradley Cooper.

Revealed by Slash Film, director Dan Trachtenberg told them: "JJ and [Cooper] go way back, they had worked on Alias together. And just one random day, we still didn't have a voice for the role, and JJ thought, 'Hey, I wonder if Bradley would want to do this'.

"And we were like, 'Bradley?' and he's like, 'Cooper'. And we were like, 'Oh, cool!' So yeah, he called him up and he was stoked to help us out. It was really cool."

JJ Abrams serves as producer on 10 Cloverfield Lane, a sequel-of-sorts to Cloverfield, which was announced via the unexpected release of a trailer earlier this year. Reportedly, not even the film's cast knew it was related to Matt Reeves' 2008 hit during filming. The film also stars John Goodman and John Gallagher Jr.

In promotion of the film, the filmmaker commented on his time directing Star Wars:The Force Awakens, admitting he made an error in a particular scene involving General Leia and Chewbacca.

10 Cloverfield Lane, co-starring John Goodman and John Gallagher Jr., is released 18 March.
Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

The Life Cinematic email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

In an attempt to combat Hollywood's ongoing gender equality problem, Canada's National Film Board has promised that half of its films will be directed by women.

The government-funded body says its making a 'firm, ongoing commitment to full gender parity'. The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has promised that at least half of the films it finances will be directed by women.

The country's government-funded film body announced its new gender equality initiative on International Women's Day.

"There have been good years and lean years for women's filmmaking at the NFB. No more," commissioner Claude Joli-Coeur said in a statement. "Today, I'm making a firm, ongoing commitment to full gender parity, which I hope will help to lead the way for the industry as a whole."

Joli-Coeur said that the NFB is already on course to meet its targets over the next two years. "In our current fiscal year, films directed by women represent half of our total spending on production. In 20162017, the numbers are projected to be well above that," he explained.

The NFB's announcement sends a clear message to the global film industry as a whole, where female directors are still very much in the minority.

A study published last October by San Diego State University's Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film found that of 2014s 700 highest-grossing films, just 13% were directed by women.
Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

The Life Cinematic email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

"Well, Brian, congratulations. You've succeeded in convincing me that you do have the most tedious f**king job in England," the renegade anti-hero played by David Thewlis tells the security guard (Peter Wight) he befriends in Mike Leigh's 1993 film, Naked.

Thewlis's Mancunian accent is heard again in Anomalisa, the extraordinary new animated feature from Charlie Kaufman, who wrote the scripts for Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and wrote/directed Synecdoche, New York. This is a cartoon but it deals with loneliness, longing and despair in a profound, subtle way that few live-action dramas can match. It also has a caustic humour similar to that found in Leigh's film.

Thewlis is voicing a character who has a job almost as boring as that of Brian, the woebegone security guard in Naked. Michael Stone is a greying, middle-aged businessman who gives motivational speeches about customer service and has even written a book on the subject.

Early on in the film, Kaufman's decision to use stop-motion animation seems baffling. Generally, cartoons are about flights of fantasy, not about business trips to Cincinnati, where Michael is headed to stay overnight and to deliver a speech.

Michael is the kind of character you find frequently enough in US fiction (in John Updike's Rabbit books or in Richard Ford's The Sportswriter) but relatively rarely in films, let alone animated ones. He may be an ex-pat Brit living in Los Angeles but he shares the disappointment and sense of ennui of the middle-aged protagonists in these novels. His marriage has turned sour. Everything seems boring and burdensome to him. When we see him arrive in Cincinnati airport, pulling his suitcase behind him, he looks like a condemned man, trudging to his execution.

The film (which Kaufman co-directed with the animator Duke Johnson) originated as a "sound" play, with the actors sitting on stools reading their lines. The animation reinforces the sense that Michael is living in a world in which everyone looks and sounds the same. As he dreams in the film's most surrealistic scene, they are automatons wearing detachable masks. Almost all of the supporting characters, male and female alike, are voiced by the same actor, Tom Noonan. This adds to the eeriness.

Kaufman and Johnson defamiliarise the most banal episodes in Michael's life and make them seem creepy and strange. The cab driver who takes Michael to the hotel is unctuously friendly, talking in bland generalisations about what Cincinnati has to offer, namely a zoo with pandas and a distinctive way of cooking chilli. The hotel check-in clerk is helpful but robotic.

33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 Show all 34 1 /34 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 1. Captain America: Civil War Release date: 6 May 2016. Iron Man and Captain America are set to face off in this superhero blockbuster that will feature nearly all the Avengers but wont be an Avengers film. It will also mark the first time Spider-Man will feature in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Sony having made a deal with Marvel Studios. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 2. X-Men: Apocalypse Release date: 27 May 2016. Following the success of Days of Future Past, Apocalypse will follow the young X-Men team as the battle against Oscar Isaacs titular villain as he gathers his four horsemen; Magneto (Fassbender), Angel (Hardy), Storm (Shipp), and Psylocke (Munn). Expect carnage and no Wolverine. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 3. Suicide Squad Release date: 5 August 2016. The first supervillain film, Suicide Squad is also based in the DCEU (DC Extended Universe, where Batman and Superman live) and will introduce the world to Margot Robbies Harley Quinn and Jared Letos Joker. One of the more exciting upcoming DC films thats for sure. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 4. Doctor Strange Release date: 4 November 2016. Benedict Cumberbatch will debut in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe, where Captain America and Iron Man live) as the Sorcerer Supreme. The film already has an incredible cast, including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachael McAdams and Tilda Swinton. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 5. Untitled Lego Batman film Release date: 20 February 2017. Kicking off 2017 is the Lego version of Batman, who will lead his own spin-off, having already featured in the amazing Lego Movie. Will Arnett voices the titular character, while Zach Garfianakis - from the Hangover - will voice The Joker. But will he better than Leto? 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 6. Untitled Wolverine film Release date: 3 March 2017. Having not starred in X-Men: Apocalypse, Wolverine will return to the big screen in a solo film which was recently made R-Rated following the success of Deadpool. It is expected to be Hugh Jackmans last outing as the titular character. Fox 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 7. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Release date: 5 May 2017. Chris Pratt and the crew are returning to space in the sequel to the surprisingly successful Guardians of the Galaxy. According to director James Gunn, the film will not feature Thanos, even though he will to play a major role in phase MCU Phase 3. Cast includes newcomers Kurt Russell and Pom Klementieff, as well as, rumour has it, Sylvester Stallone. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 8. Wonder Woman Release date: 23 June 2017. Gal Gadot is returning to the DCEU in her very own film, marking the first female-led superhero film on this list. Chris Pine is on board to play Wonder Womans love interest. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 9. Untitled Spider-Man reboot Release date: 7 July 2017. Yes, it is another Spider-Man reboot, having previously been redone with Andrew Garfield as the lead. However, this time it is part of the MCU, with Tom Holland as the titular character, and a heavily rumoured cameo by Iron Man could be in the pipeline. We can dream. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 10. Untitled Fox film Release date: 6 October 2017. In a strange announcement, Fox decided to withhold the release of Gambit until a future, as-yet unannounced date, which could be here, or this could be a completely separate project. Many suspect Deadpool 2 could nicely fit here, Fox capitalising on the success of the first film. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 11. Thor: Ragnarok Release date: 3 November 2017. Chris Hemsworth will be returning as the Norse God in his third solo MCU film. Flight of the Conchords Taika Waititi is on board to direct, and promises a fun adventure that will likely lead into Marvels next project, Infinity War. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 12. Justice League Part One Release date: 17 November 2017. Hot on the heals of Thor comes Justice League Part One, the first DCEU team-up flick which will see Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg work together to fight bad guys. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 13: Untitled Fox film Release date: 12 January 2018. Kicking off 2018 will likely be the second Deadpool film, but then again, this could very well be another X-Men team-up. Theres also talk of an X-Force film, with Deadpool and other mutants teaming up to fight evil. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 14. Black Panther Release date: 16 February 2018. The first non-white male-led superhero film in the MCU comes in the form of Black Panther, with Chadwick Boseman reprising the titular role, having also starred as the Panther in Civil War. Creeds Ryan Coogler is on to direct what could be a very exciting film. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 15. The Flash Release date: 16 March 2018. The Flash will be the first DCEU film since Justice League, and sees Ezra Miller take the lead. Phil Lord and Chris Miller were supposed to pen the film before Disney snapped them up for the Han Solo-film, leaving Seth Grahame-Smith to take charge. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 16. Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 Release date: 4 May 2018. And so, we finally get to the point of all these Infinity Stones! Thanos will be the big bad, with the Avengers needing to team up to defeat their biggest foe yet. It has previously been described as the end of the Avengers as we know it. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 17. Ant-Man and The Wasp Release date: 6 July 2018. Peyton Reed will be back to direct this surprise sequel to one of the better received MCU films. While the name is ridiculous, at least Marvel are finally having a leading female superhero. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 18. Untitled Fox film Release date: 13 July 2018. Again, not much word on this one except it is thought to be X-Men spin-off New Mutants, something Josh Boone has been hit up to write. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 19. Animated Spider-Man Film Release date: 20 July 2018. Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, and Amy Pascal - the team behind the live-action Spider-Man films - are producing this unrelated animated adaptation of the hero. Because you can never have too much Spider-Man, right? 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 20. Aquaman Release date: 27 July 2018. Another Justice League spin-off, Jason Momoa plays the leading man. Furious 7s James Wan is on to direct, but little else is known about the film. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 21. Captain Marvel Release date: 8 March 2019. Weve hit 2019, and the first confirmed superhero film will be the first proper female-led MCU film. No-one is confirmed to be in the titular role of Carol Danvers just yet. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 22. Shazam Release date: 5 April 2019. Dwayne Johnson stars as the villain in this DCEU film which will be somewhat separate to the other DC films. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 23. Avengers: Infinity War Part 2. Release date: 3 May 2019. The conclusion to the long drawn MCU saga. Expect a big finish with at least a few planets being destroyed. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 24. Justice League Part Two Release date: 14 June 2019. Soon after the Infinity War story reaches its conclusion, so will the Justice Leagues. Not much is known, except Darkseid will likely be the villain for at least one of the parts. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 25. Inhumans Release date: 12 July 2019. The concept of Inhumans (or Marvels mutants) has already been introduced in TV, through Marvels Agents of Shield, yet the film is expected to introduce the Royal Family who have yet to be seen in the show. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 26. Cyborg Release date: 3 April 2020. Having debuted in Justice League Part One three years previously, Cyborg will finally be making his own outing, with Ray Fisher as the titular character. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 27. Untitled MCU film Release date: 1 May 2020. The first of three untitled Marvel films. There are a couple of contenders, the first is a likely sequel to Spider-Man with Sony, or a third Guardians of the Galaxy film, thus finishing the trilogy. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 28. Green Lantern Corps. Release date: 19 June 2020. Before you start to worry, this has nothing to do with the Ryan Reynolds-starring flick that hit cinemas a little while ago. Instead, this will be another DCEU film that will likely spin-off from Justice League after the Green Lantern Corps cameo in one of the parts. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 29. Untitled MCU film Release date: 10 July 2020. As well as Spider-Man or Guardians of the Galaxy sequels, a Doctor Strange or Black Panther one could fit in nicely here. Or perhaps Black Widow may finally get the solo-film she deserves. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 30. Untitled MCU film Release date: 6 November 2020. Some speculators also think a Blade film could fit in here, marking over 20 years since the first Blade. But many believe the character may be better suited to a Netflix series, as with Daredevil and Jessica Jones. Theres also talk of a Runaways film reaching cinemas at some stage. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 31. Untitled Ben Affleck Batman film Release date: TBA. Now were onto the TBA release dates, the first of which is a Batman solo film, written and directed by Ben Affleck. When this is due, no one is quite sure but expect it sooner rather than later if Batman v Superman is a success. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 32. Suicide Squad 2 Release date: TBA (rumoured 2017). A sequel to Suicide Squad is expected to come in 2017 according to recent reports, but nothing has been confirmed. If the first is successful, it should come as no surprise for Warner Bros to rearrange their schedule to fit in this surefire hit. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 33. Venom Release date: TBA. This is an odd one, as it has been confirmed Sony are wanting to release a Venom film completely unrelated to the upcoming Spider-Man reboot. Venom, as you may know, is a Spider-Man villain, intrinsically linked to Spider-Man, so it seems odd they would release a film unrelated to the rebooted project and not linked to the MCU. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 Anything else? Well, now you mention it, theres also that sequel to Fantastic Four that has seemingly been dropped by Fox. Plus, theres the Gambit film which has been put on hold (but will likely fill an untitled Fox slot so we havent added it extra). Then again, it could be shoehorned in somehow Marvel

The film-makers linger on the moments in which Michael first arrives in his suite. As in old Jacques Tati comedies in which Tati is cast adrift in a sleek, modernist but dehumanised world, the chain-smoking Michael struggles to make sense of his surroundings. He tries to hook up with an old girlfriend, uncertain whether he is after sex or love. Michael looks utterly woebegone and yet is shown trying to enjoy himself. He ingratiates himself with two women from Akron, Ohio, who are staying in the hotel and have come to hear his speech. Michael is especially drawn to one of them, Lisa (voiced by Jennifer Jason Leigh), a self-effacing sales representative from Akron who has a scar on her face, which she tries to hide with her big, bushy hair.

Anomalisa has none of the exuberance of a Pixar or DreamWorks animation. There are no talking animals or fireworks here  and its best jokes are the ones about sex toys. Nor, outside the dream sequence, is the film trying to match the visual experimentalism of an animated feature aimed at adults such as Richard Linklater's mind-bending 2001 film Waking Life.

Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up

Kaufman wants the film to reflect the flat, mundane quality of Michael's life. Anomalisa doesn't indulge in any false pathos or sentimentality. Even at his lowest ebb, Michael isn't especially sympathetic. One moment he may be rhapsodising about Lisa ("You're extraordinary  it's obvious to me you are") but the next he will be looking with forensic disgust at her teeth as she eats scrambled eggs and tries to talk at the same time.

The film features a frank, very matter-of-fact sex scene. The two awkward lovers, embarrassed about their bodies, try to give each other some pleasure and to convince one another that they are special. It is their shy, hesitant gentleness that makes the scene seem so moving and so intimate in spite of its awkwardness.

Michael's expression doesn't change. We are watching a puppet, not an actor  animation and not live action. Even so, it is in the nature of the way we respond to storytelling on screen that we think we are seeing him register all sorts of different emotions. It is a modern-day example of the Kuleshov effect, the Soviet silent-era experiment demonstrating that audiences read feelings and meanings in faces depending on the way the film is edited. Kaufman's trick is to convince us that his models are as expressive as real-life performers.

The voice work by Thewlis and Jennifer Jason Leigh is crucial to this process. Thewlis manages to convey Michael's world-weariness and sourness, as well as his capacity for tenderness. His speech on customer service is idealistic and straightforward. The secret, he suggests, is treating the customers as humans, not as consumers. "Each person you speak to has had a day. Some of the days have been good, some bad. Each person you speak to has had a childhood. Each has a body and each body has had aches."

Of course, there are multiple ironies here. The empathy he is calling for is all in the name of driving sales. The happier the customers, the more they buy. Michael has not benefited from his own advice. He seems desperate for human warmth and yet recoils when it is offered.

In the week that the new Kung Fu Panda is released, Anomalisa is a reminder that animation can do much more than provide high jinks for a family audience. This is a surprisingly dark film, but it is a lyrical and insightful one. It delves into areas that even the frankest live-action dramas shy away from.
Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

IndyArts email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

It was amusing, if not slightly puzzling, to observe from afar the extent to which yanks went nuts for Downton Abbey.

British viewers saw off the upstairs-dullstairs soap opera over Christmas, if not a long time before that, when it not so much jumped the shark as stopped the boat and shared a plate of kedgeree with it. There was a sense that, like Lord Grantham's faithful dog Isis, duty above all motivated those who stuck with it until the end.

Sure, the final episode got a decent 6.6 million viewers in Britain, but that wasn't enough to beat Sherlock or the Queen's Speech. It also marked a significant decline since the actually-quite-good early series, first broadcast in 2010, pulled in almost 10 million viewers.

Downton Abbey series 6 Show all 8 1 /8 Downton Abbey series 6 Downton Abbey series 6 Downton Abbey series 6 Mrs Hughes and Mrs Patmore ITV Downton Abbey series 6 Downton Abbey series 6 ITV Downton Abbey series 6 Downton Abbey series 6 The Downton under butlers ITV Downton Abbey series 6 Downton Abbey series 6 Mr Carson and Mrs Hughes are engaged to tie the knot ITV Downton Abbey series 6 Downton Abbey series 6 Will Mr and Mrs Hughes' police case be dropped? ITV Downton Abbey series 6 Downton Abbey series 6 Mrs Crawley continues to wind up the Dowager Countess ITV Downton Abbey series 6 Downton Abbey series 6 What will the Dowager Countess say to tightening of the purse strings in the Crawley house? ITV Downton Abbey series 6 Downton Abbey series 6 The sun sets on the final series of Downton Abbey ITV

But Americans, who watched the last episode on Sunday, never seemed to tire of the Granthams; they only grew to love them more. The biggest fans refer to themselves as "Abbots". Just shy of 10 million people tuned in on Sunday, one of the show's four biggest audiences, all of which have come during its final three series. It was nominated for 59 Emmy Awards. Fifty-nine!

Yet watching isn't enough for many. A Scottish castle reports this week that demand has surged among wealthy Americans for its Downton experience holidays. For 3,000 a day, there is as much interest at Dundas Castle in the "downstairs" deal, with its butler tutorials, as the more leisurely pursuits offered upstairs.

The end of the series in the States has also triggered an unlikely rash of thoughtful commentary. A writer at the Vulture blog wondered if Downton's origins not long after the financial crisis "enabled us to feel better about the 21st century's increasingly wide gap between rich and poor by watching how symbiotically [they] co-existed." Hmm. The piece also noted the way Americans enjoy "poking fun at the absurdity and veddy Britishness of it all".

Sophie McShera as Daisy Mason in Downton Abbey (Carnival Films)

All of which pleases Lord Fellowes, Downton's veddy rich creator. "The American reaction has been incredibly heartening," he tells The Independent. "When they love something they love it, and that's not always the English way, although it seems a bit hard to have to pay money to work below stairs."

It may be that the sort of cynicism displayed on this page doesn't translate. It took James Fenton, the British writer based in New York, to issue one of the biggest Downton takedowns. In 2013 in the New York Review of Books, he described the show as "a large sentimental contraption". Simon Schama, another Brit in New York, went further. Writing for Newsweek, the historian dismissed Downton as "cultural necrophilia", a "servile soap opera" and a "steaming, silvered tureen of snobbery".

Above all else, the "veddy British" thing explains much the Downton's American appeal (ITV)

Don't tell that to Lorraine Simpson, an American travel agent and the proud owner of downtonfanclub.com. On Sunday, she and her friends dressed up for a screening of the last episode at a theatre in Buffalo, New York. "It was really quite emotional," she reports. "I even tear up now writing this to you as it is the end of an era. I went home and watched it over again, still crying My dream is one day to meet Julian Fellowes and kiss him on the cheek for bringing me so much Joy!"

At her house in Niagara, built in 1929 ("this is very old here  lol"), Simpson, 52, offers lower-key Downton experiences. Later this year she will take a group on a Downton tour of England, climaxing with tea at Highclere Castle, which lends its exterior to the show. "We all can relate to at least one character and watch over and over to laugh at the funny way they speak," she says, concluding that, above all else, the "veddy British" thing explains much the Downton's American appeal. "'Golly!', said by Lord Grantham in the final episode, got a huge roar of laughter in the live audience of the final screening. The mannerisms and especially ANYTHING that the Dowager says we love!"
Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

IndyArts email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Almost 20 years ago to the day, Thomas Hamilton walked into the gym at Dunblane Primary School near Stirling and began shooting. In just three minutes on the morning of 13 March 1996 he killed 16 children and one teacher before turning the gun on himself. It remains the UK's worst mass shooting to this day.

Dunblane: Our Story was exactly that. Featuring interviews with parents, siblings, pupils and teachers  many of whom were speaking publicly for the first time since the tragedy  it told the tale of those caught up in the life-changing events of that day.

Debbie, the daughter of Gwen Mayor, the primary school teacher killed that day, broke down as she spoke of her pride in knowing that her mother had tried to protect the children, while headteacher Ron Taylor, who remembered the day with absolute clarity, spoke of his "enormous guilt" and the "unimaginable horror" of seeing children lying dead on the gym room floor.

Culture news in pictures Show all 33 1 /33 Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures 30 September 2016 An employee hangs works of art with "Grand Teatro" by Marino Marini (R) and bronze sculpture "Sfera N.3" by Arnaldo Pomodoro seen ahead of a Contemporary Art auction on 7 October, at Sotheby's in London REUTERS Culture news in pictures 29 September 2016 Street art by Portuguese artist Odeith is seen in Dresden, during an exhibition "Magic City - art of the streets" AFP/Getty Images Culture news in pictures 28 September 2016 Dancers attend a photocall for the new "THE ONE Grand Show" at Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin, Germany REUTERS Culture news in pictures 28 September 2016 With an array of thrift store china, humorous souvenirs and handmade tile adorning its walls and floors, the Mosaic Tile House in Venice stands as a monument to two decades of artistic collaboration between Cheri Pann and husband Gonzalo Duran REUTERS Culture news in pictures 27 September 2016 A gallery assistant poses amongst work by Anthea Hamilton from her nominated show "Lichen! Libido!(London!) Chastity!" at a preview of the Turner Prize in London REUTERS Culture news in pictures 27 September 2016 A technician wearing virtual reality glasses checks his installation in three British public telephone booths, set up outside the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, Netherlands. The installation allows visitors a 3-D look into the museum which has twenty-two paintings belonging to the British Royal Collection, on loan for an exhibit from 29 September 2016 till 8 January 2017 AP Culture news in pictures 26 September 2016 An Indian artist dressed as Hindu god Shiva performs on a chariot as he participates in a religious procession 'Ravan ki Barat' held to mark the forthcoming Dussehra festival in Allahabad AFP/Getty Images Culture news in pictures 26 September 2016 Jean-Michel Basquiat's 'Air Power', 1984, is displayed at the Bowie/Collector media preview at Sotheby's in New York AFP/Getty Culture news in pictures 25 September 2016 A woman looks at an untitled painting by Albert Oehlen during the opening of an exhibition of works by German artists Georg Baselitz and Albert Oehlen in Reutlingen, Germany. The exhibition runs at the Kunstverein (art society) Reutlingen until 15 January 2017 EPA Culture news in pictures 24 September 2016 Fan BingBing (C) attends the closing ceremony of the 64th San Sebastian Film Festival at Kursaal in San Sebastian, Spain Getty Images Culture news in pictures 23 September 2016 A view of the artwork 'You Are Metamorphosing' (1964) as part of the exhibition 'Retrospektive' of Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo at Fridericianum in Kassel, Germany. The exhibition runs from 25 September 2016 to 1 January 2017 EPA Culture news in pictures 22 September 2016 Jo Applin from the Courtauld Institute of Art looks at Green Tilework in Live Flesh by Adriana Vareja, which features in a new exhibition, Flesh, at York Art Gallery. The new exhibition features works by Degas, Chardin, Francis Bacon and Sarah Lucas, showing how flesh has been portrayed by artists over the last 600 years PA Culture news in pictures 21 September 2016 Performers Sean Atkins and Sally Miller standing in for the characters played by Asa Butterfield and Ella Purnell during a photocall for Tim Burton's "Miss Peregrines Home For Peculiar Children" at Potters Field Park in London Getty Images Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A detail from the blanket 'Alpine Cattle Drive' from 1926 by artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner is displayed at the 'Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum for Contemporary Arts' in Berlin. The exhibition named 'Ernst Ludwig Kirchner - Hieroglyphen' showing the complete collection of Berlin's Nationalgallerie works of the German artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and will run from 23 September 2016 until 26 February 2017 AP Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A man looks at portrait photos by US photographer Bruce Gilden in the exhibition 'Masters of Photography' at the photokina in Cologne, Germany. The trade fair on photography, photokina, schowcases some 1,000 exhibitors from 40 countries and runs from 20 to 25 September. The event also features various photo exhibitions EPA Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A woman looks at 'Blue Poles', 1952 by Jackson Pollock during a photocall at the Royal Academy of Arts, London PA Culture news in pictures 19 September 2016 Art installation The Refusal of Time, a collaboration with Philip Miller, Catherine Meyburgh and Peter Galison, which features as part of the William Kentridge exhibition Thick Time, showing from 21 September to 15 January at the Whitechapel Gallery in London PA Culture news in pictures 18 September 2016 Artists creating one off designs at the Mm6 Maison Margiela presentation during London Fashion Week Spring/Summer collections 2017 in London Getty Images Culture news in pictures 18 September 2016 Bethenny Frankel attends the special screening of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" to celebrate the 25th Anniversary Edition release on Blu-Ray and DVD in New York City Getty Images for Walt Disney Stu Culture news in pictures 17 September 2016 Visitors attend the 2016 Oktoberfest beer festival at Theresienwiese in Munich, Germany Getty Images Culture news in pictures 16 September 2016 Visitors looks at British artist Damien Hirst work of art 'The Incomplete Truth', during the 13th Yalta Annual Meeting entitled 'The World, Europe and Ukraine: storms of changes', organised by the Yalta European Strategy (YES) in partnership with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation at the Mystetsky Arsenal Art Center in Kiev AP Culture news in pictures 16 September 2016 Tracey Emin's "My Bed" is exhibited at the Tate Liverpool as part of the exhibition Tracey Emin And William Blake In Focus, which highlights surprising links between the two artists Getty Images Culture news in pictures 15 September 2016 Musician Dave Grohl (L) joins musician Tom Morello of Prophets of Rage onstage at the Forum in Inglewood, California Getty Images Culture news in pictures 14 September 2016 Model feebee poses as part of art installation "Narcissism : Dazzle room" made by artist Shigeki Matsuyama at rooms33 fashion and design exhibition in Tokyo. Matsuyama's installation features a strong contrast of black and white, which he learned from dazzle camouflage used mainly in World War I AP Culture news in pictures 13 September 2016 Visitors look at artworks by Chinese painter Cui Ruzhuo during the exhibition 'Glossiness of Uncarved Jade' held at the exhibition hall 'Manezh' in St. Petersburg, Russia. More than 200 paintings by the Chinese artist are presented until 25 September EPA Culture news in pictures 12 September 2016 A visitor looks at Raphael's painting 'Extase de Sainte Cecile', 1515, from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence during the opening of a Raphael exhibition at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, Russia. The first Russian exhibition of the works of the Italian Renaissance artist Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino includes eight paintings and three drawings which come from Italy. Th exhibit opens to the public from 13 September to 11 December EPA Culture news in pictures 11 September 2016 Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd perform during Otis Redding 75th Birthday Celebration - Rehearsals at the Macon City Auditorium in Macon, Georgia Getty Images for Otis Redding 75 Culture news in pictures 10 September 2016 Sakari Oramo conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Chorus and the BBC Singers at the Last Night of the Proms 2016 at the Royal Albert Hall in London PA Culture news in pictures 9 September 2016 A visitor walks past a piece entitled "Fruitcake" by Joana Vasconcelo, during the Beyond Limits selling exhibition at Chatsworth House near Bakewell REUTERS Culture news in pictures 8 September 2016 A sculpture of a crescent standing on the 2,140 meters high mountain 'Freiheit' (German for 'freedom'), in the Alpstein region of the Appenzell alps, eastern Switzerland. The sculpture is lighted during the nights by means of solar panels. The 38-year-old Swiss artist and atheist Christian Meier set the crescent on the peak to start a debate on the meaning of religious symbols - as summit crosses - on mountains. 'Because so many peaks have crosses on them, it struck me as a great idea to put up an equally absurd contrast'. 'Naturally I wanted to provoke in a fun way. But it goes beyond that. The actions of an artist should be food for thought, both visually and in content' EPA Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures

Siblings spoke of the brothers and sisters they had missed out on getting to know and parents remembered those terrifying hours when they didn't know if their child was dead or alive.

Pupil Amy Hutchison, who was shot in the leg by Hamilton but managed to crawl to safety in a store cupboard, also remembered the events with some clarity despite being just five years old at the time.

"I don't remember the pain of being shot, I don't remember the noises or sounds, I just remember my leg turning to jelly and falling to the floor and then dragging myself to the gym cupboard," said the 25-year-old.

It was, of course, harrowing stuff. I defy anyone who watched it not to have welled up  or worse. But at the same time, it was utterly absorbing.

Sadly, what this documentary couldn't do was provide any answers as to why this catastrophe had to happen or what motivated Hamilton to do what he did. As survivor Amy said: "As a child the anger was not there, but looking back now I think 'why?' Why my class, why my school, why my town? Why?" It's a set of questions that nearly two decades later, remain unanswered.
Parents Face Prison for Delayed Medical Treatment for Kid

Parents can make most decisions about the health of their children, but not all as a case in Alberta, Canada shows. A couple that gave their child a home remedy for his meningitis is facing five years in prison and the loss of their other children after a 19-month-old with meningitis died, according to Raw Story.

The baby was given supplements with an eye dropper rather than being brought to a hospital. Ezekiel Collet ultimately died from meningitis, or inflammation of the brain and spinal cord caused by infection. Prosecutors say that they are not accusing the parents of failure to love their child, simply failure to acquire the proper care.

Chosen Treatment

Collet Stephan, 35, told police that a friend diagnosed the child with meningitis. She then tried to then boost his immune system using a remedy that she and her husband sell through their nutritional supplement company. The mixture contained apple cider vinegar, horseradish root, hot peppers, onion, garlic, and ginger root.

Collet Stephan and her husband, David Stephan, 32, run Truehope Nutritional Support, Inc. out of their home. The company distributes nutritional supplements that have been criticized by Canadian authorities and in the press. There were even government warnings issued about the supplements that they gave to baby Ezekiel.

Ezekiel was airlifted to a hospital after he stopped breathing and he was kept on life support for five days. Now the parents are being prosecuted for failing to seek medical attention more promptly. While the story arises in Canada, the situation is not unique to our northern neighbors.

Immunizations and More

David Stephan says that there is no evidence that immunization and treatment would have prevented his son's death. He has reportedly written in social media that this prosecution is just a way of bullying parents into vaccinating children even if they are personally opposed to it.

In the US too, the movement against immunization has grown. Increasingly parents are questioning the imposition of certain vaccines that some believe do more harm to children than protect them.

Legal Obligations as a Parent

If you are concerned about your legal obligations as a parent, you have been accused of a crime associated with your children, or are being held criminally liable for an act of your child, speak to a lawyer today. Don't delay. Many criminal defense attorneys consult for free or a minimal fee and will be happy to assess your case.

Related Resources:
Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

IndyArts email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Exactly who decided how current affairs should be done? When was it decreed that the binary approach to radio news analysis  bring in two people with opposing views and, with the bit of goading, get them to bark at one another for three minutes  should be the dominant format?

I like a bit of ideological argy-bargy, but there are times when I find something more nuanced is in order. These are the moments when the middle ground is more interesting, and when the belligerent back-and-forth between guests and presenters on Today and its ilk is rather wearisome.

Apparently, I'm not alone. The makers of The Foreign Desk, the flagship current affairs programme on online radio station Monocle 24, has dispensed with the ritual of pitting commentators against each other. Instead they bring in a handful of experts and asks them to calmly share their thoughts. How very refreshing.

Furthermore, rather than picking up on the big news item of the day as prescribed by the BBC, the show tends to focus on a broadly topical issue, zooming in on the hitherto overlooked or unreported part of the story.

The show is presented by journalist Steve Bloomfield, and recent topics have included the significance of polling in the upcoming US elections and the political status of Australia.

This week's show looked at refugee camps and why they don't work as they should. If their name is to be understood, said Bloomfield, they should be places of safety and recovery although, as the camps in Calais and the borders of Syria have shown us, the reality can be different. They are, he said, "places of despair, temporary structures that have become increasingly permanent."

Culture news in pictures Show all 33 1 /33 Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures 30 September 2016 An employee hangs works of art with "Grand Teatro" by Marino Marini (R) and bronze sculpture "Sfera N.3" by Arnaldo Pomodoro seen ahead of a Contemporary Art auction on 7 October, at Sotheby's in London REUTERS Culture news in pictures 29 September 2016 Street art by Portuguese artist Odeith is seen in Dresden, during an exhibition "Magic City - art of the streets" AFP/Getty Images Culture news in pictures 28 September 2016 Dancers attend a photocall for the new "THE ONE Grand Show" at Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin, Germany REUTERS Culture news in pictures 28 September 2016 With an array of thrift store china, humorous souvenirs and handmade tile adorning its walls and floors, the Mosaic Tile House in Venice stands as a monument to two decades of artistic collaboration between Cheri Pann and husband Gonzalo Duran REUTERS Culture news in pictures 27 September 2016 A gallery assistant poses amongst work by Anthea Hamilton from her nominated show "Lichen! Libido!(London!) Chastity!" at a preview of the Turner Prize in London REUTERS Culture news in pictures 27 September 2016 A technician wearing virtual reality glasses checks his installation in three British public telephone booths, set up outside the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, Netherlands. The installation allows visitors a 3-D look into the museum which has twenty-two paintings belonging to the British Royal Collection, on loan for an exhibit from 29 September 2016 till 8 January 2017 AP Culture news in pictures 26 September 2016 An Indian artist dressed as Hindu god Shiva performs on a chariot as he participates in a religious procession 'Ravan ki Barat' held to mark the forthcoming Dussehra festival in Allahabad AFP/Getty Images Culture news in pictures 26 September 2016 Jean-Michel Basquiat's 'Air Power', 1984, is displayed at the Bowie/Collector media preview at Sotheby's in New York AFP/Getty Culture news in pictures 25 September 2016 A woman looks at an untitled painting by Albert Oehlen during the opening of an exhibition of works by German artists Georg Baselitz and Albert Oehlen in Reutlingen, Germany. The exhibition runs at the Kunstverein (art society) Reutlingen until 15 January 2017 EPA Culture news in pictures 24 September 2016 Fan BingBing (C) attends the closing ceremony of the 64th San Sebastian Film Festival at Kursaal in San Sebastian, Spain Getty Images Culture news in pictures 23 September 2016 A view of the artwork 'You Are Metamorphosing' (1964) as part of the exhibition 'Retrospektive' of Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo at Fridericianum in Kassel, Germany. The exhibition runs from 25 September 2016 to 1 January 2017 EPA Culture news in pictures 22 September 2016 Jo Applin from the Courtauld Institute of Art looks at Green Tilework in Live Flesh by Adriana Vareja, which features in a new exhibition, Flesh, at York Art Gallery. The new exhibition features works by Degas, Chardin, Francis Bacon and Sarah Lucas, showing how flesh has been portrayed by artists over the last 600 years PA Culture news in pictures 21 September 2016 Performers Sean Atkins and Sally Miller standing in for the characters played by Asa Butterfield and Ella Purnell during a photocall for Tim Burton's "Miss Peregrines Home For Peculiar Children" at Potters Field Park in London Getty Images Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A detail from the blanket 'Alpine Cattle Drive' from 1926 by artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner is displayed at the 'Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum for Contemporary Arts' in Berlin. The exhibition named 'Ernst Ludwig Kirchner - Hieroglyphen' showing the complete collection of Berlin's Nationalgallerie works of the German artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and will run from 23 September 2016 until 26 February 2017 AP Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A man looks at portrait photos by US photographer Bruce Gilden in the exhibition 'Masters of Photography' at the photokina in Cologne, Germany. The trade fair on photography, photokina, schowcases some 1,000 exhibitors from 40 countries and runs from 20 to 25 September. The event also features various photo exhibitions EPA Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A woman looks at 'Blue Poles', 1952 by Jackson Pollock during a photocall at the Royal Academy of Arts, London PA Culture news in pictures 19 September 2016 Art installation The Refusal of Time, a collaboration with Philip Miller, Catherine Meyburgh and Peter Galison, which features as part of the William Kentridge exhibition Thick Time, showing from 21 September to 15 January at the Whitechapel Gallery in London PA Culture news in pictures 18 September 2016 Artists creating one off designs at the Mm6 Maison Margiela presentation during London Fashion Week Spring/Summer collections 2017 in London Getty Images Culture news in pictures 18 September 2016 Bethenny Frankel attends the special screening of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" to celebrate the 25th Anniversary Edition release on Blu-Ray and DVD in New York City Getty Images for Walt Disney Stu Culture news in pictures 17 September 2016 Visitors attend the 2016 Oktoberfest beer festival at Theresienwiese in Munich, Germany Getty Images Culture news in pictures 16 September 2016 Visitors looks at British artist Damien Hirst work of art 'The Incomplete Truth', during the 13th Yalta Annual Meeting entitled 'The World, Europe and Ukraine: storms of changes', organised by the Yalta European Strategy (YES) in partnership with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation at the Mystetsky Arsenal Art Center in Kiev AP Culture news in pictures 16 September 2016 Tracey Emin's "My Bed" is exhibited at the Tate Liverpool as part of the exhibition Tracey Emin And William Blake In Focus, which highlights surprising links between the two artists Getty Images Culture news in pictures 15 September 2016 Musician Dave Grohl (L) joins musician Tom Morello of Prophets of Rage onstage at the Forum in Inglewood, California Getty Images Culture news in pictures 14 September 2016 Model feebee poses as part of art installation "Narcissism : Dazzle room" made by artist Shigeki Matsuyama at rooms33 fashion and design exhibition in Tokyo. Matsuyama's installation features a strong contrast of black and white, which he learned from dazzle camouflage used mainly in World War I AP Culture news in pictures 13 September 2016 Visitors look at artworks by Chinese painter Cui Ruzhuo during the exhibition 'Glossiness of Uncarved Jade' held at the exhibition hall 'Manezh' in St. Petersburg, Russia. More than 200 paintings by the Chinese artist are presented until 25 September EPA Culture news in pictures 12 September 2016 A visitor looks at Raphael's painting 'Extase de Sainte Cecile', 1515, from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence during the opening of a Raphael exhibition at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, Russia. The first Russian exhibition of the works of the Italian Renaissance artist Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino includes eight paintings and three drawings which come from Italy. Th exhibit opens to the public from 13 September to 11 December EPA Culture news in pictures 11 September 2016 Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd perform during Otis Redding 75th Birthday Celebration - Rehearsals at the Macon City Auditorium in Macon, Georgia Getty Images for Otis Redding 75 Culture news in pictures 10 September 2016 Sakari Oramo conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Chorus and the BBC Singers at the Last Night of the Proms 2016 at the Royal Albert Hall in London PA Culture news in pictures 9 September 2016 A visitor walks past a piece entitled "Fruitcake" by Joana Vasconcelo, during the Beyond Limits selling exhibition at Chatsworth House near Bakewell REUTERS Culture news in pictures 8 September 2016 A sculpture of a crescent standing on the 2,140 meters high mountain 'Freiheit' (German for 'freedom'), in the Alpstein region of the Appenzell alps, eastern Switzerland. The sculpture is lighted during the nights by means of solar panels. The 38-year-old Swiss artist and atheist Christian Meier set the crescent on the peak to start a debate on the meaning of religious symbols - as summit crosses - on mountains. 'Because so many peaks have crosses on them, it struck me as a great idea to put up an equally absurd contrast'. 'Naturally I wanted to provoke in a fun way. But it goes beyond that. The actions of an artist should be food for thought, both visually and in content' EPA Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures

We heard, through his guests Kilian Kleinschmidt, who ran the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan and is one of the world's leading authorities on humanitarian aid, and the writer Ben Rawlence, who spent time in the Dadaab camp in northern Kenya, how the viability of a refugee camp relies on the long-term planning of aid agencies and the compliance and generosity of the host nation. We also heard, through the contributors and through interview clips from refugees, about the hierarchies, societies, economies and urban developments that spring up in the camps, turning them into semi-functioning cities.

This was a half-hour programme devoted entirely to one topic, which meant that, as well as having a conspicuous absence of aggro, it was unusually thoughtful and in-depth. I wonder if the editors of Today have heard it.

The Foreign Desk has also introduced a new feature called "The Explainer" that seeks to answer the basic (but not simple) questions the average listener might ask, but would need to wade through hours of potentially partisan analysis in order to get an answer.

Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up

This week's question was "Could Donald Trump become US President?", to which the short answer, chillingly, is "yes", though naturally it was more complicated than that.

Bloomfield's explanation took in Trump's ability to tap into fears of free trade, immigration and women, and to send the Republican establishment into a blind panic. As he saw it, the odds are that he will emerge as the Republican candidate (aaagh), but his chances against the Democratic candidate are slim (phew).

This was, once again, thoughtful, measured and without glibness or condescension. This was my kind of news.
Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Lifestyle Edit email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Convict Jeremy Meeks landed a modelling contract from prison last year, but he's out of jail now and seems to be working on a fashion project already.

The 32-year-old looked so photogenic in his mugshot that it earned him millions of admirers worldwide and so White Cross Management talent agency recognised his potential and scored him while he was still behind bars. Striking a blue steel pose, he showcases his chiselled jawline, razor sharp cheekbones and baby-blue eyes in the image.

Following his release, Meeks posted a photo on Instagram alongside his manager Jim Jordan, hinting he's already working on fashion shoots straight away. He captioned it saying: "I want to thank my family and everybody for all your love, support and prayers. I'm overwhelmed and grateful for what lies ahead. I'm ready."

Being recruited from jail to become a fashion model is indeed one of the rarest ways of doing so; if not the first and only time its happened. Being in prison would seem to be no barrier to a potential fashion career.

Jeremy Meeks' profile on White Cross Management model agency's website (White Cross Management m)

Meeks' scouting is a more extreme example of the sometimes unusual places new faces have been discovered.

Kate Moss, Britains supermodel since the nineties, was discovered at the age of 14, at JFK Airport in New York, by CEO of Storm Model Management agency, Sarah Doukas.

Also, while on holiday in Cape Town, South Africa, Doukas discovered Victorias Secret Angel Behati Prinsloo.

Candice Swanepoel was discovered when she was shopping at a local flea market with her mother and Claudia Schiffer was discovered at a nightclub in Dusseldorf, Germany.

According to Lanny Zenga, scout for One Management, McDonalds has become the hotspot for fresh model talent. Likewise are high-street fashion shops such as H&M, Urban Outfitters and Zara, as well as touristy areas.

Jourdan Dunn, for example, was discovered in Hammersmith's Primark in 2006.

Jeremy Meeks: 'Handsome felon' in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Jeremy Meeks: 'Handsome felon' in pictures Jeremy Meeks: 'Handsome felon' in pictures Jeremy Meeks Jeremy Meeks: 'Handsome felon' in pictures Jeremy Meeks Jeremy Meeks: 'Handsome felon' in pictures Jeremy Meeks Jeremy Meeks: 'Handsome felon' in pictures Jeremy Meeks Jeremy Meeks: 'Handsome felon' in pictures Jeremy Meeks Jeremy Meeks: 'Handsome felon' in pictures Jeremy Meeks Jeremy Meeks: 'Handsome felon' in pictures Jeremy Meeks Jeremy Meeks: 'Handsome felon' in pictures Jeremy Meeks Jeremy Meeks: 'Handsome felon' in pictures Jeremy Meeks Jeremy Meeks: 'Handsome felon' in pictures Jeremy Meeks

Zenga told Fashionista in 2013 that other good places to scout are music festivals and concerts, and that the best new model talent is in Europe, particularly in Denmark and the Scandinavian countries. When I went there a couple of months ago every girl on the street was scoutable, he said.

But besides unusual places, some other unique personalities, with no fashion background, have landed big gigs in the industry. Take Conchita Wurst as an example, the drag queen and winner of Eurovision 2014, who appeared at Jean Paul Gaultiers haute couture show and on a CR Fashion Book photoshoot by Karl Lagerfeld.

Austrian singer Conchita Wurst with legendary designer Karl Lagerfeld (Karl Lagerfeld/ CR Fashion Book)

"Hot felon" Meek is another unique example. He was convicted for two years for felony possession of a firearm, but not that he's been released, a modelling career will change his fortune.

I'm in a place where I will be able to provide for my family and really change my life, the Californian told ABC News.

Dont be surprised if you spot him in high-end fashion campaigns soon.
Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Lifestyle Edit email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

You might remember Down Syndrome model Madeline Stuart for walking the catwalk at New York Fashion Week and fronting two clothes campaigns, but her latest gig is a romantic wedding shoot.

The 18-year-old Australian model continues to challenge societys perception of people living with disability and appears as a fairytale bride, in an embellished white gown, faux fur coats, professional hair and make up, and flowers alongside a male model who plays her handsome groom.

The shoot, commissioned by wedding venue Rixey Manor in Virgina, USA, where it was shot was shot by local wedding photographer Sarah Houston. This shoot for me, was an opportunity to showcase Madeline's beauty, her personality and her amazing spirit. She's truly such an inspiration to so many! Houston told The Independent.

The venue owner, Isadora Martin-Dye, explained why seeing a bride with disability should be made normal: A lot of newly engaged women cannot see themselves as a bride because all the images magazines use are of these tall, thin models. I think that being a bride is a life experience that every women should be able to see herself doing - and definitely not stressing about the fact that they wont look 'perfect' on their wedding day. It's all about show what's really normal right?

(Sarah Houston)

The Brisbane-born model shared a photo from the shoot with her almost 120,000 Instagram followers, where she shares uplifting messages of positivity and self-appreciation - she even shared her remarkable 18-month weight transformation and workouts, aiming to encourage other to focus on their health, too.

In a interview, she shared what she loves about modelling: Its a way to express myself when words don't always come easy. Plus I get to embrace society and hopefully make people feel more comfortable around people with disabilities.

Madeline Stuart's bridal shoot Show all 7 1 /7 Madeline Stuart's bridal shoot Madeline Stuart's bridal shoot Sarah Houston Madeline Stuart's bridal shoot Sarah Houston Madeline Stuart's bridal shoot Sarah Houston Madeline Stuart's bridal shoot Sarah Houston Madeline Stuart's bridal shoot Sarah Houston Madeline Stuart's bridal shoot Sarah Houston Madeline Stuart's bridal shoot Sarah Houston

She has walked the catwalk twice for FTL Moda during New York Fashion Week, following the footsteps of 30-year-old American model and American Horror Story actress Jamie Brewer, who in early 2015 became the first ever Down Syndrome model to walk at New York Fashion Week by appearing at Carrie Hammer to model in her autumn/winter 2015 Role Models Not Runway Models .

(Sarah Houston)

With so much revolutionising the fashion industry right now, both Stuart and Brewer are just two of many game changers who are revolutionising the way the fashion industry thinks about and defines the word model  their increasing inclusion aims to change how people perceive those with disabilities.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Samsungs big design leap forward last year, with the launch of the Galaxy S6 edge smartphone, was remarkable. At a stroke, the accusation that Samsung only made plasticky handsets that werent as high-end as the tech they housed, was kicked into touch. Samsungs class was undeniable.

The sloping edges on each side of the screen made the phone strikingly different from anything else on the market. So no surprise that this years S7 edge looks almost the same.

Actually, look closer, feel the new phone in your hand, and youll see its subtly different. Chiefly, the back of the phone is gently curved now, as well as the front. The result is that thanks to critical manufacturing details, the phone is spectacularly different in your grip. Suddenly its smooth enough to roll around like a worry stone.

And the curved edges make this phone, with its whopping 5.5-inch display, feels entirely manageable in the hand, comfortable and appealingly tactile. These are all very good things in something youre likely to be handling all day.

Although you may not find yourself turning it on as compulsively as before. Apparently we click the screen on well over 100 times a day, to check the time, notifications and so on.

A brilliant new feature on the S7 and S7 edge is an always-on screen that shows you the time while your phone slumbers. Its extremely useful. Samsung wasnt the first to have this feature  Nokia got there a few years back  but it looks brilliant with the white-lit time and date screaming out of the pitch-black display. Not least thats down to the AMOLED screen, an area where Samsung is a master. And Samsung promises that it uses less than 1 per cent of battery life per hour which in my testing seems to be the case, so no worries there.

Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at Californias Stanford University. Page and Brin chose the name google as it recalled the mathematic term 'googol', meaning 10 raised to the power of 100 Google Gadget and tech news: In pictures Hexa drone lifts off Chief engineer of LIFT aircraft Balazs Kerulo demonstrates the company's "Hexa" personal drone craft in Lago Vista, Texas on June 3 2019 Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures Project Scarlett to succeed Xbox One Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, the successor to the Xbox One, at E3 2019. The company said that the new console will be 4 times as powerful as the Xbox One and is slated for a release date of Christmas 2020 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures First new iPod in four years Apple has announced the new iPod Touch, the first new iPod in four years. The device will have the option of adding more storage, up to 256GB Apple Gadget and tech news: In pictures Folding phone may flop Samsung will cancel orders of its Galaxy Fold phone at the end of May if the phone is not then ready for sale. The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty

The curves, incidentally, also mean that this handset is substantially smaller than that other beauty with a 5.5-inch display, the Apple iPhone 6s Plus. Well, its a little thicker than the iPhone, but the other dimensions are smaller. And even there its still only 7.7mm thick. One of the best things about the S7 edge, and there are many great things about this phone, is that it manages the trick of seeming small enough to fit easily in the hand while having a screen thats pretty darn big.

Last years S6 edge introduced us to the idea that the edge of the screen could work separately to the main part. So that you could set it to notify you when a favourite contact was messaging or call you, and you could see they were calling even if the phone was face down, in an important meeting, say.

This time around, the edge screen does more, with extra apps functions on the side and a welcome return to the edge ruler which appeared first on the Samsung Galaxy Note edge. The sloping side means you can get a measurement more conveniently than on a regular phone.

Swipe from the side (left or right, you choose which is the active edge) and two columns of apps appear, with a range of options now and more apps to follow. Its a very handy way to get to favourite items.

The camera on the S7 edge is 12 megapixels. This is actually a drop from last years 16-megapixel resolution, but its not all about pixel count, as you know. These pixels are bigger, so better at sucking in light which is especially handy if available light is low. The result is a fast, impressive snapper that launches quickly just by double-pressing the home button. And its autofocus is very nippy, so youre unlikely to miss that shot. Selfies are helped along, as they are on the iPhone 6s, by using the display as a flash, with reasonably good results. If you like selfies.

This is a very proficient camera  Samsung has even flattened the components so they don't poke out like they did last year. The lens isnt quite flush to the case, but its a big improvement.

Gaming is also a priority on the phone with special settings to gather games together so theyre easy to find and even the capability to turn notifications and certain button responses off so you dont interrupt your playing.

And among the improvements in the S7 edge is the return of decent waterproofing, last seen on the S5. This is a useful benefit that most of the time you wont need but youll be enormously grateful for in that moment when you drop it in the bath, or worse.

Also missing from the S6 was expandable storage. This time the sim card tray handily has room for a microSD card as well.

Battery life is excellent, way better than on the admittedly disappointing S6. Itll get you through a full day with ease, though as usual the caveat that nightly charges are needed still applies.

There are so many advances on the S7 and so few downsides  one of which is cost, this is not a cheap phone  that its easy to recommend it. Its easily the most powerful and good-looking Android phone on the market, and may even have Apple fanatics wondering about switching.
Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Lifestyle Edit email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Many children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may simply be immature compared to their school classmates, a new study suggests.

Researchers examined medical records of nearly 400,000 children aged from four to 17 in Taiwan and found rates of the condition changed significantly depending on the month when they were born, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Just 2.8 per cent of boys and 0.7 per cent of girls born in September were diagnosed with ADHD, compared to 4.5 per cent of boys and 1.2 per cent of girls born in August.

Dr Mu-Hong Chen, a psychologist at Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Taiwan and lead author of a paper about the research in the Journal of Pediatrics, said: When looking at the database as a whole, children born in August were more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD and/or receive ADHD medication than those born in September.

Health news in pictures Show all 40 1 /40 Health news in pictures Health news in pictures Coronavirus outbreak The coronavirus Covid-19 has hit the UK leading to the deaths of two people so far and prompting warnings from the Department of Health AFP via Getty Health news in pictures Thousands of emergency patients told to take taxi to hospital Thousands of 999 patients in England are being told to get a taxi to hospital, figures have showed. The number of patients outside London who were refused an ambulance rose by 83 per cent in the past year as demand for services grows Getty Health news in pictures Vape related deaths spike A vaping-related lung disease has claimed the lives of 11 people in the US in recent weeks. The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has more than 100 officials investigating the cause of the mystery illness, and has warned citizens against smoking e-cigarette products until more is known, particularly if modified or bought off the street Getty Health news in pictures Baldness cure looks to be a step closer Researchers in the US claim to have overcome one of the major hurdles to cultivating human follicles from stem cells. The new system allows cells to grow in a structured tuft and emerge from the skin Sanford Burnham Preybs Health news in pictures Two hours a week spent in nature can improve health A study in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that a dose of nature of just two hours a week is associated with better health and psychological wellbeing Shutterstock Health news in pictures Air pollution linked to fertility issues in women Exposure to air from traffic-clogged streets could leave women with fewer years to have children, a study has found. Italian researchers found women living in the most polluted areas were three times more likely to show signs they were running low on eggs than those who lived in cleaner surroundings, potentially triggering an earlier menopause Getty/iStock Health news in pictures Junk food ads could be banned before watershed Junk food adverts on TV and online could be banned before 9pm as part of Government plans to fight the "epidemic" of childhood obesity. Plans for the new watershed have been put out for public consultation in a bid to combat the growing crisis, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said PA Health news in pictures Breeding with neanderthals helped humans fight diseases On migrating from Africa around 70,000 years ago, humans bumped into the neanderthals of Eurasia. While humans were weak to the diseases of the new lands, breeding with the resident neanderthals made for a better equipped immune system PA Health news in pictures Cancer breath test to be trialled in Britain The breath biopsy device is designed to detect cancer hallmarks in molecules exhaled by patients Getty Health news in pictures Average 10 year old has consumed the recommended amount of sugar for an adult By their 10th birthdy, children have on average already eaten more sugar than the recommended amount for an 18 year old. The average 10 year old consumes the equivalent to 13 sugar cubes a day, 8 more than is recommended PA Health news in pictures Child health experts advise switching off screens an hour before bed While there is not enough evidence of harm to recommend UK-wide limits on screen use, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have advised that children should avoid screens for an hour before bed time to avoid disrupting their sleep Getty Health news in pictures Daily aspirin is unnecessary for older people in good health, study finds A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that many elderly people are taking daily aspirin to little or no avail Getty Health news in pictures Vaping could lead to cancer, US study finds A study by the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Centre has found that the carcinogenic chemicals formaldehyde, acrolein, and methylglyoxal are present in the saliva of E-cigarette users Reuters Health news in pictures More children are obese and diabetic There has been a 41% increase in children with type 2 diabetes since 2014, the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit has found. Obesity is a leading cause Reuters Health news in pictures Most child antidepressants are ineffective and can lead to suicidal thoughts The majority of antidepressants are ineffective and may be unsafe, for children and teenager with major depression, experts have warned. In what is the most comprehensive comparison of 14 commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs to date, researchers found that only one brand was more effective at relieving symptoms of depression than a placebo. Another popular drug, venlafaxine, was shown increase the risk users engaging in suicidal thoughts and attempts at suicide Getty Health news in pictures Gay, lesbian and bisexual adults at higher risk of heart disease, study claims Researchers at the Baptist Health South Florida Clinic in Miami focused on seven areas of controllable heart health and found these minority groups were particularly likely to be smokers and to have poorly controlled blood sugar iStock Health news in pictures Breakfast cereals targeted at children contain 'steadily high' sugar levels since 1992 despite producer claims A major pressure group has issued a fresh warning about perilously high amounts of sugar in breakfast cereals, specifically those designed for children, and has said that levels have barely been cut at all in the last two and a half decades Getty Health news in pictures Potholes are making us fat, NHS watchdog warns New guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the body which determines what treatment the NHS should fund, said lax road repairs and car-dominated streets were contributing to the obesity epidemic by preventing members of the public from keeping active PA Health news in pictures New menopause drugs offer women relief from 'debilitating' hot flushes A new class of treatments for women going through the menopause is able to reduce numbers of debilitating hot flushes by as much as three quarters in a matter of days, a trial has found. The drug used in the trial belongs to a group known as NKB antagonists (blockers), which were developed as a treatment for schizophrenia but have been sitting on a shelf unused, according to Professor Waljit Dhillo, a professor of endocrinology and metabolism REX Health news in pictures Doctors should prescribe more antidepressants for people with mental health problems, study finds Research from Oxford University found that more than one million extra people suffering from mental health problems would benefit from being prescribed drugs and criticised ideological reasons doctors use to avoid doing so. Getty Health news in pictures Student dies of flu after NHS advice to stay at home and avoid A&E The family of a teenager who died from flu has urged people not to delay going to A&E if they are worried about their symptoms. Melissa Whiteley, an 18-year-old engineering student from Hanford in Stoke-on-Trent, fell ill at Christmas and died in hospital a month later. Just Giving Health news in pictures Government to review thousands of harmful vaginal mesh implants The Government has pledged to review tens of thousands of cases where women have been given harmful vaginal mesh implants. Getty Health news in pictures Jeremy Hunt announces 'zero suicides ambition' for the NHS The NHS will be asked to go further to prevent the deaths of patients in its care as part of a zero suicide ambition being launched today Getty Health news in pictures Human trials start with cancer treatment that primes immune system to kill off tumours Human trials have begun with a new cancer therapy that can prime the immune system to eradicate tumours. The treatment, that works similarly to a vaccine, is a combination of two existing drugs, of which tiny amounts are injected into the solid bulk of a tumour. Nephron Health news in pictures Babies' health suffers from being born near fracking sites, finds major study Mothers living within a kilometre of a fracking site were 25 per cent more likely to have a child born at low birth weight, which increase their chances of asthma, ADHD and other issues Getty Health news in pictures NHS reviewing thousands of cervical cancer smear tests after women wrongly given all-clear Thousands of cervical cancer screening results are under review after failings at a laboratory meant some women were incorrectly given the all-clear. A number of women have already been told to contact their doctors following the identification of procedural issues in the service provided by Pathology First Laboratory. Rex Health news in pictures Potential key to halting breast cancer's spread discovered by scientists Most breast cancer patients do not die from their initial tumour, but from secondary malignant growths (metastases), where cancer cells are able to enter the blood and survive to invade new sites. Asparagine, a molecule named after asparagus where it was first identified in high quantities, has now been shown to be an essential ingredient for tumour cells to gain these migratory properties. Getty Health news in pictures NHS nursing vacancies at record high with more than 34,000 roles advertised A record number of nursing and midwifery positions are currently being advertised by the NHS, with more than 34,000 positions currently vacant, according to the latest data. Demand for nurses was 19 per cent higher between July and September 2017 than the same period two years ago. REX Health news in pictures Cannabis extract could provide new class of treatment for psychosis CBD has a broadly opposite effect to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active component in cannabis and the substance that causes paranoia and anxiety. Getty Health news in pictures Over 75,000 sign petition calling for Richard Branson's Virgin Care to hand settlement money back to NHS Mr Bransons company sued the NHS last year after it lost out on an 82m contract to provide childrens health services across Surrey, citing concerns over serious flaws in the way the contract was awarded PA Health news in pictures More than 700 fewer nurses training in England in first year after NHS bursary scrapped The numbers of people accepted to study nursing in England fell 3 per cent in 2017, while the numbers accepted in Wales and Scotland, where the bursaries were kept, increased 8.4 per cent and 8 per cent respectively Getty Health news in pictures Landmark study links Tory austerity to 120,000 deaths The paper found that there were 45,000 more deaths in the first four years of Tory-led efficiencies than would have been expected if funding had stayed at pre-election levels. On this trajectory that could rise to nearly 200,000 excess deaths by the end of 2020, even with the extra funding that has been earmarked for public sector services this year. Reuters Health news in pictures Long commutes carry health risks Hours of commuting may be mind-numbingly dull, but new research shows that it might also be having an adverse effect on both your health and performance at work. Longer commutes also appear to have a significant impact on mental wellbeing, with those commuting longer 33 per cent more likely to suffer from depression Shutterstock Health news in pictures You cannot be fit and fat It is not possible to be overweight and healthy, a major new study has concluded. The study of 3.5 million Britons found that even metabolically healthy obese people are still at a higher risk of heart disease or a stroke than those with a normal weight range Getty Health news in pictures Sleep deprivation When you feel particularly exhausted, it can definitely feel like you are also lacking in brain capacity. Now, a new study has suggested this could be because chronic sleep deprivation can actually cause the brain to eat itself Shutterstock Health news in pictures Exercise classes offering 45 minute naps launch David Lloyd Gyms have launched a new health and fitness class which is essentially a bunch of people taking a nap for 45 minutes. The fitness group was spurred to launch the napercise class after research revealed 86 per cent of parents said they were fatigued. The class is therefore predominantly aimed at parents but you actually do not have to have children to take part Getty Health news in pictures 'Fundamental right to health' to be axed after Brexit, lawyers warn Tobacco and alcohol companies could win more easily in court cases such as the recent battle over plain cigarette packaging if the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is abandoned, a barrister and public health professor have said Getty Health news in pictures 'Thousands dying' due to fear over non-existent statin side-effects A major new study into the side effects of the cholesterol-lowering medicine suggests common symptoms such as muscle pain and weakness are not caused by the drugs themselves Getty Health news in pictures Babies born to fathers aged under 25 have higher risk of autism New research has found that babies born to fathers under the age of 25 or over 51 are at higher risk of developing autism and other social disorders. The study, conducted by the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Mount Sinai, found that these children are actually more advanced than their peers as infants, but then fall behind by the time they hit their teenage years Getty Health news in pictures Cycling to work could halve risk of cancer and heart disease Commuters who swap their car or bus pass for a bike could cut their risk of developing heart disease and cancer by almost half, new research suggests  but campaigners have warned there is still an urgent need to improve road conditions for cyclists. Cycling to work is linked to a lower risk of developing cancer by 45 per cent and cardiovascular disease by 46 per cent, according to a study of a quarter of a million people. Walking to work also brought health benefits, the University of Glasgow researchers found, but not to the same degree as cycling. Getty

Relative age, as an indicator of neurocognitive maturity, may play a crucial role in the risk of being diagnosed with ADHD and receiving ADHD medication among children and adolescents.

Our findings emphasise the importance of considering the age of a child within a grade [school year] when diagnosing ADHD and prescribing medication.

Over the past decade in the UK, the number of prescriptions of drugs designed to treat ADHD has doubled to 922,000 a year. They can cause adverse reactions such as suicidal thoughts, weight loss and liver toxicity.

According to the NHS website, common symptoms of ADHD include a short attention span, restlessness, constant fidgeting, over-activity and being impulsive.

Dr Kuben Naidoo, consultant psychiatrist and chairman of ADHD Foundation, said: The study highlights the importance of ensuring the assessment for ADHD is rigorous and relies on a variety of sources of information that support the clinician in deciding whether the diagnosis is met.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The UK Supreme Court has ruled a contrived scheme used by Deutsche Bank and UBS to allow the firms and their bankers to escape 135m in tax on bonuses was unlawful.

The arrangement, which dates back to 2004, was challenged by the UKs tax authority in the courts. Under the schemes, the banks decided to award discretionary bonuses to their employees, but rather than pay the bonuses directly, they used the bonus amounts to pay for redeemable shares in specially set up offshore companies. The shares were then awarded to the employees in place of bonuses.

Conditions were attached to them which meant they could be forfeit if something happened. thus allowing them to qualify for tax exemption. The UBS conditions were an unlikely specified rise in the FTSE 100 within a three-week period. Deutsche Bank imposed a forfeit condition involving the employees dismissal for misconduct or voluntary resignation within a six-week period. Once the conditions were correctly observed, employees could redeem the shares for cash.

The banks hoped employees would benefit from an income tax break. The Supreme Court said Parliament had not intended the tax exemption to be used in this fashion. Lord Reed, Justice of the Supreme Court, described the conditions as completely arbitrary with no business or commercial rationale.

A spokesman for Deutsche Bank said all tax and national insurance relating to the scheme had already been paid. UBS said it was disappointed by the ruling.

Treasury minister David Gauke said yesterday: This is an important victory and confirmation from the UKs highest court that tax avoidance is simply unacceptable.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

He may be the billionaire founder of IKEA, but Ingvar Kamprad has revealed he buys his clothes at flea markets to save money, according to a documentary on Swedish television.

Kamprad, who turns 90 in March, is so thrifty he stocks his closet with second-hand clothes.

He claims this attitude helped IKEA to become one of the worlds top brands.

I dont think Im wearing anything that wasnt bought at a flea market. It means that I want to set a good example, he told Swedish channel TV4.

He said its in the nature of Smaland, the agriculture region where he comes from, to be thrifty.

Kamprad is renowned for not splashing his cash.

He also has a preference for cheap haircuts.

Normally I try to get my haircut when Im in a developing country. Last time it was in Vietnam, he said in a 2008 interview with Sydsvenskan, a Swedish newspaper.

Estimates of his fortune wary widely as it is difficult to separate what belongs to his children and what is held in a family foundation in Liechtenstein, one of Europes most infamous tax heavens.

Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Show all 10 1 /10 Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Bill Gates - $75 bn The creator of Microsoft is worth $78 billion. He has topped the list for 17 out of the past 22 years - though his net worth shrank by $4.2bn (3bn) to $75bn (53.7bn). Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Amancio Ortega - $67 bn The Spanish business who set up the Zara chain of high-street shops is worth $67 billion. REUTERS/ AP Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Warren Buffet - $60.8 bn Warren buffet is the world's most successful investor. Forbes rates him as being worth $60.8 billion. Getty Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Carlos Slim Helu - $50 bn Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecom magnate, is this years biggest loser with a fortune of $50 billion, down from $77.1 billion last year. Getty Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Jeff Bezos - $45.2 bn Amazons Jeff Bezos moved up to the fifth from the fifteenth spot last year; his net worth increased to $45.2 billion. Getty Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Mark Zuckerberg - $44.6 bn The biggest gainer on the 2016 list is Mark Zuckerberg , whose fortune is up $11.2 billion for a total net worth of $44.6 billion. He is the sixth richest in the world. Getty Images Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Larry Ellison - $43.6 bn The American entrepreneur has a fortune of $43.6 billion Bloomberg Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Michael Bloomberg - $40 bn Michael Bloomberg, whose media and financial empire has created a personal fortune of $40 bn, is said to be willing to spend up to $1bn on a presidential campaign AP Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Charles Koch and David Koch - $39.6 bn Charles Koch, along with brother David Koch of Koch Industries are joint sixth and are valued at $39.6 billion. Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Liliane Bettencourt - $36.1 bn Liliane Bettencourt is the heir to the LOreal empire Getty Images

Forbes listed him as the fourth richest person in the world in 2006. Bloomberg currently ranks him as the 9th richest person in the world behind Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, with a fortune of $41.2 billion.

Kamprad spent 40 years living in Switzerland to escape Swedens high tax. He returned to live in Sweden in 2014.

Ikea has recently been accused of avoiding up to 1 billion ($1.1 billion) in corporate taxes between 2009 and 2014, according to a report by Green Party ministers in the European Parliament.

The Green Party said that different parts of Ikea were paying royalties to each other and that the company was shifting profits between Ikea-owned companies, which had the effect of reducing its overall taxes.

We pay our taxes in full compliance with national and international tax rules and regulations, Ikea said in a statement.

We are committed to further develop our business in Europe and look forward to the continued dialogue on how to develop a harmonized and clear international tax system, it added.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Saudi Arabia is reportedly seeking a bank loan of $6 to $8 billion is what would be the first significant borrowing by the kingdom's government for more than a decade.

It emerged that Saudi Arabia was looking to borrow money to shore up its public finances last week.

The kingdom has asked banks to submit proposals to lend it a five-year dollar loan of between $6 and $8 billion, Reuters reported, citing sources close to the matter.

Saudi has also asked for the option to increase the loan from this initial limit, as it looks to plug a record budget deficit of 100 billion in 2015 alone.

The kingdom is selling off foreign assets and issuing domestic bonds to try and shrink that deficit that has opened up since oil prices have slumped from over $100 a barrel in 2014 to around $30 a barrel today.

Saudi Arabia has already raised domestic petrol prices by up to 40 per cent and set about dismantling generous subsidies for water, electricity and petrol. The kingdom has traditionally kept prices low for residents as a social welfare measure.

Changes to VAT and an increase in taxes on soft drinks and tobacco are also planned.

Before the oil price started falling in mid-2014, Saudi Arabia, like many other oil-reliant Gulf states, paid down Government debt and borrowed little from international banks.

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.

Many states are expected to increase their borrowing sharply if oil prices stay low.

Qatar borrowed $5.5 billion in January, around the same time the government of Oman borrowed $1 billion through an international loan.

Saudi Arabia's 100 billion budget deficit is still one of the lowest in the world, which could make lending to the kingdom an attractive prospect for investors. The pricing of the loan is expected to be measured against the earlier loans to Qatar and Oman, which took a long time to arrange because of concerns about the Gulf region's ability to cope with the era of cheap oil, Reuters said.
Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The Sun has claimed the Queen is statistically more likely to back a Brexit because of her age and education level while defending its controversial report.

A front page story claiming the monarch had voiced strong Eurosceptic views during a lunch at Windsor Castle in 2011 has sparked calls for an investigation and a formal complaint to a media watchdog.

It claimed that two impeccably placed sources recounted how she had vented her anger with Brussels at Nick Clegg, who is pro-EU, his time as Deputy Prime Minister.

Buckingham Palace lodged a formal complaint with the Independent Press Standards Organisation on Wednesday and Mr Clegg called the article nonsense but the Sun has stood by its report.

 Clegg: Queen story is nonsense

Tony Gallagher, the paper's editor, said he had no doubt it was accurate and claimed journalists knew much more than was published.

Multiple sources - two sources to be precise - came to us with information about the Queen and her views on the EU and we would have been derelict in our duty if we didn't put them in the paper. It's as simple as that, he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

You are going to have to take my word for it that we are completely confident that the Queen's views were expressed exactly as we have outlined them both in the headline and the story.

In its coverage today, the newspaper accused Mr Clegg of attempting to gag Brexit campaigners and accused pro-EU figures of attempting to discredit the report because of the effect it could have on undecided voters ahead of the June referendum.

A report claimed that YouGov polls showed that statistically the Queen is in a group highly likely to back Brexit, adding: Women aged over 60 without a university education back leaving the EU by 73 per cent.

Michael Gove blamed the EU for the worst upsurge in the far right at any time since the 1930s (Getty Images)

The Cabinet Secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, is facing calls to investigate who leaked the information - with Michael Gove seen as the prime suspect.

The Justice Secretary - who is an ardent Leave supporter - was one of four ministers, including Mr Clegg, to attend the only lunchtime meeting of the Privy Council to be held at the castle during 2011.

The then Welsh secretary Cheryl Gillan, who also backs Brexit, was also present. Neither has commented on the report.

Wes Streeting, the Labour MP for Ilford North, wrote to Sir Jeremy urging him to investigate the leak, saying it would be an extremely serious breach of Privy Council rules if it came from their meeting.

"If it is found that none of those who were present at the meeting in questions are implicated, I urge you to establish which impeccably placed individuals were involved in making such allegations to a national newspaper, he wrote.

Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Show all 62 1 /62 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II on a walk-about in Portsmouth during her Silver Jubilee tour of Great Britain, 1977 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The future Britain's Queen Elizabeth II (R) pictured with her younger sister Princess Margaret (L) in 1933 AFP/Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The 9-year-old Elizabeth attends an aristocratic wedding with her mother and younger sister. Later in that year with the death of her Grandfather and the Abdication of her Uncle Edward VIII she became first in line to the throne, 1936 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The coronation of King George VI in 1937, Elizabeth aged 10 became the heir apparent to the throne Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth and her sister arrive at Waterloo station to say goodbye to their parents as they leave to tour Canada. Elizabeth was thought too young to escort her parents on the tour and was described as "tearful" as they departed. She and her parents made the first ever transatlantic telephone call during their time away, 1939 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The 13-year-old Elizabeth and her sister Margret address children who have been evacuated from the cities on BBC's 'The Chilrens Hour' She said "We are trying to do all we can to help our gallant sailors, soldiers and airmen, and we are trying, too, to bear our share of the danger and sadness of war. We know, every one of us, that in the end all will be well", 1940 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Just before the end of the war Elizabeth took part in training to become an ATS officer. She is pictured learning to change a tire, 1945 AFP/Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The official announcement of Princess Elizabeth and Phillip Mountbatten's engagement. The pairing was incredibly controversial as Prince Phillip had no financial standing and he was foreign born, the prince of Denmark and Greece (though he served Britain in the war and was given British Citizenship), 1947 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II (in coach) and her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh are cheered by the crowd after their wedding ceremony, on 20 November 1947, on their road to Buckingham Palace, London Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth smiles at her first child, a month old Prince Charles. Charles was born on 14 November 1948 Corbis Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The couples second child Princess Anne was born in 1950 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Arriving back in England upon hearing the death of her father King George VI. The Kings health had been in decline for a number of years and Elizabeth had been filling in for him on an official visit to Australia by way of Kenya. As his heir Elizabeth became Queen aged 26 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth's coronation took place on 2 June 1953. It was the first ever coronation to be aired live on television, being one of the most watched events in history with millions gathering around their TV sets to see the new monarch Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II standing next to her daughter Princess Anne, 1960 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II President Eisenhower (centre) with the British Royal family (L-R) Prince Philip, Princess Anne, HM Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles and Captain John Eisenhower, at Balmoral Castle, Scotland, 1959 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II as she turns to smile and talk to an unidentified officer, during the Trooping of the Colour by the First Battalion of the Jamaica Regiment at Up-Park Camp, Kingston, Jamaica, 1966 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II walking cross country at the North of Scotland Gun Dog Association Open Stake Retreiver Trials in the grounds of Balmoral Castle in 1967 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to the Chelsea Flower Show in London, a regular fixture in the royal calendar, 1971 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh during their traditional summer break at Balmoral Castle. The highland retreat is one of the Queen's favourite places, each year, she heads off to Scotland for the summer. "It is rather nice to hibernate for a bit when one leads such a moveable life," she once said, 1976 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II during a walkabout in Muscat while visiting Oman, 1979 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II with some of her corgis walking the Cross Country course during the second day of the Windsor Horse Trials. The monarch is responsible for introducing a new breed of dog known as the "dorgi" when her corgi Tiny was mated with a dachshund "sausage dog" called Pipkin which belonged to Princess Margaret, 1980 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II (L-R) the Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince William, Prince Harry and the Prince and Princess of Wales after the christening ceremony of Prince Harry, 1984 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II taking the salute of the Household Guards regiments during the Trooping of the Colour ceremony in London, 1985 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Diana, Princess of Wales and Queen Elizabeth II as they smile to well-wishers outside Clarence House in London, 1987 AP Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II, with Chief Instructor, Small Arms Corp LT Col George Harvey, firing the last shot on a standard SA 80 rifle when she attended the centenary of the Army Rifle Association at Bisley, 1993 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II South Africa's President Nelson Mandela greets Queen Elizabeth II as she steps from the royal yacht Britannia in Cape Town at the 1995's official start of the her first visit to the country since 1947 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II smiles as she visits Bowring Park in St. John's, Newfoundland, on the third day of a 10-day official visit to Canada, 1997 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh make their way into St. George's Chapel at Windsor for the annual Garter ceremony, 1999 AFP/Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and Pope John Paul II as they meet at the Vatican, 2000 AP Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and the Queen Mother leaving church by horse drawn carriage on the Sandringham Estate, Norfolk, 2000 PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth rides her horse in the grounds of Windsor Castle, 2002 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth arrives for the world premiere of James Bond movie "Casino Royale" at the Odeon cinema in Leicester Square in London, 2006 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth boards a scheduled train at Kings Cross station in London, 2009 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II planting a tree at Newmarket Animal Health Trust, during a royal visit which marked her 50th year as the charity's patron, 2009 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II talking with Pope Benedict XVI during an audience in the Morning Drawing Room at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh during a four day visit by the Pope to the UK, 2010 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II visiting the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 2010 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II receives flowers from the crowd during her visit to Federation Square in downtown Melbourne, 2011 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth watches a preview of her Christmas message wearing a pair of 3D glasses, studded with Swarovski crystals in the form of a "Q", at Buckingham Palace in central London, 2012 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Members of Britain's royal family (front L to R) Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles cheer as competitors participate in a sack race at the Braemar Gathering in Braemar, Scotland, 2012 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Britain's Prince Charles kisses the hand of his mother Queen Elizabeth at the end of her Diamond Jubilee concert in front of Buckingham Palace in London, 2012 Reuters Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge laughs as Queen Elizabeth gestures during a visit to Vernon Park in Nottingham, 2012 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip attend a service for the Order of the British Empire at St Paul's Cathedral in London, 2012 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II meets young people during an official visit to The Shard building in central London, 2013 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Actress Angelina Jolie is presented with the Insignia of an Honorary Dame Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George by Queen Elizabeth II in the 1844 Room at Buckingham Palace, London, 2014 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visit the Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red evolving art installation at the Tower of London, 2014 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at the State Opening of Parliament, 2015 AFP/Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II (L-R) Britain's Princess Anne, Princess Royal, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge holding his son Prince George of Cambridge, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Harry (back), Prince Andrew, Duke of York (back), James, Viscount Severn (front), Princess Beatrice of York (back), Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Eugenie of York (back) stand on the balcony of Buckingham Palace waiting to view the fly-past during the Queen's Birthday Parade, 'Trooping the Colour,' in London, 2015 Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The Trooping of the Colour is an annual celebration marking the Queen's birthday, 2015 Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Britain's Queen Elizabeth II stands with Kate the Duchess of Cambridge whilst pushing Princess Charlotte in a pram as they leave after attending the Christening of Britain's Princess Charlotte at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham, 2015 AP Photo/Matt Dunham, Pool Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II arrives at the Broadway Theatre in Barking, 2015 Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II greets wellwishers during a 'walkabout' on her 90th birthday in Windsor in 2016 AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Members of the Royal Family during trooping of the colour in 2017 AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The Queen waves at Prince Harry and Meghan after their wedding in 2018 POOL/AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex gesture during their visit to the Storyhouse in Chester, Cheshire in 2018 AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Prince Charles reacts as he sits with his mother Britain's Queen Elizabeth II during an event to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, in Portsmouth in 2019 AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are joined by her mother, Doria Ragland, as they show their new son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, to the Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh at Windsor Castle Chris Allerton/Sussex Royal/PA Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II reacts as she visits the Haig Housing Trust in Morden in 2019 POOL/AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II takes her seat on the The Sovereign's Throne in the House of Lords next to Prince Charles, before reading the Queen's Speech during the State Opening of Parliament in 2019 POOL/AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II looks at the coffin of Britain's Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh during his funeral service at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle POOL/AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and Britain's Prince Charles, Prince of Wales pose alongside the tree which they planted to mark the start of the official planting season for the Queen's Green Canopy (QGC) at the Balmoral Cricket Pavilion, Balmoral Estate in Scotland POOL/AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Britain's Queen Elizabeth II cuts a cake to celebrate the start of the Platinum Jubilee during a reception in the Ballroom of Sandringham House, the Queen's Norfolk residence on February 5, 2022. - Queen Elizabeth II on Sunday will became the first British monarch to reign for seven decades, in a bittersweet landmark as she also marked the 70th anniversary of her father's death AFP/Getty Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II arrives in Westminster Abbey accompanied by Prince Andrew, Duke of York for the Service Of Thanksgiving For The Duke Of Edinburgh on March 29, 2022 in London Getty

Leader of the Commons Chris Grayling, who supports a Brexit, confirmed that conversations with the Queen should always be treated as private but rejected calls for an inquiry.

"We have no idea where this story came from, whether the story is accurate - I have no ability to judge one way or the other, he said.

"All I know is that it is going to be investigated by the press complaints body and that seems to me the right organisation to look at it.

Buckingham Palace said its complaint was based on clause one of the Editors' Code of Practice, which governs accuracy.

If Ipso finds against the newspaper, it will have to publish a suitably prominent correction, possibly on its front page, and face a possible fine.

A previous statement on behalf of the Queen said she was politically neutral and had remained so throughout her reign, dismissing the spurious, anonymously sourced claims.

Additional reporting by PA
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

A man has been shot dead at point-blank range with a "high-powered weapon" on a street in north-west London.

The victim, in his late 20s, was gunned down on Wednesday night in Harlesden.

Reports on social media suggested the murder was related to local gangs while friends of the victim said he had been could in the crossfire of two rival gangs.

They shot him from point-blank range," a teenager who had been in the nearby cash and carry told the Evening Standard. "They were going slowly at the time and then sped off down the street. The car had tinted windows so you couldnt see inside.

Another man who heard the shots said it looked like a case of "mistaken identity":

"I was relaxing watching TV when I heard about six shots like a machine gun," Vinod Patel, a local builder, told the Standard.

I went outside and saw people running towards him. Hed been shot in the chest and stomach but was still breathing.

The gunman is believed to have fled the scene in a car and no arrests have been made, the Metropolitan Police said.

Detective Inspector Andy George, who is leading the investigation, said officers believe the shooting was witnessed by "a number of people".

He said: "This was a shocking murder with multiple shots fired from what is believed to be a high-powered weapon.

"My team are undertaking a number of active inquiries to trace the vehicle involved and its passengers. Forensic work at the scene is ongoing."

Pictures posted online claiming to be of the scene showed a man lying on the ground with a second man appearing to go to his aid.

Police arrived at the scene of the shooting in Church Road, at the junction with Conley Road, shortly before 10pm and found a man with gunshot injuries. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

PA
Want to Pass the Bar? Go to Alabama or Wisconsin, Not Yale

Yale might be ranked as the number one law school in America (you're trash, Harvard), but when it comes to passing the bar on the first try, graduates of the much less celebrated law schools far outrank Yale, Harvard, Stanford and many other prestigious law schools.

That's right, if you want to pass the bar, go to law school at the University of Alabama or Wisconsin, not the Ivy League. Roll tide, cheeseheads.

SCOTUS Clerk? Nah, I'd Rather Work

Sure, Harvard and Yale grads might dominate the Supreme Court -- they made up almost half of the SCOTUS clerks in 2014, and Ruther Bader Ginsburg is the only current Supreme Court Justice who didn't graduate from Harvard or Yale. But when it comes to passing the bar, the Ivies simply can't keep up.

A new ranking of law schools by first time bar passage rate, put together by Start Class, shows just how far behind the Ivy League is. Harvard came in fifth, with a 96.4 percent pass rate. That put it behind much less famous law schools like the University of South Dakota Law School. Yale had a sad eighth place showing, with a pass rate of 96.2 percent, two spots behind 'Bama.

Who Does Best on the Bar

Here's the top ten in their entirety:

1. University of Wisconsin Law School, 100 percent

2. Marquette University Law School, 100 percent

3. University of South Dakota Law School, 97.8 percent

4. Baylor Law School, 97 percent

5. Harvard Law School, 96.4 percent

6. University of Alabama School of Law, 96.4 percent

7. Columbia University Law School, 96.3 percent

8. Yale Law School, 96.2 percent

9. New York University School of Law, 96.2 percent

10. University of Pennsylvania Law School, 95.6 percent

Now, don't start burning your acceptance letters from Harvard and Yale just yet.



We have a few concerns about Start Class's list. You'll notice the two Wisconsin law schools, the only law schools in that state, have a 100 percent "pass" rate.



But Wisconsin law grads don't really pass the bar. They don't take it. Wisconsin is the only state with "diploma privilege," allowing all in-state grads to apply to the bar without having to take the state bar exam.

Our second gripe: not all bar exams are made equal. (You'll notice there are no California schools on the list, possibly because of the Golden State's brutal bar exam.) Passing the bar in New York is not exactly as easy as passing it in South Dakota. And when that difference is taken in to account, some of the top schools perform much better.

But with those two complaints taken in to account, the lesson still remains: if you want to go to the Supreme Court, try Harvard or Yale. If you want to sit for the just bar once -- or not at all -- Alabama, South Dakota, and Wisconsin might be better bets.

Related Resources:
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

A British private investigator has been criticised for declaring he had seen Madeleine McCann in Aregua in Paraguay.

Miraz Ullahh Ali has come under fire from Interpol and Paraguayan authorities for placing advert in a local newspaper.

Government officials and police have voiced their disapproval of not being consulted before going public.

Aregua is a city, 20 miles from capital Ascuncion with around 100,000 inhabitants.

The advert read as follows: "We have been informed that Madeleine McCann is living in Aregua, possibly with a woman.

She was kidnapped from her holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on the Algarve on May 3 2007 when she was three."

It mentioned that Madeleine is now aged 12 and there is a two million euro reward for her recovery.

Paraguayan police sent investigators to the city but found no evidence of Madeleine in the city.

It is now believed Ali has since returned to the UK

Victor Tandi from Interpol said: Its illogical and totally incoherent what this man has done.

It makes no sense to simply take a few photos and then leave."

The Madeleine McCann case Show all 25 1 /25 The Madeleine McCann case The Madeleine McCann case Madeleine McCann One of the last photos of Madeleine before her disappearance EPA The Madeleine McCann case Madeleine McCann Madeleine McCann was three when she was abducted during a family holiday in 2007 The Madeleine McCann case Top worn by a man that detectives investigate with connection to disappearance of Madeleine McCann A computer generated image of the distinctive burgundy long sleeve top worn by a man that detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are looking for The Madeleine McCann case Apartment in Portugal from where Madeleine went missing An aerial view of the Ocean Club apartments and pool where Madeleine McCann went missing Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images The Madeleine McCann case Kate McCann Kate McCann speaks to the press outside the court house in Lisbon on 12 September 2013 following the first audience of the McCann couple's libel proceedings against former inspector Goncalo Amaral for a book written about the case of their missing daughter The Madeleine McCann case Kate and Gerry McCann Kate McCann and Gerry McCann before the start of the 'Miles for Missing People' charity run in Regent's Park in London, 2011 The Madeleine McCann case Kate and Gerry McCann Kate and Gerry McCann make an appeal at a press conference in the holiday resort of Praia da Luz, Portugal 7 May 2007 The Madeleine McCann case Kate and Gerry McCann The McCann's give an interview with a Spanish television channel at their home in Rothley The Madeleine McCann case Kate and Gerry McCann Madeleine McCann was abducted in Portugal in May 2007 AP The Madeleine McCann case Kate and Gerry McCann Preliminary forensic analysis on samples recovered from the McCanns' hire car raised the possibility of a match with Madeleine's DNA profile, according to the leaked report Getty Images The Madeleine McCann case Kate and Gerry McCann Pope Benedict XVI blesses a photo of four-year-old abducted British girl Madeleine McCann, while meeting her parents Gerry and Kate McCann, after his weekly general audience at the Vatican, 2007 Reuters The Madeleine McCann case Kate and Gerry McCann Gerald McCann and Kate McCann speak to the press on 4 May 2007 at the Ocean club appartement hotel in Praia de Luz in Lagos after Madeline vanished while her parents were out to dinner The Madeleine McCann case Portuguese police search for Madeleine Dozens of Portuguese police aided by dogs search for missing three-year old British girl Madelaine McCann in front of the Ocean club appartment hotel in Praia de Luz in Lagos The Madeleine McCann case Kate and Gerry McCann Gerald McCann and Kate McCann walk holding their two other children outside the Ocean club apartment hotel in Praia de Luz in May 2007 The Madeleine McCann case Madeleine McCann Madeleine McCann pictured at the age of three, left, and as she might have looked aged nine PA/Teri Blythe The Madeleine McCann case Kate and Gerry McCann The parents of missing Madeleine McCann have described as "pure speculation" reports in the Portuguese press suggesting that a chief suspect in the disappearance of their daughter was killed in a tractor accident four years ago. PA The Madeleine McCann case Tribute for missing Madeleine in Rothley, Leicesteshire Three year old Cally prepares to add a yellow ribbon to a floral tribute for missing Madeleine McCann in Rothley in Leicesteshire, 2007 The Madeleine McCann case Support for the missing Madeleine Everton captain Lee Carsley (L) leads his team onto the field, followed Mikel Arteta (C) and Manuel Fernandes (R) wearing Tshirts bearing a message of support for the missing British toddler Madeleine McCann, prior to the English Premiership match between Chelsea and Everton, at Stamford Bridge in London, 2007 The Madeleine McCann case Madeleine McCann A poster appealing for information about Madeleine McCann at a Spanish railway station PA The Madeleine McCann case BBC's Crimewatch reconstruction of Madeleine McCann's disappearance Former porn star Mark Sloan (L) was cast in the BBC's Crimewatch reconstruction of Madeleine McCann's disappearance BBC The Madeleine McCann case Clarence Mitchell holds two artist's impression of the new suspect McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell holds two artist's impression of the new suspect on 20 January 2008 in London. The description has come from British woman Gail Cooper, who was staying with her family close to the McCann's apartment in Portugal The Madeleine McCann case Image of a woman sought in the case Clarence Mitchell, the press spokesman for the McCann family, releases a photofit image of a woman sought in the search for missing Madeleine McCann Getty Images The Madeleine McCann case Suspect in disappearance of Madeleine McCann Police released two e-fits of suspect in disappearance of Madeleine McCann Getty Images The Madeleine McCann case Raymond Hewlett Convicted paedophile Raymond Hewlett, who is being sought in connection with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann PA The Madeleine McCann case A picture of a suspect An artist's impression of a suspicious man seen by a witness apparently watching the McCann family's apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, the day before Madeleine McCann went missing Channel 4

Vice interior minister Jalil Rachid said on the radio: "Hes saying missing Madeleine is in Aregua and he goes there to take some pictures and then returns. Obviously he left empty-handed.

"I believe hes been very irresponsible and committed a grave error in the way hes acted.

This man has now left Paraguay and is back in London as far as I know."

The first suspicion that comes to mind is that hes trying to extort money out of Madeleines family."
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

On the morning of 13 March 1996, Thomas Hamilton walked into the gym at Dunblane Primary School and killed 16 children and one teacher before turning the gun on himself.

The former Scout leader took just three minutes to carry out one of the UKs worst ever mass shootings, spraying four and five-year-old children with bullets as they gathered for a PE lesson.

Several survivors and relatives of the victims have spoken about the massacre for the first time for a BBC documentary, Dunblane: Our Story, 20 years on from the tragedy.

Dunblane massacre: A survivor describes the moment she was shot before hiding in a cupboard

Amy Hutchinson, a pupil inside the gym, speaks about the moment she was shot in the leg.

We were skipping around the gym hall. I dont remember the pain of being shot. I dont remember noises, sounds.

I just remember my leg turning to jelly and falling to the floor, and then dragging myself to the gym cupboard where there were other people.

Hamilton was armed with four handguns and 700 rounds of ammunition, sparking a ban on private handgun ownership in Britain.

Dunblane: Our Story is rebroadcasted on BBC Two at 23.15pm on Thursday.
Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The British public are particularly honest because our politicians are less corrupt than those in other countries, psychologists have claimed.

Some 2,500 young people from a number of countries around the world were asked to roll a dice in private and then claim a cash prize based on the number, The Daily Telegraph reported. However, they were secretly filmed so researchers from Nottingham University could test how honest they were about their score.

According to a paper published in Nature, British people were the most honest just ahead of Swedes, Germans, Lithuanians and Italians. The least honest people  according to this test -- were from Tanzania, Morocco, China, Vietnam and Colombia.

The researchers linked the results of the study with levels of corruption among the nations elites.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA UK news in pictures 7 September 2022 Police officers stand guard after Animal Rebellion activists threw paint on the walls and road outside the Houses of Parliament in protest, in London, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 6 September 2022 Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Liz Truss during an audience at Balmoral, Scotland, where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2022 Visitors at the PoliNations garden in Victoria Square, Birmingham, which is made up of five 40ft high tree installations and over 6,000 plants. The PoliNations programme aims to explore how migration and cross-pollination have shaped the UKs gardens and culture PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2022 Undergraduates at the University of St Andrews take part in the traditional Pier Walk along the harbour walls of St Andrews before the start of the new academic year PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2022 The Massed Pipes and Drums parade during the Braemar Highland Gathering at the Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2022 Number 12 Company Irish Guards at Wellington Barracks, central London, before commencing their first Guard Mount at Buckingham Palace PA

Lead author of the study, Simon Gachter, professor of psychology and economic decision-making at Nottingham University, said: Ethical values, including honesty, are transmitted from prestigious people, peers and parents.

People often take high-status individuals such as business leaders and celebrities as role models, and their cheating can set bad examples for dishonest practices.

Rule violations not only have direct adverse economic consequences, but might also impair individual intrinsic honesty that is crucial for the smooth functioning of society.

If cheating is pervasive in society and goes often unpunished, then people might view dishonesty in certain everyday affairs as justifiable.
Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Surging numbers of applications for British citizenship have been submitted by European Union nationals alarmed that a Brexit vote could jeopardise their status in this country, it has emerged.

A publisher of textbooks preparing candidates for citizenship tests said sales had quadrupled since it became clear that David Cameron would hold his promised EU membership referendum in June.

Red Squirrel Publishing said it sold 2,270 copies of its titles in January and 2,179 last month  compared with 570 in December  and has ordered an emergency reprint.

Recommended Read more Hawking leads top UK scientists in major Brexit intervention

Immigration lawyers have warned that a Leave vote could leave some EU nationals without an automatic right to stay in Britain, meaning they would have to apply for a visa to continue living and working in this country.

The lawyers have urged people worried about their status to consider applying for a British passport. More than two million EU nationals are living in Britain, with Poles representing the largest group. There are also increasing numbers from southern European nations such as Portugal, Spain and Greece.

Fears raised by EU migrants about the impact of Brexit include the threat of being ordered out of the country, losing reciprocal healthcare arrangements and facing long queues at border controls at ports and airports.

George Sandison, the managing editor of Red Squirrel, said the company was rushing through a reprint of its guides to meet the demand for copies. The announcement of the referendum date has definitely brought home just how uncertain the future is, he said. The process for obtaining British citizenship is time-consuming, so it is no surprise that people are suddenly looking to complete this process as quickly as possible.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA UK news in pictures 7 September 2022 Police officers stand guard after Animal Rebellion activists threw paint on the walls and road outside the Houses of Parliament in protest, in London, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 6 September 2022 Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Liz Truss during an audience at Balmoral, Scotland, where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2022 Visitors at the PoliNations garden in Victoria Square, Birmingham, which is made up of five 40ft high tree installations and over 6,000 plants. The PoliNations programme aims to explore how migration and cross-pollination have shaped the UKs gardens and culture PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2022 Undergraduates at the University of St Andrews take part in the traditional Pier Walk along the harbour walls of St Andrews before the start of the new academic year PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2022 The Massed Pipes and Drums parade during the Braemar Highland Gathering at the Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2022 Number 12 Company Irish Guards at Wellington Barracks, central London, before commencing their first Guard Mount at Buckingham Palace PA

Hayk Sayadyan, an immigration specialist at Gulbenkian Andonian Solicitors in London, said anxiety over the UKs future in the EU was among the factors behind a surge in citizenship applications.

People prefer stability, he said. Inevitably, the uncertainty that is entailed in this vote carries a degree of discomfort and concern for people.

To qualify for permanent residency or a UK passport, candidates have to score 75 per cent in questions covering British history, culture, law and government. They also have to have lived in this country for at least five years, and pass an English language test.

Meanwhile, Irelands Department of Foreign Affairs disclosed last week that the number of people born in England, Scotland or Wales applying for passports on the grounds of family links increased sharply last year. It recorded a 33 per cent rise in applications from people with an Irish-born grandparent and an 11 per cent rise from people with an Irish-born parent.

Anyone born in Northern Ireland has the automatic right to claim Irish citizenship. Last year applications for Irish passports from the province rose by 14 per cent.

Case study: Migrants being fed scare stories

A 39-year-old Slovakian woman, who works on outreach programmes that help EU migrants, said she had been inundated with requests from people inquiring about taking British citizenship.

Almost every day now people are emailing me, or sending messages on our Facebook page, asking about taking the test because they are so concerned about what will happen to them.

The Manchester-based woman, who did not want to be named, criticised British colleagues of EU migrants for feeding them scare stories about what would happen to them following a Brexit.

I had one guy who works in hospitality saying that people he works with were telling him he will get sent home but I tell them its not so easy to do.

Its no wonder so many people want to find out more about the citizenship test with all of that going on.

Anna Raffetti, 27, from Italy, has been living and working in the UK for almost five years

Case study: You have to be British for the system to work

Anna Raffetti, 27, from Italy, has been living and working in the UK for almost five years.

I had been thinking about taking the test for about a year, well before the EU referendum date was announced, she said. But Id say those thoughts have speeded up recently.

Ive seen how difficult it is for Europeans here in the UK. For the system to work for you, you have to be British. What matters is being British, not European.

Ms Raffetti, who lives in Hertford and works for a charity in Haringey, north London, said she would apply for permanent residency status in September on the fifth anniversary of her arrival.

It costs 65 and it means you can stay in this country, she said. You have to wait another year after that to apply for citizenship, so Ill be taking my test in 2017.
Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The political director of Britains biggest union is moving to a less sensitive job after being involved in a series of political controversies.

Jennie Formby, an ally of Unites general secretary, Len McCluskey, and the mother of his child, is due to stand down from her post as the unions political director when she takes up a new position as regional secretary in the South-east of England.

News of her transfer was seized on by Ms Formbys critics as a sign that her views on Israel had become an embarrassment to her employers  but that was denied by the union, which defended her political record and said that the move was not only voluntary but represented a promotion.

Ms Formby, who is one of two Unite representatives on Labours National Executive Committee (NEC), is reported to have shocked fellow committee members when she challenged the partys choice of a senior figure to look into allegations of ant-semitism among Labour students at Oxford University.

Jan Royall, Labours leader in the House of Lords, who worked for the party for two decades before being made a peer in 2004, was chosen to conduct the investigation, but Ms Formby reputedly objected after an internet search showed that she had been a member of Labour Friends of Israel, and had visited Israel in 2007.

Ms Formby was also a prime mover behind a vote passed by the executive last November to bar the security firm G4S from tendering to handle security at Labours annual conference because the firm does business with Israel. She defended the decision  taken by a vote when about half the committee members were out of the room  on the grounds that the company had acted unethically and has been found to be in breach of the human rights obligations.

During a recent controversy over the election of Labours youth representative, which resulted in a narrow victory for the centre left, Ms Formby was one of the three members, along with her fellow Unite delegate Martin Mayer and the former London mayor Ken Livingstone, who objected when the victorious candidate, Jasmin Beckett , was welcomed onto the executive.

Earlier this month, there was speculation that Ms Formby was hoping to be the next Labour MP for Southampton Test, where incumbent Alan Whitehead is expected to pull out at the next election, but that was denied by the union.

A Unite spokeswoman said that Ms Formby was being transferred because she had applied for her new job and the application had succeeded, and denied that the move was linked to her views on Israel.

She said: After normal recruitment and appointment process, it will be recommended to the Unite executive council when it meets next week that Jennie Formby be appointed the unions regional secretary in the South-east.

Upon taking up that post she will stand down as the unions political director after three highly successful years in that post. Jennie will remain a member of Labours NEC.

Jennie has devoted her life to fighting injustice and racism, including supporting campaigns for peace for both the Israeli and Palestinian people. Suggestions to the contrary are repugnant smears and may result in legal action.
Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Barack Obama has sharply criticised David Cameron for the UKs role in allowing Libya to become a shit show after the fall of the dictator Muammar Gaddafi, in an unprecedented attack on a British leader by a serving US President.

Mr Obama said that following a successful military intervention to aid rebels during the 2011 Arab Spring revolt, Libya was left to spiral out of control  due largely to the inaction of Americas European allies.

In a candid US magazine interview, Mr Obama said: When I go back and I ask myself what went wrong theres room for criticism, because I had more faith in the Europeans, given Libyas proximity, being invested in the follow-up.

Singling out the British Prime Minister, he suggested that Mr Cameron had taken his eye off Libya after being distracted by a range of other things.

Mr Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy, then the French President, pushed hard for the bombing raids on Colonel Gaddafis forces that led to his fall, but since 2011 Libya has sunk further into violence and civil war, and latterly has become a focal point for Isis in North Africa.

Mr Obama went on: We actually executed this plan as well as I could have expected: We got a UN mandate, we built a coalition, it cost us $1bn  which, when it comes to military operations, is very cheap. We averted large-scale civilian casualties, we prevented what almost surely would have been a prolonged and bloody civil conflict. And despite all that, Libya is a mess.

Referring to that mess in private, Mr Obama reportedly uses the more colourful term, shit show.

A Libyan fireman stands in front of an oil storage tank at an oil facility in northern Libya's Ras Lanouf region in February, after it was set ablaze following attacks launched by Isis jihadists (AP)

The comments will be a severe embarrassment to Mr Cameron, who has often been forced to defend British involvement in Libya on the grounds that Western intervention helped to avert a bloodbath. They will also place strain on the transatlantic alliance as coalition forces target Isis positions in Syria and Iraq.

Mr Camerons spokeswoman said he had frequently made clear that he still believed military action in Libya was absolutely the right thing to do and stressed that the Government had put support for the country on the agenda when the UK hosted a meeting of G8 leaders in 2013.

 Libya marks five years since start of revolution

She said: We would share the Presidents assessment that there are real challenges in Libya. Thats why we are continuing to work hard with international partners to support a process in Libya that puts in place a government that can bring stability, and why we are talking about how we can support such a government in the future.

Speaking at length to The Atlantic, Mr Obama revealed that the Prime Minister had risked damaging the countries special relationship by delaying an increase in defence spending to meet a Nato target of 2 per cent of GDP. Alluding to Mr Camerons foot-dragging, Mr Obama said: Free riders aggravate me.

Dave Brown on Barack Obama Show all 7 1 /7 Dave Brown on Barack Obama Dave Brown on Barack Obama 13 January 2016 Obama's executive actions on gun control laws Dave Brown on Barack Obama 10 December 2014 Senate Intelligence Committee report on torture is published Dave Brown on Barack Obama 6 November 2014 Republican gains in the mid-terms leave Obama looking like a lame duck Dave Brown on Barack Obama 19 September 2014 Obamas strategy on Isis is criticized as confused Dave Brown on Barack Obama 23 August 2014 Obama steps up air strikes against Isis in Iraq Dave Brown on Barack Obama 13 August 2014 Obama authorises renewed military action in Iraq. Meanwhile tributes abound after the death of Robin Williams Dave Brown on Barack Obama 25 May 2013 Obama sets out new legal framework for use of drones

When the two came face to face at the G7 summit in June 2015, Mr Obama told Mr Cameron: You have to pay your fair share. The next month, Chancellor George Osbornes summer Budget included a defence spending rise.

Mr Obama also said Mr Camerons failures had affected his decision not to enforce a red line over President Bashar al-Assads use of chemical weapons during the Syrian civil war. The President had planned a strike against Assads forces in August 2013, following a deadly sarin gas attack by the regime on civilians in a Damascus suburb. The strike was called off at the 11th hour. One major factor in the decision, the President said, was the failure of Cameron to obtain the consent of his Parliament for military action.

During his White House tenure, Mr Obama explained, he has tried to encourage other nations to act in international matters without always waiting for the US to take the lead.

It was precisely to prevent the Europeans and the Arab states from holding our coats while we did all the fighting that we, by design, insisted that they spearhead the Libyan intervention, he said, describing the strategy as part of the anti-free rider campaign.

Mr Obama also said Mr Sarkozy, who left office the year after the Libyan intervention, had been keen to trumpet Frances involvement. The White House allowed him to take disproportionate credit for the air strikes, thus [purchasing] Frances involvement in a way that made it less expensive and less risky for us, Mr Obama said.
Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Barack Obama has accused David Cameron of being distracted in the aftermath of the invasion of Libya  contributing to the current deadly mess in the north African country.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Atlantic magazine the US president partly blamed Britain and Frances leaders for the chaotic situation in the country.

US and British airpower helped oust dictator Muammar Gaddafi from power in 2011  but an apparent lack of a workable post-conflict planning has seen the Isis militant group take hold in the countrys central costal areas.

David Cameron was accused of being distracted by other things (David Cameron at Prime Minister's Questions)

The internationally recognised Libyan government does not now control the capital Tripoli and various Islamist groups and local fighters control scattered regions and municipalities.

UN attempts last year to form a national unity government re-uniting the country have so far failed.

The so-called Islamic State controls the central port of Sirte, the birthplace of Muammar Gaddafi and a former hold-out of regime loyalists.

Fire rises from an oil tank in Ras Lanuf, Libya. Attacks against Libya's biggest oil terminals in recent weeks have been lethal and sustained (Reuters)

Mr Obama told the magazine that Mr Cameron had stopped paying attention to the conflict after becoming distracted by a range of other things.

In March 2011 coalition jets started started enforcing a no-fly zone above Libya.

The no-fly zone intervention came to an end in November 2011, months ahead of the London Olympics and after a summer of rioting in London.

The president also reportedly told the magazine that in private he referred to the conflict as a s*** show

Violence and instability in Libya

He also recalled telling Mr Cameron that Britain had to pay its fair share on defence spending and meet a 2 per cent Nato spending target.

Last year a book recounting the recolections of Tory chairman Michael Ancram said the White House had felt "f***ed over" by the PM's approach to Libya.

In December 2015, years after the intervention, Mr Cameron told the Spectator magazine that Libya was better off without Gaddafi.

What we were doing was preventing a mass genocide. Then, as you say, the coalition helped those on the ground to get rid of the Gaddafi regime and its very disappointing that there hasnt been an effective successor regime, he said.

We did a lot to try and help it, I remember taking the Libyan Prime Ministeras then wasto the G8 meeting in Northern Ireland, getting lots of support but the Libyan political leadership up until nowalthough there have been some good developments overnighthavent been able to put together a comprehensive government.

With regards to Mr Obamas comments to the Atlantic, a Downing Street spokesperson said: I think we would share the President of the United States' assessment that there are real challenges in Libya, that's why we are continuing to work hard with our international partners to support a process in Libya that puts in place a government that can bring stability to that country and why we are talking about how we can support such a government in the future.
Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

David Cameron has announced that he plans to remain in Parliament after standing down as Prime Minister.

He will run in the 2020 election to keep his seat as the Conservative MP for Witney, he said today.

I love being MP for Witney and am very keen to continue. I draw huge strength from being a Member of Parliament in Oxfordshire," he told BBC Oxford.

Mr Cameron previously said that his second term in Number 10 would be his last and he will not attempt to lead the Conservatives after the next election.

David Cameron's biggest controversies Show all 8 1 /8 David Cameron's biggest controversies David Cameron's biggest controversies Pig-gate A book released by Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft alleged that an MP and Oxford contemporary of David Cameron had allegedly seen a photograph of Mr Cameron performing a sex act on a pig while at university. Downing Street did not comment on the allegations and the peer said they could have been a case of mistaken identity David Hartley/REX Shutterstock David Cameron's biggest controversies Swarm of migrants In July 2015 David Cameron referred to refugees coming into Europe from the Middle East and North Africa as a swarm. He was criticised for using the language, which critics said was dehumanising Getty David Cameron's biggest controversies Child tax credits In April 2015 David Cameron was asked whether hed cut child tax credits. No, I dont want to do that, he said, saying that he rejected reports that he would. Shortly after the election the Government unveiled cuts to child tax credits EPA David Cameron's biggest controversies Cycling to work As leader of the opposition David Cameron was regularly photographed cycling to work. In early 2006 he was photographed cycling but with a driver in a car carrying his belongings. It was suggested at the time the cycling was just for show and that having two vehicles on the road instead of one was wasteful Rex David Cameron's biggest controversies Andy Coulson David Cameron employed former News of the World editor Andy Coulson as government communications director from 2010. After stepping down from the post due to coverage of the phone hacking affairs, Mr Coulson was later found guilty of conspiracy to intercept voicemails. He served a short prison sentence AFP David Cameron's biggest controversies His personal windmill Early in his leadership of the Conservative David Cameron made an effort to change the partys image by making eco-friendly gesures. As one of these gestures, the future PM put a wind turbine on his house. However, the turbine later had to be removed after neighbours condemned it as an eyesore and the councils planning committee said it had been put in the wrong place Getty David Cameron's biggest controversies Funeral selfie David Cameron was pictured posing for a selfie with Danish PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt and Barack Obama at Nelson Mandelas funeral. Some in the press criticised the prime minister for showing in an inappropriately low level of respect for the gravity of the occasion AFP/Getty Images David Cameron's biggest controversies Eating a hotdog with a knife and fork The Prime Minister was pictured eating a hotdog with a knife and fork in the run up to the 2015 general election. He was accused of being posh. I had a very privileged upbringing... I've never tried to hide that, he said Reuters

The Prime Minister once compared terms to Shredded Wheat breakfast cereal, quipping: Two are wonderful but three might just be too many.

He has represented his constituency, which houses affluent Cotswold towns including Chipping Norton, since 2001 and was re-elected last year with a majority of 25,155.

Theresa May, the Home Secretary, Chancellor George Osborne and Boris Johnson, the Eurosceptic Mayor of London and Tory MP, are among those tipped run as Conservative leader.

Division within the party has come under scrutiny since the launch of the EU referendum campaign, with Mr Camerons position to stay in the union opposed by Michael Gove, Mr Johnson and other prominent MPs.

Additional reporting by PA
Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The Labour MP David Lammy has been fined 5,000 by the Information Commissioner for instigating 35,629 nuisance calls over two days urging people to back his campaign to be London Mayor.

The calls, which played a recorded message urging people to back David Lammy's campaign, were placed over just two days last August.

Information Commissioner Christopher Graham found Mr Lammy broke privacy rules because he did not have permission to contact the individuals.

Mr Graham said: "The rules apply to political groups canvassing for votes in the same way they apply to salespeople offering a discount on double glazing. If you want to call someone in this way, you must follow these rules. Mr Lammy did not, and that is why he has been fined.

"It's not good enough to assume the people you're contacting probably won't mind. The law requires you to have permission before making calls with recorded messages. And if the law isn't followed, the regulator will act."

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA UK news in pictures 7 September 2022 Police officers stand guard after Animal Rebellion activists threw paint on the walls and road outside the Houses of Parliament in protest, in London, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 6 September 2022 Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Liz Truss during an audience at Balmoral, Scotland, where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2022 Visitors at the PoliNations garden in Victoria Square, Birmingham, which is made up of five 40ft high tree installations and over 6,000 plants. The PoliNations programme aims to explore how migration and cross-pollination have shaped the UKs gardens and culture PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2022 Undergraduates at the University of St Andrews take part in the traditional Pier Walk along the harbour walls of St Andrews before the start of the new academic year PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2022 The Massed Pipes and Drums parade during the Braemar Highland Gathering at the Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2022 Number 12 Company Irish Guards at Wellington Barracks, central London, before commencing their first Guard Mount at Buckingham Palace PA

If Mr Lammy pays by April 5 the fine will be reduced to 4,000.

Mr Lammy's mayoral campaign ultimately ended in failure. He finished fourth, picking up fewer than 10 per cent of votes.

The nomination was won by Sadiq Khan - the favourite to beat Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith in the election on May 5.

Additional reporting by PA
Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Stephen Hawking and more than 150 Royal Society fellows have warned that quitting the European Union would be a disaster for UK science.

The worlds most famous physicist was joined by economists, mathematicians, engineers and a variety of scientists in writing a letter to The Times, arguing that Britains membership of the EU was crucial for two reasons.

First, increased funding has raised greatly the level of European science as a whole and of the UK in particular because we have a competitive edge, they wrote.

Second, we now recruit many of our best researchers from continental Europe, including younger ones who have obtained EU grants and have chosen to move with them here.

Being able to attract and fund the most talented Europeans assures the future of British science and also encourages the best scientists elsewhere to come here.

What has the EU ever done for us? Show all 7 1 /7 What has the EU ever done for us? What has the EU ever done for us? 1. It gives you freedom to live, work and retire anywhere in Europe As a member of the EU, UK citizens benefit from freedom of movement across the continent. Considered one of the so-called four pillars of the European Union, this freedom allows all EU citizens to live, work and travel in other member states. What has the EU ever done for us? 2. It sustains millions of jobs A report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, released in October 2015, suggested 3.1 million British jobs were linked to the UKs exports to the EU. What has the EU ever done for us? 3. Your holiday is much easier - and safer Freedom to travel is one of the most exercised benefits of EU membership, with Britons having made 31 million visits to the EU in 2014 alone. But a lot of the benefits of being an EU citizen are either taken for granted or go unnoticed. What has the EU ever done for us? 4. It means you're less likely to get ripped off Consumer protection is a key benefit of the EUs single market, and ensures members of the British public receive equal consumer rights when shopping anywhere in Europe. What has the EU ever done for us? 5. It offers greater protection from terrorists, paedophiles, people traffickers and cyber-crime Another example of a lesser-known advantage of EU membership is the benefit of cross-country coordination and cooperation in the fight against crime. What has the EU ever done for us? 6. Our businesses depend on it According to 71% of all members of the Confederation of British Influence (CBI), and 67 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the EU has had an overall positive impact on their business. What has the EU ever done for us? 7. We have greater influence Robin Niblett, Director of think-tank Chatham House, stated in a report published last year: For a mid-sized country like the UK, which will never again be economically dominant either globally or regionally, and whose diplomatic and military resources are declining in relative terms, being a major player in a strong regional institution can offer a critical lever for international influence.

The letter pointed out that after Switzerland, a non-EU member, had restricted the free movement of workers from the 28-nation bloc it had been forced to look desperately for ways to attract talented young scientists.

If the UK leaves the EU and there is a loss of freedom of movement of scientists between the UK and Europe, it will be a disaster for UK science and universities, they added.

Investment in science is as important for the long-term prosperity and security of the UK as investment in infrastructure projects, farming or manufacturing; and the free movement of scientists is as vital for science as free trade is for market economics.

 Young man on Question Time doesn't know how to vote in EU referendum

Angus Dalgleish, a spokesman for the pro-Brexit group Scientists for Britain, said: The bottom line is that we put far more into Europe than we get out.

Any difference we can easily make up with the money we would save.
When Can You Sue for Scarring or Disfigurement?

We all have physical and emotional scars. Some of them heal quickly, some remain with us forever, and we mostly accept that getting hurt is part of life. But what if you end up scarred or disfigured due to the negligence of another

Then, it's a little harder to accept. You want to sue the person and make them pay. Can you? The answer will depend on the extent of your scarring and the context in which it arose.

Suing for Scarring

People certainly do sue for scarring, even when the scar is the result of a surgery and the doctor claims to have warned the patient of the potential mark remaining. But every state has different statutes and case law that judges look to when making a decision.

For example, in a New Jersey automobile accident injury case, Soto v. Scaringelli, the state's high court had to determine what is significant scarring for the purposes of a statute limiting non-economic damages. The court made this determination by looking at state law precedent and determined that the plaintiff was not significantly disfigured as defined by New Jersey law.

The court wrote that the significant scarring or disfigurement threshold was met "only if an objectively reasonable person would regard the scar or disfigurement as substantially detracting from the automobile accident victim's appearance, or so impairing or injuring the beauty, symmetry, or appearance of a person as to render him or her unsightly, misshapen, or imperfect."

As you can see, that is a very high standard, and calls upon a court to determine that a plaintiff is indeed unsightly, misshapen, or imperfect, which is a little awkward. In any case, that's only one statute, one state, and one type of injury. There are many others and people do recover for scarring and disfigurement that is caused by the negligence of another.

Not Warned?

A scarring suit is likely to arise after a surgery, say, and if you were not warned that the procedure would leave you permanently marked, you might sue for your scar. The likelihood of recovery depends on a number of factors. Was the procedure medically necessary? Were you warned of risks and potential permanent marks? Is the scar somehow unusual for this particular procedure?

Some patients have even sued for scars that they deemed malicious. One blind Native American man sued a surgeon for scarring on his stomach that he said was racially motivated and racist. The patient said he was told by others that his scars looked like they said "KKK," short for the Ku Klux Klan.

Talk to a Lawyer

If you or someone you know has been scarred or disfigured in an accident, due to surgery, or in any other context, talk to a lawyer. Many injury attorneys consult for free or a minimal fee and will be happy to assess your case.

Related Resources:
Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Jeremy Corbyn has gone on the attack against critics who accuse him of being wrong on major policy issues and failing to win the kind of public support Labour needs to make a political recovery.

He told a tense meeting of MPs and peers who make up the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) that he wanted those who opposed him to stop sniping and be more respectful when voicing their opinions.

After the 75-minute meeting, his spokesman told journalists that the Labour leader had faced down his critics  a claim instantly contradicted by some of those same critics.

Recommended Read more Corbyn to face backlash from backbenchers over sex industry comments

The spokesman added: Jeremy made clear the sniping and name calling was counter-productive for the whole party and Labours position in the country. The mainstream of the PLP asserted itself  there was clear support for more unity and for Jeremys leadership. There was a clear sea change in the atmosphere within the PLP.

He added: He made clear that of course debate is essential, but it has to be conducted in a way that is respectful  there mustnt be sniping and abuse. This kind of behaviour is damaging to the Labour Party and that clearly was understood by the majority of MPs.

There is unhappiness among the membership about the way that a minority have behaved in recent months, in particular the public sniping and attacks. That clearly has to stop. It doesnt reflect the mainstream.

Mr Corbyn told MPs that during his long career as a backbench critic of previous Labour leaders, he always took care not to snipe at or abuse those with whom he disagreed. His spokesman acknowledged that there had been criticism of the leader voiced during the meeting but said that it had been done in a much more measured way than during previous confrontations.

The Labour leader has courted controversy in recent days by speaking at a CND rally in support of the abolition of Trident nuclear weapons, which is not currently the official policy of the Labour Party, and by calling at the weekend for the decriminalisation of prostitution. He is also accused of failing to show any enthusiasm for the cause of staying in the EU  a claim which his spokesman denied.

There had been fears that his appearance before the PLP on Monday night could deteriorate into a shouting match, but his team was clearly relieved afterwards that though he had been criticised to his face, voices were not raised in anger.

The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Show all 11 1 /11 The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He called Hezbollah and Hamas friends True. In a speech made to the Stop the War Coalition in 2009, Mr Corbyn called representatives from both groups friends after inviting them to Parliament. He later told Channel 4 he wanted both groups, who have factions designated as international terror organisations, to be part of the debate for the Middle East peace process. I use (the word friends) in a collective way, saying our friends are prepared to talk, he added. Does it mean I agree with Hamas and what it does? No. Does it mean I agree with Hezbollah and what they do? No. Reuters The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn thinks the death of Osama bin Laden was a tragedy Partly false. David Cameron used this as a line of attack at the Conservative Party conference but appears to have left out all context from Mr Corbyns original remarks. In an 2011 interview on Iranian television, the then-backbencher said the fact the al-Qaeda leader was not put on trial was the tragedy, continuing: The World Trade Center was a tragedy, the attack on Afghanistan was a tragedy, the war in Iraq was a tragedy. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He is haunted by the legacy of his evil great-great-grandfather False. A Daily Express expose revealed that the Labour leaders ancestor, James Sargent, was the despotic master of a Victorian workhouse. Addressing the report at the Labour conference, Mr Corbyn said he had never heard of him before, adding: I want to take this opportunity to apologise for not doing the decent thing and going back in time and having a chat with him about his appalling behaviour. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn raised a motion about pigeon bombs in Parliament This one is true. On 21 May 2004, Mr Corbyn raised an early day motion entitled pigeon bombs, proposing that the House register being appalled but barely surprised that MI5 reportedly proposed to load pigeons with explosives as a weapon. The motion continued: The House believes that humans represent the most obscene, perverted, cruel, uncivilised and lethal species ever to inhabit the planet and looks forward to the day when the inevitable asteroid slams into the earth and wipes them out thus giving nature the opportunity to start again. It was not carried. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He rides a Communist bicycle False. A report in The Times referred to Mr Corbyn, known for his cycling, riding a Chairman Mao-style bicycle earlier this year. Less thorough journalists might have referred to it as just a bicycle, but no, so we have to conclude that whenever we see somebody on a bicycle from now on, there goes another supporter of Chairman Mao, he later joked. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn 'Jeremy Corbyn will appoint a special minister for Jews' False so far. The Sun report in December was allegedly based on a rumour passed to the paper by a Daily Express columnist who has written pieces critical of the Labour leader in the past. The minister did not materialise in his shadow cabinet. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn wishes Britain would abolish its Army False. Another gem from The Sun took comments made at a Hiroshima remembrance parade in August 2012 where Mr Corbyn supported Costa Ricas move to abolish it armed forces. Wouldnt it be wonderful if every politician around the worldabolished the army and took pride in the fact that they dont have an army, he added. The caveat that every politician must take the step suggests Mr Corbyn does not support UK disarmament just yet. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn stole sandwiches meant for veterans False. The Guido Fawkes blog claimed that the Labour leader took sandwiches meant for veterans at at Battle of Britain memorial service in September but a photo later emerged showing him being handed one by Costa volunteers, who later confirmed they were given to all guests. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He missed the induction into the Queens privy council True. After much speculation about Mr Corbyns republican views and willingness to bow to the monarch, his office confirmed that he did not attend the official induction to the privy council because of a prior engagement, but did not rule out joining the body. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn refuses to sing the national anthem. Partly true. The Labour leader was filmed standing in silence as God Save the Queen was sung at a Battle of Britain remembrance service but will reportedly sing it in future. Mr Corbyn was elusive on the issue in an interview, saying he would show memorials respect in the proper way, but sources said he would sing the anthem at future occasions. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Cheese True. The group lists its purpose as the following: To increase awareness of issues surrounding the dairy industry and focus on economic issues affecting the dairy industry and producers.

But one Labour MP who has been persistently critical of Mr Corbyn said scathingly: If that was a positive meeting, Id hate to see a negative meeting. Most of the questions were critical of Jeremy.

MPs were frustrated and disappointed about what he had said about sex workers. One MP read out Jeremys poll ratings, which were the worst poll ratings of any new leader since polling began, and asked him how long he was going to take to turn that around. Several MPs said he wasnt doing anything to put a positive case for Europe together.

His dwindling band of supporters said that we shouldnt talk to the press, then his spokesman went out and told journalists that he had faced down his critics. The only thing you can say about that fantasy briefing is that it comes in the week after World Book Week that was celebrating fiction.
Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

A hard-left Labour supporter who said attacks like 9/11 should never be condemned has been expelled from the party, officials have said.

The comments by Gerry Downing, who had been kicked out last year for publicly supporting another party but then readmitted, were raised by David Cameron during Prime Ministers Questions earlier on Wednesday.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn did not immediately respond but his aides later said the decision to allow Mr Downing back into the party was being reconsidered.

And then late on Wednesday a party spokeswoman told the Press Association: Following further evidence that has come to light Gerry Downing has now been excluded from the Labour Party by the NEC panel.

Jeremy Corbyn speaking at PMQs on Wednesday (PA)

In the exchange in the Commons, Mr Cameron told Mr Corbyn: I was completely appalled to see yesterday that the Labour Party have readmitted someone to their party who says that the 9/11 suicide bombers, and I quote, must never be condemned, and belongs to an organisation that says we defend the Islamic State [Isis] in Syria and Iraq.

These are appalling views and I hope that the Leader of the Opposition will throw this person out of the party rather than welcome him in.

The Labour MP John Woodcock then wrote to the Labour leader saying Mr Downings views were sickening and bring our party into disrepute.

Allowing this man to be a member of the Labour Party insults the memory of those who died in the 11 September terror attacks and the British servicemen and women who gave their lives in the Afghanistan conflict that followed, he added.

On Twitter, Mr Downing responded to a question asking Are you seriously an apologist for 9/11 and a supporter of Daesh [Isis]? by saying: No, neither. I don't support bombing them by US.

In his blog post, headlined The social and political meaning of 9/11 conspiracy theory and published in January, Mr Downing attacked imperialist ideology and its peace, democracy and justice bullshit whilst they are raining death and destruction from the skies on hundreds of thousands of the worlds poorest.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA UK news in pictures 7 September 2022 Police officers stand guard after Animal Rebellion activists threw paint on the walls and road outside the Houses of Parliament in protest, in London, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 6 September 2022 Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Liz Truss during an audience at Balmoral, Scotland, where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2022 Visitors at the PoliNations garden in Victoria Square, Birmingham, which is made up of five 40ft high tree installations and over 6,000 plants. The PoliNations programme aims to explore how migration and cross-pollination have shaped the UKs gardens and culture PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2022 Undergraduates at the University of St Andrews take part in the traditional Pier Walk along the harbour walls of St Andrews before the start of the new academic year PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2022 The Massed Pipes and Drums parade during the Braemar Highland Gathering at the Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2022 Number 12 Company Irish Guards at Wellington Barracks, central London, before commencing their first Guard Mount at Buckingham Palace PA

One violence is that of the slave and the other is that of the slave-owner. One is progressive, no matter how distorted its actions are, and must never be condemned, imperialism is the violence that holds the whole planet, or almost the whole planet, in thrall, and that violence can never be supported by serious Marxists in any circumstances, he wrote.

That is the entirely understandable motivation for 9/11 and suicide bombers.

Mr Downing told BBC News that he had been trying to explain the 9/11 bombers motivation and had not been agreeing with what they were doing.

I don't support the politics of Isis, they are vile barbarians, he said.

His blog was written on the Socialist Fight website. In a section called Where We Stand, the website says we defend the 'Islamic State' in Syria and Iraq against the bombing of US imperialism but do not ally with them against the Kurdish defenders of Kobane and Rojava (Western Kurdistan).
Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Labour MPs should ensure that they are representing their constituents in Parliament  and not just members of their own party, Dan Jarvis has said.

Mr Jarvis, a backbencher widely seen in Westminster as a potential candidate to replace Jeremy Corbyn as leader, said he was not a delegate sent to Parliament by Labour members.

On Thursday morning Mr Jarvis sketched out his views on the economy in a speech  arguing that his party should champion a government that is more active, businesses that look to the long term, and trade unions that stand up for our workers.

He called for a Government that was more radical than Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, and Ed Miliband  but warned that he would not be beholden to the partys membership, which polls show overwhelmingly supports Mr Corbyn.

As a Labour MP Im not a delegate for my local party, Ive been elected to Parliament by my constituents to stand up for them and make sure their voice is heard in Parliament, he said.

In the end I dont think we should ever lose sight that the public get to decide and I think we that need to make sure that having lost two general elections, our policies are rooted in the things that people care about.

Yes, we must listen to a range of different voices, yes its incredibly important that we have that internal debate within the party, but we should never lose sight of the fact that what we need is a Labour government and that in the end it will be the public, the people of this country, who get to decide whether thats what we have or not.

Labours membership has doubled in size since Mr Corbyn was elected leader in September and polls suggest the leader would be comfortably returned with increased support in a leadership contest in which he featured.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, right, with the shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, at the party's conference last September (Getty Images)

Mr Jarvis dodged directly answering a question about whether he thought Mr Corbyn would automatically be allowed to stand in the event of a leadership contest  or whether he would have to secure nominations from Labour MPs, with whom he has struggled to find support.

He also warned that the series of local and regional elections in May would be a major test for the party.

The partys rules do not explicitly spell out whether Mr Corbyn would automatically be able to stand in a challenge, but the leaders office has said it believes this would be the case.

In what appeared to be a coded criticism of the shadow chancellor John McDonnell, Mr Jarvis began his speech by warning that the people who Labour was founded to help do not attend economic seminars.

The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Show all 11 1 /11 The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He called Hezbollah and Hamas friends True. In a speech made to the Stop the War Coalition in 2009, Mr Corbyn called representatives from both groups friends after inviting them to Parliament. He later told Channel 4 he wanted both groups, who have factions designated as international terror organisations, to be part of the debate for the Middle East peace process. I use (the word friends) in a collective way, saying our friends are prepared to talk, he added. Does it mean I agree with Hamas and what it does? No. Does it mean I agree with Hezbollah and what they do? No. Reuters The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn thinks the death of Osama bin Laden was a tragedy Partly false. David Cameron used this as a line of attack at the Conservative Party conference but appears to have left out all context from Mr Corbyns original remarks. In an 2011 interview on Iranian television, the then-backbencher said the fact the al-Qaeda leader was not put on trial was the tragedy, continuing: The World Trade Center was a tragedy, the attack on Afghanistan was a tragedy, the war in Iraq was a tragedy. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He is haunted by the legacy of his evil great-great-grandfather False. A Daily Express expose revealed that the Labour leaders ancestor, James Sargent, was the despotic master of a Victorian workhouse. Addressing the report at the Labour conference, Mr Corbyn said he had never heard of him before, adding: I want to take this opportunity to apologise for not doing the decent thing and going back in time and having a chat with him about his appalling behaviour. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn raised a motion about pigeon bombs in Parliament This one is true. On 21 May 2004, Mr Corbyn raised an early day motion entitled pigeon bombs, proposing that the House register being appalled but barely surprised that MI5 reportedly proposed to load pigeons with explosives as a weapon. The motion continued: The House believes that humans represent the most obscene, perverted, cruel, uncivilised and lethal species ever to inhabit the planet and looks forward to the day when the inevitable asteroid slams into the earth and wipes them out thus giving nature the opportunity to start again. It was not carried. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He rides a Communist bicycle False. A report in The Times referred to Mr Corbyn, known for his cycling, riding a Chairman Mao-style bicycle earlier this year. Less thorough journalists might have referred to it as just a bicycle, but no, so we have to conclude that whenever we see somebody on a bicycle from now on, there goes another supporter of Chairman Mao, he later joked. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn 'Jeremy Corbyn will appoint a special minister for Jews' False so far. The Sun report in December was allegedly based on a rumour passed to the paper by a Daily Express columnist who has written pieces critical of the Labour leader in the past. The minister did not materialise in his shadow cabinet. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn wishes Britain would abolish its Army False. Another gem from The Sun took comments made at a Hiroshima remembrance parade in August 2012 where Mr Corbyn supported Costa Ricas move to abolish it armed forces. Wouldnt it be wonderful if every politician around the worldabolished the army and took pride in the fact that they dont have an army, he added. The caveat that every politician must take the step suggests Mr Corbyn does not support UK disarmament just yet. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn stole sandwiches meant for veterans False. The Guido Fawkes blog claimed that the Labour leader took sandwiches meant for veterans at at Battle of Britain memorial service in September but a photo later emerged showing him being handed one by Costa volunteers, who later confirmed they were given to all guests. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He missed the induction into the Queens privy council True. After much speculation about Mr Corbyns republican views and willingness to bow to the monarch, his office confirmed that he did not attend the official induction to the privy council because of a prior engagement, but did not rule out joining the body. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn refuses to sing the national anthem. Partly true. The Labour leader was filmed standing in silence as God Save the Queen was sung at a Battle of Britain remembrance service but will reportedly sing it in future. Mr Corbyn was elusive on the issue in an interview, saying he would show memorials respect in the proper way, but sources said he would sing the anthem at future occasions. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Cheese True. The group lists its purpose as the following: To increase awareness of issues surrounding the dairy industry and focus on economic issues affecting the dairy industry and producers.

Mr McDonnell, a close ally of Mr Corbyn, has championed a free series of seminars in an attempt to dispel myths about the economy.

Mr Jarvis later said he welcomed the fact that Mr Corbyn had prompted an open debate about the partys future.

Elsewhere in the body of his speech Mr Jarvis suggested a number of policies including allowing a non-political national infrastructure commission to decide major infrastructure investments, repealing the Governments trade union bill, and involving trade unions in the retraining of workers.

He argued that New Labour had had successes and also made mistakes, telling his audience: We should defend our achievements and learn from our mistakes. To anyone else outside Westminster that is common sense.
Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

MPs have launched an investigation whether British-made arms are being used by Saudi Arabian forces in a widely-criticised military campaign in Yemen.

The Committee on Arms Export Control will probe whether export control rules have been broken  after the United Nations warned of a humanitarian disaster and widespread attacks on civilians in the assault.

The inquiry will examine if weapons manufactured in the UK have been used by the Royal Saudi Armed Forces in Yemen, if any arms export licence criteria have been infringed and discuss what action should be taken in such cases, the committee says.

Minsters have confirmed they have signed off the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia but say the Saudi Arabians have assured them they are not committing war crimes using British equipment.

Aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres have accused Saudi Arabia of bombing multiple hospitals, while others have warned of deadly strikes on weddings and schools.

In a three-month period late last year figures released by the business department showed the sales of bombs and munitions to Saudi Arabia by British firms had increased from 9 million to over 1 billion.

All arms exports from the UK are actively sanctioned by the Government, which issues licenses for deals after scrutinising them.

In December last year the Government was threatened with legal action by campaigners and lawyers for not blocking the flow of guns and bombs to the region.

Lawyers at law firm Leigh Day said it was likely the weapons were being used to commit serious breaches of international humanitarian law.

Prime Minister David Cameron speaking to BAE Systems employees in Preston (PA)

The European Parliament is the latest body to call for a full arms embargo on Saudi Arabia, following MPs on the House of Commons International Development Committee who also backed a suspension of sales.

The Campaign Against the Arms Trade welcomed the MPs inquiry and said the sale of weapons should not have been allowed in the first place.

It is one of the most repressive regimes in the world and has unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe on Yemen, yet it has enjoyed uncritical political and military support from the UK, Andrew Smith, of CAAT, said.

10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Show all 10 1 /10 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In October 2014, three lawyers, Dr Abdulrahman al-Subaihi, Bander al-Nogaithan and Abdulrahman al-Rumaih , were sentenced to up to eight years in prison for using Twitter to criticize the Ministry of Justice. AFP/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2015, Yemens Sunni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was forced into exile after a Shia-led insurgency. A Saudi Arabia-led coalition has responded with air strikes in order to reinstate Mr Hadi. It has since been accused of committing war crimes in the country. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Women who supported the Women2Drive campaign, launched in 2011 to challenge the ban on women driving vehicles, faced harassment and intimidation by the authorities. The government warned that women drivers would face arrest. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Members of the Kingdoms Shia minority, most of whom live in the oil-rich Eastern Province, continue to face discrimination that limits their access to government services and employment. Activists have received death sentences or long prison terms for their alleged participation in protests in 2011 and 2012. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses All public gatherings are prohibited under an order issued by the Interior Ministry in 2011. Those defy the ban face arrest, prosecution and imprisonment on charges such as inciting people against the authorities. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2014, the Interior Ministry stated that authorities had deported over 370,000 foreign migrants and that 18,000 others were in detention. Thousands of workers were returned to Somalia and other states where they were at risk of human rights abuses, with large numbers also returned to Yemen, in order to open more jobs to Saudi Arabians. Many migrants reported that prior to their deportation they had been packed into overcrowded makeshift detention facilities where they received little food and water and were abused by guards. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses The Saudi Arabian authorities continue to deny access to independent human rights organisations like Amnesty International, and they have been known to take punitive action, including through the courts, against activists and family members of victims who contact Amnesty. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1000 lashes and 10 years in prison for using his liberal blog to criticise Saudi Arabias clerics. He has already received 50 lashes, which have reportedly left him in poor health. Carsten Koall/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Dawood al-Marhoon was arrested aged 17 for participating in an anti-government protest. After refusing to spy on his fellow protestors, he was tortured and forced to sign a blank document that would later contain his confession. At Dawoods trial, the prosecution requested death by crucifixion while refusing him a lawyer. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was arrested in 2012 aged either 16 or 17 for participating in protests during the Arab spring. His sentence includes beheading and crucifixion. The international community has spoken out against the punishment and has called on Saudi Arabia to stop. He is the nephew of a prominent government dissident. Getty

If UK arms exports controls mean anything then the government needs to revoke all extant licences and stop all arms exports.

Saudi Arabia is intervening in Yemen to protect the internationally recognised Government, which does not control the country's capital. David Cameron earlier this year defended the UKs relationship with Saudi Arabia.

First of all, our relationship with Saudi Arabia is important for our own security. They are opponents of Daesh and the extremism and terror [they spread], he told BBC Radio 4s Today programme.

In terms of our arms exports I think we have some of the most stringent controls anywhere in the world and Ill always make sure theyre properly operated.

Were trying to do everything we can to make sure that the work done by Saudi Arabia is properly targeted and its right that we should do that. Were working with them and others on behalf of the legitimate government on Yemen.
Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The "national living wage" is one of the new laws set to roll out across Britain as the Conservative party beds down into its second parliament.

Starting in April 2016, the "national living wage" was George Osborne's surprise flourish amid the summer Budget which braced the nation for further cuts to welfare services.

But he said all the slashing meant he could offer Britain's lower paid workers a "pay rise"  from the current minimum wage to a higher "living" wage for everyone over 25.

The effect is likely to be significant, and it is a complex issue with supporters and critics on either side.

1. What is the situation at the moment?

The current National Minimum Wage, which was introduced by Labour in 1998, is 6.70 an hour for those 21 years of age and older. For 18- to 21-year-olds it is 5.30 and for under-18s it is 3.87.

There is no differentiation across the country for the minimum wage. Employers can pay their workers the same in London as in Newcastle - 6.70 an hour, a figure estimated to be much less than is needed to live in the capital.

A campaign by an independent organisation called the Living Wage Foundation says that London employers need to pay their workers 9.40 for them to be able to rent and feed themselves there - and 8.25 in the rest of the country.

Yet currently, paying this "living wage" is entirely optional. Employers are required to pay the minimum wage, but they need pay no more - even if their workers cannot live off it.

Living Wage leaflets are handed out on a busy street in London (Rex)

2. What is changing?

Under the Conservatives' summer Budget, a new national minimum wage is being set. It is being re-branded as a "national living wage" because it should be what people need to live off.

Employers will no longer be allowed to pay the 6.70-an-hour rate, but will have to pay the new "national living wage" - 7.20 an hour.

This is in fact an overall increase of 50p per hour. This blanket increase covers the whole of Britain, with no special rate for more expensive areas such as London.

The 10 worst areas for earning the living wage Show all 10 1 /10 The 10 worst areas for earning the living wage The 10 worst areas for earning the living wage 1. West Somerset 41.9% The 10 worst areas for earning the living wage 2. Harrow 41.8% The 10 worst areas for earning the living wage 3. Torridge 41.6% The 10 worst areas for earning the living wage 4. North East Derbyshire 39.6% The 10 worst areas for earning the living wage 5. Breckland 39.3% The 10 worst areas for earning the living wage 6. Waltham Forest 39.0% The 10 worst areas for earning the living wage 7. West Lancashire 38.2% The 10 worst areas for earning the living wage 8. North Norfolk 37.8% The 10 worst areas for earning the living wage 9. Melton 37.0% The 10 worst areas for earning the living wage 10. West Devon 36.7%

Mr Osborne's plans are for the rate to rise to 9 across the UK by 2020.

The Government's national living wage is not connected to the Living Wage Foundation's rate.

The final caveat is that the new "national living wage" will only apply to those over 25 years old. Anyone under 25 will still be on the 6.70 rate, and less if they are under 21.

3. Why was the National Living Wage brought in?

(Getty)

Mr Osborne said taxpayers should not have to help employees stuck on poor wages by contributing to their benefits. Instead, the onus should be on employers to pay better salaries.

As he put it in July: "It can't be right that we go on asking taxpayers to subsidise through the tax credit system the businesses who pay the lowest wages."

He said that because of cuts and other "tough choices to drive down borrowing", Britain was "able to afford a pay rise" in the form of a new national wage.

Many people would see a pay rise and more jobs would be created overall, said the Chancellor.

He said calculations showed that 2.5 million people will get a pay rise, and an individual full-time worker can expect a cash increase of more than 5,000 over the following five years.

Six million in total will see their pay increase, he said.

4. What about employers?

George Osborne announces the national living wage to the opposition in the Summer Budget during July 2015 (BBC)

The Chancellor sought to soothe the business and enterprise traditionally protected by Conservatives.

Corporation tax will be slashed from current levels of 20 per cent to 18 per cent.

And small firms will also have to pay fewer national insurance contributions. The employment allowance, which means companies do not have to pay taxes on their employee's earnings, will be increased by 50 per cent - meaning a firm employing four people will pay no national insurance on any of them.

Yet small companies, particularly in the hospitality and food sector, have said the changes will hit their finances hard.

5. What are the other criticisms?

(Social Market Foundation)

First of all, the new national living wage is not enough to live on, according to the Living Wage Foundation's calculations. The offered 7.20 rate does not match London's required 9.40 level, nor the rest of the country's 8.25.

So once again, it is up to employers to voluntarily choose whether they pay their workers enough to live off.

The Office for Budget Responsibility, meanwhile, says that 60,000 fewer people would be in employment because of the change, as employers seek to downsize and streamline.

It did, however, say that there would be another one million new jobs in the economy overall, which the Chancellor stressed in his speech.

He also said that even including the effect of all the benefits cuts, "the typical family" would be better off with the new living wage standard.

Yet the "typical family" may not include the very poorest, those on disability or other benefits, for whom a 50p increase in the national wage may not be adequate recompense.

And finally, the changes do not affect the younger generation. Students and trainees struggling with rising rent prices and university costs will gain nothing from the new proposals.
Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The use of British weaponry by Saudi Arabia and its allies in the conflict in Yemen is to be investigated by a Parliamentary committee following growing complaints that the UK's burgeoning arms exports to countries involved in the war are escaping scrutiny.

Nearly 3bn of British-made military equipment, including 1bn of bombs, rockets and missiles, has been authorised for export to Saudi Arabia since the oil-rich kingdom and its allies began an intervention in Yemen a year ago which has seen multiple claims of human rights violations during air strikes against Iranian-backed rebels.

Saudi Arabia is Britain's biggest arms customer and it is widely claimed that UK-supplied weaponry, including Tornado and Typhoon jets as well as Paveway precision bombs, has been deployed in the campaign against Houthi forces. Some 2,800 civilians have been killed in the war, according to the United Nations.

Britain has come under increasing pressure from international bodies, including the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and the European Parliament, to halt arms exports to Saudi Arabia because of the conflict. A separate committee of MPs found last month that there was "overwhelming" evidence of breaches of humanitarian law by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.

But despite calls from campaigners and MPs for the use of British weaponry in Yemen, in particular in connection with alleged breaches of the laws of war, to be investigated, the Parliamentary committee set up to monitor Britain's 12bn arms export industry had not met for nine months since the beginning of the air strikes. A protracted delay in appointing new chairman of the committee following the retirement of his predecessor was blamed.

 Cameron on arms trading with Saudi Arabia.mp4

Critics warned that the hiatus has allowed the Government to dramatically increase arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries without independent oversight. In the third quarter of 2015, export licences to Saudi Arabia worth 1bn alone were approved compared to 9m in the same period for the previous year. The deals reportedly included precision Paveway IV bombs manufactured in Britain which had been originally earmarked for delivery to the RAF but were instead diverted to Saudi Arabia as it urgently sought to replenish stocks.

On 10 March the Committees on Arms Export Controls (CAEC), which was finally re-formed last month and is made up of members of four other influential select committees, announced a wide-ranging investigation into the use of UK weaponry in Yemen, including whether the Government is adhering to its own criteria in granting arms export licences to Saudi Arabia and other countries involved in the conflict, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.

10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Show all 10 1 /10 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In October 2014, three lawyers, Dr Abdulrahman al-Subaihi, Bander al-Nogaithan and Abdulrahman al-Rumaih , were sentenced to up to eight years in prison for using Twitter to criticize the Ministry of Justice. AFP/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2015, Yemens Sunni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was forced into exile after a Shia-led insurgency. A Saudi Arabia-led coalition has responded with air strikes in order to reinstate Mr Hadi. It has since been accused of committing war crimes in the country. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Women who supported the Women2Drive campaign, launched in 2011 to challenge the ban on women driving vehicles, faced harassment and intimidation by the authorities. The government warned that women drivers would face arrest. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Members of the Kingdoms Shia minority, most of whom live in the oil-rich Eastern Province, continue to face discrimination that limits their access to government services and employment. Activists have received death sentences or long prison terms for their alleged participation in protests in 2011 and 2012. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses All public gatherings are prohibited under an order issued by the Interior Ministry in 2011. Those defy the ban face arrest, prosecution and imprisonment on charges such as inciting people against the authorities. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2014, the Interior Ministry stated that authorities had deported over 370,000 foreign migrants and that 18,000 others were in detention. Thousands of workers were returned to Somalia and other states where they were at risk of human rights abuses, with large numbers also returned to Yemen, in order to open more jobs to Saudi Arabians. Many migrants reported that prior to their deportation they had been packed into overcrowded makeshift detention facilities where they received little food and water and were abused by guards. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses The Saudi Arabian authorities continue to deny access to independent human rights organisations like Amnesty International, and they have been known to take punitive action, including through the courts, against activists and family members of victims who contact Amnesty. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1000 lashes and 10 years in prison for using his liberal blog to criticise Saudi Arabias clerics. He has already received 50 lashes, which have reportedly left him in poor health. Carsten Koall/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Dawood al-Marhoon was arrested aged 17 for participating in an anti-government protest. After refusing to spy on his fellow protestors, he was tortured and forced to sign a blank document that would later contain his confession. At Dawoods trial, the prosecution requested death by crucifixion while refusing him a lawyer. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was arrested in 2012 aged either 16 or 17 for participating in protests during the Arab spring. His sentence includes beheading and crucifixion. The international community has spoken out against the punishment and has called on Saudi Arabia to stop. He is the nephew of a prominent government dissident. Getty

Chris White, the new chairman of CAEC, said: "The defence and security industry is one of the UK's most important exporters; however, it is vital that its financial success does not come at a cost to the nation's strategic interests.

"We have launched this inquiry to understand what role UK-made arms are playing in the on-going conflict in Yemen. Have the criteria set by the Government for granting arms export licences in the region been respected and what should be the consequences if they have not?"

The inquiry is potentially difficult for the Government, which has been careful to maintain its defence relationship with the Saudis as the kingdom pursues a more muscular foreign policy with interventions not only in Yemen but also in Syria.

Saudi Arabian soldiers shelling positions in Yemen. (Getty Images)

Under its previous chairman, Sir John Stanley, CAEC had a strong record for holding to ministers to account and exposing flaws in the arms control system, including a decision by the Coalition to allow the export to Syria of substances that could have been used for the production of chemical weapons.

The Government insists that it operates one of the most transparent and stringent arms export licensing systems in the world. It emerged in January that British military advisers posted to Saudi Arabia have access to the command and control centre from the air strikes on Yemen are being co-ordinated and can see target lists, although they play no role in choosing them. The Saudi authorities have strongly denied any deliberate violations of humanitarian safeguards.

But campaigners have warned of indiscriminate targeting of the civilian population in Yemen, including allegedly deliberate strikes on electricity and water plants. Last year, coalition strikes also hit a hospital and mobile clinic operated by Medecins Sans Frontieres as well as several schools. Amnesty International has criticised "a pattern of appalling disregard for civilian lives displayed by the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition".

Lawyers acting on behalf of the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) are also threatening legal proceedings against the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which is in charge of approving export licences, for allegedly failing in its duty to prevent violations of human rights protections.

Among the areas that will be looked at by CAEC is extending the role of the Department for International Development in granting licences to assess the impact of any weaponry sale on development in they buying country.

Andrew Smith, of CAAT, said: "These arms sales should never have been allowed in the first place. The Saudi bombing campaign has unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe on Yemen. Yet, despite all of this, and despite the Government's rhetoric about promoting human rights and democracy, Saudi Arabia has enjoyed uncritical political and military support from Whitehall."
Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Scotland is now almost 15 billion in the red and its deficit is almost twice as large as the UK as a whole, according to newly-published official figures, which also dealt a severe blow to one of the key arguments advanced by the SNP in favour of independence.

The statistics showed that for the first time in 35 years, Scotland generated less tax per head than the rest of the UK. Although the difference is only slight, the reversal is significant because the former SNP leader Alex Salmond repeatedly used Scotlands historically higher tax receipts to support the case for independence during 2014s referendum campaign.

The SNPs political opponents said the Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland figures  published a fortnight before the date at which the country would have become independent had it voted to leave the Union  illustrated the potentially devastating impact of a Yes vote.

The figures, which highlight the effect of falling North Sea oil revenues on Scotlands finances, show that Scotlands deficit reached 14.9bn in 2014/15, up from 13.4bn in the previous financial year. The figure amounts to 9.7 per cent of Scottish GDP, compared with the overall UK deficit of 4.9 per cent of GDP.

Scotland raised around 10,000 in tax per person  a figure described as slightly below the UK average  and spent 12,800 per person, around 1,400 more than the UK as a whole. The statistics, often used to inform the debate about Scotlands potential for independence or gaining further powers from Westminster, are produced independently of ministers.

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotlands First Minister, insisted that the foundations of Scotlands economy are strong. But at a briefing with reporters shortly after the figures were published, she admitted that they showed a deterioration in the countrys finances due to the dramatic fall in the price of oil.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA UK news in pictures 7 September 2022 Police officers stand guard after Animal Rebellion activists threw paint on the walls and road outside the Houses of Parliament in protest, in London, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 6 September 2022 Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Liz Truss during an audience at Balmoral, Scotland, where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2022 Visitors at the PoliNations garden in Victoria Square, Birmingham, which is made up of five 40ft high tree installations and over 6,000 plants. The PoliNations programme aims to explore how migration and cross-pollination have shaped the UKs gardens and culture PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2022 Undergraduates at the University of St Andrews take part in the traditional Pier Walk along the harbour walls of St Andrews before the start of the new academic year PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2022 The Massed Pipes and Drums parade during the Braemar Highland Gathering at the Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2022 Number 12 Company Irish Guards at Wellington Barracks, central London, before commencing their first Guard Mount at Buckingham Palace PA

Stressing that the statistics should be looked at in context, she added: No country anywhere in the world looks at its fiscal position and makes judgements about [it] based on one years figures. Over the past ten years, the reality is that Scotlands fiscal position has been broadly similar to that of the rest of the UK.

However, Holyroods opposition parties said the figures showed that Scotland would be facing a bleak future had it voted to leave the Union 18 months ago and accused the SNP of overestimating the value of North Sea oil in an attempt to persuade Scots to back independence.

Had their con succeeded, we would now be only 15 days away from separating the most successful political Union in history in favour of a leap into the dark, said Murdo Fraser, the Scottish Conservatives finance spokesman.

Kezia Dugdale, the leader of Scottish Labour, added: These figures from the SNP Government show once and for all the devastating impact leaving the UK would have had on Scotlands financesPeople were misled by the SNP in the run-up to the referendum and that is unforgivable.

Scotland Office minister Andrew Dunlop also took the opportunity to highlight the benefits of the Union. These figures show that Scotland is facing challenging economic times, in particular because of the drop in oil price, and demonstrate the value of the broad shoulders of the United Kingdom, he said.

However, Ms Sturgeon said she would take the opposite view, pointing out that Scotland had so far contributed 300bn in North Sea oil revenues to the Treasury and questioning why the UK Government had not set up a Norwegian-style oil fund to protect the industry in hard times. What we are talking about here today is  certainly at least in part  an indictment of the mismanagement by the UK of Scotlands finances and our oil revenues in particular, she added.
Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The Government has lost a vote to lengthen Sunday trading hours for shops after a number of Conservative MP rebelled against their own party. In total, 26 Conservative MPs broke ranks to reject the proposals.

The vote was lost by 317 to 286 after they joined forces with Labour and SNP politicians in what one Conservative MP called a an unholy alliance across the political spectrum. The rebellion represents a significant challenge to David Cameron as he attempts to rule with a slim majority, amid growing dissent and unease within his own party.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The proposed reforms would have represented the biggest change to Sunday trading laws for 20 years. Currently, large stores are only permitted to open for 6 hours between 10am and 6pm. The government has suggested that reform would help businesses and give greater freedom to shoppers. However, some politicians raised concerns that the change would result in wage decreases and cause Christian employees to feel pressured to work on a Sunday.

David Cameron held last minute talks yesterday evening with backbencher MPs in a bid to win them round and a compromise amendment was also tabled. However, this was not enough to sway the MPs.

This is a list of all the Conservative MPs who voted against the Government to reject change to Sunday trading hours.

Heidi Allen

Bob Blackman

Fiona Bruce

David Burrowes

Maria Caulfield

Christopher Chope

Nadine Dorries

Steve Double

James Gray

Chris Green

Gordon Henderson

Gerald Howarth

Stewart Jackson

Ranil Jayawardena

David Jones

Jeremy Lefroy

Edward Leigh

Julian Lewis

Karl McCartney

Andrew Rosindell

Derek Thomas

Andrew Turner

Martin Vickers

William Wragg

Peter Bone

Phillip Hollobone
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

I was asleep when they came, says Nour Khalil, a 22-year-old lawyer and activist. I woke up to one of them pulling away my bed sheet and pointing a gun in my face. I was handcuffed and blindfolded immediately. I was put into solitary confinement for four days.

Egypts Homeland Security forces battered down the door of the family home in Gharbiyah, north of Cairo. Taken into custody that night in May last year was Mr Khalil, his brother, Islam, and his father, Alsaid. As the family were in custody, Mr Khalil says security officials investigated every detail of his life: his friends, his relationships, everything... all without a warrant, a lawyer or any charges. I had no rights.

Mr Khalils case is one of thousands of claimed enforced disappearances, the state-sanctioned detention and abduction of people, along with a refusal to acknowledge their whereabouts or fate. Yesterday, the European Parliament unanimously passed a resolution to act against Egypt for its large-scale campaign of arbitrary detention, which by conservative estimates has left over 22,000 people in pre-trial incarceration. The motion acknowledges that a long list of enforced disappearances have occurred in Egypt since June 2013.

Rights groups in Egypt claim that since Magdy Abdel Ghaffar was appointed Interior Minister in March 2015, enforced disappearance has become unofficial security policy of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisis military government in response to economic instability and an Islamist insurgency in the Sinai.

The Egyptian Co-ordination for Rights and Freedoms claims to have recorded 1,840 cases of enforced disappearance in 2015. A report by the Nadeem Centre, which provides rehabilitation for victims of state violence, identified 66 disappearances in January. The European Parliament motion recognises the Nadeem Centres role in the provision of information on torture, killings and the worst abuses in detention, and criticises the Egyptian authorities recent move to close the centre on false accusations pertaining to health violations.

Reports of widespread enforced disappearance is testament to the growing influence of the military, which reaches across the judiciary, security and intelligence services. Activists claim that with carte blanche to discourage dissent in the struggle for stability, security services prey on citizens with impunity.

Human rights attacks around the world Show all 10 1 /10 Human rights attacks around the world Human rights attacks around the world China Escalating crackdown against human rights activists including mass arrests of lawyers and a series of sweeping laws in the name of national security. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Egypt The arrest of thousands, including peaceful critics, in a ruthless crackdown in the name of national security, the prolonged detention of hundreds without charge or trial and the sentencing of hundreds of others to death. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Gambia Torture, enforced disappearances and the criminalisation of LGBTI people; and utter refusal to co-operate with the UN and regional human rights mechanisms on issues including freedom of expression, enforced disappearance and the death penalty. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Hungary Sealing off its borders to thousands of refugees in dire need; and obstructing collective regional attempts to help them. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Israel Maintaining its military blockade of Gaza and therefore collective punishment of the 1.8 million inhabitants there, as well as failing, like Palestine, to comply with a UN call to conduct credible investigations into war crimes committed during the 2014 Gaza conflict. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Kenya Extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances and discrimination against refugees in its counter-terrorism operations; and attempts to undermine the International Criminal Court and its ability to pursue justice. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Pakistan The severe human rights failings of its response to the horrific Peshawar school massacre including its relentless use of the death penalty; and its policy on international NGOs giving authorities the power to monitor them and close them down if they are considered to be against the interests of the country. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Russia Repressive use of vague national security and anti-extremism legislation and its concerted attempts to silence civil society in the country; its shameful refusal to acknowledge civilian killings in Syria and its callous moves to block Security Council action on Syria. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Saudi Arabia Brutally cracking down on those who dared to advocate reform or criticise the authorities; and committing war crimes in the bombing campaign it has led in Yemen (pictured) while obstructing the establishment of a UN-led inquiry into violations by all sides in the conflict. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Syria Killing thousands of civilians in direct and indiscriminate attacks with barrel bombs and other weaponry and through acts of torture in detention; and enforcing lengthy sieges of civilian areas, blocking international aid from reaching starving civilians. Getty Images

However, Mr Ghaffar claimed there had been not even a single case of enforced disappearance. Those who disagree are jumping to false conclusions, Mr Ghaffar said in January, claiming that we are 90 million citizens  the disappearance of 200 is normal. The Egyptian government was unavailable for further comment this week.

Four days after his abduction, with no evidence linking him to any crime, Mr Khalil and his father were released. His brother was transferred to the headquarters of Homeland Security in Lazoghly Square, Cairo. Since the moment I entered, I witnessed nothing but the violation of my humanity, Islam wrote in a letter smuggled from prison. He describes electrocutions, beatings, and spending hours in stress positions. Blindfolded from the moment they enter until the moment they leave, most of Egypts disappeared will pass through Lazoghly.

Confessions are extracted, allegedly through torture. This is denied by the authorities. From the first day, Islam Khalil wrote, they were asking me about people Ive never met, insisting I knew them. Sometimes, when I got tired of the torture, I told them I was ready to say everything they want me to say.

The atmosphere of repression extends to universities. Islam Atito was a student at Cairos Ain Shams University when, during an exam in May 2015, a man claiming to be a university official demanded to meet him afterward. Mr Atito was later seen running through the university with two men in pursuit, before being bundled into a car.

The following morning, an Interior Ministry statement declared Mr Atito had been a terrorist, and died in a shootout with police. His body was found on a suburban roadside, he had been shot repeatedly.

Egyptian Police special forces stand guard in Tahrir Square. Egypt has recently marked the fifth anniversary of the 2011 uprising (AFP/Getty)

The last time Ashraf Shehata was seen alive was in the lobby of the private school he had founded in western Cairo on 13 January, 2014. The school was almost deserted except for Mr Shehata and a few colleagues. His phone rang as they entered the building, he stepped outside to take the call and never returned. There were no investigations, said Mr Shehatas wife, Maha Mekkawy.

She spoke to the station chief at the local branch of Homeland Security. He told me: Maybe he is travelling; doesnt he have a passport? That was the moment I realised [my husband] had lost his national ID card and was carrying his passport on the day he disappeared.

Ms Mekkawy believes her husband was abducted after a dispute with a colleague with military connections. She claims she was given a letter by officials which insisted he was out of the country. Later, officials told her youre never going to get an answer.

When Islam Khalil appeared in court in September, weak and in the clothes he was wearing three months before, a judge was reportedly told he had been arrested the previous day. My brother was a victim of enforced disappearance for 121 days, says Nour Khalil. But the day he appeared in court, he was no longer a victim, but a criminal  with multiple charges against him.

The failure of public prosecution to seriously investigate these cases, said Joe Stork, Middle East and North Africa deputy director of Human Rights Watch, reinforces the near absolute impunity that security forces have enjoyed under President Sisi.

The danger is no longer limited to Egyptian nationals. The European Parliaments debate yesterday was prompted by the murder in January of Italian academic Giulio Regeni, whose tortured body was found by a road.

Islam Khalil has been on hunger strike since early February. He may die in custody. Campaigners say that as long as the military administration struggles to contain Islamist insurgents in Sinai and reverse the economic downturn, their security services will continue to detain and brutalise citizens in the name of stability.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

A South African woman has been found guilty of kidnapping a two-day-old baby 19 years ago.

The 50-year-old woman was accused by police of fraudulently claiming to be the girl's biological mother after she stole her from a hospital in Cape Town in 1997.

Suspicions were raised last year when a similar-looking girl at the child's school was proved to be her sister through DNA testing, the BBC reports.

The girl was named Zephany by her parents, Celeste and Morne Nurse. The name she grew up with and the name of her kidnapper have not been revealed to protect her identity.

Ms Nurse told the court she saw a woman dressed in a nurse's uniform holding her baby before the child disappeared.

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

Providing evidence, the accused woman said she believed she had legally adopted the child after her own pregnancy ended in miscarriage.

She said she was handed the child at a busy railway station by a woman who she had asked to find her a baby to adopt.

According to ITV, when giving his verdict, High Court Judge John Hlophe told the woman: "You must have been the person who removed the child from hospital.

"Your story if anything is a fairy tale and the court rejects it with the contempt it deserves."

Ms Nurse reportedly burst into tears at the verdict.

Mr Nurse said: "We're over the moon. My daughter is back and we just have to work our way, feel our way and just be happy."

The woman was denied bail and must return to court for sentencing on 30 May. She faces a minimum of five years in prison.
Liberal Politics from the Heart of Bluegrass Country
Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

For 39 hours, Democratic politicians in Missouri took turns to remain on their feet to try and defeat a bill that many regard as discriminatory to gay people. In the end, their epic battle failed after Republicans used a rarely-used procedural measure to cut off debate and force a vote.

The bill, known as SJR39, must still clear some hurdles before it becomes law. But if it does, it would amend the states constitution to protect businesses or individuals who refused to provide services to same-sex couples.

That could include protection from punishment for florists or bakers, for instance, who in other states in the US have faced legal challenges for refusing to provide services for same-sex weddings on the ground that it offends their religious beliefs.

Missouri Senator Bob Onder, left, Senate Majority Leader Mike Kehoe address reporters at the state capitol after the filibuster (AP)

Its disappointing that extremist senators would use a rare procedural move to shut down debate and silence the voices of countless Missourians, said Jeffrey Mittman, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Missouri.

This amendment would enshrine discrimination in our state constitution by allowing taxpayer-funded organisations like adoption and foster care agencies and homeless shelters to refuse serving LGBT families, in addition to countless other harmful consequences.

The Washington Post said the bill, which has to be passed by the House, would put a measure on the November ballot that would amend the state constitution.

It appeared to be sailing through the Senate this week when the chambers small number of Democrats decided late on Monday to mount a filibuster. Among those who supported the effort was presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Marriage equality is the law. I stand with those filibustering in MO to make sure discrimination wont be, she said on Twitter.

The newspaper said that for almost 40 hours, they spoke on a range of topics in hopes of delaying and derailing the bill, on topics that ranged from George Washington to local authors to the Democratic presidential candidates. They spoke about how they believed future generations would frown on this bill if voters support amending the state constitution.

By putting this in the constitution, we are tying their hands and we are saying to them we know better than they do about what kind of society they want to live in, said state Senator Jason Holsman. I dont think thats the case.

Republicans defended the measure. No one should be compelled to make a work with their own hands thats offensive to their beliefs, said Senator Bob Onder
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

A story about a penguin who swims to a Brazilian island every year to see the man who rescued him is all over the internet right now.

The bird, a South American Magellanic, was found smothered in oil on rocks at a beach on an island village near Brazil's Rio de Janeiro in 2011, according to Metro.

The suffering penguin was rescued by Joao Pereira de Souza, a 71-year-old retired brick worker and occasional fisherman who lives in the area.

Pereira de Souza took the perishing bird under his care, feeding him fish until he regained his health, and washing the oil off his feathers. It took a week to fully get rid of the oil, according to a video from the Brazilian network GloboTV.

Though Pereira de Souza tried to release the penguin, who he had affectionately named Dindim, into the sea a week after finding him, Dindim wasn't quite ready to leave.

He stayed with me for 11 months and then, just after he changed his coat with new feathers, he disappeared, Pereira de Souza is quoted by Metro.

He thought the penguin wouldn't return, but Dindim made a surprise appearance on the island a few months later, and even followed Pereira de Souza home.

I love the penguin like it's my own child, and I believe the penguin loves me, the man told GloboTV.

Dindim has since been swimming back to the island each year; this is the fifth time he has returned to see his unlikely companion.

Apparently, the bird spends eight months of the year on the Brazilian island with his rescuer. Penguin or person, it's a nice way to live.

Read more:

 ECB CUTS RATES

 The worst of Apple's iPhone slump might be over

 People think the coup against Corbyn starts today

Read the original article on Business Insider UK.  2015. Follow Business Insider UK on Twitter.
Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Jamie Gilt is in hospital in a stable condition after being shot in the back by her four-year-old son on Tuesday - just hours after posting a message on social media saying how jacked up the child was to shoot a weapon.

But who is the outspoken gun rights activist, and how did the incident happen?

What happened?

Jamie Gilt was in a stable condition in hospital after being shot in the abdomen (Facebook)

Police said Ms Gilt was driving her truck, which was towing a horse trailer, along State Road 20 in Hollister, Putnam County, in Florida with her four-year-old son in the back of the vehicle.

The child appears to have got hold of a .45 calibre pistol which was lying on the back seat and fired it accidentally.

Florida law requires gun owners to ensure they are kept securely.

An investigation into how the child came to be in possession of the handgun is ongoing.

Who is Jamie Gilt?

Jamie Gilt was in a stable condition in hospital after being shot in the abdomen (Facebook)

The 31-year-old lives in Jacksonville, Florida and is an outspoken and high-profile pro-gun activist.

Just 24 hours before the incident, she posted a message on social media boasting: ''Even my 4 year old gets jacked up to target shoot with the .22".

She runs a Facebook page entitled: 'Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense' - but the site has temporarily been taken down.

She frequently posts on social media about her love of guns and her views on Second Amendment rights, as well as her support for Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz.

Jamie Gilt regularly shares pro-gun messages on her social media accounts (Facebook: Jamie Gilt/Survival Watch)

Her profile photo on her personal Facebook page describes the Texas senator as Patriotically Correct.

She posted an article from Gunowners.org on March 1 entitled, Ted Cruz is the Presidential Candidate Who has the Longest Record of Fighting for Gun Rights", according to Heavy.com.

She has also posted a number of comments about how it is better to confront a burglar with a gun than to call the police.

I can promise though, if someone breaks into my house, or tries to harm me or my family pretty much anywhere, they will be shot and most likely killed, she said in one post.

The famous for and against US gun control Show all 31 1 /31 The famous for and against US gun control The famous for and against US gun control Against: Robert De Niro Despite the actor being a gun-wielding fast-talker, he told Daily Mail: "There should be more control. It has just gotten out of hand, how easily you can get guns." The famous for and against US gun control For: Brad Pitt "America is founded on guns. It;s in out DNA. Its very strange but I feel better having a gun." Getty Images The famous for and against US gun control For: Angelina Jolie "Brad and I are not against having a gun in the house, and we do have one. If anybody comes into my home and tries to hurt my kids, Ive no problem shooting them." AFP/Getty The famous for and against US gun control For: Johnny Depp "When I was a kid it was a controlled atmosphere, we weren't shooting at humans - we were shooting at cans and bottles mostly. I will most certainly take my kids out for target practice." Getty Images The famous for and against US gun control For: Bruce Willis "Everyone has a right to bear arms. If you take guns away from legal gun owners, then the only people who have guns are the bad guys." Getty Images The famous for and against US gun control For: Clint Eastwood "I have a very strict gun control policy: if there's a gun around, I want to be in control of it." Reuters The famous for and against US gun control For: Whoopi Goldberg "Im an NRA member, as you know or probably dont know... I want to know that theres at least some way to prevent folks who are just getting out from mental institutions [from getting guns]." The famous for and against US gun control For: Vince Vaughn "Banning guns is like banning forks in an attempt to stop making people fat. Taking away guns, taking away drugs, the booze, it won't rid the world of criminality... I support people having a gun in public full stop, not just in your home." Getty Images The famous for and against US gun control For: Donald Trump "Democrats want to confiscate all guns, which is a dumb idea because only the law-abiding citizens would turn in their guns and the bad guys would be the only ones left armed. The Republicans walk the NRA line and refuse even limited restrictions" Getty The famous for and against US gun control Against: Matt Damon I actually hate guns. They freak me out. Rex The famous for and against US gun control Against: Mark Wahlberg "Well, I would love it if they could take all the guns away. Unfortunately, you cant do that so you hope that good people in the world have them to protect the people who cant protect themselves." AP The famous for and against US gun control Against: Sean Connery "It is said that a total ban on handguns, including .22s, would take away innocent pleasure from thousands of people. Is that more or less pleasure than watching your child grow up?" Rex Features The famous for and against US gun control Against: Arnold Schwarzenegger "Im for gun control. Im a peace-loving guy." Lionsgate The famous for and against US gun control Against: Sylvester Stallone "Until America, door to door, takes every handgun, this is what youre gonna have. Its pathetic. It really is pathetic. Its sad. Were living in the Dark Ages over there." Getty Images The famous for and against US gun control Against: Rashida Jones "Gun control is our only road to freedom. Freedom from the fear of senselessly losing children." Getty The famous for and against US gun control Against: Susan Sarandon "How much more suffering & loss will it take before we better regulate the sale of arms in our country?" Getty The famous for and against US gun control Against: Beyonce Queen B was part of the Demand a Plan campaign against guns after Newton shooting, by appearing in a video alongside a bunch of celebrities. AP The famous for and against US gun control Against: Jamie Foxx A Hollywood gang joined Beyonce in the campaign... GETTY IMAGES The famous for and against US gun control Against: Cameron Diaz Took part in the Demand a Plan campaign. Getty Images The famous for and against US gun control Against: Jessica Alba Took part in the Demand a Plan campaign. Getty Images The famous for and against US gun control Against: Jennifer Garner Took part in the Demand a Plan campaign. Getty Images The famous for and against US gun control Against: Jennifer Aniston Took part in the Demand a Plan campaign. Jason Merritt | Getty Images The famous for and against US gun control Against: Jon Hamm The Mad Men actor also appeared in the video... The famous for and against US gun control Against: Reese Witherspoon Took part in the Demand a Plan campaign. Getty Images The famous for and against US gun control Against: Ellen DeGeneres Took part in the Demand a Plan campaign. Reuters The famous for and against US gun control Against: Julianne Moore Took part in the Demand a Plan campaign. The famous for and against US gun control Against: Selena Gomez Took part in the Demand a Plan campaign. GETTY IMAGES The famous for and against US gun control Against: Peter Dinklage The Game of Thrones also appeared in the video... Getty Images The famous for and against US gun control Against: Zooey Deschanel alongside the New Girl star. Getty Images The famous for and against US gun control Against: Steve Carell Took part in the Demand a Plan campaign. Getty Images The famous for and against US gun control Against: Gwyneth Paltrow Took part in the Demand a Plan campaign, too.

She also shares professional modelling photographs on her social media accounts.

Ms Gilt works as a distributor for nutrition supplement Advocare. She started at the company in January 2015 and works from her home in Jacksonville.

Ms Gilt is a passionate horse rider and she was on her way to pick up a new pony when the shooting occurred, CBS Jacksonville reported.
Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Tired of being called "Little Marco" during Donald Trump's bombastic presidential campaign, last month Marco Rubio raised eyebrows when he hurled insults back at the Republican front-runner during a campaign rally.

The senator from Florida made fun of Mr Trump's spray tan and small hands to roaring applause from his audience. In the days after his remarks, it was seen as Mr Trump dragging his rival's rhetoric down to his level.

On Wednesday, Mr Rubio said he regrets making fun of Mr Trump, not least because it embarrassed his children.

"At the end of the day, you know what? It's not something I'm entirely proud of," Mr Rubio said during an MSNBC town-hall event. "My kids were embarrassed by it, and I, you know, if I had to do it again, I wouldn't."

The insults appear to have hurt Mr Rubio much more than Mr Trump, who won big on Super Tuesday, and now has won 15 states to Mr Rubio's one and Puerto Rico.

The candidates now are campaigning in Florida, Mr Rubio's home state, ahead of a winner-take-all primary on March 15. If Mr Rubio fails to win in Florida, his presidential campaign could well be finished.

Follow @PaytonGuion on Twitter.
Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Five people have been killed and three injured in a shooting at a house party near Pittsburgh on Wednesday night.

Allegheny County Police said they are still searching for two gunmen, who carried out the attack around 11pm.

Four of the victims  three women and one man  were found dead at the scene, officials said in a press release. A fourth woman was transported to University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Mercy, where she later died.

Lieutenant Andrew Schurman of Allegheny County homicide unit said the gunmen barged into the party and opened fire in an ambush-style attack.

Ballistic evidence suggested that two weapons were discharged from separate people who opened fire at the rear of the home, police said.

Tina Shelton, 38, was identified as one victim who died at the scene. Her father Vernes Pugh said she was the mother of five children, WPXI-TV reports.

Kayla Alexandra, a witness who lives nearby, told the station that she heard at least 20 shots.

Wilkinsburg has a population of nearly 16,000 people, and is located six miles away from Pittsburgh.
Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

It was a case of simple good fortune. Mixed with a decent dash of humanity.

The organisers of the VancouFur festival - an event where people dress up as furry animal personas - had not planned to interact with the Syrian refugees who were staying at the same hotel.

Indeed, they warned those attending the event in Vancouver that the sight of fun-loving friendly costumes might even be upsetting for the youngsters. They warned those taking part in a letter that the convention would likely be a major culture shock and asked attendees to make the children feel welcome and safe.

But as a barrage of happy, smiling images have proved, there was no such problem after all.

Indeed, the youngsters, who were being put up at the Executive Airport Plaza as they prepare for new lives in Canada, were delighted by the Furries and the youngsters spent time dancing, laughing and jumping up and down in joy.

One of the Furries taking part, who uses the name Aphinity, filmed the scenes and said on Twitter: Syrians interacting with costumed characters at @Vancoufur this year. I actually cried watching this as I filmed it.

Speaking to The Independent from his home in Vancouver, Aphinity said the interaction with the children had been genuinely moving. He said he doubted the youngsters had ever seen anything like it.

"When they came into the hotel and saw us they were overjoyed," he said.

Twitter user @southeastanthro said the festival organisers had done a great job with their open arms reception to the refugees

VancouFur was nice. pic.twitter.com/lv2xuZXtiT

This is what the fandom is capable of! Keep up the awesome!, said the message.

Chris Jantz, who has attended the festival for three years, told the New York Daily News that he and others at the fifth VancouFur convention were at their hotel on Sunday morning when a bus pulled up and dozens of refugees poured into the lobby.

They saw people in giant animal costumes. To the children they were just cartoons from stuff like Yo Gabba Gabba!, etc., and they wanted to say hi, he said. I dont think they had any concept of the furry fandom.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus government announced last month that it had met its goal of bringing 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada by the end of February, with plans for an additional 10,000 by the end of 2016.

The focus of the authorities has now shifted to finding housing for those currently in places such as hotels, as CBC reported only 60 per cent of those brought to Canada since November have permanent places to live.
Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

A US election advert dating back to 1964 has gone viral after bearing uncanny similarities to the current state of Americas Republican Party.

Titled Confessions of a Republican, an actor, Bill Bogert, can be seen expressing his concerns over election candidate Barry Goldwater, whose conservative views were alienating liberal Republicans.

The most eerie lines sound like they could be lifted straight from the political discussion of today, as Donald Trump becomes ever nearer to being a candidate for the 2016 presidential election.

This week's question was 'Could Donald Trump become US President?' (Getty Images)

After declaring himself a lifelong Republican, the actor goes on to say when we come to Senator Goldwater, now it seems to me we're up against a very different kind of a man. This man scares me.

Other than overall fears over what such a conservative President would bring to the country, other lines appear to pinpoint precise concerns over Trumps platform today.

Addressing supporters of the right-wing candidate

A friend of mine just said to me, "Listen, just because a man sounds a little irresponsible during a campaign doesn't mean he's going to act irresponsibly."

At the last Republican debate, Trump was repeatedly pressed to reveal an off-the-record conversation he had with The New York Times, in which it is alleged he suggested a much softer approach to immigration.

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

The candidates willingness to contradict himself

A reporter will go to Senator Goldwater and he'll say, "Senator, on such and such a day, you said, and I quote, 'blah blah blah' whatever it is, end quote." And then Goldwater says, "Well, I wouldn't put it that way." I can't follow that. Was he serious when he did put it that way? Is he serious when he says I wouldn't put it that way? I just don't get it. A President ought to mean what he says."

Many commentators have highlighted Trumps tendency to contradict himself, perhaps none better than when Stephen Colbert had the billionaire debate himself, (jump to 3:44 for the debates start).

Concern over his endorsements

I mean, when the head of the Ku Klux Klan, when all these weird groups come out in favour of the candidate of my party  either they're not Republicans or I'm not.

Trump recently refused to reject the endorsement of David Duke, leader of the Klu Klux Klan, despite having condemned him publicly before. He has since blamed a faulty earpiece for his remarks during the controversial interview.

As seen in the full version of the advert below, history appears to be repeating itself. Although the individual policies may differ, concerns over a certain candidates approach feels very similar.

I wish I could believe that he has the imagination to be able to just shut his eyes and picture what this country would look like

The advert was made in support of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who would go on to win the election, and the actor involved has since told reporters his concerns were genuine.

No, I certainly did not vote for Barry Goldwater. I voted for Lyndon Johnson. Ask me how long its been since I voted for a Republican.
Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Multiple videos show a protester at a Donald Trump rally in North Carolina being sucker-punched by a Trump supporter.

The videos, which appeared on social media early Thursday and are shot from different perspectives, show an African American with long hair wearing a white T-shirt leaving the Trump rally as the audience boos. He is being led out of the rally by men in uniforms that read Sheriffs Office. The man extends a middle finger to the audience on his way out.

Then, out of nowhere, the man is punched by a pony-tailed man, who appears to be white, in a cowboy hat, black vest and pink shirt as the crowd begins to cheer. The protester stumbles away, and then is detained by a number of the men in uniforms, who handcuff him while he is on the ground.

Chill, chill! an onlooker says. You dont gotta grab him like that!

Rakeem Jones, the man who was hit, said the punch came out of nowhere.

Boom, he caught me, Jones told The Washington Post in a telephone interview. After I get it, before I could even gain my thoughts, Im on the ground getting escorted out. Now Im waking up this morning looking at the news and seeing me getting hit again.

Jones said he and four friends  a diverse group that included a white woman, a Muslim, and a gay man, had gone to the rally as a social experiment. He said the woman with them started shouting once Trumps speech began.

She shouted, but at the same time, they were shouting too, Jones, a 26-year-old inventory associate, said. Everyone was shouting, too.  No one in our group attempted to get physical.

Jones blamed the Cumberland County officers escorting him from the rally for failing to protect him  then detaining him instead of the man who he claims attacked him.

Its happening at all these rallies now and theyre letting it ride, Jones said. The police jumped on me like I was the one swinging. He added: My eye still hurts. Its just shocking. The shock of it all is starting to set in. Its like this dude really hit me and they let him get away with it. I was basically in police custody and got hit.

Ronnie C. Rouse, a man who shot one of the videos, was with Jones at the rally.

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

Were definitely anti-Trump, Rouse told The Post.

Rouse said as soon as Trumps speech began, someone in the crowd singled out him and his friends, screaming, You need to get the f out of there! Rouse said that his group had not said anything and that the comment was unprovoked. But he said they were almost immediately surrounded by eight Cumberland County sheriff officers, who escorted them out. On the way up the stairs, the attack came.

Rouse, a 32-year-old musician, said he didnt see the punch but saw the aftermath  his friend slammed by officers to the ground and handcuffed. Noting that someone in the crowd shouted, Go home ns, he said he was taken aback.

Weve been watching all this stuff happen to everyone else, Rouse said. This isnt Biloxi. This isnt Montgomery. This is Fayetteville.  its a well-cultured area. Noting Fayettevilles proximity to Fort Bragg, he added: I wanted to take my 11-year-old child, to give him a touch of whats happening political-wise. Im glad I didnt. Ive never been more embarrassed to be from here in my life. Its just appalling.

Fayetteville is in Cumberland County, but an official from the Cumberland County Sheriffs Office, reached by The Post early Wednesday, said officers from that jurisdiction were not the ones who detained the man. The Fayetteville Police Department also told The Post they did not detain anyone at the rally, held at the citys Crown Coliseum. Jones said he and his friends were not arrested.

Trump rallies are getting a reputation for violence by Trump supporters against disruptive protesters. Police in Fayetteville had to form a line separating pro- and anti-Trump groups outside the coliseum.

According to CBS New York, police are investigating at least two alleged assaults at a recent Kentucky rally. One involved a young African American woman who was repeatedly shoved and called scum.

Trump himself has not been quick to criticize the violence. After a fight erupted between protesters and police last year in Birmingham, Trump said: Maybe he should have been roughed up. Of a protester in Nevada last month, Trump said: Id like to punch him in the face. In Kentucky, he said: Get him out. Try not to hurt him. If you do Ill defend you in court.  Are Trump rallies the most fun? Were having a good time.

According to CBS New York, he referred to an incident at a New Hampshire rally where a protester started swinging and punching. Trump said some people in the audience took him out.

It was really amazing to watch, he said.

Donald Trump on the campaign trail. (REUTERS/Jonathan Drake)

At the Fayetteville rally, Trump called protesters professional troublemakers, as ABC reported. As video posted by the Fayetteville News-Observer shows, his speech was repeatedly interrupted as protesters were escorted out and the crowd chanted, USA. He criticized one protester for wearing a very dirty undershirt.

Nor were the protesters enamored of Trump.

He spreads hate, protester Marianna Kuehn told WRAL.

Copyright: Washington Post
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The party of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi officially has confirmed that she will not become Burma's next president.

Unofficially, she has vowed to be the de-facto leader by calling the shots from behind the scenes, and party members said that's how things will work in Burma's first democratically elected government in more than a half century.

The party nominated two Suu Kyi loyalists for the post including the front runner Htin Kyaw, a 70-year-old Oxford graduate. The nomination will be followed by a vote among legislators later this month before the new president is installed on 1 April.

For the past several weeks Suu Kyi is believed to have held closed door talks with the powerful military generals to suspend a constitutional clause that bars her from presidency.

The outcome of the negotiations was not known until Thursday when the names of the loyalists were announced, signaling the end, at least for now, of Suu Kyi's longtime ambition to be Burma's leader.

In pictures: General elections in Myanmar Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: General elections in Myanmar In pictures: General elections in Myanmar A man holds up a sign stating 'we must win' as crowds gather for the election result announcement in front of the National League for Democracy's headquarters after Myanmar's first free and fair election on November 9, 2015 in Yangon, Myanmar. The elections are Myanmar's first openly contested polls in 25 years, following decades of military rule. Noble laureate Aung San Suu Kyi appeared poised to win power in Myanmar despite her party's growing concerns about cheating in yesterday's historic election Getty Images In pictures: General elections in Myanmar A huge crowd gathers outside the headquarters of National League of Democracy (NLD) party displaying a huge portrait of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon Getty Images In pictures: General elections in Myanmar Supporters of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi celebrating as they look at the official election results on a giant screen outside the National League of Democracy (NLD) headquarters in Yangon Getty Images In pictures: General elections in Myanmar Supporters of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party pose as they watch the official results on a giant screen outside the party headquarters in Yangon Getty Images In pictures: General elections in Myanmar Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi casts her ballot during general elections in Yangon Reuters In pictures: General elections in Myanmar Visually impaired persons are accompanied by their helpers as nthey cast their votes at a polling station of the Myit Kyee Na township, Kachin State, northern Myanmar EPA In pictures: General elections in Myanmar Officials of Union Election Commission sort ballots at a polling station in Mandalay AP In pictures: General elections in Myanmar A Muslim Myanmar voter casts her vote at a polling station in Yangon Getty Images In pictures: General elections in Myanmar People stand in line to get into their polling station in North Okkalapa, a township outside of central Yangon Rex In pictures: General elections in Myanmar Kayan woman, from one of Myanmar's ethnic minority groups, shows her ink-stained finger after she voted, in front of a polling station in Panpet village, Demoso township, Kayah state Reuters

Suu Kyi did not attend Thursday's high-profile nomination session but posted a message on Facebook to her legions of supporters. She called it a first step toward realizing the expectations and desires of the people who overwhelmingly supported the National League for Democracy in the elections.

It is our will to fulfill the people's desire, Suu Kyi said in the letter posted on her Facebook page. We will try as hard as we can to do that.

The longtime former political prisoner led her National League for Democracy to a landslide victory in the general elections on 8 November, paving the way for the country's first democratically elected government since the military took power in 1962.

Despite her massive popular support, the 70-year-old Suu Kyi is blocked from the presidency because the constitution bars anyone with a foreign spouse or children from holding the executive office. Suu Kyi's two sons are British, as was her late husband. The clause is widely seen as having been written by the military with her in mind.

During Thursday's parliament session, the NLD nominated, from the lower house, Htin Kyaw, a longtime confidante and associate of Suu Kyi. He is widely respected and seen as a frontrunner. His father was a national poet and a National League for Democracy lawmaker from an aborted 1990 election, while his wife is a prominent legislator for the party in the current house. His father-in-law, a former army colonel, was a co-founder of the NLD.

From the upper house, the NLD nominated Henry Van Hti Yu, an ethnic Chin minority and upper house NLD lawmaker.

The outgoing ruling party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party, also nominated two candidates  Sai Mauk Kham, currently a vice president, and former upper house speaker Khin Aung Myint.

The military bloc, which holds a constitutionally mandated 25 percent of seats, is also allowed to nominate one candidate from each house of parliament. The candidates have not yet been announced, one of whom will likely become the country's other vice president.

A vote will be held later this month to elect the president and two vice presidents.

The NLD candidates are assured of a victory given its control of both chambers. One of them will become the president and the other will become a vice president.

Suu Kyi fought for decades to end dictatorship in Myanmar, and remains her party's unquestioned leader. She was awarded the 1991 Nobel prize while under house arrest, where she spent 15 years locked away by a junta that feared her political popularity.

Suu Kyi has made clear that even if she is not president she will be in charge.

Kyaw Thiha, an upper house NLD lawmaker, said Thursday that the new president will take orders from Suu Kyi.

She cannot become the president, but it doesn't really matter because she will be controlling everything. She will be the one to control us, Kyaw Thiha said. It doesn't really matter that she is not becoming the president.

Political analyst Toe Kyaw Hlaing predicted that the people won't have a problem with that arrangement.

The public voted for change, so now the public wants a pure civilian president, he told the Associated Press. So when the civilian president comes to power, I think the public will support him, and the public may not care whether he is a proxy president or not.

AP
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Four months after winning a landslide victory in Burmas general election, Aung San Suu Kyis party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), has nominated a greying apparachik known to few outside the party elite to be the nations next president.

His name is U Htin Kyaw, pronounced roughly OoTin Jaw. Tall, slightly stooped, aged 69, his claims to distinction are that his father was a famous poet and his wife is an NLD MP. On his own account there is little on the record. A graduate in computer science from London University, he is executive director of the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, named after Suu Kyis mother. Above all, he is unstintingly loyal to the woman they call the Lady. And for Suu Kyi, it is the loyalty that counts.

When he becomes president  and given the partys numerical strength, it is beyond question that he will be elected president by MPs next week  U Htin Kyaw will notionally be the most powerful man in the country: this is an executive presidency, not a decorative one. But Suu Kyi has made it abundantly clear that he will be her proxy, her puppet. I will be above the president, she says. I will take all the decisions. President Htin Kyaw will merely carry them out.

So why is this man bound for the top job? Simply because Suu Kyi is barred from it.

Clause 59(f) of the constitution crafted by the military regime and passed in a dubious referendum in 2008 bars any person with a foreign spouse or children from becoming president. Suu Kyis British husband, Michael Aris, died in 1999, but her grown-up children Alex and Kim hold US and British passports respectively.

Much of the interregnum since the election has been filled by Suu Kyis attempts to persuade the military to suspend this clause. But after three recent meetings with Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the army chief, the third one long and reportedly tense and inconclusive, Suu Kyi had to admit defeat. U Win Thein, a co-founder of the party, said She will be president sooner or later. But not now.

U Htin Kyaw has been given a courteous welcome by newly elected NLD MPs. Our president is the caption to an affectionate caricature of him posted on Facebook by one of the new cadre of NLD MPs. He is, after all, one of them. But it will be a uniquely anomalous set-up.

When the idea of a proxy president was first discussed last year, some saw analogies with India, where Congress president Sonia Gandhi  heir of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty  ruled for ten years to 2014 in tandem with the Cambridge-educated economist Manmohan Singh. That dysfunctional relationship ended with the Congress suffering the biggest electoral rout in its history. But Suu Kyi denied that she was planning anything of the sort. She has made no bones of the fact that it is she who will be in charge.

Aung San Suu Kyi walks free Show all 3 1 /3 Aung San Suu Kyi walks free Aung San Suu Kyi walks free 495121.bin GETTY Aung San Suu Kyi walks free 495123.bin EPA Aung San Suu Kyi walks free 495122.bin REUTERS

That leaves open the question of what official role she will fill. It is widely speculated that she will become foreign minister  the only available portfolio that would admit her to the shadowy but powerful 11-person National Defence and Security Council, which has the right to declare martial law and sideline the elected government. But as foreign minister she would be expected to travel frequently. If that happens, how will she keep tabs on President Htin Kyaw when she is on the other side of the world?

Two problems lie at the root of this absurd opening to Burmas brave new democratic era. One is the militarys deep-rooted fear and loathing of Suu Kyi, whom they kept locked in her home for 15 years and in 2003 tried to assassinate. Hence the refusal to budge on the problematic clause in the constitution, one allegedly written with the express purpose of keeping her from power.

The other is Suu Kyis inability to delegate. Her compulsion to micromanage has extended recently to personally scrutinising details of the accommodation and rubbish collection arrangements of new MPs. Last year she barred all in the party but herself from making statements to the media. Newly elected MPs were forbidden to say a word in public. Becoming president, her consuming ambition, would vindicate her years of suffering and sacrifice. But it also reflects her failure to create collegial arrangements at the top of her party.

The consequences of this are often administrative chaos. Suu Kyi has had many weeks to make up her mind about her choice of presidential nominee. Yet the partys preparations for the big announcement were woeful: it took six hours from the announcement before they released a potted biography of the man, during which time CNN published a photo of the wrong Htin Kyaw  a well-known and much younger human rights activist  and the idea took hold that Burmas next president was by profession a chauffeur.

U Htin Kyaw is expected to be elected to the presidency next week, and will take office at the end of the month.

The Lady and the Generals: Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's struggle for freedom by Peter Popham is published by Rider on 10 March, price 20 hardback
The source, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed that U Sai Nyunt Lwin was travelling to Naypyidaw on 9 March, but did not know why he was travelling.

Earlier U Sai Nyunt Lwin had told the media that the National League for Democracy (NLD) had invited his party to take a government position, but that he had no details about which position it was.

Many people expect the NLD to nominate a vice-president from the SNLD as they are an ethnic party aligned with the NLD and nominating a vice-president from an ethnic party fits in with the NLDs policy of national reconciliation.

Though the SNLD received the invitation to Naypyidaw over two months ago rumours that U Sai Nyunt Lwin would be nominated as a vice-president only started spreading a few days ago.

Two months ago there had been rumours that SNLD leader, U Khun Tun Oo, was going to be asked to be vice-president after he said, on a trip to Mong Hsu in January, that he had been invited to take the job.

But, because U Khun Tun Oo has an Australian daughter he is not eligible to become vice-president. This led to the rumours that U Sai Nyunt Lwin would be offered the job instead.

Another candidate for the vice-presidents job was the ethnic Zomi leader and long-time NLD ally Pu Cin Sian, but he too is ineligible to become vice-president. Observers believe that this makes it even more probable that an SNLD member will be offered one of the top government jobs.

Translated by Thida Linn

Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

A 13-year-old girl in Pakistan was raped for three months by her school teacher and made pregnant.

The teenager, from the city of Larkana in southern Pakistan, suffered months of sexual abuse at the hands of the teacher while her family were also threatened to remain silent.

Her pregnancy was confirmed by doctors at the Chandka Medical College Hospital, who testified medical evidence before judges in the district, according to The Express Tribune.

Muzafar Mirani, the schoolteacher at Government Primary School in Nauabad who has now pleaded guilty, reportedly at first placed pressure on the girl's family to remain silent, along with his "supporters".

A protester in Pakistan's neighbour, India, stands against sexual violence in 2013 (Getty Images)

Ghulam Hussain Kalhoro, the victim's uncle, said that when this did not work the family were threatened.

"We are poor people while the accused party has the backing of influential persons," he said.

"We have informed the Larkana DIG about those threats and the officer has assured us of security and justice."

According to The Express Tribune, Mirani and those "backing" him belong to the Jatoi, Sial and Unnar tribes.

Much of Pakistan's rural areas are organised along tribal lines, with groups often seen as collectively responsible for the actions of its individual members, according to Al Jazeera.

Mukhtaran Mai became a symbol of Pakistani court's treatment of victims of rape after an attack on her in 2002 (Reuters)

Pakistan's rape record against women was highlighted in 2002 when Mukhtaran Mai survived a brutal sexual assault that was allegedly ordered on her by a local council of elders and carried out by 14 men.

After taking the case to the highest court in an unprecedented stand for justice, all except one of her attackers was acquitted.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The restoration of an ancient Spanish castle has been mocked by locals - as conservationists declared the work a "heritage massacre".

El Castillo de Matrera was built in the ninth century on a hill top in Cadiz, and has been a National Monument since 1949.

After it was badly damaged by rainfall three years ago, architects set about the job of renovating the historic structure.

But Spaniards vented their frustration after photographs of the restored building were released, which showed new materials had been used to stabilise what remained of the original building.

One man told Spain's La Sexta news channel: Theyve got builders in rather than restorers and, as we say round here, theyve cocked it up.

The project has prompted comparisons with the attempt to restore a 19th century Ecce Homo fresco of Jesus Christ by an elderly Christian woman in 2012.

The new castle is being compared to this attempt at restoration by an elderly woman (AP)

Hispania Nostra, a Spanish cultural heritage organisation, described the results of the work on the castle as absolutely terrible.

A statement on the group's website said: Foreigners have written to us saying they cant understand why these follies  better described as heritage massacres  still go on.

Architect Carlos Quevedo, who oversaw the restoration, defended his project - saying it met the goals that were set ahead of the project.

He also said it was against the law to "imitate" the castle, which explains the stark contrast between the original structure and the newly restored one.

There were three basic aims, he told the Guardian.

To structurally consolidate those elements that were at risk; to differentiate new additions from the original structure  thus avoiding imitative reconstructions that are prohibited by the law; and to recover the volume, texture and tonality that the tower would originally have had."
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The French navy has detected a Russian submarine carrying nuclear missiles in the Bay of Biscay, Obs magazine reported on Thursday, citing a senior French official.

According to Obs, the submarine, from the Murmansk base, did not enter France's territorial waters, but was seen off France's Atlantic coast in January.

A spokesman for the French navy did not confirm or deny the information, saying it was a general policy not to communicate on such matters.

The spokesman said: "Russian naval activity has been on the rise for several months, if not years, and we are permanently attentive to it."

Russia has flexed its military muscle over the past couple of years amid heightened tensions between the West and Moscow over Ukraine,

The NATO military alliance has repeatedly reported more incursions by Russian fighters and long-range bombers into its airspace.

In Britain and Sweden patrol planes have searched their waters over the past two years after the sighting of a submarine's periscope and reports of foreign "underwater activity".

In mid-February French and British fighter jets intercepted two Russian Tu-160 bomber planes heading toward British airspace near the French coast.

Reuters
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Previous Greek governments may have deliberately allowed hundreds of thousands of migrants to illegally cross the country's borders into Europe to provide a source of cheap workers, a London School of Economics professor has claimed.

Research by Dr Leonidas Cheliotis suggests previous regimes pursued policies over the past two decades that maintained a large migrant population.

Migrants are used to fill the countrys poorly paid menial jobs, without which Greeces huge shadow economy would cease to function.

And the study says those without documents find themselves trapped in the country - where they provide a highly exploitable workforce as they are unable to obtain the papers which would allow them to move elsewhere.

According to the study there were 390,000 undocumented migrants in Greece in 2011, making up a third of the country's immigrant population.

Although the paper mainly focuses on Greece, Dr Cheliotis said: The link between irregular status and labour exploitability has been observed in other EU countries as well.

Both in the UK and France, for example, policies have restricted access to the formal labour market for asylum seekers, thereby commonly forcing them to fill low-paid niches in the shadow economy, where they are more vulnerable to exploitation.

More generally, many European countries - including, for example, Sweden, Denmark and Norway - have introduced legislation according to which gaining a permanent residence permit requires participation in labour market integration programmes that may give employers excessive powers over employees.

Despite this, he says: There is plenty of evidence showing that migrants have made significant positive contributions to national economies around Europe.

Although there has been much research into so-called flexploitation  the exploitation of flexible workers, usually to their detriment  and the external causes of undocumented migrants, much less has been done on the role of recipient countries in maintaining this as a status quo.

Dr Cheliotis said: The treatment accorded to refugees in Greece today can in some important respects be read as the culmination of long-standing attitudes, policies and practices against migrants in the country.

Todays infrastructural weaknesses are, at least to some extent, the product of years of neglect of migration management, which itself has built upon long-standing hostility towards migrants and facilitated their exploitation in the labour market.

However, he added, not all migrants are necessarily treated badly in Greece.

There are, to be sure, segments of the Greek public that have treated migrants with humanity and respect  attitudes also extended to refugees more recently," he said.

And, in any case, responsibility for the ways in which immigrants are treated on Greek soil does not reside exclusively within Greece itself, not to mention that the case of Greece is not without parallels elsewhere in Europe.

But these caveats should not obfuscate immigrants plight in the country, nor of course could they plausibly excuse it.

Macedonia/Greece Border Crisis Show all 10 1 /10 Macedonia/Greece Border Crisis Macedonia/Greece Border Crisis Macedonia Border Crisis Migrants attempt to pass the Greek-Macedonian border guarded by Macedonian police near the town of Idomeni, northern Greece AFP/Getty Macedonia/Greece Border Crisis Macedonian Border Crisis A migrant reacts as he carries a child during clashes with Macedonian police at the Greek-Macedonian border Reuters Macedonia/Greece Border Crisis Macedonia Border Crisis A Macedonian policeman armed in riot gear clashes with a migrant girl, police have reinforced control at the border with Greece in a bid to stop the influx of migrants, but a few hundred Syrians managed to cross the frontier overnight AFP/Getty Macedonia/Greece Border Crisis Macedonia Border Crisis Macedonian special policemen guard the border as more than a thousand immigrants wait at the border line Reuters Macedonia/Greece Border Crisis Macedonia Border Crisis Migrant men help a fellow migrant man holding a boy as they are stuck between Macedonian riot police officers and migrants during a clash near the border train station of Idomeni, AFP/Getty Macedonia/Greece Border Crisis Macedonia Border Crisis A barbed wire fence lines the border of Macedonia and Greece near the Gevegelija Railway station, Macedonian special policemen are guarding the border as more than a thousand immigrants wait at the border line of Macedonia and Greece Reuters Macedonia/Greece Border Crisis Macedonia Border Crisis Macedonian Police stand firm at the Greek-Macedonian border in a bid to stop the influx of migrants AFP/Getty Macedonia/Greece Border Crisis Macedonia Border Crisis Government of Macedonia has declared the state of emergency in the region of country's southern and northern border and in accordance with the law to open a possibility for appropriate engagement of the army of Macedonia AFP/Getty Macedonia/Greece Border Crisis Macedonia Border Crisis Macedonian police drove back crowds of migrants and refugees trying to enter from Greece on Friday after a night spent stranded in no-man's land by an emergency decree effectively sealing the Macedonian frontier. Reuters Macedonia/Greece Border Crisis Macedonia Border Crisis A migrants woman with childrens wait to pass the Greek-Macedonian border, guarded by Macedonian police near the town of Idomeni, northern Greece AFP/Getty

He also said the behaviour of Greece had not gone unnoticed, and had regularly been subject to criticism at the European and broader international levels, both by inspectorate bodies, NGOs and other activist groups, and by foreign politicians from various political parties, some of whom have themselves participated in inspection visits to the country".

Such criticisms, he said, have typically concerned Greeces failure to facilitate processes of asylum, regularisation, deportation, or even voluntary repatriation for migrants without papers.

However, he said it had also commonly extended to practices of discriminatory policing against migrants, substandard conditions and excessively long periods of immigration detention in the country.

He said: Greek state authorities have commonly responded to criticisms with denial: from rationalising the type of treatment immigrants experience in Greece by emphasising the criminal and other dangers their presence allegedly creates, to explaining away failure to address the problem by reference to the exceptionally large number of irregular migrants in Greece and a lack of financial resources, to undermining the extent of the problem or even denying the very possibility that racist attitudes can manifest themselves amongst Greek people.

However, he continued: There has been a shift away from anti-migrant rhetoric in official discourse since the Syriza-led coalition government assumed power in 2015, against the backdrop of the refugee crisis that was already mounting at the time. It is too early to judge whether, notwithstanding the growth in migrant numbers and financial pressures, official practices have changed.

Europe is currently facing its biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War, and Greece remains at the centre of the debate as it continued to struggle to control its borders.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Two men are on the run after gunfire broke out at a restaurant in the Bastille district of Paris leaving at least one man wounded, according to French media reports.

France Info reported a man had been arrested, though there were unconfirmed reports of other men being sought by police after they fled the scene.

The shooting is understood to have taken place in front of the restaurant Chez Papa on a major boulevard in the east of the French capital at around 6pm on Thursday.

A man is understood to have been shot in the chest during the incident and is being treated by emergency service, Russia Today reports, citing a police source.

A local police spokeswoman has reportedly said they do not yet know the names of anyone involved.

Early reports suggest the incident is not terror related but an "argument that escalated", according to some French media. The cause of the gunfire is unclear at this stage.

Up to seven police vehicles are understood to be at the scene and the area has cordoned off. A video of the incident posted on Twitter shows several police cars at the scene.

The incident come four months after France was placed under a state of emergency after a string of terror attacks killed 130 people in the capital city on 13 November.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Police in Lithuania took to the streets to spread a little love and appreciation to mark International Womens Day.

Rather than pulling women over to give them tickets or fines, the policemen were instead handing out bunches of flowers to celebrate the annual event.

The countrys police force has been doing this for several years now, and although some suggest officers could be spending their time and resources more effectively - or claim the gesture is sexist - most responses have been positive.

A spokesperson for the Lithuanian Police told the Independent: Benevolent and smiling police officers stop the vehicles driven by women, but instead of checking their documents, they congratulate every woman behind the wheel and present blooming tulips  the symbols of arriving spring  and wish them a pleasant and safe journey.

Lithuanian police hand out flowers on International Women's Day Show all 8 1 /8 Lithuanian police hand out flowers on International Women's Day Lithuanian police hand out flowers on International Women's Day Police hand out flowers to celebrate International Women's Day in Lithuania Police in Lithuania handed out flowers on International Women's Day. Lietuvos policija/ Facebook Lithuanian police hand out flowers on International Women's Day A policeman gives flowers to an elderly woman The Lithuanian Police have handed out flowers to celebrate International Women's Day for several years. Lietuvos policija/ Facebook Lithuanian police hand out flowers on International Women's Day The police wished female drivers a 'pleasant and safe journey' Two women hold their tulips, a symbol of the arriving Spring. Lietuvos policija/ Facebook Lithuanian police hand out flowers on International Women's Day A women receives flowers from a policeman Many welcomed the gesture, saying it brought smiles to the faces of women. Lietuvos policija/ Facebook Lithuanian police hand out flowers on International Women's Day A nice gesture? Some people feel that perhaps police time and resources could be better spent, while others claimed the gesture to be sexist. Lietuvos policija/ Facebook Lithuanian police hand out flowers on International Women's Day A female driver receives flowers from a policeman A spokesperson for the police said women claim that such encounters with the police officers should be more frequent. Lietuvos policija/ Facebook Lithuanian police hand out flowers on International Women's Day The Lithuanian Police posted pictures to their Facebook page They received more than 10,000 likes. Lietuvos policija/ Facebook Lithuanian police hand out flowers on International Women's Day Armed with flowers Police take to the streets to celebrate International Women's Day in Lithuania Lietuvos policija/ Facebook

When noticing the tulips held by the officers women are pleasantly amazed, many of them express their gratitude to the police officers for the wonderful surprise, joyful mood and the attention shown, wishing officers the best of luck in their work.

Women claim that such encounters with the police officers should be more frequent.

Police officers posted pictures of themselves in action on the official Lithuanian Police Facebook page, receiving nearly 10,000 likes and more than 1,500 shares.

Among the comments, Loretta Reid said: I think it is lovely. Made me cry with joy.

Chamomile MK wrote: Thank you for the flowers, they were very nice and put me in a good mood all day!

Another user, Gintare Kelertaite, said: It is very nice and fun to see how many women and girls today smiled thanks to the police!
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The European Union has agreed provisional measures aimed at setting up a planned border and coast guard, which is expected to play a crucial role in tackling the current refugee crisis.

The force would include some 1,500 border guards sent to popular landing spots, such as deserted Greek beaches, and would have the power to return undocumented migrants.

We need this agency to strengthen our external borders and I am pleased with the progress we have made so far, said Dutch security and justice minister Klaas Dijkhoff, who chaired the meeting of EU home affairs ministers in Brussels. He said he was very optimistic that the ministers could agree details by April and deploy the force by summer.

The force will have nearly three times the budget of the EUs current border agency, Frontex, with funding worth 322m (252m) by 2020.

However, ministers also expressed concern over the EUs planned easing of visa rules for Turkey, part of a deal struck at Mondays summit.

After officials warned that Turkey now only meets half of around 70 technical requirements for visa-free travel, Austrian interior minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said the deal was extremely questionable.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday criticised moves by central European countries to close their borders: This unilateral decision by Austria and... the Balkan countries on one hand brings us fewer refugees, but on the other hand puts Greece in a very difficult situation.

Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg also said the alliance would add to its five warship in the Aegean Sea to intercept people smugglers.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Nearly a quarter of the city of Romes employees are off work  usually after calling in sick  at any one time, according to new figures that suggest rampant absenteeism is adding to the woes of a city that is up to its neck in debt.

In 2015 an average of 5,286 city workers out of a total of 23,083  around 22 per cent  were absent on any given day, according to the city hall statistics leaked to Il Messaggero newspaper. Some of those absent were on paid holiday but most were claiming sick leave, the report suggests.

Carlo Rienzi, the president of the national consumers group Codacons, said the figures showed there were too many public employees in the city and that huge sums of money were being wasted.

Absenteeism exacts an obvious and very high economic cost for Roman citizens, in terms of reduced services and higher prices, he said, adding that his organisation would be calling on the Audit Court to investigate.

Romes public services and infrastructure are regularly criticised by citizens and visitors. Accusations of absenteeism made against municipal employees are nothing new in Italy, however. More than four in five of Romes city police called in sick on New Years Eve 2014, leading to sharp rebukes from the Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi. When the absent officers faced disciplinary action they responded with threats of strike action.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Turkey may be hosting far fewer than the 2.7 million Syrian refugees declared in official figures, according to a controversial new claim.

An article in an online magazine by an aid worker and a former aid worker argues that many of those registered as living in Turkey may already have left for Europe, while others may have been registered several times. The claim comes as European leaders prepare to thrash out the final details of a deal with Turkey designed to prevent a repeat of the influx of people who arrived in Europe last year.

Ankara drove a hard bargain at an emergency summit in Brussels this week. In return for agreeing to allow all refugees and migrants arriving in EU countries to be sent back to Turkey, the nations Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, asked EU leaders to double a package of aid for Syrians in his country to 6bn (4.7bn).

Questions about the actual numbers were raised in an article published on The Balkanist website under the headline Turkeys mysterious disappearing refugees.

Written by an aid official based in southern Turkey, who works for an unnamed organisation, and a former humanitarian worker, it cites figures showing that 880,000 people arrived in Greece last year after crossing by sea from Turkey. In the same period, the number of Syrian refugees reported as living in Turkey rose from 1.5 million to 2.5 million. The current total claimed by Ankara stands at 2.7 million.

For that increase to be accurate, the authors say, 80,000 refugees must have crossed into Turkey from Syria every month last year, excluding anyone who went straight to Europe. However, from about March last year it has become much harder for Syrians to cross into Turkey, as large sections of the border have been closed.

The article notes that the numbers of Syrians living in official government camps rose slightly in 2015 from 230,000 to 270,000.

The authors warn that the official Turkish figures are being accepted uncritically by aid groups and government officials when they should be treated with more caution  especially when they form the basis of frantic EU negotiations.

A senior Turkish official did not deny that the figure for Syrians in Turkey could be too high, but said that it was difficult to tell.

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.

He told The Independent: We dont know if 100 per cent of Syrians currently in Turkey are registered, even though the authorities have been trying very hard to register everyone. At the same time it is unclear how many people left  how many people drowned, or ended up in Europe. He suggested that the numbers in Europe could also be inaccurate because people who travelled to Germany or Sweden crossed many national borders and were re-registered and reported every time they did so.

All those arriving in Greece from Turkey are supposed to be registered, raising the prospect that they could, in theory, be crossed off against the list of names of refugees in Turkey. Frontex, the EU border agency, has sent hundreds of officers, seconded from police forces across Europe, to help the Greek authorities record all new arrivals.

However, a spokesman for the agency said that information about individuals was passed only to the Greek authorities and could not be shared more widely because of data protection laws.

The numbers crossing the Aegean Sea have shown few signs of declining. More than 130,000 people have reached Europe from Turkey this year alone. Yesterday, two children and a six-month-old baby were among five Afghans who drowned trying to reach the Greek island of Lesbos.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Swedish police are reportedly investigating whether the driver of the car carrying British indie band Viola Beach deliberately drove off a bridge, before the vehicle plunged into a canal.

Four members of the group died in the incident along with their manager, Craig Tarry, in Sodertalje, near Stockholm.

The identity of the driver is yet to be revealed, although investigators said he had no alcohol or drugs in his blood.

Lars Berglund, one of the police investigators, told Aftonbladet: "We cant find any secondary explanation.

"It looked like the driver acted deliberately."

Aftonbladet viewed CCTV footage of the incident, which they said showed the band's black Nissan QashQai overtaking two vehicles and using the hard shoulder before crashing through the barrier - which was closed while the bridge was raised to allow an oil tanker ship to pass in the canal underneath.

The car broke through a further barrier, hit the partially lifed bridge before plunging around 25m into the canal.

Mr Berglund later insisted he had been misunderstood, telling Buzzfeed he was not implying the driver had deliberately crashed the vehicle with the intention of killing those inside it.

He was driving with full consciousness," he said.

"I believe myself that he could have been confused, or looking at his mobile phone or talking to someone in the car. That would explain why he missed the warning signs.

He could have had glass in his eyes after the car crashed into the first barrier, explaining why the car continued on.

Remembering the car crash victims at Manchester City v Tottenham Hotspur football match (Reuters)

Mr Berglund added: "From what I can see, most of them died when the car hit the bridge."

The rental vehicle was almost new and had no apparent faults.

Notable deaths in 2016 Show all 42 1 /42 Notable deaths in 2016 Notable deaths in 2016 Debbie Reynolds was an American actress, singer, businesswoman, film historian, and humanitarian. She died on December 28 in Los Angeles Rex Notable deaths in 2016 Actress Carrie Fisher died on December 27 aged 60 Rex Notable deaths in 2016 Comedian and Actor Ricky Harris died on December 26 aged 54 Rex Notable deaths in 2016 British singer George Michael died on 25 December aged 53 Getty Notable deaths in 2016 Rick Parfitt OBE was an English musician, best known for being a singer, songwriter and rhythm guitarist in the rock band Status Quo. He died on December 24 in Marbella, Spain Rex Notable deaths in 2016 Lord Jenkin of Roding died at the age of 90 on the 21 December PA wire Notable deaths in 2016 Rabbi Lionel Blue died on the 19 December Rex Notable deaths in 2016 Zsa Zsa Gabor died on December 18 Getty Notable deaths in 2016 Leonard Cohen died on 7 November Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Grand secretary of the Orange Order Drew Nelson died on 10 October aged 60 after a short illness PA Notable deaths in 2016 Aaron Pryor, the relentless junior welterweight died Sunday, Oct. 9, at the age of 60 at his home in Cincinnati after a long battle with heart disease AP Notable deaths in 2016 Polish Director Andrzej Wajda died on October 9, aged 90 Reuters Notable deaths in 2016 Stylianos Pattakos has died following a stroke on 8th October. He was 103 years old. AP Notable deaths in 2016 Dickie Jeeps, was an English rugby union player who played for Northampton. He represented and captained both the England national rugby union team and the British Lions in the 1950s and 1960s. He died on 8th October. He was 84 Getty Notable deaths in 2016 Duke of Westminster Billionaire landowner the Duke of Westminster, Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor has died on 9 August, aged 64 Rex Features Notable deaths in 2016 Christina Knudsen Sir Roger Moores stepdaughter Christina Knudsen has died from cancer on 25 July at teh age of 47 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Caroline Aherne The actress Caroline Aherne has died from cancer on 2 July at the age of 52 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Christina Grimmie Christina Grimmie, 22, who was an American singer and songwriter, known for her participation in the NBC singing competition The Voice, was signing autographs at a concert venue in Orlando on 10 June when an assailant shot her. Grimmie was transported to a local hospital where she died from her wounds on 11 June Getty Notable deaths in 2016 Kimbo Slice Former UFC and Bellator MMA fighter Kimbo Slice died after being admitted to hospital in Florida on 6 June, aged 42 Getty Notable deaths in 2016 Muhammad Ali The three-time former heavyweight world champion died after being admitted to hospital with a respiratory illness on 3 June, aged 74 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Sally Brampton Brampton who was the launch editor of the UK edition of Elle magazine has died on 10 May, aged 60 Grant Triplow/REX/Shutterstock Notable deaths in 2016 Billy Paul The soul singer Billy Paul, who was best known for his single Me and Mrs Jones, has died on 24 April, aged 81 Noel Vasquez/Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Prince Prince, the legendary musician, has been found dead at his Paisley Park recording studio on 21 April. He was 57 Notable deaths in 2016 Chyna WWE icon Joan Laurer dies aged 45 after being found at California home on 20 April Notable deaths in 2016 Victoria Wood The five-time Bafta-winning actress and comedian Victoria Wood has died on 20 April at her London home after a short illness with cancer. She was 62 Notable deaths in 2016 David Gest The entertainer and former husband of Liza Minnelli, David Gest has been found dead on 12 April in the Four Seasons hotel in Canary Warf, London. He was 62-years-old PA Notable deaths in 2016 Denise Robertson Denise Robertson, an agony aunt on This Morning for over 30 years, has died on 1 April, aged 83 Notable deaths in 2016 Zaha Hadid Dame Zaha Hadid, the prominent architect best known for designs such as the London Olympic Aquatic Centre and the Guangzhou Opera House, has died of a heart attack on 31 March, aged 65 2010 AFP Notable deaths in 2016 Ronnie Corbett British entertainer Ronnie Corbett has passed away on 31 March at the age of 85 2014 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Imre Kertesz Hungarian writer and Holocaust survivor Imre Kertesz, who won the 2002 Nobel Literature Prize, has died on 31 March, at the age of 86 REUTERS Notable deaths in 2016 Rob Ford Rob Ford, the former controversial mayor of Toronto, has died following a battle with a rare form of cancer. The 46-year-old passed away at the Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto on 22 March Notable deaths in 2016 Joey Feek Joey (left) passed away in March after a two-year cancer illness. She was part of country music duo, Joey + Rory, with her husband Rory (right) Jason Merritt/Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Umberto Eco Italian writer and philosopher Umberto Eco died 19 February 2016 aged 84 EPA Notable deaths in 2016 Harper Lee Harper Lee, the American novelist known for writing 'To Kill a Mockingbird', died February 19, 2016 aged 89 2005 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Vanity Vanity, pictured performing in 1983, died aged 57 REX Features Notable deaths in 2016 Dave Mirra The BMX legend's body found inside truck with gunshot wound after apparent suicide aged 41 Notable deaths in 2016 Harry Harpham The former miner became Sheffield Labour MP in May after many years as a local councillor. He died after succumbing to cancer, at the age of 61. Notable deaths in 2016 Dale Griffin The Mott the Hoople drummer died on January 17, aged 67 REX Notable deaths in 2016 Rene Angelil Celine Dion's husband and manager Rene Angelil has lost his battle with cancer on 14 January, aged 73 2011 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Alan Rickman Legendary actor Alan Rickman has died on 14 January at the age of 69 after battle with pancreatic cancer. He is largely regarded as one of the most beloved British actors of our generation with roles in Love Actually, Die Hard, Michael Collins, and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and an illustrious stage career 2015 Getty Images Notable deaths in 2016 Maurice White The Earth, Wind & Fire founder died aged 74. The nine-piece band sold more than 90 million albums worldwide and won six Grammy awards Notable deaths in 2016 Lawrence Phillips Former NFL star found dead in prison cell on 13 January in suspected suicide, aged 40 AFP/Getty Images

Witness Kent Udden told Aftonbladet: "We didn't see any brake lights. When he passed the first barrier, it would have been obvious that this is something you shouldn't pass.

"We saw no signs that he was slowing down."
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

A former Israeli cabinet minister has called for the construction of a new separation wall around Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem.

Haim Ramon, who left the Knesset in 2009, claimed the barrier was necessary for security reasons after a wave of violence that has left around 30 Israelis and 170 Palestinians dead in the past five months.

He is a member of the Save Jewish Jerusalem movement, which conducted a tour of the proposed division in East Jerusalem on Wednesday with several former senior defence officials and politicians.

 Palestinians shot dead after attacking on bus

A survey this week showed half of the Israeli public wants to expel Arabs. Its impossible to expel Arabs, but its possible to build a wall, Mr Ramon, the former vice Prime Minister told Haaretz.

The proposal, which is not being considered by the Israeli government, would reportedly result in around 200,000 Palestinians being fenced off from East Jerusalem and denied residence status in Israel.

They would hypothetically have to apply for work permits to work in the city, although Palestinians living in certain areas of the Old City and its surrounds would be allowed to remain.

Israels Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported that although the plans implementation is highly unlikely, it would change the demographics of Jerusalem to make around 80 per cent of residents Jewish, compared to the current 60 per cent.

Israeli police at the scene of a shooting attack near Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem, 9 March 2016. (EPA)

A substantial per cent of the terror attacks in the current escalation came from East Jerusalem, Mr Ramon said, describing the controversial plan as a lesser evil comparable to the West Bank barrier and Gaza fence.

Security checkpoints have been sporadically introduced in the city but any move by the Israeli government to permanently close off Palestinian districts is considered highly unlikely in the face of domestic and international opposition.

Saeb Erekat, the Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), said the plan would separate people from their families, schools, jobs and religious sites, as well as further damaging fragile hopes of a two-state solution.

Palestinians claim East Jerusalem, which is considered annexed Palestinian territory by the United Nations, as their capital, while a 1980 Israeli law declared a complete and united Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

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

Tensions remain high in Israel and the West Bank following one of the bloodiest days seen in months on Tuesday, when three attacks saw an American student killed and 13 others injured.

Israeli authorities have accused Palestinian politicians of inciting the wave of attacks, which started in October, while Palestinians have claimed they are a result of long-running religious and territorial disputes.

Some critics have also accused Israeli security forces of using excessive force responding to almost daily stabbings, shootings and car rammings.

Most of the around 170 Palestinians killed by security forces were said to be carrying out or attempting attacks at the time, although others died in clashes and protests, and the circumstances of many deaths have been disputed.



Additional reporting by AP
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

A conservative Iranian lawmaker was caught on camera saying children, donkeys and women don't belong in parliament.

Parliament is a place where "only men belong," according to Nader Qazipour.

Mr Qazipour was filmed speaking at a rally after winning reelection as a member of parliament for the city of Urmia.

According to a translation from Memri TV, which translates articles from Middle Eastern countries into English, Mr Qazipour says in his native Turkish: "It was not easy for us to build this country, so we will not give it away easily to any little boy or fox.

"The Iranian parliament is no place for children or donkeys. The Iranian parliament is no place for women. It is a place where only men belong.

"If you send women to parliament members, they will face catastrophes and your honor will be violated."

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

Mr Qazipour's comments led to calls for him to be penalised, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Women won 14 of the 290 seats in the Iranian parliament, according to Al Jazeera. Additionally, seven are headed for a runoff in April, potentially bringing the total to 21 - which could be the largest female delegation in the history of Iran's parliament.

Mr Qazipour has since released an apology, saying: I was carried away by the jubilation of the election among my supporters, and said something in error.

I express my regret, and do hope the misunderstanding will be alleviated.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Documents said to have been stolen by a deserter from Isis illustrate the complexity of the means by which the self-declared Islamic State recruits foreign volunteers. But doubts are also being expressed about the authenticity of the files giving details about potential foreign fighters who reached Syria and Iraq.

The files, published by German, British and Syrian opposition media, show the names, addresses and phone numbers of some 1,700 people who are identified in 22,000 documents.

Recruits are asked to answer 23 questions which includes their mothers maiden name, understanding of Sharia law and blood type.

If genuine, the files, which appear to be several years old, would help identify the web of contacts through which Isis came into contact with and moved foreign supporters to the main battlefield in Syria and Iraq.

Specialists on Isis expressed different opinions about the authenticity of the documents which seem to come from the same source.

James Harkin, the author of Hunting Season, an account of the kidnapping of foreigners in Syria by Isis and other extremist groups, reacted with scepticism to the revelations, saying: I have often been offered memory sticks said to contain documents pertaining to Isis which are on sale on the Turkish-Syrian border.

The documents appear to ask recruits a series of questions

Pointing to various inconsistencies in the files, he said that some details such as telephone numbers could be true but others might have been modified to make the documents more saleable.

He said that the tragedy is that people in this area have no other way of making money other than by faking documents, so it is difficult to verify them.

Other analysts expressed similar scepticism about the language and expressions used in the files, though not present in others produced by Isis.

Charlie Winter, a researcher at Georgia State University, said that there would be big alarm bells for me, because when Ive seen inconsistencies like that in the past, theyve been on really shoddily made forgeries.

The questionnaires appear to have been collected from foreign volunteers at the end of 2013, which would be six months before Isis captured Mosul and declared the Islamic State.

Some of the inconsistencies might be explained by the fact that at this stage the Isis bureaucracy had not achieved the sophistication it did subsequently. The files are said to have been on a memory stick stolen from a senior Isis security official who had left them in his car when he went to a meeting.

The focus of foreign governments and the international media is traditionally on the foreign component in Isis, but the interior ministry in Baghdad says that 85 per cent of Isis fighters are Iraqis.

In pictures: The rise of Isis Show all 74 1 /74 In pictures: The rise of Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters of the Islamic State wave the group's flag from a damaged display of a government fighter jet following the battle for the Tabqa air base, in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from Islamic State group sit on their tank during a parade in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from the Islamic State group pray at the Tabqa air base after capturing it from the Syrian government in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from extremist Islamic State group parade in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping A video uploaded to social networks shows men in underwear being marched barefoot along a desert road before being allegedly executed by Isis Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping Haruna Yukawa after his capture by Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping Khalinda Sharaf Ajour, a Yazidi, says two of her daughters were captured by Isis militants Washington Post In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Spokesperson for Isis Vice News via Youtube In pictures: The rise of Isis A pro-Isis leaflet A pro-Isis leaflet handed out on Oxford Street In London Ghaffar Hussain In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Isis Jihadists burn their passports In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid A man collecting aid administered by Isis in Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid A woman collecting aid administered by Isis in Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid Local civilians queue for aid administered by Isis. Since it declared a caliphate the group has increasingly been delivering services such as healthcare, and distributing aid and free fuel In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces detain men suspected of being militants of the Isis group in Diyala province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Mourners carry the coffin of a Shi'ite volunteer from the brigades of peace, who joined the Iraqi army and was killed during clashes with militants of the Isis group in Samarra, during his funeral in Najaf In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi Shiite Turkmen family fleeing the violence in the Iraqi city of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, arrives at a refugee camp on the outskirts of Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi A photograph made from a video by the jihadist affiliated group Furqan Media via their twitter account allegedly showing Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi delivering a sermon during Friday prayers at a mosque in Mosul. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared an Islamist caliphate in the territory under the group's control in Iraq and Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq Shiite's Al-Qubba Husseiniya mosque explodes in Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq Smoke and debris go up in the air as Shiite's Al-Qubba Husseiniya mosque explodes in Mosul. Images posted online show that Islamic extremists have destroyed at least 10 ancient shrines and Shiite mosques in territory - the city of Mosul and the town of Tal Afar - they have seized in northern Iraq in recent weeks In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq A bulldozer destroys Sunni's Ahmed al-Rifai shrine and tomb in Mahlabiya district outside of Tal Afar In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces celebrate after clashes with followers of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi, in front of his home in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi at his home after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis A vehicle burns in front of a home of a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi woman holds her exhausted son as over 1000 Iraqis who have fled fighting in and around the city of Mosul and Tal Afar wait at a Kurdish checkpoint in the hopes of entering a temporary displacement camp in Khazair In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees Displaced Iraqi women hold pots as they queue to receive food during the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, at an encampment for displaced Iraqis who fled from Mosul and other towns, in the Khazer area outside Irbil, north Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria A militant Islamist fighter waving a flag, cheers as he takes part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa. The fighters held the parade to celebrate their declaration of an Islamic "caliphate" after the group captured territory in neighbouring Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters wave flags as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province Reuters In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters travel in a vehicle as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Fighters from the Isis group during a parade with a missile in Raqqa, Syria. Militants from an al-Qaida splinter group held a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria, displaying U.S.-made Humvees, heavy machine guns, and missiles captured from the Iraqi army for the first time since taking over large parts of the Iraq-Syria border In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters during a parade in Raqqa, Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Fighters from the Isis group during a parade in Raqqa, Syria. Militants from the splinter group held a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria, displaying U.S.-made Humvees, heavy machine guns, and missiles captured from the Iraqi army for the first time since taking over large parts of the Iraq-Syria border In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters hold a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters during a parade in Raqqa, Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria A member loyal to the Isis waves an Isis flag in Raqqa In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi anti-government gunmen from Sunni tribes in the western Anbar province march during a protest in Ramadi, west of Baghdad. The United Nations warned that Iraq is at a "crossroads" and appealed for restraint, as a bloody four-day wave of violence killed 195 people. The violence is the deadliest so far linked to demonstrations that broke out in Sunni areas of the Shiite-majority country more than four months ago, raising fears of a return to all-out sectarian conflict In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces hold up a flag of the Isis group they captured during an operation to regain control of Dallah Abbas north of Baqouba, the capital of Iraq's Diyala province, 35 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq Isis fighters parade in the northern city of Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Volunteers, who have joined the Iraqi army to fight against the predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Isis group, demonstrate their skills during a graduation ceremony after completing their field training in Najaf In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Kurdish Peshmerga troops fire a cannon during clashes with militants of the Isis group in Jalawla, Diyala province In pictures: The rise of Isis Lieutenant General Qassem Atta speaks during a press conference Iraqi Prime Minister's security spokesman, Lieutenant General Qassem Atta speaks during a press conference about the latest military development in Iraq, in the capital Baghdad. Iraqi forces pressed a campaign to retake militant-held Tikrit, clashing with jihadist-led Sunni militants nearby and pounding positions inside the city with air strikes in their biggest counter-offensive so far In pictures: The rise of Isis A police station building destroyed by Isis fighters An exterior view of a police station building destroyed by gunmen in Mosul city, northern Iraq. Iraq's new parliament is expected to convene to start the process of setting up a new government, despite deepening political rifts and an ongoing Islamist-led insurgency. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani issued a decree inviting the new House of Representatives to meet and form a new government In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq Smoke billows from an area controlled by the Isis between the Iraqi towns of Naojul and Tuz Khurmatu, both located north of the capital Baghdad, as Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces take part in an operation to repel the Sunni militants In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An elderly Iraqi woman is helped into a temporary displacement camp for Iraqis caught-up in the fighting in and around the city of Mosul in Khazair In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi Christian woman fleeing the violence in the village of Qaraqush, about 30 kms east of the northern province of Nineveh, cries upon her arrival at a community center in the Kurdish city of Arbil in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi woman, who fled with her family from the northern city of Mosul, prays with a copy of the Quran AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq The body of an Isis militant killed during clashes with Iraqi security forces on the outskirts of the city of Samarra Reuters In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi civilians inspect the damage at a market after an air strike by the Iraqi army in central Mosul EPA In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Members of the Al-Abbas brigades, who volunteered to protect the Shiite Muslim holy sites in Karbala against Sunni militants fighting the Baghdad government, parade in the streets of the city AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Shia tribesmen gather in Baghdad to take up arms against Sunni insurgents marching on the capital. Thousands have volunteered to bolster defences AFP/Getty In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis A van carrying volunteers joining Iraqi security forces against Jihadist militants. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced the Iraqi government would arm and equip civilians who volunteered to fight AFP/Getty In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters of the Isis group parade in a commandeered Iraqi security forces armored vehicle down a main road at the northern city of Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq An Islamist fighter, identified as Abu Muthanna al-Yemeni from Britain (R), speaks in this still image taken undated video shot at an unknown location and uploaded to a social media website. Five Islamist fighters identified as Australian and British nationals have called on Muslims to join the wars in Syria and Iraq, in the new video released by the Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Al-Qaida inspired militants stand with captured Iraqi Army Humvee at a checkpoint belonging to Iraqi Army outside Beiji refinery some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad. The fighting at Beiji comes as Iraq has asked the U.S. for airstrikes targeting the militants from the Isis group. While U.S. President Barack Obama has not fully ruled out the possibility of launching airstrikes, such action is not imminent in part because intelligence agencies have been unable to identify clear targets on the ground, officials said In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants attacked Iraq's main oil refinein Baiji as they pressed an offensive that has seen them capture swathes of territory, a manager and a refinery employee said In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants from the Isis group parading with their weapons in the northern city of Baiji in the in Salaheddin province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq A smoke rises after an attack by Isis militants on the country's largest oil refinery in Beiji, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad. Iraqi security forces battled insurgents targeting the country's main oil refinery and said they regained partial control of a city near the Syrian border, trying to blunt an offensive by Sunni militants who diplomats fear may have also seized some 100 foreign workers In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group stand next to captured vehicles left behind by Iraqi security forces at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province. For militant groups, the fight over public perception can be even more important than actual combat, turning military losses into propaganda victories and battlefield successes into powerful tools to build support for the cause In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq An injured fighter (C) from the Isis group after a battle with Iraqi soldiers at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis aiming at advancing Iraqi troops at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis group taking position at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis group inspecting vehicles of the Iraqi army after they were seized at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq One Iraqi captive, a corporal, is reluctant to say the slogan, and has to be shouted at repeatedly before he obeys Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Iraqi captives held by the extremists Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Iraqi captives held by the extremists Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group force captured Iraqi security forces members to the transport In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group transporting dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members to an unknown location in the Salaheddin province ahead of executing them In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq A major offensive spearheaded by Isis but also involving supporters of executed dictator Saddam Hussein has overrun all of one province and chunks of three others In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group executing dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis militants taking position at a Iraqi border post on the Syrian-Iraqi border between the Iraqi Nineveh province and the Syrian town of Al-Hasakah In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis rebels show their flag after seizing an army post AFP/Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis militants waving an Islamist flag after the seizure of an Iraqi army checkpoint in Salahuddin Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Demonstrators chant slogans as they carry al-Qaida flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad. In the week since it captured Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, a Muslim extremist group has tried to win over residents and has stopped short of widely enforcing its strict brand of Islamic law, residents say. Churches remain unharmed and street cleaners are back at work

The inflow of foreigners has been largely stopped because it is now much more difficult to cross from Turkey into Syria than it was in 2013 and 2014.

Since then much of the southern side of the 550-mile frontier has been captured by the Syrian Kurdish paramilitary forces backed by US and Russian air strikes. The US has also put pressure on Turkey to close the remaining routes used by Isis on the Turkish side of the frontier.

Isis is today encouraging potential foreign recruits either to carry out acts of terror in their own countries or to go to places that are easier to reach such as Libya.

There are between 20,000 and 30,000 highly trained and experienced Isis assault troops and a further 40,000 to 50,000 fighters capable of engaging in battle, according to Safa Hussein al-Sheikh, the Iraqi deputy national security adviser, speaking in Baghdad.

He believes that Isis is no longer able to replace its casualties in its most effective foreign volunteer units as the self-declared Islamic State becomes increasingly cut off from the outside world.

Isis has been giving ground in recent months and has lost the cities of Ramadi and Sinjar in Iraq as well as a swathe of territory in northern Syria.

It has done so primarily because its opponents can call in US or Russian air strikes on any fixed position held by Isis and attack roads and oil facilities used by the group.

Refugees from Mosul report that there are prohibitively high prices in the markets because of a shortage of goods and foodstuffs.

The German view: We think theyre authentic

German counter-terrorism officials have said the cache of Isis documents that could reveal the identities of thousands of foreign fighters who have travelled to Iraq and Syria are probably genuine.

Analysts had been urging caution over the authenticity of the documents. But on 10 March, Germanys Interior Minister, Thomas de Maiziere, confirmed that German police were acting on the assumption that the documents are authentic.

Anthony Glees, director of the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies at the University of Buckingham, told The Independent: These documents are not only a massive security breach for Isis but a major coup for Western intelligence agencies. They could be similar in scale to the discovery of the Nazi party membership list in an abandoned paper mill in Germany in 1945. They could help deliver a devastating blow.

Jamie Merrill
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The leak of a huge cache of stolen Isis documents revealing the names and details of thousands of foreign recruits has been hailed as a devastating" coup for intelligence agencies around the world.

Details of more than a dozen British members were among 22,000 entrance questionnaires taken by the so-called Islamic States border authority in 2013.

Zaman Al Wasl, a pro-opposition Syrian news website, and Sky News published a selection of the forms online showing a 23-part survey detailing extremists names, birth dates, nationalities, hometowns, nationalities and even blood types.

An English translation of the Isis 'registration form' (Sky News)

The forms show prospective members were asked to choose if they wanted to be used as suicide bombers, soldiers or in another role, and to detail any previous jihadist experience.

Afzal Ashraf, a visiting fellow at Nottingham Universitys centre of conflict, security and terrorism, told The Independent the leak will be devastating for the terrorist group.

It will be a great blow for their recruitment process because these documents show not just the people joining but the networks involved in radicalising them and facilitating their travel, he said.

Any recruit will know they are very likely to be discovered and there will be serious consequences for them, it doesnt inspire a great deal of confidence.

Mr Ashraf added that claims a disillusioned Isis member leaked the files could spark damaging internal purges, executions and in-fighting.

It will cause a great deal of disruption, he added. This is the worst news for Isis in a very long time.

Reyaad Khan, who has since been killed in a drone strike, was among the British fighters in the documents

Charlie Winter, a Senior Research Associate at Georgia State University, called the latest forms a truly remarkable intelligence haul.

But he cautioned that the unprecedented release of names, telephone numbers, mothers maiden names and addresses may deter Isis fighters from defecting in fear of jail or retribution.

It could deter potential defectors because they will feel they have got no chance of going home without being imprisoned now the world and his wife has seen everything about them, Mr Winter told The Independent.

I think that would be a bad thing, but on the other hand the documents provide a great deal of insight.

Security expert Will Geddes, who founded International Corporate Protection, told The Times the resource will provide vital pieces of the intelligence jigsaw for security services cross-checking their own information.

 Swedish teenager describes Isis experience

They will be in massive crisis mode, worried about what is in there, who is in there and how it will disrupt their activities, he said.

Richard Barrett, the former global terrorism operations director at MI6, said the documents would shed invaluable light on who was joining Isis in the period and why.

It's a fantastic coup, he told Sky News. And it will be an absolute goldmine of information of enormous significance and interest to very many people, particularly the security and intelligence services.

Mr Barrett said the leak was the largest since the Sinjar records were released in 2007, giving the names of around 700 Isis fighters in Iraq, all of whom were from Arab countries.

While some of the fighters named were already known, including prominent British members Abdel Bary, Junaid Hussain and Reyaad Khan, many more are expected to be new to security services.

Juanaid Hussain, also known by his nom de guerre Abu Hussain al-Britani, was killed by a drone strike (REX Features)

Zaman Al Wasls report claimed the personal details of 1,736 fighters from 40 countries had been revealed, showing that a quarter were Saudis and the rest predominantly Tunisian, Moroccan and Egyptian.

Most of the European extremists listed were from France, followed by Germany and the UK. Four were said to be from the US and six from Canada.

Timothy Holman, who translated part of the cache into English, said the documents were collected at border crossings into Isis territory between November and December 2013.

Sky News said it obtained its files on a memory stick stolen from the head of Isis' internal security police by a former Free Syrian Army fighter who defected to the "caliphate" but became disillusioned.

Security sources have told The Independent the documents appear to be genuine, although they have not been publicly verified.

Timeline: The emergence of Isis Show all 40 1 /40 Timeline: The emergence of Isis Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2000 Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (pictured here) forms an al-Qaeda splinter group in Iraq, al-Qaeda in Iraq. Its brutality from the beginning alienates Iraqis and many al-Qaeda leaders. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2006 Al-Zarqawi is killed in a U.S. strike. Al-Zarqawis successor, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, announces the creation of the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI). Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2009 Still al-Qaeda-linked ISI claims responsibility for suicide bombings that killed 155 in Baghdad, as well as attacks in August and October killing 240, as President Obama announces troop withdrawal from Iraq in March. Getty Images Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2010 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi becomes head of ISI, at lowest ebb of Islamist militancy in Iraq, which sees last U.S. combat brigade depart. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2012 In Syria, protests (pictured here starting in Daree) have morphed into what president Assad labelled a real war with emergence of a coalition of forces opposed to Assads regime. Syria group Jabhat al-Nusra are among rebel groups who refuse to join, denouncing it as a conspiracy. Bombings targeting Shia areas, killing more than 500 people, spark fears of new sectarian conflict. Sunni Muslims stage protests across country against what they see as increasingly marginalisation by Shia-led government. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2013 Al-Baghdadi renames ISI as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or Isis, as the group absorbs Syrian al-Nusra, gaining a foothold in Syria. In response, al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri (Bin Ladens successor) concerned about Isis expansion orders that Isis be dissolved and ISI operations should be confined to Iraq. This order is rejected by al-Baghdadi. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - January Isis fighters capture the Iraqi cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, giving them base to launch slew of attacks further south. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Isis declares itself the Caliphate, calling itself Islamic State (IS). The group captures Mosul, Iraqs second largest city; Tal Afar, just 93 miles from Syrian border; and the central Iraqi city of Tikrit. These advances sent shockwaves around the world. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Around the same time Isis releases a video calling for western Muslims to join the Caliphate and fight, prompting new evaluations of extremists groups social media understanding. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Isis take Baiji oil fields in Iraq - giving them access to huge amounts of possible revenue. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - August James Foley is executed by the group as concerns grow for second American prisoner, fellow reporter Steven Sotloff. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - August Obama authorises U.S. airstrikes in Iraq, helping to stall Isis along with action by Kurdish forces following the deaths of hundreds of Yazidi people on Mount Sinjar. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Isis release video showing Steven Sotloffs murder prompting Western speculation his executioner is same man who killed Mr Foley. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Obama tells us that America will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Isis release a video appearing to show David Haines, who was captured by militants in Syria in 2013, wearing an orange jumpsuit and kneeling in the desert while he reads a pre-prepared script. It later shows what appears to be the aid worker's body. Rex Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Peshmerga fighters scrabble to hold positions in the Diyala province (a gateway to Baghdad) as Isis fighters continue to advance on Iraqi capital. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - October Aid worker Alan Henning is killed. Self-imposed media blackout refuses to show images of him in final moments, instead focuses upon humanitarian care. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - October Isis raise their flag in Kobani, which had been strongly defended by Kurdish troops. The victory goes against hopeful western analysis Isis had overextended itself, while alienating much of the Muslim population through the murder of Henning. Victory causes fresh waves of Kurdish refugees arriving in Turkey. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - November American hostage, who embarced values of Islam, Peter Kassig and 14 Syrian soldiers are shown meeting the same fate as other captives. But intelligence agencies will be poring over the apparently significant discrepancies between this and previous films. Seramedig.org.uk Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis has released a video revealing the murder by burning to death of a Jordanian pilot held by the group since the end of December 2014. Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis militants have released videos which appear to show the beheading of Japanese hostages Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February American aid worker, Kayla Mueller was the last American hostage known to be held by Isis. She died, according to her captors, in an airstrike by the Jordanian air force on the city of Raqqa in Syria, though US authorities disputed this. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis militants have posted a gruesome video online in which they force 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian hostages to kneel on a beach in Libya before beheading them. Egypt vowed to avenge the beheading and launched air strikes on Isis positions. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February The British Isis militant suspected of appearing in videos showing the beheading of Western hostages has been named in reports as Mohammed Emwazi from London. Rex Features Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - March Isis triple suicide attack has killed more than 100 worshippers and hundreds of others were injured after the group members targeted two mosques in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Iraqi forces have claimed victory over Isis in battle for Tikrit and raised the flag in the city. EPA/STR Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Isis has claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan that killed at least 35 people queuing to collect their wages and injured 100 more. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Isis media arm released a 29-minute video purporting to show militants executing Ethiopian Christians captives. The footage bore the extremist groups al-Furqan media logo and showed the destruction of churches and desecration of religious symbols. A masked fighter made a statement threatening Christians who did not convert to Islam or pay a special tax. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Isis has been "incapacitated" by a spinal injuries sustained in a US air strike in Iraq. He is being treated in a hideout by two doctors from Isis stronghold of Mosul who are said to be "strong ideological supporters of the group". Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis has also claimed responsibility for killing 300 of Yazidi captives, including women, children and elderly people in Iraq AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis attack on Prophet Mohamed cartoon contest in Texas was its first action on US soil. Two gunmen were shot and killed after launching the attack at the exhibition. Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi have been named as the attackers at the Curtis Culwell Centre arena in Garland. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isiss deputy leader, Abu Alaa Afri, a former physics teacher who was thought to have taken charge of the deadly terrorist group, has been killed in a US-led coalition airstrike. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May US special forces have killed a senior Isis leader named as Abu Sayyaf in an operation aiming to capture him and his wife in Syria. Getty Images Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Iran-backed militias are sent to Ramadi by the Iraqi government to fight Isis militants who completed their capture of the city. Government soldiers and civilians were reportedly massacred by extremists as they took control and the army fled. Charred bodies were left littering the city streets as troops clung on to trucks speeding away from the city. Ramadi is the latest government stronghold to fall to the so-called Islamic State, despite air strikes by a US-led international coalition aiming to stop its advance in Iraq and Syria. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis rounded up civilians trapped in Palmyra and forced them to watch 20 people being executed in the historic citys ancient amphitheatre. The Unesco World Heritage site was overrun by militants, threatening the future of 2,000 year-old monuments and ruins. Thousands of Palmyras residents fled but many are still living within the city walls, while the UN human rights office in Geneva said it had received reports of Syrian government forces preventing people from leaving until they retreated from the city. Getty Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May A group of Isis-affiliated fighters have captured a key airport in central Libya. The militants took control of the al-Qardabiya airbase in Sirte after a local militia tasked with defending the facility withdrew from their positions. Affiliates of Isis, already control large parts of Sirte, the birthplace of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and a former stronghold of his supporters. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June The US Air Force has destroyed an Isis stronghold after an extremist let slip their location on social media. According the Air Force Times, General Herbert "Hawk" Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command, said that Airmen at Hulburt Field, Florida, used images shared by jihadists to track the location of their headquarters before destroying it in an airstrike. Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Kurdish forces captured a key military base in a significant victory in Raqqa as well as town of Tell Abyad. YPG fighters, backed by US-led airstrikes and other rebels, consolidated their gains, when they seized the key town on the Syria-Turkey border. They are now just 30 miles to the north of Raqqa and have cut off a major supply route deep inside Isis-held territory. Ahmet Silk/Getty Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Isis has released gruesome footage claiming to show the murder of more than a dozen men by drowning, decapitation and using a rocket-propelled grenade as it seeks to boost morale among its fanatical supporters. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Isis has begun carrying out its threat to destroy structures in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, blowing up at least two monuments at the Unesco-protected site as Syrian government troops made advances on the Islamists positions. AFP

The Home Office said it was aware of the report, while the leak also matched descriptions of material being investigated by security services in Germany.

Any jihadist who crosses the Islamic State's borders for the first time is made to acknowledge to the Borders Administration everything about himself, even what he wants to be in Isis - a fighter or a suicide bomber, Zaman Al Wasl reported.

A spokesperson for the Home Office told The Independent it was aware of the apparent leak but said he could not give any further information for security reasons.

Individuals who take part in the conflict in Syria or travel to Isis territories are subject to investigation and should expect to be prosecuted on their return, he added. Any evidence will be considered.

At least 700 people from the UK have travelled to support or fight for jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq, according to police, and about half have since returned.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Saudi Arabia has issued a remarkable response to criticisms from the United Nations over its human rights record.

In a speech delivered to the UN in Geneva, the Saudi delegation rejected outright a UN report which strongly criticised the Kingdoms increased use of death sentences and executions.

Bandar al-Ali, Saudi Arabias Minister of Culture and Information, claimed the Kingdom was a bastion of human rights, and fights torture in all its physical and moral manifestations.

In an annual report to the UNs Human Rights Council, Juan Mendez, the Special Rapporteur on Torture, said it was becoming clear the escalating number of executions in the Kingdom amounted to torture and breached international law.

Saudi Arabia's Bandar al-Ali speaks before the UN Human Rights Council on 8 March 2016 (UN)

Mr Mendez raised particular concerns over the execution of juveniles in Saudi Arabia, as well as the use of the death penalty in response to political protests and drugs offences.

Responding, Mr Ali said: Saudi Arabia is one of the very first countries which promoted human rights. Such a support and a commitment to promote and protect human rights is but a duty imposed by the Islamic sharia from which the statutes of my country is derived.

My country fights torture in all its physical and moral manifestations through strict legislation and executive measures that are applied on all.

10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Show all 10 1 /10 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In October 2014, three lawyers, Dr Abdulrahman al-Subaihi, Bander al-Nogaithan and Abdulrahman al-Rumaih , were sentenced to up to eight years in prison for using Twitter to criticize the Ministry of Justice. AFP/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2015, Yemens Sunni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was forced into exile after a Shia-led insurgency. A Saudi Arabia-led coalition has responded with air strikes in order to reinstate Mr Hadi. It has since been accused of committing war crimes in the country. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Women who supported the Women2Drive campaign, launched in 2011 to challenge the ban on women driving vehicles, faced harassment and intimidation by the authorities. The government warned that women drivers would face arrest. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Members of the Kingdoms Shia minority, most of whom live in the oil-rich Eastern Province, continue to face discrimination that limits their access to government services and employment. Activists have received death sentences or long prison terms for their alleged participation in protests in 2011 and 2012. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses All public gatherings are prohibited under an order issued by the Interior Ministry in 2011. Those defy the ban face arrest, prosecution and imprisonment on charges such as inciting people against the authorities. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2014, the Interior Ministry stated that authorities had deported over 370,000 foreign migrants and that 18,000 others were in detention. Thousands of workers were returned to Somalia and other states where they were at risk of human rights abuses, with large numbers also returned to Yemen, in order to open more jobs to Saudi Arabians. Many migrants reported that prior to their deportation they had been packed into overcrowded makeshift detention facilities where they received little food and water and were abused by guards. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses The Saudi Arabian authorities continue to deny access to independent human rights organisations like Amnesty International, and they have been known to take punitive action, including through the courts, against activists and family members of victims who contact Amnesty. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1000 lashes and 10 years in prison for using his liberal blog to criticise Saudi Arabias clerics. He has already received 50 lashes, which have reportedly left him in poor health. Carsten Koall/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Dawood al-Marhoon was arrested aged 17 for participating in an anti-government protest. After refusing to spy on his fellow protestors, he was tortured and forced to sign a blank document that would later contain his confession. At Dawoods trial, the prosecution requested death by crucifixion while refusing him a lawyer. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was arrested in 2012 aged either 16 or 17 for participating in protests during the Arab spring. His sentence includes beheading and crucifixion. The international community has spoken out against the punishment and has called on Saudi Arabia to stop. He is the nephew of a prominent government dissident. Getty

[Government procedures code] prohibits any physical or psychological harm to be inflicted on an arrested person. It is also prohibited to subject [the accused person] to torture or degrading treatment.

Mr Alis astonishing comments follow warnings by campaigners that the Kingdom is executing people at a frightening rate after it emerged Saudi Arabia had killed its 70th prisoner of the year on Monday, bringing the total number to almost half that of 2015.

Several advocacy groups monitoring the death penalty worldwide placed the figure at 157 last year, with beheadings reaching their highest level in two decades.

The Kingdom also came under intense criticism at the beginning of the year when it executed 47 people for terrorism offences in one day, including the prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr who was a vocal supporter of the mass anti-government protests that flared in 2011.

Maya Foa, who is the head of the death penalty team at the human rights organisation, Reprieve, told the Independent: Saudi Arabia's claims to the UN human rights council sound like a sick joke when one considers the reality within the country - including the arrest, torture and execution of juveniles, political protestors and others.

Countries that are close to Saudi Arabia - including the UK - must urge that government to halt these terrible abuses, instead of simply trying to cover them up with paper-thin rhetoric."

Iran, Pakistan, Egypt and Ethiopia were also criticised in the report for their use of the death penalty.

Last year the UN was lambasted for choosing Saudi Arabia to head a key UN human rights panel.

The pro-democracy blogger Raif Badawi said at the time that the appointment was scandalous and meant oil trumps human rights.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Navid and his friends were wondering how much longer Iranian troops will be in Syria. They were worried about the rising deaths and injuries with seemingly no end to the conflict. They heard of a ceasefire, but did not think it will hold.

This was a personal concern for the four students. They would be liable for compulsory national service and they did not relish the prospect of being sent in harms way in another country, especially as they were looking forward to a future of reform and prosperity following the triumph of the liberals and their allies in the recent elections.

Standing outside Tehran University, the young men were careful not to blame their government too overtly for getting entangled in the war. It was mainly the fault of the Americans with their muddled policies, they said, and the Saudis and the Turks for creating the jihadists of Isis.

But Navid and young Iranians  60 per cent of the population is aged under 30  may avoid facing action in Syria. Greatly strengthened by the mandate from the polls, President Rouhanis government has quietly made plans to bring as many as 2,500 Revolutionary Guards home from the conflict, leaving around 700 advisers behind.

The official position in Iran until recently has been that there were only a small number of advisers and volunteers in Syria helping Bashar al-Assads forces. But there has been a sudden flurry of reports of martyrs killed in the conflict, footage of funerals and even a eulogy to a fallen general by the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The public are being prepared for the news that having made great sacrifices fighting terrorism and achieving success, the time has come to bring the men home.

The numbers were being thinned even before the election. John Kerry told the US Congress two weeks ago: The IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps) has actually pulled its troops back from Syria: their presence is actually reduced in Syria.

There are a number of reasons behind this. The most urgent task facing the government is the woeful state of the economy. The lifting of international sanctions, which came in the nuclear deal with world powers, presents a huge opportunity to rectify this and there is little appetite for spending this bonus on a costly Syrian deployment.

Iranian students wave Iran's national flags during a ceremony marking the 37th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution in Tehran (AFP)

Iranian officials also hold that Vladimir Putins intervention in Syria and subsequent gains by the regime forces has lessened the need for a large-scale military presence. Hamidreza Dehghani, the head of the foreign ministrys Middle Eastern department wanted to stress that the rebels may still control 60 per cent of the countrys territory, but now only have 40 per cent of the population under their nominal rule, a significant drop in recent months. The rebels are being steadily pushed back, he claimed: We cant say [yet] the tide has turned, but it is a more serious fight against terrorism. The Syrian government has used the opportunity well.

Recommended Read more Reformists triumph in Tehran to pave way for pivotal changes in Iran

There is the argument that no Iranian government can control the Revolutionary Guards; that the Guards remain intrinsically hostile to the West and Sunni powers, especially Saudi Arabia; and that they want to remain in a state of permanent confrontation with the enemy.

But the recent actions of their hierarchy does not support this narrative. The IRGC backed President Rouhani over the nuclear deal and ensured that 10 US Navy personnel captured in Iranian territorial waters were freed quickly. They have gone along with the Syrian withdrawal and their most powerful figure, Major General Qassem Suleimani, made a point of endorsing the parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani, a friend of reform, in the elections.

Missile tests this week, accompanied by bellicose statements by IRGC commanders, could be viewed as aggressively challenging the West and flouting of the nuclear deal. Washington has said it is still verifying whether the tests are in breach of the agreement  with US Vice-President Joe Biden saying his country will act if they were. The UN has confirmed that the tests did not breach a resolution passed last summer. The launches were more likely intended to reassure the countrys hardliners who are smarting from their election defeat.

Similarly, Tehran is keen to reassure its allies in Syria that a contingent would be kept behind there to help state forces. But just what kind of Syrian state would be left at the end to help?

The prospect of the country splitting into Alawite and Sunni enclaves would not necessarily harm Irans interest as long as it retained access to the Lebanon and its Hezbollah allies.

New York protests against Iran nuclear deal Show all 10 1 /10 New York protests against Iran nuclear deal New York protests against Iran nuclear deal New York A woman holds a poster as she takes part in a rally on Times Square in New York opposing the nuclear deal with Iran New York protests against Iran nuclear deal New York An inflatable mushroom cloud stands among demonstrators during a rally apposing the nuclear deal with Iran New York protests against Iran nuclear deal New York Protesters rally against the nuclear deal with Iran in Times Square New York protests against Iran nuclear deal New York A member of the Neturei Karta Orthodox Jews sect is escorted away by New York City Police during a rally near Times Square to demand that Congress vote down the proposed US deal with Iran in New York New York protests against Iran nuclear deal New York A woman shouts slogans during a rally against the nuclear deal with Iran in Times Square in New York New York protests against Iran nuclear deal New York A protestor holds a placard during a demonstration and rally apposing the nuclear deal with Iran in Times Square New York protests against Iran nuclear deal New York Some of several thousand protestors crowd into 7th Avenue at 42nd street as they demonstrate during a rally apposing the nuclear deal with Iran New York protests against Iran nuclear deal New York A woman holds a placard as she joins several thousand other protestors to demonstrate during a rally apposing the nuclear deal with Iran New York protests against Iran nuclear deal New York Protesters rallied against the Iran nuclear deal in New York's Times Square KENA BETANCUR/AFP/Getty Images New York protests against Iran nuclear deal New York Protestors shout slogans as they demonstrate during a rally apposing the nuclear deal with Iran

A Sunni statelet dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood (influential among the Syrian opposition) need not be a big problem for Iran either. Tehran strongly supported Mohamed Morsis government in Egypt and condemned its overthrow.

There would also, of course, be the added satisfaction in such a scenario of knowing that the Brotherhood is anathema to the Saudis, their bitter regional rivals.

The recent decision by the Saudis to punish Lebanon over the presence of Hezbollah in the country by slashing billions of dollars in aid and banning Saudi tourists from going to the country is regarded as an unexpected gift in Tehran. Iran will take advantage, striving to fill the vacuum and spread influence.

One of the great benefits of liberalisation and Iran opening up internationally, Navid and his friends wistfully stated, would be the opportunity to see the world. Lebanon, starved of Saudi tourist money, could well be grateful hosts in the future for these young travellers.
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The UK has come out on top for having the best universities in Europe, despite the rising cost of higher education in the country.

According to Times Higher Educations (THE) European University Rankings 2016, the UK has taken nearly a quarter of all places - the most of any country on the continent - with a total of 46 institutions out of 200, including seven in the top ten, and 17 in the top 50.

Oxford, Cambridge, and Imperial College London have charged on ahead to make up the top three universities in Europe. University College London and Edinburgh have also featured in the top ten.

Despite a strong performance from the UK, however, Germany - with 36 institutions in the top 200 - is challenging its dominance. Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU Munich) is the countrys most highly-ranked university in tenth place, while almost a third (11 institutions) are in the top 50.

The UKs success has been reflected in its position in THEs World University Rankings 2015 where it boasted 78 institutions in the top 800 and 34 in the top 200, making it second only to the US for the number of world-class universities featured in the list.

Top 10 universities in Europe:

University of Oxford (UK) University of Cambridge (UK) Imperial College London (UK) ETH Zurich Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (Switzerland) University College London (UK) London School of Economics and Political Science (UK) University of Edinburgh (UK) Kings College London (UK) Karolinska Institute (Sweden) LMU Munich (Germany)

Having analysed 13 key performance indicators, the rankings claim to be the only table to examine all the core missions of the modern global university: research, teaching, knowledge transfer, and international activity.

Editor of the rankings, Phil Baty, described how international students are hugely important to the health of the UK higher education system, as well as to the wider economy. He said: They spend about 4.5 billion on tuition fees and accommodation alone, but they also add much to the overall student experience by supporting a rich, multicultural campus life for all students.

 The 20 hardest universities to get into

However, he added that this vital lifeline is increasingly at risk because, for the first time this year, the UK saw international student numbers fall, with significant drops from some countries.

Mr Baty continued: Not only are our restrictive immigration policies and the noisy rhetoric surrounding the issue leading many students to perceive they are not welcome in the UK, we are also seeing the increasing popularity of European universities which are often just as highly ranked as their UK competitors but also much, much cheaper to study with.

These powerful universities on the continent are actively challenging UK market share: delivering more and more degree courses fully in English to attract students who, in the past, would only have chosen the UK, US, or Australia.

The world's top 10 universities Show all 8 1 /8 The world's top 10 universities The world's top 10 universities 1. Harvard University (USA) Rex The world's top 10 universities 2. Stanford University (USA) Creative Commons The world's top 10 universities 3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) Creative Commons The world's top 10 universities 6. Columbia University (USA) Creative Commons The world's top 10 universities 7. University of California, Berkeley (USA) Creative Commons The world's top 10 universities 8. University of Chicago (USA) Creative Commons The world's top 10 universities 9. Princeton University (USA) Creative Commons The world's top 10 universities 10. Cornell University (USA) Creative Commons

Mr Baty said that, at the last count, the top universities in the Netherlands and Germany were offering around 2,000 English-taught degree programmes between them.

Elsewhere in Europe, Scandinavian countries have performed well with Sweden and Finland coming out strongly relative to their population size with 11 and six institutions respectively in the top 200.

Other strong performers relative to population size include Denmark (six universities), the Republic of Ireland (six) and Switzerland (nine), whose top ranked institution ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich is in fourth place.

The east and south of Europe, however, have generally scored poorly in the rankings. Countries in these regions either perform relatively weakly (Estonia, Greece, Cyprus, and Portugal with only one institution each in the group 171-200), or do not appear at all in the top 200 (Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, and the whole of the former Yugoslavia).

Russia has also surprisingly underperformed, say the rankings, with just five institutions in the top 200, making it the lowest-ranked country relative to its population.
Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for weekly expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Simon Calders Travel email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

After decades of frosty aviation relations, Iran and Britain have signed an agreement for up to six flights a day between the two countries - leading to speculation that Tehran airport could seize back its role as the express route to the Orient.

In the days when Abu Dhabi, Doha and Dubai were mere dusty refuelling stops for intercontinental jets, the Iranian capital was an aviation crossroads. Budget travellers seeking bucket shop tickets to the East would often find themselves changing planes at unearthly hours to reach Delhi, Bangkok and Tokyo.

Recommended Read more Iran will soon be opening up again to adventurous tourists

Iran Air, the oldest airline in the Middle East, at one time held the record for the longest scheduled flight: over 12 hours from Tehran to New York JFK. But the 1979 revolution and international sanctions over nuclear capabilities put paid to Irans aviation ambitions. Flights from London continued, though for a time the airline was not allowed to refuel at Heathrow and needed to make an additional stop at Manston in Kent on the journey to Tehran.

At present the only onward destinations from Imam Khomeini airport of interest to British travellers are Beijing, Bombay and Kuala Lumpur. But with an order book for more than 200 new jets, permission to fly more frequently to Britain and dormant flying rights to many other Asian cities, Iran Air is back on course.

Travel Photo of the Year: The winning entries Show all 8 1 /8 Travel Photo of the Year: The winning entries Travel Photo of the Year: The winning entries Winners: Landscape category - Jurassic Coast (Dorset, UK) by Tony Cowburn Tony Cowburn Travel Photo of the Year: The winning entries Winner: Icon category - Tiger's Nest (Paro Valley, Bhutan) by Kasia Nowak Kasia Nowak Travel Photo of the Year: The winning entries Winner: People category - Reflections (S-21 Prison, Phnom Penh, Cambodia) by Charlotte Currie Charlotte Currie Travel Photo of the Year: The winning entries Winner: Wildlife category - Escape! (Tanzania) by Vittorio Ricci Travel Photo of the Year: The winning entries Runners-up: Icon - Snow Time (Westminster Bridge, London) by Ron Tear Ron Tear Travel Photo of the Year: The winning entries Runner-up: Wildlife - Momentary (Bucks, UK) by Porsupah Ree Porsupah Ree Travel Photo of the Year: The winning entries Runner-up: Landscape - Polar Bear Landscape (Wrangel Island, Russia) by Gunther Riehle Travel Photo of the Year: The winning entries Runner-up: People - Let Sleeping Sikhs Lie (Amritsar, India) by Allan Dransfield Allan Dransfield

Meanwhile, British Airways has announced a return to the city to which it first flew 70 years ago, but which it axed in 2012. Starting shortly after the end of Ramadan in July, the airline will fly six times a week from Heathrow to Tehran, going daily from October.

With return fares as low as 384 for the 5,500-mile round trip, BA is seeking to attract tourists to Iran. The Islamic Republic's London embassy re-opened last August, making it easier to get a visa. But the tourism infrastructure is flimsy, and UK travellers who subsequently wish to visit the US will find the process much tougher with evidence of a stay in Iran.

The Foreign Office also warns: Homosexual behaviour, adultery and sex outside of marriage are illegal under Iranian law and can carry the death penalty.

The travel writer, Tony Wheeler, says of his most recent visit: I cant remember the last time I was treated with such hospitality. While dining alone in restaurants, Id regularly get invited over to join another table. By the end of my visit I had a collection of photographs with Iranian families who wanted me to join the family snapshot.
Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Last year, Tara Hudson, then aged 26, pleaded guilty to a charge of assault. She was sentenced to 12 weeks in the all-male HMP Bristol. Hudson was born male, but has presented as female since her teens. At the time, she says now, "I was kind of numb because it was all really, really surreal." After being taken from the dock, she was put inside a prison van with men. "That's when I knew that there was going to be problems. The boys on the bus were so confused, it was really scary. The guards didn't know what to do." When the van arrived at the prison, Hudson was removed first: "It just erupted. There was cheering and people banging on the windows." In the reception, other inmates initially assumed she was a member of staff: "When they'd seen me being checked in, they were just confused, and then they were cheering and making comments. Because I've got quite a large bust, I couldn't hide away.

"Once it started to be on the news, they were shouting from every wing, and it was a large prison," Hudson says. She describes her experience as "scary" and says she had to move cells four times because of the harassment, which included sexual bullying: "I was bullied into showing my boobs on numerous occasions so they could touch themselves while looking at them." At one point, she says, she even feared she was going to be raped: "I was left unattended with a rapist in the communal room, and he'd been very suggestive. I just kind of, I don't know, used my people skills to fend them off as best as possible."

Hudson is one of the lucky ones. Vicky Thompson was 21 when she took her own life last year. It was Friday 13 November and Thompson was alone in her cell in Armley, Leeds, in a prison full of men. Just before Christmas, reports emerged of another trans woman serving time in a male facility. She had injected herself with bleach and tried to remove her own scrotum through sheer desperation. "I cannot take no more," she wrote to the shadow women's minister Cat Smith. "I am a woman in a male prison and it is not right." Reading out the letter to Parliament, Smith also revealed that the prisoner had been raped and sexually assaulted during her incarceration.

As a trans woman and former prisoner myself, I've followed these stories with concern and I want to know: what is the Government doing for trans prisoners?

It was bad enough being "gay" in prison. I was born with a penis and, although I knew from my earliest memory that I should have been a girl, I hadn't come out as trans when I was sent down for robbery as a teenager. To the outside world, I was a skinny, feminine gay boy, one who arrived at HMP Glen Parva, Leicestershire, in tears. Inconsolable, I was placed on the hospital wing on suicide watch for the first three days. From there, I went to the induction wing, where I tried to keep my head down but couldn't escape homophobic abuse. Eventually, I was placed on a wing for vulnerable prisoners, which included a mix of sex offenders, "slashers", who'd attempted suicide, and a few middle-class boys who'd run people over by accident and found themselves in a hell of guilt and unexpected incarceration. I've been open about being banged up before because, as far as I'm concerned, I did the crime and I did the time. So I'm not calling for special treatment for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) prisoners. I do know first-hand, though, that prison is a particularly traumatic experience if you happen to be queer  and placing a trans woman in a men's prison is a cruel and unusual punishment.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA UK news in pictures 7 September 2022 Police officers stand guard after Animal Rebellion activists threw paint on the walls and road outside the Houses of Parliament in protest, in London, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 6 September 2022 Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Liz Truss during an audience at Balmoral, Scotland, where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2022 Visitors at the PoliNations garden in Victoria Square, Birmingham, which is made up of five 40ft high tree installations and over 6,000 plants. The PoliNations programme aims to explore how migration and cross-pollination have shaped the UKs gardens and culture PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2022 Undergraduates at the University of St Andrews take part in the traditional Pier Walk along the harbour walls of St Andrews before the start of the new academic year PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2022 The Massed Pipes and Drums parade during the Braemar Highland Gathering at the Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2022 Number 12 Company Irish Guards at Wellington Barracks, central London, before commencing their first Guard Mount at Buckingham Palace PA

"I assumed I'd be sent to a women's prison," Hudson says. Thanks to a high-profile campaign led by her mother and trans activists, 159,000 people signed a petition calling for her to be sent to a women's prison. It was raised in Parliament. The Ministry of Justice eventually caved in and transferred her to the all-female HMP Eastwood Park, but Hudson says this was due only to the media attention: "They'd have left me in the men's prison, if it wasn't for the public." How many more trans women are rotting away in male prisons whom we don't know about?

Hudson was initially turned away from Eastwood Park because the prison wouldn't accept her without a gender recognition certificate (GRC). In 2004, following years of campaign work by a dedicated team of trans activists, the law was changed to allow trans people to change their gender legally by applying for a GRC. There was no coverage in the mainstream media because, at the time, most journalists were interested in trans people only as punchlines or punch bags. Although the Gender Recognition Act was an important legal milestone, it hasn't aged that well. One benefit of getting a gender recognition certificate was to allow trans people to keep their trans status private, which was once widely seen as the holy grail of gender transition. As more and more of us are choosing to live our lives openly, and social stigma is slowly easing, that need for secrecy is becoming less urgent.

In fact, in 2016, many trans people don't feel they need a GRC. It's possible, for example, to apply for a passport in one's new gender role without having one. Added to this, applying for a GRC can be lengthy, complicated and expensive. As well as paying 140, applicants have to faff about with forms that make applying for a passport look no harder than writing a birthday card. People on benefits are entitled to help with the fee, but that means yet more forms  and, of course, you'd have to be aware that you were entitled to this help in order to ask for it. I know first-hand that many people who find themselves in prison come from poverty, broken homes and may well have left school early. They are not, in my experience, people who feel empowered or who are aware of their rights. As Tara Hudson told me: "I've been living as a woman for over half a decade and I don't see why I should have to go to a board and prove that I've been living as a woman for two years." She never dreamt she'd end up committing a crime or, indeed, that she would be sent to a men's prison if she did.

So what is the answer for trans people who are sent to jail but haven't changed their gender legally? The Government's recent Transgender Equality inquiry recommends that gender markers be removed from official documents such as passports. If society is to become more equal and less segregated along gender lines, this seems sensible. But where will that leave trans prisoners?

One solution being put forward is the introduction of a dedicated prison for trans people. Hudson's mother, Jackie Brooklyn, told The Bath Chronicle that trans people, like gay and lesbian people, are just as likely to find themselves behind bars as anyone else: "There'll always be those among them who break the law. But they are particularly vulnerable to the victimisation that is part of life in mainstream prisons The Government has said it is going to close some of the worst old prisons and build nine new ones. That means there will never be a better time to build a prison just for LGBTs."

Time for change: Tara Hudson, a transgender woman, was in the all-male HMP Bristol before a campaign to move her met with success (Rex)

I'm not convinced this is an ideal solution. On the one hand, if I were ever to commit a crime and be given a custodial sentence again  which, I hasten to add, I don't plan on any time soon  I'd expect to go to a women's prison. I resent the idea that I would need to be segregated. On the other hand, until the Prison Service catches up on trans issues, maybe a special LGBT facility could save lives. If it stops any more women being raped and sexually harassed in men's prisons  or another desperate young person taking their own life  it's worth exploring. And it may well be the ideal place for the increasing number of people who identify themselves as "genderqueer": outside the traditional idea of a gender binary made up of men and women. Genderqueer people will fall foul of the law, too, sometimes.

"For the first two or three days, I wasn't allowed any contact with the women that were on that wing," Hudson says, of her eventual transfer to a women's prison. She was kept on a ward with women who were "really ill", as well as "a murderer who was there because all the other prisoners wanted to attack her". And this, she says, "is when I became suicidal". Hudson's story illustrates many of the ways in which trans people are frequently oppressed: the abuse, the segregation, the idea that trans women pose a potential threat to other women. And, of course, the constant questioning.

Hudson found one conversation with a senior member of staff at Eastwood Park particularly upsetting: "I just felt like he questioned who I was. I've lived my life for as long as I've lived it and I've never had to question myself. And it made me question myself. I thought: 'Who am I? The Government's against me; where do I come with my human rights?' I felt different. I felt discriminated against and I'd never felt that way before  not from the Government, anyway.

"When I was finally allowed to mix with other inmates, I wasn't allowed to go in their rooms. They thought that I could potentially attack or, I don't know, upset another inmate. So I was treated differently. It was horrible." Despite this, the other female inmates completely accepted her: "Everyone that I spoke to thought that the way that I was being treated was absolutely ridiculous."

So who does think that trans women should be put in men's prisons? Well, some so-called "trans-exclusionary radical feminists" (terfs). The clue is in the name, though many radical feminists who wish to exclude trans people object to the description. Confused? You will be. Especially by their obsession with penises. As one of them tweeted during Hudson's campaign to be transferred, "I don't think sending a violent individual with a penis to a women's prison is a good thing." This is a specious argument. It's prejudiced and unfair to suggest that Hudson or indeed any trans woman is a potential sex offender simply because they still have a penis. The idea that trans women pose a special threat, which other women don't, is bigotry, and unsubstantiated by evidence.

There is no evidence that trans women harm other women inside prisons. There is, however, plenty of evidence that trans people are vulnerable to attack by people who are not trans. Google "transgender woman attack" and you will find pages of incidents. Such as the two trans women who were "stoned in the street" in Germany. Or the trans woman "beaten to seizure" in the loos at McDonald's. By two women. Or the trans woman of colour who was beaten and shot to death by a large group of men. She was 19. There's a horrific catalogue of violence towards trans women, but nothing that suggests trans women pose any particular danger to other women.

There is also robust evidence that women in general are a danger to other women, at least in prisons. The US Department of Justice says that the rate of inmate-on-inmate sexual assault is at least three times higher for women than men in the US. Women abuse other women in prison. More than men abuse other men in prison.

Inside knowledge: Paris Lees says prison can be particularly traumatic for trans people (Rex)

Rather than waste time worrying about the imagined threat that trans people pose, supporters of equality should address the very real problems trans people face. Denial of health care, for example. The writer and political campaigner Jane Fae says the Prison Service is out of control, and that it ignores both legal duties and Ministry of Justice guidelines: "The more we probe, the more horror stories we uncover. Not just prison wardens, but governors who simply deny the reality of transness: officials who refuse individuals access to appropriate clothes or make-up; officials who remove essential medication, including hormones, despite the clear health risk to the prisoner; and when prisoners try to complain, officials who prevent prisoners from speaking to their parliamentary representatives."

Gender dysphoria is an internationally recognised medical condition, but you'd be forgiven for thinking that it was merely a quirk of modern British life, judging by some sources. I saw one tabloid headline recently that read, "Nine prisoners in same jail to have sex change operations on the NHS." Why is this newsworthy? And what is the implied alternative? To refuse trans prisoners medical care?

Fae says it would take a strong push from a progressive prisons minister to address governors who treat prisons as their personal empires: "Unfortunately, the prisons are run by Andrew Selous MP [the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice], a parliamentarian distinguished mainly for leading the opposition to granting trans people gender recognition in 2004." It's hard to see how reforms to accommodate trans prisoners can be made under such leadership. Fae isn't holding her breath: "It is likely that things will get worse before they get better."

I tried to arrange an interview with Selous, to give him the opportunity to respond to Fae's comments, but I was told that he was too busy to talk to me. Instead, I was fobbed off with a statement from a Prison Service spokesperson: "The prisons minister has been absolutely clear that transgender prisoners should be treated decently and humanely. Last year, he asked MPs to reflect on the violence still suffered by members of the transgender community and he made clear our commitment to ensuring transgender prisoners do not suffer discrimination." Was this the same speech, made on Transgender Day of Remembrance last year, when Selous told Parliament: "Prisoners are normally placed according to their legally recognised gender, which means either the gender on their birth certificate or the gender on their gender recognition certificate." And has he forgotten that he voted against the very laws that give trans people this right to change their gender legally?

The Prison Service assures me that "any allegation that transgender prisoners are being treated in an improper way will always be fully investigated. If anyone is aware of such treatment, we would urge them to report it to the appropriate authorities." Knowing Vicky Thompson's history of childhood abuse, her partner, Robert Steele, did just that. He called the prison to express concern for his "vulnerable" girlfriend, but that wasn't enough to save her life. We'll have to wait for the coroner's report before commenting further on her case, and a review of how the Prison Service treats transgender prisoners is also under way, but I worry it will take more suicides before we see any real change.

The death of Vicky Thompson moved me greatly, but her story is indicative of much deeper problems in the way that society deals with those who break the law. Prisons don't deter people from a life of crime and in many cases achieve quite the opposite. With insult added to injury, I suspect the Prison Service and most prison staff are like the rest of the population  woefully ignorant of what being trans means. In an ideal world, anybody dealing with the public  whether health practitioners, airport security, prison staff or police officers, not to mention journalists  would be given training on trans awareness.

I know through my work with the project All About Trans that simply meeting a trans person face to face, in a friendly setting, can have a profound effect on people. It is only when society sees trans people as people, and not a problem to be solved, that our existence will cease to be a problem.

Press for Change  legal advice on discrimination and human-rights laws for trans people (pfc.org.uk)

Bent Bars  a letter-writing project supporting LGBT prisoners (bentbarsproject.org)

Mermaids  family and individual support for teenagers and children with gender identity issues (mermaidsuk.org.uk)

The Transgender Equality parliamentary report on trans issues can be accessed at parliament.uk
Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

In the midst of austerity, Britain may nonetheless be in danger of trundling its way into a golden age of railway building.

With Crossrail 1 due to open at the end of 2018, yesterday saw a ringing endorsement of Crossrail 2 by Lord Adonis, head of the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC). The line, which would link north and south London, is so crucial, according to Lord Adonis, that funding should be released immediately so that the project can be on track for completion by 2033. Since the lines route would take it through the area around St Pancras and Euston stations, it would provide connectivity to both the existing HS1 and the proposed HS2 lines: construction on the latter is due to begin next year.

There can be little doubt that there is an overriding imperative to push ahead with Crossrail 2 as speedily as possible. London is expanding; the population is predicted to reach 10 million and more by the early 2030s. The capitals transport network, already creaking, will simply not have the capacity to deal with an ever-growing number of travellers. Only infrastructure projects of real scale and ambition can provide the necessary relief.

It is anticipated that Crossrail 2 would create up to 200,000 jobs. The NIC argues it also provides an opportunity for the construction of up to 200,000 new homes along its route, which ultimately would stretch to the Surrey hills in the south and northwards into Hertfordshire. Employment and houses are as vital to the future economic success of the capital as a decent transport network.

Lord Adonis is right to emphasise that London must bear the brunt of Crossrail 2s cost; the project will, after all, be of most immediate benefit to the city which it primarily will serve. Private investment must be encouraged too to lessen the impact on the taxpayer. However, it is important not to see this project as being advantageous only to Londoners.

In pictures: Crossrail tunnelling Show all 11 1 /11 In pictures: Crossrail tunnelling In pictures: Crossrail tunnelling crossrail-1.jpg In pictures: Crossrail tunnelling crossrail-2.jpg In pictures: Crossrail tunnelling crossrail-3.jpg In pictures: Crossrail tunnelling crossrail-4.jpg In pictures: Crossrail tunnelling crossrail-5.jpg In pictures: Crossrail tunnelling crossrail-6.jpg In pictures: Crossrail tunnelling crossrail-7.jpg In pictures: Crossrail tunnelling crossrail-8.jpg In pictures: Crossrail tunnelling crossrail-9.jpg In pictures: Crossrail tunnelling crossrail-10.jpg In pictures: Crossrail tunnelling crossrail-12.jpg

A fit for purpose transport network in the UKs capital will improve its connections to other economic centres around the country. Moreover, investment in London surely points the way for similar infrastructure projects elsewhere. HS2, barring last-minute hiccups, will proceed. But George Osbornes grand plans for a Northern Powerhouse have not progressed as heartily as they should have done. Perhaps they need the Lord Adonis treatment too.

A report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation last month surprised few by concluding that nine of Britains 10 most deprived cities lie in the North of England. Too many places have been stripped of economic opportunity and social cohesion. It is essential to the future prosperity of the UK as a whole  and to its sense of national community  that areas beyond the South-east are given the investment they need and deserve.

It is notable, as we report, that the Labour Party is to announce a new fiscal policy which, while targeting a reduction in the national debt as a share of GDP, places capital spending outside the standard deficit goal. It is clear that Labour will thus place investment in large-scale infrastructure schemes at the heart of its economic agenda during the course of this parliament. Provided that such projects are properly planned, there is real merit to the conclusion that John McDonnell has reached here.

The Government has shown willing in Crossrail 1 and HS2. It should listen to Lord Adonis and  much as it will pain Mr Osborne  to Mr McDonnell, and push ahead with a wider programme of capital expenditure. Done well, the benefits will be seen across the country.
So-called "dog whisperer" Cesar Millan thought he had a great idea to fix a dog who had killed two pet pigs. He'd let it off the leash near a new pig, then inflict whatever pseudoscientific, domineering bullshit he does to dogs to make dogs temporarily obedient. Unfortunately, the dog immediately ran over to the pig and bit part of it its ear off before anyone could stop it.

Far from being chastened, the producers apparently used the footage to market his show, reports The Dodo:

The clip has raised a storm of controversy on social media, along with a petition to get Millan off the air permanently. Jim Crosby, an outspoken animal behaviorist who has trained hundreds of dogs, thinks Millan may have even committed a crime under section 597 of California's criminal code. "Even if we let the first engagement slide as an accident," he writes on Facebook, "this documents several felony counts occurring in California at the 'Dog Psychology Center' as directed and permitted by the trainer. It may also qualify as 'baiting' under the various state and federal dog and animal fighting statutes."

The original promo clip seems to have been removed; all that I could find are outraged commentaries with sinister music and such. Here's another one, also commentated but with the original audio:

Psychology Today's Mark Derr says Cesar's methods are antiquated and his fans threaten critics.

 the best learning outcome would be for National Geographic to take a stand for dogs, pigs, and other animals and remove Cesar Millan from the air until he reforms his act.

Update: Millan is being investigated over the animal cruelty claims. National Geographic has released a statement backing him, while promising to cooperate with the investigation.
Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The badges for this weekends SNP conference feature the popular hashtag #BothVotesSNP, an indication that the party never stops campaigning. Its a typically thoughtful detail for a conference likely to be so tightly choreographed that it will do little more than project the SNPs core messages to Scotland, and broadcast a 40 minute speech from the popular mother of that nation, Nicola Sturgeon.

One would assume from polling, which consistently puts the SNP on between 50 and 60 per cent of the vote, that it has transformed Scotland in a decade, clearing out the cobwebs of dull, managerial Labour politics and turning it into a dynamic hotbed of radical reform. That would be wrong.

On Saturday afternoon the First Minister will laud the SNPs record in government, no doubt convinced that every action - no matter how conventional or counterproductive - has been progressive and transformational. One imagines there will also be a lengthy peroration about future triumphs. But it remains pretty thin gruel.

As things stand, the SNPs manifesto will comprise no clear commitment to a second independence referendum, minor tinkering with a council tax it once promised to scrap, no real change to income tax (although possibly an increase for higher earners, a token gesture given its limited likely impact) and standardized testing in schools. And that's pretty much it.

The former Labour First Minister Jack McConnell once promised to do less better; Sturgeon has made cautious inactivity into an art form. She possesses popular appeal and political authority her predecessors could only dream of, but so far the SNP leader has shown very little inclination to do anything with it.

At last years autumn conference there were modest signs of frustration on the conference fringe when it came to fracking (the leadership is ambivalent, the grassroots deeply hostile) and land reform (ministers talk radical, but many activists want to go much further), and therell be more of that in Glasgow this weekend.

Members of political parties need something to fight for, something to sell on the doorstep. In previous years thats been relatively easy with populist polices such as abolishing up-front tuition fees. At this election, however, the dynamic has changed; the cautious inactivity having become more obvious, as Holyrood secures greater powers. The novelty of an engaging new leader helped distract from this reality, but Sturgeon has now had almost a year and a half to prove herself as party chief and First Minister; and what is there to show for it?

Even presentationally, Sturgeon is rather inconsistent. Great at hustings and on television screens, at Holyrood she appears more easily rattled than the pugilistic but generally unflappable Salmond. The weekly First Ministers Questions is a case in point: at 12 noon every Thursday Nicola Sturgeon becomes Alex Salmond; the same bluff and bluster, the same indignant posturing when confronted with inconvenient truths, the same playground debating points.

Yesterday I could see Salmond beaming proudly from the backbenches as his protege demolished her opponents despite her own governments figures having recently revealed a Scotland hypothetically in the red to the tune of 15 billion. There the Salmond legacy is deeply unhelpful to Ms Sturgeon: his approach is increasingly threadbare and his party will see through it.

Anyone catching sight of FMQs on the box would have seen the First Minister standing up for Scotland using her two favourite words, radical, and progressive. The campaign never ends, but it will need more depth than this to retain her popularity.
Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

It is unfortunate that many nowadays engage quite lightly in the new Cold War rhetoric. It does not reflect the reality, only helps distort it for those who take comfort, or rather shelter, in prejudices of the past. And Russia for centuries served an ideal scapegoat for everything that went wrong in Europe and a wider world. The very notion of Russian threat is revived as a symbol of business as Cold War usual in Euro-Atlantic affairs.

The BBC in its recent documentary WW3: in the war room ascribes to Russia not only aggressive intent, but also initiative of a nuclear escalation. It runs counter to the view of the NATO military, who acknowledge, that Russia feels safe behind the so called anti-access/area denial bubbles along the whole length of her western frontier. Why, too, ascribe to us WWII tactics, including armored columns and occupation, when it is obviously at odds with modern warfare?

Recommended Read more How Brexit supporters are handing European power to Vladimir Putin

The present state of NATO and the EU testifies to the blunder of their rushed politicised expansion after the end of the Cold War. In case of the EU it pushed aside other priorities, including further integration within euro zone and stronger common borders. The new members wanted to be on the right side of the fence, but still behind the fence. That is why todays clash of expectations as well as values.

As regards NATO expansion, here we find a paradox when new members sense of insecurity is a function of their membership in the Alliance. For even fearmongers, trying to bridge the perceived credibility gap between the Russian threat and territorial defense requirements of the Cold War, talk of new members as NATOs soft spot. This just causes tensions. Why not resolve the problem by way of finding common ground with Russia as we did until recently? If legal guarantees are needed, lets establish a proper overarching collective security system.

We have come to the point when unilateralist options, based on the zero-sum geopolitics, have run their course. Met with unilateral responses by Russia the crises in Ukraine and Syria naturally prompted collective negotiated solutions, blessed by the UN Security Council resolutions. In case of Ukraine we have the Minsk-2 agreements, arrived at by the Normandy Four. In case of Syria this is the US-Russia leadership of the Vienna process, which has brought about the current ceasefire. It holds hope for a political settlement.

Recommended Read more Why Russia had to intervene in Syria

This truly cooperative approach to conflict resolution on a realistic basis has no sound alternatives. Among other things it is built upon the civil war experience of the Syrians who could have a glimpse of their future under the rule of foreign terrorists. Success of the peace process will help alleviate the present migration crisis in Europe, a product of the deadlock in Syria, that the outside world put up with for too long.

25 years after the Cold-War end, by trial and error, we have stumbled upon the right track and now must carry on.

Alexander Yakovenko is the Russian Ambassador to Britain
Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Only one world leader wants Brexit: Vladimir Putin. From the tweets of the Russian Embassy to the programming of Russia Today, the Kremlin is pushing for Out.

Why? We may not have noticed it in little England, but Russia is stress-testing the EU. The Kremlin, chafing under EU banking sanctions imposed to punish it for invading Ukraine, is pushing as hard as it can to snap European resolve. With oil prices on the floor, Moscow is heading towards a fiscal crunch and is determined to overthrow these Euro-sanctions.

Moscows first weapon is the Syrian refugee. Natos Supreme Commander in Europe, Philip Breedlove, has warned that Russia, together with the Assad regime, is weaponizing migration in an attempt to overwhelm European structures and break European resolve. Right now, Russian warplanes are bombing civilian areas, turning northern Syria into a refugee factory. Pushing them to Germany, Russia hopes, will force Berlin to lift sanctions, so desperate will it be for refugees to stop.

It's second weapon is the European fascist. The old sponsor of the far-left, the Kremlin is now Europes sponsor of the far-right. In France this is out in the open, with Marine Le Pens xenophobic National Front funded by Russian banks. In Central Europe, in a dark mirroring of EU democracy promotion efforts in the ex-USSR, Russian intelligence is seed funding the far-right underground. And all of them have committed anti-Europeans.

And Moscows prize? Angela Merkels head. Nato experts are now joining the dots, warning Moscow is trying to topple Angela Merkel, the enforcer of EU consensus on sanctions. Propaganda, the Kremlin hopes, will ignite a Europe of the far-right and refugees. Russia has thrown into TV and YouTube forces into fermenting anti-refugee hysteria across the EU. The message is as crude as it seems effective. Anti-refugee parties have made striking gains in Slovakias recent elections.

Skeptical? Look at Russia Today: migrant rape is a constant news item. Berlin says many such stories are fabricated and has ordered its counter-espionage service to investigate Russian propaganda and refugees. Angela Merkel is reported to have a personal interest in this probe.

This seems a world away from the planet of Boris Johnson and Michael Gove. While Brexiteers talk breezily about free trade and the Switzerland-model, as if this is Europe 1996, the Europe of 2016 is becoming a darker place.

Kremlin propaganda is now actively pushing Brexit. Sputnik, Russia Today and even the Russian Embassy have been running pro-Brexit coverage, offering platforms to even the most fringe Brexit spokespeople while ignoring the In campaign.

Putin has two objectives. First, he wants to end European expansion, ensuring states such as Ukraine and Georgia fall forever into a Euro-Russian twilight zone where he can intervene militarily at will. Second, he wants the 500m European bloc - which dwarfs a 143m strong Russia, with its more-or-less common foreign policy - to disintegrate, leaving 28 divided and embattled small states that with which a much larger Russia can play divide and rule.

The warnings of German officials have fallen on deaf ears. The chairman of the influential German foreign affairs committee, Norbert Rottgen, has warned that Russia might start funding Brexit groups. Everything that weakens the West and the Europeans is very much appreciated by Russia and Putin," he said.

Brexiteers make a case about Britain, and only about Britain  ignoring that a move which may or may not be good for British trade might also assist a hostile, reactionary dictator in achieving his own goals. This is not merry England setting sail to buccaneer with its former colonies once again. Sadly, the real Europe is coming under Putins pressure. A broken EU, with the single market falling to pieces, leaving the Russian Embassy much more influential than the British for most remaining member states is far worse for us than the status quo.

This is, of course, a worst-case scenario - but enough of a risk for us to consider it before casting our votes in the referendum. There are other less fraught ways to deal with problems of EU overregulation, Eastern European immigration and the benefit system than this.
Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

The EU is at best a shaky construction, but the deal with Turkey brokered by German chancellor Angela Merkel is guaranteed to lead to its collapse.

It was Merkels call last August under the slogan Wir schaffen das (Yes, we can) for an open doors policy towards the massive influx of immigrants that will lead both to her and the EUs downfall. By September she realized her mistake and Germany reintroduced border controls, but the damage had been done.

A month later, shortly before the Turkish elections, Merkel hurried to Turkey to meet with President Erdogan in an attempt at damage control. The gift package she brought with her included 3 billion euros, visa-free travel for 78 million Turks to the Schengen area, a renewal of accession talks and a seat at the table at EU summits.

As Marc Pierini, a former EU ambassador to Turkey, remarked: This is what comes of political panic. We went to him on our knees and now he is playing us.

At the end of November the EU and Turkey confirmed the offer of 3 billion euros in humanitarian assistance, visa liberalisation and the opening a number of negotiating chapters.This would be in return for a joint action plan to bring order into migratory flows and help stem irregular migration.

A fortnight earlier President Erdogan, like Colonel Gaddafi, threatened to flood Europe with refugees and the plan worked. The EU paid up. As his advisor Burhan Kuzu tweeted: The EU finally got Turkeys message and opened its purse strings. What did we say? Well open our borders and unleash all the Syrian refugees on you.

At last Mondays EU summit, Turkey upped the ante. In a late night meeting between Merkel and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglou on Sunday night, where the EUs term president Dutch PM Mark Rutte was present, they agreed on doubling the EUs contribution, visa-free travel already from June and opening five chapters as well as a swap with one Syrian refugee from Turkey for every Syrian returned from Greece to Turkey.

Merkel was able to present the agreement to her EU colleagues as a fait accompli.

According to Merkel the draft agreement, which will be finalised at a new EU summit at the end of next week, is a breakthrough and a qualitative step forward, but it has created a furore. One EU diplomat said that EU institutions had been undermined and stabbed in the back, and not only Nigel Farage but also the German leftist party Die Linke talk of blackmail.

Already in January Gabi Zimmer, chair of the GUE/NGL group in the European Parliament, condemned the dirty deals agreed with the Turkish government on refugee policy.

To enter into this Faustian pact with Turkey would be to betray the principles on which the European Union is supposedly based.

For example, the EU in December 2014 after police raids and arrests of media representatives in Turkey stated that this was incompatible with the freedom of media, which is a core principle of democracy, and that this operation goes against the European values and standards Turkey aspires to be part of. President Erdogans reaction was to tell the EU to mind their own business.

Turkey has skilfully exploited the EUs, and particularly Merkels, need to find a way out of this dilemma, but this is where the agreement is fundamentally flawed. Because there are two separate issues at stake: humanitarian aid and a solution to the refugee crisis, and the prospects of Turkeys EU membership.

Turkey has succeeded in combining the two and used the one as leverage to achieve the other. They should be disentangled.
Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Most of us would be forgiven for the odd passionate outburst about Brexit, but anti-EU comments that the Queen allegedly made five years ago have made headlines. The Queens views on the EU, however, are the last thing we should be worried about.

During a lunch at Windsor castle back when the coalition was in power and we had a vague idea who Nick Clegg was, the Queen said she believed the EU was heading in the wrong direction, according to The Sun newspaper, in a rant to Clegg that went on for quite a while.

In a rare move, Buckingham Palace has complained to the press regulator about The Suns front-page story, saying the Queen has always been politically neutral.

Clegg has been a bit vague in his response, saying that he has absolutely no recollection of the conversation. Presumably because his short-term memory was affected by sheer volume of substances thrown at his head by angry students around the time.

There were a few other ministers at the lunch, and there has been much speculation on who grassed to The Sun. Most bets are on then-Education Secretary Michael Gove.

Recommended Read more Prince William has described his children as two gender stereotypes

The Sun predicted correctly when it said in the story that the claims will explode a furious controversy. That the Queen may or may to have said something about Britains membership in the EU five years ago has made headlines everywhere.

Its the black spider memos all over again, just without the cool codename.

But whatever the Queen thinks about Brexit and the upcoming referendum is not going to get us any closer to making an informed decision about our future place in the world.

The information war has begun, the fear tactics are already sneaking into political speeches and the debate stinks of personal politics. The last thing we need when trying to decide how to answer such an enormous, complicated question, is the alleged view of a woman who no one in the country can relate to. Even if you have corgis.

Labour leader and republican Jeremy Corbyn received criticism last year for not singing the national anthem at an RAF service. But apart from those who thought he should be killed for treason, it triggered a debate about how pointless it is to have a national anthem that just wants to Queen to live on, and that as a country, we stand for much more than that.

More recently, a fully booked hotel in France turned down a booking from Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry because they refused to cancel any existing reservations.

Internationally, its clear everyone is less and less enthralled by the royals by the second.

Recommended Read more The reason why Kim Kardashian posts naked selfies

The EU referendum campaigns are a bit of a mess. So far, all we really know is that London mayor Boris Johnson wants out, and Cameron wants to make catty remarks in response.

Information on what will happen to our wages, our rights and our safety are consistently being brushed under the carpet in favour of political games. And the fuss about the Queens views is included in this.

We might have a right to know that the Queen said this, if it is true. But we shouldnt care. We all have more important things to concern ourselves with when it comes to the looming referendum on Brexit  and the increasing irrelevance of the Windsors means their perspectives arent going to change anything anyway.
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan was criticised by the committee

Finance minister Michael Noonan has questions to answer after keeping Stormont counterparts in the dark over proposed payments to a former adviser to Ireland's bad bank, a watchdog claimed.

The Assembly's finance committee said it was unclear why Mr Noonan did not intervene when issues emerged with one of the bidders for Nama's massive Northern Ireland property bank.

Frank Cushnahan was appointed to advise Nama in 2010. He had been involved in trying to set up the sale of the property portfolio to US investment firm Pimco, and according to evidence in the Dail stood to be paid 5 million (6.5 million euro).

It was to be part of a three-way split of a 15m (19.5m euro) pot for getting the billion-pound Project Eagle deal over the line.

A spokesman for Mr Noonan said Nama adhered to its mandate to achieve the best return for the Irish taxpayer.

Stormont Finance Committee chairman Daithi McKay said: "The committee was rightly critical of the Irish government's Finance Minister Michael Noonan and Nama for the way they handled the sale.

"It also found that when issues came to light relating to the sale of the portfolio to Pimco, Michael Noonan did not inform the Executive.

"Nama have stated that the northern advisory committee had no access to commercially sensitive information even though members of the committee said they did. So further questions remain."

Mr Cushnahan resigned as adviser in November 2013, before the eventual sale to Cerberus.

All parties involved in the 1.2 billion (1.5 billion euro) transaction in 2014 have denied wrongdoing.

Pimco, according to evidence given to a Dail committee, pulled out of the tender bidding process after discovering that Mr Cushnahan was in line for a 5 million payment after the sale.

The finance committee said it regretted Nama's decision not to suspend the Project Eagle sales process once Pimco had disclosed to the agency in March 2014 that its proposed fee arrangement with the Brown Rudnick international law firm included the payment of fees to Tughans Belfast law firm and the former adviser to Nama.

"From the evidence to date, the committee considers this development to be a core area of concern within the entire sale and purchase process. The need for further information and clarification in this regard underlines the case for Nama attending an oral hearing of the committee.

"Whilst it does not fall to this committee to pursue, given the seriousness of the revelation by Pimco, it is unclear why the Irish Government's Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, did not intervene at this point, by exercising his general powers of direction over Nama to suspend the sales process until matters were investigated fully.

"The committee also notes that Minister Noonan did not inform the Northern Ireland Executive of this development. In addition, the committee regrets that Minister Noonan did not encourage Nama to attend an oral hearing of the committee."

A spokesman for Mr Noonan's department said it was a matter for Nama in the first instance and its board has been dealing with it.

"Nama and the Department of Finance provided comprehensive evidence to the committee.

"All relevant information that can be made public about this process has already been made public by the department and by Nama.

"There are criminal investigations under way into actions on the buyer side. There is no allegation of wrongdoing directed against Nama."

He said Nama and the Irish authorities will fully co-operate with any authorities investigating criminal wrongdoing in these matters.

He added Nama had insisted on an open market sales process for this portfolio which placed each bidder on a level footing in terms of their knowledge of the portfolio.

The comptroller and auditor general is examining the value for money of the transaction .

"They are independent so we cannot pre-empt timing of that examination," he said.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has declared he will resign after a deeply-split parliament could not agree on a new premier.

His outgoing Fine Gael/Labour coalition government will remain on in a caretaker capacity as political parties remain in deadlock about the way forward after the most divisive general election in recent times.

On the first day of the new Dail, Mr Kenny and three other nominated candidates to lead the country failed to secure enough support to be elected as the next Taoiseach.

The other defeated candidates were Fianna Fail's Micheal Martin, Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and Richard Boyd-Barrett of the Anti-Austerity Alliance/People Before Profit grouping.

After the votes, Mr Kenny travelled to Aras an Uachtarain, the official residence of President Michael D Higgins, to officially tender his resignation.

"Let me assure the Irish people that a government remains in place," he said.

"I and my Cabinet colleagues will continue to work hard in the best interests of the country and all the people."

Amid the uncertainty about a future administration, Mr Kenny will continue with official duties representing the country at a meeting with US President Barack Obama in Washington on St Patrick's Day and at the European Council meeting in Brussels next week.

Earlier in the day, a new Ceann Comhairle was elected, Fianna Fail's Sean O Fearghail, after a secret ballot of TDs.

However, the fractured parliament remains intensely divided on the make-up of a new government, if one can be formed at all.

No party has a majority after voters forced a seismic shift in the Republic's political landscape at the polls earlier this month.

Outgoing ministers have already conceded it will be weeks, possibly months, before a minority government or a power-sharing alliance could be agreed.

Arch-enemies Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, traditionally the two largest parties who swapped power for generations, are coming under intense pressure to set aside their age-old rivalry to form a "grand coalition".

Despite little difference between their centre-right outlooks, a power-sharing deal would be fraught with difficulties as many within their rank-and-file hold fast to their distrust of each other, dating back to Ireland's civil war more than 90 years ago.

Sinn Fein, the third largest party, has said it will not prop up either of the two.

Mr Kenny called for elected representatives to intensify efforts to forge a "lasting and durable government".

"As Taoiseach, and leader of the largest party in the house, I am fully committed to working over the coming weeks to ensure that the people get the government that they need and that they deserve and that they have given their verdict on," he added.

Mr Kenny said a substantial number of elected representatives had no interest in taking power, but claimed options remain on the table for forming a new government.

But Mr Martin appeared to resist pressure to enter coalition talks with Mr Kenny.

"The people didn't vote for Fianna Fail and Fine Gael - I think we must acknowledge that," he said.

"It is our job to work in terms of interpreting and reflecting that vote now and we're doing that in the context of our negotiations with Independents and smaller groupings."

The Fianna Fail leader insisted his party had no mandate to go into government with their foes Fine Gael.

"We certainly didn't get a mandate to put Fine Gael back into government," he added.

Mr Martin suggested voters had asked for a "different kind of Dail" and repeated his calls for parliamentary reforms to be agreed before attempts are made at forming a new government.

A number of TDs spoke of the need for Dail reform during the day.

But Sinn Fein's Pearse Doherty, Labour's Brendan Howlin and the Independent Alliance's Shane Ross all said the electorate was more concerned with health, housing and other issues.
Dalata, Ireland's largest hotel operator, has acquired the leasehold interest of four hotels for an enterprise value of 40m.

The deal will see Dalata add 1,171 rooms to its hotel portfolio in Dublin, London, Cork and Limerick.

The hotels are the Gibson Hotel Dublin, the Croydon Park Hotel in Croydon, the Clarion Hotel Cork and the Clarion Hotel Limerick.

The leasehold interest comprises of operating leases with an average term of 18 years outstanding.

Chief executive for business development and finance at Dalata, Dermot Crowley, said the firm was very excited to acquire the leasehold interests.

"This transaction gives Dalata a further 960 rooms in the cities of Dublin, Cork and Limerick. All three cities are experiencing strong revenue per available room (RevPar) growth in the recovering Irish economy. The transaction also allows us to further grow our portfolio in the UK with the addition of 211 rooms in Croydon," Mr Crowley said.

As part of the deal Dalata will also take over the management of the Clarion Liffey Hotel in Dublin under a short-term management contract.

The hotels that Dalata has acquired the leasehold interests in are currently operated as part of the Choice Hotel Group with the consideration payable in cash.

Underlying earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation at the four hotels in question is expected to be 4.1m in 2015.

Dalata also announced its plans to invest 14m over the next two years in refurbishing the hotels in Cork, Limerick, and Croydon.

The 4 leasehold properties will be rebranded to Clayton Hotels, increasing the Clayton portfolio to 18 hotels.
TWM is quoting 2.7m for this multi-family unit in Galway

TWM is quoting 2.7m for an apartment block in Galway for sold as an investment.

The agents have been retained to sell the block known as Inse Beag at Doughiska in Co Galway.

TWM describe the property as a multi-family investment opportunity which is producing a gross rental income of 240,000 per annum.

Inse Beag comprises a modern development of 32 apartments in total, 30 of which are included in the subject investment sale.

The apartments are laid out in three detached blocks on a site extending to approximately 1.2 acres. Block One fronts onto the Doughiska Road while Blocks Two and Three are located behind in a cul de sac.

The subject investment includes five one bed apartments and five two bed duplex apartments within each block. Ample communal car parking is provided directly outside the apartments on-site. Inse Beag is situated in the established suburb of Doughiska, east of Galway city and easily accessible to the M6 Galway to Dublin motorway, Briarhill Shopping Centre, Galway Clinic and local business parks.

The 30 apartments are let on individual residential agreements with currently 93pc occupancy rate. The current gross rental income is currently in the order of 240,000 per annum. Management fees and expenses charged for the period January to December 2015, equate to approximately 55,450.

TWM say the asking price which reflects an initial yield 8.51pc which is based on gross income for 2016 and assumes standard purchaser costs of 4.46pc.

With negligible deposit rates and strong demand for residential rental accommodation Rosemary Casey and Sarah Winters of TWM are expecting good interest.

They commented that this is an "attractive lot size for investors who will be enticed by the asset management angles and immediate rental growth potential".

There has been little movement in the regional apartment block sector up to now but there are strong signs that that is beginning to change.

While many of the major apartment blocks have been bought by institutional buyers such as IRES Reit, there is a growing cohort of buyers now looking at smaller apartment blocks offering strong yields such as this.

Elsewhere, DNG Commercial is seeking 1.5m for an apartment block in central Dublin.

The block at Kelly's Court on Kelly's Row in Dublin 1 consists of 29 apartments.

The investment comprises the sale of 10 apartments within one block. The development is constructed over seven stories with the 10 apartments interspersed throughout.

DNG say the development was completed in 2007. The building is of concrete block or brick construction with reinforced concrete floors and double glazed timber framed windows.

Each apartment is fitted out to "a high standard".
THE UK referendum is on a "knife edge" but AIB is "very well prepared" for all eventualities, its chairman Richard Pym has said.

All of Ireland's banks are contingency planning for Brexit, he said, but declined to comment on whether the June 23 vote would affect the timing of the Government's plan to sell down its stake in the bank.

"The IPO timing is a matter for the Department of Finance, we will be ready whenever they decide, if they indeed decide," he said. "One would imagine that the people making the decision will take market conditions into account."

A departure from the EU by the UK could put further pressure on sterling, hurting Irish exporters, Mr Pym said. He said turnout could help decide the outcome of the referendum.

"If the young people don't turn out to vote, it could be an extremely perilous position and Britain could walk out of the EU," Mr Pym said. "This could be happening on June 24." (Bloomberg)

Dara Doyle
*M*ake what you will of this. In the modern era of partisan polarization, which can be dated back to the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, only the presid...
Aviva Ireland increased its profits last year by 39pc up to 85m with the inclusion of its non-insurance activity.

However, profits at the firm, excluding its non-insurance activity, rose by 32pc to 91.2m, up significantly on the 69m from 2014.

Non-insurance activity at the firm relates to the impact of pension deficit funding of the Ireland group staff pension scheme.

Operating expenses at the company remained flat at 165m while its value of new business in life and pensions increased by 97pc to 22.2m.

Chief executive of Aviva Ireland, Hugh Hessing, said 2015 was the firm's best performance in five years.

"Todays results show that our strategy of disciplined underwriting and risk management is working. Our business is underpinned by the solid foundation laid over the last two years and strenghtened by appointments that have enhanced our capability in key areas. As a result, we are now in a position to move ahead with the digital phase of our strategy which will simplify our business for our customers," Mr Hessing said.

Cash remittance at the firm dipped 23pc to 73.6m while the company's combined operating ratio increased by two percentage points to 94.6pc.

The company said that business picked up in the second half of the year with the third quarter of 2015 providing a 17.5m operating profit.

Aviva said the improved performance in the second half of the year was down to lower than expected volumes of public hospitals claims and a reduction in people switching for cheaper cover.

The firm's chief executive went on to say that its increased profits were largely driven by commercial and personal property products.

"Despite floods in December, overall, 2015 was a benign year and the impact of weather was lower than our long term projections. We remain committed to fighting all suspected cases of fraud, irrespective of the cost and in the interests of our customers," Mr Hessing said.
Pictured at the Womens Executive Network Dublin Breakfast at the Westin Hotel was from left, John Whelan (Partner and Head of International Technology Practice A&L Goodbody), Dearbhail McDonald (Group Business Editor IN&M), Sherri Stevens CEO WXN, Fionnuala Meehan (Managing Director SMB Sales for North and Central Europe , Google Irl), Pamela Jeffery WXN Founder and Kevin Sweeney (CIO , CPL Resources plc). Pic Steve Humphreys 10th March 2016.

Ireland must urgently invest in data science skills, an audience at a Big Data event in Dublin heard today.

People who can analyse the vast amounts of information collected from consumers online activities are valuable to organisations of all types and sizes, a panel of experts said.

Speaking at the briefing held by WXN (the Womens Executive Network), Fionnuala Meehan, managing director of SMB sales for North and Central Europe at Google Ireland, said data science roles will be among the highest paying jobs in the future - the near future, Ms Meehan said.

Ireland must urgently ensure it is training people in this field, she added, which will have relevance for all careers.

Not just for direct data science jobs but for everything  to be an entrepreneur, to be in fashion, to start your own business, to do anything.

Companies are increasingly bringing data activities in-house, she said. Companies have in some cases found themselves over-dependent on agencies who are aggregating data.

The discussion was moderated by INM group business editor Dearbhail McDonald.

Kevin Sweeney, chief information officer at recruitment business CPL, said his companys clients regularly seek data scientists  even though demand for skills in this area only really emerged less than two years ago.

The panellists also discussed internet users changing attitude to data privacy. Millennials, those born after 1980, increasingly value the privacy of their data. Governments and criminal investigations also put data privacy in question, the audience heard.

Google receives thousands of requests for data from governments and state authorities every year, Ms Meehan said. Around 65pc are granted.
For a fee, fliers can play at being Donald Trump (pictured above arriving at Shannon in 2014 on his customised Boeing 757) and experience a serious upgrade from the usual Ryanair experience by hiring a private jet from the airline. Ryanair has customised one of its Boeing 737s to service demand. Photo: Sean Curtin

It has happened to us all at some stage. While we stand in the scrum to board a Ryanair flight, we look across the airfield to see a Donald Trump type strolling leisurely to their private jet.

Within minutes, their plane is airborne, while ours waits miserably in a queue to take off.

Private jets have been a pipedream for most people but that could be about to change after Ryanair revealed plans to launch what it calls a corporate jet charter service.

The jet may not be quite in the class of a Gulfstream or Learjet, but it is a world apart from a cramped yellow and blue seat that does not recline.

The airline has kitted out one of its Boeing 737 aircraft with reclining, business class seats upholstered in leather, making the aircraft available for private charter services.

The model being used is a 737-700. That aircraft usually holds close to 150 passengers, Instead, the Ryanair service - which will have Ryanair pilots and crew - will have capacity for 60 passengers who will have around four feet of legroom between them and the seat in front.

Who could ever have imagined this three years ago? The airline, headed by Michael O'Leary, is pitching the service at corporate clients, or groups such as teams heading off to sporting events. Euro 2016 anyone?

Ryanair spokesman Robin Kiely said the Boeing 737-700 is fully customised, and can handle a flight duration of up to six hours. Fine dining catering facilities are also available. More than likely there will still be someone who just wants a ham sandwich, though.

"We're talking with a lot of corporates about flying with Ryanair and this is an extension of that," said Mr Kiely. "It's a great option to have, particularly in the summer when demand for charters is high but our aircraft are all busy."

Other jets could be converted given enough demand, he added.

The jet is available to hire on a cost per hour basis, with quotes dependent on the departure and arrival airports, and we offer the most competitive rate in Europe, Ryanair said.

While no price has been given, it is believed that it will cost more than 10,000 an hour to hire.

It's all a far cry from a few years ago when Ryanair almost seemed to revel in its notorious reputation.

Mr O'Leary has never seemed to worry about customer service in the past.

"People say the customer is always right, but you know what - they're not," he has said previously. "Sometimes they are wrong and they need to be told so." Something tells us passengers on the new business service will not be bombarded quite as much.

The days of the old Ryanair are increasingly a thing of the past.

The company has being going out of its way to improve its customer service over the past two years, Investors have liked Ryanair's renewed focus on the customer, sending the airline's share price soaring over the past two years.
The prospect of a UK exit from the EU is causing international investors to look at alternatives to Britain, with Ireland a strong contender, IDA chief executive Martin Shanahan has said.

IDA's conversations with companies have "increased and heightened" because of the uncertainty around a so-called Brexit, Mr Shanahan said, in an interview with the Irish Independent.

"Certainly... I met with some financial services companies, and they are absolutely considering their 'what if' scenarios and if there is a leave vote, and companies have to do something to mitigate against that, some of that investment may come to Ireland," the IDA chief said.

Read more: IDA chief Martin Shanahan interview in full

Asked if the IDA is seeing expressions of interest from companies that would potentially look to Ireland in the event of a Brexit, Mr Shanahan said: "Certainly. We're in discussions with companies about future investments, and Brexit is part of that context, so yeah, absolutely."

Mr Shanahan said the IDA had moved its Europe director from Germany to London in September of last year, but wouldn't say specifically whether it was related to the impending British referendum.

Meanwhile, Britain's finance lobby group, TheCityUK, said all alternatives to Britain's membership of the European Union are second best and risk damaging the competitiveness of the City of London's finance industry. But it said Brexit would not be ruinous for the economy.

In a guide to the consequences of Brexit, TheCityUK said a bespoke financial services agreement between Britain and the EU was feasible, but its content would be uncertain.

Negotiations would take a long time and the bloc could end up treating Britain as a less-regulated "off-shore" centre, the group said.

"We haven't seen anything that gives the UK the same level of influence as membership," TheCityUK chief executive Chris Cummings told Reuters.

If Britain backed Brexit, a two-year negotiation period on exit terms could mitigate some of the initial fallout.

"I don't think we would see a huge movement of jobs immediately, but what would worry me greatly is that foreign direct investment doesn't arrive," Mr Cummings said.

Full Martin Shanahan interview, p5
CarGurus, the US car shopping website headed up by the co-founder of TripAdvisor, is to create 100 jobs in Ireland over the next three years.

The company is to open its European headquarters in Dublin - the firm's first office outside the US.

The new office will be a hub for inside sales, dealer account services and technical development teams.

CarGurus was introduced to Ireland through ConnectIreland as part of the Government's Action Plan for Jobs.

The company is a free online shopping engine for cars. The website has an online community that allows its users to leave reviews of cars as well as troubleshooting techniques.

The firm's chief executive, Langley Steinert, said that CarGurus is in an "exciting time of expansion".

"Dublin gives us access to the exceptional talent we will need to propel our continued success in Europe, and we look forward to joining the vibrant tech community in this great city," Mr Steinert said.

CarGurus' vice president of people and talent acquisition, Kristen Kenny, said Dublin's talent pool was a major draw for the company.

"We're looking for smart, ambitious people who want to be a part of a thriving, entrepreneurial consumer technology company with a very bright future in Europe," Ms Kenny said.

Positions available in CarGurus' Dublin office can be viewed on the company's website.

The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton, said the establishment of the firm's headquarters was a major boost for the region.

"This once again is a testament to the talented Irish workforce and also to Ireland as a great place to do business. I wish CarGurus and their workforce all the best for the future".

CarGurus was named a top place to work by the 'Boston Globe' and a "fastest-growing company" by 'Forbes' and online business magazine 'Inc'.

The company is currently finalising its office location in Dublin and intends to be operational by June 2016.

Boss Langley Steinert was the co-founder of TripAdvisor, the online travel site which has in excess of 50 million monthly users.

Prior to setting up TripAdvisor, Mr Steinert was vice president of marketing and business development at Viaweb, an internet e-commerce tool that was sold to Yahoo.

CarGurus launched its UK website in December. In the US the website has over 15.5 million unique users.
US life insurance giant Met Life has announced the opening of a new Global Technology Campus in Galway which will act as a support centre for its global customer base Stock image

Irish Life is set to become a major force in the health insurance market after buying Aviva Health and GloHealth.

Medical insurance experts said the move is likely to lead to an intense price war and innovations in the market.

Irish Life is owned by Canada's Great-West Lifeco, one of the largest financial services groups in the world. It has $1.2tn in assets under administration.

Health insurance expert Dermot Goode, of TotalHealthCover.ie, said Irish Life will not be content to operate as number three in the Irish health insurance behind VHI and Laya. The new combined health insurer will have 400,000 customers.

Mr Goode said: "While this action effectively reduces the number of competitors in the market, it does bring one of the largest life companies in the world firmly into the market.

"I would expect that it won't be content with third position for long and will probably look to substantially increase market share."

He said this was good for consumers, as the most effective way to increase the number of members it has is to offer lower prices and better cover.

Control

Irish Life is already number one in the life, pensions and investment market here.

Its move to take control of both companies will reduce the number of health insurers from four to three.

The deal is the biggest in the sector since Laya Healthcare was sold to American insurance giant AIG last year, in a transaction understood to have been worth in the region of 90m.

Aviva Health is Ireland's third biggest health insurer after VHI and Laya. It was 70pc owned by Aviva, with AIB holding the other 30pc. Irish Life is buying both stakes.

Irish Life had already owned a 45pc shareholding in GloHealth. It is now taking full control of both companies.

Head of GloHealth Jim Dowdall said the new Irish Life operation will offer "more innovation and more value" in health insurance.

Irish Life chief executive Bill Kyle said that the new company would provide a "compelling alternative" to the existing players and would become the health insurer of choice for consumers.

VHI has around one million health insurance customers. Laya has half a million customers.
Q: I am in my 60s and I run a successful business. My son, who is now 27, has been in the business for four years and is simply not credible and doesn't have the respect of the team. What should I do?

A: This can be a distressing situation for some business owners and I have come across it a number of times. Giving your son a job or a position of responsibility simply because he is your son is not going to work and it will do damage to both him and your business.

Clearly the team don't respect him because he is not credible and that is a major issue.

I have no doubt your son can sense this also so this is probably a classic 'elephant in the room' scenario. The only way to tackle these things is head on. Sit with your son and be honest on how you view his performance and find out how he feels and what his aspirations are.

He really only has two choices - improve quickly, or leave the business. In my own younger days I travelled extensively and worked in various different places around the world and it was probably the time in my career when I learned most.

I was forced to be independent as I was in another country on my own and I found the learnings gained in other people's businesses refreshing.

You may in fact be doing your son an injustice by allowing him to continue in the business.

It would be great if you could both come to the realisation that the best future for him and the business would be for him to leave the business in the short term and go and work for someone else in either Ireland or another country.

You may find in fact he could return to the business in five years time with a wealth of learnings which would benefit everyone. Right now this seems like a wrong fit.

Send your small business questions to himself@feargalquinn.ie
This weeks Ready Business show finds out how to protect your business ideas. Brian Purcell got the how and the why from Cathal Lane, Managing Partner of IP experts, Tomkins, and Joe Elias, CEO of Retail in Motion, an in-flight services company that was recently sold to Lufthansa.

For Joe Elias, his business success has meant a reliance on patent and IP protection, though unusually, his background is actually in medicine.

Expand Close Cathal Lane, Managing Partner, Tomkins; Brian Purcell, Ready Business show presenter; and Joe Elias, CEO, Retail in Motion / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Cathal Lane, Managing Partner, Tomkins; Brian Purcell, Ready Business show presenter; and Joe Elias, CEO, Retail in Motion

I trained as medical doctor,  he told the Ready Business show. And then I gave two weeks notice on my first day. In medical school I had started my own software company doing medical e-learning programmes and by the time I was ready to practice medicine I won a major software contract. It was very difficult to give up medicine after going so far but my passion was in making and building things and I knew medicine wasnt my future.

After selling his first company, Elias then stumbled across an idea to portion-control spirits in the alcohol industry by offering vodka in a sachet. This got the attention of Ryanair who wanted to know more and he quickly developed Retail in Motion, his in-flight services company, from there.

Patents and copyright around product development are extremely important to Elias business with the likes of their boxer chips (crisps in a box), and a filter lid that allows them to use freshly ground coffee on airplanes, amongst their many products.

The key for businesses to understand, explained Cathal Lane. Is knowing the importance of protecting your business and having your IP position clarified, especially if youre going into a partnership. Theres inherent value in it if youre protected properly which can even be offered as security against loans.

For the #readybusinessadvice part of the show, Jane in Waterford, wanted to know what kind of budget a business needs to factor in for IP protection? It depends on your budget and ambition, says Lane. But start off with a few thousand and you can take it from there and see how you get on.

Tommy in Midleton asked where and how one can check existing patents and IP? Espacenet and Googles patent search engine are good starting points as well as the Irish patents office, advised Lane.

For smaller companies, dont get too greedy when looking for patent protection., says Tomkins Managing Partner. Focus on the key markets where your products are being sold. Its important for the smaller guys not to get muscled out on a good idea when starting out. But you need to factor in the cost from the outset and you can do enough to test the market without spending a fortune.

The world of IP is substantial, complex and incredibly litigious, Elias cautions. Protect what you can, as much as you can. For the business I sold recently, 75-80% of the paperwork was around due diligence to do with intellectual property.

For next weeks Ready Business show, send in your business questions on Twitter to @Brian_Purcell using #readybusinessadvice.

The Ready Business show, in association with Vodafone , is available every Thursday via iTunes , SoundCloud , Stitcher and Independent.ie . Or subscribe to the RSS feed of the Ready Business Podcast using your favourite podcatcher.
'There's a bit of a rampage going on at the moment,' said online security expert John Ryan of Zinopy.

Ransomware is malicious software that gets onto your PC.

Ireland is in the grip of a ransomware wave, with businesses, public bodies and ordinary citizens being attacked relentlessly. As Apple Mac owners heard this week that their computers may be vulnerable to such malicious software for the first time, security firms say that the number of cyber attacks seeking to extort computer users has increased in volume and intensity in recent months.

"We're seeing three to four attacks happening per day," said Conor Flynn, chief executive of Information Security Assurance Services.

"It's incredible the number of people being hit at the moment and the money being made. There's a concerted effort from organised criminal gangs that are paying a lot of money, renting out exploit kit and variants of ransomware code."

Ransomware is malicious code that gets into a computer or a server and disables access to files by encrypting (or locking) them. The code then presents the computer user with a demand to pay a ransom to unlock the files.

Failure to pay carries a penalty of permanent deletion of the files. Ransoms are typically set in the range of 300 to 500 but can escalate to thousands of euro, depending on the target organisation.

Examples of rampant ransomware strains include 'Locky' and 'TeslaCrypt'.

In recent weeks, a number of individuals and executives from organisations as diverse as hospitals, government departments and self-employed workers have contacted the Irish Independent with stories of being hit by ransomware "campaigns".

"The criminal gangs are targeting different groups," said Flynn. "A large amount of the public sector is being hit, with retail and financial services also seeing a surge in attacks."

A recent survey by the firm Data Solutions said that 23pc of Irish companies had experienced some level of ransomware attack.

The attackers have become increasingly sophisticated, with some setting up help desks to talk people through the ransom payment process.

"The professionalism is frightening," said Flynn. "They have international language call centres to help people pay the ransoms, even support centres to help set up a bitcoin payment."

Organisations with sufficiently comprehensive backups can avoid paying the ransom, but are knocked out of operation for days or weeks.

"Their business model is to honour the ransom payments because they want people to know that paying will unlock the computers," said John Ryan of Zinopy, another IT security firm that is dealing with a rise in reported ransomware attacks.

"They have online portals and helpline numbers. They definitely have the support structures underneath them to guide victims through the process."

Globally, ransomware has been wreaking havoc among private and public sector organisations. Last month, a Californian hospital was forced to pay 15,000 to ransomware attackers who encrypted the hospital's patient files. UK local councils have also been badly hit in recent weeks.

"There's a bit of a rampage going on at the moment," said Ryan. "I would personally know of 20 to 30 businesses affected in the last 12 months." The economics of ransomware are straightforward. About 1pc of victims pay up, according to research from security firms.

"It's an insidious spread of attacks that has largely gone under the radar over the last couple of weeks," said Flynn. "An awful lot of individuals are paying up."

In the US, the FBI reported that from 992 complaints, the Cryptowall ransomware variant netted over 15m from victims between 2014 and 2015.

Drawing on data from Kaspersky, the US-based Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology says that the cost of creating a phishing page and setting up a mass spam email costs about 130.

A piece of ransomware sells for "about $2,000" on darknet forums. "This means that an attacker only needs to ransom eight everyday users at the average $300 to generate a profit," says the Institute.

While ransoms tend to be pitched at around the price of a bitcoin (currently 370), the sums can fluctuate, say experts.

"I've seen $500 to $1,000 as typical," said John Ryan. "But if you don't pay up, the numbers go up. You might be given 72 hours or a week to pay the first ransom."

Having comprehensive backups often negates the need to pay up, say IT security experts. But while no Irish businesses have admitted to paying ransomware ransoms, that doesn't mean it is not happening.

"I would say a lot more people have paid than would admit it," said Ryan. "People are conscious of brand damage."

One constituency that insists no money has paid to ransomware attackers is the Irish government which, in recent weeks, has admitted to being affected by ransomware attacks.

"A number of government offices have seen evidence of these attacks," said a government spokeswoman. "A small number of offices across the public service have [also] been affected.

"At no time has any money been paid to attackers, in bitcoin or any other format. In all cases the infected files have been quarantined relatively quickly and services restored. The effect was largely restricted to single desktop machines."

"There was one such attack in 2015," said a spokeswoman for the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. "No ransom was paid and files were restored from a clean backup."

Other individual departments declined to specify whether they had been affected by attacks.

"In recent months, there has been an upsurge in ransomware attacks on a global basis, some of which use relatively advanced PHP malware to infect visitors to compromised websites," said a spokeswoman for the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.

If the cyber attacks continue, the issue might land on the table of Barry Lowry, the newly-nominated chief information officer for the Irish government. Lowry is the third person nominated to take up the role of government CIO in three years. Lowry's two predecessors, Bill McCluggage and Michael McGrath, each stayed less than a year in the role.

But for now, it is the Department of Communications that appears to be taking a lead on the issue.

"In the first instance, individual departments and agencies are responsible for the security and integrity of their own IT networks and data," said the department spokeswoman.

"However, the National Cyber Security Centre in the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has a role in assisting entities in dealing with network and information security issues, and also circulates advisory notices to constituents as new threats emerge."

Anti-virus software has become limited in its usefulness to combat such attacks, said Flynn.

"This stuff has become so sophisticated that it's virtually undetectable by anti-virus software," he said. "In one campaign I saw, ransomware variants were morphing at 1,000 new variants per hour. Antivirus companies can't keep up."

But there are some things that companies can do to protect themselves.

"On Windows you can set folders so that no encrypted files or executable files can be saved there," said Zinopy's John Ryan. "This is generally easy to do, especially on a group policy on active directories."

An idiot's guide to ransomware

For those new to ransomware, here's a basic guide to what it is, what it does and how you can avoid its worst effects.

What is ransomware?

It's malicious software that gets into your PC and locks (or encrypts) all of your files. It then tells you that unless you pay a ransom the files will be permanently deleted.

How much are we talking about?

It's usually in the region of 300 to 400, but can be up into the thousands. One hospital in the US recently paid out 15,000 to recover patients' files. The bigger the known target, the bigger the ransom likely to be demanded.

How is the ransom paid?

The standard method of payment now appears to be in virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, as they are much more difficult to trace.

What if you don't know how to make a Bitcoin payment?

You'll be one of the 99pc of ordinary people. The attackers know this and some operate almost consumer-level helpdesk services to assist in the payment. There are even reports of call centre services to talk a payee through.

What happens if you don't pay?

Your files are permanently deleted.

Is there any way to beat it without paying?

There appear to be scant examples of anyone decrypting ransomware files without the correct key.

Why is an encrypted file so unbreakable anyway?

Because it's a level of security that is designed to thwart would-be snoops or hackers, even those using the most powerful computers. For example, it would take years to crack an encrypted file using today's best code-breaking techniques and algorithms. (This is one reason why there is so much tension between Apple and various security agencies. Neither the FBI nor the British secret services can easily break Apple's encryption, even with their vast resources.)

How do I guard against this in the first place?

Don't open attachments you're not expecting or which are from sources you don't know. Also, make sure you have up-to-date backups of your files. This way, even if the worst happens, you can simply restore your files from the backups.

So if you pay up, what do you get in return?

You get a decryption key, usually in the form of a long string of letters, numbers and other characters.

How do you know you'll get the decryption key if you pay?

Because it's in their interest. If they don't give up the key, others will know there's no point in paying.

How does it get onto my machine in the first place?

It can be triggered by clicking on the active link in a hoax email (like other forms of computer viruses) or can sneak in if you're downloading exotic types of software.

What sort of examples should I be looking out for?

In the case of one common variant, 'Locky', you receive an email with an attached document. When opened, the document looks garbled, like a collection of numbers and letters. It advises you to "enable macros" if the "data encoding is incorrect." If you do that, you can get caught.

Is it just Windows PCs or can other devices be affected too?

While Windows PCs still make up the vast bulk of machines affected by ransomware (and malware in general), other devices have been proven to be vulnerable. Earlier this week, Apple Macs got their first taste of active ransomware via KeRanger, which was able to sneak onto Macs through a piece of torrent software from Transmission. There have also been some reports of ransomware (such as Lockdroid) knocking on the door of Android phone and tablet owners.

So what do you do if you get hit?

The key is to have backed up your files online or on an external device, such as a hard drive. If you have recent (and comprehensive) backups, you can take the hit on your files being erased and then simply replace them from the backups.

This is what most businesses affected say they do. The downside is time; even if you have backups, it can take a day or more to put things back together, knocking your systems offline for a while.

Should I call the guards?

Yes, so that they can log the incident. But don't expect any help or guidance.

Are Irish people or companies being affected?

Absolutely, from government departments to hospitals to small businesses to ordinary personal computer users. This newspaper has been contacted by several companies and private citizens in recent weeks about having been hit by ransomware. The Government itself has confirmed that individual departments have been hit, although it denies that any money has been paid out.
Here are the main business stories from this morning's papers:

Irish Independent

* It has happened to us all at some stage. While we stand in the scrum to board a Ryanair flight, we look across the airfield to see a Donald Trump type strolling leisurely to their private jet.

Within minutes, their plane is airborne, while our's waits miserably in a queue to take off.

Private jets have been a pipedream for most people but that could be about to change after Ryanair revealed plans to launch what it calls a corporate jet charter service.

* Irish Life is set to become a major force in the health insurance market after buying Aviva Health and GloHealth.

Medical insurance experts said the move is likely to lead to an intense price war and innovations in the market.

Irish Life is owned by Canada's Great-West Lifeco, one of the largest financial services groups in the world. It has $1.2tn in assets under administration.

* Permanent TSB can cement its position as a "real competitive force" in the Irish banking industry, chief executive Jeremy Masding has said.

As the bank recorded mortgage lending growth of just 2pc last year and lending growth overall of 6pc, Mr Masding accepted it should have done better but vowed that the bank will be able to improve its market share.

PTSB shares fell sharply after the bank's first annual pre-exceptional profit in almost a decade was marred by a lack of write back provisions and disappointment in the pace of mortgage lending. The bank reported a profit before exceptional items of 26m for 2015, versus a 39m loss a year earlier.

The Irish Times

* Following on from two acquisitions by Irish Life, the firm is set to become a major player in the health insurance market.

The firm acquired Aviva Health and bought out the remaining 51pc of GloHealth it didn't already own.

The deals were funded through the company's own resources, however how much each firm paid remains unclear.

* Shares in Permanent TSB dropped yesterday after the bank posted losses of 425m for last year.

Exceptional costs at the bank over the course of 2015 dragged the State-controlled bank into losses last year.

PTSB chief executive, Jeremy Masding, said the volatility was largely due to a lack of liquidity in stock at the bank.

* Hundreds of thousands of Irish people, living in the UK, are to be targeted by an anti-Brexit group set to be launched lated today.

The group, called Irish4Europe, will be unveiled at the House of Commons today and will work to get its message across to the Irish living in the UK.

Irish4Europe has been formed at a time when pro-EU campaigners are saying the implications of a Brexit for Ireland, aren't being discussed properly.

Irish Examiner

* New research from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) says that not enough houses are being built in the areas of high demand.

The ERSI says this could risk house buyers returning back to the commute belt.

The Institute believes that the trend will cause house buyers to revert back to buying properties outside of the cities, meaning they will have to commute unsustainable, long distances.

* Ireland's best known talent agency, which counts Pierce Brosnan and Laura Whitmore, inset, among its clients returned to profit last year.

New accounts lodged by Lisa Richards Ltd show that accumulated profits jumped from 231,991 to 273,975 in the 12 months to the end of June 30 last.

The Dublin and London-based agency represents some of Ireland's best known stars including 'Love/Hate' actors Robert Sheehan, Charlie Murphy and Aoibhinn McGinnity.

* A former British chancellor of the exchequer has warned of the massive economic effect a Brexit would have on Ireland.

Ken Clark, a prominent pro-EU Conservative Party member said that a Brext is fraught with uncertainties for both Ireland and the UK.

Mr Clark warned of huge uncertainties surrounding trade between Ireland and the UK if Britain decide to leave the EU.
Kerwin Villabolos and Mark White tie the knot in RTE's 1916 themed Don't Tell The Bride. Photo: RTE

RTE's popular reality TV show Don't Tell The Bride will feature its first ever same-sex marriage episode in tonight's programme - and the wedding has a 1916 theme.

Mark White and his Venezuelan-born partner Kerwin Villabolos celebrated their relationship with a civil partnership in 2014 after they met four years ago in the now-defunct gay bar The Dragon on Dublin's George's Street.

However, since the marriage referendum passed in May 2015, the couple have been eager to get married.

"Civil partnership was amazing," said Mark

"It made us a unit but I think marriage offers so much more."

Kerwin added: "This is the real thing, we are as one."

Like most partners in Don't Tell The Bride, the couple have very different opinions of what they want their wedding to be, especially the theme.

Mark wants a 1916-themed wedding while Kerwin would prefer a "white, modern, sleek and classy" ceremony.

Tune in tonight at 9.30 on RTE to see how they get on.
Daniella Moyles with John Sheahan from The Dubliners on the Seven O'Clock Show

Daniella Moyles was forced to defend herself on Twitter last night after a barrage of criticism for wearing a revealing outfit on the 7 OClock show on Wednesday.

The top model (26) raised eyebrows after opting for a cherry red jumpsuit with a plunging neckline for TV3s magazine-style chat show.

But while she was there to talk about her recent charity trip to The Lebanon with Concern, it was her eye-catching ensemble that set social media alight instead.

One viewer fumed: Daniella looks an absolute disgrace! Not right for a family show. Safe to say my dinner is ruined. #inappropriate.

Another one said it wasnt her right choice of outfit for pre-watershed and remarked how Daniella wasnt in Coppers now.

At one point, Daniella sent viewers blood pressure sky-high after revealing even a little more of her chest area than she may have intended while she was talking.

Sitting on the couch beside John Sheahan from The Dubliners, viewers remarked how he did a fine job of not looking down at the pretty model beside him.

However, she took it all in her stride when challenged on Twitter about her daring ensemble, which came from Pretty Little Things.

Have to say @daniellamoyles looks stunning on @SevenOClockShow but poor John from the #Dubliners didnt know where to look re breast flash  Robbie Kane (@robbiekane74) March 9, 2016

Didnt realised. My mam wont be happy either #woodenspoon.

Asked about Johns studied pose, she remarked: Stop! Hes a gentleman. My fault, should have brought some tape!

@SevenOClockShow Daniella Moyles looks an absolute disgrace! Not right for family show. Safe to say my dinner is ruined. #inappropriate  MeabhR (@ProSkip12) March 9, 2016

On Thursday night Daniella took to Twitter with a more sober message.

She wrote, "I understand that there's easy press to be made here but don't let my fashion choices or my very tiny cleavage distract from what I was there to highlight.

Video of the Day

"I saw one woman comment on an image of me that money can't buy class. Firstly I'm smashed until pay day thank you very much but after I make my donation to Concern I will be sure to look into that.

"Grateful that this is my biggest problem today.

"I don't have to deal with no running water or deciding whether or not to sell my body to provide for my starving child. I am safe, healthy and happy and privileged to be so."

Daniella included a link to Concern.net and requested donations.

A TV3 spokeswoman said that the station had received "quite a few complaints" about the revealing outfit, but also some positive responses supporting the model's ensemble.

The Spin 103 DJ is one of our best-known models and social media stars and recently started her own travel blog called The Travel Two.

Shes currently dating fellow radio presenter Dara Quilty from 98fm.
Westerners Son, with Connie Cleary (right), granddaughter of the 1916 winning trainer Dick Cleary, and Johnny Lynn (89), son of 1916 Irish Grand National winning jockey Jack Lynn. Photo: Damien Eagers

The Irish Grand National winners in 1916 were probably expecting a victory lap, but they may not have anticipated a five-day walk home.

Shortly after the race in Co. Meath, British Army officers commandeered all vehicles to respond to the storming of the GPO by Irish rebels - leaving racegoers and competitors somewhat stranded.

It is one of the tales being remembered at Fairyhouse at this year's Easter Monday event.

All Sorts and rider John Lynn won the top prize at the races that day, which were attended by 25,000 people.

Historian Stan McCormack said most attendees and horses would have travelled to the course by train, taxi and horse-and-cart.

"All the trains were shut down when the word [of the Rising] got out, and the effect of that was that everybody had to walk," he said.

Fairyhouse Racecourse plans to re-enact the race at this year's Irish Grand National, which will be attended by relatives of 1916's champions.

Connie Cleary (71) is the granddaughter of All Sort's trainer Dick Cleary. She said the day had become the stuff of legend in her family.

The trainers and horses had to walk home - a distance of 60 miles.

"It took them five days to eventually get back to Bishopstown [Co Westmeath]," she said.
A procession up Broadway in New York to celebrate the laying of 1,016 miles of transatlantic telegraph cable between the US and Ireland in September 1858. The cable ruptured a month later. Photo: Getty Images

At the beginning of the 20th century paper and ink were the bedrock of personal and commercial communication. Whether written by hand or typed, in envelopes or on the back of cards, vast quantities of mail circulated through the Irish postal system. Passing in and out of a network of post and sorting offices, with the GPO as a central hub, were letters, postcards, parcels and small packets.

More than five million letters were handled in 1851. By 1914 the amount increased to 20m, with 3.5m postcards and almost 9m parcels, delivered six times a day, including Sunday mornings. An advertisement in 1915 was headlined 'The Post-Office as Career', with jobs such as Male and Female Learners, and Boy Messengers - "must be under 141/2 years of age".

More than 21,000 people were employed by the post office throughout Ireland in 1914, the majority working in the collection and delivery of mail. Separately, there was another group of 1,000 who worked on the contruction and maintenance of telegraph and telephone lines.

From the 1850s attempts to lay a trans-Atlantic cable continued. In an initial success in August 1858, a message was relayed from Valentia Island in Kerry to Newfoundland. Queen Victoria sent congratulations to the US President James Buchanan, a 98-word message which took 16 hours to complete. Buchanan responded: "It is a triumph more glorious, because far more useful to mankind, than was ever won by conqueror on the field of battle".

Dublin's first telephone exchange was opened in 1880. Run from a switchboard in Dame Street, it had five subscribers. Eight years later 500 trunk lines were connected between Dublin and Belfast. In 1893 the first submarine cable was laid between Port Patrick, Scotland, and Donaghadee, Co Down. By 1895 the National Telephone Company had networks in Belfast, Cork, Derry, Dublin and Limerick, with 3,300 subscribers. Lines reached Armagh, Portadown and Waterford in 1898. By 1900 Dublin had 4,562 miles of underground cable. At a meeting of the Pembroke Urban District Roads Committee in 1906, a request to erect telegraph posts on Sandymount Avenue and Gilford Road was agreed, even though the committee "were of opinion that the telegraph wires should be laid underground".

By 1912 the post office took over the private telephone companies, creating a unified state-controlled network across Ireland and Britain. An underwater cable from the Welsh coast to Howth Head, Dublin, was tested successfully in 1914.

In preparation for the Rising, control over those links was crucial. Late in 1915, Martin King, a member of the Irish Citizen Army, was working as a cable joiner with the Post Office, and "was familiar with the lay-out of all telephone and telegraph cables". In his statement to the Bureau of Military History, he said: "James Connolly asked me if he wanted to cut communications with England, how would he set about it? He told me to pick up all the information I could about this matter".

On Good Friday morning 1916, King and his foreman Andy Fitzpatrick, "...toured the principal trunk line centres, with a view to the disruption of communications on Easter Sunday".

While Connolly organised efforts to gain control of telegraph communications during the Rising, he also sought to inform the international press about it. What he called "our wireless station" was located in the Atlantic School of Wireless, across the road from the GPO above a jeweller's shop. Fergus O'Kelly, Dublin Brigade, was in the GPO on Easter Monday: "I was called aside by Joseph Plunkett and instructed to take a few men and take possession of the Wireless School... and do everything possible to get the transmitting plant and receiving apparatus into working order. A message was sent over by James Connolly for broadcast transmission... It was not possible to get in direct touch with any station or ship but the message was sent out on the normal commercial wavelength in the hope some ship would receive it and relay it as interesting news. As far as I can remember, the first message announced the proclaiming of the Irish Republic and the taking over of Dublin by the Republican Army."

Not being aimed at any single ship, the radio transmission was broadcast, perhaps the first of its kind to carry news of an event. Such broadcast technology would go on to dominate global communications throughout the 20th century.
What was this Republic of which I now heard for the first time? Who were the leaders the British had executed after taking them prisoners, Tom Clarke, Padraic Pearse, James Connolly and all the others, none of whose names I had ever heard? What did it all mean?

Tom Barry

So wrote a young British soldier serving in Mesopotamia. Bemused by what had occurred in Dublin, this one soldier had gone to war not lured by the recruitment posters featuring small nations but in his own words, ..for no other reason than that I wanted to see what war was like, to get a gun, to see new countries and to feel like a grown man.

This young soldier would continue to serve that army afterwards, but in 1920 became a member of the 3rd Cork Brigade of the Irish Republican Army, rising through the ranks to become a flying column leader who inflicted terror on Auxiliary forces at Kilmichael and the Essex Regiment of the British Army and the Royal Irish Constabulary at Crossbarry. The young man, of course, was Tom Barry.

Ernie O'Malley

Barry was not the only Republican leader who saw the Rising in an unusual manner. In Dublin,a young medical student named Ernie O Malley was taken aback by events, and vividly described events on Sackville Street.

Other shops had just been looted: Lawrences toy bazaar and some jewellers. Diamond rings and pocketsful of gold watches were selling for sixpence and a shilling, and one was cursed if one did not buy. Ragged boys wearing old boots, brown and black, tramped up and down with air rifles on their shoulders or played cowboys and Indians, armed with black pistols supplied with long rows of paper caps. Little girls hugged teddy bears and dolls as if they could hardly believe their good fortune.

Largely indifferent at first to what was occurring, O Malley would quickly turn towards the rebels, even making his way down Moore Street and towards Nelsons Pillar one night, where he discussed the rising so far with a uniformed officer of the Irish Citizen Army. Amazingly, O Malley and a schoolboy friend would take it upon themselves to assist the rebels, through taking potshots at soldiers with a rifle his friends father had been given as a present by a soldier who brought it back from the Front

James Stephens

In Dublin, James Stephens was surprised by the outbreak of the insurrection, in fact to the extent that he did not notice at first and went about his business. A novelist and poet, his account of the week, The Insurrection in Dublin, is well written and oft-humourous.

This has taken everyone by surprise. It is possible, that with the exception of their staff, it has taken the Volunteers themselves by surprise; but,today, our peaceful city is no longer peaceful; guns are sounding or rolling and cracking from different directions, and, although rarely, the rattle of machine guns can be heard also.

Two days ago war seemed very far away- so far, that I have convenated with myself to learn the alphabet of music

Stephens would seek confirmation of the Risings continuation from his own window, and the Republican flag flying over the Jacobs Garrison, under the command of Thomas MacDonagh, but including a diverse band of individuals like Peadar Kearney (author of The Soldiers Song), Major John MacBride and the actress Maire Ni Shiubhlaigh, a member of Cumann na mBan, the women's auxiliary force to the Irish Volunteers.

It is half-past three oclock, and from my window the Republican flag can still be seen flying over Jacobs factory. There is occasional shooting, but the city as a whole is quiet. At a quarter to five oclock a heavy gun boomed once. Ten minutes later there was heavy machine gun firing and much rifle shooting. In another ten minutes the flag at Jacobs was hauled down."

Dan Breen

The frustration of some Volunteers outside Dublin can be clearly felt in Dan Breens account of news reaching him in Tipperary, and his attempts to establish contact with Sean Treacy, a leading figure of the Third Tipperary Brigade and a close friend.

Sean had left his home on the first news of the Rebellion and cycled from one centre to another, urging the Tipperary Volunteers to take actionWe were bitterly disappointed that the fighting had not extended to the country. We swore that, should the fighting ever be resumed, we would be in the thick of it, no matter where it took place

Perhaps fittingly, on the 21st of January, 1919, Sean and Dan would play no small part in resuming the fighting with the Soloheadbeg Ambush, an action that has found a place in Irish history as the event which essentially kick-started the War of Independence.

Sean O'Casey

Sean OCasey had walked from the Citizen Army (where he held the situation of Honorary Secretary) and maintained a belief that the Citizen Army had aligned itself too closely with what he saw as reactionary nationalist forces.

In his Story of the Irish Citizen Army OCasey wrote of the raising of the green flag over Liberty Hall, stating that in his opinion Labour had laid its precious gift of Independence on the altar of Irish Nationalism

Concluding Book 3 of his own autobiography, Drums under the Windows, published in 1945, it becomes clear he did not change his views with regards the new and secondary role the Irish labour movement had taken to Irish nationalism:

But Cathleen, the daughter of Houlihan, walks firm now, a flush on her haughty cheek. She hears the murmur in the peoples hearts. Her lovers are gathered around her, for things are changed, changed utterly. A terrible beauty is born. Poor, dear, dead men. Poor W.B. Yeats

Nora Connolly O'Brien

Lastly, it is worth taking a brief look at a story that is personal and not political. In Portrait of a Rebel Father , Nora Connolly O Brien, daughter of James Connolly, describes the initial reaction of the family to their fathers execution:

Mama, we must go back to the Castle and ask for daddys body

They wont give it to us

We must ask

It was refused.

Mrs. Connolly- a nurse came to them as they stood in the hall not knowing what to do - before Mr. Connolly left us I cut this off for you.

On her hand was a lock of daddys hair. Mama took it and held to her cheek all that was left of him.

Donal Fallon is a historian and one of the writers behind Dublin history blog ' Come Here to Me'
A former paramilitary who served two years of a life sentence for the murder of a British soldier has been spared jail for possessing 10,000 worth of stolen designer sunglasses in Dublin.

Joseph Magee (50) claimed he found the sunglasses, which cost 150 each, in a park and was planning to give them away or sell them for a few bob. Gardai believe he was holding onto them for a third party, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.

Magee of Marsfield Avenue, Clongriffin, Dublin pleaded guilty to possession of 55 pairs of stolen Maui Jim sunglasses at his home on April 2, 2015. The sunglasses had been taken from the car of a salesman however Magee was not charged with the theft.

Magee is a former member of the INLA. He received his first conviction in Northern Ireland when he was twelve years old and by aged 17 was serving a three year term for firearm possession, his counsel said. He was jailed for three years by the Special Criminal Court here in 2001 for another count of possession of firearms.

In 1992 he took part in the murder of Sergeant Michael Newman who was shot dead by the INLA outside a recruitment office in Derby, England in 1992.

The British government attempted to extradite Magee to face trial for the murder but the request was denied by the Irish High Court. He was later arrested by British authorities while attending a funeral in Northern Ireland.

The court heard he was convicted of murder in 2004 but released under the Good Friday Agreement after serving two years, at which point he moved to Dublin.

Defence counsel Dean Kelly BL conceded that Magee's previous convictions were the most serious aspects of the case but submitted that the Irish and British governments had taken a certain attitude towards him under the 1998 agreement.

He asked the court to take a similar non-custodial position, which would allow Magee to keep his social housing.

Judge Melanie Greally said Magee's convictions speak for themselves but noted they were committed in a certain context.

She said if Magee was to be jailed he would lose his house which would hinder his efforts to reform. She also accepted that he wasn't the final beneficiary from the sunglasses and imposed a two year suspended sentence.

Mr Kelly said they were high-end sunglasses which were sold for eye-watering prices exclusively in Brown Thomas.

The court heard gardai raided Magee's homes while acting on confidential information that another person was dealing drugs from the premises. No drugs were found but the stolen property was located in a boiler-room.

Magee turned up at the garda station the next day and admitted his role.
A retired truck driver assaulted a landlord who unwittingly revealed the man's secret alternative rented accommodation to his family, a court has heard.

John Delaney (62) was going through marital disharmony while renting a flat in Palmerstown Woods, Clondalkin, Co Dublin under a fake name.

Delaney of Greenfort Close, Clondalkin Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm to Ian Strich at Palmerstown Woods on April 26, 2013. His only previous convictions are for minor road traffic offences, Garda Marcus Roantree testified.

Judge Martin Nolan told lawyers for Delaney: Everybody has secrets but theres no use beating up an innocent man because your secrets have seeped out.

In April 2013 Mr Strich, the owner of the flat, called to the premises to read a meter. He found the flat empty and believed that his tenant had moved out without notifying him.

Mr Strich began making local inquiries and discovered that his tenant was living out of another address in Clondalkin. He went to that house and inadvertently revealed Delaney's alternative address to his family.

Delaney later contacted the landlord and said he would pay any rent he owed. The two men arranged to meet at the rented flat.

The court heard that Mr Strich was waiting at the flat when he saw Delaney approaching with two men. Delaney looked very angry and Mr Strich tried to barricade the door of the flat with his body.

The men got into the flat and during a struggle one of them hit the landlord over the head with an iron bar. The victim somehow managed to get away from the attackers and drove straight to the nearest garda station.

He was treated in hospital and received four staples to a cut at the back of his head.

Judge Nolan suspended a two year prison term on condition he pay 2,500 over to the victim within the next 18 months. He said the money was a punishment and an attempt to compensate the victim.

He told Delaney: Youre a lucky man you are not going to jail. It was a cowardly and unprovoked assault.

Keith Spencer BL, defending, said his client was living under an assumed name in another residence because of marital disharmony.

Asked why his client had beaten the victim up, counsel told Judge Nolan: Mr Strich had called to his family home thinking he was a man of another name. The alternate residence wasn't known to his family.

Counsel agreed with the judge that Delaney wanted to confront Mr Strich and he brought help with him. He said he brought the accomplices because the victim was 6ft 4' in height.

Mr Spencer said his client was sorry for what he did and confronted the victim in a fit of pique.

This man knocked on his family home and unveiled essentially that he had an alternative to the family home, he said.

Counsel said his client had worked all his life and his children were all grown up and had left the nest. He said there were marital differences and he was under stress at the time.

Mr Spencer said that he was now back in harmony with his loving wife.

Garda Roantree told Antonia Boyle BL, prosecuting, that Delaney said nothing of evidential value during his interview but that blood samples with the victim's DNA were found on a jacket seized from his family home.

Judge Nolan said that the gardai investigated the incident very well and linked Delaney to the crime.

He said this was an ambush style assault and must have been a frightening incident. He said the victim might be a fine strong man but he didn't expect to be attack.

The court heard there was no bad blood between the men. Judge Nolan noted that Delaney had a good history of working as a truck driver and later a taxi driver.

He said it would be unjustified to imprison a 62-year-old who had never been in prison before.
Two men caught with loaded handguns and a can of petrol with an intent to endanger life following a large scale garda operation will be sentenced next week.

Anthony Callaghan (45) and Paul Zambra (39) face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for the offence. A mandatory minimum sentence of ten years applies to Callaghan as he has a previous conviction for a firearms offence. The court may deviate from the ten years in the case of Zambra.

Callaghan, of Millrace Road, Phoenix Park Racecourse, Dublin and Zambra, of Inagh Road, Ballyfermot, Dublin both pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of a Ruger Revolver and semi automatic pistol with intent to endanger life at Clonshaugh Avenue, Coolock on May 29, 2015.

Zambra also pleaded guilty to driving without insurance on the same occasion.

The men were stopped by gardai who mounted a surveillance operation in the Coolock area and a search of the BMW driven by Zambra yielded two firearms and a full petrol can.

Callaghan's previous convictions include attempted robbery and possession of a firearm. Zambra has convictions for robbery, larceny and road traffic offences.

Judge Melanie Greally adjourned sentencing until Wednesday next week.

Detective Garda Glen Somers told Vincent Heneghan BL, prosecuting, that gardai acting on confidential information mounted a surveillance operation over several days on the movements and activities surrounding a number of vehicles driven variously by Callaghan and Zambra.

On May 29, 2015 gardai became aware that a white Nissan van driven by Callaghan with Zambra as a front seat passenger was on its way to Coolock. Zambra was dropped off at Clonshaugh Crescent where a blue BMW estate was parked.

Zambra got into the BMW and drove onto Clonshaugh Avenue, in a direction which was in close proximity to the Riverside Estate. Callaghan drove off onto Clonshaugh Road.

Gardai made tactical stops of both vehicles at about 12.15pm and arrested the men.

Zambra had attempted to drive off after being directed to get out of the car but was boxed in by a squad car. Inside the BMW gardai recovered a full 5 litre petrol container, a semi automatic pistol wrapped in newspapers and a revolver wrapped inside a neck warmer.

The semi automatic pistol had a silencer attached and it's safety catch was off. The Ruger Revolver was loaded with five rounds and had its serial numbers drilled off.

Both men exercised their right to silence during garda questioning. Gardai recovered CCTV from Topaz in Mulhuddart and identified Zambra as the person purchasing the petrol. Both vehicles seized were registered under false names and addresses.

Gda Somers agreed with Sean Guerin SC, defending Callaghan, that when his client was stopped he was driving away from the Riverside area. He agreed that there were no other outstanding matters in which Callaghan was a suspect.

Mr Guerin submitted there was case law outlining a clear distinction between an intent to endanger life and intent to kill. He asked the court to also take into account his clients early guilty plea.

He said that whatever had been afoot, Callaghan had been driving away from the scene when he was stopped by gardai and there was no evidence of evasive manoeuvres.

Michael O'Higgins SC, defending Zambra, said his client was a father of one who was separated from his partner. He had a fairly serious drug problem since he was 16-years old but there was no suggestion his involvement in this offence was due to his drug history.

He submitted that while the court might infer from the sightings of the vehicles in the area that there was an intent to endanger life in the environs this was different from an intent to seriously injure or kill.

Mr O'Higgins said Zambra has applied himself well while in custody and asked the court to take into account his prompt guilty plea.
'Irishmen and Irishwomen: In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom.'

Those will be the first words read into the record of the 32nd Dail when it convenes in Leinster House today.

It will be a day full of tradition and ceremony even if, as expected, nobody is elected Taoiseach.

At 10.30am the Clerk of Dail Eireann, Peter Finnegan, will begin proceedings by reading out the Proclamation which will have been dispatched by President Michael D Higgins.

He will then call out the names of all 158 TDs before moving on to the first official business of the Dail which is to elect the Ceann Comhairle by secret ballot.

TDs will be told to vote using the PR-STV system that applies in general elections.

The candidates will each be allowed to speak for five minutes before the division bells ring out for six minutes.

At that point the doors into the chamber will be locked except for the two doors on either side of the Ceann Comhairle's seat.

Members will ascend the central staircase and receive their ballot paper.

Following the election of a Ceann Comhairle, he/she will seek nominations for the position of Taoiseach.

It is expected Enda Kenny, Micheal Martin and Gerry Adams will be nominated and time will be allowed for a debate on the merits of each candidate.

If the assembled members fail to nominate a Taoiseach, the Dail can be adjourned. At that point Enda Kenny is likely to travel to Aras an Uachtarain to tell President Higgins a new government cannot be formed.
PROMINENT Fianna Fail TD Timmy Dooley was attacked this afternoon by a protester outside Leinster House on the first day of the new Dail term.

Mr Dooley was set on by the protester near Molesworth Street in Dublin City Centre as he returned from lunch with his wife.

The protester lunged at the newly elected Clare TD and grabbed his tie before attempting to swing a punch at him.

Mr Dooleys Fianna Fail colleague Billy Kelleher, a Cork North Central TD, intervened in the incident before he was also attacked by the protester.

Gardai where then forced to remove the protester from the scene.

Gardai asked the Dail deputies if they wanted to make a statement on the incident which happened on the foot of Leinster House.

Mr Dooley told Independent.ie he has yet to decide if he will make an official complaint against the individual.

A group of around 200 anti-water charge protesters have gathered outside Leinster House to demonstrate against the introduction of water charges this afternoon.

A significant Garda presence is currently in place on the Kildare Street end of Leinster House where the protest is taking place.
A FATHER found lying critically injured in a pool of blood just metres from his smothered 11 month old baby boy has died.

Andrzej Piolunowicz (32) died in Cork University Hospital (CUH) five days after being found in a Killarney, Co Kerry flat alongside his son, Karol Rozycki.

Mr Piolunowicz, a hotel worker, had sustained what Gardai believe were self-inflicted injuries to his wrists, stomach and neck.

Such was the quantity of blood that he lost, he had sustained severe brain damage.

Mr Piolunowicz was initially treated in Kerry General Hospital before being transferred for specialist care in Cork University Hospital (CUH).

He never regained consciousness after being discovered by his partner and Karols mother, Anna Rozycki (24).

Read More

It is understood his organs have been donated.

He had been on a life support machine since being rushed to hospital.

Expand Close Anna Rozycka and her son Karol / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Anna Rozycka and her son Karol

The young mother was horrified to discover her baby lifeless and Mr Piolunowicz lying in a pool of blood at their apartment at Park Place on Upper High Street, Killarney shortly after 6pm last Sunday, Mothers Day.

Despite desperate efforts by paramedics to revive Karol, the toddler was pronounced dead at the scene.

Expand Close Mass for baby in the St Mary's Cathedral, Killarney. Photo: Michelle Cooper Galvin / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Mass for baby in the St Mary's Cathedral, Killarney. Photo: Michelle Cooper Galvin

His body was released to his mother on Wednesday and his remains were flown back to Poland where his Mass of the Angels will be staged on Saturday.

Karol will be buried in Bielsko-Biala, the home town of his mother, Anna, which is located a short distance outside the southern Polish city of Krakow.

A special memorial service for Karol was staged by the Irish and Polish communities in Killarney last Tuesday with a collection being taken up to help Anna defray the costs of Karols repatriation and his funeral expenses.

Read More

So far, Gardai have refused to release the results of the postmortem examination by Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster for operational reasons.

However, it is understood little Karol died from suffocation, most likely by having a pillow placed over his head.

Gardai also recovered a number of notes and messages at the scene which are now being studied by forensic experts.

Detectives are not looking for anyone else in connection with the tragedy.

It is believed Mr Piolunowicz may have been depressed and bothered by financial concerns.

It is also believed he was troubled over his relationship. Ms Rozycki paid a special thank you to the people of Killarney shortly before she flew back to Poland with her son and accompanied by her mother, Tereasa.

The young woman was particularly grateful to the support offered by the hotel where she worked as a chef, Aghadoe Heights.

The garda investigation into the tragedy is expected to take some time.

Detectives have spoken to a number of residents of the Park Place apartment complex which is popular both with tourists and East European tourism industry workers.

Gardai have renewed their appeal to anyone who was at the apartment complex between 1pm and 5.30pm on Sunday who have not already spoken to them to contact the investigating team at Killarney Garda station.
Harland and Wolff, the Northern Ireland firm which specialises in offshore construction, is to cut up to sixty staff from its operation in Belfast.

It is thought management will attempt to achieve the reduction through seeking volunteers for redundancy.

Michael Mulholland, regional organiser spokesperson for the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering said the announcement "reflects the recent decline in the companys order books".

Mr Mulholland said: "This is the latest bad news story for manufacturing in Belfast and Northern Ireland and follows hot on the heels of a large-scale redundancy announcement at Bombardier. It reflects the continuing crisis in the sector.

"Management will attempt to achieve this reduction through seeking volunteers among the workforce in the first instance. Both the GMB and Unite will engage fully with the employer to try and minimise the impact on our members and will work together to offer necessary employment support and advice services to affected members."

He added: "Our unions are seeking assurances from the DETI and DEL Ministers that they will mandate relevant agencies to put in place a package for those affected, perhaps involving upskilling, which will mean that these skilled workers are available for the company, as and when they expand their workforce with an improving order book.

The firm stopped shipbuilding in 2003 and now specialises in repair and refurbishment of vessels ands oil rigs.

According to its last accounts the company, which has a core workforce of just under 200, made a 9m operating profit off a 55m turnover in 2014.

The company is famous for having built ships for White Star Line including the ill-fated Titanic.

East Belfast Ulster Unionist representatives Andy Allen MLA and councillor Sonia Copeland said action is needed to prevent further job losses in the manufacturing industry.

Andy Allen MLA said: "Harland and Wolff has been at the heart of East Belfast for a very long time so this news will be devastating to the whole community. This news coming so soon after the announcement of the Bombardier job losses will leave people wondering whats next.

"I will be making representations to the DETI Minister to see what he plans to do not only to turn the tide of job losses in the manufacturing industry, but also to help those who will be affected by this announcement. "

Councillor Sonia Copeland said: "Something has to be done to stem the job losses from the manufacturing industry. These announcements dont just affect the workers, they also affect the local economy and the morale of the community that these industries were once the backbone of."
Vera Twomey-Barry from Aghabullogue Co. Cork pictured with her daughter Ava, who suffers from Dravet's Syndrome. Pic: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision

A MOTHER of four has pleaded for commonsense on medicines such as cannabis oil after warning she does not want to be forced to quit Ireland to secure life-altering treatment for her six year old daughter.

Vera Twomey-Barry revealed that her daughter, Ava (6), suffered a total of 14 severe seizures at the familys Cork home in the space of just 24 hours last weekend.

Ava suffers from Dravet Syndrome which involves intractable epilepsy that cannot be controlled by normal medications.

Also known as Severe Myoclonic Epilepsy of Infancy (SMEI), Dravet affects just one in 60,000 children in its most catastrophic form.

With Dravet Syndrome, a sufferer can initially have their seizures treated by normal epilepsy medicines.

However, over a short period of time, the seizures become immune to the medications and increase both in their frequency and severity.

The only known long-term treatment for Dravet Syndrome involves the use of cannabis oil.

However, the controversial product is not licensed in Ireland or other EU member states.

Its medicinal uses, in specific cases, has led to cannabis oil being permitted in parts of the US, Australia, Brazil and even Columbia.

That is the only hope that Ava now has, Vera explained.

I dont want to be forced out of Ireland with my family to get treatment for Ava.

We want to stay in Ireland and raise our children here  but what choice do we have if Ava needs the treatment and the only place shecan get it is overseas?

All we are pleading for is a little commonsense. If cannabis oil or medicinal marijuana can help Ava, why cant she be allowed benefit from it in her own country?

Vera and her husband, Paul, have launched a campaign to help childrenlike Ava in Ireland.

There are five people with Dravet Syndrome in Ireland  and all would likely benefit from treatment with cannabis oil.

One trial in the US indicated that a person with Dravet Syndrome who was suffering 300 seizures every day managed to reduce those to just two seizures a month thanks to cannabis oil.

All we are asking for is a little commonsense. That and the realisation that children like Ava dont have any other alternatives, Vera said.

It is heartbreaking to have to take Ava to an emergency department when she gets severe seizures despite knowing that there is nothing they can do for her.

The couple, who are based in Aghabullogue in mid Cork, have three other children, Sophia (4), Michael (3) and Elvera-Mae (14 months).

All we are asking is that Ava has some chance of a normal life. Surely every Irish child has that right, she said.

Details of Vera and Pauls campaign for Ava is available from Facebook on CBD For Ava Support.
A young Irish student suffered a sudden stroke on her first ever holiday alone that tragically left her brain dead within hours, her heartbroken family said today.

Kildare-native Rachel Fitzgerald (20) was enjoying her first taste of independence while holidaying with friends in Orlando, Florida when she began to feel sick.

Having only been in the United States less than a week, the 20-year-old Carlow IT student suffered a stroke which left two fatal blood clots in her brain last Tuesday.

It all happened so fast within two hours, the damage was done, and she was gone  the doctors pronounced her medically brain dead just after she arrived in the hospital, said Rachels devastated older brother, Ciaran Fitzgerald (26).

Its just been so hard to deal with because of the speed. She had only been there four or five days and everything seemed to be going good.

On the day it happened I actually got a Snapchat from her. Everything is fine, then you wake up the next morning and you get the message that something is wrong.

You just cant make sense of it  that everything was good one moment and the next

I still cant get my head around it, it doesnt feel like she's gone.

Expand Close Rachel Fitzgerald (20) along with her younger brother Billy (19) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Rachel Fitzgerald (20) along with her younger brother Billy (19)

Rachel was at Universal Studios when she started to feel unwell. Brushing off the nausea as sun stroke, the young Kildare woman continued touring the popular tourist spot until she started having headaches.

One of her friends did the right thing and took her to hospital. They thought they would be in and out in a few hours but then Rachel started feeling nausea again while in the waiting room it was only then when a doctor was examining her that she started slurring her speech, Ciaran said.

The doctors rushed to remove the clots with blood thinners but it didnt work because the damage was too bad.

They thought about operating but it was too late, she was too far gone. There was no brain activity.

That's one of the things thats been so though, just how fast it came on.

No one has an explanation for it. A few things have been mentioned, like the long haul flight, but the doctors havent been able to find an answer yet.

Rachels brother said the young student had had no known previous medical condition, adding that she did not drink, or ever take drugs.

She was just an all-round good family girl.

This was her first time going on holidays with her friends; her first ever trip without her parents, she was very nervous but really excited too.

Like I said, she is a very quiet girl, family- oriented; she loved nothing better than coming home from college and spending time with us.

Thats whats absolutely killing me  she was so innocent, she never did a thing wrong in her life.

A girl very dear 2 someone I love would be so beautiful 4 them 2 pay a tribute 2 their biggest fan #spreadyourwings pic.twitter.com/ZvNs1wO1D5  Sophie Sticated (@sophiewalshhhh) March 9, 2016

Ciaran described how a Garda called at the familys door last Wednesday to tell them that something had happened to Rachel.

Boarding the first flight they could get, Rachels parents Emmett Fitzgerald and Olivia Flood and brothers Emmett (24) and Billy (19), flew out alongside Ciaran to New York City so they could grab a connecting flight to Florida.

We didnt know how serious it was until we landed in [JFK], we phone the hospital straight away and they told us the Rachel was medically brain dead and that there was nothing more anyone could do.

We just wanted to get over there as fast as we could.

Over the next three days, the family were given time to say their good-byes. Praising the support given to them by hospital staff at Orlando Regional Medical Centre, older brother Ciaran said he and his parents would never forget what they did for us.

The staff in the hospital were absolutely amazing; Ill never forget how they treated us. To see the doctors and the nurses care so much they were crying with us.

Whenever we had to walk out of the room for a few minutes, they would hold her hand when Rachel needed tests done until we got back.

Ciaran and his family are currently staying in the Hubbard House, a charity accommodation fully funded by staff at the hospital where Rachel was being treated, and offered special praise for those who have been helping to look after the familys needs so they could focus on Rachel.

Wed like to thank them all, especially Peggy who runs the house, she is a very kind hearted lady.

Ciaran added: Rachels lungs and heart were unfortunately too damaged by the clots to be given to someone else, so they will be coming home with the rest of her remains later in the week.

But all her other organs have been donated. Her liver has already gone to someone else, so to me shes a hero. Its exactly what she would have wanted.

Friends of the Kildare student have launched a campaign to ask her favourite band Paramore to pay tribute to her on stage.

Rachel was actually over the in US for a cruise with the band, she loved them so much, Ciaran said.



Weve been really be touched by the gesture from her friends and I know it would mean so much to Rachel, whose looking down from heaven now, if the band recognised her.

Rachels friends and many Irish Paramore fans have been using the hashtag #spreadyourwings on Twitter to reach out to the US rock band.
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 remains of an 11-month-old baby found dead in an apartment in Killarney on Sunday are being flown home to Poland tomorrow morning for burial on Saturday.

Karol Rozycki's body will be accompanied on the flight by his heartbroken mother Anna and his grandmother Teresa, who flew to Ireland this week to comfort her daughter.

Karol's mum has thanked the people of Killarney and the public for their support.

In a statement expressing gratitude on behalf of Anna Rozycka and her family, a family friend thanked the staff and management at the Aghadoe Heights Hotel in Killarney where the young mother works as a chef.

Supported by her mother Tereasa, [Anna] will fly to Poland with the body of her 11-month old son tomorrow, where he will be buried in Ms Rozycka's home city of Bielsko-Biala, it reads.

The statement on behalf of Ms Rozycki continued, thanking Gardai, the Polish community in Kerry, Killarney Parish Priest Fr Kieran O'Brien and chaplain Fr Piotr Delimat.

South Kerry coroner, Terence Casey, officially released the body back to Ms Rozycka on Wednesday, following a post-mortem examination that was carried out at University Hospital Kerry in Tralee.

Meanwhile, a man in his 30s that was transferred from the apartment at Park Place off High Street, Killarney on Sunday to the Tralee hospital, has now been transferred to Cork University Hospital for further treatment.

It is understood the man, who had been in the apartment with the baby, suffered multiple knife wounds, believed to have been self-inflicted.

A bank account has now been set up at the Ulster Bank in Killarney to help Ms Rozycka with the repatriation costs.

However, a close friend, who Ms Rozycka has been staying with since Sunday, said they have been overwhelmed by the solidarity and support of the local community at a very difficult time.

Damian Mucha said the fee had already been waived for the cost of transporting baby Karol's remains to Dublin.

Burial will take place on Saturday at Ms Rozycka's home near the city of Bielsko Biala in southern Poland.

The Ulster bank account number is 10855220, sort code 985886.
Children as young as five have been questioned by police over serious crimes including sex offences, arson and possessing drugs. Picture posed by models

Children as young as five have been questioned by police over serious crimes including sex offences, arson and possessing drugs.

Almost 250 offences by children aged nine and under were investigated by the PSNI in the last three years.

But in every case the suspect walked free because they were too young to be prosecuted.

The law in Northern Ireland states that a child under 10 is below the age of criminal responsibility, and cannot be held accountable.

Some of the crimes, had they been committed by an adult, carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Jonathan Craig, a member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, said he was alarmed.

"We have to accept that no matter the age of an individual, they have the potential to commit the most horrendous crimes," he said.

PSNI statistics show that between January 2013 and December 2015, children aged under 10 were suspected of 237 offences.

These include:

24 sex offences;

82 assaults, including assault on police and aggravated assault;

Four arson attacks;

Seven hoax calls;

Two incidents of possessing an offensive weapon;

One case of possessing drugs;

And one threat to kill.

Bizarrely, the list also includes 13 motoring offences. The legal age to drive a car in Northern Ireland is 17.

In one example, a five-year-old child was questioned about criminal damage.

However, none were prosecuted because they were below the age of criminal responsibility.

Children under 10 cannot be arrested or charged with a crime in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The age of criminal responsibility is lower in Scotland (eight), but a child cannot be prosecuted until they turn 12.

Mr Craig said that while a child cannot be pursued through the justice system, other consequences are likely.

"It is one thing not being able to take something through the court system in terms of a prosecution," he said. "However, it is certainly a clear indication that there is something fundamentally wrong with the family unit."

Some of the crimes, if committed by adults, could incur substantial prison terms.

Arson can be punishable by a life sentence, depending on the seriousness of the offence.

Other crimes committed by under-10s include burglary, theft, criminal damage and disorderly behaviour.

Justice Minister David Ford has previously called for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised in Northern Ireland.

Mr Ford supports moving it from 10 to 12 - but faces political opposition.

A charity that works with children and young people to reduce crime also backs raising the age of responsibility.

The Northern Ireland Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (Niacro) believes children and young people can be diverted from the criminal justice system through proper support.

Niacro's chief executive Olwen Lyner said children should not be criminalised at an early stage in life.

"We're very concerned that these figures suggest a relatively high number of children are being questioned in relation to criminal activity," she said.

"We know that any involvement with the criminal justice system, even for a minor issue, can have lasting implications for a child and impacts on their future life chances, including their educational outcomes.

"The reality is that most children who offend do so for minor offences and rarely pose a risk of serious harm to others.

"Criminalising children and stigmatising them with a criminal identity at a young age only increases their likelihood of developing more serious offending behaviour as they grow older."

Ms Lyner said early intervention is needed to prevent children ending up in the criminal justice system.

"This is much more cost-effective as it reduces the risk of serious offending and also reduces the costs incurred by the police and courts," she added
A ruling that au pairs must be paid the minimum wage will decimate the industry, according to an agency director.

Sean Kavanagh, of SK Au Pairs, Dublin, is calling for a separate minimum wage for au pairs, but a migrants' rights watchdog wants them included in all current employee legislation.

A Spanish au pair was awarded 9,229 on Monday after the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) found she had not been paid the minimum wage of 9.15 per hour and was not afforded annual leave entitlements.

Virginija Petrauskaite of the Irish Migrants' Rights Centre said the organisation is dealing with 40 cases of families allegedly abusing au pairs' working rights.

Ms Petrauskaite told the Irish Independent that four of the cases are waiting on a hearing date, while up to seven more could be taken to the WRC after their complaints are lodged.

"This judgment is crystal clear - the au pairs are not excluded from employment legislations. They should be treated like all workers," she said.

However, Mr Kavanagh said thousands of families could now let their au pairs go because of Monday's ruling.

Some 20,000 au pairs come to work in Ireland each year. But Mr Kavanagh estimates that if families had to register themselves as employees and pay the current minimum wage, this figure could fall to just 1,000.

"We estimate that the value of a room in say, Ranelagh, with heating, electricity, internet and food is about 180 per week, so we think if they were paid 130-150 on top of that, they would be happy with that," Mr Kavanagh said.

Sheila O'Malley, of Practical Parenting, believes the issue is the burden placed on parents to pay childcare costs they can't afford.

She called on the incoming government to intervene and subsidise childcare.

"The cost of childcare is an issue for many parents and it's putting them under huge pressure," Ms O'Malley said.

"So many working couples that have families are in a situation where they really do have to cobble it together.

"It's a very hard situation where they're looking at what they're earning and looking at what they're paying out and the truth is, there's very little left after that.

"The Government certainly needs to make things easier for working parents and there are plenty of other countries that have done it well," she added.
Finance Minister Michael Noonan has been criticised by a parliamentary inquiry for failing to halt the controversial 1.6bn sale of Nama's Northern Ireland loan portfolio.

The Stormont inquiry said it was "unclear" why Mr Noonan did not order the suspension of the Project Eagle sale "given the seriousness" of revelations that a former Nama advisor, Frank Cushnahan, stood to be paid Stg5m by a prospective purchaser.

Its findings raise major questions about Mr Noonan's judgment and come as the Finance Minister is primed to play a crucial role in negotiations on the formation of the next government.

Mr Noonan could have exercised his general powers of direction over Nama to suspend the sales process until matters were investigated fully, the inquiry by the Northern Ireland Assembly's Committee on Finance and Personnel found.

Instead, the sale process continued, with Mr Cushnahan allegedly still involved on the fringes. In a covert recording, which Mr Cushnahan has not contradicted, he appeared to have said he stood to earn Stg6m from the final sale.

A progress report by the committee, being published today, also raises questions about the judgment exercised by the Nama board in deciding to proceed with the sale.

Unhelpful

It criticised as "particularly unhelpful" Nama's refusal to provide oral evidence to the inquiry.

The report said it was regrettable Mr Noonan did not encourage Nama to attend.

The committee has been inquiring into the sale of the portfolio of 850 property loans held by Northern Irish businesspeople since last July.

Its probe, and a criminal inquiry by the UK's National Crime Agency, was sparked by revelations that a sum of Stg7m linked to the deal was found in an Isle of Man bank account.

Mr Noonan was informed in March 2014 that Mr Cushnahan, who had been a member of Nama's Northern Ireland Advisory Committee until November 2013, stood to earn Stg5m in fees if one of the bidders, global investment management firm Pimco, was successful.

He was relayed the information after Pimco advised Nama of a proposed fee arrangement for advisors, which was to see Stg15m split equally between the Brown Rudnick international law firm, Belfast law firm Tughans and Mr Cushnahan.

Nama had not previously known of Mr Cushnahan's involvement in the deal and was uncomfortable with this.

Pimco subsequently withdrew from the bidding.

Despite Nama's concerns, its board decided to proceed with the sale, taking bids from two other investment companies.

The Dail Public Accounts Committee previously heard that Mr Noonan did not object to Nama's decision to continue.

The following month, the portfolio was sold to US vulture fund Cerberus for 1.6bn.

Last month a BBC Spotlight programme aired secretly recorded footage of Mr Cushnahan saying he was to be paid Stg6m for work on the final deal.

The money was to be routed to him via an Isle of Man bank account because Nama had expressed concerns about fees.

He has yet to comment on the recording.

Cerberus had denied making any payment for the benefit of Mr Cushnahan.

In its report, the Stormont committee said it "notes with regret the decision of the Nama board not to suspend the Project Eagle sales process" once it was informed by Pimco of the proposed payment of a fee to Mr Cushnahan.

It said: "From the evidence to date, the committee considers this development to be a core area of concern within the entire sale and purchase process."

As well as criticising Mr Noonan for not halting the sale, the report also noted that the minister did not inform the Northern Ireland Executive.

The Project Eagle probe: key points

It was regrettable the Nama board did not suspend the Project Eagle sale after learning of a proposed 5m payment by a bidder to Frank Cushnahan.

The proposed payment was "a core area of concern". Further information is needed on why Nama proceeded with the sale.

It is unclear why Finance Minister Michael Noonan did not intervene to halt the sale process so the revelations about Mr Cushnahan could be investigated.

Mr Noonan did not inform the Northern Ireland Executive when he was told of the Cushnahan controversy.

The Irish Government may wish to clarify what steps it is taking to ensure something similar does not happen in future.

Northern Ireland ministers should take advice from senior departmental officials before nominating individuals to positions of strategic economic importance.

Robust systems should be in place to ascertain the financial interests of Northern Ireland ministerial nominees to positions of strategic economic importance.

There was a failure to minute crucial meetings around the Project Eagle sale involving Northern Ireland executive members and senior civil servants. This should be avoided in future.
Caitriona Redmond looks at dresses, suits and accessories for a range of price points

Arnotts

Arnotts have a tradition of dressing First Holy Communicants from head-to-toe that goes back several generations. This year their Isabella dresses are available in a wide range of styles and priced from 170-290, however the matching accessories are in the more affordable range for those on a budget; gloves (9.50), Headband (22), Bow Bag (23), and veil (37). Boys suits from the 1880 range start at 125 for a jacket and trousers, waistcoats are extra. Arnotts, arnotts.ie

Cinderella's Closet

Expand Close Cinderella's Closet 'Megan' dress. / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Cinderella's Closet 'Megan' dress.

Cinderella's Closet in Cork is a bridal boutique that also specialises in dresses and accessories for girls.

Their prices range from 150 for their discounted 'Megan' dress, to 375 for their 'Aria' dress. They tell us that they currently have a sale rack with suitable dresses reduced to half price, ranging from 100-199.

Expand Close Cinderella's Closet 'Aria' dress. / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Cinderella's Closet 'Aria' dress.

Accessories are individually priced: gloves (24), tiara (45), bag (35), veil (35), and parasol (30).

Cinderella's Closet are available only by appointment, but you can look at their online gallery for a better idea of what they have in stock. They also have a strict 'one dress per school' policy to ensure no double dresses on the day. Cinderella's Closet, cinderellascloset.ie Tel: 021-4225000 North Point House, North Point Business Park, New Mallow Road, Cork.

The Sisters

Expand Close The boys' suits at The Sister's in Tallaght range from 79.99-220 / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp The boys' suits at The Sister's in Tallaght range from 79.99-220

If you'd rather a more down to earth experience, you don't need an appointment to visit The Sisters in Tallaght which has been operating for over 16 years. It's open 7 days from 12.30-5.30pm, and also operates a deposit scheme so that you can spread the expense of your First Holy Communion outfit from December to April.

The dresses, however, are on the more expensive side and range from 250-599, and they do stock a wide range of suits for boys which range in price from 79.99-220. The Sisters, thesisters.ie. Tel: 01-459 8822, Unit 13, New Village Green, Tallaght, Co Dublin.

Expand Close The dresses at The Sister's in Tallaght range from 250-599 / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp The dresses at The Sister's in Tallaght range from 250-599

Littlewoods

Littlewoods have two suitable dresses in their bridal range that are definitely affordable. There is a beautiful lace organza dress priced between 48-56 (depending on size), and an ivory bridesmaid dress in sizes from 0-age 16 for 37-48. The budget pricing continues when it comes to all-important shoes and ballerina shoes will only set you back between 10-15.

Expand Close Littlewoods Ladybird Girls Ivory Bridesmaid Dress, 37-48 / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Littlewoods Ladybird Girls Ivory Bridesmaid Dress, 37-48

Boys clothing is also in the affordable bracket with a shirt and tie set priced at just 23 and occasion trousers for 28. Boots and shoes are a little more expensive but at least they'll get to wear these again in the future. For more see littlewoods.ie

Promoted: See the latest Littlewoods offers and deals on Independent Discounts

Expand Close Littlewoods Timberland boot, 70-80, Littlewoods Lacoste boot, 68. / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Littlewoods Timberland boot, 70-80, Littlewoods Lacoste boot, 68.

Oxfam Bridal Shop

Have you heard of the Oxfam bridal shop on George's Street in Dublin? It's a secret area upstairs from their regular Oxfam shop where designers send their end-of-season gowns, and ex-display products to be put on sale for charity. You won't get access without first booking an appointment, but it's well worth it because it's a little known fact that they do have limited products suitable for First Holy Communion wear, including tiaras, veils, and often the dresses themselves. Many charity shops, not just Oxfam, have a limited number of second hand First Holy Communion dresses in stock at the moment. Why not shop for a bargain dress (or suit) while helping a charity at the same time? For more information and to book a viewing visit oxfamireland.org or telephone 01-4780777.

Dunnes Stores

On a budget? You only need to nip into your local Dunnes Stores to see the range of Paul Costelloe dresses; prices range from 70-100 for simple, tailored dresses. Accessories are keenly priced as well; we particularly like the simplicity of the hairbands priced at just 8, and not forgetting the all-important socks and tights priced at 5 per pack.

Expand Close Dunnes Stores hairbands, 8. / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Dunnes Stores hairbands, 8.

For more information see Dunnes Stores nationwide or visit dunnesstores.com

First Holy Communions have the potential to be a pricey affair so we have taken a look at the wide range of items (and prices) on offer at the moment nationwide. From chain-store to high-end, there's something for every budget and taste in our First Holy Communion shopping guide.

Before you take the plunge and start looking at outfits, it's worth checking with your school/church for their dress guidelines. In recent years some schools require children to wear "albs" which are altar serving robes, so as not to detract from the ceremony itself. In this case you simply pay a nominal rental fee for the First Holy Communion day.

While some might baulk at spending over 200 on an outfit that will be worn only a few occasions, bear in mind that First Holy Communion dresses, suits, and accessories hold their value extremely well.

If you can ensure your child doesn't damage their outfit (a tall order in some cases we know), a dry clean will bring it back to sale condition and you can then sell it on the following year.

There is a thriving market in second hand dresses and suits on eBay, DoneDeal, and locally based buy-and-sell groups on Facebook that are worth checking out. See ebay.ie and donedeal.ie for more information.
It hasn't been mentioned much in the media, but yes, you will need a little more paperwork if you want to travel to Canada this year.

Up to now, many countries, including Ireland, worked on a visa waiver system, so all you had to do was present a valid passport for travelling.

But from March 15 next, Irish passport holders will need to apply online to gain entry to the country by getting an electronic travel authorisation (eTA).

The process, costing $7 dollars Canadian (just under a fiver), takes around 72 hours to process, but will last you five years, or as long as your passport is valid.

So if your passport expires next year, you'll have to reapply then if you want to travel, the friendly spokeswoman in the Canadian Embassy here informed me.

If you're travelling as a family, each member has to fill in the paperwork, so you might have to go through the process a number of times, and you'll need a valid credit card and email address.

It's similar to the US Esta and, like that, there are websites online touting for your business.

Avoid them as you'll pay more for that pleasure, so only use the following link: www.cic.gc.ca and go down to the 'visit' section if you're travelling on a holiday.

Remember, if you're a transit passenger, i.e. travelling via Canada to the likes of the United States or Caribbean, you'll still need an eTA.

If you've got dual nationality or a US passport holder, you won't need an eTA, but check on the Canadian Embassy website in Dublin, particularly if you're from a non-EU country.

And also note that you don't need an eTA if you're visiting Canada by road from the United States, or travelling to the country by ship (on the likes of a cruise itinerary).

So if you're travelling to Canada this year, apply as soon as possible, or risk your airline not allowing you to board your flight.

Read more:
Premium

Dan O'Brien Opinion While we catastrophise about Covid, we ignore risk of running out of cash

We Irish view the world in an increasingly strange and unhealthy way. We catastrophise about Covid in a way other European countries do not. We focus on how bad the effects of the virus could get, on how many more restrictions might be imposed by Government and how helpless we are in the face of the virus.
Michael Noonan's political CV has suffered many serious blotches over his 35 years in Leinster House - but every time he has found a way back.

Shortly after becoming a TD he found himself taking over the Department of Justice in the wake of the infamous phone tapping scandal of 1982.

He thrived under Garret FitzGerald, prompting early expectation that he would be a future leader.

The Limerick TD made several attempts to oust John Bruton before he was asked to serve as Minister for Health in the 'Rainbow Coalition'.

His time in Health will always be tarnished by the Hepatitis C scandal, when he was seen to deal insensitively with victims of contaminated blood transfusions.

Yet somehow he overcame the public backlash and when Bruton fell on his sword in February 2001, Noonan took over as Fine Gael leader after a contest against Enda Kenny.

It was a short-lived leadership after the party crashed and burned at the 2002 election. In political circles it is seen as the only time the Opposition were effectively voted out of office.

However, his successor Kenny showed him sympathy and helped him get a coveted position as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee.

There was no love lost between the men, but since then circumstance has brought them closer.

Noonan cleverly held his counsel during the 2011 heave against Kenny and was eventually rewarded with the Finance ministry where he carved out an image as 'the wise old man of Merrion Street'.

Kenny believed Noonan should be the backbone of Fine Gael's recent election campaign and the man the country could trust to 'keep the recovery going'.

But voters rejected that notion, and after today's report on Project Eagle many will feel justified.

Kenny and Noonan were supposed to be Fine Gael's safe pair of hands but they are on very shaky ground.
The biggest property transaction in the history of this island attracted little fanfare when it occurred in April 2014. Nama sold 850 property loans which were once valued at 6.3bn for a knockdown price of 1.6bn to US vulture fund Cerberus.

The loans were all taken out by business people based in Northern Ireland and, when bundled together, became known as Project Eagle.

But it wasn't until a full 15 months later in July 2015 that the deal burst into the public consciousness. Independent TD Mick Wallace told the Dail a Stg7m sum deposited in an Isle of Man bank account had been earmarked for a Northern politician or party.

It was the first in a series of speeches about Nama and Cerberus given by the heavily-indebted Co Wexford TD. Cerberus would subsequently move to get a 2m judgment against him.

Belfast solicitor Ian Coulter admitted the Isle of Man money was part of a fee paid to his former law firm Tughans for work on the deal, but declined to say who was to benefit. The UK's National Crime Agency began investigating.

All eyes turned to the North's First Minister Peter Robinson, who quickly denied the cash was intended for him. He has since departed as First Minister, his final months in the role overshadowed by the controversy.

A close friend of Mr Robinson, former Nama adviser Frank Cushnahan, also denied he was to benefit, but appeared to say the opposite in a secretly recorded conversation broadcast by the BBC.

The Stormont inquiry has been investigating claims Mr Coulter and Mr Cushnahan worked behind the scenes with others to help broker the sale of the loans to help northern debtors get out from under Nama. There are allegations Mr Cushnahan may have been privy to confidential information about the portfolio from his time as a Nama advisor.

Mr Cushnahan is thought to have organised a meeting between one bidder, Pimco, and Mr Robinson. Pimco subsequently agreed to treat debtors in the North favourably, but dropped out of the bidding when Nama expressed concern after learning Mr Cushnahan was seeking a Stg5m consultancy fee.

Sinn Fein has not escaped scrutiny either. When Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness claimed to have been kept out of the loop, evidence emerged that suggested he had knowledge about the sale.

The Stormont inquiry report wants to know why Finance Minister Michael Noonan didn't intervene to stop Nama selling the portfolio when there were concerns about the integrity of the process.

Nama's claim that advisers like Mr Cushnahan did not have access to commercially sensitive information is also being questioned.

This, as the committee report points out, has been contradicted by another former adviser, Brian Rowntree, who stated advisory committee members had access to commercially sensitive" information.
When I was growing up we had a lovely, and very good-looking, Italian au pair who lived with us for a year. She spent most of her time studying English or going out with Irish men, who queued up to date her. She didn't cook, clean and only occasionally looked after us. Sometimes if my mother needed to pop out, the au pair would keep an eye on us for an hour and she did a bit of babysitting when my parents went out on Saturday nights but that was it.

Nowadays, some au pairs are allegedly being treated like slaves with some reported to be working 70-hour weeks for the grand sum of 100 a week.

These young girls (98pc of the au pairs in Ireland are female) come to Ireland to learn English and experience living in Ireland. They do not come to raise our children for 1.40 an hour when the minimum wage is 9.15 per hour.

Why are some Irish families suddenly exploiting young woman they have welcomed into their homes?

The cost of childcare is one of the main underlying issues. The childcare crisis, however, does not mean that families get to abuse innocent au pairs by over-working and under-paying them.

An Irish family who mistreated their Spanish au pair has just been ordered to pay her 9,229.

The move has been described as a landmark decision by the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (MRCI), which supported the au pair in her appeal to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).

The au pair had been paid 100 a week by the family, the MRCI said. The family was found to have breached aspects of the National Minimum Wage Act, the Organisation of Working Time Act, and the Terms of Employment (Information) Act.

The au pair said in her statement: "When I arrived at the Migrant Rights Centre I was exhausted, depressed and weak."

Research by the MRCI suggests that au pairs working in up to 20,000 Irish homes are being subjected to abuses of labour law.

Why would anyone leave their young children with a girl who clearly has no idea how to look after them? Frankly, it's dangerous. A friend recently saw two young children aged about five and six running across a busy street while the au pair chatted on the phone, completely oblivious to what was going on.

Some au pairs are mature and perfectly capable of looking after children. If that's the case and they are willing to take on the extra hours, then they should be paid for their work and not used as a cheap option.

Unfortunately, many families looking for low-cost solutions to childcare are doing just that - exploiting these young women.

"We have seen a huge growth in the number of women au pairing in Ireland over the last five years," said MRCI spokesperson Aoife Smith. "Our centre is providing support and information to over 1,000 au pairs today compared to just 40 in 2013."

What au pairs need to know is that they are in fact covered by employment law just like any other workers, which includes minimum wage legislation, overtime and time off.

"The Government needs to get real about this and urgently address the issue of au pair agencies advertising exploitative positions. We're seeing this kind of exploitation up and down the country, and families believe it's legal because agencies tell them it is," Ms Smith says.

Families hiring au pairs also need to be aware that they have responsibilities as employers to their employees and that exploitation will not be stood for and is illegal.

In its recent survey of au pairs living and working in Ireland, MRCI found that 48pc were Brazilian and 28pc Spanish. Almost 80pc had no written contract whatsoever.

Over 37pc were expected to work more than was originally agreed, with over a quarter of respondents saying they worked 40-60 hours a week, with a further 8pc working more than 60 hours a week.

MRCI director Edel McGinley said anyone who employs a person to work in their home must register with Revenue as a single employer and must uphold employment law.

"If you have someone in your home, you're paying them, they're doing work, you are their employer."

The current arrangement gives employers risk-free access to cheap labour outside of an employment relationship, but systematically fails au pairs.

"By the very nature of the job, domestic workers are isolated, and often unaware of their rights as workers. In addition, the vast majority are women, and many are undocumented; they are afraid to leave and afraid to go to the authorities," said Pablo Rojas Coppari from the MRCI.

The MRCI is calling on the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to issue a clear statement on the rights and entitlements of au pairs in Irish homes and increase inspections in private homes with specific focus on au pairs.

Surely every parent wants to know that their children are safe. If you are leaving them with an exhausted, overworked, underpaid au pair, you may be putting them at risk.

Treat your au pair as you would want your own daughter to be treated if she went to live with a Spanish or Brazilian family - well and fairly.
Actress Emily Ratajkowski has followed in Kim Kardashian's footsteps by posting a naked 'nothing to wear' selfie on Instagram.

The Blurred Lines star appeared completely naked in the selfie as she posed sideways in front of a mirror, captioning the photo with: "What to wear tonight? #PFW"

What to wear tonight? #PFW A photo posted by Emily Ratajkowski (@emrata) on Mar 9, 2016 at 10:49am PST

The tongue-in-cheek message is clearly an ode to Kim Kardashian who caused a social media meltdown when she posted a naked selfie on Instagram on Sunday night.

Kim had captioned the image, "When you're like I have nothing to wear LOL."

The Kardashian came under a lot of criticism for posting the pic, notably from TV host Piers Morgan who penned a Daily Mail opinion piece where he labelled the incident "depressing".

The half-Irish star defended Kim's choice to post the photo by tweeting: "Love when a man comments on a woman's decision to post a nude photo. Her body, her career. Sexist bullsh*t."

Expand Close Model Emily Ratajkowski (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Model Emily Ratajkowski (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

The Gone Girl actress recently wrote an article on the subject of sexiness and body image, opening up about how developing curves at an early age made her a target for body shaming.

In the article, the 24-year-old revealed that her father gave her the nickname "baby woman" when she was a preteen. "Thats what I was," she wrote, "a 12-year-old with D-cup breasts who still woke up in the night and asked her mom to come and sleep in her room."

A photo posted by Emily Ratajkowski (@emrata) on Feb 15, 2016 at 9:03am PST

The actress explained that her mature body made people feel uncomfortable and family members often warned her parents that their daughter needed special protection because of the looks she was attracting from men.

The pressure to cover up and keep a low profile tended to come people who were concerned for her well-being but handled it poorly.



"Teachers, friends, adults, boyfriends  individuals who were not as regulated as those in the highly scrutinised fashion world were more often the ones to make me feel uncomfortable or guilty about my developing sexuality," she explained.

Expand Close WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - FEBRUARY 28: Model/actress Emily Ratajkowski attends the 24th Annual Elton John AIDS Foundation's Oscar Viewing Party on February 28, 2016 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - FEBRUARY 28: Model/actress Emily Ratajkowski attends the 24th Annual Elton John AIDS Foundation's Oscar Viewing Party on February 28, 2016 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

Video of the Day

"I was modeling only occasionally at that time, but I found the same people who faulted the modeling industry for being oppressive and sexist were frequently missing entirely their own missteps and faux pas. Their comments felt much more personal and thus landed that much harder."

Ratajkowski admitted that for years she worried about sending the "wrong message" and it was only after she developed the confidence in her career that she realised that the she was in charge of what message she sent and there was no "wrong" or "right".

Expand Close Emily Ratajkowski at the Oscars. Photo: Getty Images. / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Emily Ratajkowski at the Oscars. Photo: Getty Images.

"And what is that message exactly?" she asked.

"The implication is that to be sexual is to be trashy because being sexy means playing into mens desires. To me, 'sexy' is a kind of beauty, a kind of self-expression, one that is to be celebrated, one that is wonderfully female."
Daisy Ridley was escorted to the premier by stormtroopers

Actress Daisy Ridley attends the Oscar Wilde Awards 2016 at Bad Robot on February 25, 2016 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for US-Ireland Alliance)

Actress Daisy Ridley attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center on February 28, 2016 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

Daisy Ridley has dismissed criticism on social media that she is too thin

Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley reacted with grace when confronted with online body-shamers.

Ridley came under attack when one Instagram user posted an image of her as her Star Wars: The Force Awakens' character Rey and accused her of being too thin to play the role.

"I can't believe the unrealistic expectations I'm setting for young girls. Who cast me anyway? Don't they know real women have curves?," was the message that appeared in the meme.

The London girl didn't shy away from the criticism and replied by saying: "'Real women are all shapes and sizes, all ethnicities, all levels of brave.

Expand Close Actress Daisy Ridley attends the Oscar Wilde Awards 2016 at Bad Robot on February 25, 2016 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for US-Ireland Alliance) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Actress Daisy Ridley attends the Oscar Wilde Awards 2016 at Bad Robot on February 25, 2016 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for US-Ireland Alliance)

"I am a 'real woman' like every other woman in this world."

She later deleted the post after the memes author came in for severe online criticism from trolls, but posted a second statement expanding on her views.

Expand Close Daisy Ridley was escorted to the premier by stormtroopers / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Daisy Ridley was escorted to the premier by stormtroopers

"What's weird is most of the time I see such gorgeous messages from people around the world," she wrote. "People who relate to something in Rey they haven't found in a female character before...It is much more hurtful to continue to slate other women than BE a woman, BE a character, BE whoever you want to be."

The defiant 23-year-old went on to insist she is completely comfortable with her body and revealed she is more focused on her own personal growth.

Guys it was not my intention for anyone to send messages to that poor person that posted the original picture. My whole post is about being kind to each other, so please refrain! A photo posted by @daisyridley on Mar 9, 2016 at 1:13pm PST

"I'm a normal girl thrust into extraordinary circumstances, just like Rey," she continued. "I will not apologise for how I look, what I say and how I live my life cause what's happening inside is much more important anyway and I am striving to be the best version of myself, even if I stumble along the way."

She encouraged her followers to "celebrate" each other and gave some advice on how to foster a more empathetic online environment.

Expand Close Actress Daisy Ridley attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center on February 28, 2016 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Actress Daisy Ridley attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center on February 28, 2016 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

Video of the Day

"Remember that expression, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. Kindness isn't going to cure the world of all its awfulness but it's a good place to begin."
The first time we saw the original Xpose gang hit the red carpet together - Karen Koster, Sybil Mulcahy, Lorraine Keane, Lisa Cannon, Aisling O'Loughlin, Glenda Gilson - at the now defunct VNow Awards at the Mansion House in 2008.

Awards season might be over, but red carpet season is only beginning in Ireland.

With the IFTAs and VIP Style Awards approaching this Spring, we rooted through the archives to check out what some of our favourite Irish celebrities wore during their early red carpet appearances.

Check out the gallery, here:
File photo taken on February 27, 2015 shows Celeste Nurse (2nd L), the mother of a South African girl who was abducted after birth in 1997, leaving the Cape Town magistrates' court with family members, after attending a hearing during which a 50-year old woman appeared for allegedly kidnapping Nurse's daughter

A South African woman has been convicted of kidnapping a newborn baby and raising her for 17 years before an astonishing coincidence reunited the girl with her biological family.

"You must have been the person who removed the child from hospital," High Court judge John Hlophe told the woman who claimed to have been handed the baby at a train station after entering into a private "adoption" programme.

"Your story, if anything is a fairy tale and the court rejects it with the contempt it deserves."

The 50-year-old accused, who cannot be named to protect the new identity of the kidnapped girl, remained grim-faced staring at the judge.

The girl's biological mother Celeste Nurse, 36, sobbed loudly as the guilty verdict was handed down while chants of "Yes! Yes!" were heard from the public gallery.

Read More

The accused was denied bail and ordered to return to court for sentencing on May 30.

The girl's real identity came to light in February last year, when her younger biological sister began attending high school and pupils pointed out her remarkable likeness to a final-year student.

Read More

The younger girl told her parents, who met the older girl and immediately believed she was their long-lost baby.

They called the police, and DNA tests confirmed that the girl was indeed their child, whom they had named Zephany Joy Nurse.

Without knowing it, the Nurse family had been living within a couple of miles of their kidnapped daughter, while celebrating her birthday every year and never giving up hope of finding her.
Police have been patrolling Tunisia in an attempt to crack down on terror

Slim Zghal's three beach hotels in Tunisia had their best month ever in June last year. Now, two of them are closed and the other one is less than a third full, as tourists are scared off by concerns over security.

"With 30 pc you can't make any money. But if running hotels is your dream, it's not only about the money," he told Reuters at the ITB travel fair in Berlin on Thursday.

Read More

The stakes are very high for the north African country, which witnessed the first of the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011 and is moving towards democracy while facing a growing threat from Islamic State.

At the world's biggest travel fair, it set out to deliver a upbeat message to reporters and travellers.

"Tunisia is safe," Tourism Minister Selma Elloumi Rekik said.

Read More

The country has taken a number of security measures since last summer, including hiring a security consultant to draw up a handbook for tourism-related operations such as hotels and museums, which were the focus of its news conference at the fair.

It is cooperating more closely with Britain, France and Germany since a gunman killed 38 people, mostly Britons, in the beach resort of Sousse in June.

Read More

This is echoed by the Foreign Office in London, which says: "The threat from terrorism in Tunisia is high. Further attacks remain highly likely, including against foreigners.

"It advises against all but essential travel to the country."

Zghal (52) has doubled the number of security guards in his hotel in Monastir, the only one of his three beach hotels that is still open, to 30 since the Sousse attack.

Alongside police, they patrol the hotel Royal Thalassa Monastir and the beach in uniform and plain clothes, guide guests through metal detectors at the hotel's only entrance and monitor security camera footage around the clock.

Read More

But with guests staying away, hotels are still booking losses.

"I have other projects, so it's not so bad. But for someone who has only hotels it would be very difficult," said Zghal.

The number of tourist arrivals in Tunisia dropped 25 pc to 5.4 million last year, the Tourism Ministry's website showed.

That contributed to a slowdown in economic growth to 0.8 pc from 2.3 pc a year earlier.
Jamie Gilt was in a stable condition in hospital after being shot in the abdomen

Jamie Gilt was in a stable condition in hospital after being shot in the abdomen

Police said they had not yet determined whether the victim of the incident was to face charges Twitter

An outspoken gun rights activist has been shot and wounded by her four-year-son - hours after she posted a message on social media saying how jacked up he was to shoot a weapon.

Police in Florida said Jamie Gilt was in a stable condition in hospital after being shot in the abdomen while driving. Police said it appeared her son, sitting in the back seat, had somehow managed to get his hands on a .45 calibre handgun and shoot her, the bullet passing through her body.

She was shot through the seat and the round went through her back, Capt Joseph Wells of the Putnam County Sheriffs Office, told the Florida Times-Union.

Ms Gilt, from Jacksonville, frequently posts on social media about her love of guns and her views on Second Amendment rights, as well as her support for Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz. Her Facebook page also contains material many would consider racist.

Expand Close Jamie Gilt was in a stable condition in hospital after being shot in the abdomen / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Jamie Gilt was in a stable condition in hospital after being shot in the abdomen

The night before Tuesday's incident she wrote that her 4-year-old gets jacked up to target shoot the .22. She has also posted a number of comments about how it is better to confront a burglar with a gun than to call the police.

I can promise though, if someone breaks into my house, or tries to harm me or my family pretty much anywhere, they will be shot and most likely killed, she said in one post.

Its my right to protect my life. Not sit around and wait for someone to come pack up my body or take me to the hospital after Ive been beaten and raped.

The police did not immediately respond to inquiries on Wednesday. However, a statement issued by the sheriffs office they were convinced the shooting was not intentional.

Before being transported to the emergency room, the victim told deputies that her son had accidentally shot her, it said.

The investigation by major crimes unit detectives and the analysis of the crime scene confirmed that the victim was accidentally shot by the young boy who was sitting in the back seat of the vehicle.

Police said that Florida law required gun owners to ensure they were kept securely.

Florida Statute makes it a misdemeanor for a person to store or leave, on a premise under his or her control, a loaded firearm in such a manner that it is likely a child can gain access to the firearm. The investigation is ongoing to determine exactly how the firearm was stored in the vehicle, police added.

Due to her medical condition, detectives have not been able to interview the victim and any decision on the filing of criminal charges will not come until after we speak with the victim.
Jeremy Meeks in a post after his release

Jeremy Meeks with his new manager

Jeremy Meeks makes a court appearance with his attorney Tai Bogan July 8, 2014 in Stockton, California. (Photo by Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)

The image of Jeremy Meeks that went viral.

Jeremy Meeks, 30, was held on five weapons charges and one gang charge according to police in northern California (Stockton Police Department Facebook/AP)

A 'smooth criminal' whose 'hot mugshot' melted the hearts of female admirers around the world looks set for fame in the fashion industry.

Jeremy Meeks (32) was sentenced to more than two years in jail for possession of a firearm last year but has been released early for good behaviour.

I want to thank my family and everybody for all your love, support and prayers. I'm overwhelmed and grateful for what lies ahead. I'm ready @jimjordanphotography and @whitecrossmanagement #jeremymeeks #jimjordan #whitecrossmanagement A photo posted by JEREMY MEEKS (@jmeeksofficial) on Mar 9, 2016 at 4:43pm PST

The convicts mugshot went viral and drew thousands of admirers and went viral after it was posted on Stockton Police Department's Facebook page, attracting comments like: "Apparently, it is a crime to look this fine."

The photogenic convict was signed by the White Cross Management, a California-based talent agency.

Looking forward to my time on the lake with my kids A photo posted by JEREMY MEEKS (@jmeeksofficial) on Mar 8, 2016 at 11:29am PST

Upon his release, Meeks was met by his agent Jim Jordan outside the prison.

"I want to thank my family and everybody for all your love, support and prayers," Meeks captioned one photo, pictured next to his agent, Jim Jordan.

Expand Close Jeremy Meeks with his new manager / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Jeremy Meeks with his new manager

"I'm overwhelmed and grateful for what lies ahead. I'm ready @jimjordanphotography and @whitecrossmanagement."

In another Instagram post, Meeks is pictured on a boat with the caption: "Looking forward to time on the lake with my kids."

His agent is also excited about the former prisoner's future.

"We have a lot in store regarding Jeremy's new career," Mr Jordan said in a statement.

Video of the Day

"There are a multitude of offers on the table.

"Jeremy is humbled and grateful and overwhelmed by the outpouring of love, support, and prayers for him and his family."

Police have previously described Meeks as "one of the most violent criminals in the Stockton area".
An improvised refugee camp on the border line between Macedonia and Serbia (AP)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has renewed her criticism of moves by other European countries to shut borders to migrants, which she said will not create a sustainable solution.

Austria's decision to impose a cap on refugee numbers set off a chain of border closures that shut the Balkan route used by migrants to trek to central Europe.

Mrs Merkel said: "This unilateral decision by Austria and subsequently by the Balkan countries on one hand brings us fewer refugees, but on the other hand puts Greece in a very difficult situation. And this situation is not durable and sustainable."

She added: "The problem is not solved by one (country) making a decision; it must be a decision that is right for all 28."

Her criticism came as the European Union said 23 of its member countries must start taking 6,000 refugees each month from Greece and Italy to ease Europe's migrant burden.

EU nations committed in September to relocate 160,000 refugees from Greece and Italy over two years to ease their burden, but seven months on fewer than 900 people have actually been shared.

The scheme is key to managing the migrant influx, and the EU's top migration official, Dmitris Avramopoulos, said that "if relocation does not work then the whole system will collapse".

Meanwhile, authorities in Macedonia said 472 people, mostly from Syria, remain stranded in no-man's land on the border with Serbia for a third day as a dispute between the two countries continued over which side should provide shelter for them.

The United Nations refugee agency said more than half of those stranded are children and described the conditions they are living under as "alarming", with migrants sleeping in small tents in a muddy field between the two countries.

Austria and Balkan countries on the route from Greece to northern Europe began imposing border restrictions for migrants last month and halted crossings completely this week, following a meeting of leaders from the European Union and Turkey.

The UN human rights chief has denounced the growing "race to repel" migrants and refugees by some European governments, and said he plans to raise his concerns in Brussels before an EU summit next week.

In his annual report to the Human Rights Council, Zeid Raad al-Hussein said a draft EU-Turkey agreement on handling the migration crisis announced this week raises serious concerns, including "the potential for collective and arbitrary expulsions" from the bloc.
Protesters shouting for the death penalty for rape during the third anniversary of Jyoti Singh's death (AP)

A three-year-old girl was present as her mother was brutally gang-raped and her two-week-old brother killed, in a case that Indian police are describing as even more ghastlier then the infamous 2012 killing of Jyoti Singh.

Read More

According to the Times of India, the young girl gave police a harrowing description of the ordeal after she escaped unseen when her mothers attackers stopped to dump the woman and her murdered infant son by the roadside.

The little girl was later found beside her unconscious mother by her father and other villagers, who had gone in search of the family after they failed to return when planned.

Read More

A spokesperson confirmed to the Times of India that they had recovered the body of a 14-day-old baby boy.

Superintendent of Police, Yamuna Prasad, said the woman, from Rampur, had travelled to Shishgarh to visit her sister because her child had been sick.

He said: Her child had been sick for sometime and she went to visit her sister to meet a tantrik [a healer].

She was returning to Rampur when she met the two accused at the bus station."

Prasad continued: The alleged rape took place when fellow passengers had left the bus.

Read More

It follows the death of a 15-year-old girl in New Delhi who lost her fight for life days after she was raped and set on fire by a 20-year-old man who reportedly stalked her for months.

In 2012, 23-year-old Jyoti Singh's attack hit world headlines after she was raped and tortured by six men on a bus in Delhi.

She was thrown from the vehicle and died a few weeks later in hospital.

Read More

Madhu Garg, of the All India Democratic Womens Association, told the Times of India that the incident was ghastlier" than Jyoti Singh's case due to the death of the infant.

She pledged to hold protests if murder charges were not filed against the accused, who have so far been booked only for gang-rape and culpable homicide offences.
A plane filled with biscuits has arrived in Britain to help ease the shortage of biscuits currently hitting serial snackers across the country.

This is the second plane in as many weeks to have flown in delicious cargo after one of the largest biscuit factories in Britain was flooded during the winter.

The McVities factory in Carlisle suffered flood damage when it was battered by Storm Eva in December.

Since then stocks levels of the likes of custard creams, rich tea and chocolate digestives have been dwindling.

The two Emirates flights have flown in the snacks to help feed Britains 34,000 tonne a month biscuit habit.

Dayle Hauxwell, cargo manager for Doncaster Sheffield Airport, where the biscuits arrived said, Weve welcomed all sorts of different cargo over the years from a pride of lions to last years consignment of tea, this time weve quite literally taken the biscuit!'"

These flights were the first flights from Emirates SkyCargo, the cargo airline, based in Dubai to Doncaster Sheffield Airport.

Mr Hauxwell added, We were delighted to welcome Emirates to Doncaster Sheffield Airport. This new relationship shows that our cargo operations are going from strength to strength and our reputation for handling cargo flights from around the globe is growing.

Thanks to this new relationship the Great British public have been able to enjoy a biscuit with their cuppa.
'The Queen is prohibited from taking sides in political debates and rarely makes her views public' Photo: PA

Buckingham Palace complained yesterday to Britain's press watchdog about a tabloid story claiming Queen Elizabeth (pictured right) wants the UK to leave the European Union (EU).

Under the headline 'Queen Backs Brexit', 'The Sun' quoted anonymous sources as saying she had told then- Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg in 2011 the EU was heading in the wrong direction. The story said the Queen "left no room for doubt about her passionate feelings over Europe."

The palace said it had written to the Independent Press Standards Organisation to complain that the story had breached a prohibition in the Editors' Code of Practice against "inaccurate, misleading or distorted information or images, including headlines not supported by the text."

The Queen is prohibited from taking sides in political debates and rarely makes her views public. Even the blandest statements can cause a flutter, as when the Queen told well-wishers before Scotland's 2014 independence referendum that people should think "very carefully about the future" before voting.

British politicians are immersed in a heated debate about Britain's place in Europe ahead of a June 23 referendum on whether to remain in the EU.

The palace earlier insisted "the Queen remains politically neutral, as she has for 63 years."
The car carrying four members of the Warrington-based band Viola Beach being recovered from the canal under the E4 highway bridge in Sodertalje, Sweden Photo: EPA

Swedish police believe that the driver of the car in which British indie band Viola Beach died probably acted intentionally after an examination of video footage of the moments before the crash.

The four-piece Warrington-based band of Kris Leonard, River Reeves, Tomas Lowe and Jack Dakin, were killed alongside their manager Craig Tarry when their hire car plunged 25 metres off a bridge into a canal in Sweden.

Expand Close The car carrying four members of the Warrington-based band Viola Beach being recovered from the canal under the E4 highway bridge in Sodertalje, Sweden Photo: EPA / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp The car carrying four members of the Warrington-based band Viola Beach being recovered from the canal under the E4 highway bridge in Sodertalje, Sweden Photo: EPA

Aged between 19 and 35, they were 18 miles from the capital Stockholm when the accident happened in the early hours of February 13. Since their deaths, preliminary post mortems have been carried out on the five Britons.

Read More

New footage of the moments before the crash, which appears in Swedens Aftonbladet paper, shows the car slowing down behind a lane of cars which are waiting for bridge barriers. However, the car swerves out on to the narrow shoulder and crashes through the barriers as it speeds up towards the bridge.

The driver overtook parked vehicles, using an off-limits part of the bridge, explained Kjell Lindgren from the Stockholm Police. Its not natural to carry on driving if theres a stop sign, parked cars and blinking red lights.

Lars Berglund, who is leading the Swedish polices investigation into the accident, told Aftonbladet that he now believed that most, if not all, of the band members had been killed at the point when their hired Nissan collided with the bridge.

As far as I can see, most of had already been killed up there on the bridge, he said. It looks like the driver was acting intentionally.

Last month it was revealed that the driver of the car had no drugs or alcohol in their system.

Stockholm Police spokeswoman, Carena Skagerlind, said: "We can confirm that the very preliminary post mortem results show that the driver of the car had no trace of alcohol or drugs in the blood."

She told the Press Association that for the moment they are not going to release any information on who was driving. More tests will be carried out in the coming weeks.
Smoke billows behind an Islamic State sign during clashes between militants from IS and Iraqi security forces (AP)

Police in Germany are in possession of files containing personal data on members of the extremist Islamic State group and believe them to be authentic.

The announcement by federal criminal police came after Sky News in Britain reported it had obtained 22,000 Islamic State files on the border with Turkey and Syria.

The files detailed IS fighters' real names, where they were from, telephone numbers, and even names of those who sponsored and recruited the militants.

The broadcaster said the files were passed on to them on a memory stick stolen from the head of Islamic State's internal security police by a former fighter who had grown disillusioned with the group.

Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported it had also obtained "dozens" of similar files on the Turkey-Syria border, where it said Islamic State files and videos were widely available from anti-IS Kurdish fighters and also members of the Islamic State group itself.

A spokeswoman for Germany's Bundeskriminalamt said her agency is currently evaluating the files.

She declined to say where the agency obtained the files, how many documents are involved and how long it has had them.

Sky reported that the documents are a collection of forms filled out by recruits when they were inducted into IS. The forms have 23 questions and include nationals from at least 51 countries, it is reported.

Germany's interior minister, Thomas de Maiziere, said that the material would give authorities a better chance to track down and prosecute people who had fought with IS.

The material also seems to have the potential to help authorities crack recruitment networks in Europe and elsewhere that have been sending fighters to join IS, which has seized large areas of land in Syria and Iraq and declared a self-styled caliphate on the territory under its control.

US army colonel Steve Warren, spokesman for the US-led coalition against IS, said the information could help the coalition fight the Islamic State group by aiding in a crackdown on its foreign fighter networks.

He said that while he was not able to verify the documents, he hoped that "if there is a media outlet that has these names and numbers, I hope they publish them".

This would help bring attention to the problem of foreign fighters joining IS, and would help law enforcement crack down on the problem, he said.

"This would allow the law enforcement apparatus across the world to become much more engaged and begin to help do what we can to stem this flow of foreign fighters - so we're hopeful that its accurate and if so we certainly plan to do everything we can to help," he said.

There are no clear estimates of how many IS fighters are in Iraq and Syria, but the numbers range between 30,000 and 100,000. A CIA assessment in late 2014 put the number of IS fighters at around 31,500.
Ukrainian Nadezhda Savchenko sits in a glass cage during a trial in the town of Donetsk (AP)

A Ukrainian pilot on trial in Russia has agreed to take water but will continue a hunger strike following an appeal by Ukraine's president.

Nadezhda Savchenko, who served in a volunteer battalion against Russia-backed separatists and is accused of involvement in the deaths of two Russian journalists, went on hunger strike and refused to take water after a court hearing on Friday.

Rights advocates were concerned that Savchenko could die if she kept refusing water.

Mark Feygin, a lawyer for Savchenko, posted a letter from her saying that she will take water but keep up the hunger strike.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has pledged to do "all it takes" to exchange Savchenko for any Russian prisoner and bring her home.

Savchenko was captured by the separatists in July 2014.

She said the separatists handed her over to the Russians who took her across the border. Moscow claims that Savchenko escaped from the rebels and crossed the border on her own before she was arrested.

Top officials in Ukraine and elsewhere have been advocating for Savchenko's release and called her a prisoner of war.

Russian officials have refused to discuss the possibility of a prisoner exchange while Savchenko is waiting for a verdict, expected at the end of March.

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, said that the Kremlin "made a note" of Mr Poroshenko's statement as well as Savchenko's decision to take water but he refused to comment further.
Iran and Britain have signed an agreement for 42 weekly passenger flights between the two countries, a report has said.

Iranian state TV said the countries' civil aviation authorities would allow each nation to maintain 21 weekly flights to various destinations. There will also be unlimited cargo flights.

British Airways plans to resume its scheduled flights to Iran in July. The carrier halted flights to Tehran in 2012 amid rifts between Iran and the West over Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Iran Air, however, continued its three weekly flights to London.

Last December, Air France also said it would resume flights to Tehran for the first time in more than seven years, starting in April.
MPs clear the hall after a tear gas canister was released during a parliamentary session (AP)

Kosovo's government has installed a body scanner to stop opposition legislators smuggling tear gas into parliament and releasing it as they have done in every session for the past six months.

In their latest protest against a 2015 EU-brokered deal with Serbia, opposition members of parliament on Thursday released two canisters, threw a glass of water at Prime Minister Isa Mustafa and aimed red lasers at the interior minister's face.

Read More

With security measures so far having failed to stop the protests, the government plans to buy a new body scanner, of the type used at international airports to detect explosives.

Opposition members said it was "top secret" how they smuggled the canisters into parliament.

However, one police officer checking deputies at the building, speaking on condition of anonymity, said be believed they hide the canisters on their body, under their clothes.

Expand Close Opposition MP Albin Kurti pepper sprays Kosovo's prime minister Isa Mustafa during a parliament session in the capital Pristina (AP) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Opposition MP Albin Kurti pepper sprays Kosovo's prime minister Isa Mustafa during a parliament session in the capital Pristina (AP)

Read More

He said the existing scanners did not necessarily detect the canisters - some of which easily fit in a pocket - because they were covered in plastic and rubber.

Police only say publicly they are investigating how the canisters are being taken into parliament.

The government said on Thursday the new scanner would cost around 270,000.

Already the parliament meeting room has had new ventilators installed on the roof to clear gas.

Read More

The opposition has been protesting for months against the EU-brokered deal to give more power to a small Serb minority.

The agreement, which has yet to take effect following a critical judicial review by Kosovo's highest court, has set off the worst political crisis in the country, whose population is 90 pc ethnic Albanian, since independence in 2008.

Read More

The opposition, which has been demanding the resignation of the government over the agreement, is call its supporters to protest on March 26.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, almost a decade after NATO air strikes drove out Serbian security forces accused of killing and expelling ethnic Albanian civilians during a counter-insurgency war.
House Speaker Paul Ryan pays his respects at the casket of Nancy Reagan

The casket of Nancy Reagan rests at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

A police officer stands guard outside a mortuary where a small ceremony for former first lady Nancy Reagan took place

A portrait of former first lady Nancy Reagan decorates the doors of the main entrance at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California (AP)

Three days of formal mourning for former first lady Nancy Reagan has begun.

Mrs Reagan's casket was taken in a police-escorted motorcade up an empty road for a public viewing at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

The procession from Santa Monica passed beneath a large American flag on a stretch of normally congested road way and then turned onto the Ronald Reagan Freeway where firefighters saluted from atop fire trucks parked on overpasses and other observers held their hands over their hearts.

As the procession turned up the long, steep driveway to the library in the hills of Simi Valley, more than 100 people held small flags.

Members of the armed services carried the casket into the library, where daughter Patti Davis, dressed in black, was among about 20 family members and close friends who attended a short prayer service at the closed casket.

"May angels surround her and saints release her to Jesus," the Rev Stuart Kenworthy, vicar at the Washington National Cathedral, said during the 10-minute service.

The Rev Donn Moomaw, the Reagan family's pastor, read from the 23rd Psalm, which begins, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want."

Attendees included the children of Ronald Reagan's son Michael and Dennis Revell, the widower of the president's late daughter Maureen. Michael Reagan and the president's other son, Ron Prescott Reagan, are expected at Friday's funeral.

After the private service, House Speaker Paul Ryan paid his respects, bowing his head in prayer aside the casket and making the sign of the cross.

The casket was covered in white roses and peonies, Mrs Reagan's favourite flowers.

Earlier, after a short private service at a Santa Monica funeral home, the casket was carried by pallbearers that included members of Reagan's Secret Service detail to a hearse for the final 45-mile journey to the hill country north-west of Los Angeles where two days of public viewing precede the funeral.

Several hundred onlookers stretched along the boulevard leading away from the Tudor-style funeral home.

"She was just a very classy woman, always," said Jeanie Maurello, a medical assistant at Providence St. John's Health Centre. "I thought she did a wonderful job. 'Just Say No' to drugs, she was behind all that."

She added: "There's always a great woman behind every great man."

Friday will be the funeral, which was planned down to the smallest details by the former first lady herself. Just as she was always by his side in life, Nancy Reagan will be laid to rest just inches from her husband on a hillside tomb facing west toward the Pacific Ocean.

Before her death at her Los Angeles homes on Sunday aged 94, she planned the funeral's flower arrangements, the music to be played by a Marine Corps band and the people who received invitations to the private memorial.

Among those who had RSVP'd for the service were former President George W Bush and his wife, former first lady Laura Bush; former first lady Rosalynn Carter; first lady Michelle Obama; and former first lady Hillary Clinton.

"No doubt about it, the most important of her special requests was that she be laid to rest right next to the president, as close as possible," said John Heubusch, executive director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library.

The hour-long service, to which approximately 1,000 people have been invited, was to take place on the library's lawn.

Those with White House connections who have said they will attend include President Richard Nixon's daughter Tricia Nixon Cox and President Lyndon Johnson's daughters Lynda Bird Johnson Robb and Luci Baines Johnson. Other guests will include Katie Couric, Chris Matthews, Newt and Callista Gingrich, Anjelica Houston, Wayne Newton and actor Mr T, the Ronald Reagan Foundation said. Mr T was involved in Mrs Reagan's "Just Say No" anti-drug efforts during the 1980s.

Captain Christopher Bolt, commanding officer of the USS Ronald Reagan, will also be in attendance.
Morne Nurse, the father of a child kidnapped in 1997, leaves court in Cape Town, South Africa (AP)

A judge in South Africa has found a woman guilty of kidnapping a newborn from a hospital nearly two decades ago and raising the girl as her own, a spokesman for the prosecution said.

Judge John Hlophe, in Cape Town, convicted the woman of kidnapping, fraud and contravening child protection laws, said Eric Ntabazalila, spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority.

The judge revoked bail and the woman will be detained until her May 30 sentencing, he said. The judge mentioned in court that she could be looking at a 10-year prison sentence, said Mr Ntabazalila.

State prosecutors said the woman snatched a three-day-old baby from her sleeping mother's hospital bedside in Cape Town in April 1997. The prosecution also said the woman defrauded authorities when she registered the child as her own daughter in 2003, also changing her birth date.

The defendant, now 51, pleaded not guilty to all three charges. During the trial she testified that she adopted the child.

"I didn't know the baby was stolen," the woman testified, according to the African News Agency.

The girl was reunited with her biological parents, Morne and Celeste Nurse, last year after their second daughter befriended a girl at school who looked remarkably like her. After a police investigation and DNA tests, that new friend turned out to be the their missing child.

The biological parents sobbed as the judge read the verdict, ANA reported.

The girl, now 18, was not in court and is taking high school final exams. The judge ordered that neither the defendant nor the girl may be identified.
An aid worker with Scots charity Mary's Meals delivers food to the Somalian capital Mogadishu

Thirty-four countries - nearly 80% of them in Africa - do not have enough food for their people because of conflicts, drought and flooding, a United Nations report has said.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation's Crop Prospects and Food Situation report said conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, and the Central African Republic had taken a heavy toll on agricultural production, worsening the humanitarian crisis in those countries.

The impact of these conflicts extends to neighbouring countries that are hosting refugees, straining food resources, it said.

Congo is not only dealing with nearly 100,000 refugees from Central African Republic but conflict in the east, where an estimated 1.5 million people are displaced, and flooding related to El Nino, which has affected about half a million people, the report said.

The FAO said drought associated with El Nino "sharply reduced" 2016 crop production prospects in southern Africa. It said dry conditions linked to El Nino may also affect the planting of crops for the main growing season in areas of Central America and the Caribbean for the third consecutive year.

Dry conditions have also lowered expectations for harvests this year in Morocco and Algeria, the report said.

The FAO also warned that drought and floods in North Korea in 2015 "sharply decreased" food crop production in the early and main growing seasons.

"With a reduced harvest in 2015, the food security situation is likely to deteriorate compared to the situation of previous years, when most households were already estimated to have borderline or poor food consumption rates," the report said.

The number of countries needing outside food assistance grew from 33 in December, after the addition of Swaziland, where El Nino-associated drought conditions have sharply lowered 2016 cereal crop production prospects.

Other countries on the FAO list facing food shortages are Zimbabwe; Burkina Faso; Chad; Djibouti; Eritrea; Guinea; Liberia; Malawi; Mali; Mauritania; Niger; Sierra Leone; Burundi; Republic of Congo; Ethiopia; Kenya; Lesotho; Madagascar; Mozambique; South Sudan; Sudan; Swaziland; Uganda; Afghanistan; Myanmar (Burma); and Nepal.

Elsewhere, the report said, the outlook for 2016 crops already in the ground, mostly winter grains in the northern hemisphere, is generally favourable and early forecasts indicate large wheat crops in most Asian countries.

The FAO's first forecast for wheat production in 2016 is 723 million tons - 10 million tons below the record output in 2015.
SHARE Contributed photo The hamburgers, below, are great at Bad Daddy's Burger Bar is at 1025 Woodruff Road in Greenville.

By Jake Grove of the Independent Mail

Last week, a friend of mine on Facebook posed a question to his group of buddies: "Where is the best place to get a burger and a beer in Greenville?"

The answers were varied and the debate was strong, but in the end this friend of mine decided to head over to Bad Daddy's Burger Bar, the newest burger joint to open their doors in G-Vegas.

Bad Daddy's is the kind of place you wonder about when they open. The name is a little different and leads you to think of a more rustic, hole-in-the-wall kind of place where burly men eat big burgers and swig on cold, domestic beers. But the menu is a bit deeper than all that. Sure, Bad Daddy's offers big ol' burgers, but the care and ingredients in each one is impressive. And the beer is certainly cold, but they carry an array of craft beers and go out of their way to help you pair those beers with the right burger for you and your taste.

In other words, the name might make you think one thing, but everything else about Bad Daddy's is something completely different. It's something you want to experience to understand and this was mine.

At Bad Daddy's, the feel of a neighborhood bar is evident from the start. There is a nice sized bar sitting back from the front door with plenty of tables and booths to accommodate large parties or more intimate gatherings. They have a nice outdoor dining area as spring and summer approach and it's kind of like walking into a mix of your bar down the street and a Red Robin.

But ambiance is one thing. What about the food? Well, like we always do, we start with the starters and go from there.

These days, starters are like meals by themselves. Bad Daddy's offers up fried pickles, chicken wings, nachos, sliders, onion straws, tater tots, truffle fries and chili as their starters proving that you can eat like a king and never get past the first third of the menu.

But the also focus on leafy greens a bit with their "chopped salads" like the Texican Chicken Salad or the Asian Salad. They even do a Greek salad and a BBQ Chicken Salad. But if you don't like any of that, Bad Daddy's lets you choose your own salad toppings by picking a green, four toppings, a fruit, a "crunch" like croutons or pecans, a dressing and, if desired, a protein. Think of it like a fast casual salad joint rolled into a burger place.

But my buddy was looking for a burger and when he showed me a picture of the kind of burgers Bad Daddy's has to offer I nearly had a heart attack from joy and from anticipation of putting that much ground beef in my gullet.

Their specialty burgers include the All American Burger with ketchup, mustard, lettuce, tomato, onion and pickles. They also have the Sam I Am Burger with cheese, a fried egg, rosemary ham and fresh pesto and the Nick's Patty Melt on rye bread with Swiss cheese.

One of my favorites was the Pittsburgher with cheese, fries, garlic ketchup and lettuce.

Or the Mama Ricotta's Burger with mozzarella, pesto, tomato and pepperoncini.

You can also get the "non"-burgers like Buffalo Chicken Sandwich, the Chicken Club, a Frenchie Burger with a turkey burger patty with Brie cheese and applewood smoked bacon or the Shrimp Burger. Or make your own by picking the meat you want, the bread you like, the cheese, condiments and other toppings from basic to premium.

Last, the beverages. Bad Daddy's has lots of craft beer and the taps rotate all the time. They also do milkshakes like their Chunky Elvis with peanut butter, chocolate and banana or the BD Snickered which is like a Snickers bar in milkshake form.

Bad Daddy's is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. They are located at 1025 Woodruff Road in Greenville and each burger or entree runs between $8 and $14.

For more information, call 864.288.8161.
SHARE

By Brett Barest, Special to Your Hometown Fun bbarest@gmail.com

The Excons might be the most unassuming and under the radar band in the Upstate music scene. In appearance they look like four average Joe's and in schedule they do not play with the frequency of some other local names. In practice, however, they are cooking up something special and that is exactly how drummer John Byce likes it.

"This is not a career, we are not going to tour," he says, "We just want to have fun playing music." This is a modest and humble position for such a talented band that is really doing something unique and entirely their own way.

For Byce, the musical journey began in Clemson when he played in the band Grass Cactus in the 1990s. Upon graduation and moving to Greenville he played in a series of bands such as Spicket, Outer Space Ways Inc. and Rocket #9. "I was just hustling, trying to play anywhere I could," he recalls.

Seeking to get his feet wet in a larger music scene, he moved to Chicago with hopes of making music a full time career. As it turned out, it was a pretty eye opening experience in terms of understanding the music industry. "I just wanted to play music full time in a band," he says "and then I met the artists that were in the bands I liked and they all had day jobs. This was my end game and they were still working as stockboys."

Still, he found success with The Fruit Bats who were signed to Sub-Pop Records and were a classic case of a band that almost made it big. Ironically, their recordings from the early 2000s are more popular today than they were then and Byce laughs that the band "was just a late bloomer."

Eventually Byce and his wife returned to Greenville, started a family and all but left music behind. "I didn't play for a very long time. I missed it." That changed when he and some other parents of his children's elementary school put together a Rolling Stones cover band for the school's annual art fair. Rebitten by the music bug, Byce teamed with Porter Whitmire and Taylor Vandiver and the three started playing in his basement. Originally thought to be a jam session among friends, Byce insisted they write their own material and The Excons were born. Last summer they added Brett Helsel and the band became a complete four piece arrangement.

Musically, The Excons are everything there is to love about indie rock. These are four guys that are playing for the love of music with absolutely no end game in mind. This is not to say they are not dedicated to their craft, however, as they continue to write music and are currently putting the finishing touches on their second EP. Each recording has a sort of "amateurish charm" that actually enhances the fact that the music is original, creative and comes from a place of immense talent.

"We want to write music that makes you think the song is going one way and then we take it in a whole different direction." It is this attitude that makes a band sound fresh, different and worth listening to and The Excons execute this perfectly.

This Saturday will see The Excons play both their first show of 2016 and their first show ever at The Independent Public Ale (IPA) House. They will be joined by Greenville's The Jericho Brothers and their self-described brand of "rock n' roll with a dollop of weird on top."
SHARE Brandon Grace pours a glass of wine for a customer at Viva! Il Vino in downtown Anderson.

By Jake Grove of the Independent Mail

Get ready Pendleton because an Anderson institution is coming your way starting Friday.

At 4 p.m. Friday, the newest business in Pendleton, Viva! il Vino Pendleton, will officially open its doors.

Based off the success of Anderson's original Viva!, the Pendleton space is three times the size, offers a few more amenities and is sure to be another bright spot on the Village Square in town.

"It's all so exciting," said Shayna Hollander, owner of Viva! il Vino in Anderson and Pendleton.

"I have been looking for a second location spot for a year now and when this space in Pendleton came up it truly spoke to me."

Located at 168 Exchange St. on Pendleton's Village Square, the Viva! il Vino expansion will include many of the same things customers experience at Anderson's Church Street location.

There will be wonderful snacks of Italian meats, cheeses and crackers along with an expansive wine menu and even a few European sodas and non-alcoholic beverages.

What will be a bit different, Hollander said, is the beer on tap and the space for larger groups and even meetings.

"It's nice to have room for beer on tap and we have a great selection of those," she said.

"And instead of one room, we have three rooms that can be used in a variety of ways."

Hollander said the main space is where the bar is and where most of the chairs and tables will be.

But to get there, you pass by two smaller rooms that will be used in different ways.

The rooms are about 250 square feet each. One will have club chairs and sofas and have a more living room feel to it.

The other will house a long table perfect for brainstorming meetings and more.

The opening of a second location has been something Hollander has wanted since seeing the response to the concept five years ago.

She said Viva! was built as a place where people can talk to each other.

There is no TV and they discourage the regular use of cell phones over talking to the people at the table with you.

"It makes me sad any time I see someone texting at a table where they are sitting with their friends," Hollander said.

"I just, gently, tell them to stop playing with their toys."

The Pendleton location will also have a patio area complete with custom made picnic tables.

The hope, she said, is that people will meet old and new friends at the table in the spirit of the European outdoor areas. Hollander found a local woodworker to build her tables for her and they come complete with a small cooler area to keep your beer and wine cold while outside.

The grand opening event will be Friday starting at 4 p.m.

Live music will play from the Carl Neil Trio and the night will be a precursor to the events to come. Hollander said they hope to bring the popular Wall of Wine event to Pendleton along with regular live music and more. Until then, they will introduce themselves to Pendleton day by day including at the Second Friday event and at the Pendleton Spring Jubilee the first weekend in April.

Viva! il Vino Pendleton will be open from 4 to 10 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 4 to 11 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday.

For more information, call 864.634.9616.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today introduced a slew of policy measures which included passing of amendment in MMRDA act as well as hydrocarbon exploration policy. Here is a gist of the key decisions:With an aim to enhance domestic oil & gas production and bring substantial investment in the sector, the policy is also aimed at enhancing transparency and reducing administrative discretion. The key points of this policy are uniform license for exploration and production of all forms of hydrocarbon, an open acreage policy, easy to administer revenue sharing model and marketing and pricing freedom for the crude oil and natural gas produced. The uniform licence will enable the contractor to explore conventional as well as unconventional oil and gas resources including CBM, shale gas/oil, tight gas and gas hydrates under a single license. The concept of Open Acreage Policy will enable E&P companies choose the blocks from the designated areaThe amendment will allow transfer of captive mining leases not granted through auction. Transfer of captive mining leases, granted otherwise than through auction, would allow mergers and acquisitions of companies and facilitate ease of doing business for companies to improve profitability and decrease costs of the companies' dependent on supply of mineral ore from captive leases. The transfer provisions will also facilitate banks and financial institutions to liquidate stressed assets where a company or its captive mining lease is mortgaged.The cabinet gave approval to the proposal for extension of the value date to 8th March 2016 of the Existing Currency Swap facility of USD 1.1 billion availed by Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) from Reserve Bank of India (which was due to be repaid on 3rd March 2016).The Union Cabinet also gave its approval for providing a special swap of USD 700 million to Sri Lanka for a period of 3 months or till the time Sri Lanka avails the IMF facility whichever is earlier.It allows for the creation of an Indian holding company of DPW with unique asset portfolio to operate and manage the terminal operations at the existing major ports subject to certain safeguards. The decision will promote Foreign Direct Investment and private sector participation in the port sector. The Government has agreed to the proposal for restructuring by DPW subject to the condition that the net worth of the holding company HPPL after acquisition of the shares of the project SPVs shall be higher than US $ 80 million.To improve te viability of some of the discoveries already made in such areas, Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has given its approval to a proposal to grant marketing including pricing freedom for the gas produced from High Pressure High Temperature, Deepwater and Ultra Deepwater areas. The marketing freedom so granted would be capped by a ceiling price arrived at on the basis of landed price of alternative fuels. The ceiling price in US $ per mmbtu (GCV) shall be the, lowest of the (i) Fuel oil import landed price (ii) Weighted average import landed price of substitute fuels (0.3 x price of coal + 0.4 x price of fuel oil + 0.3 x price of naphtha) and (iii) LNG import landed price, whichever is lower.Policy for Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) extension will lead to production of hydrocarbons beyond the present term of PSC. The CCEA has approved a policy for grant of extension to the PSC for small and medium sized discovered fields. This extension policy deals with 28 fields. Of these 27 fields (small and medium sized fields) were awarded as a result of two rounds of bidding during 1991 to 1993, and one (PY-3) was separately put to bidding as discovered field.
Reliance Industries Ltd has announced that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on March 10, 2016, has declared an interim dividend of Rs. 10.50 per fully paid-up equity share of Rs. 10/- each of the Company.



Hero MotoCorp, country's largest two-wheeler maker, declared an interim dividend of Rs. 40 per equity share for the financial year ending March 31.



Symphony Limited, Worlds largest air cooler company, declared 2nd interim dividend of Rs. 20/- (1000 %) on face value of Rs. 2/- per share for the financial year 2015-16 (of 9 months ending on 31-3-2016).



Kirloskar Industries Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of Kirloskar Ferrous Industries Limited (KFIL), a listed material subsidiary of the Company, at its meeting held on March 10, 2016, has declared an Interim Dividend of Rs. 1.25 per equity share of Rs. 5 each (i.e. 25 percent) for the Financial Year 2015-2016.



Maharashtra Scooters Ltd has informed BSE that the Company has fixed March 23, 2016 as the Record Date for the purpose of Payment of Interim Dividend, if declared and the payment thereof shall be credited / dispatched by around March 30, 2016.



Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd has announced that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on March 09, 2016 have approved 2nd Interim Dividend of Rs. 0.75 (Seventy five paisa only) per equity share of Rs. 5/- each, for the Financial Year 2015-16.



Poly Medicure Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on March 10, 2016, inter alia, has declared Interim Dividend for the financial year 2015-16, of Rs. 2.50 per equity share i.e. @ 50% (Fifty) on equity shares of Rs. 5/- each fully paid-up of the Company.



Technocraft Industries (India) Ltd has informed BSE that on March 10, 2016, the Board of Directors approved payment of the Interim Dividend of Rs. 3.00 (three) per Equity Share for the Financial Year 2015-16 by passing a resolution by way of circulation.



Arihant Capital Markets Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on March 10, 2016, has declared Interim Dividend of Rs. 0.75 (15% per share) on the Equity Shares of the Company for the financial year 2015-16.



Lovable Lingerie Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on March 10, 2016, inter alia, have declared Interim Dividend of Rs. 1.50 per Equity Share of Rs. 10/- each i.e. 15% of the face value for the financial year 2015-2016.



Aarti Drugs Ltd has informed BSE that the Company has fixed March 24, 2016 as the Record Date as for the purpose of Declaration of Third Interim Dividend, if any.



KNR Constructions Ltd has informed BSE that the Company has fixed March 23, 2016 as the Record Date for the purpose of Payment of Interim Dividend, if declared.



S H Kelkar and Company Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company through circular resolution passed on March 10, 2016 has approved and declared an interim dividend of Rs. 1.50 per equity share on 14,46,20,801 fully paid-up equity shares of face value of Rs. 10/- each for the financial year 2015-16.



Victoria Mills Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on March 10, 2016, has approved declaration of Interim Dividend of Rs. 50/- (50%) per equity share of Rs. 100/- each for the Financial Year 2015-2016 to the equity shareholders of the Company.





Torrent Power Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on March 10, 2016, inter-alia, to consider declaration of the Interim Dividend on the equity shares of the Company for the FY 2015-16.



Welspun India Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on March 10, 2016, inter alia, to consider the proposal to declare interim dividend on equity shares for financial year 2015-16.



D. B. Corp Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on March 10, 2016, has declared a One-time Special Dividend of Rs. 3.25 per equity share of face value of Rs. 10/- each, for the Financial Year 2015-16 to be paid to all the eligible shareholders on March 29, 2016 (payment date).



NRB Bearings Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on March 10, 2016, has approved the interim dividend @Rs.1.40/- per equity share of Rs.2/- each.



Symphony Limited, Worlds largest air cooler company, declared 2nd interim dividend of Rs. 20/- (1000 %) on face value of Rs. 2/- per share for the financial year 2015-16 (of 9 months ending on 31-3-2016). The same comprises of normal dividend of Rs. 10/- (500 %) and special dividend of Rs.10/- (500 %) on face value of Rs. 2/- per share.



The Board of Directors of Bajaj Electricals Limited has, at its meeting held today, declared an interim dividend at 140% i.e. Rs.2.80 per share on 10,09,48,976 equity shares of Rs.2 each for FY 2015-16, as against final dividend at 75% for FY 2014-15.



Piramal Enterprises Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on March 09, 2016, has declared an interim dividend of Rs. 17.50 per Equity Share of face value Rs. 2/- (i.e. 875%).



Shoppers Stop Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company by passing a resolution by circulation on March 10, 2016 has declared Interim Dividend of Rs. 0.75 per share of Rs. 5/- each (i.e. 15%) on the paid up equity share capital of the Company for the financial year 2015-16.



Divis Laboratories Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on March 10, 2016, has declared an interim dividend @ Rs. 10/-per equity share of face value of Rs. 2/- each for the financial year 2015-16.



GM Breweries Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on April 05, 2016, inter alia, to consider and to take on record the audited Financial Results for the quarter / Year ended March 31, 2016. Further the Board would consider declaration of Final Dividend, if any, on the equity shares of the Company, for the financial year 2015-2016.



Mold-Tek Packaging Ltd has declared an Interim Dividend for the financial year 2015-16, @ 40% (inclusive of 20% onetime - 30th year additional dividend) i.e., Rs. 2/- per equity share on face value of Rs 5/-. The Interim Dividend declared shall be paid on or from March 22, 2016 to April 09, 2016.



Jyothy Laboratories Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on March 10, 2016, recommended Interim Dividend of Rs. 4.00 (Rupees Four Only) per equity share of Re. 1/- each for the financial year 2015-16.



Indoco Remedies Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on March 10, 2016, has decided to declare an interim dividend of Rs. 1.40 per share (70%) for the financial year 2015-16.



Aarti Drugs Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on March 16, 2016, inter alia, to consider declaration of 3rd Interim Dividend for the financial year 2015-16, if any.



MM Forgings Ltd has informed BSE that the Company has fixed March 22, 2016 as the Record Date for the purpose of payment of Interim Dividend.



Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd has announced that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on March 09, 2016 have approved 2nd Interim Dividend of Rs. 0.75 (Seventy five paisa only) per equity share of Rs. 5/- each, for the Financial Year 2015-16.



AIA Engineering Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on March 10, 2016, to consider the declaration of Interim Dividend for the Financial Year 2015-16.



Astral Poly Technik Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on March 10, 2016, inter alia, to consider, the declaration of 2nd Interim Dividend to the members of the Company for the Financial year 2015-16.



Bajaj Electricals Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on March 10, 2016, inter alia, to consider and declare Interim dividend for financial year ended March 31, 2016 i.e. FY 2015-16.



D. B. Corp Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on March 10, 2016, inter alia, to consider declaration of One-time Special Dividend for the FY 2015-16, if any and to fix Record Date for the purpose.



Dishman Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on March 10, 2016, inter alia, to consider and declare interim dividend on equity shares of the Company for the financial year 2015-16.



Divis Laboratories Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on March 10, 2016,

inter-alia, to consider and declare interim dividend on the paid-up equity share capital of the Company for the financial year 2015-16.



Great Eastern Shipping Company Ltd has now informed BSE that the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company scheduled on March 10, 2016, will, inter-alia, also consider declaration of Interim Dividend, if any.



Hero MotoCorp Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on March 10, 2016, inter alia, to consider and declare the Interim Dividend for the financial year ending March 31, 2016.



Jyothy Laboratories Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on March 10, 2016, inter alia, to consider the declaration of Interim Dividend on the Equity Shares of the Company for the financial year 2015-16.



KCP Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on March 10, 2016, inter alia, to consider the declaration of interim dividend, if any.



KRBL Ltd has informed BSE that March 18, 2016 has been fixed as Record Date for payment of Interim Dividend that may be declared by the Board of Directors for the Financial year 2015-16 at their Meeting to be held on March 10, 2016.



Marico Ltd has now informed BSE that the Company has Revised the Record Date as March 18, 2016 instead of March 17, 2016 as informed earlier, for the purpose of Payment of Third Interim Dividend.



Noida Toll Bridge Company Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on March 10, 2016, inter alia, to consider payment of Interim Dividend on the Equity Shares of the Company, for the Financial Year 2015-2016.



Rico Auto Industries Ltd has informed BSE that the Company has fixed March 18, 2016 as the Record Date for the purpose of Payment of Interim Dividend, if approved.



Shoppers Stop Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on March 10, 2016, will consider the proposal for declaration of Interim Dividend to the equity shareholders, for the financial year 2015-16.



Shree Cement Ltd has informed BSE that a Resolution is proposed to be passed by the Board of Directors of the Company by way of circulation on March 10, 2016 to consider declaration of 2nd interim dividend for the financial year 2015-16 and fixation of record date for the same, if declared.



Symphony Ltd has informed BSE that the Company has fixed March 18, 2016 as the Record Date for the purpose of ascertaining members eligible to receive 2nd interim dividend for the financial year 2015-16.



On March 11, the board of directors of as many as 51 companies will meet to consider the interim dividend, while on March 12 & March 14 nearly 30 companies will announce an interim dividend for FY2015-16.
: Infosys shareholders to offer 7.5m shares at Rs. 1,149.0-1,178.5 each in a block deal. Selling Shareholders include names like S Gopalakrishnan (5mm shares), S D Shibulal (1mm shares), Kumari Shibulal (1mm shares), and Shruti Shibulal (0.5mm shares).: The Board of Directors of the Company has considered and declared an interim dividend at the rate of Rs.50/- per equity share of Rs. 10 each (i.e. 500 %), for the financial year ending March 31, 2016.: The licensing committee of the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) has approved 12 industrial licences for Reliance Defence, a subsidiary of Reliance Infrastructure, for the manufacture of wide range of defence equipment required by the Indian Armed Forces and overseas markets.: Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company has approved 2nd Interim Dividend of Rs. 0.75 per equity share of Rs. 5/- each, for the Financial Year 2015-16.: Banking stocks would again be in focus, especially those who have lent to Vijay Mallya. The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to Vijay Mallya, the business tycoon who owes Rs. 9,000 crore (including interest) to a consortium of 17 banks, and sought his reply within two weeks in response to a petition filed by the banks to block him from fleeing the country. However, latest reports suggest that Mallya has already left the country.: Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd has informed BSE that as part of review of rating, a communication has been received from CRISIL Ratings informing that BHEL's Long Term Rating for Bank Loan Facilities has been revised to CRISIL AA+/Negative (Downgraded from CRISIL AAA/Negative). The copy of CRISIL Rating is enclosed.: Essar Steel which was to sell assets worth INR 11,200 crore by the end of March to retire its debt, will miss the deadline after the RBI issued a directive banning sale and leaseback of assets, reports a business daily.: The company said it would sell its overseas power business to a US private equity fund for an enterprise value of 115 million ($126.1 million), to pay down debts and invest in faster growing Indian businesses.: Sharp India announced that Sharp Corporation Japan, who owns 75% of the equity share capital of the Company, has adopted a resolution at its meeting of the Board of Directors held on 25 February 2016 Sharp Corporation, Japan shall issue new shares (common shares and Class C Shares) through third-party allotment (the Capital Increase Through Third-Party Allotment), in which the allottees are Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (Hon Hai Precision Industry"), Foxconn (Far East), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn FE), Foxconn Technology(Foxconn Technology), and SIO International Holdings (SIO; together with Hon Hai Precision Industry, Foxconn FE, and Foxconn Technology, collectively the Planned Allottees").: RBI has allowed overseas investors to buy stake in Kotak Mahindra Bank as foreign shareholding in the private bank has come below the prescribed limit.: The company has allotted 1.87 cr shares to 3 lenders at Rs 11.89 per equity share aggregating to Rs 22.26 crore to three CDR lenders on conversion of part of their outstanding loan and interest into equity shares.: Corporation Bank board has approved raising Rs. 1,000 crore capital in multiple tranches and with a green-shoe option.: Lupin has completed its acquisition of privately held US based GAVIS Pharmaceuticals LLC and Novel Laboratories Inc. (GAVIS).The Seventh CPSE disinvestment of the fiscal year 2015-16 took place today with the CONCOR (Non-Retail basket) OFS getting oversubscribed by 2 times.Zydus Cadila has received tentative nod from the US health regulator to market Clofarabine injection, used for treatment of cancer of the white blood cells, in the American market.Moody's Investors Service has affirmed ICICI Bank Limited's local and foreign currency deposit ratings of Baa3/P-3.Unichem Laboratories: Unichem Laboratories Limited has announced that it has received ANDA approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for Quetiapine Fumarate Tablets.: Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) on Wednesday said it has entered into a settlement with ex-employees, who were allegedly exposed to toxic mercury vapour at its former thermometer factory in Kodaikanal.Tata Power Renewable Energy Limited , a 100% subsidiary of Tata Power, Indias largest integrated power company, has signed a SPA with Indo Rama Renewables Limited to acquire its 100% subsidiary, Indo Rama Renewables Jath Limited, (IRRJL) which owns a 30 MW wind farm in Sangli District of Maharashtra.a: The company has bagged EPC work of Rs. 75.72 crores from Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) for the construction of six lane bridge on Ulhas Creek near Durgadi fort on Bhivandi-Kalyan-Adilabad Road (NH-222).NIIT Technologies: The company has secured Best Service Provider award by DB Systel, the ICT subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn (German Railways).: The company released FinnAxia 3.0, the latest version of its next-generation integrated transaction banking product suite.
The new conflict point in the parliament is a Member of Parliament himself, Dr. Vijay Mallya. After reports emerged that he has left the country on March 2, while the consortium of bank lenders run from pillar to post to recover the debts of nearly Rs. 9,000 crore, Congress led by Sonia Gandhi staged a walkout from the Parliament.Rahul Gandhi questioned the government on Mallya's escape and questioned them on how he was allowed to leave India with such a massive debt on his head. Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad in the Rajya Sabha accused the government of being a "party" to the criminal conspiracy in him fleeing the country.Defending the government, Arun Jaitley said, "The banks are taking all steps to recover every paisa taken from them", adding that the Congress government did nothing to recover the dues during their rule.In the Lok Sabha, Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy shot back: "Vijay Mallya is not a saint for us. There are huge debts and money he has to pay back. Has a single penny been given by NDA government? All which has gone was given by UPA government."
Since November 2015, international opera star and Grammy-nominated vocalist Angela Brown has been known for more than singing and vibrant performances. She became known as an entrepreneur when she launched her jewelry line, Its a DIVA thang.

On March 14 from 6-9 p.m., Brown will make an appearance at Profyle Boutique in Ironworks at Keystone, where she will introduce her line to the community.

The Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper spoke with Brown to learn more about her entrepreneur lifestyle and the concept behind Its a DIVA thang.

Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper: How did you develop the idea to create your own jewelry line?

Brown: I travel so much (and found) once I got where I was going, my pieces of jewelry, whether inexpensive or expensive, found themselves broken. I was either stuck wearing the broken jewelry or not wearing anything at all. I thought there has got to be a way to have flashier pieces and even your everyday pieces without needing to baby them. My jewelry line is a fun, collective line that is fabric wrapped.

How would you describe your pieces?

The foundation of my jewelry is either metal or acrylic, and I include beautiful, iridescent, sparkly fabrics, or even the bold, colorful fabrics. I want these pieces to complement your outfit but also set you apart from others. I have earring hoops and bracelets in all sizes. Its all about the width of your hand; it has nothing to do with size, but women often struggle getting bracelets on.

I have to ask. Where did the name Its a DIVA thang come from?

(Laughs) I also do handcrafted items such as knitted and crochet items, and thats what I originally began calling those items, but the jewelry line has been on my mind for about five years. There are certain things you have to have a bold, diva mindset to wear, and thats what my pieces are. Its a DIVA thang is a part of who I am. I dont go around calling myself a diva, but I sure think it in my head. (laughs)

I imagine your scheduled performances keep your days very busy. How do you find time to purchase fabrics and create the items?

I tend to shop and collect swatches of fabric as I go. I dont buy bulks of fabric and mass-produce; I buy small quantities of fabric at a time, so once its sold, its sold. A lot of my African fabrics came from Paris, by way of Africa (laughs), New York, Indianapolis or online. I make time to craft and create these pieces. If a DIVA thang blows up, I do have a manufacturer (laughs), but its got to blow up first. I dont want the jewelry to just sit around my house.

Considering many of your fabrics come from outside the U.S., is this something you took into account when creating prices for the jewelry?

Yes, I priced my items for the time it takes to create them, where the fabric comes from and the fact that I am Angela Brown (laughs).

I also run sales all of the time, so anybody can wear this jewelry. I think the items are medium-priced, not too expensive and not cheap.

Obviously people know you for your classic voice, but they now know you as an entrepreneur. Is this something youre OK with?

I have no problem with people looking at me as an entrepreneur. I want to be that person that can do it all. You have Jay-Z and Beyonce, and they have or had clothing lines or multiple ventures at one time. Queen Latifah has Cover Girl, so why cant you have Angela Brown with Its a DIVA thang? Its about being entrepreneurial in this world.

For more information, visit its-a-diva-thang.myshopify.com or Facebook.com/itsaDIVAthang.
According to the Open Chemistry Collaborative in Diversity Equity, saying minorities are underrepresented in the field of chemistry is quite an understatement. The initiative found members of minority groups account for just 4 percent of tenure-track chemistry faculty members at the top 50 chemistry departments in the United States.

Lisa Jones, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology in the School of Science at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), hopes to increase that statistic for future generations. Jones was recently awarded the National Science Foundations most prestigious award  a $1.1 million NSF CAREER Award that will fund the development of a novel approach to the study of cell membrane proteins in their native cellular environment. The grant also funds state-of-the-art research training for undergraduate students from historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) as well as both undergraduate and graduate students from IUPUI.

The Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper recently spoke with Jones to learn more about the impact her large award will have on future researchers and her background in chemistry as an African-American woman.

Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper: When applying for this grant, why was your intention to focus on future generations of minorities?

Jones: When you are a minority interested in science in middle or high school, they always push you into becoming a medical doctor, and thats the only side of science they tell you about. There are many more aspects of science. Thats what I wanted to do with the HBCU and IUPUI students, is to expose them to all of the things they can do with a science degree. I would take them to the Indianapolis Museum of Art, as there is a chemist there who uses chemistry to study art. Thats something you dont hear about every day. I also have plans to take them to Lilly. If they want to go into medicine, thats great, but I want them to know all of their options.

What was the application process like? Im sure it was pretty extensive.

Yes, and Id been working on it for a while, as IUPUI has a program dedicated to helping (faculty) apply to grants like the NSF. The proposal itself is about 12 pages long, and then you have a lot of administrative things. With something as large as this, its best to begin six months in advance.

What was the moment like for you once you were notified youd been awarded the grant?

(laughs) It was great, because now I can do the research, and also I was required to have a grant awarded in order to receive tenure, so its almost guaranteed me that now. It was a lot of celebration.

You mentioned many minorities are pushed into becoming a medical doctor. How did you get into the chemistry field?

Ive been interested in science since I was in middle school. I always thought I wanted to be a medical doctor, but when I went to college at Syracuse University, they had a really strong research program for undergraduates, which I really enjoyed. From there I decided to get my Ph.D. I really straddle between biology and chemistry.

It would be a great story if I could tell you it was a teacher that got me interested in science, but honestly I picked up the interest naturally. When I was in high school, I was in a science program held on a Saturday where we learned more about science, and in the summer you got the opportunity to shadow a doctor. It was a program to push minorities into medical school.

Once you got to college, did you find yourself the only person of color in your classes?

When I was in undergraduate school, I was a biochemistry major and there were only seven students total, and I was the only person of color. In graduate school, we had quite a cohort of Black women in our program, but interestingly no Black men, and we always wondered what that was about. Even in my field, if I go to a mass spectrometry conference, people of color represent maybe 1 percent.

Did you face any challenges because of your skin color during that time?

I didnt face many challenges in undergraduate, as we had a pretty small and diverse community, but in grad school there was a suggestion that you were there because of affirmative action. One of the of the reasons I felt that way is because grad schools usually do make an attempt at diversity, and sometimes they publicly acknowledge that and say, Are you just here because they want diversity? or Do you have the same qualifications as I do? You do also get that on the professor level, but I think Ive overcome that, but part of that is because Ive been successful.

Its clear this grant will impact you and current students, but what about those who are younger and have aspirations to become a chemist?

I hope it encourages them to pursue science. Sometimes people of color get discouraged to pursue things that people say are technically difficult. If you go back to what the late Justice Scalia said in December about affirmative action, that has a big impact on young people of color. I want them to see that I did this and (they) can do this, too.
WASHINGTON (AP)  An American company that bills itself as a pioneer in tracking emerging epidemics made a series of costly mistakes during the 2014 Ebola outbreak that swept across West Africa  with employees feuding with fellow responders, contributing to misdiagnosed Ebola cases and repeatedly misreading the trajectory of the virus, an Associated Press investigation has found.

San Francisco-based Metabiota Inc. was tapped by the Sierra Leonean government and the World Health Organization to help monitor the spread of the virus and support the response after Ebola was discovered circulating in neighboring Guinea in March 2014. But emails obtained by AP and interviews with aid workers on the ground show that some of the companys actions made an already chaotic situation worse.

WHO outbreak expert Dr. Eric Bertherat wrote to colleagues in a July 17, 2014, email about misdiagnoses and total confusion at the Sierra Leone government lab Metabiota shared with Tulane University in the city of Kenema. He said there was no tracking of the samples and absolutely no control on what is being done.

This is a situation that WHO can no longer endorse, he wrote.

Metabiota chief executive officer and founder Nathan Wolfe said there was no evidence his company was responsible for the lab blunders, that the reported squabbles were overblown and that any predictions made by his employees didnt reflect the companys position. He said Metabiota doesnt specialize in outbreak response and that his employees stepped in to help and performed admirably amid the carnage of the worlds biggest-ever Ebola outbreak.

Metabiotas team worked tirelessly, skillfully and at substantial potential danger to themselves to assist when most of the world was still ignoring the problem, he said in an email. We are proud of our team efforts which went above and beyond the call of duty.

Wolfe said some of the problems flagged were misunderstandings  and that others were planted by commercial rivals.

The complaints about Metabiota mirror the wider mismanagement that hamstrung the worlds response to Ebola, a disease that 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. The turmoil that followed left health workers in Kenema bereft of protective equipment or even body bags and using expired chlorine, a crucial disinfectant.

WHO said Metabiota was well-placed to help when Ebola broke out in West Africa because of its expertise with Lassa, a related disease. The agency declined to give any detail about how it dealt with the complaints from senior staff about the firm or the status of their current relationship.

In Sierra Leone, Sylvia Blyden, who served as special executive assistant to the countrys president in the early days of the outbreak, said Metabiotas response was a disaster.

They messed up the entire region, she said. She called Metabiotas attempt to claim credit for its Ebola work an insult for the memories of thousands of Africans who have died.



THE VIRAL STORM

Wolfe, a swashbuckling scientist sometimes described as the Indiana Jones of virology, has focused his companys work on disease hotspots like West Africa in a bid to sniff out the next big threat. In his book, The Viral Storm, Wolfe writes that his work is aimed at hunting down the first moments at the birth of a new pandemic to prevent its global spread.

With a doctorate in immunology and infectious diseases from Harvard, Wolfe, 45, has found some serious backers. Metabiota and its nonprofit sister company Global Viral have received millions in funding from USAID, Google and the Skoll Foundation, among others. The Department of Defense alone has granted more than $18 million worth of contracts to the firm, federal records show.

In the early months of the outbreak, with WHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention thin on the ground, Metabiota said it stepped in to help at the request of the Sierra Leonean government.

An account posted to its website says Metabiota provided critical support in the earliest days of the outbreak, organizing training, jointly running Sierra Leones Ebola laboratory, assisting with outbreak logistics and producing daily reports for the government.

Messages saved to ProMed, a mailing list for outbreak watchers, are upbeat, describing Metabiotas tests and how it was teaching Sierra Leoneans how to set up Ebola isolation wards. On May 12, senior Metabiota scientist Dr. Jean-Paul Gonzalez said preparedness work had ultimately protected, or at least uniquely prepared, Sierra Leone.

But there were already reports of suspected infections in the country and, within weeks, the virus tore through Sierra Leone, overwhelming the hospital in Kenema where Metabiota shared the 700-square-foot (65-square-meter) lab with Tulane.

To some at Tulane, which had a long-established research project at the lab, Metabiotas missteps were predictable. The two groups worked side-by-side in an uneasy relationship that observers said sometimes tipped into open conflict.

Tulane microbiology professor Bob Garry questioned whether Gonzalez was the right person to teach Sierra Leoneans how to protect themselves from Ebola. In 1994, the French researcher was at the center of a safety scare at Yale University after he accidentally infected himself with the rare Sabia virus and didnt notify officials there for more than a week. The university put more than 100 people under surveillance and ordered Gonzalez to take a remedial safety course. Garry said that should have raised a red flag.

Do you really want the person who infected himself with hemorrhagic fever going around explaining to people how to be safe? he asked.

Gonzalez referred questions to a Metabiota press representative, who said in an email that the incident happened more than 20 years ago and that Gonzalez has extensive lab safety experience.

But Garry also faced questions; the WHO emails obtained by AP complaining about the Kenema lab are as critical of Tulane as they are of Metabiota.

Garry acknowledged mistakes but said they were understandable given the chaotic circumstances.

We didnt have the personnel and the infrastructure that was needed to handle the onslaught of cases that were coming, he said. We were doing the best we had with what we had there.



THEY WERE AT WAR

As the death toll mounted in July, scientists from WHO, the United States and Canada were voicing concerns about what Metabiota and its Tulane colleagues were doing at the Kenema lab, according to the emails obtained by AP and interviews with those on the ground at the time.

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 up to five people wrongly diagnosed with Ebola, among them a worker with the medical charity Doctors Without Borders.

Kobinger told AP in a telephone interview that the misdiagnoses he caught suggested many more had gone unnoticed.

If you detect two, three, four, five, how many are out there? he said.

The mistakes were doubly dangerous in a country where many mistrusted international workers, who were suspected of spreading Ebola deliberately, said Bertherat, the WHO outbreak expert. Attempts to reassure a jittery public could be totally ruined if the population does not trust anymore in the diagnostic of the medical teams, he wrote in an email.

Bertherat proposed two fixes for the problematic lab: WHO could either train Metabiota and Tulane staffers, or close down the facility and transfer all testing to another lab. He told his boss on July 18, 2014, that shutting down the shared lab was the more prudent option.

Five days later, Geneva-based WHO staffer Pat Drury emailed the agencys chief, Dr. Margaret Chan, with criticism of both Tulane and Metabiota, referring to their shared facility as two labs.

Both labs do not meet international standards for Biosecurity, he said, adding that several patients have been wrongly tested positive.

Metabiota founder Wolfe said we did wonderful lab work as far as Im concerned. Errors in the shared facility stopped once other groups were pulled from the testing and, in any case, he noted that Metabiota tested over 1,800 samples. Even if any mistakes were made, he said the error rates were well within ranges seen elsewhere.

Wolfe did not name the other groups, but documents and interviews show Metabiota and Tulane blamed each other.

On the surface, they were collaborating, Kobinger said. But in reality, they were at war.

U.S. health official Austin Demby, who was sent to evaluate the labs work at the request of the CDC and Sierra Leone, said initial diagnostic tests carried out by Metabiota and Tulane clashed as often as 30 percent of the time. Errors raised the risk that the virus could be spread further by sending infected patients home or confining otherwise healthy people to infectious Ebola wards.

In a July 21 email to CDC and State Department officials, Demby put the blame at Tulanes door, saying Metabiotas tests were always closer to the mark and that Tulanes add no real value to the diagnosis. But Tulanes Garry said Metabiotas staff stirred confusion by not following protocol.

Wolfe said that was simply false.

The labs set-up also was worrisome. Used needles littered the place, according to a worker who spoke on condition of anonymity because the worker was not authorized to speak to the media. Demby said in his email that the lab lacked an ultraviolet light for decontamination and didnt have enough space to process blood samples safely.

The cross contamination potential is huge and quite frankly unacceptable, he wrote.

Tulane pulled the plug on its tests soon thereafter and the labs results improved. Kobinger credited Metabiota researcher Nadia Wauquier  the hero of that whole gang  with tightening procedures, but eventually the company was relieved of its testing duties and the CDC took over. Both Tulane and Metabiota say they stepped aside voluntarily.



THEY ARE SENDING WRONG MESSAGES

Outside the lab, the training touted by Metabiota unnerved some fellow responders.

Anja Wolz, an emergency coordinator with Doctors Without Borders, told AP in an interview that she saw Metabiota workers enter the homes of suspected Ebola patients without protective gear and without decontaminating themselves before leaving high-risk areas.

They didnt even have chlorine with them to wash their hands, she said, adding that Metabiota project coordinator James Bangura told her they didnt need the critical disinfectant.

I didnt go inside the Metabiota lab, she said. I refused to go because I had already seen enough.

In a telephone interview, Bangura denied flouting safety measures.

Aid workers also complained that Metabiota employees including Bangura and a Ugandan consultant hijacked the outbreak response in Kenema, which was supposed to be directed by WHO.

Metabiota staffers are systematically obstructing any attempt to improve the existing surveillance system and there are a lot of improvement(s) needed, WHO Ebola coordinator Philippe Barboza said in an August 8, 2014, email. The next day, he argued that WHO should pull its outbreak staff from Kenema so they wouldnt be tarred with Metabiotas failures, writing he was very concerned of the potential reputational risk for WHO.

British disease expert Chris Lane echoed Barbozas concerns. In a message to Barboza, he lamented that much good work was achieved prior to the arrival of the Metabiota field staff.

Barboza and Lane declined comment on the arguments. Metabiota officials acknowledged the dispute but downplayed it.

It is inaccurate to suggest a major conflict between WHO and Metabiota, Wolfe said, noting that Bangura was awarded a Sierra Leonean presidential silver medal for his Ebola efforts.

Nevertheless, the disagreement was serious enough that Metabiota said it fired the consultant and pulled Bangura from Kenema.

The consequences went beyond office politics. In one email, Barboza said 1 million euros in funding proposed by the International Rescue Committee was being held up because the donors wanted a clear WHO leadership.

Some responders said one of the most disturbing mistakes Metabiota employees made was misreading the epidemic.

Wolz, of Doctors Without Borders, said she recalled a meeting in the early summer as cases began multiplying when I said that the outbreak was completely out of control. She said Metabiota responded, No, we know where we are, everything is OK.'

Kobinger, the Canadian scientist, said Bangura would interpret temporary dips in the number of cases to mean that the outbreak was dissipating. He said he couldnt fathom that reasoning given the number of Ebola-positive samples pouring into his own lab in nearby Kailahun.

Though Bangura said he did not personally make any estimates, Kobinger said Bangura told him in July that the outbreak would be over in two or three weeks.

Any suggestion Metabiota wrongly forecast the Ebola epidemic is rejected by Wolfe, who once wrote that his career is focused on creating systems that can accurately detect pandemics early, determine their likely importance, and, with any luck, crush those that have the potential to devastate us.

Wolfe told AP that his company couldnt be held responsible for the predictions of employees seconded to Sierra Leones Health Ministry.

We didnt make forecasts. We loaned individuals to the ministry, Wolfe said. So the notion that somehow its a Metabiota forecast is simply completely inaccurate.

Fellow responders may not have grasped the distinction. On Aug. 11  just three days after WHO had declared the crisis a global emergency  Metabiota employees presented a slideshow to an Ebola task force. Next to a bar chart showing a slowdown in cases were the words: The outbreak is stabilizing.

WHO data specialist Mikiko Senga wasnt persuaded.

This is the kind of report we get from Metabiota epidemiologists, she emailed colleagues from the presentation. They are sending wrong messages. The outbreak is clearly not stabilizing.

It was only in the second half of August that Kenema numbers began falling and, even then, the virus was merely moving to more populated areas.

Nearly two years after the virus was first discovered circulating near its border, Sierra Leone still is not officially Ebola-free.



THEY MESSED UP ON EBOLA

Despite doubts about Metabiotas performance, Wolfes firm has largely been congratulated on its work in West Africa. In December 2014, it won a European Union grant to help validate new tests and treatments for the disease, something a company official said was in recognition of the critical contributions our team has made in supporting the current outbreak.

In 2015, the company raised some $30 million in investment from four U.S. investment firms intended to support Metabiotas efforts to further develop and deliver epidemic risk management worldwide, according to a press release.

Even WHO has publicly credited Metabiota for its work during the outbreak. Months after Senga, one of its employees, complained privately about Metabiotas optimistic predictions in Kenema, she wrote a sunnier account on WHOs website.

The fact that they were already there helped a lot, she wrote in a post called Ebola Diaries. Tulane and Metabiota employees already being established in Kenema made our case investigations and contact tracing work a lot easier, she wrote.

Senga declined comment when reached by AP.

Guillaume Lachenal, a medical historian at Paris Diderot University who has followed Metabiotas work in Africa, said it was indecent of the company to claim Ebola as a success story.

They messed up on Ebola. That can happen, he said. To make a success story out of their Ebola response, thats quite something.



Satter and Cheng also reported from London. Krista Larson contributed to this report from Kenema, Sierra Leone. Lisa Leff contributed from San Francisco.
Building on the life and great legacy of Madam C.J. Walker, Sundial Brands  a leading skin care and hair care manufacturer renowned for its innovative use of high-quality, culturally authentic, natural ingredients  recently launched the companys first hair care brand: Madam C.J. Walker Beauty Culture.

Our hope and aspiration with this brand is Madam C.J. Walker will truly be elevated to the American icon she is. She did so many things no other woman of her time did, said Latraviette Smith-Wilson of Sundial Brands. From a business and historic perspective, she found out what were the needs of women that were not currently being met. Think about how bold and audacious one had to be at that time to accomplish what she did and to be an inspiration for others.

There are so many ideals women today can identify with that are relevant. No matter if youre Black, white, Latina or Asian, we all can see some of ourselves in her, because she is a woman and thats the most exciting part.

The new hair care line, making its debut exclusively at Sephora stores March 4, will offer four collections: Jamaican Black Castor & Murumuru Oils, Coconut & Moringa Oils, Brassica Seed & Shea Oils and Dreams Come True. Customers can expect a variety of hair care products in each collection such as shampoo, conditioners, deep-conditioning masques, curl gel and co-washes.

The Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper spoke with Richelieu Dennis, CEO of Sundial Brands, and ALelia Bundles, great-great granddaughter of Madam C.J. Walker, to learn more about the hair care line.

Indianapolis Recorder: When was the idea brought to the table to introduce a hair care line inspired by Madam C.J. Walker?

Dennis: This has been a journey of mine for about 10 years. We were able to make a deal about four years ago, and weve taken our time to think about what the 21st century Madam C.J. Walker Enterprises would look like as a business and what the product would look like, and its how we ended here. The idea didnt just come up; its evolved over the decade.

Madam Walker and what she did was amazing, but when you think of her business and what she created, (it) is astounding. When you think about what she should mean to the beauty industry today, we have more work to do. She should be right up there with Estee Lauder, Coco Chanel and others who changed the beauty landscape.

What type of products can people look forward to? Are they made for all hair types?

Dennis: Yes. Its a holistic line focused on the needs of todays women. There are four hair collections. One is a coconut collection made for curly hair, Dreams Come True is made for scalp treatments, the Jamaican Black Castor Oil collection is about softening and repairing the hair, and the Brassica Seed is broccoli oil for styling and shine.

Is this brand directly produced by Sundial Brands or under its own entity?

Dennis: You can think of Sundial Brands as the parent company, but it will be under Madam C.J. Walker Enterprises, and the hair care brand is Madame C.J. Walker Beauty Culture. We really want to build under the entire legacy.

When the ideas were coming together initially, being the great-great granddaughter of Madam C.J. Walker, what were your emotions like?

Bundles: I was glad we created this partnership, because Ive been researching and speaking about Madam C.J. Walker for quite some time, but the piece that was not fully formed was the hair care products being in the 21st century. So for me, it was such a pleasure when Sundial inquired about Madam Walkers name so they could launch it into something worth the legacy. We are both playing the roles we are best at. Im good at telling the historical story, and Sundial Brands has already developed highly successful hair care lines, and its an honor to have Madam C.J. Walker among those brands.

When she started her company in 1906, she was addressing the needs of women then. For me, its taking Madam Walkers creation then, and keeping that same philosophy with a new formula that really looks at the versatility of women who have different hair styles and textures. Its Madam Walker as she would be in the 21st century.

We hear there is a philanthropic aspect of this new line.

Bundles: Yes. In addition to just the products, Im excited about the community commerce Sundial Brands does to make sure women on the African continent are getting fair wages and fair market value. That idea of philanthropy will find its way into the Madam C.J. Walker Beauty Culture line. Its continuing her principle of not just making money, not just having great products, but giving back to the community as well.

Madam C.J. Walker Beauty Culture at a glance

The full Madam C.J. Walker Beauty Culture line includes:
On a national scale, Americans now have access to low-cost health care through the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. But on a state level before this plan, Indiana developed the Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP) in 2008. Just one year ago, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield supported the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the efforts of Gov. Mike Pence to bring affordable health care to more Hoosiers through HIP 2.0, which enables Hoosier adults ages 1964 with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level to qualify for health care coverage.

According to recent data, African-Americans are utilizing HIP through Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Among African-Americans in Marion County, more than 41 percent are signed up for HIP (either HIP Basic or HIP Plus) through Anthem.

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield serves more than 40 percent of the HIP 2.0 population statewide and facilitated more than 75,000 total eye care and dentist visits through the first seven months of the program. Additionally, Hoosier Healthwise members who transitioned to HIP have shown a nearly 40 percent reduction in ER utilization. The health care company is not only helping to keep minorities insured, but is also helping individuals manage their health care financially.

All HIP 2.0 plans include a Personal Wellness and Responsibility (POWER) account, which functions like a Health Savings Account (HSA) to help pay for deductible expenses, said Kristen Metzger, president of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Indiana Medicaid. The plans also include incentives for receiving preventive services. Anthem members in Indiana enroll into either the HIP Plus or HIP Basic option, which offer different levels of benefits and personal responsibility.

Members and the State of Indiana jointly fund a $2,500 POWER account for HIP Plus members, which allows them to contribute based on a sliding income scale.

One of the most important things we have learned through the HIP 2.0 program is regardless of income levels, members are paying to participate in the HIP Plus program, mentioned Metzger. These contributions can be as little as $1 per month, but approximately 70 percent of our members who participate in HIP pay to be in HIP Plus, and we have found that these members are engaged in their health care.

Anthem identifies where their members live and use information like the government Free and Reduced Lunch program to target where to advertise. Additionally, they utilize community partnerships with churches and other grassroots organizations to sponsor health fairs and create and conduct health education presentations.

Over the past year, I met numerous HIP 2.0 enrollees who are now regularly visiting a doctor, taking their medicines or even had life threatening diagnoses like cancer caught early rather than go untreated, Pence said. Hoosiers should be encouraged that the progress weve made sets our program apart from the traditional Medicaid expansion called for under Obamacare.

As we mark the first year of HIP 2.0, our results are promising, but there is still work to do. Hoosiers may be assured that my administration will continue our efforts to increase the health and well-being of Hoosiers through personal responsibility, self-sufficiency and independence. And, we will continue to promote the Healthy Indiana Plan and increase access to high-quality coverage.

For more information on the Healthy Indiana Plan, visit In.gov/fssa/hip.
After Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) declared their decision and issued directives to all affiliated schools to dedicate 45 minutes every day to self-defence training for girl students, we couldn't be more happier.

Getty Images

Bollywoods Khiladi Kumar AKA Akshay Kumar is one person who is extremely happy with this move. Not many know that Akshay also runs a martial arts school for women in Mumbai. More than seven thousand girls have graduated from Akshays self-defense school in the last five years and every year, the numbers just keep going higher and higher. Akshay also revealed that there were a lot of blind students who attended the school and ended up feeling self-reliant and stronger.

Akshay said:

"This has been a dream come true for me. Given the times that we live in, self-defence is an important skill to have and should be made compulsory for girls in every school. I congratulate the CBSE Chairman, Seshu Kumar, for making this happen.

Akshay is now hoping that private schools too must implement the same very soon. He added, "Self-defence is important for one's safety and I will continue to promote it diligently till it's implemented everywhere.

Akshay, who is trained in martial arts has partially pulled off all his stunts on the big screen himself. He said, "I started practising the art when I was around eight or nine years old and I understand the importance of discipline and self-defense.

When Akshay was asked if he intends to impart the same skills in her four-year-old Nitara, he grinned and said, "FOR SURE!"

Grabhouse

Even when he has a packed schedule because of his shoots, promotions, this cause never took a back seat for Akki. He signed off saying:

Prokeraia

"I don't personally train them, those who have learnt from me are the ones who teach them regularly. I make sure to visit the school ever so often, definitely on graduation day. It's a proud day for me that I wouldn't want to miss."

Well said, Akki! You are a star in every sense of the word.
huffingtonpost

There's no doubt about the fact that Irrfan Khan is one kickass actor. You give him any kind of role and he can pull it off! Until Piku happened to him, everyone thought he's not your typical romantic hero. But hey, he managed to shut everyone up with this one, right!

He's also one actor who has put Indian actors out there on the world map. Agreed that Indian actors like Anupam Kher, Anil Kapoor, and others have been doing on and off Hollywood roles, (more recently Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone) but it's actually him who started doing full-fledged roles in Hollywood and kept getting better movie after movie.

Even though his Hollywood journey started in 2006 with Asif Kapadia's Warrior, his struggle to reach there began way back in 1988, when he did his first movie, Mira Nayar's Salaam Bombay. Yes! I am sure some of you were not even born back then!

He played a short role, that of a letter writer in the movie and it wasn't that big a deal. But his journey from that inconsequential letter writer to Simon Masrani in Jurassic World, one of the biggest movie franchise in Hollywood, has definitely not been an easy one. But it's surely been damn interesting and a memorable one!

It all started with a small role in Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay. Hard to recognise, but yes, that's a young Irrfan Khan in the movie!

youtube

youtube

He acted in a bunch of critically acclaimed films, but despite that fame evaded him. It included National Award winning films like Ek Doctor Ki Maut (1990), Drishti (1990), and other ones like Ghaath (2000).

Despite giving brilliant performances, they somehow went unnoticed and he dabbled in television too. It included some epic series like Chandrakanta (yes!), Banegi Apni Baat, Mano Ya Na Mano etc.

tashee

He was recognised for his performance in Star Plus's series Star Bestsellers, where he acted in the episode Ek Sham Ki Mulakat.

And his big Bollywood break finally came with Haasil in 2004 which fetched him the Filmfare award for Best villian. It was followed by a couple of more Bollywood films where his work was much appreciated by the critics. Remember his films like Rog, Life In A Metro, and Maqbool?

bollywoodnews

Finally, in 2006, Irrfan made his Hollywood debut in Asif Kapadia's Warrior and the film rightfully marked his arrival.

rediff

It was followed by Angelina Jolie's A Mighty Heart, based on the real life incident of kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Irrfan played a police officer from Karachi, a small yet impactful role in the movie.

zimbio

When in 2008, he joined the ensemble cast in Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, and played a police inspector in it, he became a household name not only in India but also in Hollywood.

bollywoodlife

And since then, there was no looking back for Irrfan Khan in Hollywood! The West had discovered this talented actor, Irrfan wowed us all with one rocking performance after the other- as Piscine Patel in Life Of Pi, as Dr. Rajit Ratha in The Amazing Spider-Man, and as Simon Masrani the main antagonist in Jurassic World.

bollywoodlife

Even back home in Bollywood, he continued to make his mark with substantial films like Paan Singh Tomar, The Lunchbox, Qissa, Haider, Talvar, and Piku.

indiawest

Now, he's all set star alongside Tom Hanks in Inferno, where he plays the main villain. As Hanks puts it, "I'm just beguiled by his magic eyes. He has a physicality to him that is so specific and endearing."

indianexpress

Irrfan's journey started back in 1988, almost three decades back, but it sure has been an amazing one. Whenever we'll talk of greatest actors of our times, Irrfan Khan is one name which will always be included in it!
News of women getting raped, kidnapped, burnt and violated is pretty common these days. And what do we do? We brood over it, call the country names and then forget about these incidents. Its only the victims who live with the pain and agony. While many survive and move on with their lives, others just succumb to it and lead their lives in anonymity. Then there are some who step out and face the world with courage. One such gutsy woman is Padma Lakshmi. An Indian born American author, Padma is a hot-shot host of US reality cookery show Top Chef. She is also the ex-wife of renowned author Salman Rushdie.

famefacts.com

By now you must be wondering why this woman is so important and why she's being talked about across the internet for the past few days. Well, here's the answer to all your questions.

Padma Lakshmi shocked the world on this years International Womens Day when she launched her memoir Love, Loss And What We Ate. Baring her heart and soul in her book which released on 8th March, she talked about everything from her terrible childhood to her even more heart-shattering adult life experiences.

She was abused at the age of 7 by her step-fathers relative

popsugar.com

45-year-old Lakshmi revealed that she was molested as a young girl by a relative of her then-stepfather. Talking to People magazine she said,

"One night, I woke up to his hand in my underpants. He took my hand and placed it inside his briefs. I don't know how many times it happened before, since I suspect I slept through some incidents."

Looking back, Lakshmi says, "Once you take a girl's innocence, you can never get it back. What I remember more is telling my mother what happened and her believing me and then she and I telling someone else that it happened and that person not believing me. And then the next week, I was sent to India."

When her mother told her husband (Padma's step-father) he made her lie down on the living room divan "to demonstrate by pantomime what had happened."

The next thing she remembers is her mother putting her on a plane to Madras. "In retrospect however, he should have been the one to go," she writes. "Years later, in tears, my mother would acknowledge this grave mistake."

She didnt know who her childs father was

dailymail.co.uk

Padma Lakshmi also opened up about not knowing who her daughters father was initially. Lakshmi became involved with two men following her divorce from Salman Rushdie.

It was really difficult because it was embarrassing. I wanted to play the field, she said. Men do it all the time. When men do it, they call it being a playboy when women do it they call it something else I had just gotten out of a divorce and, by the way, I was honest with everyone involved in my life  but it was still hard.

Salman Rushdie called her a bad investment when she denied him sex

express.co.uk

"Imagine a young woman in her twenties, who loves books and and who had published her little cookbook and in comes this guy," she said. "I mean, he was the best thing that ever happened to me by a mile. The fact that somebody of that stature and caliber was even interested remotely enough in me to want to take me to lunch was kind of unbelievable."

Recalling their first meeting, she revealed that they first met in Central Park for their first date, and ended up in bed together. "He seduced me with his words," she says. "I was pretty hooked."

After Rushdie divorcing his third wife, the two moved in together in 2000. Their early years, she says, were "blissful" and full of passion. "For me, it was wonderful because I finally had somebody who understood me because he too was Indian and he was also living in the West and he was very nimble in navigating those two worlds."

But as her career in the food world started picking up, so did his resentment. "I just wanted to also do something else on my own," she explains. "I just wanted my own identity."

Meanwhile, she had been suffering from severe endometriosis which was still undiagnosed at that point. It had grown more acute, often leaving her in so much pain that she was bedridden and unable to have sex. Their lack of intimacy led to many fights and arguments and he ended up calling her a "bad investment."
The indiatimes.com privacy policy has been updated to align with the new data regulations in European Union. Please review and accept these changes below to continue using the website. We use cookies to ensure the best experience for you on our website.
For nearly fifteen years they fought tirelessly against a formidable opponent, but on Wednesday when global FMCG giant Hindustan Unilever announced a settlement it was nothing short of big win for them.

kodaimercury

HUL has agreed to pay an ex-gratia amount to 591 former employees of its thermometer plant in Tamil Nadu's Kodaikanal.

The employees had alleged that they had suffered health damage due to mercury pollution from the plant.

kodaimercury

"The much-delayed settlement is great news, but Unilever still has unfinished business in Kodaikanal. You can expect a high-decibel global campaign in the coming months to ensure that Unilever cleans up its mercury contaminated site in Kodaikanal to international standards," said Nityanand Jayaraman, a Chennai-based writer and activist who has been part of the campaign since 2001 when the company shut down its plant.

kodaimercury

Activists claim that Unilever is leaving up to 25 milligrams/kg of mercury in soil, 250 times higher than natural level.

Greenpeace estimates that just one gram of mercury deposited annually can, in the long term, contaminate a lake spread over 25 acres to the extent that fish from the lake are rendered unfit for human consumption.

kodaimercury

Even though they were campaigning for nearly fifteen years, the movement gathered momentum last year after former advertising professional turned activist Sofia Ashraf release a video called 'Kodaikanal Won't', to the tune Nicki Minaj's Anaconda.

The video had over 3.6 million views and helped to spread the message through social media with a campaign to boycott HUL products.

After the video went viral, Unilevers Chief Executive Officer Paul Polman tweeted that he did not accept different standards, treating all humans as same and that he was determined to solve the issue at the earliest.

The settlement with former workers of the Kodaikanal plant came within eight months of this.
Controversial tycoon Vijay Mallya's claim of pursuing a one-time settlement with lenders of Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) by paying 50% of his dues has been rejected by banks, which say they have not received any such offer. "Till date, we have not received any concrete offer for a settlement from Mallya," said the chief of a bank which has a large exposure to KFA.

thehindubusinessline

With most of the lenders being in the public sector, bankers say that a one-time settlement, which typically includes a waiver, would be difficult. But banks are hopeful of recovering half of their dues through attachment of assets. A senior official with a bank that has a Rs 800-crore exposure said, "Given that Mallya is now a declared wilful defaulter and that the investigative agencies are now involved, I expect that recoveries can only take place through a court order and a process involving auction of assets."

SBI Caps Trustee Company will auction the airline's erstwhile headquarters 'Kingfisher House', which is situated near the Mumbai Airport, on March 17. The Supreme Court this week had raised questions on how banks could advance large sums without adequate security. Banks had in 2009 advanced loans against a pledge of the KFA brand, which, they said, was valued at Rs 4,111 crore, according to a valuation conducted by Grant Thornton. The O P Bhatt-led SBI was the head of the consortium that lent to KFA.

forbes

On Sunday, the liquor baron said in a statement that banks have already recovered Rs 2,494 crore and that he was making efforts to reach a one-time settlement with them. This settlement would be based on additional payments to the lenders. The total exposure of banks to Kingfisher Airlines was around Rs 7,000 crore as of 2014. Since then, banks have sold Rs 1,244 crore worth of United Breweries shares.

s3.india

Mallya said that another Rs 600 crore was deposited with the Karnataka HC. An additional Rs 650 crore, which is the surplus generated from selling shares of United Spirits obtained as security by one of the lenders out of the consortium, has also been deposited with the Karnataka HC. Bankers say that Mallya himself had provided a list of assets worth over Rs 1,000 crore.
Faizabad district administration has literally opened a can of worms after they began examining the belongings of Gumnami Baba, the mysterious figure who many believe was Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in disguise.

Baba's belongings which were so far kept in the treasury were opened on Wednesday.

The items in his box included binoculars issued by the German military dating back to World War II, British-made Empire Corona Classic portable typewriter and a vintage porcelain tea set.

But the most interesting piece of relic found among his possession was a set of five hazy, undated photographs of him.

The photographs, though hazy, have a line written on one suggesting they were taken during a birthday celebration on January 23, the birthday of Subhas Chandra Bose.

Another interesting and a bit mysterious find of the day were two magnets weighing almost 2.5 kg each. An official present inside the double locker of the treasury said that the power of the magnets was so strong they could exhaust all energies of even two persons in separating them.

The UP government had almost two weeks ago ordered the opening of two boxes containing the belongings of Baba. These articles were taken by the Justice Mukherjee Commission for further research and probe.

The name of Gumnami Baba has always been synonymous with the Bose mystery with a lot of people who believe that the revolutionary freedom fighter did not die in a plane crash as generally assumed.

This is largely due to his resemblance to Netaji and his mysterious appearance in Faizabad after the disappearance of the INA founder.

However a DNA test of from an alleged teeth of Gumnami Baba had disproved claims that the Faizabad-based ascetic was Netaji.
In the latest adventure by the new order of self-proclaimed nationalist peeps, JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar was attacked inside the JNU campus on March 10 evening.

#Flash Man allegedly tries to attack JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar in JNU campus. pic.twitter.com/Uoj262R7fY  ANI (@ANI_news) March 10, 2016

The attacker allegedly claimed that he wanted to "teach Kanhaiya a lesson" for "abusing the country, raising anti-India slogans".

The man, who is not from the university, was escorted off campus by security.

Further details are awaited
A survey of youths in the 16-21 age group showed that 66% of undergraduate boys watch porn seven hours per week starting when they are around 9 years old, and 30% of undergrad girls in the state watch porn, on an average, five hours per week.

Indian Express

The survey , carried out among 3,500 students in 183 colleges of Karnataka, was done by Abishek Clifford, CEO, Rescue (an NGO), and a statistics and ethics lecturer from London.

He said clusters of one class per college with a quota of 20 students per class were asked questions indirectly about their friends regarding `What percentage of guys your age watch rape videos?' and `How much porn do they watch each week?'

The survey has been completed in Bidar, Gadag, Mysuru, Chamarajanagar, Mandya, Dharward. Belagavi and Bengaluru and is currently under way in Mangalore.

The survey states as many as 30% of boys watch violent porn, including on an average 19 rapes per week. A whopping 1.7 lakh new students start watching rapes each year and during their higher secondary , PUC and by the time they enter the degree course, they would have seen 4,900 rapes. Abishek says 84% said watching porn is progressive and addictive. About 83% of students surveyed said porn leads to sexual activity and 74% said it motivates them to go to prostitutes.

A disturbing trend is that 76% said watching rape clips stokes the desire to actually rape someone!

"Even if only 10% act on this desire, it would mean there could be 13,000 new rapists a year in Karnataka,'' said Abishek.

He said students should be warned firmly of the dangers of watching porn in their teenage years, particularly when they are in high school and PUC. "Before our cyber ethics programmes, 37% of girls said porn is harmless and pre-marital sex with abortion is okay . After our programmes, only 6% still thought the same,'' said Abhishek. He said for parents concerned about tracking the activity of their children on the net, parental software should be used to block porn sites.

If Mangalureans thought they were traditional and conservative, the Rescue survey busts this theory.Abishek said: "Our survey saw it go off the charts. One college principal said, `We don't allow boys and girls to speak to each other'. According to our survey of 100 students, 50% were sleeping with their boyfriends."

Rescue will file a PIL next September after the all-India survey is completed and it will seek a ban on all teen and violent porn.
Indian music composer Abhishek Ray takes music seriously, but not as seriously as he takes wildlife. "The forest has its own sounds and those are the best that I have heard," he says. "I do not understand why man has to monopolise land and water resources in the forest. The number of resorts around the Kosi River at Corbett Tiger Reserve has gone up by great numbers. The first thing that these resorts do is sanitise the grounds and make it animal-proof and then they capture the water banks and make it exclusive to humans. They live off the wildlife as yet, they leave no room for wildlife to survive!"

A successful music composer in Mumbai, Abhishek Ray has been volunteering as a tracker for tigers and leopards for the Indian government since the age of 12. "My job took me to many remote areas and as I grew older I wanted to invest in a forest. I kept scouting for opportunities to invest in wasted agricultural lands," says Abhishek. "I found this land about ten years ago. There is a lot of hoof animal activity on it and this had degraded over years. I loved this land from the moment I set eyes upon it. It is right next to the forested area and is part of the tiger corridor with one side of a hill. I had no human neighbours to trouble the animals who would come to this land after regeneration."

Ray invested all his life's saving in buying the land from the families of the villages. Seven years and several greatly detailed plans later, the forest seems to have taken on life with a name - Sitabani.

The water body he created attracted herds of deer

Abhishek Ray

"There is a temple in these parts called Sitabani Temple and the locals believe that Sita spent some years here after leaving Ram to raise her sons, Luv and Kush. I loved the story and decided to name the forest after it. I like phonetically pleasant names like the poet Gulzar with whom I had worked some years ago," he shares. "The first thing I did was to make sure villagers and their cattle did not use the land in a manner as unsustainable as they had been doing. I also know that water is a magnet for life and developed a man-made perennial water body in the reserve. It was a matter of months but all the animals in the forest came to know that this reserve had a reliable water source where they would not be threatened. Soon, the man-made lake took on the form of a natural pond because of the bamboos I had planted around it, and became a haunt for all the animals,"he shares. "The next step was to rid the land of a plant parasite called Lantenna. It is very difficult to get rid of it as you have to cut it, hang it inverted for some months for it to dry out completely and then burn it. If any of the steps is not complete then the parasite returns to kill all other forms of plants or grass that tries to grow. When I finally succeeded, I planted several varieties of grass and endemic fruit plants like amaltas, sycus, jackfruit, mango and in the drier portions, jamun - which helps in increasing moisture in the soil."

Abhishek Ray

His consistent efforts over seven years have helped give a new lease of life to the land with big cats, deer, monkeys and over 600 species of birds visiting his reserve. "Do you have pen and paper at hand because the list of rare sightings is a long one," he laughs. The Indian Pita, Forest Owlet, Asian Bard Owlet, Brown Fishing Owl, Grey Hooded Warbler, Crest-Serpent Eagle, Steppy Eagle, Changeable Hawk Eagle, Long Legged Buzzard apart from many kinds of Flycatchers, Bee eaters, Woodpeckers and Orioles, are among the frequent visitors to the reserve today.

After seven years, the forest still grows and birds nest in his bamboo-made homes

Abhishek Ray

The painful process of regeneration of the Sitabani Reserve is nearly complete and Abhishek Ray is quite clear that he does not plan to open the gates to everyone. "I don't mind genuine birdwatchers and nature-lovers to experience Sitabani but there will be no loud music and bright lights here," he says. "I do make money being a music composer in Mumbai but I would also like to invest in tourism at Sitabani by extending an honest experience with nature. There is no wi-fi or television here. This is the land shared by humans and animals and humans will have to adjust to the jungle, not vice versa."

He says that he wants to hold out for nature to take its own course for another six months to a year before letting people inside Sitabani.

Abhishek Ray

"Sitabani has a lonesome aura. It is breezy through the year and the sounds of elephants trumpeting and birds chirping and the myriad of other calls. I compose about 8-10 songs when I am at Sitabani and then head to Mumbai for the technical support to complete them,"he says. "Inspiration comes like droplets from the sky in Sitabani," he says. "How many people know that the Indian Cheetah has been hunted into execution and the Leopard is following suit?" he asks. "Humans have been invading animal territories for years and then blaming the tigers and leopards to be the infiltrators. This has to stop."

Abhishek Ray

The big cats have also been visiting, some quite regularly

Abhishek Ray

"When the forest regenerated and the animals started to visit the water body regularly. I would hear the mating calls of two tigers in two corners of the forest. With the passage of time they would move closer, and then they finally stopped when they found each other," he shares. Abhishek shares a special bond with a resident tigress who has displayed complete trust in him, a matter of great pride for the musician. The other wild residents and visitors have been supportive as well. For example, when Abhishek started setting up bamboo homes for the birds, they in turn showed him the use of a local cotton flax that they used to make their nests warmer.

Abhishek Ray

"After the nuclear accident in Chernobyl in 1986, the government was forced to evacuate humans to save them from the impact of the radioactive particles in the atmosphere,"Abhishek says. "It is 30 years since the accident and the region from which humans were removed owing to the mishap has now become the hotspot for European wildlife. The largest known animal in the European wild was the red fox but the Chernobyl region saw the return of the wolf, deer and other larger animals. The incident proves that the impact of humans is more damaging to wildlife than nuclear reactors."
Archaeology experts have claimed to have found the agent - a proper mix of hemp with clay and lime plaster - that has prevented the famous Ellora caves from degrading over the 1,500 years they have been in existence.

blogspot

"The use of hemp helped the caves and most of the paintings remain intact at the 6th century Unesco World Heritage site," stated a study conducted by Manager Rajdeo Singh, a former superintending archaeological chemist of the Archaeological Survey of India's science branch (western region), and M M Sardesai, who teaches botany at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University. The study is to be published in the March 10 issue of leading inter-disciplinary science journal Current Science.

travel-notes

"Cannabis sativa, popularly known as ganja or bhang, was found mixed in the clay and lime plaster at Ellora. This was confirmed by technologies such as scanning of the electron microscope, Fourier transform, infra-red spectroscopy and stereo-microscopic studies. Hemp samples were collected from areas in Jalna district near Aurangabad and also from the outskirts of Delhi. These specimens were matched with the samples found in cave number 12 of Ellora. There was no disparity. In the sample collected from the Ellora cave, we found 10% share of cannabis sativa in the mix of mud or clay plaster. This is the reason why no insect activity is found at Ellora," Singh said in his study.

lightgalleries

The study indicates that many valuable properties of hemp were known to Indians in the 6th century. "Hemp was extensively used in Ellora as well as by the Yadavas, who built the Deogiri (Daulatabad) fort in the 12th century. Hemp was not used in the Ajanta caves, which are about 30 rock-cut Buddhist structures dating back to the 2nd century BC. Rampant insect activity has damaged at least 25% of the paintings at Ajanta," Singh told TOI.

The archaeologist, who has been engaged in the chemical treatment and conservation of ancient paintings at Ajanta for about 11 years, said the outcome of the study was "a discovery in itself". "Studies conducted in Europe suggested that buildings constructed with the use of cannabis sativa could last for 600 to 800 years. Ellora has proved that only 10% of cannabis mixed with clay or lime in the plaster could last for over 1,500 years," he said.

photobucket

The claim made by the experts might put the law enforcement agencies in a fix if cannabis sativa is used on a large scale for construction, as suggested in the study. Aurangabad commissioner of police Amitesh Kumar told TOI, "Marijuana is banned under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. It cannot be grown, transported, possessed or consumed. Anybody found with the substance will face action."

Rajendra Mugdia, a special public prosecutor who had earlier in the capacity of additional public prosecutor tried over a dozen cases under the NDPS Act, 1985, said, "If hemp comes into use for construction work, it might lead to gross misuse. The government will have to make some amendments to the law introduced in 1985. A separate authority will have to be created for allotting permissions."
Bihars Munger district has reason to be proud! A five-day old baby girl has become the youngest permanent account number (PAN) card holder in the country.

Aashi was born February 21 to Kumar Sajal and Smriti Sinha and allotted the PAN card on February 26.

Hindustan Times

Before Aashi, the youngest PAN Card holder was only a week old

The child's father plans to recommend his daughters name for the Guinness Book of World Records. Meanwhile, she enjoys celebrity status among the locals.

Ayush Ranjan Rout from Odisha was the first infant to become the youngest PAN card holder when he was all of three months old. Then came Krishhney Thacker from Mumbai, whose father got him a PAN card 56 days after his birth. Akshita from Chennai broke Thackers record when she was 49 days old.

rediff.com

Getting babies PAN cards seems to be a trend among parents and we won't be surprised when a new born of only a few hours might just be clutching on to his or her bit of plastic from the Income Tax Department.

Well, we couldn't put it better than this guy
An American pro-guns activist has been hospitalised with gunshot injuries, reportedly after her 4-year old son shot her.

Facebook

31-year-old Jamie Gilt who is a self-described advocate for "gun sense" was found in her truck by a local sheriff on Tuesday with a bullet injury. The gun shot from behind had gone through the seat and hit Gilt on her back.

Gilt told the official that she was accidentally shot by her 4-year-old son who was sitting on the back seat of the vehicle. The incident happened when she was driving to attend a family function.

Police said her condition was stable now.

Facebook

Gilt who is a known guns-rights campaigner used to enthusiastically post on social media sites about firearms and protecting her right to bear arms.

In fact she had posted the photo of the same pistol involved in the incident a month ago calling it her "new toy".

Got to play with my new toy today! Time to clean it! pic.twitter.com/1lkYo8b3sh  jamie gilt (@jamiegilt) January 24, 2015

Just hours before the mishap she was bragging about how everyone in her family including her son was acquainted to using guns.

Facebook
It may be an isolated incident but nevertheless it's attracting a lot of criticism. Two Muslim women were escorted off a JetBlue passenger flight after they were accused by a flight attendant for "staring" at her.

The incident happened aboard flight 487 which was en route Los Angeles from Boston on Saturday afternoon. No alarm was raised while the plane was in the air but once it landed, the women were escorted off for questioning while other passengers waited in their seats.

abc

According to The Sun, the flight attendant was overheard by Sharon Kessler - a passenger - telling her co-worker that she "did not appreciate" being stared at. She didn't feel "rattled or scared - just smug".

Kessler relayed the incident on Facebook. She said, "Then - after we landed - she (the attendant) announced that the authorities would be boarding the plane and to remain in our seats with seat belts. It was a terrible moment - honestly - these women sat quietly, watched movies - it felt like overkill from this flight attendant."

A video of the incident was uploaded on YouTube by Kessler's friend, Mark Frauenfelder:

JetBlue Airways released a statement that said that the attendant was under the impression that one of the women was filming in-flight procedures.

"If a crew member believes a customer may be filming safety procedures, the crew member may report it for further review. In this instance, our crew members acted in accordance with security procedures. We appreciate our customers' patience and cooperation, and apologise for the inconvenience," the statement read.
A cache of leaked "surveys" given to would-be jihadis joining ISIS show the 23 questions that make up the terror group's rigorous "entrance interviews".

abcnews

The documents ask new recruits to detail a host of information in 23 fields, including their birth date, nationality, blood type and "previous jihadi experience" .Tens of thousands of the forms, obtained by Sky News, reveal the names of 22,000 people from at least 51 countries, including the UK, who gave up personal information as they joined the militant group.The forms showing the 23-question survey in Arabic were previously published online by Zaman Al Wasl, a pro-opposition Syrian news website.

Zaman Al Wasl's report claimed the personal details of 1,736 fighters from 40 countries had been revealed, showing that a quarter were Saudis and the rest predominantly Tunisian, Moroccan and Egyptian.The documents, written in Arabic and stamped with logos used by the so-called Islamic State, allegedly contain details of 16 British fighters.In addition to their names, the forms show prospective ISIS recruits were asked to give their "fighter name" as well as their "mother's maiden name".They were asked to list their "level of education", "level of Sharia understanding" and whether they had "fought before".

secure.guim

(Two of the ISIS 'registration forms' leaks.zamanalwsl.net)

Potential members of the group also revealed whether they had "special skills" and what "role" they would take, with applicants asked to choose if they wanted to be used as suicide bombers, soldiers or in another role.Their "level of obedience" is also noted on the forms and, chillingly, a field is also designated for their "date and place of death". A final field is left for "notes" about the candidates.According to Sky News they include prominent names of figures already known to be members, such as Britons Abdel Bary from London, Junaid Hussain and Reyaad Khan from Cardiff.They also reveal the identities of a number of previously unknown jihadis in the UK, across northern Europe, much of the Middle East and North Africa, as well as in the United States and Canada.

abcnews

The 23 questions in full:

1. Name

2. Fighter name

3. Mother's maiden name

4. Blood type

5. DOB and nationality

6. Marriage status

7. Address and place of residence

8. Level of education

9. Level of Sharia understanding

10. Previous job

11. Countries travelled through

12. Area entered from

13. Who recommended

14. Date of entry

15. Have they fought before

16. What role will they take

17. Any special skills

18. Current place of work

19. Security deposit

20: Level of obedience

21: Contact numbers

22: Date and place of death

23: Notes

Read Also:

ISIS Using More Than 31,000 Pregnant Women To Breed A Next Generation Of Terrorists #Shocking
Were excited to announce that indmin.com is now part of fastmarkets.com.

A new look and an improved experience means you can still stay ahead of this fast-moving market with price data, news and market intelligence right here on Fastmarkets.

Discover more than 2000 prices, news and analysis in primary and secondary metals markets. We cover base metals, industrial minerals, ores and alloys, steel, scrap and steel raw materials.

If you already have a Fastmarkets account, youll still have uninterrupted access to your markets by logging in with your current details.
Founded in 1898, the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) is the leading technical society of professionals in the Canadian Minerals, Metals, Materials and Energy Industries. CIM has over 14,600 members, convened from industry, academia and government. With 10 Technical Societies and over 35 Branches, our members help shape, lead and connect Canadas mining industry, both within our borders and across the globe.

The first Annual Interprovincial Congress was held from March 1 to 3, 1899 at the Windsor Hotel in Montreal.

CIM has always maintained three main objectives:

to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and technology

to foster networking, professional development and fraternity

to recognize excellence and outstanding achievements in the minerals industry

VISION

World-class professional development, networking, and knowledge sharing.

PURPOSE

The core purpose of CIM is to serve minerals, materials and petroleum industries and professionals around the world. We will achieve this by:

Being the preferred source of knowledge and best practices.

Facilitating learning and continuous professional development.

Facilitating collaboration among all constituents.

Providing leadership in the development and use of industry standards.

Promoting our industries to society.

Recognizing excellence and outstanding achievements.

Providing networking opportunities



InfoMine will be attending this event - please meet us in person!
Register before December 4, 2015 to save $400

Americas largest gathering for the steel, tube and pipe industry welcomes its dedicated and new attendees back to Houston in March, 2016.

Consistency and reliability; these are the two words our conference embodies. Though conditions have been tough for companies with exposure to the recent downtrend in oil prices, opportunities for growth never disappear.



Who will you meet?

Be amongst those who capitalize in this challenging environment and join AMM in Houston for exclusive networking opportunities and an unrivalled line-up of high-profile speakers.
Another Mass Killing

U.S. Slaughters 150 People In Somalia





Nobody Knows the Identity of the 150 People Killed by U.S. in Somalia, but Most Are Certain They Deserved It



By Glenn Greenwald



March 09, 2016 "

Information Clearing House

" - "

The Intercept

" - The U.S. used drones and manned aircraft yesterday to drop bombs and missiles on Somalia, ending the lives of at least 150 people. As it virtually always does, the Obama administration instantly claimed that the people killed were terrorists and militants  members of the Somali group al Shabaab  but provided no evidence to support that assertion.

Nonetheless, most U.S. media reports contained nothing more than quotes from U.S. officials about what happened, conveyed uncritically and with no skepticism of their accuracy: The dead fighters  were assembled for what American officials believe was a graduation ceremony and prelude to an imminent attack against American troops, pronounced the New York Times. So, the official story goes, The Terrorists were that very moment graduating  receiving their Terrorist degrees  and about to attack U.S. troops when the U.S. killed them.

With that boilerplate set of claims in place, huge numbers of people today who have absolutely no idea who was killed are certain that they all deserved it. As my colleague Murtaza Hussain said of the 150 dead people: We dont know who they are, but luckily they were all bad. For mindless authoritarians, the words terrorist and militant have no meaning other than: anyone who dies when my government drops bombs, or, at best, a terrorist is anyone my government tells me is a terrorist. Watch how many people today are defending this strike by claiming terrorists and militants were killed using those definitions even though they have literally no idea who was killed.

Other than the higher-than-normal death toll, this mass killing is an incredibly common event under the presidency of the 2009 Nobel Peace laureate, who has so far bombed seven predominantly Muslim countries. As Nick Turse has reported in The Intercept, Obama has aggressively expanded the stealth drone program and secret war in Africa.

This particular mass killing is unlikely to get much attention in the U.S. due to (1) the election-season obsession with horse-race analysis and pressing matters such as the size of Donald Trumps hands; (2) widespread Democratic indifference to the killing of foreigners where theres no partisan advantage to be had against the GOP from pretending to care; (3) the invisibility of places like Somalia and the implicit devaluing of lives there; and (4) the complete normalization of the model whereby the U.S. president kills whomever he wants, wherever he wants, without regard for any semblance of law, process, accountability, or evidence.

The lack of attention notwithstanding, there are several important points highlighted by yesterdays bombing and the reaction to it:

1) The U.S. is not at war in Somalia. Congress has never declared war on Somalia, nor has it authorized the use of military force there. Morality and ethics to the side for the moment: What legal authority does Obama even possess to bomb this country? I assume we can all agree that presidents shouldnt be permitted to just go around killing people they suspect are bad: they need some type of legal authority to do the killing.

Since 2001, the U.S. government has legally justified its we-bomb-wherever-we-want approach by pointing to the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), enacted by Congress in the wake of 9/11 to authorize the targeting of al Qaeda and affiliated forces. But al Shabaab did not exist in 2001 and had nothing to do with 9/11. Indeed, the group has not tried to attack the U.S. but instead, as the New York Times Charlie Savage noted in 2011, is focused on a parochial insurgency in Somalia. As a result, reported Savage, even the [Obama] administration does not consider the United States to be at war with every member of the Shabaab.

Instead, in the Obama administrations view, specific senior members of al Shabaab can be treated as enemy combatants under the AUMF only if they adhere to al Qaedas ideology, are integrated into its command structure, and could conduct operations outside of Somalia. Thats why the U.S. government yesterday claimed that all the people it killed were about to launch attacks on U.S. soldiers: because, even under its own incredibly expansive view of the AUMF, it would be illegal to kill them merely on the ground that they were all members of al Shabaab, and the government thus needs a claim of self-defense to legally justify this.

But even under the self-defense theory that the U.S. government invoked, it is allowed  under its own policies promulgated in 2013  to use lethal force away from an active war zone (e.g., Afghanistan) only against a target that poses a continuing, imminent threat to U.S. persons. Perhaps these Terrorists were about to imminently attack U.S. troops stationed in the region  immediately after the tassel on their graduation cap was turned at the graduation ceremony, they were going on the attack  but again, there is literally no evidence that any of that is true.

Given whats at stake  namely, the conclusion that Obamas killing of 150 people yesterday was illegal  shouldnt we be demanding to see evidence that the assertions of his government are actually true? Were these really all al Shabaab fighters and terrorists who were killed? Were they really about to carry out some sort of imminent, dangerous attack on U.S. personnel? Why would anyone be content to blindly believe the self-serving assertions of the U.S. government on these questions without seeing evidence? If you are willing to make excuses for why you dont want to see any evidence, why would you possibly think you know what happened here  who was killed and under what circumstances  if all you have are conclusory, evidence-free assertions from those who carried out the killings?

2) There are numerous compelling reasons demanding skepticism of U.S. government claims about who it kills in airstrikes. To begin with, the Obama administration has formally re-defined the term militant to mean: all military-age males in a strike zone unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent. In other words, the U.S. government presumptively regards all adult males it kills as militants unless evidence emerges that they were not. Its an empty, manipulative term of propaganda and nothing else.

Beyond that, the U.S. governments own documents prove that in the vast majority of cases  9 out of 10 in fact  it is killing people other than its intended targets. Last April, the New York Times published an article under the headline Drone Strikes Reveal Uncomfortable Truth: U.S. Is Often Unsure About Who Will Die. It quoted the scholar Micah Zenko saying, Most individuals killed are not on a kill list, and the government does not know their names.

Moreover, the U.S. government has repeatedly been caught lying about the identity of its bombings victims. As that April NYT article put it, Every independent investigation of the strikes has found far more civilian casualties than administration officials admit.

Given that clear record of deliberate deceit, why would any rational person blindly swallow evidence-free assertions from the U.S. government about who it is killing? To put it mildly, extreme skepticism is warranted (after being criticized for its stenography, the final New York Times story yesterday at least included this phrase about the Pentagons claims about who it killed: There was no independent way to verify the claim).

3) Why does the U.S. have troops stationed in this part of Africa? Remember, even the Obama administration says it is not at war with al Shabaab.

Consider how circular this entire rationale is: The U.S., like all countries, obviously has a legitimate interest in protecting its troops from attack. But why does it have troops there at all in need of protection? The answer: The troops are there to operate drone bases and attack people they regard as a threat to them. But if they werent there in the first place, these groups could not pose a threat to them.

In sum: We need U.S. troops in Africa to launch drone strikes at groups that are trying to attack U.S. troops in Africa. Its the ultimate self-perpetuating circle of imperialism: We need to deploy troops to other countries in order to attack those who are trying to kill U.S. troops who are deployed there.

4) If youre an American who has lived under the war on terror, its easy to forget how extreme this behavior is. Most countries on the planet dont routinely run around dropping bombs and killing dozens of people in multiple other countries at once, let alone do so in countries where theyre not at war.

But for Americans, this is now all perfectly normalized. We just view our president as vested with the intrinsic, divine right, grounded in American exceptionalism, to deem whomever he wants Bad Guys and then  with no trial, no process, no accountability  order them killed. Hes the roving, Global Judge, Jury, and Executioner. And we see nothing disturbing or dangerous or even odd about that. Weve been inculcated to view the world the way a 6-year-old watches cartoons: Bad Guys should be killed, and thats the end of the story.
Portrait of an U.S. Drone Victim



Who are the often nameless victims of drone strikes in Afghanistan?



By Emran Feroz March 09, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Al Jazeera " - The food stand was completely destroyed. So, too, was the body of its owner, 21-year-old Sadiq Rahim Jan. "My brother was torn to pieces. Almost nothing was left of him," says Islam Rahim Jan.



It was July 2012 and his death plunged his family into despair and poverty.



Sadiq was the family's main breadwinner. His income as the owner of the only food stand in the village of Gardda Zarrai, in the eastern Afghan province of Paktia, provided for his parents and four siblings.



Nobody knows why he was targeted in a drone strike. But since 2001, US drone attacks have become a near regular feature of life - and cause of death - in Afghanistan, particularly in the country's south and east. According to the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Afghanistan is the "most drone-bombed country in the world". Between 2001 and 2013, at least 1,670 drone strikes took place in the country. But accurate data about the impact of those strikes, particularly casualty figures, does not exist. There are a number of reasons for this.



On the one hand, the media seems to largely ignore drone warfare and its victims. On the other, there is little political will for transparency, be it in Washington or Kabul. In 2013, a United Nations report on drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen pointed out that the " clandestine nature of US drone strikes hinders evaluation of their impact on civilians". So the names and stories of many of the victims remain unknown to all but their families.



Compounding this invisibility is the fact that the limited media coverage is often inaccurate. When Sadiq was killed, several national media outlets reported that a "Taliban commander" had been killed by a drone strike in Gardda Zarrai. "It's really hard to pin down in these sorts of cases whether this is deliberate misinformation by someone with a malicious motive, or if it's an honest mistake," says Jack Serle of the bureau, who has spent years studying drone strikes. "In my experience, police and army officials and provincial government officials are generally the main journalistic sources for this kind of information. But it is not often clear where they get their information [from]," says Serle. "In the past, these kinds of people have told me they get intelligence from the NDS, the Afghan intelligence service, who gets it from the US. But that's not always going to be the case." Sadiq's family say they were outraged when Radio Azadi, an Afghan branch of the US government's external broadcast services, and other national news platforms connected their son to a group with which they say he had no affiliation. In fact, they say, Sadiq had never been involved with any armed group. But in the days and weeks after Sadiq was killed, they say, not a single journalist visited their village to collect facts or talk to the people who knew him.



The family turned to the local police and army. But, although they expressed their regret over Sadiq's death, they told his family not to take any further action.



"In fact, they just want to silence my family because such war crimes show the Afghan government and the United States in a bad light," says Farhad Khan, Sadiq's cousin who lives in Germany and now tries to provide financial support to the family. Until today, Sadiq's family have not received any explanation as to why their son was killed or why he was subsequently classified as a member of the Taliban. "He welcomed me like a brother [when I would visit Afghanistan]," Farhad remembers, adding that they became best friends.



"The whole village, from young to old, respected and loved Sadiq. He was a charming and charismatic person who believed in peace, love and freedom," Farhad says.



"For that reason, it feels so wrong for all these people that he is just remembered as a terrorist by the rest of the world."



Photographing the victims



It was cases like Sadiq's - the nameless, faceless drone victims described as members of the Taliban with no supporting evidence - that made Noor Behram, a photojournalist from North Waziristan, the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan, set out to explore the scenes of drone strikes. "I started with my investigation in 2007, when it was reported that an aerial attack killed al-Qaeda-linked militants," Behram says. "But I found torn women's clothing, which was evidence that civilians were killed too." From that time on, he has visited the site of drone strikes as soon after an attack as possible. Travelling on a motorbike, he photographs the scene and victims and speaks to witnesses.



He noticed that all that seemed to be required for the Pakistani and international media to describe a male victim as a member of the Taliban was that he had long hair and a beard - a common look among many Pashtun men on either side of the border. "After conversations with editors and journalists, I understood that if a drone strike killed an innocent adult male civilian, such as a fruit seller or food vendor, the victim's long hair and beard would be enough to stereotype him as a militant."



Sadiq had long hair and a beard. But even that isn't always a requirement. A four-year-old victim In April 2013, Naqibullah took his son, four-year-old Amir, to the city of Asadabad, in the eastern province of Kunar, for medical treatment. Naqibullah told his brother, 25-year-old Abdul Wahid, to take his son back to their village while he stayed in the city.



When he telephoned home to find out if they had returned safely, he was told they had not.



"Locals told me that my brother and my son had been killed by a drone strike," Naqibullah remembers.



"I couldn't bear the news. I lost all sense in this moment," he says. "Suddenly, all the pictures of my son and my brother came to my mind while my tears could not stop." According to Naqibullah, government officials insisted that his son and brother were Taliban fighters. They said the onus was on him to prove otherwise.



Today, Naqibullah cares for Abdul Wahid's children. He says one of them, Hilal, is always asking about this father. Unreported



According to a recent report by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), more than 11,000 civilians were killed or wounded in the country in 2015. While armed groups and the Afghan military are thought to have been responsible for 98 percent of these incidences, 2 percent of civilian casualties were attributed to international forces, mainly in the form of air strikes.



However, the report points out that civilian casualties caused by international military forces and the Afghan air force increased by 83 percent in 2015, causing 296 civilian casualties, of which 149 were deaths. Fifty-seven percent of those were caused by international forces. According to UNAMA, the main reason for the increase was the attack on the MSF hospital in Kunduz on October 3. The US government data does not distinguish between classic aerial attacks and drone strikes. For that reason, it isn't clear how many drone strikes really took place in Afghanistan. But with three different sources required to confirm a single casualty, the families of many of those killed say their relatives have not even made it into that count.



"You will not find my cousin and other victims like him in these reports," says Sadiq's cousin, Farhad.



Critics of the UN report say that without journalists or human rights activists present in the country's most war-torn areas, killings often go unreported and unsubstantiated, never making it into formal records. "Most war-torn areas of Afghanistan, especially where drone strikes take place regularly, are not visited by journalists or activists. They are considered as too dangerous, as dead zones," says Waheed Mozhdah, a political analyst based in Kabul.



Besides, records of civilian casualties only begin from 2009, eight years after the war started. In fact, the very first recorded incident of a strike by a weaponised drone took place on October 7, 2001, when US forces targeted the late Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar in Kandahar.



Omar was not killed on that day - but many ordinary civilians, just like Sadiq, have been in the years since. Source: Al Jazeera
Hillary Clintons Support for the Iraq War Was No Fluke





Hillary Clinton has run to the right of the Obama administration on every major foreign policy issue  and shes left a trail of devastation in her wake.



By Medea Benjamin



March 09, 2016 "

Information Clearing House

" - "

FPIF

" - In March 2003, just before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, about 100 CODEPINK women dressed in pink slips weaved in and out of congressional offices demanding to meet with representatives. Those representatives who pledged to oppose going to war with Iraq were given hugs and pink badges of courage; those hell-bent on taking the United States to war were given pink slips emblazoned with the words YOURE FIRED.

When we got to Hillary Clintons office, we sat down and refused to leave until we got a meeting with the New York senator. Within an hour, Clinton appeared. I like pink tulips around this time of the year; they kind of remind ya that there may be a spring, she began, looking out at the rows of women in pink. Well, you guys look like a big bunch of big tulips!

It got even more awkward after that.

Defending the Iraq War

Having just returned from Iraq, I relayed that the weapons inspectors in Baghdad told us there was no danger of weapons of mass destruction and that the Iraqi women we met were terrified about the pending war and desperate to stop it. I admire your willingness to speak out on behalf of the women and children of Iraq, Clinton replied, but there is a very easy way to prevent anyone from being put into harms way and that is for Saddam Hussein to disarm and I have absolutely no belief that he will.

We thought the easiest way to prevent harming women, children and other living things in Iraq was to stop a war of aggression, a war over weapons of mass destruction that UN inspectors on the ground couldnt find  which were, in fact, never found, because they didnt exist. Clinton, however, was steadfast in her commitment to war: She said it was our responsibility to disarm Saddam Hussein, and even defended George W. Bushs unilateralism, citing her husbands go-it-alone intervention in Kosovo.

Disgusted, CODEPINK cofounder Jodie Evans tore off her pink slip and handed it to Clinton, saying that her support for Bushs invasion would lead to the death of many innocent people. Making the bogus connection between the September 11, 2001, attacks and Saddam Hussein, Clinton stormed out, saying, I am the senator from New York. I will never put my peoples security at risk.

But thats just what she did, by supporting the Iraq war and draining our nation of over a trillion dollars. That money could have been used for supporting women and children here at home. It could have been rerouted to the social programs that have been systematically defunded over the last few decades of Clintons own political career. Not to mention the war ultimately snuffed out the lives of thousands of U.S. soldiers  for absolutely no just cause.

Intervening in Libya, Surging in Afghanistan

If Clinton supported the Iraq war because she thought it politically expedient, she came to regret her stance when the war turned sour and Senator Barack Obama surged forward as the candidate opposed to that war during the presidential race in 2008.

But Clinton didnt learn the main lesson from Iraq  to seek non- violent ways to solve conflicts. Indeed, when the Arab Spring came to Libya in 2010, Clinton was the Obama administrations most forceful advocate for toppling Muammar Gaddafi. She even out-hawked Robert Gates, the defense secretary first appointed by George W. Bush, who was less than enthusiastic about going to war. Gates was reluctant to get bogged down in another Arab country, insisting that vital U.S. interests were not at stake But Clinton nevertheless favored intervention.

When Libyan rebels carried out an extrajudicial execution of their countrys former dictator, Clintons response was sociopathic: We came, we saw, he died, she laughed. That sent a message that the United States would look the other way at crimes committed by allies against its official enemies.

In a weird bit of rough justice, the political grief Clinton has suffered over the September 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi that killed four Americans might never have occurred had Clinton not supported the U.S. intervention in Libyas civil war. While Republicans have focused relentlessly on the terrible deaths of the U.S. diplomats, the larger disaster is the ensuing chaos that left Libya without a functioning government, overrun by feuding warlords and extremist militants. In 2015, the suffering of desperate refugees who flee civil unrest  many of whom drown in the Mediterranean Sea  is a direct consequence of that disastrous operation.

Libya was part of a pattern for Clinton.

On Afghanistan, she advocated a repeat of the surge in Iraq. When the top U.S. commander in Kabul, General Stanley McChrystal, asked Obama for 40,000 more troops to fight the Taliban in mid-2009, several top officials  including Vice President Joe Biden  objected, insisting that the public had lost patience with a conflict that had already dragged on too long. But Clinton backed McChrystal and wound up favoring even more surge troops than Defense Secretary Gates did. Obama ultimately sent another 30,000 American soldiers to Afghanistan.

Clintons State Department also provided cover for the expansion of the not-so-covert drone wars in Pakistan and Yemen. Clintons top legal adviser, Harold Koh, exploited his pre-government reputation as an advocate for human rights to declare in a 2010 speech that the government had the right not only to detain people without any charges at Guantanamo Bay, but also to kill them with unmanned aerial vehicles anywhere in the world.

Escalation in Syria

When it came to Syria, Obamas top diplomat was a forceful advocate for military intervention in that nations civil war.

When Obama threatened air strikes in 2013 to punish the Assad regimes use of chemical weapons, for example, Clinton publicly supported him, ignoring polls showing that more than 70 percent of Americans opposed military action. She described the planned U.S. attack on Syria as a limited strike to uphold a crucial global norm, although one of the clearest global norms under the UN Charter is that a country should not attack another country except in self-defense.

Clinton advocated arming Syrian rebels long before the Obama administration agreed to do so. In 2012, she allied with CIA Director David Petraeus to promote a U.S.-supplied-and-trained proxy army in Syria. As a U.S. Army general, Petraeus spent enormous amounts of money training Iraqi and Afghan soldiers with little success, but that did not deter him and Clinton from seeking a similar project in Syria. Together, they campaigned for more direct and aggressive U.S. support for the rebels, a plan supported by leading Republicans like John McCain and Lindsey Graham. But few in the White House agreed, arguing that it would be difficult to appropriately vet fighters and ensure that weapons didnt fall into the hands of extremists.

Clinton was disappointed when Obama rejected the proposal, but a similar plan for the U.S. to vet and train moderate rebels at a starting cost of $500 million was later approved. Some of the trained rebels were quickly routed and captured; others, more concerned with toppling Assad than fighting Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) defected to the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front. In September 2015, the head of U.S. Central Command, General Lloyd Austin, told an incredulous Senate Armed Services Committee that the $500 million effort to train Syrian forces had resulted in a mere four or five fighters actively battling ISIS. Undeterred, Clinton said that as commander-in-chief, she would dramatically escalate the program.

In October 2015, Clinton broke with the Obama White House on Syria by calling for the creation of a no-fly zone to try to stop the carnage on the ground and from the air, to try to provide some way to take stock of whats happening, to try to stem the flow of refugees, she said in a TV interview on the campaign trail.

While the Obama White House has approved air strikes against ISIS, it has resisted creating a no-fly zone on the grounds that the effective enforcement to prevent Assads planes from flying would require large amounts of U.S. resources and could pull the military further into an unpredictable conflict.

Clintons position is at odds not only with President Obama, but also with the position of Bernie Sanders, her main rival for the Democratic presidential nomination. Sanders has warned that a unilateral U.S. no-fly zone in Syria could get us more deeply involved in that horrible civil war and lead to a never-ending U.S. entanglement in that region, potentially making a complex and dangerous situation in Syria even worse.

Antagonizing Iran

Clinton did come out in support of President Obamas nuclear deal with Iran, but even that position comes with a heavy load of bellicose baggage.

Back in April 2008, Clinton warned that the U.S. could totally obliterate Iran in retaliation for a nuclear attack on Israel  prompting Obama to warn against language thats reflective of George Bush. In 2009, as secretary of state, she was adamant that the U.S. keep open the option of attacking Iran over never-proven allegations it was seeking the nuclear weapons that Israel already has. She opposed talk of a containment policy that would be an alternative to military action should negotiations with Tehran fail.

Even after the agreement was sealed, she struck a bullying tone: I dont believe Iran is our partner in this agreement, Clinton insisted. Iran is the subject of the agreement, adding that she would not hesitate to take military action if Iran attempts to obtain a nuclear weapon. We should expect that Iran will want to test the next president. They will want to see how far they can bend the rules, she said in a September 2015 speech at the Brookings Institution. That wont work if Im in the White House.

To bolster her tough stance, Clinton suggested deploying additional U.S. forces to the Persian Gulf region and recommended that Congress close any gaps in the existing sanctions to punish Iran for any current or future instances of human rights abuses and support for terror.

Its true that the Iran nuclear agreement allowed for additional possible sanctions unrelated to Irans nuclear program, but it also required parties to avoid action inconsistent with the letter, spirit and intent of the deal. Clintons call for new sanctions violates the deals intent.

Enabling Netanyahu

Meanwhile, Clinton has positioned herself as more pro-Israel than President Obama.

She vows to bring the two nations closer together, promising to invite the right-wing Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit the White House within her first month in office. She has distanced herself from Obamas feud with Netanyahu over the prime ministers efforts to derail the Iran nuclear deal and his comments opposing the creation of a Palestinian state. Referring to Obamas policy toward Netanyahu, Clinton said that such tough love is counterproductive because it invites other countries to delegitimize Israel. Clinton promised the people of Israel that if she were president, youll never have to question whether were with you. The United States will always be with you.

Clinton has also voiced her opposition to the Palestinian-led nonviolent campaign against the Israeli government called BDS  standing for boycott, divestment, and sanctions. In a letter to her hardline pro-Israel mega donor Haim Saban, she said BDS seeks to punish Israel and asked Sabans advice on how leaders and communities across America can work together to counter BDS.

Missed Opportunities

As secretary of state, Clinton missed opportunity after opportunity to shine as the nations top diplomat.

In July 2010, she visited the Korean Demilitarized Zone with Defense Secretary Robert Gates to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the start of the Korean War. Standing at the site of the most militarized border in the world at a time of great tension between North and South Korea, she could have publicly recognized that the 1953 armistice that ended the fighting on the Korean peninsula was supposed to be followed up a few months later by a real peace treaty but never was. Clinton could have used this occasion to call for a peace treaty and a process of reconciliation between the two Koreas. Instead she characterized the decades-long U.S. military presence in Korea as a great success  a statement hard to reconcile with 60 years of continuous hostilities.

Clinton also failed miserably in her attempt to reset the U.S. relationship with Russia. Since leaving office, she has criticized the Obama administration for not doing more to contain Russias presence in Ukraine since the 2014 annexation of Crimea. She put herself in the category of people who wanted to do more in reaction to the annexation of Crimea, insisting that the Russian governments objective is to stymie, to confront, to undermine American power whenever and wherever they can.

It was only after Clinton resigned as secretary of state and was replaced by John Kerry that the State Department moved away from being merely an appendage of the Pentagon to one that truly sought creative, diplomatic solutions to seemingly intractable conflicts. President Obamas two signature foreign policy achievements  the Iran deal and the groundbreaking opening with Cuba  came after Clinton left. These historic wins serve to highlight Clintons miserable track record in the position.

sfsdfsdf

When Clinton announced her second campaign for the presidency, she declared she was entering the race to be the champion for everyday Americans.

As a lawmaker and diplomat, however, Clinton has long championed military campaigns that have killed scores of everyday people abroad. As commander-in-chief, theres no reason to believe shed be any less a war hawk than she was as the senator who backed George W. Bushs war in Iraq, or the secretary of state who encouraged Barack Obama to escalate the war in Afghanistan.

Clinton may well have been the administrations most vociferous advocate for military action. On at least three crucial issues  Afghanistan, Libya, and the bin Laden raid  she took a more aggressive line than Defense Secretary Gates, a Bush-appointed Republican.

Little wonder that Clinton has won the support of many pundits who continually agitate for war. I feel comfortable with her on foreign policy, Robert Kagan, a co-founder of the neoconservative Project for the New American Century, told the New York Times. If she pursues a policy which we think she will pursue, he said, 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.

Lets call it what it is: more of the interventionist policies that destroyed Iraq, destabilized Libya, showered Yemen with cluster bombs and drones, and legitimized repressive regimes from Israel to Honduras.

A Hillary Clinton presidency would symbolically break the glass ceiling for women in the United States, but it would be unlikely to break through the military-industrial complex that has been keeping our nation in a perpetual state of war  killing people around the world, plenty of them women and children.
Former military head of state, General Yakubu Gowon (retd.), has confirmed his paternity of a 48-year-old man recently deported after spending 22-years in a United States prison.

The former military ruler announced Wednesday that result of DNA test confirmed that Musa Jack Ngodadi, is his biological son.

The younger Gowon, who was initially sentenced to 40-years imprisonment for alleged drug-related offences of which he was found guilty in November of 1992, was pardoned last year by President Barack Obama after spending 22-years out of his prison sentence.

Musa Gowon returned to Nigeria on January 1, 2016, after the U.S. Immigration officials deported him.

According to reports, Musa was the product of a romance between Gowon, then military head of state and an Igbo lady, Edith Ike-Okongu.

But the romance ended abruptly over the Nigerian Civil War and how it was being prosecuted by Gowon, who was then Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

Edith was said to have protested the manner Nigerian troops had maimed and killed her fellow Igbos, under a government of a man she was in love with.

Edith was said to have left Nigeria for the U.S while Gowon, who was Nigerias youngest head of state, tied the knot with his present wife, Victoria.

She was reported to have later returned to Nigeria after decades in the U.S., leaving behind her son, Musa Gowon, who allegedly got involved with some Colombian drug dealers resulting in his arrest and imprisonment in 1992.

Though he strongly denied being guilty of the crime as he insisted that he was framed up, Musa was sent to the Taft Correctional Facility, Bakersfield, California, to serve a 40-year jail term.

A press statement by the former military head of state acknowledging Musa as his biological son reads:

Following years of doubts and speculation, a DNA test was recently conducted to ascertain the paternity of Musa Gowon who recently returned to the country.

The results of the tests were conclusive and they confirm his paternity.

We, the family, are working to assist in his rehabilitation following a very difficult period in his life.

As we look forward to the future with faith in God, we request that our privacy be respected.
An Isolo Magistrates Court sitting in Lagos State on Wednesday remanded one Adewale Mabun in prison for allegedly selling off his late fathers house without the knowledge of his siblings.

The 62-year-old man, a native of Ogun state had single handedly sold his late fathers house, a bungalow located at 11, Silva Street, Mushin, where the family buried their late father, to one Rasheed Komolafe, who paid him N500, 000 in cash, P. M News gathered.

According to the report, during the negotiations, Komolafe got Mabun to agree that he would evacuate his late fathers corpse to enable him to take possession and he would be paid another undisclosed amount for the evacuation.



Meanwhile, Mabun who is the eldest of his fathers children has many siblings as his father had three wives before he died.

Trouble started after Mabun secretly evacuated their fathers corpse from the tomb and carried it to their home town and buried it without telling anyone and reportedly stayed back in the village where he married a new wife.

When other members of the family realized what Mabun had done, they battled with the issue and asked Komolafe to collect his money back from Mabun.

Komolafe was said to have reported to the police when the pressure was much on him.

The police subsequently trailed Mabun to his hometown, arrested him and brought him back to Lagos to face prosecution.

When the police asked him to refund the money, he said he had spent it by building a shop in their village and marrying another wife.

He was, however, charged to court with obtaining under false pretence and stealing.

Mabun reportedly pleaded not guilty when the charges were read to him.

The presiding Magistrate, Mrs. A. K. Shonubi, granted him bail in the sum of N200, 000 with one surety in like sum.

Shonubi adjourned the case till April 11, 2016, for hearing, ordering that he be remanded in custody at the Kirikiri Prison pending when he will perfect his bail condition.

Source: Dailypost
Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has expressed appreciation to President Muhammadu Buhari for supporting the state during the challenge posed by herdsmen invasion of some communities in the state.

Ortom, who was at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, to personally express the states appreciation to Buhari, spoke with State House correspondents after meeting the president.

The governor said: It is something that has not gone to this magnitude because it is massive and it was beyond us and even when the President was out of the country, I saw the Vice President and he was communicated and he immediately directed the Army and the Police to move in swiftly and today there are more Army personnel in the state and in particular Agatu. Also, mobile policemen several units have been deployed.
A blind man identified as Monday Iruanya alongside members of his syndicate have been arrested by the Lagos state Police Command for alleged robbery and stealing of tyres valued at about N20m.



The police, while parading the suspects at the state Command headquarters on Wednesday, said the tyres were owned by a businessman in Apapa.

According to the state Commissioner of Police, CP, Fatai Owoseni, a soldier was being trailed for aiding the 61-year-old suspect and his accomplices  John Michael, 30-year-old Charles Chinonso and James Francis.

The tyres were stolen at a warehouse in Apapa and were being taken to Sagamu, Ogun State for sale when they were intercepted in Ijebu Ode by policemen, who had been on their trail from Lagos.

It was gathered that Michael, who acted as the owner of the goods, had approached Iruanya, the blind suspect, to help him get a waybill so the security agents would not question his ownership of the items.

The blind suspect, who police said was released from the Kirikiri Prison for stealing in 2010, was said to have provided the waybill, which listed the stolen items and the destination, after a promise of N100, 000 from the proceeds.

In his confession, Iruanya said he wanted to use the money to treat his eyes, adding that he did not know the tyres were stolen.

He said, 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.

He and I were 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, Iruanya added.

The driver, Francis, said the tarpaulin they used to cover the goods had torn and were trying to replace it when the police swooped on them at Ijebu Ode.

He said, 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.

Chinonso, the truck conductor confessed to the crime, saying he was promised N150, 000.

The CP urged the public to promptly report criminal activities around them to the police.

He said, Within a week, operatives of the command arrested 26 robbers.

About 49 live cartridges and ammunition were recovered. The suspects will be prosecuted.

In the course of the encounter with the police, one of them died. In due time, the other suspects will be paraded, the CP noted.

Source:Dailypost
Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State on Wednesday said he would not stop criticizing the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administrations bad policies despite the recent clampdown on state officials by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS).

The governor insisted that no policy of the Federal Government that is inimical to the welfare of the people would escape his comments.

In a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, Mr. Fayose, who was reacting to the DSS raid for the first time, said he remained resolute in his determination to criticise obnoxious policies of the president in the interest of Nigeria and democracy.

The statement said the state commissioner for finance, Toyin Ojo, who was also arrested by DSS, was released late Tuesday night.

The Bible says people with God are in majority. This is not the first time people will harass me. It is a conspiracy and it will collapse like other attempts before it. I will remain critical of the activities of the Federal Government, especially when they do things that are inimical to the welfare of Nigerians, Mr. Fayose said.

Imagine the questions they asked my Commissioner for Finance, they asked him if the Federal Government has reimbursed the state government on works done on federal roads. But the records are with them in Abuja, cant they check? We have nothing to hide and they are only chasing shadows and are time wasters.

Telling the Federal Government that the economy is in trouble and that the president should stay at home to face governance is not a crime and is part of my rights as a citizen of this country. I am like a tree planted by the bank of a river that brings forth its fruits in due season, he said.

Responding to claims that members of the State House of Assembly were offered $1 million to impeach him, the governor expressed confidence in the lawmakers.

I am just coming from Abuja and I know that our lawmakers are solid guys and their future and mine are tied together. When the APC was at its peak in the state and they wanted to use 19 lawmakers to impeach me, they failed woefully and they will still fail again. This is a storm in a tea cup. They are not just starting; I defeated them in all courts in the land. I wont deter from saying the truth about the FG.

We are in the morning we have not seen what the night is going to be. If it is me that brought myself here they will succeed, but if it is God, they will have to first overcome God before overcoming me, the governor said.
Union leaders in the oil and gas sector said the minister of state for petroleum resources Ibe Kachikwu had nothing to show in terms of achievements, so far, and has been running a one-man show.

Workers had down tools at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) following the ministers announcement of the unbundling of the corporation, claiming that they were not carried along.

Kachikwu was also accused of playing games with workers in the ministry while spending millions of Naira on external consultants holed up at the Transcorp Hilton under the guise of working out modalities for the unbundling of the corporation.

According to a union leader who spoke to persecondNews, several millions have been spent on consultants to do routine work that can be handled by the Human Resource department at the NNPC.

He further revealed that Kachikwu has also employed a Chief of Staff which is unprecedented in the ministry as no minister or GMD in the past has employed or appointed a chief of staff, rather they have what is called STAs Senior Technical Assistant who is normally picked from experienced staff of the ministry.

The appointment of this Lady Chief of Staff is already fostering divisions in the ministry as she calls the shot, controlling and issuing directives to Group Executive Directors, GEDs that have over twenty years of experience in the industry.

In view of the current situation of things, NUPENG said products will not be lifted.

Scarcity of fuel has, therefore, worsened across the country.

Meanwhlie, the senate on Wednesday, summoned the Minister to appear before it over the unbundling of the Nigerian National Petroleum Coporation.

A letter signed by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), Tayo Alasoadura, said that the senate was shocked at the news of unbundling the NNPC.

Shocked by the announcement in disbelief, three committees overseeing the industry wish to invite the Minister to appear before them to brief them of this critical decision in a meeting schedule Thursday.

Alasoadura said that the action was taken without recourse to the Act establishing the NNPC and approval by the Senate of Nigeria.
A 62-year-old man, Adewale Mabun, has been arrested and charged before Isolo Magistrates court for allegedly selling his late fathers house for N500,000 without involving other siblings in Lagos State, western Nigeria.

He was remanded in prison custody after he failed to meet his bail condition.

Ogun State-born Mabun allegedly contacted Rasheed Komolafe and negotiated to sell their late fathers bungalow for the amount which he paid.

The house in question is located at 11, Silva Street, Mushin where the family buried their late father.

The late father married three wives and many children while Mabun is the eldest.

P.M.NEWS gathered that during the negotiation, it was agreed that Mabun will evacuate their late fathers corpse to enable Komalafe to take possession and paid another amount for the evacuation.

While the transaction was going on, other children from their late father did not know about it.

Trouble started after Mabun secretly evacuated their fathers corpse from the tomb and carried it to their home town and buried it.

He remained there with the new wife he married.

When members of the family realized what Mabun had done, the resisted it and asked Komolafe to collect his money back from Mabun.

Consequently, Komolafe went to the police and reported what happened and the police trailed Mabun to his home town and arrested him.

He was brought him back to Lagos to face prosecution.

When the police asked him to refund the money, he said he had spent it by building a shop in their village and marrying another wife.

He was charged to court with obtaining under false pretence and stealing under the Criminal code.

When Mabun was arraigned, he pleaded not guilty.

The presiding Magistrate, Mrs A. K. Shonubi granted Mabun bail in the sum of N200,000 with one surtey in like sum.

He was remanded in prison custody at Kirikiri pending when he will perfect his bail condition.

The matter was adjourned till 11 April, 2016.

Source: PM News
China has suddenly provided a new contender for Worlds Worst Father. Unfortunately, the candidate will not be able to compete in the 2016 competition, as his crime was committed last year. However, after a diligent search by the police for the iPhone-loving scoundrel, the negligent parent recently turned himself in to the authorities. The man, A Duan, was only 18-years-old in March 2015 when he decided to sell his daughter to a stranger.

He had no desire to be a parent and was worried about how he was going to pay for the care of his new child. A Duan hadnt completed high school and the mother of his child, Xiao Mei, was underage. They spent little time together, as she worked a variety of temporary jobs and he wasted his days in various Internet cafes in the city of Tongan, which is located in the province of Fujian.

While in one of the Internet cafes, A Duan began exploring on the social media instant messaging platform QQ. During his search, he came across a man who was willing to buy the infant. The two men negotiated back and forth until settling upon the sum of $3,520 (23,000 yuan). A Duan determined this to be enough money for him to purchase a new iPhone 6 and a new motorbike. He was so caught up in profiting from the sale, that he never bothered to get the consent of Xiao Mei. Soon after the sale of her 18-day-old daughter, Mei left the city.

The individual purchasing the female infant gave it to his sister, who was unable to have any biological children of her own. Questions were soon raised as to where her new child came from, which prompted a police investigation. The police were eventually able to track down Xiao and arrested her. Although she was not directly responsible for selling her daughter, she admitted that she did not think the sale was illegal. Due to her limited financial and social circumstances, a judge handed her a two and a half year suspended prison sentence. A Duan was not so lucky. When he heard that police were looking for him, the now 19-year-old turned himself in to the authorities in late February 2016. He was sentenced to three years in prison for the sale of his daughter.

Today.ng
Members of the House of Representatives yesterday said the down payment of N50 billion by MTN Nigeria as a step towards out-of-court settlement of its N780 billion fine was inadequate and the telecommunications firm must be made to pay the total amount to the Nigerian government.

The hard line stance of the House of Representatives came on the heels of the disclosure by President Muhammadu Buhari shortly after a closed door meeting with South African president, Jacob Zuma that MTN Nigerias delay to deactivate unregistered SIM cards aided the activities of Boko Haram insurgents in the country.

The Nigerian Communication Commission, NCC, had last October imposed a N1.04 trillion fine on the telecommunications company for failing to deactivate 5.1 million unregistered SIM cards from its network, leading MTN to take the Nigeria government to court despite reducing the fine to N780 billion.

However, the company withdrew the court case it instituted against the Nigerian government and paid N50 billion into government coffers as a sign of good faith.

Consequently, during a meeting with NCC over the lingering saga, Chairman of the House Committee on Telecommunication, Rep Saheed Akinade-Fijabi (APC, Oyo) said the company had undermined governments crusade against insecurity in the country.

He said NCC, as the regulator of the industry, must insist for the full payment, which would then redefine future relationship with the telecom operators for Nigerias interest.

The law is there to serve as deterrent. MTN has been trying to circumvent the process and find a way of running away from the law instead of them facing the music, he said.

Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof Umar Garba Danbatta, had told the lawmakers that the commission was not in custody of the N50 billion payment and was unaware of the account the money was paid into by the MTN.

He said NCC had only received a notification of payment from the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation.

I do not know the account where the money was paid into. The commission only received a letter from the Attorney-General of the Federation indicating that MTN had paid the amount into the federal government account, he said.
Punch

The implementation of the United Nations Environment Programme Assessment report on oil pollution in the Niger Delta is being threatened by the inability of the Federal Government to pay about 36 months salary arrears of the workers of the Hydro Carbon Pollution Restoration Project.

Vanguard

he Delta State government yesterday promised to assist in the rehabilitation process for the 14 year old Ese Oruru and ensure her quick return to school after the delivery of her child.

Thisday

The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami (SAN), has disclosed that the federal government is ready to prosecute any person suspected to have engaged in foreign exchange round-tripping, among other malpractices in the foreign exchange markets.

Daily Times

Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, on Wednesday, appealed to all geopolitical zones in the country to contribute equitably to the nations Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in order to ensure national stability.

Guardian

Following a series of insecurity challenges confronting some Nigerian schools, a former Minister of Education, Prof Chinwe Nora Obaji, has urged government and education managers in the country to endeavour to provide accommodation for the teaching staff within the school premises.

Daily Trust

The head of Wumi community in Kuje Area Council, Abuja, Yerima Shaban, has said that contrary to their aspirations, the relocation of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to Abuja 40 years ago has not rubbed off on them.

National Mirror

Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja yesterday dismissed the no-case submission suit filed by the embattled National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Olisa Metuh, for alleged diversion of arms funds, and held that he has a case to answer.

Leadership
An investigation by the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) into the road accident that claimed the lives of the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, James Ocholi (SAN), his wife, Blessing and their son, Joshua on Sunday, has blamed the accident on Taiwo Elegede, the driver of the vehicle.

The accident occurred along the Kaduna-Abuja expressway when the Lexus SUV carrying the minister suffered a burst tyre while on motion.

The FRSC disclosed that apart from the drivers high speed, failure to use seat belts by the deceased minister and his family members decreased their chances of survival when the vehicle reportedly summersaulted several times.

It added that by theory, the occupants of the front seats received less injuries because they made use of their seat belts.

The FRSC investigation also revealed that Mr. Elegede had no valid drivers licence.

The outcome of the investigation was read on Wednesday by the Corps Marshal of FRSC, Boboye Oyeyemi, during a valedictory session of the Federal Executive Council in honour of the late Ocholi at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

There were 10 persons involved in the accident and 9 were adults. The minister and his son died on the spot, while his wife died at the hospital. The driver of the crashed vehicle was moving at excess of the stipulated speed when he had a tyre burst.

The investigation team gathered that the driver of the backup vehicle had noticed that the ministers vehicle rear left tyre was under-inflated, and availability of radio communication deprived him of access to the ministers driver, Mr. Oyeyemi said.

According to Mr. Oyeyemi, further checks showed that the drivers details were not registered on the FRSC data base as a licensed driver.

There was no record on the drivers licence national database of the driver of the Hon. Minister with the name Taiwo James Elegbede, he said.

The Dunlop tyres of the SUV were not expired but were wrongly fixed and could have affected its performance.

The situation would have been salvaged if there had been a mode of communication between the ministers car and the backup car, as the latter had noticed the state of the tyres and tried to stop them.

The crashed vehicles driver was driving too fast and he slammed on his brake so hard. These two factors materially contributed to the inability of the driver to maintain control when the left rear tyre burst.

Skid marks and grooves found on the westbound shoulder made by the Lexus LX570 for about 15m and 9.3m respectively before it began somersaulting severely and the ejection of the minister and his son showed clearly that the traveling speed of the Lexus LX570 presented unsafe consequences in the event of certain road risk that may have occurred.

The driver must have entered into a panic situation which resulted to his hard application of brakes and subsequent loss of control that took him into the bush path.

The DOT number of the tyres were inward which cannot easily be read from outside. This indicates that the orientations of the tyres were not properly fixed which could adversely affect the performance of the tyres.

The Federal Road Safety Corps Investigation Team (FIT) determines that the probable cause of the March 6, 2016 fatal crash at KM34 Kaduna -Abuja expressway near Rijana village, Kaduna State, was the drivers failure to maintain directional control of his vehicle when the rear left tyre burst occurred.

Severity of the fatality was increased due to the ejection of the minister and his son as a result of non-use of rear seat belt, Mr. Oyeyemi said.

The corps marshal recommended, among other things, the certification and re-certification of convoy drivers at intervals of two years of issuance of convoy drivers licence.

The FRSC boss also called for adherence to traffic rules, repairs of potholes on highways just as he urged President Muhammadu Buhari to lead the campaign on compliance with speed limits, starting with installation of speed limiting devices in commercial vehicles.
Workers of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) have suspended a strike action embarked upon in protest of the unbundling of the corporation.

The government had announced the splitting of the NNPC into seven independent units to the chagrin of the oil workers who rejected the move. Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, announced the unbundling of the oil company into seven independent units: Upstream, Downstream, Gas & Power Marketing, Refineries and Ventures, Corporate Planning & Services and Finance and Accounts.

The strike action led to fuel scarcity in the country which is Africas largest crude producer.

However, the strike has now been called off following an extensive session presided over by Dr Kachikwu, who is also the Group managing Director of NNPC, on Thursday.

A statement by the oil company says improved collaboration between the minister and Unions would ensure continual consultation on issues.

Rising from the meeting, the NNPC Management and leadership of the Unions  The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN)  pledged to work together to eliminate prevailing challenges in accessing petroleum products.

We thank the leadership of NUPENG and PENGASSAN for their unalloyed support and sheer commitment to work for a FACT based #NewNNPC, the state oil company said.
The United Nations is the one international organization with the reach and vision capable of solving global problems.

The United Nations Foundation links the UNs work with others around the world, mobilizing the energy and expertise of business and non-governmental organizations to help the UN tackle issues including climate change, global health, peace and security, womens empowerment, poverty eradication, energy access, and U.S.-UN relations.

The United Nations Foundation is honored to work with you and the United Nations to foster a more peaceful, prosperous and just world.

Job Title: Project Officer (Crime Investigation Expert, Terrorism Prevention)

Job Opening Number: 56195

Location: Abuja

Job Code Title: Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer

Department/Office: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Job Summary

Special Notice:

This is a project post. Filling of this position is subject to funding availability and the initial appointment will be for a period of one year. Extension of the appointment is subject to extension of the mandate and/or the availability of the funds.

Staff members are subject to the authority of the Secretary-General and to assignment by him or her. In this context, all staff are expected to move periodically to new functions in their careers in accordance with established rules and procedures.

Organisation Setting and Reporting:

The position is located at the UNODC Country Office in Nigeria (CONIG).

The incumbent will work under the overall supervision of the UNODC Country Representative in Nigeria and the substantive guidance of the Chief, Implementation Support Section II (ISS-II), Terrorism Prevention Branch (TPB), Division for Treaty Affairs (DTA) at UNODC Headquarters, Vienna.

In addition, the incumbent will coordinate all aspects of work closely with the Project Coordinator (Legal Expert, Terrorism Prevention) based in Abuja and a designated lead Programme Officer (Terrorism Prevention) in charge of the Nigeria programme in ISS-II/TPB.

Responsibilities

As a member of the project team (consisting of staff based both in the field and at UNODC headquarters), the focus of the job is to lead prosecutorial and judiciary capacity building support on terrorism-related cases. Within assigned authority, the Project Officer, as an expert in Prosecution and Judiciary matters, will be responsible for the following duties:

Capacity building support for legal advisors and prosecutors: Carry out lead responsibility for the refinement and delivery of outputs and achievement of results and outcomes of the project pertaining to capacity building for legal advisors and prosecutors concerning terrorism-related cases: provide substantive expertise, assess capacity building needs of concerned national entities and lead the conceptualization, design and implementation of activities, etc.

Capacity building support for the judiciary: Carry out lead responsibility for the refinement and delivery of outputs and achievement of results and outcomes of the project pertaining to capacity building for the judiciary concerning terrorism cases: provide substantive expertise, assess capacity building needs and lead the conceptualization, design and implementation of activities.

Capacity building support for collaborative investigation and prosecution: Jointly with the projects expert on crime investigation, carry out co-lead responsibility for the refinement and delivery of outputs and achievement of results and outcomes of the project pertaining to capacity building for collaborative investigation and prosecution of terrorism cases: provide substantive expertise, assess capacity building needs and co-lead the conceptualization, design and implementation of activities.

Technical publications: Provide expert inputs for the preparation of technical tools, substantive publications and training tools materials pertaining to rule of law-based criminal justice responses to terrorism.

Substantive input for the whole project: Provide specialized expert input on prosecution and adjudication aspects and general substantive input for other relevant project activities, outcome areas and the project as a whole, especially for outcomes pertaining to national ownership of criminal justice aspects of terrorism prevention.

Contributions for project management and coordination: Participate in overall project management and provide required input concerning the areas of responsibility for the project management, coordination, reporting and follow-up. Participate in and contribute to coordination with all project partners, including on-going coordination and information sharing with the European Union.

Carry out other work related tasks as assigned.

Competencies

Professionalism:

Has expertise in legal, prosecution, adjudication and related inter-agency collaboration matters pertaining to handling serious crimes, such as terrorism and transnational organized crime. Has expertise in training and other capacity building initiatives in these areas.

Has knowledge and understanding of theories, concepts and approaches, policies and practices in terrorism prevention, crime prevention and criminal justice reform.

Has knowledge of the mandates of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and of the major initiatives of the international community in terrorism prevention.

Has sound analytical skills and ability to identify problems and contribute to problem-solving.

Has knowledge of programme development, management and implementation.

Shows pride in work and in achievements; demonstrates professional competence and mastery of subject matter; is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results; is motivated by professional rather than personal concerns; shows persistence when faced with difficult problems or challenges; remains calm in stressful situations.

Takes responsibility for incorporating gender perspectives and ensuring the equal participation of women and men in all areas of work.

Client Orientation:

Establishes and maintains productive partnerships with all relevant stakeholders. Clearly identifies their needs for developing and implementing legal, policy and other responses related to terrorism issues.

Ensures continuous dialogue with the stakeholders monitoring the relevant developments and undertaking the necessary adjustments; meets timeline for delivery of technical assistance and other services and products.

Considers all those to whom services are provided to be clients and seeks to see things from clients point of view; establishes and maintains productive partnerships with clients by gaining their trust and respect; identifies clients needs and matches them to appropriate solutions; monitors ongoing developments inside and outside the clients environment to keep informed and anticipate problems; keeps clients informed of progress or setbacks in projects; meets timeline for delivery of products or services to client.

Teamwork:

Good interpersonal skills and ability to establish and maintain effective partnerships and working conditions in multi-cultural, multi-ethnic environments. Proven cross-cultural and gender sensitivity, as well as managerial abilities.

Works collaboratively with colleagues to achieve organizational goals; solicits input by genuinely valuing others ideas and expertise; is willing to learn from others; places team agenda before personal agenda; supports and acts in accordance with final group decision, even when such decisions may not entirely reflect own position; shares credit for team accomplishments and accepts joint responsibility for team shortcomings.

Education

An advanced university Degree (Masters Degree or equivalent) in Criminal Law, International Law or General Law is required.

Specialization in prosecution and judiciary is highly desirable. Specialization in legal and related aspects of terrorism prevention and their international dimensions is highly desirable.

A first-level university degree in similar fields in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Work Experience

A minimum of seven years of relevant progressively responsible experience in prosecution or closely related criminal justice work is required, preferably with a focus on terrorism or transnational organized crime, with sound exposure to related judiciary, crime prevention and criminal justice matters.

Work experience in technical assistance activities, including project management, and in policy and programme advising in counter-terrorism or a directly related field is highly desirable.

Work experience at the national and international levels with a focus on West Africa is highly desirable.

Languages:

English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this position fluency in English, i.e. oral and written proficiency, is required.

Knowledge of another official United Nations language is an advantage.

Assessment:

Evaluation of qualified candidates may include an assessment exercise which may be followed by competency-based interview.

Application Deadline: 6th April, 2016.

Click here to apply
The Hungarian government has announced the deployment of an additional 1,500 troops and police officers on its border with Serbia, as it extended a nationwide state of emergency in response to the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe. Interior Minister Sandor Pinter made the announcement during a press conference in Hungarys capital Budapest on Wednesday.

The move comes just a day after Slovenia announced the closure of its border crossings to those who do not have valid European Union entry visas, effectively blocking the Balkan route that refugees use to reach Western Europe. Referring to the decision to deploy more security forces on the border, Pinter said: We do not know how the migrants stuck in the Balkan countries will react.

Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia and Croatia have drastically tightened border restrictions since late 2015, leading to a sharp increase in refugees attempting to breach Hungarys 175-kilometre fence on the Serbian border.

There have been breaches at various points along the Hungarian-Serbian border, a Hungarian police spokesperson told Al Jazeera, explaining that generally between 100 and 200 people are arrested for crossing the fence each day. On Tuesday, the police said that 127 people were caught attempting to enter Hungary from Serbia. They are among the 976 people arrested by Hungarian police since March 1 for breaching the fence.
The Rivers State Government has berated the acting national chairman of All Progressives Congress, APC, Segun Oni, for alleging that Governor Nyesom Wike was behind the rising wave of crime and violence in the state.

The Rivers government described the claim as a ploy by the APC-led federal government to flood the state with soldiers and use them to hijack ballot boxes ahead of the March 19 legislative re-run elections in the state.

The Commissioner for Information and Communications, Rivers State, Austin Tam-George, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt on Thursday, accused the APC of taking propaganda to a ridiculous new height.

He said: The attempt by the APC to appropriate every dead person in River State as their member might mean that the APC is in fact the sponsor of these satanic cult clashes all in an attempt to destabilize the Wike administration.

The APCs reckless and false allegations were part of a plan to incite the military and other security forces against the people of Rivers State. It is a crude plan to militarize the state and use the security forces to steal the results of the forthcoming re-run election, Mr. Tam-George alleged.

While denying involvement of the Rivers Government in the cult-related violence that has claimed some lives in certain areas of the state, the commissioner disclosed that investigations by the State Police Command have since revealed that the recent deaths arose from retributive attacks launched by rival cult gangs fighting for supremacy.

Tam-George added that some key culprits in the attacks have since been arrested by the police and have made useful statements.
Saudi Arabia has released seven Yemeni prisoners in exchange for one of its soldiers, the kingdoms news agency reported. The report on Wednesday marked the first announced prisoner swap since a coalition of Arab countries went to war against rebels in Yemen nearly a year ago. The swap and an apparent truce along the Saudi-Yemen border followsunprecedented talks between the sides.

The media statement, carried by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) , did not specify if the Houthis had been holding the soldier who was released. SPA said Yemeni tribal leaders coordinated the swap which led to the release of Corporal Jaber al-Kaabi. It also said Yemeni tribal figures helped facilitate the delivery of aid across the border into Yemeni villages.

The seven Yemenis had been detained in areas of military operations near the border, the report added, but did not give details on when the Yemenis and the soldier had been detained nor where the exchange took place.

Mohammed Ali al-Emad, a brother of a top Houthi politician with knowledge about the talks, told The Associated Press news agency that recent communication is aimed at paving the way for possible ceasefire negotiations because the warring sides have realised that war so far has failed to force any of the two to retreat. Analysts said that the agreement was the first important step towards finding a resolution to the conflict, which the United Nations says has killed more than 6,000 people, left almost 8 million without a regular supply of food, and forced 3.4 million children our of school.
Government property or land illegally encroached upon by any person or corporate organisation would be retrieved and returned to the government intact, Minister of the FCT, Malam Muhammad Bello, has warned.

Bello gave the warning on Thursday in Abuja when he visited Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) Dump Site in Gosa, Sewer Treatment Plant, Wupa and the proposed Waste Transfer Station at Mpape.

According to him, the landed property would be retrieved and returned to the government for its original use in line with the Abuja Master Plan.

Any government property or government land encroached on in Abuja will be taken back and given to the government.

If somebody encroaches on government land, its very easy for government to take back its land because nobody can take government land and get away with it, he said.

Bello said that all the departments in AEPB would be strengthened to ensure that liquid and solid wastes were well managed and disposed of.

The minister noted that the strengthening will involve staff changes to enable the Board effectively perform its functions.

It will include the rehabilitation of existing facilities and the creation of new ones because the city is growing at a very fast pace.

It is obvious that our facilities for cleaning the city have lagged very much behind, he said.

The minister acknowledged that the office block at the proposed Waste Transfer Station in Mpape was not big enough to serve as sorting centre for the entire city.

The facility can take care of waste management in the Maitama District since its closer to the place, he said. (NAN)
The All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State has condemned a recent comment attributed to Governor Nyesom Wike that he has directed the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, leadership in the state not to honour any invitation by the security or anti-graft agencies until after the conduct of re-run elections in the state on March 19.

The governor made the comment over two weeks ago during a thanksgiving service organized by the PDP in the state to celebrate his victory at the Supreme Court.

The Rivers APC urged Gov. Wike not to take others along on what it termed a suicide mission, by advising them to resist illegal arrests.

The party in a statement by its publicity secretary, Senibo Chris Finebone, advised Rivers people to discountenance such inciting directives by the governor as it is capable of pitching law enforcement agents against innocent citizens of the state.

The APC wishes to advise Rivers people irrespective of political affiliations to act within the law before, during and after the March 19 re-run elections in Rivers State, Finebone said.

According to the Rivers APC spokesperson, the appeal became necessary in view of the directive from Wike to PDP members, which it described as highly troubling, inciting and unlawful, to resist unlawful arrest by security agents.

The statement said the party believes that the directive was mischievous, dishonest and dangerous.

Indeed, it raises several questions. Did Gov. Nyesom Wike properly explain to his party members how to differentiate between legal and illegal arrests? As a lawyer, does the governor know that reasonable and lawful response to arrest [whether legal or illegal] is not to resist it which is in itself unlawful? Did Gov. Wike explain to his supporters the different dimensions and scenarios that resistance to arrest can result to?

The APC continues to be concerned at the desperation of Gov. Nyesom Wike for political power even when his methods portend danger to lives and property of the innocent and hapless.

As a political party, the interest of the APC remains the safety and wellbeing of the citizenry irrespective of party affiliations. We believe that a state governor should sometimes drop the partisan toga and assume the more honourable task of safeguarding the lives and property of the generality of the people.

Chief Nyesom Wike should now realise that the killing and maiming of innocent Rivers people, whether members of PDP or APC, must stop immediately. Even as the leader of the PDP in Rivers State, he has no right to put the lives of PDP members in harms way through manipulations and grandstanding.

It is enough that he has vowed to gatecrash into INEC and no Boko Haram Army will stop him on election day; the APC wishes him well. But he must not take others along on his suicide mission.

Quite frankly, the APC notes that the governor is now acting like a bull in a china shop and must realise that many have acted and even exceeded him in lawlessness, recklessness and false bravado in the past but history has its sad tales of them.

If the governor is in doubt, when next he attends a burial at the cemetery, he should take a closer look at the writings on the tombstones. But like they say, you may borrow trouble but do not lend it to your neighbour, the statement said.

The opposition party in the state also called on well-meaning Rivers people to stay out of harms way during the forthcoming elections by rising above the mediocre style of Gov. Wike, which bothers on obscene desperation reminiscent of someone on a suicide mission.
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%)
Editor's Note: This article was originally published in March 2016. Some details about the individuals discussed have changed since then.

Two years ago, we published a list of the 15 most powerful women in U.S. philanthropy. The idea for that article emerged because we were struck by how many women are involved in philanthropy at a high leveland equally struck by how little attention they tend to receive. In particular, while the spouses of billionaires often play a lead role in charting a couples giving, the spotlight usually falls on their better-known husbands when major gifts are made. Not only is this unfair, but it misses the real story of how todays big philanthropy is unfolding as new mega-donors enter the scenewith women in the lead.

The role of women in philanthropy is rising in other ways, too. More self-made women are emerging with their own resources for giving, which reflects the rising economic fortunes of womena trend likely to accelerate in coming years. At the same time, more women leaders are reaching the pinnacle of the foundation world and now helm some of the biggest grantmaking operations in the U.S. Women are also taking the lead in building donor networks and donor-advised funds, which play a fast-growing role in tapping new sources of funding and aggregating resources for different causes. One tangible result of this leadership shift in philanthropy has been more attention and more money for gender equity and womens empowerment issues in recent years.

Given all thats happening, we created a new section of Inside Philanthropy last year devoted entirely to covering developments related to women and girls. That work has brought many new women leaders to our attention. So here, we present a greatly expanded list of the most powerful women in philanthropy. In addition to featuring many individual mega-donors, we look at top leaders of both private and corporate foundations and explore women who are making an impact by catalyzing giving, through funding intermediaries or other efforts.

To make the list, a person needs to have influence over how significant philanthropic resources are being deployed. Those resources may derive from a family fortune, a foundation endowment, or from many smaller funders working together through a donor network or a community of funders. We focus on raw giving capacity because its relatively easy to see and measure, whereas impact is far harder to assess. Thus, a list like this will inevitably fail to spotlight some people who are actively driving change, while perhaps assigning too much weight to people who simply control a lot of money. That said, a few women have made the list mainly because of their influence on the sector.

Which leads us to a broader caveat about this list: Dont take it too seriously. We do not see this list as definitive, but as evolving, with important women continually crossing our radar. Our goal here is to offer a snapshot of the many impressive women were watching in the upper reaches of the philanthrosphere, while recognizing that judgments on these matters are subjective. Many readers will think of additional people who should be on this list, or question why particular women made the cut. One important point to note is that we havent included any women whose philanthropic activities are mainly focused locally or regionally.

With those thoughts in mind, lets dig into the list, which weve organized into a few categories that capture the diverse roles that high-powered women now play in philanthropy. Click on the links along the way to see more IP coverage of the individuals and organizations discussed.

MEGA-DONORS

The great wealth boom of the past few decades is now fueling a super-charged era of big philanthropy, with many new, deep-pocketed donors emerging with ambitious plans. Women are at the forefront of this trend, often as spouses playing a hands-on role in family philanthropy that has included scaling up some of the largest foundations created in recent years.

Karen Ackman, Co-Founder, Pershing Square Foundation

Along with her hedge funder husband Bill Ackman, Karen Ackman oversees the Pershing Square Foundation, one of the more sophisticated funding operations to emerge from the finance world recently. With an eye on catalyzing systemic change, its been giving big for human rights, immigrant college students, criminal justice reform, global development, and more. A landscape architect, Karen sits on the board of New Yorks High Line public park, which Ackman money helped build; and Human Rights Watch, which has received major gifts from the couple.

Jody Allen, Co-founder, Paul G. Allen Family Foundation

For many years, the foundation that Paul Allen created with his sister, Jody, was locally focused in the Pacific Northwest, with Jody doing much of the heavy lifting to build a grantmaking operation. Lately, though, Allen philanthropy has expanded into new areas, including global health, African wildlife and protecting oceans. Even bigger things surely lie ahead, since Paul Allen is a Giving Pledge signatory worth $17 billion. While its hard to know Jodys current role in moving increasing amounts of money, shes been a pivotal figure in his philanthropy so far.

Laura Arnold, Co-Chair, Laura and John Arnold Foundation

Laura Arnold works alongside her husband John, a retired hedge fund billionaire, to lead a Houston-based foundation that addresses Americas most pressing and persistent challenges using evidence-based, multidisciplinary approaches. Their ambitious agenda in pursuit of transformational change includes K-12 education, criminal justice, scientific integrity, and more. The foundation has given nearly a half-billion dollars in the past five years. Laura, a Yale-trained lawyer, has often taken the lead on the foundations criminal justice work, helping to orchestrate a groundbreaking left-right coalition last year to advance reform proposals in Washington, among other things.

Connie Ballmer, Chair of Philanthropy, the Ballmer Group

With a net worth of around $20 billion, Steve and Connie Ballmer recently emerged as mega-donors, with Connie the nonprofit veteran in the couple. She was a co-founder of Partners for Our Children, a nonprofit in Washington State that is focused on making the child welfare system more effective. The Ballmers have yet to roll out a foundation or a public strategy for their giving, but theyve been making some big gifts, most recently kicking in $50 million for a new funders collaborative that will channel at least a billion dollars to high-performing nonprofits that serve low-income youth.

Jennifer Buffett, Co-President, NoVo Foundation

The NoVo Foundation, which Buffett leads with her husband, Peter Buffett, has been awash in vast new wealth in recent years thanks to annual gifts of Berkshire Hathaway stock from Warren Buffett. Big resources have fueled the ambitions of a foundation that has long operated on the cutting edge in several areas, most notably empowering women and girls. Along with NoVos Executive Director Pamela Shifman, Jennifer Buffett is keenly focused on creating systemic change and supporting grantees to forge ahead in unconventional ways.

Susan Buffett, Chair, the Sherwood Foundation, the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and the Buffett Early Childhood Fund

Though she keeps a low profile, Susan BuffettWarrens daughteris the most powerful woman in U.S. philanthropy not named Melinda. The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, which Susie Buffett chairs, is the biggest private backer of reproductive health work worldwide. In fact, STBF is one of the top U.S. grantmakers overall, not far behind Ford, giving away over $450 million in 2013. But Buffett also chairs two other foundations: the Sherwood Foundation, which gave out over $101 million dollars in 2014; and the Buffett Early Childhood Fund, which gave out over $18 million in 2013. Almost nobody else in U.S. philanthropy controls resources on this scale.

Priscilla Chan, Co-Founder, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

Chan and her husband Mark Zuckerberg recently committed to the mammoth task of using 99 percent of their Facebook stock to make the world a better place. The tempo of the couples grantmaking and social investments has sharply risen in recent years, with education and healthcare as their top causes. Get ready for much bigger things ahead, and for Priscilla Chanwhom weve written about hereto emerge as among the most important figures in U.S. philanthropy.

Alexandra Cohen, Co-Founder, Steven and Alexandra Cohen Foundation

Alex is the wife of the controversial hedge funder Steve Cohen, who commands one of the largest fortunes in finance. The Cohens have been stepping up their role as active mega-donors in the New York area, focusing mainly on healthcare and education, with the arts as another major interest. All signs point to continued increases. While the couple is quite private, Alex is a key figure in their giving, with a backstory that helps explain why: She grew up in a low-income New York neighborhood.

Barbara Dalio, Co-Founder, Dalio Foundation

Signatories of the Giving Pledge, Ray and Barbara Dalio have ramped up their giving substantially, moving $115 million through their foundation in 2014. The Dalio Foundation is a lean shop, and Barbara plays a key role in its giving, particularly for child-focused work. The couple has supported a lot of that through charter schools like Achievement First and the Harlem Childrens Zone. But Dalio giving ranges widely, including grants to environmental and global causes, fueled by a $15 billion hedge fund fortune.

Susan Dell, Co-Founder and Board Chair, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation

Susan Dell is another example of a woman has who has played a central leadership role in family mega-giving while her husband has been running a major company. The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, which has given over $1 billion in grants so far, has been strongly shaped by Susan, who has served as board chair. The foundation describes her as the driving force behind its health and education initiatives to positively impact the lives of urban children around the world. The Dells control a fortune of some $20 billion, so this story will be unfolding for many years to come.

Melinda Gates, Co-Chair, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Gates has been a power player for years, but lately, she seems to be forging a separate path for her philanthropy that is more focused on women, leading the foundation to engage in more women-empowerment funding worldwide. Were fascinated by what might lie ahead, especially since the Gateses have still not touched the bulk of their fortune, holding over $75 billion in private investments. The Gates Foundations new exploration of U.S. poverty offers even more intriguing clues about the ultimate legacy that Melinda Gates may leave.

Lyda Hill, Founder, the Lyda Hill Foundation

Yet another Giving Pledge signatory moving big money, Lyda Hill is best known for her philanthropy in the areas of science and medicine. She has a particular focus on breast cancer research and treatment, and in 2015, she donated $25 million to this area. But she has other interests, too, and last year, we wrote about the Lyda Hill Foundations embrace of marine protection. Meanwhile, shes a major local player, with a big philanthropic footprint in Texas.

Laurene Powell Jobs, President, Emerson Collective

While Laurene Powell Jobs commands a fortune of $17 billion, its hard to say how much money she gives or invests for social good, since she operates through the opaque Emerson Collective, an LLC. But last year, she made her biggest public splash yet as a philanthropist with XQ: The Super School Project, a $50 million initiative that seeks to reinvent high schools. Powell Jobs also has longstanding interests in environmental work, serving on the board of Conservation International, and has advocated causes including immigration reform.

Pam Omidyar, Co-Founder, the Omidyar Group

As the wife of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, Pam Omidyar has long been a major player in philanthropy. Since 2000, Pam has founded or co-founded all five of the organizations that she and her husband have created to carry out their philanthropic work. Most notably, Pam has taken the lead on humanitarian issues as the founder and "guiding visionary" of Humanity United, which fights conflict and injustice in some of the most troubled places in the world South Sudan, for example.

Barbara Picower, President and Chair, JPB Foundation

Picower zealously ducks the spotlight, but it deserves to find her. The JPB Foundation, which she runs with a lean staff, has assets of over $3 billion and gave out nearly $120 million in 2014. Who knew, right? Well, actually, Picowerthe widow of the late financier Jeffrey Picowerhas become widely known in top New York philanthropy circles as shes taken a hands-on approach to scaling up JPB, calling on many veteran funders for advice along the way. JPB may operate well below the radar, but if you work in any of its program areaslike the environmentyou know what a big deal JPB has become in a very short time.

Lynn Schusterman, Chair, Schusterman Family Foundation

The billionaire widow of a natural gas tycoon, Schustermans power within philanthropy takes two forms. Shes the founder and co-chair of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, which has over $2 billion in assets and a major footprint in national education grantmaking, among other things. But just as importantly, shes a central figure in Jewish philanthropy. Schusterman money reaches a wide array of Jewish groups, and it often seems like shes everywhere in the Jewish nonprofit world, pulling people together and making things happen.

Marilyn Simons, President, Simons Foundation

As the driving force behind the Simons Foundation, which she co-founded in 1994 with her husband, hedge funder Jim Simons, Marilyn Simons is at the forefront of science funding. Under her leadership, the foundation has emerged as one of the largest private supporters of basic science in the United States. Its also backed groundbreaking autism research, through the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative. The foundation paid out $230 million in grants in 2014, and with a $15 billion fortune waiting in the wings, were betting that bigger things are yet to come.

Cari Tuna, Co-Founder and President, Good Ventures

The wife of Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, Tuna is the architect of the young couples foundation, Good Ventures, one of the more thoughtful philanthropic operations established in recent years. Good Ventures has lately moved seriously big money for global health and development, including a $25 million grant to GiveDirectly, an NGO that, true to its name, gives money directly to poor people in developing nations. With a $10 billion fortune to spend down, this foundation may eventually rank among the top U.S. grantmakersand Tuna will likely be a key player in the philanthrosphere for many years to come.

Diane von Furstenberg, Director, Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation

Along with her husband Barry Diller, the fashion leader Furstenberg has broken new ground with giving to reshape urban landscapes. The Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation was instrumental in creating the High Line, putting up $35 million to create a park that transformed West Chelsea in Manhattan and now ranks as one of the citys leading tourist destinations. The couple has since committed $130 million to create an island park nearby, on the Hudson River. Foundation funding also flows for a range of other causes, including education, human rights, arts, health and the environment. Additionally, Furstenberg has fostered leadership for womens causes through her giving.

Alice Walton, Walton Family Foundation and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Its hard to know which woman from the Walton family to put on this list, and we were tempted to choose Carrie Walton Pennerthe third-generation family member who helps chart the Waltons influential education giving. But Alice Walton, who is worth $40 billion, is indisputably a major power player in U.S. philanthropy. Shes long been centrally involved in the Walton Family Foundation, one of the largest grantmakers in the U.S. Even more notably, Alice Walton has created a major new art museumCrystal Bridges - Museum of American Art. Our hunch is that even bigger things are likely to come with Waltons arts philanthropy.

Shelby White, Founder and Trustee, Leon Levy Foundation

White has given $350 million since 2004 through a foundation named for her late financier husband and designed to eventually sunset. Shes made record-breaking gifts to a range of New York institutions, but neuroscience is another major focus and Whites interests also extend to the arts and humanities, human rights, and Jewish causes. With some $600 million still on hand, look for the pace of giving to pick up in coming years.

FOUNDATION LEADERS

In case you havent noticed, women now run a number of the largest foundations in the United States. In fact, women have had more success in claiming top leadership spots within the foundation world than any other powerful U.S. sector. One 2014 survey of foundations found that over half had women CEOs. Among grantmakers with $1 billion or more in assets, women accounted for 28 percent of CEOs.

Sue Desmond-Hellmann, CEO, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

An oncologist who once led product development at Genetech and was chancellor of UCSF, Desmond-Hellmann is leading the Gates Foundation at an interesting moment. Its gone down fresh avenues with its education work, made real headway on some of its key global goals, and opened a big new area of exploration with an initiative on U.S. poverty. Under her watch, the foundation has also been pushing harder on womens empowerment. All of this is a reminder that the Gates Foundationwhich Desmond-Hellmann calls a learning organizationis anything but static.

Patricia Harris, CEO, Bloomberg Philanthropies

Patricia Harris, the CEO of Bloomberg Philanthropies, has worked with Mike Bloomberg forever and has been affectionately referred to as his velvet hammer. Now, shes helping guide one of the largest philanthropic operations in the U.S., one that distributed over a half-billion dollars last year. To move that kind of big money, Harris began an organizational expansion of the foundation when she took over in 2010, building an outfit that has gone beyond Bloombergs core interests of global public health and climate change to tackle new issues, like overfishing.

Carol Larson, President and CEO, Packard Foundation

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation is a giant, giving out around $300 million a year. And it's a giant that has been strongly shaped by Carol Larson, who was formerly a corporate lawyer. She has been with the foundation since 1995 and its president since 2004. Early in Larsons leadership, Packard made a massive bet on curbing climate changean issue that has only become more urgent since then. Larson has been one of the foremost advocates lately for more foundation attention to this area. But Packard money also looms large in other areas, such as womens reproductive health and childrens well-being.

Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, President and CEO, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Lavizzo-Mourey has one of the most ambitious visions of any foundation leader today, focusing RWJF on creating a culture of health in the United States. RWJF, a $10 billion mothership for healthcare philanthropy, is pulling every lever it can to advance this goalwith grantmaking to fully realize the promise of universal coverage, improve the efficiency and quality of the U.S. healthcare system, look upstream to address the underlying causes of poor health, and pursue a wide range of efforts to help Americans eat better, move more, and lead healthier lives.

Clara Miller, Director and President, F.B. Heron Foundation

Want to see how a leader with vision can fundamentally reinvent a foundation? Check out what Clara Miller has done as president of Heron. A pioneer in impact investing at the Nonprofit Finance Fund, which she founded and ran from 1984 through 2010, Miller led Heron on an ambitious quest to harness 100 percent of its assets to advance the foundations mission of fighting poverty. Along the way, shes raised the bar for the rest of the foundation world.

LaJune Montgomery Tabron, President and CEO, W. K. Kellogg Foundation

Tabron is in charge of the largest foundation devoted to children in the country, with over $8 billion in assets. Her backstory of growing up in an African-American family of 10 children in inner-city Detroit is remarkably aligned with the foundations mission of helping kids and families succeed in some of the poorest corners of the U.S. Among other things, under Tabrons leadership at Kellogg, the foundation has doubled down on its prescientand boldracial equity work.

Sally Osberg, President and CEO, Skoll Foundation

Osberg has been a central figure in scaling up the social entrepreneurship movement, tapping the fortune of eBay billionaire Jeff Skoll since 2001 to build a far-flung global network of individuals who "both take direct action and seek to transform the existing systems." She's the founder of the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship, and recently published Getting Beyond Better: How Social Entrepreneurship Works, with Roger Martin.

Judith Rodin, President, Rockefeller Foundation

A former top leader in academia, Rodin has put the idea of resilience at the center of the Rockefeller Foundations work in recent years, helping communities worldwide prepare for and recover from major environmental and man-made shocks. Shes even written a book on the subject, and is an important player in bringing these ideas to New York City. Under her tenure, Rockefeller has also stuck with such signature issues as improving agriculture in poor countries. As well, with its economic inclusion work, Rockefeller is among those funders grappling with inequality.

Julia Stasch, President, MacArthur Foundation

Stasch is the latest woman tapped to lead a top U.S. foundation. She officially took MacArthurs helm last year after over a decade as a top exec there, and has moved with bold decisiveness to streamline the foundation and focus its resources on some of the biggest challenges of our time, including climate change and mass incarceration. Stayed tuned, because Stasch is also aiming to heighten MacArthurs leadership roles on impact investing and nuclear security, and she has promised a major new initiative in an unnamed area.

CORPORATE FUNDERS

The once-sleepy world of corporate philanthropy has been sizzling lately, as these funders think bigger and become more creative. Women leaders have been an important part of this surge. Often, these women dont just command serious grantmaking budgets, theyre also deploying the full range of a companys assets to effect social change.

Suzanne DiBianca, Chief Philanthropy Officer and Executive Vice President of Corporate Relations at Salesforce

Salesforce is one of the most philanthropically innovative companies in America, with givingof money, product, and employee timebaked into its mission. DiBianca has helped lead this bold experiment from the start, and has emerged lately as an important leader pushing tech firms, and especially startups, to integrate philanthropy into their operations. Shes also shown just how closely corporate funders can work with local public schools.

Deb Elam, President, GE Foundation

A company lifer, Deb Elam has led the GE Foundation since 2013, doubling up with her other role as chief diversity officer for GE, a title she has held since 2002. The GE Foundation is one of the top 10 corporate funders, and focuses on health, education, and disaster relief. Under Elams leadership, it has recently bolstered women in STEM and manufacturing. This is a good way to make a positive impact not just on the economy, but on womens empowerment. Overseas, the foundation is working another distinctive niche with its funding to make surgery safer.

Sally McCrady, President, PNC Foundation

Before taking the helm of the PNC Foundation, McCradywas the architect of the firms ambitious philanthropic initiative to boost early childhood education, Grow Up Great, which launched in 2004. Now, of course, the idea that early childhood education is a key to helping kids overcome poverty and other barriers is widely discussed by everyone from President Obama downward. Still, PNC remains the most visible corporate funder in this important space, with McCrady out front.

Kathleen McLaughlin, President, Walmart Foundation

We noted a while back that the Walmart Foundation has been getting a lot more interesting. One reason for that is McLaughlin, who previously directed McKinseys Social Innovation Practice, and has led the foundation since October of 2013 while also serving as Walmarts chief sustainability officer. A signature of McLaughlins tenure is advancing Walmarts ambitious global agenda for womens economic empowerment. That effort, launched in 2011, involved traditional grantmaking along with steps by the company to boost women at every stage of its business, from sourcing to transporting to retail.

Kerry Sullivan, President, Bank of America Charitable Foundation

Since 2009, Sullivan has led one of the worlds largest corporate funders and a vast employee volunteer operation that contributed some 2 million hours of service in a recent year. Sullivan is passionate about getting youth educated and into the job market, which is a signature focus of the foundations work. Its made more than $190 million in donations to leadership and service nonprofits for young people since 2004. The foundation also has an eye on energy and environmental issues, and has backed work to link that area to its career readiness efforts.

Michele Sullivan, President, Caterpillar Foundation

Since taking over the Caterpillar Foundation in 2011, Sullivan has led an ambitiousand, at times, edgyquest to address the root causes of global poverty. The once-sleepy corporate funder has thrown big money behind advocacy work, water and sanitation projects, and more. Most notably, its become a fierce backer of womens empowerment, which Sullivan sees as the key to development. Sullivan seems to be everywhere in this red-hot area, whether its backing work on gender equity in education or a push to nurture women entrepreneurs in Africa.

THE CATALYSTS

The capacity to write large checks is one kind of power in philanthropy. Another is the ability to organize and galvanize donors by creating networks and spurring new or more coordinated giving. Women are the superstars of this kind of collaborative philanthropy, and the importance of well-connected catalysts is growing as legions of new donors arrive on the scene, with many looking for guidance and community.

Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, Founder and President, Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen Foundation

Arrillaga-Andreessen wears three hats in the philanthrosphere. Shes been a cheerleader for a new brand of mass giving, redefining philanthropist as anyone who gives anything. Shes an important influencer in a fast-growing tech philanthropy scene in the Bay Area. And shes a philanthropist herself, giving with her husband, the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, and also through her involvement in the foundation of her father, a real estate billionaire.

Melissa Berman, President and CEO, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors

Since 2002, Berman has built one of the worlds top philanthropic service organizations, a whisperer to the wealthy that leverages the Rockefeller brand to orchestrate $200 million in giving a year in over 25 countries. With legions of new donors arriving in the philanthrosphere, the experts running intake operations like RPA have growing clout as they shape the nature and direction of emerging grantmaking. Berman and RPA also wield influence through various thought leadership projects.

Jean Case, CEO, Case Foundation

Case is a woman who was ahead of her time, pushing impact investing years before the idea caught fire in the philanthrosphere. The Case Foundation, which she started in 1997 with her husband AOL co-founder Steve Case, is not in the big leagues in terms of its giving capacity, but its played an important role in shaping debates. Case herself is a highly visible figure in the field, playing a number of leadership roles, including serving on the boards of the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Initiative and the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society.

Hillary Clinton, Former Secretary of State and Candidate for U.S. President

Say what you will about the ethical issues involved in crossing politics with philanthropy. The bottom line is that Hillary Clinton is a force field of power in both arenas, integrating them in new ways. If she wins the presidency, shell bring unprecedented savvy about philanthropy to that office. If she loses, look for her to transform the Clinton Foundation into an even bigger player. One point often lost on critics of that outfit is that its main liabilityentwinement with a far-flung political networkalso accounts for its unique ability to mobilize new resources and partnerships behind different causes.

Amy Danforth, President, Fidelity Charitable

Americas biggest donor-advised fund didnt that get way by accident, and before taking the helm in 2014, Amy Danforth played a key role in Fidelity Charitables remarkable recent growth. A Fidelity lifer, Danforth came over from the firms business side in 2008 as senior vice president and orchestrated an ambitious strategy to pull in more donors and push out more grants. Grantmaking nearly doubled in five years, to $2.1 billion in 2013, so its no surprise that shes now in the top job. After Sue Desmond-Hellman at Gates, no oneman or womanoversees a larger river of giving than Amy Danforth.

Kriss Deiglmeier, CEO, Tides

Tides invented the mission-drive donor-advised fund in the 1970s, becoming the premier pass-through for money going to progressive causes. And while it hit a rough patch a few years back, Tides remains a funding juggernaut, pulling in $218 million in a recent year and making $131 million in grants. Deiglmeier came to Tides in 2014 with a strong background in social innovation and executive leadership, laying out a future for Tides as a reinvigorated and innovative platform.

Kim Dennis, President and CEO, Searle Freedom Trust

Dennis has been a central figure in conservative funding circles for over two decades. She built the Philanthropy Roundtable during its formative years, and then helped found DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund, which runs donor-advised funds for conservative and libertarian donors; together, they moved over $100 million in a recent year. Dennis remains a board member of DonorsTrust, and also serves on several foundation boards. But her main gig is heading the Searle Freedom Trust, a leading supporter of conservative policy work.

Jane Greenfield, President, Vanguard Charitable

Greenfield is a relative newcomer to both donor-advised funds and philanthropy. Shes only led Vanguard Charitable since last year, and her name wont ring a bell for most people in the philanthrosphere. But pay attention: Greenfield is driving yet another runaway train on the DAF express. Vanguard has doubled its assets since 2012. Over 12,000 people do their giving through Vanguard, and in a recent year, it gave nearly $700 millionwhich is more than the Ford Foundation.

Donna P. Hall, President and CEO, Women Donors Network

Since 2002, Hall has fostered a community of more than 200 progressive women donors. WDN marshals resources for a number of issueslike reproductive justice, racial equity, and economic opportunitybut the cause closest to Halls heart is civic equality for women. Through its Reflective Democracy Campaign, WDN has pushed for more women representation at all levels of government.

Ruth Ann Harnisch, Founder, Harnisch Foundation

Harnischs foundation, theHF, is combining creativity, social justice, and women's empowerment in new ways. Through its innovative grantmaking on women and media, and its latest Funny Girls grant initiative that teaches resilience and leadership through improv, theHF has accomplished much with relatively modest resources. Meanwhile, she pops up everywhere in the gender equality worldfor instance, Harnisch was executive producer of The Hunting Ground, a new film about campus sexual assault.

Vanessa Kirsch, Founder and CEO, New Profit

For over 15 years, Kirsch has quietly built New Profit into one of the nations top venture philanthropy firms. New Profit is focused on a handful of issuesincluding education and economic empowermentand is crystal clear about its mission of backing visionary leaders with big ideas. Kirsch and New Profit also understand that shaping public policy is a key to effecting major changes. New Profit had $25 million in revenue in 2014, and a secret to Kirschs huge fundraising success is that she speaks the language of Americas financial elite, demonstrating the return on their investments in New Profit; another factor is building a powerhouse board of directors.

Kim Laughton, President, Schwab Charitable

Schwab Charitable has played a key role in ushering in the new golden age of donor-advised funds, and Laughton has been at the center of that action as its head since 2012since then, its assets have more than doubled, topping $6 billion as of mid-2014. Schwab Charitables grantmaking has risen in tandem, hitting a record $1 billion in fiscal year 2015. Only the Gates Foundation and Fidelity Charitable move more money. And who is Kim Laughton? A Harvard MBA who spent years in finance before showing her skill at riding the DAF tidal wave.

Michele Lord, President, NEO Philanthropy

All roads in progressive philanthropy seem to lead to Lord, who runs NEO Philanthropy, formerly known as Public Interest Projects, and also directs the Ottinger Foundation. NEO, a low-profile funding intermediary, moves over $40 million a year and works with a whos who of major foundations, managing projects that often focus on social justice and civic participation. But Lord and NEOs staff also work with many family foundations and individual donors, uniting diverse funders in collaborative efforts.

Teresa Younger, President and CEO, Ms. Foundation

Younger oversees the oldest womens funding shop, and one that is very much at the center of the action these days, as womens empowerment issues command new attention. Younger is a leader for womens health, safety and economic security, and most notably, was a leader of Prosperity Together, the initiative announced at the White House in November that will provide $118 million in funding for women and girls of color.

Jacki Zehner, President and Chief Engagement Officer, Women Moving Millions

After leaving a successful career in finance, Zehner zeroed in on womens issues, and has worked to galvanize more giving in this area through Women Moving Millions, a growing network of wealthy women whove given at least $500 million so far for projects and programs that benefit women and girls. Zehner is also involved in a wide range of other womens initiatives and is a philanthropist herself through a family foundation she established with her husband.
Update 5/9/16  Mary Hannan pleaded not guilty last week to the various charges brought against her in connection to the murder of her former boyfriend. Hannan appeared in Ventura County Superior Court before judge Bruce Young, who ordered her back to court for a pretrial conference on Oct. 12, according to the source. She remains free on $20,000 bail.

Meanwhile, Hannans son, Bresnak, was scheduled to appear in court on Friday for motions. Judge Gilbert Romero previously ruled in favor of a prosecution motion to retry him for murder following a jury deadlock and mistrial declaration in March, the source reported.

Prosecutors intend to ask the court to combine the homicide case with another from May 2013, in which several drug-related charges were brought against Bresnak. A grand jury has indicted him in the latter chase.

Mary Hannan, whod been charged in connection with Korbers murder, failed to appear for her arraignment on March 9 due to illness and has been admitted to the hospital, according to her attorney. A grand jury indicted Hannan, alleging she helped Bresnak after the murder. She was free on a $20,000 bail.

The indictment alleges Hannan helped wrap Korbers body with plastic, duct tape and rope, and assisted in moving the freezer containing the body to the storage unit. It also alleges she kept the keys to the freezer and paid for the storage rental, according to the source. Hannan faces two additional criminal charges: conspiring to move Korbers remains from the facility to bury them, and concealing the death from police to protect herself and her son.

Hannans attorney, Richard Hanawalt, told Judge Matthew Guasco he didnt know her medical prognosis. The judge issued a bench warrant for failure to appear for a felony arraignment, but said the court would hold the warrant so Hanawalt could offer proof Hannan was ill and had to be hospitalized. A second arraignment has been scheduled for March 15. 8/26/13  Michael Bresnak was formally arrested on suspicion of murder in the Jeffrey Korber homicide case. Korber had been missing for two years before a tip in June prompted police in Ventura, Calif., to search a self-storage unit belonging to Bresnak. Korbers body was recovered from the unit inside a freezer.

Bresnak was already in custody for a parole violation and was subsequently arrested for the homicide on Aug. 21. Bail was set at $500,000. Bresnaks mother, Mary Hannan, who was previously named a person of interest in the case, has not been arrested. Hannan and Korber were romantically linked, according to police.

Although investigators believe Korber was killed in 2011 inside Hannans home, she is not suspected of participating in the actual death, police said.

The body of a missing California man was discovered recently inside a freezer in a self-storage unit at Ventura Mini Warehouse in Ventura, Calif. Jeffrey Korber, 60, had been missing for two years before a tip prompted police to search the unit.

Ventura police have named Michael Bresnak, 49, a murder suspect, although he has not been charged. He is in custody on a parole violation and being held without bond. Bresnak is the son of Korbers girlfriend, 66-year-old Mary Hannan, who has been named a person of interest in the case. Korber lived with Hannan at the time of his death, according to investigators. The storage unit belonged to Bresnak.

Korbers family reported him missing in Laguna Beach, Calif., in July 2011. Investigators received a tip in June about a homicide victim being kept at a Ventura self-storage facility on Market Street, which led to a search warrant. Korbers frozen body was discovered June 28. The freezer was plugged in and in working condition, police said.

"In 24 years, I've never had a case like this. I've never been involved, I've never been around something like this," said Ventura Police Commander Darin Schindler.

Police used fingerprint records to identify Korber, although Schindler said the mans body was preserved well enough to also confirm his identity using photographs. Investigators have not specified how Korber was killed but labeled the case a homicide.

"This only happens in the movies, not in real life," said Michelle Nickerson, manager of the storage facility. Bresnak rented the storage unit about a year ago and visited it regularly, she said. "Just an ordinary guy I would speak to every day in passing, as I do the rest of the tenants here."

The Laguna Beach Police Departments missing-person investigation concluded early last year after investigators were unable to substantiate a crime had taken place, Schindler said.

Anyone with information related to the case is encouraged to contact the Ventura Police Department at 805.339.4441.
A 2-year-old was found roaming unattended at a self-storage facility in Pinehurst, Texas, last week while her mother and an unidentified male slept in a unit. Police were called to the facility in the 3500 block of West Park around 1:45 p.m. on March 1 in reference to suspicious circumstances, according to a source.

The woman, later identified as 22-year-old Meagan Danielle Lonion, was awakened and found to be intoxicated on an unknown substance. She was arrested for public intoxication and transported to the Orange County Jail. Once there, police discovered she was in possession of a white crystal-like substance believed to be crystal methamphetamine, the source reported.

Lonion was also charged with possession of a controlled substance, a state jail felony. If convicted, she faces six months to two years in jail and a $10,000 fine. Lonion posted a $5,000 bond and was released from jail on March 3.

The man was so intoxicated that he was transported by ambulance to a local hospital, the source reported.

The child was released to a family member through Texas Child Protective Services.
Authorities announced that a Hudson County, New Jersey, couple, along with their adult son and the manager of a car dealership, have been charged with conspiracy, insurance fraud, and other offenses for allegedly falsifying a car loan application to buy a $139,000 Bentley, then torching the vehicle and reporting it stolen to an insurance company.

The New Jersey attorney generals office said Wednesday that Chester Jarzabek, 63, his wife Anna Jarzabek, 61, and their son John Jarzabek, 26, are accused in the alleged scheme involving the used Bentley they had recently purchased from D.I.B Leasing in Teterboro, New Jersey. John Jarzabek worked as a salesman at the now-defunct dealership.

The general manager of the dealership, Hector Marquez, 43, of Monroe, New Jersey, was also indicted as a co-conspirator in the alleged scheme.

According to the indictment, the Chester and Anna Jarzabek purchased the car and conspired with their son and Marquez to burn it for insurance money.

The four are also charged with falsifying a car loan application and providing bogus documents to inflate their income to obtain financing for the luxury vehicle. A bookkeeper for D.I.B. Leasing, Michael Ricciardi, 53, of Wayne, New Jersey, was also charged with conspiracy in connection with the alleged fraudulent loan application.

These defendants are accused of pulling out all stops to line their own pockets, said New Jersey Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman.

It is especially distasteful that the alleged criminal behavior was a family affair. This kind of blatant fraud against banks and insurance companies will be prosecuted vigorously by the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor, Hoffman said.

In addition to the second-degree conspiracy and insurance fraud charges, all three Jarzabeks and Marquez were indicted on two counts of second-degree theft by deception. The four, along with Ricciardi also were indicted on two charges of third-degree theft by deception.

Source: New Jersey Attorney Generals Office

Topics Auto Fraud New Jersey
Small-business owners struck back against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomos plan to implement a $15 minimum wage Tuesday, saying the Democratic governors call to enact what would be the highest state minimum in the country would devastate an already struggling economy.

Gathering at the Capitol in Albany, the business owners warned that such a steep increase would squeeze small businesses struggling in an already challenging economic climate.

Youre either going to cut back on employment or raise prices, said Art Price, owner of a Southern Tier plumbing business.

Eric Ooms said his family dairy farm near the Hudson River is now employing robotic milkers, a move partially prompted by higher labor costs that could reduce his overall staff by up to three workers. He predicted other dairy farmers would also switch.

Were competing with states like Pennsylvania and Idaho, he said, listing states with significantly lower minimum wages. He said the wage hike would be incredibly awful for the dairy industry, but its even worse for the vegetable farmers and the fruit farmers who cant do the automation.

The states current minimum wage is $9 an hour. Cuomo, a Democrat, argues that a higher minimum would get low-wage workers off government assistance, while giving them more money to inject in local economies. To help businesses adjust, he is proposing a gradual increase to $15  by the end of 2018 in New York City and by July 2021 in the rest of the state  and nearly $300 million in small business tax relief.

We will have the highest minimum wage in the United States of America, which is a tremendous, big step toward economic justice and economic freedom, he told an audience Monday on Long Island.

A vote on Cuomos measure is expected in the coming weeks.

The measure is widely supported in the Democratic-led Assembly but faces greater challenges in the GOP-run Senate. Still, Senate leaders havent shut the door completely on a minimum wage increase, suggesting that the size of the raise, the duration of the phase-in and the size of tax cuts for businesses could be up for negotiation.

Business groups say they want to make sure any increase thats passed by the Legislature.

We do not believe this is a foregone conclusion, said Mike Durant, New York state director for the National Federation of Independent Business.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics New York Agribusiness
Hiscox, the specialist insurance group, announced it has reached an agreement to sell the Hong Kong division of its DirectAsia business to Well Link Group Holdings Ltd., a member of a Hong Kong-based financial conglomerate.

The transaction, which will allow Hiscox to focus the future growth of DirectAsia on its operations in Singapore and Thailand, is subject to regulatory approval from the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance in Hong Kong, Hiscox said in a statement.

The Hong Kong division of DirectAsia was established in 2012. It generated $8 million of GWP in 2015, serves 29,000 customers and employs 40 people. Its primary business is motor, with ancillary lines in travel.

As a direct-to-consumer insurance provider supported by call centers, it provides a different business model in a market where agent-based channels predominate, the Bermuda-based Hiscox said in a statement.

Prospective buyer Well Link is backed by an investor group with interests in insurance broking, corporate and customer finance, securities and futures brokerage, and asset management. Its acquisition of the Hong Kong division of DirectAsia will complement its existing businesses and provide it with broader product opportunities, the statement added.

The Hong Kong division of DirectAsia is a business with a great team and a distinctive business model, which has grown its premium income strongly since launch, commented Bob Thaker, managing director, DirectAsia Group.

However the focus for DirectAsia is on our core Singapore and Thailand markets where we see significant growth opportunities, and this transaction allows us to focus our energy and investment on those markets, he added. Well Link is a great fit in terms of values and culture for the people and customers of the Hong Kong business unit, and this transaction gives them an attractive platform for growth in the region.

A representative from Well Link added: We welcomed the opportunity working with the current DirectAsia team to make it another successful business of our group. It is an important step towards our groups long-term ambition to build a successful finance business in this region.

Customers in Hong Kong will continue to be served as normal by the business, and need take no action as a result of this announcement. Following completion of the transaction, Well Link will have the right to use the DirectAsia brand in Hong Kong for a maximum period of 12 months.

Source: Hiscox
XL Catlin has introduced Active Assailant coverage to its crisis management product suite to respond to the threat of physical attack faced by businesses and public service providers.

Active Assailant coverage will initially be underwritten in the U.K., U.S., Germany and Asia Pacific, covering clients globally. The solution is designed to help organizations with the financial impacts of Active Assailant events ranging from business interruption, denial of access through to medical expenses and business rehabilitation costs, said Stephen Ashwell, XL Catlins chief underwriting officer for crisis management.

As well as providing coverage for standard property damage, Active Assailant coverage also provides coverage for business interruption including a determination by authorities that the insureds operations have to cease at their current location, said XL Catlin in a statement.

BI coverage can be extended to include denial of access and civil & military authority coverage, which occurs when access and/or use of a facility is either impaired or prohibited for a period of time following an Active Assailant event, the company added.

The new endorsement also provides enhanced extra expense coverage, which may include expenditures related to public relations assistance, relocation, counselling and/ or psychiatric care, medical expenses, additional security and job retraining.

XL Catlin said the coverage is broad and responds to premeditated events, which is a key differentiator of the product.

XL Catlin believes there will be significant demand for the solution and has added additional capacity to support its development, the company said.

Sadly, global terror events and a number of recent, high profile attacks carried out by terrorist groups and individuals has brought into focus the need for such an insurance solution, Ashwell commented.

Incidents of this nature are terrible in all cases, thats clear. Without the right insurance cover however, the aftermath can be just as devastating; crippling organizations and their function in society. This is why we have developed this coverage to help address the gaps there are in existing solutions, in a thorough and thoughtful way, he said.

Source: XL Catlin

Topics Lawsuits AXA XL
Assicurazioni Generali SpA is set to propose Italy country manager Philippe Donnet as chief executive officer, replacing Mario Greco, who has joined Zurich Insurance Group AG, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions.

Generalis appointments and corporate governance committee will finalize its proposal to nominate Donnet at a meeting scheduled on Friday, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks arent public. The board will subsequently meet over coming days to approve the proposal, said the people.

Generali is expected to present fourth-quarter earnings on March 18, when the company may post a net profit fro 2015 of 2.3 billion euros ($2.6 billion), according to the average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, up from 1.7 billion euros in 2014. During his tenure Greco cut costs, reduced debt and sold non-strategic units to focus on the companys main business.

Greco quit in January after telling Generalis board that he was unable to reach an agreement with shareholders on his future role after months of discussions. The company needs certainty to meet its targets, and the conditions for Greco to stay on werent there, he said at the time.

Donnet, 55, joined as CEO of Generali Italy in 2013. The manager, whos a French native, graduated from Institut des Actuaires Francais and Ecole Polytechnique of Paris. He has held several roles at insurance companies including in Italy, France and Asia, working for AXA SA from 1985 to 2007.

A Generali spokesman declined to comment. Reports of Donnets nomination was published earlier in The Wall Street Journal.

Related:

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics Generali Life Assurance (Thailand) Plc.
A bill that would give insurance companies tax credits for contributions to help lower-income students in South Dakota attend private schools is headed to Gov. Dennis Daugaard after passing through the state Legislature.

The House voted 45 to 23 to approve the bill after using a procedural move to revive it. The measure had passed through the Senate, but had stalled in a House committee.

Daugaard has said that he would consider the measure if it is neutral to the states budget.

Supporters say the measure would give parents the opportunity to make a choice about where they want their children to go to school. Such programs have been very successful in other states, said House Republican leader Brian Gosch, the main House sponsor of the measure.

Robert Wehde, president of Sioux Falls Catholic Schools, said he is pleased and excited for families that will benefit and the students that private schools will be able to serve.

Its monumental, Wehde said. It is (a change) that provides an opportunity, and I think itll open up new doors in South Dakota.

Students would be eligible for the scholarships under the bill if their families in the year before entering the program made up to 150 percent of the income standard used to qualify for free or reduced-price lunch at school. Supporters say the proposal wouldnt drain state dollars because the average scholarship amount would have to be lower than what the state would spend on a child attending public school.

The proposal would allow insurance companies to get an 80 percent tax credit for total contributions to a grant organization that would provide the scholarships. The total amount of credits would be capped at $2 million each budget year.

The measure would allow insurance companies to contribute to the community and do something that would be good advertising for them, Gosch said.

Democratic Rep. Karen Soli, who opposed the measure, said the bill is rather insulting to public schools who are committed to educating all students.

These public schools have need of every penny of state support we can give them to help them do this essential task, Soli said.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Carriers
American International Group Inc., the insurer stung by losses on higher-than-expected claims costs, said Swiss Re AG has agreed to take on some of the companys risks tied to casualty policies.

The two-year reinsurance deal will help AIG be more capital efficient and improve the return on equity at its commercial insurance business, the New York-based company said Wednesday in a statement, without providing terms of the arrangement. Reinsurers provide coverage for primary carriers.

AIG Chief Executive Officer Peter Hancock told investors in January that he is seeking to return $25 billion in capital to shareholders over the next two years, and that he plans to use reinsurance and other risk mitigating strategies to improve the commercial property-and-casualty business. The company has been under pressure from activist investor Carl Icahn, who faulted Hancock for failing to meet ROE targets.

We have been very clear about our desire to partner with our reinsurers to help achieve our strategic objectives, and this agreement with Swiss Re is an example of what is achievable with longstanding counterparties, Rob Schimek, CEO of AIGs commercial business, said in the statement. He was promoted in December to lead the unit.

The loss ratio at Schimeks business was a focal point during the insurers fourth-quarter conference call. AIG has been reducing exposure to casualty coverage, and took a $3.6 billion reserve charge in the last three months of 2015 tied to policies sold in prior years.

Reinsurance

Christian Mumenthaler, a 17-year veteran of Swiss Re, was named CEO of the Zurich-based company last month. He said the AIG deal would help his company improve diversification.

We know this portfolio, the leaders, and the underwriters very well and believe in AIGs plans, Mumenthaler said in the statement. We are happy to accompany them on this journey by taking a significant position in this business.

Swiss Re is also in talks to buy a life reinsurer from Citigroup Inc., people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News this week.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics Reinsurance Swiss Re
A large storm system has drenched areas in Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas that were already inundated with heavy rainfall this week. Two people have drowned in Oklahoma and Texas. Nearly a foot of rain fell over parts of northwest Louisiana on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning and more rain is on the way, the National Weather Service said.

The heavy rain flooded up to 80 homes in Louisiana, and a nursing home near Minden, La., was evacuated. There were some high water rescues and water rose in the Webster Parish Courthouse.

A flash flood warning was in effect for parts of eastern Texas, southern Arkansas and northern Louisiana, and forecasters said some of the areas could see damaging winds and isolated tornadoes on well.

Flash flooding was expected from the Texas Gulf Coast to southern Illinois, with the heaviest rain likely to fall in southeast Texas and the Ozark and Ouachita mountains of Arkansas, the National Weather Service said.

In rural southeastern Oklahoma, a 30-year-old man drowned Tuesday night after trying to drive his SUV across a low-crossing bridge that was covered by floodwaters. In Texas, a 22-year-old man drowned Monday night after his canoe capsized in Dickinson Bayou, southeast of Houston near Galveston Bay.

Up to 7 inches of rain was expected through Wednesday and up to 12 inches by the end of the weekend along the Texas-Louisiana border and central Arkansas. Flash flood watches have been issued Wednesday for areas from Port OConnor, Texas, to near Springfield, Illinois.

Some flooding was reported late Tuesday in northwestern Louisiana between Shreveport and Minden.

The flooding comes after recent severe thunderstorms raged across parts of Central and North Texas. A tornado struck a mobile home park in the North Texas town of Tolar on Monday morning, smashing some homes and injuring two people after two other tornadoes late Sunday injured two people in the North Texas towns of Stephenville and Cool.

Storm winds damaged dozens of boats Tuesday at Lake Benbrook near Fort Worth, Texas, dismasting some of them and tossing picnic tables into the lake.

In Central Texas, a school bus flipped after going off a rain-slick road in a crash that left the driver and another adult on board slightly hurt.

The Bexar County Sheriffs Office says two special-needs children on board were not injured in the weather-related accident Wednesday.

Sheriffs spokesman James Keith says the Boerne Independent School District bus was on its morning route when the driver lost control on a curve, the vehicle went off the road and overturned. The driver and a monitor were transported to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries.

A district official says the bus was headed to Boerne-Samuel V. Champion High School and to Boerne Middle School South.

Both children were released to their parents.

Boerne is 25 miles northwest of San Antonio.

Related:

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Texas Louisiana Flood Windstorm Oklahoma Arkansas
As a pediatrician, Dr. Judith Schaechter can ask parents of her patients all sorts of questions regarding their safety and well-being: what the child eats, whether theres a backyard pool and whether the child gets enough sleep.

Yet the question of whether there is a gun in the home is generally off limits. A Florida law bans routine gun questions even though eight children or teenagers are killed every day in the U.S. with guns, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Doctors such as Schaechter believe a discussion about guns is essential to child safety.

A doctor has to be able to ask, said Schaechter, who is chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. We do this for so many issues. This is but one. Yet it is an extremely important one, for when we dont discuss prevention, the results can be lethal.

Schaechter is among thousands of physicians, medical organizations and other groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union that challenged the law, formally called the Firearm Owners Privacy Act, in a lawsuit known popularly as Docs vs. Glocks. The law, passed in 2011 amid strong support from the National Rifle Association, is the only one of its kind in the nation, although similar laws have been considered in 12 other states, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The legal battle, which has raged since the laws inception, is a clash between the First Amendments guarantee of free speech and the Second Amendments right to keep and bear arms, amid a national discussion about the role and availability of weapons across the U.S.

The lawsuit is now pending before the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals following conflicting earlier rulings on its constitutionality  and the case could wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Supporters in the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature and the NRA say the law became necessary when, in their view, doctors began overstepping their bounds in the examination room by pushing an anti-Second Amendment, anti-gun political agenda. The NRA cites several examples of doctors telling patients theyd have to find a new physician if they refused to answer questions about gun ownership or telling parents they should get rid of any guns in the home.

The law, supporters point out, permits doctors under a good faith provision to ask about firearms if the questions are deemed relevant to the patients medical care or safety or the safety of other people.

These provisions target discrimination and harassment, not speech, and they do nothing to impair doctor-patient discussions of firearm safety, NRA attorney Charles Cooper said in court papers. Even if viewed as a speech regulation, the (law) is a reasonable regulation of speech incidental to the practice of medicine.

The law also has some teeth: doctors who violate the law could face professional discipline, such as a fine, or even lose their medical licenses. The state Department of Health would investigate any complaints, although the law has never been enforced because it was blocked in 2012 by a Miami judges decision that found it an unconstitutional violation of free speech rights.

Since that decision by U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke, the law has been entangled in an unusual web of appeals brought by Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, a Republican.

The same panel of three 11th Circuit appeals judges has overruled Cooke on identical 2-1 votes  but in three separate opinions, each replacing the one before. Most recently, in December, the panel found that any free speech concerns were outweighed by Floridas interest in preventing doctors from using their so-called power disparity over patients to chill exercise of their Second Amendment rights.

In other words, the three-judge panel found that doctors had a First Amendment right to talk to patients about guns but couldnt use it most of the time, said attorney Doug Hallward-Driemeier, who represents the physicians and their allies.

The law, he said, singles out doctors speech about guns for restriction because the government disagrees with their message. That is precisely what the First Amendment protects us against.

After that December opinion, the full 11th Circuit Court of Appeals stepped in to take up the case, tossing out the decisions by its own three-judge panel. The courts 11 judges in coming months will likely hold oral arguments, followed by a decision that could be appealed again to the U.S. Supreme Court, Hallward-Driemeier said.

Schaechter, the pediatrician, said she views concerns about Second Amendment violations as misguided. With a nation awash in guns  the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service pegged the number at 310 million guns in 2009  its simple common sense for a doctor to question patients about them, she said.

This isnt about the Second Amendment. Its about speaking up to save lives, and thats my right and its my patients right to hear what I have to say, she said. I trust if they dont want to answer my questions, they will tell me. So far, none of them have done so.

Related:

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics USA Florida Gun Liability
New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez is expected to sign a measure that would allow San Francisco-based ride-booking companies Uber and Lyft to operate in the state.

Martinez is scheduled Wednesday to attend a signing ceremony in Albuquerque after arriving in an Uber car.

The legal status of the companies has been in limbo in the state since they began offering services in 2014. The companies say the states Motor Carrier Act does not apply to them because they do not operate as commercial taxi businesses.

Uber and Lyft use smartphone apps to connect their drivers with people seeking rides.

Lyft had stop operating in the state after the state regulators couldnt come up with a solution

The new regulations include background checks for drivers against criminal and sexual offender databases.

Related:

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Mexico New Mexico
Join ITR and TMF Groups tax experts at 2pm CET (1pm GMT) on November 15 as they discuss how finance leaders are increasingly faced with doing more with less, and how CFOs should adapt.
Economies that are afflicted by a high level of corruptionwhich involves the misuse of power in the form of money or authority to achieve certain goals in illegal, dishonest, or unfair waysare not capable of prospering as fully as those with a low level of corruption. Corrupted economies are not able to function properly because corruption prevents the natural laws of the economy from functioning freely. As a result, corruption in a nation's political and economic operations causes its entire society to suffer.

Key Takeaways Countries that have a high level of corruption are unable to function efficiently or prosper at an economic level, causing suffering for society as a whole.

Emerging market economies tend to have much higher corruption levels compared to developed countries.

Corruption can lead to an uneven distribution of wealth as small businesses face unfair competition from large companies that have established illegal connections with government officials.

In a corrupt economy, resources are inefficiently allocated and companies that otherwise would not be qualified to win government contracts are often awarded projects as a result of bribery or kickbacks.

The quality of education and healthcare also deteriorates under a corrupt economy, leading to an overall lower standard of living for the country's citizens.

Data on Corruption's Impact

According to the World Bank, the average income in countries with a high level of corruption is about a third of that of countries with a low level of corruption. Also, the infant mortality rate in such countries is about three times higher and the literacy rate is 25% lower. No country has been able to completely eliminate corruption, but studies show that the level of corruption in countries with emerging market economies is much higher than it is in developed countries.

The map below illustrates the varying levels of corruption perception in 2016 in different countries. The darker colors represent higher levels of corruption perception and lighter colors represent lower levels. Based on this map, we see the regions with developed economiesNorth America, Western Europe, and Australiahave low levels of corruption perception. In contrast, a high perception of corruption is reported in almost all countries with emerging economies.

High Prices for Low Quality

Corruption in the way deals are made, contracts are awarded, or economic operations are carried out, leads to monopolies or oligopolies in the economy. Those business owners who can use their connections or money to bribe government officials can manipulate policies and market mechanisms to ensure they are the sole provider of goods or services in the market.

Monopolists, because they do not have to compete against alternative providers, tend to keep their prices high and are not compelled to improve the quality of goods or services they provide by market forces that would have been in operation if they had significant competition. Embedded in those high prices are also the illegal costs of the corrupt transactions that were necessary to create such a monopoly. If, for example, a home construction company had to pay bribes to officials to be granted licenses for operations, these costs incurred will, of course, be reflected in artificially high housing prices.

Inefficiently Allocated Resources

In best practice, companies choose their suppliers via tender processes (requests for tender or requests for proposal), which serve as mechanisms to enable the selection of suppliers offering the best combination of price and quality. This ensures the efficient allocation of resources. In corrupted economies, the companies that otherwise would not be qualified to win the tenders are often awarded projects as a result of unfair or illegal tenders (e.g. tenders that involve kickbacks).

This results in excessive expenditure in the execution of projects and substandard or failed projects, leading to overall inefficiency in the use of resources. Public procurement is perhaps most vulnerable to fraud and corruption due to the large size of financial flows involved. Its estimated that in most countries, public procurement constitutes between 15% and 30% of gross domestic product (GDP).

Uneven Distribution of Wealth

Corrupted economies are characterized by a disproportionately small middle class and significant divergence between the living standards of the upper class and lower class. Because most of the country's capital is aggregated in the hands of oligarchs or persons who back corrupted public officials, most of the created wealth also flows to these individuals.

In a corrupt economy, small businesses are not widely spread and are usually discouraged because they face unfair competition and illegal pressures by large companies that are connected with government officials. Certain industries are more prone to corruption than others, making small businesses in these sectors even more vulnerable to unethical business practices.

Low Stimulus for Innovation

Because little confidence can be placed in the legal system of corrupted economies in which legal judgments can be rigged, potential innovators cannot be certain their invention will be protected by patents and not copied by those who know they can get away with it by bribing the authorities. There is thus a disincentive for innovation, and as a result, emerging countries are usually the importers of technology because such technology is not created within their own societies.

A Shadow Economy Exists

Small businesses in corrupt countries tend to avoid having their businesses officially registered with tax authorities to avoid taxation. As a result, the income generated by many businesses exists outside the official economy, and thus are not subject to state taxation or included in the calculation of the country's GDP.

Another negative of shadow businesses is they usually pay their employees decreased wages, lower than the minimum amount designated by the government. Also, they do not provide acceptable working conditions, including appropriate health insurance benefits for employees.

Low Foreign Investment and Trade

Corruption is one of the disincentives for foreign investment. Investors who seek a fair, competitive business environment will avoid investing in countries where there is a high level of corruption. While investing in emerging markets remains a popular investment area, investors are naturally hesitant to put their money at risk in countries known to have high corruption levels. Studies show a direct link between the level of corruption in a country and measurements of the competitiveness of its business environment.

Poor Education and Healthcare

A working paper of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shows corruption has an adverse impact on the quality of education and healthcare provided in countries with emerging economies. Corruption increases the cost of education in countries where bribery and connections play an important role in the recruitment and promotion of teachers. As a result, the quality of education decreases and this affects the overall health of the economy.

Also, corruption in the designation of healthcare providers and recruitment of personnel, as well as the procurement of medical supplies and equipment, in emerging economies results in inadequate healthcare treatment and a substandard or restricted, medical supply, lowering the overall quality of healthcare.

The Bottom Line

Many countries with emerging economies suffer from a high level of corruption that slows their overall development. The entire society is affected as a result of the inefficient allocation of resources, the presence of a shadow economy, and low-quality education and healthcare. Corruption thus makes these societies worse off and lowers the living standards of most of their populations.
The following is an excerpt from Black Fortunes: The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Escaped Slavery and Became Millionaires, by Shomari Wills, which details the origins of Black Wall Street.

Ottawa W. Gurley (aka O.W.) was a turn-of-the-20th-century Black educator, entrepreneur, and landowner who was born to former enslaved Africans. In 1889, after resigning from a position he held with the Grover Cleveland presidential administration, O.W. moved from his home state of Arkansas to Perry, Okla., in order to participate in the Oklahoma Land Grab of 1889. With his wife Emma, he later relocated to Tulsa to seize economic opportunities resulting from the city's multiracial population boom. Once there, O.W. purchased a 40-acre tract of undeveloped land, where he built a grocery store on a dirt road that ran just north of the train tracks traversing the city.

O.W. later forged a partnership with fellow Black businessman John the Baptist Stradford (aka J.B.), with whom he shared a general distrust of White people. Both men chose to go by their initials instead of their first names. This action was a form of silent protest because men in the South were customarily addressed by their surnames, while boys were called by their first names. Sadly, White men often addressed Black men by their first names as a form of emasculation. By using their initials, O.W. and J.B. circumvented this practice.

O.W. and J.B. occasionally held divergent opinions. For example, while O.W. subscribed to the philosophies of African American educator Booker T. Washington, J.B. favored the more radical views of civil rights activist W. E. B. Du Bois. Despite their differences, the pair worked in lockstep to develop an all-Black district in Tulsa. They subdivided the land into housing zones, retail lots, alleys, and streets, all of which were exclusively available to other African Americans who were fleeing lynchings and other racial horrors.

Key Takeaways Ottawa W. Gurley was a Black educator, entrepreneur, and landowner who was born to former enslaved Africans.

At the beginning of the 20th century, he bought 40 acres of land in Tulsa, Okla.

Gurley forged a partnership with Black businessman John the Baptist Stradford, and the two developed an all-Black district in Tulsa, which became known as Greenwood.

When hundreds of African Americans moved to Greenwood for the oil boom, the two became increasingly wealthy.

Greenwoods prosperity became legendary in Black America, with Booker T. Washington dubbing it "Black Wall Street."

The Origin of Greenwood

After O.W. built several square two-story brick boardinghouses near his grocery store, he called the street on which these structures sat Greenwood Avenue, after the Mississippi town from which many of his early residents hailed. Before long, the entire area became known as Greenwood, which soon became the site for a school, as well as an African Methodist Episcopal Church. But O.W.s crowning project was the Gurley Hotel, whose high quality rivaled that of the finest White hotels in the state.

As hundreds of African Americans emigrated to Greenwood for the oil boom, O.W. and J.B. became increasingly wealthy, with O.W. boasting a reported net worth of $150,000 ($3.6 million adjusted for inflation). O.W. leveraged this fortune to launch a Black Masonic lodge and an employment agency while bankrolling efforts to resist Black voter suppression in the state.

Pushback Within the African American Community

O.W. was eventually appointed as a sheriffs deputy by the city of Tulsa, where he was responsible for policing the Black population in Greenwood. But as O.W. became increasingly cozy with the White establishment, many members of Tulsas Black community began to resent him. In fact, in the Black Star newspaper, its militant Black publisher A.J. Smitherman pejoratively referred to O.W. as "The King of Little Africa."

Nevertheless, White developers began to emulate O.W. and J.B. by purchasing plots of land located north of the railroad tracks and selling them back to members of the Black community. By 1905, a Black doctor and a Black dentist had launched practices there. The creation of more schools, several hardware stores, and a Baptist church soon followed. Throughout this time, segregation was increasing, as Blacks converged on the north side of the train tracks, while Whites converged on the south side.

When the Oklahoma territory achieved statehood in 1907, segregationist Democrats, led by the White supremacist Bill "Alfalfa" Murray, passed laws that criminalized interracial marriage and prohibited Blacks from obtaining high-wage jobs. These injustices affirmed O.W. and J.B.'s decision to establish a Black-centric community, where Black men and women were shielded from racial hostilities. If White people made threateningly racist remarks, Greenwoods Black residents often responded aggressively. For example, in 1909, J.B. was walking along Greenwood Avenue when a White deliveryman uttered a racist insult, prompting J.B. to throw the man to the ground, straddle him, and punch his face until it was bloody. J.B. was criminally charged for the beating but was acquitted.

On a separate occasion, J.B. was kicked off a train in Oklahoma for sitting in the first-class careven though he'd purchased a first-class ticket. When he was asked to move to the Black-only car, he refused to comply. He later filed a lawsuit in an effort to desegregate Tulsas trains but was unsuccessful.

Greenwood Prospers

As segregation grew stronger, Greenwoods Black business district thrived, mainly because residents fed their purchasing dollars back into the local economy while earning their incomes from White employers. This was possible because the migration of oilmen to Tulsa created a spike in demand for domestic help, which enabled Black residents to attain high-paying labor jobs as maids, chauffeurs, gardeners, janitors, shoe shiners, and porters. These workers often earned enough money to send their children to universities like Columbia Law School, Oberlin College, the Hampton Institute, the Tuskegee Institute, Spelman College, and Atlanta University, which positioned them to secure white-collar jobs after graduation.

Greenwoods prosperity became legendary in Black America, with Booker T. Washington dubbing it "Black Wall Street."

Copyright  2018 by Shomari Wills. Reprinted by permission of Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
What Is the Agricultural Sector Investment Program (ASIP)?

The Agricultural Sector Investment Program (ASIP) was an economic development project initiated in March 1995 by the World Bank Group. The project directed $60 million in funds toward the improvement of agricultural productivity in Zambia and other African countries. Unfortunately, the project ended in 2001 after failing to meet its objectives.

Key Takeaways The Agricultural Sector Investment Program (ASIP) was a World Bank initiative designed to promote increased productivity in the agricultural sectors of several African nations.

Most of its resources were concentrated on Zambia.

Although the ASIP failed to achieve its goals, the World Bank continues to advance several similar initiatives throughout the world.

How the ASIP Works

The overarching purpose of the ASIP was to help African countries improve their agricultural sectors in the interest of improving food security and contributing to domestic economy development. Initially, Zambia, Angola, Benin, and Senegal were selected to participate in the program, but the program was terminated after failing to achieve its stated targets in Zambia.

Ultimately, a post-termination assessment indicated that the project failed due to a lack of institutional support, suggesting that the financial and human resources dedicated to the project were not sufficient to ensure its success.

The report cited an array of challenges and complications that contributed to this disappointing outcome. Restructuring and decentralization of the central ministry took much longer than anticipated, which was a source of frustration for many of the donors. Unrealistic expectations and an overly broad scope that was impossible to manage further contributed to the challenges that, ultimately, could not be overcome.

If the ASIP had been successful, it may have had a lasting impact on the domestic agricultural economies of Zambia and the other participating countries. Under the four primary goals of the ASIP project, these countries would have seen legal changes and institutional improvements relating to food security, land usage, agricultural pricing, and export practices; as well as increased partnerships between governments and private firms.

This program sought to attract additional private funding to these nations, partly through the creation of a rural investment fund designed to provide small-scale capital investments in rural areas. By providing grants to local governments, it also encouraged the privatization of government-owned farms.

Real-World Example of the ASIP

The ASIP program was part of several larger programs that were high on the World Bank's primary agenda during the 1990s. These included achieving the eight Millennium Development Goals, three of which are eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, reducing child mortality, and ensuring environmental sustainability. ASIP fell under the umbrella of the World Banks Corporate Advocacy Priorities and Global Public Goods Priorities programs, designed to foster productive coordination between the words business and public policy communities.

Although the ASIP was not successful, the World Bank continues to provide low-interest loans, zero-interest credit, and a variety of grants to developing countries. These programs and resources are designed to help these nations achieve important, attainable results in critical areas such as health, education, economic development, infrastructure building and maintenance, and agriculture.
Investing in the stock market can be intimidating at first.

Investors must figure out how to differentiate between the different types of securities, investing styles, trading strategies, and analyzing market data and financials. Financial planners and brokers are good sources of advice, but if you are interested in learning about the stock market and how to take control of your money, an investment club may be worth considering.

Investment clubs can be found in most municipalities and regions, and have been around for decades as a way for people with limited funds to contribute and partake in larger investments as well as to get first-hand experience and education. Investment clubs are simply a group of people who pool their money in order to make joint investments, usually in stocks or bonds. While their primary motivation is to make the most money possible, clubs are also a great way for investors to share ideas and learn about the market.

Key Takeaways Investment clubs are widespread and a way for individuals to learn about the stock market, partake in larger investments, and to get first-hand experience.

Investment clubs are most often set up as a legal partnership or a limited liability company (LLC).

Most investment clubs require an initial lump-sum payment for investing purposes and monthly contributions going forward.

Tips for joining an investment club include thinking about a long-term investment rather than short term, defining your investment style, joining a club association, and valuing the education offered in a club.

How Are Investment Clubs Set Up?

An investment club is usually a legal partnership or a limited liability company (LLC) consisting of 10 to 20 members. Once it is legally established, it is imperative that standardized accounting records are established for it. After all, unlike independent individuals investing directly into the stock market, an investment club pools money from each member.

After a member initially contributes an initial lump-sum for investment purposes, the typical investment club requires a monthly contribution of about $80 from members. Nevertheless, members may not contribute the same amount, nor be participants for the same duration. Therefore, an investment club must have a clear way of determining each member's share at a given point in time since members are likely to be contributing funds on a periodic basis and probably intend to withdraw funds from their share of the club's assets at some time in the future.

Also, when first starting a club, be sure to establish a brokerage account in the club's name. Shopping around for a suitable brokerage firm is a good idea, as different brokers usually have unique offers for investment clubs.

An investment club should schedule regular meetings at least monthly. Such meetings can be fun and insightful, as members present a stock, fund, or exchange traded fund (ETF) they have researched and would like the club to consider buying. Staying in touch digitally in-between meetings is crucial, as well.

Club members carry the responsibility of researching potential investment purchases for the club and staying up-to-date on the performance and outlook of their holdings going forward.

Tips for Joining an Investment Club

1. Think Long Term

Don't buy stocks through an investment club if your time horizon is a year or less. Trying to make money over a shorter period of time is a bad approach, not only for beginner investors but also for clubs. A short time horizon makes it difficult to manage the club's money because, for short-term outlooks, decisions to buy or sell stocks need to be made very quickly and most clubs only meet monthly.

Having a three- to five-year horizon is a common outlook among investment club strategies. As such, potential members should also consider joining an investment club as something of a long-term commitment of about three to five years. It is generally not very healthy for a club if members decide to leave and pull their money out after a short period of time.

Some investment clubs do not invest pooled funds but members rather invests their own funds individually.

Most investment clubs specify the rules or penalties for early withdrawal from the club at its inception. Most specify a liquidation price, or early-withdrawal penalty, which members must pay when withdrawing their funds, which is usually slightly lower than the value of their contributions.

2. Define Your Style

Just as individual investors vary greatly from one another in terms of their investment style, such as value investing, income stock strategies, or GARP, so do investment clubs. It is important for every investment club to have a clearly defined investment style, ideally with some amount of quantifiable rules or limitations on the club's investment portfolio. For example, an investment club might specify that members can propose only stocks for purchase that have a minimum share price or market capitalization, or the club might place sector restrictions on the portfolio to ensure a minimum level of diversification always exists.

Also, for the benefit of members, it may also be useful for a new investment club to implement standardized criteria for reviewing a stock for potential purchase. This will ensure the club members increase their experience in specific areas of equity analysis while allowing all members of the group to brief themselves better for standard material covered at meetings, and hopefully, better understand the material presented to them.

Once an investment club has determined its style, it is important that every member is aware of the club's investing style and willing to follow those guidelines. It can be very damaging to an investment club's atmosphere when some members want to invest club funds in high-risk penny stocks while others gravitate towards blue chips. If you are starting the club, make sure every member understands and supports the club's approach. If you are joining a club, make sure its style meets your needs. If it doesn't meet your needs, there's probably another club that does.

3. Join a Club Association

The National Association of Investors Corporation (NAIC), also known as BetterInvesting, offers support and information for people wishing to join or start their own investment club in the United States. The NAIC not only provides excellent tools but also publishes a monthly investor-learning magazine. For membership packages, visit the BetterInvesting website here. According to NAIC data, the number of investment clubs registered with the association has seen strong growth in the early 21st century, and about half of all registered clubs have outperformed the S&P 500; a level of excess returns most mutual funds are unable to consistently achieve. That being the case, however, market-beating returns do not contain all of the value a member receives from a well-run investment club.

In the U.K., this is called ProShare Investment Clubs, which offers a host of resources such as newsletters, online portfolio tools, a message board for members, and an investment club manual. In Canada, the Investors Association of Canada (IAC) also offers in-depth newsletters on personal finance education, discounts on books, and the like.

4. Always Value Education

While investment clubs should strive to make as much money as possible in the markets, education is one of the primary reasons for joining a club. Clubs operating with the goal of educating their members will find that profits naturally follow. It is arguably more important that investment clubs provide members with the education and experience that help them determine why the club's portfolio has grown, instead of simply watching their net worth grow. After all, if an investor has no interest in increasing their market knowledge, mutual fund investing or a full-service broker can probably provide them with reasonable returns without the commitments and activities inherent in an investment club.

Investment clubs are not directly overseen by any regulatory body, but some clubs might have to register with authorities and have slight oversight.

An investment club should also focus on ensuring that all members receive a relatively equal level of educational value from their membership. In fact, it is a good idea to assess a club's level of member expertise before you decide to join. This ensures there is a reasonable match with your own skill level. Also, all club members should participate equally; some members will naturally carry more of a leadership role than others, but if some members do not contribute periodically to the club's meetings, the atmosphere of the entire club is likely to suffer, decreasing the value everyone receives from their membership.

The Bottom Line

Investment clubs are an excellent way to ease into investing without getting burned or ripped off by unscrupulous brokers. Whether you start your own club or join an existing one, you'll find that being a member of a club is an enlightening experience.

Also, one of the most valuable ongoing benefits of an investment club, especially for beginner investors, is the ability to have investment decisions analyzed from different points of view. If properly founded and maintained, investment clubs can yield their members excess returns on their investment funds year after year, while providing them with an invaluable educational experience that will last a lifetime.
Americans seem to have been fascinated by the Philippines ever since the Spanish-American War. This archipelagic nation is technically a collection of more than 7,000 islands bordered by Taiwan to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the east, Indonesia and Malaysian Borneo to the south, and the South China Sea to the west. Tourism here increased by 7.7% to 7.1 million visitors in 2018, according to the country's Department of Trade and Industry.

The country attracts more than just tourists. The Philippines is home to a large and welcoming community of expatriates who enjoy the low cost of living, inviting beaches, beautiful flora and fauna, tropical climate, and friendly locals to name just a few of the amenities.

Publishing group InternationalLiving.com, which specializes in retiring overseas, estimates that most ex-pats can live comfortably in the Philippines for around $1,525 a month, including food, activities, basic healthcare, and housing costs. Housing makes up a large percentage of the budget. While many ex-pats rent, it may be more cost-effective to buyparticularly if youre planning to stay in the country for more than a few years. In general, foreigners are prohibited from owning land in the Philippines, but they can legally own a residence. Here are some options.

Key Takeaways Foreigners are prohibited from owning land in the Philippines, but can legally own a residence.

The Philippine Condominium Act allows foreigners to own condo units, as long as 60% of the building is owned by Filipinos.

If you want to buy a house, consider a long-term lease agreement with a Filipino landowner.

You can also purchase a property through a corporation, provided its ownership is 60% or more by Filipino citizens.

Location, Location, Location

One of the main things about moving abroad is which part of your destination country you'll call home. There are a lot of factors to consider before you make that trek. Do you want to be close to all the hustle and bustle when living abroad? Or do you truly want to leave it all behind and live without any hassles?

If you want to be in the center of it all, consider major cities like Quezon City, which has a population of nearly three million people. Manilathe capital citywith about 1.8 million, is one of the most densely populated cities in the world. Finally, Davao City at 1.6 million, is one of the country's tourism centers. These cities, along with other major metropolises, have the perks you come to expect including restaurants, nightlife, and entertainment right at your fingertips. There are also plenty of markets, as well as access to healthcare facilities. But remember, with all of these amenities come a lot of traffic and big crowds.

Perhaps you've had enough of city life, and would rather try something a little less urban. Tagaytay is a popular destination for touristsboth domestic and foreign. Situated in the mountainous region, it's known as one of the country's summer capitals because of its cooler climate. The total population is about 71,000, and there is a lot to dofrom golf courses and other outdoor activities. Dumaguete, on the other hand, is a bit larger, with a population of more than 113,000. It's a principal seaport and has great beaches.

Buy a Condo

Perhaps the easiest option is to purchase a condominium, a hybrid type of ownership that falls outside traditional structures. With traditional property, you own the structure, plus the land on which it sits. If you buy a condo, however, you only own the condo unit itselfnot the land beneath it. The Philippine Condominium Act specifies that foreigners can own condominium units, as long as 60% of the units in the building are owned by Filipinos.

Remember, there are things you need to consider if you're going to buy a condo in the Philippines. Just like anywhere else, you will have condo fees to pay every month. And based on where you live, you may have to share the amenities like the pool, gardens, and common outdoor spaces.

The best thing you can do is not to wing it. Do an on-site inspection and a complete walk-through of the property before you purchase. After all, you don't want any surprises when you make your big move.

Buy a House

As we mentioned, foreigners can legally own houses and other types of buildings, but they are prohibited from owning the land on which it sits. To work around this, you can buy a freestanding house but lease the property.

Foreigners can own a home, but not the land on which it sits.

Under the Investors Lease Act of the Philippines, a foreign national can enter into a lease agreement with a Filipino landowner for a long-term lease with an initial period of up to 50 years, with a one-time option to renew for 25 years.

Of course, the purchase price will depend on where you buy. The closer you are to a major city, the higher the price. The average price per square foot in a city center nationally is about $207.50, making a 1,200-square foot home $249,000. If you choose to live outside the city, it's roughly $119 per square foot, meaning that same sized home costs just under $143,300. The average interest rate for a 20-year fixed-rate mortgage is about 7.1% nationally.

Consider hiring a local agent before you buysomeone who deals exclusively with ex-pats. This person can guide you through the process and help you avoid costly mistakes. You will, naturally, have to pay a fee for the service, but it may be well worth the investment.

Marry a Native

If you are married to a Filipino citizen, you can buy property in your spouses name. While your name wont be on the title, it can be included in the contract to buy the property. If you are legally separated, or your spouse passes away, the land cant be transferred to you because you are still prohibited from owning land, but youll have a reasonable amount of time to sell the property and collect the proceeds. Otherwise, the property will pass to your spouses heirs and/or relatives.

Buy Through a Company

Corporations can own land in the Philippines, provided Filipino citizens own 60% or more of the companythe rest can be owned by a foreign partner or partners. Corporations that meet this equity stake requirement must be registered with the government Board of Investment (BOI) for permission to buy, sell or act as an intermediary in a real estate transaction.

As a foreigner, the largest piece of residential land you can own, either with your Filipino spouse or through a corporation, is 1,000 square meters of urban landjust under a quarter acreor one hectare or about 2.5 acres of rural land.

Transaction Fees

Real estate transactions always involve more than just the price tag. If you buy property in the Philippines, you can expect to pay several fees, including:

Capital Gains Tax: 6% of the residence's sales price, zonal value or fair market value, whichever is highest. This is normally paid by the seller, but in some instances the buyer pays it, or it ends up rolled into the sales price.

Documentary Stamp Tax: 1.5% of the sales price, zonal value or fair market value, whichever is highest.

Transfer Tax: 0.5% to 0.75% of the sales price, zonal value or fair market value, whichever is highestdepending on where the property is situated.

Title Registration Fee: This varies according to a published registration fee table; generally around 0.25% of the sales price.

Safety

One of the most important things you'll have to consider in the Philippinesor anywhere abroad for that matteris your safety. As of August 2021, the U.S. State Department has issued a Level 3 travel advisory related to the Philippines because of COVID-19, as well as crime, terrorism, civil unrest, and kidnapping.

As of August 2021, the State Department issued travel advisories urging people not to travel to the Sulu Archipelago and the Sulu Sea because of terrorism and kidnappings, while another one advised against travel to Marawi City in Mindanao, as the federal government initiated martial law against insurgent groups. A third warning was issued for travelers to other areas of Mindanao due to crime, terrorism, civil unrest, and kidnapping.

The Bottom Line

Just like anywhere in the world, property prices vary greatly in the Philippines, depending on location, size, condition, and features. In most cases, though, you can expect to get a lot more house for your money than you would back home: Think brand-new beachfront condo, for example, for less than $100,000.

Once you pick the general area where you want to settle down, it can be helpful to work with an experienced real estate agent who can show you various properties, help narrow down your choices and provide general guidance throughout the process. Your agent can also help you understand the rules regarding property ownership, and what you can and cant purchase as a foreigner.

When purchasing a home overseas, conduct the transaction in a way that will protect your property rights. In the U.S., homebuyers receive title to the property, but this distinction may not be as clear in every countryor even in every corner of a country. To help ensure that everything goes as smoothly as possible, and to protect your rights, consult with an experienced real estate professional and an attorney.
Top News - Investor Idea

Mullen (NASDAQ: MULN) Continues Acquisition Path With Purchase of ELMS Assets Including Factory in Mishawaka, IN., Enabling EV Production for Retail and Commercial Vehicle Lines

BREA, Calif. - October 19, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Mullen Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: MULN), an emerging electric vehicle ("EV") manufacturer, announces the US Bankruptcy Court approval on Oct. 13th, 2022 of its acquisition of electric vehicle company ELMS's (Electric Last Mile Solutions) assets in an all cash purchase.

Top EV Stock News - Investor Idea

Breaking EV Stock News: Mullen Automotive (NASDAQ: $MULN) Taps Former GM Executive John Schwegman as Chief Commercial Officer for Next Phase of EV Growth

BREA, Calif. - October 21, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Mullen Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: MULN), an emerging electric vehicle ("EV") manufacturer, announces today the hiring of John Schwegman as its Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) for Mullen's line of commercial vehicles.

Top EV Stock News - Investor Idea

EV Stocks Driving Higher: (NASDAQ: $MULN) (NASDAQ: $TSLA) (NYSE: $NIO) (NYSE: $F)

Vancouver, Delta, BC - October 20, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Investorideas.com, a leading investor news resource covering EV and automotive stocks releases a special report featuring Mullen Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: MULN), covering the continued growth of the EV market as government policy and infrastructure plans sync up with consumer and investor interest in the EV space.

Top AI Stock News - Investor Idea

Breaking AI Stock News: FatBrain (OTCQB: LZGI) Acquires Confidential Computing Platform ZeroTrust to Protect Data Privacy and Accelerate Innovation for Millions of Growth Businesses

NEW YORK, NY - October 19, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) FatBrain AI (LZG International, Inc.) (OTCQB: LZGI), the leader in powerful and easy-to-use artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for star enterprises of tomorrow, has acquired the confidential computing and privacy intellectual property (IP) plus software assets of Zero2A PTE LTD ("ZeroTrust Platform"), a software company based in Singapore.

Check out our Podcasts for great investor ideas:

Get new posts by email: Subscribe Powered by

Investorideas.com Newswire:

Subscribe to Investor Ideas Newswire
St Patrick's Day t-shirts that don't have all the tacky or green overkill!

IrishCentral readers have made it very clear that enough is enough with the insulting St. Patricks Day t-shirts, with 78% voting in a poll in 0216 that its time to stop the sale of offensive Paddys Day merchandise.

But when so many of the novelty t-shirts for St. Patricks Day either peg the Irish as drunks, incorrectly abbreviate St. Patricks Day as Pattys Day or, worse, Patties Day, or feature four-leafed clovers instead of shamrocks (or even Donald Trump's lumpy visage), it can start to look like slim pickings.

Heres a selection of Irish-themed shirts ranging from classy to cool to hilariously tacky. And the best part is you can feel good about wearing them.

Have you purchased or do you have your eye on any Paddys Day shirts that also fit the bill? Let us know in the comment section below. Were always on the lookout for good Irish swag!

Read more: Walmart's insulting St. Patrick's Day t-shirts target of Irish American man's boycott

Its one of the best distinctly Irish turns of phrase, so Ah here! definitely deserves its own t-shirt. This is one of many 100% cotton winners from SiosBox, a San Francisco-based company specializing in Irish attire.

What more needs to be said. If you're the one wearing all the tacky merch this St. Patrick's Day, we can guarantee that this tshirt it referring to you.

This one is by far the priciest of the lot, but look at the quality of that graphic! The shirts simple black and white design nicely offsets the image of the famous Cliffs of Moher, one of Irelands most beautiful vistas and most popular attractions.

Looking for a way to display not just your Irish pride but also your Irish American pride on Paddys Day? This is the shirt for you.

Show some appreciation for Irish national sports and to the incredible women who play them with this camogie top.

Star Wars madness has in no way ended since The Force Awakens premiered in November, and lets not forget the film had a special Irish connection, with the pivotal last scene filmed on the mysterious Co. Kerry island of Skellig Michael. These shirts, on special offer from Groupon for the next few days, allow you to kill two birds with one stone, confirming yourself as a Star Wars fan and a proud Irish person at the same time.

Read it. Read it again. Say it out loud. Are you laughing yet? This t-shirt is a subtle bit of hilarity.

This is a cute video game inspired tee for any kid into gaming. Plus, the message prizing skills over luck is actually quite positive!

Show some love for both Father Ted and the brilliance that is a grand cup of tea this St. Patrick's Day.

*Originally published in March 2016.
The Republics newly-elected politicians have their first meeting in the Dail this Thursday with the intention of electing a speaker, or ceann comhairle, and a taoiseach.

Although they are likely to vote for a ceann comhairle, who for the first time will be elected by secret ballot, they are not expected to agree on a new taoiseach following the return of divided parties at the general election.

Enda Kenny, whose Fine Gael party won only 50 seats  well down on the 79 majority required to form a government  will continue as acting taoiseach while the parties continue to negotiate in a bid to form a new administration.

Fianna Fail, with Micheal Martin as leader, won 44 seats  more than doubling their numbers in the outgoing Dail  but they have also experienced difficulty in coalition talks with smaller parties and independents.

The bookies favorite  still  for a government is a partnership between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, although there are elements on both sides still opposed to it because of Civil War hostilities.

Shane Ross, who heads the Independent Alliance, which has six members, had talks with Kenny but he said later that he realized he was discussing arrangements with a political corpse.

Ross, who also had talks with Martin, stood by his comments on Kenny in an article he wrote in the Sunday Independent.

He denied that it was a cheap shot or that his comments had undermined the Independent Alliances negotiating position.

Kenny, accepting a taoiseach was unlikely to be elected on Thursday, said that he cannot put a date on when a government will be formed, but that one clearly had to be constructed and he would continue to work towards that goal.

Speaking to reporters at a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels, he said, There is a process going on at the moment in terms of discussing with independents and groupings and so on like that in order to see what situation might arise from this.

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.

Although Fine Gael were continuing midweek to talk to smaller parties and independents, there was a growing view within the party that the talks were somewhat pointless as some form of deal involving Fianna Fail looked to be the only viable option for forming a government.

Meanwhile, Kenny, Martin, and Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein are expected to be proposed for taoiseach, although there will be no majority agreement on any of them this week.

Full Dail returns: Fine Gael 50; Fianna Fail 44; Labour 7; Sinn Fein 23; Renua 0; Social Democrats 3; Green Party 2; Independent Alliance 6; Independents 17.
The Dail meets today (Mar 10) for the first time since our inconclusive election, and the only thing we can say for certain is that nothing is certain about what is going to happen. It's the worst outcome imaginable for the country right now, given the fragility of our economic recovery and the weakness of the global economy on which we are so dependent.

The final count in the election gave Fine Gael 50 seats, Fianna Fail 44, Sinn Fein 23, Labour seven, and smaller parties and independents 34 between them, adding up to the 158 members of the new Dail. Subtracting one member who will be chosen by secret ballot as ceann comhairle (chairman), 79 seats is the magic number for a majority.

With Fine Gael only a handful of seats ahead of Fianna Fail, either of them could lead the next government if they can get the support of enough of the motley crew of independents and small parties, including Labour or even Sinn Fein.

This appears to be the preferred option for each of them, rather than forming the much talked about historic Fine Gael-Fianna Fail coalition which would finally end the Civil War division in Irish politics and give a strong and stable government for the next five years.

Instead we are faced with the prospect of a ragbag government with an amalgamation of five or six different policy platforms and no coherent vision for the future of the Irish economy or Irish society, one that will be pulled in opposite directions as its members try to fulfill unwise populist promises made to garner votes in the election.

There's a lot of talk in the air of reforming the Dail, of a new style of parliament in which ordinary members will have a real say in decision-making, of a new era of fairness and social caring. But there is little detail on how any of these laudable goals might be achieved.

The reality is that the new government, like the outgoing government, will have to run a very tight ship because there's no money. We still haven't balanced the budget and for years ahead we will be overshadowed by the debt mountain and the annual interest payments we have to make.

The incoming government will inherit this mountain of debt and a limited ability to raise more revenue. Any deviation from prudent economic policies, including keeping a very tight rein on spending, could see our debt costs soar and snuff out our recovery. Any further increase in the already very high tax burden on middle and higher earners to pay for yet more state spending is likely to be counterproductive, killing incentive and stifling business growth.

In the last few days, stories have emerged about Taoiseach Enda Kenny offering seats at the cabinet table to various groups of independents and small parties as he tries to cobble together the numbers. The Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin has been holding similar talks.

Without Sinn Fein, however, the best they are likely to achieve would be enough support for a minority government, probably a highly unstable one. Both are wary of having any truck with Sinn Fein, who themselves are wary about joining a coalition which will have to implement tough decisions into the future.

After they elect their new chairman, the first challenge the politicians will face when the Dail resumes this Thursday will be the vote for taoiseach. Neither Kenny nor Martin is likely to win a majority, since a lot of the independents and smaller parties are likely to sit on the fence. But whichever of them gets the higher vote will be in the driving seat to intensify negotiations in the days and weeks ahead aimed at forming a government.

If Kenny fails to get the bigger vote he is toast. And despite Fianna Fail being the smaller of the two big parties, Martin has a chance of pulling it off.

It has been an extraordinary comeback for Fianna Fail, the party which was dead and buried in the 2011 election after wrecking the country. They have done it by promising voters there is a fairer (in other words easier) way of recovering from the crash than the tough austerity program imposed by the government over the past few years.

What short memories we have! Many voters seem to have forgotten that it was the last Fianna Fail government that laid down this program of tax hikes and spending cutbacks and agreed it with the IMF and the EU as part of us getting the bailout. Now they are saying there was a less painful way of restoring the economy!

To be fair, all the politicians were making extravagant and unrealistic promises in this election, recognizing that people had reached breaking point with the extra taxes and charges that formed the austerity program and would vote for anyone who offered them relief. The last straw was the water charges and Fianna Fail played this to the maximum, conveniently forgetting that six years ago it was they who had agreed with the EU that water charges had to be introduced here (like they exist in all the other 27 member states in the EU).

Instead of sticking with the careful, conservative approach that is needed to continue our recovery, all the parties in this election promised tax cuts and massive increases in state spending, in health, housing, education and other areas. The government parties, Fine Gael and Labour, led the way in this splurge of promises, in the process undermining their own credibility.

All this extra spending and tax cuts is supposed to be funded by revenue from future growth, something that is far from certain. The election campaign was an ominous indication of what could lie ahead, with the state finances again in danger of getting out of control as a plethora of parties and independents in the Dail battle with each other to live up to their promises.

The truth is that what we need here is not bigger government, but better government. We need much more efficient and productive use of the state spending we already do.

An example is health, which became one of the emotive issues in the election thanks to the number of people on trolleys for hours in hospital A&E departments because there were no beds available. The answer from all the parties was to promise a massive increase in state spending, ignoring the fact that Ireland's per capita spending on health is already the second highest in Europe (after Denmark) and that over 40 percent of people here have private health insurance and cost the state very little.

Throwing more state money we can't afford at the problem  and at other problems in education, housing and security  is not necessarily the solution, yet that is what all the parties and most of the independents want to do.

The mess made over water charges is a perfect illustration of how we get things wrong here and also of the cynical approach of Fianna Fail, who have said that getting rid of Irish Water and ending charges until the system is fixed will be a condition for their support for any new government.

It's worth looking at the water issue in more detail. As we said, Ireland was the only country in Europe that did not have domestic water charges. Much of our water infrastructure was built by the British a century or two ago and is now in serious need of upgrading, with major problems here in supply and in waste water disposal.

In a country famous for the amount of rain we get, water supply is often unreliable and quality is poor. Dozens of towns do not have adequate waste water treatment and pollute rivers, lakes and coastal waters.

In 2000, the EU adopted a new Water Framework Directive, aimed at conserving water by getting everyone to pay for it and also laying down standards for how waste water was to be treated across Europe. Ireland  where water services were provided by local councils around the country with little co-ordination between them  dragged its feet.

When they no longer had a choice, the last Fianna Fail government told the Dail that a start had to be made. To reduce waste, consumers would have to pay for water, after a basic allowance had been exceeded. Major investment in fresh water supply and waste water treatment would be undertaken.

To move it onto a national level and improve efficiency, Fine Gael and Labour created a new utility called Irish Water. But the way this was done enraged consumers here, with huge amounts of money spent on setting up the new utility and installing meters before any money was spent on fixing the leaking system. Left wing parties here seized on this and a campaign of non-payment of water charges began, with protest marches around the country.

In spite of the mess, over 60 percent of consumers have paid their water bills. Now Fianna Fail want to turn it into an even bigger mess by abandoning what has been done up to now.

Instead of doing that, they should be looking at why so much money has been wasted by the new quango whose priority was to buy off the unions by employing all the former council water workers and by setting up a national billing system backed up by a huge call center and an advertising campaign, as well as a national drive to install water meters at every home in the country.

At least a billion euro has been spent on all of this before any serious effort has been made to fix the leaking pipes which lose up to half the water they carry in many areas.

The intention was good but, as is so often the case here, the implementation was poor, even by a government with a large majority. The next government may not have any majority at all.

If we can't even run a water service, what hope have we of running a country?
On August 12, 1796, Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin received its first prisoners. Here's a look back at some of the famous figures in Irish history who have been held captive within its walls.

Many famous Irish leaders and rebels met their ends at Kilmainham Gaol, so it is not surprising that ghosts are said to wander the prisons desolate corridors or that spirits have been sighted in the courtyard where executions were held.

Kilmainham Gaol also holds an important place in the history of Irelands fight for independence as the Dublin jail was used in 1916 to imprison the leaders of the uprising, and many of the leaders were executed there.

On 12 August 1796, Kilmainham Gaol received its first prisoners. Describing the new gaol, Faulkner's Dublin Journal reported that 'for safety, healthfulness, convenience and compactness is said to be superior to any Prison in Europe'. pic.twitter.com/FhRdJ5KIdc  KilmainhamGaolMuseum (@OPWKilmainham) August 12, 2020

People have said they sensed ghosts around the prison chapel, where 1916 Easter Rising leader Joseph Plunkett married Grace Gifford only hours before his execution by firing squad.

James Connolly was one of the last of the leaders to be executed after the Rising. He had been so severely wounded that he had to be carried out in a chair to the courtyard, where he bravely faced a firing squad.

The prison was built in 1796 to hold criminals after their arrest until sentencing, and in the early years, public hangings would take place at its entrance. Prisoners at Kilmainham Gaol included the leaders of 1798, 1803, 1848, 1867, and 1916 uprisings; Eamon de Valera, Padraig Pearse, and Charles Stewart Parnell were all housed there.

One inmate of the prison was Robert Emmet, a rebel leader who was hanged, drawn, and quartered in 1803. During his trial, Emmet asked that his grave go unmarked until Ireland was free, and the whereabouts of his body are still a mystery today. His ghost, however, is said to haunt not the prison but Dublins oldest pub, the Brazen Head, where he once held Resistance meetings.

Kilmainham Gaol was closed in 1924. At the time of its closing by the Irish Free State government, there was no interest in preserving a building that was a site of so much suffering and oppression.

Restoration of the prison began in the 1960s thanks to the Kilmainham Jail Restoration Society. The building reopened to the public 11 years later and it is still one of the citys most famous attractions. During the restoration, a plaque was placed in the courtyard with the names of the brave men who were executed there.

During the early years of the restoration, governor Dan McGill, who was overseeing the work being done there, stayed in the prison with his family, just above the courtyard.

As he was getting ready for bed one night, he noticed lights on in the chapel across the courtyard. He went to the chapel, looked around, and turned off the lights. Returning to his chambers, he glanced back and saw that the lights were on again. He returned and turned them off, but he had to go back to turn off the lights three times that night.

Another incident that occurred during the restoration involved a painter, who was said to be blown off his feet and into a wall by a sudden gust of wind while he was working in the dungeon. He was held against the wall for some time before he could free himself. He refused to go back to the prison from that point on. Other workmen claim to have heard footsteps and voices coming from the halls and the cells.

Since the historic landmark opened to the public, several visitors also claimed to have experienced disturbing events at the prison, and many children have refused to enter the jail at all, sensing something sinister behind its walls.

For those souls not afraid of spectral spirits, and for anyone with an interest in Ireland's history, Kilmainham Gaol is open as a museum for tours year-round. Visit HeritageIreland.ie or KilmainhamGaolMuseum.ie for more information.

H/T: HiddenDublinWalks.com, BBC.com, SpookyIsles.com.

IrishCentral History Love Irish history? Share your favorite stories with other history buffs in the IrishCentral History Facebook group.
Chernobyl is Forever will see film makers, writers, artists and photographers working on a series of projects which will recall and reassess the impact of the Chernobyl disaster.

Adi Roche has said that the work done by CCI since it first responded to the appeal from doctors in both the Ukraine and Belarus will form a central part of the projects which will be published over the next six months.

There may be an impression that Chernobyl is something which happened a very long time ago and no longer poses a threat to the world but the reality of the situation is very, very different., said Ms Roche.

Adi Roche

Chernobyl is not something from the past; Chernobyl 'was forever', Chernobyl 'is forever'; the impact of that single shocking nuclear accident can never be undone; its radioactive footprint is embedded in our world forever and countless millions of people are still being affected by its deadly legacy.

In recent months we have been approached by many leading film makers, writers and photographers who are anxious to update the Chernobyl story

Michael Garrett of Garret and Garret Videography has produced the first work of Chernobyl is Forever with a video of Chernobyls lost city of Pripyat, which has launched the campaign.

Speaking about the project, Mr Garrett said, In 2015, I joined a team of photographers on a trip to Chernobyl, there's a melancholic beauty in every sight throughout the exclusion zone, and I was quickly captivated by the place.

A lot of public interest in Chernobyl is focussed on the stunning decay of the exclusion zone, but the ongoing health problems associated with the disaster are often overlooked.

Mr Garrett added that hopefully the amazing sights captured in the video will catch some of the public's attention and leave them with a little more awareness about the good work being done by CCI.
A 35-year-old woman has been arrested by police investigating a dissident republican bomb attack on a prison officer in Belfast.

The suspect was detained in the city earlier and is being held at Musgrave serious crime suite, according to a PSNI spokesman.

Officers have also been granted an extra 24 hours to continue to question three men aged 34, 39 and 45 who were arrested on Sunday evening.

The prison officer, a 52-year-old married father-of-three, required surgery after an explosive device detonated under the van he was driving on Friday March 4.

It is understood he is now out of hospital.

A group calling itself the New IRA claimed to have carried out the attack.

In a statement to the BBC they said the officer was targeted because he was involved in training other guards at Maghaberry high security jail, near Lisburn in Co Antrim.

The terror group said he was one of a number on a list of potential targets and the attack arose from a dispute over the treatment of dissident Republican inmates.

They also claimed to have used the plastic explosive Semtex and a commercial detonator.

Following the blast, police commanders expressed fears that dissidents planned to step up the number of attacks to mark the centenary of the Easter Rising.
Ken Clarke, a prominent pro-EU Conservative Party member who held senior ministries in various Tory governments, said Brexit is fraught with huge uncertainty and warned its impact on trade between Ireland and Britain is unknown.

A vote to leave the EU could also pose significant political problems and risk undoing some of the progress made between the two countries, he added.

It has huge implications for Ireland. Unfortunately, very few people in the UK at the moment have really given thought to the effect on the now excellent relationships between the republic and the United Kingdom - the best there has been since the republic was founded - and what the effect will be on the Northern Ireland settlement and most importantly what the effect would be on continued trade and investment in an economic context between our two countries because our two economies are just completely and utterly intertwined.

Mr Clarke cast doubt on the coherence of the various groups campaigning for Britain to leave the EU on June 23 and claimed some of their plans had not been fully worked out as of yet.

He also claimed a new trade deal between Ireland and Britain could be harder to strike than some Brexit supporters believe, adding the eurosceptic reaction to every point is that it will be alright, well get there, anything thats desirable about our present arrangements will be completely unchanged.

Significant investment into the UK has already stalled as a result of uncertainty surrounding Britains EU membership, Mr Clarke said.

Irish Exporters Association chief executive Simon McKeever said Irish companies have felt the brunt of uncertainty too with a sterling sell-off having driven up the cost of Irish exports by 10.5% since November.

Mr Clarke also defended Bank of England governor Mark Carneys appearance in front of the House of Commons Treasury Committee on Tuesday, describing it as very reassuring and adding that it was important the banks contingency plans were outlined.

Mr Clarke was speaking at a Brexit debate hosted by AIB at which London mayor Boris Johnsons chief adviser, Gerard Lyons, argued in favour of Britain leaving the EU.

Mr Lyons argued that the EU has failed to address issues around unemployment and migration and has not embraced reform.

He added that the euro is a fundamentally flawed economic concept being held together by political concerns.
Yet again, our politicians are showing us the weakness of their convictions, as per the outgoing government and Irish Water, and its elimination or otherwise.

The excuse is that the people have spoken and must be heard.

However, whilst the people have spoken, we are still not sure of what they have said.

Any assessment of elected TDs, constituency by constituency, would suggest that the people have said an awful lot of things. Water-charging is just one issue among them.

For very many of us, reform of the Dail, the relationship between it and the government, and a government held to account on behalf of the people, are far more important.

Unfortunately, for our politicians, and particularly for Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, Irish Water is one of the most difficult issues, because of the implications for EU agreements and potential fines resulting from any backtracking, the millions spent to date, the jobs of thousands of employees, the problems with water wastage and an obsolete distribution network, and even governments relationship with the unions.

Additionally, whilst water charges were already in the minds of our politicians, it then became a creature of the Troika. Water charges were introduced to meet one of its many demands.

Last week, Unites Brendan Ogle declared: Irish Water is dead.

His view was based on the fact that 99 TDs do not agree with it.

Whether its a party whip or Dail reform and greater accountability, most of our TDs will not rock the boat and will do as they are told.

However, even if, and its a big if, Irish Water is put out of its misery, it does not mean water charges are dead.

The can may be kicked up the road a wee bit, but thats about it.

The reason being simple, and that is that the implications and the costs are far too great.

Even the unions are not agreed on Irish Waters elimination. As always, vested interests prevail.

Theres an old saying: marry in haste and repent at leisure. Irish Water was clearly not properly thought-out and we are repenting at leisure.

Theres another old saying, which goes a camel is a horse designed by committee.

This means something will be over-designed, incorporating everything to accommodate the views of the committee, and frequently will miss out on key aspects, such as why it is being designed in the first place.

The official rationale behind Irish Water, besides accommodating the Troika, was to upgrade our appalling water network, upgrade our sanitary network, guarantee clean and potable water for all, as well as conserving water.

It is clear, from the way Irish Water was established, that the rationale for its creation was very far from the blueprint when it was dreamt up.

It is, for all intents, not fit for purpose.

However, water charges are here to stay, despite what Brendan Ogle and his friends might say.

When water was included as part of our taxes, it was at a time when our taxes were considerably higher than they are even now.

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, they were nothing less than penal. I know that was then and this is now.

However, whether we like it or not, demands on water are ever greater and that is not going away.

Places like Dublin are close to drought status on a regular basis, and are looking to guarantee supply from as far away as the Shannon basin.

Our water network is so obsolete, from lack of investment, that it is bordering on criminal.

The quality of water we are able to deliver is problematic in many parts of the country, as weve seen from the boil notices.

The very best we can expect, now, is that government and its helpers get a large dose of cop on, temporarily shelve the charges, if we can get the EU to ignore any penalties, and put in place a structure that is cost-effective and efficient.

It should not be a home for semi-retired senior public servants, and should be one that will consider, in the first instance, the rationale for its being rather than the perks that may accrue to its employees.
The episode unfolded in Fermoy Circuit Court in a case involving a disagreement over land involving brothers David Roche and Frank Roche.

The case, heard by Judge Sean O Donnabhain, concerned a claim by David Roche for an interim court order against his brother amid claims of intimidation in the wrangle over land.

The court heard Frank Roche, of Ballyadeen, Castletownroche was previously ordered not to block entrances or exits and not to threaten anyone following a previous court hearing in January.

Tim Harley, counsel for plaintiff in the case David John Roche, said the ownership of the lands in question had already been resolved at the High Court, having been transferred to his client by David Roches father.

Mr Harley said Frank Roche was awarded a smaller parcel of land, but had been continuing to assert claim over the lands given to David Roche and that this was interfering with [David Roches] use of these lands.

Counsel for David Roche said the situation had escalated and escalated to a point where it requires interim relief, citing long-term obstruction to entrance to the land and the placing of unpleasant items at the entrance to the land.

Mr Harley said there had not been a breach of the previous order placed on Frank Roche, but he claimed Frank Roche had put together an entourage of people and it had resulted in protests outside the farm, alongside matters being aired in various media outlets.

David John Roche is extremely frightened at this point, Mr Harley said. He is under a great deal of pressure.

He said his client, David Roche, had to run the gauntlet of protests held near his property and that contractors contacted by David Roche to carry out work on the lands had been interfered with.

Responding, Frank Roche, who was representing himself in court, said the case was totally unnecessary, adding: I do not want to fight with my family.

I have a full counter-claim to this case, he said, adding all my life, I only worked on a farm.

David Roche, right, with solicitor Justin McCarthy

Frank Roche also rejected a claim from Mr Harley he had refused to accept the actual transfer of a smaller parcel of land.

David Roche was then called to the stand, at which point Frank Roche appeared to collapse to the ground.

Three gardai immediately attended to him, along with another woman who was already in court. He was initially unresponsive but revived himself and was taken to a doctors surgery.

One man said this is a scandal, to which another replied: It is not a scandal. We are supporting him. The judge then ordered the second man to leave the court.

Judge O Donnabhain heard the other civil cases in a different court room and later adjourned the matter until June 15.
A member of the late Tony Gregorys campaign team for almost three decades, the Independent TD first took a Dail seat in the 2009 Dublin Central byelection after her colleagues death, retaining it in 2011 and last month.

The 65-year-old former teacher is respected across the political divide for her principled stance on social issues. However, she provoked criticism last year for describing gender quotas as tokenistic.

Andrew Doyle - Fine Gael

The 55-year-old Wicklow TD is one of two Fine Gael nominations, and won his seat in 2007 before retaining it in 2011 and last month.

Before the election, the family farmer was chair of the Oireachtas agriculture, food, and marine committee.

Bernard Durkan - Fine Gael

Bernard Durkan also won enough Fine Gael support to be put forward. The Mayo-born Kildare North TD is a former Fine Gael chief whip and served as a minister of state for social welfare during the 1994-1997 rainbow government.

Sean O Fearghail - Fianna Fail

The 55-year-old Kildare South TD is Fianna Fails current party whip and spokesperson on an eclectic portfolio of arts and culture, constitutional reform, and defence.

After failing to win a Dail seat at the first four times of asking, Mr O Fearghail became a TD in 2002. He was formally selected by Fianna Fail on Monday during a vote which saw Michael Moynihan, Brendan Smith, and Pat The Cope Gallagher lose out.

Caoimhghin O Caolain - Sinn Fein

Sinn Feins 63-year-old long-time health spokesperson, a former bank official, was first elected for Cavan-Monaghan in 1997.

He was also Sinn Feins party leader in the Dail until 2011, when Gerry Adams left Northern politics to run in Louth, and was a member of the partys Good Friday Agreement negotiating team in 1998.
They expressed anger at a letter they received from NAS to a previous request for an improved emergency service to cover Cobh and the Great Island areas.

Last December, members of the county councils Cobh/Glanmire municipal district sent a letter to NAS asking a number of questions about the lack of cover for the Great Island area.

NASs reply said it published monthly response time targets in line with HIQA recommendations, but admitted these were not broken down by districts, such as Cobh where no ambulance has been based for many years.

NAS said it commissioned a capacity review, which will enable the most appropriate utilisation of ambulance services to meet target requirements and expects it to be published shortly.

The letter was greeted with disdain by several councillors, not least Sinead Sheppard (FG) who called it a cop-out.

My aunts two-year-old child had a seizure, went blue and was non-responsive. It took the ambulance 47 minutes and 30 seconds to arrive, because I timed it. They (emergency service personnel) were telling us they were on their way and what to do, but this is a very serious situation as there is no proper ambulance based in East Cork, let alone Cobh, she said.

Sinead Sheppard (FG)

Somebody is going to die if this continues, and maybe there are people who have died that we dont know about. This letter is an insult to all of us.

Councillor Kieran McCarthy (Ind) said: We are on an island and we need this [a proper ambulance service] more than most other towns.

We need to get the local GPs on board, theyre even driving people to hospital themselves. They have to rally behind us.

Cathal Rasmussen (Lab) said it would appropriate to contact GPs formally for support.

Ms Sheppard maintained the GPs may have to set up 24-hour cover themselves if NAS does not relent and provide a better service.
That is according to John Flanagan, who farms 30 acres of land containing 70 cattle beside the golf resort and Doughmore beach.

This is our shot at fixing the future. My father is 82 years of age and he has seen over half the dunes washed away during his life by the ocean, said Mr Flanagan, whose home is located 750m from the beach.

I would love to be able to protect my home but Mr Trump is doing it for me with the coastal protection plan. Everyone living here is in favour of the plan.

We know Mr Trump is putting the boulders in place to protect his own property but by doing so he is protecting the 100 households that would be under threat from the sea at the two most vulnerable points.

Mr Flanagan said the 200-tonne barrier that will stretch for 2.8km along beach is not a wall. It is reinforcing the rocks that are already there. The beach is already full of stones.

He said the project is costing Mr Trump 10m  Clare County Council or the Government cant afford to spend that money on coastal defences in this area.

Doonbeg Community Development chairman John ODea said the rock plan has the overwhelming support of the community.

He said other communities along the Clare coast facing the threat of erosion would be delighted to have someone pay for coastal defences to protect their homes.

Mr ODea said he saw the before and after of what one 2014 storm did to the dunes.

If you have two more storms like that, you can say goodbye to the dunes if something isnt done now. Environmentalists talk about dunes regenerating themselves, but they wont be able to regenerate themselves if they are washed away.

The time for standing off and not doing anything about the threat of coastal erosion at Doonbeg is over.

The locals made their comments as Clare County Council returned the planning application to the Trump resort at Doonbeg. It will now go before An Bord Pleanala where it will be decided if the application is a strategic infrastructure development case or not.

If the board deems that it is, it will decide on the application and the plan will not go before the council.

Mr Trumps consultants warned that if the rock plan doesnt get the go-ahead, the resort risks closure.

Tony Lowes, of the Friends of the Irish Environment group, criticised the application.

The conservation objective of a designated dune system like Doonbeg is to maintain natural mobile processes. The objective of coastal protection is to stop them. Therefore, the two objectives will always be mutually exclusive.
Outgoing Taoiseach Enda Kenny, who becomes a caretaker leader today, has talked to his Fine Gael ministers about the issue of potential talks with Fianna Fail.

Mr Kenny and his ministers met for two hours yesterday, discussing government options ahead of the first day of the new Dail today.

One Fine Gael source confirmed that Mr Kenny told those gathered that he had done what was asked of him in talking to smaller parties and Independent TDs about government options.

It would now be necessary to talk to other party leaders, according to a senior source.

One minister said at the meeting that each of the four main party leaders should be asked in for talks with Mr Kenny, including Fianna Fails Micheal Martin.

Separately, Mr Kenny assured his TDs at a parliamentary party meeting in Leinster House last night that no talks or communication have yet taken place with Fianna Fail.

Senior Fine Gael figures have expressed caution about the possibility of working with Fianna Fail in government.

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney said he was against the idea of a rotating taoiseach as such an option would not help form a stable government.

In what is being seen as a victory for Fianna Fail, the Fine Gael parliamentary party last night unanimously approved a proposal by Mr Kenny on Dail reform.

He proposed the immediate establishment of an all-party Dail committee to be chaired by the incoming ceann comhairle to discuss and agree further reforms in the way the Dail operates.

Fine Gael said the process of progressing Dail reform should begin immediately and should happen in parallel with ongoing efforts to form a stable government. Fianna Fail has insisted such reforms happen before any talks about forming a government take place.

Mr Martin will submit a motion on setting up a sub-committee on Dail reform  to be chaired by the new ceann comhairle  to come back within a month after considering all party proposals on overhauling how the parliament works. Fianna Fail believes the motion will have the support of other opposition groups today.

Opposition to the idea of a grand coalition has intensified within Fianna Fail.

Eight of Mr Martins most senior TDs have specifically ruled out cutting any deal with Fine Gael  risking the possibility of a second election being called.

Barry Cowen, Willie ODea, Sean Fleming, Robert Troy, and Dara Calleary have in the last 24 hours repeated the partys position that the prospect of a grand coalition is not on the cards.

Senior figures such as Eamon O Cuiv, Niall Collins, and Thomas Byrne have also said there is no possibility of any deal with Fine Gael over the coming weeks.

Fianna Fail insists that an alternative minority government involving smaller parties and Independents is its only focus. However, the situation means if there is no change in position, Fianna Fail faces either seeking an unstable minority coalition, being forced to backtrack into a Fine Gael deal, or risking a second election being called.

Responding to Tuesdays story in the Irish Examiner, Mr Cowen said his party has zero interest in such a proposal. We cannot break the greatest promise we gave, which was not to go into government with Fine Gael, in the first week of the Dail, he told RTE radio.

Fine Gael believes it is all about sharing power, about the trappings of power. I dont believe they get it. Theres no doubt what the public demanded was change.

Thats our priority, thats the mandate weve been afforded, we want to explore that mandate.

Asked about the same situation yesterday, Fianna Fail social protection spokesman Willie ODea said: No, my view is still the same, I do not favour a grand coalition with Fine Gael. He rejected any deal being struck.
Mr Kenny and his ministers met for two hours yesterday and discussed government options ahead of the first day of the new Dail today.

One Fine Gael source confirmed that Mr Kenny told those gathered that he had done what was asked of him in talking to smaller parties and independent TDs about government options.

It would now be necessary to talk to other party leaders, one senior source present said, and this would now include Fianna Fail.

One minister said at the meeting that each of the four major party leaders should now be asked in for talks with Mr Kenny, including Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin.

Any talks though are unlikely to begin before Mr Kenny returns from his visit to Washington next week. The Taoiseach also is attending an EU leaders summit in Brussels next week.

Separately, Mr Kenny assured his new and returned TDs at a parliamentary party meeting in Leinster House last night that no talks or communication has of yet taken place with Fianna Fail.

Senior Fine Gael figures yesterday had expressed caution about the possibility of working with Fianna Fail in government. Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney also said he was against the idea of a rotating taoiseach as such an option would not help form a stable government.

Other cabinet members are understood to be uneasy about the option of a grand coalition with Fianna Fail  despite increased speculation that this is the only way to form a government.

Both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail are still in talks with smaller parties and Independent TDs but a more serious examination of what the options are for forming a government are expected to begin after the Dail meets today.

Mr Coveney said that it could take between four and six weeks to form a government in the talks ahead.

Fine Gael TDs and senators gave mixed views about the possibility of working with Fianna Fail at their meeting in Leinster House last night.

Dublin South West TD Colm Brophy said a national conference of Fine Gael members should be convened to discuss whether the two parties would work together.

Cork North West TD Michael Creed insisted that no ministers who were part of the last Fianna Fail administration, except for Mr Martin, should be put back in government positions.

One senior Fine Gael figure privately last night described the dilemma facing Mr Kenny and his party: This is uncharted territory. Nobody knows what to do.

Weve been fighting with them [Fianna Fail] for so many years and now all of a sudden were expected to get into bed with them.
Logan, 2, has a life-limiting condition and is blind, so he could not see the 110 unique 3ft-tall fibreglass hares at the CHQ Building in the International Financial Services Centre.

Jessica Whelan, from Coolock, Dublin, said she wanted people to see how the Jack and Jill Childrens Foundation helped families of children with brain damage who suffer intellectual and physical development delay.

Logan is doing better than he has been but when he gets sick, I have no idea whether he will make it through, or not, said Jessica.

The last time he got sick, he had an arrest. His condition is gradually getting worse. He is not expected to live beyond his fifth birthday.

Because he is blind, Logan likes to see with his hands, but the hares that are to be auctioned with funds going to Jack and Jill were off limits yesterday.

Nevertheless, he enjoyed his day out with his mum. Jessica said he remained a happy child despite everything he had been through, and did not let his blindness faze him.

Logan, an only child, loves music and company.

He is happy out just hearing someone call his name and loves playing with his cousins when he can, said Jessica.

Emma Seckington with Sean O Cairead (Sean the carrot hare) at the exhibition. The artworks are being auctioned to raise vital funds for the Jack & Jill Childrens Foundation

But looking after Logan is tough because his health is deteriorating, and he needs to be monitored at night because he has difficulty breathing.

Before I got help from Jack and Jill, I was stressed out. Without them and the work they do for me, I would be lost, said Jessica.

Funding provided by the foundation means that home nursing care is provided for Logan so his mother can get the rest she needs so she can better cope with having a very sick and disabled child.

I never thought my life would be like it is now. I am just so grateful to the foundation and when I get the chance, I want to give something back.

The online auction for the hares designed by artists from all over the country is now open and bidding so far ranges from 200 to 5,059.

The top 25 golden hares will go under the hammer  figuratively, not literally  of John deVere White next Tuesday.

Among the golden hares is Brian Lalors hare creation, Where the Hare is King.

The artist from Schull, Co Cork, said he started out by regarding the hares body as a landscape and decorated its contours with marchers.

However, I was not sure whether they were marching for hares or against them. Either could have been the case, he said.

The matter was decided by the quote from one man who made it clear that this was the land where hares are king.

Logan and Jessica Whelan, with Space Hopper Hare, designed by artist Siobhan OLeary, from Kilcrohane, Cork, at the Jack and Jill Foundations Hares on the March display in CHQ, Dublin

There is also a quote from a woman on the right, adapted from George Orwells Animal Farm suggesting that even among king hares, there is a pecking order.

The chief executive and founder of Jack and Jill, Jonathan Irwin, said every 16 raised would help fund one hour of home nursing care for a sick child.

Bids for the hares can be placed online at www.haresonthemarch.ie
Right To Know has been established by former Irish Examiner and Storyful journalist Gavin Sheridan and Malachy Browne, managing editor of online news agency Reported.ly.

Its founders say the objective of the organisation is to be both a media outlet and a transparency organisation.

Right to Know evolved from a website co-founded by Mr Sheridan. TheStory.ie operated as a medium through which documents obtained via freedom of information and other legislation were published, and it was involved in a number of notable cases since it was founded in 2009.

In November 2014, a letter dated November 19, 2010, between the then president of the European Central Bank, Claude Trichet, to the then finance minister, Brian Lenihan, in the lead-up to the Irish entry into the 2010 bailout was released following three years of requests and appeals by Mr Sheridan and lawyer Fred Logue, who worked on the case pro bono.

Now Mr Sheridan says TheStory.ie, which has operated via donations from the public, has evolved beyond its origins.

A website like this, run entirely on good will by volunteers in their spare time, can only last so long, Mr Sheridan said in a post announcing the establishment of Right to Know.

We have therefore decided that rather than shut it down and get on with our lives  we will try and move the needle even further.

The organisation is now seeking members to pay an annual fee to fund its work.

Clearly, the more members we have the more ambitious we can be  but our objective is to build a self-sustaining organisation, without ads, without paywalls, funded entirely by its supporters, Mr Sheridan wrote.

And the mission? To act as a watchdog, an advocate, an investigator, a trainer, and a partner to other NGOs and the media.

Details of the new Right To Know organisation can be found on righttoknow.ie, where all its expenditure will be also be published.
While the country was one of the first to apply for and be approved for three projects  health centres, Irish Water, and renewable energy  other countries have been more active in seeking a share of the 315bn fund, said Ireland South MEP Deirdre Clune (FG).

The bigger member states such as Spain, Germany, France, and Poland will be well-prepared for this and will already have forward-looking plans in place to maximise their gains from the plan, she said.

I would like to see a stronger commitment from Government that it will set out detailed plans which target ambitious results.

When the fund, backed by a guarantee from the European Commission, was first outlined, Ireland submitted a wishlist in 2014 of more than 70 projects worth over 23bn that could avail of the fund. About half of them could be under way within two years, the Government said at the time.

The first project to get approval for 70m from the European Investment Bank was the Department of Healths bid to build 14 primary care centres across the country on a public-private partnership basis.

Two other projects  200m for investment in Irish Water, and approval for a private Irish infrastructure fund targeting renewable energy projects  have also been approved by the bank.

A bank spokesperson said all three are expected to be supported by the commissions guarantee on the European Fund for Strategic Investments once financing is finalised and contracts signed.

The fund aims to help kickstart projects finding it difficult to raise the money after the economic crisis when investment in the EU fell by 430bn. So far 20% of the fund has been paid out to help 145 projects in 22 of the EUs 28 countries.

Ms Clune said she believes Ireland could put forward a lot more projects for funding, especially in areas that are identified as needing greater investment, including for small businesses.

The European Investment Bank is today expected to approve a 30m loan for the Port of Cork to extend the deepwater port in Ringaskiddy. The 88m development will allow the relocation of operations from the upper harbour to Ringaskiddy.

Last year the European Investment Bank, which was set up by the EU states, loaned 755m, bringing the total to 3.35bn in the last five years, half of which has gone to energy, transport, and telecoms, and 27% for loans to SMEs.
The Irish component of an EU battlegroup were undergoing intensive training in areas around Lynch Camp at Kilworth and the Ballyhoura Mountains.

Their role in the German-led battlegroup is to provide up-to-the-minute ISTAR (intelligence, surveillance, target, acquisition, and reconnaissance) information.

It puts the Irish at the spearhead of operations where they are mainly on the frontline, and sometimes even behind it, gathering as much information as possible on an enemy forces strength and movements.

The operation, codenamed Terra Nova, was run as a national certification exercise where independent instructors assessed the training conducted by troops to date, giving constructive feedback to prepare them for possible deployment with the multinational EU battlegroup force in the future.

A sniper and spotter detachment. The training operation, codenamed Terra Nova, around Lynch Camp at Kilworth and the Ballyhoura Mountains was run as a national certification exercise where independent instructors assessed the training conducted by troops to date

The battlegroup has been formed since July 1. From this summer, it will be on standby for six months for potential rapid deployment should the EU agree to send troops to troublespots.

The Irish ISTAR taskforce comprised a mechanised company drawn from the infantry, cavalry, and artillery.

ISTAR personnel during the operation. The Irish ISTAR taskforce comprised members of infantry, cavalry, and artillery

They deployed Mowag armoured cars, light tactical armoured vehicles, miniature unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, aided by covert snipers and spotters to conduct anti-enemy operations.

Irish troops have previously worked as ISTAR components with another EU battlegroup, which was led by the Swedes and are considered the cream of the crop for such operations.

Senior members of the Defence Forces are also working with another EU battlegroup, which is led by the British.

The battlegroup has been formed since July 1. From this summer, it will be on standby for six months for potential rapid deployment

The Defence Forces relationship with the British has grown significantly in recent years.
The father of the child who was found with serious injuries in the apartment has been transferred to Cork University Hospital.

A postmortem on baby Karol Rozycki was carried out on Monday. However, the results are not being released for operational reasons.

Coroner for South Kerry, Terence Casey, officially released the infants remains to the childs mother Anna Rozycka and her family.

The remains are to be taken by his family on a flight to Poland on Friday, and the burial is to take place in his mothers home town of Bielsko-Biala, near Krakow on Saturday.

Ms Rozycka raised the alarm after returning home from work at the Aghadoe Heights Hotel, one of Killarneys top hotels, at around 6pm on Sunday.

Meanwhile the man found with serious injuries in the apartment at the time, father of the child, Andrzez Piolunowicz, has been transferred from Kerry University Hospital to Cork University Hospital because of the nature of his injuries.

Gardai said the apartment remains sealed off and investigations are continuing.

Statements have been taken from a number of people and gardai are also waiting to interview the injured man.

A special mass, celebrated in Polish and English for baby Karol and his family in Killarneys St Marys Cathedral on Tuesday, drew a large attendance from both the Polish and Irish communities.
Last year, Irish patrol boats rescued more than 8,000 migrants.

A Naval Service spokesman said that plans had been drawn up some months ago to dispatch the vessel.

Earlier this week at a meeting in Brussels, Taoiseach Enda Kenny told other EU leaders Ireland would resume humanitarian aid operations through the naval service supporting Italian navy rescue ships.

The 258 ft-long ship will be captained by Lieutenant Commander Ultan Finegan and carry a crew of 57, including several specialist units.

The normal complement for the ship for routine off-shore patrols is 44 but additional personnel, such as diving teams and medics, will be dispatched on the proposed mission.

The crew are all volunteers and we intend that their mission will last for about 12 weeks. We have put a limit on it so their families can expect them away from home for that period of time, a Naval Service spokesman said.

It is possible, although unlikely, the 12-week period will be extended.

The spokesman said plans are being advanced to send a replacement ship to take over from LE Roisin after its spell on the mission, although a ship and crew had yet to be chosen.

It is possible three ships will be deployed in rotation during the summer, the busiest period for migrants to attempt the crossing. People smugglers continue almost year-round to launch their flimsy craft from the Libyan shore en route to Italy, Sicily, and Malta.

The Naval Service said, so far, there was no exact departure date penciled in for LE Roisin to leave her base at Haulbowline.

It is awaiting an order from the government, but expects the ship to depart by the end of this month.

Last year, the navy deployed its flagship LE Eithne along with LE Niamh and LE Samuel Beckett on the mission which unfortunately also involved recovering bodies of those who had drowned or suffocated in grossly overcrowded boats.

A few of those who travelled out to the Mediterranean last year will be among the crew of LE Roisin, a spokesman said.

LE Samuel Beckett

Meanwhile, PDFORRA (Permanent Defence Forces Other Ranks Representative Association), which represents enlisted men in the Naval Service, welcomed news of the latest deployment.

A PDFORRA spokesman said its members were glad to do their bit to help the migrants.

But he added it was disappointing a resolution of a pay claim for such overseas duties still had not been reached.

The association claims navy crews should have received an 80 per day allowance for the Mediterranean mission because the ship and personnel were armed, and not the 55 per day unarmed mission allowance they received from the Department of Defence.

At PDFORRAs annual conference last October, Minister for Defence Simon Coveney agreed to put the dispute to arbitration and said if a decision fell in favour of a higher allowance he would be perfectly happy to pay extra money retrospectively.

It is disappointing that this hasnt been resolved because an adjudicator has still to be appointed for the arbitration.

It is regrettable that our members are still waiting, especially as we raised this issue when the first ship left for the humanitarian mission on May 16 last year, a PDFORRA spokesman said.
At Ennis District Court, Judge Patrick Durcan told the pair, I am deadly serious when instructing them to bring overnight bags with them to court on Friday.

Addressing the girls mother in court, Judge Durcan said: Unless your daughter is at school tomorrow  and today  she will pay the penalty by not having parents on Friday.

Judge Durcan added: I appreciate that you are doing your best, but I am going to have your daughter going to school.

Solicitor for the Child and Family Agency, Kevin Sherry, said that there has been no underlying reason told to the school why the girl has been missing for some recent school days.

Solicitor for the parents, Daragh Hassett, told the court that the girl had made progress but has taken a step back since her last day in court by missing school days.

Mr Hassett said that the missed days were down to pure obstinance from the teen.

She is a very nice child to talk to and her parents are doing their level, level best, he said.

There are days when she goes in with some difficulty, and some days she doesnt go in.

The third-year student has presented with an absentee rate of 77.9% to December last where she missed 53 out of 68 school days.

In a separate truant case before the court yesterday, Judge Durcan was told that there is now a 100% school attendance rate by a 13-year-old boy.

On the last time the boys case was before Judge Durcan on February 24, the judge placed the boys divorced parents in the custody area of the court for a number of hours before releasing them.

The boys father had just returned from his honeymoon in Australia with his new wife.

In the school year until December, the second-year student was absent 63 out of 71 days  an absentee rate of 88.7%.

The boys absentee rate in first year was 45%, where he didnt attend school on 74 out of 164 days.

The Education Welfare Service has been involved in the case since January of last year, with summons issuing to his parents after all other interventions and strategies failed to improve the school attendance record of the schoolboy.

On the last day in court, Mr Hassett said that his client, the boys mother is powerless to get her son to school.

He said: He will do nothing for her.

Mr Hassett said that the boys mother has done everything she can to bring the boy to school bar putting him over her shoulder and placing him at the school-gate. The boy has her heart broken.

Since the last court date, the boy has moved in with his father and his school attendance record has been transformed.

Expressing satisfaction with the progress made in the case, Judge Durcan adjourned the case to September to monitor progress in the case.
Marie McMahon, aged 68, told gardai that when her sister Katherine emigrated to the US in 1992, her friend initially used the womans social welfare card to pick up her benefits. When this woman went into hospital, McMahon agreed to continue collecting the payments and they split the money between them.

This woman died in 2012 and McMahon continued to collect her sisters benefits until she was detected through facial recognition technology in July 2014.

She told officers she believed if she stopped collecting the money, social welfare would have to start an investigation and she would be caught, so she decided to continue with the fraud.

McMahon, of Aideen Avenue, Terenure, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to 13 charges of stealing various amounts of social welfare payments from Jamess St post office on dates between September 1, 2002 and June 11, 2014. She has one previous conviction for possession of drugs from 1979. A total of 101,538.80 was stolen.

McMahon told gardai in interview that she had been collecting it for 20 years.

Garda Richard Pender said McMahon was caught when she arrived at a social welfare office in 2013 and staff felt that the passport photo she presented didnt match the photo on the card.

Further analysis through facial recognition technology concluded that she was not Katherine McMahon as she had pretended to be.

Patrick Brennan, a social welfare inspector, then called to her house in December that year, took her details, and spoke to her at length. He later tried to call to a different address provided for Katherine McMahon but couldnt get an answer.

In July 2014, he asked for Katherine McMahon to call at his office for interview and the accused turned up. She insisted she was Katherine McMahon but he recognised her as Marie McMahon.

Mr Brennan asked the woman if she remembered meeting him before but she said she couldnt recall him.

He then rang the mobile number he had for Marie McMahon and the womans phone went off in her pocket. When he told her it was him ringing her, she admitted she remembered meeting him and confirmed she had been claiming her sisters benefit for almost 20 years.

Katherine McMahons payments were suspended from that date.

McMahon was arrested and interviewed by gardai. She made full admissions.

Garda Pender agreed with Lorcan Staines, defending, that although gardai obviously couldnt investigate McMahons claim that another woman had first started taking her sisters benefit, he felt it was a believable story. He accepted that she lived in very difficult circumstances and had no trappings of wealth.

Judge Melanie Greally adjourned the case to June 7 to allow time to consider the testimonials. She also ordered a probation report.
Captain Evan Cullen, president of the Irish Airline Pilots Association (IALPA), claimed Norwegian Air is not prevented from operating the route because of the US department of transports (USDOT) delay in approving a foreign carrier permit for its subsidiary, as the airline has claimed.

In a letter to the Irish Examiner and to a number of TDs in the Munster region, Capt Cullen said Norwegian could already be flying from Cork to the US as it planned under the permits it already holds, but that it instead wants to use its subsidiary, Norwegian Air International (NAI), to operate the route.

Capt Cullen said NAI hires its crew under individual Asian contracts, which are not permitted under US-EU air service agreements.

Norwegians assertion that it cannot fly from Cork to the US is disingenuous and misleading. Airport management and politicians should be asking why Norwegian will not use its existing rights, said Capt Cullen.

At the USDOT, a transatlantic coalition of airlines and unions has argued that NAIs application should not be approved because its conduct diminishes the high labour standards embodied in Article 17 bis of the US-EU air service agreement.

Those who seek to advance aviation in Ireland and the standards attached to it should not condone nor be drawn into Norwegians gamesmanship in using Cork as a pawn in a transatlantic legal battle with the USDOT over Asian-contract flight crew.

In a lengthy and strongly worded reply to TDs, seen by the Irish Examiner, Norwegian said Capt Cullen has chosen to act as an errand boy for the coalition of airlines and unions, to which he refers to, that seek to limit competition on transatlantic services.

Describing his position as mistaken and downright hypocritical, Norwegian said while he is correct to say the airline could operate the service using its existing permits, it is not an option from a practical and operational perspective because NAI has a headquarters in Ireland, while its parent company does not.

We have always planned to operate the Cork-Boston route under NAI as this allows us to make best use of the existing Irish operations and Irish-registered aircraft that are already in place, the airline stated.

Securing a foreign carrier permit for our Irish operation would allow us to begin operating the Cork routes and to look at further future expansion in Ireland  the ongoing delays from the USDOT are not only preventing passengers from accessing new routes and low fares, it is also delaying the creation of hundreds of new jobs and significant economic benefits.

NAI have already committed in writing to the USDOT to only use European and US crews on its transatlantic flights so IALPAs concerns on this issue are unfounded.

Capt Cullen said he had only seen the Norwegian letter yesterday, and that he would respond in due course. He questioned the claim that Norwegians director of flight operations, Godfrey Higgins, is a member of IALPA.

It is a material fact that there is no one by the name of Godfrey Higgins on the IALPA membership list, said Capt Cullen.

The airline yesterday insisted that Mr Higgins is a member of IALPA.
Stephen OSullivan, of 36 Courtown Drive, Knocknaheeny, Cork, pleaded guilty to the offence which was committed on September 25, 2015, at Tesco Paul St shopping centre.

OSullivan was caught stealing the razor blades and he was also using a foil-lined bag in connection with the theft. The bag was adapted in an effort to prevent the alarm going off in the store.
Independent TD Maureen O Sullivan; Fine Gael duo Andrew Doyle and Bernard Durkan; Fianna Fails Sean O Fearghail; and Sinn Feins Caoimhghin O Caolain will seek the role after putting their names forward by the 6pm nominations deadline last night.

The position guarantees the recipient a seat after the next election on condition they become the de facto referee of the Dail. It is traditionally given to the largest party, but due to the election stalemate, the outcome of this mornings vote is far from clear.
John McCarthy Jr, aged 21, with an address at the Lane, College Farm, Newbridge, Co Kildare, was convicted at Dublin District Court in January of theft from Kathleen Byrne on November 3, 2014.

Yesterday the judge was furnished with a pre-sentence probation report on McCarthy, and a victim impact statement from Ms Byrne was also handed in to court by Garda John Doran.

Judge John Brennan said he needed time to consider the reports and the victims statement. He adjourned the case until later date this month. McCarthy was remanded on continuing bail.

During the trial, the pensioner had said she was intimidated and brought by the roofer to her local Post Office to withdraw the cash from her savings.

An engineer also told the court the work McCarthy said he would carry at her Raheny cottage was not needed.

The court heard that after McCarthy left the womans home, he claimed he went to a building supplier which was 15-minute drive away but after two hours he had still not returned.

Judge Brennan has said it was a quite despicable act; Ms Byrne, he added, was a vulnerable 84-year-old woman living on her own and had 3,000 extracted from her in circumstances where no documentary evidence such as receipts or quotations were provided to her which he imagined would be normal for responsible businesses.

The court heard Ms Byrne lived in a thatched cottage with a flat roofed extension. The defendant had initially quoted her 120 to clean the roof and she let him do the work.

After about 20 minutes McCarthy came down and told her the whole roof is broke you can see the boards and the felt is gone. When they got back to her house, some of his crew were still there. Ms Byrne said he told her the work had been completed and he left.
Location scouts secretly visited Irelands most northerly point at Malin Head last October. It has now been confirmed that Lucasfilm is expected to return to Ireland in May to shoot at locations in the area.

Minister of State at the Department of Arts Joe McHugh confirmed that he was aware negotiations are at an advanced stage to film scenes in the area.

There are still a few things to be sorted with the department, including foreshore licences, but Im confident that will be taken care of, said Mr McHugh.

This will be a massive opportunity to promote the area globally and while there still a few is to be dotted and ts to be crossed, I would welcome it.

I would also see it as a superb opportunity to highlight the Wild Atlantic Way and all it has to offer.

Filming in Donegal is expected to last more than a month. The tourism spin-offs are expected to be huge. Already a number of B&Bs and rental homes in the Malin Head area have been booked out by film crews working with Lucasfilm.

The latest installment of the Star Wars saga, Episode VII: The Force Awakens was partially filmed on the Kerry island of Skellig Michael.

The cast and crew are carrying out preparatory work ahead of shooting Episode VIII scenes in Kerry.

Locals near Sybil Head have noted the presence of security and the construction of new access points to the headland. The Irish Film Board confirmed permits had been provided for a film project in the area.

It emerged last year that producers behind the franchise had earmarked Ceann Sibeal in the western end of the Dingle Peninsula as suitable for scenes in the next part of the series, due to be released in 2017.
Frank OConnor was born Michael ODonovan in Cork in 1903. He went on to become one of the foundational writers and theorists of the short story in the 20th century, though critics have yet to fully chart the significance of OConnor as writer, translator, autobiographer, playwright and letter writer, in Ireland and America.

Funded by an Irish Research Council New Foundations award and supported by UCC school of English, the event will feature papers by scholars including Paul Delaney (TCD), Ellen McWilliams (University of Exeter), Prof Frank Shovlin (University of Liverpool), and Prof Alan Titley (UCC).
The Fianna Fail TD managed to win back a seat for his party in the Dublin West constituency which was lost after the death of former finance minister Brian Lenihan in 2011.

Mr Lenihan, who was a friend of the family, inspired Mr Chambers to get into politics and he reopened the late politicians constituency offices in 2014.

His articulate and informed approach on matters  he has spoken out strongly against any repeal of the Eighth Amendment  are sure to get him noticed within Leinster House and he is likely to be an important member of the party in the coming years.

Mr Chambers holds an honours degree in law and political science from Trinity College Dublin and has studied medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

He was elected to Fingal County Council in 2014 and his speedy ascension to national office epitomises Fianna Fails comeback since the disaster of the 2011 general election.

Speaking at the count centre shortly before he was elected, Mr Chambers said: I think Fianna Fail are back.

This government wanted a coronation from the start, they had no vision, no energy, they just wanted to be re-elected without putting any positive platform forward.

Micheal Martin led this campaign from the start and I think the people have had their say and Fianna Fail are coming back having learned from their mistakes. They have a long-term vision for this country, he said.

The first-time TD was born in Galway to Mayo parents but moved to Dublin West at the age of two. His parents were by his side at the count centre in Phibblestown as he celebrated winning a Dail seat.
Best recent book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. I was a bit late getting to this book as it was published in 1988.I read so many books for review on the programme I dont get a lot of time to read books just for me.

Best recent film: Room. A well deserved Oscar for Brie Larson plus I loved the fact the movie adaptation of the book stayed loyal to the source.

Best recent show: Riverdance Live at the Marquee. I have seen it a few times but it was great to see it without having to travel. A show that always makes me proud to be Irish.

How do you access music?

Im a recent convert to Spotify and love the choice that it offers at the touch of a button.

Best piece of music youve been listening to lately: Adeles latest album 25. We have waited four years since her last album was starting to worry she wont do another one.

First ever show or gig that really moved you: The first show I remember crying at was Miss Saigon the music still moves me to this day.

Best show youve ever been at: I dont even have to think about this one it has got to be Wicked. My only regret is not seeing Idina Menzel as Elphaba, the night I went she was understudied and it was her last week in the role in the West End.

Tell us about your TV viewing: Im a current affairs nut so most of my viewing centres around news programmes and chat shows. Outside of that I love period dramas and was gutted when Downton Abbey finished.

Radio listening: Needless to say, C103 is on all the time at home but I love podcasts and my guilty pleasure is the breakfast show on Kiss in Sydney Kyle and Jackie O.

Name three broadcast heroes: The late Terry Wogan ( absolute genius), the late Vincent Hanley (from my home town Clonmel and one of the reasons I got into radio) and Im a huge fan of Marian Finucane.

Best celebrity encounter: I spent a wonderful New Years eve with Rebecca Storm at the Lodge and Spa, Inchydoney, Co Cork, and a nicer celebrity you could not meet!

Most expensive item of clothing youve ever bought: I spent a ridiculous amount of money on a ball dress for the PPI radio awards which paid off when I won best current affairs show of the year.

Tech habits: Im an Apple gadget nut. I go nowhere without my ipad or iphone and have a Macbook pro at home. I use them for both work and pleasure.

Unsung heroes: St Josephs Foundation, Charleville Co Cork is where our deaf, blind daughter Marsha attends for day care services. They provide people with disabilities the opportunity to live the life of their choice to their fullest potential. They struggle on a yearly basis to get the funding they need to keep going yet they do keep going and the campus is such a happy place to visit. All the staff are real unsung heroes. While now a young adult, Marsha requires a lot of attention but our lives are blessed with her in it.

You are queen for a day  whats your first decree: My first decree every Monday would be a bank holiday. Sure who doesnt love a bank holiday weekend!!
IT HAS dawned far too late on many pundits, and on the political establishment, that Donald Trump might actually win the Republican nomination for the president. Now, of course, the question is rather starker  could he win the presidency, and what happens if he does?

The conclusion, in my experience of talking to many Washington policy types of both political persuasions, frequently includes a swear word. Foreign diplomats, officials, and policy experts often take a similar view.

For sure, Trump is like no politician in recent American history. For now, I dont necessarily expect him to win  his supporters might be enthusiastic, but he could be even more effective at getting his opponents out to vote against him.

Still, there are routes by which he could win, particularly if Democrats fail to come out for Hillary Clinton, as expected.

The Trump phenomenon is part of a much wider  perhaps even global  political trend. This could have implications well beyond the United States.

Indeed, America is one of the few countries that could withstand a Trump-type presidency.

For all his rhetoric, a President Trump would, like all other occupants of the Oval Office, be constrained by the constitution, judiciary, and Congress.

Even if the Republicans do retain control of the House, and of the Senate, many members of Congress are already voicing their opposition. And if a Trump presidency proves as contentious as many expect, it could easily deliver to the Democrats control of Congress in 2018.

Earlier this month, I took a shot at imagining, in more detail, what future historians might make of a Trump presidency. My conclusion was that he would last one term, achieve much less than he expected, and possibly waste considerable energy on minor changes to property laws.

That doesnt mean he wouldnt have an effect, particularly on the worlds perception of the United States. The optics of his rhetoric on Islam are already playing badly in the Middle East. As president, that  particularly if tied to more indiscriminate military action  could prove disastrous.

Still, overall he would be restrained. And, just like the current incumbent of the White House, Barack Obama, would probably leave largely frustrated by what he had failed to do.

While Trump is a unique political creature, the forces he is riding go much deeper and wider  and have been growing for a while. Ultimately, what he is taking on is much deeper societal frustration  particularly with political elites on both sides.

His strength is that he looks authentic, and he has successfully used both social and traditional media to persuade huge swathes of supporters that he is the candidate most like them and most in tune with their  not always politically correct  instincts.

On the left, in the United States, we have simultaneously seen Bernie Sanders harnessing the same frustrations to mount a credible challenge to Hillary Clinton, in vying for the Democratic presidential nomination. In Europe, weve seen the rise of both non-traditional left and right parties.

Weve also seen unexpectedly left-wing leaders  for example, Britains Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn  seize control of what had been much more moderate, mainstream political parties.

In most cases, those elected have remained committed to operating within established political systems. Some of the more radical groups  such as Marine Le Pens far right, in France  have performed worse than many expected. (France is, after all, a country that endured Nazi occupation in relatively recent history.)

That may not always be the case, though  none of these frustrations are going away and, in Europe, the migrant crisis may yet fuel a further move, either to the extremes or to more generic authoritarianism. The chaos of the 1990s in Russia, after all, set the scene for the rise of Vladimir Putin.

Already, some Europe experts talk of a rise in authoritarianism, particularly in the communist states of the former Eastern Bloc. Hungary has seen the rise of Viktor Orban and his far-right Jobbik party. Poland has seen something similar, while this months elections in Slovakia saw a much-better-than-expected performance by the very far right.

Like Trump, these leaders are invariably nationalist, more isolationist, anti-globalisation, in general, and anti-migrant, in particular.

Thats when political systems become really important. In the United Kingdom, the parliamentary system usually keeps the fringe parties  such as the anti-EU, UK Independence Party  almost entirely sidelined from elected office. (Although the rise of the Scottish National Party, which now controls most parliamentary seats in Scotland, is probably another sign of this trend.)

In Germany, however, a much more proportional representation-based system means that a radical Trump-type figure could make himself a kingmaker in German politics with a small share of votes, say 25%. In the 1930s, Adolf Hitler and the Nazis were able to use that kind of platform to take control of the entire country.

The United States isnt Weimar Germany, and Donald Trump isnt Hitler (despite the words of comedian Louis C.K.) But it says a lot about the United States founders, and system of government, that it could likely survive a politician worse than The Donald.
IF A strategy is announced and nobody is around to listen, does it make a sound? The European Union will find out the answer this June, when Federica Mogherini, its high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, presents a long-overdue foreign and security strategy for Europe  just when all eyes will be on the United Kingdoms referendum on EU membership.

The EU is adrift and desperately in need of a catalyst to renew its sense of purpose and dynamism. The global strategy could serve that purpose, but not if it is issued at a time when attention is squarely focused on another challenge, especially one that could bring about fundamental change for the EU. Given this, the strategys launch should be put on hold until after the referendum.

In the United States, the president is legally required to issue a national security strategy annually. Though the requirement is adhered to only loosely  President Barack Obama has released just two strategies in the last seven years  the intent is clear: To establish a set of concrete national security priorities informed by the administration in office and the countrys changing circumstances.

In Europe, the approach is broader. When the first  and only  strategy was launched in 2003, it was meant as a long-term guide, to endure through multiple European Commissions.

But it has lasted for too long, and is now well out of date  a reality that is apparent from its opening line: Europe has never been so prosperous, so secure, nor so free.

Last June, the European Council recognised the need for an updated strategy, and called on Mogherini to prepare a new foreign and security policy, to be submitted within a year. To maximize their chances of success, Mogherini and the European External Action Service have kept the expert-led development process discreet, intentionally avoiding broad public debate.

Meanwhile, numerous difficult challenges  most notably, the ongoing refugee crisis  have buffeted Europe. This has not only sustained the lack of public awareness of the foreign and security strategy development process, but has also altered the environment in which the strategy is to be introduced.

A process that was intended to enable Europe to respond better to external changes now must be rethought to reflect the recognition that it is the EU which is now set to undergo a fundamental transformation.

Such change will occur regardless of whether British voters choose to exit the EU.

If the UK leaves  taking its diplomatic, military, economic, and cultural prowess with it  the hit to the EU, in terms of its capacity to influence its external environment, is obvious.

If the UK stays, it will require the formalisation of a looser conception of the EU  one that will raise core questions about the future of European integration.

Seen in this light, the UKs upcoming referendum is more momentous even than the failed referenda on an EU constitution in 2005. Releasing a new foreign and security strategy at the same moment will not just doom the plan to irrelevance; it will reinforce the perception that the EU institutions are out of touch with the real world, exacerbating the unions already-acute existential crisis.

Prolonging the plans development process would have the opposite effect, by helping to spur a broad  and attentive  discussion on what the new Europe, with or without the UK, should look like.

Beyond producing a relevant and useful foreign and security strategy, such a discussion can give the EU a new narrative, thereby invigorating public support for the European project.

To understand the need for such a narrative, one need look no further than the debate in the UK over its EU membership, which is focused almost exclusively on practical considerations and cost/benefit analyses.

Principles, solidarity, and vision are nowhere to be found.

Timing is everything in politics. Last June, Europes leaders made the right call. If the strategy had been ready for release at that time, it might have served as a pole around which a discussion on Europes purpose in the world could have coalesced. But events, both internal and external, have overtaken the process. It is time to adjust.

Releasing a new strategy that does not reflect Europes new reality would amount to an enormous missed opportunity  a tragedy, in fact, given how desperately the EU needs direction.

The European Council and Commission should bear this in mind as the June 2016 deadline to submit the strategy approaches. Sometimes, patience truly is the companion of wisdom.

Ana Palacio, a former Spanish foreign minister and former Senior Vice President of the World Bank, is a member of the Spanish Council of State and a visiting lecturer at Georgetown University. Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2016.
As reported in this newspaper on Tuesday morning, Fine Gael is to invite Fianna Fail into talks in the coming days with a view to trying to form a government.

There has been a significant shift within Fine Gael towards doing a deal with the old enemy with the political corpse Enda Kenny reportedly willing to offer up to half the seats at cabinet in order to remain in office.

We are talking 50:50 split here, genuine partnership in government, because that is what people have voted for, one senior source said.

Fine Gael is also reportedly ready to accept the principle of rotating the position of taoiseach in order to form a government, but has said the process would need to be managed successfully.

With the farce of talks with Independents now done, it is now up to the two major parties to try and get their act together, once todays charade in the Dail concludes, or we will be back to the polls before the summer.

That is the only alternative now to the old enemies putting aside their century-long animosities and putting the national interest first.

That job has been made more difficult by the rather trenchant statements from several leading Fianna Fail deputies who have railed against the idea of a grand coalition.

At least eight of Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martins most senior TDs have specifically ruled out any potential deal with Fine Gael  potentially risking a second election being called.

High-profile TDs Barry Cowen, Willie ODea, Sean Fleming, Robert Troy, and Dara Calleary have in the last 24 hours repeated the partys position that the prospect of a grand coalition is not on the cards. Eamon O Cuiv, Niall Collins, and Thomas Byrne have also said there is no possibility of any deal with Kennys party over the coming weeks.

Limerick City TD ODea said he remains opposed to it as he does not believe it would necessarily be a stable partnership. He said he gave assurances to people voting for him that they would not go into such a coalition and he was not prepared to renege on that.

Laois TD Sean Fleming also spoke out vehemently against the idea as did new Kildare North TD James Lawless.

But the matter was complicated by the fact that Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney appearing to pour cold water on the idea.

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney

He said lots of people are uncomfortable about the idea of a Fine Gael-Fianna Fail coalition and that Fine Gael would not go into government at any cost. On the idea of a rotating taoiseach, he said he is not a fan and he agreed with party colleague Leo Varadkar that many people in Fine Gael and Fianna Fail do not trust each other.

Enda Kenny yesterday held a two-hour meeting with his ministers, where he outlined his intention to reach out to Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, despite the misgivings of some of his top lieutenants.

Kenny is in a desperate bid to cling on to power, but there is a growing realisation that he may be the price of peace and have to relinquish the very reigns of power to see the grand coalition come to pass.

Given such opposition within his own top ranks, Martin has a big question to ask of himself. Does he risk his own position as leader to try and secure up to seven seats at the cabinet table and the chance to be taoiseach?

He would have to get the idea passed by a special ard fheis and there is no guarantee the grassroots would stomach it.

Given the state of the country when Fianna Fail left office in 2011, that they are even in this position to be relevant again is remarkable.

Today will pass and will quickly be forgotten.

By the end of the day, the corpse will be taoiseach in a caretaker capacity only and much work is needed to see him regain his cherished throne. Many believe it is beyond him, but only time will tell.
THIS month she leaves for Bangkok. My young friend, 30 years old and fed up waiting for a permanent job as a primary school teacher, has decided to see the world instead of settling down in Ireland.

If not now, when? she asks. Shes still young and shes always wanted to travel. But Im left asking a whole different set of questions, like: How can we be so stupid that were letting this young Wexford woman slip through our fingers? Montessori-trained in the UK, she came home to do her Irish primary teaching qualification. She has vast experience with special needs, having worked in schools specialising in autism and in dyslexia. My autistic son Tom had the time of his life when she came to us to give him his July Provision and since then shes volunteered to take him out quite often. She once cycled him five miles to Dun Laoghaire, bought him a gigantic ice-cream, and cycled him home again.

Tom will miss her but she expects to come back when the job prospects are better. However my mammys mind is thinking she might meet someone. She might end up with a Thai family or a wonderful job in Oz. There may be downsides for my young friend, like the absence of any pathway to a pension. But the bigger loss will be sustained by this society if we lose this young teacher for good and for all.

Newly elected Fianna Fail TD for Mayo, Lisa Chambers (29), spoke out strongly on RTE radio at the weekend about the crisis affecting her generation. At her age, she said, her parents had a house, had a family, whereas her peers were postponing settling down by up to 10 years.

Its going to have an impact on society, she said. And nobody is talking about that stuff. No one at national level is talking about the problems facing my generation.

Well, Lisa is. And thats important because as a society we cant afford to designate the 20s as a second decade of adolescence. If we do, our kids will never build any security for their old age and they will not be able to help fund ours. They may never have the families they want and we will have no grandchildren or none we get to see.

The young are being consigned to Limbo and the only way out, frequently, is to go away. Which will be another Limbo for many. The Irish sociologist Mary Corcoran did a fascinating study of young Irish emigrants in the US in the 1980s and found them avoiding relationships which might make them settle down.

Certainly that was the case for both my husband and I when we emigrated in the late 1980s. We both came home on the false hope of jobs and faced a long period of unemployment and precarious work.

We were forced into self-employment, which has led to very interesting lives. But we were in the educationally privileged group which tends to suffer fewer impacts from periods of unemployment when young.

We won the lottery of late parenthood. And youth unemployment in the 1980s in Ireland was less damaging than it is today because renting was cheap and it was feasible to have a sort of lifestyle on the dole.

UK sociologists Bell and Blanchflower find evidence of lifelong scarring for every month people are unemployed when they are between the ages of 17 and 25; 35 years later there are impacts both on wages and on general happiness. But the burning issue is that we cant afford to throw away the resource of our young adults. Look at the statistics: Youth unemployment at more than 21% as opposed to 6% in 2000; 39% of those earning the minimum wage are under 29 and there has been a massive increase in the number of young people in temporary employment.

More than 40% of those between 18 and 29 years old live with their parents, a statistic which is slightly below the EU average, possibly because we emigrate in such numbers and employment opportunities are poorly dispersed.

From left, Fianna Fails Lisa Chambers, Anne Rabbitte, and Margaret OMahony at Leinster House, Dublin

Its fine to live with your parents. But a place to call your own, a relationship, a baby on the way, should be the reasonable expectations of a 25-year-old in a developed society.

We have a long tradition in Ireland of denying adulthood to our young people to preserve the status quo for the middle-aged.

The TDs in the 32nd Dail meeting for the first time today need only walk a few paces to the Gaiety Theatre to see Garry Hyness amazing production of John B Keanes 1959 classic, Big Maggie, which ends with the terrifying matriarch sending her adult children away and banging the door shut.

It might force the recognition that destroying our young people is a long-held tradition worth dumping. This will take an imaginative leap for many because there only five TDs under 30 among them, even though the under 30s represent 40% of the population. You wonder how the young are to take charge of change, in the words of President Higgins at the 1916 flags ceremony this week in Croke Park, if they have hardly any political representation.

The National Youth Council of Ireland found only 43% of 18 to 21-year-olds registered to vote in the last local and European elections. Votes for 16-year-old is an idea worth trying to help young people make the connection with politics.

The NYCIs James Doorley points to the success of gender quotas in increasing the number of women in the Dail and wonders if such a blunt instrument could be used to increase the number of young TDs. But if we institute quotas for every section of the community we wont have democracy.

For the moment the spotlight is shining brightly on the next governments commitment to the young.

The Youth Guarantee scheme, leveraging EU funding to provide unemployed young people with a job or training place, is all very well but we should be aiming for a Youth Guarantee for every young Irish person.

The new government must youth proof every single policy in case it makes the middle-aged richer at the expense of the young, even if this means unpopular moves such as cutting public service pensions to create more jobs, higher taxes on higher wages and the reversal of Fine Gaels pledge to increase the inheritance threshold on a family home.

Young people have been forced through a General Election campaign featuring elderly men climbing every lamp-post in their constituencies to get Dail seats theyve already worn out.

If the 32rd Dail is yet another case of what Cork South Central Green candidate Lorna Bogue called middle-aged men pissing my life away they will pack their talent, their energy as well as their passports and leave us in a doomed country to fight it out among ourselves.

As a society we cant afford to designate the 20s as a second decade of adolescence
The new missile firings  the latest in a series of tests in recent days  appeared aimed at demonstrating Iran will push ahead with its ballistic program after scaling back its nuclear program under the deal reached last year with the US and other world powers.

Hard-liners in Irans military have fired rockets and missiles despite US objections since the deal, as well as shown underground missile bases on state television.

There was no immediate reaction from Jerusalem, where Biden was meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who strongly opposed the nuclear deal.

Biden, speaking next to Netanyahu, did not acknowledge the missile launch directly but he issued a strong warning to the Iranians.

A nuclear-armed Iran is an absolutely unacceptable threat to Israel, to the region and the United States. And I want to reiterate which I know people still doubt here. If in fact they break the deal, we will act, he said.

The semi-official Fars news agency offered pictures yesterday it said were of the Qadr H missiles being fired.

It said they were fired in Irans eastern Alborz mountain range to hit a target some 1,400 kilometres (870 miles) away off Irans coast into the Sea of Oman.

The US Navys 5th Fleet, which patrols that region, declined to comment on the test.

Fars and state media reported the Hebrew inscription on the missiles. Similar phrases have been emblazoned on Iranian missiles before.

Fars quoted Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Revolutionary Guards aerospace division, as saying the test was aimed at showing Israel that Iran could hit it.

The 2,000-kilometre (1,240-mile) range of our missiles is to confront the Zionist regime, Hajizadeh said.

Israel is surrounded by Islamic countries and it will not last long in a war. It will collapse even before being hit by these missiles.

Israels Foreign Ministry declined to immediately comment. Iran has threatened to destroy Israel in the past.

Israel, which is believed to have the only nuclear arsenal in the Mideast, repeatedly has threatened to take military action against Irans nuclear facilities.

Hajizadeh stressed that Iran would not fire the missiles in anger or start a war with Israel.

We will not be the ones who start a war, but we will not be taken by surprise, so we put our facilities somewhere that our enemies cannot destroy them so that we could continue in a long war, he said.

North Koreas nuclear warheads move

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the country has miniaturised nuclear warheads to mount on ballistic missiles and ordered improvements in the power and precision of its arsenal, state media reported.

Kim has called for his military to be prepared to mount pre-emptive attacks against the US and South Korea and stand ready to use nuclear weapons, stepping up belligerent rhetoric after coming under new UN and bilateral sanctions for its nuclear and rocket tests.

US and South Korean troops began large-scale military drills this week, which the North called nuclear war moves and threatened to respond with an all-out offensive.

Kims comments, were his first direct mention of the claim, made repeatedly in state media, to have miniaturised a nuclear warhead, which has never been independently verified.
Alexia Palmer accuses Trump Model Management of lying to the federal government in its work-visa application that said she would be paid $75,000 (68,000) a year while living in the US, according to court papers.

Instead, Palmer received a total of $3,880.75 during the three years she was under contract with the agency.

The complaint alleges fraudulent misrepresentation and violations of US immigration and labour laws.

It asks for $225,000 in back pay.

The suit was originally filed in October 2014.

A decision on a pending motion by Trump Model Management to dismiss is expected by the end of March, the clerk for Judge Analisa Torres, who is presiding over the case in the US District Court, Southern District, told Reuters.

If Torres rules the case can proceed, it could revive attention on Trumps foreign labour practices at a time when the billionaires rise in American politics has riveted the worlds attention.

Trumps lawyers have called the case frivolous and without merit.

In court documents, they said Palmer wasnt an employee and was more than adequately compensated for a very brief stint as a fashion model, which they say amounted to less than 10 days of work over three years.

 At the end of the day, this model just didnt have a successful career, and we fully expect to win, said Lawrence Rosen, lawyer for Trump Model Management.

Although Trump owns the modelling agency, the suit does not name him. Trumps campaign spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, said Trump Model Managements treatment of Palmer was in line with standard practice in the modeling industry.

Palmers lawyer, Naresh Gehi, says his client was cheated of earnings and seduced by a life of glamour that never materialised.

The visa application the company filed with the government requires that people are paid the full amount, Gehi said.

Reuters
In Russia, there are no courts and no investigations, 34-year-old Nadezhda Savchenko told the court in the Russian border town of Donetsk.

Here there is the farce of Kremlin puppets.

If you want to show your strength, go ahead. But remember, we are playing with my life.

"The stakes are high and I have nothing to lose.

The judge said he would announce his verdict on March 21 or 22 on her role in the deaths of the journalists in eastern Ukraine.

Prosecutors last week asked the court to convict Savchenko and sentence her to 23 years in prison.

Savchenko declared a hunger strike last week and has a high fever, according to tweets from one of her lawyers, Nikolai Polozov.

Savchenko was fighting with a Ukrainian volunteer battalion against Russia-backed rebels when she was captured in June 2014.

Russia claims she was a spotter who called in coordinates for a mortar attack that killed the two journalists and several other civilians.
Burma Activist Chooses Jail Over Fine For Peaceful Protest

Me Me, prominent rights activist, decides to remain in prison rather than pay a fine regarding charges of violating Burmas Peaceful Assembly Law.

Me Me, a prominent rights activist, has decided to remain in prison rather than pay a fine regarding charges of violating Article 18 of Burmas Peaceful Assembly Law.

The veteran of the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society appeared in court in Rangoons Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township on Wednesday, announcing that she had decided to stay in jail, calling the charges against her unacceptable. She refused to pay a fine and has not hired a lawyer or requested a release from detention.

She is accused of organizing a protest last year on Nov. 4 in Rangoon, where she demanded that Burmas controversial National Education Law be amended. Police arrested her on the basis that she did not have permission to protest.

Their charges are unacceptable. There should be no such this charge as our country [undergoes] political reform. [Article 18] blocks our peoples desire to express themselves, Me Me said.

Frequently used to imprison activists, Article 18 of the Peaceful Assembly Law dictates jail sentences of up to six months for individuals found guilty of participating in an unlawful protest.

More than a dozen activists in Rangoon have been detained and charged under Article 18 this year for their participation in protests as far back as 2014, said lawyer Robert San Aung.

There are currently 88 political prisoners behind bars in Burma and 412 political activists awaiting trial, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an organization which advocates for their release.
Burma Mon Groups Demand Toyo-Thai Coal Plant Suspension

Mon groups want the incoming government to suspend development of the Toyo-Thai coal plant in Ye Township, citing lack of transparency and health risks

RANGOON  Mon State civil society organizations are demanding that the incoming National League for Democracy (NLD) government suspend a Thai-backed coal power plant project in Ye Township.

Toyo-Thai Corp. signed a memorandum of agreement with the Ministry of Electric Powers Department of Hydropower Planning to construct the 1,280-megawatt plant last April. Locals have been outspoken in their opposition to the coal plant ever since.

On Wednesday, Par-Lain Youth Organization and the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) held a press conference in Rangoon to voice their disapproval.

Nai Ka Sauh Mon, a HURFOM co-founder, said the current Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) government ignored the objections of the local community, which had protested the power plant numerous times. Opponents have taken issue with what they say is the projects lack of transparency.

Andin village resident Ni Mar Oo said the Andin Youth Network wouldnt support any project that would harm their natural resources.

We will support the project if it doesnt disrupt our livelihoods or our environment, he said.

Critics also worry about associated health risks.

Jossue Jate, a coordinator at Mekong Watch, said she found health problems related to coal projects in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. Villagers from Indonesia developed coughs and suffered illnesses because of the air pollution, she said, warning against the project in Mon State.

[Japan] has faced many challenges with coal [power] plants, she said. Myanmar should be very cautious about the coal plant.

The Toyo-Thai group plans to invest $2.7 billion and to complete the construction in 2020, according to its website. Mon State groups say the coal plant could displace residents across 370 acres of land and could adversely affect seven neighbouring villages and 3,858 acres of farmland.

If the new government continues the project, we will be against it, said Ye Township resident Nandar Aung.
Burma Parliamentary Body to Vet NLDs Presidential Picks

With the National League for Democracy announcing its presidential nominees, a group of lawmakers is set to scrutinize whether they meet the job requirements.

RANGOON  With the National League for Democracy (NLD) announcing its presidential nominees on Thursday, a body comprised of seven lawmakers is set to scrutinize whether or not the two men possess the qualifications required for Burmas highest civilian post.

The body will be led by the speakers of Parliaments two houses and their deputies, one additional elected parliamentarian from each chamber and an unelected military lawmaker.

Elected members of the NLD-dominated Upper and Lower chambers have named Htin Kyaw and Henry Van Thio as the ruling partys presidential nominees, while members of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in the two houses have put forward the current Vice President Sai Mauk Kham and former Upper House Speaker Khin Aung Myint as the proposed candidates for Burmas largest opposition party in their respective chambers.

The military is expected to announce its presidential nominee on Friday, when the NLD-dominated two houses will vote on the four names put forward Thursday, presumably setting the stage for Htin Kyaw and Henry Van Thio to go up against the as-yet-unknown military candidate. The winner of a Union Parliament vote expected next week will become Burmas next president, while the two runners-up will become his vice presidents.

Even as Thursday marked a historic day, the coming scrutiny process and five-year term of whoever becomes president are best viewed as political milestones marked with an asterisk, given that NLD chairwoman Aung San Suu Kyi has said she will be above whichever individual is selected.

Htin Kyaw is widely expected to get the nod, owing to his long-standing and close relationship with Suu Kyiand the NLD leaders admission that the individual she sends to the Presidential Palace will be expected to follow her instructions without fail.

The proxy problem has arisen because Suu Kyi is constitutionally barred from the presidency by a clause that does not allow those with a foreign spouse or children to hold the office. Suu Kyis two sons hold British citizenship, as did her late husband.

As decided at Thursdays session, two NLD lawmakersDr. Myo Aung from the Lower House, himself considered a presidential possibility, and Ba Myo Thein from the Upper Housewere chosen as the additional elected members of the presidential scrutinizing body, while the name of the military lawmaker has yet to be announced.

The seven-member body will conduct its vetting on the basis of constitutional requirements that can at times be vague: Article 59(d) of the charter, for example, states that the president shall be well-acquainted with the affairs of the Union such as political, administrative, economic and military.

A clause asserting that he or she be loyal to the Union and its citizens similarly leaves much open to interpretation.
Burma Suu Kyi Calls for Public Support of Presidential Nominees

The NLD chairwoman calls for the ongoing support of the Burmese people on the morning of vice presidential nominations within the Parliament.

RANGOON  Aung San Suu Kyi called for the ongoing support of the Burmese people on the morning of vice presidential nominations within the Parliament.

In a statement signed by the National League for Democracy (NLD) chairwoman and released on Thursday, the Burmese democracy leader said the selection of the countrys president and vice president will begin on Thursday and is an important step for those who supported the NLD in the general election of 2015.

I urge all of you to give your support based on rational thoughts, to reach our goal peacefully before we fully implement your hopes, she said.

Her request came at a time when unconfirmed reports indicate that her negotiations with the military to pave way for her presidency have failed. Since Novembers election, Suu Kyi met three times with Burma Army chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, but details of the meetings were unknown.

Thursdays statement was viewed by some as consolation offered to the majority of Burmese voters who desperately want to see her as President; Suu Kyi has been constitutionally barred from the position because her two sons are foreign citizens.

Lower House, Upper House and military representatives will submit their nominations for vice presidential posts and the candidates will be voted on in the Union Parliament. The nominee with the most votes will become the president, and the other two individuals will serve as vice presidents.

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Burma would have three vice presidents following selection of the countrys president.
Burma With NLD Nod, Burma Likely Headed for Htin Kyaw Presidency

The National League for Democracy selects Htin Kyaw and Henry Van Thio as presidential nominees, significantly narrowing scope for speculation over Burmas next president.

NAYPYIDAW / RANGOON  The National League for Democracy (NLD) has selected Htin Kyaw and Henry Van Thio as its nominees for the presidency, significantly narrowing the scope for speculation over whom the party will choose as its proxy for popular leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

While their nominations do not yet officially reveal who will ultimately assume the post, Thursdays announcement would appear to make a Htin Kyaw presidency all but assured.

Believed to be one of Suu Kyis right-hand men, the ethnic Bamar-Mon Htin Kyaw had been tipped ahead of Thursdays nomination as a likely contender for Burmas highest civilian office. He holds high standing among NLD members and his father-in-law, U Lwin, is one of the partys founding members.

His wife, Su Su Lwin, is a newly minted Lower House NLD lawmaker recently appointed as the chairperson for the chambers International Relations Committee.

More of a mysteryat least for nowis Henry Van Thio. An ethnic Chin elected to the Upper House in Chin States Thantlang Township last year, the 58-year-old is a retired army major who has studied geography and law.

I believe my nomination for the vice presidency reflects [the partys] highlighting of ethnic issues and I will try my best for it, he told the media at the Upper House after his nomination on Thursday morning.

If the two men are deemed to have met presidential eligibility criteria, they will be put to a vote, along with a vice presidential nominee from the military, with the winner assuming the presidency and the runners-up becoming vice presidents.

Of less significance on Thursday, Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) lawmakers in the Lower and Upper houses put forward the names of current Vice President Sai Mauk Kham and former Upper House Speaker Khin Aung Myint as its proposed candidates for the respective chambers.

Sai Mauk Kham presently holds dual public offices, after also winning a seat in Parliament in Burmas November general election. But both he and Khin Aung Myint would need NLD or military support to have a shot at a vice presidential post, an unlikely prospect.

Sources in Naypyidaw said the military was likely to put forward its vice presidential nominee on Friday.

Suu Kyi, who is barred from the presidency by Burmas military-drafted Constitution, has said she would lead the nation from a position above the president, who would be expected to carry out the NLD chairwomans wishes if given her blessing.
Human Rights A Year After the Brutal Student Protest Crackdown at Letpadan

It was one year ago that the world got another sad reminder of how far authorities in Myanmar will still go to stifle dissent.

It was one year ago today that the world got another sad reminder of how far authorities in Myanmar will still go to stifle dissent. Months of peaceful demonstrations against a new education law culminated in the southern town of Letpadan on March 10, 2015, where hundreds of students had gathered to prepare for a final march to Myanmars largest city, Yangon.

The Myanmar authoritiesfearing the threat of an outspoken movement just months before a crucial national electionhad shipped in scores of riot police to Letpadan to block the students before the march could even begin. When some of the protesters tried to break down a police barricade, an already tense situation turned violent. Police proceeded to viciously beat dozens of protesterseyewitnesses described how even students who had fallen to the ground were hit with batons.

It was an outrageous example of excessive use of force by the police. But instead of holding the officers to account for violating human rights, Myanmars authorities have over the past year led a relentless crackdown against the very people who were on the receiving end of the violence.

Scores of students were arrested in the aftermath of the protest on March 10 last yeartoday, 45 of them remain in detention with their trials ongoing. They face years in prison if found guilty, yet to date there is no evidence that they did anything other than peacefully express their opinions. Amnesty International will continue to call for their unconditional and immediate release. However, the authorities crackdown did not end in Letpadan. Since then more than 100 student protesters, leaders and their supporters have been charged with a range of criminal offenses.

One of them is Phyoe Phyoe Aung, the charismatic 27-year-old secretary general of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU). She was in Letpadan on the day of the protests and is one of the 45 who have languished in prison since. Phyoe Phyoe Aung has a remarkable life story and is no stranger to prisons in Myanmarin fact, neither is her family. She is the daughter of Ne Win, an activist who spent the first 16 years of his daughters life in a cell for his pro-democracy activities.

In 2007, Phyoe Phyoe Aung and her then-boyfriend Lin Htet Naing were forced into hiding after taking part in the Saffron Revolution, which ended with a brutal police crackdown against peaceful pro-democracy protests across Myanmar. Finally arrested in 2008, she showed her determination by refusing to wear the prison uniform behind bars, which led to her being sent into solitary confinement as punishment.

She and Lin Htet Naing were reunited on their release in 2012, and got married in January 2015. Even if both are now deprived of their freedom once again (Lin Htet Naing has since also been imprisoned), Phyoe Phyoe Aung has vowed to not give up the fight for human rights in Myanmar.

As the one-year anniversary of the Letpadan crackdown approached, the Myanmar authorities tightened the screws on student activists again. Just in the past two months, at least eight student union leaders, protesters and supporters have been arrested or face new charges. Among them is Nilar Thein, a former prisoner of conscience, who in late February was arrested for a peaceful demonstration in support of the students.

The persistent efforts to suppress the student movement cannot be seen in isolation. Despite what you might have heard, Myanmar is still a country where human rights are under a sustained assault. Authorities rely on a range of draconian laws to target, harass and imprison anyone they perceive as a threata situation that has only gotten worse over the past two years. The net of repression has been cast widelythose targeted include journalists, land activists, farmers, trade unionists and opposition politicians. Amnesty International is aware of almost 100 prisoner of conscience still behind bars in Myanmar.

But the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party that is set to form a new government and take power at the start of April, has made encouraging promises to make human rights a priority once in office. They could send a real signal of intent by immediately freeing all those who have been imprisoned for nothing but peacefully expressing an opinion and quashing the trumped up charges pending against all the students and their supporters.

In the longer term, the new government should repeal or amend the range of laws used to silence activists. Doing so would also send a message to the still powerful military that a new day is dawning for human rights.

The international communityincluding Myanmars regional neighborsalso have a key role to play in keeping up the pressure on Naypyidaw to respect and protect human rights.

Phyoe Phyoe Aung once told Amnesty International that her hopes were for a society with peace and prosperity, happiness for the people, with human dignity and human rights. We could not agree moreits time for those in charge in Myanmar to make sure that this vision becomes reality, starting by setting free the student protesters.

Champa Patel is Amnesty Internationals director of Southeast Asia.
Burma NLDs Ethnic Nominees Lauded as Step Toward National Reconciliation

The NLDs nomination of ethnic Burman-Mon Htin Kyaw and ethnic Chin Henry Van Thio as presidential candidates are praised as promoting ethnic unity.

RANGOON  The National League for Democracys (NLD) nominations for the presidency have been commended for promoting national reconciliation.

On Thursday morning, ethnic Burman-Mon Htin Kyaw and ethnic Chin Henry Van Thio were revealed as the NLDs nominees for the presidency. The two men will be put to a vote in the Union Parliament, along with a nominee from the military, who has not yet been named. The winner will become Burmas president and the other two will be the vice presidents.

I am happy and grateful that they nominated an ethnic Chin for the presidency, said Paw Lian Lwin, former Upper House lawmaker from the Chin National Democratic Party (CNDP).

We have been forgotten for more than five decades and have become the most underdeveloped area, he added, referring to Chin State, Burmas most impoverished.

Paw Lian Lwin said the NLDs selections would bring greater ethnic unity under the new government, which assumes power in April.

It is good that we have more ethnic representatives now, said Sai Leik, spokesperson for the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD). In the past, both Parliament and the cabinet were one-sided. It should be [diverse] in order to build national reconciliation.

Ethnic Shan leader Sai Nyunt Lwin, general secretary of the SNLD, had been tipped as a potential choice for vice president, but the NLD put forward an ethnic Chin instead.

We were never told that they would nominate a candidate from the SNLD for vice president, but what we do know is that Shan people will be included in the cabinet and regional government, Sai Leik said.

The NLD has appointed ethnic Karen, Arakan, Burman and Kachin as speakers and deputy speakers of Parliament. As for presidential candidates, NLD lawmakers from the Upper House nominated the retired army major Henry Van Thio, who was elected last year to the upper chamber in Chin States Thantlang Township. NLD lawmakers from the Lower House nominated Htin Kyaw, whose potential candidacy had been widely speculated.

Following the NLDs landslide victory in the 2015 general election, NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Burmas new cabinet would include members of other parties and ethnic representatives.

Aung Moe Zaw, chairman of the Democratic Party for a New Society, said it would be better if the NLD chose leaders from its alliance ethnic parties; however, he still believes the party will lead the country toward national reconciliation and a federal union.

The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) lawmakers also put forward two men for the presidency on Thursday. The outgoing Vice President Sai Mauk Kham was nominated in the Lower House and former Upper House Speaker Khin Aung Myint was nominated in the Upper House.

Presidency and vice posts are unlikely for both men because the USDP won only 42 of 491 seats that were up for grabs in the Union Parliament last year.

The USDP nominated experienced and qualified people for the presidential election process even though it is a minority in the Parliament, said Hla Htay Win, former military chief of staff and a sitting USDP Lower House lawmaker. I assume the NLD nominated qualified people as well.
Thursday, March 10th, 2016 (9:50 am) - Score 1,704

Blink and youll miss it. Without any fanfare the Governments Digital Economy Minister, Ed Vaizey, appears to have officially confirmed that 90% of the United Kingdom can now access a superfast broadband service, thanks partly to Phase 1 of their Broadband Delivery UK programme with BT.

Readers with a long enough memory may recall that the original BDUK target envisaged the first 90% goal as being achieved by the end of the previous Governments parliament (around May 2015), but after a few administrative delays this was put back to the end of 2015 and then revised again to by 2016 (the use of by in political speak usually means end of).

So admittedly its running a little behind the original aspiration, but thats hardly surprising given that the first deployment phase had a lot of learning and new ground to cover before it could even get going. Equally its a huge build and in the grander scheme of Government project delays (just look at HS2) its actually made quite reasonable progress.

Aside from that weve long been expecting BDUK to achieve the original 90% target by spring 2016 and so in that sense yesterdays remark from Ed Vaizey came as no surprise, except for the fact that it was made in passing and without any official press release or fanfare to accompany it.

Ed Vaizey MP said (Westminster Debate): There has been only one failure in the superfast broadband roll-out programme that I have supervised and that was in South Yorkshire, where we inherited a useless Labour contract [Digital Region] and had to write off 50 million of taxpayers money. Everything else has been an unadulterated success. We now have 93% of the country able to receive fibre, 90% of the country able to get superfast speeds of 24 megabits and above, and 50% of the country able to get ultrafast broadband speeds of 100 megabits and above [ISPr Ed: The ultrafast figure is mostly thanks to Virgin Medias commercial cable network].

Just to be clear, we do expect the Government to make some PR capital out of this at some point. More to the point we still think theyre actually a smidgen shy of a nice round 90% (maybe thats why the PR machine isnt yet rolling into action), albeit perhaps not enough for it to be worth quibbling over.

Mind you there must be a caveat added to this, which is that such figures are only ever estimates of availability and the real-world experiences wont always match up. Likewise that 90% will be an overall national (UK) figure, thanks largely to progress in the more populous England area. By comparison N.Ireland sits at around 80%, Scotland is on 84% and Wales has about 87%.

If we take Ed Vaizey at his word then then it means that Phase 1 of the BDUK project, which was supported by 530m in public funding from the Government (local authorities and BT were asked to match this), should now have put the new fibre broadband (FTTC/P) connectivity within reach of an additional 4 million premises (homes and businesses) or thereabouts. Not bad considering that the main roll-out only really started in 2013, with most contracts getting under-way in 2014.

At this point its worth reminding readers that the first 70% or so of superfast broadband coverage was largely achieved via purely commercial investment, mostly thanks to BT and Virgin Medias efforts. As such BDUKs focus has been on the final 30% where the commercial operators have struggled to invest.

The next Phase 2 (Superfast Extension Programme) target, which is supported by 250m from BDUK + more funding from ISPs (not just BT this time) and public authorities, aims to close the gap further and hit 95-96% coverage by 2017/18. However we are still awaiting a firm strategy for closing the final 3-4% gap after that by 2020, which is somewhat dependent upon a new EU State Aid agreement (details here  expected by around May 2016).

Even after all is said and done then there will still be around 0.5-1% of the UK that cannot easily be served by a fixed line solution and unless there is a stronger commitment to solve that problem then theyre likely to be stuck with the Satellite subsidy (here). Mind you there might also be some future benefit from the 10Mbps USO (here), depending upon its approach.

PS  Just to be sure we did ask Ed Vaizey directly to confirm whether the 90% figure was for the UK and not merely England and he has confirmed that it is indeed for the UK.

UPDATE 3:15pm

Weve had an official comment from BT.
Australian businesses are being warned: companies that fail to integrate digital into every aspect of the business will not survive.

ThoughtWorks is a company founded 20 years ago in Chicago by Roy Singham with the aim of attracting and employing the best knowledge workers in the world.

Today, the company has 3600 employees across 34 offices in 12 countries, including Australia, and bills itself as a software company and community of passionate, purpose-led individuals that specialize in software consulting, delivery and products.'

The company's blurb states that its thinks 'disruptively to deliver technology to address our clients' toughest challenges, all while seeking to revolutionise the IT industry and create positive social change.'

The blurb ends noting the companys's 'pioneering tools for software teams who aspire to be great,' with its products also helping organisations 'continuously improve and deliver quality software for their most critical needs.'

So, if you were somehow unaware of the comapny, as I was, it's clear ThoughtWorks has been around for quite some time, thinking of and doing some serious stuff.

Thus, it is now no great surprise to discover the company had a ThoughtWorks Live event in Melbourne yesterday where the topics tackled included the need for Australian business to put digital first, government taking a lesson from digital disruptors and how Target embraced mobile to create an interconnected customer experience.

The company says that more than 150 business leaders gathered at the ThoughtWorks invitation-only executive conference to hear from international leaders.'

The line up included the Federal Governments Digital Transformation Office (DTO) CEO Paul Shetler, ThoughtWorks US founder and chairman Roy Singham, Targets Peter Mitchley-Hughes and ThoughtWorks chief scientist and co-author of the agile manifesto Martin Fowler.

Quoting Forrester data revealing just 27% of businesses globally have a coherent digital strategy addressing how the company will create customer value as a digital business, ThoughtWorks chief scientist, Martin Fowler noted that digital transformation could not succeed without the technical capability to deliver.

He said: Most organisations try to prevent failure, rather than invest in ability to recover rapidly. Organisations need to embrace a new way of thinking to thrive in the digital world.

The Federal Governments Digital Transformation Office (DTO) CEO Paul Shetler noted that even the Australian government now needed to compete with the Ubers and Googles of the world.

Shelter said: The only way we can do that is by taking a user first approach, understanding how they want to interact with the government and not the other way around, by using agile approaches similar to the tech companies in Silicon Valley.

Drawing on his experience in establishing the UK's Government Digital Service, we are told that Shetler set up the DTO as an incubator where technology companies, including ThoughtWorks, develop user-centred digital services in partnership with government departments. In just 20 weeks, each public service transformation is designed to end with a market-ready product.

Shetler added: By default, people dont want to engage with government agencies. They just want to get stuff done. We want to make sure our service is simple enough so users succeed the first time around without any assistance. And if they can't achieve what they are trying to do first time, we won't go live.

More below, please read on!

ThoughtWorks Asia Pacific MD Ange Ferguson and ThoughtWorks China MD Hu Kai explored the Chinese opportunity for Australian companies and the pitfalls to avoid.

Ferguson said: The Chinese market is so large that a segment considered too niche to bother within Australia could have considerable upside in China.

From varying user behaviours to understanding the countrys internet regulations, making a product ready for the Chinese market goes beyond translating a website. China is a massive opportunity, if you can get it right, continued Ferguson.

ThoughtWorks Australia MD Ryan Moffat said the day was a chance to learn from ThoughtWorks customers and leading international speakers about how to embrace digital transformation.

Digital for us is business using technology to differentiate and delight their customers. We believe the most important tools today in making technology relevant are experience design and the lean enterprise, Moffat concluded.
Is Microsoft planning another major "embrace, extend and extinguish" campaign? That is the question that arises after news emerged that it would be launching Linux-based tools based on Debian GNU/Linux for networking.

The story broke in the Register shortly after news of another open-source push by Redmond  the release of a toolset for Visual Studio to make working with the R language easy. A few days back, Microsoft announced it would port SQL Server to Linux by mid-2017.

The Linux for network switches is dubbed Software for Open Networking in the Cloud or SONiC and was announced at the Open Compute Summit in San Jose, California, on Wednesday US time, by Microsoft Azure chief Mark Russinovich, him of Sony rootkit fame.

"SONiC is a collection of software networking components required to build network devices like switches," Russinovich wrote.

"Together with SAI (the Switch Abstraction Interface, a common C interface), SONiC will enable cloud operators to take advantage of hardware innovation while giving them a framework to build upon an open source code for apps on the network switch and gain the ability to integrate with multiple platforms.

"In short, we believe its the final piece of the puzzle in delivering a fully open sourced switch platform that can share the same software stack across hardware from multiple switch vendors. SONiC is being joined by contributions from Arista, Broadcom, Dell and Mellanox."

Kamala Subramanian, Microsoft's principal architect for Azure Networking, said SONiC was a collection of software networking components needed to build network devices like switches with rich functionality.

"It is based on a modular architecture with a lean stack built for data centre networking needs. SONiC will enable cloud operators to take advantage of hardware innovation while giving them a framework to build upon an open source code for apps on the network switch and the ability to integrate with multiple platforms. SONiC is not just prototyped software but deployed today and planned to run at scale in the future," she wrote.

Microsoft's push towards co-opting open source has intensified ever since Satya Nadella took over as chief executive. Last September, Microsoft released a cloud-based Linux operating system known as Azure Cloud Switch. And in December, the company announced that it was endorsing Debian GNU/Linux in its Azure marketplace.
Avaya says the new business and cloud-based service, dubbed Zang, offers easy to use drag and drop tools, pre-built applications and robust APIs that make it possible for anyone to leverage the best of the web to quickly build and deploy applications that communications-enable consumer or enterprise applications and services.



According to Gary E. Barnett, SVP and GM, Avaya Engagement Solutions, smart apps built on Zang allow people to define how they want to work and connect, and enables easy click-to-connect communications with high quality video, chat, voice, SMS and document sharing from mobile, web or desktop environments.



We are truly excited to unveil Zang today in front of thousands at the Enterprise Connect event. With Zang, Avaya continues to change the way companies communicate with customers and employees. Zang helps connect the right people to the right information at the right time via the right communications media to drive better outcomes.





According to Barnett. unlike other solutions today that offer rudimentary APIs, Zangs highly interoperable platform provides complete workflow automation and sophisticated application development capabilities. This means developers end-users can use Zang apps with other communications apps like Cisco Spark, Skype for Business, and Google Hangouts to enable every day work applications and customers favourite touch-points.Barnett said Zang is already proven with customers, with thousands of developers using Zangs communications services, including TelTech Corporation, whose TapeACall app is currently the #4 top grossing app in the business category of the iTunes app store.Heres what Avayas claims is unique about Zang: Zang combines a communications platform-as-a service (cPaaS) with rapid app development, which allows quick and easy creation of infinitely customisable communication experiences Zang communication applications work standalone or can be embedded into other applications, providing ultimate flexibility Out-of-the-box applications like Zangs persistent team collaboration solution scales from a few users to thousands that are secure and accessible from mobile and desktop devices Zang connects popular collaboration apps like Google Hangouts with business solutions like Salesforce.com or SAP for a seamless user experience Zang comes with simple SDKs, sample apps and the ability to use other third-party communications apps, which speed adoption and value creation.
According to ICANN, the plan provides a comprehensive package to transition the US Governments management of technical functions, called the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority), which are critical to the Internets smooth operation.



It also proposes ways to enhance ICANNs accountability as a fully independent organisation. The transition is the final step in the long-anticipated privatisation of the Internets Domain Name System (DNS), first outlined when ICANN was incorporated in 1998.



This plan is a testament to the hard work of the global Internet community and the strength of the multi-stakeholder model, said ICANN board chair Dr Stephen D. Crocker.



The plan has now been sent to the US Government for its review, and assuming it meets the necessary criteria, we will have reached an historic moment in the history of the Internet.







The ICANN Board received the package from the community during its 55th public meeting in Morocco, and today transmitted it to the US National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA).



On 14 March 2014, NTIA announced its desire to transition its stewardship of the IANA functions to the global multi-stakeholder community.



According to ICANN, the package is the result of an inclusive, global discussion amongst representatives from government, large and small business, technical experts, civil society, researchers, academics and end users.



The Internet community has exhibited remarkable dedication to the IANA stewardship transition because we know just how important it is to complete, said Alissa Cooper, Chair of the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG) that coordinated the development of the transition proposal.



Internet users the world over stand to benefit from its stability, security, and accountability enhancements to Internet governance once the proposal takes effect.



The package combines the technical requirements of a transition coordinated by the IANA Stewardship Transition Group (ICG) and enhancements to ICANNs accountability identified by the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability).



The two groups were composed of volunteers representing a broad range of interests from the wider multi-stakeholder Internet community.



This plan enjoys the broadest possible support from this very diverse community and Im confident it will meet NTIAs criteria, said Thomas Rickert, one of the CCWG-Accountability co-Chairs.



The work of this group shows just how well the inclusive multistakeholder approach is working.



The US Government will now review the package to ensure that it meets NTIAs criteria. If approved, implementation of the plan is expected to be completed prior to the expiration of the contract between NTIA and ICANN in September 2016.
It's an old joke that with IT if you want good, fast and cheap you have to choose two. Elastic wants you to have all three.

The Elastic stack is the search engine you've been using without knowing it. Powering some popular and big names - Facebook and Netflix, Atlassian, SEEK and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia to name just five - Elastic provides an open source and freely available operating system-agnostic search engine. It retrieves data at high-speed, freeing a business from the arduous task of managing mass volumes of data to actually working with meaningful, insightful information. It opens the possibilities of exploring and finding trends, something which can only happen when your basic reporting requirements are so well met that they are no longer a pressing issue.

Elastic began with a simple concept by founder Shay Banon, who developed an open-source, distributed, RESTful search and analytics engine named Elasticsearch, out of a simple idea to search for recipes.

The stack grew from Elasticsearch to include Logstash - a data-collection and transportation pipeline, Kibana - a data visualisation platform allowing you to interact with your data through powerful drill-down dashboards and imagery, and Beats - a platform for building lightweight data shippers to help leverage any type of data required. Like Elasticsearch, the other components in the stack are open source and freely available for use.

Elastic gives away the core stack; the company is committed to the integrity of its open source vision and that they do not make a free and commercial version and thus dilute the capabilities. The revenue model is akin to that of other prominent open-source businesses where support services are charged, plus new commercial offerings which sit on top of Elastic are available.

These include security, partitioning of data so users may only view that which they are permitted to, alerting and other items. In addition, Elastic offers a hosted solution which will ingest a company's data and provide the entire Elastic stack and experience on top without the user needing to bother with infrastructure management.

I recently met with Robert Lau, Vice President and General Manager, Asia Pacific and Japan along with Solutions Architect Mark Walkom during Cisco Live, as well as a customer who happened to be passing by.

Lau has an impressive background, having spent the previous 17 years bringing three disruptive technology startups to Asia Pacific resulting in three IPOs, 4000 jobs, thousands of customers, $3b in total revenue and $20b in shareholder value.

Most recently came from Splunk as Vice President and General Manager for Asia Pacific. While at Splunk Lau developed an innovative go-to-market strategy and successfully built a world-class field organisation from scratch, developing a strong partner ecosystem and delivered consistently high revenue growth. Prior to Splunk Lau delivered the same performance for ArcSight and Portal Software.

Lau brings impressive strength and drive to Elastic. As impressive as his demonstrated experience is what struck me most about Elastic - above the core tech and the possibility of a viable Tableau or Power BI or Qlik competitor - was the passionate enthusiasm staff and users alike felt about Elastic.

Walkom himself was an Elastic customer who, stuck with a budget that wouldn't allow paid support, decided to delve into supporting Elastic himself, contributing to mailing lists and to the community. This was borne out of his own need for the product to work in his environment, and led to him being offered the role as first Elastic employee within Australia.

The Elastic story is a fascinating one, in terms of a company providing powerful data collection and analytics and giving away the core software meaning you can use it right now without any impediments, and in terms of an enthusiastic community consisting of staff and users working together to make tools that genuinely solve problems, and further, in terms of a product that quite literally can search anything. The product has gained a following in analysing log files, but just as Shay Banon wished to search recipes, so too you can leverage the Elastic stack for your business problems be they technical data, financial data, employee KPIs or whatever else you can conceive.

While at this time Elasticsearch is the search engine you maybe didn't even know you were using, it's accessible immediately for use on your data problems. Further, it's my view we will in time see Kibana being ranked against traditional Business Intelligence platforms gaining recognition from business leaders and analysts in that space.
Australian tech start-up Adventure Junky has released a claimed world-first app designed to change the way adventurers plan, book and celebrate their experiences across the globe.

Although Id personally have spelled Junky as Junkie, Im not the one that has created a new app entitled Adventure Junky, for both iPhone and iPad.

The new app allows users to browse and book hundreds of adventures worldwide while at the same time uniting travellers internationally with a new social network in which to play, compete, connect and gain rewards.

Said to be spectacularly designed with an image-rich interface, Adventure Junky is billed as initially offering more than 500 adventures all in one easy-to-access forum.

These range from soft adventures like yoga and wildlife watching through to a full spectrum of medium, hard and extreme sports.

The concept was pioneered by Adventure Junkys Sydney-based co-founders Nigel Malone and Fuchsia Sims, who say they aim to be an innovative force in the world of adventure travel.

Malone said: Adventure travel is experiencing phenomenal growth  out of the more than six billion trips that travellers make every year, 40 per cent now have an adventure component. Thats 2.4 billion adventures a year, growing at 15% per annum.

Malone added that Adventure Junky would help fuel that growth by creating a competitive online environment and adding a level of gamification to the mix.

He continued, stating: Adventure Junky will become the glue that brings adventure travellers together.

You only have to look at exercise apps like Fitbit and Strava to see the potential for massive online communities created through gamification.

Malone and Sims note their extensive background in tourism and adventure travel, having created marketing strategies and branding projects for tourism bodies, adventure operators and World Heritage sites.

Adventure Junky was developed and financed in Australia with the backing of tourism sector identities including its Chairman John Morse AM, the former head of Tourism Australia.

Morse said: Adventure Junky is a leading example of Australias new innovation economy. The board and executive are highly confident it will have an impact in the global travel market.

Adventure Junky users can choose from experiences on any continent, whether climbing the volcanoes of Guatemala, visiting the mountain gorillas of Rwanda, circumnavigating Spitsbergen in search of polar bears or traversing the Australian outback to Uluru.

Adventures include free self-guided options for the weekend warrior as well as fully guided international expeditions.

In addition, were told that users can create and share adventures of their own such as favourite hiking trails, kayaking routes and wildlife-spotting locations.

Over time, the company says that user content will help expand the overall offering to include the richest possible selection of adventures, whether free or paid, organised or self-guided.

More below, please read on!

Sims said Adventure Junky offered a system of points and patches to reward adventurers and create a level of competition among users.

Sims concluded, stating: If you make it to the top of the Adventure Junky leaderboard youll be awarded the coveted Number One Patch, the equivalent of the yellow jersey in the Tour de France.

"In the future, rewards will become tangible and well create partnerships where points can be transferred to users rewards programs or redeemed for goods at outdoor retailers.

Adventure Junky is now available in the App Store for iPhone and iPad and will soon be released for Android.
eBay estimates the unused handsets are worth around $6.4 billion, with models selling for an average of $286.



And, globally, Deloitte Global claims used smartphone sales will generate more than $17 billion for their owners.



Mark Bulgin, Head of Electronics and Emerging Technology at eBay says that in anticipation of the release of the Samsung Galaxy S7 this week, and in the midst of rumours that Apple is to announce its latest handset, savvy Australians are preparing to trade in the old for the new, using eBays How much is your smartphone worth? tool to make sure they get the best deal.





With Samsung releasing the Galaxy S7 smartphone this week, and Apple rumoured to follow with the iPhone 7 release in the near future, now is the perfect time for Aussies to sell their older models to fund the upgrade, Bulgin said.With so many Australians on contracts, it is sometimes hard to know how much your phone is worth. The easy to use eBay How much is your smartphone worth on eBay widget gives consumers an idea of what amount they can receive for their handset. For example, the average selling price of the Apple iPhone 6s has only fallen $50 since September 2015 and is still fetching over $875 for a single handset, whilst the Samsung Galaxy S6 is fetching around $526.Bulgin says Australia is a nation obsessed with all things mobile  in 2015 nearly 485,000 mobile phones and over 11.4 million mobile accessories were purchased by Aussies via eBay.com.au.And, eBay reveals that consumers are increasingly looking to sell their used handsets, rather than giving them away - in 2015, a mobile phone was sold every minute on eBay.com.au and 93,000 more units sold in 2015 than 2014.According to Deloitte Global, the growth rate of the used smartphone market is forecast to be 4-5 times higher than the overall smartphone market, and this re-sell practice by consumer and suppliers is expected to accelerate through to 2020.Bulgin says Apple, Samsung, LG, HTC and Nexus were the most searched mobile phone brands of 2015.While the Samsung Galaxy S7 is arguably the most talked about model of 2016 but iPhone owners can be confident that there is an appetite for new and used iPhones with 10 million searches for the iPhone compared to 4 million for Samsung smartphones in 2015.The top five best-selling mobile handsets on eBay.com.au are:1. Apple iPhone 5 and 5S2. Apple iPhone 6 and 6 Plus3. Samsung Galaxy S64. Apple iPhone 4S5. Samsung Galaxy S5
Microsoft wants to help businesses bring their meeting rooms into the future of videoconferencing without spending a whole lot of dough. That's why it announced two new Skype for Business initiatives aimed at getting existing technology connected to its work communications service.

The first, codenamed Project Rigel, is aimed at helping companies turn meeting rooms into videoconferencing centers able to host interactive Skype meetings, without having to shell out thousands of dollars per room for a Surface Hub collaboration display.

Microsoft's Surface Hub gives a company a Skype Meeting device in a compact package, but it's expensive. The Hub packs a display, multiple cameras, microphones and a touchscreen into one package that integrates with Skype for Business to host meetings that can include participants both in the room and far away.

It's a cool piece of technology but comes with a commensurate price tag -- the cheap version of the Surface Hub costs $9,000 per device, while the more expensive 84-inch display costs a shocking $22,000.

Using Project Rigel, companies can link together a bunch of disparate hardware to create a similar experience. Microsoft has envisioned that companies will use a Windows 10 tablet to control devices certified to work with Rigel, including Polycom phones and Logitech cameras.

Those devices, coupled with a display or projector, will make up the core of a Rigel system. Logitech is even working on a "smart dock" that will connect all the devices together. All told, building out a Rigel system should be cheaper than shelling out for a set of Surface Hubs, which means companies with a lot of meeting rooms will have an easier time connecting them to Skype for Business.

Polycom is also working with Microsoft to connect meeting rooms with an existing videoconferencing system to Skype for Business, with that functionality coming in the second half of this year. The company's RealPresence Group Series products will add integration with Office 365 to make the experience consistent with the Skype meeting experience overall. The company is also building a service to allow systems from both Polycom and Cisco connect to Skype for Business using a service hosted in Microsoft's cloud.

The company is also building a service to allow systems from both Polycom and Cisco connect to Skype for Business using a service hosted in Microsoft's cloud.

In addition to those improvements, Microsoft also announced the expansion of Skype for Business's PSTN Calling feature outside the U.S. Starting in May, customers in the U.K. will be able to register for a beta test of the feature, which will allow them to try out features including acquiring numbers on the public telephone network through Skype for Business.

The new initiatives are part of Microsoft's continuing push to improve its work communication product in the face of tight competition from several sources. It's not only competing with cloud telephony providers, but also with collaborative chat apps like Slack and videoconferencing solutions from companies like Citrix.
Microsoft is still struggling to figure out the best cadence for Windows 10 updates, a process that may result in fewer updates annually than once pledged, an analyst said today.

"We haven't heard anything official, but the plan and the execution do not seem to be quite matching," said Steve Kleynhans of Gartner. "But that's kind of to be expected."

Kleynhans was referring to talk the last two weeks that Microsoft may release only one Windows 10 update this year -- probably this summer -- pushing an expected second update into 2017. Several long-time Microsoft watchers, including ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley and the WinBeta website, have reported, via unnamed sources, that Microsoft will postpone a second 2016 update until sometime in the spring of next year. According to Foley, Microsoft will do that in order to sync with new company-branded hardware, specifically Redmond's Surface Pro and Surface Book devices.

It's likely that there are other, more substantial reasons for a possible slowdown in the Windows 10 release tempo, Kleynhans argued.

"They might not be able to meet the [former proposed] pace," he said of Microsoft. "There are lots of things internally that they need to do to make this work."

Kleynhans had made that point before: Microsoft is as much feeling its way with the radical overhaul of Windows 10 development as customers are in accepting an accelerated release schedule.

In its original Windows 10 release thesis, Microsoft said that it would issue three updates annually at roughly four-month intervals. It revised and rebuilt its update mechanisms to support that tempo, offering "branches" or release tracks, that would result in significant overlap. Enterprises might, under those plans, be dealing with as many as three or even four different versions concurrently, some of them as much as a year or more old, others just out the gate.

Since that schedule was revealed -- in 2015, months before Windows 10's mid-year launch -- Microsoft has hinted at a slower cadence by repeatedly referring to the frequency as "two to three" times a year rather than the former formal standard of three times annually.

A slower tempo wouldn't bother Kleynhans. "I'd rather see one that's good and solid, rather than have them rush things into the market," he said.

"It's really going to come down to Microsoft finding the right pace," Kleynhans said. "That's what it's going to come down to: 'How do we produce enough new features quickly enough without harming the reliability of the software, but fast enough to appease people who want new and fresh?'"

It might take Microsoft as long as two to three years to figure that out, Kleynhans said. And the clues about a slower rhythm signal that that process is now in the works.

In the end, Windows 10's release schedule may be -- probably will be -- substantially different than the initial three-times-a-year plan. "There are lots of stakeholders, including Microsoft, other software vendors, hardware vendors and, of course, customers," said Kleynhans. "All of them have a say and a stake [in the release schedule]."

If Microsoft does go with a slower schedule, Kleynhans added, "It's because that's what the market has ended up telling Microsoft."

While there have been grumblings about Windows 10's faster release schedule -- primarily, but not exclusively, from enterprises -- Kleynhans was skeptical about exclusively attributing any go-slower decision to pushback from corporate clients.

"There are two very distinct camps emerging: Customers who say 'I can't see how I can possibly keep up,' and others who say, 'We think we can manage it,'" said Kleynhans. The second group, though, is getting larger by the month, and fewer of Gartner's clients are throwing up their hands in despair over a faster tempo.

Even so, few will cry over a less-ambitious Windows 10 schedule, if that's what results. "Most [enterprises] would appreciate having to deal with just one update at a time, rather than having multiple updates in place," said Kleynhans. "So I won't be surprised if, for the seeable future, customers only have to deal with one at a time."
Today

Sunny with gusty winds developing this afternoon. High 87F. WSW winds at 5 to 10 mph, increasing to 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.

Tonight

Clear skies. Low around 65F. Winds W at 15 to 25 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.

Tomorrow

A mainly sunny sky. High 79F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph.
Library bond unanimously approved Voters waited in line for 45 minutes Tuesday to participate in an eight-minute meeting that resulted in the unanimous approval of a $600,000 bond to help renovate the North Road...

Ferryboat business told to halt operations The ferryboat company operating from the municipally owned docks at East Ferry is illegally using that space, according to correspondence mailed to business owner Bill Munger. Town Administrator Jamie Hainsworth...

A DOGGONE NEW BUSINESS A former business that used to clean peoples clothes is reopening as a groomer to tidy up the fur of those peoples four-legged companions. The defunct laundromat at the McQuades...
Jewish Humor Central is a daily publication to start your day with news of the Jewish world that's likely to produce a knowing smile and some Yiddishe nachas. It's also a collection of sources of Jewish humor--anything that brings a grin, chuckle, laugh, guffaw, or just a warm feeling to readers. Our posts include jokes, satire, books, music, films, videos, food, Unbelievable But True, and In the News. Some are new, and some are classics. We post every morning, Sunday through Friday. Enjoy!
A hole found on one of LaGuardia's 13/31 runway has caused the delay of several flights as well as the closure of the specific runway for about five hours on Wednesday. A spokesperson for the Port Authority, owner and operator of LaGuardia, revealed that the hole was discovered after a departing aircraft reported about it at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

The crew immediately resorted to repairing the runway. The whole repair took about five hours and ended at around 8 o'clock in the evening. The hole was said to be about 8 feet by 2 feet in size.

Reports from Newsday reveals that the spokesman said they "don't know the cause or the size of the damage to the runway." However, another report from NBC New York stated that airport sources have told them: "A plane landing at LaGuardia Airport blew out a chunk of concrete on the runway as it was coming down, and flights were backed up for over an hour as crews repaired the runway." Meanwhile, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman also said they were only told by the Port Authority about the repair happening at the approach end of LaGuardia's runway 13.

The long hours have resulted to travelers becoming frustrated. To vent out their frustration, some of the travelers took to social media and expressed their dismay about the situation.

"Pothole found on the #LGA runway. Flight delays, 30th in line to takeoff! @NYGovCuomo please help this city's potentially great airport!" said Twitter user @jeffersongaddis.

"3rd world country laguardia airport has only 1 runway working & at least 40 airplanes waiting in line 4 takeoff on beautiful sunny nite," tweeted user @michaeltomaso.

On the other hand, the other runway was left open at the airport. This has created "a bottleneck of flights trying to get in and out through the afternoon and evening."

Departing and arriving flights were delayed from half an hour to over an hour due to the situation.
Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, along with LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman and more than 60 U.S. employers signed a brief on Tuesday asking the Supreme Court to rule in favor of Pres. Obama's executive amnesty, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA).

The United States v. Texas, as the case is now called will decide the fate of two so-called "deferred action" programs the President proposed in late November 2014, which would prevent undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children from being deported, as well as adults whose children are lawful residents of the United States.

If the now eight-member Supreme Court upholds DAPA and DACA, the executive orders can temporarily shield up to 5 million immigrants without documentation from being deported and let them lawfully seek work in the meantime.

"Instead of inviting the economic contributions of immigrants, our immigration enforcement policies have often inhibited the productivity of US companies and made it harder for them to compete in the global marketplace," the brief reads. "America's immigration enforcement policies should ensure that immigrants' ingenuity, skills, and entrepreneurial spirit are contributing to the US economy and deferred action policies are a helpful start."

Zuckerberg was the most high-profile name on the list of 63 American businesses and executives, which included Redfin Corp., PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman and influential, San Francisco-based venture capitalist Ron Conway.

Zuckerberg is one of the three founders of FWD.us, a lobbying group focused on immigration reform that was started in 2013.FWD.us is an the immigration advocacy group which fights for increasing immigration, specifically increasing H-1B visa caps. FWD.us also supported Sen. Schumer and Rubio's Gang of Eight bill in 2013. Many high-tech companies including Facebook, Hewlett-Packard, and Disney have used H-1B visas to bring in cheap, foreign labor to replace American workers.

The Supreme Court is expected to start hearing the case in April with a ruling expected in June.
Amazon's voice-recognition-based gizmo called Echo may soon become the next great thing as believed by many tech experts. Experts based their assumption on its rapid rise in popularity, the gadget being now one of the most sold-out items on the e-commerce giant's site.

Amazon Echo is a voice-controlled, screen-less household computer expected by analyst to surpass smartwatches and fitness trackers in popularity as people become more accustomed to it in their homes. Plus, the gadget is extremely versatile and it can be constantly improved with new functionality.

It integrated vocal assistant called Alexa which looks more promising than Google Now and Apple's Siri. You can order a Uber ride via Alexa, add new items on the shopping list, or perform simple tasks as reordering popcorn with a single voice command.

Tech writer Farhad Manjoo has high praise for Amazon's Echo: "Amazon seems on the verge of building something like Iron Man's Jarvis, the artificial intelligence brain at the center of all your household activities," he writes in the New York Times.

Reportedly Amazon has worked very hard on making the Echo faster. NYT reported that earlier the device used to take 8-9 seconds to respond, however now the response time has been almost reduced to 1,000 or 1,200 milliseconds

"It's one of the most sold-out things that I see on Amazon," said Scot Wingo, the chairman of ChannelAdvisor. "It's an unusual thing for Amazon to be out of something, but for the Echo, it's usually in stock just for a couple weeks before it goes out of stock for a few days - so it feels like they're having trouble making enough of the devices."

While Amazon doesn't release official device sales numbers, consumers appear satisfied with the Echo; Amazon's website has the device with an average 4.4 out of 5 stars from over 33,000 reviews. As regular Amazon users, this is rather unheralded.

The Echo runs around $180, but Amazon also released two new versions last week: a portable version and one that can plug into an existing speaker.
Email

Links to our top local news stories of the day, Monday through Saturday.
Michael Gilbert, executive vice president of product development at Kohls, explains Kohls makeover of its Sonoma house brand at the Menomonee Falls store. Credit: Michael McLoone / for the Journal Sentinel

By of the

The tip of the iceberg with Kohl's repositioned Sonoma line is visible in many of the chain's stores: Defined departments marked with clean, simple signage; spruced-up displays; more-interesting fixtures; less jumble.

But beneath the surface of this makeover of a billion-dollar private brand stands 18 months of work by hundreds of employees in a project that ranged from Menomonee Falls to Manhattan, and from the aisles of Kohl's stores into the very closets of customers.

It's an important step for the nationwide retailer as it continues to seek to reinvigorate its stalled sales, an effort that so far has failed to deliver notably improved results.

"We talk about Sonoma as our flagship brand, the one we're investing in the most," said Michael Gilbert, executive vice president of product development at Kohl's.

The reasons for that investment are clear. Sales of Sonoma clothes and home goods peaked in 2012, then started to decline. Executives concluded that the house brand, which Kohl's introduced 22 years ago on jeans, had lost its identity.

Kohl's isn't alone in wrestling with this sort of challenge. Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch and J. Crew all have struggled with similar issues, said Anne Brouwer, senior partner at Chicago retail consulting firm McMillanDoolittle.

"Trying to define a clear identity and stick to it and bring it to life  and bring it to life in a compelling way  is really important, because otherwise it's just more stuff," Brouwer said.

With Sonoma, the women's line was particularly unfocused, Gilbert said, with the label attached to clothing that ranged from "easy casual" to more-contemporary apparel that was "maybe a little bit more ornate, overdone."

In home decor, Sonoma was sort of a catchall for a grab-bag of styles, he said.

And the brand's beige and brown signs and labeling, Gilbert said, "looked a little dark, a little dreary and a little dated."

So, what to do?

Step one was to sound out consumers on their perceptions and preferences. Kohl's did surveys, conducted focus groups and listened to shoppers while walking with them through the stores.

"You also 'shop' closets," Gilbert said. That means visiting a customer's home, going through her closet and asking why she chose the clothes hanging there.

Kohl's hired Graj + Gustavsen, a New York branding firm that has worked with such companies as Brooks Brothers, Harley-Davidson, Levi's and Dick's Sporting Goods.

"We wanted some external eyes on the brand," Gilbert said. "We connected with them as far as ideals on simplicity and the modern customer."

Graj + Gustavsen came up with the "Goods for Life" tag line now attached to the Sonoma label, and helped shape the foundation of an aesthetic that, in Gilbert's words, is "simple, easy, modern, effortless."

Graj + Gustavsen co-founder Simon Graj sees a major shift in consumer thinking away from the long-exploited beliefs that if you buy something that projects a particular image  sexy, cool, successful  you will personally take on those characteristics.

With easy access to oceans of information, shoppers now are more critical and are increasingly seeking products that enhance their lives, he said. He believes Sonoma can tap into a long-term opportunity by providing "essentials for modern life."

"People have enough stuff already," Graj said. "They don't need any more stuff. So the positioning of Sonoma is to curate and edit and bring to market, in an easy shoppable way, core utility products that look great, are innovative, are modern classic."

A retailer might swallow hard when a consultant says people don't need more things, but Graj said transparency and honesty help build customer loyalty.

"You become reliant on the brand and you trust them to give you the things that you need and things that you want," he said.

As part of the effort to turn those abstract values into pique polo shirts, washed jeans and textured slub tees, Kohl's "actually went out and hired great design leadership talent to focus specifically on Sonoma," Gilbert said.

He said the company also upgraded fabrics, and moved to better wash and dye treatments.

The result, he said, is a "more modern, more focused and more cohesive" collection, allowing for easy mixing and matching.

And at a time when online competitors are forcing brick-and-mortar retailers to emphasize experience as well as merchandise, Kohl's has opened up the Sonoma sections and fitted them with specially designed shelves and racks for a somewhat more-upscale presentation.

The updated fixtures have been installed in about 400 of the 1,167 stores.

"It's easier to walk around in," Gilbert said. "You can explore in a way that's inviting, versus off-putting or dangerous."

Some critics of have complained of cluttered departments in Kohl's stores, and Brouwer said it makes sense to give shoppers more space.

Repositioning a brand is a major task at any time, but it may even be tougher now if the goals include attracting a younger apparel clientele as Kohl's appears to be trying to do, Brouwer said.

Not only are there no new trend-driven, must-have styles, but millennials in particular appear to be spending less on apparel and more on experiences, technology and paying down student loan debt, she said. And many may be just as happy shopping at Goodwill rather than a first-run store.

"Those are creating challenges for almost anybody in the apparel business," Brouwer said.

Gilbert said that while Kohl's has introduced some new, more-expensive Sonoma items, it generally has not raised prices in the brand. It remains a lower-price line  particularly given Kohl's almost-constant sales and other discounting programs.

Long known as a smart operator with a knack for controlling costs, Kohl's has struggled in recent years to generate significant top-line growth. The Sonoma relaunch, part of a larger drive to make the middle-tier retailer more of a fashion destination, is intended to help.

Kohl's stores carry roughly a 50-50 mix of national brands (Levi's, Nike, Carter's) and proprietary lines such as Sonoma, the more classically tailored Croft & Barrow and Simply Vera Vera Wang.

National brands work better for attracting new customers, but private lines carry fatter profit margins, and with the new styling and presentation, Sonoma conceivably could become a draw of its own.

"For us to win, we need to grow both, and the investment in Sonoma is a sign that we're going to pay attention to our private brands, not just national brands," Gilbert said.
Two-Fifty building general manager Chase Gravengood looks out the 20th floors south facing windows. The floor is being remodeled. The buildings new owners are in the middle of an $8.5 million improvement project that they say will help the building on Wisconsin Ave. draw more businesses. Credit: Michael Sears

By of the

The Two-Fifty building has tenants in just 20% of its 200,000 square feet, ranking it among downtown Milwaukee's loneliest office towers.

But the building's new owners are in the middle of an $8.5 million improvement project that they say will help Two-Fifty, located at 250 E. Wisconsin Ave., draw more businesses.

Two-Fifty will tap such trends as a growing number of suburban businesses moving downtown to better attract and retain younger workers, said Jen Sweeney, director of property management at Millbrook Properties.

Likely prospects will include law firms and financial services companies, Sweeney said.

Sweeney and Chase Gravengood, the building's general manager, also said the growing number of downtown housing developments, as well as such projects as the new streetcar and Milwaukee Bucks arena, will help Two-Fifty.

"We think the timing is right with all the projects downtown," Gravengood said. "And we want to be part of it."

Millbrook, based in Buffalo Grove, Ill., and Chicago-based Fulcrum Asset Advisors LLC operate a group, Fulcrum 250 East LLC, which in July bought the 20-story building for $9.75 million, according to state real estate records.

The Fulcrum/Millbrook group bought the building from an affiliate of Dallas-based Lone Star Funds.

Two-Fifty was built in 1973 and for decades was a successful property. But it began losing tenants after the previous owners failed to invest in the building's maintenance, Gravengood said.

"We can see they didn't put any money into it," he said.

Marcus Corp. moved its headquarters in 2003 to the 100 East building, 100 E. Wisconsin Ave. More recently, both Ziegler and Cos. and BMO Harris Bank moved out of Two-Fifty.

So, the new owners have been making improvements to the building. The work includes repairs to the facade and to the 450-stall, five-deck parking structure.

Upcoming projects will include renovations to the lobby and canopy; upgraded elevators; new carpeting in the corridors; and improvements to the shared conference room and fitness center.

Also, an informal shared work space, with Wi-Fi service, will be added.

"Tenants want to have that collaborative work area," Sweeney said. "It will sort of be like a warm, cozy area."

That will help appeal to businesses with younger workers, she said. Those millennials are sometimes defined as people born from 1981 through 1996.

A Public Policy Forum survey of Milwaukee-area millennials found that 37% agreed that downtown is the location in the metro area where they would most like to work.

That survey, released in December, said 29% of the respondents disagreed with that statement, while 34% neither agreed nor disagreed.

One business coming to Two-Fifty from the suburbs is the Milwaukee-area office of commercial real estate brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle.

The firm, which is Two-Fifty's leasing agent, plans to move in May from Crossroads Corporate Center, at I-94 and Moreland Blvd. in the Town of Brookfield, to 5,000 square feet at Two-Fifty, Sweeney and Gravengood said.

Along with seeking office tenants, Jones Lang LaSalle will recruit businesses for around 13,250 square feet of retail space.

That includes the 7,800-square-foot former Moceans restaurant space at 747 N. Broadway, on the street level of the parking structure.

The restaurant space, which previously housed Grenadier's for 29 years, has been vacant since 2007.

Two-Fifty's renovations come as downtown's office market posted a solid performance in 2015, according to a new report from Colliers International's Milwaukee office.

It said downtown posted a vacancy rate of just under 20%, compared to 19.4% for the metro area, with steadily increasing rents.

"We will continue to see this steady rise as demand for office space continues to hold strong," the report said.

Facebook: facebook.com/JSBusiness

Twitter: twitter.com/TomDaykin
Henry Winkler raises his arms after throwing out the first pitch before game between the Milwaukee Brewers and Houston Astros at Miller Park August 2008. Winkler will revisit his role as the Fonz during this years Wisconsin State Fair. Credit: Journal Sentinel files

SHARE

By ,

Move over, Bronze Fonz.

Anson Williams, Donny Most and special guest Henry Winkler will revisit their classic roles during "Happy Days: Live" at the 2016 Wisconsin State Fair. The students of Jefferson High will reunite on stage Aug. 10 at 7:30 p.m. The act will include music, rare photos, unreleased home videos and a question-and-answer session.

But Fonz's trip home wasn't the only State Fair act announced Thursday.

Four-time Grammy-nominated Christian rock group Newsboys will headline the fair on Aug. 8 at 7:30 p.m. The band followed up its 2014 album "God's Not Dead" with their latest release, "Love Riot." Newsboys will be joined on stage by Francesca Battistelli, who won a Grammy for her hit "Holy Spirit."

And "American Idol" champion Phillip Phillips will co-headline the main stage with Matt Nathanson on Aug. 13 at 7:30 p.m. Phillips is best known for his hit "Home," which became "Idol's" bestselling coronation song. Nathanson, who has toured with Kelly Clarkson and Train, is most recognized for his platinum-selling album "Come On Get Higher."

Tickets for all three shows go on sale Friday, March 18 at 9 a.m. at wistatefair.com and at the State Fair Ticket Office, 7722 W. Greenfield Ave. All main stage tickets include fair admission when purchased before entering State Fair Park. Tickets for "Happy Days: Live" are $25 and $35; $29 and $39 for Newsboys; and $29 and $39 for the Phillips and Nathanson show. (All prices exclude service fees.)

Previously announced acts include Shawn Mendes on Aug. 4; Halestorm on Aug. 5. and Rascall Flatts on Aug. 6.

The Wisconsin State Fair runs Aug. 4 through Aug. 14 at the State Fair Park in West Allis.

Correction: An earlier version of this story had the wrong date for tickets sales. It has been updated with the correct date of Friday, March 18.
A trip to the country takes a young woman back to her childhood in Only Yesterday. The 1991 animated movie from Japans Studio Ghibli is making its U.S. premiere to mark its 25th anniversary. Credit: TNS

By of the

Here's a guide to what's on the big screen in the Milwaukee area. It doesn't include listings for movies opening next Friday but holding Thursday night screenings, including "The Divergent Series: Allegiant."

As always, all theater information is subject to change. Check with individual theaters for updates.



Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip

PG (some mild rude humor and language). 92 minutes. Playing: Oak Creek Budget.

In the fourth live-action/computer-animated movie inspired by the novelty-song-turned-cartoon characters, Alvin, Simon and Theodore hit the road to stop Dave from marrying his girlfriend.

The Big Short

R (pervasive language, some sexuality/nudity). 130 minutes. Playing: Fox-Bay.

An eccentric money manager, a young Wall Street banker, an activist fund operator and an ex-banker bet against the 2005 housing boom. Michael Lewis' bestselling nonfiction book about the economic collapse is the basis for this comedy, with Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, Steve Carell, Brad Pitt. Oscar winner for best adapted screenplay.

Bolshoi Ballet: Spartacus

Not rated. 170 minutes. Playing: Majestic (Sun. only), North Shore (Sun. only).

The Russian ballet company's production of Yuri Grigorovich's ballet about the former king turned gladiator who plots a revolt against Rome.

The Boondock Saints

R (violence, language, sexual content). 110 minutes. Playing: Rosebud (Thu. only).

1999 violent action-comedy cult favorite, about two Irish-American brothers who set themselves up as avengers in Boston. With Willem Dafoe, Sean Patrick Flanery, Billy Connolly. Showing at 9 p.m. Thursday (St. Patrick's Day); admission is $5.

The Boy and the Beast

PG-13 (some violence, language). 119 minutes. Playing: Mayfair Mall.

Fable about a street orphan taken in by a warrior beast as an apprentice, with both forming an unexpected bond in the process. Japanese anime feature, with English subtitles.

Brooklyn

PG-13 (brief sexuality, brief language). 112 minutes. Playing: Ridge.

Saoirse Ronan as a young Irish woman in the 1950s who comes to America and falls in love, only to be called back to Ireland and question where her true home lies.

The Brothers Grimsby

R (crude sexual content, nudity, violence, language, some drug use). 83 minutes. Playing: Hillside, IPic/Bayshore, Majestic, Mayfair Mall, Menomonee Falls, North Shore, Ridge, Saukville, Showtime, South Shore, Southgate.

Sacha Baron Cohen plays a working-class, English football-obsessed layabout who is reunited with his long-lost brother (Mark Strong), who turns out to be a secret agent on the run and trying to thwart a terrorist attack. With Rebel Wilson, Penelope Cruz, Isla Fisher, Gabourey Sidibe.

Busco Novio Para Mi Mujer

PG-13 (sexual material, some language, smoking). 92 minutes. Playing: Oak Creek Budget.

A man fed up with his bossy, abusive wife hires a professional seducer to take her off his hands  and then has second thoughts when he realizes that he still loves her. With Arath de la Torre, Sandra Echeverria. Mexican romantic comedy, in Spanish with English subtitles.

Concussion

PG-13 (thematic material, disturbing images, language). 122 minutes. Playing: Oak Creek Budget.

A doctor investigating the untimely death of a former NFL star discovers a new form of brain trauma traceable to collisions on the gridiron  and promptly makes big enemies of one of America's biggest institutions. Drama, based on the life and work of Bennet Omalu, with Will Smith as the doctor.

Creed

PG-13 (violence, language, some sensuality). 132 minutes. Playing: Oak Creek Budget.

The son of Rocky's rival-turned-pal Apollo Creed seeks out the punch-drunk ex-fighter to help him train for the ring. With Michael B. Jordan as Adonis Creed and Sylvester Stallone as the aging Italian Stallion.

Deadpool

R (pervasive violence and language, sexual content, nudity). 108 minutes. Playing: Avalon, Hillside, Majestic, Mayfair Mall, Menomonee Falls, North Shore, Ridge, Saukville, Showtime, South Shore, Southgate.

Marvel movie with Ryan Reynolds as an ex-mercenary who undergoes a lifesaving experiment that leaves him horribly scarred but also gives him accelerated healing powers  and amps up his expletive-spewing, morally ambiguous persona.

Dirty Grandpa

R (pervasive crude sexual content, nudity, language, drug use). 102 minutes. Playing: Oak Creek Budget.

A lewd, crude oldster tricks his straight-laced grandson into taking a raunchy road trip to Daytona in the hopes of liberating them both. Crude comedy with Zac Efron, Robert De Niro.

Eddie the Eagle

PG-13 (some suggestive material, partial nudity, smoking). 105 minutes. Playing: Fox-Bay, Hillside, Majestic, Mayfair Mall, Menomonee Falls, North Shore, Ridge, Saukville, Showtime, South Shore.

An Olympic wannabe, with help from an unorthodox coach, defies the odds to represent Britain in the 1988 Winter Games. Inspirational sports drama about Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards, with Taron Egerton, Hugh Jackman.

Embrace of the Serpent

Not rated (some drug use, violence). 125 minutes. Playing:Downer.

A shaman in the Amazon befriends two European scientists, including one who needs a rare plant to survive. Dreamlike drama, filmed in black and white, was the first Colombian movie nominated for an Oscar for best foreign-language film. In Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese and German, with English subtitles.

Gods of Egypt

PG-13 (fantasy violence, some sexuality). 127 minutes. Playing: Majestic, Mayfair Mall, Menomonee Falls, Ridge, South Shore.

In ancient Egypt, a mortal and a warrior god take on the god of darkness. With Gerard Butler, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

The Good Dinosaur

PG (thematic elements). 92 minutes. Playing: .

In an alternative world where that asteroid missed Earth, a young dinosaur befriends a lost little boy. Animated Disney movie.

Hail, Caesar!

PG-13 (some suggestive content, smoking). 106 minutes. Playing: Oriental.

Coen brothers comedy about a movie studio fixer who, when the star of a big prestige picture is kidnapped, enlists studio talent to help get to the bottom of it. With Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Scarlett Johansson.

How to Be Single

R (sexual content, pervasive language). 110 minutes. Playing: Ridge.

After a bad breakup, a young woman (Dakota Johnson) gets help in navigating the dating world from a free-spirited pal (Rebel Wilson).

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay  Part 2

PG-13 (violence, some thematic material). 136 minutes. Playing: Oak Creek Budget.

Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and friends take the rebellion to the Capitol in the final chapter in the blockbuster action series.

Jane Got a Gun

R (violence, some language). 98 minutes. Playing: Oak Creek Budget.

Western starring Natalie Portman as a woman defending her homestead against some outlaws with the reluctant assistance of a former beau (Joel Edgerton).

Kung Fu Panda 3

PG (mild rude humor). 95 minutes. Playing: Hillside, Majestic, Mayfair Mall, Menomonee Falls, Ridge, Saukville, South Shore, Southgate.

Po, that free-spirited martial-arts panda, has to face off against an evil bull that has absorbed the powers of other masters in the spirit realm. With voices by Jack Black, J.K. Simmons, Kate Hudson.

The Lady in the Van

PG-13 (a brief unsettling image). 104 minutes. Playing: Downer, Ridge.

An elderly woman talks playwright Alan Bennett into letting her park her van in his driveway, and winds up living in it, there, for the next 15 years. Based on a true story, with Maggie Smith, Alex Jennings.

London Has Fallen

R (violence, pervasive language). 99 minutes. Playing: Hillside, IPic/Bayshore, Majestic, Mayfair Mall, Menomonee Falls, North Shore, Ridge, Saukville, Showtime, South Shore, Southgate.

A Secret Service agent who saved the president from a terrorist attack is back on the case when a different terrorist targeting the president during a state funeral in London. Sequel to 2013 action hit "Olympus Has Fallen," with Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman.

Mermaid

R (some violence). 93 minutes. Playing: Ridge.

A man's bid to reclaim part of the sea meets opposition from the mermaids living there. When one is dispatched to stop him, they fall in love  and expose the mermaids to a secret organization out to capture them. Action fable by Stephen Chow ("Kung Fu Hustle") in Mandarin with English subtitles.

Miracles From Heaven

PG (thematic material). 109 minutes. Playing: Majestic (Wed.-Thu. only), Mayfair Mall (Wed.-Thu. only), Menomonee Falls (Wed.-Thu. only), North Shore (Wed.-Thu. only), Ridge (Wed.-Thu. only), Saukville (Wed.-Thu. only), South Shore (Wed.-Thu. only), Southgate (Wed.-Thu. only).

When her daughter is diagnosed with an incurable disease, a fiercely protective mother refuses to give in. As she's on the brink of losing faith, a freak accident yields a miracle  pushing the girl's mother, her family and her community to address the issue of faith in the face of insurmountable odds. Faith-fueled drama from the producers of "Heaven Is for Real," with Jennifer Garner, Queen Latifah, Martin Henderson, John Carroll Lynch, Kylie Rogers.

My Neighbor Totoro

G. 88 minutes. Playing: Avalon (Sat. only).

Two sisters in rural Japan share adventures with a giant furry forest spirit named Totoro. 1988 animated classic written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Showing at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, dubbed in English; admission is $5.

National Theatre Live:

As You Like It

Not rated. 180 minutes. Playing:Oriental (Thu. only).

New modern-dress stage production of Shakespeare's comedy, with Rosalie Craig, Patsy Ferran.

Norm of the North

PG (mild rude humor). 90 minutes. Playing: Oak Creek Budget.

Worried that tourists, hotels and condos will destroy his world, an affable but clumsy polar bear goes to New York City to talk the developer out of his scheme. Animated family comedy.

Only Yesterday

PG (thematic elements, some rude behavior, smoking). 118 minutes. Playing: Oriental.

A city girl visits her family in the country, and the trip stirs memories and forgotten feelings. Classic 1991 Japanese animated film by Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki making its U.S. debut, showing in English and in Japanese with English subtitles (English voice cast includes Daisy Ridley, Dev Patel).

The Other Side of the Door

R (some violence, gore). 96 minutes. Playing: Majestic, Mayfair Mall, South Shore.

Horror movie in which, years after losing her young son, an inconsolable mother learns of an ancient temple that has a portal to the other side allowing her to communicate with him  unless she screws things up by opening the door.

The Peanuts Movie

G. 89 minutes. Playing: Hillside (Fri.-Sun. only), Majestic (Fri.-Sun. only), Menomonee Falls (Fri.-Sun. only), North Shore (Fri.-Sun. only), Ridge (Fri.-Sun. only), South Shore (Fri.-Sun. only), Southgate.

Charlie Brown, Snoopy and friends are back in this computer-animated family movie.

The Perfect Match

R (sexuality, some nudity, pervasive language). 91 minutes. Playing: IPic/Bayshore, Majestic, Mayfair Mall, Menomonee Falls, North Shore, South Shore, Southgate.

A relationship-averse ladies' man is bet by his buddies that he can't stay with one woman for an entire month, and the woman he picks is, for once, just not that into the idea of a long-term deal. Romantic comedy with Terrence J, Cassie Ventura, Paula Patton, Donald Faison.

Princess Mononoke

PG-13 (violent images). 134 minutes. Playing: Avalon (Tue. and Thu. only).

Animated 1997 gem by Hayao Miyazaki, centered on a young man who, after a run-in with a supernatural power, gets some help from a girl who lives with wolf-gods. Showing in Japanese with English subtitles at 9 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday; admission is $5.

Psycho-Pass: The Movie

Not rated (violence). 113 minutes. Playing:Downer (Tue.-Wed. only), Ridge (Tue.-Wed. only).

In a future where extensive surveillance and biological monitoring keep the populace in line, a band of terrorists trains guerrilla fighters to take on the system. Feature-length follow-up to the popular Japanese anime television series, dubbed in English.

Race

PG-13 (language, thematic elements). 134 minutes. Playing: Mayfair Mall.

On his run to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, track star Jesse Owens faces up to the pressures of a threatened boycott of Hitler's Games and racial prejudice at home in this sports biopic. With Stephan James ("Selma") as Owens.

The Revenant

R (violence, some gore, a sexual assault, language, brief nudity). 156 minutes. Playing: Hillside, Majestic, Mayfair Mall, Menomonee Falls, North Shore, Ridge, Saukville, Showtime.

Left for dead after being mauled by a bear, an explorer in the American wilderness of the 19th century sets out for revenge. Atmosphere-rich historical drama by Oscar-winning director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, with Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy.

Ride Along 2

PG-13 (violence, sexual content, language, some drug material). 101 minutes. Playing: Southgate.

Kevin Hart and Ice Cube  brothers-in-law-to-be, now  head for Miami to track down a drug kingpin. Sequel to the 2014 action comedy co-stars Olivia Munn, Ken Jeong, Benjamin Bratt.

Risen

PG-13 (violence, some disturbing images). 108 minutes. Playing: Hillside, Majestic, Menomonee Falls, Ridge, Saukville, Showtime.

In Jerusalem, a Roman soldier is ordered to find out what happened to Jesus' body after he was crucified, before his disappearance is hailed as the sign of a new messiah. Faith-fueled action movie with Joseph Fiennes, Tom Felton.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

R (sexual content, innuendo, language, mature themes). 95 minutes. Playing:Oriental (Sat. only).

Brad and Janet stop by Dr. Frank-N-Furter's castle and find some strange goings-on, from sex to Busby Berkeley-style musical numbers to some of the campiest performances you'll ever see, featuring the young Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Tim Curry and, yes, Meat Loaf  again. (Showing at midnight Saturday only.)

Room

R (language). 118 minutes. Playing: Ridge.

A woman and her young son make a universe for themselves in a tiny space, but liberation offers challenges of its own. Based on the bestselling novel, with Oscar winner Brie Larson as the mother and Jacob Tremblay as her son.

Son of Saul

R (violent content, nudity). 107 minutes. Playing: Times.

In the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, a man forced to work in the crematoriums is determined to get a proper religious burial for the body of a boy whom he's taken as his son. This year's Oscar for best foreign-language film. In Hungarian and many other European languages, with English subtitles.

Spotlight

R (some language). 128 minutes. Playing: Hillside, Majestic, Mayfair Mall, North Shore, Ridge, Saukville.

Oscar winner for best picture and original screenplay. Journalists dig into a story of a priest facing accusations of sexual abuse and discover a bigger conspiracy within the Catholic Church and Boston's power elite. With Michael Keaton, Kenosha native Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

PG-13 (fantasy/action violence). 136 minutes. Playing: Hillside, Menomonee Falls, Ridge, Rivoli/Cedarburg, South Shore.

Thirty years after the events of the first "Star Wars" trilogy, the rebellion is in trouble, a dark organization called the First Order is on the rise, and old warriors are in the fight. With Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Harrison Ford. (Showing in 3-D at Rivoli/Cedarburg Fri.-Sat., Mon., Wed.-Thu. only.)

10 Cloverfield Lane

PG-13 (thematic material, some violence, brief language). 105 minutes. Playing: Hillside, IPic/Bayshore, Majestic, Mayfair Mall, North Shore, Ridge, Saukville, Showtime, South Shore, Southgate.

After an accident, a young woman finds herself locked in an underground bunker with another guy and a doomsday prepper who tells them there's something apocalyptic happening outside. But what if it's happening inside, too? Horror-thriller co-produced by J.J. Abrams, who also produced "Cloverfield." With John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead. (Showing in IMAX format at Mayfair Mall.)

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

R (pervasive combat violence, gore, language). 144 minutes. Playing: Oak Creek Budget.

When the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, is attacked, a unit of former military men turned private security contractors for the CIA has to decide whether their mission includes rescuing the diplomats. Action movie based on a bestselling account of the attacks, directed by Michael Bay.

Triple 9

R (pervasive violence and language, drug use, some nudity). 115 minutes. Playing: Mayfair Mall, Menomonee Falls, South Shore.

En route to a big score, a crime crew made up of corrupt police and military types and in league with the Russian mob run into an honest cop. With Casey Affleck, Anthony Mackie, Kate Winslet.

The Wave

R (some language, disaster scenes). 105 minutes. Playing: Oriental.

In a Norwegian tourist town  where the scenic beauty is offset by the danger of the nearby mountain collapsing into the fjord, triggering a tsunami  a geologist senses the Big One is imminent. In Norwegian with English subtitles.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

R (pervasive language, some sexual content, drug use, violent war images). 111 minutes. Playing: Hillside, IPic/Bayshore, Majestic, Mayfair Mall, Menomonee Falls, North Shore, Ridge, Saukville, Showtime, South Shore.

A TV reporter looking to get our of her rut is assigned to cover the war in Afghanistan. Comedy of sorts based on Kim Barker's memoir "The Taliban Shuffle," with Tina Fey, Margot Robbie, Martin Freeman.

The Witch

R (violent content, mature themes, nudity). 92 minutes. Playing: Menomonee Falls, Oriental, South Shore.

In 1630 New England, a farmer and his family move to the edge of a scary forest, where an evil creeps into their farm  an evil they all blame on his teenage daughter, who they accuse of witchcraft. Sundance Film Festival award-winning horror film.

The Young Messiah

PG-13 (some violence, thematic elements). 111 minutes. Playing: Hillside, Majestic, Mayfair Mall, Menomonee Falls, North Shore, Ridge, Showtime, South Shore, Southgate.

Portrait of Jesus as a young boy, as he and his family return to Nazareth from Egypt. Inspirational drama based on Anne Rice's novel, telling young Jesus' story from the boy's perspective. With Adam Greaves-Neal as young Jesus, co-starring Sean Bean, Jonathan Bailey.

Zoolander 2

PG-13 (crude and sexual content, brief violence, brief language). 102 minutes. Playing: Oak Creek Budget.

Derek Zoolander, the dimwitted supermodel who saved the (fashion) world in 2001, is called on to do so again 15 years later when someone begins targeting the world's most beautiful people. Ben Stiller directed and stars in this sequel, with Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell, Penelope Cruz, Kristen Wiig.

Zootopia

PG (rude humor, some thematic elements). 108 minutes. Playing: Avalon, Fox-Bay, Hillside, IPic/Bayshore, Majestic, Mayfair Mall, Menomonee Falls, North Shore, Ridge, Rosebud, Saukville, Showtime, South Shore, Southgate.

In a mammal metropolis, a bunny who's the first of her kind on the city police force is determined to make her mark. Animated Disney comedy with voices by, among others, Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba. (Showing in 3-D at Avalon, Hillside, Majestic, Mayfair Mall, Menomonee Falls, North Shore, Ridge, Rosebud, Saukville, Showtime, South Shore, Southgate.)

Written and compiled by Chris Foran.

For more on the movies, go to jsonline.com/movies.

THEATER GUIDE

Avalon(Neighborhood Theater Group): 2473 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., (414) 539-6678

Downer(Landmark): 2589 N. Downer Ave., (414) 962-3120

Fox Bay(Cinema Grill): 334 E. Silver Spring Drive, Whitefish Bay, (414) 906-9999

Hillside(Marcus): 2950 Hillside Drive, Delafield, (262) 646-7300

IPic/Bayshore: 5800 N. Bayshore Drive, Glendale, (414) 963-8779

Majestic(Marcus): 770 N. Springdale Road, Brookfield, (262) 798-4099

Mayfair Mall(AMC): 2500 N. Mayfair Road, Wauwatosa, (888) 262-4386

Menomonee Falls(Marcus): W180-N9393 Premier Lane, Menomonee Falls, (262) 502-9070

North Shore(Marcus): 11700 N. Port Washington Road, Mequon, (262) 241-6180

Oak Creek Budget(Marcus): 6912 S. 27th St., Oak Creek, (414) 761-7469

Oriental(Landmark): 2230 N. Farwell Ave., 276-5140

Ridge(Marcus): 5200 S. Moorland Road, New Berlin (262) 797-0889

Rivoli/Cedarburg: W62-N567 Washington Ave., Cedarburg, (262) 377-1010

Rosebud(Neighborhood Theater Group): 6823 W. North Ave., Wauwatosa, (414) 763-7975

Saukville(Marcus): 350 S. Riverside Drive, Saukville, (262) 268-9455

Showtime(Marcus): 8910 S. 102nd St., Franklin, (414) 425-2600

South Shore(Marcus): 7261 S. 13th St., Oak Creek, (414) 768-5960

Southgate(Marcus): 3330 S. 30th St., (414) 672-5111

Times(Neighborhood Theater Group): 5906 W. Vliet St., (414) 763-1763
By of the

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services on Wednesday reported four new cases of the bacterial strain Elizabethkingia anophelisthat is linked to more than a dozen deaths in Wisconsin.

The new cases bring the total number of people infected to 48. No deaths were reported among the new cases. Indeed, the number of deaths has been revised downward from 18 to 15.

"This is the number of people with confirmed Elizabethkingia infections, who later died," department spokeswoman Jennifer Miller said in an email. "Again, it has not been determined if these deaths were caused by the infection or other serious pre-existing health problems."

A new county, Sheboygan, is now listed among the places where people who have been infected reside. The other 11 counties are: Columbia, Dane, Dodge, Fond du Lac, Jefferson, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Sauk, Washington and Waukesha.

Officials from the Illinois Department of Public Health said they have two suspected cases. Testing is underway to determine if the blood cultures show Elizabethkingia anophelis. Spokeswoman Melaney Arnold noted that Illinois recently had a couple cases of another strain of Elizabethkingia. Arnold could not say when the tests might be completed.

However, Melissa Brower, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said there was no evidence that the outbreak has extended beyond Wisconsin.

Other strains of the bacterium have been linked to outbreaks in the United States and around the world.

Most of the Wisconsin patients have been over age 65, and all of the deaths have occurred in people with severe chronic conditions, such as cancer, renal disease, cirrhosis and diabetes.

Although there have been previous outbreaks of this bacterial infection, the one in Wisconsin appears to be different in two respects. The bacteria is causing severe infections this time. And the cases are not concentrated in one facility, such as a hospital or nursing home, or even in one community.

Elizabethkingia anophelis  named after the American bacteriologist Elizabeth O. King, who first described it in 1959  poses a challenge for doctors because it is resistant to many antibiotics. However, a few antibiotics are effective and are being used to treat the Wisconsin patients.

The infection gets into the bloodstream, causing a sepsis in the most severe cases. Sepsis is a potentially fatal reaction to infection that disrupts the circulation, diverting blood from the organs that need it most to other areas that have less urgent need.

Often the bacteria can lurk in a sink or in water and spread to those who come in contact with it. Investigators have searched for a common environmental link and have even considered whether the bacteria could have been present in skin creams. A common link has not been found.

Raquel Rutledge of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
Bryan Stevenson, author Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, spoke at Milwaukee Area Technical College on Wednesday about racial inequalities in the justice system. Credit: Getty Images

SHARE "Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption," by Bryan Stevenson.

By of the

Justice activist and attorney Bryan Stevenson had a big request for those sitting in an auditorium Wednesday at Milwaukee Area Technical College.

"I want to ask you to change the world," he said. "I want us to create a different America. I want us to create a different justice system. I want us to do something big because we need something big."

Stevenson, author of the bestseller "Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption," has dedicated his life to addressing inequalities in the justice system. He founded the nonprofit Equal Justice Initiative, which works to eliminate racial and class bias in justice and represents inmates on death row and people it believes have been wrongly convicted.

Last month, Google's philanthropic branch announced it would give $1 million to the Equal Justice Initiative's efforts to create civil rights landmarks, including memorials at lynching sites across the country.

Speaking in Milwaukee before a near-capacity crowd of about 1,700 people, Stevenson outlined four strategies he said could lead to widespread change: Be proximate, or close, to the people and places affected most by inequality; change widespread narratives, such as those surrounding crime and race; remain hopeful; and be willing to do uncomfortable things.

"If you go where there is this despair and this dysfunction and you are proximate, you will find you have the power to change the world, and more than that, you will be changed," he said.

Stevenson also called for more honest discussion about race.

"Our history is that for decades we reinforced this narrative of racial difference," he said. "For decades, we built on this idea of white supremacy."

That history is reflected in present-day racial inequalities that exist in Wisconsin and the entire country, he said.

A University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee study in 2013 found Wisconsin has the highest black incarceration rate in the nation. One study last year found unemployment among African-Americans in Wisconsin was the highest in the country. Another determined the state's gap in graduation rates between black and white students was the largest in the country.

Stevenson commended Wisconsin for not using capital punishment  the death penalty was abolished here more than 160 years ago  but said more factors should be considered when gauging a community's commitment to justice.

"I can't judge you by how you treat the rich, the powerful and the privileged," Stevenson said. "I have to judge you by how you treat the poor and the incarcerated."
The Dalai Lama speaks Wednesday at the World We Make event in Madison. Credit: Darren Hauck / for the Center for Healthy Minds

SHARE

By of the

Madison  Dispensing wisdom and radiating warmth, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, told a rapt audience Wednesday that "this 21st century should be a century of dialogue."

As he reflected on the wars of his lifetime, from World War II to present conflicts, the Dalai Lama said "unlike (the) 20th century, this century must be (a) century of peace, of nonviolence."

The "World We Make" event, in the Capitol Theater at the Overture Center for the Arts, was the public highlight of the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader's 10th visit to Madison.

Wearing a crimson robe, black shoes and glasses, the Dalai Lama, 80, eagerly placed on his head a cap that read, "Change Your Mind, Change the World."

"It's practical," he said, peering at the audience with the stage lights beating down.

Richard Davidson, founder of the Center for Healthy Minds and a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the Dalai Lama's main message to the audience was that "we need to take responsibility now for cultivating positive qualities like kindness and compassion."

"We can all have a positive dramatic impact on the world if we take seriously that we can train our mind to nurture these qualities," Davidson said.

Answering questions from a panel that included Dan Harris, an ABC News correspondent, the Dalai Lama displayed an infectious laugh and a wry sense of humor that delighted the audience. At one point, he provided a long answer and then with a smile on his face asked the questioner, "Do you have further argument?"

"I would never argue with you. I hear you're a very skilled debater with many years of experience," said Soma Stout of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

Again and again the Dalai Lama reflected on how positive change can be made, starting with a single individual who can influence others  "10 people, 100 people, 100,000 people, then millions," he said. "That's the way to change."

"The happiness of humanity is our common goal, our common interest," he said. "Of course we are selfish. Selfish is the key factor for survival."

He was impassioned as he talked about the need for education "so that we can look at things from various angles. From one dimension you can't see fully."

He spoke of how there is an emphasis on love in all religious traditions. And he emphasized the important role parents play in developing and nurturing children.

The Dalai Lama also told a story of a Tibetan who had been imprisoned "18 years in a Chinese gulag," before being allowed to travel to India in the early 1980s. The man mentioned that he faced danger in those years, the Dalai Lama said.

Asked what kind of danger he faced, the man said "the danger of losing compassion toward the perpetrator."

"Practice of compassion is so important," the Dalai Lama said.

Harris, who wrote a self-help book called "How I Tamed the Voice In My Head," sought practical advice from the Dalai Lama.

"I have a 1-year-old," Harris said. "What is the right age to teach him mindfulness and will it stop him from pulling the cats' tails and eating their kibble and drooling on me and pulling the pages from my wife's magazines?"

"As a father, I think you know best," the Dalai Lama said to laughter and applause.
The medical examiner resigned suddenly. Now he can't be found to testify
SHARE

By

Baghdad  U.S. special forces captured the head of the Islamic State group's unit trying to develop chemical weapons in a raid last month in northern Iraq, Iraqi and U.S. officials said, representing the first known major success of Washington's more aggressive policy of pursuing Islamic State militants on the ground.

The Obama administration launched the new strategy in December, deploying a commando force to Iraq that it said would be dedicated to capturing and killing Islamic State leaders in clandestine operations, as well as generating intelligence leading to more raids.

U.S. officials said last week that the expeditionary team had captured an Islamic State leader but had refused to identify him, saying only that he had been held for two or three weeks and was being questioned.

Two Iraqi intelligence officials identified the man as Sleiman Daoud al-Afari, who worked for Saddam Hussein's now-dissolved Military Industrialization Authority, where he specialized in chemical and biological weapons. They said al-Afari, who is about 50 years old, heads the Islamic State's recently established branch for the research and development of chemical weapons.

He was captured in a raid near the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar, said the officials, who have firsthand knowledge of the individual and of the Islamic State chemical program. They would not give further details. In Washington, U.S. officials confirmed al-Afari's identity.

A U.S. official said one or more follow-up airstrikes were conducted against suspected Islamic State chemical facilities in northern Iraq in recent days. The official was unfamiliar with details of the airstrikes but indicated that they did not fully eliminate Islamic State's suspected chemical threat.

The U.S.-led coalition began targeting the Islamic State's chemical weapons infrastructure with airstrikes and special operations raids over the past two months, said the Iraqi intelligence officials and a Western security official in Baghdad.

Airstrikes are targeting laboratories and equipment, and further special forces raids targeting chemical weapons experts are planned, the intelligence officials said.

Special unit set up

The Islamic State has been making a determined effort to develop chemical weapons, Iraqi and American officials have said. The militant group, which emerged out of al-Qaida in Iraq, is believed to have set up a special unit for chemical weapons research, made up of Iraqi scientists from the Hussein-era weapons program as well as foreign experts.

Still, the Islamic State's progress in developing chemical weapons has been limited. It is believed to have created limited amounts of mustard gas. Tests confirmed that mustard gas was used in a town in Syria when the Islamic State was launching attacks there in August. Other unverified reports in both Iraq and Syria accuse the Islamic State of using chemical agents on the battlefield.

Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said the Islamic State has repeatedly used "sulfur mustard" as a weapon in Iraq and Syria. He said the sulfur mustard has been used in a powder form in projectiles such as artillery shells that when detonated create a dust cloud that "can primarily aggravate but in large doses can absolutely kill."

But so far, experts said, the extremist group appears incapable of launching a large-scale chemical weapon attack, which requires not only expertise but also the proper equipment, materials and a supply chain to produce enough of the chemical agent to pose a significant threat.

"More than a symbolic attack seems to me to be beyond the grasp of ISIS," said Dan Kaszeta, a former U.S. Army chemical officer and Department of Homeland Security expert who is now a private consultant, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State. "Furthermore, the chemicals we are talking about are principally chlorine and sulfur mustard, both of which are actually quite poor weapons by modern standards."

Prowess downplayed

Speaking to reporters from a base outside the city of Tikrit, Iraq Defense Minister Khaled al-Obaidi played down fears of the Islamic State's chemical weapons prowess, saying the group lacks "chemical capabilities."

The attacks that the group has carried out were only intended to "hurt the morale of our fighters," as they have so far not caused any casualties, al-Obaidi said.

Last year, U.S. special forces killed a key Islamic State leader and captured his wife in a raid in Syria, but the new force in Iraq was intended as a more dedicated deployment. American officials have been deeply secretive about the operation. Its size is unknown, although it may be fewer than 100 troops.

"This is a no-kidding force that will be doing important things" was about all Defense Secretary Ash Carter would say about the force in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee in December.
SHARE Kenneth McDonald Waukesha Police Department

By of the

A homeless sex offender released onto the streets of Waukesha with a Global Positioning System monitor Tuesday was promptly arrested Wednesday after he was reported to be near an elementary school, according to Waukesha police.

Kenneth McDonald, 44, was seen about 2:30 p.m. walking on Moreland Blvd. near Hawthorne Elementary School, 1111 Maitland Drive, according to a news release from the Waukesha Police Department.

Sate law prohibits convicted sex offenders from residing with 1,500 feet of schools, playgrounds or other facilities where children congregate.

McDonald was arrested and will be detained by the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, which will investigate his violation of GPS requirements, according to the release.

McDonald was convicted in 2005 for a second-degree sexual assault of a child after being accused of inappropriately touching two girls, ages 3 and 6, who resided in the same home with him, according to police.
Reddit Email 0 Shares

Maan News Agency |  

BETHLEHEM (Maan)  United States Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday said Israel could not stop violent acts carried out by Palestinians solely through physical force, the Associated Press reported.

Biden landed in Tel Aviv Tuesday as multiple attacks were carried out by Palestinian individuals in Israel and occupied Palestinian territory. The days incidents left four Palestinians and one American tourist dead.

The vice president condemned the attacks  as well as the failure by Palestinian leadership to condemn the attacks  during a joint press conference, according to AP.

The kind of violence we saw yesterday, the failure to condemn it, the rhetoric that incites that violence, the retribution that it generates, has to stop, Biden said, specifically targeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Fatah party, which he said glorified Tuesdays attacks.

Slamming Palestinian leadership and its alleged incitement of Palestinian violence, Biden said while such violence must be stopped, doing so cannot and will not be done just by physical force.

The slight criticism echoed condemnations by international leaders and rights groups of Israels harsh reaction against Palestinian communities for attacks carried out by individuals, termed by many as collective punishment.

Bidens visit came days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a planned trip to the US.

Israeli media reported the PM canceled the trip after the White House was unable to arrange a meeting between him and Obama, allegations the White House denied.

White House Press Secretary Jon Earnest in a press briefing on Tuesday denied Netanyahus move was a snub to the US, referring to the incident as simply a matter of scheduling.

Earnest added that Bidens visit was viewed as an opportunity for the vice president to strengthen relations between the US and Israel.

Earnest clarified that Biden did not intend to engage in negotiations over US military aid to Israel, a topic that has spurred controversy among the two parties in recent months.

Despite Earnests comments, Israeli officials told Israeli daily Haaretz that Biden on Wednesday encouraged Netanyahu to sign a new deal for military aid while Obama was still in office.

After the terms of the aid agreement became unclear in February, Netanyahu said he would wait for the next US president to sign a deal, if the current administration was unable to meet Israels security needs.

Israel reportedly requested at least $5 billion in annual military aid from the US that would be fixed for the ten years to follow, far surpassing the $3 billion per year currently received by Israel through a military aid agreement set to end by 2018.

While US-Israel relations have seen a series of diplomatic disputes over the past year, Israel remains the number one long-time recipient of US military aid, and Biden made clear during his visit that the US would continue to contribute to Israels defense needs.

Bidens visit is his first to Israel since 2010, when Israel announced the construction of 1,600 homes for illegal Jewish-only settlements in occupied East Jerusalem.

Via Maan News Agency

-

Related video added by Juan Cole:

AP: Biden And Netanyahu: Meeting Of Old Friends
Reddit Email 3 Shares

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

Republican presidential candidate and billionaire bigot Donald J. Trump said in a CNN interview on Wednesday that Islam hates us.

I think Islam hates us . . . deploring the tremendous hatred that he said partly defined the religion. He maintained the war was against radical Islam, but said, its very hard to define. Its very hard to separate. Because you dont know whos who. Asked if the hate was in Islam itself, Trump would only say that was for the media to figure out.

So since Mr. Trump wants journalists to figure all this out, and since Im both a journalist and an academic with a Ph.D. in Islamic Studies, let me inform him that he is just wrong here, as he wrong in about 76% of the things he spews past the silver spoon in his mouth.

Islam, of course, isnt capable of sentiment, being just an abstract conception. The issue is people, i.e. Muslims. So let me help Trump rephrase his question. Do Muslims hate the USA and/or its citizens? Mind you, he is implying that he thinks it is possible that all do.

Trumps arrogance disregards the possibility that Muslims might have reason to have hard feelings toward the US. In Iraq, the US aggressively invaded and occupied a major Muslim country, and created the conditions in which hundreds of thousands died, millions were wounded, and 4 million were displaced, not to mention throwing the country into long term instability. If the word America grated on the ears of Iraqi Muslims, could you blame them? Or there was that time the US CIA overthrew the democratic government of Iran and set it on a path to authoritarian governance ever after. There might be some resentment. Or the US support for turning the Palestinians into permanent stateless victims, often refugees, might, you know, raise some hackles. What is amazing is that despite the horrible things the US government has done to Muslims, most of them nevertheless admire our country.

Here are the reasons that the answer to his leading and hateful question is no.

1. The countries that are friendly to the US are its allies. One tier of allies is those formally pledged to defend the US from an attack, which is to say, NATO. NATO has 28 members. They include Turkey, a Muslim-majority country of 75 million people, and Albania, another Muslim-majority country. If Islam hated us, why are two important Muslim countries in a military alliance pledged to defend us from an enemy attack (article 5 of the NATO charter)? Why did Turkey send troops to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan alongside the US and other NATO forces? We can ask another question, which is whether a president Trump could keep Turkey and Albania in NATO, given his virulent hatred for their citizens.

2. The US also has major non-NATO allies, a formal legal category, and 16 countries fall into this category. They include Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, Tunisia and Republic of Korea. Tunisia, by the way, has just been added to this list, in recognition of its so far turbulent but so far promising democratization process. Of this list, the vast majority of the citizens of the following countries are Muslims: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Pakistan, and Tunisia. That is, half of all our major non-NATO allies are Muslim-majority nations. Egypt and Pakistan are among the more populous and influential countries in the Muslim world. It seems clear that the US has more active allies in the Muslim Middle East than in any other area of the world save Europe itself. So why are they our major non-NATO allies if they hate us?

3. The citizens of many Muslim countries have a favorable view of the United States. The following list is based on a sampling of countries by Pew and is by no means exhaustive, it is just information easily at hand and recent (Dec. 2015): Some 80% of Senegalese, who are mostly Muslim, view the US favorably. So to do 76% of Nigerians, who are 50/50 Muslim and Christian; 62% of Indonesians, citizens of the largest Muslim country in the world (this is about the same percentage as the citizens of Australia, our close ally!); 54% of Malaysians, with a Muslim majority. The citizens of these Muslim-majority countries listed above all give the US higher favorability ratings than do Germans, our NATO ally (50%). Some Muslims love us even if we treat them like dirt. We have completely screwed over the Palestinians for decades, but even 28% of them have a favorable view of the US! Even where Muslims say that they view the US unfavorably, they say they mean by that that they dislike US policies, such as helping Israel steal the land of the West Bank Palestinians or backing unpopular autocrats in the region; many Muslims say that one of the things they dislike about the US is its disrespect for the Islamic faith, so Trump is actually creating the phenomenon about which he is complaining.

4. Muslims admire American political freedoms, and they view the US even more positively in this regard than they do other Western democracies, as Dalia Mugaheds Galllup polling discovered. Even Iranians feel this way, despite the decades of tension between the two governments:

 . . . large percentages in most of the predominantly Muslim countries surveyed associate the idea of liberty with the United States more than they do other Western democracies, such as Britain, France, and Germany. For example, 68% of Iranians say citizens of the United States enjoy many liberties, compared with only 39% who say the same about Britain, 36% about France and 24% about Germany.

5. Most Muslims are themselves worried about extremists like Daesh (ISIS, ISIL). Who have been American allies against Daesh on the ground? The Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq, who are mostly Sunni Muslims, the YPG Kurds of northeast Syria, who are of Sunni Muslim heritage even if they are socialists; the Shiite Muslims of Iraq; and the Sunni Syrians of the Free Syrian Army.

6. The Muslim scripture, the Quran, speaks well of Christians and Jews, the religions of most Americans. I wrote elsewhere,

Dangerous falsehoods are being promulgated to the American public. The Quran does not preach violence against Christians. Quran 5:69 says (Arberry): Surely they that believe, and those of Jewry, and the Christians, and those Sabeaans, whoso believes in God and the Last Day, and works righteousnesstheir wage waits them with their Lord, and no fear shall be on them, neither shall they sorrow. In other words, the Quran promises Christians and Jews along with Muslims that if they have faith and works, they need have no fear in the afterlife. It is not saying that non-Muslims go to hell quite the opposite. When speaking of the 7th-century situation in the Muslim city-state of Medina, which was at war with pagan Mecca, the Quran notes that the polytheists and Arabian Jewish tribes were opposed to Islam, but then goes on to say: 5:82.  . . . and you will find the nearest in love to the believers (Muslims) those who say: We are Christians. That is because amongst them are priests and monks, and they are not proud.

Trump claims to be a Presbyterian, so he falls into this category of those who are nearest in love to the believers, at least as Muslims view the matter.

Trumps hateful rhetoric should not be being headlined by the US press except in the form of editorials denouncing it.



Related video:

Dalia Mogahed | Muslims That Shaped America | 14th Annual MAS-ICNA Convention
Reddit Email 0 Shares

By Bill Hess | (Informed Comment) |  

The just-announced negotiations between Houthi rebels and Saudi Arabia may or may not lead to a subsiding of hostilities in Yemen, though early signs are that fierce fighting continues. The United States has been helping a Saudi Arabia-led coalition drop bombs on Yemen for nearly a year now. The campaign has been catastrophically destructive, causing the worlds largest humanitarian crisis. The U.S.-backed operation is also the primary reason that al-Qaidas most dangerous affiliate is enjoying a major resurgence. In other words, the United States is playing an active role in making Americans less safelikely for years to come.

The Islamic State has stolen many of the recent headlines, but al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), based in Yemen, remains a grave threat to the United States. While it has been years since the underwear bomber and bombs hidden in printers nearly brought down planes over American soil, the mastermind behind those devices is still very active. More recently, the group seems to have provided training, funding, and direction for the January 2015 attack on Charlie Hebdos offices in Paris.

Accordingly, the United States has made Yemen a focus of its war against terror. Since 2009, it has controversially carried out dozens of drone strikes, assassinating a series of AQAP leaders but failing to weaken the group while also killing innocent Yemenis, infuriating if not radicalizing many. The United States has also supported Yemeni efforts on the ground to dislodge AQAP from its strongholds, most recently in the spring of 2014. The group ceded some territory, but proved resilient, and now, thanks to Yemens civil war, it is again thriving.

With the help of Yemens deposed president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Houthis, a rebel group based in the countrys north, seized Sanaa in September 2014, paralyzing the state and ending government efforts against AQAP. As the Houthis, who include death to America as part of their slogan, seem to hate the United States as much as al-Qaida does, their takeover forced the evacuation of U.S. counterterrorism elements from Yemen. This has hampered Washingtons ability to counter AQAP with anything other than much-reviled drone strikes.

The situation improved further for AQAP in 2015. Early in the year, the Houthi-Saleh alliance pushed south from Sanaa, seemingly intent on occupying the entire western half of the country. As its forces closed in on the southern port of Aden on March 25, Yemens transitional government, which had already fled Sanaa, now fled to Riyadh. The Saudi-led bombing campaign started the same day.

On that day, President Obama authorized logistical and intelligence support for the campaign and the National Security Council announced the establishment of a Joint Planning Cell in Saudi Arabia. Ever since, the U.S. military has been providing targeting intelligence, helping plan airstrikes, and refueling coalition warplanes. U.S officials have justified this support in a number of ways, but the most common explanations include backing Saudi allies, restoring stability in Yemen, and concerns over AQAP. Unfortunately, the past year of excessive bombing has benefitted AQAP by crippling or distracting its enemies and weakening the Yemeni state. Yet the United States continues to play along, actively undermining its own future security.

AQAP has gladly taken advantage of the Saudi-led campaigns almost exclusive focus on the Houthi-Saleh alliance. In April 2015 it occupied Mukalla, Yemens fifth-largest city and the capital of Yemens largest province, freeing prisoners and seizing cash and weapons. In December it captured Zinzibar, the capital of Abyan province, and in late January, the capital of Lahj province, Houta, also fell to the group. In February AQAP occupied several more towns as it is now quickly reestablishing control over the territory it held at its prior peak in 2011 and 2012. As busy as AQAP has been, it still took the time to reaffirm in August 2015 that the United States remains its top target.

Much of the work to deny AQAP a safe haven in Yemen, flawed as it was, has now been completely undone. Uprooting AQAP was always going to be a long, onerous process in a state as weak as Yemen, but Saudis U.S.-facilitated war has significantly increased the difficulty. The widespread bombing, which has destroyed hospitals and factories in addition to hundreds of homes, has ensured that any future Yemeni government will be unable to take on AQAP by itself for years, if not decades. In effect, the United States has helped to guarantee that its controversial and costly counterterrorism mission in Yemen will have to continue indefinitely.

Though much damage has already been done, the United States must at the very least stop contributing to its own insecurity. First and foremost, it should make its military assistance conditional upon the Saudi-led coalition strictly limiting its air strikes to actual military positions. The United States must not assist with the targeting and bombing of any additional civilian infrastructure targets. Washington should also push the Saudis to devote more attention to helping local groups confront AQAP on the ground.

Meanwhile, the United States should seek to be the largest, most visible supporter of the reconstruction of Yemen. In the present, it should seize every available opportunity to publicly call for, provide, and deliver humanitarian assistance to the Yemeni people, including by pressuring the Saudis to permit the free flow of aid. Washington must also prepare for the post-conflict period, including how it will engage with local actors and facilitate good governance and economic development. All will not be forgiven overnight, but the United States has guaranteed that it will be involved for much longer than that.

Bill Hess received his M.A. in Middle East Studies from George Washington University in 2015 with a professional specialization in Conflict and Conflict Resolution. His capstone project analyzed the response of Lebanons political parties to Syrias conflict. He co-authored a chapter titled For the Sake of Peace or Justice: Truth, Accountability, and Amnesty in the Middle East in the forthcoming Hurst/Oxford University Press book Transitional Justice in the Middle East and North Africa.



Related video added by Juan Cole:

AFP: Fierce fighting continues in Yemens Taez
Victoria, British Columbia (FSCwire) - GoldON Resources Ltd. (the Company) (TSX-V: GLD) is pleased to announce the appointment of Brian C. Doutaz to its Board of Directors.

Mr. Doutaz is President of Anina International Capital Corp., a private British Columbia company that has been providing business management and consultancy services to emerging private and public companies in both Canada and the United States since 1980.

Mr. Doutaz has experience in business and financial management, corporate development, marketing, market research, and strategic planning across a broad range of sectors that include technology, social media, electronics, water purification and natural resourcesboth oil & gas and mineral exploration projects.

Mr. Doutaz has also provided compliance services to publicly listed companies in Canada and the United States, and has acted as senior officer and director of several public companies.

We are very pleased that Brian has agreed to join the Board of Directors, said Mike Romanik, President of GoldON. He has extensive experience with emerging public companies and we look forward to benefiting from his contribution to the Company.

About GoldON Resources Ltd.

GoldON is an exploration company geographically focused on two of the prolific gold mining belts of Ontario, Canada. All of its properties are in good standing and include the Slate Falls gold-silver property in northwestern Ontario and the Swayze gold property adjoining the multi-million ounce Cote Gold Project owned by Trelawney Mining and Exploration, a subsidiary of IAMGOLD Corporation. For more information, visit www.goldonresources.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Signed Michael Romanik

Michael Romanik, President

Direct line: (204) 724-0613

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

###

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.
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - March 9, 2016) - Denison Mines Corp. ("Denison" or the "Company") (TSX:DML)(NYSE MKT:DNN) today filed its Consolidated Financial Statements and Management's Discussion & Analysis ("MD&A") for the financial year ended December 31, 2015. Both documents can be found on the Company's website at www.denisonmines.com or on SEDAR (at www.sedar.com) and EDGAR (at www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml). The highlights provided below are derived from these documents and should be read in conjunction with them. All amounts in this release are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated.

David Cates, President and CEO of Denison commented "In 2015, Denison achieved a key milestone with the completion of a maiden resource estimate for our Gryphon deposit on the Wheeler River property - which was already host to the exceptionally high-grade Phoenix deposit. The addition of the Gryphon deposit represents a significant increase in the estimated mineral resources at Denison's 60% owned Wheeler River property, and establishes the project as one of the largest and highest grade undeveloped uranium projects in the Athabasca Basin region."

2015 HIGHLIGHTS

Reported a significant increase in estimated mineral resources at the Wheeler River property

The Company completed an initial mineral resource estimate for the basement hosted Gryphon uranium deposit, which is located three kilometres to the northwest of the high-grade unconformity hosted Phoenix deposit. The Gryphon deposit is estimated to contain an inferred mineral resource of 43.0 million pounds U 3 O 8 at an average grade of 2.3% U 3 O 8 . Together with the high-grade Phoenix deposit, Wheeler River is now estimated to contain indicated mineral resources of 70.2 million pounds U 3 O 8 at an average grade of 19.1% U 3 O 8 and inferred mineral resources totaling 44.1 million pounds U 3 O 8 at a combined grade of 2.34% U 3 O 8 (see Denison news release dated November 3, 2015).

Moving ahead at the Wheeler River Property

A Preliminary Economic Analysis ("PEA") was initiated in 2015 to evaluate the economic merit of the co-development of the Gryphon and Phoenix deposits and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2016. Subject to a positive outcome from the PEA, the Company plans to initiate work on a Prefeasibility Study and environmental assessment work as part of a 2016 evaluation budget of CAD$2,600,000 (CAD$1,600,000 Denison's share).

Experienced continued exploration success at the Wheeler River property

Exploration drilling results for the area in the vicinity of the Gryphon deposit continued to highlight the mineralization potential of this area. During 2015, a total of 16 drill holes were completed up plunge and along the sub-Athabasca unconformity to the southwest of the Gryphon deposit along the K-North trend. The drilling successfully identified approximately 2.3 kilometres of mineralized strike. The mineralization occurs both at the unconformity and immediately below within the basement, indicating further potential along the unconformity to the southwest and within the basement below. The best result to date occurs at the unconformity, 800 metres to the south of Gryphon, with drill hole WR-597 intersecting 4.5% U 3 O 8 over 4.5 metres (see Denison news release dated June 4, 2015). In February 2016 Denison reported a new intersection of high-grade uranium within the basement roughly 100 metres to the north of the Gryphon deposit, (see Denison news release dated February 9, 2016).

Generated positive 2015 exploration results at other exploration pipeline properties in the infrastructure rich eastern Athabasca Basin

At the 68.85% owned Murphy Lake property, Denison intersected a new zone of uranium mineralization, highlighted by drill hole MP-15-03, which returned a mineralized interval of 0.25% U 3 O 8 over 6.0 metres at the sub-Athabasca unconformity (see Denison news release dated July 29, 2015). At the 61.55% owned Waterbury Lake property, the Company intersected weak uranium mineralization and strong alteration and/or structure at the Oban target area. At the 100% owned Crawford Lake property, the Company extended a large zone of significant sandstone alteration along the CR-2 and CR-5 conductors, which is now confirmed over a strike length of 2.9 kilometres.

Exceeded initial 2015 guidance for toll milling revenue at McClean Lake

The McClean Lake mill, in which Denison owns a 22.5% interest, packaged approximately 11.3 million pounds U 3 O 8 during the year (initially targeted at six to eight million packaged pounds) for the Cigar Lake Joint Venture ("CLJV"), generating toll milling revenues for Denison of $3.2 million.

Completed the sale of the Company's Mongolian interests for consideration of up to $13.25 million

Denison received $1.25 million in initial payments on the closing of the sale of its Mongolian interests. Denison has the rights to receive additional proceeds of up to $12 million, conditional on achieving certain milestones associated with the Mongolian projects.

ABOUT DENISON

Denison is a uranium exploration and development company with interests focused in the Athabasca Basin region of northern Saskatchewan, Canada. In addition to its 60% owned Wheeler River project, which hosts the high grade Phoenix and Gryphon uranium deposits, Denison's exploration portfolio consists of numerous projects covering over 390,000 hectares in the eastern Athabasca Basin. Denison's interests in Saskatchewan also include a 22.5% ownership interest in the McClean Lake joint venture ("MLJV"), which includes several uranium deposits and the McClean Lake uranium mill, plus a 25.17% interest in the Midwest deposit and a 61.55% interest in the J Zone deposit on the Waterbury Lake property. Both the Midwest and J Zone deposits are located within 20 kilometres of the McClean Lake mill. Internationally, Denison owns 100% of the Mutanga uranium project in Zambia, 100% of the uranium-silver-copper Falea project in Mali and a 90% interest in the Dome uranium project in Namibia.

Denison is engaged in mine decommissioning and environmental services through its Denison Environmental Services ("DES").

Denison is also the manager of Uranium Participation Corporation ("UPC"), a publicly traded company listed on the TSX under the symbol "U", which invests in uranium oxide in concentrates ("U 3 O 8 ") and uranium hexafluoride.

EASTERN ATHABASCA LAND POSITION

The Company's land position in the infrastructure rich eastern Athabasca Basin, as of December 31, 2015, is illustrated below. Denison's active exploration properties are outlined in bold.

To view the map associated with this release, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/dml0309map.jpg.

SELECTED ANNUAL FINANCIAL INFORMATION

(in thousands, except for per share amounts) Year Ended

December 31,

2015 Year Ended

December 31,

2014 Results of Continuing Operations: Total revenues $ 12,670 $ 9,619 Mineral property exploration $ (14,257 ) $ (14,401 ) Impairment of mineral properties $ (27,767 ) $ (1,745 ) Net loss $ (61,737 ) $ (28,266 ) Basic and diluted loss per share $ (0.12 ) $ (0.06 ) Results from Mongolian Discontinued Operations: Net income (loss) $ 10,177 $ (3,437 ) Basic and diluted income per share $ 0.02 $ (0.01 )

(in thousands) As at

December 31,

2015 As at

December 31,

2014 Financial Position: Cash and cash equivalents $ 5,367 $ 18,640 Short term investments 7,282 4,381 Long term investments 496 954 Cash, cash equivalents and investments $ 13,145 $ 23,975 Working capital $ 12,772 $ 22,542 Property, plant and equipment $ 188,250 $ 270,388 Total assets $ 212,758 $ 311,330 Total long-term liabilities $ 38,125 $ 42,291

RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

Revenues

The McClean Lake mill continued to process ore received from the Cigar Lake mine. The mill packaged approximately 11.3 million pounds U 3 O 8 for the CLJV. The Company's share of toll milling revenue during 2015 totaled $3,155,000.

Revenue from Denison Environmental Services ("DES") during 2015 was $7,607,000, improving on 2014 due to increased activity at certain care and maintenance sites.

Revenue from the Company's management contract with UPC was $1,822,000 during 2015.

Operating expenses

Canadian mining segment operating expenses include depreciation, development and standby costs, as well as certain adjustments to the estimates of future reclamation liabilities at McClean Lake, Midwest and Elliot Lake. Operating expenses in 2015 were $4,554,000, including depreciation of the McClean Lake mill of $1,627,000.

DES operating expenses during 2015 totaled $6,875,000, related primarily to the construction and consulting services provided to clients and includes labour and other costs.

General and administrative expenses

Total general and administrative expenses were $6,463,000 during 2015. These costs are mainly comprised of head office salaries and benefits, office costs in multiple regions, audit and regulatory costs, legal fees, investor relations expenses, project costs and all other costs related to operating a public company with listings in Canada and the United States. Also included was $1,461,000 related to the failed transaction with Fission Uranium Corp.

Impairment - Mineral Properties

During 2015, the Company recognized a non-cash impairment of $25,164,000 against the value of its African mining segment, which included significant carrying values for the Falea, Mutanga and Dome projects, and also recognized non-cash impairment charges of $2,603,000, to fully impair the carrying value of three of its non-core Canadian exploration properties.

Foreign exchange income and expense

During 2015, a foreign exchange loss of $16.0 million was recognized due to unfavourable fluctuations in foreign exchange rates impacting the revaluation of intercompany debt for the Company's African related operations.

Mongolian Discontinued Operations

Income from discontinued operations was $10,177,000, which mainly comprised of the gain on disposal of $8,374,000 and transactional foreign exchange income of $2,873,000, partly offset by exploration, operating and administrative expenses of $1,091,000. The gain on the disposal consisted of $1,250,000 in cash consideration, less transaction costs of $337,000, a favourable cumulative translation adjustment of $13,680,000, offset by the carrying value of the net assets of $6,219,000. Denison is entitled to up to $12,000,000 in additional proceeds that are contingent on the approval of certain mining licenses and other milestones.

LIQUIDITY AND CAPITAL RESOURCES

Cash, cash equivalents, GICs and other investments were $13,145,000 at December 31, 2015. The Company holds a large majority of its cash, cash equivalents, and investments in Canadian dollars. As at December 31, 2015, the Company's cash, cash equivalents and current investments amount to CAD$17.5 million. The Company's CAD$24 million credit facility available for non-financial letters of credit was extended in January 2016 to January 2017. The facility contains a covenant that requires the Company to maintain a minimum cash balance of CAD$5 million on deposit with the Bank of Nova Scotia.

OUTLOOK FOR 2016

In 2016, the Company will focus on increasing its mineral resource base in the Athabasca Basin and advancing the Wheeler River project. The 2016 winter exploration program commenced in January with a focus on the Company's Wheeler River project and other high priority properties located in the infrastructure rich eastern Athabasca Basin.

(in thousands) 2016 BUDGET (1) Canada Toll Milling Revenue & Mineral Sales $ 5,450 Development & Operations (2,450 ) Mineral Property Exploration & Evaluation (13,000 ) (10,000 ) Africa Zambia, Mali and Namibia (1,290 ) (1,290 ) Other UPC Management Services 1,520 DES Environmental Services 920 Corporate Administration & Other (4,200 ) (1,760 ) Total $ (13,050 )

(1) Budget figures have been converted using a US$ to CAD$ exchange rate of 1.30.

CANADA

Toll Milling Revenue & Mineral Sales

Provided regulatory approvals are secured to increase the annual license limit, the McClean Lake mill is expected to produce 16 million pounds U 3 O 8 during 2016. Denison's share of revenue from toll milling of the Cigar Lake ore and the sale of approximately 25,000 pounds U 3 O 8 , currently held by Denison in inventory, is budgeted to be $5.4 million (CAD$7.1 million).

Development & Operations

In 2016, Denison's share of operating and capital expenditures at McClean Lake and Midwest are budgeted to be $1.6 million (CAD$2.1 million). Operating expenditures include $797,000 (CAD$1.04 million) in respect of Denison's share of the planned 2016 budget for the Surface Access Borehole Resource Extraction ("SABRE") program.

Reclamation expenditures at Elliot Lake are budgeted to be $665,000 (CAD$864,000).

Mineral Property Exploration & Evaluation

Denison expects to operate and/or participate in a total of 15 exploration programs (including 13 drilling programs totaling approximately 75,000 metres), of which Wheeler River will continue to be the primary focus. The total budget for all of these programs, inclusive of the evaluation work planned for Wheeler River, is budgeted to be CAD$24.6 million (Denison's share, CAD$16.9 million).

Wheeler River - Exploration

A total of 47,000 metres of exploration drilling is planned at Wheeler River between the winter and summer drill programs, along with geophysical surveys at a total cost of CAD$10.0 million (Denison's share, CAD$6.0 million).

Exploration drilling planned for 2016 will continue to test the unconformity to the southwest of Gryphon as well as numerous basement targets near Gryphon.

Wheeler River - Evaluation

The PEA is expected to be completed during the first half of 2016. Subject to a positive outcome from the PEA, the Company plans to initiate work on a Prefeasibility Study and environmental assessment work with an approximate budget for 2016 of CAD$2.6 million (Denison's share, CAD$1.6 million).

Other High Priority Exploration Properties

Drilling at the Company's high priority exploration properties is planned to continue at Murphy Lake, Crawford Lake and Waterbury Lake during 2016. Drill programs are also planned for Denison's non-operated joint venture projects, including Mann Lake, Wolly and McClean Lake.

Environmental services

Revenue from operations at DES during 2016 is budgeted to be $7.2 million (CAD$9.4 million) and operating and overhead expenses are budgeted to be $6.1 million (CAD$7.9 million). Capital expenditures at DES are budgeted to be $230,000 (CAD$300,000).

Corporate administration and other

Budgeted at $3.85 million (CAD$5.0 million) in 2016, corporate administration costs include all head office salaries and benefits, office costs, audit and regulatory costs, legal fees, investor relations expenses and all other costs related to operating a public company with listings in Canada and the United States.

Net management fees earned during 2016 from UPC are budgeted at $1.5 million (CAD$1.95 million).

Letter of credit and standby fees relating to the 2016 Credit Facility are budgeted to be $400,000 (CAD$520,000).

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Further details regarding the Gryphon deposit and the current mineral resources estimated at Wheeler River are provided in the report titled "Technical Report on a Mineral Resource Estimate For The Wheeler River Property, Eastern Athabasca Basin, Northern Saskatchewan, Canada.", dated Nov. 25, 2015, authored by William E. Roscoe Ph.D, P.Eng. and Mark B. Mathisen C.P.G of RPA Inc. A copy of this report is available under Denison's profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

The disclosure of a scientific or technical nature contained in this news release was prepared by Dale Verran, MSc, Pr.Sci.Nat., Denison's Vice President, Exploration, who is a Qualified Person in accordance with the requirements of NI 3-101. For a description of the quality assurance program and quality control measures applied by Denison, please see Denison's Annual Information Form dated March 5, 2015 filed under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information contained in this press release constitutes "forward-looking information", within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and similar Canadian legislation concerning the business, operations and financial performance and condition of Denison.

Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes", or the negatives and/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".

In particular, this press release contains forward-looking information pertaining to the following: the likelihood of completing and benefits to be derived from corporate transactions, including the potential for receipt of any contingent payments; the estimates of Denison's mineral reserves and mineral resources; completion of the PEA; expectations regarding the toll milling of Cigar Lake ores; expectations regarding revenues and expenditure from operations at DES; capital expenditure programs, estimated exploration and development expenditures and reclamation costs and Denison's share of same; exploration, development and expansion plans and objectives; and statements regarding anticipated budgets, fees and expenditures. Statements relating to "mineral reserves" or "mineral resources" are deemed to be forward-looking information, as they involve the implied assessment, based on certain estimates and assumptions that the mineral reserves and mineral resources described can be profitably produced in the future.

Forward looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made, and they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Denison to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Denison believes that the expectations reflected in this forward-looking information are reasonable but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be accurate and may differ materially from those anticipated in this forward looking information. For a discussion in respect of risks and other factors that could influence forward-looking events, please refer to the factors discussed in the MD&A under the heading "Risk Factors". These factors are not, and should not be construed as being exhaustive.

Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking information contained in this press release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Any forward-looking information and the assumptions made with respect thereto speaks only as of the date of this press release. Denison does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information after the date of this press release to conform such information to actual results or to changes in Denison's expectations except as otherwise required by applicable legislation.

Cautionary Note to United States Investors Concerning Estimates of Measured, Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources: This press release may use the terms "measured", "indicated" and "inferred" mineral resources. United States investors are advised that while such terms are recognized and required by Canadian regulations, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission does not recognize them. "Inferred mineral resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian rules, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility or other economic studies. United States investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of measured or indicated mineral resources will ever be converted into mineral reserves. United States investors are also cautioned not to assume that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource exists, or is economically or legally mineable.
LONDON, ON, March 9, 2016 /CNW/ - Fortune Minerals Limited (TSX: FT) (OTCQX: FTMDF) ("Fortune" or the "Company") (www.fortuneminerals.com) is pleased to announce that it has completed the first $500,000 tranche of an anticipated $1 million non-brokered private placement of the Company's capital stock. A total of 14,285,714 newly issued common shares were placed with an arm's length private investor at a price of $0.035 per share. Proceeds of this financing will be used for general working capital purposes.

Fortune owns the proposed vertically integrated NICO Gold-Cobalt-Bismuth-Copper development, that comprises a planned mine and concentrator in the Northwest Territories and refinery near Saskatoon where concentrates from the mine will be processed to higher value products. The NICO project has already been assessed in a positive feasibility study and has received its environmental assessment approvals in the Northwest Territories and Saskatchewan. The NICO Mineral Reserves will support a 21-year mine life at a mill rate of 4,650 tonnes of ore per day to produce 180 wet tonnes of concentrate per day for shipment to the refinery in Saskatchewan. Life of mine average annual production is forecast at 41,300 ounces of gold, 1,615 tonnes of cobalt contained in a battery grade cobalt sulphate heptahydrate, 1,750 tonnes of bismuth in ingots, needles and oxide, and 265 tonnes of copper.

The cobalt market has been growing at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 6% over the past two decades and the market is now greater than 100,000 tonnes. Most of this increase in consumption is attributed to the use of cobalt in high performance lithium ion and nickel metal hydride rechargeable batteries used in portable electronic devices, electric vehicles and stationary storage cells. Batteries now account for 46% of cobalt demand  having increased from only 1% of the cobalt market in the mid 1990's. The battery market continues to expand with wider usage of portable electronic devices and greater adoption of electric vehicles - globally. Significant growth in the market is also expected from stationary storage cells connected to intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar generators, and off-peak charging from the electrical grid.

The NICO deposit also contains a significant gold co-product and 12% of global bismuth reserves. Bismuth is a metal used in a broad range of industrial applications, particularly in the automotive and pharmaceutical sectors. It is also an environmentally safe replacement for lead which is subject to lead-toxicity concerns and legislation banning its use in potable drinking water sources and consumer products such as in solders, brasses, steel, aluminum and zinc galvanizing alloys, paint pigments and ceramic glazes.

Fortune has completed confidentiality agreements with a number of globally recognized corporations interested in off-take of the Company's cobalt sulphate production. Discussions are also advancing on project financing for the NICO development. The Government of the Northwest Territories is also proposing to make strategic investments in transportation infrastructure and workforce development as a top priority in the Mandate of the Government, which includes construction of the Tlicho All-Season Road to connect the community of Whati with the highway to Yellowknife. Fortune has environmental assessment approval to build a road from Whati to the mine as part of its proposed development.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of any of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. 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 the securities laws of any state of the United States and may not be offered or sold within the United States unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or pursuant to an exemption from such registration requirements.

About Fortune Minerals

Fortune is a Canadian development stage mining company focused on advancing the vertically integrated NICO gold-cobalt-bismuth-copper project in the Northwest Territories and a related refinery the Company plans to construct in Saskatchewan. Fortune also owns the Sue-Dianne copper-silver-gold deposit located 25 km north of NICO and is a potential future source of incremental mill feed. Additionally, the Company maintains the right to repurchase the Arctos anthracite coal deposits in northwest British Columbia that were recently purchased by a provincial Crown corporation.

The disclosure of scientific and technical information contained in this press release has been approved by Robin Goad, M.Sc., P.Geo., President and CEO of Fortune, who is a "Qualified Person" under National Instrument 43-101. The technical report on the feasibility study referred to above, entitled "Technical Report on the Feasibility Study for the NICO-Gold-Cobalt-Bismuth-Copper Project, Northwest Territories, Canada", dated April 2, 2014 and prepared by Micon International Limited, has been filed on SEDAR and is available under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com.

Follow Fortune Minerals:

Click here to subscribe to Fortune's email list.

Click here to follow Fortune on LinkedIn.

This press release contains forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. This forward-looking information includes statements with respect to, among other things, the Company's plans to develop NICO, anticipated growth in the market for rechargeable batteries and the use of stationary storage cells, the anticipated completion of the second tranche of the private placement referred to herein and the plans of the Government of the Northwest Territories is to make strategic investments in transportation infrastructure and workforce development. Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and estimates of management as well as certain assumptions at the date the information is given (including, in respect of the forward-looking information contained in this press release, assumptions regarding the Company's ability to arrange the necessary financing to continue operations and develop the NICO project, growth in the in the market for rechargeable batteries and the use of stationary storage cells and proposed investment by the Government of the Northwest Territories in transportation infrastructure and workforce development). However, such forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information. These factors include the risks that the Company may not be able to complete the second tranche of its private placement or arrange other necessary financing to continue operations, the Company may not be able to finance and develop NICO on favourable terms or at all, the market for rechargeable batteries and the use of stationary storage cells may not grow to the extent anticipated and the Government of the Northwest Territories may not complete its anticipated investments in transportation infrastructure and workforce development. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking information because it is possible that predictions, forecasts, projections and other forms of forward-looking information will not be achieved by the Company. The forward-looking information contained herein is made as of the date hereof and the Company assumes no responsibility to update or revise it to reflect new events or circumstances, except as required by law.

SOURCE Fortune Minerals Limited
Dallas, 03/10/2016 /SubmitPressRelease123/

The felony criminal case against former Texas Governor Rick Perry has been dismissed. Reports say that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals made their 6-2 decision on February 24, ending the abuse-of-power case against Perry that according to the former governor had an impact on his 2016 bid for the Presidential office.

Source: AP Report Texas court tosses criminal case against former Gov. Perry

The felony prosecution of former Texas Gov. Rick Perry ended Wednesday when the states highest criminal court dismissed an abuse-of-power indictment that the Republican says hampered his short-lived 2016 presidential bid. The 6-2 decision by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which is dominated by elected Republican judges, frees Perry from a long-running criminal case that blemished the exit of one of the most powerful Texas governors in history and hung over his second failed run for the White House.

To read more visit http://news.yahoo.com/texas-court-clears-ex-gov-rick-perry-2nd-150646399.html;_ylt=AwrC2Q6tANFWWTQALCbQtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTBybGY3bmpvBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMyBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg.

Perry was indicted by a grand jury in 2014 in connection with charges stemming from his veto of funding for a public corruption unit. The unit operated under Travis County District Democratic Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, whoms resignation Perry sought after she sustained a drunken driving conviction. Perry stood accused of threatening a public official with his veto power, overstepping his authority. However, the judges determined that courts cant undermine a governors veto power.

Source: AP Report The Latest: Ex-Gov. Perry says indictment proved baseless

Texas highest criminal court dismissed an abuse-of-power indictment against the former governor. Perry has been campaigning for Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz since abandoning his own bid.

To read more visit http://news.yahoo.com/latest-perry-case-ruling-veto-cant-curbed-courts-154242179.html;_ylt=AwrC2Q6tANFWWTQAKybQtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTByOHZyb21tBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg.

When Felony Charges Prove Baseless in Accordance With the Law

According to Texas criminal lawyer Mick Mickelsen, when a felony criminal case has been brought against a public official, These are typically extremely complicated matters often involving obscure areas of the criminal law.

Mickelsen has said of such cases in a past publication, Where one court may view a set of circumstances one way, an appeals court may view them differently.in many of these types of cases it is important that prosecutors are held to their burden of proving that a crime actually occurred.

He also said that, More than insinuations are required to prove that such things were actually in violation of the criminal laws.

The attorney notes that in many cases involving high profile figures like governors, public opinion is often shaped by media reports that may be far different from the criteria courts use to make a determination, leaving some surprised by the outcome. Mickelsen says of these types of controversial legal matters, The finding of an appeals court can be unexpected in cases where a decision concerning a high profile public figure dramatically differs from what the general public believes it should be.

Perry said of the appeals court ruling after the decision was announced, Ive always known the actions I took were not only lawful and legal, they were right.

Individuals who have been charged with a felony crime and need help with understanding their rights to a fair trial, can contact the Dallas Criminal Lawyer of Broden Mickelsen law firm for a consultation about their case.

Social Media Tags: #Dallas #Felony Criminal Lawyer #Texas Appellate Attorney

Connect with the Texas criminal appeals attorneys of Broden Mickelsen on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or LinkedIn.

Follow Broden, Mickelsen on social media #dallascriminaldefenselawyer

source: http://www.brodenmickelsen.com/blog/felony-criminal-case-against-rick-perry-thrown-out-by-appeals-court/

Social Media Tags:Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, indicted by a grand jury, Texas criminal lawyer, felony criminal case, felony prosecution, criminal case

Newsroom powered by Online Press Release Distribution  SubmitMyPressRelease.com

Like Us on Facebook

It's only fair to share... Pinterest Linkedin email Print
New York, 03/10/2016 /SubmitPressRelease123/

New York based aviation attorney Jonathan C. Reiter has taken on a negligence claim against the major airline stemming from a runway crash in Philadelphia last year.

New York  New York aviation lawyer Jonathan C. Reiter of the Jonathan C. Reiter Law Firm PLLC is continuing litigation against US Airways over a serious injury crash that occurred in Philadelphia last year. New reports on the crash say an investigation has concluded that pilot error led to the incident, which forced an emergency evacuation of all passengers on board. According to one recent report by the U.K. Daily Mail, An investigation into the US Airways flight that crashed at Philadelphia International Airport in March found the two pilots failed to properly prepare the aircraft for takeoff. A Federal Aviation Administration report obtained by NBC10 found the pilots  who have not been named  did not enter velocity speeds into the flight computer.

Additional reports also say that the botched takeoff resulted in the plane bouncing in the air and slamming onto the runway. The flight was scheduled to travel to Fort Lauderdale from the Philadelphia International Airport on March 13, 2014.

Pilot Error and Plane Passenger Injury

New York lawyer Jonathan C. Reiter is now representing one of the passengers involved in the forced evacuation, who sustained serious injury after striking his shoulder on the ground, while using one of the escape slides during the emergency evacuation. According to a previous news release on the passengers injuries, Mr. Gabbamonte was diagnosed with tears of the left rotator cuff, labrum and biceps tendon caused by the accident. After an unsuccessful course of physical therapy, he underwent arthroscopic surgery of the left shoulder on June 6, 2014. He has, however, remained significantly disabled from the injuries and was unable to continue his employment delivering heavy auto parts.

Attorney Jonathan C. Reiter, who has been instrumental in successful litigation against multiple major airlines throughout his career, addresses the implications of the recent investigative findings by federal investigators in the news publication, Pilot Error Caused US Airways Crash That Forced Emergency Evacuation in Philadelphia. The aviation attorney says that pilot error has been linked to several high profile plane crashes over the last few years and states in the article, An NTSB specialist said in the factual report that the plane was in air for 4 seconds. The decision by the captain to abort takeoff while the plane was in the air already primarily caused the incident.

With regard to plane crashes involving pilot incompetence or negligence the New York aviation attorney has previously asserted, Unfortunately, not all pilots act in accordance with outlined safety standards and guidelines, and negligently put their own lives in addition to the lives of others at risk by making poor decisions prior to or while they are operating a plane, emphasizing that a failure to maintain situational awareness is typically a factor in these types of cases.

Individuals seeking more information about aviation incidents like the recent one involving the US Airways flight, or legal options for those who have been impacted by a aviation accident linked to pilot error can visit the blog site of New York lawyer Jonathan C. Reiter at http://injuryaccidentnews.jcreiterlaw.com/.

Read more on the report, Pilot Error Caused US Airways Crash That Forced Emergency Evacuation in Philadelphia here.

Media Contact:

Jonathan C. Reiter Law Firm, PLLC

646-863-8172

http://injuryaccidentnews.jcreiterlaw.com/

Connect with the Jonathan C. Reiter, PLLC law firm on Facebook, Twitter

Hear the New York aviation attorneys legal perspective on recent plane crash cases via YouTube.

source: http://injuryaccidentnews.jcreiterlaw.com/2016/03/10/new-york-aviation-lawyer-litigates-injury-case-arising-from-us-airways-crash/

Social Media Tags:litigation against US Airways, pilot error, serious injury crash, aviation attorney, New York lawyer, New York attorney, Plane Passenger Injury

Newsroom powered by Online Press Release Distribution  SubmitMyPressRelease.com

Like Us on Facebook

It's only fair to share... Pinterest Linkedin email Print
On 7 March 2016, a meeting of the EU leaders and Turkey took place in Brussels with migration and the refugee crisis at the heart of the agenda. A plan in the making is the end result of this round of negotiations with Turkey, a plan which has been characterized  perhaps prematurely  as a breakthrough (German Chancellor Angela Merkel), as a game-changing decision (Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu) and as a response that will break the business of smugglers (European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker).

The current situation finds more than a million people  only in 2015  have illegally entered the EUs territory, mainly in Italy and Greece via Turkey, about half of them Syrians. Another 2.7 million Syrian refugees have found shelter in Turkey over the past couple of years. Xenophobia in Europe is on the rise due to the large influx of refugees alongside the terrorist attacks in Paris last November. The Schengen Area is wobbling; six countries  Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden and non-EU Norway  have introduced emergency border checks.

The EUs response so far has consisted of relocation plans, like the one of May 2015, which initially proposed to relocate 40,000 people from Italy and Greece to other EU member states within the next 2 years. The number was adjusted upwards last September, reaching 120,000 people while including Hungary in the equation as well. Of course, this would be only a fraction of the one million people looking for asylum in Europe. But even that was not implemented: six months later, only 660 migrants have been relocated under the EU scheme.

Moreover, the EUs assistance for humanitarian aid and civil protection, which initially stood at 4.6bn, had substantially increased to 10bn by the end of 2015. Mr. Davutoglu claimed on 7 March in Brussels that Turkey has already allocated $10bn from the countrys national budget exclusively for the refugees residing in camps on its territory. The previous EU-Turkey Summit on 29 November, 2015 had resulted in Turkey being promised 3 billion as part of the Joint Action Plan, providing assistance to Syrians under temporary protection in Turkey. So far, 95 million have been unlocked so as to provide Syrian children access to education and food assistance.

In this light, lets see what is in the latest plan that might turn the tide in Europes favour this time

The main components of the negotiations that took place on 7 March include, inter alia, a re-admission agreement between Greece and Turkey, according to which the latter will accept the return of all migrants who enter Greece illegally, regardless of their ethnicity. Those who are not considered in need of international protection (e.g. Afghans) will be sent back to their country of origin. Emergency support will also be provided to Greece by the European Commission in the form of 700m in humanitarian aid and by pushing harder to implement the relocation plan to alleviate part of Greeces burden.

The potential agreement comes at a price, at least from Turkeys perspective. The bill includes additional funds  supplementary to the initial 3bn  which, according to the Turkish Prime Minister, is fair burden-sharing for a problem that is neither Turkeys nor Europes alone. For each Syrian re-admitted to Turkey from Greece, one Syrian will be resettled in Europe  through legal channels and applications submitted from outside Europe. Moreover, Mr. Davutoglu requested further concessions, including visa-free travel to the EU for Turkish citizens  to be established in accord with Turkish authorities by the end of June 2016  and the opening of five new chapters in Turkeys EU membership accession negotiations.

The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, reassured that the proposed action plan is legal, and in line with Article 33 of the Asylum Procedure Directive. Moreover, he is confident that the border controls within the EU will be lifted and that the Schengen Area will return to normalcy by the end of 2016.

Nevertheless, the fact that Turkey is not a full member of the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees and that several EU members are opposed to the Commissions relocation plan  Hungary vetoed the Turkish resettlement proposal  are only some of the thorny issues that need to be addressed at the next EU Summit on 17-18 March. Till then, how the refugee crisis saga ends remains to be continued.
According to polls, Slovakian socialist party SMER-SD should have obtained between 32 and 40% of the votes during the general elections on 5th of March. The outcome is almost the opposite. SMER-SD, the party of the previous prime minister Robert Fico, obtained only 28.3% of the votes which changes completely the political landscape. In the Nadorna Rada, the Slovakian parliament, SMER-SD secured only 49 seats (compared to 83 in the previous government) and is now forced to build a coalition. Now the question is: With who?

The right-wing Slovak National Party (SNS), led by Andrej Danko, received 8.6% of the votes, almost twice the support from the previous elections. SNS and SMER-SD already formed a coalition between 2006 and 2010 but it cost the SMER-SD a temporary suspension from the S&D (Socialists and Democrats) group in the European Parliament. Since then, the S&D group has kept an eye on Robert Fico, the leader of SMER-SD, whose party was suspended again from the group in September 2015. As a response to the migration crisis, Robert Fico, the prime minister at that time, said Slovakia would only accept Catholic refugees. Given that Slovakia is a country where the Catholic Church dominates, followed by the Lutheran Church, we cannot tolerate an influx of 300 to 400,000 Muslim immigrants who would start building mosques all over the place, said Fico. SMER-SD used the refugee crisis during its political campaign to curry favor with conservative voters  a strategy that has highly profited conservative and right-wing parties.

Nevertheless, the hypothetical 64 seats of a SMER-SNS coalition would be too few for a majority in the 150-seat Nadorna Rada.

Center-right and eurosceptic party Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) obtained 12.1% of the vote. SaS, led by economist Richard Suliks, has doubled its parliamentary presence to 21 seats since the previous elections, becoming the second largest party in Slovakia.

A dissident faction of SaS formed Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OLaNO) in 2011 and has become the third largest party in Slovakia with 19 seats.

Traditional parties born in the 90s and the beginning of the year 2000 are losing their popularity such as the Christian democratic SDKU and the KDH, both without any MP at the national level  but they still have one member of the European Parliament each.

On the opposite side, two recent parties entered the Rada including We Are a Family (SME Rodina), a liberal party founded in 2015 by businessman Boris Kollar, which obtained 6.6% of the vote, corresponding to 11 parliamentary seats, and the extremely conservative Peoples Party Our Slovakia (LSNS), a bad surprise for Slovakian democracy. The far-right party is considered to hold neo-Nazi and eurosceptic sentiments, according to several media outlets. In 2006, the party was considered illegal and forced to quit politics, transforming itself into a civic organization with Marian Kotleba becoming its new leader in 2009. While LSNS obtained only 1.6% in 2012, this year it claimed 8% of the vote, allowing it become the fourth biggest political force in parliament with 14 seats.

The remaining parties which garnered enough votes to form part of the government are MOST-HID, representing the Hungarian minority, and #SIET, both center right.

President Andrej Kiska declared the 18th of March as the final day for former prime minister Robert Fico to form a coalition. Both Fico and SNS leader Andrej Danko agree that a stable government in Slovakia rests on cooperation between their parties. Meanwhile, representatives of Siet and Most-Hid have declined to take part in the official talks. Fico made it clear that this is just an initial meeting with others to come in the future. Whatever the results may be, one thing is for certain: a SMER-led coalition will be a difficult task given the puzzle of the different political parties in a country which is due to assume the next EU rotating presidency.
Nebraska lawmakers committed a grave mistake earlier this week when they advanced LB1109 on a 36-1 vote. The measure, introduced on behalf of the University of Nebraska Board of Regents, would allow secret searches for NU presidents and campus chancellors.

Rather than allowing regents and university officials a free pass for secrecy, lawmakers should reject LB1109 and stand by the current system that allows public scrutiny of the top four applicants. Lawmakers should pause and think hard whenever theyre asked to sanction secrecy, especially when it cuts off the publics participation in government and risks the loss of trust and support.

Nebraskans have been witnessing the benefits of the current open system as the University of Nebraska-Lincoln seeks to replace its retiring chancellor, Harvey Perlman. During the past two weeks, the four finalists for Perlmans job have visited Lincoln and met with students, faculty and UNL supporters. The applicants have shared their philosophies of higher education and their visions for UNL, and because of the open process, UNL patrons have had the opportunity to size up the group and weigh in on the finalists strengths and qualifications.

That would not occur under the NU regents proposal. Rather than naming four finalists, regents would announce only their top pick. A 30-day public review process would follow, and the regents could then officially install their pick.

LB1109 supporters claim that it achieves transparency and accountability, but there is no comparison to the current system that invites stakeholders to meet candidates and weigh in. By its very nature, the open, participatory approach creates a consensus among students, faculty and supporters that opens the door for new leaders to begin their duties and pursue their goals.

When regents, via secret searches, assume all the responsibility for recruiting and vetting candidates, it risks alienating stakeholders. Thats what occurred last year when the University of Iowa Board of Regents conducted a secret search and appointed a president with no academic experience. A national faculty association investigating the UI search found the boards blatant disregard for the shared nature of university governance to be inescapable, and students shouted resign at a regents meeting.

Nebraskans feel a sense of ownership in their state and local government, including the university system that gets 23 percent of its funding from taxpayers. Why risk good will by sanctioning secrecy? We urge LB1109 supporters  including Sens. Galen Hadley of Kearney and Matt Williams of Gothenburg  to reconsider their positions. Vote yes for openness by voting no on LB1109.
The first thing to say is that these reflections arise from an area of the mind unclouded by present presidential contentions. Nancy Reagans death brings to another area of the mind deep gratitude for various things: personal dignity and grace, high standards, devotion to country and enduring ideals; not least, warmth and humor.

The Reagans were something  both of them. I hazard the guess that many who read these words, even those who supported Jimmy Carter or Walter Mondale, remember with some appreciation a time when a political campaign wasnt a bid to send an opponent tumbling headlong to the ninth ring of hell.

The myth of Reagan and House Speaker Tip ONeill uncorking a bottle together after an all-day battle celebrates, whether with needlepoint accuracy or not, the possibility of there being such a bottle, and of clinking glasses in a friendly way before moving on to the nations next challenge. Its something nice to think about, the ideal itself presently seeming so distant and inaccessible.

The Reagans, who were one spirit as well as one flesh, brought to the America of the 80s a feeling of hope concerning the American dream, whatever that all-purpose catchphrase is supposed to connote. They excited criticism for policy stands and actions; they were dismissed for alleged simpleness of mind and snobbishness. They never exploded or lashed out, though Mrs. Reagans voice could grow icy at the tactless suggestion that her Ronnie was deficient in any significant presidential, far less human, attributes.

They were a class act, the two of them. Together, they lifted America during a hard time. They emerged from the midst of the tumult and shouting not without wounds and failures but with heads held high, and with smiles, despite it all. The Reagans were shallow only in the eyes of those who saw conservative ideas  old-fashioned ideas, traditional ideas  as shallow and unsuitable for the New Time in which we lived.

Their unqualified love of America must have been to many outsiders their most unnatural, and enraging, characteristic. They seemed to wave the flag wherever they went. Theologians they were not. They had hired on for a different job  that of giving renewed life to the dream of a country where Gods familiarity at the national table and board made Him a welcome rather than an alien presence.

The Reagan years cannot be called paradise. There were national divisions that persist; there were wars and rumors of war. Clearly if all our problems had been solved circa 1981-89, the contenders in the present campaign would be running for the right to bore us during the next four years. They would be planning picnics rather than raising outcries for change.

The late Nancy and Ronnie dignified their calling all the same, playing a role of champions of a country struggling to get back on its feet after some untimely knockdowns. They reminded many that the fruits of work belong chiefly to the worker and only afterwards to the government that insists on its ever-larger share for public purposes.

The Reagans moved about the world with a sense of their places as spokesman and spokeswoman for a country with an exceptional view of its duties and possibilities. They were never boastful, in keeping with their view of the presidency.

I said at the start, these reflections arise from no examination of todays contentions. But any who see them as relevant somehow to those contentions, all I can say in a spirit of liberty is, take em however you like.

William Murchisons latest book is The Cost of Liberty: The Life of John Dickinson.
We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

Go to form
6K Shares Share

The microbiome is among the hottest topics in medical and scientific research. The National Institutes of Health and private foundations have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in research to define and characterize the human microbiome. In the next decade, billions more will be devoted to deciphering how microbes influence human health in a positive manner. The White House Office even issued a national call to action for new commitments to microbiome research from all sectors.

The implications of the microbiome are prominent in gastroenterology, my own specialty; our leading physician group, the American Gastroenterological Association, has confirmed this commitment by establishing a Center for Gut Microbiome Research and Education. Beyond GI tract diseases, the microbiome has also been linked to disorders ranging from autism and allergies to obesity. As a result, excitement is building among physicians across many specialties. However, as with most emerging areas of science, it will take an extensive amount of time and resources to translate preclinical research into clinical practice.

One microbiome-driven treatment  probiotics  is an exception, as these living microscopic organisms have flooded the market, typically in the form of supplements and yogurts, and have quickly reached the hands of our patients. Weve seen some positive human clinical trials using milk-fermenting bacteria such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria, or our so-called first-generation probiotics.

With this data in mind, as well as my own personal experience, here is how probiotics are currently being used to treat digestive diseases:

Antibiotic-associated diarrhea. Several Lactobacillus strains as well as the probiotic yeast Saccharomyces boulardii are capable of limiting the duration or intensity of diarrhea associated with taking common antibiotics such as cephalosporins and macrolides. Individuals might consider taking their probiotic supplement at a different time than the antibiotic to enhance the likelihood of probiotic survival and efficacy. I frequently recommend a well-studied Lactobacillus-containing probiotic  such as Culturelle, DanActive or BioGaia  to patients who have experienced this in the past. I also found this strategy to be effective for my own children.

Infectious gastroenteritis. Bacterial and viral infections can be bothersome not only during the acute phase, but can also lead to bowel irregularity for weeks afterward. Taking a Lactobacillus probiotic or S. boulardii may shorten the duration of both the acute illness and extended symptoms.

Irritable bowel syndrome: IBS symptomatology is complex, but several studies suggest certain probiotic products reduce symptoms in some individuals. Align, a specific Bifidobacteria strain, improved global IBS scores more than a placebo or a Lactobacillus probiotic in one study. In my own practice, I find Align to be helpful for some patients, particularly with bloating and associated dysphoria. The multi-strain probiotic VSL#3 is another option, and meta-analysis suggests that Bifidobacteria are more effective than Lactobacillus strains.

Inflammatory bowel disease: A variety of probiotic preparations have been studied for IBD, which includes both Crohns disease and ulcerative colitis. In short, probiotics have not been found to be beneficial in Crohns disease. In ulcerative colitis and pouchitis, multi-strain probiotics such as VSL#3 may be effective as an add-on or single agent for some patients with mild or even moderate disease activity. In my own clinical practice, I have found only a few instances of sustained objective success for this strategy.

While I believe that probiotics have a place in managing GI symptoms and conditions, we need to keep the following in mind:

Probiotic supplement effectiveness is typically moderate as compared to traditional pharmaceuticals. As such, they are often better as a supplement to, rather than replacement for, traditional medication.

Probiotic strain(s), quantity and preparation make a difference. Multi-strain or even dual-strain probiotics are not necessarily better. For example, a large prospective randomized clinical trial recently failed to show antibiotic-associated diarrhea reduction when using a multi-strain Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria probiotic product.

Quality control remains an important issue. It is important to base your probiotic choice on reliable brands that have been proven in human clinical trials.

Probiotics are generally considered to be safe in most patients. However, more severely immunocompromised patients should avoid probiotics and patients with indwelling catheters should not break open the capsules.

My patients often ask if they should routinely take a probiotic or consume a probiotic yogurt for their general digestive health. This question is likely prompted by product labels indicating that their probiotic improves digestive health or strengthens the immune system, even though the FDA has not approved any health claims for probiotics. I usually respond to patients by encouraging the individual to monitor if his or her own symptom response goals are being met by taking the probiotic for a month. If not, their money is probably better spent elsewhere.

While I personally remain optimistic for the translation of next-generation probiotics, i.e., those not from the Lactobacillus or Bifidobacteria strains, many questions remain to be answered. What will their safety profile be? Will they be effective in pill form? Will individual probiotic species be the answer or will novel consortium-based probiotic products be tailored to treat specific diseases, as is nearing reality for Clostridium difficile? With these questions still looming and patient interest in first-generation probiotics at an all-time high, now is a great time to learn more about the supporting data and incorporate them into your life or into your practice as a clinician when appropriate.

Matthew Ciorba is a gastroenterologist. A version of this article originally appeared in AGA Perspectives.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
(Kitco News) - The uranium market has been in a five-year bear market that shows no signs of bouncing back.

But, one junior uranium player says the commodity is set for a strong move up.

Kitco News caught up with Amir Adnani, CEO and president of Corpus Christi, Texas-based Uranium Energy (NYSE-MKT: UEC), on the sidelines of the worlds largest mining conference, the Prospectors and Developers Conference (PDAC) in Toronto, which wrapped this week.

Spot prices of uranium, used to make fuel for nuclear power production, have been depressed since the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan, which led to the shutdown of the countrys reactors and generated stockpiles globally. Uranium currently trades around $32.15 a pound.

However, Adnani said that demand is growing rapidly, with China, in particular, aggressively building reactors. China is talking about increasing its nuclear capacity from 27 gigawatts to 160 gigawatts  which sets the tone for demand, he said.

The spot price has pulled back over the past few weeks  I think we are set for strong price movement  I think we will see a strong year for uranium, Adnani added.

Prices of uranium have also remained suppressed in part becausee utilities are betting prices will remain low and are in no hurry to secure future supply. Adnani explained that with the recent COP21 conference in Paris, it is clear that uranium will play a key role in battling CO2 emissions.

Adnani was also at PDAC to speak about the companys latest $10.5 million financing deal. "With this capital raised, UEC is in a strong financial position to advance our portfolio of uranium projects with ongoing exploration and production permitting at the Burke Hollow ISR project in South Texas, permitting for baseline studies at the Anderson project in Arizona and exploration/permitting at our ISR projects in Paraguay.

He is also invested in gold and is the founder of junior exploration company, Brazil Resources (TSX-V: BRI.VN). On the topic of gold, Adnani said it is the ultimate anti-establishment trade, as Donald Trump is the anti-establishment vote.

So, is gold or uranium the star of the commodity space?

Adnani said it is like choosing between his three children. Totally different macro fundamentals for uranium, which is a depleting commodity, whereas gold plays an insurance for wealth preservation and wealth creation.

By Daniela Cambone of Kitco News; dcambone@kitco.com

Follow me on Twitter @DanielaCambone
SHARE ELAINE TURSO PHOTOGRAPHY Blanche Wynne is the only Concertmaster most Bremerton Symphony Orchestra patrons have ever known.

By Michael C. Moore, mmoore@kitsapsun.com

BREMERTON  Blanche Wynne has sat in the Bremerton Symphony Orchestra concertmaster's chair for so long, and so often, that it's only fitting that the thing be named after her.

That will come to pass during Saturday's symphony concert at Bremerton Performing Arts Center, when the chair at the front of the first violin section will be officially dubbed the Blanche Wynn Concertmaster Chair.

Wynne, 85, has been a BSO member since 1942, when she was a junior high schooler. For most of the ensuing 70 years, she has served as concertmaster  the under-the-left-hand woman to the conductor, assuming duties both practical and ceremonial  through every era of the symphony's existence. She has conducted section rehearsals for the first violins, coordinated the "bowing" patterns for all the string players and performed the mostly ornamental chore of leading the orchestra's ritual pre-concert tuning.

Her even greater contributions have been in the area of leadership, especially by example.

"This is an incredible career," said current BSO conductor and music director Alan Futterman. "In many ways, she's been a mentor to us all. We are here today in large measure because of the work that Blanche did keeping this orchestra together over many decades."

Only college (at Eastern Washington, following two years at Olympic College) and a brief family relocation had interrupted Wynne's long BSO tenure until she was sidelined by a stroke in December 2014. Last year, while being honored as a YWCA Woman of Achievement, she said she was working toward a return to playing with the symphony once again.

Futterman said Wynne would be invited on stage during Saturday's program to be acknowledged for her contributions, which span several generations.

In a 2007 Kitsap Sun interview, she described her humble beginnings with the organization.

"I started out at the tail end of the second violins; my father was the principal," she said. "I worked my way up to where I was sitting beside him."

In addition to her BSO tenure, Wynne has taught violin, played with orchestra and ballet companies in several states  including the Peninsula Ballet Orchestra in Bremerton, the pit orchestra for Peninsula Dance Theatre  and participated in chamber groups for a variety of performances including outreach concerts at area schools.

Throughout her long BSO career, Wynne has been lauded for not only her playing and her diligence in execution of the concertmaster's duties, but for her continued enthusiasm for the orchestra and for bringing music to the Kitsap community.

"It's hard work," she said in the 2007 interview, "but we choose to do it because we're musicians. It's what we do. I've put a lot of effort into my playing. The performance, the reaction of the crowd, is like a reward for all the work I've done."

And now, a chair with her name on it.

PREVIEW

BREMERTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Who: Bremerton Symphony Orchestra, Alan Futterman, music director; Deliana Broussard, flute

What: A program titled "The Inextinguishable," featuring Nielsen's Fourth Symphony, Mozart's D Major flute concerto and Saint-Saens' "March Militaire"

Where: Bremerton Performing Arts Center, 1500 13th St.

When: 7:30 p.m. March 12 (pre-concert chat with Alan Futterman at 6:30 p.m.)

Tickets: $26-$8

Information: 360-373-1722, bremertonsymphony.org
Bob and Neva Lamb underneath the 75-year-old walnut tree Friday on Seventh Street in Bremerton.

SHARE The earliest photo of the walnut tree on Seventh Street shows the Lamb family beginning a long-standing tradition: gathering around the tree.

By Josh Farley of the Kitsap Sun

BREMERTON  Bob Lamb distinctly remembers placing his hands around the narrow trunk of the walnut tree, his father scooping dirt atop its roots in their Seventh Street backyard.

It was February 25, 1941, his parent's 13th wedding anniversary. After acquiring lawn chairs, the Lamb family encircled the fledgling tree, a custom that continued as it grew tall, thick and its canopy filled out.

"It became the dominant feature in everything we did," Lamb said. "We celebrated around it. Played in it. Everything revolved around the tree."

Today, the 75-year-old tree's many branches eclipse the home below, encompassing the entire backyard. The Lambs no longer own the property, though Lamb, of Manchester, still stops by to visit.

"I never imagined it would get so big," he said.

Soon, however, the tree will be cut down, the result of its roots wreaking havoc on surrounding concrete structures.

It will be a sad day for Lamb, 79, who is only slightly older than the tree.

His parents, Harold Edward Charles Lamb and Vera Adele Dunn Lamb, in 1935 moved to Bremerton. As the Puget Sound Navy Yard began to ramp up in preparation for what would become U.S. involvement in World War II, they each got a job inside the shipyard. They bought a home on Seventh Street in 1941, less than 10 months before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

Lamb isn't sure why his parents picked out a walnut tree, save for his father's heritage  he was born in Great Britain, and it could be an English version of the walnut. Regardless, it soon became a staple in family life.

Lamb, who suffered from polio earlier in life, recalls his father carrying him to the chairs under the tree, so they could "sit and gab." His father would have a cigarette; later, when Lamb came of age, he'd join his father in having one, too.

Seventh Street was full of movers and shakers in the town during the war years and beyond, Lamb recalled. A nearby hill was popular for sledding. But for the family, nothing there compared to the sprawling walnut tree.

It was the site of many family gatherings. When Lamb married his wife, Neva, there was no better place to hold their reception than his childhood backyard.

The couple's two daughters spent time in the tree, too. Family photos show them, and the tree, growing.

Tragically, after the Lambs moved in 1964 to Alaska with the Navy, Bob's father suffered a life-ending heart attack. His family couldn't keep the house; it was sold in 1969.

Even still, Lamb and his family sometimes returned to Seventh Street, with the new owners' permission, to spend time with the mighty tree. Robin Sachlis, one of the Lambs' two daughters, said she was only 2 when the family moved. Her parents always told her that Bremerton was "home" and that tree a monumental part of it. They've returned many times for pictures.

"Those stories will continue on forever," she said.

In total, six generations of Lambs spent time in the tree's shadow.

Lamb is heartened that the property owner, Jeff Thomas, is willing to provide pieces of it to remember it by.

"He can have pretty much anything he wants from the tree," Thomas said.

"Helluva decent guy," Lamb said of Thomas.

Lamb wants to bear witness to its chopping down in the weeks ahead, however painful it might be. Asked why he wants to see it, Lamb took time to think about his response.

"I guess it's like going to a funeral," he said.
SHARE

By Clarence Page

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 serious presidential debates can turn pretty goofy.

In context, the Vermont Democrat's "ghetto gaffe," as some headline writes quickly branded it, came during Sunday's Democratic presidential debate in Flint, Mich.

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.

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, I thought, 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 three-to-one. If we were being truly honest about race, we would be talking about poverty as a white problem, more than a black burden.

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 nonissue 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 Ben Jealous, a Sanders surrogate and 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," Jealous said. "He grew up in old Brooklyn, he knows white folks live in ghettos."

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 hardworking 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.
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.
It was almost a year ago that the ice storm hit, but I remember it in fine detail. Ethan and I sat by the window watching thundersnow and listening to the sound of trees crashing to the ground. It was nighttime, and the electricity was out. My parents were on the couch with my Great Dane, Lily, the three of them huddled under a blanket to try to stay warm.

We have a joke in our family that major storms are caused by my husband going out of town. Last year was no exception. He was at a business conference in Palm Springs when the storm hit. I remember him saying, "I'm sure the sounds you're hearing are big branches falling, not trees. There's no way that many trees can be coming down." "It doesn't sound like branches." I replied skeptically. "It sounds like trees."

We were afraid. We slept in the basement in case a tree fell on our house.

The next morning, I woke to discover I had been right all along. Those weren't big branches falling, they were trees. Twenty-two of them. One of them hit our boat house. The rest fell clear of the house in a horrible pile, and we were safe. Cold and overwhelmed, but safe.

When my husband returned from Palm Springs, he couldn't believe the devastation one storm could bring. He surveyed the tangle of trees and the damaged roof and said, "We're lucky no one was hurt." And I agreed, even though watching the tree crew with their chain saws and bulldozers didn't make me feel lucky.

That was a year ago. This year, that Palm Spring convention was moved to San Diego. I decided to take advantage of my empty-nester status and travel with my husband. We reminisced about the ice storm on the way to the airport. We were excited about the trip and happy to be traveling together. Just before we got to the airport, my phone rang. It was my neighbor. And when I heard him say, "Are you at home now?" I felt a chill.

I explained that we were going out of town for a long weekend. "I hate to be the one to tell you this," he said, "but we had a microburst come through, and you have about 12 trees down. A couple of them landed on your house, and some windows are blown out. I can't tell how much damage you have to the roof."

My heart sank. We got on the phone and changed our flight. We picked up a tarp and made our way back to the house, amazed by how much can change in 15 minutes.

There were trees down everywhere. Streets were blocked, and the power was out. When we finally made it back to our house we couldn't believe the damage.

The windows over the garage were shattered, and shards of glass covered the carpet inside. The roof had four holes in it, and one of the branches punctured the ceiling in our garage. Trees lay on the garage and across the driveway. The backyard was a mess of branches and trees.

And just like last year, my husband looked out at the damage and said, "Do you know how lucky we are that no one was hurt?" I looked up at him, surprised by his optimism, and replied wistfully, "I can think of a couple ways we might have been luckier."

Leslie Snow may be reached at snowcolumn@aol.com.
SHARE Angela Farmer inside her shop, The First Lady Specialty Shop for Women Angela Farmer, with scissors, smiles during the ribbon-cutting celebrating her ownership of The First Lady boutique in the Cancer Center at Tennova North Medical Center. From left are her father, Jerry Farmer, Tennova board member R. Larry Smith, Angela's daughter, Abbie Petercheff, her mother, Carolyn Farmer, family friend, Sarah Beth Followell, Angela, Anderson County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Rick Merideth, family friend, Khristina Followell, and Anderson Chamber member relations director Norm Nelson.

Angela Farmer was working as the assistant to the CEO of Tennova's North Medical Center when a very special opportunity came across her desk.

Part of her job was to process a termination of lease that was presented by the former owner of The First Lady Specialty Shop for Women located inside the medical building. Farmer knew that the shop served an important purpose to the patients, and her mind began working on a plan of action that would lead to operating and expanding the boutique herself.

A ribbon-cutting took place last month to celebrate Farmer as the new owner. The Anderson County Chamber of Commerce, along with members of the Powell Business and Professional Association and Tennova board member R. Larry Smith showed up to support the new venture for Farmer. The shop is located in The North Medical Center at 7557 Dannaher Way in Powell.

"I knew how important it was to have the shop on the hospital campus to provide mastectomy products for the patients, as well as providing a gift shop for the cancer center and hospital," says Farmer. "I began looking into the possibility of personally investing into keeping the shop open the day that I received that notice, knowing that I only had three weeks for everything to come together if I did want to pursue the opportunity."

She'd worked with cancer patients in the past and was open to renewing that experience. Before working in administrative roles with Tennova, she served as a medical assistant.

"I knew the idea of working directly with the cancer patients that needed mastectomy products or wigs would be something that would be rewarding," says Farmer, who decided to keep the First Lady name when she took over. "I could make a difficult experience have a bright side and be a little easier by providing a caring service."

The location of The First Lady Specialty Shop for Women allows it to easily serve the patients and families of patients receiving care in the Cancer Center at Tennova North.

"Being in the Cancer Center holds two important roles," says Farmer, "the convenience of service to the patients and also by creating a positive atmosphere for the families of those receiving care to stop in and have a good distraction while waiting."

Items are available that will help make life easier and more comfortable for those who are receiving treatment, including wigs, compression garments, and products designed to make the process of chemotherapy or radiation less noticeable. The First Lady also offers post-surgical camisoles, mastectomy prostheses, swimwear and clothing designed for holding a prosthesis.

"As a certified mastectomy fitter, I'm trained to fit for both the prosthesis and bras but also do general bra fittings as well," adds Farmer.

She also liked the idea that she would have the opportunity to expand the lines carried in the boutique. In addition to jewelry, gifts and hats, she has added fashion lines including Lior Paris, D.Alisha, Pixi & Ivy and Molly Bracken. Customers will also find a complete skin care line by Amino Genesis, which she says is great for anyone, including those with sensitive skin from chemo or radiation.

"I wanted to provide a full shopping experience that any lady could look forward to coming to," says Farmer.

"Being able to meet many very special ladies and find products that make them feel beautiful and look their best no matter what they are going through is rewarding," she says. "I look forward to my customer base growing and being able to take care of their needs."

For more information, call 865-859-7010 or email thefirstladyshop@gmail.com.
HELPS ministry founder Mother Ann and member Pamela Moody pack up the leftovers from the Loads of Load event at the Family Fun Wash Laundromat on Magnolia Ave. in East Knoxville.

SHARE Amy Welcome and Judy Johnson with their laundry that was paid for by the Loads of Love outreach ministry, while Sistina and Faith Johnson, and members of the HELPS ministry embrace their efforts. Ernest Tate, left, enjoyed the fellowship at the Family Fun Wash with Summer Moore, Loads of Love founder, and Anne McKissick and Linda Johnson, laundromat attendants, and Mother Ann Upton, founder of the HELPS ministry at Overcoming Believers Church in east Knoxville.

Patrons at the Family Fun Wash Laundromat at 2711 E. Magnolia Ave., in east Knoxville, were pleasantly surprised by members of the HELPS (Having Enough Loving People Serving) ministry with food, fellowship and funds to wash their clothes on a recent Saturday morning. Members of HELPS were adorned in grey or bright yellow T-shirts while greeting laundromat patrons with complementary refreshments of coffee, juice, doughnuts and hot dogs with the sounds of gospel music playing in the background.

"We do this in February, the month of love. We want to show some love to others while helping those in need," said Mother Ann Upton, who established the HELPS ministry in 2010 at Overcoming Believers Church that recently moved to 311 Harriet Tubman St., where Daryl Arnold is the senior pastor.

The Loads of Love outreach ministry was the brainchild of schoolteacher Summer Moore, who teaches elementary and middle school-aged children. Before she and her husband James relocated their family to Tennessee, Moore taught at a school in another state where some of the children's clothes were not always clean. Her compassion for her students prompted her to research the problem in hopes of a solution. Moore was surprised with her results.

"It costs $5 to wash a load of clothes and $5 to dry; that's $10," said Moore. "That's a lot of money to some families, so I could understand why." She was led to establish Loads of Love outreach ministry to help lighten the load for families in need.

"We are doing Kingdom work. I thank God for her (Moore's) vision, because 'without a vision the people perish,' according to the Bible," said Mother Ann. "We work inside out; and outside in (the church walls) where we can." The HELPS ministry also assists church members, senior citizens, and the community throughout the year.

"I come when I have the money," said Judy Johnson, who took advantage of the opportunity to wash some of her grandchildren's clothes and her bedspreads.

This is the third year for the Loads of Love outreach ministry, and each year more and more people are served, according to Mother Ann. "We sow seeds to give, through member dues and donations, and the more we give the more the Lord brings in," said Mother Ann, who estimated over $600 was spent on laundry for 30-40 families at the event.

Pamela Moody, who recently moved to Knoxville and is a new HELPS ministry member, shared her laundry detergent and bleach with those who didn't have any while Gloria Carter, a charter member, knocked on the doors of nearby apartments, men's housing and women's shelter.

"I have been active in ministry since 1982, doing revivals, an inner-city youth choir, and so many things that I can't count," said Mother Ann, who is still a viable force in the community. She said she is not as physically able as she used to be, but she can count on HELPS members to answer the call when needed.

"I was called to teach, reach and train young women to go out and do ministry," she said.
SHARE Joshua Hayworth, 23, Loudon man charged with robbing a Burger King in Lenoir City. A police chase resulted in his arrest. (Knox County Sheriff's Office)

By Jamie Satterfield of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Joshua Hayworth has vaulted over a barbed wire fence, climbed into a hospital ceiling, crashed cars, broken into houses and carjacked a pregnant woman in his attempts to run from the law, but on Thursday he could not escape a federal prison term of more than 16 years.

Chief U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan put an end to Hayworth's history of crime and escape attempts with a 200-month prison sentence Thursday despite Hayworth's last-ditch effort to wriggle free by declaring he was wrongfully convicted by a jury last year of robbery and carjacking.

"I'm not a bad person," Hayworth told the judge. "Yeah, I've gotten in trouble when I was young. I went to prison for that. But (since then) I done everything I was supposed to do."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Ann Norris called Hayworth an "unbelievable" liar as she successfully convinced the judge to boost Hayworth's punishment beyond the roughly 11-year sentence he initially faced for a 2014 robbery of a Lenoir City Burger King and a related carjacking of a woman who was nine months pregnant.

Records show Hayworth, 26, began committing crime as a teenager. His first escape attempt came in 2008 when he was 18 and darted through an open sally port door at the Loudon County jail, jumped onto the hood of a vehicle and vaulted himself into the air and over a barbed wire fence. He was recaptured after a chase that ended when a police dog ran Hayworth down and bit him.

While at a hospital, records show, Hayworth convinced a guard to uncuff one of his hands and allow him to use a restroom. Once uncuffed, he leaped from his wheelchair, ran into the bathroom, locked the door and climbed into the ceiling after removing a tile. He was caught yet again, although four Loudon County officers involved in both incidents wound up suspended.

Ultimately convicted of the robbery and theft charges that put him in the Loudon County jail in the first place, Hayworth went to state prison in 2011, where he met Timothy Chudley. According to a complaint filed by FBI Agent David Bukowski, the two men were on parole when Hayworth and Chudley, who had a job at the Lenoir City Burger King, plotted to rob the eatery. Chudley pretended to be a victim, and Hayworth hit him in the head with a gun for good measure, Bukowski wrote.

Hayworth later led authorities on a chase and crashed his getaway car, leaving behind his Tennessee Department of Correction identification card. He stole another vehicle but wound up crashing it in a chase with law enforcement. He then tried to break into a Knox County woman's trailer, but her dog attacked him, so he ran.

A short time later, Hayworth encountered the pregnant woman outside her house on Doubletree Lane and demanded her keys. She wound up falling to the ground with Hayworth on top of her in a struggle over the keys. After tossing her dog out of the car as he drove away, Hayworth wound up in yet another chase. This, too, ended in a crash. He ran into a house, where he tried to hide under a couch as agents with the FBI's Safe Streets Task Force converged on the home.

Hayworth testified at his July trial he committed none of those crimes, despite Chudley's testimony, DNA left on the cloth he used to cover his face in the robbery and various videos connecting him to the vehicles he stole and crashed.

"He doesn't care about anyone or anything," Norris said. "He's shown this court what he's capable of and what he will do."

Chudley is serving a 151-month prison term in the Burger King robbery.
By News Sentinel Staff

A school bus driver was taken to Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center after an accident at Safety City Thursday morning, according to Knoxville police.

The driver, Hollis Walker, 78, of Powell, believed to be suffering of a medical-related issue when he drove the bus carrying students from Green Magnet Academy into an entrance gate at 9:36 a.m.

A mirror on the bus was damaged. Outside of Walker's apparent medical-related issue, according to police, nobody was injured in the minor collision.

"The mirror of the bus struck the entrance gate to the facility before crossing a small area of grass near the front door to Safety City," Knoxville police officials wrote in a post on Facebook. "Safety City personnel realized something was wrong and immediately got the children inside and to a safe place. Before they could return to the bus to assist the driver, he had pulled away and sideswiped a fence before coming to a stop in the parking lot. When EMS arrived on the scene they found the driver slumped over the steering wheel and incoherent."

An update on Walker's status was not immediately available, according to police.

More details as they develop online and in Friday's News Sentinel.
The main portal at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2015. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL)

SHARE

By Frank Munger of the Knoxville News Sentinel

OAK RIDGE  Consolidated Nuclear Security, the government's managing contractor at the Y-12 and Pantex nuclear weapons plants, clarified some details of its hiring campaign Wednesday and said about 500 of the new jobs  out of a total of 1,150  are being filled at the Oak Ridge plant.

In a message to employees, Michelle Reichert, the contractor's deputy enterprise manager, said CNS has already filled a total of 507 jobs at the two sites and plans to hire 300 more in the next three months.

According to Reichert, the new hires are needed to meet the additional workload at the two weapons plants.

The National Nuclear Security Administration, a semi-independent part of the Department of Energy that runs the nuclear weapons complex, is planning on Y-12 and Pantex performing "a greater amount of mission work" in the coming years, Reichert said in the message to employees at the sites in Oak Ridge and Amarillo, Texas.

Both plants are involved the manufacture and refurbishment of nuclear warheads, as well as the dismantlement of retired weapon systems.

"This increased workload will help ensure the safety and reliability of our nation's nuclear weapons stockpile, provide capabilities to draw down global weapons inventory, reduce the spread of nuclear weapons and terrorism, and provide highly specialized fuel for the nuclear navy."

Y-12 has been asked to step up processing activities to convert uranium scraps into a purified metal form for reuse in weapons or storage and other uses.

The National Nuclear Security Administration last year challenged the Oak Ridge plant to achieve an annual output of 1,000 kilograms  a production level Y-12 has not reached since the end of the Cold War.

CNS, a corporate partnership headed by Bechtel, said it plans to meets its goals hiring, developing and retaining a skilled workforce.

One of the strategies is to hire workers from other DOE or Defense Department facilities who already have security clearances. CNS also said Y-12 and Pantex have traditionally worked with local communities.

"CNS will continue this approach and work to hire locally whenever possible by conducting local hiring events, attending local and regional job fairs, and posting job opportunities throughout traditional and online media," the contractor stated.
Left to right, University of Tennessee freshman Jacob Sides, video production specialist Clint Elmore and assistant professor of journalism Nick Geidner film in the hallway of the Communications building on campus for the documentary "Reaching Recovery" Wednesday, March 2, 2016. (AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/NEWS SENTINEL)

SHARE

By News Sentinel Staff

University of Tennessee journalism students will premiere a half-hour documentary  and, they hope, kick off a community discussion  on pregnancy and addiction tonight at the main Knox County Health Department.

"Reaching for Recovery: Pregnancy and Addiction in East Tennessee," will premiere tonight at 7 p.m. in the first-floor auditorium of the health department, 140 Dameron Ave. The public is invited; the event begins at 6:30.

A panel discussion, moderated by Robin Wilhoit, WBIR-TV, Channel 10, anchor will follow. Panelists are Dr. Martha Buchanan, executive director of the Knox County Health Department; Karen Pershing, director of the Metro Drug Coalition; Carla Saunders, pediatric nurse practitioner at East Tennessee Children's Hospital; and Evan Sexton, program director for Renaissance Recovery Group.

WBIR will live-stream the documentary and discussion on its website.

"Reaching Recovery" was produced by Land Grant Films at The University of Tennessee in collaboration with Metro Drug Coalition. It was directed by journalism professor Nick Geidner, edited by journalism graduate student Clinton Elmore, and produced by undergraduate students Abby Bower and Hannah Marley and recent UT alum Nichole Stevens.

The students began working on the film last summer.
SHARE

A new federal program announced last week should help move many Tennesseans out of poverty in the coming years by giving them a hand up the economic ladder.

Tennessee has been selected as one of 10 states to take part in a program to help connect some food stamp recipients with the training and assistance they need to get jobs through the new SNAP to Skills program offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The two-year program aims to teach state agencies to design better training and employment programs to help able-bodied adults using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, find employment and eventually move off of public assistance.

Commonly referred to as food stamps, SNAP provides nutritional assistance to low-income individuals and families. Officials say there are about 1.1 million SNAP recipients in Tennessee  about one of every six state residents  and many may be eligible for SNAP to Skills. In January, according to the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Knox County was home to 59,381 SNAP participants, more than 13 percent of the county's population.

To qualify for SNAP in Tennessee, recipients must have paltry bank account balances and household incomes under $31,525 a year for family of four. Close to 40 percent of Tennessee households earn less than $35,000 a year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Singles making the federal minimum wage can qualify.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said last week Tennessee was picked because it has unused federal money that it could put toward developing programs to connect SNAP recipients with jobs.

"Tennessee is a state that we think is ripe to do more," he said. "You have a governor who is very interested in these kinds of things, and there is money that could be dedicated to this."

Out of $2.6 million available to Tennessee for such programs last year, the state spent only $1.5 million, Vilsack said. The other states selected are Arizona, Arkansas, California, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri and North Carolina.

About 80 percent of those using SNAP are seniors or people with disabilities who are unable to work, Vilsack said. SNAP to Skills will focus on the 20 percent who are capable of working but face some barrier to a job such as limited access to transportation or lack of job skills.

State agencies will get help in developing initiatives to help low-income, low-skilled people get the type of training and schooling employers demand. Programs may include job-search training, basic-skills training, English-language learning, vocational training, self-employment or on-the-job training, and job-retention services.

SNAP to Skills will make use of programs developed through the Seattle Jobs Initiative, which is used by the federal government as a source of training, expertise and support for SNAP.

With its focus on job training, SNAP to Skills would supplement Gov. Bill Haslam's Drive to 55 initiative, which aims to increase the number of state residents with post-secondary degrees and certificates to 55 percent by 2025. SNAP to Skills should keep many low-skilled Tennesseans from falling further behind. More importantly, it offers hope for a better future.
The foreign ministers of South Korea and Sri Lanka will hold talks this week on ways to expand bilateral ties in politics, business and other areas of mutual interest, Seoul's Foreign Ministry said Thursday.



Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and his Sri Lankan counterpart, Mangala Samaraweera, will meet here Friday as the two sides mark 40 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations next year, the ministry said in a press release.



The ministers will discuss the political situation on the Korean Peninsula and South Asia, and issues related to politics, business, labor and development, it said.



Thalatha Atukorale, Sri Lanka's minister of foreign employment promotion and welfare, will also attend the talks to discuss ways to increase bilateral cooperation in the employment sector.



"We expect the official visit of Foreign Minister Samaraweera to be an opportunity to reflect on the two countries' development of friendly ties ahead of the 40th anniversary next year of South Korea-Sri Lanka ties, and to hold in-depth talks on a future vision for bilateral ties and specific cooperation measures over the next 40 years," the ministry said.



Samaraweera is the first Sri Lankan foreign minister to visit South Korea since the launch of the administration of President Maithripala Sirisena last year.



He will be here for a three-day stay starting Thursday.



In 2014, two-way trade amounted to 407 million dollars, with South Korea exporting 314 million dollars worth of textiles, steel and chemical machines to Sri Lanka, and importing 93 million dollars worth of minerals and woven garments from the South Asian country, according to official data. (Yonhap)




Fair Trade Commission Chairman Chung Jae-chan gives a speech during the fair trade agreement ceremony held at Rolling Hills Hotel in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday. / Courtesy of Hyundai Motor



By Jhoo Dong-chan

Hyundai Motor Group (HMG) promised sustainable mutual growth with its subcontractors.

HMG had a fair trade agreement ceremony with its 2,380 subcontractors at Rolling Hills Hotel in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday. More than 200 Hyundai executives, including Vice Chairman Yoon Yeo-chul and the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Chung Jae-chan, participated in the event.

"Hyundai Motor's efforts for sustainable mutual growth with the company's subcontractors is an exemplary case of economic democratization," said Chung.

"In order to overcome current economic challenges like domestic stagnation and failing overseas demand, mutual cooperation between conglomerates and small-sized companies is inevitable. Such efforts should be continued across a variety of industries in Korea."

Since 2007, the FTC has encouraged both conglomerates and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to enact such fair trade agreements every year in which signing companies are asked to suggest details for fair trade in supply cooperation.

Last year, a total of 209 conglomerates had agreements with the nation's 280,000 SMEs.

The FTC has introduced the fair trade agreement to protect SMEs from unfair trade activities of conglomerates and strengthen competitiveness of the country's industries.

HMG has participated in the agreement since 2008 and has had an agreement ceremony every year.

According to a study released by HMG, the group's 2,380 contractors' sales has increased every year for the last six years, a 72 percent jump from 95 trillion won in 2010 to 163 trillion won in 2015.

"Many automotive companies could grow as global SMEs under Hyundai Motor's continuous support," said Lee Young-sup, chairman of the Hyundai-Kia suppliers' association.

"We will also do our best to supply the finest auto components in the world."
By Kim Jae-won



The Bank of Korea (BOK) kept its key rate at 1.5 percent Thursday, saying the current level is accommodative enough to boost the economy.



The central bank has kept the benchmark rate unchanged for nine straight months since July 2015, resisting pressures by market players to cut the rate.



"We think that the 1.5 percent of rate is accommodative enough," said BOK Governor Lee Ju-yeol in a press conference after the bank's seven-member Monetary Policy Board made the decision with six votes supporting it. "We need to wait and see because the global economy is still volatile, though it has been loosened."



The top central banker also questioned the effectiveness of a rate cut under current conditions. He said that the effect of a rate change on the real economy may be limited in an environment where external conditions remain uncertain.



."This does not mean a rate cut will have no effect, but whether the mechanism or various channels through which a rate change has its impact on the real economy will work under current conditions is an issue that needs to be considered," he said.



However, Yonsei University professor Ha Sung-keun, a member of the board, was against the rate freeze, asking the board to cut it to 1.25 percent. Ha voted for the rate cut in February, too, saying it was time to act to help the real economy improve.



Analysts said that the BOK may cut its rate next month because downside risks are increasing in the local economy.



"We expect the BOK to lower its key rate in April," said Lee Seul-bi, an analyst at IBK Securities in a report. "The central bank needs to cope with the government's expansionary fiscal policy as well as actively accommodative monetary policies of major central banks."



The decision to freeze the rate comes amid growing signs of a slowdown in the country. Korea's exports have dropped for 14 consecutive months since the start of last year, plunging 12.2 percent in February from a year ago.



Domestic consumption has also been on the decline, with an index gauging the sentiment of consumers dipping to an eight-month low last month. While the economy continues to remain in the doldrums, the country's household debt has been growing at a level exceeding that of recent years, the BOK noted.



But, some economists have pointed out growing household debt as a factor that may prevent an additional rate cut for at least some time. The country's household debt reached a record high of 1,207 trillion won ($993.4 billion) in December, up 41.1 trillion won from three months earlier on increasing mortgages and household loans.



Meanwhile, Governor Lee said that the central bank is closely watching European and Japanese central banks' move to implement negative policy rates, though it is too early to see what the implications will be at this moment.




By Kim Da-hee

The main actors in the KBS TV drama series "Descendants of the Sun" have left numerous quotes as sweet and romantic as the sound track.

Major quotes from the main performers, including Song Joong-ki and Song Hye-kyo, are making the rounds on Korean, Chinese and other Asian websites, indicating the drama's Asia-wide popularity.

The fifth episode on Wednesday showed doctor Kang Mo-yeon (Song Hye-kyo) emotionally attached to Capt. Yoo Si-jin (Song Joong-ki) after the latter saved the former from a car on the edge of a cliff after the vehicle skidded off the road.

The episode rated a record 27.4 percent, according to Nielsen Korea.

The Korea Times has selected the 10 best lines from the drama and translated them into English for foreign fans.









/Courtesy of KBS



1. "I hope you don't think my kiss is bad. I did it after thinking a thousand times"

(After You Si-jin kisses Kang Mo-yeon for the first time).

















2. "You are already beautiful"

(Yoo Si-jin speaks to Kang Mo-yeon, who is reluctant to make eye contact because she is wearing no make-up).













3. "You have so many men to worry about. Just worry about me from now on."

(Detained Yoo Si-jin speaks it to Kang Mo-yeon, crying on the opposite side of the door. Yoo has been detained for ignoring his superior's order).

















4. "Regarding the kiss, what should I do? Should I apologize for that? Should I confess my feeling to you?"

(Yoo Si-jin reveals his feelings to Kang Mo-yeon and asks her the question one day before he returns to Korea).

















5. "Yes  you know, I have (been bewitched by something)."

(When Kang Mo-yeon and Yoo Si-jin look at the wrecked ship, Kang asks him: "Have you ever been bewitched by something?").

















6. "Because it is far away ... I want to spend more time with you."

(When Yoo Si-jin and Kang Mo-yeon got to a beach, Kang asks Yoo: "Didn't you say the beach is far from here?").



















7. "My principle is that children, beautiful women and the elderly need to be protected."

(Yoo Si-jin explains to Kang Mo-yeon why he allowed Kang to operate on an elderly patient despite the danger).

















8. "There is a way."

(Yoo Si-jin, who is not allowed to drink alcohol as a soldier, speaks to Kang Mo-yeon, who is drinking wine, before kissing her).

















9. "This is the most exciting moment since my birth. The moment I am with a beautiful woman before the lights (of the cinema) go out."

(Yoo Si-jin and Kang Mo-yeon in a cinema on their first date. Yoo Si-jin speaks after Kang Mo-yeon says, "I feel most excited before the lights of the theater go out.").







10. "It is not because you are good. It is because Seo Dae-young is a real soldier. That's why I love him. If you don't allow me to be sent to Uruk, you will lose not only first lieutenant Yoon Myung-joo but also daughter Yoon Myung Joo."

(Yoon Myung-joo speaks to her father, who thinks poorly of Seo Dae-young as Yoon Myung-joo's husband).


Very Street Kitchen, an experimental lab for street food





Joon Oh

CEO of Very Street Kitchen

By Yun Suh-young

On a sequestered, shabby street behind Seoul Station, at the heart of the city, there is an old stone building that stands out from its surroundings with its modern sign sporting one big four-letter word: "VERY."

The sign is short for Very Street Kitchen, a cozy, six-tabled restaurant that operates only at night. The tables are different sizes and shapes, giving customers the joy of choosing where they want to sit, including a bar seat accommodating up to six people. In one corner of the restaurant is a DJ console that restaurant staff play, changing the CD every once in a while using their turntable skills.

The name Very Street Kitchen comes from their concept of selling street food.

But their street food is far from conventional. The dishes bear the names of cities such as Osaka, Bangkok, Taipei, Singapore, New Orleans, Canton, Barcelona, Sokcho and Tongyeong, and the dishes reflect the tastes of those cities. They are served as platters rather than as snacks and they are hygienic and made with the freshest ingredients, unlike what you can find from street carts. The word "very" is meant to stress "clean" and the word "street" is reminiscent of "strong" and "addictive."

"It may not be the street food that people normally expect, but we considered street food in the broader sense  dishes that can be easily found and enjoyed in those cities," said Joon Oh, CEO of Very Joon Oh Atelier, under which Very Street Kitchen operates.





Exterior of Very Street Kitchen located in Manlijae-ro, Jung-gu, behind Seoul Station in central Seoul.

/ Courtesy of Very Street Kitchen



"Street food carries wisdom. It is made with the least amount of ingredients but produces the same consistent taste. Ingredients that are dismissed in haute cuisine are turned into delicacies and made public."

What Very Street Kitchen ultimately plans to do is to design a holistic experience for Korean street food that is not about the food itself, but the entire dining experience, from the atmosphere, the story related to the food and how to enjoy it.

"Our initial and ultimate goal is to create a brand for Korean food, especially street food," Oh said during an interview with The Korea Times. "I think street foods are representative of their countries and are the food most consumed, most loved by the people. In that sense, I think street food carries great symbolic meaning.

"I always found it frustrating that Korean food would be represented abroad in the form of fine dining. I don't believe that fine dining is the only way to globalize Korean food. Why do we always have to make it look sophisticated? Why do we have to present it like French cuisine? These doubts propelled me to think opposite and to really focus on our identity."

Oh is not one of those people plunging into the culinary scene simply to run a restaurant. What he wants to do is branding  on the image of Korean food, that is. He is a designer, as are three of his seven staffers.

As one of the most well-known, highly paid and highly sought-after designers in Korea, Oh has served numerous executive positions in local conglomerates such as Hyundai Card and AmorePacific and currently as creative director of Shinsegae International. He began his career in Paris as a furniture designer and worked as a creative director after returning to Korea.

What made him open his own business?

"I felt like I was going to burst if I didn't try this experiment," he said. "Working for a company couldn't satisfy my thirst. I wanted to prove that a brand was not about numbers. I wanted to take charge of my own brand and prove it. It just took time to gather people who carried the same vision."

Oh still works a regular job at Shinsegae International's lifestyle brand, Jaju, as creative director while operating his business, thanks to the company's understanding.

A year into its opening, the restaurant is always fully booked despite the lack of promotion. Oh says he wanted to focus on developing a multidimensional brand to near perfect before making it public. But news spread by word of mouth through social media. Even foreign customers who are residents of Seoul make frequent visits as well as tourists and business travelers. The restaurant's peculiar location in a less-developed district seems to have played up the magic, according to Oh.

"Our neighbors say our restaurant lit up this dark neighborhood. I now think this can serve as a counterexample of the broken window theory."

The restaurant is more of a creative lab than a restaurant as its staff continuously research and experiment during the daytime while the restaurant is closed.

"We open only for dinner because we need time for R&D," said Oh. "What we're researching now is rice. We're studying rice in depth, from planting to harvesting, as well as which side dishes make the best match."

The reason he focuses his energy on Korean food is because he pities how it lacks resources and infrastructure.

"It's a pity that we don't have many experts in our own food," he said. "Chefs go abroad to learn about other countries' cuisines, but we don't even have established schools that teach Korean cuisine here. We seem to belittle ourselves. If Very Street Kitchen succeeds, I want to open up a culinary school where foreign chefs would visit Seoul to learn Korean food."

His long-term dream is to open a branch of Very Street Seoul in cities such as Paris, Shanghai and Bangkok.

"If I want to spread something good, I think creating an example of something people want to follow is a way of contributing to our society," said the determined CEO.
By Yun Suh-young



The French tire company Michelin Group announced Thursday that it will publish a Red Guide for Seoul next year.



The Red Guide rates restaurants and hotels as opposed to the Green Guide which introduces travel destinations. A Green Guide for Seoul was published in 2011.



"The Michelin Guide reveals the vitality of the country's gourmet trends. I'm pleased we will continue our development in Korea," said Bernard Delmas, senior vice president of Michelin Group and the representative of Michelin Travel Partner for Asia-Pacific at a press conference in Seoul, Thursday.



"Korean cuisine is especially well known; from popular street food to traditional dishes. The popularity of Korean gastronomy has spread internationally with the Korean wave. We believe the Seoul guide will allow local enthusiasts, foreign visitors and business travelers to find the best restaurants and hotels in Seoul to fit their taste," he said.



The Michelin Guide, for over a century, has served as a "foodies' bible" since it was first published in 1900. It was initially published by the group to encourage its customers to travel, and thus boost the demand for cars and car tires.



In 1926, they began to award stars for fine dining establishments starting with one star and in 1931, the hierarchical three-star ranking system was introduced. The Michelin Guide Seoul 2017 which will be published at the end of this year is their fourth edition in Asia and the 27th Michelin Red Guide to be published in the world. It will be offered in Korean and English and also available in digital format.



The required series of inspections has not yet begun, but with the official announcement, the secretive assessors will begin their tour in Seoul.



"We have been eyeing Seoul as a location since we started editing the Green Guide for 2011. At the time we were already looking at the restaurants but our official start is from now. We will begin our inspection from now and it's going to take months until the publication of the 2017 edition, the date of which is not fixed yet but will definitely be published by the end of this year," Delmas said. The Korean guide will follow the publications of a Tokyo edition in 2007, Hong Kong and Macao edition in 2008 and the Singapore edition in 2016. The vice president said the timing was just right for the Korean guide.



"We've seen the coming of Korean cuisine in the worldwide scene in Paris, New York and Tokyo. It was too early in 2007 and a busy time for us when we were working on the Tokyo and Hong Kong, Macao guides. The timing is right to arrive in Seoul. The coming of Korean gastronomy is impressive," he said.



The Michelin Guide rates restaurants based on five criteria: quality of ingredients, mastery of cooking and flavors, personality of the cuisine, value for money, and consistency (both over time and across the entire menu). The three stars that are awarded represent the appropriate ranking according to the taste. Three stars are awarded for "exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey" and two stars for "excellent cuisine, worth a detour," while one star is awarded to "a very good restaurant in its category." Apart from the stars, the Bib Gourmand logo is awarded to public restaurants that serve "good food at moderate prices."



French Ambassador Fabien Penone said the "Seoul edition will be the new gourmet guide for Korean foodies" and "an honor for Korean gastronomy," adding that the guide will bring the two countries together through food.



The secretive and anonymous Michelin Guide inspectors who travel in pairs will consist of foreigners and Koreans, and will soon begin their excursions throughout Seoul.




Park Hyatt Seoul's renovated main restaurant, Cornerstone, which reopened at the end of last month, provides remarkably affordable menus. In the photo is breaded lamb chop. Courtesy of Park Hyatt Seoul



Park Hyatt Seoul's Cornerstone offers new affordable menu



Chef Massimiliano Ziano

By Kim Se-jeong

In general, dining at hotel restaurants in Korea is expensive, so many people avoid them.

Park Hyatt Seoul has recently taken a step to change that notion. Its renovated main restaurant, Cornerstone, which reopened at the end of last month, has remarkably affordable menus.

For example, the restaurant's lunch course costs only 46,000 won per person and includes an appetizer and an entree. Guests can choose a dessert instead of an appetizer, which is served with a cup of coffee or tea.

For the appetizers, customers can choose from grilled vegetables, fish carpaccio and bruschetta, and, for the entree, customers can choose from pasta, baked Canadian lobster, roasted half chicken, breaded lamb chop, and grilled tenderloin, T-bone steak and strip loin, among others.

"Yes it is Park Hyatt, which is one of the most luxurious hotel brands, but we want to give Cornerstone its own identity (as an affordable place," the hotel's head chef, Massimiliano Ziano, said during a recent interview with The Korea Times. According to him, "Cornerstone is a beautiful, affordable, friendly place" where anybody can enjoy quality food.

The hotel also decided to make these changes to give the restaurant clear identity. The restaurant used to serve a variety of dishes, ranging from stead and pasta to brunch dishes, but did not specialize in any one cuisine.

"It is now an Italian restaurant," Ziano said.

The chef played a key role in establishing the restaurant's identity. In developing the new menu, he drew from his Italian background and two decades of cooking experience around the world.

Cornerstone's new menu is inspired in particular by southern Italian cooking. "I am from the north, but my international experience has given me the understanding that the southern Italian cuisine, especially that on the coast, is what people like the most," the chef said.

Ziano recommended the roasted half chicken, which is cooked under a piece of brick.

"This is what we call brick cooking' in Italy, which makes the (chicken) skin crispy and gives it a golden color," he said.

He also recommends people to order different dishes and share them with each other. "This is a way become friends. This is an Italian way," he said.

Asked about how the restaurant maintains the quality of the food while keeping the prices down, he said it's possible by ensuring that the dishes are just the right portions (satisfying but not too big) and made from locally-grown ingredients.

To make the restaurant even more inviting, the hotel gave it a separate entrance from the hotel. Customers also dine at the restaurant alfresco when the weather gets warmer.

For a long time, hotels conveyed their restaurants' prestige with the high prices. Recently, however, hotels, including Park Hyatt, have been attempting to cater to a broader range of customers at their restaurants and some have succeeded. The chef said he is positive that Cornerstone will also succeed.

Cornerstone is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The new menu is available between 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. for lunch and between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. for dinner. For more information and reservations, call (02) 2016-1234.
Prosecutors on Thursday formally arrested the head of a foreign-affiliated advertising company in Seoul, which had a major contract with the nation's largest tobacco and ginseng product manufacturer, over allegations he created slush funds.



The Seoul Central District Court issued a warrant to arrest the suspect, surnamed Kim, noting there are considerable reasons to believe he committed the crimes and could possibly destroy evidence.



Kim -- who heads the advertising agency, only identified by its initial J -- is accused of creating slush funds worth over 1 billion won (826,000 dollars) by exaggerating the unit price in contracts with its partners.



Prosecutors suspect the money was used to bribe its clients, including KT&G Corp.

A former head of the company and a staff member in the cigarette and ginseng maker's marketing department were also formally arrested over their alleged involvement in the process. (Yonhap)






A Kenyan man killed an employee at a PC cafe in Gwangju, South Jeolla Province, Wednesday. / Courtesy of Channel A



By Ko Dong-hwan

An African man who has applied for refugee status killed an employee at a PC cafe in Gwangju on Wednesday, and then robbed a customer.

The man, 28, a Kenyan, whose name has not been released, went to the cafe in South Jeolla Province in the morning. He chatted with an employee, a Korean man, 38.

The otherwise empty cafe's security camera showed the two chatting briefly before going to a washroom in the basement.

The camera then shows the Kenyan returning to the cafe alone.

The man then robbed a male customer, 22, stealing his winter jacket and smartphone, and then fled. The customer reported the theft to police, who later arrested the Kenyan.







Police found the cafe employee dead in the washroom, with a chopstick and spoon jammed in his mouth.

The Kenyan reportedly remained silent when police interrogated him.

Police said the man arrived last year on a three-month visa to participate in a UNESCO International Workcamp from July to August. In August, he filed for refugee status.

A day before the murder, the Kenyan visited a police station and said he wished to go back to his country.

When police learned he had applied for refugee status, they reportedly said there was nothing they could do for him in this regard.
By Kim Hyo-jin



A Saenuri Party faction affiliated with President Park Geun-hye is under scrutiny following the public disclosure by a broadcaster of private phone conversations between Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun, a Park loyalist.



During the conversations with an unknown figure, Rep. Yoon said that the party's Chairman Rep. Kim Moo-sung, who has been at odds with the pro-Park faction, and Kim's followers should not be nominated as candidates to stand in the April 13 elections.



Despite an apology from Yoon for his "careless" remarks, Thursday, Kim has remained silent and those opposed to the president protested, urging the lawmaker to identify the person with whom he had the conversations.



While Kim is giving Yoon the cold shoulder, further questions were raised as to whether Park loyalists engaged in influencing the candidate nomination process for the upcoming general election.



"Yoon should tell the truth if the conversations were with someone who is close to Park and make a clear stance on the rumor," said Rep. Hong Moon-pyo, a lawmaker not affiliated with the supporters of the President Park.



"It's possible to expel Yoon if it turns out that the pro-Park faction truly plotted to harm lawmakers of the other faction," said Rep. Yeo Sang-kyoo, the head of the ethics committee, in a radio interview.



The controversy deepened after Channel A, a local broadcaster, aired the recording of a phone conversation in which Yoon said, "Kill Kim. Rule him out of the nomination" to an unknown person.



The comments intensified inter- factional conflicts while members opposed to the president raised suspicions that Park's followers are pulling the strings of the nomination process.



Meanwhile, hundreds of Kim's supporters mounted a protest in front of the party's headquarters, calling for Yoon to be expelled from the political sphere.

Amid the worsening factional feud, an announcement regarding Kim's primary election was postponed.



"A series of scandals surrounding Kim should be sorted out first before the announcement," said Lee Hahn-koo, the head of the nomination management committee, while announcing a second list of the party's potential candidates, Thursday.



Previously, Kim became embroiled in a so-called "hit-list" scandal in which Rep. Chung Doo-un claimed that he heard from Kim about a list of lawmakers who were to be excluded from the nomination process. The controversy subsided after Kim denied Chung's claims and apologized, but the party is still investigating the scandal.




By Kim Bo-eun

Confusing regulations on foreign schools have left them mostly unsupervised by local education authorities, enabling irregularities in the management of school funds.

The baffling regulations on the education office's authority over auditing the schools' finances surfaced after officials of Dulwich College Seoul (DCS), a foreign school based in southern Seoul, were indicted Tuesday on charges of having embezzled 7.5 billion won in tuition fees.

The Ministry of Education and the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) agree on the latter's authority to audit foreign schools' finances, based on the act governing private schools.

However, the two have differing interpretations of another act governing elementary and secondary school education. The education ministry says this act requires auditing by the SMOE, but the education office says it is not required to assume the role.

Based on its interpretation of the act, the SMOE has not audited foreign schools' finances.

Up until now, it has been conducting inspections on other areas such as enrollment, but this was only done once every two years, according to an SMOE official, Thursday.

The official said, however, the education office "will start to conduct audits and abide by the act governing private schools."

"We are also planning to hold inspections once a year," he said.












By Yi Whan-woo



A U.N. panel on women's rights has asked Japan to offer a sincere apology for its sexual enslavement of women before and during World War II.



The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination also has urged Tokyo to faithfully implement its verbal agreement with Seoul on Dec. 28 regarding provision of compensation for the victims of wartime sex slavery.



In a report released on Monday, the committee assessed that the bilateral agreement still falls short of resolving issues concerning Tokyo's state-perpetrated sex offenses.



"While noting the efforts by the State party to attempt to resolve the issue of the comfort women,' most recently through a bilateral agreement between the State party and the Republic of Korea announced on Dec. 28, 2015, the Committee regrets that the State party has not implemented the aforementioned recommendations," it said. "The Committee urges the State party to recognize the right of victims to a remedy, and accordingly provide full and effective redress and reparation, including compensation, satisfaction, official apologies and rehabilitative services."



Meanwhile, Korea's Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se did not mention Japan's wartime sex slavery during his U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) speech in Geneva on March 2.



It was Yun's first UNHRC appearance since Dec. 28. It is speculated that he remained low-key regarding Japan's state-perpetrated sex crimes in line with the Seoul-Tokyo accord.



In their "final and irrevocable" deal, the two nations agreed to refrain from accusing each other in relation to the sensitive issue on the international stage.



Koreans accounted for a majority of the estimated 200,000 "comfort women," a euphemism for those who were forced into sexual servitude at military brothels operated by the Japanese Army. Other victims were from China, Taiwan, Indonesia and other South East Asian countries occupied by Japan as well as some of European origin such as Holland.



"The announcement of the bilateral agreement with the Republic of Korea, which asserts that the comfort women' issue is resolved finally and irreversibly', did not fully adopt a victim-centered approach," the committee said. "The issue of comfort women' gives rise to serious violations that have a continuing effect on the rights of victims/ survivors of those violations that were perpetrated by the State party's military.



The committee also asked Japan to ensure that its leaders and public officials to "desist from making disparaging statements regarding responsibility."



Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who apologized to the victims in the Dec. 28 deal, repeatedly have said since then that the country will no longer apologize for its state-perpetrated sex crimes.



Some Japanese lawmakers have caused disputes by referring to former sex slaves as "prostitutes."



In a February report submitted to the U.N., Tokyo claimed there is a lack of evidence to prove that the Japanese military forcibly mobilized the "comfort women."



"Recently, there has been an increase in the number of statements from public officials and leaders regarding the State party's responsibility for violations committed against comfort women,' the committee said.



It urged Japan to ensure that the Dec. 28 agreement will be faithfully implemented.



Japan agreed to use its national budget and provide a fund of 1 billion yen for Korea to set up a foundation for the surviving victims.



The committee asked Japan to "adequately integrate" comfort women-related issues in textbooks and ensure that historical facts are "objectively presented to students and the public."




South Korea said Thursday it remains committed to expanding infrastructure links across Asia and Europe under its Eurasia Initiative even though it has suspended a key logistics project involving North Korea and Russia.



The Eurasia Initiative is a key part of President Park Geun-hye's foreign policy agenda under which countries in Asia and Europe would draw closer together through increased rail and other infrastructure links.



Skepticism over the initiative has grown since South Korea halted a trilateral logistics project involving the North and Russia as part of unilateral sanctions punishing Pyongyang for its recent nuclear and missile tests.



"The Eurasia Initiative aims to increase connectivity across Eurasia over the mid- to long-term, and promote regional economic development and peace," Cho June-hyuck, a spokesman of the Foreign Ministry, said during a regular press briefing. "We are steadily moving toward that goal through various relevant projects."



Such projects include last year's Eurasia Express train expedition, which took participants from South Korea to Berlin via Russia and other countries, as well as various culture and transport forums scheduled for later this year, Cho said.



Many leaders of countries in the region, including China, Russia and the Central Asian states, have expressed their support for the initiative, he added. (Yonhap)




North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea in the latest saber-rattling move amid the ongoing South Korea-U.S. military drills, South Korea's military said Thursday.

According to the Joint Chief of Staff (JCS), the two missiles were fired around 5:20 a.m. from North Hwanghae Province and hit waters northeast of the port city of Wonsan off the country's east coast.

Sources said the pair flew some 500 kilometers.

"The military is keeping close tabs on the situation and is prepared to deal with any North Korean provocations," the JCS said.

The latest provocation followed the North's test-firing a week ago of a new 300-millimeter-caliber multiple launch rocket system.

Pyongyang has been ratcheting up its bellicose threats against Seoul and Washington as the allies are staging the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises, a command post exercise and field training war game, respectively. The weekslong exercises began Monday.

A day earlier, the North threatened to turn the allies' military installations into a "sea of fire" in a commentary published by its official Korean Central News Agency. The North has accused the allies of conducting the drills to "decapitate" its leadership and prepare for a "nuclear war of invasion."

Observers say Pyongyang's continued provocations also reflect its anger at the recent adoption of a U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution that punishes the isolated regime for its Jan. 6 nuclear test and Feb. 7 long-range rocket test. (Yonhap)
Chinese authorities have notified Beijing Capital International Airport of a list of North Korean individuals who are blacklisted by new U.N. sanctions for their involvement in the North's weapons program, a source with knowledge of the issue said Thursday.

The list of 16 North Korean individuals was added to the U.N. sanctions blacklist after the U.N. Security Council adopted a new resolution following the North's fourth nuclear test and rocket launch this year.

"The list was delivered to the immigration department of the Beijing Capital International Airport and relevant measures appear to be implemented," the source said on the condition of anonymity.

China's customs authorities are likely to inspect cargo destined for and coming from North Korea via the North's state-run airline Air Koryo, the source said.

Such measures are in line with the new U.N. sanctions.

Chinese officials have said Beijing will "earnestly" implement the new U.N. sanctions, but they should not affect the well-being and humanitarian needs of North Korean people.

Winning China's cooperation is key to ensuring the effectiveness of U.N. sanctions against North Korea because China accounts for nearly 90 percent of the North's foreign trade.

Still, China is unlikely to put crippling sanctions on North Korea because a sudden collapse of the regime could spark a refugee crisis at its border and lead to a pro-U.S., democratic Korea on its doorstep, analysts say. (Yonhap)
China called for restraint on Thursday as North Korea fired two short-range missiles into the East Sea in an apparent show of anger against ongoing South Korea-U.S. military drills and new U.N. sanctions.



China's foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei described the current situation on the Korean Peninsula as "highly sensitive."



China urged "all relevant parties" to exercise restraint to avoid escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula, Hong said.



According to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), the two missiles were fired around 5:20 a.m. Thursday morning (Seoul time) from North Hwanghae Province and hit waters northeast of the port city of Wonsan. The missiles flew some 500 kilometers.



North Korea was slapped with new U.N. sanctions following its fourth nuclear test and launch of a long-range rocket this year.



South Korea and the U.S. have been conducting annual joint military drills, which have been branded by North Korea as a rehearsal for invasion. (Yonhap)




President Park Geun-hye called Thursday for national unity to better cope with threats posed by North Korea's provocations.



North Korea has ratcheted up harsh rhetoric and demonstrated a show of force against South Korea over Seoul's largest-ever military drills with Washington.



Tensions have already spiked on the Korean Peninsula as the U.N. Security Council tightened sanctions on North Korea to punish Pyongyang for its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6 and long-range rocket launch on Feb. 7.



"Peace on the Korean Peninsula is being shaken due to North Korea's nuclear test and missile launch," Park said in a speech at the opening ceremony for a new office building of the North Gyeongsang Provincial government in Andong 268 kilometers southeast of Seoul.



North Korea has claimed its latest rocket launch was meant to put a satellite into orbit. Still, South Korea, the U.S. and other regional powers view it as a cover for testing its ballistic missile technology, which is banned under U.N. resolutions.



"Now is the time when national unity is important more than ever," Park said, adding that North Korea is targeting South Korea's government and its people through threats and cyberattacks.



The latest comments came hours after North Korea fired two short-range missiles that flew across North Korea before falling into waters off its eastern coastal city of Wonsan.

North Korea's missile program has been a major concern for South Korea, the U.S. and other regional powers as it could provide a vehicle for nuclear warheads.



The North has recently renewed its claim that it has mastered the technology to make nuclear warheads small enough to mount on missiles, though outside analysts question the country's miniaturization technology.



South Korea has recently accused North Korea of stealing information from about 10 South Korean officials by hacking into their smartphones in the latest cyberattacks. (Yonhap)




By Mark Leonard

MUNICH  The consequences of Russia's intervention in Syria stretch far beyond the Middle East. The Kremlin's military campaign has tilted the stalemate in favor of the government and derailed efforts to craft a political compromise to end the war. It also heralds the beginning of a new era in geopolitics, in which large-scale military interventions are not carried out by Western coalitions, but by countries acting in their own narrow self-interest, often in contravention of international law.

Since the end of the Cold War, the debate over international military action has pitted powerful, interventionist Western powers against weaker countries, like Russia and China, whose leaders argued that national sovereignty is sacrosanct and inviolable. The unfolding developments in Syria are further evidence that the tables are turning. While the West is losing its appetite for intervention  particularly involving ground troops  countries like Russia, China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia are increasingly intervening in their neighbors' affairs.

In the 1990s, after genocides in Rwanda and the Balkans, Western countries developed a doctrine of so-called humanitarian intervention. " The Responsibility to Protect " (colloquially known as "R2P") held countries accountable for their people's welfare and compelled the international community to intervene when governments failed to protect civilians from mass atrocities  or were themselves threatening civilians. The doctrine upended the traditional concept of national sovereignty, and in countries like Russia and China, it quickly came to be viewed as little more than a fig leaf for Western-sponsored regime change.

So it is ironic, to say the least, that Russia is using a concept similar to R2P to justify its intervention, only in this case it is defending the government from its citizens, rather than the other way around. Russia's efforts are, in effect, an argument for a return to the era of absolute sovereignty, in which governments are uniquely responsible for what happens within their country's borders.

Russia's stance also reflects its preference for stability over justice and its acceptance of the legitimacy of authoritarian rule. With the proliferation of "color revolutions" in places like Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan, Russia and China have become increasingly wary of popular uprisings. The threat of Western intervention, in their view, only compounds the potential for instability. Indeed, the Chinese have coined their own stiff foreign-policy jargon for this sentiment: fan xifang xin ganshe zhuyi (loosely translated, "countering Western neo-interventionism").

But Russia's respect for sovereignty has notable limits. In Crimea in 2014, the Kremlin embraced a very different doctrine of intervention, justifying its actions in Ukraine on the grounds that it was defending the rights of ethnic Russians. This marks a return to a pre-Westphalian world of linguistic, religious, and sectarian solidarity, of the sort Czarist Russia practiced when it regarded itself as the protector all Slavs.

Not surprisingly, this justification for intervention is rapidly finding adherents in other parts of the world. In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia has adopted a parallel argument for its support of Sunni forces in Yemen and Syria, as has Iran in backing its Shia allies in both countries. Even China is increasingly being pushed to take responsibility for its citizens and companies overseas. At the beginning of the Libyan civil war, China airlifted tens of thousands of its citizens out of the country.

All of this has come at a time when the West is losing its military preeminence. Improvements in the Russian and Chinese militaries and the increasingly common use of asymmetric strategies by state and non-state actors are leveling the battlefield. Indeed, the proliferation of state-sponsored non-state actors in places like Libya, Syria, Crimea, and Donbas is blurring the distinction between state and non-state violence.

After the Cold War, the West imposed an international order that defined geopolitics worldwide. When that order was threatened, Western leaders felt authorized to intervene in the affairs of whatever "rogue state" was causing the problem. But now that order is being challenged on several fronts simultaneously  globally by Russia and China, and at the regional level by increasingly assertive players in the Middle East, Latin America, and even Europe.

As a new order takes shape, the roles countries have played for the last 25 years are likely to be reversed. In the West, the concept of sovereignty and the limited use of power is likely to make a comeback, while national leaders who have traditionally called for restraint will become increasingly bold in unleashing their troops.

Mark Leonard is director of the European Council on Foreign Relations. Copyright

belongs to Project Syndicate.
North Korea is not believed to have mastered the technology to fit a nuclear warhead onto a long-range missile yet, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh said.

Welsh made the remark during a Pentagon briefing Monday, saying the commander of U.S. Northern Command "spends a lot of time worried about how we can be sure to take it out if they ever did develop the capability to combine a long-range missile with a warhead that was operable."

Asked if the North has reached the stage, Welsh said, "I don't think they're at that stage yet."

The North conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range missile test last month, demonstrating it is making strides in efforts to develop a long-range missile capable of reaching the U.S.

But many experts say the North has yet to master the technology to make nuclear warheads small enough to fit a long-range missile, and to make a missile capable of withstanding reentry into Earth's atmosphere.












By Kim Yoo-chul



Samsung Electronics can still edge ahead of Taiwan's TSMC in the heated race for next-generation chip-making technology focusing on 10-nanometer chips, raising the possibility that Apple will rely on Samsung technology for its future A11 processor chips.



That means Samsung Electronics will work with Apple again to fabricate processor chips for the iPhone 7s, which will be released in 2017.



TSMC was recently named the sole supplier for Apple's A10 chips for the iPhone 7 with Apple planning to release it this year, a major blow for Samsung as Apple is one of its largest clients.



In chip-making technology, thinner tech means improved efficiency and lower cost. Theoretically, for example, 10-nanometer tech is better than 14 and 16 nanometers in terms of cost and efficiency.



"We believe Samsung, despite some recent delays, will still be the first mover to 10-nanometer technology," Mark. C. Newman, a senior analyst at Bernstein Research, wrote in a note to clients, Thursday. "TSMC and Intel will soon follow, whereas GlobalFoundries can hardly keep up. Samsung can still edge ahead of TSMC."



The leading research firm said it expects Samsung's production to trickle in late this year for its internal and Qualcomm's upcoming mobile chipsets, tentatively named Snapdragon 830.



The report comes as the competitive landscape in 14- and 16-nanometer technology is stabilizing, opening up an opportunity to shift the focus to 10-nanometer tech.



Bernstein said the 10-nanometer's competitive position will be similar to 14- and 16-nanometer and Samsung will claim the title of "the first 10-nanometer foundry supplier."



However, thanks to its huge manufacturing capacity, TSMC may catch up on a larger scale later.



Therefore, both Samsung and TSMC will handle the new Apple project.



"Samsung is pushing hard to diversify its logic customer base given some losses of Apple and further improve earnings revenue and operating margins from low-single digit to mid-single digit in 2016 and beyond," said the research firm. "We therefore raise our 10-nanometer foundry sales forecast in 2017."



U.S.-based mobile chipset giant Qualcomm will fill the void for Samsung after Apple ditched the Korean tech giant, as Samsung is Qualcomm's sole partner on 14-nanometer tech starting from the first half of this year.



"Qualcomm should continue working with Samsung," the research firm said.



Bernstein said Samsung will clearly have lower spending on chip fabrication this year from the previous year. Its logic chip business, considered as a next-generation revenue stream replacing conventional and volatile memory chips, is possibly also turning more cautious.



"This will buttress the profitability of Samsung's logic-chip division but may lead to supply tightness in 10-nanometer tech later," it said, adding that Samsung Electronics will also compete with Intel, as the tech giant may be shifting in the same direction too.



By naming TSMC as the exclusive chip-sourcing partner for A10 chips, Apple has continued cutting its reliance on its South Korean partner.



However, given that Apple sells a huge amount of iPhones per quarter, it's quite unclear whether TSMC alone can manufacture enough chips for all iPhones.

Any supply shortage in chips will hurt iPhone sales.



"Samsung remains a formidable opponent against TSMC and likely will advance to 10-nanometer earlier," Bernstein's Newman said. "High cost and uncertain outlook may be prompting companies to think harder for capacity expansion but the race to more advanced nodes has no sign of slowing down."




SK Telecom's Chief Technology Officer Choi Jin-sung introduces the company's updated business strategy in discussions with panelists during the OCP Summit held in San Jose, Calif., the United States, Thursday. / Courtesy of SK Telecom



By Kim Yoo-chul



SK Telecom said Thursday that it has teamed up with Internet giant Google to develop next-generation telecommunications infrastructure in order to create new services and products.



"SK Telecom has become the first Asian telecom operator to join hands with OpenConfig, led by Google," said SK Telecom in a statement, adding the partnership was initiated by Google.



The project is now being embraced by leading telecom service providers, Internet firms and social networking sites such as Facebook looking to bring new services to market quickly and at scale.



Established in October 2014, OpenConfig concentrates on the development of vendor-neutral data models for configuration and management that will be supported locally on networking hardware and software platforms.



The members of the organizations can share core patents via hotlines.



"As existing network equipment companies have different standards, telecom service providers have been trying hard to address compatibility issues," SK said. "This cost is huge, as telecom operators need to develop separate systems to respond with calls by different telecom equipment suppliers. This is why SK Telecom joined with global leaders in the sector."



Along with Google and Facebook, other key members of the organization include Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Apple and Deutsche Telekom, according to the statement.



SK Telecom said five of its experts will be joining "key research projects" with the group members.



Meanwhile, the company said it has separately agreed with Facebook to expand its bilateral business partnership.



The expanded collaboration calls for SK Telecom to develop data storage technology, helping Facebook offer faster and clearer live video streaming services.



Since January, SK Telecom and Facebook have been jointly developing data processing systems customized to the telecom industry. The two companies are also cooperating in the Telecom Infrastructure Project program.



"The global telecom industry will see huge data traffic thanks to the popularity of data-intensive services such as holograms, virtual reality and high definition content," the company's chief technology officer Choi Jin-sung said. "Therefore, the industry needs new infrastructure which costs less and is efficient enough to handle a large volume of data. With our global partners, SK Telecom will quickly respond to this trend."
Koh Dong-jin, head of Samsung's mobile devices division, introduces the company's new flagship smartphones  the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge  at a launch event at the Hotel Shilla, central Seoul, Thursday. Courtesy of Samsung Electronics



By Lee Min-hyung

Samsung Electronics said Thursday that it aims to rebound in the Chinese market with its new flagship smartphones, Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, but it remained cautious by saying it won't be an "overnight thing."

"It is too early for us to say that our new flagship models will bring a massive change to China's smartphone market," Koh Dong-jin, Samsung Electronics' mobile chief, said during a Galaxy launch event in Seoul.

The remark came three days after the company held a Galaxy showcase event in Shanghai. Koh acknowledged that the company has been suffering setbacks in Asia's largest market for more than a year and a half.

"On the Shanghai visit, I had a series of meetings with Chinese retail partners, as we identify the local distribution channel as the key factor for our success," he said. "I saw for myself why we have been having trouble in the market, and now we can say for sure that the new Galaxy models will be a game changer."

This is the first time for Koh to hold a press event in Seoul since he was named the company's new mobile head last Dec. 1. Under his leadership, Samsung unveiled the new flagship models at this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona last month. Koh has played a central role in developing all the Galaxy series, and was promoted in recognition of his leading role in developing all the flagship models.

"We have contemplated what customer-centric innovation is," he said. "Innovation for customers comes from simplicity. They want to get something with basic features such as luxurious design, waterproofing and battery life lasting a full day."

Samsung Electronics stressed that Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge adopted a duel-pixel image sensor which the company said Wednesday it has been mass-producing since February. The company said the 1.2-megapixel image sensor will allow users to take professional-level photographs.

"The image sensor is the fruit of our years-long efforts," he said. "We also want to adopt the sensor to non-flagship models, but careful consideration is needed considering such factors as price competitiveness."

Galaxy S7 is priced at 836,000 won ($695) for the 32GB model, down 22,000 won from the previous model. Galaxy S7 Edge is sold at 924,000 won for the same storage capacity, down 55,000 won from the S6 Edge.

"A company decides prices for their products, but more important is to hear voices from customers," the company chief added.

We decided to lower the price to meet the growing calls from customers," he said. "Our sales and marketing department has focused on demands from the market. We are confident the new models will exceed sales records for previous models."





Galaxy Club

The company also unveiled why it decided to introduce the Galaxy trade-in program, Galaxy Club.

"Each country will run the Galaxy Club program differently," Koh said. "We have been in talks to launch the program for one-and-a-half years. The program was introduced to win back our loyal customers."

When Galaxy Club users buy Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge on a two-year installment plan, they can replace it with a new model next year without paying the remaining installments. Samsung charges 7,700 won each month for the trade-in program and smartphone care services which include offering half price for repairing smartphone screens.

Users can join the program, starting Friday, the official launch date for the new smartphones. All the payment should be made through Samsung Card, the company said.
Dan Weedin: It may be your business, but it's not all about you
Yoon Sungmo of K-pop group Supernova has been reportedly booked on charges of drunk driving.

On Mar. 7 at 1:20 AM, police officers spotted Yoon Sungmo make an illegal u-turn and ordered him to pull over. However, Sungmo ignored the officer's orders and attempted to flee, which caused him to crash into a telephone pole.

As the video shows, after crashing the hood of his car, Yoon attempted to continue to flee, and traveled 1.3 kilometers before finally being arrested. While fleeing, he crashed into a police car, causing minor injuries to one of the officers.

At the time of the accident, his blood alcohol level was recorded at 0.092% ABV. The law in Korea states that driving with a blood alcohol level over .05% ABV is punishable with an imprisonment of less than three years or a fine not exceeding 10 million won. The offender will also have their license revoked or suspended.

Yoon Sungmo's side has released a statement regarding the issue.

"Yoon Sungmo deeply regrets his decision and will cooperate with the police questioning honestly. We sincerely apologize for worrying and causing distress to all of his fans."



Supernova is a six-member group that debuted in 2007 in Korea, but has received immense popularity in Japan, with Yook Sung Mo's debut Japanese album reaching the No. 1 spot on Oricon charts in Aug. 2015.
Remarks by

Hon. Mangala Samaraweera

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka

20th Meeting of the Governing Council of the Community of Democracies

Geneva, 2 March 2016

Recent developments in Sri Lanka

Secretary General

Excellencies

Ladies and Gentlemen

It is an honour to be invited to the Community of Democracies, since my distinguished predecessor Lakshman Kadirgamar addressed the Inaugural Ministerial Conference of the Community in Warsaw in June 2000.

As you all know, democracy in its modern form began to take root in my country over a century ago when the basic forms of participatory democracy were introduced by the colonial government at the time. These systems evolved until, in 1931, Universal Adult Franchise was introduced in Sri Lanka, long before many other countries in the world. In 1948, with Sri Lanka becoming Independent, our Parliament was established.

We have a multi-party system, and despite some draw backs and setbacks over the years, one could state with confidence that democracy is very firmly and deeply rooted in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka clearly falls into the category of countries which believes that democracy, however flawed, is absolutely essential. There is no substitute for it. Democracy is in the lifeblood of our people. The voting habit is so deeply ingrained that I cannot possibly imagine a situation where any attempt to take it away from the people would be tolerated. This was evident even in the historic January 2015 Presidential Election when, in the face of imminent defeat, last minute efforts were made by the former regime to subvert the democratic process, such attempts were clearly resisted by the Army, the Police and the Attorney-General.

We have not seen any serious attempts at overthrowing our democracy in our 68 years of independence, except an attempt in 1962 which was aborted in a few hours. The quality of our democracy, over time, has ebbed and flowed, but Sri Lankas voter turnout at every election has been one of the highest in the world. The people of Sri Lanka are proud of their active and practising democracy, and if I may so, our democracy is also one that is firmly rooted and one that has also been tested.

Why do I say this? For long years, Sri Lanka was unfortunately, a democracy under siege, with a terrorist group demanding a separate state through violence. They recruited children as combatants, assassinated democratic political leaders, and disallowed any semblance of democratic practice in the areas that they held under their command. Years of terrorism took a severe toll on our democratic institutions. We were even compelled to bring in legislation such as the Prevention of Terrorism Act that has no place in a democracy. Freedom of expression and freedom of movement were severely curtailed. Human rights suffered as well. And while elections were still being held despite terrorism, candidates could not campaign freely, and most fell victim to violence.

Yet, when terrorism ended and people in the areas held under their sway were once again free to exercise their vote at elections, they started turning out in large numbers to exercise their franchise, indicating that they clearly chose democracy over any other form of governance.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As I explained, Sri Lanka faced terrorism for almost 30 years and despite successive governments trying their best, often with international support, to reach a negotiated settlement, this could not be achieved.

Ultimately, when the conflict ended in May 2009 with the defeat of the LTTE, and everyone hoped that our democracy would be strengthened, and an era of reconciliation and healing would commence, the administration of the day decided otherwise.

Emboldened by the victory over the LTTE, the administration of the day launched a triumphalist campaign aimed at holding on to power. A constitutional amendment was effected, lifting term limits for the executive presidency. Checks and balances in terms of appointments to key Commissions were eliminated. Freedom of expression was curtailed, news websites were blocked, journalists were threatened, the judiciary was tampered with, freedom of movement was restricted, democratic norms in the administration of security forces was overlooked, human rights were curtailed, communities were being polarised through manipulation, impunity reigned, and the public service and democratic institutions were deliberately weakened. In fact, bringing back memories of the Enabling Act passed in the Reichstag in 1933, the action by the Government of the day, unleashed through a two-thirds majority secured in Parliament through coercion, blackmail and intimidation, was the most serious threat to our democracy since the demise of the LTTE in 2009.

However, our democracy could not be that easily beaten down. The best example, I would say, of the resilience and strength of Sri Lankas democracy was the Presidential election that took place in Sri Lanka on the 8th of January 2015. Taking many Sri Lanka watchers around the world by surprise, Asias oldest democracy reasserted its commitment to democracy by dislodging an emerging elected dictatorship by non-violence. Instead of the stones, pellets and bullets that some have used around the world to reassert democracy, the weapon of choice of the people of Sri Lanka was their ever-cherished ballot which they deployed with finesse, through peaceful means, to change an administration which was perceived as undefeatable.

Over 80% of registered voters exercised their franchise on 8th January, silently, peacefully and decisively, resulting in a swift transfer of power the very next day. They chose good governance, the rule of law, strong democratic institutions, reconciliation, human rights, and the creation of a new political culture devoid of divisive politics and the preservation of the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious nature of Sri Lankan society.

As I said earlier, the firm resolve of the public servants  the Commissioner of Elections, the thousands of election workers, and even the army and the police who performed an exemplary task by rallying around to uphold this victory - proved their commitment to democracy.

This journey did not stop on the 8th of January. They voted a second time at the Parliamentary Election on 17th August in support of change.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Recent progressive developments in Sri Lanka since the Presidential Election on 8th January and the Parliamentary Election on 17th August are too numerous for me to list out in a brief statement of this nature. Therefore, I am going to distribute a paper containing a list of some of the key achievements and proceed to describe a few important steps taken by the Government.

In April 2015, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was passed, restoring the independence of commissions responsible for the judiciary, police, public service and human rights.

Presidential term-limits were reintroduced and the duration of a single term of the Presidency was reduced from 6 to 5 years.

Parliamentary Sectoral Oversight Committees were established.

Following the Parliamentary Election of 17 August, traditional rivals in Sri Lankan politics, the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) came together to form a Government of National Unity for the first time since Independence. This heralded a new culture of consensual politics that is necessary to create political and policy stability. One has to only look at Sri Lankas modern history with its countless missed opportunities to realise that what held us back and plunged us into cycles of conflict, was the nature of adversarial politics that was followed in the past. Whenever one side tried to find a solution, the other side posed obstacles.

Today, under President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, this myopia that plagued our nation since independence has been set aside. The temptation of political parties to follow a path of confrontation in order to achieve short-term political gains over the long-term interests of the people is now over. We also have in our Leader of Opposition, the Hon. R. Sampanthan, a wise, committed and respected politician with the resolve to work together to ensure that we do not let our country lose yet another opportunity.

Fortunately, today, with the demise of the LTTE, no one in our country believes that violence is a solution to our problems. The desire for peace, the desire to ensure non-recurrence is clear. The people of our country, in every walk of life, the rich and the poor, those living in the North, South, East, West and Centre, desperately want peace to last. They have all suffered too much bloodshed and unimaginable agony.

The National Unity Government therefore, is focused on fostering a national consensus around the never again principle which everyone in our country relates to.

Making use of this historic opportunity, the Government is taking steps towards achieving the twin objectives of reconciliation and development. We realise well that it is not possible to achieve one without the other.

On 1 October 2015, we co-sponsored, with other members of the UN Human Rights Council, the Resolution titled Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka as a manifestation of our firm commitment to uphold the human rights of our people, and take measures for truth-seeking, justice, and reparations aimed at ensuring non-recurrence. The design of mechanisms that we have undertaken to create for these processes will be informed by public consultations.

One of our key priorities while pursuing our development and reconciliation objectives is the adoption of a new Constitution based on the fundamentals of democracy, human rights and equal dignity for all citizens by virtue of their citizenship. Public consultations for the drafting of the new Constitution are currently under way.

We are also in the process of repealing the Prevention of Terrorism Act and introducing new counter-terrorism legislation that is in line with contemporary international best practices.

As you all know, the Government, under President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghes leadership, since January 2015, has been working closely with the international community, resurrecting strained relations with the United Nations and our traditional partners, because it is our firm belief that in this journey that we have undertaken, Sri Lanka requires the support and assistance of all her friends in the international community. This is in keeping with Sri Lankas traditional, age-old persona, which for centuries has been an inclusive society that reached out to the world, guided by her geographic location at the centre of the Indian Ocean between East and West, and welcomed ideas from the outside world that enriched our society.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Community of Democracies must find ways and means of standing together to assist each other in times of peril, especially when faced by terrorism which threatens the fundamentals on which democracy is based.

Moreover, when countries like mine stand up to uphold democracy and pursue reconciliation and development despite sustained efforts by terrorists, extremists and potential despots to destroy democracy, the democracies of the world must come to their assistance through every means possible  including sharing experiences, increasing trade and investment, assistance for capacity building and institution building.

A viable democracy is where citizen feel content and satisfied. Creating and maintaining a viable democracy is not easy. I believe this to be true for the developed as well as the developing countries, although the nature of the challenges that each of us face may be different.

Flaws in our systems and weaknesses can lead to disillusion with politics among people. This is natural. But maintaining the sustained interest of the public is important for a democracy to thrive as the people are an integral part of a democracy. Without fundamental human rights, strong institutions, right education, economic development, ensuring constant safeguards against corruption and robust checks and balances, democracy will always be in peril. And we must help each other in our mutual effort to safeguard and strengthen our respective democracies.

In countries like mine, for all good intentions and political will to succeed, and for democracy to be strengthened, all stakeholders must feel that their development is being cared for and their lives are improving. Therefore, winning the peace is just as much about jobs, education, healthcare and infrastructure for all Sri Lankans as it is about political reforms. The peace dividend must be felt in economic terms by all sections of Sri Lankan society: the peace dividend for the unemployed youth must be greater and better job opportunities; for the housewives better living standards; for the farmers a higher prices and access to markets; for the students more schools, technical colleges and universities with better-trained teachers and lecturers; for the elderly greater access to hospitals and medicine.

The Government of Sri Lanka has no doubt that as the necessary political and economic reforms take place, investment and trade and ultimately jobs, growth and economic development will follow. But as the relationship between peace and development is holistic and dynamic, the faster the peace dividend the greater and faster the likelihood and durability of peace. In a nutshell, the peoples purses must feel the benefits of reconciliation, peace and ethnic harmony. And they must feel them fast.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

With the steps that the Government of Sri Lanka is taking towards democractization, respect for human rights, reconciliation and development, we wish to make Sri Lanka a post-conflict democratic success story, and we look forward to your support in this endeavour.

I thank you once again for this opportunity and look forward to continue to stay engaged with the Community of Democracies in future.
The SLFP does not condone the continuation of the Emergency Regulations (The Public Security Ordinance) more than a day necessary

Read more
The bids are in and both Tribune Publishing (parent company of the Los Angeles Times) and Digital First Media (parent of the Los Angeles News Group) are contenders to acquire the bankrupt Orange County Register (right), its real estate and the Riverside Press Enterprise. The contest could still be complicated by a third bid from within the Register's own parent, Freedom Communications, but the auction could come as early as March 21 and the deal could close by April Fool's Day.

Newsonomics author Ken Doctor looks at the competition to acquire the Register and why it could matter to Southern California news consumers. He says, by the way, that both bids are reportedly "puny" and that Tribune may be offering around $30 million and DFM $5-10 million less.

Tribune remains, through the drama, the papers logical buyer, given the stomach-churning economics of the industry. The buy would not be motivated by revenue. It is the cost savings, expected to be in the $8 to $12 million-plus annual range, that drives the deal, adding to TPUB earnings. The Register sits plum between Tribunes L.A. Times and its San Diego Union-Tribune, bought last spring. Lots of cost consolidation would be pursued.

For Digital First Media, owned by private-equity player Alden Global Capital, a buy of the Register is both a bargaining chip, and a bit of a defensive play. Alden almost sold itself last spring and intends to dispose of its holdings when the price is right. Owning both the Register and the Press-Enterprise, and combining those operations with its own Los Angeles News Group (L.A. Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Pasadena Star-News and six other properties) offers two benefits. Short-term, an expanded LANG believes it can achieve cost synergies in the same neighborhood, or more, as Tribunes $10-12M. Mid-term, as Alden sells, a bigger L.A. group should have more value than its current smaller group. Finally, the Register now prints at least three of the LANG titles. If rival Tribune owned that press as well, the cost of doing business for LANG might well increase, given the paucity of local press capacity. The third bidder, an in-house one led by current Freedom Communications management and its CEO Rich Mirman, says it would take on the pension obligations. If this group buys, it could operate the papers independently, but is more likely to sell to either Tribune or LANG  at a premium. [skip] Given all the chaos in and around Freedom Communications, these papers by themselves arent worth much. Ive estimated perhaps $15 million. As standalones, they have little value. In a bright-white sign of the times, it is only in their combination with others that there is value in the millions.



For Tribune Publishing there's also a potential anti-trust consideration. "One newspaper-based company dominating a region of 20 million people would be unprecedented," Doctor writes. "Two anti-trust arguments could be tested, one along the ad dominance question and the other of one company owning the great majority of the newspaper printing press capacity in the region. The U.S. Attorney Generals Antitrust Division could open an investigation. Perhaps, more problematically, the state of California, under the anti-trust Cartwright Act, seen by some observers as being stronger than federal statute, could be applied. Either act might be ultimately winnable by Tribune, but at what cost to a company with little margin to spare in time or money?"

Add Tribune: Doctor also notes that the new player at Tribune Publishing, Michael Ferro, followed up his grab of the LA Times' Oscars tickets by attending the Gridiron Dinner in Washington last weekend. The Chicagoan and his hand-picked deputy, new Tribune Publishing CEO Justin Dearborn, are also also apparently liking this whole LA thing so far. Per Doctor:

As the L.A. Times itself reported Monday, [CEO Justin] Dearborn is moving his family to Los Angeles and Ferro has already bought a house in the city, which, technically, makes them local owners. Further, theres much new internal TPUB talk about building up the L.A.-based corporate staff.

Also this: Former LA Times columnist and editor Tm Rutten has a take on Tribune Publishing's recent decision to let the editors of its papers, including the Times, also serve as publisher. So the same executive oversees news coverage and priorities, as well as the sale of ads and other business strategies  at a time when there doesn't appear to be a single news executive in Southern California who has a clue on how to stop the revenue bleeding at newspapers and turn them into sustainable digital media outfits.

Rutten thinks it's a lousy idea  Tribune's worst idea yet, and that's saying something. From his media and politics blog:

In difficult times, it can be hard to distinguish innovation from desperation. These days of digital disruption are about as rugged a period as the American newspaper industry ever has experienced. It still ought to be clear, though, that Tribune Publishings decision last week to blend the jobs of editor and publisher at its newspapersincluding the Los Angeles Timesfalls into something worse than the desperate category. ...

Whats really at issue here is whether Tribune Publishing in its current iteration can survive on any foreseeable terms. When Tribune Media spun off its newspapers a bit more than a year ago, it essentially set up the chain to fail. They stripped all of the papers of all their valuable real estate, including their historic headquarters buildings, and money generating digital and other enterprises. They also saddled them with more than $300 million in debt so that the broadcasting companys shareholders could receive a special dividend. Given the prevailing conditions in the newspaper industry and barring some miraculous intervention, they created a company with a viable shelf-life of 18 months to two years. Then, it will be either liquidation on fire sale terms or back to bankruptcy. [skip] This new [editor-publisher] arrangement wont work for other reasons. Putting aside the issues of complexity in modern newspaper operations, no one Ive ever known has the required expertise to run both a business side and a newsroomlet alone the time and energy to do justice to both roles. Moreover, the separation of newspapers business and editorial operations was undertaken after long experience not for purely ethical reasons, but also for pragmatic ones. If both operations are centered in one office, editorial independence inevitably will be compromised and the detriment of the journalisms quality and, therefore, its salability to readers and advertisers.



Digiday also rounded up some comments from digital media veterans saying it looks like a bad idea to combine those two jobs in one person.

Meanwhile at the LA Times: The Washington bureau has hired Bloomberg's Del Wilber to cover the Justice Department.
PRESS RELEASE

NATO Expands Cooperation with Turkey Even as Turkey Reveals Itself To Be Run by Fascists

March 8, 2016 (EIRNS)Only days after the government takeover of the Zaman news organization inside Turkey, Turkish Prime Minister Ahemt Davutoglu was in Brussels demanding NATOs cooperation on both the migrant crisis and Syria. According to the NATO statement on Davutoglus visit, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg reported that NATO started its activities in the Aegean, yesterday, to help stop migrants trying to reach Greece.

As part of efforts to assist with the refugee and migrant crisis, Stoltenberg also said that the alliance has 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."

Such NATO operations clearly go beyond refugee issues, directly supporting Turkeys continued criminal shelling of Syria and support for terrorists in Syria.

While calling the truce in Syria "the best possible basis for renewing efforts to reach a negotiated, peaceful solution to the crisis in Syria," Stoltenberg also complained about Russian military presence in Syria and the eastern Mediteranean.

"Russias military activity in the region has fueled the humanitarian crisis and driven more people to Turkeys borders. It has also caused violations of NATO airspace,"

he claimed. "So more than ever, it is important to see calm, de-escalation and dialogue." There is no mention in their public statements whether or not NATO considers the very strong likelihood that the AKP government in Ankara is a major factor in the destabilization that Stoltenberg claims to be so concerned about.
PRESS RELEASE

China Is Considering Building a High-Speed Rail Connection to the U.S. under the Bering Strait; Helga LaRouche Discussed It in 2007

March 9, 2016 (EIRNS)The alternative news website beforeitsnews.com, today reports, citing the Beijing Times, that "China is considering building high-speed rail line from Beijing to the United States. The entire trip would take two days and run through Siberia. China is considering plans to build a high-speed railway line to the United States, the countrys official media has reported. The proposed line would begin in Northeast China and run up through Siberia, pass through a tunnel underneath the Pacific Ocean, then cut through Alaska and Canada to reach the continental United States.

Crossing the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska would require about 200 km (125 miles) of undersea tunnel, the paper said, citing Wang Mengshu, a railway expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering. "Right now, were already in discussions. Russia has already been thinking about this for many years," Wang said. The projectnicknamed the "China-Russia plus America line"would run for 13,000 km, about 3,000 km farther than the Trans-Siberian Railway. The entire trip would take two days, with the train travelling at an average of 350 km/h (220 mph).

On Sept. 15-16, 2007, Helga Zepp-LaRouches Schiller Institute held an international conference in Kiedrich, Germany, titled "The Eurasian Land-Bridge and Bering Strait Tunnel Project," which drew an audience from Europe, Russia, and the United States.

Today, China has both the will and the ability to fund such a great project. But Beforeitsnews.com then editorializes pessimistically: "The reported plans leave ample room for scepticism. No other Chinese railway experts have come out in support of the proposed project. Whether the government has consulted Russia, the U.S., or Canada is also unclear. The Bering Strait tunnel alone would require an unprecedented feat of engineeringit would be the worlds longest undersea tunnelfour times the length of the Channel Tunnel which connects France and England. According to the state-run China Daily, the tunnel technology is "already in place" and will be used to build a high-speed railway between the Southeast Province of Fujian and Taiwan."
PRESS RELEASE

Chinas Future Space Station and Space Telescope Outlined

March 9, 2016 (EIRNS)China plans to launch an optical space telescope which is being designed to have a field of view 300 times that of Hubble. This will enable it to look at larger regions of the cosmos than Hubble can, in high resolution, explained Zhang Yulin on March 7. Zhang is a National Peoples Congress deputy, from the Central Military Commission Equipment Development Department, and described the telescope to Peoples Daily.

It is expected that the telescope would be able to capture about 40% of the sky within 10 years of orbit. To ensure that the telescope will remain functional and able to conduct scientific studies for a decade, it will be co-orbited with the up-coming space station, and designed to allow astronauts to service it, when it docks with the station. NASAs Hubble Space Telescope underwent a number of servicing missions, carried out by Space Shuttle astronauts. That meant that Hubble had to wait until a Shuttle could be launched, whereas in the Chinese plan, the crew will be available for servicing the telescope all the time.

Speaking to media on the sidelines of the National Peoples Congress, Zhou Jianping, a top official in the manned space program, added some detail to the space station project. The core module, he said, will be launched in 2018, with the complex expected to be completed in 2020. There had been previous indications that it would be delayed, but apparently it is back on a faster track. The station will require new selection criteria for astronauts, said Zhou.

"Astronauts will need to carry out a greater variety of missions than before, so a greater variety of astronauts [is] needed."

NASA underwent a similar progression, moving into the Space Shuttle era.

Zhou explained that "the mission of the space station is to become Chinas national laboratory in space, and support scientists work on cutting-edge scientific exploration, space technology research and development, and utilization of space resources."

Research into new materials is a priority, and growing food on orbit, will be tested, "under the long-day and short-day scenarios."
PRESS RELEASE

Worlds Oil Producers To Meet on Supply ... in Moscow

March 9, 2016 (EIRNS)When not acting to compose Obamas wars in the Middle East, Vladimir Putins Russia appears to be taking time out to compose the world oil markets. After two months of quiet but determined diplomatic efforts and a preliminary agreement with Saudi Arabia, Putins oil flank is coming more out in the open. CNBC-TV reported today that on March 20 in Moscow, Russia will host a meeting of major oil producers both inside and outside OPECnot including United Statesto discuss an output freeze, an Iraqi oil official told state newspaper Al-Sabah.

Russia is not a member of OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, but oil export revenue plays a significant role in its overall government revenue.

There is already considerable shouting from sources like the London Telegraph, BBC, and ZeroHedge.com that Putin is taking control of OPEC, or that Putin is taking charge of a new and larger OPEC. ZeroHedge wrote again, today, that Russias production freeze was a fraud, in their view, and that Chinas demand for oil will soon be falling, etc.

But in fact, Asia has been the only source of any increases in demand for oil for two years, and through agreements with China, Russia has increased the share of its oil going to Asia.

Oil prices have stabilized and then gradually risen since the Russian initiative began in late January. Today it approached $38/barrel for West Texas Intermediate grade, from the low of about $26 in early February, when Wall Street analysts were all forecasting $20- and even $10-per-barrel oil.

The initiative has been aided by the fact that U.S. shale production has been falling, by nearly 1 million barrels/day so far. For the 11th week in a row, the U.S. oil rig count declined (down 8 this week to 392, from more than 1,800 two years ago). This is the first drop below 400 oil rigs since Dec 2009. Total U.S. oil-plus-gas rigs dropped to 489 last week. just one higher than the all-time record low seen in April 1999.
When 17-year-old Lita Ford showed up to audition for her first rock band, she was sporting a recently broken nose and an eye bright-red from a burst blood vessel. Fortunately, the buxom blond guitarist was trying out for a spot in an all-teenage band called the Runaways, and the girlfight badges were probably a selling point. If the battle scars werent enough, Fords playing sealed the deal.

The England-born, Long Beach-raised only child had deflected the ravages of puberty by teaching herself to play the leads of Jimi Hendrix, Ritchie Blackmore, Tony Iommi and Jimmy Page. As she tells it in her straight-talking, dirt-dishing memoir, Living Like a Runaway, neighbors used to visit her 1970s teen-girl version of a suburban man cave just to watch her shred.

It didnt occur to me while I was growing up that I was doing anything out of the ordinary by liking the type of music I did, she writes.

Advertisement

Of course, Ford got the Runaways gig, and the rest is herstory. As she affirms over and over in her book, Ford  a Guitar Player magazine Certified Legend  was the first female to play serious lead guitar in a hard rock band. The Runaways were teenage pioneers, and after they flamed out Ford went on to front her own successful group.

She was one of the few chicks in hair-metal videos to actually wield an instrument (albeit while writhing in minimal attire). Her biggest album, 1988s Lita, featured the top 20 hit Kiss Me Deadly and a duet with Ozzy Osbourne, Close My Eyes Forever, that propelled them both to the top 10 for the first time.

Along the way were celebrity trysts, drug-fueled hijinks, Spinal Tap-esque mishaps, and just plain brawls. But Lita gave it all up to have a family, then tragically lost her sons in a nasty divorce.

In the ever-expanding annals of rock memoirs, Living falls somewhere among Motley Crues bottom-feeding The Dirt, Chrissie Hyndes unapologetic Reckless, and Tina Turners harrowing I, Tina. Shes no literary stylist or cultural critic, but Ford is a surprisingly skilled raconteur  or is that rock-conteur.

Lita Ford in 1985. (Chris Walter / WireImage)

For all her bad-girl reputation, Ford came from a loving family. Her parents met cute during World War II when her English soldier father was taken care of by her Italian nurse mother. They moved to Boston when Ford was 4 and eventually found their way to Long Beach and then Lakewood, providing their child a strong, stable, middle-class home to always crawl back to. Her parents were so supportive of Lita and her metal career that Mama Ford even wrote an advice column for RIP magazine.

Ford devotes about a third of the book to her four years creating rock history with the Runaways. There are several reveals, some charming, some alarming. The ditty about nipple-hardening turn-ons that Lita and Sandy West used to sing on their long drive from Huntington Beach to Hollywood offers a distinctly distaff spin on the usual road-rash silliness. But on tour in Japan, Ford wound up in the hospital after waking up with a stranger in a bed full of blood; she still does not know exactly what happened that night, which left her with 14 stitches.

See the most-read in Life & Style this hour >>

Strangely, Ford says not a word about bassist Jackie Foxs 2015 claim that she was sexually assaulted by Runaways manager Kim Fowley at a party in front of other band members. Ford is mostly appreciative of the infamous Fowley, who died months before Foxs story came out. She is not overly kind to any of her former bandmates and is particularly hard on Joan Jett and Joans longtime manager Kenny Laguna. She does dedicate the book to West, the ill-fated Runaways drummer who struggled with addiction and died of cancer in 2006.

Sex and drugs distracted the Runaways from rock n roll, Ford writes, and that she  the only serious musician  just wanted to play music. Thats rather unsisterly but typical of Fords bravado  this is not a woman who suffers from low self-esteem. As that broken nose warned, Ford has a hot temper; she underplays the role her own violence played in upsetting band relations. Early on, she quit the Runaways in part because she was freaked out that other members were lesbians. She got over that, blaming her own cultural ignorance  but she never addresses how navigating a hostile world in the 1980s might have been harder for young lesbians afraid to reveal their sexuality than it was for Lita, a hot straight-cis blond. Lita doesnt get analytical like that.

What she does get is horny. Replete with detailed accounts of encounters with Dee Dee Ramone, Nikki Sixx (Motley Crue), husband Chris Holmes (W.A.S.P.), Jon Bon Jovi, Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple) and more, Living is very much a kiss-(me deadly)-and-tell memoir. Most of these dalliances sound like fun, well-earned brags. However, there were lows: Ford ended her engagement to Black Sabbaths Tony Iommi after her onetime jukebox hero allegedly started punching her in the face.

This is a disturbing prequel to what Ford describes as the nightmare of her second marriage (although Ford never names him in the book, she was married to Jim Gillette of the band Nitro). She provides few details of this 17-year relationship, out of respect for my children, she says in a boxed authors note on Page 199. This leaves a rather large hole in Fords story. She does reveal that the family moved to a remote Caribbean island, where Ford devoted herself to parenting, home-schooling her two sons, and giving up her career. But she lost herself, and when she found the situation no longer bearable, she ran away and her ex-husband secured custody. She no longer has contact with her sons.

Ford and her husband have each accused the other of parental alienation, and her oldest son, James, now 18, has said Ford abused his brother and himself. Ford does not address these accusations in her book but heaps scorn on the courts for separating her from her children.

She writes poignantly about what happened to her psychologically. Every night I would Google Lita Ford on my laptop, sitting at the office chair. I would look at my old videos and listen to my old interviews, trying to recover my identity. Whoever that person was, Lita Ford, I missed her.

Lita is back. In April she releases an album of songs recorded in the 1980s, the heyday of her career.

In her book, she comes across as a straight shooter if not a deep thinker. The sex scenes provide the juice, but when she talks about learning solos straight from Blackmore, or out-jamming Holmes on stage, or writing songs with Osbourne, Ford proves that at heart shes a great guitarist. Thats something no one can take from her.

McDonnell is the author of several books, including Queens of Noise: The Real Story of the Runaways.

::

Living Like a Runaway: A Memoir

Lita Ford

Dey Street: 262 pages, $26.99
Whether youre looking for an intimate affair to share with close family or a sumptuous culinary feast, chances are Easter brunch in Vegas wont disappoint  or leave you hungry.

A tradition for locals and tourists alike, consider the Stratospheres Top of the World. One hundred and six floors above the Strip, the romantic atmosphere and international entrees prepared by Chef Rick Giffen are a glorious treat for your eyes and taste buds.

Top of the World has a big draw on Easter because we offer our guests a one-of-a-kind dining experience, Giffen told the Vegas Guide. With 360-

degree views of the entire Las Vegas Valley, it is one of the best places in the valley for celebrating special occasions and our offerings always live up to it.

Advertisement

Ranging from $29 to $59, the award-winning revolving restaurant will serve three special items on the holiday: smoked salmon Boursin cheese Belgian waffles with lemon zest maple syrup and artisan greens, braised lamb shank osso bucco with butter poached lobster polenta and sauteed asparagus, and Aspen Ridge prime rib of beef with spring peewee potatoes and tarragon butter.

My inspiration for Easter always comes from memories as a kid growing up. For the menu, I want our guests to enjoy the classics, but with a twist of current culinary trends, Giffen said.

In the mood for traditional brunch classics with a contemporary Mediterranean twist? Head over to Cleo at the SLS Las Vegas. Their all-you-can-eat Easter menu is priced at $49 per person, excluding beverages, taxes and gratuity. For an additional $19, guests can also enjoy bottomless mimosas and Bloody Marys from the trendy eaterys signature mixology program, which uses fresh juices and ingredients.

And finally, no trip to town is complete without a stop at a neighborhood buffet. The Bistro Buffet at the Palms Casino Hotel will offer their famous champagne brunch for just $25 per person the weekend of March 27. Count on food stations to have more selections than usual, including crowd favorites like leg of lamb, maple glazed ham, omelets, crepes, sushi, crab legs, oysters, shrimp, quiche, cheese and charcuterie.

Genevieve Wong, Tribune Content Solutions
Jitters over a federal investigation of Westlands Water District bled over into the proposed delta tunnel project Thursday as a bond rating agency placed a negative watch on a $29.8-million bond helping to fund the controversial water diversion plan.

Fitch Ratings took that cautious step back because Westlands is the sole guarantor of a 2013 bond issued by the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, which operates significant portions of the federal water project in the western San Joaquin Valley.

Westlands is one of 29 members of that authority, which controls more than 3 million acre-feet of water in the western San Joaquin Valley and in San Benito and Santa Clara counties.

Advertisement

They were issued with 100% Westlands backing, Fitch analyst Teri Wenck said of the water authority bonds. The rating firm has made clear that any change in the financial evaluation of Westlands would affect the rating of bonds issued by the water authority, she added.

The move comes a day after Westlands reached a $125,000 settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over accounting procedures that the SEC said exaggerated the districts ability to cover its annual debt payments. The district altered its revenue ledgers to meet a threshold for a high bond rating so it would not have to raise rates for some of the wealthiest growers in the state, regulators said.

Westlands general manager, Thomas W. Birmingham, joked during a 2010 board meeting that the adjustments amounted to a little Enron accounting, a reference to the massive fraud that caused the 2001 collapse of that Houston energy and commodities company, according to the SEC.

The penalty was the largest to be levied by the SEC against a municipal bond agency. Birmingham was assessed a separate $50,000 civil penalty, and the districts former treasurer, L. David Ciapponi, received a $20,000 fine.

But it may cost Westlands much more. Fitchs negative watch extends to six other Westland bonds amounting to $193.6 million, plus the $29.8-million bond for the tunnel project.

If Fitch takes further action to downgrade the bonds underlying AA ratings, it could affect the districts cost of borrowing as well as the market for the bonds.

The authority and its members have been fighting delta water restrictions aimed at protecting the states fisheries, and have pushed for diversion tunnels that would shunt Sacramento River water around the ecologically fragile estuary system.

Critics of the tunnel project dont believe that growers will be able to shoulder the cost, an argument they say has been bolstered by Westlands questionable accounting practices.

Westland spokesman Johnny Amaral said the district would have no public comment until it consulted with its bond advisor. An officials for the water authority did not return calls for comment Thursday. On Wednesday, a district statement said the accounting procedures at issue were approved by an independent auditor.

Westlands, Birmingham and Ciapponi determined that entering into the settlement to fully resolve the matter was in the districts best interest, the statement said.

At issue was a debt service coverage ratio, a measure of the districts ability to collect enough revenue to meet or exceed its annual debt obligations. Because of the districts extraordinary accounting procedures, that figure was 10 times higher than it would have been using conventional accounting procedures, the SEC said.

That calculation obscured expenses incurred because of water cutbacks prompted by the states drought and allowed the district to avoid raising rates for its clients, which include some of the biggest agricultural companies in the state, according to regulators. Westland received only 10% of its contracted allotment from the Central Valley Project in 2009, and 45% in 2010.

A public agency governed by landowners within its borders, Westlands had operating revenue of more than $120 million in 2014. It contracts with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for taxpayer-subsidized irrigation supplies, which it sells to growers.

geoffrey.mohan@latimes.com
When Apple sought to promote its music streaming service, it talked to the tech press. When it wanted to drum up interest in its new watch, it went to fashion magazines.

But as the iPhone maker defends its security technology and defies a court order in a terrorism case, it turned this week to a news outlet that surprised many: Univision.

Apple Inc.'s top-ranking Latino executive warned viewers of the Spanish language TV network on Wednesday that the FBIs demand for weaker security on iPhones could give investigators new surveillance powers, including in immigration cases.

Advertisement

The interview and other recent steps by the worlds most valuable company suggest Apple is attempting to frame the contentious battle over encryption with key demographic groups, including older Americans and lawmakers, political experts said.

Apple is laying the foundation for what could be a years-long clash in the courts and legislative halls over whether its security tools can act as a permanent blockade to investigations. Polls show the issue divides the country. And many people are unsure of where they stand after a month of dueling statements from the FBI and Apple.

But broad public support may not be essential for the Cupertino, Calif., tech giant, assuming it can win over specific groups of voters whose support can sway elections, political strategists said. For example, the prospect of fervent Latino support for Apples position could be enough to force Democratic politicians who rely on the Latino vote to rethink backing the FBI.

That might explain why Eddy Cue, Apple senior vice president of Internet software and services, told Univision that Latinos should be very concerned about any law that gives the government broad access to personal information.

Because where does this stop? Cue said in Spanish. In a divorce case? In an immigration case? In a tax case with the IRS? Someday, someone will be able to turn on a phones microphone. This should not happen in this country.

Univisions Spanish-speaking audience wasnt targeted for any particular reason, according to a person familiar with Apples thinking who spoke on the condition of anonymity. But experts had little doubt that Cues mention of immigration represented a deliberate attempt to extend some Latinos fears about the government to the FBIs position on encryption. His comment came in response to a question about whether Latinos should be especially concerned, given that many are immigrants.

Bringing up immigration was a marvelous stroke, said Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist who is an expert in Latino politics. Once theres a sentiment that the federal government could crack into phones to see whos in the country legally or illegally, thats a line in the sand.

Apple executives have said they want Congress to decide whether tech companies may develop products and services that authorities cant unlock without a users consent. The company prefers stronger security, but law enforcement agencies fear being shut out as technology now holds clues in nearly every case.

The FBI has tried to limit the issue to one case: the San Bernardino terrorism investigation. Apple has refused to obey a court order asking its engineers to develop software that would remove security barriers the FBI says prevent it from unlocking an iPhone belonging to one of the attackers.

Cue told Univision the problem is that the demands from the FBI will only escalate.

When they can get us to create a new system to do new things, where will it stop? Cue said in Spanish, warning someday authorities may ask Apple to tap someones iPhone camera.

Apples argument, first laid out a month ago in an open letter signed by Chief Executive Tim Cook, hasnt changed.

But the company appears to be moving its public relations campaign to new forums to further its message.

Cook, in his first network TV appearance since a wide-ranging discussion on 60 Minutes in December, gave an exclusive interview to ABC, whose broad, older viewership is more likely to vote than Apples enthusiastic young fans, experts said.

Then last weekend, Apple Senior Vice President Craig Federighi wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post, a widely read outlet among lawmakers. He called hampering the growth of security measures a serious mistake because it would make everyones devices vulnerable.

They are not taking any prisoners in this, said Larry Gerston, a professor emeritus of political science at San Jose State. Apple feels this is a threat to their business, whether a threat to their customers, their values or both. They dont want to wait for the threat to come to them, they want to bat it down before it gets to them.

Experts described this weeks Univision interview as part of a conscious Apple strategy because, as Republican political consultant Reed Galen said, Nobody chooses Univision by accident.

Alex Ontiveros, a social media consultant and publisher of a Latino news website in Silicon Valley, said he couldnt remember the last time Univision received special access from Apple.

But such support could be pivotal in this instance in part because Latinos are more likely to rely on mobile phones to access the Internet than other Americans. They own more devices and spend more time using them than the average consumer, according to Nielsen.

If Apple cant get smartphone users to support its stance, it could face a greater challenge convincing lawmakers and judges that the companys interests mirror those of its customers.

Apple also risks provoking outrage from Republicans, including GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump, who side with the FBI and desire more stringent enforcement of immigration laws.

But targeting additional communities is worth the risk, experts contend. They suggest Apple could generate more conversation around encryption among young voters, who spend hours a day with their digital devices but have mixed views on privacy.

African Americans and conservatives skeptical about federal overreach could be rich sources of support as well. Already, several black rights groups have filed briefs in support of Apple in the San Bernardino case, which will bring the company and the FBI to court March 22. A recent Pew survey didnt have a large enough sample size to offer a breakdown for the Latino community, but the survey did find non-Hispanic blacks were slightly more likely to back Apple over the FBI than non-Hispanic white people.

Vital also is maintaining the backing of tech peers, including archrival Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google.

Between conservative-minded libertarians, minority communities and the tech community, I think you can build one heck of a coalition, Galen said. The tech community especially, he said, when they decide they want to engage, they can create a big amount of noise in a hurry, citing battles in recent years over Internet regulations, corporate taxes and online piracy.

It would seem they would target anyone who could be adversely affected by the federal governments success, Gerston said of Apple.

It all adds up to swaying voters and sending a clear message to lawmakers and those seeking office.

Apple wants them to know that its going to ensure the public is informed on its terms and that they might act accordingly at the ballot box, Gerston said.

paresh.dave@latimes.com

Twitter: @peard33
What confident trespassers, the works of Frances Trombly. Sculptures, weavings, installations -- they meander into all sorts of territory, straddling genre lines and tunneling through hierarchical divides. They make a quietly defiant case for the complex richness of multiplicity, simultaneity.

The title of a 2011 exhibition catalog from a show in Florida, where she lives, coyly identifies her stance: Frances Trombly: Paintings . The work in that show was and was not painting; painting was acknowledged and at the same time negated. A similar dynamic is at play in the selection of Tromblys work from the last four years at Shoshana Wayne Gallery.

These are not works on canvas but of canvas, sculptures centered on swaths of handwoven cotton. Several riff on the basic format of painting -- its physical support, planar surface and presence on the wall.

Advertisement

For Blank Canvas (2012), Trombly stretches fabric onto an 80-by-60-inch frame, as if laying the conventional groundwork for a painting. Here, though, the surface is not the vehicle for an event to come but the event itself, not latent but complete. There are nubs and irregularities in the undyed cotton, subtle stripes and interruptions in the field, indications of the idiosyncratic work of the hand. The piece reads as a monochrome painting by other means, and also as an exploration of the grid, a la Agnes Martin. Its silence is full.

The show abounds in such intellectual elegance. In Loose Canvas With Pink Embroidery (2016), Trombly mounts bare wood stretcher bars on the wall, paintings universal bone structure exposed. She drapes a length of natural, handwoven cotton, like a detached pelt, over the frame. It presses lightly against the wall. Only a small, pale rose triangle folded over the top edge faces us, as if a private disclosure.

Tromblys freestanding floor works, too, are in spirited dialogue with forms of making and display. In a 2016 piece, a long ribbon of woven cloth patched with magenta cascades over a 33-inch plywood cube. The ensemble brings to mind a partially-covered ceremonial altar or an adorned exhibition pedestal, and most fruitfully, the uncanny conflation of the two. Whatever associations it sparks, it is also a beautifully spare composition of mass, fluid plane and color.

Over and Under (2013) invokes the basic rhythm of weaving on a Brobdingnagian scale. Aluminum scaffolding more than 13 feet high serves as the loom; a broad stripe of cloth (half undyed, half shot through with acid yellow rayon) swoops back and forth, from top to bottom.

A certain stealth has been part of Tromblys practice, especially in her fiber sculptures that mimic everyday objects made of other materials. The works here dont engage illusion as much as implicit assumptions about where fiber (woven by hand, with fringed ends, no less!) belongs in the general scheme of things. The answer -- as with clay, similarly liberated from the craft ghetto -- is anywhere it wants. Even if traditional boundaries between high and low and between one genre and another arent as fiercely defended as they once were, Tromblys work feels bold and surprising. It latches to the mind like a burr and doesnt let go.

Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica, (310) 453-7535, through April 7. Closed Sundays and Mondays. www.shoshanawayne.com

Follow The Times arts team @culturemonster.
Jean Milant could have headed west when he moved his gallery and print shop from a Hollywood storefront. Instead, he decided to go east, away from the art world establishment, to set up his Cirrus Gallery and Cirrus Editions, the esteemed artist prints company, in a space that once housed a municipal utility on the eastern edge of downtown Los Angeles.

Its a familiar-sounding story in 2016. All sorts of arts spaces have moved into the light industrial area downtown: The Box Gallery in 2007, the Wulf performance space in 2008, CB1 Gallery in 2010, followed by Night Gallery in 2013 and the Mistake Room and Francois Ghebaly in 2014. This weekend, Hauser Wirth & Schimmel, the L.A. outpost of the venerable Swiss gallery, opens its doors on East 3rd Street in a Home Depot-sized space. With the ambitions of a small museum, the gallery in a former flour mill will also contain education spaces, a research lab and a big-deal restaurant.

See more of Entertainments top stories on Facebook >>

Advertisement

This blossoming has led to an avalanche of articles describing the forbidding allure of the new downtown art scene, under headlines such as Downtown Goes From Bleak to Chic.

Largely overlooked is downtowns long history as a place where art has been made and shown. Milants big move for Cirrus Gallery? That happened in 1979.

Jean Milant is the owner of Cirrus in Los Angeles, which has operated in downtown since 1979.. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

In those years, much of the art world action was centered on La Cienega Boulevard on the fringes of West Hollywood. It was there that the important Los Angeles galleries of the day  Nicholas Wilder, Margo Leavin and Rosamund Felsen  had set up shop.

But Milant was intrigued by the 13,000-square-foot industrial space he found on South Alameda Street for $1,200 a month (about $3,900 in todays dollars).

Regardless of what everyone said, I always thought that Los Angeles had to have a center, he says of the decision. Downtown was that center.

He moved his gallery and presses into the first floor and used the top floor as his living quarters. His neighbors were a truck stop and various tin warehouses. Just down the block was the manufacturing headquarters of the century-old Los Angeles Soap Co., which produced White King D detergent. (Slogan: Live it up white!)

For me, downtown has always been one big bus stop, where you see a cross-section of mankind.  Gronk Nicandro, an artist and set designer

Downtown was then a rather somnolent area, its historic core and business districts attracting rushes of people during office hours; the rest of it, half boarded up. Even so, Milant was not alone.

Amid all that 1970s urban decay was a hive of artistic activity that ran the gamut from D.I.Y. to high-falutin  from the art-punk scene run by artist Marc Kreisel at Als Bar on Traction Avenue to the experimental shows organized by Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions to the more polished ARCO Center for Visual Art on Flower Street, a not-for-profit gallery space operated by the oil company.

There was a lot of energy, says Milant, who over the decades has exhibited works by seminal California artists in his space  from conceptualist John Baldessari to the maestro of noir pop, Ed Ruscha. It was the 70s, and its this period when artists are coming out of art school. You have a lot of young people opening galleries and staging events and doing shows.

These vital spaces were the precursors to the tornado of artdom that is currently hitting downtown. Yet even they were not the first artists to find a home here.

This is, after all, the neighborhood that was home to early 20th century show palaces, where John Fante wrote Ask the Dust and Kent Mackenzie filmed his 1961 classic The Exiles about young and alienated Native Americans on the streets of downtown.

For a time in the 1970s and 80s, the downtown L.A. art scene was so happening that news reports regularly referred to the area as the SoHo of the West  home to dozens of galleries and nonprofit art spaces.

In 1985, Times art critic William Wilson wrote of the area: Nothing in recent years has so beguiled the indigenous cultural imagination as the vision of downtown Los Angeles transformed into a glittering art Mecca. Its a sentence that couldve been written last week.

Thats the history of art in downtown, says Gronk (born Glugio Nicandro), an artist and set designer who has lived in the area since 1978  and still occupies a real-deal, paint-splattered, nonyuppie loft in an old post office on Spring Street. Its always changing and evolving. You have young people throwing themselves into it.

Part of downtowns appeal in the 70s is the same today: Its a center that draws people from all over.

Santa Monica-born painter Fred Tomaselli, who lived downtown in the early 80s (he is now based in New York), says the scene often attracted cross-sections of people who didnt generally come together in segregated L.A. He recalls the events organized by graphic designer and underground music impresario Jack Marquette (who died in 2008), held in artist lofts, old storefronts and bars around downtown, bearing names such as Brave Dog and The Theoretical.

His thing was really to mix up as many kinds of tribes as possible, says Tomaselli, who at the time managed the artists hangout Gorkys Cafe. Youd have a big leather and gay contingent mixed in with punk rock people and gender fluid people and Chicanos and artists. It really brought down the barriers.

For Gronk, who was born and raised in East L.A. and who spent much of the 70s doing work with the art collective Asco, the appeal was much the same.

Youd have a big leather and gay contingent mixed in with punk rock people and gender fluid people and Chicanos and artists. It really brought down the barriers.  Fred Tomaselli, painter

Growing up in East L.A., downtown was my backyard, he says. A lot of Ascos activities, our photos, were done here. This is where wed meet  at Cliftons Cafeteria or Philippes. For me, downtown has always been one big bus stop, where you see a cross-section of mankind.

He appreciated that downtown offered everything from sundry street life to gallery happenings to Mexican theater. I once saw [actresses] Irma Serrano and Isela Vega do a version of Nana by Emile Zola in Spanish at the Million Dollar Theatre, he says with a laugh. The women came out in these outfits that were Catholic schoolgirl from the waist down and topless from the waist up. That was performance!

This casual intermingling of social groups, combined with a bounty of cheap real estate, was a boon to artists in the 70s and 80s  and they reveled as well in the artistic freedom downtown provided.

We did so many things that would now get you arrested in 15 minutes, says artist Stephen Seemayer, who captured many of the eras happenings in the documentary Young Turks, re-released three years ago. I did performance pieces where I lit fires on my rooftop. We would release hundreds of helium balloons with flares on them and watch them fly around. [Performance artist] Richard Newton did A Glancing Blow  in which two cars traveling in opposite directions bumped into each other on the 6th Street Bridge  we used to do crazy, crazy stuff.

Photographer and artist Stephen Zeigler, left, and artist Wildlife stand inside the historic Indian Alley on Werdin Place in skid row in Los Angeles in 2013. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

You were in the middle of things, but you felt really far away, recalls artist Marnie Weber, who in those days played with a popular local rock band called Party Boys. It was a great scene in that you could create your own scene.... People were doing a lot of street performance and loft performances. The expectations were so low. People were happy if 10 people showed up. And there was no talk of making money.

Tomaselli, says the happenings could get pretty bizarre. He remembers one piece by the now-renowned artist Paul McCarthy at the offices of High Performance, a performance art magazine founded by Linda Frye Burnham.

Paul was mixing these paints on a Coleman stove while he was wearing a mask  a Richard Nixon mask or a pig mask or something, he says with a chuckle. He filled the whole place with fumes. Im amazed the place didnt blow up.

The concentration of artists made downtown an attractive location for galleries of all stripes. In addition to the long-running Cirrus, there were Stella Polaris, Riko Mizuno, Downtown Gallery, Galleria by the Water and Oranges/Sardines, among dozens of others.

There was also a cluster of nonprofit spaces that served as important experimental arts venues. This included the Womans Building, which relocated to the outskirts of Chinatown in 1975, and the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art on Traction Avenue.

Significant among these was LACE, which had been established in 1978 by a group of largely Chicano artists, including Gronk, and which first inhabited a space above a bridal shop at the Victor Clothing Co. building on Broadway. (One of Gronks early shows there ended in a near riot when revelers and punk bands got out of hand.) In 1986, the organization, moved to larger digs on Industrial Street  next to what is now the tout trendy French restaurant Church & State  to accommodate its growing roster of activities.

LACE was omnivorous in its programming tastes. It held exhibitions of flame-spewing robots designed by Survival Research Laboratories and collaborated with city authorities to raise artist-designed flags in Pershing Square, set to a fanfare devised by composer Carl Stone.

We were committed to this alternative world outside of the marketplace and outside of the traditional institutions, says Joy Silverman, who served as the organizations director for seven years starting in 1983. Artists could do pieces at LACE, and they could fail. And that was a success, because they got to experiment.

Gallery visitors leave Goldman Tevis on Chung King Road in 2000. (Ken Lubas / Los Angeles Times)

One of the organizations biggest shows during her time there was a 1984 exhibition at the decrepit Cotton Exchange building on Spring Street (since replaced by the hulking Ronald Reagan State Building).

It was this totally open show, recalls Silverman. Hundreds of artists did pieces there. There were pieces from [the social services nonprofit] Las Familias del Pueblo, from Skid Row providers, from homeless people and prostitutes. People got married at the Cotton Exchange. Janes Addiction played the closing party.

During this time, big A institutional art also put a toe in downtown  with the foundation of the Museum of Contemporary Art in 1979, followed by the opening of its two exhibition spaces: the Geffen Contemporary (in 1983) and the museums Grand Avenue headquarters (1986).

That brought a whole other kind of audience, says Silverman, more collectors, more people involved in cultural things.

But nothing lasts forever  and the buzzing downtown scene eventually ebbed because of a confluence of factors. The crack epidemic took its toll, making the desolate streets of the industrial areas more dangerous by day and night. (Tomaselli had a friend who was brutally stabbed.) Government arts funding withered, leading to the decline of some arts space. The 1992 riots, which lapped at the edge of downtown, left many people extra wary of an area that already had a bad reputation because of crack. In 1994, citing fundraising difficulties, LACE moved its headquarters to Hollywood. The art world began to buzz around gallery centers in West Hollywood and Santa Monica.

But downtown has a way of regenerating. Some of the credit goes to the artists who never left. Cirrus stuck it out through thick and thin (though its now in a new space on Santa Fe Avenue, after losing its Alameda building to a medical marijuana growing operation). In the late 1990s, other arts spaces began to arrive. There was Action Space, on East 3rd Street, which showed films and hosted live shows, such as body artist Ron Atheys seminal 1998 performance Solar Anus. And there was a first wave of galleries on Chung King Road in Chinatown, led by China Art Objects, which opened in 1999 (and now operates in Culver City).

Bastions of downtowns underground spirit remain: Gronks assistant, Luis Vasquez, holds regular openings and events in a 3-year-old pop-up art space in his buildings Spring Street lobby called the Lobby Gallery. Instead of punk fliers, its promoted via Facebook.

But as desolate downtown has morphed into style-conscious DTLA, pushing out some of the pioneers, the art scene has become ever more high-brow, as evidenced by the arrival of Hauser Wirth & Schimmel. In a way, downtown has gone back to its roots.

I remember my mother used to work downtown right before World War II, says Weber. She would take the trolley downtown and work in one of the offices. It was really fancy then. Thats the beauty of downtown Los Angeles. Its constantly reinventing itself.

carolina.miranda@latimes.com

Find me on Twitter @cmonstah.

ALSO:

The artist who re-created South Pole explorer Ernest Shackletons doomed ship on an El Sereno roof

Why you should see Pico Iyer interview globetrotting photographer Sebastiao Salgado

You can ask the artist formerly known as Mattress Girl artist anything, but Emmatron might answer

With swagger and style, Jose Montoyas drawings at the Fowler document Mexican American life
For those who care about the prospects for peace in the Middle East and the fate of a secular Israel, the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by the religiously observant Yigal Amir is the saddest story ever told, a perpetual nightmare from which there may be no awakening.

Now, more than 20 years after that act, Amos Gitai, one of Israels most prominent filmmakers, has taken on that murder in the somber, compelling Rabin, The Last Day, an unusual work that mixes genres to at times awkward but always powerful effect.

Despite its title, Gitais film deals not only with the events of Nov. 4, 1995, but with what happened in the country in the days leading up to it as well as the official government investigation into the death that followed.

Advertisement

See more of Entertainments top stories on Facebook >>

The Last Day includes talking-head interviews with former President Shimon Peres and Rabins widow, Leah, as well as a certain amount of documentary footage, largely of the demonstrations that preceded Rabins death. But most of it consists of reenactments and staged scenes, with the lack of identification of participants leading to intermittent confusion.

These situations, however, are not made up out of whole cloth. According to Gitai, Our film is completely factual; it is based on existing documentation. For every line spoken in this film, we have the relevant documents with the words as they were originally spoken.

Gitai, whose films include Kippur and Kadosh, has never been the most subtle of directors, and while that trait is in evidence here, the force of his directing serves in this case to underline how terrible an event the Rabin killing was.

The most chilling of Gitais re-creation is a scene of a group of Jews in prayer shawls placing a curse called the Pulsa Dinura on Rabin with the intent of ending his life. But even less-dramatic dramatizations hold our interest.

The bulk of these have to do with the work of the three-man Shamgar Commission, chaired by Supreme Court President Meir Shamgar and set up to investigate the nuts-and-bolts specifics of the assassination.

Among these, the conversations that stand out for their depiction of things gone fatally wrong are the testimony of Shamirs bodyguard and that of the driver of his car, who somehow took eight to nine minutes to drive the third of a mile from the shooting site to the nearest hospital.

Perhaps most memorable of all are the interviews with the assassin Amir, effectively played by actor Yogev Yefet, a messianic extremist who tells an interviewing police officer that I dont care about the law, I care about the Jews.

Though we see the assassination itself more than once, Gitais goal in making this film is not mere depiction. Just as the Shamgar Commission investigated the act itself, the director has said he wanted to create a kind of cinematic commission of inquiry to investigate the incitement, the situation in the country that led up to the act.

In line with this, Gitai shows documentary footage of furious demonstrations against the Oslo peace accords that Rabin signed, including pictures of Rabins head atop an SS uniform and crowds chanting Death to Rabin and Well get rid of Rabin with blood and fire.

These all speak to Gitais conclusion that the fire of sedition was alive in Israel, fed by rabbis and settlers apoplectic about Rabins land-for-peace ideas and backed up by opportunistic politicians.

Whether you agree with this conclusion or not, its hard not to feel the shock that shook the country at this murder, hard not to agree with Leah Rabin when she says, It never occurred to me in my wildest dreams that such a thing was possible.

Twitter: @KennethTuran


The CW has announced its season finale dates -- and in the case of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, the suspense is on to see if the quirky musical comedy will ever come back.

The network revealed Wednesday that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend will wrap up its freshman season on April 18.

The show has had a crazy first season. Rachel Bloom, the YouTube singing sensation who plays an off-kilter young woman who moves from New York to West Covina on a romantic whim, gave the show an instant boost when she won a Golden Globe in January for her performance. Critics have rhapsodized about the elaborate musical numbers and Blooms comedic gifts. Times television critic Mary McNamara praised the shows whimsical daffiness.

Advertisement

Not so laudable? The ratings. To put it blunty, hardly anyone is watching. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend premiered in October with just 900,000 total viewers and has topped 1 million with just two out of 14 episodes so far.

Even when you throw in delayed viewing over a whole week, Girlfriend only gets to an average of 1.1 million. By comparison, The Flash, one of the CWs comic-book-based hits, premiered in 2014 with nearly 5 million total viewers.

As they say in show business: Satire -- its what closes on Saturday nights.

That means fans of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend praying for a Season 2 will probably have to sweat it out until May 19, when the CW presents its fall schedule to advertisers in New York. Unless, of course, executives renew it earlier. But with a borderline show like this, thats unlikely to happen.

Meanwhile, here are those other CW season finale dates: iZombie (April 12), The Vampire Diaries (May 13), Jane the Virgin (May 16), DCs Legends of Tomorrow (May 19), The 100" (May 19), The Originals (May 20), The Flash (May 24), Arrow (May 25) and Supernatural (May 25).

What do you think of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend? Think it will be back?

Twitter: @scottcollinsLAT
Life seemed normal at the park in Porter Ranch on Tuesday, as women power walked the perimeter, parents pushed toddlers in swings, men counted off pull-ups on an exercise bar.

But hours later, authorities closed the gates to Holleigh Bernson Memorial Park and strung yellow tape to keep the public away until Southern California Gas Co. crews could scrub away an oily residue found on playground equipment.

Discovery of the residue was just one of many lingering effects of the largest natural gas leak in U.S. history. The gas company plugged the leaking well in Aliso Canyon three weeks ago, four months after it was reported, and many of the thousands of displaced families have moved back to this master-planned community.

Advertisement

But issues remain.

Some people moving home are finding small, brown droplets of oil on their homes and cars. The oil was probably forced out of the leaking well known as SS-25 during the repair process, and gas company crews installed screens near the well in January to prevent further spread of the mist, according to the company.

See more of our top stories on Facebook >>

By then, however, many homes were covered in the residue. The gas company announced this week that it will clean at least 140 of those homes.

We are committed to helping communities affected by the leak return to normal as fast as possible, and when residents expressed concerns about brown spots at local parks, we immediately mobilized crews to address the issue, said Gillian Wright, vice president of customer service for the gas company.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health received more than 700 illness complaints, including headaches, upset stomachs and respiratory issues, during the leak. Health officials blamed mercaptans, an odorant added to the methane, for those symptoms.

But in the weeks since the leak stopped, more than 300 people called the Department of Public Health to report continued health problems.

Given that air quality appears to have returned to normal levels, this is relatively unexpected, said Cyrus Rangan, director of the Bureau of Toxicology and Environmental Assessment for the health department. With these mounting reports of symptoms from the community, we want to make sure we respond effectively to it.

Health officials will conduct a door-to-door survey March 10-12. The goal is to better understand the health issues Porter Ranch residents are experiencing now that theyre moving back.

Two air quality agencies are continuing to monitor the Porter Ranch community. The South Coast Air Quality Management District found methane levels there exceeded 3 parts per million on at least 14 days at multiple locations after the leak stopped. AQMD officials say those readings exceeded what the agency considers typical but were not high enough to be a health concern.

FULL COVERAGE: Porter Ranch gas leak >>

Residual methane in the soil near the well may have caused the increases at some locations but the cause of the other readings is unclear, the air district said.

Acting on a tip from a resident, a two-person team from the county health department visited Holleigh Bernson park Sunday to look for oil residue. The crew said it did not find anything, but two days later, staff members from L.A. City Councilman Mitch Englanders office visited the park and found oil on the playground equipment.

Prolonged contact with the oil can cause skin irritation, health officials say.

Rangan said he cant really explain what occurred when his inspectors gave the all-clear at the park.

As a precaution, the gas company was expected to clean three other neighborhood parks.

At this point, with everything weve been through and this community has been through, Im not taking anybodys word, Englander said.

Complaints about oil residue had been circling on social media. The president of the Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council said she asked gas officials to clean the parks three or four weeks ago as a proactive measure.

Its extremely frustrating that families continue to be the ones to go home, find issues to be resolved  and then everyone reacts to that, Paula Cracium said.

Shes pushing health officials to study the air quality inside Porter Ranch homes.

Hopefully we find nothing but if we find something, thats the beginning of a process, not the end, she said.

As of March 6, there were 2,706 households still in temporary accommodations. Southern California Gas Co. will stop paying the expenses of relocated families March 18, a date the gas company was forced to accept after attorneys for Los Angeles County took legal action to provide customers with more time to move home.

On Tuesday, County Counsel Mary Wickham told the Board of Supervisors they may file for another extension if the experts in the field find pertinent issues that would warrant it.

alice.walton@latimes.com

Twitter: @TheCityMaven

ALSO

Lawyer and D.A. investigator have bloody brawl in O.C. courthouse

Complaint over loud boom box music leads to brawl on Spirit Airlines flight

Whats wrong with the American diet? More than half our calories come from ultra-processed foods
The California Coastal Commission on Wednesday appointed a 27-year veteran of the agency to temporarily replace the top executive the panel fired last month.

The action came as scores of protesters showed up at the commission meeting in Santa Monica to continue voicing their disapproval of Charles Lesters ouster on Feb. 10.

The commission voted 7 to 5 to terminate Lester during a secret session and with little public explanation at its Morro Bay meeting, where the panel took comment from more than 200 people who opposed Lesters dismissal.

Advertisement

1 / 6 People gather outside the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium for a press conference held by a coalition of community leaders from Venice and activists before the first California Coastal Commission hearing since the firing of Executive Director Charles Lester. (Michael Owen Baker / For the Times) 2 / 6 California Coastal Commission Senior Deputy Director Jack Ainsworth was voted in as interim executive director at the first California Coastal Commission hearing since the firing of Executive Director Charles Lester at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. (Michael Owen Baker / For the Times) 3 / 6 People protest at the first California Coastal Commission hearing at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium since the firing of Executive Director Charles Lester. (Michael Owen Baker / For the Times) 4 / 6 Commissioner Steve Kinsey conducts the first California Coastal Commission hearing since the firing of Executive Director Charles Lester at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. (Michael Owen Baker / For the Times) 5 / 6 People hold signs at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium to protest the firing of California Coastal Commission Executive Director Charles Lester at the first commission hearing since the firing of Lester. (Michael Owen Baker / For the Times) 6 / 6 Venice resident Lydia Ponce holds a picture of California Coastal Commissioner Wendy Mitchell, center, standing beside U2 guitarist David Evans The Edge, at the first California Coastal Commission hearing since the firing of Executive Director Charles Lester. (Michael Owen Baker / For the Times)

At Wednesdays hearing, the panel voted 11 to 1 to appoint Jack Ainsworth, the agencys senior deputy director, as interim executive director until a permanent replacement is named.

I consider this meeting the start of the next 40 years of the commission, said Marin County Supervisor Steve Kinsey, the panels chairman. How we proceed is important. We need to reestablish our commitment to the California Coastal Act and rebuild trust.

Ainsworth, 58, of Ventura, has a bachelors degree in environmental studies and geography from Cal State San Bernardino, as well as a masters degree in geography from UC Riverside. He has served as the commissions senior deputy director since 2011.

Agency sources say Ainsworth is respected by commission staff, has a deep commitment to public service and is very knowledgeable about the Coastal Act. The law sets the parameters, requirements and priorities for environmental protection, development and the use of marine resources along the states 1,100 miles of coastline.

I appreciate your vote of confidence at this difficult time, Ainsworth told the commission. We will continue that important work of the commission  work based on fact, the law and strict application of the California Coastal Act.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, members of the public criticized the commission for firing Lester, the lack of transparency surrounding his ouster and the increasing construction of large, expensive homes in Venice, which is changing the character of the neighborhood and driving out low- and moderate-income residents.

Whatever it is, were not buying it, said Julie Ross of Playa del Rey. We arent even renting it.

After a speaker accused the commission of betraying the public trust, Kinsey cut off public comment, saying it would resume later in the day.

Sorry its so inconvenient for you to hear from us, one protester shouted.

Commissioner Wendy Mitchell then rose to defend the panel and offer her explanation of Lesters firing. She said that there were communication problems and a lack of diversity at the senior levels of the agency and that requests from commissioners went unfulfilled.

I lost confidence in Charles. He dodged questions and failed to communicate, Mitchell said.

As jeers and shouts of Resign and Fire her came from the audience, Kinsey called for order and told Mitchell to stop talking. Commissioners dont respond to public comment, he said to her. Im seriously interested in you cutting off your comments.

dan.weikel@latimes.com

Twitter: @LADeadline16

ALSO

Hot Felon Jeremy Meeks released from federal prison and gets job offers

Say anything? Complaint over loud boom box music leads to brawl on Spirit Airlines flight

Whats wrong with the American diet? More than half our calories come from ultra-processed foods
Good morning. It is Thursday, March 10. Animals at the Los Angeles Zoo are really getting into selfies. Heres what else is happening in the Golden State:

TOP STORIES

Health warning

Advertisement

More than half the adults in California have diabetes or pre-diabetes, according to researchers at UCLA. The biggest problem with pre-diabetes, which occurs when blood glucose levels are higher than normal, is that most people dont know they have the condition. This study is a barometer thats telling us that the storm is coming, said Harold Goldstein, head of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy. Los Angeles Times

Paying respects

Visitors are making their way to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley to say goodbye to former First Lady Nancy Reagan. Presidents and first ladies give an awful lot to us. This is our chance to show our respect and say goodbye. Thats why people come out, said one mourner. A private funeral is scheduled for Friday. Los Angeles Times

DROUGHT AND CLIMATE

Land grab: The Metropolitan Water District purchased four islands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The land could be used for fish and wildlife habitats or to provide access to construction of the delta tunnel system. The purchase price was in the $200-million range. Los Angeles Times

Make it rain: For the first time since 2002, the Department of Public Works used cloud seeding Monday to boost water supplies. The generators shoot silver iodide into the clouds, creating ice particles. Water vapor freezes onto those particles, which fall as rain. City News Service

L.A. AT LARGE

Not over yet: Now that the gas leak in Aliso Canyon has been sealed, thousands of families are moving back to their Porter Ranch homes. But there are still lingering effects. Hundreds of people are still feeling sick. And a neighborhood park was shut down after oil residue was discovered on the play equipment. Los Angeles Times

Moving forward: Employees with San Bernardino Countys Environmental Health Services are trying to find ways to move forward from last years deadly shooting that left 14 dead and 22 injured. That includes a total renovation of their county office. Pretty much make everything as new and as different as possible so that it doesnt look, smell or feel like it did before, said David Wert, the countys public information officer. 89.3 KPCC

Take a hike: The new Metro Gold Line route can take you to some great hikes at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. Curbed LA

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Brown lives matter: Why do Latinos in the U.S. seem to have a rage deficit? Writer Hector Tobar has this idea: We hear the voice of our mothers saying, Mijos, you only demean yourself if you lash back at an insult. Instead of marching in the streets, many young Latinos are going to school, working full time and looking for political candidates who support immigration reform. New York Times

Secret meeting: Silicon Valleys tech giants met with top members of the Republican establishment this weekend to talk about Donald Trumps presidential campaign. The business moguls greatest weakness, according to [Karl] Rove, was that voters have a very hard time envisioning him as presidential and as somebody their children should look up to. Huffington Post

Harsh words: A West Hollywood city councilman is calling out one of his colleagues for what he sees as inappropriate behavior for an elected official. At a meeting Monday night, Councilman John DAmico said he frequently sees Councilman John Duran trolling on Grindr for men during council meetings and public events. The comments followed the councils decision to pay $500,000 to Durans former deputy, who accused his boss of sexual harassment. Duran acknowledged the two had a relationship but denied any wrongdoing. WEHOville

CRIME AND COURTS

Arrested and charged: Three people were arrested and charged with kidnapping a 20-year-old woman for the purposes of sexually exploiting her. The woman was viciously assaulted by two men who then posted pictures of her to Backpage.com. The level of sophistication, the expediency with which they provided her with a nickname and moniker for the purposes of sexual exploitation  this was something that was very, very familiar to this trio, and very, very disconcerting to us, said Capt. Merrill Ladenheim with the L.A. County Sheriffs Department. Los Angeles Times

Deputys arrests: A sheriffs deputy from El Dorado County who was already on paid administrative leave was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving for the third time in as many months. Deputy John Anthony Broadfoot was arrested by CHP officers Friday in the Shingle Springs area. Sacramento Bee

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

Buy you a drink: Newport and Costa Mesa may be the drunkest cities in Orange County. The rankings are based on the number of bars, pubs, wineries and liquor stores per capita. Los Angeles Times

Music great: Heres the late Beatles producer George Martin driving through Los Angeles and talking about God Only Knows with Brian Wilson. Los Angeles Times

Youre fired: When a Los Angeles Times reporter wrote about Donald Trump and Trump University, the billionaire called up the paper to rant that the work was inaccurate and libelous and written by a nasty guy and third-rate reporter. Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Sacramento will have rain and a high of 62 degrees. San Francisco will be rainy with a high of 61. Los Angeles will be sunny with a high of 75. In Riverside, it will be partly sunny and 79. San Diego will start out with some fog and then have sunshine as temperatures reach 69.

AND FINALLY

Todays California Memory comes from Martha Goudey:

I moved away from my native Golden State  traffic, smog, and possible earthquakes as my reasons. I had an orange tree and a front yard view of the purple and pink sunsets over the Pacific, but I packed a U-Haul and moved to Central Washington state mid-winter 1992. I was sure I had moved to the downside of heaven. I love Washington now, but I miss the chaparral covered hills, the blue Pacific, whales spouting offshore, pelicans gliding above the waves, dolphins playing in the surf, hot Santa Anas, mild rainy winters and the smell of saltwater.

If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. Send us an email to let us know what you love or fondly remember about our state. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Alice Walton or Shelby Grad.
Sheltered beneath a white tent, they waited patiently at the edge of a sun-baked parking lot in Simi Valley.

They had gathered by the hundreds to say goodbye to a woman who had not only touched their lives but also embodied an era  and a marriage  that many of them recalled fondly.

We love her, Linda Finley said as she boarded a shuttle that would take her to view the casket of former First Lady Nancy Reagan. Shes an icon, first lady and wife.

Advertisement

Throughout the afternoon and early evening Wednesday, 3,115 mourners filed through the hushed marble lobby of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library to pay their final respects.

1 / 52 Ron Reagan, second from left, and his sister, Patti Davis, pause at their mother Nancy Reagans casket at her gravesite at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 52 Mourners and family members pause at Nancy Reagans gravesite at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 52 Former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz and his wife, Charlotte Mailliard Swig, reach out to touch Nancy Reagans casket during her funeral service at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 52 From left, California Gov. Jerry Brown, First Lady Michelle Obama, former First Lady Laura Bush and former President George W. Bush wait to pay their respects at Nancy Reagans gravesite at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 52 Ron Reagan hugs a mourner as his sister, Patti Davis, left, looks on during funeral services for their mother, Nancy Reagan, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 52 Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter pauses at Nancy Reagans casket at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 52 Former Chief of Staff James Baker, right, and his wife, Susan, wait to pay their respects during funeral services for former First Lady Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 52 A military honor guard places Nancy Reagans casket at her gravesite at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 52 Ron Reagan, left, greets mourners at his mother Nancy Reagans funeral at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 52 Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney pauses at Nancy Reagans casket at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 52 A bagpipe player plays Amazing Grace as a military honor guard carries Nancy Reagans casket to her gravesite at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 52 A military honor guard carries Nancy Reagans casket to her gravesite at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 52 Ron Reagan speaks at the funeral of his mother and former First Lady Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 14 / 52 Diane Sawyer speaks at the funeral of former First Lady Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 52 Daughter Patti Davis speaks at the funeral of her mother and former First Lady Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 52 Journalist Tom Brokaw offers reflections during funeral services for former First Lady Nancy Reagan. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 52 Former Secretary of State James Baker speaks at the funeral of former First Lady Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 52 Pallbearers carry the casket of former First Lady Nancy Reagan into her funeral service at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times ) 19 / 52 First Lady Michelle Obama, center, arrives with former President George Bush, right, and his wife, Laura Bush, second from right, and Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown, second from left, for the funeral services for former First Lady Nancy Reagan. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times ) 20 / 52 Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney reads a letter from Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan during the funeral service for former First Lady Nancy Reagan. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 21 / 52 Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger arrives for the funeral of former First Lady Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 22 / 52 Actors Mr. T, left, and Gary Sinise arrive for the funeral of former First Lady Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 23 / 52 Steven Leslie prays in front of the casket of Nancy Reagan at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 24 / 52 A line circles around the casket of Nancy Reagan at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 25 / 52 Kimberly Leif, of Simi Valley, cries in front of the casket of Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 26 / 52 People pay their respects in front of the casket of former First Lady Nancy Reagan at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley Wednesday. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 27 / 52 A man prays in front of the casket of former First Lady Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 28 / 52 People pay their respects to former First Lady Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 29 / 52 The casket of former First Lady Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 30 / 52 Nancy Reagans casket is framed by a statue of former President Ronald Reagan at the presidential library in Simi Valley. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 31 / 52 Nancy Reagans casket at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 32 / 52 A woman wipes a tear away as she pauses beside the casket of Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Jae C. Hong / Associated Press) 33 / 52 Stella Delgado, left, and her mother Yoko Santos pause as they pay their respects beside the casket of Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. (Jae C. Hong / Associated Press) 34 / 52 Flowers are placed on the casket of Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. (Jae C. Hong / Associated Press) 35 / 52 House Speaker Paul Ryan stands near the casket of Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. (Jae C. Hong / Associated Press) 36 / 52 Library volunteers pause as they pay their respects beside the casket of Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Jae C. Hong / Associated Press) 37 / 52 The casket carrying Nancy Reagan arrives at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. (Jae C. Hong / Associated Press) 38 / 52 A motorcade carrying the body of former First Lady Nancy Reagan arrives at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times) 39 / 52 Flowers are placed at the entrance to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library as people wait for the motorcade bringing Nancy Reagans body to lie in repose. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times) 40 / 52 Flags and flowers are placed at the entrance to the Ronal Reagan Presidential Library as people wait for the motorcade bringing Nancy Reagans body to lie in repose. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times) 41 / 52 A woman takes a selfie at the entrance to the Ronal Reagan Presidential Library waiting for the motorcade bringing Nancy Reagans body to lie in repose. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times) 42 / 52 The Rev. Ken Worthy Stuart, Vicar of the Washington National Cathedral, gives the final blessing after the casket carrying the former first lady Nancy Reagan was loaded into a hearse at a mortuary in Santa Monica, Calif. (Jae C. Hong / Associated Press) 43 / 52 A motorcade carrying the mortal remains of former First Lady Nancy Reagan travels from Santa Monica to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (ROBYN BECK / AFP/Getty Images) 44 / 52 Firefighters salute as the hearse carrying the body of Nancy Reagan makes its way to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. (MARK J. TERRILL / Associated Press) 45 / 52 Rachel Handy carries an American flag after watching the motorcade escorting the body of former first lady Nancy Reagan pass by on the Ronald Reagan Freeway en route to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. (David McNew / Getty Images) 46 / 52 Firefighters salute as the hearse carrying the body of Nancy Reagan makes its way to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. (Jae C. Hong / Associated Press) 47 / 52 The casket carrying the former first lady Nancy Reagan leaves a small ceremony at a mortuary in Santa Monica, Calif. (Jae C. Hong / Associated Press) 48 / 52 Family members watch as the casket carrying the former first lady Nancy Reagan leaves a small ceremony at a mortuary in Santa Monica, Calif. (Jae C. Hong / Associated Press) 49 / 52 The casket carrying former First Lady Nancy Reagan leaves a mortuary in Santa Monica after a small ceremony en route to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. (Jae C. Hong / Associated Press) 50 / 52 Mourners arrive at the Santa Monica mortuary where a small ceremony for former First Lady Nancy Reagan was held Wednesday. (Jae C. Hong / Associated Press) 51 / 52 A police officer stands guard outside a mortuary where a small ceremony for former Frst Lady Nancy Reagan was held Wednesday. (Jae C. Hong / Associated Press) 52 / 52 Flowers and flags decorate a fountain outside the mortuary where a small ceremony for former First Lady Nancy Reagan was held Wednesday in Santa Monica. (Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)

Tears poured down Daniel Blatts cheeks as he stepped away from the velvet-roped viewing area.

Asked if he had known Nancy Reagan personally, he shook his head. Its the love story,"he said, his voice breaking.

He wouldnt have been anything without her by his side, the 52-year-old West Hollywood writer said of the former president. I loved how devoted he was to her, how much he knew he owed to her. He had a good wife and he trusted her for counsel. She supported him throughout his life.

Wednesday was the first of two days that the public will be allowed to pay respects to the former first lady. The official lying in repose will continue from 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Thursday. On Friday, Reagan will be buried beside her husband in a private ceremony.

Among those who had made the pilgrimage were Warren Weston and Lelia Lee of Oxnard.

The Reagans represented the best of America, said Weston, 67. Its a tribute to a bygone era, back when both parties would get along.

Weston and Lee, who married in 2001, said they recognized a bit of themselves in the Reagans.

She cared about her husband, said Lee, 60, as she adjusted her black sun hat.

The first ladys enormous casket lay covered with flowers on a black pedestal surrounded by a velvet rope and watched over by motionless guards. Mourners, spaced a few feet apart, circled slowly, some head-down or eyes-left, others stopping in momentary reflection.

As they left the room, they were handed cards with Nancy Reagans monogram in red: With Gratitude for Your Expression of Sympathy in Honoring the Life of Nancy Davis Reagan.

Memorial ceremonies had begun earlier in the day in Santa Monica, with a private observance at the Little Chapel of the Dawn at the Gates, Kingsley & Gates Moeller Murphy mortuary.

It was there that Nancy Reagans daughter, Patti Davis, greeted about 20 of the former first ladys close friends and family members, including Ronald Reagans son, Michael, and Dennis Revell, husband of the former presidents late daughter Maureen.

 The public gathered in Simi Valley, Calif., on March 9 to pay respects to former First Lady Nancy Reagan.

Nancy Reagans casket was then carried by pallbearers that included members of her Secret Service detail to a hearse for the 45-mile motorcade to Simi Valley northwest of Los Angeles.

As the motorcade pulled away from the Tudor-style funeral home, hundreds of onlookers crowded the boulevard, holding up cellphones and cameras.

Library officials say Reagan had planned her own funeral down to the last detail, including the guest list and the location of her interment.

When the library was built, the Reagans decided they wanted to be buried together on the west side of the property, facing the Pacific Ocean, said Melissa Giller, a spokeswoman for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library.

First Lady Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton are among about 1,000 expected to attend Fridays private funeral. Other former first ladies expected to attend are Laura Bush, with her husband, former President George W. Bush, and Rosalynn Carter.

President Obama, who was scheduled to be at the South by Southwest tech conference in Austin, Texas, will not attend, according to several media outlets.

Wednesdays proceedings attracted both Republicans and Democrats.

In the parking lot, shuttles brought in fresh mourners as those returning drifted back to their cars.

No cards, no gifts for Mrs. Reagan on the bus! a staff member moving down the line instructed. Were collecting them here.

Diana Aschenbach, 39, said she pulled her three children out of school to pay their respects. Aschenbach said she revered Nancy Reagan growing up, and it was important to pass this on to her kids.

She still remembers Just say no, a phrase coined by Reagan to campaign against drug use.

This is history, Aschenbach told her kids driving to the shuttle pickup.

I know its not what theyd rather do right now, but theyll remember it, she said.

Aschenbachs 9-year-old son Cameron came with an almost accurate picture of the woman he came to mourn:

She was a very important first lady, he said, and she was second in command president.

Not technically, his mother corrected. Close advisor.

After her viewing, Texan Linda Finley stepped off the bus with Joe, her husband of 45 years, and offered some last words on the former first lady:

She wasnt subservient in any way, and yet she still had that honor, that respect, and that love for her husband. Young people today need to learn from history and know how to be a wife that God wants you to be.

matt.stevens@latimes.com

Twitter: @ByMattStevens

nita.lelyveld@latimes.com

Times staff writer Doug Smith and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
No teachers in the L.A. Unified School District will get pink slips for cash flow reasons this year.

Thats thanks in part to a one-time influx of cash from the state and Gov. Jerry Browns proposed budget that allocates more funding to schools. The last time the district didnt send teachers these notices was 2013.

Teachers across L.A. Unified have become accustomed to getting pink slips on March 15  thats when state law requires districts to notify teachers that they could be laid off.

Advertisement

Receiving a notice doesnt mean those teachers are going to be laid off, but the district sends layoff notices while it waits to find out how much money it will receive from the state for the next school year, and how many teachers it can afford to keep.

Not every district employee is safe this year, though.

The L.A. Unified board of education voted Tuesday to send March 15 notices to 1,692 administrators in the district, both in and out of schools, saying they may be laid off or reassigned. There are 934 school-based administrators, including school-based principals and assistant principals, who will not receive notices, the districts chief human resources officer, Justo Avila, said in an email through a spokesperson.

Because of the hard work weve done, the district will not be sending layoff notices this year to teachers and Health and Human Services employees, Supt. Michelle King said in a statement. This means we will have less money for new initiatives.

The district will also receive added funding in coming years because of better attendance and its More Than a Meal campaign, a push to increase applications to partake in the free-and-reduced lunch program, King said during Tuesdays school board meeting. The states new school funding formula gives districts more money for low-income students.

L.A. Unified could still let teachers go for other reasons such as performance, spokeswoman Barbara Jones said.

Not sending out layoff notices is the right decision for students, Alex Caputo-Pearl, United Teachers Los Angeles president, said in an email statement. This should also remind us of how important Proposition 30 was to allowing King and the board to make this decision, and it should encourage all of us to double down in ensuring that an extension of Proposition 30 is approved in the November 2016 election.

There probably will be fewer pink slips across the state this year than last, said California Teachers Assn. spokesman Mike Myslinski.

With the teacher shortage and with new funding for schools, we are only hearing [of] a very limited number of pink slips to date, Myslinksi said. Of course, that could change.

A 2012 state report found that districts across the state issue more layoff notices to teachers than they need to, in part because of the disconnect between the required layoff notice timeline and the state budget timeline. Districts have to send teachers final layoff notices by May 15, even though the state budget might not be passed until later.

Because of that timeline and the requirement of laying off teachers with the least experience first, schools sometimes have to lay off teachers they want to keep and then try to rehire them.

That puts schools at a disadvantage because they dont know whether the person they want  is coming back, said Jose Lara, a social studies teacher at Santee Education Complex and United Teachers Los Angeles Central Area chairman.

Even if notices dont turn into layoffs, they introduce uncertainty into teachers lives, Lara said. Some teachers, for example, worry because they rely on the job to maintain their immigration status.

Reach Sonali Kohli on Twitter @Sonali_Kohli or by email at sonali.kohli@latimes.com.
Job description: Long meetings at least once a month. Dull workload, unless ratifying software agreements is your idea of fun. When important personnel and financial decisions are on the table, your opinion doesnt really count. The pay for your trouble is $500 a month.

Being the student trustee for the Los Angeles Community College District sounds awesome, right?

It does to Milo Anderson and Ryan Navarrete. The two men have been fighting over the student seat on the eight-member board of trustees since last summer. Their months-long feud has featured accusations of unsavory campaign tactics and fraudulent votes.

Advertisement

The fight may seem high schoolish, but it underscores a technology problem at the largest community college district in the nation. Instead of using machines to tally paper ballots, district officials counted them by hand. And instead of employing safeguards to make sure students voted only once, an audit revealed that up to six people voted twice.

Elections for the other seven seats on the board of trustees are overseen by the Los Angeles city clerk. Those trustees serve four-year terms.

But a new student trustee is selected once a year. Thats too often for city officials to handle.

The nine schools in the Los Angeles Community College District arent the only two-year schools using primitive voting methods. Students at Glendale Community College and El Camino College in Torrance use paper ballots, which are counted by hand.

Until now, the low-tech approach hasnt been a problem. But the race between Anderson and Navarrete was unusually close  and now the controversy surrounding the outcome is unprecedented, observers say.

Weve never had anything like this, said Adriana Barrera, a deputy chancellor who helps oversee student elections.

The saga began nearly a year ago, in April. Navarrete, who is enrolled at East Los Angeles College and Los Angeles Trade Tech, won the initial contest by a mere three votes out of 4,143 total ballots cast. (Nearly 100,000 students were eligible to vote.)

But before Navarrete could be seated, Anderson, who attends Pierce College, contested the results. He alleged that voting booths werent open for the required amount of time each day and that some students cast multiple ballots.

To vote in the election, students had to present a valid form of identification before they could vote at campus polling places. Once the identity of students was verified, their names were marked off a list. But district officials did not compare those rolls to see if the vote total matched the number of students who checked in.

After an audit, district officials discovered that a handful of students may have voted more than once since the number of ballots cast was greater than the number of voters who checked into polling places. The only fair remedy was to hold another election, said system Chancellor Francisco Rodriguez.

It looked like six people voted twice, but that could have been enough to change the results of the election, he said.

In the meantime, the district appointed a temporary student trustee from East Los Angeles College, Gerson Liahut-Sanchez.

At first, Navarrete and Anderson seemed cordial, complimenting each other on Facebook even as they campaigned against each other in the do-over election.

Well done, Ryan, Anderson posted in July, after Navarrete discussed the importance of education and pride at a trustee meeting.

Thank you Milo, replied Navarrete, who hopes to become an attorney and perhaps run for office in the future.

But the civilities soon ended. First, Navarretes girlfriend, Tierra Gipson, accused Anderson of staring at her during a student debate. Navarrete asked his opponent to apologize for objectifying Gipson. He was extremely disrespectful in a public forum and I wanted him to address that, Navarrete said.

Anderson denied acting inappropriately but apologized anyway, telling Gipson on Facebook he was sorry if he ever made her feel he had anything but respect for her.

Then it was Andersons turn to go on the offensive. He accused Navarrete of using a misleading campaign slogan by contending he was running for reelection.

Navarrete said the claim was accurate since he got the most votes in the first election.

Navarrete charged that Anderson stole some of his ideas and tried to pass them off as his own, including a proposal to offer transit passes to students at steeply reduced prices. He never talked about transportation until I did, Navarrete said.

The second election was held in September, though only 879 students voted. Anderson won by 45 votes. He was sworn in on Nov. 4, with less than half his term remaining.

But Navarrete filed a petition in December asking for another election. He said the results of the second contest were skewed because some students wrote in Liahut-Sanchez, even though he was not an eligible candidate.

District officials said they have responded to the petition, although they declined to say what they decided.

In January, district trustees agreed to spend nearly $25,000 on a one-year contract with Votenet, a Washington, D.C., company that makes electronic voting systems. Students will have to enter their district-issued identification number before they cast a ballot on a computer, much the same way that they register for classes, Rodriguez said. That way, they can vote only once.

We think this will solve all of the issues, he said.

The system will be in place for the next student election in late April.

Navarrete said he hasnt given up his dream of becoming a student trustee.

I still think Im the right man for the job, he said.

jason.song@latimes.com

Twitter: @byjsong
UC Berkeley officials said Wednesday that the universitys law school dean, Sujit Choudhry, will be taking an indefinite leave of absence after he was sued for sexual harassment by his former executive assistant.

Choudhry will step down to his faculty position and salary, according to a statement by the universitys provost, Claude M. Steele.

An announcement about an interim replacement would be made soon, he added.

Advertisement

UPDATE: UC Berkeley Law School dean resigns amid sexual harassment allegation >>

The complaint was filed Tuesday against Choudhry and the University of California Board of Regents, according to the Daily Californian.

Tyann Sorrell alleges in the lawsuit that from September 2014 to March 2015, Choudhry made unwanted sexual advances, including kisses and bear hugs that pressed her body against his.

Choudhry could not be reached for comment.

He was appointed dean of Berkeleys law school, one of the nations most prestigious, in July 2014.

Choudhrys conduct was reported to the universitys Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination, which found in July 2015 that he had violated sexual harassment policies.

The university released a redacted version of the report Wednesday.

The Respondent admitted to the following conduct towards the Complainant: hugged her; kissed her on the cheek; touched her shoulders and arms from behind while she sat at her desk; squeezed her arms while he passed by her desk and held her hands to his waist, according to the document.

In his statement, Steele said that after the investigation he docked Choudhrys salary as dean by 10%, required him to engage in counseling at his own expense and instructed him to apologize. He also granted Sorrell a fully paid administrative leave.

I believed that a combination of disciplinary actions, monitoring of his behavior and formal training would be an appropriate and effective response, and would produce the necessary changes in his behavior, Steele said.

Choudhry previously was a professor of law at New York University and the University of Toronto. He holds law degrees from Oxford, Harvard and Toronto and was a Rhodes Scholar, according to his university biography.

In a case last year, UC Berkeley was criticized and accused of being too lenient in its handling of sexual harassment allegations brought against pioneering astronomer Geoffrey Marcy.

Marcy later resigned from the university.

Last week, students and faculty members urged UCLA to take stronger action against history professor Gabriel Piterberg over his alleged sexual harassment of two female graduate students. University officials imposed a $3,000 fine and Piterberg was suspended for one quarter without pay.

Follow me on Twitter @CarlaRiveralat

ALSO

Lawyer and D.A. investigator have bloody brawl in O.C. courthouse

Hot Felon Jeremy Meeks released from federal prison and gets job offers

Complaint over loud boom box music leads to 5-woman brawl on Spirit Airlines flight
A convicted felon whose handsome booking photo went viral was released from federal prison this week, and he is now entertaining job offers.

Jeremy Meeks was sentenced in February 2015 to two years in federal prison for a weapons violation. After serving more than a year at a facility near Stockton, Meeks is free -- well sort of.

I want to thank my family and everybody for all your love, support and prayers, he wrote on Instagram on Wednesday. Im overwhelmed and grateful for what lies ahead. Im ready.

Advertisement

After Meeks was greeted by his wife and three children Tuesday morning, he went to a transitional housing facility where he will remain for a few weeks before he is completely free to start his new journey, his manager, Jim Jordan, said.

We have a lot in store regarding Jeremys new career, Jordan said in a statement Wednesday. There are a multitude of offers on the table. Jeremy is humbled and grateful and overwhelmed by the outpouring of love, support, and prayers for him and his family.

Meeks piercing blue eyes and chiseled cheekbones earned him several nicknames, including hot felon, hot convict and handsome felon, after the Stockton Police Department posted his mugshot on Facebook.

He was arrested in June 2014 after he was stopped by police, who then found a semiautomatic handgun and two extended magazines for the weapon. Authorities accused Meeks of being a member of the Northside Gangster Crips.

Meeks was previously convicted of grand theft auto in Solano County and served two years in state prison. He told reporters last year that he had earned the teardrop tattoo on his cheekbone for doing some things in his past he is not proud of.

After his mugshot sent the Internet into a frenzy, the 32-year-old received modeling offers. Fundraising efforts and Facebook groups were created for Meeks.

Even while locked up, Meeks did not shy away from social media.

He posted photographs on Instagram, and kept his fans in the loop as to when he would be released from prison.

In the days leading up to his release, Meeks wrote, Looking forward to reuniting with my family. Counting down the days. #6days #spreadtheword.

For breaking news in California, follow @VeronicaRochaLA

See more of our top stories on Facebook >>

ALSO

Say anything? Complaint over loud boom box music leads to brawl on Spirit Airlines flight

Man barricaded inside burning Chino home after eviction notice served

Donald Trump fans are not actually hard to find in California
Adult-film actor/producer James Deen fired back at state regulators Thursday, calling excessive the nearly $78,000 in fines issued to his production company for allegedly failing to protect performers through the use of condoms.

Cal/OSHA announced Wednesday it had issued nine citations with fines totaling $77,875 to James Deen Productions, also known as Third Rock Enterprises, for violations it noted during a Jan. 12 inspection of a Woodland Hills film shoot.

Regulators said the lack of condoms violated the states blood-borne pathogens standard. They also faulted the company for failing to provide vaccines or follow-up exams to performers who may have been exposed to hepatitis B.

Advertisement

See the most-read stories this hour >>

On Thursday, Deen criticized the citations and fines, noting that the vast majority were for potential exposure, not actual exposure or injuries.

He also insisted that no performers were exposed to any illness or suffered any injuries. Deen noted that a San Diego company was fined just $58,000 in December for an explosion that injured four employees and a painting company was fined only $30,410 in January 2015 over a worker who was electrocuted at a work site.

The fines presented against my company are significantly higher, and not one person was exposed to or contracted any illness on my sets, Deen said. I gave the performers the option to perform with condoms; however, they desired not to use condoms, and I honored their requests.

Juliann Sum, head of Cal/OSHA, said Wednesday the Division of Occupational Safety and Health requires condom use in adult films to protect workers from exposure to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

AIDS Health Foundation officials on Wednesday hailed the citations.

We want to thank Cal/OSHA for acting so swiftly on our workplace-safety complaint against James Deen Productions and Third Rock by citing and fining Deen, one of the industrys most well-known producers and adult performers  and the one who is the most vocal critic and prominent public face of the industry in its opposition to condom use, AHF President Michael Weinstein said.

Join the conversation on Facebook >>

ALSO

Bad convictions have cost California millions of dollars, report says

Griffith Park mountain lion P-22 suspected of killing koala at L.A. Zoo

Lawyer and D.A. investigator have bloody brawl in Orange County courthouse
The family of a man fatally shot by Los Angeles police officers last year called Wednesday on prosecutors to bring criminal charges against the officers who killed the 35-year-old, who was using a wheelchair while recovering from a hip injury.

Luis Martinez was depressed and recuperating from a broken hip when officers said he charged them with a large knife at his Lincoln Heights home. Police said they responded to the home after Martinezs wife called 911 to report that her husband was depressed and had stabbed himself.

NEWSLETTER: Get essential California headlines delivered daily >>

Advertisement

Arnoldo Casillas, an attorney representing the family, disputed the police account at a news conference Wednesday, saying that Martinezs injuries were so serious that he would have been physically unable to stand up and lurch toward the officers as they alleged. He also alleged that Martinez was unarmed at the time, but did not offer evidence to support the claim.

Casillas pointed to an autopsy report saying that Martinez was shot four times during the confrontation. Three of those shots were fired into his back.

He noted that the LAPD chief and the citys Police Commission faulted the officers for failing to bring a Taser into the apartment even though they knew they were responding to a report of a suicidal man who had stabbed himself.

This is a classic example of Keystone Kops-type antics, Casillas said.

Flanked by Martinezs wife and other relatives, many of whom held pictures of Martinez and wore shirts emblazoned with his face, Casillas demanded that Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey bring criminal charges against the officers.

The family has also filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city and the officers who opened fire, he said.

An attorney representing the officers said prosecutors should absolutely not file criminal charges in connection with the shooting. Gary Fullerton said the officers were justified in opening fire after Martinez moved toward them with the knife.

See the most-read stories this hour >>

Theyre going there to render assistance to him and try to stop him from hurting himself and he turns his wrath on them, Fullerton said. They didnt have a choice but to defend themselves.

The commission and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck faulted the officers tactics but found that their decision to use lethal force was within department policy.

The shooting occurred April 21 when Hollenbeck Division patrol officers were called to Martinezs home in the 3400 block of Manitou Avenue. Martinez had been injured a few months earlier when he jumped or fell over a railing from the third floor of his apartment complex and broke his hip, according to a written summary of the shooting and findings of the Police Commission. Martinez had been unable to return to work since his release from the hospital and was using a wheelchair, the commissions report said.

Martinezs wife told officers who arrived that her husband was no longer armed, the report said. When they went inside, officers saw that the front of Martinezs shirt was covered in blood and believed he had suffered a significant injury, the report said.

As the officers tried to help him, Martinez armed himself with an 8 1/2-inch knife, according to the report. He ignored repeated orders to drop the weapon, and stabbed himself in the chest, the report said. One of the officers left to retrieve a Taser weapon, according to a report sent from Beck to the commission about the shooting.

Officers opened fire as Martinez walked at a fast pace to within about three to five feet of one of the officers while holding the knife, both reports said. He fell to the ground but pushed himself up and lunged at one of the officers, the commissions report said. Officers fired more rounds.

The commissions report said a firefighter who responded to the incident told investigators that before the gunshots he heard voices from the area of the apartment saying, Put the knife down. Put the knife down.

Martinezs wife said she did not see the knife and, when told to leave the apartment, said to the officers that her husband wasnt armed, the report said. From outside her door, she heard officers say, Put down the knife, the report said.

The names of all the officers who responded were not included in the commissions report and were redacted from Becks report, but the LAPD previously identified those who opened fire as Ricardo Huerta, Rudolph Rivera and Aldo Quintero. Two other officers who responded were not identified.

Becks report said the decision to leave Tasers in their patrol vehicles meant that the officers were without a less lethal weapon to subdue Martinez.

Beck also criticized the officers for failing to come up with a tactical plan for how to deal with Martinez when they arrived at the home. Beck recommended that the commission find that the tactics used by four of the officers substantially and unjustifiably deviated from approved department tactical training. A detective who also responded did not deviate from department training, Beck found. The commission adopted Becks recommendation.

Despite the criticism, Beck and the commission concluded that the officers use of lethal force complied with the departments training and policies. The chief found that officers with similar training and experience would reasonably believe Martinezs actions presented an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury.

MORE: Get our best stories in your Facebook feed >>

Times staff writer Jack Leonard contributed to this report.

For more Los Angeles crime and police news, follow @JamesQueallyLAT and @katemather

ALSO

65-year-old man dies in custody, held for a crime he did not commit

Man barricaded inside burning Chino home after eviction notice served

L.A. County deputies rescue woman allegedly kidnapped for sex trade
A man who had barricaded himself a home in Chino on Wednesday and refused to come out even as the building burned to the ground is dead, police said.

The man, whose identity has not been released, barricaded himself inside the home in the 11000 block of Santa Anita Avenue on Wednesday while a deputy with the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Court Services was attempting to serve an eviction notice, authorities said.

NEWSLETTER: Get essential California headlines delivered daily >>

Advertisement

As the deputy served the notice about 8 a.m., gunshots rang out from inside the home. The deputy was not injured.

After firing an initial shot, the man fired multiple gunshots at officers who had responded to provide assistance, Chino police said.

Officers deployed chemical agents into the house, and flames erupted, police said.

SWAT team members surrounded the building, and by 2:30 p.m., no one had exited so authorities made plans to go in and recover the body after the fire was out, Chino police tweeted.

Through the investigation, information was received that the suspect stated to an acquaintance yesterday that he was going to light the house on fire and commit suicide, the department said.

No deputies or officers were injured in the incident.

For breaking news in California, follow @VeronicaRochaLA and @JosephSerna.

ALSO

Video shows Google self-driving car hitting bus in Silicon Valley

San Bernardino police chase ends with innocent drivers death in car crash

O.J. Simpson knife: Forensic testing should be completed within two weeks
Day two of Nancy Reagans public memorial came to a close Thursday afternoon, as the last of her admirers hopped on shuttle buses and left the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

The second day of public viewing of the former first lady lying in repose in Simi Valley brought around 1,500 people to the library. More than 3,000 attended Wednesday. A private burial will be held Friday.

Reagan would have been surprised that so many members of the public came to pay their respects, said James Manning, special assistant to President Reagan and director of projects to the first lady.

Advertisement

But those who knew her wouldnt be, he said.

She did everything she could in this world, Manning said as he stood outside the library. Every first lady stands behind the president, but everyone doesnt take an approach to important issues as she did.

Nancy Reagan always wanted to make a difference, Manning recalled. And when she and the president were in the room together, it was electric.

Im quite confident that today theyre in each others arms, he said.

The final shuttles made their way down the hill around 2 p.m., past the flags flown at half-staff and beyond the miniature American flags dotting the road.

Brandey Lane, 65, brought a bouquet of roses and lilies to honor Reagan. She knew shed have to leave them behind before boarding the shuttle to the library, but she brought them anyway. The flowers were a way to pay respect to a classic.

She showed love and strength for being such a little lady, Lane said.

Nancy Reagan was a model of grace, intelligence and compassion for women  a first lady who refused to take the back seat, Lane added.

She was the last of a certain culture in our society, said Lane, who voted for Ronald Reagan. Look at the people who are running for president now and how they talk.

The line to board buses to the library snaked through a parking lot about five miles from the building. Some clutched umbrellas to protect themselves from the heat; others donned large sun hats and big sunglasses.

Teresa Spragges of Palm Springs came to witness a piece of history. The 61-year-old attended the funerals for presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, but said she missed Ronald Reagans.

When she heard the public would be able to visit following Nancy Reagans death, she thought, Weve got to go.

They were a designer couple, she said of the Reagans.

Hundreds of people had paid their respects to Reagan by 11:30 a.m. Thursday. Steve Ziegler hopped off the bus after spending the morning at the library with his sister, Neva.

The experience was surreal, Ziegler said.

Ronald Reagan was the first president I was able to vote for, he said.

Ziegler recalled a day in the late 1980s, when he attended a retreat in Santa Barbara with about 30 other people. It began to pour, he said, and two of the cars were stuck.

Luckily, the group had been staying down the road from Rancho Del Cielo, the Reagans vacation home in Santa Barbara.

Ziegler, who was in his late 20s at the time, said the president sent down secret service agents in large cars to help them out.

They said, The president noticed you were having trouble,  Ziegler said.

It only bolstered his respect for the president and first lady. Nancy Regans death, he said, marked the end of a sense of class and dignity that permeated the White House.

Its that city on a hill mentality, he said.

Inside the library, Brielle Fraire got her first taste of a political science lesson.

Why is she a first lady? the 5-year-old asked her grandmother, Martha Santana.

Because she married the president, Santana, 55, replied.

I think she was a first lady because she was so nice, Brielle said.

Santana, a pastor, said she respected the Reagans for the love they had toward people.

We need those role models today, she said after returning from the library.

Dressed in pearls, a blazer and a sun hat, Santana said she intentionally wore nice clothes as an homage to the former first ladys sense of style.

Nancy Reagan, she said, wanted to make the world a nicer place.

Shes shoulder to shoulder with Reagan, Santana said. Not behind him.

She was the force behind Reagan, Santanas sister, Gilda Thongchua, said. Thats being real. ... Thats being a couple.

Follow @sarahparvini on Twitter

ALSO

Nancy Reagans public viewing draws more than 3,000 visitors

Nancy and Ronald Reagans sole film together, Hellcats of the Navy, previewed decades of devotion

From the archives: As Ronald Reagan fades, Nancy takes on a new role

Nancy Reagan turned to astrology in White House to protect her husband
The trial of Trishawn Cardessa Carey was delayed Thursday while lawyers discussed a possible plea bargain for the mentally ill homeless woman, who is facing felony charges after officials say she grabbed and raised an officers baton during a fatal police shooting last year.

Carey originally faced a potential sentence of life in prison after police said she picked up a nightstick an LAPD officer had dropped during a police scuffle that ended in the shooting death of Charly Africa Keunang on skid row.

Prosecutors have offered to place Carey in a mental health facility for a year if she would plead guilty to a felony count of resisting an officer. They also said they would reduce the charge to a misdemeanor when she completed treatment.

Advertisement

See the most-read stories this hour >>

Defense attorney Milton Grimes said his client rejected the offer because of the risk her mental health symptoms, which include delusions and paranoia, would cause her to violate probation and land in prison.

To me, diversion would be to send the person away from criminal court, Grimes said outside court Thursday morning.

Activists protest charges against Trishawn Carey, a homeless woman accused of picking up a police baton during a 2015 skid row confrontation that ended with the fatal police shooting of Charly Africa Keunang. (Bryan Chan / Los Angeles Times)

Were asking that she stay in treatment and participate. We want her to succeed, Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregory Denton said.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James R. Brandlin held the trial over until Friday.

Careys case underlines a challenge for officials as they attempt to reform the way Los Angeles criminal justice system handles offenders with mental illness.

Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey, whose office is prosecuting Carey, has proposed a plan to keep more mentally ill people out of jail and help them instead. The plans provisions include training law enforcement officials to de-escalate encounters with mentally ill people and opening treatment-based housing.

Lacey has not detailed ways of altering her offices approach to prosecuting people with mental illness. At a demonstration outside the courthouse Thursday, protesters called on Lacey to drop the charges against Carey and to make diversion from prosecution for mentally ill people a hallmark of her policy.

We have a living, breathing person currently incarcerated when she should be being treated, said Pete White of Los Angeles Community Action Network, a skid row advocacy group.

Trishawn has a history of trauma, said Suzette Shaw, another protester. Once you end up in the system, something can trip you up.

Carey has lived for years off Social Security tied to severe mental disabilities and cycled in and out of L.A. County jails 10 times since 2002, Grimes said in court papers.

She is charged with assault with a deadly weapon against a police officer and resisting arrest, which could have carried a third strike and an automatic sentence of 25 years to life in prison. Grimes said prosecutors no longer are seeking a strike conviction.

I believe she was not fully aware what was going on during the incident, Grimes said. For a long time, she has been a confused, mentally ill, pathetic person.

Careys case had been overshadowed by the death of Keunang, a Cameroonian immigrant whose shooting drew international attention after a bystander posted a dramatic video of the March 1, 2015, confrontation to Facebook. The Los Angeles Police Commission ruled earlier this year that officers were justified in shooting Keunang, saying he reached for one of their guns during a fierce struggle. Keunang also had a documented history of severe mental illness.

In a claim against the city, Keunangs family denied he grabbed the officers gun and said the death was a cop-initiated killing. Their lawyer, Dan Stormer, said the commissions decision was based on a police coverup, not a police investigation.

Twitter: @geholland

ALSO

In fight over locked iPhone, justice officials push back against Apple

Griffith Park mountain lion P-22 suspected of killing koala at L.A. Zoo

Lawyer and D.A. investigator have bloody brawl in Orange County courthouse
Candidates for the seat being vacated by Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich faced off Wednesday in a pair of forums held in northern county areas, where they sought to appeal to residents who sometimes complain that their concerns are overshadowed by those of the city of Los Angeles and surrounding communities to the south.

Antonovich will be forced out by term limits after 36 years on the county board. Ten potential candidates have filed paperwork allowing them to raise funds for the seat. Seven of those appeared at the forums put on in Santa Clarita and Lancaster by the cities respective chambers of commerce.

The candidates who appeared Wednesday included Antonovichs longtime chief of staff, Kathryn Barger, gang prosecutor Elan Carr, Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch Englander, State Sen. Bob Huff, and Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian, all Republicans; and Democrats Billy Malone, a real estate broker and Altadena town council member, and Darrell Park, an entrepreneur.

Advertisement

The seat is officially nonpartisan but is one of two currently held by Republicans on the five-member board.

Many of the questions posed to the candidates concerned disparities in resources: bike trails in Santa Clarita that taper off when they cross into the surrounding unincorporated county area; lengthy commute times faced by Antelope Valley residents who work in Los Angeles; disparities in the regional funding that that goes to dealing with homelessness, and disastrous county planning approvals of urban-style developments in rural parts of the county.

Barger emphasized her experience and pointed to major businesses the county had helped court to the Antelope Valley, including the Chinese electric bus manufacturer Build Your Dreams and Japanese light rail manufacturer Kinkisharyo.

I dont need any on-the-job training, and I can hit the ground running, she said.

Carr played up his experience as a prosecutor and Army veteran, pointing to rising crime and looming threat of terrorism and promising to put public safety first.

These are difficult times, and all across our county, families have a sense that government is not working, he said. This is an era of rising crime and failing schools, ballooning county debt and a crumbling county infrastructure.

Englander, Huff and Najarian pointed to their experience in elected office but also sought to appeal to the outsider mentality of the Antelope Valley.

Englander pointed out that he represents portions of the San Fernando Valley that staged an attempt to secede from the city of Los Angeles years ago -- an effort he took part in -- and said he had pioneered the practice of holding quarterly meetings with all the neighborhood councils in his district.

Huff talked about his experience growing up in rural Imperial Valley and running a business before going into politics.

SIGN UP for the free Essential Politics newsletter >>

Najarian occasionally played the rabble-rouser, arguing that the 5th district is too large to be governed effectively by one person and should be split in two. And he got the loudest applause of the day at the Lancaster forum, when he accused the city of Los Angeles of dumping the homeless on the Antelope Valley.

Malone pointed to his experience living in an unincorporated community and representing it in dealings with the county.

Park spoke optimistically of a coming boom in solar technology and industry.

Youre in paradise, he told the Lancaster crowd. I want you to be able to stay in paradise without traveling to go to work, school and healthcare appointments.

The deadline for candidates to file to run in the election is Friday, with the primary election on June 7.

The seat currently held by Supervisor Don Knabe, the boards other sitting Republican, is also up for election this year. Four candidates have filed paperwork to run for that seat.

MORE: Get our best stories in your Facebook feed >>

Twitter: @sewella

ALSO

Donald Trump fans are not actually hard to find in California

Two women named to lead Cal State campuses Chico and Channel Islands

L.A. County deputies rescue woman allegedly kidnapped for sex trade
As they have for the last two years, the migrant youths and families arriving at the small Roman Catholic church in the Rio Grande Valley told stories of fleeing the growing violence and staggering poverty of Central America.

But some said they are also being driven north to the border town by a new fear  the U.S. presidential election.

Theyre worried about Donald Trump and what would happen if he were president, said Megan Holmes, 40, a Seattle social worker who came this week to volunteer at a center set up for migrant families at Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

Advertisement

One of those migrants was Rogelio Ortiz Dodon, 48, a burly Honduran truck driver who arrived with his 15-year-old daughter, Nisey, after fleeing San Pedro Sula, one of the most dangerous cities in the world.

The immediate reason they left Feb. 20 was because his brother, a car painter, was threatened by drug traffickers. Ortiz took the threats seriously. Three years ago, he said, his sister-in-law was threatened and ended up dead, chopped up with a machete, leaving her 13-year-old son in his care.

But he also fears Donald Trump. He saw news reports in Honduras about Trumps proposal to build a border wall.

He can change the law against us. Hes radical, Ortiz said.

Ortiz and his daughter were waiting at the McAllen Greyhound station for their bus to join relatives in Durham, N.C. He wore a gray button-down shirt, baggy jeans and, underneath, an ankle monitor  a condition of his release from custody.

This was his third time crossing illegally into the U.S. He first came in 2005 and worked in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia, returning home in 2009. Then violence in San Pedro Sula escalated, and he decided he had to leave.

A year and a half ago, he came alone, got caught near a Border Patrol checkpoint in Texas and left voluntarily.

The latest trip cost him $6,000. And he still has his nephew and wife back in Honduras whom he hopes to bring to the U.S. one day. Ortiz said he has no intention of avoiding his scheduled court appearance in North Carolina.

I want to go to court because possibly it will go well. Possibly. I want to be legal. Im not a criminal, he said.

The number of children and family members caught crossing the southern border has dipped in recent months but is expected to increase seasonally this summer ahead of the presidential election.

Last month, 3,048 people were apprehended at the southern border traveling in families, down from 3,145 in January, when the total fell for the first time in months, by 65%. At the same time, 3,113 unaccompanied child migrants were apprehended at the border, just two more than in January, when that number dropped 54% from December.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson touted the new numbers on Wednesday, noting that immigration officials had staged a series of raids this winter and implying that stepped-up enforcement had tamped down migration. They have detained more than 300 recently arrived migrants, Johnson noted, many of them Central American youths and families.

Illegal crossings on the southern border traditionally decrease in wintertime, but this year they actually defied the trend and increased during the fall and early winter. So despite the small dip during the last two months, nearly triple the number of family members were caught at the border since the federal fiscal year that began in October, while the number of unaccompanied children apprehended almost doubled.

Since October, officials have deported 28,808 Central Americans and 128,000 Mexicans.

Yet they continue to arrive by the thousands at this shelter in McAllen, a crossroads city in the immigrant influx that in 2014 overwhelmed border holding areas and youth shelters with more than 68,000 children.

The influx continued this year, although Sister Norma Pimentel  who runs the migrant center  noticed a decrease in immigrants, particularly Central Americans, arriving in the last two months. The numbers have definitely dropped. What I heard from the consulates is Mexico is deporting a lot more people, she said.

But the number of migrants arriving has already picked up again this month from fewer than 20 a day to about 20 or 30, she said. The numbers do seem to be higher than past years.

Were just doing one day at a time, Pimentel said of plans for summer at the center, once a temporary facility now expanded to include a dining area, showers and two tents that sleep 60.

Martha Tista, 32, arrived this month with four children and a 9-month-old grandson after fleeing threats in her village in northern Guatemala.

As she fed her grandson a bottle at the church center, Tista said she has friends who tried to make it to the U.S. but were caught by authorities in Mexico and deported to Central America.

Its harder to run with children, she said.

Now she hopes to join her husband and mother in Nashville.

In Guatemala, Tista had a neighbor her age with a 16-year-old daughter like hers and a husband working in the U.S. Someone tried to extort money from her. When she didnt pay, Tista said, they shot the woman and her daughter in the street, killing both. She pulled up photos on her cellphone of the woman, a small, dark figure in a white casket.

In addition to the violence driving migration, during the summer, she said, farm work dries up.

There will be more, she predicted.

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

Follow me for the latest in national news @mollyhf

See more of our top stories on Facebook >>

ALSO

Lawyer and D.A. investigator have bloody brawl in O.C. courthouse

Complaint over loud boom box music leads to brawl on Spirit Airlines flight

Whats wrong with the American diet? More than half our calories come from ultra-processed foods
Suspected Idaho gunman Kyle Andrew Odom can pinpoint his first extraterrestrial encounter: a night in February 2014 while he was meditating in bed. In the midst of an out-of-body experience, he says, he realized that a blue light floating toward him was an alien female being. Their minds connected and he was overcome.

I then began to feel the most euphoric, comforting and blissful feelings I have ever felt, Odom wrote. But it appears to have been all downhill since for the former Marine.

The encounter is part of a 21-page personal manifesto sent to two Spokane, Wash., television stations and Odoms parents last weekend by Odom, who at the time was being sought on suspicion of attempting to kill a Coeur dAlene, Idaho, pastor.

Advertisement

Tim Remington, 55, who was shot soon after delivering his Sunday sermon, survived six bullet wounds, including one shot to the head. Odom, 30, was arrested Tuesday after flying from Boise to Washington, D.C., where he was reportedly spotted tossing documents and computer flash drives over the security fence surrounding the White House. He is being held without bail.

In his rambling manifesto, Odom writes that to draw attention to alien invaders he believes are among us, he had to start killing some of them.

Remington was supposed to be the first. An associate pastor, John Padula, might have been the second. And others could have followed. The manifesto included the names of 50 congressional members who Odom apparently thought were alien beings.

NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >>

A security video shows a man, allegedly Odom, walking up behind Remington in a parking lot and opening fire. There seemed to be no direct connection between the shooting and Remingtons appearance a day earlier at a political rally where he gave the invocation for Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz.

Officials at Remingtons Altar Church indicated that Remington and Padula had earlier contacts with Odom, described as a former methamphetamine addict. Padula, himself a former addict, had known Odom for years. When I was struggling, the associate pastor told KHQ-TV of Spokane, when I was using drugs still, he just loved the daylights out of me.

The manifesto, apparently written before the shooting, asks, Who is Kyle Odom? and then answers itself:

Born and raised in North Idaho. Grew up in a loving family. Joined the Marine Corps after high school. Developed an interest in science. Went to school for a degree in Biochemistry. Won numerous scholarships and awards. Graduated Magna Cum Laude [from the University of Idaho] then got invited to prestigious university [Baylor College of Medicine, Houston] to work on genetics.

Odom, in the manifesto, reveals a plan to gun down the well-liked Remington for being one of an intelligent species of amphibian humanoids from Mars who had ruined his life. I wish I was joking, Odom wrote, adding he considered himself 100% sane, 0% crazy.

The manifesto calmly relates a growing paranoia over aliens  an irrational pattern of concern seen in other notable shootings involving mental issues and conspiracy theories.

Jared Lee Loughner, who pleaded guilty to 19 counts of murder and attempted murder  including wounding U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.)  in Tucson five years ago, made a video arguing the government was brainwashing Americans by controlling their use of grammar. Aaron Alexis, who killed 12 people in the 2013 Washington Navy Yard shooting, had claimed he heard voices of people who were using some sort of microwave machine to keep him from sleeping. And Thomas Lane, the 2012 Ohio school killer of three, was a devotee of David Icke, the conspiracy theorist who has said that reptilian humanoids control humanity.

See the most-read stories this hour >>

In his manifesto, Odom seemed worried that he was being driven to a similar edge.

After leaving a job at Baylor College in late 2014, he says he was told that two of his co-workers were not human. They were tasked into making me the next school shooter as they called it. I imagine this is why many of our school shootings take place.

He recounts months of agony, mental trips and seeing helicopters flying over his house. He heard songs in his head and had unusual sexual feelings. Aliens eventually gained control over him by threatening to kill his parents, he wrote.

I told them I would do whatever they want if they left my family alone. They responded by saying Go to church. I knew they meant The Altar, he wrote. Odom had earlier been invited by Padula to visit the church.

Odom wrote that he once tried to commit suicide by enclosing himself in his car with a lit charcoal grill. He said he finally sought help at a Veterans Affairs hospital but the medication he received provided no relief.

In desperation, he said, he returned to Remingtons church. His manifesto includes a sketch of Remington  looking like a pop-culture space alien  along with a list of Noteworthy Martians including U.S. senators and representatives and Israeli officials.

Anderson is a special correspondent based in Seattle.

See more of our top stories on Facebook >>

ALSO

Towns run by a polygamist sect discriminated against nonbelievers, jury finds

Missouri GOP defeats 39-hour filibuster to pass bill criticized as anti-gay

Influx of Puerto Ricans could be game-changer in countrys biggest swing state
Decades and decades ago, members of a breakaway fundamentalist faction of the Mormon Church fled their Utah home, most choosing the remote corners of North America to live in isolation. One group picked this mile-high cocoon, protected on three sides by the Vermilion Cliffs to make their last stand for a polygamous society.

They encircled themselves yet tighter, building high fences around compounds and houses, with no trespassing signs mounted on every outward-facing wall. For the better part of a century, they held fast  nothing much more than a curiosity on a route to the Grand Canyon.

Now, once more, they may be on the move.

A Phoenix jurys verdict on Monday is almost certain to forever upend the strict theocracy instituted by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the police departments and municipal governments of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, twin communities collectively known as Short Creek.

Advertisement

The jury found that the towns intentionally sabotaged people considered threats and enemies to the imprisoned FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs and his brother and surrogate, Lyle Jeffs. The jury found that the police departments followed, harassed and intimidated nonbelievers, and the cities denied services to new residents from outside the faith.

1 / 8 The striking landscape around Hildale, Utah. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 8 A trash fire smolders along South Center Street in Colorado City, Ariz. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 8 Girls walk on Lauritzen Street in Hildale, Utah, less than a block from the Utah-Arizona border, to Colorado City. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 8 Colorado City, Ariz., officials conduct a planning meeting. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 8 A woman performs yard maintenence at a business located on Utah St. Hiildale. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 8 Hildale, Utah, is just across the border from Colorado City, Ariz. Much of the property in Hildale is owned by the United Effort Plan trust, founded by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 8 A woman works in Hildale, Utah. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 8 One of numerous unoccupied homes sits unfinished in Colorado City, Ariz. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Colorado City Mayor Joseph Allred said in a brief interview Wednesday that he expected a rash of people to leave the city as enormous tracts of land formerly owned by the church were subdivided and sold off by a Salt Lake City trustee, leading to the eviction of the FLDS families still living on the properties.

I think people leaving would be happening with all the evictions, Allred said. But its not my concern where people go.

The city is composed of clean, wide boulevards laddered by rough dirt roads, all set against striking copper-hued cliffs that earned this area the name Color Country. Life here has long been an odd mix for nonbelievers and those in the church, which is not affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At a satellite campus here of Mohave Community College, staff learned to address, at least partially, the needs or wants of church members.

For example, FLDS women in the nursing program still live under Warren Jeffs prohibition against using the Internet. Sometimes, college President Michael Kearns said, staffers will hit the send button if the women fill out an online form  technically sparing the women from using the Internet. Staff draws the line, however, on filling out online-only board exams students must take.

All around Colorado City are the marks of Jeffs reign. They are in the unfinished roofs and skeletal wood frames of houses; all construction on church property or land owned by church members ended in 2005, when Jeffs declared that all building stop and construction money be redirected to his church.

Attempts to contact the FLDS church leadership were unsuccessful. When approached in public at FLDS-owned businesses in town, men and boys would stand silently or occasionally wave. Women in long dresses gave curt replies or didnt respond at all.

Allred, who repeatedly invoked his 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination during the trial, would not comment on the case or its outcome, but said, The city is fair and impartial, and treats all of its citizens fairly.

Mohave County Sheriff Jim McCabe disagrees. For most of his 31 years in the county that surrounds Colorado City, sheriffs deputies would run daily patrols in the area, but didnt regard the local police as anything more than an arm of the FLDS church.

Then three years ago, McCabe received a state grant to offer his deputies more overtime. He immediately put his deputies on full-time patrol in Colorado City. You put water where theres a fire, McCabe said. With the constant allegations of unconstitutional behavior coming from inside that community, we had to do something. Weve been working on this thing for 20 years.

McCabes department isnt alone  allegations of misdeeds by the church troubled state and federal law enforcement for decades, but a disastrous raid on the cities in 1953 only made the case that FLDS families were victims and lawmen heavy-handed thugs. Jeffs reign, beginning in 1998, drew the attention of law enforcement back on the sect as he exiled men he considered a threat and reassigned wives and families to his allies.

Facing a criminal indictment, Jeffs fled the state, assisted by city officials in Colorado City and Hildale before he was found, convicted and imprisoned for life for child sex abuse.

The U.S. Justice Department has pursued the city since 2012, when it filed a civil rights lawsuit alleging the city had violated the 1st, 5th and 14th amendment rights of some residents.

From the evidence, including then police Chief Fred Barlow writing to Jeffs as his servant, the jury found that the police departments had a pattern of violating the rights of nonbelievers. When the Justice Department has found a similar pattern and practice problem in other police departments, a lawsuit typically leads to a consent decree that empowers the federal agency to oversee elements of the local police departments affairs.

Will that be the case in Hildale and Colorado City?

How much intolerance will the [Department of Justice] tolerate? asked Amos Guiora, a University of Utah law professor. Thats the question for how much life will change there when the federal government makes changes. Are they going to leave some of [the churchs] ways in place, or change everything?

That wont happen soon enough for some people, who are delighted at the prospect of federal intervention. Were wide awake now, said Jason Black, a former longtime church member who left the FLDS in 2013.

See more of our top stories on Facebook >>

Art Jeffs, who lost two-thirds of his clientele when his uncles, Warren and Lyle Jeffs, declared him a son of perdition and exiled him, said he hoped the shrinking specter of the FLDS would encourage outside investment in town.

With land available at cheap prices, residents worry about who could move in next.

Jerusha Darger, who left the FLDS church, said she hoped the theocratic approach of the Jeffs wasnt replaced by lawlessness. Her brother, who cut off communication when she left her faith, is the Colorado City police chief. What comes next, I guess it could be bad, Darger said. But it wouldnt be worse.

nigel.duara@latimes.com

Twitter: @nigelduara

ALSO

Lawyer and D.A. investigator have bloody brawl in O.C. courthouse

Complaint over loud boom box music leads to brawl on Spirit Airlines flight

Whats wrong with the American diet? More than half our calories come from ultra-processed foods
A Mexican man accused of killing five people in the Midwest this week was a convicted felon living in the U.S. illegally, and he had not been deported despite being arrested at least twice in recent years, federal officials said.

Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino, 40, of Kansas City, Kan., was captured in rural eastern Missouri early Wednesday morning after going missing from Kansas on Monday and then sparking a 17-hour manhunt in Missouri on Tuesday once his truck was spotted along an interstate.

Officials, who had previously warned Serrano-Vitorino might be armed with an AK-47, said he was found with a rifle, but wouldnt say what kind.

Advertisement

Serrano-Vitorino faces five counts of murder and other charges on suspicion of killing four men on Monday night in Kansas City, Kan., and then going on the run and killing another man almost 200 miles to the east in New Florence, Mo. Officials have not given a motive.

The case could have political implications, given Serrano-Vitorinos immigration status and his criminal history, which includes a felony conviction in Los Angeles County from 2003. Serrano-Vitorino was deported to Mexico in 2004 but illegally returned to the U.S. sometime later, officials said.

Missouris primary presidential election is next week, and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and other immigration critics have cited the death of Kathryn Steinle -- who was shot in San Francisco in July by a felon from Mexico living in the U.S. illegally -- to call for harsher measures to control illegal immigration.

Around 11 p.m. Monday, Kansas City police responded to a house in somewhat of a rural area, where they discovered the victims, Wyandotte County Dist. Atty. Jerome Gorman said in a televised news conference Wednesday.

Officers found two people on a couch who had been shot and killed, Gorman said. A third victim was still alive when police arrived, but soon died on the porch. A fourth victim was found outside the house and died after being taken to the hospital. Officials have identified the victims as Michael Capps, Jeremy Waters, Clint Harter and Austin Harter.

Officials fairly quickly zeroed in on Serrano-Vitorino as a suspect, Gorman said, and Missouri State Highway Patrol officials said police found his 2002 Dodge pickup at 7:02 a.m. Wednesday, abandoned along Interstate 70 about 200 miles to the east in Montgomery County, Mo.

We dont know if we had mechanical problems, or ran out of fuel, or any of that, Sgt. Scott White, a Highway Patrol spokesman, said at a televised news conference.

Less than 20 minutes later, at 7:20 a.m., sheriffs officials got a phone call about a shooting at the home of Randy J. Nordman, 49, along the interstate, and officials found Nordmans body when they arrived, the Highway Patrol said in a statement. Serrano-Vitorino was accused of killing Nordman.

Serrano-Vitorino later approached another person in the area with a gun, but that person escaped and called police, the Highway Patrol said.

Two troopers spotted Serrano-Vitorino laying face-down in a ditch next to the interstate and arrested him without incident, the Highway Patrol said.

He was wet. All his clothes were wet -- socks were wet, shoes, White said.

NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >>

Serrano-Vitorino was being held without bond at a Montgomery County jail on Wednesday and was charged in Missouri with one count each of first-degree murder, armed criminal action and first-degree burglary. He is also charged with four counts of first-degree murder in Kansas.

Gorman, the Wyandotte County district attorney, said he didnt know whether Serrano-Vitorino would be tried in Missouri or Kansas first, though he said he would love to try him in Kansas first. Both states have the option of death sentences for capital murder.

Hes killed four persons in my community ... Im responsible for the safety of those individuals, Gorman said. But, he added of the Missouri prosecutors, Until they either resolve their case or willingly turn him over to us, theres not much we can do in getting [him].

Serrano-Vitorino had been living in the U.S. despite being a felon who had several contacts with police in Kansas in recent years, according to federal immigration officials.

Serrano-Vitorino was ordered deported from the U.S. in absentia 2002, and on March 27, 2003, he was convicted in Los Angeles County Superior Court of making a felony terrorist threat, according to federal immigration officials. Serrano-Vitorino was sentenced to two years in prison.

He was deported to Mexico in 2004, and its not clear when he returned to the U.S., immigration officials said in a statement.

On Nov. 21, 2014, Serrano-Vitorino was convicted of driving under the influence in Coffee County, Kan., but officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the agency was not notified about his case.

On June 15, 2015, police in Kansas City, Kan., arrested Serrano-Vitorino on suspicion of domestic assault. ICE was alerted but he was processed and released before the agency could investigate, immigration officials said.

Then, on Sept. 14, 2015, ICE received notification that Serrano-Vitorino was fingerprinted at Overland Park Municipal Court for receiving a citation for driving without a license in the Kansas City suburb.

After receiving the hit, immigration officials issued a detainer for Serrano-Vitorino, which would set the deportation process in motion.

Issuing the detainer was a procedural mistake, because detainers are only for suspects who are in custody, and Serrano-Vitorino was apparently never ordered to jail for the minor traffic charge. Because he wasnt in custody, immigration officials said, further action to deport him couldnt be taken.

Although the notification prompted ICE to issue a detainer to the Johnson County Sheriffs Office, Serrano-Vitorino was at court for a municipal fine and was never remanded to the sheriffs office custody, the agency said in a statement. Therefore, neither ICE nor the Johnson County Sheriffs Office could take action on that detainer.

Further details about Serrano-Vitorinos charges and infractions and their outcomes was not immediately available.

ICE placed a new detainer on Serrano-Vitorino on Wednesday to claim custody of him when his criminal cases are resolved.

ICE will continue to work with local entities and take steps to once again remove him from the country once the criminal case is completed, the agency said in a statement.

Follow @MattDPearce for national news

See more of our top stories on Facebook >>

ALSO

Immigration makes up central topic of Clinton, Sanders debate

Missouri GOP defeats 39-hour filibuster to pass bill criticized as anti-gay

Towns run by a polygamist sect discriminated against nonbelievers, jury finds
Sen. Marco Rubios latest round of electoral losses  he failed to win any state or add delegates in Tuesdays primaries  has reinforced concerns that his campaign is at a make-or-break moment.

Though campaign officials insist Rubio has no plans to quit and expects to win the Florida primary next week, some GOP donors are quietly arguing that he should drop out so Republicans can coalesce around Sen. Ted Cruz and stop Donald Trump in Tuesdays election.

Recent polling suggests Trump leads Rubio 40.7% to 23.7% in Florida, according to aggregators at RealClear Politics. Cruz is third at 17.2%.

Advertisement

Election 2016 | Live coverage on Trail Guide | March 8 election results | Track the delegate race | Sign up for the newsletter

Donors, particularly more recent converts to Team Rubio who crossed over from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bushs camp, are holding onto their wallets until next weeks primary.

But many also see little reason for Rubio to drop out before then.

Its Florida or bust, said Nick Iarossi, a prominent Rubio fundraiser in Tallahassee. Weve already invested millions of dollars, thousands of man hours. Why get out six days before?

Rob Stutzman, a GOP operative in Sacramento who was backing Bush and is now fundraising for Rubio, said the campaign is fully invested, theyre fully committed to Florida, and, frankly, they shouldnt stop before then, before the Florida vote.

Obviously the results of the last two weeks are troubling, he added. Well let Florida speak for itself. Home states perform uniquely.

Rubios team has consistently dismissed reports of hand-wringing and denied there are any conversations about dropping out. Nobody on the campaign is discussing this, spokesman Alex Conant said.

The campaign continues to predict that Rubio will win his home state, noting that absentee ballots are breaking for the Florida senator.

They are also counting on strong support from the Latino community, including many Puerto Rican transplants who have fled the islands economic problems and registering to vote in Florida. Puerto Rico was one of two primaries that Rubio has won so far.

Including his other victory, in the Minnesota caucuses, Rubio has a total of 151 delegates, compared with 458 for Trump and 359 for Cruz. Ohio Gov. John Kasich has 54.

But even if Rubio wins Floridas 99 delegates in the winner-take-all contest, he will remain far behind the front-runners.

Rubios campaign had largely abandoned Tuesdays contests in Michigan, Mississippi, Idaho and Hawaii, marshaling all its manpower and resources in the Sunshine State. He plans to campaign there nonstop until Tuesday.

It was always going to be a rough two weeks, said a Rubio backer granted anonymity to discuss the situation, but the focus was always going to be on Florida and needs to remain that way.

Bowing out now might avert what could be an embarrassing political defeat for Rubio in his home state.

But his supporters argue that even if he dropped out before the Florida primary, it probably would only help Trump win the state, not Cruz.

They also questioned whether a loss at home would damage Rubios political brand.

At 44, he has often been mentioned as a possible candidate for Florida governor. His Senate term expires in January, and he is not seeking reelection.

lisa.mascaro@latimes.com

MORE ON CAMPAIGN 2016

What do you want in your next president?

Ohios GOP primary may be a last chance  to save Kasich, and blunt Trump

Tough debate questions, especially for Clinton, after her surprise loss to Sanders in Michigan
A bisexual man charged with shooting a gay man he taunted on a street was found guilty Wednesday of murder as a hate crime despite his assertions that he couldnt be a bigot because of his own sexual orientation.

A Manhattan jury deliberated over two days before finding Elliot Morales guilty in the May 2013 shooting of Mark Carson in the Greenwich Village neighborhood, a center of American gay life for decades.

Motivated by irrational rage, the defendant targeted and executed a defenseless young man based on his sexual orientation after taunting and insulting the victim and his companion, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said in a statement.

Advertisement

Morales, 36, represented himself. A message left at his legal advisers office after the verdict wasnt immediately returned.

Morales faces 20 years to life in prison. His sentencing is set for April 11.

Morales admitted shooting Carson but said he acted in self-defense and couldnt be guilty of a hate crime because he is bisexual. His star witness was a transgender woman who testified that she was his ex-lover.

In Morales closing argument last week, he wept and told jurors that he was not a bigot of any type and that charging him with a hate crime was ridiculous.

The shooting happened a few blocks from the Stonewall Inn, the site of 1969 riots that helped give rise to the gay rights movement.

NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >>

Police said Carson and his roommate were passing in front of a pizza parlor shortly after midnight on May 18, 2013, when Morales called out to them, using slurs and saying the men looked like gay wrestlers. The two confronted Morales, following him around a corner, before he pulled a revolver and shot Carson in the face at close range, authorities said.

Arrested moments later, Morales began laughing and admitted killing Carson as officers held him down.

Diagnosis dead, doctor, he is heard shouting on an officers video. It then shows Carson sticking out his tongue.

As he cross-examined Carsons former roommate at trial, Morales blamed the two men for the conflict that led to the shooting and suggested they should have ignored the taunts and walked away.

Taking the stand in his own defense, Morales said he had been drinking heavily before the shooting. He acknowledged arguing with Carson and his roommate but denied using gay slurs. He said he pulled his gun because he was afraid.

I thought he was going to take something out and shoot me with it, Morales testified. I thought one or maybe both of them had a firearm. So I kind of raised the firearm and turned away and shot it at the same time.

Assistant District Attorney Shannon Lucey said in her closing argument that Morales had issues with his own sexuality and was jealous that Carson and his roommate were openly gay.

New Yorks hate crime law doesnt say attackers need to be of a different ethnicity or sexuality than their victims.

ALSO

Missouri GOP defeats 39-hour filibuster to pass bill criticized as anti-gay

Attacks on Trump didnt slow him down in the primaries. Americas another story

Towns run by a polygamist sect discriminated against nonbelievers, jury finds
From the beginning, it was clear Wednesday night's Democratic presidential debate was going to be a little bit different.

Broadcast simultaneously on CNN and Univision, the nation's largest Spanish-language network, the debate kicked off with moderator Maria Elena Salinas speaking a few words of rapid-fire Spanish. That set the tone for questioning that focused more on immigration and Latino issues than most debates this election cycle, as did a Republican debate last month hosted by Spanish-language network Telemundo.

The forums have highlighted the growing importance of the Latino vote, which is expected to be 40% larger this year than it was in 2008.

Here are a few moments at the debates hosted by Spanish-language media that might not have happened otherwise:

Immigrants asked questions

Immigration has been at the forefront of the campaign, ever since Donald Trump criticized people arriving illegally from Mexico in his announcement speech.

Since then, candidates have vigorously debated border walls, refugee policies and deportation techniques. But the voices of immigrants have largely been absent.

That changed Wednesday night, when an immigrant audience member asked Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders a question in Spanish about her partner's deportation.

"I have a big pain, my sons and me, because the father of my children was deported for not having a license," the woman said in Spanish. "What will you do to stop the deportations and reunite families?"

In an instant, the debate over deportation was made a little less abstract and a little more human.

'Hispandering' went mainstream

At Wednesday night's debate, Salinas dropped a new phrase when talking about candidates who make promises to the Latino community to win votes: "Hispandering."

The issue first came up at last month's Republican debate on Telemundo, when moderator Maria Celeste Arraras asked Florida Sen. Marco Rubio about his comments to a Spanish-language reporter that he would let President Obama's deportation deferral program run its course. Rubio has told English-language audiences that he would end the program immediately.

"Sen. Rubio, what changed?" she asked him. The candidate explained that he does plan to wind down the program if he is elected president.

We got to watch Bernie Sanders praising Fidel Castro's Cuba

Sanders, the Vermont senator who's running for the Democratic presidential nomination, has been asked repeatedly about his self-described "democratic socialist" beliefs.

But it took a pointed question in front of a largely Cuban American audience Wednesday night to get him to assert a certain admiration of Fidel Castro's communist government.

Sanders was asked about a video interview from the 1980s in which he appeared to be praising aspects of Castro's governance. Sanders explained to the audience in Miami -- home to many Cuban exiles -- that those comments had to do with failed U.S. attempts to intervene in Cuban politics.

But he also refused to apologize for praising Castro, adding that Cuba has made "good advances" in healthcare and education.

Sanders and Clinton pledged to end deportations of children

This was a big moment in Wednesday night's debate. Sanders and Clinton pledged to break with President Obama's policy of deporting young immigrants in the country illegally.

And it wouldn't have happened if Univision anchor Jorge Ramos hadn't questioned the candidates about the issue repeatedly. When Clinton tried to avoid a direct response on what she would do with immigrant children, many of whom are fleeing violence in Central America, Ramos pressed her to answer.

She and Sanders both eventually pledged not to deport any children who are already in the country illegally, although they didn't say what should happen to future young arrivals.

Espanol was spoken

Spanish is the primary language spoken at home by nearly 40 million Americans. Many of those people never get to hear directly from the political candidates seeking their votes, instead relying on dubbed translations on television.

English-speaking CNN viewers got a taste of that experience Wednesday when parts of the broadcast were translated in real time from Spanish into English. The audio, which at times were confusing and timed slightly off, highlighted how much can get lost in translation.

The Telemundo debate also provided a rare instances of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz speaking Spanish on the campaign trail. While Rubio often speaks in Spanish and leans heavily on his story as the son of immigrants, Cruz rarely acknowledges his own Cuban immigrant story and ethnic heritage.

That changed when Rubio criticized him in the Telemundo debate for not being able to understand what was said on Spanish-language news programs. Cruz lashed back -- in Spanish. His accent wasn't perfect, but it wasn't about that.

For more stories on the presidential campaign, follow me on Twitter: @katelinthicum
From one week to the next, the forces arrayed against Donald Trump have repeatedly suggested one state or another would cut down the Republican presidential front-runner. New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada, Michigan. He won them all.

Now the effort to stop  or at least slow Trumps march to the GOP nomination has narrowed to Florida and Ohio.

Only one is close.

Polls give Trump, who lives part time in Palm Beach, a sizable lead in Florida, where home-state Sen. Marco Rubio is making a last stand to save his fading candidacy. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is also campaigning hard in the state, but many in the party find him no more appealing than Trump.

Advertisement

If the Manhattan business mogul is to be denied, it may come down to Ohio and its governor, John Kasich, who is 0-for-24 in contests so far.

He seems an unlikely party savior.

One of the biggest questions when Kasich entered the race last summer was whether he was too abrasive to be elected president.

For many, especially Ohioans long familiar with the governor, his White House campaign has proved a revelation.

There is all the usual conservative talk of lowering taxes and limiting regulations, shrinking the size of government and sending Washington programs back to the states. But there are also sermonettes on love and lightness, on purpose and meaning, and on compassion and caring that seem more suited to a therapy session or self-improvement seminar.

As a crowd of several hundred huddled last weekend against an afternoon chill, Kasich spoke movingly at a rally here of the nurse who stays past her shift to comfort a grieving family, or neighbors who take a lonely widow to dinner, so she can get her hair done and wear a dress she hasnt put on in months.

I believe when we work together, were a great, beautiful mosaic, he said. We need to live a life bigger than ourselves to help heal this world.

As a congressman in the 1990s, Kasich was a part of the conservative revolution that took over the House. But as Ohios governor since 2011, he has angered many Republicans for heresies including support for certain tax hikes and, more egregiously, expanding the states healthcare programs under the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare.

His prickly persona is well known in Washington and Columbus, the state capital. First elected to the Ohio Legislature in his brash 20s, Kasich  now 63  has spent decades giving offense; stories abound of the personal insults and indignities suffered by Republican colleagues and others who have brushed up against him.

Whatever caused the transformation, Kasichs new up-with-people luminosity offers a stark contrast to the slashing, belittling style of Trump, especially in debates, where the governor has refrained from the schoolyard taunts of other candidates.

Zinny Bond was among those who waited in a blocks-long line for the chance to see Kasich alongside actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who delivered a late endorsement.

The retired linguistics professor cant abide Trump.

She cited the last presidential debate when he said he would force soldiers to commit war crimes such as torture to fight terrorism. He said, Well if I told them to do it, they would do it, said Bond, 74, releasing an exasperated sigh. Thats just not at all a candidate saying what this country stands for. Its ridiculous.

The notion that Kasich is the adult in the room is one often expressed by supporters.

So far, though, in this incendiary campaign season, that has only been enough to achieve a series of second-, third- and lesser-place finishes.

Now it is down to Florida and Ohio, where losses Tuesday would eliminate both Rubio and Kasich, leaving only Cruz to face Trump.

The Texas senator has won the second-most contests. But Cruzs hard-edged conservatism limits his appeal beyond all but the most ideological Republicans, a problem as the race moves to states with a more moderate lean, like Maryland, New Jersey and California.

There are a lot of people who feel disenfranchised and feel like indentured servants to a government that just doesnt care about them anymore.  Bob Ney, former Ohio congressman

That is why Kasich hopes to emerge as the establishment favorite. A victory in winner-take-all Ohio, with 66 delegates, would more than double his total and, strategists hope, position him for a strong run in the big states that follow.

We have an election where 50% of the delegates have been selected and 50% have not been selected, Kasich said Wednesday at a campaign stop in Illinois, which also votes Tuesday. And in those states that have not yet selected delegates, basically  Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and I are dead even.

It takes 1,237 delegates to claim the nomination ahead of this summers GOP convention. Trump has 458 after winning 15 states. The aim of Kasich and others opposing him is to stop Trump short of the number he needs to clinch the nomination and wrestle it away at a contested convention held, as its happens, in Cleveland.

Kasich enjoys considerable advantages here at home, not least the fact he is fighting on familiar ground.

The Ohio Republican Party has thrown its full weight behind Kasich; the party chairman organized an anti-Trump conference call with reporters when the reality TV star touched down this month for a rally at Columbus airport, drawing a crowd of several thousand.

A political action committee working on Kasichs behalf is running more than $1 million in TV ads and has set up a network of phone banks, targeting voters as if it were a race for governor or state attorney general.

For all of that, however, the race remains highly competitive, with polls giving Trump a modest lead.

The same roiling mix of anger, frustration and disgust with politics that has powered his rise elsewhere is very much in evidence in Ohio, especially in Rust Belt communities whose best days are part of a long-ago past.

There are a lot of people who feel disenfranchised and feel like indentured servants to a government that just doesnt care about them anymore, said Bob Ney, who represented portions of Appalachian Ohio in Congress for 11 years. He is neutral in the primary.

Even some Kasich supporters find things they like about Trump.

Hes a brilliant businessman, theres no doubt about that, said Mark Wirt, 52, who drove an hour and stood first in line to see Kasich and Schwarzenegger. He would have no problem supporting Trump as the nominee, the airline dispatcher said, and sees no reason for Republicans to panic.

David Russell, standing next in line, said his dream ticket would be some combination of Trump and Ohios governor.

I think he would make an amazing vice president, the 50-year-old event planner said of Kasich, and, hopefully down the road, hed make a great president if it turns out this is not his time.

mark.barabak@latimes.com

Twitter: @markzbarabak

MORE ON CAMPAIGN 2016

What do you want in your next president?

With Florida just days away, Rubio is all in, but some donors say he should quit now

Tough debate questions, especially for Clinton, after her surprise loss to Sanders in Michigan

Updates from the campaign trail
Assault accusations swirl around Donald Trumps campaign

Donald Trump has said hed like to punch protesters who flock to his rallies, and one of his supporters apparently took it upon himself to act.

Videos being circulated on social media Thursday showed a white man punching a black protester at a Trump rally in Fayetteville, N.C., on Wednesday.

According to a report filed by the Cumberland County, N.C., sheriffs department, the suspect, John McGraw, was charged with assault and disorderly conduct for punching the protester, Rakeem Jones, as he exited an arena where the rally was held. McGraw was scheduled to appear in court next month.

Video also shows sheriffs deputies detaining Jones after he was punched. Jones was not charged with any crime and was only escorted out of the arena, said Sean Swain, a spokesman for the Cumberland County Sheriffs office.

Phone calls to McGraw and Jones were not immediately returned. However, McGraw did tell Inside Edition on Thursday that Jones deserved to be punched.

Next time we see him, we might have to kill him, he warned.

Trumps campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, said she was distraught and appalled by the report.

You dont make America great by, you know, dumping on everything that made America great, like freedom of speech and assembly and, you know, the right of people to protest, Clinton said on MSNBC, in a callback to Trumps Make America Great Again campaign slogan.

The encounter comes as the Trump campaign is dealing with allegations of assault closer to home  campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was accused of grabbing a reporter from the conservative news outlet Breitbart this week.

The reporter, Michelle Fields, was attempting to ask Trump a question as he exited a news conference at Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla., when, she said, someone forcibly pushed her out the way, nearly causing her to fall to the ground.

Fields said she didnt see who grabbed her, but a reporter from the Washington Post identified Lewandowski as having yanked Fields out of the way.

Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for Trump, denied the allegation.

There are often large crowds aggressively seeking access to Mr. Trump and our staff would never do anything to harm another individual, Hicks said in a statement.

In response, Fields posted images on Twitter of bruises on her arm.

I guess these just magically appeared on me @CLewandowski_ @realDonaldTrump. So weird. pic.twitter.com/oD8c4D7tw3  Michelle Fields (@MichelleFields) March 10, 2016

Campaign managers arent supposed to try to forcefully throw reporters to the ground, she wrote for Breitbart.

The local sheriffs office and police department both said no report had been filed as of Thursday afternoon.

Trumps campaign and its security have had repeated physical run-ins with the press and protesters.

In February, a Secret Service agent at a Trump rally in Virginia grabbed a Time photographer by the throat and slammed him to the ground.

And at rallies from Nevada to Alabama, protesters have scuffled with Trump supporters, sometimes leading to violent altercations.

FOR THE RECORD: This post was updated at 8:45 p.m. to reflect that Jones was detained. An earlier version said he was handcuffed.
Are you going to watch this O.J. show? I asked my father over drinks.

Nope.

Why? I asked, though I should have known what he would answer.

I lived it.

I was 15 years old in 1994 when my father, Christopher Darden, joined the prosecution team against O.J. Simpson, a case very much in the news again thanks to The People vs. O.J. Simpson, now airing on FX. To say the least, it was a turbulent time for me: the daughter of a black prosecutor, prosecuting a successful black man in the trial of the 20th century.

Advertisement

I grew up in East Oakland, in a mostly black and Latino neighborhood. My parents never married and I lived with my mother. Life before the trial was simple. Our street had less crime compared to other blocks in the area, and all I wanted in life were straight As, a boyfriend who shared my love for X-Men cartoons, and TLC concert tickets. As the racial tensions surrounding the case grew, so did my anxiety. I worried the students at my predominantly black high school would harass me when they found out about my father. Many black people sided with Simpson and thought my father was a traitor.

Most of my classmates told me, I dont agree with what your daddy is doing, but youre cool so I support you. But not everyone felt compassion. While walking down the stairs after class one day, a black kid stopped me on the steps when other students were around. He said to my face, Dude, Im sorry, but your father is a Tom. A straight up sellout. Then he strutted away as if hed accomplished something. Embarrassment and shock left me speechless.

On the flip side, black people who suspected I was related to that Darden and believed Simpson was guilty would whisper conspiratorially in my ear. I think he did it, theyd say, but dont tell anyone I told you that. They feared others would consider them sellouts too.

I understood why many black people, especially black people in Los Angeles, supported Simpson. I remember the beating of Rodney King and the shooting death of Latasha Harlins, 15, over a bottle of orange juice. Like today, black folks were tired of racially motivated killings. Still it hurt to see my father, a proud black man who encouraged me to embrace my heritage, be called a traitor. My father wanted justice for victims Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman.

I admired my fathers courage in the chaos. He received death threats but never let on that he was concerned.

Are you OK? I asked my father over the phone.

Dont worry about me. I just want to make sure youre safe, he calmly replied so I wouldnt panic. It didnt work.

I admired my fathers courage in the chaos. He received death threats but never let on that he was concerned.

My parents told my school about the threats and asked security officers to keep their eyes open. We postponed visits to Los Angeles. The O.J. trial became more than a trial, it became a national spectacle, and I desperately hoped it would end quickly. It lasted more than eight months.

When my family wasnt praying through death threats, we were dealing with the media. Strange-looking men rang my mothers doorbell for the scoop on my dad. Paparazzi called my private line, an unlisted number. I have no idea how they found it.

Hi, is this Jenee? a woman asked in the condescending tone adults use with toddlers.

Who is this?

Were from a magazine. You want to tell us some stuff about your daddy?

I hung up.

My mother loved reading gossip pages in the grocery store. I found them silly. But guess who landed in a tabloid? FOUND! Doting Dad Dardens Secret Love Child covered the front page of one rag. Apparently, they found my conception out of wedlock newsworthy. I was never a secret. I opened the magazine to see a page-length photo of me in my winter ball gown. A black bar covered my eyes because I was a minor. Next to me was a picture of my uncles ex-wife, whod sold the photo to the tabloid.

A few days later I headed to my locker before the homeroom bell. I passed a cluster of students huddled around copies of the tabloid, reading the article about me. They tried to hide it before I saw them. They thought it was cool. I found it bizarre and uncomfortable.

But my experience is nothing compared to what my fathers other relatives endured. Paparazzi hounded my uncle while he suffered with AIDS. They even had the audacity to call my grandparents and ask how they felt about my uncles illness while he was on his deathbed. He passed away the month after the trial ended.

The publics emotions remained raw long after the trial. Since I didnt know if people I came across hated my father, I rarely told anyone I was his daughter.

Hey, I noticed your last name is Darden, said the short, middle-aged black man from my Bay Area fitness class in 2003. I knew what was coming next.

Are you related to Chris Darden, the bald-headed guy from the O.J. trial?

I gave my usual response.

Oh, no, I lied.

Good, he said while pounding his clenched fist into his palm. Man, if I ever saw that [racial slur] Id ... 

Unlike my father, Im watching the FX miniseries. Im too curious to refrain. On the whole I find it captivating, but my concern is the same as ever  that the drama surrounding the case overshadows the brutal deaths of two people. Whether you think Simpson is guilty or innocent, Ron Goldmans family lost a son and brother. Nicole Browns children are without a mother. Theres nothing glamorous about that at all.

Jenee Darden is a journalist who covers women, race and The People vs. O.J. Simpson on her blog CocoaFly.com.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
During Wednesday's Democratic debate, Hillary Clinton said her deportation policies would differ from President Obama's; immigrant advocates have dismissed him as "deporter-in-chief" for forcibly removing more immigrants than any other president.

Clinton said that unlike Obama, she would focus on deporting "violent criminals, terrorists" and others who want to do harm.

In fact, that is Obama's policy almost verbatim.

Hillary Clinton says she won't deport children #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/HJK9dPWykE  Mashable Politics (@mashpolitics) March 10, 2016

In 2014, Obama took executive action to offer temporary protection from deportation to roughly 5 million immigrants in the country illegally with long-standing ties to the U.S. and no serious criminal records. The policy is on hold while a lawsuit accusing Obama of overstepping his power works its way through the federal court system.

When Obama originally acted, he also clarified who his administration would prioritize for deportations. Like Clinton, he said he would deport only criminals, a continuation of official Homeland Security guidelines.

Immigrant rights groups say that policy has looked very different in practice. They say immigration agents have deported hundreds of thousands of immigrants with no criminal records or only minor records, which they say has forged distrust in law enforcement by immigrant communities.

Clinton did distinguish herself from Obama in one clear way, saying she would not deport immigrant children who are already in the United States.

Obama's administration has not offered such protections to all children, and has deported many immigrants fleeing violence in Central American who entered the U.S. in recent years seeking asylum.

ALSO:

Influx of Puerto Ricans could be game-changer in country's biggest swing state

Immigration makes up central topic of Clinton, Sanders debate
As President Obama moves closer to choosing a Supreme Court nominee, Democrats appear to have settled on a conclusion: His best political play is the least political one.

Rather than lobby him to choose a champion of liberal ideology or a symbolically historic appointment, many in the presidents party have come to support his view that he should focus on finding a replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia who has unchallenged legal credentials.

Obama said during a Rose Garden news conference Thursday that Republicans vow not to even meet with his nominee isnt a factor in his selection and that he wanted to quickly nominate an eminently qualified replacement.

Advertisement

It will then be up to Senate Republicans to decide whether they want to follow the Constitution and abide by the rules of fair play that ultimately undergird our democracy, Obama said.

His framing of the issue mirrors Senate Democrats assessment  that Republicans are hurting themselves by refusing to commit to hearings or a vote on the nominee. Democrats predict that voters will view Republicans stance as a cynical, partisan ploy, particularly if Obama chooses a middle-of-the-road jurist who won bipartisan support on Capitol Hill for a lower-court appointment.

A mainstream nominee with bipartisan appeal is what we need, and thats what the president will do, said Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York, a member of the Judiciary Committee and the likely Democratic leader in the Senate next year.

Two of the names most often at the top of Democrats list fit that billing: Merrick Garland, the chief judge on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and an oft-mentioned candidate for previous nominations; and Sri Srinivasan, confirmed to the same court unanimously by the Senate in 2013.

Paul J. Watford, a judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and former appellate lawyer in Los Angeles, also appears to be on the presidents short list of potential candidates.

The White House has avoided responding to potential picks being batted around Washington in the last week and even declined to say whether Obama had settled on a short list.

The president has cast a wide net in considering potential nominees, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday. The White House has taken seriously the range of suggestions that we have received from senators and other experts.

But both Garland and Srinivasan would be seen as nods toward compromise in a process bogged down by partisan politics in an election year.

Senate Democrats have held several closed-door meetings to discuss the court battle with party strategists with ties to the White House, and they discussed polling that shows the public strongly opposed to the notion that a Supreme Court seat would be left vacant for an extended period. The Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee met with senior members of the White House vetting team to discuss the process Thursday.

Democratic voters tend to see any refusal by Senate Republicans to consider the nominee as an affront to the president. Independent voters also largely disapprove of the tactic, perhaps viewing it as another example of the kind of Washington gridlock that has soured them on the political establishment.

A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 48% of those surveyed thought the Senate should vote on a replacement while 37% thought the seat should be left vacant. Only 28% of voters approved of the decision not to hold hearings or vote on the nominee, while 55% disapproved.

Thats the kind of reaction from voters that Senate Democrats will seize on for fall campaigns, even as Republicans insist any blowback against them is likely to be short-lived.

There are few federal issues that people even notice. They notice this one, said Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the Democratic whip. It is very graphic  [and] voters say, That aint right, that isnt fair, that isnt why these people were elected, and thats a good illustration of why Washingtons not working.

On Tuesday, Democrats welcomed to their weekly caucus luncheon Patty Judge, newly recruited to run against Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the popular Iowa Republican who now chairs the Judiciary Committee.

Judge, a former Iowa lieutenant governor and agriculture secretary, entered the race last week saying she is the Judge [that] Chuck Grassley cant ignore.

We will continue to talk about Sen. Grassleys obstruction of the hearings, she said as she entered the Capitol. Iowans believe in doing the job youre assigned to do  whatever that job is.

During a meeting of the judiciary panel Thursday, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina seemed to caution his colleagues about whether their strategy might backfire.

Assume for a moment [Hillary Clinton] is president, he said. Im telling everybody on my side, shes going to pick somebody probably more liberal than President Obamas going to send over in a few days. And Im going to vote for that person if I think theyre qualified.

But other Republicans maintain their position is defensible, consistent with what they say is the Senates co-equal role in the process to offer advice and consent  or in this case the lack thereof.

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the most senior Republican member of the Judiciary Committee, insisted that the question was when, not whether the Senate considers a nominee.

Schumer said the GOP position is simply borne out of political necessity, since the more complete airing a qualified nominee has in the Senate, the more likely he or she is to be confirmed.

If you have a mainstream nominee, it tends to move in the direction of approval, he said. Thats why the hard right told [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell immediately, Dont even go forward on this. Because theyre afraid the process works.

Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.), who helped guide Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. through the confirmation process in 2005 and 2006, said voters respond to the argument that a president who has ignored the Constitution to achieve his own ends should not be tipping the balance of the court.

But he also warned that Republicans would see political motive in whatever Obama ultimately decided to do.

We will see it as a political ploy, Coats said. Either designed to fail and blaming us for it failing, [or] designed to force us potentially into a filibuster, which the Republicans have never done. Because we have no trust that hes going to have the right motives in this.

michael.memoli@latimes.com

Lisa Mascaro and Christi Parsons in the Washington bureau contributed to this report.

For more White House coverage, follow @mikememoli

ALSO

California State Senate approves raising smoking age to 21

Are you pre-diabetic? 46% of California adults are, UCLA study finds

Illegal immigration by children and families dips slightly on U.S.-Mexico border
Im Christina Bellantoni, this is Essential Politics, and youre invited to come play bingo with us this evening.

Lets face it  as political events go, tonights Republican debate is about as make-or-break as you get.

The setting (Florida) is the state that could end things for Sen. Marco Rubio. The date (five days before major primaries) puts a punctuation mark on time running out for establishment Republicans who want to deny Donald Trump the party nomination. The stakes (yuge!) are high for three of the men who will be on the stage.

We know that voters in several crucial primary states made up their minds in the final days of the race, and that debates have proved influential. Can Rubio stand out in his home state? Can Ohio Gov. John Kasich seize on momentum showing him within striking distance in his home state? How will Texas Sen. Ted Cruz attempt to win over the voters he has been losing to Trump?

Advertisement

On the other hand, it may not matter when it comes to the GOP nomination. Nothing anyone has thrown at Trump has shaken the support of his ardent backers, who make up about 4 in 10 Republican voters.

But as as David Lauter explained, get outside the GOP primaries and the picture looks very different. Trumps image with the wider public is extremely negative and getting worse.

NUMBERS GAME

Mark Z. Barabak finds Ohio is the only state thats close in the grouping of states where Trump foes are attempting to stop  or at least slow  his march to the nomination.

For the Democrats, Hillary Clinton nabbed 86 delegates from Tuesdays contests, and remains far ahead of Sen. Bernie Sanders when you include the party leaders and local officials known as superdelegates.

It can get complicated, so were tracking the delegate race so you dont have to.

And to find out whats happening on the campaign trail at any given point, keep an eye on Trail Guide and follow us at @latimespolitics.

DEMOCRATIC FACE-OFF

Sanders and Clinton squared off in the most extensive forum yet focusing on immigration policy, arguing over who is more friendly toward immigrants. The debate in Florida was a stark reminder of the wide gulf between Democrats and Republicans, whose presidential candidates have emphasized increasing border security or deporting immigrants who are in the country illegally, as Chris Megerian and Michael A. Memoli write.

And Kate Linthicum caught that Clintons pledge to differ from President Obamas deportations policy by focusing on deporting violent criminals, terrorists and others who want to do harm actually is Obamas policy almost verbatim.

From talk about the most beautiful tall wall to a standing ovation, we caught every moment.

WATCH THE GOP DEBATE WITH US

Tonights the night!

Theres still time to RSVP for the free L.A. Times debate watch party at The Regent in downtown Los Angeles. Join us!

Well start with a political panel featuring me, John Myers and Seema Mehta, and well be raffling off prizes and playing the best debate bingo in the business.

Doors open at 4:30 p.m.

FINAL VOTE ON TOBACCO?

All eyes in Sacramento are on the state Senate this morning, where a package of closely watched tobacco regulation bills could be sent to Gov. Jerry Brown by days end.

We reported on these bills last week as they made their way through the Assembly, efforts that include raising Californias smoking age to 21. One of the bills, regulating electronic cigarettes, was the subject of some last-minute lobbying on Wednesday. Patrick McGreevy reports that industry officials met privately with the governors staff to urge that Brown veto the bill if it makes it to his desk.

And one more thing to watch: If the Senate takes action on the tobacco bills, it would also likely adjourn the Legislatures special session on healthcare. That would mean one of 2015s most talked about laws, allowing aid-in-dying rules for the terminally ill, would officially take effect as soon as June 8.

You can track whats happening each day in Sacramento on our Essential Politics news feed.

RECOGNIZING A LOS ANGELES ICON

Next week, a red oak will be planted on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol to recognize the late Rep. Edward Roybal, who represented Los Angeles in Congress for 30 years and was the first Latino from California to serve in Congress since 1879.

Roybal co-founded the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, and founded the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014.

His daughter, Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, led the effort to have the tree planted, and will attend the event along with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and other congressional leaders.

TODAYS ESSENTIALS

 Is pouring bullet train money into water development projects a good idea? George Skelton says the ballot initiative proposal may be too good to be true.

 Photographer Bryan Chan opens up on how he captured that iconic Nancy Reagan photo.

 Police arrested Ricardo DeAratanha as he was on assignment for the L.A. Times photographing Reagans memorial service.

 Rep. Darrell Issa returns to South by Southwest this weekend.

 Business columnist David Lazarus remembers that time Trump tried to get him fired.

 Cartoonist David Horsey considers the subject of tiny hands and goes there.

LOGISTICS

Miss yesterdays newsletter? Here you go. Did someone forward you this? Sign up here to get Essential Politics in your inbox daily. And keep an eye on our politics page throughout the day for the latest and greatest. And are you following us on Twitter at @latimespolitics?

Please send thoughts, concerns and news tips to politics@latimes.com.
Californias terminally ill patients should begin talking to physicians now if they want to end their lives, advocates said Thursday after a legislative vote triggered a June 9 start date for the End of Life Option Act.

The law, which allows doctors in California to prescribe lethal doses of drugs to terminally ill people who want to hasten their deaths, includes a time-consuming approval process that could take several weeks, said Toni Broaddus, California campaign director for the group Compassion & Choices.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed the measure last year, but it wasnt until the Legislature adjourned a special session in Sacramento on Thursday that June 9 was set for when it becomes legal for physicians to write lethal doses without fear of criminal prosecution.

Advertisement

Join the conversation on Facebook >>

Broaddus said doctors can begin explaining options and considering requests.

We are telling people to start talking to their doctor now, said Broaddus, whose group, formerly known as the Hemlock Society, helped pushed the bill to approval and has launched a bilingual education campaign on how to participate.

Sen. Bill Monning (D-Carmel), a co-author of the law, predicted discussions will begin before June 9 as patients make sure their doctors are up to speed on the law and physicians explain all options, including those not involving the Act, such as hospice care.

I certainly expect its going to provoke conversations within families and between terminally ill patients and physicians, Monning said.

Senate leader Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) said on the Senate floor just before the adjournment vote Thursday that the law ensures Californians have access to humane and compassionate options to limit suffering at the end of life.

The bill had failed to win needed support during the regular session, so supporters introduced it in special session, allowing it to bypass committees where opposition was strong.

The approval of the law through controversial legislative tactics was denounced again Thursday by Tim Rosales of Californians Against Assisted Suicide.

See the most-read stories this hour >>

The group remains strongly critical of this new law, and its lack of medical oversight and actual patient safeguards, he said. We will continue working with our partners, including doctors, patients and disability rights organizations, to educate those impacted and vulnerable, as well as working to limit the laws harms and prevent any expansion.

California will be one of a half-dozen states to allow physicians to prescribe lethal doses to the terminally ill.

The California Medical Assn. published guidelines on the law in January that spell out the requirements for terminally ill patients diagnosed with less than six months to live. The patients must make two verbal requests at least 15 days apart and one written request that is signed, dated and witnessed by two adults. Patients must also fill out forms that were included in the legislation.

The process can be further delayed if the physician suspects mental illness requiring an evaluation by a mental health professional.

Even if some terminally ill patients begin the process now, Broaddus said she does not expect a large number of deaths on June 9. In Oregon, which previously adopted the same law, patients on average wait 45 days to take the lethal doses from the time they are prescribed.

The delays are often the result of patients wanting the doses in hand just in case but waiting until the last possible moment to take the medication, Broaddus said.

The California Medical Assn., which was neutral on the law, does not have a recommendation on whether patients and doctors should begin discussions now, according to spokeswoman Molly Weedn. Its up to those doctors and their patients and the individual situations to determine what is best for their course of care, she said.

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com

Twitter: @mcgreevy99

ALSO:

Adjournment triggers laws start date

Californias new laws: See how youre affected

Updates from Sacramento
At first glance, the idea is appealing: Scrap Gov. Jerry Browns troubled bullet train project and pour the money into water development.

Voters have soured on the Los Angeles-to-San Francisco high-speed rail line after authorizing it eight years ago.

Its way behind schedule. Projected costs and routes keep changing. It needs tons more money. But private investors arent interested and the Republican Congress is hostile.

Advertisement

The time seems ripe for a ballot initiative to shift whats left of the bullet bonds  $8 billion remaining from the original $10 billion  to needed water projects.

In fact, a recent poll by the Hoover Institution found that 53% of Californians favored the notion and only 31% were opposed.

But hold on. This proposal isnt as simple as just trading the train for water. Theres a lot more to it.

It would shuffle California water law with questionable results for taxpayers, the environment and many farmers.

Interests youd think would herald the proposal  some agriculture groups and water agencies  are forming coalitions to fight it.

Voter signatures are being collected to qualify the initiative for the November ballot. The sponsors are two Republicans: state Sen. Bob Huff of San Dimas, whos running for Los Angeles County supervisor, and George Runner, a member of the state Board of Equalization. The campaign is being run by the California Water Alliance, funded with San Joaquin Valley agriculture money.

But not all San Joaquin farmers and officials like the idea.

Dont be fooled, wrote Manuel Cunha Jr., president of the Nisei Farmers League, in a Fresno Bee op-ed piece. Unfortunately, this initiative will not advance water projects, but instead set us back years and possibly kill projects.

The Bee reported growing opposition among San Joaquin Valley agriculture, government and water leaders.

Theyre not defending the bullet train. But they object to one key provision of the initiative: The grabbing of $2.7 billion in storage money from a delicately negotiated $7.5-billion water bond measure approved overwhelmingly by voters in 2014.

The $2.7 billion combined with the bullet trains $8 billion would provide $10.7 billion for water projects. The money would be doled out by a newly created body composed of regional water managers.

It would replace the California Water Commission, which already is considering new dams on the San Joaquin River at Temperance Flat near Fresno, and close to the Sacramento River at sites in Colusa County. Cunha says creating a new bureaucracy will put us back maybe a whole decade.

The initiative also seems to be a full employment act for lawyers. It messes with long-established water rights.

It would amend the state Constitution to make domestic use the No. 1 priority for stored water and crop irrigation No. 2. And those would be the only listed priorities. Salmon runs, endangered species and waterfowl habitat? Not priorities. The environment would take a bath.

This, of course, has been the dream of some San Joaquin agriculture corporations for decades.

In the Sacramento Valley  the northern expanse of the Central Valley  theres growing opposition.

To say that all farmers believe the environment should come last in water priority is just not true and is insulting, says Tim Johnson, president and chief executive of the California Rice Commission. Farmers in the north who work closely with the environment find that offensive.

For starters, rice farmers oppose the measure because they believe it could delay construction of Sites Reservoir.

Wed have to start over from scratch, Johnson says. Now, a concrete proposal is expected next year.

Also, because of the initiatives tinkering with water law, rice growers are worried it could curtail their flooding of harvested fields to host migratory waterfowl.

The fall flooding is mutually beneficial: It breaks down rice straw and allows farmers to replant the next spring. And it produces a delicious soup of leftover rice and insects for migrating ducks and geese.

This isnt crop irrigation  a priority under the initiative  but crop cleanup and bird feeding. Before the flooding began around 1990, crops were burned, badly fouling Sacramento Valley air. Now the flooding provides a paradise for hunters, waterfowl and bird lovers.

Were providing 60% of the food for 3 to 5 million geese and ducks, Johnson says. We flood 200,000 acres. Farmers get very excited about all the great stuff in our fields: sandhill cranes, bald eagles, egrets, great blue herons. Right now, lots of snow geese.

Californians historically care a lot about rivers and fish and wildlife, says Jay Ziegler, policy director for the Nature Conservancy. Its part of our natural legacy and quality of life. This measure really puts at risk the balance were trying to protect.

David Guy, president of the Northern California Water Assn., said his organization is frustrated that folks are out gathering signatures and flat-out misleading people. This is a foolhardy initiative we cant ignore.

Its deceptively appealing, but unfortunate, said Republican state Sen. Jim Nielsen of Gerber in the Sacramento Valley. Its opening a can of worms.

Aubrey Bettencourt, who heads the sponsoring California Water Alliance, calls the initiative a commonsense effort to provide water for people first and says it is a rare chance for the people  to tell the state to get its priorities straight. High-speed rail is an unpopular boondoggle.

Should we shift rail money to water? Thats a legitimate argument. But this initiative also has other agendas that reach too far.

george.skelton@latimes.com

Twitter: @LATimesSkelton

ALSO:

Lawmakers show surprising courage against Big Tobacco

For once, anti-tax rebels are mute about levy hike

Updates from Sacramento
About a year after reopening on Brand Boulevard, the farmers market in downtown Glendale has closed due to poor turnout, and its future is unclear for now.

Every Thursday afternoon since last May, about two dozen vendors selling produce and homemade goods set up booths along Brand between California and Wilson avenues.

NEWSLETTER: Stay up to date with whats going on in the 818 >>

One of the goals was to capitalize on foot traffic from people leaving work in the area, but not enough of them showed up.

Were taking a break from the market for now because there has not been the community support that both we and the vendors were hoping for, said Rick Lemmo, president of the Downtown Glendale Assn.'s board of directors, which organized the weekly market. We never saw the market as a big money-maker. We hoped it would bring more people into the downtown area who would then shop and dine at other downtown locations after visiting the farmers market. It just has not worked as well as we hoped it would.

The last farmers market was held on Feb. 25. The association will evaluate its options for the weekly event in the future, Lemmo said.

Its the second time the market has been halted by the association, which took it over in 2013 after being handed the reins from the previous manager  the city of Glendale. Back then, the market was also on Brand but a bit south, between Wilson and Broadway.

The association moved the market to the parking lot of a church on Maryland Avenue, where a lack of customers forced its closure until the city gave approval to set up shop along Brand again.

Alan Janoyan, owner of JRC Coffee, one of the vendors who sold his products at the most recent location, said he thought the surge of mixed-use developments and new residents would have meant more customers.

But downtown isnt quite there yet, he said.

We havent seen that foot traffic yet, Janoyan said. Maybe in like a few years, we will get there. But theyre still building so much and theres so much construction in Glendale. Its kind of more [vehicular] traffic than it is foot traffic.

Advertising that a portion of the farmers market would be in Chess Park  an alley fitted with concrete benches and a small performance stage  didnt help either because most people dont know where it is, he added.

Janoyan said he stopped going to the farmers market in December because of the poor turnout.

By the end, there were only about 15 vendors still setting up, said Tim Gallagher, a spokesman for the association.

City spokesman Tom Lorenz said the decline of the farmers market isnt an indicator of how all of downtown is performing.

City Council members have stressed a mission to make Glendale an 18-hour city, where people can work and spend leisure time. People have made it clear theyre not interested in a downtown farmers market, Lorenz said.

Were not disappointed, he said. People are going to support what they want to support through their pocketbooks. Theres certainly no shortage of people in the downtown area.

--

Arin Mikailian, arin.mikailian@latimes.com

Twitter: @ArinMikailian

--

ALSO:

Glendale man arrested, charged with 14 counts of burglary for series of commercial break-ins

Young orchestra in need of instruments as it gears up for spring benefit concert

Three local students win Bob Hope Airport banner contest
From the beginning with original sin and on through the virgin birth of Jesus, Christians and Muslims share many beliefs, and its on this common ground these two Abrahamic religions should forge a stronger interfaith community, according to a panel of religious scholars speaking at La Canada Presbyterian Church Sunday.

Around 250 people attended the forum on religious extremism, hosted by La Canada Presbyterian and the Islamic Congregation of La Canada Flintridge and moderated by KABC-TV meteorologist Dallas Raines. The discussion laid bare the mainstream Islamic communitys struggle to distinguish itself from violent extremists in the eyes of non-Muslims, especially in the immediate aftermath of terrorist attacks, such as recent incidents in San Bernardino and Paris.

No one has more to lose at the hands of extremism than Muslims themselves, said Edina Lekovic, public affairs consultant for the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

Prolonged conflicts and terrorist acts that are seemingly fueled by religious extremism are more likely motivated by identity politics, such as a desire to establish a national identity or to carve out a territory, according to Jihad Turk, dean of Bayan Claremont, an Islamic leadership graduate school at the Claremont School of Theology.

Theres no justification in religion to do these immoral acts, Turk said. Its really not whats going on the ground there, and its a much more complicated conversation.

Efforts to clarify that conversation are compounded by how Muslims are portrayed in the media, according to the two speakers, who were joined by J. Dudley Woodberry, a La Canada Presbyterian member and a senior professor of Islamic studies at Fuller Theological Seminary, and his colleague Jay Muller, a part-time teacher at Fuller and La Canada native.

The majority of media interest in Muslims is as perpetrators or as victims, said Lekovic. Best case scenario is that when youre going to see somebody like me [on television] is to explain what happened, and thats part of why were stuck.

Working in public affairs, Lekovic said its been a challenge to get proactive media coverage. Turk and Woodberry both cited the Marrakesh Declaration, when about 300 of the leading Muslim scholars from 120 countries gathered in Morocco in January and called for predominantly Muslim countries to protect the rights of religious minorities within their borders.

How many of you heard of this groundbreaking [event]? asked Turk, with only a few hands rising in response. So 2% of this crowd  We have a narrative. Its just not getting through.

But Turk also said there all several questions Muslims are often asked that have already been answered, and that citizens should be obligated to seek them out.

Lekovic agreed.

Forums like these are so critical because we cant wait for the information to come to us. We have to find the information and we have to help others find this kind of information, she said.

No one has more to lose at the hands of extremism than Muslims themselves.  Edina Lekovic, public affairs consultant for the Muslim Public Affairs Council

The forum resonated with Julia Wells and her mother Janet Wells, both of Sierra Madre.

This is a dialogue that needs to happen, said Julia Wells, who attends both La Canada Presbyterian and Fuller.

Janet Wells said she was especially struck by the similarities between the religions and how many conflicts are motivated by things other than religion.

They made that point very clear  that so many things are geopolitical and too often we just put it on religion. Thats too simple, she said, adding that shed like to do some more reading herself, perhaps even picking up a copy of the Koran. I would just really encourage everybody to become more educated and to have an open mind.

Woodberry likened the process of the two faiths moving forward together to the Y-Bridge found in Zanesville, Ohio, where two bridges come together at a central point, allowing two different communities to cross a pair of rivers on one road.

We worship the same being but we understand him both significantly similarly and significantly differently, he said. This is what we need to work on but there is certainly enough there that we agree on to carry on together.

--

Brian Park, brian.park@latimes.com

Twitter: @TheBrianPark

--

ALSO:

Op-Ed: Muslim Americans in their own voice

Council budgets $143K to community projects, $470K from late Ralph Lipscombs gift

Crime Report: Minor traffic collision escalates into fracas
The first fastball Angels right-hander Jered Weaver threw Wednesday afternoon against the Dodgers was clocked at 79 mph. The second, 78. The third, 80.

Over 2 2/3 innings, Weavers fastball never surpassed 81 mph and averaged about 79, according to scouts in attendance. He gave up six hits, including three home runs, in a spring-training game that ended tied, 13-13.

Weaver, 33, sat hunched over at his locker. He joked that he was unscathed because his arm remained attached but was otherwise expressionless.

Advertisement

I wake up every day hoping this is the day that its going to click, he said, and it just hasnt happened yet.

After a 7-12 record and 4.64 earned-run average in 2015 prompted him to change his preparation plan for this year, Weaver was pleased with his first spring start last week. He hit 83 mph several times against the Chicago Cubs and struck out three batters over two innings. He didnt strike out any Dodger.

I didnt feel as good as I did last time, Weaver said. I feel like Im on the right track, though. I just gotta keep grinding and trust that what I am doing is gonna get back to where I need to be.

He is stretching more and has said the added flexibility should increase the chances of his body remaining sound in the final season of his contract.

I know Im not throwing the ball as good as I can be, he said. But its not gonna stop me from working and going out there and taking the ball every fifth day. My body feels better each and every day. Its just, through this process of breaking everything up and getting everything settled down where it needs to be, you have good days and bad days.

Weaver said Wednesday was a bad day because of where he threw his pitches, not how hard he threw them.

If I can locate, I can get people out at 60 mph, he said. It doesnt really matter to me.

Said Manager Mike Scioscia: Hes proved he can go out there and compete with velocity thats not what youre used to seeing.

Weaver has never averaged less than 82 mph with his fastball in a regular-season game. In the last 10 seasons, the slowest average fastball on record from a nonknuckleball-throwing right-hander was 81.6 mph, by Brian Lawrence of the New York Mets in 2007.

A lots being made of his velocity, Scioscia said. Not that you dont need velocity or it doesnt make some things easier when you have velocity, but I think he showed he can do this. Its just going to be more command sensitive.

Last season, Weavers average fastball was 84 mph. But he wasnt able to increase the velocity later in games. His best first-inning fastball last season was nearly 3 mph faster than his fastest pitch in a seventh inning.

Scioscia said he was interested in seeing whether Weaver could hold his velocity into the 90-pitch range later this spring. Weaver could make as many as four more starts in Cactus League play.

Moving forward with Jered, his challenge is still in front of him, Scioscia said.

Short hops

Left-hander C.J. Wilson, recovering from shoulder tendinitis, is planning to throw a bullpen session Thursday and one Saturday.  Left-hander Andrew Heaney will make his spring debut, starting Thursdays game after bypassing his first scheduled start because of illness.
Crystal Cruises is upping the ante on its soon-to-launch Crystal Mozart yacht cruises with an exclusive cultural event -- for free.

Passengers aboard the Crystal Mozart in 2016 and 2017 may attend an exclusive art tour and classical music concert at Viennas celebrated Belvedere palace complex, the cruise line announced Wednesday.

FULL COVERAGE: Cruise reviews, deals and news

Advertisement

Its included in three itineraries on the Danube River, all of which begin and end in Vienna.

The evening starts with a guided tour of the palaces art collection, ending at one of its most famous paintings, The Kiss by Gustav Klimt.

Afterward, passengers attend a concert in the Marble Hall, an elaborate two-story room with a ceiling fresco painted in 1720 by Carlo Carlone. The concert will feature the music of Johann Strauss (father and son) and Mozart.

The tour continues to the citys historic Ringstrasse, which is where the Austrian Parliament building and Vienna State Opera House are located, before returning to the ship.

Crystal Mozarts maiden voyage is set for July 13; booking is available for 10-day itineraries (stopping in towns in the Wachau Valley before traveling on to Germany, Slovakia and Hungary).

Guests will be able to book the free evening event starting in April, when other shore excursions will be announced.

The cruise line expanded this year to offer luxury travel by ocean, yacht, river and air.

Info: Crystal Cruises, (866) 446-6625, or contact a travel agent

MORE

Upcoming cruise ship: Sneak peek at the Seabourn Encore

Disney plans to build two new cruise ships, but itll take awhile

MSC Cruises partners with Technogym for new onboard wellness program
Visitors to Brenham, Texas, must understand that bluebonnets are spring flowers that proliferate here each season in fields and pastures. Blue Bell, on the other hand, is the hometown ice cream first made in 1907. Folks here are fiercely proud of both. After a nationwide recall of the ice cream last year because of a deadly listeria outbreak, locals rallied in support of the frozen confection, their towns year-round attraction. Although the We proudly support Blue Bell posters arent as prolific as the flowers, theyre still plentiful. The tab for two at Ant Street Inn: $160 for one night, excluding taxes, and $35 for dinner at Nathans BBQ.

The bed

Advertisement

The 15 antique-filled rooms at Ant Street Inn (107 W. Commerce St., Brenham; [979] 836-7393, www.antstreetinn.com) are themed after the mostly Southern cities  think Natchez, Miss., New Orleans and Savannah, Ga.  from which their period furnishings came. The century-old, block-long building, beautifully renovated by owners Suzy and Keith Hankins, who purchased it in 2011, contains not only the hotel but also the Brenham Grill, which serves cooked-to-order breakfasts to guests. Weekend rates from $160 include breakfast and single-serving cups of chocolate and vanilla ice cream from a freezer beside the guest rooms.

See the most-read in Life & Style this hour >>

The meal

Texas wouldnt be Texas without its legendary barbecue, and in Brenham, locals head for Nathans BBQ (1307 Prairie Lea St., Brenham; [979] 251-9900, www.nathansbbq.com). Guests grab a tray and order from the menu on the wall behind the steam tables. For the uninitiated, employees are happy to slice off samples of their slow-cooked meats, including beef brisket, pork butt, locally made sausage and, of course, ribs. A two-meat dinner costs $12.25; three meats cost $13.95. That includes two sides such as baked beans, broccoli salad, macaroni and cheese and black-eyed peas.

The find

The lazy back roads of Washington County get busy on spring weekends as visitors, many of them from Houston 70 miles away, flock to the country to witness the annual bluebonnet blossom. The fields are full of flowers, with prime viewing from mid-March to mid-April, depending on the weather. The local visitors bureau shares current conditions on its website, and its tourism brochure contains a map denoting some of the most scenic drives. Order one online or by calling (888) 273-6426. The wildflowers also abound about 20 miles north of Brenham at Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site (23400 Park Road 12, Washington; [936] 878-2214), where Texas rebels in 1836 declared their independence from Mexico.

The lesson learned

Tours of Blue Bell Creameries, which used to be a highlight of visits to Brenham, are indefinitely suspended as the company rebuilds  a process that includes testing its treats before distribution. However, try to stop by the ice cream parlor (1101 S. Blue Bell Road, Brenham; [800] 327-8135) on a weekday. A giant scoop costs just $1.

travel@latimes.com
On 1 March newswire Reuters cited a spokesperson from the US Department of the Treasury as stating that the US supports the pre-agreement reached on 29 February by Argentina and its holdout bondholders in the US, announced by Daniel Pollack, the US court-appointed mediator in the long-running dispute between Argentina and the holdouts. Reuters cites that US Department of the Treasury source as saying that we look forward to full implementation of the agreement, which should help Argentina return to the international capital markets and promote strong and sustainable growth. Meanwhile US President Barack Obama is due to travel to Argentina on 23 and 25 March where he will meet President Mauricio Macri. According to a White House press release issued on 18 February, the two leaders will meet to discuss President Macris reform agenda and recognise his contributions to the defense of human rights in the region. According to the press release, President Obama will deepen efforts to increase cooperation between our governments in a range of areas, including trade and investment, renewable energy and climate change, and citizen security. It has been nearly two decades since the last bilaterally focused visit by a US President to Argentina, Latin Americas third largest country.

End of preview - This article contains approximately 883 words.

Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article

Not a Subscriber?

Choose from one of the following options
As Donald Trump gets ever closer to becoming the presidential nominee for the Republican Party, foreign leaders have become increasingly vocal about what a Trump administration would mean to them.

David Cameron

In December 2015, shortly after Trump called for a ban on all Muslims entering the United States, British Prime Minister David Cameron said Trumps remarks regarding Muslim migrants were divisive, stupid and wrong.

Although many British citizens were calling to ban Trump from the U.K., the Prime Minister did not feel that the real estate magnate turned politician should be barred from entering.

Cameron suggested that if Trump were to visit the U.K. his presence would only act to stir people towards solidarity against his xenophobic politics. If he came to visit our country I think he would unite us all against him, said Cameron.

Angela Merkel

Trump has derided German Chancellor Angela Merkel's welcoming stance on refugees as "insane" and said that her immigration policies would eventually lead to social unrest and rioting in her nation.

Merkel has voiced how little she thinks of Trumps attacks by simply refusing to reply.

The leader informed German media that she could see no reason why she should respond to Trump and that she was, in fact, a fan of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

"I value her long political experience, her commitment for women's rights, family issues and health care, said Merkel, adding, Whenever I had the chance to work together with Hillary Clinton, it was a great pleasure."

Vladamir Putin

Vladamir Putin, who Trump has praised in the past, has called Trump the absolute leader of the current presidential race.

The 63-year-old Russian leader described Trump as "a bright and talented person without any doubt. He is the absolute leader of the presidential race."

Enrique Pena Nieto

Perhaps the most strident remarks regarding Trump have come from Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Discussing Trumps campaign promise to build a border wall and have Mexico pay for its construction, Pena Nieto said he can see of no scenario in which this would happen.

The Mexican leader has deep concerns about maintaining the productive and mutually respectful climate that Mexico and the U.S. have typically enjoyed.

Pena Niteo compared Trumps inflammatory tone to the rhetoric of fascist leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini.

The 49-year-old leader explained that there have been episodes in history when Trump's kind of extreme language has resulted in dark periods for 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," Pena Nieto said.

Diplomats in Distress

Diplomats from Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia have all reportedly voiced private complaints to U.S. officials about the inflammatory statements made by Trump.

Elliott Abrams, the senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, has summed up the situation as one of confusion and worry.

"All foreign diplomats Ive talked to are amazed at the Trump phenomenon and worried about it, especially in the Middle East and Europe, said Abrams.
Some of Latin music's biggest hits have also had some of the most unique and confusing titles. Hit songs by Celia Cruz, Shakira and J Balvin challenge fans singing along, whether they're Latino or not, with unclear words or phrases, regardless of how many times they've played the tune.

Check out a few songs with titles that faze even the most devoted Latin music lovers.

"Aguanile" by Hector Lavoe



Regardless of whether a Latino grew up listening to Hector Lavoe singing "Aguanile" or Marc Anthony's version from "El Cantante," the meaning behind the popular salsa hit isn't common knowledge.

Aguanile is a reference to the Afro-Latin spiritual practice known around the world as Santeria. Lavoe's choice to make it the song's title seems obvious when one realizes that the entire song is about suffering, loss and the need to be cleansed. The tune is filled with other spiritual terms too.

"Quimbara" by Celia Cruz



A lot of people sure can repeat "Quimbara" just like Celia Cruz does when singing this classic tune, but most are clueless about the meaning, though those of Afro-Caribbean descent like Cruz might have a clue. One interpretation claims "Quimbara" is an expression of happiness in Kimbundu, a Bantu language, while others suggest it is a term taken from Santeria.

Regardless, the song is one of Cruz's biggest hits and demonstrates the star's iconic musicality.

"La Camisa Negra" by Juanes



Before Juanes came along, most millennials had never used the color of a shirt to refer to heartbreak -- they probably still don't. With "La Camisa Negra," Juanes did just that. The term is used to express a sense of sadness, which he describes in the hit 2005 song.

Many don't know the song was involved in controversy because of its reference to a "black shirt," which is used to support neo-facism. Juanes assured fans that his use had no relation to that implication. However, the song references more than just a black shirt. It was banned in the Dominican Republic for sexual content.

"La Tortura" by Shakira



Everyone knows that Shakira's 2009 hit single with Alejandro Sanz, "La Tortura," is about torturous love and the struggle that comes with it.

However, to be real for a moment, it's worth admitting that some people definitely got confused and thought the title referred to a turtle, especially those whose Spanish isn't up to par. Tortura and Tortuga are just too similar, especially with Shakira's accent.

"Ginza" by J Balvin

The only people who know what "Ginza" means are Instagram addicts, big J Balvin fans or students of Japanese geography. The name comes from a district in Tokyo.

A song about bumping and grinding with a woman named after an Instagram filter seems odd. But with the release of the music video, fans were able to get some clarity through Balvin's Japanese theme.
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders issued a promise, if either is elected U.S. president, to not deport undocumented immigrant children.

Clinton Makes a Promise

Clinton was pressed on her deportation policy during the Univision and Washington Post's March 9 debate, if she would follow the same deportation policies as President Barack Obama. Co-moderator Jorge Ramos, who made it known at the start of the debate that his daughter is a campaign staffer for Clinton, asked the former secretary of state if she can make the promise to not deport undocumented immigrant children "who are already here" in the U.S.

"I will not deport children. I would not deport children. I do not want to deport family members, either, Jorge. I want to, as I've said, prioritize who would be deported: violent criminals, people planning terrorist attacks, anybody who threatens us, that's a relatively small universe."

Clinton also promised not to deport undocumented immigrants, also already in the U.S., who have clean criminal records. Clinton added she wants adjustments to the current asylum process to provide immigrants, who have fled violence in their native country, their necessary resources and reiterated her stance to provide immigrants a pathway to citizenship.

The Impact of a Guatemalan Immigrant Mother

One of the memorable moments from Wednesday night's debate was the question posed by Guatemalan immigrant Lucia, a mother of five children, who spoke about her husband's deportation three years ago. Speaking in Spanish, Lucia asked Sanders and Clinton about their platforms to stop deportations and reuniting families.

Sanders said his immigration policy is to "unite families, not to divide families." Clinton said she will do everything she can to prevent further families from facing the same events as Lucia and her families.

Long before the debate, Clinton and Sanders have respectively denounced the Obama administration's deportation raids, which received national headlines on the weekend following New Year's Day.

Immigration Reform: 2007 vs. 2013

As expected Clinton and Sanders debated on the 2007 comprehensive immigration reform legislation (S. 1639), which the former New York senator voted in favor but the current Vermont senator opposed. Clinton said the 2007 bill was the best chance to pass comprehensive immigration reform, claiming it had Republican support even from then-President George W. Bush.

"Just think, imagine where we would be today is we had achieved comprehensive immigration reform nine years ago. Imagine how much more secure families would be in our country, no longer fearing the deportation of a loved one, no longer fearing that they would be found out," said Clinton, adding

Sanders defended his 2007 vote, stating Latino and immigrant rights groups opposed the bill, said S. 1639 had guest worker provisions that were similar to slavery. "

"They (immigrants) were cheated, they were abused, they were humiliated, and if they stood up for their rights, they would be thrown out of the country," said Sanders about the 2007 immigration bill, and noted he voted in favor of the 2013 Senate comprehensive immigration reform bill (S. 744). Sanders said immigration reform is still needed and will use further executive actions if Congress fails to act.

Clinton also spoke in favor of issuing further immigration executive actions if congressional gridlock continues.

Sanders hit back at Clinton on her stance opposing driver's licenses for immigrants living in New York. As Latin Post reported, Clinton did oppose then-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's effort to provide immigrants with driver's licenses. In a statement sent to Latin Post in October 2015, Clinton's campaign noted the environment in regards to the immigration debate has changed since 2007.

"The immigration landscape of 2015 is far different from the immigration landscape of 2007, so of course the policy responses are different," said the statement from Clinton's campaign last October. "In 2007, we didn't have an executive action that would focus our resources on deporting felons, not families, allowing millions of undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States. In the last eight years, states have increasingly been moving in this direction with positive results."

"Hillary supports those state efforts," her campaign added. "As she said in 2007, she believes the long-term solution is comprehensive immigration reform, but given Republican obstruction, we can no longer wait for that."

Clinton: Pro-Wall?

Clinton responded to her own statements made during a New Hampshire campaign stop last November where she said she voted numerous times for a wall between Mexico and the U.S. Clinton said her remarks were different compared to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Clinton said, where it was necessary, she supported "some fencing" with the addition of border patrol agents.

__

For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com.
Seven Belgian pharmaceutical executives may face trial on suspicion of supplying an important ingredient for making crystal meth to a Mexican drug cartel.

Belgium's federal prosecutors refused to provide the identities of the people involved or the companies that employ them.

"We are asking for them to be referred to court and the decision will be made on April 5," a spokesman for Belgium's federal prosecutors announced on Wednesday.

Companies Admit Involvement

Prosecutors said that the companies made numerous deliveries of ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, which is a substance normally found in cough syrup and nasal decongestants. Ephedrine is also used to make meth, an extremely addictive stimulant drug.

Sterop, a small pharmaceutical group based in Brussels, admitted via a spokesman of its involvement in the case, but the firm insisted that it had been duped by intermediaries and they didn't break the law. Belgian pharmaceutical wholesaler Andacon also admitted its connection with the case due to its deliveries of pseudoephedrine in tablet form back in 2006.

The companies acknowledged that pseudoephedrine did not necessitate an export license during that time, but the Mexican company that the Belgians made transactions with one. The firms noted that they are planning to ask for the dismissal of the case against their client.

Belgium's law dictates whether a specific court will allow cases brought by a prosecutor go to trial.

Mexico's Meth Production Soars

A recent report found that Mexican drug cartels are increasing their meth production as a response to the growing demands of the consumer market in the United States.

A report from the International Narcotics Control Board, or INCB, stated that Mexican authorities seized more than 19 tons of methamphetamine in 2014, a 34 percent growth from 2013. Authorities also found 131 meth laboratories, which were mostly situated in the states of Guerrero, Michoacan and Sinaloa.

According to the report, seizures of meth at the U.S. border have gotten bigger by a factor of three since 2009. Mexico's drug gangs have also developed smarter and more sophisticated ways to avoid detection from authorities. The INCB said that criminal groups dilute meth in a liquid solvent, a process which makes detection of the drug difficult.

Drug cartels have long supplied cocaine and marijuana to the U.S. consumer market, InSight Crime reported. Cocaine consumption, however, has plummeted in the United States by as much as 50 percent, while the country's relaxation of marijuana laws has driven down demand for marijuana cultivated in Mexico.

Mexican crime groups earn billions of dollars from the drug trade. Authorities revealed that drug cartels profit over $60 billion from their sales in the United States.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed UN envoy Jean Arnault of France to head the organization's political mission in Colombia.

UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq announced Arnault's appointment on Wednesday. The political mission will monitor and verify a future peace deal between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the country's biggest rebel group.

On Jan. 19, both the government and the FARC requested the UN Security Council to establish a mission for the monitoring of a ceasefire. A political mission was authorized on Jan. 25 in a resolution co-sponsored by all 15 members. This decision was an unusual event in the council, where opinions are often at odds.

Arnault's Role

Arnault is leading the UN's preparations for the mission's deployment in Colombia. He is also working closely with the negotiating groups from the Colombian government and the FARC on a sub-commission dealing, which aims to end the most longstanding armed conflict in Latin America.

Prior to Arnault's duty as secretary-general in Colombia, he was on a high-level independent panel reviewing UN peace operations, which included UN missions in Afghanistan, Burundi, Georgia and Guatemala.

President Santos Refuses to Sign a Bad Peace Deal

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said on Wednesday that he will not sign a peace agreement, which is due on March 23, unless a satisfactory deal has been agreed upon. He noted that his administration is willing to extend the negotiations if necessary.

"After all this effort, all this time, if we haven't reached a good deal by the 23rd, I'll propose to the other side to create another deadline," said Santos, adding that discussions are in their final stages, per Euro News. "I will not sign a bad deal to meet a deadline."

Santos' statement serves as his acknowledgement that the deadline may not be met. Other officials and the FARC have also doubted that a peace deal will be finalized on schedule.

Colombia and the FARC have been negotiating a peace deal since late 2012 to end more than 50 years of armed conflict. Partial agreements have been reached on transitional justice, land reform, guerilla members' involvement in politics, combating illegal drug trade, removing land mines and efforts to search for missing people.

One of the FARC's most pressing concerns is their safety once they lay down their arms.

Though peace talks with the FARC have been making progress, the same cannot be said for the National Liberation Army, Colombia's second-largest leftist group. The ELN attacked a military brigade in Arauca in February, prompting Santos to order a military crackdown against the rebels.
The National Jury of Elections of Peru barred two leading candidates Julio Guzman and Cesar Acuna from the presidential race, leaving Keiko Fujimori with an almost-certain win.

As the daughter of the country's embattled former president Alberto Fujimori, Fujimori held a powerful lead over her contenders, despite accusations thrown at her 77-year-old father.

Now that two of her leading contenders are out of the way, victory for the young Fujimori has become more certain.

Julio Guzman

Guzman, an Inter-American Development Bank economist and ex-finance minister, currently holds a 16.6 percent approval rating from the voting population per a recent opinion poll via Twitter.

#Elecciones2016 ultima encuesta GFK: Suben Guzman, Barnechea, Keiko Fujimori y Veronica Mendoza pic.twitter.com/78sahBRiW9  Luis Alberto Arias M (@LAlbertoArias) March 7, 2016

Unfortunately, he was pushed from the presidential race after allegedly failing to comply with proper procedures when filing the registration of his presidential ticket.

The 3-2 decision that led to Guzman's removal from the race was revealed on Wednesday.

As expected, the former presidential candidate did not wholeheartedly accept the decision, which he described to be an "anticipated fraud," per GFK.com.

He also deemed it unfair if the electoral court did not consider accusations of illegal distribution of gifts and prizes to voters against Fujimori.

"If their cases are not treated with the same criteria, the current election and potential elected authorities become illegitimate," he stated.

Daniel Mora, a spokesperson from Guzman's All for Peru party deemed the decision "totally unjust," admitting that he was "stunned" at how the court voted.

The case also attracted the attention of political experts from all over the world.

"In the last three decades, no Latin American democracy has excluded a viable candidate [like Guzman] for bureaucratic reasons. Not one," Harvard University political scientist Steven Levitsky said in a report from La Republica.

"I cannot think of a democracy anywhere in the contemporary world in which major presidential contenders are excluded from the race for minor infractions," he added.

Cesar Acuna

Like Fujimori, Acuna has been accused of illegally handing out gifts to voters, which he described as a "humanitarian aid."

However, the electoral board immediately removed him from the presidential race because he reportedly "engaged in prohibited conduct."

Acuna, a wealthy businessman who is running under the Alliance for Progress Party, currently holds 3 percent of the voters per the statistics posted above.

Keiko Fujimori

Keiko Fujimori still leads the polls with nearly 35 percent amid accusations of violation of human rights against her father, Ex-President Alberto Fujimori.

During his reign between 1990 and 2000, the former Peruvian president allegedly forced indigenous women to undergo sterilization.

However, the young Fujimori strongly denied the accusations, saying that she will "seek the truth." She added that "If there was any woman operated without her consent, she will have to be compensated by the state," during her campaign rally on the International Women's Day.
A mayor from Florida is planning to highlight Cuban immigrants' dangerous travel to the United States.

De Bary Mayor Clint Johnson said that his plan will allow him to better empathize with the undocumented Cuban immigrants who head to the United States using unsafe boats.

"My plan is to go down [to Cuba] and build a raft and come back to Florida on it," Johnson said, as reported by the Guardian.

The 30-year-old mayor has already obtained a visa from the Cuban government, and he is scheduled to fly to the capital Havana in mid-April. Upon arrival, he will build a raft with the assistance of local Cuban contacts. It is illegal in Cuba to construct, repair or board a sea vessel that will be used for undocumented immigration.

After building the raft, Johnson, a self-confessed adventure-seeker, will go back to the Florida Keys in agreeable weather. He admitted that crossing the treacherous waters of the Florida Straits for 90 miles using only a boat -- made with two steel barrels and plywood -- excites him. Johnson, who is a licensed state contractor, built a trial raft this week.

Bad Idea

Johnson said that some of the threats Cuban immigrants encounter at sea are sharks, dehydration from the scorching sun and storms. The official, however, doesn't appreciate the media attention because the U.S. Coast Guard might force him to have a chase boat to accompany him.

"I don't want it to get to the point where it's so safe, there's no point," Johnson said, as quoted by the Guardian. "I want to show the most respect possible to the people who have done this before and best share this experience. I don't want to turn this into a publicity stunt."

The U.S. Coast Guard urges Johnson to reconsider his plan, saying that plenty of Cuban and Haitian migrants die during the dangerous trip.

"Not only are the consequences of a voyage on handmade vessels potentially deadly, but they also put unnecessary risk on the lives of our Coast Guard men and women who respond to enforce U.S. law and keep those at sea safe," a Coast Guard statement read, as reported by WFTV.

Immigrant Surge

In the last three months of 2015, 1,536 Cubans attempted to head to the United States, while almost 5,000 of them were caught at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard in the fiscal year 2015.

The number of Cubans heading to the United States has surged since President Barack Obama announced the thaw of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Numerous factors fuel the migration, particularly the immigration policies that have welcomed Cubans into the United States. Many fear that these policies could change now that relations are normalizing.
Sick Venezuelans are trying to seek medical help from Colombia amid a lingering border dispute between the two countries.

Appearing more like casualties of war, ill Venezuelans are still hoping to get help from their neighbors in Colombia even if the two governments remain at a war, which President Nicolas Maduro had previously blamed on the media Bogota for promoting "hateful messages."

Venezuela's Failing Healthcare Service

Venezuela was once a great nation with impressive economic standing, thanks to their massive oil reserves that contributed 96 percent of the country's foreign export earnings, per VenEconomia.

But that was before former bus driver Nicolas Maduro won a highly disputed election in 2013.

During his reign, Maduro had been accused of several things, including mismanaging the country's economy.

The pitiful situation in the country had drawn international attention, particularly that of the Human Rights Watch (HRW) who witnessed firsthand the difficulties of getting sick in Venezuela.

Last year, the HRW discovered that the country lacked even the most basic tools, equipment and medicine to treat their patients.

One example is the pediatrics area at the University Hospital where doctors admitted that they "sterilize and reuse" masks handed to young patients with respiratory conditions.

Meanwhile, doctors at the Caracas children's medical facility J.M. de los Rios Hospital said they are having a difficult time with diagnoses due to the lack of laboratory supplies such as lab tubes and test kits.

Seeking for Colombia's Help

Now, the people of Venezuela are sick of suffering from substandard and almost non-existent healthcare services and decided to step over the boundaries of pride towards the border of their neighbor: Colombia.

A special report from the Associated Press (via ABC News) featured ill Venezuelans gathering along the Colombian border at dawn to seek medical help.

"This never would have happened if not for the closure. It was day after day of fatigue for him," said Elvira Cubides, a mother of 33-year-old dialysis patient Dany Cubides.

Early this year, Cubides collapsed on the bridge that links Venezuela to the Colombian city of Cucuta when he was on his way home from treatment.

After the border had been closed off to Venezuelans, Cubides had an extra difficult time going to the Cucuta treatment facility.

On one fateful day just after New Year, his suffering ended after he stumbled and fell off of the bridge due to extreme exhaustion.

Cucuta doctors who attended to him after the incident declared him dead on arrival.

Like Cubides, many Venezuelans have to go through the same ordeal every time they need medical help from Colombia, which had previously welcomed over 100,000 border-crossers prior to the dispute.
It's not a presidential debate if Donald Trump's name gets excluded.

During the Univision and Washington Post's Democratic presidential debate on March 9, co-moderator Karen Tumulty asked a very blunt question about the Republican Party's presidential front-runner, Trump, following his remarks about immigrants, Mexicans and Muslims since the start of his campaign.

Clinton on Is Donald Trump A Racist"

Stating that Clinton has known Trump for "a long time," Tumulty first asked the former secretary of state if the real estate mogul is racist. Clinton said there is a lot about Trump to talk about, claiming she was the first candidate to criticize his remarks about Mexican immigrants being rapists and has viewed his rhetoric as "deeply offensive."

"So people can draw their own conclusions about him. I will just end by saying this. You don't make America great by getting rid of everything that made America great," said Clinton, adding that his character is un-American and she will take every opportunity to criticize him.

When pressed further about Trump, Clinton said, I'm not going to engage in the kind of language that he uses. I think we can make the case against him if he is the nominee, by pointing out what he has said. What he claims to believe in The values he's promoting and I think that's a better way for the American people to draw their conclusions.

Sanders on Is Donald Trump A Racist"

Sanders said the American electorate will never elect a president who insults Mexicans, African Americans, Muslims and women. He reminded the Miami audience and viewers about Trump's involvement in the birther movement, which questioned if President Barack Obama was born in the U.S.

"You know, I find it very interesting, Karen, my dad was born in Poland. I know a little bit about the immigrant experience. Nobody has ever asked me for my birth certificate. Maybe it has something to do with the color of my skin," said Sanders, noting polling data has shown the Vermont senator defeating the businessman by 18-percentage points.

The Latino Vote in Florida's Elections

The latest Democratic Party debate, held in Miami, comes less than a week before Florida hosts its presidential primary -- for both major political parties. According to National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund, the Sunshine State is home to two million Latino registered voters, which basically equates to nearly one in every six Florida registered voter. The NALEO Educational Fund projects approximately 1.7 million Latinos will vote on Election Day in November.

The Hispanic community has been a decisive force in the outcome of several early primary caucuses and elections this year. As we near November, the race for the White House will continue to run through the Hispanic community, said NALEO Educational Fund Executive Director Arturo Vargas. Candidates who choose to use the Hispanic community as a punching bag to score political points do so at their own peril.

With more than 13.1 million Hispanic voters expected to cast ballots in 2016, the Hispanic community will throw the knockout punch come Election Day, added Vargas.

__



For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com.
The Michigan voters have spoken. And, if you were sleeping on it, you might want to know that Bernie Sanders actually had it over Hillary Clinton 50 percent to 48 percent.

Polls Had it All Wrong

If there's one thing we could glean from the unexpected Michigan upset is that polling results are not etched in stone. Polls must be taken with a grain of salt, especially after they had us believing that Hillary would come out as the big winner in the state's primary election with most polling results giving it an average of at least 20 percentage points over Sanders.

"I want to take this opportunity to thank the people of Michigan, who repudiated the polls that had us 25 points down a few days ago, and repudiated the pundits who said Bernie Sanders is not going anywhere," Sanders told his supporters. "What we have done is created the kind of momentum that we need to win."

What Sanders' Surprising Win Means for Hillary

But there are other takeaways, particularly those that favor Sanders camp that could help bolster their claim that the race is far from over, never mind Hillary still having a comfortable margin despite Tuesday's shocker.

For one, it seems like some of the ghosts of former President Bill Clinton's past administration could be haunting Hillary's campaign. Sanders's Michigan win was backed by a good number of the white working-class voters.

The state's manufacturing industry was adversely hit by the trade deals, taking away numerous jobs in the process. These trade agreements, such as the NAFTA, were approved during the former president's term and were strongly opposed by Sanders.

"The Beltway elite may never have really understood why job-killing trade deals are such a big deal," said Dan Cantor, national director of the Working Families Party, which has endorsed Sanders. "But the people of Michigan surely do, and Bernie Sanders does too."

The victory for the Vermont senator also highlighted a chink in the armor of Hillary like her rival's strong appeal among young voters. Sanders won the Michigan primary, thanks in part to his 81 percent victory among the 18- to 29-year-olds. He also had strong support among the independent voters, winning by 43 percentage points. Both the youth and independent demographics have a strong voter turnout.

Hillary won the black voters ahead of the Tuesday voting, particularly in the Southern states. Sanders won less than 20 percent of them but took 28 percent of the black voters in Michigan. This could cast a doubt whether Hillary can really win the black voters in the North as much as she did in the South.

While the momentum has somehow shifted toward Sanders' side, Hillary still got the lead. The upcoming big-state elections next week in Illinois and Ohio could be pivotal. It could dismiss Sanders' recent win as some fluke or it could put him back in one more exciting race.
The woman who had the first uterus transplant in the US had the organ removed despite being just introduced earlier this week. She had to have it removed due to complications, Cleveland Clinic announced Wednesday.

The 26-year-old woman, who is only identified as Lindsey, received the transplant on Feb. 24 and had a brief news conference on Monday. At that time, the doctors said that she was recovering. However, a complication made the doctor remove the donated uterus and the hospital is trying to find out what went wrong. Cleveland Clinic did not provide any information about the complications.

US' First Uterus Transplant Failed

The removal surgery occurred just a couple of days after she was introduced at this week's news conference. Cleveland Clinic posted a press release on their website saying that Lindsey was recovering.

"I just wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude towards all of my doctors. They acted very quickly to ensure my health and safety," Lindsey said in a statement. "Unfortunately I did lose the uterus to complications. However, I am doing okay and appreciate all of your prayers and good thoughts."

Lindsey was the first of 10 planned experimental uterine transplants by Cleveland Clinic. It is aimed to be another alternative for women born without a uterus who do not want to adopt or undergo surrogacy in order to have children.

The hospital is working closely with doctors from Sweden as they are one of the other countries who reported successful live births in 2014 after doing transplants, Washington Post reports. However, Cleveland only intends to use the organs from deceased donors.

Will the First Penis Transplant in the US Fail Too?

A team from Johns Hopkins is preparing to do the first penis transplant on a retired US soldier who was wounded in the line of duty. Latinos Health reports that the penis transplant is not the first in the world as it has already been successfully done on a South African man in 2014. Unfortunately, the Chinese man's penis transplant in 2006 was unsuccessful.

Like the uterus transplant, there are many factors and circumstances that need to be noted when doing penis transplants. Apart from doing compatibility tests between the donor and recipient through blood type, skin tone and age gap, recipients must also go through psychiatric evaluation.

Even with a successful penis transplantation, it is not guaranteed that the donated organ will work. The recipient's ability to urinate, have an erection and even have children will only be known in six to twelve months after the operation when the penis becomes functional.
Amidst a local court ruling to rescind the ban on GMO corn in 2015, the fight between the large agribusinesses companies like Monsanto and some locals persists over the growing of genetically modified (GMO) corn in Mexico.

The Potential Influx of GMO Seeds in Mexico

Monsanto is currently the largest seed producer in the world today. It has a global sales amounting to $15 billion dollars, $400 million of which comes from its sales in Mexico. "Our intention is to be able to double the business from here to 2020," said Eduardo Perez, head of regulatory issues for Monsanto in Northern Latin America.

And, the company rationalized the selling of these genetically modified seeds in Mexico by saying that it could help the local farmers to significantly improve the yields of their crops. They also said that the use of these types of seeds could lead to the use of fewer pesticides.

"It's incredible that we are not giving [small farmers] the option to cross the poverty line," said Manuel Bravo, chief executive for Monsanto in Northern Latin America.

Some Local Groups Aren't Happy

Advocate groups and some of the Mexican chefs are expressing their disapproval. They said that the GMOs could pose a threat to 59 indigenous corn varieties in the country.

"If we allow all these varieties of corn to be lost, we'll lose part of our identity," said Chef Pancho Ibanez of the very popular Pujol restaurant in Mexico City. "It's as if we were cutting off our feet, cutting off the roots of a tree. It's something that could seem so simple, so basic but it's our past, present and future."

GMOs and the Effect on Health and the Environment

Michael Pollan, an author and food activist, emphasized the need for proper labeling of food containing GMOs and why these GMO crops have adverse effects on the environment. According to Pollan, these genetically engineered crops have not lived up to their promise of reducing pesticide use and increasing crop yields over the years of their existence and use as oppose to what some of the seed and chemical companies like Monsanto are claiming.

Apart from the lack of proof that these GMO crops, indeed, bring improvement in terms of yields, Pollan pointed out that the use of these GMO crops also paved way to the use of glyphosate. The said substance was listed by the World Health Organization as "probably carcinogenic to humans" that could increase the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of blood cancer.

"GMOs have been, I think, a tremendous disappointment," Pollan said. "They haven't done what Monsanto promised they would do, which is make American agriculture more sustainable."
A group of wealthy Democratic donors are planning to invest as much as $15 million in a campaign aimed at mobilizing Latino voters to the polls in the upcoming general election.

Led by billionaire businessman George Soros, the group is hoping to unite Latino voters to combat the feisty anti-immigration language hurled at them by Republican front-runner Donald Trump and other GOP candidates.

Investment Is Largest Latino Turnout Campaign

Strategists involved in the campaign insisted the targeted investment will represent the largest Democratic voter turnout effort ever devoted solely to Latino and immigrant voters. Most of the money has already been earmarked for regions with large Latino and Asian populations such as Colorado, Florida and Nevada.

The outreach will be done under the umbrella of a new super PAC called the Immigrant Voters Win PAC. Much of the campaign will be directly aimed at persuading immigrant swing voters to support Democratic candidates. Ultimately, organizers hope to get at least 400,000 new Democratic voters to the polls in November.

"This is really taking the gloves off," said Cristobal Alex, the president of the Latino Victory Project, one of several pro-immigration groups working in conjunction with the new super PAC.

"From the first day he attacked us, he called us rapists and thieves," he said of Trump. "We could have a giant wall built and millions of families broken apart. The country is on the precipice."

The effort is also meant to close the gap in enthusiasm between Democrats and GOP supporters. Some Democratic party members worry the GOP has pulled ahead in terms of motivation early on in this election cycle. Part of the malaise among Latino voters has been attributed to ongoing deportation raids orchestrated by the Obama administration that have thus far contributed to the deportations of more than two million people.

Meanwhile, thousands of working-class white voters have aligned behind Trump in his call to build a massive wall along the Mexican border to keep out immigrants and his pledge to deport up to 11 million immigrants.

Soros Committed to Investing $5 Million

Reportedly, Soros is on tap to invest a cool $5 million on the mobilization effort. He has also committed another $5 million to a Democratic-led legal campaign to contest restrictive voting laws in several states across the country.

"The intense anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric that has been fueled by the Republican primary is deeply offensive," he told The New York Times. "It is harmful to our democracy and to our national interests. There should be consequences for the outrageous statements and proposals that we've regularly heard."

Organizers added they hope to begin knocking on doors over the next several weeks. The group plans to reach at least 728,000 Latino and Asian voters across critical states.

The campaign's timing will allow organizers the chance to weigh in on the Supreme Court's upcoming ruling on the Obama administration's 2014 executive action that stands to protect an estimated 5 million immigrants from deportation.

Republican Majority Leader Paul Ryan recently revealed the GOP also hopes to be heard by the court on the matter. Party leaders are expected to voice their stern opposition to the president's plan.
Older Latino populations have a negative view of Latin America's socialist governments, and it became a hot topic for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., during the latest Democratic presidential debate on March 9.

1985 Throwback: Pro-Castro Comments

During the Univision and Washington Post debate on Wednesday night, co-moderator Maria Salinas presented and asked Sanders about a 1985 interview, which he, according to the Univision journalist, "praised" the Sandinista National Liberation Front, a socialist political party in Nicaragua and its leader Daniel Ortega and Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Clip of Sanders' 1985 Interview:

Salinas acknowledged there are still strong feelings in South Florida against communism and socialism and asked Sanders to differentiate his view of socialism from the socialism practised in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

"What that was about was saying that the United States was wrong to try to invade Cuba, that the United States was wrong trying to support people to overthrow the Nicaraguan government, that the United States was wrong trying to overthrow in 1954, the government -- democratically elected government of Guatemala," Sanders said in regards to the 1985 video.

The Democratic presidential candidate acknowledged that the U.S. had followed under the Monroe Doctrine to "do anything that they (the U.S.) wanted to do in Latin America." He said he went to Nicaragua and vocally opposed the Reagan administration's efforts to overthrow the country's government.

"I think the United States should be working with governments around the world, not get involved in regime change, and all of these actions, by the way, in Latin America, brought forth a lot of very strong anti-American sentiments," Sanders added. "That's what that was about."

Salinas pressed Sanders if he regrets making the characterizations of Castro and Ortega in 1985. Sanders reiterated his stance that the U.S. should not interfere in overthrowing small Latin American governments, stating such actions were mistakes in Cuba and Nicaragua.

"Look, let's look at the facts here. Cuba is, of course, an authoritarian undemocratic country, and I hope very much as soon as possible it becomes a democratic country. But on the other hand it would be wrong not to state that in Cuba they have made some good advances in health care. They are sending doctors all over the world. They have made some progress in education," said Sanders.

"I think by restoring full diplomatic relations with Cuba, it will result in significant improvements to the lives of Cubans and it will help the United States and our business community invest," he added.

Post-Debate Context

In a statement following the debate, the Sanders campaign said he was arguing against then-President Ronald Reagan's failed foreign relations policy. Sanders noted that just because Reagan may have had a negative view of a foreign leader, it does not equate that its residents felt the same way.

Sanders does support lifting the Cuban embargo and supports the Obama administration's move to renew diplomatic relations with the communist island located 90 miles south of Florida.

"I think at the end of the day, it will be a good thing for the Cuban people," said Sanders. "It will enable them, I think when they see people coming into their country from the United States, move in a more democratic direction, which is what I want to see."

__

For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com.
New York legislators are seeking to fix the diversity problem persistent in elite New York City public high schools.

The diversity problem in Silicon Valley and other elite career fields could have roots as deep as the high school system. In New York, for example, the most elite public high schools exemplify a dearth of diversity, and the problem is only getting worse.

Now, a group of state legislators has proposed a multi-million dollar group of initiatives to help fix the diversity problem at its deepest roots.

Dearth of Diversity

Top New York public schools have a very small number of black and Latino students, and the levels have only been declining in recent years. Only 6.3 percent of students admitted to specialized public high schools in the city were Latino. Only 4.1 percent were black.

That's down from the previous year, when black students were admitted at nearly 5 percent and Latinos represented 6.8 percent of admissions to these elite schools. In total, only 530 students accepted to specialized high schools in the city were black or Hispanic, compared to nearly 600 last year.

Admission to elite high schools in the region is based on testing at the eighth grade level. Twenty-eight percent of students in New York at that grade level were black and a full 41 percent of eighth graders in the city's schools were Latinos.

A New Plan Emerges

The ethnic disparity in the numbers has several causes, including the decline of black and Latino students who even bother taking the entrance exams. Democratic state legislators in Albany recently proposed a new initiative to combat the problem: a package of programs aimed at better preparing all students for those decisive eighth grade exams estimated to cost $5 million.

The State Legislature, including its Democratic representatives, has previously been resistant to altering the admissions process for these elite schools, which include the top high school in the city, Suyvesant High School, along with the Bronx High School of Science and Brooklyn Technical High School.

But as a workaround to opposition to changing the admissions process, Jeffery D. Klein, head of the Independent Democratic Conference in the New York State Senate, has worked to lift up the test scores of underrepresented black and Latino students.

The proposed package of initiatives would include hiring outreach coordinators for every middle school from which elite schools recruit students, especially underrepresented middle schools. Those coordinators would be responsible for encouraging black and Latino students to take the test in the first place.

Creating Greater Chances for Success

The proposal also includes an initiative to increase the number of gifted and talented programs being run in elementary and middle schools from underrepresented and low-income neighborhoods.

Another included program, which encourages science education and test preparation, has previously successfully spurred black and Hispanic students to apply and be admitted to Brooklyn Technical High School. That program -- which has middle school students spending several weeks taking science and math classes from Brooklyn Tech teachers during the summer -- managed to place 41 of the 55 students who completed the course into elite high schools.

"As a percentage it's a good percentage," said Larry Cary, president of the Brooklyn Tech Alumni Foundation that runs the program. "We think that this is a model for addressing part of the problem."
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is hoping his Cuban American roots will pay dividends for him with Hispanics in the upcoming Florida primary.

During a recent campaign event in the state, Miami-Dade County campaign chair Manny Roman described the Texas senator as "the first Hispanic president of the United States."

Cruz and his rival, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., are both sons of Cuban immigrants. Up until now, Cruz has rarely referred to himself as a Hispanic, but with so much at stake in Florida, he is now desperately seeking to remind Latino voters there of his heritage.

"Obviously my family story is an integral part of who I am," he told the crowd. "It is a shared and unifying aspect in the Hispanic community, the immigrant experience, coming to America with nothing."

Cruz Insists Message Resonates With Hispanics

Cruz's campaign has insisted his message of conservatism and economic opportunity soundly resonates with Hispanic voters. And yet, there's no denying the Texas senator at times has found his relationship with that very demographic somewhat strained, given his hard-line stance on immigration.

Cruz recently joined Republican front-runner Donald Trump in advocating that a wall be built along the Mexican border to keep immigrants out. He is also on record in asserting that he would seek to deport all 11 million immigrants now living in the U.S.

Meanwhile, Rubio has also called for more deportations and insisted that all funding for so-called "sanctuary cities" should be eliminated.

The posturing has left Latino Victory Project president Cristobal Alex feeling as if having two Cuban-Americans vying for the highest office in the land represents a "bittersweet" moment for Hispanics.

"On the one hand, we want to celebrate the success of our community in reaching a milestone," he said. "But on the other hand, these are two Latinos who quite frankly have turned their back on their community."

Cruz Still Believes He Can Win Over Latino Voters

Still, Cruz is confident he can do well in Florida among Latino voters, and his campaign recently began airing its message there on Spanish-language TV stations. In addition, his father, Rafael Cruz, has been meeting with pastors across the state.

"I hope to do very, very well in the Hispanic community," said Cruz, who became the first Hispanic candidate to win a presidential nominating battle with his recent victory at the Iowa caucus. He also readily makes note of how well he did among Hispanic voters in his successful 2012 run for the senate.

It's estimated that Florida is home to just over 500,000 Republican Hispanics, most of them residing in nearby Miami-Dade County.

A recent Suffolk University Poll shows Trump besting Rubio in his home state 36 to 27 percent, with Cruz third at 19 percent and Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 8 percent.
South Carolina is keeping things tougher for abortion. The state had just passed a bill covering another limitation in undergoing abortion. It entails additional protection for unborn babies.

South Carolina Senate had just passed another bill banning abortion for babies past 19 weeks of gestation as reported by WJBF. The Senate approved the legislation of 36 - 9 on Tuesday that would only allow abortion if the mother's life is in danger or a doctor have determined that the life of baby would deteriorate and can't survive outside the womb. The measure also do not allow abortion even if the fetus have a severe disability but can still live. Supporters believe that a fetus can feel pain after 19 weeks.

Life News reported that the bill is entitled Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. South Carolina Citizens for Life Executive Director Holly Gatling said that the bill focuses on "pain-capable unborn children from savage late abortions that frequently tear the baby's body apart, limb by limb." Moreover, she added that no Republican senators opposed the bill while 9 of 18 Democrat senators approved the bill. Pro-life senator Larry Grooms said that it's a victory for life as he believes that an unborn child life is sacred.

ABC News reported that the law is in effect for 12 states and have been blocked wherever they've been challenged. It was nioted that on average, 30 abortions are annually performed including fetuses in beyond 19 weeks of gestation. Most of these women are married, 24 years of age and white, as recorded in the State's public health agency.

Opponents argue the laws are unconstitutional but challenging them is impractical, given that abortion clinics usually don't provide late-term abortions and women don't want to go through the trauma.

The final vote in the House would be sent to Governor Nikki Haley, but her office hasn't release a statement yet whether she'll sign it or not.
Argentina agreed on Wednesday to pay $190 million on settlement with seven holdout creditors to close 15 years of litigation over its faulted bonds.

According to Reuters, the U.S. court appointed mediator in the case, Daniel Pollack, said in a statement that the Wednesday's settlement brings the total amount of settlements agreed in principle with U.S. creditors to more than $6.4 billion.

Pollack said in the statement that the additional settlements were reached with institutions and invividuals including BN Paribas $52.4 million, GMO (Boston) $119 million, Carlo Regazzoni $1.7 million, Elazar Romano $11.3 million, Grazia Valenti $172,000, La Societa Ymus SRL $375,000 and Tomaso Zappoli Thyrion $5.2 million, Buenos Aires Herald reports.

Argentina has been in a long-standing debt since 2001. The country was in desperate need of fresh capital because the legal cases blocked it from accessing international capital markets. It defaulted on nearly $100 billion debt in 2001.

In early 2002, the U.S. based hedge funds sued for full payment on sovereign bonds defaulted. According to Business Times, the hedge funds bought up the defaulted debt at steep discounts aiming to recover the full value. In 2012, the New York federal district court ruled in their favour. Since then, the country has been mostly locked out of global capital markets.

President Mauricio Macri, who was elected in November, is tasked with reviving the country's economy. President Macri has vowed to pay off the creditors and move forward.

The country reached $1.35 billion agreement on Feb 2 to settle with group of Italian investors, as many as 50,000 bondholders, who held defaulted bonds. It agreed on Feb 5 to pay $6.5 billion in order to settle more that $9 billion worth of claims in the U.S. courts before Judge Griesa.

On Feb 29, the country reached agreement in principle with four major U.S. holdout creditors. So far Argentina has agreements from more than 85 percent of remaining holdouts.

With the settlements, Argentina should be able to come back to the international capital markets in mid April.

All the settlemens are remain subject to two conditions. First, the lifting of the Lock Law and the Sovereign Payment Law by the Congress of Argentina, and second, the lifting of the Injunction bu Judge Griesa.

The settlements also remain contingent on the Argentine Congress, cancelling laws that prevent repayment of the holdouts.

The country plans to sell three bonds for a total of $11.68 billion next month in order to pay the creditors in cash.
A woman accused of hiding her 1-year-old son's injuries at the hands of her boyfriend has a better chance of getting out of jail while she awaits trial.

Jennifer Mosko cried as she appeared in court Thursday morning for her preliminary hearing on a child endangerment charge. Mosko waived the hearing, sending the charges to Lehigh County Court.

Mosko has been in Lehigh County Jail in lieu of $200,000 bail, but on Thursday her bail was lowered to 10 percent of $50,000. Mosko was ordered to have no contact with her son, who is in foster care, or with her co-defendant, Israel Lopez-Carmona.

Lopez-Carmona is accused of punching and biting the boy last year. Mosko is accused of witnessing the abuse and not reporting it. The couple lived together in the first block of East Susquehanna Street in Allentown.

Lopez-Carmona, 32, is charged with child endangerment, aggravated assault and simple assault, and remains in jail on $200,000 bail. He is awaiting his preliminary hearing in the case.

Police said the child was examined by doctors in December, and found multiple rib fractures, and bruises on his cheeks and forehead.

In an interview Jan. 29 with detectives, Mosko admitted seeing Lopez-Carmona bite her son on the cheeks and thigh so hard that he left marks, police said.

Mosko reported she also witnessed Lopez-Carmona punch her son in the back so hard that he lost his breath, police said.

The mother said she had multiple conversations with Lopez-Carmona. usually in text messages, asking him to be gentle with the baby, and "how they could hide his bruises on his face," police said.

Lopez-Carmona reportedly admitted to biting the boy, hitting him and squeezing him, and discussing with Mosko how to cover up the bruises, police said.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
The new owners of Bethlehem's Masonic Temple wanted to save the iconic building, but it is riddled with mold and water damage.

Developers John Noble and Rob Ashford are going before city planners Thursday and zoners next week to pitch their plans for redeveloping the four-acre site.

Plans call for tearing down the temple and adding a glass-encased office space addition to the adjacent E.P. Wilbur Mansion, which sits at the gateway to South Side Bethlehem on Route 378.

"It is literally one of the few fully intact mansions from the era," Noble said Wednesday. "We want to preserve that and bring it back to life and make it a showcase."

At the rear of the property, two four-story apartment buildings, housing 64 units, connected by a one-story lobby would be built fronting on Cherokee Street. The entire project is estimated at $20 million, Noble said.

The masons' Bethlehem Lodge 283 sold its Wyandotte Street home of the last 90 years due to financial difficulties. The lodge was constituted in 1854 and ground was broken for the masonic temple in 1925. The masons bought the mansion in 1924.

Noble and Ashford have deep Lehigh Valley roots. They were drawn by the mansion's beauty and the property's proximity to Main Street, the South Side and the recreation options along the Lehigh River.

"It literally took me 24 hours to be under contract because I knew the property had so much potential," Noble said.

He's inspired by the restoration of the Sayre Mansion, now an inn, next door and the rehab of 306 Wyandotte St. into a Chabad House.

The developers plan to save all of the architectural features inside the Wilbur Mansion and update the mechanical structures. The 4,200 square-foot glass-enclosed addition would create an entrance for people with disabilities.

"We are tying to make sure we keep the focus on the Wilbur Mansion and not the addition," Noble said.

Noble envisions a low-impact office user like an attorney or accountant.

"In the actual Wilbur Mansion, the rooms are huge, the space is wide and the hallways are open," Noble said.

While the Masons took most of their artifacts, even the symbols of the order on the front of the temple, the developers do have the groundbreaking display. The office building will include that and a summary of the site's Masonic history.

The developer's plans will actually reduce the amount of paved space on the site and create an expansive green space between the mansion and apartments, Noble said.

At one time, another developer proposed a high-density town home project at 267 Cherokee St., Noble said.

The developers want to bring a new type of apartment living to Bethlehem, one that is green, high on amenities and promotes walkability. The apartments are necessary to make the Wilbur Mansion project make financial sense, Noble said.

"Because we are from the area, we wanted to highlight the history and create a nice living environment that can supplement Main Street and South Bethlehem," Noble said.

If the project is approved, an underground parking garage, with at least one spot for each apartment, will be built first. Then the two energy-efficient apartment buildings and the connecting lobby would be constructed on top.

Apartments will feature large balconies of more than 100 square feet, so those that tenants can have usable, outdoor living space, Noble said. The buildings will also feature a roof deck and offer kayak and bike storage space.

"The majority of the apartments will overlook a huge greenway tied into the Sayre Mansion and the Wilbur Mansion," Noble said. "You can see the Lehigh River, you can see the Blue Ridge Mountains, you can see everything."

The developers expect the apartments to attract a variety of tenants, from young professionals to empty-nesters.

The project needs several zoning variances. If approvals are granted, Noble hopes to start work on the Wilbur Mansion project in the next three months and finish it by year's end.

The apartment project may take a year to get off the ground because it requires land development approvals, Noble said. But it isn't pie in the sky.

"This is a project that is going to happen," Noble said.

The Masons hosted their last wedding at the temple in July, marking the end of an era.

The lodge was rocked in 2013 when it discovered its banquet manager John D. Lindemuth had stolen $255,037 from the nonprofit Bethlehem Temple Association, which manages the banquet hall.

Lindemuth wound up being sentenced to 11 to 22 months in prison for stealing from the lodge. He blamed a gambling addiction at the time of his sentencing.

The embezzlement played a major role in the sale because it drained the Mason's savings as they had to pay out-of-pocket for the events whose deposits and payments were stolen.

LEARN MORE:

You can read about the plans for the site here.

Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
DNA from a Gatorade bottle and a lighter helped investigators nab a serial burglar that who two Lower Saucon Township housing developments, police said.

On Thursday, 19-year-old Shawn Dollak Jr. was arraigned on burglary, theft and other charges related to the September 2014 crimes.

Dollak, of the 1800 block of West Broad Street in Bethlehem, was sent to Northampton County Prison in lieu of 10 percent of $30,000 bail.

Township police said they were called for a number of car break-ins and home burglaries in the Woodfield development off Hickory Hill Road, and another development across the street.

Police discovered the thief entered homes via unlocked garage doors, and unlocked cars. Once inside the homes, the thief only stole items from the first floor, police said.

Twelve families reported items were stolen, ranging from $5 and a pair of sunglasses, to cellphones, laptops and $400 in gift cards.

While police were processing one victim's report on Sherbrooke Drive, they found a Gatorade bottle by a vehicle that did not belong to the victim and wasn't there when the victim parked.

A lighter was also found with a victim's purse on Arden Lane that did not belong to the victim, police said. DNA was taken from both items, and the test results both matched Dollak, according to police

Dollark was charged Thursday with burglary, criminal trespass, and two counts each of theft and receiving stolen property.

Court records show Dollak was arrested in December 2014 in Bethlehem on theft from a vehicle, conspiracy and receiving stolen property charges. County court records did not indicate a resolution to that case.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A traffic stop Wednesday morning on Interstate 78 in Lower Saucon Township turned up 50 bags of heroin and about $19,000 in cash, Pennsylvania State Police say.

Pennsylvania State Police say they arrested a 31-year-old man on drug charges after a traffic stop March 9, 2016, on Interstate 78 in Lower Saucon Township. (Lehighvalleylive.com file photo)

The driver, 31-year-old Luis A. Alvarez-Hernandez, of Highspire, Dauphin County, was arrested on drug charges and sent to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $75,000 bail.

Trooper Gregory Pappas stopped a 2000 Honda Odyssey driven by Alvarez-Hernandez for multiple vehicular code violations, state police at Belfast said in a news release.

The minivan was headed from Harrisburg to Queens, New York, according to police.

"While speaking to the occupants of the vehicle, numerous indicators of criminal activity were observed," police say in the release.

After a search, the heroin and cash were seized and entered into evidence, according to police.

Alvarez-Hernandez was taken into custody and arraigned before District Judge David Tidd on charges of heroin possession with intent to deliver, drug possession, possession of drug paraphernalia, failure to use turning signals and failure to use seat belts.

He faces a preliminary hearing tentatively scheduled March 30 before Tidd.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
There is, as yet, no word on who will replace the three newly elected Fianna Fail TDs on Kildare County Council.

The three, Frank ORourke, James Lawless and Fiona OLoughlin, were all elected to the Dail for the first time at the election and took their seats for the first time today, Thursday, March 10.

Deputy Fiona OLoughlin is a long standing county councillor, while the other two were mid-way through their first term as county councillors.

The Leinster Leader understands that potential replacements for the three must come from the municipal district that the departing councillor is from  namely Newbridge/Kildare (OLoughlin), Naas (Lawless) and Leixlip/Celbridge (ORourke).

Deputy OLoughlin told the Leinster Leader that all party members in the two constituencies would have received a letter on Monday, March 7, outlining the process to them and inviting them to nominate themselves or a fellow member to the role.

It can be anybody from the local cumann or the organisation, she explained.

The list of people is then sent to the party HQ for approval.

In theory, she explained, the list of nominees would then be sent to the local members who would vote on it, but because the nominees needed to be in place before March 13  so that they can play a role in Seanad elections  the matter may be decided by Fianna Fail HQ.

My preference is for the democratic option, for people to vote for the nominees, she said.

However she was pragmatic about the time restraints.
Our band of 8 split 3 ways last night in the Sunday trading debate which saw the Government defeated. That is not actually as bad as it sounds. Alistair Carmichael quite rightly decided it was none of his business as it was relating to England and Wales only. The SNP voted against, presumably to distract attention of the London media from the disastrous figures which showed that the oil price would have an independent Scotland with a massive 15 billion deficit. Maybe that will make people realise the bullet we dodged when we voted against independence. I wont hold my breath, though. The SNP seem to be on a mission to upset England, too. Their excuse was that they were protecting workers rights in Scotland, a spurious assertion given that shop workers dont generally get paid more for working Sundays, which are not restricted here. And if they were that bothered about workers rights, surely Nicola Sturgeon wouldnt be quite as snarky with Willie Rennie when he brings up working conditions at Amazon. Lets not forget that SNP cuts to local government are going to mean thousands of council workers losing their jobs, too.

A cynic might think that they were actively creating such antipathy towards them in the hope that it would encourage England to vote to leave the EU, even though they are in favour of and are campaigning for a Remain vote. Its like when they said they wanted Ed Miliband as PM last year but told everyone in England and Wales to vote for the Greens and Plaid.

Is it a coincidence that Nicola went to London to give a pro EU speech the other week? There will no doubt be some scare story fuelled by the SNP during the campaign that will attempt to drive people into the arms of Brexit. Scotland voting to remain and England voting to leave could trigger a second independence referendum and has already been cited by the Stronger In campaign as a reason to vote to remain. Actually, Im not so sure. With oil prices on the floor, they would be struggling to win independence, even after a Brexit. I always said it would be my tipping point and Id vote for independence, but Im not so sure now. It would be a question of which choice looked least horrendous at the time. There would be no good choice.

Anyway, back to our lot. Of the remaining 7, Tom Brake, Norman Lamb and Nick Clegg voted with the Government in favour of enabling longer Sunday trading and Tim Farron, Greg Mulholland, John Pugh and Mark Williams voted against the Government.

I have to say I have a bit of difficulty understanding why wed be against it. Maybe thats because up here in Scotland we dont have any of this nonsense. Shops traditionally used to be closed on the Sabbath  and there are still parts of Scotland where the Sabbath is strictly observed. When a family member lived in the Western Isles, she was frowned upon for doing her washing on a Sunday. However, there was no law against Sunday trading and its pretty much become the norm now. I find it very strange that I cant nip to the supermarket at 8am on a Sunday if Im in England. The main supermarket in Livingston only closes for a couple of hours either side of the nightclub across the road chucking out.

It is kind of ironic that the four who voted against will be in York this weekend being served their Sunday breakfast by staff in their hotel who are probably getting paid as little as shop-workers. There is also the delicious irony that Tim will be delivering his leaders speech on Sunday. Although that might be described as him spending his leisure time as he sees fit.

I am probably being a bit unfair. John Pugh has been an active campaigner for Keep Sunday Special for a long time. Others will have genuine concerns about massive chains opening for longer and taking custom from smaller businesses, or the effects in rural areas or simply because they think people should be able to have a breather on a Sunday  although obviously not every job would allow that. There are perfectly legitimate reasons for them to vote the way they did.

Are LDV readers as split as the parliamentary party? What do you think?

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
Now I dont often link to the Mirror, but Tim Farron has made a slightly unusual appearance (for a party Leader) as a prolific tweeter.

Apparently, the Labour MP Wes Streeting is the Twitter parliamentary champion, having tweeted 68,800 times in the last seven years. That is an average of one tweet every 36 minutes during waking hours. The Mirror reckons that he has written over one million words, which is half a million more than can be found in War and Peace.

Tim is very close behind Wes Streeting with 67,600 tweets since he started in February 2009, making his tweet- rate the same, at one every 36 minutes. Of course, a high proportion of those were retweets, rather than original tweets, but it is still pretty impressive.

But is it my imagination or has he slowed down recently? This was his total original Twitter output on Tuesday:

Being in Europe helps us fight for a fairer society. Find out why else were #INtogether this #IWD2016: https://t.co/t06taShZiX  Tim Farron (@timfarron) March 8, 2016

Lib Dems want to legalise cannabis  raising up to 1bn a year in tax https://t.co/dOHkQHsOCb  Tim Farron (@timfarron) March 8, 2016

and none at all yesterday. But those were backed up with lots of replies to others, and several retweets  the kind of interactions which confirm his reputation as a great communicator.

Those of us going to Conference in York will be watching to see if he can keep his hands off his mobile phone during his speech.

* Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.
TWO brothers who are charged in connection with a significant drugs seizure intend pleading guilty to the charges, a local court has heard.

Kieran Collopy, aged 40, of St Itas Street, St Marys Park and Brian Collopy, aged 43, of Kilonan, Ballysimon are each accused of possession of heroin, worth around 50,000 for the purpose of sale or supply.

Both men were arrested on December 15, last after gardai searched a house at St Itas Street, St Marys Park following a lengthy intelligence-led operation.

They were refused bail when they appeared in court a number of days later after gardai objected saying they feared they would flee the jurisdiction, if released.

Both men, the court heard, have links to overseas properties, and both have travelled abroad on several occasions over the last 18 months.

While formal directions have not yet been received from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), it is expected the matter will proceed on indictment at Limerick Circuit Court.

Sergeant John Moloney said the garda file into the matter is at an advanced stage and he requested a four-week adjournment of the case.

Solicitor Con Barry said his clients, who appeared before the court separately, were consenting to the matter going forward to the circuit court on a signed plea.

He said the defendants were not objecting to the matter being adjourned for a month to facilitate the completion of the garda file and the securing of directions from the DPP.

Judge Mary Larkin noted the comments of Mr Barry and she remanded both men in custody until April 4.

She ordered that the brothers be produced in person instead of appearing before the court via video link.

If the case proceeds on a signed plea, as indicated, it will reduce the burden on the State.

Last month, both brothers were granted legal aid after objections to their applications were withdrawn.
LIMERICK councillor Maria Byrne has confirmed that she is seeking a Seanad seat.

The Fine Gael councillor has been nominated for the Agricultural Panel and is now beginning her campaign which will take her all over the country.

Cllr Byrne previously stood in the Seanad election in 2007 when she narrowly failed to win a seat on the same panel by one vote.

I didnt run in 2011 because I was Mayor at the time, she told the Limerick Leader this Thursday.

Campaigning for the Seanad is difficult, she acknowledged.

Only councillors, TD and Senators have a vote in Seanad elections, apart from graduates of Trinity College and the National University who have voting rights for six dedicated seats. As a result, candidates travel the country to meet those with votes.

It is about going out, targeting people who know you, people from your own party,Cllr Byrne said. But this will be a particularly difficult campaign because of the number of defeated TDs.

The full list of candidates will not be known for another few weeks and voting is by postal ballot. The count will take place in the last week of April.

Meanwhile, defeated Fine Gael candidate Kieran ODonnell was nominated on Tuesday by the Fine Gael party in Limerick to be considered as a party candidate in the Seanad election.

A special committee of the national party will examine all nominations and make the ultimate decision.
BLEEDING Heart Pigeons, one of the most exciting bands to emerge from Limericks rich, yet often overlooked music scene, mark their recent debut album release with a gig this Friday night.

The trio  Cathal Histon, Micheal Keating and Brendan McInerney  play a hometown show Upstairs in Dolans for booker Seoda Shows, who has long championed the West Limerick band.

Signed to Virgin/EMI, Bleeding Heart Pigeons have refined an eclectic, ambitious style that is delivered to stunning effect on the debut album Is, which has drawn praise from all corners and may yet be among the front runners for next years Choice Music Prize.

That is some way off yet for the fledgling trio, who met a number of years ago at Croagh School of Music.

Micheal Keating and Cathal Histon went to school in Newcastle West, while Brendan McInerney went to school in Rathkeale. The like-minded trio stayed in touch after the summer school and later formed Bleeding Heart Pigeons, entering a battle of the bands competition in 2009.

A number of years honing their craft in a farmyard shed, converted into a studio, followed before gigs in 2012 brought them to the attention of Virgin. Yet, they were given time and scope to record the album and the influences on Is suggest broad reference points on what is a dreamy, eclectic and downright quirky album.

Stellar gigs at Body and Soul and Electric Picnic last year helped to give the trio a profile ahead of the albums release this February.

Keating, in a letter released along with the album, admits that coming from a very traditional, devoutly Catholic, humble rural background, this whole thing was probably quite unlikely".

My head is somewhere else, scattered in the internet, in music, films, books and art made by people from all over the world, people trying to find their place, people like me, Brendan and Cathal, he writes.

This album documents a few years when these changes were emerging. I used the songs to help navigate my brain, as I came to realise how vulnerable I am as a person in this world; afraid of being alone subject to my own and others' merciless desires and emotions, afraid of inevitable death, loss, change or any kind of tragedy that could strike at any moment.

"Putting all these despairs to music with Cathal and Brendan makes me feel like I can own them, even if it is just for the duration of a song.

Is is out now. See bleedingheartpigeons.com for more.
We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page.
This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Some potholes are like zombies  they never die. Or at least that's the perception of much of the driving public, especially as we enter peak pothole season: late winter and early spring.

At a minimum, potholes create rough roads and poor driving conditions. Too often they degenerate into vehicle-damaging safety hazards that incur the wrath of drivers, attract negative attention from the news media and adversely affect commerce by disrupting or slowing traffic. Our nation's deteriorating roads  of which potholes are an obvious manifestation  are a drag on our economy.

That's why transportation department maintenance crews and pavement engineers continue to stress the need for more effective and efficient pavement repair and maintenance. From their perspective, the ideal repair would last at least a year, could be performed in all seasons, and could be installed easily and relatively quickly  all while keeping traffic delays to a minimum and repair costs down.

Recurring "zombie" potholes are too often a reflection of the type of method that's used to patch or "fix" them  many of which are short-lived and only marginally effective. Researchers around the world, including my colleagues and me, are working to develop better and longer lasting repair alternatives. At the same time, researchers and pavement engineers in academia and in the private and public sectors are developing improved construction techniques and innovative pavement formulations  such as "self healing" materials  that will help prevent potholes from forming in the first place.

But we still have to deal with the millions of miles of roads  and their potholes  we already have.

Animation describing the birth of a pothole.

Potholes occur in all climates. Heres a nasty one on Kauai, where a temporary fix was putting large rocks in the hole. (Image credit: Larry Zanko, CC BY-ND)

Potholes are symptomatic of underlying structural and/or pavement problems.

They form when water penetrates a crack. In cold climates, that water freezes and expands, pushing up on the overlying pavement. Repeated freezing and thawing is a great way to create a pothole. Water also softens and weakens the base material below a pavement, making it susceptible to deformation by passing traffic loads. As the base material deforms, the pavement loses structural support and breaks up. And another pothole is born!

Bottom line: a roadway marred by multiple potholes means the pavement is probably failing and should be replaced. But before that can happen, potholes still need to be repaired.

Traditional repair techniques are, at best, temporary fixes. Take "throw-and-go" cold patching methods, for example. These use repair mixtures that are worked when cold. Some cold patch repairs don't bond well to the edges of the hole, a shortcoming made worse when attempting a repair under challenging wintertime conditions. The same pothole repaired with cold mix patches may have to be redone several times a winter.

Without a good interface bond, the freezing and thawing cycles of late winter and early spring can further weaken the repair and enlarge the crack between the patch and the surrounding pavement.

Another way a repair gets weakened is analogous to hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." The tires of vehicles passing over the repair forcefully push liquid water and fine aggregate particles down into the crack, progressively widening any cracks. Road salt further enhances the latter effect by keeping water in liquid form in subfreezing conditions.

Together, it's all a prescription for a repair's early demise  hello again, zombie pothole.

Search for better repairs heats up

In an effort to address the ongoing need for better repair mechanisms, my colleagues at the Natural Resources Research Institute - University of Minnesota Duluth, outside project collaborators, and I recently completed a study to evaluate promising innovative pothole repair tactics. Our emphasis is on all-season approaches that use the iron oxide mineral magnetite (Fe3O4).

Magnetite content enhances microwave heating rates. (Image credit: Hopstock, 2009, CC BY-ND)

More than 10 years ago, we showed that magnetite and magnetite-containing rock were excellent microwave energy absorbers. The mineral is contained in iron ore rock mined and processed on Minnesota's Mesabi Iron Range, and has the ability to readily absorb microwaves and heat very quickly. We started thinking: when combined with portable microwave technology, could magnetite-containing materials be an effective solution to cold-weather pothole repair?

We mixed small amounts (1 to 2 percent) of magnetite into patching compound, typically made of recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) augmented with ground-up recycled asphalt shingles (RAS); the RAS adds a little more asphaltic binder to the overall mix. Then we pack the mixture into a pothole and microwave until the binder softens and is compactible, thanks to the magnetite.

Here's our cookbook recipe (emphasis on cook) for the microwave repairs we performed.

First, find a pothole (easy).

Clean loose debris and/or blow water from pothole.

In subfreezing temperatures, preheat pothole and pavement adjacent to hole with microwave unit to melt or debond any ice or snow in the hole, and to soften the surrounding pavement. This warming contributes to a good bond since the edges of the pothole are able to plasticly intermix  that is, smush together  and meld with the patch material.

Remove or blow out loosened/melted ice/snow.

Place mixture of RAP, microwave-absorbing taconite materials, and RAS into the pothole. Overfill the hole by about two inches to allow for final compaction.

Heat mixture until temperature reaches at least 100C (212F) at base of mixture in the hole. Sufficient heating takes place in about 8 to 12 minutes at a 40kW power level.

Tamp down heated mixture with portable gasoline-powered compactor.

Steps to an effective microwave pothole repair. (Image credit: Zanko et al., 2016, CC BY-ND)

The existing pavement essentially becomes part of the repair itself  a unique and key benefit of this technique. And our repairs showed excellent longevity, with some performing well more than two years after their installation.

Obviously, we're not just opening the door of a kitchen microwave oven and pointing it down at the road. In the pilot test, we worked with a small company which had previously developed a truck-mounted microwave system to thaw frozen ground to access buried utilities. They adapted their high-power (50kW), vehicle-based microwave system for the project.

And it wouldn't be much of a stretch for Minnesota's taconite industry to supply the relatively small quantities of magnetite a repair compound would consume. The industry typically produces about 40 million tons of magnetite concentrate annually, and generates tens of millions of tons of additional byproduct rock that also contains magnetite. The byproduct taconite rock actually represents a potential source of hard and durable high quality aggregate for our nation's roads and highways.

Benefits of the pilot pothole patch system

One welcome side effect of the in-place heating mechanism is that it drives off moisture, letting the patch more readily adhere to the surrounding pavement. Patch material can be premixed and stockpiled or mixed on site. And you don't need to keep material hot during transport, making this patching system well-suited for cold weather situations.

Importantly, our project also demonstrated that an effective microwave pothole repair compound can be made almost entirely from inexpensive and abundant recycled materials (such as RAP and RAS) that many maintenance departments have on hand, as opposed to repair compounds that rely on specialized asphalt formulations, virgin asphalt and/or specialty binders.

Microwave technology is not yet a routine method of repair, and it's best-suited for potholes in asphalt rather than concrete. But this approach merits further consideration, and we are working to advance the technology.

After all, given our nation's aging network of roads, zombie potholes will continue to flourish. Microwave repair could be an effective method for keeping them at bay.

Larry Zanko, Senior Research Fellow in Economic Geology at the Natural Resources Research Institute, University of Minnesota Duluth

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates  and become part of the discussion  on Facebook, Twitter and Google +. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Live Science.
For ticklish people, a routine doctor's exam can lead to lots of squirming and giggling, which is not only uncomfortable for these patients but also can make it harder for doctors to examine them. But now, doctors in England may have come up with an innovative solution to this problem.

The new technique calls for creating a "hand sandwich" so that doctors can examine their ticklish patients without any difficulty or unwanted laughter, according to a letter to the editor published online today (March 9) in The New England Journal of Medicine.

To perform this technique, the examiner places the fingertips of one hand directly on the patient's skin in a sensitive area, such as the underarms. Next, the patient places the fingertips of his or her hand on top of the examiner's fingertips. To complete the "hand sandwich," the examiner places a second hand on top of the patient's hand, the authors said.

In this position, the examiner's top hand can actively guide the movement over the surface of the patient's skin while the examiner's bottom hand touches it directly. The patient is instructed to match the direction and degree of pressure of the examiner's top hand with his or her own hand.

The "hand sandwich" seems to work because patients can predict the movement of the examiner's hand as it applies pressure to the skin, which makes them feel like they are initiating, and effectively controlling, the movement with their own hand, said Dr. Christopher Dobson, the lead author of the letter and a consulting dermatologist at Royal Preston Hospital in Preston, England.

The technique allows patients to anticipate the touch sensation of the examiner's hand without eliciting a ticklish response because it's generally not possible for people to tickle themselves, he said. In other words, the "hand sandwich" may help fool the patient's brain into thinking the pressure is coming from his or her own hand, thus reducing the ticklish sensation, Dobson said.

Consequently, a doctor can perform an exam that requires touch without someone tensing up, squirming, laughing or causing a diagnosis to be missed. [Which Animals Are Ticklish?]

Taming ticklishness

Touch is an important diagnostic tool during a physical exam, but it can be challenging for health practitioners to do so when a patient is ticklish.

It's unclear exactly why people are ticklish. One theory suggests that ticklishness is the brain's reaction to the sensation of an unexpected touch. But because there is no surprise factor when people attempt to tickle themselves, the brain knows what's coming, and the ticklish response is dampened, Dobson said.

Ticklishness is much more common in children than in adults, Dobson said. In his own dermatology practice, being ticklish as an adult can lead to greater anxiety in patients, causing people's muscles to tense up during an exam and thus making it harder for a doctor to properly feel that person's lymph nodes.

In fact, the "hand sandwich" was originally developed as a method for examining the lymph-node basins  the hollow areas under the armpits, just above the collarbone or near the groin, for example  of ticklish patients with skin cancer, Dobson told Live Science.

Dobson said he has used the technique on a small number of his adult patients who, because of their ticklishness, often have to make repeated visits to the dermatology clinic to be examined."It's been very effective" in these individuals, he said. (The effectiveness of the technique is based on anecdotal evidence at this point, and has not yet been tested in a study.)

Nor has the technique been tested in children, Dobson said. But he suspects it would also work in kids, although there may be some limitations due to young children's smaller hand size.

Besides the technique's use for examining the lymph nodes in people with skin cancer, Dobson has found it to be a less-painful approach for examining ticklish adults with tender groins. This opens up the possibility that this hands-on approach might also be useful for examining a tender abdomen or, in a modified form, for any patient suffering from pain or tenderness during an ultrasound exam, he said.

Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science.
A child's birth date could play a role in determining which kids will be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and subsequently put on medication to treat it, a new study from Taiwan suggests.

The researchers found that preschool and school-age children who were born in August had an increased risk of being diagnosed with ADHD and receiving medication for it compared to their classmates who were born in September. But this finding did not hold true in teenagers, according to the study, published today (March 10) in The Journal of Pediatrics.

Because the cutoff birth date for entering school in Taiwan is August 31, children born in August are typically the youngest in their grades, while children born in September are typically the oldest.

A child's age relative to his or her classmates in the same grade may have a significant impact on the diagnosis of ADHD and the prescription of ADHD medications, said Dr. Mu-Hong Chen, the study's lead author and a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Taiwan.

In the study, the researchers gathered information from a health insurance database of about 380,000 schoolchildren in Taiwan ages 4 to 17. They evaluated the prevalence of children diagnosed with ADHD by birth month, and took a look at those who were prescribed medication as treatment over a period of 14 school years.

Because of the cutoff dates in Taiwan, children within the same grade may be almost one year apart in age, Chen said. Students with birth dates just before the school cutoff date are much younger and less mature than their classmates born at other times of the year, particularly those born in the first month of the school year, he explained. [Typical Toddler Behavior, or ADHD? 10 Ways to Tell]

ADHD or immaturity?

Previous research on ADHD in the United States and Canada has suggested that age within a grade can make a difference in a child's risk of being diagnosed with and receiving medication for ADHD. The evidence from this new study in Taiwan showed findings that are similar to the results seen in Western countries, Chen told Live Science.

In the new study, preschool and school-age children born in August were 1.65 times more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD and 1.73 times more likely to be put on medication, compared to boys and girls born in September. Chen said that children with August birthdates are often the youngest in the grade, and they have less neurocognitive maturity than their classmates born in September.

Children whose brains are not yet as mature as other kids' in the same grade are more likely to have some inattention, impulsive and hyperactive symptoms that can affect their academic performance, Chen said. The students' behavior in class can make it more likely that they will be referred to a doctor for an evaluation, and this increases their risk of being diagnosed and treated for ADHD, he suggested.

Chen said he was not surprised that the study did not find that teenagers born in August were more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than teens born in September.

Relative age within a grade may have more of an impact on younger children than on adolescents, because as age and maturity levels increase during the teenage years, the difference in neurocognitive development within a grade may decrease, he said.

These findings emphasize how important it is for doctors to consider the age of a child within a grade level when they are diagnosing and prescribing medication for ADHD, Chen said. Not doing so could lead to overdiagnosing ADHD and overprescribing medication, he said.

Parents should also keep in mind the possible role of their children's age within a grade when it comes to their academic performance and behavior in school, Chen said.

Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science.
Some pregnant women with Zika virus tend not to fare well, and neither do their fetuses, a new study finds.

Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that can also be transmitted through unprotected sexual intercourse. Because of concerns that the disease may increase the risk of microcephaly (small brain size) and other developmental disorders in the fetuses of pregnant women infected with the virus, scientists decided to monitor the pregnancies of both healthy and infected women.

The researchers studied 88 pregnant women in Rio de Janeiro from September 2015 through February 2016, according to the study, published Friday (March 4) in the The New England Journal of Medicine. Of these women, 72 tested positive for Zika virus in their blood, urine, or both. [Zika Virus News: Complete Coverage of the 2016 Outbreak]

Among the Zika-positive pregnant women, the most common symptoms were rash, joint pain, red eye and headache, the researchers found. The doctors also performed a fetal ultrasound on 42 of the women with Zika and on all of the women without Zika. Among the Zika-positive group, 12 of them (29 percent) had fetuses with abnormalities, compared to none of the 16 Zika-negative women.

Among the 12 fetuses with abnormalities, two of them died  one at 36 weeks and the other at 38 weeks. Five of the fetuses were smaller than normal (and some had microcephaly), seven had central nervous system lesions, and seven had an abnormal amount of amniotic fluid or cerebral or umbilical artery flow, the researchers said. One fetus had additional problems, including microcephaly and other brain development challenges, growth restriction and a potential clubfoot, they added.

To date, eight of the 42 women who participated in the ultrasound have given birth, and the ultrasonographic findings have been confirmed, the researchers said.

"Despite mild clinical symptoms, Zika virus infection during pregnancy appears to be associated with grave outcomes, including fetal death, placental insufficiency, fetal growth restriction and central nervous system injury," the scientists said in the study.

The findings are "quite disturbing," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told reporters today (March 10) in a news briefing.

Given that fetal abnormalities were found in 29 percent of the Zika-positive women, it's possible there may be "many more [abnormalities] that you don't realize until after the birth of the baby," Fauci said.

Moreover, the study shows that the fetuses had developmental problems even when their mothers caught the disease late in their pregnancies.

"In all three trimesters of pregnancy, there were definite fetal effects," Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters in today's briefing. "What we're saying basically is that the more we learn about Zika in pregnancy, the more concerned we are."

Follow Laura Geggel on Twitter @LauraGeggel. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.
"The Booke of Thomas More," a play originally written before 1601 and extensively revised by a series of playwrights between 1603 and 1604, is believed to contain the only surviving copy of William Shakespeare's handwriting, in a powerful speech by the play's hero.

The only surviving copy of a play written in William Shakespeare's own handwriting is on display this month in Washington, D.C.

The mysterious play, called "The Booke of Thomas More," details the life and death of Henry VIII's Catholic advisor Thomas More, who was imprisoned in the Tower of London and ultimately executed in 1535 for refusing to acknowledge the legitimacy of the Church of England. (Henry VIII formed the Church of England in 1534 after the Catholic Church refused to nullify his more than two-decades-long marriage to Catherine of Aragon.)

The manuscript is on display, along with other rare writings from the Bard, in the "Shakespeare, Life of an Icon" exhibit at the Folger Shakespeare Library in the nation's capital. The folio is on loan from the British Library. [History's 10 Most Overlooked Mysteries]

Collaborative effort

The first version of the drama, which was originally written by Anthony Munday between 1596 and 1601, has been lost to the mists of time. However, Munday granted the rights for the play to be used as an official playbook for a theater company. From there, the courtier Edmund Tilney, who served as Master of the Revels (essentially the official court censor for Queen Elizabeth and King James), bought the rights to the play. Tilney took a red pen to the copy, highlighting the most politically sensitive scenes that needed to be excised or revised, according to a statement from the British Library.

From there, a series of playwrights, from Thomas Heywood to Shakespeare himself, undertook extensive rewrites of the play between 1603 and 1604. A copyist then had the Herculean task of taking the original, along with all the revisions, and turning it into a serviceable drama.

The final result is a hodgepodge of different authors' censorship, scribblings, notes and revisions.

Inspiring speech

The story opens with the Evil May Day Riots of 1517. Thomas More, who served as the under-sheriff of the city of London at the time, is shown quieting the riots led by nativists against French and Lombard immigrants to the area. Tilney, who lived in a time of economic upheaval, when hostilities towards aliens and strangers ran high, took issue with these scenes and ordered them removed altogether from the play.

Based on the language and style of the oratory, experts now believe the revised insurrection scene, which includes a powerful peacemaking speech by More, is the work of Shakespeare himself.

In the speech, More first expresses horror at the behavior of these rabble rousers, saying it is an insult to England's dignity, and to royal authority. He then enjoins the rioters to view these aliens as human beings who have suffered from discrimination. More raises the point that the rebels' violence could inspire others to seek violent resolutions to their conflicts, which would ultimately push society itself into disarray. Finally, More points out that since God himself bestowed authority on the King, breaking that law is sinning against God.

"To the king god hath his offyce lent / of dread of Iustyce, power and Comaund / hath bid him rule, and willd you to obay," the Folio reads.

Despite being good drama, the speech is pure fiction, as armies led by the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Duke of Norfolk were truly responsible for quieting the riots, historians contend. Shakespeare fans who'd like to see the rare folio can visit the Folger Shakespeare Library until March 27, after which the trove of rare documents will return to the British Library.

Follow Tia Ghose on Twitter and Google+. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.
Check out our latest E-Edition

Accessible anytime and anywhere on your desktop, tablet and smart phone devices. The Lodi News e-Edition is enhanced with the latest digital tools, including RSS feeds, social networking and much more.

Check out our latest E-edition!
This weeks first 1916 supplement in the Longford Leader features one of the women with Longford connections who participated in the Rising,

Dr Brigid Lyons Thornton, a Roscommon native, was born in 1896 and was the daughter of Pat Lyons and Margaret McGuinness, a native of Longford.

At the age of eight, she moved to Longford to live with her uncle Frank McGuinness and his wife Kate.

The McGuinness were successful business people on the main street and Brigid finished out her primary education at the Mercy National School in Longford town.

From there she went to the Ursuline College in Sligo and after completing her secondary education went to University College Galway in 1915 to study medicine.

One of her first accomplishments at the university was to establish a branch of Cumman na mBan which was growing at a speedy rate at the time, having been set up just the previous year in 1914.

On the Saturday of the Rising, as the men were surrendering, three of them actually gave Brigid their revolvers sooner than hand them over to the British Army, but on Sunday, Brigid was one of 77 women who were arrested and taken to Richmond Barracks.

She was later taken to Kilmainham Gaol where she heard the shots being fired in the yard as the leaders were executed. She was released around May 8th or 9th and went on to become the first female officer commissioned in the Irish Army. See this weeks 1916 supplement for more!
Animal rights activists are to stage a protest in Granard this weekend against the staging of a hotly contested elephant circus.

Circus Belly Wien arrived into the north Longford town last night (Wednesday) ahead of a planned three day showcase on the grounds of Granard Mart.

News of its arrival has, however, been met with heightened scepticism from animal welfare proponents.

Much of that derision has centred on the nationwide bans that have been directed against the circus for its usage of wild animals during its shows.

Just last week, a crowd of around 60 demonstrators held a protest at the Virginia Showgrounds in Cavan ahead of a planned show.

However, a statement which was later released by the Virginia Showgrounds management committee said they were more than satisfied with Circus Belly Wien after carrying out an inspection of the groups holdings.

This circus was very professional and offered every care possible to the welfare of their animals, the statement read.

Its understood an agreement between Granard Mart and officials activing for Circus Belly Wien had been signed in the lead up to this weekends planned three day event.

The Leader, however, has learned representatives acting on behalf of the Mart attempted to cancel that arrangement in recent days as negative media publicity over the circus intensified.

That led to a brief stand-off yesterday (Wednesday) evening, resulting in gardai attending the scene.

A Garda spokesperson has since confirmed no public order incidents were reported and no investigation has been launched.

However, a spokesman for Animal Rights Action Network (ARAN) called on local people to boycott this weekends three day event.

They (Circus Belly Wien) seem to be constantly on the run, said the spokesman.

When Marts or GAA grounds agree to these things, they soon realise its a bad deal when they see how controversial they are.

We are asking people to go elsewhere this weekend.

There is no way we (ARAN) are going to let them into Granard, Longford or anywhere else without some form of visible presence.

At the time of writing, attempts to make contact with spokespersons from both Granard Mart and Circus Belly Wien were unsuccessful.
Local News, Crime, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: March 10 2016

Nassau County DA Singas announced that a Hempstead gang member was convicted today by a jury for the murder of 18-year old in 2010.

Mineola, NY - March 9th, 2016 - Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced that a Hempstead gang member was convicted today by a jury for the murder of 18-year old Yunior Maldonado in November 2010.



Pedro Santos, 23, was convicted of Murder in the 2nd Degree (an A-I felony) and one count of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the 4th Degree (an A misdemeanor). The trial lasted approximately two weeks and the jury deliberated for two days. The defendant is due back for sentencing on April 6 before Acting Supreme Court Justice William OBrien and faces up to 25 years to life in prison on the top count.



This defendant and an accomplice barbarically murdered an innocent young man with a machete and knife, DA Singas said. The violence that Pedro Santos inflicted clearly indicates that he does not value life and has no place on our streets.



DA Singas said that at approximately 11:20 p.m. on November 14, 2010, Santos, known by the street name Tiro Loco, and Yan Cifuentes, 16, of Hempstead, approached 18-year-old Yunior Orlando Maldonado of Westbury as he walked on Thorne Avenue in Hempstead. Santos, who along with Cifuentes is affiliated with the 18th Street gang, asked Maldonado what gang he was in and started chasing him.



After catching up with Maldonado, Santos began swinging a machete at the victim while Cifuentes stabbed him six times with a knife before fleeing the scene.



Maldonado died at 11:58 p.m. at Winthrop Hospital, two minutes before his 19th birthday. Cifuentes pleaded guilty to Murder in the Second Degree in November 2011 and was sentenced to 10 years to life in prison.



Santos was arrested nine days after the incident by members of the Nassau County Police Department.



Assistant District Attorney Lauren Nickerson of DA Singas Major Offense Bureau is prosecuting the case. Santos is represented by Jorge Guttlein and Juan Carlos Guttlein, Esqs.
Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: March 10 2016

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced today his selection of Major General Anthony German as the 53rd Adjutant General of New York.

Albany, NY - March 9th, 2016 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced today his selection of Major General Anthony German as the 53rd Adjutant General of New York. German is an Oneonta resident who currently commands the New York Air National Guard and also serves as Assistant Adjutant General.



German will replace Major General Patrick Murphy, who has served as Adjutant General since 2010, and is leaving the position to serve as Director of Strategy, Plans, Policy and International Affairs for the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C.



General Anthony German has a distinguished record as a National Guard leader dedicated to serving our nation and state, Governor Cuomo said. He brings with him a wealth of experience and knowledge in military affairs and in his new role will continue his commitment to strengthening the readiness of our military.



I would like to thank General Patrick Murphy for his many contributions to the New York National Guard, Governor Cuomo continued. General Murphy has done an exceptional job as Adjutant General. He embodies the service and leadership that the National Guard stands for and I wish him the best as he begins an important new challenge.



German was commissioned in the United States Air Force in 1983 as an aircraft navigator and joined the New York Air National Guards 109th Airlift Wing in 1989. The 109th Airlift Wing, based at Stratton Air National Guard Base in Scotia, flies the LC-130 aircraft, the only ski-equipped aircraft in the U.S. military. The wing provides support to the National Science Foundations research efforts in Antarctica and Greenland.



German commanded the wing from 2006 to 2010. He served as Chief of Staff of the New York Air National Guard from 2010 to 2015 and played a key role in coordinating New York Air Guard participation in the New York National Guard response to Tropical Storms Irene and Lee in 2011 and Superstorm Sandy in 2012.



German has also served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Reserve Affairs as the Department of Defense Liaison Officer to the National Science Foundation. He recently completed a 30 day assignment as Acting Director of the Air National Guard.



German is a master navigator with over 4,900 flying hours and in the C-130 Hercules and other aircraft.



As Adjutant General of New York, German will be responsible for the readiness and training of the 10,300 members of the New York Army National Guard, and the 5,600 members of the New York Air National Guard.



The Adjutant General is also responsible for the New York Naval Militia, a force of 2,900 personnel, the bulk of whom are currently serving members of the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard Reserve who also volunteer to serve on state duty during emergencies. Another 600 people serve as volunteers in the New York Guard, a state force that assists the National Guard during emergencies.



German holds a degree from SUNY Oneonta and is a graduate of the United States Naval War College and the Senior Reserve Component Officer Course, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.



Among his awards are the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Force Aerial Achievement Medal, the Combat Readiness Medal, the Antarctica Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, and the Humanitarian Service Medal.



German lives in Oneonta with his wife Diana. They have four children, Josh, Ben, Zach and Bekah.



German will assume his new duties in April.
Local News, National & World News, Health & Wellness, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: March 10 2016

Expansion to Include Pregnant Women with a Sex Partner Who Traveled To a Country with Zika Virus Transmission - Agency Working with Local Officials to Implement Mosquito Surveillance and Response Plan.

Albany, NY - March 9th, 2016 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today directed the NYS Department of Health (NYSDOH) to expand free Zika virus testing to all pregnant women who, during their pregnancy, had unprotected sex with a partner who traveled to an area with ongoing Zika virus transmission.



This expansion comes as NYSDOH is investigating one case of possible sexual transmission of the Zika virus, and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has published reports of increasing numbers of confirmed and probable sexual transmission of Zika virus, including several involving pregnant women.



To date, NYSDOH's Wadsworth Center has conducted tests on samples from more than 1,400 patients and 40 have been found to be positive. With the exception of the one possible case of sexual transmission, all of the infected patients have been returning travelers from countries where Zika virus is ongoing.



NYSDOH also already offers testing to pregnant women who themselves have traveled to an area with ongoing Zika virus transmission during their pregnancy, as well as to non-pregnant women, men or children who developed symptoms of Zika virus within 4 weeks of travel to an area with active Zika virus transmission.



Only one in five people infected with Zika virus will get sick, and the symptoms are usually very mild, including fever, rash, joint pain, or conjunctivitis (red eyes). However, there have been reports of increased cases of a birth defect known as microcephaly that may be associated with Zika virus infection among pregnant women.



CDC and NYSDOH recommend that, until more is known, males who have traveled to or lived in an area with active Zika virus transmission and are sexual partners of pregnant women, abstain from sex or consistently and correctly use latex condoms for the duration of the pregnancy.



NYSDOH Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said, "As evidence has emerged that the risk of sexual transmission is greater than previously known, the Department is expanding its testing to include all pregnant women who had unprotected sex with a partner who traveled to an area with active Zika virus transmission.



This expansion in testing will provide more pregnant women and clinicians with information to guide their healthcare. Moving forward, we will continue to work closely with the CDC to respond to new data on transmission to determine how we can best limit the spread of Zika virus."



NYSDOH Develops and Distributes Educational Materials

NYSDOH has developed new educational materials on the Zika virus that have been sent to local health departments, clinics, hospitals and other healthcare facilities and WIC clinics. The materials, including fact sheets and posters, provide important information for New Yorkers who may have been exposed to Zika if they traveled to a country where Zika transmission is ongoing.



They also will be translated into Spanish, French, Portuguese and several other languages and are available to be downloaded here.



NYSDOH Coordinating Response Plan and Control Measures with Local Officials

NYSDOH is working with local health officials from all of the counties in New York inhabited by a species of mosquito that could potentially carry the Zika virus, to update and implement the New York State Mosquito Surveillance and Response Plan. The Plan will detail the surveillance of mosquitoes as well as planned control activities during the upcoming mosquito season. Control measures will include efforts to educate the public about the importance of continually disposing of water holding containers to eliminate mosquito larval habitats.



In Central and South America, the Zika virus has been primarily transmitted by a mosquito bite from the species Aedes aegypti, which is not present in New York State. However, a related species of mosquito, Aedes albopictus is present in New York City, as well as Nassau, Putnam, Orange, Rockland, Suffolk, and Westchester Counties. Because it is a tropical mosquito, it has difficulty surviving cold winters, limiting its northward spread, but it has adapted to survive in a broader temperature range.



Researchers are currently uncertain if Aedes albopictus can effectively transmit the Zika virus, but NYSDOH is preparing for the event that it can. The agency is keeping local health department and providers up-to-date with the most recent data, and are helping them to monitor and control mosquito populations in preparation for the 2016 season.



Healthcare providers must report all potential cases of the Zika virus to their local health department to allow NYSDOH to monitor the occurrence of the disease and ensure a coordinated response.



NYSDOH urges anyone (pregnant women and their sexual partners in particular), who has visited countries impacted by this virus to consult with their health care professionals, and remain alert for possible symptoms. A Zika information line (1-888-364-4723) is available Monday through Friday from 9am  5pm to answer concerns and questions from the public or healthcare providers. Additional information on Zika is available here on the NYSDOH website.
Looking to stay up to date about all of the news stories and local headlines that are important to Long Islanders? We've rounded up the top coverage for all of the important topics from multiple sources around Long Island, so you can be sure you've got the most recent update on the top stories for Long Island. Have an idea for a news story? Email us at news@longisland.com

Columnists Press Releases
Screenshot from the video from Al Eis, Aleppo

The Caucasus Emirate in Syria, the official Syrian branch of the al Qaeda-linked Caucasus Emirate, has released two videos highlighting its role in the current fighting in the Aleppo province.

The first video shows a nighttime operation against Kurdish forces in the Aleppo neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsud. No nightvision equipment appears to have been used in the video, however, heavy fighting can be heard. The Caucasus Emirate in Syria is not the only al Qaeda-linked group fighting the Kurds in Sheikh Maqsud. Ansar al Islam, which was originally founded in Iraq in 2001, has reported its forces are fighting the Kurds in the area. Additionally, the Uzbek group Katibat Imam al Bukhari, which is loyal to the Afghan Taliban, has released a video showing its forces fighting the Kurds there as well.

The second video was reportedly recorded shortly before the battle at Al Eis in the southern Aleppo countryside. A fighter in the group, presumably a native Syrian, gives a short Arabic-language address in which he states that the Caucasus Emirate in Syria and two other al Qaeda groups, Jund al Aqsa, and the Al Nusrah Front, al Qaedas official branch, will fight together to liberate the Aleppo countryside from Assad, Iran, and Satans dogs [referring to Iranian-backed Iraqi militias]. The jihadists later reported success at Al Eis, but the Assad regime has stated that its forces and their allies have recaptured the area.

The Caucasus Emirate in Syria was formed when the former emir of Jaish al Muhajireen wal Ansar (Army of Emigrants and Helpers), Salahuddin Shishani, was removed from his post along with his deputy, Abdul Karim Krymsky, last summer. A small group of Chechen and other North Caucasian fighters followed suit and left with Shishani. The group then released a video announcing its formation and its bayah (allegiance) to the Caucasus Emirate and its emir at the time, Abu Usman Gimrinsky . However, From Chechnya to Syria has reported that Shishani was also deposed of his leadership position of the Caucasus Emirate in Syria, and now leads another small Chechen-led group.

Caleb Weiss is a research analyst at FDD's Long War Journal and a senior analyst at the Bridgeway Foundation, where he focuses on the spread of the Islamic State in Central Africa.

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.
Omar al Shishani, the Islamic State military commander who has led an elite group of fighters in multiple battles in Iraq and Syria, survived last weekends airstrike in the Syrian city of Shaddadi, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

SOHR director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that Shishanis convoy was indeed targeted and several of his cadre were killed, but Shishani survived and was seriously injured.

Hes not dead, Rahman said. He was taken from the province of Hasakah to a hospital in Raqqah province where he was treated by a jihadist doctor of European origin.

The US military announced that it targeted Shishani in an airstrike on March 4 in the Syrian city of Shaddadi. But the US military stopped short of declaring Shishani dead. [See LWJ report, US targeted senior Islamic State military commander in airstrike in Syria for more information on the strike and background on Shishani]

It is often difficult to determine whether a jihadist commander was killed or survived an airstrike. Without possession of a body for positive identification, intelligence services must rely on other means to determine his status. Often, the best way to know whether a leader was killed or not is to get confirmation from the jihadists themselves, as they wish to eulogize their leaders. This usually is reliable, but often jihadist groups will delay the notification of the death of their commanders. And, after the Mullah Omar affair, where the Taliban pretended he was alive for more than two years after he died of natural causes, and the gaming of the death of Muhsin al Fadhli by al Qaeda leaders, you cannot rule out the possibility that various groups are obscuring the status of their leaders.

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.
Hizb-i-Islami Gulbuddin explosive experts Abdul Saboor and Abdullah Nowbahar. Sketches of Saboor and Nowbahar from the Rewards for Justice website.

The Department of State added two explosive experts from the Hizb-i-Islami Gulbuddin to its list of specially designated global terrorists for their involvement in suicide attacks in Kabul, Afghanistan. One of the attacks involved a female suicide bomber. Another resulted in the deaths of two US soldiers and four US civilian contractors.

The two Hizb-i-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG) explosive experts who were designated today are Abdul Saboor and Abdullah Nowbahar. At the end of February 2015, States Rewards for Justice program offered $3 million for information leading to Saboors arrest, and $2 million for information on Nowbahar.

The HIG explosives experts participated in the September 18, 2012 attack on a bus carrying foreign employees of Kabul International Airport that killed 12 people, State noted in its designation. That attack was executed by a female suicide bomber. HIG spokesman Engineer Haroon Zarghoon, who claimed the attack, said it was executed to avenge a controversial film released on YouTube that depicts the life of the Prophet Mohammed in a negative light.

State also linked Saboor to a suicide attack in May 2013 that killed two American soldiers, four US civilian contractors, and eight Afghans, including two children. That suicide attack was also claimed by HIGs spokesman. We planned this attack for over a week, Zarghoon told Reuters at the time.

HIG is a breakaway faction of the Hizb-i-Islami political party, which has joined the Afghan government. It is a radical Islamist group that is aligned with al Qaeda and the Taliban. It is led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who expressed his support for Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda in 2006.

We thank all Arab mujahideen, particularly Sheikh Osama Bin Laden, Dr. Ayman al Zawahiri, and other leaders who helped us in our jihad against the Russians, Hekmatyar said in a recording broadcast by Al Jazeera.

They fought our enemies and made dear sacrifices, Hekmatyar continued. Neither we nor the future generations will forget this great favor. We beseech Almighty God to grant us success and help us fulfill our duty toward them and enable us to return their favor and reciprocate their support and sacrifices. We hope to take part with them in a battle which they will lead and raise its banner. We stand beside and support them.

Hekmatyar is also closely tied to Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence agency. He has made offers to end the insurgency several times since 2009, but the terms  that NATO withdraw its forces, the suspension of the Afghan constitution, and the installation of an Islamic government  generally mirrored those of the Taliban.

HIG has an extensive network throughout Afghanistan, and coordinates operations in the capital with the so-called Kabul Attack Network, which is made up of fighters from the Taliban, the Haqqani Network, and cooperates with terror groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and al Qaeda. Top Afghan intelligence officials have linked the Kabul Attack Network to Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate as well. The networks tentacles extend outward from Kabul into the surrounding provinces of Logar, Wardak, Nangarhar, Kapisa, Ghazni, and Zabul, a US intelligence official told The Long War Journal.

HIG forces have conducted attacks throughout Afghanistan, and have bases in Pakistans Swat Valley as well as in the tribal agencies of Bajaur, Mohmand, and North and South Waziristan.

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.
Just days after the US military struck a Shabaab training camp north of Mogadishu, special operations forces and Somali troops launched a raid near the Somali capital overnight. Details are scarce, but Shabaab has reported that one of its fighters was killed in the firefight. Somali officials claimed that 19 Shabaab fighters were killed.

According to Shabaabs military spokesman Abdulaziz Abu Musab, foreign forces riding in two helicopters attacked the Awdigle district of Somalias Lower Shabelle region. Giving more detail, he said that the foreign forces disembarked from the two helicopters at the outskirts of the district and proceeded to the Hisbah Center (Islamic police) and violent clashes occurred around 1 am. Abu Musab claimed that the jihadists fought off the attackers, but confirmed that one fighter from Shabaab was killed.

While Shabaabs spokesman did not specify which nationality the foreign forces were in the statement, a US official confirmed to AFP on the condition of anonymity that US special operations carried out the raid with the Somali military. The official described the assault as a partnered raid with Somali forces, which is another term for a joint-assault. Somali officials also confirmed to AFP that the joint-assault occurred in the Awdigle district, just 30 miles west of Mogadishu.

Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, later told The New York Times that the US forces involved only served in a consultative role. Specifically, he said that it was their [Somali military] mission. We were acting in an advisory role. It is unclear if the US soldiers left the helicopters and engaged Shabaab during the firefight. The American troops did not go all the way to the objective, Davis continued.

The involvement of US special operations forces in the Awdigle raid and the heavy resistance put up by Shabaab indicates that the objective was to capture a high value target. The US military typically launches drone and conventional airstrikes against Shabaab leaders and commanders when it wants to kill them.

The US military has launched similar air assaults in the past. In 2013, Shabaab said it repelled a nighttime raid by US special operations in Barawe. US officials later confirmed that US Navy SEALs carried out the operation to capture a high-level Shabaab operative, but the operation was not successful. [See LWJ report, Shabaab claims it repelled raid by Western special operations forces.]

In one of the most high-profile raids in Somalia, US special operations forces killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan in Barawe in September 2009. Nabhan was one of the most sought out al Qaeda operatives in Africa. He was wanted for involvement in al Qaedas 1998 suicide attacks against US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Before he was killed, he served as a top leader in both Shabaab and Al Qaeda East Africa, and also was instrumental in facilitating the official merger between al Qaeda and Shabaab. Shabaab has named a military brigade after Nabhan.

French special operations forces have also carried out operations inside Somalia. In January 2013, French commandos launched a failed raid in the town of Bula Marer to free a French intelligence official who was captured by Shabaab in 2009. Shabaab fighters repelled the attack and captured a French commando, who later died in custody. Shabaab released photographs of the captured soldier and weapons and gear seized during the raid, and then executed the French intelligence official.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of The Long War Journal. Caleb Weiss is a research analyst at FDD's Long War Journal and a senior analyst at the Bridgeway Foundation, where he focuses on the spread of the Islamic State in Central Africa.

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.
What Im Wearing * Sweater is from Pendleton (the local shop up here and a gift from Chad) It was on the sale rack and it kept drawing my eye. I finally went over to it and there were only Larges left. Its not usually my color scheme or my shape but I tried it 
Up Close and Personal with the Ocean's Bounty on Cannery Row, Monterey Bay

In the middle of the nineteenth century, it was an abundance of sea life in Monterey Bay that attracted the Chinese who sailed across the Pacific in search of rich fishing grounds. They were followed by fisherman from Greece, Italy and Spain and Japanese divers in search of abalone. For a hundred years until the 1950s, Monterey Bay gave birth to a wealth of industries.Many people know about Monterey Bay because they read John Steinbeck'sin school. Published in 1945, the novel was such a sensation, travelers began visiting the area to see the sardine factories in action and catch sight of the eccentric characters Steinbeck wrote about.Ironically, within a dozen years after the publication of, the majority of the canneries had shut down. The sardines that seemed endlessly abundant had all but disappeared. By 1973, the last cannery closed and the area fell on hard times.An energized community redeveloped the area into a premium tourist destination. Anchored by the world-renowned Monterey Bay Aquarium today the area offers ideal experiences for couples on a romantic get-away, families on vacation and everyone who enjoys an up close and personal experience with nature.Schooners Coastal Kitchen & BarThere are a variety of restaurants on Cannery Row to suit everyone. Grab a bite to eat with the family or relax with a glass of wine from a local winery and enjoy a meal while you sit in the comfort of a restaurant's dining room or on its patio with a bayside view.For seafood prepared with a deft hand, you will want to eat atin the. Executive chef James Waller and chef de cuisine Nicole Heaney serve dishes with well-presented sauces full of flavor. For breakfast you will want to order their freshly cured smoked salmon with capers, red onions, cream cheese and a toasted bagel. Sandwiches, salads and pizza dominate the lunch menu. At dinner, starters from the raw bar will put you in the mood to have more seafood. The kitchen takes great pride in sourcing the best and freshest sustainable fish available. With a view of the water, the waitstaff and chef Heaney are known to join diners in a rush to the picture windows when whales swim by.From its second floor perch,has a pelican's eye view of the bay. At one of the window-side tables you will spend several hours dreamily watching the sea birds gliding above the blue water as you enjoy wine paired dishes. The wine bar focuses on local vineyards. For our tasting we had a 2011 Silvestri Bella Sandra Chardonnay, a 2012 De Tierra Tondre Grapefield Pinot Noir and a 2012 Sinecure Grenache Noir as we shared plates of Fra' Mani charcuterie, a selection of flatbreads, roasted Castroville artichokes and a cheese plate that included Vella Cheese Company's dry Monterey Jack.At theadjacent to, you will settle into a window-side seat, the better to catch a glimpse of seals, otters and brown pelicans as they navigate their way across the bay. The restaurant is well-known for its over-the-top cocktails like the Ultimate Seafood Bloody Mary topped with a Carmen Miranda cornucopia of a celery stick, an oyster, a bacon wrapped prawn, stuffed olives and a mini-crab cake slider. Besides having fun with their cocktails and serving large portion entrees, the restaurant searches out high quality seafood. I enjoyed a Dungeness crab Louie salad with a generous portion of deliciously fresh crab and perfectly ripe slices of avocado, papaya and mango. The fresh ingredients were so good, I asked for a light olive oil and vinegar dressing instead of the creamy Louie dressing.Captains RoomFor a special celebration, have dinner at the iconic. The exterior reflects the building's humble origins as a cafeteria for workers in the sardine processing factories. Handmade details outside like the rusted coffee cans used as light shades reflect the early, scrappy years when founders Ted Balestreri and Burt Cutino decided to open a restaurant on Cannery Row at a time when the area was blighted.Walk inside and the promise they envisioned decades ago has taken root in rooms decorated with a New Orleans, Bourbon Street luxuriousness. The 35,000 bottle wine cellar supports a menu devoted to old school Italian and French dishes, rich with butter and cream. The restaurant has a large menu, offering dry aged beef and a great variety of fresh fish, lobster, oysters and abalone. I particularly enjoyed the more rustic offerings like the lightly smoked, wild California sardines that were topped with chopped onions, hardboiled eggs and capers with a lemon wedge and the Spanish octopus salad with roasted potatoes, French beans and fried avocado in a basil balsamic vinaigrette.Down the block, theoffers a comfortable setting with well-prepared steaks and seafood dishes. If you are hungry for a cut of corn fed, Midwestern aged beef, ask to see the platter of steaks and choose the one that strikes your fancy. You will be tempted by the bone-in Cowboy Rib Steak and the Porterhouse for two, but save room for the sides because the giant onion rings, scalloped potatoes and creamed spinach are hard to resist.InterContinental The Clement MontereyThe area has many quality hotels including two that anchor Cannery Row. When you stay at the, request a bay facing room. You will find yourself beginning your day sitting on the balcony sipping a cup of tea and watching the morning sun brighten the bay's expanse of dark blue water. In the afternoon and evening, you will want to sit close to the fire pit on the outdoor patio facing the water or at theto have a snack and a beverage while you contemplate the mysteries and beauty of Monterey Bay.on the southern end of Cannery Row has large outdoor areas with panoramic views of the bay. The hotel has spacious rooms with windows facing the bay or the patios.Monterey Plaza HotelAt the Monterey Plaza Hotel, you will want to avail yourself of the pleasures of thelocated on the hotel's top floor with an outdoor deck facing the bay. The spa offers body treatments for mothers-to-be, deep tissue full-body massages, warm stone massages, healing wraps, rosemary sea salt scrubs as well as facials and aromatherapy baths.I could not resist the. Working in tandem, the massage therapists proceeded on opposite sides of my very tired body. The effect of four hands at one time creates a balance that is luxuriously soothing. Post-massage I stretched out on one of the chaise lounges on the outdoor relaxation patio, read a magazine, drank copious amounts of water to rehydrate and stared at the bay until I happily dozed off.When you visit Cannery Row, you will want to take a leisurely, self-guided walk south from the Aquarium. On placards placed along the walkways, you will read descriptions of the bay's natural features, the history of the once thriving fishing industry and biographical details about John Steinbeck.On the walking tour you will learn about the aquatic animals and plants that make the bay their home. You will read about the immigrants from Asia and Europe who lived in the community because they were attracted by the ocean's rich bounty that gave them jobs and a way of life.On the southern end of Cannery Row, go scuba diving at, one of the most popular scuba diving beaches in California with growths of giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) so thick they are called the redwoods of the sea. Supporting a diverse eco-system, the kelp beds are home to sea urchins, three hundred pound sunfish, brown sea otters, sea stars, snails, crabs and a great variety of fish.As we walked along the shore, Deirdre Whalen explained that Monterey Bay is a biologically diverse body of water that includes the Monterey Canyon, a geologic feature as large as the Grand Canyon and one of the deepest underwater canyons off the continental United States. The Monterey Canyon and Monterey Bay are protected as part of theThe sanctuary is larger than the state of Connecticut and protects 276 miles of coastline and a body of ocean that is over 6,000 square miles and extends from the north of the Golden Gate Bridge to an area south of the Hearst Castle in Cambria.Most of the thirteen marine sanctuaries in the continental United States are off-shore and can only be enjoyed by boat. Unique among the national sanctuaries, at Cannery Row, you can experience the area's sea life along the shoreline, where if you are alert, you will see sea lions, seals, otters, pelicans and whales.In the almost twenty-five years since the establishment of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, the ecosystem has rebounded. When you visit Cannery Row, you will want to spend a good part of a day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. There you will see the life of that vibrant ecosystem. With some of the largest salt water enclosures in the world, the Aquarium allows visitors to experience the life of the giant kelp beds, otter communities, dozens of varieties of delicate jelly fish and mixed habitats with many species of fish coexisting.Or, you can get into the water and enjoy scuba diving, paddle boarding and kayaking to explore the beauty of the bay up close.I loved my long weekend stay and wished I could have stayed longer. There is so much to enjoy, experience and learn about when visiting Monterey Bay. The C Restaurant + Bar, InterContinental The Clement Monterey (750 Cannery Row, Monterey, CA 93940, 831/375-4800) The Fish Hopper ( 700 Cannery Row, Monterey, CA 93940 , 831/372-8543) InterContinental The Clement Monterey (750 Cannery Row, Monterey, CA 93940, 831/375-4500) Monterey Bay Aquarium (886 Cannery Row, Monterey, CA 93940) Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa (400 Cannery Row, Monterey, C 93940, 831/646-1700) The Sardine Factory, (701 Wave Street, Monterey, CA 93940, 831/373-3775) Schooners Coastal Kitchen & Bar, Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa (400 Cannery Row, Monterey, CA 93940, 831/372-2628) A Taste of Monterey: Wine Market & Bistro (700 Cannery Row, Suite KK, Monterey, CA 93940, 831/646-5446) The Whaling Station (763 Wave Street, Monterey, CA 93940, 831/373-3778)More information:
Discover the Artistry of Balinese Textiles at The Ritz-Carlton, Bali

Led by Tresna Dewi, the resort's Sarong Concierge, this half-day journey invites guests to discover the different kinds of Balinese textiles and marvel at the creation process. Completing the experience, guests learn proper sarong etiquette, and ultimately, wear one amongst the local community with a cultural visit to the nearby Hindu Temple.Admired for their beauty and pure artistry, textiles or Kamen in the Balinese language is a length of colorful fabric wrapped and tied around the body, often worn by men and women in Southeast Asia and the Arab peninsula. Sarongs are reflective of the historical traditions of Bali and are worn for many different types of occasions, including religious ceremonies, during school, and afterwards while at play. Guests of The Ritz-Carlton, Bali will have the opportunity to honor this respected custom of the local community and Balinese culture with this newly launched program.Under the expertise of Tresna Dewi, the resort's Sarong Concierge, guests will be introduced to the Balinese culture through textiles in conjunction with this half-day journey. Tresna, a highly-respected member of the local community, will showcase four kinds of fabric that are mainly used as sarong in Bali. This will include seeing samples of textiles and learn about the distinct characteristics of each sarong. After learning about the process, Tresna will lead the guests to an artisan workshop in Gianyar regency  renowned for arts and crafts  to see the behind-the-scenes production process of Endek, the capital's official cloth, from the threading and spinning to dying, and the weaving process. Continuing the experience, Tresna then demonstrates the etiquette of wearing a Balinese sarong and walk elegantly, like the Balinese royals. With the knowledge of how to dress a sarong on their own, Tresna will guide them on a visit to a nearby Balinese Hindu Temple to see the beautiful decor and hand carvings, wearing their sarongs as intended just like the locals do.The most interesting element of the Sarong creation is the production of the textiles, says Tresna Dewi, I'm always fascinated to see the process of spinning thread one by one to follow the pattern, before it continues with the weaving process. I look forward to inviting guests into our culture by providing insight of this traditional Balinese style and how it integrates into the daily life in Bali.For more information on the resort's guest activities, visit
The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco Celebrates 25th Anniversary

In celebration of the luxury hotel's 25 year anniversary this year, a series of extravagant San Francisco-inspired packages are being offered throughout the year in honor of the iconic hotel's quarter century milestone.Drawing inspiration from the hotel's redesign inspired by couture fashion and just in time for newly released fall designer lines, The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco has launched the Ultimate Fashion Package'. Guests who reserve the package will experience a one night stay in The Presidential Suite  the hotel's largest and most opulent penthouse  with decor and furnishings influenced by tailored fashion and the distinguished colors of the San Francisco Bay in a palette of steely blues, silver and soft greys. With a nod to local fashion pioneer Wilkes Bashford whom the hotel's renovation is partly based, the package also includes round trip luxury transportation to the iconic retailer's flagship store in Union Square where the guests will be welcomed with Champagne and a style advisor to shop the latest fall fashions from top designers with a $5,000 Wilkes Bashford gift certificate. Wilkes Bashford features a wide selection of designer clothing to select from including Kiton, Brioni, Oscar de la Renta, Christian Loubutin, Manolo Blahnik, Derek Lam, Loro Piana and Brunello Cucinelli to name just a few.The package is further adorned with an exclusive, special edition Wellendorff San Francisco ring in honor of the recent opening of the luxury jeweler's first North American boutique in the lobby of The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco. The goldsmiths have captured the carefree flower power period of the city with a graceful floral pattern in pink, violet and white tones in the design of the ring, which is available in either 18-karat yellow or white gold and signed with their signature Diamond W. Hidden on the inside of the ring above the engraved words San Francisco' is an elaborate silhouette of the Golden Gate Bridge. Exclusively available at the San Francisco boutique, this ring also features Wellendorff's signature characteristic - the innermost ring can be spun with playful effect.The couple will also receive exclusive access to The Ritz-Carlton Club Lounge featuring a full-service concierge, complimentary amenities and food and beverage presentations throughout the day including breakfast, light lunch, evening hors d'oeuvres and desserts. Guestroom Internet, garment pressing, access to the Club Business Lounge and valet parking are also included.At approximately 1,960 square feet, the Presidential Suite features a master bedroom, spacious whirlpool bath overlooking the sleeping quarters, grand living room, dining room with a crystal chandelier seating six, pantry and wet bar and one and half bathrooms. The sprawling suite also features a 1,200 square foot furnished balcony overlooking the city's Financial District including a view of the iconic Transamerica Pyramid.The Ultimate Fashion Package is available for $25,000 exclusively through October 31, 2016. To reserve this experience, please contact Shelly Auyeung at (415) 364-3479 or shelly.auyeung@ritzcarlton.com.For more information, visit
Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills Announces Partnership with Jean-Georges

Under the direction of Michelin-star rated chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, who is bringing his culinary expertise to the West Coast for the first time, Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills' signature dining restaurant and unique rooftop offerings will showcase inspiring and sophisticated culinary experiences for a new generation of guests.Keeping in line with the hotel's unprecedented luxury and authentic hospitality, both the signature Jean-Georges restaurant and unique rooftop poolside dining at Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills will embody elegance as guests enjoy contemporary fine dining and an array of hand-crafted cocktails. With the unparalleled abundance of California's local, organic treasures in support of independent farmers and fishmongers Vongerichten will source and create a beautiful harmony of seasonal ingredients and artful craft, highlighting the finest flavors in each dish. The indoor and outdoor dining oasis at Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills sets out to strike a perfect balance between guests' palates and their views of the space.The concept for the menu and design of the Jean-Georges restaurant at Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills is currently underway and the new restaurant will be unveiled in 2017 with the hotel's opening.Located adjacent to The Beverly Hilton on the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards in Beverly Hills, the 12-story, 170-room luxury hotel marks the brand's first new build property on the West Coast. Delivering a combination of luxury and ease that has never existed before and embodying a unique urban oasis, the prestigious hotel brand's debut in Beverly Hills pays homage to Hollywood glamour and the effortless luxury of the California lifestyle.Visit website:
Ive been writing about Apple since it was doomed. Its a thing I tell people sometimes, when Im explaining that Apple was faltering and its future was in doubt when I began my career writing about technology.

Its hard to imagine it now, but back in the 1990s almost nobody used the Mac, and that was Apples only product. Being a Mac user was risky. Not risky in the sense that roving gangs of PC users were going to beat you up and steal your Zip dive if they discovered you were using Mac OS 8, but risky in an emotional way: We were pouring our love into a product that had every chance of dying.

After Windows 95 appeared, appropriating most of the things that made Macs different from PCs, Apple continued to slide downhill. The fear was palpable. Power Computing, a maker of Mac clones (yes, those were briefly a thing), had several ad campaigns with fighting back for the Mac as the theme. One of the first cover stories I worked on at Macworld in 1998 was titled Save Your Mac, and was designed to give Mac users strategies to work with PCs so that their bosses didnt have an excuse to take away their Macs.

Existential threats

I was thinking about these dark times when I saw a link to this Microsoft ad for the Surface Book, which directly takes on the Mac. There was a time when I wouldve immediately begun analyzing the ad for white lies and exaggerations, compiling evidence to refute the attack like a staffer on a political campaign watching a speech by the opposition.

Instead, I shrugged. (Okay, Ill admit that I lifted an eyebrow when the guy in the Surface Book ad pops off the top and uses it as a tablet, given its dismal battery life as a tablet. But thats it, I swear.) Microsofts trying to establish a new product, and its trying everything it can to get people to take notice. Taking on Apples products is a good way to do that.

Gordon Mah Ung The Surface Book, stepping to the MacBook Pro.

This is where we are today: Microsoft is the underdog. Apple is the success story. I no longer feel the need to defend Apple from unscrupulous competitors who will twist the truth in order to deal the death blow to the company that makes the products I rely on to live my life. Theres no death blow to be dealt. If Apple stopped selling products today, its got enough cash in the bank to stay in business for decades.

Now, if I were an investor in Apple, Id be concerned for the future. Is iPhone growth over? Can new products and services help offset the maturing of the smartphone market? These are good questions.

But Im not an Apple investor. Im just someone who uses the companys products and wants them to continue. And short of Apple doing something really weird (like killing the Mac and iPad and becoming iPhone Inc.which isnt gonna happen), Im going to be able to keep using Apple stuff for the rest of my life.

Take it easy

I dearly loved the Mac culture of the 90s. I was a Mac fan before I ever wrote about it; I bought my first Mac (an SE) in the spring of 1990, and read both MacUser and Macworld magazines regularly. We were rebels and outliers, even in the already outsider culture of computer geeks. If we had wanted to blend in with the crowd, we would have been using PCs like the rest of the world. But we just couldnt.

In hindsight, though, I can see that some of the aspects of being a Mac user during that periodmost notably the feeling that doom could be just around the corner (because it really, really was) and the fierce protectiveness it engenderedwouldnt mix well with Apples eventual success.

When the world is against you and the things you love are threatened, it makes sense that youll fight back. But when youre riding high, safe and comfortable, that same sort of attitude can make you seem more like a bully than a rebel.

I think a lot of old-school Mac users have had to struggle with this over the last decade, as Apple has become so powerful that its most notable struggles these days are with the FBI and the White House, not Microsoft or Dell or even Google. Yes, someone is frequently wrong on the Internet, and having a professional debunker on hand to puncture stupid statements about Apple is handy.

But today, there is literally nothing Microsoft can do to threaten me being a Mac user. Googles not going to take my iPhone out of my hands. Amazons not going to wreck my iPad. And Apples going to keep on doing what its doing for a long time to come.

Sometimes its worth stepping back and acknowledging this fact. When someone says something nice about Android or encouraging about the Surface Book or even something dumb about Apples business, they are not threatening us. Apple is perhaps the most profitable company everit doesnt need our help defending it from all enemies, real or imagined. We won. Lets remember that, and be gracious about it.
Bad faith filings by registry pirates in China continue to pose enormous challenges to brand owners, large and small, foreign and domestic.

Chinese pirates, well-informed about the current limitations of the law, have become increasingly adept at extracting ever higher compensation from victim companies. These victim companies often have little choice but to pay up in order to eliminate potential obstacles to the production and distribution of their brands in China.

In May 2014, the National People's Congress passed an amendment to the PRC Trademark Law that introduced several provisions intended to permit victim brands to address bad faith registrations and thereby cut down on the overall number of filings and their related administrative burden. Regrettably, each of these new tools has proved to be of limited utility to date (see below).

However, recent decisions by the Chinese Trademark Office (CTMO) in oppositions involving "serial pirates" suggest a potentially important policy shift in the making.

Article 7  Good faith

The CTMO's ground-breaking decisions are based upon Article 7 of the Trademark Law. Newly-added in 2014, this provision requires applicants to abide by the principle of good faith when applying for marks, thereby implicitly prohibiting the filing of applications in bad faith.

During the drafting process, many brand owners had hoped that Article 7 would provide a safety net for resolving disputes over bad faith registration that would not otherwise be actionable under the law's other provisions (see below). But Chinese authorities made clear during the draft law's consultation period that Article 7 could not be solely relied upon to sustain an opposition. As a result, it had been assumed that Article 7 would only be useful in unusual situations, and only following costly appeals to the Beijing IP Court and the Beijing Higher People's Court. Fortunately, the CTMO began issuing decisions in late 2015 that suggest a willingness to apply Article 7 even in decisions in the first instance.

CTMO decisions

In 2014, the well-known US supermarket chain Whole Foods filed oppositions against two applications by a local serial pirate for the mark 365 Everyday Value covering food and beverage items in classes 29 and 32.

In decisions issued on December 28 2015, the CTMO ruled in favour of Whole Foods. The contents of the decisions addressed the use of Article 7, but also included other apparent innovations.

The CTMO's holding in both oppositions was explicitly based on Article 7 of the Trademark Law. To ensure compliance with the Trademark Law's procedural requirements (ie, the fact that Article 7 could not sustain an opposition by itself), the CTMO referenced Article 7 by means of reliance on Article 30 of the law, which provides a general prohibition against registration of any marks "that do not conform to the law."

The existance of pirate's bad faith was confirmed by the CTMO based on evidence he had filed for over 150 other trade marks, many of which were deemed "famous" in China and had been the subject of numerous prior oppositions and invalidations by the victim brand owners.

The CTMO's decisions did not address whether Whole Foods' mark was "famous" or whether it had previously been used in China. Nor did the decisions assess whether the goods covered by the pirate marks were "similar" to the goods or services of Whole Foods. The foregoing suggests that the CTMO did not regard these factors as preconditions to protection under Article 7.

Finally, the CTMO decisions noted that the pirate had failed to provide a "reasonable explanation" for applying for the 365 Everyday Value mark. This is potentially significant since (as compared to UDRP rules), the PRC Trademark Law does not require alleged bad faith pirates to prove their "good faith" interest in filing for marks. The CTMO's decisions therefore suggest that, once an opposing party has presented reasonable evidence of bad faith, the burden can be shifted to the alleged pirate to prove its good faith.

Whole Foods does not appear to be the only beneficiary of the CTMO's new policies. In another opposition involving the famous Swiss watch brand DOXA, the CTMO rejected an application by a pirate that had filed over 2,000 trade marks, including many globally famous brands.

Take-aways

The pirate in the above Whole Foods case is not expected to appeal. (Indeed, the pirate did not file arguments or evidence in response to the oppositions before the CTMO.) As a result, only time will tell whether the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB) and the courts will support the CTMO's approach with respect to Articles 7 and 30. It likewise remains to be seen whether the CTMO will adopt the same policy in other bad faith registration cases it deals with in the near term that involve a different fact pattern.

Regardless, victim brands are well advised to cite Articles 7 and 30 in oppositions and invalidations against serial pirates  or indeed any case where bad faith is evident but the evidence does not appear to neatly satisfy the requirements found in other provisions in the law.

In cases that are already under judicial appeal, the courts may well reject any new arguments on the basis they were not raised in earlier proceedings before the TRAB. In that case, consideration can be given to filing a fresh (and much cheaper) invalidation to the TRAB, rather than persevering with further appeals before the courts.

Other grounds for addressing bad faith piracy

The CTMO and TRAB have previously relied upon other long-standing provisions in the Trademark Law to address serial pirates, including Article 4 (intent to use), Article 10(1)(8) ("unhealthy influences on society") and Article 44 ("registrations obtained by deceptive or other improper means"). However, more recently the CTMO, TRAB and courts have refrained from citing these provisions in oppositions and invalidations involving bad faith registrations, thus underscoring the potential value of the above decisions.

In the meantime, bad faith registrations that do not involve blatant evidence of serial piracy can be addressed under the following provisions. The chances of success under each will depend greatly on the facts and evidence available, as well as the subjective views of the TMO and TRAB examiners.

Article 15: This provision prohibits unauthorised filings by an agent, representative, or a party with whom the victim brand has had a "business or other relationship". Of course, most registry pirates do not have prior business relations with the victim brands, nor do they engage in competing businesses  thus undermining the value of this new provision.

Article 32: This provision permits action against bad faith filings that violate prior rights, including copyright, rights in personal names, trade names and "merchandising rights". Article 32(2) also offers protection where the victim brand has been used and achieved a definite degree of fame before the pirate's filing date. However, Chinese law requires that such use and fame occur in China, rather than overseas, thus (again) undermining the practical utility of this provision in many cases.

Article 19: This new provision in the Trademark Law allows oppositions or invalidations against trade marks filed by trade mark agencies other than those needed for their own operations. However, Article 19 is not at present applied to cases where the trade mark agency has assigned its application or registration before a decision is issued in an opposition or invalidation  thus providing trade mark agencies with an easy way to avoid harm.

Draft Rules from Supreme People's Court (SPC)

In October 2014, the SPC issued a draft regulation for public comment intended to assist courts in handling appeals involving bad faith registrations, among other things. Drafting of this regulation stalled in 2015, but there are indications the SPC has resumed research and drafting. It remains unclear when it will be issued.

(See previous articles published in Managing IP December 2014, May 2015 and November 2015.)

SIPS Hong Kong

Lockhart Road No 3

Wanchai, Hong Kong

China

mail@sips.asia

Tel: +852 2866 6400

Fax: +852 2866 6408
Higher fuel prices could help lift freight rates - Shanghai broker.



Freight rates for capesize bulk carriers on key Asian routes are likely to hold around the current levels, after a revival in charter rates this week ran out of steam as the fundamentals of too many ships chasing little cargo remained unchanged, ship brokers said.



"Next week is going to be flat," said a Shanghai-based capesize broker on Thursday.



"But bunker prices might give some support for owners to push the market up. So we might see a little improvement in the rates," the broker said.



Capesize freight rates from Western Australia to China hit a three-week high on Tuesday after Hong Kong-headquartered ship operator and commodities trader Caravel chartered the 207,591 deadweight tonne (dwt) ore carrier Seaforce at a rate of $3.09 per tonne for a voyage to Qingdao.



Rates were supported by higher ship fuel prices and a near 20-percent surge in iron ore prices, which climbed to a nine-month high on Tuesday, ship brokers said.



Singapore prices for 380-centistoke high sulphur bunker fuel <FO380-SIN> hit a three-month high this week.



Ship owners trading vessels on the spot charter market pay their own fuel bills so higher bunker prices help support freight rates.



However, capesize freight rates are still range-bound even though a number of ships being idled and scrapped has increased.



More than 60 capesize vessels have been idled and around 5.5 million dwt has been sold for scrap this year because of the poor market conditions, ship brokers said.



Capesize charter rates for the Western Australia-China route were lower at $2.99 a tonne on Wednesday, against $3 per tonne a week earlier.



Rates for the Brazil-China route rose to $5.53 a tonne on Wednesday, the highest since Feb. 29, as compared with $5.45 per tonne the same day last week.



Freight rates from Brazil were buoyed by several charters by Vale.



"We could see Brazil-China rates firm up slightly - it all depends on Vale fixtures for April (loading)," a Singapore-based capesize broker said on Thursday.



Panamax rates for a North Pacific round-trip voyage rose to $4,437 per day on Wednesday, up from $3,387 per day last week. That is the highest since Nov. 4.



Pacific panamax rates were supported by higher charter volumes and tighter tonnage in other panamax markets, including grain cargoes from the east coast of South America, Norwegian ship broker Fearnley said in a note on Wednesday.



Freight rates for smaller supramax vessels were firmer on "good" cargo volumes, Fearnley said.



The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index rose to 376 on Wednesday, up from 335 last week, and was expected to rise to 398, Reuters technical analysis showed.





Reporting by Keith Wallis
1783 - The last naval action of the American Revolution takes place when the Continental frigate Alliance, commanded by Capt. John Barry, battles HMS Sybil south of Cape Canaveral, Fla. Sybil is damaged in the fight and returns to the two warships that did not join in the battle.



1933 - The Pacific Fleet provides assistance after an earthquake at Long Beach, Calif.



1943 - USS Savannah (CL 42) and USS Eberle (DD 430) intercept German blockade runner Karin in the South Atlantic. After boarding the ship, a timed explosion goes off, killing 11 of Eberles boarding party.



1945 - The Navy and civilian nurses interned at Los Banos, Philippines as prisoners of war since early January 1942 are flown back to U.S. The Navy nurses are later awarded the Bronze Star for their time in captivity.



1948 - The carrier suitability of the FJ-1 Fury jet fighter is tested aboard USS Boxer (CV 21) off San Diego, with a number of landings and takeoffs.



2001 - USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG 81) is commissioned at Naval Station Norfolk. The 31st destroyer of the Arleigh Burke-class is the fourth U.S. Navy warship to be named after a British citizen. Churchill has a Royal Naval officer assigned permanently to the ship and she flies the Royal Navys White Ensign as well as the Stars and Stripes.



2001 - USNS Pomeroy (T-AKR-316) is christened and launched at the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, San Diego, Calif.



2007 - USS New Orleans (LPD 18) is commissioned at New Orleans, La. The second of the 12-ship San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock warships, New Orleans is homeported at Naval Base San Diego.





(Source: Naval History and Heritage Command, Communication and Outreach Division)
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. today announced that on March 8, it held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new merchant marine academy in Salitran, Dasmarinas City, the Philippines. It will be jointly established with Magsaysay Maritime Corporation (MMC) (*1), MOLs partner in the Philippines, and is scheduled to open in June 2018.



A large audience was on hand for the groundbreaking ceremony, including special guests from the city of Dasmarinas and from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED); from MOL, Chairman Koichi Muto and Senior Managing Executive Officer Masaaki Nemoto. Everyone in attendance prayed for the safe completion of the construction project.



In 2007, MOL started an onboard training program with its own instructors and crewmembers aboard its training ship Spirit of MOL (*2) with the objective of training seafarers to uphold MOLs high standards of vessel safety. In 2011, MOL introduced a 3rd Year Program under the Philippine governments Academe-Industry Linkage Program (*3) at the Magsaysay Institute of Shipping (*4), established by MOL and MMC in 1993. The program provides education and training to third-year students selected from partner maritime schools in the Philippines.



Filipino seafarers play an essential part in MOLs worldwide vessel operations, and their role is becoming ever more essential as the skills for safe vessel operation become more advanced and sophisticated. MOL will continue to recruit and train top-quality seafarers as it strives to remain a world leader in safe operation. The establishment of one of the worlds largest merchant marine academies in the Asia/Oceania region is a major initiative in the companys ongoing drive to ensure operational safety in all areas of their business.


Carbon War Room (CWR) announced today that a collaboration between Hammonia Reederei, a Hamburg-based shipowner, and New Orleans-based charterer Intermarine, has enabled the retrofit of three sister vessels with multiple efficiency technologies. Under expected operating conditions, each vessel is anticipated to see 25 percent fuel savings, to be shared between Hammonia and Intermarine.



Jose Maria Figueres, Chairman of the Board, Carbon War Room commented This deal proves the profitability of shipowners and charterers collaborating on multi-technology retrofits. Hammonia and Intermarine should be lauded for using innovative financing and best practices in measurement and methodology to win a competitive edge.



CWR awarded Hammonia a $120,000 grant to retrofit the vessels Industrial Ruby, Industrial Royal, and Industrial Revolution. The project won praise for its ambitious use of multiple technologies, as well as for its revenue-sharing collaboration between charterers and owners. Intermarine has agreed to award Hammonia a rate that is above market rates through a retrofit clause in the charter party. This effectively shares the fuel savings between both parties, while also earning Hammonia a five-year time charter.



Furthermore, as Industrial Ruby is Liberian flagged, this vessel is eligible for a 50 percent tonnage tax discount for the first year after retrofit. This is part of the incentive scheme offered by The Liberian Registry to encourage and reward efficiency retrofits using third-party finance.



The retrofit bundle installation includes an optimized bulbous bow, rudder optimisation, high-performance hull coating, and trim and ballast optimisation at standard drydock. The 10,536 dwt Industrial Ruby is the final vessel to leave drydock after undergoing the retrofit and was relaunched on March 1.



Hammonia purchased Industrial Ruby as well as sister vessels Industrial Royal and Industrial Revolution second-hand. The vessels financier has extended the liens to finance the bulk of the $1.2 million retrofits.



Galen Hon, Shipping Operations Manager, Carbon War Room commented: "This deal showcases how to overcome the split incentive between owners and charterers, and delivers hard proof of the fuel savings from deep retrofits. Hammonia and Intermarine should be congratulated for employing best practices to measure and monitor savings, and for sharing their datawhich will increase industry confidence in the profitability of retrofits. These first movers will inspire more owners and charterers to follow in their footsteps.



The CWR grant funded the installation of continuous monitoring software on Industrial Ruby, Industrial Royal, and Industrial Revolution in order to measure, verify, and publicise the fuel and carbon savings. The data will be analysed by the independent third-party University College London (UCL) over a five-year period, with initial results being released to the industry six months post-drydock.



According to DNVGL, only one in 10 companies aims for greater than 10 percent savings from its retrofit projects. After two years of working on retrofit finance, CWR views this deal as a model for the industry to achieve far greater savings, while creating win-win scenarios for both charterers and owners. This is especially pertinent in todays market of overcapacity. CWRs team can work with and support any interested owners or charterers to help them develop or find financing for efficiency retrofit projects.



This project is funded by the Dutch Postcode Lottery, which recently granted 1 million ($1.09 million) to CWR and Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) for their LeaderShip project, expanding their efforts in the Shipping industry, including collaboration with the Port of Rotterdam.



The Dutch Postcode Lottery is thrilled that our commitment to a green and sustainable future is being realised by way of this collaboration, thanks to Carbon War Room and Rocky Mountain Institute. More efficient ships give environmental benefits for port communities around the world said Margriet Schreuders, Head of Charities, Dutch Postcode Lottery.


Projects worth Rs. 1,20,000 Crore ($ 17.5 billion) to be showcased before potential investors at Maritime India Summit 2016, says Shri Nitin Gadkari



Indian Government's Minister for Shipping, Road Transport & Highways, Nitin Gadkari said that projects in the ports and shipping sector, worth an investment of Rs. 1,20,000 Crore ($ 17.5 billion) will be showcased before potential investors at the Maritime India Summit to be held in Mumbai from 14-16 April, 2016.



He was talking to news persons in New Delhi today on the occasion of Media Launch of Maritime India Summit, 2016. The Minister said that the focus of the Government is on creating more jobs in the maritime sector. He added that one crore jobs  4 million direct and 6 million indirect - have been identified to be created in 27 port based industrial clusters, coastal shipping and inland waterways under Sagarmala project.



The Minister underlined that in order to improve manufacturing, there is need to increase exports. While expressing concern over high cost of logistics in India which is currently about 18%, the Minister said that by developing coastal shipping and inland waterways, the transportation cost can be substantially reduced which will reduce logistics cost and make our products more cost effective.



Mr. Gadkari gave details of major initiatives taken by the Government to develop the maritime sector. He said new ports have been announced at Wadhavan, Enayam (near Colachel) and Sagar with investment of Rs. 20,157 crore. In addition 27 projects with investment of Rs. 12,696 crore, adding capacity of 116 MTPA have been awarded in 2015-16 which include JNPT road connectivity (Rs.2,787 Cr) , Paradip mechanisation of coal berths (Rs. 1633 Cr) , Mumbai 5th oil berth (Rs. 811 Cr) , Kandla container terminal (Rs. 263 Cr) , Kolkata FSRU (Rs. 3500 Cr) , Ennore capital dredging (Rs. 425 Cr), Paradip LPG Terminal (Rs. 690 Cr) , New Mangalore mechanization (Rs. 470 Cr) , Goa dredging (Rs. 194 Cr).



The Minister informed that 15 projects with investment of Rs. 6879 crore are to be awarded before 31st March 2016 which include Goa conversion of iron ore berths to multipurpose berths in Mormugao Port(Rs. 1100 Cr), Ennore oil terminal (Rs. 700 Cr), Ennore capital dredging (Rs. 600 Cr) , Haldia floating POL facility (Rs.460 Cr), Mumbai FSRU (Rs. 2740). He said 32 projects with investment of Rs. 4351 crore and capacity of 70 MTPA have been completed in 2015-16 while 46 projects with investment of Rs. 28,040 crore with capacity of 307 MTPA are under implementation.



Speaking on the occasion Secretary, Shipping Rajive Kumar gave details of the Summit which is scheduled in Mumbai. The media launch marks the beginning of a month long campaign to publicize the event nationally and internationally through print, electronic and outdoor media. The objective is to attract potential investment in the rapidly transforming maritime sector.


The calm of the room was broken as a pair of Marines entered with rifles at the ready. One Marine spotted an insurgent hiding in the room. Put your hands up. Put your hands up, yelled the Marine. The startled insurgent, with little hesitation, raised his hands high in the air. A Marine moved quickly to detain and search him as a fellow Marine stood guard. Well done, well done, said an instructor as he walked into the room, lets reset for the next team.



Marines of Company A, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, honed their skills in a close quarter battle team trainer at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, March 8, 2016.



The training focused on room clearing techniques and close quarter marksmanship training with the M4 carbine and the M45A1 close quarters battle pistol in a series of fire-and-maneuver drills.



After completing some familiarization and remediation, the Marines furthered their knowledge and developed their skills by working with the Expeditionary Operations Training Group, which provides training in select special skills and conducts and evaluates collective training in order to prepare units prior to deployment.



We teach Marines everything they need to know about conducting close quarter tactics, reconnaissance and urban sharp shooting, said Gunnery Sgt. Michael Wilkinson, an EOTG instructor.



Following the EOTG training, the Marines worked through realistic urban training, and concluded with a maritime interoperability training exercise. Those packages provide the Marines a common set of skills they can use to work with other components of the U.S. Armed Forces, as well as other maritime partners.



Once they [the Marines] have completed and pass the maritime interoperability training portion of the exercise they are then certified and ready for deployment with (Marine Expeditionary Units), said Wilkinson.



The training the Marines received to become ready for a deployment is crucial to their readiness and offers MEUs an additional capability.



The MEU commanders will have the option to employ a precision raid force when needed, said Wilkinson.

The Marines of 1st Reconnaissance stand ever ready to answer the call to duty, swiftly and silently.





More Media
I awoke inside my coffin rack to the sounds of bottles and other small items clanking on metal surfaces as the USS Somerset rocked back and forth amid violent waves. I checked my phone to look at the time. 0400. Damn. I still had an hour before work. I opened up an electronic book I was reading the night before; Haruki Murakami's "South of the Border, West of the Sun." After swiping through the pages, I saw a quote I had highlighted a while ago:



What we needed were not words or promises, but the steady accumulation of small realities.



The quote referred to building a relationship between two people. However, I felt it also applied to relationships between organizations and it summarized our mission here as interpreters and liaisons. We were responsible for breaking down language and cultural barriers between the United States Marine Corps and Japan's Western Army Infantry Regiment. But more than that we made sure they received the training and knowledge necessary to build a long-term relationship. It was our job to facilitate a steady accumulation of small realities.



I lost myself in the book and soon enough it was sunrise. The Japanese will have already pre-staged their military personnel at the embarking ramp for loading onto the landing craft air cushion hovercraft, ready for their amphibious assault. I washed my face and wiped it dry with a Japanese handkerchief - my most precious keepsake; it was a gift from my mentor and I received it while I was studying for a year in Kobe, Japan. The handkerchief reminded me of the discipline and hard work that I respected so much in the Japanese culture. It seems the Japanese Id met always do their best in every aspect of life.



It was time for me to do my best as well.



EMBARKATION



I met up with the other Marine interpreters on the flight deck. There were four of us total. First was Kaya, a half-Japanese, half-American girl from Utah, who spoke with a valley-girl accent in English, but whose Japanese was impeccable. Christopher was also half-Japanese, half-American, and had some of the best knowledge of Japanese technical terms. Finally, we had Aric, a California kid who had a solid basic foundation of Japanese and who could be counted on to provide supplies and other things we needed when we were over tasked. As the lead noncommissioned officer for the USS Somerset interpreter detachment, I was responsible for tasking each of them out and maintaining accountability.



We headed down the embarking ramp and put our ear plugs on as the deafening sounds of grinding machinery echoed from the belly of the ship, otherwise known as the well-deck. The well-deck was a massive metallic atrium flanked by several ramps from which multiple vehicles could board the hovercrafts and deploy into the water. Its walls were covered with pipes, chains and other metal components. Violent waves crashed and flooded into the main ramp and a couple of curious seals were brave enough to wander into it before being chased away by the Sailors in charge of safety. They were worried the seals would be harmed when we launched.



The Japanese soldiers had already lined themselves up on the walls of one ramp. The combat cargo staff noncommissioned officer, a tough-as-nails woman named Staff Sgt. Jazmen Ruiz, gave me a roster of the Japanese soldiers' names and explained the embarking procedures to us.



The other embarking Marines were already hard at work using hand and arm signals to direct vehicles and ensure the safety of their Japanese soldiers. They made sure that the vehicles fit together in either the ship or the landing craft air cushion, similar to a game of Tetris.



Time to add embarking specialist to my list of military occupational specialties, said Kaya, a Marine who by trade worked for the 7th Engineer Support Battalion.



What she said wasn't far from the truth. We really were required to have knowledge of multiple jobs when working as interpreters and liaisons. Interpretation is tricky, and it's difficult to translate and teach about something you don't fully understand yourself. Furthermore, each word and sentence has subtle connotations and nuances. It's extremely important to not only know the subject, but also the culture of the group of people you are talking to if you want to effectively communicate with them. We owed a lot to Ruiz who was a good teacher herself. She ran us through multiple drills and rehearsals until we were comfortable in the role.



I performed the roll-call and directed the Japanese to each station. I also walked them through embarking procedures prior to them loading up their vehicles and boarding the landing craft air cushion. Kaya went up to the tower and was broadcasting boarding and staging announcements. Christopher was attached to the Japanese landing force and was already lined up with them. We made sure that if the Japanese leadership had questions about the procedures, we provided answers to them or we directed them to the proper subject matter expert.



After the hustle and bustle, 1st Lt. Jacob Greenslade, the officer-in-charge of the embarkation and I got the idea to grab breakfast for the Japanese soldiers. Having staged two-hours prior to the launch and due to the high operational tempo, we knew the Japanese wouldn't have had time to eat breakfast at all. I took Aric with me and went up to the galley where we talked to the lead petty officer who, after some wheeling and dealing, was more than happy to provide us with enough boxes of Poptarts, cereals and fruits.



While Aric distributed the food, I recognized a sleepy face in a Japanese military vehicle, a militarized version of the Toyota Mega Cruiser. It was Mas, a staff sergeant with the Japanese Army and the platoon sergeant of their Fire Support Team. I had been working with him for two years when I was attached to the 1st Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company. A real modern-day samurai, he was proficient in conducting call-for-fire, whether it was artillery, mortars, naval guns or even close air support. I opened up a pack of Poptarts and said hi.



Been a while man, I said to him in Japanese, grinning. I handed him a Poptart which he happily received. He then got out of his vehicle and distributed the food to his guys.



Thanks, said Mas. This'll help out a lot. It's good to see you again.



No problem. You guys got enough water?



He smiled and showed me his canteen.



Awesome. Let's grab some coffee and play some Japanese poker when you guys get back.



Sounds like a plan, he said. He and his troops looked a lot less sleepy as they ate.



STRATEGIC CORPORAL



It was nearly 10 a.m. by the time the last of the landing force embarked and our day had just begun. The day before, I organized a gear class for the Japanese landing force officer and his staff taught by Cpl. Simmons, an infantry platoon sergeant with Bravo Company, 4th Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment. Simmons was an example of what retired Gen. Charles Krulak defined as the strategic corporal: knowledgeable about his job field and physically strong. Although Simmons was rough around the edges, he spoke clearly and with intent. Simmons also wanted to build a relationship with the Japanese and he understood that the decisions he makes at his level can have a significant impact on the mission.



The Japanese soldiers were more than happy to receive knowledge from the experienced Marine grunts on how to improve their mobility and combat effectiveness by properly configuring their gear. Simmons and his Marines showed the different configurations of their packs, depending on personal preference, which weapons they needed to carry and their experiences in the field.



Simmons and his platoon had interacted with the Japanese before in Marine Corps Ground Air Combat Center Twentynine Palms. A few of his Marines even sparred with one of the Japanese soldiers who happened to be a Judo Black Belt. Simmons kept an open mind about what the Japanese had to teach and his Marines were more than happy to step up and teach too. They each used hand gestures and body language to communicate in addition to their words.



It's all about personal preference and comfort, said Simmons as he loosened the straps on his pack, allowing the hip strap to settle on his lower back, beneath his plate carrier. Each ounce of pain compounds itself when you're patrolling.



Due to the success of the class, we got ambitious and tried to plan and execute an informal small unit tactics class to be held that afternoon during some downtime. We had gotten permission from the Marine first sergeant and were pretty excited for it.



Until then Kaya, Aric and I kept ourselves gainfully employed, resolving any logistical, planning and operational issues that came up and functioned as the intermediary between the staff of the USS Somerset and the Western Army Infantry Regiment's landing force staff. Such tasks included resolving any issues that the Japanese landing force commander had about transportation and communication for the amphibious landing exercise, being the middleman for media content between the Japanese staff and Marine Corps public affairs and conducting physical training with both the Japanese soldiers and the Marines.



It was early afternoon and nearly time for the small unit tactics class. The Japanese had gathered an entire platoon at the flight deck to participate. I looked for Simmons and he was nowhere to be found. I found out that he was ordered to conduct rehearsals and construct terrain models for their amphibious landing and assault. Now, any Marine who has been in the Corps longer than 30 minutes knows that plans change all of the time, but I was worried about how the Japanese soldiers would react to the sudden change of plans.



There are many ways to apologize in Japanese, and I used the most formal expression: Moushiwake arimasen, which meant I made a mistake and that I had no excuse. The lesson was canceled. Their officer-in-charge released them back to their regular tasks.



Hey, no big deal. This happens in the Japanese military too. Plans change, said Yuya, a Japanese Army ranger who I had went to the gym with before. It came as a welcome relief that the Japanese were also used to abrupt changes in plans.



Yeah, thats the military isnt it? I scratched my head and laughed at myself. We then sat at the flight deck for a while and relaxed for a bit. There would be another chance to teach.



SMALL REALITIES



After dinner, I visited the command center in the bridge and made sure there were no additional interpreting tasks required from us. I then went back to the sleeping quarters, sat on my coffin rack and opened up the Murakami book.



As I started to doze off, I heard somebody call my name. It was a Japanese officer we nicknamed Slick, for his long hair which was gelled back and his incredible English-speaking skills. I got out of my coffin rack and suited up. His superiors tasked him with getting some of the video footage from Marine Corps Public Affairs and he didn't know how to reach them. Sounded like a job for me.



Ultimately, we were there as interpreters and liaisons to break down the language barrier, and offer Marines a way to communicate with, understand and navigate the differences in culture of the foreign military we were working with.



More than that, I believed we were facilitators, being the intermediary between the higher level commands of both sides, we were the first to know what needed to get done, and thus, it was also our job to make sure it got done.



It was our job not to only to convey words or promises, but to provide the steady accumulation of small realities.



I put my boots and my blouse on and got to work.





More Media
Publications

This page provides direction to authentic current digital versions of publications issued by Headquarters Marine Corps Staff Agencies, Major Commands, and other DoD and Federal Agencies that issue publications used by the Marine Corps. Not all publications in use by the Marine Corps have been digitized, but this is the official source for those that have. Report problems with the links to HQMC ARDE, at (703) 614-1712 or Send Email: smb.hqmc.arde@usmc.mil. Subject:"Help with Publications Webpage"
As of Wednesday afternoon, the Henry County Sheriffs Office was looking for a fourth suspect charged in the murder early Tuesday morning of Damien Anthony Ferrell of Fieldale. The fourth suspect  Adrian Lewis Purcell, 32, of 1420 Yancey Street, Reidsville, North Carolina  is considered armed and dangerous.

According to Henry County Sheriff Lane Perry, family members of the other three suspects turned them in Tuesday night. Those three suspects are Malik Davon Galloway, 20, of 45 Vera Drive Apartment 7, Collinsville; Kerry Marcel Scales Jr., 19, of 148 New Hope Drive, Bassett; and Sean Demetrus Goddard, 18, of Martinsville.

All three of them and Purcell are charged with first-degree murder, robbery and use of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Purcell also is charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

According to a news release from HCSO, the murder occurred Tuesday at about 12:10 a.m. The Martinsville/Henry County Emergency 911 Center received a call that an individual had been shot at 167 Chadmore Drive, Fieldale. The victim  Ferrell, 20, of 167 Chadmore Drive, Fieldale  was transported to Memorial Hospital in Martinsville where he was pronounced dead.

The release added that through the course of the investigation, it was determined that an argument ensued between the victim (Ferrell), Galloway, Scales, Goddard and another individual. The argument culminated in Ferrell being shot multiple times. Through the course of the investigation, the fourth individual involved in this murder was identified as Purcell, the release said.

Perry said the sheriffs office still is looking for a white Ford Expedition with after-market wheels that possibly was pulling an enclosed utility trailer.

Perry said officers believe that at some point Tuesday, suspect(s) were in that vehicle, but he doesnt know if Purcell is in the vehicle now.

Officers have information that a long gun was stolen from the residence, Perry said. We feel it was a rifle. That long gun has not been recovered.

The sheriffs office is not certain what else was taken during the robbery. Were trying to confirm that, Perry said.

We think the suspects went to the location to buy drugs or wanting to take drugs, Perry said. He added he didnt know what type of drugs.

A weapon has been recovered, but officers do not know if it is the murder weapon. It will be sent for analysis, Perry said. He declined to comment on what type of weapon.

He said he had not heard any preliminary autopsy results.

Perry said Purcell is considered armed and dangerous.

Perry said he hopes Purcell will turn himself in promptly, as the other suspects did. Perry praised their families.

Once we had suspects identified, and we started checking, family members called, giving us good information, Perry said. Family members brought in three of the four suspects to the magistrates or sheriffs offices, Perry said.

Family members were invested in the community, Perry said, adding, We were thankful there were no outbursts and no dangers to the community.

Perry declined to comment about whether suspects have given statements in the case, or about sources of information, but he did say that he is hard-pressed to remember any case where the sheriffs office has had this much cooperation.

He also said we feel weve got a pretty accurate picture of what happened leading up to the incident and what happened during the incident, including the murder.

The public is advised not to approach Purcell if you see him. If you know the type of vehicle he is driving and the license plate number, you can report that to the sheriffs office.

Perry said it is possible Purcell is in Henry County or Martinsville, but it may be more likely that he is in the Eden, Reidsville or toward Greensboro areas of North Carolina.

Perry praised investigators and officers with the Henry County Sheriffs Office for the long hours they have worked on the case, trying to help keep the public safe.

According the HCSO news release and Perry, anyone having information regarding this murder, the weapon(s) or stolen property, or the whereabouts of Purcell is asked to contact the sheriffs office at 638-8751 or Crimestoppers at 63-CRIME (632-7463). The Crimestoppers Program offers rewards up to $2,500 for information related to crime. The nature of the crime and the substance of the information determine the amount of reward paid.

Monica Hatchett, coordinator of family and community engagement for Henry County Public Schools, said Ferrell was a graduate of Bassett High School. Goddard, Galloway and Scales are students who transferred out of our system, though they did all previously attend Bassett High School. Counselors are available on an as-needed basis for students as they learn more about the story.
Patti Devine's earliest memories of the parade date back to when she was very young.

"My father was in the Navy and we moved around a lot. I was born in Newport, but our family moved to Holyoke when I was just about three or four years old. I can still remember our house on 650 High Street in the Churchill section of the city. We lived on the first floor and I remember standing on the windowsill, so that I could overlook all those people standing along the street and see the parade," Devine said.

"When the Grand Colleen float would pass by, my dad would say that I was going to be the colleen someday. I never thought that one day I would serve on the Holyoke St. Patrick's Parade Committee, let alone be named the parade's Grand Marshal," she added.

Ray Feyre, longtime Holyoke St. Patrick's Parade Committee member and last year's Grand Marshal, oversaw the selection process for this year's marshal.

"There is no doubt about it. When you look at Patti's career in the public sector and her private accomplishments, she is a wonderful selection for this year's Grand Marhsal. She's a person of real high energy and it is wonderful to be able to recognize someone from within our own committee to lead this year's parade," said Feyre.

"It's really the thrill of a lifetime to be selected, and so very unexpected," said Devine, who instead of working behind the scenes will actually be stepping out as part of this year's parade.

"It's the Grand Marshal who is in charge of the weather each year on parade day. So I have my rosary beads hanging outside.... it's an old tradition....to keep the rain away. And, I'm wearing my flip flop earring so it feels more like summertime," she laughed.

Devine has been an active member of the St. Patrick's Committee of Holyoke for some 30 years. She has served on or chaired nearly every committee, including the Coronation Ball, Citizenship Dinner, Grand Marshal's Reception, Memorial Mass, JFK Award Reception, Colleen Contest and others. She has also held several positions on the Parade Committee's Board of Directors.

The Grand Marshal - who also received the Rohan Award in 2001 - holds an important place in the history of the Holyoke St. Patrick's Parade Committee. While Anne McHugh was the first woman to serve on the parade committee by virtue of becoming Parade Marshal, which carries a lifetime membership with it, Devine was the first woman to apply for membership and join the committee.

"Anne was my true mentor," Devine said.

Devine is the daughter of the late Gerald D. and Adele A. (Wojtowicz) Devine. She has been a member of the St. Patrick's Committee of Holyoke since 1987. A graduate of Holyoke Catholic High School, she attended Holyoke Community College and Bridgewater State College. In 2014, Devine retired from the Massachusetts Lottery Commission. Besides her dedication to the Parade Committee, she is also known for her long tenure in the public service. From 1990-2000 and from 2006-2012, she was elected as a Holyoke City Councilor. She is currently a Fire Commissioner for the city of Holyoke.

When asked what moment she will never forget throughout her tenure of the parade committee, Devine said being Grand Marshal this year definitely rates as one of them.



"But, I think it's that first committee meeting way back when. It was really a big deal and there were newspaper and television reporters there. And, I remember driving down to the meeting with Jim O'Leary and Anne McHugh because they didn't want me to have to walk into the meeting by myself," Devine said.


Cultural council meeting Agawam - The Agawam Cultural Council is meeting on Tuesday, March 15, 7 p.m. at the Agawam Public Library, 750 Cooper St. The meeting is open to the public.

If you have an interest in providing diverse cultural events for the town, a opportunity exists with the Agawam Cultural Council (ACC). This all-volunteer organization, appointed by the mayor and funded, in part, by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, is looking for new members. The ACC is charged with bringing engaging, entertaining, and educational events and opportunities in the arts, humanities, and interpretive sciences, to children and adults from Agawam and the surrounding communities.
MGM Resorts International and Connecticut's two tribal casino operators delivered opposing arguments before Connecticut lawmakers Thursday, as the legislature's Commerce Committee considers whether to require additional study before allowing construction of the state's third casino.

MMCT, the joint Mohegan-Mashantucket Pequot company authorized by Connecticut to seek a new casino site near the I-91 corridor, is still hoping to open before MGM Springfield, and has come out against additional studies which could delay its development efforts.

"The Massachusetts casino when it opens its doors will strike a devastating blow to our state," said Mashantucket Pequot Chairman Rodney Butler, adding that the tribes have already funded a study showing more than 9,000 Connecticut jobs could be lost due to increased casino competition.

MGM Resorts International Executive Vice President Alan Feldman said the state should not rush into a new casino deal, which he described as being driven by MMCT rather than state regulators. His company has funded a competing study by Oxford Economics whose preliminary findings advocate for a new casino in Southwestern Connecticut rather than one near the Massachusetts border.

"This committee has the opportunity to set things right and do the type of proper independent analysis that should have been done last year," Feldman said in written testimony. "Good public policy is rooted in doing the research. Don't just trust special interests - but verify."

MGM legal counsel Uri Clinton said that state law should lead the legislature to do a comprehensive independent study before approving new casino development, especially given the contradictory studies put forwarded by MGM and MMCT.

Sen. Joan Hartley also took note of the muddled scholarly evidence at the hearing.

"We're in the position now where we have dueling studies," Hartley said. "Just this week, very curiously, dropped on my desk was another study."

MMCT, the Mohegan-Mashantucket Pequot company that was authorized by the state to seek a casino site last June, is in the process of choosing a prospective casino site and has narrowed the field to three municipalities. Last month Rep. Chris Perone proposed that the state take a step back and conduct its own study of the issue.

"Let's make decisions based on the analysis of our overall gaming climate in the state of Connecticut," Perone said when he introduced the bill last month, according to the Hartford Courant. "That's what this is really about."

The proposal drew pushback from MMCT arguing that the issue had been studied enough. The company cited studies it commissioned by political scientist Clyde Barrow which found that competition from MGM Springfield and other new casinos could cost Connecticut thousands of jobs, and that a $300 million casino in north-central Connecticut could recoup much of those losses.

In a subsequent op/ed for the Hartford Courant, Perone said he was sticking with his call for more analysis but did not believe it would delay the tribes' casino plans.

Another act of the legislature is still required to build the casino.

Feldman's appearance was the company's first public address in Connecticut since a pair of corporate moves that may complicate the state's casino development process.

MGM funded its own study that was released a week ago and found that Southwestern Connecticut is a better location for a new casino than the I-91 corridor near Springfield. And the company, which is already suing to overturn the state's gaming act, is helping to fund a new lawsuit by the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation alleging that Connecticut's gaming law is discriminatory.

Schaghticoke Chief Richard Velky also testified, arguing that the gaming law is unconstitutional. He also shed some light on his tribe's relationship with MGM, saying that he asked the company for help during discussions over the gaming act last year, and that MGM has helped pay legal bills tied to the new lawsuit.

"I reached out to MGM and asked them to help the Schaghticoke nation financially because this was we an interest that we had," Velky said.

Butler, in an interview outside the hearing room, said that MMCT still expects to beat MGM Springfield to its 2018 opening date, despite a site selection process that has extended beyond an original December deadline. Even if a new Connecticut casino opens after MGM Springfield, Butler said he was optimistic the company's detailed market knowledge of New England gamblers would give it a competitive advantage.

Barrow, who conducted the studies funded by the tribes, said that the Oxford Economics study funded by MGM is speculative, uses imprecise data, is not transparent in its methodology and unfairly compares a proposed $1 billion casino in Southwestern Connecticut to a smaller casino closer to Massachusetts. Barrow also cast doubt on the motives of the study, intimating it was funded to advance MGM's corporate interests.

"It is no accident that this sleight of hand is buried deep in the middle of paragraphs on p. 25 and p. 27 of their report as they know full well that most readers will never read beyond the executive summary," Barrow said in written testimony. "The Oxford Economic report is a Trojan Horse."

Fred Carstensen, a University of Connecticut business professor whose Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis has been contracted to conduct yet another study of casino impacts by MGM, took an opposing view. He said that Barrow's analysis was far too rosy on the prospects for a small casino on the I-91 corridor, and had not taken into account the revenues that the casino would cannibalize from other businesses in the state.

He described the push to quickly build a new casino as a "panic," and cited lower-than-expected revenues at Massachusetts' Plainridge Park casino to argue that MMCT's plan could fail and lead to a "zombie" gaming site.

"I see no coherent evidence that it will work," Carstensen said. "It's very hard for me to envision why people would stop in Windsor Locks near the airport instead of driving another 20 minutes to a facility three or four times larger."

A number of casino employees and local business owners also testified on behalf of MMCT, describing the casinos as essential to their livelihoods.
Connecticut Tribes-Casino

Kevin Brown, left, Chairman of the Mohegan Tribal Council and Rodney Butler, right, chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council, host an historic signing ceremony, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2015, at the state Capitol in Hartford, Conn., formalizing their new casino venture north of the city.

(Lauren Schneiderman/Hartford Courant via AP)

Update, 11:30 a.m.: Follow live coverage here:

An MGM Resorts International Executive plans to testify during a hearing on Connecticut's latest casino bill this morning, as the company has intensified its efforts to prevent the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes from being a casino near the site of MGM Springfield.

MGM Resorts International Executive Vice President Alan Feldman will testify at the Connecticut statehouse during the hearing, MGM confirmed Wednesday. The bill in question would require more study of Connecticut's gaming market before authorizing the construction of a new casino, and is sponsored by State Rep. Chris Perone.

"Let's make decisions based on the analysis of our overall gaming climate in the state of Connecticut," Perone said when he introduced the bill last month, according to the Hartford Courant. "That's what this is really about."

The proposal drew pushback from MMCT, the Mohegan-Mashantucket Pequot company that was authorized by the state to seek a casino site last June, with MMCT arguing that the issue had been studied enough. The company cited a study it commissioned by political scientist Clyde Barrow which found that competition from MGM Springfield an other new casinos could cost Connecticut thousands of jobs.

In a subsequent op/ed for the Hartford Courant, Perone said he was sticking with his call for more analysis but did not believe it would delay the tribes' casino plans.

Another act of the legislature is still required to build the casino.

Feldman's appearance will be the company's first public address in Connecticut since a pair of corporate moves that may complicate the state's casino development process.

MGM funded its own study that was released a week ago and found that Southwestern Connecticut

is a better location for a new casino than the I-91 corridor near Springfield. And the company, which is already suing to overturn the state's gaming act, is helping to fund a new lawsuit by the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation alleging that Connecticut's gaming law is discriminatory.
Schools and government buildings statewide held tornado drills Wednesday morning to practice their emergency plans. Test messages were broadcasted on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather radios and the Emergency Alert System. All North Carolinians are encouraged to participate in these drills.

In 2015, the National Weather Service (NWS) issued 25 tornado warning for North Carolina and recorded nine tornadoes. There were 98 flash flood warning issued last year and 133 incidents of flash flooding across the state. In addition, the NWS issued more than 528 severe thunderstorm warning, and recorded more than 542 incidents of severe thunderstorms with damaging winds and/or large hail. Combined, severe storms, flash flooding and tornadoes caused nearly $12.5 million in damage.

While spring and late fall are typically peak tornado season, severe thunderstorms and tornadoes can happen at any time of the year as much of the state saw first-hand when tornadoes touched down more than a week ago.

Tornadoes usually form during heavy thunderstorms when warm, moist air collided with cold air. These storms can also produce large hail and strong, damaging winds.

Emergency management officials recommend having a weather radio that broadcasting NWS alerts when severe weather threatens. Many North Carolina tornado fatalities have occurred at night when people are asleep and less likely receive a warning without a weather radio.

Safety tips:

-Watch means a tornado is possible

-Warning means a tornado has been spotted

- in the event of a tornado take shelter in an interior room, basement, away from windows

-If driving, leave your vehicle immediately, seek safety

-If outdoors, take cover in low-lying flat area

-After the storm, wear sturdy shoes, long sleeves and gloves around debris

-Be aware of damaged power or gas lines
Chicken will be the best-positioned protein due to its low price position in times of pressure on consumer spending power but rises in production costs and the long-term impact of COVID-19 threaten to disrupt the sector, according to Rabobank.
by Philip Rosenstein , Staff Writer, March 10, 2016

Last nights bilingual Univision/Washington Post and Facebook debate pressed the Democratic candidates on issues central to Hispanic-American voters, particularly immigration, jobs and education.

Worthy of note was the intense questioning from moderators Maria Elena Salinas, Karen Tumulty and Jorge Ramos, all consistently insisted on getting an answer to the question asked.

The questions themselves were some of the most scathing and blunt seen on the debate stage thus far. They ranged from, Is Donald Trump a racist, to a video of the mother of a serviceman killed in Benghazi accusing Hillary Clinton of lying to her. The moderators asking the Secretary point-blank whether she lied.

A discussion of deportation highlighted the complete disconnect between the Republican and Democratic positions.

Both Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton asserted that they would not deport children here illegally. Clinton had a bit of a harder time than Sanders when asked whether she would also end deportations of non-criminal illegal immigrants.

advertisement advertisement

Nicholas Confessore, part of the team offering live analysis of debates at The New York Times, pointed out: The Republicans have slid toward the Trump position of mass deportation. The consensus Democratic position is now virtually no deportation.

Hispanic voters will surely feel troubled with the chasm between the two positions, as uncertainty in these issues is stressful.

Immigration also served as the most touching moment of the evening. Asking the question in Spanish, a mother whose husband was deported queried the candidates on what they would do to reunite her family.

Both candidates responded effectively, as an additional moderator in the audience translated for the questioner in a whisper. Clinton and Sanders would do their utmost to reunite families separated by deportation.

The differences between Clinton and Sanders are further crystallizing.

Sanders wants to paint his opponent as an agent of the corporate class, bringing up the Secretarys paid speeches once again.

Conversely, Clinton positions herself as the positive candidate who will bring people together and bridge divides by break[ing] down all the barriers that stand in the way of people living up to their own potential.

Jorge Ramos, in a move that should be imitated in future debates, closed out the night appealing to the Spanish-speaking audience to vote on the 15th, when Florida goes to the polls to pick their nominees. Ramos, whose daughter is working in the Clinton campaign, noted the importance of the Latino vote this cycle.
by Karlene Lukovitz @KLmarketdaily, March 10, 2016

California-based Califia Farms, makers of plant powered beverages including almond milks and creamers, cold-brew coffees and citrus drinks, has launched its first major marketing campaign.

The campaign  the first creative for the fast-growing company from Erwin Penland, which was named its creative AOR late last year  includes a 30-second video (below) that spotlights the products through stop-motion-like effects.

The video, Califia Farms Loves You Back (with a heart icon used in place of the word loves), includes both health and sustainability messaging. A voiceover asks: What if your food could actually love you back? And couldnt it be good for you and your planet?

advertisement advertisement

The video is being featured on digital channels and the brands social media assets.

The larger campaign includes pre-roll, display and rich-media digital advertising, and paid and organic social advertising.

The brands trucks are also featuring blown-up ads.

Founded in 2010 by a farmers co-operative based in the San Joaquin Valley, headed by Greg Steltenpohl, Califia Farms, is now the leading brand in the natural products coffee drinks category, according to the company. Its Bakersfield-based manufacturing plant uses artisanal, eco-friendly processes.
by Larissa Faw , March 10, 2016

Veuve Clicquot is launching its first-ever digital advertising campaign by resurrecting the Champagne Houses namesake, Madame Clicquot, who ran the company during the 19th century.

Developed with its new creative AOR Rokkan, the "Let Life Surprise You" campaign is designed to reach "stylish, empowered, and influential females, just like Madame Clicquot," the company said.

The campaign centers around three films that support the brand's heritage and "break the formality surrounding champagne consumption" through everyday experiences. Actress Juliette Binoche serves as the voice of Madame Clicquot.

Our goal as the creative lead in developing this new campaign was to bring [Madame Clicquots] story to life in a way that would resonate and inspire a new generation, says John Noe, CEO and Founder of Rokkan.

advertisement advertisement

The On Entertaining clip shows a group of friends gathering for an impromptu party  one friend brings takeout, another decor, and another assembles wine glasses and tumblers before opening a bottle of Veuve Clicquot. The ad ends with the surprise that this party is not in a home, but in fact in an operating furniture and design store.

The On Making an Impression spot depicts a young woman who sneaks her way into an exclusive party to give her resume to a powerful business woman. She successfully navigates around the Napoleonic Code just in time to be invited to the table.

Lastly, the On Negotiating" spot shows two friends bargaining over the price of a vintage coat. When the estate salesman will not seem to negotiate, the women decide that its nothing a bottle of Veuve Clicquot cant fix.

These clips appear on the brands Tumblr page and YouTube channel, and are supported through social media outreach.

This entire project represents a new direction for the champagne brand which traditionally has been aimed at older drinkers. We have found great success reaching our consumer through events like the Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic and our national tours, but we wanted to extend further. Advertising allows us to share our message on a broader scale," stated Vanessa Kay, SVP, Veuve Clicquot, U.S.
by Steve McClellan @mp_mcclellan, March 10, 2016

J. Walter Thompsons Chief Communications Officer Erin Johnson filed an explosive lawsuit in New York Federal Court today. It charges her boss, Global CEO Gustavo Martinez, with sexual harassment and routinely making racist and sexist slurs within the agencys offices and other public venues in front of numerous witnesses and even on tape.

Martinez issued a statement through parent company WPP: I am aware of the allegations made against me by a J. Walter Thompson employee in a suit filed in New York Federal Court. I want to assure our clients and my colleagues that there is absolutely no truth to these outlandish allegations, and I am confident that this will be proven in court.

In her complaint, Johnson said that Martinez subjected her and other employees to an unending stream of racist and sexist comments as well as unwanted touching and other unlawful conduct.

She recounted one incident that occurred last May at the companys New York offices where Martinez approached Johnsons desk and told her to come to him so he could rape [her] in the bathroom, that was nearby. He then grabbed Johnson around the neck with an arm and began laughing.

advertisement advertisement

Later that day, the complaint alleges, Martinez interrupted a meeting among multiple female employees, including Johnson. Martinez asked Johnson in front of the other women which female staff member he could rape.

The complaint also references a separate incident where Martinez allegedly told an agency employee that one of the firms senior female global executives needed to be hog-tied and raped into submission. Martinez allegedly did not like the executive because she was too bossy and too American and that she should shut up her mouth.

Johnson also alleges that Martinez on numerous occasions touched her inappropriately, including grabbing her by the throat and back of the neck, rubbing her shoulders and pushing her.

The suit also spells out examples of Martinez using slurs about people of color and Jews. At one gathering of senior agency executives, including Stefano Zunino, Brent Choi, Lynn Power, Lorenzo Vallone and Douglas Fajardo, Martinez allegedly referred to a U.S. Customs agents countenance as a Guatemalan monkey face, a reference to his dark-colored skin.

Johnson also charged that Martinez regularly makes anti-Semitic remarks. Her complaint referenced a senior-level meeting in London where Martinez said he and his wife disliked living in Westchester County, New York, because he hate[s] those fucking Jews.

Johnson said in her legal brief that she notified officials at JWT and WPP of Martinez transgressions because she feared that word of them would leak, causing a loss of reputation and clients to the firm. When she confronted Martinez with his own bad behavior, she alleged that he ignored and mocked her concerns.

Johnson also said she complained to the Chief Talent Officer at JWT, Laura Agostini, about the CEOs unwanted touching. According to Johnson, Agostini replied that Martinez touched her based on his affection for her and implied that therefore his conduct was acceptable.

Johnson also said that Agostini witnessed Martinez making racist remarks, including referring to African-Americans as black monkeys and apes, as well as some of his statements about rape. Johnson followed up with the Chief Talent Officer on several occasions to see what, if anything, was being done to address her concerns.

No one, however, took steps to correct Martinezs conduct or otherwise demonstrated any inclination to stop his behavior, she charges.

Johnson also said in her court filing that she asked for advice from a WPP PR executive while on a trip to London. She thought perhaps a WPP lawyer should talk to Martinez about his behavior. The executive, Johnson alleged, warned her that if she complained about Martinez, her career would be adversely affected, that she would be 'exposed' and that Martinez would 'find out'."

Johnson also alleged that the firm retaliated against her for raising issues about Martinezs behavior and denied her significant opportunities and reduced her compensation.

On Feb. 22, Johnson said in her brief that she sent letters to JWT, WPP and Martinez (defendants charged in her complaint) indicating that she believed she had been subjected to unlawful discrimination and retaliation. Shortly thereafter, she was put on paid leave.

In addition to a ruling in her favor, Johnson wants back pay, compensatory and punitive damages and reinstatement.
Mice that repeatedly had to confront the intruder found it harder to remember the location of the escape hole, whereas the mice that were not stressed were able to find it.

The team had mice get used to a maze with an escape hole. They then exposed the mice to repeat visits from a larger, aggressive intruder mouse.

Ultimately, the researchers hope the findings will help people who live with ongoing stress.

Researchers led by Jonathan Godbout, associate professor of neuroscience at Ohio State University, investigated the relationship between prolonged stress and short-term memory loss in mice.

People who experience chronic stress due to bullying or a tough job also run a higher risk of memory loss, according to a new study published in The Journal of Neuroscience.

The problems resolved within 28 days, but until then, the mice showed evidence of social avoidance, a measure of depressive behavior.

The inability to remember coincided with measurable changes in the mices brains. Immune cells, or macrophages, appeared in the brains of the stressed mice, indicating that inflammation had resulted from the immune systems response to the stress.

Moreover, focus on the hippocampus, a hub of memory and emotional response, revealed shortfalls in the development of new neurons at 10 and 28 days after the stressful period ended.

The team concludes that the short-term memory loss is linked to brain inflammation and the immune system.

John Sheridan, associate director of Ohio States Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research, explains: Stress releases immune cells from the bone marrow, and those cells can traffic to brain areas associated with neuronal activation in response to stress. Theyre being called to the brain, to the center of memory.

This experience of repeated dominance by an alpha mouse and persistent social defeat will be familiar to many people who live with chronic psychosocial stress.

The scientists hope that a better understanding of stress and cognitive and mood problems could help create strategies for those whose daily lives involve anxiety, depression and ongoing problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder. One solution could be to find a way to interrupt the inflammation.

Godbout says:

The impact on memory and confirmation that the brain inflammation is caused by the immune system are important new discoveries. Its possible we could identify targets that we can treat pharmacologically or behaviorally.

Medical News Today reported recently that being overweight or obese can affect the memory.
Now, Dr. Mu-Hong Chen, of the National Yang-Ming University in Taipei, Taiwan, and colleagues suggest a diagnosis of ADHD may be related to the age at which they start school.

The causes of ADHD remain unclear, though some studies have suggested that it may be down to genes, use of alcohol, cigarettes or drugs during pregnancy, exposure to environmental toxins  such as lead  at a young age or brain injury.

ADHD is characterized by poor attention, hyperactivity and impulsive behavior. It is most commonly diagnosed at the age of 7, and boys are more likely to be diagnosed with the condition than girls.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ( ADHD ) is estimated to affect around 6.4 million children aged 4-17 in the US, making it one of the most common childhood conditions.

The age at which a child starts school may influence their likelihood of being diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, suggests a new study published in The Journal of Pediatrics.

To reach their findings, the team analyzed 1997-2011 data involving 378,881 children aged 4-17 years.

Fast facts about ADHD Between 2003-2011, the number of children diagnosed with ADHD in the US increased from 7.8% to 11%

Boys are more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than girls

Children with a history of ADHD have almost three times as many peer problems as those without a history of ADHD. Learn more about ADHD

The researchers assessed the prevalence of ADHD diagnosis among the children and whether they were prescribed medication for the condition.

They also looked at what age the children were enrolled in school, taking into account the annual cut-off date for school entry in Taiwan: August 31st.

The team compared ADHD prevalence and medication prescription among the youngest children in a grade (those who were born in August) with the older children in a grade (those born in September).

The researchers found that preschool and elementary school children born in August were more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD and receive medication for the disorder, compared with those born in September.

Adolescents who were born in August, however, were at no higher risk of an ADHD diagnosis than those born in September.

This result may imply that as age and maturity level increased in teenage years, the influence of birth month would have less of an impact on ADHD diagnosis and treatment, say the authors.

This prompts the question: are many schoolchildren being misdiagnosed with ADHD because they are displaying immature behaviors relative to their older classmates?

Commenting on their results, the researchers say:

Relative age, as an indicator of neurocognitive maturity, may play a crucial role in the risk of being diagnosed with ADHD and receiving ADHD medication among children and adolescents. Our findings emphasize the importance of considering the age of a child within a grade when diagnosing ADHD and prescribing medication to treat ADHD.

Last month, Medical News Today reported on a study suggesting ADHD medication may raise the risk of low bone density for children.
A journal paper by over 30 researchers and clinicians says that in the light of the ever-increasing number of studies implicating microbes in Alzheimers disease, it is time to re-evaluate the idea of infection as a cause of the neurodegenerative disorder. Share on Pinterest The authors want more attention given to the idea that microbes find their way into the brain via the bloodstream and lie dormant until triggered by aging, immune system decline or stress. In an editorial in the Journal of Alzheimers Disease, the experts say they are concerned that mainstream research appears to be neglecting the idea that microbes could be a cause of Alzheimers disease  even though treatment based on it might slow or arrest the disease. They refer in particular to evidence linking the development of Alzheimers disease (AD) to three microbes: the virus that causes cold sores  herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV1)  chlamydia bacteria and a type of corkscrew-shaped bacteria called spirochaete. They note: The ever-increasing number of these studies (now about 100 on HSV1 alone) warrants re-evaluation of the infection and AD concept. The authors, including experts from the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester and Edinburgh in the UK, say the abundant data implicating microbes in the development of Alzheimers has been largely ignored or dismissed as controversial. Also, they note how proposals for clinical trials to follow up on this evidence have been refused  despite the fact that over the last 10 years we have observed the failure of over 400 clinical trials testing more accepted theories of Alzheimers.

Incontrovertible evidence of dormant microbes in Alzheimers The experts liken the opposition to the ideas they propose to the fierce resistance that met many studies that showed cancer could arise from viruses or that bacteria could cause stomach ulcers  ideas since proved to be correct in clinical trials and the development of subsequent new treatments. The authors want to see more attention given to the idea that microbes find their way into the brain via the bloodstream and lie dormant until triggered by aging, immune system decline or by different types of stress. Once they are activated, the microbes then damage brain cells  either directly or via inflammation. This approach also suggests beta-amyloid  the faulty protein that is found in the brains of people with Alzheimers disease  is not a primary cause of disease but initially, appears to be only a defense mechanism, note the editorial authors. One of the authors, Douglas Kell, a professor at Manchester Universitys School of Chemistry and also of the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, says there is evidence of dormant microbes hiding in what was thought to be sterile red blood cells  a finding that has implications for blood transfusions. He describes the trigger mechanism: We are saying there is incontrovertible evidence that Alzheimers disease has a dormant microbial component, and that this can be woken up by iron dysregulation. Removing this iron will slow down or prevent cognitive degeneration  we cant keep ignoring all of the evidence. Another editorial author, Prof. Resia Pretorius, of the University of Pretoria in South Africa, adds: The microbial presence in blood may also play a fundamental role as causative agent of systemic inflammation, which is a characteristic of Alzheimers disease  particularly, the bacterial cell wall component and endotoxin, lipopolysaccharide. Prof. Pretorius says there is also evidence that this can lead to brain inflammation and the beta-amyloid plaques seen in Alzheimers disease. The authors note that the ideas and findings they mention could also have implications for Parkinsons disease and other brain-wasting conditions.
A new study describes a pioneering new cataract treatment  tested in animals and in a small trial with human patients  where, after the cloudy lens is removed, the eye grows a new lens from its own stem cells. Share on Pinterest Current approaches to cataract surgery remove the eyes lens-generating stem cells along with the faulty lens. The researchers  including teams from the University of California-San Diego (UCSD), Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou and Sichuan University, both in China  describe their new regenerative medicine approach in a paper published in the journal Nature. The treatment was tested in 12 babies born with cataracts. It resulted in significantly fewer surgical complications than current treatments, say the researchers. Sight was improved in all 12 patients. One of the study leaders, Kang Zhang, a professor of ophthalmology and chief of Ophthalmic Genetics at UCSD, says: We believe that our new approach will result in a paradigm shift in cataract surgery and may offer patients a safer and better treatment option in the future. Being born with a lens that is cloudy or shortly becomes so is rare, but it is a significant cause of blindness in children. Estimates suggest it affects around 3 out of 10,000 children, although this rate varies throughout the world. The clouded lens stops light getting to the retina, resulting in significant loss of vision. Current treatments can be difficult and result in complications in very young patients. Most children need to wear glasses after cataract surgery.

Method uses stem cells in the eyes to grow new lens In the new study, the team used the ability of stem cells to grow new tissue. They did not use the more common approach  where stem cells are taken out of the patient, grown in the lab and then put back in the patient. This method can introduce disease and raise the risk of immune rejection. Instead, the team coaxed stem cells in the patients eyes to regrow the lenses. So-called endogenous stem cells are stem cells that are naturally already in place, ready to regenerate new tissue in the case of injury or some other problem. In the case of the human eye, the endogenous stem cells  known as lens epithelial stem cells (LECs)  generate replacement lens cells throughout a persons life, although production wanes with age. Current approaches to cataract surgery remove LECs along with the faulty lens  any few that are left can generate some lens cells, but the growth is random and disorganized in infants, resulting in no useful vision, note the researchers. The approach the researchers describe in their paper has two important differences to conventional cataract surgery: it leaves the lens capsule intact, and it stimulates LECs to form a new lens. The lens capsule is a thin membrane that helps give the lens its required shape to function.
The first uterus transplant to take place in the US  carried out by doctors at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio  has failed as a result of a sudden complication, hospital officials reported on Wednesday.

Share on Pinterest The first woman to undergo a uterus transplant in the US has had to have the donated organ removed due to a sudden complication.

The transplant recipient  a 26-year-old woman from Texas, known as Lindsey  underwent the 9-hour operation on February 24, 2016, as part of a clinical trial for the treatment of uterine factor infertility (UFI).

UFI is the inability to conceive or carry a pregnancy successfully due to problems involving the uterus, including uterine fibroids, congenital abnormalities, Ashermans syndrome and Adenomyosis.

It is estimated that around 3-5% of women worldwide have UFI, and current treatment options for the condition are limited.

The transplant was the first of 10 that have been planned for the trial, which received approval from Cleveland Clinics Institutional Review Board last November.

The disappointing news comes only days after a press conference was held by the Clinic, in which doctors hailed the transplantation as a success.

But in a statement released yesterday, the Clinic revealed that Lindsey  who was born without a uterus  had experienced a sudden complication that resulted in the surgical removal of the transplanted uterus.

At this time, the circumstance of the complication is under review and more information will be shared as it becomes available, said hospital officials.

Unfortunately I did lose the uterus to complications, Lindsey confirmed in a statement. However, I am doing okay and appreciate all of your prayers and good thoughts.
Results of study involving over 3000 women in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi and Zambia appear in the New England Journal of Medicine.

A four-year study (2012-2015), led by the Belgian Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp (ITM) and coordinated by Professor Umberto D'Alessandro, shows four available antimalarial treatments are safe to use in pregnancy, providing sound scientific evidence on their use. The results of the PREGACT study (PREGnancy Artemisinin-based Combination Treatments), which involved over 3000 women in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi and Zambia, appear this week (Thursday 10 March) in the leading New England Journal of Medicine.

Pregnant women are more vulnerable to malaria, a parasitic disease which still causes nearly 600,000 deaths each year, most of them young children in Sub-Saharan Africa. Expecting women with malaria often become anemic and deliver smaller babies, which have a higher risk of dying before their first year of life. As pregnant women are systematically excluded from most clinical trials, information on the safety and efficacy of current antimalarials in pregnancy is scarce, especially in Africa.

The PREGACT study compared the safety and efficacy of four artemisinin-based combination treatment (ACTs): amodiaquine-artesunate (AQAS), dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DHAPQ), artemether-lumefantrine (AL), and mefloquine-artesunate (MQAS). A total of 3,428 pregnant women with malaria in the second and third trimester were randomly assigned to one of these treatments. The study, funded by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, made a head-to-head comparison between these treatments to determine their pros and cons - an approach unlike most pharma-sponsored research.

The researchers conclude that all four treatments, which are already used in adults and children, were effective and safe, but there were some differences among them. The women who took AL had fewest complications, acceptable cure rates, but the shortest protection against re-infection. DHAPQ was the most effective treatment, with good safety, and longer protection from re-infection after treatment.

"We hope that the use of these ACTs among pregnant women will now increase," said Prof. Umberto D'Alessandro, the study's coordinating investigator, who is affiliated with the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), the Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia (MRCG) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). "These results provide strong support for the use of ACTs in the second and third trimester of pregnancy and will help African countries in either confirming or changing their treatment guidelines for pregnant women with malaria. Even though ACTs are already recommended for pregnant women in the 2nd and 3rd trimester, some of them may still receive quinine, an old drug with many side effects."

The study results also provide information regarding the most adequate treatment according to the local malaria situation. For example, in regions where malaria transmission is intense, like in Burkina Faso, women can experience several malaria infections in a limited time span. In such cases, a treatment providing several weeks protection, such as DHAPQ, would be the best choice. Where transmission is less intense, other treatments could be used.

The researchers also reported their findings to the World Health Organization (WHO) to inform the future updates of the WHO guidelines on malaria in pregnancy.

"Pregnant women in Africa are at increased risk of malaria infection and its harmful consequences for both themselves and their foetus. Identifying safe and effective treatment regimens is a priority for malaria control programmes. The results presented today are a major contribution to the management of malaria in this at-risk and vulnerable group," said Dr. Pedro Alonso, Director of the Global Malaria Programme at the World Health Organization.

Prof. Feiko ter Kuile, coordinator of the Malaria in Pregnancy Consortium, said: "The results of this trial, which is the largest comparative malaria treatment trial for pregnant women in Africa to date, is excellent news for policy makers and pregnant women as it shows that all four commonly used artemisinin-based antimalarial combinations appear safe and have excellent efficacy in treating malaria in this high risk group. It thus provides strong support for the current WHO recommendation."

The PREGACT trial was supported by ITM's Clinical Trials Unit and run according to international methodological and ethical standards, which is not to be taken for granted in countries where resources and available infrastructure are limited. Several Master and PhD students were trained in Burkina Faso, Malawi and Zambia in the context of this trial. The trial equipment, such as ultrasound machines, remains operational at the trial sites.
A breakthrough in basic research and the first comprehensive study on the secretory activity of the human intestine: over a period of eight years, Dr. Dagmar Kruger of the Department of Human Biology at TU Munich has examined more than 2200 specimens from around 450 patients with bowel disease. Her findings are startling: contrary to common beliefs, the secretory capacity of the human gut doesnt decline with age. Nor does gender play a role.

The study carried out by the research team headed by Dr. Dagmar Kruger and Professor Michael Schemann of the Department of Human Biology of Technical University of Munich (TUM) was published in the Journal of Physiology. Another question, apart from the role of age and gender, was: does an underlying disease such as bowel cancer or Crohn's disease play a role in the evaluation of intestinal samples? Or are there regional differences in intestinal secretion? "On the basis of the large number of bowel samples (surgical resections) examined in vitro and vitality parameters, I was able to show that the function of the intestinal mucosa is comparable between small or large intestinal specimens and not influenced by the disease for which the surgical intervention was carried out," says TUM scientist Kruger. "The secretion of ions and water into the intestinal lumen (the internal channel of the intestine), including nerve-mediated secretion, was unchanged in all cases."

Tests with human material are more informative

Unlike previously thought, unaffected sections of bowel resectates are therefore most appropriate and present an attractive alternative for animal tissue work. "Of course, it is much more informative to examine human gut resections. For example, it is now possible to study how a drug should work to treat secretory disorders" Dr. Kruger explains. "Our study has for the first time demonstrated the feasibility of large scale studies using human gut samples."

Wallace MacNaughton from the Journal of Physiology wrote in an Editorial about Kruger's work that scientists studied gastrointestinal epithelium (intestinal mucosa) and its capacity to transport water and electrolytes since the 19th century. The most relevant findings go back to studies in the 1970s and 1980s and were based on animal models, most often guinea pigs. MacNaughton concludes from the findings of the study by Kruger et al. that current concepts based on transgenic mouse models or organoids require confirmation in human samples. The study by Kruger et al. has now provided the basis to pursue such important translational aspects.

Study benefits patients with intestinal secretory disorders

For example, five to ten percent of the population suffers from constipation. "One of the biggest issues in gastroenterology is younger females with constipation," Kruger says. "In their interest, it is now possible to assess how substances act or should act in the human gut." Pharmaceutical companies will gain novel insights into the mode of action of their drugs, also allowing them to develop better ones. This shall further improve treatment option, in particular a more personalized medicine. "In the future, we'll be able to investigate more specifically whether intestinal disorders, for example constipation, are caused by impaired epithelial function or intestinal motility," Dagmar Kruger explains. "We can even carry out studies on gut biopsies now."
As rural communities struggle to obtain access to health services, a Kansas State University student is researching how medical, dental, social work and mental health providers can collaborate to meet the needs of teens.

Bryant Miller, master's student in marriage and family therapy, Goessel, said an integrative approach is critical in addressing hot topics for teens, including substance use, obesity, teen pregnancy and parenting, depression, anxiety, ADHD, self-harm, harm to others and suicide.

Miller's research was part of the statewide Adolescent Health Needs Assessment, funded by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment for its Title V Maternal and Child Health application for federal funding. Bryant presented his work at the 13th Capitol Graduate Research Summit in the Kansas State Capitol Building on Feb. 2.

"It was very important to communicate our research to Kansas state legislators and the Kansas Board of Regents to show the impact Kansas State University has not only in the state but also nationwide," Miller said. "Sharing cutting-edge research with our government officials can inform them of work being done each day to continue making our state a great place to live, work and raise a family."

Miller and fellow members of a student-faculty team, which included Elaine Johannes, associate professor of family studies and human services and Miller's major professor, took a mixed-methods approach to the community-based research. Their assessment, conducted by Kansas State University's Kansas Adolescent Health Project, consisted of a review of existing health data, an online community input survey, community focus groups and interviews with key individuals and leaders.

The team received more than 850 responses to an online survey, which was open from August-September 2014. In 2014, more than 320 adolescent Kansans shared their perspectives through 26 focus groups conducted in Chanute, Dodge City, Great Bend, Hoisington and Kansas City. In 2015 and earlier this year, the team conducted focus groups in Abilene, Fredonia, Herington, Junction City, Kansas City and Leavenworth.

"My favorite part of this was getting out into the communities and hearing what teens themselves have to say about their perceptions on health issues," Miller said, adding he was especially impressed by teens' understanding of how seemingly unrelated health problems play into cycles that necessitate holistic approaches to health.

"For example, teens were able to connect how someone struggling with depression may feel that way because they are being bullied at school for being overweight, which causes them to cope by overeating, causing them to struggle with being overweight, which influences them being bullied at school, leading to a deeper struggle with depression," Miller said. "Teens were able to see how all aspects of health influence and are influenced by each other. With this knowledge, teens expressed a need for help that acknowledges a systemic mentality of health."

Miller plans to continue reaching more communities each year. In the next round of focus groups, he aims to receive input from teens about their communities' strengths.

"Looking at what's going well in Kansas can help us know what we can do to help teens with their health needs," he said. "As these adolescents become emerging adults, it's imperative that we as health professionals set them up for success."

Miller said he was drawn to researching teen health because he thinks adolescence is an extremely fascinating time of life as young people transition from middle school to high school to college, undergoing substantial mental and physical changes along the way.

"My hope for our research is to give a voice to the voiceless, to empower those who are disempowered and to begin breaking down barriers in communication about health between adults and teens," Miller said. "I hope for people at all ages to prioritize and become stakeholders and advocates not only for their health, but also for the health of others."
Penn study shows use of independent contractors in public mental health clinics may undermine efforts to implement evidence-based therapies.

Community mental health clinics, where most specialty mental health treatment is delivered, have been relying more on independent contractors to treat patients, largely for budgetary reasons. Many of these clinics have simultaneously been moving towards the greater use of evidence-based psychosocial practices (EBPs), broadly defined as talk therapies that are informed by rigorous research as well as clinician expertise and patient preferences. A new, first-of-its-kind study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania suggests that these two trends may be in conflict. The findings appear this month in Psychiatric Services.

"The independent contractor therapists we surveyed turned out to have less positive attitudes towards evidence-based talk therapies for youth such as cognitive-behavioral therapy and less knowledge about them, compared with salaried employee therapists," said lead author Rinad S. Beidas, PhD, an assistant professor of Psychology in the department of Psychiatry at Penn Medicine. CBT emphasizes problem-solving and teaching youth specific skills to correct distorted thinking and change behavior.

Beidas, who is also director of Implementation Research at Penn's Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research, has shown in previous work how attitudes, knowledge, and organizational culture influence the implementation of EBPs in public mental health clinics.

In recent decades, all healthcare disciplines have been moving towards better, more standardized care by identifying EBPs and pushing for their greater use. Specifically, the City of Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health, led by Commissioner Arthur C. Evans, PhD, Jr, created an innovative program in 2007 to foster and support EBPs in its public mental health clinics.

Three years ago, Beidas and her colleagues began studying EBP implementation in Philadelphia. "One of the things that my team initially noticed, which we did not expect, was that there were a lot of independent contractor therapists at these agencies," Beidas said.

Indeed, some of the agencies had begun to use independent contractors exclusively. That appeared to reflect a national trend in mental health clinic staffing, moving away from salaried therapists and towards contractors--who are cheaper to maintain because they are paid only when they see patients, and don't require the overhead costs of employees such as insurance benefits.

The apparent proliferation of contractors led Beidas and colleagues to wonder if these therapists would be as involved in EBP implementation compared to salaried therapists. "When we looked in the literature, we found nothing on this," Beidas said.

Her team addressed this question by surveying 130 therapists working at 23 Philadelphia public mental health clinics. Nearly 60 percent of these therapists were independent contractors, and the rest were salaried employees.

Compared with their salaried counterparts, contractors reported they would be less willing to adopt EBPs even if they found them appealing, specifically, they scored .28 points lower on a four-point scale measuring this attitude. Contractors also showed significantly less knowledge of EBPs for children with psychiatric disorders, scoring approximately five points less on a 160-point scale measure of knowledge. Beidas hypothesized that it is likely that these staff did not have access to the professional development opportunities available to salaried staff.

Interviews with the executive administrators at nine of the agencies represented in the survey corroborated this hypothesis: the agencies reported not sending contractors to the EBP training programs attended by their salaried staff.

"The agencies seemed less willing to invest in the professional development of their independent contractor therapists, because they perceived them as more likely to leave once they found a more permanent position," Beidas said.

The interviews also confirmed that agencies tend to hire such contractors in order to stay within their increasingly tight budgets.

"Because of its modest sample size, this study is preliminary, but we hope it opens up a new research agenda nationally to understand the implications of this shift in the workforce model in public mental health clinics -- particularly in regard to EBPs - where we think there may be a collision between this new contractor-based workforce model and efforts to improve services," Beidas said.

She and her colleagues plan to gather further data on this issue, as part of an ongoing National Institutes of Health-funded study, and may in the future suggest interventions, such as increasing professional development opportunities for independent contractors at such clinics or creating a culture where independent contractors are more integrated into the fabric of organizations.
Pregnant women would be willing to trial maternal growth factor gene therapy to treat severe early-onset fetal growth restriction (FGR) in their unborn babies, according to a new study. If the proposed trial goes ahead it is likely to be the first time maternal gene therapy has ever been used.

The study which examined ethical and legal questions raised by maternal gene therapy was carried out by University College London (UCL), Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), and 8 other leading EU higher education institutions and industrial partners who form the EVERREST* consortium.

The consortium have been working together since 2013 to develop a therapy for FGR, a condition which affects up to 8 per cent of all pregnancies. Inadequate uterine blood flow, termed placental insufficiency, is the underlying abnormality in many cases. There is currently no treatment.

Dr Anna David (UCL Institute for Women's Health) and the EVERREST consortium lead said:

"The EVERREST consortium aims to carry out the first trial of this therapy in pregnant women whose babies are most severely affected by fetal growth restriction to test out its safety and efficacy. We hope that the therapy will reduce stillbirths and neonatal deaths, and improve neonatal and long term outcomes for affected babies. As this is potentially the first clinical use of gene therapy during pregnancy we were keen to establish responses to important ethical questions raised by the proposed trial."

Once fetal growth restriction is identified in mid pregnancy, parents currently face a stark choice between delivering their baby very prematurely in the knowledge they might die in the neonatal intensive care unit, or allowing the pregnancy to continue with the strong likelihood that the baby will die in the womb. Babies born from growth restricted pregnancies are not only at increased risk of perinatal death and complications such as cerebral palsy, but there are long term consequences for their health including diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The EVERREST Clinical Trial would involve administration, via interventional radiology, of a Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) gene therapy into the mother's uterine arteries in pregnancies affected by severe early onset fetal growth restriction in mid pregnancy. In previous preclinical studies performed by EVERREST partners, the VEGF gene medicine has been found to increase the maternal blood flow to the womb and placenta, which safely increased fetal growth and birthweight in growth restricted pregnancies. The EVERREST team now wish to test the therapy in the clinic.

Professor Richard Ashcroft, Professor of Bioethics, QMUL said:

"Our study concluded that there were no ethical or legal objections to a trial of maternal gene therapy in pregnancy. Women who had experienced pregnancies affected by fetal growth restriction were generally interested in participating in clinical trials which might potentially benefit their unborn child. The findings of our study are a major boost for the team's work on developing a treatment for fetal growth restriction which could save thousands of lives."

The study involved interviews with key stakeholder groups and patients in Europe including midwifery and medical organisations, parental support groups, disability rights groups and women whose previous pregnancies had been affected by early onset fetal growth restriction. Of the 55 stakeholder groups contacted, 34 participated in the study. 21 women whose pregnancies had previously been affected by early onset fetal growth restriction were also interviewed. The researchers evaluated the ethical and social acceptability of a proposed clinical trial using maternal growth factor gene therapy.

Dr David added: "Almost all women viewed the proposed trial positively, and most felt that they would have wanted to participate. The views expressed by the women in our study echo the findings of other qualitative studies exploring women's experiences of obstetric research. We must strive to develop therapies for pregnancy diseases such as fetal growth restriction, where no treatments currently exist."

The research was funded by the European Commission and supported by researchers at the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre. The EVERREST trial is due to commence in early 2017, subject to ethical and regulatory approval, at University College London Hospital before being rolled out to University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany, Hospital Clinic of Barcelona in Spain, and Lund University in Sweden.
What's the best approach to mental health treatment for refugees with posttraumatic symptoms? One clinic with extensive experience in managing traumatized refugees recommends a medical approach combining psychoactive medications, long-term psychotherapy, and screening and treatment for associated health issues, according to a paper in the Journal of Psychiatric Practice, published by Wolters Kluwer.

J. David Kinzie, MD, of the Intercultural Psychiatric Program at Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, shares his center's approach to the evaluation and treatment of refugee psychiatric patients, based on over 35 years of experience. He writes, "Refugees are a highly traumatized and culturally diverse group of patients who present many clinical challenges and who have a high prevalence of traumas from torture, ethnic cleansing, and the effects of long civil wars."

Management Recommendations from the Intercultural Psychiatric Program

The Intercultural Psychiatric Program has followed the same treatment model since its initiation in 1978. Each patient is followed by a single faculty psychiatrist, while 14 counselors from various ethnic groups play multiple roles in patient care. If at all possible, no changes are made in the patient's counselor or psychiatrist--the clinic's motto is "One patient, one counselor, one psychiatrist forever."

The clinic currently has 1,300 patients and can work with 18 different language groups. Part of the Oregon Mental Health System, the Intercultural Psychiatric Program is largely funded by Medicare and Medicaid payers, with additional funding from the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement and the United Nations.

The clinic's medical model is more patient- than disorder-oriented, focusing on symptom reduction. The most common diagnosis in traumatized refugees is posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), sometimes with accompanying depression. For PTSD, the suggested treatment approach involves long-term supportive psychotherapy, combined with medications to reduce the most disruptive symptoms.

Specifically, Dr. Kinzie recommends a sedating tricyclic antidepressant, an alpha-2 adrenergic blocker such as clonidine or prazosin, and an antipsychotic medication. This combination provides rapid relief of major PTSD symptoms, enabling patients to sleep while reducing nightmares, irritability, and psychotic symptoms, if present. "This relief from suffering is very much appreciated by patients and their families," Dr. Kinzie notes.

Studies have also found high rates of diabetes and hypertension among traumatized refugees. These associations strongly suggest a causal relationship with PTSD, possibly involving a role of inflammation. Dr. Kinzie recommends a thorough medical evaluation, including measurement of blood pressure, testing for diabetes, and prescription of appropriate treatment.

Numbers of refugees have greatly increased worldwide, with ever-larger numbers of displaced individuals coming to the United States. Since 1975, the United States has admitted 3 million refugees; in 2013, it admitted nearly 17,000. Although refugees come from diverse cultures, the vast majority have undergone severe and multiple traumas.

"The main value of this approach is that it meets patients' expectations, provides symptomatic relief, usually quickly, and supports a long-term doctor-patient relationship," Dr. Kinzie adds. Refugees are generally accepting of psychiatric treatment and can obtain relief from symptoms associated with massive trauma and losses.

There have been no placebo-controlled trials of the clinic's medical approach to traumatized refugees--nor are any likely to be performed because of the challenges of conducting such research and the lack of financial incentives for doing so. A previous one-year, prospective study found good improvement in 20 of 22 patients treated with the program.

"Our work with traumatized refugees suggests that attending to major symptoms, providing long-term supportive psychotherapy, and ensuring the treatment of associated medical conditions result in good patient acceptance and good clinical outcomes," Dr. Kinzie concludes. He also believes that the medical approach provides a "safety net" for the fluctuating course of PTSD, helping to prevent more serious mental and physical illness.
A drug combination - of lapatinib and trastuzumab (Herceptin) - before surgery shrinks and may even destroy tumours in women with HER2 positive disease within 11 days. The results are from a Cancer Research UK-funded trial>sup>1 being presented at the 10th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC10) today (Thursday).

The research may lead to fewer women needing chemotherapy.

The EPHOS B trial2, led by researchers at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, the University of Manchester and University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust, studied 257 women with HER2 positive breast cancer in the short gap between initial diagnosis and surgery to remove their tumours.

In the trial, women were split into three groups and treated for 11 days before their surgery. Initially women were randomised to receive either trastuzamab, or lapatinib or no treatment - but halfway through the trial after evidence from other trials of the effectiveness of the combination the design was altered so that additional women allocated to the lapatinib group were also prescribed trastuzumab.

The trial set out to study the biological effects of the drug combination by measuring biological markers of cellular proliferation after 11 days of therapy. But when trying to measure this, the researchers discovered that in roughly a quarter of the 66 women who received both drugs the remaining tumour was too small for the second measurement of cell proliferation.

17 per cent of the women receiving both drugs had only minimal residual disease - defined as an invasive tumour smaller than 5mm in size - and 11 per cent had a pathological complete response - meaning no biological sign of invasive tumour could be found in the breast.

Three per cent of the women treated with trastuzumab only had residual disease or complete response.

HER2 positive breast cancer is more likely to come back after treatment than some other types of breast cancer. It is generally treated with surgery, chemotherapy, endocrine therapy and targeted anti-HER2 drugs.

Around 53,400 women are diagnosed with invasive breast cancer - with about 10-15 per cent of these characterised as HER2 positive breast cancer - and around 11,600 women die from the disease in the UK every year.

Current treatments are effective, and complete response is common after three to four months, but the researchers say observing a disease response after 11 days was very surprising.

Trial co-leader Professor Judith Bliss, director of the Cancer Research UK-funded clinical trials and statistics unit at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said: "Our trial set out to try to use the window between diagnosis and surgery to find clues that combined treatment with trastuzumab and lapatinib was having a biological effect on HER2 positive tumours. So it was unexpected to see quite such dramatic responses to the trastuzumab and lapatinib within 11 days.

"Our results are a strong foundation on which to build further trials of combination anti-HER2 therapies prior to surgery - which could reduce the number of women who require subsequent chemotherapy, which is also very effective but can lead to long-term side effects."

Clinical chief investigator and trial co-leader Professor Nigel Bundred, professor of surgical oncology at The University of Manchester and clinical consultant at University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust, said: "These early and significant tumour regressions seen on dual anti-HER2 therapy suggest that we will be able to personalise treatment for these cancers on the basis of early response, allowing us to identify patients who in the future may avoid treatment morbidity or avoid chemotherapy".

Professor Arnie Purushotham, senior clinical adviser at Cancer Research UK, said: "These results are very promising if they stand up in the long run and could be the starting step of finding a new way to treat HER2 positive breast cancers. This could mean some women can avoid chemotherapy after their surgery - sparing them the side-effects and giving them a better quality of life."

Cancer Research UK scientists helped establish the link between some cancers and 'growth factor receptor' proteins on the surface of cells - a crucial early step in the development of Herceptin3. Cancer Research UK also funded the clinical trials unit where the research showing that Herceptin can improve survival for people with a certain type of breast cancer was completed.
Drug-overdose deaths in Pennsylvania increased 14-fold in the last 35 years, with rates climbing especially fast in relatively young white women, according to the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

The analysis is the first to examine in detail accidental overdose deaths over time in Pennsylvania and suggests potential targets for public health intervention and law enforcement efforts. It is published in the journal PLOS ONE .

"Pitt Public Health has the most comprehensive mortality database in the nation, which can be easily cross-referenced with U.S. Census data to shed light on myriad public health issues," said co-author Donald. S. Burke, M.D., Pitt Public Health dean and UPMC-Jonas Salk Chair of Global Health. "Our latest analysis reveals that drug overdoses are the biggest problem facing our nation in terms of years of life lost - more than car crashes, or cancer, or HIV - and we as a society need to work together to solve it."

Pennsylvania ranks in the top 20 states for overdose mortality, which is the leading cause of accidental death in the U.S.

Using the Mortality and Population Data System, a repository and retrieval system for detailed death data from the National Center for Health Statistics housed at Pitt Public Health, the research team broke down overdose deaths in Pennsylvania from 1979 to 2014 by sex, age and race. The team started with 1979 because changes in reporting cause of death make it impossible to make comparisons with previous years. 2014 is the most recent year for which data are available.

Overdose deaths concentrated around the counties of southwestern Pennsylvania, those surrounding Philadelphia and those in northeast Pennsylvania near Scranton. Philadelphia County is in the lead, but Allegheny County is close behind with rates rapidly increasing since the mid-1990s.

The 35- to 44-year-old age group had the greatest increase in rate of overdose deaths, growing almost 22-fold since 1979, but 25- to-34-year-olds seem to be overtaking them, with the highest overdose death rate in 2014.

The overdose death rate for white men peaks between ages 25 and 44; for black men, it peaks between ages 45 and 65, indicating different racial patterns in drug use. A national survey showed higher prevalence of cocaine and nonmedical painkiller use among white adults, compared with a higher prevalence of crack cocaine use among black adults. Also, a study of heroin use among patients entering substance abuse treatment centers indicates a shift to predominantly white users in the last 50 years.

Accidental overdose rates are higher in men than in women; however, women saw a more dramatic increase, particularly from 2010 to 2014. High overdose death rates for women also spanned a longer age range of 25 to 54 for white women and 35 to 64 for black women, compared to the U.S. average peak between ages 45 to 54.

"This seems to indicate a more prolonged period of concern for overdoses in Pennsylvania women," said lead author Lauren C. Balmert, a graduate student researcher in Pitt Public Health's Department of Biostatistics. "Previous research has shown that women are more prone to having accelerated progression from their first drug use to substance abuse and often enter into treatment programs with more severe dependence than men."

Compounding matters, most women who enter substance abuse treatment programs also are responsible for children and tend to be more reliant on public insurance, factors that the researchers say could affect a woman's decision to enter or remain in a drug rehabilitation program.

"While our analysis examined accidental poisoning deaths in Pennsylvania, many of these findings are applicable to other states as well," said co-author Jeanine M. Buchanich, Ph.D., deputy director of Pitt Public Health's Center for Occupational Biostatistics and Epidemiology. "Our county-level findings provide possible avenues for targeting interventions to areas and people with the highest drug overdose mortality. It also points to issues on the horizon that public health officials could prepare for - such as overdoses in younger age groups and rapid overdose increases in areas centered on smaller cities with fewer resources."

Additional researchers on this study are senior author Gary M. Marsh, Ph.D., of Pitt Public Health; and co-authors Janice L. Pringle, Ph.D., of Pitt's School of Pharmacy, and Karl E. Williams, M.D., M.P.H., of the Allegheny County Office of the Medical Examiner.

This research was supported through internal University of Pittsburgh funding.
Advertisement

"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 offenses 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 offense, 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% 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 years believe that 'women can get pleasure from being forced during sexual intercourse'."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, March 8, 2016, 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 trivialized' 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 criticized by the Council of Europe in 2015, 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.Source: AFP
Advertisement

"Plaque in the arteries is the result of cumulative damage and inflammation, and vulnerability to injury and chronic inflammation likely contributes to diseases like cancer, kidney and lung diseases, as well as cardiovascular disease. So it makes sense that the coronary calcium score - a measure of arterial aging - is predictive of non-cardiovascular diseases too, "says Michael Blaha, M.D., M.P.H, director of clinical research for the Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease and assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "The reason the coronary calcium score may work so well at identifying vulnerability to a variety of chronic diseases is because it's a direct measurement of the cumulative effect of all risk factors, rather than a consideration of a single risk factor, like obesity, smoking or high blood pressure."Blaha and his colleagues caution, however, that theirs was an "association study" that didn't look for, measure or find a cause-and-effect relationship between coronary calcium levels and non-cardiovascular diseases.Heart CT scans quickly and automatically measure how much and how dense the levels of the mineral are in the blood vessels that nourish the heart''s arteries. Coronary artery calcium is a well-known predictor of coronary heart disease and stroke risk. The risk of these diseases is low when the calcium score is zero, and that risk balloons nearly fivefold when the score is above 400. For the current study, the research team, composed of investigators from Johns Hopkins; the University of California, Los Angeles; Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit; the Minneapolis Heart Institute; and Columbia University, used data from six centers that contributed subjects to the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, or MESA.The 6,814 participants were of white, African-American, Hispanic and Chinese descent, ages 45 to 84, and free of cardiovascular disease at the time of an initial heart CT scan and coronary calcium score calculation.Over 10 years, until 2012, participants underwent follow-up visits at least once a year to review new diagnoses through hospital and death records.After 10 years, of the 6,814 original participants, 1,238 were diagnosed with a non-cardiovascular disease, including prostate, lung, gastrointestinal/colon, breast, skin, blood and uterine/ovarian cancers; kidney disease; pneumonia; a blood clot; lung disease; dementia; and hip fracture. Of those participants with coronary calcium scores over 400, 36.9 percent of participants were diagnosed with a non-cardiovascular disease, compared to 11 percent of participants with no coronary artery calcium.Of the 710 new cancer diagnoses, over two-thirds (68 percent) occurred in participants with detectable calcium in their coronary arteries. According to the investigators, after adjusting for other factors, individuals with the highest calcium scores greater than 400 had a 53 percent increased risk of developing cancer during follow-up.Chronic kidney disease was diagnosed in 395 participants, with the incidence ranging from just 3 percent in participants with zero coronary calcium to over 13 percent in those with scores over 400. After adjusting for other factors, a person with a high coronary calcium score was 70 percent more likely to develop future kidney disease.At the completion of the study, 161 participants were diagnosed with COPD. Those people with high coronary calcium scores over 400 were 2.7 times more likely to have COPD than those with no detectable calcium.The researchers reported borderline associations between coronary artery calcium scores and dementia and hip fracture, and no association with blood clots or pneumonia after controlling for age, sex, race, income and health insurance status. The data for dementia and hip fractures are considered promising but may be inconclusive due to too few participants diagnosed with each disease.The researchers also caution that because hospital record billing codes were used to determine the diagnoses they used in their study, milder cases of disease not requiring hospitalization could have been overlooked. However, this would have made it less likely to see the associations found in this study.Blaha and his team also published an analysis of MESA participant data last year that shed light on the biology of "healthy agers" with persistent coronary calcium scores of zero after 10 years of scanning. These people appear to have protection from both heart disease and noncardiovascular diseases. Those results were published in the December 2015 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Imaging.Heart disease persists as the No. 1 cause of death in the U.S. in both men and women, with more than 600,000 deaths each year, but other diseases, such as cancer, kidney and lung disease, collectively cause more than 780,000 deaths annually, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.This study was funded by grants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the National Center for Research Resources.Source: Newswise
Advertisement

The large-format book features her interviews with 40 Saudi women from a variety of fields, alongside their photographs. AlMunajjed said that she chose her subjects, in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam, because they are 'pioneering women'.Women must get permission from male family members to travel, work or marry, and Saudi Arabia is the world's only country where women cannot drive. A slow expansion of their rights began under the late king Abdullah who in 2013 appointed women to the Shura Council which advises the cabinet. He also announced that women would be able to participate in municipal elections.Their first ballot as voters and candidates occurred in December 2015, when about 20 were elected to local councils and several others were appointed.AlMunajjed said, "Saudi women have assumed prominent positions in government, business, journalism and other areas. They are outstanding, successful and very influential."The author has worked with United Nations agencies. Arabian Business named her among the top 10 most powerful Arab women in 2013.In a conservative country founded little more than 80 years ago, change will come, but slowly, she said, noting that women make up more than half of the kingdom's university students. "Social reform can come only gradually and only from within their own society," AlMunajjed said.That includes driving. AlMunajjed said the message on that topic from the women she interviewed is: "They do not believe in forcing things. Change will happen soon, and it is just a matter of time."Source: AFP


Please complete this form and we'll send you a personalised information that is requested

You may use this for your own reference or forward it to your friends.

Please use the information prudently. If you are not a medical doctor please remember to consult your healthcare provider as this information is not a substitute for professional advice.
Advertisement

The findings are based on data collected from 94 undergraduate college students via a daily online survey about any slips, trips or falls in the past 24 hours. The students' average age was 19, and the response rate was 93 percent. Each student averaged one slip or trip a week, but they recovered their balance for most of these perturbations. Fifty-two percent of the participants fell at least once during the four months, and 21 percent fell more than once.Sixteen percent of the falls resulted in injury, and 4 percent required medical treatment. Also, one-third of the falls happened indoors, and the fall rate was still high when winter weather conditions were excluded. While physical activity did not distinguish fallers from those who didn't fall, falls were more frequent as the physical activity level increased. The study also examined other factors related to falls, such as substance abuse, which was attributed to 9 percent of the falls."The most common multi-task associated with falling was talking to someone while walking," Rietdyk said. "Despite recent research showing an increase in injuries due to texting while walking, only 3 percent of falls resulted from texting while walking in this study. This is likely due to the fact that people texting are more likely to be injured from walking into or in front of things, which may not result in a fall."According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, falls are the third leading cause of unintentional injuries for ages 18-35, but how often young people fall has not been well documented. "We have all heard the expression, 'He can't chew gum and walk at the same time,'" Rietdyk said. "Similarly, we expect that talking while walking would be automatic. However, this multi-task is cognitively demanding, requiring the simultaneously management of language formulation, speech generation, terrain navigation, and balance control."Source: Eurekalert
On the occasion of International Women's Day, the Jerusalem-based Palestinian daily Al-Quds posted an article titled "Pioneers in Fighting, Struggle and Social Activism: Palestinian Women Took Part In Making History." The article features short biographies of 16 Palestinian women, several of whom are terrorists, including Dalal Al-Mughrabi, Fatima Bernawi and Leila Khaled. Also featured is Umaya Juha, known for her inciting cartoons. The article presents terrorist attacks as laudable acts of bravery and self-sacrifice.



The article on a page of the paper devoted to International Women's Day

The following are details on several of the women featured in the article, and a translation of the article's description of them.[1]

Dalal Al-Mughrabi

Dalal Al-Mughrabi was deputy-commander of the deadly March 1978 Coastal Road attack on an Israeli bus in which 35 civilians were killed, including 13 children and teenagers, and 71 people were wounded. Describing her, the article says: "[Al-Mughrabi is] one of the most famous Palestinian fighters. She was born in 1958 in a refugee camp in Beirut, to a family from Jaffa that had fled to Lebanon after 1948. She joined the ranks of the Palestinian revolution at an early stage and took several military courses and lessons in guerilla fighting and in the use of weapons. She was deeply affected by the 1973 assassination of the three leaders, Kamal 'Adwan, Kamal Nasser and Abu Yousuf Al-Najjar [senior Fatah operatives killed by the IDF], which caused her to take part in Operation Kamal 'Adwan, planned by Khalil Al-Wazir [i.e., the Coastal Road attack]. On November 3, 1978, Dalal and other members of her [fighter] cell came to Tel Aviv and took over a bus of Israeli soldiers. A battle [then] took place between the [Palestinian] fighters and the soldiers, in which many Israeli soldiers were killed and wounded, and after Ehud Barak ordered to stop the bus and kill the fighters, Dalal blew up the bus and all the passengers."[2]

Fatima Bernawi

Fatima Bernawi was sentenced to life in prison for planting a bomb in 1967 in the Zion Cinema in Jerusalem, but was released after a decade. She is considered the first Fatah prisoner. In 2015 PA President Mahmoud 'Abbas awarded her a military medal of honor.[3] The article says of her: "One of the Palestinian pioneers who took up the activity of armed self-sacrifice [operations] after the modern Palestinian revolution began in 1965. She was also the first Palestinian prisoner to appear in the official records of the women's movement of the modern Palestinian revolution. She was born in Jerusalem in 1939 and founded the Palestinian women's police force in 1994. She was arrested in 1967 after placing a bomb in Zion Cinema in Jerusalem and sentenced to life in prison, but she remained incarcerated for only 10 years [and was released] in what the Israeli Prison Service called a gesture [of goodwill] to the Egyptians. She was deported [to Lebanon but] continued on the path of struggle after her release."

Zakia Shammout

Zakia Shammout carried out several terrorist operations in the 1960s and 1970s, in which dozens were killed and wounded. She was given 12 life sentences but was released in a prisoner exchange deal. The article says of her: "One of the first fighters to carry out operations against the occupation, and the first Palestinian woman to give birth in an Israeli prison. She was born in Haifa in 1945 and joined the sacrifice activity in 1968. She carried out seven operations, but in the early 1970s she was arrested with her husband while she was five months pregnant, and given 12 life sentences. On February 18, 1972 she gave birth to her daughter Nadia in the Israeli Neve Tirza prison in Ramla. In 1983 she was released and deported to Algeria. She died in 2014."

Leila Khaled

Leila Khaled is a senior activist in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and a member of the Palestinian National Council. In 1969 she participated in the hijacking and of a TWA airliner. The operation did not result in casualties, though the plane was blown up. A year later Khaled took part in the attempted hijacking of an El Al airliner. Her bio in the article says: "The first woman to hijack an Israeli plane, in 1969. She was born in Haifa in 1944. She hijacked an airliner and diverted it from its course, flying it to Syria, in order to bring about the release of Palestinian prisoners and bring the Palestinian problem to the attention of the world. She also hijacked a TWA airliner that was landed in London. She was caught and arrested by the Scotland Yard, and the British government released her in a prisoner exchange deal."

Shadia Abu Ghazaleh

A PFLP activist who died in 1968 while preparing a bomb that was to be planted in a building in Tel Aviv.

The article states: "[Ghazaleh was] the first woman fighter to be martyred after the Naksa ["setback, relapse"] of 1967. She was born in Nablus in 1949, and began her political activity at an early age, when she joined the Qawmiyoun Al-'Arab movement in 1962. After the Naksa, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine grew out of this movement. [Abu Ghazaleh] became a member of its leadership and took part in sacrifice operations against the occupation. But on November 28, 1968, [while] she was building a bomb in her house in order to plant it in an Israeli building in Tel Aviv, the bomb blew up in her hands and she was martyred."

Umaya Juha

Umaya Juha is a cartoonist close to Hamas. Her first husband was a member of Hamas' military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, and was killed in a clash with the IDF, and her second husband was also an Al-Qassam member.[4] She is known for her virulent and inciting cartoons, and in January 2016 it was reported that Facebook had removed her account following complaints about inciting content.[5] The article describes her as follows: "The first woman cartoonist in Palestine and in the Arab world at large. She was born in Gaza in 1972. The Israelis labeled her a terrorist and anti-Semite and banned her from entering the West Bank for security reasons. She took part in several local, Arab and international exhibitions. In 2000 she was awarded the Arab journalism prize for best cartoonist, and in 1999 she won first place for cartoons in the Palestinian Culture Ministry's annual art contest."

Endnotes:
Google posted a huge surprise by putting up the Android N Developer Preview for the Nexus 6P, Nexus 6, Nexus 5 and the Nexus Player. In an age when the latest updates come through leaks and rumours, Google completely took the tech industry by surprise with news of the Android N developer launch. Weve gone through the list of upgrades and think these features will definitely be to your liking.

Multi-Window Support

Perhaps the most defining feature of the new upgrade is multi-window support. This will allow you to run multiple apps side-by-side in the same view. There isnt much clarity around the feature but it is expected to work like the split-screen feature that was first introduced in Windows 8.1 by Microsoft. The split will be top to bottom on phone screens until you switch it to Landscape mode where it will be split from left to right. One important feature to note is that apps will have to upgrade to work in the new format.

Notifications Got More Powerful

Android has had issues with the Notifications tab in earlier editions. With Android N, the Notifications tab becomes a whole lot better with the ability to respond to any notification without opening the app. For example, you can reply to text messages with the Direct Reply Feature without opening Messages. There is also something called as Bundled Notifications that groups actions such as Archive or Dismiss together. If youve used Inbox before, youll know how this works.

Android TV

Android N will likely see the explosion of Android TV as Google adds the ability to record and playback content from Android TVs with new technology. It has also added Picture-in-Picture feature to Android N that will play videos even when you leave an app. You can also choose to stop videos while you respond to an urgent message for example.

 Reuters

Project Svelte

Project Svelte is Googles attempt to minimise RAM usage by Android and apps on devices. In Android N, Project Svelte will help apps run effectively in the background. In Android N, were removing three commonly-used implicit broadcasts  Connectivity_Action, Action_New_Picture, and Action_New_Video  since those can wake the background processes of multiple apps at once and strain memory and battery, Google writes on the Android developers page.

Android For Work

Android For Work has been updated with more features in Android N. Users can now set new passwords and fingerprint security to unlock Work apps. There is also a provision to specify certain apps opening only with a company-accessible VPN.

 Reuters

Early Access

With the inclusion of Google Beta, users can directly get the latest update on their phone (on supported devices). No more waiting until Google and your device manufacturer decide to bring you the update!

There are many other significant improvements in Android N but these are the major ones. We still dont know what the N stands for but Sunder Pichai had earlier hinted that it might be named after an Indian mithai. While most users believe N stands for Nutella, we wonder if its actually Nankhatai or Nariyal Peda!

There arent many other details but well keep you posted if something new breaks. Meanwhile, let us know what you think of Android N in the comments below.
The Deputy Foreign Minister for International Economic Relations, Dimitris Mardas, met at the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, 9 March, with Tomas Bocek, the Special Representative of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe on refugee and migration issues.



The discussion, which took place in an excellent atmosphere, focused on the refugee/migration crisis and the potential for cooperation between Greece and the Council of Europe on matters of infrastructure and exchange of know-how.



Mr. Mardas referred to the huge effort being made by the Greek authorities to deal with the refugee/migration crisis, highlighting the role of civil society and specialized international organizations. He noted that the Greek governments goal is to deal with the refugee/migration crisis, fully respecting its obligations deriving from the European Convention on Human Rights.



Mr. Bocek highlighted the need for Europe to show solidarity, underscoring that Greece cannot bear the whole burden of the crisis on its own. He also praised the Greek authorities, volunteers and everyday citizens for the hospitality the are providing for refugees.
Keeping body fat low is more important for healthy aging than a low overall weight, researchers reported Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. A separate study found young people who aren't physically fit are at greater risk of developing Type 2 diabetes later in life even if their weight is healthy.

Here are some things to know:

ISN'T BMI IMPORTANT?

Yes. Body mass index, or BMI, is a measure of a person's weight compared to their height. For many people, that's plenty of evidence to tell if they're overweight or obese and thus at increased risk of heart disease, diabetes and premature death. Generally, a BMI of 25 and above indicates overweight, while 30 and above indicates obesity. Someone who is 5 feet, 9 inches would hit that obesity threshold at 203 pounds.

BUT IT'S NOT A PERFECT MEASURE

Some people have a high BMI because they're more muscular. More common are people who harbor too little muscle and too much body fat even if their BMI is in the normal range.

Body composition shifts as we age, with the proportion of muscle decreasing and the proportion of body fat increasing. That slows metabolism, making it easier to put on pounds in middle age even if people haven't changed how they eat or how much they exercise.

FAT FINDINGS

Dr. William Leslie of the University of Manitoba wondered if poorly measured body fat might help explain the controversial "obesity paradox," where some studies have suggested that being moderately overweight later in life might be good for survival. He tracked 50,000 middle-aged and older Canadians, mostly women, who'd undergone screening for bone-thinning osteoporosis. Those screening X-rays  known as DXA for dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry  measure bone and also allow an estimation of fat.

A higher percent of body fat, independent of the person's BMI, was linked to reduced survival, Leslie reported. Risk began rising when body fat was in the range of 36 percent to 38 percent. Interestingly, being underweight also was linked to reduced survival, possibly reflecting age-related frailty.

"It's not just the amount of body you've got, but what you're actually made of," Leslie concludes.

AND FITNESS COUNTS

A high BMI is one of the biggest risk factors for Type 2 diabetes. But a second study reported in Annals Monday suggests people can still be at risk if they're skinny but not physically fit.

Researchers in Sweden and New York checked records of about 1.5 million Swedish men who at age 18 received medical exams for mandatory military service, and tracked how many developed diabetes many years later.

Low muscle strength and low aerobic fitness each were associated with an increased diabetes risk  regardless of whether the men were normal weight or overweight. Scoring low on both added to the risk.

WHAT DO THE FINDINGS MEAN?

For diabetes, "normal-weight persons may not receive appropriate lifestyle counseling if they are sedentary or unfit because of their lower perceived risk," wrote obesity specialist Peter Katzmarzyk of Louisiana's Pennington Biomedical Research Center, who wasn't involved in the study.

That study also suggests fitness in adolescence can have long-lasting impact.

And Leslie said doctors should consider patients' body composition, not just weight, in assessing their health.

HOW TO TELL

Most people won't benefit from a DXA scan for fat, stressed Dympna Gallagher, who directs the human body composition laboratory at Columbia University Medical Center and thinks those tests are more for research than real life.

Other methods for determining body composition range from measuring skinfold thickness to "bioimpedance" scales that use a tiny electrical current, but all have varying degrees of error, Gallagher said. Plus, normal body fat varies with age and there's no agreement on the best cutoffs for health, she said.

Her recommendation: Check your waistline, even if your BMI is normal. Abdominal fat, an apple-shaped figure, is riskier than fat that settles on the hips. The government says men are at increased risk of health problems if their waist circumference is larger than 40 inches, and 35 inches for women.
Steven Rhodes, the new manager of Detroit Public Schools, told reporters on Wednesday that he can't "in good conscience" ask teachers to continue to work without assuring they'll be paid for their work.

Rhodes, a retired bankruptcy judge, hopes lawmakers approve short-term aid before their two-week spring break later this month. Separately, Gov. Rick Snyder has proposed a broader overhaul of the school system.

Rhodes says bankruptcy is a bad option for Detroit schools because much of the district's debt can't be erased.
The state's high court Wednesday affirmed rulings by the state appeals court and a Mason County circuit judge.

Katherine Phillips, known as "Baby Kate," disappeared in 2011 in the Ludington area, about 80 miles northwest of Grand Rapids. Her father, Sean Phillips, is charged with murder. The 25-year-old Phillips is serving a 10-year prison sentence for unlawful imprisonment in Kate's disappearance.

County Prosecutor Paul Spaniola and Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette are prosecuting the case.

The case originally was dismissed by district judge Peter Wadel, who found insufficient proof Kate was killed. Schuette and Spaniola are appealing a decision Wadel can preside over the case.
An attorney for Eastpointe Judge Carl Gerds III signed the agreement, which was approved Tuesday by a Macomb County judge.

The ACLU of Michigan says there's no dispute that sending someone to jail without checking their ability to pay is unconstitutional. Nonetheless, it still has occurred in courts around the state.

The Michigan Supreme Court is considering a rule to strengthen the ban.

Gerds' attorney has said the judge may have made mistakes but now accepts payment plans. The ACLU represented a woman who feared going to jail for failing to have her dogs licensed.
BAD AXE  Its about time locales get a say in regulating fracking.

That was a comment County Commissioner John Nugent made this week in regard to hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, which uses pressurized water and chemicals to drill into underground oil or gas formations to fracture rock layers and release oil or gas reserves.

The 2006 Michigan Zoning Enabling Act prohibits counties and townships from regulating or controlling oil and gas well drilling.

Nugent referenced a package of bills House Democrats introduced in mid-February, which in part would eliminate preemption of local zoning regulations and establish setbacks for oil and gas wells. He says he wants to see the kind of local control referenced in the bills, which were referred to the Committee on Energy Policy where they currently sit.

We need to have ordinances in place to protect our water supply, he said. Were unprotected when it comes to fracking in Huron County.

Last year, there were 12 oil and gas leases filed in the county, according to the Register of Deeds Office, which says there have been more than 300 leases recorded since 2010. There havent been any filed this year.

Though there are leases, no wells have been fracked in Huron County, the countys building and zoning director said last March.

A few years ago there were brokers working in the area, they left as quick as they came, Sheri Stanton, register of deeds, said in an email. I had heard they found some gas veins on the northern part of the state, so thats where they supposedly went to.

Stanton says it seems there is very little activity at this time in terms of new oil and gas leases.

They dont usually mention anything about fracking in the leases, Stanton said. If they did, people might be a little unsure of wanting to sign them.

Other commissioners have talked about the lack of local say for years.

(Developers) can put roads where they want  ponds where they want, Commissioner David Peruski said in March 2015, calling the leases terrible.

They can abandon it and leave you with a mess.

There are other worries, too.

It uses enormous amounts of sand and chemicals to drill through the aquifer, Commissioner Sami Khoury said last March, stating concerns of ground and air contamination and the 90-plus miles of shoreline that could be a drilling hot spot.

Elevating local concerns, Khoury said the county should ink a resolution to oppose fracking. Citing leaks and contamination concerns, I dont think we should hydraulic fracture anywhere in Michigan, he said last March.

According to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), fracturing has never jeopardized the environment or public health. Gas and oil operators have been fracking around the country since the 1940s, and in Michigan, some 12,000 wells have been fractured over the past 50 years, the DEQ says.

Gov. Rick Snyder, in a special message on energy in March 2015, said fracking has continued in Michigan at 10,000 wells without any real problems.

Studies examining hydraulic fracturing are ongoing.

Researchers with the University of Michigan wrapped up a three-year study on fracking last fall. The study analyzed how fracking is conducted and overseen in the state and what might be done to improve it.

Because the state previously has treated fracking as just another oil and gas development activity, the public has had few opportunities to weigh in on whether and where (it) occurs, the report says.

More on that study here: http://bit.ly/1py28A3.

See what county planners and residents have said on fracking here: http://bit.ly/1BadyJb.
Army Gen. Joseph Votel, who has been nominated to take command of U.S. Central Command, told lawmakers Wednesday that he did not support establishing a no-fly zone to protect Syrian refugees.

Votel, the outgoing commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, testified at a March 9 confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Army Lt. Gen. Raymond Thomas also testified at the hearing for his nomination to become the next commander of SOCOM.

Sen. John McCain, a Republican from Arizona and chairman of the committee, asked Votel if he supported using U.S. air power to protect Syrian refugees fleeing from their war-torn country.

"Do you believe that perhaps we should have a no-fly zone in order for refugees to have some place to go besides going to Europe where basically they are being shut out now as we speak?" the senator asked.

McCain has been a long-time advocate of establishing a no-fly zone over parts of Syria.

Votel, who asked for a chance to explain, said, "Mr. Chairman, reluctantly my answer is no. First of all, I share in your concern and the committee's concern on the humanitarian disaster that is in place.

"That said, as I have looked at what the potential options are, I have to do a more complete look at the assessment of those to ensure that they will achieve the end states that we truly desire and if confirmed I commit to do that."

McCain asked, "What is your problem with a no-fly zone?"

"Mr. Chairman, I don't have a problem with a no-fly zone," Votel said.

McCain continued, "You think things have been going well for the last four years, especially as far as refugees are concerned?"

Votel said, "No Mr. Chairman, I don't think it has been going well."

McCain said, "So don't you think it might be an idea to think about a place where these refugees besides stacking up in places like Greece and others. Don't you think it might be nice sometime to say to a Syrian, You can go someplace and not be barrel-bombed?'"

Votel said, "I do Mr. Chairman."

"And do you think the United States of America has the capability to set up and enforce a no-fly zone?" McCain asked.

"I do believe we have the capability to do that," Votel said.

McCain asked no more questions about the endeavor and Votel did not change his original answer of not supporting a no-fly zone. The senator made it a point to say in his opening statement that "our nation is in dire need candid strategic leadership.

"We need you to have the courage to speak truth to power, and to ask for the resources and the authorities you need, not just those you think the administration would allow. You owe that to this committee," McCain said.

Several lawmakers asked Votel if he supported reevaluating the plan to cut U.S. forces in Afghanistan from 9,800 to 5,500 by Jan. 1 given the increased Taliban activity.

Votel agreed that such a reassessment was necessary and that he supported a "conditions-based withdrawal" strategy.

Lawmakers have recently expressed concern that significant numbers of militants affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, have spread into North African countries such as Libya.

McCain asked Thomas if he supported sending special operations forces into these areas.

"It seems to me that this argues for more Special Forces presence on the ground, especially in a country like Libya," the senator said.

Thomas agreed.

"Mr. Chairman, I agree with your assessment there that that particular part of ungoverned space requires potentially unique special-operations solutions and we are attempting to provide those options to the chain of command," Thomas said.

McCain asked how Special Forces would be used in such an operation.

"Mr. Chairman, I think ultimately we don't succeed unless there is some reformation of the government there," Thomas said.

"It is absolutely ungoverned at the time, although there is considerable progress in terms of diplomatic initiatives, so I think that the primary role  from our special operations approach would be to identify the organizations that we can work with that may provide the security apparatus that would be affiliated with the future government of Libya."

"But there are organized groups that you could have operations with in Libya?" McCain asked.

"Yes Chairman. We have already identified some formative organizations that we hope to be able to work with in the future," Thomas said.

Committee members appeared very supportive of both nominations, but there was no discussion of when the committee might vote to confirm Votel and Thomas into their new posts.

-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.
The ISIS chemical weapons expert reportedly captured in a Special Forces raid last month was being held for interrogation at a new U.S. detention facility in Iraq, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

The makeshift jail for terror suspects, the first set up by the U.S. since the 2011 troop withdrawal, was reportedly in or near Irbil, capital of the autonomous Kurdish region, and was being used to hold Sleiman Daoud al-Afari, a top operative for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.

Iraqi officials said al-Afari formerly was an engineer specializing in chemical and biological weapons for the Military Industrialization Authority of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Without describing the detention facility or its location, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, essentially confirmed its existence.

He said that a contingent of about 200 Special Forces troops, designated the Expeditionary Targeting Force (ETF) by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, had already begun kill-and-capture missions in Iraq and Syria against ISIS leaders and a detention facility was a necessity for their operations.

"It's a capability that was put in there to conduct raids," Davis said of a place to interrogate captured suspects. "Part of conducting raids is detention of a very small number of detainees for very short period of time. And they would logically have the capability to conduct those missions."

Davis said terror suspects captured by the targeting force could be held indefinitely under the Law of Armed Conflict but he echoed Carter and other Defense and State Department officials in saying that the intention was to hold them for a short duration and then turn them over to the Iraqi government.

President Barack Obama has barred the transfer of any additional terror suspects to the detention facility at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, naval base.

Al-Afari, who reportedly headed the ISIS research branch for chemical weapons, was captured last month in a raid near the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar, The New York Times and other outlets reported.

"We know that they have used chemical weapons on multiple occasions in both Iraq and Syria," Davis said of ISIS. Al-Afari was believed to specialize in preparing the agent sulphur mustard for delivery by artillery and rocket launchers. Davis said sulphur mustard was a powder and was distinct from mustard gas.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at richard.sisk@military.com
The chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee and a leading voice in Congress demanding greater accountability at the Veterans Affairs Department on Thursday announced he won't seek reelection.

Rep. Jeff Miller, a Republican from Florida who won a seat in Congress 15 years ago, didn't say why he plans to leave Washington, D.C., when his current term is up at the end of the year.

"Fifteen years ago when [my wife] Vicki and I were praying about running for Congress, we could have never imagined what may lie ahead," he said in a statement. "As we made our decision, we knew there would come a day when it would be time to pass the torch. That day has come."

VA Secretary Bob McDonald, whose department Miller had repeatedly criticized, said he called the lawmaker to congratulate and thank him for his years of distinguished service.

"We talked about [how] much we can accomplish through the end of this year to leave in place necessary changes that will improve the delivery of care and benefits from VA to Veterans and their families," McDonald said.

"Over the past two years, working together, I feel we have made a positive difference in the lives of millions of veterans," the secretary added. "Im proud to be his partner in this effort and to call him a friend. I wish Jeff, his wife Vicki and their entire family all the best."

Miller won election to the congressional seat during a special 2001 election after then-Rep. Joe Scarborough, now the host of "Morning Joe" show on the cable channel MSNBC, resigned his seat. Miller has been most visible as chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. He said he specifically sought a position on that panel as well as the House Armed Services Committee after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., because "I felt I could best represent my district and make a difference for the entire nation."

-- Bryant Jordan can be reached at bryant.jordan@military.com. Follow him on Twitter at @bryantjordan.
The first female enlisted Navy SEALs could be assigned to units next fall, and the first female SEAL officers could be in place by 2018, a newly approved Navy implementation plan shows.

The 50-page plan was made public on Thursday after the Pentagon announced that all services' plans to open previously closed combat and special ops positions to women had been approved. The announcement means the services can now begin training, recruiting and assignment to place female troops in previously closed jobs.

According to the document, the first enlisted female sailors could enter the Naval Special Warfare training beginning with the prep course at Great Lakes, Illinois, in May, complete qualification September 2017, and undergo unit assignment the following month. For officers, the earliest possible scenario would see women entering training December, completing qualification in January 2018, and receiving assignments the following month.

For special warfare combatant-craft crewmen, an enlisted-only position, women could begin training as early as May and undergo assignment as soon as March 2017.

"These dates were determined using best-case scenarios for the [Naval Special Warfare] operator pipeline assuming qualified application packages are received by the prescribed deadlinesand there are no delays," Rear Adm. Brian Losey, commander of Naval Special Warfare Command, wrote in a memo that introduces the implementation plan. "Most likely, start dates would shift to the next consecutive class number."

He added that attrition and set-back rates would also play a role in how quickly women can enter these elite communities. SEAL officers have a 65-percent success rate; enlisted SEAL candidates have a 28-percent success rate; and SWCC candidates have only a 38-percent success rate, Losey said. Eighty percent of all students in SEAL and SWCC training pipelines experience a performance or medical setback that delays their progress, he said.

The Navy's plan describes lessons learned from the entry of women into the Navy explosive ordnance disposal and Navy diver communities. Officials warn that newly opened NSW positions will see relatively low interest from women and lower success rates.

Female EOD officers make up just 2.5 percent of the total EOD officer population, the document states, while enlisted female EOD personnel make up just 0.9 percent of their community. Only 0.6 percent of Navy divers are women.

Planners also warned against applying a quota system to fill newly opened positions with women, saying that quotas used in the past go unfilled and that they result in less-qualified candidates and "contribute to higher female attrition rates."

A better solution is a gender-blind selection process, the plan states.

At the Navy's Special Warfare Center in Coronado, California, the plan recommends increasing female staff by a factor of five in order to ensure female sailors entering the community have opportunities to be successful.

For the Navy's elite Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL school and other elements of the NSW pipeline, planners found the introduction of female students would require very little added infrastructure.

The plan recommends spending $175,000 to install security cameras at BUD/S barracks and another $100,000 for shower and bathroom facilities for female sailors.

At BUD/S, the Navy proposes "open bay" barracks facilities for male and female students, with privacy partitions built in to create gender-specific bathroom facilities.

Losey maintained the Navy's commitment to maintaining rigorous standards for Naval Special Warfare as the service opens the community to women.

"Any deviation from the validated, operationally relevant, gender-neutral standards would undermine true integration, disrupt unit cohesion, impact combat effectiveness, and be a disservice to those exceptional candidates willing to test and serve against the required and validated standards," he wrote.

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
Almost 100 people mostly from Haiti who were rescued from an overcrowded boat off the Florida coast had no food or water for...
The Pentagon was pushing back Wednesday afternoon on a USA Today report about the government's domestic drone program, with defense officials asserting the few non-military missions flown over U.S. territory were done to aid first responders. A defense official, who had knowledge of drone use inside the U.S. and spoke to Fox News, detailed several missions: Helping first responders extinguish forest fires in California in 2013; assisting in two search-and-rescue missions in California in 2015; helping stop recent flooding in Mississippi and South Carolina. In those cases, requests were made by organizations such as FEMA, the California Office of Emergency Services and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

"We felt like we could help," said the official, who had knowledge of the military's drone use inside the U.S. "We were supporting first responders."

But that explanation differed from the description of the drone program in a USA Today report that portrayed the unmanned aerial vehicles as being used to "spy over U.S. territory."

USA Today, which first reported in-depth about the flights on Wednesday, cited a Pentagon inspector general report that was recently made public by a Freedom of Information Act request as the source of most of its information.

That report said fewer than 20 such flights had occurred between 2006 and 2015 and all had been lawful. The document provided no details of any approved mission. One example of a request, however, indicated an unidentified mayor asked the Marine Corps to fly a drone over his city to find potholes. The request was denied because it did not make operational sense. Under 2006 guidelines established by the Pentagon, military drone use for civilian missions had to be approved by the secretary of defense or someone delegated by the secretary, USA Today reported. No defense secretaries have ever delegated that responsibility, according to the report. In 2015, those rules were altered so that only the secretary of defense could grant approval for missions, and drones could only be flown for testing or training. Then-FBI Director Robert Mueller first revealed in 2013 testimony before Congress that drones had flown over the U.S.--Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson contributed to this report.

Related Video:
The Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday approved Eric Fanning to become the next Army secretary, but his nomination as the first openly gay civilian head of a service branch was still being blocked in the full Senate.

Sen. Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican, has a "hold" on Fanning's nomination until he gets assurances from the Defense Department and the Obama administration that prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, naval base will not be housed in the future at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Roberts told Politico's Morning Defense that his blocking of Fanning's nomination solely involved the Guantanamo issue, and was not about Fanning's sexual orientation. "I still have a hold," Roberts said. "This isn't the hold that's the issue -- it's Gitmo."

Fanning's nomination had also been delayed by demands from Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican and the panel's chairman, for un-redacted Defense Department emails on the Fanning appointment. McCain said he had received the emails and there was nothing in them to delay further the committee's vote.

Earlier, McCain and others on the panel had charged that President Barack Obama violated the little-used Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 by putting Fanning's name forward.

Fanning had been serving as acting Army Secretary since the retirement last year of former Army Secretary John McHugh. McCain said that the Vacancies Act prohibited anyone serving in an "acting" post from getting the full-time job.

To get around McCain's complaint, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter shuffled top Army management posts. Fanning resigned as acting secretary. Patrick Murphy, a Pennsylvania Democrat who served in the House from 2007 to 2011 and had been nominated to become Army undersecretary, was named acting secretary until Fanning could get a hearing.

At the nomination hearing last month, McCain appeared to be satisfied with Fanning's compliance. "In my opinion, his resignation has cured the President's violation of the law," McCain said.

In his testimony and in response to questions, Fanning shared the concerns of McCain and other senators on both sides of the aisle on the problems faced by the Army in paring troop strength to 450,000 soldiers and possibly 420,000 soldiers, if mandated budget cuts under spending caps known as sequestration return.

"I do worry about the size of the Army today," Fanning said. The Army has a plan to improve readiness, but "the demand on the force -- the size that it is -- makes it difficult to keep it trained," he said.

Fanning did not serve in the military, but said, "I learned from an early age the importance of service" from two uncles who went to West Point and others in his family with a military background.

Fanning, an Ohio native and a graduate of Dartmouth College, previously served as acting Air Force Secretary and was a key member of the transition team that guided Carter through his Senate confirmation hearings to replace Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel last year.

At an Association of the U.S. Army breakfast last month, Gen. Mark Milley, the Army's Chief of Staff, and retired Gen. Gordon Sullivan, a former Army Chief of Staff, both endorsed Fanning. Milley called Fanning "very effective on the Hill and inside the building (the Pentagon)" and "a pleasure to work with."

The American Military Partner Association, an organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender military families, praised the committee's vote on Fanning.

"History continues to be written and equality marches forward with the nomination of an openly gay man to serve in this significantly important role," said AMPA President Ashley Broadway-Mack. "We urge the Senate to move quickly to confirm his appointment."

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.
The Veterans Affairs Department said Wednesday it will now be able to cover the costs of caring for all veterans with hepatitis C for the current fiscal year, regardless of the stage of the patient's liver disease. VA Under Secretary for Health Dr. David Shulkin said the expanded care is the result of increased funding from Congress as well as reduced drug prices. The department last year allocated $696 million for new hepatitis C drugs, accounting for 17 percent of the VA's total pharmacy budget. In fiscal 2016, which began Oct. 1, the VA expects to spend about $1 billion on hepatitis C drugs. "We're honored to be able to expand treatment for Veterans who are afflicted with hepatitis C," Shulkin said in a statement. "To manage limited resources previously, we established treatment priority for the sickest patients." With the expansion, the VA now expects many more veterans will be started on hepatitis C treatment every week through the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. The department statement did not address 2017 costs, though it has requested $1.5 billion in its next-year's budget for the hepatitis C treatments and clinical resources. The statement also didn't indicate whether the reduced drug prices it mentions reflect a change from what was cited during a congressional hearing in January, when it was estimated VA was paying about $40,000 per veteran for a 12-week course of treatment. Rep. Jeff Miller, a Republican from Florida and chairman of the House panel, accused the company that manufactures the drug, known as Sofosbuvir or Sovaldi, of price gouging. The same drug and course of treatment cost about $900 per person in some foreign countries. The VA has claimed the drug was developed by one of its own researchers, Dr. Raymond Schinazi, who worked for the VA Medical Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Schinazi, who also worked for Emory University and also operated his own research laboratory, told Military.com he did not develop the drug for the VA. Schinazi sold his company, Pharmasset -- and with it the drug -- to Gilead Sciences of California in 2011, earning more than $400 million when the deal went through. The VA has long been a leader in screening for and treating hepatitis C, many of whose sufferers have been Vietnam veterans. Shulkin said the VA has treated more than 76,000 veterans infected with hepatitis C and has cured about 60,000. --Bryant Jordan can be reached at bryant.jordan@military.com. Follow him on Twitter at @bryantjordan.
Detroit house.jpg

A monthly snapshot of real estate deals in Southeast Michigan shows increased sales, a higher median sales price and fewer days on market when compared to a year earlier.

The data for February 2016, released this morning by Realcomp, shows a particular bright spot for sales in Detroit:

* The total number of sales was 275, an increase of just 1. However, the number of foreclosures in that total fell by almost 36 percent - and the number of non-foreclosure sales jumped 24 percent. In raw numbers, that represents 40 additional homes that were not bank-owned sales (or 39 fewer foreclosure sales).

* The median sales price for Detroit area foreclosures grew by about 35 percent, jumping from $9,000 to $12,111.

* The median sales price for Detroit area non-foreclosures sold in February increased nearly 31 percent, from $19,900 to $26,000.

* The average days on market of a Detroit area home was 65, compared to an average 60 across all Realcomp members.

Detroit area homes include the City of Detroit, Hamtramck, Highland Park and Harper Wood in the Realcomp data, compiled by the regional Realtor multi-list service.

One area to watch in Detroit-area homes, however, is the number of new listings: during February, 2,346 homes were on the market, a 22 percent increase over the previous year. Across the region, the number fell to 18,641, a nearly 2 percent decrease.

The highest median sales price in the Realcomp data during February was in the Grosse Pointe area at $233,000, up nearly 10 percent from 2015. The second-highest was in Livingston County, which had a median sales price of $224,900, up almost 8 percent.

The lowest median sales price was in Detroit. Combining foreclosures and non-foreclosures, it was $22,500 - about 61 percent higher than a year earlier. The next lowest was in Huron County, located at the top of Michigan's 'Thumb.' The median sales price was $42,250 there on 6 reported sales.

Home values have been part of a complex real estate landscape in Detroit, where the number of foreclosed and vacant homes have pushed down property values - and made conventional mortgages difficult for buyers, who often find an appraisal gap between the house they want and the valuation when it takes neighborhood values and vacancies into account.

Mayor Mike Duggan announced a new initiative in February to help qualified buyers in Detroit obtain financing.

Here are median sales prices and listing numbers for the tri-county area in February:

Wayne County: Excluding Detroit, the county's median sales price was $108,000, up 8 percent. Listings total 3,124, a drop of nearly 7 percent.

Oakland County: The county's median sales price was $185,950, up 3.3 percent. Listings total 4,687, about the same as last year.

Macomb County: The county's median sales price was $125,000, up nearly 6 percent. Listings are up about 2 percent, totaling 2,691.
KALAMAZOO, MI -- People on The Move announces the new title or working role of local people moving from one paid position to another.

That includes lateral moves, promotions, new hires, or people taking on significant new work assignments.

Among those making moves recently were:

MORTGAGE LENDING

-Wendi Traxler has joined the local office of residential mortgage originator PrimeLending as a loan originator. Traxler has more than 22 years of mortgage industry experience and comes to the firm after working at Huron Valley Financial Inc. as a mortgage loan originator. She will work with residents in the greater Kalamazoo area on purchase and refinance mortgage loans. Dallas-based PrimeLending, is a PlainsCapital company. Its local office is at 3275 Cooley Court, Suite 160, in Portage.

MANUFACTURING

-Humphrey Products Co. recently announced several staff changes. Deron Kaczorowski has joined the company's Engineering Department as an engineering technician. Kaczorowski previously worked with Curtiss Wright/South Bend Controls. John Peirce has joined the company Humphrey Products' Sales Department as a territory sales representative. Pierce is a Portage native who has extensive experience in wholesale industrial and automotive goods, and has worked in numerous positions in sales, management and product development. Hubbard Humphrey has joined the Sales Department as a sales trainee. He recently graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor's degree in general studies with an emphasis in business.

RESEARCH AND TESTING

-The staff at Forensic Fluids Laboratories has two new additions. Denisha Griffey has joined the company in Specimen Processing. Griffey has previous experience as a laboratory coordinator at Tennessee State University. She graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with a degree in chemistry, has a master's degree in chemistry from Tennessee State University and is a Ph.D student in geosciences at Western Michigan University. Crystal Suuppi joins Forensic Fluids as a customer support representative. Suuppi recently relocated to Kalamazoo from the east side of the state, where she worked as a medical billing specialist at McLaren Medical Management. She graduated from Western Michigan University with a degree in education. Forensic Fluids is a Kalamazoo-based oral fluid testing company.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

-Pamela Stowell has joined Chimner & Orwig as an administrative assistant. Stowell has several years of experience in financial services, marketing and co-owning a business. She has also been very active in the volunteer community. Chimner & Orwig is a financial advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Inc.

CONSTRUCTION

-Burt Durstock has joined construction management firm CSM Group as a project director. Durstock previously worked for Duke Energy in Charlotte, N.C., for 33 years in various roles, including construction project director, director of sourcing for major projects and construction, and director of warehouse operations. He has expertise in contract law compliance and contract negotiations, proposal development, project and resources management, strategic planning and equipment utilization and logistics. He has a bachelor's degree in integrated supply chain and operations management from the University of Phoenix. As a project director, he will be responsible for the overall management and direction of existing projects and helping develop new opportunities for CSM's energy market.

To get moving



People on The Move announces the new title or working role of individuals moving from one paid position to another. Items should include the proper name of that person(s) and his or her new title. We also want to mention the position or job the individual most recently held.

Be advised that People on The Move is for people who live, work or are known in our readership area.



We publish head and shoulders photos of individuals when they are provided to us. They may be sent to ajones5@mlive.com. E-images should be JPEG format of at least 300 DPI.

For more information, contact Al Jones at ajones5@mlive.com.
IMG_0119.JPG

Potbelly Sandwich Shop's new location at Village at Knapp's Crossing will the chain's 27th in Michigan.

(Shandra Martinez | MLive.com )

GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Potbelly Sandwich Shop will open its third Grand Rapids area location at the Village at Knapp's Crossing on March 22.

The Chicago-based chain is known for its toasted sandwiches, hand-dipped milkshakes, made-to-order salads and live and local music.

The shop, at 2006 Beltline Avenue NE, is among 27 locations in Michigan. The chain also has locations at 3559 28th St., near Centerpointe Mall, and 3076 44th St. SW in Grandville.

The new location comes with a drive-thru service lane.

"The community has been eagerly awaiting the opening of the new shop in Grand Rapids," said Kaitlyn Hanrahan, the general manager, who worked her way up from an hourly employee to general manager in five years.

On March 21, the shop will host Potbelly's traditional pre-opening Oven Warming event from 11:30 a.m. 1:30 p.m. for lunch, and 5-7 p.m. for dinner. Proceeds will be donated to the Grand Rapids nonprofit, Kids Food Basket.

Fundraising requests to support neighborhood non-profit organizations can be made to the general manager.

The Knapp's Crossing shop is the first of two Michigan locations that will open this month. A Metro Detroit location will open March 26 in Rochester Hills at 209 S. Livernois Rd.

Potbelly Corporation owns and operates over 300 shops in the United States and franchisees operate over 20 shops nationwide, in the Middle East and in the United Kingdom.

Potbelly is known for providing a place for neighborhood musicians to perform. Those interested in performing need to apply with the manager, and schedule an audition.

"We couldn't be more excited to invite our neighbors into the shop for lunch with friends or a quick dinner before they head off to little league practice," Hanrahan said. "We're the neighborhood sandwich shop that truly has a little something for everyone."

Potbelly hired 20 staff employees to staff the new location

The shop will be open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. from Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Delivery service will start about a month after opening and will be available Monday through Friday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. with minimum orders of $25.

Shandra Martinez covers business and other topics for MLive. Email her or follow her on Twitter @shandramartinez.
ROL sign.jpg

Three years after opening its first North American plant, ROL Ergo is planning a nearly $20 million expansion.

(Courtesy photo)

HOLLAND TOWNSHIP, MI -- Swedish furniture firm ROL USA, Inc. plans to build a 140,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Holland Township, a $19.8 million investment expected to create 51 new jobs in the next two years.

"The leadership team of ROL USA is excited to expand our operation in the Holland area where we can help to connect technology with people, and grow our commitment to the West Michigan community," said Anthony Panozzo, head of the company's North American operations.

Most of the positions will be in manufacturing or administration, the company said.

The pay range will be between $500 to $1,000 per week, with the majority of the manufacturing positions close to $500 a week, according to information released from the state.

ROL Ergo is the top global supplier of custom- made electric sit-stand table stands.

ROL USA, is part of ROL Ergo, a top global supplier of custom-made electric sit-stand table stands.

In the new facility, the company will laser cut, weld, form, powder coat and machine metal, as well as assemble and package office furniture products.

ROI will receive a $300,000 grant from the state for expanding in Michigan instead of choosing competing sites in southern states.

Holland Township will also provide local tax breaks for the project.

In 2013, the Swedish company opened its first North American manufacturing location in Holland, at 694 E. 40th St. When the lease for the facility is up in 2017, the company plans to move into a permanent location. The site hasn't been selected yet, according to Lakeshore Advantage.

The Zeeland-based economic development organization, which worked to bring the company to Ottawa County in 2013, also partnered with ROI on the expansion project to secure the state grant and local tax break.

West Michigan Works will assist the firm in recruiting and hiring the additional workforce.

Shandra Martinez covers business and other topics for MLive. Email her or follow her on Twitter @shandramartinez.
UPDATE: The MDOC employees were

fired on March 10.

Inmate No. 721962, Janika Edmond, was found with a broken piece of razor blade in her cell in the year before she died of presumed suicide. The Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility inmate said she was "tired of being here" and hearing voices.

Prisoner misconduct reports show a seeming escalation in incidents during Edmond's time in the facility.

In 2014, she made a rope out of a towel.

In November 2015, she was found lying on the ground with underwear tied around her neck. She was pronounced dead at a hospital several days later.



Now, two Michigan Department of Corrections employees remain suspended and a lawsuit is brewing in her death.



Dianna Callahan and Kory Moore were placed on stop orders, or suspensions, following the death of Janika Edmond, said Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman Chris Gautz.

"They remain on stop order, which means they are not allowed in the prison," he said. "We are now in the final stages of the disciplinary conference process for both of them."



The department confirmed the suspensions after The Ann Arbor News obtained 196 pages of Edmond's prisoner file and critical incident report through a Freedom of Information Act request.



Edmond, 25, died in November 2015, but there are discrepancies as to which day.



The death report provided by the MDOC for Edmond shows her presumed cause of death was suicide.

The MDOC has not confirmed the cause of death otherwise, but an attorney for Edmond's family previously said inmates told family that Edmond was suicidal and was taken to the hospital after hanging herself in a shower area.

Edmond's manner of death is listed as indeterminate on her death certificate and a Freedom of Information Act request for Edmond's autopsy report was denied due to an "ongoing potential criminal investigation."



The Michigan Department of Corrections is still investigating the matter, and so is the Edmond family's Detroit-based lawyer, David S. Steingold.

Steingold said inmates told him that Callahan did not take Edmond's request for a suicide prevention vest seriously and may have had a bet related to it.

He expects a lawsuit to be brought in the matter, although the subjects of the lawsuit have not yet been determined, he said.



"I think it's safe to assume that it will be our position that there was ... deliberate neglect of duty," Steingold said. "Had the personnel at the jail followed their own policy and procedures -- their own mandatory policies and procedures -- Ms. Edmond would still be alive today."



Gautz said the department could not comment further on the actions taken by employees while the matter was still under investigation, particularly because of the potential litigation.



Nov. 2, 2015



Janika Edmond was found lying on the floor, bleeding from the back of her head with pieces of underwear tied around her neck about an hour and a half after she was taken to the segregation shower unit on Nov. 2, 2015, according to Edmond's file.

The critical incident report written by MDOC Lt. Effelina Jones detailed a timeline of the events surrounding Edmond's death as they happened on a video surveillance camera and as observed and reported by staff. The camera clock ran nine minutes faster than the facility clock, according to the report.

According to the video timeline, Edmond was taken to the segregation unit shower at 12:49 p.m., and a corrections officer called for help at about 2:20 p.m.

"Prisoner Edmond was placed in the segregation shower module awaiting a segregation cell due to allegations of assault on staff," Jones wrote.

A segregation unit is a separate housing unit for inmates who have violated prison rules, according to the MDOC website.

There is no separate misconduct report included in the prisoner file on the alleged assault, and a portion of the critical incident report before the allegation is referenced was redacted.

Although a number of employees were listed as being in the shower unit while Edmond was there, Callahan, Moore and corrections officer R'kla Taylor were the last three MDOC employees listed immediately before Edmond was found on the floor.



Callahan, a corrections officer, was recorded in the area of the segregation unit shower area about four times prior to Edmond's injury. Moore, acting resident unit manager, was in the area once, for one minute.



Callahan was in and out of the area at 12:50 p.m., according to the video timeline. She was then in the doorway at 1:06 p.m. and in and out of the area at 1:37 p.m. with a prisoner observation aid and a prisoner on suicide precaution.

The prisoner on suicide precaution was not identified. A prisoner observation aid is a prisoner assigned to observe other prisoners for various concerns, such as a medical or mental health issue, Gautz said.



The timeline indicates Edmond spoke with another officer and a sergeant about eating lunch and a lunch tray around 1:30 p.m.

Inmate Lockie Rolack called Moore to the area at 1:57 p.m. and Moore spoke with Rolack and Edmond, according to Moore's report of the incident. The report did not specify what the exchange was about, and Moore was recorded leaving a minute later on the video timeline.



According to the timeline, Taylor spoke with Edmond twice and was in and out of the area one other time during Edmond's stay in the shower unit. She was recorded as the last person to speak with Edmond.

Taylor reported the two discussed the misconduct allegation against Edmond.



"At approximately (1:52 p.m.), I spoke with prisoner Edmond #721962 while she was waiting to be dressed for a segregation cell," Taylor said in the report. "Prisoner Edmond was asking about her property and the type of misconduct she would be receiving. I informed her that I did not know and the Sgt would let her know."



Callahan returned to the area at 2:03 p.m. and left the area at 2:04 p.m. with an aid and a prisoner on suicide precaution, according to the video timeline. She was the last officer in the area before Edmond was found in distress about 16 minutes later.

Corrections officer Krista Subic found Edmond on the floor while making her rounds through the shower area at about 2:13 p.m., according to her critical incident participant report. She called for medical assistance and for a sergeant, ultimately Sgt. Loren Hailes, to come to the scene.



"Sgt. Hailes observed prisoner Janika Edmonds 721962 laying on her back with two torn blue pieces of fabric tied around her neck and blood at the back of her head," Jones said in the report.



Later entries in the report indicate the fabric was underwear. Hailes began to untie the fabric and then cut it with a hook knife, according to the report.



CPR was administered and an automated external defibrillator, or AED, was applied by MDOC staff to resuscitate Edmond, according to the report.



At 2:45 p.m., Huron Valley Ambulance paramedics entered the unit, and at 2:51 p.m., declared she had a pulse, according to the account based on the facility clock. At 2:57 p.m., HVA took Edmond out of the unit on the way to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in the Ypsilanti area.

Although the MDOC reported that Edmond died on Nov. 11, 2015, a death certificate for Edmond stated she was pronounced dead on Nov. 6, 2015. In addition, an obituary for Edmond posted on the Adrian-based Anderson Funeral Home website lists her date of death as Nov. 8, 2015. The discrepancies have not been solved.



Staff reported a life support ventilator was removed by a doctor at the hospital on Nov. 11, 2015, according to a critical incident participant report.

Discipline and lawsuits

Although portions were redacted, the MDOC reports do not note Edmond voicing any mental health concerns immediately before her death. In its response to The Ann Arbor News' Freedom of Information Act request, the MDOC stated medical, psychological and psychiatric information was exempt from release.

Steingold said Edmond had a history of mental health problems, and facility inmates told him that she requested a suicide prevention vest, but did not receive one.

"She not only did not receive one, but the guard made light of (the request)," Steingold said.

Gautz said these vests are tear-resistant and heavy to restrict movement and keep prisoners from using the gowns to harm themselves.

Steingold said he's been told Callahan made "a bet, jokingly, with another guard" that Edmond would ask for the vest. When Edmond asked for one, Callahan said someone owed her lunch and left, he said.

Carol Jacobsen, a University of Michigan professor and director of the Michigan Women's Justice & Clemency Project, previously said at least one inmate told her Edmond threatened suicide, but her comments and requests for therapy were ignored.

Gautz said he could not comment on the allegations. Attempts by The Ann Arbor News to reach Callahan and Moore for comment were unsuccessful.

According to an MDOC policy directive, staff must respond to life-threatening suicidal behavior immediately and treat it as a medical emergency. If it is not life-threatening, but requires medical attention as soon as possible, healthcare staff must be notified immediately.

Staff members are required to respond to medical emergencies within four minutes. Threats of suicide are also expected to be addressed without delay.

"If a prisoner engages in suicidal or self-injurious behavior which does not require medical treatment, or threatens to engage in suicidal or self-injurious behavior, the prisoner shall be promptly placed on unrestricted face-to-face visual observation in an observation room," according a directive.

Once in the observation room, prisoners are supposed to be given the tear-resistant gown and have other garments taken away.

The prisoner must be referred to a qualified mental health professional or qualified health professional. The professional is required to respond as soon as possible, but no later than the end of the workday.

Steingold said the actions taken on Nov. 2, 2015 facilitated Edmond's death.

"They have the means, they have the opportunity and you walked away -- you facilitated that suicide," he said.

Callahan was placed on a stop order on Nov. 9, 2015, and Moore was placed on a stop order on Dec. 21, 2015, Gautz said.

"I am not able to speak to the reasons they were placed on stop order as that is part of the investigation," Gautz said.

Gautz said it is unclear when the disciplinary process will be completed, but the process could result in the two employees being dismissed from state service.

Callahan has worked for the MDOC since September 2003 and Moore has worked with the MDOC since March 2006, Gautz said. They remain on paid suspensions.

The Edmond family is in the process of filing documents in probate court in order to obtain a representative for Edmond's estate, which is needed in the process for an eventual lawsuit, Steingold said.

Steingold said he has not seen documents from the facility related to this case, but, based on his investigation, believes there was deliberate neglect of duty.

Mental health and misconduct

At the time of her death, Janika Edmond was serving one year and five months to four years in prison for a probation violation on a previous charge of assault with a dangerous weapon, Michigan Department of Corrections records indicate.

Edmond previously pleaded no contest, which acts as a guilty plea in sentencing, to "entry without breaking with intent" for an incident in 2008. She was sentenced to probation, which she completed.

Then, in 2011, she was sentenced to five years of probation for a 2010 incident of assault with a dangerous weapon in Lenawee County, records show. She violated that probation by using marijuana and spent six months in jail, during which time she assaulted a jail officer, according to records.

For that violation, she was discharged from probation and sentenced to prison.

The Adrian woman collapsed in tears during her 2013 sentencing, according to a report by The Daily Telegram.

In two undated letters addressed to Lenawee County Circuit Court Judge Margaret M. S. Noe, Edmond said she was trying to improve herself. In the first letter, she described interest in becoming a cosmetologist. In the second letter, she said she had started work to get her GED. She said she enjoyed drawing, long walks, movies and going out to eat -- things she didn't appreciate before her time in jail.

"She does not feel incarceration is appropriate because it just makes her more hostile and therefore, more assaultive," a probation violation report said.

Edmond was placed in administrative segregation multiple times after she arrived at the correctional facility in 2013, according to her file. She also had about 50 misconduct reports filed against her during her time, with the number of high-level misconducts growing each year.

Edmond's security classification screenings indicated she initially had no high-level misconducts reported, but had one reported between May 2013 and September 2013. Between September 2013 and June 2014, she had 11. Between between June 2014 and June 2015, she had 28.

Many misconduct reports were for "insolence," including times when Edmond cursed at corrections officers. Other reports were for disobeying orders, fighting and creating disturbances.

Reports indicate she was denied parole twice.

Although most medical information was redacted from Edmond's prisoner file, the probation violation report showed Edmond was taking Zoloft and Seroquel for a mental health condition.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved Zoloft to treat major depressive disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, social anxiety disorder and premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Seroquel is approved to treat adults for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, including depressive and manic episodes.

In 2014, documents showed she threw a chair at a psychologist. She also had a mostly-redacted misconduct report for destruction or misuse of property in which she made a rope out of a towel.

In 2015, a broken piece of razor blade was found in Edmond's cell and she later made statements that she was "tired of being here" and hearing voices. In the last three misconduct reports prior to her death, Edmond was reported to have thrown herself on the ground, been out of place and charged at an officer.

On Aug. 20, 2015, Edmond resisted and pulled away from an officer escorting her to her segregation cell.

"When told to stop resisting, Prisoner Edmond dropped to the ground and began kicking her feet," according to the misconduct hearing report. "She refused to be escorted to her cell. Additional staff were called who assisted in carrying Prisoner Edmond to her cell."

"I'm very tired of being here," Edmond wrote in a segregation behavior review also dated Aug. 20, 2015.

On Sept. 18, 2015, she had a misconduct hearing for threatening behavior in which she charged at an officer.

"The prisoner pleads guilty and says she was yelling at the Reporting Officer, saying if they were in the streets she would do her harm, and she charged at the Reporting Officer with her fists clenched," according to the report.

"The prisoner admits such and when asked to explain said she was hearing voices," according to the report. "While not disclosing the nature of prisoner's mental disability or limitations, the Mental Responsibility Determination reflects the prisoner's mental disability and/or mental limitations would not have had any affect on the alleged Misconduct Report and that the prisoner was able to distinguish right and wrong and could conform her conduct to departmental rules. Therefore the prisoner is found to be mentally responsible."

In the final report, on Oct. 16, 2015, Edmond pleaded guilty to being out of place when she arrived to a meeting with a qualified mental health professional later than the 10 minutes allowed to travel from place to place. She was also seen near a building not on her route to that meeting.

Darcie Moran covers cops and courts for MLive and The Ann Arbor News. Email her at dmoran@mlive.com or follow her on Twitter @darciegmoran.
UPDATE: Northbound U.S. 23 is closed indefinitely

ANN ARBOR, MI -- A semi-truck hit the 8 Mile Road bridge on U.S. 23 and caused significant damage, police say.

Northbound U.S. 23 at 8 Mile will remain closed until about 2 p.m. Thursday as Michigan Department of Transportation officials inspect the overpass.

The truck hit the bridge just before 6 a.m. March 10.

Michigan State Police Sgt. Mark Thompson said northbound traffic is detouring by using the on and off ramps at 8 Mile Road to get around the bridge.

No one was injured in the crash, according to Huron Valley Ambulance.

The 8 Mile Road bridge will remain closed indefinitely--possibly for three months--for repairs, the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office says.

MDOT already had plans to replace the 8 Mile bridge, according to its list of 2016-2017 projects.

Lindsay Knake is a cops and courts reporter for The Ann Arbor News. Follow her on twitter or contact her at 989-372-2498 or lknake@mlive.com.
022212_NEWS_Amtrak_MRM

A westbound Amtrak train to Chicago pulls into the Ann Arbor station.

(Melanie Maxwell | The Ann Arbor News file photo)

The Michigan Department of Transportation says it will consider plans for a rail stop in Ypsilanti's Depot Town.

However, the announcement doesn't mean a rail stop is approved. MDOT must OK plans once they are developed.

Previously, MDOT and Amtrak wouldn't consider a train stop in Depot Town. But in a Dec. 9 letter to City Manager Ralph Lange, Al Johnson, manager of railroad operations for MDOT, wrote that the agency changed its position. He said the results of a new analysis "were favorable for intercity passenger rail service."

While there's still a significant amount of design work to be done, more approvals needed and funding sources to be identified, the announcement is big news because it officially opens the door for a stop.

Ypsilanti would be on Amtrak's Wolverine line, which runs from Chicago to Pontiac with southeast Michigan stops in Ann Arbor, Dearborn, Detroit, Birmingham and Royal Oak.

Mayor Amanda Edmonds stressed that there's still a long way to go before a train stops in Depot Town, but she says she's thrilled that a project that seemed like "a pipe dream" is moving forward.

"So, first, I am very elated to announce that the city of Ypsilanti is in the process of being considered for an Amtrak stop on the Wolverine line in Depot Town," she said in a written statement.

But she added, "It's taken years, with many allies along the way, to get us to the point we are now. But, the journey is far from complete, and our end goal is not guaranteed."

The next step, Johnson wrote, is for the city to design an ADA-compliant platform that meets specifications provided by MDOT, the Federal Railroad Administration, Amtrak and Norfolk Southern. The city will also have to close several railroad crossings.

"Once the platform is approved for passenger rail operations and the railroad crossing closures are complete, MDOT will instruct Amtrak to add a station stop in the city," Johnson wrote.

The city was planning to announce MDOT's decision and provide additional details on Friday afternoon, but Council Member Pete Murdock posted the letter to his Facebook page on Wednesday afternoon.

Edmonds said the city held off on announcing the development because city staff was doing its due diligence, working with multiple government partners and working with railroad companies to ensure everything was in order and the announcement wasn't made prematurely. The city will provide further details regarding planning and funding on Friday, she said.

Though plans still have to be developed, the platform will likely be installed somewhere near the Ypsilanti Freighthouse. There are also questions over parking, traffic, site plans and other infrastructure issues that need to be addressed, but Murdock said he expects the platform to be fairly simple.

"We don't need the Taj Mahal. All we need is a platform," he said. "I'd just as soon get the train here ASAP."

It was announced in November that MDOT and Amtrak were reconsidering their position on an Ypsilanti stop, but there hadn't been any word since.

"It's great news. Most of the time what we got from Amtrak was an instant form reply that says 'No,'" Murdock said. "We've got do a lot of stuff to do now, and we've got to find a lot of money, but let's get to work."
Susan_Santone.JPG

(Photo courtesy of Leisa Thompson)

The Ypsilanti District Library and Eastern Michigan University will host the first Ypsi-centric TEDx talk.

While the city hosted talks in the past, the March 22 TEDxYDL at EMU's Halle Library is the first that will feature all Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Township residents as speakers.

"Ypsilanti has a lot of incredible people and organizations doing great things, but too often these people don't connect with each other," said Gillian Ream Gainsley, communications director with YDL who helped organize the event with EMU's Halle Library.

"A TEDx event is a great way for people to hear a lot of ideas from a lot of great people in a short amount of time, and our hope is that they'll form new collaborations and create new opportunities for our city."

The event will feature nine, eight-minute minute talks by local speakers, as well as videos of selected TED talks. TED and TEDx talks are popular idea-sharing speeches and performances at conferences across the world. As Gainsley explains it, the talks are "about highlighting 'ideas worth spreading,'" and "inviting prominent people to share big ideas in short, impactful, tightly rehearsed talks."

The events topic is "Connect. Create. Change," and each talk will highlight a way that connecting unexpected people, groups or ideas "can change our lives, our community and the world," Gainsley said.

Those wishing to speak submitted applications to the libraries. Gainsley said the speakers selected out of the large number of applications have experience in a range of topics, like education, design, engineering or storytelling.

"Overall we wanted to present a diverse picture of some of the work that's happening in our area and share the ideas that you may not hear about elsewhere," she says.

Among those speaking are Susan Santone, executive director of Creative Change Educational Solutions, an Ypsilanti-based non profit. For the last 14 years, it has worked with school districts locally and from around the country to help transform and improve curriculums.

Santone, who is also a part-time adjunct EMU professor, said Creative Change mostly works with public schools in a variety of communities - from urban to rural and wealthy to poor.

She said she's excited about the work she has been doing and is eager "to get people excited about what's possible in education."

"The premise of the talk is every student's future is a story that can be written, so where is curriculum taking them?" she said.

"Students can write a positive story ... but the school has to equip them with the knowledge and skills to be authors of opportunity and success, so there's this idea that the way we educate students can influence the stories they write."

Derrick Jackson, the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office director of community engagement, will also speak. Jackson and the Sheriff's Office work closely with the community to improve policing, and he says he'll be discussing their unique approach.

"I'll be focusing on the work we do here around problem-oriented policing and our street outreach team," he said. "How we have created a pretty special program here at the Sheriff's Office and how that is allowing us to connect with the community and make change both internally and externally."

He adds that he's glad to be a part of a TEDx talk that offers an all Ypsilanti line up.

"We have a lot of hard working, creative, and innovative people here in the larger Ypsilanti area and the ability to share that work with the world through a mechanism such as TEDx is pretty exciting," he said.

Santone also says she's pleased that the event will offer so many positive Ypsilanti stories.

"There's so much talent and vision and innovation in this community, and it's really Ypsilanti's turn in the spotlight," she said. "It's well deserved, it's long overdue, and I'm really excited to be a part of a group that's going to talk about great things happening in the community that maybe a lot of people don't know about."

Gainsley adds the talk is also part of an ongoing, larger effort to bridge the gap between the city of Ypsilanti and EMU.

"The two libraries are also centers of information for the university and local communities, so we have a unique chance to bring both of those communities together to share ideas and collaborate," she said.

Other speakers include:

* La'Ron Williams, professional storyteller.

* D. Scott Heister and Diana Bernal-Canseco, a teacher and student at the Ypsilanti Community Schools who will present jointly.

* Michael Beasley, user experience designer at ITHAKA.

* Sahithya Reddivari, PhD student in environmental engineering at the University of Michigan.

* John Barrie, executive director of the Appropriate Technology Collaborative.

* Erin Howarth, director of Wilderness Adventure Books.

* Keith P. Jason, coordinator of student services at the EMU College of Technology.

The event is scheduled for March 22 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at EMU's Halle Library.
BAY CITY, MI -- A self-professed Vietnam veteran and his wife have been court-ordered to undergo treatment for their heroin use.

William E. and Mary L. Awad on Thursday, March 10, appeared before Bay County District Judge Mark E. Janer for sentencing. Janer sentenced them both to one year of probation. During that time, they are to submit to frequent drug and alcohol tests, participate in at least two Narcotics Anonymous meetings per week and complete a 24-week substance abuse program.

The judge said he would consider a year of jail for William Awad if he violates his probation. Janer held 90 days in jail in abeyance for Mary Awad in case she violates her probation.

The judge also ordered each Awad to pay $835 in court fines and costs.

The Awads in February both pleaded guilty to use of a controlled substance-heroin. The charge is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a $2,000 fine.

In exchange for their pleas, the prosecution dismissed counts of possession of less than 25 grams of a narcotic or cocaine, second offense, in each Awad's case. That charge is an eight-year felony.

The charges stem from officers with the Bay City Department of Public Safety's VIPER Unit executing a search warrant on the Awads' home in the 1200 block of 26th Street on Friday, Sept. 18. Both Awads were home at the time, as was their 4-year-old granddaughter, who they were babysitting, court records show.

Police searched the home and seized an uncapped hypodermic needle containing fluid, a digital scale, two metal spoons containing cotton filters, suspected drug records, a sliced-up magazine, cellphones and cash, court records show.

The search was the result of an investigation into William Awad, 61, reportedly selling heroin from his home, court records show. After police read them their Miranda rights, both Awads agreed to speak with the officers, court records state.

"Me and my wife both use heroin off and on," William Awad told police, according to their reports in court documents. "We don't use every day like most people. People call me looking for heroin, and I will take orders and go to Saginaw to get it."

Awad added he does not have a driver's license and gets someone else to drive him to Saginaw for the purchase. In exchange, he gives the driver a hit of heroin and some gas money, he told police.

Awad went on to say he's been selling heroin for two or three months and has only about four customers, court records show. He said he makes a buy in Saginaw every three days, paying $80 to $90 for a half-gram.

"I don't make any money off selling heroin because I use it," he continued, police reports state. "I am a disabled veteran from the Vietnam War and get $4,000 per month from my disability. Mary and I were just talking today about not doing this anymore."

Mary Awad, 51, told police both she and her husband use heroin, but she denied selling it.

"I used this morning at around 10 a.m. just prior to our granddaughter coming over," she told police, according to court records. "It was not good stuff so I wasn't high by the time she got to our house."

She added she never went with her husband to Saginaw to buy heroin. She said she only started using heroin a couple of months before to manage pain resulting from a broken hand, court record show. Police noted the hand in question was not swollen or covered when they spoke with her, court records show.
BAY CITY, MI -- A 35-year-old Bay City woman police say broke the law by airing her grievances about a former friend on Facebook has the chance to avoid a felony on her record.

Prosecutors have made a plea offer to Rene K. Kolka. If she pleads guilty or no contest to unlawfully posting of a message, they'll recommend she receive a delayed sentence. The charge is punishable by up to two years in prison and a $5,000 fine and is the only count Kolka faces.

If Kolka accepts the deal, she'll effectively be on probation for the term of her delayed sentence. If she satisfactorily completes the terms of her delay, she'll be allowed to withdraw her plea and instead plead to malicious use of telecommunications services. That charge is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail.

Kolka's case was set for a preliminary examination before Bay County District Judge Mark E. Janer on Tuesday, March 8. She ended up waiving her right to the hearing and her case was bound over to circuit court for further proceedings.

Kolka's legal quandary stems from a 45-year-old woman contacting the Bay County Sheriff's Office on Monday, Oct. 19. The woman told the responding deputy Kolka was posting derogatory comments about her on Facebook, court records show.

The complainant provided the deputy with copies of the Facebook posts, court records show. In them, Kolka referred to the other woman as a "slut," said, "We all know her skanky ways," referred to her as a "skinny tall coke head" and advised others, "Don't catch an STD" from her, court records show. Kolka also posted the woman's phone number, court records show.

The complainant told police she has since received numerous calls from unknown men inquiring about her, court records show. She went on to say the ordeal was awful, embarrassing and potentially detrimental to her career.

The woman said she had a falling out with Kolka about two years previously and did not know why Kolka was publishing the posts years later, court records show.

The deputy on Oct. 20 went to Kolka's last known address. A fellow tenant of the apartment building told the deputy Kolka moved out in the middle of the night a month before, court records show.

The deputy later telephoned Kolka, but she refused to give him her current address. She did not deny the messages were on her Facebook page, but said her account had recently been hacked and someone else may have published the statements, court records show. Kolka went on to tell the deputy she would remove the offensive statements.

Authorities issued a warrant for Kolka's arrest on Monday, Jan. 4. She voluntarily appeared for arraignment in Bay County District Court on Friday, Feb. 19.

State law defines the crime Kolka is charged with as:

A person shall not post a message through the use of any medium of communication, including the internet or a computer, computer program, computer system, or computer network, or other electronic medium of communication, without the victim's consent, if all of the following apply:

The person knows or has reason to know that posting the message could cause 2 or more separate noncontinuous acts of unconsented contact with the victim.

Posting the message is intended to cause conduct that would make the victim feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed, or molested.

Conduct arising from posting the message would cause a reasonable person to suffer emotional distress and to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed, or molested.

Conduct arising from posting the message causes the victim to suffer emotional distress and to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed, or molested.

Kolka is free on bond. Her next court date is pending.
Play Atlantis.jpg

Google Street View image of Play Atlantis in Melvindale

MELVINDALE, MI -- The suspect in a Feb. 13 fatal shooting at a family fun center in Melvindale has been located, arrested and extradited to Detroit from Alabama, the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office says.

Lamar Alexander Carter, 23, is accused of killing Sean Allen Kay, 44, following a fight at a children's party.

Police said there was a dispute while two separate parties were underway in the banquet rooms at Play Atlantis, 19400 Allen Road in Melvindale. The suspect left and returned with a gun, police said following the incident.

The prosecutor filed charges of first-degree murder and felony use of a firearm on Feb. 18, but Carter remained at large.

Carter was located and detained in Alabama on Feb. 26 and extradited to Detroit Wednesday.
LANSING, MI - As spring approaches with warmer weather, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services has issued a statement warning of the dangers of the Legionella bacteria that causes Legionnaires' disease.

"To continue the joint efforts to protect the health of residents of the city of Flint, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and Wayne State University are working to ensure that residents are aware of the potential for disease spread as the warmer months approach," said Dr. Eden Wells, chief medical executive with the MDHHS.

Anyone with pneumonia-like symptoms is advised to see a doctor immediately.



The statement was issued after an increased amount of Legionnaires' disease in Genesee County after the city of Flint switched from using Detroit and started using the Flint River for their water supply.



RELATED STORY: Public never told, but investigators suspected Flint River tie to Legionnaires' in 2014

There is no clear evidence that link the outbreak and the Flint River but documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by The Journal showed an investigation aimed at linking or ruling out the river as the cause.



According to the documents there were warnings of a deadly Legionnaires outbreak that could potentially be tied to the Flint River water and the documents also revealed that Genesee County health officials knew about the summer-2014 spike but did not notify the public.

Gov. Rick Snyder's spokesperson, Ari Adler said the Governor did not find out until January 2016.

"It was first personally discussed with the Governor at a meeting on Monday, January 11, 2016," Adler said.

Adler added that Snyder was given additional information on January 13.

Federal health officials did announce in February that they were still investigating Genesee County's outbreak.



In total, there were 87 confirmed Legionnaires' cases from June 2014 through October 2015. Of the 87 confirmed cases, nine people died.



MDHHS is working various agencies including the Center for Disease control to help put in preventative methods at local hospitals, nursing home and buildings with more than 10 stories. The agencies are helping implement water supply monitoring tools adding disinfectant to water in various places as a prevention tool including adding more chlorine that inhibits the growth of Legionella.



"As part of the U.S. Government response in Flint, we are collaborating with MDHHS and the Genesee County Health Department to make sure as many Legionnaires' disease cases as possible are prevented in the future," said Nancy Messonnier, Deputy Director of CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
U Tint Soe, the new lower house MP for Hpakant township, discusses his frustration with Chinese lawbreakers, large-scale excavation, narcotics, landslides, environmental damage and the finite nature of jade resources.





How can the new government tackle problems in the Hpakant jade mining area?

We will watch the companies and try to control them according to the laws. One important thing to note is that the jade market is terrible. A stone that used to be worth K10 million is now worth less than K1 million. Demand and supply are out of line  demand is falling but jade is being extracted from the ground with huge machines.

It should not be like this. It no longer seems like companies are mining for jade, but mining for pebbles. Jade production in our country is a huge business. On the other hand, when crooks control the market in China, prices fall. Jade is not something we can re-plant, it takes millions of years to form. If we continue to extract as much as we can we will end up with nothing.

We already have policies in place to protect the area, so we can try to control the companies using the existing laws.

A special team including the vice minister for home affairs went to Hpakant to examine rumours that a large number of dump trucks were being brought across the border illegally. What were the results of the investigation?

I was also involved in the search to find the machinery and examine the companies, as were other National League for Democracy members. I caught companies red-handed, disposing of the vehicles behind piles of tailings that they had dumped illegally. The companies said they planned to get licences, and gave excuses. Their words lacked conviction but we have been unable to do anything about it.





There have been many events like this. Many companies are hiding vehicles, and we have lots of evidence. But collecting evidence is different to taking action. Our goal is to ensure proper revenues for the state. For the moment we just want to find out as much information as possible.

Though I wish it did, the mining law does not include specific details about the power of machines or how many vehicles and dump trucks should be used at each work site. But with so many huge machines at the mines our supply of jade will run out quickly, that much is obvious. Each generation has a duty to preserve the things left by its ancestors. Jade mining operations are having a huge environmental impact.

Do you have plans to limit the machinery used in Hpakants jade mines?

We have to. I have been in Hpakant for 28 years. This is happening in front of our eyes. It cannot carry on indefinitely. In the past we watched and did nothing - now we need to do something. This heavy machinery can excavate as much jade in one month as 50 years of digging could produce in the past. I dare not think too hard about it. Despite all of this production, the country is still not benefiting.

The only people who are benefiting, or taking profit, are foreign investors masquerading as Myanmar ethnic people. As locals, we all know about this. For example, even though we think the sales price of jade at the Myanma Gems Emporium [in Nay Pyi Taw] is expensive, we have never seen the most precious stones, which are sent illegally to China and do not reach markets in Myanmar.

The priceless gems are sent to markets in places like Guangzhou, in a number of different ways. The companies can carry jade illegally because their parent companies are Chinese. We should seriously forbid this from happening, so that there are no illegal outflows from our country. I want everyone to know that the income from jade trading should be financing our country.

How will you handle the illegal jade trade with China?

Hpakant is the main place where the issues, difficulties and problems from the whole of Myanmar are combined. Problems with narcotics and migrant workers are inextricable from problems with jade. It is difficult to decide which one to solve first when we have to solve them all.

Our main objectives are to fulfil the fundamental needs of those living nearby, to secure their lives and their properties. We have a responsibility for all of them. Particularly we must solve the problem of migrant labourers being killed when searching for raw stones. There is so much that you have not seen or heard. According to reports, 114 people died in a recent landslide. That figure conceals the real number of deaths.

People from all across Myanmar travel to Hpakant to search for uncut stones and they often face death while searching through jade mine tailings. As a local Pyithu Hluttaw MP, how will you ensure such cases do not happen?

Accidental death is not unusual in Hpakant. If there are one or two deaths, the police dont even investigate. The number of deaths due to traffic accidents and landslides are too high. The main reason for this is poverty. People in such poverty who believe they can make money dont care about the dangers they face. This is one of our challenges.

We plan to do something to protect the rights of itinerant jade hunters. They should have the right to search freely. We are now working out how to reduce the height of tailings piles for their safety.

How to you plan to target foreign investment under the names of Myanmar people?

The responsible people from our government departments know exactly who works for which company, and who is doing what. Behind the companies are gangs and armed groups, especially those who launder drugs money. The officials know all about them, but they close their eyes, as it is also stated in the Global Witness report [published last year]. We know what is happening but we have not taken much action. It is rather difficult.

How many foreigners are mining in Hpakant under the names of Myanmar people?

It is difficult to say exactly. But as most people know, 95 percent of the companies here are owned primarily by Chinese investors. Even the supervisors of lower-rank workers are mostly Chinese. Only they could do that job. Chinese businesspeople join with privileged people from Myanmar  mostly officers. We see this again and again.

According to our law, only Myanmar citizens can mine in Hpakant. Chinese nationals with Myanmar citizenship are running the businesses, but behind them are Chinese companies. Without doubt  some of the backers stay in the shadows, others are more visible. It is illegal. But before we do anything, we need to discuss this with all related stakeholders. So it is difficult for me to say any more about it.

Do you have a plan to raise these issues in the new parliament?

Yes, of course. I plan to take action as required, after negotiating with local residents and business people, or to amend or enact the necessary laws.

My main intention is to settle all the problems together. If jade mining continues without any regulation in Hpakant, the precious stone will soon disappear, as it has in Mogok and Mineshu. All the locals are concerned about it.

The state, civil society and local people all need to conserve this resource as their national duty. Because of the mining, local people have suffered from the environmental impact. Our region is facing climate change now. We have faced flooding and drought even though it is a land abundant in springs.

Translation by Emoon and San Lay
Myanmar is one of the worlds largest producers of oilseeds such as sesame, sunflower, mustard and groundnut but loses millions of dollars a year due to poor agricultural practices and a lack of quality control.





Oilseeds are crucial to Myanmars rural economy  their cultivation accounts for the most significant portion of agricultural activity in the country today after cereals and pulses, according to the United Nations International Trade Centre.

Three regions account for the vast majority of oilseed growth  Mandalay, Sagaing and Magwe  also known as Myanmars dry zone. ITC research shows exports rely on markets including Japan, China and Taiwan, with more than 91 percent of total overseas sales heading for these markets.

Domestic oilseeds fetch good prices internationally and demand is rising both at home and overseas, said U Aung Ko, deputy director general of the Ministry of Commerce, during a recent workshop on oilseeds in Mandalay.

The opportunities for the industry are huge  global consumption of oilseeds is forecast to continue rising, he said, adding that more domestic production will mean job opportunities.

Under the governments five-year National Export Strategy, ITC has launched a three-year project that will run until August 2018, funded by the World Trade Organization, to improve food safety and compliance in the oilseeds value chain.

The strategy, launched in March 2015, focuses on rubber, rice, beans, pulses and oilseeds, fisheries, textiles and garments, forestry products, tourism, and four cross-sector functions  access to finance, quality management, trade facilitation and logistics, and trade information and promotion.

Since last December, the ITC project team has been collecting baseline data from farmers, merchants, exporters and millers in Mandalay, Magwe and Sagaing regions, said project manager Daw Thit Thit Lwin. This stage is to assess production, storage and processing practices and controls.





Once the team has gathered enough information, it will select and work with farmers, collectors, processors and exporters in the three regions to boost growth. This will involve training on good agricultural practices and improving farming techniques, as well as education about the use of fertiliser and warehousing. It will also encourage modernised oil mills. Food safety standards are a challenge, said Daw Thit Thit Lwin. For example, the edible oil distributors and producers use unsafe reused drums, which do not comply with international code of practices for producing, handling, storage and transport. The project will provide the training to address these challenges.

The dry zone covers more than 54,000 square kilometres from lower Sagaing Region to the western and central parts of Mandalay Region and most of Magwe, according to the UNs Myanmar Information Management Unit.

The area receives limited rain compared with the rest of the country and is more affected by food security issues than the rest of the country.

Traders in Mandalay have said they want to target the Chinese market, and the project will include additional training on Chinese market requirements.
Myanmar Oriental Bank is planning to issue unsecured credit cards to customers with a monthly income of more than K150,000, becoming the first bank in the country to make the service widely available.





With an unsecured card, customers do not have to put up collateral, said U Aung Htet Paing, deputy general manager of the banks card department.

Without a credit bureau in Myanmar many banks have deemed it too risky to issue unsecured cards, as they are unable to accurately assess the creditworthiness of their customers. A number of banks including MOB, AYA Bank and CB Bank circulated between 500 and 1000 cards each last year to select customers and staff, as a test run.

MOB is now looking to target middle-income customers and those with newfound purchasing power, said U Aung Htet Paing. Anyone with a monthly salary of more than K150,00 is eligible to apply, he said, and cards will allow users to spend between K250,000 and K5 million

Under Central Bank rules, banks are allowed to issue credit cards with a maximum spend of K5 million. If the rules change, MOB plans to upgrade its card capacity, he said.

We also want to develop a payments system, and to bring new customers onto our credit card network, he said.

We will not invite all those who are saving money in our bank. We will have to check and evaluate their creditworthiness as this is a high-risk product.

The cards can be used in Gamone Pwint department stores, City Mart outlets and all retail merchants with the Myanmar Payment Union logo. The bank will form additional retail partnerships depending on the requirements of its card users, said U Aung Htet Paing.
Thousands are expected in parliament today to watch the National League for Democracy name its two nominees for the presidency, with a former military doctor now firming as favourite to become Myanmars next head of state.





Parliamentarians gathered in Nay Pyi Taws municipal guesthouse last night were tipping U Myo Aung, a long-time party member and serving MP, as the partys likely presidential pick, with U Htin Kyaw a close second.

Party leaders have kept the identity of its presidential nominees a closely guarded secret, with senior official U Win Htein revealing only that the next presidents name comprised two words  ruling out Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who is ineligible under the constitution.

There has also been speculation that the NLD could nominate a representative from an ethnic minority party, with U Sai Nyunt Lwin from the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy one oft-mentioned candidate.

As he arrived at the guesthouse yesterday evening following an English exam in parliament, U Myo Aung told reporters that the next president would be someone born on a Thursday. According to his parliamentary biography he was born on a Friday, but this did little to dampen speculation.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has said only that she will rule above the president, a proxy arrangement that some have cautioned could be unconstitutional and harm the efficacy of the incoming NLD government. She is expected to take a position in the government, as either a minister in the Presidents Office or foreign minister.

Outsourcing the presidency: the proxy problem

Yesterday she spent the afternoon in a meeting with the leaders of the partys state and region branches. Afterward, she led a separate meeting with the partys central executive committee.





Returning after the CEC meeting, party spokesperson U Zaw Myint Maung refused to comment on the nomination, saying only that he was very excited about what would unfold today.

We have already prepared for the nomination. We want to complete the process peacefully. Please wait and see tomorrow morning. You will know who will be president at 10:15am, he said.

Although the NLD nominees will be revealed today and the party has the numbers to ensure its pick becomes president, parliamentary sources said the selection process could run through to March 18.

Three candidates will be chosen: one by elected representatives in the lower house, another by elected representatives in the upper house, and a third by appointed military MPs.

Both the upper and lower houses will meet this morning at 10am to hear nominations for the presidency. If a party besides the NLD puts forward a candidate, the nominee will be decided through a vote, most likely tomorrow.

The military will then reveal its presidential candidate to the Py-daungsu Hluttaw, the combined sitting of the upper and lower houses, which is expected to sit either tomorrow or March 14.

The vetting process will then begin. The three nominees will be examined for their eligibility under section 59 of the constitution, which requires them to be over 45, have knowledge of military affairs and no direct relatives who are foreign citizens.

The vetting will be undertaken by a seven-member committee comprising the two Speakers, two deputy speakers and one representative each from the upper house, the lower house and the military. The upper and lower house representatives for the vetting committee will be nominated today after the presidential candidates.

Once the candidates are approved, the president will be selected from among the three nominees by a vote of all MPs, elected and appointed. The runner-up will become the senior vice president and the one in third place will be the junior vice president.

In Depth: Daw Suu eyes foreign minister role

Todays nomination will take place in front of a packed parliament, with more than 1300 people having applied to attend as observers.

U Hla Moe, secretary of the Pyithu Hluttaw Rights Committee, said the figure a was record, unprecedented in parliamentary history.

It will be a historic day so it is attracting wide attention. Its really exciting, he said, adding that 600 journalists were expected to attend.

However, many would not be granted access to the chamber, he said. Both houses have just 450 seats for observers.

I have 26 guests but only 10 will be given access to the meeting hall, he said. The rest will have to watch the event on the television screen.

The NLD representative said he was so excited and interested in what would unfold that he was mentally tired.

While our party has enough MPs, the militarys nominee could still become president if we make a mistake in voting, he said. But we have been trained how to vote.

What is certain is that tomorrow will be a historic day.

U Sai Thiha Kyaw from the SNLD said he was interested to see whether party colleague U Sai Nyunt Lwin would be nominated by the NLD, and how this would be handled given he is not a sitting MP.

Last time, a representative from the political party to nominate the vice president took the paper from the hluttaw speaker. Then, that representative took the paper to the person who would be nominated as vice president to fill in the necessary facts. This is the really suspenseful time, when we are waiting to see who will be chosen, said U Sai Thiha Kyaw, who is serving a second term in parliament.

Political commentator U Yan Myo Thein said he expected U Myo Aung to be nominated as the NLDs candidate from the lower house, due to his former military background and position on the partys power transfer committee.

He has worked for the military and has enough experience to govern the country, said U Yan Myo Thein. Moreover, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will choose someone whom the military can accept. I believe they will prefer someone who has worked for them in the past.

From 1985 to 1988 U Myo Aung served as an army doctor before working in the Ministry of Health. He was suspended in 1991 and joined the NLD five years later. In the 2012 by-election he won the Pyithu Hluttaw seat of Seikkan in Yangon Region. Last November he was re-elected to the Pyithu Hluttaw, winning the seat of East Dagon. After the election he was appointed to the NLDs transition team.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will also favour someone who has been attached to the party for a long period, through both the good times and bad times, U Yan Myo Thein said. If she chose him, there would no arguments within the party. All would be satisfied at this decision.

Translation by Thiri Min Htun and Zar Zar Soe
The International Womens Day program Myanmar: Women in the Lead was held in Yangon at Chatrium Hotel and included two panel discussions by local female entrepreneurs and feminists on March 8.





One segment discussed why Myanmar needs more women in leadership roles and how to get them there. The four leaders discussed ways to solve womens problems and offered models for each.

Cherry Zahau, a Chin politician from the Chin Progress Party who was not elected in 2015, said though their party enforces a rule whereby 30 percent of MPs must be women, each party determines its own rules.

It is clear that with only 30pc of leaders as women in only one party, we cannot hope to properly represent all the women in the country, especially with elderly women being opposed to leadership roles, Zahau said.

Ma Naing Naing Lay, executive director of Ni Lay Naing Company, discussed ways in which women could reach higher levels in business. She said there needs to be sector-specific advocacy workshops and training.

I have seen many highly capable women that could reach great heights, but the problem is that they do not know the power that they have inside. Advocacy groups in each sector would help them to have the confidence to reach for more, she said. But it can also vary by each sector. For example, I would prefer for men to carry the heavy boxes.

Ma Nu Nu Win, CEO of June Industries, disagreed.





If a man can lift a heavy box, I dont see why a woman wouldnt be able to do the same, she said. In my companies, I do not differentiate tasks based on gender and I always encourage my team by saying that we can do anything if we have the will.

She suggested that in order to get more powerful women leaders, men will need to do their part by being willing to change their attitudes and adjust their cultural predispositions  something that she has learned first-hand.

My husband owns shares in a gold mine near Nay Pyi Taw and I followed along on the opening day, she said. Before entering, my husband turned to me and told me under his breath to not enter the area.

He told her that if women were to enter the area that no gold would come out.

I respect culture and believe that it should be upheld in most circumstances. That day, I obliged to my husbands request because I didnt want to end up a victim if the mine did not produce anything, she said. But I would like to know if this is practised in other countries  do women prevent those gold mines from producing ore?

Cherry Zahau continued on by discussing educational discrepancies that women face, as there are still many uneducated women in ethnic areas. Some dont even make it through high school.

When I interviewed some girls in these areas about their schooling and hopes for their educational future, they couldnt even answer me and just felt ashamed, she said.

Next, the women shared their role models. Zahau said hers was Dr Cynthia Maung, the founder of a free-of-charge hospital in Mae Sot on the border of Myanmar and Thailand. Ma Nu Nu Win said hers was Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her own mother.

Ma Naing Naing Lay said that the ways of thinking are changing quickly, as are role models.

In the past, I also looked up to my mother and Daw Aung San Su Kyi, she said. But now, I dont have just one or two role models  I believe that all women have something worth looking up to and we should focus on learning as much as we can from one another.
A Thai fisheries factory has further capitulated to the demands of its workers and agreed to equally compensate all labourers in a companywide settlement  a development rights advocates say is virtually unprecedented.





The new terms will extend to 200 mostly Myanmar staffers on a piecemeal contract who were initially overlooked.

At the end of February, the factory agreed to shell out compensation in a rare victory for migrant workers.

The workers had been fighting to end a smattering of abuses at the factory, including overcharging for work documents, unpaid overtime and illegal paycheck deductions.

The initial settlement deal involved 48 million baht (US$1.3 million) of backpay, divided between 1750 workers, including over 1400 from Myanmar. However, up to 200 workers paid on an output basis said they were not covered in the settlement.

Last week the terms were extended, and the piecemeal workers were each given 20,000 baht ($566) in backpay.

According to the Migrant Worker Rights Network, which assisted in the case, all 60 million baht has successfully been parcelled out to the employees.

All workers have received compensation now. This is a very good sign for Myanmar migrant workers that companies cannot abuse them and expect to get away with it, said U Sein Htay, chair of the MWRN.





Golden Prize employees said yesterday that most have resumed work at the factory.

I received 20,000 baht for compensation on March 5. I was really happy to get it because I was also unlawfully abused, said Ko Aung Ko Win, one of the piecemeal workers.

Thailands abuse-riddled fisheries sector has come under increased international scrutiny over the past two years, resulting in the country being downgraded to the lowest level on the US Trafficking in Persons Report. The EU also issued a yellow card warning, threatening to boycott Thailands largest export industry if conditions did not improve.

Yet victories such as that enjoyed by the Golden Prize workers remain rare in the sector. According to a recent report by the MWRN and the International Labor Rights Forum, many of the proposed solutions to abuses of migrant workers have failed to properly ensure protection of their rights.

Much of the response has focused on third-party audits, which do not change structural problems that enable exploitation. They also often sideline rather than empower workers, according to findings based on a range of case studies, including Golden Prize.

Securing decent conditions in the seafood industry depends on the ability of the workers to exercise their rights at work and access responsive grievance redress mechanisms when their rights are violated, the MWRN said.

To more effectively solve workplace abuses, such as in the instance of Golden Prize, the workers must be brought into the dispute resolution process.

If government and industry actors are to truly change conditions in Thailands seafood supply chain  workers must be brought into the process as equals and valuable stakeholders in a process to fix systemic imbalances, not as victims needing to be saved by outside actors, MWRN said.
The Taang National Liberation Army  fighting a war on two fronts in northern Shan State  is coming under pressure from its allies to make peace with a rival Shan group and not let the military-backed government sow divisions between ethnic armed organisations.





The Arakan Army (AA) and the Kokang-based Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) issued a joint statement yesterday urging their ally, the TNLA, and the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) to enter into peace talks.

Fighting between the TNLA and the Tatmadaw was said to be continuing yesterday in two locations in Kyaukme township, amid reports of a build-up of government forces. Clashes between the TNLA and the RCSS, which began last November, have abated, the RCSS said.

The ongoing conflicts are a display of disunity among us, which has been manipulated by governments at various stages, said the joint statement of the AA and the MNDAA. The victims of the ongoing conflicts are in fact the people, it said.

The AA and TNLA both assisted the ethnic Chinese forces of the MNDAA when war broke out with the Tatmadaw in the Kokang border area in February 2015. The three groups have had close ties with the much larger Kachin Independence Army (KIA), which is also reported to have mobilised more forces in northern Shan State.

In a separate development yesterday the KIA rejected a government statement of February 29 that condemned the group for establishing a 6th Brigade in areas of northern Shan State.

The KIA said it had set up its 6th Brigade in 2011 in response to what it said was the Tatmadaws breach of their existing bilateral ceasefire. It also accused the government of reneging on commitments to assist some 100,000 civilians forced to take refuge in camps in Kachin State since 2011.

Last month the United Nationalities Federal Council, an alliance of ethnic armed groups that did not sign the nationwide ceasefire agreement with the government in October 2015, formed a committee to host peace talks between the TNLA, a council member, and the RCSS, which signed the ceasefire pact.





But no talks have taken place, with the committee failing to get the two sides to the negotiating table.

The TNLA has previously said it wants the UNFC to act as mediator. However, as confirmed yesterday to The Myanmar Times by RCSS spokesperson Colonel Sai La, the RCSS has told the UNFC it wants direct talks with the Taang group.

We believe that choosing a place where both sides can meet soon and discuss a ceasefire would resolve the ongoing fighting, the AA and the MNDAA said in their statement.

Thousands of civilians have been displaced by the fighting in northern Shan, although aid workers say the numbers have started to decline with a break in fighting in some areas.

The TNLA has accused the RCSS of using its new relationship with the government since the signing of the nationwide ceasefire to build up its forces in the area. The RCSS denies TNLA accusations that it is helping the Tatmadaw.

The TNLA information department said there were clashes with government troops in the villages of Panglaw and Kyaukphyu in Kaukme township yesterday. It did not disclose casualties.

Observers have reported a large build-up of government forces in the conflict areas. Colonel Sai La of the RCSS said he believed that was true.

We have seen massive numbers of government troops in the areas, he said.

Last month the government demanded that the RCSS remove its forces from conflict areas and stick to the terms of the nationwide ceasefire accord. Colonel Sai La said the RCSS had ignored the order.

We will keep our forces there untill there is peace in these areas, he said.

Additional reporting by Thu Thu Aung
One year after the violent crackdown on student protesters at the town of Letpadan, 140 kilometres (87 miles) north of Yangon, the sluggish trial is still at a stalemate.





As the dust settled in Letpadan on March 10, 2015, 127 students, activists and journalists were arrested. One year later, 45 students and activists remain in detention at Thayarwady prison while dozens more have been arrested and are being held in other prisons around the country. In total, 69 students are up against colonial-era laws that forbid staging protests (See timeline).

Frustrated that after a year the court has failed to even move beyond the prosecutions reasons for pressing charges, the students announced their plan yesterday to boycott the trial.

Ko Aung Nay Paing, an executive committee member of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions, told reporters yesterday that the Thayarwady students would start the boycott within the next two weeks.

At the same time, families of student protestors plan to meet with the new members of parliament to discuss the human rights situation in the prisons.

We always demand to release all student protesters. We agree with the ABFSUs plan, because the judiciary is really bad, said U Tun Oo, the father of Ma Honey Oo, one of the imprisoned students.





U Robert San Aung, one of six lawyers representing the students, said that a year on, only three witnesses have been heard out of a total of 43 who will be called by the prosecution, about half of them police officers and local administrations of Bago Region.

The students suffered at the hands of these witnesses and the police are cheating in the hearing because they were involved in cracking down on the protestors without following the police act, he said.

The student protests and subsequent trial have shown clearly the limits of democratic change in the country as it continues a sensitive transition to civilian rule.

While the students continue to languish in jail without the court even officially pressing the charges, the police officers that led the crackdown remain free from an investigation. Instead, the Myanmar Police Force continues to arrest activists in relation to old protests and students already in prison have found themselves facing additional charges in different courts.

The students debacle poses a challenge for the incoming National League for Democracy government, which assumes office on April 1. The NLD has promised to make political prisoners a priority on its agenda. An amnesty is feasible however only with the agreement of the National Defence and Security Council, a body in which the military holds a majority with six of the 11 seats.

U Khin Zaw Win, a political commentator, said the outgoing government has achieved two aims by dragging out the students case. First, it has made it more difficult to release the current political prisoners, which the NLD has said it will do, and second, it has ensured, at least for now, that activists perceived as polarising radicals remain locked up during the handover of power.

It is targeted toward the incoming government and the student body itself, he said.

U Khin Zaw Win fears the students will not be released any time soon, either.

Local organisations, international human rights groups and even the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission have called for an independent investigation into the March 10 events, but authorities have so far refused.

Last year, the national commission recommended the government take action as necessary on the police force personnel who failed to follow the procedures in the riot. However, in the same statement made in September  six months after the incident  it also advocated action against people who destroyed police barricades and tents.

The court repeatedly rejected a case against police officers who violated the law during the crackdown, although the national human rights commission recommended taking action against them, said U Robert San Aung.

He also said that the court was biased towards the police force, causing the students to lose confidence in the proceedings.

In a statement released today, Amnesty International renewed its call for the government to unconditionally and immediatedly free the students. We call on the Myanmar authorities to also drop all charges pending against those individuals still detained as well as those released on bail, the statement said.

While the students spend their days watching shows on a TV supplied to the prison by their friends and families, the National Education Law has been amended without heeding the students calls for change.

The Letpadan crackdown was the culmination of months of protests, negotiations and stand-offs with the police as students demonstrated against a new National Education Law that was initially passed by parliament in September 2014.

Their main concerns about the law  which they saw as restrictive and formed without proper consultation  were neglected in the amended version passed in June 2015, three months after the protesters had been jailed.

One of the students main complaints centres around the power allotted to the National Education Policy Making Committee.

Daw Thu Thu Mar, from the National Network for Education Reform (NNER), said that even though the legislation allows for decentralisation of the education sector in states and regions, a national policy-making committee remains in charge of important decisions about policy, curriculums and budget planning.

That committee shouldnt make an education policy for the whole country  that is centralisation, she said.

The committee will be the biggest burden for a federal education system in the future, she added.

The students had also demanded recognition for student and teacher unions, and to ensure that the perennially underfunded education sector received 20 percent of the governments annual budget.

Neither proposal was included in the new law. Spending on education for the next financial year is targeted to reach 7 percent of the state budget, about half of the K2.88 trillion allocated for military spending.

The students did, however, obtain the right to apply to the university and program of their choosing, and for universities to decide who to admit without necessarily considering the results of final high school exams.

The NNER hopes to discuss amendments to the law with the new government once the education minister has been appointed.

The NLD government was elected by the people so I think they will not ignore the will of the people, said Daw Thu Thu Mar.

At yesterdays press conference in Yangon, the ABFSU demanded that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi stand with the students and voiced hope that the new government would address their arrest.

More than 150 civil society organisations, including the Network for National Education Reform (NNER), demanded the release of the student protesters and activists within 22 days of the new governments term.

But though Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has promised to release political prisoners, the NLD leader  who headed the parliamentary committee on education under the previous government  did not support the protesters march and even asked them to stop demonstrating.

NLD member U Thein Lwin, director of the National Network for Education Reform, took part in four-way talks before the crackdown but was reprimanded and later dismissed from the partys executive committee for doing so.

The students, however, are still confident the NLD government will push their trial beyond its current impasse.

We want Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to stand with us and Daw Aung San Suu Kyis government needs to handle the political prisoners issue, said Ko Aung Nay Paing.

Additional reporting by Wa Lone

Letpadan crackdown and student protests: a timeline

View fullscreen

September 30, 2014

Seeking to reform the education system, parliament passes the National Education Law, but activists, students and teachers say the legislation is too restrictive and was not written democratically

November 14, 2014

Students stage a protest as US President Barack Obama visits Yangon for the first time

January 20, 2015

Students declare their plan to march over 400 miles (650 kilometres) from Mandalay to Yangon in demonstration against the education law

February 3, 2015

After failed talks in Nay Pyi Taw, students declare nationwide protest will be stated against the law

February 13, 2015

Via state media, the government warns students to give up their march, and announces that protesters will not be allowed into Yangon

March 2, 2015

Students continuing the march despite the warning are stuck at a police barricade in Letpadan

March 10, 2015

Police declare the student encampments at Letpadan illegal and order them to leave. Students refuse and police launch a violent crackdown

June 25, 2015

President U Thein Sein signs the amended National Education Law, which rejects key student demands. It allows for the formation of representative student and teacher bodies, but stops short of calling them unions
U Htin Kyaw has been named as Daw Aung San Suu Kyis candidate for the presidency, ending four months of uncertainty following the landslide election victory of her National League for Democracy.





The NLD formally nominated U Htin Kyaw, a trusted advisor, as its candidate in a session of the lower house.

In the absence of an official profile from the NLD, there was initial confusion whether U Htin Kyaw studied at Oxford University, and whether he had served as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's driver. Colleagues later clarified he had studied at the University of London for a period in 1972 and had only acted as an occasional driver for the party leader.

The military backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, which was crushed in last Novembers elections, also put forward a candidate, although the current ruling party now only holds a handful of seats. Sai Mauk Kham, the current vice president, was nominated as the partys lower house candidate, and U Khin Aung Myint, former speaker of the upper house, was expected to be named as its upper house candidate.

The two chambers are scheduled to vote tomorrow morning to select one candidate each.

Parliaments bloc of appointed military MPs do not take part in those votes. Under the constitution, the military submits the name of its candidate directly to the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, the combined sitting of the two chambers which then votes to choose the president, first vice president and second vice president.

That vote is expected next week. Given the NLDs parliamentary majority, the election of U Htin Kyaw as president is all but assured. President U Thein Seins five-year term ends on March 30.





In the upper house the NLD nominated Chin MP and party member, 57-year-old Henry Van Thio as its choice for vice president. There had been speculation that the NLD intended to nominate a senior ethnic Shan politician for that post.

This story has been updated to correct erroneously reported details of Htin Kyaw's educational history and role within the NLD.

U Htin Kyaw  loyalty trumps

U Htin Kyaw, named today as the NLD choice for president, has long been trusted by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi who has repeatedly stated that being barred by the constitution from the top job will not stop her from leading the government.

The 69-year-old hails from an illustrious family and is a senior executive in the NLD leaders charitable foundation. Loyalty will have been his strongest attribute in his selection.

U Htin Kyaw has been described as practically descended from NLD royalty. His father was the famous writer and poet Min Thu Wun, who won a seat in the 1990 election. His father-in-law, U Lwin, was a co-founder of the NLD and held the position of secretary and treasurer. Both have since passed away.

Born in 1946, U Htin Kyaw is a year younger than Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. He graduated from Yangon University of Economics in 1962 and received his degree from University of London a decade later. He writes under the pen name Dala Ban.

He is married to Daw Su Su Lwin, daughter of U Lwin and a member of the Pyithu Hluttaw. In 2012, she won her fathers old constituency of Thongwa in a by-election, and was re-elected last year.

Read more: Outsourcing the presidency: the proxy problem
The name of the man set to be Myanmars new president was finally revealed in parliament yesterday  though neither he, nor the woman who has declared she will be above him, was present when the nominations the country has been waiting for four months were finally read out in the Pyithu Hluttaw chamber.





If the gathered press throng, who had been tipping U Htin Kyaw as president for days, had been hoping for a glimpse or reaction from Daw Aung San Suu Kyi or her confidant and soon-to-be proxy, they were to be disappointed.

Even Daw Su Su Lwin, the MP wife of U Htin Kyaw, was absent.

The tight-lipped, distance-keeping policy of the NLD leadership machine shows no sign of easing up just yet. Though that policy backfired when lack of official information about the chosen candidates this morning saw confused media file stories with misspelled names, questionable biographies and, in one particularly unfortunate case, a photo of a different U Htin Kyaw altogether.

But the lack of public engagement by the leaders and their notable absences did little to dampen spirits among the NLD politicians glad to have the speculation ended at last.

Despite a flurry of last minute presidential possibilities hitting the rumour mill on February 9 and yesterday  including Dr Tin Myo Win who on arriving this morning, couldnt say if he were about to be nominated  U Htin Kyaw was still firm favourite as the parliamentary session began.

When the NLDs lower house nomination was finally read out, naming the son of poet and scholar Min Thu Wun and son-in-law of the late NLD co-founder U Lwin, there was barely a stir from the scores of local and international media gathered in the press gallery. Nods of approval and quiet satisfaction at the expected choice was the consensus.





That soon changed when the news came through from the Amyotha Hluttaw of the NLD choice as upper house candidate for vice president. Henry who? was the confused cry from around the press gallery.

He doesnt even have any kind of social media profile, noted one correspondent despairingly adding the only photo available was the one from his Hluttaw ID card, though he was later tracked down on Facebook when people had actually worked out how to spell his name.

Not only was Henry Van Thio, NLD upper house MP for Chin State constituency 3, unknown to the media, none of the politicians I spoke to as they spilled out of the lower house chamber at the end of the session had heard of him either.

I am Chin and until just now Ive never even heard of him, chuckled Pu Cin Sian Thang, chair of the Zomi Congress for Democracy and MP for Tiddim in Chin State.

I hadnt heard of him before now, thank you for breaking the news, said a smiling U Zaw Thin, NLD MP for Ayerwaddy Region, when asked about the man now expected to become one of the countrys two vice presidents.

But he appeared too happy about U Htin Kyaws nomination to care much about the unexpected addition to the presidential coterie.

I am very pleased about the nomination, though not exactly surprised, beamed U Zaw Thin.

Hes a good friend of mine and a nice fellow. He has the most needed quality for this country. The ability to work towards national reconciliation.

And U Zaw Thin wasnt the only NLD MP openly celebrating. In a marked contrast to the self-contained demeanour of the new majority party members on previous key parliamentary occasions  including the first day back after their sweeping election victory, and the first day taking their newly won seats  today had a notably jovial atmosphere.

After the session ended NLD MPs posed for selfies and smiling pictures with arms round one anothers waists in forward-looking solidarity, apparently happy with the choice of man who will be their leader on paper, if not in practice.

One female NLD politician reached into her handbag and stuffed a handful of celebratory sweets into my hand as I passed her in the corridor.

Today is a very important day, thats why were all celebrating, said Daw Phyu Phyu Thin, NLD MP for Mingalar Thaung Nyunt, after asking a colleague to take her photo with a group of friends, adding she knew U Htin Kyaw very well and was delighted with the nomination.

If the ethnic parties were disappointed by the NLD leaders decision not to nominate a vice president from among their numbers - U Sai Nyunt Lwin of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy had been hotly tipped for a post  they werent showing it.

Ahead of the nominations Khun Aung Kyaw, MP for the PaO National Organisation in Hopong, Shan State, welcomed the prospect of a vice president from an ethnic party. But when his hopes went unanswered he responded it would not matter nor cause problems between the ethnic parties and the NLD.

Daw Khin Saw Wei of the Arakan National Party expressed a similar view. Its democracy in practice and everyone has to accept it, because the NLD won.

As has been their wont since the election, the USDP showed no willingness to hand over the reins without a show of whatever power they have left.

Arriving at parliament, retired military general Hla Htay Win, a senior USDP official, revealed the party would put forward its own nominations. This will force both houses to conduct a vote and delay proceedings despite the USDP choices  current vice president U Sai Mauk Kham, and former upper house speaker U Khin Aung Myint, having no hope of winning a position. USDP representatives said they wanted to promote democracy and exercise their rights.

But in the end democracy has already spoken as much as it is allowed to right now in Myanmar. The official final vote is still to take place, likely next week, but the winning party has only been allowed to put forward its next best candidate for president.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi must still wait for a change in the constitution that bars her from that role.

Nonetheless the party overwhelmingly chosen by the people of Myanmar last November will, barring unexpected intervention, take office at the end of this month with a popular and respected representative as leader of the nation - even if some doubt remained which university he actually went to, whether he once acted as Daw Suu's driver, and whether the person in the photo was actually him.
Last month a small item at the foot of the back pages of the regional press announced that Singapore had again been judged as the best and safest place to live in Asia.





The Mercer 2016 Quality of Living Survey revealed that Singapores political, economic and cultural environment was tops in Asia and 26th best in the world. Yangon was a commendable 201st out of 230. Vienna trumped the lot.

For those of us who are deeply fond of Singapore, it is rather perplexing. What does the survey result mean?

The answer surely has to be: not much. Or perhaps more accurately, and borrowing from the trenchant American writer HL Mencken, It is rumble and bumble. It is flap and doodle. It is balder and dash.

Perhaps some facets of Singapores over-hyped political, economic and cultural ranking escaped the attention of Mercers expert surveyors.

One recent example revealing a madly irritating lack of foresight that pervades many events in the city state stands out as being a typical Singapore cock-up - last months biennial International Air Show, held as usual out near Changi airport.

Just as in 1992, when your columnist can confirm exactly the same thing happened, throngs of irate show-goers had to wait in endless queues under the hot sun to get a taxi back into town.





Even the state-run local media waxed indignant and reported that the first day of the show saw trade visitors and exhibitors seeing red over waits that ran as long as two-and-a-half hours in the cab queue.

A German exhibitor said the transport situation was the most poorly managed she had ever experienced. Tomorrow, I dont know, we probably have to call a helicopter in, she said.

It was no small hiccup. At Asias biggest international air show, exhibitors, salespeople, buyers and aviation experts, not to mention the general public, were left fuming for hours  just as happened 24 years ago.

Lessons never learned by super-efficient Singapore. Bad show.

No wonder that few made repeat visits and that deals were down by some 37 percent. This air show has been the most quiet and most muted in terms of sales and buzz, said one aviation consultant.

Frustrated citizens often chide Singapore authorities for not learning from past mistakes and say that it explains the frequent disruptions on the city states subway system over the past four years.

But perhaps such things are not included in the Mercer survey whose parameters are geared for the needs of expatriate businessmen who tend to have their own car and to not use public transport.

As for Singapore having Asias best political climate, let us ponder that ranking while recalling its decision to abandon a long-held revulsion for gambling and allow two of the worlds biggest casinos to set up business.

Not only do these new and massively kitsch edifices blot Singapores landscape and suck in money launderers, prostitutes and drug dealers, but they threaten the countrys security.

Consider the US$5.5 billion Marina Bay Sands, which is owned by Sheldon Adelson, a mega-rich tycoon and supporter of rightwing political causes  so much so that he makes Donald Trump seem like a moderate.

Why did the wise and super-efficient Singapore government award this huge casino contract to him, you may well ask. Especially when it is remembered that just three years ago, Adelsons Las Vegas casino complex was hit by a cyber attack that knocked out the computers controlling its gaming and resort operations.

The American intelligence services traced the assault directly to hackers based in Iran. Why would the Iranians do that?

Well, bear in mind that shortly before the cyber attack, Adelson, who is a staunch backer of Israels rightwing Likud government and an equally staunch opponent of the Islamic world, described how hed treat Iran.

He proposed that the US should detonate a nuclear weapon where it would not hurt a soul. except rattlesnakes and scorpions or whatever. Then you say: See, the next one is in the middle of Tehran.

Way to go, Mr Adelson. He is clearly an appropriate business partner and welcome addition to Singapores best-in-Asia political and economic environment.

But hang on. The January 14 bomb blast in Jakarta was blamed on Islamic State militants, and IS operatives are said to be recruiting in Mindanao and in Singapores Muslim-majority neighbours, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Furthermore, credible reports suggest that the IS folks do not take kindly to anti-Islamic Zionists and billionaire gambling magnates like Adelson.

Presumably, however, Singapores leaders figured the risk was worthwhile and that they would be able to thwart any cyber or other attack on the tauntingly provocative Marina Bay Sands.

Well, let us hope so, or else that quirky top ranking may need to be reassessed.
Apostle General Samuel Nii Korankye Ankrah with Mama Rita

10.03.2016 LISTEN



Rev Samuel Nii Korankye Ankrah heads the Royalhouse Chapel International, a thriving charismatic church that has its headquarters in Accra with a network of branches in many countries.

He could pass as the only known 'Apostle-General' among the clergy and is indeed a very vibrant person perhaps because of the trials he went through before his triumphs in life.

Korankye Ankrah is 56 and is popular for his prophetic messages which have all turned out to be authentic for some two decades now.

Korankye Ankrah, after his university education in Ghana, was seeking greener pastures in Europe when he felt he had a divine call to return to his home country to start a church.

I was sleeping soundly in my room when suddenly I felt a hand touching and waking me up. Instinctively, I looked at the time and it was 2:00am. Suddenly, I heard a voice call me by name and telling me to pray. I obeyed, knowing it was the voice of God and for the next three hours I prayed amidst tears, Korankye Ankrah noted.

Prior to his trip to Europe, Korankye Ankrah, while at the university, had started a Christian group, Showers of Blessing Incorporated, and when he returned to Ghana, it was this same group that grew into the Abundant Life Missions International, the International Bible Worship Center (IBWC) and later the Royalhouse Chapel.

The headquarters in Accra holds three services on Sundays, with each having close to 13,000 people in attendance.

.

Korankye Ankrah grew up in a rather large family. He is the 22nd child of his dad and has 24 paternal siblings and six maternal siblings.

Through his leadership, the Royalhouse Chapel has significantly affected the lives of street children, the homeless in society, drug addicts, commercial sex workers, single parents, widows and widowers as well as the aged with philanthropic initiatives like Outreach for Comfort , Rescue to the Needy Ministry to the Aged, Hospital and Prisons Outreaches and Scholarship Schemes for Bright but Needy Students.

Korankye Ankrah met his wife, Rev. Rita Korankye Ankrah, in 1982 and they got married four years later. They have four children: Nana Akos, Naa Dromo , Mawuena and the only male, Paapa, who made headlines two years ago when he got wedded to his sunshine, Jacqueline Hanson.

Korankye Ankrah operates effectively in all the five-fold ministries and has distinguished himself as a respected Apostle, Prophet, Pacifist, Philanthropist, Entrepreneur, Educationist, Author and Motivational Speaker.

Rev. Sam Korankye Ankrah's call and passion is to teach his generation with the love and power of God. To this end, he has established the renowned School of Restoration for ex-convicts, commercial sex workers, drug addicts, armed robbers and other perpetrators of social vices in an effort to rehabilitate them into society.

The church also has a scholarship foundation for needy but brilliant students. It has a ministry for the aged and a compassion ministry which provides succor to the needy.
10.03.2016 LISTEN

Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, on Tuesday, March 8 launched the 2016 Okwahu Paragliding Festival at the Coconut Groove Regency Hotel in Accra, with a call on Ghanaians to participate in this year's event.

The paragliding festival which is one of the flagship events on the tourism calendar is held every year by the Ghana Tourism Authority and under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts to coincide with the Easter holiday.

Mrs Ofosu-Agyare disclosed that her ministry was working on replicating the festival in other parts of the nation, stressing the need for other districts to own their tourist attractions.

According to her, her 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 had 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.

Speaking at the launch, the minister disclosed that this year's festival, which is the 11th edition, will attract a number of international paragliding pilots from the United States of America, Peru, Japan, France and Belgium, who will fly passengers during the festival.

Mrs Ofosu-Adjare stressed that there will be activities such as tug-of-peace and indoor games such as 'ludo', draft, 'oware', scrabble competition, among others.

.

There will also be a food bazaar as well as cultural and live band musical performances, she added.

The minister pointed out that the paragliding festival is one event which has put Kwahu and, for that matter, Ghana on the international paragliding map.

The festival, she said mentioned, continues to attract both domestic and international tourists from all walks of life, a mix which promotes social cohesion.

She disclosed that last year's event recorded a total of 212 flights, adding that out of those, 40 passengers were Ghanaians, 55 Germans, 36 Americans and 12 were Japanese.

The minister, however, disclosed that the event has also been economically beneficial to taxi drivers and other transport operators, vendors, caterers, among others.

By George Clifford Owusu


Masked students enter a building at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg on October 10, 2016. By Marco Longari (AFP)

10.10.2016 LISTEN

Johannesburg (AFP) - Student protesters at South Africa's prestigious Wits University forced their way into lecture halls and caused many lessons to be abandoned Monday, ratcheting up pressure in a battle over tuition fees.

Violent clashes with police have erupted regularly on campuses across the country in recent months, and several universities have been closed to avoid further unrest.

Police last week used rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades to disperse protests at Johannesburg's Wits University, which had vowed to again try to re-open on Monday.

"The majority of lectures resumed this morning but were then disrupted by large groups of protesters," the university said in a statement.

"The police are present and security has been deployed to manage the situation."

Several hundred students gathered outside Wits' Great Hall auditorium, the scene of recent bitter clashes. Local media reported two arrests had been made.

University tuition fees have become a flashpoint for protests in South Africa, which has struggled to provide education, jobs and housing for many poor black people since the end of apartheid in 1994.

The government has vowed to help all students from poorer families over fees, but the protesters are demanding free education.

"Essentially what they are saying is if there is no free education, there should be no education at all," Wits rector Adam Habib said last week, adding that the whole 2016 academic year could be lost.

University authorities say many students want to return to class and that the protests do not represent the majority of undergraduates.

President Jacob Zuma has said he supports introducing free education, but has condemned protesters who forced universities to shut down or who vandalised campuses.

Universities in Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban have also been hit by protests and closures.
09.03.2016 LISTEN

Donald Trump has won three more states, Michigan, Mississippi and Hawaii, in his bid to be the Republican White House nomination.

In the Democratic race, Bernie Sanders had a surprise victory in Michigan, but Hillary Clinton increased her overall lead with a big Mississippi win.

Ted Cruz won a Republican-only race in Idaho.

The states are the latest to choose candidates to compete in Novembers presidential election.

It was a terrible night for Republican Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who came in a distant fourth in both Michigan and Mississippi, a week before his must-win contest in his home state.

Mr Trump, a businessman with no experience of elected office, leads the polls in Florida, from where he delivered his victory speech on Tuesday night.

One of the things I am most happy about is the turnout has been just massive I think its the single biggest story in politics today, he said at a press conference in Jupiter.

He also said he would be more presidential than anybody except Abraham Lincoln and that no one is more conservative than me.

The Democratic opponent Mr Trump is most likely to face if he gets the Republican nomination, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, addressed voters in Ohio after her Mississippi win.

Running for president shouldnt be about delivering insults, said Mrs Clinton, in a thinly veiled dig at the outspoken Mr Trump.

.

It should be about delivering results.

Mr Sanders win in Michigan came as a shock after weeks of polling that suggested Mrs Clinton was well ahead.

I am grateful to the people of Michigan for defying the pundits and pollsters and giving us their support, Mr Sanders said in a statement following his win.

This is a critically important night. We came from 30 points down in Michigan and were seeing the same kind of come-from-behind momentum all across America.

Analysts say conservative firebrand Mr Cruz appears to be the only candidate capable of stopping Mr Trump, who has been fiercely criticised by the Republican establishment.

The partys 2012 nominee, Mitt Romney, described Mr Trump as a bully and a fraud who would lose a general election because of his extreme positions on immigration and Islamic State.

A central plank of Mr Trumps campaign is to deport 11m undocumented migrants and build a wall on the southern border, paid for by Mexico.

The primary and caucus elections determine the number of delegates assigned to each of the candidates.

The delegates then endorse their candidate at the party conventions in July. To secure their partys nomination, a candidate must win a majority of delegates.

-bbc


09.03.2016 LISTEN

A Ukrainian officer has defied a Russian court trying her over the killing of two Russian journalists, vowing to continue a hunger strike and making an obscene gesture at judges.

Nadia Savchenko, a pilot who served as an infantry volunteer fighting rebels, was making her closing statement.

She denies directing mortar fire at the Russian journalists in June 2014.

She is reported to have refused all food and drink since Friday, when the hearing was adjourned.

Speaking Ukrainian, she mocked the judges in the court in the south Russian town of Donetsk, saying they proved that Russians were fascists.

A translator read out her formal, final statement in which she proclaimed her innocence and described her trial as a farce.

The EU and US have both called for her immediate release.

A verdict in the case is due to be delivered on 21 and 22 March but her lawyers have said she will not survive that long unless she is force-fed.

If convicted, she could face 20 years in prison. Access denied

She was captured in the summer 2014 at the height of the fighting between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian rebels.

.

A pioneering female combat pilot in the Ukrainian air force, where she held the rank of lieutenant, she had enlisted in a volunteer infantry unit, the Aidar Battalion, to fight in eastern Ukraine.

She is charged with acting as an artillery spotter and directing the bombardment of a rebel checkpoint, in which two Russian state TV journalists, Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin, were killed .

Denying the accusation, the 34-year-old insists the whole case against her is politically motivated, and she has become a symbol of Ukraines resistance against Russia.

She says she was kidnapped by rebel fighters at least an hour before the attack in which the Russian journalists were killed, and later handed over to the Russian authorities.

Russian prosecutors say she secretly crossed into Russian territory herself.

Ukrainian diplomats in the Russian region of Rostov say judges in the case are refusing to issue any more permits to visit Ms Savchenko in prison.

Her relatives have also used up all their visiting permits, meaning a group of Ukrainian doctors en route from Kiev to visit her will also not be given access.

The EU has expressed concern about Ms Savchenkos wellbeing, and Nobel prize-winner Svitlana Aleksievich is among more than 4,300 signatories to an open letter urging European leaders to act to secure her freedom .

Relations between Russia and Ukraine  along with its Western allies  have deteriorated since the events of 2014 in Ukraine.

Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula that March after an unrecognised referendum on self-determination, and is accused of covertly supporting the rebels in the bloody conflict which later divided eastern Ukraine.

-bbc


09.03.2016 LISTEN

Buckingham Palace has complained to the press watchdog over the Sun newspapers article claiming the Queen backed Brexit from the European Union.

The Sun quotes anonymous sources, one of whom claims to have witnessed a bust-up between the Queen and pro-EU former Deputy PM Nick Clegg in 2011.

The palace insisted the Queen was politically neutral while Mr Clegg called the story nonsense.

But the Sun said it stood by its story and would defend itself vigorously.

Under the headline, Queen backs Brexit, the Sun said the Queens exchange with Mr Clegg at a lunch in 2011 left no room for doubt about her passionate feelings over Europe.

It said her reprimand of Mr Clegg went on for some time and stunned other guests.

The paper says the Queen also revealed her feelings about Europe during a separate conversation with MPs at Buckingham Palace a few years ago.

It claims the Queen told them: I dont understand Europe  words an unnamed parliamentary source says she spoke with venom and emotion.

Following the complaint the newspaper said: The Sun stands by its story, which was based upon two impeccable sources and presented in a robust, accessible fashion.

.

The Sun will defend this complaint vigorously.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: We can confirm that we have this morning written to the chairman of the Independent Press Standards Organisation to register a complaint about the front page story in todays Sun newspaper.

The complaint relates to Clause One of the Editors Code of Practice.

The Editors Code of Practice is regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). Clause One refers to accuracy, saying the Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information or images, including headlines not supported by the text.

It also states while free to editorialise and campaign, the Press must distinguish clearly between comment, conjecture and fact. Politically impartial

The Suns political editor Tom Newton Dunn wrote that the paper would not have reported the Queens remarks had they not come from two different and impeccably placed sources.

He says the Queen must remain above the fray of political issues, but added: If she has a view on Brexit, dont voters have a right to know what it is?

Professor Vernon Bogdanor, constitutional expert at Kings College London, told the Press Association it was absurd that the Queen would break from her tradition of political impartiality after decades as monarch.

Im very dubious. The Queen speaks and acts on the advice of ministers, Prof Bogdanor said. What she said on the Scottish referendum was that people should think carefully before they vote  and thats a very sensible comment, I would have thought.

-bbc


09.03.2016 LISTEN

Macedonia has said it will no longer let any migrants through its border with Greece, effectively blocking the Balkan route north.

The decision came after Slovenia barred access to migrants transiting the country. Croatia and Serbia then said they would follow suit.

Some 13,000 migrants are now stranded at the Macedonia-Greece border.

The moves come after the EU and Turkey set out a plan to ease Europes biggest refugee crisis since World War Two.

Under the plan, still to be finalised, all migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey would be sent back. For each Syrian returned, a Syrian in Turkey would be resettled in the EU.

Announcing the plan on Monday, European Council President Donald Tusk, said there would no longer be a path to Europe for migrants. The days of irregular migration to Europe are over, he said.

.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants have travelled through Macedonia over the past year, heading north.

But Macedonia began to limit the numbers, first to Syrian, Afghan and Iraqi migrants, then recently to just a trickle  mainly Syrians from areas it considered conflict zones.

This created a bottleneck, with migrants now living in a sprawling camp at the Idomeni crossing.

Macedonias announcement came after Slovenia said late on Tuesday that it would allow in only migrants who planned to seek asylum in the country, or those with clear humanitarian needs.

Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar said the countrys move meant that the Balkan route for illegal migration no longer exists.

-bbc


09.03.2016 LISTEN

The US military says it targeted a top commander of so-called Islamic State in an air strike in Syria last week.

An initial assessment suggested Tarkhan Batirashvili, a Georgian known as Omar Shishani, was likely killed along with 12 other militants, officials said.

The strike took place on Friday near the north-eastern town of Shaddadi, where Shishani had reportedly been sent to bolster local IS forces.

There was no immediate confirmation of his death from IS or its supporters.

The US had offered a $5m (3.5m) reward for Shishani, who it declared a specially designated global terrorist in September 2014. Minister of war

A statement issued by the US defence department late on Tuesday said it was still assessing the results of Fridays operation targeting Shishani.

But an unnamed senior defence official told the Associated Press news agency that it was likely the IS military commander was killed. The official said the strike involved multiple waves of manned aircraft and unmanned drones.

Using an acronym based on ISs former name, the defence department said it believed Shishani had been sent to Shaddadi to bolster Isil fighters following a series of strategic defeats to local forces we are supporting, cutting off Isil operations near the Syria-Iraq border.

Shaddadi was captured last month by the Syrian Arab Coalition, an alliance of Arab rebel groups which have joined forces with the Kurdish YPG militia to battle IS.

.

A YPG official told the Reuters news agency that it had received information that Shishani was killed but had no details and had been unable to confirm anything.

The defence department said Shishani  which means Chechen in Arabic  held numerous top military positions within IS, including minister of war, and was based in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the so-called caliphate whose formation IS proclaimed in 2014.

Batirashvili is a battle-tested leader with experience who had led Isil fighters in numerous engagements in Iraq and Syria, it added.

His potential removal from the battlefield would negatively impact Isil ability to recruit foreign fighters  especially those from Chechnya and the Caucus regions  and degrade Isils ability to co-ordinate attacks and defence of its strongholds like Raqqa, Syria, and Mosul, Iraq.

Before joining IS in mid-2013, Shishani was the leader of Jaysh al-Muhajirin wa al-Ansar, an al-Qaeda-linked group comprising mostly foreign fighters that fought in the rebellion in Syria.

By late 2013, he had been appointed emir (leader) for northern Syria and was in charge of fighters from Chechnya and elsewhere in the Caucasus.

He was identified as the IS military commander in a video distributed in June 2014.

Shishani is also said to have overseen an IS prison facility in Tabqa, west of Raqqa, where foreign hostages were possibly held, according to the US.

-bbc


09.03.2016 LISTEN

Kim Jong-un says North Korean scientists have developed nuclear warheads small enough to fit on ballistic missiles.

State media published images showing the Norths leader standing next to what it said was a miniaturised weapon.

The claim is impossible to verify from the images alone and experts have long cast doubt on such assertions.

The North has stepped up its bellicose rhetoric in response to the UN imposing some of its toughest sanctions.

The move by the Security Council came after the North conducted its fourth nuclear test and launched a satellite, both of which broke existing sanctions.

In recent days, Pyongyang has threatened to launch an indiscriminate nuclear strike on the US and South Korea, as they began their largest ever round of annual military exercises.

The drills, known as Foal Eagle and Key Resolve, routinely generate tension. Claims questioned

The claim from Mr Kim was made as he inspected a nuclear facility on Wednesday.

The nuclear warheads have been standardised to be fit for ballistic missiles by miniaturising them, state news agency KCNA quoted him as saying.

.

This can be called true nuclear deterrent, he added.

He also inspected nuclear warheads designed for thermo-nuclear reaction, the type used in a hydrogen bomb, KCNA said.

If the claim is true and North Korea can put nuclear warheads on to the tips of its ballistic weapons, it would represent a clear threat to the Norths neighbours and the US.

In October 2014, the commander of US forces in South Korea, Gen Curtis Scaparrotti, told reporters that he believed the North had the capability to miniaturise a nuclear device.

In May 2015, the North Koreas National Defence Commission said the country had succeeded in miniaturising nuclear weapons.

But the validity of the nuclear boasts has been widely questioned. Experts also still doubt the Norths claim that the nuclear test it conducted in January was of a hydrogen bomb.

In addition to the new UN sanctions, which target luxury goods, financing and trade, South Korea has also announced its own measures against the North, which includes blacklisting individuals and entities it believes are linked to the weapons programme.

The US and South Korea are currently discussing the possible deployment of a US missile defence system to the peninsula, a move strongly opposed by North Korea, Russia and China.

-bbc


Accra, March 9, GNA - HFC Bank Ghana has opened a new branch at Adjiringanor to bring its operations to the door step of existing and prospective customers in the area.

The opening of the new branch brings to 42, the total network of Branches in eight out of the 10 regions, placing it among the top 10 banks in terms of branch distribution.

Mr Robert Le Hunte, at the opening ceremony, said the Branch's inauguration formed part of the new focus of HFC Bank, 'which is to build modern branches at locations which cater for the needs of our customers.'

'We believe banking should be made accessible hence the need to bring banking to the door step of our existing and prospective customers,' he explained.

He said the bank had also decentralised its mortgage facilities, making it available in all of its 42 branches.

'For us, it is not just the physical banking structure that excites us but the prospects of interacting with you while working together in building this community,' Mr Le Hunte said.

He said this year the branches would be involved in community projects with a high level of staff volunteerism to improve and positively affect the communities in which they operated.

He said the Adjiringanor Branch looked forward to working and partnering with schools, hospitals, police stations and all stakeholders in the community in making that possible.

Mr Le Hunte said the initiatives were signposts on the bank's strategic roadmap of turning HFC Bank into one of the top banks in the Ghanaian Banking industry.

'We will, therefore, continue integrating the systems that have worked for us in other regions with the proven local strategies to provide unique banking solutions that will actually meet the needs of the Ghanaian consumer,' he said.

He said part of the strategic roadmap was to extend their services to every part of the country and eventually to the rest of the continent, adding that the bank would not rest on its laurels until the targets which translate into creating better value for all stakeholders were achieved.

Mr Nesbit Barnor, an Assistant Director at the Bank of Ghana, said the opening of the branch was a demonstration of HFC Bank's commitment to long-term business and investment plans in the country.

He urged the Management of the Bank to keep up the standards that had made it one of the leaders in the industry, and to adapt to newer trends in order to keep at par with global standards.

He advised the HFC Bank and other players in the sector to pay a bit more attention to the millions of Ghanaians in the countryside, who had no access to financial services.

He explained: 'The financial sector is evolving with a lot of untapped opportunities out there. Smart businesses are innovating ways of reaching out to our rural folks with products, and services that will propel their growth and in turn improve the business objectives of banks.'

Mr Barnor encouraged players in the Banking sector to continue to introduce healthy competition and provide customers with the best services.

Mr Nigel Baptiste, the President of the Republic Financial Holdings Limited, Trinidad and Tobago, who was the Guest of honour, said the Republic Bank's ultimate goal was to keep HFC Bank at the forefront of the financial sector in Ghana, and on the continent.

'We endeavour to continue setting the standard of excellence in customer satisfaction; employee engagement; social responsibility and shareholder value, while contributing to the building of successful societies,' he said.

He said the investment focus of the Bank was consistent with the country's long-term growth strategy and assured Ghanaians of their commitment to work with Ghana to unlock its economic opportunities.

GNA
His name is Yahweh. He is the one I look to daily for inspiration to be aware of truth. Without Him, knowledge, wisdom and understanding become irrelevant. So today, we will consider some legal terms associated with both Evhe and the Kingdom of God. Evhe is my tgb or father voice, and so I will always consider it as I teach the Word of God.

Legal Terms and Africas Legal Malaise

Have you ever noticed that Africa is full of men and women who have no real comprehension of Latin or Greek? I have. I sometimes wonder therefore why there is so much injustice on the continent and at the same time why so many African people know little about law. I mean, honestly speaking, why do Africans continue to use a legal system that has nothing to do with either righteousness or even African culture? It behooves me as a preacher to address this problem in writing.

Yeshua (Jesus) is the Son of God. He is righteous and came to implement the laws of the Kingdom of God. Most Christians today, are so ignorant of law and the righteousness of the Father of creation that they fail to see why they cannot receive anything from Him. I know the truth; I know that many of them are simply cursed as a result of practicing sin and unrighteousness.

What are the legal terms of the Kingdom of God? I will tell you. There are actually many. We may know them in English, Evhe, Fante, Ga, Dagbani, Sissala or any other language for that matter. Why are the Kingdom people so ignorant of their own legal terminology and system? It is because the Word of God is neglected in the church today. Yeshua, have mercy on your people and bring them out of Babylon for righteousness sake.

Truth and Righteousness

The two of them go together. No truth, no righteousness. My Lord showed me how to deal with fools years ago. He made me to endure many trials involving unrighteousness practiced by citizens of his Kingdom in order to teach me how to effectively judge issues in the church. I had to judge myself first before I could actually judge others. Today, I love judgement even if you think that is wrong. For it is written, It is joy to the just to do judgment: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity (Mishlei/Proverbs 21:15 KJV).

Truth equates to speaking fervently about the issues of life from only the Holy Spirits perspective. The Holy Spirit is God and he knows everything about your life since you were born. Consider that the Word of God clearly says that the Holy Spirit is holy. That means that he does not do anything called sin. Then why are so many believers in Yeshua disobedient today? It is because they DO NOT obey the Spirit of God and righteously judge themselves.

Righteousness? What is it? It is the Holy Spirits influence and it enables a believer to actually do what the Law of Moses says. Any time a believer disobeys the Holy Spirit, it is equivalent to disobeying the laws of God given at Mount Sinai. By so doing, many believers in Yeshua have lost their salvation to heathenism: meaning that they have been given over to their iniquities.

The Will of God

This will is often played with by Christians today. Have you no sense? Do you know that when God gets angry He can destroy you in hell? Hmmm, I know. Some claim that hell is an imaginary place. Come again. When I am watching you there one day, I will only tell you, I told you so. Amen.

Now, the will of God is the choice He makes on issues. And He does this only in righteousness. When God judges, He always does it righteously. He is therefore a just judge with omniscient authority to choose who He allows into His Kingdom and who He sends to hell for eternity. Which one you be? Abi, you be hell bound or heaven bound? I go tell you in the future.

Conclusion: The Spirit of God is righteous when He Judges

It is time for me to end another brief on righteousness and Evhe. The Spirit of God is holy. He will therefore always use a holy vessel to bring about change among people and in a nation of heathen people. He did it with Nineveh and others like Yisrael. Yisrael is a nation that had to be revived from time to time. Today, he can do it with Ghana, Togo, Benin and even Africas giant, Naija! So, back to my Evhe lesson now. I have only a few terms for today. They are as follows.

agbmav meaning everlasting life agb meaning life dzomav meaning hell fire agbtsi meaning living water nudrla meaning judge tsitrtsitsi meaning resurrection

Six is the number of man according to Gods Kingdom order. Man is incapable of righteously judging his and her own affairs without Divine righteousness. I will therefore add one more term to todays lesson IN WISDOM.

The Spirit of God is before the throne of God eternally. His will is to be done eternally. I will therefore inform you that seven is the number of righteousness in heaven. There are seven Spirits of God according to the book of Revelation that was written by the Apostle Yochanan (John). In Evhe we say Gbgb Kke for Holy Spirit. Now that is a legal person that has every legal term of the Kingdom written in your heart! Amen (and so shall it be).
The embattled Acting Director of the Information Service Department (ISD) has been fired, a government statement Thursday has revealed.

Mr Francis Kwarteng Arthur has been relieved of his duties as Acting Director of the Information Services Department, said a brief statement released by Communications Minister, Edward Omane Boamah.

According to the Communications Minister a statement indicating the sacking of Mr Kwarten Arthur of his duties at ISD was signed by Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah.

Mr Kwarteng has been in the spotlight for taking responsibility for errors in this years Independence Day anniversary brochure that was riddled with many factual and grammatical inaccuracies.

The errors in the 30-page document have caused many critics  both home and abroad  to bash government on social media especially.

The mistakes have also gotten many Ghanaians angry and embarrassed. The most affected were staff of ISD who initially was accused of producing the error-ridden brochure.

ISD staff later revealed that the Flagstaff House Communications Bureau was responsible for printng the brochure.

The government statement Thursday says governments communication has been restructured, indicating that the Ministry of Communications assumes responsibility for the Flagstaff House Communications Bureau.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | George Nyavor | [email protected]
10.03.2016 LISTEN

HRH Lady Julia Osei Tutu, Wife of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, King of Ashanti is to be honoured with an International African Womens Award at the prestigious annual Women4Africa Awards 2016. The Awards is to take place at the Oppulent Royal Kensington Town Hall in London, United Kingdom. Lady Julia will also address the gathering as the Keynote Speaker for the night.

The event, which is to be attended by the Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kensington as well as a cross section of dignitaries from the UK and accross the globe will be covered by both local and international media. Among the previous recipients of the Women4Africa Awards are Ghanas own Nana Oye Lithur, Minister for Gender and Chief Superintendent Naa Ashorkor Quaye, Head of the Anti Human Traficking division of the Ghana Police.

HRH Lady Julia is a qualified Lawyer who has dedicated her life to humanitarian work, supporting over 100,000 children and young people so far through her SERWAA AMPEM FOUNDATION FOR CHILDREN (SAFC).

Asanteman must be truly proud to have such an acomplished and beautiful woman as first lady. Ayekoo to HRH Lady Julia!

Profile of HRH Lady Julia Osei Tutu

Lady Julia Osei Tutu, wife of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene, is the Executive Director of the Serwaa Ampem Foundation for Children, (SAFC) an NGO set up in 2002 to be an advocate for vulnerable children in Ghana and to make interventions on issues affecting children in our society. For the past six she has been the pillar of the Otumfuo Osei Tutu II Charity Foundation as Executive Chairman of Board of Trustees.

Lady Julia had her secondary school education at Wesley Girls' High School, Cape Coast. In 1989 she entered the Faculty of Law, University of Ghana, Legon, where she obtained a Bachelor of Law Degree, LL.B (Hons.) in 1992 and continued at the Ghana School of Law, Accra where she completed the Professional Law Course and was called to the Ghana Bar in 1994.

In September 1995 Lady Julia was admitted for postgraduate studies at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada and obtained a Master of Laws (LL.M) in International Humanitarian Law, after which she served as an intern with Amnesty International's United Nations Office in New York. In 1998 she joined Ecobank Ghana Limited as Legal/Corporate Affairs Officer. She was until March 2002, secretary to the National Partnership for Children's Trust, Ghana.

The scope of activities of her organizations cuts across many social issues but predominantly in the areas of Education, Health, Water and Sanitation. Combining new innovations and improvement on the existing strategies for tackling these issues, her Foundations over the past 12 years have provided support for organizations, individuals and strengthened social support structures in Ghana. These activities are not limited to only the jurisdiction of the Kingdom of her husband but cut across many regions and ethnic groups in Ghana.

Prominent among the Foundations activities are provision of Educational materials for schools, Scholarships for brilliant but needy students from very deprived areas, institution of an annual national awards for teachers from very deprived areas in Ghana as a way of motivating them to stay. Among some of her innovations are the establishment of Orphanage on Wheels  which support Children Infected and Affected with HIV, to help reduce or remove stigmatization associated with service provision for this vulnerable population.

The Otumfuo Mobile Learning and Mobile Dental Project is committed to ensuring that deprived children in rural communities have access to computers to train in ICT; as well as providing Dental care in their own communities. These three programmes have supported over 100,000 children so far over the past 5 years.
10.03.2016 LISTEN

8TH MARCH, 2016

THE SPEAKER OF PARLIAMENT

PARLIAMENT OF GHANA

PARLIAMENT HOUSE

ACCRA.

SUBJ: Part II RESPONSE TO PETROLEUM COMMISSION OVERVIEW: GHANA OIL AND GAS FISCAL REGIME - CLARIFICATION MEETING WITH PARLIAMENT FORMAL REQUEST FOR SPEAKERS FORUM AS FINAL ARBITER

Dear Sir,

Please enclosed is the Part II response by the Fair Trade Oil Share Campaign Team to the above mentioned for your perusal.

In a paper titled from Concession to Service Contracts by Ernest E. Smith in Tulsa Law Review Vol. 27 Issue 4 International Law Symposium 1992, Modern Concession (Same as Hybrid System) Contracts are alleged to be subject to undue influences and corruption. We have no doubt in our minds that, that is exactly what is happening in Ghana. Contents in Page 7 of the Response is a pointer to and tip of the iceberg of what is happening and what happened in the past.

From 2008,the World Bank ,Oxfam America, Natural Resource Governance Institute and Star Ghana had earlier disbursed tens of millions of dollars to Labour Organisations, NGOs, Think Tanks such as ACEP, IEA, IMANI, ISODEC, CSO Platform on oil and gas and Journalist Associations in the country to influence and prepare the grounds for the passage of this exploitative Petroleum Bill.

Tullow spent US$669 million in 2012 alone to buy the silence and conscience of Ghanaians across every sector of the society in the name of corporate social responsibility to make sure nothing negative came up in the public domain and to prepare the grounds for smooth sail of the Petroleum Bill through Parliament.

DFID only took over as funding agency from 2014 when the World Bank, Oxfam America and Star Ghana announced that their budgets were exhausted at a workshop on 28th May, 2014 at the World Bank Office and to announce that their programme has ended and were confident the Petroleum Bill would be passed before the year 2014 ended. They advised that the Think Tank Groups, the Civil Society Organisations and NGOs should look for funding from elsewhere to sustain the campaign.

These Think Tank groups, the NGOs and the CSOs have mislead ,misinformed and brainwashed every sector of the Ghanaian Public including Parliament to believe that what Ghana is doing is the best that can be achieved ,through organising of residential workshops. Participants come out believing Ghana is doing well not knowing their fellow Ghanaians have been hired and paid to intellectually brainwash and to deceive them.

Officials of GNPC, Petroleum Commission, Ministry of Petroleum and PIAC who should know best are part of this international conspiracy against their own country because of tens of thousands of free dollars that come their way from the foreign oil companies and their home governments institutions. We are aware some members of Parliament are part of this conspiracy against Ghana.

From the foregoing one does not expect these Think Tank groups, NGOs ,the CSOs and State Officials to support the PSA, but to oppose it churning out high percentages of unknown into the air to say the Hybrid System is a better option.

Once again we believe the Speakers Forum should be the final arbiter on this very important National issue/ Debate. We therefore urge you to initiate the Speakers Forum by bringing all opposing groups before the major stakeholders of this country to make presentations to prove beyond all reasonable doubts their positions and to come out with absolute total estimated revenue figures from the Jubilee Fields as a test case for adoption of PSA to regulate the Upstream oil industry in the country.

The World Bank and IMF have projected US$ 19.390 billion and US$ 20.269 billion respectively that would accrue to Ghana when the field is exhausted in 20yrs under the Hybrid System. We have projected under PSA, Ghana in 15yrs exclusive Corporate Taxes and Participating Interest could earn:

Profit Oil only US$ 26.115 billion Royalty and Profit Oil US$ 27.210 billion.

The Petroleum Commission, The Ministry of Petroleum, and their supporters ACEP, NRGI and KITE should be able to tell Ghanaians whether their projections are higher than that of the World Bank, IMF and GIGS projections.

We are ready to prove our case and the final decisions as to which fiscal regime to adopt by Ghana and acceptable to all would be for the Speakers Forum to take to close the matter. We must remember we are dealing with the future of generations yet unborn as well as the present.

We have lost on Gold; we cannot afford to lose this time round on the Black Gold.

Note: The Bill should stay until the Speakers Forum is held.

Yours in the service of Ghana

signed//\\.............

Solomon Kwawukume / Prof Lungu

(0246449104)

Cc: The Chairman, Select Committee on Mines & Energy.

The Chairman, Select Committee on Finance.

The Majority Leader

The Minority Leader

The Majority Chief Whip

The Minority Chief Whip

The Ranking Member, Select Committee on Finance

Enclosure:

1. Part II Response To Petroleum Commission Overview: Ghana Oil and Gas Fiscal Regime Clarification Meeting With Parliament (Dated 20 Feb 16) - PowerPoint / PowerPoint Slide Show . (Also, see at www.ghanahero.com/FTOS-GH/Campaign_Status_Updates/Letters-FTOS-PSA/FTOS-Gh-Response-Part_2-FINAL.pdf ).

FTOS-Gh Interest Items:

1. Fair-Trade Oil Share-Ghana (FTOS-GH/PSA Petition/Campaign):

Read about it, join it, sign it: https://www.change.org/p/ghana-fair-trade-oil-share-psa-campaign-ftos-gh-psa ).

2. http://www.GhanaHero.Com/FTOS_Gh_Campaign for more information.

(Join the action! Read mo! Listen mo! See mo! Reflect mo!).

Prof Lungu / GIGS /ANON / GUNA / FTOS-Gh/PSA /

Prof Lungu is Ghana-Centered/Ghana-Proud.

@professorlungu - Twitter ( #FTOS_Gh )

[email protected]

Subj: FORMAL REQUEST FOR SPEAKERS FORUM AS FINAL ARBITER - Part II RESPONSE TO PETROLEUM COMMISSION OVERVIEW GHANA OIL AND GAS FISCAL REGIME (8Mar16)

Brought to you in Public Service, by Prof Lungu and Associates/GIGS, courtesy www.GhanaHero.com8 March, 2016.
Cape Town (AFP) - A South African woman faces judgement Thursday on charges of kidnapping a newborn baby and raising her for 17 years before an astonishing coincidence reunited the girl with her family.

The accused woman pleaded not guilty, saying she had been handed the baby at a train station after entering into a private "adoption" programme.

The girl's real identity came to light in February last year, when her younger biological sister began attending high school and pupils pointed out her remarkable likeness to a final-year student.

The younger girl told her parents, who met the older girl and immediately believed she was their long-lost baby.

They called the police, and DNA tests confirmed that the girl was indeed their child, whom they had named Zephany Joy Nurse.

Without knowing it, the Nurse family had been living within a couple of kilometres (miles) of their kidnapped daughter, while celebrating her birthday every year and never giving up hope of finding her.

The 50-year-old accused woman cannot be named to protect the new identity of the kidnapped girl, who requested protection from international media interest.

The girl's mother, Celeste Nurse, 36, wept as she described in court how she woke up in the maternity ward of a Cape Town hospital to find her three-day-old baby had vanished from her cot on March 30, 1997.

Witnesses said they had seen an unknown woman in a nurse's uniform at the hospital around the time of the kidnap, and one of them picked out the accused at an identity parade.

The accused woman also sobbed in court as she told of being barred from seeing the girl after her arrest in February last year.

She told the court that after a miscarriage in December 1996 she paid a woman who promised to find her a child to adopt.

In April 1997 she was handed a baby wrapped in a blanket at a train station in Cape Town, she said.

She had not told her husband of her miscarriage, so presented the baby to him as their own child, she said.

She faces a minimum of five years in jail if convicted of kidnapping.
H.E. Tumusiime Rhoda Peace Commissioner for the Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture (DREA) at the African union Commission (AUC), has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The agreement will create a working partnership that enables both the AUC and the FAO to pursue collaborative activities and projects in order to provide technical assistance for the execution of the Technical Cooperation Project (TCP).

Commissioner Tumusiime acknowledged the cooperation agreement between the two sides and said she is pleased to be working with FAO and stated that the implementation will take place immediately.

Representing the FAO, Dr. Patrick Kormawa Sub regional Coordinator for Eastern Africa and Representative to AUC and UNECA Sub regional Office for Eastern Africa underscored that the project is to support the African Union and the implementation of the Malabo Declaration, particularly in the private sector to promote the development of the agribusiness sector. He added FAO is pleased to be a part of the project and that they will do their best to deliver the output in a timely manner
As the first pre-event of TICAD VI, a Policy Workshop was held at the Embassy of Japan on Friday, 4th March, 2016. The Workshop consisted of a Public Lecture delivered by Mr. Akihiko Koenuma, General Manager at Marubeni Corporation, Abidjan Office, and a panel discussion.

The Policy Workshop was officially opened by Mr. Tatsushi Terada, Ambassador of Japan in Kenya and Ambassador Ben Ogutu, Director General of the TICAD (Tokyo International Conference on African Development) VI Secretariat from the Government of Kenya. In his opening remarks, Ambassador Terada informed the audience that the main aim of the policy workshop was to highlight the importance of TICAD in bringing about resilient and sustainable growth in the African continent with an emphasis placed on private investment in Africa. Ambassador Ogutu reiterated this fact by stating that for the first time the TICAD conference would involve the private sector in the plenary sessions with heads of states.

The workshop started with the lecture delivered by Mr. Koenuma, explaining past contributions of TICAD in the development of Africa. He also articulated the way forward for boosting Japanese private investment. The lecture covered several topics which included:

Africa's Development Path and the TICAD Process. Mr. Koenuma mentioned that TICAD was introduced against a backdrop of deepening poverty in Africa and to aid fatigue of development partners towards Africa. The Contribution of the Past Five TICAD Conferences.

The first TICAD was held when emphasis was placed on political and economic reform TICAD has placed emphasis on the ownership of the development process by African States TICAD has stressed the importance on infrastructure development, capacity building, promotion of sustainable and resilient growth and the creation of an inclusive society for growth

The Contribution of the Government of Japan to Africa's Development through TICAD. The Contribution of the Japanese Private Sector to Africa's Development Japan's Public-Private Partnership in other Emerging Markets. The Future Expectations for Japan's Contribution to the African Continent. The high potentials for private-public partnerships are apparent especially in light of a rapid increase in the number of Japanese companies in Kenya (25 Japanese companies in 2012 to 41 in 2016)

Then, the lecture was followed by a panel discussion. The panelists of the workshop were Mr. Polycarp Igathe, Managing Director, Vivo Energy Kenya; Mr. Kennedy Manyala, Chief Operating Officer, Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA); Prof. Wainaina Gituro, Acting Director General, Kenya Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat; and Mr. Mikio Mori, Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Japan. As a moderator, Prof. Peter Kagwanja, Chief Executive, Africa Policy Institute, participated in the discussion. Workshop attendees consisted of diplomatic mission representatives, the Japanese and Kenyan business community, university dons, the media, university students and the public in general.

Some of the issues raised during the panel discussion were:

The need for Japan to market itself more. The need for the private sector to be ready to participate in TICAD VI. Expectations of the private sector for TICAD VI.

Mr. Igathe pointed out that the private sector has long been left out from the process of development and it is high time the private sector capitalized on TICAD. He stressed the importance of the public sector's responsibility to ensure a conducive environment for investment by establishing sufficient infrastructure. He referred to the Western-Ring Road, as an example of high-quality infrastructure which was funded by Japan.

Mr. Manyala questioned whether a perfect business environment, would make the African Private Sector competitive. In reference to this, he put forward his expectations of the TICAD VI conference which included: enterprise development, technology uptake whereby he noted the need to improve the skills of the private sector and to transform the education system so that it is responsive to the current trend(for example, examining subjects that add value to the future and strengthening polytechnics for much needed skills development) and the development of clean energy mechanisms.

Prof. Wainaina noted that development cannot be achieved by the government alone or by multinationals. Instead, to transform society it was necessary to deal with issues of inclusive growth especially when it comes to gender, education and social cohesion, good governance and democracy, people driven development, opportunity for upward mobility, a globally competitive service sector among other issues.

Mr. Mikio Mori informed the participants that unlike the previous TICAD meetings, TICAD VI would be outstanding because of its enhanced inclusive nature. For the first time, the Japanese and Kenyan private sector would be included in the plenary sessions. He stated that TICAD VI would also address the issues of African development such as health, peacebuilding, infrastructure development and human capacity development.

Prof. Kagwanja closed the workshop by mentioning that for TICAD VI to be a success, there was need for:

systematic build up activities that cut across sectors Africa to have the will to showcase what it has Japan to bring what it considers necessary for Africa needs and for TICAD VI to start on a new slate by focusing on what African wants and where it is headed.

The Japanese Embassy is committed to bringing about a series of economic, cultural, political as well as social events, up to the Conference in August.
10.03.2016 LISTEN

I have followed with great disinterest and hobgoblin the unbroken debate surrounding the Event Brochure for the 59th Independence Day celebration. The brochure which largely contained an outline of the programme of the celebration at the Black Star Square as well as some historical facts about Ghana was found to be riddled with a lot of unpardonable grammatical errors and some misrepresentations.

Infact, it has since become a popular subject on social media, radio and television programmes and talk shows ever since news broke about the error infested brochure, with some demanding that "heads must roll" to atone for the mistakes.For many others, it is simply a national embarrassment and an indictment on the image of our dear country,especially,in the eyes of the international community.

As a concern citizen of mother Ghana, I have followed the debate keenly and I'm sorry to say not only is this debate inconsequential, but highly unproductive and a mark of a "lost people".

I can't believe it! What are we spending our time and airtime discussing? Errors committed in the use of another man's language!The same people we drove away from our country years back...!With all the plenty talks, how many of us can really speak or write the Queens language effortless without errors?

Don't you get it; it's not our language and we can't simply understand it that perfect no matter how hard we try. They set the rules and will continue to change the rules .You don't have to blame anybody in government or the information service department for what they probably didn't envision. Blame our mothers for imbuing us in the L1 right from birth.

I can't imagine the relieve it would have brought to the people of my community, if one - half of the time, energy and ideas used in discussing this trivial issue was spend in highlighting the water problem in the community.I can't equally imagine the investment ideas the youth will have been benefiting from, if same time we are spending in discussing some one's errors was expended in elaborating more, the team of the celebration, "Investing in the youth for Ghana's Transformation".Think about it.

Interesting enough, I have heard some people suggest that in order to prevent such occurrences moving into the future, not only should we involve people with competence to edit and proofread such national assignments, but if necessary, external actors should be involved to avert such inadvertent errors. External actors? This sort of thinking is not only flawed and lazy, but highly unproductive....

Instead of stretching our brains, the therapy is right here with us:lets awake the spirits of our sleeping identity by putting such national writeups in the local languages.That way, we will not need to invite external actors to correct us on the use of a borrowed language. If the international community is genuinely interested in reading about such events, they will employ the service of a local interpreter. And by so doing, we will see that we are indirectly creating jobs for our people. In fact, with the local language, no one apart from us can identity our own errors. Hence, no more national embarrassment in the use of a borrowed language.This may sound crazy on the surface. But a deep-rooted thinking and reflection will reveal sense in the coming days.

More so,it is high time we get to realise that language is one of the powerful modern tools used in corrupting our minds, colonising our sovereignty and killing our identity in this modern global race.

I have just passed my opinion and I believe as a country, we should be making strident efforts towards changing our way of thinking and doing things.We must save our sinking local languages!

May God bless our homeland Ghana and give us the foresight to think through and wake up to the reality that language is one of the newest tools for corrupting and colonising the black man.

By:Ananpansah, B Abraham ( AB)

University of Ghana Business School

0241129910 / 0200704844
10.03.2016 LISTEN

There is a rumour that is seriously gaining currency among some Ghanaians in certain Ghanaian circles in London that a powerful chief in Ghana was a few weeks ago involved in fisticuffs with a member of his extended family. Even though I cant believe the rumour 100%, if it did happen as alleged, then the chief really deserved the pummelling.

It is alleged that a very old female relative of the chief, she is in her eighties, approached the chief to warn him saying, You are disgracing the family and the Stool by your actions. Everybody keeps mentioning your name, and then insults you because of your actions. You have been taking money from people and giving to them Stools that do not actually belong to them. You have been selling lands that do not belong to you hence causing troubles everywhere. Where are you going with all that money? You are really disgracing us so you had better stop

The old lady having said just as stated above, the chief who had become uncontrollably infuriated, pushed her out of his way with force, without considering her physical frailty that comes with old age. The woman fell onto the ground.

When she left the presence of the chief, she phoned to her son in Accra narrating to him what has happened to her after confronting the chief to tell him her piece of mind. The son asked, Did he actually push you onto the floor? The old lady answered yes. Are you truly telling me that he did really push you onto the floor without considering your age? The mother answered, yes.

The son told the mum, wait, I am coming over right now to teach him a lesson. The son jumped into his car and off he went to Kumasi. On arrival, he went to where the notorious chief lives and being a known family member, he easily gained access to the palace.

He asked all the security personnel to excuse them as he had come to consult with his brother the chief. He shut the gate behind him after the guards had gone outside. Once in the room, he questioned him on what grounds he pushed his mother onto the floor. Hardly had the chief answered him when he punched him, according to the rumour. They both started throwing blows at each other but in the end, the chief was beaten.

If the rumour is true as alleged, then I will side with the old woman. Out of her overflowing fountain of wisdom, her ability to foresee the consequences of the roguish attitudes of the chief that have become not only a local or regional but also, a national outcry, she made the right move to have warned him.

There is the looming risk of some divisional chiefs revolting against him and the Stool he occupies to bring about the eventual disintegration of the unity that binds his tribe and the divisions together. This will again have adverse impact or repercussion on his family, the occupants of the G. Stool.

If you wont listen, you will be made to feel it and that is exactly what the son of the old lady did to him.

Walls have ears. The truth will out. What took place indoors is now in the public domain. I pray it is not true as is rumoured. However, it is the held belief that there is the slightest truth in every rumour

Nana Se wo Antie, is it true that you were beaten black and blue? I am just asking! If you were, then this is the beginning of the worse things to come your way under the very hands of your own family members who are becoming increasingly troubled by your reprehensible behaviour. They are worried that you have become an eyesore stain on their long-held household integrity.

"Ereba a na eeye"

This is Asem sebe

Rockson Adofo
There are a handful of stereotypes that Africans hold against each other and this is not surprising due to the multi-cultural structure of our society. Nigeria has over 500 ethnic groups. Among the 500, about 9 languages are extinct while only three are -Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba- leading the pack, and each one of these tribal groups have their peculiarities.

The Igbos of Southeastern, Nigeria are one of the leading ethnic groups in the country. They can be found in Enugu, Anambra , Ebonyi, Imo , and Abia. Despite these peculiarities, a handful of Nigerians have some misconceptions about this amazing ethnic group.

Jovago.com, Africas No 1 hotel booking portal identifies 5 stereotypes that Nigerians have about persons of Igbo extraction and offers facts that debunk them.

They know nothing but business

Lets give it to the Igbos, when it comes to business, there is no contest. At major markets, they are dominant. In fact, in places where you do not imagine that you will find them, they are always there. But, there is more to this people than business. You find them in politics, literature, education, economy and other sectors. Late Nnamdi Azikiwe, was a businessman, first prime minister of Nigeria and a nationalist as well as a lawyer. The literary lord, the man of words and the author of the evergreen bookThings Fall Apart that made the world change their perception about African literature, late Chinua Achebe was not a businessman, same with Chiwetel Ejiofor, and also Chimamanda Adichie. The list is endless. Take it or leave it, no matter the field an Igbo Man ventures into, the business trait tails him.

All Igbo women are light skinned

There is no argument about Igbo women being light skinned but the stereotype is tagging all Igbo women light skinned which is not the case. There are chocolate, ebony, and dark skinned ladies among them. In addition, light skinned women are not restricted to Igbo women alone but it cut across all Nigerian tribes. When next you see a light skinned lady, do not make up your mind that she is Igbo!

They love Ego also known as Money

Who does not love money? Money is desired by almost everyone in varying degrees. Many say you cannot date an Igbo girl if you do not have money but these preconceived notions are not entirely based on facts. Rather than singling out a particular ethnic group to castigate, this is a blanket perception for all ethnic groups. Same thing for the men. There should be no ethnic colouration when it comes to making money.

Its expensive to marry an Igbo woman

Nigerian women are beautiful, expensive and sophisticated. A man should be happy to marry an Igbo woman because she is not cheap. A man should be proud to provide everything on the list presented to him by the parents to show that he is a man, however, there is always room for negotiation. So, the stereotype that before you marry an Igbo woman, you need to bring an arm and a leg only applies when the grooms family are not masters at striking a good bargain.

All Igbos have left their villages for Lagos

Lagos is the melting pot for various ethnic groups and the commercial heartbeat of Nigeria as a result, the state is bound to be peopled by different tribes. However, expressing the thought that all Igbos have emptied their various states to reside in Lagos is laughable and wrong. There are individuals who run thriving businesses in these different south-eastern states that have never visited Lagos.
Dr Henry Kofi Wampah

10.03.2016 LISTEN

The Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Henry Kofi Wampah had a bruised face in Parliament on Tuesday when Members of Parliament (MPs) threw unfriendly punches at him.

They citicised the Governor for the purported dereliction of duty that encouraged some licensed and unlicensed microfinance companies to dupe innocent Ghanaians of millions of cedis, especially in the Brong Ahafo and the three Northern regions.

Dr Wampah, who attempted to absolve himself and the Bank from blame, was asked to accept the fact that BoG failed woefully to exercise its supervisory role which resulted in the mess created by the companies.

Leading the onslaught, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Wenchi in the Brong Ahafo region, Prof George Gyan Baffour said the BoG, which was to be blame for the mess, failed to exercise its oversight role effectively and that the BoG should take responsibility and offer some sort of bailout to the affected people to give them some respite.

The Majority Chief Whip and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for Asawase, Alhaji Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka said from the statement of the Governor, it clearly showed that the BoG failed to properly inspect the assets of DKM, Jaster Motors and Investment Company, Little Drops Financial Services, God Is Love Fun Club and Care For Humanity Fun Club before giving them licences to operate.

He said owing to the negligence on the part of the BoG, it should be made to pay the depositors as directed by the President in his State of the Nation address.

The Governor however told the MPs that the Bank was not in the position to pay back the depositors because there is law which requires that assets of the defaulting micro-finance companies be liquidated and the proceeds refunded to the depositors.

Both the Majority Leader, Alban Bagbin and the Minority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu did not agree with the explanation by the Governor and asked him to ponder the implications.

The Minority Leader said that there is the likelihood of food shortage in the country this year because the Brong Ahafo region, which is the food basket of the country, is the hardest hit in the financial scandal.

.

According to the Minority Leader, most of the victims in the Brong Ahafo region are farmers who have invested all their monies in the sham companies, adding that if nothing is done about the situation, the country could face food shortage this year.

The explanation being given by the Governor is not appealing at all. I think the BoG has not acted with diligence it ought to have done, the Minority said, adding that more investigations ought to be done on properties owned by the owners of the companies and for those properties to be confiscated if they were acquired illegally.

Hon Bagbin said the governor seems not to have gotten the full import of what the President said in his State of the Nation address.

If the President of all people said that monies of the depositors would have to be paid back to them, how can the Governor say otherwise? he quizzed.

We are the representatives of the people who have been affected by this and will surely protect the interests of our people and will therefore not accept the explanation given by the Governor.

He said the Bank indeed did not do its work well because documents in his possession that portray the processes clearly indict the bank.

He also said since the MPs are not satisfied with the answer given by the Governor, he would be asked to reappear before Parliament to offer some positive response.

The Second Deputy Speaker, Joe Ghartey directed that proceedings should be transcribed and sent to the Governor for him to read and know the mood of MPs over the matter.

He also said that the Governor would be called back to Parliament before the Easter recess for a better feedback.

By Thomas Fosu Jnr


Chief Executive of Vodafone Ghana Haris Broumidis is leaving Ghana after three years in charge to take on a new role within Vodafone.

Haris, who was appointed CEO of the Ghana business in July 2013, is to become the Chief Executive and Chairman of the Board of Vodafone Greece effective April 1, 2016.

Haris time at Vodafone Ghana coincided with a very competitive telecommunications market, when operators needed to innovate and be creative to produce growth. Haris led the business excellently through this period and was instrumental in leading the business to achieve high levels of growth, through a relentless focus on execution and delivering unmatched customer experience.

He also launched a number of transformational initiatives, including the very successful Vodafone X and the mobile money platform, Vodafone Cash.

Haris also championed a number of IT and Network transformation projects including the introduction of a new Billing System and numerous initiatives focused on driving network leadership. He also drove a strong people agenda, increasing Employee Net Promoter Score from 49% to 78% over the period, while advocating and improving the ratio of internal senior promotions.

Board Chairman of Vodafone Ghana, Dr. Kobina Quansah said:

It is sad to see Haris go after presiding over a very fruitful period for the company. However, we are determined to ensure that the successful growth story established under his leadership is maintained and the company continues to thrive.

Haris joined Vodafone in 2002. Since then he has held various senior roles including Marketing Director and EBU Director in Vodafone Greece, CEO of Vodafone Albania and Commercial Director, Europe for Vodafone Group.

Vodafone Ghana will announce Haris replacement in due course. Haris will, however, remain with Vodafone Ghana until the end of the financial year and ensure a smooth transition to the new CEO.
10.03.2016 LISTEN

The Africa Center for International Law and Accountability (ACILA) has urged Parliament to withdraw the Spy Bill to rework it or make substantial changes to the draft Bill to ensure a proper balance between the states interest to promote safety and its obligations to protect and respect the fundamental human rights of Ghanaians to the privacy of their communications.

ACILA said that a proper balance is needed to ensure that Ghana meets its obligations under domestic, regional, and international law to promote, protect, and respect an individuals right to the privacy of his communications. It referred, in particular to the provisions in Article 18(2) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana which affirms the right to privacy as a fundamental human right as well as continental and international instruments to which Ghana has ratified, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Article 9) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 17).

It said that recourse needs to be had to these instruments because a citizen whose right to the privacy of communications is breached may bring an action against the state not only in Ghanaian courts, but also at the African Court on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) in Tanzania; the United Nations Human Rights Council; or at the United Nations Human Rights Committee for an effective remedy.

ACILAs call, which was contained in a memorandum to Parliament on the draft Bill, Interception of Postal Packets and Telecommunication Messages Bill, 2015, popularly called the Spy Bill, outlined three main reasons why the Bill should be withdrawn, reworked, and reintroduced, if necessary.

It said that one of the reasons it is asking for a withdrawal of the Bill is the pervasive deficiencies in the draft Bill with potential implications for human rights violations without a notification to the person whose right to privacy is violated for an effective remedy.

Another reason, it said, is the lack of a persuasive justification for the enactment of the legislation. For example, the Memorandum to the draft Bill does not tell us how many arrests, prosecutions, convictions have resulted from interception-related activities. There should be a reference to historical data which is available from warrants which have been granted from the hodgepodge of existing laws.

A third reason is the lack of adequate time for meaningful and effective consultation with civil society, and, indeed, Ghanaians.

ACILA noted, however, that in the alternative that Parliament decides to go forward with the Bill, then it proposedsubstantial changes to the Bill to, among other things, replace the current draft provision where the Chief Justice appoints a judge to oversee the implementation of the legislation and instead provide for an independent commissioner to provide oversight, notification to persons whose mails and messages are wrongly intercepted, and provide an effective remedy for such breach.

Another change, it said, is to replace the authorization for the application of a warrant by the National Security Coordinator with a public officer whom Parliament has oversight or in the alternative maintain the status quo that allows agencies to apply directly to the court for a warrant.

On the controversial issue in Clause 3 of the Bill which grants the National Security Coordinator the power to orally authorize interception of a postal packet or telecommunication message without a warrant for 48 hours, ACILA said that the oral authorization without a warrant should be removed.

Again, no justification was made in the Bill to depart from current practice which does not provide for interception or interception-related activities without a warrant. The Memorandum to the Bill should explain why oral authorization of interception is required taking into account current problems, if any, that agencies face in obtaining a warrant.

It said that any justification proffered should also overcome a counter argument that obtaining a warrant in emergency situations is always possible even when the courts are not sitting.

Absent a legally valid justification with safeguards for balancing the states interest in promoting public safety and the individuals right to privacy, the interception without a warrant for 48 hours may be subject to abuse and will not accord with an individuals right to the privacy of communications under the Constitution of Ghana and under regional and international law, to which Ghana is a party, it said.

Other recommended changes includedproviding for a document retention policy to impose the burden of production on the state; requiring that the state bears the cost of the purchase of the equipment for lawful interception, not the person on whom the warrant is served to intercept mails and communications; and expanding the scope of coverage of the Bill to include non-public networks.

Below is the full memorandum to Parliament

Africa Center for International Law and Accountability, USA, Ghana

MEMORANDUM TO THE PARLIAMENT OF GHANA

To:The RT. Hon. Speaker of The Parliament of the Republic of Ghana

CC: The Chairman of the Select Committee On Defense and Interior of the Parliament of Ghana

From: William Nyarko, Executive Director, Africa Center for International Law & Accountability

Date: March 5, 2016

Subject: Interception of Postal Packets and Telecommunications Messages Bill, 2015

On behalf of the Africa Center for International Law and Accountability (ACILA), I write to provide our analysis of the Interception of Postal Packets and Telecommunication Messages Bill, 2015draft Bill, which is currently before Parliament.

ACILA is incorporated under US law as a 501(c)(3) research and education, non-profit, and non-partisan think tank and also under Ghana law. Our mission is to contribute to African scholarship through enhanced understanding of international law.

Our input seeks to provide a comparative international human rights law and international standards perspective to the draft Bill, taking into account Ghanas own domestic laws and its obligations under regional, continental, and international human rights law, to which it has ratified.

Summary of our Position

Based on our analysis of the draft Bill, we present two nuanced positions. First, we call for a withdrawal of the Bill for the following reasons:

1. Lack of a persuasive justification for the enactment of the legislation. For example, the Memorandum to the draft Bill does not tell us how many arrests, prosecutions, convictions have resulted from interception-related activities. There should be a reference to historical data which is available from warrants which have been granted from the hodgepodge of existing legislations.

2. Pervasive deficiencies in the draft Bill with potential implications for human rights violations without a notification to the person whose right to privacy is abused for an effective remedy.

3. Lack of adequate time for meaningful and effective consultation.

Second, in the alternative that the Bill is to go forward, then we propose the following changes:

Provide a persuasive legal policy justification for the enactment of the Bill with data demonstrating how interception-related activities have assisted in curbing crime, terrorism, etc. Expand the scope of coverage of the Bill to include non-public networks. Replace the current draft provision where the Chief Justice appoints a judge to oversee the implementation of the legislation and instead provide for an independent commissioner to provide oversight, notification to persons whose mails and messages were wrongly intercepted, and provide an effective remedy for such breach. Require that the state bears the cost of the purchase of the equipment for lawful interception, not the person on whom the warrant is served to intercept mails and communications. Replace the authorization for the application of a warrant by the National Security Coordinator with a public officer whom Parliament has oversight or in the alternative maintain the status quo that allows agencies to apply directly to the court for a warrant. Provide for a document retention policy to impose the burden of production on the state. Remove the oral authorization of interception without a warrant for 48 hours to prevent the likely violation of an individuals right to the privacy of communications.

As stated earlier, Ghana has obligations under domestic, regional, and international law to promote, protect, and respect an individuals right to privacy. We refer, in particular to the provisions in Article 18(2) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana which affirms the right to privacy as a fundamental human right as well as continental and international instruments to which Ghana has ratified, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Article 9) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 17).

Recourse needs to be had to these instruments because a citizen whose right to the privacy of communications has been breached may bring an action against the state not only in Ghanaian courts, but also at the African Court on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) in Tanzania; the United Nations Human Rights Council; or at the United Nations Human Rights Committee for an effective remedy.

We note that although these instruments also provide for a restriction of this fundamental right in the interest of public safety, among others, and that current international standards require legislation for lawful interception of mails and communications where there is none, any restriction of this fundamental right must be provided by law; the law must be narrowly tailored, and it must be proportional to the legitimate interest of the state.

In addition, the law must not be arbitrary; it must provide independent oversight, and it must also provide for an effective remedy when there is a breach.

Although Ghanas draft Bill attempts to balance an individuals right to the privacy of his communications with the legitimate interest of the state for public safety, some important changes need to be made if Parliament is to pass the Bill.

Review of Selected Clauses in the Bill

Lack of a Persuasive Legal Policy Justification for the Enactment of the Bill  The Memorandum to the draft Bill provides a summary of the various clauses and makes broad statements about the purpose of the draft Bill viz to fight crime, terrorism etc. without providing any evidence in support of its claims. To fix this and provide a better legal policy justification for the enactment of the draft Bill, the Memorandum may include historical data about the number of arrests, prosecutions, and convictions that resulted from the interception of mails and telecommunication messages referencing the hodgepodge of intercept-related sections in the existing legislations in the Narcotic Drug (Control Enforcement and Sanctions) Act, 1990 (PNDCL 236), Security and Intelligence Agencies Act, 1996 (Act 526), the Anti-Money Laundry Act, 2008 (Act 748), the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2008 (Act 762), the Economic and Organized Crime Office Act, 2010 (Act 804) and the Mutual Legal Assistance Act, 2010 (Act 807). In addition, the Memorandum may also make a persuasive case for why a standalone Bill is needed instead of the current legal regime with a variety of intercepts in several parts of the legislations.

Limited Scope of the Application of draft Bill  Clause 1 provides that the Act [Bill] applies only to public postal services and public telephone or other electronic or cyberspace communication services. This provision leaves out interception of mails and telecommunication messages on non-public networks, a network source that can provide information to meet the objects and purpose of the Bill. Indeed, several countries, including the United Kingdom, have amended their legislation to include interceptions on non-public networks. The Bill must make a provision for lawful interceptions on non-public networks in accordance with international standards.

Application for Authorization of a Warrant  Clause 5 (1) authorizes the National Security Coordinator to apply for a warrant for interceptions. This role centralizes the authorization for the application of a warrant in the office of the National Security Coordinator, which departs from current practice that allows the security agencies, including the Police and Narcotics Control Board, among others, to apply directly to the courts for a warrant. The Memorandum to the Bill did not provide justification for this change and allowing this change to go forward will likely contravene the National Security Coordinators coordinating role in section 19(a) of the Security and Intelligence Agencies Act, 1996 (Act 526), to co-ordinate on a day-today basis the activities of the national, regional and district security councils and the activities of the Intelligence Agencies. Allowing the National Security Coordinator to determine whether a request for a warrant is needed by a security agency vests administrative and supervisory powers in the National Security Coordinator in contravention of his primary function under section 19(a) of the Security and Intelligence Agencies Act, 1996 (Act 526). The promoters of the Bill may have taken a cue from the UK, Ireland, and Scotland where the authorization for the application of a warrant is done under the hand of the Home Secretary, Minister of Justice, and Secretary of State respectively. However, even in these jurisdictions, the authorization for the application of a warrant has been elevated to a ministerial position with oversight by Parliament, the Peoples representatives. In Ghana, the status quo may be maintained by allowing the security agencies to apply directly for a warrant or, if the authorization for the application of the warrant is centralized, then it must be elevated to a ministerial position to ensure oversight.

Oral Authorization of a Warrant by the National Security Coordinator

Clause 3 of the Bill grants the National Security Coordinator the power to orally authorize interception of a postal packet or telecommunication message without a warrantbut the oral authorization shall be valid for 48 hours to allow the National Security Coordinator to obtain a warrant from the High Court. Again, no justification was made in the Bill to depart from current practice which does not provide for interception or interception-related activities without a warrant. The Memorandum to the Bill should explain why oral authorization of interception is required taking into account current problems, if any, that agencies face in obtaining a warrant. Any justification proffered should also overcome a counter argument that obtaining a warrant in emergency situations is always possible even when the courts are not sitting. Absent a legally valid justification with safeguards for balancing the states interest in promoting public safety and the individuals right to privacy, the interception without a warrant for 48 hours may be subject to abuse and will not accord with an individuals right to the privacy of communications under the Constitution of Ghana and under regional and international law, to which Ghana is a party.

Appointment of Independent Commissioner: Clause 18 provides that the Chief Justice appoints a Justice of the High Court to supervise the implementation of this Act and report back to the National Security Coordinator in 12 months intervals about compliance with the Act. Clearly this presents a conflict of interest situation. Elsewhere, including the UK and Ireland, it is an independent commissioner that ensures oversight. In Ghanas case, this independent commissioner may notify persons whose mails and messages were wrongly intercepted and provide an effective remedy when there has been a breach.

Responsibility for Cost of Interception: Clause 17 provides that the cost of lawful interception will be borne by the person on whom the warrant was served. This provision should be changed to require the state to bear the cost of the purchase of the equipment for lawful interception, not the person on whom the warrant is served to intercept mails and communications.

Lack of Document Retention Policy: The Bill makes a provision for a person whose right to privacy has been violated under the Act to bring an action against the state in a court of law. However, the Bill does not make provision for document retention for the records of the interception to be kept by the state for a specified period and to place the burden of production of documents on the state. The Bill should make a provision for retention of documents in a structured format to allow for access to such documents to aid an action for a remedy. A retention policy should also allow for easy retrieval of documents for investigative purposes by the independent commissioner and for oversight purposes by Parliament.

Conclusion:

Our analysis of the draft Bill has shown that the Bill does not meet Ghanas own obligations under domestic, regional, and international law, which requires Ghana to promote, protect, and respect an individuals right to privacy. The restriction of an individuals fundamental right to the privacy of communications is not proportional to the legitimate interest of the state, the restriction is not narrowly tailored, and allowing the Bill to pass in its current form will lead to violations of human rights without an effective remedy.

The draft Bill needs a comprehensive overhaul and considering the speed with which the promoters of the Bill intend to rush the Bill through Parliament, Parliament may not allocate sufficient time to require a complete rewrite of the Bill. Therefore, we submit that the Bill be withdrawn. However, in the alternative that Parliament decides to go forward with the Bill, then recourse will have to be had to the aforesaid recommended changes to the draft Bill.
Management of the bank at the grand draw

10.03.2016 LISTEN

Societe Generale (SG) Ghana has held the grand draw for its 'Deposit and Win' promotion to reward its customers.

Ten lucky customers had the chance to double, triple and quadruple monies they had deposited at the bank.

The winners included Linda Orleans Lindsay, who won GH16,000, Abraham Tibirim (GH1,500), Elizabeth A. Atinkadem (GH1800), Hilda Abla Kalevor (GH1200), Robert Amissah, (GH600) and Master Fouad (GH3000).

The rest are Harrison Akrofi (GH800), Alexander Esther Benson (GH6000) and William O. Awuku (GH2000).

About 30 customers, who took part in the mini draw, received amazing prizes such as Samsung Galaxy S6 edge, Samsung 40 inch LED digital televisions, Samsung tab 4 and shopping vouchers worth GH500 each from game supermarket.

Francois Marchal, Deputy Managing Director, SC Ghana, congratulated the winners of the draw, stating that the promotion was to help customers to inculcate the spirit of savings.

Our goal is to become Ghanas preferred bank, and to achieve this we have adopted a strategy that involves pleasing our customers by proving practical yet innovative solutions to their financial needs.

.

With this promotion, we have given all our customers a strong incentive to save their money with a bank that rewards its customers, he said.

Kwaku Tweneboa-Kodua, Head of Retail Banking, SG Ghana, congratulated the winners from the various regions and encouraged them to save with the bank.

Right from the beginning, customers from all across the nation visited our banking halls to make deposits to enable them participate in the promotion.

Mr Tweneboa-Kodua commended the customers for participating in the promotion, urging them not to stop depositing monies at the bank.

Ekow Nkoom, Head of Business Promotions, National Lottery Authority (NLA), expressed gratitude to the bank for ensuring efficiency and transparency in the promotion.

A Business Desk report


10.03.2016 LISTEN

Ghanaians are justified in posing questions about what went wrong with the management of the 59th independence anniversary celebration. This is the most effective means of auditing what went wrong with a view to obviating a future recurrence. Are they asking too much of those at the helm?

No independence anniversary has engendered such a humiliating blunder since the Union Jack was lowered 59 years ago.

It is palpably time to introduce into the Ghanaian public life the culture of resignation by heads of organizations who fail to live up to expectation or when incidence of impropriety characterizes their stewardship.

Decency should be brought into public life. Heads of organizations should not be allowed to stay put when their stewardship symbolizes incompetence and culminating in the kind of blunder which has prompted this commentary. Indeed, the cost of the goof cannot be quantified monetarily.

The dust generated by the mismanaged organization of the anniversary under review is far from settling down, which is why we are revisiting it.

One of the questions begging for answer for instance is about how much went into the production of the bad brochure?

Did someone at the presidency  as being alleged  countermand the decision of the sub-committee charged with overseeing the production of the brochure and eventually had the contract given to his choice?

.

Why was the traditional role of the Information Services Department (ISD) suddenly usurped by a unit of the presidency?

If these questions remain rhetorical as we think they would, with those in-charge of answering them, Ghanaians would make their own deductions  when those in authorities keep mum  which are anything but complimentary about governance at the hands of the crop of Ghanaians in-charge today.

Many Ghanaians smell corruption in what eventually led to the classic goof, the repercussions of which cannot be wished away.

Those who are responsible for the blunder must be brought to book, especially since nobody is ready to take total responsibility for the costly incompetence.

We have for instance, taken note of the demand of the staff of ISD whose understandable position of sack the acting Director seeks to reverse the negative impression the brouhaha has brought on them.

Considering the manner in which the acting Director sought to wriggle himself out of the mess, we are hard-pressed not to accept the allegation by the aggrieved workers that the man whose head they are seeking is indeed doing the bidding of a powerful man at the seat of government  the source of the mess.

Great nations are not built on such paths. People flexing their muscles whose output at the seat of government does not help the presidency and the country at large but rather expose it to public ridicule and opprobrium, have no business holding the positions bestowed upon them.

We have had enough of such embarrassment occasioned by the poor showing of government appointees.
Some National Democratic Congress activists of the North Tongu District of the Volta Region have called for the removal of the District Chief Executive (DCE).

The youth led by the constituency organizer, Dominic Adoboe has accused the DCE, Fafa Delphia Agbai of not showing respect to party leaders as well as chiefs of the area.

She [uses] abusive language on party youth and elders and has poorly implemented government projects, one youth told Ivy Setordzie.

They also accused Fafa Delphia Agbai of turning her official residence into a bakery at the detriment of her jobs as a DCE.

But in an interview with Joy news, the DCE denied the claims by the youth. She said the call by Dominic Adoboe was for his own interest as she has always refused to succumb to his needless demands.

I am close with all the chiefs in the area and the youth in the district. The accusations are coming from some few people whose demands are not being met, she stated.

She said the North Tongu District is counted among the best in the region in terms of development.
US-based research and education think tank group has urged Parliament to withdraw the spy bill to rework it or make substantial changes to the draft Bill.

The Africa Center for International Law and Accountability (ACILA) said the changes when made will ensure a proper balance between the states interest to promote safety and its obligations to protect and respect the fundamental human rights of Ghanaians to the privacy of their communications.

ACILAs call, which was contained in a memorandum to Parliament on the draft Bill, Interception of Postal Packets and Telecommunication Messages Bill, 2015, popularly called the Spy Bill, outlined three main reasons why the Bill should be withdrawn, reworked, and reintroduced, if necessary.

It said there are pervasive deficiencies in the draft Bill with potential implications for human rights violations without a notification to the person whose right to privacy is violated for an effective remedy.

Another reason, it said, is the lack of a persuasive justification for the enactment of the legislation. For example, the Memorandum to the draft Bill does not tell us how many arrests, prosecutions, convictions have resulted from interception-related activities. There should be a reference to historical data which is available from warrants which have been granted from the hodgepodge of existing laws.

A third reason is the lack of adequate time for meaningful and effective consultation with civil society, and, indeed, Ghanaians.

ACILA said that a proper balance is needed to ensure that Ghana meets its obligations under domestic, regional, and international law to promote, protect, and respect an individuals right to the privacy of his communications.

It referred, in particular to the provisions in Article 18(2) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana which affirms the right to privacy as a fundamental human right as well as continental and international instruments to which Ghana has ratified, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Article 9) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 17).

It said that recourse needs to be had to these instruments because a citizen whose right to the privacy of communications is breached may bring an action against the state not only in Ghanaian courts, but also at the African Court on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) in Tanzania; the United Nations Human Rights Council; or at the United Nations Human Rights Committee for an effective remedy.

ACILA noted, however, that in the alternative that Parliament decides to go forward with the Bill, then it proposedsubstantial changes to the Bill to, among other things, replace the current draft provision where the Chief Justice appoints a judge to oversee the implementation of the legislation and instead provide for an independent commissioner to provide oversight, notification to persons whose mails and messages are wrongly intercepted, and provide an effective remedy for such breach.

Another change, it said, is to replace the authorization for the application of a warrant by the National Security Coordinator with a public officer whom Parliament has oversight or in the alternative maintain the status quo that allows agencies to apply directly to the court for a warrant.

On the controversial issue in Clause 3 of the Bill which grants the National Security Coordinator the power to orally authorize interception of a postal packet or telecommunication message without a warrant for 48 hours, ACILA said that the oral authorization without a warrant should be removed.

Again, no justification was made in the Bill to depart from current practice which does not provide for interception or interception-related activities without a warrant. The Memorandum to the Bill should explain why oral authorization of interception is required taking into account current problems, if any, that agencies face in obtaining a warrant, the

It said that any justification proffered should also overcome a counter argument that obtaining a warrant in emergency situations is always possible even when the courts are not sitting.

Absent a legally valid justification with safeguards for balancing the states interest in promoting public safety and the individuals right to privacy, the interception without a warrant for 48 hours may be subject to abuse and will not accord with an individuals right to the privacy of communications under the Constitution of Ghana and under regional and international law, to which Ghana is a party, it said.

Other recommended changes includedproviding for a document retention policy to impose the burden of production on the state; requiring that the state bears the cost of the purchase of the equipment for lawful interception, not the person on whom the warrant is served to intercept mails and communications; and expanding the scope of coverage of the Bill to include non-public networks.

Click here to read the groups full memorandum to Parliament
Johannesburg (AFP) - A South African court ruled Thursday that a Polish immigrant who shot dead the anti-apartheid hero Chris Hani in 1993 should be released on parole after 23 years behind bars.

Janusz Walus, 63, is serving a life sentence for the murder, which took the country to the brink of a race war and sent shockwaves across the world.

"The court has ordered (Walus) be released within 14 days and the matter be referred back to the parole board to set his parole conditions," Walus's lawyer Julian Knight told AFP.

But the ruling African National Congress, in power since the end of apartheid in 1994, called the judgement a "travesty of justice" and said Walus should be sent back to Poland.

"(Hani's) death robbed our nation of a committed revolutionary who embodied the undying resolve to freedom and liberation," the party said in a statement.

"The African National Congress demands that Janusz Walus is immediately deported to his country of origin on his release, never to return to South Africa."

A supporter of the extreme right-wing movement, Walus immigrated to South Africa from then-communist Poland in 1981.

According to Knight, he is now a South African citizen.

- 'A watershed moment' -

Hani was the general secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and chief of staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

He was shot dead in the driveway of his house on April 10, 1993 in a suburb east of Johannesburg, one year before South Africa's first multi-racial elections. The incident sparked protests in black townships.

Still in negotiations with the apartheid government over an election date, then-ANC president Nelson Mandela appeared on national television to appeal for calm.

"Now is the time for all South Africans to stand together against those who, from any quarter, wish to destroy what Chris Hani gave his life for -- the freedom of all of us," he said.

"This is a watershed moment for all of us."

The SACP said in a statement Walus was unrepentant and that it would not leave the court's decision unchallenged: "We are studying the judgement and will decide on the next course of action."

Walus's lawyer said his client was remorseful, adding: "He qualifies for release in terms of the department of correctional services' own policy guidelines."

Last year, the man who provided Walus with the gun he used to kill Hani was released on medical grounds.

Clive Derby-Lewis, 79, who is suffering from lung cancer went to court after several unsuccessful applications to the parole board.

Hani's family has repeatedly opposed the bail applications of both Derby-Lewis and Walus, arguing neither had shown no remorse since they were jailed in 1993.

One of South Africa's most notorious murderers, Eugene de Kock, was granted parole in January 2015 after 20 years in jail.

De Kock, dubbed "Prime Evil", was sentenced in 1996 to two life terms plus 212 years in prison for his activities as head of a police death squad targeting anti-apartheid activists.
10.03.2016 LISTEN

Lawyers for the four Yemenis standing trial for possessing fake passports have filed for no case in respect of the charges.

The accused persons are Esmail Yahya Zeyad aka Evra Allerson, Waleed Ahmed Yahya aka Debuchya Allard  both students  and Gaafar Eissa Yahya Amer aka Ciro Carlos, businessman and Eissa Yahya Amer.

The document, filed by Dominic Owusu Sekeyre  lawyer for the four  at the registry of the circuit court dated March 9, 2016, indicates that state prosecutors had failed to establish a case against the accused persons.

The lawyer, according to sources, contended that Ciro Carlos had a genuine passport and that on arrival at the Kotoka International Airport he was going to seek a visa which is allowed under the 1992 Constitution.

In the case of the three others, Mr Owusu Sekeyre indicated that the prosecution had again failed to establish a case of forged document against them because they had genuine passports.

The defence lawyer further argued that the three who had no visas, ought to have been sent back in the next available flight.

Meanwhile, Aboagye Tandoh, the trial judge, has adjourned hearing until March 22 to enable the counsel serve the Attorney General (AG) a copy of the no case document.

The judge held that it was wrong for the defence lawyer to serve the prosecutor, ASP Stephen Adjei, instead of the AG.

The AG, when served, is expected to file a response to the issues in the document.

According to the prosecution, on November 24, 2015 the Yemenis forged official document, being the Republic of France Passport Number 04417928.

They are facing an additional charge of possessing fake Emergency Entry Visa.

The accused persons were arrested by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) at the airport in Accra last year with different names in their French passports. They came by Ethiopian Airline Flight number ET 920.

Whiles undergoing arrival procedures at the immigration section, Evra Allerson, Ciro Carlos and Debuchya were found with French passports with different names.

.

A further search on them revealed that they all had Yemen passports. When the French passports with different names were examined they were found to be fake.

When they were quizzed they claimed one Abdulai Mohammed in Yemen was the one who secured them the French passports and gave them a phone number to call a certain Mohammed in Ghana on arrival.

The accused persons were to transit in Ghana and continue to France and to Istanbul in Turkey.

The accused persons have variously denied the offence.

[email protected]

By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson


Farmers working on palm nuts

10.03.2016 LISTEN

Dr. Ahmed Yakubu Alhassan, Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, has asked stakeholders to work assiduously to develop the palm oil sector in a sustainable manner to help increase its benefits.

Dr. Alhassan made this known at the Africa Palm Oil Initiative workshop organized in Accra by Proforest on behalf of Tropical Forest Alliance (TFA) 2020 in collaboration with the government through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

He said producing palm oil sustainably would require concerted effort by governments, regional bodies, research institutions, private financiers, investors and technocrats to ensure the proper understanding and utilization of palm oil.

It is important that palm oil refiners, manufacturers and other actors, who influence the sector directly and indirectly come together to find ways of reducing the likely negative impacts and increase its benefits.

We believe this can be done by joining forces with allies who share the same vision and who are ready to forge strategic, mutually beneficial partnerships to work towards set goals, Dr. Alhassan said.

He said, Oil palm development is about our people, our livelihood, heritage, our economy and ultimately our legacy. We don't owe its sustainable growth only to the over six million people whose livelihood depend on it or the consumers all over the world whose lives are better because of the oil palm but to posterity, he added.

.

Palm Oil Initiative Workshop

The Africa Palm Oil Initiative workshop brought together representatives from nine African countries to discuss and agree on a shared regional framework for the responsible production of palm oil in the sub-region.

The workshop brought together representatives from the public and private sector, civil society and local groups to plan the regional initiative process that will lead to the signing of a regional accord at the ministerial level on responsible palm oil production later in 2016.

The TFA 2020 is a publicprivate partnership that brings together companies, governments and civil society to reduce deforestation across the globe.

Six leading palm oil producing countries in Africa- Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Gabon, Liberia, Nigeria and Ghana- are engaged in the initiative.

[email protected]

By Cephas Larbi


To tweet this news, copy and paste: NEWS: @MAStartPath expands globally in its search for innovative #startups #StartPathGlobal now accepting applications through March 21, 2016

Johannesburg, South Africa  March 10, 2016, Technology and data are transforming the way consumers and businesses interact with each other, driving a need to bring new ideas to market with greater speed. The right corporate-startup partnership gives startups an accelerated path to scale innovative solutions.

The MasterCard Start Path Global 2016 program has been designed with that objective and has launched a call for applications across the globe. Since 2014, Start Path has provided more than 60 startups a variety of operational support, mentorship, and investment to develop the next generation of commerce solutions.

Middle East and Africa (MEA)

Start Path has seen success in the MEA region and is intensifying its search as a continuing reminder of the innovation potential of local startups. In MEA, the program is currently working closely with startups including Saida, a startup that has developed an app that uses the data on the customers smartphones to underwrite loans to them in minutes. The app has just launched in Kenya and has been instrumental in providing over 16,000 loans.

Startups are actively experimenting with new solutions aimed at transforming the status-quo across a wide variety of industries including financial services, retail, and healthcare said Stephane Wyper, global lead of MasterCard Start Path. We can provide critical support through operational expertise and access to a steady pipeline of customers, channels and partners. In just two years, Start Path Global has a strong record of helping startups transform innovations into sustainable business propositions.

Apply Now

Each quarter, MasterCard Start Path recruits a new class of startups to embark on the six-month virtual program. The program is currently accepting applications for its next class. The application window to join the next class is open until Monday, March 21, 2016. To apply, visit: www.startpath.com . The program is open to all non-US based startups.

How to Apply to Start Path Global:
Lordina Mahama and Zanetor Rawlings in a tete-a-tete

10.03.2016 LISTEN



The First Lady, Lordina Mahama, has been accused of openly showing support for Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings even as she battles her way to Parliament on the ticket of the National Democrat Congress (NDC) for the Klottey Korle Constituency.

Ebenezer Opoku Duah, a Columnist and Political Observer, in an open letter to the First Lady, claimed President Mahama and his wife could not escape blame due to their resolve to please the Rawlingses at all cost.

He said with the first lady at the forefront, the President, together with the NDC national executives and other senior members of the party, has connived to use unconstitutional means to make the daughter of former President Rawlings, Zanetor Rawlings, either a minister of state or a Member of Parliament or both.

The columnist and political observer continued: Birds have whispered into my ears that former President Rawlings has demanded President Mahama [to] make his daughter Zanetor Rawlings a minister of state. But with advise from Alban Bagbin, the majority leader in Parliament, that Zanetor cannot constitutionally pass through the parliamentary vetting without her name in the register, taking her through Parliament became the next plan of the Rawlingses to hold on to power.

Opoku Duah, among other things, alleged that President Mahama and his wife had pledged their support to the Rawlings family to keep them politically relevant in Ghana.

Your Excellency the first lady has never hidden you and your husband's massive support for the 'hook or crook' entrance of Zanetor Rawlings into Parliament or into government, he stated, adding that We know that your family supported her financially in the campaign leading to her election as Klottey Korle NDC parliamentary candidate and you continue to show open support to Zanetor against the court case challenging the legality of her election last year as parliamentary candidate without a voters ID card.

The political watcher believes the posturing of the president and his wife is laughable.

.

This is a complete illusion but it is even sadder that our First Lady, Lordina Mahama, has misguided her husband, President John Dramani Mahama, into bowing to that illusion of personality occultism! Former President Rawlings can never maintain President Mahama in power but we the people. So listen to the people and stop trying to be a puppet of the Rawlings family.

According to the letter, state protocols were broken at public state functions recently in order to elevate Zanetor to an undeserving status without any reasonable explanations.

It further stated, No one is left in doubt that you and your husband are doing all you can  including breaking the law  to keep the Agyeman  Rawlings family relevant in Ghana politics. But why do you insult the sensibilities of Ghanaians who have moved on from the pain caused them by the Rawlingses?

Opoku Duah urged the supporters of the Dr Zanetor to desist from per-empting the decision of the court.

Anybody who believes in the Constitution must wait for the ruling of the court. What do we see? The First Lady, Lordina Mahama, is publicly showing solidarity with Zanetor Rawlings and mocking the courts which are yet to rule on the matter.

A DAILY GUIDE Report


10.03.2016 LISTEN

Shylock: The curse never fell upon our nation till now; I never felt it till now.

The Merchant of Vernice Act 3 ScI

Shakespeare.



Mistress Quickly: Here will be an old abusing of God's patience and the King's English.

The Merry Wives of Windsor





REVEREND WILLIAM SPOONER's tongue could not keep up with his sharp brain and lofty thoughts. When he wanted to say 'well- oiled bicycle', he rather said 'well boiled icicle' ; when he wanted to refer to Queen Victoria as the 'dear old Queen', he ended up calling her the 'queer old dean',. That is the origin of 'spoonerism', around 1920.

'Spoonerism' is defined as: the transposition of the initial sounds or other parts of two or more spoken words. (Examples of 'spoonerism' include: 'tease my ears' for 'ease my tears'; 'shake a tower'; for 'take a shower' and 'fighting a liar' for 'lighting a fire'). The defects detected in the brochures issued at the 59th Independence Day parade in Accra could have been taken as peccadilloes (small faults, or trifling offences or flippant anecdotes) but for their international diffusiveness. For us here, it would have been the topic for discussion for a few sultry days only to evanesce into thin air.

In Kenya now, the newspapers are flogging the issue, calling on Ghanaians to come for Uhuru Kenyatta, if we wanted him to be the President of Ghana. After all, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was co-President of Guinea after his overthrow in 1966. Ghana an English  speaking country is truly surrounded by French speaking or francophone ones. Ghana is Anglophone, but to say Ghana is an Island of English speaking in the sea of francophone countries amounts to over-stretching the synecdoche too far. It could at best be a paranomasia and at worst a hyperbole.

We have seen the expression; 'Coat of Arms' so often that a J. H. S. one boy can hardly make the mistake of calling it Coat of Arm', even if the 'coat' has only one distinctive heraldic bearing or shield. Of course, 'youthfull' could only have been the work of the 'Printer's devil', the excess 'l' having been put there by an errant errand-boy, rendering the word 'youthfull' an erratum (NOT: errata, which is the plural of erratum). Ofaine, 'Kinbu Senior High Technical School' could not have been erroneously written as 'Kimbu Senior High Technical School' if the author had taken the trouble to check the spelling of 'Kinbu' or if the author understood a little Ga like me, Taflatse. We gloss over similar mistakes when we write 'Cantonments' as 'Cantoments', or 'Christiansborg' as 'Christianborg'. The expression 'as if by divine designed' could have been rectified to read, as if divinely-designed  (the ellipsis  three dots) would have indicated that certain words had been deliberately left out.

But how come we were celebrating our 'forward march' and people could not 'match' this with the CPP charge: 'Forward ever; backward never'. Now, it is as Vladimir Lenin puts it: 'One step forward, two steps backward'. We seem to do a 'backward acceleration' as my very good friend (name withheld) would say. Somebody would ask, so, Ghana with a population of over twenty seven million citizens could not have scholars of English, Political Science, History, Sociology, Geography or Art to help put the brochure in shape? You see the reward in insisting that English is not important? And a beautiful lady who is herself a professor of English and who has authored some books  written in English- would tout Korea for using the Korean language (instead of English) to praise the achievements of Samsung, Hyundai. Try using local languages to write your story now, and see the patronage. Please, I am not for a minute condemning our local languages. They will evolve, but not now. I understand those who argue that English does not put food on the table of Ghanaians.

Another question would be 'Why the rush to print the brochures, especially when the mistakes were detected?' and yet another salvo: Why did we not use the existing channel (Information Services Department) to prepare the brochures? Don't you think instead of 'low income level' it could have been corrected to read: 'low middle income level'? Not my correction, please.

.

And where are the proof-readers? People trained to vet a document for it to follow grammatical rules, syntax, diction and such other vital rules of writing. Go to any of the well-established press-houses, you will find them there: Daily Guide, Daily Graphic, Ghanaian Times, The Chronicles, et cetera. They could have done a better job with just a little charge. Some people would even have offered to do the proof-reading free of charge, that is, pro bono or gratis. Now, you can see the Minority in Parliament appear to smell a rat. Is it one of the 'create, loot and share' projects? The Supreme Court has helped us to expand our vocabularyfor providing us with 'parboiled' expressions, if one could be permitted to say so.

I have a problem: I edited a very expensive diary someone had got printed, with beautiful pictures and vital information on Ghana, being in the 'centre of the world'-apologies to the Independence Day brochure.. The next time I saw the gentleman, he was a poor wretch: not a single diary had been sold  Let not the fate of that man haunt the authors, arrangers, composers or the sirs of these brochures, more so when the 'harm has already been done'.

Be watchful: Some people would say: 'Those who live in glass houses must not throw stones.' Others might turn it to read; Individuals who inhabit domiciles composed of frangible substances containing silicon compounds should be wary of casting hard, metallic mineral matter. But let no one try to punish me for doing my heavenly-inspired duty. I am not Bishop Obinnim: I cannot change into a rat, a tiger, a snake or a tree; I can only remain human, and my wife can confirm this. What I am trying to do is to make use of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy's charge: Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. Of course, I would not dare challenge those who will bombastically render this saying as: It is not deemed appropriate to make enquiry as to those initiatives to be actualized by this nation on behalf of individuals but, contrariwise, to ascertain the methodologies by which said individuals can maximize their optimum contribution to said nation.

A caller to a Radio FM station could not understand why people should not focus their attention on the impressiveness of the 59th Independence Day Parade at the Black Star Square; well said, but what about the argument that the brochure could be the 'icing on the cake'-some people keep these documents as souvenirs. And what about the rickety truck for carrying journalists on the parade groundswith a rusty ladder for mounting the huge truck 'a comedy of errors'?

The Acting Director of the Information Services Department, Mr. Francis Kwarteng Arthur, is facing the wrath of workers under him for owning up the authorship of the brochure. Who is piling up the pressure or who is pulling the trigger? No one is accusing anyone. Stan Dogbe may after all be innocent of the charge leveled against him.

As far back as 300 years Before Christ (B.C) Zeno, the philosopher of Citium, a Grecian city had said: Better to trip with the feet than with the tongue. Various languages in Ghana have similar versions. They all mean: It is better to take a bad step in walking than to say a wrong thing when talking.

Of course, Zeno said this while he was drunk on wine, but in his sobriety, he remarked, We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen more than we say. It's serious

Africanus Owusu- Ansah

[email protected]


An Accra Circuit Court, presided over by Aboagye Tandoh, yesterday tasked Dominic Owusu Sekyere, lawyer for the Yemenis with fake French passports, to also file a submission of no case to the Attorney General's Department (AG), as far as its borders on legal matters are concerned.

According to the judge, since the submission of no case borders on legal matters are concerned, it is advisable to serve the AG as well, for them to react if there is the need, before his outfit can give its ruling.

After the case was called, the judge told the lawyer to serve the AG, and if they would like to respond to the submission of no case, then they will also file their response, but if they fail to respond, then the court has no option than to give its ruling on 22 March, this year.

The lawyer for the accused persons opened a defense by filing an application indicating to the court as a submission of no case  this on legal basis means the state has no case against the accused persons.

Lawyer Owusu, in an interview with this paper, explained that he submitted his application and served the police officer who is the Prosecutor, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Stephen Adjei, but the judge said since a submission of no case borders on legal matters, he needs to also serve the AG as well.

Submission of case, according to the lawyer, means after the court closes its case and the lawyers believed that no case has been made, that is if they have not been able to substantiate their charges not or not enough evidence to show that his client is guilty of the charge, then they make a submission of no case, but legally, nothing has been proved against his client.

His plea, however, is for the court to give an order so that they can to go back to their country, because that is what they are crying for. The four Yemenis allegedly entered the country with fake French passports and visas, thereby concealing their real identi-ties.

They are Esmail Yahya Zey ad aka Evra Allerson, Gaafar Eissa Yahya Amer aka Ciro Carlos, Waleed Ahmed Yahya aka Debuchya Allard  all students  and Eissa Yahya Airier, a businessman. All the suspects reportedly con-cealed their Yemeni identities and feigned French nationalities in an attempt to beat security personnel at the Kotoka International Airport, Accra. It is not clear what their real motive of hiding their Yemeni identi-ties was. They are, however, in BNI custody and are to re-appear before the court on March 22, 2016.

By Ethel Mensah

([email protected])
Youth worker organisations from across the Commonwealth have joined forces to establish an international coalition to advocate for the interests of young people and spearhead efforts to professionalise the youth work sector.

The new Commonwealth Alliance of Youth Work Associations (CAYWA) will bring together national youth worker groups from Commonwealth countries, including the Jamaica Professional Youth Workers Association, the Zambia Youth Workers Association and New Zealand's Peak Body for Youth Workers.

A steering committee to develop the alliance was established on 9 March 2016 at the Commonwealth Conference on Youth Work in Pretoria, South Africa, organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat in partnership with the Government of the Republic of South Africa, the University of South Africa (Unisa) and the National Youth Development Agency.

The alliance will be made up of organisations dedicated to the professionalisation of youth work and creating and implementing standards for youth work. Over the next year, the steering committee will work with the Commonwealth Secretariat and other stakeholders to establish the alliance ahead of the next Commonwealth Youth Ministers Meeting in Uganda in 2017.

Tanya Merrick Powell, founder of the Jamaica Professional Youth Workers Association and Convenor of the steering committee, said: The alliance is an opportunity to build capacity at the local level, and to share resources and expertise. We are eager to come together to have a collective voice in this journey of professionalisation. This will give us leverage to influence our governments to join us on this journey. It is an opportunity we need to maximise.

Anya Satyanand, Executive Officer of Ara Taiohi, a New Zealand youth worker NGO which has also joined the alliance, stated: Each professional association's journey is their own, but having an international conversation is about solidarity and learning and development. It's really exciting for us, because we're such a young organisation, so it's great to have the collective experience from all the other regions.

Katherine Ellis, Director of Youth at the Commonwealth Secretariat, said: Today we have begun the work of carving out the vision, strategy and structure for a Commonwealth Alliance of Youth Work Associations, following a resoundingly positive response from stakeholders on the potential value of the concept. This builds on the Commonwealth's broader work to promote youth work as a profession, and its critical connection to youth development. The Commonwealth will always aim to be at the forefront of pursuing policies that result in young people's social, political and economic empowerment.

Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General Deodat Maharaj stated: Some 60% of the Commonwealth's two billion citizens are under 30. That is why youth work has such potential to be wholly transformative upon the life chances of young people and wider society. The professionalisation of youth work, and our other ongoing commitments to youth development and empowerment, will directly aid our member countries to achieve the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.
10.03.2016 LISTEN

THE GENERAL Secretary of the Great Word of God Church at Odupong Ofankor Bohye Asaseso, Rev. Paul Kwaku Addei Jnr has entreated Christians across the country to pray steadfastly for peace for Ghana.

According to the man of God, Ghana as a nation could only prosper when Christians start to intercede for the nation.

Rev. Paul Kwaku Jnr made the appeal on Sunday while addressing his congregation after a fourteen day fast and prayer programme at the Church located at Kasoa in the Central Region.

He told the congregation that as Christians, it is their spiritual obligation to continually pray for the leadership of Ghana for peace to prevail at all times.

Quoting 1st Timoty 2:1-2 to buttress his point, the Christian cleric observed that God commands us to intercede for them (leaders) so we cannot fail Him.

He seized the opportunity to advise and admonish the leadership of Ghana to seek the face of God in all their dealings.

He also urged them to be very mindful of the kind of decisions they take on behalf of the nation, stessing that wrong decisions can affect the destiny of the nation.

BY Melvin Tarlue


10.03.2016 LISTEN

A Cape Coast Circuit Court presided over by Kofi Amatewee on Tuesday remanded into prison custody a 41-year old farmer, Yaw Tewie aka Oloshie at Breman Sowotuom in the Asikuma-Obobeng-Brakwa (AOB) District of the Central Region for defiling and impregnating a-14 year old girl in the area.

Tewie who pleaded not guilty to the offence was remanded to re-appear on March 22, 2016.

Prosecuting, Chief Inspector Peter Paul Amoah said the complainant in the case, Kofi Annan, is the father of the victim.

Chief Inspector Amoah stated that somewhere in November 2015, at about 8:30pm the accused sent the victim to go and buy him a loaf of bread.

The prosecutor added that the accused who was desperate to have sex with the innocent girl took advantage and forcibly had sexual intercourse with her when he brought the bread to him in his room.

.

Prosecution told the court that on January 1, 2016, the victim fell sick and was taken to Sowotuom Health Center for treatment and in the cause of the treatment, it came out that the victim was pregnant.

Chief Inspector Amoah said the complainant then interrogated the victim who confirmed that the accused was responsible for the pregnancy.

The prosecutor hinted that a report was made to Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) at Breman Asikuma where the accused was arrested.

Chief Inspector Amoah said an endorsed police medical report received from Dr Anthony of Our Lady of Grace Hospital in the area indicated that the victim was two month two weeks pregnant.

Email:[email protected]

From Sarah Afful, Cape Coast


10.03.2016 LISTEN

The global platform Break Free has been launched, featuring a series of peaceful, coordinated actions that aim to disrupt the fossil-fuel industrys power by targeting the worlds most dangerous and unnecessary fossil fuel projects.

This May, thousands of people from around the world will join actions taking place across 6 continents aiming to halt dirty fossil fuel operations and demonstrate support for an accelerated just transition to 100% renewable energy.

Major actions are currently planned in countries such as Indonesia, Nigeria, Brazil, US, Germany, Philippines, Australia and more  led by the communities that have spent years already fighting dangerous fossil fuel projects.

Hot on the heels of the largest ever climate mobilisations in history activists are once again stepping back into the ring to strike a body blow against a fossil fuel industry thats on its knees. said Wael Hmaidan, the Director of Climate Action Network. More and more people are joining the fight because they see how fossil fuels are destroying the planet, risking the economy, and creating injustice for local communities. The movement is here to stay, there is no end to it, until the final bell tolls for the fossil fuel industry.

On the back of the hottest year in recorded history, communities worldwide are demanding governments put words into action after delivering the historic Paris Agreement in December where 196 parties signalled the end of the fossil fuel era.

In order to address the current climate crisis and keep global warming below 1.5C degrees fossil fuel projects need to be shelved and existing infrastructure needs to be replaced, now.

The science is clear: we need to keep at least 80%, if not more, of fossil fuel reserves in the ground, said Payal Parekh, the Global Managing Director of 350.org. Communities worldwide are experiencing firsthand the consequences of climate change and the damage inflicted by the fossil fuel industry. Its up to us to break free from fossil fuels and accelerate the shift towards a just transition to 100% renewable energy. Its in our hands to close the gap between what current commitments will achieve and what science demands is necessary in order to protect our common home.

The climate movements commitment to scaling up its resistance to the fossil fuel industry comes at a time when renewable energy is already more affordable and widespread than ever before. These new tools give communities at the front lines of climate change new ways to respond to the crisis and build their own power.

Moving towards 100% renewable energy is possible with the political will to make the change said Arif Fiyanto, Coal Campaigner at Greenpeace Indonesia. There are no major economic or technical barriers to a future supported by renewable energy. Any new infrastructure built to support fossil fuels expansion, such as coal mines, power plants, oil rigs and export terminals will be a waste of money and further lock us into a path to irreversible climate change.

Post-Paris, the fossil fuel industry is running scared with prices plunging and companies going bankrupt. Now, ramped up civil disobedience will show that the industrys social licence to operate is fast evaporating. Such peaceful civil disobedience brings people from all walks of life, and not just seasoned climate activists, to challenge both politicians and polluters to accelerate the unstoppable energy transition already underway.

One such example is last years Ende Gelande (Here And No Further), which saw 1500 people take part in a daring act of civil disobedience to shut down Europes biggest source of CO2 emissions.

On the urgency at hand, Hannah Eichberger from this grassroots anti-coal alliance said: Its time now for a grassroots energy transition that does not only exchange one source of energy for the other but that tackles the root causes of natural destruction and social injustice: corporate power.

The struggles against the fossil fuel industry and the environmental, social, economic and political destruction theyve wielded has been underway across regions for many years.

"Fossil fuels have brought horrendous pollutions to the Niger Delta alongside unimaginable human rights abuses while severely harming communities, said Nnimmo Bassey, Nigerian activist from the Health of Mother Earth Foundation, We cannot allow fossil fuel addicts to burn the planet. The time for the shift is now. No one will set us free. We must break free ourselves, now" he added.

These peaceful worldwide mobilisations taking place in May serve as an important point in the climate movements trajectory to increase pressure on the fossil fuel industry. The global struggle to finally break free from fossil fuels will continue making this a struggle the world cannot ignore.
On the 8th March 2016, the African Union (AU) Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security, Mme Bineta Diop, joined African heads of security forces on the occasion of the Fifth General Assembly of the Kigali Declaration on the role of security forces in preventing violence against women and girls. The event which took place in Algiers, Algeria, coincided with the commemoration of the International Women's Day, celebrated by the AU under the theme, Agenda 2063: A Pledge for Gender-Equality and Women's Empowerment.

Speaking on behalf of the AUC Chairperson, H.E. Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the Special Envoy said that the 'Algiers platform' is a clear indication of commitments made by African states to end violence against women, and to silence the guns on the African continent by 2020. She added that it was an opportunity for AU member-states to share best practices in the fight against gender-based violence.

Mme Diop noted that there have been many strides with regards to combating sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), particularly through laws and policies. However, a lot more needs to be done to translate these provisions into tangible impact for women and girls on the ground. She stressed that law enforcement agencies and personnel, as first responders within communities are at the forefront of this endeavour. Successfully combating SGBV cannot happen without the committed action of security services.

She commended member states of the African Union for the efforts they have made to ensure their police forces are more gender sensitive, also resulting in the recruitment and promotion of more women within their ranks. Nevertheless, she emphasised that more needs to be done. Change should not only be in terms of numbers and rank, but also in deeper transformation of the security services, encompassing behavioral change and empowerment towards zero tolerance on issues of violence against women (VAW), within the forces themselves and in the communities.

She ended with the note that securing women was an endeavour that would sustain peace within communities and countries.

The Fifth General Assembly which was held from the 7th to 8th March was attended by the Prime Minister of Algeria, the United Nations Secretary General, ministers and high dignitaries from across the continent.
10.03.2016 LISTEN

Staff of the Information Services Department (ISD) have disclosed that since assuming office as the Presidential Staffer at the office of the President, Stan Xoese Dogbe has completely taken over their core mandate.

According to them, the former Joy FM reporter has deprived them of their official responsibility, since he became the presidential staffer, a couple of years ago. The ISD staff also disclosed that they did not understand why Francis Kwarteng Arthur -Director of the Department, has to take the blame on their behalf, when indeed, they had nothing to do with the production of the error ridden brochure.

They have, therefore, called on President John Dramani Mahama to, as a matter of urgency, fire Mr. Kwarteng Arthur for accepting responsibility for something his staff had no knowledge about. This was contained in a petition signed by Mr. Yaw Mensah, spokesperson of a group of persons calling themselves Concerned Staff of ISD and addressed to President John Dramani Mahama.

The petition by the ISD staff comes after the error-filled brochure, which was used for the [email protected] Independence Day celebration caused a global shame to the country. The petition explained that they had no hand in either the content or the production of the error-filled brochure, expressing shock that their Acting Director accepted responsibility on their behalf.

They alleged in the petition that Mr. Arthur's style of administration, since his appointment, has been oppressive, adding that he had shown gross disrespect to both management and other staff members.

They explained that the staff of ISD had over the years handled national events with competence and to the pride of all, and explained that if the department had been involved in the process of the production of the brochure, it would have excellently served the government and the people of Ghana.

Among other misrepresentations in the error-prone brochure was the reference to His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, as President of Ghana. Besides, it described the 59-year-old country as a 'low income country.

In his bid to take the blame and perhaps shield Stan Dogbe for taking over the job of his subordinates, Mr. Francis Kwarteng Arthur, on Monday, was quick to apologize for the unpardonable and shameful faux pas, adding that he had taken responsibility for the mess.

His staff, however, held that his stance would never be welcomed because they had no hand in the preparation of the shameful [email protected] Independence Day brochure. On Sunday March 6, high profile persons, including the leader of Kenya, Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta, gathered at the Independence Square to celebrate the 59th birthday of Ghana after independence.

And aside the conspicuous gaffe on the brochure for the celebration, was a tipper truck that was provided to a section of the press to take video and photo coverage of the event, which is the major talking point that has continued to attract media headlinesboth locally and internationallyand that will go down in history as a dent on the image of the West African nation.

Is it, consequently, a wonder that the ISD staff's position and claim that Stan Xoese Dogbe has hijacked their job could not be contested when Chairman of the 59th Independence Anniversary Planning Committee, Commodore Steve Obimpeh, had maintained that questions surrounding the errors in the official anniversary brochure should be directed at the Presidential Staffer because he was responsible for the brochure?

By Inusa Musah
10.03.2016 LISTEN

The Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Ishmael Ashittey has said that if he had his way, he would have fielded Nii Noi Nortey as the Parliamentary Candidate for the Klottey Korle Constituency.

As a former Constituency Chairman, he has been able to build a strong relationship with the grassrootshe is true party man, he confessed. According to him, the decision by Nii Noi Nortey  a man he said had a strong footing in the constituency to win the election  to go independent  was going to have a serious effect on the fortunes of the party in the constituency.

In August 2015, Nii Noi Nortey won convincingly in the constituencys Parliamentary primaries by 393 votes, as against Lawyer Philip Addison and Nii Adjei Tawiahs 22 and 19 votes respectively. Not satisfied with the results, Lawyer Philip Addison resorted to the law courts, where in the turn of events, a re-run of the election was scheduled for February.

The election saw the defeat of Nii Noi Nortey with 367 votes, as against Lawyer Philip Addisons 396. Nii Adjei Tawiah did not contest. Not only did the former Constituency Chairman reject the results of the elections, he was also urged on by his teeming supporters to go independent because he had not been treated fairly. According to reports, he walked off in anger after the result was declared and did not wait to concede defeat or to congratulate the winner.

Just yesterday, at a press conference at Osu in Accra, Nii Noi Nortey made his intention to contest as Independent candidate known. Describing Mr. Addison as a transplant, he said the people of Klottey Korle needed someone of their own but not one who had been transported into the constituency.

Philip Addison is not known in the constituency. Hes doing all these because he says he has the support of Nana Akufo Addo. I have the support of the people and since they have told me to go independent, I will have to listen to them, he said.

We do not want someone who feels he is bigger than the constituency; we need someone who is within the people, he said, adding that there was no way he would obey some top men in the party who were trying to convince him to rescind his decision.

Mr. Ashittey told Accra-based Joy FM that he made strenuous efforts to prevent Nii Noi Nortey from making any pronouncement to the effect that he would go independent, but all of a sudden I heard he had held a press conference making his intention known.

For him, it was not a good move for two people from the elephant family to contest elections in the same constituency, with the explanation that it would have dire consequences on the party. He, however, expressed the belief that it was not too late to settle the issue with the aggrieved candidate, saying, He is the real party man. Nii Noi is not an ordinary manWe are talking about someone who has strong footing and can win votes for the party.

By Pascal Kafu Abotsi ([email protected])
10.03.2016 LISTEN

AS PART of efforts to reduce the high rate of unemployment and poverty among the youth, the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Sawla-Tuna-Kalba, Alhaji Mumuni Isaac Dramani has unveiled plans by the Assembly to make farming more attractive, lucrative and the best choice of employment for the unemployed youth in the area.

According to the DCE, the Assembly was working towards a diversified and commercially oriented agricultural sector, with strong linkages with processors, industries and markets to create jobs for the youth in the district.

Speaking at the 59th Independence Day Celebration at Sawla, Alhaji Dramani said the agricultural sector had the capacity to provide surplus food and raw materials for both industries and export. He regretted that the youth had not exploited the opportunities in the agricultural sector as much as they could, despite the numerous incentives introduced by the government to attract them to the sector.

The Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District has fertile lands suitable for the cultivation of major traditional crops such as maize, sorghum, millet, soya bean, groundnuts, cowpeas, cassava, rice and yam. Cashew and mangoes are also grown as economic trees in the area while animal production like cattle, goats, sheep, pigs and poultry (guinea fouls and chickens) also thrive well in the district.

The DCE who is also a renowned commercial farmer said President John Dramani Mahama who is improving the socio-economic wellbeing of the people had invested heavily in the agric sector to motivate farmers to increase their productivity. The government through the District Assembly, Alhaji Dramani noted, had supported the farmers with tractor services, subsidized fertilizers, combine harvesters, improved seeds and irrigation facilities.

He, therefore, appealed to the youth to embrace the available opportunities in the agric sector and save themselves from the grips of poverty and the indelible tag of indolence. Meanwhile, the 59th Independence Anniversary Celebration which was under the theme: Investing in the youth for Ghana's transformation'' attracted all the security agencies, some selected schools, Civil Society Organisations, Organised Labour and Chiefs and people of the District.

The DCE said that the theme for the celebration was an ample testimony that the ruling government led by President John Dramani Mahama was committed to developing the talents in the youth of this country in order to sustain the progress made to build a prosperous nation. He said that the government would continue to introduce youth friendly policies to address the challenges facing the Ghanaian youth especially the issue of unemployment.

Alhaji Dramani appealed to the youth to also take advantage of the opportunities in the Youth Enterprise Agency (YEA) rather than engaging in needless ventures. On Education, Mr. Mumuni Isaac Dramani said that the ruling government had made the biggest investment in the sector since independence. Apart from improving infrastructural facilities, he said reading materials and other logistics were being supplied by the government to enhance teaching and learning in the schools.

The DCE mentioned that the Assembly on its part had constructed several classroom blocks at the Kindergarten, primary, junior high and senior high school levels and a number of teachers and headmasters' bungalows to improve on quality education. He noted that in this academic year, about 60 trained teachers, nearly 100 national service personnel and 100 volunteer teachers would be posted to the District to fill in the teacher deficit in the schools.

Mr. Isaac Dramani further mentioned that an amount of Twelve thousand Ghana cedis (GH 12,000.00) was released to GES to pay the allowances of the volunteer teachers for the first quarter of 2016. In addition, 1,980 dual and mono desks, 9,709 boxes of chalk, 895 Registers 1,780 supplementary readers, 4,560 school uniforms and 40 Bicycles were supplied to school children as well as eight (8) motorbikes to Circuit Supervisors in the District.

His address also touched on health, water and sanitation, roads, rural electrification and peace and security among others. The DCE emphasized the need for unity and peaceful co-existence among the people for sustainable development.

From Edmond Gyebi, Tamale
10.03.2016 LISTEN

Nene Kanor Atiapah III, Mankralo and Acting President of the Ningo Traditional Area, has said that he will invite the military to descend heavily on motorists who are showing gross indiscipline in the area. He said his incessant demand that all motorists including commercial bikers (Okada), should relocate to the new station has been ignored by the recalcitrant motorists.

The police in the area, he observed, have been disappointing in helping him drive all commercial motorists who have continued to turn the shoulders of the road into loading points where they park to pick passengers.

Nene Atiapah III observed that the areas former loading point for commercial motorists is so narrow that during weekends, reckless parking by the motorists causes long vehicular traffic from the Old Ningo main bridge to the township.

Following that inconvenience, he said he instructed the station master to get all commercial motorists relocate to a spacious bus terminal, a few meters away from the old station where an improvised roundabout has been created.

Its been over a year now since I sent the order, however, the motorists have remained adamant and so they continue to park and pick passengers at the old station. Some okada boys have also taken over part of the narrow stretch thereby worsening the vehicular traffic.

But they should not worry since they have decided to be indiscipline and disregard my orders. I will request the military command to dispatch a few of its men to come and discipline the recalcitrant motorists. I wont mind if the military tow any motorists vehicle away.

I am sure that when they are disciplined by the military, all motorists will move to the station where I have ordered them to relocate to, Nene Atiapah III said. According to him, the Old Ningo police have not been up to scratch in dealing with the situation hence his decision to opt for the military to do what will get me to sleep more soundly and have my peace of mind as the Mankralo and Acting President of the Great Ningo Traditional Area.

He was of the view that if he failed to stamp his authority to get things done more properly and more orderly, the young ones would imitate the ills in the society and that, he said, would not augur well for the people of Great Ningo.

From Inusa Musah, Ningo
10.03.2016 LISTEN

Accra, Mar. 10, GNA - Dr Ekow Spio Garbrah, Minister of Trade and Industry has said by the end of the week, a statement would be released on efforts it intends to undertake to protect local cement manufacturers from cement imports.

He said according to the Cement Manufacturers Association of Ghana, the local industry has the capacity to produce about nine million metric tonnes of cement while new cement production projects are expected to add a further three to four million metric tonnes annually.

He made the statement at a media interaction between the Steering Committee of the Made in Ghana Campaign and members of the Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists (IFEJ) in Accra.

'According to the manufacturers, Ghana currently consumes only about seven million metric tonnes of cement per annum which implies that there is about three million metric tonnes of excess capacity that we can produce in Ghana but which we don't because of the imports,' he noted.

Dr Spio Garbrah said the idea was to put in place a policy and if necessary a legislative instrument to restrict the importation of cement and allow local manufacturers the breathing room to grow and expand, especially as government undertakes various projects that consume cement.

Mr Kwabena Agyekum, Executive Director of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and member of the Made in Ghana committee, said although much had been done to promote the consumption of made local products and services, there was still much to be done.

He said the advertising campaign currently being run across the nation will be updated to cover product advertisement and the need to consume the specific product.

This will not be a brand advertisement but will focus of the specific product, such as rice and highlight the benefits of eating locally grown rice.

Nana Akrasi Sarpong, Director of communications at the MOTI, said the committee was also working with the Association of Ghana industries and other stakeholders to address the relatively high costs of locally made products in a bid to make them more attractive to consumers.

GNA
Accra, Mar. 10, GNA - President, John Dramani Mahama has assured the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERERA) of Ghana's support for the launch and effective take-off of the regional power market.

The Regional Power market will take-off later in the year.

President Mahama made the commitment while receiving a five-member ERERA delegation led by the institution's Acting Chairperson, Mrs Ifey Ikeonu and Regulatory Council Member, Mr Alagi Gaye, at the Flag Staff House in Accra.

President Mahama said Ghana was working towards meeting its dual target of energy self-sufficiency as well as being a net exporter of electricity in the region.

He commended the initiatives of ERERA towards the development of the regional electricity market.

He also spoke of the sundry activities at improving energy access to all areas of the country, especially some rural communities, despite the many challenges, including those caused by climate change.

In this regard, President Mahama spoke of the progress being made by Ghana, especially with the introduction of renewable energy such as solar power, the price of which he described as becoming 'more competitive'.

'I believe you have a role to play when it comes to renewable energy', President Mahama told the ERERA delegation.

He acknowledged Ghana's comparative advantage in terms of power supply to other ECOWAS member states, and reiterated the country's readiness to support the regional electricity market.

Earlier, Mrs Ifey Ikeonu briefed President Mahama on ERERA's core mandate and objectives, as well as build-up activities towards the launch of the regional electricity market scheduled for the last quarter of 2016.

She said ERERA has already approved such instruments as the Regional Electricity Market Rules that would guide market participants, and is now finalizing work on the dispute resolution rules and contract templates- two other critical instruments which are prerequisites for the launch of the market.

Mrs Ikeonu also spoke of the approval of a tariff methodology which will determine the cost of trans-border wheeling of electricity, as well as the West African Power Pool (WAPP) Operations Manual.

She also expatiated on the relationship between ERERA and WAPP, the two regional energy institutions tasked with ensuring a successful ECOWAS electricity market.

Mrs Ikeonu then briefed President Mahama on the implementation of the 2013 ECOWAS Directive on the Organization of the Regional Electricity Market, adding that Ghana has fully met all the requirements of the Directive.

Among others, the Directive provides for the gradual establishment of the ECOWAS regional power market through the harmonization of national electricity markets.

It also provides for a regional market design and market phases, open access to the regional transmission network and access by eligible customers.

ERERA's Acting Chairperson stated that other member states can benefit from Ghana's experience in the power sector for the benefit of the ECOWAS Community.

She appealed to President Mahama to assist in ensuring that member states are fully aware of Ghana's initiative in the power sector, especially in regards to the ECOWAS Directive, noting that 'non-compliance with the Directive will hinder the operations of the electricity market'.

GNA
10.03.2016 LISTEN

Accra, Mar. 10, GNA - Africa Haiku Network (AHN) has unveiled their official journal of poetry christened: 'The Mamba', which is a collection of African haiku (Afriku) pieces that signify typical African traditional micro-poetry.

The poetry genre which is of Japanese origin, is traditionally written in three lines in a 5-7-5 syllabic arrangement, and has not been introduced in a typical African voice.

The lateness of Africa to start the art has been ascribed to volume of work and efforts required in the poetry's aesthetics and practices.

But, the Co-founder of the Africa Haiku Network, Mr Adjei Agyei-Baah told the Ghana News Agency that the art, though it began in the 17th century, it was delightful it has finally set foot in Africa in the 21st century.

He said, 'The Mamba journal comes as a historic milestone and breakthrough for Africa to join her European counterparts in the art which they have championed for centuries.'

'The journal gives Africa an opportunity to leave an imprint on the world haiku map, especially at the opportune time that the world is calling for haiku to be added to UNESSCO Intangible Cultural Heritage,' Mr Agyei-Baah said.

He said haiku, which is of Japanese origin has been 'adopted and nativized to capture the unique settings, surroundings, sights and sounds of the Africa continent.'

He also noted that haiku captured thrilling African moments in nature and in its simplest form, and as a result, one could write it with a little observation regardless of the person's academic background.

He expressed the hope that the 'new' art would inspire academic work, and be accepted as a new field of African poetry and literature, particularly in the departments of language and creative writing in the country's higher learning institutions.

'Students can enjoy, study and research into, especially at this present moment that haiku is quickly becoming a truly international genre,' he said.

In affirming the words of Dr Akito Arima, a haiku doyen and renowned physicist, Mr Agyei-Baah noted that haiku as a poetry genre holds huge potential to unify the people of diverse cultures and foster peace among the continents of the world.

The AHN, he said, foresees haiku or Afriku as an uncharted field where the young African poets could explore as a new area of poetic literary pursuit.

'Thus becoming the quickest way of telling the Africa story in few words, especially in this internet age where people hardly pause to read lengthy information served daily on various social media mediums,' he added.

To whet readers' appetite in the new poetry genre for Africa, Mr Agyei-Baah shared one of the published haiku:

end of the roadrailway track runs into earth.

He said submissions were currently open for the second edition of the: 'The Mamba' lauched on February 25 could be accessed via the newkork's Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/Africa-Haiku-Network-764743650310225/?ref=hl.

A copy of the Mamba's first edition could also be downloaded from: scribd.com/doc/299753625/The-Mamba-The-Official-Journal-of-Africa-Haiku-Network without charge.

He appealed to poetry -spirited individuals and -organizations to help AHN support the course of promoting and mentoring young African poets in the haiku art by contacting them through their email address:[email protected]

AHN is a non-governmental organization with its headquarters in Ghana, is dedicated to promoting haiku in Africa as well as providing mentorship for young Africa poets who have interest in this art and other short Japanese poetry forms. AHN run a biannual journal, The Mamba that serves as the haiku voice for Africa.

GNA
Accra- March 8, 2016  To commemorate International Womens Day, female staff of the Jospong Group of Companies experienced SHARE (Soaring Higher, Achieving Real Excellence). This is a platform established by the CEO of Stratcomm Africa for females to network and support each other.

The session which was held at the head office of the Jospong Group of Companies provided an opportunity for participants to individually and collectively celebrate womanhood and identify and determine approaches for managing and overcoming challenges that impede further progress of women.

In an open, fun-filled and supportive atmosphere, participants shared their joys, fears and anxieties, aspirations and hopes as well as strategies for breaking through obstacles to enable them Soar Higher and Achieve Real Excellence.

Facilitating the session, Ms. Esther A. N. Cobbah, Chief Executive Officer of Stratcomm Africa, advised the women to constantly set their sights high even in the face of adversity. Adding that, adversity should serve as a stepping stone for soaring to greater heights in the realization of our full potential. She added by virtue of the multiple roles that women play in society, they are well positioned to positively impact the lives of families, communities and the nation as a whole and take the community to higher heights.

She encouraged women never to lose sight of Gods purpose for them on earth and continue to ask for grace to fulfill His purpose

Lola Ashitey, one of the participants applauded Stratcomm Africa for the initiative and the opportunity to be part of the SHARE session. She said, SHARE has shown me that as women, we must be aware of our environment, know what people think about us and take charge.

Stratcomm Africa designed SHARE as a communication initiative to empower and inspire young women to shine and be a positive influence everywhere they find themselves.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has called on government to conduct investigations into happenings surrounding the error-laden Independence Day brochure.

A statement signed by the Communications Director, Nana Akomea, said the laid down processes were not followed in planning as well as printing of the error-ridden brochure.

That the bare faced and embarrassing errors in the brochure can go through all these officials is a real enigma, the statement said.

The statement questioned the competence of the printer who was given the contract saying that whoever printed the brochure failed to notify government of the errors.

According to the party, investigation into the issue will prevent such an incident from recurring in the future.

Below is the statement:

10th March, 2016

PRESS RELEASE

THE INDEPENDENCE DAY BROCHURE FIASCO:

THERE MUST BE AN IMMEDIATE INVESTIGATION INTO THIS CLEAR EVIDENCE OF INCOMPETENCE

To say that the deficiencies in the content and text of the March 6 2016 independence day brochure are bewildering is an understatement.

The designation of the Kenyan president as the President of Ghana (for instance) led Ghana to be held up to severe ridicules in the Kenyan press and social media circles.

How the official brochure for perhaps the biggest national event (outside the 2016 general elections ) can be so full of mistakes (on literally every page) calls into question the competence of government and public officials at several levels, including the ministry of communications, the information services department, state protocol department and the flagstaff house communications office.

Under normal circumstances, the drawing up of the programme, and any additional notes and information to form the contents of the official brochure for such a national event will be agreed at the national planning committee level drawn from these public offices and signed off by the minister of communications and the director of state protocol.

That the bare faced and embarrassing errors in the brochure can go through all these officials is a real enigma.

How a seasoned printer, chosen to print such a brochure, could also proceed to print thousands of copies of this error riddled brochure, and receive payment with taxpayers monies, is also difficult to understand.

This matter throws into question the working mechanisms of these important state institutions.

The NPP calls for full scale investigations into this fiasco in order to unearth the deficiencies in the working mechanisms of these public bodies that have resulted in this Independence Day brochure fiasco, so as to properly locate where the blame should be, and to prevent future occurrence and embarrassment.

Questions that need to be answered in such an investigation must include:

a) How was the acting director of the ISD appointed when he was not qualified by the requirements of the Ghana Civil Service for that position?

b) The charge by the staff of the ISD that their work has been usurped by the communications directorate of the Flagstaff House

c) The propriety of statements issued and signed by the minister of communications, announcing the contents of "a statement signed by the Chief of Staff", when that "statement signed by the Chief of Staff" is not in the public domain?

d) Which public official actually signed off on the final draft of the brochure before it went for printing?

If it was the dismissed acting director of the ISD, did he have authority to do that?

e) Which printer was selected and proceeded to print such a document with such obvious errors?

f) How true is the report that the chairman of the Independence Day planning committee has laid the blame on the communications directorate of the Flagstaff House and not on the committee or the ISD, and that may have led to the minister of communications assuming responsibility for the directorate etc?

The NPP believes such an official investigation to bring closure to these questions will be in line with good governance principles and also will also ensure that this phenomenal national embarrassment does not recur.

...Signed...

Nana Akomea

(Communications Director)
Kinshasa (AFP) - DR Congo's government came under renewed EU pressure Thursday to hold elections on schedule this year as suspicions grow that President Joseph Kabila plans to extend his rule.

A resolution adopted by the European Parliament in Strasbourg urged Democratic Republic of Congo authorities "to comply with the constitution, and to guarantee an environment conducive to transparent, credible and inclusive elections, to be held in November 2016."

Kabila, who has been in power since 2001 and whose current mandate runs out in December this year, is prevented from running again for office under constitutional limits.

A date for the next presidential election has not been announced.

"MEPs express grave concern about the deteriorating security and human rights situation (in DRCongo) where since January 2015 Congolese security and intelligence officials have clamped down on peaceful activists, political leaders and others who oppose attempts to allow (Kabila) to amend the constitution to enable him to stay in power beyond his constitutionally-mandated two-term limit," the statement said.

It added that the government was "responsible for preventing any deepening of the current political crisis or escalation of violence and to respect, protect and promote the civil and political rights of its citizens".

It was the EU's second call on Kinshasa in a week to abide by basic rights.

Earlier Thursday, DR Congo's government urged "positive cooperation" from the international community after being slammed by the EU for stifling dissent and trampling on human rights.

The EU mission in Kinshasa two days expressed "concern" over "acts of harassment and intimidation targeting politicians, members of civil society and journalists."

In Kinshasa, Communications Minister and government spokesman Lambert Mende told a news conference that "our main demand from our foreign partners is positive cooperation."

He said the government hoped that "national institutions will continue to receive more backing from the international community to improve services."

Mende did not make any reference to the EU statement but said that "it is not right to believe that Congolese authorities are less concerned about the basic rights of citizens than their partners."

DR 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.
First Lady, Mrs Lordina Mahama at the Nsawam Prisons

10.03.2016 LISTEN

The First Lady, Mrs Lordina Mahama, has donated some medical equipment to the Infirmary at the Nsawam Maximum Security Prisons in the Eastern Region.

The item donated to the Nsawam Prisons was at a durbar that welcomed the first lady to the prisons. At her visit, the first lady used the opportunity to interact with the male and female inmates and the officers in charge of the inmates. She was of the believe that the medical equipment donated would aid the smooth running of the health facility.

Among the items presented were theatre beds, catheters, syringes, mosquito nets, collar, forceps, bandages, gauze, beds, mattresses, blood pressure devices, wheel chairs, blood sample machines, bandages and gloves, drugs, gloves, fridge and theatre bed. The first lady also presented the inmates with some bags of rice, cooking oil, tin tomatoes and sugar, for their nourishment.

The First Lady, who is also the President of the Organization of African First Ladies against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA), called on the Judiciary to review the high sentences meted out to convicts leading to overcrowding in the prisons. She further called on Ghanaians to support and help equip the skills training centers in the various prisons.

Delivering her address during a visit to the Medium Security Prison in Nsawam, Madam Lordina Mahama further called on the Ghanaian society to encourage community service with effective supervision for minor offences as an alternative to imprisonment to help reduce congestion in the prisons. She said minor offences like stealing should be given community services as their sentences, instead of putting all such offenders to prisons which are already congested.

"This, I believe, would help decongest the prisons as well as reduce the burden on the budget of the Prisons Service, Mrs Mahama said.

She said her maiden visit to the Nsawam Prison followed that of President John Dramani Mahamas visit last year where he launched the Efiase Project. She said the donation was also based on what President Mahama told her about the Infirmary when he visited, saying, it was in need of urgent medical supplies and equipment.

Mrs Mahama advised inmates to consent to testing for HIV and AIDS in order to know their status and to receive early treatment, saying early detection and treatment of the disease was a better option. She emphasized the need for prisoners to enjoy their basic rights to healthcare, saying that their living conditions should promote rather than destroy their good health.

She also asked that female prisoners, especially, should be given access to healthcare treatment whilst adequate arrangements must be made for pregnant prisoners to give birth at a health facility outside the prison.

On his part, the Chairman of the Prisons Council, Rev Stephen Wengam, expressed appreciation on behalf of council members for the first ladys kind gesture. He added that the medical equipment would assist the infirmary operate like a full hospital. Rev. Stephen Wengam also presented the drawings of a proposed Project EFIASE Prisons hospital to the 1st Lady, Dr Nana Lordina Mahama during her working visit to Nsawam while calling for support for EFIASE to enable the council build a prisons hospital.

The Ag Director Gen, Mr Emmanuel Adzator also appealed to government to increase budgetary support for the Prisons Service and thanked government for its continuous support for all prisons in the country, particularly, the Nsawam Prison which is to benefit from a GH50,000.00 dormitory block that would help separate remand prisoners from convicts as well as help ease congestion and ensure proper classification of prisoners.

Ms Mercy Gyamaa, leader of the Inmates, appealed to the president to intervene on their behalf and ensure that sentences imposed on first female offenders were reduced. She also appealed for amnesty and pardon for all categories of cases and prisoners since she said they were all now remorseful of their actions.

In an interview with yen.com.gh, the Chairman of the Prisons council noted that the donation from the first lady would give a phase lift to the infirmary. He disclosed that a committee would be set up to come up with names of medical doctors who would be contacted to do a rotational visit to operate the infirmary as a clinic. He further added that during the first ladys visit, he talked to him about the pension proposals for prison officers.

At the durbar on Wednesday at the Nsawam Prsions, the first lady received a rousing welcome from the prisons reformed choir and gifts hand made by the inmates in the skills training center. The Prisons Council presented a citation to the 1st Lady-Award of Unprecedented Achievement for her visit and donation courtesy the Lordina Foundation.

The ceremony was witnessed by Eastern Regional Minister and the Eastern Regional Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Chairman of the Prisons Council, Rev Wengam and Ag Director General, Emmanuel Adzator, the prison ambassadors who comprise of Kafui Dey of GHone, MUSIGA President, Bice Osei Kuffour also known Obour, CEO of Macro Logistics, Kwame Cafui Macafui, Mrs. Mandy Obiri Yeboah and Patrice Amegashie of Viasat 1.

The Nsawam Medium Security Prison is made up of two prison establishments, which are the male and female Prison, and these facilities are currently holding in custody, the largest number of prisoners in the country.It currently has in custody, 2,915 convicts and 333 remand prisoners. The visit by the first lady, Mrs Mahama has been recorded as the first ever sitting First Lady to have visited a Prison, a move which was been highly appreciated by both authorities of the Prisons Council and the inmates as well.
Tamale, Mar 10, GNA - The Global Shea Alliance is to hold its annual conference and General Assembly in Accra from March 21 to 23, to examine the shea industry's key role in improving food security and climate friendly agriculture.

About 450 delegates including women's groups, international processors and exporters, traders, international food and cosmetic brands and non-profit organizations are expected to participate in this year's conference, which will be on the theme: 'Shea 2016: Enhancing Farm Value'.

Mr Aaron Adu, Director of Africa Operations of Global Shea Alliance, who spoke during the launch of the conference in Tamale, said it would focus on the sustainability of the shea industry by promoting farms that protected the environment, diversify food sources, and generate income from local and export markets.

Mr Adu said there would be panel sessions to address key issues including how shea could play a role in integrated farming systems adding that the conference would also feature Shea Expo 2016, presenting a wide variety of shea products and allied services at over 30 booths.

Mr Senyo Kpelly, Vice President of Global Shea Alliance, said the shea industry had seen a renewed interest and equity in shea protection and entreated industry players to take advantage of the conference to network to improve their operations.

GNA
Accra, March 10, GNA - The Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned the case in which Prophet Miritaiah Jonah Jehu-Appiah of the Musama Disco Christo Church (MDCC), is seeking a review of the judgement upholding his removal as Head of the Church.

The Court adjourned the case to April 14, at the instance of Prophet Jehu-Appiah because he said his lawyer had withdrawn his services.

Mr Gustav Addington, the former lawyer, in a letter addressed to the Court said: 'Please take notice that Gustav Addington, counsel for the defendant/appellant/applicant has with due respect to the applicant, withdrawn his services.

'All future processes in the case should be directed to Prophet Jehu-Appiah personally per his address'.

Mr Addington explained that his withdrawal due to personal reasons.

The case for the review of the judgment by the Supreme Court was filed after the highest court of the land by a five-zero decision on November 11, 2015, dismissed an appeal filed by Prophet Jehu-Appiah, against his removal as Akaboha III and the Head Prophet of the MDCC.

The former head challenged the lawfulness of his removal from office, questioning the capacity of the persons, who on the authority of the Church, removed him in January 2002.

Prophet Jehu-Appiah stated in his affidavit that, 'The appellate court failed to give a consideration to the fact that the respondents had no capacity to have instituted the case against him. And that the act of the respondents was in sharp conflict with the constitution of the church'.

The court was constituted by Justices William Atuguba, Mrs Sophia Adinyira, Nasiru Sulemana Gbadegbe, Anthony Benin and Joseph Bawa Akamba.

Prophet Jehu-Appiah, was leader of the MDCC until 2002, when the church received reports of the stated misconduct.

A committee was set up by the Church to investigate the matter after, which the allegations were proven and accordingly he was asked to step aside for the church to operate, but he refused to cooperate.

After his dismissal, the Church filed a suit at a court in Swedru and after hearing that he had been removed, Prophet Jehu-Appiah appealed to the Court of Appeal and the case was dismissed.

He made a similar appeal to the Supreme Court and was again dismissed on November 11, 2015.

He is now seeking for a review of the appeal by the Supreme Court.

GNA
Accra, March 10, GNA - Mr Marcus Jadotte, the United States Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Analysis, arrived in Accra on Wednesday as part of a three-member education and trade mission to Africa.

The team would participate in the US Higher Education Students Fair, a statement issued by the US Embassy in Accra and copied to the Ghana News Agency said 25 colleges and universities in the US would be recruiting students to study there.

It said two of the institutions, McNeese State University and the San Mateo College of Silicon Valley, had specifically announced scholarships that would be available to qualified students who attended the fair.

'Students who are seeking to enroll in Bachelor's, Master's or Doctoral programmes in the US can register to attend the fair by visiting EventBrite.com and browsing to 'USA Education Fair Accra,' it said.

It said the US remained the destination of choice in higher education according to the most recent Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange, which tracked global student trends.

In the 2014/15 academic year the US hosted nearly one million international students, almost double the number hosted by the United Kingdom, the second leading destination country.

It noted that last year, the number of Ghanaians studying in the United States increased by 6.3 per cent.

The statement said 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.

It noted that US-Ghana educational exchange was mutual: Ghana is a popular study abroad destination for Americans, as well as ranking second in Africa, after South Africa, with more than 2,300 Americans earning credit at Ghanaian universities last year.

It said as the US Government worked to increase the number of students from Sub-Saharan Africa who studied in the US, this mission offered the delegation the opportunity to interact with students, learn more about their educational goals and interests, and share opportunities that US institutions had available.

The statement said the education trade mission delegation provided a diverse cross section of higher education in the US.

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.

GNA
10.03.2016 LISTEN

Kumasi, March 10, GNA - President John Dramani Mahama on Thursday joined the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, and other high profile personalities to pay their last respects to the late Bantamahene, Baffour Owusu Asare Amankwatia V.

Among them were politicians including the 2016 Presidential Candidate of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo, some present and past ministers' of state.

President Mahama on arrival exchanged pleasantries with the Asantehene, the crowded assembly of paramount and divisional chiefs, the family and mourners after which he was led to the palace, where the body had been lying in-state since Tuesday.

The deceased, traditionally, was the Asantehene's chief warrior, and occupied prominent position in the set-up of the Kumasi Traditional Council (KTC).

As head of the Krontire Division of the KTC, he presided over meetings of the council in the absence of the Asantehene and that showed his key role in the scheme of things.

His remains were expected to be buried later in the night amid the performance of some esoteric rituals.

Intense firing of muskets, the sound of 'kete', 'fontomfrom' and 'atumpan' drums, blowing of the traditional horns (ntahara) and funeral dirges combined to fill the air, as the Asantehene holding a short gun and riding under a palanquin earlier made his way to the place.

The funeral brought the normal brisk trading and economic activities in Bantama, one of the busiest areas in Kumasi, to complete halt.

Its thriving satellite market was locked and the main street choked with mourners from all walks of life.

Baffour Amankwatia, aged 72, reigned for 13 years.

GNA
10.03.2016 LISTEN

Accra, Mar. 10, GNA - The Electoral Commission (EC) has rolled out series of activities for the conduct of the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections including the revision and exhibition of the voters' roll.

The EC 2016 Activity calendar indicates that the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) would meet nine times before the Election Day - tentatively on the first Monday of November; to deliberate, share ideas and advise the commission on electoral matters.

Mr Samuel Tettey, EC's Director of Elections, said this at a roundtable organised by the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development and the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers.

The discussion centred on the 2016 Uganda Elections with emphasis on lessons for Ghana to draw on, observers' assessment of the Eastern African country's Elections Management Body (EMB) and observer group findings about the elections.

Mr Tettey said the activity calendar was to guide the Commission to ensure greater transparency towards the smooth conduct of the 2016 polls, adding that copies of the calendar events have been given to all political parties.

He said the EC was considering the possibility of transmitting election results electronically and looking for a better way to improve upon the system to raise public trust and confidence in the country's electoral system.

'The commission is working with all political parties to clean the voters' register,' Mr Tettey said.

Major activities on the calendar includes pilot biometric voter registration; training of grass root registration officials, appointment and briefing of district registration review committees, national post registration review meeting and exhibition of the voters register, and printing of provisional voters registers.

The rest are: recruitment of exhibition officials, building capacity of the media on electoral reporting, submission of the list of proposed exhibition officers to interested persons or parties at the District level, distribution of provisional voters register, and submission of copies of provisional voters register to political parties in a form determined by the EC.

Publication of list of Polling Stations, receipt of application for election observers, authentication of register, issuance of accreditation letters to observers, deadline for transfer of votes and proxies, building capacity of election educators, and posting of notices of nomination at all constituency centres in every constituency.

The rest are: processing of nominations for the printing of notices of poll and ballots, printing and distribution of notices of poll to regions, printing and distribution of ballot papers, workshop on election security, application for early voting and printing of register for early voting, dialogue with presidential and vice presidential candidates and national executives of political parties, submission of final register to political parties, training of party executives at national and regional levels, training of candidates agents, and dialogue with parliamentary candidates.

Others are: declaration of Presidential Results by the Chairman - Returning officer for the Presidential Election.

GNA
Cape Coast, Mar. 10, GNA - The Central Regional branch of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has called for the unconditional release of Mr David Hammond, a teacher at Ekumfi Otabanadze in the Ekumfi District.

He was arrested and remanded into prison custody for allegedly insulting Mr Ibrahim Dawson, a District Chief Executive (DCE).

A press release signed by its Regional Secretary, Mr Boadu Abedi William on behalf of the Regional GNAT Executives, said it considered the arrest and incarceration as a 'show of intimidation and abuse of power on the part of the DCE, Mr Ibrahim Dawson'.

It said the teacher was only expressing his opinion on an issue and this should not have warranted his arrest adding that the incident could put fear in other teachers in the District.

The statement also questioned why Mr Hammond was not being tried at the court in Essakyir where he was arrested instead of Ajumako and called on the Chief Justice to investigate the matter.

'We are also calling on the Chief Justice to investigate the circumstances that led to the trial and incarceration of Mr David Hammond at Ajumako instead of Essarkyir where he was arrested. Essarkyir has a magistrate court that could completely have handled this case', the statement said.

It said the leadership of the Association would find it difficult to restrict its members in that District who would want to lay down their tools in solidarity with their incarcerated colleague.

The teacher, a former presiding member, in an interview with an Accra based Radio station, Citi FM, said his only supposed crime was that, he notified the DCE of some discrepancies in the President's address regarding some construction projects at Ekumfi Essuehyia.

He said the DCE felt offended and first lodged a complaint at the Ekumfi District Assembly that he had insulted him and subsequently ordered his arrest and demanded that he should be tried at Ajumako.

GNA
10.03.2016 LISTEN

Lawyer Jacob Vanderpuye, Editor of Encyclopedia Africana, commissioned by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah personally and UNICEF: During colonial times corruption in Ghana was low, the country was clean and the public service was working well for the benefit of the people.

George (Ghanaian), contractor to Glorious Wave Church International, Prophet Emmanuel Badu Kobi, Sakumono to set up the new TV station of the Church: I was a soldier in the German and Libyan Army; I know discipline and punishment, for many it mend having saved their lives. I remember my time under Ghaddafi very well. We Blacks, especially in Ghana, are not disciplined and we do not know how to punish people.

Thanks to Friedrich the Great, the Soldier King in Potsdam, Germans became - through military training - the Germans we are today. He was teaching us to work as a team, being focused, hard-working, strategic thinkers, finding solutions for difficult situations, never to give up unless dead, be always on time, be disciplined in all walks of life, be honest and never lie, characteristics so much needed for a successful fight for survival in combatand life is a combat situation each and every day (fight daily, win daily, Prophet Kobi).

Did any white man as a black man to consistently be too late for work or a private engagement? Ghana is losing each year a minimum of USD 1 Billion in productivity as Ghanaians do not care about time. To honour time is the politeness of the kings, as Germans say.

Did any white man as a black man to litter the environment causing June 3rd 2015 disaster in which 200 lives were lost only because sachet water rubber or black thin rubber bags were not taken home to be responsibly disposed keeping it disciplined at yourself before reaching home?

Debs Bediako, my Partner, lost his life on that tragic day at the Circle while I saw next morning my office in Bediako Brother Pharmacy burnt to ashes in which 6 hours before I had a meeting having escaped the tragedy only by the grace of GOD. Seeing the dead body of Debs Bediako in his coffin - finally buried in Osu Cemetery - leaves a white man no chance but to honour his sacrifice by fighting against ignorance in Ghanaians and make them take responsibility for their own destiny for the benefit of ALL people of this great country. I will continue until my last breath as I do not want to see myself as a useless person. The rain season is fast approaching and Accra is still full of rubbishnothing leantsad to see!

AMA CEO, Major of Accra Alfred Okoe Vanderpuye, Melcom Disaster: This disaster is the greatest in the history of Ghana. We will ensure whoever is responsible for the death of innocent people will fully be hold accountable for it. Was there any trial or prosecution undertaken and the deaths justified? (Please advice!)

European poor countries like Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Rumania are filled with people with no sense of discipline and appropriate punishment for wrong doings. Poverty is very much linked to these attitudes as rich Nations like Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Holland, Sweden, Finland, and Norway all have people in which discipline and punishment is the major part of their genes planted into them by education and strict law enforcement.

Prez. Rawlings, a half-cast, took control over Ghana in times of crisis caused by e.g. Indiscipline having the welfare of his people at heart. As a military Officer he was trained to shoot and to protect under strict rules as in combat Discipline is the lifeline to survive battles. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah had visions for Ghana and realized too late with his One-Party-Idee that ideas alone cannot feed people and make visions a reality, but a people need to be disciplined to work towards the common goal.

No man is perfect, but miracles do happen! Will one day someone arise that is a combination of a powerful, disciplined and strategic thinking man like Prez. Rawlings with the spirit of a man like Dr. Kwame Nkrumah?

It seems more likely the time will come Ghana will still be independent but the Government will be made up like the UNO with Ministers from different countries and continents only driven by the desire to fix the first country in Africa that was freed as a shining example for the much needed transformation of African Countries while at the same time to educate a new generation of African Leaders ready to take over Africa and finally make a truly positive impact unto their countries and demonstrate to the world why the human race was born rightfully on and into African ground.

Author: Dipl.-Pol. Karl-Heinz Heerde, Sakumono Estate, Block D10, Aprt. 9, Tema West, phone +233(0)265078287, [email protected] , 10.03.2016
10.03.2016 LISTEN

The recent brochure-gaffe controversy generated in the wake of Ghanas 59th independence anniversary is a further indication that the country may be heading in the wrong direction. Apparently there is a universal symptomatology of mediocrity and anomie in the body politic. This then means that the political class and Ghanaians in general must sit up and set things right, otherwise further declension in intellectual and moral standards awaits them at the doorstep of societal nonchalance and political inaction.

The question is: Are the brochure gaffes merely the outcome of inadvertent editorial oversight or of glaring intellectual shortcomings in formalized anglicized compositional philosophy? Well, whatever the reasons (s) for these editorial or auctorial lapses were and still are those errors should not have occurred in the first, or at the very least should have been minimized to enhance the brochures readability, their internal compositional organization, orthographic sensibilities, and semantic authenticity, given that this is not the first time Ghana is organizing an independence celebration. Unfortunately these were not to be! Rather, the errors present a shameful debilitating symptomatology of where Ghana stands in terms of growth and development.

The fact is that the compositional or auctorial tackiness of the brochures is part of a larger symptomatology of societal investment in mediocrity, policy shoddiness, leadership failure, intellectual decay, and technocratic myopia. It as though the nation is in a grinding state of anarchy. How can the writer (s) not have possibly known that President Uhuru Kenyatta, the president of Kenya, was not the president of Ghana? Was President Kenyatta Ghanas co-president? Granted, errors are certainly unavoidable but they can surely be minimized with proactive editorial oversight, auctorial professionalism, and commonsense. Again, errors are important to the human experience in that they enrich it [the human experience]. This is a fact of life.

This is not a belated attempt on our part at glorifying or elevating human errors or intellectual shoddiness in human endeavors, whatever those might be. Rather, it is to advance the opposite. Other than that, what does one really expect of a country where there exists a shadow market for examination malpractice, as in the case of employees of the West African Examination Council (WEAC) selling stolen examination papers and their answers? Where female university and polytechnic students trade sex for better grades? Where journalists take soli before they agree to cover an event? Where pastors turn into poisonous snakes under the cover of darkness and bite their enemies and detractors? Where judges trade justice for tubers of yam and goats?

Where male directors and producers sleep with aspiring and professional female actresses for guaranteed or promised roles in movies? Where politicians rig elections in duopolistic cycles? Where the Progressive Peoples Party (PPP) accuses Fuhrer Akufo-Addo of plagiarism? Where the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) accuses the New Patriotic Party (NPP) of plagiarizing its party slogan, Forward Ever, Backward Ever? Where Fuhrer Akufo-Addo and the NPP accuse the National Democratic Party (NDC) and President Manama of plagiarism, in other words the latters alleged stealing of Fuhrer Akufo-Addos Free SHS program?

And where President Mahama and the NDC pointed out to the opposition led by Fuhrer Akufo-Addo, that the Free SHS is a constitutional enshrinement, with both Kwesi Nduom and members of the NDC communication team making Chapter Six of Ghanas constitution, The Directive Principle of State Policy, the centerpiece of their critique of the political buffoonery of the NPP and its presidential candidate!

Adult political animals engaged in childish festivals of accusatory buffoonery. What a country of crazy Machiavellian jokers! We wonder the Great Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumahs take on these rhetorical questions!

OTHER MATTERS

Ghana has indeed become a dangerous Orwellian jungle plantocracy. This is exactly what Wanluv the Kubolors plain pidginized lyricism and its acoustic guitar accompaniment, a beautiful song otherwise titled FOKN Country or Fucking Country, says about this contradictory Orwellian jungle plantocracy called Ghana. A country in which the presidential candidate of the major opposition political party (NPP), Fuhrer Akufo-Addo, did not see fit to attend the independence celebrations draped in colorful sartorial formality. As expected, the slimy useful idiots of the flagbearer went on the defensive just as their counterparts in the NDC did whenever the shortcomings of President Mahama and his government became the butt of public jokes!

Yet, Fuhrer Akufo-Addos sartorial informality pales in comparison to the shame Ghana has incurred on account of the brochure gaffes. Ghanaians may therefore have to leave Fuhrer Akufo-Addo alone as he pursues his third presidential bid because, like all Ghanaian politicians besides the Great Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, he has absolutely nothing concrete to offer the country. Like the others, too, he is coming in to enrich himself, his family members and cronies, all at the expense of Ghana. This is why Fuhrer Akufo-Addo is all talk and nothing substantive. Even so, did his political detractors and enemies expect him to have worn bikinis or pajamas to the independence celebrations, as though he were going for pornographic pictures at the beach or visiting Hugh Hefners Playboy Mansion?

Neither should his political detractors and enemies have expected him to dress as if he were destined for one of those Silvio Berlusconis sybaritic bunga-bunga orgies! Yet again, what is also palpably missing from the popular narrative on the brochure controversy is the states neglect of President Kenyatta after the independence celebrations. This official neglect of President Kenyatta went on for at least a quarter of an hour while he waited for a state vehicle from his Ghanaian hosts to pick him up. Nothing happened for that straight twenty-something minutes! However, it was during this waiting period that ex-President Rawlings joined him and kept him company. During this same period, Ghanas Foreign Minister Hanna Tetteh ran around to salvage the situation, as one Kenyan paper reported it.

THE DILEMMA CONFRONTING GHANAIANS AND KENYANS

There is a twist of irony in all these comical happenings. While Ghanaians and Kenyans crack expensive jokes at President Mahama and the NDC, Kenyans are doing the same to their president, that is, mocking their president at the least provocation and at every chance they get. One Kenyan commentator who read the article Exposed: Uhuru Angry in Ghana, Left Stranded without VehicleTotal Disrespect to Our President, an online publication called Kenyan Today, described President Kenyatta as a snoop dog with no substance. Another commentator derisively referred to him as a visiting president. What have Ghanaians not said about President Mahama and his government?

Elsewhere the BBC recently attributed some damning controversial remarks to President Uhuru, when he met with a group of Kenyans based in the State of Israel, in which he reportedly said Kenyans are experienced in stealing and perpetuating other crimes. The report continues: Kenyans were also abusers, and promoted tribalismHowever, many Kenyans believe that the presidents speech was just rhetoric, and he was not serious about tackling corruption or ethnic divisions in the East African stateThey complain that ethnicity determined whether they get government jobs, and that bribery and corruption are endemic in government

This is a country whose president, President Kenyatta, the International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted on serious charges of allegedly committing crimes against humanity, but later spared or acquitted by the court for lack of solid incriminating evidence. There were wild rumors that President Kenyatta had either used state security to intimidate witnesses or that he had used financial inducements to buy off witnesses silence. Kenya, a country where a Kikuyu like President Kenyatta is more likely to assume the seat of presidency than it is the case for a Luo, to mention but one ethnic group, although it is relatively easier for a Luo (President Obama) to become president in the United States.

This same country did horrible things to writer Ngugi wa Thiongo and his wife, both natives of Kenya, as the BBC reported: Prominent Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o says thieves raped his wife when the couple were attacked at their apartment in Nairobi last weekFour thieves broke into their apartment on Wednesday night armed with guns and a machete, beating up the couple, burning him with cigarettes and stealing money, a laptop and papers. In her case it was not attempted rape. It was rape, period, Ngugi said. These incidents are typical occurrences in Ghana these days, particularly in the Fourth Republic. Are we surprised by these turn of events in Ghana?

And if so, could it have been why the authors of the independence brochures confused Ghana with Kenya and President Kenyatta with President Mahama, this, in spite of the fact that Ghana is in West Africa and Kenya East Africa, a salient given in matters of geographic and geopolitical factuality? There is, therefore, no use defending the thesis that some Ghanaians have become so cheap as to dump a leader many Kenyans have rejected on Ghana. Kenyan writer Evelyne Musambi notes thusly: Ghana made a farce of its Independence Day celebrations after government officials confused Kenyas President Kenyatta to be their own head of state in the official programme

Where did we go wrong? Is there something wrong with Ghanaians? But a closer look at this reprehensible political debacle recalls the disgraceful controversy surrounding Charles Wereko-Brobby and his deeply flawed oversightship of Ghanas 50th Independence Celebrations, or Thamsanqa Tantjies faking sign language at Nelson Mandelas funeral, or Robert Mugabe reading the wrong speech script before a crowd. Regardless, Charles Wereko-Brobby is right to declare that We are worse than a banana republic. The shameful irony here is that he contributed to the creation of this banana republic in the first place. Also, Charles Wereko-Brobby and the Kufuor administration spent so much money on Ghanas independence celebrations when they knew that many school children studied under trees and used cement blocks as furniture.

We should not forget that not too long ago, tens of cement-size bags suspected of containing cocaine that washed into Ghanaian territorial waters, allegedly mysteriously turned into Kokonte powder under the watchful eyes of the Kufuor presidency. So, why is Charles Wereko-Brobby now taking issue with that Orwellian banana republic as if he were never been part of its founding? His hypocritical aloofness is typical of any leader of a banana republic including Ghanas. All the same, this hypocritical aloofness is not unique to banana republicans such as Charles Wereku-Brobby.

Another banana republican we have on our minds is Kwaku Kwarteng (NPP), a Ranking Member of the Finance Committee in Parliament, who has made a strong allegation in the wake of the brochure controversy, that, among other things, the brochure-gaffe controversy boils down to a simple political mathematics of kickbacks. He is reported to have said the following: I have no doubt that the motivation for this was for someone to benefit illegitimately from the payment related to itwe didnt even have the idea where they printed those brochures and nobody told us anything about it. One may want to ask: Is it not possible for Kwaku Kwarteng and his committee colleagues to subpoena the records? What is the use of an opposition in parliament?

HYPOCRITICAL ALOOFNESS OF GHANAIAN POLITICIANS

Failing that, can vigilant citizens not sue the Information Services Department for appropriate financial records covering the expenditure for the independence celebrations? Unfortunately, and rather ironically, Kwaku Kwarteng himself has come under the radar as the following reportage indicates: Members and supporters of the National Democratic Party (NDC) in Obuasi West constituency of the Ashanti Region are on the heels of the New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Mr. Kwaku Kwarteng, demanding accountability of his stewardship as MPAs residents of the constituency, we are entitled to know what our MP has done and is doing with his share of the Common Fund to which we all contribute Has the MP bothered to answer or address the accountability demands of the NDC members of his constituency?

Te reportage concludes nonetheless: Just like Ghanaians demand accountability from President John Dramani Mahama and justifiably so, we, residents of Obuasi West, are demanding accountability from our MP

That is a classic instance of what Kwesi Nduom has aptly called political equalization, a somewhat titular allusion to a Nigerian movie titled De Me, I Do You, a dramatic comedy featuring Osita Iheme (Pawpaw) and Chinedu Ikedieze (Aki). The fact is that impunity therefore becomes the underlying factor of one political party conveniently passing the buck to the other, thus creating a vicious cycle of impunity, political equalization, moral superiority, social decay, and anomie in an Orwellian banana republic where no one seems to see any practical and moral sense in owning up to political and social crimes.

This is merely one of a number of meanings Peter Tosh may have had on his mind when he co-wrote the track, Equal Rights, on which he sang: Everyone is talking about crime, Tell me who are the criminals There are a lot of crimes committed in the name of politics, judicial decisions, religion, journalism and so on, yet Charles Wereko-Brobbys banana republic has no criminals, whether establishment or otherwise! In other words who are those talking about crime in Ghana? And who are the criminal faces behind these crimes? There are so many political criminals in Ghana, yet Ghana has no political criminals. What a tragedy of ironic proportions!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Let us remind our politicians what Bob Marley had to respectively say on the track Guiltiness and So Much Trouble in the World:

Woe to the downpressors! Theyll eat the bread of sorrow! Woe to the downpressors! Theyll eat the bread of sorrow tomorrow!

Now they sitting on a time bomb, now I know the time has come. What goes up is coming down, goes around and comes around!

Let us see what David Hinds of Steele Pulse has for politicians and their useful idiots (see the track Tyrant):

If Dem a Tyrant; Kick dem out; Hallelujah; Jump and shout: Uprising yes! Without a doubt, watch out; You better watch out you bad rulers; Never let a politicianoh no Grant you a favour, He's coming with his plots and schemes after you

Finally, Bob Marley may have precociously supported David Hinds on the track Revolution on which he sang the following words: Never make a politician grant you a favor. They will always want to control you forever

Are the useful idiots and serial callers in Ghanas duopolistic culture and their wicked political patrons learning any useful lessons from the practical lyrical wisdom of Bob Marley and David Hinds?

CONCLUSION

The final questions we have for our readers are these:

1. Is Francis Kwarteng, the acting head of the Information of Services Department (ISD), really responsible for the mess or he is just a scapegoat of a political conspiracy? What about Stan Dogbe? What about the possibility of diabolical elements in the ISD, who may be sympathetic to the NPP, messing up the independence celebrations messing up the brochures and having the debacle blamed on incumbency? We ask because we are talking about Ghana where everything is possible and because one cannot put this past our politicians, namely members of the opposition!

2. Did the presidencies of Mahama and Kufuor (and Charles Wereko-Brobby) ever consider the possibility that some of the school children who marched at Ghanas 50th and 59th independence celebrations, respectively, could have been studying under trees, lying on concrete floors as they studies and developing cold and pneumonia in the process, and using cement blocks as furniture?

3. Why are Ghanas Fourth Republic politicians behaving like George W. Bush?

References

BBC. Uhuru Kenyatta: Kenyans Are Experienced Thieves. February 25, 2016

BBC. Kenyan Writers Wife Was Raped. August 16, 2004.

Ghanaweb. Ghana Worse than Banana RepublicWereko-Brobby. March 10, 2016.

Elizabeth Ohene. Is This Government A Mistake? Modernghana.com. March 8, 2016.

Ghanaweb. I Made A MistakeISD Boss Sorry for Misleading Apology. March 9, 2016.

Evelyne Musambi. Did Ghana Grab Kenyas President Uhuru Kenyatta? Nairobi News. March 8, 2016.

Ghanaweb. Kickbacks Motivated Brochure HijackingKwaku Kwarteng. March 9, 2016.
you are here:
business Natural gas price hike long-term +ve for upstream cos: IDBI Cap Positives from the hike in natural gas prices for the upstream companies would be in the long-term and not immediately, says Sudeep Anand, Analyst-Institutional Research, IDBI Capital Markets Services.
current-affairs-trends Rajya Sabha passes Real Estate Regulator Bill In the case of defaults or delays, the same rate of interest will be levied for promoters as well as buyers. The Bill also seeks to establish fast track dispute resolution mechanism
live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

Voltamp Transformers Ltd is one of the leading designer & manufacturers of Power & Distribution as well Dry Type (VPI) & Cast Resin (CRT) transformers. The company is on the approved list of leading consultant, major houses & also with Electricity Boards in the country. Voltamp Transformers Ltd. was initially incorporated as Private Limited Company and established in year 1967 in Vadodara. Further, the Company has been converted from Private Limited to Public Limited Company w. e. f. 22.02.2006.We recommend BUY in this particular scrip with a target price of Rs.800.00 for Medium to Long term investment.

For all recommendations, click here



Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts/broking houses/rating agencies on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

Read More
If we couple oversupply with lacking demand, then prices will, of course, plummet. And for most commodities this has happen already, including iron ore.

What affects the price of iron ore more than anything?

Its actually a really obvious answer. Supply and demand usually determines why something  anything costs more or less. And its no different for iron ore. The more iron ore extractedthe further down prices go. If there is an abundance of something, it usually makes that thing less valuable.

If we couple oversupply with lacking demand, then prices will, of course, plummet. And for most commodities this has happen already, including iron ore.

China is a major consumer of iron ore. They use the mineral to create steel which fuels their infrastructure.

But the harrowing fact is that Chinas demand for iron ore is dropping. And we know this because Chinas trade balance figures, released yesterday, showed both exports and imports fell month-on-month. However, lets focus on the drop in key imported commodities, iron ore included.

China imported 8.58 million fewer tonnes of iron ore in February than they did in January. The demand for iron ore was already slipping over time. However, an 11.65% was much more than anyone predicted.

Chinas trade balance data pushed a lot of commodity prices back, where they might have continued to rally. The price of many major miners, like BHP Billiton [ASX:BHP] and Rio Tinto [ASX:RIO], were pushed back 4.6% and 4.1% respectively. Commodities, like copper, also decline. And, of course, iron ore has its fall from grace.

On 7 March iron ore surged 20%, to US$62.60 a tonne. It was a record in percentage terms, on top of being the biggest dollar move in four years. But, of course, this move could not be sustained.

The reminder of lacking demand plummeted iron ores price. Overnight, iron ore tumbled 8.8%, to US$58.02 a tonne. The reason for iron ores surge was based on Chinese hearsay.

Chinas government talked up its commitment to sustaining growth. This spurred speculation that helped support the price of iron ore. Soon after, big investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Citi Group said the gains wouldnt last.

Of course they were right. But is there a bright future for iron ore?

Source Australian Financial Review

If China increases their level of spending on infrastructure in the future, iron ore could very well trend up again. Maybe even past US$65 a tonne. There is a good possibility China is looking to increase their demand for steel. Early last year, Chinas state planning agency announced more than 1,000 individual infrastructure projects theyre planning on building.

The expenditure will total US$317 billion in total. And China is hopeful that private investment will chip in its share towards establishing a series of public private partnerships.

China is also planning to build multiple railways in the future. The two most recent talked about railway projects is a second rail line to Tibet, and a high-speed line to Iran.

Both of these projects are still just conversations at this stage. But it is exciting to think that iron ore is at historically low prices, and could soon double, if not triple, its current price.

Harje Ronngard,

Junior Analyst, Money Morning

PS: If youve been watching the markets closely then youll know investors love the mining sector. And when I say love, I mean they love to speculate, be it buying or selling mining stocks. Yet, recently, the number of sellers has far outweighed the number of buyers in the market.

Though it may not seem like it, this is a very good situation for investors. A lot of great mining stocks have declined just because theres a boycott on resources  not because they arent great companies.

Money Mornings resource specialist, Jason Stevenson, believes there are 10 great mining stocks in the market right now. In Jasons report, The Top 10 Australian Mining Stocks for 2016, hell show you why its a great time to buy mining stocks now.

To get your free copy, click here.
The chronicle of a life split between urban Manhattan and rural Montana.
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.

There are thousands of fund managers in the market, making it difficult for investors to choose between them. Although past performance is no guarantee of future returns it is worth noting who has been solid enough to deliver outstanding performance throughout the global financial crisis.

Using data from Morningstar Direct, we reveal the 10 top performing fund managers of the past decade  and how they fared after they reached the top. From 2006 to 2015, two managers reached the dizzying heights of star manager twice. We present the best performer in each individual year, how he or she performed and how investors reacted to their star turn.

2006: Robin Geffen

Neptune Russia & Greater Russia Fund had made a 56.7% total return in 2006, ranking it the top performer of the year among all funds. The now Bronze Rated fund also outperformed the MSCI Russia Large Cap Index by 20.3% in 2006. A year after the outstanding performance inflows of the fund had jumped significantly from 30 million in 2006 to 100 million in 2007. In 2008, the fund recorded the largest inflow in a decade with 219 million. Severe volatility since 2006 means the fund has delivered an annualised return of 0.5% over the past decade, although there have been periods of significant outperformance during the period.

The fund manager Robin Geffens wealth of experience in Russian equities and his strong long-term track record continue to fuel confidence in the fund, Morningstar analyst Lena Tsymbaluk says.

Geffen has historically preferred Russias domestically oriented sectors, Tsymbaluk adds. Geffen positions the fund in areas he believes are most likely to perform based on the research carried out by the internal analysts. The team conduct country-based reviews, examining a nations economy, social, political, and capital market features. These reviews highlight which countries have attractive prospects and collectively help them to judge the current position of the global economy.

2007: Charlie Awdry

In 2007, Henderson China Opportunities Fund delivered its best performance in a decade with a 71.2% gain. The Bronze Rated fund beat its MSCI China NR USD benchmark by 7.8% in the year, positioning it the best performer among all funds. However, investors reactions were not in line with the funds top performance. In 2008, investors sold more than 35 million of the fund, presenting a massive contrast to inflows of 236 million in 2007. The struggle was fuelled by investors ignorance to earnings growth surprises and preferring the safety of more defensive sectors in 2008, Morningstar analyst Simon Dorricott said.

The fund has outperformed the category average since the fund manager Charlie Awdry took control in 2006, Dorricott said. Awdry has accumulated a wealth of experience covering China equities over the past decade. Morningstar analysts have a positive rating to the fund manager. However, returns from the fund have been variable over time, reflecting the aggressive relative positioning and structural bias away from large, state-owned enterprises.

The funds inflows had jumped to 84 million in 2009, but the fund has continued losing money since then.

2008: Chris Taylor

Neptune Japan Opportunities Fund strongly outperformed its MSCI Japan NR JPY index by 86.3% in 2008. The fund made a 84.8% return, performing way better than its peers throughout the financial crisis. The fund therefore saw inflows of more than 59 million in 2009. Yet it was not comparable to 2014 that recorded the largest inflow of the fund in ten years with 168 million, following gains of 51% in 2013.

The fund was popular throughout the decade however it did see outflows of 3 million in 2007 and 17 million in 2012. The fund has been managed by Chris Taylor since 2005.

2009: Robin Geffen

Geffen once again won the title the years star manager in 2009, with Neptune Russia & Greater Russia Fund gaining a 116% return in 2009. The fund had also outperformed the index by 34.2%. Investors kept buying the fund in the first half of the decade- from 2006 to 2011, the total inflows of the fund were up to 500 million. However, from 2012 to 2015, the fund lost a total of 226 million in outflows.

The significant underexposure to energy was a costly decision in 2011, while the domestically oriented positioning contributed positively in 2013, Morningstar analyst Tsymbaluk said. In 2014, the fund lost 47%, underperforming both the index and peers.

However the fund manager has remaited a strong long-term track record. Since its inception in December 2004 to December 31 2015, it has produced an annualised return of 5.9%, beating the MSCI Russia Large Cap Index and the Russia equity Morningstar Category average by 2.8 and 1.3 percentage points per year, respectively.

2010: SF Peterhouse Smaller Companies Gold

SF Peterhouse Smaller Companies Gold Fund strongly outperformed the index by 90% in 2010. The fund delivered a 127.9% return. The fund saw minor inflows of 8 million the following year. However, investors have sold out of the fund since 2012. Until 2015, the fund recorded total net outflows of 6.2 million. The fund has been managed by Peter Webb or Webb Capital since 2012.

A majority of the funds core investment portfolio seek to invest in the companies engaged in the mining of gold. The fund invests more than a half of its portfolio in equities on the market of the London Stock Exchange.

2011: Hideo Shiozumi

Legg Mason IF Japan Equity Fund topped the performance chart in 2011 with a 27.1% return and beat its comparable index by 30.2%. Despite the exceptional performance among its peers, investors sold more than 5 million of the fund in 2012. Years after saw the fund gained money, with 2013 the strongest year on record with inflows of 140 million as Japanese equities came back into favour with investors. Hideo Shiozumi has been the fund manager since 1996.

2012: Edward Legget

Standard Life Investments UK Equity Unconstrained Retail Fund was the top performer in 2012 with a 44.3% return, surpassing its FTSE All Share index by 31.8%. Edward Legget has managed the fund since 2008 and put 2012s strong performance down to his exposure to small and mid-sized companies. In 2013, the fund recorded the largest inflows in a decade with 245 million. However in 2015, it became unpopular among investors with outflows of 84 million.

2013: Linden Thomson

AXA Framlington Biotech Fund produced a 63.7% return in 2013, ranking it the top performer among all funds. The fund only underperformed its benchmark by a very small margin of 0.9%. In 2014, following such considerable gains, the fund recorded inflows of 129 million. Investors bought more of the biotech fund in 2015 with inflows of 161 million. The fund was unpopular among investors during the credit crisis but it started gaining money in 2012.

Linden Thomson has managed the fund since 2012, and the fund has proved a strong track record since then.

2014: Sashi Reddy and David Gait

Stewart Investors Indian Subcontinent Fund was the best performer in 2014 with a 62% return. The now Bronze Rated fund also outperformed the index by 20.9%. However, rather than chase these gains investors fled the fund to the tune of 13 million outflows in 2015. The fund was popular in the five years to 2010, recording record inflows of 210 million that year. Since 2012, the fund had lost in a total of 127 million.

Returns have been particularly impressive under the tenure of co-managers Sashi Reddy and David Gait, Morningstar analyst Mark Laidlaw says.

Over the period from July 2009 until the end of November 2015, the strategy enjoyed an annualised return of 17.53%. This compares to 6.22% for MSCI India index and 8.50% for the India Equity Morningstar Category average over the same period. Results are even more impressive on a risk-adjusted basis, reflecting the teams ability to deliver in virtually all market conditions, especially when markets are falling.

Laidlaw warns that the fund is too risky to play more than a niche role in a broader portfolio for Europe- and UK-based investors, but it may play a larger role for Asia-based investors.

2015: Hideo Shiozumi

Star manager of the year in 2011, Hideo Shiozumi topped the best performance chart again in 2015. Under Shiozumis management, the Legg Mason IF Japan Equity Fund made a 49.4% return in 2015, and it outperformed its index by 27.4%. The fund recorded inflows of 83 million last year but saw outflows of more than 9 million in January this year during the considerable market volatility.
Vancouver local Wayne Korol resided in a heritage home in the west section of the citywhich has recently seen average prices for detached homes grow to $1.8 million. Taking care of his dementia-stricken mother has become a 24-hour obligation, and no provision for selling the home has been agreed upon between them before the onset of his mothers disorder.She had credit lines and was living off of them, but the rules changed and she couldnt [get more credit]. She could have moved, but mom had always said she wanted to stay in her home as long as she could. She loves her property, lives and breathes it, Korol told the Financial Post.Fortunately for the family, what has been agreed upon is that the younger Korol would become the committee of person in case the mother would be incapable of making medical, financial, or legal decisions. Working with a bank, Korol applied a reverse mortgage on their home, which would allow them to earn without evicting his mother from the property.Korols story is an increasingly common occurrence in Toronto and Vancouverwidely considered as the two most expensive real estate markets in Canadawhere the opportunity to enjoy hefty profits from luxury and heritage homes is otherwise ignored by their senior citizen owners for various reasons.This neglect has led to many owners of these premium housing parcels actually living in poverty.Ive seen people who are eating cat food but they own a $1.5 million home. Some of these seniors just dont have any idea what their home is worth because they bought it so many years ago. Maybe even for as little as a few thousand dollars, Re/Max Hallmark Batori Group Inc. broker David Batori explained. HomEquity senior vice-president Yvonne Ziomecki noted that the Korols discussions and future steps should be on the agenda of every family with a potentially lucrative home, especially since any earnings can be used for the medical needs of the aging parents.Money is often a big cause of family feuds and falling out in the family. Even if the parents only have two children and it should be straight forward, its not always the case. This has to be done when you still have your mental health, Ziomecki said.
(AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP)  Pistachios sold under the brands of Wonderful, Paramount Farms and Trader Joes are being recalled nationwide because they may be contaminated with salmonella.

Health officials in nine states are investigating 11 cases of salmonella linked to pistachios from Wonderful Pistachios of Lost Hills, California. The nuts are sold nationwide and in Canada.
AKRON, Ohio (AP)  A 93-year-old Ohio woman has received the high school diploma she was denied in 1942 because of rules that expelled married students.

Dorothy Liggett was a few weeks from graduation from Akron's North High School when officials discovered she was married.

Akron Public Schools Superintendent David James hand-delivered the diploma to Liggett in a surprise ceremony Wednesday in suburban Fairlawn, The Akron Beacon Journal reported (http://bit.ly/1LTmUnE ).

Liggett's daughter Janice Larkin had written to James about her mother.

James said he read the letter and researched what happened.

"I felt terrible for the way Mrs. Liggett was treated all of those years ago and wanted to do what we could to make it up to her," James said. "To have invested 13 years in school, to have been a good student and still not receive a diploma because of that, was simply wrong."

Liggett and her late husband, John Huston, had run away to Kentucky to get married after he was called into the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. Huston graduated from North High School two years earlier. The two had planned to have Liggett join her husband after she graduated.

During one school day, Liggett forgot her gym attire and the teacher told her to go to study hall. Liggett said she replied, "No, I'm married. I'm going home."

The school then acted on its policy to ban married students.

Superintendent James said they felt Ligget's birthday was the perfect occasion to make amends.

"While it may be an honor for Dorothy, for us it is a long overdue recognition," James said.

___

Information from: Akron Beacon Journal, http://www.ohio.com
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP)  A convicted murderer and another violent felon fled from a New Mexico prisoner transport van and were likely on the run for several hours before authorities realized they went missing, a corrections official said Thursday.

Joseph Cruz and Lionel Clah were last accounted for around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday while they and three other inmates were being transported between correctional facilities in Roswell and Las Cruces  two cities in southern New Mexico that are more than 180 miles apart.

It appeared neither of the corrections officers in charge of transporting the prisoners checked on the men during the two stops, despite having stopped at a gas station in Artesia, New Mexico Corrections Secretary Gregg Marcantel said. Corrections officers didn't know the men went missing until around 1 a.m. Thursday, he said, and they remained missing Thursday afternoon.

"Somehow we failed," Marcantel said. "We just don't have the detail at this point."

Law enforcement officials confronted a daunting task of searching for the two prisoners across a wide swath of the state. Corrections officials said the men should be considered armed and dangerous, but didn't alert the public the men were on the loose until several hours after authorities realized they had escaped.

Cruz, 32, has been serving a life sentence for first-degree murder since 2007 for killing a man over drugs in Raton in northern New Mexico. Clah, 29, was convicted in 2009 of armed robbery and two counts of assault with intent to commit a violent felony on a peace officer.

Both men have multiple tattoos, including some that are visible on their neck and arms. Cruz has the word "TRIBAL" tattooed on his neck, while "SHIPROCK NATIVE" is tattooed on Clah's neck and a feather has been inked on his left cheek.

State Police spokeswoman Sgt. Elizabeth Armijo said the search involves sniffer dogs, aircraft and foot patrols. The U.S. Border Patrol, New Mexico State Police and other agencies were involved.

"We don't have any indication that they have gone out of that area" between Roswell and Las Cruces, she said. "We do have a very strong focus in that area."

Armijo indicated investigators also were seeking out surveillance footage from the stop at the public gas station in Artesia.

Marcantel said police were focusing their search on southeastern New Mexico, but acknowledged that authorities couldn't say for certain exactly where the men may have fled to. Investigators haven't ruled out the possibility that the escape was planned.

"This must be investigated as something more organized," he said. "We can't just assume an opportunity (presented itself)."

Both Cruz and Clah were shackled with leg irons and belly chains and wearing white prison jumpsuits before they fled, corrections spokeswoman Ashley Espinoza said. The area where they were last seen is largely rural, with open spaces and small towns situated along U.S. Highway 285.

Their escape comes after Corrections Department officials warned of dangerously low staffing levels at prison facilities across the state. In November, another inmate fled a minimum-security facility south of Albuquerque in the middle of the night after a series of missteps by authorities.

"People are rightly concerned about what's happening with the escapees," Artesia Police Commander Lindell Smith said Thursday morning.

He told The Associated Press that his department placed extra officers on patrol to help with the search, and that local police's search is centered in an area just beyond the Artesia city limits.
Rita Ora just admitted that after the release of the track "I Will Never Let You Down" with her then-boyfriend Calvin Harris, the two broke up. With that, Harris has declined a duet with his current girlfriend, Taylor Swift, resisting to mix business and personal life.

Calvins next single is ready but the label is keen for him to get a big female US star to collaborate on it. They floated the idea of him working with Taylor but he politely declined it," Indian Express reported. Harris has previously worked with Rihanna, Kylie, Ellie Goulding and Cheryl Fernandez-Versini but will not record a song with Swift.

It appears that fans will not be able to hear a track from the worlds biggest DJ and the best-selling female artist. Fortunately, Harris will be recording a song with Beyonce, which could also be a huge blow to Ora, since she is suing Jay Z's Roc Nation to release her from her contract with the company.

Calvin has seen how sour things can turn when working with someone hes dating. He is very serious about Taylor and doesnt want to rock the boat. Hes smitten. Instead, he is in talks with Beyonce as hes always wanted the pair to work together. She is a big fan. He loved her feature on NAUGHTY BOYs dance single "Runnin (Lose It All)" last year, a source said, according to The Sun.

Meanwhile, Ora revealed that she will be exposing details about her breakup with Harris, whom she dated in 2014, and with ex-boyfriend Ricky Hilfiger through her upcoming new album.

It appears that their breakup didn't turn out well since Harris prevented her from releasing the songs he has written and even didn't allow her to perform "I Will Never Let You Down" at the MTV Movie Awards back in the summer of 2014, Mirror UK reported.

As for Harris and Swift, the couple just celebrated their first anniversary with an intimate dinner date, as previously reported by Music Times. Aside from that, Taylor also received a cake and a golden locket from Harris with the date "3-6-15" engraved on it.

 2015 MusicTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Swedish police have unveiled a pretty shocking update in their investigation into the update of the deadly car crash involving British band Viola Beach. All four members of the band, their manager and the driver were killed when their car plunged off a bridge into a canal in Sodertalje in Sweden on Feb. 13. The reasons for this have been unknown, but Swedish police now suspect that the crash was deliberate.

According to a video reconstruction by Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, the band's Nissan Qashqai pulled up behind other cars waiting at a barrier, which was raised because part of the bridge had been raised while an oil tanker was passing through. According to the paper via The Guardian, the car then pulls around two other cars, crashes through the barrier and into the water out of view from the CCTV cameras.

There were no apparent faults with the almost new rented car according to police.

"We can't find any secondary explanation," says Lars Berglund, one of the police officers investigating the case. "It looked like the driver acted deliberately."

The car accelerated through another barrier, struck the part-raised bridge and plunged 30 meters into the water. Berglund says the initial contact could have killed all of the passengers inside the vehicle upon impact.

Initial toxicology screenings showed no signs of drugs or alcohol in the driver's blood. Police still do not know who the driver is.

Speaking to a man who was driving the car first in line to cross the bridge, Kent Udden described the man who was driving the Viola Beach car as a "maniac."

"All I heard then inside the car was a muffled bang. It was hard to understand what had happened, it was all so surreal," he recalled.

 2015 MusicTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
We have independently selected these offers and products because we love them and we think you might like them at these prices. E! has affiliate relationships, so we may earn a commission if you buy something through our links. Items are
Please enable JavaScript to experience the functionality of this website.

- MWEB
Sarkodie should have been bigger than ...
California Dept. of Education Seal View Photos

Sacramento, CA  A funding boost of well over a half-million dollars for career technical education programs is on its way to five Mother Lode school districts.

More than $245 million in funding for was announced today by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, who says that the 265 applicants who are receiving the funds through the states Career Technical Education Incentive Grant program are integrating academics with career technical and professional training, connecting employers with schools and preparing students for jobs in high-demand fields, including robotics, information technology, health care, teaching and emergency services.

Nearly $580,000 in grant monies will benefit local education programs. Specifically, Sonora Union High School District will receive $174,140; Summerville Union High School, $158,671; Bret Harte Union High, $115,728; Calaveras Unified, $100,000; and Big Oak Flat-Groveland Unified, $30,000.

Established this school year, the grant program is the largest of its kind in the nation, according to Torlakson. Todays awards come weeks after an initial $91 million was granted to 100 applicants back in January. Californias Career Technical Education leads the way in providing our students with a rigorous academic education in addition to the practical job skills that are in the greatest demand, he states. While $336 million has been handed out so far, plans are for the program to pay out $900 million over the next three years to support and develop 21st century career and college readiness programs across the state.
The Butte Fire When It Approached Highway 26 In Moke Hill View Photos

Sacramento, CA  Several community residents and businesses are being honored for their selfless acts during the Butte Fire.

The annual Red Cross Heroes Breakfast for San Joaquin, Calaveras, and Amador counties will take place Wednesday, March 16. This event honors local everyday heroes who have performed heroic acts and are nominated by community members. Of the nine categories, four pertain to extraordinary actions during and in the wake of the Butte Fire. We were pleasantly surprised that we received a large number of nominees from the fire, stated Red Cross spokesperson Lilly Wyatt, some that were not even associated with the organization.

The breakfast will begin at 7:30 a.m. and held at Wine & Roses located at 2505 West Turner Road in Lodi. For more information or tickets, which proceeds go to local emergency relief efforts, click here. The Red Cross provided this list of honorees:

Animal Rescue Hero  Laughton Ranch Feed and Supply (Jackson)

Jim and Bobbi Laughton, owners of Laughton Ranch Feed and Supply, opened their facilities to Butte Fires evacuated pets and livestock that had no place to go as the blaze threatened their homes. Beyond providing a place for hundreds of animals to stay, the staff, volunteers, and donors working with Laughton Ranch ensured that animals had attention, water, food, and veterinary care.

Workplace Hero  Colleen McCarthy (Jackson)

During the Butte Fire of 2015, Jackson Rancheria generously made its staff and facilities available for fire evacuees, assisting hundreds affected by the fire by establishing a shelter at the hotel. Colleen McCarthy, head of security for Jackson Rancheria in Amador County was on hand when a woman in the shelter became distraught, ran from the shelter and disappeared from the area. She had recently lost her husband and her home had just been destroyed by the fire. Ms. McCarthy initiated a search and the client was found, unharmed. Later, in a letter, the woman told Ms. McCarthy that she saved her life.

Volunteer Heroes  Paul Keaton (Pioneer) and Dennis Lewis (West Point)

When a former Red Cross Volunteer Leader in Amador County retired, Mr. Keaton stepped up and took on the job to keep the team of volunteer community responders active. The day the Butte Fire broke out, he immediately began making calls in case shelters were needed. When the offer came from Jackson Rancheria, he was ready to respond. The call to open came at 11:00 pm and Mr. Keaton and his team opened the shelter doors at 11:45 pm. Together they maintained the night shift throughout the few weeks the shelter was open.

Dennis Lewis has been a devoted Red Cross volunteer for many years. Dennis became more than a leader during the Butte Fire response. He was the chief of operations for this wildfire, which became the seventh most destructive wildfire in Californias history. Mr. Lewis continues to help with the recovery process.

Military Hero (Veteran)  Al Gilbert (Angels Camp)

Like many military members, Al Gilbert wears his military service with pride. A Vietnam Veteran Navy Seabee, Mr. Gilbert took on the role of Commander of the fledgling VFW Post 12118 in Copperopolis in 2012 and built it into one of the top VFW posts in California, known for its community service and outreach. In 2013 Hospice of Amador and Calaveras began the new program, Vet-to-Vet. Part of the national We Honor Veterans program, Vet-to-Vet matches veterans in hospice care with an era-appropriate vet. Mr. Gilbert volunteered and was paired with a fellow veteran. Gilbert not only gave care and comradeship to the veteran, but helped his family as well. Mr. Gilbert works tirelessly and continues to help dozens of clients.
Sacramento, CA  Calling it a health impact fee, several California lawmakers are offering up a new sugary beverage tax that would help offset the states medical costs.

Several similar bills seeking warning labels or extra charges have failed in recent years, but Santa Monica Democrat Assemblymember Richard Bloom is making a renewed push to put a 2-cent-per-ounce charge on sugary beverages. AB2782 would use the collected fees to benefit clinics that deal with obesity, diabetes, and oral health. Bloom states, Science overwhelmingly demonstrates that the overconsumption of soda and other sugar laden beverages has led to an epidemic of diabetes, heart disease, and obesity throughout our country and here in California. Disease that is directly attributed to the overconsumption of sugary beverages costs us billions and brings with it untold misery that disproportionately affects disadvantaged communities and people of color. Now is the time to take action and begin to reverse the negative and preventable health impacts caused by these products.

Opponents and drink corporations argue any added charge unfairly single out sugary beverages and the poor, with no evidence that people would stop drinking those beverages. Several healthcare advocacy groups including the American Diabetes Association and American Heart Association support the proposal, which will face an Assembly policy committee next month.

The nations first soda fee was passed in Berkeley in 2014.
Update at 12:15pm: This morning the California Senate voted in favor of increasing the smoking age to 21. It was part of a package of six bills anti-tobacco bills that has now passed both houses of the legislature. Governor Jerry Brown will have the final decision on whether to sign or veto the legislation.

Original story posted at 7:43am: Sacramento, CA  The California Senate will vote today on a package of anti-tobacco bills, including one that would increase the smoking age to 21.

Hawaii is currently the only to state with the age 21 requirement. Proponents of the idea note that most smokers start before age 18, and increasing the smoking age would make it more difficult to obtain cigarettes. The proposal was earlier approved in the Assembly.

The Associated Press reports the Republican Assembly leader Chad Hayes spoke out against the idea. He questioned why it is ok for an 18 year-old to be locked up in prison for life for committing a felony, but an 18-year-old would not be able to buy cigarettes.

A late amendment to the bill, added by Democrats, would allow members of the military to continue to buy cigarettes at age 18.

Another bill, up for vote in the Senate today, would put the same restrictions on e-cigarettes that are currently placed on other tobacco products.

Governor Jerry Brown has not yet weighed in on the pending tobacco bills.
Telling supporters that he's "an old fashioned guy" who believes democracy is one vote per person, Bernie Sanders underscored his populist platform Thursday in a campaign stop in Kissimmee.

Days after upsetting Hillary Clinton in Michigan's Democratic presidential primary, Sanders was scheduled to make three stops in Florida ahead of next week's Florida presidential preference primary. Sanders spoke earlier at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and he spoke in Tampa Thursday evening, where an estimated 9,000 people turned out.

"I'm getting the feeling that what happened in Michigan, we can see it happen here in Florida," Sanders told the crowd, referring to his surprise win in Michigan this week.

Kissimmee's rally marked the first time Sanders had campaigned in Central Florida.

At Osceola Heritage Park, Sanders told the thousands in attendance that he is focused on all kinds of people, not just the wealthy.

Supporters in Kissimmee were excited about what Sanders had to say.

He is my candidate, period. We love him, Barbara Elyea said. "We watch him get on the train and take the commercial airline and ride the bus. He is not the corporate America guy. He is our guy. He is for the people. He is one of us."

Sanders talked about raising minimum wages to $15, improving Social Security and making college loans affordable. I am an old-fashioned guy," Sanders said. "Democracy is one vote, one person -- not billionaires by the election.

Despite poll numbers showing that twice as many voters are willing to support Clinton over Sanders if they were to vote today, Sanders said that he was confident he could beat those numbers just like he did in Michigan.

We have a lot of momentum behind us, and we think whether its Florida, Michigan or any other state, the American people are sick and tired of working longer hours for low wages and seeing almost all new wealth going to the top 1 percent, Sanders said before the rally.

Sanders supporters said that although Clinton has been the Democratic front-runner for the party's presidential nomination, Sanders still has a good chance.

The fact that hes been able to come this far, hes got the momentum," Zoilo Boehme said. "Theres no chance of that stopping; its going to continue on. The revolution is real and alive.

Both Clinton and Sanders were traveling throughout the state Thursday to recruit voters before Tuesdays primary election. Clinton spoke today before supporters in Tampa.

I think, what we will see tomorrow is a huge influx of people out there ready to vote, people who normally wouldnt vote, said Heindrek Allen, a Sanders supporter.


The victims of convicted murderer Bessman Okafor will finally receive their settlements from a civil lawsuit.



Okafor killed a state witness and attempted to kill his two roommates.



I think its one step closer to get final justice for Alex, Rafael Zaldivar said.



His son, 19-year-old Alex Zaldivar, was scheduled to testify against Okafor in a home invasion trial. But on Sept. 10, 2012, the night before his day in court, he and his roommates, siblings Remington and Brienna Campos, were dragged out of their beds and told to lay flat on the floor, as Okafor, the triggerman, shot each of them in the head execution style.

He was facing life in prison, Zaldivar said. He didnt have anything to lose.



Alex died instantly. The Campos siblings survived and helped convince a jury to convict Okafor and sentence him to death. But to the victims and families, its not enough.



Orange County, they failed my son miserably, Zaldivar said.



The victims never knew Okafor was out on bond. He was released on home confinement and fitted with the jails electronic monitoring device.



Theyre criminals and youre telling them to stay home? Zaldivar said. I mean that is absurd.



An internal investigation found that over four months, Okafor had a total of 170 offender alerts from his ankle monitor. But no punitive action was taken.



They didnt do their jobs, Zaldivar said. They failed.

Orange County settled the civil lawsuit for $700,000 to be divided among all three victims. The Campos siblings had extensive medical bills and continue to suffer.



They have the constant blistering headaches, Zaldivar said. When you get shot in the head, youre gonna have problems for the rest of your life.



About half of the money was paid up front, but the rest could only be given with state approval. Its a process that has taken nearly four years. But Zaldivar said the lawsuit was never about the money.



It was about them admitting that they failed, he said.



Since the investigation, the county found similar failures in other cases, which led to the termination of the electronic monitoring home confinement program in 2013.



The bill for the victim's settlement has passed the house and senate. It now waits to be signed by Governor Rick Scott.

PREVIOUS STORIES

(Sept. 1, 2015):

Jury recommends death penalty for Bessman Okafor

(Nov. 17, 2015):

Bessman Okafor sentenced to death

(Jan. 12, 2016):

Florida death penalty unconstitutional, Supreme Court rules

(Jan 13, 2016):

Bessman Okafor attorney: Death sentence should come off





Bessman Okafor appears in an Orange County courtroom Tuesday, Nov. 17, where he was sentenced to death for the 2012 fatal shooting of 19-year-old Alex Zaldivar.
GET OUR APP Our Spectrum News app is the most convenient way to get the stories that matter to you. Download it here.
A former Seminole County high school teacher who pleaded guilty last September to enticement of a minor and production and receipt of child pornography was sentenced to prison Thursday.



Gregory A. Vaughn, 59, was sentenced to 27 years in federal prison and must serve a life term of supervision following his release and register as a sex offender. He was also ordered to pay $7,500 in restitution.



Vaughn was arrested in June after investigators say he exchanged sexually explicit pictures with a teenage girl.



The mother of the victim, who lives in Colorado, called Seminole County authorities in May when she said she discovered her daughter's ongoing exchanges with the former Hagerty High School teacher.

According to court documents, Vaughn began trading explicit photos with the teenage girl in December in exchange for money, books, candy, clothes, women's underwear and even special-effects makeup.



Investigators said they were able to recover images of the victim and other children from Vaughn's computer.



FBI agents also interviewed another victim, who had also been groomed and enticed into producing child pornography by Vaughn.

PREVIOUS STORIES


A Georgia mother of four who went missing was arrested in Ocala Wednesday after an Amber Alert was issued and the body of a 2-year-old girl was found at her Albany, Georgia home.

Clarion Garrison, 28, was arrested by the Marion County Sheriffs Office after deputies located her vehicle near her family's residence at 3238 NE 47th Terrace in Ocala.

The three children in the Amber Alert, ages 7, 6 and 4, were found with Garrison in the vehicle. Deputies said all three were unharmed and in good health. They are in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families.

Dougherty County Georgia District Attorney Greg Edwards says that a 2-year-old girl was found dead at Garrisons Albany home, and had been dead for at least two days before the body was found. Investigators say the 2-year-old was Garrisons daughter.

She is charged with concealing the death of another.



At her first appearance Thursday a judge ordered she be held without bond as Georgia authorities work on her extradition back to the state.
For many, Spring Break is just around the corner, which means more people will be traveling to their destination of choice.

As a result, airfare prices are on the rise, according to AAA.

Airlines are spending about half the price for jet fuel than they did a year ago, but the savings are not being reflecting in the cost of a plane ticket.

AAA has a few tips for travelers who want to keep costs low.

If you are traveling, maybe with a large group of people, it might be more cost-effective to just jump in a car and take a road trip, said Mark Jenkins, AAA Spokesman.

Another piece of advice: be flexible with the days you are flying. Fridays and Saturdays are often more expensive than a day during the middle of the week.

Travel search engine FareCompare recently released a list of the 7 Worst Days to Fly in 2016.

According to airfare data, these are the days most travelers should avoid because of more demand and fewer deals:

March 17

May 17

June 10

July 31

Aug. 22

Nov. 23 & Nov. 27

Travelers looking to save money should also be flexible about where theyre flying. Some destinations are more expensive to travel to than others.

Also look for deals that bundle airfare with your hotel, it can help save you hundreds of dollars.



Spring Break travel helps Florida's tourism economy

Spring Break might mean higher airfare for some, but it also means big tourism for Florida.

According to travel experts, Orlando is among the top destinations for travelers.

Of the top ten cities that people are visiting here in the next month, four of them are here in Florida, with the number one being Orlando, Jenkins said. You can certainly image with all the attractions and, not to mention, the beautiful beaches just a short drive away.

Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Panama City were the other Florida cities that made the list of AAAs top destinations to visit through April 9. The results were based upon online and offline bookings.
LUBBOCK -- The fact is, this is different from anything we have ever seen, and what may have worked for you during the last downturn in the oil industry, may not work this time, said Baron Lukas, president of Vital Strategies. This time its not only different; it is in reality, the beginning of a new age. A time when the U.S. is on the verge of energy independence, global demographics are drastically changing, and the global strategic situation is becoming ever more unstable.

Lukas will speak at the 2016 Ports-to-Plains Energy and Ag Summit co-hosted by the Lubbock Economic Development Alliance, March 30 - 31 at the Arbor Hotel and Conference Center in Lubbock.

A retired Marine colonel and former COO of a privately-held company in the oil and gas sector, Lukas has more than 35 years of leadership, management, and mentoring experience. He spent 27 years as a commissioned officer and fighter pilot in the U.S. Marines. He served in numerous command, operational, training, staff and diplomatic positions. Upon retirement from the military in 2007, Baron joined Western Commerce Group as managing director. Western Commerce group is a regional M&A investment banking, private equity, wealth management, and consulting group based in Fort Worth. In 2008, Baron was asked to join HSC as its COO. HSC is a privately-held oilfield, industrial, and mining supply, services and manufacturing company with more than 20 locations nationwide.

In spite of the recent slump in oil prices, energy continues to play a key role in economy of the Ports-to-Plains region that stretches from Alberta, Canada, through West Texas and on to Mexicos west coast. Traditional resources such as oil and gas, as well as renewable energy such as wind are responsible for many jobs throughout the region.

Energy and agriculture are so important to our region, and it is vital that we understand the issues facing these industries, said Ports-to-Plains President Michael Reeves. We have assembled a great lineup of speakers for this conference that will give you great insight into these critical economic drivers.

The dynamic changes in our energy sector right now are of major interest to Lubbock businesses, as those changes drive business decisions both short-term and long-term. Likewise, agriculture continues to be the cornerstone of our community and an industry that will continue to drive Lubbocks economy for years to come, said Lubbock Economic Development Alliance CEO John Osborne.

Agriculture presentations include former House Ag Committee Chairman Larry Combests insights on federal issues. Representatives from Monsanto and Continental Dairy Facilities Southwest will give updates on their recently announced projects that will be significant job creators on the South Plains. Texas Tech Health Science Center President Dr. Tedd Mitchell, M.D. is slated to provide an update on the proposed Texas Tech School of Veterinary Medicine. And Plains Cotton Growers Executive Vice President Steve Verett is one of the speakers addressing challenges in the cotton industry.

Energy presentations will showcase the regions diverse and productive energy production portfolio from oil and gas to renewable sources such as wind and solar.

The event will also draw international speakers and attendees. Consul General of Canada Sara Wilshaw will discuss trade opportunities with the United States largest trade partner and northern neighbor, while presentations from Ports-to-Plains partners in Mexico will share the developments in Texas largest foreign trade market.

A strong transportation infrastructure is critical to moving the regions ag and energy products to market, and these issues will be featured as well. Lubbock Mayor and Ports-to-Plains Treasurer Glen Robertson will give an update on efforts to extend Interstate 27. Texas Department of Transportation interim director of freight and international Trade will speak on the Texas Freight Mobility Plan and what it means for the Ports-to-Plains Corridor.

Registration is required and information and full details about the Energy and Ag Summit are available on the Ports-to-Plains website at portstoplains.com.

Ports-to-Plains is a grassroots alliance of more than 275 communities and businesses, including alliance partners Heartland Expressway, Theodore Roosevelt Expressway and Eastern Alberta Trade Corridor Coalition, whose mission is to advocate for a robust international transportation infrastructure to promote economic security and prosperity throughout North America's energy and agricultural heartland including Mexico to Canada. Additional information on the Ports-to-Plains Alliance is available at http://www.portstoplains.com/.
Associated Press Writer

Four condemned Texas inmates lost appeals Wednesday at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court, including a Harris County man convicted of a shooting rampage where five people were killed.

Coy Wayne Wesbrook, 49, was convicted and sentenced to die for the November 1997 killing spree at an apartment complex just east of Houston.

Other inmates to lose their appeals included:

_Michael Richard, 48, condemned for killing a nurse at her home in Hockley in Harris County.

_Cleve Foster, 43, convicted of the abduction, rape and fatal shooting of a woman in Fort Worth.

_Randolph Greer, 33, condemned for the fatal shooting of a gun shop owner during a robbery in Bellaire, an enclave of Houston.

None of the men has pending execution dates.

In the Wesbrook case, Wesbrook's ex-wife, Gloria Jean Coons, 32, was shot and killed at the complex where she lived. Also killed were Antonio Cruz, 35; Anthony Ray Rogers, 41; Diana Ruth Money, 43; and Kelly Hazlip, 28.

In the appeal rejected by the court, Wesbrook contended he is mentally retarded and under U.S. Supreme Court rulings should be ineligible for execution. The appeals court disagreed and upheld findings of a district court which ruled he was not mentally retarded. It was his second appeal to the Austin-based court.

At his Houston trial, defense attorneys tried to persuade jurors the partygoers at Coons' unit provoked Wesbrook into the killings by having sex with two of the male victims at the party. Wesbrook said he tried to leave but Cruz took his keys, so he went to his truck, got his rifle and started shooting.

Wesbrook's 1998 trial was interrupted briefly when prosecutors accused him of trying to have five more people killed, including several witnesses in the case.

In a similar ruling, the court said Richard was not mentally retarded and upheld the findings of a district judge.

Richard had been on parole just two months when evidence showed he killed Marguerite Louise Dixon, 53, at her home in August 1986. Prosecutors said Dixon approached the victim's son and asked whether a van parked outside was for sale. When told it was not, Richards left, then returned when he saw Dixon's son and daughter leave.

Two televisions and the van were stolen after Dixon was shot and raped. The .25-caliber pistol used in the shooting was sold for cocaine. Richard, who had a history of theft and burglary, confessed after he was arrested but insisted the shooting was accidental.

In 1992, the appeals court threw out his conviction and death sentence because of a trial error. A second trial ended with another death sentence. When that conviction was upheld by the appeals court, Richard returned to the court with the mental retardation claim.

Foster's 2004 conviction in Tarrant County was upheld by the Court of Criminal Appeals last year and he returned to the courts with a new round of appeals challenging the validity of his conviction and sentence. His trial court rejected his appeals and the appeals court on Wednesday did the same.

Foster, a former Army recruiter, is one of two men condemned for the slaying of Nyanuer "Mary" Pal on Valentine's Day 2002. The Sudanese woman, who worked at a Fort Worth country club, was abducted, raped and fatally shot.

Foster also was implicated in the slaying two months earlier of a former Texas Tech student, Rachel Urnosky.

A defense psychologist testified Foster, who spent 17 years in the Army, had post-traumatic stress disorder, which led to his behavior.

Foster's former roommate, Sheldon Ward, also was sentenced to death for Pal's slaying. Witnesses said the pair followed Pal from a Fort Worth pool hall. Her body was found in a remote area near Lake Worth. Semen from Ward and Foster were found on her body.

Testimony showed the same gun used to kill her was used to kill Urnosky, who was found dead in her Fort Worth apartment.

Greer challenged DNA evidence used at his trial, where he was convicted of the June 1991 shooting death of Walter Chmiel, who was fatally shot at his Alamo Gun Shop in Bellaire.

Greer alleged problems at the Houston Police Department crime lab led to faulty evidence that his blood was at the crime scene. The appeals court in 2005 sent his case back to a district court in Houston, which ordered new DNA tests. Those tests supported the initial findings of the embattled crime lab.
Despite the massive Winter Storm Goliath which kept the region buried in a huge drifts of snow during early January, Plainview and the surrounding area continues to buck statewide trends with surprising growth in sales tax revenue against declining revenues for the state in general.

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar on Wednesday announced local sales tax allocations for March, showing a statewide decline of 0.7 percent from March 2015. The allocations are based on sales made in January by businesses that report tax monthly.

Energy-centric cities, such as Odessa, Midland, Corpus Christi and Houston, continued to see decreases in sales tax allocations, Hegar said. Other areas of the state helped to somewhat offset those losses, as cities such as Austin and Dallas saw moderate increases in allocations.

Hegars report shows that sales tax allocations for the 15 participating local taxing entities within the Herald circulation area rose 3 percent from a year ago. Plainview saw an increase of 2.5 percent while Hale Countys allocation rose 0.35 percent

During the first three months of 2016, the allocations for the same area rose 5.8 percent, while Plainviews total is up 4.6 percent and Hale Countys total rose 6.7 percent.

Dr. Charles Starnes, Wayland business professor, used the sales tax report to calculate actual retail sales for the 15 area taxing entities.

When you divide the tax return by the sales tax rate you get the total sales needed to generate that return, Starnes explains. That equates to a total of $53,880,858 in sales in January 2016 in the towns and counties in the Herald's area. That represents an increase in regional sales of $209,130 over January 2015. While we're happy to see sales growth in the region, it's only 0.4 percent better than last year.

Some entities did really well. Plainview registered $472,507 more sales in January 2016 over the previous January, Tulia had $181,518 more sales, Abernathy had $342,121 more, Lockney increased $222,660, and Floydada broke the bank with $350,441 greater sales than last year. Something big must have gone away in Castro County, because their sales were $1,354,134 less in January 2016 than in January 2015, Starnes noted.

A member of the Plainview City Council, he explains, Cities and counties rely on sales taxes to fund their operations. Like Plainview, they prudently plan on an expected rebate, not a windfall. Windfalls like those received by Abernathy (+38.5% over 2015), Floydada (+27.7%), and Lockney (a whopping +40.4%) are nice but can't be expected to last beyond the current construction boost caused by energy resource development.

The largest percentage gain in sales tax rebates during the current cycle was for Kress, which rose 54 percent from March 2016. Its payment climbed from $636 to $980.

Lockneys payment went up 40 percent while Abernathy saw an increase of 39 percent. Floydada increased 28 percent while Hale Center went up 18 percent. Also showing double-digit gains were Petersburg at 13 percent and Tulia at 11 percent.

Declines were posted by five entities. The largest was Castro County, which dropped 37 percent, followed by Silverton, off 24 percent; Edmonson, 23 percent; Hart, 16 percent; and Olton, 16 percent.

Despite its decline for the month, Edmonsons tax payments for the first three months of 2016 are up 113 percent from a year ago. Payments for Floydada are up 40 percent.

Current sales tax payments and change from a year ago for area entities include:

--Abernathy, $18,455, 38.5%

--Castro County, $11,575, -36.9%

--Edmonson, $114, -22.7%

--Floydada, $28,260, 27.7%

--Hale Center, $7,902, 17.8%

--Hale County, $110,679, 0.4%

--Hart, $2,460, -15.8%

--Kress, $980, 54.1%

--Lockney, $11,607, 40.4%

--Olton, $11,999, -16.1%

--Petersburg, $3,580, 12.8%

--Plainview, $296,139, 2.5%

--Silverton, $4,747, -23.6%

--Swisher County, $11,813, 0.3%

--Tulia, $26,933, 11.2%
The Central Plains Centers board of trustees are accepting applications through the end of March for a successor to Ron Trusler, who will retire as chief executive officer June 1.

Trusler told the board of his plans to retire two weeks ago, and was subsequently honored at a recent staff appreciation dinner.

Central Plains Center serves individuals with mental health and intellectual and developmental disabilities in Bailey, Briscoe, Castro, Floyd, Lamb, Motley, Hale, Parmer and Swisher counties. It has an annual budget in excess of $10 million with about 190 employees. It serves about 3,000 individuals annually.

Trusler has been with the agency for 29 years, and its chief executive officer for two decades, since October 1995.

He cites health issues related to cystic fibrosis as a key factor in his retirement.

Trusler is the centers sixth executive director since it formed in 1967. Its first executive director, Elizabeth Woodley, was employed in November 1968.

One of the most impressive things about this center is the fact that six of its staff members have gone on to become CEOs at this and other mental health centers, Trusler points out. That speaks extremely well for Central Plains Center and its highly talented staff. And its something that Im very proud of as well.

Commenting about Truslers upcoming retirement and the search for his replacement, Danette Castle, executive director of the Texas Council of Community Centers, notes, The Central Plains Centers Board of Trustees will no doubt be successful in their search for a new CFO with the skills and experience necessary to lead the organization into a confident future. The board will be extraordinarily blessed if they are also able to find someone with the true servants heart that Ron Trusler has demonstrated every single day of his distinguished career.
BMW's headquarters in Munich. Image source: Bayerische Motoren Werke AG.

Bayerische Motoren Werke , better known to Americans as German luxury-car giant BMW, released a summary of its full-year 2015 earnings on March 9. Here's what investors need to know.

The key numbers

All financial results are in millions of euros.

2015 2014 Change Revenue 92,175 80,401 +14.6% Units Sold: Autos 2,247,485 2,117,965 +6.1% Units Sold: Motorcycles 136,963 123,495 +10.9% EBIT 9,593 9,118 +5.2% EBIT Margin 10.4% 11.3% -0.9 points Net Income 6,396 5,817 +10%

What happened with BMW in 2015

BMW said that 2015 was its "sixth record-breaking year in succession." The company set all-time highs for sales volumes, revenue, and pre-tax profit -- despite volatile conditions in China and slowing growth of the new-car market in the United States.

Revenue jumped over 14% thanks in part to favorable currency factors, as the U.S. dollar appreciated against the euro. EBIT margin slipped a bit from 2014's outstanding result, but the bottom line was still very strong: BMW's net profit of 6.4 billion euros ($7.02 billion) was its first-ever result to exceed 6 billion euros.

BMW's Automotive unit achieved an EBIT margin of 9.2% in 2015. That was down slightly from the 9.6% margin it posted in 2014, but it was still within the company's targeted range. It was stronger than the 8.3% margin posted by rival Audi , which was hit by costs related to parent Volkswagen's diesel-emissions scandal, but it trailed the impressive 10% EBIT margin at BMW's old archrival Daimler's Mercedes-Benz unit.

Within Automotive, the BMW brand posted a 5.2% sales gain in 2015, on very strong sales of the 2 Series sedans and 4 Series coupes. Sales were up 12% at Mini, but down slightly from a record 2014 at Rolls-Royce (but still good enough for the second-best result in the 112-year-old British luxury brand's history, BMW noted in a statement).

BMW's 4 Series coupes had a strong 2015. Image source: Bayerische Motoren Werke AG.

The EBIT margin at BMW Motorrad, the company's motorcycle business, was 10.9% in 2015, up substantially from its 2014 result of 6.7% on a better mix of sales as well as those favorable exchange-rate shifts.

What BMW's CEO said about the company's 2015 result

"We have met all of our ambitious targets for the financial year," said CEO Harald Krueger in a statement. "With another set of impressive figures in its centenary year, the BMW Group remains the world's leading provider of premium vehicles and mobility services."

Krueger said that BMW would boost its dividend and bonus payouts to employees in the wake of the strong 2015 result. "The exemplary commitment of our workforce and the unfailing trust placed in us by our shareholders are the key topics that run through the BMW Group's success story," he said. "To mark the company's centenary, we are once again raising the associate bonus for our permanent staff in Germany, the highest amount paid in the German premium auto industry. Dividend payments to our shareholders will also exceed the two billion euro mark for the first time, reflecting the BMW Group's fine performance in 2015."

What's ahead for BMW: Full results and guidance due on March 16

BMW's report on March 9 was just a summary of its full-year result. The company will release its complete fourth-quarter and full-year financial result on March 16. It said that it will also hold a press conference and release its full guidance for 2016 at that time.

But Krueger did give one hint of his expectations for BMW in 2016. While he expects that the global political and economic environment will continue to be "volatile" as the year unfolds, he expects BMW's sales to hit another record for the year thanks in part to the all-new 7 Series sedan. "We are again targeting a new sales volume record in 2016, with sales expected to be slightly up on the previous year," Krueger said.

A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity

The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, just click here.

The article BMW Profit Jumps 10% on Strong Sales and Currency Swings originally appeared on Fool.com.

Copyright  1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Rooftop solar is the biggest threat electric utilities have ever faced. Image source: SolarCity.

The electric utility industry is facing its biggest threat ever, and even Warren Buffett is fully aware that rooftop solar power is something he should be concerned about long-term. His recent letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders was a major admission that distributed energy is a long-term threat to his utility business and has forced utilities to be more competitive in how they operate.

This comes as Buffett's utility, NV Energy, is locked in a battle against residential solar companies like SolarCity and Sunrun , who are fighting a punitive ruling by Nevada regulators. And now we have evidence that he sees these companies as a big threat to the steady growth and returns utilities normally generate.

Warren Buffett's conflicted view on renewables

It's worth noting that Warren Buffett isn't against renewable energy or the subsidies that come along with it. Berkshire Hathaway Energy has invested $16 billion in renewable energy and owns 7% of the country's wind capacity and 6% of its solar. All indications are that that investment will continue.

But those are large wind and solar projects. Where Buffett has increasingly begun seeing a threat to the steady utility business is from electricity-generation capacity homeowners own or lease from third parties. These are the systems SolarCity and Sunrun build, and they're offering energy for less than utility prices and changing the monopoly dynamic utilities have always enjoyed. In his letter, Buffett says:

In its electric utility business, our Berkshire Hathaway Energy ("BHE") operates within a changing economic model. Historically, the survival of a local electric company did not depend on its efficiency. In fact, a "sloppy" operation could do just fine financially. That's because utilities were usually the sole supplier of a needed product and were allowed to price at a level that gave them a prescribed return upon the capital they employed. The joke in the industry was that a utility was the only business that would automatically earn more money by redecorating the boss's office. And some CEOs ran things accordingly. That's all changing. Today, society has decided that federally subsidized wind and solar generation is in our country's long-term interest. Federal tax credits are used to implement this policy, support that makes renewables price-competitive in certain geographies. Those tax credits, or other government-mandated help for renewables, may eventually erode the economics of the incumbent utility, particularly if it is a high-cost operator.

There are two things worth noting within that statement. The first is that competitors like SolarCity and Sunrun are offering a viable energy alternative that threatens utilities. The second is the jab at subsidies, which help make these competitors financially viable.

Subsidies or no subsidies?

If you've been following the rooftop solar debate closely, you know that subsidies are always a big part of the discussion. Utilities point out that federal subsidies make solar more affordable, and argue that non-solar customers are unfairly subsidizing energy purchases from solar customers through net metering (which studies fail to prove at low adoption rates).

Solar companies argue that utilities are regulated monopolies and are therefore getting the greatest subsidy of all: no competition. They argue they're only trying to bring competition into the market.

Warren Buffett and Elon Musk have recently battled over this concept. And in a recent CNBC interview, Buffett said:

We don't want our million customers that don't have solar to be buying it for 10.5 cents when we can turn it out for them at 4.5 cents. We don't want the non-solar customers, of which there are a million, to be subsidizing the 17,000 solar customers. Solar customers are subsidized by the federal government, as we are through our wind and solar operations.

Here you get a look at how Buffett looks at subsidies and renewable energy prices. If he can buy renewable energy cheaply and use subsidies efficiently -- great. But if customers can save money buying solar energy from their own roof, why should they get a subsidy to do so? I wrote about these different viewpoints in this debate in an article last week. If you're the utility, it's easy to argue that you can buy energy at cheaper rates than rooftop solar companies are selling it. But that's not the cost to get energy into someone's house, which is the true cost we should be measuring.

Buffett's comment about non-solar customers subsidizing solar customers is a hotly debated concept in renewable energy, and there's little evidence that it's actually true at low penetration rates like Buffett has in his energy business' territories. At the very least, solar on a customer's roof is worth more to the grid than wholesales rates, even if it's worth less than retail rates. This is what California recently ruled in Net Metering 2.0 plans, which were applauded by the solar industry.

The threat is here

What's interesting about the comments Buffett has made in recent days is that's he's acknowledging the threat renewable energy poses to utilities and trying to build a case against those threats. Depending on where you sit, you may believe his case or think that the utility monopoly needs more competition.

But there's no denying that utilities can see a renewable energy threat coming, and after decades of being the only energy game in town, that concerns them very much.

A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity

The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, just click here.

The article Warren Buffett Admits Renewable Energy Is Big Threat to Utilities originally appeared on Fool.com.

Copyright  1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

AUSTIN  With an exchange of tacos and the signing of the Interstate 35 Taco Accord, the mayors of San Antonio and Austin proclaimed an end to the Texas Taco War of 2016 this morning.

There is too much that unites our tacos than divides us, said Austin Mayor Steve Adler. We, the sons and daughters of Austin, with pride in our traditions, joy in our hearts, invite our neighbors in San Antonio to join us as we break our fast upon the tortilla of hope and the egg of peace.

This mornings event at the Austin Hilton Downtown was supposed to witness the official, epic taco throwdown led by San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor and Adler.

Instead, they abandoned the competition as if it was a batch of mild salsa and announced they were jointly hosting a Taco Summit. Friday, however, will see the taco throwdown as a San Antonio chef and Austin chef go taco a taco in una batalla royal for city taco pride.

For her peace offering, Taylor brought a 50-taco assortment from her favorite East Side taco joint, Mittman Fine Foods: bacon and egg on corn, chorizo and egg on flour, carne guisada on flour and carne guisada with cheese on flour.

And she came prepared with music: six members of Mariachi Los Galleros made the drive from San Antonio and began the press conference with a flourish.

Adler brought 50 from Juan in a Million, the winner of a taco contest from the Austin Chronicle, the alternative weekly.

The verdict about the Austin tacos from a San Antonio food critic? Well, the filling was nice, with the bacon diced and mixed together with the egg, and a red salsa had a nice touch of heat and plenty of flavor.

But it used a store-bought corn tortilla. That wouldnt fly in San Antonio; it would lead to immediate disqualification.

At the Austin event, assembled journalists quickly devoured 10 carne guisada tacos from Mittmans.

Oh man, one was overheard saying. Theres no more carne guisada!

The hostilities began with an unprovoked skirmish against the pride of South Texas in the form of an amateurish story on the Eater Austin website austin.eater.com claiming the state capital as the home of the breakfast taco. This sparked outrage that took the form of a Change.org petition demanding the expulsion of the writer of that piece from Austin, an op-ed in the Austin America-Statesman from San Antonio Councilman Joe Krier and then Adlers corresponding declaration of taco war on San Antonio.

Taylors response to the declaration of war: This aggression will not stand, man!

Alas, both mayors found the better angels of their natures and created the Breakfast Taco Summit. Adler also proclaimed Thursday as Breakfast Taco Day in Austin.

Besides, after their summit, they were both scheduled to speak on a panel about education at SXSWedu. An ongoing war wouldnt look very good, especially with President Obama scheduled to speak in Austin on Friday.

In 30 to 40 years, it is entirely probable that the cities of Austin and San Antonio form one large metroplex, Adler said. Our futures are intertwined, and it may very well be the day that we are fighting together to uphold the honor of the great taco of our mutual metroplex.

And as Austin grows to its south and San Antonio grows to its north, other regional issues are taking precedence over tacos.

Still, there is still a thirst for war, and two chefs are set to slake it. Friday, San Antonio chef and restaurateur Johnny Hernandez will stage an event to take on a yet-to-be named chef from Austin for a taco throwdown. A spokeswoman for Hernandez said the Austin chef was still being finalized but did say that judges from Food & Wine magazine, Food Network, Mouth.com and Food.com will determine whose tacos reign supreme.

And will the winner of that epic battle receive any fanfare from their respective city? Perhaps a River Walk parade? Sorry, thats between the chefs.

Were done with this, Taylor said. Its over.

etijerina@express-news.net

@etij
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A brand-new ghost bus tour has arrived in the Alamo City, offering an educational and potentially scary look at San Antonios history, haunted hotels and prolific murders.

The San Antonio Ghost Bus, hosted by Sisters Grimm Ghost Tours, aims at providing ghostly happenings and terrifying histories, according to the company website.

Lauren Swartz, owner/manager of the Sisters Grimm Ghost Tours, said the tour covers sites such as the Menger Hotel, the old Red Light District and an old cemetery. Aside from the haunted elements of the city, the tour goes into the seedy past and vice of the Alamo Citys former brothels, Swartz said.

RELATED: Best, worst and funniest Yelp reviews of haunted houses in San Antonio

The grand opening of the bus tour was Monday, with ghost enthusiasts and fans lining up outside the Menger Hotel to hop in the bus. Fourteen people can go on one tour each night at 8:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Facebook/Courtesy

The tour lasts two hours and costs $40 per person aged 16 or older. The tour includes some materials that is not intended for children, according to the website.

RELATED: San Antonio's 13th Floor haunted house opening for Valentine's Day-themed scare

The Sisters Grimm Ghost Tours also provide the option to purchase a book along with the ticket to the tour, called Haunted History of Old San Antonio. That book is currently on sale here at Amazon.

The company also provides ghost walks in the downtown San Antonio area, as well as a dinner and ghost tour inside the Menger Hotel, said owner Lauren Swartz. The cemetery tour that the company provides even has reenactments.

RELATED: San Antonio named one of the most haunted cities in America

Those interested in going on the tour can get a discount on tickets at the companys website. Theres a discount code that can be used at the time of purchase.

Its a great option for people who dont want to walk an entire tour, Swartz said.

Click through the slideshow to see a collection of photos of San Antonios haunted spots and urban legends.

twhite@mysa.com

Twitter: @tylerlwhite
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

The Academy of Careers and Technologies, a single-campus charter district on the Northwest Side, lost an appeal to the Texas Education Agency and will not have its charter renewed at the end of the school year.

The TEA sent the charter schools superintendent and board president a letter last week informing them of its decision. Its the latest  and possibly final  move in a battle between the state and the high school, which has fought to keep its charter despite repeatedly failing to meet state standards.

The schools superintendent, Tonja Nelson, and its attorney, Austin-based Stephen M. Foster, did not return messages seeking comment.

The TEA began the process of revoking the schools charter two years ago under a recently enacted state law requiring the education commissioner to do so when charter districts fail academic or financial requirements three years in a row.

The Academy of Careers and Technologies failed to meet financial accountability standards every school year between 2011 and 2014 and failed to meet academic standards two years ago, when its scores on the states post-secondary readiness index fell well below the required threshold. While the school was battling charter revocation last year, it met an alternative state standard for schools with large at-risk student populations.

Judge Gisela D. Triana of the 200th Judicial District in Travis County granted the school a temporary injunction in September allowing it to stay open this school year, said DeEtta Culbertson, a TEA spokeswoman. It was unclear why the school succeeded in obtaining an injunction compared to other charter schools that have tried and failed.

We usually do this (revoke a charter) when we see that the students are not being served appropriately, so it is not that common for a school to get that injunction to stay open, Culbertson said.

In the injunction, school officials argued that their charter was being revoked without due process, claiming the states three strikes rules are applied arbitrarily and charter districts are not given adequate opportunities to challenge the states decisions.

The state will pay about $2.1 million to keep the school open this year under the temporary injunction, Culbertson said.

The Academy of Careers and Technologies enrolled more than 200 students last school year, according to TEA data. All but five of its students were classified that year as at risk.

The schools charter is set to expire on July 31, and the new state education commissioner, Mike Morath, declined to renew it under state law, which also specifies a schools charter cannot be renewed if it has received failing ratings for three of the last five years. The school appealed to the TEA for an informal review of its non-renewal, but the non-renewal was upheld and may no longer be appealed, according to a March 1 letter sent to school officials.

amalik@express-news.net

Twitter: @AliaAtSAEN
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A man who led police on a lengthy chase after killing his father during an argument in 2014 was sentenced to prison Wednesday.

Jason Turner, 34, received 68 years in prison in the 399th District Court after having been found guilty on Feb. 9 of murdering his father, Samuel Dean, according to a news release from the Bexar County District Attorneys Office.

On Aug. 29, 2014, Dean and Turner were arguing outside Turners apartment door in the 4100 block of South Presa, authorities said. During the argument, Turner walked into the apartment, got a gun and shot his father three times in his face and three times in his chest.

Witnesses testified that they heard six gunshots and saw Turner speed walking to a black truck and drive off from the scene.

Police tracked down Turner two hours after a witness gave them the trucks license plate number and described his clothes, adding that he was carrying a gray hoodie believed to contain the murder weapon.

Gang unit officers spotted a black Nissan Frontier with the described license plate number and tried to pull Turner over around North W.W. White and Rockdale in the Southeast Side. Thats when Turner began leading officers on a chase.

The chase reached up to 120 miles per hour as they drove on Interstate 10, until Turner made a sharp exit at FM 1516 in the Northeast Side where his truck rolled over to a grassy embankment.

As officers approached the truck with guns drawn, the truck rolled back on its tires. Turner began driving toward the police, forcing one of them to shoot at him, authorities said.

Afterward, he began ramming another patrol vehicle and jumping out of his truck, running from the scene before the vehicle he was driving wrecked a second time.

Inside Turners truck, investigators found what they believed to be the murder weapon and the gray hoodie. Turner was spotted running down an embankment and stealing a truck that had its keys left inside, the release states.

A second chase began but ended when he crashed the truck into a house. He was spotted running and jumping fences by the Eagle police helicopter while taking off his clothing.

Turner resisted arrest when officers caught up to him, investigators said. While in custody in an ambulance, Turner was quoted as saying, Things werent supposed to end this way. I was supposed to die.

The District Attorneys Office said although murder is a first degree felony, punishable by 5-99 years or life in prison and up to a $10,000.00 fine, Turners punishment range was 25 years to life in prison because he was considered a habitual offender.

Authorities noted that Turner had made prior trips to prison for aggravated robbery and a federal gun charge and that he must serve 30 years in prison before he is eligible for parole.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A New Mexico woman accused of driving while drunk and nude told police she had been "partying like a damn dog" after leading officers on a high-speed chase, according to news reports.

RELATED: Video: Protester at Donald Trump rally gets sucker-punched by supporter, tackled by police officers

Barbara Arellano, 51, was arrested in Santa Fe County over the weekend and charged with driving while intoxicated, aggravated fleeing of a law enforcement officer, reckless driving and battery of a peace officer, according to Santa Fe County jail records.

KOB reported that Santa Fe County deputies tried to pull Arellano over after she was seen throwing objects out of her SUV.

She fled from police and later crashed into another vehicle, according to the news station.

RELATED: Police: Mexico 'satanic ritual' killing suspects thought victim would come back to life as 'vampire'

Video shows that Arellano, while nude, tried to flee from deputies after the crash while shouting, "Jehovah! Jehovah!"

A deputy tackled her and placed her in handcuffs, news station KRQE reported.

Arellano was wrapped in a blue tarp and put in the back of a patrol car, according to KRQE.

When a deputy asked why she was naked, Arellano told him, "Because I got hot."

RELATED: Feds: Suspects in North Texas slaying of ex-Mexican drug cartel lawyer tied to 12 other killings

The 51-year-old told deputies that she used heroin, taken pills and drank whiskey before the chase, according to the news station.

"I've been partying like a damn dog," Arellano told deputies.

Arellano then struggled with deputies at the jail, according to KOB.

RELATED: Murder case of 'Phantom Killer' in Texas remains unsolved 70 years later

She was released from the jail Monday on a $10,000 bond.

jfechter@mySA.com

Twitter: @JFreports
Jamie Maverick could take a hunk of wood and turn it into something magical.

Working for weeks or months at a time, Maverick would be up banging away in her artists studio by 5 a.m.  hammer and chiseling, her son-in-law Johnny Jones said. She had this creativity; at the end, it would be this beautiful piece of artwork.

Maverick, niece of Maury Maverick Sr., who was mayor of San Antonio in the late 1930s and early 1940s, died Feb. 28 at 82.

Raised on her grandfathers dairy farm Sunshine Ranch near what is now Balcones Heights, Maverick had an idyllic childhood. Part of a large extended family who all lived on the property, Maverick was especially close to her grandmother, who was an artist.

Maverick later memorialized her childhood in her book My Grandmothers House.

Performing on stage with her father as a child, Maverick developed a love of performing, which she continued as an adult in local theater productions, including what was then the San Antonio Little Theater.

More Information Jamie Maverick Born: Nov. 30, 1933, San Antonio Died: Feb. 28, 2016, San Antonio Preceded by: Parents James Slayden and Hazel Davis Maverick; a sister. Survived by: Sons Robert Killian, and Maverick Killian and daughter-in-law Jamie; daughters Jamie Bloodsworth and son-in-law John, Jenny Jones and son-in-law Johnny, Molly Killian and son-in-law Steve Armfield; seven grandchildren; and four-great grandchildren. Services: Visitation from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday at Mission Park Funeral Chapels North, 3401 Cherry Ridge; funeral at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 315 E Pecan St., followed by burial at San Jose Burial Park. See More Collapse

Showing a talent for fine art at a young age, Maverick received rigorous training with the renowned Pompeo Coppini, who sculpted the Spirit of Sacrifice honoring the Battle of the Alamo.

Concentrating mostly on painting, Maverick later started working with redwood, carving plaques and transitioning to three-dimensional pieces, which could be put in motion with the turn of a crank.

Marrying in the mid-1950s, Maverick had five children, raising them by herself after she and her husband split up in the early 1970s.

She was a really fun mom, her daughter Jenny Jones said. She had a lot of parties; we always had artists over to our house.

Immersing her children in art, Maverick encouraged them to create with a variety of media, taking them to sell their work at the San Antonio Art Leagues Art Jamboree.

All year long we would make calico flowers, paper eyelashes, her daughter Jamie Bloodsworth said. I sewed pillows, all kinds of stuff like that. She couldnt stand anybody to be idle.

At home, Maverick worked continuously, carving, painting, making up poetry or writing. Even their home was a reflection of Mavericks creativity.

Our house was beautiful, Jones said. She would buy old furniture  fix it up; she had a great knack for bringing a lot of beauty out of nothing.

Maverick is perhaps best known for her animated wood sculptures such as Hocus Pocus, which depicts a magician sawing his assistant in half during a magic act. Her work has been shown in several galleries and shows, including in Dallas, Arkansas, Arizona and California.

mheidbrink@express-news.net
Many people were disappointed and angry after waiting far too long in line to vote on Super Tuesday. Then some discovered they couldnt vote at the place where they had waited.

I know  I am an election judge, one of the people who had to tell them the bad news.

For some, the problem was not theirs. The voter turnout was underestimated. Polling sites have an uneven distribution of voters. With only one laptop per site for checking in voters, a problem with a voter creates a bottleneck.

But for others, knowledge of the system can go a long way toward making voting a smoother process. The way things happen is not always clear, so I hope this will help.

Early voting: People can vote at any polling site in the county during early voting. Crowds are generally smaller and hours are longer, so taking advantage of it is smart. Note that sites used for early voting are generally different from the ones used on election day.

Election-day voting: People must go to their assigned polling place, based on their precinct number, which in turn is based on their address. The precinct number is on the voter registration card. The address of the polling site can be found in the Express-News and on mySA.com the day before or day of the election, and on the Bexar County Elections Department website: http://home.bexar.org/elections/.

A person at the wrong polling site will be directed to the correct one. If he insists on voting, he will be informed that he may fill out a provisional ballot, but that for a provisional ballot to be accepted, the voter must be voting in his assigned precinct.

Your precinct number wont change from year to year (unless you move) but the location of the polling site might, so its a good idea to look up the location before each election.

Voter registration card: You dont need to bring it to the polls, but it is still important. Not only does it tell you your precinct and the races for which you can vote, but the fact that you get a new one early in each even-numbered year is a sign that you are still registered to vote.

If you dont vote in a couple of elections you are dropped from the rolls, but you dont know that unless you realize that you did not receive a new card  a blue one in 2016. I had to tell several people on Super Tuesday that they werent registered, and all were holding orange cards, which were issued in 2014.

(Also, election officials love people who bring their cards because we can scan them instead of typing in information, speeding up the process.)

Change of address: If you move, be sure you change your address with the elections office and receive a new voter registration card. In any case, you must vote in the precinct in which you are registered. If you dont file a change of address, you must vote in your old precinct and ask there for a form to change your address. If you do have a new card, vote in your new precinct.

Your name: The Texas Voter ID law requires that the name on your official identification  drivers license, military ID, gun license, etc.  match your voter registration. If your voter registration has, say, a middle name but your Texas ID has a middle initial, you will be asked to fill out a form to change your voter registration to match your Texas ID. As long as its substantially similar, its not mandatory, but if you dont do it we are required to ask every time you vote.

If you find this information helpful, please share it with friends and family. Maybe it can help speed up the voting process just a little so more people will vote with less frustration.

Glenda Wolin is a former Express-News assistant city editor who is now a volunteer deputy registrar and election judge for the Bexar County Elections Department.
The issue is less desperate than in the bad old days of deep Texas drought (last year), yet it is still welcome news that Mexico has settled a long-standing debt  of water.

A 1944 treaty between the United States and Mexico said the U.S. is entitled to a third of Rio Grande water from six Mexican tributaries.

This amounted to 1.75 million acre-feet over five years. But Mexico, drought stricken itself, used more than its allotment and owed this country 263,000 acre-feet.

It took awhile to satisfy the debt, but this is an example where good bilateral relations can pay dividends, despite where Donald Build a Wall Trump wants to take the country.

(Psst, Trump: Did you know that treaties with Mexico prevent it or the U.S. from building within the rivers flood plains and that, in Texas, most land along the border is privately owned? Take them through eminent domain?)

Officials with the United States Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission say that Mexico repaid the water on Jan. 25.

And this will help farmers and ranchers in the Rio Grande Valley in particular. They need to rely on accurate notifications of how much water they can receive, said U.S. Commissioner Edward Drusina.

Getting this debt paid has been a thorn in Texas water users side. Ensuring that there is no more double-dipping should be a priority.

So should this. How about less talk of walls and beefed-up border security using Texas state troopers and more bilateral talks that actually solve problems?
The Manitoba Legislature will end its session on Tuesday March 15th and sometime between then and March 22nd a provincial election will begin with Election Day being April 19th. Its been four and a half years since the last provincial election in 2011 and a great deal has happened during that time.

Not long after the election Manitobans had one of the largest tax increases in our provinces history imposed on them when Greg Selinger extended the PST to items such as home insurance. A year later, he increased the PST from 7% to 8%.

The PST increase and the refusal to hold a referendum led to a summer long sitting as Progressive Conservative MLAs stood up for Manitobans and remained in the legislature for the longest spring session in our provinces history. As House Leader for the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives I was proud to work as a team with my colleagues to ensure Manitobans frustration over this tax increase and broken promise were heard.

Those actions helped expose cracks within the NDP and by the end of 2014 the divisions were on full display as a rebellion within the NDP took hold and senior cabinet ministers in Greg Selingers government quit, leading to a leadership race. While Mr. Selinger hung on to his leadership, the divides in the NDP remained and Manitobans now have a government that is more divided and dysfunctional than ever before.

During all of this, there were many local issues that continued to be a priority. The growth of our region, while positive, brings its own challenges. While I was glad that the push to get the emergency room at the Bethesda Hospital expanded finally met with success after many years of community advocacy, the redesigned entrance to the main hospital has caused many difficulties for those who are mobility challenged.

Many residents also expressed concern over the past several years about the growing level of debt in Manitoba as well as how Manitoba Hydro is being operated under the NDP government. They worry about what the debt means to their children and their grandchildren and those are concerns that need to be addressed by the next government.

Over the past four and a half years my wife Kim and I have again been overwhelmed by the kind and caring nature of our region. We witness the generosity to others almost daily and have experienced many kind words and prayers from so many. We feel incredibly grateful to represent the residents of our region in the Manitoba Legislature.

April 19th will be the day that Manitobans not only make a judgment about the past performance of the government but look to the future of our province. The optimism that I feel for our region extends to our entire province and my hope is that there will be change for the better following the election. In our democracy that decision rests where it should, with the voters themselves. April 19th is, as it should be, about Manitobans and the future of their province.
ALEXANDRIA, Va.  This week NACS told policymakers about industry concerns with a proposed rule published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that includes problematic new eligibility standards for retailers participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

The proposed [SNAP] rule would make tens of thousands of small businesses ineligible to participate in the Program. Small businesses will be harmed and SNAP beneficiaries, who rely on these small stores in both urban and rural environments, will lose options they need to feed their families, wrote NACS in a letter to the chairman and ranking member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies, and the chairman and ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee.

As previously reported by NACS, on February 17, the U.S. Department of Agricultures Food & Nutrition Service (FNS) published a proposed rule altering eligibility requirements for retailers participating in SNAP. While the proposal codifies the 2014 Farm Bill provisions, which NACS supported, it also makes other changes to retailer eligibility requirements that Congress never intended to address in the 2014 Farm Bill. The proposal would impede neighborhood retailers ability to participate in the program, which in turn would hinder food accessibility for SNAP recipients that use their benefits at these small format retail locations.

It appears that FNS is trying to push small retailers out of the SNAP program altogether, for no sound public policy reason, NACS wrote to Congress, adding that Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Undersecretary Kevin Concannon recently testified before the House Appropriations Committee that there are more small stores participating in SNAP than we really need.

The USDAs SNAP proposal codifies the 2014 Farm Bill depth of stock provisions, which require retailers to stock 7 varieties of products in each of the four staple food categories. Problematically, the proposal also includes several changes that were neither required nor envisioned by the 2014 Farm Bill.

The proposal redefines the term staple foods and limits the items that may count as staple foods for depth of stock determinations. Under the proposal, multiple ingredient items (e.g. soups or frozen dinners) would not count towards depth of stock requirements. The proposal also expands the definition of accessory foods to include foods consumed between meals, like snacks (e.g. hummus and pretzel packs).

Because accessory and multiple ingredient foods may not be counted as staple foods for depth of stock determinationsthe proposal essentially narrows the universe of acceptable foods that a retailer can stock to participate in SNAP, ultimately raising the stocking numbers beyond the numbers established by Congress.

Next week in Washington during the NACS Government Relations Conference, industry stakeholders will be communicating to members of Congress and their staffs that convenience stores play a fundamental role in SNAP, particularly for low-income Americans who live in rural or urban environments. By making it increasingly difficult for small format retailers to participate in SNAP, the proposal would essentially punish SNAP beneficiaries by requiring them to travel outside of their local neighborhoods where larger format retailers may not exist.

A memorandum analyzing the proposal is available online exclusively for NACS members.
NEW YORK  After years of trying to appeal to a more health-conscious crowd, Burger King is moving away from wraps, salads and smoothies to focus on what it knows best: inexpensive burgers and fries.

The Wall Street Journal reports that BK is returning to its roots, along with the addition of hot dogs, after figuring out what it wants to be: a fast-food chain.

BK hasnt focused on U.S. expansion for several years, with roughly 7,100 locations, mainly because of a menu that had grown too complicated, notes the news source. Now, according to Alex Macedo, president of Burger King North America, the QSR has the potential to add thousands of new locations in the United States over the next five years.

In a moment when a lot of brands in quick service are trying to become more fast casual, were taking an opposite view, Macedo said in announcing the addition of hot dogs to the menu.

Management changes at BKs parent company, Restaurant Brands International Inc., are also helping the company become more focused on its core competencies. In 2010, the chain launched more than 30 limited-time offers and 20 permanent items to its menu, which complicated kitchens and failed to attract new diners. At some points we were launching so many things we didnt have time to talk about them on TV, Macedo told the news source.

In 2013, BK offered lower-calorie Satisfries, which barely lasted a year due to poor sales. And in 2014, the chain stopped selling apple cranberry salads due to lack of customer interest. We made a bunch of mistakes and we learned a lot, Macedo told the news source. WSJ continues that through focus groups and surveys, BK executives found that customers wanted the chain to stick to its original identity. Two years ago you didnt see any mention of flame-grilling in the restaurants. Its what made us special but we took it for granted, Axel Schwan, global chief marketing officer, told the WSJ.

Customer feedback also revealed something BK has struggled with: providing fast-food fast. The chain is working to reduce the average drive-thru wait time to less than three minutes from order to pick-up, writes WSJ, adding that the process to make fries alone was taking more than three minutes.

The process of going back to its fast-food roots wont deter BK from continue to try out new things in the future, but franchisees seem to be more comfortable with the new approach. We know who we are now, David Harper, a franchisee who operates 72 Burger Kings in several states, told the news source.
By Robin Broad, a Professor of International Development at the School of International Service, American University, Washington, D.C. Her most recent book, co-authored with John Cavanagh, is Development Redefined: How the Market Met Its Match. Originally published at Triple Crisis

In November 2015, just after President Obama finally stood up to the fossil fuel industry and rejected the TransCanada Corporations application for its tar sands pipeline through the United States, I issued a warning: In The Hill, I applauded the Obama decision and laid out the reasons why, under current trade and investment rules, TransCanada had grounds to sue the United States under the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). I hardly need remind readers that NAFTA launched the modern era of corporate-biased investment rules, and serves as the model for the investment chapter in the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) that now awaits votes in the U.S. Congress and in the legislative bodies of the 11 other TPP countries.

Lo and behold, TransCanada came to the same conclusion that I did. They hired a giant corporate K Street law firm, Sidley Austin, and in January 2016, the fossil-fuel giant put the U.S. government on notice of a potential lawsuit under the investment chapter of NAFTA. To get the U.S. governments attention, they claimed to have suffered $15 billion in losses because of the rejection. In TransCanadas notice of intent, they argue that the United States has never before rejected a cross-border pipeline and that repeated studies by the U.S. State Department showed that the pipeline would not have a deleterious environmental impact on climate. They conclude that the U.S. rejection of their pipeline, some seven years after their application, is a political decision and is not permitted under the NAFTA rules.

It is vital that people pause and ponder: TransCanada, in its legally justified yet totally outrageous reaction, is reminding us of the reality of the investment rules our governments, under heavy pressure from global corporations, have inserted into thousands of trade and investment agreements. And, we need to contemplate the assault on democracy that these rules and the TransCanada complaint represent.

Mull this over: In the United States, cross-border pipelines like the now-rejected TransPacific one, require a Presidential Permit. And, it is the U.S. State Department that makes such determinations. In November 2015, the U.S. State Department did precisely this in rejecting the pipeline. It cited concerns about the [pipelines] impact on local communities, water supplies, and cultural heritage sites. It argued that allowing the pipeline would significantly undermine our ability to continue leading the world in combatting climate change. The State Department also pointed out that the tar sands oil that would go through the pipeline was a particularly dirty source of fuel.

Suffice it to say, all these reasons are just and worthy and legitimate reasons for a government in a democracy to reject a proposed corporate project.

And, as I have pointed out in previous Triple Crisis blogs, there are many other egregious corporate lawsuits under investor-state rules that have undermined the democratic will of people in other countries. A broad set of groups in El Salvador, with allies in North America, are now in their seventh year of fighting a lawsuit by a Canadian-Australian mining firm, OceanaGold. Like the TransCanada suit, OceanaGolds case is attempting to undermine actions by the Salvadoran government to protect the environment, in this case from toxic gold mining that threatens the fragile water supplies of over half the Salvadoran public. Millions of dollars of Salvadoran taxpayer money later, the suit drags on.

Now, what do these outrageous cases mean for the upcoming vote in the U.S. Congress on the TransPacific Partnership? Republican leaders in Congress do not want to give a win to President Obama before the election, so they have signaled their plan to put off a vote on the pact until after the November 2016 Presidential elections and hold it instead in a so-called lame duck session of Congress, likely in December 2016. That means that it will likely be the current Republican-dominated House and Senate that vote on the TPP.

And, this is where it gets interesting in terms of U.S. politics. Most Republicans support the TPP and will vote for it, but certain tea party Republicans, who distrust both big government and big business, are opposed. Most Democrats in both houses of Congress oppose the TPP, but a few have been convinced that it will help business in their states and are currently in favor. Right now, a vote would be close. Hence, any new or stronger arguments against the pact could tilt the outcome.

Throw into this mix the current U.S. presidential race. So too could strong statements by U.S. presidential contenders have an influence. Bernie Sanders, the independent Senator from Vermont, has been opposed to NAFTA from the start and is a harsh and outspoken critic of the TPP and its investment chapter. Sanders has made this one of his campaign issues and Hillary Clinton, under heavy pressure from the more populist Sanders, said in the fall of 2015 that she would not support the TPP in its current form. Not surprisingly, given her past support of trade agreements, she has largely avoided the issue on the campaign trail. But the Democratic party base deeply opposes the agreement, and a broad coalition of citizen groups under the Citizens Trade Campaign is rallying people against it. On the Republican side, all the remaining candidates support the TPP save the frontrunner and likely Republican nominee, Donald Trump. Trump has attacked the TPP, charging that it will accelerate the shift of good U.S. jobs to Asia.

In the context of this fluid debate, it is crucial for academics, activists, politicians, and citizens in the United States and around the globe to speak out against this outrageous assault on democracy enshrined in the TPP. In the longer-run, we need a truly democratic set of rules to replace the current investor provisions in trade agreements, a new set of rules that do not give global corporations unfair advantage over people and the environment. This is not pie in the sky; promising alternatives have been raised in the trans-Atlantic trade negotiations that are going on right now.

In the short term, however, the current TPP strengthens these undemocratic rules. The TransCanada case offers new chilling evidence as to why these agreements are a danger to the environment, to workers, and to democracy, and why the TPP must be stopped.
John Gutfreund, Wall Street Pioneer, Dies at 86 Wall Street Journal

Stunning operation regenerates eyes lens BBC (David L)

How sliced meat drove human evolution Science Magazine (Chuck L)

Is Fukushimas exclusion zone doing more harm than radiation? BBC

China?

Suu Kyi ruled out as Myanmar president BBC

Is there any reason to hope for France? Vineyard of the Saker (Chuck L)

How Liberals Tried to Kill the Dream of Single-Payer New Republic

Lula and the BRICS in a fight to the death RT (resilc)

Syraquistan

Moscow, a rampart against the jihadists Volatire.net (Wat)

Missing Clinton E-Mail Claims Saudis Financed Benghazi Attacks Medium (Chuck L)

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Imperial Collapse Watch

2016. I saw the second part of the Democratic debate last night. Several impressions: Sanders keeps improving his game while Clinton stick to her tried and true tropes, particularly I have a plan which drives me nuts. Sanders at one point commended her for adopting plans similar to ones hed proposed earlier, and at another juncture, contrasted her having plans with his track record of bills and votes. The moderators asked tough questions, and did a pretty good job of keeping Clinton (and once in a while Sanders) from going on overly long. Someone who saw the earlier part said Clinton was asked what she would do if she were indicted, and she said that was not going to happen. I hope someone in the media asks the DoJ if theyve already made that determination (and if so, why did they give Bryan Pagliano immunity from prosecution if all the facts were known). I got the vibe and would like a reader sanity check, that Hillary seemed very uncomfortable, as if she resented being asked questions by her inferiors, as well as with the explicit Hispanic orientation. At the closing remarks, about 60% of the audience gave Sanders a standing ovation, while Clinton gave a tight smile and laughed. Despite the audience reaction, which was also generally more favorable to Sanders during the debate, I didnt find a single MSM outlet willing to call him the winner of the ones I checked (WaPo, WSJ, NYT, Politico).

Now Even Tofurky Has a Lobbyist Mother Jones (resilc)

Police shot Oregon protester in back but act was justified: prosecutor Reuters (EM)

Las Vegas Utilities Really Dont Want the Strip to Go Solar Wired

Virginia becomes first U.S. state to regulate fantasy sports Reuters (EM)

Peters Schiffs Delusional Forecast Michael Shedlock

Are Earnings Forecasting a Recession? Barry Ritholtz

Dont let the rally fool you: Commodity companies are still headed for a massive debt cliff Financial Post

CalPERS settles with Moodys for $130 million in ratings case Los Angeles Times (Matt)

Gunz

Pro-Gun Florida Woman Shot by 4-Year-Old Son New York Magazine (resilc)

Why Saudi Arabia Has No Intention To End The Oil Glut OilPrice

Class Warfare
By Joseph Joyce. Cross posted from Angry Bear

The IMF has issued a warning that increasing financial market turbulence and falling asset prices are weakening the global economy, which already faces headwinds due to the modest recovery in advanced economies, Chinas rebalancing, the weaker-than-expected growth impact from lower oil prices, and generally diminished growth prospects in emerging and low-income economies. In its report to the finance ministers and central bank governors of the Group of 20 nations before their meeting in Shangahi, the IMF called on the G20 policymakers to undertake bold multilateral actions to boost growth and contain risk. But will the IMF itself be prepared for the next crisis?

The question is particularly appropriate in view of the negative response of the G20 officials to the IMFs warning. U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Law sought to dampen expectations of any government actions, warning Dont expect a crisis response in a non-crisis environment. Similarly, Germanys Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schaeuble stated that Fiscal as well as monetary policies have reached their limitsTalking about further stimulus just distracts from the real tasks at hand.

The IMF, then, may be the first responder in the event of more volatility and weakening. The approval of the long-delayed 14th General Quota Review has allowed the IMF to implement increases in the quota subscriptions of its members that augment its financial resources. Managing Director Christine Lagarde, who has just been reappointed to a second term, has claimed the institution of new Fund lending programs, such as the Flexible Credit Line (FCL) and the Precautionary and Liquidity Line (PLL), has strengthened the global safety net. These programs allow the IMF to lend quickly to countries with sound policies. But outside the IMF, Lagarde claims, the safety net has become fragmented and asymmetric. Therefore, she proposes, Rather than relying on a fragmented and incomplete system of regional and bilateral arrangements, we need a functioning international network of precautionary instruments that works for everyone. The IMF is ready to provide more such a network.

But is a lack of liquidity provision the main problem that emerging market nations face? The Financial Times quotes Lagarde as stating that any assistance to oil exporters like Azerbaijan and Nigeria should come without any stigma, as They are clearly the victims of outside shocks in the form of collapses in oil prices. But outside shocks are not always transitory, and may continue over long periods of time.

There are many reasons to expect that lower commodity prices may persist. If so, the governments of commodity exporters that became used to higher revenues may be forced to scale down their spending plans. Debt levels that appeared reasonable at one set of export prices may become unsustainable at another. In these circumstances, the countries involved may face questions about their solvency.

But is the IMF the appropriate body to deal with insolvency? IMF lending in such circumstances has become more common. Carmen M. Reinhart of Harvards Kennedy School of Government and Christoph Trebesch of the University of Munich write that about 40% of IMF programs in the 1990s and 2000s went to countries in some stage of default or restructuring of official debt, despite the IMFs official policy of not lending to countries in arrears. Reinhart and Trebesch attribute the prevalence of continued lending (which has been called recidivist lending) in part to the Funds tolerance of continued non-payment of government debt.

More recently, the IMFs credibility suffered a blow due to its involvement with Greece and the European governments that lent to it in 2010. (See Paul Blustein for an account of that period.) The IMF s guidelines for granting exceptional access to a member stipulate that such lending could only be undertaken if the members debt was sustainable in the medium-term. The Greek debt clearly was not, so the Fund justified its lending on the grounds that there was a risk of international systemic spillovers. But the IMFs willingness to participate in the bailout loan of 2010 only delayed the eventual restructuring of Greek debt in 2012. The IMF now insists that the European governments grant Greece more debt relief before it will provide any more financial government.

Reinhart and Trebesch write that the IMFs involvement in chronic debt crises and in development finance may make it harder to focus on its original mission of providing credit in the event of a balance of payments crisis, its original mission. Moreover, its association with cases of long-run insolvency may taint all of its lending. This may explain the limited response to the IMFs programs of liquidity provision. Only Colombia, Mexico and Poland have shown an interest in the FCL, and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Morocco in the PLL.

Even if the IMF receives the power to implement new programs, therefore, its past record of lending may deter potential borrowers. This problem will be worsened if the IMF treats countries that need to adapt to a new global economy as temporary borrowers that only need assistance until commodity prices rise and they are back on their feet. The day when the emerging market economies routinely recorded high growth rates may have come to an end. If so, debt restructuring may become a more common event that needs to be addressed directly.
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., walks to the GOP weekly caucus on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Immigration is the hanging curveball Donald Trump knocked out of the park to propel himself into the role of Republican presidential front-runner.

U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart acknowledges he could be seen as the pitcher who served it up.

Trump's promise to "build a wall" to stop illegal immigration resounded with voters fed up with years of inaction as millions of people streamed a across the country's southern border.

During those years, Diaz-Balart, who represents eastern Collier County in the U.S. House, was one of the prime architects working on a range of fixes to the nation's broken immigration system.

By necessity, Diaz-Balart says, it was a complicated, nuanced approach with lots of moving parts.

Simply building a wall isn't the answer, he's always maintained. People can get around, over or under a wall. Plus, around 40 percent of the immigrants in the country illegally arrived here legally, then overstayed their welcome.

There's the question of what to do with the estimated 12 million people here illegally. Send them all back like Trump suggests? How? Deporting 10,000 people a day, it would take more than three years to deport everyone. And that's if they all came forward voluntarily, which they wouldn't.

Let them stay? There would have to be a significant penalty to be paid, or the plan would collapse under the weight of the "A" word  amnesty.

Rules regarding the hiring of legal immigrants and penalties for hiring illegal immigrants need to be revised.

Diaz-Balart has always insisted that immigration reform needs to take up all these facets if it is to have any chance of passing Congress and gaining the president's signature.

He and his colleagues in the House have refused to address one issue at a time, like building a wall first, then a year or two later tackling the other issues. It wouldn't become law because the president wouldn't sign it, Diaz-Balart said. Even if it did, the wall might not get built. The Secure Fence Act of 2006 calling for 700 miles of double tiered fencing was quickly watered down, for example.

His approach has been a comprehensive one, with benchmarks in place to make sure that border security happens first before other measures kick in.

But the fence is a tangible concept that Trump seized on early, drawing supporters who proceeded to rally around other Trump pronouncements, such as vows to get tough on trade.

His promises to temporarily stop accepting immigrants from Muslim nations and "bomb the hell" out of oil fields producing for ISIS aren't politically correct, but they capture the mood of voters fed up with Washington.

Diaz-Balart recognizes it.

"He's tapping into people's frustrations. The last number of years, Republican voters are very frustrated," Diaz-Balart said in advance of Thursday's Republican debate in Miami.

Had Diaz-Balart and other Republican leaders in Congress passed a "wall first" bill, even while knowing it would be vetoed, they might have blunted the Trump phenomenon before it got going.

Other action and inaction by Republicans in Congress have fueled Trump's rise. They haven't been aggressive in defunding the Affordable Care Act. They were unwilling to "shut down" the government over budget disagreements. They allowed the Iran nuclear deal to move forward without invoking the Senate's power to ratify treaties.

Diaz-Balart has consistently argued the Republican course of action was the best one available at the time, given the president's veto authority. "You can't underestimate the importance of having the White House," he said.

But after big primary wins Tuesday, most notably in Michigan, Trump is moving ever closer to winning his party's nomination, campaigning as an outsider who would do things differently.

A Jeb Bush supporter who has now thrown in with Marco Rubio, Diaz-Balart gets the appeal of the Trump mantra. '"Make America Great Again' is something people want," he said. "People don't want to accept that America is in decline."

But beyond his simple pronouncements, Trump isn't a conservative, he argues. Past praise for Hillary Clinton, advocating for universal health care, his views on eminent domain and defense of Planned Parenthood belie his claims to conservatism.

"The more you scratch the surface with Donald Trump, the closer his policies are to Barack Obama than to conservative principles," Diaz-Balart said.

Tonight's debate and the ensuing primary Tuesday are Rubio's last chance to salvage his campaign. Despite polls showing Rubio trailing Trump by double-digits, Diaz-Balart believes it can happen. "Florida would change the race. Florida is going to be a big, big prize."

And if he doesn't? If Trump wins? He shouldn't expect any help from Diaz-Balart beyond the hanging curve he already delivered. "I expect the nominee to be a conservative Republican. I still don't believe the Republican Party will nominate Donald Trump."

(Connect with Brent Batten at brent.batten@naplesnews.com, on Twitter@NDN_BrentBatten and at facebook.com/ndnbrentbatten)
Rex Gasteiger of RexAir shows onlookers his high-tech Cirrus SR22. Lorenzo Walker Institute of Technology drew a massive crowd for their Fly-In/Cruise-In/Pancake Breakfast Saturday morning at the Naples Airport. Lance Shearer/Special to the Daily News

SHARE Gorgeous vintage aircraft and cars, like this antique Mustange, were everywhere. Lorenzo Walker Institute of Technology drew a massive crowd for their Fly-In/Cruise-In/Pancake Breakfast Saturday morning at the Naples Airport. Lance Shearer/Special to the Daily News Jim Sipos of Naples inspects a vintage biplane. Lorenzo Walker Institute of Technology drew a massive crowd for their Fly-In/Cruise-In/Pancake Breakfast Saturday morning at the Naples Airport. Lance Shearer/Special to the Daily News Gorgeous vintage aircraft and cars were everywhere. Lorenzo Walker Institute of Technology drew a massive crowd for their Fly-In/Cruise-In/Pancake Breakfast Saturday morning at the Naples Airport. Lance Shearer/Special to the Daily News Dr. Ken Carper directs the New Horizons Band. Lorenzo Walker Institute of Technology drew a massive crowd for their Fly-In/Cruise-In/Pancake Breakfast Saturday morning at the Naples Airport. Lance Shearer/Special to the Daily News Related Photos Photos: Pancake Breakfast, Car and Plane Show in Naples

By Lance Shearer, Citizen Correspondent

For most of the morning, the big warplanes sat on the runway at Naples Municipal Airport, side by side with exotic and vintage cars, while the crowd wandered up and down the tarmac, marveling at all the beautiful machines. But at 11 o'clock, the four T-28s, retired military trainers, fired up their powerful engines and headed up into the sky.

At the fifth annual Lorenzo Walker Fly-In/Cruise-In and Pancake Breakfast, there was a lot going on. The event brought in more than 1,200 people to view vintage and performance automobiles, and exotic aircraft, as well as chow down on a pancake breakfast. Most of the pancakes were prepared by culinary students at Lorenzo Walker Technical College, the sponsor of the event, although "celebrity flippers" included Collier County Schools Superintendent Kamela Patton, Naples Mayor John Sorey, and Jean Walker, whose uncle founded the school, until recently known as the Lorenzo Walker Institute of Technology, or LWIT, and is its namesake.

"My dad was born here, when there were just 124 people in Naples," said Jean Walker, a mind-boggling concept for someone who looks around the community now. At the grill stations set up alongside the runway, students cooks flipped flapjacks and sausage patties as the New Horizons Band, a brass ensemble, serenaded breakfasters while they ate. Band director Ken Carper played a solo on the piccolo trumpet when the band performed "The Stars and Stripes Forever," which he announced is the national march, but better known to many as "be kind to your fine-feathered friends."

Most people scarfed down their breakfasts and went right back to gawking at the automobiles, arrayed on either side of the runway, with the planes in a line down the middle. Everything from vintage MGs to late-model exotic Maseratis and Ferraris, many with their hoods open to show off the power plants inside, stood in long rows. Bob Goldman displayed his 1932 Rolls Royce Shooting Brake, with a wood-framed cabin designed to go off-road for sportsmen.

"It's really an early version of the SUV," said Goldman.

Craig Bamberg showed off his 1997 BMW Z3, tricked out like the "Bond car" from the movie "Goldeneye." The missiles in their launcher, ejection seat, and parachute for emergency braking are just for show, he said. Dick Reynolds came in his 1941 Packard 110 Coupe, and Christina Olszewski showed her 2011 Dodge Charger, fitted out like a Decepticon from the "Transformers" movies.

But the event was being held at an airport, and along with the cars, the aircraft display was a tremendous draw. The runway where the planes stood was marked with thousands of skid marks, souvenirs of countless landings. Broadcaster Neal Boortz said he prefers to land his Carbon Cub bush plane on the grass next to the runway, which saves wear and tear on the tires.

"Every time you land, it costs you $20 in rubber," he said.

Christina Poelzl, visiting from Austria, was thrilled at the chance to sit in the cockpit of Rex Gasteiger's Cirrus SR22, a high performance plane with a $750,000 price tag.

"Just don't start up the engine," he cautioned her.

Across the grass outside the general aviation terminal, a second airshow was visible at a distance, where hundreds of millions of dollars worth of corporate and private jets sat waiting to whisk their owners off.

But for many, seeing the warbirds taxi out on their tricycle undercarriages, and then roar into the sky in pairs, was worth getting up early on a weekend. Mick Thorstenson of Marco Island, joined in formation by a total of four retired military T-28s, made several low-level passes over the runway. Thorstenson roared overhead one time trailing a plume of smoke, as though his plane had taken a hit from ground fire.

Back on the ground, the Russian Air Force was also represented, with Tim Brutsche of Estero, his coveralls embroidered with the handle "Chilly Dog," displaying his Soviet fighter, which flew in Kurdistan, he said. His was the first aircraft that greeted visitors as they paid their $10 and entered the exhibit, and along with the red star on the tail fin, the plane grabbed attention with a rubber chicken impaled on the spike protruding from the leading edge of the portside wing.

The Aero, made in Prague, is capable of about 500 knots, or .82 Mach, although at that speed it burns 350 gallons of fuel per hour, said Brutsche. "Economy cruising speed is about 350 mph, and that brings fuel consumption down to 150 gallons an hour," he said.

Denise Duzick, administrator of Lorenzo Walker Technical College, said the morning was a great chance to let people know about the school's programs.

"We have an aviation program, and auto technology. We also have a culinary school," she said. "It showcases what we can do, and we got amazing cooperation from the airport. They gave the airport to us on a silver platter."
A wood stork walks through water in the pond cypress stretch of Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in this 2010 file photo. Staff file photo

SHARE vector illustration of a clock switch to summer time daylight saving time begins

1. Don't forget to 'Spring forward' this weekend

On Sunday, March 13, it's time to set our clocks ahead one hour for Daylight Saving Time (DST).

DST starts on the second Sunday of March, when our clocks will jump forward an hour at 2 a.m. It ends on first Sunday of November.

With the extended sunny evening also comes the semi-annual debate over whether the nearly 100-year-old practice is outdated.

DST started in 1918 after "war time" was established as a way to conserve fuel. It has since been adjusted twice.

Although DST has been justified as an energy-conservation measure, studies conducted by University of California researchers on Indiana before 2006, when the state operated under three different time regimes, and on Sydney, Australia, which extended DST to accommodate the 2000 Summer Olympic Games, show either no difference in energy consumption or a small increase in power usage during the months immediately after clocks were moved an hour ahead.

And for the record, spring doesn't actually begin until March 20.

2. Exotic Pet Amnesty Day set for March 12 at Zoo Miami

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and Zoo Miami are holding an Exotic Pet Amnesty Day on March 12 at the zoo.

The goal of the event is to reduce the number of nonnative species being released into the wild by inviting the public to surrender any exotic animals they have been keeping as pets and can no longer care for  no penalties and no questions asked.

This free event is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in front of the zoo at 12400 SW 152 St. in Miami. Admission to the zoo is not included and is not required to attend the event. Live animals will be on display and experts will be on hand with information about caring for exotic pets, responsible pet ownership and potential ecological impacts of invasive species in Florida.

Surrendered exotic pets will be accepted between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. and checked by a veterinarian before being made available for adoption that same day to pre-registered, experienced individuals who are capable of caring for them. Animals that will be accepted for surrender include reptiles, amphibians, mammals, birds, fish and invertebrates. Domestic animals, such as cats or dogs, will not be accepted.

Animals will be made available for adoption after 2 p.m. Exotic pet adopters need to be experienced and must have already applied and been approved by the FWC. Potential adopters should bring their acceptance letters with them. Becoming an adopter is free, but people are required to register a minimum of four days prior to the event to adopt an animal. Adopter applications can be found at MyFWC.com/Nonnatives.

For more information about Zoo Miami, visit ZooMiami.org.

3. Judge approves settlement in Collier property rights case

A judge approved a settlement Wednesday in a long-standing property rights lawsuit that pitted environmentalists against ranch owners, and put Collier County taxpayers on the hook for $92 million.

The ruling by Collier Circuit Judge Cynthia Pivacek capped years of legal wrangling in the case that had bounced on procedural grounds between circuit and appellate courts.

But after hearing two days of testimony this week  including from environmental consultants, a land planner, hydrologist and a Florida panther biologist  Pivacek approved the settlement, ruling against environmental groups with which she sided in a 2014 order that threw out the settlement.

"At last," HHH Ranch attorney John Vega said.

HHH Ranch owners sued the county in 2008, claiming the county's landmark rural growth plan violated their property rights by banning rock mining and cutting the number of homes that could be built at the 1,110-acre ranch north of Interstate 75 and east of Collier Boulevard. Environmental groups intervened in the lawsuit.

At the heart of the settlement is a swap of preserve land between the ranch and more than 2,500 acres owned by State Road 846 Land Trust along Immokalee Road near the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.

The Florida Wildlife Federation and the Collier County Audubon Society, now known as Audubon of the Western Everglades, argued that the swap amounts to a sweetheart deal that preserves less environmentally valuable land and shortchanges endangered species like the Florida panther and red-cockaded woodpecker.

Landowners say the swap is better because it not only protects panthers and woodpeckers, it also preserves more important wetlands for protected wood storks near Corkscrew.
Fertilizer by the box and the bagful is available at local home improvement stores. Lance Shearer/Eagle Correspondent

SHARE Landscaping and walkways remain uncompleted in this file photo. Lance Shearer/Eagle Correspondent Landscaping and walkways remain uncompleted in this file photo. Lance Shearer/Eagle Correspondent Fertilizer by the box and the bagful is available at local home improvement stores. Lance Shearer/Eagle Correspondent

By Alexi C. Cardona

The Marco Island City Council on Monday voted unanimously to approve a resolution adopting a settlement agreement between the city and the Esplanade.

The parties had been at odds for more than a year over the city's construction of the Smokehouse Bay Bridge and the resulting property damage and encroachment on the Esplanade property.

The settlement awards the Esplanade a total of $83,915.43 for easement rights, the Esplanade's claim of loss of riparian rights and attorney's fees. Under the agreement, the city also agreed to restore the Esplanade property that was affected by bridge construction.

In turn, the city was granted easement rights to the Esplanade property for the purpose of completing the bridge project. The easement area includes a 5-foot strip adjacent to the bridge retaining wall running 170 ft. along the Esplanade property line and the area extending the existing Esplanade sidewalk to the bridge walkway.

On Monday night, the council also approved 6-1 a resolution that would regulate the use of fertilizers containing nitrogen or phosphorous on the island. Councilor Victor Rios voted against the ordinance because he disagreed with requiring individuals to obtain permits from the city to apply fertilizer.

Under the ordinance, fertilizer cannot be applied within 10 feet of ponds, streams, storm drains, watercourses, lakes, canals or wetlands. No fertilizers containing phosphorous or nitrogen can be applied to turf or landscape plants during the rainy season.

The ordinance states that fertilizer containing phosphorous cannot be applied unless a soil or tissue deficiency has been verified by an approved test. Application of phosphorous fertilizer cannot exceed 0.25 lbs. per 1,000 ft. in one application. Fertilizer applied within the city can contain no less than 50 percent slow-release nitrogen.

The city will provide educational materials and presentations informing residents and landscape professionals about the effects of pesticides, fertilizers and overwatering in the environment.

Anyone intending to apply fertilizer must obtain the proper permits from the city. Landscape professionals need to be certified and registered with the city to apply fertilizer, and they must undergo a six-hour training program in the Florida-Friendly Best Management Practices for Protection of Water Resources by the Green Industries offered by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection through the University of Florida Extension program.

In other business

The Marco Island City Council unanimously voted down a resolution approving a three-phase approach to improvements at the Marco Island Town Center.

According to staff reports, about eight months ago it was discovered that the plaza had land development code violations pertaining to parking requirements. The plaza currently has 508 parking spaces, but a pending application to open a new restaurant in a former retail space requires there to be a total of 713 parking spaces.

The city's land development code allows for 20 percent of the shopping center's floor area to be composed of restaurants. That percentage can be exceeded if the plaza provides the necessary additional parking. The Marco Island Town Center's restaurant space makes up 27 percent of the center's floor area.

Staff reports state that if outdoor seating were removed, the plaza would be in compliance with code. Mike Wood, owner of the Marco Island Town Center, objected to eliminating outdoor seating.

His proposal for a three-phase improvement plan, which includes plans to "explore options within the code to increase the parking, such as re-stripping, interconnections, walkway to rear parking lot, off-site parking agreements and reducing unpermitted outdoor seating," was rejected by council.

Councilor Larry Honig hoped Wood would have presented council with actions taken to solve the parking problem.

"I hoped you'd come here and knock our socks off with what you intended to do with center, and that hasn't happened," Honig said. "You own arguably one of the most important parcels on Marco Island, which is one of the hottest properties in one of the hottest parts of one of the hottest states, and it doesn't look it."
SHARE

By Carrie Kerskie

Receiving notification from the IRS that you are a victim of IRS tax return fraud is something all tax payers dread this time of year. So what should you do when it happens to you? Here are four crucial steps to take to prevent further damage.

IRS identity theft affidavit

If you are unable to file electronically you will be required to file your paper return by mail.

Regardless of how you file you will need to complete and submit the IRS Form 14039, also known as the identity theft affidavit. This form is used to notify the IRS about current or potential identity theft issues that may affect your current or federal tax returns.

The form provides two options:

A. You are a victim of identity theft and it is affecting your federal tax records.

B. You have experienced an event that could in the future affect your federal tax return.

If you were notified by the IRS that they have received a previous or duplicate tax return then you would choose option "A." If you are a victim of non-IRS related identity theft or if your information had been exposed through a data breach you would choose option "B." Complete the remainder of the form answering the appropriate questions. Make of a copy of the completed form and mail the original to the IRS using certified-return-receipt. This way you have proof that the IRS received your form.

Once the IRS receives the form they will send you an acknowledgment letter. The IRS will also send your case to the IRS identity theft victim assistance organization where they will work on your case. Once resolved you will receive written notification from the IRS. The process typically takes 120 to 180 days. Before the next years filing season you will receive a letter (CP01A) providing you with an IP (Identity Protection) PIN to help protect your future tax return. To download Form 14039 visit irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f14039.pdf

Fraud alert

Your next step is to contact one of the three major credit bureaus and place a free 90-day fraud alert on your credit reports. The fraud alert will place a disclaimer on your credit report notifying a potential creditor there is a higher risk of fraud.

You also have the option of adding a current telephone number to the disclaimer so a potential credit can call you for verification before issuing new credit. A fraud alert will not prevent future identity theft. It may reduce the risk of new account fraud or other credit related fraud.

The fraud alert should not be confused with a credit freeze. They are two very different options. While a fraud alert places a disclaimer on your credit report a credit freeze prevents any new creditors from seeing your credit report.

If the potential creditor cannot see the credit report odds are the new credit account will not be approved. A credit freeze is much stronger than a fraud alert but it is only recommended if you will not be applying for new or extended credit or a loan refinance in the next year or two. With a credit freeze you will be required to contact the credit bureau or bureaus before applying for new credit. You must provide the bureaus with the PIN, a number that is assigned when you initiated the freeze, and ask them to temporarily lift the freeze. This allows the potential credit to receive a copy of your credit report. However, this may delay the application process and you may incur fees per credit bureau each time you lift the freeze.

My SSA

As stated earlier, a fraud alert will not prevent future identity theft especially noncredit related identity theft such as Social Security fraud. To reduce the risk, or potentially prevent, Social Security identity theft you have two options.

1. Set up a My SSA account with the Social Security Administration at SSA.gov.

2. Tell the Social Security Administration that you want to block electronic access.

You can choose the option that best suits your needs and your technology comfort level. Failure to do either one will enable an identity thief to set up an account on your behalf. Once established the thief can apply for benefits or change your depositing account. This can be prevented by simply either setting up the account yourself or opting-out of electronic access.

Account takeover

Account takeover has increased significantly in the past year. Especially account takeover of telephone accounts such as landlines or wireless service. To take over your account an identity thief simply calls the general customer service telephone number and, pretending to be you, asks to set up online access to the account. Most carriers only ask for date of birth, address or Social Security number for account verification. All of these the identity theft already has as it was used to file a fraudulent tax return. Once the thief has control of your account online he call forwards your telephone to his mobile number.

You might be thinking, how can he make money? Remember the fraud alert where a potential creditor is supposed to call you for verification before issuing new credit? Now the criminal will receive the call. Not you. Once your telephone number has either been call forwarded or ported to another carrier the thief will receive all of your fraud calls including those from your bank or credit card company. Your best defense is to set up online access to all of your accounts. This may include bank, credit card, utility or brokerage accounts as they too are susceptible to online account takeover.

Another option is to ask your telephone carrier what security measure they provide to protect your account. This may be a PIN or passcode or a secret question that will be asked in addition to your personal information before providing account details or account changes. Just remember to choose a PIN, passcode or security question answer that cannot be discovered through a simple Internet search. An example of this would be the answer to the question "what was your high school mascot?" A simple Google search will typically provide the answer. A better choice would be to use fictitious or incorrect answers. Now you just have to remember the fictitious or incorrect answers that you used.

Carrie Kerskie is a sought-after speaker, trainer and consultant on identity theft and data privacy. She is the author of "Your Public Identity: Because Nothing is Private Anymore." Kerskie is the director of the Identity Fraud Institute at Hodges University and president of Kerskie Group Inc. You can contact her at 239-435-9111 or ckerskie@hodges.edu. Follow her on Twitter@CarrieKerskie.com.
"Figure in Black and White" oil on canvas, 16 by 21 inches by Richard Segalman. The Harmon-Meek Gallery will feature Segalman's solo exhibition through March 18.

SHARE Part of the "Seminoles & The Historic Smallwood Store" photography exhibition by John Gillan. The collection contains 45 original images, taken with 4-by-5 film. Opening reception will take place Friday.

18th annual Student Art Exhibition: The Bower School of Music & The Arts at FGCU will feature the opening reception for the Student Art Exhibition from 5-7 p.m. March 17. Showing in the Main Gallery, this exhibition features artwork chosen from over 300 submissions by FGCU students. Media represented in this annual exhibition includes drawing, painting, mixed media, photography, ceramics, digital media, printmaking and sculpture. This event celebrates the artwork created by students at Florida Gulf Coast University. 10501 FGCU Blvd. S., Fort Myers. 239-590-7199. artgallery.fgcu.edu

"A Walk on the Wildside": Native Visions Galleries present a tribute to famed wildlife artist and author John Seery-Lester. Considered "the Godfather of Wildlife Art," Seery-Lester will be signing his most recent book, "The Legendary Hunts of Theodore Roosevelt" from 5-9 p.m. Friday at the gallery. Online registration required. From noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, Seery-Lester will present an open house and public painting demonstration. NativeVisions.com

"All the Hues of the Sunset": Through March 31 at the artist Kathleen Bradford Studio-Gallery, 4259 Bonita Beach Road, Bonita Springs. Free. 239-776-6844. kbartweb@gmail.com. artistkb.com

Art Fest Naples Awards announced: The Art Fest Naples 19th annual show was held Jan. 23-24 at Fleischmann Park. The juried show showcased fine art from 140 artists in a variety of media. The judges were Cavan Guenther, a Naples jewelry and mixed media artist, and Lynn VanSciver, a Fort Myers painter and mixed media artist. The award winners for Best in Show category were Andres Arango, Fiber-Wearable; and Marcus Thomas, painting. For Excellence, Marc Damon, photography; and Gert Olson, sculpture. The Art Fest Naples proceeds benefit organizations, including the Special Needs Children's Fund. The 20th annual Art Fest Naples is Jan. 21-22, 2017, at Fleischmann Park, 1600 Fleischmann Blvd., Naples. artfestnaples.com. 239-634-2337

Friends of the Library West Wing Art Gallery: The Friends of the Library of Collier County will feature an art exhibit by artist Eileen Montbleau, who is a member of the Naples Art Association, a lifetime member of the Peabody Art Association and a member of The National Museum of Women in the Arts. The exhibit runs through March 31 and showcases oil and watercolor paintings. The West Wing Art Gallery is at the Naples Regional Library, 650 Central Ave., Naples. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 239-262-8135. collier-friends.org

Segalman's annual exhibition: Harmon-Meek Gallery will present Richard Segalman's 35th annual solo exhibition through March 18. Segalman has been known to Naples art audiences since the late 1950s. This exhibition of new paintings celebrates the American master whose works are included in more than 40 museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and is at 599 U.S. 41 N., No. 309, Naples. 239-261-2637. harmonmeekgallery.com

Seminoles & The Historic Smallwood Store: This art exhibit features original 4-by-5-inch Polacolor Emulsion Transfers that document the life of Ted Smallwood and his relationship with the Seminole Indians in the early 1900s by award-winning photographer John Gillan. Gillan also will debut Seminole portraits, a collection that has been in the works for more than 15 years. Meet John at the Friday opening reception and join him for an artist's talk at 2 p.m. Saturday. The show is at the Arsenault Studio & Banyan Arts Gallery, 1199 Third St. S., Naples, and continues through March 28. 239-263-1214

Compiled by Sebastian Gonzalez
Artist Teresa Hewitt shows off her turtle "Mermaid Journey" during the "Turtles on the Town" Auction Gala Wednesday, March 9, 2016 in Naples. Exactly 50 unique fiberglass turtles were created by 50 artists to raise awareness of sea turtle nesting season last fall and to also raise money for The Community Foundation of Collier County, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, and the United Arts Council of Collier County. (Luke Franke/Staff)(Luke Franke/Staff)

By Harriet Howard Heithaus of the Naples Daily News

When the bidding reached the bronze loggerhead created by Kathy Spalding, it slowed down literally to a turtle crawl. But that crawl brought a $47,500 bid, the largest all evening to help the trio of local organizations behind Turtles on the Town.

Before her death in 2014 the internationally known artist, who called Naples home, had offered one of her own molds for the turtles that local artists embellished for the Turtles on the Town exhibition and auction. Then her family estate foundation donated a bronze Spalding sculpture to the cause.

Despite being one third the size of the resin turtles around it, she was the queen of the sea Wednesday evening on the grounds of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida. Bidding seesawed back and forth for a full five minutes until Maureen and Jim Murphy, friends of the artist, won the lifelike bronze, a familiar example of Spalding's aquatic art.

That sale marked the midpoint of a brisk auction made livelier by maracas at each place setting for nearly 300 patrons. Prices ranged from $5,000 to nearly $13,000 from among guests at the $500-a-seat dinner.

Eileen Connolly-Keesler, executive director of the Community Foundation, which suggested the plan to benefit it, the Conservancy, the United Arts Council of Collier County, said she wasn't sure how much the entire gala and auction had brought in. But the money was only a part of it, she said.

"I'm overwhelmed by the support the community and artists have given us, that three organizations could collaborate so beautifully on it and that such amazing art came out of this," she said.

Related: Artitude: Turtles on the Town swim off to auction after four months as public pets

Related: Collier artists turtles becoming county reptiles-in-residence

The bidders and artists far outnumbered the turtles, some of whom had already other obligations  permanent homes from patrons who took advantage of their rights to buy a turtle before the auction. But the entryway and tent were still a veritable bale of sea life from another world.

They swam above a Gulf Stream of buff carpet in streaks of pastel paint, undulating patches of tie-dye or coated with form-giving clay, shells and beads to become reptilian murals. It is "The Quest for Balance," warned one sculpture, with a metal disc of the planet artist Cesar Aguilera had added, hoisted onto the turtle's back by four small pachyderms.

Another, Tara O'Neil's "Turtle Dreams," carried a brood of hatchlings on her back above thriving blue sea, the dream of a ecologically sound world. Others simply reflected an artist's inspiration, such as Inez Hudson's homage to Vincent Van Gogh with a "Starry, Starry Night" turtle. As the sun set, lights trained on the sculptures gave them a pearly presence among guests.

Some patrons like Jane Berger of Naples had simply come to support the project. But Berger found the fact that so many families had trekked around the county to see all 50 turtles while they were on public display for four months a bonus

"That was really exciting  that for them it was about seeing the whole thing," she said. "I hope they make a lot of money for the groups, too"

Artist Dennis Goodman, who came as a guest of the Conservancy with his wife, Kristen, was there to support the project  "But I'm really excited to see what they go for," he added.

Joseph Kandel and his wife, Merry, had come in quest of one he had liked, but that turtle had been held back for an online auction. Some 15 turtles have been held back; they're open for hopeful owners until March 23 at turtlesonthetown.com/online-auction/

The Kandels had already been on several turtle hunts  "It was a delight," said Merry Kandel  and were happy to see more.

Artist Annabelle Johnson had risked cut fingers at least 12,000 times to create her "Shell-done," a glass mosaic tile turtle, and she had come with one hope: "I hope he gets purchased and donated to the Conservancy or the Naples Zoo, someplace where the public can enjoy him every day."

Daniel Portella, one of the movers who worked with every turtle of the 50 in this exhibition, said he was impressed by the turtles, but much more by the people who transformed them.

"What makes this so amazing is the artists. I was delivering these molds to living rooms to washrooms, wherever they had the room to work on them."
Seven times since 2006, Richard Milburn Academy of Florida has failed at running a charter school.

In Lee County, two RMA schools closed after administrators manipulated student grades. In the Tampa Bay-area, two RMA schools shut down due to poor academic performance. In Manatee County, one RMA school was shuttered after half of the graduating class received diplomas without earning enough credits.

Yet, in Floridas charter school system, RMA of Florida is allowed to continue operating and opening new campuses. Many of the same people responsible for the seven failures are now running two charter schools near Daytona Beach, receiving about $2.8 million in taxpayer money last school year.

The Richard Milburn Academy is seen at its former location in Fort Myers in August 2012. The charter school closed following an investigation that found students were receiving diplomas they had not earned. (Video frame grab provided by WFTX-TV Fox 4 Fort Myers)

For a company to close down these schools here and keep running schools somewhere else, why are they allowed to do that? asked Van Mitchell, whose son, Tyler, attended a now-closed RMA campus in Lee County.

That RMA still does business in Florida is but one example of cracks in Floridas charter system, a world in which critics say too many ill-prepared and ill-intentioned operators are failing the states students and taxpayers.

As charter schools have boomed in Florida  622 operated in 2013-14, up from 257 in 2003-04  many have also busted. Since charter schools were first permitted in 1996, 269 out of nearly 900 opened charter schools have closed, a failure rate of about 30 percent. That tally includes six schools closed in Lee County and two closed in Collier County.

Interactive database: Click here to get information about Florida charter schools that have closed since 2008 

Interactive map: Click here to get information about Florida charter schools that are still open 

The trend shows no sign of stopping, with the calendar year 2013 marking the most charter school failures to date, at 26.

? ? ?

To better understand Floridas charter school failings, the Daily News undertook a first-of-its-kind task, examining all charter schools that have closed since 2008. The newspaper reviewed hundreds of closure documents and financial records, analyzed academic performance data and interviewed more than 60 people invested in the charter school system.

Among the findings:

? Since 2008, 119 charter schools have closed because of financial reasons, academic failures, student safety concerns or administrative mismanagement. Before closing, those schools taught an estimated 14,000-plus students, the vast majority of whom were forced to relocate to neighboring schools, sometimes in the middle of the academic year.

? Financial shortfalls were the most common reason for closure, affecting 64 of the 114 schools, yet the state requires zero upfront funding commitment to open a charter campus. In addition, 38 charter school governing boards mismanaged funds, provided lax oversight or failed to properly account for their spending. Despite this, the state doesnt allow county school districts, which review and approve charter applications, to dig into the financial background of applicants.

? Academic failures prompted the closure of 45 schools, most of which received back-to-back state-issued F grades. Poor academic performance continues to dog the states worst-performing charter schools, about 7 percent of which received an F in 2012-13, compared to about 3 percent of all traditional public schools.

? Theres little in state law to prevent charter school operators that have already failed from receiving taxpayer money to try again. Should an applicant that has previously failed in Florida apply for a new school, its prior failure cant be cited as a reason to deny its application.

? There are virtually no qualification requirements for serving on a charter school governing board, which bears the ultimate responsibility for managing the tax dollars it receives in the form of per-student funding. In addition, once a charter application is approved and a contract is signed, neither the county school district nor the state has any control over who can serve as a charter school governing board member.

? While the state has heralded accomplishments by its many successful charter schools, it does little to document and inform parents about charter school failures. The only easily accessible, up-to-date information available to parents is a list buried on the Florida Department of Educations Web site. That list has just three pieces of information: the schools name, its home county and its date of closure.

Right now, the charter school movement in Florida is the Wild West in every sense, said Bill Sublette, chairman of the Orange County School Board and a former Republican chairman of the Florida House of Representatives Education Appropriations Subcommittee. Theres very little accountability, almost no control, and I think the Legislature is going to have to decide how to put in accountability measures.

Nearly two decades ago, the Florida Legislature allowed the creation of charter schools, hoping to foster educational innovation and offer parents alternative choices for their kids. Like traditional public schools, charter schools are tuition-free and receive state tax dollars for operation. Unlike traditional public schools, theyre overseen by independent, nonprofit governing boards and free of some state curriculum constraints.

Many of Floridas charter schools have proven successful both academically and financially.

In this October 2011 file photo, The Community Green charter school students measure the water level in a nearby pond in Lake Suzy. The charter school specializing in agriculture and science, closed its doors after five months. (Photo courtesy of the Arcadian newspaper)

In fact, 42 percent of graded charter schools received an A from the state in 2013, compared to 31 percent of traditional public schools. In 2012, the most recent year with available data, 88 percent of the nearly 500 charter schools with financial audits were operating in the black, according to the Florida Auditor General. And as charter advocates often argue, school failures are proof of the free market at work, weeding out bad operators while good operators succeed.

The beauty of the movement is that it allows for greater success and flexibility, and it does allow for failure, said state Rep. George Moraitis Jr., R-Fort Lauderdale, vice chairman of a Florida House committee dealing with school choice. Unlike a traditional public school that requires a heroic act to close it down, parents can vote with their feet on charter schools.

Still, its the bottom fringes that most concern many familiar with the charter school system. State laws, they say, dont allow for enough scrutiny of charter applicants or oversight of opened schools. As a result, too many charter operators incapable of running a school are getting into the market, and county school districts arent allowed to intervene when problems pop up, they say.

Teachers, administrators, and parents of students at The Community Green charter school attend a meeting in November 2011 to discuss issues arising from the school's operations in Lake Suzy. The charter school that specialized in agriculture and science closed its doors after five months. (Photo courtesy of the Arcadian newspaper)

Some state legislators and education officials say theyve made significant progress keeping potential failures out of the market, with the results likely to be seen in the near future. A model charter school application implemented in 2010, for example, has helped county school districts better scrutinize applicants. As evidence, only one-quarter of applications were approved in 2012, compared to about one-half in the mid-2000s.

I think were all working to get to a place where theres a zero rate of failure, and I think were moving in the right direction, said Adam Miller, executive director of the Florida Department of Educations Office of Independent Education and Parental Choice. I think weve seen improvements not only in the process, but weve also seen improvement in terms of results and performance.

But Florida is far from close to Millers goal of zero failures. And some of those failures have been spectacular, none more so than The Community Green charter school in DeSoto County.

The worst-case scenario

By the end of her two kids first week at The Community Green, during which her daughter had four different kindergarten teachers, Debbie Sopko knew DeSoto Countys newest charter school was doomed to fail.

The Community Green charter school in DeSoto County closed after just five months in operation. (Corey Perrine/Staff)

Billed as a unique learning environment, with a curriculum that returned students to the rural regions farming roots, The Community Green attracted more than 150 students when school started in August 2011.

They had a lot of ideas for positive programs for the kids, getting the kids out of the classroom and working together, Sopko recalled earlier this year.

The DeSoto County School District rejected the schools application three times, concerned that its academic framework didnt meet state standards. The Community Greens founders appealed twice to the Florida Charter School Appeal Commission and the Florida Board of Education, the two arbiters of all application appeals.

Both appeals boards agreed with the county in 2010. But in early 2011, after The Community Greens team resubmitted its revised application, the two state boards sided with the charter school, saying its curriculum and performance measurement processes now met state requirements. It opened the following August.

Immediately, the districts fears were realized. A week after school started, Daniel Dubbert, a DeSoto County School District administrator, toured the campus and documented his visit in a letter.

It read in part:

? One classroom had visibly dirty floors [actual small mounds of dirt]. It is evident and common that the students sit on the floor for instruction.

? Dirty dishes were evident outside of several classrooms in the open corridors.

? Within [the school directors] office, there were two female students lying face down on the floor whom the director indicated were ill.

In reality, the problems were even worse.

Students went without pens, pencils and paper. Children bullied teachers and peers, shouting slurs based on race and sexual orientation, and those sent for punishment received food, hugs and other positive attention from the administration, parents told school district administrators. Parents also reported kids swam unattended in a pond where alligators had been seen. And a county health inspector wrote one bathroom had dried feces on the toilet and soiled paper on the floor with foul odor.

The Community Greens governing board voted to voluntarily close the school before the start of the second semester, but it didnt take responsibility. Rather, the governing board chairman, Robert Kluson, listed several shortcomings by the DeSoto County School District and failings of Florida law as the reasons for shutting down.

The inadequate working relationship with the district was a strain, however the lack of services and the accompanying monetary impact proved to be too great to continue school services, Kluson wrote.

To Sopko, who placed blame squarely on the charter school operators, the experience was a lesson in the potential pitfalls of charter schools.

When you send your kids to a school, you think theyre going to be safe, theyre going to learn, Sopko said. I didnt think to check up on everything because I assumed that if a school was allowed to open, my kids were going to be OK there.

The application conundrum

To most involved in Floridas charter school system, preventing cases like The Community Green begins well before the first bell rings.

To open a charter school, an individual or group submits an application, which addresses 19 key components of operation, ranging from curriculum to financial budgeting to governance.

Its up to county school districts to review those applications, which often cover a few hundred pages, and judge whether the written proposal meets a state rubric covering those 19 components. Based on that review, the county school district then makes a recommendation to its school board, which votes on whether to approve each charter application.

To school districts, its a setup fraught with problems.

To start, school districts arent allowed to make judgment calls on whether they believe an applicant can actually execute whats put down on paper.

Some charter application reviewers said they can nibble on the edges of whats allowed, often by conducting interviews with applicants. A bad interview, marked by a lack of knowledge about the proposed school or ignorance about Floridas charter school law, can result in extra scrutiny on the written application. That added scrutiny can, in turn, lead to a denial for more minor application issues.

But in the end, should an applicant appeal a denial to the states two review boards, whats written in the application is all that matters.

We believe (the rubric) is not specific enough for us to tease out if an organization or individual has the skills necessary for educating the children, said Leslie Brown, who oversees the Broward County School Districts charter schools department. If it does not counter what the rubric requires, theres very little chance of us actually denying it.

For school districts, theres also little assurance that a charter applicant will deliver on whats promised.

Once an application is approved and a contract is signed, school districts lose virtually all control over finances, academics and management. In fact, the day after a contract is signed, the applicants can legally abandon the project and turn it over to a new governing board that received no scrutiny from the school district.

At iGeneration Empowerment Academy of Davie, a Broward County charter school that planned to open in August, only one of the five board members was listed in the original application. (The school didnt open due to facility issues.)

It sounds absolutely crazy, but we dont know whos actually going to open the school on Aug. 19, just because an application says its a certain entity thats applying, Brown said.

In large part due to the application system, school districts have approved charters that cant even survive more than a few months. Of the 119 charter schools that have closed since 2008, 14 never finished their first school year, 46 shut down after completing two years or less, and 65 couldnt make it to a fifth year.

Related article: Q&A: Choosing a charter school

For supporters of the current application system, there are reasons for its setup. Too often, they say, county school districts have been antagonistic and inflexible toward charter schools, seeing them as competition for coveted tax dollars. (When a student leaves a traditional public school for a charter, the money follows the child.)

In this October 2011 file photo, student Zachary Aldret exercises a miniature horse at the The Community Green charter school in Lake Suzy. The charter school specializing in agriculture and science, closed its doors after five months. (Photo courtesy of the Arcadian newspaper)

Left with too much power to subjectively judge charter applicants, some county school districts could severely limit options for students and parents. The two appeals boards have provided a backstop for charter operators, approving 49 applications previously rejected by school districts. Of those 49, three schools have closed and 15 remain open. The remaining 31 either never opened, changed their school name or are scheduled to open in the future.

I think the appeal process works, and some of the overreaching weve seen, were not seeing that as much anymore, said Moraitis, the Fort Lauderdale state representative.

The repeat offenders

In the application process, theres another loophole causing concern.

In approving an application, a school district cant judge an applicant based on a governing board members prior successes or failures at other Florida charter schools.

The result is that charter school board members like Houston Conley and Jeffrey Baker continue to run schools, even after repeated flagrant mismanagement.

Conley serves as chairman of Richard Milburn Academy of Florida Inc., the nonprofit governing board responsible for three alternative schools  two in Lee County, one in Manatee County  that closed between October 2011 and February 2013 amid allegations of academic fraud.

Watch video interviews with parents, students and officials about Florida charter schools 

Between the three schools, which served at-risk students between the ages of 16 and 21, 64 students were given diplomas despite failing to earn the necessary requirements, investigators found. At the two Lee County campuses, county school district investigators said credits and grades were systematically adjusted to fit the diploma requirements by RMA staff. They cited one student who had six grades changed from F to incomplete on the same day by the same administrator, which pushed the students GPA above the minimum required for graduation.

Conley was also at the helm of a third Lee County school, RMA South in Bonita Springs, that closed for financial reasons after one year of operation, reporting an operating loss of $280,000. And in 2006, Conley served as a board member of an RMA campus in Hillsborough that shut down due to low student performance and inaccurate reporting of student enrollment, which dictates state funding.

Houston Conley

Despite his leadership of four failed charter schools and membership on the governing board of a fifth, Conley continues to serve as chairman of two RMA campuses in Volusia County. And in July 2012, just 26 days after being notified that an RMA school was being shut down due to academic fraud, Conley submitted another charter school application in Miami-Dade County. He later withdrew the application.

Conley declined to comment and directed questions about the organization to Donna Eldridge, a consultant for Richard Milburn Academy of Florida. Eldridge said the schools governing boards have helped provide hundreds of at-risk students with a final chance to earn a diploma.

I think the board members have an enormous amount of experience in the field of education in various capacities and a world of knowledge and an understanding of education, Eldridge said. So I think you really couldnt have a stronger board.

In Bakers case, he served as board chairman of two schools that failed in 2013, yet continued to serve on another charter board in 2014.

First, the iGeneration Empowerment Academy of Palm Beach closed last September after students were shuttled to an unapproved commercial building suite, proper safety records were never obtained and one student disappeared for seven hours.

Two months later, Bakers iGeneration Empowerment Academy of Collier County in Immokalee crumbled, accused of creating an unsafe environment for students. Classrooms had more than 75 kids in them. Students slept as teachers fiddled with iPads. Lunch came from McDonalds and Little Caesars.

Despite those failures, Baker was allowed to serve as a governing board member of iGeneration Empowerment Academy of Davie, helping orchestrate the 2014-15 opening of the Broward County charter school. Baker was one of five board members with the authority to vote on how to spend taxpayer money. At one board meeting, he advised fellow members about how to best attract students, citing what he did at the Collier County campus.

Its horrific. How could they even propose that theyre able to do this? said Daria Doubek-Thompson, whose daughter Sierra, now in the 11th grade, attended iGeneration Empowerment Academy of Palm Beach.

Obviously it was gross incompetence here. I fully expected the state would come in and make sure it didnt happen again.

Jeffrey Baker

Efforts to interview Baker by phone, email and in person were unsuccessful. Baker acknowledged receiving interview requests from the Daily News three times, never agreeing to answer questions. At one point, he accused the Daily News of harassment. His Broward school didnt open in August because its facility, located in an aging industrial park, couldnt be properly permitted and secured in time.

Neither the county school district nor the state can oust a sitting charter school governing board member. And should Conley, Baker or any other potential charter founder submit another charter application, their past failures cant be held against them.

Read 126 documents related to charter schools project 

A matter of competence

In the charter school system, theres near unanimous agreement: the single greatest predictor of a schools fate is the competency of its leadership.

Success is probably 95 percent about the leadership team  the board of directors and the principal, said Ronald Renna, founder of The Villages-based Charter Schools Consultant Services. Hes helped open about 20 Florida charter schools, including a now-closed one in Lehigh Acres and the still-open Gulf Coast Charter Academy South in East Naples.

In this November 2013 file photo, a student from iGeneration Charter School in Immokalee gets into her ride home after school. The charter school closed four months after opening amid widespread allegations of uncertified teachers teaching classes, unsafe facilities, and kids being fed fast food for lunch. (Daily News file)

Yet theres little in state law preventing potentially incompetent governing boards, as well as board members that have already failed, from gaining access to the charter school system and the billion-plus dollars flowing into it. Governing board members are required to undergo four hours of state-mandated training, but that often does little to preempt closures.

I think governance is a huge piece, and I think its what were least trained in, said Jenna Hodgens, supervisor of charter schools at the Hillsborough County School District. Theres no training for what is a good governing board, and theres nothing in state law that says, A governing board should include

Like charter school governing boards, there are no competency requirements to run for a county school board, which arent immune to incompetence and corruption. But candidates for county school boards are elected, often undergoing public scrutiny.

Management team member Dana Williams, left, and Stephanie Velez listen to a conference call with governing board member Jeffrey Baker July 9, 2014 at a meeting for board members for the iGeneration Empowerment Academy of Davie, a planned charter school in Broward County. (Corey Perrine/Staff)

The charter application does require potential board members to provide background information that highlights the contribution he/she intends to make to the school. The application, however, doesnt give examples of what should be highlighted.

Related article: Florida's failed charter schools - A big, big problem with applications

As a result, applications sometimes have sketchy or incomplete information about who will govern a new school.

When Conley, the Richard Milburn Academy of Florida chairman, applied for the school in Miami-Dade County in July 2012, he didnt mention his involvement in two closed schools, or that a Lee County RMA campus at which he was chairman was in the process of being shut down.

When Trayvon Mitchell, founder of two Ivy Academy charter schools in Broward County, submitted his two applications in August 2012, he wrote he had obtained three degrees, including a Doctor of Education. But Mitchell didnt list the schools from which he purportedly graduated. Those two charter campuses closed after six weeks of operation, and Mitchell is under a criminal investigation related to $240,000 in unreturned funds disbursed to the Ivy Academy schools, a State Attorneys Office spokeswoman said. He couldnt be reached for comment.

Board Chairman Jack Gonzalez, center, listens on a conference call from governing board member Jeffrey Baker, seated right, is expected Principal Latoya Robinson July 9, 2014 at a meeting for board members for the iGeneration Empowerment Academy of Davie, a planned charter school in Broward County. The meeting took place at the Hollywood headquarters of Intervisual Education Management Services of Florida, a for-profit company that managed two iGeneration schools that closed in Palm Beach and Collier counties. (Corey Perrine/Staff)

In Collier County, school district staff said they ran into several roadblocks trying to track down information about potential board members for iGeneration Empowerment Academy. For example, Baker, the charter schools founder, listed himself as a graduate of Collins University, which doesnt appear to exist. His LinkedIn profile says he graduated with a doctorate degree from Corllins University, an online school that isnt accredited by any nationally recognized agency.

Still, the Collier County School District and Board approved the iGeneration application in 2011, and it probably still would today, said Nicole Hughes, director of charter schools for the Collier County School District.

I think the committee did a fine job reviewing it, and Im not sure my committee (today) would have rated it any differently, Hughes said.

Each charter school governing board carries its own risk, regardless of credentials. Many charter schools have succeeded with board members who dont possess multiple degrees. At the same time, several board members at failed schools have held accomplished positions: state representative, county commissioner, college professor, school superintendent.

Ultimately, its about seating board members who combine competency with a dedication to students, an often arduous task.

We find sometimes the governing board members may or may not understand the depth of responsibility they have for those children. Its a mixed bag, said Brown, the Broward charter schools supervisor.

Im not so sure all governing board members have looked into the eyes of the children they are representing and understand their incredibly important role in that childs education.

Daily News reporter Jacob Carpenter can be reached at JCCarpenter@Naplesnews.com. Connect with Jacob on Twitter at @NDN_JCarpenter. Get complete coverage of this series at naplesnews.com/charterschools.
Florida congressman Mario Diaz-Balart addresses the crowd during a Naturalization Ceremony for 51 people from 20 different countries to become United States citizens on Thursday, November 12, 2015. (Scott McIntyre/Staff)

SHARE

By Maria Perez of the Naples Daily News

Immokalee residents and leaders asked Republican U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart about federal grants available to fund community projects and problems with roads in the area at a the town hall hosted by the Immokalee Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday.

Diaz-Balart, who is in the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations, said he is hoping they can match last year's funding for the Community Development Block Grants, which have financed capital improvements like the construction of sidewalks in the community in the past years.

"I'll be looking to make sure we have adequate levels of funding," said Diaz-Balart of Miami after the meeting.

He also said he wants to give more flexibility to more local authorities about how they can spend the funds, while increasing their accountability for the projects.

The congressman said one of his main priorities is funding the Section 8 program that subsidizes affordable housing for low-income residents. The Collier County Housing Authority, which administers the program in the county, has a waiting list of 1,160 residents, and the list is closed.

Diaz-Balart said just keeping the same number of Section 8 beneficiaries last year cost $1 billion more. He expects that this year the situation won't be so dire, but he doesn't know if they will be able to increase the number of beneficiaries because they don't know what the budget allocations next year will look like.

"What I would like to do is to diminish those waiting lists, absolutely" he said.

Diaz-Balart, who also visited Farm Worker Village, where a rehabilitation project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture started earlier this year after being on hold for almost a decade, said he has been asked many times about the situation of State Road 82. But the federal government has no authority over it. He said he wants neighbors to call his office and tell them their concerns even if they aren't federal issues.

Steven Kirk, president of the nonprofit Rural Neighborhoods, which provides affordable housing in Immokalee, said he appreciates the congressman being in the community.

"I think we are very fortunate that Diaz-Balart spends so much time in this community," he said. "We have more access to him."

Danny Gonzalez, president of the Immokalee Chamber of Commerce, said this was the first time he met Diaz-Balart.

"I'm staying in touch with him," he said.
Patricia Bucalo, far right, hands out flyers for Republican candidate Ted Cruz as voters make their way into the Collier County Public Library for early voting at the polls Wednesday, March 9, 2016 in Naples. Collier County residents voted on local and national issues. (Luke Franke/Staff)

SHARE Voters make their way into the Collier County Public Library for early voting at the polls Wednesday, March 9, 2016 in Naples. Collier County residents voted on local and national issues. (Luke Franke/Staff) Voters make their way into the Collier County Public Library for early voting at the polls Wednesday, March 9, 2016 in Naples. Collier County residents voted on local and national issues. (Luke Franke/Staff) North Naples firefighter Wayne Burke speaks with voters as they make their way into the Collier County Public Library for early voting at the polls Wednesday, March 9, 2016 in Naples. Burke was asking that voters consider voting against merging the county and city fire departments. (Luke Franke/Staff) Voters make their way into the Collier County Public Library for early voting at the polls Wednesday, March 9, 2016 in Naples. Collier County residents voted on local and national issues. (Luke Franke/Staff) Related Photos Early Voting at Collier County Library

By Greg Stanley of the Naples Daily News

More voters in Collier and Lee counties are casting early ballots or mailing them in this year than the 2012 presidential election, evidence of the strong interest in the Florida primary, and perhaps the Naples race for mayor.

Nearly three times as many people in Collier County have gone to polls after five days of early voting than during the same span of the last presidential primary in 2012, according to results from county elections officials. More than twice as many have already mailed in their votes.

In Lee County, 10,000 more people have already voted than did in total during the 2012 primaries.

The high early turnout isn't necessarily a surprise, said Dave Carpenter, a longtime Collier County elections qualifying officer.

"In 2012, there really wasn't much for Democrats to vote on," Carpenter said. "It was really just Republicans. There was no mayor's race in Naples, because Mayor (John) Sorey ran unopposed. There are a lot of factors pushing toward greater turnout."

The early turnout is much higher here than in the state as a whole, where a total of 12 percent of eligible voters have cast ballots.

The population is growing and more people then ever are registered to vote in Collier and Lee counties. With a tight three-way race for Naples mayor and competitive races in both Republican and Democratic presidential fields, all signs point to a high overall turnout.

Early voting, too, is generally becoming more popular throughout the country as people get used to mailing ballots and skipping the lines on election day, Carpenter said.

Another big change locally is in strategy, he said.

Florida Democrats have started to encourage their voters to pick up absentee ballots, calling to remind them to mail them in, Carpenter said.

"It really got going in 2014," he said. "The Republican Party here has always pressed for absentee ballots, but in 2014 the Democrats in Florida started pushing for mail also. You couple that with the nationwide trend for more absentee voting and you get much higher early turnouts."

Nearly 9,000 Democrats have voted in Collier County, 20 percent of the 44,015 registered here. Nearly 1 in 3 Republicans have already voted  28,500 of the 96,675 registered Republicans.

With closed primaries throughout the state, Collier County also saw a flurry of voters switching parties just before deadlines in February.

Between January and February, more than 1,000 Democrats or unaffiliated voters changed their registration to Republican, while about 500 people changed their registrations to become a Democrat.

Lee County has already topped its voter turnout in 2012.

Just over 29 percent of eligible Lee voters have cast ballots, compared to 28 percent four years ago.

Of the nearly 300,000 registered Republicans and Democrats in Lee, 29 percent have voted, compared to 28 percent in 2012.

"That's just an excellent return," said Vicki Collins, Lee County elections office spokeswoman. "Right now we're sitting in a room counting votes. You still have the same procedures, planning and staffing that would need if all the votes were cast on Election Day, but we're just pleased with a high turnout."

"We've already had more than a quarter of registered voters turn in ballots, so we feel pretty good."

Early voting runs until Saturday. After Saturday, voters will have to wait until election day on Tuesday.
A screengrab of Gov. Rick Scott on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Thursday, March 10, 2016.

SHARE

By Naples Daily News staff

Gov. Rick Scott, who has decided not to endorse in Florida's GOP primary, declined Thursday during an MSNBC "Morning Joe" appearance to criticize a statement Republican candidate Donald Trump made about Muslims.

"You're a friend of Donald Trump," host Joe Scarborough told Scott. "Will you tell your friend Donald Trump that he should walk back his statements that Muslims, that Islam hates America?

"Do you think Muslims in the state of Florida hate America," Scarborough asked.

Scott didn't respond directly to the question, opting instead to promote Florida's diversity.

"Well as you know in Florida, we're the best melting pot in the world. We love everybody coming to our state," Scott said.

He said he asked the federal government after the Paris bombing to deny Syrian refugees entrance into the U.S. for fear that they were not being vetted adequately.

But even with continued pressing by Scarborough and co-host Mika Brezinski, Scott declined to answer whether he believed Muslims or Islam hate America. Trump made the comment during a Wednesday interview with CNN reporter Anderson Cooper.

"In our state, we have a lot of Muslims who live in our state," Scott said. "We all get along. We love people moving to our state and coming here as tourists. We're a great melting pot. That's what I can tell you about our state."

Brezinski then ended the 3 minute and 32 second interview after Scott declined to respond directly.

Scott's office did not respond to requests Thursday to explain his response.

Earlier in the interview, Scott said he decided against endorsing in the Florida primary, and referenced his first election as governor when some state GOP leaders worked against him.

"I rely on the voters," Scott said. "I relied on the voters back in 2010 when everybody was against me, when all the polls didn't think I would win. So I'm going to continue to trust the voters."

He called Trump "a friend" and complimented U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and the other candidates.

"Marco has done a very good job. We got elected together in 2010," Scott said.

Of the other GOP presidential candidates, Scott said he met Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and served as a governor with Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

Contact Daily News reporter arek.sarkissian@naplesnews.com or 850-559-7620
SHARE

The leadership of Collier County Public Schools is again demonstrating an ability to operate an "A" district while also searching for ways to become "A plus" by listening and improving.

The district received an "A" grade from the state for 2014-15 in the first year of comparing schools and districts using the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) test.

The district has earned extra credit in our view with innovative programs such as extending a more rigorous academic program into middle schools; its virtual town halls, like a recent one on paying for a student's continuing education; INCubatoredu that creates opportunities for student entrepreneurs and a Twitter outreach that links parents to what's going on at school throughout the day.

Does the district get a perfect score? Of course not. Mistakes will be made in any large organization. The question becomes: What do you do about it?

Last year, the district responded when it created through the CCPS portal an opportunity for parents to monitor which materials their children check out from the school library. That was in reaction to community concerns, such as some of the books on an approved reading list.

Two ongoing initiatives are current examples of Superintendent Kamela Patton's administration listening to parents and adapting.

School calendar

A year ago this time, the district and frustrated parents were in limbo while legislation was pending that would authorize Florida school systems to start the academic year as early as Aug. 10. Fast forward a year.

After some procedural bumps in approving an academic schedule for 2016-17, the district at the urging of a united School Board is getting a procedure in place to both get an early start on the calendar and increase parental involvement in the process.

The originally approved 2016-17 calendar subsequently drew objections from parents who didn't like the early starting date chosen and/or the long winter break. So the School Board reconsidered it and adjusted the 2016-17 calendar.

What's under consideration now is a welcomed improvement because it will mean that before the end of any school year, parents will already know what's planned for an academic calendar for the following year. In fact, because the 2016-17 school year schedule is already approved by the School Board, it's conceivable to get the process going so far in advance that a calendar is outlined two school years down the road. Parents making travel plans and decisions on whether to early enroll children in summer camp would be able to do so way in advance.

Additionally, the group that is putting calendar options together to present to the district administration and then the School Board is being expanded to include six more parents in the process. That additional parental involvement is a plus.

After-school programs

Nearly three years ago, the district became embroiled in a controversy about what's offered in after-school programs.

Now, the process is under way again for coastal-area schools. The district is seeking proposals from organizations that want to run the after-school programs as an option to having a school's staff operate them. Principals will have options of what to do for their school based on the proposals received.

Rather than having the process handled administratively out of the public view, district leadership is wisely opening it up to greater public scrutiny. Given growth in the program  1,829 participated in winter 2013-14 compared with about 2,450 now  that's a welcomed move.

Proposals are due March 21 and a committee will review the vendors' qualifications at a March 24 meeting that will be open to the public, then qualified vendors will make presentations March 31 for selection. The administration plans to take the matter to the School Board at an April 12 meeting.

Three years ago, after-school programs embroiled the district in controversy. This time, the district has made the right call to make the process more transparent.
SHARE

Cliff Holland, Naples

Moorings Bay

I had the opportunity to observe the hearing on Moorings Bay speed restrictions.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's (FWC) failed attempts to scuttle the hearing on weak technical grounds was an embarrassment to the organization.

On a recent evening, I observed two wave runners traveling at a high rate of speed (no lights) north on Moorings Bay. I wrote down a quote from the FWC lawyer when describing no speed restrictions, that this would not result in a lawless waterway. We have evidence that for more than 20 years speed restrictions on Moorings Bay have kept boating incidents to a minimal level.

What evidence does FWC have that removing restrictions will not cause an unsafe waterway? They make assumptions with no data to support the conclusions.

FWC thinking is so blinded by the desire for control that they fail to consider public safety. Let's stay with their theory on Moorings Bay and apply it to our roads. They all have police patrols, driver rules, etc. So why do we have speed limits on Interstate 75 or our neighborhood streets? We should eliminate all of these and have unrestricted speeds.

I'm sure, according to the FWC, this will not result in a lawless roadway. Ludicrous!
The Friends of Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park proudly hosted their third annual Childrens Art Show at the Park Pavilion on February 27 and 28.



Childrens artwork from seven Collier County public and private schools, grades K  5, was on display throughout the weekend. The event promoted the artistic talents and abilities of local students as well as community awareness and enjoyment of the Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park.



The theme of the art show was The Real Florida which reflected natural and cultural resources. Some of the categories of artwork included wildlife found at the park, recreation scenes at the park, cultural history, natural seascapes and landscapes.



Winners of the show in the K-2 Category were: First Place  Ayneli Ramon (Sea Gate Elementary), Second Place  Emma Cervenikova (Pelican Marsh Elementary), Third Place  Delilah Garnelo (Gulf Coast Charter Academy South), Honorable Mention  Dea Arsi (Gulf Cost Charter Academy South), and Rangers Pick  Antonio Price (Sea Gate Elementary).



In the 3-5 Category, the winners were: First Place  Julia Rook (Sea Gate Elementary), Second Place  Sophia Damico (Sea Gate Elementary), Third Place  Devin Meek (Gulf Coast Charter Academy South), Honorable Mention  Zoe Brunton (Poinciana), and Rangers Pick  Ben Rippere (Poinciana).



The Peoples Choice Award, which is chosen by total number of votes from visitors to the show, went to Bene Rippere of Poinciana Elementary for his sunset watercolor. He also won a Rangers Pick ribbon.



Certificates were awarded to each student who submitted artwork from the seven participating schools. Those schools were Gulf Coast Charter Academy South, Lake Park, Laurel Oak, Naples Park, Pelican March Elementary, Poinciana and Sea Gate Elementary.



The Friends of Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park is funded solely by public contributions and does not receive federal grants. Public support in any event helps to ensure proceeds raised go to upgrades and improvements to Collier Countys treasured beachfront park.



For more information about the event and becoming a Friend of Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park, please visit www.DelnorWiggins.org.
The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), Gulf Coast Chapter will host a luncheon highlighting Leading Change  Transition from Local to a Regional Powerhouse on March 22 at the Hilton Naples, 5111 Tamiami Trail N. The event begins at 11:30 a.m. with social and networking, with the presentation to follow at noon.



The guest speaker is Theo Etzel, Author and President/CEO of Conditioned Air Corporation, a $45-million business employing 350 full-time co-workers. Etzel will provide insights on business opportunities in Southwest Florida. He will present methods to grow business and personal development, including creating and adjusting the brand; dealing with employees; changes in marketing and promotion; and lessons learned.



A Miami native, Etzel graduated from Stetson University with a Bachelor of Science in economics and finance from the universitys School of Business. Upon graduation, he worked for Days Inns of America in real estate acquisition for the state of Florida. He also owned two Ben & Jerrys ice cream franchises and was on the staff of Habitat for Humanity, building homes and acquiring and rezoning land in the greater Atlanta area.



Etzel moved to Naples and assumed the position of president and CEO of Conditioned Air Corporation in 1995. At the time, it was a $2.7 million operation in the residential market. By 2015, the company had grown to a $45 million organization. Conditioned Air currently employs nearly 350 people and has branch offices in Fort Myers and Sarasota.



Etzel is part of Vistage, an international association of CEOs dedicated to constant improvement of business practices and personal development. He is past Chairman of the board for Grace Place for Children and Families and Chairman of the Board of Encore Bank. He has been inducted into the Junior Achievement Hall of Fame in Collier County and was named a Man of Distinction by the Collier County Champions for Learning.



Etzel also is the author of the book Invest Your Heartbeats Wisely. The book focuses on practical, philosophical and principled leadership concepts for business and life.



The cost is $27 per person for PRSA members, $35 for non-members, $27 for non-profits and $20 for students. Reservations must be made by March 18, 2016. For additional information or to register, visit the PRSA, Gulf Coast Chapter online at www.gulfcoastprsa.org or contact Chapter President Russell Tuff at 239-353-1687.



Headquartered in New York City, PRSA is the worlds largest professional organization for public relations professionals with more than 20,000 members organized into 110 chapters nationwide who represent business and industry, counseling firms, government, associations, healthcare, schools, professional services firms and nonprofit organizations.



The PRSA, Gulf Coast Chapter serves Collier and Lee counties and consists of senior public relations, marketing and communications professionals who represent a variety of industries and professional services throughout Southwest Florida and the United States. For more information about the PRSA, Gulf Coast Chapter, visit www.gulfcoastprsa.org.
The American Association of Airport Executives recognized Naples Municipal Airport with the ANTN Digicast Excellence in Airport Training award for the fifth consecutive year. Ninety-seven airports were recognized nationwide for training during 2015.



The ANTN Digicast system provides on-demand video for federally mandated training and continuing education. More than 300 programs are provided online to train airport employees and tenants on topics including operations, aircraft rescue and firefighting, security, customer service and FAA-required recurrent training. The award signifies that airport employees and others working at the airport have completed a specified amount of training using the system.



ANTN Digicast was created for airports as a cost-effective, efficient way to help them comply with training requirements, and were encouraged that so many airports have made it an integral part of their training programs, said Patrick Raker, senior vice president of AAAEs Training and Technology Services Department. The system has been used by airports to train hundreds of thousands of workers, and were looking forward to providing airports with better results and functionality as we develop the next generation of our world-class training site.



Founded in 1928, AAAE is the worlds largest professional organization for airport executives, representing thousands of airport management personnel. AAAEs 5,000-plus members represent some 850 airports and hundreds of companies and organizations that support the aviation industry.



Naples Municipal Airport is home to flight schools, air charter operators, car rental agencies and corporate aviation and nonaviation businesses as well as fire/rescue services, mosquito control, the Collier County Sheriffs Aviation Unit and other community services. During the 2014-15 fiscal year, the airport accommodated 99,569 takeoffs and landings. The airport welcomed the return of scheduled airline service on Feb. 27 when Elite Airways began flights to Newark, New Jersey, and Portland, Maine.



All funds used for the airports operation, maintenance and improvements are generated from activities at the airport or from federal and state grants; the airport receives no property tax dollars. The Florida Department of Transportation values the airports economic impact to the community at $283.5 million annually.



To learn more or to subscribe for email updates about the airport, visit www.FlyNaples.com.
Visiting the European Commission on Thursday (10 March 2016), Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stressed the vital importance of the relationship between NATO and the European Union. After meeting Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Mr. Stoltenberg welcomed the organisations deepening ties, saying, that is something we need more than ever, because we face a more challenging security environment.

In responding to Europes worst refugee and migrant crisis since the Second World War, the Secretary General said that NATO and the EU are working together more closely than before. He noted that NATO is now present in the territorial waters of Greece and Turkey, and that we are planning to move further south in the coming days and weeks. This will help Greece, Turkey, and Frontex build a common picture of the situation, and support their efforts to cut lines of human trafficking.

The Secretary General welcomed that NATOs Maritime Command and Frontex have now agreed operational and tactical level arrangements, enabling the exchange of liaison officers and the sharing of information in real-time.

Secretary General Stoltenberg and President Juncker also discussed ways to increase joint work to counter hybrid threats in areas including early warning, supporting critical infrastructure, and cyber. The Secretary General underlined that the European Council in June and NATOs Warsaw Summit in July will be important milestones, marking a unique opportunity to deepen our cooperation.

I believe that a strong Europe is good for NATO, and that a strong NATO is good for Europe, the Secretary General said. Based on that common understanding, we very much welcome that we are expanding our cooperation.
Device is incentive for people to chew their food more



How the device works

Cumbersome device falls short in key areas

(NaturalNews) Imagine one day charging a laptop by simply chewing a piece of gum while you're using it. What about having the ability to charge a cell phone by simply talking on that very phone? Or, think about what it would be like to eat while simultaneously producing free energy from your jaw to charge a handheld device.Scientists have found an interesting way to convert the energy of jaw movements into something more useful. Researchers from Canada have invented a "smart material" chin strap that harvests energy from chewing and jaw movement.Magnified on a global scale, the device could generate extraordinary amounts of free energy from everyday human activities like talking and eating, but it's hard to imagine that people would actually wear these chin straps daily.Needless to say, scientists have figured out how to harvest what was once wasted energy.The technology can potentially power small wearable devices, hearing aids, cochlear implants, electronic hearing protectors and communication devices. This could mean that future cell phones may rarely need to be charged, since they are being refueled every time someone talks on them. Think about the possibilities; restaurants could equip tables with these chin strap devices and harvest everyone's collective jaw movement energy to help power the place!The researchers found that the average meal creates enough jaw movement to average 7mW of power. If people chewed their food more, like they should, the possibility exists that free energy production could increase. With this device, there is an incentive to chew more, not only for better digestion, but also for more electricity generation.Out of all body movement, jaw movements seem to be somewhat promising for generating electricity.Still, the question remains: would people really wear something like this -- in public or even in their own home -- or would it be viewed as a bizarre, embarrassing-looking contraption? Plus, as you'll read momentarily, the possibilities mentioned above are more far-fetched notions than ideas that may keep lights on in dining establishments -- at least at this stage.Here's how the researchers made the energy conversion.Working at the Sonomax-ETS Industrial Research Chair in In-ear Technologies at Ecole de technologie superieure in Montreal, Canada, they developed a chin strap composed of piezoelectric fiber composites.These smart materials, comprised of integrated electrodes and an adhesive polymer matrix, produce an electric charge when stretched and faced with mechanical stress. As the jaw moves the chin strap up and down, the fiber composites generate a small amount of electricity. In the experiment, the piezoelectric fiber composite (PFC) strap was attached to a pair of ear muffs. A tighter-fitting strap was found to be ideal, as more resistance led to a greater chewing force, and in turn, a better performance.In gum-chewing tests that lasted for 60 seconds, the researchers generated around 10 W of energy but also said that they could produce 18 W if the full head-mounted device wasn't used. These results, although promising, fall far short of powering much of anything. That's why the researchers are working on adding more layers to the chin strap."Given that the average power available from chewing is around 7 mW, we still have a long way to go before we perfect the performance of the device," said co author of the study, Aidin Delnavaz. "The power level we achieved is hardly sufficient for powering electrical devices at the moment; however, we can multiply the power output by adding more PFC layers to the chin strap. For example, 20 PFC layers, with a total thickness of 6 mm, would be able to power a 200 W intelligent hearing protector."The idea, although cumbersome, could potentially help replace expensive batteries which are also toxic to the environment.The worst part about this device is the return on investment. It could take several years of chewing with the chin strap to recover the initial cost of investments.Delnavaz said, "The only expensive part of the energy harvesting device is the single PFC layer, which costs around $20. Considering the price and short lifetime of batteries, we estimate that a self-powered hearing protector based on the proposed chin strap energy harvesting device will start to pay back the investment after three years of use.""We will now look at ways to increase the number of piezoelectric elements in the chin strap to supply the power that small electronic devices demand, and also develop an appropriate power management circuit so that a tiny, rechargeable battery can be integrated into the device," Delnavaz concluded.
(NaturalNews) The socialist "revolution" against democracy and free markets is proceeding in Venezuela, with the authoritarian government downplaying a mysterious disease outbreak as print media in the country slowly dies off.As reported by WPLG'sin Miami, there have been at least 10 deaths from the as-yet-unidentified disease. The deaths have occurred in several Venezuelan cities, including the capital of Caracas. As it spreads, the disease is creating panic among the population and has led some of the nation's physicians to sound the alarm.However, as WPLG reported, the warnings are being downplayed by the socialist government:However, though the government remains in denial mode, doctors in Venezuela are taking the threat seriously; they say there is genuine reason for concern, especially in a country where government policies have created nightmarish shortages of everything from basic food supplies to medicines. Plus, they say the disease is both dangerous and contagious."We do not know what it is," Duglas Leon Natera, president of the Venezuelan Medical Federation, said, according to WPLG.At first, those infected present with a fever and spots on the skin, which then produce large blisters followed by internal and external bleeding, says data provided by the College of Physicians in the state of Aragua, where the first cases were seen.From that point, the disease progresses very quickly; patients begin suffering from respiratory failure, then kidney failure. And thus far, Venezuelan doctors have not been able to figure out what they are dealing with, let alone a treatment plan.And the government is hindering the process, largely by denying that there even is "a mysterious disease ," because that's what dictatorial, socialist leaders do: claim infallibility and blame others. One official called the doctors' information nothing but a "media campaign against Venezuela ."And the governor of the state of Aragua, Tarek El-Aissami, along with Communications Minister Delcy Rodriguez, has labeled the warnings a "defamatory" strategy to "distress to the population."Doctors are not completely in the dark; some have speculated on what the disease might be. Theories include a new type of very aggressive, severe dengue fever and a different version of Chikungunya fever; some have even suggested that it could be Ebola.Meanwhile, as its people die, so, too, does Venezuela's ability to inform its people; the country's print media is slowing dying too, suffering from a lack of newsprint, as WPLG reported:According to a newly released report by the Institute for Press and Society of Venezuela, or IPYS, 34 newspapers and magazines in 11 states have reported in the past year chronic shortages and difficulties acquiring supplies and other materials to print, such as ink, film and plates.The situation has been made worse by the government's strict controls on acquiring foreign exchange, as well as interference in the internal processes of suppliers. An exchange rate control was enacted in the country 11 years ago; it required companies to apply for permits in order to purchase foreign currency and import goods. And newspaper owners have been saying it has been months since they were granted permits to buy newsprint."Due to the impossibility of securing newsprint and print materials, 10 print outlets have stopped circulating altogether and four others have halted circulation temporarily," WPLG reported. "Others have reduced the number of pages per edition, sometimes by more than half, or stopped running during the weekend in order to survive."In fact, the report said, the oldest Venezuelan daily,, nearly shuttered recently."The newspaper industry is in a coma in Venezuela," the paper's president, Carlos Eduardo Carmona, said. "The government is slowly killing the free press in Venezuela."As for the doctors who tried to warn the public? Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has ordered them prosecuted for "a scheme of alarm, of psychological terrorism."
Yet another heartburn medication side effect

People still cling to missing links

Treat your body naturally

(NaturalNews) Every once in a while, attending a dinner party becomes the best thing you've done in days. Great company and amazing food are always the premise of a successful evening, but a delicious meal is not always followed by instant satisfaction. In fact, one in five Americans have to suffer the consequences of heartburn. If it's a common issue, you're already reaching for those antacids. Every drug has its downsides, but did you know that there might be a link between indigestion medication and Alzheimer's?The German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease in Bonn examined insurance data on people aged over 75 and came to the conclusion that there's a strong link between heartburn medication and dementia. Their statistics indicate that patients who used proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) , a type of medication associated with strong acid reflux, at least once every three months were 44% more likely to experience neurological damage that leads to dementia. Now would be a good time to re-think your strategy of dealing with acid reflux.However, the scientists in the German study were unable to identify precisely why PPIs are associated with such a significantly higher risk of dementia. A possible theory is that these drugs result in vitamin B12 deficiencies and therefore caus consumers to manifest symptoms that are identical to Alzheimer's disease . The authors' findings are also supported by another study conducted back in 2013 on proton pump inhibitors. The latter effectively proved that when you treat mice with this type of heartburn medication, they develop high levels of amyloid plaques. These plaques play a crucial role in the on-set of Alzheimer's.Antacids, which are also commonly used to treat heartburn, are no better. Although they are essentially different from PPIs, they can easily cause constipation, diarrhea, bloating and even worsen your condition . That's correct. Heartburn medication can actually increase your levels of stomach acid once you are done taking it.In spite of compelling evidence, Dr. Laura Phipps, a member of Alzheimer's Research UK, declared that the study doesn't prove the increased risk of dementia is actually caused by PPIs. According to her, other factors may have contributed to the results and we should not jump to rash conclusions. Nevertheless, according to the, even she acknowledged that "[s]tudies like this, which harness large amounts of medical data to highlight trends in health and dis-ease, are incredibly useful to inform future, detailed, follow-up studies into risk factors for conditions like dementia. When any drug is taken, doctors, pharmacists and patients have to weigh up the benefits against the potential side effects and further studies into this area will help to better inform these decisions."Next time you're looking to get rid of your heartburn, keep in mind the consequences that indigestion drugs can have on your body. While some of them have been proven beyond any doubt, others are highly possible, but yet to be officially confirmed by the authorities. A pill is the quick way out, but it does not make sense for your health in the long run.Instead of running to your general practitioner for a prescription, why not try to cure your acid reflux and digestion problems naturally ? You can try out natural remedies, but also make changes to your lifestyle that will ultimately cure your ache without these potentially disastrous side effects. In another couple of years, the link between these drugs and dementia might be irrevocably proven. If that's the case, is it worth risking your sanity for a condition that can easily be cured in an alternative way?
'Moderate' benefit

But what are the real risks?

(NaturalNews) Will screening for psychiatric illness soon join vaccines as an expected part of childhood?The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPTF) recently updated its recommendations on the screening of children and adolescents for major depressive disorder (MDD), in an article in the journal. The task force now recommends that all children aged 12 and up be screened for MDD as part of their regular doctor visits."The USPSTF recommends screening for major depressive disorder (MDD) in adolescents aged 12 to 18 years," the task force said. "Screening should be implemented with adequate systems in place to ensure accurate diagnosis, effective treatment, and appropriate follow-up."The recommendation is not binding, nor does it constitute official government policy. However, it may show the shape of things to come. Should this recommendation be widely adopted, it will almost certainly lead to a surge in antidepressant use among children.The USPSTF reviews scientific evidence about the benefits and harms of various preventive medical measures in people who have not been diagnosed with a particular illness. In this case, the task force reviewed evidence on screening children aged 7 and up for MDD. It did not find sufficient evidence to support screening children younger than 12, mostly because few studies have been conducted on this population."Adequate evidence" showed that screening is effective at detecting MDD in children aged 12 and up, the task force said. However, no studies had been performed to show that screening leads to improved health outcomes in this demographic; instead, the recommendation was based on "adequate evidence" that treatment of depression leads to "moderate benefit" in this age group.The task force further reviewed evidence of harms from screening and various treatments for depression. No significant harms were found from screening, or from psychotherapy or psychosocial support as treatments. While acknowledging the risks of antidepressant drugs, the report attempts to downplay them: "Medications for the treatment of depression, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors ... have known harms. However, the magnitude of the harms of pharmacotherapy is small if patients are closely monitored, as recommended by the ... FDA .""The USPSTF concludes with moderate certainty that screening for MDD in adolescents aged 12 to 18 years has a moderate net benefit," the report concludes.The USPTF has also previously recommended screening all adults for MDD.However well intentioned, it is likely that increased screening of adolescents for MDD will lead to more children being treated with dangerous drugs. That's because although antidepressant drugs have been proven to be no more effective than a placebo  and both riskier and less effective than treatments such as talk therapy  they remain the treatment of choice for depression in the United States.According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) , 11 percent of U.S. residents aged 12 and up already take antidepressants. Notably, only an estimated 7.6 percent of the population actually suffers from depression.These figures reveal a fundamentally broken mental health system. For example, more than 60 percent of those on antidepressants have taken them for two or more years, while 14 percent have been taking them for 10 years or more. Yet, less than one-third of those taking a single antidepressant (and less than half of those taking more than one), have been to visit a mental health professional in the past year.The USPTF recommendation also raises the specter of widespread screening for other mental health conditions, many of which have come under fire for being vague or even invented by the mental health profession."Psychiatry seems to have lost its way in a forest of poorly verified diagnoses and ineffectual medications," Edward Shorter of the University of Toronto, who studies the history of psychiatry and medicine, has written.
A recently published human clinical study explored the potential benefits of magnesium threonate on cognitive health, while a newly launched study aims to add more support to the role of nicotinamide riboside (NR) as a NAD+ precursor in humans. Read on for more details.

A randomized, controlled, double-blind study published in the Journal of Alzheimers Disease concluded nutritional supplementation with magnesium threonate (as Magtein from AIDP), was effective at reversing cognitive impairment, and returned cognitive function almost back to normal ability relative to age.

Guosong Liu, M.D., Ph.D., a former professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is professor and founding director of the Center for Learning and Memory, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing. Considered one of the leading experts in magnesium and cognitive health, Liu was the principal investigator on the study.

According to Liu, the study demonstrated the safety and efficacy of magnesium threonate (Magtein), a compound designed to help magnesium to cross the blood brain barrier so that it can increase brain synapse density on restoration of certain cognitive abilities. This study highlights the importance of increasing neuronal intracellular magnesium, a key intermediary of synapse density control, for improving cognitive abilities in older adults."

The effect of Magtein on cognitive ability was evaluated in four cognitive domainsexecutive function, working memory, attention and episodic memoryby administration of the trail making, digit span, flanker and face-name tests, respectively, at baseline, week six and week 12. These cognitive tests represent the best science available, based on the current consensus that multiple domains of cognition should be evaluated to determine cognitive impairment. The cognitive domains selected were similar to those included in major cognitive studies. They are considered reliable for testing cognitive deficits and improvements.

Following 12 weeks of Magtein use, there was an average increase of 10.33.8 percent in TMT-B speed, such that their speed was close to that of their age-matched controls. The data demonstrated Magtein use was effective in subjects at improving cognitive ability almost back to normal levels relative to age.

Subject population included 44 men or women between 50 and 70 years of age with self-reported memory loss and sleep disorder. The mean subject age was 57.35.2 years, with 71 percent being female.

ChromaDex Corp. announced the initiation of the second human clinical trial for its patented ingredient, NIAGEN (nicotinamide riboside, NR).

The second human clinical trial will build upon the results of the companys first human clinical trial announced in February 2015, which demonstrated a single oral dose of NIAGEN is a safe, effective nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) precursor in humans. It was the first study indicating an increase in NAD+ in humans demonstrated through NR supplementation.

The second human clinical trial will be a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled parallel study in 140 healthy adults ranging in age from 40 to 60, examining the potential benefits of NIAGEN if taken daily for eight consecutive weeks. The outcome will provide key information on the effective dose range of NIAGEN to increase the mitochondrial co-enzyme NAD+ and NAD+ metabolite concentrations in the body.

Additional endpoints to be investigated include C-reactive protein; total cholesterol; low density lipoprotein (LDL), high density lipoprotein (HDL) and triglycerides and amino acid panels; NAD+ levels in muscle; mitochondrial biomarkers; and the effects of NR on resting metabolic rate.
Apple announced Thursday its next product launch event will be March 21, one day before it squares off with federal prosecutors over the government's demand for help unlocking an encrypted iPhone.

Analysts and tech blogs are anticipating a 4-inch iPhone, a smaller iPad pro and new bands for the Apple Watch. But the company provided no details with its announcement of the event, in keeping with its usual effort to build anticipation for its new products.

An invitation sent to reporters on Thursday said only "Let us loop you in." The event will take place at Apple's 1 Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino, California.

Apple

Apple's twice-yearly product events are highly anticipated and the speculation that precedes them is rampant. The backdrop to this year's event is a high-stakes legal dispute between the FBI and the Obama administration, which has chafed at Apple's use of encryption that make its customers' data unreadable to others.

Federal authorities want Apple's help in over-riding security features on an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino mass shooters, so the FBI can attempt to examine the phone. Apple CEO Tim Cook contends the government's demand would make other iPhones vulnerable. Both sides will make their case to a federal magistrate in Riverside on March 22.

While Apple executives say the company is continually working on increased security measures, they haven't said whether they will announce any new encryption or other safeguards at this month's event. What is more certain is a push by Apple to boost sales with new versions of some popular products.

Its a very, very important principle at stake here. Those were the first words out of Apple attorney Ted Olsons mouth as he spoke to NBC Bay Area via satellite from Washington, DC, Wednesday morning. Scott Budman reports.

A 4-inch iPhone would reverse an industry trend, which has turned out larger and larger screens. The most recent iPhone models have come with 4.7- or 5.5-inch screens, which have sold extremely well, particularly in Asian countries where larger phones made by Apple's rivals had been big sellers in previous years.

But with sales now starting to plateau, analysts say Apple could spark additional demand by offering an updated 4-inch iPhone alongside the bigger models. The smaller phone is expected to sell at a lower price and would appeal to those who never bought into the larger screens. In an upgrade from older 4-inch iPhones, the new model is expected to have a faster processor and features like Apple Pay, which until now has been available only on larger iPhones.

Similarly, Apple has been trying to boost sagging iPad sales by offering more sizes and models. The new iPad tablet is expected to be a 9.7-inch version of the iPad Pro, which Apple introduced last year. While the new model will be the same size as Apple's regular iPads, it's also a step back from the first iPad Pro, which has a larger, 12.9-inch screen and other features for professional users  including a thin, detachable keyboard and stylus that are sold separately.

Tablet sales from all makers are expected to fall nearly 6 percent this year, according to analysts at International Data Corp., but more people are buying new models with detachable keyboards. A longtime Apple rival, Microsoft, has seen strong demand for its Surface Pro tablets with keyboards.
The dean of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law will be taking an "indefinite leave of absence" from his position after being sued for sexual harassment by his former executive assistant, who alleges he made inappropriate advances toward her for nearly eight months, starting in 2014.

The complaint was filed Tuesday in Alameda County Superior Court against Sujit Choudhry and the University of California Board of Regents, court documents show. Attorneys for the plaintiff, Tyann Sorrell, are suing for sexual harassment, failure to prevent harassment, retaliation, infliction of emotional distress, assault, battery and more.

In a statement released Wednesday, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Claude Steele said Choudhry will be placed on a leave of absence, "stepping down to his faculty position and salary."

"A thorough investigation of this case found that Dean Choudhrys behavior in this situation violated policy, and that he demonstrated a failure to understand the power dynamic and the effect of his actions on the plaintiff personally and in her employment," Steele wrote.

Claim: Harassment Began With 'Bear Hugs'

Sorrell, a 41-year-old mother of five from Oakland, was hired as an executive assistant in June 2012, at which time Christopher Edley was dean of the Berkeley Law School. Under Edley, Sorrell was a "productive, happy and healthy employee," according to the lawsuit.

That changed, however, when Choudhry took over in July 2014, her attorneys allege.

The lawsuit says that the harassment, which lasted until March 2015, began with "bear hugs," kisses and Choudhry pressing Sorrells body against his own.

Sorrell says she didnt shove Choudhry away because "she was in shock that someone of Dean Choudhrys stature would even engage in such conduct. [She] hoped that Choudhry would eventually take a hint from the fact that she was not hugging back and stop."

But Choudhry soon began to bend down and kiss Sorrells cheek while she sat at her desk, according to court documents. At other times, he allegedly hugged and kissed her in public and in the company of other staff members.

"Choudhrys kissing and hugging Plaintiff was a near daily occurrence," the lawsuit says, making her "feel disgusted, humiliated, exposed and dirty. She wondered what she had done to make him think it was OK for him to touch her."

Sorrell, who said she has previously suffered from domestic and sexual abuse, held her tongue for awhile, afraid of losing her job  one that her family depended on.

Lawsuit Alleges Failure to Prevent Sexual Misconduct

In September 2014, however, Sorrell told Chief of Staff and Assistant Dean Marilyn Byrne that Choudhrys "constant kisses, hugs and touching made her uncomfortable." She reiterated her complaint in January 2015, the lawsuit alleges, but Byrne didnt communicate the issue to human resources or other school leaders.

Meanwhile, Choudhrys behavior became more aggressive and "occurred multiple times per day," documents allege. Sorrell says he massaged her shoulders and arms, kissed her forehead, and once even placed her hands on his waist, rubbed her hands and then kissed her cheek.

The lawsuit states: "The hugs became tighter and more lingering and the kissing more intimate in that over time Choudhrys kisses began to land closer and closer to Plaintiffs lips."

Choudhrys conduct made Sorrell "anxious and depressed," she developed insomnia, suffered from "hair loss," "dreaded coming to work," and began seeking therapy, according to the lawsuit.

In February, Sorrell informed the law schools new Assistant Dean, Areca Smit, that she "was tired of Choudhry touching and kissing her," according to the lawsuit. Smit described having the same experience, and said that Choudhrys behavior had also affected Georgia Giatras, the law schools senior assistant dean and chief operating officer.

Giatras promised to talk to Choudhry while Smit told Sorrell that she would get a raise, starting March 1.

Although Sorrell "welcomed the increase in pay, she wondered if it was meant to pacify her," the lawsuit states.

[NATL] Top News Photos: Pope Visits Japan, and More

Attorneys: HR Director Suggested Plaintiff 'Tough It Out'

Meanwhile, Choudhry continued to harass her, Sorrell claimed.

By March 2015, Sorrell said she had "had enough." Tired of waiting for "her superiors" to act on her behalf while her health worsened, she sent a six-page email to Choudhry, and described feeling "violated and humiliated." Court documents show that Sorrell also forwarded the email to Smit and human resources, according to court documents.

Sorrells complaint was reported to UC Berkeleys Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination, but she was forced to use "hard-earned" sick days and vacation time while the school try to find a "remedy for something that Dean Choudhrys fault while Choudhry remained in his position undisturbed," the lawsuit shows.

Sorrell said she was "scared" to work with Choudhry and couldnt "tough it out," as Human Resources Director Sheri Showalter suggested.

The official investigation found in July 2015 that Choudhry had "violated" the universitys sexual harassment and violence policy, according to court documents.

"During the investigation, Dean Choudhry admitted to hugging, kissing, [massaging] and/or caressing" Sorrell numerous times a week, according to the documents. "He also admitted to hugging and kissing other female employees," they state.

Smit and Giatras also copped to knowing about Sorrells harassment complaints, but never talking to Choudhry as they promised, the lawsuit states.

UC Berkeley Report: Dean 'Gossips and Vents'

The investigation report also shows that Sorrell accused Choudhry of being "rude and demeaning." He has demanded that she bring him water and snacks, drop off and pick up dry cleaning, fax personal mortgage documents, and heat his tea, prompting Sorrell to tell him, "You know I'm not your maid," according to the report.

Choudhry also "gossips and vents about staff and faculty," the investigation found.

In response, university officials decided to cut Choudhrys salary by 10 percent for one year. He was also ordered to write a letter of apology to Sorrell. According to the lawsuit, Sorrell, who found herself on leave and searching for another job, said she "tried in vain to determine the reasoning" behind the discipline meted out.

In October, Steele told Sorrell that "he had seriously considered terminating the dean but that the reason he had decided not to was because it would ruin the deans career, that is, destroy his future chances for higher appointment," according to the lawsuit.

Steele handed Sorrell a single-page letter of apology penned by Chaudhry, who remained Berkeley Law Schools dean until Wednesday. The lawsuit states that Sorrell left the meeting "hurt and demoralized."

Among other demands, the plaintiff is seeking punitive damages in an "amount sufficient to punish and make an example out of all individual defendants."

Steele: 'We All Share the Goal of Eliminating of Sexual Harassment'

On Wednesday, Steele deemed "disciplinary actions," counseling, sexual harassment prevention training and monitoring an "appropriate and effective response" to Choudhry's behavior. They will "produce the necessary changes in his behavior," he said.

Steele continued: "At the same time, I granted [Tyann Sorrell] a fully paid administrative leave  which she is still on  and once she felt ready to return to the workplace, we supported her search to find a position on campus that meets her interests and needs."

This is not the UC Berkeley brasss first brush with sexual misconduct allegations. The Daily Californian reports that in 2002, then-dean John Dwyer resigned amid accusations of sexually harassing a former law student.

Former astronomy professor Geoffrey Marcy resigned in October 2015 after it was discovered that he violated the universitys sexual harassment polices over a number of years.

"I know we all share the goal of eliminating of sexual harassment and all forms of discriminatory behavior at UC Berkeley," Steele said Wednesday. "I intend to listen carefully to what members of our campus community and others have to suggest when it comes to how we prevent and respond to incidents like these."

Before coming on board as the Berkeley law school's 12th dean, Choudhry taught at New York University, and served as associate dean and Scholl Professor of Law at the University of Toronto. He is a Rhodes Scholar, holds law degrees from Oxford and Harvard universities, is a member of the United Nations Mediation Roster, and has served as a consultant to the World Bank Institute, according to an announcement when he was hired.

Choudhry has yet to respond to a request for comment and the University of California Board of Regents' spokeswoman directed NBC Bay Area back to the University of California, Berkeley.
Abandoning the nasty insults of past debates, Donald Trump and his Republican rivals turned Thursday night's presidential face-off into a mostly respectful but still pointed discussion of Social Security, Islam, trade and more. Trump shook his head and declared at one point: "I can't believe how civil it's been up here."

Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio didn't hesitate to lay out their differences with Trump, but the candidates largely managed to present those arguments without vitriol.

In a lengthy discussion of the threat posed by radicalized Muslims, Trump refused to back away from his recent statement that "Islam hates the West." He said he wouldn't stoop to being "politically correct" by avoiding such statements.

Rubio had a sharp comeback: "I'm not interested in being politically correct. I'm interested in being correct."

The Florida senator noted the Muslims in the U.S. military and buried in Arlington National Cemetery and said the only way to solve the problem of violent extremists is to work with people in the Muslim faith who are not radicals.

Cruz bundled together his criticisms of Trump for what he called simplistic solutions on trade and on Islamic terrorists, saying, "The answer is not to simply yell, 'China: bad, Muslim: bad.'"

Trump, though, clearly was intent on projecting a less bombastic  and more presidential  image.

His closing message: "Be smart and unify."

"We're all in this together," he said early on, sounding more like a conciliator than a provocateur as he strives to unify the party behind his candidacy. "We're going to come up with solutions. We're going to find the answer to things."

The candidates split down the middle  Trump and Texas Sen. Cruz vs. Florida Sen. Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich  on the likelihood of the GOP race coming down to a brokered Republican convention this summer.

"I think I'm going to have the delegates, OK?" Trump said.

As for who has a realistic chance of winning the nomination, Trump simply wrote off Rubio and Kasich, saying, "There are two of us that can, and there are two of us that cannot, OK?"

Cruz heartily agreed with Trump on that.

Rubio countered that disappointing "delegate math" aside, he'd keep on fighting.

Kasich, for his part, said it wouldn't be so bad to have a contested convention. He added there are plenty of primaries left so "let's not get ahead of ourselves."

Trump's rivals, in a desperate scramble to halt his march to the nomination, gradually ramped up their criticism as the night wore on.

Rubio's overarching message: "I know that a lot of people find appeal in the things Donald says. The problem is presidents can't just say anything they want because it has consequences around the world."

Cruz, eager to cement his position as the party's last best alternative to Trump, had a string of criticisms of the GOP front-runner, too, saying flatly at one point: "His solutions don't work."

Trump refused to take the bait when Cruz repeatedly poked at his foreign policy positions and at one point lumped Trump with Hillary Clinton and John Kerry in supporting the Obama administration's Iran nuclear deal.

Trump's restrained response: "If Ted was listening, he would have heard me say something very similar" to what Cruz had said about the failings of the deal.

In a meaty discussion of Social Security, Cruz and Rubio both said they'd gradually raise the retirement age for younger workers to help stabilize the system and stave off financial disaster for the system.

Trump, in contrast, said he'd do "everything within my power not to touch Social Security, to leave it the way it is."

On that issue, the GOP front-runner couldn't resist taking a dig at the Democrats, saying he'd been watching them intensely "even though it's a very, very boring thing to watch"  and that they weren't doing anything on Social Security.

Trump was questioned about whether he had set a tone at his rallies that fueled violent encounters between supporters and protesters.

"I truly hope not," he said, but added that many of his supporters have "anger that is unbelievable" about how the country is being run and that some of protesters were "bad dudes."

President Barack Obama, offering political commentary from the sidelines, said earlier in the day the party was going through a "Republican crackup" that had taken on the tone of a "circus." He blamed the GOP itself for fostering the idea "that cooperation or compromise somehow is a betrayal."

Florida is the biggest prize of Tuesday's five-state round of voting, and all 99 of the state's delegates will go to the winner.

In all, 367 Republican delegates will be at stake, with voting also occurring in Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and the Northern Mariana Islands.

In the race for delegates, Trump has 459, Cruz 360, Rubio 152 and Kasich 54. It takes 1,237 to win the Republican nomination for president.
Following an internal vote Wednesday, the Cook County Republican Party has chosen to support Ohio Gov. John Kasich in his bid for the presidency.

According to party chair Aaron Del Mar, Kasich received 58 percent of support, with Ted Cruz receiving 29 percent and Donald Trump receiving 2 percent. Marco Rubio, who was recently endorsed by the Chicago Tribune, received 0 percent of the vote.

Del Mar explained that an outright endorsement would require a candidate to receive 60 percent of support. Nonetheless, Kasich will receive the groups recommendation.

Kasich, who currently holds 54 pledged delegates, trails Trump, Cruz and Rubio. Trump holds 458 delegates, Cruz holds 359 and Rubio holds 151.

According to a recent Capitol Fax/We Ask America poll of 1,009 likely Republican voters, Trump received 33 percent of support, with Cruz receiving 20 percent, Kasich receiving 18 percent and Rubio receiving 11 percent.

The poll was administered on Monday.

With the March 15 primary less than a week away, many of the GOP candidates have shifted their attention to Illinois.

Trump will hold a free rally at the University of Illinois-Chicagos Pavillion Friday.

Cruz will headline the Northwest Suburban Lincoln Day Dinner and attend an Illinois Republican Party fundraiser Friday.

Kasich appeared at a town hall event at a truck manufacturing company in suburban Lisle Wednesday, laying out his plan to improve the economy.

Kasich also held a Town Hall at Palatines Park District Community Center Wednesday.
The horrific story of how two 12-year-old girls tried to kill their friend to please a fictional horror character on the internet will be explored in a new documentary making its debut at South by Southwest this week.

Beware the Slenderman, an HBO documentary directed by Oscar- nominated filmmaker Irene Brodsky, follows the 2014 story of two young girls who are accused of luring their best friend into the woods and stabbing her 19 times to please the fictional character notorious for stalking and terrorizing children.

The documentary, shot over 18 months, features heartbreaking access to the families of the would-be murderers and plunges deep down the rabbit hole of their crime, a Boogeyman and our societys impressionable consumers of media, according to its description on the SXSW website.

The entrance to the internet can quickly lead us to its dark basement, within just a matter of clicks, the description reads. How much do we hold children responsible for what they find there?

Authorities say the girls, who have since been charged as adults, plotted for months to kill their friend Payton Leutner and told investigators they believed Slender Man had a mansion in a Wisconsin forest. They planned to go live with him after the slaying, authorities said.

The girls left Payton for dead after stabbing her more than a dozen times, but she was able to crawl from a wooded area and was discovered by a passing bicyclist. After several surgeries, Payton has returned to school.

Wisconsin law requires attempted homicide cases start in adult court if a suspect is at least 10, but the girls' attorneys have said they hope to see the charges moved to juvenile court, where more services might be available. A judge suspended the case last fall while an appeals court decides whether to review a decision to keep the case in adult court.

The story of Slender Man has provided spooks and thrills for legions of online readers, inspiring a series of videos and once earning the moniker of "the Internet's monster."

The character first surfaced in 2009, when a user on an online forum called Something Awful posted a doctored photo and fictional article in response to a call for fake supernatural images, according to the site KnowYourMeme.com and an expert who has studied the evolution of the Slender Man myth. While such creations aren't uncommon, Slender Man struck a nerve. Soon, users were contributing their own visions of the monster and versions of the terror he'd inflict on unsuspecting school children and others.

In variations of the legend, Slender Man was said to "cause memory loss, insomnia, paranoia, coughing fits," according to Know Your Meme. His narrow frame was accented by tentacles or arms that could stretch and retract in some accounts.

The story spread, inspiring a spin off online video series, video games and threads on various message boards and sites dedicated to scary folklore. It has since become a popular topic on the site Creepypasta, where the two girls charged with the attack reportedly told authorities they encountered the tale.

The documentary makes its debut Friday at the Texas festival.
There is nothing quite like St. Patricks Day weekend in Chicago.



The celebration of Irish culture and tradition starts at 9 a.m. Saturday with the official dyeing of the Chicago River, then continues with the first of two annual St. Patrick Day parades, one downtown and one in Beverly.

Saturday, March 12

Chicago River Dyeing

For over 40 years, the Chicago Journeymen Plumbers have dyed the Chicago River green to kick off the St. Patricks Day Parade celebration. The dyeing is scheduled for 9 a.m. and can be best viewed from the east side of the Columbus Drive Bridge or Upper and Lower Wacker Drive between Columbus and Lake Shore Drive. This best viewing location is due to the construction taking place this year. Be sure to come early as the dye only lasts about five hours.

Chicago St. Patricks Day Parade

The parade starts at Balbo and Columbus and proceeds north on Columbus Drive to Monroe. Packed with all things Irish, viewers can watch colorful floats waving green, white and orange flags, troops of Irish step dancers, marching bands and bagpipers as they parade through Chicagos Loop. House Speaker Michael Madigan leads the parade as grand marshal along with 2016 Guest of Honor Mary A. Dempsey, president of DePaul College Prep. The parade happens rain or shine and usually lasts about three hours.

Keep the celebrations going Sunday by attending the South Side Irish Parade and the festivities they have to offer.

Sunday, March 13

2016 Emerald Isle Mile

A new addition to the South Side Irish Parade that began last year, the Emerald Isle Mile is a one-mile, B-tag time race starting at 104th and Western and finishing at 112th. The 2016 Emerald Isle Mile, sponsored by Running Excels, begins at 11:30 a.m., just prior to the start of the parade. A portion of the proceeds support the 2016 South Side Irish Parade.

South Side Irish St. Patricks Day Parade

The parade steps off at noon from 103rd and proceeds down Western Avenue to 115th Street. The Grand Marshals of the 2016 parade are South Siders Fighting Childhood Cancer. This is a group of four neighborhood charities providing support and fundraising to fight pediatric cancer. The Community Honoree is the 100 Club of Chicago, which offers financial, emotional and organizational assistance to the families of first responders who have been killed in the line of duty. The South Side Irish Parade is a family-friendly event and has a zero-tolerance policy for alcohol along the parade route. The anticipated length time of the parade is two hours.
In the most recent installment of "black-ish," the failure of a Grand Jury to indict the cops who Tasered a young black man 37 times set the stage for strongest episode of any sitcom this season.

The Johnsons, an upscale intergenerational African-American family in Los Angeles, grappled with fierce, if differing emotions before leaving the comfort of their home together to join protesters. The writers deftly juggled humor  along with anger, fear, confusion and more than enough love and faith to support the episodes title of "Hope."

The brutality case at the center of the action may have been fictional, but it resonated amid high-profile cases of police violence against African Americans in recent months. While of its time, the "black-ish" episode on ABC recalled another era in TV, when "All in the Family" used humor as turpentine to strip bare the cultural and political conflicts roiling the country in the early 1970s.

"The Carmichael Show," which got off to a promising start in its initial six-episode run last year, would appear to have some surface similarities to "black-ish." The NBC sitcom features an intergenerational African-American family, albeit one from North Carolina and of more modest means than the Johnsons. But the deeper commonality rests in an "All in the Family"-like knack for tackling divisive issues head-on, through family members with diverging perspectives.

As "black-ish" raises the bar for all sitcoms with ambitions beyond grabbing cheap laughs, "Carmichael" returns Sunday in a bid to make its own mark on TV.

The show, starring comedian Jerrod Carmichael, features some sitcom tropes, almost straight out of "Everybody Loves Raymond": outspoken, seemingly set-in-their ways parents, a sad-sack brother and a smart, independent girlfriend who doesnt quite fit in with the eccentric family.

But "Carmichae" quickly distinguished itself with issue-driven plots that upended expectations on characters' reactions to crises.

In an episode about keeping guns in the house, Jerrods mother and girlfriend sided against him and his pistol-packing dad  until an accidental shooting and a robbery scare set off flip-flops galore. The devout Christian parents parrying with Jerrods half-Jewish, fully agnostic girlfriend seemed ripped out of the Archie Bunker-Mike Stivic playbook  until the digging up of past family history showed that keeping the faith isnt always easy.

The most powerful installment focused on protests over a police shooting  spurring Jerrods mother and girlfriend to take to the streets of Charlotte while he and his father stayed home, angry over the incident, but too scarred by their own experiences with cops to see any point in taking action. "Its all because I fit a description," Jerrod says in describing a racial profiling incident in which police slammed him to the ground.

But the episode didnt skimp on humor, even when pushing boundaries. Jerrods rough-edged ex-sister-in-law notched uneasy laughs from the studio audience when she dragged in a flat screen TV she took from a looter. When Jerrods mother gets excited about the prospect of returning to her 1960s demonstration days, her husband quips, "Do you always get this giddy when someone gets shot?"

The shows success so far can be attributed to smart writing, strong performances (especially from scene-stealers David Alan Grier and Loretta Devine as Jerrods parents) and a willingness to take on uncomfortable subjects. Carmichael reportedly plans to turn up the heat this season with an episode about the multiple sex assault allegations against Bill Cosby.

In the meantime, check out a preview of the return of The Carmichael Show as Jerrod Carmichael goes all-in on the "All in the Family" approach.

Jere Hester is Director of News Products and Projects at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He is also the author of "Raising a Beatle Baby: How John, Paul, George and Ringo Helped us Come Together as a Family." Follow him on Twitter.
There may be no hope for absolute world peace, but the mayors of two Texas cities met Thursday in a Taco Summit in hopes of settling "The Great Breakfast Taco War of 2016."

Admittedly the Taco War only lasted 20 days -- basically from Feb. 19, when a writer declared Austin was the home of the breakfast taco, until the Taco Summit on March 10.

First, you have to know how we got where we are today.

It all started with Eater writer Matthew Sedacca's essay on "How Austin Became the Home of the Crucial Breakfast Taco." A San Antonio resident replied with a Change.org petition to exile Sedacca from Texas for this "taco negligence."

That's when the long-claimed home of Tex-Mex, San Antonio, prepared to defend its reputation.

Sedacca who lives in (read this like an Old El Paso commercial for effect) -- New York City! -- also was chastised by San Antonio Mayor Ivy R. Taylor via Twitter: "Even this native #NewYorker (me) knows #SanAntonio is the mecca of the breakfast taco."

When Austin's mayor learned San Antonio had a beef with the article, he took it semi-seriously, declaring a taco war during a speech in front of a group of University of Texas volunteers on Feb. 27.

"I come to you this morning with some grave news," Austin Mayor Steve Adler said. "The city of Austin is currently at war with San Antonio over a subject that I know we all hold dear in our hearts. That, of course, is breakfast tacos."

A ceasefire was announced March 8 and the mayors decided a Taco Summit would be held to settle the war over Texas' savory breakfast staple.

Taylor took 50 of the tastiest breakfast tacos her city had to offer to a meeting with Adler.

The tongue-in-cheek agenda for the Breakfast Taco Summit included:

Eat Tacos

Establish a Taco Peace Treaty

Declare a Truce

The mayors met at a neutral location, the Hilton Austin Downtown.

After both agreeing their breakfast taco was the best, the mayors declared a peaceful end to "The Great Breakfast Taco War of 2016" with Adler signing a proclamation declaring Thursday Breakfast Taco Day in Austin.
Dallas Police see a dramatic decrease in violent crime in the Oak Lawn/Cedar Springs neighborhood this year, and officers are crediting civilian partnerships, increased patrols, and new surveillance cameras.

Residents say they feel safer--but the memories of a violent autumn aren't soon forgotten.

Dallas Police say violent crime in the Oak Lawn neighborhood this year has dropped by about 20 percent.

Three months ago DPD created a special task force and started putting up surveillance cameras  this came after a spike in violent, unsolved robberies and assaults on largely gay-victims.

Residents and business owners say the police strategy is working, but some residents are still afraid that crime will come back, and asking why no one's been arrested and linked to any of the violent attacks.

Hunky's Hamburgers along Cedar Springs is famous for their juicy burgers, but last fall, some of their own waiters were afraid to come to work.

"It made me question whether I should be working here or not with so much stuff going on," said Angel Diaz, who has worked at the popular restaurant for four years.

There were about 15 violent assaults, robberies, or attempted robberies in a three-month stretch last autumn. Angel Diaz says he adjusted his schedule.

"I was afraid to work night shifts all last year because of what was going on," Diaz said. "But this year? It's way better now, way better."

In November, police created a new highly-concentrated patrol-beat  spreading out just eight blocks in each direction from the heart of Cedar Springs' stretch of bars and nightclubs.

To this day, two squad cars are contained to this zone, and the patrol officers are encouraged to walk the area as much as possible.

"I've noticed a difference in the coverage. I see more patrol cars around, I see officers on foot, that's good," said Hunky's customer and Oak Lawn resident Tony Fernandez.

Many residents and employees along Cedar Springs protested last year that police didn't flood the neighborhood with more officers between September and November to stop the attacks. The perception among many was that police didn't care enough to do more.

"The Oak Lawn community is a fun and economic center of Dallas. A lot of people come here to eat, drink, have fun, and spend a lot of money," said Michael Tijerina, a bartender at the Cedar Springs Tap House.

Now, they're hoping the extra patrols stick around.

"I hope it's not a one-off and they're doing it for just a while longer to save face from what happened last winter," Tijerina said.

Last week, police also installed the 10th and final high-tech surveillance camera in the area. Some residents appreciate the technology, but think the cameras could've been better deployed strategically.

"The cameras, I know that they're up here along the main areas, but my concern is that they need to be on the backstreets as well, that's where most of the crime happens," Fernandez said. "People are getting attacked just one block off or two blocks off."

Police say they're proud of the drop in violence here, but also of the changing attitudes.

"You see a lot more cops out and about, the fear has gone down a lot," Tijerina said.

Dallas Police also encouraged the creation of a Volunteers in Patrol training program to help citizens safely patrol their neighborhood to be on the look-out for suspicious activity. About two dozen VIPs have been trained since September to patrol the streets.

Still, police have not made any arrests in connection to those 15-or-so violent attacks. Some residents wonder if the criminals are only laying low for a while, waiting to attack and rob again when bar patrons let their guard down.

"We don't walk alone anymore, we always walk together, we always make sure we get home okay," Tijerina said.

Police say they don't have a license plate of a getaway car in any of the assaults or a distinctive suspect description--but DPD says the investigations are still open.
Authorities said Wednesday they used new evidence to help revive a more than half-century-old murder case in which an 83-year-old former priest is accused of killing a Texas teacher and ex-beauty queen, but they declined to give details.

John Feit, who had been jailed in Phoenix since his arrest last month, was turned over to Texas authorities Wednesday, Hidalgo County District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez said. His flight arrived Wednesday night at South Texas International Airport, and he was taken to the county jail in Edinburg.

"Today we can say that after a long wait of approximately 56 years, is the beginning of bringing justice to ... the victim and the community," Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez and other officials at a news conference declined to comment on what evidence was presented to grand jurors to indict Feit, only saying "we do have new facts and evidence." Rene Guerra, the former longtime Hidalgo County district attorney who had previously investigated the murder but never brought charges, has said there was no DNA evidence.

Authorities allege the then-27-year-old priest killed 25-year-old teacher Irene Garza on April 16, 1960, after hearing her confession at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in McAllen.

Her body was found days later. An autopsy determined Garza, who was named Miss All South Texas Sweetheart 1958, had been raped while unconscious and was beaten and suffocated.

The now-frail Feit, who uses a walker, was arrested Feb. 9 in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale, where he's lived for years. He had been indicted in Texas.

His arrest followed other investigations over the years, including a grand jury probe in 2004 that concluded there was insufficient evidence to charge him.

McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez said Wednesday that his agency had believed since 2002 "there was probable cause" to charge Feit in the case.

Feit came under suspicion early on, telling police at the time that he heard Garza's confession -- in the church rectory, not in the confessional -- but denying he killed her.

Feit had also been accused of attacking another young woman in a church in a nearby town just weeks before Garza's death. He eventually pleaded no contest and was fined $500.

Evidence that pointed to Feit as a suspect over the years included his portable photographic slide viewer, which was found near Garza's body. Two fellow priests told authorities Feit confessed to them and one of them said he saw scratches on Feit soon after Garza's disappearance.

Feit spent time at a treatment center in New Mexico for troubled priests and after that became a supervisor and had a part in clearing priests for assignments to parishes.

Feit later left the priesthood to marry. He joined the administrative office of the St. Vincent de Paul nonprofit agency in Phoenix in 1983 and retired in 2004.

Garza's family members and friends had long pushed authorities to reopen the case, and it became an issue in the 2014 district attorney's race in Hidalgo County. Rodriguez, who beat Guerra, the longtime incumbent, had promised he would re-examine the case if elected.

"This case is not about politics. This case is not about proving a point. The only motive in this case is to finally bring justice and closure to this cold case," Rodriguez said.
With more than half of Dallas residents and about 40 percent of Fort Worth residents renting their homes, NBC 5 Responds receives many questions from renters.

Two of those most common questions are:

I don't feel safe. How can i get out of my lease?

How do I get my landlord to make repairs?

The NBC 5 Responds Team is providing answers to some of these question to help others facing similar issues.

For example, James asked via Facebook: "I live in Pleasant Grove in Dallas in an apartment I've been renting since February. And my roof leaks bad."



Answer: Texas Property Code mandates a landlord fix the repair if the condition "materially affects the tenants physical health or safety." Notify your landlord by certified, return receipt requested. The Texas tenants' union says if the landlord still doesn't fix the problem, you can take action.

"The tenant would have grounds to take them to court and sue for one month's rent plus $500 actual damages plus court costs and attorneys fees," said Sandy Rollins of the Texas Tenants' Union.

But tenants worry if they complain, they'll end up like Chris who contacted us on Facebook. He wrote: "Our landlord is kicking us out because we requested that Servpro remediate a sewer leak instead of letting their handyman cover up the mess."



Answer: Texas Property Code says it's illegal for a landlord to retaliate against a tenant because he "gives a landlord a notice of repair."

Many residents ask about getting out of a lease. Candace asked: "Are there loopholes or ways to get out of a lease if the environment is unsafe? There have been numerous break-ins at my complex."



Answer: No. According to the Texas Property Code your landlord has to let you out of your lease in the following four circumstances: You're a victim of sexual violence, domestic violence, stalking or you're a member of the military and you're being deployed.

But the Texas Tenants Union says don't give up.

"The tenant can contact the owners of the property, the people that can make that difference. They can be sympathetic, but they don't have to release the tenant from that property," said Yasmin Thomas of the Texas Tenants' Union.

The union also stresses that renters should pay their rent no matter the circumstances. Texas does not allow renters to withhold rent when repairs are needed.

Here's more advice:

 If you have renters questions, download the Tenants' Rights Handbook. It's prepared by the State Bar of Texas and the Young Lawyers Association.

 Attend the Texas Tenants' Union's free workshops re every Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

 Get free legal guidance at clinics hosted by SMU Dedman School of Law.
The McKinney Independent School District could join Allen as the next North Texas school district to construct a Texas-sized high school football stadium.

The district released artist renderings Tuesday of the proposed $50 million facility that would sit at the corner of McKinney Ranch Parkway and Hardin Boulevard. The facility would replace Ron Poe Stadium, where all three McKinney ISD high schools play their games.

"I hear more about the condition and size of (Ron Poe) stadium and the parking over there than I do on almost any other issue," said McKinney ISD School Board President Amy Dankle.

The new stadium would seat about 12,000 people and include up to 3,000 parking spaces. It would also house event space for the district to use and possibly rent out.

At $50 million the plan would take up nearly a quarter of the $220 million bond package. The bond package does not include the construction of any new schools, only major renovations to current facilities. Dankle said the district's demographics are such that new facilities are not currently needed.

"With renovations at McKinney North High School, we won't need to build another high school any time soon, but a new elementary school may be a few years down the road," Dankle said.

Opponents of the plan agree that the district is in need of a new stadium, but the location and the price tag make the stadium plan less than desirable.

"I am fully on board with a stadium that the community can be proud of, with adequate parking, seating, restrooms and concessions. Ron Poe has an established heritage and history for the citizens of McKinney, and it is very close to the center of McKinney ISD jurisdiction. I personally believe that $20 million would be sufficient to renovate a stadium that would meet the needs of McKinney," said McKinney resident Curtis Rath.

Rath believes comparisons of McKinney's stadium plan with Eagle Stadium in Allen is no coincidence.

"My issue is that the McKinney ISD decided to build a stadium to compete with Allen Stadium," he said. "The location is less than a mile to Allen ISD territory."

Dankle defended the size of the plan, saying the district was wasting money by renting bleachers to expand seating and renting out other facilities to hold district events.

"When we have Allen come to play in McKinney we have to rent additional stands just for their fans and band. That's just throwing away money every year," she said. "This stadium has an events center in conjunction with it, and we think that will be a big plus  not only for McKinney ISD personnel to use, but the citizens to use for events."

The school board will finalize the bond package in a vote scheduled for March 17. The election is scheduled for early May.

Despite getting input from more than 100 residents Rath hopes the district will seek even more community input.

"This project impacts all citizens of McKinney, and we all deserve to have a voice in the process," he said.
Sao Paulo state prosecutors said Thursday they filed money laundering and criminal misrepresentation charges against former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva because of evidence he and his family unduly benefited from a real estate scheme that adversely affected thousands of Brazilian families.

Lead prosecutor Cassio Conserino said at a news conference that the former president and his family were swept up in a yearslong investigation into wrongdoing at a failed cooperative in Sao Paulo that sold apartments at cost. The case hinges around a triplex in one of the residential towers built by the cooperative, which prosecutors allege was destined for Silva and his family.

Silva has denied any wrongdoing and said he is not the owner of the apartment in the coastal city of Guaruja.

The state public prosecutors' office brought the charges against Silva, as well as money laundering charges against his wife and one of his sons, late Wednesday.

The judge in the case must now decide whether to accept the charges and move forward with the case.

Conserino said he had no idea when that might happen, suggesting that due to sheer volume of the case it might take some time.

Conviction on the two charges could carry a maximum sentence of 13 years in prison.

Last Friday, federal investigators said they were looking into whether renovations at the Guaruja beachfront apartment and another project at a country house used by Silva and his family constituted favors in exchange for political benefit.

Both places have undergone major renovations paid for by construction companies that for decades have had contracts with the federal government. Those enterprises are also at the center of the scandal gripping the state energy company, Petrobras, in which prosecutors allege $2 billion was paid in bribes to obtain contracts with the company.

Silva acknowledges having visited the penthouse twice, but says he never owned the apartment. He claims the country house belongs to friends who allowed him and his family to use it.

Federal investigators are also trying to determine if Silva sold his influence in the current administration of President Dilma Rousseff in exchange for speeches and donations to his nonprofit foundation Instituto Lula.

Jair Jaloreto, a Sao Paulo-based expert on money laundering, said the penthouse case is "very confusing indeed."

"I see more risk for Lula (Silva) in the investigations into the country house. If he didn't deliver the speeches he was paid for, that could also be money laundering. But this apartment case is difficult. He never used it, there is no document saying it was his. It will be tough for the investigators to prove," Jaloreto said.

Silva governed from 2003 to 2010. Despite a votes-for-bribes scandal that took down his chief of staff and others, he left office with record high popularity levels and his hand-picked successor, Rousseff, handily won the presidency.

Silva and Rousseff have seen their popularity nosedive as Brazil has slipped into its worst recession in decades and corruption investigations have spread. Rousseff's approval ratings dipped into single digits at one point, but have rebounded slightly. She is facing an impeachment effort in congress.
A second day of mourning at the Ronald Reagan Library and Museum began Thursday with long lines as visitors honored former first lady Nancy Reagan one day before her funeral at the hillside property northwest of Los Angeles.

Library visitors walked quietly in a circle around Reagan's casket, brought to the lobby Wednesday and covered in white roses and peonies -- her favorite flower. Officials said they were surprised by Wednesday's public viewing turnout and started with four buses each carrying 50 passengers from the guest lot to the presidential library, but within a matter of hours had grown to nearly a thousand. Officials added a dozen additional buses to shuttle passengers.

A similar crowd is expected Thursday.

Many visitors came and recalled fond memories of living through the Reagan era and the couple's mark on American history.

"The end of the greatest generation to me. It's like my dad, my parents, my aunts, my uncles," said Snooky O'Leary of Simi Valley.

Roy Dillard drove more than 100 miles with two of his daughters and his 3-year-old great-granddaughter to pay their respects. Dillard's daughter Bobbie Eldridge said she admired how the first lady "stood by her man, the great and beautiful love that they had and how she became his caretaker" in old age. She and her 80-year-old father drove from Bakersfield to the library in Simi Valley.

Retired teacher Mary Ellen Gruendyke drove nearly as far from her Riverside home, appearing with a colorful Ronald Reagan souvenir scarf around her neck.

"Ronald Reagan was one of the best presidents we've ever had," Gruendyke said, "and I admired them both as a couple for their love story and the support they showed to each other."

Many cited that love story as most in their thoughts as they stood at the casket, including Daniel Blatt of West Hollywood, who left in tears after paying his respects.

"He wouldn't have been anything without her by his side," Blatt said.

Reagan, who died in her sleep in her Bel Air home of congestive heart failure at the age of 94 on Sunday, will be interred in front of invited guests in a ceremony scheduled to start at 11 a.m. Friday. The Reagan library will remain closed to the general public until 10 a.m. this Sunday.

The one-time actress and former first lady helped plan many of the details of her memorial and funeral service, from the pallbearers to the guest list to the exact location of her interment at her husband's side.

A trio of former first ladies, including Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, are expected to attend the service, along with current first lady Michelle Obama, although President Barack Obama is not expected to be there.

Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, are expected, along with former first lady Rosalynn Carter, according to Reagan Library officials. Tricia Nixon Cox, a daughter of President Richard Nixon, is also expected.

Other expected guests, according to the Reagan Foundation, are Capt. Christopher Bolt, the commander of the USS Ronald Reagan; Katie Couric; Sam Donaldson; Chris Matthews; Newt and Callista Gingrich; Wayne Newton; Anjelica Huston; Melissa Rivers; Tina Sinatra; and Mr. T, the burly actor who took an active role in Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign in the 1980s.

Beginning at 1 p.m. Wednesday, doors to the museum were opened for people to view the casket, which was placed on a pedestal in the lobby, draped with yellow flowers and encircled by black velvet ropes.

During Wednesday's visitation, 65-year-old Los Angeles Times photographer Ricardo DeAratanha was arrested on suspicion of resisting and obstructing a law enforcement officer, a misdemeanor, while transmitting photographs of the funeral motorcade, the newspaper reported today.

Simi Valley police said he refused to identify himself and balked at providing identification, but the photographer's attorney denied it, saying DeAratanha provided press credentials, including identification cards issued by The Times and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

The attorney said officers swarmed DeAratanha, threw him to the ground and cuffed him. He was later taken to a hospital, where he was treated for a sprained elbow, according to The Times.

Ronald Reagan Foundation officials, noting that tight security has been ordered, advised people not to bring large bags, cameras or strollers to the viewings. Gifts and flowers again will only be accepted today at the bottom of Presidential Drive and at the shuttle pickup location.

According to the Reagan Foundation, Nancy Reagan requested that in lieu of flowers, contributions be made to the Ronald Reagan Memorial Fund at www.reaganlibrary.com.

Until Wednesday morning, the casket was at the Gates, Kingsley & Gates Moeller Murphy funeral home in Santa Monica, where relatives gathered around 9 a.m. for a private service conducted by the Rev. Stuart A. Kenworthy, the vicar of Washington National Cathedral and the man who will lead Friday's funeral service. He was assisted by the Rev. Donn Moomaw, the Reagan's family minister.

Shortly before 10 a.m. Wednesday, Nancy Reagan's casket was placed in a large black hearse to begin the trek to the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. Her casket was attended by eight pallbearers -- all U.S. Secret Service agents who worked for her or her husband over the years.

As the motorcade made its way north on the San Diego (405) Freeway, onlookers could be seen on overpasses to watch the procession below. The Los Angeles Fire Department displayed large American flags at a pair of locations along the route. When the motorcade transitioned to the westbound Ronald Reagan (118) Freeway, about a dozen LAFD firefighters stood at attention along the shoulder of the roadway and saluted as the hearse passed.

Nancy Reagan was the woman behind the "Just Say No" campaign and a first lady known for adding glamour to the White House.

The Reagans were married in March 1952 and lived in Pacific Palisades until they moved to Sacramento in 1966. They had two children together, Patti and Ron Jr., and she also helped raise Ronald Reagan's two children with his first wife, Jane Wyman.

Ronald and Nancy Reagan were both actors, but "Hellcats Of the Navy" in 1957 was the only movie in which they appeared together, although she later continued to act in TV and minor movie roles.

Her biggest roles, however, were not on the screen, but as Ronald Reagan's adviser, counselor and fierce protector when he was in public life, and later, as his chief caregiver after he became stricken by Alzheimer's disease. Reagan died in June 2004.

City News Service and Annette Arreola contributed to this report.
Fighting for Florida and beyond, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders tangled in an intense debate Wednesday night over who's the true friend of American Hispanics, trading accusations over guest worker programs "akin to slavery'' and the embracing of "vigilantes'' against immigrants.

They had even worse things to say about Republican front-runner Donald Trump.

Facing off just six days before Florida gives its verdict on the presidential race, Clinton faulted Sanders for repeatedly voting against a 2007 comprehensive immigration reform bill; he faulted her for opposing a 2007 effort to let people who were in the country illegally obtain driver's licenses.

Had the immigration package passed back then, Clinton said, "a lot of the issues we are still discussing today would be in the rearview mirror.''

Sanders retorted that he opposed the legislation because it included a guest worker program "akin to slavery.''

The debate opened with a question that appeared to startle Clinton.

Univision's Jorge Ramos asked her if she would drop out of the race if indicted over the handling of her email while secretary of state.

"Oh for goodness, that is not going to happen,'' Clinton declared. "I'm not even answering that question.''

The FBI is investigating the possibility of mishandling of sensitive information that passed through Clinton's private email server.

Sanders, as he has in the past, declined to bite on the issue, saying, "The process will take its course.'' He said he'd rather talk about the issues of wealth and income inequality.

Both candidates were bidding for momentum after Sanders surprised Clinton with an upset victory in Michigan on Tuesday.

Clinton stressed that she has a strong lead in the delegates, declaring, "This is a marathon, and it is a marathon that can only be carried by the kind of campaign I am running.''

Sanders said his Michigan surprise was evidence that his message is resonating.

"We are going to continue to do extremely well,'' he said, adding that he expects to convince superdelegates who are backing Clinton to switch to his column.

Immigration commanded considerable attention for good reason: Florida is home to nearly 1.8 million Hispanics, including about 15 percent of the state's Democrats.

Hispanic voters have made up about 10 percent of voters in the Democratic primaries so far this year, and Clinton has been getting about two-thirds of their votes to about one-third for Sanders. The Vermont senator stresses that he's making progress on winning over younger Hispanics.

Clinton at one point accused Sanders of supporting legislation that would have led to indefinite detention of people facing deportation, and for standing with Minutemen vigilantes. He called that notion "ridiculous'' and "absurd,'' and accused Clinton of picking small pieces out of big legislative packages to distort his voting record.

"No, I do not support vigilantes and that is a horrific statement and an unfair statement to make,'' he said.

For all the disagreements, the overall tone of the candidates was considerably less tense than their Sunday faceoff. Sanders even paused at one point to make fun of his own pronunciation of "huge'' as "yuge.''

Both found agreement in pointing to GOP front-runner Trump as markedly worse on immigration than either of them.

Clinton mocked Trump's plan for a wall on the Mexican border, saying he'd build "the most beautiful tall wall, better than the great wall of China'' to be "magically'' paid for by Mexico. That, she said, is a fantasy.

Sanders said that in the immigration debate "we do not, as Donald Trump and others have done, resort to racism and xenophobia and bigotry.''

There were any number of areas of agreement, including the need to reduce student loan debt. Sanders said he'd come up with a plan "many months before she did.''

"Thanks for copying a very good idea,'' he said.

The candidates squared off soon after a testy debate in Michigan on Sunday in which they argued about trade and economic issues of particular interest in the industrial Midwest.

With Missouri, Illinois, Ohio among the states that will be voting on Tuesday, the candidates returned to a pointed matter they'd already argued about three days earlier, scuffling over Sanders' vote against 2009 legislation that bailed out the auto industry, among others. Sanders said he opposed the bill because it also bailed out big banks that had fueled the recession to begin with. Clinton stressed she'd made a different judgment to side with the automakers.

Overall, 691 delegates are at stake on Tuesday, including 99 in Florida, which awards all its delegates to the winner rather than dividing them up proportionately.

Clinton has won 762 pledged delegates compared to 549 for Sanders, with 10 delegates from recent primaries still to be allocated. When superdelegates are included, Clinton leads 1,223 to 574, more than halfway to the 2,383 needed to win the Democratic nomination.
A Homestead Senior High student is facing charges after authorities say he extorted sex from younger female students after threatening to expose nude photos he forced them to send him.

Terry Fenelon, 18, is charged with two counts of sexual battery by coercion and two counts of extortion, according to the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office.

Fenelon remained behind bars Wednesday without bond. In court, his attorney argued he should be allowed to bond out.

"Bondable? He's a predator on these kids from the school. Homestead High School, threatening them, he's going to harm them and their families if they don't perform sexual acts and send nude photos," said Miami-Dade Judge Mindy Glazer.

Authorities say Fenelon posed as someone named "Dre" on the messaging app KIK and sent messages to his 15-year-old and 16-year-old victims, asking for nude photos. When he was denied, "Dre" threatened harm to the girls' families or claimed he would release other nude photos, authorities said.

"Dre" also indicated he knew the victims' addresses and present locations, authorities said. When the victims sent nude photos, "Dre" threatened to release them on Facebook or to relatives unless they performed sex acts on his "cousin," Fenelon, at Homestead Senior High, authorities said.

The victims began to realize that "Dre" and Fenelon were the same person, and they came forward to police and school administrators.

"The details of this case are extremely disturbing. Although social media has many positive uses, this incident serves as a good reminder that parents need to monitor their childrens social media activity and warn them of the negative consequences when it is improperly used," Miami-Dade Schools said in a statement. "We will continue to teach our students about the rights and responsibilities of digital citizenship, because their safety, security, and well-being continue to be the school districts highest concern."

Authorities said they are still investigating since there may be more victims.

"This is exactly the kind of awful crime that our recent Revenge Porn legislation aimed to curtail," State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement. "This forced sexual humiliation of young women was meant to satisfy a sick need for power. We know that there are more victims who suffered at the hands of this young man. This is the time for other victims to come forward and reclaim your pride."

Anyone with information on the case can call the SAO Hotline at 305-547-3300.
President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised Thursday to make it easier for their respective countries to trade and invest in one another, share more information about their respective no-fly lists to prevent the flow of foreign fighters and promote clean energy as a central focus of economic growth.

Obama and Trudeau spoke during a news conference after they met in the Oval Office, and after a welcoming ceremony at which the White House rolled out the red carpet for the first official visit in nearly two decades by a Canadian prime minister, a charismatic and youthful liberal leader intent on maintaining tight ties with the United States.

"We're woven together so deeply as societies, as economies, that it's sometimes easy to forget how truly remarkable our relationship is," Obama said.

Obama said the two leaders instructed aides to make it easier for goods and people to move back and forth between the two nation's borders. Trudeau said the two leaders made clear they both want a "clean-growth economy," and earlier in the day, they announced efforts to reduce methane emissions from gas and oil production.

"I'm confident that by working together, we'll get there sooner than we think," Trudeau said.

While the two leaders stressed how closely their nations are aligned, it was also clear they see similarities in each other. "From my perspective, what's not to like?" Obama said of Trudeau.

Trudeau said he is always pleased to hear from Obama on how he's handled various difficult issues of the past. He said it is a great comfort to have advice from people one can trust and count on personally.

"He's a man of tremendous heart and tremendous intellect," Trudeau said.

Earlier in the day, Obama greeted Trudeau by emphasizing that their nations are blessed to be neighbors with shared views on the importance of health care as right for all and diversity as a sign of strength.

"We see ourselves in each other, guided by the same values," Obama said.

At the ornate arrival ceremony on the South Lawn, Obama and first lady Michelle Obama welcomed Trudeau, the 44-year-old son of the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and his wife, Sophie Gregoire.

The leaders found time for some levity before heading into an Oval Office meeting, with a state dinner to come in the evening.

The president hit on a topic of national pride for Canadians: hockey.

"Where's the Stanley Cup right now?" Obama joked, before answering his own question  the Chicago Blackhawks won it last season.

Trudeau tried to match Obama's trash talk, noting that three of the Blackhawks' best players are from Canada. Still, the young prime minister's remarks were largely earnest. He linked his agenda to the Obama administration's and said the two governments "share and are working on the exact same objectives."

"There is no relationship in the entire world like the Canada-U.S. relationship," Trudeau said. "We grew up together."

Despite that close geographical and political alliance, no Canadian prime minister had made an official visit since 1997, a fact that Obama noted.

"It's about time, eh?" Obama said, playing up the Canadian colloquialism.

Canada is the United States' largest trading partner, with more than $2 billion worth of goods and services crossing the border every day. About 75 percent of Canada's exports go to the U.S.

Besides trade, the two leaders are expected to seek common ground on environment protection. Before their meeting, the U.S. and Canada said in a statement that they will work to put in place the existing international agreement in Paris on curbing global warming. They committed to reducing methane emissions by 40 percent to 45 percent from 2012 levels over the coming decade.

Methane is the second most prevalent greenhouse gas emitted in the U.S. from human activities and is much more efficient at trapping radiation than carbon dioxide.

Trudeau's father swept into power in 1968 and, with a short interruption, served until 1984. He was often compared to President John F. Kennedy and remains one of the few Canadian politicians known in America.

Tall and fit, Justin Trudeau channels the charisma of his father. He aims to restore his father's legacy as leader of the Liberal Party, which was under siege during 10 years of Conservative rule under Stephen Harper, Trudeau's predecessor.


UCSD embraced a bit of history on March 2 when they welcomed the legendary Art Ensemble of Chicago and Association of the Advancement of Creative Musicians co-founder Roscoe Mitchell into the Experimental Theater to premiere his latest orchestral work Cards in the Faces of Roses for Eleven, (which he didnt perform on) as well as pieces for a quartet featuring Mark Dresser on bass, Mike Reed on drums, and Anthony Davis on piano and an improvised piece for the large ensemble.

That ensemble was loaded with serious musicians, including Dresser, Davis, and Reed, plus Nicole Mitchell on flute, Drew Ceccato on saxophones, Stephanie Richards on trumpet, Kjell Nordeson on vibraphone, Sean Dowgray on marimba, Judith Hamann on cello, Kyle Motl and Tommy Babin on bass with Matt Kline conducting.

Cards in the Faces of Roses for Eleven began with soft sounds swirling around the stage as tinkling piano, mocking muted-trumpet, moaning contrabasses, rich alto-flute and gorgeous cello all seemed to vie for attention with considerable stretches of silence -- creating a dark stream of agitated flow interrupted by short bursts of creative energy from all concerned.

Mitchell came to the stage to lead the quartet through an improvised tour-de-force that almost tore my head off. Initially, his strangled warbling on alto saxophone caused the audience to lean forward -- an impulse that was rewarded by a Herculean, nonstop circular-breathed solo that spanned 10 minutes and only relented during the time it took to change from alto to sopranino and back again. Davis, Reed and Dresser ebbed and flowed with the organic energy of the master, each finding moments to shine and contribute as the dynamics shifted from raging surges to pianissimo sighs as Mitchell dialed down into a series of prescient long tones.

The improvising orchestra returned for an uncharted exploration led off by the call-and-response between Nicole Mitchells flute and the trumpet/piccolo trumpet of Richards, which soon drew the liquid flow of Hamanns cello. Ceccato then engaged the leader in a locked-horns embrace that illustrated the long relationship they share (Ceccato studied with Mitchell up the coast at Mills College). Throughout the evening, Reed proved himself to be the perfect drummer for the occasion, stoking the fires when necessary, but mostly providing a wonderful series of tiny gestures that encouraged the music to develop at its own pace.

It was inspiring to watch the music unfold from wispy clouds of dissonant harmonies to breathtaking moments that celebrated the listening virtuosity manifested in Daviss rumbling left-hand, Nordesons blurred mallets and the dizzying double-handed glissandi of Dresser, plus the ebullient cacophony of 12 independent, yet vitally linked voices.

Amazing music from amazing musicians, and it was especially gratifying to see the Experimental Theater absolutely full of committed listeners -- deservedly so. Bravo, UC San Diego. Bravo, Roscoe Mitchell!

Robert Bush is a freelance jazz writer who has been exploring the San Diego improvised music scene for more than 30 years. Follow him on Twitter @robertbushjazz. Visit The World According to Rob.
A koala in a Los Angeles Zoo enclosure was mauled to death, and the beloved Griffith Park mountain lion P-22 is believed to be the animal responsible, the zoo's director said Wednesday.

The koala caretakers were doing a head count last Thursday and discovered one was missing.

As they searched the area, they found a tuft of hair.

Hours later, zoo workers discovered the body of a 14-year-old female koala about 400 yards away, John Lewis, director of the Los Angeles Zoo, said.

A month before, zoo workers were reviewing surveillance footage that monitors outside wildlife, and were surprised at what they saw.

"We were actually looking for bobcats, and what we found on that night was P-22," Lewis said. "That was the first time we knew he was getting into the zoo."

After reviewing the footage the night that the koala was killed, they saw P-22.

The mountain lion is believed to have been born in the Santa Monica Mountains and made the trek across the 405 and 101 Freeways to the Griffith Park wilderness.

"We don't know how he's getting in or how he's getting out [of the zoo], but he was also seen the night the koala disappeared," Lewis said.

Lewis said P-22 has not killed zoo animals before, and is believed to have been eating raccoons that get inside the zoo.

Zoo workers were taking extra precautions after the incident, like locking up smaller animals in their barns at night.

"The koalas are all off exhibit. They're in a safe place," Lewis said.

Despite the sad news of the koala's death, Lewis said he doesn't believe P-22 should be moved from his home in the wilderness of Griffith Park.

"There's a lot of native wildlife in this area. This is their home," Lewis said. "So we'll learn to adapt to P-22 just like he's learned to adapt to us."

The office of LA Mayor Eric Garcetti released a statement to NBC4 via email regarding the incident.

"Unfortunately, these types of incidents happen when we have a zoo in such close proximity to one of the largest urban parks in the country," Barbara Romero, deputy mayor for city services, said. "We are investigating the circumstances of the koala's disappearance but in the meantime, we are taking action to ensure that all of our animals are safe. The koalas have been removed from their public habitats for now and other animals are being moved to their night quarters when the zoo closes."

Los Angeles City Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell said that P-22 should perhaps be resettled as his interactions with the city and residents become more frequent.

"Regardless of what predator killed the koala, this tragedy just emphasizes the need to contemplate relocating P-22 to a safer, more remote wild area where he has adequate space to roam without the possibility of human interaction," O'Farrell said. "P-22 is maturing, will continue to wander, and runs the risk of a fatal freeway crossing as he searches for a mate. As much as we love P-22 at Griffith Park, we know the park is not ultimately suitable for him. We should consider resettling him in the environment he needs."

"This is not a situation where we can get rid of the native wildlife and not expect this to happen again," Kate Kuykendall of the National Park Service said.

This wasn't the first time the beloved mountain lion was in a place where some believe he shouldn't be. P-22 was spotted in a Hollywood Hills backyard in November.
Fifteen San Diego school districts are looking to hire teachers as the supply of available teachers reaches a 10-year low.

Doctor Judy Mantle with National University says the supply of teachers has reached an alarming level.

"The shortage has actually been creeping up on us over a period of years, but it's at a point right now where it's almost what we would refer to as a crisis," Mantle said.

A report by the Learning Policy Institute found that estimated teacher hires for the 2015-16 school year rose 25 percent from the previous school year, a number that has been steadily growing.

At the beginning of this school year, many districts scrambled to start school with enough teachers, according to the report. This upcoming school year, the state is anticipating a shortage of 22,000 teachers.

Over the next ten years, anticipated retirements are expected to open up 100,000 jobs statewide.

San Diego is no exception to the statewide trend, Mantle said.

"In some cases we're even have difficulty recruiting substitute teachers," she said. "So that tells you that this is a critical shortage."

An official with San Diego Unified School district said that unfortunately education is not seen as an attractive field to go into. When the economy suffered, so did schools, who weren't hiring as much. It slowed down retirement for many teachers. Now, as many prepare to retire, there are not enough to take their places.

Parents agree something needs to be done.

"I think it's really sad, you know, because these are the ones that are teaching our children and our children are the future," Heather Perea, the parent of an elementary school student, said. "With the lack of teachers, I mean, how are our kids going to learn?"

Kimberly Leistiko, a mother of four elementary school kids, said she worries the quality of the education will suffer as a result.

"We don't just want to put anybody in there in the schools," Leistiko said. "We want to have teachers who are prepared to deal with the students and their issues."

National University held a career fair for their students Wednesday where districts across San Diego, including San Diego Unified School District, spoke with students from 4 to 7 p.m. San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) is one of several districts participating in a career fair at National University--to recruit more teachers for the upcoming school year.

SDUSD officials say they are working on a "teacher pipeline" program that would encourage their own students to go into the education field and help them get into college and then return to the district as teachers.
A online post bragging about the rape of an unconscious and intoxicated woman has led to two guilty pleas, according to the San Diego County District Attorneys Office.

Jonas Isaac Dick pleaded guilty to one felony count of rape of an unconscious person. He will be sentenced March 25. Sentencing range is mandatory between five and eight years in state prison. He must register as a sex offender.

Jason Berlin pleaded guilty to one felony count of rape of an intoxicated person. Sentencing is set for May.

These developments are in connection with an incident that happened in October 2013, prosecutors told NBC 7.

Dick and Berlin blogged about the attack on a San Diego-based website that claimed to teach men how to meet, seduce and sleep with women in one night, according to the initial complaint.

Court documents obtained exclusively by NBC 7 San Diego allege, around October 13-14, 2013, the men met the intoxicated woman and agreed to go back to one of their residences located in the Gaslamp Quarter.

There, according to court records, the womans friend found the victim unconscious, face down on a bed and surrounded by vomit with two of the defendants nude around her.

The friend dragged the woman from the room and the two reported what happened to San Diego Police, according to the complaint.

A third defendant, Alexander Markham Smith, 26, has pleaded not guilty to one count of rape of an intoxicated person and one count of rape of an unconscious person.

According to a police investigator, The next day Smith blogged about the incident, touting his sexual prowess. Berlin confessed to engaging in sex with a female who moments before vomited. He chronicled the incident with great detail implicating himself, Smith and Dick.

Police claim they found hundreds of pornographic photographs and videosseveral of nude women asleep or unconscious on Smiths phone.

Smiths trial will begin April 4.
A Fairfax County high school teacher resigned his job and lost his teaching license after he was investigated for allegedly supplying high school students on a trip to Germany with alcohol, encouraging them to drink to the point of intoxication and both encouraging and participating in sex acts with two of the teenagers, according to Virginia Board of Education disciplinary records.

The alleged misconduct occurred while Christopher Rademacher, a former teacher at Langley High School in McLean, was traveling with students to Germany in July 2014.

Though police report being alerted about the accusations, criminal charges were not filed against Rademacher because the alleged misconduct happened overseas. Trip organizers said they were never told.

The disciplinary records reviewed by the I-Team said that, during the school district investigation, students confirmed the allegations that Rademacher supplied the teenagers with alcohol and encouraged them to strip naked." But the records did not specify whether evidence was gathered about the alleged sexual acts.

The records further note that Rademacher refused to cooperate in the investigation and provided no statement.

The records also said Fairfax County Public Schools placed Rademacher on administrative leave in August 2014, five days after being notified of the allegations by the police department. He resigned his job two months later.

Rademacher did not appear at a state hearing at which his license was formally revoked, according to a state education department hearing.

The I-Team tried for multiple weeks to contact Christopher Rademacher by phone and by email, but was unable to do so.

The Fairfax County Police Department did not launch a formal child abuse investigation against Rademacher because the alleged crime occurred overseas, outside state and local police jurisdiction, the agency told the News-4 I-Team.

The fundamental issue is that we had, have no alleged offense in Fairfax County, therefore we would not have made a referral to anyone, said Fairfax County police spokesman Don Gotthardt..

And by the same token, if we had no known or alleged offense in Fairfax County, there would be no case to pursue," Gotthardt said. "Obviously, if someone had filed a report or made an allegation that a criminal offense had occurred in Fairfax County, we would have investigated it thoroughly.

According to the records and some of his former students, who spoke with the I-Team, Rademacher regularly organized and chaperoned an annual student summer trip to Germany. About 20 Langley students traveled to Germany each summer with Rademacher, according to trip participants.

Fairfax County Public Schools spokesman John Torre, in a statement to News4, said, This was not a school sponsored or FCPS sponsored trip. It was organized by the teacher on his own time. Once FCPS became aware of what had occurred, we immediately notified the parents of the students who traveled with the teacher and also contacted law enforcement. Friendship Connection is not a FCPS-approved vendor nor do we have any financial relationship with the company. 

The summer student trips to Germany were organized by Friendship Connection, an Ohio-based organization that facilitates the exchange of German and American students. German students are placed with host families in the United States, while American students are placed with German families in Europe, according to company literature.

American teachers often accompany their students during the month-long trip to Germany, former Langley students told the I-Team.

The father of a 15-year-old who went on the trip told News4 he didn't realize the school did not back the program.

"I just assumed that it was kind of part of the school program, that there was an optional summer trip supervised by a teacher from Langley High School," he said. "It was just kind of implicit."

Friendship Connection told the I-Team it was never notified about the incident involving Rademacher by school officials or police. Friendship Connection director Krista Winzer Lee said, In the summer of 2014, Mr. Rademacher organized his own extra trip after (official) 28-day exchange program was over. The Langley High School parents approved of Mr. Rademacher's private trip and financed it. We did not hear about any incident; that occurred during his private trip until the day he was removed from the Langley HS at the beginning to the 2014-2015 school year. We tried to find out why Mr. Rademacher was let go and to this day we have never received any clear answers. 

One former Langley student who participated in a Germany summer trip with Langley High School classmates said, All of the students met (the teacher) at the airport and we flew to Germany together. Then we landed and were picked up by our host families. We all went our separate ways living with our host family for a month. (The teacher) traveled through Germany and met with each family once to check in. That visit lasted about an hour or so.

The overseas Germany trips are no longer offered at Langley, according to parents with whom the I-Team spoke.

Winzer Lee said her organization is also seeking to locate Rademacher. She said he has not yet released money hed raised for a potential 2015 trip to Germany for Langley students.

Fairfax County Public Schools also said in its statement, "FCPS takes allegations of child exploitation very seriously, whether they occurred at school or outside of FCPS. When such allegations arise, FCPS immediately investigates these claims and removes the individual from having any access to students. FCPS notifies law enforcement and actively works closely to pursue charges to the fullest extent possible. We work in tandem with families in such cases to provide support for children involved and always communicate these cases with the privacy and needs of the child as the priority."

In a letter sent to the Langley High School community Thursday, Principal Fred Amico wrote:

Dear Langley Saxon Community:

You may be reading or hearing in the news about a 2014 incident involving a former Langley High School teacher and several Langley students who traveled together overseas on a non-FCPS trip. During the trip, the teacher engaged in inappropriate behavior with the students. There are a few facts we want you to be aware of regarding this incident:

The trip was not sanctioned or sponsored by Langley High School or by FCPS. It was organized by the teacher on his own time.

Once we became aware of what had apparently transpired during the trip, we immediately notified the parents of the students who traveled with the teacher and also contacted law enforcement.

We also immediately began the process to dismiss the teacher and revoke his teaching license. The teacher was never allowed back into an FCPS classroom following this incident.

FCPS took every possible legal and administrative step in response to this incident.

Thank you for your support and understanding.

Sincerely,

Fred Amico

Principal



This story was reported by Scott MacFarlane. It was produced by Ashley Brown and Rick Yarborough. It was shot and edited by Steve Jones.
A man wanted by Idaho authorities in an attack that left a church pastor seriously wounded has been arrested by U.S. Secret Service agents after allegedly throwing items over the fence at the White House, including a "manifesto," police said.

Coeur d'Alene Police Chief Lee White said Kyle Odom, a former Marine, was arrested at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in Washington D.C., without incident.

"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.

Odom, 30, appeared in D.C. Superior Court Wednesday afternoon.

News4's Mark Segraves reports Odom was wearing handcuffs and shackles and said "good afternoon" to the judge, who ordered him to be held without bond.

Idaho has issued an arrest warrant for Odom for attempted murder.

In similar cases, defendants typically waive their rights to an extradition hearing, however, Odom told the judge he wants to be heard before the chief judge at D.C. Superior Court, Segraves said.

That hearing is scheduled for April 6. The only issue is whether the Idaho warrant for attempted first-degree murder in his case is valid.

It is expected Odom will undergo a psychiatric evaluation while he remains in custody in D.C.

Authorities say Odom shot Pastor Tim Remington shot six times Sunday outside his church in Coeur d'Alene.

Remington, 55, has regained consciousness and is talking with his family. He was upgraded to fair condition Monday, NBCNews.com reported.

Police said Odom boarded a flight at the Boise Airport sometime on Monday. It wasn't clear how he was able to board a plane with police searching for him.

White said he was told that Odom threw computer flash drives and a "manifesto" over the White House Fence. The manifesto mentioned U.S. senators and House members and Israeli government officials by name, NBCNews.com reported.

Odom was arrested after the U.S. Secret Service ran a search for him in law enforcement databases and learned he had an outstanding warrant for attempted murder-first degree in Idaho. He was taken into custody on the outstanding warrant and transported to D.C. police for processing.

White didn't give any further details but said the manifesto didn't include specific threats.

"It's an interesting read," he said, according to NBCNews.com.

The Secret Service said none of the material thrown over the fence was determined to be hazardous.

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 in broad daylight in the church parking lot.

"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.

White said Odom was armed throughout the Sunday service, which he attended before heading out to the parking lot, NBCNews.com reported.

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.

Padula said Remington, who is married and has four children, is 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 thumbs-up last night when I went in."

Remington has no feeling in his right arm, Padula said.

The Remington family said in a statement Wednesday, "We are so excited we are safe and my dad can fully concentrate on getting better without worrying about the safety of his family. God is good. Life is getting better by the minute."

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 Sunday afternoon's 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.

"We are thankful for the safe apprehension of our son Kyle," the Odom family said in a statement Wednesday. "As Kyle was not living with us... We are learning of his plans as they are being revealed by the police. We are truly thankful to God he is safe and no one else was injured."
D.C. native Owen Danoff turned heads -- and all four chairs -- during a heart-tugging performance on NBC's "The Voice" this week.

The singer-songwriter, 25, has deep personal and family ties to the D.C. music scene, and it took mere seconds for three of the judges to face Danoff after he began his performance of Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right."

Pharrell Williams, Christina Aguilera and Adam Levine nearly immediately turned to face Danoff, indicating they'd like to work with him. Blake Shelton appeared to be the lone holdout at first, but later into the performance, he too turned his chair.

"You were just so involved with what you were doing, and so meaningful," Aguilera told Danoff. "...I do know the place that you're coming from, and I think music is music, no matter what genre it is. If you feel it with your heart, then it speaks to the world."

At first, Danoff modestly told the judges that he'd grown up "in a musical family" and his dad is a musician -- but the real story is actually a whole lot more impressive.

"He is a songwriter also. He had a band in the '70s that won a couple Grammys and stuff," Danoff told the judges. Then he dropped the name of the group: Starland Vocal Band.

"'Afternoon Delight'?" asked judge Blake Shelton. "Whoa!"

Turns out Owen's dad is singer-songwriter Bill Danoff, who formed the group famous for its #1 hit "Afternoon Delight" in 1976, according to NPR.

Bill Danoff also wrote numerous hits for John Denver, including "Take Me Home, Country Roads," which helped launch Denver to fame. Danoff first shared the song with Denver in his D.C. apartment when Denver was passing through town, NPR previously reported.

Owen Danoff now lives in New York, but he grew up in the area and has performed at nearly every major DMV music venue, including the 9:30 Club and the Birchmere, according to the bio on his website. He's also nabbed three Washington Area Music Awards and was selected as a Strathmore Artist in Residence, his site said.

While all four "Voice" judges were eager to work with him, Danoff ultimately decided to go with Levine.

"You, Owen, have a very strong identity, very heart-breaking and crushing and sensitive, and that is a very difficult combination of things to exist in one person," Levine told Danoff before he made his pick.
Three people were shot and one person was stabbed in three separate incidents that happened in less than an hour in Washington, D.C.

Police say two men were shot in 4700 block of Benning Road SE at 12:52 a.m. Thursday.

The victims were found on the sidewalk, but police believe they were shot in the rear of an apartment complex. More than a dozen shots were fired in the area. An apartment building and several vehicles were also struck by gunfire.

Both men were transported to an area hospital. Their conditions are not known at this time.

Minutes later, police responded to the 4500 block of Benning Road NE for a stabbing. The scene is less than a mile away from the shooting.

The victim's condition is unknown.

At 1:48 a.m., police were called to the area of 4th Street and Atlantic Street SE for a report of a shooting. The victim was conscious and breathing when he was transported to the hospital.

No suspect information has not been released in any of the cases.
A Waterbury Police officer was fired after an investigation found he was linked to a sex trafficking operation, police said.

Former Officer Jermaine Dunbar, an eight year veteran of the patrol division, broke several department policies including improper associations, truthfulness, conduct unbecoming to an officer, neglect of duty and insubordination. He was fired last Friday.

On April 13, 2015, the Waterbury Police Department got information about an ongoing investigation being conducted by the Watertown Police Department that was initiated from a complaint from the Department of Children and Families, Waterbury Police said.

The Watertown Police investigation led to two suspects being arrested for various charges including narcotics, illegal weapons possession, promoting prostitution and human trafficking.

NBC Connecticut news learned that one of the suspects is Dunbar's family member and another is a friend. Investigators believe Dunbar was at the Watertown home where two 16-year-old girls were given drugs and having sex with men. One girl said she had sex with Dunbar but police said he denies this claim.

This investigation and arrest led police to question Dunbar's off-duty conduct, according to Waterbury Police. While the former officer was not criminally charged, he was placed on administrative leave during an internal affairs investigation.

After 11 months, the investigation found Dunbar had conducted himself in way that "negatively" reflects the department and is "inappropriate conduct for any law enforcement officer," according to Waterbury Police.
A Norwich educational charity, set up in memory of a Norwich Anglican priest, to support students from a Palestinian refugee camp, is inviting people to support its Christmas appeal  to be launched on November 29.

A Norwich educational charity, set up in memory of a Norwich Anglican priest, to support students from a Palestinian refugee camp, is inviting people to support its Christmas appeal  to be launched on November 29.

Norfolk drug and alcohol charity pays tribute to its founder Andy Sexton, CEO of the Matthew Project, introduces a series of tributes from the charity to its founder, Peter Farley. Read more

Cliff look alike at Cromer Church breakfast Cliff Richard tribute performer Will Chandler will be the speaker at a special Mens Breakfast at Cromer Parish Hall next month, and all men are welcome to come along. Read more

Heartsease Lane Methodist church to close As part of a reorganisation of the Norwich Methodist Circuit, Heartsease Lane Methodist Church will be closing towards the end of the year. Read more

Free Julian of Norwich reflection and prayer day The Friends of Julian of Norwich present a free Quiet Half-Day with Robert Fruehwirth, author and former Priest Director of the Julian Centre, on Saturday November 12, 10.30am-2pm. Read more

What it means for us to repent Nigel Fox believes that now is the time for a tide of repentance, and shares his thoughts about what that actually means for our society. Read more

Christmas card shop opens in Norwich church Thousands of Christmas cards from around 30 local Norfolk charities have gone on sale today (October 19) at the Original Norwich Charity Christmas Card Shop inside St Peter Mancroft church in Norwich city centre. Read more

Revelation Christian Resource Centre and Cafe Revelation in Norwich is a Christian resource centre, offering a bookshop, a meeting place and a welcoming refuge for refreshment open to visitors of any faith or none. Read more

Farewell as Yarmouth church leader moves on Captain Marie Burr, the Salvation Army leader in Great Yarmouth, has paid tribute to everyone at the church and charity after she left her post at the end of last month to move to a new role. Read more

Norwich Cathedral chorister in BBC final Norwich Cathedral chorister Alice Platten has her sights set on being crowned BBC Young Chorister of the Year after reaching the final stages of the prestigious nationwide competition. Read more

Norwich to hear pastor, Policeman and tramp tale Essex Baptist Pastor Dave McDowell has been a Policeman, fed orphans in India and lived under a boat as a tramp. He will tell his remarkable story at the October dinner of Norwich FGB on Wednesday October 26. Read more

Pioneer UK leader speaks at Sheringham church Ness Wilson, national leader of the Pioneer network of churches, was the main speaker at a day of teaching and worship held at Lighthouse Community Church in Sheringham on 12 October, to be followed up by Word and Worship sessions at October half term. Read more

Norwich event to give tips on bouncing forwards St Stephens in Norwich will be hosting an evening in October with Patrick Regan OBE, as he explores themes from his book Bouncing Forwards. Read more

Youth for Christ lights a fire in north Breckland North Breckland Youth for Christ will be putting on a mini residential camp this year to coincide with Bonfire Night. Read more

Delia Smith interviewed at Norwich church Top TV cook and well-known writer Delia Smith spoke about her faith at SOUL Churchs weekly Chapel gathering on October 11. Read more

Children's Christian holiday club in Briston A half term childrens holiday bible club is taking place in Briston next week, and there is no charge to take part in the fun. Read more

Ashill church puts on music to touch the soul The Fountain of Life Church in Ashill is hosting an afternoon concert in early November with classical, jazz, opera, ballads and pop classics. Read more

Fakenhams new rector is officially installed Rev Tracy Jessop has been officially installed as Rector for Fakenham during a service at Fakenham Parish Church on Tuesday September 27, fourteen months after their last reverend retired. Read more
We all remember the Verizon Wireless commercials that asked Can you hear me now? over and over again from different locations around the world. While the ad campaign may have been repetitive, Verizon was driving home the point that its network had broad wireless network reachability.

While they were effective in winning customers, the message of coverage and signal strength only only told part of the story. Your phone can be charged up, you can have four bars of signal, but maybe the person at the other end has a lousy signal and your call is dropped. Or you walk into a building and the signal dies. Just having good performance on one end of the line does not translate to good performance at the other end of the line. In reality there are many factors that affect wireless performance.

Internet performance via the cloud works similarly to the dynamics of a wireless network. Understanding market reachability has much to do about how well people in other markets can reach your Internet assets. Think about it. You probably monitor your web sites using application performance management tools to measure how your application behaves and its uptime. You also may monitor known paths across the Internet: links between your data centers or links to partners providing website content. But your level of Internet performance hinges on one very important question: Can my customers and users see me - and reach me - now?

Each geographic market has Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that connect customers to the Internet, and those local ISPs connect to larger ISPs that ultimately connect to geographies all over the world. Your website sits in data centers or in the cloud with its own Internet connectivity. This combined connection path between your website and these ISPs is how you get to different markets. These days, every business is Internet based, which means your customer can come from any market.

Even a North American-focused company is still concerned about dozens of important markets. Global companies can be connecting to customers in up to 800 markets. Knowing how well your web assets can reach a market allows you to plan business expansion, plan cloud, CDN and hosting investments, and tune your application and performance metrics by market.

Urs Holzle from Google once said, At scale, everything breaks. The Internet is the ultimate in network scale. Constantly changing conditions, relationships and dynamic traffic make seeing problems in the Internet core difficult and isolating problems while they are happening a nearly impossible task.

I like to call this problem market reachability. A significant portion of your application performance challenges can really come from performance challenges across the Internet. Assets in data centers, cloud service providers and CDNs have trouble effectively reaching markets of geographically grouped customers on a regular basis.

There are vendors that can help you measure and monitor market reachability, but its not easy: you need to reliably determine points to monitor in those 800 worldwide markets, and you need monitoring infrastructure all over the Internet to generate a good everywhere to everywhere understanding of Internet performance.

Measuring and monitoring is a good start: you can understand baseline performance and get alerted when it changes. But what do you do with that information? How do you mitigate performance challenges and route around outages and slowdowns?

There are different ways, but coming as I do from a DNS background, thats an option I gravitate toward. You can use DNS steering to return different answers at the DNS level to send customers to the best asset based on performance, location or other criteria.

Dont wait until you are in the throes of a crisis: plan now to monitor reachability in your critical markets and have a strategy for mitigating performance problems when you encounter them. And the next time you are planning new market launches or solving a customer problem, think about market reachability and ask, Can you see me now?
Police in Oregon are warning online shoppers that the pricey LEGO sets theyre seeing offered for a steal, may, in fact, be stolen. From a TV news report.

A 25-year-old man is accused of stealing expensive LEGO sets and other goods from Fred Meyer stores and reselling them on the website OfferUp.com. Pavel Kuzik was arrested last week after he allegedly agreed to sell stolen LEGOs to undercover officers.  Police say community members should we cautious of brand-new items sold on third-party websites.

And police may as well have added, especially LEGOs, because if my household is any barometer its inconceivable that a legitimately purchased box of the plastic bricks could remain unopened for much longer than it takes to drive home from the mall. Anything is possible, but an unopened box of LEGOs being sold by anyone other than an authorized retailer is likely hotter than a Carolina Reaper.

Of course, most buyers of such bargains arent being told anything they dont already know.

Welcome regulars and passersby. Here are a few more recent buzzblog items. And, if youd like to receive Buzzblog via e-mail newsletter, heres where to sign up. You can follow me on Twitter here and on Google+ here.
Microsoft giveth and Microsoft taketh away. The company has made a number of announcements around its Skype for Business Online product geared toward conference calls and online meetings while killing off Skype for TV.

Skype is one of many apps pre-loaded on smart TVs along other apps like Hulu and Netflix. But Microsoft is throwing in the towel for its smart TV app. "Starting in June 2016, the Skype for TV application will no longer be supported; there will be no updates to the application. This will also affect new account creation and password resets. This will only be available through Skype.com," the company said on the Skype blog.

The app will continue to function after June, but Microsoft warns that it will vary depending on the TV model and some manufacturers may remove the Skype for TV application from some or all of their models. Microsoft said it ended support because the app just wasn't being used.

Now on to the business news. Some of the Skype for Business Online functions are already available for U.S. Office 365 customers and Microsoft is prepared to roll these features out worldwide. It's adding 17 countries to the list supporting the PTSN Conference service, bringing the total of countries served to 32. This service allows business customers to simplify to use local numbers for conference call-ins, making it easier to set up international meetings while keeping the cost of calls down.

The next feature is the Cloud Connector Edition of Skype for Business Server, which will be generally available in April. Skype for Business Server already supports carrier calling services, and the new Cloud Connector Edition will allow customers to connect existing phone lines and phone numbers to Office 365 conference calls. This will give Office 365 users the same flexibility in carrier calling choice as on premise Skype for Business customers.

Starting in May, Microsoft will offer a preview of Skype for Business PSTN Calling services in the UK, giving UK Office 365 business customers their entire communications service such as assigned numbers, calls and voicemail managed by Microsoft and integrated through Office 365.

Finally, there is an initiative called Project Rigel, which will offer common PC conferencing features like screen sharing, IM and whiteboard but on a traditional conference room projector or display. According to Microsoft, just 3% of meeting rooms have a traditional teleconferencing system, which brings in the video, audio, and compute power, such as whiteboarding. The other 97% require remote participants to call in on a speakerphone, and then they can't see the screen.

Project Rigel will bring a Skype Meeting experience to nearly any meeting room with a display or projector by using a Surface Hub. Hardware partners including Polycom and Logitech have promised to certify elements of their portfolios for use with Project Rigel systems. Microsoft expects the first systems based on Project Rigel to be available in the second half of 2016.
CIOs who strive to be board members must be able to communicate with senior executives and rapidly analyze balance sheets, 10-K filings and other financial documents. But there is much more to serving on a board than showing up for meetings and discussing corporate strategies. Board membership requires CIOs to build rapports with senior managers, which they say helps them become better leaders at their own companies

That was the gist of a Forbes CIO Summit panel Monday in Half Moon Bay, Calif., where roughly 100 CIOs met to discuss digital transformations, the evolution of the CIO role and several other pertinent topics. Linda Clement-Holmes, Procter & Gamble CIO; Andi Karaboutis, Biogen executive vice president of technology operations; and Stephen Gillett, former Starbucks CIO and Symantec COO and current Google Ventures resident, discussed how they landed their board seats and offered some advice to CIOs who wish to occupy a board seat.

Not too cool for school. To better prepare for her board seats at Advanced Auto Parts and Blue Cross Blue Shield Massachusetts (BCBS), Karaboutis took classes in accounting, paired assets and financial management at Harvard University. She also took a biology class to prepare for her role at Biogen, which makes drugs that fight neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis, hemophilia and autoimmune diseases. "You figure out where your gaps are and then you go for it," says Karaboutis, who worked as the CIO of Dell before joining Biogen in 2014. She adds that CIOs are better positioned than any other executive to have a unique of the breadth of operations across the entire company.

From left to right are Andi Karaboutis, Stephen Gillett, Linda Clement-Holmes and moderator Peter High. (Click for a larger image.)
Apple has formally invited everyone (well, if you're using a Safari or Microsoft Edge browser) to livestream its event on March 21 at which the company is expected to introduce a new 4-inch iPhone and 9.7-inch iPad Pro. Mac and Apple Watch news could also be forthcoming, if speculation is to be believed.

The invite, teased with the line "Let us loop you in," presumably refers to the company's address at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino, Calif., though could possibly have other meanings.

MORE: Best iPhone 7 concept designs of 2016

Speculation has been rampant that Apple will introduce an A9 processor-powered, 4-inch iPhone 5se, a follow-on to the iPhone 5c for those who just can't bear the larger iPhones that have scaled into phablet territory. Also expected is the latest in the iPad Pro line, with a display measuring at 9.7-inches.

Apple isn't expected to roll out its iPhone 7 and variations upon that until the fall.
Reporter/Columnist

Julie Wurth is a reporter covering the University of Illinois at The News-Gazette. Her email is jwurth@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@jawurth).
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Mostly sunny. High around 80F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Some clouds. Low near 60F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph.
Adding either tomosynthesis (a form of 3D mammography) or ultrasound scans to standard mammograms can detect breast cancers that would have been missed in women with dense breasts, according to an interim analysis of a trial comparing these two additional screening technologies.

In over 3,000 women with dense breasts where standard mammograms had not detected any cancer, the addition of tomosynthesis or ultrasound scans picked up an extra 24 cancers, the 10th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-10) heard today (Wednesday).

Nehmat Houssami, Professor of Public Health at the University of Sydney, Australia, representing the Italian-based trial, said that, until now, there had been no prospective trial comparing the addition of ultrasound or tomosynthesis to standard mammograms in these women.

"These findings will have immediate implications for both screening practice and for guiding new research in dense breasts," she told the conference. The findings will be published simultaneously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Dense breast tissue (where there is a high amount of fibrous and glandular tissue in the breast) is common and not abnormal; however, it makes it harder for standard mammography to detect any signs or other abnormalities that could be cancer, and it is also associated with a higher risk of developing breast cancer (for reasons that are not yet fully understood). The researchers in Italy and Australia wanted to see whether the addition of ultrasound or tomosynthesis to the standard mammogram during the same visit could improve detection rates.

The Adjunct Screening with Tomosynthesis or Ultrasound in Mammography-negative Dense breasts (ASTOUND) trial has been recruiting asymptomatic women who attend for breast screening at five imaging centres in Italy and who have dense breasts (breasts defined by the Breast Imaging and Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) as being in the two highest density categories, 3 and 4: heterogeneously or extremely dense).

For the findings presented today, the researchers carried out an interim analysis of data from 3,231 women, who had negative mammograms (i.e. mammograms that did not detect any abnormality). Results of their ultrasound and tomosynthesis scans were interpreted by different radiologists who knew only that the standard mammogram was negative, but who did not know the result of the other, additional test.

The additional scans picked up an extra 24 breast cancers; 12 were detected by both tomosynthesis and ultrasound, one was detected only by tomosynthesis and 11 only by ultrasound.

"These results mean that tomosynthesis detected an additional four breast cancers per 1,000 women screened and ultrasound detected an additional seven breast cancers per 1,000," said Prof Houssami.

The researchers, led by Dr Alberto Tagliafico, a radiologist and Assistant Professor of Human Anatomy at the University of Genoa, Italy, also found that, although there were an additional 107 false positive recalls - where women were recalled for further investigation as a result of abnormalities showing up in the scans that, on subsequent investigation, proved to be false alarms - there were no difference in the additional false recall rate between tomosynthesis and ultrasound.

Prof Houssami said: "In this study we are comparing two additional tests to see if they can do better than standard mammograms in finding cancer in women with dense breasts; we have found that ultrasound does better than tomosynthesis, but ultrasound is a separate test, it is time-consuming and, in less experienced hands, it can lead to a lot of false alarms. However, tomosynthesis, which is a form of refined mammography, can be carried out as part of the standard 2D mammogram screen, or even instead of it. Given that tomosynthesis detected more than 50% of the additional breast cancers in these women, the implications are that it has the potential to be the primary mammography screening method without the need for an extra screening procedure."

She said that further research in other settings, as well as cost analysis studies, were needed before definitive recommendations could be made. In addition, the results would have different implications in different countries. "For example, in many countries, such as the UK and Australia, using additional screening tests for dense breasts is not recommended routinely by screening programmes, but in other countries, such as the USA, where legislation mandates that women should be informed about their breast density and the availability of extra tests, then these findings will be very relevant.

"However, we need to bear in mind that we do not know whether adjunct screening improves screening efficacy and benefit beyond standard mammography, taking into account the additional false positives as well, and I anticipate that organised screening programmes will want that evidence before considering making any changes. So our study does not provide all the answers on this issue but provides the first critical piece of information on how these two tests compare. If a woman is concerned that her breasts are very dense on the mammogram (or has been told her breasts are very dense and would like more testing), I can use the data from ASTOUND to discuss with her the option of having the ultrasound or the tomosynthesis screen; I would discuss with her the pros and cons of adding another test to improve sensitivity for detecting cancer, but would also point out this could have additional harms such as more false alarms."

Chair of EBCC10, Professor Fatima Cardoso, who is Director of the Breast Unit at the Champalimaud Clinical Centre, Lisbon, Portugal, said: "Although further research is required, ASTOUND is the first prospective trial comparing additional screening technologies beyond mammogram in women with dense breasts. It provides important evidence of the potential benefit of ultrasound or tomosynthesis for screening women with dense breasts. Issues of cost effectiveness must, however, be addressed before we can change current screening practices."
A child who soothes themselves back to sleep from an early age adjusts to school more easily than those who don't, new QUT research has found.

The Australian study revealed one in three children have escalating problems sleeping across birth to five years which increased their risk of emotional and behavioural issues at school and put them at risk of attention deficit disorders.

Dr Kate Williams (click video below) from QUT's Faculty of Education, School of Early Childhood, said the research involved 2,880 children from the landmark study, Growing up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC).

She analysed the sleep behaviour of children born in 2004 until they reached six-to-seven years.

"We now know 70 per cent of children are regulating their own sleep by five years but for the remaining third it may be detrimental to them developmentally over time," Dr Williams said.

"The overwhelming finding is it's vital to get children's sleep behaviours right by the time they turn five."

Dr Williams' research titled Early childhood profiles of sleep problems and self-regulation predict later school adjustment was published in the British Journal of Educational Psychology.

Dr Williams said her research was one of the first to use a large sample size and examine the long-term impact of children's sleep on early school behaviour.

She said mothers reported on children's sleep problems, emotional and attention from birth to five years and teachers reported on children's social emotional adjustment to school.

Dr Williams said she was surprised by the high number of children identified as having escalating behavioural sleep problems across birth to five years, which was linked with poorer self-regulation of attention and emotion.

She said children characterised as having escalating sleep problems in early childhood were associated with higher teacher-reported hyperactivity, poorer classroom self-regulation and emotional outbursts.

"If these sleep issues aren't resolved by the time children are five years old then they are at risk of poorer adjustment to school," she said.

With more than 85 per cent of families using child care or preschool services, Dr Williams said there was an opportunity for better awareness about sleep hygiene practices before children started school.

"Parents can withdraw some habits, like lying with children over and over, letting them into their bed, it's really important to give children a sense of skill so they can do these things themselves," she said.

Dr Williams also said sleep intervention strategies were extremely effective.

The study builds on QUT research which linked mandatory day time naps in child care centres to sleep problems later on.

"Sleep problems can be sorted out long before a child reaches school age provided parents, carers and child care works are aware and supported," she said.

"Prevention is the key."
Hot weather is significantly associated with clinical visits among migratory farmworkers compared to other patients, according to a study by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) published recently in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Lead author Kai Zhang, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environmental Sciences at UTHealth School of Public Health, used data from the Community and Migrant Health Center in Colorado to compare clinical visits among migratory farmworkers, seasonal farmworkers and non-farmworkers.

Migratory farmworkers are those who travel for agricultural work while seasonal workers do not change homes or travel away from their established homes for work.

Genetics & Genomics eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today

Zhang measured heat effects by using weather data obtained from the National Climate Data Center and ozone levels from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Throughout the summer of 2013, the year in which the data was collected, the average of daily mean temperatures was 71 degrees Fahrenheit and average daily ozone concentrations ranged from 0.036 to 0.074 parts per million. The current national standard for ozone is 0.070 parts per million, according to the EPA.

When Zhang compared hot days to average days, he found that migratory workers were 88 percent more likely to visit a clinic when not factoring in ozone levels and 96 percent more likely when factoring in high ozone levels. There was no significant increase for clinic visits among seasonal farmworkers when temperature and ozone levels were high.

"Migratory workers are more susceptible to heat-related health issues for several possible reasons. They tend to have poorer living environments, including a lack of air conditioning; suffer from poverty, which has been linked to a higher risk of vulnerability to heat; and may lack family support for prolonged periods of time. Also, their immigration status may make them more vulnerable to labor abuses," said Zhang.

Zhang found that the impact of heat on migratory farmworkers was more significant among males than females. Men were 118 percent more likely to visit a clinic on hot days compared to normal days while women were 57 percent more likely to visit a clinic on hot days.

"Heat has a significant impact on migratory farmworkers, even in a moderate summer. This research suggests possible significant impact of heat on migratory farmworkers and provides justification for undertaking further studies, making regulations and developing heat preventive programs," said Zhang.

While the research was done in Colorado, Zhang notes that Texas has a much hotter summer than Colorado and is the second largest agricultural state in the United States. With many migratory farmworkers supporting the agricultural industry in Texas, Zhang says his study suggests that migratory farmworkers in Texas might suffer even more heat stress than those in Colorado. He hopes to access the same data in Texas in future research.
The MDI Biological Laboratory has announced new discoveries about the mechanisms underlying the regeneration of heart tissue by Assistant Professor Voot P. Yin, Ph.D., which raise hope that drugs can be identified to help the body grow muscle cells and remove scar tissue, important steps in the regeneration of heart tissue.

Heart disease is a leading cause of death in the western world. Yin is using zebrafish to study the regeneration of heart tissue because of the amazing capacity of these common aquarium fish to regenerate the form and function of almost any body part, including heart, bone, skin and blood vessels, regardless of their age. In contrast, the adult mammalian cardiovascular system has limited regenerative capacity.

"Although zebrafish look quite different from humans, they share an astonishing 70 percent of their genetic material with humans, including genes important for the formation of new heart muscle," Yin said. "These genes are conserved in humans and other mammals, but their activity is regulated differently after an injury like a heart attack."

The MDI Biological Laboratory, located in Bar Harbor, Maine, is an independent, nonprofit biomedical research institution focused on increasing healthy lifespan and harnessing our natural ability to repair and regenerate tissues damaged by injury or disease. The institution develops solutions to complex human health problems through research, education and ventures that transform discoveries into cures.

Yin and other scientists conducting research in the institution's Kathryn W. Davis Center for Regenerative Medicine study tissue repair, regeneration and aging in a diverse range of organisms that have robust mechanisms to repair and regenerate tissue.

Yin's recent work is a continuation of earlier work identifying an experimental drug, ZF143, that accelerates the rate of tissue repair in damaged heart and limb tissue. He is the co-founder and chief scientific officer of Novo Biosciences, a for-profit spinoff of the MDI Biological Laboratory whose goal is to realize the therapeutic potential of ZF143 and other drugs that speed tissue healing and stimulate the regeneration of lost and damaged body parts.

"Our goal is to move scientific discovery from the laboratory into the clinic through our for-profit spinoff, Novo Biosciences, as well as other commercial ventures," said Kevin Strange, Ph.D., president of the laboratory and co-founder with Yin of Novo Biosciences. "It is our hope that Dr. Yin's research will lead to additional potential therapeutic agents like ZF143 to reactivate mechanisms for the repair and regeneration of damaged heart muscle tissue in humans."

Genetics & Genomics eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today

Yin's research has identified the role of a microRNA, miR-101a, a central genetic regulator, in stimulating both the growth of heart muscle cells and in removing scar tissue. He describes these functions as the "yin and yang" of heart tissue regeneration since scar tissue - which serves as an immediate "Band-aid," but prevents the heart from beating properly over the long term - has to be removed for regeneration of new heart muscle tissue and restoration of function to occur.

The research was published in the journal "Development," a prestigious journal of developmental biology. Co-authors are Megan Beauchemin, Ph.D., and Ashley Smith.

"The concept of organ regeneration fascinates the public, which tends to view it as science fiction," Yin said. "But the zebrafish heart robustly regenerates missing or damaged tissue in as little as 30 to 60 days. Humans share the same genetic material: the same genetic program resides in each of our cells. Our goal is to understand how zebrafish do this so we can unleash our own repair mechanisms through the reawakening of our dormant genetic codes."

Heart disease accounts for approximately 17 million deaths per year. Of these, an estimated 7.4 million are due to coronary heart disease, the most common type of heart disease. In the United States, about 720,000 residents experience a heart attack annually, which means that hundreds of thousands of heart patients are living with the disabling complications of heart disease who could benefit from therapies to repair and regenerate damaged heart tissue.

With a clearer understanding of the genetic circuits leading to regeneration, Yin and his team will be able to develop additional drugs that allow the activity of these circuits to be controlled so that heart regeneration can be stimulated in patients who have suffered a heart attack. Yin's research also has implications for the treatment of other diseases involving muscle damage, including muscular dystrophy.
Overprescribing of opioids and opioid addiction are serious and growing public health problems in the U.S., and are the focus of a new report by an expert panel, entitled The American Opioid Epidemic: Population Health Implications and Potential Solutions," from the National Stakeholder Panel, Jefferson College of Population Health, which is published in a special supplement to Population Health Management, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The supplement is available open access on the Population Health Managementwebsite.

Genetics & Genomics eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today

The report includes sections on key topics related to opioid use and abuse and pain management: "The Evolution of Opioid Use in the United States;" "Unintended Consequences of Postsurgical Pain Management;" "The Case for Multimodal Pain Management for Surgical Patients;" and "Expert Panel Insights." Coauthors of the report Janice Clarke, RN and Alexis Skoufalos, EdD, Jefferson College of Population Health, Thomas Jefferson University (Philadelphia, PA), and Richard Scranton, MD, MPH Pacira Pharmaceuticals (Parsippany, NJ), present the panel's opinions on the role of postsurgical prescribing practices, strategies for optimizing health outcomes, and approaches to improve economic outcomes by managing pain differently.

David Nash, MD, MBA, Editor-in-Chief of Population Health Management and Dean and Dr. Raymond C. and Doris N. Grandon Professor, Jefferson College of Population Health, leads off the supplement with the Editorial "The Unintended Consequences of an Opioid-Centric Approach to Pain Management." He describes the staggering societal costs of the opioid epidemic in terms of healthcare experiences and lives lost-- 46 each day due to overdose -- and proposes a proactive approach to solving the problem.

"Opioid addiction has become frequent headline fodder in recent months. It is critically important for healthcare providers, patient advocates, and legislators to work together to tackle this significant public and population health issue," says Dr. Nash.

The stakeholder meeting and this Supplement were supported by an educational grant from Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to the Jefferson College of Population Health.
More than two out of ten women who have been victims of sexual abuse as children are likely to stop breastfeeding before their babies reach four months, according to a new study.

In Norway, almost all mothers start with breastfeeding, and full breastfeeding for the first six months of a child's life is recommended. Breast milk contains many antibodies and vitamins not found in infant formula. The emotional intimacy of breastfeeding is important for both mother and child. Breastfeeding is also good for the mother's health.

But some mothers stop breastfeeding early.

Of the women who have been victims of violence in the past 12 months, 40 per cent are more likely to stop breastfeeding before the baby is four months old.

Women who have been exposed to several types of violence, such as sexual and physical abuse, have an almost 50 per cent greater chance of stopping breastfeeding than those who have not been exposed to violence.

Violence has long-lasting effect

Studies on the relationship between breastfeeding and violence are sparse, but now one of the largest studies internationally has been published about the relationship between violence and lactation.

PhD candidate Marie Flem Srb of NTNU's Department of Public Health and General Practice carried out the study.

"It's important to be aware of the factors that promote breastfeeding, and what causes some women to choose to stop breastfeeding early," she says.

Breach of trust leaves deep scars

Flem Srb has also looked at the relationship between violence women have been subjected to as children and how that can affect breastfeeding as an adult.

"I was surprised that the violence a woman endured as a child would impact breastfeeding so strongly," she said.

Among her findings:

Women who were subjected to sexual violence as children are 22 per cent more likely to stop breastfeeding before the baby reaches four months.

Women who have been subjected to one or more types of violence as children are 41 per cent more likely to stop breastfeeding earlier than four months.

Among women who have been victims of violence during the past 12 months, 40 per cent are more likely to stop breastfeeding earlier than four months.

Among women who have been subjected to violence by a person known to them, 28 per cent are more likely to stop breastfeeding earlier than four months.

Almost two out of ten women are victims of violence

Flem Srb used the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study, which involved 95 200 women and was conducted from 1999 to 2008. She used the responses of 53 934 women. Of these, 19 per cent of the women reported that they had been subjected to violence as an adult, and 18 per cent reported that they had been subjected to violence as children.

"It's important for people in general to understand what can influence mothers to stop breastfeeding. But it's especially important for primary physicians, midwives, nurses and gynaecologists who work with pregnant women and mothers. Then they can be more aware and provide better support, so that more women abuse survivors continue to breastfeed," says Flem Srb.

All pregnant women will be asked about violence

In 2015, the Norwegian Directorate of Health implemented new guidelines for maternity care. Now all midwives, doctors and nurses ask pregnant women whether they have been exposed to violence. This information is important for detecting postpartum depression and to help more women to breastfeed.

Marie Flem Srb is also a physician in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Alesund Hospital in Mre og Romsdal county.
Electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc. wants to open its own dealership in the Richmond area, a possibility that has prompted legal action by a trade organization representing hundreds of automobile dealerships in the state.

The Virginia Automobile Dealers Association filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Fairfax County Circuit Court claiming that Tesla and the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles have violated a confidential September 2013 legal settlement, in which Tesla agreed to operate only one dealership in the state, in Northern Virginia.

The lawsuit names as defendants Palo Alto, Calif.-based Tesla Motors Inc. and Richard D. Holcomb, commissioner of the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles.

Tesla did not respond late Wednesday to an email message sent to its corporate office seeking comment. The Virginia DMV did not respond to a phone message and email seeking comment.

In a Jan. 13 letter to Holcomb, Tesla said it still believes that there are no impediments to it owning and operating new motor vehicle dealerships in Virginia.

In the same letter, the company requested a hearing on whether it could open a dealership in Richmond, saying there are no independent dealers available in the community to own and operate a Tesla dealership in a manner consistent with the public interest.

Tesla did not indicate in the letter where in the Richmond area it wants to open a dealership. The letter was included as an exhibit in the auto groups lawsuit.

Tesla has received widespread publicity for its premium-priced electric cars, such as the Tesla Roadster, but the companys efforts to open dealerships have been controversial in states where laws are protective of the traditional dealership franchise models.

The lawsuit by the Virginia Automobile Dealers Association asks the court to delay a hearing currently scheduled for March 31 before the DMV commissioner to consider Teslas eligibility to open a Richmond dealership.

The auto group said it was not notified of the hearing. The organizations lawsuit contends that Teslas request directly violates the express terms of the settlement agreement limiting Tesla to one dealership.

This has nothing to do with electric cars at all, Don Hall, president and chief executive officer of the state dealers group, said in an interview Wednesday. We have a number of dealers today that sell electric cars.

What it has to do with is a very simple point, he said. Tesla signed and agreed to a contract. The state of Virginia signed and agreed to a contract, and I, as the president of the VADA, signed and agreed to a contract. This is a violation of that agreement.

A long-standing Virginia law prohibits automobile manufacturers from owning or controlling dealerships in the state, unless the DMV commissioner determines after a hearing that there are no independent dealers available in a community to sell a manufacturers vehicles.

Tesla previously sought state approval to open its own dealership in Northern Virginia in April 2012. After hearings, the request was rejected by the DMV the next year, but Tesla challenged the decision in court.

In September 2013, a settlement was reached between Tesla, the DMV and the state dealers group, under which Tesla was allowed to open one dealership in Northern Virginia, which it could operate until Aug. 25, 2017. After that, it would have to find an independent dealer.

Tesla opened a single dealership near Tysons Corner in February 2015, according to court documents.

The Virginia Automobile Dealers Association said at least 11 Virginia automobile dealerships have contacted Tesla to express an interest in selling the companys cars.

That includes at least three dealers in the Richmond area, according to letters from dealers to Tesla that the auto group submitted to the court as part of the lawsuit.
One thing that's always in demand for great superheroes is great supervillains - and when it comes to supervillains, some of the best/worst (depending on your perspective) is the deadly female supervillains that have populated comics for decades.

In comic books, female villains are some of the most popular characters on the page, with characters like Catwoman, Harley Quinn, and Mystique often crossing back and forth and blurring the line between 'hero' and 'villain' thanks to their popularity as protagonists.

On that note, we're counting down the best female supervillains of all time!

10. Scandal Savage

Scandal Savage (Image credit: DC)

One of the breakout characters of Gail Simone's Secret Six (opens in new tab), Scandal Savage has everything you want in a great supervillain. She's got an unimpeachable pedigree as the only acknowledged child of classic villain Vandal Savage, plus a great look, a distinct gimmick, and a vicious streak a mile wide.

Scandal would be higher on this list if she had operated on her own more often, but even as the leader of the brutally bad-ass (and occasionally expendable) mercenaries the Secret Six, she's had some seriously cold-blooded moments.

She's been mostly off the grid for, oh, two reboots now and counting - but we can't help but wish for a substantial comeback sooner rather than later.

9. Cheetah

Cheetah (Image credit: DC)

As one of Wonder Woman's greatest foes, different iterations of Cheetah have been around almost as long as the Amazon herself.

Though numerous women, and even one man, have held the identity of the Cheetah at different points, it's the current Cheetah, Barbara Minerva, that has caused her the most problems.

Possessing the appearance and physical qualities of a cheetah thanks to a sinister ritual, Minerva has menaced Wonder Woman over and over again, coveting her beauty and golden lasso.

She's been one of Diana's primary enemies since 2016's Wonder Woman: Rebirth (opens in new tab), which helped redefine her origin and powers.

Cheetah appeared as one of the main villains of Wonder Woman 1984, played by Kristen Wiig.

8. Star Sapphire

Star Sapphire (Image credit: DC)

Even though Carol Ferris, the most prominent Star Sapphire, has been more heroic than villainous for the last couple of years, Star Sapphire's legacy as a villain goes back much farther than that... all the way to the '40s, when a slightly different Star Sapphire menaced Jay Garrick, the original Flash.

Star Sapphire is, however, best known as a Green Lantern villain. Originally, Hal Jordan's girlfriend Carol Ferris would take on the identity of Star Sapphire when she became possessed by a strange gem from outer space.

Eventually, during the story Green Lantern Corps: Sins of the Star Sapphire (opens in new tab), it was revealed that, like the Green Lanterns, the Star Sapphires comprise an entire corps of beings dedicated to the defense of true love.

7. Enchantress

Enchantress (Image credit: Marvel)

Amora the Enchantress is an Asgardian sorceress, and one of Thor's oldest and most powerful foes. Enchantress uses her bewitching powers to try to entrap others into her service, though she just as often relies on her natural feminine wiles to accomplish the same thing, often using the infatuated Skurge, the Executioner as muscle to back up her schemes.

Though she was initially interested in seducing Thor, Enchantress's schemes quickly became more elaborate and ambitious, as she even joined Baron Zemo's original Masters of Evil in Avengers #9 (opens in new tab), and challenged the Avengers over and over in her quest for power.

She hasn't made it to live-action just yet, but her successor Sylvie, heir to the Asgardian magic of the Enchantress, was adapted into the MCU in Loki.

6. Viper

Viper (Image credit: Marvel)

The unquestioned mistress of one of the largest sects of the terrorist organization Hydra, Viper, a.k.a. Madame Hydra is one of the most powerful, and evil women in the Marvel Universe.

Though her only real power in comics could be considered her slowed aging process, her strength lies primarily in her formidable combat training, her charismatic leadership, and her ruthless conviction.

Though she has faced numerous heroes over the years, her primary enemies are usually Captain America and Wolverine, the latter of which she trained under the same master on the streets of the criminal island of Madripoor.

In fact, her relationship with Wolverine was one of the focal points of the 2013 film The Wolverine (opens in new tab).

5. Granny Goodness

Granny Goodness (Image credit: DC)

Granny Goodness is one of the most unique (and terrifying) villains you're likely to find on this or any other list.

Known for the brutal training she inflicts on Darkseid's soldiers, her slavish devotion to the ideals of Apokolips, and her imposing physique, Granny is one of the most unique and disturbing of New Gods, introduced in Jack Kirby's Fourth World (opens in new tab) saga.

Though she trains much of Darkseid's army, she is best known as the leader and trainer of his Female Furies, a group of elite women warriors that serve the will of Darkseid.

Granny is also responsible for training former Female Fury Big Barda, who later helped Scott Free, a.k.a. Mr. Miracle escape from Apokolips, guaranteeing herself two formidable enemies for life - or death, as Barda and Scott were depicted as killing Granny in Tom King and Mitch Gerads' Mister Miracle (opens in new tab) limited series.

She had a brief live-action cameo in Zack Snyder's Justice League.

4. Harley Quinn

Harley Quinn (Image credit: DC)

Though she started as something of a sidekick for Batman's nemesis the Joker on Batman: The Animated Series (opens in new tab), Harley Quinn became a breakout fan favorite, eventually crossing into comics. Despite her initial status as a supporting character, she quickly received her own Harley Quinn (opens in new tab) ongoing series, and later a starring role in the Batman spin-off Gotham City Sirens (opens in new tab).

So, what makes Harley so great? Initially, her popularity stemmed from Arleen Sorkin's hilarious and expressive performance, but it's the way the essence of the character has translated to comics that really makes Harley terrific; the fact that she evokes Batman's greatest nemesis while maintaining an attitude and style all her own.

Harley Quinn has become a mainstay of DC comic books with multiple headlining series under her belt, and a current animated series on the DC Universe streaming service. She also took a starring role in 2020's Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (opens in new tab) film.

Though she's still quite villainous in some media, the core comic book Harley Quinn is on a current path of redemption following the Batman: Joker War (opens in new tab) story.

3. Mystique

Mystique (Image credit: Marvel)

Mystique is best described as the ultimate femme fatale.

A daring, competent, ruthless super-spy with the enchanting power to change her appearance and a natural gift for seduction to back it up, Mystique has long menaced the X-Men both on her own and as a member of several incarnations of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

As with many mutants, she has a familial connection to the X-Men as the mother of Nightcrawler and the stepmother of Rogue.

Though she did spend some time among the X-Men and working secretly for Professor X, she is best known as the leader of numerous groups of villainous mutants, as well as her core role in the X-Men (opens in new tab) film franchise.

She also headed up her own Mystique (opens in new tab) ongoing series in the mid-'00s.

Mystique has recently been working alongside the X-Men as an operative of Krakoa - but her relationship with the team and her more traditionally heroic counterparts has recently been heavily strained following the events of Inferno (opens in new tab).

2. Dark Phoenix

Dark Phoenix (Image credit: Marvel)

Though the Dark Phoenix can technically inhabit any host (as seen in 2012's Avengers vs. X-Men (opens in new tab)), its most iconic avatar was Jean Grey, one of the founding X-Men.

While her actual appearances are limited (with her greatest story undoubtedly being Uncanny X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga (opens in new tab)), the Dark Phoenix's impact on X-Men comics and comics, in general, is almost immeasurable. As one of the first, and most prominent heroes to go inexorably to the dark side, Jean's time as the Dark Phoenix rocked the relatively static nature of superhero comics up until that point.

The Dark Phoenix's reign of terror culminated in the destruction of an entire solar system, leading Jean Grey, in a moment of clarity, to sacrifice herself to end the Dark Phoenix's hold on her, sparking a cycle of death and rebirth that still reverberates in comics.

A new Phoenix host was just named in Avengers: Enter the Phoenix (opens in new tab), in which Echo took on the mantle - and the Phoenix Force itself told Thor that she is his mother.

Dark Phoenix (opens in new tab) has made it to the big screen twice, including an eponymous 2019 film that put the capstone on Fox's X-Men films.

1. Catwoman

Catwoman (Image credit: DC)

Sure, sure, she may be best known as more of an anti-hero these days, but Catwoman began as a villain. And, on a metaphorical level, isn't perfectly straddling the line of villain and hero, lithely stepping into either role as needed, the perfect embodiment of the fickle nature of a cat?

Catwoman's not the kind of villain who embarks on a world-conquering, murderous conquest, but the kind who vexes her nemesis at every turn, going to unheard-of lengths to get what she wants, and life live by her own rules.

Nearly as often an ally or even a lover of Batman as much as his enemy, Catwoman still started her career as a jewel thief, brazenly robbing, and occasionally seducing Gotham City's wealthiest citizens.

In all of her numerous and popular incarnations, including her last live-action appearance in The Dark Knight Rises (opens in new tab), she always starts at odds with Batman, only siding with him once he's given in to his obvious attraction to his true opposite number, but almost always returning to her old life when he's outlived his usefulness.

She even went so far as to leave him at the altar in Batman #50 (opens in new tab) - though her future role as hero or villain is still playing out in the current Batman/Catwoman (opens in new tab) limited series which continues the saga of their romance.

There aren't many characters who can say they're stronger-willed than Batman, but it isn't Catwoman who compromises her principles in the name of love or, more accurately, lust.
Change that must come

But a very fundamental issue surrounding this whole episode and which must not be swept under the carpet, is that the national bank is once more in the news for all the wrong reasons: fueling perceptions of what is at best, a lack of professional ethics and governance rules, or worse a reflection of an institution that may be staffed by persons with political agendas. It appears that it does not matter which party is in power for an institution that has major share ownership by the Government, there are far too many issues that are arising one after the other that strongly suggest the need for a holistic review of its operations.

It should be noted that commercial banks perform a key role in the intermediation process of a country. Fundamental to this process is the critical product which is marketed - that is - confidence. It is a sad day when a countrys political leader and head of government that is your leading shareholder says he has no confidence in you. In other environments, there would be mass resignations or even dismissals all around, from Board to top management, to any employee who had a finger in making public the very personal details of a depositor.

This not being the case, at least so far, could give an indication that we are far off yet from understanding the value of sound business ethics. Indeed the world of finance is watching, because not too long ago the Governor of the Central Bank was fired because he chose to release confidential information.

The fear of citizens exiting relationships with major institutions, especially in the financial sector, does not arise from a call to high standards, or for holding leadership responsible for actions of the organizations that they lead. The opposite is true if no action is taken.

We have had to look on in horror at the shenanigans that took place around the Initial Public Offer (IPO) controversy of this state-owned commercial bank.

There are persons whose companies were fingered in this unsavory episode who continued to appear on our media acting as authorities of good business and ethical behavior.

It has not be unheard of that institutions in the financial sector in this country have had on their board and in other places family members of regulators and Government ministers. This is a most unsavory practice and, if found to be true, every step must be taken to stamp it out post haste. Certainly, such practice is a major contributor to a lack of good governance, as are those that occur but go unnoticed in this sector daily.

Now that a government minister has been burnt - and once again we emphasise that the Minister must be held accountable - the fix may be in to make this go away, although in true Trini style, the entire action will not escape being mired in the dirty politics that has become our brand.

Change is necessary in our institutions, but it must be the type of change that inspires confidence as a natural output rather than something an institution like FCB has to beg for.
Crime yields high cost bi-products

Criminality weakens the social fabric, destroys confidence among people, and erodes the credibility of institutions as well as the respect for the rule of law.

In short, citizen insecurity is a serious obstacle to the human development of any country.

What does the data reveal about crime in Trinidad and Tobago? A Report  Citizen Security: Trinidad and Tobago 2012 by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) provides the crime statistics used in this article. Over the period 1990 to 2010 there was an average of 222 murders per year; this increased to 458 per year for the last five years. Overall, the number of murders increased on average by 19 per year over the 20-year period.

The demographic data on the victims of murder for 2004 to 2007 suggest that persons between the ages of 21 to 40 are more likely to become victims of murder. Children under the age of ten accounted for 1.2% of all murder victims, while 16% of the victims were persons between the ages of 11 to 20. Persons in the 21 to 30 age group accounted for 36.3% of the victims, while those in the 31 to 40 age range accounted for 22.8% of the victims. Some 23.7% of the victims were persons over the age of 40. There was an average of 553 woundings and shootings per year recorded for the period 1990 to 2010, which increased to an average of 684 between 2005 and 2010.

Over the period 1990 to 2010 an average of 125 kidnappings occurred per year in Trinidad and Tobago, with an average of 164 per year within the last five years.

An average of 525 rapes and other sexual offences occurred annually for the period 1990 to 2010, with the average increasing to 782 per year in the last five years. For the period 1990 to 2010, there has been an average of 4290 robberies per year, with this increasing to an average of 5351 per year over the last five years. UNDP reported a continuous increase in robberies over 1990 to 2010 as against a decrease in the number of burglaries, suggesting that the taking of property became more violent.

Youth violence as well as the victimisation of youths is a special area of concern. Youth crime has made the news lately. The available data suggests that youth delinquency may begin while children are in the primary school system. Bullying generally leads to subsequent involvement in crime and delinquency as students get older, even progressing into adulthood. Such behaviour also affects the ability to maintain positive relationships, both with peers and within the family. The victims - students who are bullied - are afraid to attend school and may have high rates of truancy, which subsequently affect their level of academic achievement and their development of skills.

In addition such students, when they attend school, had difficulty concentrating, because of fear, feelings of humiliation and embarrassment, and many of them remained isolated and withdrawn in adulthood.

The UNDP report argues that the label delinquent, leads to a reinterpretation of the persons past actions and life. The labelling process may start when youths entered the correctional system.

Acts which might have been previously viewed as merely a prank would now be considered as evidence that the persons has a maladjusted personality or just delinquent. Socially we may alter how we interact with and behave toward the labelled youth, we may withdraw social support, informational support, their level of communication, and other means which together reduce opportunities for social advancement.

Faced with such reduced opportunities, some labelled youths make use of illegal opportunities for social advancement. The worst scenario is when youths once labelled delinquent begin to see themselves as delinquent.

The UNDP report pointed out that youths who are more experienced in committing illegal acts trained inexperienced youths in the techniques and skills required for a successful life of crime. Such social systems served to reinforce and reward counternormative values and behaviours.

We must be careful to distinguish between offenders who are merely petty criminals or non-criminals and those who are hardened criminals who are highly likely to recidivate. The cost to the society can be high.
Get the news faster.

Tap to install our app. Access Newser even faster.

Click here to install our app on your desktop.

X
(Newser)  A gun-rights advocate in Florida was hospitalized on Tuesday after apparently flouting gun, vehicle, and child safety rules. Police say 31-year-old Jamie Gilt was accidentally shot by her 4-year-old son while driving down a road in Putnam County, reports the Chicago Tribune. The boy had apparently found a loaded .45-caliber handgun on the floor of her pickup. "She was shot through the seat and the round went through her back," a police spokesman tells the Florida Times-Union. "There was a booster seat in the back of the vehicle, but ... the boy was not strapped in when the deputy got to them," he says.

Gilt was rushed to the hospital and the boy was turned over to family members. Gilt has had a strong pro-gun presence on social media, including the now offline "Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense" Facebook page, where just hours before the shooting she boasted that her 4-year-old "gets jacked up to target shoot." In a press release, the Putnam County Sheriff's Office says it has been unable to interview Gilt because of her injuries. The office says the gun was legally owned, but it is a "misdemeanor for a person to store or leave, on a premise under his or her control, a loaded firearm in such a manner that it is likely a child can gain access to the firearm." Police are investigating and the Florida Department of Children and Families has also been notified. (Read more Florida stories.)
(Newser)  Perhaps getting in some practice for the general election, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton spent the opening minutes of Wednesday's Democratic debate in Florida bashing Republican frontrunner Donald Trump. After Univision's moderators attempted to get Clinton to call Trump a racistbait she refused to takeshe turned Trump's well-used campaign slogan against him. "You don't make America great by getting rid of everything that made America great," she said. She also accused him of "trafficking in prejudice and paranoia."

"The American people are never going to elect a president who insults Mexicans, who insults Muslims, who insults women, who insults African-Americans," Sanders chimed in. Sanders, the son of a Polish immigrant, also took Trump to task for his central role in the birther movement that plagued President Obama. "Nobody's ever asked me for my birth certificate," he said. "Maybe it has something to do with the color of my skin." Watch the debate live on CNN. (Read more Democratic debate stories.)
(Newser)  A man wanted by Idaho authorities in an attack that left a church pastor seriously wounded was able to board a commercial airliner in Boise, Idaho, and travel to Washington, DC, this week despite an attempted-murder warrant for his arrest, the AP reports. After the shooting, Kyle Odom drove more than six hours from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, to the airport in Boise and departed Monday morning, according to the Transportation Security Administration. The agency said it was not informed of law enforcement's interest in Odom until Monday evening. Odom, 30, was arrested while allegedly throwing items onto the White House lawn on Tuesday evening. He also apparently wrote a manifesto contending that Martians controlled the Earth, police said.

Odom appeared in District of Columbia Superior Court on Wednesday, wearing handcuffs and a chain connecting his ankles. He said only his name when asked. His public defender said Odom declined to waive an extradition hearing and be sent back to Idaho in the next few days. Odom, a former Marine, graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in biochemistry. The manifesto said that his life started to deteriorate during his final semester and was now "ruined by an intelligent species of amphibian-humanoid from Mars." Pastor Tim Remington, 55, who was shot six times in Sunday's attack, regained consciousness Monday night in a Coeur d'Alene hospital. The pastor, who is married and has four children, is expected to recover from his wounds. (Read more Idaho stories.)
(Newser)  Trying to ID masked terrorists appearing in propaganda or execution videos is one of counterterrorism's biggest obstacles. But a researcher at Jordan's Mutah University and his team think they've found one physical tell that could prove invaluable: the victory sign formed by making the letter "V" with one's index and middle fingers, MIT Technology Review reports. In a study led by Ahmad Hassanat and posted in the arXiv scientific paper archive, the researchers used hand geometry that studied finger size and the angle between the fingers when flashing the V sign to come up with a unique biometric "fingerprint" to see if they could recognize individuals from such an indicator. "Identifying a person using a small part of the hand is a challenging task, and has, to the best of our knowledge, never been investigated," Hassanat and his team note.

The researchers had 50 male and female subjects of all ages make the V sign with their right hand. Scientists took multiple pictures of each hand with a cameraphone (much like a terrorist would "in the field"), creating a database of 500 photos. They then examined the shapes and sizes of "triangles" formed by drawing lines between the tips of the fingers, the lowest point in the "V," and two points on the palm, followed by an analysis of hand shapes. Combining these two techniques created an algorithm that picked out different V signs and matched them to subjects, with ID accuracy varying from 40% to 93%. The scientists say the technique shows "great potential," though the MIT magazine points out it needs to be done on a larger scale, and results need to be combined with other data to actually positively ID someone. Also, notes RT.com: "Terrorists could simply learn about the technology and stop making V signs." (Speaking of "V" shapes: why birds fly in this exact formation.)
(Newser)  Remember the botched "restoration" of Spanish fresco Ecce Homo back in 2012? Well, this might top it. Having stood for more than 1,000 years, Matrera Castle in Cadiz was looking a bit worse for wear when officials decided to restore the National Monument three years ago. Now, people around the world are wishing they'd left the crumbling building alone because the original walls have been shored up by not-very-ancient-looking modern walls. "They've got builders in rather than restorers and, like we say round here, they've cocked it up," a local man tells Spain's La Sexta, per the Guardian. "What the hell have they done to Matrera Castle in Cadiz?" a woman adds on Twitter. "And we thought Ecce Homo was bad!"

A Spanish cultural heritage group says the restoration is "absolutely terrible" and a "heritage massacre," per the Independent. But the architect behind the restoration says it's really not that bad. The goal was "to structurally consolidate those elements that were at risk; to differentiate new additions from the original structure, thus avoiding the imitative reconstructions that are prohibited by law; and to recover the volume, texture and tonality that the tower would originally have had," he says. As for those less-than-flattering comments, "opinions are always welcome and constructive criticism and debate are always enriching," he says. "But I do think that some basic, accurate information can help avoid some of the prejudices that spring from a simple image." (This Scottish castle could be washed away.)
(Newser)  A junior high school principal appeared before a school assembly Wednesday to apologize not only for its role in a student's suicide but also for fibbing about what had happened afterward, the Japan Times reports. The 15-year-old took his own life on Dec. 8 after his parents found out the school wasn't going to give their son the letter of recommendation he needed to take the entrance exam for his high school of choice. The school, located in the town of Fuchu, wouldn't pen the letter because the teen's file noted he had been busted for shoplifting during his first year at the schooleven though it turned out it had been a different student who committed the crime. "Our child would never have taken his life if the school's data management had not been sloppy," a statement from the boy's family read.

What's said to have happened: The teacher who entered the shoplifting charge into the school's records was basing the entry on a verbal report from another faculty member and plugged in the wrong name. The mistake was discovered in October 2013, but while the error was fixed on paper, it remained in the school's electronic records. The school's in-house probe found the school was to blame for the boy's death due to "poor clerical management and career guidance," per Kyodo News. The "career guidance" portion relates to the boy's homeroom teacher, who spoke with him five times about progressing to high school, reports the Mainichi. Those sessions consisted of five-minute interactions in the school hallway. Principal Hiroshi Sakamoto also apologized for initially saying the boy had died of heart failure. (In the US, a police officer lost his job for his joke about an activist's suicide.)
(Newser)  Some West Virginia lawmakers are dealing with a tough double-whammy: Not only are they recovering from a nasty flu-like illness, they're bearing the brunt of some serious Internet ridicule. A headline at Consumerist sums up why: "WV Lawmakers Legalize Raw Milk, Drink Raw Milk, Get Mysterious Stomach Bug." It seems that after the governor signed a law loosening restrictions on unpasteurized milk, one lawmaker brought in some from a local dairy to celebrate and handed out samples, reports the Charleston Gazette-Mail. Next thing you know, lawmakers were being felled by vomiting, fever, and diarrhea. The lawmaker who brought in the milk, Scott Cadle, insists it's a coincidence, maintaining that some kind of bug was already going around.

"Theres nobody up there that got sick off that milk," says Cadle, who had to stay home from work on Monday. "Its just bad timing, I guess." Another lawmaker who fell ill after taking a "small sip" to be polite thinks Cadle is right. "I highly doubt raw milk had anything to do with it," he tells WSAZ. Nevertheless, state health officials are investigating after getting an anonymous tip asserting that the milk is to blame and that Cadle may have violated the new law by distributing it in the House chamber as he did, reports ABC News. "It's important to note that a lot of the information out there is alleged," says one health official. "It's important to conduct an investigation to figure out exactly the facts." (Maybe coconut milk is the way to go for the squeamish?)
(Newser)  Hackers helped themselves to $81 million from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York last monthbut the massive theft could have been far worse if not for a typo, reports Reuters. Investigators say the heist began when the hackers breached the security systems of Bangladesh Bank and then, posing as the Bangladeshi bankers, requested dozens of large transfers from the New York Fed. About $81 million had gone through to entities in the Philippines before red flags up went because the hackers had written "fandation" instead of "foundation" on one of the transfers. Routing bank Deutsche Bank caught the error, got suspicious, and alerted the Bangladesh central bank, which put a stop to the transfer. In total, hackers had put in almost three dozen transfer requests and planned to steal another $850 million to $870 million.

A Bangladeshi official tells the Wall Street Journal that "some" money has been recovered, but the hackerswho experts suspect are from outside Bangladesh and spied on bank workers to gain information on the bank's systemsremain at large. The Fed, however, may face consequences. Bangladesh's finance minister says the country is considering a lawsuit against the American bank for not stopping the transactions earlier. "We kept money with the Federal Reserve Bank and irregularities must be with the people who handle the funds there," he tells Bloomberg. It cant be that they dont have any responsibility." A rep for the Fed says "the payment instructions in question were fully authenticated" by money-transfer system SWIFT. (This very public typo was less costly but still a little embarrassing.)
(Newser)  Germany is in possession of what one expert tells the BBC could be a "law enforcement gold mine": an apparent list of 22,000 or so foreigners from about 50 countriesincluding "a handful of Americans," per the Guardianwho headed to Syria to fight for ISIS, the New York Times reports. The list is said to include jihadis' names (real and assumed), former addresses, phone numbers, and names of those who supported or recruited them, per the AP, which adds that this could be the "largest yet treasure trove of documents found on [ISIS]." The documents also include registration forms recruits had to fill out before joining ISIS. Germany, whose Interior Ministry confirms it believes the files are genuine, hopes to use them to prosecute returning fighters or those already on trial, as well as a deterrent to Germans hoping to sign up with ISIS.

Perhaps as intriguing as the info itself is the person who may have handed it over. Although the Times notes the Interior Ministry hasn't offered details on the list's origins, Stuart Ramsay, a reporter for Sky News, says he was also given files, reportedly swiped from the chief of ISIS' internal security police, by a "disgruntled convert" who goes by Abu Hamed. Ramsay, who notes he met Hamed in a "secret location in Turkey," says Hamed claims ISIS has been taken over by ex-soldiers from Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, the group is moving its base to Iraq, and Islamic rule has "totally collapsed." When Ramsay asked Hamed if the files could bring ISIS to its knees, the deserter said, "God willing." Meanwhile, US Army Col. Steve Warren, who heads up the US coalition against ISIS, tells the AP, "If there is a media outlet that has these names and numbers, I hope they publish them." (Meanwhile, the US has ISIS' bio-warfare chief in custody.)
(Newser)  A 51-year-old woman was found guilty Thursday of kidnapping a newborn in 1997 as the girl's mother slept in a hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. The unnamed defendant had pleaded not guilty, insisting she adopted the infant and "didn't know the baby was stolen." Incredibly, the girl was reunited with her biological parents, Celeste and Morne Nurse, last year after befriending a girl at school who resembled herand who ended up being her younger sister. The Nurses cried as the verdict was read; the defendant had also cried in court while testifying about being barred from seeing the girl she'd raised as her daughter. She testified that she had miscarried a baby in 1996 without telling her husband, then paid a woman to find her an infant to adopt, and that when the woman did so, the defendant told her husband the baby was theirs.

The judge rejected that story as "a fairytale," the Guardian reports, adding, "You must have been the person who removed the child from [the] hospital." She was convicted of kidnapping, fraud (she registered the child as her own daughter in 2003 and changed her birthdate), and contravening child protection laws; the judge said she faces 10 years in prison when she's sentenced on May 30. As for the abducted girl, News24 says that she's still living with the husband of the defendant, who raised her as his daughter. The now-18-year-old issued a statement Sunday in which she ripped media portrayal of the case and seemed to imply she still considers the couple who raised her to be her family: "How would your daughter or son feel when their skin feels ripped [off] their face? Because of you. Appreciate the privacy you have with your family and think what I am going through, and my father and mother." Take an in-depth look at the trial here. (Read more kidnapping stories.)
(Newser)  A big pistachio recall is underway after 11 people in several states were sickened by salmonella, reports CBS News. Trader Joe's is among those affected, recalling the following products:



Trader Joe's Dry Roasted & Unsalted Pistachios (UPC 0007 9990)

Trader Joe's Dry Roasted & Salted Pistachios (UPC 0007 9983)

Trader Joe's 50% Less Salt Roasted & Salted Pistachios (UPC 0011 1348)

The pistachios in question come from the California company Wonderful Pistachios and are also sold across the US under the names Wonderful and Paramount Farms. See the FDA website for the entire list of lot numbers. The company says it is working with authorities to identify the source of the problem, which has hit Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Virginia, and Washington. (Read more pistachios stories.)
Stephen Hawking joins 150 other British Scientists in voicing their opinion on UK's stance on the European Union (EU).

The scientists, including Hawkings, penned an open letter published on The Times about the importance of staying on the EU and the impact it would make to UK's economy, science, and universities if it were to leave.

"First, increased funding has raised greatly the level of European science as a whole and of the UK in particular because we have a competitive edge," the letter stated.

"Second, we now recruit many of our best researchers from continental Europe, including younger ones who have obtained EU grants and have chosen to move with them here."

"Being able to attract and fund the most talented Europeans assures the future of British science and also encourages the best scientists elsewhere to come here," the scientists, mathematicians, engineers and economists stated.

Scientists also brought up Switzerland's situation, who remains out of the EU, claiming that the country now struggles to attract young talent. If Britain were to leave, it would be cut off from receiving funds such as grants and packages. Additionally, exchanging and discussion of ideas would be eliminated since UK government would no longer be able to employ continental scientists.

It first leaked that the British government wanted to remove its 40-year long membership on the EU in April 2011, when the Queen and the Privy Council met privately to discuss this. Those in favor of leaving the union claim that it will allow the UK government to rule on its own terms.

Currently, according to a poll by YouGov, 37% vote to stay in the EU, while 38% opt to leave. The remaining population doesn't know or don't plan to vote.

The government will announce its final decision on June 23 when citizen go to the voting booths.
Kate Middleton is being slammed by animal rights group, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) for reportedly wearing fur gloves on her most recent ski trip with Prince William and their children.

Many were eyeing Middleton's outfit when photos were released of the family's ski trip in the French Alps. The princess had on a white E+O ski jacket with a fur hood along with Sorel Women's Caribou boots. However, many raised questions when they saw she might be possibly wearing Alexski's women's ski mittens, which contain a lining of possum fur, according to the brand's website.

Many are surprised by this as the family is known to promote the importance of wildlife conservation. In April 2014, the duchess along with Prince William traveled to New York City to promote for United For Wildlife and advocate against worldwide wildlife poaching.

The organization stated that if Middleton was wearing real fur, they'll be contacting her and informing her of the conditions possums face when being killed for their fur.

PETA UK director, Mimi Bekhechi, told Gossip Cop, "If the gloves are indeed made of real fur, we'll be contacting Kate, who we imagine is unaware that opossums killed for their fur are often caught in bone-crushing steel-jaw traps. Animals who are not killed outright by these devices can endure horrific injuries and languish for days before eventually dying of hunger, thirst or blood loss."

Bekhechi continues, "Some trapped animals, especially mothers desperate to return to their young, chew through their limbs in a frantic attempt to escape. Since so many humane, warm and fashionable fabrics are readily available, there's no need to wear fur - opossum or otherwise."

Representatives of Kate or the Royal Family have yet to make comments on this issue.
Google's Deepmind Computer Go program AlphaGo is continuously astonishing the world with incredible skill and depth beating the long time World Go Champion Lee Sedol two times in a row.

"Yesterday I was surprised but today it's more than that - I am speechless," said Lee in the post-game press conference. "I admit that it was a very clear loss on my part. From the very beginning of the game I did not feel like there was a point that I was leading."

DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis remarked "I think it's testament to Lee Se-dol's incredible skills,". "We're very pleased that AlphaGo played some quite surprising and beautiful moves, according to the commentators, which was amazing to see."

There are three more games to go and Lee has changed his stance from winning all five gaves to at least trying to one game.

DeepMind's AlphaGo program is equipped with an advanced system based on deep neural networks and machine learning.

AlphaGo, already gained victory over the three-time European Go champion Fan Hui over the course of five matches. However, Sedol was 100% confident that he would sweep AlphaGo and considered to be a much harder challenge, having dominated the world of Go for much of his professional career for last decade.

The next game begins Friday at 11 p.m. ET, and fans can watch it live on YouTube. A third win would give victory to AlphaGo in the five-game match and $1 million in prize money, which Google has said it will donate to charity.

AlphaGo vs Lee Sedol Match schedule

Wednesday, March 9 (Tuesday, March 8 for American viewers)

Thursday, March 10

Saturday, March 12

Sunday, March 13

Tuesday, March 15

8:00 PM on the previous day, US Pacific Standard Time (Los Angeles)

11:00 PM on the previous day, US Eastern Standard Time (New York)

4:00 AM, Coordinated Universal Time (GMT, London)

5:00 AM, Central European Time (Berlin)

12:00 PM, China Standard Time (Beijing)

3:00 PM, Australian Eastern Daylight Time (Sydney).
Fairbanks, AK (99707)

Today

Cloudy with snow showers mainly during the morning. High 34F. Winds light and variable. Chance of snow 50%. Snow accumulations less than one inch..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies. Low 21F. Winds light and variable.
One of the many photos I took from Hagelbarger Hill on the evening of Oct. 19, 2022, when Fairbanks was blanketed in thick fog. Thanks, Jason Doxey, of Fairbanks, for sending in this shot. You can submit your best photos at newsminer.com. Jason Doxey/Fairbanks
Washington:

The US says it has dispatched three B-2 stealth bombers on a training mission to the Asia-Pacific region amid growing tensions with North Korea.

The deployment was announced today by US Strategic Command, which is responsible for US nuclear forces. B-2 bombers are capable of launching nuclear as well as conventional weapons. They are based at Whiteman Air Force Base in the Midwest state of Missouri.

Strategic Command said the bombers will conduct training with the Australian military during the deployment, which amounts to a show of force at a time of mounting tensions with North Korea. North

Korea threatened pre-emptive nuclear strikes after the United States and South Korea began large-scale war games this month. Strategic Command declined to say where the bombers will be operating from, or for how long.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi :

While banks are still grappling with Vijay Mallya in court to get their money back, but the fact is over 3,000 employees of the defunct carrier Kingfisher Airlines still haven't got their salaries.

Going by the numbers, 900 employees are still, on paper, employed with the airline and about 2000 more who left since 2015. The salary arrears since 2012 work out to be more than Rs 300 crore.

Many of these employees, like technicians, ground staff and engineers are still unemployed. According to a leading daily, almost all the pilots of the defunct Airlines have been absorbed by other airlines. While most of the estranged cabin crew people sought employment in shopping malls and hotels at a fraction of the salaries they were getting with the airline.

The situation has been tougher for almost all the employees who were left stranded after the Airline went cash strapped.

In an open letter, the women employees wrote, exploitation is in your blood, that's why you are talking about one-time settlement with only banks and not employees.

The sad part of their story is people who have joined new companies are not able to get income tax refunds as the I-T department keeps adjusting it against tax dues which wasn't submitted by Kingfisher. They also said Kingfisher kept depositing provident fund but not salaries. You issued us tax sheet (in lieu of form-16) for the full year 2012-13, but have paid us only till June 2012.

Similarly, in a previous letter Mallya was slammed for not being paying the due salaries to the staff. The letter said, he has blood in his hands. The letter also questioned why criminal proceedings hadn't been initiated. We are still not able to understand what you meant when you said 'I don't have money to pay your salaries' while the spree continues, be it the Caribbean Premier League or luxury yachts, they said in the letter.

Kingfisher shut down operations in 2012 due to cash and credit issues. It sank with total dues of more than $2 billion owing to banks, taxmen, employees, leasing companies, airports and other business associates.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Jodhpur:

Bollywood actor Salman Khan appeared before the Jodhpur court on Thursday where his statement was recorded in connection with the Arms Act Case.

"Salman Khan said in the court that he was falsely implicated", the actor's lawyer said after the statement was recorded.

The trial court had summoned Salman Khan on March 3 in a case of alleged illegal possession of arms for black buck poaching.



The court has rejected the application of the defence seeking recalling of a prosecution witness, the then District Magistrate Rajat Kuamr Mishra, and ordered the defence to ensure the presence of Khan in the court on March 10 for the recording of the accuseds statements, Additional Public Prosecutor Dinesh Tiwari had said earlier on March 3.

Khan had allegedly hunted down two black bucks on October 1-2, 1998 at Kankani village using the weapons with expired licences.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi :

NASA on Wednesday announced that it has rescheduled it's next unmanned mission to Mars to 2018 owing to a vacuum leak in the prime science instrument of the lander. The space agency had earlier planned to launch the Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission this month.

NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is managing the entire mission which is also set to redesign and build a new enclosure. The space agency has been quite curious about gaining more and more knowledge about the red planets texture and evolution.

NASA on Wednesday announced that it has rescheduled it's next unmanned mission to Mars to 2018 owing to a vacuum leak in the prime science instrument of the lander. The space agency had earlier planned to launch the Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission this month.

NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is managing the entire mission which is also set to redesign and build a new enclosure. The space agency has been quite curious about gaining more and more knowledge about the red planets texture and evolution.

The InSight missions goal is to analyze the deep interior of Mars and determine how rocky planets including Earth formed and evolved. According to NASA, this mission is scheduling a new expected launch window beginning May 5, 2018.

This is considered one of the most awaited space projects of NASA to gain more information about the texture and evolution of the red planet. CNES, the French space agency, is in charge of the seismic instrument that turned troublesome

The mission will help to determine the state of the red planet, whether its liquid or solid and why its surface is not made of moving tectonic plates like Earth. While understanding the interiors of Mars has been a long quest for planetary scientists.

The delay due to the vacuum leak is better explained here- the seismometer, provided by Frances space agency, designed to measure ground movements as small as the diametre of an atom requires a vacuum seal around its three main sensors to withstand the harsh conditions of the Martian environment.

NASA also said that the cost of the two-year delay is being assessed with an estimate expected in August. The total cost of the mission was budgeted at $675 million (roughly Rs. 4,534 crores), of which $525 million (roughly Rs. 3,527 crores) had been spent by December 2015, going by NASA estimates.

US space agency is currently working on three Mars missions with European Space Agency and also plans to send another rover to the red planet in 2020. A manned mission to Mars is set for the 2030s.

The Insight Mission The InSight missionas goal is to analyze the deep interior of Mars and determine how arocky planetsa including Earth formed and evolved. According to NASA, this mission is scheduling a new expected launch window beginning May 5, 2018.This is considered one of the most awaited space projects of NASA to gain more information about the texture and evolution of the red planet. CNES, the French space agency, is in charge of the seismic instrument that turned troublesome All about the red planet The mission will help to determine the state of the red planet, whether its liquid or solid and why its surface is not made of moving tectonic plates like Earth. While understanding the interiors of Mars has been a long quest for planetary scientists. Equipment woes The delay due to the vacuum leak is better explained here- the seismometer, provided by Francesa space agency, designed to measure ground movements as small as the diametre of an atom requires a vacuum seal around its three main sensors to withstand the harsh conditions of the Martian environment. How much the delay cost? NASA also said that the cost of the two-year delay is being assessed with an estimate expected in August. The total cost of the mission was budgeted at $675 million (roughly Rs. 4,534 crores), of which $525 million (roughly Rs. 3,527 crores) had been spent by December 2015, going by NASA estimates. NASA's Mars missions US space agency is currently working on three Mars missions with European Space Agency and also plans to send another rover to the red planet in 2020. A manned mission to Mars is set for the 2030s.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Gondia (Maha):

A four-year-old boy fell into a 280-ft deep borewell in Gondia district today following which an army team was called in to rescue him.



The rescue operation is still going on, a district official said.



Vivek Khushal Donode, who was with his grandmother as she took goats out for grazing, fell into the open hole of a bore well, dug only yesterday, in a field this afternoon in Ranka village of Sadak Arjuni tehsil.



Gondia Collector Dr Vijay Suryavanshi summoned the National Disaster Response Force from Pune after learning about the incident. An Army team was also summoned from Kamptee near Nagpur.



Superintendent of Police Shashi Kumar Meena and Additional SP Dr Sandeep Pakhale also rushed to the spot.



The NDRF team had dropped an oxygen pipe into the hole and had started digging a rescue shaft, Suryavanshi told PTI.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Washington:

Pronounced alterations in heart rate variability may contribute to sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP), scientists including one of Indian-origin say.

Doctors have long characterised epilepsy as a brain disorder, but researchers from Case Western Reserve University in the US have now found that part of the autonomic nervous system functions differently in epilepsy during the absence of seizures.

This connection to the involuntary division of the nervous system may have implications for diagnosing and treating the disease and understanding SUDEP, researchers said.

They studied the electrocardiograms of 91 children and adolescents with generalised epilepsy, and 25 neurologically normal children during 30 minutes of stage 2, or light, sleep. No subjects were suffering from a seizure during these intervals.

They found that respiratory sinus arrhythmia - the increase in heart rate during inhalation and decrease during exhalation - was more pronounced in patients with epilepsy, and that their heart rate also was significantly lower.

Those changes are consistent with increased firing of the vagus nerve in children with epilepsy, compared to those without, researchers including Siddharth Sivakumar suggest.

The vagus nerve is the main trunk of the parasympathetic nervous system. The more the vagus fires, the more it slows the heart, especially during exhalation, researchers said.

They found no difference in blood pressure between the two groups of children, indicating the sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for fight-or-flight responses, is not involved.

All of the children in the study had electroencephalograms monitoring their brain activity during the 30-minute periods of sleep. There was no abnormal activity found there, either.

All the findings of our study on heart rate variability in epilepsy point to increased activity in the parasympathetic nervous system during sleep, said Roberto Fernandez Galan from Case Western Reserve University.

Specifically, the parasympathetic - or rest-and-digest nervous system modulates breathing and slows the heart rate of sleeping children with epilepsy substantially more than in healthy children, researchers said.

They also found that several children who had been diagnosed as neurologically normal - but had similar strong modulation and low heart rates - were later diagnosed with epilepsy.

The discovery suggests that changes in the parasympathetic tone precede the onset of epilepsy in children, researchers said. The findings were published in the Journal of Neurophysiology.
Moscow:

Armed men have attacked the office of a prominent human rights organisation in the volatile Russian region of Ingushetia, the group said, hours after journalists were assaulted in the same area.

Footage of the attack posted on Twitter by Dmitry Utukin, a lawyer for the Committee to Prevent Torture, appeared to show several camouflaged armed men breaking security cameras at the groups office in the Ingush town of Karabulak.

Armed men came to our office in five cars, one of them broke the security camera at the entrance. Three others came in through the window, Utukin wrote.

Nobody was inside at the time of the break-in, which occurred late yesterday, just hours after masked men attacked a group of journalists on a trip organised by the group in the bordering region of Chechnya.

Nine people, including five journalists, were en route to Grozny, Chechnyas main city, when masked assailants stormed their minibus.

Journalists from Norway and Sweden, a lawyer for the NGO and the minibus driver were hospitalised with injuries, the group said late yesterday. Utukin said local investigators had opened a probe into the incidents. The local branch of Russias Investigative Committee refused comment when contacted by AFP today.

Founded in 2000, the Committee to Prevent Torture is one of the few NGOs active in Chechnya and offers legal support to torture victims. A similar attack was carried out against the groups Grozny office last year.

The organisations office was also torched in December 2014 after it criticised Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov for urging collective punishment of the families of Islamist insurgents.

Rights activists and journalists investigating torture, kidnapping and war crimes in Chechnya are routinely threatened and harassed.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Kolkata:

Taking a cue from Kerala, West Bengal is now focusing on developing coastal and river tourism circuit by introducing houseboats in Kolkata, Sundarbans and creeks near Digha.



State Tourism department officials said they have recently awarded tender to a Kerala based private company to build seven houseboats for them.We want it like Kerala. We will have one houseboat plying along the Ganges in Kolkata, two-three in Sundarbans and three-four in the creeks between Tajpur and Mandarmani near Digha, A R Bardhan, principal secretary, West Bengal Tourism Department, told PTI.



It is for the first time that the tourism department is introducing houseboats in the state.



We have lot of potential in river-based tourism and in the coastal circuit. We have a budget of about Rs 83 crore for developing the circuit, Bardhan said.



The air-conditioned houseboats, costing Rs 1.2 crore each, will have three rooms with all facilities like a kitchen, a common drawing room, etc.



It will be like a hotel. The boat will do a cruise in the rivers, but will be anchored in one place. In Kolkata, tourists will get a good view of the city from the banks of the Ganges. You also get very good views of the Howrah Bridge and Vidyasagar Setu from the river, the official said.



It is expected that the houseboats will be ready in the next six months and be made available for tourists by the end of the year.
Mumbai:

Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley will be cross-examined by key 26/11 plotter Abu Jundals lawyer for four days in the 2008 terror attack case here, beginning from March 22.

We informed the court that Headley will depose from March 22-25 via video link from an undisclosed location in US, and the court passed an order, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told PTI.

He also said that if needed Headley might also be re-examined by the prosecution later.

Headley, who has turned an approver, concluded his week-long deposition through video-link on February 13 in which he revealed the role and plans of LeT, ISI and Al Qeada to target India.

Last month, on February 22, Judge G A Sanap had directed Nikam to contact US authorities for Headleys second round of deposition and inform the court by February 25, after which the dates of his testification were to be finalised.

Jundals lawyer Abdul Wahab Khan had then also sought four days to cross-examine Headley besides moving an application objecting to his being made an approver in the terror attack case.

Earlier on February 13, the day on which Headleys week-long deposition ended, the court had adjourned the case for cross-examination by Jundals lawyer for a future date.

Headley, who is serving a 35-year jail term in the US in connection with the terror attacks case, had made some startling disclosures during his testimony which began on February 8. He spilled beans on how Pakistans intelligence agency ISI provides financial, military and moral support to terror outfits LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen and how LeT had planned and executed the 26/11 attacks and the role played by ISI officials, involving him too.

He also revealed that LeT had planned an attack at a conference of Indian defence scientists at Taj Mahal Hotel a year before the 26/11 strikes and had even prepared its dummy.

Deposing via a video-link from the US, the 55-year-old terrorist had told the court thatIshrat Jahanwho was killed in an alleged fake encounter in 2004 in Gujaratwas an operative of LeT.

Headley had also revealed that Al-Qaeda was in touch with him to attack Delhis National Defence College and unravelled the plot by LeT and ISI to target Mumbai airport, BARC and the Naval air station here.

He also visited the Indian Armys Southern Command headquarters at Pune in 2009 on the instructions of ISIs Major Iqbal, who wanted him to recruit some military personnel to get classified information, the court was told.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
DC Bead, DC BeadM1 and Bead Block Now Sold Directly to Specialist Physicians Across Canada

OTTAWA, March 10, 2016 /CNW/ - BTG International Canada Inc., part of international specialty healthcare company BTG (LSE: BTG), is now selling its interventional oncology products DC Bead, DC BeadM1 and Bead Block direct-to-physicians in Canada. All three products were previously distributed in Canada by LivaNova PLC.

BTG has expanded its commercial presence in Canada in recent months and built an expert commercial team to directly promote and distribute its products. In 2015, BTG began selling its radioembolization product TheraSphere and will now sell key interventional oncology products DC Bead, DC BeadM1, and Bead Block directly in the Canadian marketplace.

"Being a global leader in interventional medicine, we're proud to establish a commercial presence in Canada and pleased to begin to supply BTG products directly to healthcare professionals across the country," said Brad Pearson, director, commercial operations at BTG International Canada Inc.

Canadian customers may call 1-844-292-1BTG (1284) to order DC Bead, DC BeadM1, and Bead Block directly from BTG International Canada. To order TheraSphere directly in Canada, customers may call BTG International Canada at 1-866-363-3330.

About DC Bead

The gold-standard drug-eluting bead, DC Bead is supported by more than 10 years' experience and 100 peer-reviewed publications reporting outcomes in over 3,500 patients with liver cancer. DC Bead has been shown in studies to offer improved clinical and patient outcomes, including excellent tolerability versus conventional TACE, and high rates of five-year survival data.1-8

Developed and manufactured by BTG, DC Bead received Canadian approval in 2006. DC Bead is an embolic drug-eluting bead capable of loading and releasing chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment of primary liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma or HCC) and liver metastases from colorectal cancers.

About DC BeadM1

Approved in Canada in 2011, DC BeadM1 is a subset of the smallest DC Bead. The narrow size distribution of DC BeadM1 offers greater uniformity and concentration of bead and drug distribution in the tumor.9

About Bead Block

Bead Block embolic beads have a unique structure  PVA hydrogel cross-linked with acrylic polymer  to ensure smooth delivery and targeted, effective embolization. Bead Block received Canadian approval in 2005.

All bead products are used in minimally invasive (non-surgical) procedures performed by an interventional radiologist.

About TheraSphere

Manufactured in Ottawa, Canada, TheraSphere was granted a Canadian medical device license in 2002. TheraSphere is a well-tolerated liver cancer therapy that consists of millions of small glass microspheres containing radioactive yttrium-90. The product is injected by a physician into the artery of the patient's liver through a catheter, which allows the treatment to be delivered directly to the tumor via blood flow.

About BTG Interventional Medicine

BTG Interventional Medicine is part of BTG plc, a growing international specialist healthcare company. As medicine moves from major surgery to minor procedure, from the systemic to the local, no company endeavors to do more than BTG Interventional Medicine to help doctors in their quest to see more, reach further and treat smarter. Our growing portfolio of Interventional Medicine products is designed to advance the treatment of liver tumors, advanced emphysema, severe blood clots, and varicose veins. To learn more about

BTG Interventional Medicine, please visit: btg-im.com.

References:

1. DC Bead Clinical Bibliography. Jan 2016. Available on Request 2. Varela M et al. J Hepatol 46 (2007): 474-81 3. Poon RTP et al. Clin Gastroenterol and Hepatol 5 (2007): 1100-08. 4. Lammer J et al. Cardiovasc Intervent Radiol 33 (2010): 41-52 5. Liu Y-S et al. Korean J Radiol 16 (2015): 125-132. 6. Song MJ et al. Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol 23 (2011): 521-7. 7. Burrel M et al. J Hepatol 56 (2012): 1330-5. 8. Malagari K et al. Cardiovasc Intervent Radiol 35 (2012): 1119-28. 9. Dreher M et al. J Vasc Interv Radiol 23 (2012): 257-64.

SOURCE BTG International Canada Inc.

For further information: Canadian Media Inquiries: Eileen Tobey, beSPEAK Communications Inc., [email protected], +1 416 540 4047; International Inquiries: Chris Sampson, Director of Corporate Communications, +44 (0)20 7575 1595, Mobile: +44 (0)7773 251 178; Investor Relations Inquiries: Andy Burrows, VP Corporate & Investor Relations, +44 (0)20 7575 1741, Mobile: +44 (0)7990 530 605
TORONTO, March 9, 2016 /CNW/ - Grant Thornton LLP pays tribute to International Women's Day by recognizing the importance of inclusivity within our national business communities. In recognition, Grant Thornton will be sharing words of inspiration via a new social media campaign, speaking to leadership, success, sponsorship and resilience. Three social posts will run on Grant Thornton social media channels each day from March 7  11, 2016. The posts will capture thoughts, sentiments and quotes that have inspired Grant Thornton leaders, sharing a call to action for others to inspire, #GTInspire.

"Most organizations understand the benefits of having a diverse leadership teamparticularly in today's volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world," said John Harris, Partner, Grant Thornton LLP. "Leading inclusively can often help businesses to uncover new growth opportunities, better understand their people, and even improve business performance."

Grant Thornton International Ltd. issued its annual International Business Report (IBR) focusing on Women in Business on March 8, 2016, where 5,520 businesses spanning 36 economies reveal a slight uptake of gender diversity in senior management positions. That said, a third of businesses still do not have inclusivity across their leadership teams.

"Some people wonder why organizations struggle to foster true diversity," said Dawne-Marie MacLeod, Partner & Leading Inclusively Leadership Council Chair at Grant Thornton LLP. "Too often it's because they continue to operate with a traditional approach and mind-set, which may diminish opportunities for new leaders and voices."

Access to International Business Report: Women in Business 2016.

About Grant Thornton LLP in Canada

Grant Thornton LLP is a leading Canadian accounting and advisory firm providing audit, tax and advisory services to private and public organizations. We help dynamic organizations unlock their potential for growth by providing meaningful, actionable advice through a broad range of services. Together with the Quebec firm Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton LLP, Grant Thornton in Canada has approximately 4,000 people in offices across Canada. Grant Thornton LLP is a Canadian member of Grant Thornton International Ltd, whose member firms operate in close to 100 countries worldwide.

Follow us on:

Twitter: @GrantThorntonCA

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/grant-thornton-llp-in-canada

Notes to editors

The Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR) provides insight into the views and expectations of more than 10,000 businesses per year across 36 economies. This unique survey draws upon 22 years of trend data for most European participants and 11 years for many non-European economies. For more information, please visit: www.internationalbusinessreport.com

Data collection

Data collection is managed by Grant Thornton's core research partner, Millward Brown. Questionnaires are translated into local languages with each participating country having the option to ask a small number of country specific questions in addition to the core questionnaire. Fieldwork is undertaken on a quarterly basis. The research is carried out primarily by telephone.

Sample

IBR is a survey of both listed and privately held businesses. The data for this release are drawn from interviews with 5,520 chief executive officers, managing directors, chairmen or other senior executives from all industry sectors conducted between July and December 2015.

"Grant Thornton" refers to the brand under which the Grant Thornton member firms provide assurance, tax and advisory services to their clients and/or refers to one or more member firms, as the context requires. Grant Thornton International Ltd (GTIL) and the member firms are not a worldwide partnership. GTIL and each member firm is a separate legal entity. Services are delivered by the member firms. GTIL does not provide services to clients. GTIL and its member firms are not agents of, and do not obligate, one another and are not liable for one another's acts or omissions.

SOURCE Grant Thornton LLP

Image with caption: "Anita Ferrari, FCPA, FCA, Partner, Grant Thornton LLP, shares inspirational reflection in new social media campaign #GTInspires, in recognition of #IWD2016. (CNW Group/Grant Thornton LLP)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20160309_C7929_PHOTO_EN_642270.jpg

Image with caption: "Krista Han, CPA, CA, Partner, Grant Thornton LLP, shares inspirational reflection in new social media campaign #GTInspires, in recognition of #IWD2016. (CNW Group/Grant Thornton LLP)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20160309_C7929_PHOTO_EN_642272.jpg

Image with caption: "Shari Burkholder, National Director, Grant Thornton LLP, shares inspirational reflection in new social media campaign #GTInspires, in recognition of #IWD2016. (CNW Group/Grant Thornton LLP)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20160309_C7929_PHOTO_EN_642274.jpg

For further information: Amy Mulhern, Manager, Media Relations, T +1 (416) 360-4970 / M +1 (416) 550-8466, E [email protected]
SRS +2.9%, System Sales +3.8% and Operating EBITDA +21%

MONTREAL, March 10, 2016 /CNW/ - Imvescor Restaurant Group Inc. ("IRG" or the "Company") (TSX: IRG), a leading franchisor of restaurants operating 227 locations in Eastern Canada, reported financial results today for the 14 weeks ended January 31, 2016 ("Q1 2016"). This press release should be read in conjunction with the Company's management discussion and analysis and financial statements for Q1 2016 which are available on the Company's website at www.imvescor.ca/investor-relations and have been posted on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

"The first quarter of fiscal 2016 saw the continuation of the momentum begun last year as we increasingly benefit from the early success of our strategic plan," said Frank Hennessey, President and Chief Executive Officer of Imvescor Restaurant Group Inc. "It is our third consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year Same Restaurant Sales growth and System Sales growth, and the second in which all our brands reported positive Same Restaurant Sales. Notably, the year-over-year increases in Same Restaurant Sales and System Sales of 2.9% and 3.8%, respectively, were the largest since we launched our strategic plan at the beginning of last year. In addition, our continued progress on cost management contributed to a 21% year-over-year increase in operating EBITDA."

"As we move forward, we remain firmly focused on continuing to enhance the fundamentals of our business, represented by our four key pillars  Quality of Food, Quality of Service, Value and Ambiance. The Rejuvenation Plan is in full swing, with our first Scores location completed during Q1 2016, for a total of 11 restaurants renovated to date and 26 more planned for fiscal 2016. The improved operating results from these restaurants post-renovation are not only indicative of the potential of the plan but are also continuing to drive participation in the program by franchisees. I want to publicly acknowledge our franchisees and employees, whose hard work and dedication to our guests day in and day out, contributed to another successful quarter," added Mr. Hennessey.

Q1 2016 Financial and Operational Highlights

(All comparable figures are to first quarter 2015 ("Q1 2015") unless otherwise specified. Note that Q1 2016 had 14 weeks compared to 13 weeks in Q1 2015 and the highlights include variance on a normalized basis unless otherwise noted.)

Same Restaurant Sales (SRS) grew 2.9%, an improvement of 3.7 percentage points versus Q1 2015;

System Sales grew 12% (3.8% on a normalized basis);

Revenue increased 30% (23% on a normalized basis) versus Q1 2015 from increases in royalties and the Company taking over the operations of a manufacturer of certain Trattoria di Mikes licensed retail products temporarily this quarter;

Operating expenses increased 25% (18% on a normalized basis) versus Q1 2015 due mainly to the Company taking over the operations of the manufacturer of certain Trattoria di Mikes licensed retail products;

EBITDA increased 39% to $4.1 million (29% on a normalized basis) versus $2.9 million in Q1 2015;

(29% on a normalized basis) versus in Q1 2015; Operating EBITDA increased 31% to $4.3 million (21% on a normalized basis) versus $3.3 million ;

(21% on a normalized basis) versus ; Net earnings increased 68% to $2.7 million (56% on a normalized basis) versus $1.6 million in Q1 2015 and, as a percentage of revenue, increased to 18% from 14% in Q1 2015.

Highlights Subsequent to Quarter End

As previously announced, in November 2015, IRG temporarily took over the operations of the manufacturer of certain Trattoria di Mikes licensed retail products to enable IRG to honour its commitments to its grocery partners. IRG entered into a management agreement (the "Management Agreement") with the receiver (the "Receiver") appointed to 4513444 Canada Inc., formerly carrying business under the trade name of "Aliments T&N Foods" ("T&N") in the context of the issuance by the Quebec Superior Court of an order in the context of T&N's receivership proceedings under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act which culminated in a bankruptcy order rendered on December 22, 2015 against the manufacturer. Under the management agreement, IRG is operating the facility, assuming all expenses and responsibilities pertaining to the manufacturing of the licensed retail products and is collecting the revenues directly from the retailers selling the Trattoria di Mikes retail pizzas.

The Receiver received a conditional bona fide offer from a third party food manufacturer to purchase the T&N assets. In February 2016, IRG and such proposed acquirer of T&N's assets executed a term sheet setting out the key terms and conditions of an agreement for the production of Trattoria di Mikes retail pizzas by the acquirer. This agreement is subject to certain conditions, including court approval of an asset purchase agreement between the Receiver and the acquirer and the successful implementation of the transactions contemplated in that agreement. The Management Agreement will cease to have effect upon completion of the above sale transactions which is scheduled to occur on or about May 4, 2016.



Q1 2016 Selected Financial Data (in thousands of dollars, where applicable)







Q1 2016 14 weeks ended

January 31, 2016 Q1 2015 13 weeks ended January 25, 2015 % Change # of weeks

14 13 7.7% System Sales (i)

$ 99,815 $ 89,316 11.8% SRS (i)

2.9% -0.8% 3.7% Number of restaurant operating weeks

3,153 2,993 5.3% Number of restaurants

227 232 -2.2% Number of Company-owned restaurants

4 5 -20.0%









Revenue

14,427 11,062 30.4% Operating expenses

10,556 8,423 25.3% Results from operating activities

3,861 2,639 46.3% EBITDA (i)

4,059 2,923 38.9% EBITDA as a percentage of revenue

28.1% 26.4% 1.7% Operating EBITDA (i)

4,254 3,253 30.8% Operating EBITDA as a percentage of revenue

29.5% 29.4% 0.1% Net earnings and comprehensive income

2,650 1,576 68.1% Net earnings as a percentage of revenue

18.4% 14.2% 4.1% EPS:







Basic

0.05 0.04 25.0% Diluted

0.05 0.03 66.7%









Free cash flow

3,568 3,575 -0.2% Free cash flow as a percentage of revenue

24.7% 32.3% -7.6% Dividends paid

- 929 -100.0%











(in thousands of dollars, where applicable)









Q1 2016 As at January 31, 2016 Fiscal 2015 As at October 25, 2015 % Change









Cash

2,988 3,624 -17.5% Working capital excluding gift cards liability

392 962 -59.3% Total debt, including current portion

6,828 11,798 -42.1% Net debt to Operating EBITDA (i)

0.40 0.78 -48.3%



(i) System Sales, SRS, EBITDA, Operating EBITDA, Free cash flow, and net debt to Operating EBITDA are non-IFRS measures. Refer to the "Non-IFRS Measures and Financial Metrics" section of this press release for the definitions.

Dividend Declaration

Pursuant to its previously announced dividend policy, the board of directors (the "Board") today declared a dividend of $0.0225 per common share. The quarterly cash dividend will be paid on April 7, 2016 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on March 24, 2016.

The declaration and payment of any future dividend remains at the discretion of the Board and will depend on the Company's current and anticipated cash requirements and surplus, capital expenditures requirements, regulatory restrictions, financial results, future prospects, current and future contractual restrictions such as restrictions under credit or other arrangements, the satisfaction of solvency tests imposed by the Canada Business Corporations Act for the declaration of dividends and other factors deemed relevant by the Board. Any dividend policy established by the Board, including the Company's current dividend policy can be changed at any time and is not binding on the Company. There can be no guarantee that the Company will maintain its current dividend policy or any dividend policy or that any dividend will be declared or paid.

Conference Call Details

Frank Hennessey, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Tania M. Clarke, Chief Financial Officer will host the conference call to discuss Q1 2016 results at 8:30 am E.S.T on Thursday, March 10, 2016. To access the conference call by telephone, dial 1-888-231-8191 (Toll-Free), 514-807-9895 (Montreal) or 647-427-7450 (Toronto).

A live audio webcast of the conference call will be available at www.imvescor.ca/investor-relations/. A recording of the conference call will be archived for replay by telephone until Thursday, March 17, 2016 at midnight. To access the archived conference call, dial 1-855-859-2056 (Toll-Free), 514-807-9274 (Montreal) or 416-849-0833 (Toronto) and enter the reservation number 56523879.

About Imvescor Restaurant Group Inc. Imvescor Restaurant Group Inc. is a dynamic and innovative organization in the family and casual dining restaurant industry. The Company is a franchise and licensing business that operates restaurants in Eastern Canada under four banners: Pizza Delight, operating primarily in Atlantic Canada, in the family/mid-scale segment, Trattoria di Mikes and Scores, operating primarily in Quebec in the family and casual dining segments and the take-out and delivery segments, and Baton Rouge, operating in Quebec, Ontario and Nova Scotia in the casual dining segment. The Company also licenses to third parties the right to manufacture and sell prepared food products under the Pizza Delight, Trattoria di Mikes, Scores and Baton Rouge brands and through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Groupe Commensal Inc. manufactures and sells vegetarian branded food products in grocery stores and retail outlets under the Commensal brand.

Non- IFRS Measures and Financial Metrics: The information contained in this press release includes some figures that are not performance measures consistent with International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS"). Because they do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS, they may not be comparable with similar measures presented by other issuers.

"EBITDA" is defined as earnings or loss before interest income, interest expense, depreciation and amortization and income tax expense.

"Operating EBITDA" is defined as EBITDA adjusted for the following items; impairment or impairment reversal of non-current assets, impairment or impairment reversal of Imvescor rights, gain or losses on sale of property, plant and equipment, change in onerous contract provisions, costs of special committee, impairment of goodwill, bargain purchase gains, reorganization costs, restaurant rejuvenation plan, gain or loss on derivative financial liability and earnings or loss from discontinued operations. The definition of Operating EBITDA can change from time to time to account for unusual items or items not considered to be consistent with the Company's normal recurring operations.

"System Sales" is the aggregate sales achieved by all "Pizza Delight", "Trattoria di Mikes", "Scores" and "Baton Rouge" restaurants, whether they are company-owned restaurants or franchises. This performance measure indicates the Company's overall growth and reflects the direct impact of the restaurant openings and closures.

"Same Restaurant Sales" or "SRS" is a metric used in the restaurant industry to compare sales earned in established locations over a certain period of time, such as a fiscal quarter, for the current period against sales in the same period in the previous year. SRS growth helps explain what portion of sales growth can be attributed to growth in established locations. The Company defines SRS growth as sales generated by stores that have been open for at least one fiscal year compared to the sales from the same group of restaurants in the comparable period. The Company believes this is a meaningful measure of operating performance.

"Free cash flow" is defined as cash from operating activities less cash used in the purchases of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets.

"Net debt to Operating EBITDA" is calculated as long-term debt, including the current portion, less cash, divided by Operating EBITDA for the last four fiscal quarters.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including but not limited to, IRG's business objectives, estimates, outlook, strategies and priorities and all other statements other than statements of historical facts. Forward-looking statements may include estimates, intentions, plans, expectations, opinions, forecasts, projections, guidance or other statements that are not statements of fact. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "may", "should", "would", "will", "expect", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "predict", "potential, "targeting", "intend", "could", "might", "continue", "outlook" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. All such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the "safe harbour" provisions of applicable securities laws.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors outside of IRG's control. A number of factors could cause the actual results of IRG to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to: risks associated with quality control, food borne illnesses and health concerns, adverse changes to economic conditions, the Company's ability to retain certain key personnel, the Company's ability to respond to various competitive factors affecting its operations, franchise development and growth of the retail licensing opportunities, changes in consumer preferences, the Company's retail products dependence on the strength of the Company's restaurant brands, the protection of the Company's intellectual property, the success of the restaurant rejuvenation plan, the Company's dependence on royalty stream, the Company's reliance on suppliers and availability and quality of raw materials, changes in the Company's relationships with its franchisees, the Company's ability to open new restaurants, the closure of restaurants, the impact of an increase in Company-owned restaurants, the Company's ability to renew leases and limit lease exposure, the risks associated with negative publicity and its impact on the Company's reputation, compliance with regulations governing confidentiality of guest information, potential litigation and other complaints, compliance with government regulations, the Company's dependence on third parties, changes in laws concerning employees, changes in the Company's relationships with its employees, the Company's ability to ensure workplace safety, risks associated with franchise regulations, compliance with regulations governing alcoholic beverages, environmental risks and regulations, public safety issues, the Company's dependence on technology, risks of underreporting of sales by franchisees, inherent risks associated with internal control over financing reporting, the indebtedness of the Company and the restrictive covenants to which it is subject, the impact of sales tax upon System Sales, the risk associated with the Company's dividend policy, the impact of seasonality and other factors on quarterly operating results, the risk of uninsured losses, changes in commodity prices and other factors referenced in the Company's Annual Information Form and the Company's other continuous disclosure filings which are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. These factors are not intended to represent a complete list of the factors that could affect IRG but should, however, be considered carefully.

Further, although the forward-looking statements contained herein are based on information currently available to IRG's management and on the current assumptions, intentions, plans, expectations, estimates, opinions, forecasts, projections and other assumptions made by IRG's management in light of its experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments (such as IRG's future growth, results of operations, performance and opportunities as well as the future of the economic environment in which it operates), as well as other factors that IRG's management believes are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances and on the date of this press release, there can be no assurance that such assumptions, intentions, plans, expectations, estimates, opinions, forecasts, projections and other assumptions will prove to be correct or that actual results will not differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements are provided herein for the purpose of giving information about IRG's current strategic priorities, expectations and plans, allowing investors and others to get a better understanding of IRGI's business outlook and operating environment. Readers are cautioned, however, that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes and should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. IRG assumes no obligation to update or revise such forward-looking statements to reflect new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Except as otherwise indicated, forward-looking statements do not reflect the potential impact of any nonrecurring or other special items or of any transactions that may be announced or that may occur after the date of this press release. The financial impact of these transactions and non-recurring and other special items can be complex and depends on the facts particular to each of them. IRG therefore cannot describe the expected impact in a meaningful way or in the same way it presents known risks affecting the business. IRG's forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.

Our brands:



Pizza Delight: www.pizzadelight.com

Scores: www.scores.ca Trattoria di Mikes: www.mikes.ca

Baton Rouge: www.batonrouge.ca

SOURCE Imvescor Restaurant Group Inc.

For further information: Imvescor: 514.341.5544, http://www.imvescor.ca; Investor Relations: [email protected]; Frank Hennessey, President and Chief Executive Officer; Tania M. Clarke, Chief Financial Officer; Media Relations: ACJ Communication - Daniel Granger 514.840.7990
LONGUEUIL, QC, Feb. 25, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ - Innergex Renewable Energy Inc. (TSX: INE) ("Innergex" or the "Corporation"), in partnership with the Cayoose Creek Indian Band, has completed the previously announced acquisition of the Walden North hydroelectric facility located in the province of British Columbia, Canada.

Innergex and Cayoose Creek Development Corporation, the economic arm of the Cayoose Creek Indian Band, have formed the Cayoose Creek Limited Partnership, which in turn has acquired the assets that make up the facility from FortisBC. The transaction closed at a final total purchase price of $9.2 million.

Walden North is a 16 MW facility commissioned in 1992 and located on private land in Cayoosh Creek near Lillooet, in close proximity to several of the Corporation's other hydroelectric facilities.

About the Cayoose Creek Band

Cayoose Creek Band or Sekw'el'was is nestled in the middle of the Fraser Canyon, just south of Lillooet, BC on Highway 99. Sekw'el'was is known as a gathering place for many neighboring nations. The community of just under 200 has survived and thrived through many hardships. Community members are proud of their roots and the community has a rich history of tool making and trading with other nations. Sekw'el'was is a member of St'at'imc Nation.

About Innergex Renewable Energy Inc.

Innergex Renewable Energy Inc. (TSX: INE) is a leading Canadian independent renewable power producer. Active since 1990, the Corporation develops, owns, and operates run-of-river hydroelectric facilities, wind farms, and solar photovoltaic farms and carries out its operations in Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, and Idaho, USA. Its portfolio of assets currently consists of: (i) interests in 35 operating facilities with an aggregate net installed capacity of 716 MW (gross 1,232 MW), including 28 hydroelectric operating facilities, six wind farms, and one solar photovoltaic farm; (ii) interests in four projects under development or under construction with an aggregate net installed capacity of 187 MW (gross 297 MW), for which power purchase agreements have been secured; and (iii) prospective projects with an aggregate net capacity totaling 3,280 MW (gross 3,530 MW). Innergex Renewable Energy Inc. is rated BBB- by S&P.

The Corporation's strategy for building shareholder value is to develop or acquire high-quality facilities that generate sustainable cash flows and provide an attractive risk-adjusted return on invested capital, and to distribute a stable dividend.

Forward-Looking Information Disclaimer

In order to inform readers of the Corporation's future prospects, this press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws ("Forward-Looking Information"). Forward-Looking Information can generally be identified by the use of words such as "projected", "potential", "expect", "will", "should", "estimate", "forecasts", "intends", or other comparable terminology that states that certain events will or will not occur. It represents the estimates and expectations of the Corporation relating to future results and developments as of the date of this press release. It includes future-oriented financial information, such as expected production, revenues and Adjusted EBITDA, to inform readers of the potential financial impact of the Walden North hydroelectric facility. Such information may not be appropriate for other purposes.

Forward-Looking Information in this press release is based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the Corporation. The following table outlines Forward-Looking Information contained in this press release, the principal assumptions used to derive this information and the principal risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from this information.

Material risks and uncertainties

The material risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results and developments to be materially different from current expressed Forward-Looking Information are referred to in the Corporation's Annual Information Form in the "Risk Factors" section and include, without limitation: the ability of the Corporation to execute its strategy for building shareholder value; its ability to raise additional capital and the state of capital markets; liquidity risks related to derivative financial instruments; variability in hydrology, wind regimes and solar irradiation; delays and cost overruns in the design and construction of projects; uncertainty surrounding the development of new facilities; variability of installation performance and related penalties; and the ability to secure new power purchase agreements or to renew existing ones.

Although the Corporation believes that the expectations and assumptions on which Forward-Looking Information is based are reasonable, readers of this press release are cautioned not to rely unduly on this Forward-Looking Information since no assurance can be given that they will prove to be correct. The Corporation does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any Forward-Looking Information, whether as a result of events or circumstances occurring after the date of this press release, unless so required by legislation.

SOURCE Innergex Renewable Energy Inc.

For further information: please contact: Martine Benmouyal, Senior Advisor - Communications, 450 928-2550, ext. 335, [email protected], www.innergex.com; Amrit Dhatt, Advisor - Development, Partnerships and Community Relations, 604 633-9990, ext. 252, [email protected]
TORONTO, Feb. 26, 2016 /CNW/ - The Law Society of Upper Canada expresses grave concerns about the harassment and intimidation of lawyers Haae Phoofolo, Christopher Lephuthing, Koili Ndebele, Khotso Nthontho and Tumisang Mosotho in Lesotho.

Haae Phoofolo, Christopher Lephuthing, Koili Ndebele, Khotso Nthontho and Tumisang Mosotho are lawyers representing 23 soldiers accused of plotting a mutiny with ex-army chief Maaparankoe Mahao (who was killed on 25 June 2015).

It has come to our attention that the lawyers are being subjected to harassment and intimidation both inside and outside of the courtroom. Members of the Lesotho Defence Forces have reportedly: denied the lawyers access to their client; threatened the lawyers with physical harm; and carried assault weapons openly in the courtroom. In addition, the lawyers report that they have been followed by members of the Special Forces.

Moreover, reports indicate that the lawyers have recently learned they are on a 'hit list', which was published on social media at the end of October 2015. Its authorship is currently unknown. However, two people who were on a similar 'hit list' last year were killed shortly after its publication.

The Law Society has received reports that Khotso Nthontho was arrested on 12 February 2016 on allegation of committing perjury. After his release later that same day, he returned home to find that his house and car had been fired upon. Extensive damage was done to both.

Human rights organizations believe that these lawyers have been harassed and intimated because of their legitimate legal work.

The Law Society of Upper Canada urges the government of Lesotho to consider Articles 16 and 23 of the United Nations' Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers.

Article 16 states:

Governments shall ensure that lawyers (a) are able to perform all of their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference; (b) are able to travel and to consult with their clients freely both within their own country and abroad; and (c) shall not suffer, or be threatened with, prosecution or administrative, economic or other sanctions for any action taken in accordance with recognized professional duties, standards and ethics.

Moreover, Article 23 states:

Lawyers like other citizens are entitled to freedom of expression, belief, association and assembly. In particular, they shall have the right to take part in public discussion of matters concerning the law, the administration of justice and the promotion and protection of human rights and to join or form local, national or international organizations and attend their meetings, without suffering professional restrictions by reason of their lawful action or their membership in a lawful organization.

The Law Society urges the government of Lesotho to:

a. put an end to all acts of harassment against Haae Phoofolo, Christopher Lephuthing, Koili Ndebele, Khotso Nthontho and Tumisang Mosotho as well as other human rights lawyers and defenders in Lesotho;



b. guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of these lawyers;



c. ensure in all circumstances respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with international human rights standards and international instruments; and



d. carry out an investigation as soon as possible into the 'hit list' and other threats against these lawyers.

*The Law Society of Upper Canada is the governing body for more than 49,000 lawyers and 7,900 paralegals in the province of Ontario, Canada. The Treasurer is the head of the Law Society. The mandate of the Law Society is to govern the legal profession in the public interest by upholding the independence, integrity and honour of the legal profession for the purpose of advancing the cause of justice and the rule of law.

SOURCE The Law Society of Upper Canada

For further information: please contact Susan Tonkin, Communications Advisor - Media Relations, at 416-947-7605 or [email protected]; The Law Society of Upper Canada, Osgoode Hall, 130 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON, M5H 2N6, www.lsuc.on.ca, Follow us on Twitter @LawsocietyLSUC
/NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATES./

TORONTO, March 9, 2016 /CNW/ - Tricon Capital Group Inc. ("Tricon" or the "Company", TSX:TCN), a principal investor and asset manager focused on the residential real estate industry, today announced its consolidated financial results for the three months and year ended December 31, 2015. All of the financial information presented in this news release is in U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated.

Key highlights include:

Increased dividend by 8.3% to six and one half cents per share per quarter in Canadian dollars ( C$0.26 on an annualized basis);

on an annualized basis); Assets Under Management ("AUM") increased by 22% year-over-year to $2.7 billion ( C$3.7 billion );

( ); Adjusted EBITDA increased by 11% year-over-year to $109 million ( C$139 million );

( ); Tricon Housing Partners closed on the Viridian separate account and made an investment in a land development project in Phoenix, AZ subsequent to year-end;

subsequent to year-end; Tricon American Homes expanded its rental portfolio by 43% to 7,193 homes, and generated a full year operating margin of 60%;

Tricon Lifestyle Communities acquired four parks in 2015 and an additional five parks subsequent to year-end for a total of ten parks and 2,474 rental pads;

Tricon Luxury Residences advanced on two U.S. investments and one Canadian investment, and closed a second Canadian investment subsequent to year-end.

"With 98% of our balance sheet invested in the United States and the U.S. housing recovery gaining momentum over 2015, we recorded another strong year of growth with AUM up 22% and Book Value per Basic Share increasing 16% (39% in Canadian dollars) compared to 2014," said Gary Berman, Tricon's President and Chief Executive Officer. "Our recent entry into purpose built multi-family rental through our Tricon Luxury Residences vertical provides us with another avenue for growth and added diversification in our housing-centric investment strategy. Looking ahead, Tricon remains exceptionally well positioned for further growth across all our verticals with a strong balance sheet, ample liquidity and the upside we believe exists in our recent investments. Our decision to increase our dividend underscores our confidence in the future and the strength in our underlying business."

Financial Highlights

For the Periods Ended December 31

Three Months

Twelve Months

2015 2014 Variance

2015 2014 Variance Selected Financial Statement Information















Net Income

US$ 28,741 US$ 43,810 US$ (15,069)

US$ 58,180 US$ 99,250 US$ (41,070) Basic Earnings Per Share

0.27 0.48 (0.21)

0.60 1.09 (0.49) Diluted Earnings Per Share

0.16 0.45 (0.29)

0.59 0.95 (0.36)

















Selected MD&A Financial Information in U.S. Dollars















Adjusted EBITDA

US$ 24,952 US$ 34,828 US$ (9,876)

US$ 108,762 US$ 97,910 US$ 10,852 Adjusted Net Income

14,124 25,534 (11,410)

64,251 65,480 (1,229) Adjusted Basic Earnings Per Share

0.13 0.28 (0.15)

0.67 0.72 (0.05) Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share

0.12 0.23 (0.11)

0.56 0.60 (0.04) Assets Under Management ("AUM")









US$ 2,667,864 US$ 2,189,256 US$ 478,608

















Weighted Average Basic Shares Outstanding

107,431,917 90,729,695 16,702,222

96,488,659 90,821,117 5,667,542 Weighted Average Diluted Shares Outstanding

122,736,950 109,642,585 13,094,365

114,474,851 109,756,765 4,718,086



































Selected MD&A Financial Information in Canadian Dollars















Adjusted EBITDA

C$ 33,316 C$ 39,551 C$ (6,235)

C$ 139,052 C$ 108,142 C$ 30,910 Adjusted Net Income

18,858 28,996 (10,138)

82,145 72,323 9,822 Adjusted Basic Earnings Per Share

0.17 0.32 (0.15)

0.86 0.80 0.06 Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share

0.16 0.26 (0.10)

0.72 0.66 0.06 Assets Under Management









3,692,324 2,484,604 1,207,720

















Dividends Per Share

C$ 0.06 C$ 0.06 -

C$ 0.24 C$ 0.24 -



























For the year ended December 31, 2015, Net Income as recorded in the financial statements was $58.2 million, compared to $99.3 million for 2014, which includes a foreign exchange gain of $20.4 million ($52.3 million gain in 2014), as well as a fair value loss on derivative financial instruments of $1.3 million related to the Company's convertible debentures ($5.0 million gain in 2014).

Assets Under Management ("AUM") increased by $479 million, or 22%, to $2.7 billion (C$3.7 billion) as at December 31, 2015, compared to $2.2 billion (C$2.5 billion) as at December 31, 2014. Separate account investments formed in 2015, along with acquisitions and fair value adjustments of the Tricon American Homes single-family rental home portfolio, were the primary drivers of the increase.

Adjusted EBITDA increased by $10.9 million or 11% to $108.8 million for 2015, compared to $97.9 million for 2014. The increase was primarily driven by higher investment income and fair value adjustments at Tricon American Homes and growth in Tricon Lifestyle Communities investment income, offset by a decrease in investment income in Tricon Housing Partners.

Adjusted Net Income, which excludes non-recurring and non-cash items, decreased by $1.2 million or 2% to $64.3 million for 2015, compared to $65.5 million for 2014. Higher Total Interest Expense and Total Tax Expense in 2015 more than offset the increase in Adjusted EBITDA year-over-year.

Adjusted Basic Earnings per Share and Adjusted Diluted Earnings per Share decreased by 7% to $0.67 and $0.56, respectively, for 2015, compared to $0.72 and $0.60 in 2014. In Q3 2015, the Company completed a bought deal share offering of approximately 13.2 million common shares (for gross proceeds of C$150 million), and deployed the net proceeds into new investment opportunities that are expected to be accretive to earnings per share over time.

As a result of the strong appreciation of the U.S. dollar against the Canadian dollar over 2015, in Canadian dollar terms, AUM, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Basic Earnings per Share and Adjusted Diluted Earnings per Share increased 49%, 29%, 8%, and 9%, respectively, for the full year compared to 2014.

Operational Highlights

Principal Investments

Tricon Housing Partners ("THP")

THP generated $67.6 million of cash distributions to Tricon in 2015 as investments were realized. These cash distributions contributed to a lower investment balance and lower investment income of $26.7 million in 2015, compared to $46.7 million in 2014. The decrease in Investment Income was also driven by lower valuation gains on investments compared to the prior year, when various projects attained significant development milestones that positively affected their valuations. Lastly, and to a lesser extent, Investment Income decreased as a result of a change in cash flow expectations due to downward business plan revisions in THP3 Canada during 2015. These decreases were offset by Investment Income stemming from newly added separate accounts and side-cars in 2014 and 2015.

During the year, THP closed a $141.4 million investment in an existing active 2,083-acre master planned community in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas known as Viridian. The investment was made in a new separate account through which THP committed to invest $25.4 million and an institutional investor committed the remaining $116.0 million.

Subsequent to year-end, THP closed on a $15.0 million land development investment in Queen Creek, a fast growing submarket within the southeast valley of Phoenix, Arizona. The investment is being made in conjunction with a long-standing development partner of Tricon on an 85/15 ownership basis (THP/Developer).

Tricon American Homes ("TAH")

TAH Investment Income increased by $13.5 million or 79% to $30.6 million for 2015, from $17.1 million for 2014. In Q4 2015, TAH Investment Income increased by $4.2 million or 97% to $8.4 million, compared to $4.3 million for Q4 2014.

The results reflect growth of 43% in the rental home portfolio to 7,193 homes as at December 31, 2015, compared to 5,030 homes as at December 31, 2014, as well as in-place occupancy improving to 88% from 84% over the same period, and rental growth of 3.1%. This was offset by an Operating Margin decrease to 60% in 2015, compared to 63% for 2014. The decrease was primarily attributable to an increase in property taxes as a percentage of revenue, to 13.8% in 2015 compared to 11.3% in 2014, as a result of owning more homes in jurisdictions with high property tax rates, such as Texas.

The fair value of the Company's investment in TAH increased by $51.9 million in the year ended December 31, 2015, compared to a $33.5 million increase in 2014.

TAH expects to continue expanding its portfolio in 2016 by acquiring approximately 400 net new homes per quarter.

Tricon Lifestyle Communities ("TLC")

TLC Investment Income was $2.3 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2015, compared to $0.1 million for 2014.

The increase reflects growth in the portfolio to 1,119 pads as at December 31, 2015, compared to 314 pads as at December 31, 2014, as well as improved in-place occupancy of 89% compared to 88% at year-end 2014. Operating Margin also increased to 63% in 2015, compared to 62% for the period from August 27 (when the first property was acquired) to December 31, 2014, as a result of a shift in the portfolio mix towards parks with additional utility reimbursement within their lease agreements.

On October 30, 2015, TLC acquired a portfolio of three age-restricted communities ("Springhaven", "Brookhaven" and "Sunhaven") in the Phoenix MSA. The portfolio comprises 34.9 acres of land and 613 residential pads, of which 87% were occupied as at December 31, 2015. All three manufactured housing communities are Park Model 55+ age-restricted communities that have the potential to be improved over time through a capital expenditure program.

On January 11, 2016, TLC purchased a portfolio of five age-restricted manufactured housing communities located in the Phoenix MSA for a total purchase price of $34.3 million. The portfolio is comprised of 1,355 residential pads located in established residential submarkets. The five manufactured housing communities are all three-star communities with an average occupancy of 60%, total operating margin of 54% and average gross rent of $379 per pad. TLC plans to increase occupancy and rent over time and improve the star classification through upgrading the infrastructure and amenities, improving the home quality and rebranding the communities.

This transaction increases TLC's portfolio size to 2,474 residential pads with approximately $85 million of Assets Under Management.

Tricon Luxury Residences ("TLR")

TLR Investment Income for the three months and twelve months ended December 31, 2015 was $0.3 million, a result of a fair value increase recognized on The Selby, a TLR Canada project located in Toronto. At December 31, 2015, TLR valued the land of The Selby using a third-party appraisal and recorded all development expenses at cost.

On February 18, 2016, TLR Canada closed its second development opportunity in downtown Toronto, a 36-storey tower located immediately south of King Street West on Spadina Avenue. Tricon has partnered with a major Canadian pension plan to form a C$42.7 million separate account on an 80/20 basis (Investor/Tricon).

During the second half of 2015, TLR U.S. closed two development projects located in Dallas, Texas ("The McKenzie" and "Canals at Grand Park II"). The McKenzie started construction in Q4 2015, with the demolition of existing buildings and preparation of the site for excavation. Construction of Canals at Grand Park II is expected to commence in June 2016.

These four TLR investments represent total equity commitments of $125.8 million, including $62.1 million from Tricon.

Private Funds and Advisory

Private Funds and Advisory AUM increased by 5% or $54 million to $1,175 million, compared to $1,121 million as at December 31, 2014. The increase was attributed to the closing of two separate account investments, Viridian (THP) and The Selby (TLR), offset by distributions from maturing funds and separate account investments.

In 2015, Tricon's private investment vehicles distributed $238.0 million to limited partners (including $67.6 million to Tricon). Additionally, several of the Canadian investment vehicles are in harvest mode and are close to repaying all capital and generating performance fees for the Company.

Contractual Fees decreased by $0.4 million or 2% to $23.9 million for 2015, compared to $24.3 million for 2014. The decrease was primarily due to lower invested capital as distributions were made to investors in legacy private investment vehicles, as well as higher one-time commitment fees in 2014. This was offset by an increase in fees received from new separate accounts and side-cars, Johnson and Tricon Development Group. In 2015, Tricon's 50.1% ownership in Johnson earned Adjusted EBITDA of $3.0 million, or a 16% unlevered return on the initial investment.

Subsequent Events

Subsequent to year-end, the Company has acquired 244,520 of its common shares under its normal-course issuer bid at a weighted average price of C$8.18 per common share for a total purchase of C$2.0 million.

Quarterly Dividend

The Company announced a dividend of six and one half cents per share in Canadian dollars payable on April 15, 2016, to shareholders of record on March 31, 2015. This represents an increase of one half cent, or 8.3%, to the dividend that has been paid by the Company each quarter since its initial public offering.

Tricon's dividends are designated as eligible dividends for Canadian tax purposes in accordance with subsection 89(14) of the Income Tax Act (Canada), and any applicable corresponding provincial and territorial legislation. Tricon has a Dividend Reinvestment Plan ("DRIP") which allows eligible shareholders of the Company to reinvest their cash dividends in additional common shares of the Company. Common shares issued pursuant to the DRIP in connection with the announced dividend will be issued from treasury at a 5% discount from the market price. Participation in the DRIP is optional and shareholders who do not participate in the plan will continue to receive cash dividends. A complete copy of the DRIP is available in the Investor Information section of Tricon's website at www.triconcapital.com.

Conference Call and Webcast

Management will host a conference call at 10 a.m. ET on March 10, 2016, to discuss the Company's results. Please call 1-647-788-4901 or 1-877-201-0168 (conference ID 46300460). The conference call will also be accessible via webcast at www.triconcapital.com (Investor Information  Events). A replay of the conference call will be available from 1 p.m. ET on March 10, 2016 until midnight ET on March 17, 2016. To access the replay, call 1-855-859-2056 or 404-537-3406 and use pass code 46300460.

The Company's Financial Statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis are available on Tricon's website at www.triconcapital.com and have been filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com). The financial information therein is presented in U.S. dollars.

About Tricon Capital Group Inc.

Tricon is a principal investor and asset manager focused on the residential real estate industry in North America with approximately $2.7 billion (C$3.7 billion) of assets under management. Tricon owns, or manages on behalf of third-party investors, a portfolio of investments in land and homebuilding assets, single-family rental homes, manufactured housing communities and multi-family development projects. Our business objective is to invest for investment income and capital appreciation through our Principal Investment business and to earn fee income through our Private Funds and Advisory business. Since its inception in 1988, Tricon has invested in real estate and development projects valued at approximately $17 billion. More information about Tricon is available at www.triconcapital.com.

* * * *

This news release may contain forward-looking statements relating to expected future events and financial and operating results and projections of the Company. Such statements may include statements regarding the Company's growth and investment opportunities, investment performance and ongoing cash distributions from investments, project timelines, and the pace of TAH's acquisition of single-family rental homes. Such forward-looking information and statements involve risks and uncertainties and are based on management's current expectations, intentions and assumptions in light of its understanding of relevant current market conditions, investee business plans, and the Company's prospects. If unknown risks arise, or if any of the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may differ materially from management expectations as projected in such forward-looking statements. Examples of such risks are described in the Company's continuous disclosure materials from time to time, available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Accordingly, although we believe that our anticipated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements and information are based upon reasonable assumptions and expectations, the reader should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless required by applicable law.

In this and other earnings releases and investor conference calls, as a complement to results provided in according with IFRS, the Company also discloses and discusses certain non-IFRS financial measures, including but not limited to AUM, Adjusted Revenue, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income, Adjusted Earnings per Share and Net Operating Income. These non-IFRS measures are further defined and discussed in Tricon's Management's Discussion and Analysis ("MD&A") for the year ended December 31, 2015, which should be read in conjunction with this news release. Since these non-IFRS measures do not have standardized meanings prescribed by IFRS, they may not be comparable to similar measures reported by other issuers. Management believes these non-IFRS measures are meaningful financial measures of operating performance. A reconciliation of net income and such non-IFRS measures is included in the Company's MD&A. These non-IFRS measures should not be construed as alternatives to net income or other financial information determined in accordance with IFRS as measures of Tricon's performance.

SOURCE Tricon Capital Group Inc.

For further information: Wissam Francis, Chief Financial Officer, Tel: 416-323-2484, Email: [email protected]; Wojtek Nowak, Director, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations, Tel: 416-925-2409, Email: [email protected]
According to recent reports, President Muhammadu Buahri is scheduled to visit the United States of America for the third time since he ...





Mr President is to attend the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington DC at the end of March, which will be hosted by President Barak Obama between March 30 and April 1.The president will reportedly be accompanied to the three-day event by three governors and six ministers.President Buhari recently returned from his one-week state tour to Middle East. He visited Saudi Arabia and Qatar for stabilization oil prices and for lesser Hajj in Medina.It was gathered that each presidential trip costs Nigerians between half a million and $1.2million in traveling expenses alone. Amid this observation, there have been calls from several quarters for the president to reduce his foreign trips and concentrate on domestic problems. The lingering fuel scarcity in the country might be a good place to start.
Nigerian televangelist, Dr. Chris Okafor, has warned that the remaining half of Prophecy number 8 on his 16-point 2016 prophecy will happ...

Nigerian televangelist, Dr. Chris Okafor, has warned that the remaining half of Prophecy number 8 on his 16-point 2016 prophecy will happen sooner than later, if prayers are not offered."I see a former minister passing on this year and also a present minister going home," the number 8 prophecy had said. (March 6, 2016- Nigerias Minister of State for Labour, James Ocholi, wife, son, die in road crash)He also warned that prophecy number 11 on his list was nearing fulfillment if the individual concerned does not seek the face of God immediately."We need to pray for Kogi State. I see someone sworn in and later eliminated prematurely. Serious intervention needed," prophecy number 11 stated.
Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha was at Chatham House yesterday to speak on the importance of developing human capital in Nigeria, b...

Just as the governor mounted the podium to begins his address, an unidentified man within the audience started to talk about Biafra and the silence of the governor and other Igbo elites in the government of President Muhammadu Buhari on IPOBs struggle.While some persons perceived to be government officials tried to stop him to allow Okorocha continue with his speech, another young man emerged from the audience and mounted the stage and displayed the flag of the defunct Biafran republic.As the young man marched with the flag, others at the background were explaining the reason for their action in a harsh tone, saying you are here to talk about what, while our people are being killed everyday and nobody has said anything about it?At that moment, the young man already on the stage approached Okorocha with the Biafran flag, but was stopped again by some persons from the audience whom it was gathered, were government officials, who had traveled with the governor to London.The suspected IPOB members were eventually persuaded to leave the auditorium before the governor continued with his on human capital development in Nigeria and how it can be achieved.He also discussed strategists of the rescue mission for addressing social challenges and the role external partners can constructively play in assisting Nigeria in human capital development.Okorochas free education programme from primary to university level and his concerted effort at Human Capital Development Initiatives in the state had occasioned the interest of the London based Chatham House to invite him to talk on the referenced topic.The governor traveled with very few senior government officials to witness the historic event and they are expected back to Nigeria at the weekend.
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has refused to help the All Progressives Congress (APC) out of its broke condition, The Cable re...

The APC is experiencing financial distress and has been unable to pay the salaries of its staff. At a news briefing on January 25, John Oyegun, national chairman of the party, had admitted that the party was having financial challenges, but he added that the party did not want to bother President Muhammadu Buhari because it was not his constitutional duty to finance the party.However, The Cable said Buhari is not willing to bail out the party owing to allegations of financial mismanagement against leaders of the party.A source privy to the financial standoff said some officials of the party magicked N7bn campaign funds in the last general election.The president is furious with the party leaders, and has refused to support them financially, he said.The party now runs after state governors in a bid to survive, and has begun to knock on the doors of ministers. he added.(The Cabel)
Pearl is the personal shopper who had issues with Tonto Dikeh in 2014. Read below...





40 million naira + $15,000 Fraud, Conspiracy, Theft, Forgery and Identity Theft activities of Miss Chuks Pearl Nneamaka Ogonna and Mr.Akinlonu Abiola Mobolaji

Whitenicious Inc.

To whom it may concern I will like to provide a timeline of how this aforementioned pair conspired to steal the sum of approximately 40 million naira from me and my company,Inc.

In and around August 2014, I hired the aforementioned person -Pearl to represent my company as a salesperson in Nigeria and other neighboring countries. Her key responsibility was to sell and deliver products to clients who were unable to place online orders with credit or debit cards. Pearl was a fan who told me her family situation and I tried helping her by employing her.

Clients were instructed to deposit funds only to her bank account and some paid cash on delivery. In 2014 between August and the end of that year, she reported sales of 6,259,089.49 million Naira. In 2015,27.987,658.8 Million Naira and over 8.1 million naira so far in 2016. Collectively this amounts to over the sum of 40 million naira (estimated $200,000). The money was entrusted in her possession and an estimated 5 million naira was used for approved expenses and errands.

I entrusted Pearl with the money and fulfilled my promise to assist in arranging for her to come to my company headquarters in California for training. I had never met her in person till I visited Nigeria on business in 2015. I successfully arranged for a two year work visa and footed her expenses to fly out business class to California and also provided her with all the comforts and amenities I share with my loved ones including my cars and home, known as @pumpsberry @rodeodrng on Instagram most of her followers can testify to the lifestyle I provided for her,she attended the BET awards last year and all the pre events, this year she attended the Grammy awards in the USA February 15th,I personally on many occasions bought her expensive clothes and shoes such as Gucci,Cavaoilli , buscemi, louboutins and more.She was treated like a sister and I defended her relentlessly during her public disagreement with a Nigerian celebrity out of loyalty to her.MissChuks use to retail Replica high end designer clothes, shoes, bags and more, when she visited me in 2015, I sat her down and told her it wasn't a good look and instead put in money towards the business and buying authentic designer goods to resell.

Unknowingly to me, she and her boyfriend Akinlonu Abiola Mobolaji were stealing the money she was entrusted with. In addition to these embezzled funds, an additional $15,000 was advanced to her to secure a location for a proposed boutique where I intended to start a venture selling high end fashion items in Abuja. The texts also detail how she conspired to defraud an additional $8,000 which I didn't send.

Everything was revealed and her criminal activities were unexpectedly exposed when I randomly was looking through her phone at

2AM

March 2nd in an attempt to try to convince her boyfriend not to break up with her via text. I stumbled across the texts on her phone explaining in detail how she and her boyfriend Akinlonu Abiola Mobolaji conspired to steal my credit cards and banking information to attempt to buy cars. I had noticed some suspicious activities on my card prior to reading the texts and can only conclude she probably had something to do with it. I have asked my book keeper to initiate an audit to determine the exact amount stolen by this pair.

When I confronted her with my evidence she confessed to the allegations and still cannot adequately account for the money she was entrusted with. She claims she loaned her mother Mrs Eddienwachukwu Chinwe blessings Nonyelum N3M and boyfriend Akinlonu Abiola Mobolaji N10M and $13,000.Her own texts in her own words explain how she was buying bottles of expensive alcohol and living it up with my stolen funds despite my generosity and kindness towards her. She has betrayed my trust and squandered the life changing opportunity I provided her. There are millions of people who will have cherished a similar opportunity so I refuse to let this change who I am as a person. Everything I did for her was from the kindness of my heart and without expectations.

Despite the colossal betrayal, I still let her stay in my house and fed her. I was upset but never attacked her physically or verbally. I was more concerned about recovering my money, cutting my losses and having her return to her residence in Kaduna Nigeria. It was never my intent to let this situation develop into a public matter, I am not putting this out for the court of public opinions to judge

us

.My preference was to keep this situation as a private matter. I told her mom to buy her a ticket to return to Nigeria on the 5th of March ( see attached message) but her mom ignored that because she wanted to come to la, I didn't feel safe or comfortable with her at my house so I paid for her return ticket to Nigeria after her family didn't act on it.Her family was trying to put money together as they claimed ( see screenshot) Her Dad claimed their pastor said the boy Akinlonu Abiola Mobolaji used Juju on her but I dismissed that because more money was missing not just what she gave the boy ( see attached account information which excludes N8M from 2016 sales.

However, on Monday March 7th 2016, the police showed up at my residence in response to a criminal complaint from Pearls mother who claimed I kidnapped her daughter. Kidnapping is a serious crime which can result in decades in prison. Even worse, such a false evil allegation after what just happened to me was an unbearable insult. The police officers were shown evidence of a return ticket and I have videos of Pearl voluntarily confessing to stealing my money. I was asked to press charges against her here in California but declined. I know she will be jailed and deported and that will not get me my money. The officers explained how her mothers intent was to have me arrested on Charges of attempted kidnapping so her daughter could leave scotch free but when they showed up and saw her walking my Dog outside.After questioning myself & Pearl,They didn't understand what the kidnapping story was about, they asked me if I wanted her arrested and told me the steps to take.My intentions are not for Pearl to go through the American prison system, her family doesn't have the money to even help themselves talk less of lawyers in the USA plus I already didn't feel safe with her being even in California as I didn't trust her at all.I told the Ventura county police that this case will be handled in Africa where Pearl will be arrested upon arrival, I presented them her air ticket and the petition for her arrest.My only interest at this point is the recovery of my money so I am sending out this release in an tempt to recover my stolen funds.

Frankly, I am utterly disappointed in her mothers malicious actions whom I also extended my generosity to as well..Pearl told me how her sister was constantly mocked because no one believed she knew me so I decided to spend over $5000 flying out to New York where she was visiting from December to January ( I landed January 6th 2015 ) to meet her family and gave her mother money after she pleaded she didn't have money to eat and move around, money to buy boxes and she had not bought anything for the kids and her husband.The same person is now claiming I kidnapped her daughter.I have attached two links on YouTube with Pearl confessing to her hideous criminal behavior. It's clear as day she is not remorseful and I'm beyond disappointed at her mother's r(Mrs Eddienwachukwu Chinwe blessings Nonyelum) response. Before my trip to New York Pearl claimed her mom wasn't doing well in New York and asked me to send her $500 which I did, Keep in mind this is barely a month after my brother passed but I still found the space in my heart to help her mom.

Again I never wanted to make this a public issue but I was advised by my legal counsel and numerous law enforcement agencies involved in this investigation to issue a press release to avoid any possible extortion or slander to my reputation.

At this point, I have asked my attorney and applicable law enforcement agencies to assist in recovering my stolen funds.I will not make anymore comments on this regardless of what her family says.Everyone who works for me personally or my company enjoys the luxury I have put in place for me, most people have been in a bad situation before but it's worst when a family you helped decides to abuse your kindness.I gave Pearl's mom the option of trying to get this boy to get the funds or let pearl get arrested and deal with her problems as an adult and her mom said they will come up with the money but the next thing that followed was the police at my door saying I kidnapped Pearl.I live in a gated community with security and Pearl was free to do what she wanted to do,Pearl packed her bags to leave and after we went through it we still found my property she stole and other things she had stolen from her previous trip to la in 2015. I trusted Miss Chuks with this money because we were going to use these funds down in Nigeria to setup Rodeodrng store and since I travelled often back and fourth to Africa I didn't think it was necessary I get the money from Nigeria to America.I should have known she had plans when she asked my house keeper Martha if I had Cameras around my house of which Martha told her We did.





Source: Linda Ikeji












































The Federal Government is investigating additional 11,000 workers to know if they are ghost workers, Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun sai...

The Federal Government is investigating additional 11,000 workers to know if they are ghost workers, Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun said yesterday.About 23,000 such workers were uncovered recently, saving the government N2.29 billion monthly.Briefing State House correspondents, Mrs. Adeosun said the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved continuous audit process, particularly on the payroll.According to her, the audit would be extended to other areas of governments expenditure to block fraud.She said: The approval of a presidential initiative on continuous audit. In the budget speech, the President said we would introduce a continuous audit process, particularly of the payroll and that work has resulted in the elimination of about 23,000 fraudulent recipients of federal salary and more work is still on.We felt that the continuous audit should not be limited to payroll, there is actually need to strengthen internal audit across government and to that extent, the World Bank in 2010 started an initiative to try and introduce real-space internal audit in Nigeria, but it wasnt successful.Stressing that the World Bank indicated its readiness to support Nigeria in the initiative, she added that it would take six months to get the required legislation through.As a way forward, she said: So, in the interim, we have agreed to do the presidential initiative on continuous audit, which will give backing to the work we are doing and will allow us to extend this work beyond payroll to other areas of expenditure.The minister explained that FEC deliberated about the need for this and agreed that the control framework over finance and spending of governments money needed to be strengthened, especially in anticipation of the approval of the budget, which is an extended budget.She added: There was a discussion on the role of existing internal audit offices, the problem they have is that they report to the people they are supposed to be checking on and so they are not able to be as effective as we would like.Also, most of what we do now is computerised and we need special audit techniques, computer assistants to do the techniques and special techniques, which some of these auditors do not have, Mrs. Adeosun said.She said the government would not recruit any additional people to do the auditing work.We are going to use existing staff, qualified accountants within the Office of the Accountant General within the Federal Civil Service and redeploy them to create this function, which we believe will strengthen the control of our public money, she added.On the earlier 23,000 ghost workers and the new investigation, she said: Our payroll has reduced by N2.29 billion per month. The update on that is that we are now investigating another potential 11,000.Again we are using computer techniques to identify those who we need to investigate. So, we are now looking at the second batch and as we resolve those cases, we would inform you of the amount saved and the number of people removed.
A Guardian Newspapers journalist identified as Gbenga Fakorede was reportedly found dead in his apartment at Igando area of Lagos State, ...

According to reports, the 50-year-old man was in good health when he slept the night before, only to be discovered died the next day.A close friend of the deceased named Sulaimon Ogunsakin who described the death as sudden and unnatural, reported the case at Igando police station.SP Dolapo Badmos, the Police command spokesperson, said that the deceased lived at No 9, Kajola Street, Igando, in Lagos. He confirmed the incident in a statement: There was a report that one Gbenga Fakorede about 50 years old, a journalist with the Guardian Newspapers, who hailed from Ekiti State was found dead this morning at about 7.10 am in his room. Case was reported by his friend, one Ogunsakin Sulaimon.The police spokesperson also revealed that investigations were ongoing about the mysterious death.
The striking workers in Ogun State have said they are not scared of being arrested and detained by the state government over the ongoing s...

The Chairman of the state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Akeem Ambali, said this on Wednesday during a mega rally held by the workers at the NLC secretariat on Abiola Way, Abeokuta.Ambali said the workers would march to the state secretariat at Oke Mosan on Monday for another peaceful mega rally, adding that they would not be deterred by the presence of law enforcement agents.He said, On Monday, all of us will march to Oke Mosan, if he (the governor) likes, let him bring one million police or soldiers. If he arrests us today, we are ready to go to cell, we are not afraid of detention.The opening of registers is illegal. The Secretary to the State Government has not called us for dialogue. The government should have the political will to invite us. If they invite us today, we are going to dialogue with them.We will not allow what is happening to workers in Osun and Oyo states to happen in Ogun State.The state Chairman of the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council, Abiodun Olakanmi, described the no work, no pay threat from the government as a fallacy, arguing that it should be the reverse, no pay, no work.He said it was not as if the workers were asking for salary increase, but were only demanding the unremitted deductions made from their salary.He said, We are not asking for any addition to our salary, all we are asking is for the government to pay the unremitted deductions made from our salary.Olakanmi said the workers would continue to meet every Monday to review the strike action and develop new strategies.The state chairman, Nigeria Union of Teachers, Dare Ilekoya, said some teachers could no longer pay their childrens school fees because they were being owed salary deductions.He said, How do you expect such teachers to work in their schools?The state President, Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools, Akeem Lasisi, also appealed to the state government to pay the workers the deductions made from their salary to enable them to meet their financial obligations.The state Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council had ordered the workers to proceed on an indefinite strike last Monday because of the failure of the government to honour its promise on January 25, 2016, to pay the deductions.PUNCH
Security organs in the country have been begged not to take lightly the continuous threats to institutions and individuals by the Gover...





Security organs in the country have been begged not to take lightly the continuous threats to institutions and individuals by the Governor of Rivers State, Chief Nyesom Wike, in view of his well known antecedents as a violent man and his romance with militants.




A South African woman was Thursday convicted of kidnapping a newborn baby and raising her for 17 years before an astonishing coincidence ...

A South African woman was Thursday convicted of kidnapping a newborn baby and raising her for 17 years before an astonishing coincidence reunited the girl with her biological family.You must have been the person who removed the child from hospital, High Court judge John Hlophe told the woman who claimed to have been handed the baby at a train station after entering into a private adoption programme.Your story, if anything is a fairy tale and the court rejects it with the contempt it deserves.The 50-year-old accused, who cannot be named to protect the new identity of the kidnapped girl, remained grim-faced staring at the judge.The girls biological mother Celeste Nurse, 36, sobbed loudly as the guilty verdict was handed down while chants of Yes! Yes! were heard from the public gallery.The accused was denied bail and ordered to return to court for sentencing on May 30.The girls real identity came to light in February last year, when her younger biological sister began attending high school and pupils pointed out her remarkable likeness to a final-year student.The younger girl told her parents, who met the older girl and immediately believed she was their long-lost baby.They called the police, and DNA tests confirmed that the girl was indeed their child, whom they had named Zephany Joy Nurse.Without knowing it, the Nurse family had been living within a couple of kilometres (miles) of their kidnapped daughter, while celebrating her birthday every year and never giving up hope of finding her.(Guardian Nigeria)
President Muhammadu Buhari, Thursday, warned that the lingering crisis in South Sudan must not be allowed to lead to the collapse of the ...

To actualize the objective, the president has promised to work with some members of the African Union High-Level Consultative Committee on South Sudan to ensure that the peace pact entered into by the various political factions in the country 7 months ago was successfully implemented. President Buhari made the pledge while receiving the South Sudans First Vice President, Dr Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon who briefed him on the situation in the country at the presidential villa, Abuja He said he would galvanize all relevant stakeholders in the committee to remove the impediments to the implementation of the agreement.Expressing concern that compliance with the agreed ceasefire in South Sudan has not been total, President Buhari said that Nigeria will work in collaboration with other members of the African Union to achieve a speedy stabilisation of the situation.The President advised leaders of South Sudan not to allow ethnicity and corruption to gain a foothold in the new country. Incidentally, South Sudan First Vice President was a signatory to the peace agreement.The situation must not deteriorate. Ethnicity and corruption are a lethal combination. You have to deal with them otherwise instability will continue, On a similar note, President Buhari also received a Special envoy of the African Union Chairman, President Idris Deby-Itno. A statement by Mallam Garba Shehu, the presidential media aide stated that the Special envoy, Mr Abubakar Saleh Chahaimi delivered a message from President Deby to President Buhari on the strengthening of bilateral relations between Nigeria and Chad, as well as the work of the African Union Consultative Committee on South Sudan.
The Iyaloja General of Nigeria, Chief Folasade Tinubu-Ojo, on Thursday, led market women to protest the non-inclusion of market women in ...

Tinubu-Ojo who is also the daughter of the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu led several women who converged at the partys National Secretariat in Abuja.According to her, it was the opinion of market women of Nigeria that the present administration is not carrying them along even after they worked tirelessly to ensure the party emerged victorious during the 2015 election.She lamented that after the inauguration, most of us are not (being) carried along.Tinubu-Ojo said, I am here this afternoon to represent market women and men of Nigeria. There has been agitations, not even agitation of allegation, the people believed that the government of the day is not carrying them along as it should be, that they worked round the clock for the party during the electioneering campaign, but after the inauguration most of us are not carried along.We only hear on the news that the First Lady is doing a programme this and that and we just see it on the news and they wouldnt allow me be, all the complain come to my table morning and night and I say okay, enough is enough.We even heard that another FCT woman leader that is organising another market association and named it Association of Organised Market People in Abuja and most of these people are PDP, they were nowhere to be found when we are working for the party day and night, so now our people are not happy because they need to benefit from where they believe they have the right to and all we need, all we are crying for is for the government to give them sense of belonging and carrying them along properly.When asked whether her father, Asiwaju Tinubu in the know of her agitation, she said, because I am the daughter of the National leader of APC doesnt mean that I must not represent my people well, I have to represent my peoples opinion, I am a leader, and as a leader, my people are crying foul and I wont fold my hands and keep quite because my father is a national leader, it is wrong, I am not mobilizing against the party, no, I am solidly behind the party, I have work for the party before and I will still work for the party tomorrow, but that does not stop me from saying the truth.
Nigerian Army Unit Commander stationed at Ovre-Eku community, Ethiope East Local Government Area, Delta State, Lt. E. D. Oworobo, has told...

Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai

Culled from Vanguard

Oworobo and his men of the 4th Brigade Command, Benin-City, Edo State, had last Wednesday, flogged and kicked hundreds of women protesting at Ovre-Eku (Iwevbo) community over a land which had been in dispute for years between Edo and Delta states. The source who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Oworobo had contacted the District Officer, DO, of Eku Police station, Mr. Andrew Efejedia, in an attempt to exonerate himself and his men of any wrong doing in the incident, where he claimed that he had no option than to order his men to use minimal force to disperse the protesters who had tried to disarm his men.According to the source, Oworobo had asked the DO, Dont you know it is a crime to carry a charm according to the Criminal Code of Nigeria?Meanwhile, Lt. Oworobo has also threatened to deal with the Warri correspondents of The Authority and The Nation newspapers, Theophilus Onojeghen and Bolaji Ogundele, both of whom had contacted him to know what actually transpired between his men and the protesting women. The offence of the journalists was their temerity to contact him for the militarys side of the incident. In separate reactions to the journalists, an angry Lt Oworobo had described them as idiots and madmen, allegedly saying: Youre an idiot. Youre a mad man. Why are you calling me? So I should report to you abi? Who are you to call me? If you ever call me in your life, Ill deal mercilessly with you.
A woman who flew into Paris from Istanbul this week was arrested after it was discovered that she had hidden a four-year-old girl in a ba...





The airline said the child who was travelling with the woman didn't have a plane ticket.According to AFP reports, the woman was a resident of France who was in the process of adopting the child who was from Haiti."She was apparently in the transit zone in Istanbul, and had crossed the customs checkpoint with the child, when she was prevented from boarding a flight with her," said the source.The woman who didn't want to buy a ticket for the child decided to hide her in a bag in order to board the next flight, after buying a new ticket for herself."Once on board, she placed the child at her feet, under a blanket, but the girl needed to go to the toilet and was noticed by other passengers," the source told AFP.Air France said it notified French authorities and the woman was taken into custody upon landing, but prosecutors decided not to press charges.The woman and the girl were held at the airport while authorities investigate the case to make sure the little girl wasn't kidnapped.(AFP)
19782458-mmmain.jpg

A federal judge sentenced Steven Cox to prison for his role in a vacation timeshare scam. (Andrew Mills | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

CAMDEN -- A Ventnor man Wednesday became the latest person to be sentenced to prison time for his role in a plot to bilk timeshare owners out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman.

Steven Cox, 52, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for his role in the scheme with other employees in the south Jersey-based Vacation Ownership Group. At least six former employees have been sentenced so far.

Cox pleaded guilty in 2013 before U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman on a charge of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. Hillman sentenced him in federal court in Camden.

According to court records, the Vacation Ownership Group, which had offices in Mays Landing and Egg Harbor Township among other places, called timeshare owners with promises that they could upgrade their timeshares or pay off their timeshare loans at discounted rates.

By suggesting to the timeshare owners that they were working with banks, the salespeople were able to convince the owners to mail them checks that they thought would pay off their loans.

According to court records, Cox in 2010 told one owner that he could settle his timeshare loan for a large discount if he mailed a check for $26,585. Another owner sent a check for more than $9,000, court records show.

The Vacation Ownership Group, however, did not pay off the loans, Fishman's office said.

Cox admitted causing losses of more than $200,000, it said.

According to a statement, Cox and other members of the conspiracy will be required to make restitution.

In all, 16 Vacation Ownership Group employees from New Jersey, South Carolina, Florida, Virginia and the U.S. Virgin Islands were charged in the scheme, including company founder Adam Lacerda and his wife, Ashley.

Adam Lacerda was found guilty in the scheme and was sentenced to 27 years in prison. Ashley Lacerda will be sentenced in June.

Tim Darragh may be reached at tdarragh@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @timdarragh. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
George Washington Bridge

A group of drivers and transportation companies are defending their bid to establish a class action case as a result of the Bridgegate lane closures. (Richard Drew | AP)

NEWARK -- A group of drivers and transportation firms is fighting a second effort to dismiss their bid to sue the state of New Jersey, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and other defendants for damages over the Bridgegate lane closures in 2013.

The group including livery services, taxis, transportation firms and other individuals, filed a 157-page brief in federal court this week in defense of their bid to get court approval of a class action against the state, the Port Authority, Gov. Chris Christie's re-election campaign, ex-Port Authority officials David Wildstein and Bill Baroni, ex-Christie aide Bridget Anne Kelly and former spokesman for the governor Michael Drewniak.

The drivers claim that the plaintiffs deprived them of their civil rights and financially harmed them when they planned and executed the closure of several access lanes from Fort Lee to the George Washington Bridge.

The closures caused massive traffic delays that, the complaint says, was retribution for Mayor Mark Sokolich's decision not to endorse Christie in his re-election bid in 2013.

Each of the defendants except Kelly late last year filed court papers urging U.S. District Judge Jose Linares to dismiss the complaint.

Baroni's lawyers, for example, called the complaint "a set of conspiracy allegations in search of a class action that does not exist."

But in the latest filing, the plaintiffs say the defendants' arguments have no legal basis to conclude that the lane closures at the George Washington Bridge in September, 2013 did not harm them or violate their civil rights.

"Most importantly," the plaintiffs' brief says, "defendants' motions also ignore that defendant Wildstein has admitted the very allegations which are the crux of plaintiffs'" complaint.

In a separate criminal complaint, Wildstein pleaded guilty last year to two conspiracy charges, including one count of violating the civil rights of Fort Lee residents. Baroni and Kelly also were charged and pleaded not guilty.

The brief says the drivers suffered economic losses, loss of time and were "falsely imprisoned in their vehicles" as Fort Lee became gridlocked.

Those losses, it says, can be ascertained -- a necessary finding if a class action is certified.

In addition, the plaintiffs' brief says it is premature to dismiss the class allegations before other legal steps have occurred.

A New Jersey Attorney General's spokesman, whose office represents the state defendants except Kelly, referred to its Dec. 29 brief when asked for comment. That filing calls for the denial of the class certification, saying the complaint is not legally sustainable.

Baroni's attorney had no comment, nor did a spokesman for the Port Authority.

Wildstein's attorney also did not reply for comment.

Linares last June tossed the original complaint, saying the plaintiffs, represented by the Epstein Law Firm of Rochelle Park, provided "only conclusory allegations" and failed to allege the defendants' personal involvement in the traffic mess.

He allowed the plaintiffs time to add specific details to their remaining claims. The amended complaint was filed Aug. 6.

The new complaint offers "ample factual allegations" regarding the planning, execution and attempted coverup of the lane closure plot, it says.

Tim Darragh may be reached at tdarragh@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @timdarragh. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
MOUNT HOLLY -- For Erica Crippen's friends and family, the coming of each new year will never again mark a night of joy.

It will always mark the day that Crippen's husband, Kyle Crosby, strangled his 26-year-old wife to death in their Mount Laurel home and later dumped her body in Maryland, leaving their then 3-month old daughter and Crippen's then 7-year-old daughter without a mother.

"We will never be able to celebrate New Year's Eve again," Crippen's aunt, Sonya Spencer, said in a written statement read in court by Crippen's cousin, just before 29-year-old Crosby was sentenced to 31 years in state prison Thursday afternoon.

Spencer and a dozen of Crippen's friends and family packed into Judge Charles Delehey's Burlington County courtroom for the emotional proceedings, during which Crosby apologized for the pain he's caused Crippen's family. He stated he never planned to kill his wife that night or the actions he took to cover up her death.

"I was scared and acted in unexpected ways," said Crosby, fighting back tears through his statement. "There aren't words... to describe the emotional trauma I face day in and day out."

Crosby pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated manslaughter and hindering apprehension in December. He admitted he killed Crippen on Dec. 31, 2014, and later dumped her body in rural Maryland.

Crosby only reported his wife missing after police were notified no one picked up Crippen's 7-year-old daughter, from a previous relationship, at school on Jan. 7. Crosby was arrested and charged with Crippen's murder six days later, but her body wasn't located until March 17.

Investigators, using GPS data obtained from Crosby's car, found it hidden beneath a pile of branches and tree limbs in a pine tree grove in Sykesville, Md. Crippen's mouth and nose were covered with duct tape, her hands and feet were bound, and she was wrapped in a fleece blanket. A Baltimore medical examiner ruled her cause of death as asphyxiation.

Jo Crosby, 67, of Gloucester Township

Crosby's mother, Jo Crosby, was additionally charged with helping her son cover up Crippen's death but all charges against her were dismissed at Thursday's sentencing as part of a plea deal Kyle Crosby struck with Burlington County prosecutors.

Judge Delehey acknowledged that without the plea deal, Crosby would have likely been convicted by a jury of murder charges and face a far longer sentence.

Delehey also said he received a number of letters and from Crosby's family, former coworkers and even a fellow inmate who Crosby's provided "great solace" to during his incarceration. The letters showed Delehey, he said, "that but for Mr. Crosby's drug addiction," he's a caring and thoughtful man.

"Hopefully one day you can find it in your hearts to forgive me," Crosby said in court. "I ask God to forgive me every day."

Crosby must serve at least 28 years before being eligible for parole at the age of 57.

By then, he and Crippen's now 15-month-old daughter Kay'lee will be "a grown woman with kids of her own," said Crippen's aunt, Sonya Spencer, who's adopted her great niece.

The loss of Crippen is compounded by the loss of Crosby as well, her family said, describing how they welcomed him into their family as one of their own when he married their beloved "Tweep," Crippen's nickname.

"We lost a family, we didn't just lose Erica," said Crippen's best friend, Amaris Torres, 26 of Brooklawn.

Crippen's oldest daughter is now in the care of her paternal grandparents, Torres said, and is an "awesome kid" who talks about and misses her mother, but is doing well.

"She's surrounded by people who love her," said Torres.

The same can be said for Kay'lee, who was passed back and forth from her aunts, cousins and family friends before Thursday's sentencing began. She was happy, laughing, and giggling, just like mother, Torres said.

"They have the same personality," she said.

Michelle Caffrey may be reached at mcaffrey@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @ShellyCaffrey. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.
loveactually.jpg

Christmas in April? It will feel like that, when the multi-star "Love Actually" (that's Bill Nighy, as above) is shown during the Montclair Film Festival's tribute to director Richard Curtis

(UNIVERSAL)

Montclair, actually.

That's where director Richard Curtis will find himself on April 30 when the veteran British filmmaker will be the subject of the Montclair Film Festival's first filmmaker Tribute. The festival will be partnering in the event with Universal Pictures, Working Title Films, and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Curtis will be showing - and commenting on, live - his much loved film, "Love, Actually." He'll also join MFF guiding light (and Montclair resident) Stephen Colbert for an in-depth conversation, which Curtis suggests, with a wink, will include many "scurrilous memories."

And the festival - now in its fifth year - will spotlight a number of Curtis' other films. There's a lot to choose from, too, with "Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Notting Hill," "Bridget Jones' Diary" and "About Time" as just a few of his audience favorites.

Richard Curtis' films are known for their deft mix of drama and comedy

Busy as he is behind the camera, Curtis is also busy behind the scenes. He is the co-founder of Comic Relief, which he began more than 30 years ago. Last year he brought the charity's Red Nose Day to the U.S.; it will receive a portion of the proceeds from the Montclair events.

"The Montclair Film Festival is thrilled to honor Richard Curtis at this year's festival," MFF Executive Director Tom Hall said. "Mr. Curtis' wonderfully romantic, comic films showcase a deep empathy that is only exceeded by his personal warmth and generosity. We look forward to a fantastic tribute on April 30."

We do, too. Actually.

Tickets for MFF members go on sale Tuesday, April 5, with public tickets on sale Friday, April 8, at 11:00 AM. Visit their site for details.

Stephen Whitty may be reached at stephenjwhitty@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @stephenwhitty. Find him on Facebook.


--

The Environmental Protection Agency will be assisting the state in its continuing probe into elevated levels of lead found in the drinking water at 30 Newark public school buildings, an EPA spokesman confirmed Thursday.

"The New Jersey (Department of Environmental Protection) has requested EPA's assistance," spokesman John Martin said Thursday.

The lead levels reported in Newark school buildings triggered a need for follow-up testing, Martin said.

"Because the primary business of schools is education and not operating and maintaining a public water system, EPA and the states work together to ensure that schools are collecting samples at the right locations and are looking at practices or equipment that could be causing increases in lead, such as old water fountains in the school," Martin said.

Local officials have said that testing indicates that there is not an elevated level of lead in the city's water supply. Instead, they said, the problem is originating in the school district's aging infrastructure.

The DEP will be using EPA's guidelines to address the issue, and the EPA will help carry them out on an as needed basis, Martin said.

After a DEP announcement about the inflated levels Wednesday, a flurry of state leaders called on the federal government to intervene.

Sen. Robert Menendez Wednesday afternoon released a statement saying that he is consulting with federal agencies in an effort to combat the lead levels, which have forced Newark schools to truck in water bottles for drinking and cooking.

"We need to commit ourselves - at the federal, state, and local levels - to addressing infrastructure issues in our communities that have gone unaddressed and underfunded for many years," Menendez said in the statement.

Congressman Donald Payne, Jr. pointed to the ongoing lead water crisis in Flint, Mich. In January, President Barack Obama declared a federal state of emergency in Flint, authorizing federal assistance in dealing with the elevated lead levels in the city's drinking water.

"I traveled to Flint, Michigan last week to raise awareness of that city's water crisis," Payne said in a statement. "The last thing I want to see is a repeat of that crisis in my home city."

At a press conference Wednesday afternoon, city officials said the matter in Newark is "urgent," but that they do not believe the contamination poses serious health risks.

Mayor Ras Baraka said the levels of lead found in Newark schools' water were not comparable to those found in Flint.

"That is absolutely not the case," he said.

Jessica Mazzola may be reached at jmazzola@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessMazzola. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
The Giants made a free agency splash on Wednesday afternoon, stealing defensive tackle Damon "Snacks" Harrison away from the Jets right before the official start of the new league year.

Does Harrison fit in with what the Giants need? Here's what NJ.com's Giants beat writers, Jordan Raanan and James Kratch, have to say:

Raanan's take: Harrison is a good player. He's immovable in the trenches. There may not be a better run-stuffer in the NFL. He can also provide some push as an interior pass rusher, but that is by no means his strength. Which makes you wonder if the combination of Harrison and Johnathan Hankins is ideal. Hankins had seven sacks in 2014, but his strength is also as a run defender. Are the Giants going to be able to create enough pressure with that combination on passing downs? Neither Hankins or Harrison appear to be natural shoot-the-gap 3-technique defensive linemen.

What you have to love about the addition of Harrison is that nobody will be able to run up the middle against the Giants. They weren't exactly stout in that regard this past season, and the upgrade from Markus Kuhn to Harrison is monumental. It's almost as if the Giants conceded they're not going to be especially strong at linebacker, but with Hankins and Harrison occupying offensive linemen, it should allow the linebackers to roam freely. Maybe it even provides the Giants an opportunity to settle on a smaller, rangier middle linebacker than they usually desire for their defense.

Overall, the signing of Harrison is solid. Not perfect but good. The money is a big mind-boggling. Five years and $46.5 million is quite the haul. Much more than expected for Harrison's services. But if he helps the defensive line and linebackers, maybe he's worth it.

Kratch's take: I will admit, the idea of the Giants signing Harrison made me scratch my head at first. The Giants run a 4-3 defense, and have a major pass rush issue, and they are giving big money to a 3-4 nose tackle that stops the run? At first glance, it does not make a whole lot of sense.

That being said, the more I think about it, the more I come around to the move. On a macro level, the Giants have just bought themselves one of the best interior line tandems in the league with Johnathan Hankins and Harrison. It is a colossal upgrade over what they had last year, and it affords them the ability to not have to go all-in on Jay Bromley as a starter (and, if he returns, limit Cullen Jenkins' snaps). Maybe it is not a terribly traditional scheme fit, but Harrison is a top-flight talent. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo needs talent, and he's gotten more of it with this signing. He can figure out the fine details later.

As Jordan mentioned above, Hankins did have seven sacks in 2014. Perhaps Harrison can generate a bit more in the pass rush now that he is in a 4-3. And the presence of two strong tackles will definitely help out the second (and third) levels. It's a good signing. An outside-the-box one, but a good one.

James Kratch can be reached at jkratch@njadvancemedia.com or by leaving a note in the comments below. Follow him on Twitter @JamesKratch. Find and like NJ.com Giants on Facebook.
WEST DEPTFORD TWP. -- A nurse who treated Trooper Sean Cullen after he was struck and killed by a car Monday has spoken about her experience, according to a report on 6ABC.

Stephanie Fisher told the TV station that she was traveling with her boyfriend, who is also a state trooper, when they came upon the accident on Interstate 295.

She ran to help Cullen seconds after he was hit.

My heart is heavy right now. What I thought was just a normal day turned into what feels like a nightmare. As my... Posted by Stephanie Fisher on Tuesday, March 8, 2016

"I wanted to get him home to his family," Fisher told 6ABC. "As we were working on him, one of the troopers yelled out that he had a baby and he had another one on the way, and I think that all pushed us to work even harder."

Another witness, Chris Kramer, recalled the scene that night. Kramer posted on Facebook that he had stopped to help put out the car fire and shortly after first responders arrived, "tragedy happened." He said an off-duty medic, registered nurse, off-duty trooper and other first responders all did what they could to try to save Cullen.

"Trooper Cullen fought. We fought. The responding resources fought," he wrote. "I struggled with this not because of the scene. Whatever could be done was done, and I would expect the same out of anyone that was in a similar position. I struggled with this not because of the blood. I have seen many scenes but this had the most. I struggled with this because it was preventable. I struggle because a family lost their son, a fiancee lost her future husband, and children lost their father."

Cullen died of his injuries early Tuesday morning.

A vigil will be held tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Westampton. His funeral is Monday in Cinnaminson.

Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.
jersey city police car.jpg

An off-duty officer's car was stripped of its four sport stock wheels and left on cinder blocks on Stegman Parkway early this morning, according to a police report.

(Journal file photo)

JERSEY CITY -- An off-duty police officer's car was stripped of all four of its wheels and left on cinder blocks on Stegman Parkway early this morning, according to a police report.

At about 5:45 a.m., police officers were notified that a 2014 Honda Accord Sport was sitting on bricks near West Side Avenue with the wheels missing.

Responding officers notified the victim, a 33-year-old Stegman Parkway man, who said the sport stock wheels were valued at $2,000, the report states.

According to a police transmission, the victim is an off-duty police officers. City records indicate the victim has been working on the force for two years.

The lug nuts for the wheels were left on the street, along with a can that officers swabbed for fingerprints, police said.

No arrests have been made in connection with the theft, the report indicates.

Caitlin Mota may be reached at cmota@jjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
Confront the Klan or ignore the Klan? Which is better?: Jarvis DeBerry
The federal government plans to pour $125 million into the fight against a mysterious disease that has ravaged corals in Florida and much of the Caribbean, and now poses a dire threat to the treasured reefs off the Louisiana and Texas coasts.
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.
Today

Sunshine and a few afternoon clouds. High near 80F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph.

Tonight

Some clouds. Low 66F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.

Tomorrow

Sunny along with a few clouds. High 82F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.
Today

Sunny to partly cloudy. High near 80F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph.

Tonight

A few clouds. Low 66F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.

Tomorrow

Except for a few afternoon clouds, mainly sunny. High 82F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.
WASHINGTON  Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, showed no signs Wednesday that he would back down on his opposition to filling a Supreme Court vacancy this year, even if the nominee is 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jane Kelly, who worked in Iowa for nearly 20 years.

Its a matter of the principle and not the person, Grassley told reporters on his weekly conference call.

As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Grassley has become the focal point in the battle over filling the seat left open by Justice Antonin Scalias death. Grassley and other Senate Republicans have said they will not hold hearings or votes on any nominee from President Barack Obama.

The White House reportedly has been looking at sending Kellys name to the Senate. She was confirmed to her current position in 2013 on a 96-0 vote  with strong support from Grassley, her home state senator.

Given those Iowa ties and Grassleys previous praise of her qualifications, Democrats view her as uniquely positioned to pressure Grassley to relent. But Grassley reiterated on Wednesdays call that his stance has nothing to do with the identity of a nominee.

Rather, he said Republicans continue to believe that it should be up to the new president to make the appointment, in order to give the American voters a voice in the process through Novembers election.

The fight has gotten personal, with Democrats pounding Republicans and Grassley in particular over the issue. The 82-year-old has represented Iowa in the Senate for decades and has been considered a shoo-in for re-election this year.

But the Supreme Court vacancy fight might change that perception. It already has prompted former Iowa Lt. Gov. Patty Judge, a Democrat, to jump into the race.

Judge met with U.S. Senate Democrats at their weekly lunch in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday. Senators emerged from the lunch chuckling and repeating her line that she is one judge Senator Grassley cant ignore.

Grassley suggested that other potential Democratic opponents who had been running for a long time for the nomination might not stand aside easily for Judges candidacy, but also said thats all out of his control.

I cant do anything about what the Democrats are doing, he said. They obviously want to pick up any seats they can to gain control of the United States Senate.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has gone after Grassley on the Senate floor repeatedly.

The senator I knew would not cede the independence of the powerful Judiciary Committee he has served on for many decades to the Republican leader, Reid said earlier this week. The senator I knew wouldnt ignore his constitutional duties for the sake of election-year politics.

Reid noted that GOP presidential contender Donald Trump called on the Senate to delay, delay, delay the nomination.

Senator Grassley must have been listening, Reid said.

Grassley has responded to Reids speeches by referring to them as childish tantrums and by quoting Democrats statements over the years that he says support the current GOP position.

On his call Wednesday, Grassley also defended his ability to work across the aisle, pointing to bipartisan legislation the Judiciary Committee has been tackling such as a bill targeting opioid abuse and another on sentencing reform.

Grassley also cited a recent study by the Lugar Center and Georgetown University that ranked him as fifth in the Senate for bipartisanship last year.

The battle is only expected to intensify.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, suggested this week that any nominee Obama sends up will resemble a pinata.

Grassley dismissed the idea that Republicans will give a nominee a rough time. But he added that person would certainly represent a political pawn of the Democrats.

Why would anybody want to do that? Grassley said.
Column: The challenges of a 1951 immigrant in Canada

Once again, I could hear my mother crying in the night. I jammed the pillow over my head to drown out that awful sound. My own tears kept falling as well.

The challenges of being a new immigrant are not soon forgotten. Columnist Erna De Burger-Fex (at right with her sibling a year before moving to Canada) still vividly remembers her early days in Canada more than 60 years ago. Photo supplied

Once again, I could hear my mother crying in the night. I jammed the pillow over my head to drown out that awful sound. My own tears kept falling as well. Loneliness, isolation, fear  these are common feelings of an immigrant on a ship taking us to an unknown land.



I was only 10 years old, but I remember it clearly. We had boarded the huge ship De Volendam in Rotterdam on Oct. 2, 1951. The wrenching goodbyes to grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends, our home and language, were painful. However, my two brothers and I were very excited walking up the gangplank amid 1,500 other immigrants all leaving Holland for Canada.



One morning, a voice on the public address system advised us to look to the right of the ship, and our gazes were met by the breath-taking panorama of enormous icebergs rising from the sea. We shivered in the cold, and the bright sun made them sparkle as though encrusted with crystals. On another day, incredibly, we observed whales seemingly dancing in the waves.



Unfortunately, sea sickness made the journey more difficult. This, coupled with the fact that our family had been separated upon boarding, made us feel uneasy. Dad and two of my brothers, Ronald and Willy, were sleeping in the large, dark hold, and mom and I and my three-year-old brother, Franky, shared a tiny, stuffy cabin. Bunk beds and a small toilet and sink were all the furnishings it contained. One day I left the cabin to get some fresh air and to play with my brothers on deck. Upon my return, I discovered the new book I was reading had been stolen.



It was the only book I was allowed to bring in my little red suitcase. I had placed it under my pillow and couldnt believe that anyone could be so mean. I was devastated. Mom promised to buy me a new one as soon as we were settled in our new home.



We arrived in Quebec City on a glorious, fall day, Oct. 11. We had been sailing for nine days. After going through innumerable immigration checks, we were taken to a train station, and on the train we tasted Pepsi-Cola for the first time. I did not like it.



We arrived in Warren two days later, tired but happy that our trip was over and anxious to see our new home. Dads employer, a dairy farmer named Mr. Spaull, was to meet us, but he was not at the station.



Each time a man entered the station, Dad would show him our papers to ask if he was Mr. Spaull. Finally, a tall man entered and conveyed to us that he had been sent to pick us up and that he was Mr. Spaulls brother-in-law.



Unbelievably, we had to ride in the back of his pick-up truck to our new home. That new home was a major disappointment. We were dismayed to realize that we would be sharing this two-storey house with an unknown Dutch family, also with four children  the Neelemans.



Just imagine  four adults and eight children under 10 years old sharing one three-bedroom house. Extreme loneliness and feelings of disconnection were constants.



Another Dutch family, the Terpstras, had already been in Canada for two years, and so were fairly fluent in the English language. We learned a lot from them. Miss Seguin found us to be ahead of her students in mechanical math. It was imperative we focus on learning English before we could advance in our other studies. Whenever she had any free time, Miss Seguin would teach us words by having us do the actions.



Turn, Erna, she would say. We also learned on the playground from the other pupils. We children learned the language quickly, and this was helpful for our parents. Dad was learning rudimentary English at the farm where he was working. However, since most of the other men were immigrants from several different countries, actions often spoke louder than words, which led to hilarious misunderstandings.



It was most difficult for Mom at home with three-year-old Franky. She had little contact with the outside world, and she was extremely lonely. One day she needed bleach for our clothes and sent me to the store in town. I walked the half hour to the store worrying how I was going to find what she needed. I searched all around the store and finally a kind saleslady approached me and asked me what I needed. With words and actions, I managed to convey moms request.



As soon as she understood, she found it for me. I was so happy that I rushed home with the bleach. My parents were very proud of me. The beginnings in our new country were most challenging in many ways.



Erna de Burger-Fex is a writer and retired teacher.
Notre-Dame students raise $12K for cancer foundation

In February, students at College Notre-Dame continued their winning tradition of raising thousands of dollars every year for the Northern Cancer Foundation.

College Notre-Dame held its 28th annual door-to-door fundraising blitz for the Northern Cancer Foundation on Feb. 29, raising more than $12,000 for cancer research. Photo supplied

In February, students at College Notre-Dame continued their winning tradition of raising thousands of dollars every year for the Northern Cancer Foundation.



Late last month, the school launched its 28th annual fundraising campaign in support of the Northern Cancer Foundation.



With some 200 students taking part in the Feb. 29 door-to-door blitz across Greater Sudbury, CND raised $12,392 to help fund cancer research. In total, College Notre-Dame students have raised nearly $700,000 over the past 28 years.



All CND students and staff want to thank the Greater Sudbury community for their generous donations. The ongoing support of Greater Sudbury residents is a great motivator and helps us to continue our fund raising campaign and participate in the efforts to beat cancer, said Johanne Chretien, principal at College Notre-Dame.
Contractors in Northern Ontario arent expecting a flurry of activity across the region this year.

Contractors in Northern Ontario arent expecting a flurry of activity across the region this year.A provincewide contractor survey, released March 8 by Ipsos Reid and the Ontario Construction Secretariat , indicates firms in the North expressed the least optimism in their economic outlook for the upcoming building season.Just over half the firms in this region expect to see business decline in 2016.Overall, the Ontario construction industry is cautiously optimistic with 31 per cent of contractors expecting to see business growth and 52 per cent expecting the status quo.The findings are contained in the annual Construction Confidence Indicator that reveals contractors' perceptions of business conditions for the next 12 months.Findings from the provincewide 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," said Sean Strickland, CEO of the Ontario Construction Secretariat, in a news release.Its 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."Strickland added the industry 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, Ont., expressed the greatest increase in confidence over 2015, surpassing last year's most confident contractors in the GTA.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.The Ontario Construction Secretariat is a partnership of 25 building trade unions and signatory contractors in the industrial, commercial and institutional sectors.
The man who's vision birthed Greater Sudbury's most iconic symbol, the Big Nickel, has passed away. Ted Szilva was in his 82nd year.

The man who's vision birthed Greater Sudbury's most iconic symbol, the Big Nickel, has passed away.Ted Szilva was in his 82nd year.A larger-than-life personality, Szilva had to fight to make his vision of creating a tourist attraction that honoured Sudbury's mining industry, he told Northern Life in 2014 on the advent of publishing a book, The Big Nickel: The Untold Story, chronicling the story of the monument's creation. Fifty years ago, Szilva entered a contest to create a symbol to commemorate Canada's centennial. He came up with the idea to create a giant nickel monument.He didn't win the contest, but inspired by his idea, Szilva decided to create the monument anyway. And come hell or high water, that's what he did.He bought a piece of land in the city's west end for $1,000 to put his monument. When he went to put in a road to connect the site to Lorne Street, city officials balked, accusing him of building a road without a permit.Szilva, in his characeteristic fashion, reminded them that the land he was on was leased from Inco in Copper Cliff, and therefore outside the Sudbury city limits (the communities being separate municipalities at the time).I said 'I'm building four feet outside the city limit, so why are you harassing me?' he said.Eventually, then-Mayor Joe Fabbro stepped in and ordered officials to "leave him alone," Szilva told Northern Life.This wasn't the last bureaucratic red tape Szilva had to deal with to get the Big Nickel site going. When the Big Nickel first opened, he had outhouses set up because he wasn't connected to the municipal water system yet, something he said he also had to wrestle permission for from city officials.The monument itself is based on the 1951 nickel, as that year was the 200th anniversary of the isolation of nickel as a mineral.I thought it was a fitting piece to portray the wealth of Sudbury, Szilva said.He raised the $35,000 it cost to build the structure by selling miniature medallion versions of the monument. Today it would cost more than $250,000 to build the structure, he told Northern Life in 2014.Even 50 years later, Szilva said he's elated his creation is still a must-see for visitors to Sudbury.I'm very much happy it's still here, he said.Funeral information for Szilva has not yet been released.
Greater Sudbury Police say they rescued two snowmobilers Wednesday after the machines they were riding ran out of gas on the snowmobile trails north of Capreol.

Greater Sudbury Police say they rescued two snowmobilers Wednesday after the machines they were riding ran out of gas on the snowmobile trails north of Capreol.



Snowmobile officers responded and searched for the riders in the reported area, police said in a news release. At approximately nine oclock in the evening, communication was lost with the riders as their cellphone battery expired.



Officers kept looking for the pair and eventually located the them at around 3 a.m. in good health just north of Geneva Lake. The two riders had abandoned their snowmobiles and were walking in an attempt to locate help.



Both men are from the Waterloo area and were unfamiliar with the Sudbury Trail Plan network.



Greater Sudbury Police Service urges everyone who travels prescribed snowmobile trails to familiarize themselves with the network prior to their venture, the release said. If you are travelling long and unfamiliar distances, carry extra gas, food, fully charged cell-phone, basic survival items and tools in the event of an unforeseen breakdown or emergency.
A man wanted by the Toronto Police Service for child luring and sexual interference may be hiding in Greater Sudbury, said the Greater Sudbury Police Service.

A man wanted by the Toronto Police Service for child luring and sexual interference may be hiding in Greater Sudbury, said the Greater Sudbury Police Service.Elvis Presley Amalathas, 35, of Toronto, is wanted for luring a child; invitation to sexual touching; attempt to make child pornography; sexual assault; sexual interference; and several breaches of court orders.Police allege Amalathas tried to lure a 13-year-old girl online and sexually assaulted the same girl in January 2015 when she was 11.He is described as 6-0 tall, 170 lbs., with short black hair, and was last known to have a goatee.Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-8500, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477), online at 222tips.com , or text TOR and your message to CRIMES (274637). Download the free Crime Stoppers Mobile App on iTunes, Google Play or Blackberry App World.
Pamela Kay Sweeney, 56, of North Platte, passed away March 8, 2016, at her home.

Pam was born on July 18, 1959, to Harold and Beverly (Herbek) Sweeney in Cozad. She attended elementary through high school in Cozad, graduating in 1977. She then attended University of Nebraska at Kearney before completing her Bachelor of Science degree in health information management at the College of Saint Mary in Omaha in 1981.

Pam worked at hospitals in Mason City, Iowa, and Norfolk before moving to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where she worked as the director of health information management at DePaul Hospital. She completed her masters degree in management from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the distance learning program at Warren Air Force Base in 1986.

During her career, Pam became certified as a registered health information administrator, certified professional in health care quality and certified professional in health care risk management.

Pam was active with many professional and volunteer organizations including American Health Information Management Association, Nebraska Hospital Association, 4-H, Girl Scouts, Community Connections and American Red Cross.

In 1986, Pam moved to North Platte to work at Great Plains Health, where she had several positions in management and administration. She most recently served as the vice president of safety and medical staff services.

The greatest joy came in 2000, when Pam returned from Romania smothering two sparkling twin boys, Marshall Scott and Miles Bradley, thus completing her family.

Pam was preceded in death by her father, Harold; grandparents, Anna (Lindeman) Herbek, Albert Herbek, Bradley Sweeney and Verna Vineyard; numerous aunts and uncles; and a cousin, Jim Sweeney.

Survivors include her mother, Beverly, of Cozad; brother, Steven, of Cozad; and two precious sons, Marshall and Miles, of North Platte.

In lieu of flowers, memorials are suggested to the family to assist with expenses and college for the boys. Online condolences may be shared at adamsswanson.com.

Services will be at 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 12, at First United Methodist Church with the Rev. Dr. Douglas Delp officiating. Private family inurnment will be at the Cozad Cemetery. The register book may be signed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, March 11, at Adams and Swanson Funeral Home, which is in charge of arrangements.
Please note that there has been a change to the advertised kick off time for the Newcastle-Canberra clash at Hunter Stadium in Round 3.

Kick off for the match will now be 5.00pm.

Round 3

Newcastle v Canberra

Hunter Stadium

Saturday, March 19

Kick-off 5.00pm AEDT

Please also note that there has been a change to the advertised kick off time for the Manly-Brisbane match in Round 10.

Kick-off for the match will now be 7.55pm.

Round 10

Manly v Brisbane

Suncorp Stadium

Saturday, May 14

Kick-off 7.55pm AEST
Michael Gordon is approaching his first season at the Eels in a positive state of mind following an unsettled final year at the Sharks.

While he only missed one game, Gordon's two-year stranglehold on Cronulla's No.1 jumper came under fire last season following the emergence of Valentine Holmes and the recruitment of Ben Barba.

Gordon was unsure whether he would play the full 80 in the lead-up to most games last year, a hesitation felt by Cronulla's outside backs for the best part as well.

Now uncontested for the role within the Eels' strongest 17, Gordon said life has been made easier following his shift to Parramatta.

"It was frustrating for all of us because there were a few of us playing fullback and we sort of went out to play not knowing what to expect going into any games. It was hard to prepare for in a way but I suppose we all just had to do our best," Gordon told NRL.com.

"Coming [to the Eels], doing a full pre-season here and training with all these players I suppose it's given me that confidence that they wanted me to play fullback.

"It gives you a nice feeling and going into games now I know I won't be coming off. Unless I get injured, touch wood I won't."

With his 180 NRL games of experience far superior to the Eels' second-string options Gordon is hoping his further job security will allow him to focus on other aspects of his game  like using the competition's new interchange rules to his advantage.

"We saw on the weekend that it certainly affected some teams more than others. That will help someone like me," Gordon said.

"Later in the halves I'm hoping to sneak around the ruck when the forwards are a bit more tired. Also obviously going into a game knowing you're going to play a full game should certainly help."

In saying all this Gordon's first game in Eels colours did not go to plan  a 17-4 loss to the Broncos marred by Parramatta skipper Kieran Foran's absence and Corey Norman's injury scare.

A nasty forehead cut compounded his lack of ball with Brisbane halves Anthony Milford and Ben Hunt opting to target their kicking game at winger Clinton Gutherson instead

"You never plan for your halves going off at all. At least with 'Foz' we could prepare with 'Kell' [Luke Kelly] but you don't plan for the other one to go off at half-time. It threw a spanner in the works," Gordon said.

"It was a little bit disappointing but there were some really good signs there so it's not all doom and gloom."
The multi-artist "Experience Hendrix Tour" stops this Saturday at The Chicago Theatre with a who's who of string benders paying tribute to the late Seattle-born Master of the Stratocaster.

Among them are Buddy Guy, Zakk Wylde, Jonny Lang, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Eric Johnson, Dweezil Zappa, Doyle Bramhall II, Chris Layton, Mato Nanji, Henri Brown, Noah Hunt and Ana Popovic.

Once again serving as the tour's point man and band leader is Billy Cox, Hendrix's friend and the bassist for both the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Hendrix's Band of Gypsys. I had the great privilege to play with Jimi in all of his projects, said Cox. Woodstock was really the first big gig I played with Jimi. We came in around the back way and when we looked out at that crowd, Mitch Mitchell said I dont know if I want to go out there! And Jimi said to us, Well give to them and theyll give back to us and well all have a good time. He was right. It was amazing."

Cox first met Hendrix in 1961 at Fort Campbell where they were stationed in the Army. The two bonded over music and became fast friends, first jamming together at the bases service club. Wed play Green Onions and Soul Twist and stuff like that, recalled Cox of gigging with Private Hendrix. The two later formed The King Kasuals which played the Southern chittlin circuit until Hendrix left to work with the Isley Brothers and later Little Richard. Although Cox is best known as bassist in Band of Gypsies where he anchored the groove with drummer Buddy Miles, he also clocked time with The Jimi Hendrix Experience after replacing original bass man Noel Redding near the end of that bands run.

Cox is clearly proud to be a cornerstone of the Experience Hendrix tour which is a living and breathing memorial to the talent, music and legacy of his old friend. Jimi's spirit is with us every night on that stage, he said. More: experiencehendrixtour.com.

MUSIC NOTES

 Northwest Indiana heavy alternative rockers Open Your Eyes has completed work on its latest album. The longtime area band (formerly known as Athel) have scheduled the official "album release" party for a 6 p.m. start time at Big Shots (391 US-6) in Valparaiso on Saturday.

Sharing the bill will be Open Your Eyes' KBB Records label mates Run 2 Cover from Phoenix, Arizona. Opening the show will be a trio of NWI bands -- Infinity Pool, Rebuild & Rebound and Carnett. A copy of the new CD comes with every paid admission. Cost: $10 advance/$12 at door. More: openyoureyesmusic.bigcartel.com.

 The Wrong Boys -- Tommy Biondo (bass/vocals), Steve Staszak (guitar/vocals), and Rob Martin (drums/vocals) -- are finally back in action after several months on hiatus, to perform their first live show of 2016. More: wrongboys.net.

The trio plays classic rock-n-roll radio hits from the the '60s to today and will perform a 9 p.m. show Saturday at Durbin's (10154 S. Roberts Rd.) in Palos Hills, Ill. More: durbinspub.com or (708) 598-8881.

 On Friday, the third installment of "Comedy Night at the Center for Visual and Performing Arts" in Munster brings comic headliner Peter Berman to the spotlight as patrons attend a 7 p.m. buffet dinner and 8 p.m. performance, produced and emceed by East Chicago's own resident funny man, Nick Gaza.

Berman has appeared on several popular television programs and continually tours the world, most recently performing for U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Tickets: $36. More: (219) 836-1930 or cvpa.org.

 The annual "Beatles In The Barn" fundraiser, held at County Line Orchard (200 S. County Line Road), has been announced for April 9 (6-10:30 p.m.) and once again features opening sets by Chris & Lou and The Crawpuppies, respectively, along with a combined performance by both acts with assorted special guests called "The Mega-Beatles." Tickets: $25 adults / $10 Children (under 12) will benefit the Northwest Indiana Food Bank and also The Hobart Police K9 Unit. More info: countylineorchard.com or (219) 947-4477.

One week prior to the Beatles event -- on April 2 (6-11 p.m.) -- County Line Orchard will host the third annual "PET ROCK" fundraiser for The Humane Society of Northwest Indiana which has a Retro-Rock theme this year and features live music by The Neverly Brothers, Oscar & The Majestics, and Radio Memories with The Dentons. 88.7 SHINE-FM radio will also be there.

"PET ROCK" gets its name because it is a celebrity-supported event and will feature more than 100 silent and live auction items, including new musical instruments, autographed guitars by Black Sabbath, STYX and Taylor Swift, and assorted celebrity autographed items from One Direction, Adele, Lady Gaga, Charlie Daniels, Ted Nugent, Foreigner, Paul Rodgers, The Zombies, Mickey Gilley, the film cast of "Star Wars" and dozens more. Tickets: $50 VIP (includes food and more), $20 General Admission, $10 for children (under 12). More: petrockanimalrescue.com.

 The schedule for the 31st annual Valparaiso University Jazz Fest -- March 28 through April 2 -- has been announced and is now posted on the university web site. All performances are on the university campus (1700 Chapel Drive), Valparaiso.

While most performances are free to the public, tickets are required for the headline concerts -- at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 30 by The Valparaiso University Faculty Jazz Trio with featured special guest, trumpet legend Art Hoyle; 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 31 by The Valparaiso University Jazz Ensemble, directed by Jeffrey C. Brown, with featured special guest, Fareed Haque, voted Best World Guitarist in Guitar Player Magazine (public tickets $10); 8 p.m. Friday, April 1 with The Benny Green Trio (public tickets $15); and 8 p.m. Saturday, April 2, with The Legendary Count Basie Orchestra, directed by Scotty Barnhart (public tickets $20). Info and tickets at: http://www.valpo.edu/union.

 "Now More Than Ever: The History of Chicago," the documentary on the iconic group, CHICAGO, won top honors ("Best of Fest") last week at the 22nd annual Sedona Film Festival.

The Peter Pardini-directed look at the iconic rock band that will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on April 8 had its world premiere at the 2016 Festival.

As the group heads into its 50th Anniversary year, Chicago will co-headline a North American Spring tour with fellow Windy City music icons, Earth, Wind & Fire, billed as "Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire - Heart And Soul Tour." One of the most exciting things about the live show is when both bands (21 musicians in all) perform at the end of the concert, said Chicago's Lee Loughnane. Having these very talented musicians playing our greatest hits together puts the excitement level at a fever pitch! It is an unforgettable experience.

 In celebration of St. Patrick's Day, the March 15 edition of 89.1FM-Lakeshore Public Radio's 7 p.m. weekly program "Midwest BEAT with Tom Lounges," will welcome live in studio the Celtic music duo -- Brian FitzGerald and Marty McCormack -- better known as "Switchback" (waygoodmusic.com). The two will chat about their musical career and their upcoming St. Patrick's Day dinner/concert performance at Theatre at the Center (1040 Ridge Road) in Munster at 8 p.m. March 17. The program can be streamed live in real time at: lakeshorepublicmedia.org.
A Brooklyn man has been charged in connection with Tuesday's drug bust that ended with the shooting of a police detective.

Oscar Vera, 45, was arrested Wednesday on charges including assaulting a police officer.

Detective Jon Gladstone and a sergeant approached a car during a buy-and-bust operation in Bushwick on Tuesday.

Investigators say when Gladstone reached inside to try to make an arrest, Vera drove off.

Both officers opened fire.

Vera was hit in the leg and wrist, while Gladstone was shot in the shoulder.

Police are trying to determine if Gladstone was hit by friendly fire.

The passenger of the car was also taken into police custody.

Sources say a third person is now being questioned by police, but it's not clear if this is the person investigators had been looking for since the shooting.

Anyone with information on the case should contact the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS, or text CRIMES and then enter TIP577, or visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com.
Parking in the city can be a nightmare, but imagine waiting until the year 2046 for a space. NY1's Michael Scotto reports on what might be the most coveted parking spaces in New York.

Charlie Smith is one of the lucky ones. He pays $215 a month to park in the garage that's part of the apartment complex where he lives, the Seward Park Cooperatives on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Space in nearby garages costs twice as much.



"It took me 10 years to get a parking spot," Smith said. "I'm in here about eight years."



Paul Nasrani has been waiting 14 years for one of the 380 spots. His mother-in-law, who just bought an apartment here, might not live long enough to get one. She's been told not to expect a space until 2046.



"It'll be a while," Narsani said.



Every New Yorker with a car knows finding a parking space takes patience, but for residents here, it can take a lifetime. The co-op's board of directors says the wait list, posted in the lobby, is now 30 years long.



The parking spaces are so important to the residents of the complex that they're now at the center of a major battle.

It all started after the co-op board decided to make changes to how the facility is run. To boost revenue, the board hired a company to manage the garage. Instead of self-parking, it's valet parking now.

The company also plans to reconfigure the spaces to increase capacity by 100 cars to permit day parking.



At a fiery meeting this week, residents with spaces welcomed the extra capacity, but not the day parking and valets.



"I, for one, don't like anyone driving my car," said Donald West, a resident of the Seward Park Cooperatives.

But for residents like Julie Schnee, who has been waiting 12 years, the added spots bring hope.

"We are number 39," she said.



The same goes for Nasrani, who is tired of his street parking routine.

"You live by the alternate side calendar. October is the best month of the year. You got Jewish, Muslim holidays, all back to back, it's like a month off," he said.



The new capacity is not expected to dent the 30-year wait because many young families with cars have been moving in. The wait list now has 670 names.


An attorney for Apple says the escalating battle between the tech giant and the FBI -- in which Apple is refusing to comply with a court order forcing the company to unlock an iPhone used by one of the attackers in the San Bernardino rampage -- could be headed to the Supreme Court. Apple attorney Ted Olson gave an exclusive interview to our Washington, D.C. bureau reporter Geoff Bennett, who filed the following report.



Legendary attorney Ted Olson laid out Apples core argument in its standoff with the FBI over government access to an encrypted iPhone.

"The government does not have the power under the Constitution or any existing statutes to make private citizens or private companies change their designs of their products," Olson said.

Olson was giving his first TV interview since James Comey, the director of the FBI, delivered a warning at a congressional hearing on encryption and national security.

"It's our job to tell the American people the tools we use to keep you safe are becoming less effective," Comey said last week before the House Judiciary Committee.

Apple is refusing to write special software that would help federal investigators unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. Olson says cracking open the device would open a "Pandora's box" of security issues.



"There is grave risk to hundreds of millions of people who have depended on Apple to provide them with security and confidence that their innermost secrets, the location of where their children might be, their medical records and that sort of thing can be protected from intrusion," Olson said.



In a separate but related case, the Justice Department on Tuesday asked a Brooklyn federal court to reverse a decision that said Apple is not required to unlock an iPhone used by a suspected drug dealer.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance says he wants Apples help in unlocking nearly 200 iPhones linked to criminal investigations.



Bennett: The Manhattan District Attorney says criminals knowingly take advantage of encryption. Does that give you pause?

Olson: Yes, it does, but in a different way. What hes not focusing on: If Apples encryption system can be broken by a government in one case, it can be broken by criminals, it can be broken by hackers, it can be broken by hostile governments.



Ted Olson, as the former U.S. solicitor general, used to represent the federal government before the Supreme Court.

Now representing Apple, he says if Congress doesnt step in with a resolution agreeable to all sides, the high court is where this struggle between national security and consumer privacy might ultimately be decided.


Mr. Norman echoed that sentiment. His music is riding a line between a Romantic sensibility and a more modern one, he said, and that is definitely something that I do. That tension is palpable in Mr. Normans Play, a sprawling work recently recorded by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, in which dense extended techniques undergird a dizzyingly hyper-Romantic vocabulary  an Asyla for the 21st century. Caroline Shaw, whose polyglot Partita won the Pulitzer in 2013, drew parallels between Mr. Normans music and that of Mr. Ades. It feels organized and detailed and precisely engineered, and imaginative, with funny and profound surprises, she said.

Ms. Shaw was particularly inspired by Mr. Adess attraction to the modest harpsichord works of Couperin, which he has recomposed for orchestra. Being the giant of modern music that he is, she explained, it gave me permission to love some of the music that I love and to do some of the things that I do.

Mr. Andres likened Mr. Adess aesthetic to that of Gyorgy Ligeti: Theres the sense of the overarching, he said. Over all the obsessive detail  and the cool flashy orchestrations and all that stuff  is the sense of this huge object being mobilized in time.

Image Caroline Shaw Credit... Piotr Redlinski for The New York Times

Mr. Andress 2012 Piano Quintet mirrors Mr. Adess own Quintet, refracting Schumann into exquisite miniatures. A culinary enthusiast, Mr. Andres compared his own assimilation of influences to a sieve: When it first comes in, there are big granules sticking out, and you can really tell what the thing is. And then over time, it filters into the lower substrate of my language and its still there  just as much  you just cant hear it on the surface. Its not in big, identifiable clumps.

Sharing this syntax bonds these younger composers, who borrow as much from one another as they do from Mr. Ades. Mr. Cerrone, Mr. Norman, Mr. Hearne and Mr. Andres belong to the collective Sleeping Giant, which has created a reimagining of the Mozart Requiem that will have its premiere with the Albany Symphony in March.
Episode 7 may have highlighted the differences between these two men, but this one paints the Democrat from a red state and the Republican from a blue one as mildly different hues in the same spoke on the color wheel. At times, they seem to enjoy each others company; Frank laughs so hard at one of Wills crude jokes that he nearly chokes on his sandwich. (Give credit to politicians on House of Cards for making crass comments about mens appendages in private, as opposed to during live, televised debates.) For much of their meeting, theres a mutual respect that almost makes it seem like the most interesting ticket would be one with both of them on it.

Frank is such an over-the-top character that Kevin Spacey can sometimes overpower his fellow actors, but Joel Kinnaman matches him beat for beat and even raises Mr. Spaceys game a little. One can sense that theyre having a good time; their interactions toggle between loose and tense in a way that feels real.

The director Robin Wright and the episodes editors also have a lot of fun with juxtapositions in this episode, not only during the Frank/Will meeting but also in the interwoven pair of conversations between Frank and Cathy Durant and Claire and Senator Baker, whos also vying for vice-presidential support on the convention floor. The way Frank and Claire finish each others sentences while making campaign promises that cant possibly be kept  Cathy is assured she can hold onto her secretary of state position if Claire becomes the nominee, while the senator is told he can take Cathys job if he drops out and backs Claire  sharply illustrates the strength of the Underwoodss union, not to mention the fact that political disingenuousness is alive and well.

Lets give credit to Cathy, though. At first it seems like the secretary is falling victim to her own instincts toward diplomacy by attempting to accommodate instead of sticking up for herself. When Frank deftly steers the conversation toward Claire, and how the unlikely possibility of his wife emerging as the partys choice may mean that Cathy has to cede her role as selected VP, Cathy immediately expresses a willingness to support the first lady. Were on the same team here, she says, voicing the same words that women who are about to get steamrollered have used since the beginning of time.

But despite her smiles for the camera and seeming desire for harmony, this woman is not stupid. As she reminds Frank, his manipulation of the media courtesy of Zoe Barnes is what enabled Cathy to clinch the secretary of state nomination three years ago. Even though he denies that hes planted any stories about Claires meeting with President Petrov, Cathy sees through him. Just like the president, she also develops a Plan B, one that not only involves sending a message via the Louisiana delegation that maybe she could be president, but also getting Conways commitment that shell be secretary of state even if the Democrats lose the election. As Madame Secretary herself says, there really is nothing like leather and sugar when it comes to the powers of political persuasion.
Was there anything you learned about the institution of slavery during the making of this show that you didnt know before?

LEGEND I minored in African-American history and culture when I was in college, so its definitely something Ive read about. Ive read slave narratives before, but because of the research that all of us had to do for creating this series and preparing to launch the series, its been exciting to really learn the individual stories of those who chose to run away, and we incorporated a lot of those details in into these fictional characters on the show.

HODGE The mental enslavement, which is kind of the biggest kicker, and how people are broken, that is something that we really dug deep into. You have a plantation where you have 10 white people and you have about 50 or 60 black people. The automatic thought was, Why didnt they raise up? Why didnt they overpower? They had the numbers. But really these people, their hope was broken. Their sense of love was broken. Their appreciation for who they were was broken. And when you change somebodys mind, you can control whatever they do. You can control what they feel. You can control their self value. And thats something that was really surprising to me.

Why did you use contemporary music in this show? It opens with a Kanye West song.

LEGEND Well I think we wanted music that still felt as if it works sonically with the action thats going on, and the action was so energetic and urgent and powerful in the way its presented  visually its so powerful  we wanted the music to be able to match that, and we thought it would enhance what you see on the screen if we were able to not just restrict the music to period music.

HODGE Heres contemporary music that youre familiar with, and youre watching a time frame that youre unfamiliar with. With contemporary music, you automatically get connected. It connects you to the emotion of the characters. When this show opens to Black Skinhead, which was in the script from the beginning, it makes so much sense, given the scene, given whats happening. And I think for a younger audience that may not understand the feeling [of the character], as soon as they hear the music, theyll get it. Theyll say, Oh, this is why this makes sense.

Between 12 Years a Slave, Django Unchained and the coming The Birth of a Nation movie, does it seem like Hollywood only gives awards about the suffering of black people?

LEGEND Part of it is that a lot of awards are skewed toward historical dramas, and if you look at the history of black folks in America, slavery obviously has been an important part. Given that there are a lot of historical films that make it into that kind of Oscar type of movie, its probably not surprising that the characters black folks play are struggling. Now, the answer to that is us continuing to have more opportunities to create a more diverse range of art that is inclusive of that struggle, but also can tell other stories that reflect whats going on in our history and our communities.
Dos Equis is replacing the gray-haired spokesman known as the Most Interesting Man in the World with another actor. The Mexican beer brand said on Wednesday that the Most Interesting Man commercials would continue this year without Jonathan Goldsmith, the 77-year-old actor who has appeared in the ads since 2007. I feel terrific, I really do, he told The Associated Press. Ive had a great time in the last 10 years. In Mr. Goldsmiths last commercial, he is shipped off in a rocket on a one-way trip to Mars. He utters the beer brands slogan  Stay thirsty, my friends  as the rocket takes off. Andrew Katz, the brands vice president for marketing, says Dos Equis is making the change to attract younger drinkers. A successor has been chosen, but Mr. Katz declined to identify the person. Dos Equis is owned by Heineken, based in Amsterdam.
A number of people I spoke with, however, immediately mentioned Kim Campbell, who was the prime minister of Canada for four heady months back in 1993. Was she stylish per se? In the early-1990s, Hillary Clinton sense of the word, perhaps. Was her husband? Was she even married? No one knew. (The answer: She has been married three times.)

The reality is that Canadians and Americans have different relationships with their leaders; we dont tend to put them on pedestals, or use them as examples of perfect citizenry to which we can aspire. Were not as interested in their personal lives so much as their ability to run the country. If they look good trying, thats nice, too.

Which is not to suggest that Canada isnt, generally, extraordinarily excited about the Trudeaus. Over Christmas I was given a sweatshirt depicting the prime minister riding a horse, set against a backdrop that included a rainbow and waterfall.

Image Former Prime Minister Kim Campbell of Canada in 1993. Credit... Dave Chan/Agence France-Presse  Getty Images

But it can be hard to distinguish all the icon hyperbole being thrown at the couple from the excitement Canadians feel about being recognized by the United States. Do Canadians genuinely think the Trudeaus are deserving of such high praise, or are our opinions being influenced by the fact that so many news outlets in America are trumpeting them? I never, ever expected to see my prime minister in Vogue, its unreal, I was told by Anita Clarke, founder of the Toronto-based fashion site I Want - I Got.

It was Mr. Trudeaus father, Pierre, who famously said, at a 1969 Washington Press Club dinner, that living next to the United States is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt, he said.
ATLANTIC CITY  Atlantic City could face default as early as April without drastic action from the state, a ratings agency warned on Wednesday.

The agency, Moodys Investors Service, said in an analysis that the city would run out of money in the next few weeks, which could lead to bankruptcy, if two measures are not approved by lawmakers.

The first bill would strip Atlantic City of most of its decision-making power and give New Jersey the right to break contracts and sell off city assets to help get the citys finances under control. The second would allow casinos to make payments in lieu of taxes.

The bills are backed by the president of the State Senate, Stephen M. Sweeney, a Democrat, and Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican. The speaker of the Assembly, Vincent Prieto, a Democrat, said the bills needed to be changed to ensure that the state could not unilaterally cancel public employee contracts.
An auction house official from Beverly Hills, Calif., pleaded guilty in a New York City court for his part in a scheme to traffic items made of rhinoceros horn, elephant ivory and coral worth at least $1 million, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday.

The official, Joseph Chait, faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for charges related to conspiring to smuggle wildlife products, according to a statement from the United States attorneys office for the Southern District of New York. He is expected to be sentenced in June.

Prosecutors said Mr. Chait, 38, falsely claimed on customs forms that items of rhinoceros horn or elephant ivory were made of bone, wood or plastic.

Among the allegations, prosecutors said that in 2011, in New York City, he and his partners agreed to sell a carving of a figure made of rhinoceros horn even though they knew it was not an antique. (Trade of such items is restricted unless they can be proved to be over 100 years old.)
He posted ads around his neighborhood in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, billing himself as a lawyer specializing in immigration cases. To burnish his credentials, on ads and business cards, Howard Seidler appended an alphabet of suffixes to his name: Esq., J.D. and Ph.D.

But Mr. Seidler was not a lawyer, prosecutors said. He was not licensed to practice law in New York or to provide immigration services.

Mr. Seidler, 70, was sentenced on Wednesday in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn to two to four years in state prison for posing as an immigration lawyer and charging thousands of dollars for services he never provided, prosecutors said.

He pleaded guilty last month to charges of third-degree grand larceny and first-degree immigrant-services fraud, making him the first person to be convicted of the felony charge created in New York last year to protect immigrants targeted in fraudulent schemes, prosecutors said. He had faced a maximum sentence of 19 years in prison.
The New York City police have charged the driver of a vehicle that crashed into a police car during a drug investigation in Brooklyn on Tuesday, a confrontation in which a plainclothes detective was shot in the shoulder by another officer.

The driver, Oscar Vera, 45, was charged with assaulting a police officer, reckless endangerment and resisting arrest, in addition to two drug charges, the police said.

Mr. Vera was selling drugs in a car near Wilson Avenue and Troutman Street in Bushwick, according to the police. There was a second man in the vehicle, the authorities said.

After the men were approached by the detective and a sergeant around 6:15 p.m., the car reversed, striking the police car, and accelerated with the detective partly inside, the police said.
Seeking to increase the number of black and Hispanic students at New York Citys elite public high schools, a group of Democratic state legislators has proposed a $5 million package of initiatives aimed at preparing those students for the eighth-grade admissions test.

Admission to what are known as the specialized high schools is by test only. The number of black and Hispanic students admitted in recent years has been small  and is declining. This year, only 4.1 percent of the students admitted were black and 6.3 percent were Hispanic, down from 4.9 percent and 6.8 percent last year. Black students represent 28 percent of eighth graders in the citys schools, and Hispanics 41 percent.

Image State Senator Jeffrey D. Klein, a Democrat, has opposed efforts to change New York Citys high school admissions process, wanting to focus on better preparation for black and Hispanic students. Credit... Karsten Moran for The New York Times

The total number of black and Hispanic students admitted to the specialized schools was 530 this year, compared with 595 last year. Only nine black students and 14 Hispanic students were admitted to Stuyvesant High School, which requires the highest score. The number of students identified as black and Hispanic who sat for the test declined by more than 500.
Mr. Heastie, a Democrat, said the staff member would be given a new job with comparable pay and benefits, with his salary to be paid from Ms. Wozniaks staff budget in the meantime. Ms. Wozniak will be barred from having interns, and will also be required to receive instruction about sexual harassment and submit to checks of her office at least twice a year.

Image Assemblywoman Angela M. Wozniak is a Republican from near Buffalo. Credit... Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times

Though the relationship was consensual at first, the investigation found, Ms. Wozniak pursued the staff member even after he asked to break things off. Ms. Wozniak eventually told her husband about the affair and banned the staff member from working in her district office or attending community meetings where she would be, the committee reported.

When he filed a complaint about Ms. Wozniaks behavior, it said, she disparaged him to someone whom he had asked to serve as a job reference. The investigation also found that she had broken the Assemblys retaliation rules when her lawyer identified her accuser to the press.

Citing credibility issues and conflicting statements, the committee said it was unable to reach a consensus about whether Ms. Wozniak had broken the Assemblys rule against sexual harassment. All the same, it wrote, Ms. Wozniak exhibited incredibly poor judgment in engaging in the relationship.

Ms. Wozniaks lawyer, Stephen M. Cohen, did not respond to a message on Wednesday evening. The legislative director could not be reached for comment.
The worst-case situations are sounding dire.

Doctors sleeping on cots at their Manhattan hospitals because they cannot get home to New Jersey. A cost to New York Citys economy of nearly $6 million per hour of delays. Traffic jams in New Jersey up to 25 miles long.

But as a Sunday deadline approached for the first New Jersey Transit rail strike in 33 years, railroad and union officials tried to sound a positive note.

Im not a betting man, Dennis J. Martin, the agencys interim executive director, said on Wednesday when asked about the odds of averting a strike, but were going to remain talking until we can get this thing settled.

On Wednesday, New Jersey Transit ramped up warnings to riders, placing red-and-white fliers on train seats telling them what to expect in the event of a strike (delays) and what not to expect (any trains) and listing locations of park-and-ride bus stops.
In a large safe at his apartment near the boardwalk in the Rockaways, Queens, the authorities said on Wednesday, Lee Bergman had amassed a stockpile of weapons.

Mr. Bergman, 43, had been under scrutiny by the Police Impersonations Unit at the New York Police Department after investigators discovered he had bought four forged department identification cards, officials said.

On Tuesday, the authorities said, a police search of his apartment on Shore Front Parkway uncovered a cache that included multiple revolvers, rifles and shotguns, a semiautomatic pistol, an AK-47 and an AR-15, the authorities said.
(Want to get this briefing by email? Heres the sign-up.)

Good morning.

Heres what you need to know:

 White House hopefuls converge on Florida.

Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton argued Wednesday night at the final scheduled debate in Miami over who would better represent Hispanic voters interests, with the crucial state of Florida voting on Tuesday.

Our reporter offers key takeaways from the debate. Who won? Pundits gave higher marks to Mr. Sanders. And here are video highlights. Both will campaign in Florida today.
Even with a double-digit lead before the primary, she failed to avoid the type of negative tactics that could damage her in the long haul. A new Washington Post-ABC poll says that nationally, Mrs. Clintons margin over Bernie Sanders has shrunk: she polls at 49 percent compared with 42 percent for Mr. Sanders; in January her lead was more than double that. If she hopes to unify Democrats as the nominee, trying to tarnish Mr. Sanders as she did in Michigan this week is not the way to go.

Mrs. Clintons falsely parsing Mr. Sanderss Senate vote on a 2008 recession-related bailout bill as abandoning the auto industry rescue hurt her credibility. As soon as she uttered it in Sundays debate, the Democratic strategist David Axelrod registered his dismay, tweeting that the Senate vote wasnt explicitly a vote about saving the auto industry. Even as reporters challenged her claim, she doubled down in ads across the state. As The Washington Post noted, it seems like shes willing to take the gamble that fact-checkers may call her out for her tactic Sunday  but that voters wont.

Though Mrs. Clinton spent more time in Genesee County, home to Flint, than Mr. Sanders, she only won narrowly there. Mr. Sanderss full-throated call for top-to-bottom government accountability for Flints drinking-water catastrophe contrasted with Mrs. Clintons tepid remarks about the need for a housecleaning at the Obama administrations Environmental Protection Agency.

Mr. Sanderss opposition to free-trade agreements resonated in Michigan, and are likely to help him in Ohio, Missouri and Illinois next week. He has consistently pointed out Mrs. Clintons past support for trade pacts, starting with Nafta when her husband was in the White House, and her shifting positions ever since. Mrs. Clinton is now opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which she promoted as secretary of state. If she hopes to convince skeptical rust-belt voters that shes in their corner, she needs to explain why she once believed that trade pacts would help American workers.

The Clinton machine should stop trying to tie Mr. Sanders to the National Rifle Association. Though Mr. Sanders has a D-minus from the N.R.A., in Michigan Mrs. Clintons operatives took to Twitter touting the N.R.A.s tweets supporting Mr. Sanderss statement that making manufacturers liable for gun violence would destroy gun manufacturing in America. On Tuesday, her campaign issued a news release saying that the mothers of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis, two African-American shooting victims, are speaking out about Senator Bernie Sanders comments on guns and African-Americans in Sundays Democratic primary debate. Mr. Sanders, like Mrs. Clinton, has spent decades working against racial discrimination, poverty and gun violence. To suggest otherwise is wrong.
What followed was the most quoted moment of the encounter:

Sanders: If you are talking about the Wall Street bailout, where some of your friends destroyed this economy 

Clinton: You know 

Sanders: Excuse me, Im talking.

Audience: Oooooh

Its certainly a tribute to the general decorum with which the Democrats have conducted themselves that this was enough to draw a gasp from the crowd. The bar is so high on the Republican side that to get a real response one of the candidates would have had to hit the other with a hammer.

But lets look at the bailout issue for a minute. Sanders did vote for a bill to lend money to the auto industry. But it got blocked in the Senate. Then during the stupendously complex end-of-the-Bush-administration negotiations, the bailout got mooshed into a huge, messy bill that did indeed involve helping Wall Street. When the only choices were nothing or a big, unappetizing legislative stew, he refused to bite.

That pretty much sums up his career in Congress. Sanders stood up for his principles, but he didnt play any real role. At one point he offered an amendment to raise taxes on high-income individuals, which was basically ignored. He was marvelous, but symbolically marvelous.

He was in no way like Ted Cruz, who just tries to get attention by stopping things. Nobody hates Bernie Sanders. But hes a maverick legislator, a man without a party. Thats a way, way different kind of life than being the person who has to run the country.

You have to make hard choices when youre in positions of responsibility, Clinton said.

Clinton is a stupendous debater, and shes developed smooth and sensible-sounding answers to sticky matters like the State Department emails and Benghazi. But she still hasnt been able to handle Sanderss attacks on her $225,000 speeches to finance industry insiders. She shrugs and says shell release the transcripts when everybody else does, which generally involves mentioning that President Obama took a lot of money from Wall Street.

I dont have any comment, she said when she was questioned earlier in the week about campaign donations. I dont know that. I dont believe that there is any reason to be concerned about it.
As I have been saying on social media, both Clinton and Sanders had electoral hurdles that they had to clear. Clintons was to win by large margins in states not in the Deep South that are reliably Democratic or that are swing states in the general election. Sanderss hurdle was to demonstrate that he could win in states where the portion of nonwhite Democratic primary voters was greater than a quarter of the whole.

Only one person cleared his hurdle Tuesday: Bernie Sanders.

The nonwhite portion of voters in Michigans Democratic primary, according to exit polls, was 30 percent. Furthermore, 21 percent was African-American. This is much smaller than the majority black vote in some Southern Democratic contests, but still sizable. More important, Sanders won a larger share of the black vote in Michigan than he had won in any of the Southern states for which there were exit polls.

For instance, Sanders won just 11 percent of the black vote in Mississippi, but he won 28 percent of it in Michigan.

Northern blacks and Southern blacks are most likely processing Sanders quite differently. As I wrote in a February column:

There isnt one black America, but two: The children of the Great Migration and the children of those who stayed behind in the South. (Black immigrants are another story.) Having spent the first half of my life in the South and the second in Great Migration destination cities, I can attest that the sensibilities are as different as night and day.

Sanderss early, Northern activism for racial equality is likely to have more resonance with Northern blacks, and so is his largely urban and non-Southern roster of black surrogates. For instance, more Michigan primary voters said they trusted Sanders more than Clinton to handle race relations in this country. The opposite was true in Mississippi.
American diplomats should be proud of the new sanctions on North Korea that the United Nations Security Council passed last week. In response to a nuclear test in January and missile launch in February, the Council, at the United States urging, agreed to a ban on North Korean imports of jet fuel and to mandate inspections of all cargo coming into or out of North Korea. These are the toughest sanctions the North has ever faced.

But before celebrating the beginning of the end of North Koreas nuclear and missile programs, it is worth remembering the recent history: Since 2006, the Council has passed five major sanctions resolutions. In 2013, the United Nations adopted sanctions that were, at the time, the toughest ever imposed on North Korea. And yet the nuclear tests and missile launches continue.

What accounts for this? Some people argue that North Koreas leaders are not just intransigent but irrational. (We believe that is an inaccurate characterization.) Others say the problem is that individual governments are left responsible for enforcing sanctions. (They have a point: A United Nations panel found last month that many governments have failed to implement sanctions that are already on the books.) And some policy makers blame China for blocking even more stringent sanctions that could bring North Korea to heel. (Its true that the government in Beijing fears that too much sanctioning could cause a North Korean collapse, leaving a nuclear-armed failed state on Chinas border.)

But theres another reason that North Korea, in spite of years of sanctions, has proceeded with its weapons programs: The government has found sophisticated and effective ways to evade sanctions thanks to what we call North Korea, Inc., a cadre of elite state-owned trading companies that keep the flow of cash and supplies steady.
FRONT PAGE

A chart on Feb. 26 about Scott J. Kellys 340 days aboard the International Space Station, using information from NASA, misstated the number of sunrises and sunsets that occurred from the astronauts perspective. It was 10,880, not 10,944.

INTERNATIONAL

An article on Saturday about two studies of the links between the Zika virus and serious birth defects misstated the academic affiliation of Dr. Ernesto T. A. Marques, who studies Zika. He is at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, not the University of Pittsburgh Medical School.



Because of an editing error, a picture caption on Feb. 14 with a Q&A article about the battle for Aleppo, Syria, misstated the date of the picture, which showed Syrians seeking safety after airstrikes on the rebel-controlled side of the city. The picture was taken on Jan. 13, not on Feb. 13.

NATIONAL

Because of an editing error, an article on Tuesday about the first uterus transplant surgery performed in the United States referred incorrectly to one part of the operation. Because the patient was born without fallopian tubes, the surgeons could not have connected her fallopian tubes to the transplanted uterus. (The clinic announced on Wednesday that that transplant had failed.)
An opening last October celebrated the Pyramid, the Avenue A club that was a hub of the downtown drag, music and art scene for much of the 1980s. At one point that night, the crowd cheered as the burlesque performer Paula Now flung her wig, which got stuck on the chandelier.

Old-timers will say, The East Village is nothing like it used to be, and I say: Oh, really? Well, tonight we have performances with drag queens on the bar, Mr. Riederer said. Were still doing it.

This gallery has a totally different energy than the ones in Chelsea, he added.

He would know. A native New Yorker, Mr. Riederer was working at a blue-chip gallery in Chelsea when he met Jane Friedman, an arts patron who was creating a gallery to spotlight the boho spirit of pre-gentrification. I said I would quit and do everything with her, he said.

A former theater publicist who went on to manage acts like Patti Smith and John Cale, Ms. Friedman segued into producing the Howl Festival, a cultural free-for-all held in Tompkins Square Park. She wanted to open a gallery partly to preserve the archive of Arturo Vega, the artist who did the imagery for the 1970s punk group the Ramones, and the performance artist Tom Murrin. In fact, the full name of the gallery is Howl Happening: An Arturo Vega Project.
While visiting La Lagunilla, a public market in Mexico City, in 2010, the photographer Stefan Ruiz came upon a collection of the citys police archives of crime photographs. Intrigued, he spent the next six months buying hundreds of them, which he has now collected into a new book, Mexican Crime Photographs / from the archive of Stefan Ruiz. Fascinated by the pasts of these unknown men and women, Ruiz continued his search and uncovered more photographs  both images of crimes taking place, such as a dramatic armed bank robbery, and many mug shots of recently arrested suspects. The impact of these photos is all the more powerful for their lack of context: As viewers, we can only imagine their stories, and reckon with realities that might sharply differ from our stereotypical understanding of Mexicos tragically crime-ridden history.
Martha Wright, who played well over 1,200 performances in leading musical roles on Broadway, nearly all of them as a replacement for Mary Martin, died on March 1 in Newburyport, Mass. She was 92.

Her death was confirmed by her daughter Maria Manuche.

Ms. Wrights was an unusual resume. Not exactly a household name, maybe not even in the households of musical theater aficionados, she was nonetheless by some standards a genuine star.

A coloratura soprano who personified the pert appeal of a 1950s ingenue, she appeared on Broadway in only a handful of shows, but twice she followed Miss Martin in a Tony-winning musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

In June 1951, she took over as the Navy nurse Ensign Nellie Forbush in South Pacific, singing Im Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair and Im in Love With a Wonderful Guy. She eventually performed the role more than 1,000 times on Broadway, exceeding the 868 played by Miss Martin (who played 400 more in London), and closing the show in January 1954.
For all I know, as I write these words, Nathan Lane is lying dead on a chaise longue on the stage of the Westside Theater.

Probably not. You would have read the obituary by now. But Mr. Lane, who gave the first New York performance of White Rabbit Red Rabbit, a playful, enigmatic and haunting solo show by the Iranian writer Nassim Soleimanpour, was lying supine on that chaise when I left the theater as strictly instructed Monday night, the only night of the week the show is being presented. The play concludes with the ominous suggestion that  well, perhaps I shouldnt say any more.

The novelty  or gimmick, or both  of White Rabbit is that the actor performing the show does not have a chance to read it before arriving at the theater. He (or she) is handed the script onstage, before us, with no prior knowledge of its contents (unless, of course, he or she has already Googled it and got a general sense of what is in store). Every week, a different actor will perform the 75-minute piece. The list of upcoming performers, a diverse and distinguished lot, includes Whoopi Goldberg, Patrick Wilson, Brian Dennehy and Cynthia Nixon. (Check the shows website to see who is performing when.)

Mr. Lane, I am tempted to say, could hardly be bettered. Mr. Soleimanpours play allows for interpolations and ad-libs from the actor performing it (Mr. Lane raised his hand when he was departing from the text) and nobody but nobody has a quicker wit and a more deft ability to joust merrily with the audience than he does. When handed a mysterious vial of powder at the start, he quipped, Its the 80s again!
Suppose youre an eye doctor and youre treating a patient with macular degeneration, a disease that can cause blindness. You have the choice of giving one of two drugs  one that costs $2,000 per treatment and another, very similar one, which costs $50 per treatment.

Do you think it would influence your decision if you were paid $117 more if you chose the more expensive drug?

That, essentially, is the system we have now. For doctors who give drugs in their offices, mostly cancer, eye and arthritis specialists, Medicare asks them to buy the drugs themselves and then pays them back when they give the drugs to patients. Currently, Medicare pays doctors the average sales price of the drug, and then tacks on a 6 percent bonus to cover their administrative costs. Obviously, 6 percent of $2,000 is a lot more than 6 percent of $50.

Doctors argue that they choose drugs based on whats most medically appropriate for their patients  and most probably do. (There are some good reasons a doctor might choose the $2,000 drug over the $50 drug for some patients.) But several analysts have looked at this policy and determined that it creates the wrong kind of incentives for doctors  encouraging them to choose pricier treatments even if they are no better than cheap ones.
The dean of the law school of the University of California, Berkeley, sexually harassed his executive assistant over a period of several months, and then was allowed to stay on the job out of concern for his career after an internal investigation found her sexual harassment complaints to be justified, according to a lawsuit announced Wednesday.

The assistant, Tyann Sorrell, 41, said in papers filed Tuesday in Alameda County Superior Court, that the dean, Sujit Choudhry, hugged and kissed her almost daily, while she was at her desk and sometimes in public from September 2014 until March 2015.

If you think of maybe the last person on earth who would do this, you would think it would be the dean of one of the most prestigious law schools in the country, John D. Winer, her lawyer, said Wednesday.

In a statement, Mr. Choudhry said that he disagreed with the allegations and would defend against them. But on Thursday, the law school announced that he had resigned as dean.
The federal government on Wednesday leveled more charges against Ammon Bundy and dozens of other armed activists who took over a national wildlife refuge in January, including a weapons allegation that carries the possibility of life in prison. A grand jury indicted Mr. Bundy and most of his co-defendants on a new charge of firearms possession in a federal facility after the group seized the nature preserve to oppose federal land restrictions. Others face a second firearms allegation, theft or damaging an archaeological site considered sacred to the Burns Paiute Tribe. In court in Portland, Mr. Bundy and others pleaded not guilty to the new counts. All 26 defendants were previously charged with conspiracy to impede officers of the United States. Mr. Bundys lawyers told the Judge Anna Brown of United States District Court that he wanted to be advised of his rights. She denied the request, noting that they were read at three previous court appearances. "I know I have no rights, so thank you," Mr. Bundy said. He and eight others were charged with carrying a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, which has a maximum penalty of life in prison. The judge scrapped an April trial date, agreeing with prosecutors to designate the case as complex.
DETROIT  From the start of her presidential campaign 11 months ago, Hillary Clinton has presented an upbeat assessment of an improving economy, saying Wall Street and corporations would be held accountable, but must be part of the solution for all Americans to benefit from the countrys prosperity.

I want to be the president for the struggling, the striving and the successful, she often said.

Her message has at times collided with an angry electorate drawn to the populist pitch of Senator Bernie Sanders. In Michigan on Tuesday, it crashed.

The states voters, scarred by the free trade deals associated with Mrs. Clinton and her husband that have been widely blamed for the loss of American manufacturing jobs, delivered a surprise victory to Mr. Sanders, who railed here against disastrous trade agreements written by corporate America.

While his victory did little to bridge the delegate gap with Mrs. Clinton, the loss in Michigan left the Clinton camp confronting an urgent quandary as the Democratic contest moves to other Midwestern states like Ohio, Illinois and Missouri, which will vote on Tuesday: Will Mrs. Clintons were-all-in-this-together approach work in what has been called an off-with-their-heads election year?
WASHINGTON  Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, is to meet with President Obama on Thursday for the first official visit by a Canadian leader in 19 years, a diplomatic honor made possible in part by new pledges of cooperation on combating climate change.

Mr. Obama and Mr. Trudeau are expected to announce new commitments to reduce planet-warming emissions of methane, a chemical contained in natural gas that is about 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide, and which can leak from drilling wells and pipelines.

That announcement will come during a day of ceremony that will conclude with a state dinner in the East Room of the White House. On the menu is Alaskan halibut casseroles, roasted apricot galette, baby lamb chops with Yukon Gold potato dauphinoise and a maple pecan cake with cocoa nib wafer and butterscotch swirl ice cream.

The arrival of Mr. Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, has prompted comparisons to a similar visit in 1977 by Pierre Trudeau, a former prime minister and the current leaders father. That visit made headlines when Margaret Trudeau, the prime ministers wife, wore a short dress that fell just below the knee to the White House state dinner.
The billionaire George Soros and other liberal donors will bankroll a new $15 million campaign to mobilize Latinos and other immigrants this fall, hoping to channel outrage at the political rhetoric of Donald J. Trump and other Republicans into a surge of votes for Democratic candidates in November.

Strategists involved said the new spending would be the largest Democratic voter-turnout effort ever devoted exclusively to Latino and immigrant voters. Most of the money will be spent through organizations in Colorado, Florida and Nevada, states with large or growing Latino and Asian populations that will be pivotal in the presidential race and in the battle for control of the Senate.

The outreach, which will be coordinated through a new super PAC called Immigrant Voters Win PAC, will be more explicitly political and partisan than past efforts, the strategists said: The goal was to not only turn out committed Latinos already voting Democratic but also find and persuade immigrant swing voters. Ultimately, organizers hope to get at least 400,000 new Democratic voters to the polls in November.
The announcement is only a proposal for a test, but it has huge implications for the pharmaceutical industry, especially for the big, fast-growing category of specialty drugs known as biologics. The proposal could, for the first time, link Medicare payments to the effectiveness of a drug and the cost of comparable medications  factors not normally considered in the current reimbursement formula, which is based on the average sales price of drugs, with an additional 6 percent allowance for storage and handling costs.

For decades, Congress has legislated Medicare payment rates in minute detail. But the Affordable Care Act authorized the secretary of health and human services to test new payment and service delivery models and adopt them nationwide if they save money without harming the quality of care.

Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the health secretary, has shown she is willing to make aggressive use of this power, with the blessing of President Obama.

The Republican chairmen of three powerful congressional committees denounced the administrations plan on Wednesday, describing it, in a joint statement, as another troubling example of unelected bureaucrats making decisions behind closed doors. The proposal could limit access to care for some of the sickest Medicare beneficiaries, said the statement, issued by Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Representatives Fred Upton of Michigan, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Kevin Brady of Texas, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

The Obama administration said its proposal would not interfere in any way with the medical judgment of doctors or their ability to order reasonable and necessary Part B drugs as appropriate. It did say, We intend to achieve savings, though officials could not say how much. The administration said it expected to change the prescribing behavior of doctors by giving them financial incentives to choose less expensive drugs that are at least as effective as more costly medications.
MIAMI  Ted Cruz bounded onstage to a seldom-heard introduction  the first Hispanic president of the United States  and spoke later of his abuelo and abuela in Cuba.

He reminded reporters that he was the son of a dishwasher who stepped off a ferryboat in Key West nearly 60 years ago.

And as he addressed a pulsing crowd here, where Panamas outnumbered cowboy hats for the first time in recent Cruz campaign memory, the senator attempted to pioneer a Texan-cum-Cuban twang.

Yall know, he said, how to make a Cuban feel welcome.

In a race with potentially history-making choices in both parties, Mr. Cruz has dwelled little on his Cuban heritage.
Since late January, the immigration authorities have arrested 336 migrants from Central America for deportation, part of a continuing operation to toughen border enforcement, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Wednesday.

Most of the people detained were youths who crossed the border in the last two years without their parents and who have turned 18, but did not win asylum or another legal status and were ordered deported by immigration courts. After migrants turn 18, they lose some protections given to minors who arrived without their parents.

The Obama administration is moving ahead with deportations of migrants fleeing from three violence-racked countries in Central America, despite a furor among refugee advocates, Latino groups and Democratic lawmakers after about 120 migrants were arrested and targeted for deportation in a roundup in early January.

Mr. Johnson has said, at times defiantly, that the deportations are necessary to maintain border security and curb illegal crossings. In a statement on Wednesday, he said he had ordered Operation Border Guardian, which began on Jan. 23, to continue the arrests and expulsions. Since Oct. 1, a total of 28,808 people apprehended at the border have been sent back to Central America on repatriation flights, officials said, and 128,000 Mexicans were returned to their country.
RIO DE JANEIRO  Brazilian officials said on Wednesday that they had tightened the guidelines used to determine when babies have been born with abnormally small heads, a step taken in part to reduce the number of false positives for microcephaly, a condition that can lead to brain damage.

The change, expected for more than a month, came as a result of recommendations made by Brazilian medical and epidemiological experts as the country continues to grapple with an outbreak of the Zika virus, which has been linked to a surge in cases of microcephaly.

The changes were also announced in the wake of new interim guidelines issued by the World Health Organization.

The Brazilian government will now require health professionals to report suspected microcephaly cases when a male infants head at birth measures 31.9 centimeters or less and a females measures 31.5 centimeters or less, in line with the recently announced interim W.H.O. guidelines for reporting microcephaly.
RIO DE JANEIRO  Prosecutors filed charges on Wednesday against former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, one of Brazils most prominent political figures, shaking the countrys already anxious political establishment.

The charges, brought by prosecutors in Sao Paulo State, are connected to claims of money laundering and misrepresentation of assets involving a luxury apartment in the beachfront city of Guaruja. It is unclear what the specific charges are.

Federal investigators say that Mr. da Silva effectively acquired the property, a claim he denies, and that O.A.S., a construction company, paid for improvements at the apartment with funds that may have come from the giant graft scheme at Petrobras, the national oil company.

The charges came after Mr. da Silva, 70, was held for questioning and his home raided by the police last week.
SEOUL, South Korea  North Korea flouted United Nations resolutions on Thursday by launching two ballistic missiles toward the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, the South Korean military said in a statement.

The two projectiles, believed to be Scud-C missiles, took off from a site south of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, and flew across the peninsula before crashing into the sea off the Norths east coast, the statement said. They flew about 310 miles.

Under a series of United Nations Security Council resolutions, North Korea is banned from developing or testing ballistic missiles. The ban was imposed after the Norths tests of nuclear weapons and long-range rockets in recent years raised fears that the country was developing a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile. North Korea also launched two Scud missiles in March last year.

The North often launches missiles when the United States and South Korea conduct their joint annual military drills. This years drills began this week.
Defiant in her closing statement on Wednesday to a Russian court, a Ukrainian pilot, Nadezhda Savchenko, brandished her middle finger, burst into the Ukrainian national anthem and declared her trial in the death of two Russian journalists to be the farce of Kremlin puppets. Ms. Savchenko was detained under murky circumstances in 2014 while she was fighting as a member of a volunteer brigade against Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Russia claims she was acting as a spotter and called in the coordinates for a mortar attack that killed the journalists and several other civilians. Ms. Savchenko denies the allegation, and the Ukrainian government says she was abducted by Russia and should be treated as a prisoner of war. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany are among those who have called for her release. The verdict is expected on March 21. Ms. Savchenkos lawyers say that conviction is a foregone conclusion; the only question is whether the court will impose the 23 years in prison sought by prosecutors.
WASHINGTON  President Obama believes that Saudi Arabia, one of Americas most important allies in the Middle East, needs to learn how to share the region with its archenemy, Iran, and that both countries are guilty of fueling proxy wars in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

In a series of interviews with The Atlantic magazine published Thursday, Mr. Obama said a number of American allies in the Persian Gulf  as well as in Europe  were free riders, eager to drag the United States into grinding sectarian conflicts that sometimes had little to do with American interests. He showed little sympathy for the Saudis, who have been threatened by the nuclear deal Mr. Obama reached with Iran.

The Saudis, Mr. Obama told Jeffrey Goldberg, the magazines national correspondent, need to find an effective way to share the neighborhood and institute some sort of cold peace. Reflexively backing them against Iran, the president said, would mean that we have to start coming in and using our military power to settle scores. And that would be in the interest neither of the United States nor of the Middle East.

Mr. Obamas frustration with much of the Arab world is not new, but rarely has he been so blunt about it. He placed his comments in the context of his broader struggle to extract the United States from the bloody morass of the Middle East so that the nation can focus on more promising, faster-growing parts of the world, like Asia and Latin America.
The three nurses in the Norwegian Jo Stromgren Kompanis The Hospital look bored to death. Now and then, they hear a helicopter fly over their outpost but no one lands. And so the nurses take turns disappearing behind one of the sets dirty walls. Theres a whack and a howl and then a nurse returns bloodied: Finally, a patient!

At the Abrons Arts Center, where The Hospital had its New York debut on Wednesday, the audience giggled at every gory return. The three women maul, sexually molest and spit at one another, yet the shows surface tone stays light, silly, even cute. While the underlying story, told mostly through movement, is sad and ultimately as sentimental as a soap opera, its played for dark laughs, somewhat like an absurdist Nordic version of M.A.S.H.

Very few of the jokes, though, are verbal. When the nurses argue, they do so, amusingly, in gibberish based on Icelandic. Its a measure of the productions achievement and its limitations that their meaning is easy to follow. Their often-predictable actions have recognizable motivations and little mystery. When they put music on the loudspeaker and awkwardly dance, its less clear, moment to moment, why theyre doing exactly what theyre doing. What seems to matter then is that theyre doing it together, like a recitation, a ritual against loneliness.

The Hospital was made in 2005, and has toured in 22 countries. The original cast performed Wednesday, enlivening the shows familiar attitudes with robust characterizations. Guri Glans was comically tight as the blond boss, strutting like a sergeant, hands in her pockets, forcing the others into sex and hiding the pills for herself. Gunhild Aubert Opdal, initially the meekest, exploded wonderfully after chomping medication, doing a wobbly dance like a baby giraffe learning to walk. Ingri Enger Damon, the surly one, showed terrific gusto in her late impersonation of the crude male American soldier who loved the ladies and left them.
Asia Week, the 10-day parade of exhibitions that arrives each spring from every corner of that continent, can seem like a parallel universe to the art world most often written about here.

Unlike the big art fairs crammed with spectacles-within-spectacles, Asia Week takes place primarily in a few dozen small galleries on the Upper East Side. Craft and tradition are emphasized over the hot and trendy, and history is always present, reflecting matters from ancient conquests to subtle changes in domestic living that shaped the design of everyday objects.

This years Asia Week also appears against a backdrop of major events. The ups and downs of the Chinese economy concern art dealers, while the loosening of trade embargoes with Iran has allowed gallerists to arrive in New York with Persian art. This year, Friday is also the fifth anniversary of the cataclysmic earthquake and tsunami that struck northern Japan in 2011, which set off a nuclear crisis. The Japan Society is commemorating that with an exhibition of contemporary photography (In the Wake: Japanese Photographers Respond to 3/11) and other events. At the same time, commerce continues with the annual Japanese Art Dealers Association fair, which opens on Saturday at the Ukrainian Institute of America.
Top-end buyers particularly appreciate these partnerships, he said. That combination of rareness, of quality, when somethings bespoke and not everybody knows about it  that can provide extra luster.

The trend is most prevalent in the uppermost reaches of the market.

Reinvigorating its ultraluxury Maybach subbrand in 2015, the Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler hired the German silversmith Robbe & Berking to fashion twin Champagne flutes for rear-seat passengers in the Mercedes-Maybach S600. Land Rover announced its Holland & Holland Range Rover in February, a collaboration with the British maker of sporting rifles.

Yet niche brands are also appearing in midlevel luxury cars. Volvo contracted with Orrefors, the Swedish glassworks, to design a gear selector for its XC90 sport utility vehicle and its coming S90 sedan. The crystalline knob is etched with the studios name, along with Sweden  a nod to national pride that automakers like to showcase.

For us, I think the product synergy was really about British craftsmanship, John Edwards, managing director of special operations at Land Rover, said of the companys new limited-edition S.U.V. Like Land Rover, Holland & Holland is a royal warrant holder, which for centuries has been a sign of prestige among craftsmen that they can serve the royal court, he said. The buyer of a luxury gun is the buyer of a luxury yacht is the buyer of a luxury car, so it just makes sense, he added.

Limited to just 40 vehicles globally in 2016, the Holland & Holland Range Rover contains enough leather, burl walnut and hand-wrought curios to rival an Oxford Classics professors study, and at $244,500, it is by far the most expensive vehicle in Land Rovers lineup.
The two executives denied that there was any rift, but Mr. Dalio said that Mr. Jensen had too much on his plate in balancing two senior executive roles. Bridgewater addressed the matter again on Thursday, saying, It is probably too much for the C.I.O.s to also serve as C.E.O.s.

The firm added that because technology is so important to us, we wanted one of our co-C.E.O.s to be very strong in that area.

Mr. Rubinstein, 59, has expertise in hardware engineering and hand-held devices, having run hardware engineering at NeXT and then at Apple. He was also senior vice president for product innovation at Hewlett-Packard.

Another Bridgewater executive, Craig Mundie, who also has a background in technology, introduced Mr. Rubinstein to executives at Bridgewater several months ago, according to a person with direct knowledge of the firm who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Mr. Mundie, who is a co-executive chairman, was head of research and strategy at Microsoft, a company he spent 22 years with before joining Bridgewater two years ago.

Mr. Rubinsteins appointment is unusual. In recent years, a steady flow of prominent Wall Street executives have left the financial world for the tech industry. The reverse has been less common. Anthony J. Noto, a former banker at Goldman Sachs, was hired by Twitter in 2014, for example. And last year, Ruth Porat jumped from Morgan Stanley to Google.
Energy Transfer Equitys acquisition of a rival pipeline company, Williams Companies, has turned into a nightmare as troubles in the energy industry worsen.

The risks around the deal have increased. Energy Transfers stock has plummeted, and executives at the company are searching for a way out.

Energy Transfer has only itself to blame, but how can it escape its troublesome deal?

Lets start with the simple fact that Energy Transfer is not actually acquiring Williams. Instead, a newly created affiliate, Energy Transfer Corporation, is making the acquisition.

As part of the acquisition, Energy Transfer will pay up to $6 billion in cash and the remainder of the deal consideration in stock of the new affiliate. In return for paying this amount, the affiliate will acquire Williams and contribute all of Williamss assets and liabilities to Energy Transfer in exchange for stock in Energy Transfer. As a result, Williamss shareholders will own stock in a publicly traded entity Transfer Corporation  whose only asset is Energy Transfer stock.
LONDON  The European Union said on Thursday that it had signed off on Teva Pharmaceutical Industries $40.5 billion deal to buy the generic drug business of Allergan after the companies agreed to sell some operations in Europe to ease competition concerns.

The European Commission had raised concerns that the merged entity would have faced insufficient competition from the remaining players in generic pharmaceuticals, particularly in Britain, Iceland and Ireland.

On Thursday, antitrust officials at the European Commission said the companies had agreed to divest themselves of a number of assets, including Tevas portfolio of generics in Iceland and most of the Allergan generics business in Britain and Ireland, to address the commissions concerns.

The companies also agreed to divest themselves of some drugs in their development pipelines that posed competition concerns, the commission said.
Lawyers for dozens of former Credit Suisse brokers have appealed to the brokerage industrys main regulator to step into a fight over millions of dollars of accumulated bonus payments the brokers say the bank owes them.

The lawyers have an issue with where their arguments will be heard.

Credit Suisse shut its private bank division last year, striking an agreement for its nearly 270 advisers to move their business to Wells Fargo. But many of those advisers, who had been with Credit Suisse and predecessor companies for decades, jumped to UBS, Morgan Stanley or other big banks instead. More than 90 went to UBS.

Because they did not go to Wells Fargo, Credit Suisse says, they voluntarily resigned, forfeiting their right to collect any accumulated deferred compensation  which for some brokers added up to millions of dollars.

Ordinarily, brokers could take their claims to arbitration through the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or Finra, which regulates the brokerage industry. But Credit Suisse requires claims to go through either the American Arbitration Association, or JAMS, once known as the Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Service, instead of Finra.
In effect, it is just another way for troubled Chinese companies to put off making hard choices, like laying off employees or closing operations. Rather, businesses can continue to limp along, even when their underlying operations are not making money and customer demand has evaporated.

Such problems have been at the root of Chinas economic issues, as many state-owned enterprises, or S.O.E.s, and private companies have continued to roll over the debt and keep their operations going. The government has supported the tactic, in an effort to avert mass layoffs and maintain social stability.

The new approach is in a nutshell, very bad news for S.O.E. reform and, more specifically, for the solvency of Chinese banks, said Alicia Garcia Herrero, the chief economist for Asia at Natixis, a French investment bank.

At this point, it is unclear how widespread this strategy has become among Chinese companies. The shipbuilder, China Huarong Energy Company Limited, had to disclose the move only because it is listed on the Hong Kong stock market. Mainland companies not listed overseas do not face the same stringent rules.

Two finance specialists with ties to mainland China regulators say the government is working on a broader plan to allow troubled companies to repay loans with shares instead of cash. They declined to speak on the record, citing the sensitivity of the issue within China. Reuters on Thursday reported on regulators efforts to help ease banks bad debt.

Officials at the Peoples Bank of China, the countrys central bank, and the China Banking Regulatory Commission could not be reached for comment late Thursday night. Zhou Xiaochuan, the central banks governor, and three of his deputies are scheduled to hold a news conference on Saturday morning in Beijing, near the session of the National Peoples Congress.
TransCanada Corporations request to build an oil pipeline through the United States was denied recently. So the company sought to buy its way into the region instead.

TransCanada, whose Keystone XL pipeline project was rejected by the Obama administration in November, had been in talks with Columbia Pipeline Group about an acquisition, people briefed on the discussions said.

Those discussions subsided recently and may not lead to a deal, one of the people said.

Columbias shares gained 8.5 percent on Thursday after The Wall Street Journal reported the talks. The increase gave Columbia a market value of $8.6 billion.

TransCanada confirmed in a statement that it had been in conversations about a potential transaction with a third party without naming the company and declining to comment further. A representative from Columbia declined to comment.